{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_6049/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_6049","id":"gutenberg_6049","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6049","summary":null,"tags":["Authors, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography","Bunyan, John, 1628-1688","Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian literature, English","Christian literature, English -- History and criticism","Puritans -- England -- Biography"],"text":"THE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN\n\nWITH AN\n\nINTRODUCTION TO EACH TREATISE, NOTES,\n\nAND A\n\nSKETCH OF HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND CONTEMPORARIES.\n\nVOLUME FIRST.\n\nEXPERIMENTAL, DOCTRINAL, AND PRACTICAL.\n\nEDITED BY\n\nGEORGE OFFOR, ESQ.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMEMOIR OF JOHN BUNYAN\n\nTHE FIRST PERIOD.\n\nTHIS GREAT MAN DESCENDED FROM IGNOBLE PARENTS--BORN IN POVERTY--HIS\nEDUCATION AND EVIL HABITS--FOLLOWS HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS AS A\nBRAZIER--ENLISTS FOR A SOLDIER--RETURNS FROM THE WARS AND OBTAINS\nAN AMIABLE, RELIGIOUS WIFE--HER DOWER.\n\n'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of\nthe power may be of God, and not of us.'--2 Cor 4:7\n\n'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my\nways, saith the Lord.'--Isaiah 55:8.\n\n'Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the\nwings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow\ngold.'--Psalm 68:13.\n\nWhen the Philistine giant, Goliath, mocked the host of Israel,\nand challenged any of their stern warriors to single combat, what\nhuman being could have imagined that the gigantic heathen would be\nsuccessfully met in the mortal struggle by a youth 'ruddy and of\na fair countenance?' who unarmed, except with a sling and a stone,\ngave the carcases of the hosts of the Philistines to the fouls of\nthe air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.'\n\nWho, upon seeing an infant born in a stable, and laid in a manger,\nor beholding him when a youth working with his father as a carpenter,\ncould have conceived that he was the manifestation of the Deity\nin human form, before whom every knee should bow, and every tongue\nconfess Him to be THE ETERNAL?\n\nFather Michael, a Franciscan friar, on a journey to Ancona,\nhaving lost his way, sought direction from a wretched lad keeping\nhogs--deserted, forlorn, his back smarting with severe stripes,\nand his eyes suffused with tears. The poor ragged boy not only went\ncheerfully with him to point out his road, but besought the monk\nto take him into his convent, volunteering to fulfill the most\ndegrading services, in the hope of procuring a little learning,\nand escaping from 'those filthy hogs.' How incredulously would the\nfriar have listened to anyone who could have suggested that this\ndesolate, tattered, dirty boy, might and would fill a greater than\nan imperial throne! Yet, eventually that swine-herd was clothed\nin purple and fine linen, and, under the title of Pope Sixtus V.,\nbecame one of those mighty magicians who are described in Rogers\nItaly, as\n\n\n   'Setting their feet upon the necks of kings,\n    And through the worlds subduing, chaining down\n    The free, immortal spirit--theirs a wondrous spell.' [1]\n\n\nA woman that was 'a loose and ungodly wretch' hearing a tinker lad\nmost awfully cursing and swearing, protested to him that 'he swore\nand cursed at that most fearful rate that it made her tremble to\nhear him,' 'that he was the ungodliest fellow for swearing that\never she heard in all her life,' and 'that he was able to spoil\nall the youth in a whole town, if they came in his company.' This\nblow at the young reprobate made that indelible impression which all\nthe sermons yet he had heard had failed to make. Satan, by one of\nhis own slaves, wounded a conscience which had resisted all the\novertures of mercy. The youth pondered her words in his heart;\nthey were good seed strangely sown, and their working formed one\nof those mysterious steps which led the foul-mouthed blasphemer\nto bitter repentance; who, when he had received mercy and pardon,\nfelt impelled to bless and magnify the Divine grace with shining,\nburning thoughts and words. The poor profligate, swearing tinker\nbecame transformed into the most ardent preacher of the love of\nChrist--the well-trained author of The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, or\nGood News to the Vilest of Men.\n\nHow often have the Saints of God been made a most unexpected blessing\nto others. The good seed of Divine truth has been many times sown\nby those who did not go out to sow, but who were profitably engaged\nin cultivating their own graces, enjoying the communion of Saints,\nand advancing their own personal happiness! Think of a few poor,\nbut pious happy women, sitting in the sun one beautiful summer's\nday, before one of their cottages, probably each one with her\npillow on her lap, dexterously twisting the bobbins to make lace,\nthe profits of which helped to maintain their children. While\nthey are communing on the things of God, a traveling tinker draws\nnear, and, over-hearing their talk, takes up a position where\nhe might listen to their converse while he pursued his avocation.\nTheir words distil into his soul; they speak the language of Canaan;\nthey talk of holy enjoyments, the result of being born again,\nacknowledging their miserable state by nature, and how freely and\nundeservedly God had visited their hearts with pardoning mercy,\nand supported them while suffering the assaults and suggestions\nof Satan; how they had been borne up in every dark, cloudy, stormy\nday; and how they contemned, slighted, and abhorred their own\nrighteousness as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. The\nlearned discourses our tinker had heard at church had casually\npassed over his mind like evanescent clouds, and left little or no\nlasting impression. But these poor women, 'methought they spake as\nactually did make them speak; they speak with such pleasant as of\nScripture language, and with such appearance of grace in all they\nsaid, that they were to me as if they had found a new world, as\nif they were people that dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned\namong their neighbors' (Num 23:9).\n\nO! how little did they imagine that their pious converse was to\nbe the means employed by the Holy Spirit in the conversion of that\npoor tinker, and that, by their agency, he was to be transformed\ninto one of the brightest luminaries of heaven; who, when he had\nentered into rest would leave his works to follow him as spiritual\nthunder to pierce the hearts of the impenitent, and as heavenly\nconsolation to bind up the broken-hearted; liberating the prisoners\nof Giant Despair, and directing the pilgrims to the Celestial City.\nThus were blessings in rich abundance showered down upon the church\nby the instrumentality, in the first instance, of a woman that was\na sinner, but most eminently by the Christian converse of a few\npoor but pious women.\n\nThis poverty-stricken, ragged tinker was the son of a working\nmechanic at Elstow, near Bedford. So obscure was his origin that\neven the Christian name of his father is yet unknown:[2] he was\nborn in 1628, a year memorable as that in which the Bill of Rights\nwas passed. Then began the struggle against arbitrary power, which\nwas overthrown in 1688, the year of Bunyan's death, by the accession\nof William III. Of Bunyan's parents, his infancy, and childhood,\nlittle is recorded. All that we know is from his own account, and\nthat principally contained in his doctrine of the Law and Grace,\nand in his extraordinary development of his spiritual life, under\nthe title of Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. His birth would\nhave shed a luster on the wealthiest mansion, and have imparted\nadditional grandeur to any lordly palace. Had royal or noble\ngossips, and a splendid entertainment attended his christening,\nit might have been pointed to with pride; but so obscure was his\nbirth, that it has not been discovered that he was christened at\nall; while the fact of his new birth by the Holy Ghost is known\nover the whole world to the vast extent that his writings have\nbeen circulated. He entered this world in a labourer's cottage of\nthe humblest class, at the village of Elstow, about a mile from\nBedford.[3] His pedigree is thus narrated by himself:--'My descent\nwas of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father's house being\nof that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families\nin the land.'[4] Bunyan alludes to this very pointedly in the preface\nto A Few Sighs from Hell:--'I am thine, if thou be not ashamed to\nown me, because of my low and contemptible descent in the world.'[5]\nHis poor and abject parentage was so notorious, that his pastor,\nJohn Burton, apologized for it in his recommendation to The Gospel\nTruths Opened:--'Be not offended because Christ holds forth the\nglorious treasure of the gospel to thee in a poor earthen vessel,\nby one who hath neither the greatness nor the wisdom of this world\nto commend him to thee.'[6] And in his most admirable treatise, on\nThe Fear of God, Bunyan observes--'The poor Christian hath something\nto answer them that reproach him for his ignoble pedigree, and\nshortness of the glory of the wisdom of this world. True may that\nman say I am taken out of the dunghill. I was born in a base and\nlow estate; but I fear God. This is the highest and most noble; he\nhath the honour, the life, and glory that is lasting.'[7] In his\ncontroversy with the Strict Baptists, he chides them for reviling\nhis ignoble pedigree:--'You closely disdain my person because of\nmy low descent among men, stigmatizing me as a person of THAT rank\nthat need not be heeded or attended unto.'[8] He inquired of his\nfather--'Whether we were of the Israelites or no? for, finding in\nthe Scripture that they were once the peculiar people of God, thought\nI, if I were one of this race, my soul must needs be happy.'[9]\nThis somewhat justifies the conclusion that his father was a Gipsy\ntinker, that occupation being then followed by the Gipsy tribe.\nIn the life of Bunyan appended to the forged third part of the\nPilgrim's Progress, his father is described as 'an honest poor\nlabouring man, who, like Adam unparadised, had all the world before\nhim to get his bread in; and was very careful and industrious to\nmaintain his family.'[10]\n\nHappily for Bunyan, he was born in a neighbourhood in which it was\na disgrace to any parents not to have their children educated. With\ngratitude he records, that 'it pleased God to put it into their\nhearts to put me to school to learn both to read and to write.' In\nthe neighbourhood of his birthplace, a noble charity diffused the\nblessings of lettered knowledge.[11] To this charity Bunyan was\nfor a short period indebted for the rudiments of education; but,\nalas, evil associates made awful havoc of those slight unshapen\nliterary impressions which had been made upon a mind boisterous\nand impatient of discipline. He says--'To my shame, I confess I\ndid soon lose that little I learned, and that almost utterly.'[12]\nThis fact will recur to the reader's recollection when he peruses\nIsrael's Hope Encouraged, in which, speaking of the all-important\ndoctrine of justification, he says--'It is with many that begin\nwith this doctrine as it is with boys that go to the Latin school;\nthey learn till they have learned the grounds of their grammar,\nand then go home and forget all.'[13]\n\nAs soon as his strength enabled him, he devoted his whole soul and\nbody to licentiousness--'As for my own natural life, for the time\nthat I was without God in the world, it was indeed according to\nthe course of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in the\nchildren of disobedience. It was my delight to be taken captive by\nthe devil at his will: being filled with all unrighteousness; that\nfrom a child I had but few equals, both for cursing, swearing,\nlying, and blaspheming the holy name of God.'[14]\n\nIt has been supposed, that in delineating the early career of\nBadman, 'Bunyan drew the picture of his own boyhood.'[15] But the\ndifference is broadly given. Badman is the child of pious parents,\nwho gave him a 'good education' in every sense, both moral and\nsecular;[16] the very reverse of Bunyan's training. His associates\nwould enable him to draw the awful character and conduct of Badman,\nas a terrible example to deter others from the downward road to\nmisery and perdition.\n\nBunyan's parents do not appear to have checked, or attempted to\ncounteract, his unbridled career of wickedness. He gives no hint\nof the kind; but when he notices his wife's father, he adds that he\n'was counted godly'; and in his beautiful nonsectarian catechism,\nthere is a very touching conclusion to his instructions to children\non their behaviour to their parents:--'The Lord, if it be his will,\nconvert our poor parents, that they, with us, may be the children\nof God.'[17] These fervent expressions may refer to his own parents;\nand, connecting them with other evidence, it appears that he was\nnot blessed with pious example. Upon one occasion, when severely\nreproved for swearing, he says--'I wished, with all my heart, that\nI might be a little child again, that my father might learn me to\nspeak without this wicked way of swearing.'[18] In his numerous\nconfessions, he never expresses pain at having, by his vicious\nconduct, occasioned grief to his father or mother. From this\nit may be inferred, that neither his father's example nor precept\nhad checked this wretched propensity to swearing, and that he owed\nnothing to his parents for moral training; but, on the contrary,\nthey had connived at, and encouraged him in, a course of life which\nmade him a curse to the neighbourhood in which he lived.\n\nIn the midst of all this violent depravity, the Holy Spirit began\nthe work of regeneration in his soul--a long, a solemn, yea, an\nawful work--which was to fit this poor debauched youth for purity\nof conduct--for communion with heaven--for wondrous usefulness as\na minister of the gospel--for patient endurance of sufferings for\nrighteousness' sake--for the writing of works which promise to be\na blessing to the Church in all ages--for his support during his\npassage through the black river which has no bridge--to shine all\nbright and glorious, as a star in the firmament of heaven. 'Wonders\nof grace to God belong.'\n\nDuring the period of his open profligacy, his conscience was ill\nat ease; at times the clanking of Satan's slavish chains in which\nhe was hurrying to destruction, distracted him. The stern reality\nof a future state clouded and embittered many of those moments\nemployed in gratifying his baser passions. The face of the eventful\ntimes in which he lived was rapidly changing; the trammels were\nloosened, which, with atrocious penalties, had fettered all free\ninquiry into religious truth. Puritanism began to walk upright; and\nas the restraints imposed upon Divine truths were taken off, in the\nsame proportion restraints were imposed upon impiety, profaneness,\nand debauchery. A ringleader in all wickedness would not long\ncontinue without reproof, either personally, or as seen in the holy\nconduct of others. Bunyan very properly attributed to a gracious\nGod, those checks of conscience which he so strongly felt even while\nhe was apparently dead in trespasses and sins. 'The Lord, even in\nmy childhood, did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did\nterrify me with dreadful visions.'[19] 'I often wished that there\nhad been no hell, or that I had been a devil to torment others.'\nA common childish but demoniac idea. His mind was as 'the troubled\nsea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.'\n'A while after, these terrible dreams did leave me; and with more\ngreediness, according to the strength of nature, I did let loose\nthe reins of my lusts, and delighted in all transgression against\nthe law of God.' 'I was the very ringleader of all the youth that\nkept me company, into ALL MANNER of vice and ungodliness.'[20]\n\nDr. Southey and others have attempted to whiten this blackamore, but\nthe veil that they throw over him is so transparent that it cannot\ndeceive those who are in the least degree spiritually enlightened.\nHe alleges that Bunyan, in his mad career of vice and folly, 'was\nnever so given over to a reprobate mind,'[21] as to be wholly\nfree from compunctions of conscience. This is the case with every\ndepraved character; but he goes further, when he asserts that\n'Bunyan's heart never was hardened.'[22] This is directly opposed\nto his description of himself:--'I found within me a great desire\nto take my fill of sin, still studying what sin was yet to be\ncommitted; and I made as much haste as I could to fill my belly\nwith its delicates, lest I should die before I had my desire.' He\nthus solemnly adds, 'In these things, I protest before God, I lie\nnot, neither do I feign this sort of speech; these were really,\nstrongly, and with all my heart, my desires; the good Lord, whose\nmercy is unsearchable, forgive me my transgressions.' The whole\nof his career, from childhood to manhood, was, 'According to the\ncourse of this world, according to the prince of the power of the\nair, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience'\n(Eph 2:2).\n\nThese reminiscences are alluded to in the prologue of the Holy\nWar:--\n\n\n   'When Mansoul trampled upon things Divine,\n    And wallowed in filth as doth a swine,\n    Then I was there, and did rejoice to see\n    Diabolus and Mansoul so agree.'\n\n\nThe Laureate had read this, and yet considers it the language of\na heart that 'never was hardened.' He says that 'the wickedness\nof the tinker has been greatly overcharged, and it is taking the\nlanguage of self-accusation too literally to pronounce of John\nBunyan, that he was at any time depraved. The worst of what he was\nin his worst days is to be expressed in a single word, the full\nmeaning of which no circumlocution can convey; and which, though\nit may hardly be deemed presentable in serious composition, I shall\nuse, as Bunyan himself (no mealy-mouthed writer) would have used\nit, had it in his days borne the same acceptation in which it is now\nuniversally understood;--in that word then, he had been a blackguard.\n\n\n    The very head and front of his offending\n    Hath this extent--no more.'[23]\n\n\nThe meaning of the epithet is admirably explained; but what could\nDr. Southey imagine possible to render such a character more vile\nin the sight of God, or a greater pest to society? Is there any\nvicious propensity, the gratification of which is not included in\nthat character? Bunyan's estimate of his immorality and profaneness\nprior to his conversion, was not made by comparing himself with\nthe infinitely Holy One, but he measured his conduct by that of\nhis more moral neighbours. In his Jerusalem Sinner Saved, he pleads\nwith great sinners, the outwardly and violently profane and vicious,\nthat if HE had received mercy, and had become regenerated, they\nsurely ought not to despair, but to seek earnestly for the same\ngrace. He thus describes himself:--'I speak by experience; I was\none of those great sin-breeders; I infected all the youth of the\ntown where I was born; the neighbours counted me so, my practice\nproved me so: wherefore, Christ Jesus took me first; and, taking\nme first, the contagion was much allayed all the town over. When\nGod made me sigh, they would hearken, and inquiringly say, What's\nthe matter with John? When I went out to seek the bread of life,\nsome of them would follow, and the rest be put into a muse at home.\nSome of them, perceiving that God had mercy upon me, came crying to\nhim for mercy too.'[24] Can any one, in the face of such language,\ndoubt that he was most eminently 'a brand snatched from the fire';\na pitchy burning brand, known and seen as such by all who witnessed\nhis conduct? He pointedly exemplified the character set forth by\nJames, 'the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire of\nhell' (James 3:6). This was as publicly known before his conversion,\nas the effects of the wondrous change were openly seen in his\nChristian career afterwards. He who, when convinced of sin, strained\nhis eyes to see the distant shining light over the wicket-gate,\nafter he had gazed upon\n\n\n      --'The wondrous cross\n    On which the Prince of glory died,'\n\n\nbecame a luminous beacon, to attract the vilest characters to seek\nnewness of life; and if there be hope for them, no one ought to\ndespair. Far be it from us to cloud this light, or to tarnish so\nconspicuous an example. Like a Magdalene or a thief on the cross,\nhis case may be exhibited to encourage hope in every returning\nprodigal. During this period of his childhood, while striving to\nharden his heart against God, many were the glimmerings of light\nwhich from time to time directed his unwilling eyes to a dread\neternity. In the still hours of the night 'in a dream God opened'\nhis ears[25]--the dreadful vision was that 'devils and wicked\nspirits laboured to draw me away with them.' These thoughts must\nhave left a deep and alarming impression upon his mind; for he\nadds, 'of which I could never be rid.'[26]\n\nThe author of his life, published in 1692, who was one of his\npersonal friends, gives the following account of Bunyan's profligacy,\nand his checks of conscience:--'He himself hath often, since his\nconversion, confessed with horror, that when he was but a child or\nstripling, he had but few equals for lying, swearing, and blaspheming\nGod's holy name--living without God in the world; the thoughts of\nwhich, when he, by the light of Divine grace, came to understand his\ndangerous condition, drew many showers of tears from his sorrowful\neyes, and sighs from his groaning heart. The first thing that\nsensibly touched him in this his unregenerate state, were fearful\ndreams, and visions of the night, which often made him cry out in\nhis sleep, and alarm the house, as if somebody was about to murder\nhim, and being waked, he would start, and stare about him with\nsuch a wildness, as if some real apparition had yet remained;\nand generally those dreams were about evil spirits, in monstrous\nshapes and forms, that presented themselves to him in threatening\npostures, as if they would have taken him away, or torn him in\npieces. At some times they seemed to belch flame, at other times\na continuous smoke, with horrible noises and roaring. Once he\ndreamed he saw the face of the heavens, as it were, all on fire;\nthe firmament crackling and shivering with the noise of mighty\nthunders, and an archangel flew in the midst of heaven, sounding a\ntrumpet, and a glorious throne was seated in the east, whereon sat\none in brightness, like the morning star, upon which he, thinking\nit was the end of the world, fell upon his knees, and, with uplifted\nhands towards heaven, cried, O Lord God, have mercy upon me! What\nshall I do, the day of judgment is come, and I am not prepared! When\nimmediately he heard a voice behind him, exceeding loud, saying,\nRepent. At another time he dreamed that he was in a pleasant\nplace, jovial and rioting, banqueting and feasting his senses, when\na mighty earthquake suddenly rent the earth, and made a wide gap,\nout of which came bloody flames, and the figures of men tossed\nup in globes of fire, and falling down again with horrible cries,\nshrieks, and execrations, whilst some devils that were mingled\nwith them, laughed aloud at their torments; and whilst he stood\ntrembling at this sight, he thought the earth sunk under him, and\na circle of flame enclosed him; but when he fancied he was just at\nthe point to perish, one in white shining raiment descended, and\nplucked him out of that dreadful place; whilst the devils cried\nafter him, to leave him with them, to take the just punishment his\nsins had deserved, yet he escaped the danger, and leaped for joy\nwhen he awoke and found it was a dream.'\n\nSuch dreams as these fitted him in after life to be the glorious\ndreamer of the Pilgrim's Progress, in which a dream is told which\ndoubtless embodies some of those which terrified him in the night\nvisions of his youth.\n\nIn the interpreter's house he is 'led into a chamber where there\nwas one rising out of bed, and as he put on his raiment he shook\nand trembled. Then said Christian, Why doth this man thus tremble?\nThe Interpreter then bid him tell to Christian the reason of his\nso doing. So he began and said, This night, as I was in my sleep\nI dreamed, and behold the heavens grew exceeding black; also it\nthundered and lightened in most fearful wise, that it put me into\nan agony. So I looked up in my dream, and saw the clouds rack at\nan unusual rate, upon which I heard a great sound of a trumpet,\nand saw also a man sit upon a cloud, attended with the thousands of\nheaven--they were all in flaming fire; also the heavens were in a\nburning flame. I heard then a voice saying, \"Arise, ye dead, and\ncome to judgment;\" and with that the rocks rent, the graves opened,\nand the dead that were therein came forth. Some of them were exceeding\nglad, and looked upward; and some sought to hide themselves under\nthe mountains. Then I saw the man that sat upon the cloud open the\nbook, and bid the world draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a\nfierce flame which issued out and came from before him, a convenient\ndistance betwixt him and them, as betwixt the judge and prisoners\nat the bar. I heard it also proclaimed, \"Gather together the tares,\nthe chaff, and stubble, and cast them into the burning lake\"; and\nwith that the bottomless pit opened just whereabout I stood, out\nof the mouth of which there came, in an abundant manner, smoke and\ncoals of fire, with hideous noises. It was also said, \"Gather my\nwheat into the garner\"; and with that I saw many catched up and\ncarried away into the clouds, but I was left behind. I also sought\nto hide myself, but I could not, for the man that sat upon the\ncloud still kept his eye upon me; my sins also came into my mind,\nand my conscience did accuse me on every side. Upon that I awaked\nfrom my sleep.'\n\nNo laboured composition could have produced such a dream as this.\nIt flows in such dream-like order as would lead us to infer, that\nthe author who narrates it had, when a boy, heard the twenty-fifth\nchapter of Matthew read at church, and the solemn impression\nfollowing him at night assisted in producing a dream which stands,\nand perhaps will ever stand, unrivalled.\n\nAwful as must have been these impressions upon his imagination, they\nwere soon thrown off, and the mad youth rushed on in his desperate\ncareer of vice and folly. Is he then left to fill up the measure\nof his iniquities? No, the Lord has a great work for him to do.\nHIS hand is not shortened that he cannot save. Bunyan has to be\nprepared for his work; and if terrors will not stop him, manifested\nmercies in judgments are to be tried.\n\n'God did not utterly leave me, but followed me still, not now with\nconvictions, but judgments; yet such as were mixed with mercy. For\nonce I fell into a creek of the sea, and hardly escaped drowning.\nAnother time I fell out of a boat into Bedford river, but mercy\nyet preserved me alive. Besides, another time, being in the field\nwith one of my companions, it chanced that an adder passed over\nthe highway, so I, having a stick in my hand, struck her over the\nback; and having stunned her, I forced open her mouth with my stick,\nand plucked her sting out with my fingers; by which act, had not\nGod been merciful unto me, I might by my desperateness have brought\nmyself to my end.\n\n'This also have I taken notice of, with thanksgiving. When I was a\nsoldier, I, with others, were drawn out to go to such a place to\nbesiege it; but when I was just ready to go, one of the company\ndesired to go in my room, to which, when I had consented, he took\nmy place; and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was\nshot into the head with a musket bullet, and died.'[27]\n\nIn addition to these mercies recorded by his own pen, one of his\nfriends asserts that he acknowledged his deep obligations to Divine\nmercy for being saved when he fell into an exceeding deep pit, as\nhe was traveling in the dark; for having been preserved in sickness;\nand also for providential goodness that such a sinner was sustained\nwith food and raiment, even to his own admiration.\n\nBunyan adds, 'Here were judgments and mercy, but neither of them\ndid awaken my soul to righteousness'; wherefore I sinned still,\nand grew more and more rebellious against God, and careless of mine\nown salvation.'[28]\n\nThat such a scape-grace should enter the army can occasion no surprise.\nHis robust, hardy frame, used to exposure in all weathers--his\ndaring courage, as displayed in his perilous dealing with the\nadder, bordering upon fool-hardiness--his mental depravity and\nimmoral habits, fitted him for all the military glory of rapine and\ndesolation. In his Grace Abounding he expressly states that this\ntook place before his marriage, while his earliest biographer places\nthis event some years after his marriage, and even argues upon\nit, as a reason why he became a soldier, that 'when the unnatural\ncivil war came on, finding little or nothing to do to support\nhimself and small family, he, as many thousands did, betook himself\nto arms.'[29] The same account states that, 'in June, 1645, being\nat the siege of Leicester, he was called out to be one who was to\nmake a violent attack upon the town, vigorously defended by the\nKing's forces against the Parliamentarians, but appearing to the\nofficer who was to command them to be somewhat awkward in handling\nhis arms, another voluntarily, and as it were thrust himself into\nhis place, who, having the same post that was designed Mr. Bunyan,\nmet his fate by a carbine-shot from the wall; but this little or\nnothing startled our too secure sinner at that time; for being now\nin an army where wickedness abounded, he was the more hardened.'\n\nThus we find Bunyan engaged in military affairs. There can be no\ndoubt but that he was a soldier prior to his marriage, and that he\nwas present at the siege of Leicester; but it is somewhat strange\n(if true) that he should have preferred the Parliamentary to the\nRoyal army. Although this is a question that cannot be positively\ndecided without further evidence than has yet been discovered,\nthere are strong reasons for thinking that so loyal a man joined\nthe Royal army, and not that of the Republicans.\n\nThe army into which Bunyan entered is described as being 'where\nwickedness abounded,' but, according to Hume, in this year the\nRepublican troops were generally pious men.\n\nBunyan's loyalty was so remarkable as to appear to be natural to\nhim; for even after he had so severely suffered from the abuse of\nkingly power, in interfering with the Divine prerogative of appointing\nmodes of worship, he, who feared the face of no man--who never\nwrote a line to curry favour with any man or class of men--thus\nexpresses his loyal feelings--'I do confess myself one of the\nold-fashioned professors, that covet to fear God, and honour the\nking. I also am for blessing of them that curse me, for doing good\nto them that hate me, and for praying for them that despitefully\nuse me and persecute me; and have had more peace in the practice of\nthese things than all the world are aware of.' 'Pray for the long\nlife of the king.' 'Pray that God would discover all plots and\nconspiracies against his person and government.'[30] 'Will you rebel\nagainst the king? is a word that shakes the world.'[31] 'Pray for\nall that are in authority; reproach not the governor, he is set over\nthee; all his ways are God's, either for thy help or the trial of\nthy graces--this is duty, will render thee lovely to thy friends,\nterrible to thine enemies, serviceable as a Christian.'[32]\n'Let kings have that fear, honour, reverence, worship that is due\nto their place, their office and dignity.' 'I speak it to show my\nloyalty to the king, and my love to my fellow-subjects.'[33] With\nsuch proofs of his peaceful submission to government in all things\nthat touched not the prerogatives of God; it would have been marvelous\nindeed if he had taken up arms against his king. His infatuated\ndelight in swearing, and roisterous habits, were ill suited to the\nreligious restraints of the Parliamentarians, while they would render\nhim a high prize to Rupert's dragoons. Add to this, the remarkable\nfact, that Leicester was besieged and stormed with terrible slaughter\nby the king, but not by the army of the Parliament. The taking of\nLeicester by the king in person was attended with great cruelties.\nThe abbey was burnt by the cavaliers. Rupert's black flag was\nhoisted on the gate which had been treacherously given up. Every\nScotchman found in the town was murdered. The mace and town seals\nwere carried off as plunder; and, if the account given by Thoresby\nin his History of Leicester is correct, the scene of carnage was\nquite enough to sicken Bunyan of a military life. He knew the mode\nin which plunder taken from the bodies of the slain was divided by\nthe conquerors:--\n\n\n   'Or as the soldiers give unto\n    Each man the share and lot,\n    Which they by dint of sword have won,\n    From their most daring foe;\n    While he lies by as still as stone,\n    Not knowing what they do.'[34]\n\n\n'The king's forces having made their batteries, stormed Leicester;\nthose within made stout resistance, but some of them betrayed\none of the gates; the women of the town laboured in making up the\nbreaches, and in great danger. The king's forces having entered\nthe town, had a hot encounter in the market-place; and many of them\nwere slain by shot out of the windows, that they gave no quarter,\nbut hanged some of the committee, and cut others to pieces. Some\nletters say that the kennels ran down with blood; Colonel Gray the\ngovernor, and Captain Hacker, were wounded and taken prisoners,\nand very many of the garrison were put to the sword, and the town\nmiserably plundered. The king's forces killed divers who prayed\nquarter, and put divers women to the sword,[35] and other women\nand children they turned naked into the streets, and many they\nravished. They hanged Mr. Reynor and Mr. Sawyer in cold blood; and\nat Wighton they smothered Mrs. Barlowes, a minister's wife, and\nher children.'[36]\n\nLord Clarendon admits the rapine and plunder, and that the king\nregretted that some of his friends suffered with the rest.[37]\nHumphrey Brown deposed that he was present when the garrison, having\nsurrendered upon a promise of quarter, he saw the king's soldiers\nstrip and wound the prisoners, and heard the king say--'cut them\nmore, for they are mine enemies.' A national collection was made\nfor the sufferers, by an ordinance bearing date the 28th October,\n1645, which states that--'Whereas it is very well known what miseries\nbefell the inhabitants of the town and county of Leicester, when\nthe king's army took Leicester, by plundering the said inhabitants,\nnot only of their wares in their shops, but also all their household\ngoods, and their apparel from their backs, both of men, women,\nand children, not sparing, in that kind, infants in their cradles;\nand, by violent courses and tortures, compelled them to discover\nwhatsoever they had concealed or hid, and after all they imprisoned\ntheir persons, to the undoing of the tradesmen, and the ruin of\nmany of the country.'\n\nCan we wonder that 'the king was abused as a barbarian and a\nmurderer, for having put numbers to death in cold blood after the\ngarrison had surrendered; and for hanging the Parliament's committee,\nand some Scots found in that town?' The cruelties practiced in the\nking's presence were signally punished. He lost 709 men on that\noccasion, and it infused new vigour into the Parliament's army. The\nbattle of Naseby was fought a few days after; the numbers of the\ncontending forces were nearly equal; the royal troops were veterans,\ncommanded by experienced officers; but the God of armies avenged\nthe innocent blood shed in Leicester, and the royal army was cut to\npieces; carriages, cannon, the king's cabinet, full of treasonable\ncorrespondence, were taken, and from that day he made feeble fight,\nand soon lost his crown and his life. The conquerors marched to\nLeicester, which surrendered by capitulation. Heath, in his Chronicle,\nasserts that 'no life was lost at the retaking of Leicester.' Many\nof Bunyan's sayings and proverbs are strongly tinged with the spirit\nof Rupert's dragoons--'as we say, blood up to the ears.'[38] 'What\ncan be the meaning of this (trumpeters), they neither sound boot\nand saddle, nor horse and away, nor a charge?'[39] In his allegories\nwhen he alludes to fighting, it is with the sword and not with the\nmusket;[40] 'rub up man, put on thy harness.'[41] 'The father's\nsword in the hand of the sucking child is not able to conquer a\nfoe.'[42]\n\nConsidering his singular loyalty, which, during the French\nRevolution, was exhibited as a pattern to Dissenters by an eminent\nBaptist minister; [43] considering also his profligate character\nand military sayings, it is very probable that Bunyan was in the\nking's army in 1645, being about seventeen years of age. It was a\nfinishing school to the hardened sinner, which enabled him, in his\naccount of the Holy War, so well to describe every filthy lane and\ndirty street in the town of Mansoul.\n\nWhether Bunyan left the army when Charles was routed at the battle\nof Naseby, or was discharged, is not known. He returned to his\nnative town full of military ideas, which he used to advantage in\nhis Holy War. He was not reformed, but hardened in sin, and, although\nat times alarmed with convictions of the danger of his soul, yet in\nthe end, the flesh pleading powerfully, it prevailed; and he made\na resolution to indulge himself in such carnal delights and pleasures\nas he was accustomed to, or that fell in his way. 'His neglecting\nhis business, and following gaming and sports, to put melancholy\nthoughts out of his mind, which he could not always do, had rendered\nhim very poor and despicable.'[44]\n\nIn this forlorn and miserable state, he was induced, by the persuasion\nof friends, under the invisible guidance of God, to enter into the\nmarriage state. Such a youth, then only twenty years of age, would\nnaturally be expected to marry some young woman as hardened as\nhimself, but he made a very different choice. His earliest biographer\nsays, with singular simplicity, 'his poverty, and irregular course\nof life, made it very difficult for him to get a wife suitable to\nhis inclination; and because none that were rich would yield to\nhis allurements, he found himself constrained to marry one without\nany fortune, though very virtuous, loving, and conformably obedient\nand obliging, being born of good, honest, godly parents, who had\ninstructed her, as well as they were able, in the ways of truth\nand saving knowledge.'[45] The idea of his seeking a rich wife is\nsufficiently droll; he must have been naturally a persuasive lover,\nto have gained so good a helpmate. They were not troubled with\nsending cards, cake, or gloves, nor with the ceremony of receiving\nthe visits of their friends in state; for he says, that 'This woman\nand I came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much\nhousehold stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt us both.'[46] His wife\nhad two books, The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven, and The Practice\nof Piety; but what was of more importance than wealth or household\nstuff, she had that seed sown in her heart which no thief could\nsteal.[47] She enticed and persuaded him to read those books. To\ndo this he by application 'again recovered his reading, which he\nhad almost lost.' His wife became an unspeakable blessing to him.\nShe presents a pattern to any woman, who, having neglected the\napostolic injunction not to be unequally yoked, finds herself under\nthe dominion of a swearing dare devil. It affords a lovely proof\nof the insinuating benign favour of female influence. This was the\nmore surprising, as he says, 'the thoughts of religion were very\ngrievous to me,' and when 'books that concerned Christian piety\nwere read in my hearing, it was as it were a prison to me.' In spite\nof all obstacles, his rugged heart was softened by her tenderness\nand obedience, he 'keeping on the old course,'[48] she upon every\nproper season teaching him how her father's piety secured his own\nand his family's happiness. Here was no upbraiding, no snubbing,\nno curtain lectures; all was affectionate, amiable mildness. At\nfirst, he became occasionally alarmed for his soul's salvation;\nthen with the thought of having sinned away the day of grace, he\nplunged again into sin with greediness; anon a faint hope of mercy\nwould fill him with fear and trembling. But this leads us to the\nwondrous narrative of his new birth.\n\nTHE SECOND PERIOD.\n\nTHE INTERNAL CONFLICT, OR BUNYAN'S CONVICTIONS AND CONVERSION.\n\nAll nature is progressive; if an infant was suddenly to arrive at\nmanhood, how idiotic and dangerous he would be! A long training is\nessential to fit the human being for the important duties of life;\nand just so is it in the new birth to spiritual existence--first a\nbabe, then the young man; at length the full stature, and at last\nthe experienced Christian.\n\nThe narrative of Bunyan's progress in his conversion is, without\nexception, the most astonishing of any that has been published. It\nis well calculated to excite the profoundest investigation of the\nChristian philosopher. Whence came those sudden suggestions, those\ngloomy fears, those heavenly rays of joy? Much learning certainly\ndid not make him mad. The Christian dares not attribute his intense\nfeelings to a distempered brain. Whence came the invisible power\nthat struck Paul from his horse? Who was it that scared Job with\ndreams, and terrified him with visions? What messenger of Satan\nbuffeted Paul? Who put 'a new song' into the mouth of David? We\nhave no space in this short memoir to attempt the drawing a line\nbetween convictions of sin and the terrors of a distempered brain.\nBunyan's opinions upon this subject are deeply interesting, and\nare fully developed in his Holy War. The capabilities of the soul\nto entertain vast armies of thoughts, strong and feeble, represented\nas men, women, and children, are so great as almost to perplex the\nstrongest understanding. All these multitudes of warriors are the\ninnumerable thoughts--the strife--in ONE soul. Upon such a subject\nan interesting volume might be written. But we must fix our attention\nupon the poor tinker who was the subject of this wondrous war.\n\nThe tender and wise efforts of Mrs. Bunyan to reclaim her husband, were\nattended by the Divine blessing, and soon led to many resolutions,\non his part, to curb his sinful propensities and to promote an outward\nreformation; his first effort was regularly to attend Divine worship.\n\nHe says, 'I fell in very eagerly with the religion of the times, to\nwit, to go to church twice a-day, and that too with the foremost;\nand there should very devoutly both say and sing as others did,\nyet retaining my wicked life; but withal, I was so overrun with a\nspirit of superstition, that I adored, and that with great devotion,\neven all things, both the high-place, priest, clerk, vestment,\nservice, and what else belonging to the Church; counting all things\nholy that were therein contained, and especially, the priest and\nclerk most happy, and without doubt greatly blessed, because they\nwere the servants, as I then thought,[49] of God, and were principal\nin the holy temple, to do his work therein. This conceit grew so\nstrong in little time upon my spirit, that had I but seen a priest,\nthough never so sordid and debauched in his life,[50] I should find\nmy spirit fall under him, reverence him, and knit unto him; yea,\nI thought, for the love I did bear unto them, supposing they were\nthe ministers of God, I could have lain down at their feet, and\nhave been trampled upon by them; their name, their garb, and work\ndid so intoxicate and bewitch me.'\n\nAll this took place at the time when The Book of Common Prayer,\nhaving been said to occasion 'manifold inconveniency,' was, by an\nAct of Parliament, 'abolished,'[51] and by a subsequent Act[52]\nprohibited, under severe penalties, from being publicly used.\nThe 'manifold inconveniences' to which the Act refers, arose from\ndifferences of opinion as to the propriety of the form which had\nbeen enforced, heightened by the enormous cruelties practiced upon\nmultitudes who refused to use it. Opposition to the English Liturgy\nas more combined in Scotland, by a covenant entered into, June 20,\n1580, by the king, lords, nobles, and people, against Popery; and\nupon Archbishop Laud's attempt, in 1637, to impose the service-book\nupon our northern neighbours, tumults and bloodshed ensued; until,\nin 1643, a new and very solemn league and covenant was entered into,\nwhich, in 1645, extended its influence to England, being subscribed\nby thousands of our best citizens, with many of the nobility--'wherein\nwe all subscribe, and each with his own hands lifted up to the\nMost High God, doe swear'; that being the mode of taking an oath,\ninstead of kissing the cover of a book, as is now practiced. To the\ncruel and intemperate measures of Laud, and the zeal of Charles,\nfor priestly domination over conscience, may be justly attributed\nthe wars which desolated the country, while the solemn league and\ncovenant brought an overwhelming force to aid the Parliament in\nredressing the grievances of the kingdom. During the Commonwealth\nthere was substituted, in place of the Common Prayer, A directory\nfor the Publique Worship of God, and the uniformity which was\nenjoined in it was like that of the Presbyterians and Dissenters\nof the present day. The people having assembled, and been exhorted\nto reverence and humility, joined the preacher in prayer. He then\nread portions of Scripture, with or without an exposition, as he\njudged it necessary, but not so as to render the service tedious.\nAfter singing a psalm, the minister prayed, leading the people\nto mourn under a sense of sin, and to hunger and thirst after the\ngrace of God, in Jesus Christ; an outline or abstract is given of\nthe subject of public prayer, and similar instructions are given as\nto the sermon or paraphrase. Immediately after the sermon, prayer\nwas again offered up, and after the outline that is given of this\ndevotional exercise, it is noted, 'And because the prayer which\nChrist taught his disciples, is not only a pattern of prayer, but\nitself a most comprehensive prayer, we recommend it also to be\nused in the prayers of the Church.' This being ended, a psalm was\nsung, and the minister dismissed the congregation with a solemn\nblessing.[53] Some of the clergy continued the use of prayers,\ncontained in the liturgy, reciting, instead of reading them--a\ncourse that was not objected to. This was the form of service which\nstruck Bunyan with such awe and reverence, leaving a very solemn\nimpression upon his mind, which the old form of common prayer had\nnever produced.\n\nBunyan was fond of athletic sports, bell-ringing, and dancing; and\nin these he had indulged, so far as his worldly calling allowed.\nCharles I, whether to promote Popery--to divert his subjects from\npolitical grievances--or to punish the Puritans, had endeavoured\nto drown their serious thoughts in a vortex of dissipation,\nby re-publishing the Book of Sports, to be used on Sundays. That\n'after Divine service our good people be not disturbed, letted, or\ndiscouraged from dancing, either men or women; archery, leaping,\nvaulting, or any other such harmless recreations; May games,\nWhitsun-ales, Morris dances, May poles, and other sports.' But this\nwas not all, for every 'Puritan and Precisian was to be constrained\nto conformity with these sports, or to leave their country.' The\nsame severe penalty was enforced upon every clergyman who refused to\nread from his pulpit the Book of Sports, and to persuade the people\nthus to desecrate the Lord's-day. 'Many hundred godly ministers\nwere suspended from their ministry, sequestered, driven from their\nlivings, excommunicated, prosecuted in the high commission court,\nand forced to leave the kingdom for not publishing this declaration.'[54]\nA little gleam of heavenly light falls upon those dark and gloomy\ntimes, from the melancholy fact that nearly eight hundred conscientious\nclergymen were thus wickedly persecuted. This was one of the works\nof Laud, who out-bonnered Bonner himself in his dreadful career\nof cruelty, while making havoc of the church of Christ. Even\ntransportation for refusing obedience to such diabolical laws was\nnot the greatest penalty; in some cases it was followed by the death\nof the offender. The punishments inflicted for nonconformity were\naccompanied by the most refined and barbarous cruelties. Still many\nof the learned bowed their necks to this yoke with abject servility:\nthus, Robert Powell, speaking of the Book of Sports, says, 'Needless\nis it to argue or dispute for that which authority hath commanded,\nand most insufferable insolence to speak or write against it.'[55]\nThese Sunday sports, published by Charles I, in 1633, had doubtless\naided in fostering Bunyan's bad conduct in his youthful days.\nIn 1644, when The Book of Common Prayer was abolished, an Act was\npassed for the better observance of the Lord's-day; all persons\nwere prohibited on that day to use any wrestlings, shooting, bowing,\nringing of bells for pastime, masques, wakes, church-ales, dancing,\ngame, sports or pastime whatever; and that 'the Book of Sports\nshall be seized, and publicly burnt.' During the civil war this\nAct does not appear to have been strictly enforced; for, four years\nafter it was passed, we find Bunyan and his dissolute companions\nworshipping the priest, clerk, and vestments on the Sunday morning,\nand assembling for their Sabbath-breaking sports in the afternoon.\nIt was upon one of these occasions that a most extraordinary\nimpression was fixed upon the spirit of Bunyan. A remarkable scene\ntook place, worthy the pencil of the most eminent artist. This\nevent cannot be better described than in his own words:--\n\n'One day, amongst all the sermons our parson made, his subject\nwas, to treat of the Sabbath-day, and of the evil of breaking that,\neither with labour, sports, or otherwise; now I was, notwithstanding\nmy religion, one that took much delight in all manner of vice, and\nespecially that was the day that I did solace myself therewith;\nwherefore I fell in my conscience under his sermons, thinking and\nbelieving that he made that sermon on purpose to show me my evil\ndoing. And at that time I felt what guilt was, though never before,\nthat I can remember; but then I was, for the present, greatly\nloaden therewith, and so went home, when the sermon was ended, with\na great burthen upon my spirit.\n\n'This, for that instant, did benumb the sinews of my best delights,\nand did imbitter my former pleasures to me; but behold it lasted\nnot for before I had well dined, the trouble began to go off my\nmind, and my heart returned to its old course. But O! how glad was\nI, that this trouble was gone from me, and that the fire was put\nout, that I might sin again without control! Wherefore, when I had\nsatisfied nature with my food, I shook the sermon out of my mind,\nand to my old custom of sports and gaming I returned with great\ndelight.\n\n'But the same day, as I was in the midst of a game at cat, and\nhaving struck it one blow from the hole, just as I was about to\nstrike it the second time, a voice did suddenly dart from heaven\ninto my soul, which said, \"Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to\nheaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?\" At this I was put to an\nexceeding maze; wherefore leaving my cat upon the ground, I looked\nup to heaven, and was as if I had, with the eyes of my understanding,\nseen the Lord Jesus looking down upon me, as being very hotly\ndispleased with me, and as if he did severely threaten me with some\ngrievous punishment for these and other my ungodly practices.\n\n'I had no sooner thus conceived in my mind, but, suddenly, this\nconclusion was fastened on my spirit, for the former hint did set\nmy sins again before my face, that I had been a great and grievous\nsinner, and that it was now too late for me to look after heaven;\nfor Christ would not forgive me, nor pardon my transgressions. Then\nI fell to musing upon this also; and while I was thinking on it,\nand fearing lest it should be so, I felt my heart sink in despair,\nconcluding it was too late; and therefore I resolved in my mind I\nwould go on in sin: for, thought I, if the case be thus, my state\nis surely miserable; miserable if I leave my sins, and but miserable\nif I follow them; I can but be damned, and if I must be so, I had\nas good be damned for many sins, as be damned for few.\n\n'Thus I stood in the midst of my play, before all that then were\npresent: but yet I told them nothing. But I say, I having made this\nconclusion, I returned desperately to my sport again; and I well\nremember, that presently this kind of despair did so possess my\nsoul, that I was persuaded I could never attain to other comfort\nthan what I should get in sin; for heaven was gone already; so that\non that I must not think.'[56]\n\nHow difficult is it, when immorality has been encouraged by royal\nauthority, to turn the tide or to stem the torrent. For at least\nfour years, an Act of Parliament had prohibited these Sunday\nsports. Still the supinelness of the justices, and the connivance\nof the clergy, allowed the rabble youth to congregate on the Green\nat Elstow, summoned by the church bells to celebrate their sports\nand pastimes, as they had been in the habit of doing on the Lord's\nday.[57]\n\nThis solemn warning, received in the midst of his sport, was one\nof a series of convictions, by which he hardened sinner was to\nbe fitted to receive the messages of mercy and love. In the midst\nof his companions and of the spectators, Bunyan was struck with a\nsense of guilt. How rapid were his thoughts--'Wilt thou leave thy\nsins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?' With the\neye of his understanding he saw the Lord Jesus as 'hotly displeased.'\nThe tempter suggests it is 'too, too late' to seek for pardon,\nand with a desperate resolution which must have cost his heart the\nseverest pangs, he continued his game. Still the impression remained\nindelibly fixed upon his mind.\n\nThe next blow which fell upon his hardened spirit was still more\ndeeply felt, because it was given by one from whom he could the\nleast have expected it. He was standing at a neighbour's shop-window,\n'belching out oaths like the madman that Solomon speaks of, who\nscatters abroad firebrands, arrows, and death'[58] 'after his wonted\nmanner.' He exemplified the character drawn by the Psalmist. 'As\nhe clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment: so let\nit come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.'\nHere was a disease that set all human skill at defiance, but the\ngreat, the Almighty Physician, cured it with strange physic. Had\nany professor reproved him, it might have been passed by as a matter\nof course; but it was so ordered that a woman who was notoriously\n'a very loose and ungodly wretch,' protested that she trembled to\nhear him swear and curse at that most fearful rate; that he was\nthe ungodliest fellow she had ever heard, and that he was able to\nspoil all the youth in a whole town.[59] Public reproof from the\nlips of such a woman was an arrow that pierced his inmost soul;\nit effected a reformation marvelous to all his companions, and\nbordering upon the miraculous. The walls of a fortified city were\nonce thrown down by a shout and the tiny blast of rams'-horns (Josh\n6:20); and in this instance, the foundations of Heart Castle,\nfortified by Satan, are shaken by the voice of one of his own\nemissaries. Mortified and convicted, the foul-mouthed blasphemer\nswore no more; an outward reformation in words and conduct took\nplace, but without inward spiritual life. Thus was he making vows\nto God and breaking them, repenting and promising to do better next\ntime; so, to use his own homely phrase, he was 'feeding God with\nchapters, and prayers, and promises, and vows, and a great many\nmore such dainty dishes, and thinks that he serveth God as well as\nany man in England can, while he has only got into a cleaner way\nto hell than the rest of his neighbours are in.'[60]\n\nSuch a conversion, as he himself calls it, was 'from prodigious\nprofaneness to something like moral life.'[61] 'Now I was, as they\nsaid, become godly, and their words pleased me well, though as yet\nI was nothing but a poor painted hypocrite.' These are hard words,\nbut, in the most important sense, they were true. He was pointed\nout as a miracle of mercy--the great convert--a wonder to the world.\nHe could now suffer opprobrium and cavils--play with errors--entangle\nhimself and drink in flattery. No one can suppose that this outward\nreform was put on hypocritically, as a disguise to attain some\nsinister object; it was real, but it arose from a desire to shine\nbefore his neighbours, from shame and from the fear of future\npunishment, and not from that love to God which leads the Christian\nto the fear of offending him. It did not arise from a change\nof heart; the secret springs of action remained polluted; it was\noutside show, and therefore he called himself a painted hypocrite.\nHe became less a despiser of religion, but more awfully a destroyer\nof his own soul.\n\nA new source of uneasiness now presented itself in his practice\nof bell-ringing, an occupation requiring severe labour, usually\nperformed on the Lord's-day; and, judging from the general character\nof bell-ringers, it has a most injurious effect, both with regard\nto morals and religion. A circumstance had recently taken place\nwhich was doubtless interpreted as an instance of Divine judgment\nupon Sabbath-breaking. Clark, in his Looking-Glass for Saints\nand Sinners, 1657, published the narrative:--'Not long since, in\nBedfordshire, a match at football being appointed on the Sabbath,\nin the afternoon whilst two were in the belfry, tolling of a bell\nto call the company together, there was suddenly heard a clap\nof thunder, and a flash of lightning was seen by some that sat in\nthe church-porch coming through a dark lane, and flashing in their\nfaces, which must terrified them, and, passing through the porch\ninto the belfry, it tripped up his heels that was tolling the bell,\nand struck him stark dead; and the other that was with him was so\nsorely blasted therewith, that shortly after he died also.'[62] Thus\nwe find that the church bells ministered to the Book of Sports, to\ncall the company to Sabbath-breaking. The bell-ringers might come\nwithin the same class as those upon whom the tower at Siloam fell,\nstill it was a most solemn warning, and accounts for the timidity\nof so resolute a man as Bunyan. Although he thought it did not become\nhis newly-assumed religious character, yet his old propensity drew\nhim to the church tower. At first he ventured in, but took care to\nstand under a main beam, lest the bell should fall and crush him;\nafterwards he would stand in the door; then he feared the steeple might\nfall; and the terrors of an untimely death, and his newly-acquired\ngarb of religion, eventually deterred him from this mode\nof Sabbath-breaking. His next sacrifice made at the shrine of\nself-righteousness was dancing: this took him one whole year to\naccomplish, and then he bade farewell to these sports for the rest\nof his life.[63] We are not to conclude from the example of a man\nwho in after-life proved so great and excellent a character, that,\nunder all circumstances, bell-ringing and dancing are immoral.\nIn those days, such sports and pastimes usually took place on the\nLord's-day; and however the Church of England might then sanction\nit, and proclaim by royal authority, in all her churches, the\nlawfulness of sports on that sacred day, yet it is now universally\nadmitted that it was commanding a desecration of the Sabbath, and\nletting loose a flood of vice and profaneness. In themselves, on\ndays proper for recreation, such sports may be innocent; but if they\nengender an unholy thought, or occupy time needed for self-examination\nand devotion, they ought to be avoided as sinful hindrances to a\nspiritual life.\n\nBunyan was now dressed in the garb of a religious professor, and had\nbecome a brisk talker in the matters of religion, when, by Divine\nmercy, he was stripped of all his good opinion of himself; his want\nof holiness, and his unchanged heart, were revealed to his surprise\nand wonder, by means simple and efficacious, but which no human\nforethought could have devised. Being engaged in his trade at\nBedford, he overheard the conversation of some poor pious women,\nand it humbled and alarmed him. 'I heard, but I understood not; for\nthey were far above, out of my reach. Their talk was about a new\nbirth, the work of God on their hearts, also how they were convinced\nof their miserable state by nature; how God had visited their souls\nwith his love in the Lord Jesus, and with what words and promises\nthey had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the\ntemptations of the devil. Moreover, they reasoned of the suggestions\nand temptations of Satan in particular; and told to each other by\nwhich they had been afflicted, and how they were borne up under his\nassaults. hey also discoursed of their own wretchedness of heart,\nof their unbelief; and did contemn, slight, and abhor their own\nrighteousness, as filthy and insufficient to do them any good. And\nmethought they spake as if joy did make them speak; they spake with\nsuch pleasantness of Scripture language, and with such appearance\nof grace in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found\na new world; as if they were people that dwelt alone, and were not\nto be reckoned among their neighbours (Num 23:9).\n\n'At this I felt my own heart began to shake, as mistrusting my\ncondition to be nought; for I saw that in all my thoughts about\nreligion and salvation, the new birth did never enter into my\nmind; neither knew I the comfort of the Word and promise, nor the\ndeceitfulness and treachery of my own wicked heart. As for secret\nthoughts, I took no notice of them; neither did I understand what\nSatan's temptations were, nor how they were to be withstood, and\nresisted.\n\n'Thus, therefore, when I heard and considered what they said, I\nleft them, and went about my employment again, but their talk and\ndiscourse went with me; also my heart would tarry with them, for\nI was greatly affected with their words, both because by them I\nwas convinced that I wanted the true tokens of a truly godly man,\nand also because by them I was convinced of the happy and blessed\ncondition of him that was such a one.'[64]\n\nThe brisk talker of 'talkative,' was confounded--he heard pious\ngodly women mourning over their worthlessness instead of vaunting\nof their attainments. They exhibited, doubtless to his great surprise,\nthat self-distrust and humility are the beginnings of wisdom.\n\nThese humble disciples could have had no conception that the Holy\nSpirit was blessing their Christian communion to the mind of the\ntinker, standing near them, pursuing his occupation. The recollection\nof the converse of these poor women led to solemn heart-searching\nand the most painful anxiety; again and again he sought their\ncompany, and his convictions became more deep, his solicitude more\nintense. This was the commencement of an internal struggle, the\nmost remarkable of any upon record, excepting that of the psalmist\nDavid.\n\nIt was the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and preparing\nan ignorant and rebellious man for extraordinary submission to\nthe sacred Scriptures, and for most extensive usefulness. To those\nwho never experienced in any degree such feelings, they appear to\nindicate religious insanity. It was so marvelous and so mysterious,\nas to be mistaken by a poet laureate, who profanely calls it a\nbeing 'shaken continually by the hot and cold fits of a spiritual\nague': 'reveries': or one of the 'frequent and contagious disorders\nof the human mind,'[65] instead of considering it as wholesome but\nbitter medicine for the soul, administered by the heavenly Physician.\nAt times he felt, like David, 'a sword in his bones,' 'tears his\nmeat.' God's waves and billows overwhelmed him (Psa 43). Then came\nglimmerings of hope--precious promises saving him from despair--followed\nby the shadow of death overspreading his soul, and involving him\nin midnight darkness. He could complain in the bitterness of his\nanguish, 'Thy fierce wrath goeth over me.' Bound in affliction and\niron, his 'soul was melted because of trouble.' 'Now Satan assaults\nthe soul with darkness, fears, frightful thoughts of apparitions;\nnow they sweat, pant, and struggle for life. The angels now come\n(Psa 107) down to behold the sight, and rejoice to see a bit of\ndust and ashes to overcome principalities, and powers, and might,\nand dominion.'[66] His mind was fixed on eternity, and out of the\nabundance of his heart he spoke to one of his former companions;\nhis language was that of reproof--'Harry, why do you swear and curse\nthus? what will become of you if you die in this condition?'[67]\nHis sermon, probably the first he had preached, was like throwing\npearls before swine--'He answered in a great chafe, what would the\ndevil do for company, if it were not for such as I am.'[68]\n\nBy this time he had recovered the art of reading, and its use a\nlittle perplexed him, for he became much puzzled with the opinions\nof the Ranters, as set forth in their books. It is extremely\ndifficult to delineate their sentiments; they were despised by all\nthe sects which had been connected with the government, because,\nwith the Quakers and Baptists, they denied any magisterial or state\nauthority over conscience, and refused maintenance to ministers;\nbut from the testimony of Bunyan, and that of the early Quakers,\nthey appear to have been practical Antinomians, or at least very\nnearly allied to the new sect called Mormonites. Ross, who copied\nfrom Pagitt, describes them with much bitterness--'The Ranters are\nunclean beasts--their maxim is that there is nothing sin but what\na man thinks to be so--they reject the Bible--they are the merriest\nof all devils--they deny all obedience to magistrates.'[69]\n\nThis temptation must have been severe. The Ranters were like the\nblack man with the white robe, named Flatterer, who led the pilgrims\ninto a net,[70] under the pretence of showing them the way to the\ncelestial city; or like Adam the first, who offered Faithful his\nthree daughters to wife[71]--the lust of the flesh, the lust of\nthe eyes, and the pride of life--if he would dwell with him in the\ntown of Deceit. 'These temptations,' he says, 'were suitable to my\nflesh,'[72] I being but a young man, and my nature in its prime;\nand, with his characteristic humility, he adds, 'God, who had, as\nI hope, designed me for better things, kept me in the fear of his\nname, and did not suffer me to accept such cursed principles.' Prayer\nopened the door of escape; it led him to the fountain of truth.\n'I began to look into the Bible with new eyes. Prayer preserved me\nfrom Ranting errors. The Bible was precious to me in those days.'[73]\nHis study of the Holy Oracles now became a daily habit, and that\nwith intense earnestness and prayer. In the mist of the multitude\nof sects with which he was on all sides surrounded, he felt the\nneed of a standard for the opinions which were each of them eagerly\nfollowed by votaries, who proclaimed them to be THE TRUTH, the\nway, and the life. He was like a man, feeling that if he erred\nin the way, it would be attended with misery, and, but for Divine\ninterference, with unutterable ruin--possessed of a correct map,\nbut surrounded with those who, by flattery, or threats, or deceit,\nand armed with all human eloquence, strove to mislead him. With an\nenemy within to urge him to accept their wily guidance, that they\nmight lead him to perdition--inspired by Divine grace, like Christian\nin his Pilgrim, he 'put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying\nLife, life, eternal life.' He felt utter dependence upon Divine\nguidance, leading him to most earnest prayer, and an implicit obedience\nto Holy Writ, which followed him all through the remainder of his\npilgrimage. 'The Bible' he calls 'the scaffold, or stage, that\nGod has builded for hope to play his part upon in this world.'[74]\nHence the Word was precious in his eyes; and with so immense\na loss, or so magnificent a gain, the throne of grace was all his\nhope, that he might be guided by that counsel that cannot err, and\nthat should eventually insure his reception to eternal glory.\n\nWhile in this inquiring state, he experienced much doubt and\nuncertainty arising from the apparent confidence of many professors.\nIn his own esteem he appeared to be thoroughly humbled; and when\nhe lighted on that passage--'To one is given by the spirit the word\nof wisdom, to another, knowledge, and to another, faith' (1 Cor\n12:8,9), his solemn inquiry was, how it happened that he possessed\nso little of any of these gifts of wisdom, knowledge, or faith--more\nespecially of faith, that being essential to the pleasing of God.\nHe had read (Matt 21:21), 'If ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall\nsay unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into\nthe sea; it shall be done'; and (Luke 17:6), 'If ye had faith as a\ngrain of mustard seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou\nplucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it shall\nobey you'; and (1 Cor 13:2), 'Though I have all faith, so that I\ncould remove mountains.' The poor tinker, considering these passages\nin their literal import, imagined they were meant as tests to try\nwhether the believer possessed faith or not. He was a stranger to\nthe rules of Hebrew rhetoric; nor did he consider that they were\naddressed to the apostles, who had the power to work miracles. He\nhad no idea that the removing a mountain, or planting a sycamore\ntree in the sea, were figures of speech conveying to us the fact\nthat, aided by faith, mountainous difficulties might and would be\novercome. Anxious for some ocular demonstration that he had faith,\nhe almost determined to attempt to work a miracle--not to convert\nor confirm the faith of others, but to satisfy his own mind as to\nhis possessing faith. He had no such magnificent idea as the removal\nof a mountain, for there were none in his neighbourhood, nor to\nplant a tree in the sea, for Bedfordshire is an inland county; but\nit was of the humblest kind--that some puddles on the road between\nElstow and Bedford should change places with the dry ground. When\nhe had thought of praying for ability, his natural good sense led\nhim to abandon the experiment.[75] This he calls 'being in my plunge\nabout faith, tossed betwixt the devil and my own ignorance.'[76] All\nthis shows the intensity of his feelings and his earnest inquiries.\n\nIt may occasion surprise to some, that a young man of such\nextraordinary powers of mind, should have indulged the thought of\nworking a miracle to settle or confirm his doubts; but we must take\ninto account, that when a boy he had no opportunity of acquiring\nscriptural knowledge; no Sunday schools, no Bible class excited\nhis inquiries as to the meaning of the sacred language. The Bible\nhad been to him a sealed book until, in a state of mental agony,\nhe cried, What must I do to be saved? The plain text was all his\nguide; and it would not have been surprising, had he been called\nto bottle a cask of new wine, if he had refused to use old wine\nbottles; or had he cast a loaf into the neighbouring river Ouse,\nexpecting to find it after many days. The astonishing fact is, that\none so unlettered should, by intense thought, by earnest prayer,\nand by comparing one passage with another, arrive eventually at so\nclear a view both of the external and internal meaning of the whole\nBible. The results of his researches were more deeply impressed\nupon his mind by the mistakes which he had made; and his intense\nstudy, both of the Old and New Testaments, furnished him with an\ninexhaustible store of things new and old--those vivid images and\nburning thoughts, those bright and striking illustrations of Divine\ntruth, which so shine and sparkle in all his works. What can be\nmore clear than his illustration of saving faith which worketh by\nlove, when in after-life he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress. Hopeful\nwas in a similar state of inquiry whether he had faith. 'Then I said,\nBut, Lord, what is believing?' And then I saw from that saying, He\nthat cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me\nshall never thirst, that believing and coming was all one, and that\nhe that came, that is, ran out in his heart and affections after\nsalvation by Christ, he indeed believed in Christ (John 6:25).[77]\n\nIn addition to his want of scriptural education, it must be remembered\nthat, when he thought of miraculous power being an evidence of faith,\nhis mind was in a most excited state--doubts spread over him like\na huge masses of thick black clouds, hiding the Sun of Righteousness\nfrom his sight. Not only is he to be pardoned for his error, but\nadmired for the humility which prompted him to record so singular\na trial, and his escape from 'this delusion of the tempter.' While\n'thus he was tossed betwixt the devil and his own ignorance,'[78]\nthe happiness of the poor women whose conversation he had heard at\nBedford, was brought to his recollection by a remarkable reverie\nor day dream:--\n\n'About this time, the state and happiness of these poor people at\nBedford was thus, in a dream or vision, represented to me. I saw\nas if they were set on the sunny side of some high mountain, there\nrefreshing themselves with the pleasant beams of the sun, while\nI was shivering and shrinking in the cold, afflicted with frost,\nsnow, and dark clouds. Methought also, betwixt me and them, I saw\na wall that did compass about this mountain; now through this wall\nmy soul did greatly desire to pass, concluding that if I could, I\nwould go even into the very midst of them, and there also comfort\nmyself with the heat of their sun.\n\n'About this wall I thought myself to go again and again, still\nprying, as I went, to see if I could find some way or passage, by\nwhich I might enter therein; but none could I find for some time.\nAt the last I saw, as it were, a narrow gap, like a little doorway\nin the wall, through which I attempted to pass; but the passage\nbeing very strait and narrow, I made many efforts to get in, but\nall in vain, even until I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving\nto get in; at last, with great striving, methought I at first did\nget in my head, and after that, by a sidling striving, my shoulders,\nand my whole body; then I was exceeding glad, and went and sat down\nin the midst of them, and so was comforted with the light and heat\nof their sun.\n\n'Now this mountain, and wall, was thus made out to me: The mountain\nsignified the church of the living God; the sun that shone thereon,\nthe comfortable shining of his merciful face on them that were\ntherein; the wall I thought was the Word, that did make separation\nbetween the Christians and the world; and the gap which was in\nthis wall, I thought, was Jesus Christ, who is the way to God the\nFather (John 14:6; Matt 7:14). But forasmuch as the passage was\nwonderful narrow, even so narrow that I could not, but with great\ndifficulty, enter in thereat, it showed me, that none could enter\ninto life, but those that were in downright earnest, and unless\nalso they left this wicked world behind them; for here was only\nroom for body and soul, but not for body and soul and sin.[79]\n\n'This resemblance abode upon my spirit many days; all which time\nI saw myself in a forlorn and sad condition, but yet was provoked\nto a vehement hunger and desire to be one of that number that did\nsit in the sunshine. Now also I should pray wherever I was; whether\nat home or abroad, in house or field, and should also often, with\nlifting up of heart, sing that of the fifty-first Psalm, \"O Lord,\nconsider my distress.\"'[80]\n\nIn this striking reverie we discover the budding forth of that great\ngenius which produced most beautiful flowers and delicious fruit,\nwhen it became fully developed in his allegories.\n\nWhile this trial clouded his spirits, he was called to endure\ntemptations which are common to most, if not all, inquiring souls,\nand which frequently produce much anxiety. He plunged into the\nuniversity problems of predestination, before he had completed his\nlower grammar-school exercises on faith and repentance. Am I one of\nthe elect? or has the day of grace been suffered to pass by never\nto return? 'Although he was in a flame to find the way to heaven\nand glory,' these questions afflicted and disquieted him, so that\nthe very strength of his body was taken away by the force and\npower thereof. 'Lord, thought I, what if I should not be elected!\nIt may be you are not, said the tempter; it may be so, indeed\nthought I. Why then, said Satan, you had as good leave off, and\nstrive no farther; for if indeed you should not be elected and\nchosen of God, there is no talk of your being saved; \"for it is\nneither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God\nthat showeth mercy.\"\n\n'By these things I was driven to my wit's end, not knowing what to\nsay, or how to answer these temptations. Indeed, I little thought\nthat Satan had thus assaulted me, but that rather it was my own\nprudence thus to start the question: for that the elect only obtained\neternal life; that I without scruple did heartily close withal;\nbut that myself was one of them, there lay all the question.'[81]\n\nThus was he for many weeks oppressed and cast down, and near\nto 'giving up the ghost of all his hopes of ever attaining life,'\nwhen a sentence fell with weight upon his spirit--'Look at the\ngenerations of old and see; did ever any trust in the Lord and was\nconfounded' (Ecclesiasticus 2:10). This encouraged him to a diligent\nsearch from Genesis to Revelation, which lasted for above a year,\nand although he could not find that sentence, yet he was amply\nrewarded for this diligent examination of the Holy Oracles, and\nthus he obtained 'yet more experience of the love and kindness of\nGod.' At length he found it in the Apocrypha, and, although not the\nlanguage of inspiration, yet as it contained the sum and substance\nof the promises, he took the comfort of it, and it shone before his\nface for years. The fear that the day of grace had passed pressed\nheavily upon him; he was humbled, and bemoaned the time that he\nhad wasted. Now he was confronted with that 'grim-faced one, the\nCaptain Past-hope, with his terrible standard,' carried by Ensign\nDespair, red colours, with a hot iron and a hard heart, and\nexhibited at Eye-gate.[82] At length these words broke in upon his\nmind, 'compel them to come in, that my house may be filled--and yet\nthere is room.' This Scripture powerfully affected him with hope,\nthat there was room in the bosom and in the house of Jesus for his\nafflicted soul.\n\nHis next temptation was to return to the world. This was that\nterrible battle with Apollyon, depicted in the Pilgrim's Progress,\nand it is also described at some length in the Jerusalem Sinner\nSaved. Among many very graphic and varied pictures of his own\nexperience, he introduces the following dialogue with the tempter,\nprobably alluding to the trials he was now passing through. Satan\nis loath to part with a great sinner. 'This day is usually attended\nwith much evil towards them that are asking the way to Zion, with\ntheir faces thitherward. Now the devil has lost a sinner; there is\na captive has broke prison, and one run away from his master. Now\nhell seems to be awakened from sleep, the devils are come out. They\nroar, and roaring they seek to recover their runaway. Now tempt\nhim, threaten him, flatter him, stigmatize him, throw dust into\nhis eyes, poison him with error, spoil him while he is upon the\npotter's wheel, anything to keep him from coming to Christ.'[83]\n'What, my true servant,' quoth he, 'my old servant, wilt thou forsake\nme now? Having so often sold thyself to me to work wickedness,\nwilt thou forsake me now? Thou horrible wretch, dost not know,\nthat thou hast sinned thyself beyond the reach of grace, and dost\nthou think to find mercy now? Art not thou a murderer, a thief, a\nharlot, a witch, a sinner of the greatest size, and dost thou look\nfor mercy now? Dost thou think that Christ will foul his fingers\nwith thee? It is enough to make angels blush, saith Satan, to see\nso vile a one knock at heaven-gates for mercy, and wilt thou be\nso abominably bold to do it?' Thus Satan dealt with me, says the\ngreat sinner, when at first I came to Jesus Christ. And what did\nyou reply? saith the tempted. Why, I granted the whole charge to\nbe true, says the other. And what, did you despair, or how? No,\nsaith he, I said, I am Magdalene, I am Zaccheus, I am the thief,\nI am the harlot, I am the publican, I am the prodigal, and one of\nChrist's murderers; yea, worse than any of these; and yet God was\nso far off from rejecting of me, as I found afterwards, that there\nwas music and dancing in his house for me, and for joy that I was\ncome home unto him. O blessed be God for grace (says the other),\nfor then I hope there is favour for me. Yea, as I told you, such\na one is a continual spectacle in the church, for every one by to\nbehold God's grace and wonder by.[84] These are the 'things the\nangels desire to look into' (1 Peter 1:12), or as Bunyan quaintly\nsays, this is the music which causes 'them that dwell in the higher\norbs to open their windows, put out their heads, and look down to\nsee the cause of that glory' (Lev 15:7,10).[85]\n\nAs he became less agitated with fear, and drew consolation more\nfrequently from the promises, with a timid hope of salvation, he\nbegan to exhibit singular powers of conception in spiritualizing\ntemporal things. His first essay was to find the hidden meaning\nin the division of God's creatures into clean and unclean. Chewing\nthe cud, and parting the hoof, he conceived to be emblematical of\nour feeding upon the Word of God, and parting, if we would be saved,\nwith the ways of ungodly men.[86] It is not sufficient to chew the\ncud like the hare--nor to part the hoof like the wine--we must do\nboth; that is, possess the word of faith, and that be evidenced\nby parting with our outward pollutions. This spiritual meaning of\npart of the Mosaic dispensation is admirably introduced into the\nPilgrim's Progress, when Christian and Faithful analyse the character\nof Talkative.[87] This is the germ of that singular talent which\nflourished in after-life, of exhibiting a spiritual meaning drawn\nfrom every part of the Mosaic dispensation, and which leads one of\nour most admired writers[88] to suggest, that if Bunyan had lived\nand written during the early days of Christianity, he would have\nbeen the greatest of the fathers.\n\nAlthough he had received that portion of comfort which enabled him\nto indulge in religious speculations, still his mind was unsettled,\nand full of fears. He now became alarmed lest he had not been\neffectually called to inherit the kingdom of heaven.[89] He felt\nstill more humbled at the weakness of human nature, and at the\npoverty of wealth. Could this call have been gotten for money, and\n'could I have given it; had I a whole world, it had all gone ten\nthousand times over for this.' In this he was sincere, and so he\nwas when he said, I would not lose one promise, or have it struck\nout of the Bible, if in return I could have as much gold as would\nreach from London to York, piled up to the heavens. In proportion\nto his soul's salvation, honour was a worthless phantom, and gold\nbut glittering dust. His earnest desire was to hear his Saviour's\nvoice calling him to his service. Like many young disciples, he\nregretted not having been born when Christ was manifest in the flesh.\n'Would I had been Peter or John!' their privations, sufferings,\nmartyrdom, was nothing in comparison to their being with, and hearing\nthe voice of the Son of God calling them to his service. Strange,\nbut general delusion! as if Christ were not the same yesterday, to\nday, and for ever. Groaning for a sense of pardon, he was comforted\nby Joel--'I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed,\nfor the Lord dwelleth in Zion' (Joel 3:21), and he was led to seek\nadvice and assistance from a neighbouring minister, and from pious\npersons.\n\nThe poor women in Bedford, whose conversation had been blessed to\nhis thorough awakening, were sought for, and to them he unfolded his\nsorrows. They were members of a Baptist church, under the pastoral\ncare of John Gifford, a godly, painstaking, and most intelligent\nminister, whose history is very remarkable. In early life he had\nbeen, like Bunyan, a thoroughly depraved character; like him had\nentered the army, and had been promoted to the rank of a major\nin the royal forces. Having made an abortive attempt to raise a\nrebellion in his native county of Kent,[90] he and eleven others were\nmade prisoners, tried by martial law, and condemned to the gallows.\nOn the night previous to the day appointed for his execution, his\nsister found access to the prison. The guards were asleep, and his\ncompanions drowned in intoxication. She embraced the favourable\nmoment, and set him at liberty. He lay concealed in a ditch for\nthree days, till the heat of the search was over, and in disguise\nescaped to London, and thence to Bedford, where, aided by some\ngreat people who favoured the royal cause, he commenced business\nas a doctor. Here his evil habits followed him, notwithstanding his\nmerciful deliverance. Swearing, drunkenness, gambling, and other\nimmoral practices, rendered him a curse to others, especially to\nthe Puritans, whom he bitterly persecuted. One night he lost fifteen\npounds at play, and, becoming outrageous, he cast angry reproaches\nupon God. In this state he took up a book by R. Bolton--he read,\nand his conscience was terror-stricken. Distress, under conviction\nof sin, followed him. He searched his Bible, and found pardon\nand acceptance. He now sought acquaintance with those whom before\nhe had persecuted, but, like Paul, when in similar circumstances,\n'they were all afraid of him.' His sincerity soon became apparent;\nand, uniting with eleven others, they formed a church. These men\nhad thrown off the fetters of education, and were, unbiased by any\nsectarian feeling, being guided solely by their prayerful researches\ninto divine truth as revealed in the Bible. Their whole object\nwas to enjoy Christian communion--to extend the reign of grace--to\nlive to the honour of Christ--and they formed a new, and at that time\nunheard-of, community. Water-baptism was to be left to individual\nconviction; they were to love each other equally, whether they\nadvocated baptism in infancy, or in riper years. The only thing\nessential to church-fellowship, in Mr. Gifford's opinion, was--'UNION\nWITH CHRIST; this is the foundation of all saints' communion, and\nnot any judgment about externals.' To the honour of the Baptists,\nthese peaceable principles appear to have commenced with two or\nthree of their ministers, and for the last two centuries they have\nbeen, like heavenly leaven, extending their delightful influence\nover all bodies of Christians.\n\nSuch was the man to whom Bunyan was introduced for religious\nadvice and consolation; and he assisted in forming those enlarged\nand nonsectarian principles which made his ministry blessed, and will\nrender his Works equally acceptable to all evangelical Christians\nin every age of the church. Introduced to such a minister, and\nattending social meetings for prayer and Christian converse, he felt\nstill more painfully his own ignorance, and the inward wretchedness\nof his own heart. 'His corruptions put themselves forth, and\nhis desires for heaven seemed to fail.' In fact, while he compared\nhimself with his former self, he was a religious giant; in comparison\nwith these pious, long-standing Christians, he dwindled into a\npigmy; and in the presence of Christ he became, in his own view,\nless than nothing, and vanity. He thus describes his feelings:--'I\nbegan to sink--my heart laid me low as hell. I was driven as with\na tempest--my heart would be unclean--the Canaanites would dwell\nin the land.'[91] He was like the child which the father brought\nto Christ, who, while he was coming to Him, was thrown down by the\ndevil, and so rent and torn that he lay and wallowed, foaming. His\nheart felt so hard, that with many a bitter sigh he cried, 'Good\nLord! break it open. Lord, break these gates of brass, and cut these\nbars of iron asunder' (Psa 107:16). Little did he then think that\nhis bitterness of spirit was a direct answer to such prayers.\nBreaking the heart was attended with anguish in proportion as it\nhad been hardened. During this time he was tender and sensitive\nas to the least sin; 'now I durst not take a pin or a stick, my\nconscience would smart at every touch.' 'O, how gingerly did I then\ngo in all I said or did!'[92] 'Still sin would as naturally bubble\nout of my heart as water would bubble out of a fountain.' He felt\nsurprised when he saw professors much troubled at their losses, even\nat the death of the dearest relative. His whole concern was for his\nsalvation. He imagined that he could bear these small afflictions\nwith patience; but 'a wounded spirit who can bear?'\n\nIn the midst of all these miseries, and at times regretting that he\nhad been endowed with an immortal spirit, liable to eternal ruin,\nhe was jealous of receiving comfort, lest it might be based upon\nany false foundation. Still as his only hope he was constant in\nhis attendance upon the means of grace, and 'when comforting time\nwas come,' he heard one preach upon two words of a verse, which\nconveyed strong consolation to his weary spirit; the words were, 'my\nlove' (Song 4:1). From these words the minister drew the following\nconclusions:--1. That the church, and so every saved soul, is Christ's\nlove, even when loveless; 2. Christ's love is without a cause; 3.\nThey are Christ's love when hated of the world; 4. Christ's love\nwhen under temptation and under desertion; 5. Christ's love from\nfirst to last.[93] Now was his heart filled with comfort and hope.\n'I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me'; and, in a\nstate of rapture, he thought that his trials were over, and that\nthe savour of it would go with him through life. Alas! his enjoyment\nwas but for a season--the preparation of his soul for future\nusefulness was not yet finished. In a short time the words of our\nLord to Peter came powerfully into his mind--'Satan hath desired\nto have you'; and so strong was the impression they made, that he\nthought some man addressed them to him; he even turned his head to\nsee who it was that thus spoke to him. This was the forerunner of\na cloud and a storm that was coming upon him. It was the gathering\nup of Satan's mighty strength, to have, if possible, overwhelmed\nhim. His narrative of this internal tempest in his soul--this last\ngreat struggle with the powers of darkness--is very striking.\n\n'About the space of a month after, a very great storm came down\nupon me, which handled me twenty times worse than all I had met\nwith before; it came stealing upon me, now by one piece, then by\nanother. First, all my comfort was taken from me; then darkness\nseized upon me; after which, whole floods of blasphemies, both\nagainst God, Christ, and the Scriptures, were poured upon my spirit,\nto my great confusion and astonishment. These blasphemous thoughts\nwere such as also stirred up questions in me against the very\nbeing of God, and of his only beloved Son. As, whether there were\nin truth a God or Christ, or no? And whether the Holy Scriptures\nwere not rather a fable, and cunning story, than the holy and pure\nWord of God.\n\n'These suggestions, with many others, which at this time I may not,\ndare not utter, neither by word nor pen, did make such a seizure upon\nmy spirit, and did so overweigh my heart, both with their number,\ncontinuance, and fiery force, that I felt as if there were nothing\nelse but these from morning to night within me, and as though indeed\nthere could be room for nothing else; and also concluded, that God\nhad, in very wrath to my soul, given me up unto them, to be carried\naway with them as with a mighty whirlwind.\n\n'Only by the distaste that they gave unto my spirit, I felt there\nwas something in me that refused to embrace them.'[94]\n\nHere are the facts which are allegorized in the history of\nChristian, passing through the Valley of Humiliation, and fighting\nwith the Prince of the power of the air. 'Then Apollyon, espying his\nopportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling\nwith him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's\nsword flew out of his hand.' This was the effect of his doubts of\nthe inspiration of the Scriptures--the sword of the Spirit. 'I am\nsure of thee now, said Apollyon; and with that he had almost pressed\nhim to death, so that Christian began to despair of life; but as\nGod would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow,\nChristian nimbly stretched out his hand for his sword, and caught\nit, saying, \"Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall I\nshall arise\" (Matt 7:8), and with that gave him a deadly thrust,\nwhich made him give back as one that had received his mortal wound.\nChristian perceiving that, made at him again, saying, \"Nay, in all\nthese things we are more than conquerors through him that loved\nus\"; and with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon wings, and sped\nhim away.'[95] What an awful moment, when he fell unarmed before\nhis ferocious enemy! 'Faith now has but little time to speak to\nthe conscience--it is now struggling for life--it is now fighting\nwith angels--with infernals--all it can do now is to cry, groan,\nsweat, fear, fight, and gasp for life.'[96] How desperate the\nconflict--the mouth of hell yawning to swallow him--man cannot aid\nthe poor warrior, all his help is in God. Is it not a wonder to see\na poor creature, who in himself is weaker than the moth, to stand\nagainst and overcome all devils--all the world--all his lusts and\ncorruptions; or, if he fall, is it not a wonder to see him, when\ndevils and guilt are upon him, to rise again, stand upon his legs,\nwalk with God again, and persevere in faith and holiness?[97]\n\nThis severe conflict lasted for about a year. He describes his\nfeelings at times as resembling the frightful pangs of one broken\non the wheel. The sources of his misery were fears that he had sinned\nagainst the Holy Ghost; and that through his hardness of heart and\nimpatience in prayer--he should not persevere to the end. During\nall this time, occasional visits of mercy kept him from despair;\nand at some intervals filled him with transports of joy. At one\ntime so delightfully was his burden removed that he could not tell\nhow to contain himself. 'I thought I could have spoken of his love\nand of his mercy to me, even to the very crows that sat upon the\nploughed lands before me, had they been capable to have understood\nme.'[98] Thus his feelings were controlled by reason, very different\nto the poor madman who, in olden time, is represented as preaching\nto the fish. With Bunyan it was a hallowed joy--a gush of holy\ngladness, in which he wished all creation to participate. his heart\nwas baptized in hope. 'I know that my Redeemer liveth'; and with\nholy Job, he wished to perpetuate his joy by a memorial not in\nrock, but in a book of resemblance. 'I would I had a pen and ink\nhere to write it down.' This is the first desire that he expressed\nto proclaim or publish to others the great Saviour he had found:\nbut he was not yet prepared; he must pass through deeper depths,\nand possess a living knowledge of Divine truth, burnt into his soul\nby satanic fires.\n\nVery soon after this, he was harassed with fear lest he should part\nwith Christ. The tempter, as he did with Christian in the Valley of\nthe Shadow of Death, suggested blasphemies to him, which he thought\nhad proceeded from his own mind. 'Satan troubled him with his\nstinking breath. How many strange, hideous, and amazing blasphemies\nhave some that are coming to Christ had injected upon their spirits\nagainst him.'[99] 'The devil is indeed very busy at work during\nthe darkness of a soul. He throws in his fiery darts to amazement,\nwhen we are encompassed with the terrors of a dismal night; he is\nbold and undaunted in his assaults, and injects with a quick and\nsudden malice a thousand monstrous and abominable thoughts of God,\nwhich seem to be the motions of our own minds, and terribly grieve\nand trouble us.'[100]\n\nWhat makes those arrows more penetrating and distressing is, that\nSatan, with subtle art, tips them with sentences of Scripture. 'No\nplace for repentance'; 'rejected'; 'hath never forgiveness,' and\nother passages which, by the malignant ingenuity of the fiend, are\nformed by his skill as the cutting and barbed points of his shafts.\nAt one time Bunyan concluded that he was possessed of the devil;\nthen he was tempted to speak and sin against the Holy Ghost. He\nthought himself alone in such a tempest, and that no one had ever\nfelt such misery as he did. When in prayer, his mind was distracted\nwith the thought that Satan was pulling his clothes; he was even\ntempted to fall down and worship him. Then he would cry after God,\nin awful fear that eventually Satan would overcome him. During all\nthis time he was struggling against the tempter; and, at length,\nthe dayspring visited him in these words, 'I am persuaded that\nnothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.'\nAgain he was cast down with a recollection of his former blasphemies.\nWhat reason can I have to hope for an inheritance in eternal life?\nThe questions was answered with that portion of Scripture, 'If God\nbe for us, who can be against us?' These were visits which, like\nPeter's sheet, of a sudden were caught up to heaven again.[101]\nAt length the Sun of Righteousness arose, and shone upon him with\nhealing influence. 'He hath made peace through the blood of his\ncross,' came with power to his mind, followed by the consoling words\nof the apostle, 'Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of\nflesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;\nthat through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,\nthat is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were\nall their lifetime subject to bondage' (Heb 2:14,15). This was the\nkey that opened every lock in Doubting Castle. The prisoner escaped\nto breathe the air of hope, and joy, and peace. 'This,' said he,\n'was a good day to me, I hope I shall not forget it.' 'I thought\nthat the glory of those words was then so weighty on me, that I\nwas, both once and twice, ready to swoon as I sat, not with grief\nand trouble, but with solid joy and peace.'\n\nHis mind was now in a fit state to seek for church fellowship, as a\nfurther means of advance in his knowledge of Divine love. To effect\nthis object, he was naturally led to the Baptist church at Bedford,\nto which those pious women belonged whose Christian communion had\nbeen blessed to him. I sat under the ministry of holy Mr. Gifford,\nwhose doctrine, by God's grace, was much for my stability.[102]\nAlthough his soul was led from truth to truth, his trials were not\nover--he passed through many severe exercises before he was received\ninto communion with the church.[103]\n\nAt length he determined to become identified with a body of\nprofessed Christians, who were treated with great scorn by other\nsects because they denied infant baptism, and he became engaged in\nthe religious controversies which were fashionable in those days.\nWe have noticed his encounter with the Ranters, and he soon had\nto give battle to persons called Quakers. Before the Society of\nFriends was formed, and their rules of discipline were published,\nmany Ranters and others, some of whom were bad characters and held\nthe wildest opinions, passed under the name of Quakers. Some of\nthese denied that the Bible was the Word of God; and asserted that\nthe death of Christ was not a full atonement for sin--that there\nis no future resurrection, and other gross errors. The Quakers,\nwho were afterwards united to form the Society of Friends, from the\nfirst denied all those errors. Their earliest apologist, Barclay,\nin his theses on the Scriptures, says, 'They are the doctrines of\nChrist, held forth in precious declarations, spoken and written\nby the movings of God's Spirit.' Whoever it was that asserted the\nheresies, to Bunyan the investigation of them, in the light of Divine\ntruth, was attended with great advantages. It was through 'this\nnarrow search of the Scriptures that he was not only enlightened,\nbut greatly confirmed and comforted in the truth.'[104]\n\nHe longed to compare his experience with that of some old and eminent\nconvert, and 'God did cast into his hand' Luther On the Galatians,\n'so old that it was ready to fall piece from piece, if I did but\nturn it over.'[105] The commentary of this enlightened man was\na counterpart to his own feelings. 'I found,' says Bunyan, 'my\ncondition, in his experience so largely and profoundly handled,\nas if his book had been written out of my own heart. I prefer the\nbook before all others as most fit for a wounded conscience.' This\nwas the 'voice of a man' that Christian 'heard as going before him\nin the Valley of the Shadow of Death,' and was glad that some who\nfeared God were in this valley as well as himself, who could say,\n'I will fear no evil for thou art with me.'[106] In many things\nLuther and Bunyan were men of similar temperament. Like Emmanuel's\ncaptains, in the Holy War, they were 'very stout rough-hewn men;\nmen that were fit to break the ice, and to make their way by dint\nof sword.'[107] They were animated by the same principles, and\nfought with the same weapons; and although Luther resided in a castle\nprotected by princes, was furnished with profound scholastic learning,\nand became a terror to Popery; yet the voice of the unlettered\ntinker, issuing from a dreary prison, bids fair to be far more\nextensively heard and blessed than that of this most illustrious\nreformer.[108]\n\nBunyan's happiness was now very great; his soul, with all its\naffections, clave unto Christ: but lest spiritual pride should\nexalt him beyond measure, and lest he should be scared to renounce\nhis Saviour, by the threat of transportation and death, his heart\nwas again wounded, and quickly after this his 'love was tried to\npurpose.'\n\nThe tempter came in upon him with a most grievous and dreadful\ntemptation; it was to part with Christ, to exchange him for the\nthings of this life; he was perpetually tormented with the words\n'sell Christ.' At length, he thought that his spirit gave way\nto the temptation, and a dreadful and profound state of despair\noverpowered him for the dreary space of more than two years.[109]\nThis is the most extraordinary part of this wonderful narrative, that\nhe, without apparent cause, should thus be tempted, and feel the\nbitterness of a supposed parting with Christ. There was, doubtless,\na cause for every pang; his heavenly Father afflicted him for\nhis profit. We shall soon have to follow him through fiery trials.\nBefore the justices, allured by their arguments, and particularly by\nthe sophistry of their clerk, Mr. Cobb, and then dragged from a\nbeloved wife and from children to whom he was most fondly attached--all\nthese fiery trials might be avoided, if he would but 'sell Christ.'\nA cold damp dungeon was to incarcerate his body for twelve tedious\nyears of the prime of his life, unless he would 'sell Christ.' His\nministering brother and friend, John Child, a Bedford man, who had\njoined in recommending Bunyan's Vindication of Gospel Truths,[110]\nfell under this temptation, and fearing temporal ruin and imprisonment\nfor life, conformed, and then fell into the most awful state of\ndespair, suffering such agonies of conscience, that, to get rid of\npresent trouble, he hurried himself into eternity. Probably Bunyan\nalludes to this awful instance of fell despair in his Publican\nand Pharisee: 'Sin, when appearing in its monstrous shape and hue,\nfrighteth all mortals out of their wits, away from God; and if he\nstops them not, also out of the world.'[111] To arm Bunyan against\nbeing overcome by a fear of the lions in the way to the house\nBeautiful--against giving way, under persecution--he was visited\nwith terrors lest he should sell or part with Christ. During these\nsad years he was not wholly sunk in despair, but had at times some\nglimmerings of mercy. In comparing his supposed sin with that of\nJudas, he was constrained to find a difference between a deliberate\nintention to sell Christ and a sudden temptation.[112] Through\nall these searchings of heart and inquiries at the Word, he became\nfixed in the doctrine of the final perseverance of God's saints. 'O\nwhat love, what care, what kindness and mercy did I now see mixing\nitself with the most severe and dreadful of all God's ways to his\npeople; he never let them fall into sin unpardonable.' 'But these\nthoughts added grief and horror to me; I thought that all things\nwrought for my eternal overthrow.' So ready is the tender heart to\nwrite bitter things against itself, and as ready is the tempter to\nwhisper despairing thoughts. In the midst of this distress he 'saw\na glory in walking with God,' although a dismal cloud enveloped\nhim.\n\nThis misery was aggravated by reading the fearful estate of Francis\nSpira, who had been persuaded to return to a profession of Popery,\nand died in a state of awful despair.[113] 'This book' was to his\ntroubled spirit like salt rubbed into a fresh wound.\n\nBunyan now felt his body and mind shaking and tottering under the\nsense of the dreadful judgment of God; and he thought his sin--of\na momentary and unwilling consent to give up Christ--was a greater\nsin than all the sins of David, Solomon, Manasseh, and even than\nall the sins that had been committed by all God's redeemed ones.\nWas there ever a man in the world so capable of describing the\nmiseries of Doubting Castle, or of the Slough of Despond, as poor\nJohn Bunyan?\n\nHe would have run from God in utter desperation; 'but, blessed\nbe his grace, that Scripture, in these flying sins, would call,\nas running after me, \"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy\ntransgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me, for I have\nredeemed thee\"' (Isa 44:22).Still he was haunted by that scripture,\n'You know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the\nblessing, he found no place of repentance, though he sought it\ncarefully with tears.' Thus was he tossed and buffeted, involved in\ncloudy darkness, with now and then a faint gleam of hope to save\nhim from despair. 'In all these,' he says, 'I was but as those\nthat justle against the rocks; more broken, scattered, and rent.\nOh! the unthought of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, that\nare effected by a thorough application of guilt.'[114] 'Methought\nI saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did grudge to give\nlight, and as if the very stones in the street, and tiles upon the\nhouses, did bend themselves against me.'[115] Here we find him in\nthat doleful valley, where Christian was surrounded by enemies that\n'cared not for his sword,' he put it up, and places his dependence\nupon the more penetrating weapon, 'All Prayer.' Depending upon\nthis last resource, he prayed, even when in this great darkness\nand distress. To whom could he go? his case was beyond the power\nof men or angels. His refuge, from a fear of having committed the\nunpardonable sin, was that he had never refused to be justified by\nthe blood of Christ, but ardently wished it; this, in the midst of\nthe storm, caused a temporary clam. At length, he was led to look\nprayerfully upon those scriptures that had tormented him, and to\nexamine their scope and tendency, and then he 'found their visage\nchanged, for they looked not so grimly on him as before he thought\nthey did.'[116] Still, after such a tempest, the sea did not at\nonce become a calm. Like one that had been scared with fire, every\nvoice was fire, fire; every little touch hurt his tender conscience.[117]\n\nAll this instructive history is pictured by a few words in the\nPilgrim's Progress. At the Interpreter's house the pilgrim is shown\n'a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always\ncasting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn\nhigher and hotter.'[118] As Esau beat him down, Christ raised him\nagain. The threatening and the promise were like glittering swords\nclashing together, but the promise must prevail.\n\nHis entire relief at last was sudden, while meditating in the field\nupon the words, 'Thy righteousness is in heaven.' Hence he drew the\nconclusion, that his righteousness was in Christ, at God's right\nhand, ever before him, secure from all the powers of sin and\nSatan. Now his chains fell off; he was loosed from his affliction\nand irons; his temptation fled away. His present supply of grace\nhe compared to the cracked groats and fourpence half-pennies,[119]\nwhich rich men carry in their pockets, while their treasure is safe\nin their trunks at home, as his was in the store-house of heaven.\n\nThis dreary night of awful conflict lasted more than two years; but\nwhen the day-spring from on high visited him, the promises spangled\nin his eyes, and he broke out into a song, 'Praise ye the Lord.\nPraise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his\npower. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his\nexcellent greatness.'[120]\n\nBunyan's opinion as to the cause of this bitter suffering, was his\nwant of watchfulness, his not coming boldly to the throne of grace,\nand that he had tempted God. The advantages he considered that\nhe had gained by it were, that it confirmed his knowledge of the\nexistence of God, so that he lost all his temptations to unbelief,\nblasphemy, and hardness of heart, Doubts as to the truth of the\nWord, and certainty of the world to come, were gone for ever.\n\nHe found no difficulty as to the keys of the kingdom of heaven.\n'Now I saw the apostles to be the elders of the city of refuge,\nthose that they were to receive in, were received to life, but\nthose that they were to shut out, were to be slain by the avenger\nof blood.' Those were to enter who, with Peter, confessed to Jesus,\n'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Matt 16:16).\nThis is simply an authority to proclaim salvation or condemnation\nto those who receive or reject the Saviour. It is upon his shoulder\nthe key of the house is laid (Isa 22:22). Christ only has the key,\nno MAN openeth or shutteth (Rev 1:18, 3:7). All that man can do,\nas to binding or loosening, is to warn the hardened and to invite\nthe contrite.\n\nBy these trials, the promises, became more clear and invaluable\nthan ever. He never saw those heights and depths in grace, and\nlove, and mercy, as he saw them after this severe trial--'great\nsins drew out great grace'; and the more terrible and fierce guilt\nwas, the more high and mighty did the mercy of God in Christ appear.\nThese are Bunyan's own reflections; but may we not add to them, that\nwhile he was in God's school of trial, every groan, every bitter\npang of anguish, and every gleam of hope, were intended to fit him\nfor his future work as a preacher and writer? Weighed in the balances\nof the sanctuary, there was not a jot too little, or an iota too\nmuch. Every important subject which embarrasses the convert, was\nmost minutely investigated, especially faith, the sin against the\nHoly Ghost, the divinity of Christ, and such essential truths. He\nwell knew every dirty lane, and nook, and corner of Mansoul, in\nwhich the Diabolonians found shelter, and well he knew the frightful\nsound of Diabolus' drum.[121] Well did his pastor, John Burton,\nsay of him, 'He hath through grace taken these three heavenly\ndegrees, to wit, union with Christ, the anointing of the Spirit,\nand experience of the temptations of Satan, which do more fit\na man for that mighty work of preaching the gospel, than all the\nuniversity learning and degrees that can be had.'[122]\n\nPreserved in Christ Jesus, and called--selected from his associates\nin sin, he was taken into this school, and underwent the strictest\nreligious education. It was here alone that his rare talent could\nbe cultivated, to enable him, in two immortal allegories, to narrate\nthe internal discipline he underwent. It was here he attained\nthat habitual access to the throne of grace, and that insight into\nthe inspired volume, which filled his writings with those solemn\nrealities of the world to come; while it enabled him to reveal\nthe mysteries of communion with the Father of spirits, as he so\nwondrously does in his treatise on prayer. To use the language of\nMilton--'These are works that could not be composed by the invocation\nof Dame Memory and her Siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that\neternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge,\nand send out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar,\nto touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases, without reference\nto station, birth, or education.' The tent-maker and tinker, the\nfisherman and publican, and even a friar or monk,[123] became the\nhonoured instruments of his choice.\n\nThroughout all Bunyan's writings, he never murmurs at his want\nof education, although it is often a source of humble apology. He\nhonoured the learned godly as Christians, but preferred the Bible\nbefore the library of the two universities.[124] He saw, what every\npious man must see and lament, that there is much idolatry in human\nlearning, and that it was frequently applied to confuse and impede\nthe gospel. Thus he addresses the reader of his treatise on The Law\nand Grace--'If thou find this book empty of fantastical expressions,\nand without light, vain, whimsical, scholar-like terms, it is because\nI never went to school, to Aristotle or Plato, but was brought up\nat my father's house, in a very mean condition, among a company of\npoor countrymen. But if thou do find a parcel of plain, yet sound,\ntrue, and home sayings, attribute that to the Lord Jesus his gifts\nand abilities, which he hath bestowed upon such a poor creature as\nI am and have been.'[125] His maxim was--'Words easy to be understood\ndo often hit the mark, when high and learned ones do only pierce\nthe air. He also that speaks to the weakest may make the learned\nunderstand him; when he that striveth to be high, is not only\nof the most part understood but of a sort, but also many times is\nneither understood by them nor by himself!'[126] This is one of\nBunyan's maxims, well worthy the consideration of the most profoundly\nlearned writers, and also of the most eloquent preachers and public\nspeakers.\n\nBunyan was one of those pioneers who are far in advance of the age\nin which they live, and the narrative of his birth and education\nadds to the innumerable contradictions which the history of man\nopposes to the system of Mr. Owen and the Socialists, and to every\nscheme for making the offspring of the poor follow in leading-strings\nthe course of their parents, or for rendering them blindly submissive\nto the dictates of the rich, the learned, or the influential. It\nincontestably proves the gospel doctrine of individuality, and,\nthat native talent will rise superior to all impediments. Our\nforefathers struggled for the right of private judgment in matters\nof faith and worship--their descendants will insist upon it,\nas essential to salvation, personally to examine every doctrine\nrelative to the sacred objects of religion, limited only by Holy\nWrit. This must be done with rigorous impartiality, throwing aside\nall the prejudices of education, and be followed by prompt obedience\nto Divine truth, at any risk of offending parents, or laws, or\nresisting institutions, or ceremonies which he discovers to be of\nhuman invention. All this, as we have seen in Bunyan, was attended\nwith great mental sufferings, with painstaking labour, with a\nsimple reliance upon the Word of God, and with earnest prayer. If\nman impiously dares to submit his conscience to his fellow-man,\nor to any body of men called a church, what perplexity must he\nexperience ere he can make up his mind which to choose! Instead of\nrelying upon the ONE standard which God has given him in his Word;\nshould he build his hope upon a human system he could be certain only\nthat man is fallible and subject to err. How striking an instance\nhave we, in our day, of the result of education, when the mind does\nnot implicitly follow the guidance of the revealed Word of God.\nTwo brothers, named Newman, educated at the same school, trained in\nthe same university, brought up under the same religious system--all\nhuman arts exhausted to mould their minds into strict uniformity,\nyet gradually receding from the same point in opposite directions,\nbut in equally downward roads; one to embrace the most puerile\nlegends of the middle ages, the other to open infidelity. Not so\nwith those who follow the teachings of the Word of God, by which,\nand not by any church, they are to be individually judged at the great\nday: no pontiff, no priest, no minister, can intervene or mediate\nfor them at the bar of God. There it will be said, 'I know you, by\nyour prayers for Divine guidance and your submission to my revealed\nwill'; or, 'I know you not,' for you preferred the guidance of\nfrail, fallible men, to me, and to my Word--a solemn consideration,\nwhich, as it proved a source of solid happiness and extensive\nusefulness to Bunyan in his pilgrimage, so it insured to him, as\nit will to all who follow his course, a solid foundation on which\nto stand at the great and terrible day, and thus enable them to\nlive as well as die in the sure and certain hope of a triumphant\nentry into the celestial city.\n\nTHE THIRD PERIOD.\n\nBUNYAN IS BAPTIZED, AND ENTERS INTO COMMUNION WITH A CHRISTIAN\nCHURCH AT BEDFORD--IS SET APART TO FILL THE DEACON'S OFFICE, AND\nSENT OUT AS AN ITINERANT PREACHER IN THE NEIGHBOURING VILLAGES.\n\nMan is naturally led to seek the society of his fellow-men.\nHis personal progress, and the great interests of civilization,\ndepend upon the nature of his friendly intercourse and his proper\nassociations. So is it with the Christian, but in a much higher\ndegree. Not only does he require companions with whom he can enjoy\nChristian communion--of sufferings and of pleasures--in seasons of\ndepressing trials, and in holy elevations--but with whom he may also\nform plans to spread the genial influence of Christianity, which\nhas blessed and so boundlessly enriched his own soul. Christian\nfellowship and communion has received the broad seal of heaven.\n'The Lord hearkened,' when they that feared him spake often to one\nanother, 'and a book of remembrance was written before him for them\nthat feared the Lord' (Mal 3:16).\n\nBunyan possessed a soul with faculties capable of the highest\nenjoyment of the communion of saints in church order. His ideas of\nmutual forbearance--that 'in lowliness of mind should each esteem\nothers better than themselves'--he enforces with very peculiar\npower, and, at the same time, with delicate sensibility. After the\npilgrims had been washed by Innocence in the Interpreter's bath,\nhe sealed them, which 'greatly added to their beauty,' and then\narrayed them in white raiment of fine linen; and 'when the women\nwere thus adorned, they seemed to be a terror one to the other, for\nthat they could not see that glory each one on herself which they\ncould see in each other. Now, therefore, they began to esteem\neach other better than themselves.'[127] 'The Interpreter led them\ninto his garden, where was great variety of flowers. Then said he,\nBehold, the flowers are diverse in stature, in quality and colour,\nand smell and virtue, and some are better than some; also, where the\ngardener hath set them, there they stand, and quarrel not with one\nanother.'[128] 'When Christians stand every one in their places,\nand do their relative work, then they are like the flowers in the\ngarden that grow where the gardener hath planted them, and both\nhonour the gardener and the garden in which they are planted.'[129]\nIn the same treatise on Christian Behaviour, similar sentiments\nare expressed in language extremely striking and beautiful. 'The\ndoctrine of the gospel is like the dew and the small rain that\ndistilleth upon the tender grass, wherewith it doth flourish and\nis kept green (Deut 32:2).Christians are like the several flowers\nin a garden that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which,\nbeing shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other's\nroots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers\nof one another. For Christians to commune savourly of God's matters\none with another, it is as if they opened to each other's nostrils\nboxes of perfume.'[130] Similar peaceful, heavenly principles, flow\nthrough Bunyan's Discourse of the Building, &c., of the House of\nGod and its inmates;[131] and blessed would it be if in all our\nchurches every believer was baptized into such motives of forbearance\nand brotherly love. These sentiments do honour to the head and heart\nof the prince of allegorists, and should be presented in letters\nof gold to every candidate for church fellowship. A young man\nentertaining such opinions as these, however rude his former conduct,\nbeing born again to spiritual enjoyments, would become a treasure\nto the Christian society with which he might be connected.\n\nIn ordinary cases, the minister or people who have been useful to\na young convert, lead him in his first choice of Christian associates;\nbut here we have no ordinary man. Bunyan, in all things pertaining\nto religion, followed no human authority, but submitted himself to\nthe guidance of the inspired volume. Possessing a humble hope of\nsalvation, he would read with deep interest that 'the Lord added\nto the church such as should be saved.' The question which has so\nmuch puzzled the learned, as to a church or the church, would be\nsolved without difficulty by one who was as learned in the Scriptures\nas he was ignorant of the subtle distinctions and niceties of the\nschools. He found that there was one church at Jerusalem (Acts\n8:1), another at Corinth (1 Cor 1:2), seven in Asia (Rev 1:4),\nand others distributed over the world; that 'the visible church of\nChrist is a (or every) congregation of faithful men.'[132] He well\nknew that uniformity is a fool's paradise; that though man was\nmade in the image of God; it derogates not from the beauty of that\nimage that no two men are alike. The stars show forth God's handy\nwork, yet 'one star different from another star in glory' (1 Cor\n15:41). Uniformity is opposed to every law of nature, for no two\nleaves upon a majestic tree are alike. Who but an idiot or a maniac\nwould attempt to reduce the mental powers of all men to uniformity?\nEvery church may have its own order of public worship while the\nScriptures form the standard of truth and morals. Where differences\nof opinion occur, as they most certainly will, as to the observance\nof days or abstinence from meats--whether to stand, or sit, or\nkneel, in prayer--whether to stand while listening to some pages\nof the inspired volume, and to sit while others are publicly\nread--whether to call Jude a saint, and refuse the title to Isaiah--are\nquestions which should bring into active exercise all the graces of\nChristian charity; and, in obedience to the apostolic injunction,\nthey must agree to differ. 'Let every man be fully persuaded in\nhis own mind' (Rom 14:5). Human arts have been exhausted to prevent\nthat mental exercise or self-persuasion which is essential to a\nChristian profession. The great object of Satan has ever been to\nfoster indifference, that deadly lethargy, by leading man to any\nsource of information rather than prayerful researches into the\nBible. Bunyan's severe discipline in Christ's school would lead\nhim to form a judgment for himself; he was surrounded by a host\nof sects, and, with such a Bible-loving man, it is an interesting\ninquiry what party he would join.\n\nHe lived in times of extraordinary excitement. England was in a\ntransition state. A long chain of events brought on a crisis which\ninvolved the kingdom in tribulation. It was the struggle between\nthe unbridled despotism of Epsicopacy, and the sturdy liberty of\nPuritanism. For although the immediate cause of the civil wars was\ngross misgovernment--arbitrary taxation without the intervention\nof Parliament, monopolies and patents, to the ruin of trade; in\nfact, every abuse of the royal power--still, without the additional\nspur of religious persecution, the spirit of the people would never\nhave proved invincible and overpowering. The efforts of Archbishop\nLaud, aided by the queen and her popish confessor, Panzani, to\nsubjugate Britain to the galling yoke of Rome, signally failed,\ninvolving in the ruin the life of the king and his archbishop, and\nall the desolating calamities of intestine wars, strangely called\n'civil.' In this strife many of the clergy and most of the bishops\ntook a very active part, aiding and abetting the king's party in their\nwar against the parliament--and they thus brought upon themselves\ngreat pains and penalties. The people became suddenly released\nfrom mental bondage; and if the man who had been born blind, when\nhe first received the blessing of sight, 'saw men as trees walking,'\nwe cannot be surprised that religious speculations were indulged in,\nsome of which proved to be crude and wild, requiring much vigorous\npersuasive pruning before they produced good fruit. Bunyan was\nsurrounded by all these parties; for although the rights of conscience\nwere not recognized--the Papists and Episcopalians, the Baptists\nand Unitarians, with the Jews, being proscribed--yet the hand of\npersecution was comparatively light. Had Bunyan chosen to associate\nwith the Episcopalians, he would not have passed through those\nsevere sufferings on which are founded his lasting honours. The\nPresbyterians and Independents received the patronage of the state\nunder the Commonwealth, and the great mass of the clergy conformed to\nthe directory, many of them reciting the prayers they had formerly\nread; while a considerable number, whose conscience could not\nsubmit to the system then enforced by law, did, to their honour,\nresign their livings, and suffer the privations and odium of being\nDissenters. Among these were necessarily included the bishops.[133]\n\nOf all sects that of the Baptists had been the most bitterly\nwritten against and persecuted. Even their first cousins, the\nQuakers, attacked them in language that would, in our peaceful days,\nbe considered outrageous. 'The Baptists used to meet in garrets,\ncheese-lofts, coal-holes, and such like mice walks,'--'theses\ntumultuous, blood-thirsty, covenant-breaking, government-destroying\nAnabaptists.'[134] The offence that called forth these epithets\nwas, that in addressing Charles II on his restoration, they stated\nthat \"they were no abettors of the Quakers.\" Had royal authority\npossessed the slightest influence over Bunyan's religious opinions,\nthe question as to his joining the Baptists would have been settled\nwithout investigation. Among other infatuations of Charles I, had\nbeen his hatred of any sect that professed the right and duty of\nman to think for himself in choosing his way to heaven. In 1639\nhe published his 'Declaration concerning the tumults in Scotland,'\nwhen violence was resorted to against the introduction of the Common\nPrayer in which he denounced voluntary obedience because it was not\nof constraint, and called it 'damnable'; he calls the principles\nof the Anabaptists, in not submitting their consciences to human\nlaws, 'furious frenzies,' and 'madness'; all Protestants are 'to\ndetest and persecute them'; 'these Anabaptists raged most in their\nmadness'; 'the scandal of their frenzies'; 'we are amazed at, and\naggrieved at their horrible impudence'; 'we do abhor and detest\nthem all as rebellious and treasonable.'[135] This whole volume\nis amusingly assuming. The king claims his subjects as personal\nchattels, with whose bodies and minds he had a right to do as he\npleased. Bunyan owed no spiritual submission to man, 'whose breath\nis in his nostrils'; and risking all hazards, he became one of the\ndenounced and despised sect of Baptists. To use the language of his\npilgrim, he passed the lions, braving all the dangers of an open\nprofession of faith in Christ, and entered the house called Beautiful,\nwhich 'was built by the Lord of the hill, on purpose to entertain\nsuch pilgrims in.'[136] He first gains permission of the watchman,\nor minister, and then of the inmates, or church members. This\ninteresting event is said to have taken place about the year\n1653.[137] Mr. Doe, in The Struggler, thus refers to it, Bunyan\n'took all advantages to ripen his understanding in religion, and\nso he lit on the dissenting congregation of Christians at Bedford,\nand was, upon confession of faith, baptized about the year 1653,'[138]\nwhen he was in the twenty-fifth year of his age. No minutes of the\nproceedings of this church, prior to the death of Mr. Gifford in\n1656,[139] are extant, or they would identify the exact period when\nBunyan's baptism and admission to the church took place. The spot\nwhere he was baptized is a creek by the river Ouse, at the end\nof Duck Mill Lane. It is a natural baptistery, a proper width and\ndepth of water constantly fresh; pleasantly situated; sheltered\nfrom the public highway near the High Street. The Lord's Supper was\ncelebrated in a large room in which the disciples met, the worship\nconsecrating the place.[140]\n\nReligious feelings and conduct have at all times a tendency to\npromote the comfort, and elevate the character of the poor. How\noften have we seen them thus blessed; the ragged family comfortably\nclothed, the hungry fed, and the inmates of a dirty miserable cottage\nor hovel become a pattern of cleanly happiness. One of Bunyan's\nbiographers, who was an eye-witness, bears this testimony. 'By this\ntime his family was increased, and as that increased God increased\nhis stores, so that he lived now in great credit among his neighbours.'\nHe soon became a respectable member of civil as well as religious\nsociety; for, by the time that he joined the church, his Christian\ncharacter was so fully established, that, notwithstanding the meanness\nof his origin and employment, he was considered worthy of uniting\nin a memorial to the Lord Protector. It was to recommend two\ngentlemen to form part of the council, after Cromwell had dissolved\nthe Long Parliament. It is a curious document, very little known,\nand illustrative of the peculiar style of these eventful times.\n\nLetter from the people of Bedfordshire to the Lord Generall Cromwell,\nand the Councell of the army.\n\nMay 13th, 1653.\n\nMay it please your Lordship, and the rest of the council of the\narmy. We (we trust) servants of Jesus Christ, inhabitants in the\ncounty of Bedford, haveing fresh upon our hearts the sadde oppressions\nwe have (a long while) groan'd under from the late parlayment, and\nnow eyeing and owning (through grace) the good hand of God in this\ngreat turne of providence, being persuaded that it is from the Lord\nthat you should be instrument in his hand at such a time as this,\nfor the electing of such persons whoe may goe in and out before his\npeople in righteousnesse, and governe these nations in judgment,\nwe having sought the Lord for yow, and hopeing that God will still\ndoe greate things by yow, understanding that it is in your hearte\nthrough the Lord's assistance, to establish an authority consisting\nof men able, loveing truth, feareing God, and hateing covetouseness;\nand we having had some experience of men with us, we have judged\nit our duty to God, to yow, and to the rest of his people, humbly\nto present two men, viz., Nathaniell Taylor, and John Croke, now\nJustices of Peace in our County, whom we judge in the Lord qualified\nto manage a trust in the ensuing government. All which we humbly\nreferre to your serious considerations, and subscribe our names\nthis 13th day of May, 1653--\n\nJohn Eston, Clement Berridge, Isaac Freeman, John Grewe, John\nBunyan, William Dell, John Gifford, William Baker, junr., William\nWheelar, Ja. Rush, Anth. Harrington, John Gibbs, Tho. Varrse,\nRichard Spensley, John Donne, Michael Cooke, Edward Covinson, Tho.\nGibbs, John Ramsay, John Hogge, Edward White, Robert English, John\nJeffard, John Browne, John Edridge, John Ivory, John White, George\nGee, Daniell Groome, Charles Peirse, Ambrose Gregory, Luke Parratt,\nThomas Cooke, William Page, Thomas Knott, Thomas Honnor. These to\nthe Lord Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the councell of the\narmy, present.[141]\n\nBunyan's daughter Elizabeth was born at Elstow, April 14, 1654, and\na singular proof of his having changed his principles on baptism\nappears in the church register. His daughter Mary was baptized\nin 1650, but his Elizabeth in 1654 is registered as born, but no\nmention is made of baptism.\n\nThe poor harassed pilgrim having been admitted into communion with\na Christian church, enjoyed fully, for a short season, his new\nprivileges. He thus expresses his feelings:--'After I had propounded\nto the church that my desire was to walk in the order and ordinances\nof Christ with them, and was also admitted by them: while I thought\nof that blessed ordinance of Christ, which was his last supper\nwith his disciples before his death, that scriptures, \"this do in\nremembrance of me,\" was made a very precious word unto me; for by\nit the Lord came down upon my conscience with the discovery of his\ndeath for my sins: and as I then felt, did as if he plunged me in\nthe virtue of the same.'[142]\n\nIn this language we have an expression which furnishes a good\nsample of his energetic feelings. He had been immersed in water at\nhis baptism, and doubtless believed it to be a figure of his death\nto sin and resurrection to holiness; and when he sat at the Lord's\ntable he felt that he was baptized into the virtue of his Lord's\ndeath; he is plunged into it, and feels the holy influence covering\nhis soul with all its powers.\n\nHis pastor, John Gifford, was a remarkably pious and sensible man,\nexactly fitted to assist in maturing the mind of his young member.\nBunyan had, for a considerable time, sat under his ministry, and\nhad cultivated acquaintance with the members of his church; and so\nprayerfully had he made up his mind as to this important choice of\na church, with which he might enter into fellowship, that, although\ntempted by the most alluring prospects of greater usefulness,\npopularity, and emolument, he continued his church fellowship with\nthese poor people through persecution and distress, imprisonment\nand the threats of transportation, or an ignominious death, until\nhe crossed the river 'which has no bridge,' and ascended to the\ncelestial city, a period of nearly forty years. Of the labours of\nhis first pastor, John Gifford, but little is known, except that\nhe founded the church of Christ at Bedford, probably the first, in\nmodern times, which allowed to every individual freedom of judgment\nas to water baptism; receiving all those who decidedly appeared\nto have put on Christ, and had been received by him; but avoiding,\nwith godly jealousy, any mixture of the world with the church. Mr.\nGifford's race was short, consistent, and successful. Bunyan calls\nhim by an appellation, very probably common in his neighbourhood\nand among his flock, 'holy Mr. Gifford';[143] a title infinitely\nsuperior to all the honours of nobility, or of royalty. He was\na miracle of mercy and grace, for a very few years before he had\nborne the character of an impure and licentious man--an open enemy\nto the saints of God. His pastoral letter, left upon record in the\nchurch-book, written when drawing near the end of his pilgrimage,\nis most admirable; it contains an allusion to his successors, Burton\nor Bunyan, and must have had a tendency in forming their views of\na gospel church. Even Mr. Southey praises this puritanic epistle\nas exemplifying 'a wise and tolerant and truly Christian spirit':\nand as it has not been published in any life of Bunyan, I venture\nto introduce it without abridgement:--\n\nTo the Church over which God made me an overseer when I was in the\nworld.\n\nI beseech you, brethren beloved, let these following words (wrote\nin my love to you, and care over you, when our heavenly Father\nwas removing me to the kingdom of his dear Son), be read in your\nchurch-gatherings together. I shall not now, dearly beloved, write\nunto you about that which is the first, and without which all other\nthings are as nothing in the sight of God, viz., the keeping the\nmystery of the faith in a pure conscience; I shall not, I say, write\nof these things, though the greatest, having spent my labours among\nyou, to root you and build you up in Christ through the grace you\nhave received; and to press you to all manner of holiness in your\nconversations, that you may be found of the Lord, without spot,\nand blameless, at His coming. But the things I shall speak to you\nof, are about your CHURCH AFFAIRS, which I fear have been little\nconsidered by most of you; which things, if not mended aright,\nand submitted unto, according to the will of God, will by degrees\nbring you under divisions, distractions, and at last, to confusion\nof that gospel order and fellowship which now, through grace, you\nenjoy. Therefore, my brethren, in the first place, I would not\nhave any of you ignorant of this, that every one of you are as much\nbound now to walk with the church in all love; and in the ordinances\nof Jesus Christ our Lord, as when I was present among you: neither\nhave any of you liberty to join yourselves to any other society,\nbecause your pastor is removed from you; for you were not joined\nto the ministry, but to Christ, and the church; and this is and was\nthe will of God in Christ to all the churches of the saints, read\nActs 2:42; and compare it with Acts 1:14, 15. And I charge you\nbefore the Lord, as you will answer it at the coming of our Lord\nJesus, that none of you be found guilty herein.\n\nSecondly. Be constant in your church assemblies. Let all the work\nwhich concerns the church be done faithfully among you; as admission\nof members, exercising of gifts, election of officers, as need\nrequires, and all other things as if named, which the Scriptures\nbeing searched, will lead you into, through the Spirit; which things,\nif you do, the Lord will be with you, and you will convince others\nthat Christ is your head, and your dependency is not upon man; but\nif you do the work of the Lord negligently, if you mind your own\nthings and not the things of Christ, if you grow of indifferent\nspirits, whether you mind the work of the Lord in his church\nor no, I fear the Lord by degrees will suffer the comfort of your\ncommunion to be dried up, and the candlestick which is yet standing\nto be broken in pieces; which God forbid.\n\nNow, concerning your admission of members, I shall leave you to the\nLord for counsel, who hath hitherto been with you; only thus much\nI think expedient to stir up your remembrance in; that after you\nare satisfied in the work of grace in the party you are to join\nwith, the said party do solemnly declare (before some of the church\nat least), That Union with Christ is the foundation of all saints'\ncommunion; and not any ordinances of Christ, or any judgment\nor opinion about externals; and the said party ought to declare,\nwhether a brother or sister, that through grace they will walk in\nlove with the church, though there should happen any difference in\njudgment about other things. Concerning separation from the church\nabout baptism, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, psalms, or\nany externals, I charge every one of you respectively, as you will\ngive an account for it to our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge\nboth quick and dead at his coming, that none of you be found guilty\nof this great evil; which, while some have committed, and that\nthrough a zeal for God, yet not according to knowledge, they have\nerred from the law of the love of Christ, and have made a rent from\nthe true church, which is but one. I exhort you, brethren, in your\ncomings together, Let all things be done decently, and in order,\naccording to the Scriptures. Let all things be done among you\nwithout strife and envy, without self-seeking and vain-glory. Be\nclothed with humility, and submit to one another in love. Let the\ngifts of the church be exercised according to order. Let no gift be\nconcealed which is for edification; yet let those gifts be chiefly\nexercised which are most for the perfecting of the saints. Let\nyour discourses be to build up one another in your most holy faith,\nand to provoke one another to love and good works: if this be not\nwell-minded, much time may be spent and the church reap little or\nno advantage. Let there be strong meat for the strong, and milk\nfor babes. In your assemblies avoid all disputes which gender to\nstrife, as questions about externals, and all doubtful disputations.\nIf any come among you who will be contentious in these things,\nlet it be declared that you have no such order, nor any of the\nchurches of God. If any come among you with any doctrine contrary\nto the doctrine of Christ, you must not treat with such an one as\nwith a brother, or enter into dispute of the things of faith with\nreasonings (for this is contrary to the Scriptures); but let such\nof the brethren who are the fullest of the Spirit, and the word of\nChrist, oppose such an one steadfastly face to face, and lay open\nhis folly to the church, from the Scriptures. If a brother through\nweakness speak anything contrary to any known truth of God (though\nnot intended by him), some other brother of the church must\nin love clear up the truth, lest many of the church be laid under\ntemptation. Let no respect of persons be in your comings-together;\nwhen you are met as a church there's neither rich nor poor, bond\nnor free in Christ Jesus. 'Tis not a good practice to be offering\nplaces or seats when those who are rich come in; especially it is\na great evil to take notice of such in time of prayer, or the word;\nthen are bowings and civil observances at such times not of God.\nPrivate wrongs are not presently to be brought unto the church. If\nany of the brethren are troubled about externals, let some of the\nchurch (let it not be a church business) pray for and with such\nparties.\n\nNone ought to withdraw from the church if any brother should walk\ndisorderly, but he that walketh disorderly must bear his own burden,\naccording to the Scriptures. If any brother should walk disorderly,\nhe cannot be shut out from any ordinance before church censure.\nStudy among yourselves what is the nature of fellowship, as the\nword,[144] prayer, and breaking of bread; which, whilst few, I\njudge, seriously consider, there is much falling short of duty in\nthe churches of Christ. You that are most eminent in profession,\nset a pattern to all the rest of the church. Let your faith, love,\nand zeal, be very eminent; if any of you cast a dim light, you will\ndo much hurt in the church. Let there be kept up among you solemn\ndays of prayer and thanksgiving; and let some time be set apart, to\nseek God for your seeds, which thing hath hitherto been omitted. Let\nyour deacons have a constant stock by them, to supply the necessity\nof those who are in want. Truly, brethren, there is utterly a fault\namong you that are rich, especially in this thing, 'tis not that\nlittle which comes from you on the first day of the week that will\nexcuse you. I beseech you, be not found guilty of this sin any\nlonger. He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Be not backward\nin your gatherings-together; let none of you willingly stay till\npart of the meeting be come,[145] especially such who should be\nexamples to the flock. One or two things are omitted about your\ncomings-together, which I shall here add. I beseech you, forbear\nsitting in prayer, except parties be any way disabled; 'tis not a\nposture which suits with the majesty of such an ordinance. Would you\nserve your prince so? In prayer, let all self-affected expressions\nbe avoided, and all vain repetitions. God hath not gifted, I judge,\nevery brother to be a mouth to the church. Let such as have most\nof the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, shut up all your\ncomings-together, that ye may go away with your hearts comforted\nand quickened.\n\nCome together in time, and leave off orderly; for God is a God of\norder among his saints. Let none of you give offence to his brethren\nin indifferent things, but be subject to one another in love. Be\nvery careful what gifts you approve of by consent for public service.\n\nSpend much time before the Lord, about choosing a pastor, for though\nI suppose he is before you,[146] whom the Lord hath appointed, yet\nit will be no disadvantage to you, I hope, if you walk a year or\ntwo as you are before election; and then, if you be all agreed, let\nhim be set apart, according to the Scriptures. Salute the brethren\nwho walk not in fellowship with you, with the same love and name\nof brother or sister as those who do.\n\nLet the promises made to be accomplished in the latter days, be\noften urged before the Lord in your comings-together; and forget\nnot your brethren in bonds. Love him much for the work's sake, who\nlabours over you in the word and doctrine. Let no man despise his\nyouth.[147] Muzzle not the mouth of the ox that treads out the\ncorn to you. Search the Scriptures; let some of them be read to\nyou about this thing. If your teacher at any time be laid aside,\nyou ought to meet together as a church, and build up one another.\nIf the members at such a time will go to a public ministry, it\nmust first be approved of by the church. Farewell; exhort, counsel,\nsupport, reprove one another in love.\n\nFinally, brethren, be all of one mind, walk in love one to another,\neven as Christ Jesus hath loved you, and given himself for you.\nSearch the Scriptures for a supply of those things wherein I am\nwanting. Now the God of peace, who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ\nfrom the dead, multiply his peace upon you, and preserve you to\nhis everlasting kingdom by Jesus Christ. Stand fast: the Lord is\nat hand.\n\nThat this was written by me, I have set my name to it, in the\npresence of two of the brethren of the church.\n\nJohn Gifford.[148]\n\nBunyan was now settled under the happiest circumstances, and doubtless\nlooked forward to much religious enjoyment. A pious wife--peace\nin his soul--a most excellent pastor, and in full communion with\na Christian church. Alas! his enjoyments were soon interrupted;\nagain a tempest was to agitate his mind, that he might be more deeply\nhumbled and prepared to become a Barnabas or son of consolation to\nthe spiritually distressed.\n\nIt is a remarkable fact, that upon the baptism of our Lord, after\nthat sublime declaration of Jehovah--'this is my beloved Son,'\n'Jesus was led into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.' As\nit was with their leader, so it frequently happens to his followers.\nAfter having partaken, for the first time, of the holy enjoyments\nof the Lord's table--tending to exalt and elevate them, they are\noften abased and humbled in their own esteem, by the assaults of\nSatan and his temptations, aided by an evil heart of unbelief. Thus\nChristian having been cherished in the house called Beautiful, and\narmed for the conflict, descended into the Valley of Humiliation,\nencountered Apollyon in deadly combat, and walked through the Valley\nof the Shadow of Death. 'For three quarters of a year, fierce and\nsaid temptations did beset me to blasphemy, that I could never have\nrest nor ease. But at last the Lord came in upon my soul with that\nsame scripture, by which my soul was visited before; and after that,\nI have been usually very well and comfortable in the partaking of\nthat blessed ordinance; and have, I trust, therein discerned the\nLord's body, as broken for my sins, and that his precious blood hath\nbeen shed for my transgressions.'[149] This is what Bunyan calls,\n'the soul killing to itself its sins, its righteousness, wisdom,\nresolutions, and the things which it trusted in by nature'; and\nthen receiving 'a most glorious, perfect, and never-fading life.'\nThe life of Christ in all its purity and perfections imputed to\nme--'Sometimes I bless the Lord my soul hath had this life not only\nimputed to me, but the very glory of it upon my soul--the Son of\nGod himself in his own person, now at the right hand of his Father\nrepresenting me complete before the mercy-seat in his ownself.'\n'There was my righteousness just before the eyes of Divine glory.'[150]\n\nAbout this period his robust hardy frame gave way under the attack\nof disease, and we have to witness his feelings when the king of\nterrors appeared to be beginning his deadly work. Whether the fiery\ntrials, the mental tempest through which he had passed, were too\nsevere for his bodily frame, is not recorded. His narrative is, that,\n'Upon a time I was somewhat inclining to a consumption, wherewith,\nabout the spring I was suddenly and violently seized, with much\nweakness in my outward man; insomuch that I thought I could not\nlive.'[151] This is slightly varied in his account of this illness\nin his Law and Grace. He there says, 'having contracted guilt upon\nmy soul, and having some distemper of body upon me, I supposed\nthat death might now so seize upon, as to take me away from among\nmen.[152] These serious considerations led to a solemn investigation\nof his hopes. His having been baptized, his union to a church, the\ngood opinion of his fellow-men, are not in the slightest degree\nrelied upon as evidences of the new birth, or of a death to sin\nand resurrection to holiness.' 'Now began I afresh to give myself\nup to a serious examination after my state and condition for the\nfuture, and of my evidences for that blessed world to come: for\nit hath, I bless the name of God, been my usual course, as always,\nso especially in the day of affliction, to endeavour to keep my\ninterest in the life to come, clear before my eye.\n\n'But I had no sooner began to recall to mind my former experience\nof the goodness of God to my soul, but there came flocking into my\nmind an innumerable company of my sins and transgressions: amongst\nwhich these were at this time most to my affliction, namely,\nmy deadness, dullness, and coldness in holy duties; my wanderings\nof heart, my wearisomeness in all good things, my want of love to\nGod, his ways and people, with this at the end of all, \"Are these\nthe fruits of Christianity? Are these the tokens of a blessed man?\"\n\n'At the apprehension of these things my sickness was doubled upon\nme, for now was I sick in my inward man, my soul was clogged with\nguilt; now also was my former experience of God's goodness to me\nquite taken out of my mind, and hid as if it had never been, nor seen.\nNow was my soul greatly pinched between these two considerations,\n\"Live I must not, die I dare not.\" Now I sunk and fell in my spirit,\nand was giving up all for lost; but as I was walking up and down\nin my house, as a man in a most woeful state, that word of God took\nhold of my heart, Ye are \"justified freely by his grace, through\nthe redemption that is in Jesus Christ\" (Rom 3:24). But O! what a\nturn it made upon me!\n\n'Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream;\nand listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had heard\nit thus expounded to me:--\"Sinner, thou thinkest, that because of\nthy sins and infirmities, I cannot save thy soul; but behold my Son\nis by me, and upon him I look, and not on thee, and will deal with\nthee according as I am pleased with him.\" At this I was greatly\nlightened in my mind, and made to understand, that God could\njustify a sinner at any time; it was but his looking upon Christ,\nand imputing of his benefits to us, and the work was forthwith\ndone.'[153]\n\n'Now was I got on high, I saw myself within the arms of grace and\nmercy; and though I was before afraid to think of a dying hour, yet\nnow I cried, Let me die. Now death was lovely and beautiful in my\nsight, for I saw that we shall never live indeed, till we be gone\nto the other world. I saw more in those words, \"Heirs of God\" (Rom\n8:17), than ever I shall be able to express. \"Heirs of God,\" God\nhimself is the portion of his saints.'[154]\n\nAs his mental agitation subsided into this delicious calm, his bodily\nhealth was restored; to use his own figure, Captain Consumption,\nwith all his men of death, were[155] routed, and his strong bodily\nhealth trimphed over disease; or, to use the more proper language\nof an eminent Puritan, 'When overwhelmed with the deepest sorrows,\nand that for many doleful months, he who is Lord of nature healed\nmy body, and he who is the Father of mercies and God of all grace\nhas proclaimed liberty to the captive, and given rest to my weary\nsoul.'[156] Here we have a key to the most eventful picture in\nthe Pilgrim's Progress--The Valley of the Shadow of Death--which\nis placed in the midst of the journey. When in the prime of life,\ndeath looked at him and withdrew for a season. It was the shadow\nof death that came over his spirit.\n\nThe church at Bedford having increased, Bunyan was chosen to fill\nthe honourable office of a deacon. No man could have been better\nfitted for that office than Bunyan was. He was honesty itself, had\nsuffered severe privations, so as to feel for those who were pinched\nwith want; he had great powers of discrimination, to distinguish\nbetween the poverty of idleness, and that distress which arises from\ncircumstances over which human foresight has no control, so as to\nrelieve with propriety the pressure of want, without encouraging\nthe degrading and debasing habit of depending upon alms, instead\nof labouring to provide the necessaries of life. He had no fine\nclothes to be spoiled by trudging down the filthiest lanes, and\nentering the meanest hovels to relieve suffering humanity. The\npoor--and that is the great class to whom the gospel is preached,\nand by whom it is received--would hail him as a brother. Gifted in\nprayer, full of sound and wholesome counsel drawn from holy writ,\nhe must have been a peculiar blessing to the distressed, and to all\nthe members who stood in need of advice and assistance. Such were\nthe men intended by the apostles, 'men of honest report, full\nof the Holy Ghost and wisdom' (Acts 6:3), whom the church were to\nselect, to relieve the apostles from the duties of ministration to\nthe wants of the afflicted members, in the discharge of which they\nhad given offence.\n\nWhile thus actively employed, he was again visited with a severe\nillness, and again was subject to a most searching and solemn\ninvestigation as to his fitness to appear before the judgment-seat\nof God. 'All that time the tempter did beset me strongly, labouring\nto hide from me my former experience of God's goodness; setting\nbefore me the terrors of death, and the judgment of God, insomuch\nthat at this time, through my fear of miscarrying for ever, should\nI now die, I was as one dead before death came; I thought that\nthere was no way but to hell I must.'[157]\n\n'A wounded spirit who can bear.' Well might the apostle say, 'If\nin this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most\nmiserable' (1 Cor 15:19). Bunyan had enjoyed holy emotions full of\nglory, and now the devil was threatening him, not only with the loss\nof heaven, but the terrors of hell. The Puritan, Rogers, describes\nreligious melancholy as 'the worst of all distempers, and those sinking\nand guilty fears which it brings along with it are inexpressibly\ndreadful; what anguish, what desolation! I dare not look to heaven;\nthere I see the greatness of God, who is against me. I dare not\nlook into his Word; for there I see all his threats, as so many\nbarbed arrows to strike me to the heart. I dare not look into the\ngrave; because thence I am like to have a doleful resurrection; in\nthis doleful night the soul hath no evidence at all of its former\ngrace.'[158] Bunyan's experience reminds us of the impressive\nlanguage of Job--a book full of powerful imagery and magnificent\nideas, in which Bunyan delighted, calling it 'that blessed\nbook.'[159] Job goes on, from step to step, describing his mental\nwretchedness, until he rises to a climax, God 'runneth upon me like\na giant' (16:7-22). 'Thou huntest me as a fierce lion' (10:16).\n'The arrows of the Almighty are within me; they drink up my spirit:\nthe terrors of God do set themselves in array against me' (6:4).\nPoor Bunyan, in the depth of his distress, cried unto God, and was\nheard and relieved from these soul troubles. He recollected the\njoyful ascent of Lazarus from the extreme of human misery to the\nheight of celestial enjoyments. His spirit was sweetly revived, and\nhe was enabled, with delight, to hope yet in God, when that word\nfell with great weight upon his mind, 'O death, where is thy sting?\nO grave, where is thy victory?' 'At this he became both well in\nbody and mind at once; his sickness did presently vanish, and he\nagain walked comfortably in his work for God.'[160] The words, 'by\ngrace are ye saved,' followed him through the rest of his pilgrimage.\nHis consolation was, that 'a little true grace will go a great way;\nyea, and do more wonders than we are aware of. If we have but grace\nenough to keep us groaning after God, it is not all the world that\ncan destroy us.'[161] He had now become deeply instructed in the\nschool of Christ, and was richly furnished with the weapons of\nspiritual warfare; 'a scribe instructed into the kingdom of heaven,\nlike unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out\nof his treasure things new and old' (Matt 13:12). Or, as 'the man\nof God, perfected, thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2\nTim 3:17). It was powerfully impressed upon his mind that all his\ninward conflicts were to be made use of in preparing him to instruct\nothers. All the events of his Saviour's life passed before his mind\nas if he had stood by as a witness to his birth--his walking with\nhis disciples; his wondrous parables and stupendous miracles; his\nmental and bodily sufferings; his sacrifice, burial, ascension,\nintercession, and final judgment; all passed in vivid review before\nthe eye of his mind; and then, he says, 'as I was musing with myself\nwhat these things should mean, methought I heard such a word in my\nheart as this, I have set thee down on purpose, for I have something\nmore than ordinary for thee to do'; which made me the more to\nmarvel, saying, 'What, my Lord, such a poor wretch as I?'[162] Such\nwas his inward call to the ministry; and it being attended with\nthe three requisites usually insisted on among Dissenters--ability,\ninclination, and opportunity--he was sent out as an itinerant\npreacher in the surrounding villages in 1655, and laid the foundation\nof many churches, which now flourish to the praise of the glory of\nDivine grace. In some of these villages the gospel had never before\nbeen preached; they were strongholds of Satan. These were fit places\nfor the full display of his intrepid energy.\n\nAfter thus preaching and much suffering, for fifteen years, he was\nappointed to the pastoral office, or eldership.[163] Can a man enter\nupon the work of the ministry from a better school than this? Deeply\nversed in scriptural knowledge; thoroughly humbled by the assaults\nof sin and Satan; aware of his devices; with a keen perception of\nthe value of the soul; its greatness; and, if lost, the causes and\nthe unspeakable extent of its loss. Solemnly devout and fluent in\nprayer; ready in conversation upon heavenly things; speaking the\ntruth without fear of consequences, yet avoiding unnecessary offence;\nfirst speaking in the church-meeting, and then more extensively in\nbarns, or woods, or dells, to avoid the informers.[164] Such was\nhis training; and the result was, that, when permitted to proclaim\nthe gospel publicly, thousands hung upon his words with intense\nfeeling; numerous converts were by his means added to the church;\nthe proud became broken-hearted, and the lowly were raised, and\nblessings abounded; the drunkards were made sober; thieves and\ncovetous were reclaimed; the blasphemers were made to sing the\npraises of God; the desert bid fair to blossom and bring forth\nfruit as a garden. But, alas! his early labours were contrary to\nacts of parliament; the spirit of intolerance and persecution soon\ntroubled, and eventually consigned him to a prison.\n\nBefore we bid a final farewell to Bunyan's extraordinary mental\nstruggles with unbelief, it may be well to indulge in a few sober\nreflections. Are the narratives of these mighty tempests in his\nspirit plain matters of fact? No one can read the works of Bunyan\nand doubt for a moment his truthfulness. His language is that of\nthe heart, fervent but not exaggerated, strong but a plain tale of\nreal feelings. He says, and he believed it, 'My sins have appeared\nso big to me, that I thought one of my sins have been as big as\nall the sins of all the men in the nation; ay and of other nations\ntoo, reader; these things be not fancies, for I have smarted for\nthis experience. It is true that Satan has the art of making the\nuttermost of every sin; he can blow it up, make it swell, make every\nhair of its head as big as a cedar;[165] but yet the least stream\nof the heart blood of Jesus hath vanished all away and hath made\nit to fly, to the astonishment of such a poor sinner, and hath\ndelivered me up into sweet and heavenly peace and joy in the Holy\nGhost.'[166] Some have supposed the narrative to be exaggerated,\nwhile others have attributed the disturbed state of his mind to\ndisease; my humble belief is that the whole is a plain unvarnished\naccount of facts; that those facts occurred while he was in full\npossession of all the faculties of his mind. To ascribe such powers\nto the invisible world by which we are constantly surrounded, does\nnot agree with the doctrines of modern philosophers. Those holy\nor unholy suggestions suddenly injected, would by the world be set\ndown as the hallucinations of a distempered imagination. Carnal\nrelations attributed Christian's alarm to 'some frenzy distemper\ngot into his head,' and Southey, following their example, ascribes\nBunyan's hallowed feelings to his want of 'sober judgment,' 'his\nbrutality and extreme ignorance,' a 'stage of burning enthusiasm,'\nand to 'an age in which hypocrisy was regnant, and fanaticism rampant\nthroughout the land.'[167] What a display of reigning hypocrisy\nand rampant fanaticism was it to see the game at cat openly played\nby men on Sunday, the church bells calling them to their sport!!!\nHad Southey been poet-laureate to Charles II, he might with equal\ntruth have concealed the sensuality, open profaneness, and debauchery\nof that profligate monarch and his court of concubines, and have\npraised him as 'the Lord's anointed.' Bunyan was an eye-witness of\nthe state of the times in which he lived, and he associated with\nnumbers of the poor in Bedfordshire and the adjoining counties. So\ntruthful a man's testimony is of great value, and he proves that\nno miraculous reformation of manners had taken place; no regnant\nhypocrisy nor rampant fanaticism. In 1655, that being the brightest\nperiod of the Commonwealth, he thus 'sighs' over the state of his\ncountry:--'There are but a few places in the Bible but there are\nthreatenings against one sinner or another; against drunkards,\nswearers, liars, proud persons, strumpets, whoremongers, covetous,\nrailers, extortioners, thieves, lazy persons. In a word, all manner\nof sins are reproved, and there is a sore punishment to be executed\non the committers of them; and all this made mention of in the\nScriptures. But for all this, how thick, and by heaps, do these\nwretches walk up and down our streets? Do but go into the ale-houses,\nand you shall see almost every room besprinkled with them, so\nfoaming out their own shame that it is enough to make the heart of\na saint to tremble.'[168] This was a true character of the great\nmasses of the labouring and trading portions of the commonwealth.\nLet us hear his testimony also as to the most sacred profession,\nthe clergy, in 1654:--\n\n'A reason why delusions do so easily take place in the hearts of\nthe ignorant, is, because those that pretend to be their teachers,\ndo behave themselves so basely among them. And indeed I may say\nof these, as our Lord said of the Pharisees in another case, the\nblood of the ignorant shall be laid to their charge. They that\npretend they are sent of the Lord, and come, saying, Thus saith\nthe Lord; we are the servants of the Lord, our commission is from\nthe Lord by succession; I say, these pretending themselves to be the\npreachers of truth, but are not, do, by their loose conversation,\nrender the doctrine of God, and his Son Jesus Christ, by whom the\nsaints are saved, contemptible, and do give the adversary mighty\nencouragement, to cry out against the truths of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, because of their wicked waling. For the most part of them,\nthey are the men that at this day do so harden their hearers in\ntheir sins by giving them such ill examples, that none goeth beyond\nthem for impiety. As, for example, would a parishioner learn to\nbe proud, he or she need look no farther than to the priest, his\nwife, and family; for there is a notable pattern before them. Would\nthe people learn to be wanton? they may also see a pattern among\ntheir teachers. Would they learn to be drunkards? they may also have\nthat from some of their ministers; for indeed they are ministers\nin this, to minister ill example to their congregations. Again,\nwould the people learn to be covetous? they need but look to\ntheir minister, and they shall have a lively, or rather a deadly\nresemblance set before them, in both riding and running after great\nbenefices, and parsonages by night and by day. Nay, they among\nthemselves will scramble for the same. I have seen, that so soon\nas a man hath but departed from his benefice as he calls it, either\nby death or out of covetousness of a bigger, we have had one priest\nfrom this town, and another from that, so run, for these tithe-cocks\nand handfuls of barley, as if it were their proper trade, and calling,\nto hunt after the same. O wonderful impiety and ungodliness! are\nyou not ashamed of your doings? Read Romans 1 towards the end. As\nit was with them, so, it is to be feared, it is with many of you,\nwho knowing the judgments of God, that they who do such things are\nworthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure also in\nthem that do them. And now you that pretend to be the teachers of\nthe people in verity and truth, though we know that some of you\nare not, is it a small thing with you to set them such an example\nas this? Were ever the Pharisees so profane; to whom Christ said,\nYe vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Doth not the\nground groan under you? surely, it will favour you no more than it\nfavoured your fore-runners. Certainly the wrath of God lies heavy\nat your doors, it is but a very little while, and your recompense\nshall be upon your own head. And as for you that are indeed of\nGod among them, though not of them, separate yourselves. Why should\nthe righteous partake of the same plagues with the wicked? O ye\nchildren of the harlot! I cannot well tell how to have done with\nyou, your stain is so odious, and you are so senseless, as appears\nby your practices.'[169]\n\nThe testimony of George Fox as to England's fashions in 1654, is\nvery pointed and extremely droll:--Men and women are carried away\nwith fooleries and vanities; gold and silver upon their backs,[170]\nstore of ribbands hanging about the waist, knees, and feet--red or\nwhite, black or yellow; women with their gold; their spots on their\nfaces, noses, cheeks, foreheads; rings on their fingers, cuffs\ndouble, like a butcher's white sleeves; ribbands about their hands,\nand three or four gold laces about their clothes; men dressed like\nfiddlers' boys or stage players; see them playing at bowls, or\nat tables, or at shovel-board, or each one decking his horse with\nbunches of ribbands on his head, as the rider hath on his own.\nThese are gentlemen, and brave fellows, that say pleasures are\nlawful, and in their sports they should like wild asses. This is\nthe generation carried away with pride, arrogancy, lust, gluttony,\nand uncleanness; who eat and drink and rise up to play, their eyes\nfull of adultery, and their bodies of the devil's adorning.[171]\nSuch quotations from the writings of men of undoubted veracity, and\nwho lived during that period, might be multiplied to fill a volume.\n\nIs this the regnant hypocrisy and rampant fanaticism which prevailed\nin England, and which Southey supposes to have influenced Bunyan\nand deranged his sober judgment? It is true that the Protector\nand his council discountenanced vice and folly, and that there was\nmore piety and virtue in the kingdom at that time than it had ever\nbefore witnessed. But it would have been the greatest of miracles,\nhad the people been suddenly moralized, after having been baptized\nin brutality for ages. Not a century had elapsed since the autos\nda fe had blazed throughout the country, burning the most pious,\nmoral, and enlightened of her citizens. A century of misery to the\nprofessors of religions had passed, in which the persecutions of\nPapists and Puritans, hanging, transporting, murdering by frightful\nimprisonments all those who dared to dissent from the church of\nEngland. All this must have produced a debasing effect upon public\nmorals. Even among professors Bunyan discovered pride, covetousness,\nimpiety and uncleanness.[172]\n\nBunyan's religious impressions did not, as Southey states, arise\nfrom his ignorance, brutal manners, low station, nor from the\nfanaticism of the age in which he lived. Did the similar feeling of\nJob or David spring from these polluted fountains? He is a stranger\nto Christ's school that confounds its discipline with mental\ndrunkenness, or with the other depraved sources alluded to by\nSouthey. The luxurious imagination which ruled over him, must be\ncurbed and brought into subjection to Christ. He must be weaned\nfrom a reliance upon sudden impulses to rely upon Divine truth.\nThe discovery of errors by scriptural investigation was putting\non armour of proof. Self-confidence was gradually swallowed up\nby dependence upon the word--the result of the severest spiritual\ntraining. Those painful exercises produced a life of holiness and\nusefulness. Can the thistle produce grapes, or the noxious weeds\ncorn? Never! His experience came from heaven, in mercy to his\nsoul, and to make him a blessing to millions of his race. By this\nhe was made truly wise, civilized, enlightened, and elevated.\nEvery painful feeling was measured by Divine rule--weighed in the\nsanctuary balance--not one iota too much or too little to form\nhis noble character. He has been compared with Lord Byron, one of\nour most impassioned thinkers and writers; but the noble poet's\nheart-griefs were on the wrong side. Judging of his own feelings\nby those painted on his heroes--they fight for freedom only to\ngratify lust, pride, and ambition, while the future appeared in\ndark, dreary uncertainty. But Bunyan strives to be released from\nthe slavery of sin and Satan, that he might enjoy the liberty of\nbeing a servant of Christ, whose service is perfect freedom, with a\nglorious vista of eternity occasionally breaking in upon his soul.\n\nWell may it be said of him:--Simple, enchanting man! what does not\nthe world owe to thee and to the great Being who could produce such\nas thee? Teacher alike of the infant and of the aged; who canst\ndirect the first thought and remove the last doubt of man; property\nalike of the peasant and the prince; welcomed by the ignorant and\nhonoured by the wise; thou hast translated Christianity into a new\nlanguage, and that a universal one! Thou art the prose poet of all\ntime!\n\nTHE FOURTH PERIOD.\n\nBUNYAN ENTERS INTO CONTROVERSY--BECOMES AN AUTHOR--OFFENDS A\nPERSECUTING MAGISTRACY, AND IS PROCEEDED AGAINST AT THE SESSIONS\nUNDER AN ACT OF THE COMMONWEALTH--IS ACCUSED OF REPORTING A STRANGE\nCHARGE OF WITCHCRAFT--PUBLICLY DISPUTES WITH THE QUAKERS.\n\nIn proportion as a man becomes a public character, especially if\neminent for talent and usefulness in the church, so will his enemies\nincrease. The envy of some and the malice of others will invent\nslanders, or, what is worse, put an evil construction upon the\nmost innocent conduct, in the hope of throwing a shade over that\nbrightness which reveals their own defects. In this they are aided\nby all the craft, and cunning, and power of Satan, the archenemy of\nman. The purity of gospel truth carries with it the blessed fruits\nof the highest order of civilization; the atmosphere in which it\nlives is 'good will to man.' Salvation is a free gift, direct from\nGod to the penitent sinner. It cannot be obtained by human aid,\nnor for all the gold in the universe. It cannot possibly be traded\nin, bought, or sold, but is bestowed without money or price. Hence\nthe opposition of Antichrist. The cry or groan of the contrite\nenters heaven and brings down blessings, while the most elegant and\nelaborately-composed prayer, not springing from the heart, is read\nor recited in vain. Human monarchs must be approached by petitions\ndrawn up in form, and which may be accepted, although the perfection\nof insincerity and hypocrisy. The King of kings accepts no forms;\nhe knows the heart, and requires the approach of those who worship\nhim to be in sincerity and in truth; the heart may plead without\nwords, God accepteth the groans and sighs of those that fear him.\nThese were the notions that Bunyan had drawn from the Holy Oracles,\nand his conversation soon made him a favourite with the Puritans,\nwhile it excited feelings of great hostility among the neighbouring\nclergy and magistrates.\n\nBunyan's conversion from being a pest to the neighbourhood to\nbecoming a pious man, might have been pardoned had he conformed to\nthe Directory; but for him to appear as a Dissenter and a public\nteacher, without going through the usual course of education and\nordination, was an unpardonable offence. The opinions of man gave\nhim no concern; all his anxiety was to have the approbation of\nhis God, and then to walk accordingly, braving all the dangers,\nthe obloquy, and contempt that might arise from his conscientious\ndischarge of duties, for the performance of which he knew that he\nalone must give a solemn account at the great day.\n\nHe entered upon the serious work of the ministry with fear and\ntrembling, with much heart-searching, earnest prayer, and the advice\nof the church to which he was united, not with any pledge to abide\nby their decision contrary to his own conviction, but to aid him\nin his determination. His own account of these important inquiries\nis very striking:--'After I had been about five or six years awakened,\nand helped myself to see both the want and worth of Jesus Christ\nour Lord, and also enabled to venture my soul upon him, some of\nthe most able among the saints with us, for judgment and holiness\nof life, as they conceived, did perceive that God had counted me\nworthy to understand something of his will in His holy and blessed\nWord, and had given me utterance, in some measure, to express what\nI saw to others for edification; therefore they desired me, and that\nwith much earnestness, that I would be willing at some times to\ntake in hand, in one of the meetings, to speak a word of exhortation\nunto them. The which, though at the first it did much dash and\nabash my spirit, yet being still by them desired and entreated, I\nconsented to their request, and did twice, at two several assemblies\nin private, though with much weakness and infirmity, discover my\ngift amongst them; at which they did solemnly protest, as in the\nsight of the great God, they were both affected and comforted, and\ngave thanks to the Father of mercies for the grace bestowed on me.\n\n'After this, sometimes, when some of them did go into the country\nto teach, they would also that I should go with them; where, though\nas yet I did not, nor durst not, make use of my gift in an open\nway, yet more privately, as I came amongst the good people in those\nplaces, I did sometimes speak a word of admonition unto them also,\nthe which they, as the other, received with rejoicing at the mercy\nof God to me-ward, professing their souls were edified thereby.\n\n'Wherefore at last, being still desired by the church, after some\nsolemn prayer to the Lord, with fasting, I was more particularly\ncalled forth, and appointed to a more ordinary and public preaching\nof the word, not only to and amongst them that believed, but also\nto offer the gospel to those who had not yet received the faith\nthereof.'[173]\n\nThe ministry of Bunyan's pastor, whom he affectionately called\nholy Mr. Gifford, must have been wonderfully blessed. In 1650 only\ntwelve pious men and women were formed into a Christian church,\nand, although subject to fierce persecution, they had so increased\nthat in 1672 ten members had been solemnly set apart for the work\nof the ministry, and they became a blessing to the country round\nBedford. The benighted state of the villages was a cause of earnest\nprayer that men might be sent out, apt to teach, and willing to\nsacrifice liberty, and even life, to promote the peaceful reign of\nthe Redeemer. The names of the men who were thus set apart were--John\nBunyan, Samuel Fenn, Joseph Whiteman, John Fenn, Oliver Scott, Luke\nAshwood, Thomas Cooper, Edward Dent, Edward Isaac, and Nehemiah\nCoxe.[174] Four of these were permitted to fulfil their course\nwithout notoriety; the others were severely persecuted, fined and\nimprisoned, but not forsaken.\n\nEncouraged by the opinion of the church which had been so prayerfully\nformed, that it was his duty to proclaim the glad tidings of\nsalvation, Bunyan entered upon his important work, and was soon\nencouraged by a hope that his labours were useful to his fellow-men.\n'About this time,' he narrates, 'I did evidently find in my mind\na secret pricking forward thereto, though, I bless God, not for\ndesire of vain glory, for at that time I was most sorely afflicted\nwith the fiery darts of the devil concerning my eternal state. But\nyet I could not be content unless I was found in the exercise of\nmy gift; unto which also I was greatly animated, not only by the\ncontinual desires of the godly, but also by that saying of Paul to\nthe Corinthians, \"I beseech you, brethren [ye know the household\nof Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they\nhave addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints], that ye\nsubmit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with\nus, and laboureth\" (1 Cor 16:15,16).\n\n'By this text I was made to see that the Holy Ghost never intended\nthat men, who have gifts and abilities, should bury them in the\nearth, but rather did command and stir up such to the exercise of\ntheir gift, and also did commend those that were apt and ready so\nto do.\n\n'Wherefore, though of myself, of all the saints the most unworthy,\nyet I, but with great fear and trembling at the sight of my own\nweakness, did set upon the work, and did according to my gift, and\nthe proportion of my faith, preach that blessed gospel that God\nhad showed me in the holy Word of truth; which, when the country\nunderstood, they came in to hear the Word by hundreds, and that from\nall parts. And I thank God he gave unto me some measure of bowels\nand pity for their souls, which did put me forward to labour with\ngreat diligence and earnestness, to find out such a word as might,\nif God would bless it, lay hold of and awaken the conscience, in\nwhich also the good Lord had respect to the desire of his servant;\nfor I had not preached long before some began to be touched, and\nbe greatly afflicted in their minds at the apprehension of the\ngreatness of their sin, and of their need of Jesus Christ.\n\n'But I at first could not believe that God should speak by me to\nthe heart of any man, still counting myself unworthy; yet those\nwho were thus touched would love me, and have a particular respect\nfor me; and though I did put it from me that they should be awakened\nby me, still they would confess it, and affirm it before the saints\nof God. They would also bless God for me, unworthy wretch that I\nam! and count me God's instrument that showed to them the way of\nsalvation.\n\n'Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to be so\nconstant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after the\nknowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that ever God did send me where\nthey were; then I began to conclude that it might be so, that God\nhad owned in his work such a foolish one as I; and then came that\nword of God to my heart with much sweet refreshment, \"The blessing\nof him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the\nwidow's heart to sing for joy\" (Job 29:13).\n\n'At this therefore I rejoiced; yea, the tears of those whom God\ndid awaken by my preaching would be both solace and encouragement\nto me. I thought on those sayings, \"Who is he that maketh me glad,\nbut the same that is made sorry by me\" (2 Cor 2:2). And again,\n\"Though I be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am unto you:\nfor the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord\" (1 Cor 9:2).\nThese things, therefore, were as an another argument unto me, that\nGod had called me to, and stood by me in this work.\n\n'In my preaching of the Word I took special notice of this one\nthing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to begin where his Word\nbegins with sinners; that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open\nand allege, that the curse of God by the law doth belong to, and\nlay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin.\nNow this part of my work I fulfilled with great feeling, for the\nterrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy on\nmy own conscience. I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did\nfeel, even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to\nastonishment. Indeed, I have been as one sent to them from the\ndead; I went myself in chains to preach to them in chains; and\ncarried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to\nbeware of.[175] I can truly say, that when I have been to preach,\nI have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit-door, and\nthere it hath been taken off, and I have been at liberty in my\nmind until I have done my work, and then, immediately, even before\nI could get down the pulpit stairs, I have been as bad as I was\nbefore: yet God carried me on with a strong hand, for neither guilt\nnor hell could take me off my work. Thus I went on for the space\nof two years, crying out against men's sins, and their fearful\nstate because of them.'[176]\n\nA man so much in earnest soon became a most acceptable and popular\npreacher. He studied his sermons carefully, and wrote such memorandums\nand notes as might refresh his memory before going into the pulpit,\nalthough his intensity of feeling, his ready utterance, and natural\neloquence which charmed his hearers, and his extensive usefulness\nas a preacher, render it quite improbable that he restricted himself\nto notes while publicly engaged in sacred services. They must have\naided him when he did not enjoy liberty of utterance. 'At times\nwhen I have begun to speak the Word with much liberty, I have been\npresently so straitened in speech that I scarcely knew what I was\nabout, or as if my head had been in a bag.'[177] They were valuable,\nalso, as a proof that all he said had its exclusive reference to\nthe world to come, without the mixture of politics, which might\nhave given offence to the Government. Thus, when he was apprehended\nfor neglecting to attend the church service and for preaching the\ngospel, in his conversation with Mr. Cobb, the magistrate's clerk,\nhe said 'that, to cut off all occasions of suspicion from any,\nas touching the harmlessness of my doctrine, in private I would\nwillingly take the pains to give any one the notes of all my\nsermons, for I do sincerely desire to live quietly in my country,\nand to submit to the present authority.'[178] In such troublesome\ntimes these would afford abundant proof that he was desirous of\nsubmitting to all the political institutions of his country, while\nhe dared not conform to human laws affecting his faith or his mode\nof worshipping God, for which he alone was to stand answerable at\nthe great day.\n\nThe employment of his time in earning a maintenance for his family,\nand his constant engagements to preach, interfered with the proper\nfulfillment of his duties as a deacon of the church. His resignation\nof this important office is thus recorded in the minutes of the\nchurch--'At a meeting held on the 27th of the 6th month, 1657, the\ndeacon's office was transferred from John Bunyan to John Pernie,\nbecause he could no longer discharge its duties aright, in consequence\nof his being so much employed in preaching.'\n\nWe cannot wonder that his time was incessantly employed. His was\nno ordinary case. He had to recover and improve upon the little\neducation he had received, and lost again by dissipated habits. He\nmust have made every effort, by his diligent study of the Bible,\nto gain that spiritual knowledge which alone could enable him\nto proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, and that profound\ninternal converse with the throne of God which appears in all his\nwritings. In addition to all this, he was engaged in continual\ncontroversy with a variety of sects, which, in his sober judgment,\nopposed the simplicity of the gospel. Among these the Ranters, or\nSweet Singers, were very conspicuous. It is difficult to discover\nwhat were their opinions, but they appear to have been nearly\nlike the Dutch Adamites; they were severely persecuted, by public\nauthority, under the Commonwealth, for blasphemy. George Fox\nfound some of them in prison at Coventry in 1649, and held a short\ndisputation with them. They claimed each one to be GOD, founding\ntheir notion on such passages as 1 Corinthians 14:25, 'God is in\nyou of a truth.' Fox quaintly asked them whether it would rain the\nnext day; and upon their answering that they could not tell, 'Then\nsaid I unto them, God can tell.'[179] Strange as it may appear,\nthe Ranters had many followers, while numerous pious people were\ntroubled by their impudence and perversion of Scripture, but more\nespecially by their being a persecuted people. Taking advantage of\nthe inquiries that were excited by these strange doctrines, Bunyan\ndetermined to become an author, that he might set forth more\nextensively than he could do by preaching, the truths of the gospel\nin their native purity, simplicity, and beauty, as an antidote to\nfanaticism. The learned and eloquent looked with contempt upon the\nfollies of the Ranters, Familists, and some loose Quakers, 'and\nonly deigned to abuse them with raillery, while the poor unlettered\ntinker wrote against them.' To indite a work would be to him a\npleasant recreation, but writing a book must have been extremely\ndifficult, and have required extraordinary patience. This will be\nbetter seen by a specimen of his handwriting, now in the Bedford\nLibrary, found in Fox's Book of Martyrs, the three volumes of which\nbeguiled many of his tedious hours when in prison.\n\nTo write a volume, containing about twenty-five thousand words,\nmust have been a serious task to such a scribe.\n\nIt is interesting to trace his improvement in calligraphy while\nrecovering his lost education, and advancing in proficiency in an\nart so essential to his constantly extending usefulness. The next\nis a more useful running hand, however defective in orthography\nand grammar; it is from the first page of a copy of Bishop Andrews'\nsermons[180]--\n\nThe inscription in a copy of his Holy City, 1665, in Dr. Williams'\nor the Dissenter's Library, Red Cross Street, is in a still more\nuseful hand, as good as that of most authors of that day--\n\nThe autograph in Powell's Concordance, in the library of the Baptist\nAcademy, Bristol, is in a fair hand--\n\nHis autograph is in possession of the Society of Antiquaries. The\ndocument to which it is subscribed is written in a remarkably neat\nhand, addressed to the Lord Protector. The signatures appear to be\nwritten as if in the writer's best style.[181]\n\nSignature to the deed of gift[182]--\n\nIn addition to the motives which have been noticed as inducing\nhim to become an author, it appears, that in the course of his\nitinerating labours, he was much grieved with the general depravity\nwhich had overspread all classes of society. Evil communications\nhad corrupted the great mass, and occasioned an aversion to hear\nthe gospel, which plunged the people into carnal security. When\nroused by his preaching they too often found refuge in despair, or\nin vain attempts to impose upon God their unholy self-righteousness,\nendeavouring 'to earn heaven with their fingers' ends';[183]\nanything rather than submit to receive salvation as the free gift\nof God, and thus be led to consecrate all their powers to his glory\nand the comfort of society. A few who appeared to have thought on\nthis solemn subject, without any change of conduct, are called by\nBunyan 'light notionists, with here and there a legalist,'[184] or\nthose who relied upon a creed without the fruits of righteousness,\nand some of these imbibed notions of the strangest kind--that the\nlight within was all-sufficient, without any written revelation of\nthe will of God--that the account of Christ's personal appearance\non earth was a myth, to represent his residence in the persons of\nbelievers, in whom he suffers, is crucified, buried, and raised\nagain to spiritual life--that such persons might do whatever their\ninclinations led them to, without incurring guilt or sin; in short,\nmany sinned that grace might abound!! Some of them professed to\nbe the Almighty God manifest in the flesh. All this took place in\nwhat was called a Christian country, upon which millions of treasure\nhad been spent to teach religion by systems, which had persecuted\nthe honest, pious professors of vital Christianity to bonds,\nimprisonment, and death. This had naturally involved the kingdom\nin impiety and gross immorality. The discovery of the awful state\nof his country, while he was engaged in preaching in the villages\nround Bedford induced him, in the humble hope of doing good, to\nbecome an author, and with trembling anxiety he issued to the world\nthe first production of his pen, in 1656, under the title of Some\nGospel Truths Opened According to the Scriptures; and, as we shall\npresently find, it met with a rough reception, plunging him into\ncontroversy, which in those days was conducted with bitter acrimony.\n\nBefore it was published, he sought the approbation and protection\nof Mr. John Burton, who had been united with Mr. Gifford in the\npastoral charge of the church to which Bunyan belonged. The testimony\nthat he gives is very interesting:--\n\n'Here thou hast things certain and necessary to be believed, which\nthou canst not too much study. Therefore pray that thou mayest\nreceive it, so it is according to the Scriptures, in faith and\nlove, not as the word of man but as the word of God, and be not\noffended, because Christ holds forth the glorious treasure of the\ngospel to thee in a poor earthen vessel, by one who hath neither\nthe greatness nor the wisdom of this world to commend him to thee;\nfor as the Scriptures saith, Christ, who was low and contemptible\nin the world himself, ordinarily chooseth such for himself and for\nthe doing of his work. \"Not many wise men after the flesh, not many\nmighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish\nthings of the world.\" This man [Bunyan] is not chosen out of an\nearthly, but out of the heavenly university, the church of Christ,\nfurnished with the Spirit, gifts, and graces of Christ--out of\nwhich, to the end of the world, the word of the Lord and all true\ngospel ministers must proceed. And, though this man hath not the\nlearning or wisdom of man; yet, through grace, he hath received the\nteaching of God, and the learning of the Spirit of Christ. He hath\ntaken these three heavenly degrees--union with Christ, the anointing\nof the Spirit, and experience of the temptations of Satan--which\ndo more fit a man for the mighty work of preaching the gospel, than\nall the university learning and degrees that can be had. I have\nhad experience with many other saints of this man's [Bunyan's]\nsoundness in the faith, his godly conversation, and his ability to\npreach the gospel, not by human art, but by the Spirit of Christ,\nand that with much success in the conversion of sinners. I thought\nit my duty to bear witness with my brother to these glorious truths\nof the Lord Jesus Christ.'[185]\n\nBunyan was twenty-eight years of age when he published this work,\nand as he attacked the follies of his times, and what he deemed to\nbe heresies, were exposed to Scripture light and condemned without\nmercy, it very naturally involved him in controversy. This brought\nforth the remarkable resources of his mind, which was stored with\nthe Scriptures--his fearlessness--ready wit and keen retort, much\nsanctified by an earnest desire for the salvation of his opponents.\nAn extraordinary man, younger than himself, full of energy and\nenthusiasm, entered the lists with him; and in Edward Burrough,\nvery properly called a son of thunder and of consolation, Bunyan\nfound an able disputant. He was talented, pious, and fearless in his\nMaster's work, and became eminently useful in laying the foundation\nof the Society of Friends. Soon after this he was numbered with the\nnoble army of martyrs at the age of twenty-eight, being sacrificed\nin Newgate, at the shrine of religious intolerance.\n\nAt this time the Quakers were not united as a body, and consequently\nthere was no test of character nor rules of discipline for those\nwho assumed that name. They were very dissimilar men to their quiet\nand unobtrusive descendants. The markets, fairs, and every public\nconcourse were attended by them, denouncing false weights and\nmeasures, drunkenness and villany, with the curses of the Almighty,\ncalling upon the people, frequently with furious and fearful energy\nand powerful eloquence, to repent, and cry unto God, that his mercy\nmight be extended to the salvation of their immortal souls. their\nzeal led them to many breaches of good manners. They would enter\nchurches, and after the service, when the quiet folks were thinking\nof gratifying their bodies with a substantial dinner, they were\narrested by the violent declamation of a man or woman, frequently\ndenouncing the priest as being the blind leading the blind.\nThis naturally led to a scene of riot and confusion, in which the\nQuakers were in many cases handled with great barbarity. among these\ndisturbers were mingled persons of bad character. The violence of\nsectarian feeling in the churches thus disturbed, made no discrimination\nbetween bad and good; they were equally subjected to the roughest\ntreatment. Bunyan attacked those who denied that Christ had appeared\nin the world as Emmanuel, God with us 'in fashion as a man,' that\nby the infinite merits of his life and death imputed to believers,\nthey might be made holy. His attack was also directed against those\nwho refused obedience to the written Word, or who relied upon inward\nlight in contradistinction and preference to the Bible. The title\nto Burrough's answer is a strange contrast to the violence of his\nlanguage--The Gospel of Peace Contended for in the Spirit of Meekness\nand Love. In this spirit of meekness he calls his opponents 'crafty\nfowlers preying upon the innocent'; and lovingly exclaims, 'How\nlong shall the righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye subtle foxes;\nyour dens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched upon your\nbeds of secret whoredoms.' The unhallowed spirit of the age mistook\nabuse for argument, and harsh epithets for faithful dealing.[186]\n\nBunyan replied in A Vindication of Gospel Truths, to the great\nsatisfaction of all his friends; and although Burrough answered\nthis tract also, Bunyan very wisely allowed his railing opponent to\nhave the last word, and applied his great powers to more important\nlabours than caviling with one who in reality did not differ with\nhim. The Quaker had been seriously misled by supposing that the\nBaptist was a hireling preacher; and we must be pleased that he was\nso falsely charged, because it elicited a crushing reply. Burrough,\nin reply to an imputation made by Bunyan, that the Quakers were\nthe false prophets alluded to in Scripture, observed that 'in those\ndays there was not a Quaker heard of.' 'Friend,' replied Bunyan,\n'thou hast rightly said, there was not a Quaker heard of indeed,\nthough there were many Christians heard of then. Again, to defend\nthyself thou throwest the dirt in my face, saying, If we should\ndiligently trace thee, we should find thee in the steps of the\nfalse prophets, through fancied words, through covetousness, making\nmerchandise of souls, loving the wages of unrighteousness.' To\nwhich Bunyan replied; 'Friend, dost thou speak this as from thy\nown knowledge, or did any other tell thee so? However, that spirit\nthat led thee out this way, is a lying spirit; for though I be poor,\nand of no repute in the world as to outward things, yet through\ngrace I have learned, by the example of the apostle, to preach the\ntruth, and also to work with my hands, both for mine own living,\nand for those that are with me, when I have opportunity. And I\ntrust that the Lord Jesus, who hath helped me to reject the wages\nof unrighteousness hitherto, will also help me still, so that I\nshall distribute that which God hath given me freely, and not for\nfilthy lucre sake.'[187] Thus had he learned of the apostle to\n'make the gospel of Christ without charge' (1 Cor 9:18); and upon\nthis subject they strangely agreed. The same agreement existed\nbetween them upon the necessity of inward light from the Holy\nSpirit; without which they both considered the Bible to be a dead\nletter. The peculiar principle which separates the Quaker from\nevery other Christian community, has nothing to do with the light\nwithin. Upon that subject all evangelical sects are agreed. The\nsubstantial difference is whether our Lord intended the work of\nthe ministry to be exclusively a work of benevolence, charity, and\nlove, binding all who are capable of using the talent intrusted\nto them, to do it without worldly reward. Surely every man may be\nsatisfied in his own mind upon such a subject, without quarrelling\nwith, or anathematizing each other. Bunyan and Burrough agreed,\nwithout knowing it, in the sentiments of their illustrious and\nlearned cotemporary, John Milton, as to the ministry being without\ncharge; and had they, when offended, followed their Master's rule,\n'If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault\nbetween thee and him along' (Matt 18:15), had they met, and on\ntheir knees before the throne of grace, sought from heaven wisdom\nand charity in defending Divine truth, we can easily imagine that\nthe approbation of God would have been manifested, by sending them\non their important work in peaceful unity. They had been immersed\nin the same deep and solemn regeneration, and their ardent object\nwas the same--to spread the influence of the kingdom of Christ.\n\nWhen Christians of various denominations meet in prayer, how it melts\ndown their sectarian bitterness. In this controversy, mention is\nmade of a total abstinence movement in the time of the commonwealth,\na germ which has put forth its mighty efforts in our more peaceful\nand happy times. A cloud now hovered over Bunyan, and threatened\nhim with troubles of a very different kind to those of religious\ncontroversy. It will startle many of our readers to hear that,\nunder the government of Cromwell, Bunyan was persecuted for his\nreligious opinions and practices. Mr. Jukes, in his interesting\nHistory of Bunyan's Church, thus refers to it: 'Soon after he had\nresigned the office of deacon in 1657, the hand of persecution was\nraised against him; for at a meeting of the church, held on the\n25th day of the twelfth month, in the same year (Feb. 1658), it\nwas agreed that the 3d day of the next month be set apart to seek\nGod in the behalf of our brother Wheeler, who hath been long ill in\nbody, whereby his ministry hath been hindered; and also about the\nchurch affairs, and the affairs of the nation; and for our brother\nWhitbread, who has long been ill; and also for counsel what to do\nwith respect to the indictment of brother Bunyan at the assizes,\nfor preaching at Eaton.'[188]\n\nAlthough persecution for religious opinions assumed a milder form\nunder the Commonwealth, the great principles of religious freedom\nand equality were neither known nor practiced. The savage barbarities\nperpetrated upon Prynne, Bastwick, Burton, Leighton, and others,\nby Charles I and his archbishop, Laud, were calculated to open the\neyes of the nation to the wickedness and inutility of sanguinary\nor even any laws to govern the conscience, or interfere with Divine\nworship. Alas! even those who suffered and survived became, in\ntheir turn, persecutors. The great object of persecution was the\nbook of Common Prayer, the use of which was rigorously prohibited.\nThe clergy were placed in an extremely awkward predicament. No\nsooner was the Act of Parliament passed ordering the Directory to\nbe used and the Prayer-book to be laid aside, than the king, by his\nroyal proclamation, issued from Oxford, November 13, 1645, ordered\nthe Directory to be set aside, and the Common Prayer to be used\nin all the churches and chapels. Both these orders were under very\nsevere penalties.\n\nThe Act against atheistical opinions, which passed August 9, 1650,\nillustrates the extraordinary state of the times. The preamble states\nthat, 'Divers men and women have lately discovered themselves to\nbe most monstrous in their opinions, and loose in all wicked and\nabominable practices.' It then enacts that--'Any one, not being mad,\nwho pretends to be God Almighty, or who declares that unrighteousness,\nuncleanness, swearing, drunkenness, and the like filthiness and\nbrutishness, or denying the existence of God, or who shall profess\nthat murder, adultery, incest, fornication, uncleanness, filthy or\nlascivious speaking, are not wicked, sinful, impious, abominable,\nand detestable, shall be imprisoned, and, for a second offence, be\ntransported.'[189]\n\nOne of the Acts that affected Bunyan was passed April 26, 1645,\ncap. 52--'None may preach but ordained ministers, except such as,\nintending the ministry, shall, for trial of their gifts, be allowed\nby such as be appointed by both houses of Parliament.' This was\namended by 'an ordinance appointing commissioners for approbation\nof public preachers,' March, 1653. In this Dr. Owen, Goodwin, Caryl,\nand many others are named, who were to judge of the candidate's\nfitness to preach.[190] The Act which more seriously touched Bunyan\nwas that of May 2, 1648, which enacts that any person saying,\n'that man is bound to believe no more than by his reason he can\ncomprehend, or that the baptizing of infants is unlawful, or such\nbaptism is void, and that such persons ought to be baptized again,\nand, in pursuance thereof, shall baptize any person formerly baptized,\nshall be imprisoned until he gives security that he will not publish\nor maintain the said error any more.'[191] It was these intolerant\nproceedings that led Milton to publish a poem On the New Forcers\nof Conscience, beginning with these lines--\n\n\n   'Dare ye, for this, adjure the civil sword,\n    To force our consciences that Christ set free.'\n\n\nThis last-mentioned ungracious and uncalled-for Act against the\nBaptists, led some violent spirits to print a paper, entitled,\n'The Second Part of England's new Chains Discovered,' this was read\nin many Baptist meeting-houses, and the congregations called upon\nto subscribe it: fortunately, they were peaceably disposed, and\ndenounced it to the House of Commons in a petition, dated April 2,\n1649. Mr. Kiffin and the others were called in, when the Speaker\nreturned them this answer--'The House doth take notice of the good\naffection to the Parliament and public you have expressed, both\nin this petition and otherways. They have received satisfaction\nthereby, concerning your disclaiming that pamphlet, which gave such\njust offence to the Parliament, and also concerning your disposition\nto live peaceably, and in submission to the civil magistracy; your\nexpressions whereof they account very Christian and seasonable.\nThat for yourselves and other Christians, walking answerable to\nsuch professions as in this petition you make, they do assure you\nof liberty and protection, so far as God shall enable them, in all\nthings consistent with godliness, honesty, and civil peace.'[192]\nWhether it was in consequence of this good understanding having\nremained between the Baptists and the Parliament, or from some\napplication to the Protector, or from some unknown cause, the\npersecution was stayed;[193] for the indictment does not appear to\nhave been tried, and Bunyan is found to have been present, and to\nhave taken a part in the affairs of the church, until the 25th day\nof the 2d Month, 1660 (April), when 'it was ordered, according to\nour agreement, that our brother, John Bunyan, do prepare to speak\na word at the next church meeting and that our brother Whiteman\nfail not to speak to him of it.'[194]\n\nThis invitation was very probably intended to introduce him to the\ncongregation, with a view to his becoming an assistant pastor, but\nbefore it took place, he again appeared before the public as an\nauthor. The second production of his pen is a solemn and most searching\nwork, founded upon the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, under\nthe title of A Few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned\nSoul; by that poor and contemptible Servant of Jesus Christ, John\nBunyan, 1658. His humility led him to seek the patronage of his\npastor; and Mr. Gifford, under the initials of J. G., wrote a\npreface of thirty-eight pages, but he dying before it reached the\nsecond edition, that preface was discontinued, and the title somewhat\naltered. The only copy of this first edition yet discovered is in\nthe royal library at the British Museum. It appears to have belonged\nto Charles II, who, with more wit than decorum, has bound it up,\nas a supplement, to an extremely licentious book, as if it was\nintended to say, 'Her house is the way to hell, going down to the\nchamber of death'; or that a licentious life endeth in 'sighs from\nhell.'\n\nMr. Gifford, in this preface, after strongly recommending the work,\nspeaks of the author in the most respectful and affectionate terms,\nshowing that his zeal, and energy, and great usefulness had excited\nthe envy of many who ought to have encouraged him as one taught\nby the Spirit, and used in his hand to do souls good--'divers have\nfelt the power of the Word delivered by him; and I doubt not but\nthat many more may, if the Lord continues him in his work'; and he\ngives this as a reason 'why the archers have shot so sorely at him';\nand then scripturally proves that no objection should be made to\nhis valuable services from his want of human learning. As the whole\nof this interesting preface is accurately reprinted with the book,\nthe reader is referred to it without further extracts.[195] The\nEditor's introduction to these Sighs was written under very solemn\nfeelings, produced by reading this searching treatise. The rich\nman is intended to personify those who, neglecting salvation, die\nin their sins, while Lazarus personates all those who humbly receive\nsalvation as the gift of God; who, however they may suffer in this\nworld, retain their integrity to death. In this parable, a voice\nis heard from the place of torment--the cry is a 'drop of water,'\nthe slightest relief to unutterable woes; and that a messenger may\nbe sent to warn his relatives, lest they should be plunged into the\nsame torment. The impassable gulf defies the vain request, while\nthe despised Christian reposes in everlasting and indescribable\nenjoyment. This little volume was very popular; nine editions were\nprinted and sold in the author's lifetime, besides pirated copies.\nBunyan's feelings and mode of preaching are well described in the\nGrace Abounding,[196] and will be felt by every attentive reader\nof his Sighs from Hell:--'When I have been preaching, I thank God,\nmy heart hath often, with great earnestness, cried to God that\nhe would make the Word effectual to the salvation of the soul.\nWherefore I did labour so to speak the Word, as that thereby, if\nit were possible, the sin and person guilty might be particularized\nby it.'\n\n'And when I have done the exercise, it hath gone to my heart,\nto think the Word should now fall as rain on stony places; still\nwishing from my heart, O! that they who have heard me speak this\nday, did but see as I do, what sin, death, hell, and the curse\nof God is; and also what the grace, and love, and mercy of God\nis, through Christ, to men in such a case as they are who are yet\nestranged from him.\n\n'For I have been in my preaching, especially when I have been\nengaged in the doctrine of life by Christ, without works, as if an\nangel of God had stood by at my back to encourage me.'\n\nSuch feelings are not limited to Bunyan, but are most anxiously\nfelt by all our pious ministers. How fervently ought their hearers\nto unite in approaches to the mercy-seat, that the Divine blessing\nmay make the Word fruitful.\n\nIn those days it was not an uncommon thing for the hearers, at the\nclose of the sermon, to put questions to the preacher, sometimes\nto elicit truth, or to express a cordial union of sentiments, or\nto contradict what the minister had said. Upon one occasion, Mr.\nBunyan, after his sermon, had a singular dispute with a scholar.\nIt is narrated by Mr. C. Doe, who was a personal friend and great\nadmirer of our author, and who probably heard it from his own mouth,\nand will be found in the Struggler, inserted vol. iii., p. 767.\n\nIt is the common taunt of the scorner, and sometimes a stone of\nstumbling to the inquirer, that, while the Christian believes in\nthe intensity of the Saviour's sufferings, and that God was made\nflesh that he might offer himself as an atonement to redeem mankind,\nyet few are saved, in comparison with those who are lost--broad is\nthe way that leadeth to destruction, and many walk therein, while\nfew attempt the narrow way to life; that four sorts of hearers\nare described by the Saviour, only one receiving the truth; as if\nthe doleful realms of darkness and misery would be more thickly\npeopled than those of light and happiness, and Satan prove stronger\nthan Christ. Such cavilers forget that the far greater portion of\nmankind die in infancy, purified by the Saviour's sufferings, and\nenter heaven in the perfection of manhood. As Mr. Toplady justly\nobserves, what a vista does this open to the believer through the\ndreary gloom of the infidel! They forget, also, that all those who\ngain the narrow path, once helped to throng the road to destruction;\nand that the hearers, whose hardened deceitful hearts rejected the\ngospel under one sermon, may, by mercy, have them opened to receive\nit under another. And who dares to limit the Almighty? The power\nthat prepared the spirit of the thief, when upon the cross, even in\nhis last moments, for the pure enjoyments of heaven, still exists.\nIs the arm of the Lord shortened that he cannot save? The myriads of\nheaven will be found countless as are the sands upon the sea-shore,\nand the harmony of their worship shall swell like the voice of\nmany waters and mighty thunderings, saying, 'Alleluja, for the Lord\nGod omnipotent reigneth.' What! Satan stronger than the Almighty\nRedeemer? Perish the thought. Still how common is the question,\nwhich one of the disciples put to his master, 'Lord, are there few\nthat be saved?' How striking the answer! 'Strive to enter in at the\nstrait gate' (Luke 13:23). Encumber not thy mind with such needless\ninquiries, but look to thine own salvation.\n\nAnother very singular anecdote is related, which proves that the\nuse of the churches was not then limited to any one sect. 'Being\nto preach in a church in a country village (before the restoration\nof king Charles) in Cambridgeshire, and the people being gathered\ntogether in the church-yard, a Cambridge scholar, and none of the\nsoberest of 'em neither, enquired what the meaning of that concourse\nof people was, it being upon the week day, and being told, That one\nBunyan, a tinker, was to preach there, he gave a boy twopence to\nhold his horse, saying, He was resolved to hear the tinker prate;\nand so went into the church to hear him. But God met with him there\nby his ministry, so that he came out much changed, and would, by\nhis good will, hear none but the tinker for a long time after, he\nhimself becoming a very eminent preacher in that county afterwards.\nThis story I know to be true, having many a time discoursed with\nthe man, and, therefore, I could not but set it down as a singular\ninstance of the power of God that accompanied his ministry.'[197]\n\nBunyan's veneration for the Scriptures, as the only source and\nstandard of religious knowledge, led him into frequent controversies.\nIn common with the Christian world, he wholly depended upon the\nenlightening influence of the Holy Spirit to impress the Divine\ntruths of revelation upon the mind, and also to illustrate, open,\nand apply the sacred writings to the heart of man. Unable to read\nthe Bible in the original languages in which it was written, he\nwisely made use of every aid that might enable him to study its\ncontents with the greatest advantage. It was his habit to examine\nthe two translations then in common use. The present authorized\nversion, first published in 1611, is that to which he usually\nrefers; comparing it with the favourite Puritan version made by the\nrefugees at Geneva, and first printed in 1560. He sometimes quotes\nthe Genevan, and so familiar were the two translations, that in\nseveral instances he mixes them in referring from memory to passages\nof holy writ.\n\nUpon one of his journeys, being upon the road near Cambridge, he\nwas overtaken by a scholar, who concluded that he was an itinerant\npreacher, whether from having heard him, or observing his serious\ndeportment, or his Bible reading, does not appear, although the\nlatter was probably the reason. But the student determined to have\na brush with him, and said, 'How dare you preach from the Bible,\nseeing you have not the original, being not a scholar?' Then said\nMr. Bunyan, 'Have you the original?' 'Yes, said the scholar.' 'Nay,\nbut,' said Mr. Bunyan, 'have you the very self-same original copies\nthat were written by the penmen of the Scriptures, prophets and\napostles?' 'No,' said the scholar, 'but we have the true copies of\nthese originals.' 'How do you know that?' said Mr. Bunyan. 'How?'\nsaid the scholar. 'Why, we believe what we have is a true copy\nof the original.' 'Then,' said Mr. Bunyan, 'so do I believe our\nEnglish Bible is a true copy of the original.' Then away rid the\nscholar.[198] As neither persecution nor railing, nor temptations,\nnor the assaults of Satan, produced any effect upon Bunyan to prevent\nhis preaching, but rather excited his zeal and energy, means of\na more deadly nature were resorted to, to injure or prevent his\nusefulness. As Mr. Gifford said, 'The archers shot sorely at him'\nby the most infamous and unfounded slanders, which he thus narrates:--\n\n'When Satan perceived that his thus tempting and assaulting of me\nwould not answer his design, to wit, to overthrow my ministry, and\nmake it ineffectual, as to the ends thereof: then he tried another\nway, which was to stir up the minds of the ignorant and malicious\nto load me with slanders and reproaches. Now, therefore, I may say,\nthat what the devil could devise, and his instruments invent, was\nwhirled up and down the country against me, thinking, as I said,\nthat by that means they should make my ministry to be abandoned.\nIt began, therefore, to be rumoured up and down among the people,\nthat I was a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, and the like. To all\nwhich, I shall only say, God knows that I am innocent. But as for\nmine accusers, let them provide themselves to meet me before the\ntribunal of the Son of God, there to answer for all these things,\nwith all the rest of their iniquities, unless God shall give them\nrepentance for them, for the which I pray with all my heart.\n\n'But that which was reported with the boldest confidence, was, that\nI had my misses, yea, two wives at once, and the like. Now these\nslanders, with the others, I glory in, because but slanders, foolish,\nor knavish lies, and falsehoods cast upon me by the devil and his\nseed; and should I not be dealt with thus wickedly by the world,\nI should want one sign of a saint, and a child of God. \"Blessed\nare ye (said the Lord Jesus) when men shall revile you and persecute\nyou, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my\nsake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in\nheaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.\"\n\n'These things therefore, upon mine own account, trouble me not. No,\nthough they were twenty times more than they are, I have a good\nconscience; and whereas they speak evil of me, they shall be ashamed\nthat falsely accuse my good conversation in Christ. Therefore I\nbind these lies and slanders to me as an ornament, it belongs to\nmy Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached, and\nreviled. I rejoice in reproaches for Christ's sake. My foes have\nmissed their mark in this their shooting at me. I am not the man.\nIf all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged by\nthe neck till they be dead, John Bunyan, the object of their envy,\nwould be still alive and well. I know not whether there be such\na thing as a woman breathing under the copes of the whole heaven,\nbut by their apparel, their children, or by common fame, except my\nwife.\n\n'And in this I admire the wisdom of God, that he made me shy of\nwomen from my first conversion until now. When I have seen good men\nsalute those women that they have visited, I have made my objection\nagainst it; and when they have answered, that it was but a piece of\ncivility, I have told them, it is not a comely sight. Some indeed\nhave urged the holy kiss; but then I have asked why they made baulks,\nwhy they did salute the most handsome, and let the ill-favoured\ngo. Not that I have been thus kept, because of any goodness in me,\nmore than any other, but God has been merciful to me, and has kept\nme, to whom I pray that he will keep me still, not only from this,\nbut every evil way and work, and preserve me to his heavenly kingdom.\nAmen.'[199]\n\nNotwithstanding all Mr. Bunyan's care to avoid the slightest\nappearance of evil, yet being over-persuaded to an act of humanity\nand civility to one of his female members, he was most unjustly\ncalumniated. The circumstances which gave rise to this slander\nare narrated in James's Abstract of God's dealings with Mrs. Agnes\nBeaumont, of which an abridged account will be found in a note to\nthe Grace Abounding.[200] It exhibits in a remarkable manner how\neasily such reports are raised against the holiest men.\n\nAnother still more extraordinary and unnatural charge was made\nagainst Bunyan. He lived at a period when witchcraft, witches,\nand wizards were in the height of fashion. Any poor woman who had\noutlived or had become a burden to her natural protectors, and\nwhose temper was soured by infirmities, especially if her language\nwas vulgar and her appearance repulsive, ran the risk of being\ndefamed as a witch. If in her neighbourhood a murrain seized the\ncattle, or a disease entered a family which baffled the little\nknowledge of the country practitioners--such as epilepsy, St. Vitus'\ndance, or St. Anthony's fire--it was ascribed to witchcraft, and\nvengeance was wreaked upon any reputed witch. In many parts of\nEngland she was tried by a kind of Lynch law, in a very summary\nmanner. Her hands and feet being bound together, she was thrown\ninto deep water; if she sank, and was drowned, she was declared\ninnocent; if she swam, it was a proof of guilt, and a little form\nof law condemned her to the stake or halter. In Scotland, they were\ntreated with greater barbarity; they were awfully tortured--thumb-screws,\nthe boots to crush their knees, pricking them with needles or awls\nnight and day, to prevent a moment's rest, were persevered in--until\na confession was extorted, to be followed by a frightful death. The\nignorance that prevailed may account for the faith of the vulgar\nin witchcraft; but that learned divines, and even the enlightened\nJudge Hale, should fall into the delusion, is most surprising.\nThe charge against Bunyan was, that he had circulated some paper\nlibeling a most respectable widow, a Quakeress, as a witch. This\npaper cannot now be discovered; but the story is so perfectly\nridiculous as to render it quite improbable that Bunyan had any\nknowledge of it. The account is contained in a rare pamphlet of\nfour leaves, preserved in the very curious library of the Society\nof Friends at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate. It is entitled, 'A\nlying wonder discovered, and the strange and terrible news from\nCambridge proved false; which false news is published in a libel,\nconcerning a wicked slander cast upon a Quaker; but the author\nof the said libel was ashamed to subscribe his name to it. Also,\nthis contains an answer to John Bunion's paper, touching the said\nimagined witchcraft, which he hath given forth to your wonderment,\nas he saith; but it is also proved a lie and a slander by many\ncredible witnesses hereafter mentioned.'[201] It narrates that\nMargaret Pryor, of Long Stanton, indicted, on the 28th July, 1659,\nthe widow Morlin, a Quaker lady, for having, on the 29th November,\n1657, took her out of bed from her husband in the night, put a\nbridle in her mouth, and transformed her into a bay mare, and with\na Quaker, William Allen, rode upon her to Maddenly House, a distance\nof four miles; that they made her fast to the latch of the door,\nwhile she saw them partake of a feast of mutton, rabbits, and lamb\n[lamb in November!!]; that they shone like angels, and talked of\ndoctrine, and that she knew some of the guests; that her feet were\na little sore, but not her hands, nor was she dirty. In examining\nher, the judge elicited that she made no mention of the story for\na year and three-quarters, and that her deposition then was that\nsome evil spirit changed her into a bay-horse; that her hands and\nfeet were lamentably bruised, and changed as black as a coal; that\nshe had her chemise on, which was all bloody, from her sides being\nrent and torn with the spurs. All this was unknown to her husband;\nnor had she accounted for her chemise so strangely fitting a horse\nor mare. It was proved that the complainant had received money for\nbringing the charge, and pretended to have burnt some of her hair\nwith elder-bark, as a counter-charm to prevent it happening again.\nThe judge summed up with observing that it was a mere dream or\nphantasy, and that the complainant was the sorceress, by practicing\nincantations in burning her hair and bark. The jury found a verdict\nof--not guilty; and thus two innocent persons were saved by an\nenlightened judge from an ignominious death. It is almost incredible\nthat, even after the trial, priests and magistrates who had promoted\nthe prosecution professed to believe that the charge was true. This\nsingular narrative, in defence of the poor persecuted Quakeress,\nis signed James Blackley, an alderman, George Whitehead, and three\nothers. No one can believe that John Bunyan gave credit to such\na tale, or mentioned it to the injury of the parties accused. His\nreply was, that these slanders were devised by the devil and his\ninstruments--'God knows that I am innocent.' The probability is,\nthat the pamphlet called Strange News from Cambridge had been sent\nto him, and that he gave it to some Quaker to answer.\n\nConsidering the almost universal belief in witchcraft in those\ndays--that Baxter, Cotton Mather, Clarke, and many of our most\neminent divines, believed in it--and that Bunyan received the\nScriptures in our authorized translation with the deepest reverence,\nit becomes an interesting inquiry how far he believed in witchcraft,\npossessions, incantations, and charms. He was persuaded that Satan\ncould appear to mankind in the shape of animals, and in the human\nform. Had any one doubted the possibility of these appearances, he\nwould at that time have been called an atheist and an unbeliever in\nthe existence of God and of separate spirits. Thus he argues, that\n'If sin can make one who was sometimes a glorious angel in heaven\nnow so to abuse himself as to become, to appearance, as a filthy\nfrog, a toad, a rat, a cat, a fly, a mouse, or a dog, to serve its\nends upon a poor mortal, that it might gull them of everlasting\nlife, no marvel if the soul is so beguiled as to sell itself from\nGod and all good for so poor a nothing as a momentary pleasure.'[202]\nWhen speaking of the impropriety of excluding a pious person from\nthe Lord's table, because of a difference of opinion as to water\nbaptism, he says, 'Do you more to the openly profane--yea, to all\nwizards and witches in the land?'[203] In quoting Isaiah 13, he,\ntaught by the Puritan version, puts the key in the margin--'Wild\nbeasts of the desert shall be there and their houses shall be full\nof doleful creatures. And owls shall dwell there, and satyrs [that\nis, the hobgoblins, or devils] shall dance there.'[204] He gave no\ncredence to the appearance of departed spirits, except in the hour\nof death; and then, while between time and eternity, he thought\nthat in some rare cases spiritual sight was given to see objects\notherwise invisible.[205]\n\nHe fully believed in the power of Satan to suggest evil thoughts\nto the pious Christian, and to terrify and punish the wicked, even\nin this life; but never hints, through all his works, at any power\nof Satan to communicate to man any ability to injure his fellows.\nWhat a contrast is there between the Pilgrim of Loretto, with\nits witch and devil story, mentioned in the introduction to the\nPilgrim's Progress, and Bunyan's great allegorical work! Conjurors\nand fortune-tellers, or witches and wizards, were vagabonds deserving\nfor their fraudulent pretensions,[206] punishment by a few months'\nimprisonment to hard labour, but not a frightful death. In all these\nthings this great man was vastly in advance of his age. He had\nstudied nature from personal observation and the book of revelation.\nIn proportion as the laws of nature are understood, the crafty\npretensions of conjurors and witches become exposed to contempt.\nBunyan never believed that the great and unchangeable principles\nwhich the Creator has ordained to govern nature could be disturbed\nby the freaks of poor old crazy women, for purposes trifling and\ninsignificant. No, such a man could never have circulated a report\nthat a woman was turned into a bay mare, and her chemise into a\nhorse-cloth and saddle! Unbridled sectarian feeling perverted some\nremark of his, probably made with the kindest intention, into a\nmost incredible slander.\n\nAmong the many singularities of that very interesting period, one\nwas the number of religious tournaments or disputations that were\nheld all over the country. The details of one of these, between\nFisher, a Jesuit, and Archbishop Laud, occupy a folio volume. In\nthese wordy duels the Baptists and Quakers bore a prominent part.\nTo write a history of them would occupy more space than our narrow\nlimits will allow. Bunyan entered into one of these controversies\nwith the Quakers at Bedford Market-cross,[207] and probably held\nothers in the church, those buildings being at times available under\nthe Protectorate for such purposes. Bunyan was met by the son of\nthunder, Edward Burrough, who was also assisted by Anne Blackly, a\nremarkably pious woman and an able disputant. Bunyan pressed them\nwith the Scriptures, and dealt such severe blows that Mrs. Blackly,\nin the public assembly, bid him throw away the Scriptures. To which\nhe answered, 'No, for then the devil would be too hard for me.'\nThe great controversy was as to Christ within his saints. Bunyan\nproved, by the holy oracles, that Christ had ascended, and was\nat the right hand of God; to which Mrs. Blackly answered, that he\npreached up an idol, and used conjuraton and witchcraft. To the\ncharge of spiritual conjuration and witchcraft he made no reply,\nit being unworthy his notice; but called upon her to repent of her\nwickedness in calling Christ an idol. With regard to his presence\nin his saints, he reminded her, that if any man have not the Spirit\nof Christ, he is none of his.[208] As a matter of course, both\nparties claimed the victory; and although the hearers were puzzled,\ndoubtless much good was effected.\n\nThese were comparatively happy days for God's fearers--much valuable\nseed was sown, and the light of divine truth penetrated into many\na benighted town and village. At length dark and portentous clouds\nrolled over the horizon. The Protector had entered into rest; his\nson was wholly incapable of taking the helm of public affairs.\nThe exiled king, Charles II, declared his determination to publish\nan amnesty for all political offences; and from Breda issued his\nproclamation for liberty of conscience, and the kingdom was cajoled\nand sold. The king was scarcely seated on his throne, and armed\nwith power, when he threw off the mask. Men who had faithfully\nperformed very painful duties under the authority of Acts of\nParliament were put to death, others imprisoned and transported,\nand uniformity in religion was re-enacted under ferocious penalties.\nBunyan was to endure a cruel imprisonment, with all the fears of an\nignominious death. 'Now,' he says, 'as Satan laboured by reproaches\nand slanders, to make me vile among my countrymen, that if possible\nmy preaching might be made of none effect, so there was added hereto\na long and tedious imprisonment, that thereby I might be frighted\nfrom my service for Christ, and the world terrified and made afraid\nto hear me preach, of which I shall in the next place give you a\nbrief account.'[209]\n\nTHE FIFTH PERIOD.\n\nBUNYAN SUFFERS PERSECUTION, AND A LONG AND DANGEROUS IMPRISONMENT,\nFOR REFUSING TO ATTEND THE COMMON PRAYER SERVICE, AND FOR PREACHING.\n\n\n   --'O happie he who doth possesse\n    Christ for his fellow prisoner, who doth gladde\n    With heavenly sunbeams, goales that are most sad.'\n\n\n(Written by William Prynne, on his Prison wall, in the Tower.)\n\nThe men who arraign their fellows before any standard of orthodoxy,\nor claim the right of dictating forms of belief or modes of worship\nunder pains or penalties, are guilty of assuming the prerogative\nof the Most High, and of claiming, for their frail opinions,\ninfallibility. Such are guilty of high treason against the Majesty\nof heaven--and all their machinations have a direct tendency to\ndestroy human happiness--the wealth of the nation, and that universal\ngood-will among men which the gospel is intended to establish. Such\nmen present to us the various features of antichrist, the dread\nenemy of mankind.\n\nThe duty of every intelligent creature is to watch the operations\nof nature, that he may be led to just perceptions of the greatness\nof the Creator, and the goodness of his immutable laws. Soon he\nfinds his perceptions dim, and is conscious of evil propensities,\nwhich baffle all his efforts at sinless perfection. He finds nothing\nin nature to solve the solemn inquiry how sin is to be pardoned,\nand evil thoughts and habits to be rooted out. The convinced sinner\nthen feels the necessity of a direct revelation from God; and in\nthe Bible alone he finds that astounding declaration, which leaves\nall human philosophy at an immeasurable distance--'Ye must be\nborn again.' God only can effect the wondrous change--man, priest,\nprophet, or magi, can do him no good--his terror-stricken conscience\ndrives him to his Creator, and faith in the Redeemer causes\nconsolation to abound.\n\nIn every kingdom of the world, the Christian inquirer is met by the\nopposition of antichrist, in some form or other, attempts will\nbe made to limit his free-born spirit to human inventions and\nmediations in seeking Divine mercy. He feels that he is bound, by\nall his hopes of happiness, here and hereafter, to obey God rather\nthan man, in everything pertaining to spiritual religion. In his\nsimple obedience to the Word of God, he braves all dangers, sure\nof the Divine blessing and support while encountering obloquy,\ncontempt, allurements, and persecution, in its varied polluted\nforms and appalling cruelties.\n\nAfter the decease of Oliver Cromwell, it soon became apparent that\nthe exiled king would be restored. In the prospect of that event,\nCharles II promised a free pardon to all his subjects, excepting\nonly such persons as should be excepted by parliament; and 'we\ndo declare a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall\nbe disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in\nmatters of religion, which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom.'\nWho could imagine, that, in the face of this solemn declaration,\nacts, the most oppressive and tyrannical, would be passed--compelling\npretended uniformity in belief and real uniformity in the mode of\npublic worship--driving the most pious and useful clergymen from\ntheir pulpits and livings--preventing them from becoming tutors\nor schoolmasters--and not suffering them to live within five miles\nof a city or town. Ruinous penalties were inflicted, not only on\nevery minister, but upon every hearer, who met to worship God in\nprivate houses or in the fields and woods. Christians, convinced\nof the wickedness of such laws, strove, by every possible means,\nto evade the penalties, with a stern determination to worship God\nin the way that their conscience led them. They met their beloved\nministers in private places, and at the most unseasonable hours.\nIt is said that Bunyan, to avoid discovery, went from a friend's\nhouse disguised as a carter; with his white frock, wide-awake cap,\nand his whip in his hand, to attend a private meeting in a sheltered\nfield or barn. To prevent these meetings, severe and almost\narbitrary penalties were enforced, a considerable part of which\nwent to the informers--men of debauched habits and profligate\nprinciples. With all their vigilance, these prohibited meetings\ncould not be prevented. In some cases, the persecuted disciples of\na persecuted Lord took houses adjoining each other, and, by opening\ninternal communications, assembled together. In some cases, the\nbarn or room in which they met, had a door behind the pulpit, by\nwhich the preacher could escape. A curious letter, preserved in\nthe archives at Devonshire House, states, that when a Christian\nassembly was held near Devonshire Square, while the minister was in\nhis sermon, the officers and trained bands entered the meeting-house.\nThe preacher immediately ceased preaching, and gave out the lines\nof a hymn, which the congregation joined in singing, and the officers\nwaited till the devotional exercise was ended. The preacher, taking\nadvantage of their hesitation, made his escape by a door at the\nback of the pulpit; 'thus,' says the quaint Quaker, 'he choked\nthe informers off with his hymn.' In the Life of Badman are some\nillustrative anecdotes relating to informers and their violent ends,\nwith an interesting cut of a religious meeting in the fields. One\ninformer is in a neighbouring tree, to identify the meeters; while\nin the distance, another is running for the officers, with this\nverse under the print:--\n\n\n   'Informer, art thou in the tree?\n    Take heed, lest there thou hanged be:\n    Look likewise to thy foot-hold well;\n    Lest, if thou slip, thou fall to hell.'\n\n\nIn many cases the justices considered a field preacher to be\nequally guilty with a regicide.[210] One of the informers, named W.\nS., was very diligent in this business; 'he would watch a-nights,\nclimb trees, and range the woods a-days, if possible to find out\nthe meeters, for then they were forced to meet in the fields.' At\nlength he was stricken by the hand of God, and died a most wretched\nobject.[211] The cruelties that were inflicted upon Dissenters\nare scarcely credible. Penn, the Quaker, gives this narrative of\nfacts:--The widow's mite hath not escaped their hands; they have\nmade her cow the forfeit of her conscience, not leaving her a bed\nto lie on, nor a blanket to cover her; and what is yet more barbarous,\nand helps to make up this tragedy, the poor helpless orphan's milk,\nboiling over the fire, was flung away, and the skillet made part\nof their prize; that, had not nature in neighbours been stronger\nthan cruelty in informers and officers, to open her bowels for\ntheir relief, they must have utterly perished.[212] One of these\ninfamous, hard-hearted wretches in Bedford, was stricken, soon\nafter, with death; and such had been his notorious brutality, that\nhis widow could not obtain a hearse, but was obliged to carry his\nbody to the grave in a cart.\n\nIt is gratifying to leave these horrors--these stains upon\nour national history--for a moment, to record an event which took\nplace about fifty years back. The Rev. S. Hillyard, the pastor of\nBunyan's church, thus writes:--'When our meeting-house was lately\nrepaired, we were allowed, by the Lord Lieutenant and the justices,\nto carry on our public worship, for a quarter of a year in the\ntown-hall, where, if it had been standing in Mr. Bunyan's time,\nhe must have been tried and committed to jail for preaching.' How\ndifferent our position from that of our pilgrim forefathers.\n\nThe justices, if the law had allowed them, would, from the first,\nhave prevented Bunyan's preaching. When they had the power,\nhe possessed nothing to excite the cupidity of an informer: this,\nwith the caution of his friends, saved him, for some months, from\nbeing apprehended; they met privately in barns, milk-houses, and\nstables, or in any convenient place in which they were not likely\nto be disturbed. In addition to these services, every opportunity was\nembraced to visit his friends--praying with them, and administering\nconsolation, arming them with a steady resolve to be patient\nin suffering, and to trust in God for their safety and reward. At\nlength an information was laid, and he was caught in the very act\nof worshipping God with some pious neighbours. Bunyan's account of\nthis event is deeply interesting; but the want of sufficient space\nprevents my giving more than an abstract of it, referring the reader\nto his Grace Abounding for fuller details.\n\nOn November 12, 1660, as the winter was setting in, having been\ninvited to preach at Samsell, in Bedfordshire, he prepared a sermon\nupon these words--'Dost thou believe in the Son of God?' (John\n9:35); from which he intended 'to show the absolute need of faith\nin Jesus Christ, and that it was also a thing of the highest concern\nfor men to inquire into, and to ask their own hearts whether they\nhad faith or no.'[213] He had then been a preacher of the glorious\ngospel of Christ for five or six years, without any interruption;\nfor, although indicted, he had continued his useful career, and\nthrough grace had received great encouragement and eminent proofs\nof the Divine blessing.\n\nFrancis Wingate, a neighbouring justice of the peace, having heard\nof the intended meeting, issued his warrant to bring the preacher\nbefore him. The intention of the magistrate was whispered about,\nand came to Bunyan's ears before the meeting was held, probably to\ngive him an opportunity of escape. His friends, becoming alarmed\nfor his safety, advised him to forego the opportunity. It was a\ntrying moment for him; he had a beloved wife to whom he had not been\nlong married, and four dear children, one of them blind, depending\nupon his daily labour for food. If he escaped, he might continue\nhis stolen opportunities of doing good to the souls of men. He\nhesitated but for a few minutes for private prayer; he had hitherto\nshown himself hearty and courageous in preaching, and it was his\nbusiness to encourage the timid flock. 'Therefore, thought I, if I\nshould now run and make an escape, it will be of a very ill savour\nin the country; what will my weak and newly converted brethren\nthink of it? If I should run, now there was a warrant out for me,\nI might, by so doing, make them afraid to stand when great words\nonly should be spoken to them.' He retired into a close, privately,\nto seek Divine direction, and came back resolved to abide the will\nof God. It was the first attempt, near Bedford, to apprehend a\npreacher of the gospel, and he thus argued with himself--'If God,\nof his mercy, should choose me to go upon the forlorn hope, that is,\nto be the first that should be opposed for the gospel, if I should\nfly it might be a discouragement to the whole body that should follow\nafter. And I thought that the world thereby would take occasion\nat my cowardliness, to have blasphemed the gospel.'[214] These\nconsiderations brought him to the noble resolution of fulfilling his\nduty, under all its difficulties and dangers. In these reasonings\nthe same honourable decision of mind animated him which impelled\nDaniel, and the three Hebrew youths, to violate the wicked laws of\nthe nation in which they lived, because these laws were opposed to\nthe will of God. He and they, as well as the apostles, judged for\nthemselves, and opposed statutes or ancient customs which, in their\nopinion, were contrary to the Divine law by which they were to be\njudged at the solemn and great day. Nor did they, in the prospect\nof the most dread personal sufferings, hesitate to follow the\nconvictions of their minds. Some laws are more honoured in the breach\nthan in the observance of them. The law of Pharaoh to destroy the\nmale children of the Israelites, in ancient times, and the present\nPopish laws of Tuscany, that the Bible shall not be read, are laws\nso contrary to common sense, and the most sacred duties of man,\nthat 'God dealt well' with those who broke them in Egypt, as he has\never dealt with those who have thus honoured him. The millions of\nprayers that were offered up for a blessing upon the confessors,\nMadiai, have been answered. Had they perished in the prisons of\nTuscany, they would have joined the noble army of martyrs before\nthe throne of God, to witness his judgments upon that persecuting\nchurch which has shed so much holy blood.\n\nWhen Bunyan was advised to escape by dismissing the meeting, which\nconsisted of about forty persons, he replied, 'No, by no means; I\nwill not stir, neither will I have the meeting dismissed. Come, be\nof good cheer, let us not be daunted; our cause is good, we need\nnot be ashamed of it; to preach God's Word is so good a work, that\nwe shall be well rewarded if we suffer for that.'[215] All this\ntook place about an hour before the officers arrived. The service\nwas commenced with prayer at the time appointed, the preacher and\nhearers had their Bibles in their hands to read the text, when the\nconstable and his attendants came in, and, exhibiting the warrant,\nordered him to lave the pulpit and come down; but he mildly told\nhim that he was about his Master's business, and must rather obey\nhis Lord's voice than that of man. Then a constable was ordered\nto fetch him down, who, coming up and taking hold of his coat, was\nabout to remove him, when Mr. Bunyan fixed his eyes steadfastly\nupon him; having his Bible open in his hand, the man let go, looked\npale, and retired; upon which he said to the congregation, 'See\nhow this man trembles at the Word of God.' Truly did one of his\nfriends say, 'he had a sharp, quick eye.' But being commanded in\nthe king's name, he went with the officer, accompanied by some of\nhis friends, to the magistrate's residence. Before they left, the\nconstable allowed him to speak a few words to the people of counsel\nand encouragement. He declared that it was a mercy when called to\nsuffer upon so good an account; that it was of grace that they had\nbeen kept from crimes, which might have caused their apprehension\nas thieves and murderers, or for some wickedness; but by the\nblessing of God it was not so, but, as Christians, they were called\nto suffer for well-doing; and that we had better be persecuted than\nthe persecutors. The constable took him to the justice's house, but\nas he was from home, to save the expense and trouble of charging\na watch to secure his prisoner, he allowed him to go home, one of\nhis friends undertaking to be answerable for his appearance the\nnext day. On the following morning they went to the constable and\nthen to the justice. The celebrated Quaker, John Roberts, managed\nan affair of that kind better. There was plenty of time to have\nheld and dismissed the meeting before the constable arrived, and\nthen he might have done as Roberts did--made the best of his way\nto the magistrate's house, and demanded, 'Dost thou want me, old\nman?' and when asked whether or not he went to church, his ready\nreply was, 'Yes, sometimes I go to the church, and sometimes the\nchurch comes to me.'[216]\n\nWhen Bunyan and the constable came before Justice Wingate, he inquired\nwhat the meeters did, and what they had with them; suspecting that\nthey met armed, or for treasonable practices: but when the constable\ntold him that they were unarmed, and merely assembled to preach and\nhear the Word, he could not well tell what to say. Justice Wingate\nwas not the only magistrate who had felt difficulties as to the\nconstruction of the persecuting acts of 35 Eliz. and 15 Chas. II.\nHad he taken an opinion, as one of the justices at that time did,\nit might have saved him from the infamy and guilt of punishing an\ninnocent man. The case was this:--'Two persons of insolent behaviour,\ncalling themselves informers, demanded, on their evidence of having\nbeen present, without summons or hearing in presence of the accused,\nthat a fine of \u00a3100 should be levied; they were at the meeting and\nheard no Common Prayer service.' The opinion was that there must\nbe evidence showing the intent, and that the meeting was held\nunder colour and pretence of any exercise of religion to concoct\nsedition.[217] Mr. Wingate asked Bunyan why he did not follow his\ncalling and go to church? to which he replied, that all his intention\nwas to instruct and counsel people to forsake their sins, and that\nhe did, without confusion, both follow his calling and preach the\nWord. At this the angry justice ordered his commitment to jail,\nrefusing bail, unless he would promise to give up preaching. While\nhis mittimus was preparing, he had a short controversy with an\nold enemy of the truth, Dr. Lindale, and also with a persecuting\njustice, Mr. Foster, who, soon after, sorely vexed the people\nof God at Bedford. They tried their utmost endeavours to persuade\nhim to promise not to preach; a word from him might have saved his\nliberty; but it was a word which would have sacrificed his religious\nconvictions, and these were dearer to him than life itself. This\nwas a trying moment, but he had been forewarned of his danger by\nthe extraordinary temptation to sell Christ narrated in his Grace\nAbounding. His feelings, while they were conducting him to the\nprison, were so cheering as to enable him to forget his sorrows;\nhe thus describes them--'Verily, as I was going forth of the doors\nI had much ado to forbear saying to them, that I carried the peace\nof God along with me; and, blessed be the Lord, I went away to\nprison with God's comfort in my poor soul.'[218]\n\nTradition points out the place in which this eminently pious man\nwas confined, as an ancient prison, built with the bridge over the\nriver Ouse, supported on one of the piers near the middle of the\nriver.[219] As the bridge was only four yards and a half wide,\nthe prison must have been very small. Howard, the philanthropist,\nvisited the Bedford prison, that which was dignified as the county\njail about 1788, and thus describes it:--'The men and women felons\nassociate together; their night-rooms are two dungeons. Only one\ncourt for debtors and felons; and no apartment for the jailer.'[220]\nImagination can hardly realize the miseries of fifty or sixty pious\nmen and women, taken from a place of public worship and incarcerated\nin such dens or dungeons with felons, as was the case while Bunyan\nwas a prisoner. Twelve feet square was about the extent of the\nwalls; for it occupies but one pier between the center arches of\nthe bridge. How properly does the poor pilgrim call it a certain\nDEN! What an abode for men and women who had been made by God kings\nand priests--the heirs of heaven! The eyes of Howard, a Dissenter,\npenetrated these dens, these hidden things of darkness, these abodes\nof cruelty. He revealed what lay and clerical magistrates ought to\nhave published centuries before, that they were not fit places in\nwhich to imprison any, even the worst of criminals. He denounced\nthem, humanity shuddered at the discovery, and they were razed to\ntheir foundations. In this den God permitted his honoured servant,\nJohn Bunyan, to be incarcerated for more than twelve years of the\nprime of his life. A man, whose holy zeal for the salvation of\nsinners, whose disinterested labours, whose sufferings for Christ\nprove his apostolical descent much better than those who claim\ndescent from popes, and Wolsey or Bonner--those fiends in human\nshape.\n\nBedford bridge was pulled down in the year 1811, when the present\nhandsome bridge was built. One of the workmen employed upon the\nruins found, among the rubbish, where the prison had stood, a ring\nmade of fine gold, bearing an inscription which affords strong\npresumptive evidence that it belonged to our great allegorist. Dr.\nAbbot, a neighbouring clergyman, who had daily watched the labours\nof the workmen, luckily saw it, and saved it from destruction. He\nconstantly wore it, until, drawing near the end of his pilgrimage,\nin 1817, he took it off his own finger and placed it upon that of\nhis friend Dr. Bower, then curate of Elstow,[221] and at present\nthe dean of Manchester, charging him to keep it for his sake. This\nring must have been a present from some person of property, as a\ntoken of great respect for Bunyan's pious character, and probably\nfrom an indignant sense of his unjust and cruel imprisonment. By\nthe kind permission of the dean, we are enabled to give a correct\nrepresentation of this curious relic.[222][223]\n\nBunyan was thirty-two years of age when taken to prison. He had\nsuffered the loss of his pious wife, whose conversation and portion\nhad been so blessed to him. It is not improbable that her peaceful\ndeparture is pictured in Christiana's crossing the river which has\nno bridge. She left him with four young children, one of whom very\nnaturally and most strongly excited his paternal feelings, from\nthe circumstance of her having been afflicted with blindness. He\nhad married a second time, a woman of exemplary piety and retiring\nmodesty; but whose spirit, when roused to seek the release of her\nbeloved husband, enabled her to stand unabashed, and full of energy\nand presence of mind, before judges in their courts, and lords in\ntheir mansions. When her partner was sent to jail, she was in that\npeculiar state that called for all his sympathy and his tenderest\ncare. The shock was too severe for her delicate situation; she became\ndangerously ill, and, although her life was spared, all hopes had\nfled of her maternal feelings being called into exercise. Thus did\none calamity follow another; still he preserved his integrity.[224]\n\nBunyan was treated with all the kindness which many of his jailers\ndared to show him. In his times, imprisonment and fetters were\ngenerally companions. Thus he says--'When a felon is going to be\ntried, his fetters are still making a noise on his heels.'[225] So\nthe prisoners in the Holy War are represented as being 'brought in\nchains to the bar' for trial. 'The prisoners were handled by the\njailer so severely, and loaded so with irons, that they died in the\nprison.'[226] In many cases, prisoners for conscience' sake were\ntreated with such brutality, before the form of trial, as to cause\ntheir death. By Divine mercy, Bunyan was saved from these dreadful\npunishments, which have ceased as civilization has progressed, and\nnow cloud the narratives of a darker age.\n\nAfter having lain in prison about seven weeks, the session was\nheld at Bedford, for the county; and Bunyan was placed at the bar,\nindicted for devilishly and perniciously abstaining from coming to\nchurch to hear Divine service, and as a common upholder of several\nunlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and\ndistraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, contrary to the\nlaws of our sovereign lord the king. In this indictment Bunyan\nis not described as 'of Elstow' but 'of Bedford.' Probably he had\nremoved to Bedford soon after he joined Gifford's church. The bench\nwas numerous, and presided over by Justice Keelin.[227] If this was\nSergeant Kelynge who, the following year, was made Lord Chief-Justice,\nhe was a most arbitrary tyrant, equaled or excelled only by Judge\nJeffreys. It was before him that some persons were indicted for\nattending a conventicle; but it being only proved that they had\nassembled on the Lord's-day with Bibles in their hands without\nprayer-books, and there being no proof that their meeting was only\nunder colour or pretence of religion, the jury acquitted them. Upon\nthis he fined each of the jury-men one hundred marks, and imprisoned\nthem till the fines were paid. Again, on a trial for murder, the\nprisoner being under suspicion of Dissent, was one whom the judge\nhad a great desire to hang, he fined and imprisoned all the jury\nbecause, contrary to his direction, they brought in a verdict\nof manslaughter! Well was it said, that he was more fit to charge\nthe Roundheads under Prince Rupert than to charge a jury. After\na short career, he fell into utter contempt.[228] He entered into\na long argument with the poor tinker, about using the liturgy of\nthe Church of England, first warning him of his danger if he spake\nlightly of it. Bunyan argued that prayer was purely spiritual, the\noffering of the heart, and not the reading of a form. The justice\ndeclared--'We know the Common Prayer-book hath been ever since the\napostles' time, and is lawful to be used in the church!!' It is\nsurprising that such a dialogue was ever entered upon; either Keling\nwas desirous of triumphing over the celebrated tinker, or his\ncountenance and personal appearance commanded respect. For some\ncause he was treated with great liberality for those times; the\nextent of it may be seen by one justice asking him, 'Is your God\nBeelzebub?' and another declaring that he was possessed with the\ndevil! 'All which,' says Bunyan, 'I passed over, the Lord forgive\nthem!' When, however, the justice was worsted in argument, and\nacknowledged that he was not well versed in Scripture, he demanded\nthe prisoner's plea, saying, 'Then you confess the indictment?'\n'Now,' says Bunyan, 'and not till now, I saw I was indicted; and\nsaid--\"This I confess, we have had many meetings together, both to\npray to God, and to exhort one another; and that we had the sweet\ncomforting presence of the Lord among us for our encouragement\n(blessed be his name!); therefore I confess myself guilty, and\nno otherwise.\"' This was recorded as a plea of guilty, and Keling\nresumed his natural ferocity. 'Then,' said he, 'hear your judgment.\nYou must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months\nfollowing; and then, if you do not submit to go to church to hear\nDivine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the\nrealm; and after that, if you shall be found in this realm without\nspecial license from the king, you must stretch by the neck for\nit. I tell you plainly'; 'and so he bid my jailer have me away.'\nThe hero answered--'I am at a point with you: if I were out of\nprison to-day, I would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the\nhelp of God.'[229]\n\nThe statutes, by virtue of which this awful sentence was pronounced,\ntogether with the legal form of recantation used by those who were\nterrified into conformity, are set forth in a note to the Grace\nAbounding.[230] Bunyan was, if not the first, one of the first\nDissenters who were proceeded against after the restoration of\nCharles II; and his trial, if such it may be called, was followed\nby a wholesale persecution. The king, as head of the Church\nof England, wreaked his vengeance upon all classes of Dissenters,\nexcepting Roman Catholics and Jews.\n\nThe reign of Charles II was most disgraceful and disastrous to the\nnation, even the king being a pensioner upon the French court. The\nDutch swept the seas, and threatened to burn London; a dreadful\nplague depopulated the metropolis--the principal part of which was,\nin the following year, with its cathedral, churches, and public\nbuildings, destroyed by fire; plots and conspiracies alarmed the\npeople; tyranny was triumphant; even the bodies of the illustrious\ndead were exhumed, and treated with worse than savage ferocity;\nwhile a fierce persecution raged throughout the kingdom, which\nfilled the jails with Dissenters.\n\nIn Scotland, the persecution raged with still more deadly violence.\nMilitary, in addition to civil despotism, strove to enforce the\nuse of the Book of Common Prayer. The heroic achievements and awful\nsuffering of Scottish Christians saved their descendants from this\nyoke of bondage.[231]\n\nA short account of the extent of the sufferings of our pious ancestors\nis given in the Introduction to the Pilgrim's Progress[232]--a\nnarrative which would appear incredible did it not rest upon\nunimpeachable authority. It would be difficult to believe the\nrecords of the brutal treatment which the sufferers underwent had\nthey not been handed down to us in the State Trials, and in public\nregisters, over which the persecuted had no control. Two instances\nwill show the extreme peril in which the most learned and pious\nmen held their lives. John James, the pastor of a Baptist church in\nWhitechapel, was charged, upon the evidence of a perjured drunken\nvagabond named Tipler, a pipe-maker's journeyman, who was not present\nin the meeting, but swore that he heard him utter treasonable words.\nNotwithstanding the evidence of some most respectable witnesses,\nwho were present during the whole service, and distinctly proved\nthat no such words were used, Mr. James was convicted, and sentenced\nto be hung. His distracted wife saw the king, presented a petition,\nand implored mercy, when the unfeeling monarch replied, 'O! Mr.\nJames; he is a sweet gentleman.' Again, on the following morning,\nshe fell at his feet, beseeching his royal clemency, when he spurned\nher from him, saying, 'John James, that rogue, he shall be hanged;\nyea, he shall be hanged.' And, in the presence of his weeping\nfriends, he ascended from the gibbet to the mansions of the blessed.\nHis real crime was, that he continued to preach after having been\nwarned not to do so by John Robinson, lieutenant of the Tower,\nproperly called, by Mr. Crosby,[233] a devouring wolf, upon whose\nhead the blood of this and other innocent Dissenters will be found.\nAnother Dissenting minister, learned, pious, loyal, and peaceful,\nwas, during Bunyan's time, marked for destruction. Thomas Rosewell\nwas tried before the monster Jeffreys. He was charged, upon the\nevidence of two infamous informers, with having doubted the power\nof the king to cure the kings' evil, and with saying that they\nshould overcome their enemies with rams' horns, broken platters, and\na stone in a sling. A number of most respectable witnesses deposed\nto their having been present; that no such words were uttered, and\nthat Mr. Rosewell was eminent for loyalty and devoted attachment to\nthe Government. Alas! he was a Dissenting teacher of high standing,\nof extensive acquirements, and of great earnestness in seeking\nthe salvation of sinners; and, under the direction of that brutal\njudge, the venal jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be\nhung. This frightful sentence would have been executed but from a\nsingular interposition of Providence. Sir John Talbot was present\nduring the trial, and a stranger to Mr. Rosewell; but he was so\nstruck with the proceedings, that he hastened to the king, related\nthe facts, and added, 'that he had seen the life of a subject,\nwho appeared to be a gentleman and a scholar, in danger, upon such\nevidence as he would not hang his dog on.' And added, 'Sire, if you\nsuffer this man to die, we are none of us safe in our own houses.'\nAt this moment Jeffreys came in, gloating over his prey, exulting\nin the innocent blood he was about to shed, when, to his utter\nconfusion, the king said, 'Mr. Rosewell shall not die'; and his\npardon was issued under the great seal.[234] Every Englishman should\nread the state trials of that period, recording the sufferings of\nRichard Baxter, William Penn, Sir H. Vane, and many others of our\nmost pious forefathers; and they must feel that it was a miracle of\nmercy that saved the life of Bunyan, and gave him leisure to write\nnot only his popular allegories, but the most valuable treatises\nin the English language upon subjects of the deepest importance.\n\nWhen he entered the prison, his first and prayerful object was to\nlevy a tax upon his affliction--to endeavour to draw honey from\nthe carcass of the lion. His care was to render his imprisonment\nsubservient to the great design of showing forth the glory of God\nby patient submission to His will. Before his commitment, he had\na strong presentiment of his sufferings; his earnest prayer, for\nmany months, was that he might, with composure, encounter all his\ntrials, even to an ignominious death. This led him to the solemn\nconsideration of reckoning himself, his wife, children, health,\nenjoyments, all as dying, and in perfect uncertainty, and to live\nupon God, his invisible but ever-present Father.\n\nLike an experienced military commander, he wisely advises every\nChristian to have a reserve for Christ in case of dire emergency.\n'We ought to have a reserve for Christ, to help us at a dead lift.\nWhen profession and confession will not do; when loss of goods and\na prison will not do; when loss of country and of friends will not\ndo; when nothing else will do, then willingly to lay down our lives\nfor his name.'[235] In the midst of all these dread uncertainties,\nhis soul was raised to heavenly contemplations of the future\nhappiness of the saints of God.\n\nIt is deeply impressive to view a man, with gigantic intellect,\ninvolved in the net which was laid to trammel his free spirit,\ndisregarding his own wisdom; seeking guidance from heaven in earnest\nprayer, and in searching the sacred Scriptures; disentangling\nhimself, and calmly waiting the will of his heavenly Father. Still\nhe severely felt the infirmities of nature. Parting with his wife\nand children, he described as 'the pulling the flesh from the bones.\nI saw I was as a man who was pulling down his house upon the head\nof his wife and children; yet, thought I, I must do it.'[236] His\nfeelings were peculiarly excited to his poor blind Mary.[237] 'O!\nthe thoughts of the hardships my poor blind one might go under, would\nbreak my heart in pieces.' It is one of the governing principles\nof human nature, that the most delicate or afflicted child excites\nour tenderest feelings. 'I have seen men,' says Bunyan, 'take most\ncare of, and best provide for those of their children that have\nbeen most infirm and helpless; and our Advocate \"shall gather his\nlambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom.\"'[238] While\nin this state of distress, the promise came to his relief--'Leave\nthy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy\nwidows trust in me.' He had heard of the miseries of those banished\nChristians who had been sold into slavery, and perished with cold\nand calamities, lying in ditches like poor, forlorn, desolate sheep.\n\nAt the end of three months he became anxious to know what the\nenemies of the cross intended to do with him. His sentence was\ntransportation and death, unless he conformed. To give up or shrink\nfrom his profession of Christ, by embracing the national forms and\nsubmitting his conscience to human laws, he dared not. He resolved\nto persevere even at the sacrifice of his life. To add to his distress,\ndoubts and fears clouded his prospects of futurity; 'Satan,' said\nhe, 'laid hard at me to beat me out of heart.' At length he came\nto the determination to venture his eternal state with Christ,\nwhether he had present comfort or not. His state of mind he thus\ndescribes--'If God doth not come in (to comfort me) I will leap\noff the ladder, even blindfold, into eternity, sink or swim, come\nheaven, come hell. Lord Jesus, if thou wilt catch me, do; I will\nventure all for thy name.' From this time he felt a good hope and\ngreat consolation.\n\nThe clerk of the peace, Mr. Cobb, was sent by the justices to persuade\nhim to conform, and had a very long and interesting conference\nwith him in the prison. This shows that the magistrates were well\nconvinced that he was a leader in nonconformity, who, if brought\nover, would afford them a signal triumph. In fact, he was called,\nby a beneficed clergyman, 'the most notorious schismatic in all\nthe county of Bedford.'[239] It is perhaps to the arguments of Cobb\nthat he refers in his Advice to Sufferers. 'The wife of the bosom\nlies at him, saying, O do not cast thyself away; if thou takest\nthis course, what shall I do? Thou hast said thou lovest me; now\nmake it manifest by granting this my small request--Do not still\nremain in thine integrity. Next to this come the children, which\nare like to come to poverty, to beggary, to be undone, for want of\nwherewithal to feed, and clothe, and provide for them for time to\ncome. Now also come kindred, and relations, and acquaintance; some\nchide, some cry, some argue, some threaten, some promise, some\nflatter, and some do all to befool him for so unadvised an act as\nto cast away himself, and to bring his wife and children to beggary\nfor such a thing as religion. These are sore temptations.'[240]\nIt was during this period of his imprisonment that the mad attempt\nwas made, by Venner and his rabble, to overturn the government.\nThis was pressed upon Bunyan as a reason why he should not hold\nmeetings for religious exercises, but rely upon his more private\nopportunities of exhorting his neighbours. In reply to this,\nMr. Cobb is reminded of Bunyan's well-known loyalty, which would\nbecome useful in proportion to his public teaching. It was a\npleasing interview, which, while it did not for a moment shake his\ndetermination, led him to thank Mr. Cobb for his civil and meek\ndiscourse, and to ejaculate a heartfelt prayer--'O that we might\nmeet in heaven.'[241] The whole of it is reprinted at the end of\nthe Grace Abounding, and it shows that God gave him favour even with\nhis persecutors. It Is not surprising that such a prisoner should\nhave won the good opinion of his jailer, so that he was permitted\nthe consolation of seeing his relatives and friends, who ministered\nto his comforts.\n\nWhen the time arrived for the execution of the bitterest part of\nhis sentence, God, in his providence, interposed to save the life of\nhis servant. He had familiarized his mind with all the circumstances\nof a premature and appalling death; the gibbet, the ladder, the\nhalter, had lost much of their terrors; he had even studied the\nsermon he would then have preached to the concourse of spectators.\nAt this critical time the king's coronation took place, on April\n23, 1661. To garnish this grand ceremony, the king had ordered the\nrelease of numerous prisoners of certain classes, and within that\ndescription of offences was that for which Bunyan was confined.\nThe proclamation allowed twelve months' time to sue out the pardon\nunder the great seal, but without this expensive process thousands\nof vagabonds and thieves were set at liberty, while, alas, an\noffence against the church was not to be pardoned upon such easy\nterms. Bunyan and his friends were too simple, honest, and virtuous,\nto understand why such a distinction should be made. The assizes\nbeing held in August, he determined to seek his liberty by a petition\nto the judges. The court sat at the Swan Inn, and as every incident\nin the life of this extraordinary man excites our interest, we\nare gratified to have it in our power to exhibit the state of this\ncelebrated inn at that time.\n\nHaving written his petition, and made some fair copies of it, his\nmodest, timid wife determined to present them to the judges. Her\nheroic achievements--for such they deserve to be called--on behalf\nof her husband, are admirably narrated by Bunyan, the whole of\nwhich is reprinted in our first volume,[243] and deserves a most\nattentive perusal. Want of space prevents us repeating it here, or\neven making extracts from it. She had previously traveled to London\nwith a petition to the House of Lords, and entrusted it to Lord\nBarkwood, who conferred with some of the peers upon it, and informed\nher that they could not interfere, the king having committed the\nrelease of the prisoners to the judges. When they came the circuit\nand the assizes were held at Bedford; Bunyan in vain besought the\nlocal authorities that he might have liberty to appear in person\nand plead for his release. This reasonable request was denied,\nand, as a last resource, he committed his cause to an affectionate\nwife. Several times she appeared before the judges; love to her\nhusband, a stern sense of duty, a conviction of the gross injustice\npracticed upon one to whom she was most tenderly attached, overcame\nher delicate, modest, retiring habits, and forced her upon this\nstrange duty. Well did she support the character of an advocate.\nThis delicate, courageous, high-minded woman appeared before Judge\nHale, who was much affected with her earnest pleading for one so\ndear to her, and whose life was so valuable to his children. It\nwas the triumph of love, duty, and piety, over bashful timidity.\nHer energetic appeals were in vain. She returned to the prison with\na heavy heart, to inform her husband that, while felons, malefactors,\nand men guilty of misdemeanours were, without any recantation or\npromise of amendment, to be let loose upon society to grace the\ncoronation, the poor prisoners for conscience' sake were to undergo\ntheir unjust and savage sentences. Or, in plain words, that refusing\nto go to church to hear the Common Prayer was an unpardonable\ncrime, not to be punished in any milder mode than recantation, or\ntransportation, or the halter. With what bitter feelings must she\nhave returned to the prison, believing that it would be the tomb\nof her beloved husband! How natural for the distressed, insulted\nwife to have written harsh things against the judge! She could not\nhave conceived that, under the stately robes of Hale, there was\na heart affected by Divine love. And when the nobleman afterwards\nmet the despised tinker and his wife, on terms of perfect equality,\nclothed in more glorious robes in the mansions of the blessed, how\ninconceivable their surprise! It must have been equally so with\nthe learned judge, when, in the pure atmosphere of heaven, he found\nthat the illiterate tinker, harassed by poverty and imprisonment,\nproduced books, the admiration of the world. As Dr. Cheever eloquently\nwrites--'How little could he dream, that from that narrow cell in\nBedford jail a glory would shine out, illustrating the grace of\nGod, and doing more good to man, than all the prelates and judges\nof the kingdom would accomplish.'[244]\n\nBunyan was thus left in a dreary and hopeless state of imprisonment,\nin which he continued for somewhat more than twelve years, and it\nbecomes an interesting inquiry how he spent his time and managed to\nemploy his great talent in his Master's service. The first object\nof his solicitude would be to provide for his family, according to\n1 Timothy 5:8. How to supply his house with bare necessaries to\nmeet the expenses of a wife and four children, must have filled him\nwith anxiety. The illness, death, and burial of his first beloved\nwife, had swept away any little reserve which otherwise might have\naccumulated, so that, soon after his imprisonment commenced, before\nhe could resume any kind of labour, his wife thus pleaded with the\njudge for his liberty, 'My lord, I have four small children that\ncannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and have nothing\nto live upon but the charity of good people.' How inscrutable are\nthe ways of Providence; the rich reveling in luxury while using\ntheir wealth to corrupt mankind, while this eminent saint, with his\nfamily, were dependent upon charity! As soon as he could get his\ntools in order he set to work; and we have the following testimony\nto his industry by a fellow-prisoner, Mr. Wilson, the Baptist\nminister, and of Charles Doe, who visited him in prison:--'Nor did\nhe, while he was in prison, spend his time in a supine and careless\nmanner, nor eat the bread of idleness; for there have I been\nwitness that his own hands have ministered to his and his family's\nnecessities, making many hundred gross of long tagged laces, to\nfill up the vacancies of his time, which he had learned to do for\nthat purpose, since he had been in prison. There, also, I surveyed\nhis library, the least, but yet the best that e'er I saw--the Bible\nand the Book of Martyrs.[245] And during his imprisonment (since I\nhave spoken of his library), he writ several excellent and useful\ntreatises, particularly The Holy City, Christian Behaviour,\nThe Resurrection of the Dead, and Grace Abounding to the Chief of\nSinners.'[246] Besides these valuable treatises, Charles Doe states\nthat, of his own knowledge, in prison Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's\nProgress, the first part, and that he had this from his own mouth.[247]\nIn addition to the demonstration of this important fact contained\nin the introduction to The Pilgrim's Progress, there ought to\nhave been added, Bunyan's statement made in introducing his second\npart:--'Now, having taken up my lodgings in a wood about a mile\noff the place': no longer in 'a den,' but sheltered, in a wood, in\na state of comparative, but not of perfect liberty, about a mile\ndistant from the den in which he wrote his first part. Whether this\nmay refer to his former cottage at Elstow, of which there is great\ndoubt, or to the house he occupied in Bedford after his release,\nthey were equally about a mile from the jail. He certainly means\nthat the two parts were not written in the same place, nor is\nthere a shadow of a doubt as to the fact that in prison the great\nallegory was conceived and written. Well might Mr. Doe say, 'What\nhath the devil or his agents got by putting our great gospel minister\nin prison?' They prevented his preaching to a few poor pilgrims in\nthe villages round Bedford, and it was the means of spreading his\nfame, and the knowledge of the gospel, by his writings, throughout\nthe world. Thus does the wrath of man praise God. In addition to the\nworks above enumerated, he also published some extremely valuable\ntracts, several editions of a work which ought to be read by all\nyoung Christians--A Treatise on the Covenants of the Law and of\nGrace; several editions of Sighs from Hell; A Map of Salvation and\nDamnation; The Four Last Things, a poem; Mount Ebal and Gerizim,\nor, Redemption from the Curse, a poem; Prison Meditations, a poem:\nthe four last are single sheets, probably sold by his children or\nfriends to assist him in obtaining his livelihood: Justification\nby Faith in Jesus Christ, 4to; Confession of His Faith and Reason\nof His Practice. The most remarkable treatise which he published\nwhile in confinement, is on prayer, from the words of the apostle,\n'I will pray with the spirit and with the understanding also.' His\nattention had been fixed on this subject when his free-born spirit\nwas roused by the threat of Justice Keeling, 'Take heed of speaking\nirreverently of the Book of Common Prayer, for if you do you will\nbring great damage upon yourself.'\n\nBunyan had formed his ideas of prayer from heartfelt experience;\nit is the cry of the burthened, sinking sinner, 'Lord save us, we\nperish'; or adoration rising from the heart to the throne of grace,\nfilled with hopes of pardon and immortality. In his estimation, any\nform of human invention was an interference with the very nature\nof prayer, and with the work of the Holy Spirit, who alone can\ninspire our souls with acceptable prayer.\n\nIn expressing his views upon this all-important subject, Bunyan was\nsimply guided by a sense of duty. Fear of the consequences, or of\noffending his enemies, never entered his mind. He felt that they\nwere in the hands of his heavenly Father, and that all their malice\nmust be over-ruled for good. Notwithstanding his solemn warning\nnot to speak irreverently of the book, his refusal to use which had\nsubjected him to severe privations and the fear of a halter, this\nChristian hero was not daunted, but gives his opinion of it with\nall that freedom and liberty which he considered essential to excite\nin his fellow-men inquiries as to its origin and imposition.\n\nIt is not my province to enter into the controversy whether in\npublic worship a form of prayer ought to be used. Let every one\nbe persuaded in his own mind; but to pass a law denouncing those\nthat refuse to use a prescribed form as worthy of imprisonment,\ntransportation, or death, is an attack upon the first principles\nof Christianity. To punish those who spoke irreverently of it, was\nalmost an acknowledgment that it would not bear investigation. To\nspeak of the book as in his serious judgment it deserved, was not\nthat mark of sectarianism which Romaine exhibited when he called\nthe beautiful hymns of Dr. Watts, which are used so much in public\nworship among Dissenters, 'Watts' jingle,' and 'Watts' whims!'[248]\nNo answer appears to have been published to Bunyan's extremely\ninteresting volume until twelve years after the author's death,\nwhen a reply appeared under the title of Liturgies Vindicated by the\nDissenters, or the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer proved against John\nBunyan and the Dissenters. 1700. This is a very rare and curious\nvolume. The author, as usual in such controversies, deals wholesale\nin invective, and displays all the ability of a sophist.\n\nThe Christian world is indebted to Dr. Cheever for a beautiful\npicture of Bunyan's devotional exercise in his cell. 'It is evening;\nhe finishes his work, to be taken home by his dear blind child.\nHe reads a portion of Scripture, and, clasping her small hands in\nhis, kneels on the cold stone floor, and pours out his soul to God;\nthen, with a parting kiss, dismisses her to her mother. The rude\nlamp glimmers on the table; with his Bible, pen, and paper, he writes\nas though joy did make him write. His face is lighted as from the\nradiant jasper walls of the celestial city. He clasps his hands,\nlooks upward, and blesses God for his goodness. The last you see\nof him--is alone, kneeling on the prison floor; he is alone with\nGod.'\n\nCharles Doe, who manifested most laudable anxiety to hand down the\nworks of Bunyan to posterity, bears honourable testimony to his\nconduct while in prison. 'It was by making him a visit in prison\nthat I first saw him, and became acquainted with him; and I must\nprofess I could not but look upon him to be a man of an excellent\nspirit, zealous for his master's honour, and cheerfully committing\nall his own concernments unto God's disposal. When I was there,\nthere were about sixty Dissenters besides himself there, taken but\na little before at a religious meeting at Kaistoe, in the county\nof Bedford; besides two eminent Dissenting ministers, Mr. Wheeler\nand Mr. Dun (both very well known in Bedfordshire, though long since\nwith God[249]), by which means the prison was very much crowded;\nyet, in the midst of all that hurry which so many new-comers\noccasioned, I have heard Mr. Bunyan both preach and pray with that\nmighty spirit of faith and plerophory of divine assistance that\nhas made me stand and wonder.'[250] Here they could sing, without\nfear of being overheard; no informers prowling round. The world was\nshut out; and, in communion with heaven, they could forget their\nsorrows, and have a rich foretaste of the inconceivable glory of\nthe celestial city. It was under such circumstances that Bunyan\npreached one of his most remarkable sermons, afterwards published\nunder the title of The Holy City or the New Jerusalem, 1665.\n'Upon a certain first-day, being together with my brethren in\nour prison-chamber, they expected that, according to our custom,\nsomething should be spoken out of the Word for our mutual edification.\nI felt myself, it being my turn to speak, so empty, spiritless, and\nbarren, that I thought I should not have been able to speak among\nthem so much as five words of truth with life and evidence. At\nlast I cast mine eye upon this prophecy, when, after considering\nawhile, methought I perceived something of that jasper in whose light\nyou find this holy city descended; wherefore, having got some dim\nglimmering thereof, and finding a desire to see farther thereinto,\nI with a few groans did carry my meditations to the Lord Jesus for\na blessing, which he did forthwith grant, and helping me to set\nbefore my brethren, we did all eat, and were well refreshed; and\nbehold, also, that while I was in the distributing of it, it so\nincreased in my hand, that of the fragments that we left, after we\nhad well dined, I gathered up this basketful. Wherefore, setting\nmyself to a more narrow search, through frequent prayer, what first\nwith doing and then with undoing, and after that with doing again,\nI thus did finish it.'[251] To this singular event the religious\npublic are indebted for one of Bunyan's ablest treatises, full\nof the striking sparkles of his extraordinary imagination. It was\na subject peculiarly adapted to display his powers--the advent of\nNew Jerusalem, her impregnable walls and gates of precious stones,\ngolden streets, water of life, temple, and the redeemed from all\nnations flocking into it.[252]\n\nIn these times of severe persecution, two of the church members,\nS. Fenn and J. Whiteman, were ordained joint pastors. Fenn has\njust been delivered out of prison; yet they ventured to brave the\nstorm, and in this year, although the lions prowled before the\nporch, a number were added to the church. Thus was their little\nJerusalem built 'even in troublous times.'\n\nBunyan's popularity and fame for wisdom and knowledge had spread\nall round the country, and it naturally brought him visitors, with\ntheir doubts, and fears, and cases of conscience. Among these a\nsingular instance is recorded in the Life of Badman. 'When I was\nin prison,' says the narrator, 'there came a woman to me that was\nunder a great deal of trouble. So I asked her, she being a stranger\nto me, what she had to say to me? She said she was afraid she should\nbe damned. I asked her the cause of those fears. She told me that\nshe had, some time since, lived with a shopkeeper at Wellingborough,\nand had robbed his box in the shop several times of money, and pray,\nsays she, tell me what I shall do? I told her I would have her go\nto her master, and make him satisfaction. She said she was afraid\nlest he should hang her. I told her that I would intercede for her\nlife, and would make use of other friends to do the like; but she\ntold me she durst not venture that. Well, said I, shall I send\nto your master, while you abide out of sight, and make your peace\nwith him before he sees you? and with that I asked her master's\nname. But all she said in answer to this was, pray let it alone\ntill I come to you again. So away she went, and neither told me\nher master's name nor her own; and I never saw here again.'[253]\nHe adds, 'I could tell you of another, that came to me with a like\nrelation concerning herself, and the robbing of her mistress.'\n\nTo his cruel imprisonment the world is indebted for the most\nsurprising narrative of a new birth that has ever appeared. It was\nthere that he was led to write the Grace Abounding to the Chief\nof Sinners. He displays in the preface his deep interest in the\nspiritual welfare of those who had been born under his ministry.\nHe rejoices in their happiness, even while he was 'sticking between\nthe teeth of the lions in the wilderness. I now again, as before\nfrom the top of shenir and Hermon, so now from the lions' dens,\nfrom \"the mountains of the leopards,\" do look yet after you all,\ngreatly longing to see your safe arrival into the desired haven.'[254]\nHow natural it was that, while narrating his own experience, he\nshould be led to write a guide to pilgrims through time to eternity,\nand that it should be dated from 'the den!'\n\n\n   'And thus it was: I writing of the way\n    And race of saints, in this our gospel-day,\n    Fell suddenly into an allegory\n    About their journey, and the way to glory.'[255]\n\n\nAny one possessing powers of imagination, to whom the adventures\nof Christian are familiar, would, on reading the Grace Abounding,\nbe continually struck with the likeness there drawn of the pilgrim--the\nmore he contemplates the two pictures of Christian experience, so\nmuch the more striking is their similarity. The one is a narrative\nof facts, the other contains the same facts allegorized. Thus, by\nan irresistible impulse from heaven upon the mind of a prisoner for\nChrist, did a light shine forth from the dungeon on Bedford bridge\nwhich has largely contributed to enlighten the habitable globe. The\nPilgrim has been translated into most of the languages and dialects\nof the world. The Caffrarian and Hottentot, the enlightened Greek\nand Hindoo, the remnant of the Hebrew race, the savage Malay and\nthe voluptuous Chinese--all have the wondrous narrative in their\nown languages. Bunyan was imprisoned by bigots and tyrants, to\nprevent his being heard or known; and his voice, in consequence,\nreaches to the ends of the earth. Let every wretched persecutor\ncontemplate this instance of God's over-ruling power. You will surely\nplunge the avenging sword into your own vitals if, by persecution,\nyou vainly endeavour to wound the saints of the living God. You\nmay make hypocrites throw off their disguise. The real Christian may\nbe discouraged, but he perseveres. He feels the truth of Bunyan's\nquaint saying, 'the persecutors are but the devil's scarecrows,\nthe old one himself lies quat'; while the eye of God is upon him to\nsave the children of Zion.[256] His otherwise dreary imprisonment\nwas lightened, and the time beguiled by these delightful writings. His\nfellow-prisoners were benefited by hearing him read his pilgrim's\nadventures. But this has been so fully displayed in the introduction\nto the Pilgrim that any further notice is unnecessary.[257]\n\nWhile busily occupied with his Grace Abounding and Pilgrim's Progress,\nhe wrote a poetical epistle in answer to the kind inquiries of his\nnumerous friends and visitors. After thanking them for counsel and\nadvice, he describes his feelings in prison. His feet stood on Mount\nZion; his body within locks and bars, while his mind was free to\nstudy Christ, and elevated higher than the stars. Their fetters\ncould not tame his spirit, nor prevent his communion with God. The\nmore his enemies raged, the more peace he experienced. In prison\nhe received the visits of saints, of angels, and the Spirit of God.\n'I have been able to laugh at destruction, and to fear neither the\nhorse nor his rider. I have had sweet sights of the forgiveness\nof my sins in this place, and of my being with Jesus in another\nworld.'[258] If his ears were to be pierced in the pillory, it would\nbe only 'to hang a jewel there.' The source of his happy feelings\nis well expressed in one of the stanzas:--\n\n\n   'The truth and I were both here cast\n        Together, and we do\n    Lie arm in arm, and so hold fast\n        Each other; this is true.'[259]\n\n\nYes, honest John Bunyan, the world at large now gives you credit\nfor the truth of that saying.\n\nHow strange must it seem to the luxurious worldling, with his bed\nof down and splendid hangings, but aching heart, to hear of the\nexquisite happiness of the prisoner for Christ on his straw pallet!\n'When God makes the bed,' as Bunyan says, 'he must needs be easy\nthat is cast thereon; a blessed pillow hath that man for his head,\nthough to all beholders it is hard as a stone.'[260] In the whole\ncourse of his troubles, he enjoyed the sympathy of his family and\nfriends. his food was brought daily, and such was the veneration\nin which his memory was embalmed, that the very jug in which his\nbroth was taken to the prison has been preserved to this day.[261]\n\nIn the midst of all his sufferings he murmurs not nor for a moment\ngives way to revenge; he leaves the persecutor in the hands of God.\nStand off, Christian; pity the poor wretch that brings down upon\nhimself the vengeance of God. Your pitiful arm must no strike\nhim--no, stand by, 'that God may have his full blow at him in his\ntime. Wherefore he saith avenge not yourself--\"Vengeance is mine,\nsaith the Lord.\" Give place, leave such an one to be handled by\nme.'[262]\n\n'There are several degrees of suffering for righteousness--the\nscourge of the tongue, the ruin of an estate, the loss of liberty,\na gaol, a gibbet, a stake, a dagger. Now answerable to these are the\ncomforts of the Holy Ghost, prepared like to like, part proportioned\nto part, only the consolations are said to abound.'[263] The mind\nof Bunyan was imbued with these sentiments; baptized into them,\nand consequently elevated far above the fear of what man could do\nunto him. Yes, he knew the power of God. 'He can make those things\nthat in themselves are most fearful and terrible to behold, the\nmost delightful and most desirable things. He can make a gaol more\nbeautiful than a palace, restraint more sweet by far than liberty,\nand the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of\nEgypt.'[264]\n\nThe Bible, that heavenly storehouse, was opened to him: 'I\nnever had, in all my life, so great an inlet into the Word of God\nas now.'[265] 'I have had sweet sights of forgiveness and of the\nheavenly Jerusalem. I have seen here that which, while in this\nworld, I shall never be able to express.'\n\nAbout a year before he was set at liberty he received a very popular\nwork, written by Edward Fowler, a Bedfordshire clergyman, who was\nsoon after elevated to the see of Gloucester. It was entitled The\nDesign of Christianity, and professed to prove that the object of\nthe Saviour was merely to place man in a similar position to that\nof Adam before the fall. It is an extremely learned production,\nfull of Greek and Latin quotations; but, in Bunyan's estimation, it\naimed a deadly blow at the foundations of Christianity. To restore\nman to Adam's innocency, and then to leave him to cope with Satanic\nsubtlety, was to cut off all hopes of salvation. It was brought\nto him in February 1672, and in the very short period of forty-two\ndays, Fowler's theory was most completely demolished by Bunyan's\nDefence of the Doctrine of Justification, 4to, dated from prison,\nthe 27th of the 12th Month, 1671 (27th March, 1672). This was\nanswered by a small 4to volume, entitled Dirt Wiped Off. Bunyan had\nused some harsh epithets; but the clergyman, or his curate, beat\nthe tinker in abusive language. He had been by this time promoted\nto the rectory of Cripplegate. For an account of this controversy,\nthe reader is referred to the introduction to Bunyan's work\non Justification, and to that to the Pilgrim's Progress.[266] The\nimpression it made upon the public mind is well expressed in a rude\nrhyme, made by an anonymous author, in his Assembly of Moderate\nDivines:\n\n\n   'There's a moderate Doctour at Cripplegate dwells,\n    Whom Smythes his curate in trimming excells;\n    But Bunyan a tinker hath tickled his gills.'\n\n\nThe last work that he wrote in prison was the confession of his\nfaith, and reason of his practice as to mixed communion, not with\nthe world, but with saints of other denominations. As this plunged him\ninto a fearful controversy with his Dissenting brethren (Baptists,\nIndependents, and Presbyterians), a notice of it will more properly be\nintroduced in our account of that conflict. He had been incarcerated\nnearly twelve years, and had determined to suffer to the end. Here\nhe found time 'to weigh, and pause, and pause again, the grounds\nand foundations of those principles for which he suffered,' and\nhe was a Nonconformist still. 'I cannot, I dare not now revolt or\ndeny my principles, on pain of eternal damnation,'[267] are his\nimpressive words. 'Faith and holiness are my professed principles,\nwith an endeavour to be at peace with all men. Let they themselves be\njudges, if aught they find in my writing or preaching doth render\nme worthy of almost twelve years' imprisonment, or one that deserveth\nto be hanged or banished for ever, according to their tremendous\nsentence. If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a\ncontinual butchery and slaughter-shop, unless putting out my own\neyes, I commit me to the blind to lead me, I have determined, the\nAlmighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life\nmight continue so long, even until the moss shall grow over mine\neye-brows, rather than to violate my faith and principles.'[268]\nThe allusion to moss growing on his eye-brows most probably referred\nto the damp state of his den or dungeon.\n\nThe continuation to the Grace Abounding, written by a friend, and\npublished four years after his decease, divides his imprisonment into\nthree periods; but as Bunyan makes it one continued imprisonment,\nthere can be no doubt but that it was a long, dreary confinement;\nduring which the testimony of his friend, Samuel Wilson, is, that\nit was 'an uncomfortable and close prison, and sometimes under\ncruel and oppressive jailers.' The division into three parts most\nprobably alludes to the severity or liberality of his jailers. He\nhad at times, while a prisoner, an extraordinary degree of liberty;\nlike Joseph in Egypt, some of his jailers committed all to his\nhands. There can be little doubt but that he went from the prison\nto preach in the villages or woods, and at one time went to London\nto visit his admiring[269] friends; but this coming to the ears of\nthe justices, the humane jailer had well nigh lost his place, and\nfor some time he was not permitted to look out at the door. When\nthis had worn off, he had again opportunities of visiting his\nchurch and preaching by stealth. It is said that many of the Baptist\ncongregations in Bedfordshire owe their origin to his midnight\npreaching.\n\nUpon one occasion, having been permitted to go out and visit\nhis family, with whom he intended to spend the night, long before\nmorning he felt so uneasy that at a very late hour he went back\nto the prison. Information was given to a neighbouring clerical\nmagistrate that there was strong suspicion of Bunyan having broke\nprison. At midnight, he sent a messenger to the jail, that he\nmight be a witness against the merciful keeper. On his arrival,\nhe demanded, 'Are all the prisoners safe?' the answer was, 'Yes.'\n'Is John Bunyan safe?' 'Yes.' 'Let me see him.' He was called\nup and confronted with the astonished witness, and all passed off\nwell. His kind-hearted jailer said to him, 'You may go out when\nyou will, for you know much better when to return than I can tell\nyou.'[270]\n\nDuring these twelve terrible years, and particularly towards the\nend of his imprisonment, the members and elders of his church at\nBedford suffered most severely, a very abridged account of which\nis given in the introduction to the Pilgrim's Progress.[271] The\nset time for his liberation was now drawing near, but the singular\nmeans by which it was accomplished must be reserved for our next\nchapter.\n\nPERIOD SIXTH.\n\nBUNYAN IS DELIVERED FROM PRISON--CONTROVERSY WITH THE CHRISTIAN\nCHURCH ON THE SUBJECT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER--PUBLISHES THE PILGRIM'S\nPROGRESS, AND MANY BOOKS, AND BECOMES EXTREMELY POPULAR--HIS DECEASE\nAND CHARACTER.\n\nAs Charles II felt himself securely seated on his throne, his design\nto establish an absolute monarchy became more and more apparent.\nThe adulation of his professed friends, and the noisy popularity\nwith which he was greeted, appear to have fostered his crafty designs\nto rid himself of parliamentary government. His whole conduct was\nthat of a Papist, who keeps no faith with Protestants; or of a\nstatesman, whose religion, honour, and truthfulness, were wholly\nsubservient to expediency. To further his object, he formed a council\nof five noblemen, two of whom were Roman Catholics, and the other\nthree either careless as to religion or professed infidels. The\nfirst letter of their names formed the word CABAL. Aided by these\nhe sought to extinguish liberty, and extirpate the Protestant\nfaith.[272] To furnish himself with the means of indulging his\nunbridled passions, he, like a buccaneer, seized the Dutch merchantmen\nreturning from India and Smyrna, without any declaration of war,\nand laid his hands upon all the money borrowed of his merchants\nwhich had been deposited in the exchequer. He then united himself\nwith France to destroy Holland, the stronghold of liberty. To gratify\nthe Roman Catholics, and conciliate the Dissenters, he issued a\ndeclaration in favour of liberty of conscience, the seal to which\nhe afterwards broke with his own hands,[273] but he could not\nprevent a considerable degree of religious liberty arising from\nsuch vacillating conduct.\n\nBunyan, who had secured the confidence and esteem of his jailer,\nnow found his prison more like a lodging-house, and enjoyed great\nprivileges. He frequently, if not regularly, attended the church\nmeetings, and preached with some degree of publicity. The church at\nBedford was at this time in want of a pastor, and their eyes were\nnaturally fixed upon Bunyan to succeed to that important office.\nThere were two weighty considerations that required Divine guidance\nin coming to a conclusion. One was, whether it might injuriously\naffect the prisoner's comforts, and the other was, the propriety\nof making choice of a Christian brother to be their ministering\nelder, while incarcerated in a jail. Feeling these difficulties,\nthe church held several meetings on the subject, the minutes of\nwhich are very interesting. The first was held at Hawnes, on the\n24th of the eighth month (October) 1671, when 'the improvement of\nthe gifts of the church, and their disposal in an orderly way, were\nproposed to consideration, that God might be sought for direction\ntherein; and a time further to consider and debate thereof, was\nappointed this day seven-night, at evening, at Bedford, where the\nprincipal brethren were desired for that purpose to come together,\nat brother John Fenn's; and a church-meeting was appointed to be\nthere that day week. The church was also minded to seek God about\nthe choice of brother, Bunyan to the office of elder, that their\nway in that respect may be cleared up to them.' At a meeting held\nat Bedford, on the last day of the ninth month (November), there\nwas appointed another meeting 'to pray and consult about concluding\nthe affair before propounded, concerning gifts of the brethren\nto be improved, and the choice of brother Bunyan to office, at\nGamlingay, on the 14th day, and at Hawnes, the 20th, and at Bedfod,\nthe 21st of the same instant, which it was desired might be a\ngeneral meeting.' After all this jealous care, and these fervent\napplications to the throne of grace for divine guidance, the\nresult was most gratifying. 'At a full assembly of the church at\nBedford, the 21st of the tenth month,[274] after much seeking God\nby prayer and sober conference formally had, the congregation did\nat this meeting, with joynt consent, signified by solemn lifting\nup of their hands, call forth and appoint our brother John Bunyan\nto the pastoral office or eldership. And he accepting thereof,\ngave himself up to serve Christ and his Church, in that charge, and\nreceived of the elders the right hand of fellowship, after having\npreached fifteen years.' The choice thus solemnly made, was ratified\nby the abundant blessings of heavenly union and great prosperity--no\nstranger or novice, but one whose preaching and writings had\nproved most acceptable to them for a series of years--on that had\nbeen owned and blessed of his God, and whom the church delighted\nto honour.\n\nAt the same church meeting, 'The congregation having had long\nexperience of the faithfulness of brother John Fenn in his care\nfor the poor, did after the same manner solemnly choose him to the\nhonourable office of a deacon, and committed their poor and purse\nto him, and he accepted thereof, and gave himself up to the Lord\nand them in that service.' The church did also determine to keep\nthe 26th inst. as a day of fasting and prayer, both here, and\nat Hawnes, and at Gamlingay, solemnly to commend to the grace of\nGod brother Bunyan and brother Fenn, and to entreat his gracious\nassistance and presence with them in their respective works,\nwhereunto he hath called them.\n\nThe most extraordinary circumstance that took place at this time\nwas, that while Bunyan was a prisoner in a wretched dungeon for\npreaching the glad tidings of salvation, or, in the mysterious\nlegal jargon of the period, 'holding conventicles,' he received\nhis Majesty's license to preach, and thus to hold conventicles--it\nwas one of the first that was granted. His Majesty continued to\nkeep him a prisoner for preaching more than six months after he\nhad licensed him to preach!! At the same time that the permission\nto preach was granted to Bunyan, the house of Josiah Roughed,\nBedford, was licensed by his Majesty's command, for the use of such\nas do not conform to the Church of England. In this John Bunyan was\nauthorized to teach, or in any other licensed place.[275] These\nwere among the first licenses that were granted. The present\nhighly-respected pastor of the church considers that this license\ndoes not refer to Roughed's private dwelling, but rather to 'an\nedifice or a barn, purchased of Robert Crompton, Esq., with a piece\nof ground adjoining it,' in the parishes of St. Paul and Cuthbert,\nfor \u00a350, in 1672, by Roughed, Bunyan, Fenn, and others, and which\nwas released by Fenn to Bunyan and others, November 10, 1681, two\ndays before Fenn's death. This building having been properly fitted\nup by voluntary contribution, became permanently occupied by the\nchurch as its place of meeting, until the old chapel was erected\nin 1707. From this we may conclude that Bunyan was engaged in his\nworldly occupation as a brazier, in the year that he obtained his\nrelease from prison, and to 1681.\n\nHow utterly contemptible does any Government become when they tamper\nwith spiritual worship. At one period they punished Dissenters with\nimprisonment, transportation, and, to use Judge Keeling's elegant\nexpression in his sentence on Bunyan, 'to stretch by the neck for\nit'; and anon, the very same Government, under the same king, gives\nthem license to dissent! Human laws affecting religion can never\nbe the standard of morality; to read the Bible is considered to be\nsin in Tuscany, and righteousness in Britain. The release of this\ngreat and pious man from his tedious imprisonment, has been hitherto\ninvolved in a cloud of mystery, which it will be our happiness\nto disperse, while we record that event in a clear, indisputable\nnarrative of facts. His earlier biographer, Mr. Doe, not having\naccess to archives which the lapse of time has now rendered available,\nattributed his release to the influence of Bishop Barlow, by the\ninterference of Dr. Owen. It is narrated in the life of Dr. Owen,\npublished in 1721:--'The doctor had some friends also among the\nbishops, Dr. Barlow, formerly his tutor, then bishop of Lincoln,\nwho yet upon a special occasion failed him, when he might have\nexpected the service of his professed friendship. The case was this,\nMr. John Bunyan had been confined to a jail twelve years, upon an\nexcommunication for Nonconformity. Now there was a law, that if\nany two persons will go to the bishop of the diocese, and offer\na cautionary bond, that the prisoner shall conform in half a year,\nthe bishop may release him upon that bond; whereupon a friend\nof this poor man desired Dr. Owen to give him his letter to the\nbishop in his behalf, which he readily granted. It was soon after\nthe discovery of the Popish plot, when this letter was carried to\nthe bishop, who having read it, desired \"a little time to consider\nof it, and if I can do it, you may be assured of my readiness.\"\nHe was waited upon again in about a fortnight, and his answer was,\n\"I would desire you to move the Lord Chancellor in the case, and,\nupon his order, I will do it.\" To which it was replied, \"this method\nwould be chargeable, and the man was poor, not able to expend so\nmuch money; and, being satisfied he could do it legally, it was hoped\nhis Lordship would remember his promise, there being no straining\na point in the case. But he would do it upon no other terms, which\nat last was done, and the poor man released.\" And for this we are\ntold that \"Mr. Bunyan returned him his unfeigned thanks, and often\nremembered him in his prayers, as, next to God, his deliverer.\"' The\nwhole of this story, so far as it relates to Bunyan, is not only\nimprobable, but utterly impossible. Bunyan was never excommunicated, and\nhe was certainly released from prison two or three years previous\nto Dr. Barlow becoming a bishop. The critical times to which\nhe alludes, refer doubtless to the Popish plot, which took place\nin 1678, Bunyan having been released in 1672. The probability is,\nthat Dr. Owen did about 1678 apply to the bishop of Lincoln for the\nrelease of some poor prisoner under sentence of excommunication,\nit being his province to release such prisoners upon their making\npeace with the Church. If this person was a friend of Bunyan's,\nhis prayers for the bishop, and acknowledgments for this act of\nkindness, are readily accounted for. That Barlow had nothing to\ndo with Bunyan's release is now perfectly clear; because all, even\nthe minutest particulars relative to it, have been discovered. This\nis a very romantic history, and necessarily leads us back to the\nbattle of Worcester. At this battle, the republicans were numerous,\nwell disciplined, and led by experienced officers; the royal army\nwas completely routed, and its leaders, who survived the battle,\nwere subject to the severest privations. Charles found refuge\nat Boscobel House, and, disguised as a woodcutter, was hid in an\noak. His adventures and hair-breadth escapes fill a volume:--the\nparliament offered one thousand pounds reward for his apprehension.\nAt length, after wandering in various disguises forty days, he\narrived at Brighton, then a small fishing town, and here his friends\nsucceeded in hiring a fishing boat to take him to France. Numerous\nhistories of this extraordinary escape were published, but no two\nof them agree, excepting that, to please the king, all the credit\nwas given to Roman Catholics. Of these narratives, that by Dr.\nLingard has the strangest blunder. When they left Shoreham, 'The\nship stood with easy sail towards the Isle of Wight, as if she were\non her way to Deal, to which port she was bound'[276]--Deal being\nexactly in the contrary direction! Carte has the best account. The\nvessel was bound for Poole, coal-laden; they left Shoreham at seven\na.m. under easy sail; and at five, being off the Isle of Wight, with\nthe wind north, she stood over to France, and returned to Poole,\nno one discovering that they had been out of their course. A letter\nrecently discovered among the archives of the Society of Friends\nat Devonshire House solves every difficulty. It is written by Ellis\nHookes to the wife of George Fox, dated January, 1670--\n\n'Yesterday there was a friend (a quaker) wth the king, one that\nis John Groves mate, he was the may yt. was mate to the master of\nthe fisher-boat yt carried the king away when he went from Worcester\nfight, and only this friend and the master knew of it in the ship,\nand the friend carried him (the king) ashoare on his shoulders.\nthe king knew him again, and was very friendly to him, and told\nhim he remembered him and of severall tings yt was done in ye ship\natt the same time. the friend told him the reason why he did not\ncome all this while was yt he was satisfied in yt he had peace and\nsatisfaction in himself yt he did what he did to releiue a man in\ndistresse and now he desired nothing of him (the king) but that he\nwould sett friends at libertie who were great sufferers or to that\npurpose and told the king he had a paper of 110 that were premunired\nyt had lain in prison about 6 years and none can release ym but him.\nSoe the king took the paper and said there was many of ym and yt\nthey would be in again in a monthes time and yt the country gentlemen\ncomplained to him yt they were so troubled wth the quakers. So he\nsaid he would release him six. but ye friend thinkes to goe to him\nagain, for he had not fully cleared himselfe.'\n\nThis letter is endorsed by Fox himself, 'E Hookes to M F of passages\nconsering Richard Carver, that cared the King of his backe.'\n\nE. Hooke's next letter, addressed to George Fox, thus continues\nthe narrative--\n\n'February, 1669-70.\n\n'Dear G. F. As for the friend that was with the King, his love is\nto thee. He has been with the King lately, and Thomas Moore was with\nhim, and the King was very loving to them. He had a fair and free\nopportunity to open his mind to the King, and the King has promised\nto do for him, but willed him to wait a month or two longer. I rest\nthy faithful friend to serve thee,\n\n'E.H.'[277]\n\nThe captain of the fisher-boat was Nicholas Tattersall, whose\ngrave, covered with a slab of black marble, is still to be seen in\nBrighton church-yard, with a long poetical inscription, now scarcely\nlegible. On the Restoration, he applied for his reward, and was\nmade a commander in the royal navy, with an annuity to him and his\nheirs for ever of \u00a3100. The family have recently become extinct.\nHis fisher-boat was moored for a considerable time in the Thames,\nopposite Whitehall. Years had rolled on, but the Quaker mate\nwho had so materially assisted the flying prince--by keeping the\nsecret--arranging the escape with the crew, and when, in fear of\ndanger from a privateer, rowing the prince ashore, and in shoal\nwater carrying him on his shoulders to the land, near the village\nof Fecamp, in Normandy, yet he had not been with the king to claim\nany reward. This escape took place in 1651, and nearly twenty years\nhad elapsed, ten of which were after the Restoration; so that in all\nprobability the king, who with all his faults was not ungrateful,\nwas agreeably surprised with his appearance at the palace. Whatever\nalteration the rough life of a sailor had made on his appearance,\nthe king at once recognized him. All the progress he had made as\nto worldly prosperity was from being mate of a fisher-boat, under\nTattersall, to becoming mate of a West Indiaman, under Captain\nGrove. His Majesty, who had passed his time more with courtiers\nthan with Quakers, was doubtless astonished that a poor man, having\nsuch a claim on his bounty, should have been so many years without\nseeking his recompense. On asking the reason, the Quaker nobly\nanswered to this effect, That the performance of his duty in saving\nthe life of the hunted prince, was only a moral obligation, for the\ndischarge of which God had amply repaid him by peace and satisfaction\nin his mind and conscience. And now, Sire, I ask nothing for myself,\nbut that your Majesty would do the same to my friends that I did\nfor you--set the poor pious sufferers at liberty, that they may\nbless you, and that you may have that peace and satisfaction which\nalways follows good and benevolent actions. The king attempted\nfeebly to argue, that they would soon offend again, and that they\nwere much complained of by the country gentlemen. How readily the\nsailor might have said to his sailor king, Alter the ship's articles,\nlet all the crew fare alike as to their free choice in religion,\nand there will be no grumbling in your noble ship; every subject\nwill do his duty. The king offered to release any six, and we may\nimagine the sailor's blunt answer, What, six poor Quakers for a\nking's ransom!! His Majesty was so pleased as to invite him to come\nagain, when he introduced another member of the Society of Friends,\nThomas Moore. At this period an amazing number of Friends, men and\nwomen, were in the jails throughout the kingdom, torn from their\nfamilies, and suffering most severe privations, under which great\nnumbers had perished. The application for the release of the\nsurvivors, thus happily commenced, was followed up with zeal and\nenergy, and crowned with great success. This narrative solves all\nthose difficulties which rendered that remarkable event extremely\nmysterious. The question naturally arises why so debauched and\ndissolute a king should prefer such tight-laced Christians to be\nthe peculiar objects of his mercy. The reason is perfectly obvious,\nhe owed his life to one of their members, who, however poor as to\nthis world, possessed those riches of piety which prevented his\ntaking any personal reward for an act of duty. Shade of the noble\nsailor, thy name, Richard Carver, is worthy of all honour! And the\nmore so, because thy gallant bearing has been studiously concealed\nin all the histories of these important transactions. Had he been\na mischief-making Jesuit, like Father Huddleston, his noble deed\nwould have been trumpeted forth for the admiration of the world in\nall ages. His name was left to perish in oblivion, because he was\nof a despised sect. It is an honour to Christianity that a labouring\nman preferred the duty of saving the life of a human being, and\nthat of an enemy, to gaining so easily heaps of glittering gold.\nAnd when all the resources of royalty were ready munificently to\nreward him, he, like Moses, preferred the rescue of his suffering\nfriends to personal honours or emoluments--even to all the riches\nof England!\n\nThe efforts of Carver and Moore were followed by most earnest\nappeals for mercy by George Whitehead, who with Moore appeared before\nthe king in council several times, until at length the royal word\nsanctioned this act of mercy. The Quakers were then appealed to by\nsufferers of other denominations, and advised them to obtain the\npermission of the king in council, that their names might be inserted\nin the deed; rendering them all the assistance that was in their\npower. Great difficulties were encountered in passing the cumbrous\ndeed through the various offices, and then in pleading it in all\nparts of the country. The number of Quakers thus released from\nimprisonment was 471, being about the same number as those who had\nperished in the jails. The rest of the prisoners liberated by this\ndeed were Baptists and Independents, and among the former was JOHN\nBUNYAN.\n\nA very circumstantial narrative of these proceedings, copies of the\nminutes of the privy council, and other documents, will be found\nin the introduction to The Pilgrim's Progress.[278] One of these\nofficial papers affords an interesting subject of study to an\noccasional conformist. It is the return of the sheriff of Bedfordshire,\nstating that ALL the sufferings of Bunyan--his privation of liberty,\nsacrifice of wife, children, and temporal comforts, with the fear\nof an ignominious death--were for refusing to attend his parish\nchurch and hear the Common Prayer service.\n\nWhen it is considered that Bunyan was very severe in his remarks\nupon the Quakers, the event reflects no ordinary degree of honour\nupon the Society of Friends, at whose sole charge, and entirely\nby their own exertions, this great deed of benevolence was begun,\ncarried on, and completed. It is difficult to ascertain the exact\nduration of this sad imprisonment, because we cannot discover any\nrecord of the day of his release. His imprisonment commenced November\n13, 1660, and his pardon under the great seal is dated September\n13, 1672. As the pardon included nearly 500 sufferers, it occupied\nsome time to obtain official duplicates to be exhibited at the\nassizes and sessions for the various counties. A letter from E. Hooks\nto Mrs. Fox intimates that none were released on the 1st November\n1672. Another letter shows that the Bedfordshire prisoners were\ndischarged before January 10, 1673;[279] confirming Bunyan's own\naccount, published by him in the Grace Abounding, 1680, that his\nimprisonment lasted complete twelve years.[280]\n\nDuring the latter period of his imprisonment, probably from the\ntime of his receiving the royal license to preach, May 15, 1672,\nhe enjoyed extraordinary liberty--visiting those who had been kind\nto his family, and preaching in the surrounding counties. An entry\nin the records of the city of Leicester proves that he was there,\nand claimed the liberty of preaching--'John Bunyan's license bears\ndate the 15th of May 1672, to teach as a Congregational person,\nbeing of that persuasion, in the house of Josias Roughed, Bedford,\nor in any other place, room, or house, licensed by his Majestie's\nmemorand. The said Bunyan shewed his license to Mr. Mayor, Mr.\nOveringe, Mr. Freeman, and Mr. Browne, being then present, the 6th\nday of October, 1672, that being about two months before his final\nrelease from jail.'[281]\n\nHis first object, upon recovering his liberty, appears to have\nbeen the proper arrangement of his worldly business, that he might\nprovide for the wants of his family, a matter of little difficulty\nwith their frugal habits. He, at the same time, entered with all\nhis soul into his beloved work of preaching and writing, to set\nforth the glories of Immanuel. The testimony of one who was his\n'true friend and long acquaintance,' is, that one of the first\nfruits of his liberation was to visit those who had assisted him\nand comforted his family during his incarceration, encouraging those\nwho were in fear of a prison, and collecting means of assistance\nto those who still remained prisoners; traveling even to remote\ncounties to effect these merciful objects.[282]\n\nWhile the premises occupied by Mr. Roughed were being converted into\na capacious meeting-house, the pastor was indefatigable in visiting\nthe sick, and preaching from house to house, settling churches in\nthe villages, reconciling differences, and extending the sacred\ninfluences of the gospel, so that in a very short time he attained\nthe appellation of Bishop Bunyan--a title much better merited by\nhim than by the downy prelates who sent him to jail for preaching\nthat which they ought to have preached.\n\nHe formed branch churches at Gamlingay, Hawnes, Cotton-end, and\nKempston, in connection with that at Bedford. When he opened the\nnew meeting-house, it was so thronged that many were constrained\nto stay without, though it was very spacious, every one striving\nto partake of his instructions. Here he lived, in much peace and\nquiet of mind, contenting himself with that little God had bestowed\nupon him, and sequestering himself from all secular employments to\nfollow that of his call to the ministry.[283] The word 'sequestering'\nwould lead us to conclude, that his business was continued by his\nfamily, under his care, but so as to allow him much time for his\nChristian duties, and his benevolent pursuits. His peaceful course\nwas interrupted by a severe controversy with the Christian world upon\nthe subject of communion at the Lord's Table, which had commenced\nwhile he was in prison. He would admit none but those who, by a\ngodly conversation, brought forth fruits meet for repentance, nor\ndared he to refuse any who were admitted to spiritual communion\nwith the Redeemer. Every sect which celebrated the Lord's Supper,\nfenced the table round with ritual observances, except the Baptist\nchurch at Bedford, which stood preeminent for non-sectarianism. A\nsingular proof of this is, that the catechism called Instruction\nof the Ignorant, written and published by Bunyan, is admirably\nadapted for the use, not only of his own church, but of Christians\nof all denominations.\n\nHis spirit was greatly refreshed by finding that his precept and\nexample had been blessed to his son Thomas. On the 6th of the 11th\nmonth, 1673, he passed the lions, and was welcomed into the house\ncalled Beautiful, uniting in full communion with his father's\nchurch. There doubtless was, as Mercy expresses it, 'music in the\nhouse, music in the heart, and music also in heaven, for joy that\nhe was here.'[284] He afterwards became a village preacher.\n\nBunyan was by no means a latitudinarian. No one felt greater\ndecision than he did for the truths of our holy faith. When his\nLord's design in Christianity was, as he thought, perverted by a\nbeneficed clergyman, then he sent forth from his prison an answer\nas from a son of thunder, even at the risk of his life. His love\nfor the pure doctrines of the gospel was as decided as his aversion\nto sectarian titles. 'As for those factious titles of Anabaptists,\nIndependents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude that they\ncame neither from Jerusalem, nor from Antioch, but rather from hell\nand Babylon, for they naturally tend to divisions.'[285] The only\ntitle that he loved was that of Christian. 'It is strange to see\nhow men are wedded to their own opinions, beyond what the law of\ngrace and love will admit. Here is a Presbyter--here an Independent\nand a Baptist, so joined each man to his own opinions, that they\ncannot have that communion one with another as by the testament of\nthe Lord Jesus they are commanded and enjoined.'[286] The meaning\nwhich he attached to the word 'sectarian' is very striking--Pharisees\nare sectarians, they who in Divine worship turn aside from the\nrule of the written Word, and in their manner do it to be seen of\nmen--these are sectaries.[287] Bunyan was most decided as to the\nimportance of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 'Do you think that\nlove letters are not desired between lovers? Why these, God's\nordinances, they are his love letters, and his love tokens, too.\nNo marvel, then, if the righteous do so desire them. \"More to be\ndesired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also\nthan honey, and the honey-comb.\" Christ made himself known to his\ndisciples in breaking of bread; who would not, then, that loves to\nknow him, be present at such an ordinance? Ofttimes the Holy Ghost,\nin the comfortable influence of it, has accompanied the baptized in\nthe very act of administering of it.' His views of the fellowship\nof the saints were equally explicit--'Church fellowship, rightly\nmanaged, is the glory of all the world. No place, no community, no\nfellowship, is adorned and bespangled with those beauties, as is\na church rightly knit together to their Head, and lovingly serving\none another.'[288] Such he admitted to the table of their common\nLord; but, in his esteem, to communicate with the profane was all\none with sacrificing to the devil.\n\nAll this liberality was accompanied by very strict notions of church\nfellowship, not allowing private judgment in the withdrawing of\nany member, if the church withheld its approbation. Mary Tilney\nhad been cruelly robbed by the persecuting Justice Porter, for not\nattending the parish church. He carted away all her goods, beds,\nand bedding, even to the hangings of her rooms. She was a most\nbenevolent widow, and was more troubled with the crying and sighing\nof her poor neighbours, than with the loss of her goods. Harassed\nby persecution at Bedford, she removed to London, and requested her\ndismission to a church of which her son-in-law was pastor, which\nwas refused. As the letter announcing this to her is a good example\nof Bunyan's epistolary correspondence, it is carefully extracted\nfrom the church book.\n\n'Our dearly-beloved sister Tilney.\n\n'Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, by Jesus Christ our Lord.\nAmen.\n\n'I received your letter, and have presented it to the sight of the\nbrethren, who, after due consideration of your motion, have jointly\nconcluded to give you this answer. This for yourself (honoured\nsister), you are of high esteem with the church of God in this\nplace, both because his grace hath been bestowed richly upon you,\nand because of your faithful fellowship with us; for you have been\nrightly a daughter of Abraham while here, not being afraid with any\namazement. Your holy and quiet behaviour, also, while with patience\nand meekness, and in the gentleness of Christ, you suffered yourself\nto be robbed for his sake, hath the more united our affections\nto you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Yea, it hath begotten you\nreverence, also, in the hearts of them who were beholders of your\nmeekness and innocency while you suffered; and a stinging conviction,\nas we are persuaded, in the consciences of those who made spoil\nfor themselves; all which will redound to the praise of God our\nFather, and to your comfort and everlasting consolation by Christ,\nin the day he shall come to take vengeance for his people, and to\nbe glorified in them that believe. Wherefore we cannot (our honoured\nsister) but care for your welfare, and increase of all good in the\nfaith and kingdom of Christ, whose servant you are, and whose name\nis written in your forehead; and do therefore pray God and our\nFather, that he would direct your way, and open a door in his temple\nfor you, that you may eat his fat and be refreshed, and that you\nmay drink the pure blood of the grape. And be you assured that, with\nall readiness, we will help and forward you what we can therein,\nfor we are not ashamed to own you before all the churches of Christ.\n\n'But, our dearly beloved, you know that, for our safety and your\nprofit, it is behoofful that we commit you to such, to be fed and\ngoverned in the Word and doctrines as, we are sufficiently persuaded,\nshall be able to deliver you up with joy at the coming of our Lord\nJesus Christ with all his saints: otherwise we (that we say not\nyou) shall receive blushing and shame before him and you; yea, and\nyou also, our honoured sister, may justly charge us with want of\nlove, and a due respect for your eternal condition, if, for want\nof care and circumspection herein, we should commit you to any\nfrom whom you should receive damage, or by whom you should not be\nsuccoured and fed with the sincere milk of the incorruptible Word\nof God, which is able to save your soul. Wherefore we may not,\nneither dare give our consent that you feed and fold with such\nwhose principles and practices, in matters of faith and worship,\nwe, as yet, are strangers to, and have not received commendations\nconcerning, either from works of theirs or epistles from others.\nYourself, indeed, hath declared that you are satisfied therein;\nbut, elect sister, seeing the act of delivering you up is an act\nof ours and not yours, it is convenient, yea, very expedient, that\nwe, as to so weighty a matter, be well persuaded before. Wherefore\nwe beseech you, that, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, you\ngive us leave to inform ourselves yet better before we grant your\nrequest; and that you also forbear to sit down at the table with\nany without the consent of your brethren. You were, while with\nus, obedient, and we trust you will not be unruly now. And for the\nmore quick expedition of this matter, we will propound before you\nour further thoughts. 1. Either we shall consent to your sitting down\nwith brother Cockain, brother Griffith, brother Palmer, or other,\nwho, of long continuance in the city, have showed forth their faith,\ntheir worship, and good conversation with the Word; 2. Or if you\ncan get a commendatory epistle from brother Owen, brother Cockain,\nbrother Palmer, or brother Griffith, concerning the faith and\nprinciples of the person and people you mention, with desire to be\nguided and governed by, you shall see our readiness, in the fear of\nGod, to commit you to the doctrine and care of that congregation.\nChoose you whether of these you will consent unto, and let us hear\nof your resolution. And we beseech you, for love's sake, you show,\nwith meekness, your fear and reverence of Christ's institution; your\nlove to the congregation, and regard to your future good. Finally,\nwe commit you to the Lord and the Word of his grace, who is able\nto build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are\nsanctified. To God, the only wise, be glory and power everlasting.\nAmen.--Your affectionate brethren, to serve you in the faith and\nfellowship of the gospel.\n\n'Sent from Bedford, the 19th of the Fourth Month, 1671.\n\nAs a farther illustration of Bunyan's sentiments on this subject,\nwe give the following letter to the church at Braintree:--\n\n'The 7th of the Twelfth Month, 1676 (Feb. 1677).\n\n'The church of Christ in and about Bedford, to the church of Christ\nin and about Braintree, sendeth greeting,\n\n'Holy and beloved--We, fellow-heirs with you of the grace of life,\nhaving considered your request concerning our honoured and beloved\nbrother, Samuel Hensman: that he shall be given up to you for\nyour mutual edification, and his furtherance and joy of faith; and\nconsidering also, in the capacity he now standeth by reason of\nhis habitation amongst you, his edification is to be from you, not\nfrom us--he being, by God's providence (by which he disposeth the\nworld), placed at such a distance from us. And considering, also,\nthe great end of Christ our Lord, in ordaining the communion of\nsaints, is his glory in their edification, and that all things are\nto be done by his command to the edification of the body in general,\nand of every member in particular, and that this we oft (ought?)\nto design in our receiving him, and giving up to other churches,\nand not to please ourselves: do as before God and the elect angels,\ngrant and give up to you our elect brother, to be received by you\nin the Lord, and to be nourished, in the church at Braintree, with\nyou as one that is dear to the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ;\nand this we the willinger do, because, as we are informed concerning\nyou, beloved, you are not rigid in your principles, but are for\ncommunion with saints as saints, and have been taught by the Word\nto receive the brotherhood, because they are beloved, and received\nof the Father and the Son, to whose grace we commend you, with\nthe brother of late a member with us, but now one of you. Grace be\nwith you all. Written by the appointment of the church here, and\nsubscribed, in her name, by your brethren, as followeth:--\n\n\n    John Bunyan\n\n    Sam. Fenn.    Oliver Stot.\n    John Fenn.    Thomas Cooper.\n    Luke Astwood. John Croker.\n\n\nThe late Mr. Kilpin of Bedford considered the whole of this letter\nto be entered in the minutes in Bunyan's hand-writing.\n\nThere is also in the church book the copy of a letter, in 1674,\naddressed to the 'church sometime walking with our brother Jesse,'\nrefusing to dismiss to them Martha Cumberland, unless they were\ncertified that they continued in the practice of mixed communion.\nIn these sentiments Bunyan lived and died. His church remains\nthe same to the present day. In the new, commodious, and handsome\nmeeting-house, opened in 1850, there is a baptistery, frequently\nused. The present minister, the amiable and talented John Jukes,\nbaptizes infants, and receives the assistance of a neighbouring\nBaptist minister to baptize adults.\n\nNot only had Bunyan clear, well-defined, and most decided views of\nthe ordinances of the gospel, but also of all its doctrines. His\nknowledge upon those solemn subjects was drawn exclusively from the\nsacred pages; nor dared he swerve in the slightest degree from the\npath of duty; still he belonged to no sect, but that of Christian,\nand the same freedom which had guided him in forming his principles,\nhe cheerfully allowed to others. Hitherto, water baptism had been\nconsidered a pre-requisite to the Lord's table by all parties.\nThe Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents, had denounced\nthe Baptists as guilty of a most serious heresy, or blasphemy, in\ndenying the right of infants to baptism; not only did they exclude\nthe Baptists from communion with their churches, but they persecuted\nthem with extreme rigour. When the Independents made laws for the\ngovernment of their colony in America, in 1644, one of the enactments\nwas, 'That if any person shall either openly condemn, or oppose the\nbaptizing of infants, or seduce others, or leave the congregation\nduring the administration of the rite, they shall be sentenced to\nbanishment.' The same year a poor man was tied up and whipped, for\nrefusing to have his child baptized. 'The Rev. J. Clarke, and Mr.\nO. Holmes, of Rhode Island, for visiting a sick Baptist brother in\nMassachusetts, instead of being admitted to the Lord's table, they\nwere arrested, fined, imprisoned, and whipped.' At this very time,\nthe Baptists formed their colony at Rhode Island, and the charter\nconcludes with these words, 'All men may walk as their consciences\npersuade them, every one in the name of his God.' This is probably\nthe only spot in the world where persecution was never known. The\nBaptists considered that immersion in water was the marriage rite\nbetween the believer and Saviour; that to sit at the Lord's table\nwithout it was spiritual adultery, to be abhorred and avoided, and\ntherefore refused to admit any person to the Lord's table who had\nnot been baptized in water upon a personal profession of faith\nin the Saviour. This was the state of parties when Bunyan, at the\ncommencement of his pastorate, entered into the controversy. He had\nbeen promised a commendation to his book by the great, the grave,\n'the sober' Dr. Owen, but he withdrew his sanction. 'And perhaps it\nwas more for the glory of God, that truth should go naked into the\nworld,' said Bunyan, 'than as seconded by so weighty an armour-bearer\nas he.'[289] Bunyan denied that water could form a wedding garment,\nor that water baptism was a pre-requisite for the Lord's table, or\nthat being immersed in water was putting on our Lord's livery, by\nwhich disciples may be known. 'Away, fond man, do you forget the\ntext, \"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye\nhave love one to another.\"'[290] And attempt was made to embroil\nBunyan in a public disputation in London upon this subject, which\nhe very wisely avoided.[291] This controversy will be found in our\nsecond volume, and is deeply interesting, making allowance for the\nesprit de corps manifested on all sides. A verse in the emblems is\nvery pertinent upon the violence of this dispute:--\n\n\n   'Our gospel has had here a summer's day,\n    But in its sunshine we, like fools, did play;\n    Or else fall out, and with each other wrangle,\n    And did, instead of work, not much but jangle.'[292]\n\n\nAfter a lapse of nearly two centuries, Bunyan's peaceable principles\nhave greatly prevailed; so that now few churches refuse communion\non account of the mode, in which water baptism has been administered.\nThe Baptists are no longer deemed heretics as they formerly were.\nDr. Watts aided this kindly feeling--'A church baptized in infancy,\nor in adult age, may allow communion to those that are of the contrary\npractice in baptism.'[293] Robert Robinson praises Bunyan's work,\nand advocates his sentiments upon the most liberal principles.\nOne of his remarks is very striking:--'Happy community! that can\nproduce a dispute of one hundred and fifty years unstained with\nthe blood, and unsullied with the fines, the imprisonments, and the\ncivil inconveniences of the disputants. As to a few coarse names,\nrough compliments, foreign suppositions, and acrimonious exclamations,\nthey are only the harmless squeakings of men in a passion, caught\nand pinched in a sort of logical trap.'[294] To this time, Bunyan\nwas only known as an extraordinarily talented and eloquent man,\nwhose retentive memory was most richly stored with the sacred\nScriptures. All his sermons and writings were drawn from his own\nmental resources, aided, while in prison, only by the Bible, the\nConcordance, and Fox's Book of Martyrs. Very emphatically he says,\n'I am for drinking water out of my own cistern.' 'I find such\na spirit of idolatry in the learning of this world, that had I it\nat command I durst not use it, but only use the light of the Word\nand Spirit of God.' 'I will not take of it from a thread even to\na shoe latchet.'[295] It must not be understood that he read no\nother works but his Bible and Book of Martyrs, but that he only used\nthose in composing his various treatises while in confinement. He\ncertainly had and read The Plain Man's Pathway, Practice of Piety,\nLuther on the Galatians, Clarke's Looking-glass for Saints and\nSinners, Dodd on the Commandments, Andrews' Sermons, Fowler's Design\nof Christianity, D'Anvers and Paul on Baptism, and doubtless all\nthe books which were within his reach, calculated to increase his\nstore of knowledge.\n\nAbout this time he published a small quarto tract, in which he\nscripturally treats the doctrine of eternal election and reprobation.\nThis rare book, published for sixpence, we were glad to purchase at\na cost of one guinea and a half, because a modern author rejected\nits authenticity! It is included in every early list of Bunyan's\nworks, and especially in that published by himself, in 1688, to\nguard his friends from deception; for he had become so popular an\nauthor that several forgeries had been published under his initials.\nThese few pages on election contain a scriptural treatise upon\na very solemn subject, written by one whose mind was so imbued\nby the fear of God, as to have cast out the fear of man; which so\ngenerally embarrasses writers upon this subject. It was translated\ninto Welsh, and is worthy an attentive perusal, especially by those\nwho cannot see the difference between God's foreknowledge and his\nforeordination.\n\nA new era was now dawning upon him, which, during the last ten years\nof his life, added tenfold to his popularity. For many years his\nbeautifully simple, but splendid allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress,\nlay slumbering in his drawer.[296] Numerous had been his consultations\nwith his pious associates and friends, and various had been their\nopinions, whether it was serious enough to be published. All of them\nhad a solemn sense of the impropriety of anything like trifling as\nto the way of escape from destruction, and the road to the celestial\ncity. It appears strange to us, who have witnessed the very solemn\nimpressions, in all cases, made by reading that book, that there\ncould have been a doubt of the propriety of treating in a colloquial\nmanner, and even under the fashion of a dream, those most important\ntruths. Some said, 'John, print it'; others said, 'not so.' Some\nsaid, 'it might do good'; others said, 'no.' The result of all\nthose consultations was his determination, 'I print it will,' and\nit has raised an imperishable monument to his memory. Up to this\ntime, all Bunyan's popularity arose from his earlier works, and\nhis sermons. Leaving out of the question those most extraordinary\nbooks, The Pilgrim's Progress and Holy War, his other writings ought\nto have handed down his name, with honour and popularity, to the\nlatest posterity. While the logical and ponderous works of Baxter\nand Owen are well calculated to furnish instruction to those who\nare determined to obtain knowledge, the works of Bunyan create that\nvery determination, and furnish that very knowledge, so blended\nwith amusement, as to fix it in the memory. Let one illustration\nsuffice. It is our duty to love our enemies, but it is a hard lesson;\nwe must learn it from the conduct of the Divine Creator--'There\nis a man hates God, blasphemes his name, despises his being; yea,\nsays there is no God. And yet the God that he carrieth it thus\ntowards doth give me his breakfast, dinner, and supper; clothes him\nwell, and, when night comes, has him to bed, gives him good rest,\nblesses his field, his corn, his cattle, his children, and raises\nhim to high estate; yea, and this our God doth not only once\nor twice, but until these transgressors become old; his patience\nis thus extended years after years, that we might learn of him to\ndo well.'[297] All the works of Bunyan abound with such striking\nlessons, as to render them extremely valuable, especially to\nSunday-school teachers and ministers, to enliven their addresses and\nsermons. But, in The Pilgrim's Progress, the world has acknowledged\none train of beauties; picture after picture, most beautifully\nfinished, exhibiting the road from destruction to the celestial\ncity; our only difficulty in such a display being to decide as to\nwhich is the most interesting and striking piece of scenery.[298]\nThe editor's introduction to that extraordinary book is intended\nto prove that it was written while the author was imprisoned\nfor refusing to submit his conscience to human laws, and that it\nis a perpetual monument to the folly of persecution; the peculiar\nqualifications of the author are displayed in its having been\na spontaneous effusion of his own mind, unaided by any previous\nwriter; an analysis is given of all prior pilgrimages, in which,\nmore especially in The Pilgrims, The Pylgremage of the Soule,\nGrande Amoure, and in The Pilgrim of Loretto, the reader will find\na faithful picture of some of the singularities of Popery drawn by\nitself; an account of the editions, forgeries, errors in printing,\nversions and translations of this wonderful book; the opinions of\nthe learned and pious of its merits, principal scenes, and a synopsis.\nIt has been the source of very numerous courses of lectures by\nministers of all denominations; and has been turned into a handsome\nvolume of hymns, adapted for public worship, by the late Mr. Purday,\na friend of John Wesley's, and a laborious preacher for more than\nhalf a century.\n\nGreat efforts have been made by the most popular artists to enliven the\nscenes of the pilgrimage; but no colour glows like the enchanting\nwords of Bunyan. No figures are so true to nature, and so life-like.\nThose eminent engravers, Sturt and Strut, Stothard and Martin,\nwith the prize efforts excited by the Art Union of England, and\nthe curious outlines by Mrs. M'Kenzie, the daughter of a British\nadmiral, have endeavoured to exhaust the scenes in this inexhaustible\nwork of beautiful scenery. The most elegant and correct edition is\nthe large-paper, sumptuous volume by Mr. Bogue, admirably illustrated\nwith new designs, engraved on wood in superior style--a volume\nworthy the drawing-room of queens and emperors. The designs, also,\nof the late David Scott, recently published at Edinburgh, are new,\nand peculiarly striking. His entrance to the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death is mysteriously impressive, a fit accompaniment to Bunyan's\ndescription, which is not excelled by any thing in Dante, Spencer,\nor Milton. In both parts of The Pilgrim's Progress this scene is\nfull of terrific sublimity. But we must be excused, if we most warmly\nrecommend our own offspring--the present edition--as combining\naccuracy, elegance, and cheapness, with the addition of very\nnumerous notes, which, we trust, will prove highly illustrative\nand entertaining.\n\nThe carping criticisms of Mr. Dunlop, in his History of Fiction,\nand of an author in the Penny Encyclopedia, are scarcely worth\nnotice. The complaint is, want of benevolence in the hero of the\ntale. How singular it is, and what a testimony to its excellence,\nthat an intelligent writer upon fictions should have been so\noverpowered with this spiritual narrative, as to confound it with\ntemporal things. Christian leaves his wife and children, instead\nof staying with them, to be involved in destruction--all this\nrelates to inward spiritual feelings, and to these only. Visited\nby compunctions of heart, Christian strives to inspire his wife\nand children with the same, but in vain; he attends solitarily to\nhis spiritual state, taunted by his family, while, as to temporal\nthings, he becomes a better husband and father than ever he\nwas--but this is not prominent, because it is entirely foreign to\nthe author's object, which is to display the inward emotions of\nthe new birth, the spiritual journey alone, apart from all temporal\naffairs. Multitudes read it as if it was really a dream, the old\nsleeping portrait confirming the idea. In the story, Christian most\nmysteriously embodies all classes of men, from the prince to the\npeasant--the wealthiest noble, or merchant, to the humbles mechanic\nor labourer--and it illustrates the most solemn, certain truth,\nthat, with respect to the salvation of the soul, the poorest creature\nin existence is upon perfect equality with the lordly prelate, or\nmagnificent emperor, with this word ringing in their ears, 'the POOR\nhave the gospel preached to them.' The Grace Abounding, or Life of\nBunyan, is a key to all the mysteries of The Pilgrim's Progress,\nand Holy War.\n\nBunyan's singular powers are those of description, not of invention.\nHe had lived in the city of destruction--he had heard the distant\nthreatening of the awful storm that was shortly to swallow it up\nin unutterable ruin--he had felt the load of sin, and rejoiced when\nit was rolled away before a crucified Saviour--he knew every step\nof the way, and before he had himself passed the black river, he\nhad watched prayerfully over those who were passing, and when the\ngate of the city was opened to let them enter, he had strained his\neyes to see their glory.\n\nThe purifying influence of The Pilgrim's Progress may be traced in\nthe writings of many imaginative authors. How does it in several\nparts beautify the admirable tale of Uncle Tom, and his Cabin. In\nthat inimitable scene, the death of the lovely Eva, the distressed\nnegro, watching with intense anxiety the progress of death, says,\n'When that blessed child goes into the kingdom, they'll open the\ndoor so wide, we'll all get a look in at the glory.' Whence came\nthis strange idea--not limited to the poor negro, but felt by\nthousands who have watched over departing saints? It comes from\nthe entrance of Christian and Hopeful into the celestial city--'I\nlooked in after them, and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the\nstreets, also, were paved with gold, and in them they walked with\ncrowns on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps\nto sing praises, which, when I had seen, I wished myself among\nthem.'[299] How often has Bunyan's wit sparkled in sermons, and\neven in speeches delivered in the senate. Recently, in a speech on\nthe collation ministry, the following reference was introduced:--'Mr.\nFacing-both-ways, of honest John Bunyan, is not a creature mankind\ncan regard with any complacency; nor will they likely suffer any\none to act with one party, and reserve his principles for another.'\nIt has also been strangely quoted in novel writing--thus in Bell's\nVillette--visiting a God-mother in a pleasant retreat, is said 'to\nresemble the sojourn of Christian and Hopeful, beside the pleasant\nstream, with green trees on each bank, and meadows beautified with\nlilies all the year round.' It is marvelous that a picture of\nnature should have been so beautifully and strikingly described\nby an unlettered artisan, as to be used in embellishing an elegant\nnovel, written nearly two centuries after his decease.[300]\n\nThe Pilgrim was followed by a searching treatise on The Fear of God.\nThe value of this book led to its republication by the Tract Society,\nand 4000 copies have been circulated. It is a neat and acceptable\nvolume, but why altered? and a psalm omitted.[301] Bunyan says,\n'Your great ranting, swaggering, roysters'; this is modernized into\n'Your ranting boasters.'[302] Then followed, the Come and Welcome\nto Jesus Christ. This was frequently reprinted, and hundreds of\nthousands have been circulated to benefit the world. His popularity\nincreased with his years; efforts were made, but in vain, to steal\nhim from his beloved charge at Bedford. 'He hath refused a more\nplentiful income to keep his station,' is the language of his\nsurviving friend, Charles Doe. It is not surprising that he was\nthus tempted to leave his poor country church, for we are told by\nthe same biographer, that 'When Mr. Bunyan preached in London, if\nthere were but one day's notice given, there would be more people\ncome together to hear him preach, than the meeting-house could hold.\nI have seen to hear him preach, by my computation, about 1200 at\na morning lecture, by seven o'clock, on a working day, in the dark\nwinter time. I also computed about 3000 that came to hear him one\nLord's-day, at London, at a town's end meeting-house, so that half\nwere fain to go back again for want of room, and then himself was\nfain at a back door to be pulled almost over people to get up stairs\nto his pulpit.' This took place in a large meeting-house, erected\nin Zoar Street, either on the site or near the Globe Theatre,\nSouthwark.[303] On this spot, the prince of dramatists amused and\ncorrupted crowded houses; while in the immediate vicinity were\nthe stews and bear garden, frequented by libertines of the lowest\ncaste. One Sunday, in 1582, many were killed or miserably wounded\nwhile attending the brutal sport of bear-baiting. Here, in the heart\nof Satan's empire, the prince of allegorists attracted multitudes,\nto be enlightened by his natural eloquence, and to be benefited\nby the fruits of his prolific and vivid imagination, at all times\ncurbed and directed by the holy oracles. It was a spacious building,\ncovering about 2000 feet of ground (50 by 40), with three galleries,\nquite capable of holding the number computed by Mr. Doe. We have,\nfrom correct drawings, furnished our subscribers with the plan\nand elevation of this ancient meeting-house. Having preached with\npeculiar warmth and enlargement, one of his friends took him by\nthe hand, and could not help observing what a sweet sermon he had\ndelivered; 'Ay,' said he, 'you need not remind me of that, for the\ndevil told me of it before I was out of the pulpit!'[304] Amongst\nhis hearers were to be found the learned and the illiterate. It\nwas well known that Dr. John Owen, when he had the opportunity,\nembraced it with pleasure, and sat at the feet of the unlearned,\nbut eloquent tinker. Charles II, hearing of it, asked the learned\nD.D., 'How a man of his great erudition could sit to hear a tinker\npreach?' to which the doctor replied, 'May it please your Majesty,\nif I could possess the tinker's abilities, I would gladly give in\nexchange all my learning.'\n\nHe now pictured the downward road of the sinner to the realms of\ndeath and darkness in the Life of Badman. This was published in\n1680, and is written in a language which fraudulent tradesmen at\nthat period could not misunderstand; using terms now obsolete or\nvulgar. It is full of anecdotes, which reveal the state of the times,\nas superlatively immoral, and profane. He incidentally notices that\na labourer received eightpence or tenpence per day.[305] At that\ntime, bread and all the necessaries of life, excepting meat, were\ndearer than they are at present. In fact, our days are much happier\nfor the poor than any preceding ones in British history. Bunyan's\nnotions of conscientious dealing, will make all traders who read\nthem--blush.[306]\n\nNovember 12, 1681, Bunyan's friend and fellow-labourer Samuel Fenn,\nwas removed from this world, and in the following year persecution\nraged severely. The church was, for a season, driven from the\nmeeting-house, and obliged to assemble in the fields. The Word of\nthe Lord was precious in those days.\n\nIn 1682, while surrounded by persecution, he prepared and published\nhis most profound and beautiful allegory, The Holy War, made by\nShaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the\nWorld; or, The Losing and Taking again the Town of Mansoul.[307]\nThe frontispiece is the most accurate likeness of Bunyan that is\nextant; it is engraved by White, from a drawing, also by him, now\npreserved in the print department of the British Museum. From this\ndrawing, carefully compared with the print, we have furnished the\nexpressive likeness which forms the frontispiece to this volume.\nIt has also a correct whole-length portrait, with emblematical\ndevices. This exceedingly beautiful and most finished allegory has\nnever been so popular as The Pilgrim's Progress, for reasons which\nare shown in the introduction to The Holy War.[308] The whole\nnarrative of this wondrous war appears to flow as naturally as\ndid that of the pilgrimage from the highly imaginative mind of the\nauthor. Man, in his innocence, attracts the notice and hatred of\nApollyon. Nothing could be accomplished by force--all by\nsubtlety and deceit. He holds a council of war--selects his\nofficers--approaches--parleys, and gains admittance--then fortifies\nthe town against its king--Immanuel determines to recover it--vast\narmies, under appropriate leaders, surround the town, and attack\nevery gate. The ear is garrisoned by Captain Prejudice and his deaf\nmen. But he who rides forth conquering and to conquer is victorious.\nAll the pomp, and parade, and horrors of a siege are as accurately\ntold, as if by one who had been at the sacking of many towns. The\nauthor had learnt much in a little time, at the siege of Leicester.\nAll the sad elements of war appear, and make us shudder--masses\nof armed men with their slings and battering-rams--clarions and\nshouts--wounded and slain, all appear as in a panorama. The mind\nbecomes entranced, and when sober reflection regains her command,\nwe naturally inquire, Can all this have taken place in my heart?\nThen the armies of Diabolus, with his thousands of Election Doubters,\nand as many Vocation Doubters, and his troops of Blood-men--thousands\nslain, and yet thousands start into existence. And all this in one\nman! How numberless are our thoughts--how crafty the approaches of\nthe enemy--how hopeless and helpless is the sinner, unless Immanuel\nundertakes his recovery. The Holy War is a most surprising narrative\nof the fall and of the recovery of man's soul, as accurate as\nit is most deeply interesting. It is one of the most perfect of\nallegories.[309] There is as vast a superiority in Bunyan's Holy\nWar over that by Chrysostom, as there is in the sun over a rush-light.\n\nIn 1684, he completed his Pilgrim's Progress, with the Journey of\na Female Christian, her Children, and the Lovely Mercy; and now, as\nhis invaluable and active life drew towards its close, his labours\nwere redoubled. In his younger days, there appeared to have been\nno presentiment on his part that the longest term of human life\nwould with him be shortened, but rather an expectation of living\nto old age, judging from an expression in his Grace Abounding.\nwhen he enjoyed a good hope, and bright anticipation of heavenly\nfelicity, 'I should often long and desire that the last days were\ncome. O! thought I, that I were fourscore years old now, that I\nmight die quickly and be gone to rest.'[310] At that time he did\nnot anticipate twelve years' imprisonment in a wretched jail, nor\nthe consequent effects it must have upon his robust frame, well\ncalculated to stand all weathers, but easily sapped and undermined\nby a damp dungeon. Symptoms of decay, after having enjoyed his\nliberty for about a year, led him to close his Affectionate Advice\nto his Beloved Flock, on their Christian Behaviour; with these\nwords, 'Thus have I written to you, before I die, to provoke you\nto faith and holiness, and to love one another, when I am deceased,\nand shall be in paradise, as through grace I comfortably believe;\nyet it is not there, but here, I must do you good.'[311] It\nis remarkable that Bunyan escaped all the dangers of the trying\nreign of James II, who, at times, was a persecutor, and at times\nendeavoured, in vain, by blandishments, to win the Nonconformists.\nhis minions had their eyes upon our pilgrim, but were foiled in every\nattempt to apprehend him; all that he suffered was the occasional\nspoiling of his goods.[312] Neither violence nor allurements induced\nhim to deviate from his line of duty. No fear of man appeared to\nagitate his breast--he richly enjoyed that 'perfect love,' which\n'casteth out fear' (1 John 4:18). James did all that an unprincipled\nman could do to cajole the Dissenters, that by their aid he might\npull down the walls of Protestantism, and give full sway to the\nPapacy. He attempted, among many others, to bribe John Bunyan. He\nknew not how well he was read in the Book of Martyrs; how well he\nwas aware that 'the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations,'\nand that the only advantage he could have received, would have been\nthe same that Polypheme, the monstrous giant of Sicily, allowed to\nUlysses, that he would eat his men first, and do him the favour of\nbeing eaten last. Mr. Doe states that 'Regulators were sent into all\ncities and towns corporate to new-model the magistracy, by turning\nout some, and putting in others. Against this Bunyan expressed his\nzeal with great anxiety, as foreseeing the bad consequences that\nwould attend it, and laboured with his congregation to prevent\ntheir being imposed on in this kind. And when a great man in those\ndays, coming to Bedford upon some such errand, sent for him, as it\nis supposed, to give him a place of public trust, he would by no\nmeans come at him, but sent his excuse.'[313] He knew that in his\nflesh he possessed what he calls 'Adam's legacy, a conduit pipe,\nthrough which the devil conveys his poisoned spawn and venom,'[314]\nand he wisely avoided this subtle temptation. He detested the\n'painted Satan, or devil in fine clothes.'[315] It was one of these\nhypocritical pretences to correct evil, while really meaning to\nincrease it, and which Bunyan calls, 'the devil correcting vice.'\nHe was watchful, lest 'his inward man should catch cold,'[316] and\nevery attempt to entangle him failed.\n\nThis godly jealousy led him to sacrifice worldly interests to an\nextent not justifiable, if all the facts appear. When told that a\nvery worthy citizen of London would take his son Joseph apprentice\nwithout fee, and advance his interests, he refused, saying, 'God\ndid not send me to advance my family, but to preach the gospel.'\n\nAt this time he again manifested his lion heart, by writing and\npreparing for the press a fearless treatise on Antichrist, and\nhis Ruin. In this he shows, that human interference with Divine\nworship, by penal laws or constraint, is 'Antichrist'--that which\npretends to regulate thought, and thus to reduce the kingdom\nof Christ to a level with the governments of this world. In this\ntreatise, he clearly exhibits the meaning of that passage, so\nconstantly quoted by the advocates of tyranny and persecution (Ezra\n7:26), and shows that the laws interfered not with Divine worship,\nbut that they upheld to the fullest extent the principle of voluntary\nobedience (v 13); so that any man putting constraint upon another\nin religious affairs, would be guilty of breaking the law, and\nsubject him to extreme punishment. This was one of the last treatises\nwhich Bunyan prepared for the press, as if in his dying moments he\nwould aim a deadly thrust at Apollyon. Reader, it is worthy your\nmost careful perusal, as showing the certain downfall of Antichrist,\nand the means by which it must be accomplished.\n\nFeeling the extreme uncertainty of life, and that he might be robbed\nof all his worldly goods, under a pretence of fines and penalties,\nhe, on the 23d of December, 1685, executed a deed of gift, vesting\nwhat little he possessed in his wife. It is a singular instrument,\nespecially as having been sealed with a silver twopenny piece. The\noriginal is in the church book, at Bedford:--\n\n'To all people to whom this present writing shall com, J. Bunyan of\nthe parish of St. Cuthbirt's, in the towne of Bedford, in the county\nof Bedford, Brazier send greeting. Know ye, that I the said John\nBunyan as well for, and in consideration of the natural affection\nand loue which I have, and bear vnto my welbeloued wife, Elizabeth\nBunyan, as also for divers other good causes and considerations, me\nat this present especially moneing, have given and granted, and by\nthese presents, do give, grant, and conferm vnto the said Elizabeth\nBunyan, my said wife, all and singuler my goods, chattels, debts,\nready mony, plate, rings, household stuffe, aparrel, vtensills,\nbrass, peuter, beding, and all other my substance, whatsoever moueable\nand immoueable, of what kinde, nature, quality, or condition soever\nthe same are or be, and in what place or places soever the same be,\nshall or may be found as well in mine own custodies, possession, as\nin the possession, hands, power, and custody of any other person,\nor persons whatsoever. To have and to hold all and singuler the\nsaid goods, chattels, debts, and all other, the aforesaid premises\nvnto the said Elizabeth, my wife, her executors, administerators,\nand assigns to her and their proper vses and behoofs, freely and\nquietly without any matter of challinge, claime, or demand of me\nthe said John Bunyan, or of any other person, or persons, whatsoever\nfor me in my name, by my means cavs or procurement, and without any\nmony or other thing, therefore to be yeeilded, paid or done vnto\nme the said John Bunyan, my executors, administrators or assigns.\nAnd I, the said John Bunyan, all and singular, the aforesaid goods,\nchattels, and premises to the said Elizabeth my wife, her executors,\nadministrators, and assignes to the vse aforesaid, against all\npeople do warrant and forever defend by these presents. And further,\nknow ye, that I the said John Bunyan have put the said Elizabeth,\nmy wife, in peacable and quiet possession of all and singuler the\naforesaid premises, by the delivrye vnto her at the ensealing hereof\none coyned peece of silver, commonly called two pence, fixed on\nthe seal of these presents.[317]\n\n'In wittnes wherof, I the said John Bunyan have herevnto set my\nhand and seall this 23d day of December, in the first year of the\nreigne of our soueraigne lord, King James the Second of England,\n&c., in the year of our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, 1685.\n\nJohn Bunyan\n\nSealed and delivered in the presence of vs, whos names are here\nvnder written:--\n\n\n    John Bardolph.    Willm Hawkes.\n    Nicholas Malin.   Lewes Norman.\n\n\nIt appears from this deed that Bunyan continued in business as a\nbrazier, and it is very probable that he carried it on until his\ndecease. This deed secured to his wife what little he possessed,\nwithout the trouble or expense of applying to the ecclesiastical\ncourts for probate of a will.\n\nAmong other opinions which then divided the Christian world, was\na very important one relative to the law of the ten commandments,\nwhether it was given to the world at large, or limited to the\nJews as a peculiar nation until the coming of Messiah, and whether\nour Lord altered or annulled the whole or any part of that law.\nThis question involves the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.\nAn awful curse is denounced upon those who do not continue in ALL\nthings which are written in the book of the law to do them (Gal\n3:10; Deut 27:26). When an innovation upon the almost universal\npractice of infant baptism had become an object of inquiry only to\nbe answered from the New Testament, it is not surprising that the\nserious question, why God's Sabbath-day had been altered, should\nalso be agitated with deep feeling. Generally, those who advocated\nthe restoration of the Jewish Sabbath were decidedly of opinion\nthat believers only were fit subjects for baptism, and that the\nscriptural mode of administering it was by immersion; hence they\nwere called Seventh-day Baptists--Sabbatarians, or Sabbath-keepers.\n\nBunyan entered with very proper and temperate zeal into this\ncontroversy. Popular feeling had no influence over him; nor could\nhe submit to the opinions of the ancient fathers. His storehouse\nof knowledge was limited to the revealed will of God, and there\nhe found ample material to guide his opinion. His work upon this\nsubject is called, Questions about the Nature and Perpetuity of\nthe Seventh-day Sabbath; and proof that the First Day of the Week\nis the Christian Sabbath. It is one of the smallest of his volumes,\nbut so weighty in argument as never to have been answered.\n\nWe now arrive at the last year of his eventful and busy life,\nduring which he published six important volumes, and left twelve\nothers in manuscript, prepared for publication. A list of these will\nbe found in The Struggler;[318] they are upon the most important\nsubjects, which are very admirably treated. We notice among these,\nThe Jerusalem Sinner Saved, or Good News for the Vilest of Men.\nIt is a specimen of preaching calculated to excite the deepest\ninterest, and afford the strongest consolation to a soul oppressed\nwith the sense of sin. Great sinner! thou art called to mercy by\nname. Arise! shoulder thy way into court through any crowd,--'say,\nStand away, devil; stand away all discouragements; my Saviour calls\nme to receive mercy.' In this treatise, Bunyan has repeated from\nmemory what he had read in some book when in prison, four and twenty\nyears before. It is a curious legend, which he doubtless believed\nto be true, and it displays his most retentive memory.[319] His\npoetry, like his prose, was not written to gain a name, but to make\na deep impression. One of his professed admirers made a strange\nmistake when he called them doggerel rhymes.[320] His Caution to\nWatch Against Sin is full of solemn and impressive thoughts, the\nvery reverse of doggerel or burlesque. his poem on the house of\nGod is worthy of a most careful perusal; and thousands have been\ndelighted and improved with his emblems. One rhyme in the Pilgrim\ncan never be forgotten--\n\n\n   'He that is down need fear no fall;\n    He that is low no pride;\n    He that is humble ever shall\n    Have God to be his guide,' &c.\n\n\nThe careful perusal of every one of his treatises, has excited in\nmy mind a much livelier interest than any other religious works\nwhich, in a long life, have come under my notice. In fact, the\nworks of Bunyan to a country minister may be compared to a vast\nstorehouse, most amply replenished with all those solemn subjects\nwhich call for his prayerful investigation; well arranged, ready of\naccess, striking in their simplicity, full of vivid ideas conveyed\nin language that a novice may understand. They are all so admirably\ncomposed that pious persons, whether in houses of convocation or\nof parliament, or the inmates of a workhouse, may equally listen\nto them with increasing delight and instruction. No man ever more\nrichly enjoyed the magnificent language of Job. He called it 'that\nblessed book.'[321] The deep interest that he took in its scenery\nmay be traced through all his writings. His spirit, with its mighty\npowers, grasped the wondrous truths so splendidly pourtrayed in\nthat most ancient book. The inspired writings, which so eminently\ngive wisdom to the simple, expanded his mind, while his mental\npowers were strengthened and invigorated by his so deeply drinking\ninto the spirit of the inspired volume.\n\nThe time was drawing near when, in the midst of his usefulness, and\nwith little warning, he was to be summoned to his eternal rest. He\nhad been seriously attacked with that dangerous pestilence which,\nin former years, ravaged this country, called the sweating sickness,\na malady as mysterious and fatal as the cholera has been in later\ntimes. The disease was attended by great prostration of strength;\nbut, under the careful management of his affectionate wife, his\nhealth became sufficiently restored to enable him to undertake a\nwork of mercy; from the fulfillment of which, as a blessed close\nto his incessant earthly labour, he was to ascend to his Father and\nhis God to be crowned with immortality. A father had been seriously\noffended with his son, and had threatened to disinherit him. To\nprevent the double mischief of a father dying in anger with his\nchild, and the evil consequence to the child of his being cut off\nfrom his patrimony, Bunyan again ventured, in his weak state, on\nhis accustomed work, to win the blessings of the peace-maker. He\nmade a journey on horseback to Reading, it being the only mode of\ntravelling at that time, and he was rewarded with success. Returning\nhome by way of London to impart the gratifying intelligence, he was\novertaken by excessive rains, and, in an exhausted state, he found\na kindly refuge in the house of his Christian friend Mr. Strudwick,\nand was there seized with a fatal fever. His much-loved wife, who\nhad so powerfully pleaded for his liberty with the judges, and to\nwhom he had been united thirty years, was at a great distance from\nhim. Bedford was then two days' journey from London. Probably at\nfirst, his friends had hopes of his speedy recovery; but when the\nstroke came, all his feelings, and those of his friends, appear to\nhave been absorbed, by the anticipated blessings of immortality,\nto such an extent, that no record is left as to whether his wife,\nor any of his children, saw him cross the river of death. There is\nabundant testimony of his faith and patience, and that the presence\nof God was eminently with him.\n\nHe bore his trying sufferings with all the patience and fortitude\nthat might be expected from such a man. His resignation was most\nexemplary; his only expressions were 'a desire to depart, to be\ndissolved, to be with Christ.' His sufferings were short, being\nlimited to ten days. He enjoyed a holy frame of mind, desiring his\nfriends to pray with him, and uniting fervently with them in the\nexercise. His last words, while struggling with death, were, 'Weep\nnot for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of his blessed\nSon, receive me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall\nmeet, to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world\nwithout end. Amen.' He felt the ground solid under his feet in passing\nthe black river which has no bridge, and followed his pilgrim into\nthe celestial city in August, 1688, in the sixtieth year of his age.\nThere is some uncertainty as to the day of his decease: Charles\nDoe, in the Struggler, 1692, has August 31, and this has been copied\nin all his portraits. In the life appended to the Grace Abounding,\n1692, his death-day is stated as August 12; and in the memoir\nappended to the third part of the Pilgrim, also in 1692, the date\nis August 17. The circumstances of his peaceful decease are well\ncompared by Dr. Cheever to the experience of Mr. Standfast, when he\nwas called to pass the river: the great calm--the firm footing--the\naddress to by-standers--until his countenance changed, his strong\nman bowed under him, and his last words were, 'Take me, for I come\nto thee.' Then the joy among the angels while they welcomed the\nhero of such spiritual fights, and conducted his wandering soul to\nthe New Jerusalem, which he had so beautifully described as 'the\nholy city'; and then his wonder and amazement to find how infinitely\nshort his description came to the blissful reality.\n\nThe deep affliction that his church was plunged into led to several\nspecial meetings. Wednesday, the 4th of September, 'was kept in\nprayer and humiliation for this heavy stroke upon us--the death of\ndear brother Bunyan; it was appointed also, that Wednesday next be\nkept in prayer and humiliation on the same account. At the meeting\nheld on the 11th, it was appointed that all the brethren meet\ntogether on the 18th of this month, September, to humble themselves\nfor this heavy hand of God upon us, and also to pray unto the Lord\nfor counsel and direction what to do, in order to seek out for a\nfit person to make choice of for an elder. On the 18th, when the\nwhole congregation met to humble themselves before God, by fasting\nand prayer, for his heavy and severe stroke upon us in taking away\nour honoured brother Bunyan by death, it was agreed by the whole\ncongregation that care be taken to seek out for one suitably qualified\nto be chosen an elder among us, and that care was committed by the\nwhole to the brethren at Bedford.' Thus did the church manifest\nthat they had improved in wisdom under his ministry by flying, in\ntheir extreme distress, to the only source of consolation.\n\nThe saddest feelings of sorrow extended to every place where he\nhad been known. His friend, the Rev. G. Cockayn, of London, says,\n'it pleased the Lord to remove him, to the great loss and inexpressible\ngrief of many precious souls.' Numerous elegies, acrostics, and\npoems were published on the occasion of his decease, lamenting the\nloss thus sustained by his country--by the church at large, and\nparticularly by the church and congregation at Bedford. One of\nthese, 'written by a dear friend of his,' is a fair sample of the\nwhole:--\n\nA SHORT ELEGY IN MEMORY OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN, WRITTEN BY A DEAR FRIEND\nOF HIS.\n\n\n    The pilgrim traveling the world's vast stage,\n    At last does end his weary pilgrimage:\n    He now in pleasant valleys does sit down,\n    And, for his toil, receives a glorious crown.\n    The storms are past, the terrors vanish all,\n    Which in his way did so affrighting fall;\n    He grieves nor sighs no more, his race is run\n    Successfully, that was so well begun.\n    You'll say he's dead: O no, he cannot die,\n    He's only changed to immortality--\n    Weep not for him, who has no cause of tears;\n    Hush, then, your sighs, and calm your needless fears.\n    If anything in love to him is meant,\n    Tread his last steps, and of your sins repent:\n    If knowledge of things here at all remains\n    Beyond the grave, to please him for his pains\n    And suffering in this world; live, then, upright,\n    And that will be to him a grateful sight.\n    Run such a race as you again may meet,\n    And find your conversation far more sweet;\n    When purged from dross, you shall, unmix'd, possess\n    The purest essence of eternal bliss\n\n   'He in the pulpit preached truth first, and then\n    He in his practice preached it o'er again.'\n\n\nHis remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, in the vault of his\nfriend Mr. Strudwick, at whose house he died. His tomb[322] has been\nvisited by thousands of pilgrims, blessing God for his goodness in\nraising up such a man, so signally fitted to be a blessing to the\ntimes in which he lived. All the accounts of his decease, published\nat the time, agree as to his place of burial. The words of Mr. Doe,\nwho probably attended the funeral, are, 'he was buried in the new\nburying-place, near the artillery ground, where he sleeps to the\nmorning of the resurrection.'[323] His Life and Actions, 1692,\nrecords that 'his funeral was performed with much decency, and he\nwas buried in the new burying-ground by Moorfields.' The Struggler\ncalls it 'Finsbury burying-ground, where many London Dissenting\nministers are laid.'[324] Bunhill Fields burying-ground for\nDissenters was first opened in 1666. The inscription upon the tomb\nto his memory was engraven many years after his funeral. It is not\ncontained in the list of inscriptions published in 1717. His widow\nsurvived him four years. He had six children by his first wife,\nthree of whom survived him--Thomas, Joseph, and Sarah. His son\nThomas joined his church in 1673, and was a preacher in 1692. He\nappears to have been usefully employed in visiting absent members\nuntil December 1718. My kind friend, the Rev. J. P. Lockwood,\nrector of South Hackney, recently discovered entries in the register\nof Kimbolton, in Huntingdonshire, probably of the descendants of\nthis son, Thomas. November 26, 1698, John Bonion and Mary Rogers,\nmarried: she was buried, September 7, 1706; and he again married\nAnne, and buried her in 1712, leaving a son and two daughters. His\ndeath is not recorded. One of the descendants, Hannah Bunyan, died\nin 1770, aged seventy-six years, and lies in the burial-ground by\nthe meeting-house at Bedford. John Bunyan's son, Joseph, settled at\nNottingham, and marrying a wealthy woman, conformed to the Church.\nA lineal descendant of his was living, in 1847, at Islington, near\nLondon, aged eighty-four, Mrs. Senegar, a fine hearty old lady, and\na Strict Baptist. She said to me, 'Sir, excuse the vanity of an old\nwoman, but I will show you how I sometimes spend a very pleasant\nhalf-hour.' She took down a portrait on canvas of her great\nforefather, and propped it up on the table with a writing-desk, with\na looking-glass by its side. 'There, Sir, I look at the portrait,\nand then at myself, and can trace every feature; we resemble each\nother like two pins.' 'Excepting the imperial and moustachios,' I\nreplied; to which she readily assented. It was the fact that there\nwas a striking family likeness between the picture and her reflection\nin the looking-glass. Another descendant, from the same branch\nof the family, is now living at Lincoln. He was born in 1775, and\npossessed a quarto Bible, published by Barker and Bill in 1641, given\nby John Bunyan to his son Joseph. This was preserved in his family\nuntil the present year, when it came into the editor's possession,\nwith the following relics, which were, and I trust will yet be\npreserved with the greatest care:--An iron pencase, made by Bunyan\nthe brazier, with some stumps of old pens, with which it is said\nhe wrote some of his sermons and books; the buckles worn by him,\nand his two pocket-knives, one of them made before springs were\ninvented, and which is kept open by turning a ferrule; his apple-scoop,\ncuriously carved, and a seal; his pocket-box of scales and weights\nfor money, being stamped with the figures on each side of the coins\nof James and Charles I.[325] These were given by Robert Bunyan,\nin 1839, then sixty-four years of age, to a younger branch of the\nfamily, Mr. Charles Robinson, of Wilford, near Nottingham (his\nsister's son), for safe custody. He died in 1852; while his aged\nuncle remains in good health, subject to the infirmities of his\nseventy-eighth year. On many of the blank spaces in the Bible are\nthe registers of births and deaths in the family, evidently written\nat the time. Those relics are deposited in a carved oak box. They\nwere sold with the late Mr. Robinson's effects, January, 1853, and\nsecured for me by my excellent friend James Dix, Esq., of Bristol,\nwho met with them immediately after the sale, on one of his journeys\nat Nottingham. They are not worshipped as relics, nor have they\nperformed miracles, but as curiosities of a past age they are worthy\nof high consideration. Everything that was used by him, and that\nsurvives the ravages of time, possesses a peculiar charm; even the\nchair in which he at is preserved in the vestry of the new chapel,\nand is shown to those who make the pilgrimage to the shrine of\nBunyan.[326]\n\nIn the same vestry is also a curious inlaid cabinet, small, and\nhighly finished. It descended from Bunyan to a lady who lived to\nan advanced age--Madam Bithray; from her to the Rev. Mr. Voley; and\nof his widow it was purchased to ornament the vestry of Bunyan's\nmeeting-house.\n\nThe personal appearance and character of our pilgrim's guide,\ndrawn by his friend Charles Doe, will be found at the end of\nhis Grace Abounding; to which is appended his Dying Sayings--'of\nsin--afflictions--repentance and coming to Christ--of prayer--of\nthe Lord's day, sermons, and week days: \"Make the Lord's day the\nmarket for thy soul\"--of the love of the world--of suffering--of\ndeath and judgment--of the joys of heaven--and the torments of\nhell.'\n\nHow inscrutable are the ways of God! Had Bunyan lived a month longer,\nhe would have witnessed the glorious Revolution--the escape of\na great nation. The staff and hope of Protestant Europe was saved\nfrom a subtle--a Jesuitical attempt--to introduce Popery and\narbitrary government. The time of his death, as a release from the\nincumbrance of a material body, was fixed by infinite wisdom and\nlove at that juncture, and it ought not to be a cause of regret.\nHis interest in the welfare of the church ceased not with his mortal\nlife. How swiftly would his glorified spirit fly to see the landing\nof William, and hover with joy over the flight of the besotted\nJames! He was now in a situation to prove the truth of that saying,\n'the angels desire to look into' the truth and spread of the glad\ntidings. How he would prove the reality of his opinion, expressed\nin The Holy War, of the interest taken by the inhabitants of\nheaven in the prosperity of the church on earth. When Mansoul was\nconquered, the spirits that witnessed the victory 'shouted with\nthat greatness of voice, and sung with such melodious notes, that\nthey caused them that dwell in the highest orbs to open their\nwindows, and put out their heads and look down to see the cause of\nthat glory' (Luke 15:7-10).[327] So may we imagine that the happy,\nhappy, glorified spirit of Bunyan would look down rejoicing, when,\na few years after he had yielded up his pastoral cares, the seed\nwhich he had been instrumental in sowing produced its fruit in\nsuch numbers, that the old meeting-house was pulled down, and in\nits place a large and respectable one was erected. And again, on\nthe 20th February, 1850, with what joy would he look down upon the\nopening of a still larger, more commodious, and handsome meeting-house,\nbearing his name, and capable of holding 1150 worshippers. One of\nBunyan's pungent, alarming sayings to the careless was, 'Once die,\nwe cannot come back and die better.'[328] If anything could tempt\nhim, in his angelic body, to re-visit this earth, it would be to\naddress the multitude at the new Bunyan Chapel with his old sermon\non The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, or Good News to the Vilest of Men.\nBut we have Moses and the prophets--Christ and his apostles; if\nwe shut our ears to them, neither should we listen to a messenger\nfrom the New Jerusalem.\n\nWhen it is recollected that Bunyan received the most imperfect\nrudiments of education in a charity school when very young, which\nwere 'almost entirely' obliterated by bad habits--that he was a\nhard-working man through life, maintaining himself, a wife, and four\nchildren, by his severe labour as a brazier--and yet, by personal\nefforts, he educated himself and wrote sixty-two valuable religious\ntreatises, numbering among them his inimitable allegories, The\nPilgrim's Progress and Holy War, made a Concordance to the Bible,\nand conducted important controversies. Preaching, while at liberty,\nalmost innumerable sermons on the Lord's-days and week-days, early\nin the morning and late at night. Visiting his flock with pastoral\ncare--founding churches in the villages, and even in towns and\ncities far distant from his dwelling--constantly giving advice to\npromote peace and good will, and rendering benevolent aid by long\njourneys! His whole life presents to us a picture of most astonishing,\nenergetic perseverance. Every moment of time must have been employed\nas if he valued it as a precious trust, which, if once lost, could\nnever be regained. Who of us can compare our life with his last\nthirty years, and not blush with shame!\n\nThe finest trait in Bunyan's Christian character was his deep,\nheartfelt humility. This is the more extraordinary from his want\nof secular education, and his unrivalled talent. The more we learn,\nthe greater is the field for research that opens before us, insomuch\nthat the wisest philosophers have most seriously felt the little\nprogress they have made. He acknowledged to Mr. Cockayn, who considered\nhim the most eminent man, and a star of the first magnitude in the\nfirmament of the churches,[329] that spiritual pride was his easily\nbesetting sin, and that he needed the thorn in the flesh, lest he\nshould be exalted above measure. A sense of this weakness probably\nled him to peculiar watchfulness against it. His self-abasement was\nneither tinctured with affectation, nor with the pride of humility.\nHis humble-mindedness appeared to arise form his intimate communion\nwith Heaven. In daily communion with God, he received a daily\nlesson of deeper and deeper humility. 'I am the high and lofty One,\nI inhabit eternity! verily this consideration is enough to make a\nbroken-hearted man creep into a mouse-hole, to hide himself from such\nmajesty! There is room in this man's heart for God to dwell.'[330]\n'I find it one of the hardest things that I can put my soul upon,\neven to come to God, when warmly sensible that I am a sinner, for\na share in grace and mercy. I cannot but with a thousand tears say,\n\"God be merciful to me a sinner\" (Ezra 9:15).'[331]\n\nThe Revs. Messrs. Chandler and Wilson, bear the following testimony\nas eye-witnesses to his character:--'His fancy and invention were\nvery pregnant and fertile. His wit was sharp and quick--his memory\ntenacious, it being customary with him to commit his sermons\nto writing after he had preached them,' a proof of extraordinary\nindustry. 'His understanding was large and comprehensive--his judgment\nsound and deep in the fundamentals of the gospel. His experience\nof Satan's temptations in the power and policy of them, and of\nChrist's presence in, and by his Word and Spirit to succour and\ncomfort him, was more than ordinary; the grace of God was magnified\nin him and by him, and a rich anointing of the Spirit was upon him;\nand yet this great saint was always in his own eyes the chiefest\nof sinners, and the least of saints. He was not only well furnished\nwith the helps and endowments of nature, beyond ordinary, but eminent\nin the graces and gifts of the Spirit, and fruits of holiness. He\nwas from first to last established in, and ready to maintain, that\nGod-like principle of having communion with saints as such, without\nany respect to difference in things disputable among the godly. His\ncarriage was condescending, affable, and meek to all, yet bold and\ncourageous for Christ. He was much struck at, in the lat times of\npersecution; being far from any sinful compliance to save himself,\nhe did cheerfully bear the cross.' Such was the character given\nof him by these two eminent divines, in 1693, while his memory, in\nits fullest fragrance, was cherished by all the churches.\n\nThis humility peculiarly fitted him to instruct the young, of whom\nhe was very fond--\n\n\n   'Nor do I blush, although I think some may\n    Call me a baby, 'cause I with them play;\n    I do 't to show them how each fingle fangle\n    On which they doating are, their souls entangle;\n    And, since at gravity they make a tush,\n    My very beard I cast behind a bush.'[332]\n\n\nHe had friends among the rich as well as the poor. Of this his\nsolid gold ring and handsome cabinet are proofs. From a letter\nin the Ellis correspondence, we learn that Bunyan had so secured\nthe affections of the Lord Mayor of London, as to be called his\nchaplain.[333]\n\nAmong his religious friends and associates he must have been a\npleasing, entertaining, lively companion. However solemn, nay awful,\nhad been his experience when walking through the Valley of the\nShadow of Death, yet when emerging from the darkness and enjoying\nthe sunshine of Divine favour, he loved social intercourse and\ncommunion of saints. It is one of the slanders heaped upon Christianity\nto call it a gloomy, melancholy theme: though 'it is better to go\nto the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,' yet the\nwisely pious man will endeavour, even at an elegant entertainment\nor a Lord Mayor's dinner, to drop useful hints. Whenever Bunyan\ndescribes a social party, especially a feast, he always introduces\na wholesome dish; and it is singular, in the abundance of publications,\nthat we have not been favoured with John Bunyan's Nuts to Crack\nat Religious Entertainments, or a Collection of his Pious Riddles.\nThus, at the splendid royal feast given to Emmanuel, when he entered\nMansoul in triumph, 'he entertained the town with some curious\nriddles, of secrets drawn up by his father's secretary, by the\nskill and wisdom of Shaddai, the like to which there are not in any\nkingdom.' 'Emmanuel also expounded unto them some of those riddles\nhimself, but O how were they lightened! They saw what they never\nsaw, they could not have thought that such rarities could have been\ncouched in such few and ordinary words. The lamb, the sacrifice,\nthe rock, the door, the way.'[334] 'The second Adam was before the\nfirst, and the second covenant was before the first.'[335] 'Was\nAdam bad before he eat the forbidden fruit?'[336] 'How can a man\nsay his prayers without a word being read or uttered?'[337] 'How\ndo men speak with their feet?' Answer, Proverbs 6:13.[338] 'Why was\nthe brazen laver made of the women's looking-glasses?'[339] 'How\ncan we comprehend that which cannot be comprehended, or know that\nwhich passeth knowledge?'[340] 'Who was the founder of the state\nor priestly domination over religion?'[341] What is meant by the\ndrum of Diabolus and other riddles mentioned in The Holy War?[342]\nThe poetical riddles in The Pilgrim's Progress are very striking--\n\n\n   'A man there was, though some did count him mad,\n    The more he cast away, the more he had.'\n\n    How can 'evil make the soul from evil turn.'[343]\n\n    Can 'sin be driven out of the world by suffering?'[344]\n\n   'Though it may seem to some a riddle,\n    We use to light our candles at the middle.'[345]\n\n   'What men die two deaths at once?'[346]\n\n   'Are men ever in heaven and on earth at the same time?'[347]\n\n    'Can a beggar be worth ten thousand a-year and not know it?'[348]\n\n\nHe even introduced a dance upon the destruction of Despair, Mr.\nReady-to-halt, with his partner Miss Much-afraid, while Christiana\nand Mercy furnished the music. 'True, he could not dance without\none crutch in his hand; but I promise you he footed it well. Also\nthe girl was to be commended, for she answered the music handsomely.'\nIs this the gloomy fanaticism of a Puritan divine? It is true,\nthat promiscuous dancing, or any other amusement tending to evil,\nhe had given up and discountenanced, but all his writings tend to\nprove that the Christian only can rationally and piously enjoy the\nworld that now is, while living in the delightful hope of bliss in\nthat which is to come.\n\nBunyan's personal appearance and character was drawn by his friend\nMr. Doe. 'He appeared in countenance stern and rough, but was mild\nand affable; loving to reconcile differences and make friendships.\nHe made it his study, above all other things, not to give occasion\nof offence. In his family he kept a very strict discipline in\nprayer and exhortations. He had a sharp, quick eye, and an excellent\ndiscerning of persons; of good judgment and quick wit. Tall\nin stature, strong-boned; somewhat of a ruddy face with sparkling\neyes; his hair reddish, but sprinkled with gray; nose well set;\nmouth moderately large; forehead something high, and his habit\nalways plain and modest.'\n\nMy determination in writing this memoir has been to follow the\nscriptural example, by fairly recording every defect discoverable\nin Bunyan's character; but what were considered by some to be\nblemishes, after his conversion, appear, in my estimation, to be\nbeauties. His moral and religious character was irreproachable,\nand his doctrinal views most scriptural; all agree in this, that\nhe was a bright and shining light; unrivalled for his allegories,\nand for the vast amount of his usefulness. His friend, Mr. Wilson,\nsays, 'Though his enemies and persecutors, in his lifetime, did\nwhat they could to vilify and reproach him, yet, being gone, he\nthat before had the testimony of their consciences, hath now their\nactual commendation and applause.'[349] To this we may add, that\nhe was without sectarianism, a most decided Bible Christian. This\nreveals the secret of his striking phraseology. It was in the sacred\npages of Divine truth that he learned grammar and rhetoric. Style,\nand all his knowledge of the powers of language--all were derived\nfrom the only source of his religious wisdom and learning. He lived,\nand thought, and wrote under the influence of the holy oracles,\ntranslated by the Puritans in 1560, compared with the version of\n1611. This gives a charm to all his works, and suits them to every\nhuman capacity.\n\nReader, the object of biography is to excite emulation. Why should\nnot others arise as extensively to bless the world as Bunyan did?\nThe storehouses of heaven from which he was replenished with holy\ntreasures, are inexhaustible. As he said, 'God has bags of mercy yet\nunsealed.' We have the same holy oracles, and the same mercy-seat.\nThe time is past for merely challenging the right to personal\njudgment of religious truths. In Britain the lions are securely\nchained, and the cruel giants disabled. The awful crime of imprisoning\nand torturing man for conscience' sake, exists only in kingdoms\nwhere darkness reigns--\n\n\n   ''Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.'\n\n\nWe stand upon higher ground than our forefathers; we take our more\nsolemn stand upon the imperative duty of personal investigation--that\nno one can claim the name of Christian, unless he has laid aside\nall national, or family, or educational prejudices, and drawn from\nthe holy oracles alone all his scheme of salvation and rules of\nconduct. All the secret of Bunyan's vast usefulness, the foundation\nof all his honour, is, that the fear of God swallowed up the fear of\nman; that he was baptized into the truths of revelation, and lived\nto exemplify them. He was a bright and shining light in a benighted\nworld; and of him it may be most emphatically said, 'Blessed are the\ndead which die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours;\nand their works do follow them.'\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. For a most interesting account of the rise of Sixtus V, see the\nnew volume of the Lounger's Common-place Book, 1807, p. 152.\n\n2. The Rev. J. H. A. Rudd, the Vicar of Elstow, has most kindly\nfurnished me with an extract from the registers of all the entries\nrelative to Bunyan's family. The register commences in 1641, and has\nbeen searched to 1750. It confirms the Rev. J. Juke's impression,\nthat soon after Bunyan joined Gifford's church he left Elstow to\nlive in Bedford.\n\nThomas Bonion, buried, Dec. 9, 1641. Margaret Bonion, wife, buried,\nJune 20, 1644. Margaret Bonion, b., July 24, 1644. Charles, the\nson of Thos. Bunion, bapt., May 22, 1645. Charles Bunion, bur.,\nMay 30, 1645. Mary, the daught. of Joh. Bonion, bapt., July 20,\n1650 Elizabeth, the daughter of John Bonyon, was born 14th day of\nApril, 1654.\n\nThomas Bonion of the town of Bedford, and Elizabeth _______ of\nthe parish of Elstow, were married, May 10, 1656. (The Christian\nname of the husband, and the surname of the wife, are very much\nobliterated.)\n\nAnn Bonyonn, Widdo, was buried, 12th day of April, 1659. Thos.\nBunyan, buried, Feby. 7th, 1675. Ann Bunyon, Widdo, buried in\nWoolen, September 25, 1680.\n\nThe marriage here recorded, May 10, 1656, could not be that of John\nBunyan to his second wife Elizabeth; for she declared to Judge Hale\nin August, 1661, that she had 'not been married to him yet full\ntwo years.'--Vol. i. 61.\n\n3. This cottage has long ceased to exist, and has been replaced by\nanother of the poorest description. But from an old print we have\ngiven in the Plate, p. 1, vol. i., a representation of the original,\nwith the shed at side often mentioned as 'The forge'; thus leading\nus to believe, that to the 'tinker's' humble calling might be united\nthat of the 'smith,' a more manly and honourable trade.\n\n4. Grace Abounding, No. 2.\n\n5. Vol. iii., p. 674.\n\n6. Vol. ii., p. 140.\n\n7. Vol. i., p. 490.\n\n8. Vol. ii., p. 617.\n\n9. Grace Abounding, No. 18.\n\n10. Extracted from the first edition in the British Museum. It was\nmuch altered in the subsequent impressions.\n\n11. In 1566, Sir Thomas Harper, Lord Mayor of London, gave \u00a3180\nfor thirteen acres and a rood of meadow land in Holborn. This was\nsettled, in trust, to promote the education of the poor in and\nround Bedford. In 1668, it produced a yearly revenue of \u00a399--a\nconsiderable sum in that day, but not in any proportion to the\npresent rental, which amounts to upwards of \u00a312,000 a-year.\n\n12. Grace Abounding, No. 3.\n\n13. Vol. i., p. 618.\n\n14. Grace Abounding, No. 4.\n\n15. Philip's Life of Bunyan, p. 4.\n\n16. Vol. iii., p. 597.\n\n17. Vol. ii., p. 564.\n\n18. Grace Abounding, No. 27.\n\n19. Grace Abounding, No. 5.\n\n20. Ibid., No. 8.\n\n21. Life, p. vii.\n\n22. Ibid. p. viii.\n\n23. Life, pp. xli., xlii.\n\n24. Vol. i., p. 79.\n\n25. Job 33:15.\n\n26. Grace Abounding, No. 5, vol. i., p. 6.\n\n27. Life appended to the first and second editions of the forged\nthird part of Pilgrim's Progress.\n\n28. Grace Abounding, Nos. 12-14, vol. i., p. 7. How do these\nhair-breadth escapes illustrate the unerring providence of God,\nand the short-sightedness of even pious Christians. It is easy to\nimagine the exclamations of a reflecting character when hearing\nof the marvelous escapes of this wicked youth. 'Dark providences!\nthe good and benevolent are snatched away; but such a plague as this\nhas his life preserved to pester us still. Short-sighted mortal,\n\"shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?\"' No life in the\nBritish empire was so precious in the sight and gracious purposes\nof God, as that of the poor depraved lad; which was thus preserved\nby the special care of Divine providence.\n\n29. Life appended to part third of Pilgrim's Progress, 1692. This\nis omitted from the third edition (1700), and all the subsequent\nones.\n\n30. Vol. ii., p. 74.\n\n31. Vol. i., p. 732.\n\n32. Vol. ii., p. 738.\n\n33. Vol. ii., p. 709; ii., p. 45; ii., 601.\n\n34. Vol. iii., p. 727; v. 7, 8.\n\n35. The women were remarkably active in defending the town.\n\n36. Thoresby's Leicester, 4to, p. 128.\n\n37. Hist. of Rebellion, edition 1712, vol. ii., p. 652.\n\n38. Vol. i., p. 661.\n\n39. Vol. iii., p. 357.\n\n40. Vol. iii., p. 113, 358.\n\n41. Vol. i., p. 726.\n\n42. Vol. i., p. 694.\n\n43. The Political Sentiments of John Bunyan, re-published by John\nMartin, 1798.\n\n44. Life of Bunyan, 1692, p. 12.\n\n45. Ibid., 1692, p. 13.\n\n46. Vol. i., p. 7.\n\n47. The Pathway to Heaven is the work of that pious puritan Dent,\nand is full of those striking illustrations which were admirably\nadapted to prepare Bunyan for writing his allegories. A copy with\nthe name Ma Bunyann, written on the title page, has long been in\nthe editor's library. We give a facsimile of the writing, as it\nhas been supposed that of Bunyan. This is very doubtful; it appears\nmore like a woman's hand; but, if it is the name of Mrs. Bunyan,\nthen it indicates that his daughter Mary, baptized 20th July, 1650,\nwas called after her.\n\n48. Life of Bunyan, 1691, p. 13.\n\n49. This is a solemn consideration; many profess to serve God while\nthey are bond-slaves to sin; and many are servants in his family\nwho are not sons, nor heirs, of heaven. Blessed are those who are\nboth servants and sons.\n\n50. Vol. i., p. 7, 8.\n\n51. Jan. 3, 1644-5.\n\n52. Aug. 23, 1645.\n\n53. 4to Edit., 1644.\n\n54. Neale, 1822, vol. ii., p. 220.\n\n55. Life of Alfred, comparing him to Charles I. Preface. 8vo. 1634.\n\n56. Vol. i., p. 8, 9.\n\n57. The game of cat, tipcat, or \"sly,\" so called by Wilson, in his\nlife of Bunyan [Wilson's Edition of Works, vol. i., fol. 1736], is\nan ancient game well known in many parts of the kingdom. A number\nof holes are made in the ground, at equal distances, in a circular\ndirection; a player is stationed at each hole; the opposite party\nstand around; one of them throws the cat to the batsman nearest to\nhim; every time the cat is struck, the batsmen run from one hole\nto the next, and score as many as they change positions; but if the\ncat is thrown between them before reaching the hole, the batsman\nis out [Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 8vo., p. 110]. Such was the\nchildish game played by men on the Lord's-day.\n\n58. Life by C. Doe, 1698.\n\n59. Vol. i., p. 9.\n\n60. Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 351.\n\n61. Vol. i., p. 9; No. 32.\n\n62. Folio edition, pp. 595-6.\n\n63. In the Engraving, p. 1, vol. i., is a view of part of the\nvillage green, Elstow, with the ancient building now used as a\nschool-house, as seen from the church-yard. This building is older\nthan the time of Bunyan, and was the scene of village meetings at\nthe period in which he lived, and doubtless associated with his\ndancing and thoughtless amusements, as the green itself was the scene\nof the game of cat. A view looking towards the church is given in\nVignette to vol. i. of the Works.\n\n64. Vol. i., p. 10.\n\n65. Southey's Life, pp. xxv., xxxii.\n\n66. Vol. i., p. 80.\n\n67. Vol. i., p. 11.\n\n68. Vol. iii., p. 607.\n\n69. Heresiography. 4tp. 1654. p. 143.\n\n70. Vol. iii., p. 151.\n\n71. Vol. iii., p. 118.\n\n72. Vol. i., p. 11.\n\n73. Vol. i., p. 11.\n\n74. Vol. i., p. 591.\n\n75. The Rev. H. J. Rose, in his Biographical Dictionary, distorts\nthis singular affair into, 'he laid claim to a faith of such\nmagnitude as to work miracles!'\n\n76. Vol. i., p. 12.\n\n77. Vol. iii., pp. 155, 156.\n\n78. Vol. i., p. 12.\n\n79. It is as easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,\nas for a man to pass through this door with the world on his back.\n\n80. Vol. i., p. 13.\n\n81. Vol. i., p. 13.\n\n82. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 342, 346.\n\n83. Bunyan on the Throne of Grace, vol. i., p. 677.\n\n84. Vol. i., p. 80.\n\n85. Holy War, vol. iii., p. 297.\n\n86. Vol. i., p. 14.\n\n87. Vol. iii., p. 123.\n\n88. Addison.\n\n89. Vol. i., p. 14.\n\n90. April 1645. About 300 discontented persons got together in\nKent, and took Sir Percival Hart's house; Colonel Blunt attacked\nand dispersed them with horse and foot, regained the house, and\nmade the chief of them prisoners. Whitelock, folio 137.\n\n91. Vol. i., p. 15.\n\n92. Vol. i., p. 15; No. 82.\n\n93. Vol. i., p. 16.\n\n94. Vol. i., p. 17, 18.\n\n95. Vol. iii., p. 113.\n\n96. Bunyan's Saints' Privilege and Profit, vol. i., p. 661.\n\n97. Bunyan's Saved by Grace, vol. i., p. 340.\n\n98. Vol. i., p. 17.\n\n99. Bunyan's Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. i., p. 210.\n\n100. Rogers on Trouble of Mind. Preface. Thus temptations are suited\nto the state of the inquiring soul; the learned man who studies\nPlato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, is filled with doubts arising from\n'philosophy and vain deceit, profane and vain babblings'; the\nunlettered mechanic is tried not by logic, but by infernal artillery;\nthe threatenings of God's Word are made to obscure the promises.\nIt is a struggle which, to one possessing a vivid imagination, is\nattended with almost intolerable agonies--unbelief seals up the\ndoor of mercy.\n\nBunyan agreed with his learned contemporary, Milton, in the invisible\nagency of good and bad spirits.\n\n'Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when\nwe wake and when we sleep!'\n\nThe malignant demons watch their opportunity to harass the pilgrim\nwith evil thoughts, injected when least expected.\n\n101. Vol. i., p. 19.\n\n102. Vol. i., p. 20.\n\n103. The anxiety of this pious teacher was to press upon his\nhearers to take special heed, not to receive any truth upon trust\nfrom any man, but to pray over it and search 'the Holy Word.'\nThis, Mr. Southey designates, 'doctrine of a most perilous kind.'\nHow happy would it be for society if every religious teacher\npressed this perilous doctrine upon their hearers, that it might\nbring forth the same fruit universally, as it did specially in\nBunyan. Compare Grace Abounding, No. 117, and Southey's Life, p.\n27, 28.\n\n104. Vol. i., p. 21.\n\n105. Vol. i., p. 22.\n\n106. Vol. iii., p. 115.\n\n107. Vol. iii., p. 270.\n\n108. Luther fell into the same mistake as to the Baptists, that\nBunyan did as to the Quakers. Both were keenly alive to the honour\nof Christianity, and were equally misled by the loose conduct\nof some unworthy professors. Luther charges the Baptists as being\n'devils possessed with worse devils' [Preface to Galatians]. 'It is\nall one whether he be called a Frank, a Turk, a Jew, or an Anabaptist'\n[Com. Gal. iv. 8, 9]. 'Possessed with the devil, seditious, and\nbloody men' [Gal. v. 19]. Even a few days before his death, he wrote\nto his wife, 'Dearest Kate, we reached Halle at eight o'clock, but\ncould not get on to Eisleben, for there met us a great Anabaptist,\nwith waves and lumps of ice, which threatened us with a second\nbaptism.' Bunyan, in the same spirit, calls the Quakers 'a company\nof loose ranters, light notionists, shaking in their principles!' [Vol.\nii., p. 133, 9, 21]. Denying the Scriptures and the resurrection\n[Com. Gal. iv. 29]. These two great men went through the same\nfurnace of the regeneration; and Bunyan, notwithstanding Luther's\nprejudices against the Baptists, most affectionately recommended\nhis Comment on the Galatians, as an invaluable work for binding up\nthe broken-hearted.\n\n109. Vol. i., p. 23.\n\n110. Vol. ii., p. 181.\n\n111. Vol. ii., p. 260.\n\n112. Vol. i., p. 25; No. 158.\n\n113. See note in vol. i., p. 26.\n\n114. Vol. i., p. 29.\n\n115. Vol. i., p. 30\n\n116. The study of those scriptures, in order that the solemn question\nmight be safely resolved, 'Can such a fallen sinner rise again?'\nwas like the investigation of the title to an estate upon which a\nwhole livelihood depended. Every apparent flaw must be critically\nexamined. Tremblingly alive to the importance of a right decision,\nhis prayers were most earnest; and at length, to his unspeakable\ndelight, the word of the law and wrath gave place to that of life\nand grace.\n\n117. Vol. i., p. 35.\n\n118. Vol. iii., p. 100.\n\n119. Irish sixpences, which passed for fourpence-halfpenny. See the\nnote on vol. i., p. 36. Since writing that note I have discovered\nanother proof of the contempt with which that coin was\ntreated:--'Christian, the wife of Robert Green, of Brexham,\nSomersetshire, in 1663, is said to have made a covenant with the\ndevil; he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, between the\nmiddle and upper joints, and took two drops of her blood on his\nfinger, giving her a fourpence-halfpenny. Then he spake in private\nwith Catharine her sister, and vanished, leaving a smell of brimstone\nbehind!'--Turner's Remarkable Providences, folio, 1667, p. 28.\n\n120. Vol. i., p. 36.\n\n121. Holy War.\n\n122. Vol. ii., p. 141.\n\n123. Luther and Tyndale.\n\n124. Vol. iii., p. 398.\n\n125. Vol. i., p. 495.\n\n126. Vol. iii., p. 398.\n\n127. Vol. iii., p.190.\n\n128. Vol. iii., p. 186.\n\n129. Bunyan on Christian Behaviour, vol. ii., p. 550.\n\n130. Vol. ii., p. 570.\n\n131. Vol. ii., p. 585.\n\n132. The Nineteenth Article.\n\n133. The sufferings of the Episcopalians were severe; they drank\nthe bitter cup which they had shortly before administered to the\nPuritans. Under suspicion of disloyalty to the Commonwealth, they\nwere most unjustly compelled to swallow the Covenant as a religious\ntest, or leave preaching and teaching. Their miseries were not\nto be compared with those of the Puritans. Laud was beheaded for\ntreason, but none were put to death for nonconformity. It was an\nage when religious liberty was almost unknown. These sufferings\nwere repaid by an awful retaliation and revenge, when Royalty and\nEpiscopacy were restored.\n\n134. Penn's Christian Quaker.\n\n135. Folio, p. 417.\n\n136. Vol. iii., p. 107.\n\n137. Vol. iii., p. 765. The author of Bunyan's Life, published in\n1690, dates his baptism 'about the year 1653.'\n\n138. Life from his Cradle to his Grave, 1700.\n\n139. September 21.\n\n140. In the same year, and about the same period, Oliver Cromwell\nwas made Lord Protector. Upon this coincidence, Mr. Carlisle uses\nthe following remarkable language:--'Two common men thus elevated,\nputting their hats upon their heads, might exclaim, \"God enable me\nto be king of what lies under this! For eternities lie under it,\nand infinities, and heaven also and hell! and it is as big as the\nuniverse, this kingdom; and I am to conquer it, or be for ever\nconquered by it. Now, WHILE IT IS CALLED TO-DAY!'\"\n\n141. In possession of the Society of Antiquities.\n\n142. Vol. i., p. 39.\n\n143. Vol. i., p. 20.\n\n144. Reading and Preaching.\n\n145. Not to wait for one another, each one to come in good time.\n\n146. Alluding to Bunyan, or his co-pastor, Burton, or to both of\nthem.\n\n147. Bunyan was about twenty-seven years of age.\n\n148. This letter was copied into the church records at the time:\nthe original cannot be found. It was published with Ryland's Funeral\nSermon on Symonds, 1788, and in Jukes' very interesting account of\nBunyan's church, in 1849. The signature is copied from an original\nin the Milton State Papers, library of the Antiquarian Society.\n\n149. Vol. i., p. 39.\n\n150. Vol. i., p. 545.\n\n151. Grace Abounding, No. 255, vol. i., p. 39.\n\n152. Vol. i., p. 545.\n\n153. Grace Abounding, No 255-259, vol. i., p. 39.\n\n154. Vol. i., p. 40.\n\n155. Vol. iii., p. 655.\n\n156. Rogers on Trouble of Mind.\n\n157. Grace Abounding, No. 260.\n\n158. 1st edition, p. 355.\n\n159. Vol. ii., p. 425.\n\n160. Vol. i., p. 40.\n\n161. Vol. i., p. 769.\n\n162. Vol. i., p. 549.\n\n163. Church Book, 1671.\n\n164. This secrecy became needful after the Restoration, as noticed\nmore fully afterwards, p. lix. During those years of persecution,\na frequent place of resort was a dell in Wain-wood, about three\nmiles from Hitchin. Of this locality the following notice will be\nacceptable:--On the 19th of May, 1853, a splendidly hot day, my\npilgrimage to the shrines of Bunyan was continued at Hitchin and its\nvicinity, in company with S. B. Geard, Esq. Here it was my honour\nto shake hands with honest Edward Foster, whose grandfather often\nentertained and sheltered John Bunyan. So singular a case I had\nnever met with, that three lives should connect, in a direct line,\nevidence of transactions which occurred at a distance of 190 years.\nHis grandfather was born in 1642, and for many years was a friend\nand companion of the illustrious dreamer. In 1706, when he was\nsixty-four years of age, his youngest son was born, and in 1777,\nwhen that son was seventy-one years of age, his youngest son was\nborn, and in 1853 he has the perfect use of limbs and faculties,\nand properly executes the important office of assistant overseer\nto his extensive parish. With such direct testimony, we visited\nthe very romantic dell, where, in the still hours of midnight, the\nsaints of God were wont to meet and unite in Divine worship. It\nis a most romantic dell, in Wain-wood, which crowns a hill about\nthree miles from Hitchin. We had some difficulty in making our\nway through the underwood--crushing the beautiful hyacinths and\nprimroses which covered the ground in the richest profusion, and\nnear the top of the hill came suddenly upon this singular dell--a\nnatural little eminence formed the pulpit, while the dell would\nhold under its shade at least a thousand people--and now I must\ngive you the countryman's eloquent description of the meetings of\nhis ancestors. \"Here, under the canopy of heaven, with the rigour\nof winter's nipping frost, while the clouds, obscuring the moon,\nhave discharged their flaky treasures, they often assembled while\nthe highly-gifted and heavenly-minded Bunyan has broken to them the\nbread of life. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. And\nhere over his devoted head, while uncovered in prayer, the pious\nmatrons warded off the driving hail and snow, by holding a shawl\nover him by its four corners. In this devoted dell these plain\nunpolished husbandmen, like the ancient Waldenses, in the valleys\nof Piedmont, proved themselves firm defenders of the faith in its\nprimitive purity, and of Divine worship in its primitive style.\"\n\nTheir horses on which they rode, from various parts, were sheltered\nin neighbouring friendly farms, while they, to avoid suspicion,\nascended the hill by scarcely visible footpaths. Could fine weather\nbe insured, it would form a lovely spot for a meeting to celebrate\nthe third jubilee of religious toleration--there listen to a Bunyan\nof our age, and devise measures for religious equality. Then we\nmight close the service by solemnly objuring every system which\ngave power to tyrannise over the rights of conscience. Here, as\nin other places where Bunyan founded churches, the cause of Christ\nhath spread. At Hitchin, in 1681, about thirty-five Christians\nunited in the following covenant:--\n\n'We who, through the mercy of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have\nobtained grace to give ourselves to the Lord, and one to another\nby the will of God, to have communion with one another, as saints\nin one gospel fellowship:--Do, before God our Father, and our\nLord Jesus Christ, and the holy angels, agree and promise to walk\ntogether in this one gospel communion and fellowship as a church of\nJesus Christ, in love to the Lord and one to another, and endeavour\nto yield sincere and hearty obedience to the laws, ordinances, and\nappointments of our Lord and Lawgiver in his church. And also do\nagree and promise, the Lord assisting, to follow after the things\nwhich make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another,\nthat so living and walking in love and peace, the God of love and\npeace may be with us. Amen.'\n\nThis was probably drawn by Bunyan, and so simple and comprehensive\nhas it proved, that the church has flourished, and lately a spacious\nand handsome place of worship has been erected, to accommodate\na thousand worshippers, at a cost of \u00a33000, all paid for, with\na surplus fund in hand for contingencies, of \u00a3500. In addition,\nthere are also large and commodious chapels for the Independents,\nWesleyans, and Quakers.\n\n165. Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. i., p. 210.\n\n166. Law and Grace, vol. i., pp. 549, 550.\n\n167. Life of Bunyan, p. xiv.\n\n168. Sighs, vol. iii., p. 712.\n\n169. Gospel Truths, vol. ii., p. 178.\n\n170. Like the Beef-eaters, or yeomen of the guard at the present\nday.\n\n171. Journal, folio, 1694, p. 144. Is it surprising that the Quakers,\nat such a time, assumed their peculiar neatness of dress?\n\n172. Vol. ii., p. 178, 566.\n\n173. Grace Abounding, vol. i., p. 41.\n\n174. Nehemiah Coxe is said to have been a descendant from Dr.\nRichard Coxe, preceptor to Edward VI, and Dean of Oxford. He fled\nfrom persecution under Mary, was a troubler of his brother refugees\nby his turbulent temper, and his attachment to superstitious\nceremonies. On his return, he was made Bishop of Ely, and became\na bitter persecutor. Benjamin Coxe, A.M., probably a son of\nthe furious bishop, was as ardently fond of rites and ceremonies.\nHe was cited to appear before Laud for denying the jure divino of\nbishops, and the poor bishop said, \"God did so bless me that I gave\nhim satisfaction.\" Mr. Coxe soon after came out as a Baptist, and\nhaving preached at Bedford, he settled in Coventry. Here he disputed\nwith Mr. Baxter and the Presbyterians; and the Independents had\nhim imprisoned for defending adult baptism (Crosby, History of\nBaptists, i. 354), a very short mode of settling the controversy.\nProbably Nehemiah Coxe was his son, settled at Bedford as a\nshoemaker. He was a learned man, and, when tried at Bedford assizes\nfor preaching the gospel, he was indicted in the usual Norman-French,\nor Latin; and pleaded first in Greek, which the prosecutors not\nunderstanding, he pleaded in Hebrew, arguing, that as his indictment\nwas in a foreign tongue, he was entitled to plead in any of the\nlearned languages. The counsel being ignorant of those languages,\nand the judge glad to get rid of a vexatious indictment, dismissed\nhim, saying to the counselors, 'Well, this cordwainer hath wound\nyou all up, gentlemen.' This anecdote is handed down in a funeral\nsermon by T. Sutcliff, on the death of Symonds, one of the pastors\nof the church at Bedford.\n\nAnother of this little band that was set apart with Bunyan, became\nso useful a preacher as to have been honoured with a record in the\nannals of persecution in the reign of Charles II. John Fenn was\non Lord's-day, May 15, 1670, committed to prison for preaching in\nhis own house; and on Tuesday, all his goods and stock in trade\nwere seized and carted away, leaving his family in the most desolate\ncondition.\n\nIn the following week, Edward Isaac, a blacksmith, another of this\nlittle band, having been fined, had all his stock in trade, and\neven the anvil upon which he worked, seized and carted away.\n\nSuch were the severe trials which these excellent citizens were,\nwith their families, called to pass through, by the tyranny of the\nchurch; but they were light, indeed, in comparison with those that\nawaited the amiable and pious Bunyan.\n\n175. If Christians recollected with what anxiety their teachers\nprepared and delivered their sermons, how constant and prayerful\nwould be their attendance on the means of grace.\n\n176. Grace Abounding, vol. i., p. 42. The taunts and revilings of\na poet laureate upon Bunyan's preaching and sufferings need only\na passing notice. No words could be more vile and slanderous than\nthose of Mr. Southey. He says, 'Peace might be on his lips, and\nzeal for the salvation of others in his heart, but he was certainly,\nat that time, no preacher of good will, nor of Christian charity.'\nHow can we judge of a preacher's good will, but by 'peace on his\nlips?' and what is the criterion of Christian charity, except it\nbe 'zeal for the salvation of others in his heart?'\n\n177. Grace Abounding, No. 293, vol. i., p. 44.\n\n178. Vol. i., p. 59. Eben. Chandler thus describes Bunyan: 'His\nwit was sharp and quick, his memory tenacious; it being customary\nwith him to commit his sermons to writing after he had preached\nthem.'--Chandler and Wilson's Preface to Bunyan's Works, folio,\n1692. All these autographs have unaccountably disappeared.\n\n179. Noticed in the life annexed to Pilgrim, Part III.\n\n180. In the editor's library, folio, 1635. Orthography was little\ncared for in those days. On the beautiful portrait of Andrews, is\nthe autograph of Annie Brokett hir Blook!\n\n181. This document is copied on page xxvi.\n\n182. See page lxxii.\n\n183. Vol. ii., p. 132.\n\n184. Vol. ii., p. 133.\n\n185. Vol. ii., pp. 140, 141.\n\n186. The American authors of a recent life of Burrough, (William and\nThomas Evans, Philadelphia, republished by Gilpin, London, 1851),\nhave given an unfair account of his controversy with Bunyan, drawn\nfrom Burrough's works in the shape of a supposed dialogue. Such\na disputation can only be understood by reading both sides of the\nquestion. We unite with them in admiring the character of that\nyoung but noble martyr. They are, however, wrong in their conclusion\nthat 'the meekness and gentleness of Christ softened and adorned\nhis whole character.' He was one of those that are called in the\nHoly War, 'rough hewn men fit to break the ice.' Vol. iii. p. 270\n\n187. Vol. ii., p. 201.\n\n188. P. 16.\n\n189. It is difficult to describe the state of those times. James\nNaylor rode into Bristol, a multitude accompanying him, strewing\ntheir scarfs, handkerchiefs, and garments on the ground for his\nhorse to tread on, and singing, Hosanna in the highest; holy, holy,\nholy is the Lord God of Israel. He was addressed as the everlasting\nson of righteousness, and prince of peace. His brain was bewildered\nwith adulation. Women kissed his feet, and called him Jesus the Son\nof God. To stop the tumult, he was apprehended, and had he been\nsimply subjected to the discipline of a mad-house, like Mr. Brothers\nof a later period, his blood would soon have recovered from its\nagitation. Instead of this, a grand parade was made by trying him\nbefore a Committee of the House of Commons, and, upon a report of\nthe whole house, he was convicted of 'horrid blasphemy,' and it\nwas by the small majority of fourteen that his life was spared.\nHis cruel sentence was whipping, pillory, his tongue bored through\nwith a red hot iron, a large letter B burnt into his forehead, and\nto be imprisoned during the pleasure of Parliament. By his followers\nhe was considered a martyr; but the infatuation soon subsided. After\nhis release, he was mercifully restored to his senses, and became\na useful Quaker.\n\n190. These commissioners were called 'triers,' and, being high\nCalvinists, were nick-named Dr. Absolute, chairman, Mr. Fatality,\nMr. Fri-babe, Mr. Dam-man, Mr. Narrow-grace, Mr. Indefectible,\nMr. Dubious, and others. They turned out of their livings those\nclergymen who were proved to be immoral in their conduct, and others\nwho did not come up to the orthodox standard. Of these, Mr. Walker,\nin his account of the sufferings of the clergy, gives a long list.\n\n191. This Act or ordinance of Parliament involved some of our\nexcellent ancestors in trouble. Hansard Knollys, Wm. Kiffin, Mr.\nLamb, and many others, were imprisoned for short periods; Edward\nBarbour for eleven months. To avoid the informers, adult baptism was\nperformed at midnight; for this Henry Denne suffered imprisonment.\nThat gracious and valuable minister, Vavasor Powel also suffered a\nshort imprisonment during the Protectorate; his life was afterwards\nsacrificed by a tedious imprisonment in the following reign. He was\ntaken, with his flock, at a midnight meeting; and for safe custody\nthey were locked up in the parish church, and there he preached\nwithout molestation. When conveyed to the justice's house, while\nwaiting his worship's leisure, he again preached. When this\nmagistrate arrived, he was violently enraged that his house should\nhave been turned into a conventicle. He would have committed them\nat once to prison, but two of his daughters were so affected with\nthe sermon, that, at their intercession, after severe threatenings,\nthe preacher and his friends were set at liberty.\n\n192. From the original, in the editor's possession.\n\n193. Cotton Mather says that these laws were never carried to\nextremity, and were soon laid entirely by. Hist. of America.\n\n194. Jukes' History of Bunyan's Church, p. 16.\n\n195. Works, vol. iii., p. 667; especially pp. 672, 673.\n\n196. No. 280-317, vol. i., p. 42-46.\n\n197. Life and Death of Mr. J. Bunyan, 1700, p. 27.\n\n198. Vol. iii., p. 767.\n\n199. Grace Abounding, vol. i., p. 46.\n\n200. See Note, vol. i., p. 45.\n\n201. 4tp. London, 1659. A MS copy is in the editor's possession.\n\n202. Vol. i., p. 683.\n\n203. Vol. iii., p. 445.\n\n204. Vol. iii., p. 48.\n\n205. Vol. ii., p. 635.\n\n206. Vol. iii., p. 680.\n\n207. See postscript to The True Faith of the Gospel of Peace,\nBritish Museum.\n\n208. Vol. ii., p. 201.\n\n209. Vol. i., p. 46.\n\n210. Macaulay's History of England, vol. i.\n\n211. Life of Badman.\n\n212. Penn's England's Interest, 4to, 1676, p. 2.\n\n213. Vol. ii., p. 593.\n\n214. Vol. i., p. 51.\n\n215. Vol. i., p. 51.\n\n216. This very interesting Memoir was published by the Society of\nFriends, 1825.\n\n217. Case and Opinion, under the head 'Conventicles,' British\nMuseum. There is also a rare Tract, to prove that the Persecuting\nActs expired Oct. 24th, 1670.\n\n218. Vol. i., p. 54. How unspeakable the mercy, that the persecutor\ncannot plunge his implements of torture into the spirit, nor prevent\nits intercourse with heaven!\n\nA very deeply interesting narrative of all the particulars of this\nexamination and form of trial, was recorded by the sufferer. See\nvol. i., p. 50.\n\n219. There were three prisons in Bedford--the county jail,\nthe bridewell, and the tower jail. No decisive evidence has been\ndiscovered as to which prison Bunyan was committed. Two views of\nthe bridge and prison are given in the plate at p. 63, vol. i.\n\n220. Howard's Account of Lazarettos, &c. 4to, 1789, p. 150.\n\n221. Elstow is a perpetual curacy or vicarage, worth at that time\nonly \u00a335 per annum! forming one of the discreditable anomalies of\nthe church, in the division of its immense revenues.\n\n222. He has favoured us with the following description of it:--'The\nring is of fine gold, very like in colour to that which has been\nbrought into this country from California. The head is, I think,\nengraven, but the letters have not that sharpness about them which\nindicates the engraving tool; and the I. B. are undoubted indents\nmade after the ring was finished.' It is not the usual emblem of a\nmourning gift, for that would have the cross-bones under the skull;\nit was more probably given as a special mark of esteem. Three things\nare certain--1st, That it so valuable a gift excited the poor man's\npride, its loss must have been a serious annoyance to one whose\nfamily was dependent upon his daily labour. 2d, His preaching\ntalent must have been highly appreciated, before he was known as the\nauthor of the Pilgrim's Progress, to have brought him so valuable\na token of respect. But the most pleasing and remarkable reflection,\nis the surprising progress of good-will among men of various\ndenominations, that a ring, worn by a despised and persecuted\nNonconformist of a former age, is now highly prized and worn, from\nrespect to his memory, by a dignified clergyman of the Established\nchurch.\n\n223. This was not his only ring; he left, inter alia, all his rings\nto his wife. See. p. lxxii.\n\n224. After he had lain in jail five or six days, an application\nwas made to a liberal justice at Elstow, named Crumpton, to release\nhim on bail; but he declined, fearing to give offence. He, however,\nso felt for this persecuted servant of Christ, as to sell him an\nedifice and barn, which, upon his release, was converted into a\nlarge meeting-house.\n\n225. Vol. ii., p. 107.\n\n226. Vol. iii., p. 341, 366.\n\n227. From his autograph, in the editor's possession, he spelt his\nname John Keling.\n\n228. Lord Campbell's lives of the Chief Justices.\n\n229. Vol. i., p. 57. This forcibly reminds us of Greatheart's reply\nto Giant Maul--'I am a servant of the God of heaven; my business\nis to persuade sinners to repentance; if to prevent this be thy\nquarrel, let us fall to it as soon as thou wilt,' vol. iii., p. 210.\nSouthey attempts to vindicate the justices in condemning Bunyan,\nand grossly mis-states the facts; deeming him to be unreasonable\nand intolerant; that preaching was incompatible with his calling,\nand that he ought not to have sacrificed his liberty in such a\ncause! The poet-laureate makes these assertions, knowing the vast\nbenefits which sprung from the determined piety and honesty of\nthe persecuted preacher. Would not By-ends, Facing-both-ways, and\nSave-all, have jumped to the same conclusion?\n\n230. Vol. i., p. 56.\n\n231. Every Christian should read the appalling account of these\nsufferings, recently published under the title of Ladies of the\nCovenant.\n\n232. Vol. iii., p. 17.\n\n233. History of Baptists, vol. ii., p. 172. Robinson was a nephew\nof Archbishop Laud, and appeared to inherit his evil spirit.\n\n234. Wilson's History of Dissenting Churches, and the Trial of\nRosewell.\n\n235. Vol. i., p. 198; and Grace Abounding, No. 326.\n\n236. Vol. i., p. 48.\n\n237. Baptized at Elstow, July 20, 1650.\n\n238. Vol. i., p. 168.\n\n239. Vol. ii., p. 279.\n\n240. Vol. ii., p. 733.\n\n241. Vol. i., p. 60.\n\n242. The cut, copied from an old drawing of the house taken before\nits entire demotion, at the end of last century, exhibits its quaint\ncharacteristics. The bridge foot is to the spectator's right; the\nchurch tower behind is that of St. Mary's, also seen in our view\nof the jail, which would, of course, be seen from the bow-windows\nof the old inn, in which the Judges met.\n\n243. Vol. i., p. 60.\n\n244. Lectures on the Pilgrim's Progress.\n\n245. This valuable set of books came into the possession of my old\nfriend Mr. Wontner, of the Minories, London; it descended at his\ndecease, to his widow, who resided on Camberwell Green, and from\nher to a daughter, married to Mr. Parnel, an orange merchant in\nBotolph Lane. He was tempted to sell it to Mr. Bohn, the bookseller,\nfrom whom it was bought for the Bedford library.\n\n246. Charles Doe in Heavenly Footman, 2d edition, 1700.\n\n247. Introduction to the Pilgrim, vol. iii., p. 6, 7.\n\n248. Psalmody Edit., 1775, p. 137. George Whitefield, in recommending\nthe works of Bunyan, says, 'Ministers never write or preach so well\nas when under the cross; the Spirit of Christ and of glory shall\nrest upon them' [Preface to Bunyan's Works, 1767]. Admiring the\ncourage and honesty of Bunyan, when alluding to the Prayer-Book,\nwe earnestly unite in his petition--'The Lord in mercy turn the\nhearts of his people, to seek more after the Spirit of prayer, and,\nin the strength of that, to pour out their souls before the Lord.'\n\n249. This was published in 1698.\n\n250. Heavenly Footman, 2d edition, 1700, p. 126.\n\n251. Vol. iii., p. 397, 398.\n\n252. This deeply interesting book is dedicated to four sorts of\nreaders--the godly, the learned, the captious, and to the mother\nof harlots. To her he says, 'I have nothing here to please your\nwanton eye, or voluptuous palate; no paint for thy wrinkled face,\nnor crutch to support thy tottering kingdom.' It is a very amusing\npreface.\n\n253. Vol. iii., p. 610.\n\n254. Vol. i., p. 4.\n\n255. Author's Apology for the Pilgrim.\n\n256. Vol. i., p. 602.\n\n257. Vol. iii., p. 7.\n\n258. Grace Abounding, No. 322.\n\n259. Vol. i., p. 65.\n\n260. Vol. i., p. 741.\n\n261. This jug is in possession of Mrs. Hillyard, widow of the late\nMr. Hillyard, who was minister of the chapel for fifty years, and\ndied in 1839. One tradition says the jug was used as noted in the\ntext; another that his broth was brought to 'chapel' in it, for\nhis Sunday dinner, in the vestry.\n\n262. Vol. ii., p. 737-739.\n\n263. 2 Cor 1:5; vol. ii., p. 735.\n\n264. Vol. ii., p. 700.\n\n265. Vol. i., p. 47.\n\n266. Vol. i., p. 278; and vol. iii., p. 13.\n\n267. Vol. ii., p. 593.\n\n268. Vol. ii., p. 594.--Heroic man! British Christians are most\ndeeply indebted to thee, and thy fellow-sufferers, for the high\nprivileges they now enjoy. May thy name be had in everlasting\nremembrance.\n\n269. Vol. i., p. 62.\n\n270. It has been doubted whether he was justified in thus making\nexcursions from the prison. This may be answered by the question--Was\nPeter justified in leaving the prison, and going to the prayer-meeting\nat Mary's house? Acts 12:7-19.\n\n271. Vol. iii., p. 19.\n\n272. Rapin.\n\n273. For an accurate copy of this declaration, see vol. iii., p.\n21.\n\n274. The ecclesiastical year commenced in March. The tenth month\nmeans December.\n\n275. For a copy of these licenses, see vol. iii., p. 24.\n\n276. 4to, vol. vii., p. 75.\n\n277. I am greatly indebted to J. P. Brown, Esq., James Street,\nIslington, for directing my attention to these letters.\n\n278. Vol. iii., pp. 21-29.\n\n279. Vol. iii., p. 27.\n\n280. Vol. i., p. 47; No. 319.\n\n281. Jukes' History of Bunyan's Church, p. 24.\n\n282. Continuation of Life to Grace Abounding.\n\n283. It is generally believed at Bedford, that, after Bunyan was\nimprisoned, his family removed from Elstow to Bedford, in order\nthat they might have more frequent access to him; and that, on his\nrelease, he made his abode there. His humble dwelling was much like\nthat of his father at Elstow, most unassuming; just such a cottage\nas a poor wounded sinner would feel at home in when visiting his\npastor for advice. The late Rev. J. Geard, of Hitchin, in his Diary,\nsays--'July 17, 1774. I preached, for the first time, at Bedford,\nto the successors of good Mr. Bunyan's congregation, and the next\nday called at the house where he used to live, and went into the\nroom that tradition reported was his study. This house, though it\nhad been the habitation of so truly great a man, was now let for\nabout 40s. per annum.' Allowing for the difference in the value of\nmoney, Bunyan would have now paid 16s. a-year rent for his humble\nabode. It will be always matter of regret, that it was not purchased\nand preserved by the members of the 'Old Meeting,' when it was\noffered them before its destruction; we procured, however, a drawing\nof it, which is here engraved. The cottage was in the parish of\nSt. Cuthbert, in the street opposite the meeting-house, and here\nBunyan lived, while he was pastor, from 1681 to 1688.\n\n284. Pilgrim, vol. iii., p. 198.\n\n285. Vol. ii., p. 649.\n\n286. Vol. ii., p. 538.\n\n287. Vol. ii., p. 219.\n\n288. Vol. i., p. 757.\n\n289. Vol. ii., 649.\n\n290. Vol. ii., p. 638.\n\n291. Vol. ii., p. 641.\n\n292. Vol. iii., p. 758.\n\n293. Christian Church, 8vo, 1747, p. 280.\n\n294. The General Doctrine of Toleration, applied to Free Communion,\np. 8. George Whitefield most warmly approved the communion of all\nGod's saints with each other. This, I must own, more particularly\nendears Mr. Bunyan to my heart. He was of a catholic spirit. The\nwant of water (adult baptism), with this man of God, was no bar to\noutward Christian communion. And I am persuaded that if, like him,\nwe were more deeply and experimentally baptized into the benign and\ngracious influences of the blessed Spirit, we should be less baptized\ninto the waters of strife about circumstantials and non-essentials.\nFor being thereby rooted and grounded in the love of God, we should\nnecessarily be constrained to think and let think, bear with and\nforbear one another in love, and without saying, I am of Paul,\nApollos, or Cephas; have but one grand, laudable, disinterested\nstrife, namely, who should live, preach, and exalt the ever-loving,\naltogether-lovely Jesus most.\n\n295. Vol. iii., p. 398.\n\n296. He hesitated as to the propriety of publishing it, probably\nfrom the influence of the weighty opinion of Martin Luther. 'The\npeople are greatly delighted with allegories and similitudes, and\ntherefore Christ oftentimes useth them; for they are, as it were,\ncertain pictures which set forth things as if they were painted\nbefore our eyes. Paul was a marvelous cunning workman in handling\nallegories, but Origen and Jerome turn plain Scriptures into\nunfit and foolish allegories. Therefore, to use allegories, it is\noftentimes a very dangerous thing' [Com. on Gal. iv. 21]. Such\ninstructions, from one he so much venerated, curbed his exuberant\nimagination, and made him doubly watchful, lest allegorizing upon\nsubjects of such vast importance might 'darken counsel by words\nwithout knowledge.'\n\n297. Vol. iii., p. 739.\n\n298. Even Dean Swift, in his popular Letter to a Young Divine,\nsays, 'I have been better entertained, and more informed by a few\npages in the Pilgrim's Progress, than by a long discourse upon\nthe will and the intellect, and simple and complex ideas.' Nothing\nshort of extraordinary merit could have called for such a eulogy\nfrom so severe a critic.\n\n299. Vol. iii., p. 166.\n\n300. Within the Editor's memory, polished writers hesitated to\nname our incomparable allegorist, on account of his humble name\nand education. Thus Cowper sang--\n\n'I name thee not, lest so despised a name Should move a sneer at\nthy deserved fame.'\n\nNow nearly all men find it difficult to do that name sufficient\nhonour. One of the most splendid steam-ships in America is called\nafter his name. A magnificent ship, for the China trade, was built\nat Aberdeen by Walter Hood & Co., which so swiftly traversed the\nocean as to have made the voyage from Canton to London in ninety-nine\ndays, without any aid from steam. This beautiful and grand specimen\nof the perfection of naval architecture is named The John Bunyan.\nRoman Catholics have printed large editions of the Pilgrim, with\nslight omissions, for circulation among the young under the care of\nthe nuns. Our English fanatics have committed a crime that would\nmake a papist blush. A Rev. E. Neale has clumsily altered the\nPilgrim's Progress, that Bunyan might appear to teach the things\nwhich Bunyan's righteous heaven-born soul abhorred. It is a piece\nof matchless self-conceit to think of mending that which has been\nadmired by the wisest of the human race in all nations, and which\nhas obtained an unbounded popularity. Such an attempt to alter it\nis an acknowledgment that all the boasted power of Oxford, Exeter,\nand Rome, are unable to invent a tale to supersede the matchless\nbeauties of the work of our spiritually-minded, heavenly-assisted\nbrazier. If Mr. Neale should, at any time, alter a deed and the\npunishment for that felony is transportation for life. A similar\nforgery was committed in a recent London edition of Dr. Cheever's\nHill Difficulty. The Tractarians, doubtless, commit these scandalous\noutrages upon the Fathers, and all other writers, and deserve the\ncontempt of every honest, upright mind.\n\n301. Vol. i., p. 473.\n\n302. Vol. i., p. 480.\n\n303. Two views of this meeting-house, an exterior and interior, after\nits conversion into a workshop, are given in the Plate facing page\ni. of this Memoir. In the interior, part of the beams and pillars\nthat supported the gallery still remain.\n\n304. Toplady's Works, vol. iv., p. 463.\n\n305. Vol. iii., p. 637.\n\n306. One of his anecdotes is remarkable, as exhibiting the state\nof medical knowledge in his neighbourhood. A poor wretch, who had\ntaught his son to blaspheme, was affected with a nervous twisting\nof the muscles of his chest. This was supposed to arise from\na Satanic possession. One Freeman, a more than ordinary doctor,\nattempted the cure. They bound the patient to a form, with his head\nhanging down over the end; set a pan of coals under his mouth, and\nput something therein that made a great smoke, to fetch out the\ndevil. There they kept the man till he was almost smothered, but\nno devil came out of him [Vol. iii., p. 605]. The death-bed scene\nof the broken-hearted Mrs. Badman, is delicately and beautifully\ndrawn.\n\n307. Sutcliff's History of Bunyan's Church.\n\n308. Vol. iii., p. 245.\n\n309. A beautiful satire is contained in the account of the\ntraitors--tradition, human wisdom, and man's invention. This picture\nis drawn by an inimitable artist. Nor have we seen anything more\nadmirably adapted to the present state of our Tractarian times.\nVol. iii. 277.\n\n310. Vol. i., p. 22, No. 128.\n\n311. Vol. ii., p. 574.\n\n312. Life, 1692.\n\n313. Grace Abounding (continued), vol. i., p. 63, and Life, 1692.\n\n314. Vol. i., p. 505.\n\n315. Vol. i., p. 719.\n\n316. Vol. i., p. 753.\n\n317. Some of the wax remains, but the coin is lost.\n\n318. Vol. iii., p. 763.\n\n319. Vol. i., p. 81.\n\n320. Mr. Philip, Critique on Bunyan, p. vi. and xvi.\n\n321. Vol. ii., p. 425.\n\n322. Vol. iii., p. 766.\n\n323. Grace Abounding, 1692.\n\n324. No. 25, E.; 26, W.; 26, N.; 27, S.\n\n325. As matters of curious interest to all lovers of Bunyan, we\ninsert, in the accompanying page, engravings of these relics, from\ndrawings by Mr. Edward Offor.\n\n326. The chair is engraved above, and it will be seen that it has\nsuffered some little dilapidation since the last published engraving\nof it. The legs have been cut down to suit the height of one of\nhis successors in the ministry!! With regard to the pulpit, an old\nresident in Bedford says--The celebrated John Howard presented a\nnew pulpit in the room of the old one, which was cut up. Of part\nof the wood a table was made, which now belongs to Mrs. Hillyerd.\n\n327. Vol. iii., p. 297.\n\n328. Vol. i., p. 714.\n\n329. Vol. i., p. 686.\n\n330. Vol. i., pp. 690, 691.\n\n331. Vol. ii., p. 261.\n\n332. Vol. iii., p. 748.\n\n333. It is noticed, in a letter to the Secretary for Ireland,\ndated September 6, 1688--'On teusday last died the Lord Mayor Sir\nJ. Shorter. A few days before died Bunnian his lordship's teacher\nor chaplain a man said to be gifted that way though once a cobler'\n[Ellis's Cor., vol. ii., p. 161]. We can excuse the sarcasm of a\nRoman Catholic, and with equal good nature, and more truth, remark,\nthat the great and eminent pope, Sixtus V., was once a swineherd--not\na bad school in which to study how to keep up a despotic sway over\nthe Papacy.\n\n334. Vol. iii., p. 308.\n\n335. Law and Grace, marg., vol. i., p. 524.\n\n336. Vol. ii., p. 651.\n\n337. Vol. i., pp. 634, 635.\n\n338. Vol. ii., p. 653.\n\n339. Vol. i., p. 647.\n\n340. Vol. ii., p. 15.\n\n341. Vol. ii., p. 497.\n\n342. Vol. iii., p. 251.\n\n343. Emblem xiv., vol. iii., p. 751.\n\n344. Christ is made known by the sufferings of his saints, vol.\nii., p. 701, and note.\n\n345. Vol. iii., p. 751, and note.\n\n346. Vol. iii., p. 595.\n\n347. Vol. ii., p. 22.\n\n348. Vol. ii., p. 257.\n\n349. Works, folio, 1693.\n\n***\n\nGRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS:\n\nA BRIEF AND FAITHFUL RELATION OF THE EXCEEDING MERCY OF GOD IN\nCHRIST TO HIS POOR SERVANT, JOHN BUNYAN;\n\nWHEREIN IS PARTICULARLY SHOWED THE MANNER OF HIS CONVERSION, HIS\nSIGHT AND TROUBLE FOR SIN, HIS DREADFUL TEMPTATIONS, ALSO HOW HE\nDESPAIRED OF GOD'S MERCY, AND HOW THE LORD AT LENGTH THROUGH CHRIST\nDID DELIVER HIM FROM ALL THE GUILT AND TERROR THAT LAY UPON HIM.\n\nWhereunto is added a brief relation of his call to the work of\nthe ministry, of his temptations therein, as also what he hath met\nwith in prison. All which was written by his own hand there, and\nnow published for the support of the weak and tempted people of\nGod.\n\n\"Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he\nhath done for my soul.\"--Psalm 66:16.\n\nLondon: Printed by George Larkin, 1666.\n\nThis title page was afterwards altered, and instead of what follows\nthe first line, he inserted,\n\nOr a brief and faithful relation of the exceeding mercy of God in\nChrist to his poor servant, John Bunyan; namely, in his taking of\nhim out of the dunghill, and converting of him to the faith of his\nblessed Son, Jesus Christ. Here is also particularly showed, what\nsight of, and what trouble he had for sin; and also what various\ntemptations he hath met with, and how God hath carried him through\nthem.\n\nCorrected and much enlarged now by the Author, for the benefit of\nthe tempted and dejected Christian.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThe great utility of remarkable accounts of the ways of God in\nbringing his sheep into the fold, must be admitted by all. The Bible\nabounds with these manifestations of Divine grace from the gentle\nvoice that called Samuel, even unto the thunder which penetrated\nthe soul of one, who followed the church with continued malignity,\ncalling unto him, \"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?\"--a voice\nso terrible, and accompanied by such a flood of light, as to strike\nthe persecutor to the earth, and for a season to deprive him of\nsight.\n\nThe 'Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners' is doubly interesting,\nas it unfolds to us not only the return of a notorious prodigal,\nbut a wondrous system of education, by which a chosen man was fitted\nfor a wondrous work; heavenly and spiritual learning, which could\nnot have been obtained in all the schools and universities in the\nworld. It enabled a poor, vile, unlettered rebel--a blasphemous\ntravelling tinker, to become a most eminent preacher; one whose\nnative powers, sanctified by harrowing but hallowing feelings,\nattracted the deep attention of the most learned and pious of his\ncontemporaries, while it carried conviction to the most impious and\nprofane. Even beyond all this, his spiritual acquirements fitted\nhim, without scholastic learning, to become the most popular, the\nmost attractive, the most useful of English authors. His works\nincrease remarkably in popularity. As time rolls on, they are still\nread with deeper and deeper interest, while his bodily presence\nand labours mingle in the records of the events of bygone ages.\n\nBunyan's account of his singular trials and temptations may have\nexcited alarm in the minds of some young Christians lest they should\nbe in an unconverted state, because they have not been called to\npass through a similar mode of training. Pray recollect, my dear\nyoung Christian, that all are not called to such important public\nlabours as Bunyan, or Whitfield, or Wesley. All the members of\nthe Christian family are trained to fit them for their respective\npositions in the church of Christ. It is a pleasant and profitable\nexercise to look back to the day of our espousals, and trace the\noperations of Divine grace in digging us from the hole of the pit;\nbut the important question with us all should be, not so much HOW\nwe became enlightened, but NOW do we love Christ? Now do we regret\nour want of greater conformity to his image? If we can honestly\nanswer these questions in the affirmative, we are believers, and\ncan claim our part in that precious promise, \"Whosoever liveth\nand believeth in me shall never die.\" Spiritual life is ours, and\neternal life is essentially connected with it, and must be our portion,\nwithout an inquiry into the means by which we were called, whether\nby the thunders and lighting of Sinai, as Paul was smitten, or by\nthe \"still small voice\" (Acts 9:3,4; 1 Kings 19:12; Job 4:16,17).\n\nThe value of such a narrative to a terror-stricken prodigal is\nvividly shown by Bunyan, in his 'Jerusalem Sinner Saved,' in one\nof those colloquial pieces of composition in which he eminently\nshone. 'Satan is loath to part with a great sinner. \"What, my true\nservant,\" quoth he, \"my old servant, wilt thou forsake me now?\nHaving so often sold thyself to me to work wickedness, wilt thou\nforsake me now? Thou horrible wretch, dost not know, that thou hast\nsinned thyself beyond the reach of grace, and dost think to find\nmercy now? Art not thou a murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch,\na sinner of the greatest size, and dost thou look for mercy now?\nDost thou think that Christ will foul his fingers with thee? It\nis enough to make angels blush, saith Satan, to see so vile a one\nknock at heaven-gates for mercy, and wilt thou be so abominably\nbold to do it?\" Thus Satan dealt with me, says the great sinner,\nwhen at first I came to Jesus Christ. And what did you reply? Saith\nthe tempted. Why, I granted the whole charge to be true, says the\nother. And what, did you despair, or how? No, saith he, I said, I\nam Magdalene, I am Zacheus, I am the thief, I am the harlot, I am\nthe publican, I am the prodigal, and one of Christ's murderers; yea,\nworse than any of these; and yet God was so far off from rejecting\nof me, as I found afterwards, that there was music and dancing\nin his house for me, and for joy that I was come home unto him. O\nblessed be God for grace, says the other, for then I hope there is\nfavour for me.'\n\nThe 'Grace Abounding' is a part of Bunyan's prison meditations,\nand strongly reminds us of the conversation between Christian and\nHopeful on the enchanted ground.\n\n'Christian. Now then, to prevent drowsiness in this place, let us\nfall into good discourse.\n\n'Hopeful. With all my heart.\n\n'Christian. Where shall we begin?\n\n'Hopeful. Where God began with us.'\n\nTo prevent drowsiness, to beguile the time, he looks back to his\npast experience, and the prison became his Patmos--the gate of\nheaven--a Bethel, in which his time was occupied in writing for\nthe benefit of his fellow-Christians. He looks back upon all the\nwondrous way through which the Lord had led him from the City of\nDestruction to Mount Zion. While writing his own spiritual pilgrimage,\nhis great work broke upon his imagination.\n\n\n   'And thus it was: I writing of the way,\n    And race of saints, in this our gospel day,\n    Fell suddenly into an allegory\n    About their journey, and the way to glory.'\n\n\n'As you read the \"Grace Abounding,\" you are ready to say at every\nstep, here is the future author of the \"Pilgrim's Progress.\" It\nis as if you stood beside some great sculptor, and watched every\nmovement of his chisel, having seen his design; so that at every\nblow some new trait of beauty in the future statue comes clearly\ninto view.'[1]\n\nA great difference of opinion has been expressed by learned men as\nto whether Bunyan's account of himself is to be understood literally,\nas it respects his bad conduct before his conversion, or whether\nhe views himself through a glass, by which his evil habits are\nmagnified. No one can doubt his perfect honesty. He plainly narrates\nhis bad, as well as his redeeming qualities; nor does his narrative\nappear to be exaggerated. He was the son of a travelling tinker,\nprobably a gipsy, 'the meanest and most despised rank in the land';\nwhen, alarmed at his sins, recollection that the Israelites were\nonce the chosen people of God, he asked his father, whether he was\nof that race; as if he thought that his family were of some peculiar\npeople, and it was easy for such a lad to blend the Egyptians with\nthe Israelitish race. When he was defamed, his slanderers called\nhim a witch, or fortune teller, a Jesuit, a highwayman, or the like.\nBrought up to his father's trade, with his evil habits unchecked, he\nbecame a very depraved lad; and when he states his sad character,\nit is with a solemn pledge that his account is strictly true. Probably,\nwith a view to the full gratification of his sinful propensities,\nhe entered the army, and served among the profligate soldiers of\nCharles I at the siege of Leicester.[2]\n\nDuring this time, he was ill at ease; he felt convinced of sin,\nor righteousness, and of judgment, without a hope of mercy. Hence\nhis misery and internal conflicts, perhaps the most remarkable\nof any upon record. His own Giant Despair seized him with an iron\ngrasp. He felt himself surrounded by invisible beings, and in the\nimmediate presence of a holy God. By day, he was bewildered with\ntormenting visions, and by night alarming dreams presented themselves\nto him upon his bed. The fictitious appeared to his terrified\nimagination realities. His excited spirit became familiar with\nshapeless forms and fearful powers. The sorrows of death, and the\npains of hell, got hold upon him. His internal conflict was truly\nhorrible, as one who thought himself under the power of demons;\nthey whispered in his ears--pulled his clothes; he madly fought,\nstriking at imaginary shades with his hands, and stamping with\nhis feet at the destroyer. Thoughts of the unpardonable sin beset\nhim, his powerful bodily frame became convulsed with agony, as if\nhis breast bone would split, and he burst asunder like Judas. He\npossessed a most prolific mind, affording constant nourishment to\nthis excited state of his feelings. He thought that he should be\nbereft of his wits; than a voice rushed in at the window like the\nnoise of wind, very pleasant, and produced a great calm in his\nsoul. His intervals of ease, however, were short; the recollection\nof his sins, and a fear that he had sold his Saviour, haunted his\naffrighted spirit. His soul became so tormented, as to suggest to\nhis ideas the suffering of a malefactor broken upon the wheel. The\nclimax of these terrors is narrated at paragraph No. 187. 'Thus was\nI always sinking, whatever I did think or do. So one day I walked\nto a neighbouring town, and sat down upon a settle in the street,\nand fell into a very deep pause about the most fearful state my\nsin had brought me to; and, after long musing, I lifted up my head,\nbut methought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did\ngrudge to give light; and as if the very stones in the street, and\ntiles upon the houses, did bend themselves against me; methought\nthat they all combined together, to banish me out of the world; I\nwas abhorred of them, and unfit to dwell among them, or be a partaker\nof their benefits, because I had sinned against the Saviour.' In\nthis deep abyss of misery, THAT love which has heights and depths\npassing knowledge, laid under him the everlasting arms, and raised\nhim from the horrible pit in miry clay, when no human powers could\nhave reached his case. Dr. Cheever eloquently remarks, that 'it was\nthrough this valley of the shadow of death, overhung by darkness,\npeopled with devils, resounding with blasphemy and lamentations;\nand passing amidst quagmires and pitfalls, close by the very mouth\nof hell, that Bunyan journeyed to that bright and fruitful land\nof Beulah, in which he sojourned during the latter days of his\npilgrimage.' The only trace which his cruel sufferings and temptations\nseen to have left behind them, was an affectionate compassion for\nthose who were still in the state in which he had once been.\n\nYoung Christians, you must not imagine that all these terrors are\nabsolute prerequisites to faith in the Saviour. God, as a sovereign,\ncalls his children to himself by various ways. Bunyan's was a very\nextraordinary case, partly from his early habits--his excitable\nmind, at a period so calculated to fan a spark of such feelings\ninto a flame. His extraordinary inventive faculties, softened down\nand hallowed by this fearful experience, became fitted for most\nextensive usefulness.\n\nTo eulogize this narrative, would be like 'gilding refined gold';\nbut I cannot help remarking, among a multitude of deeply interesting\npassages, his observations upon that honest open avowal of Christian\nprinciples, which brought down severe persecution upon him. They\nexcite our tenderest sympathy; his being dragged from his home and\nwife and children, he says, 'hath oft been to me, as the pulling\nmy flesh from my bones; my poor blind child, what sorrow art thou\nlike to have for thy portion in this world! thou must be beaten,\nmust beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities,\nthough I cannot now endure the wind should blow upon thee. O, I saw\nI was as a man who was pulling down his house upon the head of his\nwife and children; yet, recollecting myself, thought I, I must\nventure you all with God.' How awful must be the state of the\nwretched persecutor, who occasions such sufferings to the children\nof the most high God!\n\nIn this edition, the greatest care has been taken to preserve the\nexact words of the author, as he first published them; where he\naltered or added to the text in subsequent editions, it is marked\nwith an inverted comma, or inserted in the notes. Obsolete words and\ncustoms are explained; the numbering of his sections is continued,\nin addition to which, it is divided into chapters for family reading,\nupon the plan of the late Rev. J. Ivimey; double inverted commas\ndenote quotations of Scripture.\n\nThe reader is strongly pressed to keep in his recollection\nthe peculiar use made of the word should, by the author in this\nnarrative. It is from the Saxon scealan, to be obliged. Thus, in\nthe Saxon gospels (Matt 27:15), \"the governor should release unto\nthe people a prisoner\"; in our version it is, \"was wont to release,\"\nmeaning that custom compelled him so to do. In Bunyan's phraseology,\nthe word should is used in the same sense, that is, to show that,\nunder peculiar circumstances, his feelings or position involuntarily\nproduced a certain result. Thus, in No. 6, Troubled with the thoughts\nof judgment and condemnation I should tremble; and in No. 15, The\nfather of his wife having left her two books, in these I should\nsometimes read; probably the only books he then had. It is remarkable,\nthat although the Saxon language had not been spoken in Bedfordshire\nfor many centuries, still many valuable words remained in use.\n\nThe order in which this thrilling narrative of Bunyan's religious\nfeelings and experience is now for the first time published, is, I.\nGrace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners--his call to the ministry,\nand his imprisonment for refusing to attend the Church of England\nservice. II. His Relation of the Circumstances attending his\nincarceration in Bedford Jail. III. The continuation of his Life\nto his decease, written by one of his friends, and always printed\nwith Grace Abounding. IV. His Dying Thoughts. V. His Prison\nMeditations--verses which were probably sold on a broadside or sheet\nof paper by his children, to procure necessaries for his family.\n\nThe length of the notes may need some apology; the only one the\neditor can make is his veneration for John Bunyan, and his earnest\ndesire to render this inestimable book more deeply interesting, by\nexplaining manners, customs, and words not now in use; the note on\nNo. 232, occupied the time of one whole day.\n\nThe errors, omissions, and additions, which existed to a most\nextraordinary extent through the book, have been corrected, and the\ntext restored to its primitive beauty; among many hundred of these\nerrors, one may suffice as a specimen; it is in Bunyan's preface,\n'God did not play in convincing of me, the devil did not play in\ntempting of me,' this is altered in many editions to 'God did not\nplay in tempting of me.'\n\nMost earnestly do I hope that this republication, now for the first\ntime, for nearly two hundred years, given in its native excellence\nand purity, may be attended with the Divine blessing, to the comfort\nof many despairing Jerusalem sinners; to the building up of the\nchurch of Christ on earth; to the extension of pure, heart-felt,\ngenuine Christianity; and to the confusion of the persecutors. They\nintended, by shutting the pious pilgrim up in a dungeon, to prevent\nhis voice from being heard to the comfort of his poor neighbours,\nand by which violence, his persecutors have caused his voice to\nburst the prison doors and walls, and to be heard over the whole\nworld. His 'Pilgrim's Progress,' which was written in prison, has\nbeen, and now is, a guide to Christian pilgrims of all nations,\nkindreds, tribes, and people, teaching them not to rest content\nin any national religion, but personally to search the Scriptures,\nwith earnest supplications to the God of mercy and truth, that they\nmay be guided to Christ, as the Alpha and Omega of their salvation.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\nA PREFACE, OR BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PUBLISHING OF THIS WORK, WRITTEN\nBY THE AUTHOR THEREOF, AND DEDICATED TO THOSE WHOM GOD HATH COUNTED\nHIM WORTHY TO BEGET TO FAITH, BY HIS MINISTRY IN THE WORD.\n\nChildren, grace be with you, Amen. I being taken from you in presence,\nand so tied up, that I cannot perform that duty that from God doth\nlie upon me to youward, for your further edifying and building\nup in faith and holiness, &c., yet that you may see my soul hath\nfatherly care and desire after your spiritual and everlasting\nwelfare; I now once again, as before, from the top of Shenir and\nHermon, so 'now' from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the\nleopards (Song 4:8), do look yet after you all, greatly longing to\nsee your safe arrival into the desired haven.[3]\n\nI thank God upon every remembrance of you; and rejoice, even while\nI stick between the teeth of the lions in the wilderness, at the\ngrace, and mercy, and knowledge of Christ our saviour, which God\nhath bestowed upon you, with abundance of faith and love. Your\nhungerings and thirstings also after further acquaintance with the\nFather, in his Son; your tenderness of heart, your trembling at\nsin, your sober and holy deportment also, before both God and men,\nis great refreshment to me; \"For ye are my glory and joy\" (1 Thess\n2:20).\n\nI have sent you here enclosed, a drop of that honey, that I have\ntaken out of the carcase of a lion (Judg 14:5-9). I have eaten\nthereof myself also, and am much refreshed thereby. (Temptations,\nwhen we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson;\nbut if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find\na nest of honey within them.) The Philistines understand me not. It\nis 'something of' a relation of the work of God upon my own soul,\neven from the very first, till now; wherein you may perceive\nmy castings down, and raisings up; for he woundeth, and his hands\nmake whole. It is written in the Scripture (Isa 38:19), \"The father\nto the children shall make known the truth of God.\" Yea, it was\nfor this reason I lay so long at Sinai (Deut 4:10,11), to see the\nfire, and the cloud, and the darkness, that I might fear the Lord\nall the days of my life upon earth, and tell of his wondrous works\nto my children (Psa 78:3-5).\n\nMoses (Num 33:1,2) writ of the journeyings of the children of\nIsrael, from Egypt to the land of Canaan; and commanded also, that\nthey did remember their forty years' travel in the wilderness.\n\"Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee\nthese forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove\nthee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep\nhis commandments, or no\" (Deut 8:2). Wherefore this I have endeavoured\nto do; and not only so, but to publish it also; that, if God will,\nothers may be put in remembrance of what he hath done for their\nsouls, by reading his work upon me.\n\nIt is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the\nvery beginnings of grace with their souls. \"It is a night to be\nmuch observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land\nof Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the\nchildren of Israel in their generations\" (Exo 12:42). \"O my God,\"\nsaith David (Psa 42:6), \"my soul is cast down within me; therefore\nwill I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites,\nfrom the hill Mizar.\" He remembered also the lion and the bear,\nwhen he went to fight with the giant of Gath (1 Sam 17:36,37).\n\nIt was Paul's accustomed manner (Acts 22), and that when tried for\nhis life (Acts 24), even to open, before his judges, the manner of\nhis conversion: he would think of that day, and that hour, in the\nwhich he first did meet with grace;[4] for he found it support\nunto him. When God had brought the children of Israel through the\nRed Sea, far into the wilderness, yet they must turn quite about\nthither again, to remember the drowning of their enemies there\n(Num 14:25). For though they sang his praise before, yet \"they soon\nforgat his works\" (Psa 106:11-13).\n\nIn this discourse of mine you may see much; much, I say, of the\ngrace of God towards me. I thank God I can count it much, for it\nwas above my sins and Satan's temptations too. I can remember my\nfears, and doubts, and sad months with comfort; they are as the head\nof Goliah in my hand. There was nothing to David like Goliah's\nsword, even that sword that should have been sheathed in his bowels;\nfor the very sight and remembrance of that did preach forth God's\ndeliverance to him. Oh, the remembrance of my great sins, of my\ngreat temptations, and of my great fears of perishing for ever!\nThey bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of my great help,\nmy great support from heaven, and that the great grace that God\nextended to such a wretch as I.\n\nMy dear children, call to mind the former days, \"and the years of\nancient times: remember also your songs in the night; and commune\nwith your own heart\" (Psa 73:5-12). Yea, look diligently, and leave\nno corner therein unsearched, for there is treasure hid, even the\ntreasure of your first and second experience of the grace of God\ntoward you. Remember, I say, the word that first laid hold upon\nyou; remember your terrors of conscience, and fear of death and\nhell; remember also your tears and prayers to God; yea, how you\nsighed under every hedge for mercy. Have you never a hill Mizar to\nremember? Have you forgot the close, the milk house, the stable,\nthe barn, and the like, where God did visit your soul?[5] Remember\nalso the Word--the Word, I say, upon which the Lord hath caused\nyou to hope. If you have sinned against light; if you are tempted\nto blaspheme; if you are down in despair; if you think God fights\nagainst you; or if heaven is hid from your eyes, remember it was\nthus with your father, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.\n\nI could have enlarged much in this my discourse, of my temptations\nand troubles for sin; as also of the merciful kindness and working\nof God with my soul. I could also have stepped into a style much\nhigher than this in which I have here discoursed, and could have\nadorned all things more than here I have seemed to do, but I dare\nnot. God did not play in convincing of me, the devil did not play\nin tempting of me, neither did I play when I sunk as into a bottomless\npit, when the pangs of hell caught hold upon me; wherefore I may\nnot play in my relating of them, but be plain and simple, and lay\ndown the thing as it was. He that liketh it, let him receive it;\nand he that does not, let him produce a better. Farewell.\n\nMy dear children, the milk and honey is beyond this wilderness. God\nbe merciful to you, and grant 'that' you be not slothful to go in\nto possess the land.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\nGRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS; OR, A BRIEF RELATION OF\nTHE EXCEEDING MERCY OF GOD IN CHRIST, TO HIS POOR SERVANT, JOHN\nBUNYAN.\n\n[BUNYAN'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF PREVIOUS TO HIS CONVERSION.]\n\n1. In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul,\nit will not be amiss, if, in the first place, I do, in a few words,\ngive you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that\nthereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more\nadvanced and magnified before the sons of men.\n\n2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a\nlow and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that\nrank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the\nland.[6] Wherefore I have not here, as others, to boast of noble\nblood, or of a high-born state, according to the flesh; though,\nall things considered, I magnify the heavenly Majesty, for that by\nthis door he brought me into this world, to partake of the grace\nand life that is in Christ by the gospel.\n\n3. But yet, notwithstanding the meanness and inconsiderableness\nof my parents, it pleased God to put it into their hearts to put\nme to school, to learn both to read and write; the which I also\nattained, according to the rate of other poor men's children;[7]\nthough, to my shame I confess, I did soon lose that little I learned,\nand that even almost utterly, and that long before the Lord did\nwork his gracious work of conversion upon my soul.\n\n4. As for my own natural life, for the time that I was without God\nin the world, it was indeed according to the course of this world,\nand \"the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience\"\n(Eph 2:2,3). It was my delight to be \"taken captive by the devil\nat his will\" (2 Tim 2:26). Being filled with all unrighteousness:\nthe which did also so strongly work and put forth itself, both in my\nheart and life, and that from a child, that I had but few equals,\nespecially considering my years, which were tender, being few, both\nfor cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God.\n\n5. Yea, so settled and rooted was I in these things, that they\nbecame as a second nature to me; the which, as I also have with\nsoberness considered since, did so offend the Lord, that even\nin my childhood he did scare and affright me with fearful dreams,\nand did terrify me with dreadful visions; for often, after I had\nspent this and the other day in sin, I have in my bed been greatly\nafflicted, while asleep, with the apprehensions of devils and\nwicked spirits, who still, as I then thought, laboured to draw me\naway with them, of which I could never be rid.\n\n6. Also I should, at these years, be greatly afflicted and troubled\nwith the thoughts of the day of judgment, and that both night and\nday, and should tremble at the thoughts of the fearful torments\nof hell fire; still fearing that it would be my lot to be found at\nlast amongst those devils and hellish fiends, who are there bound\ndown with the chains and bonds of eternal darkness, \"unto the\njudgment of the great day.\"\n\n7. These things, I say, when I was but a child, 'but nine or ten\nyears old,' did so distress my soul, that when in the midst of my\nmany sports and childish vanities, amidst my vain companions, I\nwas often much cast down and afflicted in my mind therewith, yet\ncould I not let go my sins. Yea, I was 'also then' so overcome\nwith despair of life and heaven, that I should often wish either\nthat there had been no hell, or that I had been a devil--supposing\nthey were only tormentors; that if it must needs be that I went\nthither, I might be rather a tormentor, than 'be' tormented myself.\n\n8. A while after, these terrible dreams did leave me, which also I\nsoon forgot; for my pleasures did quickly cut off the remembrance\nof them, as if they had never been: wherefore, with more greediness,\naccording to the strength of nature, I did still let loose the\nreins to my lusts, and delighted in all transgression against the\nlaw of God: so that, until I came to the state of marriage, I was\nthe very ringleader of all the youth that kept me company, into\nall manner of vice and ungodliness.[8]\n\n9. Yea, such prevalency had the lusts and fruits of the flesh in\nthis poor soul of mine, that had not a miracle of precious grace\nprevented, I had not only perished by the stroke of eternal justice,\nbut had also laid myself open, even to the stroke of those laws,\nwhich bring some to disgrace and open shame before the face of the\nworld.\n\n10. In these days, the thoughts of religion were very grievous to\nme; I could neither endure it myself, nor that any other should;\nso that, when I have seen some read in those books that concerned\nChristian piety, it would be as it were a prison to me. Then I\nsaid unto God, \"Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of\nthy ways\" (Job 21:14). I was now void of all good consideration,\nheaven and hell were both out of sight and mind; and as for saving\nand damning, they were least in my thoughts.[9] O Lord, thou knowest\nmy life, and my ways were not hid from thee.\n\n11. Yet this I well remember, that though I could myself sin with the\ngreatest delight and ease, and also take pleasure in the vileness\nof my companions; yet, even then, if I have at any time seen wicked\nthings, by those who professed goodness, it would make my spirit\ntremble. As once, above all the rest, when I was in my height of\nvanity, yet hearing one to swear that was reckoned for a religious\nman, it had so great a stroke upon my spirit, that it made my heart\nto ache.\n\n12. 'But God did not utterly leave me, but followed me still, not\nnow with convictions, but judgments; yet such as were mixed with\nmercy. For once I fell into a creek of the sea, and hardly escaped\ndrowning. Another time I fell out of a boat into Bedford river,\nbut mercy yet preserved me alive. Besides, another time, being in\nthe field with one of my companions, it chanced that an adder passed\nover the highway; so I, having a stick in my hand, struck her over\nthe back; and having stunned her, I forced open her mouth with my\nstick, and plucked her sting out with my fingers; by which act, had\nnot God been merciful unto me, I might, by my desperateness, have\nbrought myself to mine end.'\n\n13. 'This also have I taken notice of with thanksgiving; when I\nwas a soldier, I, with others, were drawn out to go to such a place\nto besiege it; but when I was just ready to go, one of the company\ndesired to go in my room; to which, when I had consented, he took\nmy place; and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was\nshot into the head with a musket bullet, and died.'[10]\n\n14. 'Here, as I said, were judgments and mercy, but neither of them\ndid awaken my soul to righteousness; wherefore I sinned still, and\ngrew more and more rebellious against God, and careless of mine\nown salvation.'\n\n15. Presently after this, I changed my condition into a married\nstate, and my mercy was to light upon a wife whose father was\ncounted godly.[11] This woman and I, though we came together as poor\nas poor might be, not having so much household stuff as a dish or\nspoon betwixt us both, yet this she had for her part, The Plain\nMan's Pathway to Heaven, and The Practice of Piety, which her father\nhad left her when he died. In these two books I should sometimes\nread with her, wherein I also found some things that were somewhat\npleasing to me; but all this while I met with no conviction. She\nalso would be often telling of me, what a godly man her father was,\nand how he would reprove and correct vice, both in his house, and\namongst his neighbours; what a strict and holy life he lived in\nhis day, both in word and deed.\n\n16. Wherefore these books with this relation, though they did not\nreach my heart, to awaken it about my sad and sinful state, yet\nthey did beget within me some desires to religion: so that, because\nI knew no better, I fell in very eagerly with the religion of the\ntimes; to wit, to go to church twice a day, and that too with the\nforemost; and there should very devoutly, both say and sing as others\ndid, yet retaining my wicked life; but withal, I was so overrun\nwith a spirit of superstition, that I adored, and that with great\ndevotion, even all things, both the high place, priest, clerk,\nvestment, service, and what else belonging to the church; counting\nall things holy that were therein contained, and especially the\npriest and clerk most happy, and without doubt, greatly blessed,\nbecause they were the servants, as I then thought, of God, and were\nprincipal in the holy temple, to do his work therein.\n\n17. This conceit grew so strong in little time upon my spirit, that\nhad I but seen a priest, though never so sordid and debauched in\nhis life, I should find my spirit fall under him, reverence him,\nand knit unto him; yea, I thought for the love I did bear unto\nthem, supposing they were the ministers of God, I could have lain\ndown at their feet, and have been trampled upon by them; their\nname, their garb, and work, did so intoxicate and bewitch me.\n\n18. After I had been thus for some considerable time, another\nthought came into my mind; and that was, whether we were of the\nIsraelites, or no? For finding in the Scriptures that they were\nonce the peculiar people of God, thought I, if I were one of this\nrace, my soul must needs be happy.[12] Now again, I found within\nme a great longing to be resolved about this question, but could\nnot tell how I should. At last I asked my father of it; who told\nme--No, we were not. Wherefore then I fell in my spirit as to the\nhopes of that, and so remained.\n\n19. But all this while, I was not sensible of the danger and evil\nof sin; I was kept from considering that sin would damn me, what\nreligion soever I followed, unless I was found in Christ. Nay, I\nnever thought of him, nor whether there was one, or no. Thus man,\nwhile blind, doth wander, but wearieth himself with vanity, for he\nknoweth not the way to the city of God (Eccl 10:15).\n\n20. But one day, amongst all the sermons our parson made, his subject\nwas, to treat of the Sabbath-day, and of the evil of breaking that,\neither with labour, sports, or otherwise. Now I was, notwithstanding\nmy religion, one that took much delight in all manner of vice, and\nespecially that was the day that I did solace myself therewith,[13]\nwherefore I fell in my conscience under his sermon, thinking and\nbelieving that he made that sermon on purpose to show me my evil\ndoing; and at that time I felt what guilt was, though never before,\nthat I can remember; but then I was, for the present, greatly\nloaden therewith, and so went home when the sermon was ended, with\na great burden upon my spirit.\n\n21. This, for that instant, did 'benumb'[14] the sinews of my 'best'\ndelights, and did imbitter my former pleasures to me; but behold,\nit lasted not, for before I had well dined, the trouble began to go\noff my mind, and my heart returned to its old course: but oh! How\nglad was I, that this trouble was gone from me, and that the fire\nwas put out, 'that I might sin again without control!' Wherefore,\nwhen I had satisfied nature with my food, I shook the sermon out\nof my mind, and to my old custom of sports and gaming I returned\nwith great delight.\n\n22. But the same day, as I was in the midst of a game at cat,[15]\nand having struck it one blow from the hole, just as I was about\nto strike it the second time, a voice did suddenly dart from heaven\ninto my soul, which said, Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven,\nor have thy sins and go to hell? At this I was put to an exceeding\nmaze; wherefore, leaving my cat upon the ground, I looked up to\nheaven, and was, as if I had, with the eyes of my understanding,\nseen the Lord Jesus looking down upon me, as being very hotly\ndispleased with me, and as if he did severely threaten me with some\ngrievous punishment for these and other my ungodly practices.\n\n23. I had no sooner thus conceived in my mind, but suddenly this\nconclusion was fastened on my spirit, for the former hint did set\nmy sins again before my face, that I had been a great and grievous\nsinner, and that it was now too too late for me to look after heaven;\nfor Christ would not forgive me, nor pardon my transgressions. Then\nI fell to musing upon this also; and while I was thinking on it,\nand fearing lest it should be so, I felt my heart sink in despair,\nconcluding it was too late; and therefore I resolved in my mind I\nwould go on in sin: for, thought I, if the case be thus, my state\nis surely miserable; miserable if I leave my sins, and but miserable\nif I follow them; I can but be damned, and if I must be so, I had\nas good be damned for many sins, as to be damned for few.\n\n24. Thus I stood in the midst of my play, before all that then were\npresent; but yet I told them nothing: but I say, I having made this\nconclusion, I returned 'desperately' to my sport again; and I well\nremember, that presently this kind of despair did so possess my\nsoul, that I was persuaded, I could never attain to other comfort\nthan what I should get in sin; for heaven was gone already, so\nthat on that I must not think; wherefore I found within me a great\ndesire to take my fill of sin, still studying what sin was yet to\nbe committed, that I might taste the sweetness of it; and I made\nas much haste as I could to fill my belly with its delicates, lest\nI should die before I had my desire; for that I feared greatly. In\nthese things, I protest before God, I lie not, neither do I feign\nthis sort of speech; these were really, strongly, and with all\nmy heart, my desires; the good Lord, whose mercy is unsearchable,\nforgive me my transgressions.\n\n25. And I am very confident, that this temptation of the devil is\nmore usual amongst poor creatures than many are aware of, even to\noverrun their spirits with a scurvy and seared frame of heart, and\nbenumbing of conscience; which frame, he stilly and slyly supplieth\nwith such despair, that though not much guilt attendeth the soul,\nyet they continually have a secret conclusion within them, that\nthere is no hopes for them; for they have loved sins, \"therefore\nafter them they will go\" (Jer 2:25, 18:12).\n\n26. Now therefore I went on in sin with great greediness of mind,\nstill grudging that I could not be so satisfied with it as I would.\nThis did continue with me about a month, or more; but one day, as\nI was standing at a neighbour's shop-window, and there cursing and\nswearing, and playing the madman, after my wonted manner, there\nsat within, the woman of the house, and heard me, who, though she\nwas a very loose and ungodly wretch, yet protested that I swore and\ncursed at that most fearful rate, that she was made to tremble to\nhear me; and told me further, That I was the ungodliest fellow for\nswearing that ever she heard in all her life; and that I, by thus\ndoing, was able to spoil all the youth in a whole town, if they\ncame but in my company.\n\n27. At this reproof I was silenced, and put to secret shame, and\nthat too, as I thought, before the God of heaven; wherefore, while\nI stood there, and hanging down my head, I wished with all my heart\nthat I might be a little child again, that my father might learn\nme to speak without this wicked way of swearing;[16] for, thought\nI, I am so accustomed to it, that it is in vain for me to think of\na reformation, for I thought it could never be.\n\n28. But how it came to pass, I know not; I did from this time\nforward so leave my swearing, that it was a great wonder to myself\nto observe it; and whereas before, I knew not how to speak unless\nI put an oath before, and another behind, to make my words have\nauthority; now, I could, 'without it,' speak better, and with more\npleasantness, than ever I could before. All this while I knew not\nJesus Christ, neither did I leave my sports and plays.\n\n29. But quickly after this, I fell in company with one poor\nman that made profession of religion; who, as I then thought, did\ntalk pleasantly of the Scriptures, and of the matters of religion;\nwherefore, falling into some love and liking to what he said, I\nbetook me to my Bible, and began to take great pleasure in reading,\nbut especially with the historical part thereof; for, as for Paul's\nepistles, and Scriptures of that nature, I could not away with\nthem, being as yet but ignorant, either of the corruptions of my\nnature, or of the want and worth of Jesus Christ to save me.\n\n30. Wherefore I fell to some outward reformation, both in my\nwords and life, and did set the commandments before me for my way\nto heaven; which commandments I also did strive to keep, and, as\nI thought, did keep them pretty well sometimes, and then I should\nhave comfort; yet now and then should break one, and so afflict my\nconscience; but then I should repent, and say I was sorry for it,\nand promise God to do better next time, and there get help again,\n'for then I thought I pleased God as well as any man in England.'\n\n31. Thus I continued about a year; all which time our neighbours\ndid take me to be a very godly man, a new and religious man, and\ndid marvel much to see such a great and famous alteration in my\nlife and manners; and, indeed, so it was, though yet I knew not\nChrist, nor grace, nor faith, nor hope; and, truly, as I have well\nseen since, had then died, my state had been most fearful; well,\nthis, I say, continued about a twelvemonth or more.\n\n32. 'But, I say, my neighbours were amazed at this my great conversion,\nfrom prodigious profaneness, to something like a moral life; and,\ntruly, so they well might; for this my conversion was as great, as\nfor Tom of Bedlam to become a sober man.[17] Now, therefore, they\nbegan to praise, to commend, and to speak well of me, both to my\nface, and behind my back. Now, I was, as they said, become godly;\nnow, I was become a right honest man. But, oh! When I understood\nthat these were their words and opinions of men, it pleased me\nmighty well. For though, as yet, I was nothing but a poor painted\nhypocrite, yet I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly.\nI was proud of my godliness, and, indeed, I did all I did, either\nto be seen of, or to be well spoken of, by man. And thus I continued\nfor about a twelvemonth or more.'\n\n33. 'Now, you must know, that before this I had taken much delight\nin ringing, but my conscience beginning to be tender, I thought\nsuch practice was but vain, and therefore forced myself to leave it,\nyet my mind hankered; wherefore I should go to the steeple house,\nand look on it, though I durst not ring. But I thought this did\nnot become religion neither, yet I forced myself, and would look\non still; but quickly after, I began to think, How, if one of the\nbells should fall? Then I chose to stand under a main beam, that\nlay overthwart the steeple, from side to side, thinking there I\nmight stand sure, but then I should think again, should the bell\nfall with a swing, it might first hit the wall, and then rebounding\nupon me, might kill me for all this beam. This made me stand in the\nsteeple door; and now, thought I, I am safe enough; for, if a bell\nshould then fall, I can slip out behind these thick walls, and so\nbe preserved notwithstanding.'\n\n34. 'So, after this, I would yet go to see them ring, but would not\ngo further than the steeple door; but then it came into my head,\nHow, if the steeple itself should fall? And this thought, it may\nfall for ought I know, when I stood and looked on, did continually\nso shake my mind, that I durst not stand at the steeple door any\nlonger, but was forced to flee, for fear the steeple should fall\nupon my head.'\n\n35. 'Another thing was my dancing; I was a full year before I\ncould quite leave that; but all this while, when I thought I kept\nthis or that commandment, or did, by word or deed, anything that\nI thought was good, I had great peace in my conscience; and should\nthink with myself, God cannot choose but be now pleased with me;\nyea, to relate it in mine own way, I thought no man in England\ncould please God better than I.'\n\n36. 'But poor wretch as I was, I was all this while ignorant of\nJesus Christ, and going about to establish my own righteousness;\nand had perished therein, had not God, in mercy, showed me more of\nmy state of nature.'\n\n[HIS CONVERSION AND PAINFUL EXERCISES OF MIND, PREVIOUS TO HIS\nJOINING THE CHURCH AT BEDFORD.]\n\n37. But upon a day, the good providence of God did cast me to\nBedford, to work on my calling; and in one of the streets of that\ntown, I came where there were three or four poor women sitting at\na door in the sun, and talking about the things of God; and being\nnow willing to hear them discourse, I drew near to hear what they\nsaid, for I was now a brisk talker also myself in the matters of\nreligion, but now I may say, I heard, but I understood not; for\nthey were far above, out of my reach; for their talk was about\na new birth, the work of God on their hearts, also how they were\nconvinced of their miserable state by nature; they talked how God\nhad visited their souls with his love in the Lord Jesus, and with\nwhat words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and\nsupported against the temptations of the devil. Moreover, they\nreasoned of the suggestions and temptations of Satan in particular;\nand told to each other by which they had been afflicted, and how\nthey were borne up under his assaults. They also discoursed of their\nown wretchedness of heart, of their unbelief; and did contemn, slight,\nand abhor their own righteousness, as filthy and insufficient to\ndo them any good.\n\n38. And methought they spake as if joy did make them speak; they\nspake with such pleasantness of Scripture language, and with such\nappearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me, as if\nthey had found a new world,[18] as if they were people that dwelt\nalone, and were not to be reckoned among their neighbours (Num\n23:9).\n\n39. At this I felt my own heart began to shake, as mistrusting my\ncondition to be nought; for I saw that in all my thoughts about\nreligion and salvation, the new birth did never enter into my\nmind, neither knew I the comfort of the Word and promise, nor the\ndeceitfulness and treachery of my own wicked heart. As for secret\nthoughts, I took no notice of them; neither did I understand what\nSatan's temptations were, nor how they were to be withstood and\nresisted, &c.\n\n40. Thus, therefore, when I had heard and considered what they\nsaid, I left them, and went about my employment again, but their\ntalk and discourse went with me; also my heart would tarry with\nthem, for I was greatly affected with their words, both because\nby them I was convinced that I wanted the true tokens of a truly\ngodly man, and also because by them I was convinced of the happy\nand blessed condition of him that was such a one.[19]\n\n41. Therefore I should often make it my business to be going again\nand again into the company of these poor people, for I could not\nstay away; and the more I went amongst them, the more did question my\ncondition; and as I still do remember, presently I found two things\nwithin me, at which I did sometimes marvel, especially considering\nwhat a blind, ignorant, sordid, and ungodly wretch but just before\nI was; the one was a very great softness and tenderness of heart,\nwhich caused me to fall under the conviction of what by Scripture\nthey asserted; and the other was a great bending in my mind to a\ncontinual meditating on it, and on all other good things which at\nany time I heard or read of.\n\n42. 'By these things' my mind was now so turned, that it lay like\na horse leech at the vein, still crying out, Give, give (Prov\n30:15); yea, it was so fixed on eternity, and on the things about\nthe kingdom of heaven, that is, so far as I knew, though as yet,\nGod knows, I knew but little; that neither pleasures, nor profits,\nnor persuasions, nor threats, could loosen it, or make it let go\nhis hold; and though I may speak it with shame, yet it is in very\ndeed a certain truth, it would then have been as difficult for\nme to have taken my mind from heaven to earth, as I have found it\noften since to get it again from earth to heaven.'\n\n43. 'One thing I may not omit: There was a young man in our town,\nto whom my heart before was knit more than to any other, but he\nbeing a most wicked creature for cursing, and swearing, and whoring,\nI now shook him off, and forsook his company; but about a quarter\nof a year after I had left him, I met him in a certain lane,\nand asked him how he did; he, after his old swearing and mad way,\nanswered, He was well. But, Harry, said I, why do you swear and\ncurse thus? What will become of you, if you die in this condition?\nHe answered me in a great chafe, What would the devil do for company,\nif it were not for such as I am?'\n\n44. 'About this time I met with some Ranters' books, that were put\nforth by some of our countrymen, which books were also highly in\nesteem by several old professors; some of these I read, but was not\nable to make a judgment about them; wherefore as I read in them,\nand thought upon them, feeling myself unable to judge, I should\nbetake myself to hearty prayer in this manner: O Lord, I am a fool,\nand not able to know the truth from error: Lord, leave me not to\nmy own blindness, either to approve of, or condemn this doctrine;\nif it be of God, let me not despise it; if it be of the devil, let\nme not embrace it. Lord, I lay my soul, in this matter, only at\nthy foot; let me not be deceived, I humbly beseech thee. I had\none religious intimate companion all this while, and that was the\npoor man that I spoke of before; but about this time he also turned\na most devilish Ranter,[20] and gave himself up to all manner of\nfilthiness, especially uncleanness: he would also deny that there\nwas a God, angel, or spirit; and would laugh at all exhortations\nto sobriety. When I laboured to rebuke his wickedness, he would\nlaugh the more, and pretend that he had gone through all religions,\nand could never light on the right till now. He told me also, that\nin a little time I should see all professors turn to the ways of\nthe Ranters. Wherefore, abominating those cursed principles, I left\nhis company forthwith, and became to him as great a stranger, as\nI had been before a familiar.'\n\n45. 'Neither was this man only a temptation to me; but my calling\nlying in the country, I happened to light into several people's\ncompany, who, though strict in religion formerly, yet were also\nswept away by these Ranters. These would also talk with me of their\nways, and condemn me as legal and dark; pretending that they only\nhad attained to perfection that could do what they would, and\nnot sin. Oh! These temptations were suitable to my flesh, I being\nbut a young man, and my nature in its prime; but God, who had, as\nI hope, designed me for better things, kept me in the fear of his\nname, and did not suffer me to accept of such cursed principles.\nAnd blessed be God, who put it into my heart to cry to him to be\nkept and directed, still distrusting mine own wisdom; for I have\nsince seen even the effect of that prayer, in his preserving me not\nonly from ranting errors, but from those also that have sprung up\nsince. The Bible was precious to me in those days.'\n\n46. And now, methought, I began to look into the Bible with new\neyes, and read as I never did before; and especially the epistles\nof the apostle Paul were sweet and pleasant to me; and, indeed, I\nwas then never out of the Bible, either by reading or meditation;\nstill crying out to God, that I might know the truth, and way to\nheaven and glory.\n\n47. And as I went on and read, I lighted on that passage, 'To one\nis given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of\nknowledge by the same Spirit; and to another faith,' &c. (1 Cor\n12:8,9). And though, as I have since seen, that by this Scripture\nthe Holy Ghost intends, in special, things extraordinary, yet\non me it did then fasten with conviction, that I did want things\nordinary, even that understanding and wisdom that other Christians\nhad. On this word I mused, and could not tell what to do, 'especially\nthis word faith put me to it, for I could not help it, but sometimes\nmust question, whether I had any faith or no'; for I feared that\nit shut me out of all the blessings that other good people had give\nthem of God;[21] but I was loath to conclude I had no faith in my\nsoul; for if I do so, thought I, then I shall count myself a very\ncast-away indeed.\n\n48. No, said I with myself, though I am convinced that I am\nan ignorant sot, and that I want those blessed gifts of knowledge\nand understanding that other good people have; yet, at a venture,\nI will conclude I am not altogether faithless, though I know not\nwhat faith is. For it was showed me, and that too, as I have since\nseen, by Satan, that those who conclude themselves in a faithless\nstate, have neither rest nor quiet in their souls; and I was loath\nto fall quite into despair.\n\n49. Wherefore, by this suggestion, I was for a while made afraid\nto see my want of faith; but God would not suffer me thus to undo\nand destroy my soul, but did continually, against this my blind and\nsad conclusion, create still within me such suppositions, 'insomuch'\nthat I might in this deceive myself, that I could not rest content,\nuntil I did now come to some certain knowledge, whether I had faith\nor no; this always running in my mind, But how if you want faith\nindeed? But how can you tell you have faith? 'and, besides, I saw\nfor certain, if I had not, I was sure to perish for ever.'\n\n50. So that though I endeavoured at the first, to look over the\nbusiness of faith, yet in a little time, I better considering the\nmatter, was willing to put myself upon the trial, whether I had\nfaith or no. But, alas, poor wretch, so ignorant and brutish was\nI, that I knew to this day no more how to do it, than I know how\nto begin and accomplish that rare and curious piece of art, which\nI never yet saw not considered.\n\n51. Wherefore, while I was thus considering, and being put to my\nplunge about it, for you must know, that as yet I had in this matter\nbroken my mind to no man, only did hear and consider, the tempter\ncame in with his delusion, That there was no way for me to know I\nhad faith, but by trying to work some miracle; urging those Scriptures\nthat seem to look that way, for the enforcing and strengthening\nhis temptation. Nay, one day as I was betwixt Elstow and Bedford,\nthe temptation was hot upon me, to try if I had faith, by doing of\nsome miracle: which miracle at that time was this, I must say to\nthe puddles that were in the horse pads, Be dry; and to the dry\nplaces, Be you the puddles. And truly, one time I was agoing to\nsay so indeed; but just as I was about to speak, this thought came\ninto my mind, But go under yonder hedge and pray first, that God\nwould make you able. But when I had concluded to pray, this came\nhot upon me, That if I prayed, and came again and tried to do it,\nand yet did nothing notwithstanding, then be sure I had no faith,\nbut was a cast-away and lost. Nay, thought I, if it be so, I will\nnever try yet, but will stay a little longer.\n\n52. So I continued at a great loss; for I thought, if they only\nhad faith, which could do so wonderful things, then I concluded,\nthat, for the present, I neither had it, nor yet, for time to come,\nwere ever like to have it. Thus I was tossed betwixt the devil and\nmy own ignorance, and so perplexed, especially at some times, that\nI could not tell what to do.\n\n53. About this time, the state and happiness of these poor people\nat Bedford was thus, in a dream or vision, represented to me. I\nsaw, as if they were set on the sunny side of some high mountain,\nthere refreshing themselves with the pleasant beams of the sun,\nwhile I was shivering and shrinking in the cold, afflicted with\nfrost, snow, and dark clouds. Methought, also, betwixt me and them,\nI saw a wall that did compass about this mountain; now, through\nthis wall my soul did greatly desire to pass; concluding, that if\nI could, I would go even into the very midst of them, and there\nalso comfort myself with the heat of their sun.\n\n54. About this wall I thought myself, to go again and again, still\nprying as I went, to see if I could find some way or passage, by\nwhich I might enter therein; but none could I find for some time.\nAt the last, I saw, as it were, a narrow gap, like a little doorway\nin the wall, through which I attempted to pass; but the passage\nbeing very strait and narrow, I made many efforts to get in, but\nall in vain, even until I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving\nto get in; at last, with great striving, methought I at first did\nget in my head, and after that, by a sidling striving, my shoulders,\nand my whole body; then was I exceeding glad, and went and sat down\nin the midst of them, and so was comforted with the light and heat\nof their sun.\n\n55. Now, this mountain and wall, &c., was thus made out to me--the\nmountain signified the church of the living God; the sun that shone\nthereon, the comfortable shining of his merciful face on them that\nwere therein; the wall, I thought, was the Word, that did make\nseparation between the Christians and the world; and the gap which\nwas in this wall, I thought, was Jesus Christ, who is the way to\nGod the Father (John 14:6; Matt 7:14). But forasmuch as the passage\nwas wonderful narrow, even so narrow, that I could not, but with\ngreat difficulty, enter in thereat, it showed me that none could\nenter into life, but those that were in downright earnest,[22] and\nunless also they left this wicked world behind them; for here was\nonly room for body and soul, but not for body and soul, and sin.[23]\n\n56. This resemblance abode upon my spirit many days; all which time,\nI saw myself in a forlorn and sad condition, but yet was provoked\nto a vehement hunger and desire to be one of that number that did\nsit in the sunshine. Now also I should pray wherever I was, whether\nat home or abroad, in house or field, and should also often, with\nlifting up of heart, sing that of the 51st Psalm, O Lord, consider\nmy distress; for as yet I knew not where I was.\n\n57. Neither as yet could I attain to any comfortable persuasion\nthat I had faith in Christ; but instead of having satisfaction,\nhere I began to find my soul to be assaulted with fresh doubts\nabout my future happiness; especially with such as these, Whether\nI was elected? But how, if the day of grace should now be past and\ngone?\n\n58. By these two temptations I was very much afflicted and disquieted;\nsometimes by one, and sometimes by the other of them. And first,\nto speak of that about my questioning my election, I found at this\ntime, that though I was in a flame to find the way to heaven and\nglory, and though nothing could beat me off from this, yet this\nquestion did so offend and discourage me, that I was, especially\nat some times, as if the very strength of my body also had been\ntaken away by the force and power thereof. This scripture did also\nseem to me to trample upon all my desires, \"It is not of him that\nwilleth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy\"\n(Rom 9:16).\n\n59. With this scripture I could not tell what to do; for I evidently\nsaw, that unless the great God, of his infinite grace and bounty,\nhad voluntarily chosen me to be a vessel of mercy, though I should\ndesire, and long and labour until my heart did break, no good\ncould come of it. Therefore, this would still stick with me, How\ncan you tell that you are elected? And what if you should not? How\nthen?\n\n60. O Lord, thought I, what if I should not, indeed? It may be you\nare not, said the tempter; it may be so, indeed, thought I. Why,\nthen, said Satan, you had as good leave off, and strive no further;\nfor if, indeed, you should not be elected and chosen of God, there\nis no talk of your being saved; \"For it is neither of him that\nwilleth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.\"\n\n61. By these things I was driven to my wits' end, not knowing\nwhat to say, or how to answer these temptations. Indeed, I little\nthought that Satan had thus assaulted me, but that rather it was\nmy own prudence, thus to start the question; for, that the elect\nonly attained eternal life, that I, without scruple, did heartily\nclose withal; but that myself was one of them, there lay all the\nquestion.\n\n62. Thus, therefore, for several days, I was greatly assaulted and\nperplexed, and was often, when I have been walking, ready to sink\nwhere I went, with faintness in my mind; but one day, after I had\nbeen so many weeks oppressed and cast down therewith, as I was\nnow quite giving up the ghost of all my hopes of ever attaining\nlife, that sentence fell with weight upon my spirit, \"Look at the\ngenerations of old and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and\nwas confounded?\"\n\n63. At which I was greatly lightened and encouraged in my soul;\nfor thus, at that very instant, it was expounded to me, Begin at\nthe beginning of Genesis, and read to the end of the Revelation,\nand see if you can find that there was ever any that trusted in\nthe Lord, and was confounded. So, coming home, I presently went to\nmy Bible to see if I could find that saying, not doubting but to\nfind it presently; for it was so fresh, and with such strength and\ncomfort on my spirit, that I was as if it talked with me.\n\n64. Well, I looked, but I found it not; only it abode upon me;\nthen I did ask first this good man, and then another, if they knew\nwhere it was, but they knew no such place. At this I wondered,\nthat such a sentence should so suddenly, and with such comfort and\nstrength, seize and abide upon my heart, and yet that none could\nfind it, for I doubted not but it was in holy Scripture.\n\n65. Thus I continued above a year, and could not find the place;\nbut at last, casting my eye into the Apocrypha books, I found it\nin Ecclesiasticus 2:10. This, at the first, did somewhat daunt me;\nbut because, by this time, I had got more experience of the love\nand kindness of God, it troubled me the less; especially when\nI considered, that though it was not in those texts that we call\nholy and canonical, yet forasmuch as this sentence was the sum\nand substance of many of the promises, it was my duty to take the\ncomfort of it; and I bless God for that word, for it was of God to\nme: that word doth still, at times, shine before my face.\n\n66. After this, that other doubt did come with strength upon me,\nBut how if the day of grace should be past and gone? How if you\nhave over-stood the time of mercy? Now, I remember that one day, as\nI was walking into the country, I was much in the thoughts of this,\nBut how if the day of grace be past? And to aggravate my trouble,\nthe tempter presented to my mind those good people of Bedford, and\nsuggested thus unto me, That these being converted already, they\nwere all that God would save in those parts; and that I came too\nlate, for these had got the blessing before I came.\n\n67. Now was I in great distress, thinking in very deed that this\nmight well be so; wherefore I went up and down bemoaning my sad\ncondition, counting myself far worse than a thousand fools, for\nstanding off thus long, and spending so many years in sin as I had\ndone; still crying out, Oh, that I had turned sooner; Oh, that I\nhad turned seven years ago! It made me also angry with myself, to\nthink that I should have no more wit, but to trifle away my time\ntill my soul and heaven were lost.\n\n68. But when I had been long vexed with this fear, and was scarce\nable to take one step more, just about the same place where I received\nmy other encouragement, these words broke in upon my mind, \"Compel\nthem to come in, that my house may be filled\"; \"and yet there is\nroom\" (Luke 14:22,23). These words, but especially them, \"And yet\nthere is room\" were sweet words to me; for, truly, I thought that\nby them I saw there was place enough in heaven for me; and, moreover,\nthat when the Lord Jesus did speak these words, he then did think\nof me; and that he knowing that the time would come that I should\nbe afflicted with fear that there was no place left for me in his\nbosom, did before speak this word, and leave it upon record, that\nI might find help thereby against this vile temptations. 'This, I\nthen verily believed.'\n\n69. In the light and encouragement of this word, I went a pretty\nwhile; and the comfort was the more, when I thought that the Lord\nJesus should think on me so long ago, and that he should speak them\nwords on purpose for my sake; for I did then think, verily, that\nhe did on purpose speak them, to encourage me withal.\n\n70. 'But I was not without my temptations to go back again;\ntemptations, I say, both from Satan, mine own heart, and carnal\nacquaintance; but I thank God these were outweighed by that sound\nsense of death and of the day of judgment, which abode, as it were,\ncontinually in my view; I should often also think on Nebuchadnezzar,\nof whom it is said, He had given him all the kingdoms of the earth\n(Dan 5:19). Yet, thought I, if this great man had all his portion\nin this world, one hour in hell fire would make him forget all.\nWhich consideration was a great help to me.'\n\n71. 'I was almost made, about this time, to see something concerning\nthe beasts that Moses counted clean and unclean. I thought those\nbeasts were types of men; the clean, types of them that were the\npeople of God; but the unclean, types of such as were the children\nof the wicked one. Now, I read that the clean beasts chewed the\ncud; that is, thought I, they show us we must feed upon the Word of\nGod. They also parted the hoof; I thought that signified we must\npart, if we would be saved, with the ways of ungodly men. And also,\nin further reading about them I found, that though we did chew the\ncud as the hare, yet if we walked with claws like a dog, or if we\ndid part the hoof like the swine, yet if we did not chew the cud as\nthe sheep, we were still, for all that, but unclean; for I thought\nthe here to be a type of those that talk of the Word, yet walk\nin the ways of sin; and that the swine was like him that parteth\nwith his outward pollutions, but still wanteth the Word of faith,\nwithout which there could be no way of salvation, let a man be never\nso devout (Deut 14).' After this I found, by reading the Word, that\nthose that must be glorified with Christ in another world must be\ncalled by him here; called to the partaking of a share in his Word\nand righteousness, and to the comforts and first fruits of his\nspirit, and to a peculiar interest in all those heavenly things\nwhich do indeed fore fit the soul for that rest and house of glory\nwhich is in heaven above.\n\n72. Here, again, I was at a very great stand, not knowing what to\ndo, fearing I was not called; for, thought I, if I be not called,\nwhat then can do me good? 'None but those who are effectually\ncalled, inherit the kingdom of heaven.' But oh! how I now loved\nthose words that spake of a Christian's calling! as when the Lord\nsaid to one, \"Follow me,\" and to another, \"Come after me.\" And oh!\nthought I, that he would say so to me too, how gladly would I run\nafter him!\n\n73. I cannot now express with what longings and breakings in my soul\nI cried to Christ to call me. Thus I continued for a time, all on\na flame to be converted to Jesus Christ; and did also see at that\nday, such glory in a converted state, that I could not be contented\nwithout a share therein. Gold! could it have been gotten for gold,\nwhat could I have given for it! had I had a whole world it had all\ngone ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been\nin a converted state.\n\n74. How lovely now was every one in my eyes that I thought to be\nconverted men and women! they shone, they walked like a people that\ncarried the broad seal of heaven about them. Oh! I saw the lot was\nfallen to them in pleasant places, and they had a goodly heritage\n(Psa 16:6). But that which made me sick was that of Christ, in\nMark, He went up into a mountain and called to him whom he would,\nand they came unto him (Mark 3:13).\n\n75. This scripture made me faint and fear, yet it kindled fire in\nmy soul. That which made me fear was this, lest Christ should have\nno liking to me, for he called \"whom he would.\" But oh! the glory\nthat I saw in that condition did still so engage my heart that\nI could seldom read of any that Christ did call but I presently\nwished, Would I had been in their clothes; would I had been born\nPeter; would I had been born John; or would I had been by and had\nheard him when he called them, how would I have cried, O Lord, call\nme also. But oh! I feared he would not call me.\n\n76. And truly the Lord let me go thus many months together and\nshowed me nothing; either that I was already, or should be called\nhereafter. But at last, after much time spent, and many groans to\nGod, that I might be made partaker of the holy and heavenly calling,\nthat Word came in upon me--\"I will cleanse their blood that I have\nnot cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion\" (Joel 3:21). These\nwords I thought were sent to encourage me to wait still upon God,\nand signified unto me, that if I were not already, yet time might\ncome I might be in truth converted unto Christ.[24]\n\n77. About this time I began to break my mind to those poor people\nin Bedford, and to tell them my condition, which, when they had\nheard, they told Mr. Gifford of me, who himself also took occasion\nto talk with me, and was willing to be 'well' persuaded of me, though\nI think but from little grounds: but he invited me to his house,\nwhere I should hear him confer with others, about the dealings of\nGod with the soul; from all which I still received more conviction,\nand from that time began to see something of the vanity and inward\nwretchedness of my wicked heart, for as yet I knew no great matter\ntherein; but now it began to be discovered unto me, and also\nto work at that rate for wickedness as it never did before. Now I\nevidently found that lusts and corruptions would strongly put forth\nthemselves within me, in wicked thoughts and desires, which I did\nnot regard before; my desires also for heaven and life began to\nfail. I found also, that whereas before my soul was full of longing\nafter God, now my heart began to hanker after every foolish vanity;\nyea, my heart would not be moved to mind that that was good;\nit began to be careless, both of my soul and heaven; it would now\ncontinually hang back, both to, and in every duty; and was as a\nclog on the leg of a bird to hinder her from flying.\n\n78. Nay, thought I, now I grow worse and worse; now am I further\nfrom conversion than ever I was before. Wherefore I began to sink\ngreatly in my soul, and began to entertain such discouragement in\nmy heart as laid me low as hell. If now I should have burned at\na stake, I could not believe that Christ had love for me; alas, I\ncould neither hear him, nor see him, nor feel him, nor savour any\nof his things; I was driven as with a tempest, my heart would be\nunclean, the Canaanites would dwell in the land.\n\n79. Sometimes I would tell my condition to the people of God,\nwhich, when they heard, they would pity me, and would tell me of\nthe promises; but they had as good have told me that I must reach\nthe sun with my finger as have bidden me receive or rely upon the\npromise; and as soon as I should have done it, all my sense and\nfeeling was against me; and I saw I had a heart that would sin,\nand 'that' lay under a law that would condemn.\n\n80. These things have often made me think of that child which the\nfather brought to Christ, who, while he was yet a coming to him,\nwas thrown down by the devil, and also so rent and torn by him that\nhe lay and wallowed, foaming (Luke 9:42; Mark 9:20).\n\n81. Further, in these days I should find my heart to shut itself\nup against the Lord, and against his holy Word. I have found my\nunbelief to set, as it were, the shoulder to the door to keep him\nout, and that too even then, when I have with many a bitter sigh\ncried, Good Lord, break it open; Lord, break these gates of brass,\nand cut these bars of iron asunder (Psa 107:16). Yet that word\nwould sometimes create in my heart a peaceable pause, \"I girded\nthee, though thou hast not known me\" (Isa 45:5).\n\n82. But all this while as to the act of sinning, I never was more\ntender than now; I durst not take a pin or a stick, though but so\nbig as a straw, for my conscience now was sore, and would smart at\nevery touch; I could not now tell how to speak my words, for fear\nI should misplace them. Oh, how gingerly[25] did I then go in all\nI did or said! I found myself as on a miry bog that shook if I\ndid but stir; and 'was' there left both of God and Christ, and the\nSpirit, and all good things.\n\n83. 'But, I observe, though I was such a great sinner before\nconversion, yet God never much charged the guilt of the sins of\nmy ignorance upon me; only he showed me I was lost if I had not\nChrist, because I had been a sinner; I saw that I wanted a perfect\nrighteousness to present me without fault before God, and this\nrighteousness was nowhere to be found, but in the person of Jesus\nChrist.'\n\n84. 'But my original and inward pollution, that, that was my plague\nand my affliction; that, I say, at a dreadful rate, always putting\nforth itself within me; that I had the guilt of, to amazement;\nby reason of that, I was more loathsome in my own eyes than was a\ntoad; and I thought I was so in God's eyes too; sin and corruption,\nI said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart, as water would\nbubble out of a fountain. I thought now that every one had a\nbetter heart than I had; I could have changed heart with any body;\nI thought none but the devil himself could equalize me for inward\nwickedness and pollution of mind. I fell, therefore, at the sight\nof my own vileness, deeply into despair; for I concluded that this\ncondition that I was in could not stand with a state of grace. Sure,\nthought I, I am forsaken of God; sure I am given up to the devil,\nand to a reprobate mind; and thus I continued a long while, even\nfor some years together.'\n\n85. 'While I was thus afflicted with the fears of my own damnation,\nthere were two things would make me wonder; the one was, when I\nsaw old people hunting after the things of this life, as if they\nshould live here always; the other was, when I found professors\nmuch distressed and cast down, when they met with outward losses;\nas of husband, wife, child, &c. Lord, thought I, what ado is here\nabout such little things as these! What seeking after carnal things\nby some, and what grief in others for the loss of them! if they so\nmuch labour after, and spend so many tears for the things of this\npresent life, how am I to be bemoaned, pitied, and prayed for!\nMy soul is dying, my soul is damning. Were my soul but in a good\ncondition, and were I but sure of it, ah! how rich should I esteem\nmyself, though blessed but with bread and water; I should count those\nbut small afflictions, and should bear them as little burdens. \"A\nwounded spirit who can bear?\"'\n\n86. And though I was thus troubled, and tossed, and afflicted,\nwith the sight and sense and terror of my own wickedness, yet I\nwas afraid to let this sight and sense go quite off my mind; for\nI found, that unless guilt of conscience was taken off the right\nway, that is, by the blood of Christ, a man grew rather worse for\nthe loss of his trouble of mind, than better. Wherefore, if my\nguilt lay hard upon me, then I should cry that the blood of Christ\nmight take it off; and if it was going off without it (for the sense\nof sin would be sometimes as if it would die, and go quite away),\nthen I would also strive to fetch it upon my heart again, by\nbringing the punishment for sin in hell fire upon my spirits; and\nshould cry, Lord, let it not go off my heart, but the right way,\nbut by the blood of Christ, and by the application of thy mercy,\nthrough him, to my soul; for that Scripture lay much upon me,\n\"without shedding of blood is no remission\" (Heb 9:22). And that\nwhich made me the more afraid of this was, because I had seen some,\nwho, though when they were under wounds of conscience, then they\nwould cry and pray; but they seeking rather present ease from their\ntrouble, than pardon for their sin, cared not how they lost their\nguilt, so they got it out of their mind; and, therefore, having\ngot it off the wrong way, it was not sanctified unto them; but they\ngrew harder and blinder, and more wicked after their trouble. This\nmade me afraid, and made me cry to God 'the more,' that it might\nnot be so with me.\n\n87. And now was I sorry that God had made me a man, for I feared\nI was a reprobate; I counted man as unconverted, the most doleful\nof all the creatures. Thus being afflicted and tossed about my\nsad condition, I counted myself alone, and above the most of men\nunblessed.\n\n88. 'Yea, I thought it impossible that ever I should attain to so\nmuch goodness of heart, as to thank God that he had made me a man.\nMan indeed is the most noble by creation, of all creatures in the\nvisible world; but by sin he had made himself the most ignoble.\nThe beasts, birds, fishes, &c., I blessed their condition, for they\nhad not a sinful nature, they were not obnoxious to the wrath of\nGod; they were not to go to hell fire after death; I could therefore\nhave rejoiced, had my condition been as any of theirs.'\n\n89. In this condition I went a great while; but when comforting\ntime was come, I heard one preach a sermon upon those words in the\nSong (4:1), \"Behold thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair.\"\nBut at that time he made these two words, \"My love,\" his chief and\nsubject matter; from which, after he had a little opened the text,\nhe observed these several conclusions: 1. That the church, and\nso every saved soul, is Christ's love, when loveless. 2. Christ's\nlove without a cause. 3. Christ's love when hated of the world.\n4. Christ's love when under temptation, and under desertion. 5.\nChrist's love from first to last.\n\n90. But I got nothing by what he said at present, only when he came\nto the application of the fourth particular, this was the word he\nsaid; If it be so, that the saved soul is Christ's love when under\ntemptation and desertion; then poor tempted soul, when thou art\nassaulted and afflicted with temptation, and the hidings of God's\nface, yet think on these two words, \"My love,\" still.\n\n91. So as I was a going home, these words came again into my\nthoughts; and I well remember, as they came in, I said thus in my\nheart, What shall I get by thinking on these two words? This thought\nhad no sooner passed through my heart, but the words began thus to\nkindle in my spirit, \"Thou art my love, thou art my love,\" twenty\ntimes together; and still as they ran thus in my mind, they waxed\nstronger and warmer, and began to make me look up; but being as\nyet between hope and fear, I still replied in my heart, But is it\ntrue, but is it true? At which, that sentence fell in upon me, He\n\"wist not that it was true which was done by the angel\" (Acts 12:9).\n\n92. Then I began to give place to the word, which, with power, did\nover and over make this joyful sound within my soul, thou art my\nlove, thou art my love; and nothing shall separate thee from my\nlove; and with that (Rom 8:39) came into my mind: Now was my heart\nfilled full of comfort and hope, and now I could believe that my\nsins should be forgiven me; 'yea, I was now so taken with the love\nand mercy of God, that I remember I could not tell how to contain\ntill I got home; I thought I could have spoken of his love, and of\nhis mercy to me, even to the very crows that sat upon the ploughed\nlands before me, had they been capable to have understood me';\nwherefore I said in my soul, with much gladness, well, I would\nI had a pen and ink here, I would write this down before I go any\nfurther, for surely I will not forget this forty years hence; but,\nalas! within less than forty days, I began to question all again;\n'which made me begin to question all still.'\n\n93. Yet still at times, I was helped to believe that it was a true\nmanifestation of grace unto my soul, though I had lost much of the\nlife and savour of it. Now about a week or fortnight after this, I\nwas much followed by this scripture, \"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan\nhath desired to have you\" (Luke 22:31). And sometimes it would sound\nso loud within me, yea, and as it were call so strongly after me,\nthat once above all the rest, I turned my head over my shoulder,\nthinking verily that some man had, behind me, called to me; being at\na great distance, 'methought he called so loud; it came, as I have\nthought since, to have stirred me up to prayer, and to watchfulness;\nit came to acquaint me that a cloud and a storm was coming down\nupon me, but I understood it not.'[26]\n\n94. 'Also, as I remember, that time that it called to me so loud,\nwas the last time that it sounded in mine ear; but methinks I hear\nstill with what a loud voice these words, Simon, Simon, sounded\nin mine ears. I thought verily, as I have told you, that somebody\nhad called after me, that was half a mile behind me; and although\nthat was not my name, yet it made me suddenly look behind me,\nbelieving that he that called so loud meant me.'\n\n95. But so foolish was I, and ignorant, that I knew not the reason\nof this sound; which, as I did both see and feel soon after, was\nsent from heaven as an alarm, to awaken me to provide for what was\ncoming; only it would make me muse and wonder in my mind, to think\nwhat should be the reason that this scripture, and that at this\nrate, so often and so loud, should still be sounding and rattling\nin mine ears; but, as I said before, I soon after perceived the\nend of God therein.\n\n96. For about the space of a month after, a very great storm came\ndown upon me, which handled me twenty times worse than all I had\nmet with before; it came stealing upon me, now by one piece, then\nby another; first, all my comfort was taken from me, then darkness\nseized upon me, after which, whole floods of blasphemies, both\nagainst God, Christ, and the Scriptures, were poured upon my spirit,\nto my great confusion and astonishment. These blasphemous thoughts\nwere such as also stirred up questions in me, against the very\nbeing of God, and of his only beloved Son; as, whether there were,\nin truth, a God, or Christ, or no? and whether the holy Scriptures\nwere not rather a fable, and cunning story, than the holy and pure\nWord of God?\n\n97. The tempter would also much assault me with this, how can\nyou tell but that the Turks had as good Scriptures to prove their\nMahomet the Saviour, as we have to prove our Jesus is? And, could I\nthink, that so many ten thousands, in so many countries and kingdoms,\nshould be without the knowledge of the right way to heaven; if\nthere were indeed a heaven, and that we only, who live in a corner\nof the earth, should alone be blessed therewith? Every one doth\nthink his own religion rightest, both Jews and Moors, and Pagans!\nand how if all our faith, and Christ, and Scriptures, should be\nbut a think-so too?\n\n98. Sometimes I have endeavoured to argue against these suggestions,\nand to set some of the sentences of blessed Paul against them;\nbut, alas! I quickly felt, when I thus did, such arguings as these\nwould return again upon me, Though we made so great a matter of Paul,\nand of his words, yet how could I tell, but that in very deed, he\nbeing a subtle and cunning man, might give himself up to deceive\nwith strong delusions; and also take both that pains and travel,\nto undo and destroy his fellows.\n\n99. These suggestions, with many other which at this time I may\nnot, nor dare not utter, neither by word nor pen, did make such a\nseizure upon my spirit, and did so overweigh my heart, both with\ntheir number, continuance, and fiery force, that I felt as if there\nwere nothing else but these from morning to night within me; and\nas though, indeed, there could be room for nothing else; and also\nconcluded, that God had, in very wrath to my soul, given me up unto\nthem, to be carried away with them, as with a mighty whirlwind.\n\n100. Only by the distaste that they gave unto my spirit, I felt\nthere was something in me, that refused to embrace them. But this\nconsideration I then only had, when God gave me leave to swallow\nmy spittle, otherwise the noise, and strength, and force of these\ntemptations, would drown and overflow; and as it were, bury all\nsuch thoughts or the remembrance of any such thing. While I was\nin this temptation, I should often find my mind suddenly put upon\nit, to curse and swear, or to speak some grievous thing against\nGod, or Christ his Son, and of the Scriptures.[27]\n\n101. Now I thought, surely I am possessed of the devil; at other\ntimes again, I thought I should be bereft of my wits; for instead\nof lauding and magnifying God the Lord with others, if I have\nbut heard him spoken of, presently some most horrible blasphemous\nthought or other, would bolt out of my heart against him; so that\nwhether I did think that God was, or again did think there were\nno such thing; no love, nor peace, nor gracious disposition could\nI feel within me.\n\n102. These things did sink me into very deep despair; for\nI concluded, that such things could not possibly be found amongst\nthem that loved God. I often, when these temptations have been\nwith force upon me, did compare myself in the case of such a child,\nwhom some gipsy hath by force took up under her apron,[28] and is\ncarrying from friend and country; kick sometimes I did, and also\nscream and cry; but yet I was as bound in the wings of the temptation,\nand the wind would carry me away. I thought also of Saul, and of\nthe evil spirit that did possess him; and did greatly fear that my\ncondition was the same with that of his (1 Sam 16:14).\n\n103. In these days, when I have heard others talk of what was the\nsin against the Holy Ghost, then would the tempter so provoke me\nto desire to sin that sin, that I was as if I could not, must not,\nneither should be quiet until I had committed that; now, no sin\nwould serve but that; if it were to be committed by speaking of\nsuch a word, then I have been as if my mouth would have spoken that\nword, whether I would or no; and in so strong a measure was this\ntemptation upon me, that often I have been ready to clap my hand\nunder my chin, to hold my mouth from opening; and to that end also\nI have had thoughts at other times, to leap with my head downward,\ninto some muck hill hole or other, to keep my mouth from speaking.\n\n104. Now I blessed the condition of the dog and toad, and counted\nthe estate of everything that God had made far better than this\ndreadful state of mine, and such as my companions was; yea, gladly\nwould I have been in the condition of dog or horse, for I knew\nthey had no soul to perish under the everlasting weights of hell\nfor sin, as mine was like to do. Nay, and though I saw this, felt\nthis, and was broken to pieces with it, yet that which added to\nmy sorrow was, that I could not find that with all my soul I did\ndesire deliverance. That scripture did also tear and rend my soul,\nin the midst of these distractions, \"The wicked are like the troubled\nsea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There\nis no peace, saith my God, to the wicked\" (Isa 57:20,21).\n\n105. 'And now my heart was, at times, exceeding hard; if I would\nhave given a thousand pounds for a tear, I could not shed one;\nno, nor sometimes scarce desire to shed one. I was much dejected\nto think that this should be my lot. I saw some could mourn and\nlament their sin; and others, again, could rejoice, and bless God\nfor Christ; and others, again, could quietly talk of, and with\ngladness remember, the Word of God; while I only was in the storm\nor tempest. This much sunk me; I thought my condition was alone.\nI should, therefore, much bewail my hard hap; but get out of, or\nget rid of, these things, I could not.'\n\n106. While this temptation lasted, which was about a year, I could\nattend upon none of the ordinances of God but with sore and great\naffliction. Yea, then was I most distressed with blasphemies; if\nI have been hearing the Word, then uncleanness, blasphemies, and\ndespair would hold me as captive there; if I have been reading,\nthen, sometimes, I had sudden thoughts to question all I read;\nsometimes, again, my mind would be so strangely snatched away,\nand possessed with other things, that I have neither known, nor\nregarded, nor remembered so much as the sentence that but now I\nhave read.\n\n107. In prayer, also, I have been greatly troubled at this time;\nsometimes I have thought I should see the devil, nay, thought\nI have felt him, behind me, pull my clothes; he would be, also,\ncontinually at me in the time of prayer to have done; break off,\nmake haste, you have prayed enough, and stay no longer, still\ndrawing my mind away. Sometimes, also, he would cast in such\nwicked thoughts as these: that I must pray to him, or for him. I\nhave thought sometimes of that--Fall down, or, \"if thou wilt fall\ndown and worship me\" (Matt 4:9).\n\n108. Also, when, because I have had wandering thoughts in the time\nof this duty, I have laboured to compose my mind and fix it upon\nGod, then, with great force, hath the tempter laboured to distract\nme, and confound me, and to turn away my mind, by presenting to my\nheart and fancy the form of a bush, a bull, a besom, or the like,\nas if I should pray to those; to these he would, also, at some\ntimes especially, so hold my mind that I was as if I could think\nof nothing else, or pray to nothing else but to these, or such as\nthey.\n\n109. Yet, at times I should have some strong and heart-affecting\napprehensions of God, and the reality of the truth of his gospel;\nbut, oh! how would my heart, at such times, put forth itself with\ninexpressible groanings. My whole soul was then in every word; I\nshould cry with pangs after God that he would be merciful unto me;\nbut then I should be daunted again with such conceits as these; I\nshould think that God did mock at these, my prayers, saying, and\nthat in the audience of the holy angels, This poor simple wretch\ndoth hanker after me as if I had nothing to do with my mercy\nbut to bestow it on such as he. Alas, poor fool![29] how art thou\ndeceived! It is not for such as thee to have a favour with the\nHighest.\n\n110. Then hath the tempter come upon me, also, with such\ndiscouragements as these--You are very hot for mercy, but I will\ncool you; this frame shall not last always; many have been as hot\nas you for a spirit, but I have quenched their zeal. And with this,\nsuch and such who were fallen off would be set before mine eyes.\nThen I should be afraid that I should do so too; but, thought I, I\nam glad this comes into my mind. Well, I will watch, and take what\nheed I can. Though you do, said Satan, I shall be too hard for you;\nI will cool you insensibly, by degrees, by little and little. What\ncare I, saith he, though I be seven years in chilling your heart\nif I can do it at last? Continual rocking will lull a crying child\nasleep. I will ply it close, but I will have my end accomplished.\nThough you be burning hot at present, yet, if I can pull you from\nthis fire, I shall have you cold before it be long.\n\n111. These things brought me into great straits; for as I at present\ncould not find myself fit for present death, so I thought to live\nlong would make me yet more unfit; for time would make me forget\nall, and wear even the remembrance of the evil of sin, the worth\nof heaven, and the need I had of the blood of Christ to wash me,\nboth out of mind and thought; but I thank Christ Jesus these things\ndid not at present make me slack my crying, but rather did put me\nmore upon it, like her who met with the adulterer (Deut 22:27); in\nwhich days that was a good word to me after I had suffered these\nthings a while: \"I am persuaded that neither-height, nor depth,\nnor life,\" &c., \"shall--separate us from the love of God, which is\nin Christ Jesus\" (Rom 8:38). And now I hoped long life should not\ndestroy me, nor make me miss of heaven.\n\n112. Yet I had some supports in this temptation, though they were\nthen all questioned by me; that in the third of Jeremiah, at the\nfirst, was something to me, and so was the consideration of the\nfifth verse of that chapter; that though we have spoken and done\nas evil things as we could, yet we should cry unto God, \"My Father,\nthou art the guide of my youth\"; and should return unto him.\n\n113. I had, also, once a sweet glance from that in 2 Corinthians\n5:21: \"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;\nthat we might be made the righteousness of God in him.\" I remember,\nalso, that one day as I was sitting in a neighbour's house, and\nthere very sad at the consideration of my many blasphemies, and as\nI was saying in my mind, What ground have I to think that I, who\nhave been so vile and abominable, should ever inherit eternal life?\nthat word came suddenly upon me, \"What shall we then say to these\nthings? If God be for us, who can be against us?\" (Rom 8:31). That,\nalso, was an help unto me, \"Because I live, ye shall live also\"\n(John 14:19). But these were but hints, touches, and short visits,\nthough very sweet when present; only they lasted not; but, like to\nPeter's sheet, of a sudden were caught up from me to heaven again\n(Acts 10:16).\n\n114. But afterwards the Lord did more fully and graciously discover\nhimself unto me; and, indeed, did quite, not only deliver me from\nthe guilt that, by these things, was laid upon my conscience, but\nalso from the very filth thereof; for the temptation was removed,\nand I was put into my right mind again, as other Christians were.\n\n115. I remember that one day, as I was traveling into the country\nand musing on the wickedness and blasphemy of my heart, and\nconsidering of the enmity that was in me to God, that scripture\ncame in my mind, He hath \"made peace through the blood of his cross\"\n(Col 1:20). By which I was made to see, both again, and again, and\nagain, that day, that God and my soul were friends by this blood;\nyea, I saw that the justice of God and my sinful soul could embrace\nand kiss each other through this blood. This was a good day to me;\nI hope I shall not forget it.\n\n116. At another time, as I sat by the fire in my house, and musing\non my wretchedness, the Lord made that also a precious word unto\nme, \"Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and\nblood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through\ndeath he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,\nthe devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all\ntheir lifetime subject to bondage\" (Heb 2:14,15). I thought that\nthe glory of these words was then so weighty on me that I was,\nboth once and twice, ready to swoon as I sat; yet not with grief\nand trouble, but with solid joy and peace.\n\n[BUNYAN ATTENDS THE MINISTRY OF MR. GIFFORD, AND BECOMES INTENSELY\nEARNEST TO UNDERSTAND THE DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL.]\n\n117. At this time, also, I sat under the ministry of holy Mr. Gifford,\nwhose doctrine, by God's grace, was much for my stability.[30] This\nman made it much his business to deliver the people of God from\nall those false and unsound rests that, by nature, we are prone\nto take and make to our souls. He pressed us to take special heed\nthat we took not up any truth upon trust--as from this, or that,\nor any other man or men--but to cry mightily to God that he would\nconvince us of the reality thereof, and set us down therein, by\nhis own Spirit, in the holy Word; for, said he, if you do otherwise\nwhen temptations come, if strongly, you, not having received them\nwith evidence from heaven, will find you want that help and strength\nnow to resist as once you thought you had.\n\n118. This was as seasonable to my soul as the former and latter\nrain in their season; for I had found, and that by sad experience,\nthe truth of these his words; for I had felt [what] no man can say,\nespecially when tempted by the devil, that Jesus Christ is Lord\nbut by the Holy Ghost. Wherefore I found my soul, through grace,\nvery apt to drink in this doctrine, and to incline to pray to God\nthat, in nothing that pertained to God's glory and my own eternal\nhappiness, he would suffer me to be without the confirmation\nthereof from heaven; for now I saw clearly there was an exceeding\ndifferent betwixt the notions of flesh and blood, and the revelations\nof God in heaven; also, a great difference between that faith that\nis feigned, and according to man's wisdom, and of that which comes\nby a man's being born thereto of God (Matt 16:15-17; 1 John 5:1).\n\n119. But, oh! now, how was my soul led from truth to truth by God!\neven from the birth and cradle of the Son of God to his ascension\nand second coming from heaven to judge the world.\n\n120. Truly, I then found, upon this account, the great God was very\ngood unto me; for, to my remembrance, there was not anything that\nI then cried unto God to make known and reveal unto me but he was\npleased to do it for me; I mean not one part of the gospel of the\nLord Jesus, but I was orderly led into it. Methought I saw with\ngreat evidence, from the relation of the four evangelists, the\nwonderful work of God, in giving Jesus Christ to save us, from\nhis conception and birth even to his second coming to judgment,\nMethought I was as if I had seen him born, as if I had seen him grow\nup, as if I had seen him walk through this world, from the cradle\nto his cross; to which, also, when he came, I saw how gently he\ngave himself to be hanged and nailed on it for my sins and wicked\ndoings. Also, as I was musing on this, his progress, that dropped\non my spirit, He was ordained for the slaughter (1 Peter 1:19,20).\n\n121. When I have considered also the truth of his resurrection, and\nhave remembered that word, \"Touch me not, Mary,\" &c., I have seen\nas if he leaped at the grave's mouth for joy that he was risen\nagain, and had got the conquest over our dreadful foes (John 20:17).\nI have also, in the spirit, seen him a man on the right hand of\nGod the Father for me, and have seen the manner of his coming from\nheaven to judge the world with glory, and have been confirmed in\nthese things by these scriptures following, Acts 1:9, 10, 7:56,\n10:42; Hebrews 7:24, 8:3; Revelation 1:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:17,\n18.\n\n122. Once I was much troubled to know whether the Lord Jesus was\nboth man as well as God, and God as well as man; and truly, in those\ndays, let men say what they would, unless I had it with evidence\nfrom heaven, all was as nothing to me, I counted not myself set down\nin any truth of God. Well, I was much troubled about this point,\nand could not tell how to be resolved; at last, that in the fifth\nof the Revelation came into my mind, \"And I beheld, and lo, in the\nmidst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of\nthe elders, stood a Lamb.\" In the midst of the throne, 'thought\nI,' there is his Godhead; in the midst of the elders, there is his\nmanhood; but oh! methought this did glister! it was a goodly touch,\nand gave me sweet satisfaction. That other scripture also did help\nme much in this, \"To us a child is born, unto us a son is given;\nand the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall\nbe called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting\nFather, the Prince of Peace,\" &c. (Isa 9:6).\n\n123. Also, besides these teachings of God in his Word, the Lord\nmade use of two things to confirm me in these things; the one was\nthe errors of the Quakers, and the other was the guilt of sin; for\nas the Quakers did oppose his truth, so God did the more confirm\nme in it, by leading me into the scriptures that did wonderfully\nmaintain it.[31]\n\n124. 'The errors that this people then maintained were, 1. That the\nholy Scriptures were not the Word of God. 2. That every man in the\nworld had the spirit of Christ, grace, faith, &c. 3. That Christ\nJesus, as crucified, and dying 1600 years ago, did not satisfy\ndivine justice for the sins of the people. 4. That Christ's flesh\nand blood was within the saints. 5. That the bodies of the good\nand bad that are buried in the churchyard shall not arise again. 6.\nThat the resurrection is past with good men already. 7. That that\nman Jesus, that was crucified between two thieves on Mount Calvary,\nin the land of Canaan, by Jerusalem, was not ascended up above the\nstarry heavens. 8. That he should not, even the same Jesus that\ndied by the hands of the Jews, come again at the last day, and as\nman judge all nations, &c.'\n\n125. 'Many more vile and abominable things were in those days\nfomented by them, by which I was driven to a more narrow search of\nthe Scriptures, and was, through their light and testimony, not\nonly enlightened, but greatly confirmed and comforted in the truth';\nand, as I said, the guilt of sin did help me much, for still as that\nwould come upon me, the blood of Christ did take it off again, and\nagain, and again, and that too, sweetly, according to the Scriptures.\nO friends! cry to God to reveal Jesus Christ unto you; there is\nnone teacheth like him.\n\n126. It would be too long for me here to stay, to tell you in\nparticular how God did set me down in all the things of Christ,\nand how he did, that he might so do, lead me into his words; yea,\nand also how he did open them unto me, make them shine before me,\nand cause them to dwell with me, talk with me, and comfort me over\nand over, both of his own being, and the being of his Son, and\nSpirit, and Word, and gospel.\n\n127. Only this, as I said before I will say unto you again, that\nin general he was pleased to take this course with me; first, to\nsuffer me to be afflicted with temptation concerning them, and then\nreveal them to me: as sometimes I should lie under great guilt for\nsin, even crushed to the ground therewith, and then the Lord would\nshow me the death of Christ; yea, and so sprinkle my conscience\nwith his blood, that I should find, and that before I was aware,\nthat in that conscience where but just now did reign and rage the\nlaw, even there would rest and abide the peace and love of God\nthrough Christ.\n\n128. Now had I an evidence, 'as I thought, of my salvation' from\nheaven, with many golden seals thereon, all hanging in my sight;\nnow could I remember this manifestation and the other discovery\nof grace, with comfort; and should often long and desire that the\nlast day were come, that I might for ever be inflamed with the\nsight, and joy, and communion with him whose head was crowned with\nthorns, whose face was spit on, and body broken, and soul made\nan offering for my sins: for whereas, before, I lay continually\ntrembling at the mouth of hell, now methought I was got so far\ntherefrom that I could not, when I looked back, scarce discern\nit; and, oh! thought I, that I were fourscore years old now, that\nI might die quickly, that my soul might be gone to rest.[32]\n\n129. 'But before I had got thus far out of these my temptations,\nI did greatly long to see some ancient godly man's experience, who\nhad writ some hundreds of years before I was born; for those who\nhad writ in our days, I thought, but I desire them now to pardon\nme, that they had writ only that which others felt, or else had,\nthrough the strength of their wits and parts, studied to answer such\nobjections as they perceived others were perplexed with, without\ngoing down themselves into the deep. Well, after many such longings\nin my mind, the God in whose hands are all our days and ways, did\ncast into my hand, one day, a book of Martin Luther; it was his\ncomment on the Galatians--it also was so old that it was ready to\nfall piece from piece if I did but turn it over. Now I was pleased\nmuch that such an old book had fallen into my hands; the which,\nwhen I had but a little way perused, I found my condition, in his\nexperience, so largely and profoundly handled, as if his book had\nbeen written out of my heart. This made me marvel; for thus thought\nI, This man could not know anything of the state of Christians now,\nbut must needs write and speak the experience of former days.'\n\n130. 'Besides, he doth most gravely, also, in that book, debate\nof the rise of these temptations, namely, blasphemy, desperation,\nand the like; showing that the law of Moses as well as the devil,\ndeath, and hell hath a very great hand therein, the which, at first,\nwas very strange to me; but considering and watching, I found it\nso indeed. But of particulars here I intend nothing; only this,\nmethinks, I must let fall before all men, I do prefer this book of\nMartin Luther upon the Galatians, excepting the Holy Bible, before\nall the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded\nconscience.'\n\n131. 'And now I found, as I thought, that I loved Christ dearly;\noh! methought my soul cleaved unto him, my affections cleaved\nunto him. I felt love to him as hot as fire; and now, as Job said,\nI thought I should die in my nest; but I did quickly find that my\ngreat love was but little, and that I, who had, as I thought, such\nburning love to Jesus Christ, could let him go again for a very\ntrifle; God can tell how to abase us, and can hide pride from man.\nQuickly after this my love was tried to purpose.'\n\n132. For after the Lord had, in this manner, thus graciously\ndelivered me from this great and sore temptation, and had set me\ndown so sweetly in the faith of his holy gospel, and had given me\nsuch strong consolation and blessed evidence from heaven touching\nmy interest in his love through Christ; the tempter came upon me\nagain, and that with a more grievous and dreadful temptation than\nbefore.\n\n133. And that was, To sell and part with this most blessed Christ,\nto exchange him for the things of this life, for anything. The\ntemptation lay upon me for the space of a year, and did follow me\nso continually that I was not rid of it one day in a month, no,\nnot sometimes one hour in many days together, unless 'when' I was\nasleep.\n\n134. And though, in my judgment, I was persuaded that those who\nwere once effectually in Christ, as I hoped, through his grace,\nI had seen myself, could never lose him for ever--for \"the land\nshall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine,\" saith God (Lev\n25:23)[33]--yet it was a continual vexation to me to think that I\nshould have so much as one such thought within me against a Christ,\na Jesus, that had done for me as he had done; 'and yet then I had\nalmost none others, but such blasphemous ones.'\n\n135. But it was neither my dislike of the thought, nor yet any\ndesire and endeavour to resist it that in the least did shake or\nabate the continuation, or force and strength thereof; for it did\nalways, in almost whatever I thought, intermix itself therewith in\nsuch sort that I could neither eat my food, stoop for a pin, chop\na stick, or cast mine eye to look on this or that, but still the\ntemptation would come, Sell Christ for this, or sell Christ for\nthat; 'sell him, sell him.'\n\n136. Sometimes it would run in my thoughts, not so little as a\nhundred times together, Sell him, sell him, sell him; against which\nI may say, for whole hours together, I have been forced to stand as\ncontinually leaning and forcing my spirit against it, least haply,\nbefore I were aware, some wicked thought might arise in my heart\nthat might consent thereto; and sometimes also the tempter would\nmake me believe I had consented to it, then should I be as tortured\nupon a rack for whole days together.\n\n137. This temptation did put me to such scares, lest I should and\nsome times, I say, consent thereto, and be overcome therewith, that\nby the very force of my mind, in labouring to gainsay and resist\nthis wickedness, my very body also would be put into action or\nmotion by way of pushing or thrusting 'with my hands or elbows,'\nstill answering as fast as the destroyer said, Sell him; I will\nnot, I will not, I will not, I will not; no, not for thousands,\nthousands, thousands of worlds. Thus reckoning lest I should in\nthe midst of these assaults, set too low a value of him, even until\nI scarce well knew where I was, or how to be composed began.\n\n138. 'At these seasons he would not let me eat my food at quiet;\nbut, forsooth, when I was set at table at my meat, I must go hence\nto pray; I must leave my food now, and just now, so counterfeit\nholy also would this devil be. When I was thus tempted, I should\nsay in myself, Now I am at my meat, let me make an end. No, said\nhe, you must do it now, or you will displease God, and despised\nChrist. Wherefore I was much afflicted with these things; and because\nof the sinfulness of my nature, imagining that these things were\nimpulses from God, I should deny to do it, as if I denied God; and\nthen should I be as guilty, because I did not obey a temptation of\nthe devil, as if I had broken the law of God indeed.'\n\n139. But to be brief, one morning, as I did lie in my bed, I was,\nas at other times, most fiercely assaulted with this temptation,\nto sell and part with Christ; the wicked suggestion still running\nin my mind, sell him, sell him, sell him, sell him, 'sell him,' as\nfast as a man could speak; against which also, in my mind, as and\nother times, I answered, No, no, not for thousands, thousands,\nthousands, at least twenty times together. But at last, after much\nstriving, even until I was almost out of breath, I felt this thought\npass through my heart, Let him go, if he will! and I thought also,\nthat I felt my heart 'freely' consent thereto. 'Oh, the diligence\nof Satan! [34] Oh, the desperateness of man's heart!'\n\n140. Now was the battle won, and down fell I, as a bird that is\nshot from the top of a tree, into great guilt, and fearful despair.\nThus getting out of my bed, I went moping into the field; but God\nknows, with as heavy a heart as mortal man, I think, could bear;\nwhere, for the space of two hours, I was like a man bereft of life,\nand as now past all recovery, and bound over to eternal punishment.\n\n141. And withal, that scripture did seize upon my soul, \"Or profane\nperson, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright;\nfor ye know, how that afterward, when he would have inherited the\nblessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, so\nhe sought it carefully with tears\" (Heb 12:16,17).\n\n142. 'Now was I as one bound, I felt myself shut out unto the\njudgment to come; nothing now for two years together would abide\nwith me, but damnation, and an expectation of damnation; I say,\nnothing now would abide with me but this, save some few moments\nfor relief, as in the sequel you will see.'\n\n143. These words were to my soul like fetters of brass to my legs,\nin the continual sound of which I went for several months together.\nBut about ten or eleven o'clock one day, as I was walking under a\nhedge, full of sorrow in guilt, God knows, and bemoaning myself for\nthis hard hap, that such a thought should arise within me; suddenly\nthis sentence bolted in upon me, The blood of Christ remits all\nguilt. At this I made a stand in my spirit; with that, this word\ntook hold upon me, begin, \"The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son,\ncleanseth us from all sin\" (1 John 1:7).\n\n144. Now I began to conceive peace in my soul, in methought I saw\nas if the tempter did leer[35] and steal away from me, as being\nashamed of what he had done. At the same time also I had my sin,\nand the blood of Christ thus represented to me, that my sin, when\ncompared to the blood of Christ, was no more to it, then this little\nclot or stone before me, is to this vast and wide field that here\nI see. This gave me good encouragement for the space of two or\nthree hours; in which time also, methought I saw, by faith, the\nSon of God, as suffering for my sins; but because it tarried not,\nI therefore sunk in my spirit, under exceeding guilt again.\n\n145. 'But chiefly by the afore-mentioned scripture, concerning\nEsau's selling of his birthright; for that scripture would lie all\nday long, all the week long, yea, all the year long in my mind,\nand hold me down, so that I could by no means lift up myself; for\nwhen I would strive to turn me to this scripture, or that, for\nrelief, still that sentence would be sounding in me, \"For ye know,\nhow that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing-he\nfound no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with\ntears.\"'\n\n146. Sometimes also, [36] I should have a touch from that in Luke\n22:32, \"I have prayed for the, that thy faith fail not\"; but it\nwould not abide upon me; neither could I indeed, when I considered\nmy state, find ground to conceive in the least, that there should\nbe the root of that grace within me, having sinned as I had done.\nNow was I tore and rent in heavy case, for many days together.\n\n147. Then began I with sad and careful heart, to consider of the\nnature and largeness of my sin, and to search in the Word of God,\nif I could in any place espy a word of promise, or any encouraging\nsentence by which I might take relief. Wherefore I began to consider\nthat third of Mark, All manner of sins and blasphemies shall be\nforgiven unto the sons of men, wherewith soever they shall blaspheme.\nWhich place, methought, at a blush, did contain a large and glorious\npromise, for the pardon of high offences; but considering the place\nmore fully, I thought it was rather to be understood as relating\nmore chiefly to those who had, while in a natural estate, committed\nsuch things as there are mentioned; but not to me, who had not\nonly received light and mercy, but that had, both after, and also\ncontrary to that, so slighted Christ as I had done.\n\n148. I feared therefore that this wicked sin of mine, might be that\nsin unpardonable, of which he there thus speaketh. \"But he they\nshall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but\nis in danger of eternal damnation\" (Mark 3:29). And I did the rather\ngive credit to this, because of that sentence in the Hebrews common\n\"For ye know, how that afterward, when he would have inherited the\nblessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance,\nthough he sought it carefully with tears.\" 'And this stuck always\nwith me.'\n\n149. 'And now was I both the burden and a terror to myself, nor\ndid I ever so know, as now, what it was to be weary of my life,\nand yet afraid to die. Oh, how gladly now would I have been anybody\nbut myself! Anything but a man! and in any condition but mine own!\nfor there was nothing did pass more frequently over my mind, than\nthat it was impossible for me to be forgiven my transgression, and\nto be saved from wrath to come.'\n\n150. And now began I to labour to call again time that was past;\nwishing a thousand times twice told, that the day was yet to come,\nwhen I should be tempted to such a sin! concluding with great\nindignation, both against my heart, and all assaults, how I would\nrather have been torn in pieces, than found a consenter thereto.\nBut, alas! these thoughts, and wishings, and resolvings, were now\ntoo late to help me; the thought had passed my heart, God hath let\nme go, and I am fallen. Oh! thought I, \"that it was with me as in\nmonths past, as in the days when God preserved me!\" [Job 29:2]\n\n151. Then again, being loath and unwilling to perish, I began to\ncompare my sin with others, to see if I could find that any of those\nthat were saved had done as I had done. So I considered David's\nadultery and murder, and found them most heinous crimes; and those\ntoo committed after light and grace received; but yet but considering,\nI perceived that his transgressions were only such as were against\nthe law of Moses; from which the Lord Christ could, with the consent\nof his Word, deliver him: but mine was against the gospel; yea,\nagainst the Mediator thereof; 'I had sold my Saviour.'\n\n152. Now again should I be as if racked upon the wheel,[37] when\nI considered, that, besides the guilt that possessed me, I should\nbe so void of grace, so bewitched. What, thought I, must it be no\nsin but this? Must it needs be the great transgression? (Psa 19:13)\nMust that wicked one touch my soul? (1 John 5:18) Oh, what stings\ndid I find in all these sentences!\n\n153. 'What, thought I, is there but one sin that is unpardonable?\nBut one sin that layeth the soul without the reach of God's mercy;\nand must I be guilty of that? Must it needs be that? Is there\nbut one sin among so many millions of sins, for which there is no\nforgiveness; and must I commit this? Oh, unhappy sin! Oh, unhappy\nman! These things would so break and confound my spirit, that\nI could not tell what to do; I thought, at times, they would have\nbroke my wits; and still, to aggravate my misery, that would run in\nmy mind, \"Ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited\nthe blessing, he was rejected.\" Oh! none knows the terrors of those\ndays but myself.'\n\n154. After this I came to consider of Peter's sin, which he committed\nin denying his master; and indeed, this came nighest to mine, of\nany that I could find; for he had denied his Saviour, as I, and that\nafter light and mercy received; yea, and that too, after warning\ngiven him. I also considered, that he did both once and twice; and\nthat, after time to consider betwixt. But though I put all these\ncircumstances together, that, if possible, I might find help, yet\nI considered again, that his was but a denial of his master, but\nmine was a selling of my Saviour. Wherefore I thought with myself,\nthat I came nearer to Judas, than either to David or Peter.\n\n155. Here again my torment would flame out and afflicte me; yea, it\nwould grind me, as it were, to powder, to discern the preservation\nof God towards others, while I fell into the snare; for in my thus\nconsidering of other men's sins, and comparing of them with my\nown, I could evidently see how God preserved them, notwithstanding\ntheir wickedness, and would not let them, as he had let me, to\nbecome a son of perdition.\n\n156. But oh, how did my soul, at this time, prize the preservation\nthat God did set about his people! Ah, how safely did I see them\nwalk, whom God had hedge in! They were within his care, protection,\nand special providence; though they were full as bad as I by nature;\nyet because he loved them, he would not suffer them to fall without\nthe range of mercy; but as for me, I was gone, I had done it; he\nwould not preserve me, nor keep me; but suffered me, because I was\na reprobate, to fall as I had done. Now, did those blessed places,\nthat spake of God's keeping his people, shine like the sun before\nme, though not to comfort me, but to show me the blessed state and\nheritage of those whom the Lord had blessed.\n\n157. 'Now I saw, that as God had his hand in all providences and\ndispensations that overtook his elect, so he had his hand in all\nthe temptations that they had to sin against him, not to animate\nthem unto wickedness, but to choose their temptations and troubles\nfor them; and also to leave them, for a time, to such sins only as\nmight not destroy, but humble them; as might not put them beyond,\nbut lay them in the way off the renewing of his mercy. But oh,\nwhat love, what care, what kindness and mercy did I now see, mixing\nitself with the most severe and dreadful of all God's ways to his\npeople! He would let David, Hezekiah, Solomon, Peter, and others\nfall, but he would not let them fall into sin unpardonable, nor\ninto hell for sin. Oh! thought I, these be the men that God hath\nloved; these be the men that God, though he chastiseth them, keeps\nthem in safety by him, and them whom he makes to abide under the\nshadow of the Almighty. But all these thoughts added sorrow, grief,\nand horror to me, as whatever I now thought on, it was killing to\nme. If I thought how God kept his own, that was killing to me. If\nI thought of how I was falling myself, that was killing to me. As\nall things wrought together for the best, and to do good to them\nthat were the called, according to his purpose; so I thought that\nall things wrought for my damage, and for my eternal overthrow.'\n\n158. Then, again, I began to compare my sin with the sin of Judas,\nthat, if possible, I might find that mine differed from that which,\nin truth, is unpardonable. And, oh! thought I, if it 'should differ\nfrom it,' though but the breadth of an hair, what a happy condition\nis my soul in! And, by considering, I found that Judas did his\nintentionally, but mine was against my 'prayer and' strivings;\nbesides, his was committed with much deliberation, but mine in a\nfearful hurry, on a sudden; 'all this while' I was tossed to and\nfro, like the locusts, and driven from trouble to sorrow; hearing\nalways the sound of Esau's fall in mine ears, and of the dreadful\nconsequences thereof.\n\n159. Yet this consideration about Judas, his sin was, for a\nwhile, some little relief unto me; for I saw I had not, as to the\ncircumstances, transgressed so foully as he. But this was quickly\ngone again, for, I thought with myself, there might be more ways\nthan one to commit the unpardonable sin; 'also I thought' that\nthere might be degrees of that, as well as of other transgressions;\nwherefore, for ought I yet could perceive, this iniquity of mine\nmight be such, as might never be passed by.\n\n160. 'I was often now ashamed, that I should be like such an ugly\nman as Judas; I thought, also, how loathsome I should be unto\nall the saints at the day of judgment; insomuch, that now I could\nscarce see a good man, that I believed had a good conscience, but\nI should feel my heart tremble at him, while I was in his presence.\nOh! now I saw a glory in walking with God, and what a mercy it was\nto have a good conscience before him.'\n\n161. 'I was much about this time tempted to content myself, by\nreceiving some false opinion; as that there should be no such thing\nas a day of judgment, that we should not rise again, and that sin\nwas no such grievous thing; the tempter suggesting thus, For if\nthese things should indeed be true, yet to believe otherwise, would\nyield you ease for the present. If you must perish, never torment\nyourself so much before hand; drive the thoughts of damning out of\nyour mind, by possessing your mind with some such conclusions that\nAtheists and Ranters do use to help themselves withal.'\n\n162. 'But, oh! when such thoughts have led through my heart, how,\nas it were, within a step, hath death and judgment been in my view!\nMethought the judge stood at the door, I was as if it was come\nalready; so that such things could have no entertainment. But,\nmethinks, I see by this, that Satan will use any means to keep\nthe soul from Christ; he loveth not an awakened frame of spirit;\nsecurity, blindness, darkness, and error is the very kingdom and\nhabitation of the wicked one.'\n\n163. 'I found it hard work now to pray to God, because despair was\nswallowing me up; I thought I was, as with a tempest, driven away\nfrom God, for always when I cried to God for mercy, this would\ncome in, It is too late, I am lost, God hath let me fall; not to my\ncorrection, but condemnation; my sin is unpardonable; and I know,\nconcerning Esau, how that, after he had sold his birthright,\nhe would have received the blessing, but was rejected. About this\ntime, I did light on that dreadful story of that miserable mortal,\nFrancis Spira;[38] a book that was to my troubled spirit as salt,\nwhen rubbed into a fresh wound; every sentence in that book, every\ngroan of that man, with all the rest of his actions in his dolours,\nas his tears, his prayers, his gnashing of teeth, his wringing of\nhands, his twining and twisting, languishing and pining away under\nthat mighty hand of God that was upon him, was as knives and daggers\nin my soul; especially that sentence of his was frightful to me,\nMan knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof?\nThen would the former sentence, as the conclusion of all, fall\nlike a hot thunderbolt again upon my conscience; \"for you know how\nthat afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was\nrejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it\ncarefully with tears.\"'\n\n164. Then was I struck into a very great trembling, insomuch that\nat sometimes I could, for whole days together, feel my very body, as\nwell as my mind, to shake and totter under the sense of the dreadful\njudgment of God, that should fall on those that have sinned that\nmost fearful and unpardonable sin. I felt also such a clogging\nand heat at my stomach, by reason of this my terror, that I was,\nespecially at some times, as if my breast bone would have split\nin sunder; then I thought of that concerning Judas, who, by his\nfalling headlong, burst asunder, and all his bowels gushed out\n(Acts 1:18).\n\n165. I feared also that this was the mark that the Lord did set on\nCain, even continual fear and trembling, under the heavy load of\nguilt that he had charged on him for the blood of his brother Abel.\nThus did I wind, and twine, and shrink, under the burden that was\nupon me; which burden also did so oppress me, that I could neither\nstand, nor go, nor lie, either at rest or quiet.\n\n166. Yet that saying would sometimes come to my mind, He hath\nreceived gifts for the rebellious (Psa 68:18). \"The rebellious,\"\nthought I; why, surely they are such as once were under subjection\nto their prince, even those who, after they have sworn subjection\nto his government, have taken up arms against him; 'and this, thought\nI, is my very condition; once I loved him, feared him, served him;\nbut now I am a rebel; I have sold him, I have said, Let him go if\nhe will; but yet he has gifts for rebels, and then why not for me?'\n\n167. This sometimes I thought on, and should labour to take\nhold thereof, that some, though small, refreshment might have been\nconceived by me; but in this also I missed of my desire, I was driven\nwith force beyond it, 'I was' like a man that is going to the place\nof execution, even by that place where he would fain creep in and\nhide himself, but may not.\n\n168. Again, after I had thus considered the sins of the saints in\nparticular, and found mine went beyond them, then I began to think\nthus with myself: Set the case I should put all theirs together, and\nmine alone against them, might I not then find some encouragement?\nFor if mine, though bigger than any one, yet should but be equal\nto all, then there is hopes; for that blood that hath virtue enough\n'in it' to wash away all theirs, hath also virtue enough in it to\ndo away mine, though this one be full as big, if no bigger, than\nall theirs. Here, again, I should consider the sin of David, of\nSolomon, of Manasseh, of Peter, and the rest of the great offenders;\nand should also labour, what I might with fairness, to aggravate\nand heighten their sins by several circumstances: but, alas! It\nwas all in vain.[39]\n\n169. 'I should think with myself that David shed blood to cover his\nadultery, and that by the sword of the children of Ammon; a work\nthat could not be done but by continuance and deliberate contrivance,\nwhich was a great aggravation to his sin. But then this would turn\nupon me: Ah! but these were but sins against the law, from which\nthere was a Jesus sent to save them; but yours is a sin against\nthe Saviour, and who shall save you from that?'\n\n170. 'Then I thought on Solomon, and how he sinned in loving strange\nwomen, in falling away to their idols, in building them temples, in\ndoing this after light, in his old age, after great mercy received;\nbut the same conclusion that cut me off in the former consideration,\ncut me off as to this; namely, that all those were but sins against\nthe law, for which God had provided a remedy; but I had sold my\nSaviour, and there now remained no more sacrifice for sin.'\n\n171. 'I would then add to those men's sins, the sins of Manasseh,\nhow that he built altars for idols in the house of the Lord; he\nalso observed times, used enchantment, had to do with wizards, was\na wizard, had his familiar spirits, burned his children in the fire\nin sacrifice to devils, and made the streets of Jerusalem run down\nwith the blood of innocents. These, thought I, are great sins,\nsins of a bloody colour; yea, it would turn again upon me: They are\nnone of them of the nature of yours; you have parted with Jesus,\nyou have sold your Saviour.'\n\n172. This one consideration would always kill my heart, My sin was\npoint blank against my Saviour; and that too, at that height, that\nI had in my heart said of him, Let him go if he will. Oh! methought,\nthis sin was bigger than the sins of a country, of a kingdom, or\nof the whole world, no one pardonable, nor all of them together,\nwas able to equal mine; mine outwent them every one.\n\n173. Now I should find my mind to flee from God, as from the face\nof a dreadful judge; yet this was my torment, I could not escape his\nhand: \"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living\nGod\" (Heb 10:31). But blessed be his grace, that scripture, in these\nflying sins,[40] would call as running after me, \"I have blotted\nout, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions; and, as a cloud, thy\nsins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee\" (Isa 44:22). This,\nI say, would come in upon my mind, when I was fleeing from the face\nof God; for I did flee from his face, that is, my mind and spirit\nfled before him; by reason of his highness, I could not endure;\nthen would the text cry, \"Return unto me\"; it would cry aloud with\na very great voice, \"Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.\"\nIndeed, this would make me make a little stop, and, as it were,\nlook over my shoulder behind me, to see if I could discern that the\nGod of grace did follow me with a pardon in his hand, but I could\nno sooner do that, but all would be clouded and darkened again by\nthat sentence, \"For you know how that afterwards, when he would\nhave inherited the blessing, he found no place of repentance, though\nhe sought it carefully with tears.\" Wherefore I could not return,\nbut fled, though at sometimes it cried, \"Return, return,\" as if\nit did holloa after me. But I feared to close in therewith, lest\nit should not come from God; for that other, as I said, was still\nsounding in my conscience, \"For you know how that afterwards, when\nhe would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,\" &c.\n\n174. 'Once as I was walking to and fro in a good man's shop,\nbemoaning of myself in my sad and doleful state, afflicting myself\nwith self-abhorrence for this wicked and ungodly thought; lamenting,\nalso, this hard hap of mine, for that I should commit so great a\nsin, greatly fearing I should not be pardoned; praying, also, in\nmy heart, that if this sin of mine did differ from that against\nthe Holy Ghost, the Lord would show it me. And being now ready to\nsink with fear, suddenly there was, as if there had rushed in at\nthe window, the noise of wind upon me, but very pleasant, and as\nif I heard a voice speaking, Didst ever refuse to be justified by\nthe blood of Christ? And, withal my whole life and profession past\nwas, in a moment, opened to me, wherein I was made to see that\ndesignedly I had not; so my heart answered groaningly, No. then\nfell, with power, that word of God upon me, \"See that ye refuse not\nhim that speaketh\" (Heb 12:25). This made a strange seizure upon\nmy spirit; it brought light with it, and commanded a silence in my\nheart of all those tumultuous thoughts that before did use, like\nmasterless hell-hounds, to roar and bellow, and make a hideous\nnoise within me. It showed me, also, that Jesus Christ had yet a\nword of grace and mercy for me, that he had not, as I had feared,\nquite forsaken and cast off my soul; yea, this was a kind of a\nchide for my proneness to desperation; a kind of a threatening me\nif I did not, notwithstanding my sins and the heinousness of them,\nventure my salvation upon the Son of God. But as to my determining\nabout this strange dispensation, what it was I knew not; or from\nwhence it came I know not. I have not yet, in twenty years' time,\nbeen able to make a judgment of it; I thought then what here I\nshall be loath to speak. But verily, that sudden rushing wind was\nas if an angel had come upon me; but both it and the salvation I\nwill leave until the day of judgment; only this I say, it commanded\na great calm in my soul, it persuaded me there might be hope; it\nshowed me, as I thought, what the sin unpardonable was, and that\nmy soul had yet the blessed privilege to flee to Jesus Christ for\nmercy. But, I say, concerning this dispensation, I know not what\nyet to say unto it; which was, also, in truth, the cause that, at\nfirst, I did not speak of it in the book; I do now, also, leave it\nto be thought on by men of sound judgment. I lay not the stress of\nmy salvation thereupon, but upon the Lord Jesus, in the promise;\nyet, seeing I am here unfolding of my secret things, I thought it\nmight not be altogether inexpedient to let this also show itself,\nthough I cannot now relate the matter as there I did experience\nit. This lasted, in the savour of it, for about three or four days,\nand the I began to mistrust and to despair again.'[41]\n\n175. 'Wherefore, still my life hung in doubt before me, not knowing\nwhich way I should tip; only this I found my soul desire, even to\ncast itself at the foot of grace, by prayer and supplication. But,\noh! it was hard for me now to bear the face to pray to this Christ\nfor mercy, against whom I had thus most vilely sinned; it was hard\nwork, I say, to offer to look him in the face against whom I had\nso vilely sinned; and, indeed, I have found it as difficult to come\nto God by prayer, after backsliding from him, as to do any other\nthing. Oh, the shame that did now attend me! especially when I thought\nI am now a-going to pray to him for mercy that I had so lightly\nesteemed but a while before! I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,\nbecause this villany had been committed by me; but I saw there was\nbut one way with me, I must go to him and humble myself unto him,\nand beg that he, of his wonderful mercy, would show pity to me,\nand have mercy upon my wretched sinful soul.'\n\n176. 'Which, when the tempter perceived, he strongly suggested to\nme, That I ought not to pray to God; for prayer was not for any in\nmy case, neither could it do me good, because I had rejected the\nMediator, by whom all prayer came with acceptance to God the Father,\nand without whom no prayer could come into his presence. Wherefore,\nnow to pray is but to add sin to sin; yea, now to pray, seeing God\nhas cast you off, is the next way to anger and offend him more than\nyou ever did before.'\n\n177. 'For God, saith he, hath been weary of you for these several\nyears already, because you are none of his; your bawlings in his\nears hath been no pleasant voice to him; and, therefore, he let you\nsin this sin, that you might be quite cut off; and will you pray\nstill? This the devil urged, and set forth that, in Numbers, when\nMoses said to the children of Israel, That because they would not\ngo up to posses the land when God would have them, therefore, for\never after, God did bar them out from thence, though they prayed\nthey might, with tears (Num 14:36,37), &c.'\n\n178. 'As it is said in another place (Exo 21:14), the man that sins\npresumptuously shall be taken from God's altar, that he may die;\neven as Joab was by King Solomon, when he thought to find shelter\nthere (1 Kings 2:28), &c. These places did pinch me very sore; yet,\nmy case being desperate, I thought with myself I can but die; and\nif it must be so, it shall once be said, that such an one died\nat the foot of Christ in prayer.[42] This I did, but with great\ndifficulty, God doth know; and that because, together with this,\nstill that saying about Esau would be set at my heart, even like a\nflaming sword, to keep the way of the tree of life, lest I should\ntaste thereof and live. Oh! who knows how hard a thing I found it\nto come to God in prayer.'\n\n179. 'I did also desire the prayers of the people of God for\nme, but I feared that God would give them no heart to do it; yea,\nI trembled in my soul to think that some or other of them would\nshortly tell me, that God had said those words to them that he once\ndid say to the prophet concerning the children of Israel, \"Pray\nnot thou for this people,\" for I have rejected them (Jer 11:14).\nSo, pray not for him, for I have rejected him. Yea, I thought that\nhe had whispered this to some of them already, only they durst not\ntell me so, neither durst I ask them of it, for fear, if it should\nbe so, it would make me quite besides myself. Man knows the beginning\nof sin, said Spira, but who bounds the issues thereof?'\n\n180. About this time I took an opportunity to break my mind to\nan ancient Christian, and told him all my case; I told him, also,\nthat I was afraid that I had sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost;\nand he told me he thought so too. Here, therefore, I had but cold\ncomfort; but, talking a little more with him, I found him, though\na good man, a stranger to much combat with the devil. Wherefore,\nI went to God again, as well as I could, for mercy still.\n\n181. Now, also, did the tempter begin to mock me in my misery,\nsaying, that, seeing I had thus parted with the Lord Jesus, and\nprovoked him to displeasure, who would have stood between my soul\nand the flame of devouring fire, there was now but one way, and\nthat was, to pray that God the Father would be the Mediator betwixt\nhis Son and me, that we might be reconciled again, and that I might\nhave that blessed benefit in him that his blessed saints enjoyed.\n\n182. Then did that scripture seize upon my soul, He is of one mind,\nand who can turn him? Oh! I saw it was as easy to persuade him to\nmake a new world, a new covenant, or new Bible, besides that we\nhave already, as to pray for such a thing. This was to persuade him\nthat what he had done already was mere folly, and persuade with him\nto alter, yea, to disannul, the whole way of salvation; and then\nwould that saying rend my soul asunder, \"Neither is there salvation\nin any other: for there is none other name under heaven, given\namong men, whereby we must be saved\" (Acts 4:12).\n\n183. 'Now, the most free, and full, and gracious words of the\ngospel were the greatest torment to me; yea, nothing so afflicted\nme as the thoughts of Jesus Christ, the remembrance of a Saviour;\nbecause I had cast him off, brought forth the villany of my sin,\nand my loss by it to mind; nothing did twinge my conscience like\nthis. Every time that I thought of the Lord Jesus, of his grace,\nlove, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, death, blood,\npromises and blessed exhortations, comforts and consolations, it\nwent to my soul like a sword; for still, unto these my considerations\nof the Lord Jesus, these thoughts would make place for themselves\nin my heart; aye, this is the Jesus, the loving Saviour, the Son\nof God, whom thou hast parted with, whom you slighted, despised,\nand abused. This is the only Saviour, the only Redeemer, the only\none that could so love sinners as to wash them from their sins in\nhis own most precious blood; but you have no part nor lot in this\nJesus, you have put him from you, you have said in your heart, Let\nhim go if he will. Now, therefore, you are severed from him; you\nhave severed yourself from him. Behold, then, his goodness, but\nyourself to be no partaker of it. Oh, thought I, what have I lost!\nWhat have I parted with! What have I disinherited my poor soul of!\nOh! it is sad to be destroyed by the grace and mercy of God; to\nhave the Lamb, the Saviour, turn lion and destroyer (Rev 6).[43] I\nalso trembled, as I have said, at the sight of the saints of God,\nespecially at those that greatly loved him, and that made it their\nbusiness to walk continually with him in this world; for they did,\nboth in their words, their carriages, and all their expressions of\ntenderness and fear to sin against their precious Saviour, condemn,\nlay guilt upon, and also add continual affliction and shame unto\nmy soul. The dread of them was upon me, and I trembled at God's\nSamuels (1 Sam 16:4).'\n\n184. Now, also, the tempter began afresh to mock my soul another\nway, saying that Christ, indeed, did pity my case, and was sorry\nfor my loss; but forasmuch as I had sinned and transgressed, as\nI had done, he could by no means help me, nor save me from what I\nfeared; for my sin was not of the nature of theirs for whom he bled\nand died, neither was it counted with those that were laid to his\ncharge when he hanged on the tree. Therefore, unless he should come\ndown from heaven and die anew for this sin, though, indeed, he did\ngreatly pity me, yet I could have no benefit of him. These things\nmay seem ridiculous to others, even as ridiculous as they were in\nthemselves, but to me they were most tormenting cogitations; every\nof them augmented my misery, that Jesus Christ should have so much\nlove as to pity me when he could not help me; nor did I think that\nthe reason why he could not help me was because his merits were\nweak, or his grace and salvation spent on them already, but because\nhis faithfulness to his threatening would not let him extend his\nmercy to me. Besides, I thought, as I have already hinted, that my\nsin was not within the bounds of that pardon that was wrapped up\nin a promise; and if not, then I knew assuredly, that it was more\neasy for heaven and earth to pass away than for me to have eternal\nlife. So that the ground of all these fears of mine did arise from\na steadfast belief that I had of the stability of the holy Word of\nGod, and also, from my being misinformed of the nature of my sin.\n\n185. But, oh! how this would add to my affliction, to conceit that\nI should be guilty of such a sin for which he did not die. These\nthoughts would so confound me, and imprison me, and tie me up from\nfaith, that I knew not what to do; but, oh! thought I, that he\nwould come down again! Oh! that the work of man's redemption was\nyet to be done by Christ! How would I pray him and entreat him to\ncount and reckon this sin amongst the rest for which he died! But\nthis scripture would strike me down as dead, \"Christ being raised\nfrom the death dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him\"\n(Rom 6:9).[44]\n\n186. Thus, by the strange and unusual assaults of the tempter, was\nmy soul, like a broken vessel, driven as with the winds, and tossed\nsometimes headlong into despair, sometimes upon the covenant of\nworks, and sometimes to wish that the new covenant, and the conditions\nthereof, might, so far forth as I thought myself concerned, be turned\nanother way and changed. But in all these I was but as those that\njustle against the rocks; more broken, scattered, and rent. Oh,\nthe unthought of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors that are\naffected by a thorough application of guilt, yielded to desperation!\nThis is the man that hath \"his dwelling among the tombs\" with the\ndead; that is, always crying out and \"cutting himself with stones\"\n(Mark 5:2-5). But I say, all in vain; desperation will not comfort\nhim, the old covenant will not save him; nay, heaven and earth\nshall pass away before one jot or tittle of the Word and law of\ngrace shall fall or be removed. This I saw, this I felt, and under\nthis I groaned; yet this advantage I got thereby, namely, a farther\nconfirmation of the certainty of the way of salvation, and that\nthe Scriptures were the Word of God! Oh! I cannot now express what\nthen I saw and felt of the steadiness of Jesus Christ, the rock of\nman's salvation; what was done could not be undone, added to, nor\naltered. I saw, indeed, that sin might drive the soul beyond Christ,\neven the sin which is unpardonable; but woe to him that was so\ndriven, for the Word would shut him out.\n\n187. Thus was I always sinking, whatever I did think or do. So one\nday I walked to a neighbouring town, and sat down upon a settle in\nthe street, and fell into a very deep pause about the most fearful\nstate my sin had brought me to; and, after long musing, I lifted\nup my head, but methought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the\nheavens did grudge to give light, and as if the very stones in the\nstreet, and tiles upon the houses, did bend themselves against me;\nmethought that they all combined together to banish me out of the\nworld; I was abhorred of them, and unfit to dwell among them, or\nbe partaker of their benefits, because I had sinned against the\nSaviour. O how happy, now, was every creature over [what] I was; for\nthey stood fast and kept their station, but I was gone and lost.\n\n188. Then breaking out in the bitterness of my soul, I said 'to\nmyself,' with a grievous sigh, How can God comfort such a wretch as\nI? I had no sooner said it but this returned upon me, as an echo\ndoth answer a voice, This sin is not unto death. At which I was\nas if I had been raised out of a grave, and cried out again, Lord,\nhow couldest thou find out such a word as this? for I was filled\nwith admiration at the fitness, and, also, at the unexpectedness\nof the sentence, 'the fitness of the Word, the rightness of the\ntiming of it, the power, and sweetness, and light, and glory that\ncame with it, also, was marvelous to me to find. I was now, for the\ntime, out of doubt as to that about which I so much was in doubt\nbefore; my fears before were, that my sin was not pardonable, and\nso that I had no right to pray, to repent, &c., or that if I did,\nit would be of no advantage or profit to me. But now, thought I,\nif this sin is not unto death, then it is pardonable; therefore,\nfrom this I have encouragement to come to God, by Christ, for mercy,\nto consider the promise of forgiveness as that which stands with\nopen arms to receive me, as well as others. This, therefore, was\na great easement to my mind; to wit, that my sin was pardonable,\nthat it was not the sin unto death (1 John 5:16,17). None but those\nthat know what my trouble, by their own experience, was, can tell\nwhat relief came to my soul by this consideration; it was a release\nto me from my former bonds, and a shelter from my former storm. I\nseemed now to stand upon the same ground with other sinners, and\nto have as good right to the Word and prayer as any of them.'[45]\n\n189. Now, 'I say,' I was in hopes that my sin was not unpardonable,\nbut that there might be hopes for me to obtain forgiveness. But,\noh, how Satan did now lay about him for to bring me down again!\nBut he could by no means do it, neither this day nor the most part\nof the next, for this sentence stood like a mill post at my back;\nyet, towards the evening of the next day, I felt this word begin\nto leave me and to withdraw its supportation from me, and so I\nreturned to my old fears again, but with a great deal of grudging\nand peevishness, for I feared the sorrow of despair; 'nor could my\nfaith now longer retain this word.'\n\n190. But the next day, at evening, being under many fears, I went\nto seek the Lord; and as I prayed, I cried, 'and my soul cried'\nto him in these words, with strong cries:--O Lord, I beseech thee,\nshow me that thou hast loved me with everlasting love (Jer 31:3).\nI had no sooner said it but, with sweetness, this returned upon me,\nas an echo or sounding again, \"I have loved thee with an everlasting\nlove.\" Now I went to bed at quiet; also, when I awaked the next\nmorning, it was fresh upon my soul--'and I believed it.'\n\n191. But yet the tempter left me not; for it could not be so little\nas an hundred times that he that day did labour to break my peace.\nOh! the combats and conflicts that I did then meet with as I strove\nto hold by this word; that of Esau would fly in my face like to\nlightning. I should be sometimes up and down twenty times in an\nhour, yet God did bear me up and keep my heart upon this word, from\nwhich I had also, for several days together, very much sweetness\nand comfortable hopes of pardon; for thus it was made out to me,\nI loved thee whilst thou wast committing this sin, I loved thee\nbefore, I love thee still, and I will love thee for ever.\n\n192. Yet I saw my sin most barbarous, and a filthy crime, and could\nnot but conclude, and that with great shame and astonishment, that\nI had horribly abused the holy Son of God; wherefore I felt my soul\ngreatly to love and pity him, and my bowels to yearn towards him;\nfor I saw he was still my Friend, and did reward me good for evil;\nyea, the love and affection that then did burn within to my Lord\nand Saviour Jesus Christ did work, at this time, such a strong\nand hot desire of revengement upon myself for the abuse I had done\nunto him, that, to speak as then I thought, had I had a thousand\ngallons of blood within my veins, I could freely 'then' have spilt\nit all at the command and feet of this my Lord and Saviour.\n\n193. And as I was thus in musing and in my studies, 'considering'\nhow to love the Lord and to express my love to him, that saying\ncame in upon me, \"If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord,\nwho shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou\nmayest be feared\" (Psa 130:3,4). These were good words to me,[46]\nespecially the latter part thereof; to wit, that there is forgiveness\nwith the Lord, that he might be feared; that is, as then I understood\nit, that he might be loved and had in reverence; for it was thus\nmade out to me, that the great God did set so high an esteem upon\nthe love of his poor creatures, that rather than he would go without\ntheir love he would pardon their transgressions.\n\n194. And now was that word fulfilled on me, and I was also refreshed\nby it, Then shall they be ashamed and confounded, \"and never open\ntheir mouth any more because of their shame, when I am pacified\ntoward them for all that they have done, saith the Lord God\" (Eze\n16:63). Thus was my soul at this time, and, as I then did think,\nfor ever, set at liberty from being again afflicted with my former\nguilt and amazement.\n\n195. But before many weeks were over I began to despond again,\nfearing lest, notwithstanding all that I had enjoyed, that yet I\nmight be deceived and destroyed at the last; for this consideration\ncame strong into my mind, that whatever comfort and peace I thought\nI might have from the Word of the promise of life, yet unless there\ncould be found in my refreshment a concurrence and agreement in the\nScriptures, let me think what I will thereof, and hold it never so\nfast, I should find no such thing at the end; \"for the Scripture\ncannot be broken\" (John 10:35).\n\n196. Now began my heart again to ache and fear I might meet with\ndisappointment at the last; wherefore I began, with all seriousness,\nto examine my former comfort, and to consider whether one that\nhad sinned as I have done, might with confidence trust upon the\nfaithfulness of God, laid down in those words by which I had been\ncomforted and on which I had leaned myself. But now were brought\nthose sayings to my mind, \"For it is impossible for those who were\nonce enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were\nmade partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of\nGod, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away,\nto renew them again unto repentance\" (Heb 6:4-6). \"For if we sin\nwillfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,\nthere remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful\nlooking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour\nthe adversaries\" (Heb 10:26,27). Even \"as Esau, who, for one morsel\nof meat sold his birthright; for ye know how that afterward, when\nhe would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found\nno place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears\"\n(Heb 12:16,17).\n\n197. Now was the word of the gospel forced from my soul, so that no\npromise or encouragement was to be found in the Bible for me; and\nnow would that saying work upon my spirit to afflict me, \"Rejoice\nnot, O Israel, for joy as other people\" (Hosea 9:1). For I saw\nindeed there was cause of rejoicing for those that held to Jesus;\nbut as for me, I had cut myself off by my transgressions, and left\nmyself neither foot-hold, nor hand-hold, amongst all the stays and\nprops in the precious word of life.\n\n198. And truly I did now feel myself to sink into a gulf, as an\nhouse whose foundation is destroyed; I did liken myself, in this\ncondition, unto the case of a child that was fallen into a mill-pit,\nwho, though it could make some shift to scrabble and spraul in the\nwater, yet because it could find neither hold for hand nor foot,\ntherefore at last it must die in that condition. So soon as this\nfresh assault had fastened on my soul, that scripture came into my\nheart, \"This is for many days\" (Dan 10:14). And indeed I found it\nwas so; for I could not be delivered, nor brought to peace again,\nuntil well nigh two years and an half were completely finished. Wherefore\nthese words, though in themselves they tended to discouragement,\nyet to me, who feared this condition would be eternal, they were\nat sometimes as an help and refreshment to me.\n\n199. For, thought I, many days are not, not for ever, many days\nwill have an end, therefore seeing I was to be afflicted, not a\nfew, but many days, yet I was glad it was but for many days. Thus,\nI say, I could recall myself sometimes, and give myself a help, for\nas soon as ever the words came 'into my mind' at first, I knew my\ntrouble would be long; yet this would be but sometimes, for I could\nnot always think on this, nor ever be helped 'by it,' though I did.\n\n200. Now, while these Scriptures lay before me, and laid sin\n'anew' at my door, that saying in the 18th of Luke, with others,\ndid encourage me to prayer. Then the tempter again laid at me very\nsore, suggesting, That neither the mercy of God, nor yet the blood\nof Christ, did at all concern me, nor could they help me for my\nsin; 'therefore it was in vain to pray.' Yet, thought I, I will\npray. But, said the tempter, your sin is unpardonable. 'Well, said\nI, I will pray. It is to no boot, said he.' Yet, said I, I will pray.\nSo I went to prayer to God; and while I was at prayer, I uttered\nwords to this effect, Lord, Satan tells me that neither thy mercy,\nnor Christ's blood, is sufficient to save my soul; Lord, shall I\nhonour thee most, by believing thou wilt and canst? or 'him,' by\nbelieving thou neither wilt nor canst? Lord, I would fain honour\nthee, by believing thou wilt and canst.\n\n201. And as I was thus before the Lord, that scripture fastened on\nmy heart, \"O [wo]man, great is thy faith\" (Matt 15:28), even as if\none had clapped me on the back, as I was on my knees before God.\nYet I was not able to believe this, 'that this was a prayer of\nfaith,' till almost six months after; for I could not think that I\nhad faith, or that there should be a word for me to act faith on;\ntherefore I should still be as sticking in the jaws of desperation,\nand went mourning up and down 'in a sad condition,' crying, Is his\nmercy clean gone? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? And I thought\nsometimes, even when I was groaning in these expressions, they did\nseem to make a question whether it was or no; yet I greatly feared\nit was.\n\n202. 'There was nothing now that I longed for more than to be put\nout of doubt, as to this thing in question; and, as I was vehemently\ndesiring to know if there was indeed hopes for me, these words came\nrolling into my mind, \"Will the Lord cast off for ever? And will\nhe be a favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth\nhis promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?\nHath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?\" (Psa 77:7-9). And\nall the while they run in my mind, methought I had this still as\nthe answer, It is a question whether he had or no; it may be he hath\nnot. Yea, the interrogatory seemed to me to carry in it a sure\naffirmation that indeed he had not, nor would so cast off, but\nwould be favourable; that his promise doth not fail, and that he\nhad not forgotten to be gracious, nor would in anger shut up his\ntender mercy. Something, also, there was upon my heart at the same\ntime, which I now cannot call to mind; which, with this text, did\nsweeten my heart, and made me conclude that his mercy might not be\nquite gone, nor clean gone for ever.'[47]\n\n203. At another time, I remember I was again much under the question,\nWhether the blood of Christ was sufficient to save my soul? In which\ndoubt I continued from morning till about seven or eight at night;\nand at last, when I was, as it were, quite worn out with fear,\nlest it should not lay hold on me, these words did sound suddenly\nwithin my heart, He is able. But methought this word ABLE was\nspoke so loud unto me; it showed such a great word, 'it seemed to\nbe writ in great letters,' and gave such a justle to my fear and\ndoubt, I mean for the time it tarried with me, which was about a\nday, as I never had from that all my life, either before or after\nthat (Heb 7:25).\n\n204. But one morning, when I was again at prayer, and trembling\nunder the fear of this, that no word of God could help me, that\npiece of a sentence darted in upon me, \"My grace is sufficient.\" At\nthis methought I felt some stay, as if there might be hopes. But,\noh how good a thing it is for God to send his Word! For about\na fortnight before I was looking on this very place, and then I\nthought it could not come near my soul with comfort, 'therefore'\nI threw down my book in a pet. 'Then I thought it was not large\nenough for me; no, not large enough'; but now, it was as if it had\narms of grace so wide that it could not only enclose me, but many\nmore besides.\n\n205. By these words I was sustained, yet not without exceeding\nconflicts, for the space of seven or eight weeks; for my peace\nwould be in and out, sometimes twenty times a day; comfort now,\nand trouble presently; peace now, and before I could go a furlong\nas full of fear and guilt as ever heart could hold; and this was\nnot only now and then, but my whole seven weeks' experience; for\nthis about the sufficiency of grace, and that of Esau's parting\nwith his birthright, would be like a pair of scales within my mind,\nsometimes one end would be uppermost, and sometimes again the other;\naccording to which would be my peace or trouble.\n\n206. Therefore I still did pray to God, that he would come in with\nthis Scripture more fully on my heart; to wit, that he would help\nme to apply the whole sentence, 'for as yet I could not: that he\ngave, I gathered; but further I could not go,' for as yet it only\nhelped me to hope 'there might be mercy for me,' \"My grace is\nsufficient\"; and though it came no farther, it answered my former\nquestion; to wit, that there was hope; yet, because \"for thee\" was\nleft out, I was not contented, but prayed to God for that also.\nWherefore, one day as I was in a meeting of God's people, full of\nsadness and terror, for my fears again were strong upon me; and as\nI was now thinking my soul was never the better, but my case most\nsad and fearful, these words did, with great power, suddenly break\nin upon me, \"My grace is sufficient for thee, my grace is sufficient\nfor thee, my grace is sufficient for thee,\" three times together;\nand, oh! methought that every word as a mighty word unto me; as\nmy, and grace, and sufficient, and for thee; they were then, and\nsometimes are still, far bigger than others be.\n\n207. At which time my understanding was so enlightened, that I was\nas though I had seen the Lord Jesus look down from heaven through\nthe tiles upon me, and direct these words unto me. This sent me\nmourning home, it broke my heart, and filled me full of joy, and\nlaid me low as the dust; only it stayed not long with me, I mean\nin this glory and refreshing comfort, yet it continued with me for\nseveral weeks, and did encourage me to hope. But so soon as that\npowerful operation of it was taken off my heart, that other about\nEsau returned upon me as before; so my soul did hang as in a pair\nof scales again, sometimes up and sometimes down, now in peace,\nand anon again in terror.\n\n208. Thus I went on for many weeks, sometimes comforted, and sometimes\ntormented; and, especially at some times, my torment would be very\nsore, for all those scriptures forenamed in the Hebrews, would\nbe set before me, as the only sentences that would keep me out of\nheaven. Then, again, I should begin to repent that ever that thought\nwent through me, I should also think thus with myself, Why, how\nmany scriptures are there against me? There are but three or four:\nand cannot God miss them, and save me for all them? Sometimes,\nagain, I should think, Oh! if it were not for these three or four\nwords, now how might I be comforted? And I could hardly forbear,\nat some times, but to wish them out of the book.\n\n209. Then methought I should see as if both Peter, and Paul, and\nJohn, and all the writers, did look with scorn upon me, and hold me\nin derision; and as if they said unto me, All our words are truth,\none of as much force as another. It is not we that have cut you\noff, but you have cast away yourself; there is none of our sentences\nthat you must take hold upon but these, and such as these: \"It is\nimpossible; there remains no more sacrifice for sin\" (Heb 6). And\n\"it had been better for them not to have known\" the will of God,\n\"than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment\ndelivered unto them\" (2 Peter 2:21). \"For the Scriptures cannot\nbe broken.\"[48]\n\n210. 'These, as the elders of the city of refuge, I saw were to be\nthe judges both of my case and me, while I stood, with the avenger\nof blood at my heels, trembling at their gate for deliverance, also\nwith a thousand fears and mistrusts, I doubted that they would shut\nme out for ever (Josh 20:3,4).'\n\n211. Thus was I confounded, not knowing what to do, nor how to be\nsatisfied in this question, Whether the scriptures could agree in\nthe salvation of my soul? I quaked at the apostles, I knew their\nwords were true, and that they must stand for ever.\n\n212. And I remember one day, as I was in diverse frames of spirit,\nand considering that these frames were still according to the nature\nof the several scriptures that came in upon my mind; if this of\ngrace, then was I quiet; but if that of Esau, then tormented; Lord,\nthought I, if both these scriptures would meet in my heart at once,\nI wonder which of them would get the better of me. So methought I\nhad a longing mind that they might come both together upon me; yea,\nI desired of God they might.\n\n213. Well, about two or three days after, so they did indeed; they\nbolted both upon me at a time, and did work and struggle strangely\nin me for a while; at last, that about Esau's birthright began to\nwax weak, and withdraw, and vanish; and this about the sufficiency\nof grace prevailed with peace and joy. And as I was in a muse about\nthis thing, that scripture came home upon me, \"Mercy rejoiceth\nagainst judgment\" (James 2:13).\n\n214. This was a wonderment to me; yet truly I am apt to think it\nwas of God; for the word of the law and wrath must give place to\nthe word of life and grace; because, though the word of condemnation\nbe glorious, yet the word of life and salvation doth far exceed in\nglory (2 Cor 3:8-12; Mark 9:5-7). Also, that Moses and Elias must\nboth vanish, and leave Christ and his saints alone.\n\n215. This scripture did also most sweetly visit my soul, \"And him\nthat cometh to me I will in no wise cast out\" (John 6:37). Oh,\nthe comfort that I have had from this world, \"in no wise\"! as who\nshould say, by no means, for no thing, whatever he hath done. But\nSatan would greatly labour to pull this promise from me, telling\nof me that Christ did not mean me, and such as I, but sinners of\na lower rank, that had not done as I had done. But I should answer\nhim again, Satan, here is in this word no such exception; but \"him\nthat comes,\" HIM, any him; \"him that cometh to me I will in no wise\ncast out.\" And this I well remember still, that of all the sleights\nthat Satan used to take this scripture from me, yet he never did\nso much as put this question, But do you come aright? And I have\nthought the reason was, because he thought I knew full well what\ncoming aright was; for I saw that to come aright was to come as I\nwas, a vile and ungodly sinner, and to cast myself at the feet of\nmercy, condemning myself for sin. If ever Satan and I did strive\nfor any word 'of God in all my life, it was for this good word of\nChrist; he at one end and I at the other. Oh, what work did we make!'\nIt was for this in John, 'I say, that we did so tug and strive';\nhe pulled and I pulled; but, God be praised, 'I got the better of\nhim,' I got some sweetness from it.\n\n216. But, notwithstanding all these helps and blessed words of\ngrace, yet that of Esau's selling of his birthright would still at\ntimes distress my conscience; for though I had been most sweetly\ncomforted, and that but just before, yet when that came into 'my'\nmind, it would make me fear again, I could not be quite rid thereof,\nit would every day be with me: wherefore now I went another way\nto work, even to consider the nature of this blasphemous thought;\nI mean, if I should take the words at the largest, and give them\ntheir own natural force and scope, even every word therein. So when\nI had thus considered, I found, that if they were fairly taken,\nthey would amount to this, that I had freely left the Lord Jesus\nChrist to his choice, whether he would be my Saviour or no; for the\nwicked words were these, Let him go if he will. Then that scripture\ngave me hope, \"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee\" (Heb 13:5).\nO Lord, said I, but I have left thee. Then it answered again, \"But\nI will not leave thee.\" For this I thank God also.\n\n217. Yet I was grievously afraid he should, and found it exceeding\nhard to trust him, seeing I had so offended him. I could have been\nexceeding glad that this thought had never befallen, for then I\nthought I could, with more ease and freedom abundance, have leaned\nupon his grace. I see it was with me, as it was with Joseph's\nbrethren; the guilt of their own wickedness did often fill them with\nfears that their brother would at last despise them (Gen 50:15-17).\n\n218. But above all the scriptures that I yet did meet with, that\nin the twentieth of Joshua was the greatest comfort to me, which\nspeaks of the slayer that was to flee for refuge. And if the avenger\nof blood pursue the slayer, then, saith Moses, they that are the\nelders of the city of refuge shall not deliver him into his hand,\nbecause he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not\naforetime. Oh, blessed be God for this word; I was convinced that\nI was the slayer; and that the avenger of blood pursued me, that I\nfelt with great terror; only now it remained that I inquire whether\nI have right to enter the city of refuge.[49] So I found that he\nmust not, who lay in wait to shed blood: 'it was not the willful\nmurderer,' but he who unwittingly did it, he who did unawares\nshed blood; 'not of spite, or grudge, or malice, he that shed\nit unwittingly,' even he who did not hate his neighbour before.\nWherefore,\n\n219. I thought verily I was the man that must enter, because I\nhad smitten my neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not aforetime.\nI hated him not aforetime; no, I prayed unto him, was tender of\nsinning against him; yea, and against this wicked temptation I had\nstrove for a twelvemonth before; yea, and also when it did pass\nthrough my heart, it did it in spite of my teeth: wherefore I\nthought I had right to enter this city, and the elders, which are\nthe apostles, were not to deliver me up. This, therefore, was great\ncomfort to me; and did give me much ground of hope.\n\n220. Yet being very critical, for my smart had made me that I knew\nnot what ground was sure enough to bear me, I had one question\nthat my soul did much desire to be resolved about; and that was,\nWhether it be possible for any soul that hath indeed sinned the\nunpardonable sin, yet after that to receive though but the least\ntrue spiritual comfort from God through Christ? The which, after\nI had much considered, I found the answer was, No, they could not;\nand that for these reasons:--\n\n221. First, Because those that have sinned that sin, they are debarred\na share in the blood of Christ, and being shut out of that, they\nmust needs be void of the least ground of hope, and so of spiritual\ncomfort; for to such \"there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins\"\n(Heb 10:26). Secondly, Because they are denied a share in the\npromise of life; they shall never be forgiven, \"neither in this\nworld, neither in that which is to come\" (Matt 12:32). Thirdly,\nThe Son of God excludes them also from a share in his blessed\nintercession, being for ever ashamed to own them both before his\nholy Father, and the blessed angels in heaven (Mark 8:38).\n\n222. When I had, with much deliberation, considered of this matter,\nand could not but conclude that the Lord had comforted me, and that\ntoo after this my wicked sin; then, methought, I durst venture to\ncome nigh unto those most fearful and terrible scriptures, with\nwhich all this while I had been so greatly affrighted, and on which,\nindeed, before I durst scarce cast mine eye, yea, had much ado an\nhundred times to forbear wishing of them out of the Bible; for I\nthought they would destroy me; but now, I say, I began to take some\nmeasure of encouragement to come close to them, to read them, and\nconsider them, and to weigh their scope and tendency.\n\n223. The which, when I began to do, I found their visage changed;\nfor they looked not so grimly on me as before I thought they did.\nAnd, first, I came to the sixth of the Hebrews, yet trembling for\nfear it should strike me; which when I had considered, I found that\nthe falling there intended was a falling quite away; that is, as\nI conceived, a falling from, and an absolute denial of the gospel\nof remission of sins by Christ; for from them the apostle begins\nhis argument (vv 1-3). Secondly, I found that this falling away\nmust be openly, even in the view of the world, even so as \"to put\nChrist to an open shame.\" Thirdly, I found that those he there\nintended were for ever shut up of God, both in blindness, hardness,\nand impenitency: it is impossible they should be renewed again unto\nrepentance. By all these particulars, I found, to God's everlasting\npraise, my sin was not the sin in this place intended.\n\n'First, I confessed I was fallen, but not fallen away, that is,\nfrom the profession of faith in Jesus unto eternal life. Secondly,\nI confessed that I had put Jesus Christ to shame by my sin, but\nnot to open shame; I did not deny him before men, nor condemn him\nas a fruitless one before the world. Thirdly, Nor did I find that\nGod had shut me up, or denied me to come, though I found it hard\nwork indeed to come to him by sorrow and repentance. Blessed be\nGod for unsearchable grace.'\n\n224. Then I considered that in the tenth of the Hebrews, and found\nthat the willful sin there mentioned is not every willful sin,\nbut that which doth throw off Christ, and then his commandments\ntoo. Secondly, That must also be done openly, before two or three\nwitnesses, to answer that of the law (v 28). Thirdly, This sin cannot\nbe committed, but with great despite done to the Spirit of grace;\ndespising both the dissuasions from that sin, and the persuasions\nto the contrary. But the Lord knows, though this my sin was devilish,\nyet it did not amount to these.\n\n225. And as touching that in the twelfth of the Hebrews, about\nEsau's selling his birthright, though this was that which killed me,\nand stood like a spear against me; yet now I did consider, First,\nThat his was not a hasty thought against the continual labour of\nhis mind, but a thought consented to and put in practice likewise,\nand that too after some deliberation (Gen 25). Secondly, It was a\npublic and open action, even before his brother, if not before many\nmore; this made his sin of a far more heinous nature than otherwise\nit would have been. Thirdly, He continued to slight his birthright:\n\"He did eat and drink, and went his way; thus Esau despised\nhis birthright\" (v 34). Yea, twenty years after, he was found to\ndespise it still. \"And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep\nthat thou hast unto thyself\" (Gen 33:9).\n\n226. Now as touching this, that Esau sought a place of repentance;\nthus I thought, first, This was not for the birthright, but for the\nblessing; this is clear from the apostle, and is distinguished by\nEsau himself; \"he took away my birthright [that is, formerly]; and,\nbehold, now he hath taken away my blessing\" (Gen 27:36). Secondly,\nNow, this being thus considered, I came again to the apostle, to\nsee what might be the mind of God, in a New Testament style and\nsense, concerning Esau's sin; and so far as I could conceive, this\nwas the mind of God, That the birthright signified regeneration,\nand the blessing the eternal inheritance; for so the apostle seems\nto hint, \"Lest there be any profane person, as Esau, who for one\nmorsel of meat sold his birthright\"; as if he should say, Lest there\nbe any person amongst you, that shall cast off all those blessed\nbeginnings of God that at present are upon him, in order to a new\nbirth, lest they become as Esau, even be rejected afterwards, when\nthey would inherit the blessing.\n\n227. For many there are who, in the day of grace and mercy, despise\nthose things which are indeed the birthright to heaven, who yet,\nwhen the deciding day appears, will cry as loud as Esau, \"Lord,\nLord, open to us\"; but then, as Isaac would not repent, no more will\nGod the Father, but will say, I have blessed these, yea, and they\nshall be blessed; but as for you, depart from me, all ye workers\nof iniquity (Gen 27:33; Luke 13:25-27).\n\n228. When I had thus considered these scriptures, and found that\nthus to understand them was not against, but according to other\nscriptures; this still added further to my encouragement and\ncomfort, and also gave a great blow to that objection, to wit, that\nthe scripture could not agree in the salvation of my soul. And now\nremained only the hinder part of the tempest, for the thunder was\ngone beyond me, only some drops did still remain, that now and then\nwould fall upon me; but because my former frights and anguish were\nvery sore and deep, therefore it did oft befall me still, as it\nbefalleth those that have been scared with fire, I thought every\nvoice was Fire, fire; every little touch would hurt my tender\nconscience.[50]\n\n229. But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with\nsome dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right,\nsuddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is\nin heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul,\nJesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness;\nso that wherever I was, or whatever I was adoing, God could not\nsay of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him.\nI also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that\nmade my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my\nrighteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself,\nthe same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever (Heb 13:8).\n\n230. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed, I was loosed from\nmy affliction and irons, my temptations also fled away; so that,\nfrom that time, those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble\nme; now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God.\nSo when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence,\nThy righteousness is in heaven; but could not find such a saying,\nwherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my\nremembrance, he \"of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,\nand sanctification, and redemption\"; by this word I saw the other\nsentence true (1 Cor 1:30).\n\n231. For by this scripture, I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as\nhe is distinct from us, as touching his bodily presence, so he is\nour righteousness and sanctification before God. Here, therefore,\nI lived for some time, very sweetly at peace with God through\nChrist; Oh methought, Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ\nthat was before my eyes, I was not now only for looking upon this\nand the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, burial, or\nresurrection, but considered him as a whole Christ! As he in whom\nall these, and all other his virtues, relations, offices, and\noperations met together, and that 'as he sat' on the right hand of\nGod in heaven.\n\n232. It was glorious to me to see his exaltation, and the worth\nand prevalency of all his benefits, and that because of this: now\nI could look from myself to him, and should reckon that all those\ngraces of God that now were green in me, were yet but like those\ncracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies[51] that rich men carry\nin their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home! Oh, I\nsaw my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ, my Lord and Saviour!\nNow Christ was all; all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my\nsanctification, and all my redemption.\n\n233. Further, the Lord did also lead me into the mystery of union\nwith the Son of God, that I was joined to him, that I was flesh\nof his flesh, and bone of his bone, and now was that a sweet word\nto me in Ephesians 5:30. By this also was my faith in him, as my\nrighteousness, the more confirmed to me; for if he and I were one,\nthen his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also\nmine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once; in heaven\nby my Christ, by my head, by my righteousness and life, though on\nearth by my body or person.\n\n234. Now I saw Christ Jesus was looked on of God, and should also\nbe looked upon by us, as that common or public person, [52] in\nwhom all the whole body of his elect are always to be considered\nand reckoned; that we fulfilled the law by him, died by him, rose\nfrom the dead by him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil,\nand hell, by him; when he died, we died; and so of his resurrection.\n\"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they\narise,\" saith he (Isa 26:19). And again, \"After two days will he\nrevive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live\nin his sight\" (Hosea 6:2); which is now fulfilled by the sitting\ndown of the Son of man on the right hand of the Majesty in the\nheavens, according to that to the Ephesians, he \"hath raised us\nup together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ\nJesus\" (Eph 2:6).\n\n235. Ah, these blessed considerations and scriptures, with many\nother of a like nature, were in those days made to spangle in mine\neyes, 'so that I have cause to say,' \"Praise ye the Lord. Praise\nGod in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.\nPraise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent\ngreatness\" (Psa 150:1,2).\n\n236. Having thus, in few words, given you a taste of the sorrow and\naffliction that my soul went under, by the guilt and terror that\nthis my wicked thought did lay me under! and having given you also\na touch of my deliverance therefrom, and of the sweet and blessed\ncomfort that I met with afterwards, which comfort dwelt about a\ntwelve-month with my heart, to my unspeakable admiration; I will\nnow, God willing, before I proceed any further, give you in a word\nor two, what, as I conceive, was the cause of this temptation; and\nalso after that, what advantage, at the last, it became unto my\nsoul.\n\n237. For the causes, I conceived they were principally two: of which\ntwo also I was deeply convinced all the time this trouble lay upon\nme. The first was, for that I did not, when I was delivered from\nthe temptation that went before, still pray to God to keep me from\ntemptations that were to come; for though, as I can say in truth,\nmy soul was much in prayer before this trial seized me, yet then I\nprayed only, or at the most, principally for the removal of present\ntroubles, and for fresh discoveries of 'his' love in Christ! which\nI saw afterwards was not enough to do; I also should have prayed\nthat the great God would keep me from the evil that was to come.\n\n238. Of this I was made deeply sensible by the prayer of holy\nDavid, who, when he was under present mercy, yet prayed that God\nwould hold him back from sin and temptation to come; \"Then,\" saith\nhe, \"shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the GREAT\ntransgression\" (Psa 19:13). By this very word was I galled and\ncondemned, quite through this long temptation.\n\n239. That also was another word that did much condemn me for my\nfolly, in the neglect of this duty (Heb 4:16), \"Let us therefore\ncome boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,\nand find grace to help in time of need.\" This I had not done, and\ntherefore was suffered thus to sin and fall, according to what is\nwritten, \"Pray that ye enter not into temptation.\" And truly this\nvery thing is to this day of such weight and awe upon me, that\nI dare not, when I come before the Lord, go off my knees, until\nI entreat him for help and mercy against the temptations that are\nto come; and I do beseech thee, reader, that thou learn to beware\nof my negligence, by the affliction that for this thing I did for\ndays, and months, and years, with sorrow undergo.\n\n240. Another cause of this temptation was, that I had tempted God;\nand on this manner did I do it. Upon a time my wife was great with\nchild, and before her full time was come, her pangs, as of a woman\nin travail, were fierce and strong upon her, even as if she would\nhave immediately fallen in labour, and been delivered of an untimely\nbirth. Now, at this very time it was, that I had been so strongly\ntempted to question the being of God; wherefore, as my wife lay\ncrying by me, I said, but with all secrecy imaginable, even thinking\nin my heart, Lord, if thou wilt now remove this sad affliction\nfrom my wife, and cause that she be troubled no more therewith this\nnight, and now were her pangs just upon her, then I shall know that\nthou canst discern the most secret thoughts of the heart.\n\n241. I had no sooner said it in my heart, but her pangs were taken\nfrom her, and she was cast into a deep sleep, and so she continued\ntill morning; at this I greatly marveled, not knowing what to\nthink; but after I had been awake a good while, and heard her cry\nno more, I fell to sleeping also. So when I waked in the morning,\nit came upon me again, even what I had said in my heart the\nlast night, and how the Lord had showed me that he knew my secret\nthoughts, which was a great astonishment unto me for several weeks\nafter.\n\n242. Well, about a year and a half afterwards, that wicked sinful\nthought, of which I have spoken before, went through my wicked\nheart, even this thought, Let Christ go if he will; so when I was\nfallen under guilt for this, the remembrance of my other thought,\nand of the effect thereof, would also come upon me with this retort,\nwhich also carried rebuke along with it, Now you may see that God\ndoth know the most secret thoughts of the heart.[53]\n\n243. And with this, that of the passages that were betwixt the\nLord and his servant Gideon fell upon my spirit; how because that\nGideon tempted God with his fleece, both wet and dry, when he should\nhave believed and ventured upon his word, therefore the Lord did\nafterwards so try him, as to send him against an innumerable company\nof enemies; and that too, as to outward appearance, without any\nstrength or help (Judg 6, 7). Thus he served me, and that justly,\nfor I should have believed his word, and not have put an IF upon\nthe all-seeingness of God.\n\n244. And now to show you something of the advantages that I also\ngained by this temptation; and first, By this I was made continually\nto possess in my soul a very wonderful sense both of the being\nand glory of God, and of his beloved Son; in the temptation 'that\nwent' before, my soul was perplexed with 'unbelief, blasphemy,\nhardness of heart, questions about the being of God, Christ, the\ntruth of the Word, and certainty of the world to come; I say, then\nI was greatly assaulted and tormented with' atheism; but now the\ncase was otherwise, now was God and Christ continually before my\nface, though not in a way of comfort, but in a way of exceeding\ndread and terror. The glory of the holiness of God did at this\ntime break me to pieces; and the bowels and compassion of Christ\ndid break me as on the wheel;[54] for I could not consider him but\nas a lost and rejected Christ, the remembrance of which was as the\ncontinual breaking of my bones.\n\n245. The Scriptures now also were wonderful things unto me; I saw\nthat the truth and verity of them were the keys of the kingdom of\nheaven; those 'that' the Scriptures favour they must inherit bliss,\nbut those 'that' they oppose and condemn must perish evermore. Oh\nthis word, \"For the Scripture cannot be broken\": would rend the\ncaul of my heart; and so would that other, \"Whose soever sins ye\nremit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain,\nthey are retained.\" Now I saw the apostles to be the elders of the\ncity of refuge (Josh 20:4), those 'that' they were to receive in,\nwere received to life; but those that they shut out were to be\nslain by the avenger of blood.[55]\n\n246. Oh! one sentence of the Scripture did more afflict and terrify\nmy mind, I mean those sentences that stood against me, as sometimes\nI thought they every one did, more I say, than an army of forty\nthousand men that might have come against me. Woe be to him against\nwhom the Scriptures bend themselves.\n\n247. By this temptation I was made 'to' see more into the nature\nof the promises than ever I was before; for I lying now trembling\nunder the mighty hand of God, continually torn and rent by the\nthunderings of his justice; this made me, with careful heart and\nwatchful eye, with great seriousness, to turn over every leaf,\nand with much diligence, mixed with trembling, to consider every\nsentence, together with its natural force and latitude.\n\n248. By this temptation, also, I was greatly beaten off my former\nfoolish practice, of putting by the word of promise when it came\ninto my mind; for now, though I could not suck that comfort and\nsweetness from the promise as I had done at other times, yea, like\nto a man a-sinking, I should catch at all I saw; formerly I thought\nI might not meddle with the promise unless I felt its comfort, but\nnow it was no time thus to do, the avenger of blood too hardly did\npursue me.\n\n249. Now therefore I was glad to catch at that word, which yet I\nfeared I had no ground or right to own; and even to leap into the\nbosom of that promise, that yet I feared did shut its heart against\nme. Now also I should labour to take the Word as God had laid it\ndown, without restraining the natural force of one syllable thereof.\nO what did I now see in that blessed sixth of John, \"And him that\ncometh to me, I will in no wise cast out\" (v 37). Now I began to\nconsider with myself, that God had a bigger mouth to speak with\nthan I had heart to conceive with. I thought also with myself that\nhe spake not his words in haste, or in unadvised heat, but with\ninfinite wisdom and judgment, and in very truth and faithfulness\n(2 Sam 3:18).\n\n250. I should in these days, often in my greatest agonies, even\nflounce towards the promise, as the horses do towards sound ground\nthat yet stick in the mire, concluding, though as one almost bereft\nof his wits through fear, on this I will rest and stay, and leave\nthe fulfilling of it to the God of heaven that made it. Oh! many a\npull hath my heart had with Satan for that blessed sixth of John.\nI did not now, as at other times, look principally for comfort,\nthough, O how welcome would it have been unto me! But now a word,\na word to lean a weary soul upon, that I might not sink for ever!\n'it was that I hunted for.'\n\n251. Yea, often when I have been making to the promise, I have\nseen as if the Lord would refuse my soul for ever. I was often as\nif I had run upon the pikes, and as if the Lord had thrust at me\nto keep me from him as with a flaming sword. Then I should think\nof Esther, who went to petition the king contrary to the law (Esth\n4:16). I thought also of Benhadad's servants, who went with ropes\nupon their heads to their enemies for mercy (1 Kings 20:31). The\nwoman of Canaan also, that would not be daunted, though called dog\nby Christ (Matt 15:20-28). And the man that went to borrow bread\nat midnight (Luke 11:5-8), were great encouragements unto me.\n\n251. I never saw those heights and depths in grace, and love, and\nmercy, as I saw after this temptation. Great sins do draw out great\ngrace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce there the mercy\nof God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and\nmighty. When Job had passed through his captivity, he had \"twice\nas much as he had before\" (Job 42:10). Blessed be God for Jesus\nChrist our Lord. Many other things I might here make observation\nof, but I would be brief, and therefore shall at this time omit\nthem, and do pray God that my harms may make others fear to offend,\nlest they also be made to bear the iron yoke as I 'did.'\n\n'I had two or three times, at or about my deliverance from this\ntemptation, such strange apprehensions of the grace of God, that\nI could hardly bear up under it, it was so out of measure amazing,\nwhen I thought it could reach me, that I do think, if that sense\nof it had abode long upon me, it would have made me incapable for\nbusiness.'\n\n[ENTERS INTO FELLOWSHIP WITH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AT BEDFORD, IN\nWHICH HE AFTERWARDS BECAME A MINISTERING ELDER.]\n\n253. Now I shall go forward to give you a relation of other of the\nLord's dealings with me, of his dealings with me at sundry other\nseasons, and of the temptations I then did meet withal. I shall begin\nwith what I met with when I first did join in fellowship with the\npeople of God in Bedford.[56] After I had propounded to the church\nthat my desire was to walk in the order and ordinances of Christ\nwith them, and was also admitted by them; while I thought of that\nblessed ordinance of Christ, which was his last supper with his\ndisciples before his death, that Scripture, \"This do in remembrance\nof me\" (Luke 22:19), was made a very precious word unto me; for\nby it the Lord did come down upon my conscience with the discovery\nof his death for my sins; and as I then felt, did as if he plunged\nme in the virtue of the same. But, behold, I had not been long\na partaker at that ordinance, but such fierce and sad temptations\ndid attend me at all times therein, both to blaspheme the ordinance,\nand to wish some deadly thing to those that then did eat thereof;\nthat, lest I should at any time be guilty of consenting to these\nwicked and fearful thoughts, I was forced to bend myself all the\nwhile to pray to God to keep me from such blasphemies; and also\nto cry to God to bless the bread and cup to them as it went from\nmouth to mouth. The reason of this temptation I have thought since\nwas, because I did not, with that reverence 'as became me,' at\nfirst approach to partake thereof.\n\n254. Thus I continued for three quarters of a year, and could never\nhave rest nor ease; but at last the Lord came in upon my soul with\nthat same scripture by which my soul was visited before; and after\nthat I have been usually very well and comfortable in the partaking\nof that blessed ordinance, and have, I trust, therein discerned\nthe Lord's body as broken for my sins, and that his precious blood\nhath been shed for my transgressions.\n\n255. Upon a time I was somewhat inclining to a consumption,\nwherewith, about the spring, I was suddenly and violently seized\nwith much weakness in my outward man, insomuch that I thought I\ncould not live. Now began I afresh to give myself up to a serious\nexamination after my state and condition for the future, and of\nmy evidences for that blessed world to come; for it hath, I bless\nthe name of God, been my usual course, as always, so especially\nin the day of affliction, to endeavour to keep my interest in the\nlife to come clear before my eye.\n\n256. But I had no sooner began to recall to mind my former experience\nof the goodness of God to my soul, but there came flocking into my\nmind, an innumerable company of my sins and transgressions, amongst\nwhich these were at this time most to my affliction, namely, my\ndeadness, dullness, and coldness in holy duties; my wanderings of\nheart, 'of' my wearisomeness in all good things, my want of love to\nGod, his ways, and people, with this at the end of all, Are these\nthe fruits of Christianity? are these the tokens of a blessed man?\n\n257. At the apprehension of these things my sickness was doubled\nupon me, for now was I sick in my inward man, my soul was clogged\nwith guilt; now also was my former experience of God's goodness\nto me quite taken out of my mind, and hid as if it had never\nbeen, nor seen. Now was my soul greatly pinched between these two\nconsiderations, Live I must not, Die I dare not; now I sunk and\nfell in my spirit, and was giving up all for lost; but as I was\nwalking up and down in the house, as a man in a most woeful state,\nthat word of God took hold of my heart, Ye are \"justified freely\nby his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\" (Rom\n3:24). 'But oh what a turn it made upon me!'\n\n258. Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and\ndream, and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had\nheard it thus expounded to me: Sinner, thou thinkest that because\nof thy sins and infirmities I cannot save thy soul, but behold my\nSon is by me, and upon him I look, and not on thee, and will deal\nwith thee according as I am pleased with him. At this I was greatly\nlightened in my mind, and made to understand that God could justify\na sinner at any time; it was but 'his' looking upon Christ, and\nimputing of his benefits to us, and the work was forthwith done.\n\n259. And as I was thus in a muse that scripture also came with great\npower upon my spirit, Not by works of righteousness which we have\ndone, but according to his mercy he saved us, &c. (Titus 3:5; 2 Tim\n1:9). Now was I got on high; I saw myself within the arms of grace\nand mercy; and though I was before afraid to think of a dying hour,\nyet now I cried, Let me die. Now death was lovely and beautiful\nin my sight; for I saw we shall never live indeed till we be gone\nto the other world. Oh, methought this life is but a slumber in\ncomparison of that above; at this time also I saw more in those\nwords, \"Heirs of God\" (Rom 8:17), than ever I shall be able to\nexpress while I live in this world. \"Heirs of God!\" God himself is\nthe portion of the saints. This I saw and wondered at, but cannot\ntell you what I saw.[57]\n\n260. 'Again, as I was at another time very ill and weak, all that\ntime also the tempter did beset me strongly, for I find he is much\nfor assaulting the soul when it begins to approach towards the\ngrave, then is his opportunity, labouring to hide from me my former\nexperience of God's goodness; also setting before me the terrors of\ndeath and the judgment of God, insomuch that at this time, through\nmy fear of miscarrying for ever, should I now die, I was as one\ndead before death came, and was as if I had felt myself already\ndescending into the pit; methought, I said, there was no way, but\nto hell I must; but behold, just as I was in the midst of those\nfears, these words of the angels carrying Lazarus into Abraham's\nbosom darted in upon me, as who should say, So it shall be with\nthee when thou dost leave this world. This did sweetly revive my\nspirit, and help me to hope in God; which, when I had with comfort\nmused on a while, that word fell with great weight upon my mind,\n\"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?\" (1\nCor 15:55). At this I became both well in body and mind at once,\nfor my sickness did presently vanish, and I walked comfortably in\nmy work for God again.'\n\n261. At another time, though just before I was pretty well and\nsavoury in my spirit, yet suddenly there fell upon me a great cloud\nof darkness, which did so hide from me the things of God and Christ,\nthat I was as if I had never seen or known them in my life; I was\nalso so overrun in my soul, with a senseless, heartless frame of\nspirit, that I could not feel my soul to move or stir after grace\nand life by Christ; I was as if my loins were broken, or as if my\nhands and feet had been tied or bound with chains. At this time\nalso I felt some weakness to seize 'upon' my outward man, which\nmade still the other affliction the more heavy and uncomfortable\n'to me.'\n\n262. After I had been in this condition some three or four days,\nas I was sitting by the fire, I suddenly felt this word to sound\nin my heart, I must go to Jesus; at this my former darkness and\natheism fled away, and the blessed things of heaven were set within\nmy view. While I was on this sudden thus overtaken with surprise,\nWife, said I, is there ever such a scripture, I must go to Jesus?\nshe said she could not tell, therefore I sat musing still to see\nif I could remember such a place; I had not sat above two or three\nminutes but that came bolting in upon me, \"And to an innumerable\ncompany of angels,\" and withal, Hebrews the twelfth, about the\nmount Sion was set before mine eyes (vv 22-24).\n\n263. Then with joy I told my wife, O now I know, I know! But that\nnight was a good night to me, I never had but few better; I longed\nfor the company of some of God's people that I might have imparted\nunto them what God had showed me. Christ was a precious Christ to\nmy soul that night; I could scarce lie in my bed for joy, and peace,\nand triumph, through Christ; this great glory did not continue upon\nme until morning, yet that twelfth of the author to the Hebrews\n(Heb 12:22,23) was a blessed scripture to me for many days together\nafter this.\n\n264. The words are these, \"Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto\nthe city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an\ninnumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church\nof the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge\nof all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus\nthe mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling,\nthat speaketh better things than that of Abel.\" Through this blessed\nsentence the Lord led me over and over, first to this word, and\nthen to that, and showed me wonderful glory in every one of them.\nThese words also have oft since this time been great refreshment\nto my spirit. Blessed be God for having mercy on me.\n\n[A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S CALL TO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY.]\n\n265. And now I am speaking my experience, I will in this place\nthrust in a word or two concerning my preaching the Word, and of\nGod's dealing with me in that particular also. For after I had been\nabout five or six years awakened, and helped 'myself' to see both\nthe want and worth of Jesus Christ our Lord, and 'also' enabled to\nventure my soul upon him, some of the most able among the saints\nwith us, I say the most able for judgment and holiness of life,\nas they conceived, did perceive that God had counted me worthy to\nunderstand something of his will in his holy and blessed Word, and\nhad given me utterance, in some measure, to express what I saw to\nothers for edification; 'therefore' they desired me, and that with\nmuch earnestness, that I would be willing, at sometimes, to take in\nhand, in one of the meetings, to speak a word of exhortation unto\nthem.[58]\n\n266. The which, though at the first it did much dash and abash my\nspirit, yet being still by them desired and intreated, I consented\nto their request, and did twice at two several assemblies, but in\nprivate, though with much weakness and infirmity, discover my gift\namongst them; at which they not only seemed to be, but did solemnly\nprotest, as in the sight of the great God, they were both affected\nand comforted, and gave thanks to the Father of mercies for the\ngrace bestowed on me.\n\n267. After this, sometimes when some of them did go into the country\nto teach, they would also that I should go with them; where, though\nas yet I did not, nor durst not, make use of my gift in an open\nway, yet more privately still as I came amongst the good people in\nthose places, I did sometimes speak a word of admonition unto them\nalso; the which, they as the other received, with rejoicing, at the\nmercy of God to me-ward, professing their souls were edified thereby.\n\n268. Wherefore, to be brief, at last, being still desired by the\nchurch, after some solemn prayer to the Lord, with fasting, I was\nmore particularly called forth, and appointed to a more ordinary\nand public preaching the word, not only to, and amongst them that\nbelieved, but also to offer the gospel to those who had not yet\nreceived the faith thereof; about which time I did evidently find\nin my mind a secret pricking forward thereto; though I bless God,\nnot for desire of vain glory, for at that time I was most sorely\nafflicted with the fiery darts of the devil concerning my eternal\nstate.\n\n269. But yet could not be content, unless I was found in the\nexercise of my gift, unto which also I was greatly animated, not\nonly by the continual desires of the godly, but also by that saying\nof Paul to the Corinthians, \"I beseech you, brethren (ye know the\nhousehold of Stephanus, that it is the first fruits of Achaian, and\nthat they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints)\nthat ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth\nwith us, and laboureth\" (1 Cor 16:15,16).\n\n270. By this text I was made to see that the Holy Ghost never\nintended that men who have gifts and abilities should bury them in\nthe earth, but rather did command and stir up such to the exercise\nof their gift, and also did commend those that were apt and ready\nso to do, \"They have addicted themselves to the ministry of the\nsaints.\" This scripture, in these days, did continually run in my\nmind, to encourage me and strengthen me in this my work for God;\nI have also been encouraged from several other scriptures and\nexamples of the godly, both specified in the Word and other ancient\nhistories (Acts 8:4, 18:24,25; 1 Peter 4:10; Rom 12:6; Foxe's Acts\nand Monuments).\n\n271. Wherefore, though of myself, of all the saints the most\nunworthy, yet I, but with great fear and trembling at the sight\nof my own weakness, did set upon the work, and did according to my\ngift, and the proportion of my faith, preach that blessed gospel\nthat God had showed me in the holy Word of truth; which, when the\ncountry understood, they came in to hear the Word by hundreds, and\nthat from all parts, though upon sundry and divers accounts.\n\n272. And I thank God he gave unto me some measure of bowels and\npity for their souls, which also did put me forward to labour with\ngreat diligence and earnestness, to find out such a word as might,\nif God would bless it, lay hold of, and awaken the conscience, in\nwhich also the good Lord had respect to the desire of his servant;\nfor I had not preached long before some began to be touched by the\nWord, and to be greatly afflicted in their minds at the apprehension\nof the greatness of their sin, and of their need of Jesus Christ.\n\n273. But I at first could not believe that God should speak by me\nto the heart of any man, still counting myself unworthy; yet those\nwho thus were touched would love me and have a peculiar respect for\nme; and though I did put it from me, that they should be awakened\nby me, still they would confess it and affirm it before the saints\nof God; they would also bless God for me, unworthy wretch that I\nam! and count me God's instrument that showed to them the way of\nsalvation.\n\n274. Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to be\nso constant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after\nthe knowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that ever God did send\nme where they were; then I began to conclude it might be so, that\nGod had owned in his work such a foolish one as I, and then came\nthat word of God to my heart with much sweet refreshment, \"The\nblessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused\nthe widow's heart to sing for joy\" (Job 29:13).\n\n275. At this therefore I rejoiced, yea, the tears of those whom God\ndid awaken by my preaching would be both solace and encouragement\nto me; for I thought on those sayings, \"Who is he that maketh\nme glad but the same which is made sorry by me?\" (2 Cor 2;2); and\nagain, Though \"I be not an apostle to others, yet, doubtless, I\nam to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord\" (1\nCor 9:2). These things, therefore, were as another argument unto\nme that God had called me to, and stood by me in this work.\n\n276. In my preaching of the Word, I took special notice of this one\nthing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to being where his Word\nbegins with sinners; that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open\nand allege that the curse of God, by the law, doth belong to, and\nlay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin.\nNow this part of my work I fulfilled with great sense;[59] for\nthe terrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy\non my conscience. I preached what I felt, what I smartingly did\nfeel, even that under which my pour soul did groan and tremble to\nastonishment.\n\n277. Indeed I have been as one sent to them from the dead; I went\nmyself in chains to preach to them in chains; and carried that\nfire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to beware of. I can\ntruly say, and that without dissembling, that when I have been to\npreach, I have gone full of guilt and terror even to the pulpit\ndoor, and there it hath been taken off, and I have been at liberty\nin my mind until I have done my work, and then immediately, even\nbefore I could get down the pulpit stairs, I have been as bad as I\nwas before; yet God carried me on, but surely with a strong hand,\nfor neither guilt or hell could take me off my work.\n\n278. Thus I went for the space of two years, crying out against\nmen's sins, and their fearful state because of them. After which\nthe Lord came in upon my own soul with some staid peace and comfort\nthrough Christ; for he did give me many sweet discoveries of his\nblessed grace through him. Wherefore now I altered in my preaching,\nfor still I preached what I saw and felt; now therefore I did much\nlabour to hold forth Jesus Christ in all his offices, relations,\nand benefits unto the world; and did strive also to discover, to\ncondemn, and remove those false supports and props on which the\nworld doth both lean, and by them fall and perish. On these things\nalso I staid as long as on the other.\n\n279. After this, God led me into something of the mystery of union\nwith Christ; wherefore that I discovered and showed to them also.\nAnd when I had traveled through these three chief points of the\nWord of God, about the space of five years or more, I was caught\nin my present practice and cast into prison, where I have lain[60]\nabove as long again, to confirm the truth by way of suffering, as\nI was before in testifying of it according to the Scriptures in a\nway of preaching.\n\n280. When I have been preaching, I thank God, my heart hath often\nall the time of this and the other exercise, with great earnestness,\ncried to God that he would make the Word effectual to the salvation\nof the soul; still being grieved lest the enemy should take the\nWord away from the conscience, and so it should become unfruitful.\nWherefore I did labour so to speak the Word, as that thereby, if it\nwere possible, the sins and person guilty might be particularized\nby it.\n\n281. Also, when I have done the exercise, it hath gone to my heart\nto think the Word should now fall as rain on stony places, still\nwishing from my heart, O that they who have heard me speak this\nday did but see as I do what sin, death, hell, and the curse of\nGod is; and also what the grace, and love, and mercy of God is,\nthrough Christ, to men in such a case as they are, who are yet\nestranged from him. And, indeed, I did often say in my heart before\nthe Lord, That if to be hanged up presently before their eyes would\nbe a means to awaken them, and confirm them in the truth, I gladly\nshould be contented.\n\n282. For I have been in my preaching, especially when I have been\nengaged in the doctrine of life by Christ, without works, as if an\nangel of God had stood by at my back to encourage me. Oh, it hath\nbeen with such power and heavenly evidence upon my own soul, while\nI have been labouring to unfold it, to demonstrate it, and to fasten\nit upon the consciences of others, that I could not be contented\nwith saying, I believe, and am sure; methought I was more than sure,\nif it be lawful so to express myself, that those things which then\nI asserted were true.\n\n283. When I went first to preach the Word abroad, the doctors\nand priests of the country did open wide against me.[61] But I\nwas persuaded of this, not to render railing for railing, but to\nsee how many of their carnal professors I could convince of their\nmiserable state by the law, and of the want and worth of Christ;\nfor, thought I, This shall answer for me in time to come, when they\nshall be for my hire before their faces (Gen 30:33).\n\n284. I never cared to meddle with things that were controverted,\nand in dispute amongst the saints, especially things of the lowest\nnature; yet it pleased me much to contend with great earnestness\nfor the word of faith and the remission of sins by the death and\nsufferings of Jesus; but I say, as to other things, I should let\nthem alone, because I saw they engendered strife, and because that\nthey neither, in doing nor in leaving undone, did commend us to\nGod to be his. Besides, I saw my work before me did run in another\nchannel, even to carry an awakening word; to that therefore did I\nstick and adhere.[62]\n\n285. I never endeavoured to, nor durst make use of other men's lines\n(Rom 15:18)[63], though I condemn not all that do, for I verily\nthought, and found by experience, that what was taught me by the\nWord and Spirit of Christ, could be spoken, maintained, and stood\nto by the soundest and best established conscience; and though I\nwill not now speak all that I know in this matter, yet my experience\nhath more interest in that text of Scripture than many amongst men\nare aware (Gal 1:11,12).\n\n286. If any of those who were awakened by my ministry did after\nthat fall back, as sometimes too many did, I can truly say their\nloss hath been more to me than if one of my own children, begotten\nof my body, had been going to its grave; I think, verily, I may\nspeak it without an offence to the Lord, nothing hath gone so near\nme as that, unless it was the fear of the loss of the salvation\nof my own soul. I have counted as if I had goodly buildings and\nlordships in those places where my children were born; my heart\nhath been so wrapped up in the glory of this excellent work, that\nI counted myself more blessed and honoured of God by this than if\nhe had made me the emperor of the Christian world, or the lord of\nall the glory of 'the' earth without it! O these words, \"He which\nconverteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul\nfrom death\" (James 5:20). '\"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of\nlife; and he that winneth souls is wise\" (Prov 11:30). \"They that\nbe wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they\nthat turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever\"\n(Dan 12:3). \"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?\nAre not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his\ncoming? For ye are our glory and joy\" (1 Thess 2:19,20). These, I\nsay, with many others of a like nature, have been great refreshments\nto me.'\n\n287. I have observed, that where I have had a work to do for God,\nI have had first, as it were, the going of God upon my spirit to\ndesire I might preach there. I have also observed that such and\nsuch souls in particular have been strongly set upon my heart,\nand I stirred up to wish for their salvation; and that these very\nsouls have, after this, been given in as the fruits of my ministry.\nI have also observed, that a word cast in by the by hath done more\nexecution in a sermon than all that was spoken besides; sometimes\nalso when I have thought I did no good, then I did the most of\nall; and at other times when I thought I should catch them I have\nfished for nothing.\n\n288. 'I have also observed, that where there hath been a work to\ndo upon sinners, there the devil hath begun to roar in the hearts,\nand by the mouths of his servants. Yea, oftentimes when the wicked\nworld hath raged most, there hath been souls awaked by the Word.\nI could instance particulars, but I forbear.'\n\n289. My great desire in my fulfilling my ministry was to get into\nthe darkest places of the country, even amongst those people that\nwere furthest off of profession; yet not because I could not endure\nthe light, for I feared not to show my gospel to any, but because\nI found my spirit leaned most after awakening and converting work,\nand the Word that I carried did lead itself most that way 'also';\n\"yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ\nwas named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation\" (Rom\n15:20).\n\n290. In my preaching I have really been in pain, and have, as it\nwere, travailed to bring forth children to God; neither could I\nbe satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work. If I were\nfruitless it mattered not who commended me; but if I were fruitful,\nI cared not who did condemn. I have thought of that, \"He that\nwinneth souls is wise\" (Prov 11:30); and again, \"Lo, children are\nan heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As\narrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.\nHappy is the man that hath filled his quiver full of them; they\nshall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the\ngate\" (Psa 127:3-5).\n\n291. 'It pleased me nothing to see people drink in opinions if\nthey seemed ignorant of Jesus Christ, and the worth of their own\nsalvation, sound conviction for sin, especially for unbelief, and\nan heart set on fire to be saved by Christ, with strong breathing\nafter a truly sanctified soul; that it was that delighted me; those\nwere the souls I counted blessed.'\n\n292. But in this work, as in all other, I had my temptations\nattending me, and that of diverse kinds, as sometimes I should be\nassaulted with great discouragement therein, fearing that I should\nnot be able to speak the word at all to edification; nay, that I\nshould not be able to speak sense unto the people; at which times\nI should have such a strange faintness and strengthlessness seize\nupon my body that my legs have scarce been able to carry me to the\nplace of exercise.\n\n293. Sometimes, again, when I have been preaching, I have been\nviolently assaulted with thoughts of blasphemy, and strongly tempted\nto speak the words with my mouth before the congregation. I have\nalso at some times, even when I have begun to speak the Word with\nmuch clearness, evidence, and liberty of speech, yet been before\nthe ending of that opportunity so blinded, and so estranged from\nthe things I have been speaking, and have also been so straitened\nin my speech, as to utterance before the people, that I have been\nas if I had not known or remembered what I have been about, or as\nif my head had been in a bag all the time of the exercise.\n\n294. Again, when as sometimes I have been about to preach upon\nsome smart and scorching[64] portion of the Word, I have found the\ntempter suggest, What, will you preach this? this condemns yourself;\nof this your own soul is guilty; wherefore preach not of it at all;\nor if you do, yet so mince it as to make way for your own escape;\nlest instead of awakening others, you lay that guilt upon your own\nsoul, as you will never get from under.\n\n295. 'But, I thank the Lord, I have been kept from consenting\nto these so horrid suggestions, and have rather, as Samson, bowed\nmyself with all my might, to condemn sin and transgression wherever\nI found it, yea, though therein also I did bring guilt upon my own\nconscience! \"Let me die,\" thought I, \"with the Philistines\" (Judg\n16:29,30), rather than deal corruptly with the blessed Word of\nGod, \"Thou that teachest another, teachest not thou thyself?\" It\nis far better that thou do judge thyself, even by preaching plainly\nto others, than that thou, to save thyself, imprison the truth in\nunrighteousness; blessed be God for his help also in this.'\n\n296. I have also, while found in this blessed work of Christ, been\noften tempted to pride and liftings up of heart; and though I dare\nnot say I have not been infected with this, yet truly the Lord, of\nhis precious mercy, hath so carried it towards me, that, for the\nmost part, I have had but small joy to give way to such a thing;\nfor it hath been my every day's portion to be let into the evil of\nmy own heart, and still made to see such a multitude of corruptions\nand infirmities therein, that it hath caused hanging down of the\nhead under all my gifts and attainments; I have felt this thorn in\nthe flesh, the very mercy of God to me (2 Cor 12:7-9).\n\n297. I have had also, together with this, some notable place or\nother of the Word presented before me, which word hath contained\nin it some sharp and piercing sentence concerning the perishing of\nthe soul, notwithstanding gifts and parts; as, for instance, that\nhath been of great use unto me, \"Though I speak with the tongues\nof men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding\nbrass, and a tinkling cymbal\" (1 Cor 13:1,2).\n\n298. A tinkling cymbal is an instrument of music, with which a\nskillful player can make such melodious and heart-inflaming music,\nthat all who hear him play can scarcely hold from dancing; and yet\nbehold the cymbal hath not life, neither comes the music from it,\nbut because of the art of him that plays therewith; so then the\ninstrument at last may come to nought and perish, though, in times\npast, such music hath been made upon it.\n\n299. Just thus I saw it was and will be with them who have gifts,\nbut want saving grace, they are in the hand of Christ, as the\ncymbal in the hand of David; and as David could, with the cymbal,\nmake that mirth in the service of God, as to elevate the hearts of\nthe worshippers, so Christ can use these gifted men, as with them\nto affect the souls of his people in his church; yet when he hath\ndone all, hang them by as lifeless, though sounding cymbals.[65]\n\n300. This consideration, therefore, together with some others, were,\nfor the most part, as a maul on the head of pride, and desire of\nvain glory; what, thought I, shall I be proud because I am a sounding\nbrass? Is it so much to be a fiddle? Hath not the least creature\nthat hath life, more of God in it than these? Besides, I knew\nit was love should never die, but these must cease and vanish; so\nI concluded, a little grace, a little love, a little of the true\nfear of God, is better than all these gifts; yea, and I am fully\nconvinced of it, that it is possible for a soul that can scarce\ngive a man an answer, but with great confusion as to method, I say\nit is possible for them to have a thousand times more grace, and\nso to be more in the love and favour of the Lord than some who,\nby virtue of the gift of knowledge, can deliver themselves like\nangels.[66]\n\n301. 'Thus, therefore, I came to perceive, that though gifts\nin themselves were good to the thing for which they are designed,\nto wit, the edification of others; yet empty and without power to\nsave the soul of him that hath them, if they be alone; neither are\nthey, as so, any sign of a man's state to be happy, being only a\ndispensation of God to some, of whose improvement, or non-improvement,\nthey must, when a little love more is over, give an account to him\nthat is ready to judge the quick and the dead.'\n\n302. 'This showed me too, that gifts being alone, were dangerous,\nnot in themselves, but because of those evils that attend them that\nhave them, to wit, pride, desire of vain glory, self-conceit, &c.,\nall which were easily blown up at the applause and commendation of\nevery unadvised Christian, to the endangering of a poor creature\nto fall into the condemnation of the devil.'\n\n303. 'I saw therefore that he that hath gifts had need be let into\na sight of the nature of them, to wit, that they come short of\nmaking of him to be in a truly saved condition, lest he rest in\nthem, and so fall short of the grace of God.'\n\n304. 'He hath also cause to walk humbly with God, and be little in\nhis own eyes, and to remember withal, that his gifts are not his\nown, but the church's; and that by them he is made a servant to\nthe church; and he must give at last an account of his stewardship\nunto the Lord Jesus; and to give a good account, will be a blessed\nthing.'\n\n305. 'Let all men therefore prize a little with the fear of the\nLord; gifts indeed are desirable, but yet great grace and small\ngifts are better than great gifts and no grace. It doth not say,\nthe Lord gives gifts and glory, but the Lord gives grace and glory;\nand blessed is such an one, to whom the Lord gives grace, true\ngrace, for that is a certain forerunner of glory.'\n\n306. 'But when Satan perceived that his thus tempting and assaulting of\nme would not answer his design, to wit, to overthrown my ministry,\nand make it ineffectual, as to the ends thereof; then he tried\nanother way, which was to stir up the minds of the ignorant and\nmalicious, to load me with slanders and reproaches; now therefore\nI may say, That what the devil could devise, and his instruments\ninvent, was whirled up and down the country against me, thinking,\nas I said, that by that means they should make my ministry to be\nabandoned.'\n\n307. 'It began therefore to be rumoured up and down among the\npeople, that I was a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, and the like.'\n\n308. 'To all which, I shall only say, God knows that I am innocent.\nBut as for mine accusers, let them provide themselves to meet\nme before the tribunal of the Son of God, there to answer for all\nthese things, with all the rest of their iniquities, unless God\nshall give them repentance for them, for the which I pray with all\nmy heart.'\n\n309. 'But that which was reported with the boldest confidence,\nwas, that I had my misses, my whores, my bastards, yea, two wives\nat once, and the like. Now these slanders, with the other, I glory\nin, because but slanders, foolish, or knavish lies, and falsehoods\ncast upon me by the devil and his seed; and should I not be dealt\nwith thus wickedly by the world, I should want one sign of a saint,\nand a child of God. \"Blessed are ye [said the Lord Jesus] when men\nshall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of\nevil against you falsely for my sake; rejoice, and be exceeding\nglad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they\nthe prophets which were before you\" (Matt 4:11).'\n\n310. 'These things, therefore, upon mine own account, trouble me\nnot; no, though they were twenty times more than they are. I have\na good conscience, and whereas they speak evil of me, as an evil\ndoer, they shall be ashamed that falsely accuse my good conversation\nin Christ.[67]'\n\n311. 'So then, what shall I say to those that have thus bespattered\nme? shall I threaten them? Shall I chide them? Shall I flatter\nthem? Shall I intreat them to hold their tongues? No, not I, were\nit not for that these things make them ripe for damnation, that\nare the authors and abettors, I would say unto them, Report it,\nbecause it will increase my glory.'\n\n312. 'Therefore I bind these lies and slanders to me as an ornament,\nit belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered,\nreproached and reviled; and since all this is nothing else, as my\nGod and my conscience do bear me witness; I rejoice in reproaches\nfor Christ's sake.'\n\n313. 'I also calling all those fools, or knaves, that have thus\nmade it anything of their business, to affirm any of the things\nafore-named of me, namely, that I have been naught with other women,\nor the like. When they have used to the utmost of their endeavours,\nand made the fullest inquiry that they can, to prove against me\ntruly, that there is any woman in heaven, or earth, or hell, that\ncan say, I have at any time, in any place, by day or night, so much\nas attempted to be naught with them; and speak I thus, to beg mine\nenemies into a good esteem of me; no, not I: I will in this beg\nrelief of no man; believe or disbelieve me in this, all is a case\nto me.[68]'\n\n314. 'My foes have missed their mark in this their shooting at me.\nI am not the man. I wish that they themselves be guiltless. If all\nthe fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged by the neck\ntill they be dead, JOHN BUNYAN, the object of their envy, would be\nstill alive and well. I know not whether there be such a thing as\na woman breathing under the copes of the whole heaven, but by their\napparel, their children, or by common fame, except my wife.'\n\n315. 'And in this I admire the wisdom of God, that he made me shy\nof women from my first conversion until now. Those know, and can also\nbear me witness, with whom I have been most intimately concerned,\nthat it is a rare thing to see me carry it pleasant towards a\nwoman; the common salutation of a woman I abhor, it is odious to\nme in whomsoever I see it. Their company alone, I cannot away with.\nI seldom so much as touch a woman's hand, for I think these things\nare not so becoming me. When I have seen good men salute those\nwomen that they have visited, or that have visited them, I have at\ntimes made my objection against it, and when they have answered,\nthat it was but a piece of civility, I have told them, it is not\na comely sight; some indeed have urged the holy kiss; but then I\nhave asked why they made baulks,[69] why they did salute the most\nhandsome, and let the ill-favoured go; thus, how laudable soever\nsuch things have been in the eyes of others, they have been unseemly\nin my sight.'\n\n316. 'And now for a wind up in this matter, I calling not only\nmen, but angels, to prove me guilty of having carnally to do with\nany woman save my wife, nor am I afraid to do it a second time,\nknowing that I cannot offend the Lord in such a case, to call God\nfor a record upon my soul, that in these things I am innocent.\nNot that I have been thus kept, because of any goodness in me more\nthan any other, but God has been merciful to me, and has kept me;\nto whom I pray that he will keep me still, not only from this,\nbut from every evil way and work, and preserve me to his heavenly\nkingdom. Amen.'\n\n317. 'Now as Satan laboured by reproaches and slanders, to make me\nvile among my countrymen, that if possible, my preaching might be\nmade of none effect, so there was added hereto a long and tedious\nimprisonment, that thereby I might be frighted from my service for\nChrist, and the world terrified, and made afraid to hear me preach,\nof which I shall in the next place give you a brief account.'\n\n[A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S IMPRISONMENT]\n\n318. Having made profession of the glorious gospel of Christ a long\ntime, and preached the same about five years, I was apprehended at\na meeting of good people in the country, among whom, had they let\nme alone, I should have preached that day, but they took me away\nfrom amongst them, and had me before a justice; who, after I had\noffered security for my appearing at the next sessions, yet committed\nme, because my sureties would not consent to be bound that I should\npreach no more to the people.\n\n319. At the sessions after, I was indicted for an upholder and\nmaintainer of unlawful assemblies and conventicles, and for not\nconforming to the national worship of the Church of England; and\nafter some conference there with the justices, 'they taking my\nplain dealing with them for a confession, as they termed it, of\nthe indictment,' did sentence me to perpetual banishment, because\nI refused to conform. So being again delivered up to the jailer's\nhands, I was had home to prison again, and there have lain now[70]\n'complete twelve years,' waiting to see what God would suffer these\nmen to do with me.\n\n320. In which condition I have continued with much content, through\ngrace, but have met with many turnings and goings upon my heart,\nboth from the Lord, Satan, and my own corruptions; by all which,\nglory be to Jesus Christ, I have also received among many things,\nmuch conviction, instruction, and understanding, of which at large\nI shall not here discourse; only give you in a hint or two, a word\nthat may stir up the godly to bless God, and to pray for me; and\nalso to take encouragement, should the case be their own, not to\nfear what man can do unto them.\n\n321. I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word\nof God as now; those Scriptures that I saw nothing in before, are\nmade in this place and state to shine upon me; Jesus Christ also\nwas never more real and apparent than now; here I have seen him\nand felt him indeed: O that word, We have not preached unto you\ncunningly devised fables (2 Peter 1:16); and that, God raised Christ\nfrom the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might\nbe in God (1 Peter 1:2), were blessed words unto me in this my\nimprisoned condition.\n\n322. These three or four scriptures also have been great refreshment\nin this condition to me (John 14:1-4, 16:33; Col 3:3,4; Heb 12:22-24).\nSo that sometimes when I have been in the savour of them, I have\nbeen able to laugh at destruction, and to fear neither the horse nor\nhis rider (Job 39:18). I have had sweet sights of the forgiveness\nof my sins in this place, and of my being with Jesus in another\nworld: O, \"the mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable\ncompany of angels, and God the judge of all, and the spirits\nof just men made perfect, and to Jesus\" (Heb 12:22-24), have been\nsweet unto me in this place: I have seen THAT here, that I am\npersuaded I shall never, while in this world, be able to express;\nI have seen a truth in that scripture, \"Whom having not seen, ye\nlove; in whom, though now ye se him not, yet believing, ye rejoice\nwith joy unspeakable and full of glory\" (1 Peter 1:8).[71]\n\n323. I never knew what it was for God to stand by me at all turns,\nand at every offer of Satan 'to afflict me,' &c., as I have found\nhim since I came in hither; for look how fears have presented\nthemselves, so have supports and encouragements, yea, when I have\nstarted, even as it were at nothing else but my shadow, yet God,\nas being very tender of me, hath not suffered me to be molested,\nbut would with one scripture and another strengthen me against all;\ninsomuch that I have often said, Were it lawful, I could pray for\ngreater trouble, for the greater comfort's sake (Eccl 7:14; 2 Cor\n1:5).\n\n324. Before I came to prison, I saw what was a-coming, and had\nespecially two considerations warm upon my heart; the first was how\nto be able to endure, should my imprisonment be long and tedious;\nthe second was how to be able to encounter death, should that be here\nmy portion; for the first of these, that scripture (Col 1:11) was\ngreat information to me, namely, to pray to God to be \"strengthened\nwith all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience\nand long-suffering with joyfulness.\" I could seldom go to prayer\nbefore I was imprisoned, but not for so little as a year together,\nthis sentence, or sweet petition, would, as it were, thrust itself\ninto my mind, and persuade me, that if ever I would go through\nlong-suffering, I must have all patience, especially if I would\nendure it joyfully.\n\n325. As to the second consideration, that saying (2 Cor 1:9), was\nof great use to me, But we had the sentence of death in ourselves,\nthat we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the\ndead. By this scripture I was made to see, that if ever I would\nsuffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon everything\nthat can properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon\nmyself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments, and all,\nas dead to me, and myself as dead to them. \"He that loveth father\nor mother, son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me\"\n(Matt 10:37).\n\n326. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible; as Paul\nsaid in another place, the way not to faint, is to \"look not at\nthe things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:\nfor the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which\nare not seen are eternal\" (2 Cor 4:18). And thus I reasoned with\nmyself; if I provide only for a prison, then the whip comes at\nunawares; and so does also the pillory; again, if I provide only\nfor these, then I am not fit for banishment; further, if I conclude\nthat banishment is the worst, then if death come I am surprised.\nSo that I see the best way to go through sufferings is to trust in\nGod through Christ, as touching the world to come; and as touching\nthis world, to count \"the grave my house, to make my bed in darkness,\nand to say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou\nart my mother and my sister.\" That is, to familiarize these things\nto me.[72]\n\n327. But notwithstanding these helps, I found myself a man,\nand compassed with infirmities; the parting with my wife and poor\nchildren hath oft been to me in this place as the pulling the\nflesh from my bones, and that not only because I am somewhat too\ntoo fond of those great mercies, but also because I should have\noften brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries and wants\nthat my poor family was like to meet with, should I be taken from\nthem, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than\nall I had besides; O the thoughts of the hardship I thought my\nblind one might go under, would break my heart to pieces.\n\n328. Poor child, thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for\nthy portion in this world? Thou must be beaten, must beg, suffer\nhunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot\nnow endure the wind should blow upon thee. But yet recalling myself,\nthought I, I must venture you all with God, though it goeth to the\nquick to leave you. O, I saw in this condition I was as a man who\nwas pulling down his house upon the head of his wife and children;\nyet thought I, I must do it, I must do it. And now I thought on\nthose two milch kine that were to carry the ark of God into another\ncountry, and to leave their calves behind them (1 Sam 6:10-12).\n\n329. But that which helped me in this temptation was divers\nconsiderations, of which three in special here I will name; the\nfirst was the consideration of those two scriptures, \"Leave thy\nfatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows\ntrust in me.\" And again, \"The Lord said, Verily it shall be well\nwith thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee\nwell in the time of evil,\" &c. (Jer 49:11, 15:11).\n\n330. I had also this consideration, that if I should now venture\nall for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments; but\nif I forsook him and his ways, for fear of any trouble that should\ncome to me or mine, then I should not only falsify my profession,\nbut should count also that my concernments were not so sure,\nif left at God's feet, while I stood to and for his name, as they\nwould be, if they were under my own tuition,[73] though with the\ndenial of the way of God. This was a smarting consideration, and\nwas as spurs unto my flesh. That scripture also greatly helped it\nto fasten the more upon me, where Christ prays against Judas, that\nGod would disappoint him in all his selfish thoughts, which moved\nhim to sell his master: pray read it soberly (Psa 109:6-20).\n\n331. I had also another consideration, and that was, the dread of\nthe torments of hell, which I was sure they must partake of, that\nfor fear of the cross, do shrink from their profession of Christ,\nhis words, and laws, before the sons of men; I thought also of the\nglory that he had prepared for those that, in faith, and love, and\npatience, stood to his ways before them. These things, I say, have\nhelped me, when the thoughts of the misery that both myself and\nmine, might for the sake of my profession be exposed to, hath lain\npinching on my mine.\n\n332. When I have indeed conceited that I might be banished for\nmy profession, then I have thought of that scripture, \"They were\nstoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the\nsword; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being\ndestitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy\"\n(Heb 11:37), for all they thought they were too bad to dwell and\nabide amongst them. I have also thought of that saying, \"The Holy\nGhost witnesseth in every city, that bonds and afflictions abide\nme.\" I have verily thought that my soul and it[74] have sometimes\nreasoned about the sore and sad estate of a banished and exiled\ncondition, how they are exposed to hunger, to cold, to perils, to\nnakedness, to enemies, and a thousand calamities; and at last, it\nmay be, to die in a ditch, like a poor forlorn and desolate sheep.\nBut I thank God, hitherto I have not been moved by these most\ndelicate reasonings, but have rather, by them, more approved my\nheart to God.\n\n333. I will tell you a pretty business; I was once above all the\nrest in a very sad and low condition for many weeks; at which time\nalso I being but a young prisoner, and not acquainted with the\nlaws, had this lay much upon my spirit, That my imprisonment might\nend at the gallows for aught that I could tell. Now, therefore,\nSatan laid hard at me to beat me out of heart, by suggesting thus\nunto me, But how if when you come indeed to die, you should be in\nthis condition; that is, as not to savour the things of God, nor\nto have any evidence upon your soul for a better state hereafter?\nFor indeed at that time all the things of God were hid from my\nsoul.\n\n334. Wherefore, when I at first began to think of this, it was a great\ntrouble to me; for I thought with myself, that in the condition I\nnow was in, I was not fit to die, neither indeed did think I could,\nif I should be called to it: besides, I thought with myself, if I\nshould make a scrabbling[75] shift to clamber up the ladder, yet\nI should either with quaking, or other symptoms of faintings, give\noccasion to the enemy to reproach the way of God and his people, for\ntheir timorousness. This therefore lay with great trouble upon me,\nfor methought I was ashamed to die with a pale face, and tottering\nknees, for such a cause as this.\n\n335. Wherefore, I prayed to God that he would comfort me, and give\nme strength to do and suffer what he should call me to; yet no\ncomfort appeared, but all continued hid: I was also at this time\nso really possessed with the thought of death, that oft I was as if\nI was on the ladder with a rope about my neck; only this was some\nencouragement to me, I thought I might now have an opportunity\nto speak my last words to a multitude, which I thought would come\nto see me die; and, thought I, if it must be so, if God will but\nconvert one soul by my very last words, I shall not count my life\nthrown away, nor lost.\n\n336. But yet all the things of God were kept out of my sight, and\nstill the tempter followed me with, But whither must you go when you\ndie? What will become of you? Where will you be found in another\nworld? What evidence have you for heaven and glory, and an inheritance\namong them that are sanctified? Thus was I tossed for many weeks,\nand knew not what to do; at last this consideration fell with\nweight upon me, That it was for the Word and way of God, that I was\nin this condition, wherefore I was engaged not to flinch a hair's\nbreadth from it.\n\n337. I thought also, that God might choose, whether he would give\nme comfort now or at the hour of death, but I might not therefore\nchoose whether I would hold my profession or no: I was bound, but\nhe was free: yea, it was my duty to stand to his word, whether he\nwould ever look upon me or no, or save me at the last: wherefore,\nthought I, the point being thus, I am for going on, and venturing\nmy eternal state with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no;\nif God doth not come in, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even\nblindfold into eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell, Lord\nJesus, if thou wilt catch me, do; 'if not,' I will venture for thy\nname.\n\n338. I was no sooner fixed upon this resolution, but that word dropped\nupon me, \"Doth Job serve God for nought?\" As if the accuser had\nsaid, Lord, Job is no upright man, he serves thee for by-respects:\nhast thou not made a hedge about him, &c. \"But put forth thine\nhand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to\nthy face.\" How now, thought I, is this the sign of an upright soul,\nto desire to serve God, when all is taken from him? Is he a godly\nman, that will serve God for nothing rather than give out? blessed\nbe God, then, I hope I have an upright heart, for I am resolved,\nGod giving me strength, never to deny my profession, though I have\nnothing at all for my pains; and as I was thus considering, that\nscripture was set before me (Psa 44:12-26).[76]\n\n339. Now was my heart full of comfort, for I hoped it was sincere:\nI would not have been without this trial for much; I am comforted\nevery time I think of it, and I hope I shall bless God for ever\nfor the teaching I have had by it. Many more of the dealings of\nGod towards me I might relate, but these, \"Out of the spoils won\nin battles have I dedicated to maintain the house of the LORD\" (1\nChron 26:27).\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\n1. Of all the temptations that ever I met with in my life, to\nquestion the being 'of God,' and truth of his gospel, is the worst,\nand the worst to be borne; when this temptation comes, it takes\naway my girdle from me, and removeth the foundation from under me:\nO, I have often thought of that word, \"have your loins girt about\nwith truth\"; and of that, \"When the foundations are destroyed, what\ncan the righteous do?\"\n\n2. 'Sometimes, when, after sin committed, I have looked for sore\nchastisement from the hand of God, the very next that I have had\nfrom him hath been the discovery of his grace. Sometimes, when I\nhave been comforted, I have called myself a fool for my so sinking\nunder trouble. And then, again, when I have been cast down,\nI thought I was not wise, to give such way to comfort. With such\nstrength and weight have both these been upon me.'\n\n3. I have wondered much at this one thing, that though God doth\nvisit my soul with never so blessed a discovery of himself, yet I\nhave found again, that such hours have attended me afterwards, that\nI have been in my spirits so filled with darkness, that I could not\nso much as once conceive what that God and that comfort was with\nwhich I have been refreshed.\n\n4. I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could\nwell tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole\nBible hath been to me as dry as a stick; or rather, my heart hath\nbeen so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive the least\ndrachm of refreshment, though I have looked it 'all' over.\n\n5. Of all tears, they are the best that are made by the blood of\nChrist; and of all joy, that is the sweetest that is mixed with\nmourning over Christ. Oh! it is a goodly thing to be on our knees,\nwith Christ in our arms, before God. I hope I know something of\nthese things.\n\n6. I find to this day seven abominations in my heart: 1. Inclinings\nto unbelief. 2. Suddenly to forget the love and mercy that Christ\nmanifesteth. 3. A leaning to the works of the law. 4. Wanderings\nand coldness in prayer. 5. To forget to watch for that I pray for.\n6. Apt to murmur because I have no more, and yet ready to abuse\nwhat I have. 7. I can do none of those things which God commands\nme, but my corruptions will thrust in themselves, \"when I would do\ngood, evil is present with me.\"\n\n7. These things I continually see and feel, and am afflicted and\noppressed with; yet the wisdom of God doth order them for my good.\n1. They make me abhor myself. 2. They keep me from trusting my\nheart. 3. They convince me of the insufficiency of all inherent\nrighteousness. 4. They show me the necessity of flying to Jesus.\n5. They press me to pray unto God. 6. They show me the need I have\nto watch and be sober. 7. And provoke me to look to God, through\nChrist, to help me, and carry me through this world. Amen.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Dr. Cheever.\n\n2. Leicester was only besieged by the royal army, who took it, and\ncruelly treated the inhabitants; upon the republicans appearing\nbefore it, the city surrendered at once without a siege.--Ed.\n\n3. This should be the prayer and effort of every Christian for his\nbrethren and sisters in Christ, and more especially of those who\nare called to the public ministry.--Ed.\n\n4. The people of God look back on the day of their espousals with\nholy joy and thanksgiving to the God of their mercies; and they\ndelight in telling his goodness to others. \"Come and hear, all ye\nthat fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul\"\n(Psa 66:16).--Mason.\n\n5. How unspeakable the mercy that our omnipresent God will hear\nthe prayer of the heart under all circumstances, at all times, in\nall places. Had he limited it to certain forms, in certain buildings,\nread by certain men, what fearful merchandise of souls they would\nhave made.--Ed.\n\n6. Bunyan says very little about his parents in his treatise on\n'Christian Behaviour'; he concludes his observations on the duties\nof a pious son to ungodly parents with this remarkable prayer, 'The\nLord, if it be his will, convert OUR poor parents, that they, with\nus, may be the children of God.' Although this does not demonstrate\nthat his own parents were ungodly, yet his silence as to their piety\nupon all occasions when speaking of them, and the fervent feeling\nexpressed in this short prayer, inclines me to conclude that they\nwere not pious persons in his judgment.--Ed.\n\n7. Mr. Bunyan alludes to the poverty of his education in several\nof his works. Thus, in his Scriptural poems--\n\n\n   'I am no poet, nor a poet's son\n    But a mechanic, guided by no rule\n    But what I gained in a grammar school,\n    In my minority.'\n\n\nAnd in the preface to 'The Law and Grace': 'Reader, if thou do find\nthis book empty of fantastical expressions, and without light, vain,\nwhimsical, scholar-like terms; thou must understand, it is because\nI never went to school to Aristotle or Plato, but was brought up\nat my father's house, in a very mean condition, among a company of\npoor countrymen.'--Ed.\n\n8. 'I have been vile myself, but have obtained mercy; and I would\nhave my companions in sin partake of mercy too.'--Preface to\nJerusalem Sinner Saved.--Ed.\n\n9. Every careless sinner, or wicked professor, carries upon his\nforehead the name of Infidel and Atheist, a practical unbeliever in\nthe Bible, in the day of judgment, and in the existence of a holy\nGod.--Ed.\n\n10. Bunyan served in the wars between Charles I and his country,\nbut it is not known on which side. Judging from his 'delight in all\ntransgressions against the law of God,' as he describes his conduct\nto have been at that time, he must have served on the king's side,\nas one of his drunken cavaliers. Probably this event took place\nwhen Leicester was besieged by the king's troops.--Ed.\n\n11. The notice of his wife's father being a godly man, and not\nmentioning anything of the kind with regard to his own parents,\nstrengthens my conclusion that they were not professors of religion.\nThis very copy of the Pathway to Heaven here noticed, with the name\nof Bunyan on the title, is in the Editor's possession.--Ed.\n\n12. Asking his father this question, looks a little as if the family\nhad been connected with the gipsy tribe.--Ed.\n\n13. 'The king (James, 1618) put forth an order to permit everybody,\nas he had before given leave in the county of Lancaster, who should\ngo to evening prayer on the Lord's day, to divertise themselves\nwith lawful exercises, with leaping, dancing, playing at bowls,\nshooting with bows and arrows, as likewise to rear May poles, and\nto use May games and Morris dancing; but those who refused coming\nto prayers were forbidden to use these sports.'--(Camden's Annals).\nThe head of the Church of England had wondrous power thus to dispense\nwith God's laws.--Ed.\n\n14. 'Did cut the sinews,' first edition; properly altered by Bunyan\nafterwards to 'did benumb.'\n\n15. Tip cat, or cat, is an ancient English game, thus described\nin Strutt's Sports and Pastimes:--The game of cat is played with\na cudgel. Its denomination is derived from a piece of wood, about\nsix inches long and two thick, diminished from the middle to form\na double cone. When the cat is placed on the ground, the player\nstrikes it smartly--it matters not at which end--and it will rise\nwith a rotatory motion high enough for him to strike it; if he\nmisses, another player takes his place; if he hits, he calls for\na number to be scored to his game; if that number is more than as\nmany lengths of his cudgel, he is out; if not, they are scored,\nand he plays again.--Ed.\n\n16. This wish looks as if Bunyan's father had not checked him for\nthis wicked propensity; if so, he could not have pretended to piety\nor religion.--Ed.\n\n17. 'Tom of Bedlam'; a byword for an inveterate drunkard, alluding\nto an old interesting song describing the feelings of a poor maniac\nwhose frenzy had been induced by intoxication, and who escaped from\nBedlam.\n\n\n   'Poore naked Tom is very drye\n    A little drinke for charitye!'\n\n\nIt ends with this verse--\n\n\n   'The man in the moone drinkes claret,\n    Eates powder'd beef, turnip, and carret,\n    But a cup of old Malaga sacke\n    Will fire the bushe at his backe.'\n\n\nProbably the tale is connected with the drummer's tune, 'Drunk or\nsober, go to bed Tom.'--Ed.\n\n18. When the Lord, in his blessed work upon the soul, illuminated\nthe mind, he opens to it a new world; he leads the blind by a way\nthat they know not, crooked things become straight, rough places\nplain, and he never forsakes his charge.--Mason.\n\n19. 'Their talk went with me; my heart would tarry with them';\nnothing is so powerfully attractive as a community of feeling\nunder the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Bunyan's wish to be 'tried\nand searched,' reminds me of one who, when alarmed for his soul's\nsafety, earnestly prayed that he might be made increasingly wretched,\nuntil he had found safety in Jesus, and knew him, whom to know is\njoy unspeakable in this life, and felicity in the eternal world.--Ed.\n\n20. That bitter fanatic, Ross, calls the ranters 'a sort of beasts,'\nwho practiced sin that grace might abound. Many under that name were\nopenly profligate; they denied the sacraments, but were disowned\nby the Quakers. It seems, from Bunyan, that they were infatuated\nwith some idea that the grossest sins of the flesh did not injure\nthe sanctity of the spirit!--Ed.\n\n21. Faith comes by venturing wholly on Christ, as he is freely\noffered in the Word--mercy to the miserable--salvation to the lost\nand self-condemned. If we honour God's veracity by giving credit\nto his Word, he will honour that faith by giving us joy and peace\nin believing.--Mason.\n\n22. 'In downright earnest'; as one who is in imminent danger of\ndrowning, or in a house on fire, eager to escape. Reader, have you\never felt thus 'in downright earnest' for salvation? Blessed are\nthey that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they SHALL be\nfilled.--Ed.\n\n23. This is an interesting view of church fellowship; and the\nadmission of a convert to Christian communion. See also Christiana\nat the Interpreter's House, and the preface to Bunyan's 'Christian\nBehaviour.'--Ed.\n\n24. The Christian who is found waiting upon God, is the thriving\none; the best way to be assured of our election is to examine our\nstate with the touchstone of truth, the Scriptures. The elect of God\nknow Christ savingly, esteem him precious, and obey him cheerfully\nfrom love and gratitude.--Mason.\n\n25. 'Gingerly'; cautiously.\n\n'Has it a corn? or do's it walk on conscience, It treads so gingerly.'\nLove's Cure, Act ii., Scene 1.--Ed.\n\n26. Manifestations of love and grace are not to be rested in, or\nmade a saviour of; they are given to strengthen and prepare us for\nfuture trials.--Mason.\n\n27. Here we have Christian in the valley of the shadow of death. 'One\nthing I would not let slip, I took notice that now poor Christian\nwas so confounded, that he did not know his own voice; and thus I\nperceived it, just when he was come over against the mouth of the\nburning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stept up\nsoftly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies\nto him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own\nmind.'--Pilgrim's Progress.--Ed.\n\n28. 'Under her apron,' was altered in subsequent editions to 'in\nher arms.'--Ed.\n\n29. 'Poor fool'; altered, in later editions, to 'poor soul.'--Ed.\n\n30. John Gifford, Bunyan's pastor, was a Kentish man, and had been\na major in the King's army, a roistering cavalier. For some crimes,\nhe, with eleven others, was condemned to be hung, but made his\nescape to London, and thence to Bedford, where, being unknown, he\npracticed physic. Addicted to swearing, drinking, and gambling,\nhe, in distress at a serious loss, vowed repentance; he became\ngreatly distressed under conviction of sin; at length his mind was\nenlightened, the Holy Spirit led him to forgiveness by the atonement\nof Christ, and his heart was filled with a hitherto unknown source\nof blessedness. This he imparted to others, and at length, in 1650,\nformed a church, with which the soul-harassed pilgrim Bunyan cast\nin his lot as a member in 1653. There appears to have been a strong\nmutual affection between him and his pastor. In 1658, Mr. Gifford\npublished a preface to Bunyan's 'Few Sighs from Hell,' in which\nhe speaks of him with the warmest affection, as one 'that I verily\nbelieve God hath counted faithful, and put him into the ministry--one\nthat hath acquaintance with God, and taught by his Spirit, and hath\nbeen used to do souls good. Divers have felt the power of the word\ndelivered by him, and I doubt not but that many more may, if God\ncontinue him in his work.' Judging from Gifford's preface, he must\nhave been an excellent teacher to train Bunyan for his important\nlabours as a Christian minister. He uses the same fervid striking\nlanguage. Thus, on the value of the soul: 'Consider what an\nill bargain thou will make to sell thy precious soul for a short\ncontinuance in sin and pleasure. If that man drives an ill trade,\nwho to gain the whole world should lose his own soul, then certainly\nthou art far worse that sells thy soul for a very trifle. Oh, 'tis\npity that so precious a thing should be parted withal to be made a\nprey for the devouring lion, for that which is worse than nothing.\nIf they were branded for desperate wretches that caused their\nchildren to pass through the fire to Moloch, surely thou much more\nthat gives thy soul to devouring flames. What meanest thou, O man!\nto truck+ with the devil?'--See Sighs, 1st Edition, and Brooks'\nPuritans.--Ed.\n\n+ 'To truck'; to barter or exchange.\n\n31. That persons called Quakers held these heresies, there can be\nno doubt; but they were never held by that respectable and useful\nbody of Christians, the Society of Friends, is equally clear.\nBarclay, in his Theses, 1675, says of the Scriptures:--'They are\nthe doctrine of Christ, held forth in precious declarations, spoken\nand written by the movings of God's Spirit.' He goes on to say,\nthat the same Spirit can alone guide man into these sacred truths.\nIn all important doctrines, the difference between the Quakers\nand evangelical professors is in terms and not in things. Their\ndistinguishing difference relates to the work of the ministry.--Ed.\n\n32. How natural is it for man to build up vain hopes of long life!\nBunyan's vigorous constitution, had he enjoyed the free air of\nliberty, might have prolonged his pilgrimage to extreme old age.\nBut his long imprisonment shortened his valuable life: it almost\namounted to legal murder.--Ed.\n\n33. Bunyan, in his treatise on 'Jesus Christ the Advocate,' admirably\nshows the analogy between the year of jubilee and the Christian's\nreversion to his inheritance, although deprived for a time of the\ncomfort of it during his pilgrimage, by reason of sin.--Ed.\n\n34. He is a restless, powerful, and malicious enemy; ever striving\nto drive the sinner to desperation. Let the tempted look to Jesus\nthe serpent-bruiser to shield him, so that the fiery darts of the\nwicked one may be quenched.--Mason.\n\n35. Printed 'did hear' in first edition.--Ed.\n\n36. Altered to 'indeed' in later editions.--Ed.\n\n37. 'Racked or broken upon the wheel,' was a horrid mode of torturing\na criminal to death, formerly used in France. The sufferer was\nstretched and made fast upon a large wheel, when the executioner,\nwith a heavy iron bar, proceeded to break every bone in his body;\nbeginning with the toes and fingers, and proceeding to crush those\nbones that the least affected life, and ending by crushing the\nskull into the brains. How piercing must have been the convictions\nof sin upon Bunyan's soul, to have led him to such a simile!--Ed.\n\n38. 'A Relation of the Fearful Estate of Francis Spira.'\n\n\n   'Here see a soul that's all despair; a man\n    All hell; a spirit all wounds.\n    Reader, would'st see what may you never feel,\n    Despair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel?\n    Behold this man, this furnace, in whose heart,\n    Sin hath created hell.'\n\n\nFrom the address to the reader, in a copy of this awful narrative\nin possession of the Editor. Spira was filled with remorse and\ndespair for having been induced, by improper motives, to become a\npapist.--Ed.\n\n39. No Christian minister ever dwelt more richly on the 'Saint's\nKnowledge of Christ's Love' than Bunyan. See vol. ii. p. 1. It was\nthe result of this soul-harrowing experience. He there shows its\nheights exceeding the highest heavens, depths below the deepest hell,\nlengths and breadths beyond comprehension. That treatise ought to\nbe read and cherished by every trembling believer.--Ed.\n\n40. Alter, in later editions, to 'flying fits.'--Ed.\n\n41. Internal conflicts, dreams, or visions ought not to be the source\nof peace or of bitterness to the soul. If they drive us to Christ,\nwe may hope that they are from heaven for our relief; but if their\ntendency is to despair, by undervaluing the blood of atonement, or\nto lasciviousness, they are from Satan. Our real dependence must\nbe upon 'a more sure word of prophecy': if we are well-grounded in\nthe promises, it will save us from many harassing doubts and fears\nwhich arise from a reliance upon our feelings.--Ed.\n\n42. That a poor penitent should perish at the feet of Jesus is an\nutter impossibility. God, when manifest in the flesh, decreed, that\n'Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' 'I will\ngive him rest.' His Word must stand fast for ever.--Ed.\n\n43. How soul-rending a thought! but it can only be the case with\nthose who continue to their death despising the Saviour. Those\nwho love him are kept by almighty power, everlasting love, and\nirresistible grace.--Ed.\n\n44. Happy would it be for tempted souls, in their distress, to\nlook simply to the declarations and promises of God in the Word;\nwe there find salvation completed by Christ. Our duty is to look\nin faith and prayer to the Spirit of God for the application and\ncomfort of it.--Mason.\n\n45. However humbling, this is a truth not to be disputed. The wisest\nphilosopher and most illiterate peasant are upon a level, fallen\nfrom God. None will be excluded who come to Christ, whose gracious\ninvitation is general, 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of\nlife freely' (Rev 22:17).--Mason.\n\n46. This is the proper source of comfort--the records of infallible\ntruth. There is found mercy for the miserable, redemption for the\ncaptive, salvation for the lost, heaven for the hell-deserving\nsinner.--Mason.\n\n47. Though we may wait long for mercy, yet the hand of faith never\nknocked in vain at the door of heaven. Mercy is as surely ours as\nif we had it, if it be given us in faith and patience to wait for\nit.--Mason.\n\n48. To sin against light and knowledge, received in and by the\ngospel, is a very heinous aggravation of sin. The condition of\npersons simply ignorant is not so sad by far, as theirs who have\nbeen enlightened and yet afterwards apostatized. Let the formalist\nand lukewarm professors read this and tremble.--Mason.\n\n49. The Holy Spirit is the candle of the Lord, by whose light the\nawakened conscience is brought to see something of the mystery\nof iniquity lurking in the heart. He first convinces of sin,\nrighteousness, and judgment; and then points to Jesus as the only\nsecurity: 'Behold the Lamb of God.'--Mason.\n\n50. This is very beautifully expressed; nothing can be more descriptive\nof a poor pilgrim who has been toiling through the valley of the\nshadow of death, and upon whose soul the day-spring from on high\nhas arisen.--Ed.\n\n51. 'Cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies.' The humility of our\nauthor is here most unobtrusively apparent. He had some treasure in\nhis 'earthen vessel'; but, in comparison with his store in Christ,\nit was like a few cracked groats by the side of massive pure gold.\nWhat he meant by 'fourpence-halfpennies' somewhat puzzled me, there\nnever having been any piece of English money coined of that value.\nI found that a proclamation was issued shortly before Mr. Bunyan's\ntime (April 8, 1603), to save the people from being deceived with\nthe silver harp money of Ireland, purporting to be twelve and\nsixpenny pieces. It fixed the value of the Irish twelvepence to be\nninepence English; so that the Irish sixpence was to pass current\nfor fourpence-halfpenny in England. That accomplished antiquary,\nMr. Hawkins, the curator of the coins in the British Museum, shewed\nme this Irish silver money; and agreed with me in believing that\nBunyan alludes to these Irish sixpences, placing them in company\nwith cracked groats, depreciated in value. Mr. Hawkins was not\naware that they had been in common circulation in England.--Ed.\n\n52. 'Common or public,' belonging equally to many. Christ is the\nfederal or covenant head of his church, each member claiming an\nequal or common right to all his merits as a Saviour, Mediator,\nand Advocate.--Ed.\n\n53. This retort, or rebuke, is inserted twice in the first edition,\nprobably a typographical error.--Ed.\n\n54. See note on No. 152. The feelings of Bunyan must have been\nexceedingly pungent.--Ed.\n\n55. This is a view of the power given to the apostles to forgive\nor retain sins worthy of our serious consideration. That mysterious\npower, under the pretence of possessing which merchandise is\nmade of souls, if it was not limited to the apostles personally,\nwas intended to be used by all those whom God sends to preach the\ngospel; an authority to proclaim salvation or condemnation to those\nwho receive or reject the Saviour. Bunyan considers it a similar\npower to that given to the governors of the city of refuge; to\nadmit the terror-stricken soul that 'shall declare his cause'--or\nconfess his guilt--into the city, there to abide the judgment upon\nhim, as in Christ the Refuge. This is very different to turning\nGod out of his judgment-seat; as is the case when a poor worm says\nto his fellow-worm, 'I absolve thee from all thy sins.' See the\nvisitation of the sick, in the Book of Common Prayer.--Ed.\n\n56. The mode of admitting members into the church, among the\nBaptists, appears to have been the same in Bunyan's days as it is\nnow practiced. It is, first to be introduced to the minister, who\nendeavours to ascertain whether there is an earnest desire to flee\nfrom the wrath to come, sincere repentance, and faith in the Lord\nJesus Christ. If so, he mentions it to the church; and visitors are\nappointed, to encourage the young convert, and to scrutinize into\nmoral character. If they are satisfied, he is invited to attend a\nprivate church meeting; and if the members have a good hope that\nhe is a decided believer in Jesus, they receive him into their\nfellowship; and if he requests it, he is publicly baptized in\nwater, and communicates with the church at the Lord's table. This\nappears to have been the mode in which Bunyan was admitted into\nthe church at Bedford. Most of the Baptist churches now agree with\nBunyan, that the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or inward spiritual\nregeneration, is, alone, the essential pre-requisite to the Lord's\ntable; and they leave members to their own conclusions as to the\nvalidity of their having been sprinkled in infancy, or the necessity\nof immersion in water upon a profession of faith.--Ed.\n\n57. Many will be surprised that Bunyan, who was so ready a writer,\nshould be unable to tell what he saw and felt when in these holy\nenjoyments; but all who have had similar feelings will unite with\nhim in saying, they are inexpressible, great, and full of glory.--Ed.\n\n58. This is a very correct view of the excellent mode in which\ndissenting ministers are generally called to their important work.\nFirst, their gifts in prayer and conversation upon Divine things,\nand aptness in illustrating and confirming what they advance from\nthe Scriptures, is noticed; and, secondly, they are encouraged to\npray with and address the poor children in a Sunday school. If they\nmanifest an aptness to teach, they are, thirdly, invited to give\nan exhortation to the church privately; and then, fourthly, they\nare encouraged to pray and preach among the poor in country villages\nand in work-houses. The God who gave the wish and the talent, soon\nopens a way to still more public usefulness. In most cases, they\nenter upon a course of study, to fit them for their momentous labours;\nbut many of our most valuable ministers have, like Bunyan, relied\nentirely upon their prayerful investigation of the Scriptures. his\ncollege was a dungeon, his library the Bible; and he came forth\nwith gigantic power to grapple with the prince of darkness. No human\nlearning could have so fitted him for this terrible and mysterious\nwarfare.--Ed.\n\n59. 'With great sense,' means with great feeling, arising from his\nown acute experience.--Ed.\n\n60. In the first edition Bunyan says, 'I have lain as long,' (five\nyears). This was in 1666.--Ed.\n\n61. When God sends forth a zealous ambassador to publish the glad\ntidings of salvation to perishing sinners, he will be sure to meet\nwith the fiercest opposition from proud pharisaical professors:\nso it was from the beginning, and will be to the end of time; but\nthe Lord will work, and none shall hinder. Experimental preaching\nwill always be offensive to the carnal and profane.--Mason.\n\n62. It is impossible to identify the sect to which Bunyan belonged by\nreading his works. He rises above all sectarian bias in his earnest\nefforts to win souls to Christ, and to keep them in a heavenly\nframe of mine.--Ed.\n\n63. 'Other men's lines,' other men's compositions. Bunyan went\nhimself to the fountain head of Divine truth, and was not taught\nby the wisdom of his fellow-men in the things that pertained to\nsalvation. He spoke as he felt; and, while he copied no sentence from\nothers, no man that ever wrote has been so copied from by others.\nApplication was once made to the Editor, to publish an admirable\nsermon which had been taken in short hand from the lips of a D.D.;\nwhen, to the surprise of the applicant, he was shown the whole\nsermon in Bunyan's Heavenly Footman.--Ed.\n\n64. Altered, in later editions, to 'searching.'--Ed.\n\n65. Gifts are no evidence of God's favour; they are like the gold\nwhich adorned the temple, but grace, the saving grace of the Spirit,\nis like the altar which sanctifies the gold.--Mason..\n\n66. In this paragraph is displayed that modest genuine humility\nwhich shone so conspicuously in Bunyan. He possessed that popular\nnatural eloquence, by which he could deliver himself like an angel;\nbut when pride began to rise, he knocked it on the head with that\nsevere maul, 'Is it so much to be a fiddle' that Satan once so\nplayed upon?--Ed.\n\n67. One circumstance from which these vile slanders were raised,\nis narrated in the thrilling narrative of God's gracious dealings\nwith Mrs. Agnes Beaumont. She was waiting in hopes of attending\na meeting, when 'at last, quite unexpectedly, came Mr. Bunyan. The\nsight of him caused a mixture of joy and grief. I was glad to see\nhim, but afraid he would not be willing to take me up behind him,\nand how to ask him I knew not. At length my brother did; but Mr.\nBunyan answered, with some degree of roughness, \"No, I will not carry\nher.\" These words were cutting indeed, and made me weep bitterly.\nMy brother, perceiving my trouble, said, \"Sir, if you do not carry\nher, you will break her heart\"; but he made the same reply, adding,\n\"Your father would be grievously angry if I should.\" \"I will venture\nthat,\" said I. And thus, with much entreaty, he was prevailed on;\nand O how glad was I to think I was going. Soon after we set out,\nmy father came to my brother's, and asked his men whom his daughter\nrode behind? They said, Mr. Bunyan. Upon hearing this, his anger\nwas greatly inflamed; he ran down the close, thinking to overtake\nme, and pull me off the horse, but we were gone out of his reach.\n\n'I had not ridden far, before my heart began to be lifted up with\npride at the thoughts of riding behind this servant of the Lord;\nand was pleased if any looked after us, as we rode along. Indeed,\nI thought myself very happy that day: first, that it pleased God\nto make way for my going; and then, that I should have the honour\nto ride behind Mr. Bunyan, who would sometimes be speaking to me\nabout the things of God. My pride soon had a fall; for, in entering\nGam'gay, we were met by one Mr. Lane, a clergyman who lived at\nBedford, and knew us both, and spoke to us, but looked very hard\nat us as we rode along; and soon after raised a vile scandal upon\nus, though, blessed be God, it was false.'\n\nNo Christian should be without that deeply interesting volume of\nChristian experience, James' Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of\nGod with several Eminent Christians. The persecutions that Mrs.\nBeaumont went through were like a dreadful tempest, yet was she\njoyfully delivered out of them all.--Ed.\n\n68. 'All is a case,' all the same. A case--that which falls, comes,\nor happens; an event. See Blackie's Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n69. 'Baulks,' missing, omitting, leaving untouched. 'This was\nlooked for at your hand, and this was baulked; the double gill of\nthis opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now sailed into\nthe north of my lady's opinion; where you will hang like an icicle\non a Dutchman's beard.'--Twelfth Night, Act iii. Scene 2; and\nImperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n70. 'Above five year and a quarter' are the words in the first\nedition, 1666. His imprisonment commenced November 1660; the order\nfor his release bears date September 13, 1672, but it was some\nmonths before he was discharged.--Ed.\n\n71. Angel visits may be expected when Antichrist persecutes the\nChristian to bonds and imprisonment. An angel released Peter from\nprison; angels revealed to John, when exiled to Patmos, the wonders\nof his book of Revelation. The Lord of angels, the angel of the\ncovenant, communes with Bunyan in his dungeon, and converts it into\na Bethel to his soul; and this, for refusing obedience to the laws\nof his country, because those laws violated God's prerogative, and\nimpiously dared to assume authority which belongs exclusively to\nthe Almighty. They remain to this day a disgrace to our statutes,\nbut are never enforced.--Ed.\n\n72. Bunyan did well to prepare for the worst. He must have been\nfamiliar with the horrid cruelties practiced upon Dr. Leighton by\nthat fiend in human shape, Archbishop Laud. The pious and learned\ndoctor was caught in Bedfordshire; and the story of his unparalleled\nsufferings strengthened the Roundheads to deeds of valour,\nin putting an end to such diabolical cruelties. The spirit of the\ncharges against him were his saying that no king may make laws\nin the house of God; and that the bishops were ravens and magpies\nthat prey upon the state. His sufferings are narrated in Brooke's\nPuritans, vol. ii. p. 478.--Ed.\n\n73. 'Tuition' was altered to 'care' in later editions.--Ed.\n\n74. i.e., My profession--the soul, shrinking from pain, moving him\none way, and his profession another.--Ed.\n\n75. 'To scrabble,' to go on all fours--'to move along on the hands and\nknees, by clawing with the hands.'--Blackie's Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n76. This is the language of a heaven-born soul, which sees such\nbeauty and excellency in Christ, that it would not part with him for\na thousand worlds; if there were no heaven hereafter, his delight\nin the ways of God renders his service preferable to all the wealth,\ngrandeur, and vain pleasures of the ungodly.--Mason.\n\n***\n\nA RELATON OF THE IMPRISONMENT OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN, MINISTER OF THE\nGOSPEL AT BEDFORD, IN NOVEMBER 1660. HIS EXAMINATION BEFORE THE\nJUSTICES; HIS CONFERENCE WITH THE CLERK OF THE PEACE; WHAT PASSED\nBETWEEN THE JUDGES AND HIS WIFE WHEN SHE PRESENTED A PETITION FOR\nHIS DELIVERANCE, ETC.\n\nWRITTEN BY HIMSELF, AND NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.\n\n\"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake:\nfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall\nrevile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil\nagainst you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:\nfor great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the\nprophets which were before you.\" Matthew 5:10-12\n\nLondon: Printed for James Buckland, at the Buck, in Paternoster\nRow, MDCCLXV.\n\nThe relation of my imprisonment in the month of November 1660.\n\nWhen, by the good hand of my God, I had for five or six years\ntogether, without any interruption, freely preached the blessed\ngospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and had also, through his blessed\ngrace, some encouragement by his blessing thereupon; the devil,\nthat old enemy of man's salvation, took his opportunity to inflame\nthe hearts of his vassals against me, insomuch that at the last\nI was laid out for by the warrant of a justice, and was taken and\ncommitted to prison. The relation thereof is as followeth:\n\nUpon the 12th of this instant November 1660, I was desired by\nsome of the friends in the country to come to teach at Samsell,\nby Harlington, in Bedfordshire. To whom I made a promise, if the\nLord permitted, to be with them on the time aforesaid. The justice\nhearing thereof, whose name is Mr. Francis Wingate, forthwith issued\nout his warrant to take me, and bring me before him, and in the\nmeantime to keep a very strong watch about the house where the\nmeeting should be kept, as if we that were to meet together in that\nplace did intend to do some fearful business, to the destruction\nof the country; when, alas, the constable, when he came in, found\nus only with our Bibles in our hands, ready to speak and hear the\nWord of God; for we were just about to begin our exercise. Nay, we\nhad begun in prayer for the blessing of God upon our opportunity,\nintending to have preached the Word of the Lord unto them there\npresent;[1] but the constable coming in prevented us; so that I\nwas taken and forced to depart the room. But had I been minded to\nhave played the coward, I could have escaped, and kept out of his\nhands. For when I was come to my friend's house, there was whispering\nthat that day I should be taken, for there was a warrant out to\ntake me; which when my friend heard, he being somewhat timorous,\nquestioned whether we had best have our meeting or not; and whether\nit might not be better for me to depart, lest they should take me\nand have me before the justice, and after that send me to prison,\nfor he knew better than I what spirit they were of, living by them;\nto whom I said, No, by no means, I will not stir, neither will I\nhave the meeting dismissed for this. Come, be of good cheer, let\nus not be daunted; our cause is good, we need not be ashamed of\nit; to preach God's Word is so good a work, that we shall be well\nrewarded, if we suffer for that; or to this purpose; but as for my\nfriend, I think he was more afraid of [for] me, than of himself.\nAfter this I walked into the close, where, I somewhat seriously\nconsidering the matter, this came into my mind, That I had showed\nmyself hearty and courageous in my preaching, and had, blessed be\ngrace, made it my business to encourage others; therefore, thought\nI, if I should now run, and make an escape, it will be of a very\nill savour in the country. For what will my weak and newly converted\nbrethren think of it, but that I was not so strong indeed as I was\nin word? Also I feared that if I should run, now there was a warrant\nout for me, I might by so doing make them afraid to stand, when\ngreat words only should be spoken to them. Besides, I thought,\nthat seeing God of his mercy should choose me to go upon the forlorn\nhope in this country; that is, to be the first, that should be\nopposed, for the gospel; if I should fly, it might be a discouragement\nto the whole body that might follow after. And further, I thought\nthe world thereby would take occasion at my cowardliness, to have\nblasphemed the gospel, and to have had some ground to suspect worse\nof me and my profession than I deserved. These things with others\nconsidered by me, I came in again to the house, with a full resolution\nto keep the meeting, and not to go away, though I could have been\ngone about an hour before the officer apprehended me; but I would\nnot; for I was resolved to see the utmost of what they could say\nor do unto me. For blessed be the Lord, I knew of no evil that I\nhad said or done. And so, as aforesaid, I began the meeting. But\nbeing prevented by the constable's coming in with his warrant to\ntake me, I could not proceed. But before I went away, I spake some\nfew words of counsel and encouragement to the people, declaring to\nthem, that they saw we were prevented of our opportunity to speak\nand hear the Word of God, and were like to suffer for the same:\ndesiring them that they should not be discouraged, for it was a mercy\nto suffer upon so good account. For we might have been apprehended\nas thieves or murderers, or for other wickedness; but blessed be\nGod it was not so, but we suffer as Christians for well doing: and\nwe had better be the persecuted than the persecutors, &c. But the\nconstable and the justice's man waiting on us, would not be at\nquiet till they had me away, and that we departed the house. But\nbecause the justice was not at home that day, there was a friend\nof mine engaged for me to bring me to the constable on the morrow\nmorning. Otherwise the constable must have charged a watch with\nme, or have secured me some other ways, my crime was so great. So\non the next morning we went to the constable, and so the justice.[2]\nHe asked the constable what we did, where we were met together,\nand what we had with us? I trow, he meant whether we had armour\nor not; but when the constable told him, that there were only met\na few of us together to preach and hear the Word, and no sign of\nanything else, he could not well tell what to say: yet because he\nhad sent for me, he did adventure to put out a few proposals to\nme, which were to this effect, namely, What I did there? and why\nI did not content myself with following my calling? for it was\nagainst the law, that such as I should be admitted to do as I did.\n\nJohn Bunyan. To which I answered, that the intent of my coming\nthither, and to other places, was to instruct, and counsel people\nto forsake their sins, and close in with Christ, lest they did miserably\nperish; and that I could do both these without confusion, to wit,\nfollow my calling, and preach the Word also. At which words, he\nwas in a chafe,[3] as it appeared; for he said that he would break\nthe neck of our meetings.\n\nBun. I said, it may be so. Then he wished me to get sureties to be\nbound for me, or else he would send me to the jail.\n\nMy sureties being ready, I called them in, and when the bond for\nmy appearance was made, he told them, that they were bound to keep\nme from preaching; and that if I did preach, their bonds would\nbe forfeited. To which I answered, that then I should break them;\nfor I should not leave speaking the Word of God: even to counsel,\ncomfort, exhort, and teach the people among whom I came; and I\nthought this to be a work that had no hurt in it: but was rather\nworthy of commendation than blame.\n\nWingate. Whereat he told me, that if they would not be so bound,\nmy mittimus must be made, and I sent to the jail, there to lie to\nthe quarter-sessions.\n\nNow while my mittimus was making, the justice was withdrawn; and\nin comes an old enemy to the truth, Dr. Lindale, who, when he was\ncome in, fell to taunting at me with many reviling terms.\n\nBun. To whom I answered, that I did not come thither to talk with\nhim, but with the justice. Whereat he supposed that I had nothing\nto say for myself, and triumphed as if he had got the victory;\ncharging and condemning me for meddling with that for which I could\nshow no warrant; and asked me, if I had taken the oaths? and if I\nhad not, it was pity but that I should be sent to prison, &c.\n\nI told him, that if I was minded, I could answer to any sober question\nthat he should put to me. He then urged me again, how I could prove\nit lawful for me to preach, with a great deal of confidence of the\nvictory.\n\nBut at last, because he should see that I could answer him if I\nlisted, I cited to him that verse in Peter, which saith, \"As every\nman hath received the gift, even so let him minister the same,\"\n&c.\n\nLind. Aye, saith he, to whom is that spoken?\n\nBun. To whom, said I, why, to every man that hath received a gift\nfrom God. Mark, saith the apostle, \"As every man that hath received\na gift from God,\" &c. And again, \"You may all prophesy one by one.\"\nWhereat the man was a little stopt, and went a softlier pace: but\nnot being willing to lose the day, he began again, and said:\n\nLind. Indeed I do remember that I have read of one Alexander a\ncoppersmith, who did much oppose and disturb the apostles;--aiming,\nit is like, at me, because I was a tinker.\n\nBun. To which I answered, that I also had read of very many priests\nand Pharisees that had their hands in the blood of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\n\nLind. Aye, saith he, and you are one of those scribes and Pharisees:\nfor you, with a pretence, make long prayers to devour widows'\nhouses.\n\nBun. I answered, that if he had got no more by preaching and praying\nthan I had done, he would not be so rich as he now was. But that\nscripture coming into my mind, \"Answer not a fool according to his\nfolly,\" I was as sparing of my speech as I could, without prejudice\nto truth.\n\nNow by this time my mittimus was made, and I committed to the\nconstable to be sent to the jail in Bedford, &c.\n\nBut as I was going, two of my brethren met with me by the way, and\ndesired the constable to stay, supposing that they should prevail\nwith the justice, through the favour of a pretended friend, to let\nme go at liberty. So we did stay, while they went to the justice;\nand after much discourse with him, it came to this; that if I would\ncome to him again, and say some certain words to him, I should be\nreleased. Which when they told me, I said if the words were such\nthat might be said with a good conscience, I should, or, else,\nI should not. So through their importunity I went back again, but\nnot believing that I should be delivered: for I feared their spirit\nwas too full of opposition to the truth to let me go, unless I should\nin something or other dishonour my God, and wound my conscience.\nWherefore, as I went, I lifted up my heart to God for light and\nstrength to be kept, that I might not do anything that might either\ndishonour him, or wrong my own soul, or be a grief or discouragement\nto any that was inclining after the Lord Jseus Christ.\n\nWell, when I came to the justice again, there was Mr. Foster of\nBedford, who coming out of another room, and seeing of me by the\nlight of the candle, for it was dark night when I came thither, he\nsaid unto me, Who is there? John Bunyan? with such seeming affection,\nas if he would have leaped in my neck and kissed[4] me, which made\nme somewhat wonder, that such a man as he, with whom I had so little\nacquaintance, and, besides, that had ever been a close opposer of\nthe ways of God, should carry himself so full of love to me; but,\nafterwards, when I saw what he did, it caused me to remember those\nsayings, \"Their tongues are smoother than oil, but their words are\ndrawn swords.\" And again, \"Beware of men,\" &c. when I had answered\nhim, that blessed be God I was well, he said, What is the occasion\nof your being here? or to that purpose. To whom I answered, that\nI was at a meeting of people a little way off, intending to speak\na word of exhortation to them; but the justice hearing thereof, said\nI, was pleased to send his warrant to fetch me before him, &c.\n\nFoster. So, said he, I understand; but well, if you will promise\nto call the people no more together, you shall have your liberty\nto go home; for my brother is very loath to send you to prison, if\nyou will be but ruled.\n\nBun. Sir, said I, pray what do you mean by calling the people\ntogether? My business is not anything among them, when they are\ncome together, but to exhort them to look after the salvation of\ntheir souls, that they may be saved, &c.\n\nFost. Saith he, We must not enter into explication or dispute now;\nbut if you will say you will call the people no more together, you\nmay have your liberty; if not, you must be sent away to prison.\n\nBun. Sir, said I, I shall not force or compel any man to hear\nme; but yet, if I come into any place where there is a people met\ntogether, I should, according to the best of my skill and wisdom,\nexhort and counsel them to seek out after the Lord Jesus Christ,\nfor the salvation of their souls.\n\nFost. He said, that was none of my work; I must follow my calling;\nand if I would but leave off preaching, and follow my calling, I\nshould have the justice's favour, and be acquitted presently.\n\nBun. To whom I said, that I could follow my calling and that too,\nnamely, preaching the Word; and I did look upon it as my duty to\ndo them both, as I had an opportunity.\n\nFost. He said, to have any such meetings was against the law; and,\ntherefore, he would have me leave off, and say I would call the\npeople no more together.\n\nBun. To whom I said, that I durst not make any further promise; for\nmy conscience would not suffer me to do it. And again, I did look\nupon it as my duty to do as much good as I could, not only in my\ntrade, but also in communicating to all people, wheresoever I came,\nthe best knowledge I had in the Word.\n\nFost. He told me that I was the nearest the Papists of any, and\nthat he would convince me of immediately.\n\nBun. I asked him wherein?\n\nFost. He said, in that we understood the Scriptures literally.\n\nBun. I told him that those that were to be understood literally,\nwe understood them so; but for those that were to be understood\notherwise, we endeavoured so to understand them.\n\nFost. He said, which of the Scriptures do you understand literally?\n\nBun. I said this, \"he that believeth shall be saved.\" This was to\nbe understood just as it is spoken; that whosoever believeth in\nChrist shall, according to the plain and simple words of the text,\nbe saved.\n\nFost. He said that I was ignorant, and did not understand the\nScriptures; for how, said he, can you understand them when you know\nnot the original Greek? &c.\n\nBun. To whom I said, that if that was his opinion, that none could\nunderstand the Scriptures but those that had the original Greek,\n&c., then but a very few of the poorest sort should be saved; this\nis harsh; yet the Scripture saith, \"That God hides these things\nfrom the wise and prudent,\" that is, from the learned of the world,\n\"and reveals them to babes and sucklings.\"\n\nFost. He said there were none that heard me but a company of foolish\npeople.\n\nBun. I told him that there were the wise as well as the foolish\nthat do hear me; and again, those that are most commonly counted\nfoolish by the world are the wisest before God; also, that God had\nrejected the wise, and mighty, and noble, and chosen the foolish\nand the base.\n\nFost. He told me that I made people neglect their calling; and\nthat God had commanded people to work six days, and serve him on\nthe seventh.\n\nBun. I told him that it was the duty of people, both rich and poor,\nto look out for their souls on those days as well as for their\nbodies; and that God would have his people \"exhort one another\ndaily, while it is called to-day.\"\n\nFost. He said again that there was none but a company of poor,\nsimple, ignorant people that came to hear me.\n\nBun. I told him that the foolish and ignorant had most need of\nteaching and information; and, therefore, it would be profitable\nfor me to go on in that work.\n\nFost. Well, said he, to conclude, but will you promise that you\nwill not call the people together any more? and then you may be\nreleased and go home.\n\nBun. I told him that I durst say no more than I had said; for I\ndurst not leave off that work which God had called me to.\n\nSo he withdrew from me, and then came several of the justice's\nservants to me, and told me that I stood so much upon a nicety.\nTheir master, they said, was willing to let me go; and if I would\nbut say I would call the people no more together, I might have my\nliberty, &c.\n\nBun. I told them there were more ways than one in which a man\nmight be said to call the people together. As, for instance, if a\nman get upon the market place, and there read a book, or the like,\nthough he do not say to the people, Sirs, come hither and hear;\nyet if they come to him because he reads, he, by his very reading,\nmay be said to call them together; because they would not have been\nthere to hear if he had not been there to read. And seeing this\nmight be termed a calling the people together, I durst not say I\nwould not call them together; for then, by the same argument, my\npreaching might be said to call them together.\n\nWing. and Fost. Then came the justice and Mr. Foster to me again;\nwe had a little more discourse about preaching, but because the\nmethod of it is out of my mind, I pass it; and when they saw that\nI was at a point, and would not be moved nor persuaded,\n\nMr. Foster, the man that did at the first express so much love to\nme, told the justice that then he must send me away to prison. And\nthat he would do well, also, if he would present all those that\nwere the cause of my coming among them to meetings. Thus we parted.\n\nAnd, verily, as I was going forth of the doors, I had much ado to\nforbear saying to them that I carried the peace of God along with\nme; but I held my peace, and, blessed be the Lord, went away to\nprison, with God's comfort in my poor soul.\n\nAfter I had lain in the jail five or six days, the brethren sought\nmeans, again, to get me out by bondsmen; for so ran my mittimus,\nthat I should lie there till I could find sureties. They went to\na justice at Elstow, one Mr. Crumpton, to desire him to take bond\nfor my appearing at the quarter-sessions. At the first he told\nthem he would; but afterwards he made a demur at the business, and\ndesired first to see my mittimus, which run to this purpose: That\nI went about to several conventicles in this county, to the great\ndisparagement of the government of the church of England, &c. When\nhe had seen it, he said that there might be something more against\nme than was expressed in my mittimus; and that he was but a young\nman, and, therefore, he durst not do it. This my jailer told me;\nwhereat I was not at all daunted, but rather glad, and saw evidently\nthat the Lord had heard me; for before I went down to the justice,\nI begged of God that if I might do more good by being at liberty\nthan in prison, that then I might be set at liberty; but if not,\nhis will be done; for I was not altogether without hopes but that\nmy imprisonment might be an awakening to the saints in the country,\ntherefore I could not tell well which to choose; only I, in that\nmanner, did commit the thing to God. And verily, at my return, I\ndid meet my God sweetly in the prison again, comforting of me and\nsatisfying of me that it was his will and mind that I should be\nthere.[5]\n\nWhen I came back again to prison, as I was musing at the slender\nanswer of the justice, this word dropt in upon my heart with some\nlife, \"For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.\"\n\nThus have I, in short, declared the manner and occasion of my being\nin prison; where I lie waiting the good will of God, to do with me\nas he pleaseth; knowing that not one hair of my head can fall to\nthe ground without the will of my Father which is in heaven. Let\nthe rage and malice of men be never so great, they can do no more,\nnor go no further, than God permits them; but when they have done\ntheir worst, \"We know that all things work together for good to\nthem that love God\" (Rom 8:28). Farewell.\n\nHere is the sum of my Examination before Justice Keelin, Justice\nChester, Justice Blundale, Justice Beecher, and Justice Snagg, &c.\n\nAfter I had lain in prison above seven weeks, the quarter-sessions\nwas to be kept in Bedford, for the county thereof, unto which I was\nto be brought; and when my jailer had set me before those justices,\nthere was a bill of indictment preferred against me. The extent\nthereof was as followeth: 'That John Bunyan, of the town of\nBedford, labourer, being a person of such and such conditions, he\nhath, since such a time, devilishly and perniciously abstained from\ncoming to church to hear Divine service, and is a common upholder\nof several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great\ndisturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom,\ncontrary to the laws of our sovereign lord the King,' &c.\n\nThe Clerk. When this was read, the clerk of the sessions said unto\nme, What say you to this?\n\nBun. I said, that as to the first part of it, I was a common\nfrequenter of the church of God. And was also, by grace, a member\nwith the people over whom Christ is the Head.\n\nKeelin. But, saith Justice Keelin, who was the judge in that court?\nDo you come to church, you know what I mean; to the parish church,\nto hear Divine service?\n\nBun. I answered, No, I did not.\n\nKeel. He asked me why?\n\nBun. I said, Because I did not find it commanded in the Word of\nGod.\n\nKeel. He said, We were commanded to pray.\n\nBun. I said, But not by the Common Prayer Book.\n\nKeel. He said, How then?\n\nBun. I said, With the Spirit. As the apostle saith, \"I will pray\nwith the Spirit, and--with the understanding\" (1 Cor 14:15).\n\nKeel. He said, We might pray with the Spirit, and with the\nunderstanding, and with the Common Prayer Book also.\n\nBun. I said that the prayers in the Common Prayer Book were such as\nwere made by other men, and not by the motions of the Holy Ghost,\nwithin our hearts; and as I said, the apostle saith, he will pray\nwith the Spirit, and with the understanding; not with the Spirit\nand the Common Prayer Book.\n\nAnother Justice. What do you count prayer? Do you think it is to\nsay a few words over before or among a people?\n\nBun. I said, No, not so; for men might have many elegant, or\nexcellent words, and yet not pray at all; but when a man prayeth,\nhe doth, through a sense of those things which he wants, which sense\nis begotten by the Spirit, pour out his heart before God through\nChrist; though his words be not so many and so excellent as others\nare.\n\nJustices. They said, That was true.\n\nBun. I said, This might be done without the Common Prayer Book.\n\nAnother. One of them said (I think it was Justice Blundale, or\nJustice Snagg), How should we know that you do not write out your\nprayers first, and then read them afterwards to the people? This\nhe spake in a laughing way.\n\nBun. I said, It is not our use, to take a pen and paper, and write\na few words thereon, and then go and read it over to a company of\npeople.\n\nBut how should we know it, said he?\n\nBun. Sir, it is none of our custom, said I.\n\nKeel. But, said Justice Keelin, it is lawful to use Common Prayer,\nand such like forms: for Christ taught his disciples to pray, as\nJohn also taught his disciples. And further, said he, cannot one\nman teach another to pray? \"Faith comes by hearing\"; and one man\nmay convince another of sin, and therefore prayers made by men,\nand read over, are good to teach, and help men to pray.\n\nWhile he was speaking these words, God brought that word into my\nmind, in the eighth of the Romans, at the 26th verse. I say, God\nbrought it, for I thought not on it before: but as he was speaking,\nit came so fresh into my mind, and was set so evidently before me,\nas if the scripture had said, Take me, take me; so when he had done\nspeaking,\n\nBun. I said, Sir, the Scripture saith, that it is the Spirit that\nhelpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as\nwe ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with\n[sighs and] groanings which cannot be uttered. Mark, said I, it\ndoth not say the Common Prayer Book teacheth us how to pray, but\nthe Spirit. And it is \"the Spirit that helpeth our infirmities,\"\nsaith the apostle; he doth not say it is the Common Prayer Book.\n\nAnd as to the Lord's prayer, although it be an easy thing to say,\n\"Our Father,\" &c., with the mouth; yet there are very few that\ncan, in the Spirit, say the two first words in that prayer; that\nis, that can call God their Father, as knowing what it is to be\nborn again, and a having experience, that they are begotten of the\nSpirit of God; which if they do not, all is but babbling, &c.[6]\n\nKeel. Justice Keelin said, that that was a truth.\n\nBun. And I say further, as to your saying that one man may convince\nanother of sin, and that faith comes by hearing, and that one man\nmay tell another how he should pray, &c., I say men may tell each\nother of their sins, but it is the Spirit that must convince them.\n\nAnd though it be said that \"faith comes by hearing,\" yet it is the\nSpirit that worketh faith in the heart through hearing, or else\nthey are not profited by hearing (Heb 4:12).\n\nAnd that though one man may tell another how he should pray; yet,\nas I said before, he cannot pray, nor make his condition known to\nGod, except the Spirit help. It is not the Common Prayer Book that\ncan do this. It is the Spirit that showeth us our sins, and the\nSpirit that showeth us a Saviour (John 16:16); and the Spirit that\nstirreth up in our hearts desires to come to God, for such things\nas we stand in need of (Matt 11:27), even sighing out our souls\nunto him for them with \"groans which cannot be uttered.\" With other\nwords to the same purpose. At this they were set.\n\nKeel. But, says Justice Keelin, what have you against the Common\nPrayer Book?\n\nBun. I said, Sir, if you will hear me, I shall lay down my reasons\nagainst it.\n\nKeel. He said, I should have liberty; but first, said he, let me\ngive you one caution; take heed of speaking irreverently of the\nCommon Prayer Book; for if you do so, you will bring great damage\nupon yourself.\n\nBun. So I proceeded, and said, My first reason was, because it was\nnot commanded in the Word of God, and therefore I could not use\nit.\n\nAnother. One of them said, Where do you find it commanded in the\nScripture, that you should go to Elstow, or Bedford, and yet it is\nlawful to go to either of them, is it not?\n\nBun. I said, To go to Elstow, or Bedford, was a civil thing, and\nnot material, though not commanded, and yet God's Word allowed me\nto go about my calling, and therefore if it lay there, then to go\nthither, &c. But to pray, was a great part of the Divine worship\nof God, and therefore it ought to be done according to the rule of\nGod's Word.\n\nAnother. One of them said, He will do harm; let him speak no further.\n\nKeel. Justice Keelin said, No, no, never fear him, we are better\nestablished than so; he can do no harm; we know the Common Prayer\nBook hath been ever since the apostles' time, and is lawful for it\nto be used in the church.\n\nBun. I said, Show me the place in the epistles where the Common\nPrayer Book is written, or one text of Scripture that commands me\nto read it, and I will use it. But yet, notwithstanding, said I,\nthey that have a mind to use it, they have their liberty;[7] that\nis, I would not keep them from it; but for our parts, we can pray\nto God without it. Blessed be his name.\n\nWith that, one of them said, Who is your God? Beelzebub? Moreover,\nthey often said that I was possessed with the spirit of delusion,\nand of the devil. All which sayings I passed over; the Lord\nforgive them! And further, I said, blessed be the Lord for it, we\nare encouraged to meet together, and to pray, and exhort one another;\nfor we have had the comfortable presence of God among us. For ever\nblessed be his holy name!\n\nKeel. Justice Keelin called this pedlar's French, saying, that I\nmust leave off my canting. The Lord open his eyes!\n\nBun. I said, that we ought to \"exhort one another daily, while it\nis called to-day,\" &c. (Heb 3:13).\n\nKeel. Justice Keelin said, that I ought not to preach; and asked\nme where I had my authority? with other such like words.\n\nBun. I said, that I would prove that it was lawful for me, and such\nas I am, to preach the Word of God.\n\nKeel. He said unto me, By what scripture?\n\nI said, By that in the first epistle of Peter, chapter 4, the 10th\nverse, and Acts 18 with other scriptures, which he would not suffer\nme to mention. But said, Hold; not so many, which is the first?\n\nBun. I said, this: \"As every man hath received the gift, even so\nminister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold\ngrace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of\nGod,\" &c.\n\nKeel. He said, Let me a little open that scripture to you: 'As every\nman hath received the gift'; that is, said he, as every one hath\nreceived a trade, so let him follow it. If any man have received a\ngift of tinkering, as thou hast done, let him follow his tinkering.\nAnd so other men their trades; and the divine his calling, &c.\n\nBun. Nay, Sir, said I, but it is most clear, that the apostle speaks\nhere of preaching the Word; if you do but compare both the verses\ntogether, the next verse explains this gift what it is, saying, 'If\nany man speak let him speak as the oracles of God.' So that it is\nplain, that the Holy Ghost doth not so much in this place exhort\nto civil callings, as to the exercising of those gifts that we have\nreceived from God. I would have gone on, but he would not give me\nleave.\n\nKeel. He said, We might do it in our families, but not otherwise.\n\nBun. I said, If it was lawful to do good to some, it was lawful to\ndo good to more. If it was a good duty to exhort our families, it\nis good to exhort others; but if they held it a sin to meet together\nto seek the face of God, and exhort one another to follow Christ,\nI should sin still; for so we should do.\n\nKeel. He said he was not so well versed in Scripture as to dispute,\nor words to that purpose. And said, moreover, that they could\nnot wait upon me any longer; but said to me, Then you confess the\nindictment, do you not? Now, and not till now, I saw I was indicted.\n\nBun. I said, This I confess, we have had many meetings together,\nboth to pray to God, and to exhort one another, and that we had the\nsweet comforting presence of the Lord among us for our encouragement;\nblessed be his name therefore. I confessed myself guilty no otherwise.\n\nKeel. Then, said he, hear your judgment. You must be had back again\nto prison, and there lie for three months following; and at three\nmonths' end, if you do not submit to go to church to hear Divine\nservice, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm:\nand if, after such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you\nshall be found in this realm, &c., or be found to come over again\nwithout special license from the king, &c.,[8] you must stretch by\nthe neck for it, I tell you plainly; and so bid my jailer have me\naway.\n\nBun. I told him, as to this matter, I was at a point with him;\nfor if I was out of prison to-day I would preach the gospel again\nto-morrow, by the help of God.\n\nAnother. To which one made me some answer; but my jailer pulling\nme away to be gone, I could not tell what he said.\n\nThus I departed from them; and I can truly say, I bless the Lord\nJesus Christ for it, that my heart was sweetly refreshed in the\ntime of my examination; and also afterwards, at my returning to\nthe prison. So that I found Christ's words more than bare trifles,\nwhere he saith, \"I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your\nadversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist\" (Luke 21:15).\nAnd that his peace no man can take from us.\n\nThus have I given you the substance of my examination. The Lord\nmake these profitable to all that shall read or hear them. Farewell.\n\nThe Substance of some Discourse had between the Clerk of the Peace\nand myself, when he came to admonish me, according to the tenor of\nthat Law by which I was in Prison.\n\nWhen I had lain in prison other twelve weeks, and now not knowing\nwhat they intended to do with me, upon the 3rd of April 1661,\ncomes Mr. Cobb unto me, as he told me, being sent by the justices\nto admonish me; and demanded of me submittance to the Church of\nEngland, &c. The extent of our discourse was as followeth:--\n\nCobb. When he was come into the house he sent for me out of my\nchamber; who, when I was come unto him, he said, Neighbour Bunyan,\nhow do you do?\n\nBun. I thank you, Sir, said I, very well, blessed be the Lord.\n\nCobb. Saith he, I come to tell you that it is desired you would submit\nyourself to the laws of the land, or else at the next sessions it\nwill go worse with you, even to be sent away out of the nation, or\nelse worse than that.\n\nBun. I said that I did desire to demean myself in the world, both\nas becometh a man and a Christian.\n\nCobb. But, saith he, you must submit to the laws of the land, and\nleave off those meetings which you was wont to have; for the statute\nlaw is directly against it; and I am sent to you by the justices\nto tell you that they do intend to prosecute the law against you\nif you submit not.\n\nBun. I said, Sir, I conceive that that law by which I am in prison\nat this time doth not reach or condemn either me or the meetings\nwhich I do frequent; that law was made against those that, being\ndesigned to do evil in their meetings, making the exercise of religion\ntheir pretence, to cover their wickedness. It doth not forbid the\nprivate meetings of those that plainly and simply make it their only\nend to worship the Lord, and to exhort one another to edification.\nMy end in meeting with others is simply to do as much good as I\ncan, by exhortation and counsel, according to that small measure\nof light which God hath given me, and not to disturb the peace of\nthe nation.\n\nCobb. Every one will say the same, said he; you see the late\ninsurrection at London, under what glorious pretences they went;\nand yet, indeed, they intended no less than the ruin of the kingdom\nand commonwealth.[9]\n\nBun. That practice of theirs I abhor, said I; yet it doth not follow\nthat, because they did so, therefore all others will do so. I look\nupon it as my duty to behave myself under the King's government,\nboth as becomes a man and a Christian, and if an occasion were\noffered me, I should willingly manifest my loyalty to my Prince,\nboth by word and deed.\n\nCobb. Well, said he, I do not profess myself to be a man that can\ndispute; but this I say, truly, neighbour Bunyan, I would have you\nconsider this matter seriously, and submit yourself; you may have\nyour liberty to exhort your neighbour in private discourse, so be\nyou do not call together an assembly of people; and, truly, you\nmay do much good to the church of Christ, if you would go this way;\nand this you may do, and the law not abridge you of it. It is your\nprivate meetings that the law is against.\n\nBun. Sir, said I, if I may do good to one by my discourse, why may\nI not do good to two? and if to two, why not to four, and so to\neight? &c.\n\nCobb. Ay, saith he, and to a hundred, I warrant you.\n\nBun. Yes, Sir, said I, I think I should not be forbid to do as much\ngood as I can.\n\nCobb. But, saith he, you may but pretend to do good, and indeed,\nnotwithstanding, do harm, by seducing the people; you are, therefore,\ndenied your meeting so many together, lest you should do harm.\n\nBun. And yet, said I, you say the law tolerates me to discourse\nwith my neighbour; surely there is no law tolerates me to seduce any\none; therefore, if I may, by the law, discourse with one, surely\nit is to do him good; and if I, by discoursing, may do good to one,\nsurely, by the same law, I may do good to many.\n\nCobb. The law, saith he, doth expressly forbid your private meetings;\ntherefore they are not to be tolerated.\n\nBun. I told him that I would not entertain so much uncharitableness of\nthat Parliament in the 35th of Elizabeth, or of the Queen herself,\nas to think they did, by that law, intend the oppressing of any of\nGod's ordinances, or the interrupting any in the way of God; but\nmen may, in the wresting of it, turn it against the way of God;\nbut take the law in itself, and it only fighteth against those that\ndrive at mischief in their hearts and meetings, making religion\nonly their cloak, colour, or pretence; for so are the words of the\nstatute: 'If any meetings, under colour or pretence of religion,'\n&c.[10]\n\nCobb. Very good; therefore the king, seeing that pretences are\nusually in and among people, as to make religion their pretence\nonly, therefore he, and the law before him, doth forbid such private\nmeetings, and tolerates only public; you may meet in public.\n\nBun. Sir, said I, let me answer you in a similitude: Set the case\nthat, at such a wood corner, there did usually come forth thieves,\nto do mischief; must there therefore a law be made that every one\nthat cometh out there shall be killed? May there not come out true\nmen as well as thieves out from thence? Just thus it is in this\ncase; I do think there may be many that may design the destruction\nof the commonwealth; but it does not follow therefore that all\nprivate meetings are unlawful; those that transgress, let them\nbe punished. And if at any time I myself should do any act in my\nconversation as doth not become a man and Christian, let me bear\nthe punishment. And as for your saying I may meet in public, if\nI may be suffered, I would gladly do it. Let me have but meeting\nenough in public, and I shall care the less to have them in private.\nI do not meet in private because I am afraid to have meetings in\npublic. I bless the Lord that my heart is at that point, that if any\nman can lay anything to my charge, either in doctrine or practice,\nin this particular, that can be proved error or heresy, I am willing\nto disown it, even in the very market place; but if it be truth,\nthen to stand to it to the last drop of my blood. And, Sir, said I,\nyou ought to commend me for so doing. To err and to be a heretic are\ntwo things; I am no heretic, because I will not stand refractorily\nto defend any one thing that is contrary to the Word. Prove anything\nwhich I hold to be an error, and I will recant it.\n\nCobb. But, Goodman Bunyan, said he, methinks you need not stand so\nstrictly upon this one thing, as to have meetings of such public\nassemblies. Cannot you submit, and, notwithstanding, do as much\ngood as you can, in a neighbourly way, without having such meetings?\n\nBun. Truly, Sir, said I, I do not desire to commend myself, but to\nthink meanly of myself; yet when I do most despise myself, taking\nnotice of that small measure of light which God hath given me,\nalso that the people of the Lord, by their own saying, are edified\nthereby. Besides, when I see that the Lord, through grace, hath in\nsome measure blessed my labour, I dare not but exercise that gift\nwhich God hath given me for the good of the people. And I said\nfurther, that I would willingly speak in public, if I might.\n\nCobb. He said, that I might come to the public assemblies and hear.\nWhat though you do not preach? you may hear. Do not think yourself\nso well enlightened, and that you have received a gift so far above\nothers, but that you may hear other men preach. Or to that purpose.\n\nBun. I told him, I was as willing to be taught as to give instruction,\nand looked upon it as my duty to do both; for, saith I, a man that\nis a teacher, he himself may learn also from another that teacheth,\nas the apostle saith: \"Ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all\nmay learn\" (1 Cor 14:31). That is, every man that hath received a\ngift from God, he may dispense it, that others may be comforted;\nand when he hath done, he may hear and learn, and be comforted\nhimself of others.\n\nCobb. But, said he, what if you should forbear awhile, and sit\nstill, till you see further how things will go?\n\nBun. Sir, said I, Wicliffe saith, that he which leaveth off preaching\nand hearing of the Word of God for fear of excommunication of\nmen, he is already excommunicated of God, and shall in the day of\njudgment be counted a traitor to Christ.[11]\n\nCobb. Ay, saith he, they that do not hear shall be so counted\nindeed; do you, therefore, hear.\n\nBun. But, Sir, said I, he saith, he that shall leave off either\npreaching or hearing, &c. That is, if he hath received a gift for\nedification, it is his sin, if he doth not lay it out in a way of\nexhortation and counsel, according to the proportion of his gift;\nas well as to spend his time altogether in hearing others preach.\n\nCobb. But, said he, how shall we know that you have received a\ngift?\n\nBun. Said I, Let any man hear and search, and prove the doctrine\nby the Bible.\n\nCobb. But will you be willing, said he, that two indifferent persons\nshall determine the case, and will you stand by their judgment?\n\nBun. I said, Are they infallible?\n\nCobb. He said, No.\n\nBun. Then, said I, it is possible my judgment may be as good as\ntheirs. But yet I will pass by either, and in this matter be judged\nby the Scriptures; I am sure that is infallible, and cannot err.\n\nCobb. But, said he, who shall be judge between you, for you take\nthe Scriptures one way, and they another?\n\nBun. I said, The Scripture should, and that by comparing one\nscripture with another; for that will open itself, if it be rightly\ncompared. As, for instance, if under the different apprehensions of\nthe word Mediator, you would know the truth of it, the Scriptures\nopen it, and tell us that he that is a mediator must take up the\nbusiness between two, and \"a mediator is not a mediator of one,\nbut God is one,\" and \"there is one mediator between God and men,\n[even] the man Christ Jesus\" (Gal 3:20; 1 Tim 2:5). So likewise\nthe Scripture calleth Christ a complete, or perfect, or able high\npriest. That is opened in that he is called man, and also God.\nHis blood also is discovered to be effectually efficacious by the\nsame things. So the Scripture, as touching the matter of meeting\ntogether, &c., doth likewise sufficiently open itself and discover\nits meaning.\n\nCobb. But are you willing, said he, to stand to the judgment of\nthe church?\n\nBun. Yes, Sir, said I, to the approbation of the church of God;\nthe church's judgment is best expressed in Scripture. We had much\nother discourse which I cannot well remember, about the laws of\nthe nation, and submission to government; to which I did tell him,\nthat I did look upon myself as bound in conscience to walk according\nto all righteous laws, and that whether there was a king or no;\nand if I did anything that was contrary, I did hold it my duty to\nbear patiently the penalty of the law, that was provided against\nsuch offenders; with many more words to the like effect. And said,\nmoreover, that to cut off all occasions of suspicion from any,\nas touching the harmlessness of my doctrine in private, I would\nwillingly take the pains to give any one the notes of all my\nsermons; for I do sincerely desire to live quietly in my country,\nand to submit to the present authority.\n\nCobb. Well, neighbour Bunyan, said he, but indeed I would wish\nyou seriously to consider of these things, between this and the\nquarter-sessions, and to submit yourself. You may do much good if\nyou continue still in the land; but alas, what benefit will it be\nto your friends, or what good can you do to them, if you should be\nsent away beyond the seas into Spain, or Constantinople, or some\nother remote part of the world? Pray be ruled.\n\nJailer. Indeed, Sir, I hope he will be ruled.\n\nBun. I shall desire, said I, in all godliness and honesty to behave\nmyself in the nation, whilst I am in it. And if I must be so dealt\nwithal, as you say, I hope God will help me to bear what they shall\nlay upon me. I know no evil that I have done in this matter, to be\nso used. I speak as in the presence of God.\n\nCobb. You know, saith he, that the Scripture saith, \"the powers\nthat be are ordained of God.\"\n\nBun. I said, yes, and that I was to submit to the king as supreme,\nalso to the governors, as to them that are sent by him.\n\nCobb. Well then, said he, the King then commands you, that you should\nnot have any private meetings; because it is against his law, and\nhe is ordained of God, therefore you should not have any.\n\nBun. I told him that Paul did own the powers that were in his day,\nas to be of God; and yet he was often in prison under them for all\nthat. And also, though Jesus Christ told Pilate, that he had no\npower against him, but of God, yet he died under the same Pilate;\nand yet, said I, I hope you will not say that either Paul, or\nChrist, were such as did deny magistracy, and so sinned against\nGod in slighting the ordinance. Sir, said I, the law hath provided\ntwo ways of obeying: The one to do that which I, in my conscience,\ndo believe that I am bound to do, actively; and where I cannot obey\nactively, there I am willing to lie down, and to suffer what they\nshall do unto me. At this he sat still, and said no more; which,\nwhen he had done, I did thank him for his civil and meek discoursing\nwith me; and so we parted.\n\nO that we might meet in heaven!\n\nFarewell. J.B.\n\nHere followeth a discourse between my Wife and the Judges, with\nothers, touching my Deliverance at the Assizes following; the which\nI took from her own Mouth.\n\nAfter that I had received this sentence of banishing, or hanging,\nfrom them, and after the former admonition, touching the determination\nof the justices, if I did not recant; just when the time drew nigh,\nin which I should have abjured, or have done worse, as Mr. Cobb\ntold me, came the time in which the King was to be crowned.[12]\nNow, at the coronation of kings, there is usually a releasement of\ndivers prisoners, by virtue of his coronation; in which privilege\nalso I should have had my share; but that they took me for a convicted\nperson, and therefore, unless I sued out a pardon, as they called\nit, I could have no benefit thereby; notwithstanding, yet, forasmuch\nas the coronation proclamation did give liberty, from the day the king\nwas crowned to that day twelvemonth, to sue them out; therefore,\nthough they would not let me out of prison, as they let out thousands,\nyet they could not meddle with me, as touching the execution of\ntheir sentence; because of the liberty offered for the suing out\nof pardons. Whereupon I continued in prison till the next assizes,\nwhich are called Midsummer assizes, being then kept in August 1661.\n\nNow, at that assizes, because I would not leave any possible means\nunattempted that might be lawful, I did, by my wife, present a\npetition to the judges three times, that I might be heard, and that\nthey would impartially take my case into consideration.\n\nThe first time my wife went, she presented it to Judge Hale, who\nvery mildly received it at her hand, telling her that he would\ndo her and me the best good he could; but he feared, he said, he\ncould do none. The next day, again, lest they should, through the\nmultitude of business, forget me, we did throw another petition\ninto the coach to Judge Twisdon; who, when he had seen it, snapt\nher up, and angrily told her that I was a convicted person, and\ncould not be released, unless I would promise to preach no more,\n&c.\n\nWell, after this, she yet again presented another to Judge Hale,\nas he sat on the bench, who, as it seemed, was willing to give her\naudience. Only Justice Chester being present, stept up and said,\nthat I was convicted in the court and that I was a hot-spirited\nfellow, or words to that purpose, whereat he waived it, and did\nnot meddle therewith. But yet, my wife being encouraged by the high\nsheriff, did venture once more into their presence, as the poor\nwidow did to the unjust judge, to try what she could do with them\nfor my liberty, before they went forth of the town. The place where\nshe went to them was to the Swan Chamber, where the two judges, and\nmany justices and gentry of the country, were in company together.\nShe then, coming into the chamber with abashed face, and a trembling\nheart, began her errand to them in this manner:--\n\nWoman. My Lord (directing herself to Judge Hale), I make bold to\ncome once again to your Lordship, to know what may be done with my\nhusband.\n\nJudge Hale. To whom he said, Woman, I told thee before, I could do\nthee no good; because they have taken that for a conviction which\nthy husband spoke at the sessions; and unless there be something\ndone to undo that, I can do thee no good.\n\nWom. My Lord, said she, he is kept unlawfully in prison; they clapped\nhim up before there was any proclamation against the meetings; the\nindictment also is false. Besides, they never asked him whether he\nwas guilty or no; neither did he confess the indictment.\n\nOne of the Justices. Then one of the justices that stood by, whom\nshe knew not, said, My Lord, he was lawfully convicted.\n\nWom. It is false, said she; for when they said to him, Do you confess\nthe indictment? he said only this, that he had been at several\nmeetings, both where there was preaching the Word, and prayer, and\nthat they had God's presence among them.\n\nJudge Twisdon. Whereat Judge Twisdon answered very angrily, saying,\n'What! you think we can do what we list; your husband is a breaker\nof the peace, and is convicted by the law,' &c. Whereupon Judge\nHale called for the Statute Book.\n\nWom. But, said she, my Lord, he was not lawfully convicted.\n\nChester. Then Justice Chester said, 'My Lord, he was lawfully\nconvicted.'\n\nWom. It is false, said she; it was but a word of discourse that\nthey took for a conviction, as you heard before.\n\nChest. 'But it is recorded, woman, it is recorded,' said Justice\nChester; as if it must be of necessity true, because it was recorded.\nWith which words he often endeavoured to stop her mouth, having\nno other argument to convince her, but 'it is recorded, it is\nrecorded.'[13]\n\nWom. My Lord, said she, I was a while since at London, to see if\nI could get my husband's liberty; and there I spoke with my Lord\nBarkwood, one of the House of Lords, to whom I delivered a petition,\nwho took it of me and presented it to some of the rest of the House\nof Lords, for my husband's releasement: who, when they had seen\nit, they said that they could not release him, but had committed\nhis releasement to the judges, at the next assizes. This he told\nme; and now I come to you to see if anything may be done in this\nbusiness, and you give neither releasement nor relief. To which\nthey gave her no answer, but made as if they heard her not.[14]\n\nChest. Only Justice Chester was often up with this, 'He is convicted,'\nand 'It is recorded.'\n\nWom. If it be, it is false, said she.\n\nChest. My Lord, said Justice Chester, he is a pestilent fellow,\nthere is not such a fellow in the country again.\n\nTwis. What, will your husband leave preaching? If he will do so,\nthen send for him.\n\nWom. My Lord, said she, he dares not leave preaching, as long as\nhe can speak.\n\nTwis. See here, what should we talk any more about such a fellow?\nMust he do what he lists? He is a breaker of the peace.\n\nWom. She told him again, that he desired to live peaceably, and\nto follow his calling, that his family might be maintained; and,\nmoreover, said, My Lord, I have four small children that cannot\nhelp themselves, of which one is blind, and have nothing to live\nupon, but the charity of good people.\n\nHale. Hast thou four children? said Judge Hale; thou art but a\nyoung woman to have four children.\n\nWom. My Lord, said she, I am but mother-in-law to them, having not\nbeen married to him yet full two years. Indeed, I was with child when\nmy husband was first apprehended; but being young, and unaccustomed\nto such things, said she, I being smayed[15] at the news, fell into\nlabour, and so continued for eight days, and then was delivered,\nbut my child died.[16]\n\nHale. Whereat, he looking very soberly on the matter, said, 'Alas,\npoor woman!'\n\nTwis. But Judge Twisdon told her, that she made poverty her cloak;\nand said, moreover, that he understood I was maintained better by\nrunning up and down a preaching, than by following my calling.\n\nHale. What is his calling? said Judge Hale.\n\nAnswer. Then some of the company that stood by said, 'A tinker, my\nLord.'\n\nWom. Yes, said she, and because he is a tinker, and a poor man,\ntherefore he is despised, and cannot have justice.\n\nHale. Then Judge Hale answered, very mildly, saying, 'I tell thee,\nwoman, seeing it is so, that they have taken what thy husband spake\nfor a conviction; thou must either apply thyself to the King, or\nsue out his pardon, or get a writ of error.'\n\nChest. But when Justice Chester heard him give her this counsel; and\nespecially, as she supposed, because he spoke of a writ of error,\nhe chafed,[17] and seemed to be very much offended; saying, 'My\nLord, he will preach and do what he lists.'\n\nWom. He preacheth nothing but the Word of God, said she.\n\nTwis. He preach the Word of God! said Twisdon; and withal she thought\nhe would have struck her; he runneth up and down, and doth harm.\n\nWom. No, my Lord, said she, it is not so; God hath owned him, and\ndone much good by him.\n\nTwis. God! said he; his doctrine is the doctrine of the devil.\n\nWom. My Lord, said she, when the righteous Judge shall appear, it\nwill be known that his doctrine is not the doctrine of the devil.\n\nTwis. My Lord, said he, to Judge Hale, do not mind her, but send\nher away.\n\nHale. Then said Judge Hale, 'I am sorry, woman, that I can do thee\nno good; thou must do one of those three things aforesaid; namely,\neither to apply thyself to the King, or sue out his pardon, or get\na writ of error; but a writ of error will be cheapest.'\n\nWom. At which Chester again seemed to be in a chafe, and put off\nhis hat, and as she thought, scratched his head for anger: but when\nI saw, said she, that there was no prevailing to have my husband\nsent for, though I often desired them that they would send for him,\nthat he might speak for himself, telling them, that he could give\nthem better satisfaction than I could in what they demanded of\nhim, with several other things, which now I forget; only this I\nremember, that though I was somewhat timorous at my first entrance\ninto the chamber, yet before I went out, I could not but break forth\ninto tears, not so much because they were so hard-hearted against\nme and my husband, but to think what a sad account such poor\ncreatures will have to give at the coming of the Lord, when they\nshall there answer for al things whatsoever they have done in the\nbody, whether it be good or whether it be bad.[18]\n\nSo, when I departed from them, the Book of Statute was brought,\nbut what they said of it I know nothing at all, neither did I hear\nany more from them.\n\nSome Carriages of the Adversaries of God's Truth with me at the\nnext Assizes, which was on the 19th of the First Month, 1662.\n\nI shall pass by what befell between these two assizes, how I had,\nby my jailer, some liberty granted me, more than at the first, and\nhow I followed my wonted course of preaching, taking all occasions\nthat were put into my hand to visit the people of God; exhorting\nthem to be steadfast in the faith of Jesus Christ, and to take heed\nthat they touched not the Common Prayer, &c., but to mind the Word\nof God, which giveth direction to Christians in every point, being\nable to make the man of God perfect in all things through faith in\nJesus Christ, and thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works (2\nTim 3:17).[19] Also, how I, having, I say, somewhat more liberty,\ndid go to see Christians at London; which my enemies hearing of,\nwere so angry, that they had almost cast my jailer out of his place,\nthreatening to indict him, and to do what they could against him.\nThey charged me also, that I went thither to plot and raise division,\nand make insurrection, which, God knows, was a slander; whereupon\nmy liberty was more straitened than it was before: so that I must\nnot look out of the door. Well, when the next sessions came, which\nwas about the 10th of the eleventh month, I did expect to have\nbeen very roundly dealt withal; but they passed me by, and would\nnot call me, so that I rested till the assizes, which was the 19th\nof the first month following; and when they came, because I had a\ndesire to come before the judge, I desired my jailer to put my name\ninto the calendar among the felons, and made friends of the judge\nand high sheriff, who promised that I should be called; so that I\nthought what I had done might have been effectual for the obtaining of\nmy desire; but all was in vain: for when the assizes came, though\nmy name was in the calendar, and also though both the judge and\nsheriff had promised that I should appear before them, yet the\njustices and the clerk of the peace did so work it about, that I,\nnotwithstanding, was deferred, and might not appear; and although,\nI say, I do not know of all their carriages towards me, yet this\nI know, that the clerk of the peace did discover himself to be one\nof my greatest opposers: for, first, he came to my jailer, and told\nhim that I must not go down before the judge, and therefore must\nnot be put into the calendar; to whom my jailer said, that my name\nwas in already. He bid him put me out again; my jailer told him that\nhe could not, for he had given the judge a calendar with my name\nin it, and also the sheriff another. At which he was very much\ndispleased, and desired to see that calendar that was yet in my\njailer's hand; who, when he had given it him, he looked on it, and\nsaid it was a false calendar; he also took the calendar and blotted\nout my accusation, as my jailer had writ it. Which accusation I\ncannot tell what it was, because it was so blotted out; and he himself\nput in words to this purpose: 'That John Bunyan was committed to\nprison, being lawfully convicted for upholding of unlawful meetings\nand conventicles,' &c. But yet, for all this, fearing that what he\nhad done, unless he added thereto, it would not do; he first run\nto the clerk of the assizes, then to the justices, and afterwards,\nbecause he would not leave any means unattempted to hinder me,\nhe comes again to my jailer, and tells him, that if I did go down\nbefore the judge, and was released, he would make him pay my fees,\nwhich, he said, was due to him; and further told him, that he would\ncomplain of him at the next quarter sessions for making of false\ncalendars; though my jailer himself, as I afterwards learned, had\nput in my accusation worse than in itself it was by far. And thus\nwas I hindered and prevented, at that time also, from appearing\nbefore the judge, and left in prison. Farewell.\n\nJohn Bunyan.\n\n***\n\nA CONTINUATION OF MR. BUNYAN'S LIFE, BEGINNING WHERE HE LEFT OFF,\nAND CONCLUDING WITH THE TIME AND MANNER OF HIS DEATH AND BURIAL,\nTOGETHER WITH HIS TRUE CHARACTER.\n\nReader, the painful and industrious author of this book has already\ngiven you a faithful and very moving relation of the beginning and\nmiddle of the days of his pilgrimage on earth; and since there yet\nremains somewhat worthy of notice and regard, which occurred in the\nlast scene of his life; the which, for want of time, or fear that\nsome over-censorious people should impute it to him, as an earnest\ncoveting of praise from men, he has not left behind him in writing.\nWherefore, as a true friend and long acquaintance of Mr. Bunyan's,\nthat his good end may be known as well as his evil beginning, I\nhave taken upon me, from my knowledge, and the best account given\nby other of his friends, to piece this to the thread, too soon\nbroke off, and so lengthen it out to his entering upon eternity.\n\nHe has told you at large of his birth and education; the evil\nhabits and corruptions of his youth; the temptations he struggled\nand conflicted so frequently with; the mercies, comforts, and\ndeliverances he found; how he came to take upon him the preaching\nof the gospel; the slanders, reproaches, and imprisonments that\nattended him; and the progress he notwithstanding made, by the\nassistance of God's grace, no doubt to the saving of many souls.\nTherefore take these things as he himself has methodically laid them\ndown in the words of verity; and so I pass on as to what remains.\n\nAfter his being freed from his twelve years' imprisonment and upwards,\nfor nonconformity, wherein he had time to furnish the world with\nsundry good books, &c.; and, by his patience, to move Dr. Barlow,\nthe then Bishop of Lincoln,[20] and other churchmen, to pity his\nhard and unreasonable sufferings, so far as to stand very much\nhis friends in procuring his enlargement, or there perhaps he had\ndied by the noisesomeness and ill usage of the place; being now,\nI say, again at liberty, and having, through mercy, shaken off his\nbodily fetters, for those upon his soul were broken before, by the\nabounding grace that filled his heart, he went to visit those that\nhad been a comfort to him in his tribulation, with a Christian-like\nacknowledgment of their kindness and enlargement of charity; giving\nencouragement by his example if it happened to be their hard haps\nto fall into affliction or trouble, then to suffer patiently for\nthe sake of a good conscience, and for the love of God in Jesus\nChrist towards their souls; and, by many cordial persuasions,\nsupported some whose spirits began to sink low through the fear\nof danger that threatened their worldly concernment, so that the\npeople found a wonderful consolation in his discourse and admonitions.\n\nAs often as opportunity would admit, he gathered them together in\nconvenient places, though the law was then in force against meetings,\nand fed them with the sincere milk of the Word, that they might grow\nup in grace thereby. To such as were anywhere taken and imprisoned\nupon these accounts, he made it another part of his business to\nextend his charity, and gather relief for such of them as wanted.\n\nHe took great care to visit the sick, and strengthen them against\nthe suggestions of the tempter, which at such times are very\nprevalent; so that they had cause for ever to bless God, who had\nput into his heart, at such a time, to rescue them from the power\nof the roaring lion, who sought to devour them; nor did he spare any\npains or labour in travel, though to the remote counties, where he\nknew, or imagined, any people might stand in need of his assistance,\ninsomuch that some of these visitations that he made, which was\ntwo or three every year, some, though in jeering manner, no doubt,\ngave him the epithet of Bishop Bunyan, whilst others envied him\nfor his so earnestly labouring in Christ's vineyard, yet the seed of\nthe Word he, all this while, sowed in the hearts of his congregation,\nwatered with the grace of God, brought forth in abundance, in\nbringing in disciples to the church of Christ.\n\nAnother part of his time he spent in reconciling differences,\nby which he hindered many mischiefs, and saved some families from\nruin; and, in such fallings out, he was uneasy, till he found a\nmeans to labour a reconciliation, and become a peace maker, on whom\na blessing is promised in Holy Writ: and, indeed, in doing this\ngood office, he may be said to sum up his days, it being the last\nundertaking of his life, as will appear in the close of this paper.\n\nWhen, in the late reign, liberty of conscience was unexpectedly\ngiven and indulged to Dissenters of all persuasions,[21] his\npiercing with penetrated the veil, and found that it was not for the\nDissenters' sake they were so suddenly freed from the prosecutions\nthat had long lain heavy upon them, and set, in a manner, on\nan equal foot with the Church of England, which the Papists were\nundermining, and about to subvert. He foresaw all the advantages\nthat could have redounded to the Dissenters, would have been no\nmore than what Poliphemus, the monstrous giant of Sicily, would\nhave allowed Ulysses, viz., That he would eat his men first, and\ndo him the favour of being eaten last. For, although Mr. Bunyan,\nfollowing the examples of others, did lay hold of this liberty, as\nan acceptable thing in itself, knowing that God is the only lord\nof conscience, and that it is good at all times to do according to\nthe dictates of a good conscience, and that the preaching the glad\ntidings of the gospel is beautiful in the preacher; yet, in all\nthis, he moved with caution and a holy fear, earnestly praying\nfor averting the impendent judgments, which he saw, like a black\ntempest hanging over our heads, for our sins, and ready to break\nupon us, and that the Ninevites' remedy was now highly necessary.\nHereupon, he gathered his congregation at Bedford, where he mostly\nlived, and had lived, and had spent the greatest part of his life;\nand there being no convenient place to be had, for the entertainment of\nso great a confluence of people as followed him, upon the account\nof his teaching, he consulted with them, for the building of a\nmeeting house; to which they made their voluntary contributions,\nwith all cheerfulness and alacrity; and the first time he appeared\nthere to edify, the place was so thronged, that many were constrained\nto stay without, though the house was very spacious, every one\nstriving to partake of his instructions, that were of his persuasion;\nand show their good will towards him, by being present at the opening\nof the place; and here he lived in much peace and quiet of mind,\ncontenting himself with that little God had bestowed upon him, and\nsequestering himself from all secular employments, to follow that\nof his call to the ministry; for, as God said to Moses, he that\nmade the lips and heart, can give eloquence and wisdom, without\nextraordinary acquirements in a university.\n\nDuring these things, there were regulators sent into all cities\nand towns corporate, to new-model the government in the magistracy,\n&c., by turning out some, and putting in others. Against this,\nMr. Bunyan expressed his zeal with some weariness, as foreseeing\nthe bad consequence that would attend it, and laboured with his\ncongregation to prevent their being imposed on in this kind; and\nwhen a great man in those days, coming to Bedford upon some such\nerrand, sent for him, as it is supposed, to give him a place of\npublic trust, he would by no means come at him, but sent his excuse.\n\nWhen he was at leisure from writing and teaching, he often\ncame up to London, and there went among the congregations of the\nnonconformists, and used his talent to the great good liking of the\nhearers; and even some, to whom he had been misrepresented, upon\nthe account of his education, were convinced of his worth and\nknowledge in sacred things, as perceiving him to be a man of sound\njudgment, delivering himself plainly and powerfully; insomuch that\nmany who came as mere spectators, for novelty's sake, rather than\nto be edified and improved, went away well satisfied with what they\nheard, and wondered, as the Jews did at the apostles, viz., whence\nthis man should have these things; perhaps not considering that\nGod more immediately assists those that make it their business\nindustriously and cheerfully to labour in his vineyard.\n\nThus he spent his latter years, in imitation of his great Lord and\nMaster, the ever-blessed Jesus; he went about doing good, so that\nthe most prying critic, or even malice herself, is defied to find,\neven upon the narrowest search or observation, any sully or stain\nupon his reputation with which he may be justly charged; and this\nwe note as a challenge to those that have had the least regard for\nhim, or them of his persuasion, and have, one way or other, appeared\nin the front of those that oppressed him, and for the turning whose\nhearts, in obedience to the commission and commandment given him\nof God, he frequently prayed, and sometimes sought a blessing for\nthem, even with tears, the effects of which they may, peradventure,\nthough undeservedly, have found in their persons, friends, relations,\nor estates; for God will hear the prayers of the faithful, and\nanswer them, even for those that vex them, as it happened in the\ncase of Job's praying for the three persons that had been grievous\nin their reproach against him, even in the day of his sorrow.\n\nBut yet let me come a little nearer to particulars and periods of\ntime for the better refreshing the memories of those that knew his\nlabour and suffering, and for the satisfaction of all that shall\nread this book.\n\nAfter he was sensibly convicted of the wicked state of his life,\nand converted, he was baptized into the congregation and admitted a\nmember thereof, viz., in the year 1655, and became speedily a very\nzealous professor; but, upon the return of King Charles to the\ncrown, in 1660, he was, on the 12th of November, taken, as he was\nedifying some good people that were got together to hear the Word,\nand confined in Bedford jail for the space of six years, till the\nAct of Indulgence to Dissenters being allowed, he obtained his\nfreedom by the intercession of some in trust and power that took\npity of his sufferings; but within six years afterwards [from his\nfirst imprisonment] he was again taken up, viz., in the year 1666,\nand was then confined for six years more, when even the jailer took\nsuch pity of his rigorous sufferings that he did as the Egyptian\njailer did to Joseph, put all the care and trust into his hands.\nWhen he was taken this last time, he was preaching on these words,\nviz., \"Dost thou believe on the Son of God?\" and this imprisonment\ncontinued six years; and when this was over, another short\naffliction, which was an imprisonment of half a year, fell to his\nshare. During these confinements he wrote these following books,\nviz.: Of Prayer by the Spirit, The Holy City, Resurrection, Grace\nAbounding, Pilgrim's Progress, the first part.\n\n[Defence of Justification by Jesus Christ.]\n\nIn the last year of his twelve years' imprisonment, the pastor of\nthe congregation at Bedford died, and he was chosen to that care\nof souls on the 12th of December 1671. And in this his charge,\nhe often had disputes with scholars, that came to oppose him, as\nsupposing him an ignorant person, and though he argued plainly and\nby Scripture without phrases and logical expressions; yet he nonplussed\none who came to oppose him in his congregation, by demanding\nwhether or no we had the true copies of the original Scriptures;\nand another, when he was preaching, accused him of uncharitableness,\nfor saying, It was very hard for most to be saved; saying, by that,\nhe went about to exclude most of his congregation; but he confuted\nhim and put him to silence with the parable of the stony ground\nand other texts out of the 13th of Matthew, in our Saviour's sermon\nout of a ship, all his method being to keep close to the Scriptures;\nand what he found not warranted there, himself would not warrant\nnor determine, unless in such cases as were plain, wherein no doubts\nor scruples did arise.\n\nBut not to make any further mention of this kind, it is well known\nthat this person managed all his affairs with such exactness as\nif he had made it his study, above all other things, not to give\noccasion of offence, but rather suffer many inconvencies to avoid;\nbeing never heard to reproach or revile any, what injury soever\nhe received, but rather to rebuke those that did; and as it was in\nhis conversation, so it is manifested on those books he has caused\nto be published to the world; where, like the archangel disputing\nwith Satan about the body of Moses, as we find it in the epistle\nof Jude, he brings no railing accusation, but leaves the rebukers,\nthose that persecuted him, to the Lord.\n\nIn his family he kept up a very strict discipline in prayer and\nexhortations; being in this like Joshua, as that good man expresses\nit, viz., Whatsoever others did, as for me and my house, we will\nserve the Lord; and, indeed, a blessing waited on his labours and\nendeavours, so that his wife, as the Psalmist says, was like a\npleasant vine upon the walls of his house, and his children like\nolive branches round his table; for so shall it be with the man\nthat fears the Lord; and though by reason of the many losses he\nsustained by imprisonment and spoil, of his chargeable sickness,\n&c., his earthly treasures swelled not to excess, he always had\nsufficient to live decently and creditably, and with that he had\nthe greatest of all treasures, which is content; for, as the wise\nman says, that is a continual feast.\n\nBut where content dwells, even a poor cottage is a kingly palace;\nand this happiness he had all his life long, not so much minding\nthis world as knowing he was here as a pilgrim and stranger, and had\nno tarrying city, but looking for one not made with hands, eternal\nin the highest heavens; but at length, worn out with sufferings,\nage, and often teaching, the day of his dissolution drew near,\nand death, that unlocks the prison of the soul, to enlarge it for\na more glorious mansion, put a stop to his acting his part on the\nstage of mortality; heaven, like earthly princes when it threatens\nwar, being always so kind as to call home its ambassadors before\nit be denounced; and even the last act or undertaking of his was\na labour of love and charity; for it so falling out, that a young\ngentleman, a neighbour of Mr. Bunyan, happening into the displeasure\nof his father, and being much troubled in mind upon that account,\nas also for that he had heard his father purposed to disinherit\nhim, or otherwise deprive him of what he had to leave, he pitched\nupon Mr. Bunyan as a fit man to make way for his submission, and\nprepare his father's mind to receive him; and he, as willing to\ndo any good office as it could be requested, as readily undertook\nit; and so, riding to Reading, in Berkshire, he then there used\nsuch pressing arguments and reasons against anger and passion, as\nalso for love and reconciliation, that the father was mollified,\nand his bowels yearned towards his returning son.\n\nBut Mr. Bunyan, after he had disposed all things to the best\nfor accommodation, returning to London, and being overtaken with\nexcessive rains, coming to his lodging extreme wet, fell sick of\na violent fever, which he bore with much constancy and patience;\nand expressed himself as if he desired nothing more than to\nbe dissolved, and to be with Christ, in that case esteeming death\nas gain, and life only a tedious delaying of felicity expected;\nand finding his vital strength decay, having settled his mind and\naffairs, as well as the shortness of his time and the violence of\nhis disease would admit, with a constant and Christian patience,\nhe resigned his soul into the hands of his most merciful Redeemer,\nfollowing his pilgrim from the City of Destruction to the New\nJerusalem; his better part having been all along there, in holy\ncontemplation, pantings, and breathings after the hidden manna, and\nwater of life; as by many holy and humble consolations expressed\nin his letters to several persons, in prison and out of prison,\ntoo many to be here inserted at present.[22] He died at the house\nof one Mr. Straddocks, a grocer, at the Star on Snowhill, in the\nparish of St. Sepulchre, London, on the 12th of August 1688, and\nin the sixtieth year of his age, after ten days' sickness; and was\nburied in the new burying place near the Artillery Ground; where he\nsleeps to the morning of the resurrection, in hopes of a glorious\nrising to an incorruptible immortality of joy and happiness; where\nno more trouble and sorrow shall afflict him, but all tears be\nwiped away; when the just shall be incorrupted, as members of Christ\ntheir head, and reign with him as kings and priests for ever.[23]\n\nA BRIEF CHARACTER OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN.\n\nHe appeared in countenance to be of a stern and rough temper; but\nin his conversation mild and affable, not given to loquacity or\nmuch discourse in company, unless some urgent occasion required\nit; observing never to boast of himself, or his parts, but rather\nseem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment of\nothers; abhorring lying and swearing, being just in all that lay\nin his power to his word, not seeming to revenge injuries, loving\nto reconcile differences, and make friendship with all; he had\na sharp quick eye, accomplished with an excellent discerning of\npersons, being of good judgment and quick wit. As for his person,\nhe was tall of stature, strong-boned, though not corpulent, somewhat\nof a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing his hair on his upper\nlip, after the old British fashion; his hair reddish, but in his\nlatter days, time had sprinkled it with grey; his nose well-set,\nbut not declining or bending, and his mouth moderate large; his\nforehead something high, and his habit always plain and modest. And\nthus have we impartially described the internal and external parts\nof a person, whose death hath been much regretted; a person who had\ntried the smiles and frowns of time; not puffed up in prosperity,\nnor shaken in adversity, always holding the golden mean.\n\n\n    In him at once did three great worthies shine,\n    Historian, poet, and a choice divine;\n    Then let him rest in undisturbed dust,\n    Until the resurrection of the just.\n\n\nPOSTSCRIPT.\n\nIn this his pilgrimage, God blessed him with four children, one\nof which, names Mary, was blind, and died some years before; his\nother children are Thomas, Joseph, and Sarah; and his wife Elizabeth,\nhaving lived to see him overcome his labour and sorrow, and pass\nfrom this life to receive the reward of his works, long survived\nhim not, but in 1692 she died; to follow her faithful pilgrim from\nthis world to the other, whither he was gone before her; while his\nworks, which consist of sixty books, remain for the edifying of\nthe reader, and the praise of the author. Vale.\n\n***\n\nMR. JOHN BUNYAN'S DYING SAYINGS.\n\nOF SIN.\n\nSin is the great block and bar to our happiness, the procurer of\nall miseries to man, both here and hereafter: take away sin and\nnothing can hurt us: for death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal,\nis the wages of it.\n\nSin, and man for sin, is the object of the wrath of God. How dreadful,\ntherefore, must his case be who continues in sin! For who can bear\nor grapple with the wrath of God?\n\nNo sin against God can be little, because it is against the great\nGod of heaven and earth; but if the sinner can find out a little\nGod, it may be easy to find out little sins.\n\nSin turns all God's grace into wantonness; it is the dare of his\njustice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight\nof his power, and the contempt of his love.[24]\n\nTake heed of giving thyself liberty of committing one sin, for that\nwill lead thee to another; till, by an ill custom, it become natural.\n\nTo begin a sin, is to lay a foundation for a continuance; this\ncontinuance is the mother of custom, and impudence at last the\nissue.\n\nThe death of Christ giveth us the best discovery of ourselves, in\nwhat condition we were, in that nothing could help us but that;\nand the most clear discovery of the dreadful nature of our sins.\nFor if sin be so dreadful a thing as to wring the heart of the Son\nof God, how shall a poor wretched sinner be able to bear it?\n\nOF AFFLICTION.\n\nNothing can render affliction so insupportable as the load of sin:\nwould you, therefore, be fitted for afflictions, be sure to get the\nburden of your sins laid aside, and then what afflictions soever\nyou may meet with will be very easy to you.\n\nIf thou canst hear and bear the rod of affliction which God shall\nlay upon thee, remember this lesson--thou art beaten that thou\nmayest be better.\n\nThe Lord useth his flail of tribulation to separate the chaff from\nthe wheat.\n\nThe school of the cross is the school of light; it discovers the\nworld's vanity, baseness, and wickedness, and lets us see more of\nGod's mind. Out of dark affliction comes a spiritual light.\n\nIn times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences\nof the love of God.\n\nDid we heartily renounce the pleasures of this world, we should\nbe very little troubled for our afflictions; that which renders an\nafflicted state so insupportable to many is because they are too\nmuch addicted to the pleasures of this life, and so cannot endure\nthat which makes a separation between them.\n\nOF REPENTANCE AND COMING TO CHRIST.\n\nThe end of affliction is the discovery of sin, and of that to bring\nus to a Saviour. Let us therefore, with the prodigal, return unto\nhim, and we shall find ease and rest.\n\nA repenting penitent, though formerly as bad as the worst of men,\nmay, by grace, become as good as the best.\n\nTo be truly sensible of sin is to sorrow for displeasing of God;\nto be afflicted that he is displeased by us more than that he is\ndispleased with us.\n\nYour intentions to repentance, and the neglect of that soul-saving\nduty, will rise up in judgment against you.\n\nRepentance carries with it a Divine rhetoric, and persuades Christ\nto forgive multitudes of sins committed against him.\n\nSay not with thyself, To-morrow I will repent; for it is thy duty\nto do it daily.\n\nThe gospel of grace and salvation is above all doctrines the most\ndangerous, if it be received in word only by graceless men; if it\nbe not attended with a sensible need of a Saviour, and bring them\nto him. For such men as have only the notion of it, are of all men\nmost miserable; for by reason of their knowing more than heathens,\nthis shall only be their final portion, that they shall have greater\nstripes.\n\nOF PRAYER.\n\nBefore you enter into prayer, ask thy soul these questions--1. To\nwhat end, O my soul, art thou retired into this place? Art thou not\ncome to discourse the Lord in prayer? Is he present; will he hear\nthee? Is he merciful; will he help thee? Is thy business slight;\nis it not concerning the welfare of thy soul? What words wilt thou\nuse to move him to compassion?\n\nTo make thy preparation complete, consider that thou art but dust\nand ashes, and he the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nthat clothes himself with light as with a garment; that thou art\na vile sinner, he a holy God; that thou art but a poor crawling\nworm, he the omnipotent Creator.\n\nIn all your prayers forget not to thank the Lord for his mercies.\n\nWhen thou prayest, rather let thy hearts be without words, than\nthy words without a heart.\n\nPrayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to\ncease from prayer.\n\nThe spirit of prayer is more precious than treasures of gold and\nsilver.\n\nPray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God,\nand a scourge for Satan.\n\nOF THE LORD'S DAY, SERMONS, AND WEEK DAYS.\n\nHave a special care to sanctify the Lord's day; for as thou keepest\nit, so it will be with thee all the week long.\n\nMake the Lord's day the market for thy soul; let the whole day be\nspent in prayer, repetitions, or meditations; lay aside the affairs\nof the other part of the week; let thy sermon thou hast heard be\nconverted into prayer: Shall God allow thee six days, and wilt not\nthou afford him one?\n\nIn the church, be careful to serve God; for thou art in his eyes,\nand not in man's.\n\nThou mayest hear sermons often, and do well in practicing what thou\nhearest; but thou must not expect to be told thee in a pulpit all\nthat thou oughtest to do, but be studious in searching the Scriptures,\nand reading good books; what thou hearest may be forgotten, but\nwhat thou readest may better be retained.\n\nForsake not the public worship of God, lest God forsake thee, not\nonly in public, but in private.\n\nIn the week days, when thou risest in the morning, consider, 1.\nThou must die. 2. Thou mayest die that minute. 3. What will become\nof thy soul. Pray often. At night consider, 1. What sins thou\nhast committed. 2. How often thou hast prayed. 3. What hath thy\nmind been bent upon. 4. What hath been thy dealing. 5. What thy\nconversation. 6. If thou callest to mind the errors of the day,\nsleep not without a confession to God, and a hope of pardon. Thus\nevery morning and evening make up thy accounts with Almighty God,\nand thy reckoning will be the less at last.\n\nOF THE LOVE OF THE WORLD.\n\nNothing more hinders a soul from coming to Christ, than a vain love\nof the world; and till a soul is freed from it, it can never have\na true love for God.\n\nWhat are the honours and riches of this world, when compared to\nthe glories of a crown of life?\n\nLove not the world; for it [the love of the world] is a moth in a\nChristian's life.\n\nTo despise the world is the way to enjoy heaven; and blessed are\nthey who delight to converse with God by prayer.\n\nWhat folly can be greater than to labour for the meat that perisheth,\nand neglect the food of eternal life?\n\nGod or the world must be neglected at parting time, for then is\nthe time of trial.\n\nTo seek yourself in this world is to be lost; and to be humble is\nto be exalted.\n\nThe epicure that delighteth in the dainties of this world, little\nthinketh that those very creatures will one day witness against\nhim.\n\nOF SUFFERING.\n\nIt is not every suffering that makes a martyr, but suffering\nfor the Word of God after a right manner; that is, not only for\nrighteousness, but for righteousness' sake; not only for truth,\nbut out of love to truth; not only for God's Word, but according\nto it: to wit, in that holy, humble, meek manner, as the Word of\nGod requireth.\n\nIt is a rare thing to suffer aright, and to have my spirit in\nsuffering bent only against God's enemy, sin; sin in doctrine, sin\nin worship, sin in life, and sin in conversation.\n\nThe devil, nor men of the world, can kill thy righteousness, or\nlove to it but by thy own hand; or separate that and thee asunder\nwithout thy own act. Nor will he that doth indeed suffer for the\nsake of it, or out of love he bears thereto, be tempted to exchange\nit, for the good will of all the world.\n\nI have often thought that the best of Christians are found in the\nworst of times. And I have thought again that one reason why we are\nno better, is because God purges us no more. Noah and Lot, who so\nholy as they in the time of their afflictions? And yet who so idle\nas they in the time of their prosperity?\n\nOF DEATH AND JUDGMENT.\n\nAs the devil labours by all means to keep out other things that\nare good, so to keep out of the heart as much as in him lies,\nthe thoughts of passing from this life into another world; for he\nknows if he can but keep them from the serious thoughts of death,\nhe shall the more easily keep them in their sins.\n\nNothing will make us more earnest in working out the work of our\nsalvation, than a frequent meditation of mortality; nothing hath\ngreater influence for the taking off our hearts from vanities, and\nfor the begetting in us desires after holiness.\n\nO sinner, what a condition wilt thou fall into when thou departest\nthis world; if thou depart unconverted, thou hadst better have\nbeen smothered the first hour thou wast born; thou hadst better\nhave been plucked one limb from another; thou hadst better have\nbeen made a dog, a toad, a serpent, than to die unconverted, and\nthis thou wilt find true if thou repent not.\n\nA man would be counted a fool to slight a judge, before whom he is\nto have a trial of his whole estate.[25] The trial we have before\nGod is of otherguise importance,[26] it concerns our eternal\nhappiness or misery; and yet dare we affront him?\n\nThe only way for us to escape that terrible judgment, is to be\noften passing a sentence of condemnation upon ourselves here. When\nthe sound of the trumpet shall be heard, which shall summon the dead\nto appear before the tribunal of God, the righteous shall hasten\nout of their graves with joy to meet their Redeemer in the clouds;\nothers shall call to the hills and mountains to fall upon them, to\ncover them from the sight of their Judge; let us therefore in time\nbe posing[27] ourselves which of the two we shall be.\n\nOF THE JOYS OF HEAVEN.\n\nThere is no good in this life but what is mingled with some evil;\nhonours perplex, riches disquiet, and pleasures ruin health. But\nin heaven we shall find blessings in their purity, without any\ningredient to embitter, with everything to sweeten them.\n\nO! who is able to conceive the inexpressible, inconceivable joys\nthat are there? None but they who have tasted of them. Lord, help\nus to put such a value upon them here, that in order to prepare\nourselves for them, we may be willing to forego the loss of all\nthose deluding pleasures here.\n\nHow will the heavens echo of joy, when the Bride, the Lamb's wife,\nshall come to dwell with her husband for ever?\n\nChrist is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of\nthe Father; what solace then must that soul be filled with, that\nhath the possession of him to all eternity?\n\nO! what acclamations of joy will there be, when all the children\nof God shall meet together, without fear of being disturbed by the\nantichristian and Cainish brood!\n\nIs there not a time coming when the godly may ask the wicked what\nprofit they have in their pleasure? what comfort in their greatness?\nand what fruits in all their labour?\n\nIf you would be better satisfied what the beatifical vision means,\nmy request is that you would live holily, and go and see.\n\nOF THE TORMENTS OF HELL.\n\nHeaven and salvation is not surely more promised to the godly than\nhell and damnation is threatened to, and shall be executed on, the\nwicked.\n\nWhen once a man is damned, he may bid adieu to all pleasures.\n\nOh! who knows the power of God's wrath? none but damned ones.\n\nSinners' company are the devil and his angels, tormented in\neverlasting fire with a curse.\n\nHell would be a kind of paradise if it were not worse than the\nworst of this world.\n\nAs different as grief is from joy, as torment from rest, as terror\nfrom peace; so different is the state of sinners from that of saints\nin the world to come.\n\n[Licensed, September 10, 1688.]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. The text from which he intended to preach was 'Dost thou believe\non the Son of God?' (John 9:35). From this he intended to show\nthe absolute need of faith in Jesus Christ; and that it was also\na thing of the highest concern for men to inquire into, and to ask\ntheir own hearts, whether they had it or no. See Preface to his\nConfession of Faith.--Ed.\n\n2. Justice Wingate.\n\n3. 'Chafe.' See 2 Sam 17:8.--Ed.\n\n4. A right Judas.--Ed.\n\n5. 'How little could Bunyan dream, that from the narrow cell in which\nhe was incarcerated, and cut off apparently from all usefulness,\na glory would shine out, illustrating the government and grace\nof God, and doing more good to man, than all the prelates of the\nkingdom put together had accomplished.'--Dr. Cheever.\n\n6. It is easy to say a prayer, but difficult truly to pray. It is\nnot length, not eloquence, that makes prayer. Though there be no\nmore than 'My Father!' if the heart rise with it, that is prayer.\n'Prayer is an offering up of our DESIRES unto God.'--Ed.\n\n7. It is not the spirit of a Christian to persecute any for their\nreligion, but to pity them; and if they will turn, to instruct\nthem.--Ed.\n\n8. The statute under which Bunyan suffered is the 35th Eliz., cap.\n1, re-enacted with all its rigour in the 16th Charles II, cap. 4,\n1662; 'That if any person, above sixteen years of age, shall forbear\ncoming to church for one month, or persuade any other person to\nabstain from hearing Divine service, or receiving the communion\naccording to law, or come to any unlawful assembly, conventicle,\nor meeting--every such person shall be imprisoned, without bail,\nuntil he conform, and do in some church make this open submission\nfollowing:--I do humbly confess and acknowledge that I have grievously\noffended God in contemning his Majesty's godly and lawful government\nand authority, by absenting myself from church, and from hearing\nDivine service, contrary to the godly laws and statutes of this realm.\nAnd in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful conventicles\nand assemblies, under pretence and colour of exercise of religion;\nand I am heartily sorry for the same. And I do promise and protest,\nthat from henceforth I will, from time to time, obey and perform\nhis Majesty's laws and statutes, in repairing to the church and\nDivine services, and do my uttermost endeavour to maintain and defend\nthe same. And for the third offence he shall be sent to the jail\nor house of correction, there to remain until the next sessions or\nassizes, and then to be indicted; and being thereupon found guilty,\nthe court shall enter judgment of transportation against such\noffenders, to some of the foreign plantations (Virginia and New\nEngland only excepted), there to remain seven years; and warrants\nshall issue to sequester the profits of their lands, and to distrain\nand sell their goods to defray the charges of their transportation;\nand for want of such charges being paid, the sheriff may contract\nwith any master of a ship, or merchant, to transport them; and then\nsuch prisoner shall be a servant to the transporter or his assigns;\nthat is, whoever he will sell him or her to, for five years. And\nif any under such judgment of transportation shall escape, or being\ntransported, return into any part of England, shall SUFFER DEATH\nas felons, without benefit of clergy.' Notwithstanding this edict,\nmark well his words on the next leaf, 'Exhorting the people of God\nto take heed, and touch not the Common Prayer.' Englishmen, blush!\nThis is now the law of the land we live in. Roman Catholics alone\nare legally exempted from its cruel operations, by an Act passed\nin 1844. The overruling hand of God alone saved the pious and holy\nBunyan from having been legally murdered.--Ed.\n\n9. The contemptible and mad insurrection to which Mr. Cobb refers,\nwas the pretext for fearful sufferings to the Dissenters throughout\nthe kingdom. It is thus narrated by Bishop Burnet, 1660:--'The king\nhad not been many days at Whitehall, when one Venner, a violent\nfifth-monarchy man, who thought it was not enough to believe that\nChrist was to reign on earth, and to put the saints in possession\nof the kingdom, but added to this that the saints were to take the\nkingdom themselves. He gathered some of the most furious of the\nparty to a meeting in Coleman Street. There they concerted the\nday and the manner of their rising, to set Christ on his throne,\nas they called it. But withal they meant to manage the government\nin his name, and were so formal that they had prepared standards\nand colours, with their devices on them, and furnished themselves\nwith very good arms. But when the day came, there was but a small\nappearance, not exceeding twenty. However, they resolved to venture\nout into the streets, and cry out, No king but Christ. Some of them\nseemed persuaded that Christ would come down and head them. They\nscoured the streets before them, and made a great progress. Some\nwere afraid, and all were amazed at this piece of extravagance.\nThey killed a great many, but were at last mastered by numbers;\nand were all either killed or taken and executed.--(Burnet's Own\nTimes, 1660, vol. i. p. 160).--Ed.\n\n10. The third section of 16th Charles II, cap. 4, also enacts,\n'That any person above sixteen years old, present at any meeting\nunder pretence of exercise of religion, in other manner than is\nallowed by the liturgy or practice of the Church of England, where\nthere shall be present five persons or more above those of the\nhousehold, upon proof thereof made, either by confession of the\nparty, or oath of witness, or notorious evidence of the fact; the\noffence shall be recorded under the hands of two justices, or the\nchief magistrate of the place, which shall be a perfect conviction.'--Ed.\n\n11. As Wicliffe wrote in Latin, and his words were of great rarity,\nit may excite inquiry how poor Bunyan was conversant with is opinions.\nThis is easily solved. Foxe gives a translation of Wicliffe's\ndoctrines in his Martyrology, the favourite book of Bunyan.--Ed.\n\n12. April 23, 1661.\n\n13. See page 56, and note there.\n\n14. It is very probable that his persecutors knew the heroic spirit\nof this young woman, and were afraid to proceed to extremities,\nlest their blood-guiltiness should be known throughout the kingdom,\nand public execration be excited against them. Such a martyr's\nblood would indelibly and most foully have stained both them and\ntheir families to the latest generation.--Ed.\n\n15. 'Smayed,' an obsolete contraction of 'dismayed.'--Ed.\n\n16. Bunyan is silent upon the death of his first wife and marriage\nto the second; in fact he forgets his own domestic affairs in his\ndesire to record the Lord's gracious dealings with his soul. It is\nnot his autobiography, but his religious feelings and experience,\nthat he records.--Ed.\n\n17. 'Chafed,' excited, inflamed, angry.--Ed.\n\n18. This is a beautiful specimen of real Christian feeling; nothing\nvindictive, although such cruel wrongs had been perpetrated against\nher beloved husband.--Ed.\n\n19. Nothing daunted by the cruel Statute which was then in force,\nBunyan acted exactly as Peter and John did under similar circumstances,\n\"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard\" (Acts\n4:20). If I suffer death for it, I am bound to speak the warning\nwords of truth, \"Touch not the unclean thing.\"--Ed.\n\n20. Application was made to Bishop Barlow, through Dr. Owen, to\nuse his powerful influence in obtaining liberty for this Christian\ncaptive; but he absolutely refused to interfere. See Preface\nto Owen's Sermons, 1721. Bunyan, upon his petition, heard by the\nking in council, was included in the pardon to the imprisoned and\ncruelly-treated Quakers. Whitehead, the Quaker, was the honoured\ninstrument in releasing him.--Introduction to Pilgrim's Progress,\nHanserd Knollys Edition.--Ed.\n\n21. See an authentic copy of this Royal Declaration, and observations\nupon it, in the Introduction to the Pilgrim's Progress, published\nby the Hanserd Knollys Society, 1847.--Ed.\n\n22. All these letters, and nearly all his autographs, have disappeared.\nOf his numerous manuscripts, books, and letters, not a line is now\nknown to exist. If discovered, they would be invaluable.--Ed.\n\n23. Strongly does the departure of Bunyan, on his ascent to the\ncelestial city, remind us of Rev 14:13, 'And I heard a voice from\nheaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in\nthe Lord, from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may\nrest from their labours; and their works do follow them.' What an\nexchange! From incessant anxious labour; from sighing and sorrow;\nfrom corruption and temptation; to commence an endless life of\nholiness and purity, rest and peace. To be with and like his Lord!\nHis works have followed, and will follow him, till time shall be\nno more.--Ed.\n\n24. Among these truly remarkable sayings, so characteristic of\nour great author, this of the fearful nature of sin is peculiarly\nstriking; it is worthy of being imprinted on every Christian's\nheart, to keep alive a daily sense of the exceeding sinfulness of\nsin.--Ed.\n\n25. Judges in those days were often biased by personal feelings,\nand in some cases even by bribes.--Ed.\n\n26. 'Otherguise importance'; another manner of importance.--Ed.\n\n27. 'Posing,' questioning closely, putting to a stand.--Imperial\nDictionary.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nPRISON MEDITATIONS DIRECTED TO THE HEART OF SUFFERING SAINTS AND\nREIGNING SINNERS\n\nBy John Bunyan, in Prison, 1665\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nThese verses, like those called \"A Caution to watch against Sin,\"\nwere first printed on a half sheet, and passed through several\neditions. The Editor possesses a copy published by the author, a\nshort time before his decease; it is in an exceedingly rare little\nvolume, including his poems of \"One thing needful\" and his \"Ebal\nand Gerizzim\"; with \"a catlogue of all his other books.\" London:\nprinted for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1688. On\nthe reverse of the title is a singular advertisement; \"This author\nhaving published many books, which have gone off very well, there\nare certain ballad sellers about Newgate, and on London Bridge,\nwho have put the two first letters of this author's name, and his\neffigies, to their rhymes and ridiculous books, suggesting to the\nworld as if they were his. Now know that this author publisheth his\nname at large to all his books, and what you shall see otherwise\nhe disowns.\"\n\nBunyan was imprisoned for teaching the gospel in its purity to the\npoor, and for refusing conformity to national creeds and ceremonies.\nThis was as absurd as it would be, to imprison such of the inhabitants\nof a country who refused to swear that all mankind were of one\nstandard in height; sending those who had consciences to prison,\nuntil they pretended that they had grown taller or shorter, and\nwere willing to take the oath. Mental decision must be formed on\nevidence. God can enlighten the mind to see that he alone can guide\nus to spiritual worship--that his will must be personally consulted,\nand unreservedly obeyed. Such a man feels that his soul's salvation\ndepends upon obedience to God, and not to man. If human laws send\nhim to jail for refusing to disobey God, he will write upon the\nprison wall as William Prynne did upon that in the Tower, \"The Lord\nheareth the poor, and despiseth not HIS prisoners.\"\n\n\n   'Christ's presence hath my prison turn'd into\n    A blessed heaven; what then will it do\n    In heaven hereafter, when it now creates\n    Heav'n in a dungeon; goals to courts translates?'\n\n   'He is not bound whom Christ makes free; he,\n    Though shut close prisoner, chained, remains still free:\n    A godly man's at large in every place,\n    Still cheerful, well content, in blessed case,\n    Unconquered; he a sacred heaven still bears\n    About within his breast.'...\n\n\nThese were the feelings of all Christ's prisoners. Indomitable was\nthe heroic spirit of Bunyan. He tells his persecutors their folly\nand their sin, even while suffering under their lash; and after\nmore than twelve years' incarceration, his free spirit is unsubdued.\nAgain for sixteen years he enjoyed the sweets of liberty, and then\nre-published at all risks his proofs of the wickedness of persecution\nfor conscience' sake. There was no craft, nor guile, nor hypocrisy\nabout his character, but a fearless devotion to the will of his\nGod; and he became one of the most honoured of his saints.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nPRISON MEDIATIONS\n\n\n    1. Friend, I salute thee in the Lord,\n    And wish thou may'st abound\n    In faith, and have a good regard\n    To keep on holy ground.\n\n    2. Thou dost encourage me to hold\n    My head above the flood,\n    Thy counsel better is than gold,\n    In need thereof I stood.\n\n    3. Good counsel's good at any time,\n    The wise will it receive,\n    Though fools count he commits a crime\n    Who doth good counsel give.\n\n    4. I take it kindly at thy hand\n    Thou didst unto me write,\n    My feet upon Mount Zion stand,\n    In that take thou delight.\n\n    5. I am, indeed, in prison now\n    In body, but my mind\n    Is free to study Christ, and how\n    Unto me he is kind.\n\n    6. For though men keep my outward man\n    Within their locks and bars,\n    Yet by the faith of Christ I can\n    Mount higher than the stars.\n\n    7. Their fetters cannot spirits tame,\n    Nor tie up God from me;\n    My faith and hope they cannot lame,\n    Above them I shall be.\n\n    8. I here am very much refreshed\n    To think when I was out,\n    I preached life, and peace, and rest\n    To sinners round about.\n\n    9. My business then was souls to save,\n    By preaching grace and faith;\n    Of which the comfort now I have,\n    And have it shall till death.\n\n    10. They were no fables that I taught,\n    Devised by cunning men,\n    But God's own Word, by which were caught\n    Some sinners now and then.\n\n    11. Whose souls by it were made to see\n    The evil of their sin;\n    And need of Christ to make them free\n    From death which they were in.\n\n    12. And now those very hearts that then\n    Were foes unto the Lord,\n    Embrace his Christ and truth, like men\n    Conquered by his word.\n\n    13. I hear them sigh and groan, and cry\n    For grace, to God above;\n    They loathe their sin, and to it die,\n    'Tis holiness they love.\n\n    14. This was the work I was about\n    When hands on me they laid,\n    'Twas this from which they pluck'd me out,\n    And vilely to me said,\n\n    15. You heretic, deceiver, come,\n    To prison you must go;\n    You preach abroad, and keep not home,\n    You are the church's foe.\n\n    16. But having peace within my soul,\n    And truth on every side,\n    I could with comfort them control,\n    And at their charge deride.\n\n    17. Wherefore to prison they me sent,\n    Where to this day I lie,\n    And can with very much content\n    For my profession die.\n\n    18. The prison very sweet to me\n    Hath been since I came here,\n    And so would also hanging be,\n    If God would there appear.\n\n    19. Here dwells good conscience, also peace\n    Here be my garments white;\n    Here, though in bonds, I have release\n    From guilt, which else would bite.\n\n    20. When they do talk of banishment,\n    Of death, or such-like things;\n    Then to me God sends heart's content,\n    That like a fountain springs.\n\n    21. Alas! they little think what peace\n    They help me to, for by\n    Their rage my comforts do increase;\n    Bless God therefore do I.\n\n    22. If they do give me gall to drink,\n    Then God doth sweetn'ning cast\n    So much thereto, that they can't think\n    How bravely it doth taste.\n\n    23. For, as the devil sets before\n    Me heaviness and grief,\n    So God sets Christ and grace much more,\n    Whereby I take relief.\n\n    24. Though they say then that we are fools\n    Because we here do lie,\n    I answer, goals are Christ his schools,\n    In them we learn to die.\n\n    25. 'Tis not the baseness of this state\n    Doth hide us from God's face,\n    He frequently, both soon and late,\n    Doth visit us with grace.\n\n    26. Here come the angels, here come saints,\n    Here comes the Spirit of God,\n    To comfort us in our restraints\n    Under the wicked's rod.\n\n    27. God sometimes visits prisons more\n    Than lordly palaces,\n    He often knocketh at our door,\n    When he their houses miss.\n\n    28. The truth and life of heavenly things\n    Lift up our hearts on high,\n    And carry us on eagles' wings,\n    Beyond carnality.\n\n    29. It take away those clogs that hold\n    The hearts of other men,\n    And makes us lively, strong and bold\n    Thus to oppose their sin.\n\n    30. By which means God doth frustrate\n    That which our foes expect;\n    Namely, our turning th' Apostate,\n    Like those of Judas' sect.\n\n    31. Here comes to our rememberance\n    The troubles good men had\n    Of old, and for our furtherance,\n    Their joys when they were sad.\n\n    32. To them that here for evil lie\n    The place is comfortless,\n    But not to me, because that I\n    Lie here for righteousness.\n\n    33. The truth and I were both here cast\n    Together, and we do\n    Lie arm in arm, and so hold fast\n    Each other; this is true.\n\n    34. This goal to us is as a hill,\n    From whence we plainly see\n    Beyond this world, and take our fill\n    Of things that lasting be.\n\n    35. From hence we see the emptiness\n    Of all this world contains;\n    And here we feel the blessedness\n    That for us yet remains.\n\n    36. Here we can see how all men play\n    Their parts, as on a stage,\n    How good men suffer for God's way,\n    And bad men at them rage.\n\n    37. Here we can see who holds that ground\n    Which they in Scripture find;\n    Here we see also who turns round\n    Like weathercocks with wind.\n\n    38. We can also from hence behold\n    How seeming friends appear\n    But hypocrites, as we are told\n    In Scripture every where.\n\n    39. When we did walk at liberty,\n    We were deceiv'd by them,\n    Who we from hence do clearly see\n    Are vile deceitful men.\n\n    40. These politicians that profest\n    For base and worldly ends,\n    Do now appear to us at best\n    But Machiavellian friends.\n\n    41. Though men do say, we do disgrace\n    Ourselves by lying here\n    Among the rogues, yet Christ our face\n    From all such filth will clear.\n\n    42. We know there's neither flout nor frown\n    That we now for him bear,\n    But will add to our heavenly crown,\n    When he comes in the air.\n\n    43. When he our righteousness forth brings\n    Bright shining as the day,\n    And wipeth off those sland'rous things\n    That scorners on us lay.\n\n    44. We sell our earthly happiness\n    For heavenly house and home;\n    We leave this world because 'tis less,\n    And worse than that to come.\n\n    45. We change our drossy dust for gold,\n    From death to life we fly:\n    We let go shadows, and take hold\n    Of immortality.\n\n    46. We trade for that which lasting is,\n    And nothing for it give,\n    But that which is already his\n    By whom we breath and live.\n\n    47. That liberty we lose for him,\n    Sickness might take away:\n    Our goods might also for our sin\n    By fire or thieves decay.\n\n    48. Again, we see what glory 'tis\n    Freely to bear our cross\n    For him, who for us took up his,\n    When he our servant was.\n\n    49. I am most free that men should see\n    A hole cut thro' mine ear;\n    If others will ascertain me,\n    They'll hang a jewel there.\n\n    50. Just thus it is we suffer here\n    For him a little pain,\n    Who, when he doth again appear,\n    Will with him let us reign.\n\n    51. If all must either die for sin\n    A death that's natural;\n    Or else for Christ, 'tis beset with him\n    Who for the last doth fall.\n\n    52. Who now dare say we throw away\n    Our goods or liberty,\n    When God's most holy Word doth say\n    We gain thus much thereby?\n\n    53. Hark yet again, you carnal men,\n    And hear what I shall say\n    In your own dialect, and then\n    I'll you no longer stay.\n\n    54. You talk sometimes of valour much,\n    And count such bravely mann'd,\n    That will not stick to have a touch\n    With any in the land.\n\n    55. If these be worth commending then,\n    That vainly show their might,\n    How dare you blame those holy men\n    That in God's quarrel fight?\n\n    56. Though you dare crack a coward's crown,\n    Or quarrel for a pin,\n    You dare not on the wicked frown,\n    Nor speak against their sin.\n\n    57. For all your spirits are so stout,\n    For matters that are vain;\n    Yet sin besets you round about,\n    You are in Satan's chain.\n\n    58. You dare not for the truth engage,\n    You quake at prisonment;\n    You dare not make the tree your stage\n    For Christ, that King, potent.\n\n    59. Know then, true valour there doth dwell\n    Where men engage for God,\n    Against the devil, death, and hell,\n    And bear the wicked's rod.\n\n    60. These be the men that God doth count\n    Of high and noble mind;\n    These be the men that do surmount\n    What you in nature find.\n\n    61. First they do conquer their own hearts,\n    All worldly fears, and then\n    Also the devil's fiery darts,\n    And persecuting men.\n\n    62. They conquer when they thus do fall,\n    They kill when they do die:\n    They overcome then most of all,\n    And get the victory.\n\n    63. The worldling understands not this,\n    'Tis clear out of his sight;\n    Therefore he counts this world his bliss,\n    And doth our glory slight.\n\n    64. The lubber knows not how to spring\n    The nimble footman's stage;\n    Neither can owls or jackdaws sing\n    If they were in the cage.\n\n    65. The swine doth not the pearls regard,\n    But them doth slight for grains,\n    Though the wise merchant labours hard\n    For them with greatest pains.\n\n    66. Consdier man what I have said,\n    And judge of things aright;\n    When all men's cards are fully played,\n    Whose will abide the light?\n\n    67. Will those, who have us hither cast?\n    Or they who do us scorn?\n    Or those who do our houses waste?\n    Or us, who this have borne?\n\n    68. And let us count those things the best\n    That best will prove at last;\n    And count such men the only blest,\n    That do such things hold fast.\n\n    69. And what though they us dear do cost,\n    Yet let us buy them so;\n    We shall not count our labour lost\n    When we see others' woe.\n\n    70. And let saints be no longer blam'd\n    By carnal policy;\n    But let the wicked be asham'd\n    Of their malignity.\n\n\n***\n\nTHE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED;\n\nOR,\n\nGOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MEN;\n\nBEING A HELP FOR DESPAIRING SOULS, SHOWING THAT JESUS CHRIST WOULD\nHAVE MERCY IN THE FIRST PLACE OFFERED TO THE BIGGEST SINNERS.\n\nTHE THIRD EDITION,\n\nIN WHICH IS ADDED, AN ANSWER TO THOSE GRAND OBJECTIONS THAT LIE\nIN THE WAY OF THE THEM THAT WOULD BELIEVE: FOR THE COMFORT OF THEM\nTHAT FEAR THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD.\n\nLondon: Printed for Elizabeth Smith, at the Hand and Bible, on\nLondon Bridge, 1691.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nTHAT Bunyan, who considered himself one of the most notorious of\nJerusalem sinners, should write with the deepest earnestness upon\nthis subject, is not surprising. He had preached upon it with very\npeculiar pleasure, and, doubtless, from many texts; and, as he\nsays, 'through God's grace, with great success.' It is not probable\nthat, with his characteristic intensity of feeling, and holy fervour\nin preaching, he ever delivered the same sermon twice; but this\nwas a subject so in unison with his own feelings and experience,\nthat he must have dilated upon it with even unusual interest and\nearnestness. The marrow of all these exercises he concentrated\nin this treatise; and when his judgment was, by severe internal\nconflicts, fully matured--upon the eve of the close of his earthly\npilgrimage, in the last year of his life, 1688--he published it\nin a pocket volume of eight sheets. It was soon translated into\nseveral languages, and became so popular as to pass through ten\neditions in English by 1728. Like other favourite books, it was\nornamented with some very inferior wood-cuts.\n\nThe object of the author is fully explained in the title to his\nbook. It is to display the riches of Divine grace and mercy to the\ngreatest sinners--even to those whose conduct entitled them to be\ncalled 'Satan's colonels, and captains, the leaders of his people;\nand to such as most stoutly make head against the Son of God.' It\nis to those who feel themselves to be such, and who make a proper\nestimate of their own characters, as in the sight of God, that the\ngracious proclamations of the gospel are peculiarly directed. They\nto whom much is forgiven, love much; and the same native energies\nwhich had been misdirected to promote evil, when sanctified and\ndivinely guided, become a great blessing to the church, and to\nsociety at large.\n\nBunyan does not stoop to any attempt to reconcile the humbling\ndoctrines of grace to the self-righteous pride of those who,\nconsidering themselves but little sinners, would feel contaminated\nby the company of those who had been such great sinners, although\nthey were pardoned and sanctified by God. His great effort was\ndirected to relieve the distress and despair of those who were\nsuffering under deep convictions; still, his whole treatise shows\nthat the doctrine of salvation by grace, of free gift, is no\nencouragement to sin that grace may abound, as some have blasphemously\nasserted. It is degrading to the pride of those who have not drunk\nso deeply of sin, to be placed upon a level with great sinners.\nBut the disease is the same--in breaking one commandment, the whole\nlaw is violated; and, however in some the moral leprosy does not\nmake such fearful ravages as in others, the slightest taint conveys\nmoral, spiritual, and eternal death. ALL, whether young or old,\ngreat or small, must be saved by grace, or fall into perdition.\nThe difference between the taint of sin, and its awfully developed\nleprosy, is given. Who so ready to fly to the physician as those\nwho feel their case to be desperate? and, when cured, they must\nlove the Saviour most.\n\nComparatively little sins before conviction, when seen in the glass\nof God's law, and in his holy presence, become great ones. Those\nwho feel themselves to be great sinners, are peculiarly invited to\nthe arms of the Saviour, who saves to the uttermost ALL that come\nunto him; and it is thus that peculiar consolation is poured in,\nand the broken heart is bound up. We are then called by name, as\nBunyan forcibly describes it, as men called by name before a court.\n'Who first cry out, \"Here, Sir\"; and then shoulder and crowd, and\nsay, \"Pray give way, I am called into the court.\" This is thy case,\nwherefore say, \"Stand away, devil, Christ calls me; stand away,\nunbelief, Christ calls me; stand away, all ye my discouraging\napprehensions, for my Saviour calls me to him to receive of his\nmercy.\"' 'Wherefore, since Christ says come, let the angels make\na lane, and let all men give place, that the Jerusalem sinner may\ncome to Jesus Christ for mercy.' How characteristic is this of the\npeculiarly striking style of Bunyan! How solemn his warnings! 'The\ninvitations of the gospel will be, to those who refuse them, the\nhottest coals in hell.' His reasonings against despair are equally\nforcible: ''Tis a sin to begin to despair before one sets his foot\nover the threshold of hell gate. What! despair of bread in a land\nthat is full of corn! despair of mercy, when our God is full of\nmercy! when he goes about by his ministers, beseeching of sinners\nto be reconciled unto him! Thou scrupulous fool, where canst thou\nfind that God was ever false to his promise, or that he ever deceived\nthe soul that ventured itself upon him?' This whole treatise abounds\nwith strong consolation to those who are beset with fears, and\nwho, because of these, are ready to give way to despair; it ought\nto be put into the hands of all such, let them belong to what party\nthey may; for, like our author's other books, nothing of a sectarian\nnature can be traced in it, except we so call the distinguishing\ntruths of evangelical religion. There are some very interesting\nreferences to Bunyan's experience and life, and one rather singular\nidea, in which I heartily concur; it is, that the glorified saints\nwill become part of the heavenly hierarchy of angels, and take the\nplaces of those who fell from that exalted state (Rev 22:8,9).\n\nTo those whose souls are invaded by despair, or who fear that they\nhave committed the sin against the Holy Ghost--to all who pant to\nhave their faith strengthened, and hopes brightened, this little\nwork is most earnestly and affectionately commended.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nONE reason which moved me to write and print this little book was,\nbecause, though there are many excellent heart-affecting discourses\nin the world that tend to convert the sinner, yet I had a desire\nto try this simple method of mine; wherefore I make bold thus to\ninvite and encourage the worst to come to Christ for life.\n\nI have been vile myself, but have obtained mercy; and I would have\nmy companions in sin partake of mercy too: and, therefore, I have\nwrit this little book.\n\nThe nation doth swarm with vile ones now, as ever it did since it\nwas a nation. My little book, in some places, can scarce go from\nhouse to house, but it will find a suitable subject to spend itself\nupon. Now, since Christ Jesus is willing to save the vilest, why\nshould they not, by name, be somewhat acquainted with it, and bid\ncome to him under that name?\n\nA great sinner, when converted, seems a booty to Jesus Christ; he\ngets by saving such an one; why then should both Jesus lose his\nglory and the sinner lose his soul at once, and that for want of\nan invitation?\n\nI have found, through God's grace, good success in preaching upon\nthis subject, and perhaps, so I may by my writing upon it too.1 I\nhave, as you see, let down this net for a draught. The Lord catch\nsome great fishes by it, for the magnifying of his truth. There\nare some most vile in all men's eyes, and some are so in their own\neyes too; but some have their paintings, to shroud their vileness\nunder; yet they are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom\nwe have to do; and for all these, God hath sent a Saviour, Jesus;\nand to all these the door is opened.\n\nWherefore, prithee, profane man, give this little book the reading.\nCome; pardon, and a part in heaven and glory, cannot be hurtful to\nthee. Let not thy lusts and folly drive thee beyond the door of\nmercy, since it is not locked nor bolted up against thee. Manasseh\nwas a bad man, and Magdalene a bad woman, to say nothing of the thief\nupon the cross, or of the murderers of Christ; yet they obtained\nmercy; Christ willingly received them.\n\nAnd dost thou think that those, once so bad, now they are in\nheaven, repent them there because they left their sins for Christ\nwhen they were in the world? I cannot believe, but that thou\nthinkest they have verily got the best on't. Why, sinner, do thou\nlikewise. Christ, at heaven gates, says to thee, Come hither; and\nthe devil, at the gates of hell, does call thee to come to him.\nSinner, what sayest thou? Whither wilt thou go? Don't go into the\nfire; there thou wilt be burned! Don't let Jesus lose his longing,\nsince it is for thy salvation, but come to him and live.\n\nOne word more, and so I have done. Sinner, here thou dost hear of\nlove; prithee, do not provoke it, by turning it into wantonness.\nHe that dies for slighting love, sinks deepest into hell, and will\nthere be tormented by the remembrance of that evil, more than by\nthe deepest cogitation of all his other sins. Take heed, therefore;\ndo not make love thy tormentor, sinner. Farewell.\n\nGOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MEN;\n\nOR,\n\nA HELP FOR DESPAIRING SOULS.\n\n'BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.'--LUKE 24:47.\n\nTHE whole verse runs thus: 'And that repentance and remission of\nsins should be preached in his name among all nations, 'beginning\nat Jerusalem.' The words were spoken by Christ, after he rose from\nthe dead, and they are here rehearsed after an historical manner,\nbut do contain in them a formal commission, with a special clause\ntherein. The commission is, as you see, for the preaching of\nthe gospel, and is very distinctly inserted in the holy record by\nMatthew and Mark. 'Go-teach all nations,' &c. (Matt 28:19) 'Go ye\ninto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature' (Mark\n16:15). Only this clause is in special mentioned by Luke, who saith,\nthat as Christ would have the doctrine of repentance and remission\nof sins preached in his name among all nations, so he would have\nthe people of Jerusalem to have the first proffer thereof. Preach\nit, saith Christ, in all nations, but begin at Jerusalem.\n\nThe apostles, then, though they had a commission so large as to give\nthem warrant to go and preach the gospel in all the world, yet by\nthis clause they were limited as to the beginning of their ministry;\nthey were to begin this work at Jerusalem. \"Beginning at Jerusalem.\"\n\nBefore I proceed to an observation upon the words, I must, but briefly,\ntouch upon two things: namely, FIRST, Show you what Jerusalem now\nwas. SECOND, Show you what it was to preach the gospel to them.\n\nFIRST, Jerusalem is to be considered either, First, With respect\nto the descent of her people; or, Second, With respect to her\npreference and exaltation; or, Third, With respect to her present\nstate, as to her decays.\n\nFirst, As to her descent, she was from Abraham, [by] the sons of\nJacob, a people that God singled out from the rest of the nations,\nto set his love upon them.\n\nSecondly, As to her preference or exaltation, she was the place\nof God's worship, and that which had in and with her the special\ntokens and signs of God's favour and presence, above any other people\nin the world. Hence, the tribes went up to Jerusalem to worship;\nthere was God's house, God's high-priest, God's sacrifices accepted,\nand God's eye, and God's heart perpetually (Psa 76:1,2, 122; 1\nKings 9:3). But,\n\nThirdly, We are to consider Jerusalem also in her decays; for, as\nshe is so considered, she is the proper object of our text, as will\nbe further showed by and by.\n\nJerusalem, as I told you, was the place and seat of God's worship,\nbut now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized.2 The Word, the rule\nof worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put\nand set up their own traditions: they had rejected, also, the most\nweighty ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little\nthings (Matt 15; Mark 7). Jerusalem was therefore now greatly\nbackslidden, and become the place where the truth and true religion\nwere much defaced.\n\nIt was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy,\nand gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned\npresumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane\nof souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice,\nand blasphemy vented itself against the power of godliness, in all\nplaces where it was espied; as also against the promoters of it;\nyea, their Lord and Maker could not escape them.\n\nIn a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter-shop\nfor saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ,\nand his people, were most horribly persecuted and murdered. Yea,\nso hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she\nfeared not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself, by wish,\nunder the guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered\nthe Son of God, 'His blood be on us, and on our children.' And\nthough Jesus Christ did, both by doctrine, miracles, and holiness\nof life, seek to put a stop to their villanies, yet they shut\ntheir eyes, stopped their ears, and rested not, till, as was hinted\nbefore, they had driven him out of the world. Yea, that they might,\nif possible, have extinguished his name, and exploded his doctrine\nout of the world, they, against all argument, and in despite of\nheaven, its mighty hand, and undeniable proof of his resurrection,\ndid hire soldiers to invent a lie, saying, his disciples stole him\naway from the grave; on purpose that men might not count him the\nSaviour of the world, nor trust in him for the remission of sins.\n\nThey were, saith Paul, contrary to all men: for they did not only\nshut up the door of life against themselves, but forbade that it\nshould be opened to any else. 'Forbidding us,' saith he, 'to speak\nto the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins\nalway' (1 Thess 2:14-16; Matt 23:35; 15:7-9; Mark 7:6-8; Matt 3:7-9;\nJohn 8:33,41; Matt 27:18; Mark 3:30; Matt 23:37; Luke 13:33,34;\nMatt 27:25; 20:11-16).\n\nThis is the city, and these are the people; this is their character,\nand these are their sins: nor can there be produced their parallel\nin all this world. Nay, what world, what people, what nation,\nfor sin and transgression, could or can be compared to Jerusalem?\nespecially if you join to the matter of fact the light they sinned\nagainst, and the patience which they abused. Infinite was the\nwickedness upon this account which they committed.\n\nAfter all their abusings of wise men, and prophets, God sent unto\nthem John Baptist, to reduce them, and then his Son, to redeem\nthem; but they would be neither reduced nor redeemed, but persecuted\nboth to the death. Nor did they, as I said, stop here; the holy\napostles they afterwards persecuted also to death, even so many as\nthey could; the rest they drove from them unto the utmost corners.\n\nSECOND, I come not to show you what it was to preach the gospel\nto them. It was, saith Luke, to preach to them 'repentance and\nremission of sins' in Christ's name; or, as Mark has it, to bid them\n'repent and believe the gospel' (Mark 1:15). Not that repentance is\na cause of remission, but a sign of our hearty reception thereof.\nRepentance is therefore here put to intimate, that no pretended\nfaith of the gospel is good that is not accompanied with it; and\nthis he doth on purpose, because he would not have them deceive\nthemselves: for with what faith can he expect remission of sins\nin the name of Christ, that is not heartily sorry for them? Or how\nshall a man be able to give to others a satisfactory account of his\nunfeigned subjection to the gospel, that yet abides in his impenitency?\n\nWherefore repentance is here joined with faith, in the way\nof receiving the gospel. Faith is that without which it cannot be\nreceived at all; and repentance that without which it cannot be\nreceived unfeignedly. When, therefore, Christ says, he would have\na repentance and remission of sins preached in his name among all\nnations, it is as much as to say, I will that all men everywhere\nbe sorry for their sins, and accept of mercy at God's hand through\nme, lest they fall under his wrath in the judgment; for, as\nI have said, without repentance, what pretence soever men have of\nfaith, they cannot escape the wrath to come. Wherefore Paul said,\nGod commands 'all men everywhere to repent,' (in order to their\nsalvation): 'because he hath appointed a day, in the which he shall\njudge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained'\n(Acts 17:31).\n\nAnd now, to come to this clause, 'Beginning at Jerusalem'; that\nis, that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the\ngospel. 1. This cannot be so commanded because they had now any\nmore right, of themselves, thereto, than had any of the nations of\nthe world; for their sins had divested them of all self-deservings.\n2. Nor yet because they stood upon the advance-ground with the\nworst of the sinners of the nations; nay, rather, the sinners of\nthe nations had the advance-ground of them: for Jerusalem was, long\nbefore she had added this iniquity to her sin, worse than the very\nnations that God cast out before the children of Israel (2 Chron\n33). 3. It must, therefore, follow, that this cause, 'Beginning\nat Jerusalem,' was put into this commission of mere grace and\ncompassion, even from the overflowings of the bowels of mercy; for\nindeed they were the worst, and so in the most deplorable condition\nof any people under the heavens.3\n\nWhatever, therefore, their relation was to Abraham, Isaac, or\nJacob--however they formerly had been the people among whom God had\nplaced his name and worship, they were now degenerated from God,\nmore than the nations were from their idols, and were become guilty\nof the highest sins which the people of the world were capable of\ncommitting. Nay, none can be capable of committing of such pardonable\nsins as they committed against their God, when they slew his Son,\nand persecuted his name and Word.\n\n[DOCTRINE.]\n\nFrom these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this\nobservation:--That Jesus Christ. would have mercy offered, in the\nfirst place, to the biggest sinners\n\nThat these Jerusalem sinners were the biggest sinners that ever were\nin the world, I think none will deny, that believes that Christ was\nthe best man that ever was in the world, and also was their Lord\nGod. And that they were to have the first offer of his grace, the\ntext is as clear as the sun; for it saith, 'Beginning at Jerusalem.'\n'Preach,' saith he, 'repentance and remission of sins' to the\nJerusalem sinners: to the Jerusalem sinners in the first place.\nOne would a-thought, since the Jerusalem sinners were the worst\nand greatest sinners, Christ's greatest enemies, and those that\nnot only despised his person, doctrine, and miracles, but that, a\nlittle before, had had their hands up to the elbows in his heart's\nblood, that he should rather have said, Go into all the world, and\npreach repentance and remission of sins among all nations; and,\nafter that, offer the same to Jerusalem; yea, it had been infinite\ngrace if he had said so. But what grace is this, or what name shall\nwe give it, when he commands that this repentance and remission\nof sins, which is designed to be preached in all nations, should\nfirst be offered to Jerusalem; in the first place to the worst of\nsinners!\n\nNor was this the first time that the grace, which was in the heart\nof Christ, thus showed itself to the world. For while he was yet\nalive, even while he was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived, even\namong these Jerusalem sinners, which was the most vile among them,\nhe still, in his preaching, did signify that he had a desire that\nthe worst of these worst should, in the first place, come unto him.\nThe which he showeth, where he saith to the better sort of them,\n'The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before\nyou' (Matt 21:31). Also when he compared Jerusalem with the sinners\nof the nations, then he commands that the Jerusalem sinners should\nhave the gospel at present confined to them. 'Go not,' saith he,\n'into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the\nSamaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the\nhouse of Israel' (Matt 10:5,6; 23:37). But go rather to them, for\nthey were in the most fearful plight. These, therefore, must have\nthe cream of the gospel, namely, the first offer thereof, in his\nlifetime; yea, when he departed out of the world, he left this as\npart of his last will with his preachers, that they also should\noffer it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind, a careful mind, as it\nseems, to privilege the worst of sinners with the fist offer of\nmercy, and to take from among them a people, to be the first fruits\nunto God and to the Lamb.\n\nThe 15th of Luke also is famous for this, where the Lord Jesus\ntakes more care, as appears there by three parables, for the lost\nsheep, lost groat, and the prodigal son, than for the other sheep,\nthe other pence, or for the son that said he had never transgressed;\nyea, he shows that there is joy in heaven, among the angels of God,\nat the repentance of one sinner, more than over ninety and nine\njust persons which need no repentance. After this manner, therefore,\nthe mind of Christ was set on the salvation of the biggest sinners\nin his lifetime. But join to this, this clause, which he carefully\nput into the apostles' commission to preach, when he departed hence\nto the Father, and then you shall see that his heart was vehemently\nset upon it; for these were part of his last words with them, Preach\nmy gospel to all nations, but that you begin at Jerusalem.\n\nNor did the apostles overlook this clause when their Lord was gone\ninto heaven; they went first to them of Jerusalem, and preached\nChrist's gospel to them; they abode also there for a season and\ntime, and preached it to nobody else, for they had regard to the\ncommandment of their Lord. And it is to be observed, namely, that\nthe first sermon which they preached after the ascension of Christ,\nit was preached to the very worst of these Jerusalem sinners, even\nto those that were the murderers of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23), for\nthese are part of the sermon: 'Ye took him, and by wicked hands\nhave crucified and slain him.' Yea, the next sermon, and the next,\nand also the next to that, was preached to the self-same murderers,\nto the end they might be saved (Acts 3:14-16; 4:10,11; 5:30; 7:52).\n\nBut we will return to the first sermon that was preached to these\nJerusalem sinners, by which will be manifest more than great grace,\nif it be duly considered. For after that Peter, and the rest of\nthe apostles, had, in their exhortation, persuaded these wretches\nto believe that they had killed the Prince of life; and after they\nhad duly fallen under the guilt of their murder, saying, 'Men and\nbrethren, what shall we do?' he replies, by an universal tender to\nthem all in general, considering them as Christ's killers, that if\nthey were sorry for what they had done, and would be baptized for\nthe remission of their sins in his name, they should receive the\ngift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:37,38).\n\nThis he said to them all, though he knew that they were such\nsinners. Yea, he said it without the least stick or stop, or pause\nof spirit, as to whether he had best to say so or no. Nay, so far\noff was Peter from making an objection against one of them, that,\nby a particular clause in his exhortation, he endeavours, that not\none of them may escape the salvation offered. 'Repent,' saith he,\n'and be baptized every one of you.' I shut out never an one of you;\nfor I am commanded by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by\none, by the word of his salvation. But why speaks he so particularly?\nOh! there were reasons for it. The people with whom the apostles\nwere now to deal, as they were murderers of our Lord, and to be\ncharged in the general with his blood, so they had their various\nand particular acts of villany in the guilt thereof, now lying\nupon their consciences. And the guilt of these, their various and\nparticular acts of wickedness, could not, perhaps, be reached to a\nremoval thereof but by this particular application. Repent, every\none of you; be baptized, every one of you, in his name, for the\nremission of sins, and you shall, every one of you, receive the\ngift of the Holy Ghost.\n\nObjector. 'But I was one of them that plotted to take away his\nlife. May I be saved by him?'\n\nPeter. Every one of you.\n\nObjector. 'But I was one of them that bare false witness against\nhim. Is there grace for me?'\n\nPeter. For every one of you.\n\nObjector. 'But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify him,\ncrucify him; and desired that Barabbas, the murderer, might live,\nrather than him. What will become of me, think you?'\n\nPeter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every\none of you, says Peter.\n\nObjector. 'But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he\nstood before his accusers. I also was one that mocked him, when in\nanguish he hanged bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me?'\n\nPeter. For every one of you, says Peter.\n\nObjector. 'But I was one of them that, in his extremity, said, Give\nhim gall and vinegar to drink. Why may not I expect the same when\nanguish and guilt is upon me?'\n\nPeter. Repent of these your wickednesses, and here is remission of\nsins for every one of you.\n\nObjector. 'But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I\nrejoiced to see him mocked at by others. Can there be hope for me?'\n\nPeter. There is, for every one of you. 'Repent, and be baptized\nevery one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of\nsins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' Oh! what\na blessed 'Every one of you,' is here! How willing was Peter, and\nthe Lord Jesus, by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the\nword of the gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace\nof God! How unwilling, I say, was he, that any of these should\nescape the hand of mercy! Yea, what an amazing wonder is it to\nthink, that above all the world, and above everybody in it, these\nshould have the first offer of mercy! 'Beginning at Jerusalem.'\n\nBut was there not something of moment in this clause of the commission?\nDid not Peter, think you, see a great deal in it, that he should\nthus begin with these men, and thus offer, so particularly, this\ngrace to each particular man of them?\n\nBut, as I told you, this is not all; these Jerusalem sinners must\nhave this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered\nit over and over. Christ would not take their first rejection for\na denial, nor their second repulse for a denial; but he will have\ngrace offered once, and twice, and thrice, to these Jerusalem\nsinners. Is not this amazing grace? Christ will not be put off.\nThese are the sinners that are sinners indeed. They are sinners of\nthe biggest sort; consequently, such as Christ can, if they convert\nand be saved, best serve his ends and designs upon. Of which more\nanon.\n\nBut what a pitch of grace is this! Christ is minded to amaze the\nworld, and to show that he acteth not like the children of men. This\nis that which he said of old, 'I will not execute the fierceness\nof my wrath, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God\nand not man' (Hosea 11:9).5 This is not the manner of men; men are\nshorter winded; men are soon moved to take vengeance, and to right\nthemselves in a way of wrath and indignation. But God is full of\ngrace, full of patience, ready to forgive, and one that delights\nin mercy. All this is seen in our text. The biggest sinners must\nfirst be offered mercy; they must, I say, have the cream of the\ngospel offered unto them.\n\nBut we will a little proceed. In the third chapter we find, that\nthey who escaped converting by the first sermon, are called upon\nagain to accept of grace and forgiveness, for their murder committed\nupon the Son of God. You have killed, yea, 'ye denied the Holy One\nand the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and\nkilled the Prince of life.' Mark, he falls again upon the very men\nthat actually were, as you have it in the chapters following, his\nvery betrayers and murderers (Acts 3:14,15), as being loath that\nthey should escape the mercy of forgiveness: and exhorts them again\nto repent, that their sins might 'be blotted out'(verse 19,20).\n\nAgain, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this\nmurder (verse 10), but withal tells them salvation is in no other.\nThen, like a heavenly decoy, he puts himself also among them, to\ndraw them the better under the net of the gospel; saying, 'There\nis none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must\nbe saved' (verse 12).\n\nIn the fifth chapter, you find them railing at him, because he\ncontinued preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus. But\nhe tells them, that that very Jesus whom they had slain and hanged\non a tree, him God had raised up, and exalted 'to be a Prince and\na Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins'\n(verse 29-31). Still insinuating, that though they had killed him,\nand to this day rejected him, yet his business was to bestow upon\nthem repentance and forgiveness of sins.\n\n'Tis true, after they began to kill again, and when nothing\nbut killing would serve their turn, then they that were scattered\nabroad went everywhere preaching the word. Yet even some of them\nso hankered after the conversion of the Jews, that they preached\nthe gospel only to them. Also the apostles still made their abode\nat Jerusalem, in hopes that they might let down their net for\nanother draught of these Jerusalem sinners. Neither did Paul and\nBarnabas, who were the ministers of God to the Gentiles, but offer\nthe gospel, in the first place, to those of them that, for their\nwickedness, were scattered, like vagabonds, among the nations; yea,\nand when they rendered rebellion and blasphemy for their service\nand love, they replied it was necessary that the word of God should\nfirst have been spoken to them (Acts 1:8; 13:46,47).\n\nNor was this their preaching unsuccessful among these people: but\nthe Lord Jesus so wrought with the word thus spoken, that thousands\nof them came flocking to him for mercy. Three thousand of them\nclosed with him at the first; and, afterwards, two thousand more;\nfor now they were in number about five thousand; whereas, before\nsermons were preached to these murderers, the number of the disciples\nwas not above 'a hundred and twenty' (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4).\n\nAlso among these people that thus flocked to him for mercy, there\nwas a 'great company of the priests' (Acts 6:7). Now, the priests\nwere they that were the greatest of these biggest sinners; they\nwere the ringleaders, they were the inventors and ringleaders in the\nmischief. It was they that set the people against the Lord Jesus,\nand that were the cause why the uproar increased, until Pilate had\ngiven sentence upon him. 'The chief priests and elders,' says the\ntext, 'persuaded (the people) the multitude, that they should ask\nBarabbas, and destroy Jesus' (Matt 27:20). And yet, behold the\npriests, yea, a great company of the priests, became obedient to\nthe faith.6\n\nOh, the greatness of the grace of Christ, that he should be thus in\nlove with the souls of Jerusalem sinners! that he should be thus\ndelighted with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners! that he\nshould not only will that his gospel should be offered them, but\nthat it should be offered unto them first, and before other sinners\nwere admitted to a hearing of it. 'Begin at Jerusalem.'\n\nWas this doctrine well believed, where would there be a place for\na doubt, or a fear of the damnation of the soul, if the sinner be\npenitent, how bad a life soever he has lived, how many soever in\nnumber are his sins? But this grace is hid from the eyes of men;\nthe devil hides it from them; for he knows it is alluring, he knows\nit has an attracting virtue in it; for this is it that, above all\narguments, can draw the soul to God. I cannot help it, but must let\ndrop another word. The first church, the Jerusalem church, from\nwhence the gospel was to be sent into all the world, was a church\nmade up of Jerusalem sinners. These great sinners were here the\nmost shining monuments of the exceeding grace of God.\n\nThus, you see, I have proved the doctrine; and that not only by\nshowing you that this was the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ\nin his lifetime, but his last will when he went up to God; saying,\nBegin to preach at Jerusalem. Yea, it is yet further manifested,\nin that when his ministers first began to preach there, he joined\nhis power to the word, to the converting of thousands of his\nbetrayers and murderers, and also many of the ringleading priests,\nto the faith.\n\nI shall now proceed, and shall show you, FIRST, The reasons of the\npoint. SECOND, And then make some application of the whole.\n\n[THE REASONS OF THE POINT.]\n\nThe observation, you know, is this: Jesus Christ would have mercy\noffered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem\nsinners: 'Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name,\namong all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.'\n\nThe reasons of the point are:--\n\nFirst, Because the biggest sinners have most need thereof.\n\nHe that has most need, reason says, should be helped first. I\nmean, when a helping hand is offered, and now it is; for the gospel\nof the grace of God is sent to help the world (Act 16:9). But the\nbiggest sinner has most need. Therefore, in reason, when mercy\nis sent down from heaven to men, the worst of men should have the\nfirst offer of it. 'Begin at Jerusalem.' This is the reason which\nthe Lord Christ himself renders, why, in his lifetime, he left the\nbest, and turned him to the worst; why he sat so loose from the\nrighteous, and stuck so close to the wicked. 'The whole,' saith\nhe, 'have no need of the physician, but the sick. I came not to\ncall the righteous, but the sinners to repentance' (Mark 2:15-17).7\n\nAbove, you read that the scribes and Pharisees said to his disciples,\n'How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?'\nAlas! they did not know the reason; but the Lord renders them one,\nand such an one as is both natural and cogent, saying, These have\nneed, most need. Their great necessity requires that I should be\nmost friendly, and show my grace first to them.\n\nNot that the other were sinless, and so had no need of a Saviour;\nbut the publicans and their companions were the biggest sinners;\nthey were, as to view, worse than the scribes; and, therefore, in\nreason, should be helped first, because they had most need of a\nSaviour.\n\nMen that are at the point to die, have more need of the physician\nthan they that are but now and then troubled with a heart-fainting\nqualm. The publicans and sinners were, as it were, in the mouth\nof death; death was swallowing of them down:8 and, therefore, the\nLord Jesus receives them first; offers them mercy first. 'The whole\nhave no need of the physician, but the sick. I came not to call\nthe righteous, but the sinners to repentance.' The sick, as I said,\nis the biggest sinner, whether he sees his disease or not. He is\nstained from head to foot, from heart to life and conversation.\nThis man, in every man's judgment, has the most need of mercy.\nThere is nothing attends him from bed to board, and from board to\nbed again, but the visible characters, and obvious symptoms, of\neternal damnation. This, therefore, is the man that has need, most\nneed; and, therefore, in reason, should be helped in the first\nplace. Thus it was with the people concerned in the text; they were\nthe worst of sinners, Jerusalem sinners, sinners of the biggest\nsize; and, therefore, such as had the greatest need; wherefore they\nmust have mercy offered to them, before it be offered to anywhere\nelse in the world. 'Begin at Jerusalem,' offer mercy first to a\nJerusalem sinner. This man has most need, he is furthest from God,\nnearest to hell, and so one that has most need. This man's sins\nare in number the most, in cry the loudest, in weight the heaviest,\nand, consequently, will sink him soonest; wherefore he has most\nneed of mercy. This man is shut up in Satan's hand, fastest bound\nin the cords of his sins: one that justice is whetting his sword\nto cut off; and, therefore, has most need, not only of mercy, but\nthat it should be extended to him in the first place.\n\nBut a little further to show you the true nature of this reason,\nto wit, That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first\nplace, to the biggest sinners.\n\nFirst, Mercy ariseth from the bowels and compassion, from pity, and\nfrom a feeling of the condition of those in misery. 'In his love,\nand in his pity, he redeemed them.' And again, 'The Lord is pitiful,\nvery pitiful, and of tender mercy' (Isa 63:9; James 5:11).\n\nNow, where pity and compassion is, there is yearning of bowels;\nand where there is that, there is a readiness to help. And, I say\nagain, the more deplorable and dreadful the condition is, the more\ndirectly doth bowels and compassion turn themselves to such, and\noffer help and deliverance. All this flows from our first scripture\nproof, I came to call them that have need; to call them first,\nwhile the rest look on and murmur.\n\n'How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?' Ephraim was a revolter from\nGod, a man that had given himself up to devilism; a company of men,\nthe ten tribes that worshipped devils, while Judah kept with his\nGod. But 'how shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver\nthee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set\nthee as Zeboim? [and yet thou art worse than they, nor has Samaria\ncommitted half thy sins (Eze 16:46-51)] Mine heart is turned within\nme, my repentings are kindled together' (Hosea 11:8).\n\nBut where do you find that ever the Lord did thus rowl9 in his\nbowels for and after any self-righteous man? No, no; they are the\npublicans and harlots, idolaters and Jerusalem sinners, for whom\nhis bowels thus yearn and tumble about within him: for, alas! poor\nworms, they have most need of mercy.\n\nHad not the good Samaritan more compassion for that man that fell\namong thieves (though that fall was occasioned by his going from\nthe place where they worshipped God, to Jericho, the cursed city),\nthan we read he had for any other besides? His wine was for him,\nhis oil was for him, his beast for him; his penny, his care, and\nhis swaddling bands for him; for, alas! wretch, he had most need\n(Luke 10:30-35).\n\nZaccheus the publican, the chief of the publicans, one that had\nmade himself the richer by wronging of others; the Lord at that\ntime singled him out from all the rest of his brother publicans, and\nthat in the face of many Pharisees, and proclaimed in the audience\nof them all, that that day salvation was come to his house (Luke\n19:1-8).\n\nThe woman, also, that had been bound down by Satan for eighteen\nyears together, his compassions putting him upon it, he loosed\nher, though those that stood by snarled at him for so doing (Luke\n13:11-13).\n\nAnd why the woman of Sarepta, and why Naaman the Syrian, rather\nthan widows and lepers of Israel, but because their conditions were\nmore deplorable; for that they were most forlorn, and furthest from\nhelp (Luke 4:25,27).\n\nBut I say, why all these, thus named? Why have we not a catalogue\nof some holy men that were so in their own eyes, and in the judgment\nof the world? Alas! if, at any time, any of them are mentioned,\nhow seemingly coldly doth the record of scripture present them to\nus? Nicodemus, a night professor, and Simon the Pharisee, with his\nfifty pence, and their great ignorance of the methods of grace, we\nhave now and then touched upon.\n\nMercy seems to be out of its proper channel when it deals\nwith self-righteous men; but then it runs with a full stream when\nit extends itself to the biggest sinners. As God's mercy is not\nregulated by man's goodness, nor obtained by man's worthiness, so\nnot much set out by saving of any such. But more of this anon.\n\nAnd here let me ask my reader a question: Suppose that, as thou art\nwalking by some pond side, thou shouldst espy in it four or five\nchildren, all in danger of drowning, and one in more danger than\nall the rest; judge which has most need to be helped out first? I\nknow thou wilt say, he that is nearest drowning. Why, this is the\ncase; the bigger sinner, the nearer drowning; therefore, the bigger\nsinner, the more need of mercy; yea, of help, by mercy, in the first\nplace. And to this our text agrees, when it saith, 'Beginning at\nJerusalem.' Let the Jerusalem sinner, says Christ, have the first\noffer, the first invitation, the first tender of my grace and mercy;\nfor he is the biggest sinner, and so has most need thereof.\n\nSecond, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners, because when they, any of them, receive\nit, it redounds most to the fame of his name.\n\nChrist Jesus, as you may perceive, has put himself under the term\nof a physician, a doctor for curing of diseases; and you know that\napplause and fame are things that physicians much desire. That\nis it that helps them to patients; and that, also, that will help\ntheir patients to commit themselves to their skill, for cure, with\nthe more confidence and repose of spirit. And the best way for a\ndoctor or physician to get himself a name, is, in the first place,\nto take in hand, and cure, some such as all others have given up\nfor lost and dead. Physicians get neither name nor fame by pricking\nof wheals,10 or picking out thistles, or by laying of plasters\nto the scratch of a pin; every old woman can do this. But if they\nwould have a name and a fame, if they will have it quickly, they\nmust, as I said, do some great and desperate cures. Let them fetch\none to life that was dead; let them recover one to his wits that\nwas mad; let them make one that was born blind to see; or let them\ngive ripe wits to a fool: these are notable cures, and he that can\ndo thus, and if he doth thus first, he shall have the name and fame\nhe desires; he may lie a-bed till noon.\n\nWhy, Christ Jesus forgiveth sins for a name, and so begets for\nhimself a good report in the hearts of the children of men. And,\ntherefore, in reason he must be willing, as, also, he did command,\nthat his mercy should be offered first to the biggest sinners. I\nwill forgive their sins, iniquities, and transgressions, says he,\n'And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour, before\nall the nations of the earth' (Jer 33:8,9).\n\nAnd hence it is, that, at his first appearing, he took upon him to\ndo such mighty works; he got a fame thereby, he got a name thereby\n(Matt 4:23,24).\n\nWhen Christ had cast the legion of devils out of the man of whom\nyou read (Mark 5), he bid him go home to his friends, and tell\nit. 'Go home,' saith he, 'to thy friends, and tell them how great\nthings God hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee'\n(Mark 5:19). Christ Jesus seeks a name, and desireth a fame in the\nworld; and, therefore, or the better to obtain that, he commands\nthat mercy should first be proffered to the biggest sinners;\nbecause, by the saving of one of them, he makes all men marvel.\nAs it is said of the man last mentioned, whom Christ cured towards\nthe beginning of his ministry. 'And he departed,' says the text,\n'and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done\nfor him; and all men did marvel' (Mark 5:20).\n\nWhen John told Christ, that they saw one casting out devils in\nhis name, and they forbade him, because he followed not with them,\nwhat is the answer of Christ? 'Forbid him not; for there is no man\nwhich shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil\nof me' (Mark 9:39). No; they will rather cause his praise to be\nheard, and his name to be magnified, and so put glory on the head\nof Christ.\n\nBut we will follow, a little, our metaphor. Christ, as I said, has\nput himself under the term of a physician; consequently, he desireth\nthat his fame, as to the salvation of sinners, may spread abroad,\nthat the world may see what he can do. And to this end, has not\nonly commanded that the biggest sinners should have the first offer\nof his mercy, but has, as physicians do,11 put out his bills, and\npublished his doings, that things may be read and talked of. Yea,\nhe has, moreover, in these, his blessed bills, the holy scriptures\nI mean, inserted the very names of persons, the places of their\nabode, and the great cures that, by the means of his salvation, he\nhas wrought upon them to this very end. Here is, Item, such an one,\nby my grace and redeeming blood, was made a monument of everlasting\nlife; and such an one, by my perfect obedience, became an heir of\nglory. And then he produceth their names. Item, I saved Lot from\nthe guilt and damnation that he had procured for himself by his\nincest. Item, I saved David from the vengeance that belonged to\nhim for committing of adultery and murder. Here is, also, Solomon,\nManasseh, Peter, Magdalene, and many others, made mention of in this\nbook. Yea, here are their names, their sins, and their salvations\nrecorded together, that you may read and know what a Saviour he\nis, and do him honour in the world. For why are these things thus\nrecorded, but to show to sinners what he can do, to the praise and\nglory of his grace? And it is observable, as I said before, we\nhave but very little of the salvation of little sinners mentioned\nin God's book, because that would not have answered the design, to\nwit, to bring glory and fame to the name of the Son of God.\n\nWhat should be the reason, think you, why Christ should so easily\ntake a denial of the great ones that were the grandeur of the world,\nand struggle so hard for hedge-creepers12 and highwaymen, as that\nparable seems to import he doth, but to show forth the riches of\nthe glory of his grace, to his praise? (Luke 14). This, I say, is\none reason, to be sure. They that had their grounds, their yoke of\noxen, and their marriage joys, were invited to come; but they made\nthe excuse, and that served the turn. But when he comes to deal with\nthe worst, he saith to his servants, Go ye out and bring them in\nhither. 'Go out quickly-and bring in hither the poor, the maimed,\nthe halt, and the blind.' And they did so. And he said again, 'Go\nout into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that\nmy house may be filled' (Luke 14:18,19,23). These poor, lame,\nmaimed, blind, hedge-creepers, and highwaymen, must come in, must\nbe forced in. These, if saved, will make his merit shine.\n\nWhen Christ was crucified, and hanged up between the earth and\nheavens, there were two thieves crucified with him; and, behold,\nhe lays hold of one of them, and will have him away with him to\nglory. Was not this a strange act, and a display of unthought-of\ngrace? Were there none but thieves there, or were the rest of that\ncompany out of his reach? Could he not, think you, have stooped\nfrom the cross to the ground, and have laid hold on some honester\nman, if he would? Yes, doubtless. Oh! but then he would not have\ndisplayed his grace, nor so have pursued his own designs, namely,\nto get to himself a praise and a name; but now he has done it to\npurpose. For who that shall read this story, but must confess, that\nthe Son of God is full of grace; for a proof of the riches thereof,\nhe left behind him, when, upon the cross, he took the thief away\nwith him to glory. Nor can this one act of his be buried; it will\nbe talked of, to the end of the world, to his praise. 'Men shall\nspeak of the might of thy terrible acts; and I will declare thy\ngreatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great\ngoodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness-They shall speak of\nthe glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to\nthe sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his\nkingdom' (Psa 145:6-12).\n\nWhen the Word of God came among the conjurors and those soothsayers,\nthat you read of (Acts 19), and had prevailed with some of them\nto accept of the grace of Christ, the Holy Ghost records it with a\nboast, for that it would redound to his praise, saying, 'Many of\nthem also which used curious arts brought their books together,\nand burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them,\nand found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the\nWord of God, and prevailed' (Acts 19:19,20). It wrenched out of the\nclutches of Satan some of those of whom he thought himself most\nsure. 'So mightily grew the Word of God.' It grew mightily, it\nencroached upon the kingdom of the devil. It pursued him, and took\nthe prey; it forced him to let go his hold! It brought away captive,\nas prisoners taken by force of arms, some of the most valiant of\nhis army. It fetched back from, as it were, the confines of hell,\nsome of those that were his most trusty, and that, with hell, had\nbeen at an agreement. It made them come and confess their deeds,\nand burn their books before all men. 'So mightily grew the Word of\nGod, and prevailed.' Thus, therefore, you see why Christ will have\noffered mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners; they\nhave most need thereof; and this is the most ready way to extol\nhis name 'that rideth upon the heavens' to our help. But,\n\nThird, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners, because, by their forgiveness and salvation,\nothers, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him\nfor life.\n\nFor the physician, by curing the most desperate at the first, doth\nnot only get himself a name, but begets encouragement in the minds\nof other diseased folk to come to him for help. Hence you read of\nour Lord, that after, through his tender mercy, he had cured many of\ngreat diseases, his fame was spread abroad: 'They brought unto him\nall sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments,\nand those which were possessed with devils, and those which were\nlunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And\nthere followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and\nDecapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond Jordan' (Matt\n4:24,25). See here, he first, by working, gets himself a fame, a\nname, and renown; and now men take encouragement, and bring, from\nall quarters, their diseased to him, being helped, by what they\nhad heard, to believe that their diseased should be healed.\n\nNow, as he did with those outward cures, so he does in the proffers\nof his grace and mercy; he proffers that, in the first place, to\nthe biggest sinners, that others may take heart to come to him to\nbe saved. I will give you a scripture or two. I mean to show you\nthat Christ, by commanding that his mercy should, in the first\nplace, be offered to the biggest of sinners, has a design thereby\nto encourage and provoke others to come also to him for mercy. 'God,'\nsaid Paul, 'who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he\nloved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together\nwith Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together,\nand made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' But\nwhy did he do all this? 'That in the ages to come he might show the\nexceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through\nChrist Jesus' (Eph 2:4-7). See, here is a design; God lets out his\nmercy to Ephesus of design, even to show to the ages to come the\nexceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness to them through\nChrist Jesus. And why, to show, by these, the exceeding riches of\nhis grace to the ages to come, through Christ Jesus? But to allure\nthem, and their children also to come to him, and to partake the\nsame grace through Christ Jesus?13\n\nBut what was Paul, and the Ephesian sinners? (of Paul we will speak\nanon.) These Ephesian sinners, they were men dead in sins; men\nthat walked according to the dictates and motions of the devil;\nworshippers of Diana, that effeminate goddess; men far off from God,\naliens and strangers to all good things; such as were far off from\nthat, as I said, and, consequently, in a most deplorable condition.\nAs the Jerusalem sinners were of the highest sort among the Jews,\nso these Ephesian sinners were of the highest sort among the Gentiles\n(Eph 2:1-3,11,12; Acts 19:35). Wherefore, as by the Jerusalem\nsinners, in saving them first, he had a design to provoke others\nto come to him for mercy, so the same design is here set on foot\nagain, in his calling and converting the Ephesian sinners, 'That in\nthe ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace,'\nsays he, 'in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.' There\nis yet one hint behind. It is said that God saved these 'for his\ngreat love'; that is, as I think, for the setting forth, for the\ncommendation of his love, for the advance of his love, in the hearts\nand minds of them that should come after. As who should say, God\nhas had mercy upon, and been gracious to you, that he might show\nto others, for their encouragement, that they have ground to come\nto him to be saved. When God saves one great sinner, it is to\nencourage another great sinner to come to him for mercy.\n\nHe saved the thief, to encourage thieves to come to him for mercy;\nhe saved Magdalene, to encourage other Magdalenes to come to him\nfor mercy; he saved Saul, to encourage Sauls to come to him for\nmercy; and this Paul himself doth say, 'For this cause,' saith he,\n'I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth\nall long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter\nbelieve on him to life everlasting' (1 Tim 1:16). How plain are the\nwords! Christ, in saving of me, has given to the world a pattern\nof his grace, that they might see, and believe, and come, and be\nsaved; that they that are to be born hereafter might believe on\nJesus Christ to life everlasting.\n\nBut what was Paul? Why, he tells you himself; I am, says he, the\nchief of sinners. I was, says he, a blasphemer, a persecutor, an\ninjurious person; but I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13,14). Ay, that\nis well for you, Paul; but what advantage have we thereby? Oh, very\nmuch, saith he; for, 'for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me\nfirst Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern\nto them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting'\n(verse 16). Thus, therefore, you see that this third reason is of\nstrength; namely, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the\nfirst place, to the biggest sinners, because, by their forgiveness\nand salvation, others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more\nto come to him for mercy. It may well, therefore, be said to God,\nThou delightest in mercy, and mercy pleases thee (Micah 7:18).\n\nBut who believes that this was God's design in showing mercy of\nold--namely, that we that come after might take courage to come to\nhim for mercy; or that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in\nthe first place, to the biggest sinners, to stir up others to come\nto him for life? This is not the manner of men, O God! But David\nsaw this betimes; therefore he makes this one argument with God,\nthat he would blot out his transgressions, that he would forgive\nhis adultery, his murders, and horrible hypocrisy. Do it, O Lord,\nsaith he, do it, and 'then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and\nsinners shall be converted unto thee' (Psa 2:7-13). He knew that\nthe conversion of sinners would be a work highly pleasing to God,\nas being that which he had designed before he made mountain or\nhill: wherefore he comes, and he saith, Save me, O Lord; if thou\nwilt but save me, I will fall in with thy design; I will help to\nbring what sinners to thee I can. And, Lord, I am willing to be\nmade a preacher myself, for that I have been a horrible sinner;\nwherefore, if thou shalt forgive my great transgressions, I shall\nbe a fit man to tell of thy wondrous grace to others. Yea, Lord, I\ndare promise, that if thou wilt have mercy upon me, it shall tend\nto the glory of thy grace, and also to the increase of thy kingdom;\nfor I will tell it, and sinners will hear on't. And there is nothing\nso suiteth with the hearing sinner as mercy; and to be informed that\nGod is willing to bestow it upon him. 'I will teach transgressors\nthy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.'\n\nNor will Christ Jesus miss of his design in proffering of mercy,\nin the first place, to the biggest sinners. You know what work the\nLord, by laying hold of the woman of Samaria, made among the people\nthere. They knew that she was a town sinner, an adulteress; yea,\none that, after the most audacious manner, lived in uncleanness\nwith a man that was not her husband. But when she, from a turn upon\nher heart, went into the city, and said to her neighbours, 'Come,'\nOh, how they came! how they flocked out of the city to Jesus Christ!\n'Then they went out of the city, and came to him.' 'And many of\nthe Samaritans of that city (people, perhaps, as bad as herself)\nbelieved on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He\ntold me all that ever I did' (John 4:39). That word, 'He told me\nall that ever I did,' was a great argument with them; for by that\nthey gathered, that though he knew her to be vile, yet he did not\ndespise her, nor refuse to show how willing he was to communicate\nhis grace unto her; and this fetched over, first her, then them.\n\nThis woman, as I said, was a Samaritan sinner, a sinner of the\nworst complexion; for the Jews abhorred to have ought to do with\nthem (verse 9), wherefore none more fit than she to be made one of\nthe decoys of heaven, to bring others of these Samaritan wild-fowls\nunder the net of the grace of Christ; and she did the work\nto purpose. Many, and many more of the Samaritans believed on him\n(verse 40-42). The heart of man, though set on sin, will, when\nit comes once to a persuasion that God is willing to have mercy\nupon us, incline to come to Jesus Christ for life. Witness those\nturn-aways from God that you also read of in Jeremiah; for after\nthey had heard, three or four times over, that God had mercy for\nbacksliders, they broke out, and said, 'Behold, we come unto thee;\nfor thou art the Lord our God.' (Jer 3:22); or, as those in Hosea\ndid, 'For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy' (Hosea 14:1-3).\n\nMercy, and the revelation thereof, is the only antidote against\nsin. 'Tis of a thawing nature; 'twill loose the heart that is\nfrozen up in sin; yea, 'twill make the unwilling willing to come to\nJesus Christ for life. Wherefore, do you think, was it that Jesus\nChrist told the adulterous woman, and that before so many sinners,\nthat he had not condemned her, but to allure her, with them there\npresent, to hope to find favour at his hands? As he also saith, in\nanother place, 'I came not to judge, but to save the world.' For\nmight they not thence most rationally conclude, that if Jesus Christ\nhad rather save than damn an harlot, there was encouragement for\nthem [although great sinners] to come to him for mercy.\n\nI heard once a story from a soldier, who, with his company, had laid\nsiege against a fort, that so long as the besieged were persuaded\ntheir foes would show them no favour, they fought like madmen; but\nwhen they saw one of their fellows taken, and received to favour,\nthey all came tumbling down from their fortress, and delivered\nthemselves into their enemies' hands. I am persuaded, did men\nbelieve that there is that grace and willingness in the heart of\nChrist to save sinners, as the Word imports there is, they would\ncome tumbling into his arms: but Satan has blinded their minds\nthat they cannot see this thing. Howbeit, the Lord Jesus has, as\nI said, that others might take heart and come to him, given out a\ncommandment, that mercy should, in the first place, be offered to\nthe biggest sinners. 'Begin,' saith he, 'at Jerusalem'; and thus\nI end the third reason.\n\nFourth, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto biggest sinners, because that is the way, if they receive it,\nmost to weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it lowest in every\nage of the world.\n\nThe biggest sinners, they are Satan's colonels and captains,\nthe leaders of his people, and they that most stoutly make head\nagainst the Son of God. Wherefore, let these first be conquered,\nand his kingdom will be weak. When Ishbosheth had lost his Abner,\nthe kingdom was made weak, nor did he sit but tottering then upon\nhis throne. So, when Satan loseth his strong men, them that are\nmighty to work iniquity, and dexterous to manage others in the same,\nthen is his kingdom weak (2 Sam 3). Therefore, I say, Christ, and\ndoth offer mercy, in the first place, to such, the more to weaken\nhis kingdom. Christ Jesus was glad to see Satan fall like lightning\nfrom heaven; that is, suddenly, or head-long; and it was, surely,\nby casting of him out of strong possession, and by recovering of\nsome notorious sinners out of his clutches (Luke 10:17-19).\n\nSamson, when he would pull down the Philistines' temple, took\nhold of the two main pillars of it, and, breaking them, down came\nthe house. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and to\ndestroy by converting grace, as well as by redeeming blood. Now,\nsin swarms, and lieth by legions, and whole armies, in the souls\nof the biggest sinners, as in garrisons;14 wherefore, the way, the\nmost direct way, to destroy it, is first to deal with such sinners\nby the word of his gospel, and by the merits of his passion.\n\nFor example, though I shall give you but a homely one; suppose\na family to be very lousy, and one or two of the family to be in\nchief the breeders, the way, the quickest way, to clean that family,\nor at least to weaken the so swarming of those vermin, is, in the\nfirst place, to sweeten the skin, head, and clothes of the chief\nbreeders; and then, though all the family should be apt to breed\nthem, the number of them, and so the greatness of that plague there,\nwill be the more impaired. Why, there are some people that are in\nchief the devil's sin-breeders in the towns and places where they\nlive. The place, town, or family where they live, must needs be\nhorribly lousy, and, as it were, eaten up with vermin. Now, let\nthe Lord Jesus, in the first place, cleanse these great breeders,\nand there will be given a nip to those swarms of sins that used to\nbe committed in such places throughout the town, house, or family,\nwhere such sin-breeding persons used to be.\n\nI speak by experience. I was one of these lousy ones, one of these\ngreat sin-breeders; I infected all the youth of the town where\nI was born, with all manner of youthful vanities. The neighbours\ncounted me so; my practice proved me so: wherefore Christ Jesus\ntook me first; and taking me first, the contagion was much allayed\nall the town over. When God made me sigh, they would hearken, and\ninquiringly say, What's the matter with John? They also gave their\nvarious opinions of me; but, as I said, sin cooled, and failed,\nas to his full career. When I went out to seek the bread of life,\nsome of them would follow, and the rest be put into a muse 15 at\nhome. Yea, almost the town, at first, at times would go out to hear\nat the place where I found good; yea, young and old for a while\nhad some reformation on them; also some of them, perceiving that\nGod had mercy upon me, came crying to him for mercy too.\n\nBut what need I give you an instance of poor I; I will come\nto Manasseh the king. So long as he was a ringleading sinner, the\ngreat idolater, and chief for devilism, the whole land flowed with\nwickedness; for he made them to sin (2 Chron 33), and do worse\nthan the heathen that dwelt round about them, or that was cast out\nfrom before them: but when God converted him, the whole land was\nreformed. Down went the groves, the idols, and altars of Baal, and\nup went true religion in much of the power and purity of it. You\nwill say, The king reformed by power. I answer, doubtless, and by\nexample too; for people observe their leaders; as their fathers did,\nso did they (2 Kings 17:41). This, therefore, is another reason why\nJesus would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest\nsinners, because that is the best way, if they receive it, most to\nweaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it poor and low.\n\nAnd do you not think now, that if God would but take hold of the\nhearts of some of the most notorious in your town, in your family,\nor country, that this thing would be verified before your faces?\nIt would, it would, to the joy of you that are godly, to the making\nof hell to sigh, to the great suppressing of sin, the glory of\nChrist, and the joy of the angels of God.16 And ministers, should,\ntherefore, that this work might go on, take advantages to persuade\nwith the biggest sinners to come into Christ, according to my text,\nand their commission, 'Beginning at Jerusalem.'\n\nFifth, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners, because such, when converted, are usually\nthe best helps in the church against temptations, and fittest for\nthe support of the feeble-minded there.\n\nHence, usually, you have some such in the first plantation of\nchurches, or quickly upon it. Churches would do but sorrily, if\nChrist Jesus did not put such converts among them; they are the\nmonuments and mirrors of mercy. The very sight of such a sinner in\nGod's house, yea, the very thought of him, where the sight of him\ncannot be had, is ofttimes greatly for the help of the faith of\nthe feeble.\n\nWhen the churches, saith Paul, that were in Judea, heard this\nconcerning me, that he which persecuted them in time past, now\npreached the faith which once he destroyed, 'they glorified God in\nme' (Gal 1:20-24). 'Glorified God.' How is that? Why, they praised\nhim, and took courage to believe the more in the mercy of God; for\nthat he had had mercy on such a great sinner as he. They glorified\nGod 'in me'; they wondered that grace should be so rich, as to take\nhold of such a wretch as I was; and for my sake believed in Christ\nthe more.\n\nThere are two things that great sinners are acquainted with, when\nthey come to divulge them to the saints, that are a great relief\nto their faith. 1. The contests that they usually have with the\ndevil at their parting with him. 2. Their knowledge of his secrets\nin his workings.\n\n1. For first, The biggest sinners17 have usually great contests\nwith the devil at their partings; and this is an help to saints: for\nordinary saints find afterwards what the vile ones find at first,\nbut when, at the opening of hearts, the one finds himself to be as\nthe other--the one is a comfort to the other. The lesser sort of\nsinners find but little of this, till after they have been some time\nin profession; but the vile man meets with his at the beginning.\nWherefore he, when the other is down, is ready to tell that he has\nmet with the same before; for, I say, he has had it before. Satan\nis loath to part with a great sinner. 'What, my true servant,' quoth\nhe, 'my old servant, wilt thou forsake me now? Having so often\nsold thyself to me to work wickedness, wilt thou forsake me now?\nThou horrible wretch, dost not know, that thou has sinned thyself\nbeyond the reach of grace, and dost thou think to find mercy now?\nArt not thou a murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch, a sinner\nof the greatest size, and dost thou look for mercy now? Dost thou\nthink that Christ will foul his fingers with thee? It is enough\nto make angels blush, saith Satan, to see so vile an one knock\nat heaven-gates for mercy, and wilt thou be so abominably bold to\ndo it?' 18 Thus Satan dealt with me, says the great sinner, when\nat first I came to Jesus Christ. And what did you reply? saith\nthe tempted. Why, I granted the while charge to be true, says the\nother. And what, did you despair, or how? No, saith he, I said, I\nam Magdalene, I am Zaccheus, I am the thief, I am the harlot, I am\nthe publican, I am the prodigal, and one of Christ's murderers; yea,\nworse than any of these; and yet God was so far off from rejecting\nof me, as I found afterwards, that there was music and dancing\nin his house for me, and for joy that I was come home unto him. O\nblessed be God for grace (says the other), for then, I hope, there\nis favour for me. Yea, as I told you, such an one is a continual\nspectacle in the church, for every one by to behold God's grace\nand wonder by.\n\n2. And as for the secrets of Satan, such as are suggestions to\nquestion the being of God, the truth of his Word, and to be annoyed\nwith devilish blasphemies; none more acquainted with these than\nthe biggest sinners at their conversion; wherefore thus also they\nare prepared to be helps in the church to relieve and comfort the\nother.\n\nI might also here tell you of the contests and battles that such\nare engaged in, wherein they find the buffetings of Satan, above\nany other of the saints. At which time Satan assaults the soul\nwith darkness, fears, frightful thoughts of apparitions; now they\nsweat, pant, cry out, and struggle for life. The angels now come\ndown to behold the sight, and rejoice to see a bit of dust and ashes\nto overcome principalities and powers, and might, and dominions.\nBut, as I said, when these come a little to be settled, they are\nprepared for helps for others, and are great comforts unto them.\nTheir great sins give encouragement to the devil to assault them;\nand by these temptations Christ takes advantage to make them the\nmore helpful to the churches.\n\nThe biggest sinner, when he is converted, and comes into the church,\nsays to them all, by his very coming in, Behold me, all you that\nare men and women of a low and timorous spirit, you whose hearts\nare narrow, for that you never had the advantage to know, because\nyour sins are few, the largeness of the grace of God. Behold, I\nsay, in me, the exceeding riches of his grace! I am a pattern set\nforth before your faces, on whom you may look and take heart. This,\nI say, the great sinner can say, to the exceeding comfort of all\nthe rest. Wherefore, as I have hinted before, when God intends to\nstock a place with saints, and to make that place excellently to\nflourish with the riches of his grace, he usually begins with the\nconversion of some of the most notorious thereabouts, and lays\nthem, as an example, to allure others, and to build up when they\nare converted. It was Paul that must go to the Gentiles, because\nPaul was the most outrageous of all the apostles, in the time of\nhis unregeneracy. Yea, Peter must be he, that after his horrible\nfall, was thought fittest, when recovered again, to comfort and\nstrengthen his brethren (See Luke 22:31,32).\n\nSome must be pillars in God's house; and if they be pillars of\ncedar, they must stand while they are stout and sturdy sticks in\nthe forest, before they are cut down, and planted or placed there.\nNo man, when he buildeth his house, makes the principal parts\nthereof of weak or feeble timber; for how could such bear up the\nrest? but of great and able wood. Christ Jesus also goeth this\nway to work; he makes of the biggest sinners bearers and supporters\nto the rest. This, then, may serve for another reason, why Jesus\nChrist gives out in commandment, that mercy should, in the first\nplace, be offered to the biggest sinners, because such, when converted,\nare usually the best helps in the church against temptations, and\nfittest for the support of the feeble-minded there.\n\nSixth, Another reason why Jesus Christ would have mercy offered,\nin the first place, to the biggest sinners, is, because they, when\nconverted, are apt to love him most.\n\nThis agrees both with scripture and reason. Scripture says so.\nTo whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. 'To whom little\nis forgiven, the same loveth little' (Luke 7:47). Reason says so:\nfor as it would be the unreasonablest thing in the world to render\nhatred for love, and contempt for forgiveness; so it would be as\nridiculous to think, that the reception of a little kindness should\nlay the same obligations upon the heart to love as the reception\nof a great deal. I would not disparage the love of Christ; I know\nthe least drachm of it, when it reaches to forgiveness, is great\nabove all the world; but comparatively, there are greater extensions\nof the love of Christ to one than to another. He that has most sin,\nif. forgiven, is partaker of the greatest love, of the greatest\nforgiveness.\n\nI know also, that there are some, that from this very doctrine\nsay, 'Let us do evil that good may come'; and that turn the grace\nof our God into lasciviousness. But I speak not of these; these\nwill neither be ruled by grace nor reason. Grace would teach them,\nif they knew it, to deny ungodly courses; and so would reason too,\nif it could truly sense the love of God (Titus 2:11,12; Rom 12:1).\n\nDoth it look like what hath any coherence with reason or mercy,\nfor a man to abuse his friend? Because Christ died for me, shall I\ntherefore spit in his face? The bread and water that was given by\nElisha to his enemies, that came into the land of Israel to take\nhim, had so much influence upon their minds, though heathens, that\nthey returned to their homes without hurting him; yea, it kept them\nfrom coming again in a hostile manner into the coasts of Israel (2\nKings 6:19-23).\n\nBut to forbear to illustrate, till anon. One reason why Christ Jesus\nshows mercy to sinners, is, that he might obtain their love, that\nhe may remove their base affections from base objects to himself.\nNow, if he loves to be loved a little, he loves to be loved much;\nbut there is not any that are capable of loving much, save those that\nhave much forgiven them. Hence it is said of Paul, that he laboured\nmore than them all; to wit, with a labour of love, because he had\nbeen by sin more vile against Christ than they all (1 Cor 15).\nHe it was that 'persecuted the church of God, and wasted it' (Gal\n1:13). He of them all was the only raving bedlam against the saints.\n'And being exceeding mad,' says he, 'against them, I persecuted\nthem even unto strange cities' (Acts 26:11). This raving bedlam,\nthat once was so, is he that now says, I laboured more than them\nall, more for Christ than them all. But Paul, what moved thee thus\nto do? The love of Christ, says he. It was not I, but the grace\nof God that was with me. As who should say, O grace! It was such\ngrace to save me! It was such marvellous grace for God to look down\nfrom heaven upon me, and that secured me from the wrath to come,\nthat I am captivated with the sense of the riches of it. Hence\nI act, hence I labour; for how can I otherwise do, since God not\nonly separated me from my sins and companions, but separated all\nthe powers of my soul and body to his service? I am, therefore,\nprompted on by this exceeding love to labour as I have done;\nyet not I, but the grace of God with me. Oh! I shall never forget\nhis love, nor the circumstances under which I was, when his love\nlaid hold upon me. I was going to Damascus with letters from the\nhigh-priest, to make havoc of God's people there, as I had made\nhavoc of them in other places. These bloody letters were not imposed\nupon me. I went to the high-priest and desired them of him, and\nyet he saved me! (Acts 9:1,2). I was one of the men, of the chief\nmen, that had a hand in the blood of his martyr Stephen; yet he\nhad mercy upon me! When I was at Damascus, I stunk19 so horribly\nlike a blood-sucker, that I became a terror to all thereabout.\nYea, Ananias, good man, made intercession to my Lord against me;\nyet he would have mercy upon me, yea, joined mercy to mercy, until\nhe had made me a monument of grace. He made a saint of me, and\npersuaded me that my transgressions were forgiven me.\n\nWhen I began to preach, those that heard me were amazed, and said,\n'Is not this he that destroyed them that called on this name in\nJerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring\nthem bound to the high-priest?' Hell doth know that I was a sinner;\nheaven doth know that I was a sinner; the world also knows that I\nwas a sinner, a sinner of the greatest size; but I obtained mercy\n(Acts 9:20,21). Shall not this lay obligation upon me? Is not love\nof the greatest force to oblige? Is it not strong as death, cruel\nas the grave, and hotter than the coals of juniper? Hath it not\na most vehement flame? Can the waters quench it? can the floods\ndrown it? I a m under the force of it, and this is my continual\ncry, What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits which he\nhas bestowed upon me?\n\nAye, Paul! this is something; thou speakest like a man, like a man\naffected, and carried away with the love and grace of God. Now,\nthis sense, and this affection, and this labour, giveth to Christ\nthe love that he looks for. But he might have converted twenty\nlittle sinners, and yet not found, for grace bestowed, so much love\nin them all. I wonder how far a man might go among the converted\nsinners of the smaller size, before he could find one that so much\nas looked anything this way ward. Where is he that is thus under\npangs of love for the grace bestowed upon him by Jesus Christ?\nExcepting only some few, you may walk to the world's end, and find\nnone. But, as I said, some there are, and so there have been in\nevery age of the church, great sinners, that have had much forgiven\nthem; and they love much upon this account. Jesus Christ, therefore,\nknows what he doth, when he lays hold on the hearts of sinners of\nthe biggest size. He knows that such an one will love more than\nmany that have not sinned half their sins.\n\nI will tell you a story that I have read of Martha and Mary; the\nname of the book I have forgot; I mean of the book in which I found\nthe relation; but the thing was thus:--\n\nMartha, saith my author, was a very holy woman, much like Lazarus,\nher brother; but Mary was a loose and wanton creature; Martha did\nseldom miss good sermons and lectures, when she could come at them\nin Jerusalem; but Mary would frequent the house of sports, and the\ncompany of the vilest of men for lust. And though Martha had often\ndesired that her sister would go with her to hear her preachers,\nyea, had often entreated her with tears to do it, yet could she\nnever prevail; for still Mary would make her excuse, or reject her\nwith disdain, for her zeal and preciseness in religion.\n\nAfter Martha had waited long, tried many ways to bring her sister\nto good, and all proved ineffectual, at last she comes upon her\nthus: 'Sister,' quoth she, 'I pray thee go with me to the temple\ntoday, to hear one preach a sermon.' 'What kind of preacher is he?'\nsaid she. Martha replied, 'It is one Jesus of Nazareth; he is the\nhandsomest man that ever you saw with your eyes. Oh! he shines in\nbeauty, and is a most excellent preacher.'\n\nNow, what does Mary, after a little pause, but goes up into her\nchamber, and, with her pins and her clouts,20 decks up herself as\nfine as her fingers could make her. This done, away she goes, not\nwith her sister Martha, but as much unobserved as she could, to\nthe sermon, or rather to see the preacher.\n\nThe hour and preacher being come, and she having observed whereabout\nthe preacher would stand, goes and sets herself so in the temple,\nthat she might be sure to have the full view of this excellent\nperson. So he comes in, and she looks, and the first glimpse of his\nperson pleased her. Well, Jesus addresseth himself to his sermon,\nand she looks earnestly on him.\n\nNow, at that time, saith my author, Jesus preached about the lost\nsheep, the lost groat, and the prodigal child. And when he came to\nshow what care the shepherd took for one lost sheep, and how the\nwoman swept to find her piece which was lost, and what joy there\nwas at their finding, she began to be taken by the ears, and forgot\nwhat she came about, musing what the preacher would make of it.\nBut when he came to the application, and showed, that by the lost\nsheep, was meant a great sinner; by the shepherd's care, was meant\nGod's love for great sinners; and that by the joy of the neighbours,\nwas showed what joy there was among the angels in heaven over one\ngreat sinner that repenteth; she began to be taken by the heart. And\nas he spake these last words, she thought he pitched his innocent\neyes just upon her, and looked as if he spake what was now said to\nher: wherefore her heart began to tremble, being shaken with affection\nand fear; then her eyes ran down with tears apace; wherefore she was\nforced to hide her face with her handkerchief, and so sat sobbing\nand crying all the rest of the sermon.\n\nSermon being done, up she gets, and away she goes, and withal\ninquired where this Jesus the preacher dined that day? and one told\nher, At the house of Simon the Pharisee. So away goes she, first to\nher chamber, and there strips herself of her wanton attire; then\nfalls upon her knees to ask God forgiveness for all her wicked life.\nThis done, in a modest dress she goes to Simon's house, where she\nfinds Jesus sat at dinner. So she gets behind him, and weeps, and\ndrops her tears upon his feet like rain, and washes them, and wipes\nthem with the hair of her head. She also kissed his feet with her\nlips, and anointed them with ointment. When Simon the Pharisee\nperceived what the woman did, and being ignorant of what it was to\nbe forgiven much (for he never was forgiven more than fifty pence),\nhe began to think within himself, that he had been mistaken about\nJesus Christ, because he suffered such a sinner as this woman was,\nto touch him. Surely, quoth he, this man, if he were a prophet,\nwould not let this woman come near him, for she is a town-sinner;\nso ignorant are all self-righteous men of the way of Christ with\nsinners. But, lest Mary should be discouraged with some clownish\ncarriage of this Pharisee, and so desert her good beginnings, and\nher new steps which she now had begun to take towards eternal life,\nJesus began thus with Simon: 'Simon,' saith he, 'I have somewhat\nto say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was,' said\nJesus, 'a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five\nhundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to\npay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of\nthem will love him most? Simon answered, and said, I suppose that\nhe, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly\njudged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou\nthis woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water\nfor my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped\nthem with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this\nwoman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.\nMy head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed\nmy feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto her, Her sins, which\nare many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is\nforgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins\nare forgiven'(Luke 7:36-48).\n\nThus you have the story. If I come short in any circumstance, I\nbeg pardon of those that can correct me. It is three or four and\ntwenty years since I saw the book; yet I have, as far as my memory\nwill admit, given you the relation of the matter. However, Luke,\nas you see, doth here present you with the substance of the whole.21\n\nAlas! Christ Jesus has but little thanks for the saving of little\nsinners. 'To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.' He\ngets not water for his feet, by his saving of such sinners. There\nare abundance of dry-eyed Christians in the world, and abundance of\ndry-eyed duties too; duties that never were wetted with the tears\nof contrition and repentance, nor ever sweetened with the great\nsinner's box of ointment. And the reason is, such sinners have not\ngreat sins to be saved from; or, if they have, they look upon them\nin the diminishing glass of the holy law of God.22 But, I rather\nbelieve, that the professors of our days want a due sense of what\nthey are; for, verily, for the generality of them, both before\nand since conversion, they have been sinners of a lusty size. But\nif their eyes be holden, if convictions are not shown, if their\nknowledge of their sins is but like to the eye-sight in twilight;\nthe heart cannot be affected with that grace that has laid hold on\nthe man; and so Christ Jesus sows much, and has little coming in.\nWherefore his way is ofttimes to step out of the way, to Jericho,\nto Samaria, to the country of the Gadarenes, to the coasts of Tyre\nand Sidon, and also to Mount Calvary, that he may lay hold of such\nkind of sinners as will love him to his liking (Luke 19:1-11; John\n4:3-11; Mark 5:1-20; Matt 15:21-29; Luke 23:33-43).\n\nBut thus much for the sixth reason, why Christ Jesus would have\nmercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, to wit,\nbecause such sinners, when converted, are apt to love him most.\nThe Jerusalem sinners were they that outstripped, when they were\nconverted, in some things, all the churches of the Gentiles. They\n'were of one heart, and of one soul: neither said any of them that\naught of the things which he possessed was his own.' 'Neither was\nthere any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors\nof lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things\nthat were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet,' &c.\n(Acts 4:32,35). Now, show me such another pattern, if you can. But\nwhy did these do thus? Oh! they were Jerusalem sinners. These were\nthe men that, but a little before, had killed the Prince of life;\nand those to whom he did, that notwithstanding, send the first offer\nof grace and mercy. And the sense of this took them up betwixt the\nearth and the heaven, and carried them on in such ways and methods\nas could never be trodden by any since. They talk of the church of\nRome, and set her, in her primitive state, as a pattern and mother\nof churches; when the truth is, they were the Jerusalem sinners,\nwhen converts, that out-did all the churches that ever were.\n\nSeventh, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners, because grace, when it is received by such,\nfinds matter to kindle upon more freely than it finds in other\nsinners.\n\nGreat sinners are like the dry wood, or like great candles, which\nburn best and shine with biggest light. I lay not this down, as\nI did those reasons before, to show, that when great sinners are\nconverted, they will be encouragement to others, though that is true;\nbut to show, that Christ has a delight to see grace, the grace we\nreceive, to shine. We love to see things that bear a good gloss;\nyea, we choose to buy such kind of matter to work upon, as will,\nif wrought up to what we intend, cast that lustre that we desire.\nCandles that burn not bright, we like not; wood that is green will\nrather smother, and sputter, and smoke, and crack, and flounce,\nthan cast a brave light and a pleasant heat; wherefore great folks\ncare not much, not so much, for such kind of things, as for them\nthat will better answer their ends.\n\nHence Christ desires the biggest sinner; in him there is matter to\nwork by, to wit, a great deal of sin; for as by the tallow of the\ncandle, the first takes occasion to burn the brighter; so, by the\nsin of the soul, grace takes occasion to shine the clearer. Little\ncandles shine but little, for there wanteth matter for the fire to\nwork upon; but in the great sinner, here is more matter for grace\nto work by. Faith shines, when it worketh towards Christ, through\nthe sides of many and great transgressions, and so does love, for\nthat much is forgiven. And what matter can be found in the soul\nfor humility to work by so well, as by a sight that I have been and\nam an abominable sinner? And the same is to be said of patience,\nmeekness, gentleness, self-denial, or of any other grace. Grace\ntakes occasion, by the vileness of the man, to shine the more; even\nas by the ruggedness of a very strong distemper or disease, the\nvirtue of the medicine is best made manifest. 'Where sin abounded,\ngrace did much more abound' (Rom 5:20). A black string makes\nthe neck look whiter; great sins make grace burn clear. Some say,\nwhen grace and a good nature meet together, they do make shining\nChristians; but I say, when grace and a great sinner meet, and when\ngrace shall subdue that great sinner to itself, and shall operate\nafter its kind in the soul of that great sinner, then we have\na shining Christian; witness all those of whom mention was made\nbefore.\n\nAbraham was among the idolaters when in the land of Assyria, and\nserved idols, with his kindred, on the other side of the flood (Josh\n24:2; Gen 11:31). But who, when called, was there in the world, in\nwhom grace shone so bright as in him? The Thessalonians were idolaters\nbefore the Word of God came to them; but when they had received\nit, they became examples to all that did believe in Macedonia and\nAchaia (1 Thess 1:6-10).\n\nGod the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, are for having things\nseen; for having the Word of life held forth. They light not a\ncandle that it might be put under a bushel, or under a bed, but on\na candlestick, that all that come in may see the light (Matt 5:15;\nMark 4:21; Luke 8:16; 11:33). and, I say, as I said before, in whom\nis it, light, like so to shine, as in the souls of great sinners?\n\nWhen the Jewish Pharisees dallied with the gospel, Christ threatened\nto take it from them, and to give it to the barbarous heathens and\nidolaters. Why so? For they, saith he, will bring forth the fruits\nthereof in their season. 23 'Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom\nof God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing\nforth the fruits thereof' (Matt 21:43).\n\nI have often marvelled at our youth, and said in my heart, What\nshould be the reason that they should be so generally at this day\ndebauched as they are? For they are now profane to amazement; and\nsometimes I have thought one thing, and sometimes another; that is,\nwhy God should suffer it so to be? At last I have thought of this:\nHow if the God, whose ways are past finding out, should suffer it\nso to be now, that he might make of some of them the more glorious\nsaints hereafter. I know sin is of the devil, but it cannot work\nin the world without permission: and if it happens to be as I have\nthought, it will not be the first time that God the Lord hath caught\nSatan in his own design. For my part, I believe that the time is\nat hand, that we shall see better saints in the world than has been\nseen in it this many a day. And this vileness, that at present does\nso much swallow up our youth, is one cause of my thinking so; for\nout of them, for from among them, when God sets to his hand, as\nof old, you shall see what penitent ones, what trembling ones, and\nwhat admirers of grace, will be found to profess the gospel to the\nglory of God by Christ.\n\nAlas! we are a company of worn-out Christians; our moon is in the\nwane; we are much more black than white, more dark than light; we\nshine but a little; grace in the most of us is decayed. But I say,\nwhen they of these debauched ones that are to be saved shall be\nbrought in--when these that look more like devils than men shall\nbe converted to Christ (and I believe several of them will), then\nwill Christ be exalted, grace adored, the Word prized, Zion's path\nbetter trodden, and men in the pursuit of their own salvation, to\nthe amazement of them that are left behind.\n\nJust before Christ came into the flesh, the world was degenerated\nas it is now: the generality of the men in Jerusalem were become\neither high and famous for hypocrisy, or filthy, base in their\nlives. The devil also was broke loose in hideous manner, and had\ntaken possession of many: yea, I believe, that there was never\ngeneration before nor since, that could produce so many possessed\nwith devils, deformed, lame, blind, and infected with monstrous\ndiseases, as that generation could. But what was the reason thereof,\nI mean the reason from God? Why, one--and we may sum up more in\nthat answer that Christ gave to his disciples concerning him that\nwas born blind--was, that 'the works of God should be made manifest'\nin them, and 'that the Son of God might be glorified thereby' (John\n9:2,3; 11:4).\n\nNow, if these devils and diseases, as they possessed men then,\nwere to make way and work for an approaching to Christ in person,\nand for the declaring of his power, why may we not think that now,\neven now also, he is ready to come, by his Spirit in the gospel,\nto heal many of the debaucheries of our age? I cannot believe that\ngrace will take them all, for there are but few that are saved;\nbut yet it will take some, even some of the worst of men, and make\nblessed ones of them. But, O how these ringleaders in vice will\nthen shine in virtue! They will be the very pillars in churches,\nthey will be as an ensign in the land. 'The Lord their God shall\nsave them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall\nbe as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his\nland' (Zech 9:16). But who are these? Even idolatrous Ephraim, and\nbacksliding Judah (verse 13).\n\nI know there is ground to fear, that the iniquity of this generation\nwill be pursued with heavy judgments; but that will not hinder\nthat we have supposed. God took him a glorious church out of bloody\nJerusalem, yea, out of the chief of the sinners there, and left\nthe rest to be taken and spoiled, and sold, thirty for a penny, in\nthe nations where they were captives. The gospel working gloriously\nin a place, to the seizing upon many of the ringleading sinners\nthereof, promiseth no security to the rest, but rather threateneth\nthem with the heaviest and smartest judgments; as in the instance\nnow given, we have a full demonstration; but in defending, the Lord\nwill defend his people; and in saving, he will save his inheritance.\n\nNor does this speak any great comfort to a decayed and backsliding\nsort of Christian; for the next time God rides post with his gospel,\nhe will leave such Christians behind him. But, I say, Christ is\nresolved to set up his light in the world; yea, he is delighted\nto see his graces shine; and therefore he commands that his gospel\nshould, to that end, be offered, in the first place, to the biggest\nsinners; for by great sins it shineth most; therefore he saith,\n'Begin at Jerusalem.'\n\nEighth, and lastly, Christ Jesus will have mercy to be offered,\nin the first place, to the biggest sinners, for that by that means\nthe impenitent that are left behind will be, at the judgment, the\nmore left withoutexcuse.\n\nGod's Word has two edges; it can cut back-stroke and fore-stroke.\nIf it doth thee no good, it will do thee hurt; it is 'the savour\nof life unto life' to those that receive it, but of 'death unto\ndeath' to them that refuse it (2 Cor 2:15,16). But this is not all;\nthe tender of grace to the biggest sinners, in the first place, will\nnot only leave the rest, or those that refuse it, in a deplorable\ncondition, but will also stop their mouths, and cut off all pretence\nto excuse at that day. 'If I had not come and spoken unto them,'\nsaith Christ,' saith Christ, 'they had not had sin; but now they have\nno cloke for their sin'--for their sin of persevering in impenitence\n(John 15:22). But what did he speak to them? Why, even that which\nI have told you; to wit, That he has in special a delight in saving\nthe biggest sinners. He spake this in the way of his doctrine; he\nspake this in the way of his practice, even to the pouring out of\nhis last breath before them (Luke 23:34).\n\nNow, since this is so, what can the condemned at the judgment say\nfor themselves, why sentence of death should not be passed upon\nthem? I say, what excuse can they make for themselves, when they\nshall be asked why they did not in the day of salvation come to\nChrist to be saved? Will they have ground to say to the Lord, Thou\nwast only for saving of little sinners; and, therefore, because\nthey were great ones, they durst not come unto him; or that thou\nhadst not compassion for the biggest sinners, therefore I died in\ndespair? Will these be excuses for them, as the case now standeth\nwith them? Is there not everywhere in God's Book a flat contradiction\nto this, in multitudes of promises, of invitations, of examples,\nand the like? Alas! alas! there will then be there millions of\nsouls to confute this plea; ready, I say, to stand up, and say,\n'O! deceived world, heaven swarms with such as were, when they\nwere in the world, to the full as bad as you!' Now, this will kill\nall plea or excuse, why they should not perish in their sins; yea,\nthe text says they shall see them there. 'There shall be weeping-when\nye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets,\nin the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out. And they\nshall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north,\nand from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God'\n(Luke 13:28,29). Out of which company, it is easy to pick such as\nsometimes were as bad people as any [that] now breathe on the face\nof [the] earth. What think you of the first man, by whose sins there\nare millions now in hell? And so I may say, What think you of ten\nthousand more besides?\n\nBut if the Word will not stifle and gag them up--I speak now\nfor amplification's sake--the view of those who are saved shall.\nThere comes an incestuous person to the bar, and pleads, That the\nbigness of his sins was a bar to his receiving the promise. But will\nnot his mouth be stopped as to that, when Lot, and the incestuous\nCorinthians, shall be set before him (Gen 19:33-37; 1 Cor 5:1,2).\n\nThere comes a thief, and says, Lord, my sin of thefts, I thought,\nwas such as could not be pardoned by thee! But when he shall see\nthe thief that was saved on the cross stand by, as clothed with\nbeauteous glory, what further can he be able to object? Yea, the\nLord will produce ten thousand of his saints at his coming, who\nshall after this manner 'execute judgment upon all, and so convince\nall that are ungodly among them--of all their hard speeches which\nungodly sinners have spoken against him' (Jude 15). And these are\nhard speeches against him, to say that he was not able or willing\nto save men, because of the greatness of their sins, or to say that\nthey were discouraged by his Word from repentance, because of the\nheinousness of their offences. These things, I say, shall then be\nconfuted. He comes with ten thousand of his saints to confute them,\nand to stop their mouths from making objections against their own\neternal damnation.\n\nHere is Adam, the destroyer of the world; here is Lot, that lay\nwith both his daughters; here is Abraham, that was sometime an\nidolater; and Jacob, that was a supplanter; and Reuben, that lay with\nhis father's concubine; and Judah, that lay with his daughter-in-law;\nand Levi and Simeon, that wickedly slew the Shechemites; and Aaron,\nthat made an idol to be worshipped, and that proclaimed a religious\nfeast unto it. Here is also Rahab the harlot, and Bathsheba, that\nbare a bastard to David. Here is Solomon, that great backslider;\nand Manasseh, that man of blood and a witch. Time would fail to\ntell you of the woman of Canaan's daughter, of Mary Magdalene, of\nMatthew the publican, and of Gideon and Samson, and many thousands\nmore.\n\nAlas! alas! I say, what will these sinners do, that have, through\ntheir unbelief, eclipsed the glorious largeness of the mercy of\nGod, and gave way to despair of salvation, because of the bigness\nof their sins? For all these, though now glorious saints in light,\nwere sometimes sinners of the biggest size, who had sins that were\nof a notorious hue; yet now, I say, they are in their shining and\nheavenly robes before the throne of God and of the Lamb, blessing\nfor ever and ever that Son of God for their salvation, who died for\nthem upon the tree; admiring that ever it should come into their\nhearts once to think of coming to God by Christ; but above all,\nblessing God for granting of them light to see those encouragements\nin his Testament; without which, without doubt, they had been\ndaunted, and sunk down under guilt of sin and despair, as their\nfellow-sinners have done. But now they also are witnesses for God,\nand for his grace, against an unbelieving world; for, as I said,\nthey shall come to convince the world of their speeches, their hard\nand unbelieving words, that they have spoken concerning the mercy\nof God, and the merits of the passion of his blessed Son, Jesus\nChrist.\n\nBut will it not, think you, strangely put to silence all such\nthoughts, and words, and reasons of the ungodly before the bar\nof God? Doubtless it will; yea, and will send them away from his\npresence also, with the greatest guilt that possibly can fasten\nupon the consciences of men.\n\nFor what will sting like this?--'I have, through mine own foolish,\nnarrow, unworthy, undervaluing thoughts, of the love and ability\nof Christ to save me, brought myself to everlasting ruin. It is\ntrue, I was a horrible sinner; not one in a hundred did live so\nvile a life as I. But this should not have kept me from closing\nwith Jesus Christ. I see now that there are abundance in glory\nthat once were as bad as I have been; but they were saved by faith,\nand I am damned by unbelief. Wretch that I am! why did not I give\nglory to the redeeming blood of Jesus? Why did I not humbly cast\nmy soul at his blessed footstool for mercy? Why did I judge of\nhis ability to save me by the voice of my shallow reason, and the\nvoice of a guilty conscience? Why betook not I myself to the holy\nWord of God? Why did I not read and pray that I might understand,\nsince now I perceive that God said then, He giveth liberally to\nthem that pray, and upbraideth not' (James 1:5).\n\nIt is rational to think, that by such cogitations as these, the\nunbelieving world will be torn in pieces before the judgment of\nChrist; especially those that have lived where they did or might\nhave heard the gospel of the grace of God. Oh! that saying, 'It\nshall be more tolerable for Sodom at the judgment than for them,'\nwill be better understood (Luke 10:8-12). This reason, therefore,\nstandeth fast; namely, that Christ, by offering mercy, in the\nfirst place, to the biggest sinners now, will stop all the mouths\nof the impenitent at the day of judgment, and cut off all excuse that\nshall be attempted to be made, from the thoughts of the greatness\nof their sins, why they came not to him.\n\nI have often thought of the day of judgment, and how God will\ndeal with sinners at that day; and I believe it will be managed\nwith that sweetness, with that equitableness, with that excellent\nrighteousness, as to every sin, and circumstance and aggravation\nthereof, that men that are damned, shall, before the judgment is over,\nreceive such conviction of the righteous judgment of God upon them,\nand of their deserts of hell-fire, that they shall in themselves\nconclude, that there is all the reason in the world that they should\nbe shut out of heaven, and go to hell-fire: 'These shall go away\ninto everlasting punishment' (Matt 25:46).24\n\nOnly this will tear [them,] that they have missed of mercy and\nglory, and obtained everlasting damnation, through their unbelief;\nbut it will tear but themselves, but their own souls; they will\ngnash upon themselves, for that mercy was offered to the chief of\nthem in the first place, and yet they were damned for rejecting of\nit; they were damned for forsaking what they had a propriety in;\nfor forsaking their own mercy.\n\nAnd thus much for the reasons. Second, I will conclude with a word\nof application.\n\nTHE APPLICATION.\n\nFirst, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Then this shows us how to make a right\njudgment of the heart of Christ to men. Indeed, we have advantage\nto guess at the goodness of his heart by many things; as by his\ntaking our nature upon him, his dying for us, his sending his Word\nand ministers to us, and all that we might be saved. But this of\nbeginning to offer mercy to Jerusalem, is that which heightens all\nthe rest; for this doth not only confirm to us, that love was the\nuse of his dying for us, but it shows us yet more the depth of that\nlove. He might have died for us, and yet have extended the benefit\nof his death to a few, as one might call them, of the best-conditioned\nsinners, to those who, though they were weak, and so could not but\nsin, yet made not a trade of sinning; to those that sinned not\nlavishingly. There are in the world, as one may call them, the\nmoderate sinners; the sinners that mix righteousness with their\npollutions; the sinners that, though they be sinners, do what\non their part lies--some that are blind would think so--that they\nmight be saved. I say, it had been love, great love, if he had died\nfor none but such, and sent his love to such; but that he should\nsend out conditions of peace to the biggest of sinners; yea, that\nthey should be offered to them first of all; (for so he means when\nhe says, 'Begin at Jerusalem';) this is wonderful! this shows his\nheart to purpose, as also the heart of God his Father, who sent\nhim to do thus.\n\nThere is nothing more incident to men that are awake in their souls,\nthan to have wrong thoughts of God--thoughts that are narrow, and\nthat pinch and pen up his mercy to scanty and beggarly conclusions,\nand rigid legal conditions; supposing that it is rude, and an\nintrenching upon his majesty to come ourselves, or to invite others,\nuntil we have scraped and washed, and rubbed off as much of our\ndirt from us as we think is convenient, to make us somewhat orderly\nand handsome in his sight.25 Such never knew what these words meant,\n'Begin at Jerusalem.' Yea, such in their hearts have compared the\nFather and his Son to niggardly rich men, whose money comes from\nthem like drops of blood. True, say such, God has mercy, but he\nis loath to part with it; you must please him well, if you get any\nfrom him; he is not so free as many suppose, nor is he so willing\nto save as some pretended gospellers imagine. But I ask such, if\nthe Father and Son be not unspeakably free to show mercy, why was\nthis clause put into our commission to preach the gospel? Yea, why\ndid he say, 'Begin at Jerusalem': for when men, through the weakness\nof their wits, have attempted to show other reasons why they would\nhave the first proffer of mercy; yet I can prove, by many undeniable\nreasons, that they of Jerusalem, to whom the apostles made the first\noffer, according as they were commanded, were the biggest sinners\nthat ever did breathe upon the face of God's earth (set the\nunpardonable sin aside); upon which [fact] my doctrine stands like\na rock, that Jesus the Son of God would have mercy, in the first\nplace, offered to the biggest sinners. And if this doth not show the\nheart of the Father and the Son to be infinitely free in bestowing\nforgiveness of sins, I confess myself mistaken.\n\nNeither is there, set this aside, another argument like it, to\nshow us the willingness of Christ to save sinners; for, as was said\nbefore, all the rest of the signs of Christ's mercifulness might\nhave been limited to sinners that are so and so qualified; but when\nhe says, 'Begin at Jerusalem,' the line is stretched out to the\nutmost; no man can imagine beyond it; and it is folly here to pinch\nand spare, to narrow, and seek to bring it within scanty bounds;\nfor he plainly saith, 'Begin at Jerusalem,' the biggest sinner is\nthe biggest sinner; the biggest is the Jerusalem sinner.\n\nIt is true, he saith, that repentance and remission of sins must\ngo together, but yet remission is sent to the chief, the Jerusalem\nsinner; nor doth repentance lessen at all the Jerusalem sinner's\ncrimes; it diminisheth none of his sins, nor causes that there\nshould be so much as half an one the fewer; it only puts a stop to\nthe Jerusalem sinner's course, and makes him willing to be saved\nfreely by grace; and for time to come to be governed by that blessed\nword that has brought the tidings of good things to him. Besides,\nno man shows himself willing to be saved that repenteth not of his\ndeeds; for he that goes on still in his trespasses, declares that\nhe is resolved to pursue his own damnation further.\n\nLearn then to judge of the largeness of God's heart, and of\nthe heart of his Son Jesus Christ, by the Word; judge not thereof\nby feeling, nor by the reports of thy conscience; conscience is\nofttimes here befooled, and made to go quite beside the Word. It\nwas judging without the Word that made David say, I am cast off\nfrom God's eyes, and 'shall perish one day by the hand of Saul' (Psa\n31:22; 1 Sam 27:1). The Word had told him another thing; namely,\nthat he should be king in his stead. Our text says also, that Jesus\nChrist bids preachers, in their preaching repentance and remission\nof sins, begin first at Jerusalem; thereby declaring most truly\nthe infinite largeness of the merciful heart of God and his Son,\nto the sinful children of men. Judge thou, I say, therefore, of\nthe goodness of the heart of God and his Son, by this text, and by\nothers of the same import; so shalt thou not dishonour the grace\nof God, nor needlessly fright thyself, nor give away thy faith,\nnor gratify the devil, nor lose the benefit of God's Word. I speak\nnow to weak believers.\n\nSecond, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem sinners? Then, by this\nalso, you must learn to judge of the sufficiency of the merits of\nChrist; not that the merits of Christ can be comprehended, for that\nthey are beyond the conceptions of the whole world, being called\n'the unsearchable riches of Christ'; but yet they may be apprehended\nto a considerable degree. Now, the way to apprehend them most, is,\nto consider what offers, after his resurrection, he makes of his\ngrace to sinners; for to be sure he will not offer beyond the virtue\nof his merits; because, as grace is the cause of his merits, so his\nmerits are the basis and bounds upon and by which his grace stands\ngood, and is let out to sinners. Doth he then command that his\nmercy should be offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners?\nIt declares, that there is a sufficiency in his blood to save the\nbiggest sinners. 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all\nsin.' And again, 'Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren,\nthat through this man [this man's merits] is preached unto you\nthe forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified\nfrom all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law\nof Moses' (Acts 13:38).\n\nObserve, then, thy rule to make judgment of the sufficiency of\nthe blessed merits of thy Saviour. If he had not been able to have\nreconciled the biggest sinners to his Father by his blood, he would\nnot have sent to them, have sent to them in the first place, the\ndoctrine of remission of sins; for remission of sins is through\nfaith in his blood. We are justified freely by the grace of God,\nthrough the redemption that is in the blood of Christ. Upon the\nsquare, as I may call it, of the worthiness of the blood of Christ,\ngrace acts, and offers forgiveness of sin to men (Eph 1:7; 2:13,14;\nCol 1:20-22). Hence, therefore, we must gather, that the blood\nof Christ is of infinite value, for that he offereth mercy to the\nbiggest of sinners. Nay, further, since he offereth mercy, in the\nfirst place, to the biggest sinners, considering also, that this\nfirst act of his is that which the world will take notice of, and\nexpect it should be continued unto the end. Also it is a disparagement\nto a man that seeks his own glory in what he undertakes, to do that\nfor a spurt, which he cannot continue and hold out in. This is our\nLord's own argument, He began to build, saith he, but was not able\nto finish (Luke 14:30).\n\nShouldst thou hear a man say, I am resolved to be kind to the\npoor, and should begin with giving handfuls of guineas, you would\nconclude, that either he is wonderful rich, or must straiten his\nhand, or will soon be at the bottom of his riches. Why, this is\nthe case: Christ, at his resurrection, gave it out that he would\nbe good to the world; and first sends to the biggest sinners, with\nan intent to have mercy on them. Now, the biggest sinners cannot\nbe saved but by abundance of grace; it is not a little that will\nsave great sinners (Rom 5:17). And I say again, since the Lord Jesus\nmounts thus high at the first, and sends to the Jerusalem sinners,\nthat they may come first to partake of his mercy, it follows, that\neither he has unsearchable riches of grace and worth in himself,\nor else he must straiten his hand, or his grace and merits will\nbe spent before the world is at an end. But let it be believed,\nas surely as spoken, he is still as full as ever. He is not a jot\nthe poorer for all the forgiveness tha the has given away to great\nsinners. Also he is still as free as at first; for he never yet\ncalled back this word, Begin at the Jerusalem sinners. And, as\nI said, since his grace is extended according to the worth of his\nmerits. I conclude, that there is the same virtue in his merits\nto save now, as there was at the very beginning, Oh! the riches of\nthe grace of Christ! Oh! the riches of the blood of Christ!\n\nThird, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to\nthe biggest sinners? Then here is encouragement for you that think,\nfor wicked hearts and lives, you have not your fellows in the world,\nyet to come to him.\n\nThere is a people that therefore fear lest they should be rejected\nof Jesus Christ, because of the greatness of their sins; when, as\nyou see here, such are sent to, sent to by Jesus Christ, to come\nto him for mercy: 'Begin at Jerusalem.' Never did one thing answer\nanother more fitly in this world, than this text fitteth such a\nkind of sinners. As face answereth face in a glass, so this text\nanswereth the necessities of such sinners. What can a man say more,\nbut that he stands in the rank of the biggest sinners? let him\nstretch himself whither he can, and think of himself to the utmost,\nhe can but conclude himself to be one of the biggest sinners. And\nwhat then? Why, the text meets him in the very face, and saith,\nChrist offereth mercy to the biggest sinners, to the very Jerusalem\nsinners. What more can be objected? Nay, he doth not only offer to\nsuch his mercy, but to them it is commanded to be offered in the\nfirst place: 'Begin at Jerusalem.' 'Preach repentance and remission\nof sins among all nations: beginning at Jerusalem.' Is not here\nencouragement for those that think, for wicked hearts and lives,\nthey have not their fellows in the world?\n\nObjection. But I have a heart as hard as a rock.\n\nAnswer. Well, but this doth but prove thee a biggest sinner.\n\nObjection. But my heart continually frets against the Lord.\n\nAnswer. Well, this doth but prove thee a biggest sinner.\n\nObjection. But I have been desperate in sinful courses.\n\nAnswer. Well, stand thou with the number of the biggest sinners.\n\nObjection. But my gray head is found in the way of wickedness.\n\nAnswer. Well, thou art in the rank of the biggest sinners.\n\nObjection. But I have not only a base heart, but I have lived a\ndebauched life.\n\nAnswer. Stand thou also among those that are called the biggest\nsinners. And what then? Why, the text swoops you all; you cannot\nobject yourselves beyond the text. It has a particular message to\nthe biggest sinners. I say, it swoops you all.26\n\nObjection. But I am a reprobate.\n\nAnswer. Now thou talkest like a fool, and meddlest with what thou\nunderstandest not: no sin, but the sin of final impenitence, can\nprove a man a reprobate; and I am sure thou hast not arrived as\nyet unto that; therefore thou understandest not what thou sayest,\nand makest groundless conclusions against thyself. Say thou art\na sinner, and I will hold with thee; say thou art a great sinner,\nand I will say so too; yea, say thou art one of the biggest sinners,\nand spare not; for the text yet is beyond thee, is yet betwixt hell\nand thee; 'Begin at Jerusalem' has yet a smile upon thee; and thou\ntalkest as if thou wast a reprobate, and that the greatness of\nthy sins do prove thee so to be, when yet they of Jerusalem were\nnot such, whose sins, I dare say, were such, both for bigness and\nheinousness, as thou art not capable of committing beyond them;\nunless now, after thou hast received conviction that the Lord\nJesus is the only Saviour of the world, thou shouldst wickedly and\ndespitefully turn thyself from him, and conclude he is not to be\ntrusted to for life, and so crucify him for a cheat afresh. This,\nI must confess, will bring a man under the black rod, and set him\nin danger of eternal damnation (Heb 6:7,8; 10:8,9). This is trampling\nunder foot the Son of God, and counting his blood an unholy thing.\nThis did they of Jerusalem; but they did it ignorantly in unbelief,\nand so were yet capable of mercy; but to do this against professed\nlight, and to stand to it, puts a man beyond the text indeed (Acts\n3:14-17; 1 Tim 1:13).\n\nBut I say, what is this to him that would fain be saved by Christ?\nHis sins did, as to greatness, never yet reach to the nature of\nthe sins that the sinners intended by the text had made themselves\nguilty of. He that would be saved by Christ, has an honourable\nesteem of him; but they of Jerusalem preferred a murderer before\nhim; and as for him, they cried, Away, away with him, it is not fit\nthat he should live. Perhaps thou wilt object, That thyself hast a\nthousand times preferred a stinking lust before him: I answer, Be\nit so; it is but what is common to men to do; nor doth the Lord\nJesus make such a foolish life a bar to thee, to forbid thy coming\nto him, or a bond to his grace, that it might be kept from thee;\nbut admits of thy repentance, and offereth himself unto thee freely,\nas thou standest among the Jerusalem sinners.\n\nTake therefore encouragement, man; mercy is, by the text, held\nforth to the biggest sinners; yea, put thyself into the number of\nthe worst, by reckoning that thou mayest be one of the first, and\nmayest not be put off till the biggest sinners are served; for\nthe biggest sinners are first invited; consequently, if they come,\nthey are like to be the first that shall be served. It was so with\nJerusalem; Jerusalem sinners were they that were first invited,\nand those of them that came first--and there came three thousand\nof them the first day they were invited; how many came afterwards\nnone can tell--they were first served.\n\nPut in thy name, man, among the biggest, lest thou art made to wait\ntill they are served. You have some men that think themselves very\ncunning, because they put up their names in their prayers among\nthem that feign it, saying, God, I thank thee I am not so bad as\nthe worst. But believe it, if they be saved at all, they shall be\nsaved in the last place. The first in their own eyes shall be served\nlast; and the last or worst shall be first. The text insinuates\nit, 'Begin at Jerusalem'; and reason backs it, for they have most\nneed. Behold ye, therefore, how God's ways are above ours; we are\nfor serving the worst last, God is for serving the worst first. The\nman at the pool, that to my thinking was longest in his disease,\nand most helpless as to his cure, was first healed; yea, he only\nwas healed; for we read that Christ healed him, but we read not then\nthat he healed one more there! (John 5:1-10). Wherefore, if thou\nwouldst soonest be served, put in thy name among the very worst\nof sinners. Say, when thou art upon thy knees, Lord, here is a\nJerusalem sinner! a sinner of the biggest size! one whose burden\nis of the greatest bulk and heaviest weight! one that cannot stand\nlong without sinking into hell, without thy supporting hand! 'Be\nnot thou far from me, O Lord! O my strength, haste thee to help\nme!' (Psa 22:19).\n\nI say, put in thy name with Magdalene, with Manasseh, that thou\nmayest fare as the Magdalene and the Manasseh sinners do. The man\nin the gospel made the desperate condition of his child an argument\nwith Christ to haste his cure: 'Sire, come down,' saith he, 'ere\nmy child die' (John 4:49), and Christ regarded his haste, saying,\n'Go thy way; thy son liveth' (verse 50). Haste requires haste. David\nwas for speed; 'Deliver me speedily'; 'Hear me speedily'; 'Answer\nme speedily' (Psa 31:2; 69:17; 102:2). But why speedily? I am in\n'the net'; 'I am in trouble'; 'My days are consumed like smoke'\n(Psa 31:4; 69:17; 102:3). Deep calleth unto deep, necessity calls\nfor help; great necessity for present help. Wherefore, I say, be\nruled by me in this matter; feign not thyself another man, if thou\nhast been a filthy sinner, but go in thy colours to Jesus Christ,\nand put thyself among the most vile, and let him alone to 'put thee\namong the children' (Jer 3:19). Confess all that thou knowest of\nthyself; I know thou wilt find it hard work to do thus: especially\nif thy mind be legal; but do it, lest thou stay and be deferred\nwith the little sinners, until the great ones have had their alms.\nWhat do you think David intended when he said, his wounds stunk and\nwere corrupted, but to hasten God to have mercy upon him, and not\nto defer his cure? 'Lord,' says he, 'I am troubled; I am bowed\ndown greatly; I go mourning all the day long.' 'I am feeble and sore\nbroken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart'\n(Psa 38:3-8). David knew what he did by all this; he knew that his\nmaking the worst of his case, was the way to speedy help, and that\na feigning and dissembling the matter with God, was the next way\nto a demur as to his forgiveness.\n\nI have one thing more to offer for thy encouragement, who deemest\nthyself one of the biggest sinners; and that is, thou art as it\nwere called by thy name, in the first place, to come in for mercy.\nThou man of Jerusalem, hearken to thy call; men do so in courts\nof judicature, and presently cry out, 'Here, Sire'; and then they\nshoulder and crowd, and say, 'Pray give way, I am called into the\ncourt.' Why, this is thy case, thou great, thou Jerusalem sinner;\nbe of good cheer, he calleth thee (Mark 10:46-49). Why sittest thou\nstill? arise: why standest thou still? come, man, thy call should\ngive thee authority to come. 'Begin at Jerusalem,' is thy call and\nauthority to come; wherefore up and shoulder it, man; say, 'Stand\naway, devil, Christ calls me; stand away unbelief, Christ calls me;\nstand away, all ye my discouraging apprehensions, for my Saviour\ncalls me to him to receive of his mercy.' Men will do thus, as I\nsaid, in courts below; and why shouldst not thou approach thus to\nthe court above? The Jerusalem sinner is first in thought, first\nin commission, first in the record of names; and therefore should\ngive attendance, with the expectation that he is first to receive\nmercy of God.\n\nIs not this an encouragement to the biggest sinners to make their\napplication to Christ for mercy? 'Come unto me, all ye that labour\nand are heavy laden,' doth also confirm this thing; that is, that\nthe biggest sinner, and he that has the biggest burden, is he who\nis first invited. Christ pointeth over the heads of thousands, as\nhe sits on the throne of grace, directly to such a man; and says,\n'Bring in hither the maimed, the halt, and the blind; let the\nJerusalem sinner that stands there behind come to me.' Wherefore,\nsince Christ says, 'Come,' to thee, let the angels make a lane,\nand let all men give place, that the Jerusalem sinner may come to\nJesus Christ for mercy.\n\nFourth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Then come, thou profane wretch, and let me\na little enter into an argument with thee. Why wilt thou not come\nto Jesus Christ, since thou art a Jerusalem sinner? How canst thou\nfind in thy heart to set thyself against grace, against such grace\nas offereth mercy to thee? What spirit possesseth thee, and holds\nthee back from a sincere closure with thy Saviour? Behold, God\ngroaningly complains of thee, saying, 'But Israel would none of\nme.' 'When I called, none did answer' (Psa 81:11; Isa 66:4).\n\nShall God enter this complaint against thee? Why dost thou put\nhim off? Why dost thou stop thine ear? Canst thou defend thyself?\nWhen thou art called to an account for thy neglects of so great\nsalvation, what canst thou answer? or dost thou think that thou\nshalt escape the judgment? (Heb 2:3). No more such Christs! There\nwill be no more such Christs, sinner! Oh, put not the day, the day\nof grace, away from thee! if it be once gone, it will never come\nagain, sinner.\n\nBut what is it that has got thy heart, and that keeps it from thy\nSaviour? 'Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among\nthe sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?' (Psa 89:6).\nHast thou, thinkest thou, found anything so good as Jesus Christ?\nIs there any among thy sins, thy companions, and foolish delights,\nthat, like Christ, can help thee in the day of thy distress? Behold,\nthe greatness of thy sins cannot hinder; let not the stubbornness\nof thy heart hinder thee, sinner.\n\nObjection. I am ashamed.\n\nAnswer. Oh! don't be ashamed to be saved, sinner.\n\nObjection. But my old companions will mock me.\n\nAnswer. Oh! don't be mocked out of eternal life, sinner.\n\nThy stubbornness affects, afflicts the heart of thy Saviour. Carest\nthou not for this? Of old, 'he beheld the city, and wept over it.'\nCanst thou hear this, and not be concerned? (Luke 19:41,42). Shall\nChrist weep to see thy soul going on to destruction, and will\nthough sport thyself in that way? Yea, shall Christ, that can be\neternally happy without thee, be more afflicted at the thoughts\nof the loss of thy soul, than thyself, who art certainly eternally\nmiserable if thou neglectest to come to him. Those things that\nkeep thee and thy Saviour, on thy part, asunder, are but bubbles;\nthe least prick of an affliction will let out, as to thee, what\nnow thou thinkest is worth the venture of heaven to enjoy.\n\nHast thou not reason? Canst thou not so much as once soberly think\nof thy dying hour, or of whither thy sinful life will drive thee\nthen? Hast thou no conscience? or having one, is it rocked so fast\nasleep by sin, or made so weary with an unsuccessful calling upon\nthee, that it is laid down, and cares for thee no more? Poor man!\nthy state is to be lamented. Hast no judgment? Art not able to\nconclude, that to be saved is better than to burn in hell? and that\neternal life with God's favour, is better than a temporal life in\nGod's displeasure? Hast no affection but what is brutish? what,\nnone at all? No affection for the God that made thee? What! none\nfor his loving Son that has showed his love, and died for thee?\nIs not heaven worth thy affection? O poor man! which is strongest,\nthinkest thou, God or thee? If thou art not able to overcome him,\nthou art a fool for standing out against him (Matt 5:25,26). 'It\nis a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God' (Heb\n10:29-31). He will gripe hard; his fist is stronger than a lion's\npaw; take heed of him, he will be angry if you despise his Son;\nand will you stand guilty in your trespasses, when he offereth you\nhis grace and favour? (Exo 34:6,7).\n\nNow we come to the text, 'Beginning at Jerusalem.' This text, though\nit be now one of the brightest stars that shineth in the Bible,\nbecause there is in it, as full, if not the fullest offer of grace\nthat can be imagined, to the sons of men; yet, to them that shall\nperish from under this word, even this text will be to such one of\nthe hottest coals in hell. This text, therefore, will save thee or\nsink thee: there is no shifting of it; if it saves thee, it will\nset thee high; if it sinks thee, it will set thee low.\n\nBut, I say, why so unconcerned? Hast no soul? or dost think thou\nmayest lose thy soul, and save thyself? Is it not pity, had it\notherwise been the will of God, that ever thou wast made a man,\nfor that thou settest so little by thy soul? Sinner, take the\ninvitation; thou art called upon to come to Christ: nor art thou\ncalled upon but by order from the Son of God, though thou shouldst\nhappen to come of the biggest sinners; for he has bid us offer\nmercy, as to all the world in general, so, in the first place, to\nthe sinners of Jerusalem, or to the biggest sinners.\n\nFifth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Then, this shows how unreasonable a thing\nit is for men to despair of mercy; for those that presume, I shall\nsay something to them afterward.\n\nI now speak to them that despair. There are four sorts of despair.\nThere is the despair of devils; there is the despair of souls in\nhell; there is the despair that is grounded upon men's deficiency;\nand there is the despair that they are perplexed with that are\nwilling to be saved, but are too strongly borne down with the burden\nof their sins.\n\nThe despair of devils, the damned's despair, and that despair that\na man has of attaining of life because of his own deficiency, are\nall reasonable. Why should not devils and damned souls despair?\nyea, why should not man despair of getting to heaven by his own\nabilities? I, therefore, am concerned only with the fourth sort\nof despair, to wit, with the despair of those that would be saved,\nbut are too strongly borne down with the burden of their sins. I\nsay, therefore, to thee that art thus, And why despair? Thy despair,\nif it was reasonable, should flow from thee, because found in the\nland that is beyond the grave; or because thou certainly knowest\nthat Christ will not, or cannot save thee.\n\nBut, for the first, thou art yet in the land of the living; and,\nfor the second, thou hast ground to believe the quite contrary;\nChrist is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God\nby him; and if he were not willing, he would not have commanded\nthat mercy, in the first place, should be offered to the biggest\nsinners. Besides, he hath said, 'And let him that is athirst come.\nAnd whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely'; that\nis, with all my heart. What ground now is here for despair? If thou\nsayest, The number and burden of my sins; I answer, Nay; that is\nrather a ground for faith; because such an one, above all others,\nis invited by Christ to come unto him, yea, promised rest and\nforgiveness if they come (Matt 11:28). What ground then to despair?\nVerily, none at all. Thy despair, then, is a thing unreasonable,\nand without footing in the Word.\n\nBut I have no experience of God's love; God hath given me no\ncomfort, or ground of hope, though I have waited upon him for it\nmany a day. Thou hast e xperience of God's love, for that he has\nopened thine eyes to see thy sins: and for that he has given thee\ndesires to be saved by Jesus Christ. For by thy sense of sin thou\nart made to see thy poverty of spirit, and that has laid under thee\na sure ground to hope that heaven shall be thine hereafter.\n\nAlso thy desires to be saved by Christ, has put thee under another\npromise, so there is two to hold thee up in hope, though thy present\nburden be never so heavy (Matt 5:3,6). As for what thou sayest as\nto God's silence to thee, perhaps he has spoken to thee once or twice\nalready, but thou hast not perceived it (Job 33:14,15). However,\nthou hast Christ crucified set forth before thine eyes in the Bible,\nand an invitation to come unto him, though thou be a Jerusalem sinner,\nthough thou be a biggest sinner; and so no ground to despair. What\nif God will be silent to thee, is that ground of despair? Not at\nall, so long as there is a promise in the Bible, that God will in\nno wise cast away the coming sinner, and so long as he invites the\nJerusalem sinner to come unto him (John 6:37).\n\nBuild not, therefore, despair upon these things; they are no\nsufficient foundation for it, such plenty of promises being in the\nBible, and such a discovery of his mercy to great sinners of old;\nespecially since we have withal a clause in the commission given\nto ministers to preach, that they should begin with the Jerusalem\nsinners in their offering of mercy to the world. Besides, God says,\n'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they\nshall mount up with wings like eagles'; but, perhaps, it may be long\nfirst. I waited long, saith David, and did seek the Lord; and, at\nlength, his cry was heard: wherefore he bids his soul wait on God,\nand says, For it is good so to do before thy saints (Psa 40:1;\n62:5; 52:9).\n\nAnd what if thou waitest upon God all thy days? Is it below thee?\nAnd what if God will cross his book, and blot out the handwriting\nthat is against thee, and not let thee know it as yet? Is it fit\nto say unto God, Thou art hard-hearted? Despair not; thou hast no\nground to despair, so long as thou livest in this world. 'Tis a\nsin to begin to despair before one sets his foot over the threshold\nof hell-gates. For them that are there, let them despair and spare\nnot; but as for thee, thou hast no ground to do it. What! despair\nof bread in a land that is full of corn! despair of mercy when\nour God is full of mercy! despair of mercy, when God goes about,\nby his ministers, beseeching of sinners to be reconciled unto him!\n(2 Cor 5:18-20). Thou scrupulous fool, where canst thou find that\nGod was ever false to his promise, or that he ever deceived the\nsoul that ventured itself upon him? He often calls upon sinners\nto trust him, though they walk in darkness, and have no light (Isa\n50:10). They have his promise and oath for their salvation, that\nflee for refuge to the hope set before them (Heb 6:17,18).\n\nDespair! when we have a God of mercy, and a redeeming Christ alive!\nFor shame, forbear; let them despair that dwell where there is no\nGod, and that are confined to those chambers of death which can be\nreached by no redemption. A living man despair when he is chid for\nmurmuring and complaining! (Lam 3:39). Oh! so long as we are where\npromises swarm, where mercy is proclaimed, where grace reigns,\nand where Jerusalem sinners are privileged with the first offer\nof mercy, it is a base thing to despair. Despair undervalues\nthe promise, undervalues the invitation, undervalues the proffer\nof grace. Despair undervalues the ability of God the Father, and\nthe redeeming blood of Christ his Son. Oh unreasonable despair!\nDespair makes man God's judge; it is a controller of the promise, a\ncontradictor of Christ in his large offers of mercy: and one that\nundertakes to make unbelief the great manager of our reason and\njudgment, in determining about what God can and will do for sinners.\nDespair! It is the devil's fellow, the devil's master; yea, the\nchains with which he is captivated and held under darkness for\never: and to give way thereto in a land, in a state and time that\nflows with milk and honey, is an uncomely thing.\n\nI would say to my soul, 'O my soul! this is not the place of despair;\nthis is not the time to despair in; as long as mine eyes can find\na promise in the Bible, as long as there is the least mention of\ngrace, as long as there is a moment left me of breath or life in\nthis world, so long will I wait or look for mercy, so long will I\nfight against unbelief and despair.' This is the way to honour God\nand Christ; this is the way to set the crown on the promise; this\nis the way to welcome the invitation and inviter; and this is the\nway to thrust thyself under the shelter and protection of the word\nof grace. Never despair so long as our text is alive, for that doth\nsound it out--that mercy by Christ is offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinner.\n\nDespair is an unprofitable thing; it will make a man weary of waiting\nupon God (2 Kings 6:33). It will make a man forsake God, and seek\nhis heaven in the good things of this world (Gen 4:13-18). It will\nmake a man his own tormentor, and flounce and fling like 'a wild\nbull in a net' (Isa 51:20). Despair! it drives a man to the study\nof his own ruin, and brings him at last to be his own executioner\n(2 Sam 17:23; Matt 27:3-5).\n\nBesides, I am persuaded also, that despair is the cause that there\nare so many that would fain be Atheists in the world. For, because,\nthey have entertained a conceit that God will never be merciful to\nthem, therefore they labour to persuade themselves that there is\nno God at all, as if their misbelief would kill God, or cause him\nto cease to be. A poor shift for an immortal soul, for a soul\nwho liketh not to retain God in its knowledge! If this be the best\nthat despair can do, let it go, man, and betake thyself to faith,\nto prayer, to wait for God, and to hope, in despite of ten thousand\ndoubts. And for thy encouragement, take yet, as an addition to what\nhas already been said, the following Scripture: 'The Lord taketh\npleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy'\n(Psa 147:11). Whence note, They fear not God, that hope not in his\nmercy; also, God is angry with them that hope not in his mercy;\nfor he only taketh pleasure in them that hope. 'He that believeth,'\nor 'hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is\ntrue' (John 3:33). But he that receiveth it not, 'hath made him\na liar,' and that is a very unworthy thing (1 John 5:10,11). 'Let\nthe wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:\nand let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him;\nand to our God, for he will abundantly' multiply 'pardon' (Isa\n55:7). Perhaps thou art weary of thy ways, but art not weary of\nthy thoughts; of thy unbelieving and despairing thoughts; now, God\nalso would have thee cast away these thoughts, as such which he\ndeserveth not at thy hands; for 'he will have mercy upon thee, and\nhe will abundantly pardon.'\n\n'O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have\nspoken!' (Luke 24:25). Mark you, here, slowness to believe is\na piece of folly. Ay! but sayest thou, I do believe some, and I\nbelieve what can make against me. Ay, but sinner, Christ Jesus here\ncalls thee fool for not believing all. Believe all, and despair if\nthou canst! He that believes all, believes that text that saith,\nChrist would have mercy preached first to the Jerusalem sinners.\nHe that believeth all, believeth all the promises and consolations\nof the Word; and the promises and consolations of the Word weigh\nheavier than do all the curses and threatenings of the law; and\nmercy rejoiceth against judgment. Wherefore believe all, and mercy\nwill, to thy conscience, weigh judgment down, and so minister comfort\nto thy soul. The Lord take the yoke from off thy jaws, since he has\nset meat before thee (Hosea 11:4). And help thee to remember that\nhe is pleased, in the first place, to offer mercy to the biggest\nsinners.\n\nSixth, Since Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first\nplace, to the biggest sinners, let souls see that they lay right\nhold thereof, lest they, notwithstanding, indeed, come short thereof.\nFaith only knows how to deal with mercy; wherefore, put not in\nthe place thereof presumption. I have observed, that, as there are\nherbs and flowers in our gardens, so there are their counterfeits\nin the field; only they are distinguished from the other by the\nname of wild ones. Why, there is faith, and wild faith; and wild\nfaith is this presumption. I call it wild faith, because God never\nplaced it in his garden--his church; 'tis only to be found in the\nfield--the world. I also call it wild faith, because it only grows\nup and is nourished where other wild notions abound. Wherefore,\ntake heed of this, and all may be well; for this presumptuousness\nis a very heinous thing in the eyes of God. 'The soul,' saith he,\n'that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land,\nor a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall\nbe cut off from among his people' (Num 15:30).\n\nThe thoughts of this made David tremble, and pray that God would\nhold him back from presumptuous sins, and not suffer them to have\ndominion over him (Psa 19:13). Now, this presumption, then, puts\nitself in the place of faith, when it tampereth with the promise\nfor life, while the soul is a stranger to repentance. Wherefore,\nyou have in the text, to prevent doing thus, both repentance and\nremission of sins to be offered to Jerusalem; not remission without\nrepentance, for all that repent not shall perish, let them presume\non grace and the promise while they will (Luke 13:1-3).\n\nPresumption, then, is that which severeth faith and repentance;\nconcluding that the soul shall be saved by grace, though the man\nwas never made sorry for his sins, nor the love of the heart turned\ntherefrom. This is to be self-willed, as Peter has it; and this\nis a despising the Word of the Lord, for that has put repentance\nand faith together (Mark 1:15). And 'because he hath despised the\nWord of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall\nutterly be cut off: his iniquity shall be upon him' (Num 15:31).\nLet such, therefore, look to it who yet are, and abide, in their\nsins; for such, if they hope, as they are, to be saved, presume\nupon the grace of God.27 Wherefore, presumption and not hearkening\nto God's Word are put together (Deu 17:12).\n\nAgain, THEN men presume, when they are resolved to abide in their\nsins, and yet expect to be saved by God's grace through Christ.\nThis is as much as to say, God liketh of sin as well as I do, and\ncareth not how men live, if so be they lean upon his Son. Of this\nsort are they 'that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with\niniquity'; that 'judge for reward, and--teach for hire, and--divine\nfor money, and lean upon the Lord' (Micah 3:10,11). This is doing\nthings, with an high hand, against the Lord our God, and a taking\nhim, as it were, at the catch.28 This is, as we say among men, to\nseek to put a trick upon God; as if he had not sufficiently fortified\nhis proposals of grace, by his holy Word, against all such kind of\nfools as these. But look to it! Such will be found at the day of\nGod, not among that great company of Jerusalem sinners that shall\nbe saved by grace, but among those that have been the great abusers\nof the grace of God in the world. Those that say, Let us sin that\ngrace may abound, and let us do evil that good may come, their\ndamnation is just. And if so, they are a great way off of that\nsalvation that is, by Jesus Christ, presented to the Jerusalem\nsinners.\n\nI have, therefore, these things to propound to that Jerusalem sinner\nthat would know, if he may be so bold [as] to venture himself upon\nthis grace. 1. Dost thou see thy sins? 2. Art thou weary of them?\n3. Wouldst thou, with all thy heart, be saved by Jesus Christ? I\ndare say no less; I dare say no more. But if it be truly thus with\nthee, how great soever thy sins have been, how bad soever thou\nfeelest thy heart, how far soever thou art from thinking that God\nhas mercy for thee, thou art the man, the Jerusalem sinner, that the\nWord of God has conquered, and to whom it offereth free remission\nof sins, by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.\n\nWhen the jailor cried out, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' the\nanswer was, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be\nsaved.' He that sees his sins aright, is brought to his wit's end\nby them; and he that is so, is willing to part from them, and to\nbe saved by the grace of God. If this be thy case, fear not, give\nno way to despair; thou presumest not, if thou believest to life\neverlasting in Jesus Christ; yea, Christ is prepared for such as\nthou art. Therefore, take good courage, and believe. The design of\nSatan is, to tell the presumptuous that their presuming on mercy is\ngood; but to persuade the believer, that his believing is impudent,\nbold dealing with God. I never heard a presumptuous man, in my life,\nsay that he was afraid that he presumed; but I have heard many an\nhonest humble soul say, that they have been afraid that their faith\nhas been presumption. Why should Satan molest those whose ways he\nknows will bring them to him? And who can think that he should be\nquiet, when men take the right course to escape his hellish snares?\nThis, therefore, is the reason why the truly humbled is opposed,\nwhile the presumptuous goes on by wind and tide. The truly humble,\nSatan hates; but he laughs to see the foolery of the other.\n\nDoes thy hand and heart tremble? Upon thee the promise smiles.\n'To this man will I look,' says God, 'even to him that is poor and\nof a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word' (Isa 66:2). What,\ntherefore, I have said of presumption, concerns not the humble in\nspirit at all. I therefore am for gathering up the stones, and for\ntaking the stumbling-blocks out of the way of God's people; and\nforewarning of them, that they lay the stumbling-block of their\niniquity before their faces; and [of those] that are for presuming\nupon God's mercy; and let them look to themselves (Eze 14:6-8).\n\nAlso, our text stands firm as ever it did, and our observation is\nstill of force, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the\nfirst place, to the biggest sinners. So them, let none despair,\nlet none presume; let none despair that are sorry for their sins,\nand would be saved by Jesus Christ; let none presume that abide\nin the liking of their sins, though they seem to know the exceeding\ngrace of Christ; for though the door stands wide open for the reception\nof the penitent, yet it is fast29 enough barred and bolted against\nthe presumptuous sinner. Be not deceived, God is not mocked;\nwhatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap. It cannot be that God\nshould be wheedled out of his mercy, or prevailed upon by lips of\ndissimulation; he knows them that trust on him, and that sincerely\ncome to him, by Christ, for mercy (Nahum 1:7).\n\nIt is, then, not the abundance of sins committed, but the not\ncoming heartily to God, by Christ, for mercy, that shuts men out\nof doors. And though their not coming heartily may be said to be\nbut a sin, yet it is such a sin as causeth that all thy other sins\nabide upon thee unforgiven. God complains of this. 'They have not\ncried unto me with their heart--they return, but not to the most\nHigh.' They turned 'feignedly' (Jer 3:10; Hosea 7:14,16). Thus doing,\nhis soul hates [them]; but the penitent, humble, broken-hearted\nsinner, be his transgressions red as scarlet, red like crimson, in\nnumber as the sand; though his transgressions cry to heaven against\nhim for vengeance, and seem there to cry louder than do his prayers,\nor tears, or groans for mercy; yet he is safe. To this man God will\nlook (Isa 1:18; 66:2).\n\nSeventh, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Then here is ground for those that, as to\npractice, have not been such, to come to him for mercy.\n\nAlthough there is no sin little of itself, because it is a\ncontradiction of the nature and majesty of God, yet we must admit\nof divers numbers, and, also, of aggravations. Two sins are not so\nmany as three; nor are three that are done in ignorance so big as\none that is done against light, against knowledge and conscience.\nAlso, there is the child in sin, and a man in sin that has his\nhairs gray and his skin wrinkled for very age. And we must put a\ndifference betwixt these sinners also; for can it be that a child\nof seven, or ten, or sixteen years old, should be such a sinner--a\nsinner so vile in the eyes of the law as he is who has walked\naccording to the course of this world, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy\nyears? Now, the youth, this stripling, though he is a sinner, is\nbut a little sinner, when compared with such. Now, I say, if there\nbe room for the first sort, for those of the biggest size, certainly\nthere is room for the lesser size. If there be a door wide enough\nfor a giant to go in at, there is certainly room for a dwarf. If\nChrist Jesus has grace enough to save great sinners, he has surely\ngrace enough to save little ones. If he can forgive five hundred\npence, for certain he can forgive fifty (Luke 7:41,42).\n\nBut you said before, that the little sinners must stand by until\nthe great ones have received their grace, and that is discouraging!\nI answer, there are two sorts of little sinners--such as are so, and\nsuch as feign themselves so. There are those that feign themselves\nso, that I intended there, and not those that are, indeed, comparatively\nso. Such as feign themselves so, may wait long enough before they\nobtain forgiveness.\n\nBut again, a sinner may be comparatively a little sinner,\nand sensibly a great one. There are, then, two sorts of greatness\nin sin--greatness by reason of number; greatness by reason of\nthoroughness of conviction of the horrible nature of sin. In this\nlast sense, he that has but one sin, if such an one could be found,\nmay, in his own eyes, find himself the biggest sinner in the world.\nLet this man or this child, therefore, put himself among the great\nsinners, and plead with God as great sinners do, and expect to be\nsaved with the great sinners, and as soon and as heartily as they.\nYea, a little sinner, that, comparatively, is truly so, if he\nshall graciously give way to conviction, and shall, in God's light,\ndiligently weigh the horrible nature of his own sin, may yet sooner\nobtain forgiveness for them at the hands of the heavenly Father,\nthan he that has ten times his sins, and so cause to cry ten times\nharder to God for mercy.\n\nFor the grievousness of the cry is a great thing with God; for if\nhe will hear the widow, if she cries at all, how much more if she\ncries most grievously? (Exo 22:22,23). It is not the number, but\nthe true sense of the abominable nature of sin, that makes the cry\nfor pardon lamentable. 30 He, as I said, that has many sins, may\nnot cry so loud in the ears of God as he that has far fewer; he,\nin our present sense, that is in his own eyes the biggest sinner,\nis he that soonest findeth mercy. The offer, then, is to the\nbiggest sinner; to the biggest sinner first, and the mercy is first\nobtained by him that first confesseth himself to be such an one.\n\nThere are men that strive at the throne of grace for mercy, by\npleading the greatness of their necessity. Now their plea, as to\nthe prevalency of it, lieth not in their counting up of the number,\nbut in the sense of the greatness of their sins, and in the vehemency\nof their cry for pardon. And it is observable, that though the\nbirthright was Reuben's, and, for his foolishness, given to the\nsons of Joseph, yet Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him\ncame the Messiah (1 Chron 5:1,2). There is a heavenly subtilty to\nbe managed in this matter. 'Thy brother came with subtilty, and\nhath taken away thy blessing.' The blessing belonged to Esau, but\nJacob by his diligence made it his own (Gen 27:35). The offer is to\nthe biggest sinner, to the biggest sinner first; but if he forbear\nto cry, the sinner that is a sinner less by far than he, both as\nto number and the nature of transgression, may get the blessing\nfirst, if he shall have grace to bestir himself well; for the loudest\ncry is heard furthest, and the most lamentable pierces soonest.\n\nI therefore urge this head, not because I would have little sinners\ngo and tell God that they are little sinners, thereby to think to\nobtain his mercy; for, verily, so they are never like to have it;\nfor such words declare, that such an one hath no true sense at all\nof the nature of his sins. Sin, as I said, in the nature of it, is\nhorrible, though it be but one single sin as to act; yea, though\nit be but a sinful thought; and so worthily calls for the damnation\nof the soul. The comparison, then, of little and great sinners, is\nto go for good sense among men. But to plead the fewness of thy\nsins, or the comparative harmlessness of their quantity before\nGod, argueth no sound knowledge of the nature of thy sin, and so\nno true sense of the nature or need of mercy.\n\nLittle sinner! when therefore thou goest to God, though thou\nknowest in thy conscience that thou, as to acts, art no thief, no\nmurderer, no whore, no liar, no false swearer, or the like, and in\nreason must needs understand that thus thou art not so profanely\nvile as others; yet when thou goest to God for mercy, know no man's\nsins but thine own, make mention of no man's sins but thine own.\nAlso labour not to lessen thy own, but magnify and greaten them by\nall just circumstances, and be as if there was never a sinner in\nthe world but thyself. Also cry out, as if thou wast but the only\nundone man; and that is the way to obtain God's mercy.\n\nIt is one of the comeliest sights in the world to see a little\nsinner commenting upon the greatness of his sins, multiplying and\nmultiplying them to himself, till he makes them in his own eyes\nbigger and higher than he seeth any other man's sins to be in the\nworld; and as base a thing it is to see a man do otherwise, and as\nbasely will come on it (Luke 18:10-14). As, therefore, I said to\nthe great sinner before, let him take heed lest he presume; I say\nnow to the little sinner, let him take heed that he do not dissemble;\nfor there is as great an aptness in the little sinner to dissemble,\nas there is in the great one. 'He that hideth his sins shall not\nprosper,'31 be he a sinner little or great (Prov 28:13).\n\nEighth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Then this shows the true cause why Satan\nmakes such head as he doth against him.\n\nThe Father and the Holy Spirit are well spoken of by all deluders\nand deceived persons; Christ only is the rock of offence. 'Behold,\nI lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence' (Rom 9:33).\nNot that Satan careth for the Father or the Spirit more than he\ncareth for the Son; but he can let men alone with their notions\nof the Father and the Spirit, for he knows they shall never enjoy\nthe Father or the Spirit, if indeed they receive not the merits\nof the Son. 'He that hath the Son, hath life; he that hath not the\nSon of God hath not life,' however they may boast themselves of the\nFather and the Spirit (1 John 5:12). Again, 'Whosoever transgresseth,\nand abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that\nabideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the\nSon' (2 John 9). Christ, and Christ only, is he that can make us\ncapable to enjoy God with life and joy to all eternity. Hence he\ncalls himself the way to the Father, the true and living way (John\n14:6). For we cannot come to the Father but by him (Heb 10:19,20).\nSatan knows this, therefore he hates him. Deluded persons are\nignorant of this, and therefore, they are so led up and down by\nSatan by the nose as they are.\n\nThere are many things by which Satan has taken occasion to greaten\nhis rage against Jesus Christ. As, first, His love to man, and\nthen, the many expressions of that love. He hath taken man's nature\nupon him; he hath in that nature fulfilled the law to bring in\nrighteousness for man; and hath spilt his blood for the reconciling\nof man to God; he hath broke the neck of death, put away sin,\ndestroyed the works of the devil, and got into his own hands the\nkeys of death; and all these are heinous things to Satan. He cannot\nabide Christ for this. Besides, He hath eternal life in himself,\nand that to bestow upon us; and we in all likelihood are to possess\nthe very places from which the Satans by transgression fell, if not\nplaces more glorious. Wherefore he must needs be angry. And is it\nnot a vexatious thing to him, that we should be admitted to the\nthrone of grace by Christ, while he stands bound over in chains\nof darkness, to answer for his rebellions against God and his Son,\nat the terrible day of judgment. Yea, we poor dust and ashes must\nbecome his judges, and triumph over him for ever: and all this long32\nof Jesus Christ; for he is the meritorious cause of all this.\n\nNow though Satan seeks to be revenged for this, yet he knows it is\nin vain to attack the person of Christ; He [Christ] has overcome\nhim; therefore he [Satan] tampers with a company of silly men; that\nhe may vilify him by them. And they, bold fools as they are, will\nnot spare to spit in his face. They will rail at his person, and\ndeny the very being of it; they will rail at his blood, and deny\nthe merit and worth of it. They will deny the very end why he\naccomplished the law, and by jiggs, and tricks, and quirks, which\nhe helpeth them to, they set up fond names and images in his place,\nand give the glory of a Saviour to them. Thus Satan worketh under\nthe name of Christ; and his ministers under the name of the ministers\nof righteousness.\n\nAnd by his wiles and stratagems he undoes a world of men; but there\nis a seed, and they shall serve him, and it shall be counted to the\nLord for a generation. These shall see their sins, and that Christ\nis the way to happiness. These shall venture themselves, both body\nand soul, upon his worthiness. All this Satan knows, and therefore\nhis rage is kindled the more. Wherefore, according to his ability\nand allowance, he assaulteth, tempteth, abuseth, and stirs up\nwhat he can to be hurtful to these poor people, that he may, while\nhis time shall last, make it as hard and difficult for them to\ngo to eternal glory as he can. Ofttimes he abuses them with wrong\napprehensions of God, and with wrong apprehensions of Christ. He\nalso casts them into the mire, to the reproach of religion, the\nshame of their brethren, the derision of the world, and dishonour\nof God. He holds our hands while the world buffets us; he puts\nbear-skins upon us, and then sets the dogs at us. He bedaubeth us\nwith his own foam, and then tempts us to believe that that bedaubing\ncomes from ourselves.33\n\nOh! the rage and the roaring of this lion, and the hatred that he\nmanifests against the Lord Jesus, and against them that are purchased\nwith his blood! But yet, in the midst of all this, the Lord Jesus\nsends forth his herald to proclaim in the nations his love to the\nworld, and to invite them to come in to him for life. Yea, his\ninvitation is so large, that it offereth his mercy in the first\nplace to the biggest sinners of every age, which augments the\ndevil's rage the more. Wherefore, as I said before, fret he, fume\nhe, the Lord Jesus will 'divide the spoil' with this great one; yea,\nhe shall divide the spoil with the strong, 'because he hath poured\nout his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors;\nand he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the\ntransgressors' (Isa 53:12).\n\nNinth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Let the tempted harp upon this string for\ntheir help and consolation.\n\nThe tempted, wherever he dwells, always thinks himself the biggest\nsinner, one most unworthy of eternal life. This is Satan's master\nargument; thou art a horrible sinner, a hypocrite, one that has\na profane heart, and one that is an utter stranger to a work of\ngrace. I say this is his maul, his club, 34 his masterpiece; he\ndoth with this as some do with their most enchanting songs, sings\nthem everywhere. I believe there are but few saints in the world\nthat have not had this temptation sounding in their ears. But\nwere they but aware, Satan by all this does but drive them to the\ngap out at which they should go, and so escape his roaring. Saith\nhe, thou art a great sinner, a horrible sinner, a profane-hearted\nwretch, one that cannot be matched for a vile one in the country.\nAnd all this while Christ says to his ministers, offer mercy, in\nthe first place, to the biggest sinners. So that this temptation\ndrives thee directly into the arms of Jesus Christ.\n\nWere therefore the tempted but aware, he might say, 'Ay, Satan, so\nI am, I am a sinner of the biggest size, and therefore have most\nneed of Jesus Christ; yea, because I am such a wretch, therefore\nJesus Christ calls me; yea, he calls me first; the first proffer\nof the gospel is to be made to the Jerusalem sinner; I am he,\nwherefore stand back, Satan; make a lane, my right is first to come\nto Jesus Christ.' This now would be like for like. This would foil\nthe devil; this would make him say, I must not deal with this man\nthus; for then I put a sword into his hand to cut off my head.\n\nAnd this is the meaning of Peter, when he saith, 'Resist him\nsteadfast in the faith' (1 Peter 5:9). And of Paul, when he saith,\n'Take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all\nthe fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph 6:16). Wherefore is it said,\nBegin at Jerusalem, if the Jerusalem sinner is not to have the\nbenefit of it? And if I am to have the benefit of it, let me call\nit to mind when Satan haunts me with continual remembrance of my\nsins, of my Jerusalem sins. Satan and my conscience say I am the\nbiggest sinner:--Christ offereth mercy, in the first place, to the\nbiggest sinners! Nor is the manner of the offer other but such as\nsuiteth with my mind. I am sorry for my sin; yea, sorry at my heart\nthat ever sinful thought did enter, or find the least entertainment\nin my wicked mind: and might I obtain my wish, I would never\nmore that my heart should be a place for ought but the grace, and\nspirit, and faith of the Lord Jesus. I speak not this to lessen\nmy wickedness; I would not for all the world but be placed by mine\nown conscience in the very front of the biggest sinners, that I\nmight be one of the first that are beckoned, by the gracious hand\nof Jesus the Saviour, to come to him for mercy.\n\nWell, sinner, thou now speakest like a Christian; but say thus,\nin a strong spirit, in the hour of temptation, and then thou wilt,\nto thy commendation and comfort, quit thyself well. This improving\nof Christ, in dark hours, is the life, though the hardest part of\nour Christianity. We should neither stop at darkness nor at the\nraging of our lusts, but go on in a way of venturing, and casting\nthe whole of our affairs for the next world at the foot of Jesus\nChrist. This is the way to make the darkness light, and also to\nallay the raging of corruption.\n\nThe first time the Passover was eaten was in the night; and when\nIsrael took courage to go forward, though the sea stood in their\nway like a devouring gulf, and the host of the Egyptians follow\nthem at the heels; yet the sea gives place, and their enemies were\nas still as a stone till they were gone over (Exo 12:8; 14:13,14,21,22;\n15:16).\n\nThere is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves\ndoubts as the sun drives away the mists. And that you may not be\nput out, know your time, as I said, of believing is always. There\nare times when some graces may be out of use, but there is no time\nwherein faith can be said to be so. Wherefore, faith must be always\nin exercise. Faith is the eye, is the mouth, is the hand, and one\nof these is of use all day long. Faith is to see, to receive, to\nwork, or to eat; and a Christian should be seeing, or receiving,\nor working, or feeding all day long. Let it rain, let it blow, let\nit thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still believe. At 'what\ntime,' said the good man, 'I am afraid, I will trust in thee' (Psa\n56:2,3).\n\nNor can we have a better encouragement to do this than is, by the\ntext, set before us; even an open heart for a Jerusalem sinner.\nAnd if for a Jerusalem sinner to come, then for such an one when\ncome. If for such an one to be saved, then for such an one that is\nsaved. If for such an one to be pardoned his great transgressions,\nthen for such an one who is pardoned these to come daily to Jesus\nChrist too, to be cleansed and set free from his common infirmities,\nand from the iniquities of his holy things. Therefore, let the\npoor sinner that would be saved labour for skill to make the best\nimprovement of the grace of Christ to help him against the temptations\nof the devil and his sins.\n\nTenth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place,\nto the biggest sinners? Let those men consider this that have, or\nmay, in a day of trial, spoken or done what their profession or\nconscience told them they should not, and that have the guilt and\nburden thereof upon their consciences.\n\nWhether a thing be wrong or right, guilt may pursue him that doth\ncontrary to his conscience. But suppose a man should deny his God,\nor his Christ, or relinquish a good profession, and be under the\nreal guilt thereof, shall he, therefore, conclude he is gone for\never? Let him come again with Peter's tears, and no doubt but he\nshall obtain Peter's forgiveness; for the text includes the biggest\nsinners. And it is observable, that before this clause was put\ninto this commission, Peter was pardoned his horrible revolt from\nhis Master. He that revolteth in the day of trial, if he is not\nshot quite dead upon the place, but is sensible of his wound, and\ncalls out for a chirurgeon, shall find his Lord at hand to pour\nwine and oil into his wounds, that he may again be healed, and to\nencourage him to think that there may be mercy for him; besides\nwhat we find recorded of Peter, you read in the Acts, some were,\nthrough the violence of their trials, compelled to blaspheme, and\nyet are called saints (Acts 26:9-11).\n\nHence you have a promise or two that speak concerning such kind of\nmen, to encourage us to think that, at least, some of them shall\ncome back to the Lord their God. 'Shall they fall,' saith he, 'and\nnot arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?' (Jer 8:4). 'and in\nthat day will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her\nthat is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. And I will make\nher that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong\nnation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion--for ever.'\nWhat we are to understand by her that halteth, is best expressed\nby the prophet Elijah (Micah 4:6,7; Zeph 3:19; 1 Kings 18:21).\n\nI will conclude, then, that for them that have halted, or may halt,\nthe Lord has mercy in the bank,35 and is willing to accept them if\nthey return to him again. Perhaps they may never be after that of\nany great esteem in the house of God, but if the Lord will admit\nthem to favour and forgiveness--O exceeding and undeserved mercy!\n(See Ezekiel 44:10-14). Thou, then, that mayest be the man, remember\nthis, that there is mercy also for thee. Return, therefore, to\nGod, and to his Son, who hath yet in store for thee, and who will\ndo thee good.\n\nBut, perhaps, thou wilt say, He doth not save all revolters, and,\ntherefore, perhaps not me. Answer. Art thou returning to God?\nIf thou art returning, thou art the man; 'Return, ye backsliding\nchildren, and I will heal your backslidings' (Jer 3:22).\n\nSome, as I said, that revolt, are shot dead upon the place; and for\nthem, who can help them? But for them that cry out of their wounds\nit is a sign that they are yet alive, and, if they use the means\nin time, doubtless they may be healed.\n\nChrist Jesus has bags of mercy that were never yet broken up or\nunsealed. Hence it is said, he has goodness laid up; things reserved\nin heaven for his. And if he breaks up one of these bags, who can\ntell what he can do? Hence his love is said to be such as passeth\nknowledge, and that his riches are unsearchable. He has, nobody\nknows what; for nobody knows who! He has by him, in store, for\nsuch as seem, in the view of all men, to be gone beyond recovery.\nFor this, the text is plain. What man or angel could have thought\nthat the Jerusalem sinners had been yet on this side of an\nimpossibility of enjoying life and mercy? Hadst thou seen their\nactions, and what horrible things they did to the Son of God; yea,\nhow stoutly they backed what they did with resolves and endeavours\nto persevere, when they had killed his person, against his name and\ndoctrine; and that there was not found among them all that while,\nas we read of, the least remorse or regret for these their doings;\ncouldest though have imagined that mercy would ever have took hold\nof them, at least so soon! Nay, that they should, of all the world,\nbe counted those only meet to have it offered to them in the very\nfirst place! For so my text commands, saying, Preach repentance\nand remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.\n\nI tell you the thing is a wonder, and must for ever stand for a\nwonder among the sons of men. It stands, also, for an everlasting\ninvitation and allurement to the biggest sinners to come to Christ\nfor mercy. Now since, in the opinion of all men, the revolter is\nsuch an one; if he has, as I said before, any life in him, let him\ntake encouragement to come again, that he may live by Christ.\n\nEleventh, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first\nplace, to the biggest sinners? Then let God's ministers tell them\nso. There is an incidence36 in us, I know not how it doth come about,\nwhen we are converted, to contemn them that are left behind. Poor\nfools as we are, we forget that we ourselves were so (Titus 3:2,3).\n\nBut would it not become us better, since we have tasted that the\nLord is gracious, to carry it towards them so, that we may give\nthem convincing ground to believe that we have found that mercy\nwhich also sets open the door for them to come and partake with\nus. Ministers, I say, should do thus, both by their doctrine, and\nin all other respects. Austerity doth not become us, neither in\ndoctrine nor in conversation.37 We ourselves live by grace; let\nus give as we receive, and labour to persuade our fellow-sinners,\nwhich God has left behind us, to follow after, that they may\npartake with us of grace. We are saved by grace; let us live like\nthem that are gracious. Let all our things, to the world, be done\nin charity towards them; pity them, pray for them, be familiar\nwith them, for their good. Let us lay aside our foolish, worldly,\ncarnal grandeur; let us not walk the streets, and have such\nbehaviours as signify we are scarce for touching of the poor ones\nthat are left behind; no, not with a pair of tongs. It becomes not\nministers thus to do.\n\n[A gentle reproof.]\n\nRemember your Lord, he was familiar with publicans and sinners to\na proverb: 'Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend\nof publicans and sinners' (Matt 11:19). The first part, concerning\nhis gluttonous eating and drinking, to be sure, was an horrible\nslander; but for the other, nothing was ever spoke truer of him by\nthe world. Now, why should we lay hands cross on this text; that\nis, choose good victuals, and love the sweet wine better than the\nsalvation of the poor publican? Why not familiar with sinners,\nprovided we hate their spots and blemishes, and seek that they may\nbe healed of them? Why not fellowly with our carnal neighbours? If\nwe do take occasion to do so, that we may drop, and be yet distilling\nsome good doctrine upon their souls? Why not go to the poor man's\nhouse, and give him a penny, and a Scripture to think upon? Why\nnot send for the poor to fetch away, at least, the fragments of\nthy table, that the bowels of thy fellow-sinner may be refreshed\nas well as thine?\n\nMinisters should be exemplary; but I am an inferior man, and must\ntake heed of too much meddling. But might I, I would meddle with\nthem, with their wives, and with their children too. I mean not\nthis of all, but of them that deserve it, though I may not name\nthem. But, I say, let ministers follow the steps of their blessed\nLord, who, by word and deed, showed his love to the salvation\nof the world, in such a carriage as declared him to prefer their\nsalvation before his own private concern. For we are commanded to\nfollow his steps, 'who did no sin, neither was guile found in his\nmouth.'\n\nAnd as I have said concerning ministers, so I say to all the\nbrethren, Carry it so, that all the world may see, that indeed you\nare the sons of love. Love your Saviour; yea, show one to another\nthat you love him, not only by a seeming love of affection, but\nwith the love of duty. Practical love is best.38 Many love Christ\nwith nothing but the lick of the tongue. Alas! Christ Jesus the\nLord must not be put off thus; 'He that hath my commandments, and\nkeepeth them,' saith he, 'he it is that loveth me' (John 14:21).\nPractical love, which stands in self-denial, in charity to my\nneighbour, and a patient enduring of affliction for his name; this\nis counted love. Right love to Christ is that which carries in it\na provoking argument to others of the brethren (Heb 10:24). Should a\nman ask me how he should know that he loveth the children of God?\nthe best answer I could give him, would be in the words of the apostle\nJohn; 'By this,' saith he, 'we know that we love the children of\nGod, when we love God, and keep his commandments' (1 John 5:2).\nLove to God and Christ is then shown, when we are tender of his\nname; and then we show ourselves tender of his name, when we are\nafraid to break any, the least of his commandments. And when we\nare here, then do we show our love to our brother also.\n\n[The Conclusion.]\n\nNow, we have obligation sufficient thus to do, for that our Lord\nloved us, and gave himself for us, to deliver us from death, that\nwe might live through him. The world, when they hear the doctrine\nthat I have asserted and handled in this little book; to wit, that\nJesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the\nbiggest sinners, will be apt, because themselves are unbelievers,\nto think that this is a doctrine that leads to looseness, and\nthat gives liberty to the flesh; but if you that believe love your\nbrethren and your neighbours truly, and as you should, you will\nput to silence the ignorance of such foolish men, and stop their\nmouths from speaking evil of you. And, I say, let the love of\nChrist constrain us to this. Who deserveth our heart, our mouth,\nour life, our goods, so much as Jesus Christ, who has bought us to\nhimself by his blood, to this very end, that we should be a peculiar\npeople, zealous of good works?\n\nThere is nothing more seemly in the world than to see a Christian\nwalk as becomes the gospel; nor anything more unbecoming a reasonable\ncreature, than to hear a man say, 'I believe in Christ,' and yet\nsee in his life debauchery and profaneness. Might I, such men should\nbe counted the basest of men; such men should be counted by all\nunworthy of the name of a Christian, and should be shunned by every\ngood man, as such who are the very plague of profession. For so it\nis written, we should carry it towards them. Whoso have a form of\ngodliness, and deny the power thereof, from such we must turn away.\n\nIt has ofttimes come into my mind to ask, By what means it is that\nthe gospel profession should be so tainted39 with loose and carnal\ngospellers? and I could never arrive to better satisfaction in\nthe matter than this--such men are made professors by the devil,\nand so by him put among the rest of the godly. A certain man had\na fruitless fig tree planted in his vineyard; but by whom was it\nplanted there? even by him that sowed the tares, his own children,\namong the wheat (Luke 13:6; Matt 13:37-40). And that was the devil.\nBut why doth the devil do thus? Not of love to them, but to make\nof them offences and stumbling-blocks to others. For he knows that\na loose professor in the church does more mischief to religion than\nten can do to it that are in the world. Was it not, think you, the\ndevil that stirred up the damsel that you read of in Acts 16 to cry\nout, 'These men are the servants of the most high God, which show\nunto us the way of salvation?' Yes it was, as is evident, for Paul\nwas grieved to hear it. But why did the devil stir up her to cry\nso, but because that was the way to blemish the gospel, and to\nmake the world think that it came from the same hand as did her\nsoothsaying and witchery? (verse 16-18). 'Holiness, O Lord, becomes\nthy house for ever.' Let, therefore, whoever they be that profess\nthe name of Christ, take heed that they scandal not that profession\nwhich they make of him, since he has so graciously offered us, as\nwe are sinners of the biggest size, in the first place, his grace\nto save us.\n\n[Answers to Objections.]\n\nHaving thus far spoken of the riches of the grace of Christ, and\nof the freeness of his heart to embrace the Jerusalem sinners, it\nmay not be amiss to give you yet, as a caution, an intimation of\none thing, namely, that this grace and freeness of his heart, is\nlimited to time and day; the which, whoso overstandeth, shall perish\nnotwithstanding. For, as a king, who, of grace, sendeth out to his\nrebellious people an offer of pardon, if they accept thereof by\nsuch a day, yet beheadeth or hangeth those that come not in for\nmercy until the day or time be past; so Christ Jesus has set the\nsinner a day, a day of salvation, an acceptable time; but he who\nstandeth out, or goeth on in rebellion beyond that time, is like\nto come off with the loss of his soul (2 Cor 6:2; Heb 3:13-19;\n4:7; Luke 19:41,42). Since, therefore, things are thus, it may be\nconvenient here to touch a little upon these particulars.\n\nFirst, That this day, or time thus limited, when it is considered\nwith reference to this or that man, is ofttimes undiscerned by\nthe person concerned therein, and always is kept secret as to the\nshutting up thereof.\n\nAnd this, in the wisdom of God is thus, to the end no man, when\ncalled upon, should put off turning to God to another time. Now,\nand TODAY, is that and only that which is revealed in holy Writ\n(Psa 50:22; Eccl 12:1; Heb 3:13,15). And this shows us the desperate\nhazards which those men run, who, when invitation or conviction\nattends them, put off turning to God to be saved till another, and,\nas they think, a more fit season and time. For many, by so doing,\ndefer this to do till the day of God's patience and long-suffering\nis ended; and then, for their prayers and cries after mercy, they\nreceive nothing but mocks, and are laughed at by the God of heaven\n(Prov 1:20-30; Isa 65:12-16; 66:4; Zech 7:11-13).\n\nSecondly, Another thing to be considered is this, namely, That the\nday of God's grace with some men begins sooner, and also sooner ends,\nthan it doth with others. Those at the first hour of the day, had\ntheir call sooner than they who were called upon to turn to God\nat the sixth hour of the day; yea, and they who were hired at the\nthird hour, had their call sooner than they who were called at the\neleventh (Matt 20:1-6).\n\n1. The day of God's patience began with Ishmael, and also ended\nbefore he was twenty years old. At thirteen years of age he was\ncircumcised; the next year after, Isaac was born; and then Ishmael\nwas fourteen years old. Now, that day that Isaac was weaned, that\nday was Ishmael rejected; and suppose that Isaac was three years\nold before he was weaned, that was but the seventeenth year of\nIshmael; wherefore the day of God's grace was ended with him betimes\n(Gen 17:25; 21:2-11; Gal 4:30).\n\n2. Cain's day ended with him betimes; for, after God had rejected\nhim, he lived to beget many children, and build a city, and to do\nmany other things. But, alas! all that while he was a fugitive and\na vagabond. Nor carried he anything with him after the day of his\nrejection was come, but this doleful language in his conscience.\n'From God's face shall I be hid' (Gen 4:10-15).\n\n3. Esau, through his extravagancies, would needs go sell his\nbirthright, not fearing, as other confident fools, but that yet\nthe blessing would still be his. After which, he lived many years;\nbut all of them under the wrath of God, as was, when time came, made\nto appear to his destruction; for, 'when he would have inherited\nthe blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance,\nthough he sought it carefully with tears' (Heb 12:16,17).\n\nMany instances might be given as to such tokens of the displeasure\nof God against such as fool away, as the wise man has it, the prize\nwhich is put into their hand (Prov 17:16).\n\nLet these things, therefore, be a further caution to those that sit\nunder the glorious sound of the gospel, and hear of the riches of\nthe grace of God in Christ to poor sinners. To slight grace, to\ndespise mercy, and to stop the ear when God speaks, when he speaks\nsuch great things, so much to our profit, is a great provocation.\nHe offereth, he calls, he woos, he invites, he prays, he beseeches\nus in this day of his grace to be reconciled to him; yea, and has\nprovided for us the means of reconciliation himself. Now, this\ndespised must needs be provoking; and it is a fearful thing to fall\ninto the hands of the living God.\n\nObjection. But some man may say unto me, 'Fain I would be saved,\nfain I would be saved by Christ; but I fear this day of grace is\npast, and that I shall perish, notwithstanding the exceeding riches\nof the grace of God.'\n\nAnswer. To this doubt I would answer several things. 1. With respect\nto this day. 2. With respect to thy desires. 3. With respect to\nthy fears.\n\n1. With respect to this day; that is, whether it be ended with a\nman or no.\n\n(1.) Art thou jogged, and shaken, and molested at the hearing of\nthe Word? Is thy conscience awakened and convinced then, that thou\nart at present in a perishing state, and that thou hast need to cry\nto God for mercy? This is a hopeful sign that this day of grace is\nnot past with thee. For, usually, they that are past grace, are\nalso, in their conscience, 'past feeling,' b eing 'seared with\na hot iron' (Eph 4:18,19; 1 Tim 4:1,2). Consequently, those past\ngrace must be such as are denied the awakening fruits of the Word\npreached. The dead that hear, says Christ, shall live; at least\nwise,40 Christ has not quite done with them; the day of God's\npatience is not at an end with them (John 5:25).\n\n(2.) Is there, in thy more retired condition, arguings, strugglings,\nand strivings with thy spirit to persuade thee of the vanity of what\nvain things thou lovest, and to win thee in thy soul to a choice\nof Christ Jesus and his heavenly things? Take heed and rebel not,\nfor the day of God's grace and patience will not be past with thee\ntill he saith, his 'Spirit shall strive no more' with thee; for\nthen the woe comes, when he shall depart from them; and when he\nsays to the means of grace, Let them alone (Hosea 4:17; 9:12).\n\n(3.) Art thou visited in the night seasons with dreams about thy state,\nand that thou art in danger of being lost? Hast thou heart-shaken\napprehensions when deep sleep is upon thee, of hell, death, and\njudgment to come? These are signs that God has not wholly left thee,\nor cast thee behind his back for ever. 'For God speaketh once, yea\ntwice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the\nnight, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the\nbed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,\nthat he may withdraw man from his purpose,' his sinful purposes,\n'and hide pride from man' (Job 33:14-17). All this while God has\nnot left the sinner, nor is come to the end of his patience towards\nhim, but stands, at least, with the door of grace ajar in his hand,\nas being loath, as yet, to bolt it against him.\n\n(4.) Art thou followed with affliction, and dost thou hear God's\nangry voice in thy afflictions? Doth he send with the affliction\nan interpreter, to show thee thy vileness; and why, or wherefore,\nthat hand of God is upon thee, and upon what thou hast; to wit,\nthat it is for thy sinning against him, and that thou mightest be\nturned to him? If so, thy summer is not quite ended; thy harvest\nis not yet quite over and gone. Take heed, stand out no longer,\nlest he cause darkness, and lest thy feet stumble upon the dark\nmountains; and lest, while you look for light, he turn it into the\nshadow of death, and make it gross darkness (Jer 8:20; 13:15-17).\n\n(5.) Art thou crossed, disappointed, and waylaid, and overthrown in\nall thy foolish ways and doings? This is a sign God has not quite\nleft thee, but that he still waits upon thee to turn thee. Consider,\nI say, has he made a hedge and a wall to stop thee? Has he crossed\nthee in all thou puttest thy hand unto? Take it as a call to turn\nto him; for, by his thus doing, he shows he has a mind to give thee\na better portion. For usually, when God gives up men, and resolves\nto let them alone in the broad way, he gives them rope, and lets\nthem have their desires in all hurtful things (Hosea 2:6-15; Psa\n73:3-13; Rom 11:9). Therefore take heed to this also, that thou\nstrive not against this hand of God; but betake thyself to a serious\ninquiry into the causes of this hand of God upon thee, and incline\nto think, it is because the Lord would have thee look to that, which\nis better than what thou wouldst satisfy thyself withal. When God\nhad a mind to make the prodigal go home to his father, he sent a\nfamine upon him, and denied him a bellyful of the husks which the\nswine did eat. And observe it, now he was in a strait, he betook\nhim to consideration of the good that there was in his father's\nhouse; yea, he resolved to go home to his father, and his father\ndealt well with him; he received him with music and dancing, because\nhe had received him safe and sound (Luke 15:14-32).\n\n(6.) Hast thou any enticing touches of the Word of God upon thy\nmind? Doth, as it were, some holy word of God give a glance upon\nthee, cast a smile upon thee, let fall, though it be but one drop\nof its savour upon thy spirit; yea, though it stays but one moment\nwith thee? O then the day of grace is not past! The gate of heaven\nis not shut! nor God's heart and bowels withdrawn from thee as\nyet. Take heed, therefore, and beware that thou make much of the\nheavenly gift, and of that good word of God of the which he has made\nthee taste. Beware, I say, and take heed; there may be a falling\naway for all this; but, I say, as yet God has not left thee, as\nyet he has not cast thee off (Heb 6:1-9).\n\n2. With respect to thy desires, what are they? Wouldst thou be\nsaved? Wouldst thou be saved with a thorough salvation? Wouldst\nthou be saved from guilt and filth too? Wouldst thou be the servant\nof thy Saviour? Art thou indeed weary of the service of thy old\nmaster the devil, sin, and the world? And have these desires put\nthy soul to the flight? Hast thou, through desires, betaken thyself\nto thy heels? Dost fly to him that is a Saviour from the wrath to\ncome, for life? If these be thy desires, and if they be unfeigned,\nfear not! Thou are one of those runaways which God has commanded\nour Lord to receive, and not to send thee back to the devil thy\nmaster again, but to give thee a place in his house, even the place\nwhich liketh thee best. 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master,'\nsays he, 'the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee.\nHe shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he\nshall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou\nshalt not oppress him' (Deu 23:15,16).\n\nThis is a command to the church, consequently to the Head of the\nchurch; for all commands from God come to her through her Head.\nWhence I conclude, that as Israel of old was to receive the runaway\nservant who escaped from a heathen master to them, and should not\ndare to send him back to his master again; so Christ's church now,\nand consequently Christ himself, may not, will not, refuse that\nsoul that has made his escape from sin, Satan, the world, and hell,\nunto him, but will certainly let him dwell in his house, among his\nsaints, in that place which he shall choose, even where it liketh\nhim best. For he says, in another place, 'And him that cometh\nto me, I will in no wise cast out.' In no wise, let his crimes be\nwhat they will, either for nature, multitude, or the attendance\nof aggravating circumstances. Wherefore, if thy desires be firm,\nsound, and unfeigned to become the saved of Christ, and his servant,\nfear not, he will not, he will in no wise put thee away, or turn\nthee over to thy old master again.\n\n3. As to thy fears, whatever they are, let that be supposed which\nis supposed before, and they are groundless, and so of no weight.\n\nObjection. But I am afraid I am not [of the] elect, or chosen to\nsalvation, though you called me fool a little before for so fearing.\n\nAnswer. Though election is, in order, before calling, as to God, yet\nthe knowledge of calling must go before the belief of my election,\nas to myself. Wherefore, souls that doubt of the truth of their\neffectual calling, do but plunge themselves into a deeper labyrinth\nof confusion that concern themselves with their election; I mean,\nwhile they labour to know it before they prove their calling. 'Make\nyour calling, and so your election sure' (2 Peter 1:4-10).\n\nWherefore, at present, lay the thoughts of thy election by, and\nask thyself these questions: Do I see my lost condition? Do I see\nsalvation is nowhere but in Christ? Would I share in this salvation\nby faith in him? And would I, as was said before, be thoroughly\nsaved, to wit, from the filth as from the guilt? Do I love Christ,\nhis Father, his saints, his words, and ways? This is the way to\nprove we are elect. Wherefore, sinner, when Satan, or thine own\nheart, seeks to puzzle thee with election, say thou, I cannot attend\nto talk of this point now, but stay till I know that I am called\nof God to the fellowship of his Son, and then I will show you that\nI am elect, and that my name is written in the book of life.\n\nIf poor distressed souls would observe this order, they might\nsave themselves the trouble of an unprofitable labour under these\nunseasonable and soul-sinking doubts. 41\n\nLet us, therefore, upon the sight of our wretchedness, fly and\nventurously leap into the arms of Christ, which are now as open to\nreceive us into his bosom as they were when nailed to the cross.\nThis is coming to Christ for life aright; this is right running away\nfrom thy [old] master to him, as was said before. And for this we\nhave multitudes of Scriptures to support, encourage, and comfort\nus in our so doing.\n\nBut now, let him that doth thus be sure to look for it, for Satan\nwill be with him tomorrow, to see if he can get him again to his\nold service; and if he cannot do that, then will he enter into\ndispute with him, to wit, about whether he be elect to life, and\ncalled indeed to partake of this Christ, to whom he is fled for\nsuccour, or whether he comes to him of his own presumptuous mind.\nTherefore we are bid, as to come, so to arm ourselves with that\narmour which God has provided; that we may resist, quench, stand\nagainst, and withstand all the fiery darts of the devil (Eph\n6:11-18). If, therefore, thou findest Satan in this order to march\nagainst thee, remember that thou hadst this item about it; and\nbetake thyself to faith and good courage, and be sober, and hope\nto the end.\n\nObjection. But how if I should have sinned the sin unpardonable,\nor that called the sin against the Holy Ghost?\n\nAnswer. If thou hast, thou art lost for ever; but yet before it\nis concluded by thee that thou hast so sinned, know that they that\nwould be saved by Jesus Christ, through faith in his blood, cannot\nbe counted for such.\n\n1. Because of the promise, for that must not be frustrate: and\nthat says, 'And him that cometh to Christ, he will in no wise cast\nout.' And again, 'Whoso will, let him take of the water of life\nfreely' (John 6:37; Rev 21:6; 22:17).\n\nBut, I say, how can these Scriptures be fulfilled, if he that would\nindeed be saved, as before said, has sinned the sin unpardonable?\nThe Scripture must not be made void, nor their truth be cast to the\nground. Here is a promise, and here is a sinner; a promise that\nsays he shall not be cast out that comes; and the sinner comes,\nwherefore he must be received: consequently, he that comes to Christ\nfor life, has not, cannot have sinned that sin for which there is\nno forgiveness. And this might suffice for an answer to any coming\nsoul, that fears, though he comes, that he has sinned the sin\nagainst the Holy Ghost.\n\n2. But, again, he that has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost\ncannot come, has no heart to come, can by no means be made willing\nto come to Jesus Christ for life; for that he has received such an\nopinion of him, and of his things, as deters and holds him back.\n\n(1.) He counteth this blessed person, this Son of God, a magician,\na conjuror, a witch, or one that did, when he was in the world,\nwhat he did, by the power and spirit of the devil (Matt 9:34;\n12:24,25,&c.; Mark 3:22-30). Now he that has this opinion of this\nJesus, cannot be willing to cast himself at his feet for life, or\nto come to him as the only way to God and to salvation. And hence it\nis said again, that such an one puts him to open shame, and treadeth\nhim under foot; that is, by contemning, reproaching, vilifying,\nand despising of him, as if he were the vilest one, or the greatest\ncheat in the world; and has, therefore, as to his esteem of him,\ncalled him accursed, crucified him to himself, or counted him one\nhanged, as one of the worst of malefactors (Heb 6:6; 10:29; 1 Cor\n12:3).\n\n(2.) His blood, which is the meritorious cause of man's redemption,\neven the blood of the everlasting covenant, he counteth 'an unholy\nthing,' or that which has no more virtue in it to save a soul from\nsin than has the blood of a dog (Heb 10:29).42 For when the apostle\nsays, 'he counts it an unholy thing,' he means, he makes it of less\nvalue than that of a sheep or cow, which were clean according to\nthe law; and, therefore, must mean, that his blood was of no more\nworth to him, in his account, than was the blood of a dog, an ass,\nor a swine, which always was, as to sacrifices, rejected by the God\nof heaven, as unholy or unclean. Now he who has no better esteem\nof Jesus Christ, and of his death and blood, will not be persuaded\nto come to him for life, or to trust in him for salvation.\n\n(3.) But further, all this must be done against manifest tokens to\nprove the contrary, or after the shining of gospel light upon the\nsoul, or some considerable profession of him as the Messiah, or\nthat he was the Saviour of the world.\n\n(a.) It must be done against manifest tokens to prove the contrary;\nand thus the reprobate Jews committed it when they saw the works of\nGod, which put forth themselves in him, and called them the works\nof the devil and Beelzebub.\n\n(b.) It must be done against some shining light of the gospel upon\nthem. And thus it was with Judas, and with those who, after they\nwere enlightened, and had tasted, and had felt something of the\npowers of the world to come, fell away from the faith of him, and\nput him to open shame and disgrace (Heb 6:5,6).\n\n(c.) It must also be done after, and in opposition to one's own open\nprofession of him. For if, after they have escaped the pollution\nof the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus\nChrist, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter\nend is worse with them than the beginning; for it had been better\nfor them not to have know the way of righteousness, than after they\nhave known it, to turn from the holy commandment, which is the word\nof faith delivered unto them.\n\n(d.) All this must be done openly, before witnesses, in the face,\nsight, and view of the world, by word and act. This is the sin\nthat is unpardonable; and he that hath thus done, can never, it\nis impossible he ever should, be renewed again to repentance, and\nthat for a double reason; first, such an one doth say, he will\nnot; and [second] of him God says, he shall not have the benefit\nof salvation by him.\n\nObjection. But if this be the sin unpardonable, why is it called\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost, and not rather the sin against the\nSon of God?\n\nAnswer. It is called 'the sin against the Holy Ghost,' because such\ncount the works he did, which were done by the Spirit of God, the\nworks of the spirit of the devil. Also because all such as so reject\nChrist Jesus the Lord, they do it in despite of that testimony\nwhich the Holy Ghost has given of him in the holy Scriptures; for\nthe Scriptures are the breathings of the Holy Ghost, as in all\nother things, so in that testimony they bear of the person, of the\nworks, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.\n\nSinner, this is the sin against the Holy Ghost. What sayest thou?\nHast thou committed it? Nay, I know thou hast not, if thou wouldst\nbe saved by Christ. Yea, it is impossible that thou shouldst have\ndone it, if indeed thou wouldst be saved by him. No man can desire\nto be saved by him, who he yet judgeth to be an impostor, a magician,\na witch. No man can hope for redemption by that blood which he yet\ncounteth an unholy thing. Nor will God ever suffer such an one to\nrepent, who has, after light and profession of him, thus horribly,\nand devil-like, contemned and trampled upon him.\n\nTrue, words, and wars, and blasphemies, against this Son of man,\nare pardonable; but then they must be done 'ignorantly, and in\nunbelief.' Also, all blasphemous thoughts are likewise such as may\nbe passed by, if the soul afflicted with them, indeed is sorry for\nthem (1 Tim 1:13-15; Mark 3:28).\n\nAll but this, sinner, all but this! If God had said, he will forgive\none sin, it had been undeserved grace; but when he says he will\npardon all but one, this is grace to the height. Nor is that one\nunpardonable otherwise, but because the Saviour that should save\nthem is rejected and put away. Jacob's ladder; Christ is Jacob's\nladder that reacheth up to heaven; and he that refuseth to go by\nthis ladder thither, will scarce by other means get up so high.\nThere is none other name given under heaven, among men, whereby\nwe must be saved. There is none other sacrifice for sin than this;\nhe also, and he only, is the Mediator that reconcileth men to God.\nAnd, sinner, if thou wouldst be saved by him, his benefits are\nthine; yea, though thou art a great and Jerusalem transgressor.43\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 Having preached many times, and from various texts, upon this\nsubject, the whole substance of many sermons is here published.--Ed.\n\n2 The Jews, and their sacred city, are standing monuments of God's\ndreadful vengeance against unbelief in rejecting the Lord Christ,\nin whom alone is salvation. The Lord give us grace to prize and improve\ngospel privileges, lest we also be cut off, through unbelief.--Mason.\n\n3 The higher a people rise under the means, the lower will be\ntheir fall if they slight them. O highly-favoured England! Tyre\nand Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, will have a milder hell than thy\ncarnal, hypocritical, Christless children.--Mason.\n\n4 All the objections are on the sinner's side, through unbelief.\nChrist answers them all in one word, 'Whosoever will, let him come\nand take of the water of life freely'; and, 'Whosoever cometh, I\nwill in no wise cast out.' Lord, put forth thy power, and give the\nwill.--Mason.\n\n5 In this quotation, Bunyan has followed the reading in the Genevan\nor Puritan version.--Ed.\n\n6 An arrow, dipped in the blood of Jesus, will subdue the most\nobdurate heart it reaches, even those bitter enemies to Christ,\nthe priests.--Mason.\n\n7 This quotation is from the Genevan or Puritan version--Ed.\n\n8 'Death was swallowing of them down.' How very striking and full\nof truth is this expression! For, in proportion as the sinner\nviolates the Divine law, so he rushes into the jaws of death and\ndestruction. Obedience to the Divine law preserves health, bestows\nhappiness, and prolongs life.--Ed.\n\n9 'Rowl in his bowels'; intense affection: see Philemon 12.--Ed.\n\n10 'Wheals'; pimples, or small swellings filled with matter.--Ed.\n\n11 'As physicians do' can now hardly be understood. In Bunyan's\ndays, all physicians put forth their bills of 'wonderful cures.'--Ed.\n\n12 'Hedge-creepers'; footpads.--Ed.\n\n13 O sinner, beseech the Lord to enable you to welcome the grace\nthat is welcoming you; then you shall find it, in the Lord's time,\nthat you shall be made as kindly welcome as ever a sinner was that\nis now a glorified saint.--Mason.\n\n14 This idea is most ingeniously and admirably displayed in Bunyan's\nbeautiful allegory, 'The Holy War.'--Ed.\n\n15 'A muse'; deep thought. Vulgo` vocatum, 'a brown study.' Bunyan\nused this word in the same sense in the first edition of 'The\nPilgrim's Progress,' at the Interpreter's house: 'Now was Christian\nsomewhat in a muse.' It was afterwards altered, but not improved,\nby substituting the words, 'in a maze.'--Ed.\n\n16 Among all the wondrous sights that angels witness, one gives\nthem peculiar joy--it is the poor penitent prodigal returning to\nGod, Luke 15:10.--Ed.\n\n17 This was printed in the first edition, 'the biggest sin.'--Ed.\n\n18 How strongly does this dialogue bring to our recollection that\nbetween Christian and Apollyon in the 'The Pilgrim's Progress?'--Ed.\n\n19 'I stunck,' in the original edition, probably meant, 'I stuck';\nbut all the later editions have, 'I stunk.'--Ed.\n\n20 'Clouts'; patches, Joshua 9:5\n\n21 I cannot discover in what book Bunyan read this legend; it is\nnot in the \"Golden Legend,\" or any of my monkish authors. It was a\ngenerally received opinion, among the ancients, that Mary Magdalene\nwas sister to Lazarus; but the means of her conversion is not known.\nThe story here related is possible, and even probable; but it has\nno foundation in the inspired writings, nor in ancient authors.--Ed.\n\n22 Thus Zaccheus said: 'Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give\nto the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man, by false\naccusation, I restore fourfold.' The law of God requires us,\ndim-sighted as we are, to see our sins in their real magnitude,\nbut the perversity of man turns the telescope to diminish them.--Ed.\n\n23 'The friends thereof in their reason' were the words used in\nthe first three editions by Bunyan. After his decease, they were\naltered, in 1697, in a second third edition, and this correction\nhas been continued in every subsequent impression.--Ed.\n\n24 Bunyan has some striking observations upon this word Go, in his\nwork on the day of judgment. Those who refused the invitation to\n'come' and receive life, when in the world, now irresistibly obey\nthe awful mandate, 'Go,' and rush into eternal woe.--Ed.\n\n25 How pointed and faithful are these words? How natural it\nis for a poor sinner to compare himself with his fellow-worm, and\nsay, 'Lord, I thank thee that I am not as this publican,' or as\nthat murderer--instead of viewing himself in the gospel glass, in\nthe presence of infinite holiness, and feeling that in his flesh\nthere is no good thing, but putrefying sores, that he is vile and\nhell-deserving, and must fall into the arms of Divine mercy, crying,\nLord, save, or I perish.--Ed.\n\n26 'Swoop'; to seize as a hawk does his prey.--Ed.\n\n27 The convinced sinner is not content with the cry, 'Deliver me\nfrom the wrath to come,' but, feeling sin to be his greatest enemy,\nhe earnestly cries for deliverance from its dominion in this world\n(Psa 143).--Ed.\n\n28 'At the catch.' See the dialogue between Faithful and Talkative\nin 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'--Ed.\n\n29 Printed, 'far,' in the first and second editions; altered to\n'fast,' in third and subsequent editions.--Ed.\n\n30 The blind men, who implored the mercy of Jesus, would not be\nchecked even by the multitude, but cried so much the more. When\na true sense of misery urges, neither men nor devils can stop the\ncry for mercy, till Jesus has compassion and heals their spiritual\nmaladies.--Mason.\n\n31 Quoted from the Puritan or Genevan version of the Bible; our\ntranslation has, 'He that covereth.'--Ed.\n\n32 'Long of Jesus Christ'; a provincial expression, meaning 'all\nthis belongs to us by Jesus Christ.'--Ed.\n\n33 How admirable an illustration is this of the Slough of Despond,\ninto which Christian and Pliable fell in 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'--Ed.\n\n34 This illustrates Bunyan's meaning of the Giant of Sophistry,\nnamed Maul, whose head was cut off by Great-heart, in the Second\nPart of 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'--Ed.\n\n35 The treasures of this bank are inexhaustible and unsearchable.\nOh for faith, that we may draw largely upon its infinite riches!--Ed.\n\n36 'Incidence'; the direction with which one body strikes another;\nnow obsolete.--Ed.\n\n37 A sour, crabbed Christian, is a contradiction in terms. The\nprecept is, 'Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving\none another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you'\n(Eph 4:31).--Mason\n\n38 The true branches in Christ, the heavenly vine, are made fruitful\nin love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,\nmeekness, and temperance. By these it will appear that Christ is\nformed within us. Mere 'lick of the tongue' love, without these,\nis an unsubstantial shadow.--Ed.\n\n39 'Be so taunted'; in editions previous to 1697.--Ed.\n\n40 'At least wise'; to say the least.--Ed.\n\n41 This is the proper test for a perplexed soul, when troubled\nabout his election. If I love Christ, and am desirous to obey him,\nit is because he first loved me; and this is the surest proof of\nelection. Hear the voice of God, 'Whosoever believeth in me shall\nnot perish, but have eternal life'; and so Paul, 'As many as were\nordained to eternal life believed' (Acts 13:48).--Ed.\n\n42 How very forcible is this appeal to those who profess to believe\nthe inspiration of the Bible, but yet reject the atonement of\nChrist. It is to make the typical sacrifice of the clean beasts,\nunder the law, of greater value than that of the great antitype--the\nSon of God.--Ed.\n\n43 The reason why those who are guilty of the blasphemy against the\nHoly Ghost are never forgiven, is not for want of any sufficiency\nin the blood of Christ, or in the pardoning mercy of God, but\nbecause they never repent of that sin, and never seek to God for\nmercy through Christ, but continue obstinate till death.--Mason.\n\n***\n\nTHE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL,\n\nAND\n\nUNSPEAKABLENESS 0F THE LOSS THEREOF;\n\nWITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT.\n\nFIRST PREACHED AT PINNER'S HALL and now ENLARGED AND PUBLISHED FOR\nGOOD.\n\nBy JOHN BUNYAN,\n\nLondon: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the\nPoultry, 1682\n\nFaithfully reprinted from the Author's First Edition.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nOur curiosity is naturally excited to discover what a poor, unlettered\nmechanic, whose book-learning had been limited to the contents of\none volume, could by possibility know upon a subject so abstruse,\nso profound, and so highly metaphysical, as that of the Soul--its\ngreatness--and the inconceivableness of its loss. Heathen philosophers,\nat the head of whose formidable array stand Plato and Aristotle,\nhad exhausted their wit, and had not made the world a whit the wiser\nby all their lucubrations. The fathers plunged into the subject,\nand increased the confusion; we are confounded with their subtle\ndistinctions, definitions, and inquiries; such as that attributed\nto St. Aquinas, How many disembodied spirits could dance upon the\npoint of a fine needle without jostling each other? Learned divines\nhad puzzled themselves and their hearers with suppositions and\nabstract principles. What, then, could a travelling brasier, or\ntinker, have discovered to excite the attention of the Christian\nworld, and to become a teacher to philosophers, fathers, and learned\ndivines? Bunyan found no access to the polluted streams of a vain\nphilosophy; he went at once to the fountain-head; and, in the pure\nlight of Revelation, displays the human soul--infinitely great in\nvalue, although in a fallen state. He portrays it as drawn by the\nunerring hand of its Maker. He sets forth, by the glass of God's\nWord, the inconceivableness of its value, while progressing through\ntime; and, aided by the same wondrous glass, he penetrates the\neternal world, unveils the joys of heaven and the torments of hell--so\nfar as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost, and are conceivable to\nhuman powers. While he thus leads us to some kind of estimate of\nits worth, he, from the same source--the only source from whence\nsuch knowledge can be derived, makes known the causes of the loss\nof the soul, and leads his trembling readers to the only name under\nheaven given among men, whereby they can be saved. In attempting\nto conceive the greatness and value of the soul, the importance of\nthe body is too often overlooked. The body, it is true, is of the\nearth; the soul is the breath of God. The body is the habitation;\nthe soul is the inhabitant. The body returns to the dust; while the\nsoul enters into the intermediate state, waiting to be re-united\nto the body after its new creation, when death shall be swallowed\nup of life. In these views, the soul appears to be vastly superior\nto the body. But let it never be forgotten, that, as in this life,\nso it will be in the everlasting state; the body and soul are so\nintimately connected as to become one being, capable of exquisite\nhappiness, or existing in the pangs of everlasting death. He who\nfelt and wrote as Bunyan does in this solemn treatise, and whose\ntongue was as the pen of a ready writer, must have been wise\nand successful in winning souls to Christ. He felt their infinite\nvalue, he knew their strong and their weak points, their riches and\npoverty. He was intimate with every street and lane in the town\nof Man-soul, and how and where the subtle Diabolians shifted about\nto hide themselves in the walls, and holes, and corners. He sounds\nthe alarm, and plants his engines against 'the eye as the window,\nand the ear as the door, for the soul to look out at, and to\nreceive in by.' He detects the wicked in speaking with his feet,\nand teaching with his fingers. His illustration of the punishment\nof a sinner, as set forth by the sufferings of the Saviour, is\npeculiarly striking. The attempt to describe the torments of those\nwho suffer under the awful curse, 'Go ye wicked,' is awfully and\nintensely vivid.\n\nBunyan most earnestly exhorts the distressed sinner to go direct to\nthe great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, and not to place confidence\nin those who pretend to be his ministers; but 'who are false\nshepherds, in so many ugly guises, and under so many false and\nscandalous dresses;' 'take heed of that shepherd that careth not\nfor his own soul, that walketh in ways, and doth such things, as\nhave a direct tendency to damn his own soul; come not near him.\nHe that feeds his own soul with ashes, will scarce feed thee with\nthe bread of life.' Choose Christ to be thy chief Shepherd, sit\nat his feet, and learn of him and he will direct thee to such as\nshall feed thy soul with knowledge and understanding.\n\nReader, let me no longer keep thee upon the threshold but enter upon\nthis important treatise with earnest prayer; and may the blessed\nSpirit enable us to live under a sense of the greatness of the soul,\nthe unspeakableness of the loss thereof, the causes of losing it,\nand the only way in which its salvation can he found.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR. Hackney, April 1850\n\nTHE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL,\n\nAND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF\n\n'OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?'--MARK 8:37.\n\nI HAVE chosen at this time to handle these words among you, and\nthat for several reasons:--\n\nl. Because the soul, and the salvation of it, are such great, such\nwonderful great things; nothing is a matter of that concern as is,\nand should be, the soul of each one of you. House and land, trades\nand honours, places and preferments, what are they to salvation?\nto the salvation of the soul?\n\n2. Because I perceive that this so great a thing, and about which\npersons should be so much concerned, is neglected to amazement, and\nthat by the most of men; yea, who is there of the many thousands\nthat sit daily under the sound of the gospel that are concerned,\nheartily concerned, about the salvation of their souls?--that is,\nconcerned, I say, as the nature of the thing requireth. If ever\na lamentation was fit to be taken up in this age about, for, or\nconcerning anything, it is about, for, and concerning the horrid\nneglect that everywhere puts forth itself with reference to salvation.\nWhere is one man in a thousand--yea, where is there two of ten\nthousand that do show by their conversation, public and private,\nthat the soul, their own souls, are considered by them, and that\nthey are taking that care for the salvation of them as becomes\nthem--to wit, as the weight of the work, and the nature of salvation\nrequireth?\n\n3. I have therefore pitched upon this text at this time; to see,\nif peradventure the discourse which God shall help me to make upon\nit, will awaken you, rouse you off your beds of ease, security, and\npleasure, and fetch you down upon your knees before Him, to beg of\nHim grace to be concerned about the salvation of your souls. And\nthen, in the last place, I have taken upon me to do this, that\nI may deliver, if not you, yet myself, and that I may be clear of\nyour blood, and stand quit, as to you, before God, when you shall,\nfor neglect, be damned, and wail to consider that you have lost\nyour souls. 'When I say,' saith God, 'unto the wicked, Thou shalt\nsurely die; and thou,' the prophet or preacher, 'givest him not\nwarning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to\nsave his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but\nhis blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked,\nand he turn not front his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he\nshall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul' (Eze\n3:18, 19).\n\n'Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'\n\nIn my handling of these words, I shall first speak to the occasion\nof them, and then to the words themselves.\n\nThe occasion of the words was, for that the people that now were\nauditors to the Lord Jesus, and that followed him, did it without\nthat consideration as becomes so great a work--that is, the generality\nof them that followed Him were not for considering first with\nthemselves, what it was to profess Christ, and what that profession\nmight cost them.\n\n'And when he had called the people unto him,' the great multitude\nthat went with him (Luke14:25) 'with his disciples also, he said\nunto them, 'Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself,\nand take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:34). Let him first sit\ndown and count up the cost, and the charge he is like to be at, if\nhe follows me. For following of me is not like following of some\nother masters. The wind sits always on my face, and the foaming rage\nof the sea of this world, and the proud and lofty waves thereof,\ndo continually beat upon the sides of the bark of the ship that\nmyself, my cause, and my followers are in; he therefore that will\nnot run hazards, and that is afraid to venture a drowning, let him\nnot set foot into this vessel. So whosever doth not bear his cross,\nand come after me, he cannot be my disciple. For which of you,\nintending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth\nthe cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it (Luke 14:27-29).\n\nTrue, to reason, this kind of language tends to cast water upon\nweak and beginning desires, but to faith, it makes the things set\nbefore us, and the greatness, and the glory of them, more apparently\nexcellent and desirable. Reason will say, Then who will profess\nChrist that hath such coarse entertainment at the beginning? but\nfaith will say, Then surely the things that are at the end of a\nChristian's race in this world must needs be unspeakably glorious;\nsince whoever hath had but the knowledge and due consideration of\nthem, have not stuck to run hazards, hazards of every kind, that\nthey might embrace and enjoy them. Yea, saith faith, it must needs\nbe so, since the Son himself, that best knew what they were, even,\n'for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising\nthe shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God'\n(Heb 12:2).\n\nBut, I say, there is not in every man this knowledge of things and\nso by consequence not such consideration as can make the cross and\nself-denial acceptable to them for the sake of Christ, and of the\nthings that are where He now sitteth at the right hand of God (Col\n3:2-4). Therefore our Lord Jesus doth even at the beginning give\nto His followers this instruction. And lest any of them should take\ndistaste at His saying, He presenteth them with the consideration\nof three things together--namely, the cross, the loss of life, and\nthe soul; and then reasoneth with them from the same, saying, Here\nis the cross, the life, and the soul.\n\n1. The cross, and that you must take up, if you will follow Me.\n\n2. The life, and that you may save for a time, if you cast Me off.\n\n3. And the soul, which will everlastingly perish if you come not\nto Me, and abide not with Me.\n\nNow consider what is best to be done. Will you take up the cross,\ncome after Me, and so preserve your souls from perishing? or will\nyou shun the cross to save your lives, and so run the danger of\neternal damnation? Or, as you have it in John, will you love your\nlife till you lose it? or will you hate your life, and save it? 'He\nthat loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in\nthis world shall keep it unto life eternal' (John 12:25). As who\nshould say, He that loveth a temporal life, he that so loveth it,\nas to shun the profession of Christ to save it, shall lose it upon\na worse account, than if he had lost it for Christ and the gospel;\nbut he that will set light by it, for the love that he hath to\nChrist, shall keep it unto life eternal.\n\nChrist having thus discoursed with His followers about their denying\nof themselves, their taking up their cross and following of Him,\ndoth, in the next place, put the question to them, and so leaveth\nit upon them for ever, saying, 'For what shall it profit a man, if\nhe shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mark 8:36).\nAs who should say, I have bid you take heed that you do not lightly,\nand without due consideration, enter into a profession of Me and\nof My gospel; for he that without due consideration shall begin to\nprofess Christ, will also without it forsake Him, turn from Him, and\ncast Him behind his back; and since I have even at the beginning,\nlaid the consideration of the cross before you, it is because you\nshould not be surprised and overtaken by it unawares, and because\nyou should know that to draw back from Me after you have laid your\nhand to My plough, will make you unfit for the kingdom of heaven\n(Luke 9:62).\n\nNow, since this is so, there is no less lies at stake than salvation,\nand salvation is worth all the world, yea, worth ten thousand\nworlds, if there should be so many. And since this is so also, it\nwill be your wisdom to begin to profess the gospel with expectation\nof the cross and tribulation, for to that are my gospellers1 in\nthis world appointed (James 1:12; 1 Thess 3:3). And if you begin\nthus, and hold it, the kingdom and crown shall be yours; for as God\ncounteth it a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them\nthat trouble you, so to you who are troubled and endure it, for 'we\ncount them happy,' says James, 'that endure,' (James 5:11), rest\nwith saints, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with\nHis mighty angels in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that\nknow not God, and that obey not the gospel, etc. (2 Thess 1:7, 8).\nAnd if no less lies at stake than salvation, then is a man's soul\nand his all at the stake; and if it be so, what will it profit\na man if, by forsaking of Me, he should get the whole world? 'For\nwhat shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and\nlose his own soul?'\n\nHaving thus laid the soul in one balance, and the world in the\nother, and affirmed that the soul out-bids the whole world, and is\nincomparably for value and worth beyond it; in the next place, he\ndescends to a second question, which is that I have chosen at this\ntime for my text, saying, 'Or what shall a man give in exchange\nfor his soul?'\n\nIn these words, we have first a supposition, and such an one as\nstandeth upon a double bottom. The supposition is this--That the\nsoul is capable of being lost; or thus--'Tis possible for a man to\nlose his soul. The double bottom that this supposition is grounded\nupon is, first, a man's ignorance of the worth of his soul, and of\nthe danger that it is in; and the second is, for that men commonly\ndo set a higher price upon present ease and enjoyments than they\ndo upon eternal salvation. The last of these doth naturally follow\nupon the first; for if men be ignorant of the value and worth\nof their souls, as by Christ in the verse before is implied, what\nshould hinder but that men should set a higher esteem upon that\nwith which their carnal desires are taken, than upon that about\nwhich they are not concerned, and of which they know not the worth.\n\nBut again, as this by the text is clearly supposed, so to here is\nalso something implied; namely, that it is impossible to possess\nsome men with the worth of their souls until they are utterly and\neverlastingly lost. 'What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'\nThat is, men when their souls are lost, and shut down under the\nhatches in the pits and hells in endless perdition and destruction,\nthen they will see the worth of their souls, then they will consider\nwhat they have lost, and truly not till then. This is plain, not\nonly to sense, but by the natural scope of the words, 'What shall\na man give in exchange for his soul?' Or what would not those that\nare now for sin, made to see themselves lost, by the light of hell\nfire--for some will never be convinced that they are lost till, with\nrich Dives, they see it in the light of hell flames (Luke 16:22,\n23). I say, what would not such, if they had it, give in exchange\nfor their immortal souls, or to recover them again from that place\nand torment?2\n\nI shall observe two truths in the words.\n\nThe first is, That the loss of the soul is the highest, the greatest\nloss--a loss that can never be repaired or made up. 'What shall a\nman give in exchange for his soul?'--that is, to recover or redeem\nhis lost soul to liberty?\n\nThe second truth is this, That how unconcerned and careless soever\nsome now be, about the loss or salvation of their souls, yet the day\nis coming; but it will then be too late, when men will be willing,\nhad they never so much, to give it all in exchange for their souls.\nFor so the question implies--'What will a man give in exchange for\nhis soul?' What would he not give? What would he not part with at\nthat day, the day in which he will see himself damned, if he had\nit, in exchange for his soul?\n\nThe first observation, or truth, drawn from the words is cleared by\nthe text, 'What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'--that\nis, there is not anything, nor all the things under heaven, were\nthey all in one man's hand, and all at his disposal, that would\ngo in exchange for the soul, that would be of value to fetch back\none lost soul, or that would certainly recover it from the confines\nof hell. 'The redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth\nfor ever' (Psa 49:8). And what saith the words before the text but\nthe same--'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the\nwhole world, and lose his own soul?' What shall profit a man that\nhas lost his soul? Nothing at all, though he hath by that loss gained\nthe whole world; for all the world is not worth a sou1, not worth\na soul in the eye of God and judgment of the law. And it is from\nthis consideration that good Elihu cautioneth Job to take heed,\n'Because there is wrath,' saith he, 'beware lest He take thee away\nwith His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Will He\nesteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength'\n(Job 36:18,19). Riches and power, what is there more in the world?\nfor money answereth all things--that is, all but soul concerns.\nIt can neither be a price for souls while here, nor can that, with\nall the forces of strength, recover one out of hell fire.\n\nDOCTRINE FIRST.\n\nSo then, the first truth drawn from the words stands firm--namely,\n\nThat the loss of the soul is the highest, the greatest loss; a loss\nthat can never be repaired or made up.\n\nIn my discourse upon this subject, I shall observe this method:--\n\nFIRST, I shall show you what the soul is.\n\nSECOND, I shall show you the greatness of it.\n\nTHIRD, I shall show you what it is to lose the soul.\n\nFOURTH, I shall show you the cause for which men lose their souls;\nand by this time the greatness of the loss will be manifest.\n\n[WHAT THE SOUL IS.]\n\nFIRST, I shall show you what the soul is, both as to the various\nnames it goes under, as also, by describing of it by its powers\nand properties, though in all I shall be but brief, for I intend\nno long discourse.3\n\n[Names of the Soul.]\n\n1. The soul is often called the heart of man, or that, in and by\nwhich things to either good or evil, have their rise; thus desires\nare of the heart or soul; yea, before desires, the first conception\nof good or evil is in the soul, the heart. The heart understands,\nwills, affects, reasons, judges, but these are the faculties of\nthe soul; wherefore, heart and soul are often taken for one and\nthe same. 'My son, give me thine heart' (Prov 23:26). 'Out of the\nheart proceed evil thoughts,' etc. (Matt 15:19; 1 Peter 3:15; Psa\n26:2).\n\n2. The soul of man is often called the spirit of a man; because it\nnot only giveth being, but life to all things and actions in and\ndone by him. Hence soul and spirit are put together, as to the\nsame notion. 'With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea,\nwith my spirit within me will I seek thee early' (Isa 26:9). When\nhe saith, 'Yea, with my spirit--will I seek thee,' he explaineth\nnot only with what kind of desires he desired God, but with what\nprincipal matter his desires were brought forth. It was with my\nsoul, saith he; to wit, with my spirit within me. So that of Mary,\n'My soul,' saith she, 'doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath\nrejoiced in God my Saviour' (Luke 1:46,47). Not that soul and\nspirit are, in this place, to be taken for two superior powers in\nman; but the same great soul is here put under two names, or terms,\nto show that it was the principal part in Mary; to wit, her soul,\nthat magnified God, even that part that could spirit and put life\ninto her whole self to do it. Indeed, sometimes spirit is not taken\nso largely, but is confined to some one power or faculty of the soul,\nas 'the spirit of my understanding,' (Job 20:3) 'and be renewed in\nthe spirit of your mind.' And sometime by spirit we are to understand\nother things; but many times by spirit we must understand the soul,\nand also by soul the spirit.\n\n3. Therefore, by soul we understand the spiritual, the best, and\nmost noble part of man, as distinct from the body, even that by\nwhich we understand, imagine, reason, and discourse. And, indeed,\nas I shall further show you presently, the body is but a poor,\nempty vessel, without this great thing called the soul. 'The body\nwithout the spirit,' or soul, 'is dead' (James 2:26). Or nothing\nbut (her soul departed from her, for she died). It is, therefore,\nthe chief and most noble part of man.\n\n4. The soul is often called the life of man, not a life of the\nsame stamp and nature of the brute; for the life of man--that is,\nof the rational creature--is, that, as he is such, wherein consisteth\nand abideth the understanding and conscience etc. Wherefore, then,\na man dieth, or the body ceaseth to act, or live in the exercise\nof the thoughts, which formerly used to be in him, when the soul\ndeparteth, as I hinted even now--her soul departed from her, for she\ndied; and, as another good man saith, 'in that very day his thoughts\nperish,' etc. (Psa 146:4). The first text is more emphatical; Her\nsoul was in departing (for she died). There is the soul of a beast,\na bird, etc., but the soul of a man is another thing; it is his\nunderstanding, and reason, and conscience, etc. And this soul,\nwhen it departs, he dies. Nor is this life, when gone out of the\nbody, annihilate, as is the life of a beast; no, this, in itself,\nis immortal, and has yet a place and being when gone out of the\nbody it dwelt in; yea, as quick, as lively is it in its senses, if\nnot far more abundant, than when it was in the body; but I call it\nthe life, because so long as that remains in the body, the body is\nnot dead. And in this sense it is to be taken where he saith 'He\nthat loseth his life for my sake shall find it' unto life eternal;\nand this is the soul that is intended in the text, and not the\nbreath, as in some other places is meant. And this is evident,\nbecause the man has a being, a sensible being, after he has lost\nthe soul. I mean not by the man a man in this world, nor yet in\nthe body, or in the grave; but by man we must understand, either\nthe soul in hell, or body and soul there, after the judgment is\nover. And for this the text, also, is plain, for therein we are\npresented with a man sensible of the damage that he has sustained\nby losing of his soul. 'What shall a man give in exchange for his\nsoul?' But,\n\n5. The whole man goeth under this denomination; man, consisting of\nbody and soul, is yet called by that part of himself that is most\nchief and principal. 'Let every soul,' that is, let every man, 'be\nsubject unto the higher powers' (Rom 13:1). 'Then sent Joseph, and\ncalled his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, three-score\nand fifteen souls (Acts 7:14). By both these, and several other\nplaces, the whole man is meant, and is also so to be taken in the\ntext; for whereas here he saith, 'What shall it profit a man, if\nhe shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' It is said\nelsewhere, 'For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole\nworld, and lose himself?' (Luke 9:25) and so, consequently, or,\n'What shall a man give in exchange (for himself) for his soul?'\nHis soul when he dies, and body and soul in and after judgment.\n\n6. The soul is called the good man's darling. 'Deliver,' Lord,\nsaith David, 'my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of\nthe dog' (Psa 22:20). So, again, in another place, he saith, 'Lord,\nhow long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my\ndarling from the [power of the] lions' (Psa 35:17). My darling--this\nsentence must not be applied universally, but only to those in\nwhose eyes their souls, and the redemption thereof, is precious.\nMy darling--most men do, by their actions, say of their soul, 'my\ndrudge, my slave; nay, thou slave to the devil and sin; for what\nsin, what lust, what sensual and beastly lust is there in the world\nthat some do not cause their souls to bow before and yield unto?\nBut David, here, as you see, calls it his darling, or his choice\nand most excellent thing; for, indeed, the soul is a choice thing\nin itself, and should, were all wise, be every man's darling, or\nchief treasure. And that it might be so with us, therefore, our\nLord Jesus hath thus expressed the worth of the soul, saying, 'What\nshall a man give in exchange for his soul?' But if this is true,\none may see already what misery he is like to sustain that has, or\nshall lose his soul; he has lost his heart, his spirit, his best\npart, his life, his darling, himself, his whole self, and so, in\nevery sense, his all. And now, 'what shall a man,' what would a\nman, but what can a man that has lost his soul, himself, and his\nall, 'give in exchange for his soul?' Yea, what shall the man that\nhas sustained this loss do to recover all again, since this man, or\nthe man put under this question, must needs be a man that is gone\nfrom hence, a man that is cast in the judgment, and one that is\ngone down the throat of hell?\n\nBut to pass this, and to proceed.\n\n[Powers and Properties of the Soul.]\n\nI come next to describe the soul unto you by such things as it\nis set out by in the Holy Scriptures, and they are, in general,\nthree--First, The powers of the soul. Second, The senses, the\nspiritual senses of the soul. Third, The passions of the soul.\n\nOf the powers of the soul.\n\nFirst, We will discourse of the powers, I may call them the members\nof the soul; for, as the members of the body, being many, do all\ngo to the making up of the body, so these do go to the completing\nof the soul.\n\n1. There is the understanding, which may be termed the head; because\nin that is placed the eye of the soul; and this is that which, or\nby which the soul, discerning things that are presented to it, and\nthat either by God or Satan; this is that by which a man conceiveth\nand apprehendeth things so deep and great that cannot, by mouth,\nor tongue, or pen, be expressed.\n\n2. There is, also, belonging to the soul, the conscience, in\nwhich I may say, is placed the Seat of Judgment; for, as by the\nunderstanding things are let into the soul, so by the conscience\nthe evil or good of such things are tried; especially when in the\n\n3. Third place, there is the judgment, which is another part of\nthis noble creature, has passed, by the light of the understanding,\nhis verdict upon what is let into the soul.4\n\n4. There is, also, the fancy or imagination, another part of this\ngreat thing, the sou1: and a most curious thing this fancy is; it\nis that which presenteth to the man the idea, form, or figure of\nthat, or any of those things, wherewith a man is either frighted\nor taken, pleased or displeased. And,\n\n5. The mind, another part of the soul, is that unto which this\nfancy presenteth its things to be considered of; because without\nthe mind nothing is entertained in the soul.\n\n6. There is the memory too, another part of the soul; and that\nmay be called the register of the soul; for it is the memory that\nreceiveth and keepeth in remembrance what has passed, or has been\ndone by the man, or attempted to be done unto him; and in this part\nof the soul, or from it, will be fed 'the worm that dieth not,' when\nmen are cast into hell; also, from this memory will flow that peace\nat the day of judgment that saints shall have in their service for\nChrist in the world.\n\n7. There are the affections too, which are, as I may call them,\nthe hands and arms of the soul; for they are they that take hold\nof, receive, and embrace what is liked by the soul, and it is a hard\nthing to make the soul of a man cast from it what its affections\ncleave to and have embraced. Hence the affections are called for,\nwhen the apostle bids men 'seek the things above; set your affections\nupon them,' saith he (Col 3), or, as you have it in another place,\n'Lay hold' of them; for the affections are as hands to the soul,\nand they by which it fasteneth upon things.\n\n8. There is the will, which may be called the foot of the soul,\nbecause by that the soul, yea, the whole man, is carried hither\nand thither, or else held back and kept from moving.5\n\nThese are the golden things of the soul, though, in carnal men,\nthey are every one of them made use of in the service of sin and\nSatan. For the unbelieving are throughout impure, as is manifest,\nbecause their 'mind and conscience (two of the masterpieces of the\nsoul) is defiled' (Titus 1:15). For if the most potent parts of the\nsoul are engaged in their service, what, think you, do the more\ninferior do? But, I say, so it is the more is the pity; nor can\nany help it. 'This work ceaseth for ever,' unless the great God,\nwho is over all, and that can save souls, shall himself take upon\nhim to sanctify the soul, and to recover it, and persuade it to\nfall in love with another master.\n\nBut, I say, what is man without this soul, or wherein lieth this\npre-eminence over a beast? (Eccl 3:19-21). Nowhere that I know of;\nfor both, as to man's body, go to one place, only the spirit or\nsoul of a man goes upward--to wit, to God that gave it, to be by\nHim disposed of with respect to things to come, as they have been,\nand have done in this life, But,\n\nOf the senses of the soul.\n\nSecond, I come, in the next place, to describe the soul by its\nsenses, its spiritual senses, for so I call them; for as the body\nhath senses pertaining to it, and as it can see, hear, smell, feel,\nand taste, so can the soul; I call, therefore, these the senses\nof the soul, in opposition to the senses of the body, and because\nthe soul is the seat of all spiritual sense, where supernatural\nthings are known and enjoyed; not that the soul of a natural man is\nspiritual in the apostle's sense, for so none are, but those that\nare born from above (1 Cor 3:1-3) nor they so always neither. But\nto go forward.\n\nOf sight.\n\n1. Can the body see? hath it eyes? so hath the soul. 'The eyes of\nyour understanding being enlightened' (Eph 1:18). As, then, the\nbody can see beasts, trees, men, and all visible things, so the\nsoul can see God, Christ, angels, heaven, devils, hell, and other\nthings that are invisible; nor is this property only peculiar to\nthe souls that are illuminate by the Holy Ghost, for the most carnal\nsoul in the world shall have a time to see these things, but not\nto its comfort, but not to its joy, but to its endless woe and\nmisery, it dying in that condition. Wherefore, sinner, say not\nthou, 'I shall not see Him; for judgment is before Him,' and He\nwill make thee see Him (Job 35:14).\n\nOf hearing.\n\n2. Can the body hear? hath it ears? so hath the soul (Job 4:12,13).\nIt is the soul, not the body, that hears the language of things\ninvisible. It is the soul that hears God when He speaks in and by\nHis Word and Spirit; and it is the soul that hears the devil when\nhe speaks by his illusions and temptations. True, there is such an\nunion between the soul and the body, that ofttimes, if not always,\nthat which is heard by the ears of the body doth influence the\nsoul, and that which is heard by the soul doth also influence the\nbody; but yet as to the organ of hearing, the body hath one of\nits own, distinct from that of the soul, and the soul can hear and\nregard even then, when the body doth not nor cannot; as in time of\nsleep, deep sleep and trances, when the body lieth by as a thing\nthat is useless. 'For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man, (as to\nhis body) perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night,\nwhen deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then\nhe openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,' etc.\n(Job 33:14-16). This must be meant of the ears of the soul, not\nof the body; for that at this time is said to be in deep sleep;\nmoreover this hearing, it is a hearing of dreams, and the visions\nof the night. Jeremiah also tells us that he had the rare and\nblessed visions of God in his sleep (Jer 21:26). And so doth Daniel\ntoo, by the which they were greatly comforted and refreshed; but\nthat could not be, was not the soul also capable of hearing. 'I\nheard the voice of His words,' said Daniel, 'and when I heard the\nvoice of His words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my\nface toward the ground' (Dan 10:8,9).\n\nOf tasting.\n\n3. As the soul can see and hear, so it can taste and relish, even\nas really as doth the palate belonging to the body.6 But then the\nthings so tasted must be that which is suited to the temper and\npalate of the soul. The soul's taste lieth not in, nor is exercised\nabout meats, the meats that are for the belly. Yet the soul of a\nsaint can taste and relish God's Word (Heb 6:5), and doth ofttimes\nfind it sweeter than honey (Psa 19:10) nourishing as milk (1 Peter\n2:2), and strengthening like to strong meat (Heb 5:12-14). The soul\nalso of sinners, and of those that are unsanctified, can taste and\nrelish, though not the things now mentioned, yet things that agree\nwith their fleshly minds, and with their polluted, and defiled, and\nvile affections. They can relish and taste that which delighteth\nthem; yea, they can find soul-delight in an alehouse, a whorehouse,\na playhouse. Ay, they find pleasure in the vilest things, in the\nthings most offensive to God, and that are most destructive to\nthemselves. This is evident to sense, and is proved by the daily\npractice of sinners. Nor is the Word barren as to this: They 'feed\non ashes' (Isa 44:20). They 'spend their money for that which is\nnot bread' (Isa 55:2). Yea, they eat and suck sweetness out of sin.\n'They eat up the sin of My people' as they eat bread (Hosea 4:8).\n\nOf smelling.\n\n4. As the soul can see, hear, and taste, so it can smell, and\nbrings refreshment to itself that way. Hence the church saith, 'My\nfingers dropped with sweet-smelling myrrh;' and again, she saith\nof her beloved, that 'his lips dropped sweet-smelling-myrrh' (Song\n5:5,13). But how came the church to understand this, but because\nher soul did smell that in it that was to be smelled in it, even\nin his word and gracious visits? The poor world, indeed, cannot\nsmell, or savour anything of the good and fragrant scent and sweet\nthat is in Christ; but to them that believe, 'Thy name is as ointment\npoured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee' (Song 1:3).\n\nOf feeling.\n\n5. As the soul can see, taste, hear, and smell, so it hath the\nsense of feeling, as quick and as sensible as the body. He knows\nnothing that knows not this; he whose soul is 'past feeling,' has\nhis 'conscience seared with a hot iron' (Eph 4:18, 19; 1 Tim 4:2).\nNothing so sensible as the soul, nor feeleth so quickly the love\nand mercy, or the anger and wrath of God. Ask the awakened man, or\nthe man that is under the convictions of the law, if he doth not\nfeel? and he will quickly tell you that he faints and dies away by\nreason of God's hand, and His wrath that lieth upon him. Read the\nfirst eight verses of the 38th Psalm; if thou knowest nothing of\nwhat I have told thee by experience; and there thou shalt hear the\ncomplaints of one whose soul lay at present under the burden of\nguilt, and that cried out that without help from heaven he could\nby no means bear the same. They also that know what the peace of\nGod means, and what an eternal weight there is in glory know well\nthat the soul has the sense of feeling, as well as the senses of\nseeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling. But thus much for the senses\nof the soul.\n\nOf the passions of the soul.\n\nThird, I come, in the next place, to describe the soul by the\npassions of the soul. The passions of the soul, I reckon, are these,\nand such like--to wit, love, hatred, joy, fear, grief, anger, etc.\nAnd these passions of the soul are not therefore good, nor therefore\nevil, because they are the passions of the soul, but are made so\nby two things--to wit, principle and object. The principle I count\nthat from whence they flow, and the object that upon which they\nare pitched. To explain myself.\n\nOf love.\n\n1. For that of love. This is a strong passion; the Holy Ghost saith\n'it is strong as death, and cruel as the grave' (Song 8:6,7). And\nit is then good, when it flows from faith, and pitcheth itself\nupon God in Christ as the object, and when it extendeth itself to\nall that is good, whether it be the good Word, the good work of\ngrace, or the good men that have it, and also to their good lives.\nBut all soul-love floweth not from this principle, neither hath\nthese for its object. How many are there that make the object of\ntheir love the most vile of men, the most base of things, because\nit flows from vile affections, and from the lusts of the flesh?\nGod and Christ, good laws and good men, and their holy lives, they\ncannot abide, because their love wanteth a principle that should\nsanctify it in its first motion, and that should steer it to a\ngoodly object. But that is the first.\n\nOf hatred.\n\n2. There is hatred, which I count another passion of the soul; and\nthis, as the other, is good or evil, as the principle from whence\nit flows and the object of it are. 'Ye that love the Lord, hate\nevil' (Psa 97:10). Then, therefore, is this passion good, when it\nsingleth out from the many thousand of things that are in the world\nthat one filthy thing called sin; and when it setteth itself, the\nsoul, and the whole man, against it, and engageth all the powers\nof the soul to seek and invent its ruin.7 But, alas, where shall\nthis hatred be found? What man is there whose soul is filled with\nthis passion, thus sanctified by the love of God, and that makes\nsin, which is God's enemy, the only object of its indignation? How\nmany be there, I say, whose hatred is turned another way, because\nof the malignity of their minds.\n\nThey hate knowledge (Prov 1:22). They hate God (Deu 7:10; Job\n21:14). They hate the righteous (2 Chron 29:2; Psa 34:21; Prov\n29:10). They hate God's ways (Mal 3:14; Prov 8:12). And all is,\nbecause the grace of filial fear is not the root and principle\nfrom whence their hatred flows. 'For the fear of the Lord is to\nhate evil:' wherefore, where this grace is wanting for a root in\nthe soul, there it must of necessity swerve in the letting out of\nthis passion; because the soul, where grace in wanting, is not at\nliberty to act simply, but is biased by the power of sin; that,\nwhile grace is absent, is present in the soul. And hence it is that\nthis passion, which, when acted well, is a virtue, is so abused,\nand made to exercise its force against that for which God never\nordained it, nor gave it license to act.\n\nOf joy.\n\n3. Another passion of the soul is joy; and when the soul rejoiceth\nvirtuously, it rejoiceth not in iniquity, 'but rejoiceth in the\ntruth' (1 Cor 13:6). This joy is a very strong passion, and will\ncarry a man through a world of difficulties; it is a passion that\nbeareth up, that supporteth and strengtheneth a man, let the object\nof his joy be what it will. It is this that maketh the soul fat in\ngoodness, if it have its object accordingly; and that which makes\nthe soul bold in wickedness, if it indeed doth rejoice in iniquity.\n\nOf fear.\n\n4. Another passion of the soul is fear, natural fear; for so you\nmust understand me of all the passions of the soul, as they are\nconsidered simply and in their own nature. And, as it is with the\nother passions, so it is with this; it is made good or evil in its\nacts, as its principle and objects are; when this passion of the\nsoul is good, then it springs from sense of the greatness, and\ngoodness and majesty of God; also God himself is the object of this\nfear'--I will forewarn you,' says Christ, 'whom ye shall fear. Fear\nhim that can destroy both body and soul in hell; yea, I say unto\nyou, Fear him' (Matt 5:28; Luke 7:5). But in all men this passion\nis not regulated and governed by these principles and objects,\nbut is abused and turned, through the policy of Satan, quite into\nanother channel. It is made to fear men (Num 14:9), to fear idols\n(2 Kings 17:7,38), to fear devils and witches, yea, it is made to\nfear all the foolish, ridiculous, and apish fables that every old\nwoman or atheistical fortune teller has the face to drop before\nthe soul. But fear is another passion of the soul.\n\nOf grief.\n\n5. Another passion of the soul is grief, and it, as those afore-named,\nacteth even according as it is governed. When holiness is lovely\nand beautiful to the soul, and when the name of Christ is more\nprecious than life, then will the soul sit down and be afflicted,\nbecause men keep not God's law. 'I beheld the transgressors, and\nwas grieved; because they kept not Thy word' (Psa 119:158). So\nChrist; He looked round about with anger, 'being grieved for the\nhardness of their hearts' (Mark 3:5). But it is rarely seen that\nthis passion of the soul is thus exercised. Almost everybody has\nother things for the spending of the heat of this passion upon. Men\nare grieved that they thrive no more in the world; grieved that\nthey have no more carnal, sensual, and worldly honour; grieved\nthat they are suffered no more to range in the lusts and vanities\nof this life; but all this is because the soul is unaquainted with\nGod, sees no beauty in holiness, but is sensual, and wrapt up in\nclouds and thick darkness.\n\nOf anger.\n\n6. And lastly, There is anger, which is another passion of the\nsoul; and that, as the rest, is extended by the soul, according to\nthe nature of the principle by which it is acted, and from whence\nit flows. And, in a word, to speak nothing of the fierceness and\npower of this passion, it is then cursed when it breaketh out beyond\nthe bounds that God hath set it, the which to be sure it doth, when\nit shall by its fierceness or irregular motion, run the soul into\nsin. 'Be ye angry, and sin not' (Eph 4:26), is the limitation\nwherewith God hath bounded this passion; and whatever is more than\nthis, is a giving place to the devil. And one reason, among others,\nwhy the Lord doth so strictly set this bound, and these limits to\nanger, is, for that it is so furious a passion, and for that it will\nso quickly swell up the soul with sin, as they say a toad swells\nwith its poison. Yea, it will in a moment so transport the spirit\nof a man, that he shall quickly forget himself, his God, his friend,\nand all good rule. But my business is not now to make a comment\nupon the passions of the soul, only to show you that there are\nsuch, and also which they are.\n\nAnd now, from this description of the soul, what follows but\nto put you in mind what a noble, powerful, lively, sensible thing\nthe soul is, that by the text is supposed may be lost, through the\nheedlessness, or carelessness, or slavish fear of him whose soul\nit is; and also to stir you up to that care of, and labour after,\nthe salvation of your soul, as becomes the weight of the matter.\nIf the soul were a trivial thing, or if a man, though he lost it,\nmight yet himself be happy, it were another matter; but the loss\nof the soul is no small loss, nor can that man that has lost his\nsoul, had he all the world, yea, the whole kingdom of heaven, in\nhis own power be but in a most fearful and miserable condition.\nBut of these things more in their place.\n\n[THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL.]\n\nSECOND, Having thus given you a description of the soul, what it\nis, I shall, in the next place, show you the greatness of it.\n\n[Of the greatness of the soul, when compared with the body.]\n\nFirst, And the first thing that I shall take occasion to make this\nmanifest by, will be by showing you the disproportion that is betwixt\nthat and the body; and I shall do it in these following particulars:--\n\nThe body a house for the soul.\n\n1. The body is called the house of the soul, a house for the soul\nto dwell in. Now everybody knows that the house is much inferior\nto him that, by God's ordinance, is appointed to dwell therein;\nthat it is called the house of the soul, you find in Paul to the\nCorinthians: 'For we know,' saith he, 'that if our earthly house of\nthis tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house\nnot made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (2 Cor 5:1). We have\nthen, a house for our soul in this world, and this house is the\nbody, for the apostle can mean nothing else; therefore he calls it\nan earthly house. 'If our earthly house'--our house. But who doth\nhe personate if he says, This is a house for the soul; for the body\nis part of him that says, Our house?\n\nIn this manner of language, he personates his soul with the souls\nof the rest that are saved; and thus to do, is common with the\napostles, as will be easily discerned by them that give attendance\nto reading. Our earthly houses; or, as Job saith, 'houses of clay,'\nfor our bodies are bodies of clay:\n\n'Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies\nof clay' (Job 4:19; 13:12). Indeed, he after maketh mention of a\nhouse in heaven, but that is not it about which he now speaks; now\nhe speaks of this earthly house which we have (we, our souls) to\ndwell in, while on this side glory, where the other house stands,\nas ready prepared for us when we shall flit from this to that; or\nin case this should sooner or later be dissolved. But that is the\nfirst; the body is compared to the house, but the soul to him that\ninhabiteth the house; therefore, as the man is more noble than the\nhouse he dwells in, so is the soul more noble than the body. And\nyet, alas! with grief be it spoken, how common is it for men to\nspend all their care, all their time, all their strength, all their\nwit and parts for the body and its honour and preferment, even as\nif the soul were some poor, pitiful, sorry, inconsiderable, and\nunder thing, not worth the thinking of, or not worth the caring\nfor. But,\n\nThe body clothing for the soul.\n\n2. The body is called the clothing and the soul that which\nis clothed therewith. Now, everybody knows that 'the body is more\nthan raiment,' even carnal sense will teach us this. But read that\npregnant place: 'For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being\nburdened (that is, with mortal flesh); not for that we should be\nunclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up\nof life' (2 Cor 5:4). Thus the greatness of the soul appears in\nthe preference that it hath to the body--the body is its raiment.\nWe see that, above all creatures, man, because he is the most noble\namong all visible ones, has, for the adorning of his body, that\nmore abundant comeliness. 'Tis the body of man, not of beast, that\nis clothed with the richest ornaments. But now what a thing is the\nsoul, that the body itself must be its clothing! No suit of apparel\nis by God thought good enough for the soul, but that which is made\nby God himself, and that is that curious thing, the body. But oh!\nhow little is this considered--namely, the greatness of the soul.\n'Tis the body, the clothes, the suit of apparel, that our foolish\nfancies are taken with, not at all considering the richness and\nexcellency of that great and more noble part, the soul, for which\nthe body is made a mantle to wrap it up in, a garment to clothe\nit withal. If a man gets a rent in his clothes, it is little in\ncomparison of a rent in his flesh; yea, he comforts himself when\nhe looks on that rent, saying, Thanks be to God, it is not a rent\nin my flesh. But ah! on the contrary, how many are there in the\nworld that are more troubled for that they have a rent, a wound, or\na disease in the body, than for that they have for the souls that\nwill be lost and cast away. A little rent in the body dejecteth\nand casteth such down, but they are not at all concerned, though\ntheir soul is now, and will yet further be, torn in pieces, 'Now\nconsider this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces,\nand there be none to deliver' (Psa 50:22). But this is the second\nthing whereby, or by which, the greatness of the soul appears--to\nwit, in that the body, that excellent piece of God's workmanship,\nis but a garment, or clothing for the soul.\n\nThe body a vessel for the soul.\n\n3. The body is called a vessel, or a case, for the soul to be put\nand kept in. 'That every one of you should know how to possess\nhis vessel in sanctifcation and honour' (1 Thess 4:4). The apostle\nhere doth exhort the people to abstain from fornication, which,\nin another place, he saith, '...is a sin against the body' (1 Cor\n6:18). And here again he saith, 'This is the will of God, that ye\nshould abstain from fornication:' that the body be not defiled,\n'that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in\nsanctification and honour.' His vessel, his earthen vessel, as he\ncalls it in another place--for 'we have this treasure in earthen\nvessels.' Thus, then, the body is called a vessel; yea, every man's\nbody is his vessel. But what has God prepared this vessel for, and\nwhat has He put into it? Why, many things this body is to be a vessel\nfor, but at present God has put into it that curious thing, the\nsoul. Cabinets, that are very rich and costly things of themselves,\nare not made nor designed to be vessels to be stuffed or filled with\ntrumpery, and things of no value; no, these are prepared for rings\nand jewels, for pearls, for rubies, and things that are choice. And\nif so, what shall we then think of the soul for which is prepared,\nand that of God, the most rich and excellent vessel in the world?\nSurely it must be a thing of worth, yea, of more worth than is the\nwhole world besides. But alas! who believes this talk? Do not even\nthe most of men so set their minds upon, and so admire, the glory\nof this case or vessel, that they forget once with seriousness to\nthink, and, therefore, must of necessity be a great way off, of\nthose suitable esteems that becomes them to have of their souls.\nBut oh, since this vessel, this cabinet, this body, is so curiously\nmade, and that to receive and contain, what thing is that for which\nGod has made this vessel, and what is that soul that He hath put\ninto it? Wherefore thus, in the third place, is the greatness of\nthe soul made manifest, even by the excellency of the vessel, the\nbody, that God has made to put it in.\n\nThe body a tabernacle of the soul.\n\n4. The body is called a tabernacle for the soul. 'Knowing that shortly\nI must put off this my tabernacle' (2 Pet 1:14), that is, my body,\n'by death' (John 21:18,19). 'For we know that if our earthly house\nof this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,' etc.\n(2 Cor 5:1). In both these places, by 'tabernacle,' can be meant\nnothing but the body; wherefore both the apostles, in these sentences\ndo personate their souls, and speak as if the soul was THE ALL of\na man; yea, they plainly tell us, that the body is but the house,\nclothes, vessel, and tabernacle for the soul. But what a famous\nthing therefore is the soul!\n\nThe tabernacle of old was a place erected for worship, but\nthe worshippers were more excellent than the place; so our body\nis a tabernacle for the soul to worship God in, but must needs be\naccounted much inferior to the soul, forasmuch as the worshippers\nare always of more honour than the place they worship in; as he that\ndwelleth in the tabernacle hath more honour than the tabernacle.8\n'I serve,' says Paul, God and Christ Jesus 'with my spirit (or soul)\nin the gospel' (Rom 1:9), but not with his spirit out of, but in,\nthis tabernacle. The tabernacle had instruments of worship for the\nworshippers; so has the body for the soul, and we are bid to 'yield\nour members as instruments of righteousness to God' (Rom 6:13). The\nhands, feet, ears, eyes, and tongue, which last is our glory when\nused right, are all of them instruments of this tabernacle, and to\nbe made use of by the soul, the inhabiter of this tabernacle, for\nthe soul's performance of the service of God. I thus discourse,\nto show you the greatness of the soul. And, in mine opinion, there\nis something, if not very much, in what I say. For all men admire\nthe body, both for its manner of building, and the curious way of\nits being compacted together. Yes, the further men, wise men, do\npry into the wonderful work of God that is put forth in framing the\nbody, the more still they are made to admire; and yet, as I said,\nthis body is but a house, a mantle, a vessel, a tabernacle for\nthe soul. What, then, is the soul itself?9 But thus much for the\nfirst particular.\n\n[Other things that show the greatness of the soul.]\n\nSecond, We will now come to other things that show us the greatness\nof the soul. And,\n\nThe soul is called God's breath.\n\n1. It is called God's breath of life. 'And the Lord God formed\nman,' that is, the body, 'of the dust of the ground, and breathed\ninto his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living\nsoul' (Gen 2:7). Do but compare these two together, the body and\nthe soul; the body is made of dust, the soul is the breath of God.\nNow, if God hath made this body so famous, as indeed He has, and\nyet it is made but of the dust of the ground, and we all do know\nwhat inferior matter it is, what is the soul, since the body is not\nonly its house and garment, but since itself is made of the breath\nof God? But, further, it is not only said that the soul is of the\nbreath of the Lord, but that the Lord breathed into him the breath\nof life--to wit, a living spirit, for so the next words infer--and\n'man became a living soul.' Man, that is, the more excellent part\nof him, which, for that which is principal, is called man, that\nbearing the denomination of the whole; or man, the spirit and\nnatural power, by which, as a reasonable creature, the whole of\nhim is acted, 'became a living soul.' But I stand not here upon\ndefinition, but upon demonstration. The body, that noble part of\nman, had its original from the dust; for so says the Word, 'Dust\nthou art (as to thy body), and unto dust shalt thou return' (Gen\n3:19). But as to thy more noble part, thou art from the breath of\nGod, God putting forth in that a mighty work of creating power, and\nman 'was made a living soul' (1 Cor 15:45). Mark my reason. There\nis as great a disparity betwixt the body and the soul, as is between\nthe dust of the ground and that, here called, the breath of life\nof the Lord. And note further, that, as the dust of the ground did\nnot lose, but gained glory by being formed into the body of a man,\nso this breath of the Lord lost nothing neither by being made a\nliving soul. O man! dost thou know what thou art?\n\nThe soul God's image.\n\n2. As the soul is said to be of the breath of God, so it is said\nto be made after God's own image, even after the similitude of God.\n'And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.--So\nGod created man in His own image, in the image of God created\nHe him' (Gen 1:26,27). Mark, in His own image, in the image of\nGod created He him; or, as James hath it, it is 'made after the\nsimilitude of God,' (James 3:9); like Him, having in it that which\nbeareth semblance with Him. I do not read of anything in heaven,\nor earth, or under the earth, that is said to be made after this\nmanner, or that is at all so termed, save only the Son of God Himself.\nThe angels are noble creatures, and for present employ are made a\nlittle higher than man himself, (Heb 2); but that any of them are\nsaid to be made 'after God's image,' after His own image, even\nafter the similitude of God, that I find not. This character the\nHoly Ghost, in the Scriptures of truth, giveth only of man, of\nthe soul of man; for it must not be thought that the body is here\nintended in whole or in part. For though it be said that Christ\nwas made after the similitude of sinful flesh (Phil 2), yet it is\nnot said that sinful flesh is made after the similitude of God;\nbut I will not dispute; I only bring these things to show how great\na thing, how noble a thing the soul is; in that, at its creation,\nGod thought it worthy to be made, not like the earth, or the heavens,\nor the angels, seraphims, or archangels, but like Himself, His own\nself, saying, 'Let Us make man in Our own likeness. So He made man\nin His own image.' This, I say, is a character above all angels;\nfor, as the apostle said, 'To which of the angels said He at anytime,\n'Thou art my Son?' So, of which of them hath He at any time said,\nThis is, or shall be, made in or after Mine image, Mine own image?\nO what a thing is the soul of man, that above all the creatures in\nheaven or earth, being made in the image and similitude of God.10\n\nThe soul God's desire.\n\n3. Another thing by which the greatness of the soul is made manifest\nis this, it is that--and that only, and to say this is more than\nto say, it is that above all the creatures--that the great God\ndesires communion with. He 'hath set apart him that is godly for\nhimself,' (Psa 4:3); that is, for communion with his soul; therefore\nthe spouse saith concerning him, 'His desire is toward me,' (Song\n7:10); and, therefore, he saith again, 'I will dwell in them,\nand walk in them' (2 Cor 6:16). To 'dwell in,' and 'walk in,' are\nterms that intimate communion and fellowship; as John saith, 'Our\nfellowship, truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his\nSon Jesus Christ' (1 John 1:3). That is, our soul-fellowship; for\nit must not be understood of the body, though I believe that the\nbody is much influenced when the soul has communion with God; but\nit is the soul, and that only, that at present is capable of having\nand maintaining of this blessed communion. But, I say, what a thing\nis this, that God, the great God, should choose to have fellowship\nand communion with the soul above all. We read, indeed, of the\ngreatness of the angels, and how near also they are unto God; but\nyet there are not such terms that bespeak such familiar acts between\nGod and angels, as to demonstrate that they have such communion\nwith God as has, or as the souls of His people may have. Where has\nHe called them His love, His dove, His fair one? and where, when He\nspeaketh of them, doth He express a communion that they have with\nHim by the similitude of conjugal love? I speak of what is revealed;\nthe secret things belong to the Lord our God. Now by all this is\nmanifest the greatness of the soul. Men of greatness and honour,\nif they have respect to their own glory, will not choose for their\nfamiliars the base and rascally crew of this world; but will single\nout for their fellows, fellowship, and communion, those that are\nmost like themselves. True, the King has not an equal, yet He is\nfor being familiar only with the nobles of the land: so God, with\nHim none can compare; yet since the soul is by Him singled out\nfor His walking mate and companion, it is a sign it is the highest\nborn, and that upon which the blessed Majesty looks, as upon that\nwhich is most meet to be singled out for communion with Himself.\n\nShould we see a man familiar with the King, we would, even of\nourselves, conclude he is one of the nobles of the land; but this\nis not the lot of every soul--some have fellowship with devils, yet\nnot because they have a more base original than those that lie in\nGod's bosom, but they, through sin, are degenerate, and have chosen\nto be great with His enemy--but all these things show the greatness\nof the soul.\n\nThe soul a vessel for grace.\n\n4. The soul of men are such as God counts worthy to be the vessels\nto hold His grace, the graces of the Spirit, in. The graces of the\nSpirit--what like them, or where here are they to be found, save\nin the souls of men only? 'Of His fulness have all we received,\nand grace for grace' (John 1:16). Received, into what? into 'the\nhidden part,' as David calls it (Psa 51:6). Hence the king's daughter\nis said to be 'all glorious within,' (Psa 45:15); because adorned\nand beautified with the graces of the Spirit. For that which David\ncalls the hidden part is the inmost part of the soul; and it is,\ntherefore, called the hidden part, because the soul is invisible,\nnor can any one living infallibly know what is in the soul but God\nHimself. But, I say, the soul is the vessel into which this golden\noil is poured, and that which holds, and is accounted worthy to\nexercise and improve the same. Therefore the soul is it which is\nsaid to love God--'Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?' (Song 3:3);\nand, therefore, the soul is that which exerciseth the spirit of\nprayer--'With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with\nmy spirit within me will I seek thee early' (Isa 26:9). With the\nsoul also men are said to believe and into the soul God is said to\nput His fear. This is the vessel into which the virgins got oil,\nand out of which their lamps were supplied by the same. But what\na thing, what a great thing therefore is the soul, that that above\nall things that God hath created should be the chosen vessel to put\nHis grace in. The body is the vessel for the soul, and the soul is\nthe vessel for the grace of God. But,\n\n5. The greatness of the soul is manifest by the greatness of the\nprice that Christ paid for it, to make it an heir of glory; and\nthat was His precious blood (1 Cor 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18,19). We do\nuse to esteem of things according to the price that is given for\nthem, especially when we are convinced that the purchase has not\nbeen made by the estimation of a fool. Now the soul is purchased\nby a price that the Son, the wisdom of God, thought fit to pay\nfor the redemption thereof--what a thing, then, is the soul? Judge\nof the soul by the price that is paid for it, and you must needs\nconfess, unless you count the blood that hath bought it an unholy\nthing, that it cannot but be of great worth and value. Suppose a\nprince, or some great man, should, on a sudden, descend from his\nthrone, or chair of state, to take up, that he might put in his\nbosom, something that he had espied lying trampled under the feet\nof those that stand by; would you think that he would do this for\nan old horse shoe,11 or for so trivial a thing as a pin or a point?\n12 Nay, would you not even of yourselves conclude that that thing\nfor which the prince, so great a man, should make such a stoop,\nmust needs be a thing of very great worth? Why, this is the case\nof Christ and the soul. Christ is the prince, His throne was in\nheaven, and, as He sat there, He espied the souls of sinners trampled\nunder the foot of the law and death for sin. Now, what doth He,\nbut comes down from His throne, stoops down to the earth, and there,\nsince He could not have the trodden-down souls without price, He\nlays down His life and blood for them (2 Cor 8:9). But would He\nhave done this for inconsiderable things? No, nor for the souls\nof sinners neither, had He not valued them higher than he valued\nheaven and earth besides. 13 This, therefore, is another thing by\nwhich the greatness of the soul is known.\n\nThe soul immortal.\n\n6. The soul is immortal, it will have a sensible being for ever,\nnone can kill the soul (Luke 12:4; Matt 10:28). If all the angels\nin heaven, and all the men on earth, should lay all their strength\ntogether, they cannot kill or annihilate one soul. No, I will\nspeak without fear, if it may be said, God cannot do what He will\nnot do; then He cannot annihilate the soul: but, notwithstanding\nall His wrath, and the vengeance that He will inflict on sinful\nsouls, they yet shall abide with sensible beings, yet to endure,\nyet to bear punishment. If anything could kill the soul, it would\nbe death; but death cannot do it, neither first nor second; the\nfirst cannot, for when Dives was slain, as to his body by death,\nhis soul was found alive in hell--'He lift up his eyes in hell,\nbeing in torment' (Luke 16:23). The second death cannot do it,\nbecause it is said their worm never dies, but is always torturing\nthem with his gnawing (Mark 9:44). But that could not be, if time,\nor lying in hell fire for ever, could annihilate the soul. Now, this\nalso shows the greatness of the soul, that it is that which has an\nendless life, and that will, therefore, have a being endlessly. O\nwhat a thing is the soul!\n\nThe soul, then, is immortal, though not eternal. That is eternal that\nhas neither beginning nor end, and, therefore, eternal is properly\napplicable to none but God; hence He is called the 'eternal God'\n(Deu 33:27). Immortal is that which, though it hath a beginning,\nyet hath no end, it cannot die, nor cease to be; and this is the\nstate of the soul. It cannot cease to have a being when it is once\ncreated; I mean, a living, sensible being. For I mean by living, only\nsuch a being as distinguishes it from annihilation or incapableness\nof sense and feeling. Hence, as the rich man is after death said\nto 'lift up his eyes in hell,' so the beggar is said, when he died,\nto be 'carried by the angels, into Abraham's bosom' (Luke 16:22,23).\nAnd both these sayings must have respect to the souls of these men;\nfor, as for their bodies, we know at present it is otherwise with\nthem. The grave is their house, and so must be till the trumpet\nshall sound, and the heavens pass away like a scroll. Now, I say,\nthe immortality of the soul shows the greatness of it, as the\neternity of God shows the greatness of God. It cannot be said of\nany angel but that he is immortal, and so it is, and ought to be\nsaid of the soul. This, therefore, shows the greatness of the soul,\nin that it is as to abiding so like unto him.\n\n'Tis the soul that acts the body.\n\n7. But a word or two more, and so to conclude this head. The\nsoul!--why, it is the soul that acteth the body in all these things,\ngood or bad, that seem good and reasonable, or amazingly wicked.\nTrue, the acts and motions of the soul are only seen and heard in,\nand by the members and motions of the body, but the body is but a\npoor instrument, soul is the great agitator and actor. 'The body\nwithout the spirit is dead' (James 2:26). All those famous arts,\nand works, and inventions of works, that are done by men under\nheaven, they are all the intentions of the soul, and the body, as\nacting and labouring therein, doth it but as a tool that the soul\nmaketh use of to bring his invention into maturity (Eccl 7:29).\nHow many things have men found out to the amazing of one another,\nto the wonderment of one another, to the begetting of endless\ncommendations of one another in the world, while, in the meantime,\nthe soul, which indeed is the true inventor of all, is overlooked,\nnot regarded, but dragged up and down by every lust, and prostrate,\nand made a slave to every silly and beastly thing. O the amazing\ndarkness that hath covered the face of the hearts of the children\nof men, that they cannot deliver their soul, nor say, 'Is there not\na lie in my right hand?' (Isa 44:20), though they are so cunning\nin all other matters. Take man in matters that are abroad, and far\nfrom home, and he is the mirror of all the world; but take him at\nhome, and put him upon things that are near him, I mean, that have\nrespect to the things that concern his soul, and then you will\nfind him the greatest fool that ever God made. But this must not\nbe applied to the soul simply as it is God's creature, but to the\nsoul sinful, as it has willingly apostatized from God, and so suffered\nitself to be darkened, and that with such thick and stupifying\ndarkness, that it is bound up and cannot--it hath a napkin of sin\nbound so close before its eyes that it is not able--of itself--to\nlook to, and after those things which should be its chiefest concern,\nand without which it will be most miserable for ever.\n\nThe soul capable of having to do with invisibles.\n\n8. Further, as the soul is thus curious about arts and sciences,\nand about every excellent thing of this life, so it is capable of\nhaving to do with invisibles, with angels, good or bad, yea, with\nthe highest and Supreme Being, even with the holy God of heaven. I\ntold you before that God sought the soul of man to have it for His\ncompanion; and now I tell you that the soul is capable of communion\nwith Him, when the darkness that sin hath spread over its face is\nremoved. The soul is an intelligent power, it can be made to know\nand understand depths, and heights, and lengths, and breadths,\nin those high, sublime, and spiritual mysteries that only God can\nreveal and teach; yea, it is capable of diving unutterably into them.\nAnd herein is God, the God of glory, much delighted and pleased--to\nwit, that He hath made Himself a creature that is capable of\nhearing, of knowing, and of understanding of His mind, when opened\nand revealed to it. I think I may say, without offence to God\nor man, that one reason why God made the world was, that He might\nmanifest Himself, not only by, but to the works which He made; but,\nI speak with reverence, how could that be, if He did not also make\nsome of His creatures capable of apprehending of Him in those most\nhigh mysteries and methods in which He purposed to reveal Himself?\nBut then, what are those creatures which He hath made (unto whom\nwhen these things are shown) that are able to take them in and\nunderstand them, and so to improve them to God's glory, as He hath\nordained and purposed they should, but souls? for none else in the\nvisible world are capable of doing this but they. And hence it is\nthat to them, and them only, He beginneth to reveal Himself in this\nworld. And hence it is that they, and they only, are gathered up\nto Him where He is, for they are they that are called 'the spirits\nof just men made perfect,' (Heb 12:23); the spirit of a beast goeth\ndownward to the earth, it is the spirit of a man that goes upwards\nto God that gave it (Eccl 3:21;12:7). For that, and that only,\nis capable of beholding and understanding the glorious visions of\nheaven; as Christ said, 'Father, I will that they also, whom thou\nhast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory,\nwhich thou hast given Me; for thou lovedst Me before the foundation\nof the world' (John 17:24). And thus the greatness of the soul is\nmanifest. True, the body is also gathered up into glory, but not\nsimply for its own sake, or because that is capable of itself to\nknow and understand the glories of its Maker; but that has been\na companion with the soul in this world, has also been its house,\nits mantle, its cabinet and tabernacle here; it has also been it by\nwhich the soul hath acted, in which it hath wrought, and by which\nits excellent appearances have been manifested; and it shall also\nthere be its co-partner and sharer in its glory. Wherefore, as the\nbody here did partake of soul excellencies, and was also conformed\nto its spiritual and regenerate principles; so it shall be hereafter\na partaker of that glory with which the soul shall be filled,\nand also be made suitable by that glory to become a partaker and\nco-partner with it of the eternal excellencies which heaven will\nput upon it. In this world it is a gracious soul (I speak now of\nthe regenerate), and in that world it shall be a glorious one. In\nthis world the body was conformable to the soul as it was gracious,\nand in that world it shall be conformable to it as it is glorious;\nconformable, I say, by partaking of that glory that then the soul\nshall partake of; yea, it shall also have an additional glory to\nadorn, and make it yet the more capable of being serviceable to\nit, and with it in its great acts before God in eternal glory. Oh,\nwhat great things are the souls of the sons of men!\n\nThe soul capable of diving into the depths and mysteries of hell.\n\n9. But again, as the soul is thus capable of enjoying God in glory,\nand of prying into these mysteries that are in him, so it is capable,\nwith great profundity, to dive into the mysterious depths of hell.\nHell is a place and state utterly unknown to any in this visible\nworld, excepting the souls of men; nor shall any for ever be capable\nof understanding the miseries thereof, save souls and fallen angels.\nNow, I think, as the joys of heaven stand not only in speculation,\nor in beholding of glory, but in a sensible enjoyment and unspeakable\npleasure which those glories will yield to the soul (Psa 16:11),\nso the torments of hell will not stand in the present lashes and\nstrokes which by the flames of eternal fire God will scourge the\nungodly with; but the torments of hell stand much, if not in the\ngreatest part of them, in those deep thoughts and apprehensions,\nwhich souls in the next world will have of the nature and occasions\nof sin; of God, and of separation from Him; of the eternity of those\nmiseries, and of the utter impossibility of their help, ease, or\ndeliverance for ever. O! damned souls will have thoughts that will\nclash with glory, clash with justice, clash with law, clash with\nitself, clash with hell, and with the everlastingness of misery;\nbut the point, the edge, and the poison of all these thoughts will\nstill be galling, and dropping, and spewing out their stings into\nthe sore, grieved, wounded, and fretted place, which is the conscience,\nthough not the conscience only; for I may say of the souls in hell,\nthat they all over are but one wound, one sore! Miseries as well\nas mercies sharpen and make quick the apprehensions of the soul.\nBehold Spira in his book, 14 Cain in his guilt, and Saul with the\nwitch of Endor, and you shall see men ripened, men enlarged and\ngreatened in their fancies, imaginations, and apprehensions though\nnot about God, and heaven, and glory, yet about their loss, their\nmisery, and their woe, and their hells (Isa 33:14; Psa 1:4; Rev\n14:10; Mark 9:44,46).\n\nThe ability of the soul to bear.\n\n10. Nor doth their ability to bear, if it be proper to say they\nbear those dolors which there for ever they shall endure, a little\ndemonstrate their greatness. Everlasting burning, devouring fire,\nperpetual pains, gnawing worms, utter darkness, and the ireful\nsouls, face, and strokes of Divine and infinite justice will not,\ncannot, make this soul extinct, as I said before. I think it is not\nso proper to say the soul that is damned for sin doth bear these\nthings, as to say it doth ever sink under them: and, therefore,\ntheir place of torment is called the bottomless pit, because they\nare ever sinking, and shall never come there where they will find\nany stay. Yet they live under wrath, but yet only so as to be\nsensible of it, as to smart and be in perpetual anguish, by reason\nof the intolerableness of their burden. But doth not their thus\nliving, abiding, and retaining a being(or what you will call it),\ndemonstrate the greatness and might of the soul? Alas! heaven and\nearth are short of this greatness, for these, though under less\njudgment by far, do fade and wax old like a moth-eaten garment,\nand, in their time, will vanish away to nothing (Heb 1).\n\nAlso, we see how quickly the body, when the soul is under a fear\nof the rebukes of justice, how soon, I say, it wastes, moulders\naway, and crumbleth into the grave; but the soul is yet strong, and\nabides sensible to be dealt withal for sin by everlasting burnings.\n\nThe might of the soul further shown.\n\n11. The soul, by God's ordinance, while this world lasts, has a\ntime appointed it to forsake and leave the body to be turned again\nto the dust as it was, and this separation is made by death, (Heb\n9:27); therefore the body must cease for a time to have sense, or\nlife, or motion; and a little thing brings it now into this state;\nbut in the next world, the wicked shall partake of none of this;\nfor the body and the soul being at the resurrection rejoined, this\ndeath, that once did rend them asunder, is for ever overcome and\nextinct; so that these two which lived in sin must for ever be\nyoked together in hell. Now, there the soul being joined to the\nbody, and death, which before did separate them, being utterly taken\naway, the soul retains not only its own being, but also continueth\nthe body to be, and to suffer sensibly the pains of hell, without\nthose decays that it used to sustain.\n\nAnd the reason why this death shall then be taken away is, because\njustice in its bestowing its rewards for transgressions may not be\ninterrupted, but that body and soul, as they lived and acted in sin\ntogether, might be destroyed for sin in hell together (Matt 10:28\nLuke 12:5). Destroyed, I say, but with such a destruction, which,\nthough it is everlasting, will not put a period to their sensible\nsuffering the vengeance of eternal fire (2 Thess 1:8,9).\n\nThis death, therefore, though that also be the wages of sin, would\nnow, were it suffered to continue, be a hinderance to the making\nknown of the wrath of God, and also of the created power and might\nof the soul. (1.) It would hinder the making known of the wrath\nof God, for it would take the body out of the way, and make it\nincapable of sensible suffering for sin, and so removing one of\nthe objects of vengeance the power of God's wrath would be so far\nundiscovered. (2.) It would also hinder the manifestation of the\npower and might of the soul, which is discovered much by its abiding\nto retain its own being while the wrath of God is grappling with\nit, and more by its continuing to the body a sensible being with\nitself.\n\nDeath, therefore, must now be removed, that the soul may be made\nthe object of wrath without molestation or interruption. That the\nsoul, did I say? yea, that soul and body both might be so. Death\nwould now be a favour, though once the fruit of sin, and also the\nwages thereof, might it now be suffered to continue, because it\nwould ease the soul of some of its burden: for a tormented body\ncannot but be a burden to a spirit, and so the wise man insinuates\nwhen he says, 'The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity;' that\nis, bear up under it, but yet so as that it feels it a burden. We\nsee that, because of the sympathy that is between body and soul,\nhow one is burdened if the other be grieved. A sick body is a\nburden to the soul, and a wounded spirit is a burden to the body;\n'a wounded spirit who can bear?' (Prov 18:14). But death must not\nremove this burden, but the soul must have the body for a burden,\nand the body must have the soul for a burden, and both must have\nthe wrath of God for a burden. Oh, therefore, here will be burden\nupon burden, and all upon the soul, for the soul will be the chief\nseat of this burden! But thus much to show you the greatness of\nthe soul.\n\n[OF THE LOSS OF THE SOUL.]\n\nTHIRD, I shall now come to the third thing which was propounded to\nbe spoken to; and that is, to show you what we are to understand\nby losing of the soul, or what the loss of the soul is--'What shall\na man give in exchange for his soul?'\n\n[He that loseth his soul loseth himself.]\n\nFirst, The loss of the soul is a loss, in the nature of it, peculiar\nto itself. There is no such loss, as to the nature of loss, as is\nthe loss of the soul; for that he that hath lost his soul has lost\nhimself. In all other losses, it is possible for a man to save\nhimself, but he that loseth his soul, loseth himself--'For what is\na man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?'\n(Luke 9:25). Wherefore, the loss of the soul is a loss that cannot\nbe paralleled. He that loseth himself, loseth his all, his lasting\nall; for himself is his all--his all in the most comprehensive\nsense. What mattereth it what a man gets, if by the getting thereof\nhe loseth himself? Suppose a man goeth to the Indies for gold, and\nhe loadeth his ship therewith; but at his return, that sea that\ncarried him thither swallows him up--now, what has he got? But this\nis but a lean similitude with reference to the matter in hand--to\nwit, to set forth the loss of the soul. Suppose a man that has been\nat the Indies for gold should, at his return, himself be taken by\nthem of Algiers, and there made a slave of, and there be hunger-bit,\nand beaten till his bones are broken, 15 what has he got? what\nis he advantaged by his rich adventure? Perhaps, you will say, he\nhas got gold enough to obtain his ransom. Indeed this may be; and\ntherefore no similitude can be found that can fully amplify the\nmatter, 'for what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' 'Tis\na loss that standeth by itself, there is not another like it, or\nunto which it may be compared. 'Tis only like itself--'tis singular,\n'tis the chief of all losses--the highest, the greatest loss. 'For\nwhat shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' A man may lose\nhis wife, his children, his estate, his liberty, and his life, and\nhave all made up again, and have all restored with advantage, and\nmay, therefore, notwithstanding all these losses, be far enough off\nfrom losing of himself. (Luke 14:26; Mark 8:35). For he may lose\nhis life, and save it; yea, sometimes the only way to save that,\nis to lose it; but when a man has lost himself, his soul, then all\nis gone to all intents and purposes. There is no word says, 'he\nthat loses his soul shall save it;' but contrariwise, the text\nsupposeth that a man has lost his soul, and then demands if any can\nanswer it--'What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' All,\nthen, that he gains that loseth his soul is only this, he has gained\na loss, he has purchased the loss of losses, he has nothing left\nhim now but his loss, but the loss of himself, of his whole self.\nHe that loseth his life for Christ, shall save it; but he that\nloseth himself for sin, and for the world, shall lose himself\nto perfection of loss; he has lost himself, and there is the full\npoint.\n\nThere are several things fall under this first head, upon which I\nwould touch a little.\n\nHe that has lost himself will never be more at his own dispose.\n\n(1.) He that has lost his soul has lost himself. Now, he that lost\nhimself is no more at his own dispose. While a man enjoys himself,\nhe is at his own dispose. A single man, a free man, a rich man,\na poor man, any man that enjoys himself, is at his own dispose. I\nspeak after the manner of men. But he that has lost himself is not\nat his own dispose. He is, as I may say, now out of his own hands:\nhe has lost himself, his soul-self, his own self, his whole self,\nby sin, and wrath and hell hath found him; he is, therefore, now no\nmore at his own dispose, but at the dispose of justice, of wrath,\nand hell; he is committed to prison, to hell prison, there to\nabide, not at pleasure, not as long and as little time as he will,\nbut the term appointed by his judge: nor may he there choose his\nown affliction, neither for manner, measure, or continuance. It\nis God that will spread the fire and brimstone under him, it is God\nthat will pile up wrath upon him, and it is God himself that will\nblow the fire. And 'the breathof the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,\ndoth kindle it' (Isa 30:33). And thus it is manifest that he that\nhas lost himself, his soul, is no more at his own dispose, but at\nthe dispose of them that find him.\n\nHe that hath lost himself, is not at liberty to dispose of what he\nhath.\n\n(2.) Again, as he that has lost himself is not at his own dispose,\nso neither is he at liberty to dispose of what he has; for the\nman that has lost himself has something yet of his own. The text\nimplies that his soul is his when lost, yea, when that and his all,\nhimself is lost; but as he cannot dispose of himself, so he cannot\ndispose of what he hath. Let me take leave to make out my meaning.\nIf he that is lost, that has lost himself, has not, notwithstanding,\nsomething that in some sense may be called his own, then he that\nis lost is nothing. The man that is in hell has yet the powers, the\nsenses, and passions of his soul; for not he nor his soul must be\nthought to be stripped of these; for then he would be lower than\nthe brute; but yet all these, since he is there, are by God improved\nagainst himself; or, if you will, the point of this man's sword is\nturned against his own heart, and made to pierce his own liver.\n\nThe soul by being in hell loseth nothing of its aptness to think,\nits quickness to pierce, to pry, and to understand; nay, hell\nhas ripened it in all these things; but, I say, the soul with its\nimprovements as to these, or anything else, is not in the hand of\nhim that hath lost himself to manage for his own advantage, but in\nthe hand, and in the power, and to be disposed as is thought meet\nby him into whose revenging hand by sin he has delivered himself--to\nwit, in the hand of God. So, then, God now has the victory, and\ndisposeth of all the powers, senses, and passions of the soul for\nthe chastising of him that has lost himself. Now the understanding\nis only employed and improved in and about the apprehending of such\nthings as will be like daggers at the heart--to wit, about justice,\nsin, hell, and eternity, to grieve and break the spirit of the\ndamned; yea, to break, to wound, and to tear the soul in pieces.\nThe depths of sin which the man has loved, the good nature of God\nwhom the man has hated, the blessings of eternity which the soul\nhas despised, shall now be understood by him more than ever, but yet\nso only, as to increase grief and sorrow, by improving of the good\nand of the evil of the things understood, to the greater wounding\nof the spirit; wherefore now, every touch that the understanding\nshall give to the memory will be as a touch of a red-hot iron, or\nlike a draught of scalding lead poured down the throat. The memory\nalso letteth those things down upon the conscience with no less\nterror and perplexity. And now the fancy or imagination doth start\nand stare like a man by fears bereft of wits, and doth exercise\nitself, or rather is exercised by the hand of revenging justice,\nso about the breadth and depth of present and future punishments,\nas to lay the soul as on a burning rack. Now also the judgment, as\nwith a mighty maul, driveth down the soul in the sense and pangs\nof everlasting misery into that pit that has no bottom; yea, it\nturneth again, and, as with a hammer, it riveteth every fearful\nthought and apprehension of the soul so fast that it can never be\nloosed again for ever and ever. Alas! now the conscience can sleep,\nbe dull, be misled, or batter, no longer; no, it must now cry out;\nunderstanding will make it, memory will make it, fancy or imagination\nwill make it. Now, I say, it will cry out of sin, of justice, and\nof the terribleness of the punishment that hath swallowed him up\nthat has lost himself. Here will be no forgetfulness; yet nothing\nshall be thought on but that which will wound and kill; here will\nbe no time, cause, or means for diversion; all will stick and gnaw\nlike a viper. Now the memory will go out to where sin was heretofore\ncommitted, it will also go out to the word that did forbid it. The\nunderstanding also, and the judgment too, will now consider of the\npretended necessity that the man had to break the commandments of\nGod, and of the seasonableness of the cautions and of the convictions\nwhich were given him to forbear, by all which more load will be laid\nupon him that has lost himself; for here all the powers, senses,\nand passions of the soul must be made self-burners, self-tormentors,\nself-executioners, by the just judgment of God; also all that the\nwill shall do in this place shall be but to wish for ease, but the\nwish shall only be such as shall only seem to lift up, for the cable\nrope of despair shall with violence pull him down again. The will\nindeed will wish for ease, and so will the mind, etc., but all these\nwishers will by wishing arrive to no more advantage but to make\ndespair which is the most twinging stripe of hell, to cut yet deepeer\ninto the whole soul of him that has lost himself; wherefore, after\nall that can be wished for, they return again to their burning chair,\nwhere they sit and bewail their misery. Thus will all the powers,\nsenses, and passions of the soul of him that has lost himself be\nout of his own power to dispose for his advantage, and will be only\nin the hand and under the management of the revenging justice of\nGod. And herein will that state of the damned be worse than it is\nnow with the fallen angels; for though the fallen angels are now\ncast down to hell, in chains, and sure in themselves at last to\npartake of eternal judgment, yet at present they are not so bound\nup as the damned sinner shall be; for notwithstanding their chains,\nand their being the prisoners of the horrible hells, yet they have\na kind of liberty granted them, and that liberty will last till the\ntime appointed, to tempt, to plot, to contrive, and invent their\nmischiefs, against the Son of God and His (Job 1:7; 2:2). And though\nSatan knows that this at last will work for his future condemnation,\nyet at present he finds it some diversion to his trembling mind,\nand obtains, through his so busily employing of himself against the\ngospel and its professors, something to sport and refresh himself\nwithal; yea, and doth procure to himself some small crumbs of minutes\nof forgetfulness of his own present misery and of the judgment that\nis yet to pass upon him; but this privilege will then be denied to\nhim that has lost himself; there will be no cause nor matter for\ndiversion; there it will; as in the old world, rain day and night\nfire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven upon them (Rev\n14:10,11). Misery is fixed; the worm will be always sucking at and\ngnawing of, their soul; also, as I have said afore, all the powers,\nsenses, and passions of the soul will throw their darts inwards,\nyea, of God will be made to do it, to the utter, unspeakable, and\nendless torment of him that has lost himself. Again,\n\nThey cannot sit down by the loss.\n\n(3.) All therefore that he that has lost himself can do is, to\nsit down by the loss. Do I say, he can do this?--oh! if that could\nbe, it would be to such, a mercy; I must therefore here correct\nmyself--That they cannot do; for to sit down by the loss implies\na patient enduring; but there will be no such grace as patience in\nhell with him that has lost himself; here, will also want a bottom\nfor patience--to wit, the providence of God; for a providence of God,\nthough never so dismal, is a bottom for patience to the afflicted;\nbut men go not to hell by providence, but by sin. Now sin being\nthe cause, other effects are wrought; for they that go to hell,\nand that there miserably perish, shall never say it was God by His\nprovidence that brought them hither, and so shall not have that on\nwhich to lean and stay themselves.\n\nThey shall justify God, and lay the fault upon themselves concluding\nthat it was sin with which their souls did voluntarily work--yea,\nwhich their souls did suck in as sweet milk--that is the cause of\nthis their torment. Now this will work after another manner, and\nwill produce quite another thing than patience, or a patient enduring\nof their torment; for their seeing that they are not only lost, but\nhave lost themselves, and that against the ordinary means that of\nGod was provided to prevent that loss; yea, when they shall see\nwhat a base thing sin is, how that it is the very worst of things,\nand that which also makes all things bad, and that for the sake\nof that they have lost themselves, this will make them fret, and,\ngnash, and gnaw with anger themselves; this will set all the passions\nof the soul, save love, for that I think will be stark dead, all\nin a rage, all in a self-tormenting fire. You know there is nothing\nthat will sooner put a man into and manage his rage against himself\nthan will a full conviction in his conscience that by his own only\nfolly, and that against caution, and counsel, and reason to the\ncontrary, he hath brought himself into extreme distress and misery.\nBut how much more will it make this fire burn when he shall see all\nthis is come upon him for a toy, for a bauble, for a thing that is\nworse than nothing!\n\nWhy, this is the case with him that has lost himself; and therefore\nhe cannot sit down by the loss, cannot be at quiet under the sense\nof his loss. For sharply and wonderful piercingly, considering the\nloss of himself, and the cause thereof, which is sin, he falls to\na tearing of himself in pieces with thoughts as hot as the coals of\njuniper, and to a gnashing upon himself for this; also the Divine\nwisdom and justice of God helpeth on this self-tormentor in his\nself-tormenting work, by holding the justice of the law against\nwhich he has offended, and the unreasonableness of such offence,\ncontinually before his face. For if, to an enlightened man who\nis in the door of hope, the sight of all past evil practices will\nwork in him 'vexation of spirit,' to see what fools we were, (Eccl\n1:14); how can it but be to them that go to hell a vexation only\nto understand the report, the report that God did give them of sin,\nof His grace, of hell, and of everlasting damnation, and yet that\nthey should be such fools to go thither? (Isa 28:19). But to pursue\nthis head no further, I will come now to the next thing.\n\n[The loss of the soul a double loss.]\n\nSecondly, As the loss of the soul is, in the nature of the loss, a\nloss peculiar to itself, so the loss of the soul is a double loss;\nit is, I say, a loss that is double, lost both by man and God; man\nhas lost it, and by that loss has lost himself; God has lost it,\nand by that loss it is cast away. And to make this a little plainer\nunto you, I suppose it will be readily granted that men do lose\ntheir souls. But now how doth God lose it? The soul is God's as\nwell as man's--man's because it is of themselves; God's because it\nis His creature; God has made us this soul, and hence it is that\nall souls are His (Jer 38:16; Eze 18:4).\n\nNow the loss of the soul doth not only stand in the sin of man, but\nin the justice of God. Hence He says, 'What is a man advantaged, if\nhe gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away' (Luke\n9:25). Now this last clause, 'or be cast away,' is not spoken\nto show what he that has lost his soul has done, though a man may\nalso be said to cast away himself; but to show what God will do to\nthose that have lost themselves, what God will add to that loss.\nGod will not cast away a righteous man, but God will cast away the\nwicked, such a wicked one as by the text is under our consideration\n(Job 8:20; Matt 13:50). This, then, is that which God will add, and\nso make the sad state of them that lose themselves double. The man\nfor sin has lost himself, and God by justice will cast him away;\naccording to that of Abigail to David, 'The soul of my lord,' said\nshe, 'shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God;\nand the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of\nthe middle of a sling' (1 Sam 25:29). So that here is God's hand as\nwell as man's; man's by sin, and God's by justice. God shall cast\nthem away; wherefore in the text above mentioned he doth not say,\nor cast away himself, as meaning the act of the man whose soul is\nlost; but, 'or be cast away' (Luke 9:25). Supposing a second person\njoining with the man himself in the making up of the greatness of\nthe loss of the soul--to wit, God himself, who will verily cast\naway that man who has lost himself. God shall cast them away--that\nis, exclude them His favour or protection, and deliver them up to\nthe due reward of their deed! He shall shut them out of His heaven,\nand deliver them up to their hell; He shall deny them a share in\nhis glory, and shall leave them to their own shame; He shall deny\nthem a portion in His peace, and shall deliver them up to the torments\nof the devil, and of their own guilty consciences; He shall cast\nthem out of His affection, pity, and compassion, and shall leave\nthem to the flames that they by sin have kindled, and to the worm,\nor biting cockatrice, that they themselves have hatched, nursed, and\nnourished in their bosoms. And this will make their loss double,\nand so a loss that is loss to the uttermost, a loss above every\nloss. A man may cast away himself and not be cast away of God; a\nman may be cast away by others, and not be cast away of God; yea,\nwhat way soever a man be cast away, if he be not cast away for sin,\nhe is safe, he is yet found, and in a sure hand. But for a man so\nto lose himself as by that loss to provoke God to cast him away\ntoo, this is fearful.\n\nThe casting away, then, mentioned in Luke, is a casting away by\nthe hand of God, by the revenging hand of God; and it supposeth two\nthings--1. God's abhorrence of such a soul. 2. God's just repaying\nof it for its wickedness by way of retaliation.\n\n1. It supposeth God's abhorrence of the soul. That which we\nabhor, that we cast from us, and put out of our favour and respect\nwith disdain, and a loathing thereof. So when God teacheth Israel\nto loathe and abhor their idols, He bids them 'to cast away their\nvery covering as a stinking and menstruous cloth, and to say unto\nit, 'Get you hence' (Isa 30:22), 'He shall gather the good into\nvessels, and cast the bad away' (Matt 13:48; 25:41). Cast them out\nof My presence. Well, but whither must they go? The answer is, Into\nhell, into utter darkness, into the fire that is prepared for the\ndevil and his angels. Wherefore, to be cast away, to be cast away\nof God, it showeth unto us God's abhorrence of such souls, and how\nvile and loathsome such are in His divine eyes. And the similitude\nof Abigail's sling, mentioned before, doth yet further show us the\ngreatness of this abhorrence--'The souls of thine enemies,' said\nshe, 'God shall sling out as out of the middle of a sling.' When\na man casts a stone away with a sling, then he casteth it furthest\nfrom him, for with a sling he can cast a stone further than by\nhis hand. 'And he,' saith the text, 'shall cast them away as with\na sling.' But that is not all, neither: for it is not only said\nthat He shall sling away their souls, but that He shall sling them\naway as 'out of the middle of a sling.' When a stone is placed, to\nbe cast away, in the middle of a sling, then doth the slinger cast\nit furthest of all. Now God is the slinger, abhorrence is His\nsling, the lost soul is the stone, and it is placed in the very\nmiddle of the sling, and is from thence cast away. And, therefore,\nit is said again, that 'such shall go into utter, outer darkness'--that\nis, furthest off of all. This therefore shows us how God abhors\nthat man that for sin has lost himself. And well he may; for such\nan one has not only polluted and defiled himself with sin; and that\nis the most offensive thing to God under heaven; but he has abused\nthe handiwork of God. The soul, as I said before, is the workmans\nhip of God, yea, the top-piece that He hath made in all the visible\nworld; also He made it for to be delighted with it, and to admit\nit into communion with Himself. Now for man thus to abuse God; for\na man to take his soul, which is God's, and prostrate it to sin,\nto the world, to the devil, and every beastly lust, flat against\nthe command of God, and notwithstanding the soul was also His; this\nis horrible, and calls aloud upon that God whose soul this is to\nabhor, and to show, by all means possible, His abhorrence of such\nan one.\n\n2. As this casting of them away supposeth God's abhorrence of them,\nso it supposeth God's just repaying of them for their wickedness\nby way of retaliation.\n\nGod all the time of the exercise of His long-suffering and forbearance\ntowards them, did call upon them, wait upon them, send after them\nby His messengers, to turn them from their evil ways; but they\ndespised at, they mocked, the messengers of the Lord. Also they\nshut their eyes, and would not see; they stopped their ears, and\nwould not understand; and did harden themselves against the beseeching\nof their God. Yea, all that day long He did stretch out His hand\ntowards them, but they chose to be a rebellious and gainsaying\npeople; yea, they said unto God, 'Depart from us;' and 'what is\nthe Almighty' that we should pray unto him? (Hosea 6:2; Rev 16:21;\nJob 21:14,15; Mal 3:14).\n\nAnd of all these things God takes notice, writes them down, and seals\nthem up for the time to come, and will bring them out and spread\nthem before them, saying, I have called, and you have refused; I\nhave stretched out Mine hand, and no man regarded; I have exercised\npatience, and gentleness, and long-suffering towards you, and in\nall that time you despised Me, and cast Me behind your back; and\nnow the time, and the exercise of My patience, when I waited upon\nyou, and suffered your manners, and did bear your contempts and\nscorns, is at an end; wherefore I will now arise, and come forth\nto the judgment that I have appointed.\n\nBut, Lord, saith the sinner, we turn now.\n\nBut now; saith God, turning is out of season; the day of My patience\nis ended.\n\nBut, Lord, says the sinner, behold our cries.\n\nBut you did not, says God, behold nor regard My cries.\n\nBut, Lord, saith the sinner, let our beseeching find place in Thy\ncompassions.\n\nBut, saith God, I also beseeched, and I was not heard.\n\nBut Lord, says the sinner, our sins lie hard upon us.\n\nBut I offered you pardon when time was, says God, and then you did\nutterly reject it.\n\nBut, Lord, says the sinner, let us therefore have it now.\n\nBut now the door is shut, saith God.\n\nAnd what then? Why, then, by way of retaliation, God will serve\nthem as they have served Him; and so the wind-up of the whole will\nbe this--they shall have like for like. Time was when they would\nhave none of Him, and now will God have none of them. Time was when\nthey cast God behind their back, and now He will cast away their\nsoul. Time was when they would not heed His calls, and now He will\nnot heed their cries. Time was when they abhorred Him, and now\nHis soul also abhorreth them (Zech 11:8). This is now by way of\nretaliation--like for like, scorn for scorn, repulse for repulse,\ncontempt for contempt; according to that which is written, 'Therefore\nit is come to pass, that as He cried, and they would not hear; so\nthey cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord' (Zech 7:13). And\nthus I have also showed you that the loss of the soul is double--lost\nby man, lost by God.\n\nBut oh! who thinks of this? who, I say, that now makes light\nof God, of His Word, His servants, and ways, once dreams of such\nretaliation, though God to warn them hath even, in the day of His\npatience, threatened to do it in the day of His wrath, saying,\n'Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My\nhand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel,\nand would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity;\nI will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as\ndesolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress\nand anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I\nwill not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find\nMe' (Prov 1:24-28). I will do unto them as they have done unto Me;\nand what unrighteousness is in all this? But,\n\n[The loss of the soul most fearful.]\n\nThirdly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, and\na loss double, so, in the third place, it is a loss most fearful,\nbecause it is a loss attended with the most heavy curse of God.\nThis is manifest both in the giving of the rule of life, and also\nin, and at the time of execution for, the breach of that rule. It\nis manifest at the giving of the rule--'Cursed be he that confirmeth\nnot all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall\nsay, Amen' (Deu 27:26; Gal 3:10). It is also manifest that it\nshall be so at the time of execution--'Depart from Me, ye cursed,\ninto everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt\n25:41). What this curse is, none do know so well as God that giveth\nit, and as the fallen angels, and the spirits of damned men that\nare now shut up in the prison of hell, and bear it. But certainly\nit is the chief and highest of all kind of curses. To be cursed\nin the basket and in the store, in the womb and in the barn, in my\ncattle and in my body, are but flea-bitings to this, though they\nare also insupportable in themselves; only in general it may be\ndescribed thus. But to touch upon this curse, it lieth in deprivation\nof all good, and in a being swallowed up of all the most fearful\nmiseries that a holy, and just, and eternal God can righteously\ninflict, or lay upon the soul of a sinful man. Now let Reason here\ncome in and exercise itself in the most exquisite manner; yea, let\nhim now count up all, and all manner of curses and torments that a\nreasonable and an immortal soul is, or can be made capable of, and\nable to suffer under, and when he has done, he shall come infinitely\nshort of this great anathema, this master curse which God has\nreserved amongst His treasuries, and intends to bring out in that\nday of battle and war, which He purposeth to make upon damned souls\nin that day.16 And this God will do, partly as a retaliation, as\nthe former, and partly by way of revenge. 1. By way of retaliation:\n'As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted\nnot in blessing, so let it be far from him.' Again, 'As he clothed\nhimself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into\nhis bowels like water, and like oil into his bones; let it be unto\nhim as a garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he\nis girded continually' (Psa 109:17-19). 'Let this,' saith Christ,\n17 'be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord' (vs. 20 etc).\n2. As this curse comes by way of retaliation, so it cometh by way\nof revenge. God will right the wrongs that sinners have done Him,\nwill repay vengeance for the despite and reproach wherewith they\nhave affronted Him, and will revenge the quarrel of His covenant.\nAnd the beginning of revenges are terrible, (Deu 31:41,42); what,\nthen, will the whole execution be, when He shall come in flaming\nfire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not\nthe gospel of Jesus Christ? And, therefore, this curse is executed\nin wrath, in jealousy, in anger, in fury; yea, the heavens and the\nearth shall be burned up with the fire of that jealousy in which the\ngreat God will come, when He cometh to curse the souls of sinners,\nand when He cometh to defy the ungodly, (2 Thess 1: 7-9).\n\nIt is little thought of, but the manner of the coming of God to\njudge the world declares what the souls of impenitent sinners must\nlook for then. It is common among men, when we see the form of\na man's countenance changed, when we see fire sparkle out of his\neyes, when we read rage and fury in every cast of his face, even\nbefore he says aught, or doth aught either, to conclude that some\nfearful thing is now to be done (Dan 3:19,23). Why, it is said of\nChrist when He cometh to judgment, that the heavens and the earth\nfly away, as not being able to endure His looks, (Rev 20:11,12);\nthat His angels are clad in flaming fire, and that the elements melt\nwith fervent heat; and all this is, that the perdition of ungodly\nmen might be completed, 'from the presence of the Lord, in the\nheat of His anger, from the glory of His power' (2 Pet 3:7; 2 Thess\n1:8,9). Therefore, God will now be revenged, and so ease Himself\nof His enemies, when He shall cause curses like millstones to fall\nas thick as hail on 'the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on\nstill in his trespasses' (Psa 68:2l). But,\n\n[The loss of the soul a loss everlasting.]\n\nFourthly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, a\nloss double, and a loss most fearful, so it is a loss everlasting.\nThe soul that is lost is never to be found again, never to be\nrecovered again, never to be redeemed again, its banishment from\nGod is everlasting; the fire in which it burns, and by which it must\nbe tormented, is a fire that is ever, everlasting fire, everlasting\nburnings; the adder, the snake, the stinging worm, dieth not, nor\nis the fire quenched; and this is a fearful thing. A man may endure\nto touch the fire with a short touch, and away; but to dwell with\neverlasting burnings, that is fearful. Oh, then, what is dwelling\nwith them, and in them, for ever and ever! We use to say, light\nburdens far carried are heavy; what, then, will it be to bear\nthat burden, that guilt, that the law and the justice and wrath of\nGod will lay upon the lost soul for ever? Now tell the stars, now\ntell the drops of the sea, and now tell the blades of grass that\nare spread upon the face of all the earth, if thou canst: and yet\nsooner mayest thou do this than count the thousands of millions of\nthousands of years that a damned soul shall lie in hell. Suppose\nevery star that is now in the firmament was to burn, by himself,\none by one, a thousand years apiece, would it not be a long while\nbefore the last of them was burned out? and yet sooner might that\nbe done than the damned soul be at the end of punishment.\n\nThere are three things couched under this last head that will fill\nup the punishment of a sinner. 1. The first is, that it is everlasting.\n2. The second is, that, therefore, it will be impossible for the\nsouls in hell ever to say, Now we are got half way through our\nsorrows. 3. The third is, and yet every moment they shall endure\neternal punishment.\n\n1. The first I have touched upon already, and, therefore, shall not\nenlarge; only I would ask the wanton or unthinking sinner, whether\ntwenty, or thirty, or forty years of the deceitful pleasures of sin\nis so rich a prize, as that a man may well venture the ruin, that\neverlasting burnings will make upon his soul for the obtaining\nof them, and living a few moments in them. Sinner, consider this\nbefore I go any further, or before thou readest one line more. If\nthou hast a soul, it concerns thee; if there be a hell, it concerns\nthee; and if there be a God that can and will punish the soul for\nsin everlastingly in hell, it concerns thee; because,\n\n2. In the second place, it will be impossible for the damned soul\never to say, I am now got half way through my sorrows. That which\nhas no end, has no middle. Sinner, make a round circle, or ring,\nupon the ground, of what bigness thou wilt; this done, go thy way\nupon that circle, or ring, until thou comest to the end thereof;\nbut that, sayest thou, I can never do; because it has no end. I\nanswer, but thou mayest as soon do that as wade half way through\nthe lake of fire that is prepared for impenitent souls. Sinner,\nwhat wilt thou take to make a mountain of sand that will reach as\nhigh as the sun is at noon? I know that thou wilt not be engaged\nin such a work; because it is impossible thou shouldst ever perform\nit. But I dare say the task is greater when the sinner has let\nout himself to sin for a servant; because the wages is everlasting\nburnings. I know thou mayest perform thy service; but the wages,\nthe judgment, the punishment is so endless, that thou, when thou\nhast been in it more millions of years than can be numbered, art\nnot, nor never yet shalt be, able to say, I am half way through\nit. And yet,\n\n3. That soul shall partake every moment of that punishment that\nis eternal. 'Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them\nin like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going\nafter strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the\nvengeance of eternal fire' (Jude 7).\n\n(1.) They shall endure eternal punishment in the nature of punishment.\nThere is no punishment here wherewith one man can chastise another\nthat can deserve a greater title than that of transient, or\ntemporary punishment; but the punishment there is eternal, even in\nevery stripe that is given, and in every moment that it grappleth\nwith the soul; even every twinge, every gripe, and every stroke\nthat justice inflicteth, leaveth anguish that, of their condition\naccording as will best stand with in the nature of punishment, is\neternal behind it. It is eternal, because it is from God, and lasts\nfor ever and ever. The justice that inflicts it has not a beginning,\nand it is this justice in the operations of it that is always\ndealing with the soul.\n\n(2.) All the workings of the soul under this punishment are such\nas cause it, in its sufferings, to endure that which is eternal. It\ncan have no thought of the end of punishment, but it is presently\nrecalled by the decreed gulf that bindeth them under perpetual\npunishment. The great fixed gulf, they know, will keep them in their\npresent place, and not suffer them to go to heaven (Luke 16:26).\nAnd now there is no other place but heaven or hell to be in; for\nthen the earth, and the works that are therein, will be burned up.\nRead the text, 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in\nthe night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,\nand the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also\nand all the works that are therein, shall be burned up' (2 Peter\n3:10). If, then, there will be no third place, it standeth in their\nminds, as well as in God's decree, that their punishments shall be\neternal; so, then, sorrows, anguish, tribulation, grief, woe, and\npain, will, in every moment of its abiding upon the soul, not only\nflow from thoughts of what has been, and what is, but also from\nwhat will be, and that for ever and ever. Thus every thought that\nis truly grounded in the cause and nature of their state will roll,\ntoss, and tumble them up and down in the cogitations and fearful\napprehensions of the lastingness of their damnation. For, I say,\ntheir minds, their memories, their understandings, and consciences,\nwill all, and always, be swallowed up with 'for ever;' yea, they\nthemselves will, by the means of these things, be their own tormentors\nfor ever.\n\n(3.) There will not be spaces, as days, months, years, and the like,\nas now; though we make bold so to speak, the better to present our\nthoughts to each other's capacities; for then there shall be time\nno longer; also, day and night shall then be come to an end. 'He\nhath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night\ncome to an end' (Job 26:10). Until the end of light with darkness.\nNow when time, and day, and night, are come to an end, then there\ncomes in eternity, as there was before the day, and night, or time,\nwas created; and when this is come, punishment nor glory must none\nof them be measured by days, or months, or years, but by eternity\nitself. Nor shall those concerned either in misery or glory reckon\nof their now new state, as they need to reckon of things in this\nworld; but they shall be suited in their capacities, in their\nunderstandings and apprehensions, to judge and count of their\ncondition according as will best stand with their state in eternity.18\n\nCould we but come to an understanding of things done in heaven\nand hell, as we understand how things are done in this world, we\nshould be strangely amazed to see how the change of places and of\nconditions has made a change in the understandings of men, and in\nthe manner of their enjoyment of things. But this we must let alone\ntill the next world, and until our launching into it; and then,\nwhether we be of the right or left hand ones, we shall well know\nthe state and condition of both kingdoms. In the meantime, let\nus addict ourselves to the belief of the Scriptures of truth, for\ntherein is revealed the way to that of eternal life, and how to\nescape the damnation of the soul (Matt 25:33). But thus much for\nthe loss of the soul, unto which let me add, for a conclusion,\nthese verses following:--\n\n\n    These cry alas! But all in vain;\n        They stick fast in the mire;\n    They would be rid of present pain,\n        Yet set themselves on fire.\n\n    Darkness is their perplexity,\n        Yet do they hate the light;\n    They always see their misery,\n        Yet are themselves, all night.\n\n    They are all dead, yet live they do,\n        Yet neither live nor die;\n    They die to weal, and live to woe--19\n        This is their misery.\n\n    Now will confusion so possess,\n        These monuments of ire,\n    And so confound them with distress,\n        And trouble their desire,\n\n    That what to think, or what to do,\n        Or where to lay their head,\n    They know not: 'tis the damned's woe,\n        To live, and yet be dead.\n\n    These castaways would fain have life,\n        But know they never shall;\n    They would forget their dreadful plight.\n        But that sticks fast'st of all.\n\n    God, Christ, and heav'n, they know are best,\n        Yet dare not on them think;\n    They know the saints enjoy their rest,\n        While they their tears do drink.\n\n\n[OF THE CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF THE SOUL.]\n\nFOURTH, And now I am come to the fourth thing--that is, to show\nyou the cause of the loss of the soul. That men have souls, that\nsouls are great things, that souls may be lost, this I have showed\nyou already; wherefore I now proceed to show you the cause of this\nloss. The cause is laid down in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, in\nthese words--'Behold, all souls,' says God, 'are Mine; as the soul\nof the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that\nsinneth, it shall die' (5:4).\n\n[Sin the cause of the loss of his soul.]\n\nFirst, It is sin, then, or sinning against God, that is the cause\nof dying, or damning in hell fire, for that must be meant by dying;\notherwise, to die, according to our ordinary acceptation of the\nnotion, the soul is not capable of, it being indeed immortal, as\nhath been afore asserted. So, then, the soul that sinneth--that is,\nand persevering in the same--that soul shall die, be cast away, or\ndamned; yea, to ascertain us of the undoubted truth of this, the\nHoly Ghost doth repeat it again, and that in this very chapter,\nsaying, 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die' (5:20). Now, the soul\nmay divers ways be said to sin against God; as,\n\n1. In its receiving of sin into its bosom, and in its retaining and\nentertaining of it there. Sin must first be received before it can\nact in, or be acted by, the soul. Our first parents first received\nit in the suggestion or motion, and then acted it. Now it is not\nhere to be disputed when sin was received by the soul, so much\nas whether ever the soul received sin; for if the soul has indeed\nreceived sin into itself, then it has sinned, and by doing so,\nhas made itself an object of the wrath of God, and a fire brand of\nhell. I say, I will not here dispute when sin was received by the\nsoul, but it is apparent enough that it received it betimes, because\nin old time every child that was brought unto the Lord was to be\nredeemed, and that at a month old, (Exo 13:13; 34:20; Num 18:15,\n16); which, to be sure, was very early, and implied that then,\neven then, the soul in God's judgment stood before Him as defiled\nand polluted with sin. But although I said I will not dispute at\nwhat time the soul may be said to receive sin, yet it is evident\nthat it was precedent to the redemption made mention of just before,\nand so before the person redeemed had attained the age of a month.\nAnd that God might, in the language of Moses, give us to see cause\nof the necessity of this redemption, he first distinguisheth, and\nsaith, 'The firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the\nfirstling of a goat,' did not need this redemption, for they were\nclean, or holy. But the firstborn of men, who was taken in lieu\nof the rest of the children, and the 'firstling of unclean beasts,\nthou shalt surely redeem,' saith He. But why was the firstborn of\nmen coupled with unclean beasts, but because they are both unclean?\nThe beast was unclean by God's ordination, but the other was unclean\nby sin. Now, then, it will be demanded, how a soul, before it was\na month old, could receive sin to the making of itself unclean?\nI answer, There are two ways of receiving, one active, the other\npassive; this last is the way by which the soul at first receiveth\nsin, and by so receiving, becometh culpable, because polluted and\ndefiled by it. And this passive way of receiving is often mentioned\nin Scripture. Thus the pans received the ashes, (Exo 27:3); thus\nthe molten sea received three thousand baths, (2 Chron 4:5); thus\nthe ground receiveth the seed, (Matt 13:20-23); and this receiving\nis like that of the wool which receiveth the dye, either black,\nwhite, or red; and as the fire that receiveth the water till it\nbe all quenched therewith: or as the water receiveth such stinking\nand poisonous matter into it, as for the sake of it, it is poured\nout and spilt upon the ground. But whence should the soul thus\nreceive sin? I answer, from the body, while it is in the mother's\nbelly; the body comes from polluted man, and therefore is polluted\n(Psa 51: 5). 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' (Job\n14:4). The soul comes from God's hand, and therefore as so is pure\nand clean: but being put into this body, it is tainted, polluted,\nand defiled with the taint, stench, and filth of sin; nor can this\nstench and filth be by man purged out, when once from the body got\ninto the soul; sooner may the blackamoor change his skin, or the\nleopard his spots, than the soul, were it willing, might purge\nitself of this pollution. 'Though thou wash thee with nitre, and\ntake thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith\nthe Lord God' (Jer 2:22).\n\n2. But as I said, the soul has not only received sin, but retains\nit, holds it, and shows no kind of resistance. It is enough that\nthe soul is polluted and defiled, for that is sufficient to provoke\nGod to cast it away; for which of you would take a cloth annoyed\nwith stinking, ulcerous sores, to wipe your mouth withal, or to\nthrust it into your bosoms? and the soul is polluted with far worse\npollution than any such can be. But this is not all; it retains\nsin as the wool retains the dye, or as the infected water receives\nthe stench or poisonous scent; I say, it retains it willingly;\nfor all the power of the soul is not only captivated by a seizure\nof sin upon the soul, but it willingly, heartily, unanimously,\nuniversally falleth in with the natural filth and pollution that\nis in sin, to the estranging of itself from God, and an obtaining\nof an intimacy and compliance with the devil.\n\nNow this being the state and condition of the soul from the belly,20\nyea, from before it sees the light of this world, what can be\nconcluded but that God is offended with it? For how can it otherwise\nbe, since there is holiness and justice in God? Hence those that\nare born of a woman, whose original is by carnal conception with\nman, are said to be as serpents so soon as born. 'The wicked (and\nall at first are so) go astray as soon as they be born, speakings\nlies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like\nthe deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear' (Psa 58:3,4). They go astray\nfrom the belly; but that they would not do, if aught of the powers\nof their soul were unpolluted. 'But their poison is like the poison\nof a serpent.' Their poison--what is that? Their pollution, their\noriginal pollution, that is as the poison of a serpent--to wit,\nnot only deadly, for so poison is, but also hereditary. It comes\nfrom the old one, from the sire and dam; yea, it is also now\nbecome connatural to and with them, and is of the same date with\nthe child as born into the world. The serpent has not her poison,\nin the original of it, either from imitation or from other infective\nthings abroad, though it may by such things be helped forward and\nincreased; but she brings it with her in her bowels, in her nature,\nand it is to her as suitable to her present condition as it is\nthat which is most sweet and wholesome to other of the creatures.\nSo, then, every soul comes into the world as poisoned with sin; nay,\nas such which have poison connatural to them; for it has not only\nreceived sin as the wool has received the dye, but it retaineth it.\nThe infection is got so deep, it has taken the black so effectually,\nthat the tint, the very fire of hell, can never purge the soul\ntherefrom.\n\nAnd that the soul has received this infection thus early, and that\nit retains it so surely, is not only signified by children coming\ninto the world besmeared in their mother's blood, and by the\nfirstborn's being redeemed at a month old, but also by the first\ninclinations and actions of children when they are so come into\nthe world (Exo 26). Who sees not that lying, pride, disobedience to\nparents, and hypocrisy, do put forth themselves in children before\nthey know that they do either well or ill in so doing, or before\nthey are capable to learn either of these arts by imitation, or\nseeing understandingly the same things done first by others? He\nthat sees not that they do it naturally from a principle, from an\ninherent principle, is either blinded, and has retained his darkness\nby the same sin as they, or has suffered himself to be swayed by\na delusion from him who at first infused this spawn of sin into\nman's nature.\n\nNor doth the averseness of children to morality a little demonstrate\nwhat has been said; for as it would make a serpent sick, should one\ngive it a strong antidote against his poison, so then are children,\nand never more than then, disturbed in their minds, when a strict\nhand and a stiff rein by moral discipline is maintained over and\nupon them. True, sometimes restraining grace corrects them, but\nthat is not of themselves; but more oft hypocrisy is the great and\nfirst moving wheel to all their seeming compliances with admonitions,\nwhich indulgent parents are apt to overlook, yea, and sometimes,\nthrough unadvisedness, to count for the principles of grace. I speak\nnow of that which comes before conversion. But as I said before, I\nwould not now dispute, only I have thought good thus to urge these\nthings to make my assertion manifest, and to show what is the cause\nof the damnation of the soul.\n\n3. Again; as the soul receives sin, and retains it, so it also\ndoth entertain it--that is, countenance, smile upon, and like its\ncomplexion and nature well. A man may detain--that is, hold fast--a\nthing which yet he doth not regard; but when he entertains, then\nhe countenances, likes, and delights in the company. Sin, then,\nis first received by the soul, as has been afore explained, and by\nthat reception is polluted and defiled. This makes it hateful in\nthe eyes of justice: it is now polluted. Then, secondly, this sin\nis not only received, but retained--that is, it sticks so fast,\nabides so fixedly in the soul, that it cannot be gotten out; this\nis the cause of the continuation of abhorrence; for if God abhors\nbecause there is a being of sin there, it must needs be that he\nshould continue to abhor, since sin continues to have a being there.\nBut then, in the third place, sin is not only received, detained,\nbut entertained by the now defiled and polluted soul; wherefore\nthis must needs be a cause of the continuance of anger, and that\nwith aggravation. When I say, entertained, I do not mean as men\nentertain their enemies, with small and great shot, 21 but as they\nentertain those whom they like, and those that are got into their\naffections. 22 And therefore the wrath of God must certainly be\nlet out upon the soul, to the everlasting damnation of it.\n\nNow that the soul doth thus entertain sin, is manifest by these\nseveral particulars--\n\n(1.) It hath admitted it with complacence and delight into every\nchamber of the soul; I mean, it has been delightfully admitted to\nan entertainment by all the powers or faculties of the soul. The\nsoul hath chosen it rather than God: it also, at God's command,\nrefuseth to let it go; yea, it chooseth that doctrine, and loveth\nit best, since it must have a doctrine, that has most of sin and\nbaseness in it (Isa 65:12; 66:3). They 'say to the seers, See not;\nand to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto\nus smooth things, prophesy deceits' (Isa 30:10). These are signs\nthat the soul with liking hath entertained sin; and if there be at\nany time, as indeed there is, a warrant issued out from the mouth\nof God to apprehend, to condemn, and mortify sin, why then,\n\n(2.) These shifts the souls of sinners do presently make for the\nsaving of sin from those things that by the Word men are commanded\nto do unto it--\n\n(a) They will, if possible, hide it, and not suffer it to be\ndiscovered. 'He that hideth his sins23 shall not prosper' (Prov\n28:13). And again, they hide it, and refuse to let it go (Job\n20:12,13). This is an evident sign that the soul has a favour for\nsin, and that with liking it, entertains it.\n\n(b) As it will hide it, so it will excuse it, and plead that this\nand that piece of wickedness is no such evil thing; men need not\nbe so nice, and make such a pother24 about it, calling those that\ncry out so hotly against it, men more nice than wise. Hence the\nprophets of old used to be called madmen, and the world would reply\nagainst their doctrine, Wherein have we been so wearisome to God,\nand what have we spoken so much against Him? (Mal 1:6,7; 3:8,13).\n\n(c) As the soul will do this, so to save sin, it will cover it with\nnames of virtue, either moral or civil; and of this God greatly\ncomplains, yea, breaks into anger for this, saying, 'Woe to them\nthat call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,\nand light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet, and sweet for\nbitter' (Isa 5:20)!\n\n(d) If convictions and discovery of sin be so strong and so plain,\nthat the soul cannot deny but that it is sin, and that God is\noffended therewith; then it will give flattering promises to God\nthat it will indeed put it away; but yet it will prefix a time that\nshall be long first, if it also then at all performs it, saying,\nYet a little sleep, yet a little slumber, yet a little folding of\nsin in mine arms, till I am older, till I am richer, till I have\nhad more of the sweetness and the delights of sin. Thus, 'their\nsoul delighteth in their abominations' (Isa 66:3).\n\n(e) If God yet pursues, and will see whether this promise of putting\nsin out of doors shall be fulfilled by the soul, why then, it will\nbe partial in God's law; it will put away some, and keep some; put\naway the grossest, and keep the finest; put away those that can\nbest be spared, and keep the most profitable for a help at a pinch\n(Mal 2:9).\n\n(f) Yes, if all sin must be abandoned, or the soul shall have no\nrest, why then, the soul and sin will part (with such a parting\nas it is), even as Phaltiel parted with David's wife, with an ill\nwill and a sorrowful mind; or as Orpha left her mother, with a kiss\n(2 Sam 3:16; Ruth 1:14).\n\n(g) And if at any time they can, or shall, meet with each other\nagain, and nobody never the wiser, O, what courting will be betwixt\nsin and the soul? And this is called doing of things in the dark\n(Eze 8:12).\n\nBy all these, and many more things that might be instanced, it is\nmanifest that sin has a friendly entertainment by the soul, and\nthat therefore the soul is guilty of damnation; for what do all\nthese things argue, but that God, His Word, His ways, and graces,\nare out of favour with the soul, and that sin and Satan are its\nonly pleasant companions? But,\n\n[How sin, by the help of the soul, destroys it.]\n\nSecondly, That I may yet show you what a great thing sin is with\nthe soul that is to be damned, I will show how sin, by the help of\nthe soul, is managed, from the motion of sin, even till it comes\nto the very act; for sin cannot come to an act without the help of\nthe soul. The body doth little here, as I shall further show you\nanon.\n\nThere is then a motion of sin presented to the soul (and whether\npresented by sin itself or the devil, we will not at this time\ndispute); motions of sin, and motions to sin there are, and always\nthe end of the motions of sin are to prevail with the soul to help\nthat motion into an act. But, I say, there is a motion to sin moved\nto the soul; or, as James calls it, a conception. Now behold how\nthe soul deals with this motion in order to the finishing of sin,\nthat death might follow (Rom 7:5).\n\n1. This motion is taken notice of by the soul, but is not resisted\nnor striven against, only the soul lifts up its eyes upon it, and\nsees that there is present a motion to sin, a motion of sin presented\nto the soul, that the soul might midwife it from the conception\ninto the world.\n\n2. Well, notice being taken that a motion to sin is present, what\nfollows but that the fancy or imagination of the soul taketh it home\nto it, and doth not only look upon it and behold it more narrowly,\nbut begins to trick and trim up the sin to the pleasing of itself\nand of all the powers of the soul. That this is true, is evident,\nbecause God findeth fault with the imagination as with that which\nlendeth to sin the first hand, and that giveth to it the first\nlift towards its being helped forward to act. 'And God saw that\nthe wickedness of man was great in the earth' (Gen 6:5,12,13). That\nis, many abominable actions were done; for all flesh had corrupted\nGod's way upon the earth. But how came this to be so? Why,\nevery imagination of the thoughts, or of the motions that were in\nthe heart to sin, was evil, only evil, and that continuously. The\nimagination of the thoughts was evil--that is, such as tended not\nto deaden or stifle, but such as tended to animate and forward\nthe motions or thoughts of sin into action. Every imagination of\nthe thoughts--that which is here called a thought, by Paul to the\nRomans, called a motion. Now the imagination should, and would,\nhad it been on God's side, so have conceived of this motion of and\nto sins, all to have presented it in all its features so ugly, so\nill favoured, and so unreasonable a thing to the soul, that the\nsoul should forthwith have let down the sluice, and pulled up the\ndrawbridge, put a stop, with greatest defiance, to the motion now\nunder consideration; but the imagination being defiled, it presently,\nat the very first view or noise of the motion of sin, so acted\nas to forward the bringing the said motion or thought into act.\nSo, then, the thought of sin, or motion thereto, is first of all\nentertained by the imagination and fancy of the soul, and thence\nconveyed to the rest of the powers of the soul to be condemned, if\nthe imagination be good; but to be helped forward to the act, if\nthe imagination be evil. And thus the evil imagination helpeth the\nmotion of and to sin towards the act, even by dressing of it up\nin that guise and habit that may best delude the understanding,\njudgment, and conscience; and that is done after this manner: suppose\na motion of sin to commit fornication, to swear, to steal, to act\ncovetously, or the like, be propounded to the fancy and imagination;\nthe imagination, if evil, presently dresseth up this motion in\nthat garb that best suiteth with the nature of the sin. As, if it\nbe the lust of uncleanness, then is the motion to sin drest up in\nall the imaginable pleasurableness of that sin; if to covetousness,\nthen is the sin drest up in the profits and honours that attend that\nsin; and so of theft and the like; but if the motion be to swear,\nhector, or the like, then is that motion drest up with valour and\nmanliness; and so you may count of the rest of sinful motions; and\nthus being trimmed up like a Bartholomew baby, 25 it is presented\nto all the rest of the powers of the soul, where with joint consent\nit is admired and embraced, to the firing and inflaming all the\npowers of the soul.\n\nAnd hence it is that men are said to inflame themselves with their\nidols under every green tree. 'And to be as fed horses, neighing\nafter their neighbour's wife' (Jer 5:8). For the imagination is such\na forcible power, that if it putteth forth itself to dress up and\npresent a thing to the soul, whether that thing be evil or good,\nthe rest of the faculties cannot withstand it. Therefore, when David\nprayed for the children of Israel, he said, 'I have seen with joy\nthy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee;'\nthat is, for preparations to build the temple. 'O Lord God,' saith\nhe, 'keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the\nheart of Thy people, and prepare their heart unto Thee' (1 Chron\n29:17, 18). He knew that as the imagination was prepared, so would\nthe soul be moved, whether by evil or good; therefore as to this,\nhe prays that their imagination might be engaged always with\napprehensions of the beauteousness of the temple, that they might\nalways, as now, offer willingly for its building.\n\nBut, as I said, when the imagination hath thus set forth sin to the\nrest of the faculties of the soul, they are presently entangled,\nand fall into a flame of love thereto; this being done, it follows\nthat a purpose to pursue this motion, till it be brought unto act,\nis the next thing that is resolved on. Thus Esau, after he had\nconceived of that profit that would accrue to him by murdering\nof his brother, fell the next way into a resolve to spill Jacob's\nblood. And Rebecca sent for Jacob, and said unto him, 'Behold, thy\nbrother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to\nkill thee' (Gen 27:42). See also (Jer 49:30). Nor is this purpose\nto do an evil without its fruit, for he comforted himself in his evil\npurpose: 'Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing\nto kill thee.'\n\nThe purpose, therefore, being concluded, in the next place the\ninvention is diligently set to work to find out what means, methods,\nand ways, will be thought best to bring this purpose into practice,\nand this motion to sin into action. Esau invented the death of his\nbrother when his father was to be carried to his grave (Gen 27:41).\nDavid purposed to make Uriah father his bastard child by making of\nhim drunk (2 Sam 11:13). Amnon purposed to ravish Tamar, and the\nmeans that he invented to do it were by feigning himself sick.\nAbsalom purposed to kill Amnon, and invented to do it at a feast\n(2 Sam13:32). Judas purposed to sell Christ, and invented to betray\nhim in the absence of the people (Luke 22:3-6). The Jews purposed\nto kill Paul, and invented to entreat the judge of a blandation26 to\nsend for him, that they might murder him as he went (Acts 23:12-15).\n\nThus you see how sin is, in the motion of it, handed through the\nsoul--first, it comes into the fancy or imagination, by which it\nis so presented to the soul, as to inflame it with desire to bring\nit into act; so from this desire the soul proceedeth to a purpose\nof enjoying, and from a purpose of enjoying to inventing how, or\nby what means, it had best to attempt the accomplishing of it.\n\nBut, further, when the soul has thus far, by its wickedness, pursued\nthe motion of sin to bring it into action, then to the last thing;\nto wit, to endeavours, to take the opportunity, which, by the\ninvention, is judged most convenient; so to endeavours it goes,\ntill it has finished sin, and finished, in finishing of that, its\nown fearful damnation. 'Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth\nforth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death'\n(James 1:15).\n\nAnd who knows, but God and the soul, how many lets, hindrances,\nconvictions, fears, frights, misgivings, and thoughts of the\njudgment of God, all this while are passing and repassing, turning\nand returning, over the face of the soul? how many times the soul\nis made to start, look back, and tremble, while it is pursuing the\npleasure, profit, applause, or preferment that sin, when finished,\npromiseth to yield unto the soul? for God is such a lover of the\nsoul, that He seldom lets it go on in sin, but He cries to it, by\nHis Word and providences, 'Oh! do not this abominable thing that\nI hate!' (Jer 44: 4); especially at first, until it shall have\nhardened itself, and so provoked Him to give it up in sin-revenging\njudgment to its own ways and doings, which is the terriblest\njudgment under heaven; and this brings me to the third thing, the\nwhich I now will speak to.\n\n3. As the soul receives, detains, entertains, and wilily worketh to\nbring sin from the motion into act, so it abhorreth to be controlled\nand taken off of this work--'My soul loathed them,' says God, 'and\ntheir soul also abhorred Me' (Zech 6:8). My soul loathed them,\nbecause they were so bad; and their souls abhorred Me, because I am\nso good. Sin, then, is the cause of the loss of the soul; because\nit hath set the soul, or, rather, because the soul of love to sin\nhath set itself against God. 'Woe unto their soul, for they have\nrewarded evil unto themselves'(Isa 3:9).\n\n[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]\n\nThird, That you may the better perceive that the soul, through sin,\nhas set itself against God, I will propose, and speak briefly to,\nthese two things:--\n\nI. The law. II. The gospel.\n\nI. For the law. God has given it for a rule of life, either as\nwritten in their natures, or as inserted in the Holy Scriptures; I\nsay, for a rule of life to all the children of men. But what have\nmen done, or how have they carried it to this law of their Creator;\nlet us see, and that from the mouth of God himself.\n\n1. 'They have not hearkened unto My words' (Jer 6:19).\n\n2. 'They have forsaken My law' (Jer 9:13).\n\n3. They 'have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law' (Jer 16:11).\n\n4. They have not 'walked in My law, nor in My statutes' (Jer 44:\n4).\n\n5. 'Her priests have violated My law' (Eze 22:26).\n\n6. And, saith God, 'I have written to him the great things of My\nlaw, but they were counted as a strange thing.' (Hos 8:12).\n\nNow, whence should all this disobedience arise? Not from the\nunreasonableness of the commandment, but from the opposition that\nis lodged in us against God, and the enmity that it entertains\nagainst goodness. Hence the apostle speaks of the emnity, and says,\nthat men are enemies in their minds, their souls, as is manifest by\nwicked works (Col 1:21). This, if men went no further, must needs\nbe highly provoking to a just and holy God: yea, so highly offensive\nis it, that, to show the heat of His anger, He saith, 'Indignation\nand wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that\ndoeth evil,' and this evil with a witness, 'of the Jew first, and\nalso of the Gentile,' that doth evil (Rom 2:8,9). That breaketh\nthe law; for that evil He is crying out against now. But,\n\nII. To speak of the gospel, and of the carriage of sinful souls\ntowards God under that dispensation.\n\nThe gospel is a revelation of a sovereign remedy, provided by God,\nthrough Christ, for the health and salvation of those that have\nmade themselves objects of wrath by the breach of the law of works;\nthis is manifest by all the Scripture. But how doth the soul carry\nit towards God, when He offereth to deal with it under and by this\ndispensation of grace? Why, just as it carried it under the law\nof works: they oppose, they contradict, they blaspheme, and forbid\nthat this gospel be mentioned (Acts 13:45; 27:6). What higher affront\nor contempt can be offered to God, and what greater disdain can be\nshown against the gospel? (2 Tim 2:25; 1 Thess 2:14-16). Yet all\nthis the poor soul, to its own wrong, offereth against the way of\nits own salvation; as it is said in the Word of truth, 'He that\nsinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me\nlove death' (Prov 8:36).\n\nBut, further, the soul despiseth not the gospel in that revelation\nof it only, but the great and chief bringer thereof, with the\nmanner, also, of His bringing of it. The Bringer, the great Bringer\nof the gospel, is the good Lord Jesus Christ himself; He 'came and\npreached peace to them that the law proclaimed war against; became\nand preached peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were\nnigh' (Eph 2:17). And it is worth your observation to take notice\nhow He came, and that was, and still is, as He is set forth in the\nword of the gospel; to wit, first, as making peace Himself to God\nfor us in and by the blood of His cross; and then, as bearing (as\nset out by the gospel) the very characters of His sufferings before\nour faces in every tender of the gospel of His grace unto us. And\nto touch a little upon the dress in which, by the gospel, Christ\npresenteth unto us while He offereth unto sinful souls His peace,\nby the tenders thereof.\n\n1. He is set forth as born for us, to save our souls (Isa 9:6; Luke\n2:9-12).\n\n2. He is set forth before us as bearing of our sins for us, and\nsuffering God's wrath for us (1 Cor 15:3; Gal 3:13).\n\n3. He is set forth before us as fulfilling the law for us, and as\nbringing of everlasting righteousness to us for our covering (Rom\n5:4; Dan 9:24).\n\nAgain, as to the manner of His working out the salvation of sinners\nfor them, that they might have peace and joy, and heaven and glory,\nfor ever.\n\n(1.) He is set forth as sweating of blood while He was in His agony,\nwrestling with the thoughts of death, which He was to suffer for\nour sins, that He might save the soul (Luke 22:44).\n\n(2.) He is set forth as crying, weeping, and mourning under the\nlashes of justice that He put Himself under, and was willing to\nbear for our sins (Heb 5:7).\n\n(3.) He is set forth as betrayed, apprehended, condemned, spit on,\nscourged, buffeted, mocked, crowned with thorns, crucified, pierced\nwith nails and a spear, to save the soul from being betrayed by the\ndevil and sin; to save it from being apprehended by justice, and\ncondemned by the law; to save it from being spit on, in a way of\ncontempt, by holiness; to save it from being scourged with guilt of\nsins, as with scorpions; to save it from being continually buffeted\nby its own conscience; to save it from being mocked at by God; to\nsave it from being crowned with ignominy and shame for ever; to\nsave it from dying the second death; to save it from wounds and\ngrief for ever.\n\nDost thou understand me, sinful soul? He wrestled with justice, that\nthou mightest have rest; He wept and mourned, that thou mightest\nlaugh and rejoice; He was betrayed, that thou mightest go free;\nwas apprehended, that thou mightest escape; He was condemned, that\nthou mightest be justified; and was killed, that thou mightest\nlive; He wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown\nof glory; and was nailed to the cross, with His arms wide open,\nto show with what freeness all His merits shall be bestowed on the\ncoming soul; and how heartily He will receive it into His bosom?\n\nFurther, all this He did of mere good will, and offereth the benefit\nthereof unto thee freely; yea, He cometh unto thee, in the word\nof the gospel, with the blood running down from His head upon His\nface, with His tears abiding upon His cheeks, with the holes as fresh\nin His hands and His feet, and as with the blood still bubbling\nout of His side, to pray thee to accept of the benefit, and to\nbe reconciled to God thereby (2 Cor 5). But what saith the sinful\nsoul to this? I do not ask what he saith with his lips, for he will\nassuredly flatter God with his mouth; but what doth his actions\nand carriages declare as to his acceptance of this incomparable\nbenefit? For 'a wicked man speaketh with his feet, and teacheth\nwith his fingers' (Prov 6:12,13). With his feet--that is, by the\nway he goeth: and with his fingers--that is, by his acts and doings.\nSo, then, what saith he by his goings, by his sets and doings, unto\nthis incomparable benefit, thus brought unto him from the Father,\nby His only Son, Jesus Christ? What saith he? Why, he saith that\nhe doth not at all regard this Christ, nor value the grace thus\ntendered unto him in the gospel.\n\n1. He saith, that he regardeth not this Christ, that he seeth nothing\nin Him why he should admit Him to be entertained in his affections.\nTherefore the prophet, speaking in the person of sinners, says, 'He\n(Christ) hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him,\nthere is no beauty that we should desire Him;' and then adds, to\nshow what he meaneth by his thus speaking, saying, 'he is despised\nand rejected of men' (Isa 53:2,3). All this is spoken with reference\nto His person, and it was eminently fulfilled upon Him in the days\nof His flesh, when He was hated, maligned, and persecuted to death\nby sinners; and is still fulfilled in the souls of sinners, in\nthat they cannot abide to think of Him with thoughts that have a\ntendency in them to separate them and their lusts asunder, and to\nthe making of them to embrace Him for their darling, and the taking\nup of their cross to follow Him. All this sinners speak out with\nloud voices, in that they stop their ears and shut their eyes as\nto Him, but open them wide and hearken diligently to anything that\npleaseth the flesh, and that is a nursery to sin. But,\n\n2. As they despise, and reject, and do not regard His person,\nso they do not value the grace that He tendereth unto them by the\ngospel; this is plain by that indifferency of spirit that always\nattends them when, at any time, they hear thereof, or when it is\npresented unto them.\n\nI may safely say, that the most of men who are concerned in a trade,\nwill be more vigilant in dealing with a twelvepenny customer than\nthey will be with Christ when He comes to make unto them, by the\ngospel, a tender of the incomparable grace of God. Hence they are\ncalled fools, because a price is put into their hands to get wisdom,\nand they have no heart unto it (Prov 18:16). And hence, again, it\nis that that bitter complaint is made, 'But My people would not\nhearken to my voice; and Israel would none of Me' (Psa 81:11). Now,\nthese things being found, as practised by the souls of sinners, must\nneeds, after a wonderful manner, provoke; wherefore, no marvel that\nthe heavens are bid to be astonished at this, and that damnation\nshall seize upon the soul for this (Jer 2).\n\nAnd indeed, the soul that doth thus by practice, though with\nhis mouth--as who doth not? he shall show much love, he doth,\ninterpretatively, say these things:--\n\n(1.) That he loveth sin better than grace, and darkness better\nthan light, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed, 'And this\nis the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men\nloved darkness more than light (as is manifest), because their\ndeeds were evil' (John 3:19).\n\n(2.) They do, also, by their thus rejecting of Christ and grace,\nsay, that for what the law can do to them, they value it not; they\nregard not its thundering threatenings, nor will they shrink when\nthey come to endure the execution thereof; wherefore God, to deter\nthem from such bold and desperate ways, that do, interpretatively,\nfully declare that they make such desperate conclusions, insinuates\nthat the burden of the curse thereof is intolerable, saying, 'Can\nthine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that\nI shall deal with thee? I, the Lord, have spoken it, and will do\nit' (Eze 22:14).\n\n(3.) Yea, by their thus doing, they do as good as say that they\nwill run the hazard of a sentence of death at the day of judgment,\nand that they will, in the meantime, join issue, and stand a trial\nat that day with the great and terrible God. What else means their\nnot hearkening to Him, their despising of His Son, and the rejecting\nof His grace; yea I say again, what else means their slighting of\nthe curse of the law, and their choosing to abide in their sins\ntill the day of death and judgment? And thus I have showed you the\ncauses of the loss of the soul; and, assuredly, these things are\nno fables.\n\nObjection. But some may object, and say, But you denounce all against\nthe soul; the soul, as if the body were in no fault at all; or, as\nif there were no punishment assigned for the body.\n\nAnswer 1. The soul must be the part punished, because the soul is\nthat which sins. 'Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,'\nfornication or adultery excepted (1 Cor 6:18). 'Is without the\nbody; that is, as to the wilily inventing, contriving, and finding\nout ways to bring the motions of sin into action. For, alas! What\ncan the body do as to these? It is in a manner wholly passive; yea,\naltogether as to the lusting and purposing to do the wickedness,\nexcepting the sin before excepted; ay, and not excepting that, as\nto the rise of that sin; for even that, with all the rest, ariseth\nand proceedeth out of the heart--the soul; 'For from within, out of\nthe heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,\nmurders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,\nan evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things\ncome from within, and defile the man' (Mark 7:21-23). That is, the\noutward man. But a difference must always be put betwixt defiling\nand being defiled, that which defileth being the worst; not but\nthat the body shall have its share of judgment, for body and soul\nmust be destroyed in hell (Luke 12:4,5; Matt 10:28). The body as\nthe instrument, the soul as the actor; but oh! the soul, the soul,\nthe soul is the sinner; and, therefore, the soul, as the principal,\nmust be punished.\n\nAnd that God's indignation burneth most against the soul appears in\nthat death hath seized upon every soul already; for the Scripture\nsaith, that every natural or unconverted man is dead (Eph 2:1-3).\nDead! How? Is his body dead? No, verily; his body liveth, but his\nsoul is dead (1 Tim 5:6). Dead! But with what death? Dead to God,\nand to all things gospelly good, by reason of that benumbing,\nstupifying, and senselessness, that, by God's just judgment for\nand by sin, hath swallowed up the soul. Yea, if you observe, you\nshall see that the soul goeth first, or before, in punishment, not\nonly by what has been said already, in that the soul is first made\na partaker of death, but in that God first deals with the soul by\nconvictions, yea, and terrors, perhaps, while the body is well;\nor, in that He giveth up the soul to judicial hardness and further\nblindness, while He leaveth the body to do His office in the world;\nyea, and also when the day of death and dissolution is come, the\nbody is spared, while the soul is tormented in unutterable torment\nin hell. And so, I say, it shall be spared, and the clods of the\nvalley shall be sweet unto it, while the soul mourneth in hell for\nsin. It is true, at the day of judgment, because that is the last\nand final judgment of God on men, then the body and soul shall\nbe re-united, or joined together again, and shall then, together,\npartake of that recompence for their wickedness which is meet. When\nI say, the body is spared and the soul tormented, I mean not that\nthe body is not then, at death, made to partake of the wages of sin,\n'for the wages of sin is death' (Rom 3:23). But I mean, the body\npartakes then but of temporal death, which, as to sense and feeling,\nis sometimes over presently, and then resteth in the grave, while\nthe soul is tormenting in hell. Yea, and why is death suffered to\nslay the body? I dare say, not chiefly for that the indignation\nof God most burneth against the body; but the body being the house\nfor the soul in this world, God even pulls down this body, that\nthe soul may be stript naked, and being stript, may be carried to\nprison, to the place where damned souls are, there to suffer in\nthe beginning of suffering, that punishment that will be endless.\n\nAnswer 2. Therefore, the soul must be the part most sorely\npunished, because justice must be distributed with equity. God is\na God of knowledge and judgment; by Him actions are weighed; actions\nin order to judgment (1 Sam 2). Now, by weighing of actions, since\nHe finds the soul to have the deepest hand in sin; and He says that\nHe hath so, of equity the soul is to bear the burden of punishment.\n'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right' in His famous\ndistributing of judgment? (Gen 18:25). 'He will not lay upon\nman more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God'\n(Job 34:23). The soul, since deepest in sin, shall also be deepest\nin punishment. 'Shall one man sin,' said Moses, 'and wilt Thou be\nwroth with all the congregation?' (Num 1:22). He pleads here for\nequity in God's distributing of judgment; yea, and so exact is God\nin the distribution thereof, that He will not punish heathens so\nas He will punish Jews; wherefore He saith, 'Of the Jew first,' or\nchiefly, 'and also of the Gentile' (Rom 2:9). Yea, in hell He has\nprepared several degrees of punishment for the several sorts or\ndegrees of offenders; And some 'shall receive greater damnation'\n(Luke 22:47). And will it not be unmeet for us to think, since God\nis so elect in all His doings, that He will, without His weights\nand measures, give to soul and body, as I may say, carelessly, not\nseverally, their punishments, according to the desert and merit of\neach?\n\nAnswer 3. The punishment of the soul in hell must needs, to be\nsure, as to degree, differ from the punishment of the body there.\nWhen I say, differ, I mean, must needs be greater, whether the body\nbe punished with the same fire with the soul, or fire of another\nnature. If it be punished with the same fire, yet not in the same\nway; for the fire of guilt, with the apprehensions of indignation\nand wrath, are most properly felt and apprehended by the soul, and\nby the body by virtue of its union with the soul; and so felt by\nthe body, if not only, yet, I think, mostly, by way of sympathy\nwith the soul; and the cause, we say, is worse than the disease;\nand if the wrath of God, and the apprehensions of it, as discharging\nitself for sin, and the breach of the law, be that with which the\nsoul is punished, as sure it is: then the body is punished by the\neffects, or by those influences that the soul, in its torments,\nhas upon the body, by virtue of that great oneness and union that\nis between them.\n\nBut if there be a punishment prepared for the body distinct in kind\nfrom that which is prepared for the soul, yet it must be a punishment\ninferior to that which is prepared for the soul; not that the soul\nand body shall be severed, but being made of things distinct, their\npunishments will be by that which is most suitable to each. I say,\nit must be inferior, because nothing can be so hot, so tormenting,\nso intolerably insupportable, as the quickest apprehensions of,\nand the immediate sinking under, that guilt and indignation that\nis proportional to the offence. Should all the wood, and brimstone,\nand combustible matter on earth be gathered together for the\ntormenting of one body, yet that cannot yield that torment to that\nwhich the sense of guilt and burning-hot application of the indignation\nof God will do to the soul; yea, suppose the fire wherewith the body\nis tormented in hell should be seven times hotter than any of our\nfire; yea, suppose it, again, to be seven times hotter than that which\nis seven times hotter than ours, yet it must, suppose it to be but\ncreated fire, be infinitely short, as to tormenting operations, of\nthe unspeakable wrath of God, when in the heat thereof He applieth\nit to, and doth punish the soul for sin in hell therewith. So,\nthen, whether the body be tormented with the same fire wherewith\nthe soul is tormented, or whether the fire be of another kind, yet\nit is not possible that it should bear the same punishment as to\ndegree, because, or for the causes I have showed. Nor, indeed, is\nit meet it should, because the body has not sinned so, so grievously\nas the soul has done; and God proportioneth the punishment suitable\nto the offence.\n\nAnswer 4. With the soul by itself are the most quick and suitable\napprehensions of God and His wrath; wherefore, that must needs be\nmade partaker of the sorest punishment in hell; it is the soul that\nnow is the most subtle at discerning, and it is the soul that will\nbe so; then conscience, memory, and understanding, and mind; these\nwill be the seat of torment, since the understanding will let wrath\nimmediately upon these, from what it apprehends of that wrath;\nconscience will let the wrath of God immediately upon these, from\nwhat it fearfully feels of that wrath; the memory will then, as a\nvessel, receive and retain up to the brim of this wrath, even as\nit receiveth by the understanding and conscience, the cause of this\nwrath, and considers the durableness of it; so, then, the soul is\nthe seat and the receiver of wrath, even as it was the receiver and\nseat of sin; here, then, is sin and wrath upon the soul, the soul\nin the body, and so soul and body tormented in hell fire.\n\nAnswer 5. The soul will be most tormented, because strongest; the\nbiggest burden must lie upon the strongest part, especially since,\nalso, it is made capable of it by its sin. The soul must bear its\nown punishment, and a great part of the body's too, forasmuch as,\nso far as apprehension goes, the soul will be quicker at the work\nthan the body. True, the body, by the help of the soul, will see\ntoo, but the soul will see yet abundantly further. And good reason\nthat the soul should bear part of the punishment of the body, because\nit was through its allurements that the body yielded to help the\nsoul to sin. The devil presented sin, the soul took it by the body,\nand now devil, and soul, and body, and all must be lost, cast away;\nthat is, damned in hell for sin; but the soul must be the burden\nbearer.\n\nObjection. But you say, Doth not this give encouragement to sinners\nto give way to the body to be in all its members loose, and vain,\nand wicked, as instruments to sin?\n\nAnswer. No; forasmuch as the body shall also have his share in\npunishment. For though I have said the soul shall have more punishment\nthan the body, yet I have not said, that the body shall at all be\neased by that; no, the body will have its due. And for the better\nmaking out of my answer further, consider of these following\nparticulars:--\n\n(1.) The body will be the vessel to hold the tormented soul in; this\nwill be something; therefore man, damned man, is called a vessel\nof wrath, a vessel, and that in both body and soul (Rom 9:22). The\nsoul receiveth wrath unto itself, and the body holdeth that soul\nthat has thus received, and is tormented with, the wrath of God.\nNow the body being a vessel to hold this soul that is thus possessed\nwith the wrath of God, must needs itself be afflicted and tormented\nwith that torment, because of its union with the body; therefore\nthe Holy Ghost saith, 'His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his\nsoul within him shall mourn' (Job 14:22). Both shall have their\ntorment and misery, for that both joined hand in hand in sin, the\nsoul to bring it to the birth, and the body to midwife it into\nthe world; therefore it saith again, with reference to the body,\n'Let the curse come into his bowels like water, and like oil into\nhis bones.' Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him,\nand for a girdle, etc. (Psa 109:17-19). The body, then, will be\ntormented as well as the soul, by being a vessel to hold that soul\nthat is now possessed and distressed with the unspeakable wrath and\nindignation of the Almighty God, and this will be a great deal, if\nyou consider,\n\n(2.) That the body, as a body, will, by reason of its union with the\nsoul, be as sensible, and so as capable in its kind, to receive\ncorrection and torment as ever, nay, I think more; for if the\nquickness of the soul giveth quickness of sense to the body, as in\nsome case, at least, I am apt to think it doth, then forasmuch as\nthe soul will now be most quick, most sharp in apprehension, so the\nbody, by reason of union and sympathy with the soul, will be most\nquick and most sharp as to sense. Indeed, if the body should not\nreceive and retain sense, yea, all its senses, by reason of its\nbeing a vessel to hold the soul, the torment of the soul could\nnot as torment, be ministered to the body, no more than the fire\ntormented the king of Babylon's furnace (Dan 3). Or than the king\nof Moab's lime kiln was afflicted because the king of Edom's bones\nwere burnt therein. But now the body has received again its senses,\nnow therefore it must, yea, it cannot choose but must feel that\nwrath of God that is let out, yea, poured out like floods of water\ninto the soul. 27 Remember also, that besides what the body receiveth\nfrom the soul by reason of its union and sympathy therewith, there\nis a punishment, and instruments of punishment, though I will\nnot pretend to tell you exactly what it is, prepared for the body\nfor its joining with the soul in sin, therewith to be punished; a\npunishment, I say, that shall fall immediately upon the body, and\nthat such an one as will most fitly suit with the nature of the\nbody, as wrath and guilt do most fitly suit the nature of the soul.\n\n(3.) Add to these, the durable condition that the body in this state\nis now in with the soul. Time was when the soul died, and the body\nlived, and the soul was tormented while the body slept and rested\nin the dust; but now these things are past; for at the day of\njudgment, as I said, these two shall be re-united, and that which\nonce did separate them, be destroyed; then of necessity they must\nabide together, and, as together, abide the punishment prepared\nfor them; and this will greaten the torment of the body.\n\nDeath was once the wages of sin, and a grievous curse; but might the\ndamned meet with it in hell, they would count it a mercy, because\nit would separate soul and body, and not only so, but take away all\nsense from the body, and make it incapable of suffering torment;\nyea, I will add, and by that means give the soul some ease; for\nwithout doubt, as the torments of the soul extend themselves to the\nbody, so the torments of the body extend themselves to the soul;\nnor can it be otherwise, because of union and sympathy. But death,\nnatural death, shall be destroyed, and there shall be no more natural\ndeath, no, not in hell (1 Cor 15:26). And now it shall happen to\nmen, as it hath done in less and inferior judgments. They shall\nseek death, and desire to die, and death shall not be found by\nthem (Job 3:21; Rev 9:6). Thus therefore they must abide together;\ndeath that used to separate them asunder is now slain--1. Because\nit was an enemy in keeping Christ's body in the grave; and, 2.\nBecause a friend to carnal men in that, though it was a punishment\nin itself, yet while it lasted and had dominion over the body of\nthe wicked, it hindered them of that great and just judgment which\nfor sin was due unto them; and this is the third discovery of the\nmanner and way of punishing of the body. But,\n\n(4.) There will then be such things to be seen and heard, which\nthe eye and the ear--to say no more than has been said of the sense\nof feeling--will see and hear, that will greatly aggravate the\npunishment of the body in hell; for though the eye is the window,\nand the ear a door for the soul to look out at, and also to receive\nin by, yet whatever goeth in at the ear or the eye leaves influence\nupon the body, whether it be that which the soul delighteth in, or\nthat which the soul abhorreth; for as the eye affecteth the heart,\nor soul (Lam 3:51) so the eye and ear, by hearing and beholding,\ndoth ofttimes afflict the body. 'When I heard, my belly\ntrembled--rottenness entered into my bones.' (Hab 3:16).\n\nNow, I say, as the body after its resurrection, to damnation, to\neverlasting shame and contempt (Dan 12:2; John 5:29) will receive\nall its senses again, so it will have matter to exercise them upon,\nnot only to the letting into the soul those aggravations which they\nby hearing, feeling, and seeing are capable to let in thither, but,\nI say, they will have matter and things to exercise themselves upon\nfor the helping forward of the torment of the body. Under temporal\njudgments of old, the body as well as the soul had no ease, day or\nnight, and that not only by reason of what was felt, but by reason\nof what was heard and seen. 'In the morning thou shalt say, Would\nGod it were even! And at even thou shalt say, Would God it were\nmorning!' (Deu 28:67). 1. 'For the fear of thine heart, wherewith\nthou shalt fear;' 2. 'And for the sight of thine eyes, which thou\nshalt see.' Nay, He tells them a little before, that they should be\nmad for the sight of their eyes which they should see (verse 34).\n\nSee! why, what shall they see? Why, themselves in hell, with\nothers like them; and this will be a torment to their body. There\nis bodily torment, as I said, ministered to the body by the senses\nof the body. What think you? If a man saw himself in prison, in\nirons, upon the ladder, with the rope about his neck, would not\nthis be distress to the body, as well as to the mind? To the body,\ndoubtless. Witness the heavy looks, the shaking legs, trembling\nknees, pale face, and beating and aching heart; 28 how much more,\nthen, when men shall see themselves in the most dreadful place; it\nis a fearful place, doubtless, to all to behold themselves in that\nshall come thither (Luke 16:28).\n\nAgain; they shall see others there, and shall by them see themselves.\nThere is an art by which a man may make his neighbour look so\nghastly, that he shall fright himself by looking on him, especially\nwhen he thinks of himself, that he is of the same show also. It is\nsaid concerning men at the downfall of Babylon, that they shall be\namazed one at another, for 'their faces shall be as flames' (Isa\n13:8). And what if one should say, that even as it is with a house\nset on fire within, where the flame ascends out at the chimneys,\nout at the windows, and the smoke out at every chink and crevice\nthat it can find, so it will be with the damned in hell. That soul\nwill breathe hell fire and smoke, and coals will seem to hang upon\nits burning lips; yea, the face, eyes, and ears will seem all to\nbe chimneys and vents for the flame and smoke of the burning which\nGod by His breath hath kindled therein, and upon them, which will\nbe beheld one in another, to the great torment and distress of each\nother.\n\nWhat shall I say? Here will be seen devils, and here will be heard\nhowlings and mournings; here will the soul see itself at an infinite\ndistance from God; yea, the body will see it too. In a word, who\nknows the power of God's wrath, the weight of sin, the torments\nof hell, and the length of eternity? If none, then none can tell,\nwhen they have said what they can, the intolerableness of the\ntorments that will swallow up the soul, the lost soul, when it is\ncast away by God, and from Him, into outer darkness for sin. But\nthis much for the cause of the loss of the soul.\n\nDOCTRINE SECOND,\n\nI now come to the second doctrine that I gathered from the\nwords--namely, that how unconcerned and careless soever some now\nbe about the loss or salvation of their souls, the day is coming,\nbut it will then be too late, when men will be willing, had they\nnever so much, to give it all in exchange for their souls. There\nare four things in the words that do prove this doctrine.\n\n1. There is an intimation of life and sense in the man that has\nlost, and that after he has lost, his soul in hell--'Or what shall\na man give in exchange for his soul?' These words are by no means\napplicable to the man that has no life or sense; for he that is\ndead according to our common acceptation of death, that is, deprived\nof life and sense, would not give twopence to change his state;\ntherefore the words do intimate that the man is yet alive and\nsensible. Now were a man alive and sensible, though he was in none\nother place than the grave, there to be confined, while others are\nat liberty, what would he give in exchange for his place, and to\nbe rid of that for a better! but how much more to be delivered from\nhell, the present place and state of his soul!\n\n2. There is in the text an intimation of a sense of torment 'Or\nwhat shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' I am tormented in\nthis flame. Torment, then, the soul is sensible of, and that there\nis a place of ease and peace. And from the sense and feeling of\ntorment, he would give, yea, what would he not give, in exchange\nfor his soul?\n\n3. There is in the text an intimation of the intolerableness of\nthe torment, because that it supposeth that the man whose soul is\nswallowed up therewith would give all, were his all never so great,\nin exchange for his soul.\n\n4. There is yet in the text an intimation that the soul is sensible\nof the lastingness of the punishment, or else the question rather\nargues a man unwary than considerate in his offering, as is supposed\nby Christ, so largely, his all in exchange for his soul.\n\nBut we will, in this manner, proceed no further, but take it for\ngranted that the doctrine is good; wherefore I shall next inquire\nafter what is contained in this truth. And,\n\nFIRST, That God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the breaking\nof the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and mercy to\nsalvation, or by His justice and severity to damnation. The damned\nsoul under consideration is certainly supposed, as by the doctrine,\nso by the text, to be utterly careless, and without regard of\nsalvation, so long as the acceptable time did last, and as the white\nflag, that signifies terms of peace, did hang out; and, therefore,\nit is said to be lost; but, behold, now it is careful, but now it\nis solicitous, but now, 'what shall a man give in exchange for his\nsoul?' He of whom you read in the gospel, that could tend to do\nnothing in the days of the gospel but to find out how to be clothed\nin purple and fine linen, and to fare sumptuously every day, was\nby God brought so down, and laid so low at last, that he could\ncrouch, and cringe, and beg for one small drop of water to cool\nhis tongue--a thing, that but a little before he would have thought\nscorn to have done, when he also thought scorn to stoop to the grace\nand mercy of the gospel (Luke 16:19,24). But God was resolved to\nbreak his spirit, and the pride of his heart, and to humble his\nlofty looks, if not by His mercy, yet by His justice; if not by\nHis grace, yet by hell fire.\n\nThis he also threatens to bring upon the fool in the Proverbs--'They\nshall call, they shall seek, they shall cry' (Prov 1:22-32). Who\nshall do so? The answer is, They that sometimes scorned either to\nseek, or call, or cry; they that stopped their ears, that pulled\naway their shoulders, and that refused to seek, or call, or cry to\nGod for mercy (Zech 7:11-13).\n\nSinner, careless sinner, didst thou take notice of this first inference\nthat I have drawn from my second doctrine? If thou didst, yet read\nit again: it is this, 'God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the\nbreaking of the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and\nmercy unto salvation, or by His justice and severity to damnation.'\nThe reason for this is this: God is resolved to have the mastery,\nHe is resolved to have the victory. 'Who would set the briers\nand thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would\nburn them together' (Isa 27:4). I will march against them. God is\nmerciful, and is come forth into the world by His Son, tendering\nof grace unto sinners by the gospel, and would willingly make a\nconquest over them for their good by His mercy. Now He being come\nout, sinners like briars and thorns do set themselves against Him,\nand will have none of His mercy. Well, but what says God? Saith\nHe, Then I will march on, I will go through them, and burn them\ntogether. I am resolved to have the mastery one way or another; if\nthey will not bend to Me, and accept of My mercy in the gospel, I\nwill bend them and break them by My justice in hell fire. They say\nthey will not bend; I say they shall; now they 'shall know whose\nwords shall stand, Mine or theirs.' (Jer 44:25-28). Wherefore the\napostle, when he saw that some of the Corinthians began to be unruly,\nand to do those things that did begin to hazard them, saith, 'Do\nwe provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?' (1 Cor\n5:22). As who should say, My brethren, are you aware what you do?\ndo you not understand that God is resolved to have the mastery\none way or another? and are you stronger than He? if not, tremble\nbefore Him, or He will certainly have you under His feet--'I will\ntread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury' (Isa 63:3).\nThus He speaks of them that set themselves against Him; therefore\nbeware. Now the reason of this resolution of God, it flows from a\ndetermination in Him to make all His sayings good, and to verify\nthem on the consciences of sinners. And since the incredulous\nworld will not believe now, and fly from wrath, they shall shortly\nbelieve and cry under it; since they will not now credit the Word,\nbefore they see, unto salvation, they shall be made to credit it\nby sense and feeling unto damnation.\n\nSECOND, The second inference that I draw from my second doctrine\nis this: 'That it is, and will be the lot of some to bow and break\nbefore God, too late, or when it is too late.' God is resolved, as\nI said. to have the mastery, and that not only in a way of dominion\nand lordship in general, for that He has now, but He is resolved\nto master, that is, to break the spirit of the world, to make all\nmen cringe and crouch unto Him, even those that now say, 'There is\nno God,' (Psa 14:1); or if there be, yet, 'What is the Almighty,\nthat we should serve Him?' (Job 21:15; Mal 3:14).\n\nThis is little thought of by those that now harden their hearts\nin wickedness, and that turn their spirit against God; but this\nthey shall think of, this they must think of, this God will make\nthem think of in that day, at which day they also now do mock and\nderide, that the Scripture might be fulfilled upon them (2 Peter\n3:3,4). And, I say, they shall think then of those things, and break\nat heart, and melt under the hand, and power, and majesty of the\nAlmighty; for, 'As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to\nMe; and every tongue shall confess to God' (Isa 45:23; Rom 14:11).\nAnd again, 'The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their\nmight; they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall\nbe deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move\nout of their holes like worms,' or creeping things, 'of the earth;\nthey shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because\nof Thee' (Micah 7:16,17).\n\nFor then they, will they nill they, shall have to do with God,\nthough not with Him as merciful, or as one that may be intreated;\nyet with Him all just, and as devouring fire (Heb 7:29). Yea, they\nshall see that face, and hear that voice, from whom and from which\nthe heavens and the earth will fly away, and find no place of stay.\nAnd by this appearance, and by such words of His mouth as He then\nwill speak to them, they shall begin to tremble, and call for the\nrocks to fall upon them and cover them; for if these things will\nhappen at the execution of inferior judgments, what will be done,\nwhat effects will the last, most dreadful, and eternal judgment,\nhave upon men's souls?\n\nHence you find, that at the very first appearance of Jesus Christ,\nthe whole world begins to mourn and lament--'Every eye shall see\nHim, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth\nshall wail because of Him' (Rev 1:7). And, therefore, you also\nfind them to stand at the door and knock, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open\nunto us' (Luke 14:25; Matt 25:11). Moreover, you find them also\ndesiring, yea, also so humble in their desires as to be content\nwith the least degree of mercy--one drop, one drop upon the tip of\none's finger. What stooping, what condescension, what humility is\nhere! All, and every one of those passages declare, that the hand\nof God is upon them, and that the Almighty has got the mastery of\nthem, has conquered them, broke the pride of their power, and laid\nthem low, and made them cringe and crouch unto him, bending the\nknee, and craving of kindness. Thus, then, will God bow, and bend,\nand break them; yea, make them bow, and bend, and break before Him.\nAnd hence also it is they will weep, and mourn, and gnash their\nteeth, and cry, and repent that ever they have been so foolish,\nso wicked, so traitorous to their souls, such enemies of their own\neternal happiness, as to stand out in the day of their visitation\nin a way of rebellion against the Lord.\n\nBut here is their hard hap, their dismal lot and portion, that all\nthese things must be when it is too late. It is, and will be, the\nlot and hap of these to bow, bend, and break too late (Matt 25).\nYou read they come weeping and mourning, and with tears; they knock\nand they cry for mercy; but what did tears avail? Why, nothing;\nfor the door was shut. He answered and said, 'I know not whence you\nare.' But they repeat and renew their suit, saying, 'We have eaten\nand drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets.'\nWhat now? Why, He returns upon them His first answer the second\ntime, saying, 'I know not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye\nworkers of iniquity;' then He concludes, 'There shall be weeping and\ngnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,\nand all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves\nthrust out' (Luke 13:26,28). They come weeping, and go weeping\naway. They come to Him weeping, for they saw that He had conquered\nthem; but they departed weeping, for they saw that He would damn\nthem; yet, as we read in another place, they were very loath to\ngo from Him, by their reasoning and expostulating with Him--'Lord,\nwhen saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked,\nor sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?' But all\nwould not do; here is no place for change of mind--'These shall\ngo away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life\neternal' (Matt 25:44-46). And now what would a man give in exchange\nfor his soul? So that, as I said before, all is too late; they\nmourn too late, they repent too late, they pray too late, and seek\nto make an exchange for their soul too late. 'Or what shall a man\ngive in exchange for his soul?'\n\nTwo or three things there may yet be gathered from these words; I\nmean, as to the desires of them that have lost their souls, to make\nfor them an exchange; 'What shall a man give in exchange?'--what\nshall, what would, yea, what would not a man, if he had it, give\nin exchange for his soul?\n\nFirst, What would not a man--I mean, a man that is in the condition\nthat is by the text supposed some men are and will be in--give in\nexchange to have another man's virtue instead of their own vices?\n'Let me die the death of the righteous;' let my soul be in the\nstate of the soul of the righteous--that is, in reference to his\nvirtues, when I die, 'and let my last end be like his' (Num 23:10).\nIt is a sport now to some to taunt, and squib, and deride at other\nmen's virtues; but the day is coming when their minds will be\nchanged, and when they shall be made to count those that have done\nthose righteous actions and duties which they have scoffed at, the\nonly blessed men; yea, they shall wish their soul in the blessed\npossession of those graces and virtues, that those whom they hated\nwere accompanied with, and would, if they had it, give a whole world\nfor this change; but it will not now do, it is now too late. What\nthen shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And this is more\nthan intimated in that 25th of Matthew, named before: for you\nfind by that text how loath they were, or will be, to be counted\nfor unrighteous people--'Lord,' say they, 'when did we see thee\nan hungred, or athirst, naked, or sick, and did not minister unto\nthee?' Now they are not willing to be of the number of the wicked,\nthough hereto-fore the ways of the righteous were an abomination\nto them. But, alas! they are before a just God, a just Judge, a\nJudge that will give every one according to their ways; therefore,\n'Woe unto (the soul of) the wicked now, it shall be ill with him,\nfor the reward of his hands shall be given him' (Isa 3:11). Thus,\ntherefore, he is locked up as to this; he cannot now change his vice\nfor virtues, nor put himself nor his soul in the stead of the soul\nof the saved; so that it still, and will, for ever abide a question\nunresolved,' Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'\nI do not doubt but that a man's state may be such in this world,\nthat if he had it he would give thousands of gold to be as innocent\nand guiltless in the judgment of the law of the land as is the\nstate of such or such, heartily wishing that himself was not that\nhe, that he is; how much more then will men wish thus when they\nstand ready to receive the last, their eternal judgment. 'But what\nshall a man give in exchange for his soul?'\n\nSecond, As they would, for the salvation of their souls, be glad\nto change away their vices for the virtues, their sins for the good\ndeeds of others; so what would they not give to change places now,\nor to remove from where now they are, into paradise, into Abraham's\nbosom! But neither shall this be admitted; the righteous must have\ntheir inheritance to themselves--' Neither,' said Abraham, 'can\nthey pass to us, that would come from thence,' (Luke 16:26); neither\ncan they dwell in heaven that would come from hell.\n\nThey then that have lost, or shall lose their souls are bound to\ntheir place, as well as to their sins. When Judas went to hell,\nhe went to his home, 'to his own place' (Acts 1:25). And when the\nrighteous go hence, they also go home to their house, to their own\nplace; for the kingdom of heaven is prepared for them (Matt 25:34).\nBetween heaven and hell 'there is a great gulf fixed' (Luke 26:26).\nThat is a strange passage: 'There is a great gulf fixed.' What\nthis gulf is, and how impassable, they that shall lose their souls\nwill know to their woe; because it is fixed there where it is, on\npurpose to keep them in their tormenting place, so that they that\nwould pass from hell to heaven cannot. But, I say, 'Would they not\nchange places? would they not have a more comfortable house and\nhome for their souls?' Yes, verily, the text supposes it, and the\n16th of Luke affirms it; yea, and could they purchase for their\nsouls a habitation among the righteous, would they not? Yes, they\nwould give all the world to such a change. What shall, what shall\nnot, a man, if he had it, if it would answer his design, give in\nexchange for his soul?\n\nThird, As the damned would change their own vices for virtues, and\nthe place where they are for that into which they shall not come,\nso what would they give for a change of condition? Yea, if an\nabsolute change may not be obtained, yet what would they give for\nthe least degree of mitigation of that torment, which now they\nknow will without any intermission be, and that for ever and ever.\n'Tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath' (Rom 2:8,9), the\ngnawing worm, and everlasting destruction from the presence of the\nLord, and from the glory of His power, cannot be borne but with\ngreat horror and grief (2 Thess 1:7-10). No marvel, then, if these\npoor creatures would, for ease for their souls, be glad to change\ntheir conditions. Change!--with whom? with an angel, with a saint;\nay, with a dog or a toad; 29 for they mourn not, they weep not,\nnor do they bear indignation of wrath; they are as if they had not\nbeen; only the sinful soul abides in its sins, in the place designed\nfor lost souls, and in the condition that wrath and indignation for\nsin and transgression hath decreed them to abide for ever. And this\nbrings me to the conclusion, which is, 'that seeing the ungodly\ndo seek good things too late,' therefore, notwithstanding their\nseeking, they must still abide in their place, their sins, and\ntheir torment--'For what can a man give in exchange for his soul?'\nTherefore, God saith, that they there must still abide and dwell,\nno exchange can be made. 'This shall ye have of Mine hand, ye\nshall lie down in sorrow;' they shall lie down in it, they shall\nmake their bed there, there they shall lie (Isa 50:11; Eze 32:25-27).\nAnd this is the bitter pill that they must swallow down at the\nlast; for, after all their tears, their sorrows, their mournings,\ntheir repentings, their wishings and woundings, and all their\ninventings, and desires to change their state for a better, they\nmust 'lie down in sorrow.' The poor condemned man that is upon the\nladder or scaffold has, if one knew them, many a long wish and long\ndesire that he might come down again alive, or that his condition\nwas as one of the spectators that are not condemned and brought\nthither to be executed as he. How carefully also doth he look with\nhis failing eyes, to see if some comes not from the king with a\npardon for him, all the while endeavouring to fumble away as well\nas he can, and to prolong the minute of his execution! But at last,\nwhen he has looked, when he has wished, when he has desired, and\ndone whatever he can, the blow with the axe, or turn with the ladder,\nis his lot, so he goes off the scaffold, so he goes from among men;\nand thus it will be with those that we have under consideration;\nwhen all comes to all, and they have said, and wished, and done\nwhat they can, the judgment must not be reversed--they must 'lie\ndown in sorrow.'\n\nThey must, or shall lie down! Of old, when a man was to be chastised\nfor his fault, he was to lie down to receive his stripes; so here,\nsaith the Lord, they shall lie down--'And it shall be, if the wicked\nman be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie\ndown, and to be beaten before his face' (Deu 25:2). And this lying\ndown was to be his lot after he had pleaded for himself what be\ncould--and the judge shall cause him to be beaten before his face,\nwhile he is present to behold the execution of judgment; and thus\nit shall be at the end of the world; the wicked shall lie down, and\nshall be beaten with many stripes in the presence of Christ, 'and\nin the presence of the holy angels' (2 Thess 1; Rev 14:10). For\nthere will be His presence, not only at the trial as Judge, but to\nsee execution done, nay, to do it Himself by the pouring out, like\na river, His wrath as burning brimstone upon the soul of the lost\nand cast away sinner.\n\nHe shall lie down! These words imply that, at last, the damned soul\nshall submit; for to lie down is an act that signifies submission,\nespecially to lie down to be beaten. 'The wicked shall be silent\nin darkness' (1 Sam 2:9). When the malefactor has said and wished\nall that be can, yet at last he submits, is silent, and, as it\nwere, helps to put his head into the halter, or doth lay down his\nneck upon the block; so here it is said of the damned--They shall\nlie down in sorrow. There is also a place that saith, 'These shall\ngo away into everlasting punishment' (Matt 25:46). To go, to go\nto punishment, is also an act of submission. Now, submission to\npunishment doth, or should, flow from full conviction of the merit\nof punishment; and I think it is so to be understood here--For\n'every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world (of soul losers)\nbecome guilty before God' (Rom 3:4,19; Luke 13:25-28; Matt 25:46).\nEvery mouth shall be stopped, not at the beginning of the judgment,\nfor then they plead, and pray, and also object against the Judge;\nbut at the end, after that by a judicial proceeding He shall\nhave justified against them His sayings, and have overcome these\nHis judges, then they shall submit, and also lie down in s orrow;\nyea, they shall go away to their punishment as those who know they\ndeserve it; yea, they shall go away with silence.\n\nHow they shall behave themselves in hell, I will not here dispute;\nwhether in a way of rage and blasphemy, and in rending and tearing\nof the name and just actions of God towards them, or whether by\nway of submission there; I say, though this is none of this task,\nyet a word or two, if you please.\n\nDoubtless they will not be mute there; they will cry and wail, and\ngnash their teeth, and, perhaps, too, sometimes at God; but I do not\nthink but that the justice that they have deserved, and the equal\nadministration of it upon them, will, for the most part, prevail\nwith them to rend and tear themselves, to acquit and justify God,\nand to add fuel to their fire, by concluding themselves in all the\nfault, and that they have sufficiently merited this just damnation;\nfor it would seem strange to me that just judgment among men shall\nterminate in this issue, if God should not justify himself in the\nconscience of all the damned. But as here on earth, so He will let\nthem know that go to hell that He hath not done without a cause,\na sufficient cause, all that He hath done in damning of them (Eze\n14:23).\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\nI come now to make some use and application of the whole. And,\n\nUSE FIRST--If the soul be so excellent a thing as we have made it\nappear to be, and if the loss thereof be so great a loss, then here\nyou may see who they are that are those extravagant ones; I mean,\nthose that are such in the highest degree. Solomon tells us of\n'a great waster,' and saith also, that he that is slothful in his\nbusiness is brother to such an one (Prov 18:9). Who Solomon had his\neye upon, or who it was that he counted so great a waster, I cannot\ntell; but I will challenge all the world to show me one, that for\nwasting and destroying, may be compared to him that for the lusts\nand pleasures of this life will hazard the loss of his soul. Many\nmen will be so profuse, and will spend at that prodigal rate, that\nthey will bring a thousand pound a year to five hundred, and five\nhundred to fifty, and some also will bring that fifty to less than\nninepence; 30 but what is this to him that shall never leave losing\nuntil he has lost his soul? I have heard of some who would throw\naway a farm, a good estate, upon the trundling of one single bowl;31\nbut what is this to the casting away of the soul? Nothing can for\nbadness be compared to sin; it is the vile thing, it cannot have\na worse name than its own; it is worse than the vilest men, than\nthe vilest of beasts; yea, sin is worse than the devil himself, for\nit is sin, and sin only, that hath made the devils devils; and yet\nfor this, for this vile, this abominable thing, some men, yea, most\nmen, will venture the loss of their soul; yea, they will mortgage,\npawn, and set their souls to sale for it (Jer 44:4). Is not this\na great waster? doth not this man deserve to be ranked among the\nextravagant ones? What think you of him who, when he tempted the\nwench to uncleanness, said to her, If thou wilt venture thy body,\nI'll venture my soul? Was not here like to be a fine bargain, think\nyou? or was not this man like to be a gainer by so doing? This is\nhe that prizes sin at a higher rate than he doth his immortal soul;\nyea, this is he that esteems a quarter of an hour's pleasure more\nthan he fears everlasting d amnation. What shall I say? This man\nis minded to give more to be damned, than God requires he should\ngive to be saved; is not this an extravagant one? 'Be astonished,\nO ye heavens! at this, and be horribly afraid!' (Jer 2:9-12). Yea,\nlet all the angels stand amazed at the unaccountable prodigality\nof such an one.\n\nObjection 1. But some may say, I cannot believe that God will be\nso severe as to cast away into hell fire an immortal soul for a\nlittle sin.\n\nAnswer. I know thou canst not believe it, for if thou couldst, thou\nwouldst sooner eat fire than run this hazard; and hence all they\nthat go down to the lake of fire are called the unbelievers; and\nthe Lord shall cut thee, that makest this objection, asunder, and\nshall appoint thee thy portion with such, except thou believe the\ngospel, and repent (Luke 12:46).\n\nObjection 2. But surely, though God should be so angry at the\nbeginning, it cannot in time but grieve Him to see and hear souls\nroaring in hell, and that for a little sin.\n\nAnswer. Whatsoever God doeth, it abideth for ever (Eccl 3:14). He\ndoth nothing in a passion, or in an angry fit; He proceedeth with\nsinners by the most perfect rules of justice; wherefore it would be\ninjustice, to deliver them whom the law condemneth, yea, He would\nfalsify His word, if after a time He should deliver them from\nhell, concerning whom He hath solemnly testified, that they shall\nbe there for ever.\n\nObjection 3. O but, as He is just, so He is merciful; and mercy is\npitiful, and very compassionate to the afflicted.\n\nAnswer. O, but mercy abused becomes most fearful in tormenting.\nDid you never read that the Lamb turned lion, and that the world\nwill tremble at the wrath of the Lamb, and be afflicted more at\nthe thoughts of that, than at the thoughts of anything that shall\nhappen to them in the day when God shall call them to an account\nfor their sins? (Rev 6:16,17). The time of mercy will be then\npast, for now is that acceptable time, behold now is the day of\nsalvation; the gate of mercy will then be shut, and must not be\nopened again; for now is that gate open, now it is open for a door\nof hope (2 Cor 6:2; Matt 25:10; Luke 13:25).\n\nThe time of showing pity and compassion will then be at an end; for\nthat as to acting towards sinners will last but till the glass of\nthe world is run, and when that day is past, mark what God saith\nshall follow, 'I will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when\nyour fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your\ndestruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh\nupon you' (Prov 1:26,27). Mark you how many pinching expressions\nthe Lord Jesus Christ doth threaten the refusing sinner with; the\nsinner with, that refuseth Him now--I will laugh at him, I will\nmock at him. But when, Lord, wilt thou laugh at, and mock at, the\nimpenitent? The answer is, 'I will laugh at their calamities, and\nmock when their fear cometh; when their fear cometh as desolation,\nand their destruction like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish\ncometh upon them.'\n\nObjection 4. But if God Almighty be at this point, and there be\nno moving of Him to mercy at that day, yet we can but lie in hell\ntill we are burnt out, as the log doth at the back of the fire.\n\nAnswer. Poor besotted sinner, is this thy last shift? wilt thou\ncomfort thyself with this? Are thy sins so dear, so sweet, so\ndesireable, so profitable to thee, that thou wilt venture a burning\nin hell fire for them till thou art burnt out? Is there nothing\nelse to be done but to make a covenant with death, and to maintain\nthy agreement with hell? (Isa 28:15). Is it not better to say now\nunto God, Do not condemn me? and to say now, Lord, be merciful\nto me, a sinner? Would not tears, and prayers, and cries, in this\nacceptable time, to God for mercy, yield thee more benefit in the\nnext world than to lie and burn out in hell will do?\n\nBut to come more close to thee. Have not I told thee already that\nthere is no such thing as a ceasing to be? that the damned shall\nnever be burned out in hell? there shall be no more such death,\nor cause of dissolution for ever. This one thing, well considered,\nbreaks not only the neck of that wild conceit on which thy foolish\nobjection is built, but will break thy stubborn heart in pieces.\nFor then it follows, that unless thou canst conquer God, or with\nease endure to conflict with His sin-revenging wrath, thou wilt be\nmade to mourn while under His everlasting wrath and indignation;\nand to know that there is not such a thing as a burning out in hell\nfire.\n\nObjection 5. But, if this must be my case, I shall have more fellows;\nI shall not go to hell, nor yet burn there, alone.\n\nAnswer. What, again; is there no breaking of the league that is\nbetwixt sin and thy soul? What, resolved to be a self-murderer,\na soul murderer? what, resolved to murder thine own soul? But is\nthere any comfort in being hanged with company? in sinking into the\nbottom of the sea with company? or in going to hell, in burning in\nhell, and in enduring the everlasting pains of hell, with company?\nO besotted wretch! But I tell thee, the more company, the more\nsorrow; the more fuel, the more fire. Hence the damned man that\nwe read of in Luke desired that his brethren might be so warned\nand prevailed with as to be kept out of that place of torment (Luke\n16:27,28). But to hasten; I come now to the second use.\n\nUSE SECOND.--Is it so? Is the soul such an excellent thing, and\nthe loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then here you may see who\nare the greatest fools in the world--to wit, those who, to get the\nworld and its preferments, will neglect God till they lose their\nsouls. The rich man in the gospel was one of these great fools, for\nthat he was more concerned about what he should do with his goods,\nthan how his soul should be saved (Luke 7:16-21). Some are for\nventuring their souls for pleasures, and some are for venturing\ntheir souls for profits; they that venture their souls for pleasures\nhave but little excuse for their doings; but they that venture\ntheir soul for profit seem to have much. 'And they all with one\nconsent began to make excuse;'--excuse for what? why, for the\nneglect of the salvation of their souls. But what was the cause\nof their making this excuse? Why, their profits came tumbling in.\n'I have bought a piece of ground;' 'I have bought five yoke of\noxen;' and 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come'\n(Luke 14:15-20).\n\nThus also it was with the fool first mentioned; his ground did\nbring forth plentifully, wherefore he must of necessity forget his\nsoul, and, as he thought, all the reason of the world he should.\nWherefore, he falls to crying out, What shall I do? Now, had one\nsaid, Mind the good of thy soul, man; the answer would have been\nready, But where shall I bestow my goods. If it had been replied,\nStay till harvest; he returns again, But I have no room where\nto bestow my goods. Now, tell him of praying, and he answers, he\nmust go to building. Tell him, he should frequent sermons, and he\nreplies, he must mind his workmen. 'He cannot deliver his soul,\nnor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?' (Isa 44:20).\n\nAnd see if, in the end, he did not become a fool; for though he\naccomplished the building of his barns, and put in there all his\nfruits and his goods, yet even till now his soul was empty, and\nvoid of all that was good; nor did he, in singing of that requiem\nwhich he sung to his soul at last, saying, 'Soul, take thine ease,\neat, drink, and be merry,' show himself ever the wiser; for, in\nall his labours he had rejected to get that food that indeed is\nmeat and drink for the soul. Nay, in singing this song he did but\nprovoke God to hasten to send to fetch his soul to hell; for so\nbegins the conclusion of the parable--'Thou fool, this night thy\nsoul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be\nwhich thou hast provided?' So that, I say, it is the greatest folly\nin the world for a man, upon any pretence what ever, to neglect to\nmake good the salvation of his soul.\n\nThere are six signs of a fool, and they do all meet in that same\nman that concerns not himself, and that to good purpose, for the\nsalvation of his soul. 1. A fool has not an heart, when the price\nis in his hand, to get wisdom. (Prov 17:16). 2. 'It is a sport to\na fool to do mischief.' and to set light by the commission of sin\n(Prov 10:23). 3. 'Fools despise wisdom;' 'fools hate knowledge'\n(Prov 1:7,22). 4. 'A fool,' after restraint, 'returneth to his\nfolly' (Prov 26:11). 5. 'The way of a fool is right in his own\neyes' (Prov 7:15). 6. The fool goes merrily 'to the correction of\nthe stocks' (Prov 7:22).\n\nI might add many more, but these six shall suffice at this time,\nby which it appears that the fool has no heart for the heavenly\nprize, yet he has to sport himself in sin; and when he despises\nwisdom, the way is yet right before him; yea, if he be for some\ntime restrained from vice, he greedily turneth again thereto, and\nwill, when he has finished his course of folly and sin in this world,\ngo as heedlessly, as carelessly, as unconcernedly, and quietly,\ndown the steps to hell, as the ox goeth to the slaughter-house,\nThis is a soul fool, a fool of the biggest size; and so is every\none also that layeth up treasure for himself on earth, 'and is not\nrich towards God' (Luke 7:21).\n\nObjection 1. But would you not have us mind our worldly concerns?\n\nAnswer. Mind them, but mind them in their place; mind thy soul first\nand most; the soul is more than the body, and eternal life better\nthan temporal; first seek the kingdom of God, and prosper in thy\nhealth and thy estate as thy soul prospers (Matt 6:33; 3 John 2).\nBut as it is rare to see this command obeyed, for the kingdom of God\nshall be thought of last, so if John's wish was to light upon, or\nhappen to some people, they would neither have health nor wealth in\nthis world. To prosper and be in health, as their soul prospers--what,\nto thrive and mend in outwards no faster? then we should have them\nhave consumptive bodies and low estates; for are not the souls of\nmost as unthrifty, for grace and spiritual health, as is the tree\nwithout fruit that is pulled up by the roots?\n\nObjection 2. But would you have us sit still and do nothing?\n\nAnswer. And must you needs be upon the extremes? must you mind\nthis world to the damning of your souls? or will you not mind your\ncallings at all? Is there not a middle way? may you not, must you\nnot, get your bread in a way of honest industry; that is, caring\nmost for the next world, and so using of this as not abusing the\nsame? (1 Cor 7: 20-31). And then a man doth so, and never but\nthen, when he sets this world and the next in their proper places,\nin his thoughts, in his esteem, and judgment, and dealeth with\nboth accordingly (2 Cor 4:18). And is there not all the reason in\nthe world for this? are not the things that are eternal best? Will\ntemporal things make thy soul to live? or art thou none of those\nthat should look after the salvation of their soul? (Deu 8:3; Matt\n5:4; Heb10:39).\n\nObjection 3. But the most of men do that which you forbid, and why\nmay not we?\n\nAnswer. God says, 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil'\n(Exo 23:2). It is not what men do, but what God commands; it is not\nwhat doth present itself unto us, but what is best, that we should\nchoose (Matt 6:23; Luke 10:41,42). Now, 'He that refuseth instruction,\ndespiseth his own soul;' and 'He that keepeth the commandment,\nkeepeth his own soul' (Prov 15:32; 19:16). Make not, therefore,\nthese foolish objections. But what saith the Word? how readest thou?\nThat tells thee, that the pleasures of sin are but for a season;\nthat the things that are seen are but temporal; that he is a fool\nthat is rich in this world, and is not so towards God; 'and what\nshall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose\nhis own soul?'\n\nObjection 4. But may one not be equally engaged for both?\n\nAnswer. A divided heart is a naughty one (Heb 10:2). 'You cannot\nserve God and mammon' (Matt 6:24; Luke 16:13). 'If any man love\nthe world, the love of the Father is not in him,' (1 John 2:15);\nand yet this objection bespeaks that thy heart is divided, that thou\nart a Mammonist, or that thou lovest the world. But will riches\nprofit in the day of wrath? (Prov 11:4). Yea, are they not hurtful\nin the day of grace? do they not tend to surfeit the heart, and to\nalienate a man and his mind from the things that are better? (Luke\n21:34). Why, then, wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not?\nyea, then what will become of them that are so far off of minding\nof their souls, that they, for whole months, and years together,\nscarce consider whether they have souls to save?\n\nUSE THIRD.--But, thirdly, is it so? Is the soul such an excellent\nthing, and is the loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then this should\nteach people to be very careful to whom they commit the teaching\nand guidance of their souls.\n\nThis is a business of the greatest concern; men will be careful\nto whom they commit their children, who they make the executors of\ntheir will, in whose hand they trust the writing and evidences of\ntheir lands; but how much more careful should we be, and yet the most\nare the least of all careful, unto whom they commit the teaching and\nguidance of their souls. There are several sorts of soul shepherds\nin the world: 1. There are idol shepherds (Zech 6:5). 2. There are\nfoolish shepherds (Zech 11:15). 3. There are shepherds that feed\nthemselves, and not their flock (Eze 34:2) 4. There are hard-hearted\nand pitiless shepherds (Zech 9: 3). 5. There are shepherds that,\ninstead of healing, smite, push, and wound the diseased (Eze 34:4,21).\n6. There are shepherds that 'cause their flocks to go astray' (Jer\n50:6). 7. And there are shepherds that feed their flock; these are\nthe shepherds to whom thou shouldst commit thy soul for teaching\nand for guidance.\n\nQuestion. You may ask, How should I know those shepherds?\n\nAnswer. First, surrender up thy soul unto God, by Christ, and choose\nChrist to be the chief Shepherd of thy soul; and He will direct\nthee to His shepherds, and He will, of His mercy, set such shepherds\nover thee 'as shall feed thee with knowledge and understanding' (1\nPeter 2:25; 4:19; John 10:4,5; Song 1:7, 8; Jer 3:15; 23:4). Before\nthou hast surrendered up thy soul to Christ, that He may be thy\nchief Shepherd, thou canst not find out, nor choose to put thy\nsoul under the teaching and guidance of His under shepherds, for\nthou canst not love them; besides, they are so set forth by false\nshepherds, in so many ugly guises, and under so many false and\nscandalous dresses, that, should I direct thee to them while thou\nart a stranger to Christ, thou wilt count them deceivers, devourers,\nand wolves in sheeps' clothing, rather than the shepherds that\nbelong to the great and chief Shepherd, who is, also, the Bishop\nof the soul.\n\nYet this I will say unto thee, take heed of that shepherd that\ncareth not for his own soul, that walketh in ways, and doth such\nthings, as have a direct tendency to damn his own soul; I say,\ntake heed of such an one, come not near him, let him have nothing\nto do with thy soul; for if he be not faithful to that which be his\nown soul, be sure he will not be faithful to that which is another\nman's. He that feeds his own soul with ashes, will scarce feed thine\nwith the bread of life; wherefore, take heed of such an one; and\nmany such there are in the world (Isa 44:20). 'By their fruits you\nshall know them;' they are for flattering of the worst, and frowning\nupon the best; they are for promising of life to the profane, and\nfor slaying the souls that God would have live; they are also men\nthat hunt souls that fear God, but for sewing pillows under those\narm holes which God would have to lean upon that which would\nafflict them. These be them 'that, with lies, do make the heart of\nthe righteous sad, whom I have not made sad;' saith God; and that\nhave 'strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he shall not return\nfrom his wicked way, by promising of him life' (Eze 13:18-22).\n\nAnd as thou shouldest, for thy soul's sake, choose for thyself good\nsoul shepherds, so also, for the same reason, you should choose\nfor yourself a good wife, a good husband, a good master, a good\nservant; for in all these things the soul is concerned. Abraham\nwould not suffer Isaac to take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,\n(Gen 24:3); nor would David suffer a wicked servant to come into\nhis house, or to tarry in his sight (Psa 101:7). Bad company is,\nalso, very destructive to the soul, and so is evil communication;\nwherefore, be diligent to shun all these things, that thou mayest\npersevere in that way, the end of which will be the saving of thy\nsoul (Prov 13:20; 1 Cor 15:33).\n\nAnd since, under this head, I am fallen upon cautions, let me add\nthese to those which I have presented to thee already:\n\nCaution 1. Take heed, take heed of learning to do evil of any that\nare good. 'Tis possible for a good man to do things that are bad;\nbut let not his bad action embolden thee to run upon sin. Seest\nthou a good man that stumbleth at a stone, or that slippeth into\nthe dirt--let that warn thee to take heed; let his stumble make\nthee wary, let his fall make thee look well to thy goings; 'ever\nfollow that which is good' (1 Thess 5:15). Thy soul is at stake.\n\nCaution 2. Take heed of the good things of bad men, for in them\nthere lies a snare also; their 'good words and fair speeches' tend\nto deceive (Rom 16:17, 18). Learn to be good, by the Word of God\nand by the holy lives of them that be good; envy not the wicked,\n'nor desire to be with them;' 'choose none of his ways' (Prov 3:31;\n24:1). Thy soul lies at stake.\n\nCaution 3. Take heed of playing the hypocrite in religion. What of\nGod and His Word thou knowest, profess it honestly, conform to it\nheartily, serve Him faithfully; for what is the hypocrite bettered\nby all his profession, 'when God taketh away his soul?' (Job 27:8).\n\nCaution 4. Take heed of delays to turn to God, and of choosing His\nways for the delight of thy heart, 'for the Lord's eye is upon them\nthat fear Him, to deliver their souls' (Psa 33:18,19).\n\nCaution 5. Boast not thyself of thy flocks and thy herds, of thy gold\nand thy silver, of thy sons and of thy daughters. What is a house\nfull of treasures, and all the delights of this world, if thou be\nempty of grace, 'if thy soul be not filled with good?' (Eccl 6:3).\nBut,\n\nUSE FOURTH.--Is it so? Is the soul such an excellent thing, and is\nthe loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then, I pray thee, let me\ninquire a little of thee, what provision thou hast made for thy\nsoul? There be many that, through their eagerness after the things\nof this life, do bereave their soul of good, even of that good the\nwhich if they had it would be a good to them for ever (Eccl 4:8).\nBut I ask not concerning this; it is not what provision thou hast\nmade for this life, but what for the life, and the world to come.\n'Lord, gather not my soul with sinners,' saith David, (Psa 26:9);\nnot with men of this world: Lord, not with them that have their\nportion in this life, whose belly Thou fillest with Thy hid treasures.\nThus you see how Solomon laments some, and how his father prays to\nbe delivered from their lot who have their portion in this life,\nand that have not made provision for their soul. Well, then, let\nme inquire of thee about this matter. What provision hast thou made\nfor thy soul? And,\n\n1. What hast thou thought of thy soul? What ponderous thoughts hast\nthou had of the greatness and of the immortality of thy soul? This\nmust be the first inquiry: for he that hath not had his thoughts\ntruly exercised, ponderously exercised, about the greatness and the\nimmortality of his soul, will not be careful, after an effectual\nmanner, to make provision for his soul, for the life and world\nto come. The soul is a man's all, whether he knows it or no, as I\nhave already showed you. Now a man will be concerned about what\nhe thinks is his all. We read of the poor servant that 'setteth\nhis heart upon' his wages (Deu 24:14,15). But it is because it is\nhis all, his treasure, and that wherein his worldly worth lieth.\nWhy, thy soul is thy all; it is strange if thou dost not think so!\nand more strange if thou dost think so, and yet hast light, seldom,\nand trivial thoughts about it. These two seem to be inconsistent,\ntherefore let thy conscience speak; either thou hast very great\nand weighty thoughts about the excellent greatness of thy soul, or\nelse thou dost not count that thy soul is so great a thing as it\nis, else thou dost not count it thy all.\n\n2. What judgment hast thou made of the present state of thy soul?\nI speak now to the unconverted. Thy soul is under sin, under the\ncurse, and an object of wrath; this is that sentence that by the\nWord is passed upon it--'Woe unto their soul,' saith God, 'for\nthey have rewarded evil unto themselves.' (Isa 3:9). This is the\nsentence of God. Well, but what judgment hast thou passed upon it\nwhile thou livest in thy debaucheries? Is it not that which thy\nfellows have passed on theirs before thee, saying, 'I shall have\npeace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add\ndrunkenness to thirst' (Deu 29:19). If so, know thy judgment is\ngross, thy soul is miserable, and turn, or in little time thine\neyes will behold all this.\n\n3. What care hast thou had of securing of thy soul, and that it\nmight be delivered from the danger that by sin it is brought into?\nif a man has a horse, a cow, or a swine that is sick, or in danger\nby reason of this or that casualty, he will take care for his beast,\nthat it may not perish; he will pull it out of the ditch on the\nSabbath day. But, oh! that is the day on which many men do put their\nsoul into the ditch of sin; that is the day that they set apart to\npursue wickedness in. 32 But, I say, what care hast thou taken to\nget thy soul out of this ditch?--a ditch out of which thou canst never\nget it without the aid of an omnipotent arm. In things pertaining\nto this life, when a man feels his own strength fail, he will\nimplore the help and aid of another; and no man can, by any means,\ndeliver by his own arm his soul from the power of hell, which thou\nalso wilt confess, if thou beest not a very brute; but what hast\nthou done with God for help? hast thou cried? hast thou cried\nout? yea, dost thou still cry out, and that day and night before\nhim--'Deliver my soul' (Psa 17:13) 'Save my soul, preserve my soul'\n(Psa 25:20) 'Heal my soul,' (Psa 42:4), and, 'I pour out my soul\nunto thee?' (Psa 62:5). Yea, canst thou say, My soul, my soul waiteth\nupon God, my soul thirsteth for Him, my soul followeth hard after\nhim? (Psa 63:1,8). I say, dost thou this, or dost thou hunt thine\nown soul to destroy it? The soul, with some, is the game, their\nlusts are the dogs, and they themselves are the huntsmen, and\nnever do they more halloo, and lure, and laugh, and sing, than when\nthey have delivered up their soul, their darling, to these dogs--a\nthing that David trembled to think of, when he cried, 'Dogs have\ncompassed me. Deliver my darling,' my soul, 'from the power of the\ndog' (Psa 22:16,20). Thus, I say, he cried, and yet these dogs were\nbut wicked men. But, oh! how much is a sin, a lust, worst than a\nman to do us hurt; yea, worse than is a dog, (or) a lion, to hurt\na lamb!\n\n4. What are the signs and tokens that thou bearest about thee,\nconcerning how it will go with thy soul at last? There are signs\nand tokens of a good, and signs and tokens of a bad end that the\nsouls of sinners will have; there are signs of the salvation of the\nsoul, (Heb 6:9); evident tokens of salvation; and there are signs\nof the damnation of the soul, evident signs of damnation (Phil\n1:27,28; Job 21:29,30; 1 Sam 3:9). Now, which of these hast thou?\nI cannot stand here to show thee which are which; but thy soul and\nits salvation lieth before thee, and thou hast the book [the Holy\nBible] of signs about these matters by thee; thou hast also men of\nGod to go to, and their assemblies to frequent. Look to thyself;\nheaven and hell are hard by, and one of them will swallow thee up;\nheaven, into unspeakable and endless glory, or hell, into unspeakable\nand endless torment. Yet,\n\n5. What are the pleasures and delights of thy soul now? Are they\nthings Divine, or things natural? Are they things heavenly, or\nthings earthly? Are they things holy, or things unholy? For look\nwhat think thou delightest in now, to those things the great God\ndoth count thee a servant, and for and of those thou shalt receive\nthy wages at the day of judgment--'His servants ye are to whom ye\nobey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness'\n(Rom 16:16).\n\nWicked men talk of heaven, and say they hope and desire to go\nto heaven, even while they continue wicked men; but, I say, what\nwould they do there? If all that desire to go to heaven should come\nthither, verily they would make a hell of heaven; for, I say, what\nwould they do there? why, just as they do here, scatter their\nfilthiness quite over the face of heaven, and make it as vile\nas the pit that the devils dwell in. 33 Take holiness away out of\nheaven, and what is heaven? I had rather be in hell, were there\nnone but holy ones there, than be in heaven itself with the children\nof iniquity. If heaven should be filled with wicked men, God would\nquickly drive them out, or forsake the place for their sakes. It\nis true, they have been sinners, and none but sinners, that go to\nheaven; but they are washed--' Such were some of you; but ye are\nwashed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name\nof the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor 6:11). When\nthe maidens were gathered together for the great king Ahasuerus,\nbefore they were brought to him into his royal presence, they were to\nbe had to the house of the women, there to be purifed with things\nfor purification, and that for twelve months together--to wit,\nsix months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours,\nand other things, and so came every maiden to the king (Esth\n2:3,9,12,13). God also hath appointed that those that come into\nHis royal presence should first go to the house of the women, the\nchurch, 34 and there receive of the eunuchs things for purification,\nthings to make us 'meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the\nsaints in light' (Col 1:12). None can go from a state of nature\nto glory but by a state of grace, the Lord gives grace and glory;\nhence he that goeth to heaven is said to be wrought for it, fitted,\nprepared for it (1 Cor 5:5; Rom 19:23).\n\nUSE FIFTH, Again, fifthly, Is it so? is the soul such an excellent\nthing, and is the loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then this\ndoctrine commends those for the wise ones, that above all business\nconcern themselves with the salvation of their souls; those that\nmake all other matters but things by the by, and the salvation of\ntheir souls the one thing needful. But, but few comparatively will\nbe concerned with this use; for where is he that doth this? Solomon\nspeaks of one man of a thousand (Eccl 7:28). However, some there\nbe, and blessed be God for some; but they are they that are wise,\nyea, wise in the wisdom of God.\n\n1. Because they reject what God hath rejected and that is sin.\n2. Because they esteem but little of that which, by the Word, is\ncounted but of little esteem, and that is the world. 3. Because\nthey choose for a portion that which God commendeth unto us for\nthat which is the most excellent thing--viz., Himself, His Christ,\nHis heaven, His Word, His grace, and holiness; these are the great\nand most excellent things, and the things that He has chosen that\nis truly wise for his soul (and all other wise men are fools in\nGod's account, and in the judgment of His Word), and if it be so,\nglory and bliss must needs be their portion, though others shall\nmiss thereof--'The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be\nthe promotion of fools' (Prov 3:35).\n\nLet me, then, encourage those that are of this mind to be strong,\nand hold on their way. Soul, thou hast pitched right; I will say of\nthy choice as David said of Goliath's sword, 'There is none like\nthat; give it me.' 'Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man\ntake thy crown' (Rev 3:11). Oh! I admire this wisdom; this is by the\ndirection of the Lawgiver; this is by the teaching of the blessed\nSpirit of God: not the wisdom which this world teacheth, nor the\nwisdom which the world doth choose, which comes to nought (1 Cor\n2: 6). Surely thou hast seen something of the world to come, and\nof the glory of it, through faith; surely God has made thee see\nemptiness in that wherein others find a fulness, and vanity in\nthat which by others is counted for a darling. Blessed are thine\neyes, for they see; and thine ears, for they hear.\n\nBut who told thee that thy soul was such an excellent thing as\nby thy practice thou declarest thou believest it to be? What! set\nmore by thy soul than by all the world? What! cast a world behind\nthy back for the welfare of a soul? Is not this to play the fool,\nin the account of sinners, while angels wonder at and rejoice for\nthy wisdom? What a thing is this, that thy soul and its welfare\nshould be more in thy esteem than all those glories wherewith the\neyes of the world are dazzled! Surely thou hast looked upon the\nsun, and that makes gold look like a clod of clay in thine eyesight.\n\nBut who put the thoughts of the excellencies of the things that are\neternal--I say, who put the thoughts of the excellency of those\nthings into thy mind in this wanton age?--in an age wherein the\nthoughts of eternal life, and the salvation of the soul, are with\nand to many like the Morocco ambassador and his men, men of strange\nfaces, in strange habit, with strange gestures and behaviour,\nmonsters to behold. But where hadst thou that heart that gives\nentertainment to these thoughts, these heavenly thoughts? These\nthoughts are like the French Protestants, banished thence where\nthey willingly would have harbour.35 How came they to thy house,\nto thy heart, and to find entertainment in thy sou1? The Lord keep\nthem in every imagination of the thoughts of thy heart for ever,\nand incline thine heart to seek Him more and more.\n\nAnd since the whole world have slighted and despised, and counted\nfoolish the thoughts and cogitations wherewith thy soul is exercised,\nwhat strong and mighty supporter is it upon and with which thou\nbearest up thy spirit, and takest encouragement in this thy forlorn,\nunoccupied, and singular way? for so, I daresay, it is with the\nmost; but certainly it is something above thyself, and that is more\nmighty to uphold thee than is the power, rage, and malice of all\nthe world to cast thee down, or else thou couldst not bear up, now\nwind and weather, now the stream and the force thereof are against\nthee.\n\nObjection 1. 'I know my soul is an excellent thing, and that the\nworld to come and its glories, even in the smallest glimpse thereof,\ndo swallow up all the world that is here; my heart also doth greatly\ndesire to be exercised about the thoughts of eternity, and I count\nmyself never better than when my poor heart is filled with them;\nas for the rage and fury of this world, it swayeth very little with\nme, for my heart is come to a point; but yet, for all that, I meet\nwith many discouragements, and such things that indeed do weaken\nmy strength in the way.'\n\nBut, brave soul, pray tell me what the things are that discourage\nthee, and that weaken thy strength in the way?\n\nWhy, the amazing greatness of this my enterprise, that is one\nthing. I am now pursuing things of the highest, the greatest, the\nmost enriching nature, even eternal things; and the thoughts of\nthe greatness of them drowned me; for when the heat of my spirit in\nthe pursuit after them is a little returned and abated, methinks I\nhear myself talking thus to myself: Fond fool! canst thou imagine\nthat such a gnat, a flea, a pismire as thou art, can take and\npossess the heavens, and mantle thyself up in the eternal glories?\nIf thou makest first a trial of the successfulness of thy endeavours\nupon things far lower, more base, but much more easy to obtain, as\ncrowns, kingdoms, earldoms, dukedoms, gold, silver, or the like,\nhow vain are these attempts of thine; and yet thou thinkest to\npossess thy soul of heaven! Away, away! by the height thereof thou\nmayest well conclude it is far above out of thy reach; and by the\nbreadth thereof it is too large for thee to grasp; and by the nature\nof the excellent glory thereof, too good for thee to possess. These\nare the thoughts that sometimes discourage me, and that weaken my\nstrength in the way.\n\nAnswer. The greatness of thy undertaking does but show the nobleness\nof thy soul, in that it cannot, will not, be content with such low\nand dry as the baseborn spirits that are of the world can and do\ncontent themselves withal. And as to the greatness of the things\nthou aimest at, though they be, err they are indeed, things that\nhave not their like, yet they are not too big for God to give, and\nHe has promised to give them to the soul that seeketh Him; yea, He\nhath prepared the kingdom, given the kingdom, and laid up in the\nkingdom of heaven, the things that thy soul longeth for, presseth\nafter, and cannot be content without (Luke 7:32; Matt 25:14; Col\n1:5; 1 Peter 1:4). As for thy making a trial of the successfulness\nof thy endeavours upon things more interim and base, that is but\na trick of the old deceiver. God has refused to give His children\nthe great, the brave, and glorious things of this world, a few\nonly excepted, because He has prepared some better thing for them\n(1 Cor 1:27; Heb 11:36-40). Wherefore faint not, but let thy hand\nbe strong, for thy work shall be rewarded (Gal 6:9). And since thy\nsoul is at work for soul-things, for divine and eternal things,\nGod will give them to thee; thou art not of the number of them that\ndraw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving\nof the soul; thou shalt receive the end of thy faith, the salvation\nof thy soul (Heb 10:39; 1 Peter 1:8,9).\n\nObjection 2. But all my discouragement doth not lie in this. I see\nso much of the sinful vileness of my nature, and feel how ready\nit is to thrust itself forth at all occasions to the defiling of\nmy whole man, and more. Now this added to the former, adds to my\ndiscouragement greatly.\n\nAnswer. This should be cause of humiliation and of self-abasement,\nbut not of discouragement; for the best of saints have their\nweaknesses, these their weaknesses. The ladies as well as she that\ngrinds at the mill, know what doth attend that sex; and the giants\nin grace as well as the weak and shrubs, are sensible of the same\nthings, which thou layest in against thy exercising of hope, or as\nmatter of thy discouragement. Poor David says (Psa 77:2) 'My soul\nrefused to be comforted,' upon this very account, and Paul cries\nout under sense of this, 'O wretched man that I am!' and comes as\nit were to the borders of doubt, saying, 'Who shall deliver me?'\n(Rom 7:24). Only he was quick at remembering that Christ was his\nrighteousness and price of redemption, and there he relieved himself.\n\nAgain; this should drive us to faith in Christ; for therefore are\nthe corruptions by Divine permission still left in us; they are not\nleft in us to drive us to unbelief, but to faith--that is, to look\nto the perfect righteousness of Christ for life. And for further\nhelp, consider, that therefore Christ liveth in heaven, making\nintercession, that thou mightest be saved by His life, not by thine,\nand by His intercessions, not by thy perfections (Rom 5: 6-9; Col\n1:20). Let not therefore thy weaknesses be thy discouragements;\nonly let them put thee upon the duties required of thee by the\ngospel--to wit, faith, hope, repentance, humility, watchfulness,\ndiligence, etc. (1 Peter 1:13; 5:5; 2 Cor 7:11; Mark 13:37; 2 Peter\n1:10).\n\nObjection 3. But I find, together with these things, weakness and\nfaintness as to my graces; my faith my hope, my love, and desires\nto these and all other Christian duties are weak; I am like the man\nin the dream, that would have run, but could not; that would have\nfought, but could not; and that would have fled, but could not.\n\nAnswer 1. Weak graces are graces, weak graces may grow stronger;\nbut if the iron be blunt, put to the more strength (Eccl 10:10).\n2. Christ seems to be most tender of the weak: 'He shall gather the\nlambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently\nlead those that are with young.' (Isa 40:11). And again, 'I will\nseek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven\naway, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen\nthat which was sick' (Eze 34:16). Only here will thy wisdom\nbe manifested--to wit, that thou grow in grace, and that thou use\nlawfully and diligently the means to do it (2 Peter 3:18; Phil\n2:10,11; 1 Thess 3:11-13).\n\nUSE SIXTH, I come, in the next place, to a use of terror, and so\nI shall conclude. Is it so? is the soul such an excellent thing,\nand is the loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then this showeth\nthe sad state of those that lose their souls. We use to count those\nin a deplorable condition, that by one only stroke, are stript of\ntheir whole estate; the fire swept away all that he had; or all that\nhe had was in such a ship, and that ship sunk into the bottom of\nthe sea; this is sad news, this is heavy tidings, this is bewailed\nof all, especially if such were great in the world, and were brought\nby their loss from a high to a low, to a very low condition; but\nalas! what is this to the loss about which we have been speaking\nall this while? The loss of an estate may be repaired, or if not,\na man may find friends in his present deplorable condition to his\nsupport, though not recovery; but far will this be from him that\nshall lose his soul. Ah! he has lost his soul, and can never be\nrecovered again, unless hell fire can comfort him; unless he can\nsolace himself in the fiery indignation of God; terrors will be\nupon him, anguish and sorrow will swallow him up, because of present\nmisery; slighted and set at nought by God and His angels, he will\nalso be in this miserable state, and this will add to sorrow,\nsorrow, and to his vexation of spirit, howling.\n\nTo present you with emblems of tormented spirits, or to draw\nbefore your eyes the picture of hell, are things too light for so\nponderous a subject as this; nor can any man frame or invent words,\nbe they never so deep and profound, sufficient to the life to set\nout the torments of hell.\n\nAll those expressions of fire, brimstone, the lake of fire, a fiery\nfurnace, the bottomless pit, and a hundred more to boot, are all\ntoo short to let forth the miseries of those that shall be damned\nsouls. 'Who knoweth the power or God's anger?' (Psa 90:11). None\nat all; and unless the power of that can be known, it must abide\nas unspeakable as the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.\n\nWe hear it thunder, we see it lighten; yea, eclipses, comets, and\nblazing stars are all subject to smite us with terror; the thought\nof a ghost, of the appearing of a dead wife, a dead husband, or the\nlike, how terrible are these things! 36 But alas, what are these?\nmere flea bitings, nay, not so bad, when compared with the torments\nof hell. Guilt and despair, what are they? Who understands them unto\nperfection? The ireful looks of an infinite Majesty, what mortal\nin the land of the living can tell us to the full, how dismal and\nbreaking to the soul of a man it is, when it comes as from 'the\npower of His anger,' and arises from the utmost indignation? Besides,\nwho knows of all the ways by which the Almighty will inflict His\njust revenges upon the souls of damned sinners? When Paul was caught\nup to the third heaven, he heard words that were unspeakable; and\nhe that goes down to hell shall hear groans that are unutterable.\nHear, did I say? they shall feel them, they shall feel them burst\nfrom their wounded spirit as thunderclaps do from the clouds. Once I\ndreamed that I saw two (whom I knew) in hell, and methought I saw\na continual dropping from heaven, as of great drops of fire lighting\nupon them, to their sore distress. Oh! words are wanting, thoughts\nare wanting, imagination and fancy are poor things here; hell is\nanother kind of place and state than any alive can think; and since\nI am upon this subject, I will here treat a little of hell as the\nScriptures will give me leave, and the rather because I am upon a\nuse of terror, and because hell is the place of torment (Luke 16).\n\n1. Hell is said to be beneath, as heaven is said to be above;\nbecause as above signifieth the utmost joy, triumph, and felicity,\nso beneath is a term most fit to describe the place of hell by,\nbecause of the utmost opposition that is between these two; hell\nbeing the place of the utmost sorrow, despair, and misery; there\nare the underlings ever trampled under the feet of God; they are\nbeneath, below, under (Prov 15:24)!\n\n2. Hell is said to be darkness, and heaven is said to be light;\nlight, to show the pleasureableness and the desireableness of heaven;\nand darkness, to show the dolesome and wearisomeness of hell; and\nhow weary, oh! how weary and wearisomely, as I may say, will damned\nsouls turn themselves from side to side, from place to place, in\nhell, while swallowed up in the thickest darkness, and griped with\nthe burning thoughts of the endlessness of that most unutterable\nmisery (Matt 22:13)!\n\n3. Men are said to go up to heaven, but they are said to go down\nto hell; up, because of exaltation, and because they must abound\nin beauty and glory that go to heaven; down, because of those sad\ndejections, that great deformity and vile contempt that sin hath\nbrought them to that go to hell (Eze 32:18).\n\n4. Heaven is called a hill or mount, (Heb 12); hell is called a pit,\nor hole, (Rev 9:2); heaven, a mount, the mount Zion, (Rev 14); to\nshow how God has, and will exalt them that loved Him in the world;\nhell, a pit or hole, to show how all the ungodly shall be buried\nin the yawning paunch and belly of hell, as in a hollow cave.\n\n5. Heaven! It is said of heaven, the height of heaven, (Job 22:12).\nand of hell, the bottomless pit, (Rev 9:2; 20:3). The height\nof heaven, to show that the exaltation of them that do ascend up\nthither is both perfect and unsearchable; and hell, the bottomless\npit, to show that the downfall of them that descend in thither\nwill never be at an end--down, down, down they go, and nothing but\ndown, down still!\n\n6. Heaven! It is called the paradise of God, (Rev 2:7); but hell,\nthe burning lake (Rev 20:15). A paradise, to show how quiet, harmless,\nsweet, and beautiful heaven shall be to them that possess it, as\nthe garden was at the beginning of the creation; hell, the burning\nlake, to allude to Sodom, that since its destruction is turned into\na stinking lake, and to show that as their distress was unutterable,\nand to the highest amazement, full of confusion and horror, when\nthat tempestuous storm of fire and brimstone was rained from the\nLord out of heaven upon them, so, to the utmost degree, shall it\nbe with the souls that are lost and cast into hell.\n\n7. It is said that there are dwelling houses, or places in the\nkingdom of heaven (John 14: 1-3; Zech 3:7; Isa 57:1,2). And also\nthat there are the cells or the chambers of death in hell (Prov\n7:27). There are mansions or dwelling places in heaven, to show\nthat every one of them that go thither might have his reward,\naccording to his work; and that there is hell, and the lowest hell\n(Deu 32:22; Psa 86:13). And the chambers of death in hell to show\nthere are places and states in hell too, for sinners to be imprisoned\nin, according to their faults; hence it is said of some, These\nshall receive greater damnation, (Luke 20:47); and of others, That\nit shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment\nthan for them, etc. (Luke 10:12, 14).\n\nThe lowest hell. How many hells there are above that, or more\ntolerable tormenting places than the most exquisite torments there,\nGod, and they that are there, know best; but degrees without doubt\nthere are; and the term 'lowest' shows the utmost and most exquisite\ndistress; so the chambers of death, the second death in hell, for\nso I think the words should be understood--'Her house is the way to\nhell, going down to the chambers of death' (Prov 7:27). These are\nthe chambers that the chambers in the temple, or that the dwelling\nplaces in the house in heaven, are opposed to: and this opposition\nshows, that as there will be degrees of glory in heaven, so there\nwill of torments in hell; and there is all reason for it, since\nthe punishment must be inflicted by God, the infinitely just. Why\nshould a poor, silly, ignorant man, though damned, be punished\nwith the same degree of torment that he that has lived a thousand\ntimes worse shall be punished with? It cannot be; justice will not\nadmit it; guilt, and the quality of the transgression, will not\nadmit it; yea, the tormenting fire of hell itself will not admit\nit; for if hell fire can kindle upon nothing but sin, and the sinner\nfor the sake of it, and if sin be as oil to that fire, as the Holy\nGhost seems to intimate, saying, 'Let it come into his bowels like\nwater, and like oil into his bones' (Psa 109:18). Then as the\nquantity of the oil is, so will the fire burn, and so will the\nflaming flame ascend, and the smoke of their torment, for ever and\never. Suppose a piece of timber a little bedaubed with oil, and\nanother that has been soaking in it many a year, which of these two,\nthink you, would burn fiercest? and from whence would the flaming\nflame ascend highest, and make the most roaring noise? Suppose\ntwo vessels filled with oil, one containing the quantity of a pint,\nthe other containing the quantity of a hogshead, and suppose that\nin one place they were both set on fire, yet so that they might\nnot intermix flames; nay, though they did, yet all would conclude\nthat the most amazing roaring flame would be upon the biggest\nvessel, and would be the effect of the greatest quantity of oil;\nso it will be with the wicked in hell. The lowest hell is for the\nbiggest sinners, and theirs will be the greater damnation, and the\nmore intolerable torment, though he that has least of this oil of\nsin in his bones, and of the kindlings of hell fire upon him, will\nfind he has hell enough, and will be weary enough thereof, for\nstill he must struggle with flames that are everlasting; for sin\nis such a thing, that it can never be burned out of the soul and\nbody of a damned sinner.\n\nBut again; having treated thus of hell, we will now speak a word\nor two of sin, for that is it upon which hell fire seizes, and so\non the soul by that. Sin! it is the sting of hell--the sting of\ndeath is sin (1 Cor 15:56). By 'death' in this place we must not\nunderstand that which is natural, but that which is in hell, the\nsecond death, even everlasting damnation; for natural death the\nsaints die, yea, and also many sinners, without the least touch of\na sting from that; but here is a death that has a sting to hurt,\nto twinge, and wound the sinner with, even then when it has the\nutmost mastery of him. And this is the death that the saved are\ndelivered from; not that which is natural, for that is the end\nof them as of others (1 Cor 15:55; Eccl 2:15, 16). But the second\ndeath, the death in hell, for that is the portion of the damned, and\nit is from that that the saints have a promise of deliverance--'He\nthat overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death' (Rev 2:11).\nAnd again, 'Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first\nresurrection; on such the second death hath no power' (Rev 20:6).\nIt is this death, then, that hath the chambers to hold each damned\nsoul in: and sin is the twining, winding, biting, poisoning sting\nof this death, or of these chambers of hell, for sinners to be\nstricken, stung, and pierced with. 'The sting of death is sin.' Sin,\nthe general of it, 37 is the sting of hell, for there would be no\nsuch thing as torment even there, were it not that sin is there\nwith sinners; for, as I have hinted already, the fire of hell, the\nindignation and wrath of God, can fasten and kindle upon nothing\nbut for or because of sin; sin, then, as sin, is the sting and the\nhell of hells, of the lowest and upmost hells. Sin, I say, in the\nnature of it, simply as it is concluded both by God and the damned\nto be a breach of His holy law, so it is the sting of the second\ndeath, which is the worm of hell. But then, as sin is such a sting\nin itself, so it is heightened, sharpened, and made more keen and\nsharp by those circumstances that as concomitants attend it in\nevery act: for there is not a sin at any time committed by man,\nbut there is some circumstance or other attends it, that makes it,\nwhen charged home by God's law, bigger and sharper, and more venom\nand poisonous to the soul than if it could be committed without\nthem; and this is the sting of the hornet, the great sting. I sinned\nwithout a cause to please a base lust, to gratify the devil; here\nis the sting! Again, I preferred sin before holiness, death before\nlife, hell before heaven, the devil before God, and damnation before\na Saviour; here is the sting! Again, I preferred moments before\neverlastings, temporals before eternals, to be racked and always\nslaying before the life that is blessed and endless; here is the\nsting! Also, this I did against light, against convictions, against\nconscience, against persuasion of friends, ministers, and the godly\nlives which I beheld in others; here is the sting! Also, this I\ndid against warnings, forewarnings, yea, though I saw others fall\nbefore my face by the mighty hand of God for committing of the\nsame; here is the sting!\n\nSinners, would I could persuade you to hear me out! A man cannot\ncommit a sin, but, by the commission of it, he doth, by some\ncircumstance or other, sharpen the sting of hell, and that to pierce\nhimself through and through, and through, with many sorrows (1 Tim\n6:10) Also, the sting of hell to some will be, that the damnation\nof others stand upon their score, for that by imitating of them, by\nbeing deluded by them, persuaded by them, drawn in by them, they\nperish in hell for ever; and hence it is that these principal\nsinners must die all these deaths in themselves, that those damned\nones that they have drawn into hell are also to bear in their own\nsouls for ever. And this God threatened to the prince of Tyrus,\nthat capital sinner, because by his pride, power, practice, and\npolicy, he cast down others into the pit; therefore saith God to\nhim, 'They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the\ndeaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.' And again;\n'Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of\nstrangers; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God' (Eze 28:8,10).\nAh! this will be the sting of them, of those that are principal,\nchief and, as I may call them, the captain and ringleading sinners.\nVipers will come out of other men's fire and flames, and settle\nupon, seize upon, and for ever abide upon their consciences; and\nthis will be the sting of hell, the great sting of hell to them.\n\nI will yet add to all this; how will the fairness of some for heaven,\neven the thoughts of that, sting them when they come to hell! It\nwill not be so much their fall into the pit, as from whence they\nfell into it, that will be to them the buzzing noise and sharpened\nsting of the great and terrible hornet. 'How art thou fallen from\nheaven, O Lucifer!' there is the sting (Isa 14:12). Thou that art\nexalted up to heaven shalt be thrust down to hell, though thou hast\nmade 'thy nest among the stars,' from thence I will fetch thee down;\nthere is a sting (Matt 11:23; Oba 4). To be pulled, for and through\nlove to some vain lust, from the everlasting gates of glory, and\ncaused to be swallowed up for it in the belly of hell, and made\nto lodge for ever in the darksome chambers of death, there is the\npiercing sting!\n\nBut again, as there is the sting of hell, so there is the strength\nof that sting; for a sting though never so sharp, or venom, yet if\nit wanteth strength to force it to the designed execution, it doth\nbut little hurt. But this sting has strength to cause it to pierce\ninto the soul; 'the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin\nis the law' (1 Cor 15:56). Here then is the strength of the stings\nof hell; it is the law in the perfect penalty of it; 'for without\nthe law, sin is dead' (Rom 7:8). Yea, again he saith, 'where no law\nis, there is no transgression' (Rom 4:15). The law then followeth,\nin the executive part of it, the soul into hell, and there\nstrengtheneth sin, that sting of hell, to pierce by its unutterable\ncharging of it on the conscience, the soul for ever and ever; nor\ncan the soul justly murmur or repine at God or at His law, for that\nthen the sharply apprehensive soul will well discern the justness,\nrighteousness, reasonableness, and goodness of the law, and that\nnothing is done by the law unto it, but that which is just and\nequal. 38\n\nThis, therefore, will put great strength and force into sin to sting\nthe soul, and to strike it with the lashes of a scorpion. Add yet\nto these the abiding life of God, the Judge and God of this law,\nwill never die. When princes die, the law may be altered by the\nwhich at present transgressors are bound in chains; but oh! here\nis also that which will make this sting so sharp and keen, the God\nthat executes it will never die. 'It is a fearful thing to fall\ninto the hands of the living God' (Heb 10:30, 31).\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 'Gospellers,' a term of reproach given to our reformers under\nHenry VIII; changed to 'Puritan' under Elizabeth and the Stuarts;\nand to 'Methodist,' or 'Evangelical' in more recent times. All these\nterms were adopted by the reformers as an honorable distinction\nfrom the openly profane.--Ed.\n\n2 Having the most solemn warnings mercifully given to us by God,\nwhose word is truth itself, how strange it is, nay, how insane,\nto neglect the Saviour. Our author, in his 'Grace Abounding to the\nChief of Sinners,' gives a solemn account of his own distracted\nfeelings, when he, by Divine warnings, contemplated the probable\nloss of his never-dying soul; and, believing in the truth of God's\nrevealed will, he felt, with inexpressible horror, his dangerous\nstate. He describes his mental anguish, by comparing it with the\nacute bodily sufferings of a criminal broken on the wheel. Can we\nwonder that he was in 'downright earnest' in seeking salvation. Oh!\nreader, may we be thus impelled to fly from the wrath to come.--Ed.\n\n3 Many have been the attempts to define the qualities, nature, and\nresidence of the soul. The sinful body is the sepulchre in which\nit is entombed, until Christ giveth it life. The only safe guide,\nin such inquiries, is to follow Bunyan, and ascertain 'what saith\nthe Lord' upon a subject so momentous and so difficult for mortal\neyes to penetrate.--Ed.\n\n4 The poor soul, under the irresistible constraints of conscience,\nbears witness against itself; sits in judgment upon, and condemns\nitself; and goeth, without a jailor, to conduct it, into the dread\nprison, where it becomes its own tormentor. 'A wounded spirit (or\nconscience) who can bear?'--Ed.\n\n5 My Lord Will-be-will was a very eminent captain in the town of\nMansoul, during the Holy War: wherefore Diabolus had a kindness\nfor him, and coveted to have him for one of his great ones, to act\nand do in matters of the highest concern. Bunyan represents him\nas having been wounded in the leg, during the seige. 'Some of the\nprince's army certainly saw him limp, as he afterwards walked on\nthe wall.'--Ed.\n\n6 To the unregenerate, unsanctified soul, the language of the Saviour\nin John 6:48-58, must appear, as it did to the Jews, perfectly\ninexplicable--' He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh my blood,\ndwelleth in me, and I in him.' Blessed mystery! to be one with Christ,\nin obedience to His will, and in partaking of His inheritance. To be\nenabled to say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'--Ed.\n\n7 Nothing short of a Divine influence can direct the passions of the\nsoul to a proper use of their energies. 'Godly sorrow worketh\nrepentance--carefulness--indignation--fear--a vehement\ndesire--zeal--revenge,' (2 Cor 7:11). Reader, has thy spirit been\nthus excited against sin?--Ed.\n\n8 This is perfectly true, but is only felt by those who are taught\nof the Holy Spirit rightly to appreciate Divine worship. How many\npay undue respect to buildings in which public prayer is offered\nup? It is the worship that consecrates the place and solemnizes the\nmind. Very remarkably was this the case with Jacob while wandering\nin the open wilderness. He put stones for his pillow, and in a dream\nsaw the angels visiting the earth, and said, THIS is the house of\nGod, and the gate of heaven.--Ed.\n\n9 If the body, which is to return to dust, 'is fearfully and\nwonderfully made,' past our finding out in its exquisite formation,\nhow much more so must be that immortal soul which we can only\ncontemplate by its own powers, and study in the Bible. It never dies,\nalthough it may be dead in sin, in time; and be ever dying--ever\nin the agonies of death, in eternity. Solemn consideration! May our\nadorning be 'the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible;\na meek and quiet spirit; that which is in the sight of God of great\nprice' (1 Peter 3:4).--Ed.\n\n10 One of the first revelations to our race was, that 'God breathed\ninto his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.'\nAnd this great and important fact has, by tradition, extended over\nthe whole of the human family.--Ed.\n\n11 'An old horse shoe' must be mentioned, to throw utter contempt\nupon a custom, then very prevalent, and even now practised, of\nnailing an old horse shoe over the door of the house, to prevent\na witch from entering. When will these absurd heathenish customs\ncease in Christian England?--Ed.\n\n12 'A point,' the tag at the end of a lace.--Ed.\n\n13 Nothing can more fully display the transcendant worth and\nexcellency of the soul, than these two considerations:--first, That\nby the operation of the Eternal Spirit, it is made a habitation for\nGod Himself, and susceptible of communion and converse with God,\nnay, of being even filled with all the fulness of God; and, second,\nThe infinite price that was paid for its redemption from sin and\nwoe--the precious blood of the Son of God.--Mason.\n\n14 'A Relation of the Fearful Estate of Frances Spira.' He had\nbeen a Protestant, but, for some unworthy motives, became a Papist,\nand was visited with the most awful compunctions of conscience. A\npoetical introduction thus describes the guilty wretch:--\n\n\n   'Reader, wou'dst see what, may you never feel,\n    Despair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel?\n    Behold this man, this furnace, in whose heart,\n    Sin hath created hell. Oh! In each part\n    What flames appear;\n    His thoughts all stings; words swords;\n    Brimstone his breath;\n    His eyes flames; wishes curses; life a death;\n    A thousand deaths live in him, he not dead;\n    A breathing corpse, in living scalding lead.'\n\n\nIt is an awful account, and has added to it a narrative of the\nwretched end of John Child, a Bedford man, one of Bunyan's friends,\nwho, to avoid prosecution, conformed; was visited with black\ndespair, and hung himself. A copy of this curious little book is\nin the editor's possession.--Ed.\n\n15 Nothing more properly excited horror throughout Christendom, than\nthe conduct of the Algerines in making slaves of their captives;\nbecause their victims had white skins, and were called Christians.\nHundreds of thousands of pounds sterling were paid to redeem\nthe Christian captives, and thus the pirates were strengthened to\ncontinue their ferocious deeds. Many contributed to those funds\nthe very money which they derived from the negro slave trade; who,\nwhile they professed to execrate white man slavery, perpetrated\nthe same barbarities upon their brethren of a different colour\nand caste. How strangely does sin pervert the understandings of\nmen, who arrogate to themselves the highest grade of humanity and\ncivilization!--Ed.\n\n16 These awful denunciations are so many proofs of the immutablilty\nof the justice and of the Word of God.--Ed.\n\n17\u2020'Saith Christ;' Peter in Acts i. 20, applies this Psalm to Christ,\nwhen the Jews cried, 'His blood be upon us and upon our children;'\nthen did they put on the envenomed garment which has tormented them\never since. It is girded about their loins; the curse has penetrated\nlike water, and entered the very bones like oil. How awful will\nbe the state of those who crucify Him afresh, and again put Him to\nopen shame!--Horsley.\n\n18 How awfully inconceivable is that eternal death that never dieth;\nthat final end that never endeth--an immortal death--a soul-murdering\nlife--ever dying, but never dead; were the mountains and rocks to\nfall upon and and crush them, still eternity would intervene between\nthem and death. Oh that grace may be given to ransom our souls from\nthe doom we have deserved!--Ed.\n\n19 'Weal;' wealth, happiness, prosperity; 'wherefore taking comfort\nand boldness, partly of your grace and benevolent inclination toward\nthe universal weal of your subjects, partly inflamed with zeal, I\nhave now enterprized to describe, in our vulgar tongue, the form\nof a just public weal.' Sir T. Elyot, Dedication of the Governor\nto Henry VIII.--Ed.\n\n20 'From the belly,': from its birth.\n\n21 Bunyan having been engaged in the civil war, accounts for his\nusing this military idea.--Ed.\n\n22 God hates not the sinner, but the sin; the glorious provision\nmade for salvation, proves His good will to sinful souls. This\nwill be 'the worm that dieth not,' to sinners to reflect, that,\nin rejecting the inviting promises of God, they have sealed their\nown condemnation.--Mason.\n\n23 'Hideth his sins,' is quoted from the Genevan, or Puritan\nversion.--Ed.\n\n24 'Pother;' to be, or cause to be, as one involved in dust, in a\ncloud; to perplex, to puzzle, to confound.--Ed.\n\n25 This is an allusion to a custom, nearly obsolete, originating in\nthe feast of tabernacles, of sacrificing to Vacina at the harvest\nhome. The Papists substituted St. Bartholomew for the heathen\ngoddess. Upon his day, the harvest being completed, an image of\nstraw was carried about, called the corn, or Bartholomew, baby; and\nmasters, mistresses, men, and maidens danced and rioted together;\nthus, under the guise of harmless joy, much evil was perpetrated.--Ed.\n\n26 'A blandation,' an obsolete word, which means wheedling, flattering\nspeech, soft words.--Ed.\n\n27 Knowing the certainty that this wrath to the uttermost will be\npoured out, our blessed Lord exhorts all to 'fear God, who is able\nto destroy both body and soul in hell.' In that doleful pit, the\nsoul, re-united with the body, will suffer under the outpourings\nof Divine wrath.--Mason.\n\n28 Bunyan probably here refers to his own experience when he was in\nprison, and was threatened by the judge to be hung for not going to\nparish church. 'I thought with myself, if I should make a scrabbling\nshift to clamber up the ladder, yet I should, either with quaking\nor other symptoms of faintings, give occasion to the enemy to\nreproach the way of God. I was ashamed to die with a pale face and\ntottering knees in such a cause as this.'--Grace Abounding, No.\n334.--Ed.\n\n29 This wish has been felt while in a desponding state, under the\nterrors of the law, and a fearful looking for of fiery indignation.\nThus Bunyan says, 'I blessed the condition of the dog and toad,\nand counted the estate of everything that God had made far better\nthan this dreadful state of mine.' Grace Abounding, No. 104.--Ed.\n\n30 Alluding to the old proverb of bringing a noble to ninepence,\nand ninepence to nothing.--Ed.\n\n31 At the popular game of nine pins--Ed.\n\n32 In our comparatively happy days, we have little if any conception\nof the manner in which our forefathers desecrated the Sabbath.\nWhen Popery clouded the country, mass was attended on the Lord's\nday morning early; it was a recital of certain unknown words,\nafter which parties of pleasure, so called, spent the day in places\nattractive for the frivolity or wantonness of their entertainments--in\ndancing, and carousing; the evening being devoted to the theatres\nor ball rooms. This was afterwards encouraged by our English 'heads\nof the church,' in a book of lawful sports to be used on Sundays.\nEven in our time a flood of iniquity continues to flow on those\nsacred days, which human laws cannot prevent. As the influence of\nthe gospel spreads, the day will become sanctified and this will\never prove a correct standard of its progress.--Ed.\n\n33 How solemn, nay, awful is the thought that heaven's gates must\nbe shut against all impurity. None who live and die in the love of\nsin can enter heaven, lest they should defile it--'And there shall\nin no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither worketh\nabomination, or a lie' (Rev 21: 27).--Ed.\n\n34 In 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' in the house called Beautiful, all\nthe inmates, except the porter, are females.--Ed.\n\n35 The edict of Nantes was issued April 1598; but in violation of\nit, Rochelle was taken from the Protestants in 1628. From that time\nhorrid barbarities were practised upon them. In 1676, the elector of\nBrandenburg appealed to the French king on behalf of his Protestant\nsubjects, of whom multitudes fled for refuge to England and\nGermany. In 1685, the edict of Nantes was revoked, and a frightful\npersecution ensued.--Ed.\n\n36 Great allowance must be made for the times in which Bunyan lived.\nBaxter, and all the great divines, Sir M. Hale, and the judges,\nbelieved in witches, ghosts, and other chimeras; in fact, any one\nprofessing unbelief in these wild fancies, would have been counted\namong infidels and atheists.--Ed.\n\n37 Sin 'in the general of it,' or sin wherever it may be found.\n\n38 The law is a transcript of the mind of God, it is holy, just,\nand good--so that he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all.\nThe law convicts and shows the sinner that God is all eye to see,\nand all fire to consume, every unclean thing. Thus the law gives\nsin its strength, and death its warrant, to arrest and execute the\nsinner.--Mason.\n\n***\n\nTHE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST AS AN ADVOCATE,\n\nCLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED,\n\nFOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS.\n\n1 John 2:1--\"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the\nFather, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\nBy JOHN BUNYAN, Author of \"The Pilgrim's Progress.\"\n\nLondon: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the\nPoultry, 1689.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit\nwhich required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary\non my left. It was very frequently republished; but in an edition\nby John Marshall, 1725, it became most seriously mutilated, many\npassages were omitted, and numerous errors were made. In this\nstate, it was copied into Mr. Whitefield's edition of his works,\nand it has been since republished with all those errors. It is now\nrestored to its original state; and we hope that it will prove a\nmost acceptable addition to our theological literature. Although\nBunyan was shut up for more than twelve years a prisoner for the\ntruth, and his time was so fully occupied in preaching, writing,\nand labouring to provide for the pressing wants of his family;\nstill he managed to get acquainted, in a very remarkable manner,\nwith all those law terms which are connected with the duties of\na counsel, or advocate. He uses the words replevin, supersedeas,\nterm, demur, nonsuit, reference, title, in forma pauperis, king's\nbench, common pleas, as properly and familiarly as if he had been\nbrought up to the bar. How extraordinary must have been his mental\npowers, and how retentive his memory! I examined this work with\napprehension, lest he had misapplied those hard words; but my\nsurprise was great, to find that he had used every one of them with\nas much propriety as a Lord Chief-Justice could have done.\n\nWe are indebted for this treatise to Bunyan's having heard a sermon\nwhich excited his attention to a common, a dangerous, and a fatal\nheresy, more frequently preached to crowned heads, mitred prelates,\nmembers of parliament, and convocations, than it is to the poor,\nto whom the gospel is preached. In this sermon, the preacher said\nto his hearers, \"see that your cause be good, else Christ will not\nundertake it.\" p. 159. Bunyan heard, as all Christians ought to\nhear, with careful jealousy, and at once detected the error. He\nexposes the fallacy, and uses his scriptural knowledge to confute\nit, by showing that Christ pleads for the wicked, the lost; for those\nwho feel themselves so involved in a bad cause, that no advocate\nbut Christ can bring them through. He manifests great anxiety that\nevery inquirer should clearly ascertain definite truths and not be\ncontented with general notions. See p. 189-199, and 201. This is\nvery important advice, and by following which, we shall be saved\nfrom many painful doubts and fears. Our need of an advocate is proved\nby the fact, that Christ has undertaken the office. Some rely on\ntheir tears and sighs, as advocates for them with God; others on\nimperfect good works-from all these the soul must be shaken, until\nit finds that there is no prevailing Advocate but the Saviour;\nand that he alone, with his mystical body, the church, is entitled\nto the inheritance. Then sincere repentance, sighs, and tears,\nevidence our faith in him, and our godly sorrow for having occasioned\nhim such inconceivable sufferings; tears of joy that we have such\na Saviour and an Advocate, equally omnipotent to plead for, as to\nsave us. The inheritance being Christ's, the members of his body\ncannot be cheated of it, or alienate it. p. 187. Bunyan, with his\nfertile imagination, and profound scriptural knowledge, spiritualizes\nthe day of jubilee as a type of the safety of the inheritance of\nthe saints. By our folly and sin we may lose sight for a time of\nour title deeds; but the inheritance is safe.\n\nThe whole work is a rich treat to those who love experimental divinity,\nand are safe in Christ as Noah was in the ark; but, Oh! how woeful\nmust those be, who are without an interest in the Saviour; and\nthat have none to plead their cause. \"They are left to be ground\nto powder between the justice of God and the sins which they have\ncommitted. It is sad to consider their plight. This is the man\nthat is pursued by the law, and by sin, and by death, and has none\nto plead his cause. Terrors take hold on him as waters; a stone\nhurleth him out of his place\" (Job 27). p. 200. Reader, this is\na soul-searching subject-may it lead us to a solemn trial of our\nstate, and to the happy conclusion, that the Saviour is our Advocate,\nand that our eternal inheritance is safe in heaven.\n\nHACKNEY. MAY 1850.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nOf all the excellent offices which God the Father has conferred\nupon Jesus Christ our Lord, this of his being an Advocate with him\nfor us is not the least, though, to the shame of saints it may be\nspoken, the blessed benefits thereof have not with that diligence\nand fervent desire been inquired after as they ought.\n\nChrist, as sacrifice, priest, and king, with the glories in, and\nthat flow from, him as such, has, God be thanked, in this our day,\nbeen much discovered by our seers, and as much rejoiced in by those\nwho have believed their words; but as he is an Advocate with the\nFather, an Advocate for us, I fear the excellency of that doth still\ntoo much lie hid; though I am verily of opinion that the people\nof God in this age have as much need of the knowledge thereof, if\nnot more need, than had their brethren that are gone before them.\n\nThese words, \"if not more need,\" perhaps may seem to some to be\nsomewhat out of joint; but let the godly wise consider the decays\nthat are among us as to the power of godliness, and what abundance\nof foul miscarriages the generality of professors now stand guilty\nof, as also how diligent their great enemy is to accuse them at\nthe bar of God for them, and I think they will conclude, that, in\nso saying, I indeed have said some truth. Wherefore, when I thought\non this, and had somewhat considered also the transcendent excellency\nof the advocateship of this our Lord; and again, that but little\nof the glory thereof has by writing been, in our day, communicated\nto the church, I adventured to write what I have seen thereof, and\ndo, by what doth follow, present it unto her for good.\n\nI count not myself sufficient for this, or for any other truth\nas it is in Jesus; but yet, I say, I have told you somewhat of\nit, according to the proportion of faith. And I believe that some\nwill thank God for what I here have said about it; but it will be\nchiefly those, whose right and title to the kingdom of heaven and\nglory, doth seem to themselves to be called in question by their\nenemy, at the bar of the Judge of all.\n\nThese, I say, will read, and be glad to hear, that they have an\nAdvocate at court that will stand up to plead for them, and that\nwill yet secure to them a right to the heavenly kingdom. Wherefore,\nit is more particularly for those that at present, or that hereafter,\nmay be in this dreadful plight, that this my book is now made\npublic; because it is, as I have showed, for such that Jesus Christ\nis Advocate with the Father.\n\nOf the many and singular advantages, therefore, that such have by\nthis their Advocate in his advocating for them, this book gives\nsome account; as, where he pleads, how he pleads, what he pleads,\nwhen he pleads, with whom he pleads, for whom he pleads, and how\nthe enemy is put to shame and silence before their God and all the\nholy angels.\n\nHere is also showed to those herein concerned, how they indeed may\nknow that Jesus is their Advocate; yea, and how their matters go\nbefore their God, the Judge; and particularly that they shall well\ncome off at last, yea, though their cause, as it is theirs, is\nsuch, in justification of which, themselves do not dare to show\ntheir heads.\n\nNor have I left the dejected souls without directions how to entertain\nthis Advocate to plead their cause; yea, I have also shown that he\nwill be with ease prevailed with, to stand up to plead for such,\nas one would think, the very heavens would blush to hear them named\nby him. Their comfort also is, that he never lost a cause, nor a\nsoul, for whom he undertook to be an Advocate with God.\n\nBut, reader, I will no longer detain thee from the perusal of the\ndiscourse. Read and think; read, and compare what thou readest with\nthe Word of God. If thou findest any benefit by that thou readest,\ngive the Father, and his Son the glory; and also pray for me. If\nthou findest me short in this, or to exceed in that, impute all\nsuch things to my weakness, of which I am always full. Farewell.\nI am thine to serve thee what I may,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\nTHE CONTENTS OF THIS TREATISE\n\nThe apostle's Divine policy, to beget a due regard to his Divine\ndoctrine of eternal life.-The apostle's explication of this\nexpression, viz., The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all\nsin.-The apostle's exhortation to separation from sin, as a good\neffect of a good cause, viz., Forgiveness-The apostle's addition,\nto prevent misunderstanding, viz., We have an advocate with the\nFather\n\nThis brings to the text, in which are two great truths contained:\nI. A supposition, viz., That men in Christ may sin. II. An expression,\nby way of consolation, in case of sin, viz., We have an Advocate\nwith the Father\n\nTwo things for inquiry in these truths: First. An inquiry into what\nour apostle means by sin; in which is considered, A difference in\nthe person and in the sin. And, Second, An inquiry into what it\nis for Christ to be an Advocate, viz., To plead for another in a\ncourt of judicature\n\nSeven things supposed in the office of an advocate: 1. That God, as\njudge, is on the throne of judgment. 2. That saints are concerned\nat that bar. 3. That Christians have an accuser. 4. That sinning\nsaints dare not appear at this bar to plead their own cause.\n5. That Christians are apt to forget their Advocate, and remember\ntheir Judge. 6. To remember our Advocate is the way to support faith\nand hope.-7. That if our advocate plead our cause (though that be\nnever so black) he is able to bring us off\n\nThe apostle's triumph in Christ on this account.-An exhortation to\nthe difficult task of believing.-Christ's advocateship declares us\nto be sorry creatures\n\nTHE METHOD OBSERVED IN THE DISCOURSE.\n\nFIRST, TO SPEAK OF THIS ADVOCATE'S OFFICE\n\nFirst, By touching on the nature of this office\n\nSecond, By treating of the order or place of this office\n\nThird, The occasion of this office, viz., some great sin.-Christ,\nas Advocate, pleads a bad cause.-A good cause will plead for\nitself.-A bad man may have a good cause, and a good man may have\na bad cause.-Christ, the righteous, pleading a bad cause, is a\nmystery.-The best saints are most sensible of their sins.-A pestilent\npassage of a preacher\n\nSECOND, TO SHOW HOW CHRIST DOES MANAGE HIS OFFICE\n\nFirst, How he manages his office of Advocate with the Father.-1.\nALONE, not by any proxy or deputy.-2. Christ pleads at God's bar; the\ncause cannot be removed into another court.-If removed from heaven,\nwe have no advocate on earth.-3. In pleading, Christ observes\nthese rules: (1.) He granteth what is charged on us.-(2.) He pleads\nhis own goodness for us.-He payeth all our debts down.-All mouths\nstopped, who would not have the sinner delivered.-(3.) Christ requires\na verdict in order to our deliverance.-The sinner is delivered,\nGod contented, Satan confounded, and Christ applauded\n\nSecond, How Christ manages his office of an Advocate against the\nadversary by argument.-1. He pleads the pleasure of his Father in\nhis merits.-Satan rebuked for finding fault therewith.-2. He pleads\nGod's interest in his people.-Haman's mishap in being engaged against\nthe king's queen.-N. B. It seems a weak plea, because of man's\nunworthiness; but it is a strong plea, because of God's worthiness.-The\nelect are bound to God by a sevenfold cord.-The weight of the plea\nweighed\n\nThird, Christ pleads his own interest in them.-A parallel between\ncattle in a pound and Christ's own sheep.-Six weighty reasons in\nthis plea.-1. They are Christ's own.-2. They cost him dear.-3.\nHe hath made them near to himself.-(a.) They are his spouse, his\nlove, his dove; they are members of his body.-(b.) A man cannot\nspare a hand, a foot, a finger.-Nor can Christ spare any member.-4.\nChrist pleads his right in heaven to give it to whom he will.-Christ\nwill; Satan will not; Christ's will stands.-5. Christ pleads\nSatan's enmity against the godly.-Satan is the cause of the crimes\nhe accuses us of.-A simile of a weak-witted child.-6. Christ can\nplead those sins of saints for them for which Satan would have them\ndamned.-Eight considerations to clear that.-Seven more considerations\nto the same end.-Men care most for children that are infirm.-A\nfather offended hath been appeased by a brother turning advocate\n\nTHIRD HEAD.-TO SHOW WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE; WHEREIN ARE\nTHREE THINGS CONTAINED\n\nFirst, This office of advocate differs from that of a priest.-1.\nThey differ in name.-2. They differ in nature.-3. They differ as\nto their extent.-4. They differ as to the persons with whom they\nhave to do.-5. They differ as to the matter about which they are\nemployed.-6. Christ, as Priest, precedes; Christ, as Advocate,\nsucceeds\n\nSecond, How far this office of an advocate is extended; in five\nparticulars\n\nThird, Who have Christ for their Advocate.-1. In general, all\nadopted children.-Object. The text saith, \"If any man sin.\"-Answ.\n\"Any man,\" is not any of the world; but any of the children of God.-A\ndifference in children; some bigger than some.-Christ an Advocate\nfor strong men.-2. In particular, to show if Christ be our Advocate-(1.)\nIf one have entertained Christ to plead a cause.-Quest. How shall\nI know that?-Answ. By being sensible of an action commenced against\nthee in the high court of justice.-(2.) If one have revealed a\ncause to Christ.-An example of one revealing his cause to Christ,\nin a closet.-In order to this, one must know Christ, (a.) To be a\nfriend.-(b.) To be faithful.-(3.) If one have committed a cause to\nChrist.-In order to this, one must be convinced, (a.) Of Christ's\nability to defend him.-(b.) Of Christ's courage to plead a cause.-(c.)\nOf Christ's will for this work.-(d.) Of Christ's tenderness in case\nof his client's dullness.-(e.) Of Christ's unweariedness-(4.) If\none wait till things come to a legal issue.-Quest. What is it thus\nto wait?-Answ. (a.) To be of good courage; look for deliverance.-(b.)\nTo keep his way in waiting.-(c.) To observe his directions.-(d.) To\nhearken to further directions which may come from the advocate.-(e.)\nTo come to no ill conclusion in waiting, viz., that the cause is\nlost; because one hears not from court.-(f.) To wait waking, not\nsleeping.-Ordinances and ministers compared to a post house and\ncarriers of letters.-The client's comfortable conclusion about his\nadvocate and cause.-But yet doubting and desponding.-The author's\nreply to, and compliance with, the client's conclusion; and his\ncounsel in the case\n\nFOURTH HEAD-TO SHOW THE CLIENT'S PRIVILEGES, BY THE BENEFIT OF THIS\nOFFICE OF ADVOCATE\n\nFirst Privilege.-The Advocate pleads a price paid.-Of a rich\nbrother and his poor brethren.-Of the ill-conditioned man, their\nenemy.-Further cleared by three considerations\n\nSecond Privilege.-The client's Advocate pleads for himself also;\nboth concerned in one bottom.-1. He pleads the price of his own\nblood.-2. He pleads it for his own.-A simile of a lame horse.-Of\nmen going to law for a thing of little worth.-Object. I am but\none.-Answ. Christ cannot lose one\n\nThird Privilege.-The plea of Satan is groundless.-Satan must be\ncast over the bar.-A simile of a widow owing a sum of money.-Of an\nold law nulled1 by a new law.-Satan pleads by the old law; Christ\nby the new\n\nFourth Privilege.-Is consequential; the client's accuser must needs\nbe overthrown.-The client's solemn appeal to the Almighty.-In case\nthe accused have no advocate, Satan prevails\n\nFifth Privilege.-The Advocate hath pity for his client, and\nindignation against the accuser.-Men choose an advocate who hath\na quarrel against their adversary\n\nSixth Privilege.-The judge counts the accuser his enemy.-To procure\nthe judge's son to plead, is desirable\n\nSeventh Privilege.-The client's Advocate hath good courage; he\nwill set his face like a flint.-He pleads before the God, and all\nthe host, of heaven.-He is the old friend of publicans and sinners.-He\npleads a cause bad enough to make angels blush.-Love will do, and\nbear, and suffer much\n\nEighth Privilege.-The Advocate is always ready in court.-He appears\nNOW in the presence of God\n\nNinth Privilege.-The Advocate will not be blinded with bribes\n\nTenth Privilege.-The Advocate is judge in the client's cause.-Joseph's\nexaltation was Israel's advantage.-God's care of his people's\nwelfare\n\nEleventh Privilege.-The Advocate hath all that is requisite for an\nadvocate to have\n\nFIFTH.-LAST HEAD.-TO SHOW THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE\n\nFirst.-To vindicate the justice of God against the cavils of the\ndevil.-Satan charges God with unjust words and actions.-God is\npleased with his design to save sinners\n\nSecond.-There is law to be objected against us.-Christ appeals to\nthe law itself.-Christ is not ashamed to own the way of salvation\n\nThird.-Many things give our accuser advantage.-1. Many things\nrelating to the promises.-2. Many things relating to our lives.-3.\nThe threats annexed to the gospel\n\nFourth.-To plead about our afflictions for sins.-A simile of a man\nindicted at the assizes, and his malicious adversary.-An allusion\nto Abishai and Shimei, who cursed David\n\nFifth.-To plead the efficacy of our old titles to our inheritance,\nif questionable because of new sins-Saints do not sell their\ninheritance by sin\n\nSixth.-Our evidences are oft out of our hand, and we recover them\nby our Advocate\n\nSIXTH.-OBJECTIONS REMOVED\n\nFirst Object.-What need all these offices or nice distinctions.-Answ.\nThe wisdom of God is not to be charged with folly.-God's people are\nbaffled with the devil for want of a distinct knowledge of Christ\nin all his offices\n\nSecond Object.-My cause being bad, Christ will desert me.-Answ.\nSin is deadly destruction to faith.-A five-fold order observed in\nthe exercise of faith\n\nThird Object.-But who shall pay the Advocate his fee?-Answ. There\nis law, and lawyers too, without money.-Christ pleads for the\npoor.-David's strange gift to God\n\nFourth Object.-If Christ be my Advocate once, he will always be\ntroubled with me.-Answ. He is an Advocate to the utmost\n\nSEVENTH.-USE AND APPLICATION\n\nUse First.-To consider the dignity God hath put upon Christ, by\noffices, places of trust, and titles of honour, in general\n\nUse Second.-To consider this office of an Advocate in particular;\nby which consideration these advantages come:-1. To see one is not\nforsaken for sin.-2. To take courage to contend with the devil.-3.\nIt affords relief for discouraged faith.-4. It helps to put off\nthe visor Satan puts on Christ.-A simile of a visor on the face\nof a father.-Study this peculiar treasure of an advocate.-(1.)\nWith reference to its peculiarity.-(2.) Study the nature of this\noffice.-(3.) Study its efficacy and prevalency.-(4.) Study Christ's\nfaithfulness in his office.-(5.) Study the need of a share therein\n\nUse Third.-To wonder at Christ's condescension, in being an Advocate\nfor the base and unworthy.-Christ acts in open court, 1. With a\nholy and just God.-2. Before all the heavenly host.-3. The client\nis unconcerned for whom the Advocate is engaged.-4. The majesty of\nthe man that is an Advocate\n\nUse Fourth.-Improve this doctrine to strengthen grace. 1.To\nstrengthen faith.-2. To encourage to prayer.-3. To keep humble.-4.\nTo encourage to perseverance.-Object. I cannot pray; my mouth is\nstopped.-Answ. Satan cannot silence Christ.-5. Improve this doctrine,\nto drive difficulties down\n\nUse Fifth.-If Christ pleads for us before God, we should plead for\nhim before men.-Nine considerations to that end.-The last reserve\nfor a dead lift\n\nUse Sixth.-To be wary of sin against God.-Christianity teaches\ningenuity. 2 Christ is our Advocate, on free cost.-A comely conclusion\nof a brute.-Three considerations added\n\nUse Seventh.-The strong are to tell the weak of an Advocate to\nplead their cause.-A word in season is good\n\nUse Eighth.-All is nothing to them that have none to plead their\ncause.-An instance of God's terrible judgment.-Object. There is\ngrace, the promise, the blood of Christ; cannot these save, except\nChrist be Advocate?-Answ. These, and Advocate, and all, little\nenough.-Christ no Advocate for such as have no sense of, and\nshame for sin.-Object. Is not Christ an Advocate for his elect\nuncalled?-Answ. He died, and prayeth, for all his elect, as Priest;\nas Advocate, pleads for the called only\n\nTHE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST AS AN ADVOCATE.\n\n\"AND IF ANY MAN SIN, WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER, JESUS\nCHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS.\"---I JOHN 2:1.\n\nTHAT the apostle might obtain due regard from those to whom\nhe wrote, touching the things about which he wrote, he tells them\nthat he received not his message to them at second or third hand,\nbut was himself an eye and ear witness thereof-That which was from\nthe beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our\neyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of\nthe word of life, (for the life was manifested, and we have seen\nit, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was\nwith the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have\nseen and heard, declare we unto you.3\n\nHaving thus told them of his ground for what he said, he proceeds\nto tell them also the matter contained in his errand-to wit, that\nhe brought them news of eternal life, as freely offered in the word\nof the gospel to them; or rather, that that gospel which they had\nreceived would certainly usher them in at the gates of the kingdom\nof heaven, were their reception of it sincere and in truth--for,\nsaith he, then \"the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth\nyou from all sin.\"\n\nHaving thus far told them what was his errand, he sets upon\nan explication of what he had said, especially touching our being\ncleansed from all sin--\"Not,\" saith he, \"from a being of sin; for\nshould we say so, we should deceive ourselves,\" and should prove\nthat we have no truth of God in us, but by cleansing, I mean\na being delivered from all sin, so as that none at all shall have\nthe dominion over you, to bring you down to hell; for that, for\nthe sake of the blood of Christ, all trespasses are forgiven you.\n\nThis done, he exhorts them to shun or fly sin, and not to consent\nto the motions, workings, enticings, or allurements thereof, saying,\n\"I write unto you that ye sin not.\" Let not forgiveness have so\nbad an effect upon you as to cause you to be remiss in Christian\nduties, or as to tempt you to give, way to evil. Shall we sin because\nwe are forgiven? or shall we not much matter what manner of lives\nwe live, because we are set free from the law of sin and death? God\nforbid. Let grace teach us another lesson, and lay other obligations\nupon our spirits. \"My little children,\" saith he, \"these things\nwrite I unto you, that ye sin not.\" What things? Why, tidings of\npardon and salvation, and of that nearness to God, to which you\nare brought by the precious blood of Christ. Now, lest also by this\nlast exhortation he should yet be misunderstood, he adds, \"And if\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the rather, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\" I say, he addeth this to prevent desponding in those\nweak and sensible Christians that are so quick of feeling and\nof discerning the corruptions of their natures; for these cry out\ncontinually that there is nothing that they do but it is attended\nwith sinful weaknesses.\n\nWherefore, in the words we are presented with two great truths--l.\nWith a supposition, that men in Christ, while in this world, may\nsin--, \"If any man sin;\" any man; none are excluded; for all, or\nany one of the all of them that Christ hath redeemed and forgiven,\nare incident to sin. By \"may\" I mean, not a toleration, but a\npossibility; \"For there is not a man, not a just man upon earth,\nthat doeth good, and sinneth not\" (Eccl 7:20; 1 Kings 8:46). II.\nThe other thing with which we are presented is, an Advocate--, \"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\"\n\nNow there lieth in these two truths two things to be inquired\ninto, as-First, What the apostle should here mean by sin. Second,\nAnd also, what he here doth mean by an advocate-\"If any man sin,\nwe have an Advocate.\" There is ground to inquire after the first\nof these, because, though here he saith, they that sin have an\nadvocate, yet in the very next chapter he saith, \"Such are of the\ndevil, have not seen God, neither know him, nor are of him.\" There\nis ground also to inquire after the second, because an advocate is\nsupposed in the text to be of use to them that sin--, \"If any man\nsin, we have an Advocate.\"\n\nFirst, For the first of these--to wit, what the apostle should here\nmean by sin--, \"If any man sin.\"\n\nI answer, since there is a difference in the persons, there must be\na difference in the sin. That there is a difference in the persons\nis showed before; one is called a child of God, the other is said\nto be of the wicked one. Their sins differ also, in their degree at\nleast; for no child of God sins to that degree as to make himself\nincapable of forgiveness; \"for he that is begotten of God keepeth\nhimself, and that wicked one toucheth him not\" (I John 5:18).\nHence, the apostle says, \"There is a sin unto death\" (v. 16). See\nalso Matthew 12:32. Which is the sin from which he that is born of\nGod is kept. The sins therefore are thus distinguished: The sins of\nthe people of God are said to be sins that men commit, the others\nare counted those which are the sins of devils.\n\n1. The sins of God's people are said to be sins which men commit,\nand for which they have an Advocate, though they who sin after the\nexample of the wicked one have none. \"When a man or woman,\" saith\nMoses, \"shall commit any sin that men commit--they shall confess\ntheir sin--and an atonement shall be made for him\" (Num 5:5-7).\nMark, it is when they commit a sin which men commit; or, as Hosea\nhas it, when they transgress the commandment like Adam (Hosea 6:7).\nNow, these are the sins under consideration by the apostle, and to\ndeliver us from which, \"we have an Advocate with the Father.\"\n\n2. But for the sins mentioned in the third chapter, since the\npersons sinning go here under another character, they also must be\nof another stamp-to wit, a making head against the person, merits,\nand grace of Jesus Christ. These are the sins of devils in the\nworld, and for these there is no remission. These, they also that\nare of the wicked one commit, and therefore sin after the similitude\nof Satan, and so fall into the condemnation of the devil.\n\nSecond, But what is it for Jesus to be an Advocate for these? \"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate.\"\n\nAn advocate is one who pleadeth for another at any bar, or before\nany court of judicature; but of this more in its place. So, then,\nwe have in the text a Christian, as supposed, committing sin, and\na declaration of an Advocate prepared to plead for him-\"If any man\nsin, we have an Advocate with the Father.\"\n\nAnd this leads me first to inquire into what, by these words the\napostle must, of necessity, presuppose? For making use here of the\nsimilitude or office of an advocate, thereby to show the preservation\nof the sinning Christian, he must,\n\n1. Suppose that God, as judge, is now upon the throne of his\njudgment; for an advocate is to plead at a bar, before a court of\njudicature. Thus it is among men; and forasmuch as our Lord Jesus\nis said to be an \"Advocate with the Father,\" it is clear that there\nis a throne of judgment also. This the prophet Micaiah affirms,\nsaying, \"I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of\nheaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left\" (I Kings\n22:19). Sitting upon a throne for judgment; for from the Lord, as\nthen sitting upon that throne, proceeded that sentence against king\nAhab, that he should go and fall at Ramoth-gilead; and he did go,\nand did fall there, as the award or fruit of that judgment. That\nis the first.\n\n2. The text also supposeth that the saints as well as sinners are\nconcerned at that bar; for the apostle saith plainly that there\n\"we have an Advocate.\" And the saints are concerned at that bar;\nbecause they transgress as well as others, and because the law\nis against the sin of saints as well as against the sins of other\nmen. If the saints were not capable of committing of sin, what need\nwould they have of an advocate (I Chron 21:3-6. I Sam 12:13,14)?4\nYea, though they did sin, yet if they were by Christ so set free\nfrom the law as that it could by no means take cognizance of their\nsins, what need would they have of an advocate? None at all. If\nthere be twenty places where there are assizes kept in this land,\nyet if I have offended no law, what need have I of an advocate?\nEspecially if the judge be just, and knows me altogether, as the\nGod of heaven does? But here is Judge that is just; and here is an\nAdvocate also, an Advocate for the children, an Advocate to plead;\nfor an advocate as such is not of use but before a bar to plead;\ntherefore, here is an offence, and so a law broken by the saints\nas well as others. That is the second thing.\n\n3. As the text supposes that there is a judge, and crimes of saints,\nso it supposeth that there is an accuser, one that will carefully\ngather up the faults of good men, and that will plead them at this\nbar against them. Hence we read of \"the accuser of our brethren,\nthat accused them before our God day and night\" (Rev 12:10-12).\nFor Satan doth not only tempt the godly man to sin, but, having\nprevailed with him, and made him guilty, he packs away to the court,\nto God the judge of all; and there addresses himself to accuse\nthat man, and to lay to his charge the heinousness of his offence,\npleading against him the law that he has broken, the light against\nwhich he did it, and the like. But now, for the relief and support\nof such poor people, the apostle, by the text, presents them with an\nadvocate; that is, with one to plead for them, while Satan pleads\nagainst them; with one that pleads for pardon, while Satan, by\naccusing, seeks to pull judgment and vengeance upon our heads. \"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\" That is the third thing.\n\n4. As the apostle supposeth a judge, crimes, and an accuser, so\nhe also supposeth that those herein concerned-to wit, the sinning\nchildren-neither can nor dare attempt to appear at this bar\nthemselves to plead their own cause before this Judge and against\nthis accuser; for if they could or durst do this, what need they\nhave an advocate? for an advocate is of use to them whose cause\nthemselves neither can nor dare appear to plead. Thus Job prayed\nfor an advocate to plead his cause with God (Job 16:21); and David\ncries out, \"Enter not into judgment with thy servant,\" O God,\n\"for in thy sight shall no man living be justified\" (Psa 143:2).\nWherefore, it is evident that saints neither can nor dare adventure\nto plead their cause. Alas! the Judge is the almighty and eternal\nGod; the law broken is the holy and perfect rule of God, in itself\na consuming fire. The sin is so odious, and a thing so abominable,\nthat it is enough to make all the angels blush to hear it but so\nmuch as once mentioned in so holy a place as that is where this\ngreat God doth sit to judge. This sin now hangs about the neck of\nhim that hath committed it; yea, it covereth him as doth a mantle.\nThe adversary is bold, cunning, and audacious, and can word a\nthousand of us into an utter silence in less than half a quarter\nof an hour. What, then, should the sinner, if he could come there,\ndo at this bar to plead? Nothing; nothing for his own advantage.\nBut now comes in his mercy-he has an Advocate to plead his cause-\"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\" That is the fourth thing. But again,\n\n5. The apostle also supposeth by the text there is an aptness\nin Christians when they have sinned, to forget that they \"have an\nAdvocate with the Father\"; wherefore this is written to put them\nin remembrance-\"If any may sin, [let him remember] we have an\nAdvocate.\" We can think of all other things well enough-namely,\nthat God is a just judge, that the law is perfectly holy, that my\nsin is a horrible and an abominable thing, and that I am certainly\nthereof accused before God by Satan.\n\nThese things, I say, we readily think of, and forget them not. Our\nconscience puts us in mind of these, our guilt puts us in mind of\nthese, the devil puts us in mind of these, and our reason and sense\nhold the knowledge and remembrance of these close to us. All that\nwe forget is, that we have an Advocate, \"an Advocate with the\nFather\"-that is, one that is appointed to take in hand in open\ncourt, before all the angels of heaven, my cause, and to plead it\nby such law and arguments as will certainly fetch me off, though\nI am clothed with filthy garments; but this, I say, we are apt\nto forget, as Job when he said, \"O that one might plead for a man\nwith God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!\" (Job 16:21). Such\nan one Job had, but he had almost at this time forgot it; as he\nseems to intimate also where he wisheth for a daysman that might\nlay his hand upon them both (Job 9:33). But our mercy is, we have\none to plead our cause, \"an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous,\" who will not suffer our soul to be spilt and spoiled\nbefore the throne, but will surely plead our cause.\n\n6. Another thing that the apostle would have us learn from the words\nis this, that to remember and to believe that Jesus Christ is an\nAdvocate for us when we have sinned, is the next way to support\nand strengthen our faith and hope. Faith and hope are very apt to\nfaint when our sins in their guilt do return upon us; nor is there\nany more proper way to relieve our souls than to understand that\nthe Son of God is our Advocate in heaven. True, Christ died for our\nsins as a sacrifice, and as a priest he sprinkleth with his blood\nthe mercyseat; ay, but here is one that has sinned after profession\nof faith, that has sinned grievously, so grievously that his sins\nare come up before God; yea, are at his bar pleaded against him\nby the accuser of the brethren, by the enemy of the godly. What\nshall he do now? Why, let him believe in Christ. Believe, that is\ntrue; but how now must he conceive in his mind of Christ for the\nencouraging of him so to do? Why, let him call to mind that Jesus\nChrist is an Advocate with the Father, and as such he meeteth the\naccuser at the bar of God, pleads for this man that has sinned\nagainst this accuser, and prevaileth for ever against him. Here\nnow, though Satan be turned lawyer, though he accuseth, yea, though\nhis charge against us is true, (for suppose that we have sinned,)\n\"yet our Advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\nThus is faith encouraged, thus is hope strengthened, thus is the\nspirit of the sinking Christian revived, and made to wait for a good\ndeliverance from a bad cause and a cunning adversary; especially\nif you consider,\n\n7. That the apostle doth also further suppose by the text that\nJesus Christ, as Advocate, if he will but plead our cause, let\nthat be never so black, is able to bring us off, even before God's\njudgment-seat, to our joy, and the confounding of our adversary;\nfor when he saith, \"We have an Advocate,\" he speaks nothing if he\nmeans not thus. But he doth mean thus, he must mean thus, because\nhe seeketh here to comfort and support the fallen. \"Has any man\nsinned? We have an Advocate.\" But what of that, if yet he be unable\nto fetch us off when charged for sin at the bar, and before the\nface of a righteous judge?\n\nBut he is able to do this. The apostle says so, in that he supposes\na man has sinned, as any man among the godly ever did; for we may\nunderstand it; and if he giveth us not leave to understand it so,\nhe saith nothing to the purpose neither, for it will be objected\nby some-But can he fetch me off, though I have done as David,\nas Solomon, as Peter, or the like? It must be answered, Yes. The\nopenness of the terms ANY MAN, the indefiniteness of the word SIN,\ndoth naturally allow us to take him in the largest sense; besides,\nhe brings in this saying as the chief, most apt, and fittest to\nrelieve one crushed down to death and hell by the guilt of sin and\na wounded conscience.\n\nFurther, methinks by these words the apostle seems to triumph in\nhis Christ, saying, My brethren, I would have you study to be holy;\nbut if your adversary the devil should get the advantage of you,\nand besmear you with the filth of sin, you have yet, besides all\nthat you have heard already, \"an Advocate with the Father, Jesus\nChrist the righteous,\" who is as to his person, in interest with\nGod, his wisdom and worth, able to bring you off, to the comforting\nof your souls.\n\nLet me, therefore, for a conclusion as to this, give you an\nexhortation to believe, to hope, and expect, that though you have\nsinned, (for now I speak to the fallen saint) that Jesus Christ\nwill make a good end with the-\"Trust,\" I say, \"in him, and he shall\nbring it to pass.\" I know I put thee upon a hard and difficult task\nfor believing and expecting good, when my guilty conscience doth\nnothing but clog, burden, and terrify me with the justice of God,\nthe greatness of thy sins, and the burning torments is hard and\nsweating work. But it must be; the text calls for it, thy case\ncalls for it, and thou must do it, if thou wouldst glorify Christ;\nand this is the way to hasten the issue of thy cause in hand, for\nbelieving daunts the devil, pleaseth Christ, and will help thee\nbeforehand to sing that song of the church, saying, \"O Lord, thou\nhast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life\"\n(Lam 3:58). Yea, believe, and hear thy pleading Lord say to thee,\n\"Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause\nof his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup\nof trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no\nmore drink it again\" (Isa 51:22). I am not here discoursing of the\nsweetness of Christ's nature, but of the excellency of his offices,\nand of his office of advocateship in particular, which, as a lawyer\nfor his client, he is to execute in the presence of God for us.\nLove may be where there is no office, and so where no power is to\ndo us good; but now, when love and office shall meet, they will\nsurely both combine in Christ to do the fallen Christian good. But\nof his love we have treated elsewhere; we will here discourse of\nthe office of this loving one. And for thy further information, let\nme tell thee that God thy Father counteth that thou wilt be, when\ncompared with his law, but a poor one all thy days; yea, the apostle\ntells thee so, in that he saith there is an Advocate provided for\nthee. When a father provides crutches for his child, he doth as\ngood as say, I count that my child will be yet infirm; and when\nGod shall provide an Advocate, he doth as good as say, My people\nare subject to infirmities. Do not, therefore, think of thyself\nabove what, by plain texts, and fair inferences drawn from Christ's\noffices, thou are bound to think. What doth it bespeak concerning\nthee that Christ is always a priest in heaven, and there ever lives\nto make intercession for thee (Heb 7:24), but this, that thou art\nat the best in thyself, yea, and in thy best exercising of all\nthy graces too, but a poor, pitiful, sorry, sinful man; a man that\nwould, when yet most holy, be certainly cast away, did not thy high\npriest take away for thee the iniquity of thy holy things. The age\nwe live in is a wanton age; the godly are not so humble, and low,\nand base in their own eyes as they should, though their daily\nexperience calls for it, and the priesthood of Jesus Christ too.\n\nBut above all, the advocateship of Jesus Christ declares us to be\nsorry creatures; for that office does, as it were, predict that\nsome time or other we shall basely fall, and by falling be undone,\nif the Lord Jesus stand not up to plead. And as it shows this\nconcerning us, so it shows concerning God that he will not lightly\nor easily lose his people. He has provided well for us-blood to wash\nus in; a priest to pray for us, that we may be made to persevere;\nand, in case we foully fall, an advocate to plead our cause, and\nto recover us from under, and out of all that danger, that by sin\nand Satan, we at any time may be brought into.\n\nBut having thus briefly passed through that in the text which I think\nthe apostle must necessarily presuppose, I shall now endeavour to\nenter into the bowels of it, and see what, in a more particular\nmanner, shall be found therein. And, for my more profitable doing\nof this work, I shall choose to observe this method in my discourse-\n\n[METHOD OF THE DISCOURSE.]\n\nFIRST, I shall show you more particularly of this Advocate's office,\nor what and wherein Christ's office as Advocate doth lie. SECOND,\nAfter that, I shall also show you how Jesus Christ doth manage this\noffice of an Advocate. THIRD, I shall also then show you who they\nare that have Jesus Christ for their Advocate. FOURTH, I shall\nalso show you what excellent privileges they have, who have Jesus\nChrist for their Advocate. FIFTH, And to silence cavillers, I shall\nalso show the necessity of this office of Jesus Christ. SIXTH, I\nshall come to answer some objections; and, LASTLY, To the use and\napplication.\n\n[WHEREIN CHRIST'S OFFICE AS ADVOCATE DOTH LIE.]\n\nFIRST, To begin with the first of these-namely, to show you more\nparticularly of Christ's office as an Advocate, and wherein it lieth;\nthe which I shall do these three ways-First, Touch again upon the\nnature of this office; and then, Second, Treat of the order and\nplace that it hath among the rest of his offices; and, Third, Treat\nof the occasion of the execution of this office.\n\nFirst, To touch upon the nature of this office. It is that which\nempowereth a man to plead for a man, or one man to plead for another;\nnot in common discourses, and upon common occasions, as any man may\ndo, but at a bar, or before a court of judicature, where a man is\naccused or impleaded by his enemy; I say, this Advocate's office\nis such, both here, and in the kingdom of heaven. An advocate is as\none of our attorneys, at least in the general, who pleads according\nto law and justice for one or other that is in trouble by reason of\nsome miscarriage, or of the naughty temper of some that are about\nhim, who trouble and vex, and labour to bring him into danger of\nthe law. This is the nature of this office, as I said, on earth;\nand this is the office that Christ executeth in heaven. Wherefore\nhe saith, \"If any man sin, we have an Advocate\"; one to stand up\nfor him, and to plead for his deliverance before the bar of God.\n(Joel 3:2. Isa 66:16. Eze 38:22. Jer 2.)\n\nFor though in some places of Scripture Christ is said to plead\nfor his with men, and that by terrible arguments, as by fire, and\nsword, and famine, and pestilence, yet this is not that which is\nintended by this text; for the apostle here saith, he is an Advocate\nwith the Father, or before the Father, to plead for those that\nthere, or that to the Father's face, shall be accused for their\ntransgressions: \"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the\nFather, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" So, then, this is the employ\nof Jesus Christ as he is for us, an Advocate. He has undertaken\nto stand up for his people at God's bar, and before that great\ncourt, there to plead, by the law and justice of heaven, for their\ndeliverance; when, for their faults, they are accused, indicted,\nor impleaded by their adversary.\n\nSecond. And now to treat of the order or place that this office of\nChrist hath among the rest of his offices, which he doth execute\nfor us while we are here in a state of imperfection; and I think\nit is an office that is to come behind as a reserve, or for a help\nat last, when all other means shall seem to fail. Men do not use\nto go to law upon every occasion; or if they do, the wisdom of the\njudge, the jury, and the court will not admit that every brangle\nand foolish quarrel shall come before them; but an Advocate doth\nthen come into place, and then to the exercise of his office, when\na cause is counted worthy to be taken notice of by the judge and\nby the court. Wherefore he, I say, comes in the last place, as a\nreserve, or help at last, to plead; and, by pleading, to set that\nright by law which would otherwise have caused an increase to more\ndoubts, and to further dangers.\n\nChrist, as priest, doth always works of service for us, because\nin our most spiritual things there may faults and spots be found,\nand these he taketh away of course, by the exercise of that office;\nfor he always wears that plate of gold upon his forehead before\nthe Father, whereon is written, \"Holiness to the Lord.\" But now,\nbesides these common infirmities, there are faults that are highly\ngross and foul, that oft are found in the skirts of the children\nof God. Now, there are they that Satan taketh hold on; these are\nthey that Satan draweth up a charge against us for; and to save us\nfrom these, it is, that the Lord Jesus is made an Advocate. When\nJoshua was clothed with filthy garments, then Satan stood at his\nright hand to resist him; then the angel of the covenant, the Lord\nJesus, pleaded for his help (Zech 3). By all which it appears,\nthat this office comes behind, is provided as a reserve, that we\nmay have help at a pinch, and then be lifted out, when we sink in\nmire, where there is no standing.\n\nThis is yet further hinted at by the several postures that Christ\nis said to be in, as he exerciseth his priestly and advocate's\noffice. As a Priest, he sits; as an Advocate, he stands (Isa 3:13).\nThe Lord stands up when he pleads; his sitting is more constant and\nof course (Sit thou, Psa 110:1,4), but his standing is occasional,\nwhen Joshua is indicted, or when hell and earth are broken loose\nagainst his servant Stephen. For as Joshua was accused by the\ndevil, and as then the angel of the Lord stood by, so when Stephen\nwas accused by men on earth, and that charge seconded by the fallen\nangels before the face of God, it is said, \"the Lord Jesus stood\non the right hand of God,\" (Acts 7:55)-to wit, to plead; for so I\ntake it, because standing is his posture as an Advocate, not as a\nPriest; for, as a Priest, he must sit down; but he standeth as an\nAdvocate, as has been showed afore (Heb 10:12). Wherefore,\n\nThird. The occasion of his exercising of this office of advocate\nis, as hath been hinted already, when a child of God shall be found\nguilty before God of some heinous sin, of some grievous thing in\nhis life and conversation. For as for those infirmities that attend\nthe best, in their most spiritual sacrifices; if a child of God\nwere guilty of ten thousand of them, they are of course purged,\nthrough the much incense that is always mixed with those sacrifices\nin the golden censer that is in the hand of Christ; and so he is\nkept clean, and counted upright, notwithstanding those infirmities;\nand, therefore, you shall find that, notwithstanding those common faults,\nthe children of God are counted good and upright in conversation,\nand not charged as offenders. \"David,\" saith the text, \"did that\nwhich was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from\nany thing that he commanded him, all the days of his life, save\nonly in the matter of Uriah the Hittite\" (I Kings 15:5). But was\nDavid, in a strict sense, without fault in all things else? No,\nverily; but that was foul in a higher degree than the rest, and\ntherefore there God sets a blot; ay, and doubtless for that he was\naccused by Satan before the throne of God; for here is adultery,\nand murder, and hypocrisy, in David's doings; here is notorious\nmatter, a great sin, and so a great ground for Satan to draw up\nan indictment against the king; and a thundering one, to be sure,\nshall be preferred against him. This is the time, then, for Christ\nto stand up to plead; for now there is room for such a question-Can\nDavid's sin stand with grace? Or, Is it possible that a man that\nhas done as he has, should yet be found a saint, and so in a saved\nstate? Or, Can God repute him so, and yet be holy and just? or,\nCan the merits of the Lord Jesus reach, according to the law of\nheaven, a man in this condition? Here is a case dubious; here is\na man whose salvation, by his foul offences, is made doubtful; now\nwe must to law and judgment, wherefore now let Christ stand up to\nplead! I say, now was David's case dubious; he was afraid that God\nwould cast him away, and the devil hoped he would, and to that end\ncharged him before God's face, if, perhaps, he might get sentence\nof damnation to pass upon his soul (Psa 51). But this was David's\nmercy, he had an Advocate to plead his cause, by whose wisdom and\nskill in matters of law and judgment he was brought off of those\nheavy charges, from those gross sins, and delivered from that eternal\ncondemnation, that by the law of sin and death, was due thereto.\n\nThis is then the occasion that Christ taketh to plead, as Advocate,\nfor the salvation of his people-to wit, the cause: He \"pleadeth\nthe cause of his people\" (Is 51:22). Not every cause, but such and\nsuch a cause; the cause that is very bad, and by the which they\nare involved, not only in guilt and shame, but also in danger of\ndeath and hell. I say, the cause is bad, if the text be true, if\nsin can make it bad, yea, if sin itself be bad-\"If any man sin,\nwe have an Advocate\"; an Advocate to plead for him; for him as\nconsidered guilty, and so, consequently, as considered in a bad\ncondition. It is true, we must distinguish between the person and\nthe sin; and Christ pleads for the person, not the sin; but yet He\ncannot be concerned with the person, but he must be with the sin;\nfor though the person and the sin may be distinguished, yet they\ncannot be separated. He must plead, then, not for a person only, but\nfor a guilty person, for a person under the worst of circumstances-\"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate\" for him as so considered.\n\nWhen a man's cause is good, it will sufficiently plead for itself,\nyea, and for its master too, especially when it is made appear so\nto be, before a just and righteous judge. Here, therefore, needs\nno advocate; the judge himself will pronounce him righteous. This\nis evidently seen in Job-\"Thou movedst me against him (this said\nGod to Satan), to destroy him without cause\" (Job 2:3). Thus far\nJob's cause was good, wherefore he did not need an advocate; his\ncause pleaded for itself, and for its owner also. But if it was\nto plead good causes for which Christ is appointed Advocate, then\nthe apostle should have written thus: If any man be righteous, we\nhave an Advocate with the Father. Indeed, I never heard but one in\nall my life preach from this text, and he, when he came to handle\nthe cause for which he was to plead, pretended it must be good,\nand therefore said to the people, See that your cause be good, else\nChrist will not undertake it. But when I heard it, Lord, thought\nI, if this be true, what shall I do, and what will become of all\nthis people, yea, and of this preacher too? Besides, I saw by the\ntext, the apostle supposeth another cause, a cause bad, exceeding\nbad, if sin can make it so. And this was one cause why I undertook\nthis work.\n\nWhen we speak of a cause, we speak not of a person simply\nas so considered; for, as I said before, person and cause must\nbe distinguished; nor can the person make the cause good but as\nhe regulates his action by the Word of God. If, then, a good, a\nrighteous, man doth what the law condemns, that thing is bad; and\nif he be indicted for so doing, he is indicted for a bad cause;\nand he that will be his advocate, must be concerned in and about\na bad matter; and how he will bring his client off, therein doth\nlie the mystery.\n\nI know that a bad man may have a good cause depending before the\njudge, and so also good men have (Job 31). But then they are bold\nin their own cause, and fear not to make mention of it, and in\nChrist to plead their innocency before the God of heaven, as well\nas before men (Psa 71:3-5. II Cor 1:23. Gal 1:10. Phil 1:8). But\nwe have in the text a cause that all men are afraid of-a cause that\nthe apostle concludes so bad that none but Jesus Christ himself can\nsave a Christian from it. It is not only sinful, but sin itself-\"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.\"\n\nWherefore there is in this place handled by the apostle, one of\nthe greatest mysteries under heaven-to wit, that an innocent and\nholy Jesus should take in hand to plead for one before a just and\nrighteous God, that has defiled himself with sin; yea, that he\nshould take in hand to plead for such an one against the fallen\nangels, and that he should also by his plea effectually rescue, and\nbring them off from the crimes and curse whereof they were verily\nguilty by the verdict of the law, and approbation of the Judge.\n\nThis, I say, is a great mystery, and deserves to be pried into by\nall the godly, both because much of the wisdom of heaven is discovered\nin it, and because the best saint is, or may be, concerned with it.\nNor must we by any means let this truth be lost, because it is the\ntruth; the text has declared it so, and to say otherwise is to belie\nthe Word of God, to thwart the apostle, to soothe up hypocrites,\nto rob Christians of their privilege, and to take the glory from\nthe head of Jesus Christ (Luke 18:11,12).\n\nThe best saints are most sensible of their sins, and most apt to\nmake mountains of their mole hills. Satan also, as has been already\nhinted, doth labour greatly to prevail with them to sin, and to\nprovoke their God against them, by pleading what is true, or by\nsurmising evilly of them, to the end they may be accused by him\n(Job 2:9). Great is his malice toward them, great is his diligence\nin seeking their destruction; wherefore greatly doth he desire\nto sift, to try, and winnow them, if perhaps he may work in their\nflesh to answer his design-that is, to break out in sinful acts,\nthat he may have by law to accuse them to their God and Father.\nWherefore, for their sakes this text abides, that they may see\nthat, when they have sinned, \"they have an Advocate with the Father,\nJesus Christ the righteous.\" And thus have I showed you the nature,\nthe order, and occasion of this office of our blessed Lord Jesus.\n\n[HOW CHRIST MANAGES THE OFFICE OF AN ADVOCATE.]\n\nII. I come now to show you how Jesus Christ doth manage this\nhis office of an Advocate for us. And that I may do this to your\nedification, I shall choose this method for the opening of it-First.\nShow you how he manages this office with his Father. Second. I\nshall show you how he manages it before him against our adversary.\n\nFirst. How he manages this his office of Advocate with his Father.\n\n1. He doth it by himself, by no other as deputy under him, no angel,\nno saint; no work has place here but Jesus, and Jesus only. This\nthe text implies: \"We have an Advocate\"; speaking of one, but one,\none alone; without an equal or an inferior. We have but one, and he\nis Jesus Christ. Nor is it for Christ's honour, nor for the honour\nof the law, or of the justice of God, that any but Jesus Christ\nshould be an Advocate for a sinning saint. Besides, to assert the\ncontrary, what doth it but lessen sin, and make the advocateship of\nJesus Christ superfluous? It would lessen sin should it be removed\nby a saint or angel; it would make the advocateship of Jesus Christ\nsuperfluous, yea, needless, should it be possible that sin could\nbe removed from us by either saint or angel.\n\nAgain; if God should admit of more advocates than one, and yet\nmake mention of never an one but Jesus Christ; or if John should\nallow another, and yet speak nothing but of Jesus only; yea, that\nan advocate under that title should be mentioned but once, but\nonce only in all the book of God, and yet that divers should be\nadmitted, stands neither with the wisdom or love of God, nor with\nthe faithfulness of the apostle. But saints have but one Advocate,\nif they will use him, or improve their faith in that office for\ntheir help, so; if not, they must take what follows. This I thought\ngood to hint at, because the times are corrupt, and because ignorance\nand superstition always wait for a countenance with us, and these\nthings have a natural tendency to darken all truth, so especially\nthis, which bringeth to Jesus Christ so much glory, and yieldeth\nto the godly so much help and relief.\n\n2. As Jesus Christ alone is Advocate, so God's bar, and that alone,\nis that before which he pleads, for God is judge himself (Deut\n32:36. Heb 12:23). Nor can the cause which now he is to plead be\nremoved into any other court, either by appeals or otherwise.\n\nCould Satan remove us from heaven, to another court, he would\ncertainly be too hard for us, because there we should want our Jesus,\nour Advocate, to plead our cause. Indeed, sometimes he impleads\nus before men, and they are glad of the occasion, for they and he\nare often one; but then we have leave to remove our cause, and to\npray for a trial in the highest court, saying, \"Let my sentence\ncome forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that\nare equal\" (Psa 17:2). This wicked world doth sentence us for our\ngood deeds, but how then would they sentence us for our bad ones?\nBut we will never appeal from heaven to earth for right, for here\nwe have no Advocate; \"our Advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous.\"\n\n3. As he pleadeth by himself alone, and nowhere else but in the\ncourt of heaven with the Father, so as he pleadeth with the Father\nfor us, he observeth this rule-\n\n(1.) He granteth and confesseth whatever can rightly be charged\nupon us; yet so as that he taketh the whole charge upon himself,\nacknowledging the crimes to be his own. \"O God,\" says he, \"thou\nknowest my foolishness, and my sins\"; my guiltiness \"is not hid from\nthee\" (Psa 69:5). And this he must do, or else he can do nothing.\nIf he hides the sin, or lesseneth it, he is faulty; if he leaves it\nstill upon us, we die. He must, then, take our iniquity to himself,\nmake it his own, and so deliver us; for having thus taken the sin\nupon himself, as lawfully he may, and lovingly doth, \"for we are\nmembers of his body\" ('tis his hand, 'tis his foot, 'tis his ear\nhath sinned), it followeth that we live if he lives; and who can\ndesire more? 5This, then, must be thoroughly considered, if ever\nwe will have comfort in a day of trouble and distress for sin.\n\nAnd thus far there is, in some kind, a harmony betwixt his being\na sacrifice, a priest, and an Advocate. As a sacrifice, our sins\nwere laid upon him (Isa 53). As a priest, he beareth them (Exo\n28:38). And as an Advocate, he acknowledges them to be his own (Psa\n69:5). Now, having acknowledged them to be his own, the quarrel is\nno more betwixt us and Satan, for the Lord Jesus has espoused our\nquarrel, and made it his. All, then, that we in this matter have\nto do, is to stand at the bar by faith among the angels, and see\nhow the business goes. O blessed God! what a lover of mankind\nart thou! and how gracious is our Lord Jesus, in his thus managing\nmatters for us.\n\n(2.) The Lord Jesus having thus taken our sins upon himself, next\npleads his own goodness to God on our behalf, saying, \"Let not them\nthat wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let\nnot those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel:\nbecause for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my\nface\" (Psa 69:6,7). Mark, let them not be ashamed for my sake,\nlet them not be confounded for my sake. Shame and confusion are\nthe fruits of guilt, or of a charge for sin, (Jer 3:25), and are\nbut an entrance into condemnation (Dan 12:2. John 5:29). But behold\nhow Christ pleads, saying, Let not that be for my sake, for the\nmerit of my blood, for the perfection of my righteousness, for the\nprevalency of my intercession. Let them not be ashamed for my sake,\nO Lord God of hosts. And let no man object, because this text is\nin the Psalms, as if it were not spoken by the prophet of Christ;\nfor both John and Paul, yea, and Christ himself, do make this psalm\na prophecy of him. Compare verse 9 with John 2:17, and with Romans\n15:3; and verse 21 with Matthew 27:48, and Mark 15:25. But is not\nthis a wonderful thing, that Christ should first take our sins,\nand account them his own, and then plead the value and worth of his\nwhole self for our deliverance? For by these words, \"for my sake,\"\nhe pleads his own self, his whole self, and all that he is and has;\nand thus he put us in good estate again, though our cause was very\nbad.\n\nTo bring this down to weak capacities. Suppose a man should\nbe indebted twenty thousand pounds, but has not twenty thousand\nfarthings wherewith to pay; and suppose also that this man be\narrested for this debt, and that the law also, by which he is sued,\nwill not admit of a penny bate; this man may yet come well enough\noff, if his advocate or attorney will make the debt his own, and\nwill, in the presence of the judges, out with his bags, and pay down\nevery farthing. Why, this is the way of our Advocate. Our sins are\ncalled debts (Matt 6:12). We are sued for them at the law (Luke\n12:59). And the devil is our accuser; but behold the Lord Jesus\ncomes out with his worthiness, pleads it at the bar, making the debt\nhis own (Mark 10:45. II Cor 3:5). And saith, Now let them not be\nashamed for my sake, O Lord God of hosts: let them not be confounded\nfor my sake, O God of Israel. And hence, as he is said to be an\nAdvocate, so he is said to be a propitiation, or amends-maker, or\none that appeaseth the justice of God for our sins-\"If any man sin,\nwe have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;\nand he is the propitiation for our sins.\"\n\nAnd who can now object against the deliverance of the child of God?\nGod cannot; for he, for Christ's sake, according as he pleaded,\nhath forgiven us all trespasses (Col 2:13, Eph 4:32). The devil\ncannot; his mouth is stopped, as is plain in the case of Joshua\n(Zech 3). The law cannot; for that approveth of what Christ has\ndone. This, then, is the way of Christ's pleading. You must know,\nthat when Christ pleads with God, he pleads with a just and righteous\nGod, and therefore he must plead law, and nothing but law; and this\nhe pleaded in both these pleas-First, in confessing of the sin he\njustified the sentence of the law in pronouncing of it evil; and\nthen in his laying of himself, his whole self, before God for that\nsin, he vindicated the sanction and perfection of the law. Thus,\ntherefore, he magnifies the law, and makes it honourable, and yet\nbrings off his client safe and sound in the view of all the angels\nof God.\n\n(3). The Lord Jesus having thus taken our sins upon himself, and\npresented God with all the worthiness that is in his whole self for\nthem, in the next place he calleth for justice, or a just verdict\nupon the satisfaction he hath made to God and to his law. Then\nproclamation is made in open court, saying, \"Take away the filthy\ngarments from him,\" from him that hath offended, and clothe him\nwith change of raiment (Zech 3).\n\nThus the soul is preserved that hath sinned; thus the God of heaven\nis content that he should be saved; thus Satan is put to confusion,\nand Jesus applauded and cried up by the angels of heaven, and by the\nsaints on earth. Thus have I showed you how Christ doth advocate it\nwith God and his Father for us; and I have been the more particular\nin this, because the glory of Christ, and the comfort of the\ndejected, are greatly concerned and wrapped up in it. Look, then,\nto Jesus, if thou hast sinned; to Jesus, as an Advocate pleading\nwith the Father for thee. Look to nothing else; for he can tell\nhow, and that by himself, to deliver thee; yea, and will do it in\na way of justice, which is a wonder; and to the shame of Satan,\nwhich will be his glory; and also to thy complete deliverance,\nwhich will be thy comfort and salvation.\n\nSecond, But to pass this and come to the second thing, which is, to\nshow you how the Lord Jesus manages this his office of an Advocate\nbefore his Father against the adversary; for he pleadeth with the\nFather, but pleadeth against the devil; he pleadeth with the Father\nlaw and justice, but against the adversary he letteth out himself.\n\nI say, as he pleads against the adversary, so he enlargeth himself\nwith arguments over and besides those which he pleadeth with God\nhis Father.\n\nNor is it meet or needful that our advocate, when he pleads against\nSatan, should so limit himself to matter of law, as when he pleadeth\nwith his Father. The saint, by sinning, oweth Satan nothing; no\nlaw of his is broken thereby; why, then, should he plead for the\nsaving of his people, justifying righteousness to him?\n\nChrist, when he died, died not to satisfy Satan, but his Father;\nnot to appease the devil, but to answer the demands of the justice\nof God; nor did he design, when he hanged on the tree, to triumph\nover his Father, but over Satan; \"He redeemed us,\" therefore, \"from\nthe curse of the law,\" by his blood (Gal 3:13). And from the power\nof Satan, by his resurrection (Heb 2:14). He delivered us from\nrighteous judgment by price and purchase; but from the rage of hell\nby fight and conquest.\n\nAnd as he acted thus diversely in the work of our redemption, even\nso he also doth in the execution of his Advocate's office. When\nhe pleadeth with God, he pleadeth so; and when he pleadeth against\nSatan, he pleadeth so; and how he pleadeth with God when he dealeth\nwith law and justice I have showed you. And now I will show you\nhow he pleadeth before him against the \"accuser of the brethren.\"\n\n1. He pleads against him the well-pleasedness that his Father has\nin his merits, saying, This shall please the Lord, or this doth or\nwill please the Lord, better than anything that can be propounded\n(Psa 69:31). Now this plea being true, as it is, being established\nupon the liking of God Almighty; whatever Satan can say to obtain\nour everlasting destruction is without ground, and so unreasonable.\n\"I am well pleased,\" saith God (Matt 3:17); and again, \"The Lord is\nwell pleased for his (Christ's) righteousness' sake\" (Isa 42:21).\nAll that enter actions against others, pretend that wrong is done,\neither against themselves or against the king. Now Satan will never\nenter an action against us in the court above, for that wrong by\nus has been done to himself; he must pretend, then, that he sues\nus, for that wrong has, by us, been done to our king. But, behold,\n\"We have an Advocate with the Father,\" and he has made compensation\nfor our offences. He gave himself for our offences. But still Satan\nmaintains his suit; and our God, saith Christ, is well pleased\nwith us for this compensation-sake, yet he will not leave off his\nclamour. Come, then, says the Lord Jesus, the contention is not\nnow against my people, but myself, and about the sufficiency of\nthe amends that I have made for the transgressions of my people;\nbut he is near that justifieth me, that approveth and accepteth\nof my doings, therefore shall I not be confounded. Who is mine\nadversary? Let him come near me! Behold, \"the Lord God will help\nme\" (Isa 50:7-9). Who is he that condemneth me? Lo, they all shall,\nwere there ten thousand times as many more of them, wax old as\na garment; the moth shall eat them up. Wherefore, if the Father\nsaith Amen to all this, as I have showed already that he hath and\ndoth, the which also further appeareth, because the Lord God has\ncalled him the Saviour, the Deliverer, and the Amen; what follows,\nbut that a rebuke should proceed from the throne against him? And\nthis, indeed, our Advocate calls for from the hand of his Father,\nsaying, O enemy, \"the Lord rebuke thee\"; yea, he doubles this request\nto the judge, to intimate his earnestness for such a conclusion,\nor to show that the enemy shall surely have it, both from our\nAdvocate, and from him before whom Satan has so grievously accused\nus (Zech 3).\n\nFor what can be expected to follow from such an issue in law as\nthis is, but sound and severe snibs from the judge upon him that\nhath thus troubled his neighbour, and that hath, in the face of\nthe country, cast contempt upon the highest act of mercy, justice,\nand righteousness, that ever the heavens beheld? 6 And all this\nis true with reference to the case in hand, wherefore, \"The Lord\nrebuke thee,\" is that which, in conclusion, Satan must have for\nthe reward of his works of malice against the children, and for\nhis contemning of the works of the Son of God. Now, our Advocate\nhaving thus established, by the law of heaven, his plea with God\nfor us against our accuser, there is way made for him to proceed\nupon a foundation that cannot be shaken; wherefore, he proceedeth\nin his plea, and further urges against this accuser of the brethren.\n\n2. God's interest in this people; and prayeth that God would\nremember that: \"The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; the Lord that hath\nchosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee.\" True, the church, the saints, are\ndespicable in the world; wherefore men do think to tread them down;\nthe saints are, also, weak in grace, but have corruptions that are\nstrong, and, therefore, Satan, the god of this world, doth think\nto tread them down; but the saints have a God, the living, the\neternal God, and, therefore, they shall not be trodden down; yea,\nthey \"shall be holden up, for God is able to make them stand\" (Rom\n14:4).\n\nIt was Haman's mishap to be engaged against the queen, and the\nkindred of the queen; it was that that made him he could not prosper;\nthat brought him to contempt and the gallows. Had he sought to\nruin another people, probably he might have brought his design to\na desired conclusion; but his compassing the death of the queen\nspoiled all. Satan, also, when he fighteth against the church,\nmust be sure to come to the worst, for God has a concern in that;\ntherefore, it is said, \"The gates of hell shall not prevail against\nit\"; but this hindereth not but that he is permitted to make almost\nwhat spoils he will of those that belong not to God. Oh, how many\ndoth he accuse, and soon get out from God, against them, a license\nto destroy them! as he served Ahab, and many more. But this, I say,\nis a very great block in his way when he meddles with the children;\nGod has an interest in them-\"Hath God cast away his people? God\nforbid!\" (Rom 11:1,2). The text intimates that they for sin had\ndeserved it, and that Satan would fain have had it been so; but\nGod's interest in them preserved them-\"God hath not cast away his\npeople, which he foreknew.\" Wherefore, when Satan accuseth them\nbefore God, Christ, as he pleadeth his own worth and merit, pleadeth\nalso against him, that interest that God has in them.\n\nAnd though this, to some, may seem but an indifferent plea; for what\nengagement lieth, may they say, upon God to be so much concerned\nwith them, for they sin against him, and often provoke him most\nbitterly? Besides, in their best state, they are altogether vanity,\nand a very thing of nought-\"What is man (sorry man), that thou art\nmindful of him,\" or that thou shouldest be so?\n\nI answer, Thought there lieth no engagement upon God for any\nworthiness that is in man, yet there lieth a great deal upon God\nfor the worthiness that is in himself. God has engaged himself\nwith his having chosen them to be a people to himself; and by this\nmeans they are so secured from all that all can do against them,\nthat the apostle is bold, upon this very account, to challenge\nall despite to do its worst against them, saying, \"Who shall lay\nanything to the charge of God's elect?\" (Rom 8:33). Who? saith Satan;\nwhy, that will I. Ay, saith he, but who can do it, and prevail? \"It\nis God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?\" (ver. 34). By\nwhich words the apostle clearly declareth that charges against the\nelect, though they may be brought against them, must needs prove\nineffectual as to their condemnation; because their Lord God still\nwill justify, for that Christ has died for them. Besides, a little\nto enlarge, the elect are bound to God by a sevenfold cord, and a\nthreefold one is not quickly broken.\n\n(1.) Election is eternal as God himself, and so without variableness\nor shadow of change, and hence it is called \"an eternal purpose,\"\nand a \"purpose of God\" that must stand (Eph 3:11; Rom 9:11). (2.)\nElection is absolute, not conditional; and, therefore, cannot\nbe overthrown by the sin of the man that is wrapped up therein.\nNo works foreseen to be in us was the cause of God's choosing us;\nno sin in us shall frustrate or make election void-\"Who shall lay\nanything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth\"\n(Rom 8:33; 9:11). (3.) By the act of election the children are\ninvolved, wrapped up, and covered in Christ; he hath chosen us in\nhim; not in ourselves, not in our virtues, no, not for or because\nof anything, but of his own will (Eph 1:4-11). (4.) Election includeth\nin it a permanent resolution of God to glorify his mercy on the\nvessels of mercy, thus foreordained unto glory (Rom 9:15,18,23).\n(5.) By the act of electing love, it is concluded that all things\nwhatsoever shall work together for the good of them whose call to\nGod is the fruit of this purpose, this eternal purpose of God (Rom\n8:28-30). (6.) The eternal inheritance is by a covenant of free and\nunchangeable grace made over to those thus chosen; and to secure\nthem from the fruits of sin, and from the malice of Satan, it\nis sealed by this our Advocate's blood, as he is Mediator of this\ncovenant, who also is become surety to God for them; to wit, to\nsee them forthcoming at the great day, and to set them then safe\nand sound before his Father's face after the judgment is over (Rom\n9:23; Heb 7:22; 9:15,17-24; 13:20; John 10:28,29). (7.) By this\nchoice, purpose, and decree, the elect, the concerned therein, have\nallotted them by God, and laid up for them, in Christ, a sufficiency\nof grace to bring them through all difficulties to glory; yea, and\nthey, every one of them, after the first act of faith-the which\nalso they shall certainly attain, because wrapped up in the promise\nfor them-are to receive the earnest and first fruits thereof into\ntheir souls (II Tim 1:9; Acts 14:22; Eph 1:4,5,13,14).\n\nNow, put all these things together, and then feel if there be not\nweight in this plea of Christ against the devil. He pleads God's\nchoice and interest in his saints against him-an interest that is\nsecured by the wisdom of heaven, by the grace of heaven, by the\npower, will, and mercy of God, in Christ-an interest in which all\nthe three Persons in the Godhead have engaged themselves, by mutual\nagreement and operation, to make good when Satan has done his all.\nI know there are some that object against this doctrine as false;\nbut such, perhaps, are ignorant of some things else as well as of\nthis. However, they object against the wisdom of God, whose truth\nit is, and against Christ our Advocate, whose argument, as he is\nsuch, it is; yea, they labour, what in them lieth, to wrest that\nweapon out of his hand, with which he so cudgelleth the enemy\nwhen, as Advocate, he pleadeth so effectually against him for the\nrescuing of us from the danger of judgment, saying, \"The Lord rebuke\nthee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke\nthee.\"\n\nThird. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads against Satan the interest\nthat his Father hath in his chosen, so also he pleads against\nhim by no less authority-his own interest in them. \"Holy Father,\"\nsaith he, \"keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given\nme\" (John 17:11). Keep them while in the world from the evil, the\nsoul-damning evil of it. These words are directed to the Father,\nbut they are leveled against the accusations of the enemy, and were\nspoken here to show what Christ will do for his, against our foe,\nwhen he is above. How, I say, he will urge before his Father his\nown interest in us against Satan, and against all his accusations,\nwhen he brings them to the bar of God's tribunal, with design to\nwork our utter ruin. And is there not a great deal in it? As if\nChrist should say, Father, my people have an adversary who will\naccuse them for their faults before thee; but I will be their\nAdvocate, and as I have bought them of thee, I will plead my right\nagainst him (John 10:28). Our English proverb is, Interest will\nnot lie; interest will make a man do that which otherwise he would\nnot. How many thousands are there for whom Christ doth not so much as\nonce open his mouth, but leaves them to the accusations of Satan,\nand to Ahab's judgment, nay, a worse, because there is none to\nplead their cause? And why doth he not concern himself with them?\nbut because he is not interested in them-\"I pray not for the world,\nbut for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine; and all\nmine are thine, and I am glorified in them\" (John 17:9,10).\n\nSuppose so many cattle in such a pound, and one goes by whose they\nare not, doth he concern himself? No; he beholds them, and goes his\nway. But suppose that at his return he should find his own cattle\nin that pound, would he now carry it toward them as he did unto the\nother? No, no; he has interest here, they are his that are in the\npound; now he is concerned, now he must know who put them there,\nand for what cause too they are served as they are; and if he\nfinds them rightfully there, he will fetch them by ransom; but if\nwrongfully, he will replevy7 them, and stand a trial at law with\nhim that has thus illegally pounded his cattle. And thus it is\nbetwixt Jesus Christ and his. He is interested in them; the cattle\nare his own, \"his own sheep,\" (John 10:3,4), but pounded by some\nother, by the law, or by the devil. If pounded by the law, he\ndelivereth them by ransom; if pounded by the devil, he will replevy\nthem, stand a trial at law for them, and will be, against their\naccuser, their Advocate himself. Nor can Satan withstand his plea,\nthough he should against them join argument with the law; forasmuch,\nas has been proved before, he can and will, by what he has to produce\nand plead of his own, save his from all trespasses, charges, and\naccusations. Besides, all men know that a man's proper goods are\nnot therefore forfeited, because they commit many, and them too\ngreat transgressions-\"And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with\nthe Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" Now, the strength of this\nplea thus grounded upon Christ's interest in his people is great,\nand hath many weighty reasons on its side; as-\n\n1. They are mine; therefore in reason at my dispose, not at the\ndispose of an adversary; for while a thing can properly be called\nmine, no man has therewith to do but myself; nor doth (a man, nor)\nChrist close his right to what he has by the weakness of that thing\nwhich is his proper right. He, therefore, as an Advocate, pleadeth\ninterest, his own interest, in his people, and right must, with\nthe Judge of all the earth, take place-\"Shall not the Judge of all\nthe earth do right?\" (Gen 18:25).\n\n2. They cost him dear; and that which is dear bought is not easily\nparted with (I Cor. 6:20). They were bought with \"his blood\" (Eph\n1:7; I Peter 1:18,19). They were given him for his blood, and\ntherefore are \"dear children\" (Eph 5:1); for they are his by the\nhighest price; and this price he, as Advocate, pleadeth against the\nenemy of our salvation; yea, I will add, they are his, because he\ngave his all for them (II Cor 8:9). When a man shall give his all\nfor this or that, then that which he so hath purchased is become\nhis all. Now Christ has given his all for us; he made himself poor\nfor us, wherefore we are become his all, his fullness; and so the\nchurch is called (Eph 1:23). Nay, further, Christ likes well enough\nof his purchase, though it hath cost him his all-\"The lines,\" says\nhe, \"are fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage\"\n(Psa 16:6). Now, put all these things together, and there is a\nstrong plea in them. Interest, such an interest, will not be easily\nparted with. But this is not all; for,\n\n3. As they cost him dear, so he hath made them near to himself,\nnear by way of relation. Now that which did not only cost dear, but\nthat by way of relation is made so, that a man will plead heartily\nfor. Said David to Abner, \"Thou shalt not see my face, except thou\nfirst bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when thou comest to see my\nface\" (II Sam 3:13,14). Saul's daughter cost me dear; I bought\nher with the jeopardy of my life; Saul's daughter is near to me;\nshe is my beloved wife. He pleaded hard for her, because she was\ndear and near to him. Now, I say, the same is true in Christ; his\npeople cost him dear, and he hath made them near unto him; wherefore,\nto plead interest in them, is to hold by an argument that is strong.\n(a.) They are his spouse, and he hath made them so; they are his\nlove, his dove, his darling, and he accounts them so. Now, should\na wretch attempt, in open court, to take a man's wife away from\nhim, how would this cause the man to plead! Yea, and what judge\nthat is just, and knows that the man has this interest in the woman\npleaded for, would yield to, or give a verdict for the wretch,\nagainst the man whose wife the woman is? Thus Christ, in pleading\ninterest-in pleading \"thou gavest them me\"-pleads by a strong argument,\nan argument that the enemy cannot invalidate. True, were Christ to\nplead this before a Saul (I Sam 25;44), or before Samson's wife's\nfather, the Philistine (Judg 14:20), perhaps such treacherous\njudges would give it against all right. But, I have told you, the\ncourt in which Christ pleads is the highest and the justest, and\nthat from which there can be no appeal; wherefore Christ's cause,\nand so the cause of the children of God, must be tried before their\nFather, from whose face, to be sure, just judgment shall proceed.\nBut,\n\n(b.) As they are called his spouse, so they are called his flesh,\nand members of his body. Now, said Paul to the church, \"Ye are the\nbody of Christ, and members in particular\" (I Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30).\nThis relation also makes a man plead hard. Were a man to plead for\na limb, or a member of his own, how would he plead? What arguments\nwould he use? And what sympathy and feeling would his arguments\nflow from? I cannot lose a hand, I cannot lose a foot, cannot lose\na finger; why, saints are Christ's members, his members are of himself.\nWith what strength of argument would a man plead the necessariness\nof his members to him, and the unnaturalness of his adversary in\nseeking the destruction of his members, and the deformity of his\nbody! Yea, a man would shuck and cringe, and weep, and entreat,\nand make demurs, and halts, and delays, to a thousand years, if\npossible, before he would lose his members, or any one of them.\n\nBut, I say, how would he plead and advocate it for his members,\nif judge, and law, and reason, and equity, were all on his side,\nand if, by the adversary, there could be nothing urged, but that\nagainst which the Advocate had long before made provision for the\neffectual overthrow thereof? And all this is true as to the case\nthat lies before us. Thus we see what strength there lieth in this\nsecond argument, that our Advocate bringeth for us against the\nenemy. They are his flesh and bones, his members; he cannot spare\nthem; he cannot spare this, because, nor that, because, nor any,\nbecause, they are his members. As such, they are lovely to him; as\nsuch, they are useful to him; as such, they are an ornament to him;\nyea, though in themselves they are feeble, and through infirmity\nweak, much disabled from doing as they should. Thus, \"If any man sin,\nwe have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\nBut,\n\n4. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads for us, against Satan, his\nFather's interest in us and his own; so he pleadeth against him\nthat right and property that he hath in heaven, to give it to whom\nhe will. He has a right to heaven as Priest and King; it is his\nalso by inheritance; and since he will be so good a benefactor as\nto bestow this house on somebody, but not for their deserts, but\nnot for their goodness, and since, again, he has to that end spilt\nhis blood for, and taken a generation into covenant relation to\nhim, that it might be bestowed on them; it shall be bestowed on\nthem; and he will plead this, if there be need, if his people sin,\nand if their accuser seeks, by their sin, their ruin and destruction:\n\"Father,\" saith he, \"I will that they also, whom thou hast given\nme, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou\nhast given me\" (John 17:24). Christ's will is the will of heaven,\nthe will of God. Shall not Christ, then, prevail?\n\n\"I will,\" saith Christ; \"I will,\" saith Satan; but whose will shall\nstand? It is true, Christ in the text speaks more like an arbitrator\nthan an Advocate; more like a judge than one pleading at a bar.\nI will have it so; I judge that so it ought to be, and must. But\nthere is also something of plea in the words both before his Father,\nand against our enemy; and therefore he speaketh like one that can\nplead and determine also; yea, like one that has power so to do.\nBut shall the will of heaven stoop to the will of hell? Or the\nwill of Christ to the will of Satan? Or the will of righteousness\nto the will of sin? Shall Satan, who is God's enemy, and whose charge\nwherewith he chargeth us for sin, and which is grounded, not upon\nlove to righteousness, but upon malice against God's designs of\nmercy, against the blood of Christ, and the salvation of his people-I\nsay, shall this enemy and this charge prevail with God against the\nwell-grounded plea of Christ, and against the salvation of God's\nelect, and so keep us out of heaven? No, no; Christ will have it\notherwise, he is the great donator, 8 and his eye is good. True,\nSatan was turned out of heaven for that he sinned there, and we\nmust be taken into heaven, though we have sinned here; this is the\nwill of Christ, and, as Advocate, he pleads it against the face\nand accusation of our adversary. Thus, \"If any man sin, we have an\nAdvocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" But,\n\n5. As Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth for us, against Satan, his\nFather's interest in us, and his own, and pleadeth also what right\nhe has to dispose of the kingdom of heaven; so he pleadeth against\nthis enemy, that malice and enmity that is in him, and upon which\nchiefly his charge against us is grounded, to the confusion of his\nface. This is evident from the title that our Advocate bestows upon\nhim, while he pleads for us against him: \"The Lord rebuke thee,\nO Satan, O enemy,\" saith he; for Satan is an enemy, and this name\ngiven him signifies so much. And lawyers, in their pleas, can make\na great matter of such a circumstance as this; saying, My lord,\nwe can prove that what is now pleaded against the prisoner at the\nbar is of mere malice and hatred, that has also a long time lain\nburning and raging in his enemy's breast against him. This, I\nsay, will greatly weaken the plea and accusation of an enemy. But,\nsays Jesus Christ, \"Father, here is a plea brought in against my\nJoshua, that clothes him with filthy garments, but it is brought in\nagainst him by an enemy, by an enemy in the superlative or highest\ndegree. One that hates goodness worse than he, and that loveth\nwickedness more than the man against whom at this time he has brought\nsuch a heinous charge.\" Then leaving with the Father the value of\nhis blood for the accused, he turneth him to the accuser, and pleads\nagainst him as an enemy: \"O Satan, thou that accusest my spouse,\nmy love, my members, art SATAN, an enemy.\" But it will be objected\nthat the things charged are true. Grant it; yet what law takes notice\nof the plea of one who doth professedly act as an enemy? because\nit is not done of love to truth, and justice, and righteousness,\nnor intended for the honour of the king, nor for the good of the\nprosecuted; but to gratify malice and rage, and merely to kill and\ndestroy. There is, therefore, a great deal of force and strength in\nan Advocate's pleading of such a circumstance against an accuser;\nespecially when the crimes now charged are those, and only those\nfor which the law, in the due execution of it, has been satisfied\nbefore; wherefore now a lawyer has double and treble ground or\nmatter to plead for his client against his enemy. And this advantage\nagainst him has Jesus Christ.\n\nBesides, it is well known that Satan, as to us, is the original cause\nof those very crimes for which he accuses us at the bar of God's\ntribunal. Not to say anything of how he cometh to us, solicits\nus, tempts us, flatters us, and always, in a manner, lies at us\nto do those wicked things for which he so hotly pursues us to the\nbar of the judgment of God. For though it is not meet for us thus\nto plead,-to wit, laying that fault upon Satan, but rather upon\nourselves,-yet our advocate will do it, and make work of it too\nbefore God. \"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you,\nthat he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that\nthy faith fail not\" (Luke 22:31,32). He maketh here mention of\nSatan's desires, by way of advantage against him; and, doubtless,\nso he did in his prayer with God for Peter's preservation. And\nwhat he did here, while on earth, as a Saviour in general, that he\ndoth now in heaven as a Priest and an Advocate in special.\n\nI will further suppose that which may be supposed, and that which\nis suitable to our purpose. Suppose, therefore, that a father that\nhas a child whom he loveth, but the child has not half that wit\nthat some of the family hath, and I am sure that we have less wit\nthan angels; and suppose, also, that some bad-minded neighbour, by\ntampering with, tempting of, and by unwearied solicitations, should\nprevail with this child to steal something out of his father's house\nor grounds, and give it unto him; and this he doth on purpose to\nset the father against the child; and suppose, again, that it comes\nto the father's knowledge that the child, through the allurements\nof such an one, has done so and so against his father; will he\ntherefore disinherit this child? Yea, suppose, again, that he that\ndid tempt this child to steal, should be the first that should come\nto accuse this child to its father for so doing, would the father\ntake notice of the accusation of such an one?-No, verily, we that\nare evil can do better than so; how then should we think that the\nGod of heaven should do such a thing, since also we have a brother\nthat is wise, and that will and can plead the very malice of our enemy\nthat doth to us all these things against him for our advantage?-I\nsay, this is the sum of this fifth plea of Christ our Advocate,\nagainst Satan. O Satan, says he, thou art an enemy to my people;\nthou pleadest not out of love to righteousness, not to reform, but\nto destroy my beloved and inheritance. The charge wherewith thou\nchargest my people is thine own (Job 8:4-6). Not only as to a matter\nof charge, but the things that thou accusest them of are thine,\nthine in the nature of them. Also, thou hast tempted, allured,\nflattered, and daily laboured with them, to do that for which now\nthou so willingly would have them destroyed. Yea, all this hast\nthou done of envy to my Father, and to godliness; of hatred to me\nand my people; and that thou mightest destroy others besides (I Chron\n21:1). And now, what can this accuser say? Can he excuse himself?\nCan he contradict our Advocate? He cannot; he knows that he is a\nSatan, an enemy, and as an adversary has he sown his tares among\nthe wheat, that it might be rooted up; but he shall not have his\nend; his malice has prevented9 him, and so has the care and grace\nof our Advocate. The tares, therefore, he shall have returned unto\nhim again; but the wheat, for all this, shall be gathered into\nGod's barn (Matt 13:25-30).\n\nThus, therefore, our Advocate makes use, in his plea against Satan,\nof the rage and malice that is the occasion of the enemy's charge\nwherewith he accuseth the children of God. Wherefore, when thou\nreadest these words, \"O Satan,\" say with thyself, thus Christ our\nAdvocate accuseth our adversary of malice and envy against God and\ngoodness, while he accuseth us of the sins which we commit, for\nwhich we are sorry, and Christ has paid a price of redemption-\"And\n(thus) if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus\nChrist the righteous.\" But,\n\n6. Christ, when he pleads as an Advocate for his people, in the\npresence of God against Satan, he can plead those very weaknesses\nof his people for which Satan would have them damned, for their\nrelief and advantage. \"Is not this a brand plucked out of the\nfire?\" This is part of the plea of our Advocate against Satan for\nhis servant Joshua, when he said, \"The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan\"\n(Zech3:2). Now, to be a brand plucked out of the fire is to be\na saint, impaired, weakened, defiled, and made imperfect by sin;\nfor so also the apostle means when he saith, \"And others save with\nfear, pulling them our of the fire; hating even the garment spotted\nby the flesh\" (Jude 23). By fire, in both these places, we are to\nunderstand sin; for that it burns and consumes as fire (Rom 1:27).\nWherefore a man is said to burn when his lusts are strong upon him;\nand to burn in lusts to others, when his wicked heart runs wickedly\nafter them (I Cor 7:9).\n\nAlso, when Abraham said, \"I am but dust and ashes,\" (Gen 18:27),\nhe means he was but what sin had left; yea, he had something of\nthe smutch and besmearings of sin yet upon him. Wherefore it was\na custom with Israel, in days of old, when they set days apart\nfor confession of sin, and humiliation for the same, to sprinkle\nthemselves with, or to wallow in dust and ashes, as a token that\nthey did confess they were but what sin had left, and that they\nalso were defiled, weakened, and polluted by it (Esth 4:1,3; Jer\n6:26; Job 30:19, 42:6).\n\nThis, then, is the next plea of our goodly Advocate for us: O Satan,\nthis is \"a brand plucked out of the fire.\" As who should say, Thou\nobjected against my servant Joshua that he is black like a coal,\nor that the fire of sin at times is still burning in him. And what\nthen? The reason why he is not totally extinct, as tow; is not thy\npity, but my Father's mercy to him; I have plucked him out of the\nfire, yet not so out but that the smell thereof is yet upon him;\nand my Father and I, we consider his weakness, and pity him; for\nsince he is as a brand pulled out, can it be expected by my Father\nor me that he should appear before us as clear, and do our biddings\nas well, as if he had never been there? This is \"a brand plucked\nout of the fire,\" and must be considered as such, and must be\nborne with as such. Thus, as Mephibosheth pleaded for his excuse,\nhis lameness,(II Sam 19:24-26), so Christ pleads the infirm and\nindigent condition of his people, against Satan, for their advantage.\nWherefore Christ, by such pleas as these for his people, doth yet\nfurther show the malice of Satan (for all this burning comes through\nhim), yea, and by it he moveth the heart of God to pity us, and yet\nto be gentle, and long-suffering, and merciful to us; for pity and\ncompassion are the fruits of the yearning of God's bowels towards\nus, while he considereth us as infirm and weak, and subject to\nslips, and stumbles, and falls, because of weakness.\n\nAnd that Christ our Advocate, by thus pleading, doth turn things\nto our advantage, consider, (1.) That God is careful, that through\nour weakness, our spirits do not fail before him when he chides\n(Isa 57:16-18). (2.) \"He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the\neast wind,\" and debates about the measure of affliction, when, for\nsin, we should be chastened, lest we should sink thereunder (Isa\n27:7-9). (3.) He will not strictly mark what is done amiss, because\nif he should, we cannot stand (Psa 130:3). (4.) When he threateneth\nto strike, his bowels are troubled, and his repentings are kindled\ntogether (Hosea 11:8,9). (5.) He will spin out his patience to the\nutmost length, because he knows we are such bunglers at doing (Jer\n9:24). (6.) He will accept of the will for the deed, because he\nknows that sin will make our best performances imperfect (II Cor\n8:12). (7.) He will count our little a very great deal, for that\nhe knows we are so unable to do anything at all (Job 1:21). (8.) He\nwill excuse the souls of his people, and lay the fault upon their\nflesh, which has greatest affinity with Satan, if through weakness\nand infirmity we do not do as we should (Matt 26:41; Rom 7). Now,\nas I said, all these things happen unto us, both infirmities and\npity, because and for that we were once in the fire, and for that\nthe weakness of sin abides upon us to this day. But none of this\nfavour could come to us, nor could we, by any means, cause that\nour infirmities should work for us thus advantageously; but that\nChrist our Advocate stands our friend, and pleads for us as he\ndoth.\n\nBut again, before I pass this over, I will, for the clearing of this,\npresent you with a few more considerations, which are of another\nrank-to wit, that Christ our Advocate, as such, makes mention of\nour weaknesses so, against Satan, and before his Father, as to turn\nall to our advantage.\n\n(1.) We are therefore to be saved by grace, because by reason of\nsin we are disabled from keeping of the law (Deut 9:5; Isa 64:6).\n(2.) We have given unto us the Spirit of grace to help, because we\ncan do nothing that is good without it (Eph 2:5; Rom 8:26). (3.)\nGod has put Christ's righteousness upon us to cover our nakedness\nwith, because we have none of our own to do it withal (Phil 3:7,8;\nEze 16:8). (4.) God alloweth us to ride in the bosom of Christ\nto the grave, and from thence in the bosom of angels to heaven,\nbecause our own legs are not able to carry us thither (Isa 40:11,\n46:4; Psa 48:14; Luke 16:22). (5.) God has made his Son our Head,\nour Priest, our Advocate, our Saviour, our Captain, that we may be\ndelivered from all the infirmities and all the fiends that attend\nus, and that plot to do us hurt (Eph 1:22; Col 1:18; Heb 7:21).\n(6.) God has put the fallen angels into chains, (II Peter 2:4; Rev\n20:1,2), that they might not follow us too fast, and has enlarged\nus, (Psa 4:1), and directed our feet in the way of his steps, that\nwe may haste us to the strong tower and city of refuge for succour\nand safety, and has given good angels a charge to look to us (Heb\n1:14; Psa 34:7). (7.) God has promised that we, at our counting\ndays, shall be spared, \"as a man spareth his own son that serveth\nhim\" (Mal 3:17).\n\nNow, from all these things, it appears that we have indulgence\nat God's hand, and that our weaknesses, as our Christ manages the\nmatter for us, are so far off from laying a block or bar in the\nway to the enjoyment of favour, that they also work for our good;\nyea, and God's foresight of them has so kindled his bowels and\ncompassion to us, as to put him upon devising of such things for\nour relief, which by no means could have been, had not sin been\nwith us in the world, and had not the best of saints been \"as a\nbrand plucked out of the burning.\"\n\nI have seen men (and yet they are worse than God) take most care\nof, and, also, best provide for, those of their children that have\nbeen most infirm and helpless; 10 and our Advocate \"shall gather\nhis lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom\"; yea, and\nI know that there is such an art in showing and making mention of\nweaknesses as shall make the tears stand in a parent's eyes, and as\nshall make him search to the bottom of his purse to find out what\nmay do his weakling good. Christ, also, has that excellent art, as\nhe is an Advocate with the Father for us; he can so make mention\nof us and of our infirmities, while he pleads before God, against\nthe devil, for us, that he can make the bowels of the Almighty yearn\ntowards us, and to wrap us up in their compassions. You read much\nof the pity, compassion, and of the yearning of the bowels of the\nmighty God towards his people; all which, I think, is kindled and\nmade burn towards us, by the pleading of our Advocate. I have seen\nfathers offended with their children; but when a brother had turned\na skillful advocate, the anger has been appeased, and the means\nhave been concealed. We read but little of this Advocate's office\nof Jesus Christ, yet much of the fruit of it is extended to the\nchurches; but as the cause of smiles, after offences committed,\nis made manifest afterwards, so at the day when God will open\nall things, we shall see how many times our Lord, as an Advocate,\npleaded for us, and redeemed us by his so pleading, unto the\nenjoyments of smiles and embraces, who, for sin, but a while before,\nwere under frowns and chastisements. And thus much for the making\nout how Christ doth manage his office of being an Advocate for\nus with the Father-\"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the\nFather, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\n[WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE]\n\nTHIRDLY, And I shall come now to the third head; to wit, to show\nyou more particularly who they are that have Jesus Christ for their\nAdvocate.\n\nIn my handling of this head, I shall show, First, That this office\nof an advocate differeth from that of a priest, and how. Second,\nI shall show you how far Christ extendeth this his office of\nadvocateship-I mean, in matters concerning the people of God, And\nthen, Third, I shall come more directly to show who they are that\nhave Christ for their Advocate.\n\nFirst, For the first of these, That this office of Christ, as an\nAdvocate, differeth from that of a Priest. That he is a Priest, a\nPriest for ever, I heartily acknowledge; but that his priesthood\nand advocateship should be one and the self-same office, I cannot\nbelieve.\n\n1. Because they differ in name. We may as well say a father, as\nsuch, is a son, or that father and son is the self-same relation,\nas say a priest and an advocate, as to office, are but one and the\nsame thing. They differ in name as much as priest and sacrifice do:\na priest is one, and a sacrifice is another; and though Christ is\nPriest and Sacrifice too, yet, as a Priest, he is not a Sacrifice,\nnor, as a Sacrifice, a Priest.\n\n2. As they differ in name, so they differ in the nature of office.\nA priest is to slay a sacrifice; an advocate is to plead a cause;\na priest is to offer his sacrifice, to the end that, by the merit\nthereof, he may appease; an advocate is to plead, to plead according\nto law; a priest is to make intercession, by virtue of his sacrifice;\nan advocate is to plead law, because amends is made.\n\n3. As they differ in name and nature, so they also differ as\nto their extent. The priesthood of Christ extendeth itself to the\nwhole of God's elect, whether called or in their sins; but Christ,\nas Advocate, pleadeth only for the children.\n\n4. As they differ in name, in nature, and extent, so they differ\nas to the persons with whom they have to do. We read not anywhere\nthat Christ, as Priest, has to do with the devil as an antagonist,\nbut, as an Advocate, he hath.\n\n5. As they differ in these, so they differ as to the matters\nabout which they are employed. Christ, as Priest, concerns himself\nwith every wry thought, and, also, with the least imperfection or\ninfirmity that attends our most holy things; but Christ, as Advocate,\ndoth not so, as I have already showed.\n\n6. So that Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an\nAdvocate, comes after; Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes;\nChrist, as Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads:\nChrist, as Priest, has need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate,\nsometimes only. Christ, as Priest, acts in times of peace; but Christ,\nas Advocate, in times of broils, turmoils, and sharp contentions;\nwherefore, Christ, as Advocate, is, as I may call him, a reserve,\nand his time is then to arise, to stand up and plead, when HIS are\nclothed with some filthy sin that of late they have fallen into,\nas David, Joshua, or Peter. When some such thing is committed by\nthem, as ministereth to the enemy a show of ground to question the\ntruth of their grace; or when it is a question, and to be debated,\nwhether it can stand with the laws of heaven, with the merits of\nChrist, and the honour of God, that such a one should be saved.\nNow let an advocate come forth, now let him have time to plead,\nfor this is a fit occasion for the saints' Advocate to stand up to\nplead for the salvation of his people. But,\n\nSecond, I come next to show you how far this office of an Advocate\nis extended. I hinted at this before, so now shall be the more\nbrief. 1. By this office he offereth no sacrifice; he only, as to\nmatter of justice, pleads the sacrifice offered. 2. By this office\nhe obtains the conversion of none; he only thereby secureth the\nconverted from the damnation which their adversary, for sins after\nlight and profession, endeavoureth to bring them to. 3. By this\noffice he prevents not temporal punishment, but by it he chiefly\npreserveth the soul from hell. 4. By this office he brings in\nno justifying righteousness for us, he only thereby prevaileth to\nhave the dispose of that brought in by himself, as Priest, for the\njustifying of those, by a new and fresh act, who had made their\njustification doubtful by new falls into sin. And this is plain\nin the history of our Joshua, so often mentioned before (Zech 3).\n5. As Priest, he hath obtained eternal redemption for us; and as\nAdvocate, he by law, maintaineth our right thereto, against the\ndevil and his angels.\n\nThird, I come now to show you who they are that have Jesus Christ\nfor their Advocate. And this I shall do-first, more generally, and\nthen shall be more particular and distinct about it.\n\n1. More generally. They are all the truly gracious; those that are\nthe children by adoption; and this the test affirmeth-\"My little\nchildren, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\" They are, then, the children, by adoption, that are\nthe persons concerned in the advocateship of Jesus Christ. The\npriesthood of Christ extendeth itself to the whole body of the\nelect, but the advocateship of Christ doth not so. This is further\ncleared by this apostle; and in this very text, if you consider\nwhat immediately follows-\"We have an Advocate,\" says he, \"and he\nis the propitiation for our sins.\" He is our Advocate, and also\nour Priest. As an Advocate, ours only; but as a propitiation, not\nours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; to be sure,\nfor the elect throughout the world, and they that will extend it\nfurther, let them.\n\nAnd I say again, had he not intended that there should have been\na straiter limit put to the Advocateship of Christ than he would\nhave us put to his priestly office, what needed he, when he speaketh\nof the propitiation which relates to Christ as Priest, have added-\"And\nnot for ours only\"? As an Advocate, then, he engageth for us that\nare children; and as a Priest, too, he hath appeased God's wrath\nfor our sins; but as an Advocate his offices are confined to the\nchildren only, but as a Priest he is not so. He is the propitiation\nfor our sins, and not for ours only. The sense, therefore, of the\napostle should, I think, be this-That Christ, as a Priest, hath\noffered a propitiatory sacrifice for all; but as an Advocate he\npleadeth only for the children. Children, we have an Advocate to\nourselves, and he is also our Priest; but as he is a Priest, he is\nnot ours only, but maketh, as such, amends for all that shall be\nsaved. The elect, therefore, have the Lord Jesus for their Advocate\nthen, and then only, when they are by calling put among the children;\nbecause, as Advocate, he is peculiarly the children's-\"My little\nchildren, WE have an Advocate.\"\n\nObjection. But he also saith, \"If any man sin, we have an Advocate\";\nany man that sinneth seems, by the text, notwithstanding what you\nsay, \"to have an Advocate with the Father.\"\n\nAnswer. By any man, must not be meant any of the world, nor any\nof the elect, but any man in faith and grace; for he still limits\nthis general term, \"any man,\" with this restriction, \"we\"-Children,\n\"if any man sin, we have an Advocate.\" We, any man of us. And this\nis yet further made appear, since he saith that it is to them he\nwrites, not only here, but further in this chapter-\"I write unto\nYOU, little children; I write unto you, fathers; I write unto you,\nyoung men\" (I John 2: 12,13). These are the persons intended in\nthe text, for under these three heads are comprehended all men;\nfor they are either children, and so men in nature, or young men,\nand so men in strength; or else they are fathers, and so aged, and\nof experience. Add to this, by \"any man,\" that the apostle intendeth\nnot to enlarge himself beyond the persons that are in grace; but to\nsupply what was wanting by that term \"little children\"; for since\nthe strongest saint may have heed of an Advocate, as well as the\nmost feeble of the flock, why should the apostle leave it to be\nso understood as if the children, and the children only, had an\ninterest in that office? Wherefore, after he had said, \"My little\nchildren, I write unto you, that ye sin not\"; he then adds, with\nenlargement, \"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.\"\nYet the little children may well be mentioned first, since they most\nwant the knowledge of it, are most feeble, and so by sin may be\nforced most frequently to act faith on Christ, as Advocate. Besides,\nthey are most ready, through temptation, to question whether they\nhave so good a right to Christ in all his offices as have better and\nmore well-grown saints; and, therefore, they, in this the apostle's\nsalutation, are first set down in the catalogue of names-\"My little\nchildren, I write unto you, that ye sin not. If any man sin, we\nhave an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" So,\nthen, the children of God are they who have the Lord Jesus, an\nAdvocate for them with the Father. The least and biggest, the oldest\nand youngest, the feeblest and the strongest; ALL the children have\nan Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\n\n(1.) Since, then, the children have Christ for their advocate, art\nthou a child? Art thou begotten of God by his Word? (James 1:18).\nHast thou in thee the spirit of adoption? (Gal 4:1-6). Canst thou\nin faith say, Father, Father, to God? Then is Christ thy Advocate,\nthine Advocate, \"now to appear in the presence of God for thee\"\n(Heb 9:24). To appear there, and to plead there, in the face of the\ncourt of heaven, for thee; to plead there against thine adversary,\nwhose accusations are dreadful, whose subtlety is great, whose\nmalice is inconceivable, and whose rage is intolerable; to plead\nthere before a just God, a righteous God, a sin-revenging God:\nbefore whose face thou wouldst die if thou wast to show thyself,\nand at his bar to plead thine own cause. But,\n\n(2.) There is a difference in children; some are bigger than\nsome; there are children and little children-\"My little children,\nI write unto you.\" Little children; some of the little children\ncan neither say Father, nor so much as know that they themselves\nare children.\n\nThis is true in nature, and so it is in grace; wherefore,\nnotwithstanding what was said under the first head, it doth not\nfollow, that if I be a child I must certainly know it, and also be\nable to call God, Father. Let the first, then, serve to poise and\nbalance the confident ones, and let this be for the relief of those\nmore feeble; for they that are children, whether they know it or\nno, have Jesus Christ for their Advocate, for Christ is assigned to\nbe our Advocate by the Judge, by the King, by our God and Father,\nalthough we have not known it. True, at present, there can come\nfrom hence, to them that are thus concerned in the advocateship of\nChrist, but little comfort; but yet it yields them great security;\nthey have \"an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\nGod knows this, the devil feels this, and the children shall have\nthe comfort of it afterwards. I say, the time is coming when they\nshall know that even then, when they knew it not, they had an Advocate\nwith the Father; an Advocate who was neither loath, nor afraid,\nnor ashamed, to plead for their defense against their proudest foe.\nAnd will not this, when they know it, yield them comfort? Doubtless\nit will; yea, more, and of a better kind, than that which flows\nfrom the knowledge that one is born to crowns and kingdoms.\n\nAgain; as he is an Advocate for the children, so he is also, as\nbefore was hinted, for the strong and experienced; for no strength\nin this world secureth from the rage of hell; nor can any experience,\nwhile we are here, fortify us against his assaults. There is also\nan incidency in the best to sin; and the bigger man, the bigger\nfall; for the more hurt, the greater damage. Wherefore it is of\nabsolute necessity that an advocate be provided for the strong as\nfor the weak. \"Any man\"; he that is most holy, most reformed, most\nrefined, and most purified, may as soon be in the dirt as the\nweakest Christian; and, so far as I can see, Satan's design is\nagainst them most. I am sure the greatest sins have been committed\nby the biggest saints. This wayfaring man came to David's house,\nand when he stood up against Israel, he provoked David to number\nthe people (II Sam 12:4,7; I Chron 21:1). Wherefore they have as\nmuch need of an advocate as have the youngest and most feeble of\nthe flock. What a mind had he to try a fall with Peter! And how\nquickly did he break the neck of Judas! The like, without doubt,\nhe had done to Peter, had not Jesus, by stepping in, prevented. As\nlong as sin is in our flesh, there is danger. Indeed, he saith of\nthe young men that they are strong, and that they have overcome\nthe wicked one; but he doth not say they have killed him. As long\nas the devil is alive there is danger; and though a strong Christian\nmay be too hard for, and may overcome him in one thing, he may be\ntoo hard for, yea, and may overcome him two for one afterwards.\nThus he served David, and thus he served Peter, and thus he, in\nour day, has served many more. The strongest are weak, the wisest\nare fools, when suffered to be sifted as wheat in Satan's sieve;\nyea, and have often been so proved, to the wounding of their great\nhearts, and the dishonour of religion. To conclude this: God of\nhis mercy hath sufficiently declared the truth of what I say, by\npreparing for the best, the strongest, and most sanctified, as well\nas for the least, weakest, and most feeble saint, as Advocate-\"My\nlittle children, I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man\nsin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\n2. But some may object, that what has been said as to discovering\nfor whom Christ is an Advocate has been too general, and, therefore,\nwould have me come more to particulars, else they can get no\ncomfort. Well, inquiring soul, so I will; and, therefore, hearken\nto what I say.\n\n(1.) Wouldest thou know whether Christ is thine Advocate or no?\nI ask, Hast thou entertained him so to be? When men have suits of\nlaw depending in any of the king's courts above, they entertain\ntheir attorney or advocate to plead their cause, and so he pleads\nfor them. I say, hast thou entertained Jesus Christ for thy lawyer\nto plead thy cause? \"Plead my cause, O Lord,\" said David (Psa 35:1);\nand again, \"Judge me, O God, and plead my cause\" (Psa 43:1). This,\ntherefore, is the first thing that I would propound to thee: Hast\nthou, with David, entertained him for thy lawyer, or, with good\nHezekiah, cried out, \"O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me\"\n(Isa 38:14). What sayest thou, soul? Hast thou been with him, and\nprayed him to plead thy cause, and cried unto him to undertake\nfor thee? This I call entertaining of him to be thy advocate, and\nI choose to follow the similitude, both because the Scripture seems\nto smile upon such a way of discourse, and because thy question\ndoth naturally lead me to it. Wherefore, I ask again, hast thou\nbeen with him? Hast thou entertained him? Hast thou desired him to\nplead thy cause?\n\nQuestion. Thou wilt say unto me, How should I know that I have done\nso?\n\nAnswer. I answer, Art thou sensible that thou hast an action commenced\nagainst thee in that high court of justice that is above? I say,\nArt thou sensible of this? For the defendants-and all God's people\nare defendants-do not use to entertain their lawyers, but from\nknowledge, that an action either is, or may be, commenced against\nthem before the God of heaven. If thou sayest yea, then I ask, Who\ntold thee that thou standest accused for transgression before the\njudgment-seat of God? I say, Who told thee so? Hath the Holy Ghost,\nhath the world, or hath thy conscience? For nothing else, as I know\nof, can bring such tidings to thy soul.\n\nAgain; Hast thou found a failure in all others that might have\nbeen entertained to plead thy cause? Some make their sighs, their\ntears, their prayers, and their reformations, their advocates-\"Hast\nthou tried these, and found them wanting?\" Hast thou seen thy state\nto be desperate, if the Lord Jesus doth not undertake to plead thy\ncause? for Jesus is not entertained so long as men can make shift\nwithout him. But when it comes to this point I perish for ever,\nnotwithstanding the help of all, if the Lord Jesus steps not in.\nThen Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, good Lord Jesus! undertake for me.\nHast thou therefore been with Jesus Christ as concerned in thy\nsoul, as heartily concerned about the action that thou perceivest\nto be commenced against thee?\n\nQuestion. You will say, How should I know that?\n\nAnswer. I answer, Hast thou well considered the nature of the crime\nwherewith thou standest charged at the bar of God? Hast thou also\nconsidered the justness of the Judge? Again I ask, Hast thou considered\nwhat truth, as to matter of fact, there is in the things whereof\nthou standest accused? Also, Hast thou considered the cunning, the\nmalice, and diligence of thy adversary, with the greatness of the\nloss thou art like to sustain, shouldst thou with Ahab, in the book\nof Kings, (I Kings 22:17-23), or with the hypocrites in Isaiah, (Isa\n6:5-10), have the verdict of the Lord God go out from the throne\nagainst thee? I ask thee these questions, because if thou art in\nthe knowledge of these things to seek, or if thou art not deeply\nconcerned about the greatness of the damage that will certainly\novertake thee, and that for ever, shouldest thou be indeed accused\nbefore God, and have none to plead thy cause, thou hast not, nor\ncanst not, let what will come upon thee, have been with Jesus Christ\nto plead thy cause; and so, let thy case be never so desperate,\nthou standest alone, and hast no helper (Job 30:13, 9:13) Or if\nthou hast, they, not being the advocate of God's appointing, must\nneeds fall with thee, and with thy burden. Wherefore, consider of\nthis seriously, and return thy answer to God, who can tell if truth\nshall be found in thy answers, better by far than any; for it is\nhe that tries the reins and the heart, and therefore to him I refer\nthee. But,\n\n(2.) Wouldst thou know whether Jesus Christ is thine advocate? Then\nI ask again, Hast thou revealed thy cause unto him?-I say, Hast\nthou revealed thy cause unto him? For he that goeth to law for his\nright, must not only go to a lawyer, and say, Sir, I am in trouble,\nand am to have a trial at law with mine enemy, pray undertake my\ncause; but he must also reveal to his lawyer his cause. He must\ngo to him and tell him what is the matter, how things stand, where\nthe shoe pinches, and so. Thus did the church of old, and thus doth\nevery true Christian now; for though nothing can be hid from him,\nyet he will have things out of thine own mouth; he will have thee\nto reveal thy matters unto him (Matt 20:32). \"O Lord of hosts,\"\nsaid Jeremiah, \"that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and\nthe heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I\nrevealed my cause\" (Jer 11:20). And again; \"But, O Lord of hosts,\nthat triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let\nme see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I opened my cause\"\n(Jer 20:12). Seest thou here, how saints of old were wont to do?\nhow they did, not only in a general way, entreat Christ to plead\ntheir cause, but in a particular way, go to him and reveal, or open\ntheir cause unto him?\n\nO! it is excellent to behold how some sinners will do this when\nthey get Christ and themselves in a closet alone; when they, upon\ntheir bare knees, are pouring out of their souls before him; or,\nlike the woman in the gospel, telling him all the truth (Mark 5).\nO! saith the soul, Lord, I am come to thee upon an earnest business;\nI am arrested by Satan; the bailiff was mine own conscience, and I\nam like to be accused before the judgment-seat of God. My salvation\nlies at stake; I am questioned for my interest in heaven; I am afraid\nof the Judge; my heart condemns me (I John 3:20). Mine enemy is\nsubtle, and wanteth not malice to prosecute me to death, and then\nto hell. Also, Lord, I am sensible that the law is against me, for\nindeed I have horribly sinned, and thus and thus have I done. Here\nI lie open to law, and there I lie open to law; here I have given\nthe adversary advantage, and there he will surely have a hank11\nagainst me. Lord, I am distressed, undertake for me! And there are\nsome things that thou must be acquainted with about thine Advocate,\nbefore thou wilt venture to go thus far with him. As,\n\n(a.) Thou must know him to be a friend, and not an enemy, unto whom\nthou openest thy heart; and until thou comest to know that Christ\nis a friend to thee, or to souls in thy condition, thou wilt never\nreveal thy cause unto him, not thy whole cause unto him. And it\nis from this that so many that have soul causes hourly depending\nbefore the throne of God, and that are in danger every day of eternal\ndamnation, forbear to entertain Jesus Christ for their Advocate,\nand so wickedly conceal their matters from him; but \"he that hideth\nhis sins shall not prosper\" (Prov 28:13)\n\nFOOTNOTE: Quoted from the Genevan, or Puritan translation.-ED. This,\ntherefore, must first be believed by thee before thou wilt reveal\nthy cause unto him.\n\n(b.) A man, when his estate is called in question, I mean his\nright and title thereto, will be very cautious, especially if he\nalso questions his title to it himself, unto whom he reveals that\naffair; he must know him to be one that is not only friendly, but\nfaithful, to whom he reveals such a secret as this. Why, thus it\nis with Christ and the soul. If the soul is not somewhat persuaded\nof the faithfulness of Christ-to wit, that if he can do him no\ngood, he will do him no harm, he will never reveal his cause unto\nhim, but will seek to hide his counsel from the Lord. This, therefore,\nis another thing by which thou mayest know that thou hast Christ\nfor thine Advocate, if thou hast heartily and in very deed revealed\nthy cause unto him. Now, they that do honestly reveal their cause\nto their lawyer, will endeavour to possess him, as I hinted before,\nwith the worst; they will, with words, make it as bad as they may;\nfor, think they, by that means I shall prepare him for the worst\nthat mine enemy can do. And thus souls deal with Jesus Christ; see\nPsalms 51 and 38, with several others that might be named, and see\nif God's people have not done so. \"I said,\" saith David, \"I will\nconfess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the\niniquity of my sin.\" But,\n\n(3.) Hast thou Jesus Christ for thine Advocate? or wouldst thou\nknow if thou hast? Then I ask again, Hast thou committed thy cause\nto him? When a man entertains12 his lawyer to stand for him and\nto plead his cause, he doth not only reveal, but commit his cause\nunto him. \"I would seek unto God,\" says Eliphaz to Job, \"and unto\nGod would I commit my cause\" (Job 5:8). Now there is a difference\nbetwixt revealing my cause and committing of it to a man. To reveal\nmy cause is to open it to one; and to commit it to him is to trust\nit in his hand. Many a man will reveal his cause to him unto whom\nhe will yet be afraid to commit it; but now, he that entertains a\nlawyer to plead his cause, doth not only reveal but commit his cause\ninto him. As, suppose right to his estate be called in question;\nwhy, then, he not only reveals his cause to his lawyer, but puts\ninto his hands his evidences, deeds, leases, mortgages, bonds, or\nwhat else he hath, to show a title to his estate by. And thus doth\nChristians deal with Christ; they deliver up all unto him-to wit,\nall their signs, evidences, promises, and assurances, which they\nhave thought they had for heaven and the salvation of their souls,\nand have desired him to peruse, to search, and try them every one.\n\"And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way\neverlasting\" (Psa 139:23-24). This is committing of thy cause to\nChrist, and this is the hardest task of all, for the man that doth\nthus, he trusteth Christ with all; and it implieth, that he will\nlive and die, stand and fall, lose and win, according as Christ\nwill manage his business. Thus did Paul, (II Tim 1:12), and thus\nPeter admonishes us to do. Now he that doth this must be convinced,\n\n(a.) Of the ability of Jesus Christ to defend him; for a man will\nnot commit so great a concern as his all is to his friend. No; not\nto his friend, be he never so faithful, if he perceives not in\nhim ability to save him, and to preserve what he hath, against all\nthe cavils of an enemy. And hence it is that the ability of Jesus\nChrist, as to the saving of his people, is so much insisted on in\nthe Scripture; as, \"I have laid help upon one that is mighty\" (Psa\n89:19). \"I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save\" (Isa 63:1).\nAnd again, \"He shall send them a Saviour, and a great one\" (Isa\n19:20).\n\n(b.) As they must be convinced of his ability to help them, so they\nmust of his courage; a man that has parts sufficient may yet fail\nhis friend for want of courage; wherefore, the courage and greatness\nof Christ's Spirit, as to his undertaking of the cause of his\npeople, is also amply set out in Scripture. \"He shall not fail nor\nbe discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth,\" \"till he\nsend forth judgment unto victory\" (Isa 42:4; Matt 12:20).\n\n(c.) They must also be convinced of his willingness to do this for\nthem; for though one be able and of courage sufficient, yet if he\nis not willing to undertake one's cause, what is it the better?\nWherefore, he declareth his willingness also, and how ready he is\nto stand up to plead the cause of the poor and of them that are\nin want. \"The Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of\nthose that spoiled them\" (Prov 22:23).\n\n(d.) They must also be convinced of this-that Christ is tender,\nand will not be offended at the dullness of his client. Some men\ncan reveal their cause to their lawyers better than some, and are\nmore serviceable and handy in that affair than others. But, saith\nthe Christian, I am dull and stupid that way, will not Christ be\nshuff13 and shy with me because of this? Honest heart! He hath a\nsupply of thy defects14 in himself, and knoweth what thou wantest,\nand where the shoe pinches, though thou art not able distinctly\nto open matters to him. The child is pricked with a pin, and lies\ncrying in the mother's lap, but cannot show its mother where the pin\nis; but there is pity enough in the mother to supply this defect\nof the child; wherefore she undresses it, opens it, searches\nevery clout from head to the foot of the child, and so finds where\nthe pin is. Thus will thy lawyer do; he will search and find out\nthy difficulties, and where Satan seeketh an advantage of thee,\naccordingly will provide his remedy.\n\n(e.) O, but will he not be weary? The prophet complains of some,\n\"that they weary God\" (Isa 7:13). And mine is a very cross and\nintricate cause; I have wearied many a good man while I have been\ntelling my tale unto him, and I am afraid that I shall also weary\nJesus Christ. Answer. Soul, he suffered and did bear with the manners\nof Israel forty years in the wilderness; and hast thou tried him\nhalf so long? (Acts 13:18). The good souls that have gone before\nthee have found him \"a tried stone,\" a sure one to be trusted to\nas to this (Isa 28:16). And the prophet saith positively that \"he\nfainteth not, neither is weary\"; and that \"there is no searching of\nhis understanding\" (Isa 40:28). Let all these things prevail with\nthee to believe, that if thou hast committed by cause unto him, he\nwill bring it to pass, to a good pass, to so good a pass as will\nglorify God, honour Christ, save thee, and shame the devil. But,\n\n(4.) Wouldst thou know whether Jesus Christ is thine Advocate,\nwhether he has taken in hand to plead thy cause? Then, I ask, dost\nthou, together with what has been mentioned before, wait upon him\naccording to his counsel, until things shall come to a legal issue?\nThus must clients do. There is a great many turnings and windings\nabout suits and trials at law; the enemy, also, with his supersedeas15\ncavils, and motions, often defers a speedy issue; wherefore, the man\nwhose is the concern must wait; as the prophet said, \"I will look,\"\nsaid he, \"unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.\"\nBut how long, prophet, wilt thou wait? Why, says he, \"until he\nplead my cause, and execute judgment for me\" (Micah 7:7-10).\n\nPerhaps when thy cause is tried, things for the present are upon\nthis issue; thy adversary, indeed, is cast, but whether thou shalt\nhave an absolute discharge, as Peter had, or a conditional one,\nas David, and as the Corinthians had, that is the question (II Sam\n12:10-14). True, thou shalt be completely saved at last; but yet\nwhether it is not best to leave to thee a memento of God's displeasure\nagainst thy sin, by awarding that the sword shall never depart from\nthy house, or that some sore sickness or other distresses shall\nhaunt thee as long as thou livest, or, perhaps, that thou shalt\nwalk without the light of God's countenance for several years and\na day. Now, if any of these three things happen unto thee, thou must\nexercise patience, and wait; thus did David-\"I waited patiently\";\nand again he exercises his soul in this virtue, saying \"My soul,\nwait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him\" (Psa 62:5).\nFor now we are judged of the Lord, that we may not be condemned\nwith the world. And by this judgment, though it sets us free from\ntheir damnation, yet we are involved in many troubles, and, perhaps,\nmust wait many a day before we can know that, as to the main, the\nverdict hath gone on our side. Thus, therefore, in order to thy\nwaiting upon him without fainting, it is meet that thou shouldest\nknow the methods of him that manages thy cause for thee in heaven;\nand suffer not mistrust to break in and bear sway in thy soul, for\n\"he will\" at length \"bring thee forth to the light, and thou shalt\nbehold his righteousness. She, also, that is thine enemy shall see\nit, and shame shall cover her which saith unto thee, Where is the\nLord thy God?\" (Micah 7: 9-10).\n\nQuestion. But what is it to wait upon him according to his counsel?\n\nAnswer. (a.) To wait is to be of good courage, to live in expectation,\nand to look for deliverance, though thou hast sinned against thy\nGod. \"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen\nthine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord\" (Psa 27:14).\n\n(b.) To wait upon him is to keep his way, to walk humbly in his\nappointments. \"Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall\nexalt thee to inherit the land\" (Psa 37:34).\n\n(c.) To wait upon him is to observe and keep those directions\nwhich he giveth thee; to observe even while he stands up to plead\nthy cause; for without this, or not doing this, a man may mar his\ncause in the hand of him that is to plead it; wherefore, keep thee\nfar from an evil matter, have no correspondence with thine enemy,\nwalk humbly for the wickedness thou hast committed, and loathe and\nabhor thyself for it, in dust and ashes. To these things doth the\nScripture everywhere direct us.\n\n(d.) To wait, is also to incline, to hearken to those further directions\nwhich thou mayest receive from the mouth of thine advocate, as to\nany fresh matters that may forward and expedite a good issue of\nthine affair in the court of heaven. The want of this was the reason\nthat the deliverance of Israel did linger so long in former times.\n\"O,\" says he, \"that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel\nhad walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies,\nand turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord\nshould have submitted themselves unto him; but their time should\nhave endured for ever\" (Psa 81:13-15).\n\n(e.) Also, if it tarry long, wait for it. Do not conclude that thy\ncause is lost because at present thou dost not hear from court.\nCry, if thou wilt, O, when wilt thou come unto me? But never let\nsuch a wicked thought pass through thy heart, saying, \"This evil\nis of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?\" (II\nKings 6:33).\n\n(f.) But take heed that thou turnest not thy waiting into sleeping.\nWait thou must, and wait patiently too; but yet wait with much\nlonging and earnestness of spirit, to see or hear how matters go\nabove. You may observe, that when a man that dwells far down in\nthe country, and has some business at the term, in this or another\nof the king's courts, though he will wait his lawyer's time and\nconvenience, yet he will so wait as still to inquire at the post\nhouse, or at the carrier's, or if a neighbour comes down from term,\nat his mouth, for letters, or any other intelligence, if possibly he\nmay arrive to know how his cause speeds, and whether his adversary,\nor he, has the day. Thus, I say, thou must wait upon thine Advocate.\nHis ordinances are his post house, his ministers are his carriers,\nwhere tidings from heaven are to be had, and where those that are\nsued in that court by the devil may, at one time or another, hear\nfrom their lawyer, their advocate, how things are like to go. Wherefore,\nI say, wait at the posts of wisdom's house, go to ordinances with\nexpectation to hear from thy Advocate there; for he will send in\ndue time; \"though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely\ncome, it will not tarry\" (Hab 2:1-3). And now, soul, I have answered\nthy request, and let me hear what thou sayest unto me.\n\nSoul.-Truly, says the soul, methinks that by what you have said,\nI may have this blessed Jesus to be mine Advocate; for I think,\nverily, I have entertained him to be mine Advocate. I have also\nrevealed my cause unto him, yea, committed both it and myself unto\nhim; and, as you say, I wait; oh! I wait! and my eyes fail with\nlooking upward. Fain would I hear how my soul standeth in the sight\nof God, and whether my sins, which I have committed since light\nand grace were given unto me, be by mine Advocate, taken out of the\nhand of the devil, and by mine Advocate removed as far from me as\nthe ends of the earth are asunder; whether the verdict has gone\non my side, and what a shout there was among the angels when they\nsaw it went well with me! But alas! I have waited, and that a long\ntime, and have, as you advise, run from ordinance to minister, and\nfrom minister to ordinance, or, as you phrase it, from the post to\nthe carrier, and from the carrier to the post house, to see if I\ncould hear aught from heaven how matters went about my soul there. I\nhave also asked those that pass by the way, \"if they saw him whom\nmy soul loveth,\" and if they had anything to communicate to me? But\nnothing can I get or find but generals; as, that I have an Advocate\nthere, and that he pleadeth the cause of his people, and that he\nwill thoroughly plead their cause. But what he has done for ME,\nof that as yet I am ignorant. I doubt if my soul shall by him be\neffectually secured, that yet a conditional verdict will be awarded\nconcerning me, and that much bitter will be mixed with my sweet,\nand that I must drink gall and wormwood for my folly; for if David,\nand Asa, and Hezekiah and such good men, were so served for their\nsins, (II Chron 16:7,12), why should I look for other dealing\nat the hand of God? But as to this, I will endeavour to \"bear the\nindignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him,\" (Micah\n7:9), and shall count it an infinite mercy, if this judgment comes\nto me from him, that I may \"not be condemned with the world\" (I\nCor 11:32). I know it is dreadful walking in darkness; but if that\nalso shall be the Lord's lot upon me; I pray God I may have faith\nenough to stay upon him till death, and then will the clouds blow\nover, and I shall see him in the light of the living.\n\nMine, enemy, the devil, as you see, is of an inveigling temper;\nand though he has accused my before the judgment-seat of God, yet\nwhen he comes to me at any time, he glavers16 and flatters as if he\nnever did mean me harm; but I think it is that he might get further\nadvantage against me. But I carry it now at a greater distance than\nformerly; and O that I was at the remotest distance, not only from\nhim, but also from that self of mine, that laboureth with him for\nmy undoing!\n\nBut although I say these things now, and to you, yet I have\nmy solitary hours, and in them I have other strange thoughts; for\nthus I think, my cause is bad, I have sinned, and I have been vile.\nI am ashamed myself of mine own doings, and have given mine enemy\nthe best end of the staff. The law, and reason, and my conscience,\nplead for him against me, and all is true; he puts into his charge\nagainst me, that I have sinned more times than there be hairs on\nmy head. I know not anything that ever I did in my life but it had\nflaw, or wrinkle, or spot, or some such thing in it. Mine eyes have\nseen vileness in the best of my doings; what, then, think you, must\nGod needs see in them? Nor can I do anything yet, for all I know\nthat I am accused by my enemy before the judgment-seat of God,\nbetter than what already is imperfect. \"I lie down in my shame,\nand my confusion covers my face.\" \"I have sinned, what shall I do\nunto thee, O thou preserver of men\" (Jer 3:25, Job 7:20).\n\nReply.-Well, soul, I have heard what thou hast said, and if all be\ntrue which thou hast said, it is good, and gives me ground of hope\nthat Jesus Christ is become thine Advocate; and if that be so,\nno doubt but thy trial will come to a good conclusion. And be not\nafraid because of the holiness of God; for thine Advocate has this\nfor his advantage, that he pleads before a judge that is just, and\nagainst an enemy that is unholy and rejected. Nor let the thoughts\nof the badness of thy cause terrify thee overmuch. Cause thou hast\nindeed to be humble, and thou dost well to cover thy face with shame;\nand it is no matter how base and vile thou art in thine own eyes,\nprovided that it comes not by renewed acts of rebellion, but through\na spiritual sight of thine imperfections. Only let me advise thee\nhere to stop. Let not thy shame nor thy self-abasing apprehension\nof thyself, drive thee from the firm and permanent ground of hope,\nwhich is the promise, and the doctrine of an Advocate with the\nFather. No; let not the apprehension of the badness of thy cause\ndo it, forasmuch as he did never yet take cause in hand that was\ngood, perfectly good of itself; and his excellency is, to make a\nman stand that has a bad cause; yea, he can make a bad cause good,\nin a way of justice and righteousness.\n\n[THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE.]\n\nFOURTHLY, And for thy further encouragement in this matter, I will\nhere bring in the fourth chief head-to wit, to show what excellent\nprivilege (I mean over and above what has already been spoken of)\nthey have that are made partakers of the benefit of this office:-\"If\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\"\n\nFirst Privilege. Thy Advocate pleads to a price paid, to a\npropitiation made; and this is a great advantage; yea, he pleads\nto a satisfaction made for all wrongs done, or to be done, by his\nelect-\"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that\nare sanctified\" (Heb 10:10,14; 9:26). \"By one offering\"-that is, by\nthe offering of himself-by one offering once offered, once offered\nin the end of the world. This, I say, thine Advocate pleads. When\nSatan brings in fresh accusations for more transgressions against\nthe law of God, he forces not Christ to shift his first plea. I say,\nhe puts him not to his shifts at all; for the price once paid hath\nin it sufficient value, would God impute it to that end, to take\naway the sin of the whole world. There is a man that hath brethren;\nhe is rich, and they are poor (and this is the case betwixt Christ\nand us), and the rich brother goeth to his father, and saith, Thou\nart related to my brethren with me, and out of my store, I pray\nthee, let them have sufficient, and for thy satisfaction I will\nput into thy hand the whole of what I have, which perhaps is worth\nan hundred thousand pounds by the year; and this other sum I also\ngive, that they be not disinherited. Now, will not this last his\npoor brethren to spend upon a great while? But Christ's worth can\nnever be drawn dry.\n\nNow, set the case again, that some ill-conditioned man should take\nnotice that these poor men live all upon the spend (and saints do\nso), and should come to the good man's house, and complain to him\nof the spending of his sons, and that while their elder brother\nstands by, what do you think the elder brother would reply, if he\nwas as good-natured as Christ? Why, he would say, I have yet with\nmy father in store for my brethren, wherefore then seekest thou to\nstop his hand? As he is just, he must give them for their convenience;\nyea, and as for their extravagances, I have satisfied for them\nso well, that, however he afflicteth them, he will not disinherit\nthem. I hope you will read and hear this, not like them that say,\n\"Let us do evil that good may come,\" but like those whom the love\nof Christ constrains to be better. However, this is the children's\nbread, that which they have need of, and without which they cannot\nlive; and they must have it, though Satan should put pins into\nit, therewith to choke the dogs.17 And for the further clearing of\nthis, I will present you with these few considerations:\n\n1. Those that are most sanctified have yet a body of sin and death\nin them, and so also it will be, while they continue in this world\n(Rom 7:24). 2. This body of sin strives to break out, and will\nbreak out, to the polluting of the conversation, if saints be not\nthe more watchful (Rom 6:12). Yea, it has broken out in a most\nsad manner, and that in the strongest saints (Gal 5:17). 3. Christ\noffereth no new sacrifice for the salvation of these his people.\n\"For, being raised from the dead, he dieth no more\" (Rom 6:9). So\nthen, if saints sin, they must be saved, if saved at all, by virtue\nof the offering already offered; and if so, then all Christ's pleas,\nas an Advocate, are grounded upon that one offering which before,\nas a Priest, he presented God with, for the taking away of sin.\nSo then, Christians live upon this old stock; their transgressions\nare forgiven for the sake of the worth, that yet God finds in the\noffering that Christ hath offered. And all Christ's pleadings, as\nan Advocate, are grounded upon the sufficiency and worth of that\none sacrifice; I mean, all his pleadings with his Father, as to the\ncharge which the accuser brings in against them. For though thou\nart a man of infirmity, and so incident to nothing [so much] as to\nstumble and fall, if grace doth not prevent, and it doth not always\nprevent; yet the value and worth of the price that was once paid\nfor thee is not yet worn out; and Christ, as an Advocate, still\npleadeth, as occasion is given, that, with success, to thy salvation.\nAnd this privilege they have, who indeed have Christ for their\nAdvocate; and I put it here, in the first place, because all other\ndo depend upon it.\n\nSecond Privilege. Thine Advocate, as he pleadeth a price already\npaid, so, and therefore, he pleads for himself as for thee. We are\nall concerned in one bottom; if he sinks, we sink; if we sink, he\nsinks. 18 Give me leave to make out my meaning.\n\n1. Christ pleads the value and virtue of the price of his blood and\nsacrifice for us. And admit of this horrible supposition a little,\nfor argument's sake, that though Christ pleads the worth of what,\nas Priest, he offereth, yet the soul for whom he so pleads perishes\neternally. Now, where lieth the fault? In sin, you say: true; but\nit is because there was more virtue in sin to damn, than there was\nin the blood pleaded by Christ to save; for he pleaded his merit,\nhe put it into the balance against sin; but sin hath weighed down\nthe soul of the sinner to hell, notwithstanding the weight of merit\nthat he did put in against it. Now, what is the result, but that\nthe Advocate goes down, as well as we; we to hell, and he in esteem?\nWherefore, I say, he is concerned with us; his credit, his honour,\nhis glory and renown, flies all away, if those for whom he pleads\nas an Advocate perish for want of worth in his sacrifice pleaded.\nBut shall this ever be said of Christ? Or will it be found that\nany, for whom Christ as Advocate pleads, yet perish for want of\nworth in the price, or of neglect in the Advocate to plead it? No,\nno; himself is concerned, and that as to his own reputation and\nhonour, and as to the value and virtue of his blood; nor will he\nlose these for want of pleading for them concerned in this office.\n\n2. I argue again; Christ, as Advocate, must needs be concerned in\nhis plea; for that every one, for whose salvation he advocates,\nis his own; so, then, if he loses, he loses his own-his substance\nand inheritance. Thus, if he lose the whole, and if he lose a\npart, one, any one of his own, he loseth part of his all, and of\nhis fullness; wherefore we may well think, that Christ, as Advocate,\nis concerned, even concerned with his people, and therefore will\nthoroughly plead their cause.\n\nSuppose a man should have a horse, though lame, and a piece of\nground, though somewhat barren, yet if any should attempt to take\nthese away, he would not sit still, and so lose his own; no, saith\nhe, \"since they are mine own, they shall cost me five times more\nthan they are worth, but I will maintain my right.\" I have seen men\nsometimes strongly engaged in law for that which, when considered\nby itself, one would think was not worth regarding; but when I have\nasked them, why so concerned for a thing of so little esteem, they\nhave answered, O, it is some of that by which I hold a title of\nhonour, or my right to a greater income, and therefore I will not\nlose it. Why, thus is Christ engaged; what he pleads for is his\nown, his all, his fullness; yea, it is that by which he holds his\nroyalty, for he is \"King of saints\" (Rev 15:3, John 6:37-39, Psa\n16:5,6). It is part of his estate, and that by which he holds some\nof his titles of honour (Eph 5:23, Jer 50:34, Rom 11:26, Heb 2:10).\nSaviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, and Captain, are some of his titles\nof honour; but if he loseth any of those, upon whose account he\nweareth those titles of honour, for want of virtue in his plea, or\nfor want of worth in his blood, he loseth his own, and not only so,\nbut part of his royalty, and does also diminish and lay a blot upon\nhis glorious titles of honour; and he is jealous of his honour;\nhis honour he will not give to another.\n\nWherefore he will not, be not afraid, he never will leave nor\nforsake those who have given themselves unto him, and for whom he\nis become an Advocate with the Father, to plead their cause; even\nbecause thou art one, one of his own, one by whom he holdeth his\nglorious titles of honour.\n\nObjection. O, but I am but one, and a very sorry one, too; and what\nis one, especially such an one as I am? Can there be a miss of the\nloss of such an one?\n\nAnswer. One and one makes two, and so ad infinitum. Christ cannot\nlose one, but as he may lose more, and so, in conclusion, lose\nall: but of all that God has given him, he will lose nothing (John\n6:38,39). Besides, to lose one would encourage Satan, disparage\nhis own wisdom, make him incapable of giving in, at the day of\naccount, the whole tale19 to God of those that he has given him.\nFurther, this would dishearten sinners, and make them afraid of\nventuring their cause and their souls in his hand; and would, as I\nsaid before, either prove his propitiation in some sense ineffectual,\nor else himself defective in his pleading on it; but none of these\nthings must be supposed. He will thoroughly plead the cause of his\npeople, execute judgment for them, bring them out to the light,\nand cause them to behold his righteousness (Micah 7:9).\n\nThird Privilege. The plea of Satan is groundless, and that is\nanother privilege: for albeit thou hast sinned, yet since Christ\nbefore has paid thy debt, and also paid for more; since thou\nhast not yet run beyond the price of thy redemption; it must be\nconcluded that Satan wants a good bottom to ground his plea upon,\nand therefore must, in conclusion, fail of his design. True, there\nis sin committed, there is a law transgressed, but there is also a\nsatisfaction for this transgression, and that which superabounds;\nso, though there be sin, yet there wants a foundation for a plea.\nJoshua was clothed with filthy garments, but Christ had other\ngarments provided for him, change of raiment: wherefore iniquity,\nas to the charge of Satan, vanishes. \"And the angel answered and\nsaid, Take away the filthy garments from him\" [this intimates that\nthere was no ground, no sufficient ground, for Satan's charge];\n\"and unto him he said, Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass\nfrom thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment\" (Zech\n3:4). 20\n\nNow, if there be no ground, no sound and sufficient ground, to build\na charge against the child upon, I mean, as to eternal condemnation;\nfor that is the thing contended for; then, as I said, Satan must\nfall \"like lightning to the ground,\" and be cast over the bar, as\na corrupt and illegal pleader. But this is so, as in part is proved\nalready, and will be further made out by that which follows. They\nthat have indeed Christ to be their Advocate, are themselves, by\nvirtue of another law than that against which they have sinned,\nsecured from the charge that Satan brings in against them. I granted\nbefore, that the child of God has sinned, and that there is a law\nthat condemneth for this sin; but here is the thing, this child is\nremoved by an act of grace into and under another law: \"For we are\nnot under the law,\" and so, consequently, \"there is now no condemnation\nfor them\" (Rom 6:14, 8:1). Wherefore, when God speaketh of his\ndealing with his, he saith, It shall \"not be by their covenant,\"\nthat is, not by that of the law, they then being not under the law\n(Eze 16:61). What if a plea be commenced against them, a plea for\nsin, and they have committed sin; a plea grounded upon the law, and\nthe law takes cognizance of their sin? Yet, I say, the plea wants\na good bottom, for that the person thus accused is put under another\nlaw; hence, he says, \"Sin shall not have dominion over you, for\nye are not under the law.\" If the child was under the law, Satan's\ncharge would be good, because it would have a substantial ground\nof support; but since the child is dead to the law, (Gal 2:19), and\nthat also dead to him, for both are true as to condemnation, (Rom\n7:6), how can it be that Satan should have a sufficient ground for\nhis charge, though he should have matter of fact, sufficient matter\nof fact, that is sin? For by his change of relation, he is put out\nof the reach of that law. There is a woman, a widow, that oweth a\nsum of money, and she is threatened to be sued for the debt; now\nwhat doth she but marrieth; so, when the action is commenced against\nher as a widow, the law finds her a married woman; what now can\nbe done? Nothing to her; she is not who she was; she is delivered\nfrom that state by her marriage; if anything be done, it must be\ndone to her husband. But if Satan will sue Christ for my debt, he\noweth him nothing; and as for what the law can claim of me while\nI was under it, Christ has delivered me by redemption from that\ncurse, \"being made a curse for me\" (Gal 3:13).\n\nNow the covenant into which I am brought by grace, by which also\nI am secured from the law, is not a law of sin and death, as that\nis from under which I am brought, (Rom 8:2), but a law of grace and\nlife; so that Satan cannot come at me by that law; and by grace,\nI am by that secured also from the hand, and mouth, and sting of\nall other; I mean still, as to an eternal concern. Wherefore God\nsaith, \"If we break his law, the law of works, he will visit our\nsin with a rod, and our iniquity with stripes; but his covenant,\nhis new covenant, will he not break,\" but will still keep close to\nthat, and so secure us from eternal condemnation (Psa 89:30-37).\n\nChrist also is made the mediator of that covenant, and therefore\nan Advocate by that; for his priestly office and advocateship are\nincluded by his mediation; wherefore when Satan pleads by the old,\nChrist pleads by the new covenant, for the sake of which the old\none is removed. \"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made\nthe first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to\nvanish away\" (Heb 8:13). So, then, the ground of plea is with Jesus\nChrist, and not with our accuser. Now, what doth Christ plead, and\nwhat is the ground of his plea? Why, he pleads for exemption and\nfreedom from condemnation, though by the law of works his children\nhave deserved it; and the ground for this his plea, as to law, is\nthe matter of the covenant itself, for thus it runs: \"For I will\nbe merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their\niniquities will I remember no more\" (Heb 8:12). Now here is a\nfoundation-a foundation in law, for our Advocate to build his plea\nupon; a foundation in a law not to be moved, or removed, or made\nto give place, as that is forced to do, upon which Satan grounds\nhis plea against us. Men, when they plead before a judge, use to\nplead matter of law. Now, suppose there is an old law in the realm,\nby which men deserve to be condemned to death, and there is a new\nlaw in this realm that secureth men from that condemnation which\nbelongs to them by the old; and suppose also, that I am completely\ncomprehended by all the provisos of the new law, and not by any\ntittle thereof excluded from a share therein; and suppose, again,\nthat I have a brangling adversary that pursues me by the old law,\nwhich yet cannot in right touch me, because I am interested in\nthe new; my advocate also is one that pleads by the new law, where\nonly there is a ground of plea; shall not now mine adversary feel\nthe power of his plea to the delivering of me, and the putting of\nhim to shame? Yes, verily; especially since the plea is good, the\njudge just; nor can the enemy find any ground for a demur21 to\nbe put in against my present discharge in open court, and that by\nproclamation; especially since my Advocate has also, by his blood,\nfully satisfied the old law, that he might establish the new (Heb\n10: 9, 11, 12).\n\nFourth Privilege. Since that which goeth before is true, it\nfollows, that he that entereth his plea against the children must\nneeds be overthrown; for always before just judges it is the right\nthat taketh place. Judge the right, O Lord, said David; or, \"let\nmy sentence come forth from thy presence,\" according to the law of\ngrace. And he that knows what strong ground, or bottom, our Advocate\nhas for his pleadings, and how Satan's accusations are without sound\nfoundation, will not be afraid, he speaking in Christ, to say, I\nappeal to God Almighty, since Christ is my Advocate by the new law,\nwhether I ought to be condemned to death and hell for what Satan\npleads against me by the old. Satan urgeth that we have sinned,\nbut Christ pleads to his propitiatory sacrifice; and so Satan is\noverthrown. Satan pleads the law of works, but Christ pleads the\nlaw of grace. Further, Satan pleads the justice and holiness of\nGod against us; and there the accuser is overthrown again. And to\nthem Christ appeals, and his appeal is good, since the law testifies\nto the sufficiency of the satisfaction that Christ has made thereto\nby his obedience (Rom 3:22, 23). And also, since by another covenant,\nGod himself has given us to Jesus Christ, and so delivered us\nfrom the old. Wherefore you read nothing as an effect of Satan's\npleading against us, but that his mouth is stopped, as appears by\nZechariah 3; and that he is cast; yea, cast down, as you have it\nin Revelation 12.\n\nIndeed, when God admits not, when Christ wills not to be an Advocate,\nand when Satan is bid stand at the right hand of one accused, to\nenforce, by pleading against him, the things charged on him by the\nlaw, then he can prevail-prevail for ever against such a wretched\none (Psa 109: 6, 7). But when Christ stands up to plead, when\nChrist espouses this or that man's cause, then Satan must retreat,\nthen he must go down. And this necessarily flows from the text,\n\"We have an Advocate,\" a prevailing one, one that never lost cause,\none that always puts the children's enemy to the rout before the\njudgment-seat of God. 22\n\nThis, therefore, is another privilege that they have, who have Jesus\nChrist for their Advocate; their enemy must needs be overthrown,\nbecause both law and justice are on their side.\n\nFifth Privilege. Thine advocate has pity for thee, and great indignation\nagainst thine accuser: and these are two excellent things. When a\nlawyer hath pity for a man whose cause he pleadeth, it will engage\nhim much; but when he has indignation also against the man's accuser,\nthis will yet engage him more. Now, Christ has both these, and that\nnot of humour, but by grace and justice; grace to us, and justice\nto our accuser. He came down from heaven that he might be a Priest,\nand returned thither again to be Priest and Advocate for his; and\nin both these offices he levelleth his whole force and power against\nthine accuser: \"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,\nthat he might destroy the works of the devil\" (I John 3:8).\n\nCunning men will, if they can, retain such an one to be their\nAdvocate, who has a particular quarrel against their adversary; for\nthus, think they, he that is such, will not only plead for me, but\nfor himself, and to right his own wrongs also; and since, if it be\nso, and it is so here, my concerns and my Advocate's are interwoven,\nI am like to fare much the better for the anger that is conceived\nin his heart against him. And this, I say, is the children's case;\ntheir Advocate counteth their accuser his greatest enemy, and\nwaiteth for a time to take vengeance, and he usually then takes\nthe opportunity when he has aught to do for his people against him.\nHence he says, \"The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year\nof my redeemed is come\" (Isa 63:3, 4).\n\nI do not say that this revenge of Christ is, as ofttimes is a man's,\nof spite, prejudice, or other irregular lettings out of passions;\nbut it ariseth from righteousness and truth; nor can it be but that\nJesus must have a desire to take vengeance on his enemy and ours,\nsince holiness is in him, to the utmost bounds of perfection. And\nI say again, that in all his pleading as an Advocate, as well as\nin his offering as a Priest, he has a hot and flaming desire and\ndesign to right himself upon his foe and ours; hence he triumphed\nover him when he died for us upon the cross, and designed the\nspoiling of his principality, while he poured out his blood for us\nbefore God. We then have this advantage more, in that Christ is our\nAdvocate, our enemy is also his, and the Lord Jesus counts him so\n(Col 2:14, 15).\n\nSixth Privilege. As thine Advocate, so thy judge holdeth thine\naccuser for his enemy also; for it is not of love to righteousness\nand justice that Satan accuseth us to God, but that he may destroy\nthe workmanship of God. Wherefore he also fighteth against God when\nhe accuseth the children; and this thy Father knows right well. He\nmust therefore needs distinguish between the charge and the mind\nthat brings it; especially when what is charged upon us is under\nthe gracious promise of a pardon, as I have showed it is. Shall\nnot the Judge then hear his Son-for our Advocate is his Son-in the\ncause of one that he favours, and that he justly can, against an\nenemy who seeks his dishonour, and the destruction of his eternal\ndishonour, and the destruction of his eternal designs of grace?\n\nA mention of the judge's son goes far with countrymen; and great\nstriving there is with them who have great enemies and bad causes\nto get the judge's son to plead, promising themselves that the\njudge is as like to hear him, and to yield a verdict to his plea,\nas to any other lawyer. But what now shall we say concerning our\nJudge's Son, who takes part, not only with his children, but with\nhim, and with law and justice, in pleading against our accuser?\nYea, what shall we say when both Judge, and Advocate, and law, are\nall bent to make our persons stand and escape, whatever, and how\ntruly soever, the charge and accusation is by which we are assaulted\nof the devil. And yet all this is true; wherefore, here is another\nprivilege of them that have Jesus for their Advocate.\n\nSeventh Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus\nChrist for their Advocate is, that he is undaunted, and of a good\ncourage, as to the cause that he undertakes; for that is a requisite\nqualification for a lawyer, to be bold and undaunted in a man's\ncause. Such an one is coveted, especially by him that knows he\nhas a brazen-faced antagonist. Wherefore, he saith that \"he will\nset his face like a flint,\" when he stands up to plead the cause\nof his people (Isa 50:5-7). Lawyers, of all men, need this courage,\nand to be above others, men of hard foreheads, because of the\naffronts that sometimes they meet with, be their cause never so\ngood, in the face sometimes, of the chief of a kingdom. Now Christ\nis our lawyer, and stands up to plead, not only sometimes, but\nalways, for his people, before the God of gods, and that not in\na corner, but while all the host of heaven stands by, both on the\nright hand and on the left. Nor is it to be doubted but that our\naccuser brings many a sore charge against us into the court; but,\nhowever, we have an Advocate that is valiant and courageous, one\nthat will not fail nor be discouraged till he has brought judgment\nunto victory. Hence John asserts his name, saying, \"If any man sin,\nwe have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.\"\n\nMen love to understand a man before they commit their cause unto\nhim-to wit, whether he be fitly qualified for their business. Well,\nhere is an Advocate propounded, an Advocate to plead our cause\nagainst our foe. But what is he? What is his name? Is he qualified\nfor my business? The answer is, It is Jesus Christ. How? Jesus Christ,\nwhat! That old friend of publicans and sinners? Jesus Christ! He\nused never to fail, he used to set his face like a flint against\nSatan when he pleaded the cause of his people. Is it Jesus Christ?\nsays the knowing soul; then he shall be mine Advocate.\n\nFor my part, I have often wondered, when I have considered what\nsad causes Jesus Christ sometimes takes in hand, and for what sad\nsouls he sometimes pleads with God his Father. He had need of a\nface as hard as flint, else how could he bear up in that work in\nwhich for us sometimes he is employed-a work enough to make angels\nblush. Some, indeed, will lightly put off this, and say, \"It is\nhis office\"; but, I say, his office, notwithstanding the work in\nitself is hard, exceeding hard, when he went to die, had he not\ndespised the shame, he had turned his back upon the cross, and left\nus in our blood. And now it is his turn to plead, the case would\nbe the same, only he can make argument upon that which to us seems\nto yield no argument at all, to take courage to plead for a Joshua,\nfor a Joshua clothed, clothed with filthy garments. He, saith he,\nthat \"shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous\nand sinful generation: of him shall the Son of man be ashamed,\" &C\n(Mark 8:38). Hence it follows that Christ will be ashamed of some;\nbut why not ashamed of others? It is not because their cause is\ngood, but because they are kept from denying of him professedly;\nwherefore, for such he will force himself, and will set his face\nlike a flint, and will, without shame, own, plead, and improve his\ninterest with God for them, even for them whose cause is so horribly\nbad and gross that themselves do blush while they think thereof.\nBut what will not love do? What will not love bear with? And what\nwill not love suffer? Of all the offices of Jesus Christ, I think\nthis trieth him as much as any! True, his offering himself in sacrifice\ntried him greatly, but that was but for awhile; his grappling, as\na captain, with the curse, death, and hell, tried him much, but\nthat also was but for awhile; but this office of being an Advocate,\nthough it meeteth not with such sudden depths of trouble, yet what\nis wants in shortness it may meet with in length of time. I know\nChrist, being raised from the dead, dies no more; yet he has not\nleft off, though in heaven, to do some works of service for his\nsaints on earth; for there he pleads as an Advocate or lawyer for\nhis people (Heb 8:1, 2). And let it be that he has no cause of shame\nwhen he standeth thus up to plead for so vile a wretch as I, who\nhave so vilely sinned, yet I have cause to think that well he may,\nand to hold my hands before my face for shame, and to be confounded\nwith shame, while he, to fetch me off from condemnation for my\ntransgressions, sets his face like a flint to plead for me with\nGod, and against my accuser. But thus much for the seventh privilege\nthat they have by Christ who have him for their Advocate.\n\nEighth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus\nChrist to be their Advocate is this, He is always ready, always\nin court, always with the judge, then and there to oppose, if our\naccuser comes, and to plead against him what is pleadable for his\nchildren. And this the text implies where it saith, \"We have an\nAdvocate with the Father,\" always with the Father. Some lawyers,\nthough they are otherwise able and shrewd, yet not being always\nin court and ready, do suffer their poor clients to be baffled and\nnonsuited23 by their adversary; yea, it so comes to pass because\nof this neglect, that a judgment is got out against them for whom\nthey have undertaken to plead, to their great perplexity and damage:\nbut no such opportunity can Satan have of our Advocate, for he is\nwith the Father, always with the Father; as to be a Priest, so to\nbe an Advocate-\"We have an Advocate with the Father.\" It is said of\nthe priests, they wait at the altar, and that they give attendance\nthere, (I Cor 9:13); also of the magistrate, that as to his office,\nhe should attend \"continually on this very thing\" (Rom 13:6).\nAnd as these, so Christ, as to his office of an Advocate, attends\ncontinually upon that office with his Father. \"We have an Advocate\nwith the Father,\" always with the Father. And truly such an\nAdvocate becomes the children of God, because of the vigilance of\ntheir enemy; for it is said of him, that \"he accuseth us day and\nnight,\" so unweariedly doth he both seek and pursue our destruction\n(Rev 12:10). But behold how we are provided for him-\"We have an\nAdvocate with the Father.\" If he come a-days, our Advocate is with\nthe Father; if he come a-nights, our Advocate is with the Father24\n\nThus, then, is our Advocate ready to put check to Satan, come he\nwhen he will or can, to accuse us to the Father. Wherefore these\ntwo texts are greatly to be minded, one of them, for that it shows\nus the restlessness of our enemy, the other, for that it shows us\nthe diligence of our Advocate.\n\nThat, also, in the Hebrews shows us the carefulness of our Advocate,\nwhere it saith, He is gone \"into heaven itself, now to appear in\nthe presence of God for us\" (Heb 9:24). Now, just the time present;\nNOW, the time always present; NOW, let Satan come when he will! Nor\nis it to be omitted that this word that thus specifies the time,\nthe present time, doth also conclude it to be that time in which\nwe are imperfect in grace, in which we have many failings, in which\nwe are tempted and accused of the devil to God; this is the time,\nand in it, and every whit of it, he now appeareth in the presence\nof God for us. Oh, the diligence of our enemy; oh, the diligence\nof our friend!-the one against us, the other for us, and that\ncontinually-\"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,\nJesus Christ the righteous.\" This, then, that Jesus Christ is always\nan Advocate with the Father for us, and so continually ready to put\na check to every accusation that Satan brings into the presence of\nGod against us, is another of the privileges that they have, who\nhave Jesus Christ for their Advocate.\n\nNinth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus\nChrist to be their Advocate is this, he is such an one that will\nnot, by bribes, by flattery, nor fair pretenses, be turned aside\nfrom pursuing of his client's business. This was the fault of\nlawyers in old time, that they would wrest judgment for a bribe.\nHence the Holy One complained, that a bribe did use to blind the\neyes of the wise, and pervert the judgment of the righteous (I Sam\n12:3; Amos 5:12; Deut 16:19).\n\nThere are three things in judgment that a lawyer must take heed\nof-one is the nature of the offence, the other is the meaning and\nintendment of the law-makers, and a third is to plead for them in\ndanger, without respect to affection or reward; and this is the\nexcellency of our Advocate, he will not, cannot be biased to turn\naside from doing judgment. And this the apostle intendeth when\nhe calleth our Advocate \"Jesus Christ the righteous.\" \"We have\nan Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous\"; or, as\nanother prophet calls him, to wit, \"The just Lord-one that will not\ndo iniquity\"-that is, no unrighteousness in judgment (Zeph 3:5). He\nwill not be provoked to do it, neither by the continual solicitations\nof thine enemy; nor by thy continual provocations wherewith, by\nreason of thy infirm condition, thou dost often tempt him to do\nit. And remember that thy Advocate pleads by the new covenant, and\nthine adversary accuses by the old; and again, remember that the\nnew covenant is better and more richly provided with grounds of\npleading for our pardon and salvation, than the old can be with\ngrounds for a charge to be brought in by the devil against us, suppose\nour sin be never so heinous. It is a better covenant, established\nupon better promises.\n\nNow, put these two together-namely, that Jesus Christ is righteous,\nand will not swerve in judgment; also, that he pleads for us by the\nnew law, with which Satan hath nothing to do, nor, had he, can he\nby it bring in a plea against us, because that law, in the very\nbody of it, consists in free promises of giving grace unto us, and\nof an everlasting forgiveness of our sin (Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:25-30;\nHeb 8:8-13) O children, your Advocate will stick to the law, to the\nnew law, to the new and everlasting covenant, and will not admit\nthat anything should be pleaded by our foe that is inconsistent with\nthe promise of the gift of grace, and of the remission of all sin.\nThis, therefore, is another privilege that they are made partakers\nof who have Jesus Christ to be their Advocate. He is just, he is\nrighteous, he is \"Jesus Christ the righteous\"; he will not be turned\naside to judge awry, either of the crime or the law, for favour or\naffection. Nor is there any sin but what is pardonable committed\nby those that have chosen Jesus Christ to be their Advocate.\n\nTenth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus\nChrist to be their Advocate, is this, the Father has made him, even\nhim that is thine Advocate, the umpire and judge in all matters\nthat have, do, or shall fall out betwixt him and us. Mark this\nwell; for when the judge himself, before whom I am accused, shall\nmake mine Advocate, the judge of the nature of the crime for which\nI am accused, and of matter of law by which I am accused-to wit,\nwhether it is in force against me to condemnation, or whether by\nthe law of grace I am set free, especially since my Advocate has\nespoused my cause, promised me deliverance, and pleaded my right\nto the state of eternal life-must it not go well with me? Yes,\nverily. The judge, then, making thine Advocate the judge, for he\n\"hath committed all judgment unto the Son,\" hath done it also for\nthy sake who hast chosen him to be thine Advocate (John 5:22) It\nwas a great thing that happened to Israel when Joseph was become\ntheir advocate, and when Pharaoh had made him a judge. \"Thou,\"\nsays he, \"shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall\nall my people be ruled. See, I have set thee over all the land of\nEgypt-and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all\nthe land of Egypt-only in the throne will I be greater than thou\"\n(Gen 41:40,44). Joseph in this was a type of Christ, and his\ngovernment here of the government of Christ for his church. Kings\nseldom make a man's judge his advocate; they seldom leave the issue\nof the whole affair to the arbitration of the poor man's lawyer;\nbut when they do, methinks it should even go to the heart's desire\nof the client whose the advocate is, especially when, as I said\nbefore, the cause of the client is become the concern of the advocate,\nand that they are both wrapped up in the self-same interest; yea,\nwhen the judge himself also is therein concerned; and yet thus it\nis with that soul who has Jesus Christ for his Advocate. What sayest\nthou, poor heart, to this? The judge-to wit, the God of heaven,\nhas made thy Advocate, arbitrator in thy business; he is to judge;\nGod has referred the matter to him, and he has a concern in thy\nconcern, an interest in thy good speed. Christian man, dost thou\nhear? Thou hast put thy cause into the hand of Jesus Christ, and\nhast chosen him to be thine Advocate to plead for thee before God\nand against thy adversary; and God has referred the judgment of\nthat matter to thy Advocate, so that he has power to determine the\nmatter. I know Satan is not pleased with this. He had rather things\nshould have been referred to himself, and then woe had been to the\nchild of God; but, I say, God has referred the business to Jesus\nChrist, has made him umpire and judge in thine affair. Art thou\nalso willing that he should decide the matter? Canst thou say unto\nhim as David, \"Judge me, O God, and plead my cause\" (Psa 43:1)?\nOh, the care of God towards his people, and the desire of their\nwelfare! He has provided them an Advocate, and he has referred\nall causes and things that may by Satan be objected and brought in\nagainst us, to the judgment and sentence of Christ our Advocate.\nBut to come to a conclusion for this; and therefore,\n\nEleventh Privilege. The advantage that he has that has the Lord\nJesus for his Advocate is very great. Thy Advocate has the cause,\nhas the law, has the judge, has the purse, and so consequently has\nall that is requisite for an Advocate to have, since together with\nthese he has heart, he has wisdom, he has courage, and loves to\nmake the best improvement of his advantages for the benefit of his\nclient; and that which adds to all is, he can prove the debt paid,\nabout which Satan makes such ado-a price given for the ransom of my\nsoul and for the pardon of my sins. Lawyers do use to make a great\nmatter of it, when they can prove, that that very debt is paid for\nwhich their client is sued at law. Now this Christ Jesus himself\nis witness to; yea, he himself has paid it, and that out of his own\npurse, for us, with his own hands, before and upon the mercy-seat,\naccording as the law requireth (Lev 16:13-15; Heb 9:11-24). What\nthen can accrue to our enemy? or what advantage can he get by his\nthus vexing and troubling the children of the Most High? Certainly\nnothing, but, as has been said already, to be cast down; for the\nkingdom of our God, which is a kingdom of grace, and the power of his\nChrist will prevail. Samson's power lay in his hair, but Christ's\npower, his power to deliver us from the accusation and charge\nof Satan, lieth in the worth of his undertakings. And hence it is\nsaid again, \"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,\" and\nhe was cast out and down (Rev 12:10-12). And thus much for the\nprivileges that those are made partakers of, who have Jesus Christ\nto be their Advocate.\n\n[THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE.]\n\nFifthly, I come now to the fifth thing, which is, to show you what\nnecessity there is that Christ should be our Advocate.\n\nThat Christ should be a Priest to offer sacrifice, a King to rule,\nand a Prophet to teach, all seeing men acknowledge is of necessity;\nbut that he should be an Advocate, a pleader for his people, few\nsee the reason of it. But he is an Advocate, and as an Advocate has\na work and employ distinct from his priestly, kingly, or prophetical\noffices. John says, \"He is our Advocate,\" and signifieth also the\nnature of his work as such, in that very place where he asserteth\nhis office; as also I have showed you in that which goes before.\nBut having already showed you the nature, I will now show you the\nnecessity of this office.\n\nFirst. It is necessary for the more full and ample vindication of\nthe justice of God against all the cavils of the infernal spirits.\nChrist died on earth to declare the justice of God to men in his\njustifying the ungodly. God standeth upon the vindication of his\njustice, as well as upon the act thereof. Hence the Holy Ghost, by\nthe prophets and apostles, so largely disputeth for the vindication\nthereof, while it asserteth the reality of the pardon of sin, the\njustification of the unworthy, and their glorification with God\n(Rom 3:24; Isa, Jer, Mal; Rom 3, 4, 8; Gal 3,4). I say, while it\ndisputeth the justness of this high act of God against the cavils\nof implacable sinners. Now the prophets and apostles, in those\ndisputes by which they seek to vindicate the justice of God in\nthe salvation of sinners, are not only ministers of God to us, but\nadvocates for him; since, as Elihu has it, they \"speak on God's\nbehalf,\" or, as the margin has it, \"I will show thee that there\nare yet words for God,\" words to be spoken and pleaded against his\nenemies for the justification of his actions (Job 36:2). Now, as\nit is necessary that there should be advocates for God on earth\nto plead for his justice and holiness, while he saveth sinners,\nagainst the cavils of an ungodly people, so it is necessary that\nthere should be an Advocate also in heaven, that may there vindicate\nthe same justice and holiness of God from all those charges that\nthe fallen angels are apt to charge it with, while it consenteth\nthat we, though ungodly, should be saved.\n\nThat the fallen angels are bold enough to charge God to his face\nwith unjustness of language, is evident in the 1st and 2nd of Job;\nand that they should not be as bold to charge him with unjustness\nof actions, nothing can be showed to the contrary. Further, that\nGod seeks to clear himself of this unjust charge of Satan is as\nmanifest; for all the troubles of his servant Job were chiefly for\nthat purpose. And why he should have one also in heaven to plead\nfor the justness of his doing in the forgiveness and salvation of\nsinners appears also as necessary, even because there is one, even\nan Advocate with the Father, or on the Father's side, seeking to\nvindicate his justice, while he pleadeth with him for us, against\nthe devil and his objections. God is wonderfully pleased with his\ndesign in saving of sinners; it pleases him at the heart. And since\nhe also is infinitely just, there is need that an Advocate should\nbe appointed to show how, in a way of justice as well as mercy, a\nsinner may be saved.\n\nThe good angels did not at first see so far into the mysteries of\nthe gospel of the grace of God, but that they needed further light\ntherein for the vindication of their Lord as servants. Wherefore\nthey yet did pry and look narrowly into it further, and also bowed\ntheir heads and hearts to learn yet more, by the church, of \"the\nmanifold wisdom of God\" (I Peter 1:12; Eph 3:9,10). And if the\nstanding angels were not yet, to the utmost, perfect in the knowledge\nof this mystery, and yet surely they must know more thereof than\nthose that fell could do, no wonder if those devils, whose enmity\ncould not but animate their ignorance, made, and do make, their\ncavils against justice, insinuating that it is not impartial and\nexact, because it, as it is just, justifieth the ungodly.\n\nThat Satan will quarrel with God I have showed you, and that he\nwill also dispute against his works with the holy angels, is more\nthan intimated by the apostle Jude, verse 9, and why not quarrel\nwith, and accuse the justice of God as unrighteous, for consenting\nto the salvation of sinners, since his best qualifications are\nmost profound and prodigious attempts to dethrone the Lord God of\nhis power and glory.\n\nNay, all this is evident, since \"we have an Advocate with the Father,\nJesus Christ the righteous.\" And again, I say, it is evident that\none part of his work as an Advocate, is to vindicate the justice\nof God while he pleadeth for our salvation, because he pleadeth a\npropitiation; for a propitiation respects God as well as us; the\nappeasing his wrath, and the reconciling of his justice to us, as\nwell as the redeeming us from death and hell; yea, it therefore\ndoth the one, because it doth the other. Now, if Christ, as an\nAdvocate, pleadeth a propitiation with God, for whose conviction\ndoth he plead it? Not for God's; for he has ordained it, allows\nit, and gloriously acquiesces therein, because he knows the whole\nvirtue thereof. It is therefore for the conviction of the fallen\nangels, and for the confounding of all those cavils that can be\ninvented and objected against our salvation by those most subtle\nand envious ones. But,\n\nSecond. There is matter of law to be objected, and that both against\nGod and us; at least, there seems to be so, because of the sanction\nthat God has put upon the law, and also because we have sinned\nagainst it. God has said, \"In the day thou eatest thereof, thou\nshalt surely die\"; and, \"the soul that sinneth, it shall die.\" God\nalso standeth still upon the vindication of his justice, he also\nsaveth sinners. Now, in comes our accuser, and chargeth us of sin,\nof being guilty of sin, because we have transgressed the law. God\nalso will not be put out of his way, or steps of grace, to save us;\nalso he will say, he is just and righteous still. Ay, but these\nare but say-so's. How shall this be proved? Why, now, here is room\nfor an advocate that can plead to matter of law, that can preserve\nthe sanction of the law in the salvation of the sinner-\"He will\nmagnify the law, and make it honourable\" (Isa 42:21). The margin\nsaith, \"and make him honourable25\"--that is, he shall save the sinner,\nand preserve the holiness of the law, and the honour of his God.\nBut who is this that can do this? \"It is the servant of God,\" saith\nthe prophet, (Isa 42:1, 13), \"the Lord, a man of war.\" But how can\nthis be done by him? The answer is, It shall be done, \"for God is\nwell pleased for his righteousness' sake\"; for it is by that he\nmagnifies the law, and makes his Father honourable-that is, he, as\na public person, comes into the world under the law, fulfills it,\nand having so done, he gives that righteousness away, for he, as\nto his own person, never had need thereof; I say, he gives that\nrighteousness to those that have need, to those that have none\nof their own, that righteousness might be imputed to them. This\nrighteousness, then, he presenteth to God for us, and God, for this\nrighteousness' sake, is well pleased that we should be saved, and\nfor it can save us, and secure his honour, and preserve the law in\nits sanction. And this Christ pleadeth against Satan as an Advocate\nwith the Father for us; by which he vindicates his Father's justice,\nholdeth the child of God, notwithstanding his sins, in a state of\njustification, and utterly overthroweth and confoundeth the devil.\n\nFor Christ, in pleading thus, appeals to the law itself, if he\nhas not done it justice, saying, \"Most mighty law, what command of\nthine have I not fulfilled? What demand of thine have I not fully\nanswered? Where is that jot or tittle of the law that is able to\nobject against my doings for want of satisfaction?\" Here the law\nis mute; it speaketh not one word by way of the least complaint,\nbut rather testifies of this righteousness that it is good and\nholy, (Rom 3:22, 23; 5:15-19). Now, then, since Christ did this as\na public person, it follows that others must be justified thereby;\nfor that was the end and reason of Christ's taking on him to do\nthe righteousness of the law. Nor can the law object against the\nequity of this dispensation of heaven; for why might not that God,\nwho gave the law his being and his sanction, dispose as he pleases\nof the righteousness which it commendeth? Besides, if men be made\nrighteous, they are so; and if by a righteousness which the law\ncommendeth, how can fault be found with them by the law? Nay, it is\n\"witnessed by the law and the prophets,\" who consent that it should\nbe unto all, and upon all them that believe, for their justification\n(Rom 3:20,21).\n\nAnd that the mighty God suffereth the prince of the devils to do\nwith the law what he can, against this most wholesome and godly\ndoctrine; it is to show the truth, goodness, and permanency thereof;\nfor this is as who should say, Devil, do thy worst! When the law is\nin the hand of an easy pleader, though the cause that he pleadeth\nbe good, a crafty opposer may overthrow the right; but here is the\nsalvation of the children in debate, whether it can stand with law\nand justice; the opposer of this is the devil, his argument against\nit is the law; he that defends the doctrine is Christ the Advocate,\nwho, in his plea, must justify the justice of God, defend the\nholiness of the law, and save the sinner from all the arguments,\npleas, stops and demurs that Satan is able to put in against it.\nAnd this he must do fairly, righteously, simply, pleading the voice\nof the self-same law for the justification of what he standeth for,\nwhich Satan pleads against it; for though it is by the new law that\nour salvation comes, yet by the old law is the new law approved of\nand the way of salvation thereby by it consented to.\n\nThis shows, therefore, that Christ is not ashamed to own the way\nof our justification and salvation, no, not before men and devils.\nIt shows also that he is resolved to dispute and plead for the same,\nthough the devil himself shall oppose it. And since our adversary\npretends a plea in law against it, it is meet that there should be\nan open hearing before the Judge of all about it; but, forasmuch as\nwe neither can nor dare appear to plead for ourselves, our good God\nhas thought fit we should do it by an advocate: \"We have an Advocate\nwith the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" This, therefore, is\nthe second thing that shows the need that we have of an Advocate-to\nwit, our adversary pretends that he has a plea in law against us,\nand that by law we should be otherwise disposed of than to be made\npossessors of the heavenly kingdom. But,\n\nThird. There are many things relating to the promise, to our life,\nand to the threatenings, that minister matter of question and\ndoubt, and give the advantage of objections unto him that so eagerly\ndesireth to be putting in cavils against our salvation, all which\nit hath pleased God to repel by Jesus Christ our Advocate.\n\n1. There are many things relating to the promises, as to the largeness\nand straitness of words, as to the freeness and conditionality of\nthem, which we are not able so well to understand; and, therefore,\nwhen Satan dealeth with us about them, we quickly fall to the\nground before him; we often conclude that the words of the promise\nare too narrow and strait to comprehend us; we also think, verily,\nthat the conditions of some promises do utterly shut us out from\nhope of justification and life; but our Advocate, who is for us with\nthe Father, he is better acquainted with, and learned in, this law\nthan to be baffled out with a bold word or two, or with a subtle\npiece of hellish sophistication (Isa 50:4). He knows the true\npurport, intent, meaning, and sense of every promise, and piece of\npromise that is in the whole Bible, and can tell how to plead it\nfor advantage against our accuser, and doth so. And I gather it\nnot only from his contest with Satan for Joshua, (Zech 3), and from\nhis conflict with him in the wilderness, (Matt 4), and in heaven,\n(Rev 14), but also from the practice of Satan's emissaries here;\nfor what his angels do, that doth he. Now there is here nothing\nmore apparent than that the instruments of Satan do plead against\nthe church, from the pretended intricacy, ambiguity, and difficulty\nof the promise; whence I gather, so doth Satan before the tribunal\nof God; but there we have one to match him; \"we have an Advocate\nwith the Father,\" that knows law and judgment better than Satan,\nand statute and commandment better than all his angels; and by the\nverdict of our Advocate, all the words, and limits, and extensions\nof words, with all conditions of the promises, are expounded and\napplied! And hence it is that it sometimes so falleth out that the\nvery promise we have thought could not reach us, to comfort us by\nany means, has at another time swallowed us up with joy unspeakable.\nChrist, the true Prophet, has the right understanding of the Word\nas an Advocate, has pleaded it before God against Satan, and having\novercome him at the common law, he hath sent to let us know it by\nhis good Spirit, to our comfort, and the confusion of our enemy.\nAgain,\n\n2. There are many things relating to our lives that minister to our\naccuser occasions of many objections against our salvation; for,\nbesides our daily infirmities, there are in our lives gross sins,\nmany horrible backslidings; also we ofttimes suck and drink in\nmany abominable errors and deceitful opinions, of all which Satan\naccuseth us before the judgment-seat of God, and pleadeth hard that\nwe may be damned for ever for them. Besides, some of these things\nare done after light received, against present convictions and\ndissuasions to the contrary, against solemn engagements to amendment,\nwhen the bonds of love were upon us (Jer 2:20). These are crying\nsins; they have a loud voice in themselves against us, and give\nto Satan great advantage and boldness to sue for our destruction\nbefore the bar of God; nor doth he want skill to aggravate and to\ncomment profoundly upon all occasions and circumstances that did\nattend us in these our miscarriages-to wit, that we did it without\na cause, also, when we had, had we had grace to have used them,\nmany things to have helped us against such sins, and to have kept\nus clean and upright. \"There is also a sin unto death,\" (I John\n5:16), and he can tell how to labour, by argument and sleight of\nspeech, to make our transgressions, not only to border upon, but\nto appear in the hue, shape, and figure of that, and thereto make\nhis objection against our salvation. He often argueth thus with\nus, and fasteneth the weight of his reasons upon our consciences,\nto the almost utter destruction of us, and the bringing of us down\nto the gates of despair and utter destruction; the same sins, with\ntheir aggravating circumstances, as I said, he pleadeth against\nus at the bar of God. But there he meeteth with Jesus Christ, our\nLord and Advocate, who entereth his plea against him, unravels\nall his reasons and arguments against us, and shows the guile and\nfalsehood of them. He also pleadeth as to the nature of sin, as also\nto all those high aggravations, and proveth that neither the sin in\nitself, nor yet as joined with all its advantageous circumstances,\ncan be the sin unto death, (Col 2:19), because we hold the head,\nand have not \"made shipwreck of faith,\" (I Tim 1:19), but still,\nas David and Solomon, we confess, and are sorry for our sins. Thus,\nthough we seem, through our falls, to come short of the promise,\nwith Peter, (Heb 4:1-3), and leave our transgressions as stumbling\nblocks to the world, with Solomon, and minister occasion of a question\nof our salvation among the godly, yet our Advocate fetches us off\nbefore God, and we shall be found safe and in heaven at last, by\nthem in the next world, who were afraid they had lost us in this.\n\nBut all these points must be managed by Christ for us, against\nSatan, as a lawyer, an advocate, who to that end now appears in the\npresence of God for us, and wisely handleth the very crisis of the\nword, and of the failings of his people, together with all those\nnice and critical juggles by which our adversary laboureth to bring\nus down, to the confusion of his face.\n\n3. There are also the threatenings that are annexed to the gospel,\nand they fall now under our consideration. They are of two sorts-such\nas respect those who altogether neglect and reject the gospel, or\nthose that profess it, yet fall in or from the profession thereof.\n\nThe first sort of threatening cannot be pleaded against the professors\nof the gospel as against those that never professed it; wherefore\nhe betaketh himself to manage those threatenings against us that\nbelong to those that have professed, and that have fallen from\nit (Psa 109:1-6). Joshua fell in it (Zech 3:1, 2). Judas fell\nfrom it, and the accuser stands at the right hand of them before\nthe judgment of God, to resist them, by pleading the threatenings\nagainst them-to wit, that God's soul should have no pleasure\nin them. \"If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in\nhim.\" Here is a plea for Satan, both against the one and the other;\nthey are both apostatized, both drawn back, and he is subtle enough\nto manage it.\n\nAy, but Satan, here is also matter sufficient for a plea for our\nAdvocate against thee, forasmuch as the next words distinguish\nbetwixt drawing back, and drawing back \"unto perdition\"; every\none that draws back, doth not draw back unto perdition (Heb 10:38,\n39). Some of them draw back from, and some in the profession of,\nthe gospel. Judas drew back from, and Peter in the profession of\nhis faith; wherefore Judas perishes, but Peter turns again, because\nJudas drew back unto perdition, but Peter yet believed to the saving\nof the soul.26 Nor doth Jesus Christ, when he sees it is to no boot,\nat any time step in to endeavour to save the soul. Wherefore, as\nfor Judas, for his backsliding from the faith, Christ turns him up\nto Satan, and leaveth him in his hand, saying, \"When he shall be\njudged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin\" (Psa\n109:7) But he will not serve Peter so-\"The Lord will not leave\nhim in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged\" (Psa 37:33).\nHe will pray for him before, and plead for him after, he hath been\nin the temptation, and so secure him, by virtue of his advocation,\nfrom the sting and lash of the threatening that is made against\nfinal apostasy. But,\n\nFourth. The necessity of the Advocate's office in Jesus Christ\nappears plainly in this-to plead about the judgments, distresses,\nafflictions, and troubles that we meet withal in this life for our\nsins. For though, by virtue of this office, Christ fully takes us\noff from the condemnation that the unbelievers go down to for their\nsins, yet he doth not thereby exempt us from temporal punishments,\nfor we see and feel that they daily overtake us; but for the\nproportioning of the punishment, or affliction for transgression,\nseeing that comes under the sentence of the law, it is fit that we\nshould have an Advocate that understands both law and judgment, to\nplead for equal distribution of chastisement, according, I say, to\nthe law of grace; and this the Lord Jesus doth.\n\nSuppose a man for transgression be indicted at the assizes; his\nadversary is full of malice, and would have him punished sorely\nbeyond what by the law is provided for such offence; and he pleads\nthat the judge will so afflict and punish as he in his malicious\nmind desireth. But the man has an advocate there, and he enters\nhis plea against the cruelty of his client's accuser, saying, My\nlord, it cannot be as our enemy would have it; the punishment for\nthese transgressions is prescribed by that law that we here ground\nour plea upon; nor may it be declined to satisfy his envy; we stand\nhere upon matters of law, and appeal to the law. And this is the\nwork of our Advocate in heaven. Punishments for the sin of the\nchildren come not headlong, not without measure, as our accuser\nwould have them, nor yet as they fall upon those who have none to\nplead their cause.27 Hath he smote the children according to the\nstroke wherewith he hath smitten others? No; \"in measure when it\nshooteth forth,\" or seeks to exceed due bounds, \"thou wilt debate\nwith it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind\"\n(Isa 27:8). \"Thou wilt debate with it,\" inquiring and reasoning by\nthe law, whether the shootings forth of the affliction (now going\nout for the offence committed) be not too strong, too heavy, too\nhot, and of too long a time admitted to distress and break the\nspirit of this Christian; and if it be, he applies himself to the\nrule to measure it by, he fetches forth his plumb line, and sets\nit in the midst of his people, (Amos 7:8; Isa 28:17), and lays\nrighteousness to that, and will not suffer it to go further; but\naccording to the quality of the transgression, and according to the\nterms, bounds, limits, and measures which the law of grace admits,\nso shall the punishment be. Satan often saith of us when we have\nsinned, as Abishai said of Shimei after he had cursed David, Shall\nnot this man die for this? (II Sam 19:21). But Jesus, our Advocate,\nanswers as David, What have I to do with thee, O Satan? Thou this\nday art an enemy to me; thou seekest for a punishment for the\ntransgressions of my people above what is allotted to them by the\nlaw of grace, under which they are, and beyond what their relation\nthat they stand in to my Father and myself will admit. Wherefore,\nas Advocate, he pleadeth against Satan when he brings in against\nus a charge for sins committed, for the regulating of punishments,\nboth as to the nature, degree, and continuation of punishment; and\nthis is the reason why, when we are judged, we are not condemned,\nbut chastened, \"that we should not be condemned with the world\"\n(I Cor 11:32). Hence king David says, the Lord hath not given him\nover to the will of his enemy (Psa 27:12). And again, \"The Lord\nhath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over unto death\"\n(Psa 118:18). Satan's plea was, that the Lord would give David over\nto his will, and to the tyranny of death. No, says our Advocate,\nthat must not be; to do so would be an affront to the covenant\nunder which grace has put them; that would be to deal with them by\na covenant of works, under which they are not. There is a rod for\nchildren; and stripes for those of them that transgress. This rod\nis in the hand of a Father, and must be used according to the law\nof that relation, not for the destruction, but correction of the\nchildren; not to satisfy the rage of Satan, but to vindicate the\nholiness of my Father; not to drive them further from, but to bring\nthem nearer to their God. But,\n\nFifth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ is\nalso manifest in this, for that there is need of one to plead the\nefficacy of old titles to our eternal inheritance, when our interest\nthereunto seems questionable by reason of new transgressions. That\nGod's people may, by their new and repeated sins, as to reason\nat least, endanger their interest in the eternal inheritance, is\nmanifest by such groanings of theirs as these-\"Why dost thou cast\nme off?\" (Psa 43:2). \"Cast me not away from thy presence\" (Psa 51:11).\nAnd, \"O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?\" (Psa 74:1). Yet\nI find in the book of Leviticus, that though any of the children\nof Israel should have sold, mortgaged, or made away with their\ninheritance, they did not thereby utterly make void their title\nto an interest therein, but it should again return to them, and\nthey again enjoy the possession of it, in the year of jubilee. In\nthe year of jubilee, saith God, you shall return every man to his\npossession; \"the land shall not be sold for ever,\" nor be quite\ncut off, \"for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners\nwith me. And in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a\nredemption for the land\" (Lev 25:23,24).\n\nThe man in Israel that, by waxing poor, did sell his land in\nCanaan, was surely a type of the Christian who, by sin and decays\nin grace, has forfeited his place and inheritance in heaven; but\nas the ceremonial law provided that the poor man in Canaan should\nnot, by his poverty, lose his portion in Canaan for ever, but that\nit should return to him in the year of jubilee; so the law of grace\nhas provided that the children shall not, for their sin, lose their\ninheritance in heaven for ever, but that it shall return to them\nin the world to come (I Cor 11:32)28\n\nAll therefore that happeneth in this case is, they may live without\nthe comfort of it here, as he that had sold his house in Canaan\nmight live without the enjoyment of it till the jubilee. They may\nalso seem to come short of it when they die, as he in Canaan did\nthat deceased before the year of jubilee; but as certainly as he\nthat died in Canaan before the jubilee did yet receive again his\ninheritance by the hand of his relative survivor when the jubilee\ncame, so certainly shall he that dieth, and that seemeth in his dying\nto come short of the celestial inheritance now, be yet admitted,\nat his rising again, to the repossession of his old inheritance at\nthe day of judgment. But now here is room for a caviler to object,\nand to plead against the children, saying, They have forfeited\ntheir part of paradise by their sin; what right, then, shall they\nhave to the kingdom of heaven? Now let the Lord stand up to plead,\nfor he is Advocate for the children; yea, let them plead the\nsufficiency of their first title to the kingdom, and that it is\nnot their doings can sell the land for ever. The reason why the\nchildren of Israel could not sell the land for ever was, because\nthe Lord, their head, reserved to himself a right therein-\"The land\nshall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine.\" Suppose two or\nthree children have a lawful title to such an estate, but they are\nall profuse and prodigal, and there is a brother also that has by\nlaw a chief right to the same estate: this brother may hinder the\nestate from being sold for ever, because it is his inheritance,\nand he may, when the limited time that his brethren had sold their\nshare therein is out, if he will, restore it to them again. And in\nthe meantime, if any that are unjust should go about utterly and\nfor ever to deprive his brethren, he may stand up and plead for\nthem; that in law the land cannot be sold for ever, for that it\nis his as well as theirs, he being resolved not to part with his\nright. O my brethren! Christ will not part with his right of the\ninheritance unto which you are also born; your profuseness and\nprodigality shall not make him let go his hold that he hath for you\nof heaven; nor can you, according to law, sell the land for ever,\nsince it is his, and he hath the principal and chief title thereto.\nThis also gives him ground to stand up to plead for you against\nall those that would hold the kingdom from you for ever; for let\nSatan say what he can against you, yet Christ can say, \"The land is\nmine,\" and consequently that his brethren could not sell it. Yes,\nsays Satan, if the inheritance be divided.\n\nO but, says Christ, the land is undivided; no man has his part set\nout and turned over to himself; besides, my brethren yet are under\nage, and I am made their guardian; they have not power to sell the\nland for ever; the land is mine; also my Father has made me feoffee\nin trust for my brethren, that they may have what is allotted them\nwhen they are all come to a perfect man, \"unto the measure of the\nstature of the fulness of Christ\" (Eph 4:13). And not before, and I\nwill reserve it for them till then; and thus to do is the will of\nmy Father, the law of the Judge, and also my unchangeable resolution.\nAnd what can Satan say against this plea? Can he prove that Christ\nhas no interest in the saints' inheritance? Can he prove that we\nare at age, or that our several parts of the heavenly house are\nalready delivered into our own power? And if he goes about to do\nthis, is not the law of the land against him? Doth it not say that\nour Advocate is \"Lord of all,\" (Acts 10:36), that the kingdom is\nChrist's, that it is laid up in heaven for us, (Eph 5:5, Col 1:5);\nyea, that the \"inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and\nthat fadeth not away, is reserved in heaven for us, who are kept\nby the power of God, through faith unto salvation\" (I Peter 1:4,\n5). Thus therefore is our heavenly inheritance made good by our\nAdvocate against the thwartings and branglings29 of the devil; nor\ncan our new sins make it invalid, but it abideth safe to us at last,\nnotwithstanding our weaknesses; though, if we sin, we may have but\nlittle comfort of it, or but little of its present profits, while\nwe live in this present world. A spendthrift, though he loses not\nhis title, may yet lose the present benefit, but the principal\nwill come again at last; for \"we have an Advocate with the Father,\nJesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\nSixth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ for\nus further appears in this-to wit, for that our evidences, which\ndeclare that we have a right to the eternal inheritance, are often\nout of our own hand, yea, and also sometimes kept long from us,\nthe which we come not at the sight or comfort of again but by our\nAdvocate, especially when our evidences are taken from us, because\nof a present forfeiture of this inheritance to God by this or that\nmost foul offence. Evidences, when they are thus taken away, as in\nDavid's case they were, (Psa 51:12), why then they are in our God's\nhand, laid up, I say, from the sight of them to whom they belong,\ntill they even forget the contents thereof (II Peter 1:5-9).30\n\nNow when writings and evidences are out of the hand of the owners, and\nlaid up in the court, where in justice they ought to be kept, they\nare not ordinarily got thence again but by the help of a lawyer-an\nAdvocate. Thus it is with the children of God. We do often forfeit\nour interest in eternal life, but the mercy is, the forfeit falls\ninto the hand of God, not of the law nor of Satan, wherefore\nhe taketh away also our evidences, if not all, yet some of them,\nas he saith-\"I have taken away my peace from this people, even\nloving-kindness and mercies\" (Jer 16:5). This he took from David,\nand he entreats for the restoration of it, saying, \"Restore unto\nme the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit\"\n(I Chron 17:13; Psa 51:12). And, \"Lord, turn us again, cause thy\nface to shine, and we shall be saved\" (Psa 80:3, 7, 19.)\n\nSatan now also hath an opportunity to plead against us, and to\nhelp forward the affliction, as his servants did of old, when God\nwas but a little angry (Zech 1:15); but Jesus Christ our Advocate\nis ready to appear against him, and to send us from heaven our old\nevidences again, or to signify to us that they are yet good and\nauthentic, and cannot be gainsaid. \"Gabriel,\" saith he, \"make this\nman to understand the vision\" (Dan 8:16). And again, saith he to\nanother, \"Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be\ninhabited as towns without walls\" (Zech 2:4). Jerusalem had been\nin captivity, had lost many evidences of God's favour and love\nby reason of her sin, and her enemy stepped in to augment her sin\nand sorrow; but there was a man [the angel of the Lord] \"among the\nmyrtle trees\" that were in the bottom that did prevail with God to\nsay, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; and then commands it\nto be proclaimed that his \"cities through prosperity shall yet be\nspread abroad\" (Zech 1:11-17). Thus, by virtue of our Advocate, we\nare either made to receive our old evidences for heaven again, or\nelse are made to understand that they yet are good, and stand valid\nin the court of heaven; nor can they be made ineffectual, but shall\nabide the test at last, because our Advocate is also concerned in\nthe inheritance of the saints in light. Christians know what it is\nto lose their evidences for heaven, and to receive them again, or\nto hear that they hold their title by them; but perhaps they know\nnot how they come at this privilege; therefore the apostle tells\nthem \"they have an Advocate\"; and that by him, as Advocate, they\nenjoy all these advantages is manifest, because his Advocate's\noffice is appointed for our help when we sin-that is, commit sins\nthat are great and heinous-\"If any man sin, we have an Advocate.\"31\n\nBy him the justice of God is vindicated, the law answered, the\nthreatenings taken off, the measure of affliction that for sin we\nundergo determined, our titles to eternal life preserved, and our\ncomfort of them restored, notwithstanding the wit, and rage, and\nenvy of hell. So, then, Christ gave himself for us as a priest,\ndied for us as a sacrifice, but pleadeth justice and righteousness\nin a way of justice and righteousness; for such is his sacrifice,\nfor our salvation from the death that is due to our foul or high\ntransgressions-as an Advocate. Thus have I given you thus far, an\naccount of the nature, end, and necessity of the Advocateship of\nJesus Christ, and should now come to the use and application, only\nI must first remove an objection or two.\n\n[OBJECTIONS REMOVED.]\n\nSIXTHLY, [I now come to answer some objections.]\n\nFirst Objection. But what need all these offices of Jesus Christ?\nor, what need you trouble us with these nice distinctions? It is\nenough for us to believe in Christ in the general, without considering\nhim under this and that office.\n\nAnswer. The wisdom of God is not to be charged with needless doing\nwhen it giveth to Jesus Christ such variety of offices, and calleth\nhim to so many sundry employments for us; they are all thought\nnecessary by heaven, and therefore should not be counted superfluous\nby earth. And to put a question upon thy objection-What is a sacrifice\nwithout a priest, and what is a priest without a sacrifice? And\nthe same I say of his Advocate's office-What is an advocate without\nthe exercise of his office? And what need of an Advocate's office\nto be exercised, if Christ, as sacrifice and Priest, was thought\nsufficient by God? Each of these offices is sufficient for the\nperfecting the work for which it is designed; but they are not all\ndesigned for the self-same particular thing. Christ as sacrifice\noffereth not himself; it is Christ as Priest does that. Christ as\nPriest dieth not for our sins; it is Christ as sacrifice does so.\nAgain, Christ as a sacrifice and a Priest limits himself to those\ntwo employs, but as an Advocate he launches out into a third. And\nsince these are not confounded in heaven, nor by the Scriptures,\nthey should not be confounded in our apprehension, nor accounted\nuseless.\n\nIt is not, therefore, enough for us that we exercise our thoughts\nupon Christ in an indistinct and general way, but we must learn to\nknow him in all his offices, and to know the nature of his offices\nalso; our condition requires this, it requireth it, I say, as we\nare guilty of sin, as we have to do with God, and with our enemy\nthe devil. As we are guilty of sin, so we need a sacrifice; and as\nwe are also sinners, we need one perfect to present our sacrifice\nto God for us. We have need also of him as priest to present our\npersons and services to God. And since God is just, and upon the\njudgment-seat, and since also we are subject to sin grievously,\nand again, since we have an accuser who will by law plead at this\nbar of God our sins against us, to the end we might be condemned,\nwe have need of, and also \"have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus\nChrist the righteous.\"\n\nAlas! How many of God's precious people, for want of a distinct\nknowledge of Christ in all his offices, are at this day sadly baffled\nwith the sophistications of the devil? To instance no more than\nthis one thing-when they have committed some heinous sin after light\nreceived, how are they, I say, tossed and tumbled and distressed\nwith many perplexities! They cannot come to any anchor in this their\ntroubled sea; they go from promise to promise, from providence to\nprovidence, from this to that office of Jesus Christ, but forget\nthat he is, or else understand not what it is for this Lord Jesus\nto be an Advocate for them. Hence they so oft sink under the fears\nthat their sin is unpardonable, and that therefore their condition\nis desperate; whereas, if they could but consider that Christ is\ntheir Advocate, and that he is therefore made an Advocate to save\nthem from those high transgressions that are committed by them, and\nthat he waits upon this office continually before the judgment-seat\nof God, they would conceive relief, and be made to hold up their\nhead, and would more strongly twist themselves from under that\nguilt and burden, those ropes and cords wherewith by their folly\nthey have so strongly bound themselves, than commonly they have\ndone, or do.\n\nSecond Objection. But notwithstanding what you have said, this sin\nis a deadly stick in my way; it will not out of my mind, my cause\nbeing bad, but Christ will desert me.\n\nAnswer. It is true, sin is, and will be, a deadly stick and stop to\nfaith, attempt to exercise it on Christ as considered under which\nof his offices or relations you will; and, above all, the sin of\nunbelief is \"the sin that doth so,\" or most \"easily beset us\" (Heb\n12:1, 2). And no marvel; for it never acteth alone, but is backed,\nnot only with guilt and ignorance, but also with carnal sense and\nreason. He that is ignorant of this knows but little of himself,\nor what believing is. He that undertakes to believe sets upon the\nhardest task that ever was proposed to man; not because the things\nimposed upon us are unreasonable or unaccountable, but because the\nheart of man, the more true anything is, the more it sticks and\nstumbles thereat; and, says Christ, \"Because I tell you the truth,\nye believe me not\" (John 8:45). Hence believing is called labouring,\n(Heb 4:11); and it is the sorest labour, at times that any man can\ntake in hand, because assaulted with the greatest oppositions; but\nbelieve thou must, be the labour never so hard, and that not only\nin Christ in a general way, but in him as to his several offices,\nand to this of his being an Advocate in particular, else some sins\nand some temptations will not, in their guilt or vexatious trouble,\neasily depart from thy conscience; no, not by promise, nor by thy\nattempts to apply the same by faith. And this the text insinuateth\nby its setting forth of Christ as Advocate, as the only or best\nand most speedy way of relief to the soul in certain cases.\n\nThere is, then, an order that thou must observe in exercising of\nthy soul in a way of believing.\n\n1. Thou must believe unto justification in general; and for this\nthou must direct thy soul to the Lord Christ as he is a sacrifice\nfor sin; and as a Priest offering that sacrifice, so as a sacrifice\nthou shalt see him appeasing Divine displeasure for thy sin, and\nas a Priest spreading the skirt of his garment over thee, for the\ncovering of thy nakedness; thus being clothed, thou shalt not be\nfound naked.\n\n2. This, when thou hast done as well as thou canst, thou must, in\nthe next place, keep thine eye upon the Lord Christ as improving,\nas Priest in heaven, the sacrifice which he offered on earth for\nthe continuing thee in a state of justification in thy lifetime,\nnotwithstanding those common infirmities that attend thee, and to\nwhich thou art incident in all thy holy services or best performances\n(Rom 5:10; Exo 28:31-38). For therefore is he a Priest in heaven,\nand by his sacrifices interceding for thee.\n\n3. But if thy foot slippeth, if it slippeth greatly, then know thou\nit will not be long before a bill be in heaven preferred against\nthee by the accuser of the brethren; wherefore then thou must\nhave recourse to Christ as Advocate, to plead before God thy judge\nagainst the devil thine adversary for thee.\n\n4. And as to the badness of thy cause, let nothing move thee, save\nto humility and self-abasement, for Christ is glorified by being\nconcerned for thee; yea, the angels will shout aloud to see him\nbring thee off. For what greater glory can we conceive Christ to\nobtain ad Advocate, than to bring off his people when they have\nsinned, notwithstanding Satan so charging of them for it as he\ndoth?\n\nHe gloried when he was going to the cross to die; he went up with\na shout and the sound of a trumpet, to make intercession for us;\nand shall we think that by his being an Advocate he receives no\nadditional glory? It is glory to him, doubtless, to bear the title\nof an Advocate, and much more to plead and prosper for us against\nour adversary, as he doth.\n\n5. And, I say again, for thee to think that Christ will reject thee\nfor that thy cause is bad, is a kind of thinking blasphemy against\nthis his office and his Word; for what doth such a man but side\nwith Satan, while Christ is pleading against him? I say, it is as\nthe devil would have it, for it puts strength into his plea against\nus, by increasing our sin and wickedness. But shall Christ take\nour cause in hand, and shall we doubt of good success?\n\nThis is to count Satan stronger than Christ; and that he can longer\nabide to oppose, than Christ can to plead for us. Wherefore, away\nwith, it, not only as to the notion, but also as to the heart and\nroot thereof. Oh! When shall Jesus Christ our Lord be honoured by\nus as he ought? This dastardly heart of ours, when shall it be more\nsubdued and trodden under foot of faith? When shall Christ ride\nLord, and King, and Advocate, upon the faith of his people, as he\nshould? He is exalted before God, before angels, and above all the\npower of the enemy; there is nothing comes behind but the faith of\nhis people.\n\nThird Objection. But since you follow the metaphor so close, I\nwill suppose, if an advocate be entertained, some recompense must\nbe given him. His fee-who shall pay him his fee? I have nothing.\nCould I do anything to make this advocate part of amends, I could\nthink I might have benefit from him; but I have nothing. What say\nyou to this?32\n\nAnswer. Similitudes must not be strained too far; but yet I have\nan answer for this objection. There is, in some cases, law for them\nthat have no money; ay, law and lawyers too; and this is called\na suing in forma pauperis;33 and such lawyers are appointed by\nauthority for that purpose. Indeed, I know not that it is thus in\nevery nation, but it is sometimes so with us in England; and this\nis the way altogether in the kingdom of heaven before the bar of\nGod. All is done there for us in forma pauperis, on free cost; for\nour Advocate or lawyer is thereto designed and appointed of his\nFather.\n\nHence Christ is said to plead the cause, not of the rich and wealthy,\nbut of the poor and needy; not of those that have many friends, but\nof the fatherless and widow; not of them that are fat and strong,\nbut of those under sore afflictions (Prov 22:22, 23; 23:10, 11;\n31:9). \"He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him\nfrom those that condemn his soul,\" or, as it is in the margin, \"from\nthe judges of his soul\" (Psa 109:31). This, then, is the manner of\nJesus Christ with men; he doth freely what he doth, not for price\nnor reward. \"I have raised him up,\" says God, \"and I will direct all\nhis ways; he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives,\nnot for a price nor reward\" (Isa 45:13). [This scripture speaks of\nCyrus, a type of Christ.]\n\nThis, I say, is the manner of Jesus Christ with men; he pleads, he\nsues in forma pauperis, gratis, and of mere compassion; and hence\nit is that you have his clients give him thanks; for that is all\nthe poor can give. \"I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;\nyea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at\nthe right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn\nhis soul\" (Psa 109:30,31).\n\nThey know but little that talk of giving to Christ, except they mean\nthey would give him blessing and praise. He bids us come freely,\ntake freely, and tells us that he will give and do freely (Rev\n22:17; 21:6). Let him have that which is his own-to wit, thyself;\nfor thou art the price of his blood. David speaks very strangely\nof giving to God for mercy bestowed on him; I call it strangely,\nbecause indeed it is so to reason. \"What,\" says he, \"shall I render\nto the Lord for all his benefits? I will take the cup of salvation,\nand call upon the name of the Lord\" for more (Psa 116:12, 13).\nGod has no need of thy gift, nor Christ of thy bribe, to plead thy\ncause; take thankfully what is offered, and call for more; that\nis the best giving to God. God is rich enough; talk not then of\ngiving, but of receiving, for thou art poor. Be not too high, nor\nthink thyself too good to live by the alms of heaven; and since\nthe Lord Jesus is willing to serve thee freely, and to maintain\nthy right to heaven against thy foe, to the saving of thy soul,\nwithout price or reward, \"let the peace of God rule in your hearts,\nto the which also ye are called,\" as is the rest of \"the body,\nand be ye thankful\" (Col 3:15). This, then, is the privilege of a\nChristian-\"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous\"; one that pleadeth the cause of his people against those\nthat rise up against them, of his love, pity, and mere good-will.\nLord, open the eyes of dark readers, of disconsolate saints, that\nthey may see who is for them, and on what terms!\n\nFourth Objection. But if Christ doth once begin to plead for me,\nand shall become mine Advocate, he will always be troubled with me,\nunless I should, of myself, forsake him; for I am ever in broils\nand suits of law, action after action is laid upon me, and I am\nsometimes ten times in a day summoned to answer my doings before\nGod.\n\nAnswer. Christ is not an Advocate to plead a cause or two; nor to\ndeliver the godly from an accusation or two. \"He delivereth Israel\nout of all his troubles\" (Psa 25:22; II Sam 22:28); and chooses\nto be an Advocate for such; therefore, the godly of old did use to\nmake, from the greatness of their troubles, and the abundance of\ntheir troublers, an argument to the Lord Christ to send and lend\nthem help-\"Have mercy upon me,\" saith David; \"consider my trouble\nwhich I suffer of them that hate me\" (Psa 9:13). And again, \"Many\nare they that rise up against me; many there be which say of my soul,\nThere is no help for him in God\" (Psa 3:1,2). Yea the troubles of\nthis man were so many and great, that his enemies began to triumph\nover him, saying, \"There is no help for him in God.\" But could he\nnot deliver him, or did the Lord forsake him? No, no; \"Thou hast\nsmitten,\" saith he, \"all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou\nhast broken the teeth of the ungodly.\" And as he delivereth them\nfrom their troublers, so also he pleadeth all their causes; \"O\nLord,\" saith the church, \"thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul;\nthou hast redeemed my life\" (Lam 3:58). Mark, troubled Christian,\nthou sayest thou hast been arrested ofttimes in a day, and as often\nsummoned to appear at God's bar, there to answer to what shall be\nlaid to thy charge. And here, for thy encouragement, thou readest\nthat the church hath an Advocate that pleadeth the causes of\nher soul; that is, all her causes, to deliver her. He knows that,\nso long as we are in this world, we are subject to temptation and\nweakness, and through them made guilty of many bad things; wherefore,\nhe hath prepared himself to our service, and to abide with the\nFather, an Advocate for us. As Solomon saith of a man of great\nwrath, so it may be said of a man of great weakness, and the best\nof saints are such-he must be delivered again and again, (Prov\n19:19); yea, \"many a time,\" saith David, \"did he deliver them,\"\n(Psa 106:43); to wit, more than once or twice; and he will do so\nfor thee, if thou entertain him to be thine Advocate. Thou talkest\nof leaving him, but then whither wilt thou go? All else are vain\nthings, things that cannot profit; and he will not forsake his people,\n(I Sam 12:20-23), \"though their land be filled with sin against\nthe Holy One of Israel\" (Jer 51:5). I know the modest saint is\napt to be abashed to think what a troublesome one he is, and what\na make-work he has been in God's house all his days; and let him\nbe filled with holy blushing; but let him not forsake his Advocate.\n\n[THE USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\nSEVENTHLY, Having thus spoken to these objections, let us now come\nto make some use of the whole. And,\n\nUse First. I would exhort the children to consider the dignity that\nGod hath put upon Jesus Christ their Saviour; for by how much God\nhath called his Son to offices and places of trust, by so much he\nhath heaped dignities upon him. It is said of Mordecai, that he was\nnext to the king Ahasuerus. And what then? Why, then the greatness\nof Mordecai, and his high advance, must be written in the book of\nthe Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia, to the end his\nfame might not be buried nor forgotten, but remembered and talked\nof in generations to come (Esth 10). Why, my brethren, God exalted\nJesus of Nazareth, hath made him the only great one, having given\nhim a name above every name-a name, did I say?-a name and glory\nbeyond all names, and above all names, as doth witness both his being\nset above all, and the many offices which he executeth for God on\nbehalf of his people. It is counted no little addition to honour\nwhen men are not only made near to the king, but also entrusted\nwith most, if not almost with all the most weighty affairs of the\nkingdom. Why, this is the dignity of Christ; he is, it is true,\nthe natural Son of God, and so high, and one that abounds with\nhonour. But this is not all; God has conferred upon him, as man, all\nthe most mighty honours of heaven; he hath made him Lord Mediator\nbetwixt him and the world. This in general. And particularly, he\nhath called him to be his High Priest for ever, and hath sworn he\nshall not be changed for another (Heb 7:21-24). He hath accepted\nof his offering once for ever, counting that there is wholly enough\nin what he did once \"to perfect for ever them that are sanctified\";\nto wit, set apart to glory (Heb 10:11-14).\n\nHe is Captain-general of all the forces that God hath in heaven and\nearth, the King and Commander of his people (ch. 9:25, 28). He is\nLord of all, and made \"head over all things to the church,\" and is\nour Advocate with the Father (Eph 1:22). O, the exaltation of Jesus\nChrist! Let Christians, therefore, in the first place, consider\nthis. Nor can it be but profitable to them, if withal they consider\nthat all this trust and honour is put and conferred upon him in\nrelation to the advantage and advancement of Christians. If Christians\ndo but consider the nearness that is betwixt Christ and them, and,\nwithal, consider how he is exalted, it must needs be matter of\ncomfort to them. He is my flesh and my bone that is exalted; he\nis my friend and brother that is thus set up and preferred. It was\nsomething to the Jews when Mordecai was exalted to honour; they had,\nthereby, ground to rejoice and be glad, for that one of themselves\nwas made lord-chief by the king, and the great governor of the land,\nfor the good of his kindred. True, when a man thinks of Christ as\nsevered from him, he sees but little to his comfort in Christ's\nexaltation; but when he looks upon Christ, and can say, My Saviour,\nmy Priest, or the chief Bishop of my soul, then he will see much in\nhis being thus promoted to honour. Consider, then, of the glories\nto which God has exalted our Saviour, in that he hath made him so\nhigh. It is comely, also, when thou speakest of him, that thou name\nhis name with some additional title, thereby to call thy mind to\nthe remembrance, and so to the greater reverence of the person of\nthy Jesus; as, our Lord Jesus, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,\n\"the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus\" (II\nPeter 2:20; Heb 3:1, &c). Men write themselves by their titles; as,\nJohn, earl of such a place, Anthony, earl of such a place, Thomas,\nlord, &c. It is common, also, to call men in great places by their\ntitles rather than by their names; yea, it also pleaseth such great\nones well; as, My lord high chancellor of England, My lord privy\nseal, My lord high admiral, &c. And thus should Christians make\nmention of Jesus Christ our Lord, adding to his name some of his\ntitles of honour; especially since all places of trust and titles\nof honour conferred on him are of special favour to us. I did\nuse to be much taken with one sect of Christians; for that it was\nusually their way, when they made mention of the name of Jesus, to\ncall him \"The blessed King of Glory.\" Christians should do thus;\nit would do them good; for why doth the Holy Ghost, think you, give\nhim all these titles but that we should call him by them, and so\nmake mention of him one to another; for the very calling of him by\nthis or that title, or name, belonging to this or that office of\nhis, giveth us occasion, not only to think of him as exercising\nthat office, but to inquire, by the Word, by meditation, and one of\nanother, what there is in that office and what, by his exercising\nof that, the Lord Jesus profiteth his church.\n\nHow will men stand for that honour that, by superiors, is given to\nthem, expecting and using all things; to wit, actions and carriages,\nso as that thereby their grandeur may be maintained; and saith Christ,\n\"Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am\" (John\n13:13). Christ Jesus our Lord would have us exercise ourselves in\nthe knowledge of his glorious offices and relative titles, because\nof the advantage that we get by the knowledge of them, and the\nreverence of, and love to, him that they beget in our hearts. \"That\ndisciple,\" saith the text, \"whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It\nis the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he\ngirt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast\nhimself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little\nship\": to wit, to shore, to wait upon their Lord (John 21). The\nvery naming of him under the title of Lord, bowed their hearts\nforthwith to come with joint readiness to wait upon him. Let this\nalso teach us to distinguish Christ's offices and titles, not to\nconfound them, for he exerciseth those offices, and beareth those\ntitles, for great reason, and to our commodity. Every circumstance\nrelating both to Christ's humiliation and exaltation ought to be\nduly weighed by us, because of that mystery of God, and of man's\nredemption that is wrapped therein; for as there was not a pin,\nnor a loop, nor a tack in the tabernacle but had in it use of\ninstruction to the children of Israel, so there is not any part,\nwhether more near or more remote to Christ's suffering and exaltation,\nbut is, could we get into it, full of spiritual advantage to us.\n\nTo instance the water that came out of Christ's side, a thing\nlittle taken notice of either by preachers or hearers, and yet John\nmakes it one of the witnesses of the truth of our redemption, and\na confirmation of the certainty of that record that God, to the\nworld, hath given of the sufficiency that is in his Son to save\n(John 19:34; I John 3:5-9; 5:5-9; I John 4:9-12).\n\nWhen I have considered that the very timing of Scripture expressions,\nand the season of administering ordinances, have been argumentative\nto the promoting of the faith and way of justification by Christ,\nit has made think that both myself and most of the people of God\nlook over the Scriptures too slightly, and take too little notice\nof that or of those many honours that God, for our good, has\nconferred upon Christ. Shall he be called a King, a Priest, a Prophet,\na Sacrifice, an Altar, a Captain, a Head, a Husband, a Father, a\nFountain, a Door, a Rock, a Lion, a Saviour, &c., and shall we not\nconsider these things? And shall God to all these add, moreover, that\nhe is an Advocate, and shall we take no notice thereof, or jumble\nthings so together, that we lose some of his titles and offices;\nor so be concerned with one as not to think we have need of the\nbenefit of the rest? Let us be ashamed thus to do or think, and let\nus give to him that is thus exalted the glory due unto his name.\n\nUse Second. As we should consider the titles and offices of Christ\nin general, so we should consider this of his being an Advocate\nin particular; for this is one of the reasons which induced the\napostle to present him here under that very notion to us-namely,\nthat we should have faith about it, and consider of it to our\ncomfort-\"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus\nChrist the righteous.\" \"An advocate\"-an advocate, as I said, is\none that hath power to plead for another in this, or that, or any\ncourt of judicature. Be much therefore in the meditation of Christ,\nas executing of this his office for thee, for many advantages will\ncome to thee thereby. As,\n\n1. This will give thee to see that thou art not forsaken when\nthou hast sinned; and this has not in it a little relief only, but\nyieldeth consolation in time of need. There is nothing that we are\nmore prone unto than to think we are forsaken when we have sinned,\nwhen for this very thing-to wit, to keep us from thinking so,\nis the Lord Jesus become our Advocate-\"If any man sin, we have\nan Advocate.\" Christian, thou that hast sinned, and that with the\nguilt of thy sin art driven to the brink of hell, I bring thee news\nfrom God-thou shalt not die, but live, for thou hast \"an Advocate\nwith the Father.\" Let this therefore be considered by thee, because\nit yieldeth this fruit.\n\n2. The study of this truth will give thee ground to take courage to\ncontend with the devil concerning the largeness of grace by faith,\nsince thy Advocate is contending for thee against him at the bar\nof God. It is a great encouragement for a man to hold up his head\nin the country, when he knows he has a special friend at court.\nWhy, our Advocate is a friend at court, a friend there ready to\ngive the onset to Satan, come he when he will. \"We have an Advocate\nwith the Father\"; an Advocate, or one to plead against Satan for\nus.\n\n3. This consideration will yield relief, when, by Satan's abuse of\nsome other of the offices of Christ, thy faith is discouraged and\nmade afraid. Christ as a prophet pronounces many a dreadful sentence\nagainst sin; and Christ as a king is of power to execute them; and\nSatan as an enemy has subtlety enough to abuse both these, to the\nalmost utter overthrow of the faith of the children of God. But\nwhat will he do with him as he is an Advocate? Will he urge that\nhe will plead against us? He cannot; he has no such office. \"Will\nhe plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put\nstrength into me\"(Job 23:6). Wherefore Satan doth all he may to\nkeep thee ignorant of this office; for he knows that as Advocate,\nwhen he is so apprehended, the saints are greatly relieved by him,\neven by a believing thought of that office.\n\n4. This consideration, or the consideration of Christ as exercising of\nthis office, will help thee to put by that visor wherewith Christ\nby Satan is misrepresented to thee, to the weakening and affrighting\nof thee. There is nothing more common among saints than thus to\nbe wronged by Satan; for as he will labour to fetch fire out of\nthe offices of Christ to burn us, so to present him to us with so\ndreadful and so ireful a countenance, that a man in temptation,\nand under guilt, shall hardly be able to lift up his face to God.\nBut now, to think really that he is my Advocate, this heals all!\nPut a visor upon the face of a father, and it may perhaps for a\nwhile fright the child; but let the father speak, let him speak in\nhis own fatherly dialect to the child, and the visor is gone, if\nnot from the father's face, yet from the child's mind; yea, the\nchild, notwithstanding that visor, will adventure to creep into its\nfather's bosom. Why, thus it is with the saints when Satan deludes\nand abuses them by disfiguring the countenance of Christ to their\nview. Let them but hear their Lord speak in his own natural dialect\n(and then he doth so indeed when we hear him speak as an Advocate),\nand their minds are calmed, their thoughts settled, their guilt\nmade to vanish, and their faith to revive.\n\nIndeed, the advocateship of Jesus Christ is not much mentioned in\nthe Word, and because it is no oftener made mention of, therefore\nperhaps it is that some Christians do so lightly pass it over;\nwhen, on the contrary, the rarity of the thing should make it the\nmore admirable; and perhaps it is therefore so little made mention\nof in the Bible, because it should not by the common sort be abused,\nbut is as it were privately dropped in a corner, to be found by them\nthat are for finding relief for their soul by a diligent search of\nthe Scriptures; for Christ in this office of advocateship is only\ndesigned for the child of God, the world hath nothing therewith to\ndo.34 Methinks that which alone is proper to saints, and that which\nby God is peculiarly designed for them, they should be mightily\ntaken withal; the peculiar treasure of kings, the peculiar privilege\nof saints, oh, this should be affecting to us!-why, Christ, as an\nAdvocate, is such. \"Remember me, O Lord,\" said the Psalmist, \"with\nthe favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with\nthy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may\nrejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine\ninheritance\" (Psa 106:4, 5). The Psalmist, you see here, is crying\nout for a share in, and the knowledge of, the peculiar treasure\nof saints; and this of Christ as Advocate is such; wherefore study\nit, and prize it so much the more, this Advocate is ours.\n\n(1.) Study it with reference to its peculiarity. It is for the\nchildren, and nobody else; for the children, little and great.\nThis is children's bread; this is a mess for Benjamin; this is to\nbe eaten in the holy place. Children use to make much of that which,\nby way of specialty, is by their relations bestowed on them-\"And\nNaboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the\ninheritance of my fathers to thee\" (I Kings 21:3). No, truly will\nI not. Why so? Because it was my father's gift, not in common to\nall, but to me in special.\n\n(2.) Study this office in the nature of it; for therein lies the\nexcellency of anything, even in the nature of it. Wrong thoughts of\nthis or that abuses it, and takes its natural glory from it. Take\nheed, therefore, of misapprehending, while thou art seeking to\napprehend Christ as thy Advocate. Men judge of Christ's offices\nwhile they are at too great a distance from them; but \"let them\ncome near,\" says God, \"then let them speak,\" (Isa 41:1); or as\nElihu said to his friends, when he had seen them judge amiss, \"Let\nus choose to us judgment, let us know among ourselves what is\ngood\" (Job 34:4). So say I; study to know, rightly to know, the\nAdvocate-office of Jesus Christ. It is one of the easiest things\nin the world to miss of the nature, while we speak of the name and\noffices of Jesus Christ; wherefore look to it, that thou study the\nnature of the office of his advocateship, of his advocateship for,\nfor so you ought to consider it. There is an Advocate for, not\nagainst, the children of God-\"Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\n(3.) Study this office with reference to its efficacy and prevalency.\nJob says, \"After my words, they spake not again\" (Job 29:22). And\nwhen Christ stands up to plead, all must keep silence before him.\nTrue, Satan had the first word, but Christ the last, in the business\nof Joshua, and such a last as brought the poor man off well, though\n\"clothed with filthy garments\" (Zech 3). Satan must be speechless\nafter a plea of our Advocate, how rampant soever he is afore; or as\nElihu has it, \"They were amazed; they answered no more; they left\noff speaking.\" Shall he that speaks in righteousness give place,\nand he who has nothing but envy and deceit be admitted to stand\nhis ground? Behold, the angels cover their faces when they speak\nof his glory, how then shall not Satan bend before him? In the days\nof his humiliation, he made him cringe and creep, how much more,\nthen, now he is exalted to glory, to glory to be an Advocate, an\nAdvocate for his people! \"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with\nthe Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\n(4.) Study the faithfulness of Christ in his execution of this\noffice, for he will not fail nor forsake them that have entertained\nhim for their Advocate: \"He will thoroughly plead their cause\" (Jer\n50:34). Faithful and true, is one of his titles; and you shall\nbe faithfully served by him; you may boldly commit your cause unto\nhim, nor shall the badness of it make him fail, or discourage him\nin his work; for it is not the badness of a cause that can hinder\nhim from prevailing, because he hath wherewith to answer for all\nthy sins, and a new law to plead by, through which he will make\nthee a conqueror. He is also for sticking to a man to the end, if\nhe once engages for him (John 13:1, 2). He will threaten and love,\nhe will chastise and love, he will kill and love, and thou shalt\nfind it so. And he will make this appear at the last; and Satan\nknows it is so now, for he finds the power of his repulses while\nhe pleadeth for him at the bar against him. And all this is in very\nfaithfulness.\n\n(5.) Study also the need that thou hast of a share in the execution\nof the advocateship of Jesus Christ. Christians find that they have\nneed of washing in the blood of Christ, and that they have need\nof being clothed with the righteousness of Christ; they also find\nthat they have need that Christ should make intercession for them,\nand that by him, of necessity, they must approach God, and present\ntheir prayers and services to him; but they do not so well see\nthat they need that Christ should also be their Advocate. And the\nreason thereof is this: they forget that their adversary makes it\nhis business to accuse them before the throne of God; they consider\nnot the long scrolls and many crimes wherewith he chargeth them in\nthe presence of the angels of God. I say, this is the cause that\nthe advocateship of Christ is so little considered in the churches;\nyea, many that have been relieved by that office of his, have not\nunderstood what he has thereby done for them. But perhaps this is\nto be kept from many till they come to behold his face, and till\nall things shall be revealed, that Christ might have glory given him\nin the next world for doing of that for them which they so little\nthought of in this. But do not thou be content with this ignorance,\nbecause the knowledge of his advocating it for thee will yield thee\npresent relief. Study, therefore, thine own weakness, the holiness\nof the judge, the badness of thy cause, the subtlety, malice, and\nrage, of thine enemy; and be assured that whenever thou sinnest,\nby and by thou art for it accused before God at his judgment seat.\nThese things will, as it were, by way of necessity, instill into\nthy heart the need that thou hast of an advocate, and will make thee\nlook as to the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to justify\nthee, so to Christ as an Advocate to plead thy cause, as did holy\nJob in his distresses (Job 16:21).\n\nUse Third. Is Christ Jesus not only a priest of, and a King over,\nbut an Advocate for his people? Let this make us stand and wonder,\nand be amazed at his humiliation and condescension. We read of his\nhumiliation on earth when he put himself into our flesh, took upon\nhim our sins, and made them as his own unto condemnation and death.\nAnd to be an advocate is an office reproachful to the malicious,\nif any man be such an one, for those that are base and unworthy.\nYea, and the higher and more honourable the person is that pleads\nfor such, the more he humbles himself. The word doth often in effect\naccount him now in heaven as a servant for us, and acts of service\nare acts of condescension; and I am sure some acts of service have\nmore of that in them than some; and I think when all things are\nconsidered, that Christ neither doth nor can do anything for us\nthere, of a more condescending nature, than to become our Advocate.\nTrue, he glories in it; but that doth not show that the work is\nexcellent in itself. It is also one of his titles of honour; but\nthat is to show how highly God esteems of, and dignifies all his\nacts; and though this shall tend at last to the greatening of his\nhonour and glory in his kingdom, yet the work itself is amazingly\nmean.\n\nI speak after the manner of men. It is accounted so in this world.\nHow ignoble and unrespectful doth a man make himself, especially to\nhis enemy, when he undertakes to plead a bad cause, if it happeneth\nto be the cause of the base and unworthy! And I am sure we are,\nevery one, so in ourselves, for whom he is become an Advocate with\nthe Father. True, we are made worthy in him, but that is no thanks\nto us; as to ourselves and our cause, both are bad enough. And let\nus now leave off disputing, and stand amazed at his condescension;\n\"Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven\" (Psa\n113:6). And men of old did use to wonder to think that God should\nso much stoop, as to open his eyes to look upon man, or once so much\nas to mind him (Job 7:17; 14:1-3; Psa 8:4; 144:3, 4). And if these\nbe acts that speak a condescension, what will you count of Christ's\nstanding up as an Advocate to plead the cause of his people? Must\nnot that be much more so accounted? O, the condescension of Christ\nin heaven! While cavillers quarrel at such kind of language, let\nthe saints stay themselves and wonder at it, and be so much the\nmore affected with his grace. The persons are base, the crimes are\nbase, with which the persons are charged; wherefore one would think\nthat has but the reason to think, that it is a great condescension\nof Christ, now in heaven, to take upon him to be an Advocate for\nsuch a people, especially if you consider the openness of this work\nof Christ; for this thing is not done in a corner. This is done in\nopen court.\n\n1. With a holy and just God; for he is the judge of all, and his\neyes are purer than to behold iniquity; yea, his very essence and\npresence is a consuming fire; yet, before and with this God, and\nthat for such a people, Jesus Christ, the King, will be an Advocate.\nFor one mean man to be an Advocate for the base, with one that is\nnot considerable, is not so much; but for Christ to be an Advocate\nfor the base, and for the base, too, under the basest consideration,\nthis is to be wondered at. When Bathsheba, the queen became an\nadvocate for Adonijah unto king Solomon, you see how he flounced at\nher, for that his cause was bad. \"And why,\" saith he, \"dost thou\nask Abishag for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also\" (I Kings\n2:16-23). I told you before, that to be an advocate did run one\nupon hazards of reproach; and it may easily be thought that the\nqueen did blush, when, from the king, her son, she received such a\nrepulse; nor do we hear any more of her being an advocate; I believe\nshe had enough of this. But oh! This Christ of God, who himself is\ngreater that Solomon, he is become an Advocate, \"an Advocate with\nthe Father,\" who is the eternally just, and holy, and righteous\nGod; and that for a people, with respect to him, far worse than\ncould be Adonijah in the eyes of his brother Solomon. Majesty and\njustice are dreadful in themselves, and much more so when approached\nby any, especially when the cause, as to matter of fact, is bad,\nthat the man is guilty of who is concerned in the advocateship of\nhis friend; and yet Jesus Christ is still an Advocate for us, \"an\nAdvocate with the Father.\"\n\n2. Consider, also, before whom Jesus Christ doth plead as an\nAdvocate, and that is before, or in the presence and observation\nof, all the heavenly host; for whilst Christ pleadeth with God for\nhis people, all the host of heaven stand by on the right hand and\non the left (Matt 10:32). And though as yet there may seem to be\nbut little in this consideration, yet Christ would have us know, and\naccount it an infinite kindness of his to us that he will confess,\nand not be ashamed of us before the angels of his Father (Mark 8:38).\nAngels are holy and glorious creatures, and, in some respect, may\nhave a greater knowledge of the nature and baseness of sin than we\nwhile here are capable of; and so may be made to stand and wonder\nwhile the Advocate pleads with God for a people, from head to foot,\nclothed therewith. But Christ will not be ashamed to stand up for\nus before them, though they know how bad we are, and what vile\nthings we have done. Let this, therefore, make us wonder.\n\n3. Add to these, how unconcerned ofttimes those are with themselves,\nand their own desolate condition, for whom Christ, as an Advocate,\nlaboureth in heaven with God. Alas! The soul is as far off of knowing\nwhat the devil is doing against it at God's bar as David was when\nSaul was threatening to have his blood, while he was hid in the\nfield (I Sam 20:26-34). But, O true Jonathan! How didst thou plead\nfor David! Only here thou hadst the advantage of our Advocate,\nthou hadst a good cause to plead; for when Saul, thy father, said,\n\"David shall surely die,\" thy reply was, \"Wherefore shall he be\nslain? What [evil] hath he done?\" But Christ cannot say thus when\nhe pleadeth for us at God's bar; nor is our present senselessness\nand unconcernedness about his pleading but an aggravation to our sin.\nPerhaps David was praying while Jonathan was playing the advocate\nfor him before the king his father; but perhaps the saint is sleeping,\nyea, sinning more, whilst Christ is pleading for him in heaven.\nOh! This should greatly affect us; this should make us wonder;\nthis should be so considered by us, as to heighten our souls to\nadmiration of the grace and kindness of Christ.\n\n4. Join to these the greatness and gravity, the highness and glorious\nmajesty of the Man that is become our Advocate. Says the text, it\nis Jesus Christ-\"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.\"\nNow, that he should become an Advocate, that he should embrace such\nan employ as this of his advocateship, let this be a wonderment,\nand so be accounted. But let us come to the fourth use.\n\nUse Fourth. Is it so? Is Jesus Christ the Saviour also become our\nAdvocate? Then let us labour to make that improvement of this doctrine\nas tendeth to strengthen our graces, and us, in the management of\nthem. Indeed, this should be the use that we should make of all\nthe offices of Christ; but let us, at this time, concern ourselves\nabout this; let, I say, the poor Christian thus expostulate with\nhimself-\n\n1. Is Christ Jesus the Lord mine Advocate with the Father? Then\nawake, my faith, and shake thyself like a giant; stir up thyself,\nand be not faint; Christ is the Advocate of his people, and pleadeth\nthe cause of the poor and needy. And as for sin, which is one great\nstumble to thy actings, O my faith, Christ has not only died for\nthat as a sacrifice, nor only carried his sacrifice unto the Father,\nin the holiest of all, but is there to manage that offering as\nan Advocate, pleading the efficacy and worth thereof before God,\nagainst the devil, for us. Thus, I say, we should strengthen our\nfaith; for faith has to do not only with the Word, but also with\nthe offices of Christ. Besides, considering how many the assaults\nare that are made upon our faith, we find all little enough to\nsupport it against all the wiles of the devil.\n\nChristians too little concern themselves, as I have said, with the\noffices of Jesus Christ; and therefore their knowledge of him is\nso little, and their faith in him so weak. We are bid to have our\nconversation in heaven, and then a man so hath, when he is there,\nin his spirit, by faith, observing how the Lord Jesus doth exercise\nhis offices there for him. Let us often, by faith, go to the bar\nof God, there to hear our Advocate plead our cause; we should often\nhave our faith to God's judgment-seat, because we are concerned\nthere; there we are accused of the devil, there we have our crimes\nlaid open, and there we have our Advocate to plead; and this is\nsuggested in the text, for it saith, \"We have an Advocate with the\nFather\"; therefore, thither our faith should go for help and relief\nin the day of our straits. I say, we should have our faith to God's\njudgment-seat, and show it there, by the glass of our text,35 what\nSatan is doing against, and the Lord Jesus for, our souls. We should\nalso show it how the Lord Jesus carries away every cause from the\ndevil, and from before the judgment-seat, to the comfort of the\nchildren, the joy of angels, and the shame of the enemy. This\nwould strengthen and support our faith indeed, and would make us\nmore able than, for the most part, we are to apply the grace of God\nto ourselves, and hereafter to give more strong repulses to Satan.\nIt is easy with a man, when he knows that his advocate has overthrown\nhis enemy at the King's Bench bar or Court of Common Pleas, less\nto fear him the next time he sees him, and more boldly to answer\nhim when he reneweth his threats on him. Let faith, then, be\nstrengthened, from its being exercised about the advocateship of\nJesus Christ.\n\n2. As we should make use of Christ's advocateship for the\nstrengthening of our faith, so we should also make use thereof to\nthe encouraging us to prayer. As our faith is, so is our prayer;\nto wit, cold, weak, and doubtful, if our faith be so. When faith\ncannot apprehend that we have access to the Father by Christ, or\nthat we have an Advocate, when charged before God for our sins by\nthe devil, then we flag and faint in our prayer; but when we begin\nto take courage to believe-and then we do so when most clearly\nwe apprehend Christ-then we get up in prayer. And according as a\nman apprehends Christ in his undertakings and offices, so he will\nwrestle with and supplicate God. As, suppose a man believes that\nChrist died for his sins; why, then, he will plead that in prayer\nwith God. Suppose, also, that a man understands that Christ rose\nagain for his justification; why, then, he will also plead that in\nprayer; but if he knows no more, no further will he go. But when he\nshall know that there is also for him an Advocate with the Father,\nand that that Advocate is Jesus Christ; and when the glory of this\noffice of Christ shall shine in the face of this man's soul; oh,\nthen, he takes courage to pray with that courage he had not before;\nyea, then is his faith so supported and made strong, that his prayer\nis more fervent, and importuning abundance. So that, I say, the\nknowledge of the advocateship of Christ is very useful to strengthen\nour graces; and, as of graces in general, so of faith and prayer in\nparticular. Wherefore, our wisdom is, so to improve this doctrine\nthat prayer may be strengthened thereby.\n\n3. As we should make use of this doctrine to strengthen faith and\nprayer, so we should make use of it to keep us humble; for the more\noffices Christ executeth for us with the Father, the greater sign\nthat we are bad; and the more we see our badness, the more humble\nshould we be. Christ gave for us the price of blood; but that is\nnot all; Christ as a Captain has conquered death and the grave for\nus, but that is not all: Christ as a Priest intercedes for us in\nheaven; but that is not all. Sin is still in us, and with us, and\nmixes itself with whatever we do, whether what we do be religious\nor civil; for not only our prayers and our sermons, our hearings\nand preaching, and so; but our houses, our shops, our trades, and\nour beds, are all polluted with sin. Nor doth the devil, our night\nand day adversary, forbear to tell our bad deeds to our Father,\nurging that we might for ever be disinherited for this. But what\nshould we now do, if we had not an Advocate; yea, if we had not\none who would plead in forma pauperis; yea, if we had not one that\ncould prevail, and that would faithfully execute that office for\nus? Why, we must die. But since we are rescued by him, let us, as\nto ourselves, lay our hand upon our mouth, and be silent, and say,\n\"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.\"\nAnd, I say again, since the Lord Jesus is fain to run through so\nmany offices for us before he can bring us to glory, oh! how low,\nhow little, how vile and base in our own eyes should we be.\n\nIt is a shame for a Christian to think highly of himself, since\nChrist is fain to do so much for him, and he again not at all able\nto make him amends; but some, whose riches consist in nothing but\nscabs and lice, will yet have lofty looks. But are not they much to\nblame who sit lifting up of lofty eyes in the house, and yet know\nnot how to turn their hand to do anything so, but that another,\ntheir betters, must come and mend their work? I say, is it not more\nmeet that those that are such, should look and speak, and act as\nsuch that declare their sense of their unhandiness, and their shame,\nand the like, for their unprofitableness? Yea, is it not meet that\nto every one they should confess what sorry ones they are? I am\nsure it should be thus with Christians, and God is angry when it\nis otherwise. Nor doth it become these helpless ones to lift up\nthemselves on high. Let Christ's advocateship therefore teach us\nto be humble.\n\n4. As we should improve this doctrine to strengthen faith, to\nencourage prayer, and keep us humble, so we should make use of it\nto encourage perseverance-that is, to hold on, to hold out to the\nend; for, for all those causes the apostle setteth Christ before us\nas an Advocate. There is nothing more discourages the truly godly\nthan the sense of their own infirmities, as has been hinted all\nalong; consequently, nothing can more encourage them to go on than\nto think that Christ is an Advocate for them. The services, also,\nthat Christ has for us to do in this world are full of difficulty,\nand so apt to discourage: but when a Christian shall come to\nunderstand that-if we do what we can-it is not a failing either in\nmatter or manner that shall render it wholly unserviceable, or give\nthe devil that advantage as to plead thereby to prevail for our\ncondemnation and rejection; but that Christ, by being our Advocate,\nsaves us from falling short, as also from the rage of hell. This\nwill encourage us to hold on, though we do but hobble in all our\ngoings, and fumble in all our doings; for we have Christ for an\nAdvocate in case we sin in the management of any duty-\"If any man\nsin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\nLet us, therefore, go on in all God's ways as well as we can for\nour hearts; and when our foot slips, let us tell God of it, and\nhis mercy in Christ shall hold us up (Psa 84:9-12).\n\nDarkness, and to be shut up in prison, is also a great discouragement\nto us; but our Advocate is for giving us light, and for fetching\nus out of our prison. True, he that Joseph chose to be his Advocate\nwith Pharaoh remembered not Joseph, but forgat him (Gen 40:14, 23);\nbut he that has Jesus Christ to be his Advocate shall be remembered\nbefore God, (Micah 7:8-10).-\"He remembered us in our low estate;\nfor his mercy endureth for ever\" (Psa 136:23). Yea, he will say\nto the prisoners, Show yourselves; and to them that are in the\nprison-house, Go forth. Satan sometimes gets the saints into the\nprison when he has taken them captive by their lusts (Rom 7:23).\nBut they shall not be always there; and this should encourage us\nto go on in godly ways; for \"we must through much tribulation enter\ninto the kingdom of God.\"\n\nObjection. But I cannot pray, says one, therefore how should\nI persevere? When I go to prayer, instead of praying, my mouth is\nstopped. What would you have me do?\n\nAnswer. Well, soul, though Satan may baffle thee, he cannot so\nserve thine Advocate; if thou must not speak for thyself, Christ\nthine Advocate can speak for thee. Lemuel was to open his mouth\nfor the dumb-to wit, for the sons of destruction, and to plead the\ncause of the poor and needy (Prov 31:8, 9). If we knew the grace of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, so as the Word reveals it, we would believe,\nwe would hope, and would, notwithstanding all discouragements, wait\nfor the salvation of the Lord. But there are many things that hinder,\nwherefore faith, prayer, and perseverance, are made difficult things\nunto us-\"But if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,\nJesus Christ the righteous\": and, God \"shall fight for you, and\nyou shall hold your peace,\" was once a good word to me when I could\nnot pray.\n\n5. As we should improve this doctrine for the improvement\nand encouragement of these graces, so we should improve it to the\ndriving of difficulties down before us, to the getting of ground\nupon the enemy-\"Resist the devil,\" drive him back; this is it for\nwhich thy Lord Jesus is an Advocate with God in heaven; and this\nis it for the sake of which thou art made a believer on earth (I\nPeter 5:9; Heb 12:4). Wherefore has God put this sword, WE HAVE\nAN ADVOCATE, into thy hand, but to fight thy way through the world?\n\"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,\" and say,\n\"I will go in the strength of the Lord God.\" And since I have an\nAdvocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, I will not\ndespair, though \"the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about\"\n(Psa 49:5).\n\nUse Fifth. Doth Jesus Christ stand up to plead for us with God, to\nplead with him for us against the devil? Let this teach us to stand\nup to plead for him before men, to plead for him against the enemies\nof his person and gospel. This is but reasonable; for if Christ\nstands up to plead for us, why should not we stand up to plead for\nhim? He also expects this at our hands, saying, \"Who will rise up\nfor me against the evil doers? Who will stand up for me against the\nworkers of iniquity?\" (Psa 94:16). The apostle did it, and counted\nhimself engaged to do it, where he saith, he preached \"the gospel\nof God with much contention\" (I Thess 2:2). Nor is this the duty of\napostles or preachers only, but every child of God should \"earnestly\ncontend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints\"\n(Jude 3).\n\nAnd, as I said, there is reason why we should do this; he standeth\nfor us. And if we, (1.) Consider the disparity of persons to plead,\nit will seem far more reasonable. He stands up to plead with God,\nwe stand up to plead with men. The dread of God is great, yea,\ngreater than the dread of men. (2.) If we consider the persons\npleaded for. He pleads for sinners, for the inconsiderable, vile,\nand base; we plead for Jesus, for the great, holy, and honourable.\nIt is an honour for the poor to stand up for the great and mighty;\nbut what honour is it for the great to plead for the base? Reason,\ntherefore, requireth that we stand up to plead for him, though there\ncan be but little rendered why he should stand up to plead for us.\n(3.) He standeth up to plead for us in the most holy place, though\nwe are vile; and why should we not stand up for him in this vile\nworld, since he is holy? (4.) He pleads for us, though our cause\nis bad; why should not we plead for him, since his cause is good?\n(5.) He pleads for us, against fallen angels; why should we not\nplead for him against sinful vanities? (6.) He pleads for us to\nsave our souls; why should not we plead for him to sanctify his\nname? (7.) He pleads for us before the holy angels; why should\nnot we plead for him before princes? (8.) He is not ashamed of us,\nthough now in heaven; why should we be ashamed of him before this\nadulterous and sinful generation? (9.) He is unwearied in his pleading\nfor us; why should we faint and be dismayed while we plead for him?\n\nMy brethren, is it not reasonable that we should stand up for him\nin this world? Yea, is it not reason that in all things we should\nstudy his exaltation here, since he in all things contrives our\nhonour and glory in heaven? A child of God should study in every\nof his relations to serve the Lord Christ in this world, because\nChrist, by the execution of every one of his offices, seeks our\npromotion hereafter. If these be not sufficient arguments to bow us\nto yield up our members, ourselves, our whole selves to God, that\nwe may be servants of righteousness unto him; yea, if by these and\nsuch like we are not made willing to stand up for him before men,\nit is a sign that there is but little, if any, of the grace of God\nin our hearts.\n\nYea, further, that we should have now at last in reserve Christ\nas authorized to be our Advocate to plead for us; for this is the\nlast of his offices for us while we are here, and is to be put in\npractice for us when there are more than ordinary occasions. This\nis to help, as we say, at a dead lift, even then when a Christian\nis taken for a captive, or when he sinks in the mire where is no\nstanding, or when he is clothed with filthy garments, or when the\ndevil doth desperately plead against us our evil deeds, or when\nby our lives we have made our salvation questionable, and have\nforfeited our evidences for heaven. And why then should not we\nhave also in reserve for Christ? And when profession and confession\nwill not do, when loss of goods and a prison will not do, when loss\nof country and of friends will not do, then to bring it in, then\nto bring it in as the reserve, and as that which will do-to wit,\nwillingly to lay down our lives for his name; and since he doth\nhis part without grudging for us, let us do ours with rejoicing\nfor him (Isa 24:15; John 21:19).\n\nUse Sixth. Doth Jesus Christ stand up to plead for us, and that of\nhis mere grace and love? Then this should teach Christians to be\nwatchful and wary how they sin against God. This inference seems to\nrun retrograde; but whoso duly considers it, will find it fairly\nfetched from the premises. Christianity teaches ingenuity, 36\nand aptness to be sensible of kindnesses, and doth instruct us to\na loathness to be overhard upon him from whom we have all at free\ncost. \"Shall we-sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Shall we do\nevil that good may come? God forbid. Shall we sin because we are\nnot under the law, but under grace? God forbid\" (Rom 6:1, 2, 15).\n\nIt is the most disingenuous thing in the world not to care how\nchargeable we are to that friend that bestows all upon us gratis.\nWhen Mephibosheth had an opportunity to be yet more chargeable to\nDavid, he would not, because he had his life and his all from the\nmere grace of the king (II Sam 19:24-28). Also David thought it\ntoo much for all his household to go to Absalom's feast, because it\nwas made of free cost. Why, Christ is our Advocate of free cost,\nwe pay him neither fee nor income for what he doth; nor doth he\ndesire aught of us, but to accept of his free doing for us thankfully;\nwherefore let us put him upon this work as little as may be, and\nby so doing we shall show ourselves Christians of the right make\nand stamp. We count him but a fellow of a very gross spirit that\nwill therefore be lavishing of what is his friend's, because it\nis prepared of mere kindness for him; Esau himself was loath to do\nthis; and shall Christians be disingenuous?\n\nI dare say, if Christians were sober, watchful, and of a more\nself-denying temper, they need not put the Lord Jesus to that to\nwhich for the want of these things they do so often put him. I know\nhe is not unwilling to serve us, but I know also that the love of\nChrist should constrain us to live not to ourselves, but to him\nthat loved us, that died for us, and rose again (II Cor 5:14, 15).\nWe shall do that which is naught too much, even then when we watch\nand take care what we can to prevent it. Our flesh, when we do our\nutmost diligence to resist, it will defile both us and our best\nperformances. We need not lay the reins on its neck and say, What\ncare we? the more sin the more grace, and the more we shall see\nthe kindness of Christ, and what virtue there is in his Advocate's\noffice to save us. And should there be any such here, I would\npresent them with a scripture or two; the first is this, \"Do ye\nthus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?\" (Deut 32:6).\nAnd if this gentle check will not do, then read the other, Shall\nwe say, Let us do evil that good may come? their damnation is just\n(Rom 3:8). Besides, as nothing so swayeth with us as love, so there\nis nothing so well pleasing to God as it. Let a man love, though he\nhas opportunity to do nothing, it is accepted of the God of heaven.\nBut where there is no love, let a man do what he will, it is not\nat all regarded (I Cor 13:1-3). Now to be careless and negligent,\nand that from a supposed understanding of the grace of Christ in\nthe exercise of his advocateship for us in heaven, is as clear sign\nas can be, that in thy heart there is no love to Christ, and that\nconsequently thou art just a nothing, instead of being a Christian.\nTalk, then, what thou wilt, and profess never so largely, Christ is\nno Advocate of thine, nor shalt thou, thou so continuing, be ever\nthe better for any of those pleas that Christ, at God's bar, puts\nin against the devil, for his people.\n\nChristians, Christ Jesus is not unwilling to lay out himself for\nyou in heaven, nor to be an Advocate for you in the presence of his\nFather; but yet he is unwilling that you should render him evil\nfor good; I say, that you should do so by your remissness and\ncarelessness for want of such a thinking of things as may affect\nyour hearts therewith. It would be more comely in you, would please\nhim better, would agree with your profession, and also better would\nprove you gracious, to be found in the power and nature of these\nconclusions. \"How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer\ntherein?\" (Rom 6:2).\" If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things\nwhich are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God;\nfor ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When\nChrist, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear\nwith him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon\nthe earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil\nconcupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things'\nsake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience\" (Col\n3:1-6).\n\nI say, it would be more comely for Christians to say, We will not\nsin because God will pardon; we will not commit iniquity because\nChrist will advocate for us. \"I write unto you that ye sin not;\nthough if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.\" Why,\nthe brute would conclude, I will not do so, because my master\nwill beat me; I will do thus, for then my master will love me. And\nChristians should be above [such] men, brutish men.\n\nAnd for a conclusion as to this, let me present you with three\nconsiderations-(1.) Know that it is the nature of grace to draw holy\narguments to move to goodness of life from the love and goodness of\nGod, but not thence to be remiss (II Cor 5:14). (2.) Know therefore\nthat they have no grace that find not these effects of the discoveries\nof the love and goodness of God. (3.) Know also that among all the\nswarms of professors that from age to age make mention of the name\nof Christ, they only must dwell with him in heaven that do part\nfrom iniquity, and are zealous of good works (II Tim 2:19). He gave\nhimself for these (Titus 2:11-14). Not that they were so antecedent\nto this gift. But those that he hath redeemed to himself are thus\nsanctified by the faith of him (Acts 26:18).\n\nUse Seventh. Is it so? Is Jesus Christ an Advocate with the Father for\nus? Then this should encourage strong Christians to tell the weak\nones where, when they are in their temptations and fears through\nsin, they may have one to plead their cause. Thus the apostle doth\nby the text; and thus we should do one to another. Mark, he telleth\nthe weak of an Advocate: \"My little children, I write unto you\nthat ye sin not; though if any man sin, we have an Advocate with\nthe Father.\"\n\nChristians, when they would comfort their dejected brethren, talk\ntoo much at rovers37 or in generals; they should be more at the\nmark: \"A word spoken in season, how good is it?\" I say, Christians\nshould observe and inquire, that they may observe the cause or\nground of their brother's trouble; and having first taken notice\nof that, in the next place consider under which of the offices of\nJesus Christ this sin or trouble has cast this man; and so labour\nto apply Christ in the word of the gospel to him. Sometimes we are\nbid to consider him as an Apostle and High Priest, and sometimes\nas a forerunner and an Advocate. And he has, as was said afore,\nthese divers offices, with others, that we by the consideration\nof him might be relieved under our manifold temptations. This, as\nI said, as I perceive John teaches us here, as he doth a little\nbefore of his being a sacrifice for us; for he presenteth them\nthat after conversion shall sin with Christ as an Advocate with\nthe Father. As who should say, My brethren, are you tempted, are\nyou accused, have you sinned, has Satan prevailed against you? \"We\nhave an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.\"\n\nThus we should do, and deliver our brother from death. There is\nnothing that Satan more desires than to get good men in his sieve\nto sift them as wheat, that if possible he may leave them nothing\nbut bran; no grace, but the very husk and shell of religion. And\nwhen a Christian comes to know this, should Christ as Advocate be\nhid, what could bear him up? But let him now remember and believe\nthat \"we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous,\" and he forthwith conceiveth comfort; for an advocate\nis to plead for me according as has been showed afore, that I may\nbe delivered from the wrath and accusation of my adversary, and\nstill be kept safe under grace.\n\nFurther, by telling of my brother that he hath an Advocate, I put\nthings into his mind that he has not known, or do bring them into\nremembrance which he has forgotten-to wit, that though he hath\nsinned, he shall be saved in a way of justice; for an advocate is\nto plead justice and law, and Christ is to plead these for a saint\nthat has sinned; yea, so to plead them that he may be saved. This\nbeing so, he is made to perceive that by law he must have his sins\nforgiven him; that by justice he must be justified. For Christ\nas an Advocate pleadeth for justice, justice to himself; and this\nsaint is of himself-a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his\nbones.\n\nNor has Satan so good a right to plead justice against us, though\nwe have sinned, that we might be damned, as Christ has to plead\nit, though we have sinned, that we might be saved; for sin cannot\ncry so loud to justice as can the blood of Christ; and he pleads\nhis blood as Advocate, by which he has answered the law; wherefore\nthe law having nothing to object, must needs acquit the man for whom\nthe Lord Jesus pleads. I conclude this with that of the Psalmist,\n\"Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may\ndwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness\nand peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the\nearth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the\nLord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her\nincrease. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in\nthe way of his steps\" (Psa 85:9-13).\n\nUse Eighth. But what is all this to you that are not concerned\nin this privilege? The children, indeed, have the advantage of an\nadvocate; but what is this to them that have none to plead their\ncause? (Jer 30:12, 13); they are, as we say, left to the wide world,\nor to be ground to powder between the justice of God and the sins\nwhich they have committed. This is the man that none but the devil\nseeks after; that is pursued by the law, and sin, and death, and\nhas none to plead his cause. It is sad to consider the plight\nthat such an one is in. His accuser is appointed, yea, ordered to\nbring in a charge against him-\"Let Satan stand at his right hand,\"\nin the place where accusers stand. \"And when he shall be judged, let\nhim be condemned,\" let there be none to plead for his deliverance.\nIf he cries, or offereth to cry out for mercy or forgiveness, \"let\nhis prayer become sin\" (Psa 109:6-7). This is the portion of a\nwicked man: \"terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth\nhim away in the night, the east wind carrieth him away, and he\ndeparteth, and as a storm hurleth him out of his place; for God\nshall cast upon him, and not spare; he would fain flee out of his\nhand. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out\nof his place\" (Job 27:20-23). And what shall this man do? Can he\noverstand the charge, the accusation, the sentence, and condemnation?\nNo, he has none to plead his cause. I remember that somewhere I\nhave read, as I think, concerning one who, when he was being carried\nupon men's shoulders to the grave, cried out as he lay upon the\nbier, I am accused before the just judgment of God; and a while\nafter, I am condemned before the just judgment of God. Nor was this\nman but strict as the religion that was then on foot in the world;\nbut all the religion of the world amounts to no more than nothing.\nI mean as to eternal salvation, if men be denied an Advocate to\nplead their cause with God. Nor can any advocate save Jesus Christ\nthe righteous avail anything at all, because there is none appointed\nbut him to that work, and therefore not to be admitted to enter a\nplea for their client at the bar of God.\n\nObjection. But some may say, There is God's grace, the promise,\nChrist's blood, and his second part of priesthood now in heaven.\nCan none of these severally, nor all of them jointly, save a man\nfrom hell, unless Christ also become our Advocate?\n\nAnswer. All these, his Advocate's office not excluded, are few\nenough, and little enough, to save the saints from hell; for the\nrighteous shall scarcely be saved (I Peter 4:18). There must, then,\nbe the promise, God's grace, Christ's blood, and him to advocate\ntoo, or we cannot be saved. What is the promise without God's grace,\nand what is that grace without a promise to bestow it on us? I say,\nwhat benefit have we thereby? Besides, if the promise and God's\ngrace, without Christ's blood, would have saved us, wherefore\nthen did Christ die? Yea, and again I say, if all these, without\nhis being an Advocate, would have delivered us from all those\ndisadvantages that our sins and infirmities would bring us to and\ninto; surely in vain and to no purpose was Jesus made an Advocate.\nBut, soul, there is need of all; and therefore be not thou offended\nthat the Lord Jesus is of the Father made so much to his, but\nrather admire and wonder that the Father and the Son should be so\nconcerned with so sorry a lump of dust and ashes as thou art. And\nI say again, be confounded to think that sin should be a thing so\nhorrible, of power to pollute, to captivate, and detain us from\nGod, that without all this ado (I would speak with reverence of\nGod and his wisdom) we cannot be delivered from the everlasting\ndestruction that it hath brought upon the children of men.\n\nBut, I say, what is this to them that are not admitted to a privilege\nin the advocate-office of Christ? Whether he is an Advocate or\nno, the case to them is the same. True, Christ as a Saviour is not\ndivided; he that hath him not in all, shall have him in none at\nall of his offices in a saving manner. Therefore, he for whom he\nis not an Advocate, he is nothing as to eternal life.\n\nIndeed, Christ by some of his offices is concerned for the elect,\nbefore by some others of them he is; but such shall have the blessing\nof them all before they come to glory. Nor hath man ground to say\nChrist is here or there mine, before he hath ground to say, he also\nis mine Advocate; though that office of his, as has been already\nshowed, stands in the last place, and comes in as a reserve. But\ncan any imagine that Christ will pray for them as Priest for whom\nhe will not plead as Advocate? or that he will speak for them to\nGod for whom he will not plead against the devil? No, no; they are\nhis own, that he loveth to the end, (John 13:1), to the end of their\nlives, to the end of their sins, to the end of their temptations,\nto the end of their fears, and of the exercise of the rage and\nmalice of Satan against them. To the end may also be understood,\neven until he hath given them the profit and benefit of all his\noffices in their due exercise and administration. But, I say, what\nis all this to them that have him not for their Advocate?\n\nYou may remember that I have already told you that there are several\nwho have not the Lord Jesus for their Advocate-to wit, those that\nare still in their sins, pursuing of their lusts; those that are\nashamed of him before men; and those that are never otherwise but\nlukewarm in their profession. And let us now, for a conclusion,\nmake further inquiry into this matter.\n\nIs it likely that those should have the Lord Jesus for their\nAdvocate to plead their cause; who despise and reject his person,\nhis Word, and ways? or those either who are so far off from sense\nof, and shame for, sin, that it is the only thing they hug and\nembrace? True, he pleadeth the cause of his people both with the\nFather and against the devil, and all the world besides; but open\nprofaneness, shame of good, and without heart or warmth in religion,\nare no characters of his people. It is irrational to think that\nChrist is an Advocate for, or that he pleadeth the cause of such,\nwho, in the self-same hour, and before his enemies, are throwing\ndirt in his face by their profane mouths and unsanctified lives\nand conversations.\n\nIf he pleads as an Advocate for any, he must plead against Satan for\nthem, and so consequently must have some special bottom to ground\nhis plea upon; I say, a bottom better than that upon which the carnal\nman stands; which bottom is either some special relation that this\nman stands in to God, or some special law he hath privilege by, that\nhe may have some ground for an appeal, if need be, to the justice\nand righteousness of God; but none of these things belong to them\nthat are dead in trespasses and sins; they stand in no special\nrelation to God: they are not privileged by the law of grace.\n\nObjection.-But doth not Christ as Advocate plead for his elect,\nthough not called as yet?\n\nAnswer.-He died for all his elect, he prayeth for all his elect\nas a Priest, but as an Advocate he pleadeth only for the children,\nthe called only. Satan objecteth not against God's election, for he\nknows it not; but he objecteth against the called-to wit, whether\nthey be truly godly or no, or whether they ought not to die for\ntheir transgressions (Job 1:9, 10; Zech 3). And for these things\nhe has some colour to frame an accusation against us, and now it\nis time enough for Christ to stand up to plead. I say, for these\nthings he has some colour to frame a plea against us; for there is\nsin and a law of works, and a judge too, that has not respect of\npersons. Now to overthrow this plea of Satan, is Jesus Christ our\nAdvocate; yea, to overthrow it by pleading law and justice; and\nthis must be done with respect to the children only-\"My little\nchildren, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if\nany man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 \"Nulled\"; repealed or annulled.-ED.\n\n2 \"Ingenuity\"; ingenuousness, frankness, sincerity.-ED.\n\n3 How deeply important is this essential doctrine of Christianity-a\npersonal investigation. We must hear and see for ourselves, handle\nthe word of life, and not trust to others, however holy and capable\nthey may appear to be; we must search the Scriptures, and pray\nfor ourselves, or we have not the slightest claim to the name of\nChristian.--ED.\n\n4 The sin here referred to was numbering the people of Israel; see\nI Chronicles 21:1-ED..\n\n5 This is the great mystery of godliness-God manifest in the flesh,\nmaking sinful creatures the members of his own body, and becoming\na sin-offering for them. It is a holy, a heavenly, a soul-comforting\nmystery, which should influence the Christian to an intense hatred\nto sin, as the cause of his Saviour's sufferings; and a still more\nintense love to him, who redeemed us at such a sacrifice.-ED.\n\n6 Altered, by a typographical error, in editions after the author's\ndeath, to \"the heathens beheld.\"-ED.\n\n7 \"Replevy\": a form of law by which goods that are proved to have\nbeen wrongfully seized are re-delivered to the owner.-ED.\n\n8 \"Donator\"; giver, donor; now obsolete.-ED.\n\n9 \"Prevented\"; gone before, so as to be seen. \"Let thy grace, O\nLord, always prevent and follow us.\"-Common Prayer.-ED.\n\n10This may refer to Bunyan's own feelings, which are so passionately\nexpressed in his Grace Abounding, No. 327, when he was dragged\nfrom his home, his wife, and his children, to be shut up in Bedford\njail, for obedience to God. He exclaims, \"My poor blind child, who\nlay nearer my heart than all I had besides, thou must be beaten,\nmust beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities,\nthough I cannot now endure that the wind should blow upon thee. I\nthought this would break my heart to pieces.\"-ED.\n\n11 \"A hank\"; a check, an influence over; obsolete.-ED.\n\n12 \"Entertains his lawyer\"; hires or retains. So Shakespeare-\"Sweet\nlady, entertain him, To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.\"\nGentleman of Verona, Scene IV.-ED.\n\n13 \"Shuff\"; from the old Saxon word schufan, to reject, cast\naway.-ED.\n\n14 \"Supply of thy defects\"; a sufficiency in himself to supply all\nthy defects and deficiencies.-ED.\n\n15 \"Supersedeas\"; a writ to stay proceedings, for reasons expressed\nin it. \"Cavils and motions\"; quibbles or quirks of special pleading,\nand moving a court of law to occasion delay and weary out an honest\nsuitor; much of this nuisance has been abated, but enough remains\nto render a lawsuit uncertain, vexatious, tedious, and expensive.-ED.\n\n16 \"Glaver;\" to wheedle, flatter, or fawn upon; now obsolete.-ED.\n\n17 This sentence at first sight seems obscure. The children's bread\nis the superabounding riches of Divine grace. Satan putting pins\ninto it, may refer to those who profanely pervert the grace of\nGod to evil, by saying, \"Let us do evil, that good may come. Whose\ndamnation is just.\" These are the dogs who are without, but never\nwere within the fold of Christ. (Phil 3:2, Rev 22:15)-ED.\n\n18 Dr. Watts beautifully illustrates this soul-supporting truth in\nhis hymn (116, verse 2):-\"How can I sink with such a prop, As my\neternal God, Who bears the earth's huge pillars up, And spreads\nthe heavens abroad?\"-ED.\n\n19 \"The whole tale\"; the whole number as reckoned and ascertained;\nnothing being lost.-ED.\n\n20 In the first edition of this treatise, this quotation is from\nJoshua 3:4, an error which has been continued through every edition\nto the present one.-ED.\n\n21 \"A demur\"; now called a demurrer, is when a defect or legal\ndifficulty is discovered, which must first be settled by the judge\nbefore the action or proceedings can be carried on.-ED.\n\n22 How consoling a reflection is this to the distressed soul,\n\"Christ never lost a cause.\" \"Him that cometh to me, I will in no\nwise cast out.\" \"They shall never perish; nor shall any pluck them\nout of my hand\" (John 10:28)-ED.\n\n23 \"Nonsuit\"; the giving up a suit upon the discovery of some fatal\nerror or defect in the cause.-ED.\n\n24 There is no night in heaven; it is one eternal day; no need of\nrest or sleep. Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us.-ED.\n\n25 The marginal readings which are found in our venerable version\nof the Bible are very interesting, both to the unlearned and to\nthe scholar. They often throw a light upon the Scripture. For \"and\nmake him honourable,\" see Bishop Patrick and Dr. Gill's annotations.-ED.\n\n26 To draw back from, or in, our dependence upon Christ for salvation,\nis a distinction which every despairing backslider should strive\nto understand. The total abandonment of Christianity is perdition,\nwhile he who is overcome of evil may yet repent to the salvation\nof the soul.-ED.\n\n27 \"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them\nthat fear him.\" He punishes but to restore them in his own time to\nthe paths of peace.-ED.\n\n28 How full of sweet consolation is this spiritual exposition of\nthe Levitical law. It was a type or shadow of good things which were\nto come. Bunyan possessed a heavenly store of these apt illustrations.-ED.\n\n29 \"Branglings\"; noisy quarrels or squabbles. \"The payment of tithes\nis subject to many brangles.\"-Swift. It is now obsolete, and is\nsubstituted by wranglings.-ED.\n\n30 The poor backslider \"is blind and cannot see afar off\"; this\ndoes not affect his title, but is fatal to any present prospect of\nthe enjoyment of his inheritance.-ED.\n\n31 Every sin, however comparatively small, drives us to the mediation\nof Christ, but it is under a sense of great sins that we feel how\nprecious he is as an Advocate.-ED.\n\n32 What can we render to the Lord? is an inquiry perpetually\nfostered by the pride that clings to every believer. The world,\nand all things in it, are his already. We must, as poor trembling\nbeggars, \"take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the\nLord,\"-rely upon his free gift of a full salvation. All must be\ndone for us gratis, or we must perish. Yes, proud sinner, you must\nsue as a pauper, or you can never succeed.-ED.\n\n33 In the form of a pauper, one who has nothing to pay with, but\nis living upon alms.-ED.\n\n34 This Greek word is only once translated \"advocate\" in the New\nTestament; but it is used in the Gospel by John (14, 15, 16), and\ntranslated Comforter, and applied to the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Holy\nGhost is to the Christian [the Greek word ] a monitor or comforter;\nand our ascended Lord is [the Greek word ] the advocate before\nhis Father's throne. Both are our counsel-the Spirit to guide, the\nSaviour to defend, the saints.-ED.\n\n35 The Bible is the only perspective glass by which we can know\nfuturity, and see things that, to carnal eyes, are invisible.-ED.\n\n36 \"Ingenuity\"; ingenuousness, frankness, candour, generosity: now\nobsolete in this sense.-ED.\n\n37 \"Rovers\"; without any definite aim. \"Nature shoots not at\nrovers.\"-Glanville.-ED\n\n***\n\nCHRIST A COMPLETE SAVIOUR:\n\nOR,\n\nTHE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, AND WHO ARE PRIVILEGED IN IT.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\nAdvertisement by the Editor.\n\nHowever strange it may appear, it is a solemn fact, that the heart\nof man, unless prepared by a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of\nsin, rejects Christ as a complete Saviour. The pride of human nature\nwill not suffer it to fall, as helpless and utterly undone, into\nthe arms of Divine mercy. Man prefers a partial Saviour; one who\nhad done so much, that, with the sinner's aid, the work might be\ncompleted. No such were the opinions of John Bunyan; the furnace\nof sharp conviction had burnt up this proud dross; he believed the\ntestimony of Scripture, that from the crown of the head to the soles\nof the feet all nature is corrupted; so that out of the unsanctified\nheart of man proceed evil thoughts, murders, and the sad catalogue\nof crimes which our Lord enumerates, and which defile our best\nefforts after purity of heart and life. No sinner will ever totally\nrely upon the Saviour until he is sensible of his own perishing\nstate; hanging by the brittle thread of life over the yawning gulf\nof perdition; sinking in that sin which will swallow him up in those\nawful torments which await the transgressor; feeling that sin has\nfitted him as stubble for the fire; then it is that the cry proceeds\nfrom his heart, Lord, save, I perish; and then, and not till then,\nare we made willing to receive 'Christ as a complete Saviour' to\nthe uttermost, not of his ability, but of our necessity. This was\nthe subject of all Mr. Bunyan's writings, and, doubtless, of all\nhis preaching. It was to direct sinners to the Lamb of God, who\nalone can take away sin. This little treatise was one of those\nten 'excellent manuscripts' which, at Bunyan's decease, were found\nprepared for the press. It was first published in 1692, by his\nfriends E. Chandler, J. Wilson, and C. Doe.\n\nIt is limited to a subject which is too often lost sight of, because\nit is within the veil--the intercession of Christ as the finishing\nwork of a sinner's salvation. Many persons limit the 'looking unto\nJesus' to beholding him upon the cross, a common popish error; but\nthis is not enough; we must, in our minds, follow him to the unseen\nworld, and thus ascend to a risen Saviour, at the right hand of\nthe Father, making intercession for our daily sins. And he is our\nONLY Intercessor, and it is a rejection of him, for us to seek the\naid of another. Who ever was mad enough to ask Moses to intercede\nfor him, and surely he is as able as Mary or any other saint? To\natone for sin calls for the amazing price of the blood of Christ,\nwho was 'God manifest in the flesh.' He undertook the work by\ncovenant; and all the 'saved' form part of his mystical body; thus\nperfectly obeying the law in him. He poured out his life to open a\nfountain for sin and uncleanness; and as they are liable to pollution\nin their passage through the world, he only is able, and he ever\nliveth, to make intercession for their transgressions. Thus he\nbecomes a complete Saviour, and will crown, with an eternal weight\nof glory, all those that put their trust in him. Beautiful, and\nsoul-softening, and heart-warming thoughts abound in this little\nwork, which cannot fail to make a lasting impression upon the reader.\nBunyan disclaims 'the beggarly art of complimenting' in things of\nsuch solemnity. He describes the heart as unweldable, a remarkable\nexpression, drawn from his father's trade of a blacksmith; nothing\nbut grace can so heat it as to enable the hammer of conviction to\nweld it to Christ; and when thus welded, it becomes one with him.\nThere is hope for a returning backslider in a complete Saviour;\nhe combines the evidence of two men, the coming and the returning\nsinner; he has been, like Jonah, in the belly of hell; his sins,\nlike talking devils, have driven him back to the Saviour. Sin brings\nits own punishment, from which we escape by keeping in the narrow\npath. Good works save us from temporal miseries, which ever follow\nan indulgence in sin; but if we fall, we have an Advocate and\nIntercessor to lift us up; still, if thou lovest thy soul, slight\nnot the knowledge of hell, for that, with the law, are the spurs\nwhich Christ useth to prick souls forward to himself. O gather up\nthy heels and mend thy pace, or those spurs will be in thy sides.\nTake heed, O persecutor; like Saul, thou art exceeding mad, and\nhell is thy bedlam. Take heed of a false faith; none is true but\nthat which is acquired by a kneeling, searching, seeking for truth\nas for hid treasure. Death is God's bailiff, he will seize thee\nwithout warning; but with the saints, the grave's mouth is the\nfinal parting place between grace and sin. Forget not that a good\nimprovement will make your little grace to thrive. Reader, may\nDivine grace indelibly fix these wholesome truths upon our minds.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\nCHRIST A COMPLETE SAVIOUR.\n\n'WHEREFORE HE IS ABLE ALSO TO SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST THAT COME\nUNTO GOD BY HIM, SEEING HE EVER LIVETH TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR\nTHEM.'--HEBREWS 7:25.\n\nThe apostle, in this chapter, presenteth us with two things; that\nis, with the greatness of the person and of the priesthood of our\nLord Jesus.\n\nFirst, He presenteth us with the greatness of his person, in that\nhe preferreth him before Abraham, who is the father of us all;\nyea, in that he preferreth him before Melchisedec, who was above\nAbraham, and blessed him who had the promises.\n\nSecond, As to his priesthood, he showeth the greatness of that, in\nthat he was made a priest, not by the law of a carnal commandment,\nbut by the power of an endless life. Not without, but with an oath,\nby him that said, 'The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a\npriest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec'; wherefore, 'this\nman, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.'\nNow my text is drawn from this conclusion, namely, that Christ\nabideth a priest continually. 'Wherefore he is able also to save\nthem to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever\nliveth to make intercession for them.'\n\nIn the words, I take notice of four things: FIRST, Of the intercession\nof Christ--He maketh intercession. SECOND, Of the benefit of his\nintercession--'Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost,' &c.\nTHIRD, We have also here set before us the persons interested in\nthis intercession of Christ--And they are those 'that come unto\nGod by him.' FOURTH, We have also here the certainty of their\nreaping this benefit by him; to wit, seeing he ever liveth to make\nintercession for them--'Wherefore he is able also to save them\nto the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever\nliveth to make intercession for them.' 1\n\n[I. OF THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.]\n\nFIRST, We will begin with HIS INTERCESSION, and will show you,\nFirst, What that is; Second, For what he intercedes; and, Third,\nWhat is also to be inferred from Christ's making intercession for\nus.\n\nFirst, I begin, then, with the first; that is, to show you what\nintercession is. Intercession is prayer; but all prayer is not\nintercession. Intercession, then, is that prayer that is made by\na third person about the concerns that are between two. And it may\nbe made either to set them at further difference, or to make them\nfriends; for intercession may be made against, as well as for, a\nperson or people. 'Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias?\nhow he maketh intercession to God against Israel.' (Rom 11:2) But\nthe intercession that we are now to speak of is not an intercession\nof this kind, not an intercession against, but an intercession for\na people. 'He ever liveth to make intercession for them.' The high\npriest is ordained for, but not to be against the people. 'Every\nhigh priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things\npertaining to God,' to make reconciliation for the sins of the\npeople; or 'that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.'\n(Heb 5:1) This, then, is intercession; and the intercession of\nChrist is to be between two, between God and man, for man's good.\nAnd it extendeth itself unto these: 1. To pray that the elect may\nbe brought all home to him; that is, to God. 2. To pray that their\nsins committed after conversion may be forgiven them. 3. To pray\nthat their graces which they receive at conversion may be maintained\nand supplied. 4. To pray that their persons may be preserved unto\nhis heavenly kingdom.\n\nSecond, This is the intercession of Christ, or that for which he\ndoth make intercession.\n\n1. He prays for all the elect, that they may be brought home to\nGod, and so into the unity of the faith, &c. this is clear, for\nthat he saith, 'Neither pray I for these alone'; that is, for those\nonly that are converted; 'but for them also which shall believe on\nme through their word'; for all them that shall, that are appointed\nto believe; or, as you have it a little above, 'for them which\nthou hast given me.' (John 17:9,20, Isa 53:12) And the reason is,\nfor that he hath paid a ransom for them. Christ, therefore, when\nhe maketh intercession for the ungodly, and all the unconverted\nelect are such, doth but petitionarily ask for his own, his purchased\nones, those for whom he died before, that they might be saved by\nhis blood.\n\n2. When any of them are brought home to God, he yet prays for\nthem; namely, that the sins which through infirmity they, after\nconversion, may commit, may also be forgiven them.\n\nThis is showed us by the intercession of the high priest under the\nlaw, that was to bear away the iniquities of the holy things of the\nchildren of Israel; yea, and also by his atonement for them that\nsinned; for that it saith, 'And the priest shall make an atonement\nfor him, for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven\nhim.' (Lev 5:10) This also is intimated even where our Lord doth\nmake intercession, saying, 'I pray not that thou shouldest take\nthem out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the\nevil.' (John 17:15) That Christ prayed that the converted should\nbe kept from all manner of commission of sin, must not be supposed,\nfor that is the way to make his intercession, at least in some\nthings, invalid, and to contradict himself; for, saith he, 'I know\nthat thou hearest me always.' (John 11:42) But the meaning is, I\npray that thou wouldest keep them from soul-damning delusions, such\nas are unavoidably such; also that thou wouldest keep them from the\nsoul-destroying evil of every sin, of ever temptation. Now this he\ndoth by his prevailing and by his pardoning grace.\n\n3. In his intercession he prayeth also that those graces which we\nreceive at conversion may be maintained and supplied. This is clear\nwhere he saith, 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have\nyou, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee,\nthat thy faith fail not.' (Luke 22:31,32) Ay, may some say, he is\nsaid to pray here for the support and supply of faith, but doth it\ntherefore follow that he prayed for the maintaining and supply of\nall our graces? Yes, in that he prayed for the preservation of our\nfaith, he prayed for the preservation of all our graces; for faith\nis the mother grace, the root grace, the grace that hath all others\nin the bowels of it, and that from the which all others flow; yea,\nit is that which gives being to all our other graces, and that by\nwhich all the rest do live. Let, then, faith be preserved, and all\ngraces continue and live--that is, according to the present state,\nhealth, and degree of faith. So, then, Christ prayed for the\npreservation of every grace when he prayed for the preservation\nof faith. That text also is of the same tendency where he saith,\n'Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given men.' (John\n17:11) Keep them in thy fear, in the faith, in the true religion,\nin the way of life by thy grace, by thy power, by thy wisdom, &c.\nThis must be much of the meaning of this place, and he that excludes\nthis sense will make but poor work of another exposition.\n\n4. He also in his intercession prayeth that our persons be preserved,\nand brought safe unto his heavenly kingdom. And this he doth, (1.)\nBy pleading interest in them. (2.) By pleading that he had given,\nby promise, glory to them. (3.) By pleading his own resolution to\nhave it so. (4.) By pleading the reason why it must be so.\n\n(1.) He prays that their persons may come to glory, for that they\nare his, and that by the best of titles: 'Thine they were, and\nthou gavest them me.' (John 17:6) Father, I will have them; Father,\nI will have them, for they are mine: 'Thine they were, and thou\ngavest them me.' What is mine, my wife, or my child, or my jewel,\nor my joy, sure I may have it with me. Thus, therefore, he pleads\nor cries in his intercession, that our persons might be preserved\nto glory: They are mine, 'and thou gavest them me.'2\n\n(2.) He also pleads that he had given--given already, that is, in\nthe promise--glory to them, and therefore they must not go without\nit. 'And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.' (John\n17:22) Righteous men, when they give a good thing by promise, they\ndesign the performance of that promise; nay, they more than design\nit, they purpose, they determine it. As the mad prophet also saith\nof God, in another case, 'Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or\nhath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?' (Num 23:19) Hath\nChrist given us glory, and shall we not have it? Yea, hath the truth\nitself bestowed it upon us, and shall those to whom it is given,\neven given by Scripture of truth, be yet deprived thereof?\n\n(3.) He pleads in his interceding that they might have glory; his\nown resolution to have it so. 'Father, I will that they also, whom\nthou hast given me, be with me where I am.' (John 17:24) Behold\nye here, he is resolved to have it so. It must be so. It shall be\nso. I will have it so. We read of Adonijah, that his father never\ndenied him in anything. He never said to him, 'Why hast thou\ndone so?' (1 Kings 1:6) Indeed, he denied him the kingdom; for his\nbrother was heir of that from the Lord. How much more will our\nFather let our Lord Jesus have his mind and will in this, since he\nalso is as willing to have it so as is the Son himself. 'Fear not,\nlittle flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the\nkingdom.' (Luke 12:32) Resolution will drive things far, especially\nresolution to do that which none but they that cannot hinder shall\noppose. Why this is the case, the resolution of our Intercessor is,\nthat we be preserved to glory; yea, and this resolution he pleads\nin his intercession: 'Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast\ngiven me, be with me where I am,' &c. (John 17:24) Must it not,\ntherefore, now be so?\n\n(4.) He also, in the last place, in this his intercession, urges\na reason why he will have it so, namely, 'That they may behold my\nglory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the\nfoundation of the world.' (verse 24) And this is a reason to the\npurpose; it is as if he had said, Father, these have continued with\nme in my temptations; these have seen me under all my disadvantages;\nthese have seen me in my poor, low, contemptible condition; these\nhave seen what scorn, reproach, slanders, and disgrace I have borne\nfor thy sake in the world; and now I will have them also be where\nthey shall see me in my glory. I have told them that I am thy Son,\nand they have believed that; I have told them that thou lovest\nme, and they have believed that; I have also told them that thou\nwouldest take me again to glory, and they have believed that; but\nthey have not seen my glory, nor can they but be like the Queen of\nSheba, they will but believe by the halves unless their own eyes\ndo behold it. Besides, Father, these are they that love me, and it\nwill be an increase of their joy if they may but see me in glory;\nit will be as a heaven to their hearts to see their Saviour in\nglory. I will, therefore, that those which 'thou hast given me be\nwith me where I am, that they may behold my glory.' This, therefore,\nis a reason why Christ Jesus our Lord intercedes to have his people\nwith him in glory.\n\nThird, I come now to the third thing, namely, to show you what is\nto be inferred from Christ's making intercession for us.\n\n1. This is to be inferred from hence, that saints--for I will\nhere say nothing of those of the elect uncalled--do ofttimes give\noccasion of offence to God, even they that have received grace;\nfor intercession is made to continue one in the favour of another,\nand to make up those breaches that, at any time, shall happen to\nbe made by one to the alienating of the affections of the other.\nAnd thus he makes reconciliation for iniquity; for reconciliation\nmay be made for iniquity two ways: first, by paying of a price;\nsecondly, by insisting upon the price paid for the offender by\nway of intercession. Therefore you read that as the goat was to be\nkilled, so his blood was, by the priest, to be brought within the\nveil, and, in a way of intercession, to be sprinkled before and upon\nthe mercy-seat: 'Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering,\nthat is, for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and\ndo with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and\nsprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat; and he\nshall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness\nof the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all\ntheir sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation\nthat remaineth among them, in the midst of their uncleanness.' (Lev\n16:15,16) This was to be done, as you see, that the tabernacle,\nwhich was the place of God's presence and graces, might yet remain\namong the children of Israel, notwithstanding their uncleannesses\nand transgressions. This, also, is the effect of Christ's intercession;\nit is that the signs of God's presence and his grace might remain\namong his people, notwithstanding they have, by their transgressions,\nso often provoked God to depart from them.\n\n2. By Christ's intercession I gather, that awakened men and women,\nsuch as the godly are, dare not, after offence given, come in\ntheir own names to make unto God an application for mercy. God, in\nhimself, is a consuming fire, and sin has made the best of us as\nstubble is to fire; wherefore, they may not, they cannot, they dare\nnot approach God's presence for help but by and through a mediator\nand intercessor. When Israel saw the fire, the blackness and\ndarkness, and heard the thunder, and lightning, and the terrible\nsound of the trumpet, 'they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us,\nand we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.'\n(Exo 20:19, Deut 18:16) Guilt, and sense of the disparity that is\nbetwixt God and us, will make us look out for a man that may lay\nhis hand upon us both, and that may set us right in the eyes of\nour Father again. This, I say, I infer from the intercession of\nChrist; for, if there had been a possibility of our ability to have\napproached God with advantage without, what need had there been of\nthe intercession of Christ?\n\nAbsalom durst not approach--no, not the presence of his father--by\nhimself, without a mediator and intercessor; wherefore, he sends\nto Joab to go to the king and make intercession for him. (2 Sam\n13, 14:32,33) Also, Joab durst not go upon that errand himself,\nbut by the mediation of another. Sin is a fearful thing, it will\nquash and quail the courage of a man, and make him afraid to approach\nthe presence of him whom he has offended, though the offended is\nbut a man. How much more, then, shall it discourage a man, when\nonce loaden with guilt and shame, from attempting to approach the\npresence of a holy and a sin-avenging God, unless he can come to\nhim through, and in the name of, an intercessor? But here now is\nthe help and comfort of the people of God--there is to help them\nunder all their infirmities an intercessor prepared, and at work.\n'He ever liveth to make intercession.'\n\n3. I also infer from hence, that should we, out of an ignorant\nboldness and presumption, attempt, when we have offended, by ourselves\nto approach the presence of God, God would not accept us. He told\nEliphaz so. What Eliphaz thought, or was about to do, I know not;\nbut God said unto him, 'My wrath is kindled against thee, and\nagainst thy two friends; for ye have not spoken of me the thing\nthat is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you\nnow seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and\noffer up for yourselves [that is, by him] a burnt-offering, and my\nservant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept; lest I deal\nwith you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the\nthing which is right, like my servant Job.' See here, an offence is\na bar and an obstruction to acceptance with God, but by a mediator,\nbut by an intercessor. He that comes to God by himself, God will\nanswer him by himself--that is, without an intercessor; and I will\ntell you, such are not like to get any pleasant or comfortable\nanswer-I will answer him that so cometh according to the multitude\nof his idols. 'And I will set my face against that man, and will\nmake him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst\nof my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.' (Eze 14:7,8)\n\nHe that intercedes for another with a holy and just God had need\nbe clean himself, lest he with whom he so busieth himself say to\nhim, First clear thyself, and then come and speak for thy friend.\nWherefore, this is the very description and qualification of this\nour High Priest and blessed Intercessor, 'For such an high priest\nbecame us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,\nand made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those\nhigh priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins,' &c.\n(Heb 7:26,27) Had we not had such an Intercessor, we had been but\nin a very poor case; but we have one that becomes us; one that\nfits us to the purpose; one against whom our God hath nothing, can\nobject nothing; one in whose mouth no guile could be found.3\n\n4. Since Christ is an Intercessor, I infer that he has wherewithal\nin readiness to answer to any demands that may be propounded by\nhim that hath been by us offended, in order to a renewing of peace\nand letting out of that grace to us that we have sinned away, and\nyet have need of. Ofttimes the offended saith to the intercessor,\nWell, thou comest to me about this man; what interest he has in thee\nis one thing, what offence he has committed against me is another.\nI speak now after the manner of men. Now, what can an intercessor\ndo, if he is not able to answer this question? But now, if he be\nable to answer this question--that is, according to law and justice,\nno question but he may prevail with the offended, for him for whom\nhe makes intercession.\n\nWhy, this is our case; to be sure, thus far it is, we have offended\na just and a holy God, and Jesus Christ is become Intercessor. He\nalso knows full well, that for our parts, if it would save us from\nhell, we cannot produce towards a peace with God so much as poor\ntwo farthings; that is, not anything that can by law and justice be\nesteemed worth a halfpenny; yet he makes intercession. It follows,\ntherefore, that he has wherewith of his own, if that question afore\nis propounded, to answer to every reasonable demand. Hence, it is\nsaid, that he has gifts as well as sacrifice for sin. 'Every high\npriest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is\nof necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.' (Heb 8:3)\nAnd, observe it, the apostle speaks here of Christ as in heaven,\nthere ministering in the second part of his office; 'For if he\nwere on earth, he should not be a priest.' (verse 4) These gifts,\ntherefore, and this sacrifice, he now offereth in heaven by way of\nintercession, urging and pleading as an Intercessor, the valuableness\nof his gifts for the pacifying of that wrath that our Father hath\nconceived against us for the disobediences that we are guilty of.\n'A gift in secret pacifieth anger; and a reward in the bosom strong\nwrath.' (Prov 21:14)\n\nWhat gifts these are the Scripture everywhere testifies. He gave\nhimself, he gave his life, he gave his all for us. (John 6, Gal\n1:4, 1 Tim 2:6, Matt 20:28) These gifts, as he offered them up at\nthe demand of justice on Mount Calvary for us, so now he is in heaven\nhe presenteth them continually before God, as gifts and sacrifice\nvaluable for the sins, for all the sins that we, through infirmity,\ndo commit, from the day of our conversion to the day of our death.\nAnd these gifts are so satisfactory, so prevalent with God, that\nthey always prevail for a continual remission of our sins with\nhim. Yea, they prevail with him for more than for the remission of\nsins; we have, through their procurement, our graces often renewed,\nthe devil often rebuked, the snare often broken, guilt often taken\naway from the conscience, and many a blessed smile from God, and\nlove-look from his life-creating countenance. (Eph 3:12)\n\n5. Since Christ is an Intercessor, I infer that believers should\nnot rest at the cross for comfort; justification they should look\nfor there; but, being justified by his blood, they should ascend\nup after him to the throne. At the cross you will see him in his\nsorrows and humiliations, in his tears and blood; but follow him\nto where he is now, and then you shall see him in his robes, in\nhis priestly robes, and with his golden girdle about his paps. Then\nyou shall see him wearing the breastplate of judgment, and with all\nyour names written upon his heart. Then you shall perceive that\nthe whole family in heaven and earth is named by him, and how he\nprevaileth with God the Father of mercies, for you. Stand still\nawhile and listen; yea, enter with boldness into the holiest, and\nsee your Jesus as he now appears in the presence of God for you;\nwhat work he makes against the devil and sin, and death and hell,\nfor you. (Heb 10:9) Ah! it is brave following of Jesus Christ to\nthe holiest, the veil is rent, you may see with open face as in a\nglass, the glory of the Lord. This, then, is our High Priest, this\nhis intercession, these the benefits of it! It lieth on our part to\nimprove it; and wisdom to do that also comes from the mercy-seat,\nor throne of grace, where he, even our High Priest, ever liveth to\nmake intercession for us; to whom be glory for ever and ever.\n\n[II. OF THE BENEFITS OF CHRIST'S INTERCESSION.]\n\n[SECOND.] And thus have I spoken to the first thing--to wit, of the\nintercession of Christ; and now I come more particularly to speak\nto the second, THE BENEFITS OF HIS INTERCESSION; namely, that we\nare saved thereby. Wherefore he is able also to save them, seeing\nhe maketh intercession for them. 'He is able to save them to the\nuttermost.'\n\nIn my handling of this head, I must show you, First, What the apostle\nmeans here by 'save'--'Wherefore he is able to save.' Second, What\nhe means here by saving to the 'uttermost'--'He is able to save to\nthe uttermost.' Third, And then, thirdly, we shall do as we did in\nthe foregoing--to wit, gather some inferences from the whole, and\nspeak to them.\n\nFirst, What doth the apostle mean here by 'save'--'He is able to\nsave them.'\n\nTo 'save' may be taken two ways. In the general, I know it may be\ntaken many ways, for there are many salvations that we enjoy; yea,\nthat we never knew of, nor can know, until we come thither, where\nall secret things shall be seen, and where that which has been done\nin darkness shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. But I say there\nare two ways that this word may be taken--1. To save in a way of\njustification. 2. Or to save in a way of preservation. Now, Christ\nsaves both these ways. But which of these, or whether both of them\nare intended in this place, of that I shall tell you my thoughts\nanon; meanwhile, I will show you,\n\n1. What it is to be saved in the first sense, [namely, in a way of\njustification,] and also how that is brought to pass.\n\nTo be saved is to be delivered from guilt of sin that is by the\nlaw, as it is the ministration of death and condemnation; or, to\nbe set free therefrom before God. This is to be saved; for he that\nis not set free therefrom, whatever he may think of himself, or\nwhatever others may think concerning him, he is a condemned man.\nIt saith not, he shall be, but, he is condemned already. (John\n3:18) The reason is, for that he has deserved the sentence of\nthe ministration of condemnation, which is the law. Yea, that law\nhas already arraigned, accused, and condemned him before God, for\nthat it hath found him guilty of sin. Now he that is set free from\nthis, or, as the phrase is, 'being made free from sin,' (Rom 6:22);\nthat is, from the imputation of guilt, there can, to him, be no\ncondemnation, no condemnation to hell fire; but the person thus made\nfree may properly be said to be saved. Wherefore, as sometimes it\nsaith, we shall be saved, respecting saving in the second sense,\nor the utmost completing of salvation; so sometimes it saith, we\nare saved, as respecting our being already secured from guilt, and\nso from condemnation to hell for sin, and so set safe, and quit\nfrom the second death before God. (1 Cor 1:18, Eph 2:5)\n\nNow, saving thus comes to us by what Christ did for us in this world,\nby what Christ did for us as suffering for us. I say, it comes to\nus thus; that is, it comes to us by grace through the redemption\nthat is in Christ. And thus to be saved is called justification,\njustification to life, because one thus saved is, as I said,\nacquitted from guilt, and that everlasting damnation to which for\nsin he had made himself obnoxious by the law. (1 Cor 15:1-4, Rom\n5:8-10)\n\nHence we are said to be saved by his death, justified by his blood,\nand reconciled to God by the death of his Son; all which must respect\nhis offering of himself on the day he died, and not his improving\nof his so dying in a way of intercession, because in the same\nplace the apostle reserveth a second, or an additional salvation,\nand applieth that to his intercession, 'Much more then, being now,'\nor already, 'justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath\nthrough him'; that is, through what he will further do for us. 'For\nif, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death\nof his son, much more, being reconciled,' that is, by his death,\n'we shall be saved by his life,' his intercession, which he ever\nliveth to complete. (verse 9,10)\n\nSee here, we are said to be justified, reconciled already, and\ntherefore we shall be saved, justified by his blood and death, and\nsaved through him by his life.\n\n2. Now the saving intended in the text is saving in this second\nsense; that is, a saving of us by preserving us, by delivering\nof us from all those hazards that we run betwixt our state of\njustification and our state of glorification. Yea, such a saving\nof us as we that are justified need to bring us into glory. Therefore,\n\nWhen he saith he is able to save, seeing he ever liveth to make\nintercession, he addeth saving to saving; saving by his life to\nsaving by his death; saving by his improving of his blood to saving\nby his spilling of his blood. He gave himself a ransom for us, and\nnow improves that gift in the presence of God by way of intercession.\nFor, as I have hinted already, the high priests under the law took the\nblood of the sacrifices that were offered for sin, and brought it\nwithin the veil, and there sprinkled it before and upon the mercy-seat,\nand by it made intercession for the people to an additional way of\nsaving them; the sum of which Paul thus applies to Christ when he\nsaith, 'He can save, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.'\n\nThat also in the Romans is clear to this purpose, 'Who is he\nthat condemneth? It is Christ that died.' (Rom 8:31-39) That is,\nwho is he that shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect to\ncondemnation to hell, since Christ has taken away the curse by his\ndeath from before God? Then he adds, that there is nothing that\nshall yet happen to us, shall destroy us, since Christ also liveth\nto make intercession for us. 'Who shall condemn? It is Christ that\ndied; yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right\nhand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.'\n\nChrist, then, by his death saveth us as we are sinners, enemies,\nand in a state of condemnation by sin; and Christ by his life saveth\nus as considered justified, and reconciled to God by his blood. So,\nthen, we have salvation from that condemnation that sin had brought\nus unto, and salvation from those ruins that all the enemies of our\nsouls would yet bring us unto, but cannot; for the intercession of\nChrist preventeth. 4 (Rom 6:7-10)\n\nChrist hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Whatever the law\ncan take hold of to curse us for, that Christ has redeemed us from,\nby being made a curse for us. But this curse that Christ was made\nfor us, must be confined to his sufferings, not to his exaltation,\nand, consequently, not to his intercession, for Christ is made no\ncurse but when he suffered; not in his intercession: so then, as\nhe died he took away the curse, and sin that was the cause thereof,\nby the sacrifice of himself, (Gal 3:13), and by his life, his\nintercession, he saveth us from all those things that attempt to\nbring us into that condemnation again.\n\nThe salvation, then, that we have by the intercession of Christ,\nas was said--I speak now of them that are capable of receiving\ncomfort and relief by this doctrine--is salvation that follows\nupon, or that comes after, justification. We that are saved as to\njustification of life, need yet to be saved with that that preserveth\nto glory; for though by the death of Christ we are saved from the\ncurse of the law, yet attempts are made by many that we may be kept\nfrom the glory that justified persons are designed for; and from\nthese we are saved by his intercession.\n\nA man, then, that must be eternally saved is to be considered, (a.)\nAs an heir of wrath. (b.) As an heir of God. An heir of wrath he\nis in himself by sin; an heir of God he is by grace through Christ.\n(Eph 2:3, Gal 4:7) Now, as an heir of wrath he is redeemed, and as\nan heir of God he is preserved; as an heir of wrath he is redeemed\nby blood, and as an heir of God he is preserved by this intercession.\nChrist by his death, then, puts me, I being reconciled to God\nthereby, into a justified state, and God accepts me to grace and\nfavour through him. But this doth not hinder but that, all this\nnotwithstanding, there re, that would frustrate me of the end to\nwhich I am designed by this reconciliation to God, by redemption\nthrough grace; and from the accomplishing of this design I am saved\nby the blessed intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nObject. 1. Perhaps some may say, we are not saved from all punishment\nof sin by the death of Christ; and if so, so not from all danger\nof damnation by the intercession of Christ.\n\nAnsw. We are saved from all punishment in hell fire by the death of\nChrist. Jesus has 'delivered us from the wrath to come.' (1 Thess\n1:10) So that as to this great punishment, God for his sake has\nforgiven us all trespasses. (Col 2:13) But we being translated\nfrom being slaves to Satan to be sons of God, God reserveth yet\nthis liberty in his hand to chastise us if we offend, as a father\nchastiseth his son. (Deut 8:5) But this chastisement is not in legal\nwrath, but in fatherly affection; not to destroy us, but that still\nwe might be made to get advantage thereby, even be made partakers\nof his holiness. This is, that we might 'not be condemned with the\nworld.' (Heb 12:5-11, 1 Cor 11:32) As to the second part of the\nobjection; there do, as we say, many things happen betwixt or between\nthe cup and the lip; many things attempt to overthrow the work\nof God, and to cause that we should perish through our weakness,\nnotwithstanding the price that hath by Christ been paid for us. But\nwhat saith the Scripture? 'Who shall separate us from the love of\nChrist? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,\nor nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake\nwe are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the\nslaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors\nthrough him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death,\nnor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things\npresent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other\ncreature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which\nis in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (Rom 8:35-39)\n\nThus the apostle reckoneth up all the disadvantages that a justified\nperson is incident to in this life, and by way of challenge\ndeclares, that not any one of them, nor all together, shall be able\nto separate us from the love of God, that is towards us by Christ,\nhis death, and his intercession.\n\nObject. 2. It may be further objected, that the apostle doth here\nleave out sin, unto which we know the saints are subject, after\njustification. And sin of itself, we need no other enemies, is of\nthat nature as to destroy the whole world.\n\nAnsw. Sin is sin, in the nature of sin, wherever it is found. But\nsin as to the damning effects thereof is taken away from them unto\nwhom righteousness is imputed for justification. Nor shall any or\nall the things aforementioned, though there is a tendency in every\none of them to drive us unto sin, drown us, through it, in perdition\nand destruction. I am persuaded, says Paul, they shall never be\nable to do that. The apostle, therefore, doth implicitly, though to\nexpressly, challenge sin, yea, sin by all its advantages; and then\nglorieth in the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which he concludeth\nit shall never separate the justified. Besides, it would now have\nbeen needless to have expressly here put in sin by itself, seeing\nbefore, he had argued that those he speaks of were freely justified\ntherefrom.\n\nOne word more before I go to the second head. The Father, as I\ntold you, has reserved to himself a liberty to chastise his sons,\nto wit, with temporal chastisements, if they offend. This still\nabideth to us, notwithstanding God's grace, Christ's death, or\nblessed intercession. And this punishment is so surely entailed\nto the transgressions that we who believe shall commit, that it\nis impossible that we should be utterly freed therefrom; insomuch\nthat the apostle positively concludeth them to be bastards, what\npretences to sonship soever they have, that are not, for sin,\npartakers of fatherly chastisements.\n\nFor the reversing of this punishment it is that we should pray, if\nperhaps God will remit it, when we are taught to say, 'Our Father,\nforgive us our trespasses.' And he that admits of any other sense\nas to this petition, derogates from the death of Christ, or faith,\nor both. For either he concludes that for some of his sins Christ\ndid not die, or that he is bound to believe that God, though he\ndid, has not yet, nor will forgive them, till from the petitioner\nsome legal work be done; forgive us, as we forgive them that\ntrespass against us. (Matt 6:14,15) But now, apply this to temporal\npunishments, and then it is true that God has reserved a liberty in\nhis hand to punish even the sins of his people upon them; yea, and\nwill not pardon their sin, as to the remitting of such punishment,\nunless some good work by them be done; 'If ye forgive not men their\ntrespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.'\n(Matt 6:15, 18:28-35)\n\nAnd this is the cause why some that belong to God are yet so under\nthe afflicting hand of God; they have sinned, and God, who is\ntheir Father, punisheth; yea, and this is the reason why some who\nare dear to God have this kind of punishment never forgiven, but\nit abides with them to their lives' end, goes with them to the\nday of their death, yea, is the very cause of their death. By this\npunishment they are cut off out of the land of the living. But all\nthis is that they might 'not be condemned with the world.' (1 Cor\n11:32)\n\nChrist died not to save from this punishment; Christ intercedes\nnot to save from this punishment. Nothing but a good life will save\nfrom this punishment; nor always that either.\n\nThe hidings of God's face, the harshness of his providences, the severe\nand sharp chastisements that ofttimes overtake the very spirits of\nhis people, plainly show that Christ died not to save from temporal\npunishments, prays not to save from temporal punishments--that\nis, absolutely. God has reserved a power to punish, with temporal\npunishments, the best and dearest of his people, if need be.5 And\nsometimes he remits them, sometimes not, even as it pleases him.\nI come now to the second thing.\n\n[Christ saves to the uttermost.]\n\nSecond, I shall now show you something of what it is for Christ, by\nhis intercession, to save to the 'uttermost.' 'He is able to save\nthem to the uttermost.'\n\nThis is a great expression, and carrrieth with it much. 'Uttermost'\nsignifieth to the outside, to the end, to the last, to the furthest\npart. And it hath respect both to persons and things. (Gen 49:26,\nDeut 30:4, Matt 5:26, Mark 13:27, Luke 15)\n\n1. To persons. Some persons are in their own apprehensions\neven further from Christ than anybody else; afar off, a great way\noff, yet a-coming, as the prodigal was. Now, these many times are\nexceedingly afraid; the sight of that distance that they think is\nbetwixt Christ and them makes them afraid. As it is said in another\ncase, 'They that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy\ntokens.' (Psa 65:8) So these are afraid they shall not speed, not\nobtain that for which they come to God. But the text says, He is\nable to save to the uttermost, to the very hindermost, them that\ncome to God by him.\n\nTwo sorts of men seem to be far, very far from God. (1.) The town\nsinner. (2.) The great backslider. (Neh 1:9) But both these, if they\ncome, he is able to save to the uttermost. He is able to save them\nfrom all those dangers that they fear will prevent their obtaining\nof that grace and mercy they would have to help them in time of\nneed. The publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven.\n\n2. As this text respecteth persons, so it respecteth things. There\nare some things with which some are attended that are coming to\nGod, by Christ, that make their coming hard and very difficult.\n\n(1.) There is a more than ordinary breaking up of the corruptions\nof their nature. It seems as if all their lusts and vile passions\nof the flesh were become masters, and might now do what they will\nwith the soul. Yea, they take this man and toss and tumble him like\na ball in a large place. This man is not master of himself, of his\nthoughts, nor of his passions--'His iniquities, like the wind, do\ncarry him away.' (Isa 64:6) He thinks to go forward, but this wind\nblows him backward; he laboureth against this wind, but cannot find\nthat he getteth ground; he takes what advantage opportunity doth\nminister to him, but all he gets is to be beat out of heart, out\nof breath, out of courage. He stands still, and pants, and gapeth\nas for life. 'I opened my mouth, and panted,' said David, 'for I\nlonged for thy commandments.' (Psa 119:131) He sets forward again,\nbut has nothing but labour and sorrow.\n\n(2.) Nay, to help forward his calamity, Satan [and his] angels will\nnot be wanting, both to trouble his head with the fumes of their\nstinking breath, nor to throw up his heels in their dirty places--'And\nas he was yet a-coming, the devil threw him down and tare him.'\n(Luke 9:42) How many strange, hideous, and amazing blasphemies have\nthose, some of those, that are coming to Christ, had injected and\nfixed upon their spirits against him. Nothing so common to such,\nas to have some hellish wish or other against God they are coming\nto, and against Christ, by whom they would come to him. These\nblasphemies are like those frogs that I have heard of, that will\nleap up, and catch hold of, and hang by their claws. Now help,\nLord; now, Lord Jesus, what shall I do? Now, Son of David, have\nmercy upon me! I say, to say these words is hard work for such an\none. But he is able to save to the uttermost this comer to God by\nhim.\n\n(3.) There are also the oppositions of sense and reason hard\nat work for the devil, against the soul; the men of his own house\nare risen up against him. One's sense and reason, one would think,\nshould not fall in with the devil against ourselves, and yet\nnothing more common, nothing more natural, than for our own sense\nand reason to turn the unnatural, and are both against our God and\nus. And now it is hard coming to God. Better can a man hear and\ndeal with any objections against himself, than with those that\nhimself doth make against himself. They lie close, stick fast,\nspeak aloud, and will be heard; yea, will haunt and hunt him, as\nthe devil doth some, in every hole and corner. But come, man, come;\nfor he is able to save to the uttermost!\n\n(4.) Now guilt is the consequence and fruit of all this; and what\nso intolerable a burden as guilt! They talk of the stones, and of\nthe sands of the sea; but it is guilt that breaks the heart with\nits burden. And Satan has the art of making the uttermost of every\nsin; he can blow it up, make it swell, make every hair of its head\nas big as a cedar. He can tell how to make it a heinous offence,\nand unpardonable offence, an offence of that continuance, and\ncommitted against so much light, that, says he, it is impossible\nit should ever be forgiven. But, soul, Christ is able to save to\nthe uttermost, he can 'do exceeding abundantly above all that we\nask or think.' (Eph 3:20)\n\n(5.) Join to all this the rage and terror of men, which thing of\nitself is sufficient to quash and break to pieces all desires to\ncome to God by Christ; yea, and it doth do so to thousands that are\nnot willing to go to hell. Yet thou art kept, and made to go panting\non; a whole world of men, and devils, and sin, are not able to\nkeep thee from coming. But how comes it to pass that thou art so\nhearty, that thou settest thy face against so much wind and weather? I\ndare say it arises not from thyself, nor from any of thine enemies.\nThis comes from God, though thou art not aware thereof; and is\nobtained for thee by the intercession of the blessed Son of God,\nwho is also able to save thee to the uttermost, that comest to God\nby him.\n\n(6.) And for a conclusion as to this, I will add, that there is\nmuch of the honour of the Lord Jesus engaged as to the saving of\nthe coming man to the uttermost: 'I am glorified in them,' saith\nhe. (John 17:10) He is exalted to be a Saviour. (Acts 5:31) And if\nthe blessed One doth count it an exaltation to be a Saviour, surely\nit is an exaltation to be a Saviour, and a great one. 'They shall\ncry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send\nthem a Saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.' (Isa\n19:20) If it is a glory to be a Saviour, a great Saviour, then\nit is a glory for a Saviour, a great one, to save, and save, and\nsave to the uttermost--to the uttermost man, to the uttermost sin,\nto the uttermost temptation. And hence it is that he saith again,\nspeaking of the transgressions, sins, and iniquities that he would\npardon, that it should turn to him for 'a name of joy, a praise,\nand an honour before all nations.' (Jer 33:9) He therefore counts\nit an honour to be a great Saviour, to save men to the uttermost.\n\nWhen Moses said, 'I beseech thee, show me thy glory,' the answer\nwas, 'I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will\nproclaim the name of the Lord before thee.' (Exo 33:18,19) And when\nhe came indeed to make proclamation, then he proclaimed, 'The Lord,\nThe Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant\nin goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving\niniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear\nthe guilty.' (Exo 34:6,7) That will by no means clear them that\nwill not come to me that they may be saved.\n\nSee here, if it is not by himself accounted his glory to make his\ngoodness, all his goodness, pass before us. And how can that be,\nif he saveth not to the uttermost them that come unto God by him?\nFor goodness is by us noways seen but by those acts by which it\nexpresseth itself to be so. And, I am sure, to save, to save to\nthe uttermost, is one of the most eminent expressions by which we\nunderstand it is great goodness. I know goodness has many ways to\nexpress itself to be what it is to the world; but then it expresseth\nits greatness when it pardons and saves, when it pardons and saves\nto the uttermost. My goodness, says Christ, extends not itself to\nmy Father, but to my saints. (Psa 16:2,3) My Father has no need\nof my goodness, but my saints have, and therefore it shall reach\nforth itself for their help, in whom is all my delight. And, 'Oh\nhow great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that\nfear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee\nbefore the sons of men'! (Psa 31:19) It is therefore that which\ntendeth to get Christ a name, a fame, and glory, to be able to save\nto the uttermost them that come to God by him.\n\n[In Christ's ability to save, lieth our safety.]\n\nBut some may say, What is the meaning of this word able? 'Wherefore\nhe is able to save.' He is able to save the uttermost. How comes it\nto pass that his power to save is rather put in than his willingness;\nfor willingness, saith the soul, would better have pleased me. I\nwill speak two or three words to this question. And,\n\nFirst, By this word able is suggested to us the sufficiency of his\nmerit, the great worthiness of his merit; for, as Intercessor, he\nsticks fast by his merit; all his petitions, prayers, or supplications\nare grounded upon the worthiness of his person as Mediator, and\non the validity of his offering as priest. This is the more clear,\nif you consider the reason why those priests and sacrifices under\nthe law could not make the worshippers perfect. It was, I say, because\nthere wanted in them worthiness and merit in their sacrifices. But\nthis man, when he came and offered his sacrifice, he did by that\none act 'perfect for ever them that are sanctified,' or set apart\nfor glory. 'But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for\nsins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.' (Heb 10:1-12)\n\nWhen Moses prayed for the people of Israel, thus he said, 'And\nnow, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according\nas thou hast spoken.' But what had he spoken? 'The Lord is long-suffering,\nand of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by\nno means clearing the guilty--Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity\nof this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as\nthou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.' (Num\n14:17-19)\n\nSecond, Has he but power, we know he is willing, else he would not\nhave promised; it is also his glory to pardon and save. So, then,\nin his ability lies our safety. What if he were never so willing,\nif he were not of ability sufficient, what would his willingness\ndo? But he has showed, as I said, his willingness by promising:\n'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' (John 6:37) So\nthat now our comfort lies in his power, in that he is able to make\ngood his word. (Rom 4:20,21) And this also will then be seen, when\nhe hath saved them that come to God by him, when he hath saved them\nto the uttermost; not to the uttermost of his ability, but to the\nuttermost of our necessity; for to the uttermost of his ability I\nbelieve he will never be put to it to save his church; not for that\nhe is loath so to save, but because there is no need so to save; he\nshall not need to put out all his power, and to press the utmost of\nhis merit for the saving of his church. Alas! there is sufficiency\nof merit in him to save a thousand times as many more as are like\nto be saved by him; 'he is able to do exceeding abundantly above\nall that we ask or think.'\n\nMeasure not, therefore, what he can do by what he has, doth, or\nwill do; neither do thou interpret this word, to the uttermost,\nas if it related to the uttermost of his ability, but rather as it\nrelateth, for so it doth indeed, to the greatness of thy necessity.\nFor as he is able to save thee, though thy condition be, as it may\nbe supposed to be, the worst that ever man was in that was saved,\nso he is able to save thee, though thy condition were ten times\nworse than it is.\n\nWhat! shall not the worthiness of the Son of God be sufficient to\nsave from the sin of man? or shall the sin of the world be of that\nweight to destroy, that it shall put Christ Jesus to the uttermost\nof the worth of his person and merit to save therefrom? I believe\nit is blasphemy to think so. We can easily imagine that he can\nsave all the world--that is, that he is of ability to do it; but\nwe cannot imagine that he can do no more than we can think he can.\nBut our imagination and thoughts set no bound to his ability. 'He\nis able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.'\nBut what that is, I say, no man can think, no man can imagine. So,\nthen, Jesus Christ can do more than ever any man thought he could\ndo as to saving; he can do we know not what. This, therefore, should\nencourage comers to come to him; and them that come, to hope. This,\nI say, should encourage them to let out, to lengthen, and heighten\ntheir thoughts by the word, to the uttermost, seeing he can 'save\nto the uttermost them that come to God by him.'6\n\n[Inferences from the benefits of Christ's intercession.]\n\nThird. And now I come to the third thing that I told you I should\nspeak to, and that is, to those inferences that may be gathered\nfrom these words.\n\n1. Are they that are justified by Christ's blood such as have need\nyet to be saved by his intercession? Then from hence it follows that\njustification will stand with imperfection. It doth not therefore\nfollow that a justified man is without infirmity; for he that is\nwithout infirmity--that is, perfect with absolute perfection, has\nno need to be yet saved by an act yet to be performed by a mediator\nand his mediation.\n\nWhen I say, justification will stand with imperfection, I do\nnot mean that it will allow, countenance, or approve thereof; but\nI mean there is no necessity of our perfection, of our personal\nperfection, as to our justification, and that we are justified\nwithout it; yea, that that, in justified persons, remains. Again;\nwhen I say that justification will stand with imperfection, I do\nnot mean that in our justification we are imperfect; for in that\nwe are complete; 'we are complete in him' who is our justice. (Col\n2:10) If otherwise, the imperfection is in the matter that justifieth\nus, which is the righteousness of Christ. Yea, and to say so would\nconclude that wrong judgment proceedeth from him that imputeth that\nrighteousness to us to justification, since an imperfect thing is\nimputed to us for justification. But far be it from any that believe\nthat God is true to imagine such a thing; all his works are perfect,\nthere is nothing wanting in them as to the present design.\n\n[Quest.] But what then do we mean when we say, justification will\nstand with a state of imperfection?\n\nAnsw. Why, I mean that justified men are yet sinners in themselves,\nare yet full of imperfections; yea, sinful imperfections. Justified\nPaul said, 'I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no\ngood thing.' (Rom 7:18) While we are yet sinners, we are justified\nby the blood of Christ. Hence, again, it is said, 'he justifieth\nthe ungodly.' (Rom 4:5, 5:8,9) Justification, then, only covereth\nour sin from the sight of God; it maketh us not perfect with inherent\nperfection. But God, for the sake of that righteousness which by\nhis grace is imputed to us, declareth us quit and discharged from\nthe curse, and sees sin in us no more to condemnation.\n\n[WHY THE JUSTIFIED NEED AN INTERCESSOR.]\n\nAnd this is the reason, or one reason, why they that are justified\nhave need of an intercessor--to wit, to save us from the evil of\nthe sin that remains in our flesh after we are justified by grace\nthrough Christ, and set free from the law as to condemnation.\nTherefore, as it is said, we are saved; so it is said, 'He is able\nalso to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing\nhe ever liveth to make intercession for them.' The godly, for now\nwe will call them the godly, though there is yet abundance of sin\nin them, feel in themselves many things even after justification\nby which they are convinced they are still attended with personal,\nsinful imperfections.\n\n[Imperfect in their feelings and inclinations.]--(1.) They\nfeel unbelief, fear, mistrust, doubting, despondings, murmurings,\nblasphemies, pride, lightness, foolishness, avarice, fleshly lusts,\nheartlessness to good, wicked desires, low thoughts of Christ, too\ngood thoughts of sin, and, at times, too great an itching after\nthe worst of immoralities.\n\n(2.) They feel in themselves an aptness to incline to errors, as\nto lean to the works of the law for justification; to question the\ntruth of the resurrection and judgment to come; to dissemble and\nplay the hypocrite in profession and in performance of duties; to\ndo religious duties rather to please man than God, who trieth the\nheart.\n\n(3.) They feel an inclination in them, in times of trial, to faint\nunder the cross, to seek too much to save themselves, to dissemble\nthe known truth for the obtaining a little favour with men, and to\nspeak things that they ought not, that they may sleep in a whole\nskin.\n\n(4.) They feel wearisomeness in religious duties, but a natural\npropensity to things of the flesh. They feel a desire to go beyond\nbounds both at board, and bed, and bodily exercise, and in all\nlawful recreation.\n\n(5.) They feel in themselves an aptness to take the advantage of\nusing of things that are lawful, as food, raiment, sleep, talk,\nestates, relations, beauty, wit, parts, and graces, to unlawful\nends. These things, with many more of the like kind, the justified\nman finds and feels in himself, to his humbling and often casting\ndown; and to save him from the destroying evil of these, Christ\never liveth to make intercession for him.\n\n[Imperfect in their graces.]--Again; the justified man is imperfect\nin his graces, and therefore needeth to be saved by the intercession\nof Christ from the bad fruit that that imperfection yields.\n\nJustifying righteousness is accompanied with graces--the graces of\nthe Spirit. Though these graces are not that matter by and through\nwhich we are justified, nor any part thereof, that being only the\nobedience of Christ imputed to us of mere pleasure and good will;\nbut, I say, they come when justification comes. (Rom 9) And though\nthey are not so easily discerned at the first, they show forth\nthemselves afterwards. But I say, how many soever they are, and how\nfast soever they grow, their utmost arrivement here is but a state\nshort of perfection. None of the graces of God's Spirit in our\nhearts can do their work in us without shortness, and that because\nof their own imperfections, and also because of the oppositions\nthat they meet with from our flesh.\n\n(1.) Faith, which is the root-grace, the grand grace, its shortness\nis sufficiently manifest by its shortness of apprehension of things\npertaining to the person, offices, relations, and works of Christ,\nnow in the heavenly place for us. It is also very defective in its\nfetching of comfort from the Word to us, and in continuing of it\nwith us, when at any time we attain unto it; in its receiving of\nstrength to subdue sin, and in its purifyings of the heart, though\nindeed it doth what it doth in reality, yet how short is it of doing\nof it thoroughly? Oftentimes, were it not for supplies by virtue\nof the intercession of Christ, faith would fail of performing its\noffice in any measure. (Luke 22:31,32)\n\n(2.) There is hope, another grace of the Spirit bestowed upon us;\nand how often is that also, as to the excellency of working, made\nto flag? 'I shall perish,' saith David; 'I am cut off from before\nthine eyes,' said he. (Psa 31:22) And now where was his hope, in the\nright gospel discovery of it? Also all our fear of men, and fears\nof death, and fears of judgment, they arise from the imperfections\nof hope. But from all those faults Christ saves us by his intercessions.\n\n(3.) There is love, that should be in us as hot as fire. It is\ncompared to fire, to fire of the hottest sort; yea, it is said to\nbe hotter than the coals of juniper. (Cant 8:6,7) But who finds this\nheat in love so much as for one poor quarter of an hour together?\nSome little flashes, perhaps, some at some times may feel, but where\nis that constant burning of affection that the Word, the love of\nGod, and the love of Christ call for? yea, and that the necessities\nof the poor and afflicted members of Christ call for also. Ah! love\nis cold in these frozen days, and short when it is at the highest.\n\n(4.) The grace of humility, when is it? who has a thimbleful thereof?\nWhere is he that is 'clothed with humility,' and that does what he\nis commanded 'with all humility of mind'? (1 Peter 5:5, Acts 20:19)\n\n(5.) For zeal, where is that also? Zeal for God against sin,\nprofaneness, superstition, and idolatry. I speak now to the godly,\nwho have this zeal in the root and habit; but oh, how little of it\nputs forth itself into actions in such a day as this is!\n\n(6.) There is reverence, fear, and standing in awe of God's Word\nand judgments, where are the excellent workings thereof to be found?\nAnd where it is most, how far short of perfect acts is it?\n\n(7.) Simplicity and godly sincerity also, with how much dirt is it\nmixed in the best; especially among those of the saints that are\nrich, who have got the poor and beggarly art of complimenting? For\nthe more compliment, the less sincerity. Many words will not fill\na bushel. But 'in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.'\n(Prov 10:19) Plain men are thin come up in this day; to find a\nmouth without fraud and deceit now is a rare thing. Thus might one\ncount up all the graces of the Spirit, and show wherein every one\nof them are scanty and wanting of perfection. Now look, what they\nwant of perfection is supplied with sin and vanity; for there is a\nfullness of sin and flesh at hand to make up all the vacant places\nin our souls. There is no place in the souls of the godly but it\nis filled up with darkness when the light is wanting, and with sin\nso far forth as grace is wanting. Satan, also, diligently waiteth\nto come in at the door, if Careless has left it a little achare.7\nBut, oh! the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ever liveth to\nmake intercession for us, and that, by so doing, saves us from all\nthe imperfect acts and workings of our graces, and from all the\nadvantages that flesh, and sin, and Satan getteth upon us thereby.\n\n[Imperfect in their Duties.]--Further, as Christ Jesus our Lord doth\nsave us, by his intercession, from that hurt that would unavoidably\ncome upon us by these, so also, by that we are saved from the\nevil that is at any time found in any or all our holy duties and\nperformances that is our duty daily to be found in. That our duties\nare imperfect, follows upon what was discoursed before; for if our\ngraces be imperfect, how can our duties but be so too?\n\n(1.) Our prayers, how imperfect are they! With how much unbelief\nare they mixed! How apt is our tongue to run, in prayer, before\nour hearts! With how much earnestness do our lips move, while our\nhearts lie within as cold as a clod! Yea, and ofttimes, it is to\nbe feared, we ask for that with out mouth that we care not whether\nwe have or no. Where is the man that pursues with all his might\nwhat but now he seemed to ask for with all his heart? Prayer is\nbecome a shell, a piece of formality, a very empty thing, as to the\nspirit and life of prayer at this day. I speak now of the prayers\nof the godly. I once met with a poor woman that, in the greatest of\nher distresses, told me she did use to rise in the night, in cold\nweather, and pray to God, while she sweat with fears of the loss\nof her prayers and desires that her soul might be saved. I have\nheard of many that have played, but of few that have prayed, till\nthey have sweat, by reason of their wrestling with God for mercy\nin that duty.\n\n(2.) There is the duty of almsgiving, another gospel performance;\nbut how poorly is it done in our days! We have so many foolish\nways to lay out money, in toys and fools' baubles for our children,\nthat we can spare none, or very little, for the relief of the poor.\nAlso, do not many give that to their dogs, yea, let it lie in their\nhouses until it stinks so vilely that neither dog nor cat will\neat it; which, had it been bestowed well in time, might have been\na succour and nourishment to some poor member of Christ?\n\n(3.) There is hearing of the Word; but, alas! the place of hearing\nis the place of sleeping with many a fine professor. I have often\nobserved that those that keep shops can briskly attend upon a\ntwopenny customer; but when they come themselves to God's market,\nthey spend their time too much in letting their thoughts to wander\nfrom God's commandments, or in a nasty drowsy way. The heads,\nalso, and hearts of most hearers are to the Word as the sieve is\nto water; they can hold no sermons, remember no texts, bring home\nno proofs, produce none of the sermon to the edification and profit\nof others. And do not the best take up too much in hearing, and\nmind too little what, by the Word, God calls for at their hands,\nto perform it with a good conscience?\n\n(4.) There is faithfulness in callings, faithfulness to brethren,\nfaithfulness to the world, faithfulness to children, to servants,\nto all, according to our place and capacity. Oh! how little of it\nis there found in the mouths and lives, to speak nothing of the\nhearts, of professors.\n\nI will proceed no further in this kind of repetition of things;\nonly thus much give me leave to say over again, even many of the\ntruly godly are very faulty here. But what would they do if there\nwere not one always at the right hand of God, by intercession,\ntaking away these kind of iniquities?\n\n2. Are those that are justified by the blood of Christ such, after\nthat, as have need also of saving by Christ's intercession? From\nhence, then, we may infer, that as sin, so Satan will not give over\nfrom assaulting the best of the saints.\n\nIt is not justification that can secure us from being assaulted\nby Satan: 'Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you.' (Luke\n22:31,32) There are two things that do encourage the devil to set\nupon the people of God:--\n\n(1.) He knows not who are elect; for all that profess are not, and,\ntherefore, he will make trial, if he can get them into his sieve,\nwhether he can cause them to perish. And great success he hath had\nthis way. Many a brave professor has he overcome; he has cast some\nof the stars from heaven to earth; he picked one out from among the\napostles, and one, as it is thought, from among the seven deacons,8\nand many from among Christ's disciples; but how many, think you,\nnowadays, doth he utterly destroy with his net?\n\n(2.) If it so happeneth that he cannot destroy, because Christ, by\nhis intercession, prevaileth, yet will he set upon the church to\ndefile and afflict it. For (a), If he can but get us to fall, with\nPeter, then he has obtained that dishonour be brought to God, the\nweak to be stumbled, the world offended, and the gospel vilified\nand reproached. Or (b), If he cannot throw up our heels, yet, by\nbuffeting of us, he can grieve us, afflict us, put us to pain, fright\nus, drive us to many doubts, and make our life very uncomfortable unto\nus, and make us go groaning to our Father's house. But blessed be\nGod for his Christ, and for that 'he ever liveth to make intercession\nfor us.'\n\n3. Are those that are justified by the blood of Christ such as,\nafter that, have need to be saved by Christ's intercession? Then,\nhence I infer that it is dangerous going about anything in our own\nname and strength. If we would have helps from the intercession of\nChrist, let us have a care that we do what we do according to the\nword of Christ. Do what he bids us as well as we can, as he bids\nus, and then we need not doubt to have help and salvation in those\nduties by the intercession of Christ. 'Do all,' says the apostle,\n'in the name of the Lord Jesus.' (Col 3:17) Oh, but then the devil\nand the world will be most of all offended! Well, well, but if you\ndo nothing but as in his fear, by his Word, in his name, you may\nbe sure of what help his intercession can afford you, and that can\nafford you much help, not only to begin, but to go through with\nyour work in some good measure, as you should; and by that also you\nshall be secured from those dangers, if not temptations to dangers,\nthat those that go out about business in their own names and strength\nshall be sure to meet withal.\n\n4. Are those that are justified by the blood of Christ such as,\nafter that, have need of being saved by Christ's intercession? Then,\nhence I infer again, that God has a great dislike of the sins of\nhis own people, and would fall upon them in judgment and anger much\nmore severely than he doth, were it not for Christ's intercession.\nThe gospel is not, as some think, a loose and licentious doctrine,\nnor God's discipline of his church a negligent and careless discipline;\nfor, though those that believe already have also an intercessor,\nyet God, to show his detestation against sin, doth often make them\nfeel to purpose the weight of his fingers. The sincere, that fain\nwould walk oft with God, have felt what I say, and that to the\nbreaking of their bones full oft. The loose ones, and those that\nGod loves not, may be utter strangers as to this; but those that\nare his own indeed do know it is otherwise.9\n\n'You only have I known' above all others, says God, 'therefore I\nwill punish you for all your iniquities.' (Amos 3:2) God keeps a\nvery strict house among his children. David found it so, Haman found\nit so, Job found it so, and the church of God found it so; and I\nknow not that his mind is ever the less against sin, notwithstanding\nwe have an Intercessor. True, our Intercessor saves us from damning\nevils, from damning judgments; but he neither doth nor will secure\nus from temporal punishment, from spiritual punishment, unless we\nwatch, deny ourselves, and walk in his fear. I would to God that\nthose who are otherwise minded did but feel, for three or four\nmonths, something of what I have felt for several years together\nfor base sinful thoughts! I wish it, I say, if it might be for\ntheir good, and for the better regulating of their understandings.\nBut whether they obtain my wish or no, sure I am that God is no\ncountenancer of sin; no, not in his own people; nay, he will bear\nit least of all in them. And as for others, however he may for\na while have patience towards them, if, perhaps, his goodness may\nlead them to repentance; yet the day is coming when he will pay the\ncarnal and hypocrites' home with devouring fire for their offences.\n\nBut if our holy God will not let us go altogether unpunished,\nthough we have so able and blessed an Intercessor, that has always\nto present God with, on our behalf, so valuable a price of his own\nblood, now before the throne of grace, what should we have done\nif there had been no day's-man, none to plead for us, or to make\nintercession on our behalf? Read that text, 'For I am with thee,\nsaith the Lord, to save thee; though I make a full end of all\nnations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full\nend of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave\nthee altogether unpunished.' (Jer 30:11) If it be so, I say, what\nhad become of us, if we had had no Intercessor? And what will\nbecome of them concerning whom the Lord has said already, 'I will\nnot take up their names into my lips'? (Psa 16:4) 'I pray not for\nthe world.' (John 17:9)\n\n5. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ yet\nsuch as have need of being saved by his intercession? Then, hence,\nI infer that Christ is not only the beginner, but the completer\nof our salvation; or, as the Holy Ghost calls him, 'the author and\nfinisher of our faith,' (Heb 12:2); or, as it calls him again, 'the\nauthor of eternal salvation.' (Heb 5:9) Of salvation throughout,\nfrom the beginning to the end, from first to last. His hands have\nlaid the foundation of it in his own blood, and his hands shall\nfinish it by his intercession. (Zech 4:9) As he has laid the beginning\nfastly, so he shall bring forth the headstones with shoutings, and\nwe shall cry, Grace, grace, at the last, salvation only belongeth\nto the Lord. (Zech 4:7, Psa 3:8, Isa 43:11)\n\nMany there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and\nthink THAT is the only way. Indeed works will save from temporal\npunishments, when their imperfections are purged from them by the\nintercession of Christ; but to be saved and brought to glory, to\nbe carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after\nChrist till I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the\nwork of my Mediator, of my high priest and intercessor; it is he\nthat fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifteth\nus up when the devil and sin has thrown us down; it is he that\nquickeneth us when we grow cold; it is he that comforteth us when\nwe despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted\nsin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaden with\nguilt. (Eze 34:16, Psa 145:14)\n\nI know also, that rewards do wait for them in heaven that do believe\nin Christ, and shall do well on earth; but this is not a reward of\nmerit, but of grace. We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by\nChrist; and all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God\nbut by the person and personal excellencies and works of Christ;\ntherefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets, and the\npearls, that thou shalt be adorned with as a reward of service done\nto God in the world, for them thou must thank Christ, and, before\nall, confess that he was the meritorious cause thereof. (1 Peter\n2:5, Heb 13:15) He saves us, and saves our services too. (Rev 5:9-14)\nThey would be all cast back as dung in our faces, were they not\nrinsed and washed in the blood, were they not sweetened and perfumed\nin the incense, and conveyed to God himself through the white hand\nof Jesus Christ; for that is his golden-censer; from thence ascends\nthe smoke that is in the nostrils of God of such a sweet savour.\n(Rev 7:12-14, 8:3,4)\n\n6. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ,\nsuch as do still stand in need of being saved by his intercession?\nThen hence I infer again, that we that have been saved hitherto,\nand preserved from the dangers that we have met with since our\nfirst conversion to this moment, should ascribe the glory to Jesus\nChrist, to God by Jesus Christ. 'I have prayed that thy faith fail\nnot: I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil,' is the\ntrue cause of our standing, and of our continuing in the faith and\nholy profession of the gospel to this very day. Wherefore we must\ngive the glory of all to God by Christ: 'I will not trust in my\nbow,' said David, 'neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast\nsaved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated\nus. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever.\nSelah'! 'He always causeth us to triumph in Christ.' 'We rejoice in\nChrist Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' (Psa 44:6-8,\n2 Cor 2:14, Phil 3:3) Thus you see that, both in the Old and\nNew Testament, all the glory is given to the Lord, as well for\npreservation to heaven as for justification of life. And he that\nis well acquainted with himself will do this readily; though light\nheads, and such as are not acquainted with the desperate evil that\nis in their natures, will sacrifice to their own net. But such will\nso sacrifice but a while. Sir Death is coming, and he will put them\ninto the view of what they see not now, and will feed sweetly upon\nthem, because they made not the Lord their trust. And therefore,\nascribe thou the glory of the preservation of thy soul in the faith\nhitherto, to that salvation which Christ Jesus our Lord obtaineth\nfor thee by his intercession.\n\n7. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ such\nas do still stand in need of being saved by his intercession? Then\nis this also to be inferred from hence, that saints should look to\nhim for that saving that they shall yet have need of betwixt this\nand the day of their dissolution; yea, from henceforward, even to\nthe day of judgment. I say, they should still look to him for the\nremaining part of their salvation, or for that of their salvation\nwhich is yet behind; and let them look for it with confidence, for\nthat it is in a faithful hand; and for thy encouragement to look and\nhope for the completing of thy salvation in glory, let me present\nthee with a few things--\n\n(1.) The hardest or worst part of the work of thy Saviour is over;\nhis bloody work, his bearing of thy sin and curse, his loss of the\nlight of his Father's face for a time; his dying upon the cursed\ntree, that was the worst, the sorest, the hardest, and most difficult\npart of the work of redemption; and yet this he did willingly,\ncheerfully, and without thy desires; yea, this he did, as considering\nthose for whom he did it in a state of rebellion and enmity to him.\n\n(2.) Consider, also, that he has made a beginning with thy soul\nto reconcile thee to God, and to that end has bestowed his justice\nupon thee, put his Spirit within thee, and began to make the\nunweldable mountain and rock,10 thy heart, to turn towards him,\nand desire after him; to believe in him, and rejoice in him.\n\n(3.) Consider, also, that some comfortable pledges of his love\nthou hast already received, namely, as to feel the sweetness of\nhis love, as to see the light of his countenance, as to be made to\nknow his power in raising of thee when thou wast down, and how he\nhas made thee stand, while hell has been pushing at thee, utterly\nto overthrow thee.\n\n(4.) Thou mayest consider, also, that what remains behind of the\nwork of thy salvation in his hands, as it is the most easy part,\nso the most comfortable, and that part which will more immediately\nissue in his glory, and therefore he will mind it.\n\n(5.) That which is behind is also more safe in his hand than if\nit were in thine own; he is wise, he is powerful, he is faithful,\nand therefore will manage that part that is lacking to our salvation\nwell, until he has completed it. It is his love to thee that has\nmade him that 'he putteth no trust in thee'; he knows that he can\nhimself bring thee to his kingdom most surely; and therefore has\nnot left that work to thee, no, not any part thereof. (Job 5:18,\n15:15)\n\nLive in hope, then, in a lively hope, that since Christ is risen\nfrom the dead, he lives to make intercession for thee, and that\nthou shalt reap the blessed benefit of this twofold salvation that\nis wrought, and that is working out for thee, by Jesus Christ our\nLord. And thus have we treated of the benefit of his intercession,\nin that he is able to save to the uttermost. And this leads me to\nthe third particular.\n\n[III. THE PERSONS INTERESTED IN THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.]\n\nTHIRD, The third particular is to show WHO ARE THE PERSONS INTERESTED\nIN THIS INTERCESSION OF CHRIST; and they are those that come to\nGod by him. The words are very concise, and distinctly laid down;\nthey are they that come, that come to God, that come to God by him.\n'Wherefore he is able also to save them, to save to the uttermost\nthem that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make\nintercession for them.'\n\n[Of coming to God by Christ.]--A little, first, to comment upon\nthe order of the words, 'that come unto God by him.'\n\nThere are that come unto God, but not 'by him'; and these are not\nincluded in this text, have not a share in this privilege. Thus the\nJews came to God, the unbelieving Jews, 'who had a zeal of God, but\nnot according to knowledge.' (Rom 9:30-34, 10:1-4) These submitted\nnot to Christ, the righteousness of God, but thought to come to\nhim by works of their own, or at least, as it were, by them, and\nso came short of salvation by grace, for that reigns to salvation\nonly in Christ. To these Christ's person and undertaking were a\nstumbling stone; for at him they stumbled, and did split themselves\nto pieces, though they indeed were such as came to God for life.\n\nAs there are that come to God, but not by Christ, so there are that\ncome to Christ, but not to God by him:11 of this sort are they, who\nhearing that Christ is Saviour, therefore come to him for pardon,\nbut cannot abide to come to God by him, for that he is holy, and\nso will snub their lusts, and will change their hearts and natures.\nMind me what I say. There are a great many that would be saved\nby Christ, but love not to be sanctified by God through him. These\nmake a stop at Christ, and will go no further. Might such have\npardon, they care not whether ever they went to heaven or no. Of\nthis kind of coming to Christ I think it is, of which he warneth\nhis disciples when he saith, 'In that day ye shall ask me nothing.\nVerily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father\nin my name, he will give it you.' (John 16:23) As who should say,\nwhen you ask for anything, make not a stop at me, but come to\nmy Father by me; for they that come to me, and not to my Father,\nthrough me, will have nothing of what they come for. Righteousness\nshall be imputed to us, 'if we believe on him that raised up\nJesus our Lord from the dead.' (Rom 4:24,25) To come to Christ for\na benefit, and stop there, and not come to God by him, prevaileth\nnothing. Here the mother of Zebedee's children erred; and about\nthis it was that the Lord Jesus cautioned her. Lord, saith she,\n'Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand,\nand the other on the left, in thy kingdom.' But what is the answer\nof Christ? 'To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to\ngive, but for whom it is prepared of my Father.' (Matt 20:21-23)\nAs who should say, Woman, of myself I do nothing, my Father worketh\nwith me. Go therefore to him by me, for I am the way to him; what\nthou canst obtain of him by me thou shalt have; that is to say,\nwhat of the things that pertain to eternal life, whether pardon or\nglory.\n\nIt is true, the Son has power to give pardon and glory, but he\ngives it not by himself, but by and according to the will of his\nFather. (Matt 9:6, John 17:22) They, therefore, that come to him\nfor an eternal good, and look not to the Father by him, come short\nthereof; I mean, now, pardon and glory. And hence, though it be\nsaid the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins--to wit,\nto show the certainty of his Godhead, and of the excellency of his\nmediation; yet forgiveness of sin is said to lie more particularly\nin the hand of the Father, and that God for Christ's sake forgiveth\nus. (Eph 4:32)\n\nThe Father, as we see, will not forgive unless we come to him by\nthe Son. Why, then, should we conceit that the Son will forgive\nthese that come not to the Father by him?\n\nSo then, justifying righteousness is in the Son, and with him also\nis intercession; but forgiveness is with the Father; yea, the gift\nof the Holy Ghost, yea, and the power of imputing of the righteousness\nof Christ is yet in the hand of the Father. Hence Christ prays\nto the Father to forgive, prays to the Father to send the Spirit,\nand it is God that imputeth righteousness to justification to us.\n(Luke 23:34, John 14:16, Rom 4:6) The Father, then, doth nothing\nbut for the sake of and through the Son; the Son also doth nothing\nderogating from the glory of the Father. But it would be a derogation\nto the glory of the Father if the Son should grant to save them\nthat come not to the Father by him; wherefore you that cry Christ,\nChrist, delighting yourselves in the thoughts of forgiveness, but\ncare not to come by Christ to the Father for it, you are not at all\nconcerned in this blessed text, for he only saves by his intercession\nthem that come to God by him.\n\nThere are three sorts of people that may be said to come to Christ,\nbut not to God by him.\n\n1. They whose utmost design in coming is only that guilt and fear\nof damning may be removed from them. And there are three signs of\nsuch an one--(1.) He that takes up in a belief of pardon, and so\ngoes on in his course of carnality as he did before. (2.) He whose\ncomfort in the belief of pardon standeth alone, without other\nfruits of the Holy Ghost. (3.) He that, having been washed, can\nbe content to tumble in the mire, as the sow again, or as the dog\nthat did spue to lick up his vomit again.\n\n2. They may be said to come to Christ, but not to God by him, who\ndo pick and choose doctrines, itching only after that which sounds\nof grace,12 but secretly abhorring of that which presseth to moral\ngoodness. These did never see God, what notions soever they may\nhave of the Lord Jesus, and of forgiveness from him. (Matt 5:8)\n\n3. They surely did never come to God by Christ, however they may\nboast of the grace of Christ, that will from the freeness of gospel\ngrace plead an indulgence for sin.\n\n[Manner of coming to God.]--And now to speak a few words of coming\nto God, or coming as the text intends. And in speaking to this, I\nmust touch upon two things--1. Concerning God. 2. Concerning the\nframe of the heart of him that comes to him.\n\n1. Of God. God is the chief good. Good so as nothing is but himself.\nHe is in himself most happy; yea, all good; and all true happiness\nis only to be found in God, as that which is essential to his nature;\nnor is there any good or any happiness in or with any creature\nor thing but what is communicated to it by God. God is the only\ndesirable good, nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right\nthoughts of God are able to ravish the heart; how much more happy\nis the man that has interest in God. God alone is able by himself to\nput the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition\nthan can the whole world; yea, and more than if all the created\nhappiness of all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man's bosom.\nGod is the upholder of all creatures, and whatever they have that\nis a suitable good to their kind, it is from God; by God all things\nhave their subsistence, and all the good that they enjoy. I cannot\ntell what to say; I am drowned! The life, the glory, the blessedness,\nthe soul-satisfying goodness that is in God is beyond all expression.\n\n2. Now there must be in us something of a suitableness of spirit\nto this God before we can be willing to come to him.\n\nBefore, therefore, God has been with a man, and has left some\nimpression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to\ncome to him aright. Hence it is said concerning Abraham, that, in\norder to his coming to God, and following of him aright, the Lord\nhimself did show himself unto him--'Men, brethren, and fathers,\nhearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when\nhe was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto\nhim, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come\ninto the land which I shall show thee.' (Acts 7:2,3, Gen 12:1)\n\nIt was this God of glory, the sight and visions of this God\nof glory, that provoked Abraham to leave his country and kindred\nto come after God. The reason why men are so careless of, and\nso indifferent about, their coming to God, is because they have\ntheir eyes blinded, because they do not perceive his glory. God is\nso blessed a one, that did he not hide himself and his glory, the\nwhole world would be ravished with him. But he has, I will not\nsay reasons of state, but reasons of glory, glorious reasons why\nhe hideth himself from the world, and appeareth but to particular\nones. Now by his thus appearing to Abraham, down fell Abraham's\nvanity, and his idolatrous fancies and affections, and his heart\nbegan to turn unto God, for that there was in this appearance an\nalluring and soul-instructing voice. Hence that which Moses calls\nhere an appearing, Christ calls a hearing, and a teaching, and a\nlearning--'It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught\nof God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of\nthe Father, cometh unto me,' that is, to God by me. But, I say, what\nmust they hear and learn of the Father but that Christ is the way\nto glory, the way to the God of glory. This is a drawing doctrine;\nwherefore that which in this verse is called teaching and learning,\nis called, in the verse before, the drawing of the Father--'No\nman can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him';\nthat is, with powerful proposals, and alluring conclusions, and\nheart-subduing influences. (John 6:44,45)\n\nHaving thus touched upon this, we will now proceed to show you\nwhat kind of people they are that come to God by Christ; and then\nshall draw some inferences from this also.\n\n[Who are the people that come to Christ.]\n\nThere are, therefore, three sorts of people that come to God\nby Christ. First, Men newly awakened. Second, Men turned from\nbacksliding. Third, The sincere and upright man.\n\n[Of the newly awakened coming to Christ.]\n\nFirst, Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly.\nSo awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the\nworld, what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death,\nwhat it is; Christ, what he is; and God, what he is; and also what\njudgment is.\n\nA man that will come to God by Christ aright must needs, precedent\nto his so coming, have a competent knowledge of things of this\nkind.\n\n1. He must know himself, what a wretched and miserable sinner he\nis, before he will take one step forward in order to his coming\nto God by Christ. This is plain from a great many scriptures; as\nthat of the parable of the prodigal, (Luke 15); that of the three\nthousand, (Acts 2); that of the jailer, (Acts 16), and those of\nmany more besides. The whole have no need of the physician. They\nwere not the sound and whole, but the lame and diseased that came\nto him to be cured of their infirmities; and it is not the righteous,\nbut the sinners that do well know themselves to be such, that come\nto God by Christ.\n\nIt is not in the power of all the men on earth to make one man come\nto God by Christ, because it is not in their power to make men see\ntheir state by nature. And what should a man come to God for, that\ncan live in the world without him? Reason says so, experience says\nso, the Scripture beareth witness that so it is of a truth. It is\na sight of what I am that must unroost me, that must shake my soul,\nand make me leave my present rest. No man comes to God by Christ\nbut he that knows himself, and what sin hath done to him; that is\nthe first. (Job 21:7-15)\n\n2. As he must know himself, and what a wretch he is, so he must\nknow the world, and what an empty thing it is. Cain did see himself,\nbut saw not the emptiness of this world; and therefore instead of\ngoing to God by Christ, he went to the world, and there did take\nup to his dying day. (Gen 4:16) The world is a great snare to the\nsoul, even to the souls of awakened sinners, by reason of its big\nlooks, and the fair promises that it makes to those that will please\nto entertain it. It will also make as though it could do as much\nto the quieting of the spirit as either sermon, Bible, or preacher.\nYea, and it has its followers ready at its heels continually to blow\nits applause abroad, saying, 'Who will show us any [other] good?'\n(Psa 4:6) and though 'this their way is their folly: yet their\nposterity approve their sayings.' (Psa 49:13) So that unless a man,\nunder some awakenings, sees the emptiness of the world, he will\ntake up in the good things thereof, and not come to God by Christ.\nMany there be now in hell that can seal to this for truth. It was\nthe world that took awakened Cain, awakened Judas, awakened Demas.\nYea, Balaam, though he had some kind of visions of God, yet was kept\nby the world from coming to him aright. See with what earnestness\nthe young man in the gospel came to Jesus Christ, and that for\neternal life. He ran to him, he kneeled down to him, and asked, and\nthat before a multitude, 'Good master, what shall I do that I may\ninherit eternal life?' (Mark 10:17-24) And yet when he was told he\ncould not come, the world soon stepped betwixt that life and him,\nand persuaded him to take up in itself; and so, for aught we know,\nhe never looked after life more.\n\nThere are four things in the world that have a tendency to lull an\nawakened man asleep, if God also makes him not afraid of the world.\n\n(1.) There is the bustle and cumber of the world, that will call\na man off from looking after the salvation of his soul. This is\nintimated by the parable of the thorny ground. (Luke 8:14) Worldly\ncumber is a devilish thing; it will hurry a man from his bed without\nprayer; to a sermon, and from it again, without prayer; it will\nchoke prayer, it will choke the Word, it will choke convictions,\nit will choke the soul, and cause that awakening shall be to no\nsaving purpose.\n\n(2.) There is the friendship of this world, to which, if a man is\nnot mortified, there is no coming for him to God by Christ. And a\nman can never be mortified to it unless he shall see the emptiness\nand vanity of it. Whosoever makes himself a friend of this world\nis the enemy of God. And how, then, can he come to him by Christ?\n(James 4:4)\n\n(3.) There are the terrors of the world, if a man stands in fear\nof them, he also will not come to God by Christ. The fear of man\nbrings a snare. How many have, in all ages, been kept from coming\nto God aright by the terrors of the world? Yea, how many are there\nto one's thinking have almost got to the gates of heaven, and have\nbeen scared and driven quite back again by nothing but the terrors\nof this world? This is that which Christ so cautioneth his disciples\nabout, for he knew it was a deadly thing. Peter also bids the\nsaints beware of this as of a thing very destructive. (Luke 12:4-6,\n1 Peter 3:14,15)\n\n(4.) There is also the glory of the world, an absolute hindrance\nto convictions and awakenings, to wit, honours, and greatness,\nand preferments: 'How can ye believe,' said Christ, 'which receive\nhonour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from\nGod only.' (John 5:44) If therefore a man is not in his affections\ncrucified to these, it will keep him from coming to God aright.\n\n3. As a man must know himself, how vile he is, and know the world,\nhow empty it is, so he must know the law, how severe it is; else\nhe will not come to God by Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nA man that is under awakenings, is under a double danger of falling\nshort of coming to God by Christ. If he knows not the severity of\nthe law, he is either in danger of slighting its penalty, or of\nseeking to make amends to it by doing of good works; and nothing\ncan keep him from splitting his soul upon one of these two rocks,\nbut a sound knowledge of the severity of the law.\n\n(1.) He is in danger of slighting the penalty. This is seen by the\npractice of all the profane in the world. Do they not know the law?\nVerily, many of them can say the Ten Commandments without book.\nBut they do not know the severity of the law; and therefore when\nat any time awakenings come upon their consciences, they strive\nto drive away the guilt of one sin, by wallowing in the filth of\nanother.\n\nBut would they do thus if they knew the severity of the law?\nthey would as soon eat fire. The severity of the law would be an\nintolerable, insupportable burden to their consciences; it would\ndrive them, and make them fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope\nset before them.\n\n(2.) Or if he slights not the penalty, he will seek to make amends\nto it by doing of good works for the sins he has committed. This\nis manifest by the practice of the Jews and Turks, and all that\nswerve on that hand--to wit, to seek life and happiness by the law.\nPaul also was here before he meet with Jesus in the way. This is\nnatural to consciences that are awakened, unless also they have given\nto them to see the true severity of the law; the which that thou\nmayest do, if my mite will help, I will cast in for thy conviction\nthese four things--\n\n(a.) The law charges thee with its curse, as well for the pollution\nof thy nature, as for the defilements of thy life; yea, and if\nthou hadst never committed sinful act, thy pollution of nature must\nstand in thy way to life, if thou comest not to God for mercy by\nChrist.\n\n(b.) The law takes notice of, and chargeth thee with its curse,\nas well for sinful thoughts as for vile and sinful actions. 'The\n[very] thought of foolishness is sin,' (Prov 24:9), though it never\nbreaks out into act, and will as surely merit the damnation of the\nsoul as will the greatest transgression in the world.\n\n(c.) If now thou couldst keep all the commandments, that will do\nthee no good at all, because thou hast sinned first: 'The soul that\nsinneth shall die.' Unless, then, thou canst endure the curse, and\nso in a legal way overcome it for the sins that thou hast committed,\nthou art gone, if thou comest not to God by Christ for mercy and\npardon.\n\n(d.) And never think of repentance, thereby to stop the mouth of\nthe law; for the law calleth not for repentance, but life; nor will\nit accept of any, shouldst thou mourn and weep for thy sins till\nthou hast made a sea of blood with tears. This, I say, thou must\nknow, or thou wilt not come to God by Christ for life. For the\nknowledge of this will cause that thou shalt neither slight the\nseverity of the law, nor trust to the works thereof for life. Now,\nwhen thou doest neither of these, thou canst not but speed thee to\nGod by Christ for life; for now thou hast no stay; pleasures are\ngone, all hope in thyself is gone. Thou now diest, and that is the\nway to love; for this inward death is, or feels like, a hunger-bitten\nstomach, that cannot but crave and gape for meat and drink. Now it\nwill be as possible for thee to sleep with thy finger in the fire,\nas to forbear craving of mercy so long as this knowledge remains.\n\n4. As a man must know himself, the emptiness of this world, and\nthe law, so it is necessary for him to know that there is a hell,\nand how insupportable the torments of it are; for all threatenings,\ncurses, and determinations to punish in the next world will prove\nbut fictions and scarecrows, if there be no woeful place, no woeful\nstate, for the sinner to receive his wages in for sin, when his days\nare ended in this world. Wherefore, this word 'saved' supposeth\nsuch a place and state. He is able to save from hell, from the\nwoeful place, from the woeful state of hell, them that come unto\nGod by him.\n\nChrist, therefore, often insinuated the truth of a hell in his\ninvitations to the sinners of this world to come to him; as where\nhe tells them they shall be saved if they do, they shall be damned\nif they do not. As if he had said, there is a hell, a terrible\nhell, and they that come to me I will save them from it; but they\nthat come not, the law will damn them in it. Therefore, that thou\nmayest indeed come to God by Christ for mercy, believe there is a\nhell, a woeful, terrible place. Hell is God's creature, 'he hath\nmade it deep and large'! The punishments are by the lashes of his\nwrath, which will issue from his mouth like a stream of burning\nbrimstone, ever kindling itself upon the soul. (Isa 30:33) Thou\nmust know this by the Word, and fly from it, or thou shalt know it\nby thy sins, and lie and cry in it.\n\nI might enlarge, but if I did, I should be swallowed up; for we\nare while here no more able to set forth the torments of hell, than\nwe are whole here to set forth the joys of heaven; only this may,\nand ought to be said, that God is able, as to save, so to cast into\nhell. (Luke 12:5) And as he is able to make heaven sweet, good,\npleasurable, and glorious beyond thought; so he is able to make the\ntorments of hell so exquisite, so hot, so sharp, so intolerable,\nthat no tongue can utter it, no, not the damned in hell themselves.\n(Isa 64:4) If thou lovest thy soul, slight not the knowledge of hell,\nfor that, with the law, are the spurs which Christ useth to prick\nsouls forward to himself withal. What is the cause that sinners can\nplay so delightfully with sin? It is for that they forget there is\na hell for them to descend into for their so doing, when they go\nout of this world. For here usually he gives our stop to a sinful\ncourse; we perceive that hell hath opened her mouth before us. Lest\nthou shouldst forget, I beseech thee, another time, to retain the\nknowledge of hell in thine understanding, and apply the burning-hot\nthoughts thereof to thy conscience; this is one way to make thee\ngather up thy heels, and mend thy pace in thy coming to Jesus\nChrist, and to God the Father by him.13\n\n5. It is also necessary that he that cometh to God by the Lord Jesus,\nshould know what death is, and the uncertainty of its approaches\nupon us. Death is, as I may call it, the feller, the cutter down.\nDeath is that that puts a stop to a further living here, and that\nwhich lays man where judgment finds him. If he is in the faith in\nJesus, it lays him down there to sleep till the Lord comes; if he\nbe not in the faith, it lays him down in his sins till the Lord\ncomes. (Heb 11:13, 1 Thess 4:14, Job 20:11) Again; if thou hast\nsome beginnings that look like good, and death should overtake thee\nbefore those beginnings are ripe, thy fruit will wither, and thou\nwilt fall short of being gathered into God's barn. Some men are\n'cut off as the tops of the ears of corn,' and some are even nipped\nby death in the very bud of their spring; but the safety is when\na man is ripe, and shall be gathered to his grave, as a shock of\ncorn to the barn in its season. (Job 24:20-24, 5:26)\n\nNow if death should surprise and seize thee before thou art fit\nto die, all is lost; for there is no repentance in the grave, or\nrather, as the wise man has it, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to\ndo, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor\nknowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.' (Eccl\n9:10)\n\nDeath is God's sergeant, God's bailiff, and he arrests in God's\nname when he comes, but seldom gives warning before he clappeth us\non the shoulder; and when he arrests us, though he may stay a little\nwhile, and give us leave to pant, and tumble, and toss ourselves\nfor a while upon a bed of languishing, yet at last he will prick\nour bladder, and let out our life, and then our soul will be poured\nupon the ground, yea, into hell, if we are not ready and prepared\nfor the life everlasting. He that doth not watch for, and is not\nafraid lest death should prevent him, will not make haste to God\nby Christ. What Job said of temporal afflictions, such an one will\ndeath be if thou art not aware--'When I looked for good, then evil\ncame--The days of affliction prevented me.' (Job 30:26,27) If thou\nlookest, or beginnest to look for good, and the day of death shall\ncut thee off before thou hast found that good thou lookest for,\nall is lost, soul, and life, and heaven, and all. Wherefore it\nis convenient that thou conclude the grave is thy house, and that\nthou make thy bed once a day in the grave; also that thou say unto\ncorruption, 'Thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother\nand my sister.' (Job 17:13,14) I say, be acquainted with the grave\nand death. The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man\nbrings it nigh. Better be ready to die seven years before death\ncomes, than want one day, one hour, one moment, one tear, one\nsorrowful sigh at the remembrance of the ill-spent life that I have\nlived. This, then, is that which I admonish thee of; namely, that\nthou know death, what it is, what it doth when it comes. Also, that\nthou consider well of the danger that death leaves that man in, to\nwhom he comes before he is ready and prepared to be laid by it in\nthe grave.\n\n6. Thou must also be made by thy awakenings to see what Christ\nis. This is of absolute necessity; for how can or shall a man be\nwilling to come to Christ that knows not what he is, what God has\nappointed him to do? He is the Saviour, every man will say so; but\nto sense, smell, and taste, what saving is, and so to understand\nthe nature of the office and work of a Saviour, is a rare thing,\nkept close from most, known but by some. Jesus of Nazareth is the\nSaviour or the reconciler of men to God in the body of his flesh\nthrough death. (Col 1:19-21) This is he whose business in coming\nfrom heaven to earth was to save his people from their sins. Now,\nas was said, to know how he doth this, is that which is needful to\nbe inquired into; for some say he doth it one way, some, he doth it\nanother; and it must be remembered that we are now speaking of the\nsalvation of that man that from new or first awakenings, is coming\nto God by Christ for life. (1.) Some say he doth it, by giving of\nus precepts and laws to keep, that we might be justified thereby.\n(2.) Some say that he doth it, by setting himself a pattern for us\nto follow him.(3.) Some again hold, that he doth it by our following\nthe light within.\n\nBut thou must take heed of all these, for he justifies us by none\nof these means, and thou dost need to be justified. I say, he\njustifieth us, not either by giving laws unto us, or by becoming our\nexample, or by our following of him in any sense, but by his blood\nshed for us. His blood is not laws, nor ordinances, nor commandments,\nbut a price, a redeeming price. (Rom 5:7-9, Rev 1:5) He justifies\nus by bestowing upon us, not by expecting from us; he justifies us\nby his grace, not by our works. (Eph 1:7) In a word, thou must be\nwell grounded in the knowledge of what Christ is, and how men are\njustified by him, or thou wilt not come unto God by him.\n\nAs thou must know him, and how men are justified by him, so thou\nmust know the readiness that is in him to receive and to do for\nthose what they need that come unto God by him. Suppose his merits\nwere never so efficacious, yet if it could be proved that there is\na loathness in him that these merits should be bestowed upon the\ncoming ones, there would but few adventure to wait upon him. But\nnow, as he is full, he is free. Nothing pleases him better than to\ngive what he has away; than to bestow it upon the poor and needy.\nAnd it will be convenient that thou who art a coming soul shouldst\nknow this for thy comfort to encourage thee to come to God by him.\nTake two or three sayings of his, for the confirming of what is\nnow said. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,\nand I will give you rest.' (Matt 11:28) 'All that the Father giveth\nme shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise\ncast out.' (John 6:37) 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners\nto repentance.' (Mark 2:17) 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy\nof all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save\nsinners; of whom I am chief.' (1 Tim 1:15)\n\n7. As a man that would come to God by Christ must, antecedent to\nhis so coming, know himself, what he is; the world, how empty it\nis; the law, how severe it is; death, and what it is; and Christ,\nand what he is; so also he must know God. 'He that cometh to God\nmust believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that\ndiligently seek him.' (Heb 11:6) God must be known, else how can\nthe sinner propound him as his end, his ultimate end? For so doth\nevery one that indeed doth come to Christ aright; he comes to Christ\nbecause he is the way; he comes to God because he is the end. But,\nI say, if he knows him not, how can he propound him as the end? The\nend is that for the sake of which I propound to myself anything,\nand for the sake of which I use any means. Now, then, I would be\nsaved; but why? Even because I would enjoy God. I use the means\nto be saved; and why? Because I would enjoy God. I am sensible that\nsin has made me come short of the glory of God, and that Christ Jesus\nis he, the only he, that can put me into a condition of obtaining\nthe glory of God; and, therefore, I come to God by him. (Rom 3:23,\n5:1,2)\n\nBut, I say again, who will propound God for his end that knows him\nnot, that knows him not aright? yea, that knows him not, to be worth\nbeing propounded as my end in coming to Jesus Christ; and he that\nthus knows him must know him to be above all, best of all, and him\nin whom the soul shall find that content, that bliss, that glory\nand happiness that can by no means be found elsewhere. And, I\nsay, if this be not found in God, the soul will never propound him\nto itself as the only, highest, and ultimate end in its coming to\nJesus Christ. But it will propound something else, even what it\nshall imagine to be the best good; perhaps heaven, perhaps ease\nfrom guilt, perhaps to be kept out of hell, or the like. I do not\nsay but a man may propound all these to himself, in his coming\nto Jesus Christ; but if he propound these as his ultimate end, as\nthe chiefest good that he seeks; if the presence and enjoyment of\nGod, of God's glorious majesty, be not his chief design, he is not\nconcerned in the salvation that is propounded in our text--'He is\nable,' and so will 'save to the uttermost them that come unto God\nby him.'\n\nWhat is heaven without God? what is ease without the peace and\nenjoyment of God? what is deliverance from hell without the enjoyment\nof God? The propounding, therefore, these, and only these, to thyself\nfor thy happiness in thy coming to Jesus Christ is a proposal not\na hair's breadth higher than what a man without grace can propound.\nWhat or who is he that would not go to heaven? What or who is he\nthat would not also have ease from the guilt of sin? And where is\nthe man that chooseth to go to hell? But many there be that cannot\nabide God; no, they like not to go to heaven, because God is\nthere. If the devil had a heaven to bestow upon men, a vicious and\na beastly heaven, if it be lawful thus to speak, I durst pawn my\nsoul upon it, were it a thousand times better than it is, that,\nupon a bare invitation, the foul fiend would have twenty to God's\none. They, I say, cannot abide God; nay, for all, the devil has\nnothing but a hell for them; yet how thick men go to him, but how\nthinly to God Almighty. The nature of God lieth cross to the lusts\nof men. A holy God, a glorious holy God, an infinitely holy God,\nthis spoils all. But to the soul that is awakened, and that is made\nto see things as they are; to him God is what he is in himself,\nthe blessed, the highest, the only eternal good, and he without the\nenjoyment of whom all things would sound but emptily in the ears\nof that soul.\n\nNow, then, I advise thee that hast a mind to come to God by Christ,\nthat thou seek the knowledge of God--'If thou seekest wisdom as\nsilver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou\nunderstand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.'\n(Prov 2:4,5) And to encourage thee yet further, he is so desirous\nof communion with men, that he pardoneth sins for that. Hence\nhe is called not only loving, but love. 'God is love; and he that\ndwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' (1 John 4:16)\n\nMethinks, when I consider what glory there is at times upon the\ncreatures, and that all their glory is the workmanship of God; O\nLord, say I, what is God himself? He may well be called the God of\nglory, as well as the glorious Lord; for as all glory is from him,\nso in him is an inconceivable well-spring of glory, of glory to\nbe communicated to them that come by Christ to him. Wherefore, let\nthe glory, and love, and bliss, and eternal happiness that is in\nGod allure thee to come to him by Christ.\n\n8. As thou shouldst, nay, must, have a good knowledge of all these,\nso thou must have it of judgment to come. They that come to God\nby Christ are said to 'flee from the wrath to come'; to 'flee for\nrefuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them.' (Matt 3:7, Heb\n6:18)\n\nThis judgment to come is a warm thing to be thought of, an awakening\nthing to be thought of; it is called the eternal judgment, because\nit is and will be God's final conclusion with men. This day is\ncalled the 'great and notable day of the Lord,' (Acts 2:20); the\nday 'that shall burn like an oven,' (Mal 4:1); the day in which the\nangels shall gather the wicked together, as tares, into bundles,\nto burn them; but the rest, into his kingdom and glory. This day\nwill be it in which all the bowels of love and compassion shall be\nshut up to the wicked, and that in which the floodgates of wrath\nshall be opened, by which shall a plentiful reward be given to\nevil-doers, but glory to the righteous. (Psa 31:23) This is the\nday in which men, if they could, would creep into the ground for\nfear; but because they cannot, therefore, they will call and cry\nto the mountains to fall upon them, but they shall not; therefore,\nthey stand bound to bear their judgment.\n\nThis day will be the day of breaking up of closet-councils,\ncabinet-councils, secret purposes, hidden thoughts; yea, 'God shall\nbring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.' (Eccl\n12:14) I say he shall do it then; for he will both 'bring to light\nthe hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels\nof the heart.' (1 Cor 4:5) This is the day that is appointed to put\nthem to shame and contempt in that have, in this world, been bold\nand audacious in their vile and beastly ways. At this day, God\nwill cover all such bold and brazen faces with shame. Now they will\nblush till the blood is ready to burst through their cheeks. (Dan\n12:2) Oh! the confusion and shame that will cover their faces while\nGod is discovering to them what a nasty, what a beastly, what an\nuncomely, and what an unreasonable life they lived in the world.\nThey shall now see they contemned God, that fed them, that clothed\nthem, that gave them life and limb, and that maintained their\nbreath in their nostrils. But, oh, when they see the gulf before\nthem, and all things ready to receive them in thither; then, then\nthey will know what sinning against God means!\n\nAnd, I say, thou that art for coming to God by Christ must know\nthis, and be well assured of this, or thou wilt never come to God\nby him.\n\nWhat of the glory of God shall be put upon them that do indeed\ncome to him will also help in this spiritual journey, if it be well\nconsidered by thee. But, perhaps, terror and unbelief will suffer\nthee to consider but little of that. However, the things afore-mentioned\nwill be goads, and will serve to prick thee forward; and if they\ndo so, they will be God's great blessing unto thee, and that for\nwhich thou wilt give him thy thanks for ever. (Eccl 12:10,11)\n\nThus I have, in few words, spoken something as to the first sort of\ncomers to God by Christ, namely, of the coming of the newly-awakened\nman. And I say again, if any of the things afore-named be wanting,\nand are not with his heart, it is a question whether, notwithstanding\nall the noise that he may make about religion, he will ever come\nto God by Christ. 1. If he knows not himself and the badness of his\ncondition, wherefore should he come? 2. If he knows not the world,\nand the emptiness and vanity thereof, wherefore should he come?\n3. If he knows not the law, and the severity thereof, wherefore\nshould he come? 4. If he knows not hell, and the torments thereof,\nwherefore should he come? 5. If he knows not what death is, wherefore\nshould he come? 6. And if he knows not the Father and the Son, how\ncan he come? 7. And to know that there is a judgment to come is as\nnecessary to his coming as most of the rest of the things propounded.\nComing to God by Christ is for shelter, for safety, for advantage,\nand everlasting happiness. But he that knows not, that understands\nnot the things afore-mentioned, sees not his need of taking shelter,\nof flying for safety, of coming for advantage to God by Christ. I\nknow there are degrees of this knowledge, and he that has it most\nwarm upon him, in all likelihood, will make most haste; or, as David\nsaith, will hasten his escape 'from the windy storm and tempest';\nand he that sees least is in most danger of being the loiterer,\nand so of losing the prize; for all that run do not obtain it; all\nthat fight do not win it; and ALL that strive for it have it not.\n(Psa 55:8, 1 Cor 9:24-26, 2 Tim 2:4,5)\n\n[Of the backslider's return to Christ.]\n\nSecond, I shall now come to the second man mentioned; to wit, the\nman that is turning back from his backsliding, and speak something\nalso about his coming again to God by Christ.\n\nThere are two things remarkable in the returning of a backslider\nto God by Christ. 1. The first is, he gives a second testimony to\nthe truth of all things spoken of before. 2. He also gives a second\ntestimony of the necessity of coming to God by Christ. Of the manner\nof his coming to God by Christ perhaps I may also speak a word or\ntwo. But,\n\n1. The returning again of the backslider gives a second testimony\nto the truth of man's state being by nature miserable, of the vanity\nof this world, of the severity of the law, certainty of death, and\nterribleness of judgment to come. His first coming told them so,\nbut his second coming tells them so with a double confirmation of\nthe truth. It is so, saith his first coming. Oh! it is so, saith his\nsecond. The backsliding of a Christian comes through the overmuch\npersuading of Satan and lust, that the man was mistaken, and that\nthere was no such horror in the things from which he fled, nor so\nmuch good in the things to which he hasted. Turn again, fool, says\nthe devil, turn again to thy former course; I wonder what frenzy it\nwas that drove thee to thy heels, and that made thee leave so much\ngood behind thee, as other men find in the lusts of the flesh and\nthe good of the world. As for the law, and death, and an imagination\nof the day of judgment, they are but mere scarecrows, set up by\npolitic heads, to keep the ignorant in subjection. Well, says the\nbackslider, I will go back again and see; so, fool as he is, he\ngoes back, and has all things ready to entertain him; his conscience\nsleeps, the world smiles, flesh is sweet, carnal company compliments\nhim, and all that can be got is presented to this backslider\nto accommodate him. But, behold, he doth again begin to see his\nown nakedness, and he perceives that the law is whetting his axe.\nAs for the world, he perceives it is a bubble; he also smells the\nsmell of brimstone, for God hath scattered it upon his tabernacle,\nand it begins to burn within him. (Job 18:15) Oh! saith he, I\nam deluded; oh! I am ensnared. My first sight of things was true.\nI see it is so again. Now he begins to be for flying again to his\nfirst refuge; O God, saith he, I am undone, I have turned from thy\ntruth to lies! I believed them such at first, and find them such\nat last. Have mercy upon me, O God!\n\nThis, I say, is a testimony, a second testimony, by the same man,\nas to the miserable state of man, the severity of the law, the\nemptiness of the world, the certainty of death, and the terribleness\nof judgment. This man hath seen it, and seen it again.\n\nA returning backslider is a great blessing, I mean intended to\nbe so, to two sorts of men--1. To the elect uncalled. 2. To the\nelect that are called, and that at present stand their ground. The\nuncalled are made to hear him, and consider; the called are made\nto hear him, and are afraid of falling. Behold, therefore, the\nmystery of God's wisdom, and how willing he is that spectators\nshould be warned and made take heed. Yea, he will permit that some\nof his own shall fall into the fire, to convince the world that hell\nis hot, and to warn their brethren to take heed that they slip not\nwith their feet. I have often said in my heart that this was the\ncause why God suffered so many of the believing Jews to fall; to\nwit, that the Gentiles might take heed. (Rom 11:21) O, brethren!\nsaith the backslider that is returned, did you see how I left my\nGod? did you see how I turned again to those vanities from which\nsome time before I fell? O! I was deluded, I was bewitched, I was\ndeceived; for I found all things from which I fled at first still\nworse by far when I went to them the second time. Do not backslide.\nOh! do not backslide. the first ground of your departing from them\nwas good; never tempt God a second time.\n\n2. And as he gives us a second testimony, that the world and himself\nare so as at first he believed they were, so by this his returning\nhe testifies that God and Christ are the same, and much more than\never he believed at first they were. This man has made a proof\nbefore and a proof after conviction of the evil of the one and good\nof the other. This man has made a proof by feeling and seeing, and\nthat before and after grace received. This man God has set up to\nbe a witness; this man is two men, has the testimony of two men,\nmust serve in the place of two men. He knows what it is to be\nfetched from a state of nature by grace; but this all Christians\nknow as well as he. Ay, but he knows what it is to be fetched from\nthe world, from the devil, and hell, the second time; and that but\nfew professors know, for few that fall away return to do again. (Heb\n6:4-8) Ay, but this man is come again, wherefore there is news in\nhis mouth, sad news, dreadful news, and news that is to make the\nstanding saint to take heed lest he fall. The returning backslider,\ntherefore, is a rare man, a man of worth and intelligence, a man\nto whom the men of the world should flock, and of whom they should\nlearn to fear the Lord God. He also is a man of whom the saints\nshould receive both caution, counsel, and strength in their present\nstanding; and they should, by his harms, learn to serve the Lord\nwith fear, and to rejoice with trembling. (1 Cor 10:6-13, Isa\n51:11-13, Luke 22:32)\n\nThis man has the second time also had a proof of God's goodness\nin his Christ unto him, a proof which the standing Christian has\nnot--I would not tempt him that stands to fall; but the good that\na returning backslider has received at God's hands, and at the hand\nof Christ, is a double good, he has been converted twice, fetched\nfrom the world, and from the devil, and from himself twice; oh,\ngrace! and has been made to know the stability of God's covenant,\nthe unchangeableness of God's mind, the sure and lasting truth\nof his promise in Christ, and of the sufficiency of the merits of\nChrist, over and over.\n\n[The manner of a backslider's return.]--Of the manner of this man's\ncoming to God by Christ I shall also speak a word or two. He comes\nas the newly-awakened sinner comes, and that from the same motives\nand the knowledge of things as he hath over and above (which he had\nas good have been without), that which the newly-awakened sinner\nhas not; to wit, the guilt of his backsliding, which is a guilt of\na worse complexion, of a deeper dye, and of a heavier nature than\nis any guilt else in the world. He is also attended with fears\nand doubts that arise from other reasons and considerations than\ndo the doubts and fears of the newly-awakened man; doubts builded\nupon the vileness of his backsliding. He has also more dreadful\nscriptures to consider of, and they will look more wishfully in\nhis face, yea, and will also make him take notice of their grim\nphysiognomy, than has the newly-awakened man. Besides, as a punishment\nof his backsliding, God seems to withdraw the sweet influences of\nhis Spirit, and as if he would not suffer him to pray, nor to repent\nany more, (Psa 51:11), as if he would now take all away from him,\nand leave him to those lusts and idols that he left his God to\nfollow. Swarms of his new rogueries shall haunt him in every place,\nand that not only in the guilt, but in the filth and pollution of\nthem. (Prov 14:14) None know the things that haunt a backslider's\nmind, his new sins are all turned talking devils, threatening\ndevils, roaring devils, within him. Besides, he doubts of the truth\nof his first conversion, consequently he has it lying upon him as a\nstrong suspicion that there was nothing of truth in all his first\nexperience; and this also adds lead to his heels, and makes him\ncome, as to sense and feeling, more heavy and with the greater\ndifficulty to God by Christ. As faithfulness of other men kills\nhim, he cannot see an honest, humble, holy, faithful servant of\nGod, but he is pierced and wounded at the heart. Ay, says he within\nhimself, that man fears God, that man hath faithfully followed God,\nthat man, like the elect angels, has kept his place; but I am fallen\nfrom my station like a devil. That man honoureth God, edifieth the\nsaints, convinceth the world, and condemneth them, and is become\nheir of the righteousness which is by faith. But I have dishonoured\nGod, stumbled and grieved saints, made the world blaspheme, and,\nfor aught I know, been the cause of the damnation of many! These\nare the things, I say, together with many more of the same kind,\nthat come with him; yea, they will come with him, yea, and will\nstare him in the face, will tell him of his baseness, and laugh him\nto scorn, all the way that he is coming to God by Christ--I know\nwhat I say!--and this makes his coming to God by Christ hard and\ndifficult to him. Besides, he thinks saints will be aware of him,\nwill be shy of him, will be afraid to trust him, yea, will tell\nhis Father of him, and make intercession against him, as Elias did\nagainst Israel, (Rom 11:2), or as the men did that were fellow-servants\nwith him that took his brother by the throat. (Matt 18:31) Shame\ncovereth his face all the way he comes; he doth not know what to\ndo; the God he is returning to, is the God that he has slighted,\nthe God before whom he has preferred the vilest lust; and he knows\nGod knows it, and has before him all his ways. The man that has been\na backslider, and is returning to God, can tell strange stories,\nand yet such as are very true. No man was in the whale's belly,\nand came out again alive, but backsliding and returning Jonah;\nconsequently, no man could tell how he was there, what he felt\nthere, what he saw there, and what workings of heart he had when\nhe was there, so well as he.\n\n[The sincere Christian's coming to God by Christ.]\n\nThird, I come now to the third man--to wit, to the sincere and\nupright man that cometh to God by Christ. And although this may,\nin some sense, be applicable to the two former, for his coming is\nnot worthy to be counted coming to God, that is, not in sincerity\nand uprightness, yet by such an one I now mean, one that has been\ncalled to the faith, and that has in some good measure of sincerity\nand uprightness therein abode with God.\n\nThis man also comes to God by Christ; but his coming is to be\ndistinguished, I mean in the main of it, from the coming of the other\ntwo. The other come for the knowledge of forgiveness, a thing that\nthe upright and faithful Christian for the most part has a comfortable\nfaith of, and that for which he is often helped to give thanks to\nGod. I do not say he doubteth not, or that he has not his evidences\nsometimes clouded; nor do I say that the knowledge of his reconciliation\nto God by Christ Jesus is so high, so firm, so fixed, and steadfast,\nthat it cannot be shaken, or that he needs no more. I will then\nexplain myself. He comes not to God as an unconverted sinner\ncomes; he comes not as a backslider comes when he is returning to\nGod from his backslidings; but he comes as a son, as one of the\nhousehold of God, and he comes as one that has not, since correction,\nwickedly departed from his God.\n\n1. He then comes to God with that access and godly boldness that\nis only proper to such as himself, that is, to them that walk with\nGod. (Rom 5:2) Thus every one that shall be saved doth not do;\nthus every one that shall be saved cannot do--to instance the two\nspoken of before.\n\n2. He comes to God by Christ constantly by prayer, by meditation,\nby every ordinance. For therefore he maketh use of ordinances,\nbecause by them through Christ he getteth into the presence of God.\n(Psa 27:4)\n\n3. He comes to God through Christ, because he judgeth that God\nonly is that good, that blessedness, that happiness, that is worth\nlooking after; that good and that blessedness that alone can fill\nthe soul to the brim; that good and that happiness that is worthy\nof our hearts and souls and spirits. Hence David expresseth his\ncoming to God by panting, by thirsting, by tears, saying, 'My soul\npanteth after thee, O God.' And again, 'My soul thirsteth for God,\nfor the living God, when shall I come and appear before God?' (Psa\n42:1,2) And again, 'I will go to the altar of God, unto God, my\nexceeding joy.' (Psa 43:4) And hence it was that he so envied the\nswallow and sparrow, even because they could come to the altar\nof God, where he had promised to give his presence, when he, as I\nthink, by the rage of Saul, was forced to abide remote. 'My soul\nlongeth,' saith he, 'yea, even fainteth for the courts of the\nLord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea,\nthe sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself,\nwhere she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts,\nmy King, and my God: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they\nwill be still praising thee.' Then after a few more words he saith,\n'For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather\nbe a doorkeeper,' I would choose rather to sit at the threshold\nof thy house, 'than to dwell in the tents of wickedness'; and then\nrenders the reason--'For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord\ngives grace and glory,' &c. (Psa 84)\n\nThe presence of God, and the glory and soul-ravishing goodness of\nthat presence, is a thing that the world understands not, nor can\nthey as such desire to know what it is.\n\n4. These good men come to God upon other accounts also; for so it\nis that they have many concerns with God.\n\n[Concern for themselves.]--(1.) They come to him for a more clear\ndiscovery of themselves to themselves, for they desire to know how\nfrail they are, because the more they know that, the more they are\nengaged in their souls to take heed to their ways, and to fear lest\nthey should tempt their God to leave them. (Psa 39:1-8)\n\n(2.) They come to God by Christ for the weakening of their lusts\nand corruptions; for they are a sore, yea, a plague to a truly\nsanctified soul. Those, to be rid of which, if it might be, a godly\nman chooseth rather to die than to live. This David did mean when\nhe cried. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right\nspirit within me,' (Psa 51:10); and Paul, when he cried out, 'O\nwretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath?' (Rom 7:24)\n\n(3.) They come to God by Christ for the renewing and strengthening\nof their graces. The graces that the godly have received are, and\nthey feel they are, subject to decay; yea, they cannot live without\na continual supply of grace. This is the meaning of that, 'Let us\nhave grace,' and, 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of\ngrace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of\nneed.' (Heb 4:16)\n\n(4.) They come to God by Christ to be helped against those\ntemptations that they may meet withal. (Matt 6:13) They know that\nevery new temptation has a new snare and a new evil in it; but what\nsnare and what evil, that at present they know not; but they know\ntheir God knows, and can deliver out of temptation when we are in,\nand keep us out while we are out.\n\n(5.) They come to God by Christ for a blessing upon that means of\ngrace which God has afforded for the succour of the soul, and the\nbuilding of it up in the faith; knowing that as the means, so a\nblessing upon it, is from God. (2 Thess 3:1) And for this they have\nencouragement, because God has said, 'I will abundantly bless her\nprovision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.' (Psa 132:15)\n\n(6.) They come to God by Christ for the forgiveness of daily\ninfirmities, (Psa 19:12), and for the continuing them in the light\nof his countenance notwithstanding. Thus he also would always accept\nthem and their services, and grant that an answer of peace may be\nreturned from their Father into their bosoms; for this is the life\nof their souls. There are a great many such things that the sincere\nand upright man comes to God for, too many here to mention. But\nagain,\n\n[Concern for the church and others.]--(1.) This man also comes to\nGod to beseech him for the flourishing of Christ's kingdom, which he\nknows will never be until Antichrist is dead, and till the Spirit\nbe more plentifully poured upon us from on high. Therefore he also\ncries to God for the downfall of the first, and for the pouring\nout of the other.\n\n(2.) He comes to God for the hastening the gathering in of his elect;\nfor it is an affliction to him to think that so many of those for\nwhom Christ died should be still in a posture of hostility against\nhim. (Psa 122:6)\n\n(3.) He comes to God for a spirit of unity to be poured out among\nbelievers, for, for the divisions of Reuben he has great thoughts\nof heart.\n\n(4.) He comes to God to pray for magistrates, and that God would\nmake speed to set them all to that work that is so desirable to his\nchurch--that is, to 'hate the whore,' 'to eat her flesh,' to 'make\nher desolate,' 'and burn her with fire.' (1 Tim 2:1, Rev 17:16)\n\n(5.) He comes to God to beg that he would hasten that great and\nnotable day, the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus, for he knows\nthat Christ will never be exalted as he must be till then; yea, he\nalso knows that God's church will never be as she would, and shall,\ntill then. (Rev 22:20)\n\n(6.) But the main meaning, if I may so call it, of this high text\nis this, that they that come to God by him--that is, by Christ, are\nthose that come by Christ to God to enjoy him by faith and spirit\nhere, and by open vision and unspeakable possession of him in the\nnext world. This is the great design of the soul in its coming to\nGod by Jesus Christ, and it comes to him by Jesus Christ because\nit dares not come by itself, and because God himself has made him\nthe way, the new and living way. Here, as I said, the Father meets\nwith that which pleaseth him, and the soul with that which saveth\nher. Here is righteousness and merits to spare, even righteousness\nthat can justify the ungodly. Here is always, how empty soever we\nbe, a fullness of merit always presented to God by Christ for my\nobtaining of that which at any time I want, whether wisdom, grace,\nSpirit, or any good thing soever; only, since I was upon this\nsubject, I thought a little to touch upon things in this order, for\nthe enlarging of thy thoughts, for the conviction of thy spirit,\nfor the stirring of thee up to God, and for the showing of thee\nthe good signs of grace where it is, where is abused, and where\nany are seeking after it.\n\n[Inferences from thus coming to God by Christ.]\n\nAnd now I come to draw some inferences from this point also, as I\nhave already done from those going before it. You see that I have\nnow been speaking to you of the man that cometh to God, both with\nrespect to the way he comes, as also with respect to the manner of\nspirit in which he comes; and hence I may well infer,\n\nFirst, That he is no fool, no fool according to the best judgment,\nthat cometh to God by Christ. The world indeed will count him one;\nfor the things that be of the Spirit of God are foolishness to them;\nbut indeed, and in the verdict of true judgment, he is not so.\n\n1. For that he now seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. He has\nchosen to be concerned with the very head and fountain of wisdom;\nfor Christ is the wisdom of God, and the way to the Father by Christ,\nis the greatest of mysteries; and to choose to walk in that way,\nthe fruits of the most sage advice; wherefore he is not a fool that\nthus concerns himself. (Prov 18:1, 1 Cor 1)\n\n2. It is not a sign of foolishness timely to prevent ruin, is it?\nThey are the prudent men that foresee an evil, and hide themselves;\nand the fools, that go on, and are punished. (Prov 18:8, 27:12)\nWhy, this man foresees an evil, the greatest evil, sin, and the\npunishment of the soul for sin in hell; and flies to Christ, who is\nthe refuge that God has provided for penitent sinners; and is this\na sign of a fool? God make me such a fool, and thee that readest\nthese lines such a fool, and then we shall be wiser than all men\nthat are counted wise by the wisdom of this world. Is it a sign of\na fool to agree with one's adversary while we are in the way with\nhim, even before he delivereth us to the judge? Yea, it is a piece\nof the highest wisdom.\n\nIs he a fool that chooseth for himself long lasters, or he whose\nbest things will rot in a day? Sinners, 'before your pots can feel\nthe thorns [before you can see where you are], God shall take you\naway as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.' (Psa\n58:9) But this man has provided for things; like the tortoise, he\nhas got a shell on his back, so strong and sound that he fears not\nto suffer a loaden cart to go over him. The Lord is his rock, his\ndefence, his refuge, his high tower, unto which he doth continually\nresort.\n\nWas the unjust steward a fool in providing for himself for hereafter?\nfor providing friends to receive him to harbour when others should\nturn him out of their doors? (Luke 16:8,9) No more is he that gets\nanother house for his harbour before death shall turn him out of\ndoors here.\n\n3. As he that cometh to God by Christ is no fool, so he is no\nlittle-spirited fellow. There are a generation of men in this world\nthat count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the\ngreatness of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things\nbelow. If they can, with their net of craft and policy, encompass\na bulky lump of earth, oh what a treasure have they engrossed to\nthemselves! Meanwhile, the man in the text has laid siege to heaven,\nhas found out the way to get into the city, and is resolved, in\nand by God's help, to make that his own. Earth is a drossy thing in\nthis man's account; earthly greatness and splendours are but like\nvanishing bubbles in this man's esteem. None but God, as the end\nof his desires, none but Christ, as the means to accomplish this\nhis end, are things counted great by this man. No company now is\nacceptable to this man but the Spirit of God, Christ and angels,\nand saints, as fellow-heirs with himself. All other men and things\nhe deals with as strangers and pilgrims were wont to do. This man's\nmind soars higher than the eagle or stork of the heavens. He is\nfor musing about things that are above, and their glory, and for\nthinking what shall come to pass hereafter.\n\n4. But as I have showed you what he is not, so now let me, by a\nfew words, tell you what he is.\n\n(1.) Then he is a man concerned for his soul, for his immortal soul.\nThe soul is a thing, though of most worth, least minded by most.\nThe souls of most lie waste while all other things are enclosed.\nBut this man has got it by the end, that his soul is of more value\nthan the world, wherefore he is concerned for his soul. Soul concerns\nare concerns of the highest nature, and concerns that arise from\nthoughts most deep and ponderous. He never yet knew what belonged\nto great and deep thoughts that is a stranger to soul concerns.\nNow the man that comes to God by Christ, is a man that is engaged\nin soul concerns.\n\n(2.) He is a man whose spirit is subjected to a suitableness to\nspiritual things, for a carnal mind cannot suit with and be delighted\nin these things: 'The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is\nnot subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' (Rom 8:7)\nThis is the man that God has tamed, and keeps tame by himself,\nwhile all other run wild, as the assess upon the mountains. If\nbirds could speak, surely they would tell that those that are kept\nin the cage have with them another temper than they that range the\nair, and fly in the fields and woods. Yea, and could those kept\ntame express themselves to the rest, they would tell that they have\nwhite bread and milk, and sugar; while those without make a life\nout of maggots and worms. They are also in place where there are\nbetter things, and their companions are the children of men; besides,\nthey learn such notes, and can whistle such tunes, as other birds\nare strangers to. Oh! the man whose spirit is subjected to God,\nbetwixt whom and God there is a reconciliation, not only as to a\ndifference made up, but also as to a oneness of heart; none knows\nwhat lumps of sugar God gives that man, nor what notes and tunes\nGod learns that man: 'He hath put a new song in my mouth,' saith\nDavid, 'even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and\nshall trust in the Lord.' (Psa 40:3)\n\nSecond. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer\nthat there is that believes there is a world to come. No man looks\nafter that which yet he believes is not; faith must be before coming\nto Christ will be; coming is the fruit of faith. He that comes must\nbelieve antecedent to his coming; wherefore it is said, 'we walk\nby faith'--that is, we come to God through Christ by faith. (Heb\n11:7, 2 Cor 5:7) And hence I learn two things:--1. That faith is\nof a strong and forcible quality. 2. That they who come not to God\nby Christ have no faith.\n\n1. Faith is of a strong and forcible quality, and that whether it\nbe true or false.\n\n(1.) A false faith has done great things; it has made men believe\nlies, plead for them, and stand to them, to the damnation of their\nsouls. 'God shall send them strong delusion, that they should\nbelieve a lie,' to their damnation. (2 Thess 2:11,12) Hence it is\nsaid, men make lies 'their refuge.' Why? Because they 'trust in\na lie.' (Jer 28:15) A lie, if believed, if a man has faith in it,\nit will do great things, because faith is of a forcible quality.\nSuppose thyself to be twenty miles from home, and there some man\ncomes and possesses thee that thy house, thy wife and children,\nare all burned with the fire. If thou believest it, though indeed\nthere should be nothing of truth in what thou hast heard, yet will\nthis lie 'drink up thy spirit,' even as if the tidings were true.\nHow many are there in the world whose heart Satan hath filled with\na belief that their state and condition for another world is good?\nand these are made to live by lying hope that all shall be well\nwith them, and so are kept from seeking for that which will make\nthem happy indeed. Man is naturally apt and willing to be deceived,\nand therefore a groundless faith is the more taking and forcible.\nFancy will help to confirm a false faith, and so will conceit and\nidleness of spirit. There is also in man a willingness to take things\nupon trust, without searching into the ground and reason of them.\nNor will Satan be behind hand to prompt and encourage to thy believing\nof a lie, for that he knows will be a means to bring thee to that\nend to which he greatly desireth thou shouldst come. Wherefore let\nmen beware, and, oh, that they would, of a false and lying faith!\n\n(2.) But if a false faith is so forcible, what is a true? What force,\nI say, is there in a faith that is begotten by truth, managed by\ntruth, fed by truth, and preserved by the truth of God? This faith\nwill make invisible things visible; not fantastically so, but\nsubstantially so--'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,\nthe evidence of things not seen.' (Heb 11:1) True faith carrieth\nalong with it an evidence of the certainty of what it believeth,\nand that evidence is the infallible Word of God. There is a God,\na Christ, a heaven, saith the faith that is good, for the Word of\nGod doth say so. The way to this God and this heaven is by Christ,\nfor the Word of God doth say so. If I run not to this God by this\nChrist, this heaven shall never be my portion, for the Word of God\ndoth say so. So, then, thus believing makes the man come to God\nby him. His thus believing, then, it is that carries him away from\nthis world, that makes him trample upon this world, and that gives\nhim the victory over this world. 'For whatsoever is born of God\novercometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the\nworld, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he\nthat believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came\nby water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by\nwater and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because\nthe Spirit is truth.' (1 John 5:4-6)\n\n2. Now if this be true, that faith, true faith, is so forcible a\nthing as to take a man from his seat of ease, and make him to come\nto God by Christ as afore, then, is it not truly inferred from hence\nthat they that come not to God by Christ have no faith. What! is\nman such a fool as to believe things, and yet not look after them?\nto believe great things, and yet not to concern himself with them?\nWho would knowingly go over a pearl, and yet not count it worth\nstooping for? Believe thou art what thou art; believe hell is\nwhat it is; believe death and judgment are coming, as they are;\nand believe that the Father and the Son are, as by the Holy Ghost\nin the Word they are described, and sit still in thy sins if thou\ncanst. Thou canst not sit still; faith is forcible. Faith is grounded\nupon the voice of God in the Word, upon the teaching of God in the\nWord. And it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save\nthem that believe; for believing makes them heartily close in with,\nand embrace what by the Word is set before them, because it seeth\nthe reality of them.\n\nShall God speak to man's soul, and shall not man believe? Shall\nman believe what God says, and nothing at all regard it? It cannot\nbe. 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.' And\nwe know that when faith is come, it purifies the heart of what is\nopposite to God, and the salvation of the soul.\n\nSo, then, those men that are at ease in a sinful course, or that\ncome not to God by Christ, they are such as have no faith, and must\ntherefore perish with the vile and unbelievers. (Rev 21:8)\n\nThe whole world is divided into two sorts of men--believers and\nunbelievers. The godly are called believers; and why believers, but\nbecause they are they that have given credit to the great things\nof the gospel of God? These believers are here in the text called\nalso comers, or they that come to God by Christ, because whoso\nbelieves will come; for coming is a fruit of faith in the habit,\nor, if you will, it is faith in exercise; yet faith must have a\nbeing in the soul before the soul can put it into act.\n\nThis therefore further evidences that they that come not, have no\nfaith, are not believers, belong not to the household of faith,\nand must perish--'For he that believes not, shall be damned.'\n\nNor will it be to any boot14 to say, I believe there is a God and\na Christ, for still thy sitting still doth demonstrate that either\nthou liest in what thou sayest, or that thou believest with a worse\nthan a false faith. But the object of my faith is true. I answer,\nso is the object of the faith of devils; for they believe that\nthere is one God and one Christ, yet their faith, as to the root\nand exercise of it, is notwithstanding no such faith as is that\nfaith that saves, or that is intended in the text, and that by\nwhich men come to God through Christ. Wherefore still, oh, thou\nslothful one, thou deceivest thyself! Thy not coming to God by Christ\ndeclareth to thy face that thy faith is not good, consequently,\nthat thou feedest on ashes, and thy deceived heart has turned thee\naside, that thou canst not deliver thy soul, nor say, 'Is there\nnot a lie in my right hand?' (Isa 44:20)\n\nThird. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer\nthat the world to come is better than this; yea, so much better\nas to quit cost and bear charges of coming to God, from this, by\nChrist, to that. Though there is a world to come, yet if it were\nno better than this, one had as good stay here as seek that, or\nif it were better than this, and would bear charges if a man left\nthis for that, and that was all, still the one would be as good\nas the other. But the man that comes to God by Christ, has chosen\nthe world that is infinitely good; a world, betwixt which and this\nthere can be no comparison. This must be granted, because he that\ncomes to God by Christ is said to have made the best choice, even\nchose a city that has foundations. (Heb 11:10) There are several\nthings that make it manifest enough that he that comes to God by\nChrist has made the best market, or chose the best world.\n\n1. That is the world which God commendeth, but this that that\nhe slighteth and contemneth. (2 Thess 1:5,6) Hence that is called\nthe kingdom of God, but this an 'evil world.' (Gal 1:4) Now let\nus conclude, that since God made both, he is able to judge which\nof the two are best; yea, best able so to judge thereof. I choose\nthe rather to refer you to the judgment of God in this matter, for\nshould I put you upon asking of him as to this, that is, coming to\nGod by Christ, perhaps you would say, he is as little able to give\nan account of this matter as yourselves. But I hope you think God\nknows, and therefore I refer you to the judgment of God, which you\nhave in the Scriptures of truth--'Heaven is his throne, and the\nearth is his footstool.' I hope you will say here is some difference.\nThe Lord is the God of that, the devil the god and prince of this.\nThus also it appears there is some difference between them.\n\n2. That world, and those that are counted worthy of it, shall all\nbe everlasting; but so shall not this, nor the inhabiters of it.\nThe earth with the works thereof shall be burned up, and the men\nthat are of it shall die in like manner. (2 Peter 3) 'But Israel\nshall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall\nnot be ashamed nor confounded world without end.' (Isa 45:17) This\nworld, with the lovers of it, will end in a burning hell; but the\nworld to come fadeth not away. (1 Peter 1:3,4)\n\n3. The world that we are now in, has its best comforts mixed either\nwith crosses or curses; but that to come with neither. There shall\nbe no more curse: and as for crosses, all tears shall be wiped\nfrom the eyes of them that dwell there. There will be nothing but\nravishing pleasures, and holy; there will be no cessation of joys,\nnor any speck of pollution. 'In thy presence is fullness of joy,\nat thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' (Psa 16:11)\n\n4. There men shall be made like angels, 'neither can they die any\nmore.' (Luke 20:35,36) There shall they behold the face of God and\nhis Son, and swim in the enjoyment of them for ever.\n\n5. There men shall see themselves beyond all misery, and shall\nknow that it will be utterly impossible that either anything like\nsorrow, or grief, or sickness, or discontent, should touch them\nmore.\n\n6. There men shall be rewarded of God for what they have done\nand suffered according to his will for his sake; there they shall\neat and drink their comforts, and wear them to their everlasting\nconsolation.\n\n7. They are all kings that go to that world, and so shall be\nproclaimed there. They shall also be crowned with crowns, and they\nshall wear crowns of life and glory, crowns of everlasting joy,\ncrowns of lovingkindness; yea, 'In that day the Lord of hosts himself\nshall be for a crown of glory to those that are his people.' (Heb\n2:7, Isa 28:5, 35:10, Psa 103:4) Now, if this world, though no\nmore could be said of it that is said in these few lines, is not\ninfinitely far better than what the present world is, I have missed\nit in my thoughts. But the coming man, the man that comes to God\nby Christ, is satisfied, knows what he does; and if his way, all\nhis way thither, were strewed with burning coals, he would choose,\nGod helping him, to tread that path rather than to have his portion\nwith them that perish.\n\nFourth, If there be a world to come, and such a way to it so safe\nand good, and if God is there to be enjoyed by them that come to\nhim by Christ; then this shows the great madness of the most of\nmen, madness, I say, of the highest degree, for that they come not\nto God by Christ that they may be inheritors of the world to come.\nIt is a right character which Solomon gives of them, 'The heart,'\nsaith he, 'of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in\ntheir heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.'\n(Eccl 9:3) A madman is intent upon his toys, upon anything but that\nabout which he should be intent; and so are they that come not to\nGod by Jesus Christ. A madman has neither ears to hear, nor a heart\nto do, what they that are in their right wits advise him for the\nbest, no more have they that come not to God by Christ. A madman sets\nmore by the straws and cock's feathers by which he decks himself,\nthan he does by all the pearls and jewels in the world. And they\nthat come not to God by Christ set more by the vanishing bubbles\nof this life than they do by that glory that the wise man shall\ninherit; 'The wise shall inherit glory, but shame,' says Solomon,\n'shall be the promotion of fools.' What a shame it is to see God's\njewels lie unregarded of them that yet think none are wiser than\nthemselves.\n\nI know the wise men of this world will scorn one should think of\nthem that they are mad; but verily it is so, the more wise for this\nworld, the more fool in God's matters; and the more obstinately\nthey stand in their way, the more mad. When Solomon gave himself to\nbacksliding, he saith he gave himself to folly and madness. (Eccl\n1:17, 2:12) And when he went about to search out what man is since\nthe fall, he went about to search out foolishness and madness.\n(Eccl 7:25-29) And is it not said, that when the Jews were angry\nwith Jesus for that he did good on the Sabbath, that that anger\ndid flow from their being filled with madness? Doth not Paul also,\nwhile he opposed himself against Christ, the gospel, and professors\nthereof, plainly tell us that he did it even from the highest pitch\nof madness? 'And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted\nthem even unto strange cities.' (Acts 26:11) Now if it is exceeding\nmadness to do thus, how many at this day must be counted exceeding\nmad, who yet count themselves the only sober men? They oppose\nthemselves, they stand in their own light, they are against their\nown happiness, they cherish and nourish cockatrices in their own\nbosoms; they choose to themselves those paths which have written\nupon them in large characters, These are the ways of death and\ndamnation. They are offended with them that endeavour to pull them\nout of their ditch, and choose rather to lie and die there than to\ngo to God by Christ that they may be saved from wrath through him;\nyea, so mad are they, that they count the most sober, the most\ngodly, the most holy man, the mad one; the more earnest for life,\nthe more mad; the more in the Spirit, the more mad; the more desirous\nto promote the salvation of others, the more mad. But is not this\na sign of madness, of madness unto perfection? And yet thus mad are\nmany, and mad are all they that while it is called to-day, while\ntheir door is open, and while the golden sceptre of the golden\ngrace of the blessed God is held forth, stand in their own light,\nand come not to God by Christ. (John 10:20, Acts 26:24) That is\nthe fourth inference.\n\nFifth, A fifth inference that I gather from this text is, that the\nend that God will make with men will be according as they come or\ncome not to God by Christ. They that come to God by Christ have\ntaken shelter and have hid themselves; but they that come not to\nGod by Christ lay themselves open to the windy storm and tempest\nthat will be in that day. And the wind then will be high, and the\ntempest strong, that will blow upon them that shall be found in\nthemselves; 'Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire\nshall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round\nabout him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the\nearth, that he may judge his people.' (Psa 50:3,4) And now, what\nwill be found in that day to be the portion of them that in this\nday do not come to God by Christ? None knows but God, with whom\nthe reward of unbelievers is.\n\nBut writing and preaching is in vain as to such; let men say what\nthey will, what they can, to persuade to come, to dissuade from\nneglecting to come, they are resolved not to stir. They will try\nif God will be so faithful to himself and to his Word, as to dare\nto condemn them to hell fire that have refused to hear and comply\nwith the voice of him that speaketh from heaven.\n\nBut this is but a desperate venture. Several things declare that\nHe is determined to be at a point in this matter--\n\n1. The gallows are built--hell is prepared for the wicked. 2. There\nare those already in chains, and stand bound over to the judgment\nof that day, that are, as to creation, higher and greater than men,\nto wit, the angels that sinned. (2 Peter 2:4) Let sinners, then,\nlook to themselves. 3. The Judge is prepared and appointed, and\nit hath fallen out to be HE that thou hast refused to come to God\nby; and that predicts no good to thee; for then will he say of all\nsuch, 'Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over\nthem, bring hither, and slay them before me.' (Luke 19:27)\n\nBut what a surprise will it be to them that now have come to God\nby Christ to see themselves in heaven indeed, saved indeed, and\npossessed of everlasting life indeed. For alas! what is faith to\npossession? Faith that is mixed with many fears, that is opposed with\nmany assaults, and that seems sometimes to be quite extinguished;\nI say, what is that to a seeing of myself in heaven? Hence it is\nsaid, that he shall then come to be admired in them that now believe,\nbecause they did here believe the testimony; then they shall admire\nthat it was their lot to believe when they were in the world. (2\nThess 1:10) They shall also admire to think, to see, and behold,\nwhat believing has brought them to, while the rest, for refusing to\ncome to God by Christ, drink their tears mixed with burning brimstone.\n\nRepentance will not be found in heaven among them that come to\nGod by Christ; no, hell is the place of untimely repentance; it is\nthere where the tears will be mixed with gnashing of teeth, while\nthey consider how mad, and worse, they were in not coming to God\nby Jesus Christ.\n\nThen will their hearts and mouths be full of, 'Lord, Lord, open\nunto us.' But the answer will be, Ye shut me out of doors; 'I was\na stranger, and ye took me not in'; besides, you refused to come\nto my Father by me, wherefore now you must go from my Father by\nme. (Matt 25)\n\nThey that will not be saved by Christ, must be damned by Christ;\nno man can escape one of the two. Refuse the first they may, but\nshun the second they cannot. And now they that would not come unto\nGod by Christ will have leisure and time enough, if I may call it\ntime, to consider what they have done in refusing to come to God\nby Christ. Now they will meditate warmly on this thing, now their\nthoughts will be burning hot about it, and it is too late, will be,\nin each thought, such a sting, that, like a bow of steel, it will\ncontinually strike him through.\n\nNow they will bless those whom formerly they have despised, and\ncommend those they once contemned. Now would the rich man willingly\nchange places with poor Lazarus, though he preferred his own\ncondition before his in the world. The day of judgment will bring\nthe worst to rights in their opinions; they will not be capable\nof misapprehending any more. They will never after that day put\nbitter for sweet, or darkness for light, or evil for good any more.\nTheir madness will now be gone. Hell will be the unbeliever's bedlam\nhouse, and there God will tame them as to all those bedlam tricks\nand pranks which they played in this world, but not at all to\ntheir profit nor advantage; the gulf that God has placed and fixed\nbetwixt heaven and hell will spoil all as to that. (Luke 16:23-26)\n\nBut what a joy will it be to the truly godly to think now that they\nare come to God by Christ! It was their mercy to begin to come,\nit was their happiness that they continued coming; but it is their\nglory that they are come, that they are come to God by Christ.\nTo God! why, he is all! all that is good, essentially good, and\neternally good. To God! the infinite ocean of good. To God, in\nfriendly-wise, by the means of reconciliation; for the other now\nwill be come to him to receive his anger, because they come not\nto him by Jesus Christ. Oh! that I could imagine; oh! that I could\nthink, that I might write more effectually to thee of the happy\nestate of them that come to God by Christ.\n\nBut thus have I passed through the three former things, namely,\n1. That of the intercession of Christ. 2. That of the benefit of\nintercession. 3. That of the persons that are interested in this\nintercession.\n\n[IV. EVERY SINCERE COMER CERTAIN OF SALVATION.]\n\nWherefore now I come to the fourth and last head, and that is, TO\nSHOW YOU THE CERTAINTY OF THEIR REAPING THE BENEFIT OF HIS INTERCESSION.\n'Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come\nunto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for\nthem.'\n\n[Christ ever living is the safety of comers.]\n\nThe certainty of their reaping the benefit of being saved that\ncome unto God by Christ is thus expressed: 'Seeing he ever liveth\nto make intercession for them.' The intercession of Christ, and the\nlastingness of it, is a sure token of the salvation of them that\ncome unto God by him.\n\nOf his intercession, what it is, and for whom, we have spoken\nalready; of the success and prevalency of it, we have also spoken\nbefore; but the reason of its successfulness of that we are to\nspeak now. And that reason, as the apostle suggesteth, lies in the\ncontinuance of it, 'Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.' The\napostle also makes very much of the continuation of the priesthood\nof Christ in other places of this epistle: he abides a priest\ncontinually, 'Thou art a priest for ever.' He 'hath an unchangeable\npriesthood.' (Heb 7:3,17,21,24) And here he 'ever liveth to make\nintercession.'\n\nNow, by the text is showed the reason why he so continually harpeth\nupon the durableness of it, namely, for that by the unchangeableness\nof this priesthood we are saved; nay, saved demonstratively,\napparently; it is evident we are. 'He is also able to save them to\nthe uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to\nmake intercession for them.' For,\n\nFirst, The durableness of his intercession proves that the covenant\nin which those who come to God by him are concerned and wrapt up\nis not shaken, broken, or made invalid by all their weaknesses and\ninfirmities.\n\nChrist is a priest according to covenant, and in all his acts of\nmediation he has regard to that covenant; so long as that covenant\nabides in its strength, so long Christ's intercession is of worth.\nHence, when God cast the old high priest out of doors, he renders\nthis reason for his so doing: 'Because they continued not in\nmy covenant'; that is, neither priests nor people. Therefore were\nthey cast out of the priesthood, and the people pulled down as\nto a church state. (Heb 7:6-9) Now, the covenant by which Christ\nacteth, as a priest, so far as we are concerned therein, he also\nhimself acteth our part, being, indeed, the Head and Mediator of\nthe body; wherefore, God doth not count that the covenant is broken,\nthough we sin, if Christ Jesus our Lord is found to do by it what\nby law is required of us. Therefore he saith, 'If his children break\nmy law, and keep not my commandments, I will visit their sins with\na rod,' &c. But their sins shall not shake my covenant with my\nBeloved, nor cause that I for ever should reject them. 'My covenant\nwill I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.\nHis seed will I make to endure for ever, his seed shall endure for\never.' (Psa 89:30-36) Hence, it is clear that the covenant stands\ngood to us as long as Christ stands good to God, or before his face;\nfor he is not only our Mediator by covenant, but he himself is our\nconditions to God-ward; therefore he is said to be 'a covenant of\nthe people,' or that which the holy God, by law, required of us. (Isa\n42:6) Hence, again, he is said to be our justice or righteousness;\nto wit, which answereth to what is required of us by the law. He is\nmade unto us of God so, and in our room and in our stead presenteth\nhimself to God. So, then, if any ask me by what Christ's priesthood\nis continued, I answer, by covenant; for that the covenant by\nwhich he is made priest abideth of full force. If any ask whether\nthe church is concerned in that covenant, I answer, yea; yet so\nas that all points and parts thereof, that concern life and death\neverlasting, is laid upon his shoulders, and he alone is the doer\nof it. He is the Lord our righteousness, and he is the Saviour\nof the body, so that my sins break not the covenant; but them15\nnotwithstanding, God's covenant stands fast with him, with him for\nevermore. And good reason, if no fault can be found with Christ,\nwho is the person that did strike hands with his Father upon our\naccount and for us; to wit, to do what was meet should be found\nupon us when we came to appear before God by him.\n\nAnd that God himself doth so understand this matter is evident;\nbecause he also, by his own act, giveth and imputeth to us that\ngood that we never did, that righteousness which we never wrought\nout; yea, and for the sake of that transmitteth our sins unto Christ,\nas to one that had not only well satisfied for them, but could\ncarry them so far, both from us and from God, that they should never\nagain come to be charged on the committers, to death and damnation.\n(Rom 4:1-5) The Scriptures are so plentiful for this, that he must\nbe a Turk, or a Jew, or an atheist that denies it. Besides, God's\ncommanding that men should believe in his Son unto righteousness\nwell enough proveth this thing, and the reason of this command doth\nprove it with an over and above; to wit, 'For he hath made him to\nbe sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness\nof God in him.' (2 Cor 5:19-21) Hence comes out that proclamation\nfrom God, at the rising again of Christ from the dead: 'Be it\nknown unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man\nis preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that\nbelieve are justified from all things, from which ye could not be\njustified by the law of Moses.' (Acts 13:38,39)\n\nIf this be so, as indeed it is, then here lieth a great deal of\nthis conclusion, 'he ever liveth to make intercession,' and of the\ndemonstration of the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by\nhim, 'seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.' For if\nChrist Jesus is a priest by covenant, and so abides as the covenant\nabides, and if, since the covenant is everlasting, his priesthood\nis unchangeable, then the man that cometh to God by him must needs\nbe certainly saved; for if the covenant, the covenant of salvation,\nis not broken, none can show a reason why he that comes to Christ\nshould be damned, or why the priesthood of Jesus Christ should\ncease. Hence, after the apostle had spoken of the excellency of\nhis person and priesthood, he then shows that the benefit of the\ncovenant of God remaineth with us, namely, that grace should be\ncommunicated unto us for his priesthood's sake, and that our sins\nand iniquities God would remember no more. (Heb 8:10-12; 10:16-22)\nNow, as I also have already hinted, if this covenant, of which the\nLord Jesus is Mediator and High Priest, has in the bowels of it,\nnot only grace and remission of sins, but a promise that we shall\nbe partakers thereof, through the blood of his priesthood, for so\nit comes to us; then, why should not we have boldness, not only\nto come to God by him, but to enter also 'into the holiest by the\nblood of Jesus, by that new and living way,' &c.\n\nSecond, But, further, this priesthood, as to the unchangeableness\nof it, is confirmed unto him 'with an oath, by him that said unto\nhim, the Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for\never.' This oath seems to me to be for the confirmation of the\ncovenant, as it is worded before by Paul to the Galatians, (Gal\n3:15-17), when he speaks of it with respect to that establishment\nthat it also had on Christ's part by the sacrifice which he offered\nto God for us; yea, he then speaks of the mutual confirmation of it\nboth by the Father and the Son. Now, I say, since, by this covenant\nhe stands and abides a Priest, and since 'the Lord sware, and\nwill not repent, saying, Thou art a priest for ever,' we are still\nfurther confirmed in the certain salvation of him that cometh to\nGod by Christ.\n\nThe Lord, by swearing, confirmeth to Christ, and so to us in him,\nthe immutability of his counsel, (Heb 6:16-18), and that he is utterly\nunchangeable in his resolutions 'to save them to the uttermost that\ncome to God by Christ.' And this also shows that this covenant, and\nso the promise of remission of sins, is steadfast and unmovable.\nAnd it is worth your noting the manner and nature of this oath,\n'The Lord sware, and will not repent.' It is as much as to say, What\nI have now sworn I bind me for ever to stand to, or, I determine\nnever to revoke; and that is, 'That thou art a priest for ever.'\nNow, as was said before, since his priesthood stands by covenant,\nand this covenant of his priesthood is confirmed by this oath, it\ncannot be but that he that comes by him to God must be accepted of\nhim; for should such a one be rejected, it must be either for the\ngreatness of his sins, or for want of merit in the sacrifice he\npresented and urged, as to the merit of it, before the mercy-seat.\nBut let the reason specified be what it will, the consequence falls\nharder upon the sacrifice of Christ than it can do anywhere else,\nand so also upon the covenant, and at last upon God himself, who\nhas sworn, and will not repent, that he is a Priest for ever. I\nthus discourse, to show you what dangerous conclusions follow from\na conceit that some that come to God by Christ shall not be saved,\nthough 'he ever liveth to make intercession for them.' And this I\nhave further to say, that the Lord's swearing, since the manner of\nthe oath is such as it is, and that it also tended to establish to\nChrist his priesthood to be unchangeable, it declareth that, as to\nthe excellency of his sacrifice, he is eternally satisfied in the\ngoodness and merit of it; and that he will never deny him anything\nthat he shall ask for at his hands for his sufferings' sake. For\nthis oath doth not only show God's firm resolution to keep his part\nof the covenant, in giving to Christ that which was covenanted for\nby him, but it declareth that, in the judgment of God, Christ's\nblood is able to save any sinner, and that he will never put stop\nnor check to his intercession, how great soever the sinners be that\nat any time he shall intercede for; so that the demonstration is\nclearer and clearer, 'He is able to save them to the uttermost that\ncome unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession\nfor them.'\n\nThird, This unchangeableness of the priesthood of Christ dependeth\nalso upon his own life: 'This man, because he continueth ever, hath\nan unchangeable priesthood.' (Heb 7:24) Now although, perhaps, at\nfirst much may not appear in this text, yet the words that we are\nupon take their ground from them. 'This man, because he continueth\never, hath an unchangeable priesthood: wherefore he is able\nalso'--that is, by his unchangeable priesthood--'to save them to\nthe uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to\nmake intercession for them.'\n\nThe life of Christ, then, is a ground of the lastingness of his\npriesthood, and so a ground of the salvation of them that come unto\nGod by him: 'We shall be saved by his life.' (Rom 5:10) Wherefore,\nin another place, this his life is spoken of with great emphasis--the\npower of an endless life. 'He is made [a priest], not after the law\nof a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.'\n(Heb 7:16) An endless life is, then, a powerful thing; and indeed\ntwo things are very considerable in it--1. That it is above death,\nand so above him that hath the power of death, the devil. 2. In\nthat it capacitates him to be the last in his own cause, and so to\nhave the casting voice.\n\n1. We will speak to the first, and for the better setting of it forth\nwe will show what life it is of which the apostle here speaks; and\nthen how, as to life, it comes to be so advantageous, both with\nrespect to his office of priesthood and us.\n\nWhat life is it that is thus the ground of his priesthood? It is\na life taken, his own life rescued from the power of the grave; a\nlife that we had forfeited, he being our surety; and a life that\nhe recovered again, he being the Captain of our salvation: I lay\ndown my life that I may take it again: 'this commandment have I\nreceived of my Father.' (John 10:18) It is a life, then, that was\nonce laid down as the price of man's redemption, and a life won,\ngained, taken, or recovered again, as the token or true effect of\nthe completing, by so dying, that redemption; wherefore it is said\nagain, 'In that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he\nliveth, he liveth unto God.' (Rom 6:10) He liveth as having pleased\nGod by dying for our sins, as having merited his life by dying\nfor our sins. Now if this life of his is a life merited and won\nby virtue of the death that he died, as Acts 2:24 doth clearly\nmanifest; and if this life is the ground of the unchangeableness\nof this part of his priesthood, as we see it is, then it follows\nthat this second part of his priesthood, which is called here\nintercession, is grounded upon the demonstrations of the virtue\nof his sacrifice, which is his life taken to live again; so, then,\nhe holds this part of his priesthood, not by virtue of a carnal\ncommandment, but by the power of an endless life; but by the power\nof a life rescued from death, and eternally exalted above all that\nany ways would yet assault it; for 'Christ being raised from the\ndead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.' (Rom\n6:9) Hence Christ brings in his life, the life that he won to\nhimself by his death, to comfort John withal when he fainted under\nthe view of that overcoming glory that he saw upon Christ in is\nvisions of him at Patmos: 'And he laid his right hand upon me,'\nsaid he, 'saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:\nI am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for\nevermore. Amen.' (Rev 1:17,18) Why should Christ bring in his life\nto comfort John, if it was not a life advantageous to him? But the\nadvantageousness of it doth lie not merely in the being of life,\nbut in that it was a life laid down for his sins, and a life taken\nup again for his justification; a life lost to ransom him, and a\nlife won to save him; as also the text affirmeth, saying, 'He is\nable to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing\nhe ever liveth to make intercession for them.'\n\nAgain; it is yet more manifest that Christ receiving of his life\nagain was the death and destruction of the enemy of his people; and\nto manifest that it was so, therefore he adds (after he had said,\n'And, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen'), 'And I have the\nkeys of hell and of death.' I have the power over them; I have them\nunder me; I tread them down by being a victor, a conqueror, and\none that has got the dominion of life (for he now is the Prince of\nlife), one that lives for evermore. Amen. Hence it is said again,\nHe 'hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light\nthrough the gospel.' (2 Tim 1:10) He hath abolished death by his\ndeath (by death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that\nis, the devil), and brought life (a very emphatical expression);\nand brought it from whence? From God, who raised him from the dead;\nand brought it to light, to our view and sight, by the word of the\ntruth of the gospel.\n\nSo, then, the life that he now hath is a life once laid down as the\nprice of our redemption; a life obtained and taken to him again as\nthe effect of the merit that was in the laying down thereof; a life\nby the virtue of which death, and sin, and the curse is overcome;\nand so a life that is above them for ever. This is the life that\nhe liveth--to wit, this meriting, purchasing, victorious life--and\nthat he improveth while he ever so lives to make intercession for\nus.\n\nThis life, then, is a continual plea and argument with God for them\nthat come to him by Christ, should he make no other intercession,\nbut only show to God that he liveth; because his thus living saith,\nthat he has satisfied for the sins of them that come unto God by\nhim. It testifies, moreover, that those--to wit, death, the grave,\nand hell--are overcome by him for them; because indeed he liveth,\nand hath their keys. But now, add to life, to a life meritorious,\nintercession, or an urging of this meritorious life by way of\nprayer for his, and against all those that seek to destroy them,\nsince they themselves also have been already overcome by his death,\nand what an encouraging consideration is here for all them that\ncome to God by him, to hope for life eternal. But,\n\n2. Let us speak a word to the second head--namely, for that his\nliving for ever capacitates him to be the last in his own cause,\nand to have the casting voice, and that is an advantage next to\nwhat is chiefest.\n\nHis cause; what is his cause? but that the death that he died when\nhe was in the world was and is of merit sufficient to secure all\nthose from hell, or, as the text has it, to save them that come\nunto God by him, to save them to the uttermost. Now, if this cause\nbe faulty, why doth he live? yea, he liveth by the power of God,\nby the power of God towards us; or with a respect to our welfare,\nfor he liveth to make intercession, intercession against Satan our\naccuser, for us. (2 Cor 13:4) Besides, he liveth before God, and\nto God, and that after he had given his life a ransom for us. What\ncan follow more clearly from this, but that amends were made by him\nfor those souls for whose sins he suffered upon the tree? Wherefore,\nsince his Father has given him his life and favour, and that after\nhe died for our sins, it cannot be thought but that the life he\nnow liveth, is a life that he received as the effect of the merit\nof his passion for us.\n\nGod is just, and yet Christ liveth, and yet Christ liveth in heaven!\nGod is just, and yet Christ our passover liveth there, do what our\nfoes can to the contrary!\n\nAnd this note, by the way, that though the design of Satan against\nus, in his labouring continually to accuse us to God, and to prevail\nagainst our salvation, seems to terminate here, yet indeed it is\nalso laid against the very life of Christ, and that his priesthood\nmight be utterly overthrown; and, in conclusion, that God also\nmight be found unjust in receiving of such whose sins have not\nbeen satisfied for, and so whose souls are yet under the power of\nthe devil. For he that objects against him for whom Christ intercedes,\nobjects against Christ and his merits; and he that objects against\nChrist's intercession, objects against God, who has made him a\npriest for ever. Behold you, therefore, how the cause of God, of\nChrist, and of the souls that come to God by him are interwoven;\nthey are all wrapt up in one bottom. Mischief one, and you mischief\nall; overthrow that soul, and you overthrow his intercessor; and\noverthrow him, and you overthrow even him that made him a priest\nfor ever. For the text is without restriction: 'He is able to save\nto the uttermost them that come unto God by him.' He saith not,\nnow and then one, or sinners of an inferior rank in sin, but them\nthat come to God by him, how great soever their transgressions are,\nas is clear in that it addeth this clause, 'to the uttermost.' 'He\nis able to save them to the uttermost.' But if he were not, why did\nthe King send, yea, come and loose him, and let him go free; yea,\nadmit him into his presence; yea, make him Lord over all his people,\nand deliver all things into his hand?\n\nBut he liveth, he ever liveth, and is admitted to make intercession,\nyea, is ordained of God so to do; therefore he is 'able to save\nto the uttermost them that come unto God by him.' This, therefore,\nthat he liveth, seeing he liveth to God and his judgment, and\nin justice is made so to do, it is chiefly with reference to his\nlife as Mediator for their sakes for whom he makes intercession.\nHe liveth to make intercession. And in that it is said he liveth\never, what is it but that he must live, and outlive all his enemies;\nfor he must live, yea, reign, till all his enemies are put under\nhis feet. (1 Cor 15:25) Yea, his very intercessions must live till\nthey are all dead and gone. For the devil and sin must not live\nfor ever, not for ever to accuse. Time is coming when due course\nof law will have an end, and all cavillers will be cast over the\nbar. But then and after that, Christ our high priest shall live,\nand so shall his intercessions; yea, and also all them for whom he\nmakes intercession, seeing they come unto God by him.\n\nNow if he lives, and outlives all, and if his intercession has the\ncasting voice, since also he pleadeth in his prayers a sufficient\nmerit before a just God, against a lying, malicious, clamorous,\nand envious adversary, he must needs carry the cause, the cause for\nhimself and his people, to the glory of God and their salvation.\nSo, then, his life and intercession must prevail, there can be no\nwithstanding of it. Is not this, then, a demonstration clear as\nthe sun, that they that come to God by him shall be saved, seeing\nhe ever liveth to make intercession for them?\n\nFourth, The duration of Christ's intercession, as it is grounded\nupon a covenant betwixt God and him, upon an oath also, and upon\nhis life, so it is grounded upon the validity of his merits. This\nhas been promiscuously touched before, but since it is an essential\nto the lastingness of his intercession, it will be to the purpose\nto lay it down by itself.\n\nIntercession, then, I mean Christ's intercession, is, that those\nfor whom he died with full intention to save them, might be brought\ninto that inheritance which he hath purchased for them. Now, then,\nhis intercession must, as to length and breadth, reach no further\nthan his merits, for he may not pray for those for whom he died\nnot. Indeed, if we take in the utmost extent of his death, then we\nmust beware, for his death is sufficient to save the whole world.\nBut his intercessions are kept within a narrower compass. The\naltar of burnt-offerings was a great deal bigger than the altar of\nincense, which was a figure of Christ's intercession. (Exo 27:1,\n30:1, Rev 8:3) But this, I say, his intercession is for those for\nwhom he died with full intention to save them; wherefore it must\nbe grounded upon the validity of his sufferings. And, indeed, his\nintercession is nothing else, that I know of, but a presenting of\nwhat he did in the world for us unto God, and pressing the value\nof it for our salvation. The blood of sprinkling is that which\nspeaketh meritoriously, (Heb 12:24); it is by the value of that\nthat God measureth out and giveth unto us grace and life eternal;\nwherefore Christ's intercessions also must be ordered and governed\nby merit; 'By his own blood he entered into the holy place, having\n[before by it] obtained eternal redemption for us,' for our souls.\n(Heb 9:12)\n\nNow, if by blood he entered in thither, by blood he must also make\nintercession there. His blood made way for his entrance thither, his\nblood must make way for our entrance thither. Though here, again,\nwe must beware; for his blood did make way for him as Priest to\nintercede; his blood makes way for us, as for those redeemed by it,\nthat we might be saved. This, then, shows sufficiently the worth\nof the blood of Christ, even his ever living to make intercession\nfor us; for the merit of his blood lasts all the while that he doth,\nand for all them for whom he ever liveth to make intercession. Oh,\nprecious blood! oh, lasting merit!\n\nBlood must be pleaded in Christ's intercession, because of justice,\nand to stop the mouth of the enemy, and also to encourage us to\ncome to God by him. Justice, since that is of the essence of God,\nmust concur in the salvation of the sinner; but how can that be,\nsince it is said at first, 'In the day thou eatest thereof, thou\nshalt surely die,' unless a plenary16 satisfaction be made for sin\nto the pleasing of the mighty God. The enemy also would else never\nlet go his objecting against our salvation. But now God has declared\nthat our salvation is grounded on justice, because merited by\nblood. And though God needed not to have given his Son to die for\nus that he might save us, and stop the mouth of the devil in so\ndoing, yet this way of salvation has done both, and so it is declared,\nwe are 'justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that\nis in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation\nthrough faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the\nremission of sins that are past--to declare, I say, at this time\nhis righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him\nwhich believeth in Jesus.' (Rom 3:24,25) So, then, here is also a\nground of intercession, even the blood shed for us before.\n\nAnd that you may see it yet more for your comfort, God did, at\nChrist's resurrection, to show what a price he set upon his blood,\nbid him ask of him the heathen, and he would give him the uttermost\nparts of the earth for his possession. (Psa 2:8) His blood, then,\nhas value enough in it to ground intercession upon; yea, there is\nmore worth in it than Christ will plead or improve for men by way\nof intercession. I do not at all doubt but that there is virtue\nenough in the blood of Christ, would God Almighty so apply it, to\nsave the souls of the whole world. But it is the blood of Christ,\nhis own blood; and he may do what he will with his own. It is also\nthe blood of God, and he also may restrain its merits, or apply\nit as he sees good. But the coming soul, he shall find and feel\nthe virtue thereof, even the soul that comes to God by Christ;\nfor he is the man concerned in its worth, and he ever liveth to\nmake intercession for him. Now, seeing the intercession of Christ\nis grounded upon a covenant, an oath, a life, and also upon the\nvalidity of his merits, it must of necessity be prevalent, and so\ndrive down all opposition before it. This, therefore, is the last\npart of the text, and that which demonstrateth that he that comes\nto God by Christ shall be saved, seeing 'he ever liveth to make\nintercession for him.'\n\nI have now done what I intend upon this subject when I have drawn\na few inferences from this also.\n\n[Inferences from the certainty of benefit from Christ's Intercession.]\n\nFirst, then, hence I infer that the souls saved by Christ are in\nthemselves in a most deplorable condition. Oh, what ado, as I may\nsay, is here before one sinner can be eternally saved! Christ must\ndie; but that is not all; the Spirit of grace must be given to\nus; but that is not all;--but Christ must also ever live to make\nintercession for us. And as he doth this for all, so he doth it for\neach one. He interceded for me, before I was born, that I might in\ntime, at the set time, come into being. After that, he also made\nintercession for me, that I might be kept from hell in the time of\nmy unregenerate state, until the time of my call and conversion.\nYet again, he then intercedes that the work now begun in my soul\nmay be perfected, not only to the day of my dissolution, but unto\nthe day of Christ; that is, until he comes to judgment. (Phil 1:6)\nSo that, as he began to save me before I had being, so he will go\non to save me when\n\nI am dead and gone, and will never leave off to save me until he\nhas set me before his face for ever.\n\nBut, I say, what a deplorable condition has our sin put us into,\nthat there must be all this ado to save us. Oh, how hardly is sin\ngot out of the soul when once it is in! Blood takes away the guilt;\ninherent grace weakens the filth; but the grave is the place, at\nthe mouth of which, sin, as to the being of sin, and the saved,\nmust have a perfect and final parting. (Isa 38:10) Not that the\ngrave of itself is of a sin-purging quality, but God will follow\nSatan home to his own door; for the grave is the door or gate of\nhell, and will there, where the devil thought to have swallowed\nus up, even there by the power of his mercy make us, at our coming\nthence, shine like the sun, and look like angels. Christ, all this\nwhile, ever liveth to make intercession for us.\n\nSecond, Hence, also, I infer that as Satan thought he struck\nhome at first, when he polluted our nature, and brought our souls\nto death, so he is marvellous loath to lose us, and to suffer his\nlawful captives now to escape his hands. He is full of fire against\nus, full of the fire of malice, as is manifest--\n\n1. Not only by his first attempt upon our first parents, but behold,\nwhen the Deliverer came into the world, how he roared. He sought\nhis death while he was an infant; he hated him in his cradle; he\npersecuted him while he was but a bud and blossom. (Matt 2) When\nhe was come to riper years, and began to manifest his glory, yet,\nlest the world should be taken with him, how politicly did this\nold serpent, called the Devil and Satan, work? He possessed people\nthat he had a devil, and was mad, and a deceiver; that he wrought\nhis miracles by magic art and by the devil; that the prophets spake\nnothing of him, and that he sought to overthrow the government\nwhich was God's ordinance. And, not being contented with all this,\nhe pursued him to the death, and could never rest until he had\nspilt his blood upon the ground like water. Yea, so insatiable was\nhis malice, that he set the soldiers to forge lies about him to the\ndenial of his resurrection, and so managed that matter that what\nthey said has become a stumblingblock to the Jews to this very day.\n(John 10:20, 7:12, Matt 9:34, John 7:52, Luke 23:2, Matt 28:11-15)\n\n2. When he was ascended to God, and so was out of his reach, yet\nhow busily went he about to make war with his people. (Rev 12)\nYea, what horrors and terrors, what troubles and temptations, has\nGod's church met with from that day till now! Nor is he content\nwith persecutions and general troubles; but oh! how doth he haunt\nthe spirits of the Christians with blasphemies and troubles, with\ndarkness and frightful fears; sometimes to their distraction, and\noften to the filling the church with outcries.\n\n3. Yet his malice is in the pursuit, and now his boldness will try\nwhat it can do with God, either to tempt him to reject his Son's\nmediation, or to reject them that come to God by him for mercy. And\nthis is one cause among many why 'he ever liveth to make intercession\nfor them that come to God by him.'\n\n4. And if he cannot overthrow, if he knows he cannot overthrow them,\nyet he cannot forbear but vex and perplex them, even as he did\ntheir Lord, from the day of their conversion to the day of their\nascension to glory.\n\nThird, Hence I infer that the love of Christ to his, is an unwearied\nlove, and it must needs be so; an undaunted love, and it must needs\nbe so. Who but Jesus Christ would have undertaken such a task as\nthe salvation of the sinner is, if Jesus Christ had passed us by?\nIt is true which is written of him, 'He shall not fail, nor be\ndiscouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth,' &c. If he had\nnot set his 'face like a flint,' the greatness of this work would\nsurely have daunted his mind. (Isa 42:1, 50:6-7)\n\nFor do but consider what sin is from which they must be saved; do\nbut consider what the devil and the curse is from which they must\nbe saved; and it will easily be concluded by you that it is he that\nfull rightly deserveth to have his name called Wonderful, and his\nlove such as verily passeth knowledge.\n\nConsider, again, by what means these souls are saved, even with\nthe loss of his life, and, together with it, the loss of the light\nof his Father's face. I pass by here and forbear to speak of the\nmatchless contradiction of sinners which he endured against himself,\nwhich could not but be a great grief, or, as himself doth word it, a\nbreaking of heart unto him; but all this did not, could not, hinder.\n\nJoin to all this, his everlasting intercession for us, and the\neffectual management thereof with God for us; and, withal, the\ninfinite number of times that we by sin provoke him to spue us out\nof his mouth, instead of interceding for us, and the many times also\nthat his intercession is repeated by the repeating of our faults,\nand this love still passes knowledge, and is by us to be wondered\nat. What did, or what doth, the Lord Jesus see in us to be at all\nthis care, and pains, and cost to save us? What will he get of us\nby the bargain but a small pittance of thanks and love? for so it\nis, and ever will be, when compared with his matchless and unspeakable\nlove and kindness towards us.\n\nOh, how unworthy are we of this love! How little do we think of it!\nBut, most of all, the angels may be astonished to see how little\nwe are affected with that of which we pretend to know. But neither\ncan this prevail with him to put us out of the scroll in which all\nthe names of them are written for whom he doth make intercession\nto God. Let us cry, Grace, grace unto it.\n\nFourth, Hence again I infer that they shall be saved that come to\nGod by Christ, when the devil and sin have done what they can to\nhinder it. This is clear, for that the strife is now, who shall\nbe lord of all, whether Satan, the prince of this world, or Christ\nJesus, the Son of God; or which can lay the best claim to God's\nelect, he that produceth their sins against them, or he that laid\ndown his heart's blood a price of redemption for them. Who, then,\nshall condemn when Christ has died, and doth also make intercession?\nStand still, angels, and behold how the Father divideth his Son 'a\nportion with the great'; and how he divideth 'the spoil with the\nstrong: because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and was\nnumbered with the transgressors, and bare the sin of many, and made\nintercession for the transgressors.' (Isa 53:12) The grace of God\nand blood of Christ will, before the end of the world, make brave\nwork among the sons of men! They shall come to a wonderment to God\nby Christ, and be saved by a wonderment for Christ's sake--'Behold\nthese shall come from far: and lo, these from the north and from\nthe west, and these from the land of Sinim.' (Isa 49:12)\n\nBehold, these, and these, and these shall come, and lo, these,\nand these, and these from the land of Sinim! This is to denote the\nabundance that shall come in to God by Christ towards the latter end\nof the world--namely, when Antichrist is gone to bed in the sides\nof the pit's mouth; then shall nations come in and be saved, and\nshall walk in the light of the Lord.17 But, I say, what encouragement\nwould there be for sinners thus to do if that the Lord Jesus by\nhis intercession were not able to save 'even to the uttermost' them\nthat come unto God by him.\n\nFifth, hence again I infer that here is ground for confidence to\nthem that come to God by Christ. Confidence to the end becomes us\nwho have such a High Priest, such an Intercessor as Jesus Christ;\nwho would dishonour such a Jesus by doubting that, that all the\ndevils in hell cannot discourage by all their wiles? He is a tried\nstone, he is a sure foundation; a man may confidently venture his\nsoul in his hand, and not fear but he will bring him safe home.\nAbility, love to the person, and faithfulness to trust committed\nto him, will do all; and all these are with infinite fullness in\nhim. He has been a Saviour these four thousand years already--two\nthousand before the law, two thousand in the time of the law--besides\nthe sixteen hundred years he has in his flesh continued to make\nintercession for them that come unto God by him. Yet the day is to\ncome, yea, will never come, that he can be charged with any fault,\nor neglect of the salvation of any of them that at any time have\ncome unto God by him. What ground, then, is here for confidence\nthat Christ will make a good end with me, since I come unto God\nby him, and since he ever liveth to make intercession for me. Let\nme, then, honour him, I say, by setting on his head the crown of\nhis undertakings for me, by the believing that he is able to save\nme 'even to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession\nfor me.'\n\nSixth, Hence also I infer that Christ ought to bear and wear the\nglory of our salvation for ever. He has done it, he has wrought it\nout. 'Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the\nLord glory and strength.' Do not sacrifice to your own inventions,\ndo not give glory to the work of your own hands. Your reformations,\nyour works, your good deeds, and all the glory of your doing,\ncast them at the feet of this High Priest, and confess that glory\nbelongs unto him--'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive\npower, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and\nglory, and blessing.' (Rev 5:12) 'And they shall hang upon him all\nthe glory of his Father's house, and offspring and the issue, all\nvessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all\nthe vessels of flagons.' (Isa 22:24) Oh! the work of our redemption\nby Christ is such as wanteth not provocation to us to bless,\nand praise, and glorify Jesus Christ. Saints, set to the work and\nglorify him in your body and in your souls; him who has bought us\nwith a price, and glorify God and the Father by him. (1 Cor 6:20)\n\nTHE USE.\n\nI come now to make some use of this discourse; and,\n\nUSE FIRST, Let me exhort you to the study of this, as of other the\ntruths of our Lord Jesus Christ. The priestly office of Christ is\nthe first and great thing that is presented to us in the gospel--namely,\nhow that he died for our sins, and gave himself to the cross, that\nthe blessing of Abraham might come upon us through him. (1 Cor\n15:1-6, Gal 3:13-16) But now because this priestly office of his\nis divided into two parts, and because one of them--to wit, this\nof his intercession--is to be accomplished for us within the veil,\ntherefore, as we say among men, out of sight out of mind, he is\ntoo much as to this forgotten by us. We satisfy ourselves with the\nslaying of the sacrifice; we look not enough after our Aaron as he\ngoes into the holiest, there to sprinkle the mercy-seat with blood\nupon our account. God forbid that the least syllable of what I say\nshould be intended by me, or construed by others, as if I sought\nto diminish the price paid by Christ for our redemption in this\nworld. But since his dying is his laying down his price, and his\nintercession the urging and managing the worthiness of it in the\npresence of God against Satan, there is glory to be found therein,\nand we should look after him into the holy place. The second part\nof the work of the high priests under the law, had great glory and\nsanctity put upon it; forasmuch as the holy garments were provided\nfor him to officiate in within the veil, also it as there that\nthe altar stood on which he offered incense; also there was the\nmercy-seat and the cherubims of glory, which were figures of the\nangels, that love to be continually looking and prying into the\nmanagement of this second part of the priesthood of Christ in the\npresence of God; for although themselves are not the persons so\nimmediately concerned therein as we, yet the management of it, I\nsay, is with so much grace, and glory, and wisdom, and effectualness,\nthat it is a heaven to the angels to see it. Oh! to enjoy the\nodorous scent, and sweet memorial, the heart-refreshing perfumes,\nthat ascend continually from the mercy-seat to the 'above' where\nGod is; and also to behold how effectual it is to the end for which\nit is designed, is glorious; and he that is not somewhat let into\nthis by the grace of God, there is a great thing lacking to his\nfaith, and he misseth of many a sweet bit that he might otherwise\nenjoy. Wherefore, I say, be exhorted to the study of this part\nof Christ's work in the managing of our salvation for us. And the\nceremonies of the law may be a great help to you as to this, for\nthough they be out of use now as to practice, yet the signification\nof them is rich, and that from which many gospellers18 have got\nmuch. Wherefore I advise that you read the five books of Moses\noften; yea, read, and read again, and do not despair of help to\nunderstand something of the will and mind of God therein, though\nyou think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your\nheads though you have not commentaries and expositions; pray and\nread, and read and pray; for a little from God is better than a\ngreat deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is\noften lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is from God\nis fixed as a nail in a sure place. I know there are [peculiar]\ntimes of temptation, but I speak now as to the common course of\nChristianity. There is nothing that so abides with us as what we\nreceive from God; and the reason why Christians at this day are\nat such a loss as to some things is, because they are content with\nwhat come from men's mouths, without searching and kneeling before\nGod, to know of him the truth of things. Things that we receive\nat God's hand come to us as things from the minting house, though\nold in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us\nif they come to us with the smell of heaven upon them. I speak\nnot this because I would have people despise their ministers, but\nto show that there is nowadays so much idleness among professors\nas hinders them from a diligent search after things, and makes them\ntake up short of that that is sealed by the Spirit of testimony\nto the conscience. Witness the great decays at this day among us,\nand that strange revolting from truth once professed by us.\n\nUSE SECOND, As I would press you to an earnest study and search after\nthis great truth, so I would press you to a diligent improvement\nof it to yourselves and to others. To know truth for knowledge\nsake is short of a gracious disposition of soul; and to communicate\ntruth out of a desire of praise and vain-glory for so doing is\nalso a swerving from godly simplicity; but to improve what I know\nfor the good of myself and others is true Christianity indeed. Now\ntruths received may be improved with respect to myself and others,\nand that several ways--\n\n1. To myself, when I search after the power that belongs to those\nnotions that I have received of truth. There belongs to every true\nnotion of truth a power; the notion is the shell--the power is\nthe kernel and life. Without this last, truth doth me no good, nor\nthose to whom I communicate it. Hence Paul said to the Corinthians,\n'When I come to you again, I will know not the speech of them that\nare puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in\nword, but in power.' (1 Cor 4:19,20) Search, then, after the power\nof what thou knowest, for it is the power that will do thee good.\nNow this will not be got but by earnest prayer, and much attending\nupon God; also there must not be admitted by thee that thy heart\nbe stuffed with cumbering cares of this world, for they are of a\nchoking nature.\n\nTake heed of slighting that little that thou hast; a good improvement\nof little is the way to make that little thrive, and the way to\nobtain additions thereto: 'He that is faithful in that which is\nleast is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least\nis unjust also in much.' (Luke 16:10)\n\n2. Improve them to others, and that, (1.) By labouring to instill\nthem upon their hearts by good and wholesome words, presenting\nall to them with the authority of the Scriptures. (2.) Labour to\nenforce those instillings on them by showing them by thy life the\npeace, the glorious effects that they have upon thy soul.\n\nLastly, Let this doctrine give thee boldness to come to God. Shall\nJesus Christ be interceding in heaven? Oh, then, be thou a praying\nman on earth; yea, take courage to pray. Think thus with thyself--I\ngo to God, to God, before whose throne the Lord Jesus is ready to\nhand my petitions to him; yea, 'he ever lives to make intercession\nfor me.' This is a great encouragement to come to God by prayers\nand supplications for ourselves, and by intercessions for our\nfamilies, our neighbours, and enemies. Farewell.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1: Coming unto God by Christ, essentially involves in it walking\nin conformity to his image; and all such comers must be perfectly\nand eternally saved. Why then, O child of God, should you suffer\nunder Giant Despair, in his doubting, fearing castle.--Ed.\n\n2 What indescribable consolations flow into the Christina's soul\nfrom communion with God, especially to the most deeply afflicted.\nThus the wisdom casts her care upon her heavenly Father--her Creator,\nChrist; for all things were made by him. He is her husband, ever\nliving to intercede for her. Wondrous privileges!--Ed.\n\n3 The infinite perfection of the Mediatorial work of Jesus, God manifest\nin the flesh, is the ground of our hope. He alone can effectually\nplead with God. O my soul! if, in thy holiest and happiest moments,\nthou art found 'looking unto Jesus,' how much more intensely ought\nthy trembling eye to be directed to him, when thou art wounded by\nsin!!--Ed.\n\n4 What can withstand the will of Christ, that all his should\nbehold and partake of his glory? He is the Captain of salvation,\nhas subdued all our enemies for us, and will destroy their power in\nus, and, ere long, put our last enemy, death, under his feet.--Mason.\n\n5 One proof of a future state of rewards is, that many of God's\ndearest saints have been most bitterly persecuted all their lives,\nand martyred with extreme cruelty. Thus it was with the greatest\nman this country ever saw--William Tyndale, to whom the world is\nindebted for our translation of the Bible. See his letters, in his\nMemoir by the Editor, prefixed to a reprint of the first English\nNew Testament.--Ed.\n\n6 'The uttermost.' How boundless! It includes all that wondrous\nextent of Divine love which we shall be ever learning, and never\nbe able to comprehend, the breadth, length, depth, and height of\nthe love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.--Ed.\n\n7 'Achare,' from to chare, to turn about, or backwards and forwards;,\nas achare woman, one who takes her turn at work; a door achare, or\najar, turning to and fro on its hinges, or standing partly open.--Ed.\n\n8 It is supposed by some that 'Nicolas' was the founder of the\nsect of the Nicolaitanes, mentioned in Revelation 2:6, 15; but of\nthis there is much doubt. See Dr. Gill, and Matthew Henry on Acts\n6:5.--Ed.\n\n9 A godly man's prayers are sometimes answered by terrible things\nin righteousness. He prays to be quickened in his walk with God;\nand the answer, dictated by wisdom and love, is the loss of some\ntemporal blessing, that he may be kept 'looking unto Jesus.'--Ed.\n\n10 The heart 'unweldable.' This homely allusion, drawn from Bunyan's\ntrade of blacksmith, is worthy of remark. The heart a mountain of\niron, so hard that no heat in nature can soften it so as to weld\nit to Christ. To weld is to hammer into firm union two pieces\nof iron, when heated almost to fusion, so as to become one piece.\nThe heart of man is by nature 'unweldable,' until God the Spirit\nsoftens it; and then the union is such that Christ becomes THE LIFE\nof his saints. Reader, has thy heart passed through this process?--Ed.\n\n11 This is a solemn and heart-searching consideration. It is not\nenough that we fear eternal wrath, but we must love heaven, for\nthe sake of its purity. It is not sufficient that we go to Christ\nfor pardon, but we must go through him to the infinitely holy God,\nfor holiness and fitness for heaven.--Ed.\n\n12 There have been, in every age, professors who, instead of\ngratefully receiving and obeying the whole truth, have indulged in\nfavourite doctrines. Happy is that Christian who equally loves to\nhear Christ set forth as a priest and sacrifice, or to dwell upon\nhis power and authority as king and lawgiver; who delights as much\nin holy obedience as in electing love. The saints are bound to\nbear with each other, never forgetting that they are members of\none family, and must cherish and comfort one another, as we hope\nto enjoy fellowship with heaven and the smiles of the great Head\nof the church.--Ed.\n\n13 Nothing can be more solemn and awful than are these warnings. O\nthat we may feel the spurs, the condemning curse of a broken law,\nand a sense of the jaws of hell, urging us on in coming to, and\ncleaving to Christ.--Ed.\n\n14\n\n\n   'To any boot,' to any profit.\n        'What boots it at one gate to make defence,\n        and at another to let in the foe!'\n\n\nMilton's Samson Agonistes--Ed.\n\n15 'Them.' As Christ is the Saviour of both body and soul,\nnotwithstanding the sins of the body, they break not the covenant;\nbecause it is God's covenant, and stands fast in Christ for\nevermore.--Ed.\n\n16 'Plenary'; full, perfect, or complete.--Ed.\n\n17 Bunyan saw that time very far off, which much more nearly\napproaches us: when Antichrist will find a grave in the side of\nthe pit's mouth; when no national barriers, either Pagan, Popish,\nor Protestant, shall exist to prevent the glorious spread of pure\nand vital Christianity. And, however abundant that harvest of souls\nshall be, there will prove a superabundance of grace in Christ to\nsupply all their wants. He was, is now, and ever will be, 'a complete\nSaviour.'--Ed.\n\n18 'Gospellers,' a nickname given to the Reformers, when first\na holy band determined, at the imminent risk of life, to read the\nNew Testament or Gospels in English. It was like the term Methodist,\na few years ago. The gospel has now so much spread, that these\nterms of reproach are only used by fanatics.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nCOME AND WELCOME TO JESUS CHRIST;\n\nOR,\n\nA PLAIN AND PROFITABLE DISCOURSE ON JOHN 6:37\n\nSHOWING THE CAUSE, TRUTH, AND MANNER OF THE COMING OF A SINNER TO\nJESUS CHRIST; WITH HIS HAPPY RECEPTION AND BLESSED ENTERTAINMENT.\n\nWRITTEN BY JOHN BUNYAN, AUTHOR OF \"THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.\"\n\n\"And they shall come which were ready to perish.\"--Isaiah 27:13.\n\nLondon, 1681.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\n\"Come and welcome to Jesus Christ,\" is a subject peculiarly fitted\nto the deep and searching experience of John Bunyan. He knew all\nthe wiles of sin and Satan, in placing stumblingblocks in the way\nof a sincere penitent; all the human craft employed in keeping the\nsoul from a simple and entire reliance upon Christ for salvation.\nThis little work soon became most deservedly popular, passing through\nfour large editions during the last seven years of the author's\nlife. It is an enlightened display of the dealings of the Father in\ngiving sinners to Christ; the Son in saving them by his atonement,\nmediation, and intercession; and the Holy Spirit in sanctifying\nand fitting them for glory. Here is no Calvinism, Lutheranism, or\nArminianism; no Episcopacy, Presbytery, or Independency; nothing\nbut Christism and Bibleism. The gracious invitation is addressed\nto all who feel their misery, Come unto me, and I will make you\nhappy and blessed. All who feel the leprosy of sin are invited to\nthis spiritual Physician, and he only can and will heal them. All\nwho suffer under the slavery of sin and Satan, Christ alone can make\nyou free. Come to him, and you shall be free indeed. The analysis\nof Bunyan's treatise shows that ALL mankind are born in sin. ALL\nsinners are invited to Christ. None will come but such as feel the\nplague, and see the leprosy of sin. Those who come are drawn in a\nvariety of ways--some terrified with the horrors of hell, others\nallured by the gracious voice of the Saviour, and the prospects of\nheavenly felicity. ALL who sincerely come, attain the same end, a\nsincere and total reliance upon the Saviour as the only refuge from\nthe roaring lion.\n\nEvery other way to life is guarded by the flaming swords of the\ncherubim. Christ opens his golden arms wider than all our miseries.\nBut he suffers no rival on his throne, no partnership with Moses or\nJohn Baptist. The personification of \"shall come,\" and of \"ignorance,\"\nis strikingly illustrative; as is \"sin, the winding-sheet of the\nsoul;\" \"unbelief, the white devil;\" the sinner being a counsellor\nfor Satan; and the two ways of taking our own likeness. His appeal\nto persecutors is most forcible. But I must not detain the reader\nlonger from the pleasure and profit he will receive from an attentive\nperusal of these pages.\n\nHACKNEY, 1850. GEORGE OFFOR.\n\nCOME AND WELCOME TO JESUS CHRIST.\n\n\"ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVETH ME SHALL COME TO ME; AND HIM THAT COMETH\nTO ME I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT.\"--JOHN 6:37.\n\nA little before, in this chapter, you may read that the Lord Jesus\nwalked on the sea to go to Capernaum, having sent his disciples\nbefore in a ship, but the wind was contrary; by which means the\nship was hindered in her passage. Now, about the fourth watch of\nthe night, Jesus came walking upon the sea, and overtook them; at\nthe sight of whom they were afraid.\n\nNote, When providences are black and terrible to God's people, the\nLord Jesus shows himself to them in wonderful manner; the which\nsometimes they can as little bear, as they can the things that\nwere before terrible to them. They were afraid of the wind and the\nwater; they were also afraid of their Lord and Saviour, when he\nappeared to them in that state.\n\nBut he said, \"Be not afraid, it is I.\"\n\nNote, That the end of the appearing of the Lord Jesus unto his\npeople, though the manner of his appearing be never so terrible,\nis to allay their fears and perplexities.\n\nThen they received him into the ship, and immediately the ship was\nat land whither it went.\n\nNote, When Christ is absent from his people, they go on but slowly,\nand with great difficulty; but when he joineth himself unto them,\noh! how fast they steer their course! how soon are they\nat their journey's end! 1\n\nThe people now among whom he last preached, when they saw that both\nJesus was gone and his disciples, they also took shipping, and came\nto Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him, they\nwonderingly asked him, \"Rabbi, when camest thou hither?\" but the\nLord Jesus, slighting their compliment, answered, \"Verily, verily,\nye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did\neat of the loaves, and were filled.\"\n\nNote, A people may follow Christ far for base ends, as these went\nafter him beyond sea for loaves. A man's belly will carry him\na great way in religion; yea, a man's belly will make him venture\nfar for Christ.\n\nNote again, They are not feigning compliments, but gracious\nintentions, that crown the work in the eye of Christ; or thus, it\nis not the toil and business of professors, 2 but their love to\nhim, that makes him approve of them.\n\nNote again, When men shall look for friendly entertainment\nat Christ's hand, if their hearts be rotten, even then will they\nmeet with a check and rebuke. \"Ye seek me, not because ye saw the\nmiracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.\"\n\nYet observe again, He doth not refuse to give, even to these, good\ncounsel: he bids them labour for the meat that endureth to eternal\nlife. Oh! how willingly would Jesus Christ have even those professors\nthat come to him with pretences only, come to him sincerely, that\nthey may be saved.\n\nThe text, you will find, is, after much more discourse with and about\nthis people, and it is uttered by the Lord Jesus as the conclusion\nof the whole, and intimateth that, since they were professors in\npretence only, and therefore such as his soul could not delight\nin, as such, that he would content himself with a remnant that his\nFather had bestowed upon him. As who should say, I am not like to\nbe honoured in your salvation; but the Father hath bestowed upon\nme a people, and they shall come to me in truth, and in them will\nI be satisfied. The text, therefore, may be called Christ's repose;\nin the fulfilling whereof he resteth himself content, after much\nlabour and many sermons spent, as it were, in vain. As he saith\nby the prophet, \"I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength\nfor nought, and in vain\" (Isa 49:4).\n\nBut as there he saith, \"My judgment is with the LORD, and my work\nwith my God;\" so in the text he saith, \"All that the Father giveth\nme shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise\ncast out.\" By these words, therefore, the Lord Jesus comforteth\nhimself under the consideration of the dissimulation of some\nof his followers. He also thus betook himself to rest under the\nconsideration of the little effect that his ministry had in Capernaum,\nChorazin, and Bethsaida: \"I thank thee, O Father,\" said he, \"Lord\nof heaven and earth, because thou has hid these things from the wise\nand prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father,\nfor so it seemed good in thy sight\" (Matt 11:25; Luke 10:21).\n\nThe text, in the general, standeth of TWO PARTS, and hath special\nrespect to the Father and the Son; as also to their joint management\nof the salvation of the people: \"All that the Father giveth me\nshall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout.\" The first part of the text, as is evident, respecteth the\nFather and his gift; the other part the Son and his reception of\nthat gift.\n\nFIRST, For the gift of the Father there is this to be considered,\nto wit, the gift itself; and that is the gift of certain persons\nto the Son. The Father giveth, and that gift shall come: \"And him\nthat cometh.\" The gift, then, is of persons; the Father giveth\npersons to Jesus Christ.\n\nSECOND, Next you have the Son's reception of this gift, and that showeth\nitself in these particulars:--1. In his hearty acknowledgement of\nit to be a gift: \"The Father giveth me.\" 2. In his taking notice,\nafter a solemn manner, of all and every part of the gift: \"All\nthat the Father giveth me.\" 3. In his resolution to bring them to\nhimself: \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.\" 4. And\nin his determining that not anything shall make him dislike them\nin their coming: \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout.\"\n\nThese things might be spoken to at large, as they are in this method\npresented to view: but I shall choose to speak to the words, FIRST,\nBY WAY OF EXPLICATION. SECOND, BY WAY OF OBSERVATION.\n\n[FIRST, THE TEXT TREATED BY WAY OF EXPLICATION.]\n\n[THE EXTENT OF THE GIFT.]\n\n\"All that the Father giveth me.\" This word all, is often used in\nScripture, and is to be taken more largely, or more strictly, even\nas the truth or argument, for the sake of which it is made use of,\nwill bear. Wherefore, that we may the better understand the mind of\nChrist in the use of it here, we must consider, that it is limited\nand restrained only to those that shall be saved, to wit, to those\nthat shall come to Christ; even to those whom he will \"in no wise\ncast out.\" Thus, also, the words all Israel, is sometimes to be\ntaken, although sometimes it is taken for the whole family of Jacob.\n\"And so all Israel shall be saved\" (Rom 11:26). By all Israel here,\nhe intendeth not all of Israel, in the largest sense; \"for they are\nnot all Israel which are of Israel;\" \"neither because they are of\nthe seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy\nseed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh,\nthese are not the children of God; but the children of the promise\nare counted for the seed\" (Rom 9:6-8).\n\nThis word ALL, therefore, must be limited and enlarged, as the\ntruth and argument, for the sake of which it is used, will bear;\nelse we shall abuse Scripture, and readers, and ourselves, and all.\n\"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,\" said Christ, \"will draw\nALL men unto me\" (John 12:32). Can any man imagine, that by ALL,\nin this place, he should mean all and every individual man in the\nworld, and not rather that all that is consonant to the scope of\nthe place? And if, by being \"lifted up from the earth,\" he means, as\nhe should seem, his being taken up into heaven; and if, by \"drawing\nALL men after him,\" he meant a drawing them unto that place of\nglory; then must he mean by ALL men, those, and only those, that\nshall in truth be eternally saved from the wrath to come. \"For\nGod hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy\nupon all\" (Rom 11:32). Here again you have all and all, two alls;\nbut yet a greater disparity between the all made mention of in the\nfirst place, and that all made mention of the second. Those intended\nin this text are the Jews, even all of them, by the first all that\nyou find in the words. The second all doth also intend the same\npeople; but yet only so many of them as God will have mercy upon.\n\"He hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy\nupon all.\" The all also in the text, is likewise to be limited and\nrestrained to the saved, and to them only. But again;--\n\nThe word \"giveth,\" or \"hath given,\" must be restrained, after the\nsame manner, to the same limited number. \"All that the Father giveth\nme.\" Not all that are given, if you take the gift of the Father\nto the Son in the largest sense; for in that sense there are many\ngiven to him that shall never come unto him; yea, many are given\nunto him that he will \"cast out.\" I shall, therefore, first show\nyou the truth of this; and then in what sense the gift in the text\nmust be taken.\n\nFirst, [ALL cannot be intended in its largest sense.] That ALL that\nare given to Christ, if you take the gift of the Father to him in\nthe largest sense, cannot be intended in the text, is evident--\n\n1. Because, then, all the men, yea, all the things in the world,\nmust be saved. \"All things,\" saith he, \"are delivered unto me of my\nFather\" (Matt 11:27). This, I think, no rational man in the world\nwill conclude. Therefore, the gift intended in the text must be\nrestrained to some, to a gift that is given by way of speciality\nby the Father to the Son.\n\n2. It must not be taken for ALL, that in any sense are given by\nthe Father to him, because the Father hath given some, yea, many\nto him, to be dashed in pieces by him. \"Ask of me,\" said the Father\nto him, \"and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,\nand the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.\" But what\nmust be done with them? must he save them all? No. \"Thou shalt\nbreak them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a\npotter's vessel\" (Psa 2). This method he useth not with them that\nhe saveth by his grace, but with those that himself and saints shall\nrule over in justice and severity (Rev 2:26,27). Yet, as you see,\n\"they are given to him.\" Therefore, the gift intended in the text\nmust be restrained to some, to a gift that is given by way of\nspeciality by the Father to the Son.\n\nIn Psalm 18 he saith plainly, that some are given to him that he\nmight destroy them. \"Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies;\nthat I might destroy them that hate me\" (verse 40). These, therefore,\ncannot be of the number of those that are said to be given in the\ntext; for those, even ALL of them, shall come to him, \"and he will\nin no wise cast them out.\"\n\n3. Some are given to Christ, that he by them might bring about some\nof his high and deep designs in the world. Thus Judas was given\nto Christ, to wit, that by him, even as was determined before, he\nmight bring about his death, and so the salvation of his elect by\nhis blood. Yea, and Judas must so manage this business, as that\nhe must lose himself for ever in bringing it to pass. Therefore\nthe Lord Jesus, even in his losing of Judas, applies himself to\nthe judgment of his Father, if he had not in that thing done that\nwhich was right, even in suffering of Judas so to bring about his\nMaster's death, as that he might, by so doing, bring about his own\neternal damnation also.\n\n\"Those,\" said he, \"that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of\nthem is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be\nfulfilled\" (John 17:12). Let us, then, grant that Judas was given\nto Christ, but not as others are given to him, not as those made\nmention of in the text; for then he should have failed to have\nbeen so received by Christ, and kept to eternal life. Indeed, he\nwas given to Christ; but he was given to him to lose him, in the\nway that I have mentioned before; he was given to Christ, that he\nby him might bring about his own death, as was before determined;\nand that in the overthrow of him that did it. Yea, he must bring\nabout his own death, as was before determined, and that in the\noverthrow of him that did it. Yea, he must bring about his dying\nfor us in the loss of the instrument that betrayed him, that he\nmight even fulfil the Scripture in his destruction, as well as in\nthe salvation of the rest. \"And none of them is lost, but the son\nof perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.\"\n\n[Second, Those intended as the gift.]--The gift, therefore, in the\ntext, must not be taken in the largest sense, but even as the words\nwill bear, to wit, for such a gift as he accepteth, and promiseth\nto be an effectual means of eternal salvation to. \"All that the\nFather giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will\nin no wise cast out.\" Mark! they shall come that are in special\ngiven to me; and they shall by no means be rejected. For this is\nthe substance of the text.\n\nThose, therefore, intended as the gift in the text, are those that\nare given by covenant to the Son; those that in other places are\ncalled \"the elect,\" \"the chosen,\" \"the sheep,\" and \"the children\nof the promise,\" &c. These be they that the Father hath given to\nChrist to keep them; those that Christ hath promised eternal life\nunto; those to whom he hath given his word, and that he will have\nwith him in his kingdom to behold his glory.\n\n\"This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he\nhath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again\nat the last day\" (John 6:39). \"And I give unto them eternal life;\nand they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out\nof my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all; and\nno man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand\" (John 10:28).\n\"As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give\neternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Thine they were,\nand thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word; I pray for\nthem: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given\nme; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine;\nand I am glorified in them.\" \"Keep through thine own name those\nwhom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.\" \"Father,\nI will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I\nam; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou\nlovedst me before the foundation of the world\" (John 17:1,6,9,10,24).\n\nAll these sentences are of the same import with the text; and the\nalls and manies, those, they, &c., in these several sayings of\nChrist, are the same with all the given in the text. \"All that the\nFather giveth.\"\n\nSo that, as I said before, the word ALL, as also other words, must\nnot be taken in such sort as our foolish fancies or groundless\nopinions will prompt us to, but do admit of an enlargement or a\nrestriction, according to the true meaning and intent of the text.\nWe must therefore diligently consult the meaning of the text, by\ncomparing it with other the sayings of God; so shall we be better\nable to find out the mind of the Lord, in the word which he has\ngiven us to know it by.\n\n[THE PERSON GIVING, THE FATHER.]\n\n\"All that the Father giveth.\" By this word \"Father,\" Christ describeth\nthe person giving; by which we may learn several useful things.\n\nFirst, That the Lord God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is\nconcerned with the Son in the salvation of his people. True, his\nacts, as to our salvation, are diverse from those of the Son; he\nwas not capable of doing that, or those things for us, as did the\nSon; he died not, he spilt not blood for our redemption, as the\nSon; but yet he hath a hand, a great hand, in our salvation too.\nAs Christ saith, \"The Father himself loveth you,\" and his love is\nmanifest in choosing of us, in giving of us to his Son; yea, and\nin giving his Son also to be a ransom for us. Hence he is called,\n\"The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.\" For here even\nthe Father hath himself found out, and made way for his grace to\ncome to us through the sides and the heart-blood of his well-beloved\nSon (Col 1:12-14). The Father, therefore, is to be remembered and\nadored, as one having a chief hand in the salvation of sinners. We\nought to give \"thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to\nbe partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light\" (Col 1:12).\nFor \"the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world\" (John\n4:14). As also we see in the text, the \"Father giveth\" the sinner\nto Christ to save him.\n\nSecond, Christ Jesus the Lord, by this word \"Father,\" would\nfamiliarize this giver to us. Naturally the name of God is dreadful\nto us, especially when he is discovered to us by those names that\ndeclare his justice, holiness, power, and glory; but now this word\n\"Father\" is a familiar word, it frighteth not the sinner, but rather\ninclineth his heart to love, and be pleased with the remembrance\nof him. Hence Christ also, when he would have us to pray with godly\nboldness, puts this word \"Father\" into our mouths; saying, \"When\nye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven;\" concluding thereby,\nthat by the familiarity that by such a word is intimated, the\nchildren of God may take more boldness to pray for, and ask great\nthings. I myself have often found, that when I can say but this\nword Father, it doth me more good than when I call him by any other\nScripture name. It is worth your noting, that to call God by his\nrelative title was rare among the saints in Old Testament times.\nSeldom do you find him called by this name; no, sometimes not in\nthree or four books: but now in New Testament times, he is called\nby no name so often as this, both by the Lord Jesus himself, and by\nthe apostles afterwards. Indeed, the Lord Jesus was he that first\nmade this name common among the saints, and that taught them, both\nin their discourses, their prayers, and in their writings, so much\nto use it; it being more pleasing to, and discovering more plainly\nour interest in, God, than any other expression; for by this one name\nwe are made to understand that all our mercies are the offspring of\nGod, and that we also that are called are his children by adoption.\n\n[Import of the word GIVETH.]--\"All that the Father giveth.\"\n\nThis word \"giveth\" is out of Christ's ordinary dialect, and seemeth\nto intimate, at the first sound, as if the Father's gift to the Son\nwas not an act that is past, but one that is present and continuing;\nwhen, indeed, this gift was bestowed upon Christ when the covenant,\nthe eternal covenant, was made between them before all worlds.\nWherefore, in those other places, when this gift is mentioned, it\nis still spoken of, as of an act that is past; as, \"All that he\nhath give me; to as many as thou hast given me; thou gavest them\nme; and those which thou hast given me.\" Therefore, of necessity,\nthis must be the first and chief sense of the text; I mean of\nthis word \"giveth,\" otherwise the doctrine of election, and of the\neternal covenant which was made between the Father and the Son, in\nwhich covenant this gift of the Father is most certainly comprised,\nwill be shaken, or at leastwise questionable, by erroneous and\nwicked men: for they may say, That the Father gave not all those\nto Christ that shall be saved, before the world was made; for that\nthis act of giving is an act of continuation. 3 But again, this\nword \"giveth\" is not to be rejected, for it hath its proper use,\nand may signify to us--\n\n1. That though the act of giving among men doth admit of the time\npast, or the time to come, and is to be spoken of with reference\nto such time; yet with God it is not so. Things past, or things to\ncome, are always present with God, and with his Son Jesus Christ:\nHe \"calleth those things which be not,\" that is, to us, \"as though\nthey were\" (Rom 4:17). And again, \"Known unto God are all his works\nfrom the beginning of the world.\" All things to God are present,\nand so the gift of the Father to the Son, although to us, as is\nmanifest by the word, it is an act that is past (Acts 15:16).\n\n2. Christ may express himself thus, to show, that the Father hath\nnot only given him this portion in the lump, before the world was,\nbut that those that he had so given, he will give him again; that\nis, will bring them to him at the time of their conversion; for\nthe Father bringeth them to Christ (John 6:44). As it is said, \"She\nshall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle-work;\" that\nis, in the righteousness of Christ; for it is God that imputeth\nthat to those that are saved (Psa 45:14; 1 Cor 1). A man giveth\nhis daughter to such a man, first in order to marriage, and this\nrespects the time past, and he giveth her again at the day appointed\nin marriage. And in this last sense, perhaps, the text may have a\nmeaning; that is, that all that the Father hath, before the world\nwas, given to Jesus Christ, he giveth them again to him in the day\nof their espousals.\n\nThings that are given among men, are ofttimes best at first; to wit,\nwhen they are new; and the reason is, because all earthly things\nwax old; but with Christ it is not so. This gift of the Father is\nnot old and deformed, and unpleasant in his eyes; and therefore to\nhim it is always new. When the Lord spake of giving the land of\nCanaan to the Israelites, he saith not, that he had given, or would\ngive it to them, but thus: \"The Lord thy God giveth thee--this good\nland\" (Deut 9:6). Not but that he had given it to them, while they\nwere in the loins of their fathers, hundreds of years before. Yet\nhe saith now he giveth it to them; as if they were now also in the\nvery act of taking possession, when as yet they were on the other\nside Jordan. What then should be the meaning? Why, I take it to be\nthis. That the land should be to them always as new; as new as if\nthey were taking possession thereof but now. And so is the gift\nof the Father, mentioned in the text, to the Son; it is always new,\nas if it were always new.\n\n\"All that the Father giveth me.\" In these words you find mention\nmade of two persons, the Father and the Son; the Father giving,\nand the Son receiving or accepting of this gift. This, then, in the\nfirst place, clearly demonstrateth, that the Father and the Son,\nthough they, with the Holy Ghost, are one and the same eternal God;\nyet, as to their personality, are distinct. The Father is one, the\nSon is one, the Holy Spirit is one. But because there is in this\ntext mention made but of two of the three, therefore a word about\nthese two. The giver and receiver cannot be the same person in\na proper sense, in the same act of giving and receiving. He that\ngiveth, giveth not to himself, but to another; the Father giveth\nnot to the Father, to wit, to himself, but to the Son: the Son\nreceiveth not of the Son, to wit, of himself, but of the Father:\nso when the Father giveth commandment, he giveth it not to himself,\nbut to another; as Christ saith, \"He gave me a commandment\" (John\n12:49). So again, \"I am one that bear witness of myself, and the\nFather that sent me beareth witness of me\" (John 8:18).\n\nFurther, here is something implied that is not expressed, to wit,\nthat the Father hath not given all men to Christ; that is, in that\nsense as it is intended in this text, though in a larger, as was\nsaid before, he hath given him every one of them; for then all\nshould be saved: he hath, therefore, disposed of some another way.\nHe gives some up to idolatry; he gives some up to uncleanness, to\nvile affections, and to a reprobate mind. Now these he disposeth of\nin his anger, for their destruction, that they may reap the fruit\nof their doings, and be filled with the reward of their own ways\n(Acts 7:42; Rom 1:24,26,28). But neither hath he thus disposed of\nall men; he hath even of mercy reserved some from these judgments,\nand those are they that he will pardon, as he saith, \"For I will\npardon them whom I reserve\" (Jer 50:20). Now these he hath given\nto Jesus Christ, by will, as a legacy and portion. Hence the Lord\nJesus says, \"This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of\nall which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise\nit up again at the last day\" (John 6:39).\n\n[THE FATHER'S INTENT IN GIVING.]\n\nThe Father, therefore, in giving of them to him to save them, must\nneeds declare unto us these following things:--\n\nFirst, That he is able to answer this design of God, to wit, to\nsave them to the uttermost sin, the uttermost temptation, &c. (Heb\n7:25). Hence he is said to lay \"help upon one that is mighty,\"\n\"mighty to save\" (Psa 89:19; Isa 63:1) and hence it is again, that\nGod did even of old promise to send his people \"a Saviour, a great\none\" (Isa 19:20). To save is a great work, and calls for almightiness\nin the undertaker: hence he is called the \"Mighty God, the wonderful\nCounsellor,\" &c. Sin is strong, Satan is also strong, death and\nthe grave are strong, and so is the curse of the law; therefore it\nfollows, that this Jesus must needs be, by God the Father, accounted\nalmighty, in that he hath given his elect to him to save them, and\ndeliver them from these, and that in despite of all their force\nand power.\n\nAnd he gave us testimony of this his might, when he was employed in\nthat part of our deliverance that called for a declaration of it.\nHe abolished death; he destroyed him that had the power of death;\nhe was the destruction of the grave; he hath finished sin, and made\nan end of it, as to its damning effects upon the persons that the\nFather hath given him; he hath vanquished the curse of the law,\nnailed it to his cross, triumphed over them upon his cross, and\nmade a show of these things openly (2 Tim 1:10; Heb 2:14,15; Hosea\n13:14; Dan 9:24; Gal 3:13; Col 2:14,15). Yea, and even now, as a\nsign of his triumph and conquest, he is alive from the dead, and\nhath the keys of hell and death in his own keeping (Rev 1:18).\n\nSecond, The Father's giving of them to him to save them, declares\nunto us that he is and will be faithful in his office of Mediator,\nand that therefore they shall be secured from the fruit and wages\nof their sins, which is eternal damnation, by his faithful execution\nof it. And, indeed, it is said, even by the Holy Ghost himself, That\nhe \"was faithful to him that appointed him,\" that is, to this work\nof saving those that the Father hath given him for that purpose;\nas \"Moses was faithful in all his house.\" Yea, and more faithful\ntoo, for Moses was faithful in God's house but as a servant; \"but\nChrist as a Son over his own house\" (Heb 3). And therefore this man\nis counted worthy of more glory than Moses, even upon this account,\nbecause more faithful than he, as well as because of the dignity\nof his person. Therefore in him, and in his truth and faithfulness,\nGod resteth well pleased, and hath put all the government of this\npeople upon his shoulders. Knowing that nothing shall be wanting\nin him, that may any way perfect this design. And of this he, to\nwit, the Son, hath already given a proof. For when the time was\ncome, that his blood was, by Divine justice, required for their\nredemption, washing, and cleansing, he as freely poured it out of\nhis heart, as if it had been water out of a vessel; not sticking\nto part with his own life, that the life which was laid up for his\npeople in heaven might not fail to be bestowed upon them. And upon\nthis account, as well as upon any other, it is that God calleth\nhim \"my righteous servant\" (Isa 53:11). For his righteousness\ncould never have been complete, if he had not been to the uttermost\nfaithful to the work he undertook; it is also, because he is faithful\nand true, that in righteousness he doth judge and make work for\nhis people's deliverance. He will faithfully perform this trust\nreposed in him. The Father knows this, and hath therefore given\nhis elect unto him.\n\nThird, The Father's giving of them to him, to save them, declares\nthat he is, and will be gentle, and patient towards them, under\nall their provocations and miscarriages. It is not to be imagined,\nthe trials and provocations that the Son of God hath all along\nhad with these people that have been given to him that saves them:\nindeed he is said to be \"a tried stone;\" for he has been tried, not\nonly by the devil, guilt of sin, death, and the curse of the law,\nbut also by his people's ignorance, unruliness, falls into sin,\nand declining to errors in life and doctrine. Were we but capable\nof seeing how this Lord Jesus has been tried even by his people,\never since there was one of them in the world, we should be amazed\nat his patience and gentle carriages to them. It is said, indeed,\n\"The Lord is very pitiful, slow to anger, and of great mercy.\" And,\nindeed, if he had not been so, he could never have endured their\nmanners as he has done from Adam hitherto. Therefore is his pity\nand bowels towards his church preferred above the pity and bowels\nof a mother towards her child. \"Can a woman forget her sucking\nchild, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?\nYea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee,\" saith the Lord\n(Isa 49:15).\n\nGod did once give Moses, as Christ's servant, an handful of his\npeople, to carry them in his bosom, but no further than from Egypt\nto Canaan; and this Moses, as is said of him by the Holy Ghost,\nwas the meekest man that was then to be found in the earth; yea,\nand he loved the people at a very great rate; yet neither would\nhis meekness nor love hold out in this work; he failed and grew\npassionate, even to the provoking his God to anger under this work.\n\"And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy\nservant?\" But what was the affliction? Why, the Lord had said unto\nhim, \"Carry this people in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth\nthe suckling child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their\nfathers.\" And how then? Not I, says Moses, \"I am not able to bear\nall this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If thou\ndeal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, and let me\nnot see my wretchedness\" (Num 11:11-15).\n\nGod gave them to Moses, that he might carry them in his bosom, that\nhe might show gentleness and patience towards them, under all the\nprovocations wherewith they would provoke him from that time till\nhe had brought them to their land; but he failed in the work;\nhe could not exercise it, because he had not that sufficiency of\npatience towards them. But now it is said of the person speaking in\nthe text, \"That he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry\nthem in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young\"\n(Isa 40:11). Intimating, that this was one of the qualifications\nthat God looked for, and knew was in him, when he gave his elect\nto him to save them.\n\nFourth, The Father giving of him to save them, declares that he\nhath a sufficiency of wisdom to wage with all those difficulties\nthat would attend him in his bringing of his sons and daughters\nunto glory. He made him to us to be wisdom; yea, he is called wisdom\nitself (1 Cor 1:30). And God saith, moreover, That \"he shall deal\nprudently\" (Isa 52:13). And, indeed, he that shall take upon him\nto be the Saviour of the people, had need be wise, because their\nadversaries are subtle above any. Here they are to encounter with\nthe serpent, who for his subtilty outwitted our father and mother,\nwhen their wisdom was at highest (Gen 3). But if we talk of wisdom,\nour Jesus is wise, wiser than Solomon, wiser than all men, wiser\nthan all angels; he is even the wisdom of God. \"Christ is the\nwisdom of God\" (1 Cor 1:24). And hence it is that he turneth sin,\ntemptations, persecutions, falls, and all things, for good unto\nhis people (Rom 8:28).\n\nNow these things thus concluded on do show us also the great and\nwonderful love of the Father, in that he should choose out one\nevery way so well prepared for the work of man's salvation.\n\nHerein, indeed, perceive we the love of God. Huram gathered, that\nGod loved Israel because he had given them such a king as Solomon\n(2 Chron 2:11). But how much more may we behold the love that God\nhath bestowed upon us, in that he hath given us to his Son, and\nalso given his Son for us?\n\n[THE SON'S RECEPTION OF THE GIFT.]\n\n\"All that the Father giveth me SHALL COME.\" In these last words\nthere is closely inserted an answer unto the Father's end in giving\nof his elect to Jesus Christ. The Father's end was, that they might\ncome to him, and be saved by him; and that, says the Son, shall\nbe done; neither sin nor Satan, neither flesh nor world, neither\nwisdom nor folly, shall hinder their coming to me. \"They shall come\nto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nHere, therefore, the Lord Jesus positively determineth to put forth\nsuch a sufficiency of all grace as shall effectually perform this\npromise. \"They shall come;\" that is, he will cause them to come,\nby infusing of an effectual blessing into all the means that shall\nbe used to that end. As was said to the evil spirit that was sent\nto persuade Ahab to go and fall at Ramoth-Gilead; Go: \"Thou shalt\npersuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so\" (1 Kings\n22:22). So will Jesus Christ say to the means that shall be used\nfor the bringing of those to him that the Father hath given him.\nI say, he will bless it effectually to this very end; it shall\npersuade them, and shall prevail also; else, as I said, the Father's\nend would be frustrate; for the Father's will is, that \"of all\nwhich he hath given him, he should lose nothing, but should raise\nit up at the last day,\" (John 6:39); in order next unto himself,\nChrist the first-fruits, afterwards those that are his at his coming\n(1 Cor 15). But this cannot be done if there should fail to be a\nwork of grace effectually wrought, though but in any one of them.\nBut this shall not fail to be wrought in them, even in all the\nFather hath given him to save. \"All that the Father hath given me\nshall come unto me,\" &c.\n\nBut to speak more distinctly to the words, THEY \"SHALL COME,\" two\nthings I would show you from these words--FIRST, What it is to come\nto Christ. SECOND, What force there is in this promise, to make\nthem come to him.\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO COME TO CHRIST.]\n\nFIRST, I would show you WHAT IT IS TO COME TO CHRIST. This word\ncome must be understood spiritually, not carnally; for many came\nto him carnally, or bodily, that had no saving advantage by him.\nMultitudes did thus come unto him in the days of his flesh; yea,\ninnumerable companies. There is also at this day a formal customary\ncoming to his ordinances and ways of worship, which availeth not\nanything; but with them I shall not now meddle, for they are not\nintended in the text. The coming, then, intended in the text is to\nbe understood of the coming of the mind to him, even the moving of\nthe heart towards him. I say the moving of the heart towards him,\nfrom a sound sense of the absolute want that a man hath of him for\nhis justification and salvation.\n\nThis description of coming to Christ divideth itself into two heads:\nFirst, That coming to Christ is a moving of the mind towards him.\nSecond, That it is a moving of the mind towards him, from a sound\nsense of the absolute want that a man hath of him for his justification\nand salvation.\n\n[First.] To speak to the first, that it is a moving of the mind\ntowards him. This is evident; because coming hither or thither,\nif it be voluntary, is by an act of the mind or will; so coming to\nChrist is through the inclining of the will. \"Thy people shall be\nwilling\" (Psa 110:3). This willingness of heart is it which sets\nthe mind a-moving after or towards him. The church expresseth this\nmoving of her mind towards Christ by the moving of her bowels. \"My\nbeloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were\nmoved for him\" (Can 5:4). \"My bowels;\" the passions of my mind\nand affections; which passions of the affections are expressed by\nthe yearning and sounding of the bowels, the yearning or passionate\nworking of them, the sounding of them, or their making a noise for\nhim (Gen 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Isa 16:11).\n\nThis, then, is the coming to Christ, even a moving towards him\nwith the mind. 4 \"And it shall come to pass, that every thing that\nliveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall\nlive\" (Eze 47:9). The water in this text is the grace of God in\nthe doctrine of it. The living things are the children of men, to\nwhom the grace of God, by the gospel, is preached. Now, saith he,\nevery living thing which moveth, whithersoever the water shall come,\nshall live. And see how this word moveth is expounded by Christ\nhimself, in the book of the Revelations: \"The Spirit and the bride\nsay, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that\nis athirst, come. And whosoever will,\" that is, willing, \"let him\ntake the water of life freely\" (Rev 22:17).\n\nSo that to move in thy mind and will after Christ, is to be coming\nto him. There are many poor souls that are coming to Christ, that\nyet cannot tell how to believe it, because they think that coming\nto him is some strange and wonderful thing; and, indeed, so it\nis. But I mean, they overlook the inclination of their will, the\nmoving of their mind, and the sounding of their bowels after him;\nand count these none of this strange and wonderful thing; when,\nindeed, it is a work of greatest wonder in this world, to see a man\nwho was sometimes dead in sin possessed of the devil, an enemy to\nChrist and to all things spiritually good; I say, to see this man\nmoving with his mind after the Lord Jesus Christ, is one of the\nhighest wonders in the world.\n\nSecond, It is a moving of the mind towards him, from a sound sense\nof the absolute want that a man hath of him for his justification\nand salvation. Indeed, without this sense of a lost condition without\nhim, there will be no moving of the mind towards him. A moving of\ntheir mouth there may be; \"With their mouth they show much love\"\n(Eze 33:31). Such a people as this will come as the true people\ncometh; that is, in show and outward appearance. And they will sit\nbefore God's ministers, as his people sit before them; and they\nwill hear his words too, but they will not do them; that is, will\nnot come inwardly with their minds. \"For with their mouth they\nshew much love, but their heart,\" or mind, \"goeth after their\ncovetousness.\" Now, all this is because they want an effectual\nsense of the misery of their state by nature; for not till they have\nthat will they, in their mind, move after him. Therefore, thus it\nis said concerning the true comers, At \"that day the great trumpet\nshall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in\nthe land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and\nshall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem\" (Isa 27:13).\nThey are then, as you see, the outcasts, and those that are ready\nto perish, that, indeed, have their minds effectually moved to come\nto Jesus Christ. This sense of things was that which made the three\nthousand come, that made Saul come, that made the jailer come, and\nthat, indeed, makes all others come, that come effectually (Acts\n2:8,18).\n\nOf the true coming to Christ, the four lepers were a famous semblance,\nof whom you read, (2 Kings 7:3), &c. The famine in those days was\nsore in the land, there was no bread for the people; and as for\nthat sustenance that was, which was asses' flesh and doves' dung,\nthat was only in Samaria, and of these the lepers had no share, for\nthey were thrust without the city. Well, now they sat in the gate\nof the city, and hunger was, as I may say, making his last meal of\nthem; and being, therefore, half dead already, what do they think\nof doing? Why, first they display the dismal colours of death before\neach other's faces, and then resolve what to do, saying, \"If we\nsay we will enter into the city, then famine is in the city, and we\nshall die there: if we sit still here, we die also. Now, therefore,\ncome, let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us\nalive, we shall live; if they kill us, we shall but die.\" Here,\nnow, was necessity at work, and this necessity drove them to go\nthither for life, whither else they would never have gone for it.\nThus it is with them that in truth come to Jesus Christ. Death\nis before them, they see it and feel it; he is feeding upon them,\nand will eat them quite up, if they come not to Jesus Christ; and\ntherefore they come, even of necessity, being forced thereto by that\nsense they have of their being utterly and everlastingly undone,\nif they find not safety in him. These are they that will come.\nIndeed, these are they that are invited to come. \"Come unto me,\nall ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest\"\n(Matt 11:28).\n\nTake two or three things to make this more plain; to wit, That\ncoming to Christ floweth from a sound sense of the absolute need\nthat a man hath of him, as afore.\n\n1. \"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I\nlead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a\nstraight way wherein they shall not stumble\" (Jer 31:9). Mind it;\nthey come with weeping and supplication; they come with prayers and\ntears. Now prayers and tears are the effects of a right sense of\nthe need of mercy. Thus a senseless sinner cannot come, he cannot\npray, he cannot cry, he cannot come sensible of what he sees\nnot, nor feels. \"In those days, and in that time--the children of\nIsrael shall come; they and the children of Judah together, going\nand weeping: they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall\nask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come\nand let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that\nshall not be forgotten\" (Jer 1:4,5).\n\n2. This coming to Christ, it is called a running to him, as flying\nto him; a flying to him from wrath to come. By all which terms\nis set forth the sense of the man that comes; to wit, That he is\naffected with the sense of his sin, and the death due thereto; that\nhe is sensible that the avenger of blood pursues him, and that,\ntherefore, he is thus off, if he makes not speed to the Son of God\nfor life (Matt 3:7; Psa 143:9). Flying is the last work of a man\nin danger; all that are in danger do not fly; no, not all that see\nthemselves in danger; flying is the last work of a man in danger;\nall that hear of danger will not fly. Men will consider if there\nbe no other way of escape before they fly. Therefore, as I said,\nflying is the last thing. When all refuge fails, and a man is made\nto see that there is nothing left him but sin, death, and damnation,\nunless he flies to Christ for life; then he flies, and not till\nthen.\n\n3. That the true coming is from a sense of an absolute need of\nJesus Christ to save, &c., is evident by the outcry that is made\nby them to come, even as they are coming to him, \"Lord, save me,\"\nor I perish; \"Men and brethren, what shall we do?\" \"Sirs, what must\nI do to be saved?\" and the like (Matt 14:30; Acts 2:37; 16:30).\nThis language doth sufficiently discover that the truly-coming souls\nare souls sensible of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ; and,\nmoreover, that there is nothing else that can help them but Christ.\n\n4. It is yet further evident by these few things that follow: It\nis said that such are \"pricked in their heart,\" that is, with the\nsentence of death by the law; and the least prick in the heart\nkills a man (Acts 2:37). Such are said, as I said before, to weep,\nto tremble, and to be astonished in themselves at the evident and\nunavoidable danger that attends them, unless they fly to Jesus\nChrist (Acts 9:16).\n\n5. Coming to Christ is attended with an honest and sincere forsaking\nof all for him. \"If any man come to me, and hate not his father and\nmother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and\nhis own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth\nnot bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple\" (Luke\n14:26,27).\n\nBy these and the like expressions elsewhere, Christ describeth the\ntrue comer, or the man that indeed is coming to him; he is one that\ncasteth all behind his back; he leaveth all, he forsaketh all, he\nhateth all things that would stand in his way to hinder his coming\nto Jesus Christ. There are a great many pretended comers to Jesus\nChrist in the world; and they are much like to the man you read of\nin Matthew 21:30, that said to his father's bidding, \"I go, Sir,\nand went not.\" I say, there are a great many such comers to Jesus\nChrist; they say, when Christ calls by his gospel, I come, Sir;\nbut still they abide by their pleasures and carnal delights. They\ncome not at all, only they give him a courtly compliment; but he\ntakes notice of it, and will not let it pass for any more than a\nlie. He said, \"I go, Sir, and went not;\" he dissembled and lied.\nTake heed of this, you that flatter yourselves with your own\ndeceivings. Words will not do with Jesus Christ. Coming is coming,\nand nothing else will go for coming with him.\n\n[Objections that usually lie in the way of coming to Christ.]\n\nBefore I speak to the other head, I shall answer some objections\nthat usually lie in the way of those that in truth are coming to\nJesus Christ.\n\nObjection 1. Though I cannot deny but my mind runs after Christ,\nand that too as being moved thereto from a sight and consideration\nof my lost condition, for I see without him I perish; yet I fear\nmy ends are not right in coming to him.\n\nQuest. Why, what is thine end in coming to Christ?\n\nAnsw. My end is, that I might have life, and be saved by Jesus\nChrist.\n\nThis is the objection; well, let me tell thee, that to come to Christ\nfor life, and to be saved, although at present thou hast no other\nend, is a lawful and good coming to Jesus Christ. This is evident,\nbecause Christ propoundeth life as the only argument to prevail\nwith sinners to come to him, and so also blameth them because they\ncome not to him for life. \"And ye will not come to me, that ye might\nhave life\" (John 5:40). Besides, there are many other scriptures\nwhereby he allureth sinners to come to him, in which he propoundeth\nnothing to them but their safety. As, \"whosoever believeth in him\nshould not perish;\" he that believeth is \"passed from death unto\nlife.\" \"He that believeth--shall be saved.\" \"He that believeth on\nhim is not condemned.\" And believing and coming are all one. So\nthat you see, to come to Christ for life, is a lawful coming and\ngood. In that he believeth, that he alone hath made atonement for\nsin (Rom 2). And let me add over and above, that for a man to come\nto Christ for life, though he comes to him for nothing else but\nlife, it is to give much honour to him.\n\n1. He honoureth the word of Christ, and consenteth to the truth of\nit; and that in these two general heads. (1.) He consenteth to the\ntruth of all those sayings that testify that sin is most abominable\nin itself, dishonourable to God, and damnable to the soul of man;\nfor thus saith the man that cometh to Jesus Christ (Jer 44:4; Rom\n2:23; 6:23; 2 Thess 2:12). (2.) In that he believeth, as the word\nhath said, that there is in the world's best things, righteousness\nand all, nothing but death and damnation; for so also says the\nman that comes to Jesus Christ for life (Rom 7:24,25; 8:2,3; 2 Cor\n3:6-8).\n\n2. He honoureth Christ's person, in that he believeth that there\nis life in him, and that he is able to save him from death, hell,\nthe devil, and damnation; for unless a man believes this, he will\nnot come to Christ for life (Heb 7:24,25).\n\n3. He honoureth him, in that he believeth that he is authorized\nof the Father to give life to those that come to him for it (John\n5:11,12; 17:1-3).\n\n4. He honoureth the priesthood of Jesus Christ. (1.) In that\nhe believeth that Christ hath more power to save from sin by the\nsacrifice that he hath offered for it, than hath all law, devils,\ndeath, or sin to condemn. He that believes not this, will not come\nto Jesus Christ for life (Acts 13:38; Heb 2:14,15; Rev 1:17,18).\n(2.) In that he believeth that Christ, according to his office,\nwill be most faithful and merciful in the discharge of his office.\nThis must be included in the faith of him that comes for life to\nJesus Christ (1 John 2:1-3; Heb 2:17,18).\n\n5. Further, He that cometh to Jesus Christ for life, taketh part with\nhim against sin, and against the ragged and imperfect righteousness\nof the world; yea, and against false Christs, and damnable errors,\nthat set themselves against the worthiness of his merits and\nsufficiency. This is evident, for that such a soul singleth Christ\nout from them all, as the only one that can save.\n\n6. Therefore as Noah, at God's command, thou preparest this ark,\nfor the saving of thyself, by which also thou condemnest the world,\nand art become heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Heb\n11:7). Wherefore, coming sinner, be content; he that cometh to\nJesus Christ, believeth too that he is willing to show mercy to,\nand have compassion upon him, though unworthy, that comes to him\nfor life. And therefore thy soul lieth not only under a special\ninvitation to come, but under a promise too of being accepted and\nforgiven (Matt 11:28).\n\nAll these particular parts and qualities of faith are in that\nsoul that comes to Jesus Christ for life, as is evident to any\nindifferent judgment. For, will he that believeth not the testimony\nof Christ concerning the baseness of sin, and the insufficiency\nof the righteousness of the world, come to Christ for life? No. He\nthat believeth not this testimony of the word, comes not. He that\nbelieveth that there is life anywhere else, comes not. He that\nquestions whether the Father hath given Christ power to forgive,\ncomes not. He that thinketh that there is more in sin, in the law,\nin death, and the devil, to destroy, than there is in Christ to\nsave, comes not. He also that questions his faithful management of\nhis priesthood for the salvation of sinners, comes not.\n\nThou, then, that art indeed the coming sinner, believest all this.\nTrue, perhaps thou dost not believe with that full assurance, nor\nhast thou leisure to take notice of thy faith as to these distinct\nacts of it; but yet all this faith is in him coming to Christ for\nlife. And the faith that thus worketh, is the faith of the best\nand purest kind; because this man comes alone as a sinner, and as\nseeing that life is, and is to be had only in Jesus Christ.\n\nBefore I conclude my answer to this objection, take into thy\nconsideration these two things.\n\n1st. [Consider] that the cities of refuge were erected for those\nthat were dead in law, and that yet would live by grace; even for\nthose that were to fly thither for life from the avenger of blood\nthat pursueth after them. And it is worth your noting, that those\nthat were upon their flight thither, are in a peculiar manner called\nthe people of God: \"Cast ye up, cast ye up,\" saith God; \"prepare\nthe way; take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people\"\n(Isa 57:14). This is meant of preparing the way to the city of\nrefuge, that the slayers might escape thither; which flying slayers\nare here, by way of specialty, called the people of God; even those\nof them that escaped thither for life.\n\n2dly. [Consider] that of Ahab, when Benhadad sent to him for life,\nsaying, \"Thus saith thy servant Benhadad, I pray thee let me live.\"\nThough Benhadad had sought the crown, kingdom, yea, and also the\nlife of Ahab, yet how effectually doth Benhadad prevail with him!\nIs Benhadad yet alive? saith Ahab; He is my brother; yea, go ye,\nbring him to me. So he made him ride in his chariot (1 Kings 20).\n\nComing sinner, what thinkest thou? If Jesus Christ had as little\ngoodness in him as Ahab, he might grant an humble Benhadad life;\nthou neither beggest of him his crown and dignity; life, eternal\nlife, will serve thy turn. How much more then shalt thou have it,\nsince thou hast to deal with him who is goodness and mercy itself!\nyea, since thou art also called upon, yea, greatly encouraged\nby a promise of life, to come unto him for life! Read also these\nScriptures, Numbers 35:11,14,15, Joshua 20:1-6, Hebrews 6:16-21.\n\nObject. 2. When I say I only seek myself, I mean I do not find that\nI do design God's glory in mine own salvation by Christ, and that\nmakes me fear I do not come aright.\n\nAnsw. Where doth Christ Jesus require such a qualification of those\nthat are coming to him for life? Come thou for life, and trouble\nnot thy head with such objections against thyself, and let God and\nChrist alone to glorify themselves in the salvation of such a worm\nas thou art. The Father saith to the Son, \"Thou art my servant,\nO Israel, in whom I will be glorified.\" God propoundeth life to\nsinners, as the argument to prevail with them to come to him for\nlife; and Christ says plainly, \"I am come that they might have\nlife\" (John 10:10). He hath no need of thy designs, though thou\nhast need of his. Eternal life, pardon of sin, and deliverance from\nwrath to come, Christ propounds to thee, and these be the things\nthat thou hast need of; besides, God will be gracious and merciful\nto worthless, undeserving wretches; come then as such an one, and\nlay no stumblingblocks in the way to him, but come to him for life,\nand live (John 5:34; 10:10; 3:36; Matt 1:21; Prov 8:35,36; 1 Thess\n1:10; John 11:25,26).\n\nWhen the jailer said, \"Sirs, What must I do to be saved?\" Paul did\nnot so much as once ask him, What is your end in this question?\ndo you design the glory of God, in the salvation of your soul? He\nhad more wit; he knew that such questions as these would have been\nbut fools' babbles about, instead of a sufficient salve5 \"Which\nCambell seeing, though he could not salve, to so weighty a question\nas this. Wherefore, since this poor wretch lacked salvation by Jesus\nChrist, I mean to be saved from hell and death,\" which he knew, now,\nwas due to him for the sins that he had committed, Paul bids him,\nlike a poor condemned sinner as he was, to proceed still in this\nhis way of self-seeking, saying, \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,\nand thou shalt be saved\" (Acts 16:30-32). I know that afterwards\nthou wilt desire to glorify Christ by walking in the way of his\nprecepts; but at present thou wantest life; the avenger of blood\nis behind thee, and the devil like a roaring lion is behind thee;\nwell, come now, and obtain life from these; and when thou hast\nobtained some comfortable persuasion that thou art made partaker\nof life by Christ, then, and not till then, thou wilt say, \"Bless\nthe Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy\nname. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:\n6 who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases;\nwho redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with\nlovingkindness and tender mercies\" (Psa 103:1-4).\n\nObject. 3. But I cannot believe that I come to Christ aright, because\nsometimes I am apt to question his very being and office to save.\n\nThus to do is horrible; but mayest thou not judge amiss in this\nmatter? How can I judge amiss, when I judge as I feel? Poor soul!\nThou mayest judge amiss for all that. Why, saith the sinner, I think\nthat these questionings come from my heart. Let me answer. That\nwhich comes from thy heart, comes from thy will and affections, from\nthy understanding, judgment, and conscience, for these must acquiesce\nin thy questioning, if thy questioning be with thy heart. And how\nsayest thou, for to name no more, dost thou with thy affection and\nconscience thus question? Answ. No, my conscience trembles when\nsuch thoughts come into my mind; and my affections are otherwise\ninclined.\n\nThen I conclude, that these things are either suddenly injected\nby the devil, or else are the fruits of that body of sin and death\nthat yet dwells within thee, or perhaps from both together.\n\nIf they come wholly from the devil, as they seem, because thy\nconscience and affections are against them, or if they come from\nthat body of death that is in thee, and be not thou curious in\ninquiring from whether of them they come, the safest way is to lay\nenough at thy own door; nothing of this should hinder thy coming,\nnor make thee conclude thou comest not aright. 7 And before I leave\nthee, let me a little query with thee about this matter.\n\n1. Dost thou like these wicked blasphemies? Answ. No, no, their\npresence and working kills me.\n\n2. Dost thou mourn for them, pray against them, and hate thyself\nbecause of them? Answ. Yes, yes; but that which afflicts me is, I\ndo not prevail against them.\n\n3. Dost thou sincerely choose, mightest thou have thy choice, that\nthy heart might be affected and taken with the things that are\nbest, most heavenly, and holy? Answ. With all my heart, and death\nthe next hour, if it were God's will, rather than thus to sin\nagainst him.\n\nWell then, thy not liking of them, thy mourning for them, thy\npraying against them, and thy loathing thyself because of them,\nwith thy sincere choosing of those thoughts for thy delectation\nthat are heavenly and holy, clearly declares, that these things are\nnot countenanced either with thy will, affections, understanding,\njudgment, or conscience; and so, that thy heart is not in them, but\nthat rather they come immediately from the devil, or arise from the\nbody of death that is in thy flesh, of which thou oughtest thus to\nsay, \"Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth\nin me\" (Rom 7:17).\n\nI will give thee a pertinent instance. In Deuteronomy 22, thou\nmayest read of a betrothed damsel, one betrothed to her beloved,\none that had given him her heart and mouth, as thou hast given\nthyself to Christ; yet was she met with as she walked in the field,\nby one that forced her, because he was stronger than she. Well, what\njudgment now doth God, the righteous judge, pass upon the damsel\nfor this? \"The man only that lay with her,\" saith God, \"shall die.\nBut unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel\nno sin worthy of death. For, as when a man riseth against his\nneighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter; for he found\nher in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was\nnone to save her\" (Deut 22:25-27).\n\nThou art this damsel. The man that forced thee with these blasphemous\nthoughts, is the devil; and he lighteth upon thee in a fit place,\neven in the field, as thou art wandering after Jesus Christ; but\nthou criest out, and by thy cry did show, that thou abhorrest such\nwicked lewdness. Well, the Judge of all the earth will do right;\nhe will not lay the sin at thy door, but at his that offered the\nviolence. And for thy comfort take this into consideration, that he\ncame to heal them \"that were oppressed of the devil\" (Acts 10:38).\n\nObject. 4. But, saith another, I am so heartless, so slow, and, as\nI think, so indifferent in my coming, that, to speak truth, I know\nnot whether my kind of coming ought to be called a coming to Christ.\n\nAnsw. You know that I told you at first, that coming to Christ is\na moving of the heart and affections towards him.\n\nBut, saith the soul, my dullness and indifferency in all holy duties,\ndemonstrate my heartlessness in coming; and to come, and not with\nthe heart, signifies nothing at all.\n\n1. The moving of the heart after Christ is not to be discerned,\nat all times, by thy sensible affectionate performance of duties,\nbut rather by those secret groanings and complaints which thy soul\nmakes to God against that sloth that attends thee in duties.\n\n2. But grant it to be even as thou sayest it is, that thou comest\nso slowly, &c., yet, since Christ bids them come that come not at\nall, surely they may be accepted that come, though attended with\nthose infirmities which thou at present groanest under. He saith,\n\"and him that cometh;\" he saith not, If they come sensible; so\nfast; but, \"and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\nHe saith also in the ninth of Proverbs, \"As for him that wanteth\nunderstanding,\" that is, an heart (for oftentimes the understanding\nis taken for the heart), \"come, eat of my bread, and drink of the\nwine which I have mingled.\"\n\n3. Thou mayest be vehement in thy spirit in coming to Jesus Christ,\nand yet be plagued with sensible sloth; so was the church when she\ncried, \"Draw me, we will run after thee;\" and Paul, when he said,\n\"When I would do good, evil is present with me\" (Song 14; Rom 7;\nGal 5:19). The works, strugglings, and oppositions of the flesh,\nare more manifest than are the works of the Spirit in our hearts,\nand so are sooner felt than they. What then? Let us not be\ndiscouraged at the sight and feeling of our own infirmities, but\nrun the faster to Jesus Christ for salvation.\n\n4. Get thy heart warmed with the sweet promise of Christ's acceptance\nof the coming sinner, and that will make thee make more haste unto\nhim. Discouraging thoughts they are like unto cold weather, they\nbenumb the senses, and make us go ungainly about our business;\nbut the sweet and warm gleads8 of promise are like the comfortable\nbeams of the sun, which liven and refresh. 9 You see how little\nthe bee and fly do play in the air in winter; why, the cold hinders\nthem from doing it; but when the wind and sun is warm, who so busy\nas they?\n\n5. But again, he that comes to Christ, flies for his life. Now,\nthere is no man that flies for his life, that thinks he speeds\nfast enough on his journey; no, could he, he would willingly take\na mile at a step. O my sloth and heartlessness, sayest thou! \"Oh\nthat I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be\nat rest. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest\"\n(Psa 55:6,8).\n\nPoor coming soul, thou art like the man that would ride full\ngallop, whose horse will hardly trot! Now, the desire of his mind\nis not to be judged of by the slow pace of the dull jade he rides\non, but by the hitching, and kicking, and spurring, as he sits\non his back. Thy flesh is like this dull jade; it will not gallop\nafter Christ; it will be backward, though thy soul and heaven lie\nat stake. 10 But be of good comfort, Christ judgeth not according\nto the fierceness of outward motion (Mark 10:17) but according to\nthe sincerity of the heart and inward parts (John 1:47; Psa 51:6;\nMatt 26:41).\n\n6. Ziba, in appearance, came to David much faster than did\nMephibosheth; but yet his heart was not so upright in him to David\nas was his. It is true, Mephibosheth had a check from David; for,\nsaid he, \"Why wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth?\" But when\nDavid came to remember that Mephibosheth was lame, for that was\nhis plea--\"thy servant is lame\" (2 Sam 19), he was content, and\nconcluded, he would have come after him faster than he did; and\nMephibosheth appealed to David, who was in those days as an angel\nof God, to know all things that are done in the earth, if he did\nnot believe that the reason of his backwardness lay in his lameness,\nand not in his mind. Why, poor coming sinner, thou canst not come\nto Christ with that outward swiftness of a courier as many others\ndo; but doth the reason of thy backwardness lie in thy mind and\nwill, or in the sluggishness of the flesh? Canst thou say sincerely,\n\"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak\" (Matt 26:41).\nYea, canst thou appeal to the Lord Jesus, who knoweth perfectly the\nvery inmost thought of thy heart, that this is true? Then take this\nfor thy comfort, he hath said, \"I will assemble her that halteth--I\nwill make her that halted a remnant,\" (Micah 4:6), \"and I will save\nher that halteth\" (Zeph 3:19). What canst thou have more from the\nsweet lips of the Son of God? But,\n\n7. I read of some that are to follow Christ in chains; I say, to\ncome after him in chains. \"Thus saith the Lord, The labour of Egypt,\nand merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature,\nshall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall\ncome after thee: in chains they shall come over, and they shall\nfall down unto thee: they shall make supplication unto thee,\nsaying--Surely there is none else\" to save (Isa 45:14). Surely they\nthat come after Christ in chains, come to him in great difficulty,\nbecause their steps, by the chains, are straitened. And what chains\nare so heavy as those that discourage thee? Thy chain, which is\nmade up of guilt and filth, is heavy; it is a wretched bond about\nthy neck, by which thy strength doth fail (Lam 1:14; 3:18). But come,\nthough thou comest in chains; it is glory to Christ that a sinner\ncomes after him in chains. The chinking of thy chains, though\ntroublesome to thee, are not, nor can be obstruction to thy salvation;\nit is Christ's work and glory to save thee from thy chains, to\nenlarge thy steps, and set thee at liberty. The blind man, though\ncalled, surely could not come apace to Jesus Christ, but Christ\ncould stand still, and stay for him (Mark 10:49). True, \"He rideth\nupon the wings of the wind;\" but yet he is long-suffering, and\nhis long-suffering is salvation to him that cometh to him (2 Peter\n3:9).\n\n8. Hadst thou seen those that came to the Lord Jesus in the days of\nhis flesh, how slowly, how hobblingly, they came to him, by reason\nof their infirmities; and also how friendly, and kindly, and\ngraciously, he received them, and gave them the desire of their\nhearts, thou wouldest not, as thou dost, make such objections\nagainst thyself, in thy coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nObject. 5. But, says another, I fear I come too late; I doubt I\nhave staid too long; I am afraid the door is shut.\n\nAnsw. Thou canst never come too late to Jesus Christ, if thou dost\ncome. This is manifest by two instances.\n\n1. By the man that came to him at the eleventh hour. This man was\nidle all the day long. He had a whole gospel day to come in, and\nhe played it all away save only the last hour thereof. But at last,\nat the eleventh hour, he came, and goes into the vineyard to work\nwith the rest of the labourers, that had borne the burden and\nheat of the day. Well, but how was he received by the lord of the\nvineyard? Why, when pay-day came, he had even as much as the rest;\nyea, had his money first. True, the others murmured at him; but\nwhat did the Lord Jesus answer them? \"Is thine eye evil, because\nI am good? I will give unto this last, even as unto thee\" (Matt\n20:14,15).\n\n2. The other instance is, the thief upon the cross. He came late\nalso, even as at an hour before his death; yea, he stayed from\nJesus Christ as long as he had liberty to be a thief, and longer\ntoo; for could he have deluded the judge, and by lying words have\nescaped his just condemnation, for ought I know, he had not come\nas yet to his Saviour; but being convicted, and condemned to die,\nyea, fastened to the cross, that he might die like a rogue, as he\nwas in his life; behold the Lord Jesus, when this wicked one, even\nnow, desireth mercy at his hands, tells him, and that without the\nleast reflection upon him, for his former misspent life, \"To-day\nshalt thou be with me in paradise\" (Luke 23:43). Let no man turn\nthis grace of God into wantonness. My design is now to encourage\nthe coming soul.\n\nObject. But is not the door of mercy shut against some before they\ndie?\n\nAnsw. Yea; and God forbids that prayers should be made to him for\nthem (Jer 6:16; Jude 22).\n\nQuest. Then, why may not I doubt that I may be one of these?\n\nAnsw. By no means, if thou art coming to Jesus Christ; because\nwhen God shuts the door upon men, he gives them no heart to come\nto Jesus Christ. \"None come but those to whom it is given of the\nFather.\" But thou comest, therefore it is given to thee of the\nFather.\n\nBe sure, therefore, if the Father hath given thee an heart to come\nto Jesus Christ, the gate of mercy yet stands open to thee. For it\nstands not with the wisdom of God to give strength to come to the\nbirth, and yet to shut up the womb, (Isa 66:9); to give grace to\ncome to Jesus Christ, and yet shut up the door of his mercy upon\nthee. \"Incline your ear,\" saith he, \"and come unto me: hear, and\nyour soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with\nyou, even the sure mercies of David\" (Isa 55:3).\n\nObject. But it is said, that some knocked when the door was shut.\n\nAnsw. Yes; but the texts in which these knockers are mentioned, are\nto be referred unto the day of judgment, and not to the coming of\nthe sinner to Christ in this life. See the texts, Matthew 15:11, Luke\n13:24,25. These, therefore, concern thee nothing at all, that art\ncoming to Jesus Christ, thou art coming NOW! \"Now is the accepted\ntime; behold, now is the day of salvation\" (2 Cor 6:2). Now God is\nupon the mercy-seat; now Christ Jesus sits by, continually pleading\nthe victory of his blood for sinners; and now, even as long as this\nworld lasts, this word of the text shall still be free, and fully\nfulfilled; \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nSinner, the greater sinner thou art, the greater need of mercy thou\nhast, and the more will Christ be glorified thereby. Come then, come\nand try; come, taste and see how good the Lord is to an undeserving\nsinner!\n\nObject. 6. But, says another, I am fallen since I began to come to\nChrist; therefore I fear I did not come aright, and so consequently\nthat Christ will not receive me.\n\nAnsw. Falls are dangerous, for they dishonour Christ, wound the\nconscience, and cause the enemies of God to speak reproachfully.\nBut it is no good argument, I am fallen, therefore I was not coming\naright to Jesus Christ. If David, and Solomon, and Peter, had thus\nobjected against themselves, they had added to their griefs; and\nyet, at least they had as much cause as thou. A man whose steps\nare ordered by the Lord, and whose goings the Lord delights in,\nmay yet be overtaken with a temptation that may cause him to fall\n11 (Psa 37:23,24). Did not Aaron fall; yea, and Moses himself?\nWhat shall we say of Hezekiah and Jehosaphat? There are, therefore,\nfalls and falls; falls pardonable and falls unpardonable. Falls\nunpardonable are falls against light, from the faith, to the despising\nof, and trampling upon Jesus Christ and his blessed undertakings\n(Heb 6:2-5; 10:28,29). Now, as for such, there remains no more\nsacrifice for sin. Indeed, they have no heart, no mind, no desire\nto come to Jesus Christ for life, therefore they must perish. Nay,\nsays the Holy Ghost, \"It is impossible that they should be renewed\nagain unto repentance.\" Therefore these God had no compassion for,\nneither ought we; but for other falls though they be dreadful,\nand God will chastise his people for them, they do not prove thee\na graceless man, one not coming to Jesus Christ for life.\n\nIt is said of the child in the gospel, that while \"he was yet a\ncoming, the devil threw him down, and tare him\" (Luke 9:42). Dejected\nsinner, it is no wonder that thou hast caught a fall in coming to\nJesus Christ. Is it not rather to be wondered at, that thou hast not\ncaught before this a thousand times a thousand falls? considering,\n1. What fools we are by nature. 2. What weaknesses are in us. 3.\nWhat mighty powers the fallen angels, our implacable enemies, are.\n4. Considering also how often the coming man is benighted in his\njourney; and also what stumblingblocks do lie in his way. 5. Also\nhis familiars, that were so before, now watch for his halting, and\nseek by what means they may to cause him to fall by the hand of\ntheir strong ones.\n\nWhat then? Must we, because of these temptations, incline to fall?\nNo. Must we not fear falls? Yes. \"Let him that thinketh he standeth\ntake heed lest he fall\" (1 Cor 10:12). Yet let him not utterly be\ncast down; \"The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up those\nthat are bowed down.\" Make not light of falls! Yet, hast thou\nfallen? \"Ye have,\" said Samuel, \"done all this wickedness; yet turn\nnot aside from following the Lord,\" but serve him with a perfect\nheart, and turn not aside, \"for the Lord will not forsake his\npeople,\" and he counteth the coming sinner one of them, \"because\nit hath pleased the Lord to make you his people\" (1 Sam 12:20-22).\n\n[WHAT FORCE THERE IS IN THE PROMISE TO MAKE THEM COME TO CHRIST.]\n\nSECOND, \"Shall come to me.\" Now we come to show WHAT FORCE THERE\nIS IN THIS PROMISE TO MAKE THEM COME TO HIM. \"All that the Father\ngiveth me shall come to me.\" I will speak to this promise, First,\nIn general. Second, In particular.\n\n[First], In general. This word SHALL is confined to these ALL that\nare given to Christ. \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to\nme.\" Hence I conclude,\n\n1. That coming to Jesus Christ aright is an effect of their being,\nof God, given to Christ before. Mark, They shall come. Who? Those\nthat are given. They come, then, because they were given, \"thine\nthey were, and thou gavest them me.\" Now, this is indeed a singular\ncomfort to them that are coming in truth to Christ, to think that\nthe reason why they come is, because they were given of the Father\nbefore to him. Thus, then, may the coming soul reason with himself\nas he comes. Am I coming, indeed, to Jesus Christ? This coming of\nmine is not to be attributed to me or my goodness, but to the grace\nand gift of God to Christ. God gave first my person to him, and,\ntherefore, hath now given me a heart to come.\n\n2. This word, shall come, maketh thy coming not only the fruit of\nthe gift of the Father, but also of the purpose of the Son; for these\nwords are a Divine purpose; they show us the heavenly determination\nof the Son. \"The Father hath given them to me, and they shall;\nyea, they shall come to me.\" Christ is as full in his resolution to\nsave those given to him as is the Father in giving of them. Christ\nprizeth the gift of his Father; he will lose nothing of it; he is\nresolved to save it every whit by his blood, and to raise it up\nagain at the last day; and thus he fulfills his Father's will, and\naccomplisheth his own desires (John 6:39).\n\n3. These words, shall come, make thy coming to be also the effect\nof an absolute promise; coming sinner, thou art concluded in a\npromise; thy coming is the fruit of the faithfulness of an absolute\npromise. It was this promise, by the virtue of which thou at first\nreceivedst strength to come; and this is the promise, by the virtue\nof which thou shalt be effectually brought to him. It was said to\nAbraham, \"At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.\"\nThis son was Isaac. Mark! \"Sarah shall have a son;\" there is\nthe promise. And Sarah had a son; there was the fulfilling of the\npromise; and, therefore, was Isaac called the child of the promise\n(Gen 17:19; 18:10; Rom 9:9).\n\nSarah shall have a son. But how, if Sarah be past age? Why, still\nthe promise continues to say, Sarah shall have a son. But how, if\nSarah be barren? Why, still the promise says, Sarah shall have a\nson. But Abraham's body is now dead? Why, the promise is still the\nsame, Sarah shall have a son. Thus, you see what virtue there is\nin an absolute promise; it carrieth enough in its own bowels to\naccomplish the thing promised, whether there be means or no in us\nto effect it. Wherefore, this promise in the text, being an absolute\npromise, by virtue of it, not by virtue of ourselves, or by our\nown inducements, do we come to Jesus Christ: for so are the words\nof the text: \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.\"\n\nTherefore is every sincere comer to Jesus Christ called also a child\nof the promise. \"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children\nof promise,\" (Gal 4:28); that is, we are the children that God hath\npromised to Jesus Christ, and given to him; yea, the children that\nJesus Christ hath promised shall come to him. \"All that the Father\ngiveth me shall come.\"\n\n4. This word, shall come, engageth Christ to communicate all manner\nof grace to those thus given him to make them effectually to come\nto him. \"They shall come;\" that is, not if they will, but if grace,\nall grace, if power, wisdom, a new heart, and the Holy Spirit, and\nall joining together, can make them come. I say, this word, shall\ncome, being absolute, hath no dependence upon our own will, or\npower, or goodness; but it engageth for us even God himself, Christ\nhimself, the Spirit himself. When God had made that absolute promise\nto Abraham, that Sarah \"should have a son,\" Abraham did not at all\nlook at any qualification in himself, because the promise looked\nat none; but as God had, by the promise, absolutely promised him\na son; so he considered now not his own body now dead, nor yet the\nbarrenness of Sarah's womb. \"He staggered not at the promise of\nGod through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;\nand being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able\nalso to perform\" (Rom 4:20,21). He had promised, and had promised\nabsolutely, Sarah shall have a son. Therefore, Abraham looks that\nhe, to wit, God, must fulfil the condition of it. Neither is this\nexpectation of Abraham disapproved by the Holy Ghost, but accounted\ngood and laudable; it being that by which he gave glory to God.\nThe Father, also, hath given to Christ a certain number of souls\nfor him to save; and he himself hath said, \"They shall come to\nhim.\" Let the church of God then live in a joyful expectation of\nthe utmost accomplishment of this promise; for assuredly it shall\nbe fulfilled, and not one thousandth part of a tittle thereof shall\nfail. \"They SHALL come to me.\"\n\n[Second, In particular.] And now, before I go any further, I will\nmore particularly inquire into the nature of an absolute promise.\n\n1. We call that an absolute promise that is made without any\ncondition; or more fully thus: That is an absolute promise of God,\nor of Christ, which maketh over to this or that man any saving,\nspiritual blessing, without a condition to be done on our part for\nthe obtaining thereof. And this we have in hand is such an one. Let\nthe best Master of Arts on earth show me, if he can, any condition\nin this text depending upon any qualification in us, which is not\nby the same promise concluded, shall be by the Lord Jesus effected\nin us.\n\n2. An absolute promise therefore is, as we say, without if or and;\nthat is, it requireth nothing of us, that itself might be accomplished.\nIt saith not, They shall, if they will; but they shall: not, they\nshall, if they use the means; but, they shall. You may say, that\na will and the use of the means is supposed, though not expressed.\nBut I answer, No, by no means; that is, as a condition of this\npromise. If they be at all included in the promise, they are included\nthere as the fruit of the absolute promise, not as if it expected\nthe qualification to arise from us. \"Thy people shall be willing\nin the day of thy power\" (Psa 110:3). That is another absolute\npromise. But doth that promise suppose a willingness in us, as\na condition of God's making us willing? They shall be willing, if\nthey are willing; or, they shall be willing, if they will be willing.\nThis is ridiculous; there is nothing of this supposed. The promise\nis absolute as to us; all that it engageth for its own accomplishment\nis, the mighty power of Christ and his faithfulness to accomplish.\n\n3. The difference, therefore, betwixt the absolute and conditional\npromise is this:\n\n(1.) They differ in their terms. The absolute promises say, I\nwill, and you shall: the other, I will, if you will; or, Do this,\nand thou shalt live (Jer 4:1; 31:31-33; Eze 18:30-32; 36:24-34;\nHeb 8:7-13; Matt 19:21).\n\n(2.) They differ in their way of communicating of good things to\nmen; the absolute ones communicate things freely, only of grace;\nthe other, if there be that qualification in us, that the promise\ncalls for, not else.\n\n(3.) The absolute promises therefore engage God, the other engage\nus: I mean, God only, us only.\n\n(4.) Absolute promises must be fulfilled; conditional may, or may\nnot be fulfilled. The absolute ones must be fulfilled, because\nof the faithfulness of God; the other may not, because of the\nunfaithfulness of men.\n\n(5.) Absolute promises have therefore a sufficiency in themselves\nto bring about their own fulfilling; the conditional have not so.\nThe absolute promise is therefore a big-bellied promise, because it\nhath in itself a fullness of all desired things for us; and will,\nwhen the time of that promise is come, yield to us mortals that\nwhich will verily save us; yea, and make us capable of answering\nof the demands of the promise that is conditional.\n\n4. Wherefore, though there be a real, yea, an eternal difference,\nin these things, with others, betwixt the conditional and absolute\npromise; yet again, in other respects, there is a blessed harmony\nbetwixt them; as may be seen in these particulars. The conditional\npromise calls for repentance, the absolute promise gives it (Acts\n5:31). The conditional promise calls for faith, the absolute promise\ngives it (Zeph 3:12; Rom 15:12). The conditional promise calls for\na new heart, the absolute promise gives it (Eze 36:25,26). The\nconditional promise calleth for holy obedience, the absolute promise\ngiveth it, or causeth it (Eze 36:27).\n\n5. And as they harmoniously agree in this, so again the conditional\npromise blesseth the man, who by the absolute promise is endued\nwith its fruit. As, for instance, the absolute promise maketh men\nupright; and then the conditional follows, saying, \"Blessed are\nthe undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord\" (Psa\n119:1). The absolute promise giveth to this man the fear of the\nLord; and then the conditional followeth, saying, \"Blessed is every\none that feareth the Lord\" (Psa 128:1). The absolute promise giveth\nfaith, and then this conditional follows, saying, \"Blessed is she\nthat believed\" (Zeph 3:12; Luke 1:45). The absolute promise brings\nfree forgiveness of sins; and then says the condition, \"Blessed\nare they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered\"\n(Rom 4:7). The absolute promise says, that God's elect shall hold\nout to the end; then the conditional follows with his blessings,\n\"He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved\" (1\nPeter 1:4-6; Matt 24:13).\n\nThus do the promises gloriously serve one another and us, in this\ntheir harmonious agreement.\n\nNow, the promise under consideration is an absolute promise. \"All\nthat the Father giveth me shall come to me.\"\n\nThis promise therefore is, as is said, a big-bellied promise, and\nhath in itself all those things to bestow upon us that the conditional\ncalleth for at our hands. They shall come! Shall they come? Yes,\nthey shall come. But how, if they want those things, those graces,\npower, and heart, without which they cannot come? Why, Shall-come\nanswereth all this, and all things else that may in this manner be\nobjected. And here I will take the liberty to amplify things.\n\n[Objections to the absoluteness of this promise (the force of\nSHALL-COME) answered.]\n\nObject. 1. But they are dead, dead in trespasses and sins, how\nshall they then come?\n\nAnsw. Why, Shall-come can raise them from this death. \"The hour is\ncoming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son\nof God, and they that hear shall live.\" Thus, therefore, is this\nimpediment by Shall-come removed out of the way. They shall heal,\nthey shall live.\n\nObject. 2. But they are Satan's captives; he takes them captive at\nhis will, and he is stronger than they: how then can they come?\n\nAnsw. Why, Shall-come hath also provided an help for this. Satan\nhad bound that daughter of Abraham so, that she could by no means\nlift up herself; but yet Shall-come set her free both in body and\nsoul. Christ will have them turned from the power of Satan to God.\nBut what! Must it be, if they turn themselves, or do something to\nmerit of him to turn them? No, he will do it freely, of his own good\nwill. Alas! Man, whose soul is possessed by the devil, is turned\nwhithersoever that governor listeth, is taken captive by him,\nnotwithstanding its natural powers, at his will; but what will he\ndo? Will he hold him when Shall-come puts forth itself, will he\nthen let12 him, for coming to Jesus Christ? No, that cannot be!\nHis power is but the power of a fallen angel, but Shall-come is\nthe Word of God. Therefore Shall-come must be fulfilled; \"and the\ngates of hell shall not prevail against it.\"\n\nThere were seven devils in Mary Magdalene, too many for her to get\nfrom under the power of; but when the time was come that Shall-come\nwas to be fulfilled upon her, they give place, fly from her, and\nshe comes indeed to Jesus Christ, according as it is written, \"All\nthat the Father giveth me shall come to me.\"\n\nThe man that was possessed with a legion, (Mark 5), was too much\nby them captivated for him by human force to come; yea, had he had,\nto boot, all the men under heaven to help him, had he that said,\nHe shall come, withheld his mighty power: but when this promise\nwas to be fulfilled upon him, then he comes; nor could all their\npower hinder his coming. It was also this Shall-come that preserved\nhim from death; when by these evil spirits he was hurled hither\nand thither; and it was by the virtue of Shall-come that at last\nhe was set at liberty from them, and enabled indeed to come to\nChrist. \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.\"\n\nObject. 3. They shall, you say; but how if they will not; and, if\nso, then what can Shall-come do?\n\nAnsw. True, there are some men say, \"We are lords; we will come\nno more unto thee\" (Jer 2:31). But as God says in another case,\nif they are concerned in Shall-come to me, they \"shall know whose\nwords shall stand, mine or theirs\" (Jer 41:28). Here, then, is the\ncase; we must now see who will be the liar, he that saith, I will\nnot; or he that saith, He shall come to me. You shall come, says\nGod; I will not come, saith the sinner. Now, as sure as he is\nconcerned in this Shall-come, God will make that man eat his own\nwords; for I will not, is the unadvised conclusion of a crazy-headed\nsinner; but Shall-come was spoken by him that is of power to perform\nhis word. \"Son, go work to-day in my vineyard,\" said the Father.\nBut he answered, and said, I will not come. What now? will he be\nable to stand to his refusal? will he pursue his desperate denial?\nNo, \"he afterwards repented and went.\" But how came he by that\nrepentance? Why, it was wrapped up for him in the absolute promise;\nand therefore, notwithstanding he said, \"I will not, he afterwards\nrepented and went.\" By this parable Jesus Christ sets forth the\nobstinacy of the sinners of the world, as touching their coming\nto him; they will not come, though threatened: yea, though life be\noffered them upon condition of coming.\n\nBut now, when Shall-come, the absolute promise of God, comes to\nbe fulfilled upon them, then they come; because by that promise a\ncure is provided against the rebellion of their will. \"Thy people\nshall be willing in the day of thy power\"(Psa 110:3). Thy people,\nwhat people? Why, the people that thy Father hath given thee. The\nobstinacy and plague that is in the will of that people, shall be\ntaken away; and they shall be made willing; Shall-come will make\nthem willing to come to thee.\n\nHe that had seen Paul in the midst of his outrages against Christ,\nhis gospel, and people, would hardly have thought that he would\never have been a follower of Jesus Christ, especially since he went\nnot against his conscience in his persecuting of them. He thought\nverily that he ought to do what he did. But we may see what\nShall-come can do, when it comes to be fulfilled upon the soul of\na rebellious sinner: he was a chosen vessel, given by the Father to\nthe Son; and now the time being come that Shall-come was to take\nhim in hand, behold, he is over-mastered, astonished, and with\ntrembling and reverence, in a moment becomes willing to be obedient\nto the heavenly call (Acts 9).\n\nAnd were not they far gone, that you read of, (Acts 2) who had\ntheir hands and hearts in the murder of the Son of God; and to show\ntheir resolvedness never to repent of that horrid fact, said, \"His\nblood be on us and on our children?\" But must their obstinacy rule?\nMust they be bound to their own ruin, by the rebellion of their\nstubborn wills? No, not those of these the Father gave to Christ;\nwherefore, at the times appointed, Shall-come breaks in among\nthem; the absolute promise takes them in hand; and then they come\nindeed, crying out to Peter, and the rest of the apostles, \"Men\nand brethren, what shall we do?\" No stubbornness of man's will can\nstand, when God hath absolutely said the contrary; Shall-come can\nmake them come \"as doves to their windows,\" that had afore resolved\nnever to come to him.\n\nThe Lord spake unto Manasseh, and to his people, by the prophets,\nbut would he hear? No, he would not. But shall Manasseh come off\nthus? No, he shall not. Therefore, he being also one of those whom\nthe Father had given to the Son, and so falling within the bounds\nand reach of Shall-come, at last Shall-come takes him in hand,\nand then he comes indeed. He comes bowing and bending; he humbles\nhimself greatly, and made supplication to the Lord, and prayed unto\nhim; and he was entreated of him, and had mercy upon him (2 Chron\n30:10).\n\nThe thief upon the cross, at first, did rail with his fellow upon\nJesus Christ; but he was one that the Father had given to him, and,\ntherefore, Shall-come must handle him and his rebellious will. And\nbehold, so soon as he is dealt withal, by virtue of that absolute\npromise, how soon he buckleth, leaves his railing, falls to supplicating\nof the Son of God for mercy; \"Lord,\" saith he, \"Remember me when\nthou comest into thy kingdom\" (Matt 27:44; Luke 23:40-42).\n\nObject. 4. They shall come, say you, but how if they be blind, and\nsee not the way? For some are kept off from Christ, not only by the\nobstinacy of their will, but by the blindness of their mind. Now,\nif they be blind, how shall they come?\n\nAnsw. The question is not, Are they blind? But, Are they within the\nreach and power of Shall-come? If so, that Christ that said, they\nshall come, will find them eyes, or a guide or both, to bring them\nto himself. \"Must is for the king.\" If they shall come, they shall\ncome. No impediment shall hinder.\n\nThe Thessalonians' darkness did not hinder them from being the\nchildren of light; \"I am come,\" said Christ, \"that they which see\nnot might see.\" And if he saith, See, ye \"blind that have eyes,\"\nwho shall hinder it? (Eph 5:8; John 9:39; Isa 29:18; 43:8).\n\nThis promise, therefore, is, as I said, a big-bellied promise, having\nin the bowels of it, all things that shall occur to the complete\nfulfilling of itself. They shall come. But it is objected, that they\nare blind. Well, Shall-come is still the same, and continueth to\nsay, \"They shall come to me.\" Therefore he saith again, \"I will\nbring the blind by a way that they know not, I will lead them in\npaths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before\nthem, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto\nthem, and not forsake them\" (Isa 42:16).\n\nMark, I will bring them, though they be blind; I will bring them\nby a way they know not; I will--I will; and therefore \"they shall\ncome to me.\"\n\nObject. 5. But how, if they have exceeded many in sin, and so made\nthemselves far more abominable? They are the ringleading sinners\nin the county, the town, or family.\n\nAnsw. What then? Shall that hinder the execution of Shall-come? It\nis not transgressions, nor sins, nor all their transgressions in\nall their sins, if they by the Father are given to Christ to save\nthem, that shall hinder this promise, that it should not be fulfilled\nupon them. \"In those days, and in that time,\" saith the Lord, \"the\niniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none;\nand the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found\" (Jer 50:20).\nNot that they had none, for they abounded in transgression, (2 Chron\n33:9; Eze 16:48), but God would pardon, cover, hide, and put them\naway, by virtue of his absolute promise, by which they are given\nto Christ to save them. \"And I will cleanse them from all their\niniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon\nall their iniquities, whereby they have transgressed against me.\nAnd it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before\nall the nations of the earth, which shall bear all the good that I\ndo unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness\nand for all the prosperity that I procure unto it\" (Jer 33:8,9).\n\nObject. 6. But how, if they have not faith and repentance? How\nshall they come then?\n\nAnsw. Why, he that saith, They shall come, shall he not make it\ngood? If they shall come, they shall come; and he that hath said,\nthey shall come, if faith and repentance be the way to come, as\nindeed they are, then faith and repentance shall be given to them!\nfor Shall-come must be fulfilled on them.\n\n1. Faith shall be given them. \"I will also leave in the midst of\nthee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name\nof the Lord.\" \"There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall\nrise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust\"\n(Zeph 3:12; Rom 15:12).\n\n2. They shall have repentance. He is exalted to give repentance.\n\"They shall come weeping, and seeking the Lord their God.\" And\nagain, \"With weeping and supplication will I lead them\" (Acts 5:31;\nJer 31:9).\n\nI told you before, that an absolute promise hath all conditional\nones in the belly of it, and also provision to answer all those\nqualifications, that they propound to him that seeketh for their\nbenefit. And it must be so; for if Shall-come be an absolute\npromise, as indeed it is, then it must be fulfilled upon every of\nthose concerned therein. I say, it must be fulfilled, if God can\nby grace, and his absolute will, fulfil it. Besides, since coming\nand believing is all one, according to John 6:35, \"He that cometh\nto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never\nthirst,\" then, when he saith they shall come, it is as much as to\nsay, they shall believe, and consequently repent, to the saving of\nthe soul.\n\nSo then the present want of faith and repentance cannot make this\npromise of God of none effect; because that this promise hath in\nit to give what others call for and expect. I will give them an\nheart, I will give them my Spirit, I will give them repentance, I\nwill give them faith. Mark these words: \"If any man be in Christ,\nhe is a new creature.\" But how came he to be a \"new creature,\"\nsince none can create but God? Why, God indeed doth make them \"new\ncreatures.\" \"Behold,\" saith he, \"I make all things new.\" And hence\nit follows, even after he had said they are \"new creatures,\" \"and\nall things are of God;\" that is, all this new creation standeth\nin the several operations, and special workings of the Spirit of\ngrace, who is God (2 Cor 5:17,18).\n\nObject. 7. But how shall they escape all those dangerous and damnable\nopinions, that, like rocks and quicksands, are in the way in which\nthey are going?\n\nAnsw. Indeed this age is an age of errors, if ever there was an\nage of errors in the world; but yet the gift of the Father, laid\nclaim to by the Son in the text, must needs escape them, and in\nconclusion come to him. There are a company of Shall-comes in the\nBible that doth secure them; not but that they may be assaulted\nby them; yea, and also for the time entangled and detained by them\nfrom the Bishop of their souls, but these Shall-comes will break\nthose chains and fetters, that those given to Christ are entangled\nin, and they shall come, because he hath said they shall come to\nhim.\n\nIndeed, errors are like that whore of whom you read in the Proverbs,\nthat sitteth in her seat in the high places of the city, \"to call\npassengers who go right on their ways\" (Prov 9:13-16). But the\npersons, as I said, that by the Father are given to the Son to save\nthem, are, at one time or other, secured by \"shall come to me.\"\n\nAnd therefore of such it is said, God will guide them with his eye,\nwith his counsels, by his Spirit, and that in the way of peace;\nby the springs of water, and into all truth (Psa 32:8; 73:24; John\n16:13; Luke 1:79; Isa 49:10). So then he that hath such a guide,\nand all that the Father giveth to Christ shall have it, he shall\nescape those dangers, he shall not err in the way; yea, though\nhe be a fool, he shall not err therein, (Isa 35:8), for of every\nsuch an one it is said, \"Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,\nsaying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right\nhand, and when ye turn to the left\" (Isa 30:21).\n\nThere were thieves and robbers before Christ's coming, as there\nare also now; but, said he, \"The sheep did not hear them.\" And why\ndid they not hear them, but because they were under the power of\nShall-come, that absolute promise, that had that grace in itself\nto bestow upon them, as could make them able rightly to distinguish\nof voices, \"My sheep hear my voice.\" But how came they to hear it?\nWhy, to them it is given to know and to hear, and that distinguishingly\n(John 10:8,16; 5:25; Eph 5:14).\n\nFurther, The very plain sentence of the text makes provision against\nall these things; for, saith it, \"All that the Father giveth me\nshall come to me;\" that is, shall not be stopped, or be allured to\ntake up anywhere short of ME, nor shall they turn aside, to abide\nwith any besides ME.\n\n[Import of the words TO ME.]\n\n\"Shall come TO ME.\"--To me. By these words there is further\ninsinuated, though not expressed, a double cause of their coming\nto him. First. There is in Christ a fullness of all-sufficiency of\nthat, even of all that which is needful to make us happy. Second.\nThose that indeed come to him, do therefore come to him that they\nmay receive it at his hand.\n\nFirst. For the first of these, there is in Christ a fullness of\nall-sufficiency of all that, even of all that which is needful to\nmake us happy. Hence it is said, \"For it pleased the Father that\nin him should all fullness dwell\" (Col 1:19). And again, \"Of his\nfullness have all we received, and grace for grace\" (John 1:16).\nIt is also said of him, that his riches are unsearchable--\"the\nunsearchable riches of Christ\" (Eph 3:8). Hear what he saith of\nhimself, \"Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and\nrighteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold;\nand my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness,\nin the midst of the paths of judgment; that I may cause those that\nlove me to inherit substance. And I will fill their treasures\"\n(Prov 8:18-21).\n\nThis in general. But, more particularly,\n\n1. There is that light in Christ, that is sufficient to lead them\nout of, and from all that darkness, in the midst of which all\nothers, but them that come to him, stumble, and fall and perish: \"I\nam the light of the world,\" saith he, \"he that followeth me shall\nnot walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life\" (John\n8:12). Man by nature is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and\nknows not whither he goes, for darkness hath blinded his eyes;\nneither can anything but Jesus Christ lead men out of this darkness.\nNatural conscience cannot do it; the ten commandments, though in\nthe heart of man, cannot do it. This prerogative belongs only to\nJesus Christ.\n\n2. There is that life in Christ, that is to be found nowhere else\n(John 5:40). Life, as a principle in the soul, by which it shall\nbe acted and enabled to do that which through him is pleasing to\nGod. \"He that believeth in,\" or cometh to, \"me,\" saith he, as the\nScripture hath said, \"out of his belly shall flow rivers of living\nwater\" (John 7:38). Without this life a man is dead, whether he\nbe bad, or whether he be good; that is, good in his own, and other\nmen's esteem. There is no true and eternal life but what is in the\nME that speaketh in the text.\n\nThere is also life for those that come to him, to be had by faith\nin his flesh and blood. \"He that eateth me, even he shall live by\nme\" (John 6:57). And this is a life against that death that comes\nby the guilt of sin, and the curse of the law, under which all men\nare, and for ever must be, unless they eat the ME that speaks in\nthe text. \"Whoso findeth ME,\" saith he, \"findeth life;\" deliverance\nfrom that everlasting death and destruction, that, without me, he\nshall be devoured by (Prov 8:35). Nothing is more desirable than\nlife, to him that hath in himself the sentence of condemnation;\nand here only is life to be found. This life, to wit, eternal life,\nthis life is in his Son; that is, in him that saith in the text,\n\"All that the Father hath given me shall come to me\" (1 John 5:10).\n\n3. The person speaking in the text, is he alone by whom poor sinners\nhave admittance to, and acceptance with the Father, because of\nthe glory of his righteousness, by and in which he presenteth them\namiable and spotless in his sight; neither is there any way besides\nhim so to come to the Father: \"I am the way,\" says he, \"and the\ntruth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me\" (John\n14:6). All other ways to God are dead and damnable; the destroying\ncherubim stand with flaming swords, turning every way to keep all\nothers from his presence (Gen 3:24). I say, all others but them\nthat come by him. \"I am the door; by me,\" saith he, \"if any man\nenter in, he shall be saved\" (John 10:9).\n\nThe person speaking in the text is HE, and only HE, that can give\nstable and everlasting peace; therefore, saith he, \"My peace I give\nunto you.\" My peace, which is a peace with God, peace of conscience,\nand that of an everlasting duration. My peace, peace that cannot\nbe matched, \"not as the world giveth, give I unto you;\" for the\nworld's peace is but carnal and transitory, but mine is Divine and\neternal. Hence it is called the peace of God, and that passeth all\nunderstanding.\n\n4. The person speaking in the text hath enough of all things truly\nspiritually good, to satisfy the desires of every longing soul.\n\"Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come\nunto me, and drink.\" And to him that is athirst, \"I will give of\nthe fountain of the water of life freely\" (John 7:37, Rev 21:6).\n\n5. With the person speaking in the text is power to perfect and\ndefend, and deliver those that come to him for safe-guard. \"All\npower,\" saith he, \"is given unto me in heaven and earth\" (Matt\n28:18).\n\nThus might I multiply instances in this nature in abundance. But,\n\nSecond. They that in truth do come to him, do therefore come to him\nthat they might receive it at his hand. They come for light, they\ncome for life, they come for reconciliation with God: they also\ncome for peace, they come that their soul may be satisfied with\nspiritual good, and that they may be protected by him against all\nspiritual and eternal damnation; and he alone is able to give them\nall this, to the filling of their joy to the full, as they also\nfind when they come to him. This is evident,\n\n1. From the plain declaration of those that already are come to\nhim. \"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our\nLord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this\ngrace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God\"\n(Rom 5:1,2).\n\n2. It is evident also, in that while they keep their eyes upon him,\nthey never desire to change him for another, or to add to themselves\nsome other thing, together with him, to make up their spiritual\njoy. \"God forbid,\" saith Paul, \"that I should glory, save in the\ncross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" \"Yea, doubtless, and I count all\nthings but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus\nmy Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do\ncount them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him,\nnot having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that\nwhich is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is\nof God by faith\" (Phil 3:8,9).\n\n3. It is evident also, by their earnest desires that others might\nbe made partakers of their blessedness. \"Brethren,\" said Paul, \"my\nheart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be\nsaved.\" That is, that way that he expected to be saved himself. As\nhe saith also to the Galatians, \"Brethren,\" saith he, \"I beseech\nyou, be as I am; for I am as ye are;\" that is, I am a sinner as you\nare. Now, I beseech you, seek for life, as I am seeking of it; as\nwho should say, For there is a sufficiency in the Lord Jesus both\nfor me and you.\n\n4. It is evident also, by the triumph that such men make over all\ntheir enemies, both bodily and ghostly: \"Now thanks be unto God,\"\nsaid Paul, \"which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.\" And,\n\"who shall separate us from the love of Christ\" our Lord? and again,\n\"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The\nsting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but\nthanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord\nJesus Christ\" (2 Cor 2:14; Rom 8:35; 1 Cor 15:55,56).\n\n5. It is evident also, for that they are made by the glory of that\nwhich they have found in him, to suffer and endure what the devil\nand hell itself hath or could invent, as a means to separate them\nfrom him. Again, \"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?\nShall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,\nor nakedness, or peril, or sword? as it is written, For thy sake\nwe are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the\nslaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors,\nthrough him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death,\nnor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things\npresent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other\ncreature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which\nis in Christ Jesus our Lord\" (Rom 8:35-39).\n\n\"Shall come TO ME.\" Oh! the heart-attracting glory that is in Jesus\nChrist, when he is discovered, to draw those to him that are given\nto him of the Father; therefore those that came of old, rendered\nthis as the cause of their coming to him: \"And we beheld his glory,\nas of the only begotten of the Father\" (John 1:14). And the reason\nwhy others come not, but perish in their sins, is for want of a\nsight of his glory: \"If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that\nare lost: in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of\nthem that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of\nChrist, who is the image of God, should shine unto them\" (2 Cor\n4:3,4).\n\nThere is therefore heart-pulling glory in Jesus Christ, which,\nwhen discovered, draws the man to him; wherefore by shall come to\nme, Christ may mean, when his glory is discovered, then they must\ncome, then they shall come to me. Therefore, as the true comers\ncome with weeping and relenting, as being sensible of their own\nvileness, so again it is said, that \"the ransomed of the Lord shall\nreturn, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their\nheads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing\nshall flee away.\" That is, at the sight of the glory of that grace\nthat shows itself to them now in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nand in the hopes that they now have of being with him in the heavenly\ntabernacles. Therefore it saith again, \"With gladness and rejoicing\nshall they be brought; they shall enter into the King's palace\"\n(Isa 35:10; 51:11; Psa 45:15). There is therefore heart-attracting\nglory in the Lord Jesus Christ, which, when discovered, subjects\nthe heart to the Word, and makes us come to him.\n\nIt is said of Abraham, that when he dwelt in Mesopotamia, \"the God\nof glory appeared unto him,\" saying, \"Get thee out of thy country.\"\nAnd what then? Why, away he went from his house and friends, and\nall the world could not stay him. \"Now,\" as the Psalmist says, \"Who\nis this King of glory?\" he answers, \"The Lord, mighty in battle\"\n(Psa 24:8). And who was that, but he that \"spoiled principalities\nand powers,\" when he did hang upon the tree, triumphing over them\nthereon? And who was that but Jesus Christ, even the person speaking\nin the text? Therefore he said of Abraham, \"He saw his day. Yea,\"\nsaith he to the Jews, \"your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,\nand he saw it, and was glad\" (Col 2:15; James 2:23; John 8:56).\n\nIndeed, the carnal man says, at least in his heart, \"There is\nno form or comeliness in Christ; and when we shall see him, there\nis no beauty that we should desire him,\" (Isa 53:2); but he lies.\nThis he speaks, as having never seen him. But they that stand in\nhis house, and look upon him through the glass of his Word, by the\nhelp of his Holy Spirit, they will tell you other things. \"But we\nall,\" say they, \"with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory\nof the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory\"\n(2 Cor 3:18). They see glory in his person, glory in his undertakings,\nglory in the merit of his blood, and glory in the perfection\nof his righteousness; yea, heart-affecting, heart-sweetening, and\nheart-changing glory!\n\nIndeed, his glory is veiled, and cannot be seen but as discovered\nby the Father (Matt 11:27). It is veiled with flesh, with meanness\nof descent from the flesh, and with that ignominy and shame that\nattended him in the flesh; but they that can, in God's light, see\nthrough these things, they shall see glory in him; yea, such glory\nas will draw and pull their hearts unto him.\n\nMoses was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter; and for aught I\nknow, had been king at last, had he now conformed to the present\nvanities that were there at court; but he could not, he would not\ndo it. Why? What was the matter? Why! he saw more in the worst of\nChrist (bear with the expression), than he saw in the best of all\nthe treasures of the land of Egypt. He \"refused to be called the\nson of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction\nwith the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a\nseason; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the\ntreasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompence of the\nreward. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.\" But\nwhat emboldened him thus to do? Why, \"he endured;\" for he had a\nsight of the person speaking in the text. \"He endured, as seeing\nhim who is invisible.\" But I say, would a sight of Jesus have thus\ntaken away Moses' heart from a crown, and a kingdom, &c., had he\nnot by that sight seen more in him than was to be seen in them?\n(Heb 11:24-26).\n\nTherefore, when he saith, shall come to me, he means, they shall\nhave a discovery of the glory of the grace that is in him; and the\nbeauty and glory of that is of such virtue, that it constraineth,\nand forceth, with a blessed violency, the hearts of those that are\ngiven to him.\n\nMoses, of whom we spake before, was no child when he was thus taken\nwith the beauteous glory of his Lord. He was forty years old, and\nso consequently was able, being a man of that wisdom and opportunity\nas he was, to make the best judgment of the things, and of the\ngoodness of them that was before him in the land of Egypt. But he,\neven he it was, that set that low esteem upon the glory of Egypt,\nas to count it not worth the meddling with, when he had a sight of\nthis Lord Jesus Christ. This wicked world thinks, that the fancies\nof a heaven, and a happiness hereafter, may serve well enough to\ntake the heart of such, as either have not the world's good things\nto delight in; or that are fools, and know not how to delight\nthemselves therein. But let them know again, that we have had men\nof all ranks and qualities, that have been taken with the glory\nof our Lord Jesus, and have left all to follow him. As Abel, Seth,\nEnoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon;\nand who not, that had either wit or grace, to savour heavenly\nthings? Indeed none can stand off from him, nor any longer hold\nout against him to whom he reveals the glory of his grace.\n\n[THE PROMISE TO THOSE COMING TO CHRIST.]\n\n\"AND HIM THAT COMETH TO ME I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nBy these words our Lord Jesus doth set forth yet more amply the\ngreat goodness of his nature towards the coming sinner. Before, he\nsaid, They shall come; and here he declareth, That with heart and\naffections he will receive them. But, by the way, let me speak\none word or two to the seeming conditionality of this promise with\nwhich now I have to do. \"And him that cometh to me I will in no\nwise cast out.\" Where it is evident, may some say, that Christ's\nreceiving us to mercy depends upon our coming, and so our salvation\nby Christ is conditional. If we come, we shall be received; if\nnot, we shall not; for that is fully intimated by the words. The\npromise of reception is only to him that cometh. \"And him that\ncometh.\" I answer, that the coming in these words mentioned, as\na condition of being received to life, is that which is promised,\nyea, concluded to be effected in us by the promise going before.\nIn those latter words, coming to Christ is implicitly required of\nus; and in the words before, that grace that can make us come is\npositively promised to us. \"All that the Father giveth me shall\ncome to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out\"\nthence. We come to Christ, because it is said, We shall come;\nbecause it is given to us to come. So that the condition which is\nexpressed by Christ in these latter words is absolutely promised in\nthe words before. And, indeed, the coming here intended is nothing\nelse but the effect of \"shall come to me. They shall come, and I\nwill not cast them out.\"\n\n\"AND HIM THAT COMETH.\"\n\nHe saith not, and him that is come, but him that cometh. To speak\nto these words, First, In general. Second, More particularly.\n\n[First.] In general. They suggest unto us these four things:--\n\n1. That Jesus Christ doth build upon it, that since the Father gave\nhis people to him, they shall be enabled to come unto him. \"And him\nthat cometh.\" As who should say, I know that since they are given\nto me, they shall be enabled to come unto me. He saith not, if they\ncome, or I suppose they will come; but, \"and him that cometh.\" By\nthese words, therefore, he shows us that he addresseth himself to\nthe receiving of them whom the Father gave to him to save them. I\nsay, he addresseth himself, or prepareth himself to receive them.\nBy which, as I said, he concludeth or buildeth upon it, that they\nshall indeed come to him. He looketh that the Father should bring\nthem into his bosom, and so stands ready to embrace them.\n\n2. Christ also suggesteth by these words, that he very well knoweth\nwho are given to him; not by their coming to him, but by their\nbeing given to him. \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to\nme; and him that cometh,\" &c. This him he knoweth to be one of them\nthat the Father hath given him; and, therefore, he received him,\neven because the Father hath given him to him (John 10). \"I know\nmy sheep,\" saith he. Not only those that already have knowledge of\nhim, but those, too, that yet are ignorant of him. \"Other sheep I\nhave,\" said he, \"which are not of this fold,\" (John 10:16); not of\nthe Jewish church, but those that lie in their sins, even the rude\nand barbarous Gentiles. Therefore, when Paul was afraid to stay\nat Corinth, from a supposition that some mischief might befall him\nthere; \"Be not afraid,\" said the Lord Jesus to him, \"but speak,\nand hold not thy peace--for I have much people in this city\" (Acts\n18:9,10). The people that the Lord here speaks of were not at this\ntime accounted his, by reason of a work of conversion that already\nhad passed upon them, but by virtue of the gift of the Father; for\nhe had given them unto him. Therefore was Paul to stay here, to\nspeak the word of the Lord to them, that, by his speaking, the Holy\nGhost might effectually work over their souls, to the causing them\nto come to him, who was also ready, with heart and soul, to receive\nthem.\n\n3. Christ, by these words, also suggesteth, that no more come unto\nhim than, indeed, are given him of the Father. For the him in this\nplace is one of the all that by Christ was mentioned before. \"All\nthat the Father giveth me shall come to me;\" and every him of that\nall, \"I will in no wise cast out.\" This the apostle insinuateth,\nwhere he saith, \"He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and\nsome, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting\nof the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of\nthe body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith,\nand of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto\nthe measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ\" (Eph 4:11-13).\n\nMark, as in the text, so here he speaketh of all. \"Until we all\ncome.\" We all! all who? Doubtless, \"All that the Father giveth to\nChrist.\" This is further insinuated, because he called this ALL\nthe body of Christ; the measure of the stature of the fullness of\nChrist. By which he means the universal number given; to wit, the\ntrue elect church, which is said to be his body and fullness (Eph\n1:22,23).\n\n4. Christ Jesus, by these words, further suggesteth, that he is well\ncontent with this gift of the Father to him. \"All that the Father\ngiveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no\nwise cast out.\" I will heartily, willingly, and with great content\nof mind, receive him.\n\nThey show us, also, that Christ's love in receiving is as large as\nhis Father's love in giving, and no larger. Hence, he thanks him\nfor his gift, and also thanks him for hiding of him and his things\nfrom the rest of the wicked (Matt 11:25; Luke 10:21). But,\n\nSecondly, and more particularly, \"And HIM that cometh.\"\n\n[Import of the word HIM.]\n\n\"And him.\" This word him; by it Christ looketh back to the gift\nof the Father; not only in the lump and whole of the gift, but to\nthe every him of that lump. As who should say, I do not only accept\nof the gift of my Father in the general, but have a special regard\nto every of them in particular; and will secure not only some, or\nthe greatest part, but every him, every dust. Not a hoof of all\nshall be lost or left behind. And, indeed, in this he consenteth\nto his Father's will, which is that of all that he hath given him,\nhe should lose nothing (John 6:39).\n\n\"And him.\" Christ Jesus, also, by his thus dividing the gift of\nhis Father into hims, and by his speaking of them in the singular\nnumber, shows what a particular work shall be wrought in each one,\nat the time appointed of the Father. \"And it shall come to pass in\nthat day,\" saith the prophet, \"that the Lord shall beat off from\nthe channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be\ngathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.\" Here are the hims,\none by one, to be gathered to him by the Father (Isa 27:12).\n\nHe shows also hereby that no lineage, kindred, or relation, can\nat all be profited by any outward or carnal union with the person\nthat the Father hath given to Christ. It is only him, the given\nHIM, the coming him, that he intends absolutely to secure. Men make\na great ado with the children of believers; and oh the children\nof believers! 13 But if the child of the believer is not the him\nconcerned in this absolute promise, it is not these men's great cry,\nnor yet what the parent or child can do, that can interest him in\nthis promise of the Lord Christ, this absolute promise.\n\nAND HIM. There are divers sorts of persons that the Father hath\ngiven to Jesus Christ; they are not all of one rank, of one quality;\nsome are high, some are low; some are wise, some fools; some are\nmore civil, and complying with the law; some more profane, and\naverse to him and his gospel. Now, since those that are given to\nhim are, in some sense, so diverse; and again, since he yet saith,\n\"And him that cometh,\" &c., he, by that, doth give us to understand\nthat he is not, as men, for picking and choosing, to take a best\nand leave a worst, but he is for him that the Father hath given\nhim, and that cometh to him. \"He shall not alter it, nor change\nit, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good,\" (Lev 27:10); but will\ntake him as he is, and will save his soul.\n\nThere is many a sad wretch given by the Father to Jesus Christ;\nbut not one of them all is despised or slighted by him. It is said\nof those that the Father hath given to Christ that they have done\nworse than the heathen; that they were murderers, thieves, drunkards,\nunclean persons, and what not; but he has received them, washed\nthem, and saved them. A fit emblem of this sort is that wretched\ninstance mentioned in the 16th of Ezekiel, that was cast out in a\nstinking condition, to the loathing of its person, in the days that\nit was born; a creature in such a wretched condition, that no eye\npitied, to do any of the things there mentioned unto it, or to have\ncompassion upon it; no eye but his that speaketh in the text.\n\nAND HIM. Let him be as red as blood, let him be as red as crimson.\nSome men are blood-red sinners, crimson-sinners, sinners of a double\ndie; dipped and dipped again, before they come to Jesus Christ.\nArt thou that readest these lines such an one? Speak out, man! Art\nthou such an one? and art thou now coming to Jesus Christ for the\nmercy of justification, that thou mightest be made white in his\nblood, and be covered with his righteousness? Fear not; forasmuch\nas this thy coming betokeneth that thou art of the number of them\nthat the Father hath given to Christ; for he will in no wise cast\nthee out. \"Come now,\" saith Christ, \"and let us reason together;\nthough your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;\nthough they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool\" (Isa 1:18).\n\nAND HIM. There was many a strange HIM came to Jesus Christ, in the\ndays of his flesh; but he received them all, without turning any\naway; speaking unto them \"of the kingdom of God, and healed them\nthat had need of healing\" (Luke 9:11; 4:40). These words, AND HIM,\nare therefore words to be wondered at. That not one of them who,\nby virtue of the Father's gift, and drawing, are coming to Jesus\nChrist, I say, that not one of them, whatever they have been,\nwhatever they have done, should be rejected or set by, but admitted\nto a share in his saving grace. It is said in Luke, that the people\n\"wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth\"\n(4:22). Now this is one of his gracious words; these words are like\ndrops of honey, as it is said, \"Pleasant words are as an honey-comb,\nsweet to the soul, and health to the bones\" (Prov 16:24). These\nare gracious words indeed, even as full as a faithful and merciful\nHigh-priest could speak them. Luther saith, \"When Christ speaketh,\nhe hath a mouth as wide as heaven and earth.\" That is, to speak\nfully to the encouragement of every sinful him that is coming to\nJesus Christ. And that his word is certain, hear how himself confirms\nit: \"Heaven and earth,\" saith he, \"shall pass away; but my words\nshall not pass away\" (Isa 51:6; Matt 24:35).\n\nIt is also confirmed by the testimony of the four evangelists,\nwho gave faithful relation of his loving reception of all sorts\nof coming sinners, whether they were publicans, harlots, thieves,\npossessed of devils, bedlams, and what not (Luke 19:1-10; Matt\n21:31; Luke 15; 23:43; Mark 16:9; 5:1-9).\n\nThis, then, shows us, 1. \"The greatness of the merits of Christ.\"\n2. The willingness of his heart to impute them for life to the\ngreat, if coming, sinners.\n\n1. This shows us the greatness of the merits of Christ; for it must\nnot be supposed, that his words are bigger than his worthiness.\nHe is strong to execute his word. He can do, as well as speak. He\ncan do exceeding abundantly more than we ask or think, even to the\nuttermost, and outside of his word (Eph 3:20). Now, then, since he\nconcludeth any coming HIM; it must be concluded, that he can save\nto the uttermost sin, any coming HIM.\n\nDo you think, I say, that the Lord Jesus did not think before he\nspake? He speaks all in righteousness, and therefore by his word\nwe are to judge how mighty he is to save (Isa 63:1). He speaketh\nin righteousness, in very faithfulness, when he began to build this\nblessed gospel-fabric, the text; it was for that he had first sat\ndown, and counted the cost; and for that, he knew he was able to\nfinish it! What, Lord, any him? any him that cometh to thee? This\nis a Christ worth looking after, this is a Christ worth coming to!\n\nThis, then, should learn us diligently to consider the natural\nforce of every word of God; and to judge of Christ's ability to\nsave, not by our sins, or by our shallow apprehensions of his grace;\nbut by his word, which is the true measure of grace. And if we do\nnot judge thus, we shall dishonour his grace, lose the benefit of\nhis word, and needlessly fright ourselves into many discouragements\nthough coming to Jesus Christ. Him, any him that cometh, hath\nsufficient from this word of Christ, to feed himself with hopes\nof salvation. As thou art therefore coming, O thou coming sinner,\njudge thou, whether Christ can save thee by the true sense of\nhis words: judge, coming sinner, of the efficacy of his blood, of\nthe perfection of his righteousness, and of the prevalency of his\nintercession, by his word. \"And him,\" saith he, \"that cometh to\nme I will in no wise cast out.\" \"In no wise,\" that is, for no sin.\nJudge therefore by his word, how able he is to save thee. It is\nsaid of God's sayings to the children of Israel, \"There failed not\naught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of\nIsrael; all came to pass\" (Josh 21:45). And again, \"Not one thing\nhath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake\nconcerning you, all are come to pass unto you; and not one thing\nhath failed thereof\" (Josh 23:14).\n\nComing sinner, what promise thou findest in the word of Christ,\nstrain it whither thou canst, so thou dost not corrupt it, and his\nblood and merits will answer all; what the word saith, or any true\nconsequence that is drawn therefrom, that we may boldly venture upon.\nAs here in the text he saith, \"And him that cometh,\" indefinitely,\nwithout the least intimation of the rejection of any, though never\nso great, if he be a coming sinner. Take it then for granted, that\nthou, whoever thou art, if coming, art intended in these words;\nneither shall it injure Christ at all, if, as Benhadad's servants\nserved Ahab, thou shalt catch him at his word. \"Now,\" saith the\ntext, \"the man did diligently observe whether anything would come\nfrom him,\" to wit, any word of grace; \"and did hastily catch it.\"\nAnd it happened that Ahab had called Benhadad his brother. The\nman replied, therefore, \"Thy brother Benhadad!\" (1 Kings 20:33),\ncatching him at his word. Sinner, coming sinner, serve Jesus\nChrist thus, and he will take it kindly at thy hands. When he in\nhis argument called the Canaanitish woman dog, she catched him at\nit, and saith, \"Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which\nfall from their master's table.\" I say, she catched him thus in his\nwords, and he took it kindly, saying, \"O woman great is thy faith;\nbe it unto thee even as thou wilt\" (Matt 15:28). Catch him, coming\nsinner, catch him in his words, surely he will take it kindly, and\nwill not be offended at thee.\n\n2. The other thing that I told you is showed from these words, is\nthis: The willingness of Christ's heart to impute his merits for\nlife to the great, if coming sinner. \"And him that cometh to me I\nwill in no wise cast out.\"\n\nThe awakened coming sinner doth not so easily question the power of\nChrist, as his willingness to save him. Lord, \"if thou wilt, thou\ncanst,\" said one (Mark 1:40). He did not put the if upon his power,\nbut upon his will. He concluded he could, but he was not as fully\nof persuasion that he would. But we have the same ground to believe\nhe will, as we have to believe he can; and, indeed, ground for both\nis the Word of God. If he was not willing, why did he promise? Why\ndid he say he would receive the coming sinner? Coming sinner, take\nnotice of this; we use to plead practices with men, and why not\nwith God likewise? I am sure we have no more ground for the one\nthan the other; for we have to plead the promise of a faithful\nGod. Jacob took him there: \"Thou saidst,\" said he, \"I will surely\ndo thee good\" (Gen 32:12). For, from this promise he concluded,\nthat it followed in reason, \"He must be willing.\"\n\nThe text also gives some ground for us to draw the same conclusion.\n\"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\" Here is his\nwillingness asserted, as well as his power suggested. It is worth\nyour observation, that Abraham's faith considered rather God's\npower than his willingness; that is, he drew his conclusion, \"I\nshall have a child,\" from the power that was in God to fulfil the\npromise to him. For he concluded he was willing to give him one,\nelse he would not have promised one. \"He staggered not at the promise\nof God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to\nGod; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able\nalso to perform\" (Rev 4:20,21). But was not his faith exercised,\nor tried, about his willingness too? No, there was no show of\nreason for that, because he had promised it. Indeed, had he not\npromised it, he might lawfully have doubted it; but since he had\npromised it, there was left no ground at all for doubting, because\nhis willingness to give a son was demonstrated in his promising him\na son. These words, therefore, are sufficient ground to encourage\nany coming sinner that Christ is willing to his power to receive\nhim; and since he hath power also to do what he will, there is no\nground at all left to the coming sinner any more to doubt; but to\ncome in full hope of acceptance, and of being received unto grace\nand mercy. \"And him that cometh.\" He saith not, and him that is\ncome; but, and him that cometh; that is, and him whose heart begins\nto move after me, who is leaving all for my sake; him who is looking\nout, who is on his journey to me. We must, therefore, distinguish\nbetwixt coming, and being come to Jesus Christ. He that is come to\nhim has attained of him more sensibly what he felt before that he\nwanted, than he has that but yet is coming to him.\n\n[Advantages to the man that is come to Christ.]\n\nA man that is come to Christ hath the advantage of him that is but\ncoming to him; and that in seven things.\n\n1. He that is come to Christ is nearer to him than he that is but\ncoming to him; for he that is but coming to him is yet, in some\nsense, at a distance from him; as it is said of the coming prodigal,\n\"And while he was yet a great way off\" (Luke 15:20). Now he that\nis nearer to him hath the best sight of him; and so is able to make\nthe best judgment of his wonderful grace and beauty, as God saith,\n\"Let them come near, then let them speak\" (Isa 41:1). And as\nthe apostle John saith, \"And we have seen and do testify that the\nFather sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world\" (1 John 4:14).\nHe that is not yet come, though he is coming, is not fit, not being\nindeed capable to make that judgment of the worth and glory of the\ngrace of Christ, as he is that is come to him, and hath seen and\nbeheld it. Therefore, sinner, suspend thy judgment till thou art\ncome nearer.\n\n2. He that is come to Christ has the advantage of him that is but\ncoming, in that he is eased of his burden; for he that is but coming\nis not eased of his burden (Matt 11:28). He that is come has cast\nhis burden upon the Lord. By faith he hath seen himself released\nthereof; but he that is but coming hath it yet, as to sense and\nfeeling, upon his own shoulders. \"Come unto me, all ye that labour\nand are heavy laden,\" implies, that their burden, though they are\ncoming, is yet upon them, and so will be till indeed they are come\nto him.\n\n3. He that is come to Christ has the advantage of him that is but\ncoming in this also, namely, he hath drank of the sweet and soul\nrefreshing water of life; but he that is but coming hath not. \"If\nany man thirst, let him come unto me and drink\" (John 7:37).\n\nMark, He must come to him before he drinks: according to that of\nthe prophet, \"Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.\"\nHe drinketh not as he cometh, but when he is come to the waters\n(Isa 55:1).\n\n4. He that is come to Christ hath the advantage of him that as yet\nis but coming in this also, to wit, he is not so terrified with\nthe noise, and, as I may call it, hue and cry, which the avenger\nof blood makes at the heels of him that yet is but coming to him.\nWhen the slayer was on his flight to the city of his refuge, he had\nthe noise or fear of the avenger of blood at his heels; but when\nhe was come to the city, and was entered thereinto, that noise\nceased. Even so it is with him that is but coming to Jesus Christ,\nhe heareth many a dreadful sound in is ear; sounds of death and\ndamnation, which he that is come is at present freed from. Therefore\nhe saith, \"Come, and I will give you rest.\" And so he saith again,\n\"We that have believed, do enter into rest,\" as he said, &c. (Heb\n4).\n\n5. He, therefore, that is come to Christ, is not so subject to those\ndejections, and castings down, by reason of the rage and assaults\nof the evil one, as is the man that is but coming to Jesus Christ,\nthough he has temptations too. \"And as he was yet a-coming, the devil\nthrew him down, and tare him\" (Luke 9:42). For he has, though Satan\nstill roareth upon him, those experimental comforts and refreshments,\nto wit, in his treasury, to present himself with, in times of\ntemptation and conflict; which he that is but coming has not.\n\n6. He that is come to Christ has the advantage of him that is but\ncoming to him, in this also, to wit, he hath upon him the wedding\ngarment, &c., but he that is coming has not. The prodigal, when\ncoming home to his father, was clothed with nothing but rags, and\nwas tormented with an empty belly; but when he was come, the best\nrobe is brought out, also the gold ring, and the shoes, yea, they\nare put upon him, to his great rejoicing. The fatted calf was killed\nfor him; the music was struck up to make him merry; and thus also\nthe Father himself sang of him, \"This my son was dead, and is alive\nagain; was lost and is found\" (Luke 15:18,19).\n\n7. In a word, he that is come to Christ, his groans and tears, his\ndoubts and fears, are turned into songs and praises; for that he\nhath now received the atonement, and the earnest of his inheritance;\nbut he that is but yet a-coming, hath not those praises nor songs\nof deliverance with him; nor has he as yet received the atonement\nand earnest of his inheritance, which is, the sealing testimony of\nthe Holy Ghost, through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon\nhis conscience, for he is not come (Rom 5:11; Eph 1:13; Heb 12:22-24).\n\n[Import of the word COMETH.]\n\n\"And him that COMETH.\" There is further to be gathered from this\nword cometh, these following particulars:--\n\n1. That Jesus Christ hath his eye upon, and takes notice of, the\nfirst moving of the heart of a sinner after himself. Coming sinner,\nthou canst not move with desires after Christ, but he sees the\nworking of those desires in thy heart. \"All my desire,\" said David,\n\"is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee\" (Psa 38:9).\nThis he spake, as he was coming, after he had backslidden, to the\nLord Jesus Christ. It is said of the prodigal, that while he was\nyet a great way off, his father saw him, had his eye upon him, and\nupon the going out of his heart after him (Luke 15:20).\n\nWhen Nathanael was come to Jesus Christ, the Lord said to them\nthat stood before him, \"Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no\nguile.\" But Nathanael answered him, \"Whence knowest thou me?\" Jesus\nanswered, \"Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under\nthe fig-tree, I saw thee.\" There, I suppose, Nathanael was pouring\nout of his soul to God for mercy, or that he would give him good\nunderstanding about the Messias to come; and Jesus saw all the\nworkings of his honest heart at that time (John 1:47,48).\n\nZaccheus also had some secret movings of heart, such as they were,\ntowards Jesus Christ, when he ran before, and climbed up the tree\nto see him; and the Lord Jesus Christ had his eye upon him: therefore,\nwhen he was come to the place, he looked up to him, bids him come\ndown, \"For today,\" said he, \"I must abide at thy house;\" to wit,\nin order to the further completing the work of grace in his soul\n(Luke 19:1-9). Remember this, coming sinner.\n\n2. As Jesus Christ hath his eye upon, so he hath his heart open\nto receive, the coming sinner. This is verified by the text: \"And\nhim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\" This is also\ndiscovered by his preparing of the way, in his making of it easy\n(as may be) to the coming sinner; which preparation is manifest by\nthose blessed words, \"I will in no wise cast out;\" of which more\nwhen we come to the place. And while \"he was yet a great way off,\nhis Father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his\nneck, and kissed him\" (Luke 15:20). All these expressions do strongly\nprove that the heart of Christ is open to receive the coming sinner.\n\n3. As Jesus Christ has his eye upon, and his heart open to receive,\nso he hath resolved already that nothing shall alienate his heart\nfrom receiving the coming sinner. No sins of the coming sinner,\nnor the length of the time that he hath abode in them, shall by\nany means prevail with Jesus Christ to reject him. Coming sinner,\nthou art coming to a loving Lord Jesus!\n\n4. These words therefore are dropped from his blessed mouth, on\npurpose that the coming sinner might take encouragement to continue\non his journey, until he be come indeed to Jesus Christ. It was\ndoubtless a great encouragement to blind Bartimeus, that Jesus\nChrist stood still and called him, when he was crying, \"Jesus, thou\nSon of David, have mercy on me;\" therefore, it is said, he cast\naway his garment, \"rose, and came to Jesus\" (Mark 10:46). Now, if\na call to come hath such encouragement in it, what is a promise\nof receiving such, but an encouragement much more? And observe it,\nthough he had a call to come, yet not having a promise, his faith\nwas forced to work upon a mere consequence, saying, He calls me;\nand surely since he calls me, he will grant me my desire. Ah! but\ncoming sinner, thou hast no need to go so far about as to draw (in\nthis matter) consequences, because thou hast plain promises: \"And\nhim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\" Here is full,\nplain, yea, what encouragement one can desire; for, suppose thou\nwast admitted to make a promise thyself, and Christ should attest\nthat he would fulfil it upon the sinner that cometh to him, Couldst\nthou make a better promise? Couldst thou invent a more full, free,\nor larger promise? a promise that looks at the first moving of\nthe heart after Jesus Christ? a promise that declares, yea, that\nengageth Christ Jesus to open his heart to receive the coming sinner?\nyea, further, a promise that demonstrateth that the Lord Jesus is\nresolved freely to receive, and will in no wise cast out, nor means\nto reject, the soul of the coming sinner! For all this lieth fully\nin this promise, and doth naturally flow therefrom. Here thou needest\nnot make use of far-fetched consequences, nor strain thy wits, to\nforce encouraging arguments from the text. Coming sinner, the words\nare plain: \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\n[TWO SORTS OF SINNERS COMING TO CHRIST.]\n\n\"And him that COMETH.\" There are two sorts of sinners that are\ncoming to Jesus Christ. First, Him that hath never, while of late,\n14 at all began to come. Second, Him that came formerly, and after\nthat went back; but hath since bethought himself, and is now coming\nagain. Both these sorts of sinners are intended by the HIM in the\ntext, as is evident; because both are now the coming sinners. \"And\nhim that cometh.\"\n\nFirst. [The newly-awakened comer.]--For the first of these:\nthe sinner that hath never, while of late, began to come, his way\nis more easy; I do not say, more plain and open to come to Christ\nthan is the other--those last not having the clog of a guilty\nconscience, for the sin of backsliding, hanging at their heels.\nBut all the encouragement of the gospel, with what invitations are\ntherein contained to coming sinners, are as free and as open to\nthe one as to the other; so that they may with the same freedom and\nliberty, as from the Word, both alike claim interest in the promise.\n\"All things are ready;\" all things for the coming backsliders, as\nwell as for the others: \"Come to the wedding.\" \"And let him that\nis athirst come\" (Matt 22:1-4; Rev 22:17).\n\nSecond. [The returning backslider.]--But having spoke to the first\nof these already, I shall here pass it by; and shall speak a word\nor two to him that is coming, after backsliding, to Jesus Christ\nfor life. Thy way, O thou sinner of a double dye, thy way is open\nto come to Jesus Christ. I mean thee, whose heart, after long\nbacksliding, doth think of turning to him again. Thy way, I say,\nis open to him, as is the way of the other sorts of comers; as\nappears by what follows:--\n\n1. Because the text makes no exception against thee. It doth not\nsay, And any him but a backslider, any him but him. The text doth\nnot thus object, but indefinitely openeth wide its golden arms\nto every coming soul, without the least exception; therefore thou\nmayest come. And take heed that thou shut not that door against\nthy soul by unbelief, which God has opened by his grace.\n\n2. Nay, the text is so far from excepting against thy coming, that\nit strongly suggesteth that thou art one of the souls intended,\nO thou coming backslider; else what need that clause have been so\ninserted, \"I will in no wise cast out?\" As who should say, Though\nthose that come now are such as have formerly backslidden, I will\nin \"no wise\" cast away the fornicator, the covetous, the railer, the\ndrunkard, or other common sinners, nor yet the backslider neither.\n\n3. That the backslider is intended is evident,\n\n(1.) For that he is sent to by name, \"Go, tell his disciples and\nPeter\" (Mark 16:7). But Peter was a godly man. True, but he was also\na backslider, yea, a desperate backslider: he had denied his Master\nonce, twice, thrice, cursing and swearing that he knew him not.\nIf this was not backsliding, if this was not an high and eminent\nbacksliding, yea, a higher backsliding than thou art capable of,\nI have thought amiss.\n\nAgain, when David had backslidden, and had committed adultery and\nmurder in his backsliding, he must be sent to by name: \"And,\" saith\nthe text, \"the Lord sent Nathan unto David.\" And he sent him to\ntell him, after he had brought him to unfeigned acknowledgment,\n\"The Lord hath also put away, or forgiven thy sin\" (2 Sam 12:1,13).\n\nThis man also was far gone: he took a man's wife, and killed her\nhusband, and endeavoured to cover all with wicked dissimulation. He\ndid this, I say, after God had exalted him, and showed him great\nfavour; wherefore his transgression was greatened also by the\nprophet with mighty aggravations; yet he was accepted, and that\nwith gladness, at the first step he took in his returning to Christ.\nFor the first step of the backslider's return is to say, sensibly\nand unfeignedly, \"I have sinned;\" but he had no sooner said thus,\nbut a pardon was produced, yea, thrust into his bosom: \"And Nathan\nsaid unto David, The Lord hath also put away thy sin.\"\n\n(2.) As the person of the backslider is mentioned by name, so also\nis his sin, that, if possible, thy objections against thy returning\nto Christ may be taken out of thy way; I say, thy sin also is\nmentioned by name, and mixed, as mentioned, with words of grace and\nfavour: \"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely\"\n(Hosea 14:4). What sayest thou now, backslider?\n\n(3.) Nay, further, thou art not only mentioned by name, and thy\nsin by the nature of it, but thou thyself, who art a returning\nbackslider, put, (a) Amongst God's Israel, \"Return, thou backsliding\nIsrael, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall\nupon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep\nanger for ever\" (Jer 3:12). (b) Thou art put among his children;\namong his children to whom he is married. \"Turn, O backsliding\nchildren, for I am married unto you\" (verse 14). (c) Yea, after\nall this, as if his heart was so full of grace for them, that he\nwas pressed until he had uttered it before them, he adds, \"Return,\nye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings\" (verse\n22).\n\n(4.) Nay, further, the Lord hath considered, that the shame of thy\nsin hath stopped thy mouth, and made thee almost a prayerless man;\nand therefore he saith unto thee, \"Take with you words, and turn\nto the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive\nus graciously.\" See his grace, that himself should put words of\nencouragement into the heart of a backslider; as he saith in another\nplace, \"I taught Ephraim to go, taking him by the arms.\" This is\nteaching him to go indeed, to hold him up by the arms; by the chin,\nas we say (Hosea 14:2; 11:3).\n\nFrom what has been said, I conclude, even as I said before, that\nthe him in the text, and him that cometh, includeth both these\nsorts of sinners, and therefore both should freely come.\n\nQuest. 1. But where doth Jesus Christ, in all the word of the New\nTestament, expressly speak to a returning backslider with words\nof grace and peace? For what you have urged as yet, from the New\nTestament, is nothing but consequences drawn from this text. Indeed\nit is a full text for carnal ignorant sinners that come, but to\nme, who am a backslider, it yieldeth but little relief.\n\nAnsw. How! but little encouragement from the text, when it is said,\n\"I will in now wise cast out\"! What more could have been said? What\nis here omitted that might have been inserted, to make the promise\nmore full and free? Nay, take all the promises in the Bible, all\nthe freest promises, with all the variety of expressions of what\nnature or extent soever, and they can but amount to the expressions\nof this very promise, \"I will in no wise cast out;\" I will for\nnothing, by no means, upon no account, however they have sinned,\nhowever they have backslidden, however they have provoked, cast\nout the coming sinner. But,\n\nQuest. 2. Thou sayest, Where doth Jesus Christ, in all the words\nof the New Testament, speak to a returning backslider with words\nof grace and peace, that is under the name of a backslider?\n\nAnsw. Where there is such plenty of examples in receiving backsliders,\nthere is the less need for express words to that intent; one promise,\nas the text is, with those examples that are annexed, are instead\nof many promises. And besides, I reckon that the act of receiving\nis of as much, if not of more encouragement, than is a bare promise\nto receive; for receiving is as the promise, and the fulfilling of\nit too; so that in the Old Testament thou hast the promise, and in\nthe New, the fulfilling of it; and that in divers examples.\n\n1. In Peter. Peter denied his master, once, twice, thrice, and\nthat with open oath; yet Christ receives him again without any the\nleast hesitation or stick. Yea, he slips, stumbles, falls again,\nin downright dissimulation, and that to the hurt and fall of many\nothers; but neither of this doth Christ make a bar to his salvation,\nbut receives him again at his return, as if he knew nothing of the\nfault (Gal 2).\n\n2. The rest of the disciples, even all of them, did backslide\nand leave the Lord Jesus in his greatest straits. \"Then all the\ndisciples forsook him and fled,\" (Matt 26:56), they returned, as he\nhad foretold, every one to his own, and left him alone; but this\nalso he passes over as a very light matter. Not that it was so\nindeed in itself, but the abundance of grace that was in him did\nlightly roll it away; for after his resurrection, when first he\nappeared unto them, he gives them not the least check for their\nperfidious dealings with him, but salutes them with words of\ngrace, saying, \"All hail! be not afraid, peace be to you; all power\nin heaven and earth is given unto me.\" True, he rebuked them for\ntheir unbelief, for the which also thou deservest the same. For it\nis unbelief that alone puts Christ and his benefits from us (John\n16:52; Matt 28:9-11; Luke 24:39; Mark 16:14).\n\n3. The man that after a large profession lay with his father's\nwife, committed a high transgression, even such a one that at that\nday was not heard of, no, not among the Gentiles. Wherefore this\nwas a desperate backsliding; yet, at his return, he was received,\nand accepted again to mercy (1 Cor 5:1,2; 2 Cor 2:6-8).\n\n4. The thief that stole was bid to steal no more; not at all doubting\nbut that Christ was ready to forgive him this act of backsliding\n(Eph 4:28).\n\nNow all these are examples, particular instances of Christ's readiness\nto receive the backsliders to mercy; and, observe it, examples and\nproofs that he hath done so are, to our unbelieving hearts, stronger\nencouragements than bare promises that so he will do.\n\nBut again, the Lord Jesus hath added to these, for the encouragement\nof returning backsliders, to come to him. (1.) A call to come,\nand he will receive them (Rev 2:1-5; 14-16; 20-22; 3:1-3; 15-22).\nWherefore New Testament backsliders have encouragement to come.\n(2.) A declaration of readiness to receive them that come, as here\nin the text, and in many other places, is plain. Therefore, \"Set\nthee up waymarks, make thee high heaps,\" of the golden grace of\nthe gospel, \"set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which\nthou wentest.\" When thou didst backslide; \"turn again, O virgin of\nIsrael, turn again to these thy cities\" (Jer 31:21).\n\n\"And him that cometh.\" He saith not, and him that talketh, that\nprofesseth, that maketh a show, a noise, or the like; but, him that\ncometh. Christ will take leave to judge, who, among the many that\nmake a noise, they be that indeed are coming to him. It is not him\nthat saith he comes, nor him of whom others affirm that he comes;\nbut him that Christ himself shall say doth come, that is concerned\nin this text. When the woman that had the bloody issue came to\nhim for cure, there were others as well as she, that made a great\nbustle about him, that touched, yea, thronged him. Ah, but Christ\ncould distinguish this woman from them all; \"And he looked round\nabout\" upon them all, \"to see her that had done this thing\" (Mark\n5:25-32). He was not concerned with the thronging, or touchings of\nthe rest; for theirs were but accidental, or at best, void of that\nwhich made her touch acceptable. Wherefore Christ must be judge\nwho they be that in truth are coming to him; Every man's ways are\nright in his own eyes, \"but the Lord weigheth the spirits\" (Prov\n16:2). It standeth therefore every one in hand to be certain of\ntheir coming to Jesus Christ; for as thy coming is, so shall thy\nsalvation be. If thou comest indeed, thy salvation shall be indeed;\nbut if thou comest but in outward appearance, so shall thy salvation\nbe; but of coming, see before, as also afterwards, in the use and\napplication.\n\n\"And him that cometh TO ME.\" These words to me are also well to\nbe heeded; for by them, as he secureth those that come to him, so\nalso he shows himself unconcerned with those that in their coming\nrest short, to turn aside to others; for you must know, that every\none that comes, comes not to Jesus Christ; some that come, come to\nMoses, and to his law, and there take up for life; with these Christ\nis not concerned; with these his promise hath not to do. \"Christ\nis become of no effect unto you; whosoever of you are justified\nby the law, ye are fallen from grace\" (Gal 5:4). Again, some that\ncame, came no further than to gospel ordinances, and there stay;\nthey came not through them to Christ; with these neither is he\nconcerned; nor will their \"Lord, Lord,\" avail them anything in the\ngreat and dismal day. A man may come to, and also go from the place\nand ordinances of worship, and yet not be remembered by Christ.\n\"So I saw the wicked buried,\" said Solomon, \"who had come and gone\nfrom the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city\nwhere they had so done; this is also vanity\" (Eccl 8:10).\n\n\"TO ME.\" These words, therefore, are by Jesus Christ very warily put\nin, and serve for caution and encouragement; for caution, lest we\ntake up in our coming anywhere short of Christ; and for encouragement\nto those that shall in their coming, come past all; till they come\nto Jesus Christ. \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout.\"\n\nReader, if thou lovest thy soul, take this caution kindly at the\nhands of Jesus Christ. Thou seest thy sickness, thy wound, thy\nnecessity of salvation. Well, go not to king Jareb, for he cannot\nheal thee, nor cure thee of thy wound (Hosea 5:13). Take the caution,\nI say, lest Christ, instead of being a Saviour unto thee, becomes\na lion, a young lion, to tear thee, and go away (Hosea 5:14).\n\nThere is a coming, but not to the Most High; there is a coming,\nbut not with the whole heart, but as it were feignedly; therefore\ntake the caution kindly (Jer 3:10; Hosea 7:16).\n\n\"And him that cometh TO ME;\" Christ as a Saviour will stand alone,\nbecause his own arm alone hath brought salvation unto him. He will\nnot be joined with Moses, nor suffer John Baptist to be tabernacled\nby him. I say they must vanish, for Christ will stand alone (Luke\n9:28-36). Yea, God the Father will have it so; therefore they must\nbe parted from him, and a voice from heaven must come to bid the\ndisciples hear only the beloved Son. Christ will not suffer any\nlaw, ordinance, statute, or judgment, to be partners with him in\nthe salvation of the sinner. Nay, he saith not, and him that cometh\nto my WORD; but, and him that cometh to ME. The words of Christ,\neven his most blessed and free promises, such as this in the text,\nare not the Saviour of the world; for that is Christ himself,\nChrist himself only. The promises, therefore, are but to encourage\nthe coming sinner to come to Jesus Christ, and not to rest in them,\nshort of salvation by him. \"And him that cometh TO ME.\" The man,\ntherefore, that comes aright, casts all things behind his back,\nand looketh at, nor hath his expectations from ought, but the Son\nof God alone; as David said, \"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for\nmy expectation is from him. He only is my rock, and my salvation;\nhe is my defence; I shall not be moved\" (Psa 62:5,6). His eye is\nto Christ, his heart is to Christ, and his expectation is from him,\nfrom him only.\n\nTherefore the man that comes to Christ, is one that hath had deep\nconsiderations of his own sins, slighting thoughts of his own\nrighteousness, and high thoughts of the blood and righteousness\nof Jesus Christ; yea, he sees, as I have said, more virtue in the\nblood of Christ to save him, than there is in all his sins to damn\nhim. He therefore setteth Christ before his eyes; there is nothing\nin heaven or earth, he knows, that can save his soul and secure\nhim from the wrath of God, but Christ; that is, nothing but his\npersonal righteousness and blood.\n\n[Import of the words IN NO WISE.]\n\n\"And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.\" IN NO\nWISE: by these words there is [First,] Something expressed; and\n[Second,] Something implied.\n\nFirst, That which is expressed is Christ Jesus, his unchangeable\nresolution to save the coming sinner; I will in no wise reject him,\nor deny him the benefit of my death and righteousness. This word,\ntherefore, is like that which he speaks of the everlasting damnation\nof the sinner in hell-fire; \"He shall by no means depart thence;\"\nthat is, never, never come out again, no, not to all eternity (Matt\n5:26; 25:46). So that as he that is condemned into hell-fire hath\nno ground of hope for his deliverance thence; so him that cometh\nto Christ, hath no ground to fear he shall ever be cast in thither.\n\n\"Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the\nfoundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast\noff all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith\nthe Lord\" (Jer 31:37). \"Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be not\nwith day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of\nheaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob\" (Jer\n33:25,26). But heaven cannot be measured, nor the foundations of\nthe earth searched out beneath; his covenant is also with day and\nnight, and he hath appointed the ordinances of heaven; therefore\nhe will not cast away the seed of Jacob, who are the coming ones,\nbut will certainly save them from the dreadful wrath to come (Jer\n50:4,5). By this, therefore, it is manifest, that it was not the\ngreatness of sin, nor the long continuance in it, no, nor yet the\nbacksliding, nor the pollution of thy nature, that can put a bar\nin against, or be an hindrance of, the salvation of the coming\nsinner. For, if indeed this could be, then would this solemn and\nabsolute determination of the Lord Jesus, of itself, fall to the\nground, and be made of none effect. But his \"counsel shall stand,\nand he will do all his pleasure;\" that is, his pleasure in this;\nfor his promise, as to this irreversible conclusion, ariseth of\nhis pleasure; he will stand to it, and will fulfil it, because it\nis his pleasure (Isa 46:10,11).\n\nSuppose that one man had the sins, or as many sins as an hundred,\nand another should have an hundred times as many as he; yet, if\nthey come, this word, \"I will in no wise cast out,\" secures them\nboth alike.\n\nSuppose a man hath a desire to be saved, and for that purpose is\ncoming in truth to Jesus Christ; but he, by his debauched life,\nhas damned many in hell; why, the door of hope is by these words\nset as open for him, as it is for him that hath not the thousandth\npart of his transgressions. \"And him that cometh to me I will in\nno wise cast out.\"\n\nSuppose a man is coming to Christ to be saved, and hath nothing but\nsin, and an ill-spent life, to bring with him; why, let him come,\nand welcome to Jesus Christ, \"And he will in no wise cast him out\"\n(Luke 7:42). Is not this love that passeth knowledge? Is not this\nlove the wonderment of angels? And is not this love worthy of all\nacceptation at the hands and hearts of all coming sinners?\n\n[Hindrances in coming to Christ.]\n\nSecond, That which is implied in the words is, 1. The coming souls\nhave those that continually lie at Jesus Christ15 to cast them off.\n2. The coming souls are afraid that those will prevail with Christ\nto cast them off. For these words are spoken to satisfy us, and to\nstay up our spirits against these two dangers: \"I will in no wise\ncast out.\"\n\n1. For the first, Coming souls have those that continually lie at\nJesus Christ to cast them off. And there are three things that thus\nbend themselves against the coming sinner.\n\n(1.) There is the devil, that accuser of the brethren, that accuses\nthem before God, day and night (Rev 12:10). This prince of darkness\nis unwearied in this work; he doth it, as you see, day and night;\nthat is, without ceasing. He continually puts in his caveats against\nthee, if so be he may prevail. How did he ply16 it against that\ngood man Job, if possibly he might have obtained his destruction\nin hell-fire? He objected against him, that he served not God for\nnought, and tempted God to put forth his hand against him, urging,\nthat if he did it, he would curse him to his face; and all this,\nas God witnesseth, \"he did without a cause\" (Job 1:9-11; 2:4,5).\nHow did he ply it with Christ against Joshua the high-priest? \"And\nhe showed me Joshua,\" said the prophet, \"the high-priest, standing\nbefore the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand\nto resist him\" (Zech 3:1).\n\nTo resist him; that is, to prevail with the Lord Jesus Christ\nto resist him; objecting the uncleanness and unlawful marriage of\nhis sons with the Gentiles; for that was the crime that Satan laid\nagainst them (Ezra 10:18). Yea, and for aught I know, Joshua was\nalso guilty of the fact; but if not of that, of crimes no whit\ninferior; for he was clothed with filthy garments, as he stood\nbefore the angel. Neither had he one word to say in vindication of\nhimself, against all that this wicked one had to say against him.\nBut notwithstanding that, he came off well; but he might for it thank\na good Lord Jesus, because he did not resist him, but contrariwise,\ntook up his cause, pleaded against the devil, excusing his infirmity,\nand put justifying robes upon him before his adversary's face.\n\n\"And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even\nthe Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this a\nbrand plucked out of the fire? And he answered and spoke to those\nthat stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from\nhim; and unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity\nto pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment\"\n(Zech 3:2-4).\n\nAgain, how did Satan ply it against Peter, when he desired to have\nhim, that he might sift him as wheat? that is, if possible, sever\nall grace from his heart, and leave him nothing but flesh and filth,\nto the end that he might make the Lord Jesus loathe and abhor him.\n\"Simon, Simon,\" said Christ, \"Satan hath desired to have you, that\nhe may sift you as wheat.\" But did he prevail against him? No: \"But\nI have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.\" As who should\nsay, Simon, Satan hath desired me that I would give thee up to him,\nand not only thee, but all the rest of thy brethren--for that the\nword you imports--but I will not leave thee in his hand: I have\nprayed for thee, thy faith shall not fail; I will secure thee to\nthe heavenly inheritance (Luke 22:30-32).\n\n(2.) As Satan, so every sin of the coming sinner, comes in with a\nvoice against him, if perhaps they may prevail with Christ to cast\noff the soul. When Israel was coming out of Egypt to Canaan, how\nmany times had their sins thrown them out of the mercy of God, had\nnot Moses, as a type of Christ, stood in the breach to turn away\nhis wrath from them! (Psa 106:23). Our iniquities testify against\nus, and would certainly prevail against us, to our utter rejection\nand damnation, had we not an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous (1 John 2:1,2).\n\nThe sins of the old world cried them down to hell; the sins of Sodom\nfetched upon them fire from heaven, which devoured them; the sins\nof the Egyptians cried them down to hell, because they came not\nto Jesus Christ for life. Coming sinner, thy sins are no whit less\nthan any; nay, perhaps, they are as big as all theirs. Why is it\nthen, that thou livest when they are dead, and that thou hast a\npromise of pardon when they had not? \"Why, thou art coming to Jesus\nChrist;\" and therefore sin shall not be thy ruin.\n\n(3.) As Satan and sin, so the law of Moses, as it is a perfect\nholy law, hath a voice against you before the face of God. \"There\nis one that accuseth you, even Moses,\" his law (John 5:45). Yea,\nit accuseth all men of transgression that have sinned against it;\nfor as long as sin is sin, there will be a law to accuse for sin.\nBut this accusation shall not prevail against the coming sinner;\nbecause it is Christ that died, and that ever lives, to make\nintercession for them that \"come to God by him\" (Rom 8; Heb 7:25).\n\nThese things, I say, do accuse us before Christ Jesus; yea, and\nalso to our own faces, if perhaps they might prevail against us.\nBut these words, \"I will in no wise cast out,\" secureth the coming\nsinner from them all.\n\nThe coming sinner is not saved, because there is none that comes\nin against him; but because the Lord Jesus will not hear their\naccusations, will not cast out the coming sinner. When Shimei came\ndown to meet king David, and to ask for pardon for his rebellion,\nup starts Abishai, and puts in his caveat, saying, Shall not Shimei\ndie for this? This is the case of him that comes to Christ. He hath\nthis Abishai, and that Abishai, that presently steps in against\nhim, saying, Shall not this rebel's sins destroy him in hell? Read\nfurther. But David answered, \"What have I to do with you, ye sons\nof Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? Shall\nthere any man be put to death this day in Israel, for do not I know,\nthat I am king this day over Israel?\" (2 Sam 19:16-22). That is\nChrist's answer by the text, to all that accuse the coming Shimeis.\nWhat have I to do with you, that accuse the coming sinners to me?\nI count you adversaries, that are against my showing mercy to them.\nDo not I know that I am exalted this day to be king of righteousness,\nand king of peace? \"I will in no wise cast them out.\"\n\n2. But again, these words do closely imply, that the coming souls\nare afraid that these accusers will prevail against them, as is\nevident, because the text is spoken for their relief and succour.\nFor that need not be, if they that are coming were not subject to\nfear and despond upon this account. Alas, there is guilt, and the\ncurse lies upon the conscience of the coming sinner!\n\nBesides, he is conscious to himself what a villain, what a wretch\nhe hath been against God and Christ. Also he now knows, by woeful\nexperience, how he hath been at Satan's beck, and at the motion\nof every lust. He hath now also new thoughts of the holiness and\njustice of God. Also he feels, that he cannot forbear sinning\nagainst him. For the motions of sins, which are by the law, doth\nstill work in his members, to bring forth fruit unto death (Rom\n7:5). But none of this needs be [a discouragement] since we have\nso good, so tender-hearted, and so faithful a Jesus to come to,\nwho will rather overthrow heaven and earth, than suffer a tittle\nof this text to fail. \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise\ncast out.\"\n\n[Import of the words TO CAST OUT.]\n\nNow, we have yet to inquire into two things that lie in the words,\nto which there hath yet been nothing said. As, FIRST, What it is\nto cast out. SECOND, How it appears that Christ hath power to save\nor cast out?\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO CAST OUT.]\n\nFIRST. For the first of these, What it is to cast out. To this I\nwill speak, First, Generally. Second, More particularly.\n\n[First, Generally.]\n\n1. To cast out, is to slight and despise, and contemn; as it is\nsaid of Saul's shield, \"it was vilely cast away,\" (2 Sam 1:21),\nthat is, slighted and contemned. Thus it is with the sinners that\ncome not to Jesus Christ. He slights, despises, and contemns them;\nthat is, \"casts them away.\"\n\n2. Things cast away are reputed as menstruous cloths, and as the\ndirt of the street (Isa 3:24; Psa 18:42; Matt 5:13; 15:17). And\nthus it shall be with the men that come not to Jesus Christ, they\nshall be counted as menstruous, and as the dirt in the streets.\n\n3. To be cast out, or off, it is to be abhorred, not to be pitied;\nbut to be put to perpetual shame (Psa 44:9; 89:38; Amos 1:11). But,\n\nSecond, More particularly, to come to the text. The casting out\nhere mentioned is not limited to this or the other evil: therefore\nit must be extended to the most extreme and utmost misery. Or thus:\nHe that cometh to Christ shall not want anything that may make him\ngospelly-happy in this world, or that which is to come; nor shall\nhe want anything that cometh not, that may make him spiritually and\neternally miserable. But further, As it is to be generally taken\n[as respecteth the things that are now], so it respecteth things\nthat shall be hereafter.\n\nI. For the things that are now, they are either, 1. More general:\nOr, 2. More particular.\n\n1. More general, thus:\n\n(1.) It is \"to be cast out\" of the presence and favour of God.\nThus was Cain cast out: \"Thou has driven,\" or cast \"me out this\nday; from thy face,\" that is, from thy favour \"shall I be hid.\" A\ndreadful complaint! But the effect of a more dreadful judgment!\n(Gen 4:14; Jer 23:39; 1 Chron 28:9).\n\n(2.) \"To be cast out,\" is to be cast out of God's sight. God will\nlook after them no more, care for them no more; nor will he watch\nover them any more for good (2 Kings 17:20; Jer 7:15). Now they\nthat are so, are left like blind men, to wander and fall into the\npit of hell. This, therefore, is also a sad judgment! therefore\nhere is the mercy of him that cometh to Christ. He shall not be\nleft to wander at uncertainties. The Lord Jesus Christ will keep\nhim, as a shepherd doth his sheep (Psa 23). \"Him that cometh to me\nI will in no wise cast out.\"\n\n(3.) \"To be cast out,\" is to be denied a place in God's house, and\nto be left as fugitives and vagabonds, to pass a little time away\nin this miserable life, and after that to go down to the dead (Gal\n4:30; Gen 4:13,14; 21:10). Therefore here is the benefit of him that\ncometh to Christ, he shall not be denied a place in God's house.\nThey shall not be left like vagabonds in the world. \"Him that\ncometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\" See Proverbs 14:26, Isaiah\n56:3-5, Ephesians 1:1922, 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.\n\n(4.) In a word, \"To be cast out,\" is to be rejected as are the\nfallen angels. For their eternal damnation began at their being\ncast down from heaven to hell. So then, not to be cast out, is to\nhave a place, a house, and habitation there; and to have a share\nin the privileges of elect angels.\n\nThese words, therefore, \"I will not cast out,\" will prove great\nwords one day to them that come to Jesus Christ (2 Peter 2:4; John\n20:31; Luke 20:35).\n\n2. Second, and more particularly,\n\n(1.) Christ hath everlasting life for him that cometh to him, and\nhe shall never perish; \"For he will in no wise cast him out;\" but\nfor the rest, they are rejected, \"cast out,\" and must be damned\n(John 10:27,28).\n\n(2.) Christ hath everlasting righteousness to clothe them with that\ncome to him, and they shall be covered with it as with a garment,\nbut the rest shall be found in the filthy rags of their own stinking\npollutions, and shall be wrapt up in them, as in a winding-sheet,\nand so bear their shame before the Lord, and also before the angels\n(Dan 9:27; Isa 57:20; Rev 3:4-18, 15, 16).\n\n(3.) Christ hath precious blood, that, like an open fountain, stands\nfree for him to wash in, that comes to him for life; \"And he will\nin no wise cast him out;\" but they that come not to him are rejected\nfrom a share therein, and are left to ireful vengeance for their\nsins (Zech 13:1; 1 Peter 1:18,19; John 13:8; 3:16).\n\n(4.) Christ hath precious promises, and they shall have a share in\nthem that come to him for life; for \"he will in no wise cast them\nout.\" But they that come not can have no share in them, because\nthey are true only in him; for in him, and only in him, all the\npromises are yea and amen. Wherefore they that come not to him,\nare no whit the better for them (Psa 50:16; 2 Cor 1:20,21).\n\n(5.) Christ hath also fullness of grace in himself for them that\ncome to him for life: \"And he will in no wise cast them out.\" But\nthose that come not unto him are left in their graceless state;\nand as Christ leaves them, death, hell, and judgment finds them.\n\"Whoso findeth me,\" saith Christ, \"findeth life, and shall obtain\nfavour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his\nown soul: all they that hate me love death\" (Prov 8:35,36).\n\n(6.) Christ is an Intercessor, and ever liveth to make intercession\nfor them that come to God by him: \"But their sorrows shall be\nmultiplied, that hasten after another,\" or other gods, their sins\nand lusts. \"Their drink-offerings will I not offer, nor take up\ntheir names into his lips\" (Psa 16:4; Heb 7:25).\n\n(7.) Christ hath wonderful love, bowels, and compassions, for those\nthat come to him; for \"he will in no wise cast them out.\" But the\nrest will find him a lion rampant; he will one day tear them all\nto pieces. \"Now consider this,\" saith he, \"ye that forget God, lest\nI tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver\" (Psa 50:22).\n\n(8.) Christ is one by and for whose sake those that come to him\nhave their persons and performances accepted of the Father: \"And\nhe will in no wise cast them out;\" but the rest must fly to the\nrocks and mountains for shelter, but all in vain, to hide them from\nhis face and wrath (Rev 6:15-17).\n\nII. But again, These words, CAST OUT, have a special look to what\nwill be hereafter, even at the day of judgment. For then, and not\ntill then, will be the great anathema and casting out made manifest,\neven manifest by execution. Therefore here to speak to this, and\nthat under these two heads. As, First, Of the casting out itself.\nSecond, Of the place into which they shall be cast, that shall then\nbe cast out.\n\nFirst, The casting out itself standeth in two things. 1. In a\npreparatory work. 2. In the manner of executing the act.\n\n1. The preparatory work standeth in these three things.\n\n(1.) It standeth in their separation that have not come to him,\nfrom them that have, at that day. Or thus: At the day of the great\ncasting out, those that have not NOW come to him, shall be separated\nfrom them that have; for them that have \"he will not cast out.\"\n\"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy\nangels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory;\nand before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate\nthem one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the\ngoats\" (Matt 25:31,32). This dreadful separation, therefore, shall\nthen be made betwixt them that NOW come to Christ, and them that\ncome not. And good reason; for since they would not with us come to\nhim now they have time, why should they stand with us when judgment\nis come?\n\n(2.) They shall be placed before him according to their condition:\nthey that have come to him, in great dignity, even at his right\nhand; \"For he will in no wise cast them out\": but the rest shall\nbe set at his left hand, the place of disgrace and shame; for they\ndid not come to him for life. Distinguished also shall they be by\nfit terms: these that come to him he calleth the sheep, but the rest\nare frowish goats, \"and he shall separate them one from another, as\na shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats;\" and the sheep will\nbe set on the right hand--next heaven gate, for they came to him--but\nthe goats on his left, to go from him into hell, because they are\nnot of his sheep.\n\n(3.) Then will Christ proceed to conviction of those that came not\nto him, and will say, \"I was a stranger, and ye took me not in,\"\nor did not come unto me. Their excuse of themselves he will slight\nas dirt, and proceed to their final judgment.\n\n2. Now when these wretched rejecters of Christ shall thus be set\nbefore him in their sins, and convicted, this is the preparatory\nwork upon which follows the manner of executing the act which will\nbe done.\n\n(1.) In the presence of all the holy angels.\n\n(2.) In the presence of all them that in their lifetime came to him,\nby saying unto them, \"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting\nfire, prepared for the devil and his angels\": with the reason annexed\nto it. For you were cruel to me and mine, particularly discovered\nin these words, \"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I\nwas thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took\nme not in; naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and\nye visited me not\" (Matt 25:41-43).\n\nSecond, Now it remains that we speak of the place into which these\nshall be cast, which, in the general, you have heard already,\nto wit, the first prepared for the devil and his angels. But, in\nparticular, it is thus described:--\n\n1. It is called Tophet: \"For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for\nthe king,\" the Lucifer, \"it is prepared; he hath made it deep and\nlarge; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the\nLord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it\" (Isa 30:32).\n\n2. It is called hell. \"It is better for thee to enter halt\" or lame\n\"into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell\" (Mark 9:45).\n\n3. It is called the wine-press of the wrath of God. \"And the angel\nthrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the\nearth,\" that is, them that did not come to Christ, \"and cast it\ninto the great wine-press of the wrath of God\" (Rev 14:19).\n\n4. It is called a lake of fire. \"And whosoever was not found written\nin the book of life was cast into the lake of fire\" (Rev 20:15).\n\n5. It is called a pit. \"Thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend\ninto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will\nsit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the\nnorth. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the\npit\" (Isa 14:13-15).\n\n6. It is called a bottomless pit, out of which the smoke and the\nlocust came, and into which the great dragon was cast; and it is\ncalled bottomless, to show the endlessness of the fall that they\nwill have into it, that come not, in the acceptable time, to Jesus\nChrist (Rev 9:1,2; 20:3). . 7. It is called outer darkness. \"Bind\nhim hand and foot--and cast him into outer darkness,\" \"and cast\nye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness,\" \"there shall be\nweeping and gnashing of teeth\" (Matt 22:13; 25:30).\n\n8. It is called a furnace of fire. \"As therefore the tares are\ngathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this\nworld. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall\ngather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do\niniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall\nbe wailing and gnashing of teeth.\" And again, \"So shall it be at\nthe end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the\nwicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of\nfire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth\" (Matt 13:40-51).\n\n9. Lastly, It may not be amiss, if, in the conclusion of this,\nI show in few words to what the things that torment them in this\nstate are compared. Indeed, some of them have been occasionally\nmentioned already; as that they are compared,\n\n(1.) To wood that burneth.\n\n(2.) To fire.\n\n(3.) To fire and brimstone: But,\n\n(4.) It is compared to a worm, a gnawing worm, a never-dying gnawing\nworm; They are cast into hell, \"where their worm dieth not\" (Mark\n9:44).\n\n(5.) It is called unquenchable fire; \"He will gather his wheat into\nthe garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire\"\n(Matt 3:12; Luke 3:17).\n\n(6.) It is called everlasting destruction; \"The Lord Jesus shall be\nrevealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking\nvengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel\nof our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting\ndestruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of\nhis power\" (2 Thess 1:7-9).\n\n(7.) It is called wrath without mixture, and is given them in the\ncup of his indignation. \"If any man worship the beast, and his\nimage, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the\nsame shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured\nout without mixture, into the cup of his indignation; and he shall\nbe tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy\nangels, and in the presence of the Lamb\" (Rev 14:9,10).\n\n(8.) It is called the second death. \"And death and hell were cast\ninto the lake of fire. This is the second death. Blessed and holy\nis he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second\ndeath hath no power\" (Rev 20:6,14).\n\n(9.) It is called eternal damnation. \"But he that shall blaspheme\nagainst the Holy Ghost, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of\neternal damnation.\" Oh! these three words! Everlasting punishment!\nEternal damnation! And For ever and ever! How will they gnaw and\neat up all the expectation of the end of the misery of the cast-away\nsinners. \"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever\nand ever; and they have no rest day nor night,\" &c., (Rev 14:11).\n\nTheir behaviour in hell is set forth by four things as I know\nof;--(a.) By calling for help and relief in vain; (b.) By weeping;\n(c.) By wailing; (d.) By gnashing of teeth.\n\n[THE POWER OF CHRIST TO SAVE, OR TO CAST OUT.]\n\nSECOND. And now we come to the second thing that is to be inquired\ninto, namely, How it appears that Christ hath power to save, or\nto cast out. For by these words, \"I will in no wise cast out,\" he\ndeclareth that he hath power to do both. Now this inquiry admits\nus to search into the things: First, How it appears that he hath\npower to save; Second, How it appears that he hath power to cast\nout.\n\nFirst, That he hath power to save, appears by that which follows:--\n\n1. To speak only of him as he is mediator: he was authorized to\nthis blessed work by his Father, before the world began. Hence the\napostle saith, \"He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of\nthe world\" (Eph 1:4). With all those things that effectually will\nproduce our salvation. Read the same chapter, with 2 Timothy 1:9.\n\n2. He was promised to our first parents, that he should, in the\nfullness of time, bruise the serpent's head; and, as Paul expounds\nit, redeem them that were under the law. Hence, since that time,\nhe hath been reckoned as slain for our sins. By which means all\nthe fathers under the first testament were secured from the wrath\nto come; hence he is called, \"The Lamb slain from the foundation\nof the world\" (Rev 13:8; Gen 3:15; Gal 4:4,5).\n\n3. Moses gave testimony of him by the types and shadows, and bloody\nsacrifices, that he commanded from the mouth of God to be in use for\nthe support of his people's faith, until the time of reformation;\nwhich was the time of this Jesus his death (Heb 9, 10).\n\n4. At the time of his birth it was testified of him by the angel,\n\"That he should save his people from their sins\" (Matt 1:21).\n\n5. It is testified of him in the days of his flesh, that he had\npower on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-12).\n\n6. It is testified also of him by the apostle Peter, that \"God hath\nexalted him with his own right hand, to be a prince and a Saviour,\nfor to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins\" (Acts\n5:31).\n\n7. In a word, this is everywhere testified of him, both in the Old\nTestament and the New. And good reason that he should be acknowledged\nand trusted in, as a Saviour.\n\n(1.) He came down from heaven to be a Saviour (John 6:38-40).\n\n(2.) He was anointed when on earth to be a Saviour (Luke 3:22).\n\n(3.) He did the works of a Saviour. As, (a.) He fulfilled the law,\nand became the end of it for righteousness, for them that believe\nin him (Rom 10:3,4). (b.) He laid down his life as a Saviour; he\ngave his life as \"a ransom for many\" (Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim\n2:6). (c.) He hath abolished death, destroyed the devil, put away\nsin, got the keys of hell and death, is ascended into heaven; is\nthere accepted of God, and bid sit at the right hand as a Saviour;\nand that because his sacrifice for sins pleased God (2 Tim 1:10;\nHeb 2:14,15; 10:12,13; Eph 4:7,8; John 16:10,11; Acts 5:30,31).\n\n(4.) God hath sent out and proclaimed him as a Saviour, and tells\nthe world that we have redemption through his blood, that he will\njustify us, if we believe in his blood, and that he can faithfully\nand justly do it. Yea, God doth beseech us to be reconciled to\nhim by his Son; which could not be, if he were not anointed by him\nto this very end, and also if his works and undertakings were not\naccepted of him considered as a Saviour (Rom 3:24,25; 2 Cor 5:18-21).\n\n(5.) God hath received already millions of souls into his paradise,\nbecause they have received this Jesus for a Saviour; and is resolved\nto cut them off, and to cast them out of his presence, that will\nnot take him for a Saviour (Heb 12:22-26).\n\nI intend brevity here; therefore a word to the second, and so\nconclude.\n\nSecond, How it appears that he hath power to cast out. This appears\nalso by what follows:--\n\n1. The Father, for the service that he hath done him as Saviour,\nhath made him Lord of all, even Lord of quick and dead. \"For to\nthis end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be\nLord both of the dead and living\" (Rom 14:9).\n\n2. The Father hath left it with him to quicken whom he will, to\nwit, with saving grace, and to cast out whom he will, for their\nrebellion against him (John 5:21).\n\n3. The Father hath made him judge of quick and dead, hath committed\nall judgment unto the Son, and appointed that all should honour\nthe Son, even as they honour the Father (John 5:22,23).\n\n4. God will judge the world by this man: the day is appointed for\njudgment, and he is appointed for judge. \"He hath appointed a day\nin the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man\"\n(Acts 17:31). Therefore we must all appear before the judgment\nseat of Christ, that every one may receive for the things done in\nthe body, according to what they have done. If they have closed with\nhim, heaven and salvation; if they have not, hell and damnation!\nAnd for these reasons he must be judge:--\n\n(1.) Because of his humiliation, because of his Father's word he\nhumbled himself, and he became obedient unto death, even the death\nof the cross. \"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and\ngiven him a name which is above every name: that at the name of\nJesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in\nearth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should\nconfess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.\"\nThis hath respect to his being judge, and his sitting in judgment\nupon angels and men (Phil 2:7-11; Rom 14:10,11).\n\n(2.) That all men might honour the Son, even as they honour the\nFather. \"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all\njudgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son, even as\nthey honour the Father\" (John 5:22,23).\n\n(3.) Because of his righteous judgment, this work is fit for no\ncreature; it is only fit for the Son of God. For he will reward\nevery man according to his ways (Rev 22:12).\n\n(4.) Because he is the Son of man. He \"hath given him authority to\nexecute judgment also, because he is the Son of man\" (John 5:27).\n\n[SECOND, THE TEXT TREATED BY WAY OF OBSERVATION.]\n\nThus have I in brief passed through this text by way of explications.\nMy next work is to speak to it by way of observation. But I shall\nbe also as brief in that as the nature of the thing will admit. \"All\nthat the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to\nme I will in no wise cast out\" (John 6:37).\n\nAnd now I come to some observations, and a little briefly to speak\nto them, and then conclude the whole. The words thus explained\nafford us many, some of which are these. 1. That God the Father,\nand Christ his Son, are two distinct persons in the Godhead. 2. That\nby them, not excluding the Holy Ghost, is contrived and determined\nthe salvation of fallen mankind. 3. That this contrivance resolved\nitself into a covenant between these persons in the Godhead, which\nstandeth in giving on the Father's part, and receiving on the\nSon's. \"All that the Father giveth me,\" &c. 4. That every one that\nthe Father hath given to Christ, according to the mind of God in\nthe text, shall certainly come to him. 5. That coming to Jesus\nChrist is therefore not by the will, wisdom, or power of man; but\nby the gift, promise, and drawing of the Father. \"All that the\nFather giveth me shall come.\" 6. That Jesus Christ will be careful\nto receive, and will not in any wise reject those that come, or are\ncoming to him. \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout.\" There are, besides these, some other truths implied in the\nwords. As, 7. They that are coming to Jesus Christ are ofttimes\nheartily afraid that he will not receive them. 8. Jesus Christ would\nnot have them that in truth are coming to him once think that he\nwill cast them out.\n\nThese observations lie all of them in the words, and are plentifully\nconfirmed by the Scriptures of truth; but I shall not at this time\nspeak to them all, but shall pass by the first, second, third,\nfourth, and sixth, partly because I design brevity, and partly\nbecause they are touched upon in the explicatory part of the text.\nI shall therefore begin with the fifth observation, and so make\nthat the first in order, in the following discourse.\n\n[COMING TO CHRIST NOT BY THE POWER OF MAN, BUT BY THE DRAWING OF\nTHE FATHER.]\n\nOBSERVATION FIRST. First, then, coming to Christ is not by the will,\nwisdom, or power of man, but by the gift, promise, and drawing of\nthe Father. This observation standeth of two parts. First, The coming\nto Christ is not by the will, wisdom, or power of man; Second, But\nby the gift, promise, and drawing of the Father.\n\nThat the text carrieth this truth in its bosom, you will find if\nyou look into the explication of the first part thereof before. I\nshall, therefore, here follow the method propounded, viz: show,\n\nFirst, That coming to Christ is not by the will, wisdom, or power\nof man. This is true, because the Word doth positively say it is\nnot.\n\n1. It denieth it wholly to be by the will of man. \"Not of blood,\nnor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man\" (John 1:13).\nAnd again, \"It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth\"\n(Rom 9:16).\n\n2. It denieth it to be of the wisdom of man, as is manifest from\nthese considerations:\n\n(1.) In the wisdom of God it pleased him, that the world by wisdom\nshould not know him. Now, if by their wisdom they cannot know him,\nit follows, by that wisdom, they cannot come unto him; for coming\nto him is not before, but after some knowledge of him (1 Cor 1:21;\nActs 13:27; Psa 9:10).\n\n(2.) The wisdom of man, in God's account, as to the knowledge of\nChrist, is reckoned foolishness. \"Hath not God made foolish the\nwisdom of this world?\" (1 Cor 1:20). And again, The wisdom of this\nworld is foolishness with God (2:14). If God hath made foolish the\nwisdom of this world; and again, if the wisdom of this world is\nfoolishness with him, then verily it is not likely, that by that\na sinner should become so prudent as to come to Jesus Christ,\nespecially if you consider,\n\n(3.) That the doctrine of a crucified Christ, and so of salvation\nby him, is the very thing that is counted foolishness to the wisdom\nof the world. Now, if the very doctrine of a crucified Christ be\ncounted foolishness by the wisdom of this world, it cannot be that,\nby that wisdom, a man should be drawn out in his soul to come to\nhim (1 Cor 3:19; 1:18,23).\n\n(4.) God counted the wisdom of this world one of his greatest enemies;\ntherefore, by that wisdom no man can come to Jesus Christ. For it\nis not likely that one of God's greatest enemies should draw a man\nto that which best of all pleaseth God, as coming to Christ doth.\nNow, that God counteth the wisdom of this world one of his greatest\nenemies, is evident, (a.) For that it casteth the greatest contempt\nupon his Son's undertakings, as afore is proved, in that it counts\nhis crucifixion foolishness; though that be one of the highest\ndemonstrations of Divine wisdom (Eph 1:7,8). (b.) Because God hath\nthreatened to destroy it, and bring it to nought, and cause it to\nperish; which surely he would not do, was it not an enemy, would\nit direct men to, and cause them to close with Jesus Christ (Isa\n29:14; 1 Cor 1:19). (c.) He hath rejected it from helping in the\nministry of his Word, as a fruitless business, and a thing that\ncomes to nought (1 Cor 2:4,6,12,13). (d.) Because it causeth to\nperish, those that seek it, and pursue it (1 Cor 1:18,19). (e.)\nAnd God has proclaimed, that if any man will be wise in this world,\nhe must be a fool in the wisdom of this world, and that is the way\nto be wise in the wisdom of God. \"If any man seemeth to be wise\nin this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. For the\nwisdom of this world is foolishness with God\" (1 Cor 3:18-20).\n\n3. Coming to Christ is not by the power of man. This is evident\npartly,\n\n(1.) From that which goeth before. For man's power in the putting\nforth of it, in this matter, is either stirred up by love, or sense\nof necessity; but the wisdom of this world neither gives man love\nto, or sense of a need of, Jesus Christ; therefore, his power lieth\nstill, as from that.\n\n(2.) What power has he that is dead, as every natural man spiritually\nis, even dead in trespasses and sins? Dead, even as dead to God's\nNew Testament things as he that is in his grave is dead to the\nthings of this world. What power hath he, then, whereby to come to\nJesus Christ? (John 5:25; Eph 2:1; Col 2:13).\n\n(3.) God forbids the mighty man's glorying in his strength; and\nsays positively, \"By strength shall no man prevail;\" and again,\n\"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord\" (Jer\n9:23,24; 1 Sam 2:9; Zech 4:6; 1 Cor 1:27-31).\n\n(4.) Paul acknowledgeth that man, nay, converted man, of himself,\nhath not a sufficiency of power in himself to think a good thought;\nif not to do that which is least, for to think is less than to\ncome; then no man, by his own power, can come to Jesus Christ (2\nCor 2:5).\n\n(5.) Hence we are said to be made willing to come, by the power of\nGod; to be raised from a state of sin to a state of grace, by the\npower of God; and to believe, that is to come, through the exceeding\nworking of his mighty power (Psa 110:3; Col 2:12; Eph 1:18,20; Job\n23:14). But this needed not, if either man had power or will to\ncome; or so much as graciously to think of being willing to come,\nof themselves, to Jesus Christ.\n\nSecond, I should now come to the proof of the second part of the\nobservation [namely, the coming to Christ is by the gift, promise,\nand drawing of the Father], but that is occasionally done already,\nin the explicatory part of the text, to which I refer the reader;\nfor I shall here only give thee a text or two more to the same\npurpose, and so come to the use and application.\n\n1. It is expressly said, \"No man can come to me, except the Father\nwhich hath sent me draw him\" (John 6:44). By this text, there is\nnot only insinuated that in man is want of power, but also of will,\nto come to Jesus Christ: they must be drawn; they come not if they\nbe not drawn. And observe, it is not man, no, nor all the angels\nin heaven, that can draw one sinner to Jesus Christ. No man cometh\nto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.\n\n2. Again, \"No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him\nof my Father\" (John 6:65). It is an heavenly gift that maketh man\ncome to Jesus Christ.\n\n3. Again, \"It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all\ntaught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath\nlearned of the Father, cometh unto me\" (John 6:45).\n\nI shall not enlarge, but shall make some use and application, and\nso come to the next observation.\n\n[Use and Application of Observation First.]\n\nUse First. Is it so? Is coming to Jesus Christ not by the will,\nwisdom, or power of man, but by the gift, promise, and drawing of\nthe Father? Then they are to blame that cry up the will, wisdom,\nand power of man, as things sufficient to bring men to Christ.\n\nThere are some men who think they may not be contradicted, when\nthey plead for the will, wisdom, and power of man in reference to\nthe things that are of the kingdom of Christ; but I will say to\nsuch a man, he never yet came to understand, that himself is what\nthe Scripture teacheth concerning him; neither did he ever know\nwhat coming to Christ is, by the teaching, gift, and drawing of the\nFather. He is such a one that hath set up God's enemy in opposition\nto him, and that continueth in such acts of defiance; and what his\nend, without a new birth, will be, the Scripture teacheth also;\nbut we will pass this.\n\nUse Second. Is it so? Is coming to Jesus Christ by the gift,\npromise, and drawing of the Father? Then let saints here learn to\nascribe their coming to Christ to the gift, promise, and drawing of\nthe Father. Christian man, bless God, who hath given thee to Jesus\nChrist by promise; and again, bless God for that he hath drawn thee\nto him. And why is it thee? Why not another? O that the glory of\nelecting love should rest upon thy head, and that the glory of the\nexceeding grace of God should take hold of thy heart, and bring\nthee to Jesus Christ!\n\nUse Third. Is it so, that coming to Jesus Christ is by the Father,\nas aforesaid? Then this should teach us to set a high esteem upon\nthem that indeed are coming to Jesus Christ; I say, an high esteem\non them, for the sake of him by virtue of whose grace they are made\nto come to Jesus Christ.\n\nWe see that when men, by the help of human abilities, do arrive\nat the knowledge of, and bring to pass that which, when done, is a\nwonder to the world, how he that did it, is esteemed and commended;\nyea, how are his wits, parts, industry, and unweariedness in all\nadmired, and yet the man, as to this, is but of the world, and his\nwork the effect of natural ability; the things also attained by\nhim end in vanity and vexation of spirit. Further, perhaps in the\npursuit of these his achievements, he sins against God, wastes his\ntime vainly, and at long-run loses his soul by neglecting of better\nthings; yet he is admired! But I say, if this man's parts, labour,\ndiligence, and the like, will bring him to such applause and esteem\nin the world, what esteem should we have of such an one that is by\nthe gift, promise, and power of God, coming to Jesus Christ?\n\n1. This is a man with whom God is, in whom God works and walks; a\nman whose motion is governed and steered by the mighty hand of God,\nand the effectual working of his power. Here is a man!\n\n2. This man, by the power of God's might, which worketh in him,\nis able to cast a whole world behind him, with all the lusts and\npleasures of it, and to charge through all the difficulties that\nmen and devils can set against him. Here is a man.\n\n3. This man is travelling to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem,\nthe city of the living God, and to an innumerable company of angels,\nand the spirits of just men made perfect, to God the Judge of all,\nand to Jesus. Here is a man!\n\n4. This man can look upon death with comfort, can laugh at destruction\nwhen it cometh, and longs to hear the sound of the last trump,\nand to see his Judge coming in the clouds of heaven. Here is a man\nindeed!\n\nLet Christians, then, esteem each other as such. I know you do it;\nbut do it more and more. And that you may, consider these two or\nthree things. (1.) These are the objects of Christ's esteem (Matt\n12:48,49; 15:22-28; Luke 7:9). (2.) These are the objects of the\nesteem of angels (Dan 9:12; 10:21,22; 13:3,4; Heb 2:14). (3.) These\nhave been the objects of the esteem of heathens, when but convinced\nabout them (Dan 5:10,11; Acts 5:15; 1 Cor 14:24,25). \"Let each [of\nyou, then,] esteem [each] other better than themselves\" (Phil 2:2).\n\nUse Fourth. Again, Is it so, that no man comes to Jesus Christ by\nthe will, wisdom, and power of man, but by the gift, promise, and\ndrawing of the Father? Then this shows us how horribly ignorant of\nthis such are, who make the man that is coming to Christ the object\nof their contempt and rage. These are also unreasonable and wicked\nmen; men in whom is no faith (2 Thess 3:2). Sinners, did you but\nknow what a blessed thing it is to come to Jesus Christ, and that\nby the help and drawing of the Father, they do indeed come to him;\nyou would hang and burn in hell a thousand years, before you would\nturn your spirits as you do, against him that God is drawing to\nJesus Christ, and also against the God that draws him.\n\nBut, faithless sinner, let us a little expostulate the matter. What\nhath this man done against thee, that is coming to Jesus Christ?\nWhy dost thou make him the object of thy scorn? doth his coming to\nJesus Christ offend thee? doth his pursuing of his own salvation\noffend thee? doth his forsaking of his sins and pleasures offend\nthee?\n\nPoor coming man! \"Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians\nbefore their eyes, and will they not stone us?\" (Exo 8:26).\n\nBut, I say, why offended at this? Is he ever the worse for coming\nto Jesus Christ, or for his loving and serving of Jesus Christ? Or\nis he ever the more a fool, for flying from that which will drown\nthee in hell-fire, and for seeking eternal life? Besides, pray,\nSirs, consider it; this he doth, not of himself, but by the drawing\nof the Father. Come, let me tell thee in thine ear, thou that wilt\nnot come to him thyself, and him that would, thou hinderest--\n\n1. Thou shalt be judged for one that hath hated, maligned, and\nreproached Jesus Christ, to whom this poor sinner is coming.\n\n2. Thou shalt be judged, too, for one that hath hated the Father,\nby whose powerful drawing this sinner doth come.\n\n3. Thou shalt be taken and judged for one that has done despite to\nthe Spirit of grace in him that is, by its help, coming to Jesus\nChrist. What sayest thou now? Wilt thou stand by thy doings? Wilt\nthou continue to contemn and reproach the living God? Thinkest thou\nthat thou shalt weather it out well enough at the day of judgment?\n\"Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days\nthat I shall deal with thee,\" saith the Lord? (Eze 22:14, John\n15:18-25; Jude 15; 1 Thess 4:8).\n\nUse Fifth. Is it so, that no man comes to Jesus Christ by the will,\nwisdom, and power of man, but by the gift, promise, and drawing of\nthe Father? Then this showeth us how it comes to pass, that weak\nmeans are so powerful as to bring men out of their sins to a hearty\npursuit after Jesus Christ. When God bid Moses speak to the people,\nhe said, \"I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee\"\n(Exo 18:19). When God speaks, when God works, who can let it?\nNone, none; then the work goes on! Elias threw his mantle upon\nthe shoulders of Elisha; and what a wonderful work followed! When\nJesus fell in with the crowing of a cock, what work was there! O\nwhen God is in the means, then shall that means--be it never so\nweak and contemptible in itself--work wonders (1 Kings 19:19; Matt\n26:74,75; Mark 14:71,72; Luke 22:60-62). The world understood not,\nnor believed, that the walls of Jericho should fall at the sound of\nrams' horns; but when God will work, the means must be effectual.\nA word weakly spoken, spoken with difficulty, in temptation, and in\nthe midst of great contempt and scorn, works wonders, if the Lord\nthy God will say so too.\n\nUse Sixth. Is it so? Doth no man come to Jesus Christ by the will,\nwisdom, and power of man, but by the gift, promise, and drawing of\nthe Father? Then here is room for Christians to stand and wonder\nat the effectual working of God's providences, that he hath made\nuse of, as means to bring them to Jesus Christ.\n\nFor although men are drawn to Christ by the power of the Father,\nyet that power putteth forth itself in the use of means: and these\nmeans are divers, sometimes this, sometimes that; for God is at\nliberty to work by which, and when, and how he will; but let the\nmeans be what they will, and as contemptible as may be, yet God\nthat commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and that out\nof weakness can make strong, can, nay, doth oftentimes make use\nof very unlikely means to bring about the conversion and salvation\nof his people. Therefore, you that are come to Christ--and that\nby unlikely means--stay yourselves, and wonder, and, wondering,\nmagnify almighty power, by the work of which the means hath been\nmade effectual to bring you to Jesus Christ.\n\nWhat was the providence that God made use of as a means, either\nmore remote or more near, to bring thee to Jesus Christ? Was it the\nremoving of thy habitation, the change of thy condition, the loss\nof relations, estate, or the like? Was it thy casting of thine eye\nupon some good book, thy hearing of thy neighbours talk of heavenly\nthings, the beholding of God's judgments as executed upon others,\nor thine own deliverance from them, or thy being strangely cast under\nthe ministry of some godly man? O take notice of such providence or\nprovidences! They were sent and managed by mighty power to do thee\ngood. God himself, I say, hath joined himself unto this chariot:\nyea, and so blessed it, that it failed not to accomplish the thing\nfor which he sent it.\n\nGod blesseth not to every one his providences in this manner. How\nmany thousands are there in this world, that pass every day under\nthe same providences! but God is not in them, to do that work by\nthem as he hath done for thy poor soul, by his effectually working\nwith them. O that Jesus Christ should meet thee in this providence,\nthat dispensation, or the other ordinance! This is grace indeed!\nAt this, therefore, it will be thy wisdom to admire, and for this\nto bless God.\n\nGive me leave to give you a taste of some of those providences\nthat have been effectual, through the management of God, to bring\nsalvation to the souls of his people.\n\n(1.) The first shall be that of the woman of Samaria. It must\nhappen, that she must needs go out of the city to draw water, not\nbefore nor after, but just when Jesus Christ her Saviour was come\nfrom far, and set to rest him, being weary, upon the well. What\na blessed providence was this! Even a providence managed by the\nalmighty wisdom, and almighty power, to the conversion and salvation\nof this poor creature. For by this providence was this poor creature\nand her Saviour brought together, that that blessed work might be\nfulfilled upon the woman, according to the purpose before determined\nby the Father (John 4).\n\n(2.) What providence was it that there should be a tree in the way\nfor Zaccheus to climb, thereby to give Jesus opportunity to call\nthat chief of the publicans home to himself, even before he came\ndown therefrom (Luke 19).\n\n(3.) Was it not also wonderful that the thief, which you read of in\nthe gospel, should, by the providence of God, be cast into prison,\nto be condemned even at that session that Christ himself was to\ndie; nay, and that it should happen, too, that they must be hanged\ntogether, that the thief might be in hearing and observing of\nJesus in his last words, that he might be converted by him before\nhis death! (Luke 23).\n\n(4.) What a strange providence was it, and as strangely managed by\nGod, that Onesimus, when he was run away from his master, should\nbe taken, and, as I think, cast into that very prison where Paul\nlay bound for the Word of the gospel; that he might there be by him\nconverted, and then sent home again to his master Philemon! Behold\n\"all things work together for good to them that love God, to them\nwho are the called according to his purpose\" (Rom 8:28).\n\nNay, I have myself known some that have been made to go to hear the\nWord preached against their wills; others have gone not to hear,\nbut to see and to be seen; nay, to jeer and flout others, as also\nto catch and carp at things. Some also to feed their adulterous\neyes with the sight of beautiful objects; and yet God hath made use\neven of these things, and even of the wicked and sinful proposals\nof sinners, to bring them under the grace that might save their\nsouls.\n\nUse Seventh. Doth no man come to Jesus Christ but by the drawing,\n&c., of the Father? Then let me here caution those poor sinners,\nthat are spectators of the change that God hath wrought in them that\nare coming to Jesus Christ, not to attribute this work and change\nto other things and causes.\n\nThere are some poor sinners in the world that plainly see a change,\na mighty change, in their neighbours and relations that are coming\nto Jesus Christ. But, as I said, they being ignorant, and not\nknowing whence it comes and whither it goes, for \"so is every one\nthat is born of the Spirit,\" (John 3:8), therefore they attribute\nthis change to others causes: as melancholy; to sitting alone; to\novermuch reading; to their going to too many sermons; to too much\nstudying and musing on what they hear.\n\nAlso they conclude, on the other side, that it is for want of merry\ncompany; for want of physic; and therefore they advise them to\nleave off reading, going to sermons, the company of sober people;\nand to be merry, to go a gossiping, to busy themselves in the\nthings of this world, not to sit musing alone, &c. But come, poor\nignorant sinner, let me deal with thee. It seems thou art turned\ncounsellor for Satan: I tell thee thou knowest not what thou dost.\nTake heed of spending thy judgment after this manner; thou judgest\nfoolishly, and sayest in this, to every one that passeth by, thou\nart a fool. What! count convictions for sin, mournings for sin,\nand repentance for sin, melancholy? This is like those that on the\nother side said, \"These men are [drunk with] full of new wine,\" &c.\nOr as he that said Paul was mad (Acts 2:13, 26:24). Poor ignorant\nsinner! canst thou judge no better? What! is sitting alone, pensive\nunder God's hand, reading the Scriptures, and hearing of sermons,\n&c., the way to be undone? The Lord open thine eyes, and make thee\nto see thine error! Thou hast set thyself against God, thou hast\ndespised the operation of his hands, thou attemptest to murder\nsouls. What! canst thou give no better counsel touching those whom\nGod hath wounded, than to send them to the ordinances of hell for\nhelp? Thou biddest them be merry and lightsome; but dost thou not\nknow that \"the heart of fools is in the house of mirth?\" (Eccl\n7:4).\n\nThou biddest them shun the hearing of thundering preachers; but\nis it not \"better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man\nto hear the song of fools?\" (Eccl 7:5). Thou biddest them busy\nthemselves in the things of this world; but dost thou not know that\nthe Lord bids, \"Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness?\"\n(Matt 6:33). Poor ignorant sinner! hear the counsel of God to such,\nand learn thyself to be wiser. \"Is any afflicted? let him pray. Is\nany merry? let him sing psalms\" (James 5:13). \"Blessed is the man\nthat heareth me\" (Prov 8:32). And hear for time to come, \"Save\nyourselves from this untoward generation\" (Acts 2:40). \"Search the\nScriptures\" (John 5:39). \"Give attendance to reading\" (1 Tim 4:13).\n\"It is better to go to the house of mourning\" (Eccl 7:2,3).\n\nAnd wilt thou judge him that doth thus? Art thou almost like Elymas\nthe sorcerer, that sought to turn the deputy from the faith? Thou\nseekest to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Take heed lest some\nheavy judgment overtake thee (Acts 13:8-13). What! teach men to\nquench convictions; take men off from a serious consideration of\nthe evil of sin, of the terrors of the world to come, and how they\nshall escape the same? What! teach men to put God and his Word\nout of their minds, by running to merry company, by running to the\nworld, by gossiping? &c. This is as much as to bid them to say to\nGod, \"Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;\"\nor, \"What is the Almighty that we should serve him? or what profit\nhave we if we keep his ways?\" Here is a devil in grain! What! bid\nman walk \"according to the course of this world, according to the\nprince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the\nchildren of disobedience\" (Eph 2:2).\n\n[Two objections answered.]\n\nObject. 1. But we do not know that such are coming to Jesus Christ;\ntruly we wonder at them, and think they are fools.\n\nAnsw. Do you not know that they are coming to Jesus Christ? then\nthey may be coming to him, for aught you know; and why will ye be\nworse than the brute, to speak evil of the things you know not?\nWhat! are ye made to be taken and destroyed? must ye utterly perish\nin your own corruptions? (2 Peter 2:12). Do you not know them? Let\nthem alone then. If you cannot speak good of them, speak not bad.\n\"Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or\nthis work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God,\nye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against\nGod\" (Acts 5:38,39). But why do you wonder at a work of conviction\nand conversion? Know you not that this is the judgment of God\nupon you, \"ye despisers, to behold, and wonder, and perish?\" (Acts\n13:40,41). But why wonder, and think they are fools? Is the way of\nthe just an abomination to you? See that passage, and be ashamed,\n\"He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked\"\n(Prov 29:27). Your wondering at them argues that you are strangers\nto yourselves, to conviction for sin, and to hearty desires to be\nsaved; as also to coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nObject. 2. But how shall we know that such men are coming to Jesus\nChrist?\n\nAnsw. Who can make them see that Christ has made blind? (John 2:8,9).\nNevertheless, because I endeavour thy conviction, conversion, and\nsalvation, consider: Do they cry out of sin, being burthened with\nit, as of an exceeding bitter thing? Do they fly from it, as from\nthe face of a deadly serpent? Do they cry out of the insufficiency\nof their own righteousness, as to justification in the sight of\nGod? Do they cry out after the Lord Jesus, to save them? Do they\nsee more worth and merit in one drop of Christ's blood to save them,\nthan in all the sins of the world to damn them? Are they tender of\nsinning against Jesus Christ? Is his name, person, and undertakings,\nmore precious to them, than is the glory of the world? Is this word\nmore dear unto them? Is faith in Christ (of which they are convinced\nby God's Spirit of the want of, and that without it they can never\nclose with Christ) precious to them? Do they savour Christ in his\nWord, and do they leave all the world for his sake? And are they\nwilling, God helping them, to run hazards for his name, for the\nlove they bear to him? Are his saints precious to them? If these\nthings be so, whether thou seest them or no, these men are coming\nto Jesus Christ (Rom 7:914; Psa 38:3-8; Heb 6:18-20; Isa 64:6; Phil\n3:7,8; Psa 54:1; 109:26; Acts 16:30; Psa 51:7,8; 1 Peter 1:18,19;\nRom 7:24; 2 Cor 5:2; Acts 5:41; James 2:7; Song 5:10-16; Psa 119;\nJohn 13:35; 1 John 4:7; 3:14; John 16:9; Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6; Psa\n19:10,11; Jer 15:16; Heb 11:24-27; Acts 20:22-24; 21:13; Titus\n3:15; 2 John 1; Eph 4:16; Phile 7; 1 Cor 16:24).\n\n[COMERS OFTTIMES AFRAID THAT CHRIST WILL NOT RECEIVE THEM.]\n\nOBSERVATION SECOND.--I come now to the second observation propounded\nto be spoken to, to wit, That they that are coming to Jesus Christ,\nare ofttimes heartily afraid that Jesus Christ will not receive\nthem.\n\nI told you that this observation is implied in the text; and I\ngather it,\n\nFirst, From the largeness and openness of the promise: \"I\nwill in no wise cast out.\" For had there not been a proneness in\nus to \"fear casting out,\" Christ needed not to have, as it were,\nwaylaid our fear, as he doth by this great and strange expression,\n\"In no wise;\" \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout.\" There needed not, as I may say, such a promise to be invented\nby the wisdom of heaven, and worded at such a rate, as it were on\npurpose to dash in pieces at one blow all the objections of coming\nsinners, if they were not prone to admit of such objections, to\nthe discouraging of their own souls. For this word, \"in no wise,\"\ncutteth the throat of all objections; and it was dropped by the\nLord Jesus for that very end; and to help the faith that is mixed\nwith unbelief. And it is, as it were, the sum of all promises;\nneither can any objection be made upon the unworthiness that thou\nfindest in thee, that this promise will not assoil.\n\nBut I am a great sinner, sayest thou. \"I will in no wise cast out,\"\nsays Christ. But I am an old sinner, sayest thou. \"I will in no wise\ncast out,\" says Christ. But I am a hard-hearted sinner, sayest thou.\n\"I will in no wise cast out,\" says Christ. But I am a backsliding\nsinner, sayest thou. \"I will in no wise cast out,\" says Christ. But\nI have served Satan all my days, sayest thou. \"I will in no wise\ncast out,\" says Christ. But I have sinned against light, sayest\nthou. \"I will in no wise cast out,\" says Christ. But I have sinned\nagainst mercy, sayest thou. \"I will in no wise cast out,\" says\nChrist. But I have no good thing to bring with me, sayest thou. \"I\nwill in no wise cast out,\" says Christ.\n\nThus I might go on to the end of things, and show you, that still\nthis promise was provided to answer all objections, and doth answer\nthem. But I say, what need it be, if they that are coming to Jesus\nChrist are not sometimes, yea, oftentimes, heartily afraid, \"that\nJesus Christ will cast them out?\"\n\nSecond, I will give you now two instances that seem to imply the\ntruth of this observation.\n\nIn the ninth of Matthew, at the second verse, you read of a man\nthat was sick of the palsy; and he was coming to Jesus Christ,\nbeing borne upon a bed by his friends: he also was coming himself,\nand that upon another account than any of his friends were aware\nof; even for the pardon of sins, and the salvation of his soul. Now,\nso soon as ever he was come into the presence of Christ, Christ\nbids him \"be of good cheer.\" It seems then, his heart was fainting;\nbut what was the cause of his fainting? Not his bodily infirmity,\nfor the cure of which his friends did bring him to Christ; but the\nguilt and burden of his sins, for the pardon of which himself did\ncome to him; therefore he proceeds, \"Be of good cheer, thy sins be\nforgiven thee.\" I say, Christ saw him sinking in his mind, about\nhow it would go with his most noble part; and therefore, first, he\napplies himself to him upon that account. For though his friends\nhad faith enough as to the cure of the body, yet he himself had\nlittle enough as to the cure of his soul: therefore Christ takes\nhim up as a man falling down, saying, \"Son, be of good cheer, thy\nsins be forgiven thee.\"\n\nThat about the Prodigal seems pertinent also to this matter: \"When\nhe came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's\nhave bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will\narise and go to my father.\" Heartily spoken; but how did he perform\nhis promise? I think not so well as he promised to do; and my ground\nfor my thoughts is, because his father, so soon as he was come to\nhim, fell upon his neck and kissed him; implying, methinks, as if\nthe prodigal by this time was dejected in his mind; and therefore\nhis father gives him the most sudden and familiar token of\nreconciliation. And kisses were of old time often used to remove\ndoubts and fears. Thus Laban and Esau kiss Jacob. Thus Joseph\nkissed his brethren; and thus also David kissed Absalom (Gen 31:55;\n33:1-4; 48:9,10; 2 Sam 14:33). It is true, as I said, at first\nsetting out, he spake heartily, as sometimes sinners also do in\ntheir beginning to come to Jesus Christ; but might not he, yea,\nin all probability he had, between the first step he took, and the\nlast, by which he accomplished that journey, many a thought, both\nthis way and that; as whether his father would receive him or no?\nAs thus: I said, \"I would go to my Father.\" But how, if when I come\nat him he should ask me, Where I have all this while been? What\nmust I say then? Also, if he ask me, What is become of the portion\nof goods that he gave me? What shall I say then? If he asks me, Who\nhave been my companions? What shall I say then? If he also shall\nask me, What hath been my preferment in all the time of my absence\nfrom him? What shall I say then? Yea, and if he ask me, Why I came\nhome no sooner? What shall I say then? Thus, I say, might he reason\nwith himself, and being conscious to himself, that he could give\nbut a bad answer to any of these interrogatories, no marvel if he\nstood in need first of all of a kiss from his father's lips. For\nhad he answered the first in truth, he must say, I have been a\nhaunter of taverns and ale-houses; and as for my portion, I spent\nit in riotous living; my companions were whores and drabs; as for\nmy preferment, the highest was, that I became a hog-herd; and as\nfor my not coming home till now, could I have made shift to have\nstaid abroad any longer, I had not lain at thy feet for mercy now.\n\nI say, these things considered, and considering, again, how prone\npoor man is to give way, when truly awakened, to despondings and\nheart misgivings, no marvel if he did sink in his mind, between the\ntime of his first setting out, and that of his coming to his Father.\n\nThird, But, thirdly, methinks I have for the confirmation of this\ntruth the consent of all the saints that are under heaven, to wit,\nThat they that are coming to Jesus Christ, are ofttimes heartily\nafraid that he will not receive them.\n\nQuest. But what should be the reason? I will answer to this question\nthus:\n\n1. It is not for want of the revealed will of God, that manifesteth\ngrounds for the contrary, for of that there is a sufficiency; yea,\nthe text itself hath laid a sufficient foundation for encouragement,\nfor them that are coming to Jesus Christ. \"And him that cometh to\nme I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\n2. It is not for want of any invitation to come, for that is full\nand plain. \"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,\nand I will give you rest\" (Matt 11:28).\n\n3. Neither is it for want of a manifestation of Christ's willingness\nto receive, as those texts above named, with that which follows,\ndeclareth, \"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink\"\n(John 7:37).\n\n4. It is not for want of exceeding great and precious promises to\nreceive them that come. \"Wherefore come out from among them, and\nbe ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,\nand I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall\nbe my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty\" (2 Cor 6:17,18).\n\n5. It is not for want of solemn oath and engagement to save them\nthat come. \"For--because he could swear by no greater, he sware by\nhimself--that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible\nfor God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled\nfor refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us\" (Heb 6:13-18).\n\n6. Neither is it for want of great examples of God's mercy, that\nhave come to Jesus Christ, of which we read most plentifully in\nthe Word. Therefore, it must be concluded, it is for want of that\nwhich follows.\n\n[What it is that prevents the coming to Christ.]\n\nFirst, It is for want of the knowledge of Christ. Thou knowest but\nlittle of the grace and kindness that is in the heart of Christ;\nthou knowest but little of the virtue and merit of his blood; thou\nknowest but little of the willingness that is in his heart to save\nthee; and this is the reason of the fear that ariseth in thy heart,\nand that causeth thee to doubt that Christ will not receive thee.\nUnbelief is the daughter of Ignorance. Therefore Christ saith, \"O\nfools, and slow of heart to believe\" (Luke 24:25).\n\nSlowness of heart to believe, flows from thy foolishness in the\nthings of Christ; this is evident to all that are acquainted with\nthemselves, and are seeking after Jesus Christ. The more ignorance,\nthe more unbelief. The more knowledge of Christ, the more faith.\n\"They that know thy name will put their trust in thee\" (Psa 9:10).\nHe, therefore, that began to come to Christ but the other day, and\nhath yet but little knowledge of him, he fears that Christ will not\nreceive him. But he that hath been longer acquainted with him, he\n\"is strong, and hath overcome the wicked one\" (1 John 2:13). When\nJoseph's brethren came into Egypt to buy corn, it is said, \"Joseph\nknew his brethren, but his brethren knew not him.\" What follows?\nWhy, great mistrust of heart about their speeding well; especially,\nif Joseph did but answer them roughly, calling them spies, and\nquestioning their truth and the like. And observe it, so long as\ntheir ignorance about their brother remained with them, whatsoever\nJoseph did, still they put the worse sense upon it. For instance,\nJoseph upon a time bids the steward of his house bring them home,\nto dine with him, to dine even in Joseph's house. And how is this\nresented by them? Why, they are afraid. \"And the men were afraid,\nbecause they were brought unto\" their brother \"Joseph's house.\"\nAnd they said, He seeketh occasion against us, and will fall upon\nus, and take us for bondmen, and our asses (Gen 42, 43). What!\nafraid to go to Joseph's house? He was their brother; he intended\nto feast them; to feast them, and to feast with them. Ah! but\nthey were ignorant that he was their brother. And so long as their\nignorance lasted, so long their fear terrified them. Just thus\nit is with the sinner that but of late is coming to Jesus Christ.\nHe is ignorant of the love and pity that is in Christ to coming\nsinners. Therefore he doubts, therefore he fears, therefore his\nheart misgives him.\n\nComing sinner, Christ inviteth thee to dine and sup with him. He\ninviteth thee to a banquet of wine, yea, to come into his wine-cellar,\nand his banner over thee shall be love (Rev 3:20; Song 2:5). But\nI doubt it, says the sinner: but, it is answered, he calls thee,\ninvites thee to his banquet, flagons, apples; to his wine, and to\nthe juice of his pomegranate. \"O, I fear, I doubt, I mistrust, I\ntremble in expectation of the contrary!\" Come out of the man, thou\ndastardly ignorance! Be not afraid, sinner, only believe; \"He that\ncometh to Christ he will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nLet the coming sinner, therefore, seek after more of the good\nknowledge of Jesus Christ. Press after it, seek it as silver, and\ndig for it as for hid treasure. This will embolden thee; this will\nmake thee wax stronger and stronger. \"I know whom I have believed,\"\nI know him, said Paul; and what follows? Why, \"and I am persuaded\nthat he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him,\nagainst that day\" (2 Tim 1:12). What had Paul committed to Jesus\nChrist? The answer is, He had committed to him his soul. But why\ndid he commit his soul to him? Why, because he knew him. He knew\nhim to be faithful, to be kind. He knew he would not fail him, nor\nforsake him; and therefore he laid his soul down at his feet, and\ncommitted it to him, to keep against that day. But,\n\nSecond, Thy fears that Christ will not receive thee may be also a\nconsequent of thy earnest and strong desires after thy salvation by\nhim. For this I observe, that strong desires to have, are attended\nwith strong fears of missing. What man most sets his heart upon,\nand what his desires are most after, he ofttimes most fears he shall\nnot obtain. So the man, the ruler of the synagogue, had a great\ndesire that his daughter should live; and that desire was attended\nwith fear, that she should not. Wherefore, Christ saith unto him,\n\"Be not afraid\" (Mark 5:36).\n\nSuppose a young man should have his heart much set upon a virgin\nto have her to wife, if ever he fears he shall not obtain her, it\nis when he begins to love; now, thinks he, somebody will step in\nbetwixt my love and the object of it; either they will find fault\nwith my person, my estate, my conditions, or something! Now thoughts\nbegin to work; she doth not like me, or something. And thus it is\nwith the soul at first coming to Jesus Christ, thou lovest him,\nand thy love produceth jealousy, and that jealousy ofttimes begets\nfears.\n\nNow thou fearest the sins of thy youth, the sins of thine old age,\nthe sins of thy calling, the sins of thy Christian duties, the sins\nof thine heart, or something; thou thinkest something or other will\nalienate the heart and affections of Jesus Christ from thee; thou\nthinkest he sees something in thee, for the sake of which he will\nrefuse thy soul. But be content, a little more knowledge of him\nwill make thee take better heart; thy earnest desires shall not be\nattended with such burning fears; thou shalt hereafter say, \"This\nis my infirmity\" (Psa 77:10).\n\nThou art sick of love, a very sweet disease, and yet every disease\nhas some weakness attending of it: yet I wish this distemper, if it\nbe lawful to call it so, was more epidemical. Die of this disease\nI would gladly do; it is better than life itself, though it be\nattended with fears. But thou criest, I cannot obtain: well, be\nnot too hasty in making conclusions. If Jesus Christ had not put\nhis finger in at the hole of the lock, thy bowels would not have\nbeen troubled for him (Song 5:4). Mark how the prophet hath it,\n\"They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar like a lion; when\nhe shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west, they\nshall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land\nof Assyria\" (Hosea 11:10,11). When God roars (as ofttimes the coming\nsoul hears him roar), what man that is coming can do otherwise than\ntremble? (Amos 3:8). But trembling he comes: \"He sprang in, and\ncame trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas\" (Acts 16:29).\n\nShould you ask him that we mentioned but now, How long is it since\nyou began to fear you should miss of this damsel you love so? The\nanswer will be, Ever since I began to love her. But did you not\nfear it before? No, nor should I fear it now, but that I vehemently\nlove her. Come, sinner, let us apply it: How long is it since thou\nbegan to fear that Jesus Christ will not receive thee? Thy answer\nis, Ever since I began to desire that he would save my soul. I\nbegan to fear, when I began to come; and the more my heart burns\nin desires after him, the more I feel my heart fear I shall not\nbe saved by him. See now, did not I tell thee that thy fears were\nbut the consequence of strong desires? Well, fear not, coming sinner,\nthousands of coming souls are in thy condition, and yet they will\nget safe into Christ's bosom: \"Say,\" says Christ, \"to them that\nare of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; your God will come\nand save you\" (Isa 35:4; 63:1).\n\nThird, Thy fear that Christ will not receive thee may arise from\na sense of thine own unworthiness. Thou seest what a poor, sorry,\nwretched, worthless creature thou art; and seeing this, thou fearest\nChrist will not receive thee. Alas, sayest thou, I am the vilest\nof all men; a town-sinner, a ringleading sinner! I am not only a\nsinner myself, but have made others twofold worse the children of\nhell also. Besides, now I am under some awakenings and stirrings of\nmind after salvation, even now I find my heart rebellious, carnal,\nhard, treacherous, desperate, prone to unbelief, to despair: it\nforgetteth the Word; it wandereth; it runneth to the ends of the\nearth. There is not, I am persuaded, one in all the world that hath\nsuch a desperate wicked heart as mine is; my soul is careless to\ndo good, but none more earnest to do that which is evil.\n\nCan such a one as I am, live in glory? Can a holy, a just, and a\nrighteous God, once think (with honour to his name) of saving such\na vile creature as I am? I fear it. Will he show wonders to such a\ndead dog as I am? I doubt it. I am cast out to the loathing of my\nperson, yea, I loath myself; I stink in mine own nostrils. How can\nI then be accepted by a holy and sin-abhorring God? (Psa 38:5-7;\nEze 11; 20:42,44). Saved I would be; and who is there that would\nnot, were they in my condition? Indeed, I wonder at the madness\nand folly of others, when I see them leap and skip so carelessly\nabout the mouth of hell! Bold sinner, how darest thou tempt God,\nby laughing at the breach of his holy law? But alas! they are not\nso bad one way, but I am worse another: I wish myself were anybody\nbut myself; and yet here again, I know not what to wish. When I\nsee such as I believe are coming to Jesus Christ, O I bless them!\nBut I am confounded in myself, to see how unlike, as I think, I am\nto every good man in the world. They can read, hear, pray, remember,\nrepent, be humble, do everything better than so vile a wretch as\nI. I, vile wretch, am good for nothing but to burn in hell-fire,\nand when I think of that, I am confounded too!\n\nThus the sense of unworthiness creates and heightens fears in the\nhearts of them that are coming to Jesus Christ; but indeed it should\nnot; for who needs the physician but the sick? or who did Christ\ncome into the world to save, but the chief of sinners? (Mark 2:17;\n1 Tim 1:15). Wherefore, the more thou seest thy sins, the faster\nfly thou to Jesus Christ. And let the sense of thine own unworthiness\nprevail with thee yet to go faster. As it is with the man that\ncarrieth his broken arm in a sling to the bone-setter, still as he\nthinks of his broken arm, and as he feels the pain and anguish, he\nhastens his pace to the man. And if Satan meets thee, and asketh,\nWhither goest thou? tell him thou art maimed, and art going to the\nLord Jesus. If he objects thine own unworthiness, tell him, That\neven as the sick seeketh the physician; as he that hath broken bones\nseeks him that can set them; so thou art going to Jesus Christ for\ncure and healing for thy sin sick soul. But it ofttimes happeneth\nto him that flies for his life, he despairs of escaping, and\ntherefore delivers himself up into the hand of the pursuer. But\nup, up, sinner; be of good cheer, Christ came to save the unworthy\nones: be not faithless, but believe. Come away, man, the Lord Jesus\ncalls thee, saying, \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise\ncast out.\"\n\nFourth. Thy fear that Christ will not receive thee, may arise from\na sense of the exceeding mercy of being saved; sometimes salvation\nis in the eyes of him that desires so great, so huge, so wonderful\na thing, that the very thoughts of the excellency of it, engenders\nunbelief about obtaining it, in the heart of those that unfeignedly\ndesire it. \"Seemeth it to you,\" saith David, \"a light thing to be\na king's son-in-law?\" (1 Sam 18:23). So the thoughts of the greatness\nand glory of the thing propounded, as heaven, eternal life, eternal\nglory, to be with God, and Christ, and angels; these are great\nthings, things too good, saith the soul that is little in his own\neyes; things too rich, saith the soul that is truly poor in spirit,\nfor me.\n\nBesides, the Holy Ghost hath a way to greaten heavenly things to\nthe understanding of the coming sinner; yea, and at the same time\nto greaten, too, the sin and unworthiness of that sinner. Now the\nsoul staggeringly wonders, saying, What! to be made like angels,\nlike Christ, to live in eternal bliss, joy, and felicity! This is\nfor angels, and for them that can walk like angels! If a prince,\na duke, an earl, should send (by the hand of his servant) for some\npoor, sorry, beggarly scrub, to take her for his master to wife,\nand the servant should come and say, My lord and master, such an\none hath sent me to thee, to take thee to him to wife; he is rich,\nbeautiful, and of excellent qualities; he is loving, meek, humble,\nwell-spoken, &c. What now would this poor, sorry, beggarly creature\nthink? What would she say? or how would she frame an answer? When\nking David sent to Abigail upon this account, and though she was a\nrich woman, yet she said, \"Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant\nto wash the feet of the servants of my lord\" (1 Sam 25:40,41). She\nwas confounded, she could not well tell what to say, the offer was\nso great, beyond what could in reason be expected.\n\nBut suppose this great person should second his suit, and send to\nthis sorry creature again, what would she say now? Would she not\nsay, You mock me? But what if he affirms that he is in good earnest,\nand that his lord must have her to wife; yea, suppose he should\nprevail upon her to credit his message, and to address herself for\nher journey; yet, behold every thought of her pedigree confounds\nher; also her sense of want of beauty makes her ashamed; and if she\ndoth but think of being embraced, the unbelief that is mixed with\nthat thought whirls her into tremblings; and now she calls herself\nfool, for believing the messenger, and thinks not to go; if she\nthinks of being bold, she blushes; and the least thought that she\nshall be rejected, when she comes at him, makes her look as if she\nwould give up the ghost.\n\nAnd is it a wonder, then, to see a soul that is drowned in the sense\nof glory and a sense of its own nothingness, to be confounded in\nitself, and to fear that the glory apprehended is too great, too\ngood, and too rich, for such an one? That thing, heaven and eternal\nglory, is so great, and I that would have it, so small, so sorry\na creature, that the thoughts of obtaining it confounds me.\n\nThus, I say, doth the greatness of the things desired, quite dash\nand overthrow the mind of the desirer. O, it is too big! it is too\nbig! it is too great a mercy! But, coming sinner, let me reason\nwith thee. Thou sayest, it is too big, too great. Well, will things\nthat are less satisfy thy soul? Will a less thing than heaven, than\nglory and eternal life, answer thy desires? No, nothing less; and\nyet I fear they are too big, and too good for me, ever to obtain.\nWell, as big and as good as they are, God giveth them to such as\nthou; they are not too big for God to give; no, not too big to give\nfreely. Be content; let God give like himself; he is that eternal\nGod, and giveth like himself. When kings give, they do not use to\ngive as poor men do. Hence it is said, that Nabal made a feast in\nhis house like the feast of a king; and again, \"All these things\ndid Araunah, as a king, give unto David\" (1 Sam 25:36; 2 Sam 24:23).\nNow, God is a great king, let him give like a king; nay, let him\ngive like himself, and do thou receive like thyself. He hath all,\nand thou hast nothing. God told his people of old, that he would\nsave them in truth and in righteousness, and that they should return\nto, and enjoy the land, which before, for their sins, had spewed\nthem out; and then adds, under a supposition of their counting the\nmercy too good, or too big, \"If it be marvellous in the eyes of the\nremnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous\nin mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts\" (Zech 8:6).\n\nAs who should say, they are now in captivity, and little in their\nown eyes; therefore they think the mercy of returning to Canaan is\na mercy too marvellously big for them to enjoy; but if it be so in\ntheir eyes, it is not so in mine; I will do for them like God, if\nthey will but receive my bounty like sinners. Coming sinner, God\ncan give his heavenly Canaan, and the glory of it, unto thee; yea,\nnone ever had them but as a gift, a free gift. He hath given us his\nSon, \"How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\"\n(Rom 8:32).\n\nIt was not the worthiness of Abraham, or Moses, or David or Peter,\nor Paul, but the mercy of God, that made them inheritors of heaven.\nIf God thinks thee worthy, judge not thyself unworthy; but take\nit, and be thankful. And it is a good sign he intends to give thee,\nif he hath drawn out thy heart to ask. \"Lord, thou hast heard the\ndesire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt\ncause thine ear to hear\" (Psa 10:17).\n\nWhen God is said to incline his ear, it implies an intention to\nbestow the mercy desired. Take it therefore; thy wisdom will be\nto receive, not sticking at thy own unworthiness. It is said, \"He\nraiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from\nthe dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit\nthe throne of glory.\" Again, \"He raiseth up the poor out of the\ndust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set\nhim with princes, even with the princes of his people\" (1 Sam 2:8;\nPsa 113:7,8). You see also when God made a wedding for his Son, he\ncalled not the great, nor the rich, nor the mighty; but the poor,\nthe maimed, the halt, and the blind (Matt 12; Luke 14).\n\nFifth. Thy fears that Christ will not receive thee may arise from\nthe hideous roaring of the devil, who pursues thee. He that hears\nhim roar, must be a mighty Christian, if he can at that time deliver\nhimself from fear. He is called a roaring lion; and then to allude\nto that in Isaiah, \"If one look\" into them, they have \"darkness\nand sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof\" (1\nPeter 5:8; Isa 5:3).\n\n[Two of the devil's objections.]--There are two things among many\nthat Satan useth to roar out after them that are coming to Jesus\nChrist. 1. That they are not elected. Or, 2. That they have sinned\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost. To both these I answer briefly--\n\n1. [Election.]--Touching election, out of which thou fearest thou\nart excluded. Why, coming sinner, even the text itself affordeth\nthee help against this doubt, and that by a double argument.\n\n(1.) That coming to Christ is by virtue of the gift, promise, and\ndrawing of the Father; but thou art a-coming; therefore God hath\ngiven thee, promised thee, and is drawing thee to Jesus Christ.\nComing sinner, hold to this; and when Satan beginneth to roar\nagain, answer, But I feel my heart moving after Jesus Christ; but\nthat would not be, if it were not given by promise, and drawing to\nChrist by the power of the Father.\n\n(2.) Jesus Christ hath promised, \"That him that cometh to him he\nwill in no wise cast out.\" And if he hath said it, will he not make\nit good, I mean even thy salvation? For, as I have said already, not\nto cast out, is to receive and admit to the benefit of salvation.\nIf then the Father hath given thee, as is manifest by thy coming;\nand if Christ will receive thee, thou coming soul, as it is plain\nhe will, because he hath said, \"He will in no wise cast out;\" then\nbe confident, and let those conclusions, that as naturally flow\nfrom the text as light from the sun, or water from the fountain,\nstay thee.\n\nIf Satan therefore objecteth, But thou art not elected; answer,\nBut I am coming, Satan, I am coming; and that I could not be, but\nthat the Father draws me; and I am coming to such a Lord Jesus,\nas will in no wise cast me out. Further, Satan, were I not elect,\nthe Father would not draw me, nor would the Son so graciously\nopen his bosom to me. I am persuaded, that not one of the nonelect\nshall ever be able to say, no, not in the day of judgment, I did\nsincerely come to Jesus Christ. Come they may, feignedly, as Judas\nand Simon Magus did; but that is not our question. Therefore, O\nthou honest-hearted coming sinner, be not afraid, but come.\n\n2. [Of the sin against the Holy Ghost.]--As to the second part of\nthe objection, about sinning the sin against the Holy Ghost, the\nsame argument overthrows that also. But I will argue thus:\n\n(1.) Coming to Christ is by virtue of a special gift of the Father;\nbut the Father giveth no such gift to them that have sinned that\nsin; therefore thou that art coming hast not committed that sin.\nThat the Father giveth no such gift to them that have sinned that\nsin is evident--(a.) Because such have sinned themselves out of\nGod's favour; \"They shall never have forgiveness\" (Matt 12:32).\nBut it is a special favour of God to give unto a man, to come to\nJesus Christ; because thereby he obtaineth forgiveness. Therefore he\nthat cometh hath not sinned that sin. (b.) They that have sinned\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost, have sinned themselves out of\nan interest in the sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; \"There\nremaineth [for such] no more sacrifice for sins\" (Heb 10:26). But\nGod giveth not grace to any of them to come to Christ, that have\nno share in the sacrifice of his body and blood. Therefore, thou\nthat art coming to him, hast not sinned that sin.\n\n(2.) Coming to Christ is by the special drawing of the Father; \"No\nman can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him\"\n(John 6:44). But the Father draweth not him to Christ, for whom\nhe hath not allotted forgiveness by his blood; therefore they that\nare coming to Jesus Christ have not committed that sin, because he\nhath allotted them forgiveness by his blood. That the Father cannot\ndraw them to Jesus Christ, for whom he hath not allotted forgiveness\nof sins, is manifest to sense: for that would be a plain mockery,\na flam, 17 neither becoming his wisdom, justice, holiness, nor\ngoodness.\n\n(3.) Coming to Jesus Christ lays a man under the promise of forgiveness\nand salvation. But it is impossible that he that hath sinned that\nsin should ever be put under a promise of these. Therefore, he that\nhath sinned that sin can never have heart to come to Jesus Christ.\n\n(4.) Coming to Jesus Christ lays a man under his intercession.\n\"For he ever liveth to make intercession for them that come\" (Heb\n7:25). Therefore, he that is coming to Jesus Christ cannot have\nsinned that sin. Christ has forbidden his people to pray for them\nthat have sinned that sin; and, therefore, will not pray for them\nhimself, but he prays for them that come.\n\n(5.) He that hath sinned that sin, Christ is to him of no more worth\nthan is a man that is dead; \"For he hath crucified to himself the\nSon of God;\" yea, and hath also counted his precious blood as the\nblood of an unholy thing. (Heb 6, 10) Now, he that hath this low\nesteem of Christ will never come to him for life; but the coming\nman has an high esteem of his person, blood, and merits. Therefore,\nhe that is coming has not committed that sin.\n\n(6.) If he that has sinned this sin might yet come to Jesus Christ,\nthen must the truth of God be overthrown; which saith in one place,\n\"He hath never forgiveness;\" and in another, \"I will in no wise\ncast him out.\" Therefore, that he may never have forgiveness, he\nshall never have heart to come to Jesus Christ. It is impossible\nthat such an one should be renewed, either to or by repentance (Heb\n6). Wherefore, never trouble thy head nor heart about this matter;\nhe that cometh to Jesus Christ cannot have sinned against the Holy\nGhost.\n\nSixth, Thy fears that Christ will not receive thee may arise from\nthine own folly, in inventing, yea, in thy chalking out to God, a\nway to bring thee home to Jesus Christ. Some souls that are coming\nto Jesus Christ are great tormentors of themselves upon this account;\nthey conclude, that if their coming to Jesus Christ is right, they\nmust needs be brought home thus and thus.\n\nAs to instance: 1. Says one, If God be bringing of me to Jesus\nChrist, then will he load me with the guilt of sin till he makes\nme roar again. 2. If God be indeed a-bringing me home to Jesus\nChrist, then must I be assaulted with dreadful temptations of the\ndevil. 3. If God be indeed a-bringing me to Jesus Christ, then,\neven when I come at him, I shall have wonderful revelations of him.\n\nThis is the way that some sinners appoint for God; but, perhaps,\nhe will not walk therein; yet will he bring them to Jesus Christ.\nBut now, because they come not the way of their own chalking out,\ntherefore they are at a loss. They look for heavy load and burden;\nbut, perhaps, God gives them a sight of their lost condition, and\naddeth not that heavy weight and burden. They look for fearful\ntemptations of Satan; but God sees that yet they are not fit for\nthem, nor is the time come that he should be honoured by them in\nsuch a condition. They look for great and glorious revelations of\nChrist, grace, and mercy; but, perhaps, God only takes the yoke\nfrom off their jaws, and lays meat before them. And now again they\nare at a loss, yet a-coming to Jesus Christ; \"I drew them,\" saith\nGod, \"with cords of a man, with bands of love--I took the yoke from\noff their jaws, and laid meat unto them\" (Hosea 11:4).\n\nNow, I say, If God brings thee to Christ, and not by the way that\nthou hast appointed, then thou art at a loss; and for thy being\nat a loss, thou mayest thank thyself. God hath more ways than thou\nknowest of to bring a sinner to Jesus Christ; but he will not give\nthee beforehand an account by which of them he will bring thee to\nChrist (Isa 40:13; Job 33:13). Sometimes he hath his ways in the\nwhirlwind; but sometimes the Lord is not there (Nahum 1:3; 1 Kings\n19:11). If God will deal more gently with thee than with others\nof his children, grudge not at it; refuse not the waters that go\nsoftly, lest he bring upon thee the waters of the rivers, strong\nand many, even these two smoking firebrand, the devil and guilt of\nsin (Isa 8:6,7). He saith to Peter, \"Follow me.\" And what thunder\ndid Zaccheus hear or see? Zaccheus, \"Come down,\" said Christ; \"and\nhe came down,\" says Luke, \"and received him joyfully.\"\n\nBut had Peter or Zaccheus made the objection that thou hast made,\nand directed the Spirit of the Lord as thou hast done, they might\nhave looked long enough before they had found themselves coming\nto Jesus Christ. Besides, I will tell thee, that the greatness of\nsense of sin, the hideous roaring of the devil, yea, and abundance\nof revelations, will not prove that God is bringing thy soul to\nJesus Christ; as Balaam, Cain, Judas, and others, can witness.\n\nFurther, consider that what thou hast not of these things here, thou\nmayest have another time, and that to thy distraction. Wherefore,\ninstead of being discontent, because thou art not in the fire, because\nthou hearest not the sound of the trumpet and alarm of war, \"Pray\nthat thou enter not into temptation;\" yea, come boldly to the\nthrone of grace, and obtain mercy, and find grace to help in that\ntime of need (Psa 88:15; Matt 26:41; Heb 4:16).\n\nPoor creature! thou criest, if I were tempted, I could come faster\nand with more confidence to Christ. Thou sayest thou knowest not\nwhat. What says Job? \"Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not\nthy dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will answer: or\nlet me speak, and answer thou me\" (Job 13:21,22). It is not the\noverheavy load of sin, but the discovery of mercy; not the roaring\nof the devil, but the drawing of the Father, that makes a man come\nto Jesus Christ; I myself know all these things.\n\nTrue, sometimes, yea, most an end, 18 they that come to Jesus\nChrist come the way that thou desirest; the loading, tempted way;\nbut the Lord also leads some by the waters of comfort. If I was to\nchoose when to go a long journey, to wit, whether I would go it in\nthe dead of winter or in the pleasant spring, though, if it was a\nvery profitable journey, as that of coming to Christ is, I would\nchoose to go it through fire and water before I would choose lose\nthe benefit. But, I say, if I might choose the time, I would choose\nto go it in the pleasant spring, because the way would be more\ndelightsome, the days longer and warmer, the nights shorter and not\nso cold. And it is observable, that that very argument that thou\nusest to weaken thy strength in the way, that very argument Christ\nJesus useth to encourage his beloved to come to him: \"Rise up,\"\nsaith he, \"my love, my fair one, and come away.\" Why? \"For lo, the\nwinter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on\nthe earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice\nof the turtle is heard in our land; the fig-tree putteth forth her\ngreen figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.\nArise, my love, my fair one, and come away\" (Song 2:10-13).\n\nTrouble not thyself, coming sinner. If thou seest thy lost condition\nby original and actual sin; if thou seest thy need of the spotless\nrighteousness of Jesus Christ; if thou art willing to be found in\nhim, and to take up thy cross and follow him; then pray for a fair\nwind and good weather, and come away. Stick no longer in a muse and\ndoubt about things, but come away to Jesus Christ. Do it, I say,\nlest thou tempt God to lay the sorrows of a travailing woman upon\nthee. Thy folly in this thing may make him do it. Mind what follows:\n\"The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him.\" Why? \"He\nis an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the\nbreaking forth of children\" (Hosea 13:13).\n\nSeventh, Thy fears that Christ will not receive thee may arise\nfrom those decays that thou findest in thy soul, even while thou\nart coming to him. Some, even as they are coming to Jesus Christ,\ndo find themselves grow worse and worse; and this is indeed a sore\ntrial to the poor coming sinner.\n\n[Fears that we do not run fast enough.]\n\nTo explain myself. There is such an one a coming to Jesus Christ\nwho, when at first he began to look out after him, was sensible,\naffectionate, and broken in spirit; but now is grown dark,\nsenseless, hard-hearted, and inclining to neglect spiritual duties,\n&c. Besides, he now finds in himself inclinations to unbelief,\natheism, blasphemy, and the like; now he finds he cannot tremble\nat God's Word, his judgment, nor at the apprehension of hell fire;\nneither can he, as he thinketh, be sorry for these things. Now,\nthis is a sad dispensation. The man under the sixth head complaineth\nfor want of temptations, but thou hast enough of them; art thou\nglad of them, tempted, coming sinner? They that never were exercised\nwith them may think it a fine thing to be within the range, but he\nthat is there is ready to sweat blood for sorrow of heart, and to\nhowl for vexation of spirit! This man is in the wilderness among\nwild beasts. Here he sees a bear, there a lion, yonder a leopard,\na wolf, a dragon; devils of all sorts, doubts of all sorts, fears\nof all sorts, haunt and molest his soul. Here he sees smoke, yea,\nfeels fire and brimstone, scattered upon his secret places. He\nhears the sound of an horrible tempest. O! my friends, even the Lord\nJesus, that knew all things, even he saw no pleasure in temptations,\nnor did he desire to be with them; wherefore, one text saith, \"he\nwas led,\" and another, \"he was driven,\" of the Spirit into the\nwilderness, to be tempted of the devil (Matt 4:1; Mark 1:12).\n\nBut to return. Thus it happeneth sometimes to them that are coming\nto Jesus Christ. A sad hap indeed! One would think that he that is\nflying from wrath to come has little need of such clogs as these.\nAnd yet so it is, and woeful experience proves it. The church of\nold complained that her enemies overtook her between the straits;\njust between hope and fear, heaven and hell (Lam 1).\n\nThis man feeleth the infirmity of his flesh, he findeth a proneness\nin himself to be desperate. Now, he chides with God, flings\nand tumbles like a wild bull in a net, and still the guilt of all\nreturns upon himself, to the crushing of him to pieces. Yet he feeleth\nhis heart so hard, that he can find, as he thinks, no kind falling\nunder any of his miscarriages. Now, he is a lump of confusion in\nhis own eyes, whose spirit and actions are without order.\n\nTemptations serve the Christian as the shepherd's dog serveth the\nsilly sheep; that is, coming behind the flock, he runs upon it,\npulls it down, worries it, wounds it, and grievously bedabbleth\nit with dirt and wet, in the lowest places of the furrows of the\nfield, and not leaving it until it is half dead, nor then neither,\nexcept God rebuke.\n\nHere is now room for fears of being cast away. Now I see I am\nlost, says the sinner. This is not coming to Jesus Christ, says\nthe sinner; such a desperate, hard, and wretched heart as mine is,\ncannot be a gracious one, saith the sinner. And bid such an one be\nbetter, he says, I cannot; no, I cannot.\n\n[Why temptations assail God's people.]\n\nQuest. But what will you say to a soul in this condition?\n\nAnsw. I will say, That temptations have attended the best of\nGod's people. I will say, That temptations come to do us good; and\nI will say also, That there is a difference betwixt growing worse\nand worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art.\n\nThere is a man of an ill-favoured countenance, who hath too high\na conceit of his beauty; and, wanting the benefit of a glass, he\nstill stands in his own conceit; at last a limner is sent unto him,\nwho draweth his ill-favoured face to the life; now looking thereon,\nhe begins to be convinced that he is not half so handsome as he\nthought he was. Coming sinner, thy temptations are these painters;\nthey have drawn out thy ill-favoured heart to the life, and have\nset it before thine eyes, and now thou seest how ill-favoured\nthou art. Hezekiah was a good man, yet when he lay sick, for aught\nI know, he had somewhat too good an opinion of his heart; and for\naught I know also, the Lord might, upon his recovery, leave him to\na temptation, that he might better know all that was in his heart.\nCompare Isaiah 38:1-3, with 2 Chronicles 32:31.\n\nAlas! we are sinful out of measure, but see it not to be the full,\nuntil an hour of temptation comes. But when it comes, it doth as\nthe painter doth, draweth out our heart to the life: yet the sight\nof what we are should not keep us from coming to Jesus Christ.\nThere are two ways by which God lets a man into a sight of the\nnaughtiness of his heart; one is, by the light of the Word and\nSpirit of God; and the other is, by the temptations of the devil.\nBut, by the first, we see our naughtiness one way; and, by the\nsecond, another. By the light of the Word and Spirit of God, thou\nhast a sight of thy naughtiness; and by the light of the sun, thou\nhast a sight of the spots and defilements that are in thy house or\nraiment. Which light gives thee to see a necessity of cleansing,\nbut maketh not the blemishes to spread more abominably. But when\nSatan comes, when he tempts, he puts life and rage into our sins,\nand turns them, as it were, into so many devils within us. Now,\nlike prisoners, they attempt to break through the prison of our\nbody; they will attempt to get out at our eyes, mouth, ears, any\nways, to the scandal of the gospel, and reproach of religion, to\nthe darkening of our evidences, and damning of our souls.\n\nBut I shall say, as I said before, this hath ofttimes been the lot\nof God's people. And, \"There hath no temptation overtaken you but\nsuch as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer\nyou to be tempted above that ye are able\" (1 Cor 10:13). See the\nBook of Job, the Book of Psalms, and that of the Lamentations. And\nremember further, that Christ himself was tempted to blaspheme,\nto worship the devil, and to murder himself, (Matt 4; Luke 4);\ntemptations worse than which thou canst hardly be overtaken with.\nBut he was sinless, that is true. And he is thy Saviour, and that\nis as true! Yea, it is as true also, that by his being tempted, he\nbecame the conqueror of the tempter, and a succourer of those that\nare tempted (Col 2:14,15; Heb 2:15; 4:15,16).\n\nQuest. But what should be the reason that some that are coming to\nChrist should be so lamentably cast down and buffeted with temptations?\n\nAnsw. It may be for several causes.\n\n1. Some that are coming to Christ cannot be persuaded, until the\ntemptation comes, that they are so vile as the Scripture saith they\nare. True, they see so much of their wretchedness as to drive them\nto Christ. But there is an over and above of wickedness which\nthey see not. Peter little thought that he had had cursing, and\nswearing, and lying, and an inclination in his heart to deny his\nMaster, before the temptation came; but when that indeed came upon\nhim, then he found it there to his sorrow (John 13:36-38; Mark\n14:36-40; 68-72).\n\n2. Some that are coming to Jesus Christ are too much affected\nwith their own graces, and too little taken with Christ's person;\nwherefore God, to take them off from doting upon their own jewels,\nand that they might look more to the person, undertaking, and merits\nof his Son, plunges them into the ditch by temptations. And this I\ntake to be the meaning of Job, \"If I wash myself,\" said he, \"with\nsnow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge\nme in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me\" (Job 9:30).\nJob had been a little too much tampering with his own graces, and\nsetting his excellencies a little too high; as these texts make\nmanifest: Job 33:8-13, 34:5-10, 35:2,3, 38:1,2, 40:105, 42:3-6.\nBut by that the temptations were ended, you find him better taught.\n\nYea, God doth ofttimes, even for this thing, as it were, take our\ngraces from us, and so leave us almost quite to ourselves and to\nthe tempter, that we may learn not to love the picture more than\nthe person of his Son. See how he dealt with them in the 16th of\nEzekiel, and the second of Hosea.\n\n3. Perhaps thou hast been given too much to judge thy brother, to\ncondemn thy brother, because a poor tempted man. And God, to bring\ndown the pride of thy heart, letteth the tempter loose upon thee,\nthat thou also mayst feel thyself weak. For \"pride goeth before\ndestruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall\" (Prov 16:18).\n\n4. It may be thou hast dealt a little too roughly with those that\nGod hath this way wounded, not considering thyself, lest thou also\nbe tempted. And therefore God hath suffered it to come unto thee\n(Gal 6:1).\n\n5. It may be thou wast given to slumber and sleep, and therefore\nthese temptations were sent to awake thee. You know that Peter's\ntemptation came upon him after his sleeping; then, instead of\nwatching and praying, then he denied, and denied, and denied his\nMaster (Matt 26).\n\n6. It may be thou hast presumed too far, and stood too much\nin thine own strength, and therefore is a time of temptation come\nupon thee. This was also one cause why it came upon Peter--Though\nall men forsake thee, yet will not I. Ah! that is the way to be\ntempted indeed (John 13:36-38).\n\n7. It may be God intends to make thee wise, to speak a word in\nseason to others that are afflicted; and therefore he suffereth\nthee to be tempted. Christ was tempted that he might be able to\nsuccour them that are tempted (Heb 2:18).\n\n8. It may be Satan hath dared God to suffer him to tempt thee;\npromising himself, that if he will but let him do it, thou wilt\ncurse him to his face. Thus he obtained leave against Job; wherefore\ntake heed, tempted soul, lest thou provest the devil's sayings true\n(Job 1:11).\n\n9. It may be thy graces must be tried in the fire, that that rust\nthat cleaveth to them may be taken away, and themselves proved,\nboth before angels and devils, to be far better than of gold that\nperisheth; it may be also, that thy graces are to receive special\npraises, and honour, and glory, at the coming of the Lord Jesus to\njudgment, for all the exploits that thou hast acted by them against\nhell, and its infernal crew, in the day of thy temptation (1 Peter\n1:6,7).\n\n10. It may be God would have others learn by thy sighs, groans,\nand complaints, under temptation, to beware of those sins for the\nsake of which thou art at present delivered to the tormentors.\n\nBut to conclude this, put the worst to the worst--and then things\nwill be bad enough--suppose that thou art to this day without the\ngrace of God, yet thou art but a miserable creature, a sinner, that\nhath need of a blessed Saviour; and the text presents thee with one\nas good and kind as heart can wish; who also for thy encouragement\nsaith, \"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\n[Application of Observation Second.]\n\nTo come, therefore, to a word of application. Is it so, that they\nthat are coming to Jesus Christ are ofttimes heartily afraid that\nJesus Christ will not receive them? Then this teacheth us these\nthings--\n\n1. That faith and doubting may at the same time have their residence\nin the same soul. \"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou\ndoubt?\" (Matt 14:31). He saith not, O thou of no faith! but, O thou\nof little faith! because he had a little faith in the midst of his\nmany doubts. The same is true even of many that are coming to\nJesus Christ. They come, and fear they come not, and doubt they come\nnot. When they look upon the promise, or a word of encouragement\nby faith, then they come; but when they look upon themselves, or\nthe difficulties that lie before them, then they doubt. \"Bid me\ncome,\" said Peter; \"Come,\" said Christ. So he went down out of the\nship to go to Jesus, but his hap was to go to him upon the water;\nthere was the trial. So it is with the poor desiring soul. Bid me\ncome, says the sinner; Come, says Christ, and I will in no wise\ncast thee out. So he comes, but his hap is to come upon the water,\nupon drowning difficulties; if, therefore, the wind of temptations\nblow, the waves of doubts and fears will presently arise, and this\ncoming sinner will begin to sink, if he has but little faith. But\nyou shall find here in Peter's little faith, a twofold act; to wit,\ncoming and crying. Little faith cannot come all the way without\ncrying. So long as its holy boldness lasts, so long it can come\nwith peace; but when it is so, it can come no further, it will go\nthe rest of the way with crying. Peter went as far as his little\nfaith would carry him: he also cried as far as his little faith would\nhelp, \"Lord, save me, I perish!\" And so with coming and crying he\nwas kept from sinking, though he had but a little faith. \"Jesus\nstretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou\nof little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?\"\n\n2. Is it so, that they that are coming to Jesus Christ are ofttimes\nheartily afraid that Jesus Christ will not receive them? Then\nthis shows us a reason of that dejection, and those castings down,\nthat very often we perceive to be in them that are coming to Jesus\nChrist. Why, it is because they are afraid that Jesus Christ will\nnot receive them. The poor world they mock us, because we are a\ndejected people; I mean, because we are sometimes so: but they do\nnot know the cause of our dejection. Could we be persuaded, even\nthen, when we are dejected, that Jesus Christ would indeed receive\nus, it would make us fly over their heads, and would put more\ngladness into our hearts than in the time in which their corn,\nwine, and oil increases (Psa 4:6,7). But,\n\n3. It is so, That they that are coming to Jesus Christ are ofttimes\nheartily afraid that he will not receive them. Then this shows that\nthey that are coming to Jesus Christ are an awakened, sensible,\nconsidering people. For fear cometh from sense, and consideration\nof things. They are sensible of sin, sensible of the curse due\nthereto; they are also sensible of the glorious majesty of God,\nand of what a blessed, blessed thing it is to be received of Jesus\nChrist. The glory of heaven, and the evil of sin, these things\nthey consider, and are sensible of. \"When I remember, I am afraid.\"\n\"When I consider, I am afraid\" (Job 21:6; 23:15).\n\nThese things dash their spirits, being awake and sensible. Were\nthey dead, like other men, they would not be afflicted with fear\nas they are. For dead men fear not, feel not, care not, but the\nliving and sensible man, he it is that is ofttimes heartily afraid\nthat Jesus Christ will not receive him. I say, the dead and senseless\nare not distressed. They presume; they are groundlessly confident.\nWho so bold as blind Bayard? These indeed should fear and be\nafraid, because they are not coming to Jesus Christ. O! the hell,\nthe fire, the pit, the wrath of God, and torment of hell, that\nare prepared for poor neglecting sinners! \"How shall we escape if\nwe neglect so great salvation?\" (Heb 3:3). But they want sense of\nthings, and so cannot fear.\n\n4. Is it so, that they that are coming to Jesus Christ are ofttimes\nheartily afraid that he will not receive them? Then this should\nteach old Christians to pity and pray for young comers. You know\nthe heart of a stranger; for you yourselves were strangers in the\nland of Egypt. You know the fears, and doubts, and terrors, that take\nhold of them; for that they sometimes took hold of you. Wherefore\npity them, pray for them, encourage them; they need all this: guilt\nhath overtaken them, fears of the wrath of God hath overtaken them.\nPerhaps they are within the sight of hell-fire; and the fear of\ngoing thither is burning hot within their hearts. You may know,\nhow strangely Satan is suggesting his devilish doubts unto them, if\npossible he may sink and drown them with the multitude and weight\nof them. Old Christians, mend up the path for them, take the\nstumblingblocks out of the way; lest that which is feeble and weak\nbe turned aside, but let it rather be healed (Heb 12).\n\n[CHRIST WOULD HAVE COMERS NOT ONCE THINK THAT HE WILL CAST THEM\nOUT.]\n\nOBSERVATION THIRD.--I come now to the next observation, and shall\nspeak a little to that; to wit, That Jesus Christ would not have\nthem, that in truth are coming to him, once think that he will cast\nthem out.\n\nThe text is full of this: for he saith, \"And him that cometh to\nme I will in no wise cast out.\" Now, if he saith, I will not, he\nwould not have us think he will. This is yet further manifest by\nthese considerations.\n\nFirst, Christ Jesus did forbid even them that as yet were not\ncoming to him, once to think him such an one. \"Do not think,\" said\nhe, \"that I will accuse you to the Father\" (John 5:45).\n\nThese, as I said, were such, that as yet were not coming to him.\nFor he saith of them a little before, \"And ye will not come to me;\"\nfor the respect they had to the honour of men kept them back. Yet,\nI say, Jesus Christ gives them to understand, that though he might\njustly reject them, yet he would not, but bids them not once to\nthink that he would accuse them to the Father. Now, not to accuse,\nwith Christ, is to plead for: for Christ in these things stands\nnot neuter between the Father and sinners. So then, if Jesus Christ\nwould not have them think, that yet will not come to him, that he\nwill accuse them; then he would not that they should think so, that\nin truth are coming to him. \"And him that cometh to me I will in\nno wise cast out.\"\n\nSecond, When the woman taken in adultery, even in the very act,\nwas brought before Jesus Christ, he so carried it both by words and\nactions, that he evidently enough made it manifest, that condemning\nand casting out were such things, for the doing of which he came\nnot into the world. Wherefore, when they had set her before him,\nand had laid to her charge her heinous fact, he stooped down, and\nwith his finger wrote upon the ground, as though he heard them not.\nNow what did he do by this his carriage, but testify plainly that\nhe was not for receiving accusations against poor sinners, whoever\naccused by? And observe, though they continue asking, thinking at\nlast to force him to condemn her; yet then he so answered, so that\nhe drove all condemning persons from her. And then he adds, for\nher encouragement to come to him; \"Neither do I condemn thee; go,\nand sin no more\" (John 8:1-11).\n\nNot but that he indeed abhorred the fact, but he would not condemn\nthe woman for the sin, because that was not his office. He was\nnot sent \"into the world to condemn the world; but that the world\nthrough him might be saved\" (John 3:17). Now if Christ, though\nurged to it, would not condemn the guilty woman, though she was far\nat present from coming to him, he would not that they should once\nthink that he will cast them out, that in truth are coming to him.\n\"And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nThird, Christ plainly bids the turning sinner come; and forbids him\nto entertain any such thought as that he will cast him out. \"Let\nthe wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;\nand let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him;\nand to our God, for he will abundantly pardon\" (Isa 4:7). The Lord,\nby bidding the unrighteous forsake his thoughts, doth in special\nforbid, as I have said, viz., those thoughts that hinder the coming\nman in his progress to Jesus Christ, his unbelieving thoughts.\n\nTherefore he bids him not only forsake his ways, but his thoughts.\n\"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his\nthoughts.\" It is not enough to forsake one if thou wilt come to\nJesus Christ; because the other will keep thee from him. Suppose\na man forsakes his wicked ways, his debauched and filthy life;\nyet if these thoughts, that Jesus Christ will not receive him, be\nentertained and nourished in his heart; these thoughts will keep\nhim from coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nSinner, coming sinner, art thou for coming to Jesus Christ? Yes,\nsays the sinner. Forsake thy wicked ways then. So I do, says the\nsinner.\n\nWhy comest thou then so slowly? Because I am hindered. What hinders?\nHas God forbidden thee? No. Art thou not willing to come faster?\nYes, yet I cannot. Well, prithee be plain with me, and tell me\nthe reason and ground of thy discouragement. Why, says the sinner,\nthough God forbids me not, and though I am willing to come faster,\nyet there naturally ariseth this, and that, and the other thought\nin my heart, that hinders my speed to Jesus Christ. Sometimes I\nthink I am not chosen; sometimes I think I am not called; sometimes\nI think I am come too late; and sometimes I think I know not what\nit is to come. Also one while I think I have no grace; and then\nagain, that I cannot pray; and then again, I think that I am a very\nhypocrite. And these things keep me from coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nLook ye now, did not I tell you so? There are thoughts yet remaining\nin the heart, even of those who have forsaken their wicked ways;\nand with those thoughts they are more plagued than with anything\nelse; because they hinder their coming to Jesus Christ; for the sin\nof unbelief, which is the original of all these thoughts, is that\nwhich besets a coming sinner more easily, than doth his ways (Heb\n12:1-4). But now, since Jesus Christ commands thee to forsake these\nthoughts, forsake them, coming sinner; and if thou forsake them\nnot, thou transgressest the commands of Christ, and abidest thine\nown tormentor, and keepest thyself from establishment in grace.\n\"If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established\" (Isa\n7:9). Thus you see how Jesus Christ setteth himself against such\nthoughts, that any way discourage the coming sinner; and thereby\ntruly vindicates the doctrine we have in hand; to wit, that Jesus\nChrist would not have them, that in truth are coming to him, once\nthink that he will cast them out. \"And him that cometh to me I will\nin no wise cast out.\"\n\n[Reasons of Observation Third.]\n\nI come now to the reasons of the observation.\n\n1. If Jesus Christ should allow thee once to think that he will\ncast thee out, he must allow thee to think that he will falsify his\nword; for he hath said, \"I will in no wise cast out.\" But Christ\nwould not that thou shouldst count him as one that will falsify\nhis word; for he saith of himself, \"I am the truth;\" therefore he\nwould not that any that in truth are coming to him, should once\nthink that he will cast them out.\n\n2. If Jesus Christ should allow the sinner that in truth is coming\nto him, once to think that he will cast him out, then he must allow,\nand so countenance the first appearance of unbelief; the which he\ncounteth his greatest enemy, and against which he hast bent even\nhis holy gospel. Therefore Jesus Christ would not that they that\nin truth are coming to him, should once think that he will cast\nthem out. See Matthew 14:31, 21:21, Mark 11:23, Luke 24:25.\n\n3. If Jesus Christ should allow the coming sinner once to think\nthat he will cast him out; then he must allow him to make a question,\n\nWhether he is willing to receive his Father's gift; for the\ncoming sinner is his Father's gift; as also says the text; but he\ntestifieth, \"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and\nhim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.\" Therefore Jesus\nChrist would not have him, that in truth is coming to him, once to\nthink that he will cast him out.\n\n4. If Jesus Christ should allow them once to think, that indeed\nare coming to him, that he will cast them out, he must allow them\nto think that he will despise and reject the drawing of his Father.\nFor no man can come to him but whom the Father draweth. But it\nwould be high blasphemy, and damnable wickedness once to imagine\nthus. Therefore, Jesus Christ would not have him that cometh once\nthink that he will cast him out.\n\n5. If Jesus Christ should allow those that indeed are coming to\nhim, once to think that he will cast them out, he must allow them\nto think that he will be unfaithful to the trust and charge that\nhis Father hath committed to him; which is to save, and not to lose\nanything of that which he hath given unto him to save (John 6:39).\nBut the Father hath given him a charge to save the coming sinner;\ntherefore it cannot be, that he should allow, that such an one\nshould once think that he will cast him out.\n\n6. If Jesus Christ should allow that they should once think that are\ncoming to him, that he will cast them out, then he must allow them\nto think that he will be unfaithful to his office of priesthood; for,\nas by the first part of it, he paid price for, and ransomed souls,\nso by the second part thereof, he continually maketh intercession\nto God for them that come (Heb 7:25). But he cannot allow us to\nquestion his faithful execution of his priesthood. Therefore he\ncannot allow us once to think that the coming sinner shall be cast\nout.\n\n7. If Jesus Christ should allow us once to think that the coming\nsinner shall be cast out, then he must allow us to question his\nwill, or power, or merit to save. But he cannot allow us once to\nquestion any of these; therefore not once to think, that the coming\nsinner shall be cast out. (1.) He cannot allow them to question\nhis will; for he saith in the text, \"I WILL in no wise cast out.\"\n(2.) He cannot allow us to question his power; for the Holy Ghost\nsaith HE IS ABLE to save to the uttermost them that come. (3.) He\ncannot allow them to question the efficacy of his merit; for the\nblood of Christ cleanseth the comer from all sin, (1 John 1:7),\ntherefore he cannot allow that he that is coming to him should once\nthink that he will cast them out.\n\n8. If Jesus Christ should allow the coming sinner once to think\nthat he will cast him out, he must allow him to give the lie to\nthe manifest testimony of the Father, Son, and Spirit; yea, to the\nwhole gospel contained in Moses, the prophets, the book of Psalms,\nand that commonly called the New Testament. But he cannot allow of\nthis; therefore, not that the coming sinner should once think that\nhe will cast him out.\n\n9. Lastly, If Jesus Christ should allow him that is coming to him,\nonce to think that he will cast him out, he must allow him to\nquestion his Father's oath, which he in truth and righteousness\nhath taken, that they might have a strong consolation, who have fled\nfor refuge to Jesus Christ. But he cannot allow this; therefore he\ncannot allow that the coming sinner should once think that he will\ncast him out (Heb 6).\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\nI come now to make some GENERAL USE AND APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE,\nand so to draw towards a conclusion.\n\nUSE FIRST.--The first use--A USE OF INFORMATION; and,\n\nFirst, It informeth us that men by nature are far off from Christ.\nLet me a little improve this use, by speaking to these three\nquestions. 1. Where is he that is coming [but has not come], to\nJesus Christ? 2. What is he that is not coming to Jesus Christ? 3.\nWhither is he to go that cometh not to Jesus Christ?\n\n1. Where is he?\n\n[Answ.] (1.) He is far from God, he is without him, even alienate\nfrom him both in his understanding, will, affections, judgment,\nand conscience (Eph 2:12; 4:18). (2.) He is far from Jesus Christ,\nwho is the only deliverer of men from hell fire (Psa 73:27). (3.)\nHe is far from the work of the Holy Ghost, the work of regeneration,\nand a second creation, without which no man shall see the kingdom\nof heaven (John 3:3). (4.) He is far more righteous, 19 from that\nrighteousness that should make him acceptable in God's sight (Isa\n46:12,13). (5.) He is under the power and dominion of sin; sin\nreigneth in and over him; it dwelleth in every faculty of his soul,\nand member of his body; so that from head to foot there is no place\nclean (Isa 1:6; Rom 3:9-18). (6.) He is in the pest-house with\nUzziah and excluded the camp of Israel with the lepers (2 Chron\n26:21; Num 5:2; Job 36:14). (7.) His \"life is among the unclean.\"\nHe is \"in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity\"\n(Acts 8:28). (8.) He is \"in sin,\" \"in the flesh,\" \"in death,\" \"in\nthe snare of the devil,\" and is \"taken captive by him at his will\"\n(1 Cor 15:17; Rom 8:8; 1 John 3:14; 2 Tim 2:26). (9.) He is under\nthe curse of the law, and the devil dwells in him, and hath the\nmastery of him (Gal 3:13; Eph 2:2,3; Acts 26:18). (10.) He is in\ndarkness, and walketh in darkness, and knows not whither he goes;\nfor darkness has blinded his eyes. (11.) He is in the broad way\nthat leadeth to destruction; and holding on, he will assuredly go\nin at the broad gate, and so down the stairs to hell.\n\n2. What is he that cometh not to Jesus Christ?\n\n[Answ.] (1.) He is counted one of God's enemies (Luke 19:14; Rom\n8:7). (2.) He is a child of the devil, and of hell; for the devil\nbegat him, as to his sinful nature, and hell must swallow him\nat last, because he cometh not to Jesus Christ (John 8:44; 1 John\n3:8; Matt 23:15; Psa 9:17). (3.) He is a child of wrath, an heir of\nit; it is his portion, and God will repay it him to his face (Eph\n2:1-3; Job 21:29-31). (4.) He is a self-murderer; he wrongeth his\nown soul, and is one that loveth death (Prov 1:18; 8:36). (5.) He\nis a companion for devils and damned men (Prov 21:16; Matt 25:41).\n\n3. Whither is he like to go that cometh not to Jesus Christ?\n\n[Answ.] (1.) He that cometh not to him, is like to go further from\nhim; so every sin is a step further from Jesus Christ (Hosea 11).\n(2.) As he is in darkness, so he is like to go on in it; for Christ\nis the light of the world, and he that comes not to him, walketh in\ndarkness (John 8:12). (3.) He is like to be removed at last as far\nfrom God, and Christ, and heaven, and all felicity, as an infinite\nGod can remove him (Matt 12:41). But,\n\nSecond, This doctrine of coming to Christ informeth us where poor\ndestitute sinners may find life for their souls, and that is in\nChrist. This life is in his Son; he that hath the Son, hath life.\nAnd again, \"Whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour\nof the Lord\" (Prov 8:35). Now, for further enlargement, I will also\nhere propound three more questions: 1. What life is in Christ? 2.\nWho may have it? 3. Upon what terms?\n\n1. What life is in Jesus Christ?\n\n[Answ.] (1.) There is justifying life in Christ. Man by sin is\ndead in law; and Christ only can deliver him by his righteousness\nand blood from this death into a state of life. \"For God sent his\nSon into the world, that we might live through him\" (1 John 4:9).\nThat is, through the righteousness which he should accomplish, and\nthe death that he should die. (2.) There is eternal life in Christ;\nlife that is endless; life for ever and ever. \"He hath given\nus eternal life, and this life is in his Son\" (1 John 5:11). Now,\njustification and eternal salvation being both in Christ, and\nnowhere else to be had for men, who would not come to Jesus Christ?\n\n2. Who may have this life?\n\nI answer, Poor, helpless, miserable sinners. Particularly, (1.)\nSuch as are willing to have it. \"Whosoever will, let him take the\nwater of life\" (Rev 22:17). (2.) He that thirsteth for it. \"I will\ngive unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life\"\n(Rev 21:6). (3.) He that is weary of his sins. \"This is the rest\nwherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing\"\n(Isa 28:12). (4.) He that is poor and needy. \"He shall spare the\npoor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy\" (Psa 72:13).\n(5.) He that followeth after him, crieth for life. \"He that followeth\nme shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life\"\n(John 8:12).\n\n3. Upon what terms may he have this life?\n\n[Answ.] Freely. Sinner, dost thou hear. Thou mayest have it\nfreely. Let him take the water of life freely. I will give him of\nthe fountain of the water of life freely. \"And when they had nothing\nto pay, he frankly forgave them both\" (Luke 7:42). Freely, without\nmoney, or without price. \"Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to\nthe waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea,\ncome, buy wine and milk without money and without price\" (Isa 55:1).\nSinner, art thou thirsty? art thou weary? art thou willing? Come,\nthen, and regard not your stuff; for all the good that is in Christ\nis offered to the coming sinner, without money and without price.\nHe has life to give away to such as want it, and that hath not a\npenny to purchase it; and he will give it freely. Oh what a blessed\ncondition is the coming sinner in! But,\n\nThird, This doctrine of coming to Jesus Christ for life, informeth\nus, that it is to be had nowhere else. Might it be had anywhere\nelse, the text, and him that spoke it, would be but little set by;\nfor what greater matter is there in \"I will in no wise cast out,\"\nif another stood by that could receive them? But here appears the\nglory of Christ, that none but he can save. And here appears his\nlove, that though none can save but he, yet he is not coy in saving.\n\"But him that comes to me,\" says he, \"I will in no wise cast out.\"\n\nThat none can save but Jesus Christ, is evident from Acts 4:12:\n\"Neither is there salvation in any other;\" and \"he hath given to us\neternal life, and this life is in his Son\" (1 John 5:11). If life\ncould have been had anywhere else, it should have been in the law.\nBut it is not in the law; for by the deeds of the law, no man living\nshall be justified; and if not justified, then no life. Therefore\nlife is nowhere to be had but in Jesus Christ (Gal 3).\n\n[Quest.] But why would God so order it, that life should be had\nnowhere else but in Jesus Christ?\n\n[Answ.] There is reason for it, and that both with respect to God\nand us.\n\n1. With respect to God.\n\n(1.) That it might be in a way of justice as well as mercy. And\nin a way of justice it could not have been, if it had not been by\nChrist; because he, and he only, was able to answer the demand of\nthe law, and give for sin what the justice thereof required. All\nangels had been crushed down to hell for ever, had that curse been\nlaid upon them for our sins, which was laid upon Jesus Christ; but\nit was laid upon him, and he bare it; and answered the penalty, and\nredeemed his people from under it, with that satisfaction to Divine\njustice that God himself doth now proclaim, That he is faithful\nand just to forgive us, if by faith we shall venture to Jesus, and\ntrust to what he has done for life (Rom 3:24-26; John 1:4). (2.)\nLife must be by Jesus Christ, that God might be adored and magnified,\nfor finding out this way. This is the Lord's doings, that in all\nthings he might be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. (3.)\nIt must be by Jesus Christ, that life might be at God's dispose,\nwho hath great pity for the poor, the lowly, the meek, the broken\nin heart, and for them that others care not for (Psa 34:6; 138:6;\n25; 51:17; 147:3). (4.) Life must be in Christ, to cut off boasting\nfrom the lips of men. This also is the apostle's reason in Romans\n3:19,27 (Eph 2:8-10).\n\n2. Life must be in Jesus Christ with respect to us.\n\n(1.) That we might have it upon the easiest terms, to wit, freely:\nas a gift, not as wages. Was it in Moses' hand, we should come\nhardly at it. Was it in the pope's hand, we should pay soundly\nfor it. 20 But thanks be to God, it is in Christ, laid up in him,\nand by him to be communicated to sinners upon easy terms, even\nfor receiving, accepting, and embracing with thanksgiving; as the\nScriptures plainly declare (John 1:11,12; 2 Cor 11:4; Heb 11:13;\nCol 3:13-15). (2.) Life is in Christ FOR US, that it might not be\nupon so brittle a foundation, as indeed it would had it been anywhere\nelse. The law itself is weak because of us, as to this. But Christ\nis a tried stone, a sure foundation, one that will not fail to bear\nthy burden, and to receive thy soul, coming sinner. (3.) Life is\nin Christ, that it might be sure to all the seed. Alas! the best\nof us, was life left in our hand, to be sure we should forfeit it,\nover, and over, and over; or, was it in any other hand, we should,\nby our often backslidings, so offend him, that at last he would\nshut up his bowels in everlasting displeasure against us. But now\nit is in Christ, it is with one that can pity, pray for, pardon,\nyea, multiply pardons; it is with one that can have compassion\nupon us, when we are out of the way; with one that hath an heart to\nfetch us again, when we are gone astray; with one that can pardon\nwithout upbraiding. Blessed be God, that life is in Christ! For\nnow it is sure to all the seed. But,\n\nFourth, This doctrine of coming to Jesus Christ for life informs\nus of the evil of unbelief; that wicked thing that is the only or\nchief hindrance to the coming sinner. Doth the text say, \"Come?\"\nDoth it say, \"and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast\nout?\" Then what an evil is that that keepeth sinners from coming\nto Jesus Christ! And that evil is unbelief: for by faith we come;\nby unbelief we keep away. Therefore it is said to be that by which\na soul is said to depart from God; because it was that which at\nfirst caused the world to go off from him, and that also that keeps\nthem from him to this day. And it doth it the more easily, because\nit doth it with a wile.\n\n[Of the Sin of Unbelief.]--This sin may be called the white devil,\nfor it oftentimes, in its mischievous doings in the soul, shows as\nif it was an angel of light: yea, it acteth like a counsellor of\nheaven. Therefore a little to discourse of this evil disease.\n\n1. It is that sin, above all others, that hath some show of reason\nin its attempts. For it keeps the soul from Christ by pretending\nits present unfitness and unpreparedness; as want of more sense\nof sin, want of more repentance, want of more humility, want of a\nmore broken heart.\n\n2. It is the sin that most suiteth with the conscience: the conscience\nof the coming sinner tells him that he hath nothing good; that\nhe stands inditeable for ten thousand talents; that he is a very\nignorant, blind, and hard-hearted sinner, unworthy to be once taken\nnotice of by Jesus Christ. And will you, says Unbelief, in such a\ncase as you now are, presume to come to Jesus Christ?\n\n3. It is the sin that most suiteth with our sense of feeling. The\ncoming sinner feels the workings of sin, of all manner of sin and\nwretchedness in his flesh; he also feels the wrath and judgment\nof God due to sin, and ofttimes staggers under it. Now, says\nUnbelief, you may see you have no grace; for that which works in\nyou is corruption. You may also perceive that God doth not love\nyou, because the sense of his wrath abides upon you. Therefore,\nhow can you bear the face to come to Jesus Christ?\n\n4. It is that sin, above all others, that most suiteth with the\nwisdom of our flesh. The wisdom of our flesh thinks it prudent to\nquestion awhile, to stand back awhile, to hearken to both sides\nawhile; and not to be rash, sudden, or unadvised, in too bold\na presuming upon Jesus Christ. And this wisdom unbelief falls in\nwith.\n\n5. It is that sin, above all other, that continually is whispering\nthe soul in the ear with mistrusts of the faithfulness of God,\nin keeping promise to them that come to Jesus Christ for life. It\nalso suggests mistrust about Christ's willingness to receive it,\nand save it. And no sin can do this so artificially as unbelief.\n\n6. It is also that sin which is always at hand to enter an objection\nagainst this or that promise that by the Spirit of God is brought\nto our heart to comfort us; and if the poor coming sinner is not\naware of it, it will, by some evasion, slight, trick, or cavil,\nquickly wrest from him the promise again, and he shall have but\nlittle benefit of it.\n\n7. It is that, above all other sins, that weakness our prayers,\nour faith, our love, our diligence, our hope, and expectations: it\neven taketh the heart away from God in duty.\n\n8. Lastly, This sin, as I have said even now, it appeareth in the\nsoul with so many sweet pretences to safety and security, that it\nis, as it were, counsel sent from heaven; bidding the soul be wise,\nwary, considerate, well-advised, and to take heed of too rash a\nventure upon believing. Be sure, first, that God loves you; take\nhold of no promise until you are forced by God unto it; neither be\nyou sure of your salvation; doubt it still, though the testimony\nof the Lord has been often confirmed in you. Live not by faith,\nbut by sense; and when you can neither see nor feel, then fear and\nmistrust, then doubt and question all. This is the devilish counsel\nof unbelief, which is so covered over with specious pretences, that\nthe wisest Christian can hardly shake off these reasonings.\n\n[Qualities of unbelief as opposed to faith.]--But to be brief. Let\nme here give thee, Christian reader, a more particular description\nof the qualities of unbelief, by opposing faith unto it, in these\ntwenty-five particulars:--\n\n1. Faith believeth the Word of God; but unbelief questioneth the\ncertainty of the same (Psa 106:24).\n\n2. Faith believeth the Word, because it is true; but unbelief\ndoubteth thereof, because it is true (1 Tim 4:3; John 8:45).\n\n3. Faith sees more in a promise of God to help, than in all other\nthings to hinder; but unbelief, notwithstanding God's promise, saith,\nHow can these things be? (Rom 4:19-21; 2 Kings 7:2; John 3:11,12).\n\n4. Faith will make thee see love in the heart of Christ, when with\nhis mouth he giveth reproofs; but unbelief will imagine wrath in\nhis heart, when with his mouth and Word he saith he loves us (Matt\n15:22,28; Num 13; 2 Chron 14:3).\n\n5. Faith will help the soul to wait, though God defers to give; but\nunbelief will take huff and throw up all, if God makes any tarrying\n(Psa 25:5; Isa 8:17; 2 Kings 6:33; Psa 106:13,14).\n\n6. Faith will give comfort in the midst of fears; but unbelief\ncauseth fears in the midst of comfort (2 Chron 20:20,21; Matt 8:26;\nLuke 24:26,27).\n\n7. Faith will suck sweetness out of God's rod; but unbelief can\nfind no comfort in his greatest mercies (Psa 23:4; Num 21).\n\n8. Faith maketh great burdens light; but unbelief maketh light ones\nintolerably heavy (2 Cor 4:1; 14-18; Mal 1:12,13).\n\n9. Faith helpeth us when we are down; but unbelief throws us down\nwhen we are up (Micah 7:8-10; Heb 4:11).\n\n10. Faith bringeth us near to God when we are far from him; but\nunbelief puts us far from God when we are near to him (Heb 10:22;\n3:12,13).\n\n11. Where faith reigns, it declareth men to be the friends of God;\nbut where unbelief reigns, it declareth them to be his enemies\n(John 3:23; Heb 3:18; Rev 21:8).\n\n12. Faith putteth a man under grace; but unbelief holdeth him\nunder wrath (Rom 3:24-26; 14:6; Eph 2:8; John 3:36; 1 John 5:10;\nHeb 3:17; Mark 16:16).\n\n13. Faith purifieth the heart; but unbelief keepeth it polluted\nand impure (Acts 15:9; Titus 1:15,16).\n\n14. By faith, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us; but\nby unbelief, we are shut up under the law to perish (Rom 4:23,24;\n11:32; Gal 3:23).\n\n15. Faith maketh our work acceptable to God through Christ; but\nwhatsoever is of unbelief is sin. For without faith it is impossible\nto please him (Heb 11:4; Rom 14:23; Heb 6:6).\n\n16. Faith giveth us peace and comfort in our souls; but unbelief\nworketh trouble and tossings, like the restless waves of the sea\n(Rom 5:1; James 1:6).\n\n17. Faith maketh us to see preciousness in Christ; but unbelief\nsees no form, beauty, or comeliness in him (1 Peter 2:7; Isa 53:2,3).\n\n18. By faith we have our life in Christ's fullness; but by unbelief\nwe starve and pine away (Gal 2:20).\n\n19. Faith gives us the victory over the law, sin, death, the devil,\nand all evils; but unbelief layeth us obnoxious to them all (1 John\n5:4,5; Luke 12:46).\n\n20. Faith will show us more excellency in things not seen, than\nin them that are; but unbelief sees more in things that are seen,\nthan in things that will be hereafter;. (2 Cor 4:18; Heb 11:24-27;\n1 Cor 15:32).\n\n21. Faith makes the ways of God pleasant and admirable; but unbelief\nmakes them heavy and hard (Gal 5:6; 1 Cor 12:10,11; John 6:60; Psa\n2:3).\n\n22. By faith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possessed the land of promise;\nbut because of unbelief, neither Aaron, nor Moses, nor Miriam could\nget thither (Heb 11:9; 3:19).\n\n23. By faith the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea;\nbut by unbelief the generality of them perished in the wilderness\n(Heb 11:29; Jude 5).\n\n24. By faith Gideon did more with three hundred men, and a few\nempty pitchers, than all the twelve tribes could do, because they\nbelieved not God (Judg 7:16-22; Num 14:11,14).\n\n25. By faith Peter walked on the water; but by unbelief he began\nto sink (Matt 14:28-30).\n\nThus might many more be added, which, for brevity's sake, I omit;\nbeseeching every one that thinketh he hath a soul to save, or be\ndamned, to take heed of unbelief; lest, seeing there is a promise\nleft us of entering into his rest, any of us by unbelief should\nindeed come short of it.\n\nUSE SECOND. The second use--A USE OF EXAMINATION.\n\nWe come now to a use of examination. Sinner, thou hast heard of the\nnecessity of coming to Christ; also of the willingness of Christ\nto receive the coming soul; together with the benefit that they by\nhim shall have that indeed come to him. Put thyself now upon this\nserious inquiry, Am I indeed come to Jesus Christ?\n\nMotives plenty I might here urge, to prevail with thee to\na conscientious performance of this duty. As, 1. Thou art in sin,\nin the flesh, in death, in the snare of the devil, and under the\ncurse of the law, if you are not coming to Jesus Christ. 2. There\nis no way to be delivered from these, but by coming to Jesus Christ.\n3. If thou comest, Jesus Christ will receive thee, and will in no\nwise cast thee out. 4. Thou wilt not repent it in the day of judgment,\nif now thou comest to Jesus Christ. 5. But thou wilt surely mourn\nat last, if now thou shalt refuse to come. 6. And lastly, Now thou\nhast been invited to come; now will thy judgment be greater, and\nthy damnation more fearful, if thou shalt yet refuse, than if thou\nhadst never heard of coming to Christ.\n\nObject. But we hope we are come to Jesus Christ.\n\nAnsw. It is well if it proves so. But lest thou shouldst speak\nwithout ground, and so fall unawares into hell-fire, let us examine\na little.\n\nFirst, Art thou indeed come to Jesus Christ? What hast thou left\nbehind thee? What didst thou come away from, in thy coming to Jesus\nChrist?\n\nWhen Lot came out of Sodom, he left the Sodomites behind him (Gen\n19). When Abraham came out of Chaldea, he left his country and\nkindred behind him (Gen 12; Acts 7). When Ruth came to put her trust\nunder the wings of the Lord God of Israel, she left her father and\nmother, her gods, and the land of her nativity, behind her (Ruth\n1:15-17; 2:11,12). When Peter came to Christ, he left his nets\nbehind him (Matt 4:20). When Zaccheus came to Christ, he left the\nreceipt of custom behind him (Luke 19). When Paul came to Christ,\nhe left his own righteousness behind him (Phil 3:7,8). When those\nthat used curious arts came to Jesus Christ, they took their\ncurious books and burned them; though, in another man's eye, they\nwere counted worth fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:18-20).\n\nWhat sayest thou, man? Hast thou left thy darling sins, thy Sodomitish\npleasures, thy acquaintance and vain companions, thy unlawful gain,\nthy idol-gods, thy righteousness, and thy unlawful curious arts,\nbehind thee? If any of these be with thee, and thou with them, in\nthy heart and life, thou art not yet come to Jesus Christ.\n\nSecond, Art thou come to Jesus Christ? Prithee tell me what moved\nthee to come to Jesus Christ?\n\nMen do not usually come or go to this or that place, before they\nhave a moving cause, or rather a cause moving them thereto. No\nmore do they come to Jesus Christ--I do not say, before they have\na cause, but--before that cause moveth them to come. What sayest\nthou? Hast thou a cause moving thee to come? To be at present in\na state of condemnation, is cause sufficient for men to come to\nJesus Christ for life. But that will not do, except the cause move\nthem; the which it will never do, until their eyes be opened to\nsee themselves in that condition. For it is not a man's being under\nwrath, but his seeing it, that moveth him to come to Jesus Christ.\nAlas! all men by sin are under wrath; yet but few of that all come\nto Jesus Christ. And the reason is, because they do not see their\ncondition. \"Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?\"\n(Matt 3:7). Until men are warned, and also receive the warning,\nthey will not come to Jesus Christ.\n\nTake three or four instances for this. Adam and Eve came not to\nJesus Christ until they received the alarm, the conviction of their\nundone state by sin. (Gen 3) The children of Israel cried not out\nfor a mediator before they saw themselves in danger of death by the\nlaw (Exo 20:18,19). Before the publican came, he saw himself lost\nand undone (Luke 18:13). The prodigal came not, until he saw death\nat the door, ready to devour him (Luke 15:17,18). The three thousand\ncame not, until they knew not what to do to be saved (Acts 2:37-39).\nPaul came not, until he saw himself lost and undone (Acts 9:3-8,11).\nLastly, Before the jailer came, he saw himself undone (Acts 16:29-31).\nAnd I tell thee, it is an easier thing to persuade a well man to\ngo to the physician for cure, or a man without hurt to seek for\na plaster to cure him, than it is to persuade a man that sees not\nhis soul-disease, to come to Jesus Christ. The whole have no need\nof the physician; then why should they go to him? The full pitcher\ncan hold no more; then why should it go to the fountain? And if\nthou comest full, thou comest not aright; and be sure Christ will\nsend thee empty away. \"But he healeth the broken in heart, and\nbindeth up their wounds\" (Mark 2:17; Psa 147:3; Luke 1:53).\n\nThird, Art thou coming to Jesus Christ? Prithee tell me, What seest\nthou in him to allure thee to forsake all the world, to come to\nhim?\n\nI say, What hast thou seen in him? Men must see something in Jesus\nChrist, else they will not come to him. 1. What comeliness hast\nthou seen in his person? thou comest not, if thou seest no form\nnor comeliness in him (Isa 53:1-3). 2. Until those mentioned in\nthe Song were convinced that there was more beauty, comeliness,\nand desirableness in Christ, than in ten thousand, they did not\nso much as ask where he was, nor incline to turn aside after him\n(Song 5, 6).\n\nThere be many things on this side heaven that can and do carry away\nthe heart; and so will do, so long as thou livest, if thou shalt\nbe kept blind, and not be admitted to see the beauty of the Lord\nJesus.\n\nFourth, Art thou come to the Lord Jesus? What hast thou found in\nhim, since thou camest to him?\n\nPeter found with him the word of eternal life (John 6:68). They\nthat Peter makes mention of, found him a living stone, even such\na living stone as communicated life to them (1 Peter 2:4,5). He\nsaith himself, they that come to him, &c., shall find rest unto\ntheir souls; hast thou found rest in him for thy soul? (Matt 11:28).\n\nLet us go back to the times of the Old Testament.\n\n1. Abraham found THAT in him, that made him leave his country for\nhim, and become for his sake a pilgrim and stranger in the earth\n(Gen 12; Heb 11).\n\n2. Moses found THAT in him, that made him forsake a crown, and a\nkingdom for him too.\n\n3. David found so much in him, that he counted to be in his house\none day was better than a thousand; yea, to be a door-keeper therein\nwas better, in his esteem, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness\n(Psa 84:10).\n\n4. What did Daniel and the three children find in him, to make\nthem run the hazards of the fiery furnace, and the den of lions,\nfor his sake? (Dan 3, 6).\n\nLet us come down to martyrs.\n\n1. Stephen found that in him that made him joyful, and quietly\nyield up his life for his name (Acts 7).\n\n2. Ignatius found that in Christ that made him choose to go through\nthe torments of the devil, and hell itself, rather than not to have\nhim.--Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. 1, p. 52, Anno. 111. Edit.\n1632.\n\n3. What saw Romanus in Christ, when he said to the raging Emperor,\nwho threatened him with fearful torments, Thy sentence, O Emperor,\nI joyfully embrace, and refuse not to be sacrificed by as cruel\ntorments as thou canst invent?--Fox, vol. 1, p. 116.\n\n4. What saw Menas, the Egyptian, in Christ, when he said, under most\ncruel torments, There is nothing in my mind that can be compared to\nthe kingdom of heaven; neither is all the world, if it was weighed\nin a balance, to be preferred with the price of one soul? Who is\nable to separate us from the love of Jesus Christ our Lord? And\nI have learned of my Lord and King not to fear them that kill the\nbody, &c. P. 117.\n\n5. What did Eulalia see in Christ, when she said, as they were\npulling her one joint from another, Behold, O Lord, I will not forget\nthee. What a pleasure it is for them, O Christ! that remember thy\ntriumphant victory? P. 121.\n\n6. What think you did Agnes see in Christ, when rejoicingly she\nwent to meet the soldier that was appointed to be her executioner.\nI will willingly, said she, receive into my paps the length of this\nsword, and into my breast will draw the force thereof, even to the\nhilts; that thus I, being married to Christ my spouse, may surmount\nand escape all the darkness of this world? P. 122.\n\n7. What do you think did Julitta see in Christ, when, at the\nEmperor's telling of her, that except she would worship the gods,\nshe should never have protection, laws, judgments, nor life, she\nreplied, Farewell life, welcome death; farewell riches, welcome\npoverty: all that I have, if it were a thousand times more, would\nI rather lose, than to speak one wicked and blasphemous word against\nmy Creator? P. 123.\n\n8. What did Marcus Arethusius see in Christ, when after his enemies\nhad cut his flesh, anointed it with honey, and hanged him up in a\nbasket for flies and bees to feed on, he would not give, to uphold\nidolatry, one halfpenny to save his life? P. 128.\n\n9. What did Constantine see in Christ, when he used to kiss the\nwounds of them that suffered for him? P. 135.\n\n10. But what need I give thus particular instances of words and\nsmaller actions, when by their lives, their blood, their enduring\nhunger, sword, fire, pulling asunder, and all torments that the\ndevil and hell could devise, for the love they bare to Christ,\nafter they were come to him?\n\nWhat hast THOU found in him, sinner?\n\nWhat! come to Christ, and find nothing in him!--when all things\nthat are worth looking after are in him!--or if anything, yet not\nenough to wean thee from thy sinful delights, and fleshly lusts!\nAway, away, thou art not coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nHe that has come to Jesus Christ, hath found in him, that, as I\nsaid, that is not to be found anywhere else. As,\n\n1. He that is come to Christ hath found God in him reconciling the\nworld unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. And so\nGod is not to be found in heaven and earth besides (2 Cor 5:19,20).\n\n2. He that is come to Jesus Christ hath found in him a fountain\nof grace, sufficient, not only to pardon sin, but to sanctify the\nsoul, and to preserve it from falling, in this evil world.\n\n3. He that is come to Jesus Christ hath found virtue in him; THAT\nvirtue, that if he does but touch thee with his Word, or thou him\nby faith, life is forthwith conveyed into thy soul. It makes thee\nwake as one that is waked out of his sleep; it awakes all the powers\nof the soul (Psa 30:11,12; Song 6:12).\n\n4. Art thou come to Jesus Christ? Thou hast found glory in him,\nglory that surmounts and goes beyond. \"Thou art more glorious--than\nthe mountains of prey\" (Psa 76:4).\n\n5. What shall I say? Thou hast found righteousness in him; thou\nhast found rest, peace, delight, heaven, glory, and eternal life.\n\nSinner, be advised; ask thy heart again, saying, Am I come to Jesus\nChrist? For upon this one question, Am I come, or, am I not? hangs\nheaven and hell as to thee. If thou canst say, I am come, and God\nshall approve that saying, happy, happy, happy man art thou! But\nif thou art not come, what can make thee happy? yea, what can make\nthat man happy that, for his not coming to Jesus Christ for life,\nmust be damned in hell?\n\nUSE THIRD.--The third use--A USE OF ENCOURAGEMENT.\n\nComing sinner, I have now a word for thee; be of good comfort, \"He\nwill in no wise cast out.\" Of all men, thou art the blessed of the\nLord; the Father hath prepared his Son to be a sacrifice for thee,\nand Jesus Christ, thy Lord, is gone to prepare a place for thee\n(John 1:29; Heb 10). What shall I say to thee?\n\n[First,] Thou comest to a FULL Christ; thou canst not want anything\nfor soul or body, for this world or that to come, but it is to\nbe had in or by Jesus Christ. As it is said of the land that the\nDanites went to possess, so, and with much more truth, it may be\nsaid of Christ; he is such an one with whom there is no want of any\ngood thing that is in heaven or earth. A full Christ is thy Christ.\n\n1. He is full of grace. Grace is sometimes taken for love; never\nany loved like Jesus Christ. Jonathan's love went beyond the love\nof women; but the love of Christ passes knowledge. It is beyond the\nlove of all the earth, of all creatures, even of men and angels.\nHis love prevailed with him to lay aside his glory, to leave\nthe heavenly place, to clothe himself with flesh, to be born in a\nstable, to be laid in a manger, to live a poor life in the world,\nto take upon him our sicknesses, infirmities, sins, curse, death,\nand the wrath that was due to man. And all this he did for a base,\nundeserving, unthankful people; yea, for a people that was at\nenmity with him. \"For when we were yet without strength, in due\ntime Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man\nwill one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare\nto die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we\nwere yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now\njustified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.\nFor if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death\nof his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his\nlife\" (Rom 5:6-10).\n\n2. He is full of truth. Full of grace and truth. Truth, that is,\nfaithfulness in keeping promise, even this of the text, with all\nother, \"I will in no wise cast out\" (John 14:6). Hence it is said,\nthat his words be true, and that he is the faithful God, that keepeth\ncovenant. And hence it is also that his promises are called truth:\n\"Thou wilt fulfil thy truth unto Jacob, and thy mercy unto Abraham,\nwhich thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.\"\nTherefore it is said again, that both himself and words are truth:\n\"I am the truth, the Scripture of truth\" (Dan 10:21). \"Thy word is\ntruth,\" (John 17:17; 2 Sam 7:28); \"thy law is truth,\" (Psa 119:142);\nand \"my mouth,\" saith he, \"shall speak truth,\" (Prov 8:7); see\nalso Ecclesiastes 12:10, Isaiah 25:1, Malachi 2:6, Acts 26:25, 2\nTimothy 2:12,13. Now, I say, his word is truth, and he is full of\ntruth to fulfil his truth, even to a thousand generations. Coming\nsinner, he will not deceive thee; come boldly to Jesus Christ.\n\n3. He is full of wisdom. He is made unto us of God wisdom; wisdom\nto manage the affairs of his church in general, and the affairs\nof every coming sinner in particular. And upon this account he is\nsaid to be \"head over all things,\" (1 Cor 1; Eph 1), because he\nmanages all things that are in the world by his wisdom, for the\ngood of his church; all men's actions, all Satan's temptations,\nall God's providences, all crosses, and disappointments; all things\nwhatever are under the hand of Christ--who is the wisdom of God--and\nhe ordereth them all for good to his church. And can Christ help\nit--and be sure he can--nothing shall happen or fall out in the\nworld, but it shall, in despite of all opposition, have a good\ntendency to his church and people.\n\n4. He is full of the Spirit, to communicate it to the coming\nsinner; he hath therefore received it without measure, that he\nmay communicate it to every member of his body, according as every\nman's measure thereof is allotted him by the Father. Wherefore\nhe saith, that he that comes to him, \"Out of his belly shall flow\nrivers of living water\" (John 3:34; Titus 3:5,6; Acts 2; John\n7:33-39).\n\n5. He is indeed a storehouse full of all the graces of the Spirit.\n\"Of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace\"\n(John 1:16). Here is more faith, more love, more sincerity, more\nhumility, more of every grace; and of this, even more of this, he\ngiveth to every lowly, humble, penitent coming sinner. Wherefore,\ncoming soul, thou comest not to a barren wilderness when thou comest\nto Jesus Christ.\n\n6. He is full of bowels and compassion: and they shall feel and find\nit so that come to him for life. He can bear with thy weaknesses,\nhe can pity thy ignorance, he can be touched with the feeling of\nthy infirmities, he can affectionately forgive they transgressions,\nhe can heal thy backslidings, and love thee freely. His compassions\nfail not; \"and he will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the\nsmoking flax; he can pity them that no eye pities, and be afflicted\nin all thy afflictions\" (Matt 26:41; Heb 5:2; 2:18; Matt 9:2;\nHosea 14:4; Eze 16:5,6; Isa 63:9; Psa 78:38; 86:15; 111:4; 112:4;\nLam 3:22; Isa 42:3).\n\n7. Coming soul, the Jesus that thou art coming to, is full of might\nand terribleness for thy advantage; he can suppress all thine\nenemies; he is the Prince of the kings of the earth; he can bow all\nmen's designs for thy help; he can break all snares laid for thee\nin the way; he can lift thee out of all difficulties wherewith thou\nmayest be surrounded; he is wise in heart, and mighty in power.\nEvery life under heaven is in his hand; yea, the fallen angels\ntremble before him. And he will save thy life, coming sinner (1\nCor 1:24; Rom 8:28; Matt 28:18; Rev 4; Psa 19:3; 27:5,6; Job 9:4;\nJohn 17:2; Matt 8:29; Luke 8:28; James 2:19).\n\n8. Coming sinner, the Jesus to whom thou art coming is lowly in\nheart, he despiseth not any. It is not thy outward meanness, nor\nthy inward weakness; it is not because thou art poor, or base, or\ndeformed, or a fool, that he will despise thee: he hath chosen the\nfoolish, the base, and despised things of this world, to confound\nthe wise and mighty. He will bow his ear to thy stammering prayers\nhe will pick out the meaning of thy inexpressible groans; he will\nrespect thy weakest offering, if there be in it but thy heart (Matt\n11:20; Luke 14:21; Prov 9:4-6; Isa 38:14,15; Song 5:15; John 4:27;\nMark 12:33,34; James 5:11). Now, is not this a blessed Christ, coming\nsinner? Art thou not like to fare well, when thou hast embraced\nhim, coming sinner? But,\n\nSecond. Thou hast yet another advantage by Jesus Christ, thou art\ncoming to him, for he is not only full, BUT FREE. He is not sparing\nof what he has; he is open-hearted and open-handed. Let me in a\nfew particulars show thee this:\n\n1. This is evident, because he calls thee; he calls upon thee to come\nunto him; the which he would not do, was he not free to give; yea,\nhe bids thee, when come, ask, seek, knock. And for thy encouragement,\nadds to every command a promise, \"Seek, and ye shall find; ask,\nand ye shall have; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.\" If\nthe rich man should say thus to the poor, would not he be reckoned\na free-hearted man? I say, should he say to the poor, Come to\nmy door, ask at my door, knock at my door, and you shall find and\nhave; would he not be counted liberal? Why, thus doth Jesus Christ.\nMind it, coming sinner (Isa 55:3; Psa 50:15; Matt 7:7-9).\n\n2. He doth not only bid thee come, but tells thee, he will heartily\ndo thee good; yea, he will do it with rejoicing; \"I will rejoice\nover them, to do them good--with my whole heart, and with my whole\nsoul\" (Jer 32:41).\n\n3. It appeareth that he is free, because he giveth without twitting.\n21 \"He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not\" (James 1,\n5). There are some that will not deny to do the poor a pleasure,\nbut they will mix their mercies with so many twits, that the persons\non whom they bestow their charity shall find but little sweetness\nin it. But Christ doth not do so, coming sinner; he casteth all thine\niniquities behind his back (Isa 38:17). Thy sins and iniquities he\nwill remember no more (Heb 8:12).\n\n4. That Christ is free, is manifest by the complaints that he\nmakes against them that will not come to him for mercy. I say, he\ncomplains, saying, \"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have\ngathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens\nunder her wings, and ye would not!\" (Matt 23:37). I say, he speaks\nit by way of complaint. He saith also in another place, \"But thou\nhast not called upon me, O Jacob\" (Isa 43:22). Coming sinner, see\nhere the willingness of Christ to save; see here how free he is\nto communicate life, and all good things, to such as thou art. He\ncomplains, if thou comest not; he is displeased, if thou callest\nnot upon him. Hark, coming sinner, once again; when Jerusalem would\nnot come to him for safeguard, \"he beheld the city, and wept over\nit, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy\nday, the things which belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid\nfrom thine eyes\" (Luke 19:41,42).\n\n5. Lastly, He is open and free-hearted to do thee good, as is seen\nby the joy and rejoicing that he manifesteth at the coming home\nof poor prodigals. He receives the lost sheep with rejoicing; the\nlost goat with rejoicing; yea, when the prodigal came home, what\njoy and mirth, what music and dancing, was in his father's house!\n(Luke 15).\n\nThird. Coming sinner, I will add another encouragement for thy\nhelp.\n\n1. God hath prepared a mercy-seat, a throne of grace to sit on;\nthat thou mayest come thither to him, and that he may from thence\nhear thee, and receive thee. \"I will commune with thee,\" saith he,\n\"from above the mercy-seat\" (Exo 25:22). As who shall say, sinner,\nWhen thou comest to me, thou shalt find me upon the mercy-seat,\nwhere also I am always found of the undone coming sinner. Thither\nI bring my pardons; there I hear and receive their petitions, and\naccept them to my favour.\n\n2. God hath also prepared a golden altar for thee to offer thy prayers\nand tears upon. A golden altar! It is called a \"golden altar,\" to\nshow what worth it is of in God's account: for this golden altar\nis Jesus Christ; this altar sanctifies thy gift, and makes thy\nsacrifice acceptable. This altar, then, makes thy groans golden\ngroans; thy tears golden tears; and thy prayers golden prayers,\nin the eye of that God thou comest to, coming sinner (Rev 8; Matt\n23:19; Heb 10:10; 1 Peter 2:5).\n\n3. God hath strewed all the way, from the gate of hell, where thou\nwast, to the gate of heaven, whither thou art going, with flowers\nout of his own garden. Behold how the promises, invitations, calls,\nand encouragements, like lilies, lie round about thee! take heed\nthat thou dost not tread them under foot, sinner. With promises,\ndid I say? Yea, he hath mixed all those with his own name, his\nSon's name; also, with the name of mercy, goodness, compassion,\nlove, pity, grace, forgiveness, pardon, and what not, that may\nencourage the coming sinner.\n\n4. He hath also for thy encouragement laid up the names, and set\nforth the sins, of those that have been saved. In this book they\nare fairly written, that thou, through patience and comfort of\nthe Scriptures, mightest have hope. (1.) In this book is recorded\nNoah's maim and sin; and how God had mercy upon him. (2.) In this\nrecord is fairly written the name of Lot, and the nature of his\nsin; and how the Lord had mercy upon him. (3.) In this record thou\nhast also fairly written the names of Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Samson,\nDavid, Solomon, Peter, Paul, with the nature of their sins; and how\nGod had mercy upon them; and all to encourage thee, coming sinner.\n\nFourth. I will add yet another encouragement for the man that is\ncoming to Jesus Christ. Art thou coming? Art thou coming, indeed?\nWhy,\n\n1. Then this thy coming is by virtue of God's call. Thou art called.\nCalling goes before coming. Coming is not of works, but of him that\ncalleth. \"He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom\nhe would; and they came unto him\" (Mark 3:13).\n\n2. Art thou coming? This is also by virtue of illumination. God has\nmade thee see; and, therefore, thou art coming. So long as thou\nwast darkness, thou lovedst darkness, and couldst not abide to\ncome, because thy deeds were evil; but being now illuminated and\nmade to see what and where thou art, and also what and where thy\nSaviour is, now thou art coming to Jesus Christ; \"Blessed art thou,\nSimon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,\"\nsaith Christ, \"but my Father which is in heaven\" (Matt 16:17).\n\n3. Art thou coming? This is because God hath inclined thine heart\nto come. God hath called thee, illuminated thee, and inclined thy\nheart to come; and, therefore, thou comest to Jesus Christ. It\nis God that worketh in thee to will, and to come to Jesus Christ.\nComing sinner, bless God for that he hath given thee a will to come\nto Jesus Christ. It is a sign that thou belongest to Jesus Christ,\nbecause God has made thee willing to come to him (Psa 110:3). Bless\nGod for slaying the enmity of thy mind; had he not done it, thou\nwouldst as yet have hated thine own salvation.\n\n4. Art thou coming to Jesus Christ? It is God that giveth thee\npower: power to pursue thy will in the matters of thy salvation,\nis the gift of God. \"It is God which worketh in you both to will\nand to do\" (Phil 2:13). Not that God worketh will to come, where\nhe gives no power; but thou shouldest take notice, that power is\nan additional mercy. The church saw that will and power were two\nthings, when she cried, \"Draw me, we will run after thee\" (Song\n1:4). And so did David too, when he said, \"I will run the way of\nthy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart\" (Psa 119:32).\nWill to come, and power to pursue thy will, is double mercy, coming\nsinner.\n\n5. All thy strange, passionate, sudden rushings forward after Jesus\nChrist, coming sinners know what I mean, they also are thy helps\nfrom God. Perhaps thou feelest at some times more than at others,\nstrong stirrings up of heart to fly to Jesus Christ; now thou hast\nat this time a sweet and stiff gale of the Spirit of God, filling\nthy sails with the fresh gales of his good Spirit; and thou ridest\nat those times as upon the wings of the wind, being carried out\nbeyond thyself, beyond the most of thy prayers, and also above all\nthy fear and temptations.\n\n6. Coming sinner, hast thou not now and then a kiss of the sweet\nlips of Jesus Christ, I mean some blessed word dropping like a\nhoney-comb upon thy soul to revive thee, when thou art in the midst\nof thy dumps?\n\n7. Does not Jesus Christ sometimes give thee a glimpse of himself,\nthough perhaps thou seest him not so long a time as while one may\ntell twenty.\n\n8. Hast thou not sometimes as it were the very warmth of his wings\novershadowing the face of thy soul, that gives thee as it were\na gload22 upon thy spirit, as the bright beams of the sun do upon\nthy body, when it suddenly breaks out of a cloud, though presently\nall is gone away? Well, all these things are the good hand of thy\nGod upon thee, and they are upon thee to constrain, to provoke,\nand to make thee willing and able to come, coming sinner, that thou\nmightest in the end be saved.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 \"My grace is sufficient for thee,\" and the language of the church,\nconscious of its own weakness and the Lord's all-sufficiency, is,\n\"Draw me, we will run after thee\" (Song 1:4).--Mason.\n\n2 No outward profession is accepted, except it springs from inward\nlove to Christ.--Ed.\n\n3 How clearly is every seeming difficulty explained by Bunyan. The\nFather entered into covenant with the Son, in eternity, to save his\nelect; and, in time, as they appear upon earth, the Father giveth\nthem to Christ by effectual calling, and he brings them to eternal\nglory.--Ed.\n\n4 To come unto Christ, in its proper sense, is to receive him as\nhe is offered to us in the Word; to believe in him, as a suitable\nand all-sufficient Saviour; to submit to his government, in both\nsuffering and doing his will, with all lowly-mindedness and humility;\nand this by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit upon the\nsoul.--Mason.\n\n5 \"Salve;\" relief, aid, or help.\n\n\n   'Which Cambell seign, though he could not salve,\n        He done undoe, yet for to salve his name\n    And purchase honour to his friend's behalve,\n        This goodly counterfesaunce he did frame.\"\n\n\n--Spenser's Faery Queen.\n\n6 We cannot remember all God's benefits, but how prone we are to\nforget them all!--Ed.\n\n7 Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, was thus exercised:\n--\"I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded that he\ndid not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it:--Just when he\nwas come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked\nones got behind him, and stepped up softly to him, and whisperingly\nsuggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought\nhad proceeded from his own mind.\" See also Grace Abounding, No.\n100-102.--Ed.\n\n8 \"Warm gleads;\" from Saxon glow, anything heated or hot.\n\n\n   \"My destiny to behold her doth me leade,\n    And yet I know I runne into the gleade.\"--Wyatt.--Ed.\n\n\n9 Many misspend their time in poring upon their own hearts, to find\nout some evidence of their interest in Christ, when they should\nrather be employed in receiving Christ, and walking in him, by a\nconfident faith grounded on the Divine testimony.--Mason.\n\n10 How striking are Bunyan's illustrations! The devil, as a roaring\nlion, is in pursuit of the flying sinner; he would flee faster\nthan his infirmities will let him. We cannot wonder that modern\npreachers borrowed so vivid and truthful a figure.--Ed.\n\n11 A Christian is \"never safe but when watchful;\" he should keep a\njealous eye on his own weakness, and a believing eye on the promise\nand power of Christ, and he shall be preserved from falling.--Mason.\n\n12 \"Let him;\" hinder him. See 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Obsolete.--Imperial\nDictionary.--Ed.\n\n13 \"The Scripture contains many gracious promises in behalf of the\nchildren of believing parents; but grace is not hereditary. It is\nthe parent's part to pray with and for, admonish, and piously train\nup his children; but, after all, must recommend them to the tender\nmercies of God, which the children of many prayers often happily\nexperience.\"--Mason. O that all persons may solemnly consider this\nsearching truth! especially the children of believers. The coming\nof your father or mother to Christ cannot be imputed to you; come\nfor yourself, or you must perish. As you love your souls, believe\nnot that awful delusion, that any ceremony could make you a child\nof God.--Ed.\n\n14 \"While of late;\" until of late.--Ed.\n\n15 \"Lie at Jesus Christ;\" to lay down, lie at the feet of Jesus\nChrist, to persevere like the Syrophenician woman, Mark 7:25.--Ed.\n\n16 \"Ply;\" to solicit importunately.--Ed.\n\n17 \"A flam;\" a fable, an imposition.\n\n18 \"Most an end;\" continually, perpetually.\n\n19 How awful is the confidence of the self-righteous pharisee; he\nconsiders himself more righteous than the poor penitent, who is\nclothed in Christ's righteousness, the garments of salvation.\n\nThe self-righteous says:--\"Stand by, I am holier than thou. Thank\nGod, I am not like this publican.\" While in God's sight, poor\nwretched boaster, thou art clothed in filthy rags.--Ed.\n\n20 This nation now pays some eight or ten millions sterling a year.\nHad God sanctioned this diabolical trade in souls, all Christendom\nwould have been divided into two classes-priests and slaves.--Ed.\n\n21 \"Twitting;\" taunting, or rebuking.--Ed.\n\n22 \"A gload;\" a warm, eager, passionate gazing: now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nJUSTIFICATION BY AN IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS;\n\nOR,\n\nNO WAY TO HEAVEN BUT BY JESUS CHRIST.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis is one of those ten excellent manuscripts which were found among\nBunyan's papers after his decease in 1688. It had been prepared by\nhim for publication, but still wanted a few touches of his masterly\nhand, and a preface in his characteristic style. He had, while a\nprisoner for nonconformity, in 1672, published a treatise upon this\nsubject, in reply to Mr. Fowler, who was soon after created Bishop\nof Gloucester; but that was more peculiarly intended to prove that\nthose who are justified by faith in Christ are placed in a safer,\nmore honourable, and more glorious state than that possessed by\nAdam before his fall. Mr. Fowler took the popular view, that the\nsufferings of the Saviour were intended to replace man in a similar\nposition to that of Adam when in a state of innocence; and to\ngive him powers, which, if properly used, would enable him to save\nhimself.\n\nIt is of important that we should understand the meaning of the term\n'justification' as here used. It is an acquittal, on being tried\nby the law; or a proof that, upon the most penetrating scrutiny,\nwe have, through life, fulfilled and performed all its requirements\nin word, thought, and deed, without the slightest deviation or\ntaint of error. This is essential to salvation, and must be done,\neither personally, or by the imputation of the Saviour's obedience\nto us. Multitudes vainly imagine that this can be attained by our\npartial obedience, aided, where we fail, by the imputation of so\nmuch of the Saviour's obedience as, being placed to our account,\nwill make up the deficiency. Upon justification must depend the\nsalvation of the soul. Bunyan was convinced that the sinner's only\nhope was by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, which alone\ncould justify him from ALL things, and without which he must perish.\n\nAs 'by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified,'\nit becomes an important inquiry whether the law, by which all must\nbe tried, and justified or condemned, is opposed to the gospel or\nglad tidings of salvation? God forbid that we should for a moment\nentertain such a thought! they both proceed from the same Divine\nsource, and the gospel confirms and establishes the law. This is\nclearly shown in the following treatise. Every Christian forms a\npart of that one mystical body, of which Christ is the head, and\nin which alone can be fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law.\nBunyan's controversy is with an opinion, held by many, that a man\nmay, in his own person, by an imperfect obedience to some of the\nrequirements of the law, procure, or aid in obtaining, justification.\n\nThere can be no subject more intensely interesting than the means\nof a sinner's justification before that God whose law is perfect,\nand who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity except with\nabhorrence; nor is there one upon which more fatal mistakes have\nbeen made.\n\nThe great delusion which like a deadly leprosy, has involved man\nin uncertainty and darkness in all his conceptions of purity and\nholiness, is the fallacious hope of producing some good works to\nblot out transgressions; or that man is not so polluted, but that\nhe may justify himself by works performed through some kind of\nability communicated by the Saviour--an ability which he might or\nmight not use, but upon the proper use of which he considers that his\nsalvation depends; leaving him in the most distressing uncertainty\nand doubt upon this all-important subject. All these Bunyan considered\nto be specious and most dangerous devices of Satan, unscriptural,\nand contrary to the simplicity and design of the gospel.\n\nIn this treatise very powerful arguments are used to counteract\nthese errors, and to place the doctrine of justification in all its\nglorious purity. It is essentially the source of the glad tidings\nof great joy made known by the Christian dispensation; showing\nthat the redemption of believers is perfect and finished, neither\nneeding nor suffering any human additions. The righteousness of\nChrist fully justifies all that believe, while the fountain that\nhe opened washes away all their defilements, and presents them at\nthe judgment-seat, without spot or blemish, their robes being washed\nand made white in the blood of the Lamb.\n\nTo prevent this doctrine from being impeached with a tendency to\nweaken man in the discharge of his moral duties, the same Divine\npower which thus pardoned sin has decreed that a sense of pardoning\nlove should impel the redeemed to walk in newness of life--and that\nit is only while thus walking in holy obedience that they have an\nevidence of being members of Christ's mystical body. For, 'whom\nhe did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the\nimage of his Son; whom he did predestinate, them he also called;\nand whom he called, them he also justified.' So full is this\nof consolation and felicity that the apostle exclaims, 'If God be\nfor us, who can be against us?' Thus, salvation by free grace is\ninseparably connected with good works. The righteousness of the\nsecond Adam, the Lord from heaven, imputed to his members, justifies\nthem, in the same manner as the disobedience of the first Adam,\nimputed to all his members or posterity, makes them sinners. To\nuse the expressive words of Bunyan, 'The sinner is justified from\nthe curse, in the sight of God, while a sinner in himself.' This\nis a startling fact. That Rahab or Mary Magdalene, and even Saul,\nthe murderous persecutor, were, in the sight and purposes of God,\njustified, while they were, in the esteem of God's saints, in a\nstate of the vilest sin, is a doctrine revolting to the pride of\nhuman nature. But we should recollect that, in the sight of God, a\nthousand years are but as one day; while one day may be magnified\ninto a thousand years; and that the purposes of God are concealed\nto us while sin blinds our eyes. Rahab and Magdalene were wretched\nbefore their conversion, nor could Saul have been much less wretched,\nwhile carrying misery into the hearts and families of God's saints.\n\nThere can be no real happiness without spiritual life--holy obedience\nto the Divine will, and a scriptural hope of justification before\nGod and his law. These are the means he uses to make known to us his\nsecret purposes. No man has lived in the world, since the inspired\nwriters, more capable of detecting the devil's sophistry upon\nthis subject than John Bunyan. He had passed through a furnace of\nexperience while seeking justification. He well knew that, upon\nkeeping the moral law of God, the peace of the world and our personal\nhappiness depended. How is this great object to be accomplished?\nIf we attempt to keep it, in order to gain eternal life, we shall\nfail, as all others have done. In every attempt thus to keep it,\nto use Bunyan's expression 'The guilt of sin, which is by the law,\nmakes such a noise and horror in my conscience that I can neither\nhear nor see the word of peace, unless it is spoken with a voice\nfrom heaven!' Our polluted nature leads to sin; a mist is before\nour eyes; we 'go astray speaking lies.' The strong natural bias to\nbreak the law will prevail; we see its effects in the great bulk\nof those who are taught to rely upon ceremonies and upon keeping\nthe law. Who are so lawless, so little advanced in civilization,\nas the poor Irish, Spaniards, or Italians? while those who seek\njustification as the free gift of God, influenced by gratitude and\nlove, are found walking in obedience to the Divine law; their only\nregret is, that they cannot live more to the glory of their Saviour.\nThe doctrines of grace, as exhibited in this treatise, have ever\nproduced glory to God, on earth peace, and goodwill to men; although\nthat spirit which called Christ a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber,\nstill charges these doctrines as having a tendency to licentiousness.\n\nChristian, be not offended with the humbling, but scriptural views,\nwhich Bunyan entertained of every church of Christ 'An hospital of\nsick, wounded, and afflicted people.' None but such as feel their\nneed of the Physician of souls are fit for church membership, or are\nsafely on the road to heaven. Leaving this solemn and interesting\nsubject to the prayerful attention of the reader, I shall conclude\nmy advertisement by quoting from a characteristic specimen of\nBunyan's style of writing, and it was doubtless his striking mode\nof preaching:--'Faith doth the same against the devil that unbelief\ndoth to God. Doth unbelief count God a liar? Faith counts the devil\na liar. Doth unbelief hold the soul from the mercy of God? Faith\nholds the soul from the malice of the devil. Doth unbelief quench\nthy graces? Faith kindleth them even into a flame. Doth unbelief\nfill the soul full of sorrow? Faith fills it full of the joy of\nthe Holy Ghost. In a word, Doth unbelief bind down thy sins upon\nthee? Why, faith in Jesus Christ releaseth thee of them all.'\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nJUSTIFICATION BY AN IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS\n\nJUSTIFICATION is to be diversly taken in the Scripture. Sometimes\nit is taken for the justification of persons; sometimes for the\njustification of actions; and sometimes for the justification of\nthe person and action too.\n\nIt is taken for the justification of persons, and that, as to\njustification with God; or, as to justification with men.\n\nAs to justification with God; that is, when a man stands clear,\nquit, free, or, in a saved condition before him, in the approbation\nof his holy law.\n\nAs to justification with men; that is, when a man stands clear and\nquit from just ground of reprehension with them.\n\nJustification also is to be taken with reference to actions; and\nthat may be when they are considered, as flowing from true faith;\nor, because the act done fulfils some transient law.[1]\n\nAs actions flow from faith, so they are justified, because done\nbefore God in, and made complete through, the perfections of Jesus\nChrist (1 Peter 2:5; Heb 13:15; Rev 8:1-4).\n\nAs by the doing of the act some transient law is fulfilled; as\nwhen Jehu executed judgment upon the house of Ahab. 'Thou hast done\nwell,' said God to him, 'in executing that which is right in mine\neyes, and hast done to the house of Ahab according to all that was\nin mine heart' (2 Kings 10:30). As to such acts, God may or may\nnot look at the qualification of those that do them; and it is\nclear that he had not respect to any good that was in Jehu in the\njustifying of this action; nor could he; for Jehu stuck close yet\nto the sins of Jeroboam, but 'took no heed to walk in the law of\nthe Lord God of Israel' (2 Kings 10:29,31).\n\nI might hence also show you that a man may be justified even then\nwhen his action is condemned; also that a man may be in a state\nof condemnation when his action may be justified. But with these\ndistinctions I will not take up time, my intention being to treat\nof justification as it sets a man free or quit from sin, the curse\nand condemnation of the law in the sight of God, in order to eternal\nsalvation.\n\nAnd that I may with the more clearness handle this point before\nyou, I will lay down and speak to this\n\nPROPOSITION.\n\nTHAT THERE IS NO OTHER WAY FOR SINNERS TO BE JUSTIFIED FROM THE\nCURSE OF THE LAW IN THE SIGHT OF GOD, THAN BY THE IMPUTATION OF\nTHAT RIGHTEOUSNESS LONG AGO PERFORMED BY, AND STILL RESIDING WITH,\nTHE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.\n\nThe terms of this proposition are easy; yet if it will help, I will\nspeak a word or two for explication. First. By a sinner, I mean\none that has transgressed the law; 'for sin is the transgression\nof the law' (1 John 3:4). Second. By the curse of the law, I mean\nthat sentence, judgment, or condemnation which the law pronounceth\nagainst the transgressor (Gal 3:10). Third. By justifying righteousness,\nI mean that which stands in the doing and suffering of Christ when\nhe was in the world (Rom 5:19). Fourth. By the residing of this\nrighteousness in Christ's person, I mean it still abides with him\nas to the action, though the benefit is bestowed upon those that\nare his. Fifth. By the imputation of it to us, I mean God's making\nof it ours by an act of his grace, that we by it might be secured\nfrom the curse of the law. Sixth. When I say there is no other\nway to be justified. I cast away TO THAT END the law, and all the\nworks of the law as done by us.[2]\n\nThus I have opened the terms of the proposition.\n\nFirst and Second. Now the two first--to wit, what sin and the\ncurse is--stand clear in all men's sight, unless they be atheists\nor desperately heretical. I shall, therefore, in few words, clear\nthe other four.\n\nThird. Therefore justifying righteousness is the doing and suffering\nof Christ when he was in the world. This is clear, because we are\nsaid to be 'justified by his obedience,' by his obedience to the\nlaw (Rom 5:19). Hence he is said again to be the end of the law for\nthat very thing--'Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,'\n&c. (Rom 10:4). The end, what is that? Why, the requirement or\ndemand of the law. But what are they? Why, righteousness, perfect\nrighteousness (Gal 3:10). Perfect righteousness, what to do? That\nthe soul concerned might stand spotless in the sight of God (Rev\n1:5). Now this lies only in the doings and sufferings of Christ; for\n'by his obedience many are made righteous'; wherefore as to this,\nChrist is the end of the law, that being found in that obedience,\nthat becomes to us sufficient for our justification. Hence we are\nsaid to be made righteous by his obedience; yea, and to be washed,\npurged, and justified by his blood (Heb 9:14; Rom 5:18,19).\n\nFourth. That this righteousness still resides in and with the\nperson of Christ, even then when we stand just before God thereby,\nis clear, for that we are said, when justified, to be justified\n'in him.' 'In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.'\nAnd again, 'Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness,'\n&c. (Isa 45:24,25). And again, 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,\nwho of God is made unto us--righteousness' (1 Cor 1:30).\n\nMark, the righteousness is still 'in him,' not 'in us,' even then\nwhen we are made partakers of the benefit of it; even as the wing\nand feathers still abide in the hen when the chickens are covered,\nkept, and warmed thereby.\n\nFor as my doings, though my children are fed and clothed thereby,\nare still my doings, not theirs; so the righteousness wherewith\nwe stand just before God from the curse, still resides in Christ,\nnot in us. Our sins, when laid upon Christ, were yet personally ours,\nnot his; so his righteousness, when put upon us, is yet personally\nhis, not ours. What is it, then? Why, 'he was made to be sin for\nus, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of\nGod in him' (2 Cor 5:21).[3]\n\nFifth. It is, therefore, of a justifying virtue, only by imputation,\nor as God reckoneth it to us; even as our sins made the Lord Jesus\na sinner--nay, 'sin,' by God's reckoning of them to him.\n\nIt is absolutely necessary that this be known of us; for if the\nunderstanding be muddy as to this, it is impossible that such should\nbe sound in the faith; also in temptation, that man will be at a\nloss that looketh for a righteousness for justification in himself,\nwhen it is to be found nowhere but in Jesus Christ. The apostle,\nwho was his craftsmaster as to this, was always 'looking to Jesus,'\nthat he 'might be found in him,' knowing that nowhere else could\npeace or safety be had (Phil 3:6-9). And, indeed, this is one of\nthe greatest mysteries in the world; namely, that a righteousness\nthat resides with a person in heaven should justify me, a sinner,\non earth!\n\nSixth. Therefore the law and the works thereof, as to this, must by\nus be cast away; not only because they here are useless, but also\nthey being retained are a hindrance. That they are useless is\nevident, for that salvation comes by another name (Acts 4:12). And\nthat they are a hindrance, it is clear; for the very adhering to\nthe law, though it be but a little, or in a little part, prevents\njustification by the righteousness of Christ (Rom 9:31,32).\n\nWhat shall I say? As to this, the moral law is rejected, the\nceremonial law is rejected, and man's righteousness is rejected,\nfor that they are here both weak and unprofitable (Rom 8:2,3; Gal\n3:21; Heb 10:1-12). Now if all these and their works as to our\njustification, are rejected, where, but in Christ, is righteousness\nto be found?\n\nThus much, therefore, for the explication of the proposition--namely,\nthat there is no other way for sinners to be justified from the\ncurse of the law in the sight of God, than by the imputation of\nthat righteousness long ago performed by, and still residing with,\nthe person of Jesus Christ.\n\n[Two Positions.]\n\nNow, from this proposition I draw these two positions--FIRST.\nTHAT MEN ARE JUSTIFIED FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW BEFORE GOD WHILE\nSINNERS IN THEMSELVES. SECOND. THAT THIS CAN BE DONE BY NO OTHER\nRIGHTEOUSNESS THAN THAT LONG AGO PERFORMED BY, AND RESIDING WITH,\nTHE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.\n\n[FIRST POSITION]\n\nFIRST. Let us, then, now enter into the consideration of the first\nof these--namely, THAT MEN ARE JUSTIFIED FROM THE CURSE OF THE\nLAW BEFORE GOD WHILE SINNERS IN THEMSELVES. This I shall manifest,\nFIRST, By touching upon the mysterious acts of our redemption;\nSECOND, By giving of you plain texts which discover it; and, THIRD,\nBy reasons drawn from the texts.\n\nFIRST. For the first of these; to wit, the mysterious act of our\nredemption: and that I shall speak to under these two heads--First,\nI shall show you what that is; and, Second, How we are concerned\ntherein.\n\nFirst. [What that is.] That which I call, and that rightly,\nthe mysterious act of our redemption, is Christ's sufferings as a\ncommon,[4] though a particular person and as a sinner, though always\ncompletely righteous.\n\nThat he suffered as a common person is true. By common, I mean a\npublic person, or one that presents the body of mankind in himself.\nThis a multitude of scriptures bear witness to, especially that fifth\nchapter to the Romans, where, by the apostle, he is set before us\nas the head of all the elect, even as Adam was once head of all the\nworld. Thus he lived, and thus he died; and this was a mysterious\nact. And that he should die as a sinner, when yet himself did 'no\nsin,' nor had any 'guile found in his mouth,' made this act more\nmysterious (1 Pet 1:19, 2:22, 3:18). That he died as a sinner is\nplain--'He hath made him to be sin. And the Lord laid upon him the\niniquity of us all' (Isa 53). That, then, as to his own person he\nwas completely sinless is also as truly manifest, and that by a\nmultitude of scriptures. Now, I say, that Christ Jesus should be\nthus considered, and thus die, was the great mystery of God. Hence\nPaul tells us, that when he preached 'Christ crucified,' he preached\nnot only the 'wisdom of God,' but the 'wisdom of God in a mystery,'\neven his 'hidden wisdom,' for, indeed, this wisdom is hidden, and\nkept close from the 'fowls of the air' (1 Cor 1:24, 2:7,8; Job\n28:20,21).\n\nIt is also so mysterious, that it goes beyond the reach of all men,\nexcept those to whom an understanding is given of God to apprehend\nit (1 John 5:20). That one particular man should represent all\nthe elect in himself, and that the most righteous should die as a\nsinner, yea, as a sinner by the hand of a just and holy God, is a\nmystery of the greatest depth!\n\nSecond. And now I come to show you how the elect are concerned\ntherein; that is, in this mysterious act of this most blessed One;\nand this will make this act yet more mysterious to you.\n\nNow, then, we will speak of this first, as to how Christ prepared\nhimself thus mysteriously to act. He took hold of our nature. I\nsay, he took hold of us, by taking upon him flesh and blood. The\nSon of God, therefore, took not upon him a particular person, though\nhe took to him a human body and soul; but that which he took was,\nas I may call it, a lump of the common nature of man; and by that,\nhold of the whole elect seed of Abraham; 'For verily he took not on\nhim the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham'\n(Heb 2:16) Hence he, in a mystery, became us, and was counted as\nall the men that were or should be saved. And this is the reason why\nwe are said to do, when only Jesus Christ did do. As for instance--\n\n1. When Jesus Christ fulfilled the righteousness of the law, it\nis said it was fulfilled in us, because indeed fulfilled in our\nnature: 'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through\nthe flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,\nand for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness\nof the law might be fulfilled in us,' &c. (Rom 8:3,4). But because\nnone should appropriate this unto themselves that have not had passed\nupon them a work of conversion, therefore he adds, 'Who walk not\nafter the flesh, but after the Spirit' (v. 4). For there being\na union between head and members, though things may be done by\nthe head, and that for the members, the things are counted to the\nmembers, as if not done only by the head. 'The righteousness of the\nlaw is fulfilled in us'; and that truly, because fulfilled in that\ncommon nature which the Son of God took of the Virgin. Wherefore,\nin this sense we are said to do what only was done by him; even\nas the client doth by his lawyer, when his lawyer personates him;\nthe client is said to do, when it is the lawyer only that does;\nand to overcome by doing, when it is the lawyer that overcomes; the\nreason is, because the lawyer does in the client's name. How much\nmore then may it be said we do, when only Christ does; since he\ndoes what he does, not in our name only, but in our nature too;\n'for the law of the spirit of life in Christ.' not in me, 'hath\nmade me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom 8:2); he doing in\nhis common flesh what could not be done in my particular person,\nthat so I might have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in me,\n[that is, in] my flesh assumed by Christ; though impossible to be\ndone [by me], because of the weakness of my person. The reason of\nall this is, because we are said to be in him in his doing, in him\nby our flesh, and also by the election of God. So, then, as all\nmen sinned when Adam fell, so all the elect did righteousness when\nChrist wrought and fulfilled the law; 'for as in Adam all die, even\nso in Christ shall all be made alive' (1 Cor 15:22).\n\n2. As we are said to do by Christ, so we are said to suffer by\nhim, to suffer with him. 'I am crucified with Christ,' said Paul.\nAnd again, 'Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the\nflesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath\nsuffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin' (1 Peter 4:1). Mark how\nthe apostle seems to change the person. First he says, it is Christ\nthat suffered; and that is true; but then he insinuates that it is\nus that suffered, for the exhortation is to believers, to 'walk in\nnewness of life' (Rom 6:4). And the argument is, because they have\nsuffered in the flesh, 'For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath\nceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time\nin the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God' (1 Peter\n4:1,2). We then suffered, when Christ suffered; we then suffered\nin his flesh, and also our 'old man was crucified with him' (Rom\n6:6); that is, in his crucifixion; for when he hanged on the cross,\nall the elect hanged there in their common flesh which he assumed,\nand because he suffered there as a public man.\n\n3. As we are said to suffer with him, so we are said to die, to be\ndead with him; with him, that is, by the dying of his body. 'Now,\nif we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with\nhim' (Rom 6:8). Wherefore he saith in other places, 'Brethren,\nye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ'; for indeed\nwe died then to it by him. To the law--that is, the law now has\nnothing to do with us; for that it has already executed its curse\nto the full upon us by its slaying of the body of Christ; for the\nbody of Christ was our flesh: upon it also was laid our sin. The\nlaw, too, spent that curse that was due to us upon him, when it\ncondemned, killed, and cast him into the grave. Wherefore, it having\nthus spent its whole curse upon him as standing in our stead, we\nare exempted from its curse for ever; we are become dead to it by\nthat body (Rom 7:4). It has done with us as to justifying righteousness.\nNor need we fear its damning threats any more; for by the death of\nthis body we are freed from it, and are for ever now coupled to a\nliving Christ.\n\n4. As we are said thus to be dead, so we are said also to rise\nagain by him--'Thy dead men,' saith he to the Father, 'shall live,\ntogether with my dead body shall they arise' (Isa 26:19).[5] And\nagain, 'After two days he will revive us; in the third day--we\nshall live in his sight' (Hosea 6:2).\n\nBoth these scriptures speak of the resurrection of Christ, of the\nresurrection of his body on the third day; but behold, as we were\nsaid before to suffer and be dead with him, so now we are said also\nto rise and live in God's sight by the resurrection of his body.\nFor, as was said, the flesh was ours; he took part of our flesh\nwhen he came into the world; and in it he suffered, died, and rose\nagain (Heb 2:14). We also were therefore counted by God, in that\nGod-man, when he did this; yea, he suffered, died, and rose as a\ncommon head.[6]\n\nHence also the New Testament is full of this, saying, 'If ye be\ndead with Christ' (Col 2:20). 'If ye be risen with Christ' (3:1).\nAnd again, 'He hath quickened us together with him' (2:13). 'We are\nquickened together with him.' 'Quickened,' and 'quickened together\nwith him.' The apostle hath words that cannot easily be shifted\nor evaded. Christ then was quickened when he was raised from the\ndead. Nor is it proper to say that he was ever quickened either\nbefore or since. This text also concludes that we--to wit, the\nwhole body of God's elect, were also quickened then, and made to\nlive with him together. True, we also are quickened personally by\ngrace the day in the which we are born unto God by the gospel; yet\nafore that, we are quickened in our Head; quickened when he was\nraised from the dead, quickened together with him.\n\n5. Nor are we thus considered--to wit, as dying and rising, and so\nleft; but the apostle pursues his argument, and tells us that we\nalso reap by him, as being considered in him, the benefit which\nChrist received, both in order to his resurrection, and the blessed\neffect thereof.\n\n(1.) We received, by our thus being counted in him, that benefit\nwhich did precede his rising from the dead; and what was that but\nthe forgiveness of sins? For this stands clear to reason, that if\nChrist had our sins charged upon him at his death, he then must\nbe discharged of them in order to his resurrection. Now, though it\nis not proper to say they were forgiven to him, because they were\npurged from him by merit; yet they may be said to be forgiven us,\nbecause we receive this benefit by grace. And this, I say, was done\nprecedent to his resurrection from the dead. 'He hath quickened\nus together with him, HAVING forgiven us all trespasses.' He could\nnot be 'quickened' till we were 'discharged'; because it was not\nfor himself, but for us, that he died. Hence we are said to be at\nthat time, as to our own personal estate, dead in our sins, even\nwhen we are 'quickened together with him' (Col 2:13).\n\nTherefore both the 'quickening' and 'forgiveness' too, so far\nas we are in this text concerned, is to him, as we are considered\nin him, or to him, with respect to us. 'Having forgiven you ALL\ntrespasses.' For necessity so required; because else how was it\npossible that the pains of death should be loosed in order to his\nrising, so long as one sin stood still charged to him, as that for\nthe commission of which God had not received a plenary satisfaction?\nAs therefore we suffered, died, and rose again by him, so, in\norder to his so rising, he, as presenting of us in his person and\nsuffering, received for us remission of all our trespasses. A full\ndischarge therefore was, in and by Christ, received of God of all\nour sins afore he rose from the dead, as his resurrection truly\ndeclared; for he 'was delivered for our offences, and was raised\nagain for our justification' (Rom 4:25). This therefore is one\nof the privileges we receive by the rising again of our Lord, for\nthat we were in his flesh considered, yea, and in his death and\nsuffering too.\n\n(2.) By this means also we have now escaped death. 'Knowing that\nChrist being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more\ndominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto,' or for, 'sin\nonce; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God' (Rom 6:9,10). Now\nin all this, considering what has been said before, we that are\nof the elect are privileged, for that we also are raised up by the\nrising of the body of Christ from the dead. And thus the apostle\nbids us reckon: 'Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead\nindeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ' (Rom 6:11).\nHence Christ says, 'I am the resurrection and the life,' for that\nall his are safe in him, suffering, dying, and rising. He is the\nlife, 'our life'; yea, so our life, that by him the elect do live\nbefore God, even then when as to themselves they yet are dead in\ntheir sins. Wherefore, hence it is that in time they partake of\nquickening grace from this their Head, to the making of them also\nlive by faith, in order to their living hereafter with him in glory;\nfor if Christ lives, they cannot die that were sharers with him in\nhis resurrection.[7] Hence they are said to 'live,' being 'quickened\ntogether with him.' Also, as sure as at his resurrection they lived\nby him, so sure at his coming shall they be gathered to him; nay,\nfrom that day to this, all that, as aforesaid, were in him at\nhis death and resurrection, are already, in the 'dispensation of\nthe fulness of times,' daily 'gathering to him.' For this he hath\npurposed, wherefore none can disannul it--'In the dispensation of\nthe fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in\nChrist, both which are in heaven and which are in earth; even in\nhim' (Eph 1:10).\n\n(3.) To secure this the more to our faith that believe, as we are\nsaid to be 'raised up together' with him, so we are said to be 'made\nto sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' (Eph 2:6). We\ndied by him, we rose by him, and are together, even all the elect,\nset down 'together' in 'heavenly places in Christ Jesus'; for still,\neven now he is on the right hand of God, he is to be considered as\nour public man, our Head, and so one in whom is concluded all the\nelect of God. We then are by him already in heaven; in heaven,\nI say, by him; yea, set down there in our places of glory by him.\nHence the apostle, speaking of us again, saith, That as we are\npredestinate, we are called, justified, and glorified; called,\njustified, glorified; all is done, already done, as thus considered\nin Christ (Rom 8:30). For that in his public work there is nothing\nyet to do as to this. Is not HE called? Is not HE justified? Is not\nHE glorified? And are we not in him, in him, even as so considered?\n\nNor doth this doctrine hinder or forestal the doctrine of\nregeneration or conversion; nay, it lays a foundation for it; for\nby this doctrine we gather assurance that Christ will have his own;\nfor if already they live in their head, what is that but a pledge\nthat they shall live in their persons with him? and, consequently,\nthat to that end they shall, in the times allotted for that end,\nbe called to a state of faith, which God has ordained shall precede\nand go before their personal enjoyment of glory. Nor doth this\nhinder their partaking of the symbol of regeneration,[8] and of\ntheir other privileges to which they are called in the day of grace;\nyea, it lays a foundation for all these things; for if I am dead\nwith Christ, let me be like one dead with him, even to all things\nto which Christ died when he hanged on the tree; and then he died\nto sin, to the law, and to the rudiments of this world (Rom 6:10,\n7:4; Col 2:20). And if I be risen with Christ, let me live, like\none born from the dead, in newness of life, and having my mind\nand affections on the things where Christ now sitteth on the right\nhand of God. And indeed he professes in vain that talketh of these\nthings, and careth not to have them also answered in himself. This\nwas the apostle's way, namely, to covet to 'know him, and the power\nof his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being\nmade conformable unto his death' (Phil 3:10). And when we are thus,\nthat thing is true both in him and us. Then as is the heavenly,\nsuch are they that are heavenly; for he that saith he is in him,\nand by being in him, a partaker of these privileges by him, 'ought\nhimself also so to walk, even as he walked' (1 Cor 15:48; 1 John\n2:6).\n\nBut to pass this digression, and to come to my argument, namely,\nthat men are justified from the curse of the law, before God, while\nsinners in themselves; this is evident by what hath already been\nsaid; for if the justification of their persons is by, in, and\nthrough Christ; then it is not by, in, and through their own doings.\nNor was Christ engaged in this work but of necessity, even because\nelse there had not been salvation for the elect. 'O my father,'\nsaith he, 'if it be possible, let this cup pass from me' (Matt\n26:39). If what be possible? Why, that my elect may be saved, and\nI not spill my blood. Wherefore he saith again, Christ ought to\nsuffer (Luke 24:26). 'Christ must needs have suffered,' for 'without\nshedding of blood is no remission' of sin (Acts 17:3; Heb 9:22).[9]\n\n[Proofs of the first position.]\n\nSECOND. We will now come to the present state and condition of those\nthat are justified; I mean with respect to their own qualifications,\nand so prove the truth of this our great position. And this I\nwill do, by giving of you plain texts that discover it, and that\nconsequently prove our point. And after that, by giving of you\nreasons drawn from the texts.\n\nFirst. 'Speak not thou in thine heart,' no, not in thine heart,\n'after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out [thine enemies] before\nthee, saying, For my righteousness--do I possess this land.--Not\nfor thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost\nthou go to possess their land.--Understand, therefore, that the\nLord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy\nrighteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people' (Deut 9:4-6).\n\nIn these words, very pat for our purpose, two things are worthy\nour consideration. 1. The people here spoken to were the people\nof God; and so by God himself are they here twice acknowledged to\nbe--'The Lord thy God, the Lord thy God.' So then, the righteousness\nhere intended is not the righteousness that is in the world, but\nthat which the people of God perform. 2. The righteousness here\nintended is not some, but all, and every whit of that the church\nperforms to God: Say not in thine heart, after the Lord hath brought\nthee in, It was for my righteousness. No, all thy righteousness,\nfrom Egypt to Canaan, will not purchase Canaan for thee.\n\nThat this is true is evident, because it is thrice rejected--Not\nfor thy righteousness--not for thy righteousness--not for thy\nrighteousness, dost thou possess the land. Now, if the righteousness\nof the people of God of old could not merit for them Canaan, which\nwas but a type of heaven, how can the righteousness of the world\nnow obtain heaven itself? I say again, if godly men, as these were,\ncould not by their works purchase the type of heaven, then must\nthe ungodly be justified, if ever they be justified from the curse\nand sentence of the law, while sinners in themselves. The argument\nis clear; for if good men, by what they do, cannot merit the less,\nbad men, by what they do, cannot merit more.\n\nSecond. 'Remember me, O my God, concerning this; and wipe not out\nmy good deeds that I have done' (Neh 13:14).\n\nThese words were spoken by holy Nehemiah, and that at the end of\nall the good that we read he did in the world. Also, the deeds here\nspoken of were deeds done for God, for his people, for his house,\nand for the offices thereof. Yet godly Nehemiah durst not stand\nbefore God in these, nor yet suffer them to stand to his judgment\nby the law; but prays to God to be merciful both to him and them,\nand to spare him 'according to the greatness of his mercy' (v 22).\n\nGod blots out no good but for the sake of sin;[10] and forasmuch\nas this man prays God would not blot out his, it is evident that\nhe was conscious to himself that in his good works were sin. Now,\nI say, if a good man's works are in danger of being overthrown\nbecause there is in them a tang of sin, how can bad men think to\nstand just before God in their works, which are in all parts full\nof sin? Yea, if the works of a sanctified man are blameworthy, how\nshall the works of a bad man set him clear in the eyes of Divine\njustice?\n\nThird. 'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our\nrighteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf;\nand our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away' (Isa 64:6).\n\nIn these words we have a relation both of persons and things. 1.\nOf persons. And they are a righteous people, a righteous people\nput all together--'We, we all are,' &c. 2. The condition of this\npeople, even of ALL of them, take them at the best, are, and that by\ntheir own confession, 'as an unclean thing.' 3. Again; the things\nhere attending this people are their good things, put down under\nthis large character, 'Righteousnesses, ALL our righteousnesses.'\n\nThese expressions therefore comprehend all their religious duties,\nboth before and after faith too. But what are all these righteousnesses?\nWhy, they are all as 'filthy rags' when set before the justice of\nthe law; yea, it is also confessed, and that by these people, that\ntheir iniquities, notwithstanding all their righteousnesses, like\nthe wind, if grace prevent not, would 'carry them away.' This\nbeing so, how is it possible for one that is in his sins, to work\nhimself into a spotless condition by works done before faith,\nby works done by natural abilities? or to perform a righteousness\nwhich is able to look God in the face, his law in the face, and\nto demand and obtain the forgiveness of sins, and the life that is\neternal? It cannot be: 'men must therefore be justified from the\ncurse, in the sight of God while sinners in themselves,' or not at\nall.[11]\n\nFourth. 'There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and\nsinneth not' (Eccl 7:20; 1 Kings 8:46).\n\nAlthough the words before are large, yet these seem far larger;\nthere is not a man, not a just man, not a just man upon the earth,\nthat doeth good, and sinneth not. Now, if no good man, if no good\nman upon earth doth good, and sinneth not; then no good man upon\nearth can set himself by his own actions justified in the sight of\nGod, for he has sin mixed with his good. How then shall a bad man,\nany bad man, the best bad man upon earth, think to set himself by\nhis best things just in the sight of God? And if the tree makes\nthe fruit either good or evil, then a bad tree--and a bad man is\na bad tree--can bring forth no good fruit, how then shall such an\none do that that shall 'cleanse him from his sin,' and set him as\n'spotless before the face of God?' (Matt 7:16).\n\nFifth. 'Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from\nrighteousness: I bring near my righteousness,' &c. (Isa 46:12-13).\n\n1. This call is general, and so proves, whatever men think of themselves,\nthat in the judgment of God there is none at all righteous. Men,\nas men, are far from being so. 2. This general offer of righteousness,\nof the righteousness of God, declares that it is in vain for men to\nthink to be set just and righteous before God by any other means.\n3. There is here also insinuated, that for him that thinks himself\nthe worst, God has prepared a righteousness, and therefore would not\nhave him despair of life that sees himself far from righteousness.\nFrom all these scriptures, therefore, it is manifest, 'that men\nmust be justified from the curse of the law, in the sight of God,\nwhile sinners in themselves.'\n\nSixth. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and\nI will give you rest' (Matt 11:28).\n\nHere we have a labouring people, a people labouring for life; but\nby all their labour, you see, they cannot ease themselves; their\nburden still remains upon them; they yet are heavy laden. The load\nhere is, doubtless, guilt of sin, such as David had when he said\nby reason thereof, he was not able to look up (Psa 38:3-5). Hence,\ntherefore, you have an experiment set before you of those that are\ntrying what they can do for life; but behold, the more they stir,\nthe more they sink under the weight of the burden that lies upon\nthem.[12] And the conclusion--to wit, Christ's call to them to come\nto him for rest--declares that, in his judgment, rest was not to\nbe had elsewhere. And I think, one may with as much safety adhere\nto Christ's judgment as to any man's alive; wherefore, 'men must\nbe justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in\nthemselves.'\n\nSeventh. 'There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that\nunderstandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all\ngone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there\nis none that doeth good, no, not one' (Rom 3:10-12).\n\nThese words have respect to a righteousness which is justified by\nthe law; and they conclude that none by his own performances is\nrighteous with such a righteousness; and it is concluded from five\nreasons--1. Because they are not good; for a man must be good\nbefore he doth good, and perfectly good before he doth good and\nsinneth not. 2. Because they understand not. How then should they\ndo good? for a man must know before he does, else how should he\ndivert[13] himself to do? 3. Because they want a heart; they seek\nnot after God according to the way of his own appointment. 4. They\nare all gone out of the way; how then can they walk therein? 5.\nThey are together become unprofitable. What worth or value then can\nthere be in any of their doings? These are the reasons by which\nhe proveth that there is 'none righteous, no, not one.' And the\nreasons are weighty, for by them he proves the tree is not good;\nhow then can it yield good fruit?\n\nNow, as he concludes from these five reasons that not one indeed\nis righteous, so he concludes by five more that none can do good to\nmake him so--1. For that internally they are as an open sepulchre,\nas full of dead men's bones. Their minds and consciences are defiled;\nhow then can sweet and good proceed from thence? (v 13). 2. Their\nthroat is filled with this stink; all their vocal duties therefore\nsmell thereof. 3. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;\nhow then can there be found one word that should please God? 4.\nTheir tongue, which should present their praise to God, has been\nused to work deceit; how then, until it is made a new one, should\nit speak in righteousness? 5. The poison of asps is under their lips;\ntherefore whatever comes from them must be polluted (Rom 3:11-14;\nMatt 23:27; Titus 1:15; Jer 44:17, 17:9). Thus, you see, he sets\nforth their internal part, which being a true report, as to be sure\nit is, it is impossible that any good should so much as be framed\nin such an inward part, or come clean out of such a throat, by such\na tongue, through such lips as these.\n\nAnd yet this is not all. He also proves, and that by five reasons\nmore, that it is not possible they should do good--1. 'Their feet\nare swift to shed blood' (Rom 3:15). This implies an inclination,\nan inward inclination to evil courses; a quickness of motion to\ndo evil, but a backwardness to do good. 2. 'Destruction and misery\nare in their ways' (v16). Take 'ways' for their 'doings,' and in\nthe best of them destruction lurks, and misery yet follows them at\nthe heels. 3. 'The way of peace have they not known'; that is far\nabove out of their sight (v 17). Wherefore the labour of these\nfoolish ones will weary every one of them, because they know not\nthe way that goes to the city (Eccl 10:15). 4. 'There is no fear\nof God before their eyes' (v 18). How then can they do anything\nwith that godly reverence of his holy Majesty that is and must be\nessential to every good work? for to do things, but not in God's\nfear, to what will it amount? will it avail? 5. All this while they\nare under a law that calls for works that are perfectly good; that\nwill accept of none but what are perfectly good; and that will\ncertainly condemn them because they neither are nor can be perfectly\ngood. 'For what things soever the law saith, it saith it to them\nwho are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all\nthe world may become guilty before God' (v 19).\n\nThus you see that Paul here proves, by fifteen reasons, that none\nare, nor can be, righteous before God by works that they can do;\ntherefore 'men must be justified from the curse, in the sight of\nGod, while sinners in themselves.'\n\nEighth. 'But now the righteousness of God without the law is\nmanifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets' (v 21).\n\nThis text utterly excludes the law--what law? The law of works,\nthe moral law, (v 27)--and makes mention of another righteousness,\neven a righteousness of God; for the righteousness of the law is\nthe righteousness of men, men's 'own righteousness' (Phil 3:9).\nNow, if the law, as to a justifying righteousness, is rejected;\nthen the very matter upon and by which man should work is rejected;\nand if so, then he must be justified by the righteousness of\nGod, or not at all; for he must be justified by a righteousness\nthat is without the law; to wit, the righteousness of God. Now,\nthis righteousness of God, whatever it is, to be sure it is not a\nrighteousness that flows from men; for that, as I said, is rejected,\nand the righteousness of God opposed unto it, being called\na righteousness that is without the law, without our personal\nobedience to it. The righteousness of God, or a righteousness of\nGod's completing, a righteousness of God's bestowing, a righteousness\nthat God also gives unto, and puts upon all them that believe (Rom\n3:22), a righteousness that stands in the works of Christ, and that\nis imputed both by the grace and justice of God (v 24-26). Where,\nnow, is room for man's righteousness, either in the whole, or as\nto any part thereof? I say, where, as to justification with God?\n\nNinth. 'What shall we then say that Abraham, our father as pertaining\nto the flesh, hath found?' (Rom 4:1)\n\nNow, the apostle is at the root of the matter; for Abraham is\ncounted the father of the faithful; consequently, the man whose\nway of attaining justification must needs be exemplary to all the\nchildren of Abraham. Now, the question is, how Abraham found? how\nhe found that which some of his children sought and missed? (Rom\n9:32); that is, how he found justifying righteousness; for it was\nthat which Israel sought and attained not unto (11:7). 'Did he\nfind it,' saith Paul, 'by the flesh?' or, as he was in the flesh?\nor, by acts and works of the flesh? But what are they? why, the\nnext verse tells you 'they are the works of the law' (Rom 4).\n\n'If Abraham was justified by works'; that is, as pertaining to the\nflesh; for the works of the law are none other but the best sort\nof the works of the flesh. And so Paul calls all they that he had\nbefore his conversion to Christ: 'If any other man,' saith he,\n'thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.'\nAnd then he counteth up several of his privileges, to which he at\nlast adjoineth the righteousness of the moral law, saying, 'Touching\nthe righteousness which is in the law, [I was] blameless' (Phil\n3:4-6). And it is proper to call the righteousness of the law the\nwork of the flesh, because it is the work of a man, of a man in\nthe flesh; for the Holy Ghost doth not attend the law, or the work\nthereof, as to this, in man, as man; that has confined itself to\nanother ministration, whose glorious name it bears (2 Cor 3:8).\nI say it is proper to call the works of the law the works of the\nflesh, because they are done by that self-same nature in and out of\nwhich comes all those things that are more grossly so called (Gal\n5:19,20); to wit, from the corrupt fountain of fallen man's polluted\nnature (James 3:10).\n\nThis, saith Paul, was not the righteousness by which Abraham found\njustification with God--'For if Abraham was justified by works,\nhe hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the\nScripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for\nrighteousness' (Rom 4:2-3). This 'believing' is also set in flat\nopposition to 'works,' and to the 'law of works'; wherefore, upon\npain of great contempt to God, it must not be reckoned as a work\nto justify withal, but rather as that which receiveth and applieth\nthat righteousness. From all this, therefore, it is manifest 'that\nmen must be justified from the curse of the law, in the sight of\nGod, while sinners in themselves.' But,\n\nTenth. 'Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace,\nbut of debt' (Rom 4:4).\n\nThese words do not only back what went before, as to the rejection\nof the law for righteousness as to justification with God, but supposing\nthe law was of force to justify, life must not be admitted to come\nthat way, because of the evil consequences that will unavoidably\nflow therefrom. 1. By this means, grace, and justification by grace,\nwould be rejected; and that would be a foul business; it would not\nbe reckoned of grace. 2. By this, God would become the debtor, and\nso the underling; and so we in this the more honourable.\n\nIt would not be reckoned of grace, but of debt; and what would follow\nfrom hence? Why, (1.) By this we should frustrate the design of\nHeaven, which is, to justify us freely by grace, through a redemption\nbrought in by Christ (Rom 3:24-26; Eph 2:8-13). (2.) By this we\nshould make ourselves the saviours, and jostle Christ quite out of\ndoors (Gal 5:2-4). (3.) We should have heaven at our own dispose,\nas a debt, not by promise, and so not be beholden to God for it (Gal\n3:18). It must, then, be of grace, not of works, for the preventing\nof these evils.\n\nAgain, it must not be of works, because if it should, then God would\nbe the debtor, and we the creditor. Now, much blasphemy would flow\nfrom hence; as, (1.) God himself would not be his own to dispose\nof; for the inheritance being God, as well as his kingdom (for so\nit is written, 'heirs of God' (Rom 8:17)), himself, I say, must\nneeds be our purchase. (2.) If so, then we have right to dispose\nof him, of his kingdom and glory, and all--'Be astonished, O heavens,\nat this!'--for if he be ours by works, then he is ours of debt; if\nhe be ours of debt, then he is ours by purchase; and then, again,\nif so, he is no longer his own, but ours, and at our disposal.\n\nTherefore, for these reasons, were there sufficiency in our personal\nworks to justify us, it would be even inconsistent with the being\nof God to suffer it. So then, 'men are justified from the curse,\nin the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.'\n\nEleventh. 'But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that\njustifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness'\n(Rom 4:5).\n\nThese words show how we must stand just in the sight of God from\nthe curse of the law, both as it respecteth justification itself,\nas also the instrument or means that receiveth that righteousness\nwhich justifieth.\n\n1. As for that righteousness that justifieth, it is not personal\nperformances in us; for the person here justified stands, in that\nrespect, as one that worketh not, as one that is ungodly. 2. As\nit respecteth the instrument that receiveth it, that faith, as in\nthe point of justifying righteousness, will not work, but believe,\nbut receive the works and righteousness of another; for works and\nfaith in this are set in opposition. He doth not work, he doth\nbelieve' (Gal 3:12). He worketh not, but believeth on him who\njustifieth us, ungodly. As Paul also saith in another place, The\nlaw is not of faith (Rom 10:5,6). And again, Works saith on this\nwise; faith, far different. The law saith, Do this, and live. But\nthe doctrine of faith saith, 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth\nthe Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath\nraised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart\nman believeth unto righteousness,' &c. (Rom 10:9,10).\n\nObject. But faith is counted for righteousness.\n\nAnsw. True, but yet consider, that by faith we do oft understand\nthe doctrine of remission of sins, as well as the act of believing.\n\nBut again; faith when it hath received the Lord Jesus, it hath\ndone that which pleaseth God; therefore, the very act of believing\nis the most noble in the world; believing sets the crown upon the\nhead of grace; it seals to the truth of the sufficiency of the\nrighteousness of Christ, and giveth all the glory to God (John\n3:33). And therefore it is a righteous act; but Christ himself,\nhe is the Righteousness that justifieth' (Rom 4:20,25). Besides,\nfaith is a relative, and hath its relation as such. Its relation\nis the righteousness that justifieth, which is therefore called the\nrighteousness of faith, or that with which faith hath to do (Rom\n10:6). Separate these two, and justification cannot be, because\nfaith now wants his righteousness. And hence it is you have so often\nsuch sayings as these--'He that believeth in me; he that believeth\non him; believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved'\n(John 6:35,40). Faith, then, as separate from Christ, doth nothing;\nnothing, neither with God nor man; because it wants its relative;\nbut let it go to the Lord Jesus--let it behold him as dying, &c.,\nand it fetches righteousness, and life, and peace out of the virtue\nof his blood, &c. (Acts 10:29,31,33). Or rather, sees it there as\nsufficient for me to stand just thereby in the sight of Eternal\nJustice For him 'God hath set forth to be a propitiation through\nfaith [belief] in his blood,' with intent to justify him that\nbelieveth in Jesus (Rom 3:25,26).\n\nTwelfth. 'Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man\nto whom God imputeth righteousness without works' (Rom 4:6).\n\nDid our adversaries understand this one text, they would not\nso boldly affirm, as they do, that the words, 'impute, imputed,\nimputeth, imputing,' &c., are not used in scripture but to express\nmen really and personally to be that which is imputed unto them;\nfor men are not really and personally faith, yet faith is imputed\nto men; nay, they are not really and personally sin, nor really and\npersonally righteousness, yet these are imputed to men: so, then,\nboth good things and bad may sometimes be imputed to men, yet\nthemselves be really and personally neither. But to come to the\npoint: what righteousness hath that man that hath no works? Doubtless\nnone of his own; yet God imputeth righteousness to him. Yea, what\nworks of that man doth God impute to him that he yet justifies as\nungodly?\n\nFurther, He that hath works as to justification from the curse before\nGod, not one of them is regarded of God; so, then, it mattereth\nnot whether thou hast righteousness of thine own, or none. 'Blessed\nis the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.'\nMan's blessedness, then, the blessedness of justification from the\ncurse in the sight of God, lieth not in good works done by us,\neither before or after faith received, but in a righteousness which\nGod imputeth without works; as we 'work not' as we 'are ungodly.'\n'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is\ncovered' (v 7). To forgive and to cover are acts of mercy, not the\ncause of our merit. Besides, where sin is real, there can be no\nperfect righteousness; but the way of justification must be through\nperfect righteousness, therefore by another than our own, 'Blessed\nis the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (v 8). The first\ncause, then, of justification before God, dependeth upon the will\nof God, who will justify because he will; therefore the meritorious\ncause must also be of his own providing, else his will cannot\nherein be absolute; for if justification depend upon our personal\nperformances, then not upon the will of God. He may not have mercy\nupon whom he will, but on whom man's righteousness will give him leave.\nBut his will, not ours, must rule here; therefore his righteousness,\nand his only (Rom 9:15,18). So, then, 'men are justified from the\ncurse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.'\n\nHaving passed over these few scriptures, I shall come to particular\ninstances of persons who have been justified; and shall briefly\ntouch their qualifications in the act of God's justifying them.\nFirst, By the Old Testament types. Second, By the New.\n\n[First Position illustrated by Scripture types.]\n\nFirst. By the Old [Testament types]. First. 'Unto Adam also and to\nhis wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them'\n(Gen 3:21).\n\nIn the beginning of this chapter you find these two persons reasoning\nwith the serpent, the effect of which discourse was, they take of\nthe forbidden fruit, and so break the command of God (vv 7-15).\nThis done, they hide themselves, and cover their nakedness with\naprons. But God finds out their sin, from the highest branch even\nto the roots thereof. What followeth? Not one precept by which\nthey should by works obtain the favour of God, but the promise of\na Saviour; of which promise this twenty-first verse is a mystical\ninterpretation: 'The Lord God made them coats of skins, and clothed\nthem.'\n\nHence observe--1. That these coats were made, not before, but after\nthey had made themselves aprons; a plain proof their aprons were\nnot sufficient to hide their shame from the sight of God. 2. These\ncoats were made, not of Adam's inherent righteousness, for that\nwas lost before by sin, but of the skins of the slain, types of the\ndeath of Christ, and of the righteousness brought in thereby--'By\nwhose stripes we are healed' (Isa 53).[14] 3. This is further\nmanifest; for the coats, God made them; and for the persons, God\nclothed them therewith; to show that as the righteousness by which\nwe must stand just before God from the curse is a righteousness of\nChrist's performing, not of theirs; so he, not they, must put it on\nthem also, for of God we are in Christ, and of God his righteousness\nis made ours (1 Cor 1:30).\n\nBut, I say, if you would see their antecedent qualifications, you\nfind them under two heads--rebellion [and] hypocrisy. Rebellion,\nin breaking God's command; hypocrisy, in seeking how to hide their\nfaults from God. Expound this by gospel language, and then it\nshows 'that men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God,\nwhile sinners in themselves.'\n\nSecond. 'The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering' (Gen\n4:4).\n\nBy these words we find the person first accepted: 'The Lord\nhad respect unto Abel.' And indeed, where the person is not first\naccepted, the offering will not be pleasing; the altar sanctifies\nthe gift, and the temple sanctifieth the gold; so the person, the\ncondition of the person, is that which makes the offering either\npleasing or despising (Matt 23:16-21). In the epistle to the\nHebrews it is said, 'By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent\nsacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was\nrighteous' (Heb 11:4). Righteous before he offered his gift, as\nhis sacrifice testified; for God accepted of it.\n\n'By faith he offered.' Wherefore faith was precedent, or before\nhe offered. Now faith hath to do with God through Christ; not with\nhim through our works of righteousness. Besides, Abel was righteous\nbefore he offered, before he did do good, otherwise God would not\nhave testified of his gift. 'By faith he obtained witness that he\nwas righteous,' for God approved of his gifts. Now faith, I say,\nas to our standing quit before the Father, respects the promise\nof forgiveness of sins through the undertaking of the Lord Jesus.\nWherefore Abel's faith as to justifying righteousness before God\nlooked not forward to what should be done by himself, but back to\nthe promise of the seed of the woman, that was to destroy the power\nof hell, and 'to redeem them that were under the law' (Gen 3:15;\nGal 4:4,5). By this faith he shrouds himself under the promise of\nvictory, and the merits of the Lord Jesus. Now being there, God\nfinds him righteous; and being righteous, 'he offered to God a\nmore excellent sacrifice than his brother'; for Cain's person was\nnot first accepted through the righteousness of faith going before,\nalthough he seemed foremost as to personal acts of righteousness\n(Gen 4). Abel therefore was righteous before he did good works;\nbut that could not be but alone through that respect God had to him\nfor the sake of the Messias promised before (3:15). But the Lord's\nso respecting Abel presupposeth that at that time he stood in\nhimself by the law a sinner, otherwise he needed not to be respected\nfor and upon the account of another. Yea, Abel also, forasmuch as\nhe acted faith before he offered sacrifice, must thereby entirely\nrespect the promise, which promise was not grounded upon a condition\nof works to be found in Abel, but in and for the sake of the seed\nof the woman, which is Christ; which promise he believed, and so\ntook it for granted that this Christ should break the serpent's\nhead--that is, destroy by himself the works of the devil; to wit,\nsin, death, the curse, and hell (Gal 4:4). By this faith he stood\nbefore God righteous, because he had put on Christ; and being thus,\nhe offered; by which act of faith God declared he was pleased with\nhim, because he accepted of his sacrifice.\n\nThird. 'And the Lord said unto her, The elder shall serve the\nyounger' (Gen 25:23).\n\nThese words, after Paul's exposition, are to be understood of\njustification in the sight of God, according to the purpose and\ndecree of electing love, which had so determined long before, that\none of these children should be received to eternal grace; but mark,\nnot by works of righteousness which they should do, but 'before\nthey had done either good or evil'; otherwise 'the purpose of God\naccording to election,' not of works, but of him that calleth,\n'could not stand,' but fall in pieces (Rom 9:10-12). But none are\nreceived into eternal mercy but such as are just before the Lord\nby a righteousness that is complete; and Jacob having done no good,\ncould by no means have that of his own, and therefore it must be\nby some other righteousness, 'and so himself be justified from the\ncurse, in the sight of God, while a sinner in himself.'\n\nFourth. The same may be said concerning Solomon, whom the Lord\nloved with special love, as soon as born into the world; which he\nalso confirmed with signal characters. 'He sent,' saith the Holy\nGhost, 'by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name\nJedidiah, because the Lord loved him (2 Sam 12:24,25).[15] Was\nthis love of God extended to him because of his personal virtues?\nNo, verily; for he was yet an infant.[16] He was justified then in\nthe sight of God from the curse by another than his own righteousness.\n\nFifth. 'And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine\nown blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea,\nI said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live' (Eze 16:6).\n\nThe state of this people you have in the former verses described,\nboth as to their rise and practice in the world (vv 1-5). 1. As\nto their rise. Their original was the same with Canaan, the men of\nGod's curse (Gen 9:25). 'Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land\nof Canaan'; the same with other carnal men (Rom 3:9). 'Thy father\nwas an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite' (Eze 16:3). Their\ncondition, that is showed us by this emblem--(1.) They had not been\nwashed in water. (2.) They had not been swaddled. (3.) They had\nnot been salted. (4.) They brought filth with them into the world.\n(5.) They lay stinking in their cradle. (6.) They were without\nstrength to help themselves. Thus they appear and come by generation.\n2. Again, as to their practice--(1.) They polluted themselves in\ntheir own blood. (2.) They so continued till God passed by--'And when\nI passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood';--'in\nthy blood, in thy blood'; it is doubled. Thus we see they were\npolluted born, they continued in their blood till the day that the\nLord looked upon them; polluted, I say, to the loathing of their\npersons, &c. Now this was the time of love--'And when I passed by\nthee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee\nwhen thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou\nwast in thy blood, Live' (Eze 16:6).\n\nQuest. But how could a holy God say, 'Live,' to such a sinful\npeople?\n\nAnsw. Though they had nought but sin, yet he had love and righteousness.\nHe had love to pity them; righteousness to cover them--'Now when\nI passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the\ntime of love' (Eze 16:8). What follows? (1) 'I spread my skirt\nover thee'; and (2) 'Covered thy nakedness'; yea, (3) 'I sware unto\nthee'; and (4) 'Entered into covenant with thee'; and (5) 'Thou\nbecamest mine.' My love pitied thee; my skirt covered thee. Thus\nGod delivered them from the curse in his sight. 'Then I washed thee\nwith water, after thou wast justified; yea, I thoroughly washed\naway thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil' (v 9).\n\nSanctification, then, is consequential, justification goes before.\nThe Holy Ghost by this scripture setteth forth to the life, free\ngrace to the sons of men, while they themselves are sinners. I say,\nwhile they are unwashed, unswaddled, unsalted, but bloody sinners;\nfor by these words, 'not washed, not salted, not swaddled,' he\nsetteth forth their unsanctified state; yea, they were not only\nunsanctified, but also cast out, without pity, to the loathing of\ntheir persons; yea, 'no eye pitied them, to do any of these things\nfor them'; no eye but his, whose glorious grace is unsearchable;\nno eye but his, who could look and love; all others looked and\nloathed; but blessed be God that hath passed by us in that day\nthat we wallowed in our own blood; and blessed be God for the skirt\nof his glorious righteousness wherewith he covered us when we lay\nbefore him naked in blood. It was when we were in our blood that\nhe loved us; when we were in our blood he said, Live. Therefore,\n'men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while\nsinners in themselves.'\n\nSixth. 'Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood\nbefore the angel' (Zech 3:3).\n\nThe standing of Joshua here is as men used to stand that were\narraigned before a judge. 'Joshua stood before the angel of the\nLord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him' (v 1).\nThe same posture as Judas stood in when he was to be condemned. 'Set\nthou,' said David, 'a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at\nhis right hand' (Psa 109:6). Thus, therefore, Joshua stood. Now\nJoshua was clothed, not with righteousness, but with filthy rags!\nSin upon him, and Satan by him, and this before the angel! What\nmust he do now? Go away? No; there he must stand! Can he speak for\nhimself? Not a word; guilt had made him dumb! (Isa 53:12). Had he\nno place clean? No; he was clothed with filthy garments! But his\nlot was to stand before Jesus Christ, that maketh intercession\nfor transgressors. 'And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke\nthee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke\nthee' (Zech 3:2). Thus Christ saveth from present condemnation\nthose that be still in their sin and blood.[17]\n\nBut is he now quit? No; he standeth yet in filthy garments; neither\ncan he, by aught that is in him, or done by him, clear himself from\nhim. How then? Why, the Lord clothes him with change of raiment.\nThe iniquities were his own, the raiment was the Lord's. 'This is\nthe heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness\nis of me, saith the Lord' (Isa 54:17). We will not here discourse\nof Joshua's sin, what it was, or when committed; it is enough to\nour purpose that he was clothed with filthy garments; and that the\nLord made a change with him, by causing his iniquity to pass from\nhim, and by clothing him with change of raiment. But what had\nJoshua antecedent to this glorious and heavenly clothing? The devil\nat his right hand to resist him, and himself in filthy garments.\n'Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the\nangel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him,\nsaying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he\nsaid, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and\nI will clothe thee with change of raiment' (Zech 3: 3,4).\n\nSecond. But to pass [from] the Old Testament types, and to come to\nthe New.\n\nFirst. 'And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed\nwith the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus\nsuffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and\ntell them how great things God hath done for thee, and hath had\ncompassion on thee' (Mark 5:18,19).\n\nThe present state of this man is sufficiently declared in these\nparticulars--1. He was possessed with a devil; with devils, with\nmany; with a whole legion, which some say is six thousand, or\nthereabouts (Matt 8). 2. These devils had so the mastery of him\nas to drive him from place to place into the wilderness among the\nmountains, and so to dwell in the tombs among the dead (Luke 8). 3.\nHe was out of his wits; he would cut his flesh, break his chains;\nnay, 'no man could tame him' (Mark 5:4-5). 4. When he saw Jesus, the\ndevil in him, as being lord and governor there, cried out against\nthe Lord Jesus (v 7). In all this, what qualification shows itself\nas precedent to justification? None but such as devils work, or as\nrank bedlams have. Yet this poor man was dispossessed, taken into\nGod's compassion, and was bid to show it to the world. 'Go home\nto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done\nfor thee, and hath had compassion on thee' (v 19); which last words,\nbecause they are added over and above his being dispossessed of\nthe devils, I understand to be the fruit of electing love. 'I will\nhave compassion on whom I will have compassion,' which blesseth\nus with the mercy of a justifying righteousness; and all this, as\nby this is manifest, without the least precedent qualification of\nours.\n\nSecond. 'And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them\nboth' (Luke 7:42).\n\nThe occasion of these words was, for that the Pharisee murmured\nagainst the woman that washed Jesus' feet, because 'she was a sinner';\nfor so said the Pharisee, and so saith the Holy Ghost (v 37). But,\nsaith Christ, Simon, I will ask thee a question, 'A certain man\nhad two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other\nfifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them\nboth' (v 38).\n\nHence I gather these conclusions--1. That men that are wedded to their\nown righteousness understand not the doctrine of the forgiveness of\nsins. This is manifested by the poor Pharisee; he objected against\nthe woman because she was a sinner. 2. Let Pharisees murmur still,\nyet Christ hath pity and mercy for sinners. 3. Yet Jesus doth not\nusually manifest mercy until the sinner hath nothing to pay. 'And\nwhen they had nothing to pay, he frankly,' or freely, or heartily,\n'forgave them both.' If they had nothing to pay, then they were\nsinners; but he forgiveth no man but with respect to a righteousness;\ntherefore that righteousness must be another's; for in the very\nact of mercy they are found sinners. They had nothing but debt,\nnothing but sin, nothing to pay [with]. Then they were 'justified\nfreely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ\nJesus.' So, then, 'men are justified from the curse, in the sight\nof God, while sinners in themselves.'\n\nThird. 'And when he saw their faith, he said unto the man, Thy sins\nare forgiven thee' (Luke 5:20).\n\nThis man had not righteousness to stand just before God withal,\nfor his sins as yet remained unforgiven; wherefore, seeing guilt\nremained until Christ remitted him, he was discharged while ungodly.\nAnd observe it, the faith here mentioned is not to be reckoned so\nmuch the man's, as the faith of them that brought him; neither did\nit reach to the forgiveness of sins, but to the miracle of healing;\nyet this man, in this condition, had his sins forgiven him.\n\nBut again; set the case, the faith was only his, as it was not,\nand that it reached to the doctrine of forgiveness, yet it did it\nwithout respect to righteousness in himself; for guilt lay still\nupon him, he had now his sins forgiven him. But this act of grace\nwas a surprisal; it was unlooked for. 'I am found of them that\nsought me not' (Isa 65:1). They came for one thing, he gave them\nanother; they came for a cure upon his body, but, to their amazement,\nhe cured first his soul. 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' Besides,\nto have his sins forgiven betokeneth an act of grace; but grace\nand works as to this are opposite (Rom 11:6). Therefore 'men are\njustified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in\nthemselves.'\n\nFourth. 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight,\nand am no more worthy to be called thy son' (Luke 15:21).\n\nWhat this man was is sufficiently declared in verse 13, &c. As 1.\nA riotous spender of all--of time, talent, body, and soul. 2. He\nadded to this his rebellion, great contempt of his father's house--he\njoined himself to a stranger, and became an associate with swine (vv\n15,17). At last, indeed, he came to himself. But then observe--(1.) He\nsought not justification by personal performances of his own; (2.)\nNeither did he mitigate his wickedness; (3.) Nor excuse himself\nbefore his father; but first resolveth to confess his sin; and\ncoming to his father, did confess it, and that with aggravating\ncircumstances. 'I have sinned against heaven; I have sinned against\nthee; I am no more worthy to be called thy son' (v 18). Now what\nhe said was true or false. If true, then he had not righteousness.\nIf false, he could not stand just in the sight of his father\nby virtue of his own performances. And, indeed, the sequel of the\nparable clears it. His 'father said to his servant, Bring forth\nthe best robe,' the justifying righteousness, 'and put it on him;\nand put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet' (v 22). This best\nrobe, then, being in the father's house, was not in the prodigal's\nheart; neither stayed the father for further qualifications, but\nput it upon him as he was, surrounded with sin and oppressed with\nguilt. Therefore 'men are justified from the curse, in the sight\nof God, while sinners in themselves.'\n\nFifth. 'For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which\nwas lost' (Luke 19:10).\n\nThe occasion of these words was, for that the Pharisees murmured\nbecause 'Jesus was gone to be guest to one that was a sinner,' yea,\na sinner of the publicans, and are most fitly applied to the case\nin hand. For though Zaccheus climbed the tree, yet Jesus Christ\nfound him first, and called him down by his name; adding withal,\n'For to-day I must abide at thy house' (v 5); which being opened\nby verse 9, is as much as to say, I am come to be thy salvation.\nNow this being believed by Zaccheus, 'he made haste and came down,\nand received him joyfully.' And not only so, but to declare to all\nthe simplicity of his faith, and that he unfeignedly accepted of\nthis word of salvation, he said unto the Lord, and that before all\npresent, 'Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor;\nand if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation,' a\nsupposition intimating an affirmative, 'I restore him fourfold.'[18]\nThis being thus, Christ doubleth his comfort, saying to him also,\nand that before the people, 'This day is salvation come to this\nhouse.' Then, by adding the next words, he expounds the whole of\nthe matter, 'For I am come to seek and save that which was lost';\nto seek it till I find it, to save it when I find it. He finds\nthem that sought him not (Rom 10:20); and saith, Zaccheus, Behold\nme! to a people that asked not after him. So, then, seeing Jesus\nfindeth this publican first, preaching salvation to him before he\ncame down from the tree, it is evident he received this as he was\na sinner; from which faith flowed his following words and works as\na consequence.\n\nSixth. 'Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt\nthou be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43).\n\nThis was spoken to the thief upon the cross, who had lived in\nwickedness all his days; neither had he so much as truly repented--no,\nnot till he came to die; nay, when he first was hanged he then fell\nto railing on Christ; for though Luke leaves it out, beginning but\nat his conversion; yet by Matthew's relating the whole tragedy,\nwe find him at first as bad as the other (Matt 27:44). This man,\nthen, had no moral righteousness, for he had lived in the breach\nof the law of God. Indeed, by faith he believed Christ to be King,\nand that when dying with him. But what was this to a personal\nperforming the commandments? or of restoring what he had oft taken\naway? Yea, he confesseth his death to be just for his sin; and so\nleaning upon the mediation of Christ he goeth out of the world. Now\nhe that truly confesseth and acknowledgeth his sin, acknowledgeth\nalso the curse to be due thereto from the righteous hand of God. So\nthen, where the curse of God is due, that man wanteth righteousness.\nBesides, he that makes to another for help, hath by that condemned\nhis own, had he any, of utter insufficiency. But all these did\nthis poor creature; wherefore he must stand 'just from the law in\nthe sight of God, while sinful in himself.'\n\nSeventh. 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' (Acts 9:6).\n\nWhat wilt thou have me to do? Ignorance is here set forth to the\nfull. Paul hitherto knew not Jesus, neither what he would have him\nto do; yet a mighty man for the law of works, and for zeal towards\nGod according to that. Thus you see that he neither knew that Christ\nwas Lord, nor what was his mind and will--'I did it ignorantly, in\nunbelief' (1 Tim 1:13-15). I did not know him; I did not believe\nhe was to save us; I thought I must be saved by living righteously,\nby keeping the law of God. This thought kept me ignorant of Jesus,\nand of justification from the curse by him. Poor Saul! how many\nfellows hast thou yet alive!--every man zealous of the law of works,\nyet none of them know the law of grace; each of them seeking for\nlife by doing the law, when life is to be had by nought but believing\nin Jesus Christ.\n\nEighth. 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved'\n(Acts 16:31).\n\nA little before, we find Paul and Silas in the stocks for preaching\nof Jesus Christ; in the stocks, in the inward prison, by the hands\nof a sturdy jailer; but at midnight, while Paul and his companion\nsang praises to God, the foundations of the prison shook, and every\nman's bands were loosed. Now the jailer being awakened by the noise\nof this shaking, and supposing he had lost his prisoners, drew his\nsword, with intent to kill himself; 'But Paul cried out, Do thyself\nno harm; for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang\nin, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and\nbrought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'\n\nIn all this relation here is not aught that can justify the jailer.\nFor, 1. His whole life was idolatry, cruelty, and enmity to God.\nYea, 2. Even now, while the earthquake shook the prison, he had\nmurder in his heart--yea, and in his intentions too; murder, I\nsay, and that of a high nature, even to have killed his own body\nand soul at once.[19] Well, 3. When he began to shake under the\nfears of everlasting burnings, yet then his heart was wrapped up\nin ignorance as to the way of salvation by Jesus Christ: 'What must\nI do to be saved?' He knew not what; no, not he. His condition,\nthen, was this: he neither had righteousness to save him, nor knew\nhe how to get it. Now, what was Paul's answer? Why, 'Believe in the\nLord Jesus Christ,' look for righteousness in Christ, 'and then\nthou shalt be saved.' This, then, still holdeth true, 'men are\njustified from the curse, in the sight of God, whilst sinners in\nthemselves.'\n\n[Reasons for the first position drawn from the texts.]\n\nTHIRD. I should now come to the second conclusion, viz., that this\ncan be done by no other righteousness than that long ago performed\nby, and remaining with, the person of Christ. But before I speak to\nthat, I will a little further press this, by urging for it several\nreasons.\n\nThe First Reason.--Men must be justified from the curse while\nsinners in themselves, because by nature all are under sin--'All\nhave sinned, and come short of the glory of God. He hath concluded\nall in unbelief; he hath concluded all under sin' (Rom 3:23, 11:32;\nGal 3:22). Now having sinned, they are in body and soul defiled,\nand become an unclean thing. Wherefore, whatever they touch, with\nan intent to work out righteousness thereby, they defile that also\n(Titus 1:15; Lev 15:11; Isa 64:6). And hence, as I have said, all\nthe righteousness they seek to accomplish is but as a menstruous\ncloth and filthy rags; therefore they are sinners still.' Indeed,\nto some men's thinking, the Pharisee is holier than the Publican;\nbut in God's sight, in the eyes of Divine justice, they stand alike\ncondemned. 'All have sinned'; there is the poison! Therefore, as\nto God, without Christ, all throats are an open sepulchre (Matt\n23:27; Rom 3:13).\n\nThe world in general is divided into two sorts of sinners--the\nopen profane, and the man that seeks life by the works of the law.\nThe profane is judged by all; but the other by a few. Oh! but God\njudgeth him.\n\n1. For a hypocrite; because that notwithstanding he hath sinned,\nhe would be thought to be good and righteous. And hence it is\nthat Christ calls such kind of holy ones, 'Pharisees, hypocrites!\nPharisees hypocrites!' because by their gay outside they deceived\nthose that beheld them. But, saith he, God sees your hearts; you\nare but like painted sepulchres, within you are full of dead men's\nbones (Prov 30:12; Matt 23:27-30; Luke 11:26, 16:15). Such is the\nroot from whence flows all their righteousness. But doth the blind\nPharisee think his state is such? No; his thoughts of himself are\nfar otherwise--'God, I thank thee,' saith he, 'I am not as other\nmen, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican'\n(Luke 18:11,12). Aye, but still God judgeth him for a hypocrite.\n\n2. God judgeth him for one that spurneth against Christ, even by\nevery such work he doth. And hence it is, when Paul was converted\nto Jesus Christ, that he calls the righteousness he had before,\nmadness, blasphemy, injury; because what he did to save himself\nby works was in direct opposition to grace by Jesus Christ (Phil\n3:7,8; Acts 22:3,4, 26:4; 1 Tim 1:14,15). Behold, then, the evil\nthat is in a man's own righteousness! (1.) It curseth and condemneth\nthe righteousness of Christ. (2.) It blindeth the man from seeing\nhis misery. (3.) It hardeneth his heart against his own salvation.\n\n3. But again, God judgeth such, for those that condemn him of\nfoolishness--'The preaching of the cross,' that is, Christ crucified,\n'is to them that perish foolishness' (1 Cor 1:18,23). What, saith\nthe merit-monger, will you look for life by the obedience of\nanother man? Will you trust to the blood that was shed upon the\ncross, that run down to the ground, and perished in the dust? Thus\nderidingly they scoff at, stumble upon, and are taken in the gin\nthat attends the gospel; not to salvation, but to their condemnation,\nbecause they have condemned the Just, that they might justify their\nown filthy righteousness (Isa 8:14).\n\nBut, I say, if all have sinned, if all are defiled, if the best\nof a man's righteousness be but madness, blasphemy, injury; if\nfor their righteousness they are judged hypocrites, condemned as\nopposers of the gospel, and as such have counted God foolish for\nsending his Son into the world; then must the best of 'men be justified\nfrom the curse in the sight of God while sinners in themselves';\nbecause they still stand guilty in the sight of God, their hearts\nare also still filthy infected--'Though thou wash thee with nitre,\nand take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before ME,\nsaith the Lord God' (Jer 2:22). It stands marked still before God.\nSo, then, what esteem soever men have of the righteousness of the\nworld, yet God accounts it horrible wickedness, and the greatest\nenemy that Jesus hath. Wherefore, this vine is the vine of Sodom;\nthese clusters are the clusters of Gomorrah; these grapes are\ngrapes of gall; these clusters are bitter, they are the poison of\ndragons, and the cruel venom of asps (Matt 3:7; 23). No marvel,\nthen, if John in his ministry gives the first rebuke and jostle to\nsuch, still calling them serpents and vipers, and concluding it\nis almost impossible they should escape the damnation of hell; for\nof all sin, man's own righteousness, in special, bids defiance to\nJesus Christ.\n\nThe Second Reason.--A second reason why men must stand just in\nthe sight of God from the curse, while sinners in themselves, is,\nbecause of the exactions of the law. For were it granted that men's\ngood works arose from a holy root, and were perfect in their kind,\nyet the demand of the law--for that is still beyond them--would\nleave them sinners before the justice of God. And hence it is that\nholy men stand just in the sight of God from the curse; yet dare\nnot offer their gifts by the law, but through Jesus Christ; knowing\nthat not only their persons, but their spiritual service also,\nwould else be rejected of the heavenly Majesty (1 Peter 2:5; Rev\n7:14-16; Heb 8:7,8).[20]\n\nFor the law is itself so perfectly holy and good as not to admit of\nthe least failure, either in the matter or manner of obedience--'Cursed\nis every one that continueth not in all things that are written in\nthe book of the law to do them' (Gal 3:10). For they that shall keep\nthe whole law, and yet offend in one point, are guilty of all, and\nconvicted of the law as transgressors (James 2:9,10). 'Tribulation,'\ntherefore, 'and anguish, upon every soul of man that doth evil,\nof the Jew first, and also of the Gentile' (Rom 2:9). And observe,\nthe law leaveth thee not to thy choice, when, or when not, to\nbegin to keep it; but requireth thy obedience so soon as concerned,\nexactly, both as to the matter and manner, and that before thou\nhast sinned against it; for the first sin breaks the law. Now, if\nthou sinnest before thou beginnest to do, thou art found by the\nlaw a transgressor, and so standest by that convicted of sin; so,\nthen, all thy after-acts of righteousness are but the righteousness\nof a sinner, of one whom the law hath condemned already (John 3:18).\n'The law is spiritual, but thou art carnal, sold under sin' (Rom\n7:14).\n\nBesides, the law being absolutely perfect, doth not only respect\nthe matter and manner as to outward acts, but also the rise and\nroot, the heart, from whence they flow; and an impediment there\nspoils all, were the executive part never so good--'Thou shalt\nlove the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, with ALL thy soul, with\nALL thy mind, and with ALL thy strength' (Mark 12:30). Mark the\nrepetition, with all, with all, with all, with all; with all thy\nheart, with all thy soul, in all things, at all times, else thou\nhadst as good do nothing. But 'every imagination of the thought of\nthe heart of man is only evil continually' (Gen 6:5). The margin\nhath it, 'the whole imagination, the purposes, and desires'; so\nthat a good root is here wanting. 'The heart is deceitful above\nall things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?' (Jer 17:9).\nWhat thoughts, words, or actions can be clean, sufficiently to answer\na perfect law that flows from this original? It is impossible. 'Men\nmust therefore be justified from the curse, in the sight of God,\nwhile sinners in themselves.' But further yet to open the case.\nThere are several things that make it impossible that a man should\nstand just in the sight of God but while sinful in himself.\n\n1. Because the law under which he at present stands, holds him\nunder the dominion of sin; for sin by the law hath dominion over\nall that are under the law (Rom 6:14). Dominion, I say, both as\nto guilt and filth. Guilt hath dominion over him, because he is\nunder the curse: and filth, because the law giveth him no power,\nneither can he by it deliver his soul. And for this cause it is\nthat it is called beggarly, weak, unprofitable; imposing duty, but\ngiving no strength (Gal 3:2, 4:9). Expecting the duty should be\ncomplete, yet bendeth not the heart to do the work; to do it, I say,\nas is required (Rom 8:3). And hence it is again that it is called\na 'voice of words' (Heb 12:19);[21] for as words that are barely\nsuch are void of spirit and quickening life, so are the impositions\nof the law of works. Thus far, therefore, the man remains a sinner.\nBut,\n\n2. The law is so far from giving life or strength to do it, that\nit doth quite the contrary.[22]\n\n(1.) It weakeneth, it discourageth, and dishearteneth the sinner,\nespecially when it shows itself in its glory; for then it is the\nministration of death, and killeth all the world. When Israel saw\nthis, they fled from the face of God; they could not endure that\nwhich was commanded (Exo 20:18,19); yea, so terrible was the sight,\nthat Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake' (Heb 12:20,21).\nYea, almost forty years after, Moses stood amazed to find himself\nand Israel yet alive, 'Did ever people,' said he, 'hear the voice\nof God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard,\nand live?' (Deut 4:32,33). Alas! he who boasteth himself in the\nworks of the law, he doth not hear the law; when that speaks, it\nshakes Mount Sinai, and writeth death upon all faces, and makes\nthe church itself cry out, A mediator! else we die (Exo 20:19; Deut\n5:25-27, 18:15,19).\n\n(2.) It doth not only thus discourage, but abundantly increaseth\nevery sin. Sin takes the advantage of being by the law; the motions\nof sin are by the law. Where no law is, there is no transgression\n(Rom 4:15, 7:5). Sin takes an occasion to live by the law: 'When\nthe commandment came, sin revived; for without the law, sin was\ndead' (Rom 7:8,9). Sin takes an occasion to multiply by the law: 'The\nlaw entered, that the offence might abound' (Rom 5:20). 'And the\nstrength of sin is the law' (1 Cor 15:56). 'That sin by the commandment\nmight become' outrageous, 'exceeding sinful' (Rom 7:13). 'What shall\nwe say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin,\nbut by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said,\nThou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,\nwrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law,\nsin was dead' (Rom 7:7,8)\n\nThese things, then, are not infused or operated by the law from its\nown nature or doctrine, but are occasioned by the meeting of, and\nhaving to do with, a thing directly opposite. 'The law is spiritual,\nI am carnal'; therefore every imposition is rejected and rebelled\nagainst. Strike a steel against a flint, and the fire flies about\nyou; strike the law against a carnal heart, and sin appears, sin\nmultiplies, sin rageth, sin is strengthened! And hence ariseth all\nthese doubts, murmurings, and sinful complainings that are found\nin the hearts of the people of God; they have too much to do with\nthe law; the law of works is now in the conscience, imposing duty\nupon the carnal part. This is the reason of the noise that you\nhear, and of the sin that you see, and of the horror that you feel\nin your own souls when tempted. But to pass this digression.\n\nThe law, then, having to do with carnal men, by this they become worse\nsinners than before; for their heart now recoileth desperately,\nopposeth blasphemously; it giveth way to despair; and then\nto conclude there is no hope for hereafter; and so goeth on in a\nsordid, ungodly course of life, till his time is come to die and be\ndamned, unless a miracle of grace prevent. From all this I conclude,\nthat 'a man cannot stand just from the curse, in the sight of God\nbut while sinful in himself.' But,\n\n3. As the law giveth neither strength nor life to keep it, so it\nneither giveth nor worketh repentance unto life if thou break it.\nDo this and live, break it and die; this is the voice of the law.\nAll the repentance that such men have, it is but that of themselves,\nthe sorrow of the world, that endeth in death, as Cain's and Judas'\ndid, even such a repentance as must be repented of either here or\nin hell-fire (2 Cor 7:10).\n\n4. As it giveth none, so it accepteth none of them that are under\nthe law (Gal 5:4). Sin and die, is for ever its language; there is\nno middle way in the law; they must bear their judgment, whosoever\nthey be, that stand and fall to the law. Therefore Cain was a\nvagabond still, and Judas hangeth himself; their repentance could\nnot save them, they fell headlong under the law. The law stays no\nman from the due reward of his deeds; it hath no ears to hear nor\nheart to pity its penitent ones (Gen 4:9-11; Matt 27:3).\n\n5. By the law, God will show no mercy; for, 'I will be merciful\nto their unrighteousness,' is the tenor of another covenant (Heb\n8:9,10,12). But by the law I regard them not, saith the Lord. For,\n\n6. All the promises annexed to the law are, by the first sin, null\nand void. Though, then, a man should live a thousand years twice\ntold, and all that while fulfil the law, yet having sinned first,\nhe is not at all the better. Our legalists, then, begin to talk too\nsoon of having life by the law; let them first begin without sin,\nand so throughout continue to death, and then if God will save them,\nnot by Christ, but works, contrary to the covenant of grace, they\nmay hope to go to heaven.\n\n7. But, lastly, to come close to the point. Thou hast sinned; the\nlaw now calls for passive as well as active obedience; yea, great\ncontentedness in all thou sufferest for thy transgressing against\nthe law. So, then, wilt thou live by the law? Fulfil it, then,\nperfectly till death, and afterwards go to hell and be damned, and\nabide there till the law and curse for thy sin be satisfied for;\nand then, but not till then, thou shalt have life by the law. Tell\nme, now, you that desire to be under the law, can you fulfil all\nthe commands of the law, and after answer all its demands? Can you\ngrapple with the judgment of God? Can you wrestle with the Almighty?\nAre you stronger than he that made the heavens, and that holdeth\nangels in everlasting chains? 'Can thine heart endure, or can thy\nhands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord\nhave spoken it, and will do it' (Eze 22:14). O, it cannot be! 'These\nmust go away into everlasting punishment' (Matt 25:46). So, then,\nmen must stand just from the curse, in the sight of God, while\nsinners in themselves, or not at all.\n\nObjection [to the second reason]. But the apostle saith, 'That the\ndoers of the law shall be justified' (Rom 2). Plainly intimating\nthat, notwithstanding all you say, some by doing the law may stand\njust before God thereby; and if so, then Christ fulfilled it for\nus but as our example.\n\nAnswer. The consequences are not true; for by these words, 'The\ndoers of the law shall be justified,' there is no more proof of a\npossibility of saving thyself by the law than there is by these:\n'For by the works of the law shall no man living be justified in\nhis sight' (Gal 2:16). The intent, then, of the text objected, is\nnot to prove a possibility of man's salvation by the law, but to\ninsinuate rather an impossibility, by asserting what perfections\nthe law requireth. And were I to argue against the pretended\nsufficiency of man's own righteousness, I would choose to frame\nmine argument upon such a place as this--'The hearers of the law\nare not just before God'; therefore the breakers of the law are not\njust before God; not just, I say, by the law; but all have sinned\nand broken the law; therefore none by the law are just before\nGod. For if all stand guilty of sin by the law, then that law that\njudgeth them sinners cannot justify them before God. And what if the\napostle had said, 'Blessed are they that continue in all things,'\ninstead of pronouncing a curse for the contrary, the conclusion had\nbeen the same; for where the blessing is pronounced, he is not the\nbetter that breaks the condition; and where the curse is pronounced,\nhe is not the worse that keeps it. But neither doth the blessing\nnor curse in the law intend a supposition that men may be just by\nthe law, but rather to show the perfection of the law, and that\nthough a blessing be annexed thereto, no man by it can obtain that\nblessing; for not the hearers of the law are justified before God,\nbut the doers, when they do it, shall be justified. None but doers\ncan by it be just before God: but none do the law, no, not one,\ntherefore none by it can stand just before God (Rom 3:10,11).\n\nAnd whereas it is said Christ kept the law as our example, that we\nby keeping it might get to heaven, as he; it is false, as before\nwas showed--'He is the end of the law,' or, hath perfectly finished\nit, 'for righteousness to every one that believeth' (Rom 10:4). But\na little to travel with this objection; no man can keep the moral\nlaw as Christ, unless he be first without sin, as Christ; unless he\nbe God and man, as Christ. And again; Christ cannot be our pattern\nin keeping the law for life, because of the disproportion that is\nbetween him and us; for if we do it as he, when yet we are weaker\nthan he; what is this but to out-vie, outdo, and go beyond Christ?\nWherefore we, not he, have our lives exemplary: exemplary, I say,\nto him; for who doth the greatest work, they that take it in hand\nin full strength, as Christ; or he that takes it in hand in weakness,\nas we? Doubtless the last, if he fulfils it as Christ. So, then,\nby this doctrine, while we call ourselves his scholars, we make\nourselves indeed the masters. But I challenge all the angels in\nheaven, let them but first sin as we have done, to fulfil the law,\nas Christ, if they can!\n\nBut again; if Christ be our pattern in keeping the law for life from\nthe curse before God, then Christ fulfilled the law for himself;\nif so, he was imperfect before he fulfilled it. And how far short\nthis is of blasphemy let sober Christians judge; for the righteousness\nhe fulfilled was to justify from sin; but if it was not to justify\nus from ours, you know what remaineth (Dan 9:26; Isa 53:8-10).\n\nBut when must we conclude we have kept the law? Not when we begin,\nbecause we have sinned first; nor when we are in the middle, for\nwe may afterwards miscarry. But what if a man in this his progress\nhath one sinful thought? I query, is it possible to come up to the\npattern for justification with God? If yea, then Christ had such;\nif no, then who can fulfil the law as he? But should I grant that\nwhich is indeed impossible--namely, that thou art justified by the\nlaw; what then? Art thou now in the favour of God? No, thou art\nfallen by this thy perfection, from the love and mercy of God:\n'Whosoever of you are justified by the law are fallen from grace'\n(Gal 5:4). He speaks not this to them that are doing, but to such\nas think they have done it, and shows that the blessing that these\nhave got thereby is to fall from the favour of God. Being fallen\nfrom grace, Christ profits them nothing, and so they still stand\ndebtors to do the whole law. So, then, they must not be saved by\nGod's mercy, nor Christ's merits, but alone by the works of the\nlaw! But what should such men do in that kingdom that comes by gift,\nwhere grace and mercy reigns? Yea, what should they do among that\ncompany that are saved alone by grace, through the redemption that\nis in Jesus Christ? Let them go to that kingdom that God hath prepared\nfor them that are fallen from grace. 'Cast out the bond-woman and\nher son; for he shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman'\nand of promise (Gal 4:30).[23]\n\nBut to pass this objection. Before I come to the next reason, I\nshall yet for the further clearing of this, urge these scriptures\nmore.\n\n[Further scriptures to prove the second reason.]\n\n1. The first is that in Galatians 3:10, 'As many as are of the\nworks of the law are under the curse.'\n\nBehold how boldly Paul asserts it! And observe it, he saith not\nhere, so many as sin against the law--though that be true--but, 'As\nmany as are of the works of the law.' But what, then, are the works\nof the law? Not whoredom, murder, theft, and the like; but works\nthat are holy and good, the works commanded in the ten commandments,\nas to love God, abhor idols, reverence the name of God, keeping the\nSabbath, honouring thy parents, abstaining from adultery, murder,\ntheft, false-witness, and not to covet what is thy neighbour's--these\nare the works of the law. Now he, saith Paul, that is of these is\nunder the curse of God. But what is it then to be of these? Why,\nto be found in the practice of them, and there resting; this is the\nman that is under the curse: not because the works of the law are\nwicked in themselves, but because the man that is in the practice\nof them comes short of answering the exactness of them, and therefore\ndies for his imperfections (Rom 2:17).\n\n2. The second scripture is that of the eleventh verse of the same\nchapter, 'But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of\nGod, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith.'\n\nThese words, 'the just shall live by faith,' are taken out of the\nOld Testament, and are thrice used by this apostle in the New.\n(1.) To show that nothing of the gospel can be apprehended but by\nfaith: 'For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith\nto faith.' 'As it is written, The just shall live by faith' (Rom\n1:17). (2.) To show that the way to have relief and succour under\ntemptation is then to live by faith: 'Now the just shall live by\nfaith' (Heb 10:38) (3.) But in this of the Galatians it is urged\nto show that how holy and just soever men be in themselves, yet as\nsuch they are dead, and condemned to death by the law before God.\nBut that no man is justified by the law, in the sight of God, is\nevident; for, 'the just shall live by faith.'\n\nThe word 'just,' therefore, in this place in special, respecteth\na man that is just, or that so esteems himself by the law, and is\nhere considered in a double capacity; first, what he is before men;\nsecondly, what he is before God. (1.) As he stands before men, he\nis just by the law; as Paul before his conversion (Phil 3:4). (2.)\nAs he stands in the sight of God; so, without the faith of Christ,\nhe cannot be just, as is evident; for 'the just shall live,' not\nby his justice or righteousness by the law.\n\nThis is the true intent of this place. Because they carry with them\na supposition that the just here intended may be excluded life,\nhe falling within the rejection asserted within the first part of\nthe verse. No man is just by the law in the sight of God; for 'the\njust shall live by faith': his justice cannot make him live, he\nmust live by the faith of Christ.[24] Again, the words are a reason\ndissuasive, urged to put a stop to those that are seeking life by\nthe law; as if the apostle had said, Ye Galatians! what are you\ndoing? Would you be saved by keeping the law? Would you stand just\nbefore God thereby? Do you not hear the prophets, how they press\nfaith in Jesus, and life by faith in him? Come, I will reason with\nyou, by way of supposition. Were it granted that you all loved\nthe law, yet that for life, will avail you nothing; for, 'the just\nshall live by faith.'\n\nWere it granted that you kept the law, and that no man on earth\ncould accuse you; were you therefore just before God? No; neither\ncan you live by works before him; for 'the just shall live by faith.'\nWhy not live before him? Because when we have done our best, and\nare applauded of all the world for just, yet then God sees sin in\nour hearts: 'He putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens\nare not clean in his sight' (Job 15:15, 4:18). There is then a just\nman that perisheth in his righteousness, if he want the faith of\nChrist, for that no man is justified by the law, in the sight of\nGod, is evident; for, 'the just shall live by faith'; and the law\nis not of faith.\n\n3. The third Scripture is this--'We who are Jews by nature, and\nnot sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified\nby the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we\nhave believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the\nfaith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works\nof the law shall no flesh be justified' (Gal 2:15,16).\n\nThese words are the result of the experienced Christians in\nthe primitive times; yea, of those among them that had given up\nthemselves before to the law, to get life and heaven thereby; the\nresult, I say, of believing Jews--We who are Jews by nature. But\nhow are they distinguished from the Gentiles? Why, they are such\nthat rest in the law, and make their boast of God; that know his\nwill, and approve the things that are excellent; that are guides\nto the blind, and a light to them that are in darkness; that are\ninstructors of the foolish, teachers of babes, and which have the\nform of knowledge, and of the truth of the law (Rom 2:17-19). How\nfar these attained we find by that of the Pharisee--I pray, I fast,\nI give tithes of all (Luke 18:11,12); and by the young man in the\ngospel--'All these have I kept from my youth up'; and by that of\nPaul--'Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless'\n(Phil 3:6). This was the Jew by nature, to do and trust in this.[25]\nNow these attaining afterwards the sound knowledge of sin, the\ndepravedness of nature, and the exactions of the law, fled from the\ncommand of the law to the Lord Jesus for life. 'We knowing' is--We\nthat are taught of God, and that have found it by sad experience,\nwe, even we, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be\njustified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law.\nSurely, if righteousness had come by the law, Paul and the Jews\nhad found it, they being by many privileges far better than the\nsinners of the Gentiles; but these, when they received the word of\nthe gospel, even these now fly to Christ from the law, that they\nmight be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of\nthe law.\n\nTo conclude this. If righteous men, through the knowledge of the\ngospel, are made to leave the law of God, as despairing of life\nthereby, surely righteousness is not to be found in the law; I mean\nthat which can justify thee before God from the curse who livest\nand walkest in the law. I shall, therefore, end this second reason\nwith what I have said before--'Men must be justified from the curse\nin the sight of God while sinful in themselves.'\n\nThe Third Reason.--Another reason why not one under heaven can be\njustified by the law, or by his own personal performances to it,\nis, because since sin was in the world, God hath rejected the law\nand the works thereof for life (Rom 7:10).\n\nIt is true, before man had sinned, it was ordained to be unto life;\nbut since, and because of sin, the God of love gave the word of\ngrace. Take the law, then, as God hath established it; to wit, to\ncondemn all flesh (Gal 3:21); and then there is room for the promise\nand the law, the one to kill, the other to heal; and so the law is\nnot against the promises; but make the law a justifier, and faith\nis made void, and the promise is made of none effect (Rom 4:14);\nand the everlasting gospel, by so doing, thou endeavourest to root\nout of the world. Methinks, since it hath pleased God to reject the\nlaw and the righteousness thereof for life, such dust and ashes as\nwe are should strive to consent to his holy will, especially when\nin the room of this [covenant] of works there is established a better\ncovenant, and that upon better promises. The Lord hath rejected the\nlaw, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for, finding\nfault with them of the law, 'The days come, saith the Lord, when I\nwill make a new covenant with the house of Israel,' &c. (Heb 8:8).\nGive God leave to find fault with us, and to condemn our personal\nperformances to death, as to our justification before him thereby;\nlet him do it, I say; and the rather, because he doth by the gospel\npresent us with a better. And certainly, if ever he be pleased\nwith us, it will be when he findeth us in that righteousness that\nis of his own appointing.\n\n[Six things that incline the heart to seek to the law for life.]\n\nTo conclude. Notwithstanding all that hath or can be said, there\nare six things that have great power with the heart to bend it to\nseek life before God by the law; of all which I would caution that\nsoul to beware, that would have happiness in another world.\n\nFirst. Take heed thou be not made to seek to the law for life,\nbecause of that name and majesty of God which thou findest upon the\ndoctrine of the law (Exo 20:1). God indeed spake all the words of\nthe law, and delivered them in that dread and majesty to men that\nshook the hearts of all that heard it. Now this is of great authority\nwith some, even to seek for life and bliss by the law. 'We know,'\nsaid some, 'that God spake to Moses' (John 9:29). And Saul rejected\nChrist even of zeal towards God (Acts 22:3). What zeal? Zeal towards\nGod according to the law, which afterwards he left and rejected,\nbecause he had found out a better way. The life that he once lived,\nit was by the law; but afterwards, saith he, 'The life which I now\nlive,' it is by faith, 'by the faith of Jesus Christ' (Gal 2:20).\nSo that though the law was the appointment of God, and had also\nhis name and majesty upon it, yet now he will not live by the law.\nIndeed, God is in the law, but yet only as just and holy, not as\ngracious and merciful; so he is only in Jesus Christ. 'The law,'\nthe word of justice, 'was given by Moses, but grace and truth came\nby Jesus Christ' (John 1:17). Wherefore, whatever of God thou findest\nin the law, yet seeing grace and mercy is not there, let neither\nthe name of God, nor that majesty that thou findest of him in the\nlaw, prevail with thee to seek life by all the holy commandments\nof the law.\n\nSecond. Take heed that the law, by taking hold on thy conscience,\ndoth not make thee seek life by the law (Rom 2:13-15). The heart\nof man is the seat of the law. This being so, the understanding\nand conscience must needs be in danger of being bound by the law.\nMan is a law unto himself, and showeth that the works of the law\nare written in his heart. Now, the law being thus nearly related\nto man, it easily takes hold of the understanding and conscience;\nby which hold, if it be not quickly broken off by the promise and\ngrace of the gospel, it is captivated to the works of the law;\nfor conscience is such a thing, that if it once be possessed with\na doctrine, yea, though but with the doctrine of an idol, it will\ncleave so fast thereto that nothing but a hand from heaven can\nloosen it; and if it be not loosed, no gospel can be there embraced\n(1 Cor 8:7). Conscience is Little-ease, if men resist it, whether\nit be rightly or wrongly informed.[26] How fast, then, will it\nhold when it knows it cleaves to the law of God! Upon this account,\nthe condition of the unbeliever is most miserable; for not having\nfaith in the gospel of grace, through which is tendered the forgiveness\nof sins, they, like men a-drowning, hold fast that they have found;\nwhich being the law of God, they follow it; but because righteousness\nflies from them, they at last are found only accursed and condemned\nto hell by the law. Take heed, therefore, that thy conscience be\nnot entangled by the law (Rom 9:31,32).\n\nThird. Take heed of fleshly wisdom. Reasoning suiteth much with\nthe law. 'I thought verily that I ought to do many things against\nthe name of Jesus,' and so to have sought for life by the law; my\nreason told me so. For thus will reason say: Here is a righteous\nlaw, the rule of life and death; besides, what can be better than\nto love God, and my neighbour as myself? Again; God hath thus\ncommanded, and his commands are just and good; therefore, doubtless,\nlife must come by the law. Further, to love God and keep the law\nare better than to sin and break it; and seeing men lost heaven\nby sin, how should they get it again but by working righteousness?\nBesides, God is righteous, and will therefore bless the righteous.\nO the holiness of the law! It mightily swayeth with reason when\na man addicteth himself to religion; the light of nature teacheth\nthat sin is not the way to heaven; and seeing no word doth more\ncondemn sin than the words of the ten commandments, it must needs\nbe, therefore, the most perfect rule for holiness; wherefore, saith\nreason, the safest way to life and glory is to keep myself close\nto the law. But a little here to correct. Though the law indeed be\nholy, yet the mistake as to the matter in hand is as wide as the\neast from the west; for therefore the law can do thee no good,\nbecause it is holy and just; for what can he that hath sinned\nexpect from a law that is holy and just? Nought but condemnation.\nLet them lean to it while they will, 'there is one that accuseth\nyou,' saith Christ, 'even Moses, in whom you trust' (John 5:45).\n\nFourth. Man's ignorance of the gospel suiteth well with the\ndoctrine of the law; they, through their being ignorant of God's\nrighteousness, fall in love with that (Rom 10:1-4). Yea, they do\nnot only suit, but, when joined in act, the one strengtheneth the\nother; that is, the law strengtheneth our blindness, and bindeth\nthe veil more fast about the face of our souls. The law suiteth\nmuch our blindness of mind; for until this day remains the veil\nuntaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; especially in the\nreading of that which was written and engraven on stones; to wit,\nthe ten commandments, that perfect rule for holiness; which veil\nwas done away in Christ (2 Cor 3:15,16). But 'even to this day, when\nMoses is read, the veil is over their hearts'; they are blinded\nby the duties enjoined by the law from the sight and hopes of\nforgiveness of sins by grace. 'Nevertheless when IT,' the heart,\n'shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.' The law,\nthen, doth veil the heart from Christ, and holds the man so down to\ndoing and working for the kingdom of heaven, that he quite forgets\nthe forgiveness of sins by mercy through Christ. Now this veiling\nor blinding by the law is occasioned--\n\n1. By reason of the contrariety of doctrine that is in the law to\nthat which was in the gospel. The law requireth obedience to all\nits demands upon pain of everlasting burnings; the gospel promiseth\nforgiveness of sins to him that worketh not, but believeth. Now\nthe heart cannot receive both these doctrines; it must either let\ngo doing or believing. If it believe, it is dead to doing; if it\nbe set to doing for life, it is dead to believing.[27] Besides, he\nthat shall think both to do and believe for justification before\nGod from the curse, he seeks for life but as it were by the law,\nhe seeks for life but as it were by Christ; and he being not direct\nin either, shall for certain be forsaken of either. Wherefore?\nBecause he seeks it not by faith, but as it were by the works of\nthe law' (Rom 9:32).\n\n2. The law veils and blinds by that guilt and horror for sin that\nseizeth the soul by the law; for guilt, when charged close upon\nthe conscience, is attended with such aggravations, and that with\nsuch power and evidence, that the conscience cannot hear, nor see,\nnor feel anything else but that. When David's guilt for murder and\nblood did roar by the law in his conscience, notwithstanding he\nknew much of the grace of the gospel, he could hear nothing else\nbut terror, the sound of blood; the murder of Uriah was the only\nnoise that he heard; wherefore he crieth to God that he would make\nhim hear the gospel. 'Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the\nbones which thou hast broken may rejoice' (Psa 51:8). And as he\ncould not hear, so neither could he see; the law had struck him\ndeaf and blind. 'I am,' saith he, 'not able to look up'; not up to\nChrist for mercy. As if David had said, O Lord, the guilt of sin,\nwhich is by the law, makes such a noise and horror in my conscience,\nthat I can neither hear nor see the word of peace unless it is\nspoken with a voice from heaven! The serpents that bit the people\nin the days of old were types of guilt and sin (Num 21:6). Now,\nthese were fiery serpents, and such as, I think, could fly (Isa\n14:29). Wherefore, in my judgment, they stung the people about\ntheir faces, and so swelled up their eyes, which made it the more\ndifficult for them to look up to the brazen serpent, which was the\ntype of Christ (John 3:14). Just so doth sin by the law do now.\nIt stings the soul, the very face of the soul, which is the cause\nthat looking up to Jesus, or believing in him, is so difficult a\ntask in time of terror of conscience.[28]\n\n3. This is not only so at present, but so long as guilt is on the\nconscience, so long remains the blindness; for guilt standing before\nthe soul, the grace of God is intercepted, even as the sun is hid\nfrom the sight of mine eyes by the cloud that cometh between. 'My\nsin,' said David, 'is ever before me,' and so kept other things\nout of his sight; sin, I say, when applied by the law (Psa 51:3).\nWhen the law came to Paul, he remained without sight until the good\nman came unto him with the word of forgiveness of sins (Acts 9).\n\n4. Again; where the law comes with power, there it begetteth many\ndoubts against the grace of God; for it is only a revealer of sin,\nand the ministration of death; that is, a doctrine that sheweth\nsin, and condemneth for the same; hence, therefore, as was hinted\nbefore, the law being the revealer of sin, where that is embraced,\nthere sin must needs be discovered and condemned, and the soul for\nthe sake of that. Further, it is not only a revealer of sin, but\nthat which makes it abound; so that the closer any man sticks to\nthe law for life, the faster sin doth cleave to him. 'That law,'\nsaith Paul, 'which was ordained to be unto life, I found to be unto\ndeath,' for by the law I became a notorious sinner; I thought to\nhave obtained life by obeying the law, 'but sin taking occasion by\nthe commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me' (Rom 7:10-14). A\nstrange way of deceivableness, and it is hid from the most of men;\nbut, as I have already told you, you see how it comes to pass.\n(1.) Man by nature is carnal, and the law itself is spiritual: now\nbetwixt these two ariseth great difference; the law is exceeding\ngood, the heart exceeding bad; these two opposites, therefore, the\nheart so abiding, can by no means agree. (2.) Therefore, at every\napproach of the law to the heart with intent to impose duty, or to\ncondemn for the neglect thereof; at every such approach the heart\nstarteth back, especially when the law comes home indeed, and is\nheard in his own language. This being thus, the conscience perceiving\nthis is a fault, begins to tremble at the sense of judgment; the\nlaw still continueth to command to duty, and to condemn for the\nneglect thereof. From this struggling of these two opposites ariseth,\nI say, those doubts and fears that drive the heart into unbelief,\nand that make it blind to the word of the gospel, that it can neither\nsee nor understand anything but that it is a sinner, and that the\nlaw must be fulfilled by it, if ever it be saved.\n\n[Fifth.] But again; another thing that hath great influence upon\nthe heart to make it lean to the law for life is, the false names\nthat Satan and his instruments have put upon it; such as these--to\ncall the law the gospel; conscience, the Spirit of Christ; works,\nfaith; and the like: with these, weak consciences have been\nmightily pestered; yea, thousands deluded and destroyed. This was\nthe way whereby the enemy attempted to overthrow the church of\nChrist of old; as, namely, those in Galatia and at Corinth, &c. (2\nCor 11:3,4,13,14). I say, by the feigned notion that the law was\nthe gospel, the Galatians were removed from the gospel of Christ;\nand Satan, by appropriating to himself and his ministers the names\nand titles of the ministers of the Lord Jesus, prevailed with many\nat Corinth to forsake Paul and his doctrine. Where the Lord Jesus\nhath been preached in truth, and something of his doctrine known,\nit is not there so easy to turn people aside from the sound of the\npromise of grace, unless it be by the noise and sound of a gospel.\nTherefore, I say, the false apostles came thus among the churches:\n'another gospel, another gospel'; which, in truth, saith Paul,\n'is not another; but some would pervert the gospel of Christ,' and\nthrust that out of doors, by gilding the law with that glorious name\n(Gal 1:6-8).[29] So again, for the ministers of Satan, they must\nbe called the apostles of Christ, and ministers of righteousness;\nwhich thing, I say, is of great force, especially being accompanied\nwith so holy and just a doctrine as the word of the law is; for\nwhat better to the eye of reason than to love God above all, and\nour neighbour as ourselves, which doctrine, being the scope of the\nten words given on Sinai, no man can contradict; for, in truth,\nthey are holy and good.\n\nBut here is the poison; to set this law in the room of a mediator,\nas those do that seek to stand just before God thereby; and then\nnothing is so dishonourable to Christ, nor of so soul-destroying a\nnature as the law; for that, thus placed, hath not only power when\nsouls are deluded, but power to delude, by its real holiness, the\nunderstanding, conscience, and reason of a man; and by giving the\nsoul a semblance of heaven, to cause it to throw away Christ, grace,\nand faith. Wherefore it behoveth all men to take heed of names,\nand of appearances of holiness and goodness.\n\n[Sixth.] Lastly, Satan will yet go further; he will make use\nof something that may be at a distance from a moral precept, and\ntherewith bring souls under the law. Thus he did with some of old;\nhe did not make the Galatians fall from Christ by virtue of one of\nthe ten words, but by something that was aloof off; by circumcision,\ndays, and months, that were Levitical ceremonies; for he knows it\nis no matter, nor in what Testament he found it, if he can therewith\nhide Christ from the soul--'Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if\nye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify\nagain to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the\nwhole law' (Gal 5:2,3). Why so, seeing circumcision is not one of\nthe ten words [commandments]? Why, because they did it in conscience\nto God, to stand just before him thereby. Now here we may behold\nmuch cunning of the devil; he begins with some at a distance from\nthat law which curseth, and so by little and little bringeth them\nunder it; even as by circumcision the Galatians were at length\nbrought under the law that condemneth all men to the wrath and\njudgment of God. I have often wondered when I have read how God\ncrieth out against the Jews, for observing his own commandment\n(Isa 1:11-14). But I perceive by Paul that by these things a man\nmay reject and condemn the Lord Jesus; which those do, that for\nlife set up aught, whether moral or other institution, besides the\nfaith of Jesus. Let men therefore warily distinguish betwixt names\nand things, betwixt statute and commandment, lest they by doing the\none transgress against the other (2 Cor 1:19,20). Study, therefore,\nthe nature and end of the law with the nature and end of the\ngospel; and if thou canst keep them distinct in thy understanding\nand conscience, neither names nor things, neither statutes nor\ncommandments, can draw thee from the faith of the gospel. And\nthat thou mayest yet be helped in this matter, I shall now come to\nspeak to the second conclusion.\n\n[THE SECOND POSITION.]\n\nSECOND. THAT MEN CAN BE JUSTIFIED FROM THE CURSE BEFORE GOD, WHILE\nSINNERS IN THEMSELVES, BY NO OTHER RIGHTEOUSNESS THAN THAT LONG\nAGO PERFORMED BY, AND REMAINING WITH, THE PERSON OF CHRIST.\n\nFor the better prosecuting of this position I shall observe two\nthings--FIRST, That the righteousness by which we stand just before\nGod, from the curse, was performed by the person of Christ. SECOND,\nThat this righteousness is inherent only in him.\n\nFIRST. As to the first of these, I shall be but brief. Now, that\nthe righteousness that justifieth us was performed long ago by the\nperson of Christ, besides what hath already been said, is further\nmanifest thus--\n\nFirst. He is said to have purged our sins by himself--'When he had\nby himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of God'\n(Heb 1:3). I have showed that in Christ, for the accomplishing of\nrighteousness, there was both doing and suffering; doing, to fulfil\nall the commands of the law; suffering, to answer its penalty for\nsin. This second is that which in this to the Hebrews is in special\nintended by the apostle, where he saith he hath purged our sins,\nthat is, by his precious blood; for it is that alone can purge our\nsins, either out of the sight of God or out of the sight of the\nsoul (Heb 9:14). Now this was done by himself, saith the apostle;\nthat is, in or by his personal doings and sufferings. And hence it\nis that when God had rejected the offerings of the law, he said,\n'Lo, I come. A body hast thou prepared me,--to do thy will, O God'\n(Heb 10:5-8). Now by this will of God, saith the Scripture, we are\nsanctified. By what will? Why, by the offering up of the body of\nJesus Christ; for that was God's will, that thereby we might be a\nhabitation for him; as he saith again--'Jesus also, that he might\nsanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate'\n(Heb 13:12).\n\nSecond. As it is said, he hath purged our sins by himself, so it\nwas by himself at once--'For by one offering he hath perfected for\never them that are sanctified' (10:14). Now by this word 'at once,'\nor by 'one offering,' is cut off all those imaginary sufferings of\nChrist which foolish men conceive of; as that he in all ages hath\nsuffered or suffereth for sin in us.[30] No; he did this work but\nonce. 'Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest\nentereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for\nthen must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world:\nbut now once in the end of the world,' in the time of Pilate,\n'hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself' (Heb\n9:25,26). Mark how to the purpose the Holy Ghost expresseth it: he\nhath suffered but once; and that once, now; now once; now he is God\nand man in one person; now he hath taken the body that was prepared\nof God; now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put\naway sin by the sacrifice of himself; by the offering up of the\nbody of Jesus Christ once for all.\n\nThird. It further appears, in that by his resurrection from the\ndead the mercies of God are made sure to the soul, God declaring by\nthat, as was said before, how well pleased he is by the undertaking\nof his Son for the salvation of the world: 'And as concerning that\nhe raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption,\nhe said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David'\n(Acts 13:34). For Christ being clothed with man's flesh, and\nundertaking for man's sins, did then confirm all sure to us by\nhis resurrection from the dead. So that by the rising of that man\nagain, mercy and grace are made sure to him that hath believed on\nJesus. Wherefore, from these things, together with what hath been\ndiscovered about his addressing himself to the work, I conclude 'that\nmen can be justified from the curse, before God, while sinners in\nthemselves, by no other righteousness than that long ago performed\nby the person of Christ.' Now the conclusion is true from all show\nof contradiction; for the Holy Ghost saith he hath done it; hath\ndone it by himself, and that by the will of God, at once, even\nthen when he took the prepared body upon him--'By the will of God\nwe are sanctified, through the offering up of the body of Jesus\nChrist once for all.'\n\n[SECOND.] This being so, the second position is also manifest--namely,\nthat the righteousness by which we stand just from the curse, before\nGod, is only inherent in Jesus Christ. For if he hath undertaken to\nbring in a justifying righteousness, and that by works and merits\nof his own, then that righteousness must of necessity be inherent\nin him alone, and ours only by imputation; and hence it is called,\nin that fifth to the Romans, the gift, the 'gift of righteousness';\nbecause neither wrought nor obtained by works of ours, but bestowed\nupon us, as a garment already prepared, by the mercy of God in\nChrist (Rom 5:17; Isa 61:10). There are four things that confirm\nthis for a truth--\n\nFirst. This righteousness is said to be the righteousness of one,\nnot of many; I mean of one properly and personally, as his own\nparticular personal righteousness. The gift of grace, which is\nthe gift of righteousness, it is 'by one man, Jesus Christ.' 'Much\nmore they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of\nrighteousness shall reign in life by ONE, Jesus Christ. Therefore\nas by the offence of one, judgment came upon all to condemnation;\neven so by the righteousness of ONE, the free gift came upon all\nmen unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience\nmany were made sinners, so by the obedience of ONE shall many\nbe made righteous' (Rom 5:15-19). Mark, the righteousness of one,\nthe obedience of one; the righteousness of one man, of one man,\nJesus.[31] Wherefore, the righteousness that justifieth a sinner,\nit is personally and inherently the righteousness of that person\nonly who, by works and acts of obedience, did complete it, even\nthe obedience of one, of one man, Jesus Christ; and so ours only by\nimputation. It is improper to say, Adam's eating of the forbidden\nfruit was personally and inherently an act of mine. It was personally\nhis, and imputatively mine; personally his, because he did it;\nimputatively mine, because I was then in him. Indeed, the effects\nof his personal eating is found in my person; to wit, defilement\nand pravity. The effects also of the imputation of Christ's personal\nrighteousness are truly found in those that are in him by electing\nlove and unfeigned faith, even holy and heavenly dispositions; but\na personal act is one thing, and the effects of that another. The\nact may be done by, and be only inherent in one; the imputation of\nthe merit of the act, as also the effects of the same, may be in\na manner universal, extending itself unto the most, or all. This\nthe case of Adam and Christ doth manifest. The sin of one is imputed\nto his posterity; the righteousness of the other is reckoned the\nrighteousness of those that are his.\n\nSecond. The righteousness by which we stand just before God from the\ncurse is called, 'The righteousness of the Lord--the righteousness\nof God--the righteousness of Jesus Christ,' &c. (Phil 3:6-9);\nand that by way of opposition to the righteousness of God's\nown holy law--'That I might be found in him, not having on my own\nrighteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the\nfaith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' Now,\nby this opposition, as by what was said before, the truth is made\nexceeding clear; for by these words, 'not having my own righteousness,'\nare not only excluded what qualifications we suppose to be in us,\nbut the righteousness through which we stand just in the sight of\nGod by them is limited and confined to a person absolutely distinct.\nDistinct, I say, as to his person and performances, who here is\ncalled God and Jesus Christ; as he saith also in the prophet Isaiah,\n'In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall\nglory' (Isa 45:25). In the Lord, not in the law; in the Lord, not\nin themselves. 'And their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.' Of\nme, not of themselves; of me, not of the law (54:17). And again;\n'Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength'\n(45:24). Now, as I have already said, all this is to be understood\nof the righteousness that was fulfilled by acts and works of obedience,\nwhich the person of the Son of God accomplished in the days of his\nflesh in the world; by that man, I say, 'The Lord our righteousness' (Jer\n23:5). Christ, indeed, is naturally and essentially righteousness;\nbut as he is simply such, so he justifieth no man; for then he\nneed not to bear our sins in his flesh, and become obedient in all\npoints of the law for us; but the righteousness by which we stand\njust before God is righteousness consisting of works and deeds, of\nthe doings and sufferings, of such a person who also is essentially\nrighteousness. And hence, as before I have hinted, we are said to\nbe justified by the obedience and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,\nby the doings and sufferings of the Son of God. And hence, again,\nit is that he first is called King of righteousness; that is, a\nKing of righteousness as God-man, which of necessity supposeth his\npersonal performances; and after that, 'King of peace' (Heb 7:1-3).\nFor what he is naturally and eternally in his Godhead, he is not\nto us, but himself; but what he is actively and by works, he is not\nto himself, but to us; so, then, he is neither King of righteousness\nnor of peace to us, as he is only the eternal Son of the Father,\nwithout his being considered as our priest and undertaker. He hath\n'obtained,' by works of righteousness, 'eternal redemption for\nus' (Heb 9:12). So then, the righteousness by which we stand just\nbefore God is a righteousness inherent only in Christ, because a\nrighteousness performed by him alone.\n\nNow, that righteousness by which we stand just before God must be\na righteousness consisting of personal performances; the reason is,\nbecause persons had sinned; this the nature of justice requireth,\nthat 'since by man came death, by man' should come 'also the\nresurrection from the dead' (1 Cor 15:21). The angels, therefore, for\nthis very reason, abide under the chains of everlasting darkness,\nbecause he 'took not hold on them' (Heb 2:16,17); that is,\nby fulfilling righteousness for them in their nature. That is a\nblessed word, to you. 'To you is born this day in the city of David\na Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' To YOU, not to angels; to\nyou is born a Saviour (Luke 2:11).\n\nThird. It is yet further evident that the righteousness by which we\nstand just before God from the curse, is a righteousness inherent,\nnot in us, but Christ; because it is a righteousness besides, and\nwithout the law itself. Now take away the law, and you take away\nthe rule of righteousness. Again; take away the rule, and the act\nas to us must cease. 'But now the righteousness of God without the\nlaw is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets'\n(Rom 3:21). So then, by such a righteousness we are justified as\nis not within the power of the law to command of us.\n\nQuest. But what law is that which hath not power to command our\nobedience in the point of our justification with God?\n\nAnsw. The moral law, or that called the ten commandments. Therefore\nwe are neither commanded to love God, or our neighbour, as the\nmeans or part of our justifying righteousness; nay, he that shall\nattempt to do these things to be delivered from the curse thereby,\nby the scripture is holden accursed of God. 'As many as are of\nthe works,' or duties, 'of the law, are under the curse,' &c. (Gal\n3:10). Because we are justified not by that of the law, but by the\nrighteousness of God without the law; that is, without its commanding\nof us, without our obedience to it--'Freely by his grace, through\nthe redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to\nbe a propitiation, through faith in his blood' (Rom 3:24,25). This\nis the righteousness of God without the law; that is, without any\nof our obedience to the law. Wherefore the righteousness by which\nwe stand just, in the sight of God, cannot be inherent in us, but\nin Christ the King thereof.\n\nFourth. This is further made apparent, by the capacity that God will\nconsider that soul in, to whom he imputeth justifying righteousness;\nand that is, 'as one that worketh not,' as one that stands ungodly\nin the judgment of the law (Rom 4:4,5). But this I have handled\nbefore, and therefore shall pass it here.\n\nFifth. To conclude. If any works of ours could justify us before\nGod, they would be works after faith received; but it is evident\nthat these do not; therefore the righteousness that justifies us from\nthe curse before God is a righteousness inherent only in Christ.\n\nThat works after faith do not justify us from the curse, in the\nsight of God, is evident--\n\n1. Because no works of the saints can be justified by the moral\nlaw, considering it as the law of works for life (Gal 3:10). For\nthis must stand a truth for ever--Whatsoever justifieth us must be\njustified by the moral law, for that is it that pronounceth the\ncurse; unless, then, that curse be taken away by the work, the\nwork cannot justify us before God (Rom 3:21). But the curse cannot\nbe taken away but by a righteousness that is first approved of by\nthat law that so curseth; for if that shall yet complain for want\nof a full satisfaction, the penalty remaineth. This is evident to\nreason, and confirmed by the authority of God's Word, as hath been\nalready proved; because the law, once broken, pronounceth death,\nexpecteth death, and executeth the same on him that will stand to\nthe judgment of the law; but no work of a believer is capable of\nanswering this demand of the law; therefore none of his works can\njustify him before God; for the law, that notwithstanding, complaineth.\n\n2. No works of faith can justify us from the curse before God,\nbecause of the want of perfection that is in the greatest faith\nin us. Now, if faith be not perfect, the work cannot be perfect;\nI mean with that perfection as to please Divine justice. Consider\nthe person, one that hath to do with God immediately by himself.\nNow, that faith is not capable of this kind of perfection, it is\nevident, because when men here know most, they know but in part.\nNow he that knows but in part, can do but in part; and he that doth\nbut in part, hath a part wanting in the judgment of the justice of\nGod. So then, when thou hast done all thou canst, thou hast done\nbut part of thy duty, and so art short of justification from the\ncurse by what thou hast done (1 Cor 8:2, 13:12).\n\n3. Besides, it looks too like a monster that the works of faith\nshould justify us before God; because then faith is turned, as it\nwere, with its neck behind it.[32] Faith, in its own nature and\nnatural course, respecteth the mercy of God through the Mediator,\nJesus Christ; and as such, its virtue and excellency is to expect\njustification by grace through him; but by this doctrine faith is\nturned round about, and now makes a life out of what itself hath\ndone; but, methinks, faith should be as noble as its fruits, that\nbeing the first, and they but the fruits of that.\n\nBesides, seeing the work is only good because it floweth from\nfaith (for faith purifieth the heart), therefore faith is it that\njustifies all its works (Acts 15:9). If, then, we be justified by\neither, it is by faith, and not by his works; unless we will say\nthere is more virtue in the less than in the greater. Now, what\nis faith but a believing, a trusting, or relying act of the soul?\nWhat, then, must it rely upon or trust in? Not in itself; that is,\nwithout Scripture; not in its works, they are inferior to itself;\nbesides, this is the way to make even the works of faith the\nmediator between God and the soul, and so by them thrust Christ\nout of doors; therefore it must trust in Christ; and if so, then\nno man can be justified from the curse, before God, by the works\nthat flow from faith.\n\n4. To put all out of doubt; the saint, when he hath done what he\ncan to bring forth good works by faith, yet he dares not show these\nworks before God but as they pass through the Mediator Christ, but\nas they are washed in the blood of the Lamb. And therefore Peter\nsaith, those sacrifices of ours that are truly spiritual are only\nthen accepted of God, when offered up by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).\nAnd therefore it is said again, that the prayers of the saints,\nwhich are the fruits of faith, come up before the throne of God\nthrough the angel's hand; that is, through the hand of Christ, through\nhis golden censer, perfumed with his incense, made acceptable by\nhis intercession (Rev 8:3,4). It is said in the Book of Revelation,\nthat it is granted to the bride, the Lamb's wife, that she should\nbe 'arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; which white linen is\nthe righteousness of saints.' This fine linen, in my judgment, is\nthe works of godly men, their works that sprang from faith. But\nhow came they clean? How came they white? Not simply because they\nwere the works of faith. But mark, they 'washed their robes, and\nmade them white in the blood of the Lamb.' And 'therefore they\nstand before the throne of God' (Rev 7:14,15). Yea, therefore it\nis that their good works stand there too.\n\nI conclude, then, 'our persons are justified while we are sinners\nin ourselves.' Our works, even the works of faith, are no otherwise\naccepted but as they come through Jesus Christ, even through his\nintercession and blood. So then, Christ doth justify both our person\nand works, not by way of approbation, as we stand in ourselves or\nworks before God, but by presenting of us to his Father by himself,\nwashing what we are and have from guilt in his blood, and clothing\nus with his own performances. This is the cause of our acceptance\nwith God, and that our works are not cast forth of his presence.\n\nTHE USE.\n\nUSE FIRST.--Is justifying righteousness to be found in the person\nof Christ only? Then this should admonish us to take heed of seeking\nit in ourselves; that is, of working righteousness, thereby to appease\nthe justice of God, lest by so doing we affront and blaspheme the\nrighteousness of Christ. He that shall go about to establish his\nown righteousness, he, as yet, doth defiance to that which is of\nGod, of God's appointing, of God's providing; and that only wherewith\nthe justice of the law must be well pleased. Wherefore take heed,\nI say, of doing such a thing, lest it provoke the eyes of the Lord's\nglory--'When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely\nlive; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all\nhis righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity\nthat he hath committed, he shall die for it' (Eze 33:13). Mark,\nthough he be righteous, yea, though he have a promise of life,\nyet he shall die. But why? Because he sinned against the Lord by\ntrusting to his own righteousness, therefore he must die for it.\nThere are some things that will preserve a man from splitting upon\nthis rock. As,\n\nFirst. Get good acquaintance with the covenant of grace, and of the\npersons concerned in the conditions of that covenant. The conditions\nof that covenant are, that a righteousness shall be brought into\nthe world that shall please the justice of God, and answer and so\nremove the curse of the law. Now he that doth perform this condition\nis Christ; therefore the covenant is not immediately with man, but\nwith him that will be the Mediator betwixt God and man: 'As for\nthee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy\nprisoners,' speaking of Christ (Zech 9:11). So then, Christ, the\nMan Christ, is he who was to bring in these conditions; to wit,\neverlasting righteousness. And hence it is that God hath said,\nChrist shall be the covenant of the people--that is, he shall be\nour conditions to Godward (Dan 9:23,24). He, therefore, is all our\nrighteousness as to the point of our justification before God; he\nis the covenant of the people, as well as the light of the Gentiles;\nfor as no man can see but in the light of his Spirit, so no man\ncan stand but in and by him; he is the covenant of the people, the\nconditions and qualifications of the people (Isa 52:6). So that to\nGodward Christ is all in all, and no man anything at all. He hath\nmade with me an everlasting covenant; with me, as I stand in my head,\nChrist, who, because he hath brought in everlasting righteousness,\ntherefore hath removed the curse of the law; wherefore he adds, this\ncovenant 'is ordered in all things, and sure,' because all points\nthat concern me, as to redemption from the curse, are taken away\nby Christ, as before is discoursed (2 Sam 23:5). Look, then, upon\nChrist as the man, the mediator, undertaker, and accomplisher of\nthat righteousness in himself, wherein thou must stand just before\nGod; and that he is the covenant or conditions of the people to\nGodward, always having in himself the righteousness that the law\nis well pleased with, and always presenting himself before God as\nour only righteousness.\n\nSecond. That this truth may be the more heartily inquired into by\nthee, consider thine own perfections;[33] I say, study how polluted\nthou art, even from the heart throughout. No man hath a high esteem\nof the Lord Jesus that is a stranger to his own sore. Christ's\nchurch is an hospital of sick, wounded, and afflicted people; even\nas when he was in the world, the afflicted and distressed set the\nhighest price upon Jesus Christ. Why? They were sick, and he was\nthe Physician; but the whole had no need of him. And just thus\nit is now: Christ is offered to the world to be the righteousness\nand life of sinners, but no man will regard him save he that seeth\nhis own pollution; he that seeth he cannot answer the demands of\nthe law, he that sees himself from top to toe polluted, and that\ntherefore his service cannot be clean as to justify him from the\ncurse before God--he is the man that must needs die in despair and\nbe damned, or must trust in Jesus Christ for life.\n\nFurther, This rule I would have all receive that come to Jesus\nChrist for life and salvation--\n\n1. Not to stick at the acknowledgment of sin, but to make that of\nit which the law makes of it: 'Acknowledge thine iniquity,' saith\nthe Lord (Jer 3:13). This is a hard pinch, I know what I say, for\na man to fall down under the sense of sins by acknowledging them\nto be what the Lord saith they are; to acknowledge them, I say,\nin their own defiling and polluting nature; to acknowledge them in\ntheir unreasonable and aggravating circumstances; to acknowledge\nthem in their God-offending and soul-destroying nature, especially\nwhen the conscience is burdened with the guilt of them. Yet\nthis is duty: 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to\nforgive' (1 John 1:9). Yea, to this is annexed the promise, 'He that\nconfesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy.' This made David,\nas it were, lay claim to the mercy of God--'Wash me thoroughly,'\nsaid he, 'from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin; for I\nacknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.' Though,\nthen, thou art to blush and be ashamed when thou rememberest thy\nsins and iniquities, yet do not hide them--'He that covereth his\nsins shall not prosper.' Do not lessen them; do not speak of them\nbefore God after a mincing way--'Acknowledge thine iniquities, that\nthou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered\nthy ways to the strangers under every green tree; and ye have not\nobeyed my voice, saith the Lord' (Jer 3:13).\n\n2. If we would come to Christ aright, we must only acknowledge our\nsins; we must ONLY acknowledge them, and there stop; stop, I say,\nfrom attempting to do aught to present us good before God, but only\nto receive the mercy offered. 'Only acknowledge thine iniquities.'\nMen are subject to two extremes, either to confess sins notionally\nand by the halves; or else, together with the confession of them,\nto labour to do some holy work, thereby to ease their burdened\nconsciences, and beget faith in the mercy of God (Hosea 5:15).\nNow both these are dangerous, and very ungodly--dangerous, because\nthe wound is healed falsely; and ungodly, because the command is\ntransgressed: 'Only acknowledge thy sin,' and there stand, as David,\n'till thy guilt is taken away.' Joshua stood before the angel, from\ntop to toe in filthy garments, till the Lord put other clothes upon\nhim (Zech 3:3-5). In the matter of thy justification thou must know\nnothing, see nothing, hear nothing, but thine own sins and Christ's\nrighteousness--'Only acknowledge thine iniquities.' Now the Saviour\nand the soul comes rightly together; the Saviour to do his work,\nwhich is to spread his skirt over the sinner; and the sinner to\nreceive, by believing this blessed imputed righteousness. And hence\nthe church, when she came to God, lieth down in her shame, and her\nconfusion covereth her; and so lieth till pardon comes (Jer 3:25).\n\nUSE SECOND.--I come now to the second use--Have faith in Christ.\n\nBut what are we to understand by faith?\n\nAnsw. Faith importeth as much as to say, Receive, embrace, accept\nof, or trust in, the benefit offered. All which are, by holy men\nof God, words used on purpose to show that the mercy of God, the\nforgiveness of sins, and eternal life, are not to be had by doing,\nor by the law; but by receiving, embracing, accepting, or trusting\nto the mercy of God through Christ: 'We believe that through the\ngrace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they'\n(Acts 15:11; John 1:12; 2 Cor 4:1, 11:4; Col 2:6; Heb 11:13; 1\nTim 1:15; Eph 1:12-13). Thus you see what the gospel is, and what\nfaith doth do in the salvation of the soul. Now, that faith might\nbe helped in this work, for great are they that oppose it, therefore\nthe Scriptures, the Word of truth, hath presented us with the\ninvitation in most plain and suitable sentences: as, 'That Christ\ncame into the world to save sinners--Christ died for our sins--Christ\ngave himself for our sins--Christ bare our sins in his body on the\ntree--and that God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.' Further,\nas the invitations are plain and easy, so the threatenings to the\nopposers are sore and astonishing: 'He that believeth not shall be\ndamned--Because they received not the love of the truth, that they\nmight be saved, God gave them up to strong delusions, that they\nall might be damned' (Mark 16:16; 2 Thess 2:10-12).\n\nObject. But faith is said to be an act of obedience.\n\nAnsw. And well it may, for it is the most submitting act that a man\ncan do; it throweth out all our righteousness; it makes the soul\npoor in itself; it liveth upon God and Christ, as the almsman doth\nupon his lord; it consenteth to the gospel that it is true; it\ngiveth God and Christ the glory of their mercy and merit; it loveth\nGod for his mercy, and Jesus Christ for his service; whatever good\nit doth, it still crieth, Hereby am I not justified, but he that\njustifieth me is the Lord. Well, but is there in truth such a thing\nas the obedience of faith? Then let Christians labour to understand\nit, and distinguish it aright, and to separate it from the law\nand all man's righteousness; and remember that it is a receiving of\nmercy, an embracing of forgiveness, an accepting of the righteousness\nof Christ, and a trusting to these for life. Remember, again,\nthat it putteth the soul upon coming to Christ as a sinner, and to\nreceive forgiveness as a sinner, as such. We now treat of justification.\n\nBut a little to insert at large a few more of the excellencies of\nit, and so draw towards a conclusion. The more thou believest for\nremission of sins, the more of the light of the glorious gospel of\nChrist thou receivest into thy soul--'For therein is the righteousness\nof God revealed from faith to faith' (Rom 1:17). That is, according\nto the degree of faith. Little faith seeth but little but great\nfaith seeth much; and therefore he saith again, that by faith we\nhave 'access into the grace of God' (Rom 5:2). The reason is,\n\n1. Because faith, having laid hold upon Christ, hath found him 'in\nwhom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col 2:3).\nIn him therefore it finds and sees those heights and depths of\ngospel mysteries that are nowhere else to be found; nay, let a man\nbe destitute of faith, and it is not possible he should once think\nof some of them.\n\n2. By this means the Holy Spirit is plentifully received (Gal 3:1-3).\nNow the Spirit of God is a spirit of wisdom and revelation; but yet\nso as in the knowledge of Christ; otherwise the Spirit will show\nto man not any mighty thing, its great delight being to open Christ\nand to reveal him unto faith (Eph 1:17). Faith indeed can see him,\nfor that is the eye of the soul; and the Spirit alone can reveal\nhim, that being the searcher of the deep things of God; by these\ntherefore the mysteries of heaven are revealed and received. And\nhence it is that the mystery of the gospel is called the 'mystery\nof faith,' or the mystery with which faith only hath to do (1 Tim\n3:9).\n\nWouldst thou, then, know the greatest things of God? Accustom\nthyself to the obedience of faith,[34] live upon thy justifying\nrighteousness, and never think that to live always on Christ for\njustification is a low and beggarly thing, and as it were a staying\nat the foundation; for let me tell you, depart from a sense of\nthe meritorious means of your justification with God, and you will\nquickly grow light, and frothy, and vain. Besides, you will always\nbe subject to errors and delusions; for this is not to hold the\nhead from or through which nourishment is administered (Col 2:19).\nFurther, no man that buildeth forsakes the good foundation; that\nis the ground of his encouragement to work, for upon that is laid\nthe stress of all; and without it nothing that is framed can be\nsupported, but must inevitably fall to the ground.\n\nAgain; why not live upon Christ alway? and especially as he standeth\nthe mediator between God, and the soul, defending thee with the\nmerit of his blood, and covering thee with his infinite righteousness\nfrom the wrath of God and curse of the law. Can there be any\ngreater comfort ministered to thee than to know thy person stands\njust before God? Just and justified from all things that would\notherwise swallow thee up? Is peace with God and assurance of\nheaven of so little respect with thee that thou slightest the very\nfoundation thereof, even faith in the blood and righteousness of\nChrist? and are notions and whimsies of such credit with thee that\nthou must leave the foundation to follow them? But again; what\nmystery is desirable to be known that is not to be found in Jesus\nChrist, as Priest, Prophet, or King of saints? In him are hid all\nthe treasures of them, and he alone hath the key of David to open\nthem (Col 2:1,2; Rev 3:7). Paul was so taken with Jesus Christ,\nand the knowledge of this, that he was crucified for us, that\nhe desired, nay, determined not to know any thing else among the\nCorinthians, that itched after other wisdom (1 Cor 2:2).\n\nObject. But I see not that in Christ now, that I have seen in him\nin former days. Besides, I find the Spirit lead me forth to study\nother things.\n\nAnsw. To the first part of this objection I would answer several\nthings.--The cause why thou seest not that in Christ now, which\nthou hast seen in him in former days, is not in Christ, but in\nthy faith; he is the same, as fresh, and as good, and as full of\nblessedness, as when thou didst most rejoice in him (Heb 1:11,12).\nAnd why not now, as well as formerly? God is never weary of being\ndelighted with Jesus Christ; his blood is always precious with God;\nhis merits being those in which justice hath everlasting rest, why\nshouldst thou wander or go about to change thy way? (Prov 8:30;\nJer 2:36). Sin is the same as ever, and so is the curse of the law.\nThe devil is as busy as ever; and beware of the law in thy members.\nReturn, therefore, to thy rest, O soul! for he is thy life, and the\nlength of thy days. Guilt is to be taken off now, as it was years\nago; and whether thou seest it or no, thou sinnest in all thy\nworks. How, then, canst thou stand clear from guilt in thy soul who\nneglectest to act faith in the blood of the Lamb? There thou must\nwash thy robes, and there thou must make them white (Rev 7:14,15).\nI conclude, then, thou art a polluted, surfeited, corrupted, hardened\ncreature, whosoever thou art, that thus objectest.\n\nBut I find, sayest thou, as if the Spirit led me forth to study\nother matters.\n\nAnsw.--First. What other matters? What matters besides, above, or\nbeyond the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and of our acceptance\nwith God through him? What spirit, or doctrine, or wisdom soever it\nbe that centres not in, that cometh not from, and that terminates\nnot within, the bonds of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is not worthy\nthe study of the sons of God; neither is it food for the faith of\nJesus Christ, for that is the flesh of Christ, and that is eternal\nlife (John 6:5). Whither will you go? Beware of the spirit of\nAntichrist; for 'many false spirits are gone out into the world.'\nI told you before, that the Spirit of God is 'the Spirit of wisdom\nand revelation in the knowledge of Christ,' and that without and\nbesides the Lord Jesus it discovereth nothing (Eph 1:17). It is sent\nto testify of him; it is sent to bring his words to our remembrance;\nit is sent to take of his things and show them unto us (John\n14,15,16). Wherefore, never call that the Spirit of Jesus which\nleads you away from the blood and righteousness of Christ; that is\nbut the spirit of delusion and of the devil, whose teachings end\nin perdition and destruction. Tempt not Christ as they of old did.\nBut how did they tempt him? Why, in loathing the manna, which was\nthe type of his flesh and blood, which we are to eat of by believing.\nI say, tempt him not, lest you be destroyed by the serpents, by\nthe gnawing guilt of sin; for, take away Christ, and sin remains,\nand there is no more sacrifice for sin: if so, thou wilt be destroyed\nby the destroyer (Num 21:5-7; 1 Cor 10:10). But again--\n\nSecond. Living by faith begets in the heart a son-like boldness\nand confidence to God-ward in all our gospel duties, under all our\nweaknesses, and under all our temptations. It is a blessed thing\nto be privileged with a holy boldness and confidence God-ward, that\nhe is on our side, that he taketh part with us and that he will\nplead our cause 'with them that rise up against us' (2 Cor 2:14,\n4:17,18; Gal 2:20). But this boldness faith helpeth us to do, and\nalso manageth in our heart. This is that which made Paul always\ntriumph and rejoice in God and the Lord Jesus (Phil 3:3; Rom 5:11).\nHe lived the life of faith; for faith sets a man in the favour of\nGod by Christ, and makes a man see that what befals him in this life,\nit shall, through the wisdom and mercy of God, not only prove for\nhis forwarding to heaven, but to augment his glory when he comes\nthere. This man now stands on high, he lives, he is rid of slavish\nfears and carking cares, and in all his straits he hath a God to go\nto! Thus David, when all things looked awry upon him, 'encouraged\nhimself in the Lord his God' (1 Sam 30:6). Daniel also believed in\nhis God, and knew that all his trouble, losses, and crosses, would\nbe abundantly made up in his God (Dan 6:23). And David said, 'I had\nfainted unless I had believed' (Psa 27:13). Believing, therefore,\nis a great preservative against all such impediments, and makes us\nconfident in our God, and with boldness to come into his presence,\nclaiming privilege in what he is and hath (Jonah 3:4,5). For\nby faith, I say, he seeth his acceptance through the Beloved, and\nhimself interested in the mercy of God, and riches of Christ, and\nglory in the world to come (Heb 10:22,23; Eph 1:4-7). This man can\nlook upon all the dangers in hell and earth without paleness of\ncountenance; he shall meditate terror with comfort, 'because he\nbeholds the King in his beauty' (Isa 33:17,18). Again--\n\nThird. Living by faith makes a man exercise patience and quietness\nunder all his afflictions; for faith shows him that his best part\nis safe, that his soul is in God's special care and protection,\npurged from sin in the blood of Christ. Faith also shows him that\nafter a little while he shall be in the full enjoyment of that which\nnow he believes is coming: 'We, through the Spirit, wait for the\nhope of righteousness by faith' (Gal 5:5). Wherefore, upon this\nground it is that James exhorteth the saints to whom he wrote,\nto patience, because they knew the harvest would in due time come\n(James 5:7-11). Faith lodgeth the soul with Christ: 'I know,' saith\nPaul, 'on whom I have believed,' and to whom I have committed my\nsoul, 'and am persuaded,' I believe it, 'that he is able to keep\nthat which I have committed unto him against that day'; therefore\nit were no shame to him to wear a chain for his name and sake (2\nTim 1:12). O! it is a blessed thing to see, I say, by the faith\nof the Lord Jesus, that we are embarked in the same ship with him;\nthis will help us greatly 'both to hope and quietly wait for the\nsalvation of the Lord' (Psa 46:1-6; Lam 3:26). Further--\n\nFourth. I might add, that living by faith is the way to receive\nfresh strength from heaven, thereby to manage thine every day's work\nwith life and vigour; yea, every look by faith upon Jesus Christ,\nas thine, doth this great work. It is said, when Paul saw the\nbrethren that came to meet him, 'he thanked God, and took courage'\n(Acts 28:15). O! how much more, then, shall the Christian be blessed\nwith fresh strength and courage even at the beholding of Christ;\nwhom 'beholding as in a glass,' we 'are changed,' even by beholding\nof him by faith in the word, 'into the same image, from glory to\nglory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Cor 3:18). But to be\nbrief.\n\nFifth. Make conscience of the duty of believing, and be as afraid\nof falling short here as in any other command of God. 'This is his\ncommandment, that you believe' (1 John 3:23). Believe, therefore,\nin the name of the Lord Jesus. This is the will of God, that\nyou believe. Believe, therefore, to the saving of the soul (John\n6:46). Unbelief is a fine-spun thread, not so easily discerned as\ngrosser sins; and therefore that is truly 'The sin that doth so\neasily beset us' (Heb 12:1). The light of nature will show those\nsins that are against the law of nature; but the law of faith is\na command beyond what flesh or nature teacheth; therefore to live\nby faith is so much the harder work; yet it must be done, otherwise\nthine other duties profit thee nothing. For if a man give way to\nunbelief, though he be most frequent in all other duties besides, so\noften as he worshippeth God in these, he yet saith, God is a liar\nin the other, even because he hath not believed: 'He that believeth\nnot God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record\nthat God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath\ngiven to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son' (1 John\n5:10,11). So then, when thou givest way to unbelief; when thou dost\nnot venture the salvation of thy soul upon the justifying life that\nis in Christ--that is, in his blood, &c.,--at once, thou givest\nthe lie to the whole testament of God; yea, thou tramplest upon\nthe promise of grace, and countest this precious blood an unholy\nand unworthy thing (Heb 10:29). Now how, thou doing thus, the Lord\nshould accept of thy other duties, of prayer, alms, thanksgiving,\nself-denial, or any other, will be hard for thee to prove. In the\nmeantime remember, that faith pleaseth God; and that without faith\nit is impossible to please him. Remember also, that for this cause\nit was that the offering of Cain was not accepted: 'By faith Abel\noffered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain'; for by\nfaith Abel first justified the promise of the Messias, by whom a\nconquest should be obtained over the devil, and all the combination\nof hell against us: then he honoured Christ by believing that he\nwas able to save him; and in token that he believed these things\nindeed, he presented the Lord with the firstlings of his flock, as\na remembrance before God that he believed in his Christ (Heb 11:4).\nAnd therefore it is said, 'By faith he offered'; by which means the\noffering was accepted of God; for no man's offering can be accepted\nwith God but his that stands righteous before him first. But unbelief\nholdeth men under their guilt, because they have not believed in\nChrist, and by that means put on his righteousness. Again; he that\nbelieveth not, hath made invalid--what in him lies--the promise of\nGod and merits of Christ, of whom the Father hath spoken so worthily;\ntherefore what duties or acts of obedience soever he performeth,\nGod by no means can be pleased with him.\n\nBy this, therefore, you see the miserable state of the people that\nhave not faith--'Whatever they do, they sin'; if they break the\nlaw, they sin; if they endeavour to keep it, they sin. They sin, I\nsay, upon a double account: first, because they do it but imperfectly;\nand, secondly, because they yet stay upon that, resisting that which\nis perfect, even that which God hath appointed. It mattereth not,\nas to justification from the curse, therefore; men wanting faith,\nwhether they be civil or profane, they are such as stand accursed\nof the law, because they have not believed, and because they have\ngiven the lie to the truth, and to the God of truth. Let all men,\ntherefore, that would please God make conscience of believing;\non pain, I say, of displeasing him; on pain of being, with Cain,\nrejected, and on pain of being damned in hell. 'He that believeth\nnot shall be damned' (Mark 16:16). Faith is the very quintessence\nof all gospel obedience, it being that which must go before other\nduties, and that which also must accompany whatever I do in the\nworship of God, if it be accepted of him.[35] Here you may see a\nreason why the force and power of hell is so bent against believing.\nSatan hateth all the parts of our Christian obedience, but the best\nand chiefest most. And hence the apostle saith to the Thessalonians,\nthat he sent to know their faith, lest by some means the tempter\nhave tempted them, and so his labour had been in vain (1 Thess\n3:5). Indeed, where faith is wanting, or hath been destroyed, all\nthe labour is in vain, nothing can profit any man, neither as to\npeace with God, nor the acceptance of any religious duty; and this,\nI say, Satan knows, which makes him so bend his force against us.\n\nThere are three things in the act of believing which make this\ngrace displeasing to the wicked one--\n\n1. Faith discovereth the truth of things to the soul; the truth of\nthings as they are, whether they be things that are of this world,\nor of that which is to come; the things and pleasures above, and\nalso those beneath. Faith discovereth to the soul the blessedness,\nand goodness, and durableness of the one; the vanity, foolishness,\nand transitoriness of the other. Faith giveth credit to all things\nthat are written in the law and in the prophets (Acts 24:14),\nboth as to the being, nature, and attributes of God; the blessed\nundertaking of the Lord Jesus Christ; the glory of heaven and torments\nof hell; the sweetness of the promise and terror of the threatenings\nand curses of the Word; by which means Satan is greatly frustrated in\nhis assaults when he tempteth either to love this world or slight\nthat which is to come, for he can do no great matter in these\nthings to any but those who want the faith. 'In vain is the snare\nlaid in the sight of any bird' (Prov 1:17); therefore he must\nfirst blind, and hold blind, the minds of men, 'that the light of\nthe glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not\nshine unto them,' else he can do no harm to the soul (2 Cor 4:4).\nNow, faith is the eye of the godly man, and that sees the truth\nof things, whatever Satan suggests, either about the glory of this\nworld, the sweetness of sin, the uncertainty of another world, or\nthe like (1 John 5:4,5; Heb. 11:27).\n\n2. Faith wraps the soul up in the bundle of life with God;\nit encloseth it in the righteousness of Jesus, and presents it so\nperfect in that, that whatever he can do, with all his cunning,\ncannot render the soul spotted or wrinkled before the justice of\nthe law; yea, though the man, as to his own person and acts, be\nfull of sin from top to toe, Jesus Christ covereth all; faith sees\nit, and holds the soul in the godly sense and comfort of it. The\nman, therefore, standing here, stands shrouded under that goodly\nrobe that makes him glisten in the eye of justice. Yea, all the\nanswer that Satan can get from God against such a soul is, that he\n'doth not see iniquity in Jacob, nor behold perverseness in Israel';\nfor here 'Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of\nthe Lord of hosts, though,' as to their own persons, 'their land\nwas filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel' (Num 23:21-23;\nJer 51:5; Rom 6:14; Deut 33:12). Thus, therefore, the soul believing,\nis hid from all the power of the enemy, and dwells safely under\nthe dominion of grace.\n\n3. Faith keeps the soul from giving credit to any of his insinuations;\nfor whatever Satan saith, either about the acceptance of my person\nor performances, so long as I believe that both are accepted of\nGod for Christ's sake, he suggesteth to the wind; wherefore faith\ndoth the same against the devil that unbelief doth to God. Doth\nunbelief count God a liar? Faith counts the devil a liar. Doth\nunbelief hold the soul from the mercy of God? Faith holds the soul\nfrom the malice of the devil. Doth unbelief quench thy graces?\nFaith kindleth them even into a flame. Doth unbelief fill the soul\nfull of sorrow? Faith fills it full of the joy of the Holy Ghost.\nIn a word, doth unbelief bind down thy sins upon thee? Why, faith\nin Jesus Christ releaseth thee of them all.\n\n4. As faith keeps the soul from giving credit to the insinuations\nof Satan, so, when he makes his assaults, it over-masters him,\nand makes him retreat; 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from\nyou.--Whom resist steadfast in the faith' (James 4:7; 1 Peter\n5:9). Believe, as I have already said, that God loveth you, that\nthe blood of Christ was shed for you, that your person is presented\ncomplete before him, through the righteousness of Christ, and Satan\nmust give place; thy crediting of the gospel makes him fly before\nthee; but thou must do it steadfast in the faith; every waverer\ngiveth him advantage. And, indeed, this is the reason that the godly\nare so foiled with his assaults, they do not resist him steadfast\nin the faith; they often stagger through unbelief. Now, at every\nstagger he recovereth lost ground again, and giveth battle another\ntime. Besides, by this and the other stagger he taketh heart\nto attempt by other means, and so doubleth the affliction with\nmanifold temptations. This is, I say, for want of being steadfast.\n'Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able\nto quench all the fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph 6:16). To quench\nthem, though they come from him as kindled with the very fire\nof hell. None knows, save him that feels it, how burning hot the\nfiery darts of Satan are; and how, when darted, they kindle upon\nour flesh and unbelief; neither can any know the power and worth\nof faith to quench them but he that hath it, and hath power to act\nit.\n\n5. Lastly, if justifying righteousness be alone to be found in the\nperson of Jesus Christ, then this shows us the sad condition of\ntwo sorts of men--1. Of those that hang in doubt betwixt Christ\nand the law. 2. Of those that do professedly make denial of the\nsufficiency of this most blessed righteousness.\n\nFirst. The first sort, though they may seek life, yet, thus continuing,\nare never like to find it. Wherefore? Because they seek it not by\nfaith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. Indeed, they will\nnot be merit-mongers; they will not wholly trust to the law; they\nwill partly venture on Christ, and partly trust to the law. Well,\nbut therefore they shall be damned, because they trust to Christ\nbut in part, and in part, as it were, to the works of the law; for\nsuch sinners make Christ but a Saviour in part--why, then, should\nhe be their Saviour in whole? No; because they halt between Christ\nand the law, therefore they shall fall between Christ and the law;\nyea, because they will trust to their works in part, they shall be\nbut almost saved by Christ. Let not that man think that he shall\nobtain any thing from the Lord. What man? Why, he that doubteth or\nwavereth in his mind about the truth of the mercy of God in Christ.\nTherefore the exhortation is, 'But let him ask in faith.--For he\nthat wavereth,' or, that halteth between the law and Christ for\nlife, 'is like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind and tossed'\n(James 1:6). In conclusion, he resteth nowhere--'a double-minded\nman is unstable in all his ways' (v 8). This man, therefore, must\nmiscarry; he must not see the good land that flows with milk and\nhoney; no, let him not have a thought of life in his heart; let\nnot that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.[36]\n\nThis was the case of many in the primitive times, for whose sake\nthis caution was written; for the devout and religious Jew and\nproselyte, when they fell away from the word of the gospel, they\ndid not fall to those gross and abominable pollutions in which the\nopen profane, like sows and swine, do wallow, but they fell from\nthe grace of God to the law; or, at least, did rest betwixt them\nboth, doubting of the sufficiency of either; and thus, being fearful,\nthey distrust; wherefore, being found at length unbelieving, they\nare reputed of God abominable, as murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers,\nidolators, and liars, and so must have their portion in the lake,\nwith them, that burns with fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8). The\nreason is, because where Christ is rejected sin remaineth, and so\nthe wrath of God for sin. Neither will he be a Saviour in part; he\nmust be all thy salvation, or none. 'Let not that man think that\nhe shall receive any thing of the Lord' (James 1:7; John 3:36).\nNot any thing. There is no promise for him, no pardon for him,\nno heaven for him, no salvation for him, no escaping of his fire!\nWhat condition is this man in? Yet he is a religious man, for he\nprays; he is a seeking man, a desiring man, for he prays; but he\nhalts between two, he leaneth to his righteousness, and committeth\niniquity. He is afraid to venture all upon the Lord Jesus Christ.\nLet not that man think of receiving any thing from the Lord!\n\nYet the words suggest that he is apt to think he shall receive\nsomething, because God is merciful, because his promise is great;\nbut this expectation is by this word cut off, and this sinner is\ncast away. Let not that man think, let him forbear to think, of\nhaving anything at the hand of God. The Israelites thought to go\nup to the land the day after they had despised it. Agag thought\nthe bitterness of death was past even that day in which he was hewn\nto pieces. Rechab and Baanah his brother thought to have received\nreward of David that day they were hanged over the pool in Hebron.\nLet not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord'\n(Num 14:40-45; 1 Sam 15:32,33; 2 Sam 4:12).\n\nSecond. As for those that do professedly make denial of the\nsufficiency of this most blessed righteousness, the whole book is\nconviction to them, and shall assuredly, if it comes to their hands,\nrise up in judgment against them. They have rejected the wisdom\nand mercy of God; they have rejected the means of their salvation;\nthey have trampled upon the blood of the Son of God; wherefore\njudgment waiteth for them, and fiery indignation, which shall devour\nthe adversaries.\n\n[A word to neglecters of Christ.]\n\nTo conclude. One word also to you that are neglecters of Jesus\nChrist: 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?'\nHere then, we may see how we ought to judge of all such persons as\nneglect the Lord Jesus, under what guise, name, or notion soever\nthey be. We ought, I say, to judge of such, that they are at present\nin a state of condemnation; of condemnation, 'because they have\nnot believed in the only-begotten Son of God' (John 3:18). It is\ntrue, there is no man more at ease in his mind, with such ease as\nit is, than the man that hath not closed with the Lord Jesus, but\nis shut up in unbelief. O! but that is the man that stands convict\nbefore God, and that is bound over to the great assize; that is\nthe man whose sins are still his own, and upon whom the wrath of\nGod abideth (v 36); for the ease and peace of such, though it keep\nthem far from fear, is but like to that of the secure thief, that\nis ignorant that the constable standeth at the door; the first sight\nof an officer makes his peace to give up the ghost (1 John 5:12).\nAh, how many thousands that can now glory that they never were\ntroubled for sin against God; I say, how many be there that God will\ntrouble worse than he troubled cursed Achan, because their peace,\nthough false, and of the devil, was rather chosen by them than peace\nby Jesus Christ, than 'peace with God by the blood of his cross'\n(Col 1:20). Awake, careless sinners, awake! and arise from the\ndead, and Christ shall give you light. Content not yourselves either\nwith sin or righteousness, if you be destitute of Jesus Christ,\nbut cry, cry, O cry to God for light to see your condition by;\nfor light in the Word of God, for therein is the righteousness\nof God revealed (Eph 5:14). Cry, therefore, for light to see this\nrighteousness by; it is a righteousness of Christ's finishing, of\nGod's accepting, and that which alone can save the soul from the\nstroke of eternal justice! (Rom 1:17).\n\nThere are six things that on man's part are the cause he receiveth\nnot the gospel of Christ, and so life by him--1. They see not their\nstate by nature, how polluted they are with original sin (Eph 2:2).\n2. They see not the justice of God against sin; they know not him\nthat hath said, 'Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense'\n(Heb 10:30). 3. They cannot see the beauty of Jesus Christ (2 Cor\n4:4). 4. Unbelief being mighty in them, they dare not venture their\nsouls with Jesus Christ. They dare not trust to his righteousness,\nand to that only (Rev 21:8). For, 5. Their carnal reason also sets\nitself against the word of faith, and cannot stoop to the grace\nof Jesus Christ (1 Cor 2:14). 6. They love to have honour one\nof another, they love to be commended for their own vain-glorious\nrighteousness; and the fools think that because they are commended\nof men, they shall be commended of God also: 'How can ye believe,\nwhich receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that\ncometh from God only?' (John 5:44). This last thing--to wit, desire\nof vain-glory, is the bane of thousands; it is the legalist's bane,\nit is the civilian's[37] bane, it is the formalist's bane, yea,\nwhich yet is stranger, it is the bane of the vicious and debauched\nalso;[38] for though there be a generation that, to one's thinking,\nhave not regard to righteousness, yet watch them narrowly, and\nthey have their times of doing something that looks like good, and\nthough possibly it be but seldom, yet this wretch counteth that,\nfor the sake of that, God accepteth him, and counteth his, glorious\nrighteousness. I might add a seventh cause, which is, want of\nserious meditation upon eternal judgment, and what shall follow.\nThis consideration, did it take a deep place in the heart, would\ndoubtless produce these workings of spirit after Jesus Christ for\njustification that now are wanting in the most of men. This made\nFelix, yea, it makes the devils, tremble; and would, I say, couldst\nthou deeply meditate, make thee start and turn thy wanton thoughts\ninto heavy sighs after God's mercy in Jesus Christ, lest thou also\ncome into their place of torment.\n\nBefore I conclude this use, I would lay down a few motives, if so\nbe thou mayest be prevailed with to look after thine own everlasting\nstate.\n\n1. Consider, God hath put man above all the creatures in this\nvisible world, into a state of abiding for ever; they cannot be\nannihilated, they shall never again be turned into nothing, but\nmust live with God or the devil for ever and ever. And though the\nscripture saith, 'Man hath not pre-eminence over a beast in his\ndeath,' yet the beast hath pre-eminence above many men, for he\nshall not rise again to come into judgment as man must, nor receive\nthat dismal sentence for sin and transgression as man shall; this,\ntherefore, is worthy to be considered with seriousness of all\nthat have souls to be saved or damned--'They must one day come to\njudgment,' there to stand before that Judge of all the earth whose\neyes are like a flame of fire, from the sight of which thou canst\nnot hide one of thy words, or thoughts, or actions, because thou\nwantest the righteousness of God. The fire of his justice shall\nburn up all thy rags of righteousness wherewith by the law thou\nhast clothed thyself, and will leave thee nothing but a soul full\nof sin to bemoan, and eternal burnings to grapple with. O the\nburnings that will then beset sinners on every side, and that will\neat their flesh and torment their spirit with far more terror than\nif they were stricken with scorpions! And observe it, the torment\nwill there be higher than other where there is the guilt of neglecting\nJesus Christ, he being indeed the Saviour, and him that was sent\non purpose to deliver men from the wrath to come.\n\n2. Consider, once past grace, and ever past grace. When the door\nis shut against thee, it will open no more, and then repentings,\ndesires, wishings, and wouldings, come all too late (Luke 13).\nGood may be done to others, but to thee, none; and this shall be\nbecause, even because thou hast withstood the time of thy visitation,\nand not received grace when offered: 'My God will cast them away,\nbecause they did not hearken unto him' (Luke 19:41-43; Hosea 9:17).\nCain was driven out from the presence of God, for aught I know,\nsome hundreds of years before his death; Ishmael was cast away after\nseventeen years of age; Esau lived thirty or forty years after he\nhad sold his birthright. O! many, very many are in this condition!\nfor though God be gracious, yet he will not be slighted nor abused\nalways; there are plenty of sinners in the world--if one will not,\nanother will. Christ was soon repulsed by and sent away from the\ncountry of the Gadarenes; but on the other side of the sea there\nwere many ready with joy to receive him (Luke 8:37,40). So, when\nthe Jews contradicted and blasphemed, 'the Gentiles gladly received\nthe word' (Acts 13:46-48). Look to it, sinner, here is life and\ndeath set before thee; life, if it be not too late to receive it;\nbut if it be, it is not too late for death to swallow thee up.\nAnd tell me, will it not be dreadful to be carried from under the\ngospel to the damned, there to lie in endless torment, because thou\nwouldst not be delivered therefrom?[39] Will it be comfort to thee\nto see the Saviour turn Judge? to see him that wept and died for\nthe sin of the world now ease his mind on Christ-abhorring sinners\nby rendering to them the just judgment of God? For all their\nabominable filthiness, had they closed with Christ, they had been\nshrouded from the justice of the law, and should not have come into\ncondemnation. 'But had been passed from death to life'; but they\nwould not take shelter there; they would venture to meet the justice\nof God in its fury, wherefore now it shall swallow them up for ever\nand ever. And let me ask further, is not he a madman who, being\nloaded with combustible matter, will run headlong into the fire\nupon a bravado? or that, being guilty of felony or murder, will\ndesperately run himself into the hand of the officer, as if the law,\nthe judge, the sentence, execution, were but a jest, or a thing to\nbe played withal? And yet thus mad are poor, wretched, miserable\nsinners, who, flying from Christ as if he were a viper, they are\novercome, and cast off for ever by the just judgment of the law.\nBut ah! how poorly will these be able to plead the virtues of the\nlaw to which they have cleaved, when God shall answer them, 'Whom\ndost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the\nuncircumcised' (Eze 32:19). Go down to hell, and there be laid with\nthose that refused the grace of God.\n\nSinners, take my advice, with which I shall conclude this use--Call\noften to remembrance that thou hast a precious soul within thee; that\nthou art in the way to thine end, at which thy precious soul will\nbe in special concerned, it being then time to delay no longer,\nthe time of reward being come. I say again, bring thy end home; put\nthyself in thy thoughts into the last day thou must live in this\nworld, seriously arguing thus--How if this day were my last? How if\nI never see the sun rise more? How if the first voice that rings\nto-morrow morning in my heavy ears be, 'Arise, ye dead, and come\nto judgment?' Or how, if the next sight I see with mine eyes be\nthe Lord in the clouds, with all his angels, raining floods of fire\nand brimstone upon the world? Am I in a case to be thus near mine\nend? to hear this trump of God? or to see this great appearance of\nthis great God, and the Lord Jesus Christ? Will my profession, or\nthe faith I think I have, carry me through all the trials of God's\ntribunal? Cannot his eyes, which are as a flame of fire, see in my\nwords, thoughts, and actions enough to make me culpable of the wrath\nof God? O how serious should sinners be in this work of remembering\nthings to come, of laying to their heart the greatness and terror\nof that notable day of God Almighty, and in examining themselves,\nhow it is like to go with their souls when they shall stand before the\nJudge indeed! To this end, God make this word effectual. Amen.[40]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. These are most important distinctions, upon which depends a\nright understanding of this doctrine. God sees the soul either in\nChrist or in sin. He may see apparently good works arising from the\nfoulest motives. Uriah doubtless thought himself highly honoured\nas a confidential messenger of great king David; God saw the murder\nand adultery in David's heart. He was justified in the sight of\nman for the very act that condemned him in the sight of God; and\nfor which he was sorely punished in this world, although saved by\nthe blood of atonement.--Ed.\n\n2. Let not a scoffer say, 'See how Christians cast away the law of\nGod!' They are under the law to Christ; bound by the most sacred\nobligations to obey all its requirements; not to merit pardon, but\nto prove, to the comfort of their souls, that they have received\npardon, and are living under a sense of the unmerited grace of God\nin Christ.--Ed.\n\n3. This is a clear statement of a most important truth. The sins\nof believers were laid upon Christ, or imputed to him, and he bore\nthem away, but was undefiled. His righteousness covers us, and we\nare justified, but it is still HIS. Not unto us, but unto his name,\nbe all the glory.--Ed.\n\n4. By 'common,' is here meant that Christ is the federal head\nof all his saints; they have an equal or common right equally to\nparticipate in his merits.--Ed.\n\n5. How full of consolation is this voice from the tomb! Lowth's\ntranslation is very striking--'Thy dead shall live, my deceased;\nthey SHALL arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for\nthy dew is as the dew of the dawn! But the earth shall cast forth,\nas an abortion, thy deceased tyrants.' Antichrist shall 'cease from\ntroubling,' and be only seen afar off in torments.--Ed.\n\n6. Christ (amazing love!) 'was made a curse for us,' and thereby\nredeemed us from the curse of the law. He subjected himself to the\nlaw in active as well as passive obedience, and his obedience even\nto death was for our justification.--Mason.\n\n7. Those whom God justifies, he also glorifies; and because Christ\nlives, blessed be God! we shall live also. Nevertheless, the\nstrongest believer has as much need to come to Christ every day\nfor fresh strength, as if he had never believed before; and if he\nwere to depend on his own faithfulness, and not on the faithfulness\nof the Son of God, he would soon desert the Lord Jesus Christ.--Mason.\n\n8. The symbol of regeneration, or water baptism. Although the\nregenerate believer feels an assurance that he forms part of Christ's\nmystical body, and is saved by grace, and loves God because God\nfirst loved him, this does not prevent, but approves, his following\nthe example of his Redeemer, in a symbolical or water baptism. Thus\nhe publicly puts on Christ; he is buried with him in baptism, and\nrises to newness of life. Colossians 2:12, 13.--Ed.\n\n9. Believer, if thou art rejoicing in this great and finished\nsalvation, never forget that thine only evidence is--sorrow for\nthy sins, which caused the shedding of this precious blood, and a\nlove of holiness. If sin be deplored, not only art thou redeemed\nfrom its curse, but also delivered from its power. The grace that\njustifies quickens us to good works, that we may walk therein.--Ed.\n\n10. Because it is tainted by sin.--Ed.\n\n11. The best righteousness that can be produced by fallen man is\nimpressively designated by Isaiah, 'A bed shorter than a man can\nstretch himself on, and a covering narrower than he can wrap himself\nin.'--Ed.\n\n12. The way of salvation by works was blasted by the curse upon\nAdam's sin, so that it cannot work life in us, or holiness, but\nonly death.--Ed.\n\n13. To divert or turn aside from an intended course; not to divert\nor amuse.--Ed.\n\n14. Bunyan, in his Creation Spiritualized, or Exposition on Genesis,\nhas shown that the fig-leaf aprons are a type of man's attempt to\ncover his sins by his own good works, which soon fade, become dung,\nor are burned up. But the righteousness that God provides endureth\nfor ever. See vol. i., p. 440.--Ed.\n\n15. The marginal notes to the Bible are exceedingly valuable,\nespecially to the unlearned. There we find that Jedidiah means\n'beloved of the Lord.'--Ed.\n\n16. The birth of a babe is a period of excitement. Parents should\nhope that the new comer is a Jedidiah. On such occasions, it is a\ndelightful service when the father, mother, and family specially\nattend public worship, to bless God for his mercies, and to beseech\ngrace that they may train up the child for heaven. Such is the\npractice among the Baptists. But even in this, watchfulness is\nrequisite, lest it degenerate into mere parade.--Ed.\n\n17. The non-imputation of sin, and the imputation of Christ's\nrighteousness, always go together. David knew this; while he describes\nthe blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin,\nhe, at the same time, describes the blessedness of the man to whom\nGod imputeth Christ's righteousness.--Mason.\n\n18. However excellent the conduct of Zaccheus, still he was a sinner,\nand under the curse. His curiosity leads him to climb a tree to\nsee Jesus, and most unexpectedly salvation is brought to one who\nsought it not. Christ called, and he instantly obeyed. O may our\nhearts be so inclined to receive the invitations of his gospel!.--Ed.\n\n19. We are all, by nature and practice, in a spiritual sense, robbers,\nidolaters, and murderers. God make us to know and feel it! We may\nadopt the language of the poet, and say--\n\n\n   'Sinful soul, what hast thou done?\n    Murder'd God's eternal Son!'--Mason.\n\n\n20. Works justify us from such accusations of men as will deny us\nto have justification by faith--not as being our righteousness, or\nconditions of our having Christ's righteousness, or as qualifying\nus for it.--Mason.\n\n21. Every edition of Bunyan's works calls this a 'void of words,'\nand gives a false reference to Hebrews 12:14.--Ed.\n\n22. The law condemns all sinners, and strikes them dead as with a\nthunderbolt; adjudging them to shame and misery, instead of glory\nand happiness. None can fulfil its strict terms, neither Jew nor\nGentile. There is no hope, if free grace restore them not. Romans\n3:20, 2:6-29; 8:7.--Mason.\n\n23. Hagar, by which is meant the law or covenant of works. This\nis said to gender unto bondage, because it makes them bondmen who\nlook to be saved and justified thereby. It is called the 'ministration\nof death' (2 Cor 3:6). Whereas the gospel and new covenant is a\ndispensation of liberty and life.--Mason.\n\n24. We will hold and extol this faith which doubteth not of God,\nnor of the Divine promises, nor of the forgiveness of sins through\nChrist; that we may dwell sure and safe in this our object Christ,\nand may keep still before our eyes the passion and blood of the\nMediator and all his benefits.--Luther on Galatians 3:11.\n\n25. Multitudes of professors set up their rest in outward duties,\nand repose a carnal confidence in ordinances, without endeavouring\nafter any lively communion with Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, in\nthe exercise of faith and love.--Mason.\n\n26. Conscience, if resisted, is little case, whether rightly or\nwrongly informed. By little ease, is meant a prison not large enough\neither to lie down or stand upright in, with spikes in the walls;\nplaces of torment well known in former times of persecution for\nconscience sake.--Ed.\n\n27. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. We must either, as lost sinners,\nfall into the arms of Divine mercy, and receive pardon as a free\ngift through the merits of the Saviour, or we must perish. It is\na solemn, searching consideration.--Ed.\n\n28. Difficult at any time, and impossible without Divine power; but\nmost difficult when all the faculties of the soul become harrowed\nby a 'certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation'\n(Heb 10:27).--Ed.\n\n29. If we seek salvation by works, such as sincere obedience or\nChristian perfection, we thereby bring ourselves under the law, and\nbecome debtors to fulfil all its requirements, though we intended\nto engage ourselves to fulfil it only in part (Gal 5:3). Let this\nbe seriously considered.--Mason.\n\n30. These 'foolish men' were a sect which sprung up in Bunyan's\ntime, and soon became extinct. They believed that the sufferings\nof Christ, to his death on Calvary, were only typical of what he\nsuffers in the body of every believer. This was as contrary to the\nexpress declaration of Holy Writ, 'He was ONCE offered' (Heb 9:28),\nas is the absurd notion of the Papists in the mass, or continual\nsacrifice of Christ. What impious mortal dares pretend to offer up\nChrist to his Father.--Ed.\n\n31. As the carnal Adam, having lost his original righteousness,\nimparts a corrupt nature to all his descendants; so the spiritual\nAdam, Christ Jesus, by his obedience unto death, conveys spiritual life\nto us; believers are made 'the righteousness of God in him.'--Mason.\n\n32. 'Neck' is from hniga, to bend or incline. In Bunyan's time,\nthese ancient words were well understood by the peasantry. To have\nthe neck turned, so as to bend the back of the head towards the\nback of the body, would be as absurd as for faith to look to its\nown works for justification. This would indeed be bowing backward,\ninstead of bending before, and looking to Jesus and his finished\nwork for justification.--Ed.\n\n33. Modern editors have altered this to 'imperfections,' but Bunyan\nwould have us look to the most perfect of our works, and see how\npolluted they are.--Ed.\n\n34. Faith looks at things which be not, as though they were. Sense\njudges from what it sees and feels, faith from what God says;\nsense looks inward to self, faith looks outward to Christ and his\nfullness.--Mason.\n\n35. How strangely does the world mistake the source of good works!\nThe common and fatal error is, that if salvation is all of faith,\nthen good works will fail; whereas faith is the prolific fountain,\nyea, the only source of really good works and holy obedience.--Ed.\n\n36. How universal to fallen nature is that soul-destroying heresy--the\nattempt to justify ourselves partly by our own good works, and to\nmake up the deficiency by the merits of the Saviour! Ye might as\nwell attempt to serve God and mammon, as to unite our impure works\nwith those of the pure and holy Jesus. We must, as perishing sinners,\nfall into the arms of Divine mercy, and receive pardon as a free\ngift, wholly through the merits of the Saviour, or we must for ever\nperish. It is an awful consideration.--Ed.\n\n37. 'The civilian'; one who is versed in law and government. See\nImperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n38. When the pilgrims Christian and Hopeful had wandered in By-path\nMeadow, one that walked before them said that the way led to the\ncelestial gate. 'He therefore that went before, Vain-confidence by\nname, not seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit, which\nwas on purpose there made by Giant Despair to catch vain-glorious\nfools withal, and was dashed in pieces with his fall.' Beware, O\nlegalist, civilian, or formalist!--Ed.\n\n39. How deplorably and inexcusably they will perish, who perish by\ntheir own willful unbelief under the gospel! It will be dreadful\nindeed to be driven, as it were, from the very gate of heaven to\nthe lowermost and hottest hell. Lord, send forth thy light, truth,\nand power, that sinners may be saved and comforted by coming unto\nthee for life and peace!--Mason.\n\n40. This is a striking and soul-searching appeal. O that the Holy\nSpirit may 'search me and try me, and see if there be any wicked\nway in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,' before we go hence\ninto the eternal state!--Ed.\n\n***\n\nSAVED BY GRACE;\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE OF THE GRACE OF GOD:\n\nSHOWING--\n\nI. WHAT IT IS TO BE SAVED. II. WHAT IT IS TO BE SAVED BY GRACE.\nIII. WHO THEY AEE THAT ABE SAVED BY GRACE. IV. HOW IT APPEARS THAT\nTHEY ARE SAVED BY GRACE. V. WHAT SHOULD BE THE REASON THAT GOD SHOULD\nCHOOSE TO SAVE SINNERS BY GRACE RATHER THAN BY ANY OTHER MEANS.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nTHIS admirable Treatise upon the most important of all subjects,\nthat of the soul's salvation, was first published in a pocket volume,\nin the year 1675. This has become very rare, but it is inserted in\nevery edition of the author's collected works. Our copy is reprinted\nfrom the first edition published after the author's decease, in\na small folio volume of his works, 1691. Although it is somewhat\nencumbered with subdivisions, it is plain, practical, and written\nin Bunyan's strong and energetic style; calculated to excite the\ndeepest attention, and to fix the mind upon those solemn realities\nwhich alone can unite earth with heaven.\n\nHo extensive is the meaning of that little sentance, 'Saved by\nGrace!' It includes in it redemption from the curse of sin, which\noppresses the poor sinner with the fears of everlasting burnings;\nwhile it elevates the body, soul, and spirit, to an eternal and an\nexceeding weight of glory--to the possession of infinite treasures,\ninconceivable, and that never fade away.\n\nBunyan, in opening and deeply investigating this subject, shows his\nmaster hand in every page. It was a subject which, from his first\nconviction of sin, while playing a gat at cat on a Sunday, ahd\nexcited his feelings to an intense degree, absorbing all the powers\nof his soul. It was eminently to him the one thing needful--the\nsum and substance of human habbiness. He felt that it included the\npreservation and re-structure of the body--raised from filth and\nvileness--from sickness, pain, and disease--from death and the\ngrave--to be perfected in immortality like the Saviour's glorious\nbody. That included in this salvation, is the death ofdeath, and the\nswallowing up of the grave, to be no more seen for ever. The soul\nwill be perfect, and, re-united with the body, be filled 'with\nbliss and glory, as much as ever it can hold;' all jars and discord\nbetween sould and body will be finished; and the perfect man be\nclothed with righteousness; in a word, be like Christ and with him.\nAll this is the work of grace, performed by the ever-blessed Trinity.\n\nIn displaying the feelings and experience of the inquiring, alarmed,\nquickened sinner, we are instructed by a continual illustration of\nthe Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He manifests profound\nknowledge of the devices of Satan--the workings of unbelief--the\ndifficulties thrown by the wicked one in the way of the sinner,\nto prevent his approach to Christ. He fastens conviction upon\nconviction--gives blow upon blow to human pride; proving that there\ncan be found nothing in our fallen nature to recommend the sinner\nto God--all is of grace--from the foundation to the top-stone of a\nsinner's salvation. And above all, he clearly shows that salvation\nby grace is the most sin-killing doctrine in the world, as well as\nthe most consoling tidings that can be brought to a sin-sick soul.\n'O, when a God of grace is upon a throne of grace, and a poor sinner\nstands by and begs for grace, and that in the name of a gracious\nChrist, in and by the help of the Spirit of grace, can it be otherwise\nbut that such a sinner must obtain mercy and grace to help in time\nof need? O, then, COME BOLDLY!' p. 360.\n\nBut I must not detain the reader from entering upon this solemn\nsubject; only for a moment, while I quote another passage conceived\nin all the ardour of Bunyan's feelings:--'O Son of God! grace was\nin all thy tears--grace came out where the. whip smote thee, where\nthe thorns pricked thee, where the nails and spear pierced thee! O\nblessed Son of God! Here is grace indeed!' Unsearchable riches of\ngrace! Grace to make angels wonder, grace to make sinners happy,\ngrace to astonish devils! And what will become of them that trample\nunder foot this Son of God?'\n\nReader, may this searching, comforting, reviving subject be blessed\nto our well-grounded consolation!\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nIn this little book thou art presented with a discourse of the\nGRACE of God, and of salvation by that grace. In which discourse,\nthou shalt find how each Person in the Godhead doth his part in\nthe salvation of the sinner. I. The Father putteth forth his grace,\nthus. II. The Son putteth forth his grace, thus. III. And the Spirit\nputteth forth his grace, thus. Which things thou shalt find here\nparticularly handled.\n\nThou shalt also find, in this small treatise, the way of God with\nthe sinner, as to his CONVERSATION, 1 and the way of the sinner with\nGod in the same; where[in] the grace of God, and the wickedness of\nthe sinner, do greatly show themselves.\n\nIf thou findest me short in things, impute that [to] my love to\nbrevity. If thou findest me besides the truth in aught, impute that\nto mine infirmity. But if thou findest anything here that serveth\nto thy furtherance and joy of faith, impute that to the mercy of\nGod bestowed on thee and me.\n\nThine to serve thee with that little I have,\n\nJ.B.\n\nSAVED BY GRACE.\n\n\"BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED.\"--EPHESIANS 2:5.\n\nIn the first chapter, from the fourth to the twelfth verse, the\napostle is treating of the doctrine of election, both with respect\nto the act itself, the end, and means conducing thereto. The act,\nhe tells us, was God's free choice of some (verse 4,5,11). The end\nwas God's glory in their salvation (verse 6,14). The means conducing\nto that end was Jesus Christ himself--\"In whom we have redemption\nthrough his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches\nof his grace\" (verse 7). This done, he treateth of the subjection\nof the Ephesians to the faith, as it was held forth to them in the\nWord of the truth of the gospel, as also of their being sealed by\nthe Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption (verse 12-14).\nMoreover, he telleth them how he gave thanks to God for them,\nmaking mention of them in his prayers, even that he would make them\nsee \"what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the\nglory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding\ngreatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the\nworking of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he\nraised him from the dead,\" &c. (verse 15-20).\n\nAnd lest the Ephesians, at the hearing of these their so many\nprivileges, should forget how little they deserved them, he tells\nthem that in time past they were dead in trespasses and sins, and\nthat then they walked in them \"according to the course of this\nworld, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit\nthat now worketh in the children of disobedience\" (Eph 2:2,3).\n\nHaving thus called them back to the remembrance of themselves--to\nwit, what they were in their state of unregeneracy, he proceedeth\nto show them that their first quickening was by the resurrection\nof Christ their Head, in whom they before were chosen, and that\nby him they were already set down in heavenly places, (verse 5,6);\ninserting, by the way, the true cause of all this blessedness,\nwith what else should be by us enjoyed in another world; and that\nis, the love and grace of God: \"But God, who is rich in mercy, for\nhis great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,\nhath quickened us together with Christ [by grace ye are saved].\"\nThese last words seen to be the apostle's conclusion rightly drawn\nfrom the premises; as who should say, If you Ephesians were indeed\ndead in trespasses and sins; if indeed you were by nature the children\nof wrath, even as others, then you deserve no more than others. 2\n\nAgain, if God hath chosen you, if God hath justified and saved you\nby his Christ, and left others as good as you by nature to perish\nin their sins, then the true cause of this your blessed condition\nis, the free grace of God. But just thus it is, therefore by grace\nye are saved; therefore all the good which you enjoy more than\nothers, it is of mere goodwill.\n\n\"BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED.\"\n\nThe method that I shall choose to discourse upon these words shall\nbe this--I will propound certain questions upon the words, and\ndirect particular answers to them; in which answers I hope I shall\nanswer also, somewhat at least, the expectation of the godly and\nconscientious reader, and so shall draw towards a conclusion.\n\nTHE QUESTIONS ARE--\n\nI. What is it to be saved? II. What is it to be saved by grace? III.\nWho are they that are saved by grace? IV. How it appears that they\nthat are saved, are saved by grace? V. What might be the reasons\nwhich prevailed with God to save us by grace, rather than by any\nother means?\n\nNow the reason why I propound these five questions upon the words,\nit is, because the words themselves admit them; the first three\nare grounded upon the several phrases in the text, and the two last\nare to make way for demonstration of the whole.\n\nQUEST. I.--WHAT IS IT TO BE SAVED?\n\nThis question supposeth that there is such a thing as damnation\ndue to man for sin; for to save supposeth the person to be saved to\nbe at present in a sad condition; saving, to him that is not lost,\nsignifies nothing, neither is it anything in itself. \"To save, to\nredeem, to deliver,\" are in the general terms equivalent, and they\ndo all of them suppose us to be in a state of thraldom and misery;\ntherefore this word \"saved,\" in the sense that the apostle here\ndoth use it, is a word of great worth, forasmuch as the miseries\nfrom which we are saved is the misery of all most dreadful.\n\nThe miseries from which they that shall be saved shall by their\nsalvation be delivered, are dreadful; they are no less than sin,\nthe curse of God, and flames of hell for ever. What more abominable\nthan sin? What more insupportable than the dreadful wrath of an\nangry God? And what more fearful than the bottomless pit of hell?\nI say, what more fearful than to be tormented there for ever with\nthe devil and his angels? Now, to \"save,\" according to my text, is\nto deliver the sinner from these, with all things else that attend\nthem. And although sinners may think that it is no hard matter to\nanswer this question, yet I must tell you there is no man, that can\nfeelingly know what it is to be saved, that knoweth not experimentally\nsomething of the dread of these three things, as is evident, because\nall others do even by their practice count it a thing of no great\nconcern, when yet it is of all other of the highest concern among\nmen; \"For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world,\nand lose his own soul?\" (Matt 16:26).\n\nBut, I say, if this word \"saved\" concludeth our deliverance from\nsin, how can he tell what it is to be saved that hath not in his\nconscience groaned under the burden of sin? yea, it is impossible\nelse that he should ever cry out with all his heart, \"Men and\nbrethren, what shall we do?\"--that is, do to be saved (Acts 2:37).\nThe man that hath no sores or aches cannot know the virtue of the\nsalve; I mean, not know it from his own experience, and therefore\ncannot prize, nor have that esteem of it, as he that hath received\ncure thereby. Clap a plaster to a well place, and that maketh not its\nvirtue to appear; neither can he to whose flesh it is so applied,\nby that application understand its worth. Sinners, you, I mean, that\nare not wounded with guilt, and oppressed with the burden of sin,\nyou cannot--I will say it again--you cannot know, in this senseless\ncondition of yours, what it is to be saved.\n\nAgain; this word \"saved,\" as I said, concludeth deliverance from\nthe wrath of God. How, then, can he tell what it is to be saved\nthat hath not felt the burden of the wrath of God? He--he that is\nastonished with, and that trembleth at, the wrath of God--he knows\nbest what it is to be saved (Acts 16:29).\n\nFurther, this word \"saved,\" it concludeth deliverance from death and\nhell. How, then, can he tell what it is to be saved that never was\nsensible of the sorrows of the one, nor distressed with the pains\nof the other? The Psalmist says, \"The sorrows of death compassed\nme, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and\nsorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord\"--(mark, then),\n\"then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee,\ndeliver my soul,\"--then, in my distress. When he knew what it was\nto be saved, then he called, because, I say, then he knew what it\nwas to be saved (Psa 18:4,5; 116:3,4). I say, this is the man, and\nthis only, that knows what it is to be saved. And this is evident,\nas is manifest by the little regard that the rest have to saving,\nor the little dread they have of damnation. Where is he that seeks\nand groans for salvation? I say, where is he that hath taken his\nflight for salvation, because of the dread of the wrath to come? \"O\ngeneration of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to\ncome?\" (Matt 3:7). Alas! do not the most set light by salvation?--as\nfor sin, how do they love it, embrace it, please themselves with\nit, hide it still within their mouth, and keep it close under their\ntongue. Besides, for the wrath of God, they feel it not, they fly\nnot from it; and for hell, it is become a doubt to many if there\nbe any, and a mock to those whose doubt is resolved by atheism.\n\nBut to come to the question--What is it to be saved? To be saved\nmay either respect salvation in the whole of it, or salvation in\nthe parts of it, or both. I think this text respecteth both--to\nwit, salvation completing, and salvation completed; for \"to save\"\nis a work of many steps; or, to be as plain as possible, \"to save\"\nis a work that hath its beginning before the world began, and shall\nnot be completed before it is ended.\n\nFirst, then, we may be said to be saved in the purpose of God before\nthe world began. The apostle saith that \"he saved us, and called\nus with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according\nto his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus\nbefore the world began\" (2 Tim 1:9). This is the beginning of\nsalvation, and according to this beginning all things concur and\nfall out in conclusion--\"He hath saved us according to his eternal\npurpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus.\" God in thus saving\nmay be said to save us by determining to make those means effectual\nfor the blessed completing of our salvation; and hence we are said\n\"to be chosen in Christ to salvation.\" And again, that he hath in\nthat choice given us that grace that shall complete our salvation.\nYea, the text is very full, \"He hath blessed us with all spiritual\nblessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen\nus in him before the foundation of the world\" (Eph 1:3,4).\n\nSecond. As we may be said to be saved in the purpose of God before\nthe foundation of the world, so we may be said to be saved before\nwe are converted, or called to Christ. And hence \"saved\" is put\nbefore \"called\"; \"he hath saved us, and called us\"; he saith not,\nhe hath called us, and saved us; but he puts saving before calling\n(2 Tim 1:9). So again, we are said to be \"preserved in Christ and\ncalled\"; he saith not, called and preserved (Jude 1). And therefore\nGod saith again, \"I will pardon them whom I reserve\"--that is, as\nPaul expounds it, those whom I have \"elected and kept,\" and this part\nof salvation is accomplished through the forbearance of God (Jer\n50:20; Rom 11:4,5). God beareth with is own elect, for Christ's sake,\nall the time of their unregeneracy, until the time comes which he\nhath appointed for their conversion. The sins that we stood guilty\nof before conversion, had the judgment due to them been executed\nupon us, we had not now been in the world to partake of a heavenly\ncalling. But the judgment due to them hath been by the patience\nof God prevented, and we saved all the time of our ungodly and\nunconverted state, from that death, and those many hells, that for\nour sins we deserved at the hands of God.\n\nAnd here lies the reason that long life is granted to the elect\nbefore conversion, and that all the sins they commit and all the\njudgments they deserve, cannot drive them out of the world before\nconversion. Manasseh, you know, was a great sinner, and for the\ntrespass which he committed he was driven from his own land, and\ncarried to Babylon; but kill him they could not, though his sins\nhad deserved death ten thousand times. But what was the reason?\nWhy, he was not yet called; God had chosen him in Christ, and laid\nup in him a stock of grace, which must be given to Manasseh before\nhe dies; therefore Manasseh must be convinced, converted, and saved.\nThat legion of devils that was in the possessed, with all the sins\nwhich he had committed in the time of his unregeneracy, could not\ntake away his life before his conversion (Mark 5). How many times\nwas that poor creature, as we may easily conjecture, assaulted for\nhis life by the devils that were in him, yet could they not kill\nhim, yea, though his dwelling was near the sea-side, and the devils\nhad power to drive him too, yet could they not drive him further\nthan the mountains that were by the sea-side; yea, they could help\nhim often to break his chains and fetters, and could also make him\nas mad as a bedlam, 3 they could also prevail with him to separate\nfrom men, and cut himself with stones, but kill him they could\nnot, drown him they could not; he was saved to be called; he was,\nnotwithstanding all this, preserved in Christ, and called. As it\nis said of the young lad in the gospel, he was by the devil cast\noft into the fire, and oft into the water, to destroy him, but it\ncould not be; even so hath he served others, but they must be \"saved\nto be called\" (Mark 9:22). How many deaths have some been delivered\nfrom and saved out of before conversion! Some have fallen into\nrivers, some into wells, some into the sea, some into the hands\nof men; yea, they have been justly arraigned and condemned, as\nthe thief upon the cross, but must not die before they have been\nconverted. They were preserved in Christ, and called.\n\nCalled Christian, how many times have thy sins laid thee upon\na sick-bed, and, to thine and others' thinking, at the very mouth\nof the grave? yet God said concerning thee, Let him live, for he\nis not yet converted. Behold, therefore, that the elect are saved\nbefore they are called. 4 \"God, who is rich in mercy, for his great\nlove wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,\" hath\npreserved us in Christ, and called us (Eph 2:4,5).\n\nNow this \"saving\" of us arises from six causes. 1. God hath chosen\nus unto salvation, and therefore will not frustrate his own purposes\n(1 Thess 5:9). 2. God hath given us to Christ; and his gift, as\nwell as his calling, is without repentance (Rom 11:29; John 6:37).\n3. Christ hath purchased us with his blood (Rom 5:8,9). 4. They\nare, by God, counted in Christ before they are converted (Eph\n1:3,4). 5. They are ordained before conversion to eternal life;\nyea, to be called, to be justified, to be glorified, and therefore\nall this must come upon them (Rom 8:29,30). 6. For all this, he\nhath also appointed them their portion and measure of grace, and\nthat before the world began; therefore, that they may partake of all\nthese privileges, they are saved and called, preserved in Christ,\nand called.\n\nThird. To be saved is to be brought to, and helped to lay hold on,\nJesus Christ by faith. And this is called saving by grace through\nfaith. \"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of\nyourselves, it is the gift of God\" (Eph 2:8).\n\n1. They must be brought unto Christ, yea, drawn unto him; for \"no\nman,\" saith Christ, \"can come to me, except the Father which hath\nsent me draw him\" (John 6:44). Men, even the elect, have too many\ninfirmities to come to Christ without help from heaven; inviting\nwill not do. \"As they called them, so they went from them,\" therefore\nhe \"drew them with cords\" (Hosea 11:2,4).\n\n2. As they must be brought to, so they must be helped to lay hold\non Christ by faith; for as coming to Christ, so faith, is not in our\nown power; therefore we are said to be raised up with him \"through\nthe faith of the operation of God.\" And again, we are said to\nbelieve, \"according to the working of his mighty power, which he\nwrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead\" (Col 2:12; Eph\n1:19,20). Now we are said to be saved by faith, because by faith\nwe lay hold of, venture upon, and put on Jesus Christ for life.\nFor life, I say, because God having made him the Saviour, hath\ngiven him life to communicate to sinners, and the life that he\ncommunicates to them is the merit of his flesh and blood, which\nwhoso eateth and drinketh by faith, hath eternal life, because that\nflesh and blood hath merit in it sufficient to obtain the favour of\nGod. Yea, it hath done so [since] that day it was offered through\nthe eternal Spirit a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour to him;\nwherefore God imputeth the righteousness of Christ to him that\nbelieveth in him, by which righteousness he is personally justified,\nand saved from that just judgment of the law that was due unto him\n(John 5:26, 6:53-58; Eph 4:32; 5:2; Rom 4:23-25).\n\n\"Saved by faith.\" For although salvation beginneth in God's purpose,\nand comes to us through Christ's righteousness, yet is not faith\nexempted from having a hand in saving of us. Not that it meriteth\naught, but is given by God to those which he saveth, that thereby\nthey may embrace and put on that Christ by whose righteousness they\nmust be saved. Wherefore this faith is that which here distinguisheth\nthem that shall be saved from them that shall be damned. Hence it\nis said, \"He that believeth not, shall be damned\"; and hence again\nit is that the believers are called \"the children, the heirs, and\nthe blessed with faithful Abraham;\" that the promise by faith in\nJesus Christ might be given to them that believe (Gal 3:6-9,26;\nRom 4:13,14).\n\nAnd here let Christians warily distinguish betwixt the meritorious\nand the instrumental cause of their justification. Christ, with\nwhat he hath done and suffered, is the meritorious cause of our\njustification; therefore he is said to be made to us of God, \"wisdom\nand righteousness;\" and we are said to be \"justified by his blood,\nand saved from wrath through him,\" for it was his life and blood\nthat were the price of our redemption (1 Cor 1:30; Rom 5:9,10).\n\"Redeemed,\" says Peter, \"not with corruptible things, as silver\nand gold,\" alluding to the redemption of money under the law, \"but\nwith the precious blood of Christ.\" Thou art, therefore, as I have\nsaid, to make Christ Jesus the object of thy faith for justification;\nfor by his righteousness thy sins must be covered from the sight\nof the justice of the law. \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and\nthou shalt be saved.\" \"For he shall save his people from their\nsins\" (Acts 16:31; Matt 1:21).\n\nFourth. To be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end.\n\"He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved\" (Matt\n24:13). Not that perseverance is an accident in Christianity, or\na thing performed by human industry; they that are saved \"are kept\nby the power of God, through faith unto salvation\" (1 Peter 1:3-6).\n\nBut perseverance is absolutely necessary to the complete saving\nof the soul, because he that falleth short of the state that they\nthat are saved are possessed of, as saved, cannot arrive to that\nsaved state. He that goeth to sea with a purpose to arrive at\nSpain, cannot arrive there if he be drowned by the way; wherefore\nperseverance is absolutely necessary to the saving of the soul,\nand therefore it is included in the complete saving of us--\"Israel\nshall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall\nnot be ashamed nor confounded world without end\" (Isa 45:17).\nPerseverance is here made absolutely necessary to the complete\nsaving of the soul.\n\nBut, as I said, this part of salvation dependeth not upon human\npower, but upon him that hath begun a good work in us (Phil 1:6).\nThis part, therefore, of our salvation is great, and calleth for\nno less than the power of God for our help to perform it, as will\nbe easily granted by all those that consider--\n\n1. That all the power and policy, malice and rage, of the devils\nand hell itself are against us. Any man that understandeth this will\nconclude that to be saved is no small thing. The devil is called\na god, a prince, a lion, a roaring lion; it is said that he hath\ndeath and the power of it, &c. But what can a poor creature, whose\nhabitation is in flesh, do against a god, a prince, a roaring lion,\nand the power of death itself? Our perseverance, therefore, lieth\nin the power of God; \"the gates of hell shall not prevail against\nit.\"\n\n2. All the world is against him that shall be saved. But what\nis one poor creature to all the world, especially if you consider\nthat with the world is terror, fear, power, majesty, laws, jails,\ngibbets, hangings, burnings, drownings, starvings, banishments,\nand a thousand kinds of deaths? (1 John 5:4,5; John 16:33).\n\n3. Add to this, that all the corruptions that dwell in our flesh\nare against us, and that not only in their nature and being, but\nthey lust against us, and war against us, to \"bring us into captivity\nto the law of sin and death\" (Gal 5:17; 1 Peter 2:11; Rom 7:23).\n\n4. All the delusions in the world are against them that shall be\nsaved, many of which are so cunningly woven, so plausibly handled,\nso rarely5 polished with Scripture and reason, that it is ten\nthousand wonders that the elect are not swallowed up with them;\nand swallowed up they would be, were they not elect, and was not\nGod himself engaged, either by power to keep them from falling, or\nby grace to pardon if they fall, and to lift them up again (Matt\n24:24; Eph 4:14; Rom 3:12).\n\n5. Every fall of the saved is against the salvation of his soul;\nbut a Christian once fallen riseth not but as helped by Omnipotent\npower--\"O Israel, thou hast fallen by thine iniquity,\" \"but in me\nis thy help,\" says God (Hosea 13:9; 14:1; Psa 37:23).\n\nChristians, were you awake, here would be matter of wonder to you,\nto see a man assaulted with all the power of hell, and yet to come\noff a conqueror! Is it not a wonder to see a poor creature, who\nin himself is weaker than the moth, to stand against and overcome\nall devils, all the world, all his lusts and corruptions? (Job\n4:19). Or if he fall, is it not a wonder to see him, when devils\nand guilt are upon him, to rise again, stand upon his feet again,\nwalk with God again, and persevere after all this in the faith and\nholiness of the gospel? He that knows himself, wonders; he that\nknows temptation, wonders; he that knows what falls and guilt mean,\nwonders; indeed, perseverance is a wonderful thing, and is managed\nby the power of God; for he only \"is able to keep you from falling,\nand to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with\nexceeding joy\" (Jude 24). Those of the children of Israel that went\nfrom Egypt, and entered the land of Canaan, how came they thither?\nWhy, the text says, that \"as an eagle spreadeth abroad her wings,\nso the Lord alone did lead them.\" And again, \"he bore them, and\ncarried them all the days of old\" (Deu 32:11,12; Isa 63:9). David\nalso tells us that mercy and goodness should follow him all the\ndays of his life, and so he should dwell in the house of the Lord\nfor ever (Psa 23:6).\n\nFifth. To be saved calls for more than all this; he that is saved,\nmust, when this world can hold him no longer, have a safe-conduct\nto heaven, for that is the place where they that are saved must to\nthe full enjoy their salvation. This heaven is called \"the end of\nour faith,\" because it is that which faith looks at; as Peter says,\n\"Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.\"\nAnd again, \"But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition;\nbut of them that believe to the saving of the soul\" (1 Peter 1:9;\nHeb 10:39). For, as I said, heaven is the place for the saved to\nenjoy their salvation in, with that perfect gladness that is not\nattainable here. Here we are saved by faith and hope of glory;\nbut there, we that are saved shall enjoy the end of our faith and\nhope, even the salvation of our souls. There is \"Mount Zion, the\nheavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the firstborn;\"\nthere is the \"innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of\njust men made perfect;\" there is \"God the judge of all, and Jesus\nthe Mediator of the new covenant;\" there shall our soul have\nas much of heaven as it is capable of enjoying, and that without\nintermission; wherefore, when we come there we shall be saved indeed!\nBut now for a poor creature to be brought hither, this is the life\nof the point. But how shall I come hither? there are heights and\ndepths to hinder (Rom 8:38,39).\n\nSuppose the poor Christian is now upon a sick-bed, beset with a\nthousand fears, and ten thousand at the end of that; sick-bed fears!\nand they are sometimes dreadful ones; fears that are begotten by\nthe review of the sin, perhaps, of forty years' profession; fears\nthat are begotten by dreadful and fearful suggestions of the devil,\nthe sight of death, and the grave, and it may be of hell itself;\nfears that are begotten by the withdrawing and silence of God and\nChrist, and by, it may be, the appearance of the devil himself;\nsome of these made David cry, \"O spare me\" a little, \"that I may\nrecover strength before I go hence, and be no more\" (Psa 39:13).\n\"The sorrows of death,\" said he, \"compassed me, and the pains of\nhell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow\" (Psa 116:3).\nThese things, in another place, he calls the bands that the godly\nhave in their death, and the plagues that others are not aware of.\n\"They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued\nlike other men\" (Psa 73:9). But now, out of all these, the Lord\nwill save his people; not one sin, nor fear, nor devil shall hinder;\nnor the grave nor hell disappoint thee. But how must this be? Why,\nthou must have a safe-conduct to heaven? 6 What conduct? A conduct\nof angels: \"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to\nminister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?\" (Heb 1:14).\n\nThese angels, therefore, are not to fail them that are the saved;\nbut must, as commissioned of God, come down from heaven to do this\noffice for them; they must come, I say, and take the care and charge\nof our soul, to conduct it safely into Abraham's bosom. It is not\nour meanness in the world, nor our weakness of faith, that shall\nhinder this; nor shall the loathsomeness of our diseases make these\ndelicate spirits shy of taking this charge upon them. Lazarus the\nbeggar found this a truth; a beggar so despised of the rich glutton\nthat he was not suffered to come within his gate; a beggar full\nof sores and noisome putrefaction; yet, behold, when he dies, the\nangels come from heaven to fetch him thither: \"And it came to pass\nthat the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's\nbosom\" (Luke 16:22). True, sick-bed temptations are ofttimes the\nmost violent, because then the devil plays his last game with us,\nhe is never to assault us more; besides, perhaps God suffereth it\nthus to be, that the entering into heaven may be the sweeter, and\nring of this salvation the louder! O it is a blessed thing for\nGod to be our God and our guide even unto death, and then for his\nangels to conduct us safely to glory; this is saving indeed. And\nhe shall save Israel \"out of all his troubles;\" out of sick-bed\ntroubles as well as others (Psa 25:22; 34:6; 48:14).\n\nSixth. To be saved, to be perfectly saved, calls for more than all\nthis; the godly are not perfectly saved when their soul is possessed\nof heaven. True, their spirit is made perfect, and hath as much of\nheaven as at present it can hold, but man, consisting of body and\nsoul, cannot be said to be perfectly saved so long as but part of\nhim is in the heavens; his body is the price of the blood of Christ\nas well as his spirit; his body is the temple of God, and a member\nof the body, and of the flesh, and of the bones of Christ; he cannot,\nthen, be completely saved until the time of the resurrection of the\ndead (1 Cor 6:13-19; Eph 5:30). Wherefore, when Christ shall come\nthe second time, then will he save the body from all those things\nthat at present make it incapable of the heavens. \"For our conversation\nis in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord\nJesus Christ; who shall change\" this \"our vile body, that it may\nbe fashioned like unto his glorious body\" (Phil 3:20,21). O what a\ngreat deal of good God hath put into this little word \"saved\"! We\nshall not see all the good that God hath put into this word \"saved\"\nuntil the Lord Jesus comes to raise the dead. \"It doth not yet\nappear what we shall be\" (1 John 3:2). But till it appears what we\nshall be, we cannot see the bottom of this word \"saved.\" True, we\nhave the earnest of what we shall be, we have the Spirit of God,\n\"which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the\npurchased possession\" (Eph 1:14). The possession is our body--it is\ncalled \"a purchased possession,\" because it is the price of blood;\nnow the redemption of this purchased possession is the raising\nof it out of the grave, which raising is called the redemption of\nour body (Rom 8:23). And when this vile body is made like unto his\nglorious body, and this body and soul together possessed of the\nheavens, then shall we be every way saved.\n\nThere are three things from which this body must be saved--1. There\nis that sinful filth and vileness that yet dwells in it, under\nwhich we groan earnestly all our days (2 Cor 5:1-3). 2. There\nis mortality, that subjecteth us to age, sickness, aches, pains,\ndiseases, and death. 3. And there is the grave and death itself,\nfor death is the last enemy that is to be destroyed. \"So when this\ncorruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall\nhave put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying\nthat is written, Death is swallowed up in victory\" (1 Cor 15:54).\nSo then, when this comes to pass, then we shall be saved; then\nwill salvation, in all the parts of it, meet together in our glory;\nthen we shall be every way saved--saved in God's decree, saved\nin Christ's undertakings, saved by faith, saved in perseverance,\nsaved in soul, and in body and soul together in the heavens, saved\nperfectly, everlastingly, gloriously.\n\n[Of the state of our body and soul in heaven.]\n\nBefore I conclude my answer to the first question, I would discourse\na little of the state of our body and soul in heaven, when we shall\nenjoy this blessed state of salvation.\n\nFirst. Of the soul; it will then be filled in all the faculties of\nit with as much bliss and glory as ever it can hold.\n\n1. The understanding shall then be perfect in knowledge--\"Now\nwe know but in part;\" we know God, Christ, heaven, and glory, but\nin part; \"but when that which is perfect is come, then that which\nis in part shall be done away\" (1 Cor 13:10). Then shall we have\nperfect and everlasting visions of God, and that blessed one his\nSon Jesus Christ, a good thought of whom doth sometimes so fill us\nwhile in this world, that it causeth \"joy unspeakable and full of\nglory.\" 2. Then shall our will and affections be ever in a burning\nflame of love to God and his Son Jesus Christ; our love here hath\nups and downs, but there it shall be always perfect with that\nperfection which is not possible in this world to be enjoyed. 3.\nThen will our conscience have that peace and joy that neither tongue\nnor pen of men or angels can express. 4. Then will our memory be\nso enlarged to retain all things that happened to us in this world,\nso that with unspeakable aptness we shall call to mind all God's\nprovidences, all Satan's malice, all our own weaknesses, all the\nrage of men, and how God made all work together for his glory and\nour good, to the everlasting ravishing of our hearts.\n\nSecond. For our body; it shall be raised in power, in incorruption,\na spiritual body and glorious (1 Cor 15:44). The glory of which is\nset forth by several things--1. It is compared to \"the brightness\nof the firmament,\" and to the shining of the stars \"for ever and\never\" (Dan 12:3; 1 Cor 15:41,42). 2. It is compared to the shining\nof the sun--\"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in\nthe kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear\"\n(Matt 13:43). 3. Their state is then to be equally glorious with\nangels; \"But they which shall be counted worthy to obtain that\nworld, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are\ngiven in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are equal\nunto the angels\" (Luke 20:35,36). 4. It is said that then this our\nvile body shall be like the glorious body of Jesus Christ (Phil\n3:20,21; 1 John 3:2,3). 5. And now, when body and soul are thus\nunited, who can imagine what glory they both possess? They will now\nbe both in capacity, without jarring, to serve the Lord with shouting\nthanksgivings, and with a crown of everlasting joy upon their head. 8\n\nIn this world there cannot be that harmony and oneness of body\nand soul as there will be in heaven. Here the body sometimes sins\nagainst the soul, and the soul again vexes and perplexes the body\nwith dreadful apprehensions of the wrath and judgment of God. While\nwe be in this world, the body oft hangs this way, and the soul the\nquite contrary; but there, in heaven, they shall have that perfect\nunion as never to jar more; but now the glory of the body shall so\nsuit with the glory of the soul, and both so perfectly suit with\nthe heavenly state, that it passeth words and thoughts.\n\nThird. Shall I now speak of the place that this saved body and soul\nshall dwell in?\n\nWhy, 1. It is a city (Heb 11:16; Eph 2:19,22). 2. It is called\nheaven (Heb 10:34). 3. It is called God's house (John 14:1-3). 4.\nIt is called a kingdom (Luke 12:32). 5. It is called glory (Col\n3:4; Heb 2:10). 6. It is called paradise (Rev 2:7). 7. It is called\neverlasting habitations (Luke 16:9).\n\nFourth. Shall I speak of their company?\n\nWhy, 1. They shall stand and live in the presence of the glorious\nGod, the Judge of all (Heb 12:23). 2. They shall be with the Lamb,\nthe Lord Jesus. 3. They shall be with an innumerable company of\nholy angels (Heb 12:22). 4. They shall be with Abraham, Isaac, and\nJacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of heaven (Luke 13:28).\n\nFifth. Shall I speak of their heavenly raiment?\n\n1. It is salvation; they shall be clothed with the garment of\nsalvation (Psa 132:16; 149:4; Isa 61:10). 2. This raiment is called\nwhite raiment, signifying their clean and innocent state in heaven.\n\"And they,\" says Christ, \"shall walk with me in white, for they\nare worthy\" (Rev 3:4; 19:8; Isa 57:2). 3. It is called glory--\"When\nhe shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory\" (Col 3:4). 4.\nThey shall also have crowns of righteousness, everlasting joy and\nglory (Isa 35:10; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4).\n\nSixth. Shall I speak of their continuance in this condition?\n\n1. It is for ever and ever. \"And they shall see his face, and his\nname shall be in their foreheads; and they shall reign for ever and\never\" (Rev 22:4,5). 2. It is everlasting. \"And this is the will of\nhim that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth\non him, may have everlasting life\" (John 6:40,47). 3. It is life\neternal. \"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow\nme; and I give unto them eternal life\" (John 10:27,28). 4. It is\nworld without end. \"But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an\neverlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world\nwithout end\" (Isa 45:17; Eph 3:20,21).\n\nO sinner! what sayest thou? How dost thou like being saved? Doth\nnot thy mouth water? Doth not thy heart twitter at being saved? Why,\ncome then: \"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that\nheareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever\nwill, let him take the water of life freely\" (Rev 22:17).\n\nQUEST. II.--WHAT IS IT TO BE SAVED BY GRACE?\n\nNow I come to the second question--to wit, What is it to be saved\nby grace? For so are the words of the text, \"By grace ye are saved.\"\nBut,\n\nFirst. I must touch a little upon the word GRACE, and show you\nhow diversely it is taken. Sometimes it is taken for the goodwill\nand favour of men (Esth 2:17: Ruth 2:2: 1 Sam 1:18: 2 Sam 16:4).\nSometimes it is taken for those sweet ornaments that a life\naccording to the Word of God putteth about the neck 9 (Prov 1:9;\n3:22). Sometimes it is taken for the charity of the saints, as 2\nCorinthians 9:6-8.\n\nBut \"grace\" in the text is taken for God's goodwill, \"the goodwill of\nhim that dwelt in the bush;\" and is expressed variously. Sometimes\nit is called \"his good pleasure.\" Sometimes, \"the good pleasure\nof his will,\" which is all one with \"the riches of his grace\" (Eph\n1:7). Sometimes it is expressed by goodness, pity, love, mercy,\nkindness, and the like (Rom 2:4; Isa 63:9; Titus 3:4,5). Yea, he\nstyles himself, \"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,\nlong-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy\nfor thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and\nthat will by no means clear the guilty\" (Exo 34:6,7).\n\nSecond. As the word \"grace\" signifieth all these, so it intimates\nto us that all these are free acts of God, free love, free mercy,\nfree kindness; hence we have other hints in the Word about the nature\nof grace, as, 1. It is an act of God's will, which must needs be\nfree; an act of his own will, of the good pleasure of his will; by\neach of these expressions is intimated that grace is a free act of\nGod's goodness towards the sons of men. 2. Therefore it is expressly\nsaid--\"Being justified freely by his grace\" (Rom 3:24). 3. \"And\nwhen they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both\" (Luke\n7:42). 4. And again, \"Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord\nGod, be it known unto you\" (Eze 36:32; Deu 9:5). 5. And therefore\n\"grace,\" and the deservings of the creature, are set in flat\nopposition one to another--\"And if by grace, then is it no more\nof works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works,\nthen is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work\" (Rom\n11:6).\n\nThe word \"grace,\" therefore, being understood, doth most properly\nset forth the true cause of man's happiness with God, not but that\nthose expressions, love, mercy, goodness, pity, kindness, &c., and\nthe like, have their proper place in our happiness also. Had not\nGod loved us, grace had not acted freely in our salvation; had not\nGod been merciful, good, pitiful, kind, he would have turned away\nfrom us when he saw us in our blood (Eze 16).\n\nSo then, when he saith, \"By grace ye are saved,\" it is all one as\nif he had said, By the goodwill, free mercy, and loving-kindness\nof God ye are saved; as the words conjoined with the text do also\nfurther manifest: \"But God,\" saith Paul, \"who is rich in mercy,\nfor his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead\nin sins, hath quickened us together with Christ [by grace ye are\nsaved].\"\n\n[Third.] The words thus understood admit us these few conclusions--1.\nThat God, in saving of the sinner, hath no respect to the sinner's\ngoodness; hence it is said he is frankly forgiven, and freely\njustified (Luke 7:42; Rom 3:24). 2. That God doth this to whom\nand when he pleases, because it is an act of his own good pleasure\n(Gal 1:15,16). 3. This is the cause why great sinners are saved,\nfor God pardoneth \"according to the riches of his grace\" (Eph\n1:7). 4. This is the true cause that some sinners are so amazed and\nconfounded at the apprehension of their own salvation; his grace\nis unsearchable; and by unsearchable grace God oft puzzles and\nconfounds our reason (Eze 16:62,63; Acts 9:6). 5. This is the cause\nthat sinners are so often recovered from their backslidings, healed\nof their wounds that they get by their falls, and helped again to\nrejoice in God's mercy. Why, he will be gracious to whom he will\nbe gracious, and he will have compassion on whom he will have\ncompassion (Rom 9:15).\n\n[Fourth.] But I must not here conclude this point. We are here\ndiscoursing of the grace of God, and that by it we are saved; saved,\nI say, by the grace of God.\n\nNow, God is set forth in the Word unto us under a double consideration--1.\nHe is set forth in his own eternal power and Godhead; and as thus\nset forth, we are to conceive of him by his attributes of power,\njustice, goodness, holiness, everlastingness, &c. 2. But then, we\nhave him set forth in the Word of truth as consisting of Father,\nSon, and Spirit; and although this second consideration containeth\nin it the nature of the Godhead, yet the first doth not demonstrate\nthe persons in the Godhead. We are saved by the grace of God--that\nis, by the grace of the Father, who is God; by the grace of the\nSon, who is God; and by the grace of the Spirit, who is God.\n\nNow, since we are said to be \"saved by grace,\" and that the grace\nof God; and since also we find in the Word that in the Godhead\nthere are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we must conclude that it is\nby the grace of the Father, Son, and Spirit that we are saved; wherefore\ngrace is attributed to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost distinctly.\n1. Grace is attributed to the Father, as these scriptures testify;\nRomans 7:25, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3,\nEphesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians\n1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, 1 Timothy 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:2, Titus 1:4,\nPhilemon 3. 2. Grace is also attributed to the Son, and I first\nmanifest it by all those texts above-mentioned, as also by these\nthat follow: 2 Corinthians 8:9, 13:14, Galatians 6:18, Philippians\n4:23, 1 Thessalonians 5:28, 2 Thessalonians 3:18, Philemon 25,\nRevelation 22:21. 3. It is also attributed to the Holy Ghost. Now,\nhe is here called the Spirit of grace, because he is the author of\ngrace as the Father, and the Son (Zech 12:10; Heb 10:29).\n\nSo then, it remaineth that I show you, FIRST, How we are saved by\nthe grace of the Father. SECOND, How we are saved by the grace of\nthe Son. And, THIRD, How we are saved by the grace of the Spirit.\n\nOf the Father's grace.\n\nFIRST. How we are saved by the grace of the Father. Now this will\nI open unto you thus--\n\n1. The Father by his grace hath bound up them that shall go to\nheaven in an eternal decree of election; and here, indeed, as was\nshowed at first, is the beginning of our salvation (2 Tim 1:9). And\nelection is reckoned not the Son's act, but the Father's--\"Blessed\nbe the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed\nus with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,\naccording as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the\nworld\" (Eph 1:3,4). Now this election is counted an act of grace--\"So\nthen, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to\nthe election of grace\" (Rom 11:5).\n\n2. The Father's grace ordaineth and giveth the Son to undertake\nfor us our redemption. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour\nof the world--\"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the\nforgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; that in\nthe ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace,\nin his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus\" (Eph 1:7; 2:7; 1\nJohn 4:14; John 3:16; 6:32,33; 12:49).\n\n3. The Father's grace giveth us to Christ to be justified by his\nrighteousness, washed in his blood, and saved by his life. This\nChrist mentioneth, and tells us it is his Father's will that they\nshould be safe-coming at the last day, and that he had kept them\nall the days of his life, and they shall never perish (John 6:37-39;\n17:2,12).\n\n4. The Father's grace giveth the kingdom of heaven to those that\nhe hath given to Jesus Christ--\"Fear not, little flock, for it is\nyour Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom\" (Luke 12:32).\n\n5. The Father's grace provideth and layeth up in Christ, for those\nthat he hath chosen, a sufficiency of all spiritual blessings, to\nbe communicated to them at their need, for their preservation in the\nfaith, and faithful perseverance through this life; \"not according\nto our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which\nwas given us in Christ Jesus before the world began\" (2 Tim 1:9;\nEph 1:3,4).\n\n6. The Father's grace saveth us by the blessed and effectual call\nthat he giveth us to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Col\n1:9; Gal 1:15).\n\n7. The Father's grace saveth us by multiplying pardons to us, for\nChrist's sake, day by day--\"In whom we have redemption through\nhis blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his\ngrace\" (Eph 1:7).\n\n8. The Father's grace saves us by exercising patience and forbearance\ntowards us all the time of our unregeneracy (Rom 3:24).\n\n9. The Father's grace saveth us by holding of us fast in his hand,\nand by keeping of us from all the power of the enemy--\"My Father,\"\nsaid Christ, \"that gave them me, is greater than all, and no man\nis able to pluck them out of my Father's hand\" (John 10:29).\n\n10. What shall I say? The Father's grace saveth us by accepting of\nour persons and services, by lifting up the light of his countenance\nupon us, by manifesting of his love unto us, and by sending of his\nangels to fetch us to himself, when we have finished our pilgrimage\nin this world.\n\nOf the grace of the Son.\n\nSECOND. I come now to speak of the grace of the Son; for as the\nFather putteth forth his grace in the saving of the sinner, so doth\nthe Son put forth his--\"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became\npoor, that ye through his poverty might be rich\" (2 Cor 8:9).\n\nHere you see also that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is brought\nin as a partner with the grace of his Father in the salvation of\nour souls. Now this is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; he was\nrich, but for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty\nmight be made rich.\n\nTo inquire, then, into this grace, this condescending grace of\nChrist, and that by searching out how rich Jesus Christ was, and\nthen how poor he made himself, that we through his poverty might\nhave the riches of salvation.\n\nFirst. How rich was Jesus Christ? To which I answer--1. Generally;\n2. Particularly.\n\n1. Generally. He was rich as the Father--\"All things that the Father\nhath,\" saith he, \"are mine.\" Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, God\nover all, blessed for ever. \"He thought it not robbery to be equal\nwith God,\" being naturally and eternally God, as the Father, but\nof his Godhead he could not strip himself (John 10:30; 16:15; Acts\n10:36; Phil 2:6; Rom 9:4,5).\n\n2. Particularly. Jesus Christ had glory with the Father; yea, a\nmanifold glory with him, which he stripped himself of.\n\n(1.) He had the glory of dominion, he was Lord of all the creatures;\nthey were under him upon a double account--(a) as he was their\nCreator (Col 1:16); (b) as he was made the heir of God (Heb 1:2).\n\n(2.) Therefore the glory of worship, reverence, and fear from all\ncreatures, was due unto him; the worship, obedience, subjection,\nand service of angels were due unto him; the fear, honour, and glory\nof kings, and princes, and judges of the earth were due unto him;\nthe obedience of the sun, moon, stars, clouds, and all vapours,\nwere due unto him; all dragons, deeps, fire, hail, snow, mountains\nand hills, beasts, cattle, creeping things, and flying fowls, the\nservice of them all, and their worship, were due unto him (Psa\n148).\n\n(3.) The glory of the heavens themselves was due unto him; in a\nword, heaven and earth were his.\n\n(4.) But above all, the glory of communion with his Father was his;\nI say, the glory of that unspeakable communion that he had with the\nFather before his incarnation, which alone was worth ten thousand\nworlds, that was ever his.\n\n(5.) But again; as Jesus Christ was possessed with this, so,\nbesides, he was Lord of life; this glory also was Jesus Christ's:\n\"In him was life,\" therefore he is called the Prince of it; because\nit was in him originally as in the Father (Acts 3:15). He gave to\nall life and breath, and all things; angels, men, beasts, they had\nall their life from him.\n\n(6.) Again, as he was Lord of glory, and Prince of life, so he was\nalso Prince of peace, (Isa 9:6); and by him was maintained that\nharmony and goodly order which were among things in heaven and\nthings on earth.\n\nTake things briefly in these few particulars--(a.) The heavens were\nhis, and he made them. (b.) Angels were his, and he made them. (c.)\nThe earth was his, and he made it. (d.) Man was his, and he made\nhim.\n\n[Second. How poor he made himself.] Now this heaven he forsook for\nour sakes--\"He came into the world to save sinners\" (1 Tim 1:15).\n\n[1.] He was made lower than the angels, for the suffering of death\n(Heb 2:9). When he was born, he made himself, as he saith, a worm,\nor one of no reputation; he became the reproach and byword of the\npeople; he was born in a stable, laid in a manger, earned his bread\nwith his labour, being by trade a carpenter (Psa 22:6; Phil 2:7;\nLuke 2:7; Mark 6:3). When he betook himself to his ministry, he\nlived upon the charity of the people; when other men went to their\nown houses, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Hark what himself\nsaith for the clearing of this--\"Foxes have holes, and birds of\nthe air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his\nhead.\" He denied himself of this world's good (Luke 8:2,3; 9:58;\nJohn 7:35; 8:1).\n\n[2.] Again, as he was Prince of life, so he for our sakes laid\ndown that also; for so stood the matter, that he or we must die;\nbut the grace that was in his heart wrought with him to lay down\nhis life: \"He gave his life a ransom for many.\" He laid down his\nlife that we might have life; he gave his flesh and blood for the\nlife of the world; he laid down his life for his sheep.\n\n[3.] Again; he was Prince of peace, but he forsook his peace also.\n(1.) He laid aside peace with the world, and chose upon that account\nto be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and therefore\nwas persecuted from his cradle to his cross, by kings, rulers, &c.\n(2.) He laid aside his peace with his Father, and made himself the\nobject of his Father's curse, insomuch that the Lord smote, struck,\nand afflicted him; and, in conclusion, hid his face from him (as\nhe expressed, with great crying) at the hour of his death.\n\n[Object.] But perhaps some may say, What need was there that Jesus\nChrist should do all this? Could not the grace of the Father save\nus without this condescension of the Son?\n\nAnsw. As there is grace, so there is justice in God; and man\nhaving sinned, God concluded to save him in a way of righteousness;\ntherefore it was absolutely necessary that Jesus Christ should put\nhimself into our very condition, sin only excepted. 1. Now by sin\nwe had lost the glory of God, therefore Jesus Christ lays aside the\nglory that he had with the Father (Rom 3:23; John 17:5). 2. Man by\nsin had shut himself out of an earthly paradise, and Jesus Christ\nwill leave his heavenly paradise to save him (Gen 3:24; 1 Tim 1:15;\nJohn 6:38,39). 3. Man by sin had made himself lighter than vanity,\nand this Lord God, Jesus Christ, made himself lower than the angels\nto redeem him (Isa 40:17; Heb 2:7). 4. Man by sin lost his right to\nthe creatures, and Jesus Christ will deny himself of a whole world\nto save him (Luke 9:58). 5. Man by sin had made himself subject to\ndeath; but Jesus Christ will lose his life to save him (Rom 6:23).\n6. Man by sin had procured to himself the curse of God; but Jesus\nChrist will bear that curse in his own body to save him (Gal 3:13).\n7. Man by sin had lost peace with God; but this would Jesus Christ\nlose also, to the end man might be saved. 8. Man should have been\nmocked of God, therefore Christ was mocked of men. 9. Man should\nhave been scourged in hell; but, to hinder that, Jesus was scourged\non earth. 10. Man should have been crowned with ignominy and shame;\nbut, to prevent that, Jesus was crowned with thorns. 11. Man should\nhave been pierced with the spear of God's wrath; but, to prevent\nthat, Jesus was pierced both by God and men. 12. Man should have\nbeen rejected of God and angels; but, to prevent that, Jesus was\nforsaken of God, and denied, hated, and rejected of men (Isa 48:22;\nProv 1:24-26; Matt 27:26,39,46; Psa 9:17; 11:6; 22:7; Dan 12:2;\nJohn 19:2-5,37; Num 24:8; Zech 12:10; Luke 9:22).\n\nI might thus enlarge, and that by authority from this text--\"He became\npoor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.\" All the riches\nhe stripped himself of, it was for our sakes; all the sorrows he\nunderwent, it was for our sakes; to the least circumstance of the\nsufferings of Christ there was necessity that so it should be, all\nwas for our sakes: \"For our sakes he became poor, that ye through\nhis poverty might be rich.\"\n\nAnd you see the argument that prevailed with Christ to do this\ngreat service for man, the grace that was in his heart; as also\nthe prophet saith, \"In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.\"\nAccording to this in the Corinthians, \"Ye know the grace of our\nLord Jesus Christ\"; both which agree with the text, \"By grace ye\nare saved.\"\n\nI say, this was the grace of the Son, and the exercise thereof. The\nFather therefore shows his grace one way, and the Son his another.\nIt was not the Father, but the Son, that left his heaven for\nsinners; it was not the Father, but the Son, that spilt his blood\nfor sinners. The Father indeed gave the Son, and blessed be the\nFather for that; and the Son gave his life and blood for us, and\nblessed be the Son for that.\n\nBut methinks we should not yet have done with this grace of\nthe Son. Thou Son of the Blessed, what grace was manifest in thy\ncondescension! Grace brought thee down from heaven, grace stripped\nthee of thy glory, grace made thee poor and despicable, grace made\nthee bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of sorrow, such burdens\nof God's curse as are unspeakable. O Son of God! grace was in all\nthy tears, grace came bubbling out of thy side with thy blood,\ngrace came forth with every word of thy sweet mouth (Psa 45:2; Luke\n4:22). Grace came out where the whip smote thee, where the thorns\npricked thee, where the nails and spear pierced thee. O blessed\nSon of God! Here is grace indeed! Unsearchable riches of grace!\nUnthought-of riches of grace! Grace to make angels wonder, grace to\nmake sinners happy, grace to astonish devils. And what will become\nof them that trample under foot this Son of God?\n\nOf the grace of the Spirit. THIRD. I come now to speak of the grace\nof the Spirit; for he also saveth us by his grace. The Spirit, I\ntold you, is God, as the Father and the Son, and is therefore also\nthe author of grace; yea, and it is absolutely necessary that he\nput forth his grace also, or else no flesh can be saved. The Spirit\nof God hath his hand in saving of us many ways; for they that go\nto heaven, as they must be beholding to the Father and the Son,\nso also to the Spirit of God. The Father chooseth us, giveth us to\nChrist, and heaven to us, and the like. The Son fulfills the law\nfor us, takes the curse of the law from us, bears in his own body\nour sorrows, and sets us justified in the sight of God. The Father's\ngrace is showed in heaven and earth; the Son's grace is showed on\nthe earth, and on the cross; and the Spirit's grace must be showed\nin our souls and bodies, before we come to heaven.\n\nQuest. But some may say, Wherein doth the saving grace of the Spirit\nappear?\n\nAnsw. In many things.\n\nIn taking possession of us for his own, in his making of us his\nhouse and habitation, so that though the Father and the Son have\nboth gloriously put forth gracious acts in order to our salvation,\nyet the Spirit is the first that makes seizure of us (1 Cor 3:16;\n6:19; Eph 2:21,22). Christ, therefore, when he went away, said not\nthat he would send the Father, but the Spirit, and that he should\nbe in us for ever--\"If I depart,\" said Christ, \"I will send him,\nthe Spirit of truth, the Comforter\" (John 14:16; 16:7,13).\n\nThe Holy Spirit coming into us, and dwelling in us, worketh out\nmany salvations for us now, and each of them in order also to our\nbeing saved for ever.\n\n1. He saveth us from our darkness by illuminating of us; hence he\nis called \"the Spirit of revelation,\" because he openeth the blind\neyes, and so consequently delivereth us from that darkness which\nelse would drown us in the deeps of hell (Eph 1:17,19).\n\n2. He it is that convinceth us of the evil of our unbelief, and\nthat shows us the necessity of our believing in Christ; without\nthe conviction of this we should perish (John 16:9).\n\n3. This is that finger of God by which the devil is made to give\nplace unto grace, by whose power else we should be carried headlong\nto hell (Luke 11:20-22).\n\n4. This is he that worketh faith in our hearts, without which\nneither the grace of the Father nor the grace of the Son can save\nus, \"For he that believeth not, shall be damned\" (Mark 16:16; Rom\n15:13).\n\n5. This is he by whom we are born again; and he that is not so born\ncan neither see nor inherit the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-7).\n\n6. This is he that setteth up his kingdom in the heart, and by that\nmeans keepeth out the devil after he is cast out, which kingdom of\nthe Spirit, whoever wanteth, they lie liable to a worse possession\nof the devil than ever (Matt 12:43-45; Luke 11:24,25).\n\n7. By this Spirit we come to see the beauty of Christ, without\na sight of which we should never desire him, but should certainly\nlive in the neglect of him, and perish (John 16:14; 1 Cor 2:9-13;\nIsa 53:1,2).\n\n8. By this Spirit we are helped to praise God acceptably, but\nwithout it, it is impossible to be heard unto salvation (Rom 8:26;\nEph 6:18; 1 Cor 14:15).\n\n9. By this blessed Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our\nhearts, and our hearts are directed into the love of God (Rom 5:5;\n2 Thess 2:13).\n\n10. By this blessed Spirit we are led from the ways of the flesh\ninto the ways of life, and by it our mortal body, as well as our\nimmortal soul, is quickened in the service of God (Gal 5:18,25;\nRom 8:11).\n\n11. By this good Spirit we keep that good thing, even the seed of\nGod, that at the first by the Word of God was infused into us, and\nwithout which we are liable to the worst damnation (1 John 3:9; 1\nPeter 1:23; 2 Tim 1:14).\n\n12. By this good Spirit we have help and light against all the\nwisdom and cunning of the world, which putteth forth itself in its\nmost cursed sophistications to overthrow the simplicity that is in\nChrist (Matt 10:19,20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11,12).\n\n13. By this good Spirit our graces are maintained in life and\nvigour, as faith, hope, love, a spirit of prayer, and every grace\n(2 Cor 4:13; Rom 15:13; 2 Tim 1:7; Eph 6:18; Titus 3:5).\n\n14. By this good Spirit we are sealed to the day of redemption (Eph\n1:14).\n\n15. And by this good Spirit we are made to wait with patience until\nthe redemption of the purchased possession comes (Gal 5:5).\n\nNow all these things are so necessary to our salvation, that I\nknow not which of them can be wanting; neither can any of them be\nby any means attained but by this blessed Spirit.\n\nAnd thus have I in few words showed you the grace of the Spirit,\nand how it putteth forth itself towards the saving of the soul.\nAnd verily, Sirs, it is necessary that you know these things\ndistinctly--to wit, the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son,\nand the grace of the Holy Ghost; for it is not the grace of one,\nbut of all these three, that saveth him that shall be saved indeed.\n\nThe Father's grace saveth no man without the grace of the Son;\nneither doth the Father and the Son save any without the grace\nof the Spirit; for as the Father loves, the Son must die, and the\nSpirit must sanctify, or no soul must be saved.\n\nSome think that the love of the Father, without the blood of the\nSon, will save them, but they are deceived; for \"without shedding\nof blood is no remission\" (Heb 9:22).\n\nSome think that the love of the Father and blood of the Son will\ndo, without the holiness of the Spirit of God; but they are deceived\nalso; for \"if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of\nhis\"; and again, \"without holiness no man shall see the Lord\" (Rom\n8:9; Heb 12:14).\n\nThere is a third sort, that think the holiness of the Spirit is\nsufficient of itself; but they (if they had it) are deceived also;\nfor it must be the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son, and\nthe grace of the Spirit, jointly, that must save them.\n\nBut yet, as these three do put forth grace jointly and truly in the\nsalvation of a sinner, so they put it forth, as I also have showed\nyou before, after a diverse manner. The Father designs us for heaven,\nthe Son redeems from sin and death, and the Spirit makes us meet\nfor heaven; not by electing, that is the work of the Father; not\nby dying, that is the work of the Son; but by his revealing Christ,\nand applying Christ to our souls, by shedding the love of God abroad\nin our hearts, by sanctifying of our souls, and taking possession\nof us as an earnest of our possession of heaven.\n\nQUEST. III.--WHO ARE THEY THAT ARE TO BE SAVED BY GRACE?\n\nI come now to the third particular--namely, to show you who they\nare that are to be saved by grace.\n\n[Who are not saved.]\n\nFirst. Not the self-righteous, not they that have no need of the\nphysician. \"The whole have no need of the physician,\" saith Christ.\n\"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance\" (Mark\n2:17). And again, \"He hath filled the hungry with good things, and\nthe rich he hath sent empty away\" (Luke 1:53). Now when I say not\nthe self-righteous nor the rich, I mean not that they are utterly\nexcluded; for Paul was such an one; but he saveth not such without\nhe first awaken them to see they have need to be saved by grace.\n\nSecond. The grace of God saveth not him that hath sinned the unpardonable\nsin. There is nothing left for him \"but a certain fearful looking\nfor of judgment,--which shall devour the adversaries\" (Heb 10:26,27).\n\nThird. That sinner that persevereth in final impenitency and unbelief\nshall be damned (Luke 13:3,5; Rom 2:2-5; Mark 16:15,16).\n\nFourth. That sinner whose mind the god of this world hath blinded,\nthat the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image\nof God, can never shine into him, is lost, and must be damned (2\nCor 4:3,4).\n\nFifth. The sinner that maketh religion his cloak for wickedness, he\nis a hypocrite, and, continuing so, must certainly be damned (Psa\n125:5; Isa 33:14; Matt 24:50,51).\n\nSixth. In a word, every sinner that persevereth in his wickedness,\nshall not inherit the kingdom of heaven--\"Know ye not that the\nunrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:\nneither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,\nnor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,\nnor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit\nthe kingdom of God.\" \"Let no man deceive you with vain words; for\nbecause of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children\nof disobedience\" (1 Cor 6:9-12; Eph 5:5,6).\n\n[Who are saved.] Question. But what kind of sinners shall then be\nsaved?\n\nAnsw. Those of all these kinds that the Spirit of God shall bring\n[to] the Father by Jesus Christ; these, I say, and none but these,\ncan be saved, because else the sinners might be saved without the\nFather, or without the Son, or without the Spirit.\n\nNow, in all that I have said, I have not in the least suggested\nthat any sinner is rejected because his sins, in the nature of them,\nare great; Christ Jesus came into the world to save the chief of\nsinners. It is not, therefore, the greatness of, but the continuance\nin, sins that indeed damneth the sinner. But I always exclude him\nthat hath sinned against the Holy Ghost. That it is not the greatness\nof sin that excludeth the sinner is evident--\n\n1. From the words before the text, which doth give an account\nof what kind of sinners were here saved by grace, as namely, they\nthat were dead in trespasses and sins, those that walked in these\nsins, \"according to the course of this world, according to the\nprince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the\nchildren of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation\nin times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires\nof the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of\nwrath, even as others\" (Eph 2:2,3).\n\n2. It is evident also from the many sinners that we find to be saved,\nby the revealed will of God. For in the Word we have mention made\nof the salvation of great sinners, where their names and their\nsins stand recorded for our encouragement; as, (1.) You read of\nManasseh, who was an idolater, a witch, a persecutor, yea, a rebel\nagainst the word of God, sent unto him by the prophets; and yet\nthis man was saved (2 Chron 33:2-13; 2 Kings 21:16). (2.) You read\nof Mary Magdalene, in whom were seven devils; her condition was\ndreadful, yet she was saved (Luke 8:2; John 20). (3.) You read\nof the man that had a legion of devils in him. O how dreadful was\nhis condition! and yet by grace he was saved (Mark 5:1-10). (4.)\nYou read of them that murdered the Lord Jesus, and how they were\nconverted and saved (Acts 2:23). (5.) You read of the exorcists,\nhow they closed with Christ, and were saved by grace (Acts 19:13).\n(6.) You read of Saul the persecutor, and how he was saved by grace\n(Acts 9:15).\n\nObject. But, thou sayest, I am a backslider.\n\nAnsw. So was Noah, and yet he found grace in the eyes of the Lord\n(Gen 9:21,22). So was Lot, and yet God saved him by grace (Gen\n19:35; 2 Peter 2:7-9). So was David, yet by grace he was forgiven\nhis iniquities (2 Sam 12:7-13). So was Solomon, and a great one\ntoo; yet by grace his soul was saved (Psa 89:28-34). So was Peter,\nand that a dreadful one; yet by grace he was saved (Matt 26:69-74;\nMark 16:7; Acts 15:7-11). Besides, for further encouragement, read\nJeremiah 3, 33:25,26, 51:5, Ezekiel 36:25, Hosea 14:1-4; and stay\nthyself, and wonder at the riches of the grace of God.\n\nQuest. But how should we find out what sinners shall be saved? All,\nit seems, shall not. Besides, for aught can be gathered by what\nyou have said, there is as bad saved as damned, set him that hath\nsinned the unpardonable sin aside.\n\nAnsw. True, there are as bad saved as damned; but to this question:\nThey that are effectually called, are saved. They that believe on\nthe Son of God shall be saved. They that are sanctified and preserved\nin Christ shall be saved. They that take up their cross daily, and\nfollow Christ, shall be saved.\n\nTake a catalogue of them thus: \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,\nand thou shalt be saved\" (Mark 16:16; Acts 16:31). \"If thou shalt\nconfess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine\nheart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved\"\n(Rom 10:9). Be justified by the blood of Christ, and thou shalt\nbe saved (Rom 5:9). Be reconciled to God by the death of his Son,\nand thou shalt be saved by his life (Rom 5:10). \"And it shall come\nto pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall\nbe saved\" (Acts 2:21).\n\nSee some other scriptures. \"He shall save the humble person\" (Job\n22:29). \"Thou wilt save the afflicted people\" (Psa 18:27). \"He\nshall save the children of the needy\" (Psa 72:4). \"He shall save\nthe souls of the needy\" (Psa 72:13). \"O thou, my God, save thy\nservant that trusteth in thee\" (Psa 86:2). \"He will fulfill the\ndesire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry, and will\nsave them\" (Psa 145:19).\n\n[Caution.] But, sinner, if thou wouldst indeed be saved, beware of\nthese four things--\n\n1. Beware of delaying repentance; delays are dangerous and\ndamnable; they are dangerous, because they harden the heart; they\nare damnable, because their tendency is to make thee outstand the\ntime of grace (Psa 95:7; Heb 3-12).\n\n2. Beware of resting in the word of the kingdom, without the spirit\nand power of the kingdom of the gospel; for the gospel coming in\nword only saves nobody, for the kingdom of God or the gospel, where\nit comes to salvation, is not in word but in power (1 Thess 1:4-6;\n1 Cor 4:19).\n\n3. Take heed of living in a profession, a life that is provoking\nto God; for that is the way to make him cast thee away in his anger.\n\n4. Take heed that thy inside and outside be alike;, and both\nconformable to the Word of his grace; labour to be like the living\ncreatures which thou mayest read of in the book of the prophet\nEzekiel, whose appearance and themselves were one 10 (Eze 10:22).\n\nIn all this, I have advertised you not to be content without the\npower and Spirit of God in your hearts, for without him you partake\nof none of the grace of the Father or Son, but will certainly miss\nof the salvation of the soul.\n\nQUEST. IV.--HOW IT APPEARS THAT THEY THAT ARE SAVED, ARE SAVED BY\nGRACE?\n\nThis fourth question requireth that some demonstration be given of\nthe truth of this doctrine--to wit, that they that are saved are\nsaved by grace.\n\nWhat hath been said before hath given some demonstration of the\ntruth; wherefore, first repeating in few words the sum of what hath\nbeen said already, I shall come to further proof. 1. That this is\ntrue, the Scriptures testify, because God chose them to salvation\nbefore they had done good (Rom 9:11). 2. Christ was ordained to be\ntheir Saviour before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; 1 Peter\n1:19-21). 3. All things that concur and go to our salvation were\nalso in the same laid up in Christ, to be communicated in the\ndispensation of the fullness of times, to them that shall be saved\n(Eph 1:3,4; 2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:10; 3:8-11; Rom 8:30).\n\n[That salvation is by grace appears in its contrivance.] Again,\nas their salvation was contrived by God, so, as was said, this\nsalvation was undertaken by one of the three; to wit, the Son of\nthe Father (John 1:29; Isa 48:16).\n\nHad there been a contrivance in heaven about the salvation of\nsinners on earth, yet if the result of that contrivance had been\nthat we should be saved by our own good deeds, it would not have\nbeen proper for an apostle, or an angel, to say, \"By grace ye\nare saved.\" But now, when a council is held in eternity about the\nsalvation of sinners in time, and when the result of that council\nshall be, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost will\nthemselves accomplish the work of this salvation, this is grace,\nthis is naturally grace, grace that is rich and free; yea, this\nis unthought-of grace. I will say it again, this is unthought-of\ngrace; for who could have thought that a Saviour had been in the\nbosom of the Father, or that the Father would have given him to be\nthe Saviour of men, since he refused to give him to be the Saviour\nof angels? (Heb 2:16,17).\n\n[Grace appears in the Son's undertaking this work.] Again; could\nit have been thought that the Father would have sent his Son to be\nthe Saviour, we should, in reason, have thought also that he would\nnever have taken the work wholly upon himself, especially that\nfearful, dreadful, soul-astonishing, and amazing part thereof!\nWho could once have imagined that the Lord Jesus would have made\nhimself so poor as to stand before God in the nauseous rags of our\nsins, and subject himself to the curse and death that were due to\nour sin? but thus he did to save us by grace.\n\n\"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath\nblessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:\naccording as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the\nworld, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:\nhaving predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus\nChrist to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,\nto the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us\naccepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his\nblood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his\ngrace\" (Eph 1:3-7).\n\n[Grace appears in the terms and conditions on which salvation is\nmade over.] Again; if we consider the terms and conditions upon\nwhich this salvation is made over to them that are saved, it will\nfurther appear we are saved by grace.\n\n1. The things that immediately concern our justification and\nsalvation, they are offered, yea, given to us freely, and we are\ncommanded to receive them by faith. Sinner, hold up thy lap. God\nso loved the world, that he giveth his Son, that he giveth his\nrighteousness, that he giveth his Spirit, and the kingdom of heaven\n(John 3:16; Rom 5:17; 2 Cor 1:21,22; Luke 12:32).\n\n2. He also giveth repentance, he giveth faith, and giveth everlasting\nconsolation, and good hope through grace (Acts 5:30,31; Phil 1:29;\n2 Thess 2:16).\n\n3. He giveth pardon, and giveth more grace, to keep us from sinking\ninto hell, than we have sin to sink us in thither (Acts 5:31; Prov\n3:34; John 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).\n\n4. He hath made all these things over to us in a covenant of grace.\nWe call it a covenant of grace, because it is set in opposition to\nthe covenant of works, and because it is established to us in the\ndoings of Christ, founded in his blood, established upon the best\npromises made to him, and to us by him. \"For all the promises of\nGod in him are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us\" (2\nCor 1:20).\n\nBut to pass these, and to come to some other demonstrations for\nthe clearing of this--\n\nLet us a little consider,\n\nWhat man is, upon whom the Father, the Son, and the Spirit bestows\nthis grace.\n\n1. [An enemy to God.] By nature he is an enemy to God, an enemy\nin his mind. \"The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not\nsubject to the law of God, neither indeed can be\" (Rom 8:7; Col\n1:21).\n\n2. [A slave to sin.] So that the state of man was this--he was not\nonly over persuaded on a sudden to sin against God, but he drank\nthis sin, like water, into his very nature, mingled it with every\nfaculty of his soul and member of his body; by the means of which he\nbecame alienated from God, and an enemy to him in his very heart;\nand wilt thou, O Lord, as the Scripture hath it, \"And dost thou\nopen thine eyes upon such an one?\" (Job 14:3). Yea, open thy heart,\nand take this man, not into judgment, but into mercy with thee?\n\n3. [In covenant with death and hell.] Further, man by his sin had\nnot only given himself to be a captive slave to the devil, but,\ncontinuing in his sin, he made head against his God, struck up a\ncovenant with death, and made an agreement with hell; but for God\nto open his eyes upon such an one, and to take hold of him by riches\nof grace, this is amazing (Isa 28:16-18).\n\nSee where God found the Jew when he came to look upon him to save\nhim--\"As for thy nativity,\" says God, \"in the day thou wast born\nthy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple\nthee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye\npitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon\nthee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of\nthy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by\nthee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee,\nwhen thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou\nwast in thy blood, Live.--Now when I passed by thee, and looked\nupon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my\nskirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee,\nand entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou\nbecamest mine.\" Sinner, see further into the chapter, Ezekiel 16.\nAll this is the grace of God; every word in this text smells of\ngrace.\n\nBut before I pass this, let us a little take notice of\n\nThe carriage of God to man, and again of man to God, in his\nconversion.\n\nFIRST. OF GOD'S CARRIAGE TO MAN. He comes to him while he is in his\nsins, in his blood; he comes to him now, not in the heat and fire\nof his jealousy, but \"in the cool of the day,\" in unspeakable\ngentleness, mercy, pity, and bowels of love; not in clothing himself\nwith vengeance, but in a way of entreaty, and meekly beseecheth\nthe sinner to be reconciled unto him (2 Cor 5:19,20).\n\nIt is expected among men that he which giveth the offence should\nbe the first in seeking peace; but, sinner, betwixt God and man it\nis not so; not that we loved God, not that we chose God; but \"God\nwas in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing\ntheir trespasses unto them.\" God is the first that seeketh peace;\nand, as I said, in a way of entreaty he bids his ministers pray you\nin Christ's stead; \"as though God did beseech you by us, we pray\nyou, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.\" O sinner, wilt\nthou not open? Behold, God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ\nstand both at the door of thy heart, beseeching there for favour\nfrom thee, that thou wilt be reconciled to them, with promise, if\nthou wilt comply, to forgive thee all thy sins. O grace! O amazing\ngrace! To see a prince entreat a beggar to receive an alms would\nbe a strange sight; to see a king entreat the traitor to accept of\nmercy would be a stranger sight than that; but to see God entreat\na sinner, to hear Christ say, \"I stand at the door and knock,\" with\na heart full and a heaven full of grace to bestow upon him that\nopens, this is such a sight as dazzles the eyes of angels. What\nsayest thou now, sinner? Is not this God rich in mercy? Hath not\nthis God great love for sinners? Nay, further, that thou mayest not\nhave any ground to doubt that all this is but complementing, thou\nhast also here declared that God hath made his Christ \"to be sin\nfor us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness\nof God in him.\" If God would have stuck at anything, he would have\nstuck at the death of his Son; but he \"delivered him up for us\"\nfreely; \"how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\"\n(Rom 8:32). 11\n\nBut this is not all. God doth not only beseech thee to be reconciled\nto him, but further, for thy encouragement, he hath pronounced,\nin thy hearing, exceeding great and precious promises; \"and hath\nconfirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it\nwas impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,\nwho have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us\"\n(Heb 6:18,19; Isa 1:18; 55:6,7; Jer 51:5).\n\nSECOND. OF MAN'S CARRIAGE TO GOD. Let us come now to the carriage\nof these sinners to God, and that from the first day he beginneth\nto deal with their souls, even to the time that they are to be\ntaken up into heaven. And,\n\nFirst. To begin with God's ordinary dealing with sinners, when at\nfirst he ministereth conviction to them by his Word, how strangely\ndo they behave themselves! They love not to have their consciences\ntouched; they like not to ponder upon what they have been, what they\nare, or what is like to become of them hereafter; such thoughts they\ncount unmanly, hurtful, disadvantageous; therefore \"they refused\nto hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears,\nthat they should not hear\" (Zech 7,11). And now they are for anything\nrather than the Word; an alehouse, a whorehouse, a playhouse, sports,\npleasures, sleep, the world, and what not so they may stave12 off\nthe power of the word of God.\n\nSecond. If God now comes up closer to them, and begins to fasten\nconviction upon the conscience, though such conviction be the first\nstep to faith and repentance, yea, and to life eternal, yet what\nshifts will they have to forget them, and wear them off! Yea,\nalthough they now begin to see that they must either turn or burn,\n13 yet oftentimes even then they will study to wave a present\nconversion: they object, they are too young to turn yet; seven\nyears hence time enough, when they are old, or come upon a sick-bed.\nO what an enemy is man to his own salvation! I am persuaded that\nGod hath visited some of you often with his Word, even twice and\nthrice, and you have thrown water as fast as he hath by the Word\ncast fire upon your conscience. 14\n\nChristian, what had become of thee if God had taken thy denial\nfor an answer, and said, Then will I carry the word of salvation\nto another, and he will hear it? Sinner, turn, says God. Lord, I\ncannot tend15 it, says the sinner. Turn or burn, says God. I will\nventure that, says the sinner. Turn, and be saved, says God. I cannot\nleave my pleasures, says the sinner: sweet sins, sweet pleasures,\nsweet delights, says the sinner. But what grace is it in God thus\nto parley with the sinner! O the patience of God to a poor sinner!\nWhat if God should now say, Then get thee to thy sins, get thee to\nthy delights, get thee to thy pleasures, take them for thy portion,\nthey shall be all thy heaven, all thy happiness, and all thy portion?\n\nThird. But God comes again, and shows the sinner the necessity of\nturning now; now or not at all; yea, and giveth the sinner this\nconviction so strongly, that he cannot put it off. But behold, the\nsinner has one spark of enmity still. If he must needs turn now,\nhe will either turn from one sin to another, from great ones to\nlittle ones, from many to few, or from all to one, and there stop.\nBut perhaps convictions will not thus leave him. Why, then, he will\nturn from profaneness to the law of Moses, and will dwell as long\nas God will let him upon his own seeming goodness. And now observe\nhim, he is a great stickler for legal performance; now he will be\na good neighbour, he will pay every man his own, will leave off his\nswearing, the alehouse, his sports, and carnal delights; he will\nread, pray, talk of Scripture, and be a very busy one in religion,\nsuch as it is; now he will please God, and make him amends for all\nthe wrong he hath done him, and will feed him with chapters, and\nprayers, and promises, and vows, and a great many more such dainty\ndishes as these, persuading himself that now he must needs be fair\nfor heaven, and thinks besides that he serveth God as well as any\nman in England can. 16\n\nBut all this while he is as ignorant of Christ as the stool he sits\non, and no nearer heaven than was the blind Pharisee; only he has\ngot in a cleaner way to hell than the rest of his neighbours are\nin--\"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and\nyet is not washed from their filthiness\" (Prov 30:12).\n\nMight not God now cut off this sinner, and cast him out of his\nsight; might he not leave him here to his own choice, to be deluded\nby, and to fall in his own righteousness, because he \"trusteth to\nit, and commits iniquity\"? (Eze 33:13). But grace, preventing grace,\npreserves him. It is true, this turn of the sinner, as I said, is\na turning short of Christ; but,\n\nFourth. God in this way of the sinner will mercifully follow him,\nand show him the shortness of his performances, the emptiness of\nhis duties, and the uncleanness of his righteousness (Isa 28:20;\n64:6). Thus I speak of the sinner, the salvation of whose soul is\ngraciously intended and contrived of God; for he shall by gospel\nlight be wearied out of all; he shall be made to see the vanity of\nall, and that the personal righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that\nonly, is it which of God is ordained to save the sinner from the\ndue reward of his sins. But behold, the sinner now, at the sight\nand sense of his own nothingness, falleth into a kind of despair;\nfor although he hath it in him to presume of salvation, through\nthe delusiveness of his own good opinion of himself, yet he hath it\nnot in himself to have a good opinion of the grace of God in the\nrighteousness of Christ; wherefore he concludeth, that if salvation be\nalone of the grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ, and\nthat all of a man's own is utterly rejected, as to the justification\nof his person with God, then he is cast away. Now the reason of this\nsinking of heart is the sight that God hath given him, a sight of\nthe uncleanness of his best performance; the former sight of his\nimmoralities did somewhat distress him, and make him betake himself\nto his own good deeds to ease his conscience, wherefore this was\nhis prop, his stay; but behold, now God hath taken this from under\nhim, and now he falls; wherefore his best doth also now forsake\nhim, and flies away like the morning dew, or a bird, or as the chaff\nthat is driven with the whirlwind, and the smoke out of a chimney\n(Hosea 9:11; 13:3). Besides, this revelation of the emptiness of\nhis own righteousness, brings also with it a further discovery of\nthe naughtiness of his heart, in its hypocrisies, pride, unbelief,\nhardness of heart, deadness, and backwardness to all gospel and\nnew-covenant obedience, which sight of himself lies like millstones\nupon his shoulders, and sinks him yet further into doubts and fears of\ndamnation. For, bid him now receive Christ, he answers he cannot,\nhe dares not. Ask him why he cannot, he will answer he has no faith,\nnor hope in his heart. Tell him that grace is offered him freely,\nhe says, but I have no heart to receive it; besides, he finds not,\nas he thinks, any gracious disposition in his soul, and therefore\nconcludes he doth not belong to God's mercy, nor hath an interest\nin the blood of Christ, and therefore dares not presume to believe;\nwherefore, as I said, he sinks in his heart, he dies in his thoughts,\nhe doubts, he despairs, and concludes he shall never be saved.\n\nFifth. But behold, the God of all grace leaveth him not in this\ndistress, but comes up now to him closer than ever; he sends the\nSpirit of adoption, the blessed Comforter, to him, to tell him,\n\"God is love,\" and therefore not willing to reject the broken in\nheart; bids him cry and pray for an evidence of mercy to his soul,\nand says, \"Peradventure you may be hid in the day of the Lord's\nanger.\" At this the sinner takes some encouragement, yet he can get\nno more than that which will hang upon a mere probability, which\nby the next doubt that ariseth in the heart is blown quite away,\nand the soul left again in his first plight, or worse, where he\nlamentably bewails his miserable state, and is tormented with a\nthousand fears of perishing, for he hears not a word from heaven,\nperhaps for several weeks together. Wherefore unbelief begins to\nget the mastery of him, and takes off the very edge and spirit of\nprayer, and inclination to hear the Word any longer; yea, the devil\nalso claps in with these thoughts, saying that all your prayers,\nand hearing, and reading, and godly company which you frequent,\nwill rise up in judgment against you at last; therefore better it\nis, if you must be damned, to choose as easy a place in hell as\nyou can. The soul at this, being quite discouraged, thinks to do\nas it hath been taught, and with dying thoughts it begins to faint\nwhen it goeth to prayer or to hear the word; but behold, when\nall hope seems to be quite gone, and the soul concludes, I DIE, I\nPERISH, in comes, on a sudden, the Spirit of God again, with some\ngood word of God, which the soul never thought of before, which\nword of God commands a calm in the soul, makes unbelief give place,\nencourageth to hope and wait upon God again; perhaps it gives some\nlittle sight of Christ to the soul, and of his blessed undertaking\nfor sinners. But behold, so soon as the power of things does again\nbegin to wear off the heart, the sinner gives place to unbelief,\nquestions God's mercy, and fears damning again; he also entertains\nhard thoughts of God and Christ, and thinks former encouragements\nwere fancies, delusions, or mere think-so's. And why doth not God\nnow cast the sinner to hell for his thus abusing his mercy and\ngrace. O no! \"He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and\nhe will have compassion on whom he will have compassion\"; wherefore\n\"goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life, that\nhe may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever\" (Psa 23:6).\n\nSixth. God, therefore, after all these provocations, comes by his\nSpirit to the soul again, and brings sealing grace and pardon to\nthe conscience, testifying to it that its sins are forgiven, and\nthat freely, for the sake of the blood of Christ; and now has the\nsinner such a sight of the grace of God in Christ as kindly breaks\nhis heart with joy and comfort; now the soul knows what it is to\neat promises; it also knows what it is to eat and drink the flesh\nand blood of Jesus Christ by faith; now it is driven by the power\nof his grace to its knees, to thank God for forgiveness of sins\nand for hopes of an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified\nby faith which is in Christ; now it hath a calm and sunshine; now\n\"he washeth his steps with butter, and the rock pours him out rivers\nof oil\" (Job 29:6).\n\nSeventh. But after this, perhaps the soul grows cold again, it\nalso forgets this grace received, and waxeth carnal, begins again\nto itch after the world, loseth the life and savour of heavenly\nthings, grieves the Spirit of God, woefully backslides, casteth off\ncloset duties quite, or else retains only the formality of them, is\na reproach to religion, grieves the hearts of them that are awake,\nand tender of God's name, &c. But what will God do now? Will\nhe take this advantage to destroy the sinner? No. Will he let him\nalone in his apostasy? No. Will he leave him to recover himself by\nthe strength of his now languishing graces? No. What then? Why, he\nwill seek this man out till he finds him, and bring him home to\nhimself again: \"For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will\nboth search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out\nhis flock in the day that he is among the sheep that are scattered;\nso will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places\nwhere they have been scattered.--I will seek that which was lost,\nand bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that\nwhich was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick\" (Eze\n34:11,16).\n\nThus he dealt with the man that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,\nand fell among thieves; and thus he dealt with the prodigal you\nread of also (Luke 10:30-35; 15:20).\n\nOf God's ordinary way of fetching the backslider home I will not\nnow discourse--namely, whether he always breaketh his bones for his\nsins, as he broke David's; or whether he will all the days of their\nlife, for this, leave them under guilt and darkness; or whether\nhe will kill them now, that they may not be damned in the day of\njudgment, as he dealt with them at Corinth (1 Cor 11:30-32). He is\nwise, and can tell how to embitter backsliding to them he loveth.\nHe can break their bones, and save them; he can lay them in the\nlowest pit, in darkness, in the deep, and save them; he can slay\nthem as to this life, and save them. And herein again appears\nwonderful grace, that \"Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his\nGod, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of\nIsrael\" (Jer 51:5).\n\nEighth. But suppose God deals not either of these ways with the\nbackslider, but shines upon him again, and seals up to him the\nremission of his sins a second time, saying, \"I will heal their\nbackslidings, and love them freely,\" what will the soul do now?\nSurely it will walk humbly now, and holily all its days. It will\nnever backslide again, will it? It may happen it will not, it may\nhappen it will; it is just as his God keeps him; for although his\nsins are of himself, his standing is of God; I say, his standing,\nwhile he stands, and his recovery, if he falls, are both of God;\nwherefore, if God leaves him a little, the next gap he finds, away\nhe is gone again. \"My people,\" says God, \"are bent to backsliding\nfrom me.\" How many times did David backslide; yea, Jehoshaphat and\nPeter! (2 Sam 11,24; 2 Chron 19:1-3; 20:1-5; Matt 26:69-71; Gal\n2:11-13). As also in the third of Jeremiah it is said, \"But thou hast\nplayed the harlot with many lovers, yet return unto me, saith the\nLord\" (verse 1). Here is grace! So many time as the soul backslides,\nso many times God brings him again--I mean, the soul that must be\nsaved by grace--he renews his pardons, and multiplies them. \"Lo,\nall these things worketh God oftentimes with man\" (Job 33:29).\n\nNinth. But see yet more grace. I will speak here of heart-wanderings,\nand of daily miscarriages--I mean, of these common infirmities that\nare incident to the best of saints, and that attend them in their\nbest performances; not that I intend, for I cannot, mention them\nparticularly, that would be a task impossible; but such there are,\nworldly thoughts, unclean thoughts, too low thoughts of God, of\nChrist, of the Spirit, words, ways, and ordinances of God, by which\na Christian transgresses many times; may I not say, sometimes many\nhundred times a day; yea, for aught I know, there are some saints,\nand them not long-lived either, that must receive, before they\nenter into life, millions of pardons from God for these; and every\npardon is an act of grace, through the redemption that is in Christ's\nblood. 17\n\nSeventy times seven times a day we sometimes sin against our\nbrother; but how many times, in that day, do we sin against God?\nLord, \"who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret\nfaults\" [sins], said David. And again, \"If thou, Lord, shouldest\nmark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness\nwith thee that thou mayest be feared\" (Matt 18:21,22; Psa 19:12;\n130:3,4).\n\nBut to mention some of them. Sometimes they question the very being\nof God, or foolishly ask how he came to be at first; sometimes they\nquestion the truth of his Word, and suspect the harmony thereof,\nbecause their blind hearts and dull heads cannot reconcile it; yea,\nall fundamental truths lie open sometimes to the censure of their\nunbelief and atheism; as, namely, whether there be such an one as\nChrist, such a thing as the day of judgment, or whether there will\nbe a heaven or hell hereafter, and God pardons all these by his\ngrace. When they believe these things, even then they sin, by not\nhaving such reverent, high, and holy thoughts of them as they ought;\nthey sin also by having too, too good thoughts of themselves, of\nsin, and the world; sometimes, let me say, often, they wink too much\nat known sin, they bewail not, as they should, the infirmities of\nthe flesh; the itching inclinations which they find in their hearts\nafter vanity go too often from them unrepented of. I do not say\nbut they repent them in the general. But all these things, O how\noften doth God forgive, through the riches of his grace!\n\nThey sin by not walking answerably to mercies received; yea, they\ncome short in their thanks to God for them, even then when they\nmost heartily acknowledge how unworthy they are of them; also, how\nlittle of the strength of them is spent to his praise, who freely\npoureth them into their bosoms; but from all these sins are they\nsaved by grace. They sin in their most exact and spiritual performance\nof duties; they pray not, they hear not, they read not, they give\nnot alms, they come not to the Lord's table, or other holy appointments\nof God, but in and with much coldness, deadness, wanderings of\nheart, ignorance, misapprehensions, &c. They forget God while they\npray unto him; they forget Christ while they are at his table; they\nforget his Word even while they are reading of it.\n\nHow often do they make promises to God, and afterwards break them!\nYea, or if they keep promise in show, how much doth their heart even\ngrudge the performing of them; how do they shuck18 at the cross;\nand how unwilling are they to lose that little they have for God,\nthough all they have was given them to glorify him withal! 19\n\nAll these things, and a thousand times as many more, dwell in the\nflesh of man; and they may as soon go away from themselves as from\nthese corruptions; yea, they may sooner cut the flesh from their\nbones than these motions of sin from their flesh; these will be\nwith them in every duty--I mean, some or other of them; yea, as\noften as they look, or think, or hear, or speak. These are with\nthem, especially when the man intends good in so doing: \"When\nI would do good,\" says Paul, \"evil is present with me.\" And God\nhimself complains that \"every imagination of the thoughts of the\nheart of man is only evil,\" and that \"continually\" (Rom 7:21; Gen\n6:5).\n\nBy these things, therefore, we continually defile ourselves,\nand every one of our performances--I mean, in the judgment of the\nlaw--even mixing iniquity with those things which we hallow unto\nthe Lord. \"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil\nthoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,\nwickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,\nfoolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile\nthe man\" (Mark 7:21-23). Now what can deliver the soul from these\nbut grace? \"By grace ye are saved.\" QUEST. V.--WHAT MIGHT BE THE\nREASON MOVED GOD TO ORDAIN AND CHOOSE TO SAVE THOSE THAT HE SAVETH\nBY HIS GRACE, RATHER THAN BY ANY OTHER MEANS?\n\nI come now to answer the fifth question; namely, to show why God\nsaveth those that he saveth by grace, rather than by any other\nmeans.\n\nFirst. God saveth us by grace, because since sin is in the world,\nhe can save us no other way; sin and transgression cannot be removed\nbut by the grace of God through Christ; sin is the transgression\nof the law of God, who is perfectly just. Infinite justice cannot\nbe satisfied with the recompence that man can make; for if it could,\nChrist Jesus himself needed not to have died; besides, man having\nsinned, and defiled himself thereby, all his acts are the acts of\na defiled man; nay, further, the best of his performances are also\ndefiled by his hands; these performances, therefore, cannot be a\nrecompence for sin. Besides, to affirm that God saveth defiled man\nfor the sake of his defiled duties--for so, I say, is every work\nof his hand--what is it but to say, God accepteth of one sinful act\nas a recompence and satisfaction for another? (Hag 2:14). But God,\neven of old, hath declared how he abominates imperfect sacrifices,\ntherefore we can by no means be saved from sin but by grace (Rom\n3:24).\n\nSecond. To assert that we may be saved any other way than by\nthe grace of God, what is it but to object against the wisdom and\nprudence of God, wherein he aboundeth towards them whom he hath\nsaved by grace? (Eph 1:5-8). His wisdom and prudence found out no\nother way, therefore he chooseth to save us by grace.\n\nThird. We must be saved by grace, because else it follows that God\nis mutable in his decrees, for so hath he determined before the\nfoundation of the world; therefore he saveth us not, nor chooseth\nto save us by any other way, than by grace (Eph 1:3,4; 3:8-11; Rom\n9:23).\n\nFourth. If man should be saved any other way than by grace, God\nwould be disappointed in his design to cut off boasting from his\ncreature; but God's design to cut off boasting from his creature\ncannot be frustrated or disappointed; therefore he will save man\nby no other means than by grace; he, I say, hath designed that\nno flesh should glory in his presence, and therefore he refuseth\ntheir works; \"Not of works, lest any man should boast.\" \"Where is\nboasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by\nthe law of faith\" (Eph 2:8,9; Rom 3:24-28).\n\nFifth. God hath ordained that we should be saved by grace, that he\nmight have the praise and glory of our salvation; that we should\nbe \"to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made\nus accepted in the Beloved\" (Eph 1:6). Now God will not lose his\npraise, and his glory he will not give to another; therefore God\ndoth choose to save sinners but by his grace.\n\nSixth. God hath ordained, and doth choose to save us by grace,\nbecause, were there another way apparent, yet this is the way that\nis safest, and best secureth the soul. \"Therefore it is of faith,\nthat it might be by grace; to the end the promise [the promise of\neternal inheritance, (Heb 9:14-16)] might be sure to all the seed\"\n(Rom 4:16). No other way could have been sure. This is evident in\nAdam, the Jews, and, I will add, the fallen angels, who being turned\nover to another way than grace, you see in short time what became\nof them.\n\nTo be saved by grace supposeth that God hath taken the salvation\nof our souls into his own hand; and to be sure it is safer in God's\nhand than ours. Hence it is called the salvation of the Lord, the\nsalvation of God, and salvation, and that of God.\n\nWhen our salvation is in God's hand, himself is engaged to accomplish\nit for us. 1. Here is the mercy of God engaged for us (Rom 9:15).\n2. Here is the wisdom of God engaged for us (Eph 1:7,8). 3. Here\nis the power of God engaged for us (1 Peter 1:3-5). 4. Here is the\njustice of God engaged for us (Rom 3:24,25). 5. Here is the holiness\nof God engaged for us (Psa 89:30-35). 6. Here is the care of God\nengaged for us, and his watchful eye is always over us for our good\n(1 Peter 5:7; Isa 27:1-3).\n\nWhat shall I say? Grace can take us into favour with God, and that\nwhen we are in our blood (Eze 16:7,8). Grace can make children of\nus, though by nature we have been enemies to God (Rom 9:25,26).\nGrace can make them God's people which were not God's people (1\nPeter 2:9,10). Grace will not trust our own salvation in our own\nhands--\"He putteth no trust in his saints\" (Job 15:15). Grace can\npardon our ungodliness, justify us with Christ's righteousness;\nit can put the spirit of Jesus Christ within us, it can help us\nup when we are down, it can heal us when we are wounded, it can\nmultiply pardons, as we, through frailty, multiply transgressions.\n\nWhat shall I say? Grace and mercy are everlasting. They are built\nup for ever. They are the delight of God. They rejoice against\njudgment. And therefore it is the most safe and secure way of\nsalvation, and therefore hath God chosen to save us by his grace\nand mercy rather than any other way (Isa 43:25; Rom 3:24,25; Isa\n44:2,4; Psa 37:23; Luke 10:33,34; Isa 55:7,8; Psa 136; 89:2; Mal\n3:18; James 2:13).\n\nSeventh. We must be saved by the grace of God, or else God will\nnot have his will. They that are saved are \"predestinated unto the\nadoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the\ngood pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace\"\n(Eph 1:5,6).\n\n1. But if it be his will that men should be saved by grace, then\nto think of another way is against the will of God. Hence they that\nseek to establish their own righteousness are such as are accounted\nto stand out in defiance against, and that do not submit to, the\nrighteousness of God--that is, to the righteousness that he hath\nwilled to be that through which alone we are saved by grace (Rom\n10:3).\n\n2. If it be his will that men should be saved through grace, then\nit is his will that men should be saved by faith in that Christ\nwho is the contrivance of grace; therefore they that have sought\nto be justified another way have come short of, and perished\nnotwithstanding, that salvation that is provided of God for men by\ngrace (Rom 9:31-33).\n\n3. God is not willing that faith should be made void, and the\npromise of none effect; therefore they of the righteousness of the\nlaw are excluded: \"for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no\nmore of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise\" (Rom 4:14\nGal 3:18).\n\n4. God is not willing that men should be saved by their own natural\nabilities; but all the works of the law which men do to be saved\nby, they are the works of men's natural abilities, and are therefore\ncalled the work of the flesh, but God is not willing that men should\nbe saved by these, therefore no way but by his grace (Rom 4:1; Gal\n3:1-3; Phil 3:3).\n\nEighth. We must be saved by grace, or else the main pillars and\nfoundations of salvation are not only shaken, but overthrown--to\nwit, election, the new covenant, Christ, and the glory of God; but\nthese must not be overthrown; therefore we must be saved by grace.\n\n1. Election, which layeth hold of men by the grace of God, God\nhath purposed that that shall stand--the election of God standeth\nsure; therefore men must be saved by virtue of the election of\ngrace (Rom 9:11; 2 Tim 2:19).\n\n2. The covenant of grace, that must stand--\"Brethren, I speak after\nthe manner of men. Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be\nconfirmed [as this is, by the death of the testator, (Heb 9:16,17)]\nno man disannulleth, or addeth thereto\"; therefore man must be\nsaved by virtue of a covenant of grace (Gal 3:15).\n\n3. Christ, who is the gift of the grace of God to the world, he\nmust stand, because he is a sure foundation, \"the same yesterday,\nto-day, and for ever\"; therefore men must be saved by grace, through\nthe redemption that is in Christ (Isa 28:16; Heb 13:8).\n\n4. God's glory, that also must stand; to wit, the glory of his\ngrace; for that he will not give to another; therefore men must\nso be saved from the wrath to come, that in their salvation praise\nmay redound to the glory of his grace.\n\nNinth. There can be but one will the master in our salvation; but\nthat shall never be the will of man, but of God; therefore man must\nbe saved by grace (John 1:13; Rom 9:16).\n\nTenth. There can be but one righteousness that shall save a\nsinner; but that shall never be the righteousness of men, but of\nChrist (therefore men must be saved by grace), that imputeth this\nrighteousness to whom he will.\n\nEleventh. There can be but one covenant by which men must be saved;\nbut that shall never be the covenant of the law, for the weakness\nand unprofitableness thereof; therefore men must be saved by the covenant\nof grace, by which God will be merciful to our unrighteousnesses,\nand our sins and iniquities will remember no more (Heb 8:6-13).\n\nPOSTSCRIPT.\n\nA few words by way of use, and so I shall conclude.\n\nTHE FIRST USE.\n\nFirst. Is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then\nhere you see the reason why God hath not respect to the personal\nvirtues of men in the bringing of them to glory. Did I say, personal\nvirtues? How can they have any to Godward that are enemies to him\nin their minds by wicked works? Indeed, men one to another seem\nto be, some better, some worse, by nature, but to God they are all\nalike, dead in trespasses and sins. 20\n\nWe will, therefore, state it again--Are men saved by grace? Then\nhere you may see the reason why conversion runs at that rate among\nthe sons of men, that none are converted for their good deeds,\nnor rejected for their bad, but even so many of both, and only so\nmany, are brought home to God as grace is pleased to bring home to\nhim.\n\n1. None are received for their good deeds; for then they would not\nbe saved by grace, but by works. Works and grace, as I have showed,\nare in this matter opposite each to other; if he be saved by works,\nthen not by grace; if by grace, then not by works (Rom 11). That\nnone are received of God for their good deeds is evident, not\nonly because he declares his abhorrence of the supposition of such\na thing, but hath also rejected the persons that have at any time\nattempted to present themselves to God in their own good deeds for\njustification. This I have showed you before.\n\n2. Men are not rejected for their bad deeds. This is evident by\nManasseh, by the murderers of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the men\nthat you read of in the nineteenth of the Acts, with many others,\nwhose sins were of as deep a dye as the sins of the worst of men\n(2 Chron 33:2,13; Acts 2:23,41; 19:19).\n\nGrace respecteth, in the salvation of a sinner, chiefly the purpose\nof God; wherefore those that it findeth under that purpose, those\nit justifies freely, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.\nAt Saul's conversion, Ananias of Damascus brought in a most dreadful\ncharge against him to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, \"Lord, I have\nheard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints\nat Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to\nbind all that call on thy name.\" But what said the Lord unto him?\n\"Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me\" (Acts 9:13-15). This\nman's cruelty and outrage must not hinder his conversion, because\nhe was a chosen vessel. Men's good deeds are no argument with God\nto convert them; men's bad deeds are no argument with him to reject\nthem. I mean, those that come to Christ, by the drawings of the\nFather; besides, Christ also saith, \"I will in no wise cast\" such\n\"out.\" (John 6:37-44).\n\nSecond. Is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then\nhere you see the reason why some sinners, that were wonderfully\naverse to conversion by nature, are yet made to stoop to the God\nof their salvation. Grace takes them to do, because grace hath\ndesigned them to this very thing. Hence some of the Gentiles were\ntaken from among the rest; God granted them repentance unto life,\nbecause he had taken them from among the rest, both by election\nand calling, for his name (Acts 11:18; 15:14). These men that were\nnot a people, are thus become the people of God; these men that\nwere not beloved for their works, were yet beloved by the grace\nof God. \"I will call them my people which were not my people; and\nher beloved which was not beloved.\" But their minds are averse.\nBut are they the people on whom God doth magnify the riches of\nhis grace? Why, then, they shall be, in the day of his power, made\nwilling, and be able to believe through grace (Psa 110:3; Rom 9:25;\nActs 18:27). But doth the guilt and burden of sin so keep them\ndown that they can by no means lift up themselves? Why, God will,\nby the exceeding greatness of that power by which he raised Christ\nfrom the dead, work in their souls also by the Spirit of grace, to\ncause them to believe and to walk in his ways (Eph 1:18-20).\n\nPaul tells us, in that epistle of his to the Corinthians, that it\nwas by grace he was what he was--\"By the grace of God I am what\nI am,\" says he, \"and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not\nin vain\" (1 Cor 15:10). This man kept always in his mind a warm\nremembrance of what he was formerly by nature, and also how he had\nadded to his vileness by practice; yea, moreover, he truly concluded\nin his own soul, that had not God, by unspeakable grace, put a\nstop to his wicked proceedings, he had perished in his wickedness;\nhence he lays his call and conversion at the door of the grace\nof God--\"When it pleased God,\" says he, \"who separated me from my\nmother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me\"\n(Gal 1:15,16). and hence it is, again, that he saith, \"He obtained\ngrace and apostleship\"; grace to convert his soul, and the gifts\nand authority of an apostle, to preach the gospel of the grace of\nGod.\n\nThis blessed man ascribes all to the grace of God. 1. His call he\nascribes to the grace of God. 2. His apostleship he ascribes to the\ngrace of God. 3. And all his labour in that charge he also ascribes\nto the grace of God.\n\nThis grace of God it was that which saved from the beginning.\n1. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was therefore\nconverted and preserved from the flood (Gen 6:8). 2. Abraham found\ngrace in the sight of the Lord, and therefore he was called out of\nhis country (Gen 12:1,2). 3. Moses found grace in the eyes of the\nLord, and therefore he must not be blotted out of God's book (Exo\n33:12,17).\n\nNeither may it be imagined that these men were, before grace laid\nhold on them, better than other men; for then they would not have\nbeen saved by grace; grace should not have had the dominion and\nglory of their salvation. But, as Paul says of himself, and of\nthose that were saved by grace in his day, \"What then? are we better\nthan they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and\nGentiles that they are all under sin\" (Rom 3:9). So it may be said\nof these blessed ones; for indeed this conclusion is general, and\nreacheth all the children of men, Christ Jesus alone only excepted.\nBut,\n\nThird. Is the salvation of the sinner by the grace of God? Then\nhere you may see the reason why one backslider is recovered, and\nanother left to perish in his backsliding.\n\nThere was grace for Lot, but none for his wife; therefore she was\nleft in her transgression, but Lot was saved notwithstanding. There\nwas grace for Jacob, but none for Esau; therefore Esau was left in\nhis backsliding, but Jacob found mercy notwithstanding. There was\ngrace for David, but none for Saul; therefore David obtained mercy,\nand Saul perished in his backsliding. There was grace for Peter,\nbut none for Judas; therefore Judas is left to perish in his\nbacksliding, and Peter is saved from his sin. That text stands\ngood to none but those that are elect by grace--\"Sin shall not have\ndominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace\"\n(Rom 6:14).\n\nIt will be said, repentance was found in one, but not in the other.\nWell, but who granted and gave the one repentance; The Lord turned,\nand looked upon Peter; he did not turn and look upon Judas; yea,\nthe Lord told Peter before he fell that he should follow him to\nthe kingdom of heaven, but told him that he should deny him first;\nbut withal told him also he should not let his heart be troubled,\nthat is, utterly dejected, for he would go and prepare a place\nfor him, and come again and receive him to himself (John 13:36-38;\n14:1-3). That is a blessed word of God, \"The steps of a good man\nare ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he\nfall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth\nhim with his hand\" (Psa 37:23,24).\n\nTHE SECOND USE.\n\nMy second use shall be to them that are dejected in their souls at\nthe sight and sense of their sins.\n\nFirst. Are they that are saved, saved by grace? Then they that\nwould have their guilty consciences quieted, they must study the\ndoctrine of grace.\n\nIt is Satan's great design either to keep the sinner senseless of\nhis sins, or if God makes him sensible of them, then to hide and\nkeep from his thoughts the sweet doctrine of the grace of God, by\nwhich alone the conscience getteth health and cure; \"for everlasting\nconsolation, and good hope\" is given \"through grace\" (1 Thess 2:16).\nHow then shall the conscience of the burdened sinner by rightly\nquieted, if he perceiveth not the grace of God?\n\nStudy, therefore, this doctrine of the grace of God. Suppose thou\nhast a disease upon thee which is not to be cured but by such or\nsuch medicines, the first step to thy cure is to know the medicines.\nI am sure this is true as to the case in hand; the first step to\nthe cure of a wounded conscience is for thee to know the grace of\nGod, especially the grace of God as to justification from the curse\nin his sight.\n\nA man under a wounded conscience naturally leaneth to the works of\nthe law, and thinks God must be pacified by something that he should\ndo, whereas the Word says, \"I will have mercy and not sacrifice:\nfor I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance\"\n(Matt 9:13).\n\nWherefore thou must study the grace of God. \"It is a good thing,\"\nsaith the apostle, \"that the heart be established with grace\";\nthereby insinuating that there is no establishment in the soul that\nis right but by the knowledge of the grace of God (Heb 13:9).\n\nI said, that when a man is wounded in his conscience, he naturally\nleaneth to the works of the law; wherefore thou must therefore\nbe so much the more heedful to study the grace of God; yea, so to\nstudy it as rightly, not only in notion, but in thy practices, to\ndistinguish it from the law. \"The law was given by Moses, but grace\nand truth came by Jesus Christ\" (John 1:17). Study it, I say, so\nas to distinguish it, and that, not only from the law, but from\nall those things that men blasphemously call this grace of God.\n\nThere are many things which men call the grace of God, that are\nnot.\n\n1. The light and knowledge that are in every man. 2. That natural\nwillingness that is in man to be saved. 3. That power that is in man\nby nature to do something, as he thinketh, towards his own salvation.\n\nI name these three; there are also many other which some will have\nentitled the grace of God. But do thou remember that the grace\nof God is his goodwill and great love to sinners in his Son Jesus\nChrist; \"by the which\" good \"will we are sanctified, through the\noffering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all\" (Heb 10:10).\n\nAgain; when thou hast smelt out this grace of God, and canst\ndistinguish it from that which is not, then labour to strengthen\nthy soul with the blessed knowledge of it. \"Thou therefore, my\nson,\" said Paul, \"be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus\"\n(2 Tim 2:1). Fortify thy judgment and understanding; but especially\nlabour to get down all into thy conscience, that that may be \"purged\nfrom dead works, to serve the living God.\"\n\n[Second.] And to enforce this use upon thee yet further, consider,\na man gets yet more advantage by the knowledge of, and by growing\nstrong in, this grace of God.\n\n1. It ministereth to him matter of joy; for he that knows this grace\naright, he knows God is at peace with him, because he believeth\nin Jesus Christ, who by grace tasted death for every man; \"by whom\nalso we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and\nrejoice in hope of the glory of God\" (Rom 5:2). And indeed what\njoy or what rejoicing is like rejoicing here? To rejoice in hope of\nthe glory of God, it is to rejoice in hope to enjoy him for ever,\nwith that eternal glory that is in him.\n\n2. As it manifesteth matter of joy and rejoicing, so it causeth\nmuch fruitfulness in all holiness and godliness. \"For the grace of\nGod that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us\nthat, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,\nrighteously, and godly in this present world\" (Titus 2:11,12). Yea,\nit so naturally tendeth this way, that it can no sooner appear to\nthe soul, but it causeth this blessed fruit in the heart and life.\n\"We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,\nserving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,\nhateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and\nlove of God our Saviour appeared\"--what then? Why then, he that\nbelieveth, being justified by his grace, and expecting to be an\nheir according to the hope of eternal life, is \"careful to maintain\ngood works\" (Titus 3:3-8). See also that in Paul's epistle to the\nColossians--\"We give thanks,\" says he, \"to God and the Father of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of\nyour faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all\nthe saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof\nye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is\ncome unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit,\nas it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the\ngrace of God in truth\" (Col 1:3-6).\n\n3. The knowledge of, and strength that comes by, the grace of God\nis a sovereign antidote against all, and all manner of delusions\nthat are or may come into the world. Wherefore Peter, exhorting\nthe believers to take heed that they were not carried away with\nthe errors of the wicked, and so fall from their own steadfastness,\nadds, as their only help, this exhortation--\"But grow in grace,\nand in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ\" (2 Peter\n3:18).\n\n(1.) Suppose it should be urged, that man's own righteousness saveth\nthe sinner; why, then, we have this at hand--God \"hath saved us,\nand called us, not according to our works, but according to his own\npurpose and grace, which was given us in Christ\" &c. (2 Tim 1:9).\n\n(2.) Suppose it should be urged, that by the doctrine of free grace\nwe must not understand God's extending free forgiveness as far as\nwe have or do sin; the answer is--\"But where sin abounded, grace\ndid much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so\nmight grace reign through righteousness,\" through the justice of\nGod being satisfied by his Son, \"unto eternal life\" (Rom 5:20,21).\n\n(3.) Suppose it should be urged, that this is a doctrine tending\nto looseness and lasciviousness; the answer is ready--\"What shall\nwe say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?\nGod forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer\ntherein?\" for the doctrine of free grace believed is the most\nsin-killing doctrine in the world (Rom 6:1,2).\n\n(4.) Suppose men should attempt to burden the church of God with\nunnecessary ceremonies, and impose them, even as the false apostles21\nurged circumcision of old, saying, Unless you do these things, ye\ncannot be saved; why, the answer is ready--\"Why tempt ye God, to put\na yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers\nnor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace\nof the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they\" (Acts\n15:1,10,11). But not to enlarge, 22\n\n[Third.] This doctrine, \"By grace ye are saved,\" it is the only\nremedy against despairing thoughts at the apprehension of our own\nunworthiness; as,\n\n1. Thou criest out, O cursed man that I am! my sins will sink me\ninto hell.\n\nAnsw. Hold, man; there is a God in heaven that is \"the God of all\ngrace\" (1 Peter 5:10). Yet thou art not the man of all sin. If God\nbe the God of all grace, then if all the sins in the world were\nthine, yet the God of all grace can pardon, or else it should seem\nthat sin is stronger in a man penitent, to damn, than the grace of\nGod can be to save.\n\n2. But my sins are of the worst sort--blasphemy, adultery,\ncovetousness, murder, &c.\n\nAnsw. \"All manner of sins and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men,\nwherewithsoever they shall blaspheme.--Let the wicked forsake his\nway, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto\nthe Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he\nwill abundantly pardon\" (Matt 12:31; Mark 3:28; Isa 55:7,8).\n\n3. But I have a stout and rebellious heart, a heart that is far\nfrom good.\n\nAnsw. \"Hearken unto me,\" saith God, \"ye stout-hearted, that are\nfar from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness\"; that is,\nthe righteousness of Christ, by which stout-hearted sinners are\njustified, though ungodly (Isa 46:12,13; Phil 3:7,8; Rev 4:5).\n\n4. But I have a heart as hard as any stone.\n\nAnsw. \"A new heart also will I give you,\" says God, \"and a new\nspirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart\nout of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh\" (Eze\n36:26).\n\n5. But I am as blind as a beetle; I cannot understand anything of\nthe gospel.\n\nAnsw. \"I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will\nlead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness\nlight before them, and crooked things straight. These things will\nI do unto them, and not forsake them\" (Isa 42:16).\n\n6. But my heart will not be affected with the sufferings and blood\nof Christ.\n\nAnsw. \"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants\nof Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they\nshall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for\nhim, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness\nfor him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born\" (Zech\n12:10).\n\n7. But though I see what is like to become of me if I find\nnot Christ, yet my spirit, while I am thus, will be running after\nvanity, foolishness, uncleanness, wickedness.\n\nAnsw. \"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be\nclean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I\ncleanse you\" (Eze 36:25).\n\n8. But I cannot believe in Christ.\n\nAnsw. But God hath promised to make thee believe. \"I will also\nleave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they\nshall trust in the name of the Lord.\" And again, \"There shall be a\nroot of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,\nin him shall the Gentiles trust\" (Zeph 3:12; Rom 15:12).\n\n9. But I cannot pray to God for mercy.\n\nAnsw. But God hath graciously promised a spirit of prayer--\"Yea,\nmany people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts\nin Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.--They shall call on my\nname, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they\nshall say, The Lord is my God\" (Zech 8:22; 12:10; 13:9).\n\n10. But I cannot repent. Answ. \"The God of our fathers raised up\nJesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with\nhis right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance\nto Israel, and forgiveness of sins\" (Acts 5:30,31).\n\nThus might I enlarge, for the holy Bible is full of this exceeding\ngrace of God. O these words, \"I will\" and \"you shall\"! they are\nthe language of a gracious God; they are promises by which our God\nhas engaged himself to do that for poor sinners which would else\nbe left undone for ever.\n\nTHE THIRD USE.\n\nAre they that are saved, saved by grace? Then let Christians labour\nto advance God's grace. FIRST. In heart. SECOND. In life.\n\nFIRST. In heart; and that in this manner--\n\nFirst. Believe in God's mercy through Jesus Christ, and so advance\nthe grace of God; I mean, venture heartily, venture confidently,\nfor there is a sufficiency in the grace of God. Abraham magnified\nthe grace of God when \"he considered not his own body now dead,--neither\nyet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise\nof God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to\nGod\" (Rom 4:19,20).\n\nSecond. Advance it by heightening of it in thy thoughts. Have always\ngood and great thoughts of the grace of God; narrow and slender\nthoughts of it are a great disparagement to it.\n\nAnd to help thee in this matter, consider--1. This grace is compared\nto a sea--\"And thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the\nsea\" (Micah 7:19). Now a sea can never be filled by casting into\nit. 23\n\n2. This grace is compared to a fountain, to an open fountain--\"In\nthat day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David,\nand to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.\"\nNow a fountain can never be drawn dry (Zech 12:1). 3. The Psalmist\ncries out concerning the grace and mercy of God, \"It endureth for\never\"; he says so twenty-six times in one psalm. Surely he saw\na great deal in it, surely he was taken a great deal with it (Psa\n136). 4. Paul says the God of all grace can do more than \"we ask\nor think\" (Eph 3:20). 5. Therefore as God's Word says, so thou\nshouldst conclude of the grace of God.\n\nThird. Come boldly to the throne of grace by hearty prayer; for this\nis the way also to magnify the grace of God. This is the apostle's\nexhortation, \"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,\nthat we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need\"\n(Heb 4:16). See here a little, and wonder.\n\nWe have been all this while discoursing of the grace of God; and\nnow we are come to his throne, as Job says, \"even to his seat\";\nand behold, \"that is a throne of grace.\" O, when a God of grace is\nupon a throne of grace, and a poor sinner stands by and begs for\ngrace, and that in the name of a gracious Christ, in and by the\nhelp of the Spirit of grace, can it be otherwise but such a sinner\nmust obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need? But not to\nforget the exhortation, \"Come boldly.\" Indeed, we are apt to forget\nthis exhortation; we think, seeing we are such abominable sinners,\nwe should not presume to come boldly to the throne of grace; but\nyet so we are bidden to do; and to break a commandment here is as\nbad as to break it in another place.\n\nYou may ask me, What is it to come boldly? [I] answer--\n\n1. It is to come confidently--\"Let us draw near with a true heart,\nin full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an\nevil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water\" (Heb 10:22).\n\n2. To come boldly, it is to come frequently--\"At morning, at noon,\nand at night, will I pray.\" We use to count them bold beggars that\ncome often to our door.\n\n3. To come boldly, it is to ask for great things when we come.\nThat is the bold beggar that will not only ask, but also choose\nthe thing that he asketh.\n\n4. To come boldly, it is to ask for others as well as ourselves, to\nbeg mercy and grace for all the saints of God under heaven as well\nas for ourselves--\"Praying always with all prayer and supplication\nin the Spirit--for all saints\" (Eph 6:18).\n\n5. To come boldly, it is to come and take no nay; thus Jacob came\nto the throne of grace--\"I will not let thee go except thou bless\nme\" (Gen 32:26).\n\n6. To come boldly, it is to plead God's promises with him both in\na way of justice and mercy, and to take it for granted God will\ngive us--because he hath said it--whatever we ask in the name of\nhis Son.\n\nFourth. Labour to advance God's grace in thy heart, by often\nadmiring, praising, and blessing God in secret for it; God expects\nit--\"Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me,\" says he. \"By Jesus Christ\ntherefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually;\nthat is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name\" (Psa\n50:23; Heb 13:15).\n\nSECOND. [In life.] But again; as we should advance this grace\nin our hearts, so we should do it in our life. We should in our\nconversation adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.\nIt is a great word of the apostle, \"Only let your conversation be\nas it becometh the gospel of Christ,\" which is the gospel of the\ngrace of God (Phil 1:27). God expecteth that there should in our\nwhole life be a blessed tang24 of the gospel, or that in our life\namong men there should be preached to them the grace of the gospel\nof God.\n\nThe gospel shows us that God did wonderfully stoop and condescend\nfor our good; and to do accordingly, it is to stoop and condescend\nto others.\n\nThe gospel shows us that there was abundance of pity, love, bowels,\nand compassion in God towards us; and accordingly we should be full\nof bowels, pity, love, and compassion to others.\n\nThe gospel shows us that in God there is a great deal of willingness\nto do good to others.\n\nThe gospel shows us that God acteth towards us according to his\ntruth and faithfulness, and so should we be in all our actions one\nto another.\n\nBy the gospel, God declares that he forgiveth us ten thousand\ntalents, and we ought likewise to forgive our brother the hundred\npence.\n\nAnd now, before I conclude this use, let me give you a few\nheart-endearing considerations to this so good and so happy a work.\n\n[Heart-endearing Considerations.]\n\nFirst. Consider, God hath saved thee by his grace. Christian,\nGod hath saved thee, thou hast escaped the lion's mouth, thou art\ndelivered from wrath to come; advance the grace that saves thee,\nin thy heart and life.\n\nSecond. Consider, God left millions in their sins that day he saved\nthee by his grace; he left millions out, and pitched upon thee;\nit may be hundreds also, yea, thousands, were in the day of thy\nconversion lying before him under the preaching of the word as thou\nwert, yet he took thee. 25 Considerations of this nature affected\nDavid much; and God would have them affect thee, to the advancing\nof his grace in thy life and conversation (Psa 78:67-72; Deu 7:7).\n\nThird. Consider, perhaps the most part of those that God refused\nthat day that he called thee by his grace were, as to conversation,\nfar better than ever thou wert--I was a blasphemer, I was a\npersecutor, I was an injurious person, but I obtained mercy! O this\nshould affect thy heart, this should engage thy heart to study to\nadvance this grace of God (1 Tim 1:14,15).\n\nFourth. Perhaps in the day of thy conversion thou wast more unruly\nthan many. Like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, hardly tamed,\nthou wast brought home by strong hands; thou wouldst not drive,\nthe Lord Jesus must take thee up, lay thee upon his shoulder, and\ncarry thee home to his Father's house. This should engage thy heart\nto study to advance the grace of God (Luke 15:1-6).\n\nFifth. It may be many did take even offence at God in his converting\nand saving of thee by his grace, even as the elder son was offended\nwith his father for killing the fatted calf for his brother, and\nyet that did not hinder the grace of God, nor make God abate his\nlove to thy soul. This should make thee study to advance the grace\nof God in thy heart and life (Luke 15:21-32).\n\nSixth. Consider again, that God hath allowed thee but a little\ntime for this good work, even the few days that thou hast now to\nlive--I mean, for this good work among sinful men, and then thou\nshalt go to receive that wages that grace also will give thee for\nthy work to thy eternal joy.\n\nSeventh. Let this also have some place upon thy heart--every man\nshows subjection to the god that he serveth; yea, though that god be\nnone other but the devil and his lusts; and wilt not thou, O man!\nsaved of the Lord, be much more subject \"to the Father of spirits,\nand live\"?26\n\nAlas! they are pursuing their own damnation, yet they sport it,\nand dance all the way they go. They serve that \"god\" (Satan) with\ncheerfulness and delight, who at last will plunge them into the\neverlasting gulf of death, and torment them in the fiery flames\nof hell; but thy God is the God of salvation, and to God thy Lord\nbelong the issues from death. Wilt not thou serve him with joyfulness\nin the enjoyment of all good things, even him by whom thou art to\nbe made blessed for ever?\n\nObject. This is that which kills me--honour God I cannot; my heart\nis so wretched, so spiritless, and desperately wicked, I cannot.\n\nAnsw. What dost thou mean by cannot? 1. If thou meanest thou hast\nno strength to do it, thou hast said an untruth, for \"greater is he\nthat is in you, than he that is in the world\" (1 John 4:4). 2. If\nthou meanest thou hast no will, then thou art out also; for every\nChristian, in his right mind, is a willing man, and the day of\nGod's power hath made him so (Psa 110:3). 3. If thou meanest that\nthou wantest wisdom, that is thine own fault--\"If any man lack\nwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and\nupbraideth not\" (James 1:5).\n\nObject. I cannot do things as I would.\n\nAnsw. No more could the best of the saints of old--\"To will is\npresent with me,\" said Paul; \"but how to perform that which is good\nI find not.\" And again, \"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and\nthe Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the\nother, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would\" (Rom 7:18;\nGal 5:17).\n\nAnd here indeed lies a great discovery of this truth, \"ye are saved\nby grace\"; for the children of God whilst here, notwithstanding\ntheir conversion to God, and salvation by Christ through grace, are\nso infirm and weak by reason of a body of death that yet remaineth\nin them, that should even the sin that is in the best of their\nperformances be laid to their charge, according to the tenor of a\ncovenant of works, they would find it impossible ever to get into\nglory. But why do I talk thus? It is impossible that those that\nare saved by grace should have their infirmities laid to their\ncharge as afore, \"for they are not under the law\"; they are included\nby the grace of God in the death and blood of the Son of God, who\never liveth to make intercession for them at the right hand of God;\nwhose intercession is so prevalent with the Father as to take away\nthe iniquity of our holy things from his sight, and to present\nus holy, and unreprovable, and unblamable in his sight. To him,\nby Christ Jesus, through the help of the blessed Spirit of grace,\nbe given praise, and thanks, and glory, and dominion, by all his\nsaints, now and for ever. Amen.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 General course of manners, behaviour, deportment, especially as\nit regards morals (see Phil 1:27, 1 Peter 1:15).\n\n2 Their conduct proved to the living that they were dead, they\nthemselves having no feeling or sense of spiritual life; but,\nwhen quickened, their penitence and good works were brought into\nexistence by Divine power; they feel the joys of salvation, but\nfeel also their total unworthiness of this new creating power, and\nsing, \"O to grace how great a debtor!\"--Ed.\n\n3 The hospital of St. Mary Bethlem, vulgarly called \"Bedlam,\"\nbestowed, in 1545, upon the citizens of London, who appropriated\nit to the reception of lunatics. It being the only public hospital\nfor that class of the afflicted in England, it gave the name of\n\"bedlam\" to all whose conduct could only be accounted for on the\nscore of madness.--Ed.\n\n4 The person who writes this, was a singular instance of the truth\nof our author's remark; having been twice providentially preserved\nfrom drowning, and once from the fatal effects of a violent fever,\nbefore effectual saving grace had reached his soul. The same rich\nand abundant mercy follows all the elect, quickens them when dead,\nsaves them when lost, and restores them when ruined. God hath\nchosen us unto salvation, and enables us to live holily on earth,\nin order to a life of happiness in heaven. The Father's good will\nand pleasure is the only fountain from whence the salvation of\nbelievers flows; and such as are given to Christ by the Father he\nconsiders as his charge, and stands engaged for their preservation;\nand the death of Christ for sinners, is an evident demonstration\nof the love of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, towards\nthem; this love manifested in time was in and upon the heart of God\nbefore the world began.--Mason. What a multitude of unseen dangers,\nboth spiritual and temporal, the Christian escapes before he is\ncalled!--Ed.\n\n5 \"Rarely,\" finely, nicely.\n\n6 A safe-conduct is a military term, either a convoy or guard for\nprotection in an enemy's land, or a passport, by the sovereign of\na country, to enable a subject to travel with safety.--Imperial\nDict.--Ed.\n\n7 What amazing love! Christ visited this poor beggar, yea, was formed\nin him the hope of glory; his body, so miserable in the sight of\nman, was a temple of the Holy Ghost, and the angels carry his soul\nto heaven. O the riches of grace!--Ed.\n\n8 What heart can conceive the glorious worship of heaven? The new\nsong shall be as the voice of many waters, and a great thunder,\nwhen the \"ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands\"\nshall sing, \"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power,\nand riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and blessing.\"\nO that my poor voice may join that celestial choir!--Ed.\n\n9 The fear of the Lord--an ornament of grace unto thy head, and\nchains about thy neck, and life unto thy soul.--Solomon.\n\n10 \"Their appearance and themselves\"; this beautiful illustration\nmight escape the reader's notice, unless specially directed to it.\nThe living creatures were always the same, although seen under\ndifferent circumstances, and in diverse places. Inside and out they\nwere the same; without deviation or turning, they went straight\nforward. It is well said that Bunyan has here snatched a grace\nbeyond the reach of art, and has applied it to exalt and beautify\nconsistency of Christian character.--Ed.\n\n11 This is one of Bunyan's peculiarly affecting representations,\nwhich in preaching went to the heart, producing intense interest,\nand tears of contrition over the stubbornness of human nature.\nReader, Bunyan, being dead, yet speaketh; can you feel unaffected\nunder such an appeal?--Ed.\n\n12 \"To stave,\" to thrust, to push, to delay.--Ed.\n\n13 These terms are taken from Foxe's Martyrology. It was frequently\nthe brutal remark of the Judges, You must turn or burn. Bunyan here\napplies it to turning from sin or burning in hell.--Ed.\n\n14 This treatise having been written some years after the Pilgrim's\nProgress, Bunyan very naturally refers to the well-known scene in\nthe Interpreter's House, where the fire is kept burning by oil from\nbehind the wall, in spite of all the water thrown upon its flames.--Ed.\n\n15 \"To tend,\" to watch, to guard, to attend.--Ed.\n\n16 How pointedly, how admirably, does this illustrate the fond\nabsurdities, the extreme follies of the human heart! \"To serve God\nwith such dainty dishes,\" the cleanest being befouled with sin. \"A\ncleaner way to hell than our neighbours!\"--Ed.\n\n17 O how humbling a consideration! Our sins are numberless, of\nomission, of commission, openly and secretly; nay, in a thousand\ncases they escape the sinner's observation. \"Cleanse thou me from\nsecret faults.\"--Ed.\n\n18 \"Shuck,\" to shake or start back.--Ed.\n\n19 In Bunyan's time, the saints of God were sorely tormented by\npenalties, fines, and imprisonments. It required great faith in a\nmother, who saw all her goods seized, for not going to church, the\nincarnate devils throwing the milk that was warming for her infant\non the dunghill, and the skillet in which it was contained into the\ncart, answering her prayers for mercy on her babe. Let the brat of\na heretic starve.--Ed.\n\n20 How abasing and humbling to human pride is it thus to conceive,\nthat all have sinned, and, in the sight of God, are hell-deserving.\nWhat! says the honourable man, must I take mercy upon no higher\nconsideration than the thief on the cross? Or the highly virtuous\ndame, Must I sue for mercy upon the same terms as the Magdalene?\nThe faithful answer to both is, YES, or you must perish.--Ed.\n\n21 \"False apostles,\" mentioned in Acts 15, who would have blended\nJewish observances with Christianity, and have brought the converts\ninto misery and thraldom. They are specially referred to in 2\nCorinthians 11:13, \"false apostles,\" deceitful workers, that devour\nyou and take from you (verse 20). In contradistinction to Paul,\nwho was \"chargeable to no man\" (verse 9).--Ed.\n\n22 We must not for a moment imagine that Bunyan was afraid of\ntemporal consequences, which prevents his enlarging upon this part\nof his subject. His contemptuous answer to Fowler for attacking\nthe doctrine of justification, although a great man with the state,\nand soon afterwards made a bishop, is a proof that he was a stranger\nto the fear of man. He had said enough, and therefore there was no\nneed to enlarge.--Ed.\n\n23 How does Bunyan here exhibit the perfection as well as the\nfreeness of the pardon that Micah celebrates! That which is sunk\nin the depths of the sea is lost for ever.--Ed.\n\n24 \"Tang,\" taste, touch, savour, flavour, relish, tone, sound.\nA word of extensive meaning, but now nearly obsolete. \"No tang of\nprepossession or fancy appears in the morality of our Saviour or\nhis apostles.\"--Locke.--Ed.\n\n25 What can I render unto thee, my God, for such unspeakable\nblessedness? The cattle upon a thousand hills, yea, all creation,\nall that I have and am, is thine: all that I can do is \"to take\nthe cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.\" Not unto\nus, but unto thy name, be all the praise and honour of salvation!--Ed.\n\n26 In the edition of 1692, this sentence is \"subject to the Father\nof spirits and love.\" It is a very singular mode of expression to call\nGod \"the Father of love.\" God is love, and that author and source\nof all holy love. Bunyan was at all times governed by Scripture\nphrases, with which his mind was so richly imbued as to cause him,\nif we may so speak, to live in a scriptural atmosphere; and this\nsentence bears a great affinity to Hebrews 12:9, \"Shall we not\nmuch rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live.\"\nI have been, for these reasons, induced to consider the letter o in\n\"love\" a typographical error, and have altered the word to \"live,\"\nbut could not take such a liberty without a public notice.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE STRAIT GATE;\n\nOR,\n\nGREAT DIFFICULTY OF GOING TO HEAVEN:\n\nPLAINLY PROVING, BY THE SCRIPTURES, THAT NOT ONLY THE RUDE AND\nPROFANE, BUT MANY GREAT PROFESSORS, WILL COME SHORT OF THAT KINGDOM.\n\n\"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad\nis the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which\ngo in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way\nwhich leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.\"--Matthew\n7:13, 14\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nIf any uninspired writer has been entitled to the name of Boanerges,\nor a son of thunder, it is the author of the following treatise.\nHere we have a most searching and faithful display of the straitness\nor exact dimensions of that all-important gate, which will not suffer\nmany professors to pass into the kingdom of heaven, encumbered as\nthey are with fatal errors. Still \"it is no little pinching wicket,\nbut wide enough for all the truly gracious and sincere lovers\nof Jesus Christ; while it is so strait, that no others can by any\nmeans enter in.\" This is a subject calculated to rouse and stimulate\nall genuine professors to solemn inquiry; and it was peculiarly\nintended to dart at, and fix convictions upon, the multitudes of\nhypocritical professors who abounded in Bunyan's time, especially\nunder the reigns of the later Stuarts.\n\nDuring the Protectorate, wickedness was discountenanced, and skulked\nin the holes and corners of Mansoul; but when a debauched monarch,\nwho had taken refuge in the most licentious court in Europe, was\ncalled to occupy the throne of his fathers, the most abandoned\nprofligacy and profaneness were let loose upon the nation. Vice\nwas openly patronized, while virtue and religion were as openly\ntreated with mockery and contempt. Bunyan justly says, \"The text\ncalls for sharpness, so do the times.\" \"With those whose religion\nlieth in some circumstantials, the kingdom swarms at this day.\"\nWhen they stand at the gate, they will \"shake like a quagmire--their\nfeigned faith, pretended love, shows of gravity, and holiday words,\nwill stand them in little stead; some professors do with religion\njust as people do with their best apparel--hang it on the wall all\nthe week, and put it on on Sundays; they save it till they go to\na meeting, or meet with a godly chapman.\" This state of society\ncalled for peculiar sharpness, and Bunyan preached and published,\nin 1676, this awful alarm to professors. No subject could be more\npeculiarly applicable than \"The Gate of heaven,\" and \"the difficulties\nof entering in thereat\"; a subject of the deepest interest to all\nmankind--to stimulate the careless to find, and to enter the gate\nof this the only city of refuge from eternal misery--to fill the\nheart of God's children with love and joy in their prospects of\na blessed immortality--and to sting the hypocrites with the awful\nthought of finding the gate shut against them for ever. Their cries\nand tears will be too late; they will stand without and vehemently\ncry, \"Lord, Lord, open unto us\"; in vain will be their outcry,\n\"the devils are coming; Lord, Lord, the pit opens her mouth upon\nus; Lord, Lord, there is nothing but hell and damnation left us, if\nthou hast not mercy upon us.\" These were professors who pretended\nto have found the gate and way to heaven; who passed for pilgrims\nwho were seeking a better, even a heavenly country; such deluded\nvictims must be, of all men, the most miserable.\n\nFaithfulness becomes the ministers of Christ in dealing with the\nsouls of men; and pre-eminently faithful is John Bunyan in this\ntreatise. Reader, he will be clear of thy blood. Enter upon the\nsolemn inquiry, Have I sought the gate? Shall I be admitted into,\nor shut out from, that blessed kingdom? The openly profane can have\nno hope. Are you a professor?--there is danger sill. In vain will\nit be to urge, \"We have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name\ncast out devils.\" To the secretly profane, whatever may be their\nprofession, there can be no well-grounded hope of entrance in at\nthis gate. Those only will be admitted whom the Lord knows to be\nhis--the sheep of his pasture, who have heard his voice, and obeyed\nit. Against all others the door will be shut, and the awful words,\n\"I know you not--depart, ye cursed,\" will hurry them to eternal\ndarkness. The question, \"Are there few that be saved?\" will suggest\nitself to our minds; may the answer fix upon our conscience, \"STRIVE\nto enter in.\" It is very probable that it was in preaching upon\nthis text, Bunyan was assailed with a want of charity. The anecdote\nis thus narrated by Mr. Doe in The Struggler:--\"As Mr. Bunyan was\npreaching in a barn, and showing the fewness of those that should\nbe saved, there stood one of the learned to take advantage of his\nwords; and having done preaching, the schoolman said to him, You\nare a deceiver, a person of no charity, and therefore not fit to\npreach; for he that [in effect] condemneth the greatest part of his\nhearers hath no charity, and therefore is not fit to preach. Then\nMr. Bunyan answered, The Lord Jesus Christ preached in a ship to\nhis hearers on the shore (Mat 13), and showed that they were as\nfour sorts of ground, the highway, the stony, the thorny, and the\ngood ground, but those represented by the good ground were the only\npersons to be saved. And your position is, That he that in effect\ncondemneth the greatest part of his hearers, hath no charity, and\ntherefore is not fit to preach the gospel. But here the Lord Jesus\nChrist did so, then your conclusion is, The Lord Jesus Christ wanted\ncharity, and therefore was not fit to preach the gospel. Horrid\nblasphemy; away with your hellish logic, and speak Scripture.\" Of\none thing we are certain, that while hollow-hearted hypocritical\nprofessors will ever complain of faithful dealing with their soul's\neternal interests; the sincere and humble Christina will be most\nthankful for searching inquiries, that, if wrong, he may be set\nright before his final destiny is irrevocably fixed. May our souls\nsubmit to a scriptural measurement of this gate, and the terms upon\nwhich alone it can be opened unto us.\n\nThe difficulties that prevent \"the many\" from entering in are, 1.\nForgetfulness that we can only enter heaven by the permission of\nthe law--every jot and tittle must be fulfilled. Now, if we could\nlive from our conversion to our death in the holiest obedience to\nall its precepts, yet, having previously violated them, the stain\nmust not only be washed away in the blood of atonement, but we, as\npart of the body of Christ, must, in him, render perfect obedience.\n2. In addition to the disinclination of our hearts to submit to\nthis perfect righteousness, we have outward storms of temptation\nand persecution. \"The world will seek to keep thee out of heaven\nwith mocks, flouts, taunts, threats, jails, gibbets, halters,\nburnings, and a thousand deaths; therefore strive! Again, if it\ncannot overcome thee with these, it will flatter, promise, allure,\nentice, entreat, and use a thousand tricks on this hand to destroy\nthee; and many that have been stout against the threats of the world\nhave yet been overcome with the bewitching flatteries of the same.\nO that we may by grace escape all these enemies, and so strive as\nto enter into the joy of our Lord.\"\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nGod, I hope, hath put it into my heart to write unto thee another\ntime, and that about matters of greatest moment--for now we discourse\nnot about things controverted among the godly, but directly about\nthe saving or damning of the soul; yea, moreover, this discourse is\nabout the fewness of them that shall be saved, and it proves that\nmany a high professor will come short of eternal life; wherefore\nthe matter must needs be sharp, and so disliked by some, but let\nit not be rejected by thee. The text calls for sharpness, so do\nthe times, yea, the faithful discharge of my duty towards thee hath\nput me upon it.\n\nI do not now pipe, but mourn; and it will be well for thee if thou\ncanst graciously lament. (Matt 11:17) Some, say they, make the\ngate of heaven too wide, and some make it too narrow; for my part,\nI have here presented thee with as true a measure of it as by the\nWord of God I can. Read me, therefore, yea, read me, and compare\nme with the Bible; and if thou findest my doctrine and that book\nof God concur, embrace it, as thou wilt answer the contrary in the\nday of judgment. This awakening work--if God will make it so--was\nprepared for thee: if there be need, and it wounds, get healing by\nblood: if it disquiets, get peace by blood: if it takes away all\nthou hast, because it was naught (for this book is not prepared to\ntake away true grace from any), then buy of Christ \"gold tried in\nthe fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou\nmayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,\nand anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.\" (Rev\n3:18) Self-flatteries, self-deceivings, are easy and pleasant,\nbut damnable. The Lord give thee a heart to judge right of thyself,\nright of this book, and so to prepare for eternity, that thou\nmayest not only expect entrance, but be received into the kingdom\nof Christ and of God. Amen.\n\nSo prays thy Friend,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\nTHE STRAIT GATE.\n\n\"STRIVE TO ENTER IN AT THE STRAIT GATE; FOR MANY, I SAY UNTO YOU,\nWILL SEEK TO ENTER IN, AND SHALL NOT BE ABLE.\"--LUKE 13:24\n\nThese are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are, therefore,\nin especial manner to be heeded; besides, the subject matter of the\nwords is the most weighty, to wit, how we should attain salvation,\nand therefore also to be heeded.\n\nThe occasion of the words was a question which one that was at\nthis time in the company of the disciples put to Jesus Christ; the\nquestion was this, \"Lord, are there few that be saved?\" (verse 23)\nA serious question, not such as tended to the subversion of the\nhearers, as too many now-a-days do; but such as in its own nature\ntended to the awakening of the company to good, and that called\nfor such an answer that might profit the people also. This question\nalso well pleased Jesus Christ, and he prepareth and giveth such an\nanswer as was without the least retort, or show of distaste; such\nan answer, I say, as carried in it the most full resolve to the\nquestion itself, and help to the persons questioning. \"And he said\nunto them, Strive to enter in,\" &c. The words are an answer, and\nan instruction also. First. An answer, and that in the affirmative;\nthe gate is strait--many that seek will not be able, therefore\nbut few shall be saved. Second. The answer is an instruction also;\n\"strive to enter in,\" &c., good counsel and instruction; pray God\nhelp me, and my reader, and all that love their own salvation, to\ntake it.\n\nMy manner of handling the words will be--[FIRST], By way of\nexplication; and then [SECOND], By way of observation.\n\n[FIRST. THE WORDS BY WAY OF EXPLICATION.]\n\nThe words are to be considered, [FIRST], with reference to their\ngeneral scope; and then [SECOND], with reference to their several\nphrases.\n\nFIRST. The general scope of the text is to be considered, and that\nis that great thing--salvation; for these words do immediately look\nat, point to, and give directions about salvation: \"Are there few\nthat be saved? Strive to enter in at the strait gate.\"\n\nThe words, I say, are to direct us not only to talk of, or to wish\nfor, but to understand how we shall, and to seek that we may be,\neffectually saved, and therefore of the greatest importance. To be\nsaved! what is like being saved? To be saved from sin, from hell,\nfrom the wrath of God, from eternal damnation, what is like it? To\nbe made an heir of God, of his grace, of his kingdom, and eternal\nglory, what is like it? and yet all this is included in this word\nsaved, and in the answer to that question, \"Are there few that be\nsaved?\" Indeed this word SAVED is but of little use in the world,\nsave to them that are heartily afraid of damning. This word lies\nin the Bible as excellent salves lie in some men's houses, thrust\ninto a hole, and not thought on for many months, because the household\npeople have no wounds nor sores. In time of sickness, what so set\nby as the doctor's glasses and gally-pots full of his excellent\nthings? but when the person is grown well, the rest is\nthrown to the dunghill. 1\n\nO when men are sick of sin, and afraid of damning, what a text is\nthat where this word saved is found! Yea, what a word of worth,\nand goodness, and blessedness, is it to him that lies continually\nupon the wrath of a guilty conscience? \"But the whole need not a\nphysician\"; he therefore, and he only, knows what saved means, that\nknows what hell, and death, and damnation means. \"What shall I do\nto be saved?\" is the language of the trembling sinner. \"Lord save\nme,\" is the language of the sinking sinner; and none admire the\nglory that is in that word saved, but such as see, without being\nsaved, all things in heaven and earth are emptiness to them. They\nalso that believe themselves privileged in all the blessedness\nthat is wrapt up in that word, bless and admire God that hath saved\nthem. Wherefore, since the thing intended, both in the question\nand the answer, is no less than the salvation of the soul, I beseech\nyou to give the more earnest heed. (Heb 12) But,\n\nSECOND. To come to the particular phrases in the words, and to\nhandle them orderly, in the words I find four things. First. An\nintimation of the kingdom of heaven. Second. A description of the\nentrance into it. Third. An exhortation to enter into it. And,\nFourth, A motive to enforce that exhortation.\n\n[AN INTIMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.]\n\nFirst. An intimation of the kingdom of heaven; for when he saith,\n\"Strive to enter in,\" and in such phrases, there is supposed a place\nor state, or both, to be enjoyed. \"Enter in\"; enter into what, or\nwhither, but into a state or place, or both? and therefore when\nyou read this word, \"enter in,\" you must say there is certainly\nincluded in the text that good thing that yet is not expressed.\n\"Enter in\"; into heaven, that is the meaning, where the saved are,\nand shall be; into heaven, that place, that glorious place, where\nGod, and Christ, and angels are, and the souls or spirits of just\nmen made perfect. \"Enter in\"; that thing included, though not\nexpressed in the words, is called in another place, the Mount Zion,\nthe heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the\nfirst-born which are written in heaven. (Heb 12:23) And therefore\nthe words signify unto us, that there is a state most glorious,\nand that when this world is ended; and that this place and state\nare likewise to be enjoyed, and inherited by a generation of men\nfor ever. Besides, this word, \"enter in,\" signifieth that salvation\nto the full is to be enjoyed only there, and that there only\nis eternal safety; all other places and conditions are hazardous,\ndangerous, full of snares, imperfections, temptations, and afflictions,\nbut there all is well; there is no devil to tempt, no desperately\nwicked heart to deliver us up, no deceitful lust to entangle, nor\nany enchanting world to bewitch us. There all shall be well to all\neternity. Further, all the parts of, and circumstances that attend\nsalvation, are only there to be enjoyed; there only is immortality\nand eternal life; there is the glory and fulness of joy, and the\neverlasting pleasures; there is God and Christ to be enjoyed by\nopen vision, and more; there are the angels and the saints; further,\nthere is no death, nor sickness, no sorrow nor sighing for ever;\nthere is no pain, nor persecutor, nor darkness, to eclipse our\nglory. O this Mount Zion! O this heavenly Jerusalem! (2 Cor 5:1-4,\nPsa 16:11, Luke 20:35,36, Heb 12:22-24)\n\nBehold, therefore, what a great thing the Lord Jesus hath included\nby this little word, \"IN.\" In this word is wrapt up a whole heaven\nand eternal life; even as there is also by other little words in\nthe holy Scriptures of truth: as where he saith, \"Knock, and it\nshall be opened unto you,\" and \"the election hath obtained it.\"\nThis should teach us, not only to read, but to attend in reading;\nnot only to read, but to lift up our hearts to God in reading; for\nif we be not heedful, if he gives us not light and understanding,\nwe may easily pass over, without any great regard, such a word as\nmay have a glorious kingdom and eternal salvation in the bowels\nof it; yea, sometimes, as here, a whole heaven is intimated, where\nit is not at all expressed. The apostles of old did use to fetch\ngreat things out of the Scriptures, even out of the very order and\ntiming of the several things contained therein. See Romans 4:9-11,\nGalatians 3:16,17, Hebrews 8:13. But,\n\n[DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTRANCE INTO THIS KINGDOM.]\n\nSecond. As we have here an intimation of the kingdom of heaven, so\nwe have a description of the entrance into it, and that by a double\nsimilitude: I. It is called a gate; II. A strait gate--\"Strive to\nenter in at the strait gate.\"\n\n[It is called a gate.]\n\nI. It is set forth by the similitude of a gate. A gate, you know,\nis of a double use. It is to open and shut, and so, consequently,\nto let in or to keep out; and to do both these at the season; as\nhe said, \"Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun\nbe hot\"; and again, \"I commanded that the gates should be shut,\nand charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath.\"\n(Neh 7:3, 13:19,20) And so you find of this gate of heaven, when\nthe five wise virgins came, the gate was opened; but afterwards\ncame the other virgins, and the door was shut. (Matt 25) So then,\nthe entrance into heaven is called a gate, to show there is a time\nwhen there may be entrance, and there will come a time when there\nshall be none; and, indeed, this is a chief truth contained in the\ntext--\"Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto\nyou, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\" I read in the\nScriptures of two gates or doors, through which they that\ngo to heaven must enter. 2\n\n1. There is the door of faith, the door which the grace of God hath\nopened to the Gentiles. This door is Jesus Christ, as also himself\ndoth testify, saying, \"I am the door,\" &c. (John 10:9, Acts 14:27)\nBy this door men enter into God's favour and mercy, and find\nforgiveness through faith in his blood, and live in hope of eternal\nlife; and therefore himself also hath said, \"I am the door; by me\nif any man enter in, he shall be saved\"; that is, received to mercy,\nand inherit eternal life. But,\n\n2. There is another door or gate--for that which is called in the\ntext a gate, is twice in the next verse called a door--there is,\nI say, another gate, and that is the passage into the very heaven\nitself; the entrance into the celestial mansion-house, and that is\nthe gate mentioned in the text, 3 and the door mentioned twice in\nthe verse that follows. And this Jacob called it, when he said,\nBethel was the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven; that\nis, the entrance, for he saw the entrance into heaven. One end of\nJacob's ladder stands in Bethel, God's house, and the other end\nreacheth up to the gate of heaven. (Gen 28:10-17) Jacob's ladder\nwas the figure of Christ, which ladder was not the gate of heaven,\nbut the way from the church to that gate which he saw above at the\ntop of the ladder. (Gen 28:12, John 1:51) But again, that the gate\nin the text is the gate or entrance into heaven, consider--\n\n(1.) It is that gate that letteth men into, or shutteth men out\nof that place or kingdom where Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob is,\nwhich place is that paradise where Christ promised the thief that\nhe should be that day, that he asked to be with him in his kingdom;\nit is that place into which Paul said he was caught, when he heard\nwords unlawful or impossible for a man to utter. (Luke 13:28, 23:42,\n2 Cor 12:1-6)\n\nQuest. But is not Christ the gate or entrance into this heavenly\nplace?\n\nAnsw. He is he without whom no man can get thither, because by his\nmerits men obtain that world, and also because he, as the Father,\nis the donor and disposer of that kingdom to whom he will. Further,\nthis place is called his house, and himself the Master of it--\"When\nonce the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the\ndoor.\" (Luke 13:25) But we use to say, that the master of the house\nis not the door. Men enter into heaven, then, by him, not as he is\nthe gate, or door, or entrance, into the celestial mansion-house,\nbut as he is the giver and disposer of that kingdom to them whom\nhe shall count worthy, because he hath obtained it for them.\n\n(2.) That this gate is the very passage into heaven, consider the\ntext hath special reference to the day of judgment, when Christ\nwill have laid aside his mediatory office, which before he exercised\nfor the bringing to the faith his own elect; and will then act,\nnot as one that justifieth the ungodly, but as one that judgeth\nsinners. He will now be risen up from the throne of grace, and\nshut up the door against all the impenitent, and will be set upon\nthe throne of judgment, from thence to proceed with ungodly sinners.\n\nObject. But Christ bids strive: \"Strive\" now \"to enter in at the\nstrait gate\"; but if that gate be as you say, the gate or entrance\ninto heaven, then it should seem that we should not strive till\nthe day of judgment, for we shall not come at that gate till then.\n\nAnsw. Christ, by this exhortation, Strive, &c., doth not at all\nadmit of, or countenance delays, or that a man should neglect his\nown salvation; but putteth poor creatures upon preparing for the\njudgment, and counselleth them now to get those things that will\nthen give them entrance into glory. This exhortation is much like\nthese: \"Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think\nnot the Son of man cometh.--And they that were ready went in with\nhim to the marriage, and the door was shut.\" (Matt 24:44, 25:10)\n\nSo that when he saith, \"Strive to enter in,\" it is as if he should\nsay, Blessed are they that shall be admitted another day to enter\ninto the kingdom of heaven; but they that shall be counted worthy\nof so unspeakable a favour, must be well prepared and fitted for it\nbeforehand. Now, the time to be fitted is not the day of judgment,\nbut the day of grace; not then, but now. Therefore, strive now for\nthose things that will then give you entrance into the heavenly\nkingdom. But,\n\n[It is called a strait gate.]\n\nII. As it is called a gate, so it is called a strait gate--\"Strive\nto enter in at the strait gate.\"\n\nThe straitness of this gate is not to be understood carnally, but\nmystically. You are not to understand it, as if the entrance into\nheaven was some little pinching wicket; no, the straitness of this\ngate is quite another thing. This gate is wide enough for all them\nthat are the truly gracious and sincere lovers of Jesus Christ,\nbut so strait, as that not one of the other can by any means enter\nin: \"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them,\nand I will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the\nrighteous shall enter.\" (Psa 118:19,20) By this word, therefore,\nChrist Jesus hath showed unto us, that without due qualifications\nthere is no possibility of entering into heaven; the strait gate\nwill keep all others out. When Christ spake this parable, he had\ndoubtless his eye upon some passage or passages of the Old Testament,\nwith which the Jews were well acquainted. I will mention two, and\nso go on.\n\n1. The place by which God turned Adam and his wife out of paradise.\nPossibly our Lord might have his eye upon that; for though that\nwas wide enough for them to come out at, yet it was too strait for\nthem to go in at. But what should be the reason of that? Why, they\nhad sinned; and therefore God \"placed at the east of that garden\ncherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep\nthe way of the tree of life.\" (Gen 3:24) The cherubims, and the\nflaming sword, they made the entrance too strait for them to enter\nin. Souls, there are cherubims and a flaming sword at the gates\nof heaven to keep the way of the tree of life; therefore none but\nthem that are duly fitted for heaven can enter in at this strait\ngate; the flaming sword will keep all others out. \"Know ye not\nthat the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not\ndeceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor\neffeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves,\nnor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall\ninherit the kingdom of God.\" (1 Cor 6:9,10)\n\n(2.) Perhaps our Lord might have his eye upon the gates of the temple\nwhen he spoke this word unto the people; for though the gates of\nthe temple were six cubits wide, yet they were so strait, that none\nthat were unclean in anything might enter in thereat (Eze 40:48),\nbecause there were placed at these gates, porters, whose office\nwas to look that none but those that had right to enter might go in\nthither. And so it is written, Jehoiada set \"porters at the gates\nof the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in anything\nshould enter in.\" (2 Chron 23:19) Souls, God hath porters at the\ngates of the temple, at the gate of heaven; porters, I say, placed\nthere by God, to look that none that are unclean in anything may\ncome in thither. In at the gate of the church, none may enter now\nthat are openly profane, and scandalous to religion; no, though\nthey plead they are beloved of God: \"What hath my beloved to do\nin mine house,\" saith the Lord, \"seeing she hath wrought lewdness\nwith many?\" (Jer 11:15)\n\nI say, I am very apt to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ had his\nthoughts upon these two texts, when he said the gate is strait:\nand that which confirms me the more in the things is this, a little\nbelow the text he saith, \"There shall be weeping and gnashing of\nteeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all\nthe prophets, in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust\nout.\" (Luke 13:28) Thrust out, which signifieth a violent act,\nresisting with striving those that would--though unqualified--enter.\nThe porters of the temple were, for this very thing, to wear arms,\nif need were, and to be men of courage and strength, lest the\nunsanctified or unprepared should by some means enter in. We read,\nin the book of Revelations, of the holy city, and that it had twelve\ngates, and at the gates twelve angels; but what did they do there?\nWhy, amongst the rest of their service, this was one thing, that\nthere might \"in no wise enter in to it any thing that defileth, or\nworketh abomination, or that maketh a lie.\" (Rev 21:27)\n\n[Three things that make this gate so strait.]\n\nBut more particularly, to show what it is that maketh this gate\nso strait. There are three things that make it strait--1. There is\nsin. 2. There is the word of the law. 3. There are the angels of\nGod.\n\n1. There is sin; the sin of the profane, and the sin of the professor.\n\n(1.) The sin of the profane. But this needs not be enlarged upon,\nbecause it is concluded upon at all hands, where there is the\ncommon belief of the being of God, and the judgment to come, that\n\"the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that\nforget God.\" (Psa 9:17)\n\n(2.) But there is the sin of professors; or take it rather thus,\nthere is a profession that will stand with an unsanctified heart\nand life. The sin of such will overpoise the salvation of their\nsouls, the sin end being the heaviest end of the scale; I say,\nthat being the heaviest end which hath sin in it, they tilt over,\nand so are, notwithstanding their glorious profession, drowned in\nperdition and destruction; for none such hath any inheritance in\nthe kingdom of Christ and of God; therefore \"let no man deceive\nyou with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath\nof God upon the children of disobedience\"; neither will a profession\nbe able to excuse them. (Eph 5:3-6) The gate will be too strait for\nsuch as these to enter in thereat. A man may partake of salvation\nin part, but not of salvation in whole. God saved the children of\nIsrael out of Egypt, but overthrew them in the wilderness:--\"I will\ntherefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how\nthat the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,\nafterward destroyed them that believed not.\" (Jude 5) So we see\nthat, notwithstanding their beginning, \"they could not enter in,\nbecause of unbelief.\" (Heb 3:19)\n\n2. There is the word of the law, and that will make the gate strait\nalso. None must go in thereat but those that can go in by the leave\nof the law; for though no man be, or can be, justified by the works\nof the law, yet unless the righteousness and holiness by which they\nattempt to enter into this kingdom be justified by the law, it is\nin vain once to think of entering in at this strait gate. Now the\nlaw justifieth not, but upon the account of Christ's righteousness;\nif therefore thou be not indeed found in that righteousness, thou\nwilt find the law lie just in the passage into heaven to keep thee\nout. Every man's work must be tried by fire, that it may be manifest\nof what sort it is. There are two errors in the world about the\nlaw; one is, when men think to enter in at the strait gate by the\nrighteousness of the law; the other is, when men think they may enter\ninto heaven without the leave of the law. Both these, I say, are\nerrors; for as by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified;\nso without the consent of the law, no flesh shall be saved. \"Heaven\nand earth shall pass away, before one jot or tittle of the law\nshall fail, till all be fulfilled.\" He therefore must be damned\nthat cannot be saved by the consent of the law. And, indeed, this\nlaw is the flaming sword that turneth every way; yea, that lieth\nto this day in the way to heaven, for a bar to all unbelievers and\nunsanctified professors; for it is taken out of the way for the\ntruly gracious only. It will be found as a roaring lion to devour\nall others. Because of the law, therefore, the gate will be found\ntoo strait for the unsanctified to enter in. When the apostle had\ntold the Corinthians that \"the unrighteous should not inherit the\nkingdom of God,\" and that such were some of them, he adds, \"But ye\nare washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name\nof the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.\" (1 Cor 6:9-11)\nClosely concluding, that had they not been washed, and sanctified,\nand justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the law, for their\ntransgressions, would have kept them out; it would have made the\ngate too strait for them to enter in.\n\n3. There are also the angels of God, and by reason of them the gate\nis strait. The Lord Jesus calleth the end of the world his harvest;\nand saith, moreover, that the angels are his reapers. These angels\nare therefore to gather his wheat into his barn, but to gather\nthe ungodly into bundles to burn them. (Matt 13:39,41,49) Unless,\ntherefore, the man that is unsanctified can master the law, and\nconquer angels; unless he can, as I may say, pull them out of the\ngateway of heaven, himself is not to come thither for ever. No man\ngoeth to heaven but by the help of the angels--I mean at the day\nof judgment. For the Son of man \"shall send his angels with a great\nsound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from\nthe four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.\" (Matt 24:31)\nIf those that shall enter in at the strait gate shall enter in\nthither by the conduct of the holy angels, pray when do you think\nthose men will enter in thither, concerning whom the angels are\ncommanded to gather them, to \"bind them in bundles to burn them?\"\nThis, therefore, is a third difficulty. The angels will make this\nentrance strait; yea, too strait for the unjustified and unsanctified\nto enter in thither.\n\n[AN EXHORTATION TO STRIVE TO ENTER INTO THIS KINGDOM.]\n\nThird. I come not to the exhortation, which is, to strive to enter\nin. \"Strive to enter in at the strait gate.\" These words are fitly\nadded; for since the gate is strait, it follows that they that will\nenter in must strive.\n\n\"Strive.\" This word strive supposeth that great idleness is natural\nto professors; they think to get to heaven by lying, as it were, on\ntheir elbows. It also suggesteth that many will be the difficulties\nthat professors will meet with, before they get to heaven. It also\nconcludeth that only the labouring Christian, man or woman, will\nget in thither. \"Strive,\" &c.\n\nThree questions I will propound upon the word, an answer to which\nmay give us light into the meaning of it: I. What doth\nthis word strive import? 4\n\nII. How should we strive? III. Why should we strive?\n\n[Import of the word STRIVE.]\n\nI. What doth this word strive import? Answer,\n\n1. When he saith, Strive, it is as much as to say, Bend yourselves\nto the work with all your might. \"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to\ndo, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor\nknowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest.\" (Eccl 9:10)\nThus Samson did when he set himself to destroy the Philistines;\n\"He bowed himself with all his might.\" (Judg 16:30) Thus David did\nalso, when he made provision for the building and beautifying of\nthe temple of God. (1 Chron 29:2) And thus must thou do, if ever\nthou enterest into heaven.\n\n2. When he saith, Strive, he calleth for the mind and will, that\nthey should be on his side, and on the side of the things of his\nkingdom; for none strive indeed, but such as have given the Son of\nGod their heart; of which the mind and will are a principal part;\nfor saving conversion lieth more in the turning of the mind and\nwill to Christ, and to the love of his heavenly things, than in\nall knowledge and judgment. And this the apostle confirmeth, when\nhe saith, \"Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving,\" &c.\n(Phil 1:27)\n\n3. And, more particularly, this word strive is expressed by several\nother terms; as, (1.) It is expressed by that word, \"So run that\nye may obtain.\" (1 Cor 9:24,25) (2.) It is expressed by that word,\n\"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.\" (1 Tim\n6:12) (3.) It is expressed by that word, \"Labour not for the meat\nwhich perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting\nlife.\" (John 6:27) (4.) It is expressed by that word, \"We wrestle--with\nprincipalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this\nworld.\" (Eph 6:12) Therefore, when he saith, Strive, it is as much\nas to say, Run for heaven, Fight for heaven, Labour for heaven,\nWrestle for heaven, or you are like to go without it.\n\n[How should we strive?]\n\nII. The second question is, How should we strive?\n\nAnsw. The answer in general is, Thou must strive lawfully. \"and if\na man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he\nstrive lawfully.\" (2 Tim 2:5) But you will say, What is it to strive\nlawfully? [I] answer--\n\n1. To strive against the things which are abhorred by the Lord\nJesus; yea, to resist to the spilling of your blood, striving against\nsin. (Heb 12:4) To have all those things that are condemned by the\nWord; yea, though they be thine own right hand, right eye, or right\nfoot, in abomination; and to seek by all godly means the utter\nsuppressing of them. (Mark 9:43,45,47)\n\n2. To strive lawfully, is to strive for those things that are\ncommanded in the Word.--\"But thou, O man of God, flee the world,\nand follow after,\" that is, strive for, \"righteousness, godliness,\nfaith, love, patience, meekness; fight the good fight of faith,\nlay hold on eternal life,\" &c. (1 Tim 6:11,12)\n\n3. He that striveth lawfully, must be therefore very temperate in\nall the good and lawful things of this life. \"And every man that\nstriveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do\nit to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.\" (1 Cor\n9:25) Most professors give leave to the world and the vanity of\ntheir hearts, to close with them, and to hang about their necks, and\nmake their striving to stand rather in an outcry of words, than a\nhearty labour against the lusts and love of the world, and their\nown corruptions; but this kind of striving is but a beating of the\nair, and will come to just nothing at last. (1 Cor 9:26)\n\n4. He that striveth lawfully, must take God and Christ along with\nhim to the work, otherwise he will certainly be undone. \"Whereunto,\"\nsaid Paul, \"I also labour, striving according to his working, which\nworketh in me mightily.\" (Col 1:29) And for the right performing\nof this, he must observe these following particulars:--\n\n(1.) He must take heed that he doth not strive about things, or\nwords, to no profit; for God will not then be with him. \"Of these\nthings,\" saith the apostle, \"put them in remembrance; charging them\nbefore the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but\nto the subverting of the hearers.\" (2 Tim 2:14) But, alas! how many\nprofessors in our days are guilty of this transgression, whose\nreligion stands chiefly, if not only, in a few unprofitable questions\nand vain wranglings about words and things to no profit, but to\nthe destruction of the hearers!\n\n(2.) He must take heed that whilst he strives against one sin, he\ndoes not harbour and shelter another; or that whilst he cries out\nagainst other men's sin, he does not countenance his own.\n\n(3.) In the striving, strive to believe, strive for the faith of\nthe gospel; for the more we believe the gospel, and the reality of\nthe things of the world to come, with the more stomach and courage\nshall we labour to possess the blessedness. (Phil 1:27) \"Let us\nlabour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after\nthe same example of unbelief.\" (Heb 4:11)\n\n(4.) As we should strive for, and by faith, so we should strive\nby prayer, by fervent and effectual prayer. (Romans 15:30) O the\nswarms of our prayerless professors! What do they think of themselves?\nSurely the gate of heaven was heretofore as wide as in these our\ndays; but what striving by prayer was there then among Christians\nfor the thing that gives admittance into this kingdom, over [what]\nthere is in these latter days!\n\n(5.) We should also strive by mortifying our members that are upon\nthe earth. \"I therefore so run,\" said Paul, \"not as uncertainly;\nso fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my\nbody, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I\nhave preached the gospel to others, I myself should be a cast-away.\"\n(1 Cor 9:26,27) But all this is spoken principally to professors;\nso I would be understood.\n\n[Why should we strive?]\n\nIII. I come now to the third question, namely, But why should we\nstrive? Answer--\n\n1. Because the thing for which you are here exhorted to strive,\nit is worth the striving for; it is for not less than for a whole\nheaven, and an eternity of felicity there. How will men that have\nbefore them a little honour, a little profit, a little pleasure,\nstrive? I say again, how will they strive for this? Now they do\nit for a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. Methinks this\nword heaven, and this eternal life, ought verily to make us strive,\nfor what is there again either in heaven or earth like them to\nprovoke a man to strive?\n\n2. Strive, because otherwise the devil and hell will assuredly\nhave thee. He goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may\ndevour. (1 Peter 5:8) These fallen angels, they are always watchful,\ndiligent, unwearied; they are also mighty, subtle, and malicious,\nseeking nothing more than the damnation of thy soul. O thou that\nart like the artless dove, strive!\n\n3. Strive, because every lust strives and wars against thy soul.\n\"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit.\" (Gal 5:17) \"Dearly beloved,\nI beseech you,\" said Peter, \"as strangers and pilgrims, abstain\nfrom fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.\" (1 Peter 2:11)\nIt is a rare thing to see or find out a Christian that indeed can\nbridle his lusts; but no strange thing to see such professors that\nare \"not only bridled, but saddled too,\" yea, and ridden from lust\nto sin, from one vanity to another, by the very devil himself, and\nthe corruptions of their hearts.\n\n4. Strive, because thou hast a whole world against thee. The world\nhateth thee if thou be a Christian; the men of the world hate\nthee; the things of the world are snares for thee, even thy bed and\ntable, thy wife and husband, yea, thy most lawful enjoyments have\nthat in them that will certainly sink thy soul to hell, if thou\ndost not strive against the snares that are in them. (Rom 11:9)\n\nThe world will seek to keep thee out of heaven with mocks, flouts,\ntaunts, threatenings, jails, gibbets, halters, burnings, and\na thousand deaths; therefore strive! Again, if it cannot overcome\nthee with these, it will flatter, promise, allure, entice, entreat,\nand use a thousand tricks on this hand to destroy thee; and observe,\nmany that have been stout against the threats of the world, have\nyet been overcome with the bewitching flatteries of the same. 5\n\nThere ever was enmity betwixt the devil and the church, and betwixt\nhis seed and her seed too; Michael and his angels, and the dragon\nand his angels, these make war continually. (Gen 3, Rev 12) There\nhath been great desires and endeavours among men to reconcile\nthese two in one, to wit, the seed of the serpent and the seed of\nthe woman, but it could never yet be accomplished. The world says,\nthey will never come over to us; and we again say, by God's grace,\nwe will never come over to them. But the business hath not ended\nin words; both they and we have also added our endeavours to make\neach other submit, but endeavours have proved ineffectual too. They,\nfor their part, have devised all manner of cruel torments to make\nus submit, as slaying with the sword, stoning, sawing asunder,\nflames, wild beasts, banishments, hunger, and a thousand miseries.\nWe again, on the other side, have laboured by prayers and tears,\nby patience and long-suffering, by gentleness and love, by sound\ndoctrine and faithful witness-bearing against their enormities,\nto bring them over to us; but yet the enmity remains; so that they\nmust conquer us, or we must conquer them. One side must be overcome;\nbut the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through\nGod.\n\n5. Strive, because there is nothing of Christianity got by idleness.\nIdleness clothes a man with rags, and the vineyard of the slothful\nis grown over with nettles. (Prov 23:21, 24:30-32) Profession that\nis not attended with spiritual labour cannot bring the soul to\nheaven. The fathers before us were \"not slothful in business,\" but\n\"fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.\" Therefore \"be not slothful,\nbut followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the\npromises.\" (Rom 12:11, Heb 6:12)\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" Methinks the words, at the first reading,\ndo intimate to us, that the Christian, in all that ever he does in\nthis world, should carefully heed and regard his soul--I say, in\nall that ever he does. Many are for their souls by fits and starts;\nbut a Christian indeed, in all his doing and designs which he\ncontriveth and manageth in this world, should have a special eye to\nhis own future and everlasting good; in all his labours he should\nstrive to enter in: \"Wisdom [Christ] is the principal thing;\ntherefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.\"\n(Prov 4:7) Get nothing, if thou canst not get Christ and grace, and\nfurther hopes of heaven in that getting; get nothing with a bad\nconscience, with the hazard of thy peace with God, and that in\ngetting it thou weakenest thy graces which God hath given thee;\nfor this is not to strive to enter in. Add grace to grace, both by\nreligious and worldly duties; \"For so an entrance shall be ministered\nunto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and\nSaviour Jesus Christ.\" (2 Peter 1:8-11) Religious duties are not\nthe only striving times; he that thinks so is out. Thou mayest help\nthy faith and thy hope in the godly management of thy calling, and\nmayest get further footing in eternal life, by studying the glory\nof God in all thy worldly employment. I am speaking now to Christians\nthat are justified freely by grace, and am encouraging, or rather\ncounselling of them to strive to enter in; for there is an entering\nin by faith and good conscience now, as well as our entering in\nbody and soul hereafter; and I must add, that the more common it\nis to thy soul to enter in now by faith, the more steadfast hope\nshalt thou have of entering in hereafter in body and soul.\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" By these words also the Lord Jesus giveth\nsharp rebuke to those professors that have not eternal glory, but\nother temporal things in their eye, by all the bustle that they\nmake in the world about religion. Some there be, what a stir they\nmake, what a noise and clamour, with their notions and forms, and\nyet perhaps all is for the loaves; because they have eaten of the\nloaves, and are filled. (John 6:26) These strive indeed to enter,\nbut it is not into heaven; they find religion hath a good trade at\nthe end of it, or they find that it is the way to credit, repute,\npreferment, and the like, and therefore they strive to enter into\nthese. But these have not the strait gate in their eye, nor yet\nin themselves have they love to their poor and perishing souls;\nwherefore this exhortation nippeth such, by predicting of their\ndamnation.\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" These words also sharply rebuke them who\ncontent themselves as the angel of the church of Sardis, did, to\nwit, \"to have a name to live, and be dead\" (Rev 3:1), or as they\nof the Laodiceans, who took their religion upon trust, and were\ncontent with a poor, wretched, lukewarm profession; for such as\nthese do altogether unlike to the exhortation in the text, that\nsays, Strive, and they sit and sleep; that says, Strive to enter\nin, and they content themselves with a profession that is never\nlike to bring them thither.\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" Further, these words put us upon proving the\ntruth of our graces now; I say, they put us upon the proof of the\ntruth of them now; for if the strait gate be the gate of heaven,\nand yet we are to strive to enter into it now, even while we live,\nand before we come thither, then doubtless Christ means by this\nexhortation, that we should use all lawful means to prove our\ngraces in this world, whether they will stand in the judgment or\nno. Strive to enter in; get those graces now that will prove true\ngraces then, and therefore try those you have; and if, upon trial,\nthey prove not right, cast them away, and cry for better, lest they\ncast thee away, when better are not to be had. \"Buy of me gold tried\nin the fire\"; mark that. (Rev 3:18) Buy of me faith and grace that\nwill stand in the judgment; strive for that faith; buy of me that\ngrace, and also white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that\nthe shame of thy wickedness doth not appear, and anoint thine eyes\nwith eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Mind you this advice; this\nis right striving to enter in.\n\nBut you will say, How should we try our graces? Would you have us\nrun into temptation, to try if they be sound or rotten? Answ. You\nneed not run into trials; God hath ordained that enough of them\nshall overtake thee to prove thy graces either rotten or sound before\nthe day of thy death; sufficient to the day is the evil thereof,\nif thou hast but a sufficiency of grace to withstand. I say, thou\nshalt have trials enough overtake thee, to prove thy grace sound\nor rotten. Thou mayest, therefore, if God shall help thee, see how\nit is like to go with thee before thou goest out of this world, to\nwit, whether thy graces be such as will carry thee in at the gates\nof heaven or no.\n\nBut how should we try our graces now? Answ. (a.) How dost thou find\nthem in outward trials? See Hebrews 11:15,16. (b.) How dost thou\nfind thyself in the inward workings of sin? (Rom 7:24) (c.) How\ndost thou find thyself under the most high enjoyment of grace in\nthis world? (Phil 3:14)\n\nBut what do you mean by these three questions? I mean graces show\nthemselves at these their seasons, whether they be rotten or sound.\n\n(a.) How do they show themselves to be true under the first of\nthese? Answ. By mistrusting our own sufficiency, by crying to God\nfor help, by desiring rather to die than to bring any dishonour to\nthe name of God, and by counting that, if God be honoured in the\ntrial, thou hast gained more than all the world could give thee.\n(2 Chron 20:12, 14:11, Acts 4, 20:22, 2 Cor 4:17,18, Heb 11:24,25)\n\n(b.) How do they show themselves to be true under the second? Answ.\nBy mourning, and confessing, and striving, and praying, against\nthem; by not being content, shouldst thou have heaven, if they live,\nand defile thee; and by counting of holiness the greatest beauty\nin the world; and by flying to Jesus Christ for life. (Zech 12:10,\nJohn 19, Heb 12:14, Psa 19:12)\n\n(c.) How do they show themselves to be true under the third? Answ.\nBy prizing the true graces above all the world, by praying heartily\nthat God will give thee more; by not being content with all the\ngrace thou canst be capable of enjoying on this side heaven and\nglory. (Psa 84:10, Luke 17:5, Phil 3)\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" The reason why Christ addeth these words,\n\"to enter in,\" is obvious, to wit, because there is no true and\nlasting happiness on this side heaven; I say, none that is both\ntrue and lasting, I mean, as to our sense and feeling as there\nshall [be]; \"For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one\nto come.\" (Heb 13:14) The heaven is within, strive therefore to\nenter in; the glory is within, strive therefore to enter in; the\nMount Zion is within, strive therefore to enter in; the heavenly\nJerusalem is within, strive therefore to enter in; angels and saints\nare within, strive therefore to enter in; and, to make up all, the\nGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that glorious Redeemer,\nis within, strive therefore to enter in.\n\n\"Strive to enter in.\" \"For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and\nwhoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and\nmaketh a lie.\" Without are also the devils, and hell, and death,\nand all damned souls; without is howling, weeping, wailing, and\ngnashing of teeth; yea, without are all the miseries, sorrows, and\nplagues that an infinite God can in justice and power inflict upon\nan evil and wicked generation; \"Strive therefore to enter in at the\nstrait gate.\" (Rev 22:15, Matt 25:41, Rev 12:9, Is 65:13,14, Matt\n22:13, Deu 29:18-20)\n\n\"Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you,\nwill seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n[MOTIVE TO STRIVE TO ENTER INTO THIS KINGDOM.]\n\nFourth. We are come now to the motive which our Lord urges to\nenforce his exhortation.\n\nHe told us before that the gate was strait; he also exhorted us to\nstrive to enter in thereat, or to get those things now that will\nfurther our entrance then, and to set ourselves against those things\nthat will hinder our entering in.\n\nIn this motive there are five things to be minded.\n\n1. That there will be a disappointment to some at the day of\njudgment; they will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\n\n2. That not a few, but many, will meet with this disappointment;\n\"For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n3. This doctrine of the miscarriage of many then, it standeth upon\nthe validity of the word of Christ; \"For many, I say, will seek to\nenter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n4. Professors shall make a great heap among the many that shall\nfall short of heaven; \"For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter\nin, and shall not be able.\"\n\n5. Where grace and striving are wanting now, seeking and contending\nto enter in will be unprofitable then; \"For many, I say unto you,\nwill seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\nBut I will proceed in my former method, to wit, to open the words\nunto you.\n\n[Import of the words FOR MANY.]\n\n\"For many,\" &c. If he had said, For some will fall short, it had\nbeen a sentence to be minded; if he had said, For some that seek\nwill fall short, it had been very awakening; but when he saith,\nMany, many will fall short, yea, many among professors will fall\nshort, this is not only awakening, but dreadful!\n\n[Various applications of the word MANY.]--\"For many,\" &c. I find\nthis word many variously applied in Scripture.\n\n1. Sometimes it intendeth the open profane, the wicked and ungodly\nworld, as where Christ saith, \"Wide is the gate, and broad is the\nway, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in\nthereat.\" (Matt 7:13) I say, by the many here, he intends those\nchiefly that go on in the broad way of sin and profaneness, bearing\nthe \"tokens\" of their damnation in their foreheads, those whose\ndaily practice proclaims that their \"feet go down to death, and\ntheir steps take hold on hell.\" (Job 21:29,30, Isa 3:9, Prov 4)\n\n2. Sometimes this word many intendeth those that cleave to the\npeople of God deceitfully, and in hypocrisy, or, as Daniel hath it,\n\"Many shall cleave to them with flatteries.\" (Dan 11:34) The word\nmany in this text includeth all those who feign themselves better\nthan they are in religion; it includeth, I say, those that have\nreligion only for a holiday suit6 to set them out at certain times,\nand when they come among suitable company.\n\n3. Sometimes this word many intendeth them that apostatize from\nChrist; such as for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall\naway; as John saith of some of Christ's disciples: \"From that time\nmany of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.\"\n(John 6:66)\n\n4. Sometimes this word many intendeth them that make a great noise,\nand do many great things in the church, and yet want saving grace:\n\"Many,\" saith Christ, \"will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord,\nhave we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out\ndevils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?\" (Matt 7:22)\nMark, there will be many of these.\n\n5. Sometimes this word many intendeth those poor, ignorant, deluded\nsouls that are led away with every wind of doctrine; those who are\ncaught with the cunning and crafty deceiver, who lieth in wait to\nbeguile unstable souls: \"And many shall follow their pernicious\nways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.\"\n(2 Peter 2:2)\n\n6. Sometimes this word many includeth all the world, good and bad:\n\"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,\nsome to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.\"\n(Dan 12:2) Compare with John 5:28,29.\n\n7. Lastly. Sometimes this word many intendeth the good only, even\nthem that shall be saved. (Luke 1:16, 2:34)\n\n[How MANY is applied in the text.] Since then that the word is so\nvariously applied, let us inquire how it must be taken in the text.\nAnd,\n\n1. It must not be applied to the sincerely godly, for they shall never\nperish. (John 10:27,28) 2. It cannot be applied to all the world,\nfor then no flesh should be saved. 3. Neither is it to be applied\nto the open profane only, for then the hypocrite is by it excluded.\n4. But by the many in the text our Lord intendeth in special the\nprofessor; the professor, I say, how high soever he seems to be\nnow, that shall be found without saving grace in the day of judgment.\n\nNow that the professor is in special intended in this text,\nconsider, so soon as the Lord had said, \"Many will seek to enter\nin, and shall not be able,\" he pointeth, as with his finger, at\nthe many that then he in special intendeth; to wit, them among whom\nhe had taught; them that had eat and drunken in his presence; them\nthat had prophesied, and cast out devils in his name, and in his\nname had done many wonderful works. (Luke 13:26, Matt 7:22) These\nare the many intended by the Lord in this text, though others also\nare included under the sentence of damnation by his word in other\nplaces. \"For many,\" &c. Matthew saith, concerning this strait gate,\nthat there are but few that find it. But it seems the cast-always\nin my text did find it; for you read, that they knocked at it, and\ncried, \"Lord, open unto us.\" So then, the meaning may seem to be\nthis--many of the few that find it will seek to enter in, and shall\nnot be able. I find, at the day of judgment, some will be crying\nto the rocks to cover them, and some at the gates of heaven for\nentrance. Suppose that those that cry to the rocks to cover them,\nare they whose conscience will not suffer them once to look God\nin the face, because they are fallen under present guilt, and the\ndreadful fears of the wrath of the Lamb. (Rev 6:16) And that those\nthat stand crying at the gate of heaven, are those whose confidence\nholds out to the last,--even those whose boldness will enable them\nto contend even with Jesus Christ for entrance; them, I say, that\nwill have profession, casting out of devils, and many wonderful\nworks, to plead; of this sort are the many in my text: \"For many,\nI say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\nCould we compare the professors of the times with the everlasting\nword of God, this doctrine would more easily appear to the children\nof men. How few among the many, yea, among the swarms of professors,\nhave heart to make conscience of walking before God in this world,\nand to study his glory among the children of men! How few, I say,\nhave his name lie nearer their hearts than their own carnal concerns!\nNay, do not many make his Word, and his name, and his ways,\na stalking-horse to their own worldly advantages? 7\n\nGod calls for faith, good conscience, moderation, self-denial,\nhumility, heavenly-mindedness, love to saints, to enemies, and for\nconformity in heart, in word, and life, to his will: but where is\nit? (Mark 11:22, 1 Peter 3:16, Heb 13:5, Phil 4:5, Matt 10:37-39,\nCol 3:1-4, Micah 6:8, Rev 2:10, John 15:17, 1 John 4:21, Matt 5:44,\nProv 23:26, Col 4:6)\n\n[Import of the words I SAY UNTO YOU.]\n\n\"For many, I say unto you.\" These latter words carry in them a\ndouble argument to prove the truth asserted before: First, in that\nhe directly pointeth at his followers: \"I say unto you\": Many, I say\nunto you, even to you that are my disciples, to you that have eat\nand drunk in my presence. I know that sometimes Christ hath directed\nhis speech to his disciples, not so much upon their accounts, as\nupon the accounts of others; but here it is not so; the \"I say unto\nyou,\" in this place, it immediately concerned some of themselves:\nI say unto you, ye shall begin to stand without, and to knock,\n\"saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall answer and say unto\nyou, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We\nhave eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our\nstreets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye\nare; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity\"; it is you, you,\nYOU, that I mean! \"I say unto you.\" It is common with a professing\npeople, when they hear a smart and a thundering sermon, to say, Now\nhas the preacher paid off the drunkard, the swearer, the liar, the\ncovetous, and adulterer; forgetting that these sins may be committed\nin a spiritual and mystical way. There is spiritual drunkenness,\nspiritual adultery, and a man may be a liar that calls God his Father\nwhen he is not, or that calls himself a Christian, and is not. 8\n\nWherefore, perhaps all these thunders and lightnings in this terrible\nsermon may more concern thee than thou art aware of: \"I say unto\nyou\"; unto you, professors, may be the application of all this\nthunder. (Rev 2:9, 3:9)\n\n\"I say unto you!\" Had not the Lord Jesus designed by these words\nto show what an overthrow will one day be made among professors,\nhe needed not to have you'd it at this rate, as in the text, and\nafterwards, he has done; the sentence had run intelligible enough\nwithout it; I say, without his saying, \"I say unto you.\" But the\ntruth is, the professor is in danger; the preacher and the hearer,\nthe workers of miracles, and workers of wonders, may all be in\ndanger of damning, notwithstanding all their attainments. And to\nawaken us all about this truth, therefore, the text must run thus:\n\"For many, I say unto YOU, shall seek to enter in, and shall not\nbe able.\"\n\nSee you not yet that the professor is in danger, and that those\nwords, \"I say unto you,\" are a prophecy of the everlasting perdition\nof some that are famous in the congregation of saints? I say, if\nyou do not see it, pray God your eyes may be opened, and beware\nthat thy portion be not as the portion of one of those that are\nwrapped up in the 28th verse of the chapter: \"There shall be weeping\nand gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and\nJacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of heaven, and you\nyourselves thrust out.\"\n\n\"For many, I say unto you.\" These words, I told you, carry in them\na double argument for confirmation of the truth asserted before:\nfirst, that professors are here particularly pointed at; and,\nsecondly, it is the saying of the Truth himself: for these words,\n\"I say,\" are words full of authority; I say it, I say unto you, says\nChrist, as he saith in another place, \"It is I that speak; behold\nit is I!\" The person whose words we have now under consideration\nwas no blundering raw-headed preacher, 9 but the very wisdom of\nGod, his Son, and him that hath lain in his bosom from everlasting,\nand consequently had the most perfect knowledge of his Father's\nwill, and how it would fare with professors at the end of this\nworld. And now hearken what himself doth say of the words which he\nhath spoken; \"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall\nnot pass away.\" (Matt 24:35)\n\n\"I say unto you.\" The prophets used not to speak after this manner,\nnor yet the holy apostles; for thus to speak, is to press things\nto be received upon their own authority. They used to say, Thus\nsaith the Lord, or Paul, or Peter, an apostle, or a servant of God.\nBut now we are dealing with the words of the Son of God; it is HE\nthat hath said it; wherefore we find the truth of the perishing\nof many professors asserted, and confirmed by Christ's own mouth.\nThis consideration carrieth great awakening in it; but into such\na fast sleep are many now-a-days fallen, that nothing will awaken\nthem but that shrill and terrible cry, \"Behold, the Bridegroom\ncometh; go ye out to meet him.\"\n\n[Two things that befall Professors.]\n\n\"I SAY UNTO YOU.\" There are two things upon which this assertion\nmay be grounded--1. There is in the world a thing like grace, that\nis not. 2. There is a sin called the sin against the Holy Ghost,\nfrom which there is no redemption. And both these things befall\nprofessors.\n\n1. There is in the world a thing like grace, that is not. (1.)\nThis is evident, because we read that there are some that not only\n\"make a fair show in the flesh,\" that \"glory in appearance,\" that\n\"appear beautiful outward,\" that do as God's people, but have not\nthe grace of God's people. (Gal 6:12, 2 Cor 5:12, Matt 23:27, Isa\n57:3,4) (2.) It is evident also from those frequent cautions that\nare everywhere in the Scriptures given us about this thing: \"Be\nnot deceived: Let a man examine himself: Examine yourselves whether\nye be in the faith.\" (Gal 6:7, 1 Cor 11:28, 2 Cor 13:5) All these\nexpressions intimate to us that there may be a show of, or a thing\nlike grace, where there is no grace indeed. (3.) This is evident\nfrom the conclusion made by the Holy Ghost upon this very thing:\n\"For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing,\nhe deceiveth himself.\" (Gal 6:3) The Holy Ghost here concludeth,\nthat a man may think himself to be something, may think he hath\ngrace, when he hath none; may think himself something for heaven\nand another world, when indeed he is just nothing at all with\nreference thereto. The Holy Ghost also determines upon this point,\nto wit, that they that do so deceive themselves: \"For if a man think\nhimself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself\";\nhe deceiveth his own soul, he deceiveth himself of heaven and\nsalvation. So again: \"Let no man beguile you of your reward.\" (Col\n2:18) (4.) It is manifest from the text; \"For many, I say unto you,\nwill seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\" Alas! great light,\ngreat parts, great works, and great confidence of heaven, may be\nwhere there is no faith of God's elect, no love of the Spirit, no\nrepentance unto salvation, no sanctification of the Spirit, and so\nconsequently no saving grace. But,\n\n2. As there is a thing like grace, which is not, so there is a\nsin, called the sin against the Holy Ghost, from which there is no\nredemption; and this sin doth more than ordinarily befall professors.\n\nThere is a sin, called the sin against the Holy Ghost, from which\nthere is no redemption. This is evident both from Matthew and Mark:\n\"But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be\nforgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.\"\n\"But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never\nforgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.\" (Matt 12:32,\nMark 3:29) Wherefore, when we know that a man hath sinned this sin,\nwe are not to pray for him, or to have compassion on him. (1 John\n5:16, Jude 22)\n\nThis sin doth most ordinarily befall professors; for there are\nfew, if any, that are not professors, that are at present capable\nof sinning this sin. They which \"were once enlightened, and have\ntasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy\nGhost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the\nworld to come,\" of this sort are they that commit this sin. (Heb\n6:4,5) Peter also describes them to be such, that sin the unpardonable\nsin. \"For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world\nthrough the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they\nare again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse\nwith them than the beginning.\" (2 Peter 2:20) The other passage in\nthe tenth of Hebrews holdeth forth the same thing. \"For if we sin\nwillfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,\nthere remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful\nlooking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour\nthe adversaries.\" (Heb 10:26,27) THESE, therefore, are the persons\nthat are the prey for this sin; this sin feedeth upon PROFESSORS,\nand they that are such do very often fall into the mouth of\nthis eater. Some fall into the mouth of the sin by delusions and\ndoctrines of devils; and some fall into the mouth of it by returning\nwith the dog to his own vomit again, and with the sow that was\nwashed to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:22) I shall not\nhere give you a particular description of this sin--that I have\ndone elsewhere; 10 but such a sin there is, and they that commit it\nshall never have forgiveness. And I say again, there be professors\nthat commit this unpardonable sin, yea, more than most are aware\nof. Let all, therefore, look about them. The Lord awaken them\nthat they may so do; for what with a profession without grace, and\nby the venom of the sin against the Holy Ghost, many will seek to\nenter in, and shall not be able.\n\n[Import of the words WILL SEEK TO ENTER IN.]\n\n\"Will seek to enter in.\" This kingdom, at the gate of which the\nreprobate will be stopped, will be, at the last judgment, the desire\nof all the world; and they, especially THEY in my text, will seek\nto enter in; for then they will see that the blessedness is to\nthose that shall get into this kingdom, according to that which\nis written, \"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they\nmay have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the\ngates into the city.\" (Rev 21:14) To prove that they will seek,\nalthough I have done it already, yet read these texts at your\nleisure--Matthew 25:11, 7:22, Luke 13:28. And, in a word, to give\nyou the reason why they will seek to enter in.\n\n[Why they will seek to enter in.]\n\n1. Now they will see what a kingdom it is, what glory there is in\nit, and now they shall also see the blessedness which they shall\nhave that shall then be counted worthy to enter in. The reason why\nthis kingdom is so little regarded, it is because it is not seen;\nthe glory of it is hid from the eyes of the world. \"Their eye hath\nnot seen, nor their ear heard,\" &c. Aye, but then they shall hear\nand see too; and when this comes to pass, then, even then, he that\nnow most seldom thinks thereof will seek to enter in.\n\n2. They will now see what hell is, and what damnation in hell is,\nmore clear than ever. They will also see how the breath of the\nLord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. O the sight of\nthe burning fiery furnace, which is prepared for the devil and his\nangels! This, this will make work in the souls of cast-always at\nthat day of God Almighty, and then they will seek to enter in.\n\n3. Now they will see what the meaning of such words as these are,\nhell-fire, everlasting fire, devouring fire, fire that never shall\nbe quenched. Now they will see what \"for ever\" means, what eternity\nmeans; now they will see what this word means, \"the bottomless\npit\"; now they will hear roaring of sinners in this place, howling\nin that, some crying to the mountains to fall upon them, and others\nto the rocks to cover them; now they will see blessedness is nowhere\nbut within!\n\n4. Now they will see what glory the godly are possessed with; how\nthey rest in Abraham's bosom, how they enjoy eternal glory, how\nthey walk in their white robes, and are equal to the angels. O the\nfavour, and blessedness, and unspeakable happiness that now God's\npeople shall have! and this shall be seen by them that are shut\nout, by them that God hath rejected for ever; and this will make\nthem seek to enter in. (Luke 16:22,23, 13:28)\n\n[How will they seek to enter in.]\n\n\"Will seek to enter in.\" Quest. But some may say, How will they\nseek to enter in? [I] answer,\n\n1. They will put on all the confidence they can, they will trick\nand trim up their profession, and adorn it with what bravery they\ncan. Thus the foolish virgins sought to enter in; they did trim\nup their lamps, made themselves as fine as they could. They made\nshift to make their lamps to shine awhile; but the Son of God\ndiscovering himself, their confidence failed, their lamps went out,\nthe door was shut upon them, and they were kept out. (Matt 25:1-12)\n\n2. They will seek to enter in by crowding themselves in among the\ngodly. Thus the man without the wedding garment sought to enter in.\nHe goes to the wedding, gets into the wedding chamber, sits close\namong the guests, and then, without doubt, concluded he should escape\ndamnation. But, you know, one black sheep is soon seen, though it\nbe among a hundred white ones. Why, even thus it fared with this\npoor man. \"And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there\na man that had not on a wedding garment.\" He spied him presently,\nand before one word was spoken to any of the others, he had this\ndreadful salutation, \"Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having\non a wedding garment?\" 11\n\n\"And he was speechless\"; though he could swagger it out among the\nguests, yet the master of the feast, at first coming in, strikes\nhim dumb; and having nothing to say for himself, the king had\nsomething to say against him. \"Then the king said to the servants,\"\nthe angels, \"Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast\nhim into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of\nteeth.\" (Matt 22:11-13)\n\n3. They will seek to enter in by pleading their profession and\nadmittance to the Lord's ordinances when they were in the world.\n\"Lord, we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast\ntaught in our streets\"; we sat at thy table, and used to frequent\nsermons and Christian assemblies; we were well thought of by thy\nsaints, and were admitted into thy churches; we professed the same\nfaith as they did; \"Lord, Lord, open unto us.\"\n\n4. They will seek to enter in by pleading their virtues; how they\nsubjected [themselves] to this ministry, how they wrought for him,\nwhat good they did in the world, and the like, but neither will\nthis help them; the same answer that the two former had, the same\nhave these--\"Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.\" (Matt 7:22)\n\n5. They will seek to enter in by pleading excuses where they cannot\nevade conviction. The slothful servant went this way to work,\nwhen he was called to account for not improving his Lord's money.\n\"Lord,\" says he, \"I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping\nwhere thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed,\nand I was afraid,\" &c., either that I should not please in laying\nout thy money, or that I should put it into hands out of which I\nshould not get it again at thy need, \"and I went a hid thy talent\nin the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine\"; as if he had said,\nTrue, Lord, I have not improved, I have not got; but consider also\nI have not embezzled, I have not spent nor lost thy money; lo,\nthere thou hast what is thine. (Matt 25:24-28) There are but few\nwill be able to say these last words at the day of judgment. The\nmost of professors are for embezzling, misspending, and slothing\naway their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in.\nBut, I say, if he that can make so good an excuse as to say, Lo,\nthere thou hast that is thine; I say, if such an one shall be called\na wicked and slothful servant, if such an one shall be put to shame\nat the day of judgment, yea, if such an one shall, notwithstanding\nthis care to save his Lord's money, be cast as unprofitable into\nouter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, what\nwill they do that have neither taken care to lay out, nor care to\nkeep what was committed to their trust?\n\n6. They will seek to enter in by pleading that ignorance was the\nground of their miscarrying in the things wherein they offended.\nWherefore, when Christ charges them with want of love to him,\nand with want of those fruits that should prove their love to be\ntrue--as, that they did not feed him, did not give him drink, did\nnot take him in, did not clothe him, visit him, come unto him, and\nthe like--they readily reply, \"Lord, when saw we thee an hungered,\nor athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did\nnot minister unto thee?\" (Matt 25:44) As who should say, Lord, we\nare not conscious to ourselves that this charge is worthily laid at\nour door! God forbid that we should have been such sinners. But,\nLord, give an instance; when was it, or where? True, there was\na company of poor sorry people in the world, very inconsiderable,\nset by with nobody; but for thyself, we professed thee, we loved\nthee, and hadst thou been with us in the world, wouldst thou have\nworn gold, wouldst thou have eaten the sweetest of the world, we\nwould have provided it for thee; and therefore, Lord, Lord, open to\nus! But will the plea do? No. Then shall he answer them, \"Inasmuch\nas ye did it not to one of the least of these\" my brethren, \"ye\ndid it not to me.\" This plea, then, though grounded upon ignorance,\nwhich is one of the strangest pleas for neglect of duty, would not\ngive them admittance into the kingdom. \"These shall go away into\neverlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.\"\n\nI might add other things by which it will appear how they will seek\nto enter in. As,\n\n1. They will make a stop at this gate, this beautiful gate of heaven.\nThey will begin to stand without at the gate, as being loath to\ngo any further. Never did malefactor so unwillingly turn off the\nladder when the rope was about his neck, as these will turn away\nin that day from the gates of heaven to hell.\n\n2. They will not only make a stop at the gate; but there they will\nknock and call. This also argueth them willing to enter. They will\nbegin to stand without, and to knock at the gate, saying, Lord, Lord,\nopen to us. This word, Lord, being doubled, shows the vehemency of\ntheir desires, \"Lord, Lord, open unto us.\" The devils are coming;\nLord, Lord, the pit opens her mouth upon us; Lord, Lord, there is\nnothing but hell and damnation left us, if, Lord, Lord, thou hast\nnot mercy upon us; \"Lord, Lord, open unto us!\"\n\n3. Their last argument for entrance is their tears, when groundless\nconfidence, pleading of virtues, excuses, and ignorance, will not\ndo; when standing at the gate, knocking, and calling, \"Lord, Lord,\nopen unto us,\" will not do, then they betake themselves to their\ntears. Tears are sometimes the most powerful arguments, but they\nare nothing worth here. Esau also sought it carefully with tears,\nbut it helped him nothing at all. (Heb 12:17) There shall be\nweeping and gnashing of teeth; for the gate is shut for ever, mercy\nis gone for ever, Christ hath rejected them for ever. All their\npleas, excuses, and tears will not make them able to enter into\nthis kingdom. \"For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in,\nand shall not be able.\"\n\n[Import of the words SHALL NOT BE ABLE.]\n\nI come now to the latter part of the words, which closely show\nus the reason of the rejection of these many that must be damned;\n\"They will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\nA hypocrite, a false professor, may go a great way; they may pass\nthrough the first and second watch, to wit, may be approved of\nChristians and churches; but what will they do when they come at\nthis iron gate that leadeth into the city? \"There the workers of\niniquity are fallen, they are cast down, and shall not be able to\nrise!\" (Psa 36:12)\n\n\"And shall not be able.\" The time, as I have already hinted, which\nmy text respecteth, it is the day of judgment, a day when all masks\nand vizards shall be taken off from all faces. It is a day wherein\nGod \"will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will\nmake manifest the counsel of the hearts.\" (1 Cor 4:5) It is also\nthe day of his wrath, the day in which he will pay vengeance, even\na recompence to his adversaries.\n\nAt this day, those things that now these \"many\" count sound and good,\nwill then shake like a quagmire, even all their naked knowledge,\ntheir feigned faith, pretended love, glorious shows of gravity in\nthe face, their holiday words and specious carriages, will stand\nthem in little stead. I call them holiday ones, for I perceive that\nsome professors do with religion just as people do with their best\napparel--hang it against the wall all the week, and put it on on\nSundays. For as some scarce ever put on a suit but when they go\nto a fair or a market, so little house religion will do with some;\nthey save religion till they go to a meeting, or till they meet\nwith a godly chapman. O poor religion! O poor professor! What wilt\nthou do at this day, and the day of thy trial and judgment? Cover\nthyself thou canst not; go for a Christian thou canst not; stand\nagainst the Judge thou canst not! What wilt thou do? \"The ungodly\nshall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation\nof the righteous.\" 12 \"And shall not be able.\" The ability here\nintended is not that which standeth in carnal power or fleshly\nsubtlety, but in the truth and simplicity of those things for the\nsake of which God giveth the kingdom of heaven to his people.\n\nThere are five things, for the want of which this people will not\nbe able to enter.\n\n1. This kingdom belongs to the elect, to those for whom it\nwas prepared from the foundation of the world. (Matt 25:34) Hence\nChrist saith, when he comes, he will send forth his angels with a\ngreat sound of trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect\nfrom the four winds, from one end of heaven to another. (Matt 24:31)\nAnd hence he saith again, \"I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob,\nand out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect\nshall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.\" \"They shall\ndeceive, if it were possible, the very elect.\" \"But the election\nhath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.\" (Rom 11:7)\n\n2. They will not be able to enter, because they will want the\nbirthright. The kingdom of heaven is for the heirs--and if children, then\nheirs; if born again, then heirs. Wherefore it is said expressly,\n\"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\"\nBy this one word, down goes all carnal privilege of being born of\nflesh and blood, and of the will of man. Canst thou produce the\nbirthright? But art thou sure thou canst? For it will little profit\nthee to think of the blessed kingdom of heaven, if thou wantest\na birthright to give thee inheritance there. Esau did despise his\nbirthright, saying, What good will this birthright do me? And there\nare many in the world of his mind to this day. \"Tush,\" say they,\n\"they talk of being born again; what good shall a man get by that?\nThey say, no going to heaven without being born again. But God is\nmerciful; Christ died for sinners; and we will turn when we can\ntend it, 13 and doubt not but all will be well at last.\" But I will\nanswer thee, thou child of Esau, that the birthright and blessing\ngo together; miss of one, and thou shalt never have the other! Esau\nfound this true; for, having first despised the birthright, when\nhe would afterwards \"have inherited the blessing, he was rejected;\nfor he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully\nwith tears.\" (Gen 25, Heb 12:16,17)\n\n3. They shall not be able to enter in who have not believed with\nthe faith of God's operation; the faith that is most holy, even\nthe faith of God's elect. \"He that believeth on the Son of God hath\neverlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see\nlife; but the wrath of God abideth on him.\" (John 3:36) But now\nthis faith is the effect of electing love, and of a new birth.\n(John 1:11-13) Therefore, all the professors that have not faith\nwhich floweth from being born of God, will seek to enter in, and\nshall not be able.\n\n4. They shall not be able to enter in that have not gospel-holiness.\nHoliness that is the effect of faith is that which admits into the\npresence of God, and into his kingdom too. \"Blessed and holy is\nhe that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second\ndeath,\" that is, hell and eternal damnation, \"hath no power.\" (Rev\n20:6,14) Blessed and holy, with the holiness that flows from faith\nwhich is in Christ; for to these the inheritance belongs. \"That\nthey may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them\nwhich are sanctified, by faith,\" saith Christ, \"that is in me.\"\n(Acts 26:18) This holiness, which is the natural effect of faith\nin the Son of God, Christ Jesus the Lord will, at this day of\njudgment, distinguish from all other shows of holiness and sanctity,\nbe they what they will, and will admit the soul that hath this\nholiness into his kingdom, when the rest will seek to enter in,\nand shall not be able.\n\n5. They shall not be able to enter in that do not persevere in this\nblessed faith and holiness; not that they that have them indeed can\nfinally fall away, and everlastingly perish; but it hath pleased\nJesus Christ to bid them that have the right to hold fast that\nthey have: to endure to the end; and then tells them they shall be\nsaved--though it is as true that none is of power to keep himself;\nbut God worketh together with his children, and they are \"kept by\nthe power of God, through faith unto salvation,\" which is also laid\nup in heaven for them. (1 Peter 1:3-5)\n\n\"The foolish shall not stand in thy sight; thou hatest all workers\nof iniquity.\" (Psa 5:5) The foolish are the unholy ones, that\nneither have faith, nor holiness, nor perseverance in godliness,\nand yet lay claim to the kingdom of heaven; but \"better is a little\nwith righteousness, than great revenues without right.\" (Prov 16:8)\nWhat is it for me to claim a house, or a farm, without right? or\nto say, all this is mine, but have nothing to show for it? This\nis but like the revenues of the foolish; his estate lieth in his\nconceit. He hath nothing by birthright and law, and therefore shall\nnot be able to inherit the possession. \"For many, I say unto you,\nwill seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\nThus you see, that the non-elect shall not be able to enter, that\nhe that is not born again shall not be able to enter, that he\nthat hath not saving faith, with holiness and perseverance flowing\ntherefrom, shall not be able to enter; wherefore consider of what\nI have said.\n\n[SECOND. THE WORDS BY WAY OF OBSERVATION.]\n\nI come now to give you some observations from the words, and they\nmay be three.\n\nFIRST. When men have put in all the claim they can for heaven,\nbut few will have it for their inheritance. \"For many, I say unto\nyou, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\" SECOND. Great,\ntherefore, will be the disappointment that many will meet with at\nthe day of judgment: \"For many will seek to enter in, and shall\nnot be able.\" THIRD. Going to heaven, therefore, will be no trivial\nbusiness; salvation is not got by a dream; they that would then\nhave that kingdom must now strive lawfully to enter: \"For many, I\nsay unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\nFIRST. I shall speak chiefly, and yet but briefly, to the first\nof these observations; to wit, That when men have put in all the\nclaim they can to the kingdom of heaven, but few will have it for\ntheir inheritance. The observation standeth of two parts. First.\nThat the time is coming, when every man will put in whatever claim\nthey can to the kingdom of heaven. Second. There will be but few\nof them that put in claim thereto, that shall enjoy it for their\ninheritance.\n\n[First. ALL WILL PUT IN WHAT CLAIM THEY CAN TO THE KINGDOM OF\nHEAVEN.]\n\nI shall speak but a word or two to the first part of the observation,\nbecause I have prevented my enlargement thereon by my explication\nupon the words; but you find in the 25th of Matthew, that all they\non the left hand of the Judge did put in all the claim they could\nfor this blessed kingdom of heaven. If you should take them on the\nleft hand as most do, for all the sinners that shall be damned,\nthen that completely proveth the first part of the observation;\nfor it is expressly said, \"Then shall they,\" all of them jointly,\nand every one apart, \"also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw\nwe thus and thus, and did not minister unto thee?\" (Matt 25:44) I\ncould here bring you in the plea of the slothful servant, the cry\nof the foolish virgins; I could also here enlarge upon that passage,\n\"Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou\nhast taught in our streets?\" But these things are handled already\nin the handling of which this first part of the observation is\nproved; wherefore, without more words, I will, God assisting by\nhis grace, descend to the second part thereof, to wit,\n\n[Second. THERE WILL BE BUT FEW OF THEM THAT PUT IN CLAIM THERETO\nTHAT WILL ENJOY IT FOR THEIR INHERITANCE.]\n\nI shall speak distinctly to this part of the observation, and shall\nfirst confirm it by a Scripture or two. \"Strait is the gate, and\nnarrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that\nfind it.\" (Matt 7:14) \"Fear not, little flock, for it is your\nFather's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.\" (Luke 12:32) By\nthese two texts, and by many more that will be urged anon, you may\nsee the truth of what I have said.\n\nTo enlarge, therefore, upon the truth; and, First, more generally;\nSecond, more particularly. More generally, I shall prove that in\nall ages but few have been saved. More particularly, I shall prove\nbut few of them that profess have been saved.\n\n[First, Generally--in all ages but few have been saved.]\n\n1. In the old world, when it was most populous, even in the days\nof Noah, we read but of eight persons that were saved out of it;\nwell, therefore, might Peter call them but few; but how few? why,\nbut eight souls; \"wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by\nwater.\" (1 Peter 3:20) He touches a second time upon this truth,\nsaying, He \"spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth\nperson, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the\nworld of the ungodly.\" (2 Peter 2:5) Mark, all the rest are called\nthe ungodly, and there were also a world of them. These are also\ntaken notice of in Job, and go there also by the name of wicked\nmen: \"Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?\nwhich were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown\nwith a flood, which said unto God, Depart from us, and what can\nthe Almighty do for them?\" (Job 22:15-17)\n\nThere were therefore but eight persons that escaped the wrath of\nGod, in the day that the flood came upon the earth; the rest were\nungodly; there was also a world of them, and they are to this day\nin the prison of hell. (Heb 11:7, 1 Peter 3:19,20) Nay, I must\ncorrect my pen, there were but seven of the eight that were good;\nfor Ham, though he escaped the judgment of the water, yet the curse\nof God overtook him to his damnation. 2. When the world began again\nto be replenished, and people began to multiply therein: how few,\neven in all ages, do we read of that were saved from the damnation\nof the world!\n\n(1.) One Abraham and his wife, God called out of the land of the\nChaldeans; \"I called,\" said God, \"Abraham alone.\" (Isa 51:2)\n\n(2.) One Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah, out of Admah and Zeboim;\none Lot out of four cities! Indeed his wife and two daughters went\nout of Sodom with him; but they all three proved naught, as you\nmay see in the 19th of Genesis. Wherefore Peter observes, that Lot\nonly was saved: \"He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into\nashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an example\nunto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot,\nthat righteous man.\" (Read 2 Peter 2:6-8) Jude says, that in this\ncondemnation God overthrew not only Sodom and Gomorrah, but the\ncities about them also; and yet you find none but Lot could be\nfound that was righteous, either in Sodom or Gomorrah, or the cities\nabout them; wherefore they, all of them, suffer the vengeance of\neternal fire. (verse 7)\n\n(3.) Come we now to the time of the Judges, how few then were godly,\neven then when the inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased\nin Israel! \"the highways\" of God \"were\" then \"unoccupied.\" (Judg\n5:6,7)\n\n(4.) There were but few in the days of David: \"Help, Lord,\" says\nhe, \"for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among\nthe children of men.\" (Psa 12:1)\n\n(5.) In Isaiah's time the saved were come to such a few, that he\npositively says that there were a very small number left: \"God had\nmade them like Sodom, and they had been like unto Gomorrah.\" (Isa\n1:8,9)\n\n(6.) It was cried unto them in the time of Jeremiah, that they\nshould \"run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see\nnow, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can\nfind a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh\nthe truth, and I will pardon it.\" (Jer 5:1)\n\n(7.) God showed his servant Ezekiel how few there would be saved\nin his day, by the vision of a few hairs saved out of the midst of\na few hairs; for the saved were a few saved out of a few. (Eze 5:5)\n\n(8.) You find in the time of the prophet Micah, how the godly\ncomplain, that as to number they then were so few, that he compares\nthem to those that are left behind when they had gathered the\nsummer-fruit. (Micah 7:1)\n\n(9.) When Christ was come, how did he confirm this truth, that but\nfew of them that put in claim for heaven will have it for their\ninheritance! But the common people could not hear it, and therefore,\nupon a time when he did but a little hint at this truth, the people,\neven all in the synagogue where he preached it, \"were filled with\nwrath, rose up, thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the\nbrow of the hill,\" whereon their city was built, \"that they might\ncast him down headlong.\" (Luke 4:24-29)\n\n(10.) John, who was after Christ, saith, \"The whole world lieth in\nwickedness; that all the world wondered after the beast; and that\npower was given to the beast over all kindreds, tongues, and nations.\"\nPower to do what? Why, to cause all, both great and small, rich\nand poor, bond and free, to receive his mark, and to be branded\nfor him. (1 John 5:10, Rev 13:3,7,16)\n\n(11.) Should we come to observation and experience, the show of\nthe countenance of the bulk of men doth witness against them; \"they\ndeclare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.\" (Isa 3:9) Where is\nthe man that maketh the Almighty God his delight, and that designeth\nhis glory in the world? Do not even almost all pursue this world,\ntheir lusts and pleasures? and so, consequently, say unto God,\n\"Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways; or,\nWhat is the Almighty that we should serve him? It is in vain to\nserve God,\" &c.\n\nSo that without doubt it will appear a truth in the day of God,\nthat but few of them that shall put in their claim to heaven will\nhave it for their inheritance.\n\nBefore I pass this head, I will show you to what the saved are\ncompared in the Scriptures.\n\n[To what the saved are compared in Scripture.]\n\n1. They are compared to a handful: \"There shall be a handful of\ncorn in the earth upon the top of the mountains,\" &c. (Psa 72:16)\nThis corn is nothing else but them that shall be saved. (Matt 3:12,\n13:30) But mark, \"There shall be a handful\": What is a handful,\nwhen compared with the whole heap? or, what is a handful out of\nthe rest of the world?\n\n2. As they are compared to a handful, so they are compared to\na lily among the thorns, which is rare, and not so commonly seen:\n\"As the lily among thorns,\" saith Christ, \"so is my love among the\ndaughters.\" (Cant 2:2) By thorns, we understand the worst and best\nof men, even all that are destitute of the grace of God, for \"the\nbest of them is a brier, the most upright\" of them \"as a thorn-hedge.\"\n(Micah 7:4, 2 Sam 23:6) I know that she may be called a lily amongst\nthorns also, because she meets with the pricks of persecution. (Eze\n2:6, 28:24) She may also be thus termed, to show the disparity that\nis betwixt hypocrites and the church. (Luke 8:14, Heb 8) But this\nis not all; the saved are compared to a lily among thorns, to show\nyou that they are but few in the world; to show you that they are\nbut few and rare; for as Christ compares her to a lily among thorns,\nso she compares him to an apple-tree among the trees of the wood,\nwhich is rare and scarce; not common.\n\n3. They that are saved are called but one of many; for though\nthere be \"threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins\nwithout number,\" yet my love, saith Christ, is but one, my undefiled\nis but one. (Cant 6:8,9) According to that of Jeremiah, \"I will\ntake you one of a city.\" (Jer 3:14) That saying of Paul is much\nlike this, \"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but\none receiveth the prize?\" (1 Cor 9:24) But one, that is, few of\nmany, few of them that run; for he is not here comparing them that\nrun with them that sit still, but with them that run, some run and\nlose, some run and win; they that run and win are few in comparison\nwith them that run and lose: \"They that run in a race run all, but\none receives the prize\"; let there then be \"threescore queens, and\nfourscore concubines, and virgins without number,\" yet the saved\nare but few.\n\n4. They that are saved are compared to the gleaning after the vintage\nis in: \"Woe is me,\" said the church, \"for I am as when they have\ngathered the summer-fruits, as the grape-gleanings\" after the\nvintage is in. (Micah 7:1) The gleanings! What are the gleanings\nto the whole crop? and yet you here see, to the gleanings are\nthe saved compared. It is the devil and sin that carry away the\ncartloads, while Christ and his ministers come after a gleaning. But\nthe gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim are better than the vintage\nof Abiezer. (Judg 8:2) Them that Christ and his ministers glean up\nand bind up in the bundle of life, are better than the loads that\ngo the other way. You know it is often the cry of the poor in\nharvest, Poor gleaning, poor gleaning. And the ministers of the\ngospel they also cry, Lord, \"who hath believed our report? and to\nwhom is the arm of the Lord revealed?\" (Isa 53:1) When the prophet\nspeaks of the saved under this metaphor of gleaning, how doth he\namplify the matter? \"Gleaning-grapes shall be left,\" says he, \"two\nor three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five\nin the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord.\" (Isa\n17:6) Thus you see what gleaning is left in the vineyard, after the\nvintage is in; two or three here, four or five there. Alas! they\nthat shall be saved when the devil and hell have had their due,\nthey will be but as the gleaning, they will be but few; they that\ngo to hell, go thither in clusters, but the saved go not so to\nheaven. (Matt 13:30, Micah 7) Wherefore when the prophet speaketh\nof the saved, he saith there is no cluster; but when he speaketh of\nthe damned, he saith they are gathered by clusters. (Rev 14:18,19)\nO sinners! but few will be saved! O professors! but few will be\nsaved!\n\n5. They that shall be saved are compared to jewels: \"and they shall\nbe mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my\njewels.\" (Mal 3:17) Jewels, you know, are rare things, things that\nare not found in every house. Jewels will lie in little room, being\nfew and small, though lumber takes up much. In almost every house,\nyou may find brass, and iron, and lead; and in every place you may\nfind hypocritical professors, but the saved are not these common\nthings; they are God's peculiar treasure. (Psa 135:4) Wherefore Paul\ndistinguisheth betwixt the lumber and the treasure in the house.\nThere is, saith he, in a great house, not only vessels of gold and\nsilver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour, and some\nto dishonour. (2 Tim 2:20) Here is a word for wooden and earthy\nprofessors; the jewels and treasures are vessels to honour, they\nof wood and earth are vessels of dishonour, that is, vessels for\ndestruction. (Rom 9:21) 6. They that shall be saved are compared\nto a remnant: \"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very\nsmall remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have\nbeen like unto Gomorrah.\" (Isa 1:9) A remnant, a small remnant, a\nvery small remnant! O how doth the Holy Ghost word it! and all to\nshow you how few shall be saved. Every one knows what a remnant\nis, but this is a small remnant, a very small remnant. So again,\n\"Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the\nnations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people,\nthe remnant of Israel.\" (Jer 31:7) What shall I say? the saved\nare often in Scripture called a remnant. (Eze 9:4,8, Isa 10:20-22,\n11:11,16, Jer 23:3, Joel 2:32) But what is a remnant to the whole\npiece? What is a remnant of people to the whole kingdom? or what\nis a remnant of wheat to the whole harvest?\n\n7. The saved are compared to the tithe or tenth part; wherefore\nwhen God sendeth the prophet to make the hearts of the people fat,\ntheir ears dull, and to shut their eyes, the prophet asketh, \"How\nlong?\" to which God answereth, \"Until the cities be wasted without\ninhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly\ndesolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a\ngreat forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet,\" as God saith\nin another place, \"I will not make a full end,\" \"in it shall be\na tenth,--so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.\" (Isa\n6:10-13) But what is a tenth? What is one in ten? And yet so speaks\nthe Holy Ghost, when he speaks of the holy seed, of those that were\nto be reserved from the judgment. And observe it, the fattening\nand blinding of the rest, it was to their everlasting destruction;\nand so both Christ and Paul expounds it often in the New Testament.\n(Matt 13:14,15, Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10, John 12:40, Acts 28:26, Rom\n11:8) So that those that are reserved from them that perish will\nbe very few, one in ten: \"A tenth shall return, so the holy seed\nshall be the substance thereof.\" 14\n\nI shall not add more generals at this time. I pray God that the\nworld be not offended at these. But without doubt, but few of them\nthat shall put in their claim for heaven will have it for their\ninheritance; which will yet further appear in the reading of that\nwhich follows.\n\n[Second. Particularly--but few of them that profess have been\nsaved.]\n\nTherefore I come more particularly to show you that but few shall\nbe saved. I say, but few of professors themselves will be saved;\nfor that is the truth that the text doth more directly look at\nand defend. Give me, therefore, thy hand, good reader, and let us\nsoberly walk through the rest of what shall be said; and let us\ncompare as we go each particular with the holy Scripture.\n\n1. It is said, \"The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a\nvineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.\"\n(Isa 1:8) The vineyard was the church of Israel, the cottage in that\nvineyard was the daughter of Zion, or the truly gracious amongst,\nor in that church. (Isa 5:1) A cottage; God had but a cottage there,\nbut a little habitation in the church, a very few that were truly\ngracious amongst that great multitude that professed; and had it\nnot been for these, for this cottage, the rest had been ruined as\nSodom: \"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us,\" in the church,\na very few, they had been as Sodom. (Isa 1:9) Wherefore, among\nthe multitude of them that shall be damned, professors will make\na considerable party.\n\n2. \"For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea,\na remnant of them shall return,\" \"a remnant shall be saved.\" (Isa\n10:22, Rom 9:27) For though thy people Israel, whom thou broughtest\nout of Egypt, to whom thou hast given church-constitution, holy laws,\nholy ordinances, holy prophets, and holy covenants; thy people by\nseparation from all people, and thy people by profession; though\nthis thy people be as the sand of the sea, \"a remnant shall be\nsaved\"; wherefore, among the multitude of them that shall be damned,\nprofessors will make a considerable party.\n\n3. \"Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath\nrejected them.\" (Jer 6:30) The people here under consideration\nare called, in verse 27, God's people, his people by profession:\n\"I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that\nthou mayest know, and try their way.\" What follows? They are all\ngrievous revolters, walking with slanders, reprobate silver; the\nLord hath rejected them. In chapter 7, verse 29, they are called\nalso the generation of his wrath: \"For the Lord hath rejected and\nforsaken the generation of his wrath.\" This, therefore, I gather\nout of these holy Scriptures,--that with reference to profession\nand church-constitution, a people may be called the people of God;\nbut, with reference to the event and final conclusion that God\nwill make with some of them, they may be truly the generation of\nhis wrath.\n\n4. In the fifth of Isaiah, you read again of the vineyard of God,\nand that it was planted on a very fruitful hill, planted with\nthe choicest vines, had a wall, a tower, a wine-press belonging\nto it, and all things that could put it into right order and good\ngovernment, as a church; but this vineyard of the Lord of hosts\nbrought forth wild grapes, fruits unbecoming her constitution and\ngovernment, wherefore the Lord takes from her his hedge and wall,\nand lets her be trodden down. Read Christ's exposition upon it in\nMatthew 21:33, &c. Look to it, professors, these are the words of\nthe text, \"For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and\nshall not be able.\"\n\n5. \"Son of man,\" said God to the prophet, \"the house of Israel is\nto me become dross, all they are brass and tin, and iron and lead,\nin the midst of the furnace they even are the dross of silver.\" (Eze\n22:18) God had silver there, some silver, but it was but little;\nthe bulk of that people was but the dross of the church, though\nthey were the members of it. But what doth he mean by the dross?\nwhy, he looked upon them as no better, notwithstanding their\nchurch-membership, than the rabble of the world, that is, with\nrespect to their latter end; for to be called dross, it is to be\nput amongst the rest of the sinners of the world, in the judgment\nof God, though at present they abide in his house: \"Thou puttest\naway all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love thy\ntestimonies.\" (Psa 119:119)\n\nGod saith of his saved ones, \"He hath chosen them in the furnace\nof affliction.\" The refiner, when he putteth his silver into his\nfurnace, he puts lead in also among it; now this lead being ordered\nas he knows how, works up the dross from the silver, which dross,\nstill as it riseth, he putteth by, or taketh away with an instrument.\nAnd thus deals God with his church; there is silver in his church,\naye, and there is also dross: now the dross are the hypocrites and\ngraceless ones that are got into the church, and these will God\ndiscover, and afterwards put away as dross. So that it will without\ndoubt prove a truth of God, that many of their professors that\nshall put in claim for heaven, will not have it for their inheritance.\n\n6. It is said of Christ, his \"fan is in his hand, and he will\nthoroughly purge his floor, and will gather his wheat into the\ngarner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.\"\n(Matt 3:12) The floor is the church of God: \"O my threshing, and\nthe corn of my floor!\" said God by the prophet, to his people. (Isa\n21:10) The wheat are these good ones in his church that shall be\nundoubtedly saved; therefore he saith, \"Gather my wheat into my\ngarner.\" The chaff groweth upon the same stalk and ear, and so is\nin the same visible body with the wheat, but there is not substance\nin it: wherefore in time they must be severed one from the other;\nthe wheat must be gathered into the garner, which is heaven; and\nthe chaff, or professors that want true grace, must be gathered into\nhell, that they may be burned up with unquenchable fire. Therefore\nlet professors look to it! 15\n\n7. Christ Jesus casts away two of the three grounds that are said\nto receive the word. (Luke 8)\n\nThe stony ground received it with joy, and the thorny ground brought\nforth fruit almost to perfection. Indeed the highway ground was to\nshow us that the carnal, whilst such, receive not the word at all;\nbut here is the pinch, two of the three that received it, fell\nshort of the kingdom of heaven; for but one of the three received\nit so as to bring forth fruit to perfection. Look to it, professors!\n\n8. The parable of the unprofitable servant, the parable of the man\nwithout a wedding garment, and the parable of the unsavoury salt,\ndo each of them justify this for truth. (Matt 25:24,29, 22:11-13,\n5:13) That of the unprofitable servant is to show us the sloth\nand idleness of some professors; that of the man without a wedding\ngarment is to show us how some professors have the shame of their\nwickedness seen by God, even when they are among the children of\nthe bridegroom; and that parable of the unsavoury salt is to show,\nthat as the salt that hath lost its savour is fit for nothing, no,\nnot for the dunghill, but to be trodden under foot of men; so some\nprofessors, yea, and great ones too, for this parable reached one\nof the apostles, will in God's day be counted fit for nothing but\nto be trodden down as the mire in the streets. O the slothful, the\nnaked, and unsavoury professors, how will they be rejected of God\nand his Christ in the judgment! Look to it, professors!\n\n9. The parable of the tares also giveth countenance to this truth:\nfor though it be said the field is the world, yet it is said, the\ntares were sown even in the church. \"And while men slept, his enemy\ncame and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.\" (Matt\n13:24,25) Object. But some may object, The tares might be sown in\nthe world among the wheat, though not in the churches. Answ. But\nChrist, by expounding this parable, tells us the tares were sown\nin his kingdom; the tares, that is, the children of the devil. \"As\ntherefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall\nit be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth\nhis angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things\nthat offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into\na furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.\"\n(verse 30,39-43) Look to it, professors!\n\n10. The parable of the ten virgins also suiteth our purpose; these\nten are called the kingdom of heaven, that is, the church of Christ,\nthe visible rightly-constituted church of Christ; for they went\nall out of the world, had all lamps, and all went forth to meet\nthe bridegroom; yet behold what an overthrow the one-half of them\nmet with at the gate of heaven; they were shut out, bid to depart,\nand Christ told them he did not know them. (Matt 25:1-13) Tremble,\nprofessors! Pray, professors!\n\n11. The parable of the net that was cast into the sea, that also\ncountenanceth this truth. The substance of that parable is to\nshow that souls may be gathered by the gospel--there compared to a\nnet--may be kept in that net, drawn to shore, to the world's end,\nby that net, and yet may then prove bad fishes, and be cast away.\nThe parable runs thus:--\"The kingdom of heaven,\" the gospel, \"is like\nunto a net which was cast into the sea,\" the world, \"and gathered\nof every kind,\" good and bad, \"which when it was full, they drew\nto shore,\" to the end of the world, \"and sat down,\" in judgment,\n\"and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.\" Some\nbad fishes, nay, I doubt a great many, will be found in the net of\nthe gospel, at the day of judgment. (Matt 13:47,49) Watch and be\nsober, professors!\n\n12. \"And--many shall come from the east and from the west, and\nshall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom\nof heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out.\"\n(Matt 8:11,12) The children of the kingdom, whose privileges were\nsaid to be these, \"to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,\nand the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of\nGod, and the promises.\" (Rom 9:4) I take liberty to harp the more\nupon the first church, because that that happened to them, happened\nas types and examples, intimating, there is ground to think, that\nthings of as dreadful a nature are to happen among the church of\nthe Gentiles. (1 Cor 10:11,12) Neither, indeed, have the Gentile\nchurches security from God that there shall not as dreadful things\nhappen to them. And concerning this very thing, sufficient caution\nis given to us also. (1 Cor 6:9,10, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:3-6, Phil\n3:17,19, 2 Thess 2:11,12, 2 Tim 2:20,21, Heb 6:4-8, 10:26-28, 2\nPeter 2, 3, 1 John 5:10, Rev 2:20-22)\n\n13. The parable of the true vine and its branches confirm what I\nhave said. By the vine there I understand Christ, Christ as head;\nby the branches, I understand this church. Some of these branches\nproved fruitless cast-always, were in time cast out of the church,\nwere gathered by men, and burned. (John 15:1-6)\n\n14. Lastly, I will come to particular instances.\n\n(1.) The twelve had a devil among them. (John 6:70) (2.) Ananias\nand Sapphira were in the church of Jerusalem. (Acts 5) (3.) Simon\nMagus was among them at Samaria. (Acts 8) (4.) Among the church of\nCorinth were them that had not the knowledge of God. (1 Cor 15:34)\n(5.) Paul tells the Galatians that false brethren crept in unawares;\nand so does the apostle Jude, and yet they were as quick-sighted to\nsee as any now-a-days. (Gal 2:4, Jude 4) (6.) The church in Sardis\nhad but a few names in her, to whom the kingdom of heaven belonged.\n\"Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled\ntheir garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are\nworthy.\" (Rev 3:4) (7.) As for the church of the Laodiceans, it is\ncalled \"wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.\"\n(Rev 3:17) So that put all things together, and I may boldly say,\nas I also have said already, that among the multitude of them that\nshall be damned, professors will make a considerable party; or,\nto speak in the words of the observation, \"when men have put in\nall the claim they can for heaven, but few will have it for their\ninheritance.\"\n\n[REASONS WHY FEW ARE SAVED.]\n\nI will show you some reasons of the point, besides those five that\nI showed you before. And, First, I will show you why the poor,\ncarnal, ignorant world miss of heaven; and then, Second, why the\nknowing professors miss of it also.\n\n[First, Why the poor, carnal, ignorant world miss heaven.]\n\n1. The poor, carnal, ignorant world miss of heaven even because\nthey love their sins, and cannot part with them. \"Men loved darkness\nrather than light, because their deeds were evil.\" (John 3:19) The\npoor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they are enemies in\ntheir minds to God, his Word, and holiness; they must be all damned\nwho take pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess 2:10-12) The poor\nignorant world miss of heaven, because they stop their ears against\nconvictions, and refuse to come when God calls. \"Because I have\ncalled, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man\nregarded, but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none\nof my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock\nwhen your fear cometh--as desolation, and your destruction--as a\nwhirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you; then shall\nthey call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early,\nbut they shall not find me.\" (Prov 1:24-29)\n\n2. The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because the god of this\nworld hath blinded their eyes, that they can neither see the evil\nand damnable state they are in at present, nor the way to get out\nof it; neither do they see the beauty of Jesus Christ, nor how\nwilling he is to save poor sinners. (2 Cor 4:2,3)\n\n3. The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they put off\nand defer coming to Christ, until the time of God's patience and\ngrace is over. Some, indeed, are resolved never to come; but some,\nagain, say, We will come hereafter; and so it comes to pass, that\nbecause God called, and they did not hear; so they shall cry, and\nI will not hear, saith the Lord. (Zech 7:11-13)\n\n4. The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they have false\napprehensions of God's mercy. They say in their hearts, We shall\nhave peace, though we walk in the imagination of our heart, to add\ndrunkenness to thirst. But what saith the Word? \"The Lord will not\nspare him; but then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall\nsmoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this\nbook shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from\nunder heaven.\" (Deu 29:19-21)\n\n5. The poor ignorant world miss of heaven, because they make light\nof the gospel that offereth mercy to them freely, and because they\nlean upon their own good meanings, and thinkings, and doings. (Matt\n22:1-5, Rom 9:30,31)\n\n6. The poor carnal world miss of heaven because by unbelief, which\nreigns in them, they are kept for ever from being clothed with\nChrist's righteousness, and from washing in his blood, without which\nthere is neither remission of sin, nor justification. But to pass\nthese till anon.\n\n[Second.] I come, in the next place, to show you some reasons why\nthe professor falls short of heaven.\n\nFirst. In the general, they rest in things below special grace; as\nin awakenings that are not special, in faith16 that is not special,\n&c.; and, a little to run a parallel betwixt the one and the other,\nthat, if God will, you may see and escape.\n\n1. Have they that shall be saved, awakenings about their state by\nnature? So have they that shall be damned. They that never go to\nheaven may see much of sin, and of the wrath of God due thereto.\nThis had Cain and Judas, and yet they came short of the kingdom.\n(Gen 4, Matt 27:4) The saved have convictions, in order to their\neternal life; but the others' convictions are not so. The convictions\nof the one doth drive them sincerely to Christ; the convictions of\nthe other doth drive them to the law, and the law to desperation\nat last.\n\n2. There is a repentance that will not save, a repentance to\nbe repented of; and a repentance to salvation, not to be repented\nof. (2 Cor 7:10) Yet so great a similitude and likeness there is\nbetwixt the one and the other, that most times the wrong is taken\nfor the right, and through this mistake professors perish. As,\n(1.) In saving repentance there will be an acknowledgment of sin;\nand one that hath the other repentance may acknowledge his sins also.\n(Matt 27:4) (2.) In saving repentance there is a crying out under\nsin; but one that hath the other repentance may cry out under sin\nalso. (Gen 4:13) (3.) In saving repentance there will be humiliation\nfor sin; and one that hath the other repentance may humble himself\nalso. (1 Kings 21:29) (4.) Saving repentance is attended with\nself-loathing; but he that hath the other repentance may have\nloathing of sin too; a loathing of sin, because it is sin, that\nhe cannot have; but a loathing of sin, because it is offensive to\nhim, that he may have. The dog doth not loath that which troubleth\nhis stomach because it is there, but because it troubleth him; when\nit has done troubling of him, he can turn to it again, and lick it\nup as before it troubled him. (2 Peter 2:22) (5.) Saving repentance\nis attended with prayers and tears; but he that hath none but the\nother repentance, may have prayers and tears also. (Gen 27:34,35,\nHeb 12:16,17) (6.) In saving repentance there is fear and reverence\nof the Word and ministers that bring it; but this may be also where\nthere is none but the repentance that is not saving; for Herod\nfeared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy, and observed\nhim; when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.\n(Mark 6:20) (7.) Saving repentance makes a man's heart very tender\nof doing anything against the Word of God. But Balaam could say,\n\"If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot\ngo beyond the commandment of the Lord.\" (Num 24:13)\n\nBehold, then, how far a man may go in repentance, and yet be short\nof that which is called, \"Repentance unto salvation, not to be\nrepented of.\" (a.) He may be awakened; (b.) He may acknowledge his\nsin; (c.) He may cry out under the burden of sin; (d.) He may have\nhumility for it; (e.) He may loath it; (f.) May have prayers and\ntears against it; (g.) may delight to do many things of God; (h.)\nMay be afraid of sinning against him--and, after all this, may\nperish, for want of saving repentance.\n\nSecond. Have they that shall be saved, faith? Why, they that shall\nnot be saved may have faith also; yea, a faith in many things so\nlike the faith that saveth, that they can hardly be distinguished,\nthough they differ both in root and branch. To come to particulars.\n\n1. Saving faith hath Christ for its object, and so may the faith\nhave that is not saving. Those very Jews of whom it is said they\nbelieved on Christ, Christ tells them, and that after their believing,\n\"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye\nwill do.\" (John 8:30-44) 2. Saving faith is wrought by the Word\nof God, and so may the faith be that is not saving. (Luke 8:13)\n3. Saving faith looks for justification without works, and so may\na faith do that is not saving. (James 2:18) 4. Saving faith will\nsanctify and purify the heart, and the faith that is not saving may\nwork a man off from the pollutions of the world, as it did Judas,\nDemas, and others. (2 Peter 2) 5. Saving faith will give a man\ntastes of the world to come, and also joy by those tastes, and so\nwill the faith do that is not saving. (Heb 6:4,5, Luke 8:13) 6.\nSaving faith will help a man, if called thereto, to give his body\nto be burned for his religion, and so will the faith do that is\nnot saving. (1 Cor 13:1-5) 7. Saving faith will help a man to look\nfor an inheritance in the world to come, and that may the faith do\nthat is not saving. All those virgins \"took their lamps, and went\nforth to meet the bridegroom.\" (Matt 25:1) 8. Saving faith will\nnot only make a man look for, but prepare to meet the bridegroom,\nand so may the faith do that is not saving. \"Then all those virgins\narose, and trimmed their lamps.\" (Matt 25:7) 9. Saving faith will\nmake a man look for an interest in the kingdom of heaven with\nconfidence, and the faith that is not saving will even demand\nentrance of the Lord. \"Lord, Lord, open to us.\" (Matt 25:11) 10.\nSaving faith will have good works follow it into heaven, and the\nfaith that is not saving may have great works follow it, as far as\nto heaven gates. \"Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in\nthy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful\nworks?\" (Matt 7:22)\n\nNow, then, if the faith that is not saving may have Christ for\nits object, be wrought by the Word, look for justification without\nworks, work men off from the pollutions of the world, and give men\ntastes of, and joy in the things of another world--I say again,\nif it will help a man to burn for his judgment, and to look for an\ninheritance in another world; yea, if it will help a man to prepare\nfor it, claim interest in it; and if it can carry great works, many\ngreat and glorious works, as far as heaven gates, then no marvel\nif abundance of people take this faith for the saving faith, and\nso fall short of heaven thereby. Alas, friends! There are but few\nthat can produce such [works] for repentance; and such faith, as\nyet you see I have proved even reprobates have had in several ages\nof the church. 17\n\nBut,\n\nThird. They that go to heaven are a praying people; but a man may\npray that shall not be saved. Pray! He may pray, pray daily; yea,\nhe may ask of God the ordinances of justice, and may take delight\nin approaching to God; nay, further, such souls may, as it were,\ncover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying\nout. (Isa 28:2, Mal 2:13)\n\nFourth. Do God's people keep holy fasts? They that are not his\npeople may keep fasts also--may keep fasts often--even twice a\nweek. \"The Pharisee stood, and prayed thus with himself: God, I\nthank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,\nadulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I\ngive tithes of all that I possess.\" (Luke 18:11,12) I might enlarge\nupon things, but I intend but a little book. I do not question but\nmany Balaamites will appear before the judgment-seat to condemnation;\nmen that have had visions of God, and that knew the knowledge of\nthe Most High; men that have had the Spirit of God come upon them,\nand that have by that been made other men; yet these shall go to\nthe generations of their fathers, they shall never see light. (Num\n24:2,4,16, 1 Sam 10:6,10, Psa 49:19)\n\nI read of some men whose excellency in religion mounts up to the\nheavens, and their heads reach unto the clouds, who yet shall perish\nfor ever like their own dung; and he that in this world hath seen\nthem, shall say at the judgment, Where are they? (Job 20:5-7) There\nwill be many a one, that were gallant professors in this world, be\nwanting among the saved in the day of Christ's coming; yea, many\nwhose damnation was never dreamed of. Which of the twelve ever\nthought that Judas would have proved a devil? Nay, when Christ\nsuggested that one among them was naught, they each were more\nafraid of themselves than of him. (Matt 26:21-23) Who questioned\nthe salvation of the foolish virgins? The wise ones did not; they\ngave them the privilege of communion with themselves. (Matt 25) The\ndiscerning of the heart, and the infallible proof of the truth of\nsaving grace, is reserved to the judgment of Jesus Christ at his\ncoming. The church and best of saints sometimes hit, and sometimes\nmiss in their judgments about this matter; and the cause of our\nmissing in our judgment is, 1. Partly because we cannot infallibly,\nat all times, distinguish grace that saveth from that which doth\nbut appear to do so. 2. Partly also because some men have the art\nto give right names to wrong things. 3. And partly because we,\nbeing commanded to receive him that is weak, are afraid to exclude\nthe least Christian. By a hid means hypocrites creep into the\nchurches. But what saith the Scripture? \"I the Lord search the\nheart, I try the reins.\" And again, \"All the churches shall know\nthat I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give\nunto every one of you according to your works.\" (Jer 11:20, 17:10,\nRev 2:23) To this Searcher of hearts is the time of infallible\ndiscerning reserved, and then you shall see how far grace that is\nnot saving hath gone; and also how few will be saved indeed. The\nLord awaken poor sinners by my little book.\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE.]\n\nI come now to make some brief use and application of the whole:\nand\n\n[USE FIRST.]--My first word shall be to the open profane.\nPoor sinner, thou readest here that but a few will be saved; that\nmany that expect heaven will go without heaven. What sayest thou\nto this, poor sinner? Let me say it over again. There are but few\nto be saved, but very few. Let me add, but few professors--but\nfew eminent professors. What sayest thou now, sinner? If judgment\nbegins at the house of God, what will the end of them be that obey\nnot the gospel of God? This is Peter's question. Canst thou answer\nit, sinner? Yea, I say again, if judgment must begin at them, will\nit not make thee think, What shall become of me? And I add, when\nthou shalt see the stars of heaven to tumble down to hell, canst\nthou think that such a muck-heap of sin as thou art shall be lifted\nup to heaven? Peter asks thee another question, to wit, \"If the\nrighteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner\nappear?\" (1 Peter 4:18) Canst thou answer this question, sinner?\nStand among the righteous thou mayest not: \"The ungodly shall\nnot stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the\nrighteous.\" (Psa 1:5) Stand among the wicked thou then wilt not\ndare to do. Where wilt thou appear, sinner? To stand among the\nhypocrites will avail thee nothing. The hypocrite \"shall not come\nbefore him,\" that is, with acceptance, but shall perish. (Job\n13:16) Because it concerns thee much, let me over with it again!\nWhen thou shalt see less sinners than thou art, bound up by angels\nin bundles, to burn them, where wilt thou appear, sinner? Thou mayest\nwish thyself another man, but that will not help thee, sinner. Thou\nmayest wish, Would I had been converted in time; but that will not\nhelp thee either. And if, like the wife of Jeroboam, thou shouldst\nfeign thyself to be another woman, the Prophet, the Lord Jesus,\nwould soon find thee out! What wilt thou do, poor sinner? Heavy\ntidings, heavy tidings, will attend thee, except thou repent, poor\nsinner! (1 Kings 14:2,5,6, Luke 13:3,5) O the dreadful state of\na poor sinner, of an open profane sinner! Everybody that hath but\ncommon sense knows that this man is in the broad way to death, yet\nhe laughs at his own damnation.\n\nShall I come to particulars with thee?\n\n1. Poor unclean sinner, the \"harlot's house is the way to hell,\ngoing down to the chambers of death.\" (Prov 2:18, 5:5, 7:27)\n\n2. Poor swearing and thievish sinner, God hath prepared the curse,\nthat \"every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side\naccording to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as\non that side, according to it.\" (Zech 5:3)\n\n3. Poor drunken sinner, what shall I say to thee? \"Woe to the\ndrunkards of Ephraim,\" \"woe unto them that are mighty to drink\nwine, and men of--strong drink; they shall not inherit the kingdom\nof heaven.\" (Isa 28:1, 5:22, 1 Cor 6:9,10)\n\n4. Poor covetous worldly man, God's Word says, that \"the covetous\nthe Lord abhorreth\"; that the \"covetous man is an idolater\"; and\nthat the covetous \"shall not inherit the kingdom of God.\" (Psa\n10:3, Eph 5:5, John 2:15, 1 Cor 6:9,10)\n\n5. And thou liar, what wilt thou do? \"All liars shall have their part\nin the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.\" (Rev 21:8,27)\n\nI shall not enlarge, poor sinner, let no man deceive thee; \"for\nbecause of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children\nof disobedience.\" (Eph 5:6) I will therefore give thee a short\ncall, and so leave thee.\n\nSinner, awake: yea, I say unto thee, awake! Sin lieth at thy door,\nand God's axe lieth at thy root, and hell-fire is right underneath\nthee. (Gen 4:7) I say again, Awake! \"Therefore every tree which\nbringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.\"\n(Matt 3:10)\n\nPoor sinner, awake; eternity is coming, and HIS SON, they are both\ncoming to judge the world; awake, art yet asleep, poor sinner? let\nme set the trumpet to thine ear once again! The heavens will be\nshortly on a burning flame; the earth, and the works thereof, shall\nbe burned up, and then wicked men shall go into perdition; dost\nthou hear this, sinner? (2 Peter 3) Hark again, the sweet morsels\nof sin will then be fled and gone, and the bitter burning fruits\nof them only left. What sayest thou now, sinner? Canst thou drink\nhell-fire? Will the wrath of God be a pleasant dish to thy taste?\nThis must be thine every day's meat and drink in hell, sinner!\n\nI will yet propound to thee God's ponderous question, and then for\nthis time leave thee: \"Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands\nbe strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?\" saith the Lord.\n(Eze 22:14) What sayest thou? Wilt thou answer this question now,\nor wilt thou take time to do it? or wilt thou be desperate, and\nventure all? And let me put this text in thine ear to keep it open;\nand so the Lord have mercy upon thee: \"Upon the wicked shall the\nLord rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this\nshall be the portion of their cup.\" (Psa 11:6) Repent, sinners!\n\n[USE SECOND.]--My second word is to them that are upon the potter's\nwheel; concerning whom we know not as yet whether their convictions\nand awakenings will end in conversion or not. Several things I\nshall say to you, both to further your convictions, and to caution\nyou from staying anywhere below or short of saving grace.\n\n1. Remember that but few shall be saved; and if God should count\nthee worthy to be one of that few, what a mercy would that be!\n\n2. Be thankful, therefore, for convictions; conversion begins at\nconviction, though all conviction doth not end in conversion. It\nis a great mercy to be convinced that we are sinners, and that we\nneed a Saviour; count it therefore a mercy, and that thy convictions\nmay end in conversion, do thou take heed of stifling of them. It\nis the way of poor sinners to look upon convictions as things that\nare hurtful; and therefore they use to shun the awakening ministry,\nand to check a convincing conscience. Such poor sinners are much\nlike to the wanton boy that stands at the maid's elbow, to blow out\nher candle as fast as she lights it at the fire. Convinced sinner,\nGod lighteth thy candle, and thou puttest it out; God lights it\nagain, and thou puttest it out. Yea, \"how oft is the candle of the\nwicked put out?\" (Job 21:17) At last, God resolveth he will light\nthy candle no more; and then, like the Egyptians, you dwell all\nyour days in darkness, and never see light more, but by the light\nof hell-fire; wherefore give glory to God, and if he awakens thy\nconscience, quench not thy convictions. Do it, saith the prophet,\n\"before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the\ndark mountains, and he turn\" your convictions \"into the shadow of\ndeath, and make them gross darkness.\" (Jer 13:16)\n\n(1.) Be willing to see the worst of thy condition. It is better\nto see it here than in hell; for thou must see thy misery here or\nthere. (2.) Beware of little sins; they will make way for great\nones, and they again will make way for bigger, upon which God's\nwrath will follow; and then may thy latter end be worse than thy\nbeginning. (2 Peter 2:20) (3.) Take heed of bad company, and evil\ncommunication, for that will corrupt good manners. God saith, evil\ncompany will turn thee away from following him, and will tempt\nthee to serve other gods, devils. \"So the anger of the Lord will\nbe kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.\" (Deu 7:4) (4.)\nBeware of such a thought as bids thee delay repentance, for that is\ndamnable. (Prov 1:24, Zech 7:12,13) (5.) Beware of taking example\nby some poor, carnal professor, whose religion lies in the tip of\nhis tongue. Beware, I say, of the man whose head swims with notions,\nbut \"his life is among the unclean.\" (Job 36:14) \"He that walketh\nwith wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be\ndestroyed.\" (Prov 13:20) (6.) Give thyself much to the Word, and\nprayer, and good conference. (7.) Labour to see the sin that cleaveth\nto the best of thy performances, and know that all is nothing if\nthou be not found in Jesus Christ. (8.) Keep in remembrance that\nGod's eye is upon thy heart, and upon all thy ways. \"Can any hide\nhimself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.\nDo not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.\" (Jer 23:24) (9.)\nBe often meditating upon death and judgment. (Eccl 11:9, 12:14) (10.)\nBe often thinking what a dreadful end sinners that have neglected\nChrist will make at that day of death and judgment. (Heb 10:31) (11.)\nPut thyself often, in thy thoughts, before Christ's judgment-seat,\nin thy sins, and consider with thyself, Were I now before my Judge,\nhow should I look, how should I shake and tremble? (12.) Be often\nthinking of them that are now in hell, past all mercy; I say, be\noften thinking of them, thus: They were once in the world, as I\nnow am; they once took delight in sin, as I have done; they once\nneglected repentance, as Satan would have me do. But now they are\ngone; now they are in hell, now the pit hath shut her mouth upon\nthem!\n\nThou mayest also doubt18 thy thoughts of the damned thus: If these\npoor creatures were in the world again, would they sin as they did\nbefore? would they neglect salvation as they did before? If they\nhad sermons, as I have; if they had the Bible, as I have; if they\nhad good company, as I have; yea, if they had a day of grace, as\nI have, would they neglect it as they did before?\n\nSinner, couldst thou soberly think of these things, they might\nhelp, God blessing them, to awaken thee, and to keep thee awake\nto repentance, to the repentance that is to salvation, never to be\nrepented of.\n\nObject. But you have said few shall be saved; and some that go a great\nway, yet are not saved. At this, therefore, I am even discouraged\nand weakened; I think I had as good go no further. I am, indeed,\nunder conviction, but I may perish; and if I go on in my sins, I\ncan but perish; and it is ten, twenty, and an hundred to one if I\nbe saved, should I be ever so earnest for heaven.\n\nAnsw. That few will be saved must needs be a truth, for Christ hath\nsaid it; that many go far, and come short of heaven, is as true,\nbeing testified by the same hand. But what then? \"Why, then had\nI as good never seek.\" Who told thee so? Must nobody seek because\nfew are saved? This is just contrary to the text, that bids us\ntherefore strive; strive to enter in, because the gate is strait,\nand because many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. But\nwhy go back again, seeing that is the next way to hell? Never go\nover hedge and ditch to hell. If I must needs go thither, I will\ngo the furthest way about. But who can tell, though there should\nnot be saved so many as there shall, but thou mayest be one of that\nfew? They that miss of life perish, because they will not let go\ntheir sins, or because they take up a profession short of the saving\nfaith of the gospel. They perish, I say, because they are content\nwith such things as will not prove graces of a saving nature when\nthey come to be tried in the fire. Otherwise, the promise is free,\nand full, and everlasting--\"Him that cometh to me,\" saith Christ,\n\"I will in no wise cast out\"; \"for God so loved the world, that he\ngave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should\nnot perish, but have everlasting life.\" (John 6:37, 3:16) Wherefore\nlet not this thought, Few shall be saved, weaken thy heart; but let\nit cause thee to mend thy pace, to mend thy cries, to look well to\nthy grounds for heaven; let it make thee fly faster from sin to\nChrist; let it keep thee awake, and out of carnal security, and\nthou mayest be saved.\n\n[USE THIRD.]--My third word is to professors. Sirs, give me leave\nto set my trumpet to your ears again a little. When every man hath\nput in all the claim they can for heaven, but few will have it\nfor their inheritance; I mean but few professors, for so the text\nintendeth, and so I have also proved. \"For many, I say unto you,\nwill seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\" Let me, therefore, a\nlittle expostulate the matter with you, O ye thousands of professors!\n\n1. I begin with you whose religion lieth only in your tongues;\nI mean you who are little or nothing known from the rest of the\nrabble of the world, only you can talk better than they. Hear me\na word or two. If \"I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,\nand have not charity,\" that is, love to God, and Christ, and saints,\nand holiness, \"I am nothing\"; no child of God, and so have nothing\nto do with heaven. (1 Cor 13:1,2) A prating tongue will not unlock\nthe gates of haven, nor blind the eyes of the Judge. Look to it.\n\"The wise in heart will receive commandments; but a prating fool\nshall fall.\" 19 (Prov 10:8)\n\n2. Covetous professor, thou that makest a gain of religion, that\nusest thy profession to bring grist to thy mill, look to it also.\nGain is not godliness. Judas' religion lay much in the bag, but\nhis soul is now burning in hell. All covetousness is idolatry; but\nwhat is that, or what will you call it, when men are religious for\nfilthy lucre's sake? (Eze 33:31)\n\n3. Wanton professors, I have a word for you; I mean you that\ncan tell how to misplead Scripture, to maintain your pride, your\nbanqueting, and abominable idolatry. Read what Peter says. You are\nthe snare and damnation of others. You \"allure through the lust of\nthe flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped\nfrom them who live in error.\" (2 Peter 2:18) Besides, the Holy\nGhost hath a great deal against you, for your feastings, and eating\nwithout fear, not for health, but gluttony. (Jude 12) Further, Peter\nsays, that you that count it pleasure to riot in the day-time are\nspots and blemishes, sporting yourselves with your own deceivings.\n(2 Peter 2:13) And let me ask, Did God give his Word to justify\nyour wickedness? or doth grace teach you to plead for the flesh,\nor the making provision for the lusts thereof? Of these also are\nthey that feed their bodies to strengthen their lusts, under pretence\nof strengthening frail nature. But pray, remember the text, \"Many,\nI say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n4. I come next to the opinionist; I mean, to him whose religion\nlieth in some circumstantials of religion. With this sort this\nkingdom swarms at this day. These think all out of the way that\nare not of their mode, when themselves may be out of the way in the\nmidst of their zeal for their opinions. Pray, do you also observe\nthe text; \"Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall\nnot be able.\"\n\n5. Neither is the formalist exempted from this number. He is a man\nthat hath lost all but the shell of religion. He is hot, indeed,\nfor his form; and no marvel, for that is his all to contend for.\nBut his form being without the power and spirit of godliness, it\nwill leave him in his sins; nay, he standeth now in them in the\nsight of God, and is one of the many that \"will seek to enter in,\nand shall not be able.\" (2 Tim 3:5)\n\n6. The legalist comes next, even him that hath no life but what he\nmakes out of his duties. This man hath chosen to stand or fall by\nMoses, who is the condemner of the world. \"There is one that accuseth\nyou, even Moses, in whom ye trust.\" (John 5:45)\n\n7. There is, in the next place, the libertine--he that pretendeth\nto be against forms and duties, as things that gender to bondage,\nneglecting the order of God. This man pretends to pray always, but,\nunder that pretence, prays not at all; he pretends to keep every\nday a Sabbath, but this pretence serves him only to cast off all\nset times for the worship of God. This is also one of the many that\n\"will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\" (Titus 1:16)\n\n8. There is the temporizing latitudinarian. He is a man that hath\nno God but his belly, nor any religion but that by which his belly\nis worshipped. His religion is always, like the times, turning\nthis way and that way, like the cock on the steeple; neither hath\nhe any conscience but a benumbed and seared one, and is next door\nto a downright atheist; and also is one of the many that \"will seek\nto enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n9. There is also the willfully ignorant professor, or him that is\nafraid to know more, for fear of the cross. He is for picking and\nchoosing of truth, and loveth not to hazard his all for that worthy\nname by which he would be called. When he is at any time overset by\narguments, or awakenings of conscience, he uses to heal all by--I\nwas not brought up in this faith; as if it were unlawful for Christians\nto know more than hath been taught them at first conversion. There\nare many Scriptures that lie against his man, as the mouths of\ngreat guns, and he is one of the many that \"will seek to enter in,\nand shall not be able.\"\n\n10. We will add to all these, the professor that would prove\nhimself a Christian, by comparing himself with others, instead of\ncomparing himself with the Word of God. This man comforts himself,\nbecause he is as holy as such and such; he also knows as such as\nthat old professor, and then concludes he shall go to heaven: as\nif he certainly knew, that those with whom he compareth himself\nwould be undoubtedly saved; but how if he should be mistaken? nay,\nmay they not both fall short? But to be sure he is in the wrong that\nhath made the comparison; and a wrong foundation will not stand in\nthe day of judgment. (2 Cor 10:12) This man, therefore, is one of\nthe many that \"will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.\"\n\n11. There is yet another professor; and he is for God and for Baal\ntoo; he can be anything for any company; he can throw stones with\nboth hands; his religion alters as fast as his company; he is a\nfrog of Egypt, and can live in the water and out of the water; he\ncan live in religious company, and again as well out. Nothing that\nis disorderly comes amiss to him; he will hold with the hare, and\nrun with the hound; he carries fire in the one hand, and water in\nthe other; he is a very anything but what he should be. This is\nalso one of the many that \"will seek to enter in, and shall not be\nable.\" 20\n\n12. There is also that free-willer, who denies to the Holy Ghost the\nsole work in conversion; and that Socinian, who denieth to Christ\nthat he hath made to God satisfaction for sin; and that Quaker,\nwho takes from Christ the two natures in his person: and I might\nadd as many more, touching whose damnation, they dying as they are,\nthe Scripture is plain: these \"will seek to enter in, and shall\nnot be able.\" But,\n\n[USE FOURTH.]--If it be so, what a strange disappointment will\nmany professors meet with at the day of judgment! I speak not now\nto the open profane; everybody, as I have said, that hath but common\nunderstanding between good and evil, knows that they are in the\nbroad way to hell and damnation, and they must needs come thither;\nnothing can hinder it but repentance unto salvation, except God\nshould prove a liar to save them, and it is hard venturing of that.\n\nNeither is it amiss, if we take notice of the examples that are\nbriefly mentioned in the Scriptures, concerning professors that\nhave miscarried. 1. Judas perished from among the apostles. (Acts\n1) 2. Demas, as I think, perished from among the evangelists. (2\nTim 4:10) 3. Diotrephes from among the ministers, or them in office\nin the church. (3 John 9) 4. And s for Christian professors, they\nhave fallen by heaps, and almost by whole churches. (2 Tim 1:15,\nRev 3:4,15-17) 5. Let us add to these, that the things mentioned in\nthe Scriptures about these matters, are but brief hints and items\nof what is afterwards to happen; as the apostle said, \"Some men's\nsins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men\nthey follow after.\" (1 Tim 5:24)\n\nSo that, fellow-professors, let us fear, lest a promise being left\nus of entering into this rest, any of us should seem to come short\nof it. O! to come short! nothing kills like it, nothing will burn\nlike it. I intend not discouragements, but awakenings; the churches\nhave need of awakening, and so have all professors. Do not despise\nme, therefore, but hear me over again. What a strange disappointment\nwill many professors meet with at the day of God Almighty!--a\ndisappointment, I say, and that as to several things.\n\n(1.) They will look to escape hell, and yet fall just into the\nmouth of hell: what a disappointment will be here! (2.) They will\nlook for heaven, but the gate of heaven will be shut against them:\nwhat a disappointment is here! (3.) They will expect that Christ\nshould have compassion for them, but will find that he hath shut\nup all bowels of compassion form them: what a disappointment is\nhere! Again,\n\n[USE FIFTH.]--As this disappointment will be fearful, so certainly\nit will be very full of amazement.\n\n1. Will it not amaze them to be unexpectedly excluded from life\nand salvation? 2. Will it not be amazing to them to see their own\nmadness and folly, while they consider how they have dallied with\ntheir own souls, and took lightly for granted that they had that\ngrace that would save them, but hath left them in a damnable state?\n3. Will they not also be amazed one at another, while they remember\nhow in their lifetime they counted themselves fellow-heirs of\nlife? To allude to that of the prophet, \"They shall be amazed one\nat another, their faces shall be as flames.\" (Isa 13:8) 4. Will it\nnot be amazing to some of the damned themselves, to see some come\nto hell that then they shall see come thither? to see preachers of\nthe Word, professors of the Word, practisers in the Word, to come\nthither. What wondering was there among them at the fall of the king\nof Babylon, since he thought to have swallowed up all, because he\nwas run down by the Medes and Persians! \"How art thou fallen from\nheaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to\nthe ground which didst weaken the nations!\" If such a thing as this\nwill with amazement surprise the damned, what an amazement will\nit be to them to see such a one as he whose head reached to the\nclouds, to see him come down to the pit, and perish for ever like\nhis own dung. \"Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee\nat thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief\nones of the earth.\" (Isa 14) They that see thee shall narrowly look\nupon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man? Is this he\nthat professed, and disputed, and forsook us; but now he is come to\nus again? Is this he that separated from us, but now he is fallen\nwith us into the same eternal damnation with us?\n\n[USE SIXTH.]--Yet again, one word more, if I may awaken professors.\nConsider, though the poor carnal world shall certainly perish, yet\nthey will want these things to aggravate their sorrow, which thou\nwilt meet with in every thought that thou wilt have of the condition\nthou wast in when thou wast in the world.\n\n1. They will not have a profession, to bite them when they come\nthither. 2. They will not have a taste of a lost heaven, to bite\nthem when they come thither. 3. They will not have the thoughts\nof, \"I was almost at heaven,\" to bite them when they come thither.\n4. They will not have the thoughts of, how they cheated saints,\nministers, churches, to bite them when they come thither. 5. They\nwill not have the dying thoughts of false faith, false hope, false\nrepentance, and false holiness, to bite them when they come thither.\nI was at the gates of heaven, I looked into heaven, I thought\nI should have entered into heaven; O how will these things sting!\nThey will, if I may call them so, be the sting of the sting of\ndeath in hell-fire.\n\n[USE SEVENTH.]--Give me leave now in a word to give you a little\nadvice.\n\n1. Dost thou love thine own soul? then pray to Jesus Christ for\nan awakened heart, for a heart so awakened with all the things of\nanother world, that thou mayest be allured to Jesus Christ. 2. When\nthou comest there, beg again for more awakenings about sin, hell,\ngrace, and about the righteousness of Christ. 3. Cry also for a\nspirit of discerning, that thou mayest know that which is saving\ngrace indeed. 4. Above all studies apply thyself to the study of\nthose things that show thee the evil of sin, the shortness of man's\nlife, and which is the way to be saved. 5. Keep company with the\nmost godly among professors. 6. When thou hearest what the nature\nof true grace is, defer not to ask thine own heart if this grace\nbe there. And here take heed--\n\n(1.) That the preacher himself be sound, and of good life. (2.) That\nthou takest not seeming graces for real ones, nor seeming fruits\nfor real fruits. (3.) Take heed that a sin in thy life goes\nnot unrepented of; for that will make a flaw in thine evidence, a\nwound in thy conscience, and a breach in thy peace; and a hundred\nto one, if at last it doth not drive all the grace in thee into\nso dark a corner of thy heart, that thou shalt not be able, for a\ntime, by all the torches that are burning in the gospel, to find\nit out to thine own comfort and consolation. 21\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 However homely this illustration, yet how striking. No family\nhas been many years without that uneasy anxiety--earnest seeking\nthe doctor to alleviate their sufferings, or those of a beloved\nrelative, and then the trembling hope that \"his excellent things\"\nmay produce the desired effect. Reader, have you had, at any time,\nequal anxiety for your soul's health and salvation? What has been\nthe result?--Ed.\n\n2 How delightfully but solemnly is this illustrated in the \"Pilgrim's\nProgress.\" The wicket-gate, at the head of the way, at which the\npoor burdened sinner must knock and obtain an entrance by Christ\nthe door. It may be like Mercy, with a trembling but sure hope.\nAnd then the glorious entrance into the Celestial City itself,\nafter crossing the river which has no bridge. This was opened to\nChristian, but shut against Ignorance and against Turnaway of the\nTown of Apostasy.--Ed.\n\n3 Much confusion appears to exist in the minds of many in reference\nto the \"strait gate\" mentioned in the text, as this passage\nis frequently introduced into exhortations to the unconverted. It\nis addressed exclusively to professors of religion--to those who\nprofess to have set out for the Celestial City, and seems to say,\nBeware of the form of godliness without its power--of the profession\nwithout the possession! For, as old Mason truly said, \"They fall\ndeepest into hell that fall backward.\" The \"striving\" here alluded\nto refers to the whole course of the believers' life, with its end\nin view--\"We labour to be accepted of him\" \"Give diligence,\" by\nadding to faith virtue, &c., \"to make your calling and election\nsure; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly\ninto the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\"\n(2 Peter 1:5-11)\n\n4 How well does our unlettered author give the meaning of strive,\nagonize.--Ed.\n\n5 Reader, while we bless God for being mercifully relieved from\nthose bodily privations and sufferings through which our pilgrim\nfathers passed, forget not that Satan plies all his arts to allure\nour souls from the narrow path. If we are saved from tedious\nimprisonments in damp dungeons--if Antichrist has lost much of his\npower, the flatterer is ever at hand to entangle us in his net--the\natheist is ever ready, by his derision and scorn, to drive us back\nto the City of Destruction.--Ed.\n\n6 In the edition printed 1692, \"an holiday saint\" is used. Saints'\ndays were holidays upon which the gayest dress was put on; but the\noutward affectation of religion in pious company is better expressed\nby \"holiday suit,\" and I have followed all the modern editors in\nconcluding that the word \"saint\" is a typographical error.--Ed.\n\n7 See the character of By-ends and his companions in the \"Pilgrim's\nProgress.\"\n\n8 O how few professors feel that the judgment of man is as nothing\nin comparison with that of a heart-searching God. Thousands would\ntremble at the thought of outwardly committing these great crimes,\nbut who inwardly, in spirit, are daily guilty of them before God.\nHe who is kept by Divine power from spiritual sins, is alone safe\nfrom the commission of carnal sins.--Ed.\n\n9 It is an awful fact that in every age of the church these\n\"blundering raw-headed preachers\" have abounded. It is a singular\nappellation to make use of to those who strut in black, and vainly\npride themselves upon being descended from the apostles. Alas!\nhow many are those whose hearts and heads are raw indeed as to any\ninfluences of vital religion, and whose whole ministry is calculated\nto mislead the souls of their fellow-sinners as to their eternal\nhopes. Reader, how solemn is our duty to examine what we hear by\nthe unerring Word--to try all things, and hold fast that only which\nis good.--Ed.\n\n10 More particularly in the \"Jerusalem Sinner Saved\"--\"He that\nwould be saved by Jesus Christ, through faith in his blood, cannot\nbe counted for such,\" &c. The sin against the Holy Ghost is an\nabandonment of Christianity--\"to crucify the Son of God afresh, and\nput him to an open shame.\" (Heb 6:6) Poor trembler, wouldst thou\ncrucify the Son of God afresh? If thy conscience says, Never! never!\nthou hast not committed this unpardonable sin.--Ed.\n\n11 The wedding garments being provided by the host, this man must\nhave refused it, and insults his King by sitting among the guests\nin his ordinary apparel. O reader, before you take a seat at the\nLord's table, take prayerful care to be clothed with the robe of\nrighteousness, otherwise you will eat to your utter condemnation\nand may, after all, be cast into outer darkness.--Ed.\n\n12 May these searching words make an indelible impression upon the\nheart of every reader. How striking, and alas! how true, is this\ndelineation of character. Religious when in company with\nprofessors--profane when with the world; pretending to be a\nChristian on a Sunday; striving to climb with Christian the Hill\nDifficulty--every other day running down the hill with Timorous\nand Mistrust. Such may get to the bottom of the hill, and hide\nthemselves in the world; but they can never lie concealed from God's\nanger, either in this world, or in the bottomless pit, whither they\nare hurrying to destruction.\n\n\"Sinner, O why so thoughtless grown? Why in such dreadful hast to\ndie?\"--Ed.\n\n13 \"Tend it,\" or attend to it. What madness does sin engender and\nfoster! The trifles of time entirely occupy the attention, while\nthe momentous affairs of eternity are put off to a more convenient\nopportunity.--Ed.\n\n14 Lowth's translation of this passage in Isaiah 6:13 not only confirms\nBunyan, but exhibits his view in a more prominent light:--\"And\nthough there be a tenth part remaining in it, even this shall\nundergo a repeated destruction; yet as the ilex and the oak, though\ncut down, hath its stock remaining, a holy seed shall be the stock\nof the nation.\"--Ed.\n\n15 How solemn the thought--there is but little wheat in comparison\nwith all the grass and vegetable produce of the earth; and in the\nharvest how much chaff and straw, which grew with the wheat, will\nbe cast out! Well may it be said, Look to it, professors.--Ed.\n\n16 The word \"faith\" was changed in 1737 for \"repentance,\" which has\nbeen continued in subsequent editions; \"faith\" is right. Awakenings\nand repentance are classed together under the first head, and faith\nunder the second.--Ed.\n\n17 Many readers will cry out, Who then can be saved? Without\ncharity, or the love of Christ in the heart, all faith and works\nare but dross. Love is the touchstone of faith and works--not\nto glorify ourselves, but him who has bought us with his own most\nprecious blood. Carry the solemn inquiry to the throne of grace,\nHave I passed from death unto life? for whosoever thus liveth\nbelieveth in Christ, and amidst the fatal wreck of professors, he\nshall never die.--Ed.\n\n18 \"To doubt\"; to suspect, make a question of, reconsider.--Ed.\n\n19 When Talkative asked Faithful what difference there is between\ncrying out against and abhorring sin, he answered, \"O! a great\ndeal; a man may cry out against sin of policy, but he cannot abhor\nit but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it. I have heard\nmany cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well\nenough in the heart, house, and conversation.\"--Pilgrim's Progress.\n\n20 Similar to By-ends who never strove for heaven against wind\nor weather; was most zealous when religion walked in his silver\nslippers, and walked with him in the streets, while the sun shone,\nand people applauded him.--Pilgrim's Progress.\n\n21 The striving inculcated in this treatise reminds us of Hopkins'\nbold appeal to conscience. He says, \"There must be a holy roughness\nand violence, to break through all that stands in our way; neither\ncaring for allurements, nor fearing opposition, but by a pious\nobstinacy and frowardness, we must thrust away the one and bear down\nthe other. This is the Christian who will carry heaven by force,\nwhen the whining pusillanimous professor, who only complains of\ndifficulty, but never attempts to conquer it, will be for ever shut\nout!\"--Ed.\n\n***\n\nLIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS;\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST:\n\nAND THAT HE UNDERTOOK TO ACCOMPLISH BY HIMSELF THE ETERNAL REDEMPTION\nOF SINNERS:\n\nALSO, HOW THE LORD JESUS ADDRESSED HIMSELF TO THIS WORK; WITH\nUNDENIABLE DEMONSTRATIONS THAT HE PERFORMED THE SAME.\n\nOBJECTIONS TO THE CONTRARY ANSWERED.\n\n'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a\ncurse for us.'--Galatians 3:13.\n\nby John Bunyan--1674\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis solemn and searching treatise was first published in 1674, a\ncopy of which is in the Editor's possession. The author's object\nis to correct some fatal errors which then peculiarly abounded,\nand to recommend the gospel in its purity to the acceptation of his\nfellow-sinners. Possessing that inward peace, serenity, happiness,\nand safety, arising from a scriptural knowledge of Christ and him\ncrucified, he proclaims, 'I have ventured my own soul thereon with\ngladness,' and 'if all the souls in the world were mine, I would\nventure them all.' His prayer is that others may receive the same\nlight and life by faith.\n\nEvery age has had its peculiar delusions for the trial of the\nspirit--mysticism in Bunyan's time, Puseyism in our days. Prior to\nthe Reformation, the clergy, called the church, claimed implicit\nobedience from the laity as essential to salvation, and taught\nthat inquiry was the high road to eternal ruin. After the Bible had\nbeen extensively circulated, many regarded it as the letter which\nkilleth--that it was of no importance, compared with the light\nwithin, which alone was essential. These were not the notions of any\none or two sects, but had spread their influence to a considerable\nextent over the Christian church. To check the growth of these\nerrors, and to recover those who had been misled by them, Bunyan\npublished this 'Light for them that sit in darkness.' His object\nis to prove that all our knowledge of the Saviour must be received\ndirectly from the written Word--that to understand these holy oracles,\nwe must seek and obtain Divine light. By this light we shall find\nthat Christ took upon himself our nature, and, by his holy and perfect\nobedience to the law, and sacrifice of himself as a sin-atoning\noffering, he redeemed all his saints, paid the FULL price of their\nredemption, and will present them unblameable, unreprovable, and\nacceptable to him that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.\nTheir robes are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb;\nthey are perfect as Christ is perfect; there is no condemnation to\nthem; their salvation is sure. To those whose spirits are dismayed\nunder a fear that they have sinned the unpardonable sin, the\narguments on the following pages are most consoling. Those who are\nunder that awful curse are sunk in a deathly state of insensibility,\nwhile they sit in the seat of the scorner. To be alarmed with the\nfear of having so offended the Saviour, is the best evidence that\nno such sin can have been committed. The closing chapter is full\nof striking solemnity. May its beneficial effects be felt, to the\nglory of God and the reader's solid peace.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nTHE AUTHOR TO THE READER.\n\nGentle Reader,\n\nIt was the great care of the apostle Paul to deliver his gospel to\nthe churches in its own simplicity, because so it is the power of\nGod unto salvation to every one that believeth. And if it was his\ncare so to deliver it to us, it should be ours to seek so to continue\nit; and the rather, because of the unaptness of the minds, even\nof the saints themselves, to retain it without commixture. For, to\nsay nothing of the projects of hell, and of the cunning craftiness\nof some that lie in wait to deceive even the godly themselves, as\nthey are dull of hearing, so much more dull in receiving and holding\nfast the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From their sense,\nand reason, and unbelief, and darkness, arise many imaginations\nand high thoughts, which exalt themselves against the knowledge of\nGod and the obedience of Jesus Christ, wherefore they themselves\nhave much ado to stand complete in all the will of God. And were\nthey not concerned in electing love, by which they are bound up\nin the bundle of life, and blessed with the enjoyment of saving\ngrace, which enlighteneth their souls and maintaineth their fath\nand hope, they would not only be assaulted and afflicted with their\nown corruptions, but, as others, overcome thereby.\n\nAlas! how ordinary a thing is it for professors to fall from the\nknowledge they have had of the glorious gospel of the blessed God,\nand to be turned unto fables, seducing spirits, and doctrines of\ndevils, through the intoxications of delusions and the witchcraft\nof false preachers.\n\nNow, this their swerving from the gospel ariseth, 1. Either from\ntheir not having, or, having, not retaining, the true knowledge of\nthe person of the Lord Jesus Christ; or, 2. From their not believing\nthe true causes of his coming into the world, with his doing and\nsuffering there. Upon one or both these accounts, I say, it is that\nthey everlastingly perish; for if they have not, and do not also\nretain the knowledge of his person, they want the HE, on whom, if\nthey believe not, they must die in their sins; and if they know\nnot the reason of his coming, doing, and suffering, they are in\nthe same condition also.\n\nNow, those professors that have had some knowledge of these things,\nand yet have lost them, it hath come thus to pass with them because\nthey first lost the knowledge of themselves and of their sins.\nThey know not themselves to be such nothing ones as the Scriptures\nreporteth them to be, nor their sins to be so heinous as the\nlaw hath concluded; therefore they either turn again with the dog\nto his vomit, or adhere to a few of the rags of their own fleshly\nrighteousness, and so become pure in their own eyes, yet are not\npurged by blood from their filthiness.\n\nFor the person and doings of Jesus Christ are only precious to them\nthat get and retain the true knowledge of themselves, and the due\nreward of their sins by the law. These are desolate, being driven\nout of all; these embrace the rock instead of a shelter. The sensible\nsinner receiveth him joyfully.\n\nAnd because a miscarriage in this great truth is the most dangerous\nand damning miscarriage, therefore should professors be the more\nfearful of swerving aside therefrom. The man that rejecteth the true\nknowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus, and the causes of his\ndoing and suffering in the world, takes the next way to be guilty\nof that transgression that is not to be purged with sacrifice for\never; that fearful transgression for which is left no offering at\nall, nor anything to be expected by the person transgressing but\nfearful judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the\nadversary.\n\nNow, for their sakes that have not sinned this sin, for their sakes\nthat are in danger thereof, but yet not overcome, for their sakes\nhave I written this little book, wherein is largely, and yet with\nfew words, discovered the doctrine of the person, and doings, and\nsufferings of Christ, with the true cause thereof, also a removal\nof those objections that the crafty children of darkness have framed\nagainst the same.\n\nAnd I have been the more plain and simple in my writing, because\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost is in these days more common than\nformerly, and the way unto it more beautified with colour and\npretence of truth. I may say of the way to this sin, it is, as was\nonce the way to Jerusalem, strewed with boughs and branches; and\nby some there is cried a kind of hosanna to them that are treading\nthese steps to hell. O the plausible pretences, the golden names,\nthe feigned holiness, the demure behaviours, mixed with damnable\nhypocrisy, that attend the persons that have forsaken the Lord Jesus,\nthat have despised his person, trampled upon him, and counted the\nblood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing!\nThey have crucified him to themselves, and think that they can go\nto heaven without him; yea, pretend they love him, when they hate\nhim; pretend they have him, when they have cast him off; pretend\nthey trust in him, when they bid defiance to his undertakings for\nthe world.\n\nReader, let me beseech thee to hear me patiently; read, and consider,\nand judge. I have presented thee with that which I have received\nfrom God; and the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by\nthe Holy Ghost, do bear me witness. Thou wilt say, All pretend to\nthis. Well, but give me the hearing, take me to the Bible, and let\nme find in thy heart no favour if thou find me to swerve from the\nstandard.\n\nI say again, receive my doctrine; I beseech thee, in Christ's stead,\nreceive it; I know it to be the way of salvation. I have ventured\nmy own soul thereon with gladness; and if all the souls in the\nworld were mine, as mine own soul is, I would, through God's grace,\nventure every one of them there. I have not writ at a venture,\nnor borrowed my doctrine from libraries. I depend upon the sayings\nof no man. I found it in the Scriptures of truth, among the true\nsayings of God.\n\nI have done, when I have exhorted thee to pray, and give heed to the\nwords of God as revealed in the Holy Writ. The Lord Jesus Christ\nhimself give thee light and life by faith in him; to whom, with\nthe Father and the good Spirit of grace, be glory and dominion,\nnow and for ever. Amen.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\nLIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS.\n\n'OF THIS MAN'S SEED HATH GOD, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, RAISED UNTO\nISRAEL A SAVIOUR, JESUS.'--ACTS 13:23.\n\nThese words are part of a sermon which Paul preached to the people\nthat lived at Antioch in Pisidia, where also inhabited many of the\nJews. The preparation to his discourse he thus begins--'Men of\nIsrael, and ye that fear God, give audience' (v 16); by which having\nprepared their minds to attend, he proceeds and gives a particular\nrelation of God's peculiar dealings with his people Israel, from Egypt\nto the time of David their king, of whom he treateth particularly--\n\nThat he was the son of Jesse, that he was a king, that God raised\nhim up in mercy, that God gave testimony of him, that he was a man\nafter God's own heart, that he should fulfil all his will (v 22).\n\nAnd this he did of purpose both to engage them the more to attend,\nand because they well knew that of the fruit of his loins God hath\npromised the Messiah should come.\n\nHaving thus therefore gathered up their minds to hearken, he presenteth\nthem with his errand--to wit, that the Messiah was come, and that\nthe promise was indeed fulfilled that a Saviour should be born to\nIsrael--'Of this man's seed,' saith he, 'hath God, according to\nhis promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.'\n\nIn this assertion he concludeth--1. That the promise had kept its\ndue course in presenting a Saviour to Israel--to wit, in David's\nloins--'Of this man's seed.' 2. That the time of the promise was\ncome, and the Saviour was revealed--'God hath raised unto Israel a\nSaviour.' 3. That Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, was he--'He\nhath raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.'\n\nFrom these things we may inquire, for the explication of the words,\nFirst. What this Jesus is? Second. What it was for this Jesus to\nbe of the seed of David? Third. What it was for Jesus to be of this\nman's seed according to the promise? And, Fourth, what it was for\nhim to be raised unto Israel? These things may give us light into\nwhat shall be spoken after.\n\nQuest. First. What this Jesus is?\n\nHe is God, and had personal being from before all worlds; therefore\nnot such an one as took being when he was formed in the world; he is\nGod's natural Son, the Eternal Son of his begetting and love--'God\nsent forth his Son.' He was, and was his Son, before he was\nrevealed--'What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou\ncanst tell?' (Prov 30:4; Eze 21:10). He hath an eternal generation,\nsuch as none can declare, not man, not angel (Isa 53:8). He was the\ndelight of his Father before he had made either mountain or hill.\nWhile as yet he had not made the earth or the fields, or the highest\npart of the dust of the world, all things were made by him, and\nwithout him was not anything made that was made, and he is before\nall things, and by him all things consist. It is he with whom the\nFather consulted when he was about to make man, when he intended\nto overthrow Babel, and when he sent Isaiah to harden the hearts of\nIsrael (Prov 8:26; John 1:3; Heb 1:2,3; Col 1:17; Gen 1:26, 11:7;\nIsa 6:8). This is the person intended in the text. Hence also he\ntestifies of himself that he came down from the Father; that he\nhad glory with him before the world was. And 'what and if ye shall\nsee the Son of man ascend up where he was before?' (John 6:62,\n16:28, 17:5).\n\nQuest. Second. What was it for Jesus to be of David's seed?\n\nTo be of David's seed is to spring from his loins, to come of his\nrace according to the flesh; and therefore as he is David's God,\nso likewise is he David's Son; the root and also the offspring of\nDavid. And this the Lord himself acknowledgeth, saying, 'I am the\nroot,' or God, 'and the offspring,' and Son, 'of David, and the\nbright and morning star' (Rev 22:16). This is indeed the great\nmystery, the mystery of godliness. 'If David then call him Lord,\nhow is he his Son?' (Matt 22:45; Luke 2:4; Rom 1:3; 2 Tim 2:8). And\nhence it is that he is said to be 'wonderful,' because he is both\nGod and man in one person--'Unto us a child is born, unto us a\nSon is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and\nhis name shall be called Wonderful' (Isa 9:6). Wonderful indeed!\nWonderful God, Wonderful man, Wonderful God-man, and so a Wonderful\nJesus and Saviour. He also hath wonderful love, bore wonderful\nsorrows for our wonderful sins, and obtained for HIS a wonderful\nsalvation.\n\nQuest. Third. What was it for Jesus to be of this man's seed\naccording to the promise?\n\nThis word 'promise' doth sometimes comprehend all the promises\nwhich God made to our fathers, from the first promise to the last,\nand so the Holy Ghost doth call them--'The promise made unto the\nfathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children' (Acts\n13:32,33). But the word 'promise' here doth in special intend that\nwhich God made to David himself--'Men and brethren,' said Peter,\n'let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is\nboth dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.\nTherefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with\nan oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the\nflesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this\nbefore, spake of the resurrection of Christ,' &c. (Acts 2:29,30).\n\nQuest. Fourth. What was it for Jesus to be raised thus up of God\nto Israel?\n\nHere we have two things to consider of--1. Who Israel is. 2. What\nit was for Jesus to be raised up unto them.\n\n1. Who Israel is. By 'Israel' sometimes we should understand the\nwhole stock of Jacob, the natural children of his flesh; for that\nname they have of him, for he obtained it when he wrestled with\nthe angel, and prevailed, and it remained with his seed in their\ngenerations (Gen 32). By 'Israel' we are to understand all those\nthat God hath promised to Christ--'The children of the promise\nare counted for the seed,' the elect Jews and Gentiles. These are\ncalled 'the Israel of God,' and the seed of Abraham, whom Jesus in\nspecial regarded in his undertaking the work of man's redemption\n(Rom 9:8; Gal 6:16; Heb 2:14-16).\n\n2. What it was for Jesus to be raised up unto them. This word\n'raised up' is diversely taken in the Scripture. (1.) It is taken\nfor 'sending'; as when he saith he raised them up judges, saviours,\nand prophets, he means he sent them such, and thus he raised up\nJesus--that is, 'he sent him' (Judg 2:16,18, 3:9,15; Amos 2:11).\n'I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave\nme a commandment' (John 12:49). (2.) To be raised up, intimateth\none invested with power and authority. Thus he raised up David to\nbe the king of Israel, he anointed him and invested him with kingly\npower (1 Sam 16:13; Acts 13:22). And thus was Jesus Christ raised\nup. Hence he is called 'the horn of salvation'--'He hath raised\nup an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David'\n(Luke 1:69). (3.) To be raised up, intimateth quickening and\nstrengthening, to oppose and overcome all opposition. Thus was\nJesus raised up from under sin, death, the rage of the world, and\nhell, that day that God raised him out of the grave.\n\nThus, therefore, was Jesus raised up to Israel--that is, he was\nsent, authorized, and strengthened to, and in the work of, their\nsalvation, to the completing of it.\n\nThe words thus opened do lay before us these two observations--FIRST.\nThat in all ages God gave his people a promise, and so ground for\na believing remembrance, that he would one day send them a Saviour.\nSECOND. That when Jesus was come into the world, then was that\npromise of God fulfilled.\n\n[OBSERVATION FIRST.]\n\nTo begin with the first, THAT IN ALL AGES GOD GAVE HIS PEOPLE A\nPROMISE, AND SO GROUND FOR A BELIEVING REMEMBRANCE, THAT HE WOULD\nONE DAY SEND THEM A SAVIOUR.\n\nThis Zacharias testifies when he was filled with the Holy Ghost;\nfor, speaking of the Messiah or the Saviour, he saith that God spake\nof him by the mouth of all the prophets which have been since the\nworld began; to which I will add that of Peter, 'Yea, and all the\nprophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have\nspoken, have likewise foretold of these days' (Luke 1:69,70; Acts\n3:24).\n\nFrom these texts it is evident that in every generation or age of\nthe world God did give his people a promise, and so ground for a\nbelieving remembrance, that he would one day send them a Saviour;\nfor indeed the promise is not only a ground for a remembrance, but\nfor a believing remembrance. What God saith is sufficient ground for\nfaith, because he is truth, and cannot lie or repent. But that is\nnot all; his heart was engaged, yea, all his heart, in the promise\nwhich he spoke of sending us a Saviour.\n\nFrom this observation I shall make inquiry into these three\nthings--FIRST. What it is to be a Saviour. SECOND. How it appears\nthat God in all ages gave his people a promise that he would one\nday send them a Saviour. THIRD. That this was ground for believing\nremembrance that a Saviour should one day come.\n\nFIRST. What it is to be a Saviour.\n\nFirst. This word 'Saviour' is easy to be understood, it being all\none with Deliverer, Redeemer, &c. 'A Saviour, Jesus,' both words\nare of the same signification, and are doubled, perhaps to teach\nus that the person mentioned in the text is not called 'Jesus'\nonly to distinguish him from other men--for names are given to\ndistinguish--but also and especially to specify his office; his\nname is Saviour, because it was to be his work, his office, his\nbusiness in the world. His name shall be called Jesus, 'for he\nshall save his people from their sins' (Matt 1:21).\n\nSecond. This word 'Saviour' is a word so large that it hath place\nin all the undertakings of Christ: for whatever he doth in his\nmediation he doth as a Saviour. He interposeth between God and man\nas a Saviour; he engageth against sin, the devil, death, and hell,\nas a Saviour, and triumphed over them by himself as a Saviour.\n\nThird. The word 'Saviour,' as I said, is all one with Redeemer,\nDeliverer, Reconciler, Peace-maker, or the like; for though there\nbe variation in the terms, yet Saviour is the intendment of them\nall. By redeeming he becomes a Saviour, by delivering he becomes\na Saviour, by reconciling he becomes a Saviour, and by making peace\nhe becometh a Saviour. But I pass this now, intending to speak more\nto the same question afterwards.\n\nSECOND. How it appears that God in all ages gave his people a\npromise that he would one day send them a Saviour.\n\nIt appears evidently; for so soon as man had sinned, God came to\nhim with a heart full of promise, and continued to renew, and renew,\ntill the time of the promised Messiah to be revealed was come.\n\n[First.] He promised him under the name of 'the seed of the women,'\nafter our first father had sinned--'I will also put enmity between\nthee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall\nbruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel' (Gen 3:15).[1] This\nthe apostle hath his eye upon when he saith, 'When the fulness of\nthe time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made\nunder the law, to redeem them that were under the law' (Gal 4:4,5).\n\nSecond. God renewed this promise to Abraham, and there tells him\nChrist should be his seed, saying, 'In thy seed shall all families\nof the earth be blessed' (Gen 12:3). 'Now,' saith Paul, 'to Abraham\nand his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds,\nas of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ' (Gal\n3:16).\n\nThird. He was promised in the time of Moses under the name of\na 'prophet'--'I will raise them up,' saith God to him, 'a prophet\nfrom among their brethren like unto thee' (Deut 18:18). This\nPeter expounds of Christ, 'For Moses truly said unto the fathers,\nA prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,\nlike unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall\nsay unto you' (Acts 3:22).\n\nFourth. He promised him to David under the title of a 'son,' saying,\n'I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son' (2 Sam 7:14). For\nthis the apostle expounded of the Saviour, saying, 'Thou art my\nSon, this day have I begotten thee'; and again, 'I will be to him\na Father, and he shall be to me a Son' (Heb 1:5).\n\nFifth. He was promised in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and\nHezekiah, kings of Judah--\n\n1. By the name of a 'branch'--'In that day shall the branch of the\nLord be beautiful and glorious' (Isa 4:2).\n\n2. Under the name of the 'son of a virgin'--'Therefore the Lord\nhimself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive,\nand bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.' This Matthew\nexpounds of Christ (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23).\n\n3. He was promised under the name of a 'rod'--'There shall come\nforth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out\nof his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.' This\nanswereth the text, David was the son of Jesse, and Christ the Son\nof David (Isa 11:1,2).\n\n4. He is promised under the title of a 'king'--'Behold, a king\nshall reign in righteousness,--and a man shall be as an hiding-place\nfrom the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water\nin a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land' (Isa\n32:1,2).\n\n5. He was promised under the name of an 'elect servant'--'Behold\nmy servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;\nI have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to\nthe Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice\nto be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and\nthe smoking flax shall he not quench' (Isa 42:1-3; Matt 12:17-20).\n\n6. He was promised to Jeremiah under the name of 'the Lord our\nRighteousness'--'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I\nwill raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign\nand prosper; and shall execute judgment--in the earth. In his days\nJudah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is\nhis name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS'\n(Jer 23:5,6).\n\n7. He was promised by the prophet Ezekiel under the name of 'David,\na shepherd'--'And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he\nshall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he\nshall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my\nservant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it' (Eze\n24:23; John 10:1-3).\n\n8. He was promised by the prophet Daniel under the name of 'Messiah,\nor Christ, the most holy'--'And after threescore and two weeks\nshall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself' (Dan 9:26).\n\n9. He was promised by the prophet Micah under the name of the 'ruler\nin Israel'--'But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little\namong the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come--that\nis to be ruler in Israel' (Micah 5:2; Matt 2:6).\n\n10. He was promised to Haggai as 'the desire of all nations'--'I\nwill shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come,\nand I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts'\n(Hagg 2:7).\n\n11. He was promised by Zechariah under the name of 'servant and\nbranch'--'For, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.'\nAnd again, 'Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH; and he shall\ngrow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the\nLord; and he shall bear the glory' (Zech 3:8, 6:12,13).\n\n12. He was promised by Malachi under the name of 'the Lord, and\nthe messenger of the covenant'--'Behold, I will send my messenger,\nand he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye\nseek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the\ncovenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord\nof hosts' (Mal 3:1).\n\nIndeed, the Scriptures of the Old Testament are filled with promises\nof the Messias to come, prophetical promises, typical promises;\nfor all the types and shadows of the Saviour are virtually so many\npromises.\n\nSixth. Having therefore touched upon the prophetical, I will\nbriefly touch the typical promises also; for as God spake at sundry\ntimes to the fathers, so also in diverse manners, prophetically,\nprovidentially, typically, and all of the Messias (Heb 1:1). The\ntypes of the Saviour were various--1. Sometimes he was typed out\nby men; 2. Sometimes by beasts; 3. Sometimes by insensible creatures.\n\n1. He was typed forth sometimes by men. Adam was his type in many\nthings, especially as he was the head and father of the first world.\nHe was 'the figure of him that was to come' (Rom 5:14). Moses was\nhis type as Mediator, and as builder of the tabernacle (Heb 3:2,3).\nAaron was his type as he was high-priest, and so was Melchisedec\nbefore him (Heb 5:4,5, 7:1,21). Samson was his type in the effects\nof his death; for as Samson gave his life for the deliverance of\nIsrael from the Philistines, Christ gave his life to deliver us from\nsin and devils. Joshua was his type in giving the land of Canaan\nto Israel, as Jesus will give the kingdom of heaven to the elect\n(Heb 4:8). David was his type in many things, especially in his\nsubduing of Israel's enemies, and feeding them [Israel]: hence he\nis sometimes called David their king, and David their shepherd (Eze\n34:23,24). Solomon was his type in his building the temple, and in\nhis peaceable kingdom. Hence it is said, 'He shall build the temple\nof the Lord'; and again, 'Of his government and peace there shall\nbe no end.'\n\n2. Beasts were his types. To instance some--\n\n(1.) The paschal lamb was his type (Exo 12). In its spotlessness;\nChrist was 'a lamb without blemish and without spot' (1 Peter\n1:18,19). In its being roasted it was a figure of the cursed death\nof Christ; for to be roasted bespake one accursed (Jer 29:22;\nGal 3:13). In that it was to be eaten--'Whoso eateth my flesh and\ndrinketh my blood,' saith Christ, 'hath eternal life' (John 6:54).\nIn that its blood was to be sprinkled upon the doors of their\nhouses, for the destroying angel to look on; the blood of Christ\nis sprinkled upon the elect for the justice of God to look on (Heb\n9; 1 Peter 1:2). By eating the paschal lamb, the people went out\nof Egypt; by feeding upon Christ by faith we come from under the\nEgyptian darkness, tyranny of Satan, &c.\n\n(2.) The red cow was his type (Num 19:2, &c.).[2] In that she was\nto be without blemish. In that she was to be slain without the\ncamp--'Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own\nblood, suffered without the gate' (Heb 13:12). In that her flesh\nwas to be burnt; a type of the grievous death of Christ. Her ashes\nwere to be carried into a clean place without the camp; a type of\nthe clean sepulchre where the body of Jesus was laid (John 19:38-41).\n\nThere were also divers other sacrifices, as bulls, goats, and birds,\nwhich were types of him, which I here omit.\n\n3. Insensible creatures were his types. As,\n\n(1.) The man in the wilderness (Exo 16). And that as it came down\nfrom heaven, for so did Christ--'I came down from heaven,' saith\nhe; and again, 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven'\n(John 6:51). The manna was to be eaten; so is Christ by faith--'If\nany man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread\nthat I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of\nthe world' (John 6:51). The manna was to be gathered daily; so is\nChrist to be daily eaten. The manna was all the bread that Israel\nhad in the wilderness; Christ is all the bread that believers have\nin this life for their souls. The manna came not by Moses' law,\nneither comes Christ by our merits--'Moses gave you not that bread\nfrom heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven'\n(John 6:32).\n\n(2.) Again; the rock that gave them out water for their thirst\nwas a type of him (Num 20). They 'did all drink the same spiritual\ndrink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them;\nand that Rock was Christ' (1 Cor 10:4). This rock was his type in\nfour things--\n\n(a.) It gave drink to the people in the wilderness when they were\ncome out of Egypt; Christ gives drink to them that forsake the\nworld for him. (b.) The rock yielded water by being smitten by\nMoses' rod; Christ giveth drink, even his blood, by being stricken\nby Moses' law (Num 20:11; Isa 53). (c.) The water out of this rock\nwas given to the thirsty--'I will give unto him that is athirst,'\nsaith Christ, 'of the fountain of the water of life freely' (Rev\n21:6). (d.) The water of the rock in the wilderness ran after the\npeople; they drank of that rock that followed them--'He opened the\nrock, and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like\na river' (Psa 110:41). Christ also is said by that type to follow\nus--'They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that\nRock was Christ' (1 Cor 10:4).\n\n(3.) Again, the mount Moriah was his type. That mount stood in\nJerusalem; Christ also stands in his church. Upon that rock was\nbuilt the temple (2 Chron 3:1)--'And upon this rock,' said Christ,\n'I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail\nagainst it' (Matt 16:18).\n\nOther things might be urged, but these being virtually of the\nforce of the promises, and also as a key to open them, therefore\nI thought good to place them here with the promises; because, as\nthey are standing with them, so they are written to beget faith in\nthe same Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nTHIRD. I come now to the third thing--to wit, That these promises\nwere ground for a believing remembrance that a Saviour should one\nday come.\n\nThere is a remembering, and a believing remembering, or such\na remembering that begetteth and maintaineth faith in the heart.\nJacob had a believing remembrance when he said, 'I have waited for\nthy salvation, O Lord' (Gen 49:18). And so had David when he cried,\n'O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion' (Psa 53:6).\nThese, with Simeon and Anna, had not a remembrance only, but a\nbelieving remembrance that God would send them a Saviour. They had\nthe promise not in the book only, but in their hearts; this gospel\nwas mixed in them with faith; therefore they with their fellows\nremembered and believed, or made the promise the ground of their\nbelieving that God would one day send them a Saviour.\n\nLet me make some\n\nUse of this Doctrine.\n\nHere we may see how much the heart of God was set upon the salvation\nof sinners--he studied it, contrived it, set his heart on it, and\npromised, and promised, and promised to complete it, by sending\none day his Son for a Saviour (2 Same 14:14; Eph 1:3; Titus 1:2).\nNo marvel, therefore, if when he treateth of the new covenant, in\nwhich the Lord Jesus is wrapped, and presented in a word of promise\nto the world, that he saith, I will do it 'assuredly with my whole\nheart, and with my whole soul' (Jer 32:41).\n\nNow this is of singular comfort to sensible sinners; yea, what\ngreater ground of consolation to such than to hear that the God\nagainst whom they have sinned should himself take care to provide\nthem a Saviour. There are some poor sinners in the world that have\ngiven such way to discouragement, from the sense of the greatness\nof their sins, that they dare not think upon God, nor the sins which\nthey have committed; but the reason is, because they are ignorant\nthat God's heart was wrapt up in this good work of providing and\nsending a Saviour. Let such hearken now to the call of God--'Return\nunto me, for I have redeemed thee' (Isa 44:22). Ho! turn again,\nhearken; the heart of God is much set upon mercy; from the beginning\nof the world he resolved and promised, aye, and sware we should\nhave a Saviour.\n\n[OBSERVATION SECOND.]\n\nI now proceed to the second observation--THAT WHEN JESUS WAS COME\nINTO THE WORLD, THEN WAS THE PROMISE OF GOD FULFILLED--namely, THAT\nHE WOULD ONE DAY SEND US A SAVIOUR.\n\nTake three texts for the confirmation of this point--1. 'This is of\na truth that prophet that should come into the world' (John 6:14).\nThese words were spoken of them that were present at that miracle\nof Jesus, when he fed five thousand with five barley loaves, which\na lad had about him in the company; for these men, when they had\nseen the marvel, being amazed at it, made confession of him to be\nthe Saviour. 2. 'Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son\nof God, which should come into the world' (John 11:27). 3. 'This\nis a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ\nJesus came into the world to save sinners' (1 Tim 1:15).\n\nFor the explaining of this observation I will briefly handle three\nquestions--FIRST. How this Jesus is to be distinguished from others\nof that name. SECOND. What it was for this Jesus to come into the\nworld. THIRD. What it was for him to come to be a Saviour.\n\n[HOW THIS JESUS IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED FROM OTHERS.]\n\nQUEST. FIRST. For the first, the Jesus in the text is distinguished\nfrom all others of that name.\n\nFirst. By the manner of his birth; he was born of a virgin, a virgin\nespoused to a man whose name was Joseph; but he 'knew her not till\nshe had brought forth her first-born son, and he called his name\nJESUS' (Matt 1:25).\n\nSecond. He is distinguished from others of that name by the place\nof his birth--to wit, Bethlehem, the city of David; there he must\nbe born, there he was born (John 7:42; Matt 2:4-6).\n\nThird. He is distinguished by his lineage--he came 'of the house\nand lineage of David' (Luke 2:4-6).\n\nFourth. He is distinguished by the time of his birth--to wit, the\ntime of the prophets prefixed (Gal 4:4).\n\nFifth. But his common distinction is Jesus of Nazareth; by this name\nhe is distinguished one and twenty times in the New Testament--1.\nHis enemies called him 'Jesus of Nazareth' (Matt 26:71; Mark 14:67;\nJohn 18:5). 2. His disciples called him 'Jesus of Nazareth' (Matt\n21:11; Luke 24:19; John 1:45; Acts 2:22). 3. The angels called him\n'Jesus of Nazareth' (Mark 16:6). 4. And he calleth himself 'Jesus\nof Nazareth' (Acts 22:8). 5. Yea, and he goeth also by the name of\n'Jesus of Nazareth' among the devils (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34).\n\nHe was called 'Jesus of Nazareth' because he dwelt there with his\nmother Mary and her husband. Nazareth was his city, where he had\nbeen brought up, whither for shelter Joseph carried him when he\ncame out of Egypt with him; in Nazareth was his common abode until\nthe time that John was cast into prison; wherefore he might well\nsay, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth' (Luke 4:16; Matt 2:23, 4:12,13). Yea,\nthough he was now in heaven, for heaven shall not make us forget\nwhat countrymen we were when we lived in the world. Jesus, you see\nhere, though glorified in heaven, yet forgets not what countryman\nhe was when he dwelt in the world. 'I am Jesus of Nazareth,' saith\nhe; I am the Jesus that thou persecutest; and that thou mayest\nknow I am he, I tell thee I dwelt once in the city of Nazareth in\nGalilee; Joseph and my mother Mary brought me up there, and there\nI dwelt with them many years. 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou\npersecutest' (Acts 22:8).\n\n[WHAT IT WAS FOR JESUS TO COME INTO THE WORLD.]\n\nQUEST. SECOND. What it was for Jesus to come into the world.\n\nAnsw. Not his coming in, or by his Spirit in his people; for so\nhe was never out of the world. Neither is it his appearance in his\nordinances. Nor that coming of his by which he destroyeth Antichrist.\nNor his appearing in his dreadful providences or judgments. But by\nthe coming of Jesus, according to the text, we are to understand\nthat, or such a coming, whereby he was manifest to be God-man in\none person; God in our flesh without us, or distinct in his own\nperson by himself; such a coming by which he was manifested to be\nin all points like as men are, sin only excepted; such a coming\nwherein, or by which, the Son of God became also the Son of man.\n\n[First.] For the further clearing of this, you find it expressly\nsaid, he was 'born into the world'; Mary, 'of whom was born Jesus.'\nNow, when Jesus was born, it is said, 'Where is he that is born\nKing of the Jews?' Herod 'demanded of them where Christ should be\nborn' (Matt 1:16, 2:1,2,4; Luke 1:35, 2:11).\n\nNow, that this was fulfilled according to the very word of the text,\nwithout any juggle, evasion, or cunningly-devised fable, consider--\n\n1. He is called the first-born of this woman; the male child that\nopened her womb (Luke 2:7,23).\n\n2. He was not born till nourished in her womb the full time,\naccording to the time of life: 'And so it was, that while they were\nthere [at Bethlehem], the days were accomplished that she should\nbe delivered. And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped\nhim in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger' (Luke 2:6,7).\n\n3. She also continued in her separation at the birth of Jesus,\nas other women at the birth of their children, until 'the days of\nher purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished'\n(Luke 2:22).\n\n4. Himself also, as other Hebrew children, was brought to Jerusalem\nto present him unto the Lord--'As it is written in the law of the\nLord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the\nLord' (Luke 2:23,24).\n\n5. Thus Jesus also, as other Hebrew children, when the set day was\ncome, was circumcised--'And when eight days were accomplished for\nthe circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was\nso named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb' (Luke\n2:21).\n\n6. After this he is often called the young child, the child Jesus;\nand further, it is said of him, that he grew, that he increased in\nwisdom and stature (Matt 2:20,21; Luke 2:40,52).\n\nBehold with what diligence, even to a circumstance, the Holy Ghost\nsets forth the birth of the Lord Jesus, and all to convince the\nincredulous world of the true manner of the coming of the Saviour\ninto the world.\n\nSecond. The reality of the manhood of this Lord Jesus is yet further\nmanifest, and that, 1. By those natural infirmities that attend\nhuman flesh; 2. By the names the prophets gave him in the days of\nthe Old Testament and the New.\n\n1. By those natural infirmities that attend human flesh. As, at\nhis birth he could not go but as carried by his parents. He was\nsensible of hunger (Luke 4:2). He was sensible of thirst (John\n19:28). He was sensible of weariness (John 4:6). He was nourished\nby sleep (Mark 4:38). He was subject to grief (Mark 3:5). He was\nsubject to anger (Mark 3:5). He was subject to weep (John 11:35;\nLuke 19:41). He had joy as a man, and rejoiced (Matt 11:25; Luke\n10:21). These things, I say, Jesus was subject to as a man, as the\nson of the Virgin.\n\n2. The reality of his manhood is yet made manifest by the names the\nprophets gave him, both in the Old Testament and in the New. As,\n\n(1.) He is called the 'seed'--the seed of the woman, the seed of\nAbraham, the seed of David, by which is meant he was to come of\ntheir children (Gen 3:15, 12, 22; Gal 3:16,17; Rom 1:3).\n\n(2.) Therefore it is added (where mention is made of the fathers),\n'of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.' He was made of the\nseed of David according to the flesh; and hence again he calleth\nhimself the offspring of David; therefore, I say, he is said to\nbe of their flesh, their loins, and is called their Son (Rom 1:3,\n4:5; Acts 2:30; Rev 22:16).\n\n(3.) He therefore is frequently called 'a man, and the Son of\nman'--'Then shall you see the Son of man coming in the clouds of\nheaven.' 'When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the\nholy angels with him.' 'This man, because he continueth ever, hath\nan unchangeable priesthood.' 'Wherefore, it is necessary that this\nman have somewhat also to offer' (Matt 25:31, 26:64; Heb 7:24, 8:3,\n10:12).\n\n(4.) What shall I say? He himself gave undeniable demonstration of\nall this when he said he 'was dead'; when he called to Thomas to\nput his finger to, and behold his hands, to reach to him his hand\nand thrust it into his side, and bid him he should not be faithless,\nbut believing. At another time, when he stood in the midst of the\neleven, as they were troubled with the thoughts of unbelief, he\nsaid, 'Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle\nme, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me\nhave' (John 20:27; Luke 24:39).\n\nThus have I showed you what it was for Jesus to come into the\nworld--namely, to be born of a woman, to take flesh, and to become\nGod-man in one person. I come now to the third question; but before\nI speak particularly to that, I will produce further testimony that\nwe find upon record concerning the truth of all this.\n\nParticular testimonies that this coming of Jesus is his coming to\nsave us.\n\nThe Testimony of Simeon.--Simeon the Just gives testimony of him:\n'And the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by\nthe Holy Ghost that he should not see death, before he had seen\nthe Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and\nwhen the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the\ncustom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God,\nand said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,--for\nmine eyes have seen thy salvation' (Luke 2:25-32).\n\nThe Testimony of Anna.--Anna, a prophetess, one 'of a great age,--which\ndeparted not from the temple, but served God with fasting and\nprayers night and day. And she, coming in at that instant, gave\nthanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that\nlooked for redemption in Jerusalem' (Luke 2:36-38).\n\nThe Testimony of John Baptist.--John Baptist, as he fulfilled his\nministry, he cried concerning this Jesus, 'Behold the Lamb of God,\nwhich taketh away the sin of the world.--And he,' saith John, 'that\nsent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom\nthou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining' or abiding,\n'the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw,\nand bare record that this is the Son of God' (John 1:29-34).\n\nThe Testimony of the Star and Wise Men.--The star that appeared at\nhis birth in the east, and that coasted through the heavens till\nit came over the place where the young child Jesus was, that star\ngave testimony that he was the Saviour. This star alarmed many,\nespecially the wise men of the east, who were brought by it from\nafar to worship him: 'And lo, the star which they saw in the east,\nwent before them till it came and stood over where the young child\nwas. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great\njoy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young\nchild, with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him;\nand when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him\ngifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh' (Matt 2:9-11).\n\nThe Testimony of the Angels.--1. To Mary herself--'And in the sixth\nmonth the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee,\nnamed Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph,\n-and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her,\nand said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured.--And the angel said\nunto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favour with God. And,\nbehold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and\nshalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called\nthe Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the\nthrone of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of\nJacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke\n1:26-33). 2. The angels' testimony to the shepherds, as they were\nfeeding their flocks in the fields by night--'And, lo, the angel\nof the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round\nabout them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto\nthem, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,\nwhich shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the\ncity of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord' (Luke 2:9-11).\n3. How the angels solemnized his birth among themselves--'And\nsuddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host\npraising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth\npeace, goodwill towards men' (vv 13,14).\n\nThe Testimony of God the Father.--1. When he was baptized--'And\nJesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water;\nand, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit\nof God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and, lo,\na voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am\nwell pleased' (Matt 3:16,17). 2. The Father's testimony of him at\nhis transfiguration--'And he took Peter and John and James, and went\nup into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his\ncountenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.'\nAnd there appeared Moses and Elias talking with him, and a cloud\nfrom heaven overshadowed them; at which the three disciples began\nto be afraid. Then 'there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This\nis my beloved Son, hear him' (Luke 9:28-35). This is that testimony\nof God which Peter speaks of, saying, 'We have not followed cunningly\ndevised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming\nof our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty.\nFor he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there\ncame such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my\nbeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came\nfrom heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount'\n(2 Peter 1:16-18). 3. God gave testimony of him by signs and\nwonders--'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father\nin me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but\nthe Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.' 'God also\nbearing them witness,' that preached salvation by Jesus, 'both with\nsigns and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy\nGhost, according to his own will' (John 14:10; Heb 2:4).\n\nConcerning Jesus, how he put himself upon the test among his\nadversaries.\n\nThe Lord Jesus also putteth himself upon the test among his\nadversaries divers ways.\n\nFirst. He urgeth the time of the appearing of the Messias to be\ncome--'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:\nrepent ye, and believe the gospel' (Mark 1:15).\n\nFor this he had a threefold proof--1. The heathens had invaded\nand taken the land, according to that of Daniel (9:25,26). 2. The\nsceptre was departed from Judah, according to that of Jacob (Gen\n49:10). To which also suited that prophecy: 'Before the child shall\nknow to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou\nabhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings' (Isa 7:16). 3. The\nRoman emperor had not only subdued the nation, and put down the\nkingly race of the Jews, but had set up and established his own\npower over them. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius\nCaesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; Herod was tetrarch\nof Galilee; Philip, tetrarch of Iturea; and Lysanias, tetrarch of\nAbilene; all heathens, and of Tiberius' making.\n\nBesides, the kingly race of Judah was at this time become so low\nby reason of the Roman oppression, that the chief of them were put\nto get their living by their own hands; even Joseph, the supposed\nfather of Jesus, was then become a carpenter. Poor man! when Jesus\nwas born, he was fain to thrust into a stable, for there was in\nthe inn no room for such guests as they. The offering also which\nwas brought unto God at the time when Jesus was presented unto\nthe Lord, was two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons--a sacrifice\nallowed only for them that were poor, and could provide no bigger--'And if\nshe be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles,\nor two young pigeons, the one for the burnt-offering, and the\nother for a sin-offering' (Lev 12:8). Besides, Jesus himself saith,\n'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of\nman hath not where to lay his head.'\n\nNow, I say, all these things were so apparent to the Jews, that\nthey could not object; they felt the Romans were come, they knew\nthe sceptre was gone, they smarted under the Roman tyranny, and\nknew the kingly race of Judea was overthrown. How, then, could they\nobject that the time was not come for Christ to be born?\n\nFurther, the people were generally convinced that the time was come,\nand therefore, saith the text, they were in expectation. 'And as\nthe people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts\nof John, whether he were the Christ or not' (Luke 3:15). The unbiased\npeople, observing the face of things, could do no other but look\nfor the Messias. And hence it is that the Lord Jesus gives the\nPharisees, those mortal enemies of his, such sore rebukes, saying,\n'O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not\ndiscern the signs of the times?' The kingdom is lost, the heathens\nare come, and the sceptre is departed from Judah. 'Ye hypocrites,\nye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth, but how is\nit that ye do not discern this time?' (Matt 16:3; Luke 12:56).\n\nSecond. He yet again puts himself upon the test by the miracles\nwhich he wrought before them--'Believe me, that I am in the Father,\nand the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works'\nsake' (John 14:11). 'For the works which the Father hath given me\nto finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the\nFather hath sent me' (John 5:36.)\n\nThis proof they could not withstand, but granted that he did many\nmiracles, while they did nothing. 'Then gathered the chief priests\nand the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man\ndoeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe\non him, and the Romans shall come, and take away both our place\nand nation' (John 11:47,48).\n\nYea, so did Jesus confound them, that by their own records and\nlaws, by which they were to prove persons clean or unclean, they,\nin reading their lectures, did justify him, and overthrow themselves.\n\nFor instance, it was written in their law, 'If he that hath an\nissue spit upon him that is clean,' that spittle should make him\nunclean (Lev 15:8). Now Jesus, whom they counted most unclean,\nbecause he said he was the Son of God, as they thought, speaking\nblasphemy, he spits upon people, and makes them whole. He spat,\nand made clay with the spittle, and with that clay made a blind man\nsee (John 9:6). Also he spat on the eyes of another, and made him\nsee (Mark 8:23-25). Again, he spat, and with his spittle touched\nthe tongue of one that was dumb, and made him speak immediately\n(Mark 7:33-35). Thus he proved himself clear of their accusations,\nand maintained before them that by their law he was guiltless, and\nthe Son of God; for the miracles which he wrought were to prove\nhim so to be.\n\nAgain, in their law it was written that whoso toucheth the altar\nof incense should be holy (Exo 29:37). A woman with a bloody issue\ntouched him, and is whole of her plague (Mark 5:28). Yea, they\nbrought to him many diseased persons, 'and besought him that they\nmight only touch the hem of his garment; and as many as touched\nwere made perfectly whole' (Matt 14:36).\n\nThus was he justified before them out of their own law, and had his\nglory manifest before their faces, to their everlasting confusion\nand contempt.\n\nIndeed, the Jews did make one objection against Jesus Christ that\nseemed to them to have weight in it, and that was, because he first\nbegan to appear and manifest his glory in Cana of Galilee. At this,\nI say, they stumbled. It was their sore temptation; for still, as\nsome affirmed him to be the Christ, others as fast objected, 'Shall\nChrist come out of Galilee?' 'Art thou also of Galilee? Search and\nlook; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet' (John 2:1,11, 7:40-42,52).\n\nBut this their stumble might arise either from the cruelty of\nHerod, or from their own not observing and keeping mind the alarm\nthat God gave them at his birth.\n\n1. It might arise or be occasioned through the cruelty of Herod;\nfor Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city where David dwelt. But\nwhen Herod sent out to kill him, and for his sake killed all the\nyoung children in Bethlehem, then was Joseph warned by an angel of\nGod to take the young child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and\nso he did, and was there till the death of Herod (Matt 2:1,13,16).\nAfter this, the angel comes to them in Egypt, and bids them take\nthe young child, and return into the land of Israel; wherefore they\narose and went. But hearing that Herod's son, that tyrant, ruled\nin the room of his father, they were afraid to go to Bethlehem, but\nturned aside into the parts of Galilee, where they remained till\nthe time of his showing to Israel (Matt 2:19-23).\n\n2. This stumble of theirs might arise from their not observing and\nkeeping in mind the alarm that God gave them of his birth. (1.)\nGod began to give them the alarm at the birth of John the Baptist,\nwhere was asserted that he was to go before the face of the Lord\nJesus, and to prepare his ways. 'And fear came on all that dwelt\nround about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout\nall the hill country of Judea' (Luke 1:65). (2.) Again, what a\ncontinuation of this alarm was there also at the birth of Jesus,\nwhich was about three months after John Baptist was born? Now come\nthe angels from heaven. Now comes a strange star over the country\nto lead the men of the east to the stable where Jesus was born; now\nwas Herod, the priests, the scribes, and also the city of Jerusalem,\nawakened and sore troubled; for it was noised by the wise men that\nChrist the King and Saviour was born. Besides the shepherds, Simeon\nand Anna gave notice of him to the people. They should, therefore,\nhave retained the memory of these things, and have followed God\nin all his dark providences, until his Sun of Righteousness should\narise among them with healing under his wings.\n\n3. I may add another cause of their stumble--they did not understand\nthe prophecies that went before of him. (1.) He was to come to\nthem out of Egypt--'Out of Egypt have I called my Son' (Matt 2:15;\nHosea 11:1). (2.) He turned aside into Cana of Galilee, and dwelt\nin the city of Nazareth, 'that it might be fulfilled which was spoken\nby the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene' (Matt 2:23). (3.)\nThat saying also was to be fulfilled, 'The land of Zabulon, and the\nland of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee\nof the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light,\nand to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is\nsprung up' (Matt 4:15,16; Isa 9:2, 42:7).\n\nAt these things, then, they stumbled, and it was a great judgment\nof God upon them. Besides, there seemed to be a contradiction in\nthe prophecies of the Scripture concerning his coming. He was to\nbe born in Bethlehem, and yet to come out of Egypt. How should he\nbe the Christ, and yet come out of Galilee, out of which ariseth\nno prophet? Thus they stumbled.\n\nHence note, that though the prophecies and promises be full and plain\nas these were, that he should be born in Bethlehem, yet men's sins\nmay cause them to be fulfilled in such obscurity, that instead\nof having benefit thereby, they may stumble and split their souls\nthereat. Take heed then; hunt not Christ from plain promises with\nHerod, hunt him not from Bethlehem, lest he appear to your amazement\nand destruction from Egypt, or in the land of Zabulon! But this\nmuch to the second question; to wit, What it was for Jesus to come\ninto the world.\n\nI come now to the third question.\n\n[WHAT IT WAS FOR JESUS TO COME TO BE A SAVIOUR.]\n\nQUEST. THIRD. What it was for him to come to be a Saviour.\n\nFor the further handling of this question I must show--First. What\nit is to be a Saviour. Second. What it is to come to be a Saviour.\nThird. What it is for Jesus to come to be a Saviour. To these three\nbriefly--\n\nFirst. What it is TO BE a Saviour. 1. A saviour supposeth some in\nmisery, and himself one that is to deliver them. 2. A saviour is\neither such an one ministerially or meritoriously.\n\nMinisterially is, when one person engageth or is engaged by virtue\nof respect or command from superiors, to go and obtain, by conquest\nor the king's redemption, the captives, or persons grieved by\nthe tyranny of an enemy. And thus were Moses and Joshua, and the\njudges and kings of Israel, saviours--'Thou deliveredst them into\nthe hands of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of\ntheir trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from\nheaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them\nsaviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies' (Neh\n9:27). Thus was Jesus Christ a Saviour; he was engaged by virtue of\nrespect and command from God to obtain, by conquest and redemption,\nthe captives or persons grieved. God sent his Son to be 'the Saviour\nof the world' (John 4:42).\n\nMeritoriously is, when the person engaging shall, at his own\nproper cost and charge, give a sufficient value or price for those\nhe redeemeth. Thus those under the law were redeemed by the money\ncalled the redemption-money--'And Moses gave the money of those that\nwere redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons' (Num 3:46-51). And thus\nwas Jesus Christ a Saviour. He paid full price to Divine justice\nfor sinners, even his own precious blood--'Forasmuch as ye know\nthat ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and\ngold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your\nfathers, but with the precious blood of Christ' (1 Peter 1:18,19).\n\nAnd forasmuch as, in man's redemption, the undertaker must have\nrespect, not only to the paying of a price, but also to the getting\nof a victory; for there is not only justice to satisfy, but death,\ndevil, hell, and the grave, to conquer; therefore hath he also by\nhimself gotten the victory over these. He hath abolished death (2\nTim 1:10). He hath destroyed the devil (Heb 2:14,15). He hath been\nthe destruction of the grave (Hosea 13:14). He hath gotten the keys\nof hell (Rev 1:18). And this, I say, he did by himself, at his own\nproper cost and charge, when he triumphed over them upon his cross\n(Col 2:14,15).\n\nSecond. What it is TO COME to be a Saviour.\n\n1. To come to be one, supposeth one ordained and fore-prepared for\nthat work--'Then said he, Lo, I come, a body hast thou prepared\nme' (Heb 10).\n\n2. To come to be a Saviour supposeth one commissionated or authorized\nto that work--'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath\nanointed me,' authorized me, 'to preach the gospel to the poor;\nhe hath sent met to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance\nto the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at\nliberty them that are bruised' (Luke 4:18). And upon this account\nit is that he is so often called Christ, or the Anointed One;\nthe anointed Jesus, or Jesus the Anointed Saviour. 'Thou art the\nChrist, the Son of God, which should come into the world.' 'This\nJesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.' He 'testified to the Jews\nthat Jesus was Christ,' 'and confounded the Jews which dwelt at\nDamascus, proving' by the Scriptures 'that this is very Christ'\n(John 11:27; Acts 9:22, 17:3, 18:5); the very anointed of God, or\nhe whom God authorized and qualified to be the Saviour of the world.\n\n3. To come to be a Saviour supposeth a resolution to do that work\nbefore he goeth back--'I will ransom them from the power of the\ngrave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues;\nO grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from\nmine eyes' (Hosea 13:14).\n\nAnd as he resolved, so he hath done. He hath purged our sins (Heb\n1:3). By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are\nsanctified (Heb 10:14). He hath obtained eternal redemption for\nthem (Heb 9:12; 2 Tim 1:10; Heb 9:26; Col 2:15; Heb 6:18-20).\n\nThird. I come now to the third question--What it is for JESUS to\ncome to be a Saviour.\n\n1. It is the greatest discovery of man's misery and inability to\nsave himself therefrom that ever was made in the world. Must the Son\nof God himself come down from heaven? or can there be no salvation?\nCannot one sinner save another? Cannot man by any means redeem his\nbrother, nor give to God a ransom for him? Cannot an angel do it?\nCannot all the angels do it? No; Christ must come and die to do\nit.\n\n2. It is the greatest discovery of the love of God that ever the\nworld had, for God so to love the world as to send his Son! For\nGod so to commend his love to the world as to send it to them in\nthe blood of his Son! Amazing love! (John 3:16; Rom 5:8).\n\n3. It is the greatest discovery of the condescension of Christ\nthat ever the world had, that he should not come 'to be ministered\nunto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many'\n(Matt 20:28). That he should be manifest for this purpose, 'that he\nmight destroy the works of the devil' (1 John 3:8). That he should\ncome that we 'might have life, and that we might have it more\nabundantly' (John 10:10). That the Son of God should 'come to seek\nand to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10). That he should not\ncome 'to judge the world, but to save the world' (John 12:47). That\n'Christ Jesus should come into the world to save sinners, of whom\nI am the chief' (1 Tim 1:15). That he should 'love us, and wash us\nfrom our sins in his own blood' (Rev 1:5). What amazing condescension\nand humility is this! (Phil 2:6-9).\n\nHOW JESUS CHRIST ADDRESSED HIMSELF TO THE WORK OF OUR REDEMPTION.\n\nI come, then, in the next place, to show you how Jesus Christ\naddressed himself to the work of man's redemption.\n\nThe Scripture saith, 'he became poor,' that he made himself of no\nreputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, that he humbled\nhimself unto death, even the death of the cross. But particularly,\nFIRST. He took upon him our flesh. SECOND. He was made under the\nlaw. THIRD. He took upon him our sins. FOURTH. He bore the curse\ndue to our sins.\n\n[HE TOOK UPON HIM OUR FLESH.]\n\nFIRST. He took upon him our flesh. I showed you before that he came\nin our flesh, and now I must show you the reason of it--namely,\nbecause that was the way to address himself to the work of our\nredemption.\n\nWherefore, when the apostle treated of the incarnation of Christ,\nhe added withal the reason--to wit, that he might be capable to\nwork out the redemption of men.\n\nThere are three things to be considered in this first head. First.\nThat he took our flesh for this reason--that he might be a Saviour.\nSecond. How he took flesh, that he might be our Saviour. Third.\nThat it was necessary that he should take our flesh, if indeed he\nwill be our Saviour.\n\n[He took our flesh, that he might be a Saviour.]\n\n[First.] For the first. That he took our flesh for this reason--that\nhe might be a Saviour: 'For what the law could not do, in that it\nwas weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness\nof sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh' (Rom\n8:3).\n\nThe sum of the words is, Forasmuch as the law could do us no good,\nby reason of the inability that is in our flesh to do it--for the\nlaw can do us no good until it be fulfilled--and because God had a\ndesire that good should come to us, therefore did he send his Son\nin our likeness, clothed with flesh, to destroy, by his doing the\nlaw, the tendency of the sin that dwells in our flesh. He therefore\ntook our flesh, that our sin, with its effects, might by him be\ncondemned and overcome.\n\nThe reason, therefore, why he took flesh is, because he would be\nour Saviour--'Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of\nflesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;\nthat through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,\nthat is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were\nall their lifetime subject to bondage' (Heb 2:14,15).\n\nIn these words it is asserted that he took our flesh for certain\nreasons.\n\n1. Because the children, the heirs of heaven, are partakers of\nflesh and blood--'Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers\nof flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same.' Had the\nchildren, the heirs, been without flesh, he himself had not taken\nit upon him; had the children been angels, he had taken upon him\nthe nature of angels; but because the children were partakers of\nflesh, therefore leaving angels, or refusing to take hold of angels,\nhe took flesh and blood, the nature of the children, that he might\nput himself into a capacity to save and deliver the children;\ntherefore it follows, that 'through death he might destroy him that\nhad the power of death, that is, the devil.'\n\n2. This, therefore, was another reason--that he might destroy the\ndevil.\n\nThe devil had bent himself against the children; he is their\nadversary, and goeth forth to make war with them--'Your adversary,\nthe devil.--And he went to make war with the remnant of her seed'\n(1 Peter 5:8; Rev 12:17). Now the children could not destroy him,\nbecause he had already cast them into sin, defiled their nature,\nand laid them under the wrath of God. Therefore Christ puts himself\namong the children, and into the nature of the children, that he\nmight, by means of his dying in their flesh, destroy the devil--that\nis, take away sin, his [the devil's] work, that he might destroy\nthe works of the devil; for sin is the great engine of hell, by\nwhich he overthroweth all that perish. Now this did Christ destroy\nby taking on him the similitude of sinful flesh; of which more\nanon.\n\n3. 'That he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,\nthe devil, and deliver them.' This was the thing in chief intended,\nthat he might deliver the children, that he might deliver them\nfrom death, the fruit of their sin, and from sin, the sting of that\ndeath--'That he might deliver them who through fear of death were\nall their lifetime subject to bondage.'\n\nHe took flesh, therefore, because the children had it; he took it\nthat he might die for the children; he took it that he might deliver\nthe children from the works of the devil--'that he might deliver\nthem.' No deliverance had come to the children if the Son of God\nhad not taken their flesh and blood; therefore he took our flesh,\nthat he might be our Saviour.\n\nAgain, in a Saviour there must be not only merit, but compassion and\nsympathy, because the children are yet to live by faith, are not\nyet come to the inheritance--'Wherefore it behoved him in all things\nto be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful\nand faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make\nreconciliation for the sins of the people' (Heb 2:17,18).\n\nTwo reasons are rendered in this text why he must take flesh--namely,\nthat he might be their priest to offer sacrifice, to wit, his body\nand blood for them; and that he might be merciful and faithful, to\npity and preserve them unto the kingdom appointed for them.\n\nMark you, therefore, how the apostle, when he asserteth that\nthe Lord Jesus took our flesh, urgeth the reason why he took our\nflesh--that he might destroy the devil and death, that he might\ndeliver them. It behoveth him to be made like unto his brethren, that\nhe might be merciful and faithful, that he might make reconciliation\nfor the sins of the people. The reason, therefore, why he took our\nflesh is declared--to wit, that he might be our Saviour. And hence\nyou find it so often recorded. He hath 'abolished in his flesh the\nenmity.' He hath 'slain the enmity' by his flesh. 'And you that\nwere sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,\nyet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death,\nto present you holy and unblameable--in his sight' (Eph 2:15,16;\nCol 1:21,22).\n\nHow he took flesh.\n\nSecond. I come now to the second question--to wit, How he took our\nflesh. This must be inquired into; for his taking flesh was not\nafter the common way; never any took man's flesh upon him as he,\nsince the foundation of the world.\n\n1. He took not our flesh like Adam, who was formed out of the\nground; 'who was made of the dust of the ground' (Gen 2:7, 3:19).\n2. He took not our flesh as we do, by carnal generation. Joseph\nknew not his wife, neither did Mary know any man, till she had\nbrought forth her first-born son (Matt 1:25; Luke 1:34). 3. He took\nflesh, then, by the immediate working and overshadowing of the Holy\nGhost. And hence it is said expressly, 'She was found with child\nof the Holy Ghost.' 'Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this\nwise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they\ncame together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost' (Matt\n1:18). And hence again, when Joseph doubted of her honesty, for\nhe perceived she was with child, and knew he had not touched her,\nthe angel of God himself comes down to resolve his doubt, and\nsaid, 'Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary\nthy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost'\n(Matt 1:20).\n\nBut again, though the Holy Ghost was that by which the child Jesus\nwas formed in the womb, so as to be without carnal generation, yet\nwas he not formed in her without, but by, her conception--'Behold,\nthou shalt conceive in they womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt\ncall his name JESUS' (Luke 1:31). Wherefore he took flesh not only\nin, but of, the Virgin. Hence he is called her son, the seed of the\nwoman; and hence it is also that he is called the seed of Abraham,\nthe seed of David; their seed, according to the flesh (Gen 12,\n13:15, 22; Luke 1:31, 2:7; Rom 1:3, 9:5; Gal 3:16, 4:4).\n\nAnd this, the work he undertook, required, 1. It required that\nhe should take our flesh. 2. It required that he should take our\nflesh without sin, which could not be had he taken it by reason\nof a carnal generation; for so all children are conceived in, and\npolluted with, sin (Psa 51). And the least pollution, either of\nflesh or spirit, had utterly disabled him for the work, which to\ndo, he came down from heaven. Therefore, 'such an High-priest became\nus, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and\nmade higher than the heavens' (Heb 7:26).\n\nThis mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God was thus completed,\nI say, that he might be in all points like as we are, yet without\nsin; for sin in the flesh disableth and maketh incapable to do\nthe commandment. Therefore was he thus made, thus made of a woman;\nand this the angel assigneth as the reason of this his marvellous\nincarnation. 'The Holy Ghost,' saith he, 'shall come upon thee,\nand the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also\nthat holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son\nof God' (Luke 1:35).\n\nThe overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Highest--the\nFather and the Holy Ghost--brought this wonderful thing to pass,\nfor Jesus is a wonderful one in his conception and birth. This\nmystery is that next to the mystery of three persons in one God;\nit is a great mystery. 'Great is the mystery of godliness: God was\nmanifest in the flesh.'\n\nThe conclusion is, that Jesus Christ took our flesh that he might\nbe our Saviour; and that he might be our Saviour indeed, he thus\ntook our flesh.\n\nThat it was necessary that he should take our flesh if he will be\nour Saviour.\n\nThird. I come now to the third thing--namely, that it was necessary\nthat he should take our flesh if he will be our Saviour.\n\n1. And that, first, from the nature of the work; his work was to\nsave, to save man, sinking man, man that was 'going down to the\npit' (Job 33:24). Now, he that will save him that is sinking must\ntake hold on him. And since he was not to save a man, but men,\ntherefore it was necessary that he should take hold, not of one\nperson, but of the common nature, clothing himself with part of the\nsame. He took not hold of angels, 'but he took on him the seed of\nAbraham' (Heb 2:16). For that flesh was the same with the whole\nlump of the children to whom the promise was made, and comprehended\nin it the body of them that shall be saved, even as in Adam was\ncomprehended the whole world at first (Rom 5).\n\nHence we are said to be chosen in him, to be gathered, being in\nhim, to be dead by him, to be risen with him, and to be set with\nhim, or in him, in heavenly places already (Rom 7:4; Eph 1:4,10;\nCol 2:12,13, 3:1-3). This, then, was the wisdom of the great God,\nthat the Eternal Son of his love should take hold of, and so secure\nthe sinking souls of perishing sinners by assuming their flesh.\n\n2. The manner of his doing the work of a Saviour did call for his\ntaking of our flesh.\n\nHe must do the work by dying. 'Ought not Christ to have suffered?\nChrist must needs have suffered,' or else no glory follows (Luke\n24:26; Acts 17:3). 'The prophets testified beforehand the sufferings\nof Christ, and the glory that should follow' (1 Peter 1:11). Yea,\nthey did it by the Spirit, even by the Spirit of Christ himself.\nThis Spirit, then, did bid them tell the world, yea, testify,\nthat Christ must suffer, or no man be blest with glory; for the\nthreatening of death and the curse of the law lay in the way between\nheaven gates and the souls of the children, for their sins; wherefore\nhe that will save them must answer Divine justice, or God must\nlie, in saving them without inflicting the punishment threatened.\nChrist, then, must needs have suffered; the manner of the work laid\na necessity upon him to take our flesh upon him; he must die, he\nmust die for us, he must die for our sins. And this was effectually\nforetold by all the bloody sacrifices that were offered under the\nlaw--the blood of bulls, the blood of lambs, the blood of rams,\nthe blood of calves, and the blood of goats and birds. These bloody\nsacrifices, what did they signify, what were they figures of, but\nof the bloody sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ? their blood\nbeing a shadow of his blood, and their flesh being a shadow of his\nflesh.\n\nTherefore, when God declared that he took no pleasure in them,\nbecause they could not make the worshippers perfect as pertaining\nto the conscience, then comes Jesus Christ to offer his sinless body\nand soul for the sin of the people--'For it is not possible that\nthe blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore,\nwhen he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifices and offering thou\nwouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burnt-offerings\nand sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo,\nI come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy\nwill, O God.' Since burnt-offerings cannot do thy will, my body\nshall; since the blood of bulls and goats cannot do thy will, my\nblood shall. Then follows, By the will of God 'we are sanctified,\nthrough the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all'\n(Heb 10:4-10).\n\n3. The end of the work required that Christ, if he will be our\nSaviour, should take upon him our flesh.\n\nThe end of our salvation is, that we might enjoy God, and that he\nby us might be glorified for ever and ever.\n\n(1.) That we might enjoy God. 'I will dwell in them, and they shall\nbe my people, and I will be their God.' This indwelling of God, and\nconsequently our enjoyment of him, begins first in its eminency by\nhis possessing our flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Hence his\nname is called 'Immanuel, God with us'; and 'the Word was made\nflesh, and dwelt among us.' The flesh of Christ is the tabernacle\nwhich the Lord pitched, according to that saying, 'The tabernacle\nof God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be\nhis people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God'\n(Rev 21:3). Here God beginneth to discover his glory, and to be\ndesirable to the sons of men.\n\nGod could not communicate himself to us, nor take us into the\nenjoyment of himself, but with respect to that flesh which his Son\ntook of the Virgin, because sin stood betwixt. Now this flesh only\nwas the holy lump, in this flesh God could dwell; and forasmuch\nas this flesh is the same with ours, and was taken up with intent\nthat what was done in and by that, should be communicated to all\nthe children; therefore through that doth God communicate of himself\nunto his people--'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto\nhimself' (2 Cor 5:19). And 'I am the way,' saith Christ, 'no man\ncometh unto the Father but by me' (John 14:6).\n\nThat passage to the Hebrews is greatly to our purpose. We have\nboldness, brethren, 'to enter into the holiest,' the place where\nGod is, 'by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which\nhe hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his\nflesh' (Heb 10:19,20).\n\nWherefore by the flesh and blood of Christ we enter into the holiest;\nthrough the veil, saith he, that is to say, his flesh.\n\n(2.) As the end of our salvation is that we might enjoy God, so\nalso it is that he by us might be glorified for ever--'That God in\nall things might be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'\n\nHere indeed will the mystery of his grace, wisdom, justice, power,\nholiness, and glory, inhabit eternal praise, while we that are\ncounted worthy of the kingdom of God shall admire at the mystery,\nand see ourselves, without ourselves, even by the flesh and blood\nof Christ through faith therein, effectually and eternally saved.\nOh, this will be the burden of our eternal joy--God loved us, and\ngave his Son for us; Christ loved us, and gave his flesh for our\nlife, and his blood for our eternal redemption and salvation!\n\nTHAT CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE LAW.\n\nSECOND. But, secondly CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE LAW--'When the\nfulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a\nwoman, made under the law' (Gal 4:4).\n\nOf right, being found in flesh, he must needs be under the law,\nfor that there is not any creature above or without law to God; but\nthis is not to the point in hand. Christ was not therefore under\nthe law because he was found in flesh, but he took flesh, and\ndesignedly put himself, or was made under the law; wherefore it\nis added, He was made under the law to 'redeem,' to redeem them\nthat were under that law. Wherefore, here is a design, a heavenly\ncontrivance and device on foot; Christ is made--that is, by design\nsubjected--under the law, for the sake and upon the account of\nothers, 'to redeem them that were under the law.'\n\nMade under the law--that is, put himself into the room of sinners,\ninto the condition of sinners; made himself subject to the same\npains and penalties we were obnoxious to. We were under the law,\nand it had dominion over us, bound us upon pain of eternal damnation\nto do completely all things written in the law. This condition\nChrist put himself into that 'he might redeem'; for assuredly we\nhad else perished.\n\nThe law had dominion over us, and since we had sinned, of right\nit pronounced the curse, and made all men subject to the wrath of\nGod. Christ, therefore, did not only come into our flesh, but also\ninto our condition, into the valley and shadow of death where we\nwere, and where we are, as we are sinners. He that is under the\nlaw is under the edge of the axe. When David was to go to visit\nhis brethren, and to save them from the hand of Goliath, he was\nto look how his brethren fared, and to 'take their pledge' (1 Sam\n17:18). This is true of Jesus Christ when he came to save us from\nthe hand of death and the law; he looked how his brethren fared,\ntook to heart their deplorable condition, and put himself into the\nsame plight--to wit, under the law, that he might redeem them that\nwere under the law.\n\nI told you before that he came sinless into the world, that he had\na miraculous conception, and wonderful birth; and here you see a\nreason for it, he was to be put, or made, under the law, 'to redeem.'\nHe that will be made under the law to redeem, had need be sinless\nand spotless himself; for the law findeth fault with the least,\nand condemneth man for the first beginning of, sin.\n\nWithout this, then, there could not have been redemption, nor any\nthe sons of God by adoption: no redemption, because the sentence\nof death had already passed upon all; no sons by adoption, because\nthat is the effect of redemption. 'God sent forth his Son, made\nof a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the\nlaw, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' Christ, then, by\nbeing made under the law, hath recovered his from under the law,\nand obtained for them the privilege of the adoption of sons.\n\nFor, as I told you before, Christ stood a common[3] person,\npresenting in himself the whole lump of the promised seed, or the\nchildren of the promise; wherefore he comes under the law for them,\ntakes upon him to do what the law required of them, takes upon him\nto do it for them.\n\nHe began, therefore, at the first tittle of the law, and going in\nman's flesh, for man, through the law, he becomes 'the end of the\nlaw for righteousness to every one that believeth.' The END of the\nlaw--what is the end of the law but perfect and sinless obedience?\nthat is the end of the law, both with respect to its nature, and\nthe cause of its being imposed. God gave the law, that complete\nrighteousness should by that be found upon men; but because sin was\ngot into man's flesh, therefore this righteousness, by us, could\nnot be completed. Now comes Christ the Lord into the world, clothes\nhimself with the children's flesh, addresseth himself to the work\nof their redemption, is made under the law; and going through every\npart of the law without sin, he becometh 'the end of the law for'\njustifying 'righteousness to every one that believeth' (Rom 10:4).\nFor he obeyed not the law for himself, he needed no obedience\nthereto; it was we that needed obedience, it was we that wanted to\nanswer the law; we wanted it but could not obtain it, because then\nthe law was weak through the flesh; therefore God sent his own\nSon, and he did our duty for us, even to become the end of the law\nto every one that believeth. In this, therefore, Christ laboured\nfor us, he was made under the law to redeem. Therefore, as I said\nbefore, it behoved him to be sinless, because the law binds over\nto answer for sin at the bar of the judgment of God. Therefore did\nhis Godhead assume our human flesh, in a clean and spotless way,\nthat he might come under 'the law, to redeem them that were under\nthe law.'\n\nFor, consisting of two natures, and the personality lying in the\nGodhead, which gave value and worth to all things done for us by\nthe manhood, the obedience takes denomination from thence, to be\nthe obedience of God. The Son's righteousness, the Son's blood; the\nrighteousness of God, the blood of God (Heb 5:8,9; Phil 3:9; Acts\n20:28; 1 John 3:16).\n\nThus Jesus Christ came into the world under the law to redeem, not\nsimply as God, but God-man, both natures making one Christ. The\nGodhead, therefore, did influence and give value to the human flesh\nof Christ in all its obedience to the law, else there would have\nbeen wanting that perfection of righteousness which only could\nanswer the demands and expectation of the justice of God; to wit,\nperfect righteousness by flesh.\n\nBut the second Person in the Godhead, the Son, the Word, coming\nunder the law for men in their flesh, and subjecting himself by\nthat flesh to every tittle and demand of the law; all and every\nwhit of what was acted and done by Jesus Christ, God-man, for us,\nit was and is the righteousness of God; and since it was not done\nfor himself, but for us, as he saith in the text, 'to redeem,' the\nrighteousness by which we are set free from the law is none other\nbut the righteousness that alone resideth in the person of the Son\nof God.\n\nAnd that it is absolutely necessary thus it should be, is evident,\nboth with respect to God and also with respect to man.\n\nWith respect to God. The righteousness is demanded by God; therefore\nhe that comes to redeem must present before God a righteousness\nabsolutely perfect; this can be done by none but God.\n\nWith respect to man. Man was to present this righteousness to God;\ntherefore must the undertaker be man. Man for man, and God for God,\nGod-man between God and man. This daysman can lay his hand upon us\nboth, and bring God and man together in peace (Job 9:33).\n\nQuest. But some may say, what need of the righteousness of one\nthat is naturally God? Had Adam, who was but a mere man, stood in\nhis innocency, and done his duty, he had saved himself and all his\nposterity.\n\nAnsw. Had Adam stood, he had so long secured himself from the wages\nof sin, and posterity so long as they were in him. But had Adam\nsinned, yea, although he had not defiled his nature with filth,\nhe could never after that have redeemed himself from the curse of\nthe law, because he was not equal with God; for the curse of the\nlaw is the curse of God; but no man can deliver himself from the\ncurse of God, having first transgressed. This is evident, because\nangels, for sin, lie bound in chains, and can never deliver\nthemselves. He, therefore, that redeemeth man from under the law\nmust not only do all the good that the law requireth, but bear all\nthe penalty that is due by the law for sin.\n\nShould an angel assume human flesh, and in that flesh do the law,\nthis righteousness would not redeem a sinner; it would be but the\nrighteousness of an angel, and so, far short of such a righteousness\nas can secure a sinner from the wrath of God. But 'thou shalt love\nthe Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all\nthy mind, with all thy strength.' If there were no more required\nof us now to redeem ourselves, it would be utterly impossible for\nus to do it, because in the best there is sin, which will intermix\nitself with every duty of man. This being so, all the heart, all the\nsoul, all the strength, and all the mind, to the exact requirement\nof the justice of the law, can never be found in a natural man.\n\nBesides, for this work there is required a perfect memory, always\nto keep in mind the whole duty of man, the whole of every tittle of\nall the law, lest sin come in by forgetfulness; a perfect knowledge\nand judgment, lest sin come in by ignorance; an everlasting\nunweariedness in all, lest sin and continual temptation tire the\nsoul, and cause it to fail before the whole be done.\n\nFor the accomplishing of this last, he must have--1. A perfect\nwillingness, without the least thought to the contrary. 2. Such a\nhatred of sin as is not to be found but in the heart of God. 3. A\nfull delight in every duty, and that in the midst of all temptations.\n4. A continuing in all things to the well-pleasing of the justice\nof God.\n\nI say, should the penalty of the law be taken off, should God\nforgive the penalty and punishment due to sins that are past, and\nonly demand good works now, according to the tenor of the law, no\nman could be saved; there would not be found that heart, that soul,\nthat mind, and that strength, anywhere in the world.\n\nThis, therefore, must cease for ever, unless the Son of God will\nput his shoulder to the work; but, blessed be God, he hath done\nit--'When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his\nSon, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were\nunder the law.'\n\nCHRIST TOOK UPON HIM OUR SINS.\n\nTHIRD. But thirdly, CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR TAKES UPON HIM OUR SINS.\nThis is another step to the work of our redemption. 'He hath made\nhim to be sin for us.' Strange doctrine! A fool would think it\nblasphemy; but Truth hath said it. Truth, I say, hath said, not\nthat he was made to sin, but that God made him to be sin--'He hath\nmade him to be sin for us' (2 Cor 5:21).\n\nThis, therefore, showeth us how effectually Christ Jesus undertook\nthe work of our redemption--He was made to be sin for us. Sin is the\ngreat block and bar to our happiness; sin is the procurer of all\nmiseries to men both here and for ever. Take away sin, and nothing\ncan hurt us; for death temporal, death spiritual, and death eternal,\nare the wages of sin (Rom 6:23).\n\nSin, then, and man for sin, is the object of the wrath of God. If\nthe object of the wrath of God, then is his case most dreadful; for\nwho can bear, who can grapple with the wrath of God? Men cannot,\nangels cannot, the whole world cannot. All, therefore, must sink\nunder sin, but he who is made to be sin for us; he only can bear\nsins, he only can bear them away, and therefore were they laid\nupon him--'The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all' (Isa\n53:6).\n\nMark, therefore, and you shall find that the reason why God made\nhim to be sin for us was, 'that we might be made the righteousness\nof God in him.' He took our flesh, he was made under the law, and\nwas made to be sin for us, that the devil might be destroyed, that\nthe captives might be redeemed, and made the righteousness of God\nin him.\n\nAnd forasmuch as he saith that God 'hath made him to be sin,' it\ndeclareth that the design of God and the mystery of his will and\ngrace was in it. 'He hath made him to be sin.' God hath done it,\nthat we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There was no\nother way; the wisdom of heaven could find no other way; we could\nnot by other means stand just before the justice of God.\n\nNow, what remains but that we who are reconciled to God by faith\nin his blood are quit, discharged, and set free from the law of sin\nand death? Yea, what encouragement to trust in him, when we read\nthat God 'made him to be sin for us.'\n\nQuest. But how was Jesus Christ made of God to be sin for us?\n\nAnsw. Even so as if himself had committed all our sins; that is,\nthey were as really charged upon him as if himself had been the actor\nand committer of them all. 'He hath made him to be sin,' not only\nas a sinner, but as sin itself. He was as the sin of the world that\nday he stood before God in our stead. Some, indeed, will not have\nJesus Christ our Lord to be made sin for us; their wicked reasons\nthink this to be wrong judgment in the Lord; it seems, supposing\nthat because they cannot imagine how it should be, therefore God,\nif he does it, must do it at his peril, and must be charged with\ndoing wrong judgment, and so things that become not his heavenly\nMajesty; but against this duncish sophistry[4] we set Paul and\nIsaiah, the one telling us still, 'the Lord hath laid on him the\niniquity of us all'; and the other, that 'God made him to be sin\nfor us.'\n\nBut these men, as I suppose, think it enough for Christ to die\nunder that notion only, not knowing nor feeling the burden of sin,\nand the wrath of God due thereto. These make him as senseless in\nhis dying, and as much without reason, as a silly sheep or goat,\nwho also died for sin, but so as in name, in show, in shadow only.\nThey felt not the proper weight, guilt, and judgment of God for\nsin. But thou, sinner, who art so in thine own eyes, and who feelest\nguilt in thine own conscience, know thou that Jesus Christ, the Son\nof the living God in flesh, was made to be sin for thee, or stood\nsensibly guilty of all thy sins before God, and bare them in his\nown body upon the cross.\n\nGod charged our sins upon Christ, and that in their guilt and burden,\nwhat remaineth but that the charge was real or feigned? If real,\nthen he hath either perished under them, or carried them away from\nbefore God; if they were charged but feignedly, then did he but\nfeignedly die for them, then shall we have but feigned benefit by\nhis death, and but a feigned salvation at last--not to say how this\ncursed doctrine chargeth God and Christ with hypocrisy, the one in\nsaying, He made Christ to be sin; the other in saying that he bare\nour sin; when, in deed and in truth, our guilt and burden never\nwas really upon him.\n\nQuest. But might not Christ die for our sins but he needs must bear\ntheir guilt or burden?\n\nAnsw. He that can sever sin and guilt, sin and the burden, each from\nother, laying sin and no guilt, sin and no burden on the person\nthat dieth for sin, must do it only in his own imaginative head.\nNo scripture, nor reason, nor sense, understandeth or feeleth sin\nwhen charged without its guilt and burden.\n\nAnd here we must distinguish between sin charged and sin forgiven.\nSin forgiven may be seen without guilt or burden, though I think\nnot without shame in this world; but sin charged, and that by the\njustice of God--for so it was upon Christ--this cannot be but guilt\nand the burden, as inseparable companions, must unavoidably lie on\nthat person. Poor sinner, be advised to take heed of such deluded\npreachers who, with their tongues smoother than oil, would rob\nthee of that excellent doctrine, 'God hath made him to be sin for\nus'; for such, as I said, do not only present thee with a feigned\ndeliverance and forgiveness, with a feigned heaven and happiness,\nbut charge God and the Lord Jesus as mere impostors, who, while\nthey tell us that Christ was made of God to be sin for us, affirm\nthat it was not so really, suggesting this sophistical reason,\n'No wrong judgment comes from the Lord.' I say again, this wicked\ndoctrine is the next way to turn the gospel in thy thoughts to no\nmore than a cunningly-devised fable (2 Peter 1:16), and to make\nJesus Christ, in his dying for our sins, as brutish as the paschal\nlamb in Moses' law.\n\nWherefore, distressed sinner, when thou findest it recorded in\nthe Word of truth that Christ died for our sins, and that God hath\nmade him to be sin for us, then do thou consider of sin as it is a\ntransgression against the law of God, and that as such it procureth\nthe judgment of God, torments and afflicts the mind with guilt,\nand bindeth over the soul to answer it. Sever not sin and guilt\nasunder, lest thou be an hypocrite like these wicked men, and rob\nChrist of his true sufferings. Besides, to see sin upon Christ, but\nnot its guilt; to see sin upon Christ, but not the legal punishment,\nwhat is this but to conclude that either there is no guilt and\npunishment in sin, or that Christ bare our sin, but we the punishment?\nfor the punishment must be borne, because the sentence is gone out\nfrom the mouth of God against sin.\n\nDo thou therefore, as I have said, consider of sin as a transgression\nof the law (1 John 3:4), and a provoker of the justice of God;\nwhich done, turn thine eye to the cross, and behold those sins, in\nthe guilt and punishment of them, sticking in the flesh of Christ.\n'God condemned sin in the flesh' of Christ (Rom 8:3). He 'bare our\nsins in his own body on the tree' (1 Peter 2:24).\n\nI would only give thee this caution--Not sin in the nature of\nsin--sin was not so in the flesh of Christ; but sin in the natural\npunishment of it--to wit, guilt, and the chastising hand of justice.\n'He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our\niniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with\nhis stripes we are healed' (Isa 53:5).\n\nLook, then, upon Christ crucified to be as the sin of the world,\nas if he only had broken the law; which done, behold him perfectly\ninnocent in himself, and so conclude that for the transgression\nof God's people he was stricken; that when the Lord made him to be\nsin, he made him to be sin for us.[5]\n\nHE WAS MADE A CURSE FOR US.\n\nFOURTH. As he was made flesh under the law, and also sin, SO HE\nWAS MADE A CURSE FOR US--'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse\nof the law, being made a curse for us; as it is written, Cursed\nis every one that hangeth on a tree.' This sentence is taken out\nof Moses, being passed there upon them that for sin are worthy\nof death--'And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and\nthou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon\nthe tree, but thou shalt in anywise bury him that day, for he that\nis hanged is accursed of God' (Deut 21:22,23). By this sentence\nPaul concludeth that Jesus Christ was justly hanged, because sin\nworthy of death was upon him; sin, not of his own, but ours. Since,\nthen, he took our sins, he must be cursed of God; for sin is sin\nwherever it lies, and justice is justice wherever it finds it;\nwherefore since Jesus Christ will bear our sin, he must be 'numbered\nwith the transgressors,' and counted worthy to die the death.\n\nHe that committeth sin is worthy of death. This, though Christ did\nnot personally do, his members, his body, which is his church did;\nand since he would undertake for them with God, and stand in their\nsins before the eyes of his justice, he must die the death by the\nlaw.\n\nSin and the curse cannot be severed. Sin must be followed with the\ncurse of God. Sin therefore being removed from us to the back of\nChrist, thither goes also the curse; for if sin be found upon him,\nhe is the person worthy to die--worthy by our sins.\n\nWherefore Paul here setteth forth Christ clothed with our sins,\nand so taking from us the guilt and punishment. What punishment,\nbut the wrath and displeasure of God?--'Christ hath redeemed us\nfrom the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.'\n\nIn this word 'curse' are two things comprised,\n\n1. The reality of sin; for there can be no curse where there is\nno sin, either of the person's own, or made to be his by his own\nconsent or the imputation of Divine justice. And since sins are made\nto be Christ's by imputation, they are his, though not naturally,\nyet really, and consequently the wages due. He hath made him to be\nsin; he was made a curse for us.\n\n2. This word 'curse' compriseth, therefore, the punishment of sin,\nthat punishment properly due to sin from the hand of God's justice,\nwhich punishment standeth in three things--(1.) In charging sin\nupon the body and soul of the person concerned; and hence we read\nthat both the body and soul of Christ 'were made an offering for\nsin' (Isa 53:10; Heb 10:10). (2.) The punishment standeth in God's\ninflicting of the just merits of sin upon him that standeth charged\ntherewith, and that is death in its own nature and strength; to\nwit, death with the sting thereof--'The sting of death is sin.'\nThis death did Christ die because he died for our sins. (3.) The\nsorrows and pains of this death, therefore, must be undergone by\nJesus Christ.\n\nNow there are divers sorrows in death--such sorrows as brutes are\nsubject to; such sorrows as persons are subject to that stand in\nsin before God; such sorrows as those undergo who are swallowed up\nof the curse and wrath of God for ever.\n\nNow so much of all kinds of sorrow as the imputation of our sin\ncould justly bring from the hand of Divine justice, so much of it\nhe had. He had death. He had the sting of death, which is sin. He\nwas forsaken of God; but could not by any means have those sorrows\nwhich they have that are everlastingly swallowed up of them. 'It\nwas not possible that he should be holden of it' (Acts 2:24).\n\nFor where sin is charged and borne, there must of necessity follow\nthe wrath and curse of God. Now where the wrath and curse of God is,\nthere must of necessity follow the effects, the natural effects--I\nsay, the natural effects--to wit, the sense, the sorrowful sense\nof the displeasure of an infinite Majesty, and his chastisements\nfor the sin that hath provoked him. There are effects natural,\nand effects accidental; those accidental are such as flow from\nour weakness, whilst we wrestle with the judgment of God--to wit,\nhellish fear, despair, rage, blasphemy, and the like; these were\nnot incident to Jesus Christ, he being in his own person every\nway perfect. Neither did he always endure the natural effects; his\nmerits relieved and delivered him. God loosed the pains of death,\n'because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.'\n\nChrist then was made a curse for us, for he did bear our sin; the\npunishment therefore from the revenging hand of God must needs fall\nupon him.\n\nWherefore by these four things we see how Christ became our\nSaviour--he took hold of our nature, was born under the law, was\nmade to be sin, and the accursed of God for us. And observe it--all\nthis, as I said before, was the handiwork of God. God made him\nflesh, made him under the law, God made him to be sin, and also\na curse for us. The Lord bruised him, the Lord put him to grief,\nthe Lord made his soul an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). Not for\nthat he hated him, considering him in his own harmless, innocent,\nand blessed person, for he was daily his delight; but by an act\nof grace to us-ward, were our iniquities laid upon him, and he in\nour stead was bruised and chastised for them. God loved us, and\nmade him a curse for us. He was made a curse for us, 'that the\nblessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through [faith in]\nJesus Christ' (Gal 3:14).\n\nFURTHER DEMONSTRATION OF THIS TRUTH.\n\nBefore I pass this truth, I will present thee, courteous reader,\nwith two or three demonstrations for its further confirmation.\n\nFirst. That Christ did bear our sins and curse is clear, because\nhe died, and that without a mediator.\n\nHe died--'The wages of sin is death' (Rom 6:23). Now if death\nbe the wages of sin, and that be true that Christ did die and not\nsin, either the course of justice is perverted, or else he died for\nour sins; there was 'no cause of death in him,' yet he died (Acts\n13:28). He did no evil, guile was not found in his mouth, yet he\nreceived the wages of sin (1 Peter 2:22). Sin, therefore, though\nnot of his own, was found upon him, and laid to his charge, because\n'he died.' 'Christ died for our sins,' Christ 'gave himself for\nour sins' (1 Cor 15:1-3; Gal 1:4).\n\nHe, then, that will conclude that Christ did not bear our sin,\nchargeth God foolishly, for delivering him up to death; for laying\non him the wages, when in no sense he deserved the same. Yea, he\noverthroweth the whole gospel, for that hangeth on this hinge--'Christ\ndied for our sins.'\n\nObject. But all that die do not bear the curse of God for sin.\n\nAnsw. But all that die without a mediator do. Angels died the\ncursed death because Christ took not hold of them; and they for whom\nChrist never prayeth, they die the cursed death, for they perish\neverlastingly in the unutterable torments of hell. Christ, too,\ndied that death which is the proper wages of sin, for he had none\nto stand for him. 'I looked,' saith he, 'and there was none to\nhelp; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine\nown arm brought salvation unto me.--And he saw that there was no\nman, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm\nbrought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him'\n(Isa 63:5, 54:16).\n\nChrist then died, or endured the wages of sin, and that without an\nintercessor, without one between God and him; he grappled immediately\nwith the eternal justice of God, who inflicted on him death, the\nwages of sin; there was no man to hold off the hand of God; justice\nhad his full blow at him, and made him a curse for sin. He died\nfor sin without a mediator, he died the cursed death.\n\nSecond. A second thing that demonstrateth that Christ died the\ncursed death for sin; it is, the frame of spirit that he was in at\nthe time that he was to be taken.\n\nNever was poor mortal so beset with the apprehensions of approaching\ndeath, as was this Lord Jesus Christ; amazement beyond measure,\nsorrow that exceeded, seized upon his soul. 'My soul,' saith he,\n'is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.' 'And he began,' saith\nMark, 'to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy' (Matt 26:38; Mark\n14:33).\n\nAdd to this, that Jesus Christ was better able to grapple with\ndeath, even better able to do it alone, than the whole world joined\nall together. 1. He was anointed with the Spirit without measure\n(John 3:34). 2. He had all grace perfect in him (John 1:16). 3.\nNever none so soaked in the bosom of his Father's love as himself\n(Prov 8:23-30). 4. Never none so harmless and without sin as he\nwas, and, consequently, never man had so good a conscience as he\nhad (Heb 7:26). 5. Never none prepared such a stock of good works\nto bear him company at the hour of death as he. 6. Never none had\ngreater assurance of being with the Father eternally in the heavens\nthan he. And yet, behold, when he comes to die, how weak is he,\nhow amazed at death, how heavy, how exceeding sorrowful! and, I\nsay, no cause assigned but the approach of death.\n\nAlas! how often is it seen that we poor sinners can laugh at\ndestruction when it cometh; yea, and 'rejoice exceedingly when we\nfind the grave,' looking upon death as a part of our portion; yea,\nas that which will be a means of our present relief and help (Job\n3:22; 1 Cor 3:22). This Jesus Christ could not do, considered as\ndying for our sin, but the nearer death, the more heavy and oppressed\nwith the thoughts of the revenging hand of God. Wherefore he falls\ninto an agony, and sweats; not after the common rate as we do when\ndeath is severing body and soul--'His sweat was as it were great\ndrops [clodders] of blood falling down to the ground' (Luke 22:44).\n\nWhat, I say, should be the reason, but that death assaulted him\nwith his sting? If Jesus Christ had been to die for his virtues\nonly, doubtless he would have borne it lightly, and so he did\nas he died, bearing witness to the truth, 'He endured the cross,\ndespising the shame' (Heb 12:2). How have the martyrs despised\ndeath, and, as it were, not been careful of that, having peace with\nGod by Jesus Christ, scorning the most cruel torments that hell and\nmen could devise and invent! but Jesus Christ could not do so, as\nhe was a sacrifice for sin; he died for sin, he was made a curse\nfor us. O my brethren, Christ died many deaths at once, he made\nhis grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Look\nhow many thousands shall be saved--so many deaths did Jesus die;\nyet it was but once he died. He died thy death, and my death, and\nso many deaths as all our sins deserved who shall be saved from\nthe wrath to come.\n\nNow, to feign that these sorrows and this bloody agony, was not\nreal, but in show only, what greater condemnation can be passed\nupon Jesus Christ, who loved to do all things in the most unfeigned\nsimplicity? It was, therefore, because of sin, the sin that was put\ninto the death he died, and the curse of God that was due to sin,\nthat made death so bitter to Jesus Christ--'It is Christ that died.'\nThe apostle speaks as if never any died but Christ, nor indeed did\nthere, so wonderful a death as he (Rom 8:34). Death, considered\nsimply as it is a deprivation of natural life, could not have these\neffects in a person, personally more righteous than an angel. Yea,\neven carnal, wicked men, not awakened in their conscience, how\nsecurely can they die! It must therefore also be concluded that the\nsorrows and agony of Jesus Christ came from a higher cause, even\nfrom the guilt of sin, and from the curse of God that was now\napproaching for that sin.\n\nIt cannot be attributed to the fear of men; their terror could not\nmake him afraid; that was contrary to his doctrine, and did not\nbecome the dignity of his person; it was sin, sin, sin, and the\ncurse due to sin.\n\nThird. It is evident that Christ did bear and die the cursed death\nfor sin, from the carriage and dispensations of God towards him.\n\n1. From the carriage of God. God now becomes as an enemy to him.\n(1.) He forsakes him--'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'\nYea, the sense of the loss of God's comfortable presence abode\nwith him even till he gave up the ghost. (2.) He dealeth with him\nas with one that hath sinned, he chastiseth him, he bruiseth him,\nhe striketh and smiteth him, and was pleased--that is, his justice\nwas satisfied--in so doing. 'It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he\nhath put him to grief' (Isa 53:10).\n\nThese things could not be, had he only considered him in his own\npersonal standing. Where was the righteous forsaken? Without the\nconsideration of sin, he doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the\nchildren of men--that is, not out of pleasure, or without sufficient\ncause.\n\nJesus Christ, then, since he is under this withdrawing, chastising,\nbruising, and afflicting displeasure of God, he is all that time\nunder sin, under our sins, and therefore thus accursed of God, his\nGod.\n\n2. Not only the carriage of God, but his dispensations, his visible\ndispensations, plainly declare that he stood before God in our\nsins. Vengeance suffered him not to live. Wherefore God delivered\nhim up--'He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us\nall' (Rom 8:32). (1.) He delivered him into the hands of men (Mark\n9:31). (2.) He was delivered into the hands of sinners (Luke 24:7).\n(3.) He was delivered unto death (Rom 4:25). (4.) Yea, so delivered\nup as that they both had him to put him to death, and God left him\nfor that purpose in their hands; yea, was so far off from delivering\nhim, that he gave way to all things that had a tendency to take\nhis life from the earth.\n\nNow many men do what they will with him, he was delivered to their\nwill--Judas may sell him; Peter may deny him; all his disciples\nforsake him; the enemy apprehends him, binds him, they have him\naway like a thief to Caiaphas the high-priest, in whose house he\nis mocked, spit upon, his beard is twitched from his cheeks; now\nthey buffet him and scornfully bow the knee before him; yea, 'his\nvisage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the\nsons of men' (Isa 52:14).\n\nNow he is sent to the governor, defaced with blows and blood;\nwho delivereth him into the hand of his soldiers; they whip him,\ncrown him with thorns, and stick the points of the thorns fast in\nhis temples by a blow with a staff in their hand; now he is made\na spectacle to the people, and then sent away to Herod, who, with\nhis men of war, set him at nought, no God appearing for his help.\n\nIn fine, they at last condemn him to death, even to the death of\nthe cross, where they hang him up by wounds made through his hands\nand his feet, between the earth and the heavens, where he hanged\nfor the space of six hours--to wit, from nine in the morning till\nthree in the afternoon. No God yet appears for his help; while\nhe hangs there some rail at him, others wag their heads, others\ntauntingly say, 'He saved others, himself he cannot save'; some\ndivide his raiment, casting lots for his garments before his face;\nothers mockingly bid him come down from the cross, and when he\ndesireth succour, they give him vinegar to drink. No God yet appears\nfor his help.\n\nNow the earth quakes, the rocks are rent, the sun becomes black,\nand Jesus still cries out that he was forsaken of God; and presently\nboweth his head and dies (Matt 26, 27; Mark 14, 15; Luke 22, 23;\nJohn 18, 19).\n\nAnd for all this there is no cause assigned from God but sin--'He\nwas wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;\nthe chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes\nwe are healed' (Isa 53:5).\n\nThe sum then is, that Jesus Christ the Lord, by taking part of\nour flesh, became a public person, not doing or dying in a private\ncapacity, but in the room and stead of sinners, whose sin deserved\ndeath and the curse of God; all which Jesus Christ bare in his\nown body upon the tree. I conclude, then, that my sin is already\ncrucified and accursed in the death and curse Christ underwent.\n\n[Objections to this doctrine.]\n\nI come now to some objections.\n\nObjection First. Christ never was a sinner, God never supposed him\nto be a sinner, neither did our sins become really his; God never\nreputed him so to have been; therefore hate or punish him as a\nsinner he could not; for no false judgment can belong to the Lord.\n\nAnswer.--First. That Christ was not a sinner personally, by acts\nor doings of his own, is granted; and in this sense it is true that\nGod did never suppose him to be a sinner, nor punished him as such\na sinner, nor did he really, if by really you understand naturally,\nbecome our sin, nor did God ever repute him so. Second. But that\nChrist stood before God in our sins, and that God did not only\nsuppose him so to stand, but set him in them, put them upon him,\nand counted them as his own, is so true that he cannot at present\nbe a Christian that denies it--'The Lord hath laid upon him the\niniquities of us all' (Isa 53:6; 1 Peter 2:22). Third. So, then,\nthough God did not punish him for sin of his own committing, yet\nhe punished him for sin of our committing--'The just suffered for\nthe unjust' (1 Peter 3:18). Fourth. Therefore it is true, that\nthough Christ did never really become sin of his own, he did really\nbecome our sin, did really become our curse for sin. If this be\ndenied, it follows that he became our sin but feignedly, that he\nwas made our curse, or a curse for us but in appearance, show, or\nin dissimulation; but no such action or work can proceed of the\nLord. He did then really lay our sin and his curse upon him for\nour sin.\n\nObjection Second. But if Christ indeed hath suffered for our sins,\nand endured for them that curse that of justice is due thereto,\nthen hath he also endured for us the proper torments of hell, for\nthey are the wages of our sins.\n\nAnswer. Many things might be said in answer to this objection; but\nbriefly--First. What God chargeth upon the soul for sin is one\nthing, and what followeth upon that charge is another. Second.\nA difference in the person suffering may make a difference in the\nconsequences that follow upon the charge. Let us then consider of\nboth these things.\n\nFirst. The charge is sin--God charge him with our sins. The person\nthen stands guilty before the judgment of God. The consequences\nare--1. The person charged sustains or suffereth the wrath of God.\n2. This wrath of God is expressed and inflicted on body and soul.\n\nThe consequences are--God forsaketh the person charged, and being\nleft, if he cannot stand, he falleth under the power of guilt and\nhorror of the same.\n\nIf the person utterly fall under this charge, as not being able to\nwrestle with and overcome this wrath of God, then despair, horror\nof hell, rage, blasphemy, darkness, and damnable anguish, immediately\nswallow him up, and he lieth for ever and ever in the pains of\nhell, a monument of eternal vengeance.\n\nNow that Christ underwent the wrath of God it is evident, because he\nbare our curse; that God forsook him, he did with strong crying and\ntears acknowledge; and therefore that he was under the soul-afflicting\nsense of the loss of God's favour, and under the sense of his\ndispleasure, must needs flow from the premises.\n\n[Second.] But now, because Christ Jesus the Lord was a person\ninfinitely differing from all others that fall under the wrath of\nGod, therefore those things that flow from damned sinners could\nnot flow from him.\n\n1. Despair would not rise in his heart, for his flesh did rest in\nhope; and said, even when he suffered, 'Thou wilt not leave my soul\nin hell' (Acts 2:27).\n\n2. The everlastingness of the punishment, therefore, nor the terrors\nthat accompany such, could not fasten upon him; for he knew at last\nthat God would justify him, or approve of his works that they were\nmeritorious.\n\nAnd mark, everlasting punishment is not the proper wages of sin\nbut under a supposition that the person suffering be not able to\npay the debt--'Thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid\nthe very last mite' (Luke 12:59).\n\nThe difference, then, of the persons suffering may make a difference,\nthough not in the nature of the punishment, yet in the duration\nand consequences of it.\n\nChrist under the sentence was, as to his own personal acts only,\naltogether innocent; the damned only altogether sinners. Christ had\nin him even then the utmost perfection of all graces and virtues; but\nthe damned, the perfection of sin and vileness. Christ's humanity\nhad still union with his Godhead; the damned, union only with sin.\nNow, an innocent person, perfect in all graces, as really God as\nman, can better wrestle with the curse for sin than either sinful\nmen or angels.\n\nWhile they despair, Christ hopes. While they blaspheme, Christ\nsubmits. While they rage, Christ justifies God. While they sink\nunder the burden of sin and wrath, Christ recovereth by virtue of\nhis worthiness--'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt\nthou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.' He was God's Holy\nOne, and his holiness prevailed.\n\nSo that it follows not, that because Christ did undergo the curse\ndue to our sins, he therefore must have those accidental consequences\nwhich are found to accompany damned souls.\n\nObjection Third. But the Scripture saith, that the wages of sin is\neverlasting punishment: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting\nfire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt 25:41).\n\nAnswer. This objection is partly answered already in the answer to\nthat foregoing. But further,\n\nFirst. Consider, the wages of sin is death, and punishment under\nthe wrath of God--till those that die the death for sin have paid\nthe utmost farthing (Matt 5:26; Luke 12:58,59).\n\nSecond. So, then, the everlastingness of the punishment lieth here,\nif the person suffering be not able to make amends to justice for\nthe sins for which he suffereth; else justice neither would nor\ncould, because it is just, keep such still under punishment.\n\nThird. The reason, then, why fallen angels and damned souls have\nan everlastingness of punishment allotted them is, because, by what\nthey suffer, they cannot satisfy the justice of God.\n\nFourth. The conclusion then is, though the rebukes of God for sin\nby death, and punishment after, be the rebukes of eternal vengeance,\nyet the eternity of that punishment is for want of merit. Could\nthe damned merit their own deliverance, justice would let them go.\n\nFifth. It is one thing, therefore, to suffer for sin by the stroke\nof eternal justice, and another thing to abide for ever a sufferer\nthere: Christ did the first, the damned do the second.\n\nSixth. His rising, therefore, from the dead the third day doth\nnothing invalidate his sufferings, but rather showeth the power of\nhis merit. And here I would ask a question, Had Christ Jesus been\nmore the object of faith, if weakness and endless infirmity had\nkept him under the curse, than by rising again from the dead; want\nof merit causing the one, sufficiency thereof causing the other?\n\nSeventh. If men will not believe that Christ hath removed the\ncurse because he is risen again, they would much more strongly have\ndoubted it had he been still in the grave. But, O amazing darkness!\nto make that an argument that his sufferings wanted merit, which\nto God himself is sufficient proof that he hath purged our sins for\never--'For this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins\nfor ever, sat down on the right hand of God' (Heb 10:12).\n\nObjection Fourth. But the Scripture saith, Christ is our example,\nand that in his very death (1 Peter 2:21).\n\nAnswer. Christ in his sufferings and death is both sacrifice and\nexample.\n\nFirst. A sacrifice--'Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.'\nAnd again, 'He gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to\nGod, for a sweet-smelling savour.' And thus he made reconciliation\nfor iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness (1 Cor 5:7;\nEph 5:1,2; Dan 9:24).\n\nSecond. He was also in his sufferings exemplary, and that in several\nparticulars--(1.) In his meek deportment while he was apprehended\n(Isa 53:7). (2.) In doing them good that sought his life (Luke\n22:50,51). (3.) In his praying for his enemies when they were in\ntheir outrage (Luke 23:34). (4.) 'When he was reviled, he reviled\nnot again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed\nhimself to him that judgeth righteously' (1 Peter 2:23).\n\nIn these respects, I say, he was exemplary, and brought honour to\nhis profession by his good behaviour; and O how beautiful would\nChristianity be in the eyes of men, if the disciples of our Lord\nwould more imitate him therein!\n\nBut what? because Christ is our pattern, is he not our passover?\nor, because we should in these things follow his steps, died he\nnot for our sins? Thus to conclude would not only argue thee very\nerroneous, but such a conclusion would overthrow the gospel, it\nbeing none other but a great sleight of Satan to shut out the whole\nby a part, and to make us blasphemers while we plead for holiness.\n\nLook, then, upon the death of Christ under a double consideration--1.\nAs he suffered from the hand of God. 2. As he suffered from the\nhand of men. Now, as he suffered by God's hand, so he suffered for\nsin; but as he suffered from men, so he suffered for righteousness'\nsake.\n\nObserve, then, that as he suffered for sin, so no man took away\nhis life; but as he suffered for righteousness, so they slew him\nby wicked hands. What is it then? Christ must needs have suffered,\nand the wisdom of God had so ordained that 'those things which God\nbefore had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ\nshould suffer, he hath so fulfilled' (Acts 3:18). Thus, therefore,\nwe ought to distinguish of the causes and ends of the death of\nChrist.\n\nAgain; as Christ suffered for sin, so he would neither be taken at\nman's pleasure, nor die at man's time. 1. Not at man's pleasure;\nand hence it was that they so often sought his life in vain, 'for\nhis hour was not yet come'--to wit, the hour in which he was to be\nmade a sacrifice for our sin (John 13, 17:1,2, 18:1,2). 2. Not at\ntheir time; but, contrary to all expectation, when the due time\nwas come, 'he bowed his head and gave up the ghost' (John 19:30).\n\nAnd for this last work, he had power given him of God--that is,\npower to die when he would. 'I have power,' said he, 'to lay down\nmy life, and I have power to take it again.' This power never man\nhad before. This made the centurion wonder, and made Pontius Pilate\nmarvel; and indeed well they might, for it was as great a miracle\nas any he wrought in his life; it demonstrated him to be the Son\nof God (Mark 15:38,39). The centurion, knowing that according to\nnature he might have lived longer, concluded therefore that his\ndying at that instant was not but miraculously. And when he 'saw\nthat he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this\nman was the Son of God.'\n\nAnd the reason why he had power to die was, that he might offer\nhis offering willingly, and at the season. 1. Willingly--'If his\noffering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male\nwithout blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will, at\nthe door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord'\n(Lev 1:3). 2. He must offer it at the season--'Thou shalt keep this\nordinance,' the passover, 'in his season' (Exo 13:10).\n\nNow, both these offerings having immediate respect to the offering\nof the body of Christ for sin--for he came in the room of all burnt\nsacrifices--the passover also was a type of him (Heb 10:3-6; 1 Cor\n5:7,8). Therefore, he being now the priest as well as sacrifice,\nmust have power and will to offer his sacrifice with acceptation;\nand this the Scripture testifieth he did, where it saith, 'In due\ntime Christ died for the ungodly' (Rom 5:6). In due time, that is,\nat the time appointed, at the acceptable time.\n\nThou must, therefore, unless thou art willing to be deceived, look\nupon the sufferings of Christ under a double consideration, and\ndistinguish between his sufferings as our example and his suffering\nfor our sins. And know, that as he suffered as our example, so\nhe suffered only for righteousness' sake from the hands of wicked\nmen; but as he suffered for our sins, so he suffered, as being by\nGod imputed wicked, the punishment that was due to sin, even the\ndreadful curse of God. Not that Christ died two deaths, one after\nanother; but he died at the same time upon a double account--for\nhis righteousness' sake from men, for our sins from the hand of\nGod. And, as I said before, had he only suffered for righteousness'\nsake, death had not so amazed him, nor had he been so exceeding\nheavy in the thoughts of it; that had never put him into an agony,\nnor made him sweat as it were great drops of blood. Besides, when\nmen suffer only for righteousness' sake, God doth not use to hide\nhis face from them, to forsake them, and make them accursed; 'but\nChrist hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a\ncurse for us.'\n\nObjection Fifth. But if indeed Christ hath paid the full price for\nus by his death, in suffering the punishment that we should have\ndone, wherefore is the Scripture so silent as not to declare that\nby his death he hath made satisfaction?\n\nAnswer. No man may teach God knowledge; he knoweth best how to\ndeliver his mind in such words and terms as best agree with his\neternal wisdom, and the consciences of those that are truly desirous\nof salvation, being overburdened with the guilt of sin. Perhaps the\nword 'satisfaction' will hardly be found in the Bible; and where\nis it said in so many words, 'God is dissatisfied with our sins?'\nyet it is sufficiently manifest that there is nothing that God\nhateth but sin, and sinners for the sake of sin. What meant he by\nturning Adam out of paradise, by drowning the old world, by burning\nup Sodom with fire and brimstone from heaven? What meant he by\ndrowning of Pharaoh, by causing the ground to swallow up Korah and\nhis company, and by his destroying Israel in the wilderness, if\nnot to show that he was dissatisfied with sin? That God is also\nsatisfied, yea, more than satisfied, by Christ's sufferings for\nour sins, is apparent; for, granting that he died for them as these\nscriptures declare--Isaiah 49:4-6, 53; 1 Corinthians 5:8, 15:1-4;\n2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 1:4, 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18; 1 John\n2:2, 3:16, 4:14; Revelation 1:5, 5:9.--\n\nFirst. It is apparent, because it is said that God smelled in\nthat offering of the body of Christ for our sins a sweet-smelling\nsavour--'He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God,\nfor a sweet-smelling savour' (Eph 5:2).\n\nSecond. It is apparent, because it is said expressly that God\nfor Christ's sake doth now forgive--'Be ye kind one to another,\ntender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's\nsake hath forgiven you' (Eph 4:32).\n\nThird. It is apparent that God is satisfied with Christ's blood for\nour sins, because he hath declared that he can justify those that\nbelieve in, or rely upon, that blood for life, in a way of justice\nand righteousness--'Being justified freely by his grace, through\nthe redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth\nto be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his\nrighteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the\nforbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:\nthat he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in\nJesus' (Rom 3:24-26).\n\nNow, I say, to object against such plain testimonies, what is it\nbut to deny that Christ died for sin; or to conclude, that having\nso done, he is still in the grave; or, that there is no such thing\nas sin; or, no such thing as revenging justice in God against it;\nor, that we must die ourselves for our sins; or, that sin may be\npardoned without a satisfaction; or, that every man may merit his\nown salvation? But 'without shedding of blood is no remission' (Heb\n9:22).\n\nTo avoid, therefore, these cursed absurdities, it must be granted\nthat Jesus Christ by his death did make satisfaction for sin.\n\nBut the word 'satisfaction' may not be used by the Holy Ghost,\nperhaps for that it is too short and scanty a word to express the\nblessedness that comes to sinners by the blood of Christ.\n\n1. To make satisfaction amounts to no more than completely to\nanswer a legal demand for harms and injuries done. Now this, when\ndone to the full, leaveth the offender there where he was before\nhe committed the injury. Now, if Christ had done no more than this,\nhe had only paid our debt, but had not obtained eternal redemption\nfor us.\n\n2. For a full satisfaction given by this man for harms done by\nanother may neither obtain the love of the person offended, nor\nthe smallest gift which the person offending hath not deserved.\nSuppose I owe to this man ten thousand talents, and another should\npay him every farthing, there remaineth over and above by that\ncomplete satisfaction not one single halfpenny for me. Christ hath\ntherefore done more than to make satisfaction for sin by his blood.\nHe hath also 'made us kings and priests unto God and his Father,'\nand we 'shall reign with him for ever and ever' (Rev 1:6, 22:5).\n\n[Additional scriptures in proof of this doctrine.]\n\nBut take a few more scriptures for the proof of the doctrine before\nasserted.\n\nFirst. 'We have redemption through his blood' (Col 1:14). 1. Redemption\nfrom sin (Eph 1:7). 2. Redemption from death (Heb 2:14,15; Hosea\n13:14). 3. Redemption from Satan (Heb 2:14). 4. Redemption from\nthe world (Gal 1:4). 5. Redemption to God (Rev 5:9). 6. Eternal\nredemption--'Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his\nown blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained\neternal redemption for us' (Heb 9:12).\n\nSecond. We are said also to be washed in his blood. 1. Our persons\nare washed--He 'loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own\nblood' (Rev 1:5). 2. His blood washeth also our performances--'Our\nrobes are washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb' (Rev\n7:14).\n\nThird. We are said to be purged by his blood. 1. Purged from sin\nbefore God--'When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on\nthe right hand of God' (Heb 1:3). 2. Purged from evil consciences--'How\nmuch more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit\noffered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from\ndead works to serve the living God?' (Heb 9:14).\n\nFourth. We are said to be made nigh to God by his blood--'But now\nin Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by\nthe blood of Christ' (Eph 2:13).\n\nFifth. Peace is said to be made by his blood. 1. Peace with God\n(Col 1:20). 2. Peace of conscience (Heb 10:19-23). 3. Peace one\nwith another (Eph 2:14).\n\nSixth. We are said to be justified by his blood. 'Much more then,\nbeing now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath\nthrough him' (Rom 5:9). Justified, that is, acquitted--1. Acquitted\nbefore God (Eph 5:26,27). 2. Acquitted before angels (Matt 28:5-8).\n3. Acquitted by the law (Rom 3:21-23). 4. Acquitted in the court\nof conscience (Heb 9:14).\n\nSeventh. We are said to be saved by his blood (Rom 5:8,9).\n\nEighth. We are said to be reconciled by his blood (Col 1:20-22).\n\nNinth. We are said to be sanctified by his blood (Heb 13:12).\n\nTenth. We are said to be admitted into the holiest by his blood\n(Heb 10:19).\n\nEleventh. We are said to have eternal redemption by his blood (Heb\n9:12).\n\nYea, lastly, this blood which was once spilt upon the cross, will\nbe the burden of our song in heaven itself for ever and ever (Rev\n5:9).\n\nNow, if we be redeemed, washed, purged, made nigh to God, have\npeace with God; if we stand just before God, are saved, reconciled,\nsanctified, admitted into the holiest; if we have eternal redemption\nby his blood, and if his blood will be the burden of our song for\never; then hath Christ paid the full price for us by his death,\nthen hath he done more than made satisfaction for our sins.\n\nSEVERAL DEMONSTRATIONS MORE, PROVING THE FORMER DOCTRINE.\n\nBut before I conclude this answer, I will give you nine or ten more\nundeniable demonstrations to satisfy you, if God will bless them\nto you, in the truth of this great doctrine--to wit, that Jesus\nChrist, by what he hath done, hath paid the full price to God for\nthe souls of sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for them.\n\nTHE FIRST DEMONSTRATION.\n\nFIRST. And, first, I begin with his resurrection. That God that\ndelivered him up unto death, and that made him a curse for sin,\nthat God raised him up from the dead--'But God raised him from the\ndead' (Acts 3:15, 13:30). Now, considering that at his death he was\ncharged with our sins, and accursed to death for our sins, that\njustice that delivered him up for them must have amends made to\nhim before he acquits him from them; for there can be no change\nin justice. Had he found him in our sins in the grave, as he found\nhim in them upon the tree (for he had them in his body on the tree),\nhe had left him there as he had left him upon the tree; yea, he\nhad as surely rotted in the grave, as ever he died on the tree (1\nPeter 2:24). But when he visited Christ in the grave, he found him\na holy, harmless, undefiled, and spotless Christ, and therefore\nhe raised him up from the dead--'He raised him up from the dead,\nhaving loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that\nhe should be holden of it' (Acts 2:24).\n\nQuest. But why not possible now to be holden of death?\n\nAnsw. Because the cause was removed. Sin was the cause--'He died\nfor our sins.--He gave himself for our sins' (1 Cor 15:1-3; Gal\n1:4). These sins brought him to death; but when God, that had\nmade him a curse for us, looked upon him in the grave, he found\nhim there without sin, and therefore loosed the pains of death;\nfor justice saith, this is not possible, because not lawful, that\nhe who lieth sinless before God should be swallowed up of death;\ntherefore he raised him up.\n\nQuest. But what did he do with our sins, for he had them upon his\nback?\n\nAnsw. It is said he took them away--'Behold the Lamb of God which\ntaketh away the sin of the world.' It is said he put them away--'Now\nonce in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by\nthe sacrifice of himself' (John 1:29; Heb 9:26). That is, by the\nmerit of his undertaking he brought into the world, and set before\nthe face of God, such a righteousness that outweigheth and goeth far\nbeyond that sin, and so did hide sin from the sight of God; hence,\nhe that is justified is said to have his sins hid and covered--'Blessed\nis he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered' (Psa\n32:1). Covered with the righteousness of Christ--'I spread my skirt\nover thee, and covered thy nakedness,' thy sins (Eze 16:8). Christ\nJesus, therefore, having by the infiniteness of his merit taken\naway, put away, or hidden our sins from the face of God, therefore\nhe raised him up from the dead.\n\nYou find in that sixteenth of Leviticus mention made of two goats,\none was to be slain for a sin-offering, the other to be left\nalive; the goat that was slain was a type of Christ in his death,\nthe goat that was not slain was a type of Christ in his merit. Now\nthis living goat, he carried away the sins of the people into the\nland of forgetfulness--'And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the\nhead of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of\nthe children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their\nsins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him\naway by the hands of a fit man into the wilderness; and the goat\nshall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited'\n(Lev 16:21,22). Thus did Jesus Christ bear away by the merit of\nhis death the sins and iniquities of them that believe; wherefore,\nwhen God came to him in the grave, he found him holy and undefiled,\nand raised him up from the dead.\n\nAnd observe it, as his death was for our sin, so his rising again\nwas for our discharge; for both in his death and resurrection he\nimmediately respected our benefits; he died for us, he rose from\nthe dead for us--'He was delivered for our offences, and was raised\nagain for our justification' (Rom 4:25). By his death he carried\naway our sins, by his rising he brought to us justifying righteousness.\n\nThere are five circumstances also attending his resurrection that\nshow us how well pleased God was with his death.\n\nFirst. It must be solemnized with the company, attendance, and\ntestimony of angels (Matt 28:1-8; Luke 24:3-7; John 20:11,12).\n\nSecond. At, or just upon, his resurrection, the graves where many\nof the saints for whom he died lay asleep, did open, and they\nfollowed their Lord in full triumph over death--'The graves were\nopened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came\nout of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy\ncity, and appeared unto many' (Matt 27:52,53). These saints coming\nout of their graves after him, what a testimony is it that he for\nthem had taken away sin, and destroyed him that had the power of\ndeath; yea, what a testimony was it that he had made amends to God\nthe Father, who granted him at his resurrection to have presently\nout of the grave, of the price of his blood, even the bodies of\nmany of the saints which slept! He was declared to be the Son of\nGod with power by the Spirit of holiness, and the resurrection from\nthe dead (Rom 1:4). It saith not, by his resurrection, though that\nbe true; but by the resurrection, meaning the resurrection of the\nbodies of the saints which slept, because they rose by virtue of\nhis blood; and by that he was with power declared to be the Son of\nGod. They, I say, were part of his purchase, some of them for whom\nChrist died. Now for God to raise them, and that upon and by virtue\nof his resurrection, what is it but an open declaration from heaven\nthat Christ by his death hath made amends for us, and obtained\neternal redemption for us?\n\nThird. When he was risen from the dead, God, to confirm his\ndisciples in the faith of the redemption that Christ had obtained\nby his blood, brings him to the church, presents him to them alive,\nshows him openly, sometimes to two or three, sometimes to eleven\nor twelve, and once to above five hundred brethren at once (Acts\n1:3, 10:40; Luke 24:13-16; John 20:19, 21:1-23; 1 Cor 15:3-8).\n\nFourth. At his resurrection, God gives him the keys of hell and\nof death (Rev 1:18). Hell and death are the effects and fruits of\nsin. 'The wicked shall be turned into hell,' and the wages of sin\nis death. But what then are sinners the better for the death and\nblood of Christ? O! they that dare venture upon him are much the\nbetter, for they shall not perish, unless the Saviour will damn\nthem, for he hath the keys of hell and of death. 'Fear not,' saith\nhe, 'I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth, and was\ndead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of\nhell and death.' These were given him at his resurrection, as if\nGod had said, My Son, thou hast spilt thy blood for sinners, I am\npleased with it, I am delighted in thy merits, and in the redemption\nwhich thou hast wrought; in token hereof I give thee the keys of\nhell and of death; I give thee all power in heaven and earth; save\nwho thou wilt, deliver who thou wilt, bring to heaven who thou\nwilt.\n\nFifth. At Christ's resurrection, God bids him ask the heathen of\nhim, with a promise to give him the uttermost parts of the earth\nfor his possession. This sentence is in the second Psalm, and\nis expounded by Paul's interpretation of the words before, to be\nspoken to Christ at his resurrection--'Thou art my Son, this day\nhave I begotten thee.' I have begotten thee--that is, saith Paul,\nfrom the dead (Acts 13:33,34).\n\nHe hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second\nPsalm--'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.' Now mark,\nat his raising him from the dead, he bids him ask, 'Ask of me,'\nand that 'the heathen'; as if God had said, My Son, thy blood hath\npacified and appeased my justice; I can now in justice, for thy\nsake, forgive poor mortals their sin. Ask them of me; ask them,\nthough they be heathens, and I will give them to thee, to the utmost\nends of the earth. This is, then, the first demonstration to prove\nthat Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price to\nGod for the souls of sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for\nthem--namely, his being raised again from the dead.\n\nTHE SECOND DEMONSTRATION.\n\nSECOND. A second thing that demonstrateth this truth is, that he\nascended and was received up into heaven. 'So then, after the Lord\nhad spoken to them, he was received up into heaven' (Mark 16:19).\nThis demonstration consisteth of two parts--First, Of his ascending.\nSecond, Of his being received.\n\nFirst. For his ascending--'He ascended up on high' (Eph 4:8). This\nact of ascending answereth to the high-priest under the law, who,\nafter they had killed the sacrifice, he was to bring the blood into\nthe most holy place--to wit, the inner temple, the way to which\nwas ascending or going up (2 Chron 9).\n\nNow, consider the circumstances that attended his ascending, when\nhe went to carry his blood to present it before the mercy-seat,\nand you will find they all say amends is made to God for us.\n\n1. At this he is again attended and accompanied with angels (Acts\n1:10,11).\n\n2. He ascendeth with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet, with\n'Sing praises, sing praises, sing praises' (Psa 47:6).\n\n3. The enemies of man's salvation are now tied to his chariot-wheels--'When\nhe ascended up on high, he led captivity captive' (Eph 4:8). That\nis, he led death, devils, and hell, and the grave, and the curse,\ncaptive, for these things were our captivity. And thus did Deborah\nprophesy of him when she cried, 'Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity\ncaptive, thou son of Abinoam' (Judg 5:12). This David also foresaw\nwhen he said, 'Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity\ncaptive' (Psa 68:18).\n\n4. The apostles must be the beholders of his going up, and must\nsee the cloud receive him out of their sight (Acts 1:9-12).\n\nThe consideration of these things strongly enforceth this conclusion,\nthat he hath spoiled what would have spoiled us, had he not by his\nblood shed taken them away. And I say, for God to adorn him with\nall this glory in his ascension, thus to make him ride conqueror up\ninto the clouds, thus to go up with sound of trumpet, with shout of\nangels, and with songs of praises, and, let me add, to be accompanied\nalso with those that rose from the dead after his resurrection,\nwho were the very price of his blood; this doth greatly demonstrate\nthat Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price to\nGod for the souls of sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for\nthem; he had not else rode thus in triumph to heaven.\n\nSecond. I come now to his being received--'He was received up into\nheaven.' The high-priest under the law, when he ascended into the\nholiest, he was there to offer the blood, which holiest was the\ntype of heaven (Exo 19:10,11; Heb 9:24). But because the sacrifices\nunder the law could not make them that did the service perfect as\npertaining to the conscience, therefore they were to stand, not\nto sit; to come out again, not tarry there. 'For it is not possible\nthat the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.\nWherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and\noffering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in\nburnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.\nThen said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written\nof me), to do thy will, O God' (Heb 10:4-6).\n\nChrist, therefore, in his entering into heaven, did it as high-priest\nof the church of God; therefore neither did he go in without\nblood. Wherefore, when he came to be 'an high-priest of good things\nto come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with\nhands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood\nof goats and calves, but by his own blood; he entered in once into\nthe holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us' (Heb\n9:12-14). He entered in, having obtained, or because he obtained,\neternal redemption for us. But to pass that.\n\n[Glorious circumstances attending his entrance into heaven.]\n\nConsider ye now also those glorious circumstances that accompany\nhis approach to the gates of the everlasting habitation.\n\nFirst. The everlasting gates are set, yea, bid stand open--Be ye\nopen, 'ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.'\nThis King of glory is Jesus Christ, and the words are a prophecy\nof his glorious ascending into the heavens, when he went up as the\nhigh-priest of the church, to carry the price of his blood into\nthe holiest of all. 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them\nup, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in' (Psa\n24:7,9).\n\nSecond. At his entrance he was received, and the price accepted\nwhich he paid for our souls. Hence it is said, he entered in by\nhis blood--that is, by the merit of it. 'To receive' is an act of\ncomplacency and delight, and includeth well-pleasedness in the person\nreceiving, who is God the Father; and considering that this Jesus\nnow received is to be received upon our account, or as undertaking\nthe salvation of sinners--for he entered into the heavens for\nus--it is apparent that he entered thither by virtue of his infinite\nrighteousness, which he accomplished for us upon the earth.\n\nThird. At his reception he received glory, and that also for our\nencouragement--'God raised him up, and gave him glory, that your\nfaith and hope might be in God' (1 Peter 1:19-21). He gave him glory,\nas a testimony that his undertaking the work of our redemption was\naccepted of him.\n\n1. He gave glory to his person, in granting him to sit at his own\nright hand; and this he had, I say, for or upon the account of the\nwork he accomplished for us in the world. When he had offered up\none sacrifice for sins for ever, he sat down on the right hand of\nGod, and this by God's appointment--'Sit thou at my right hand'\n(Heb 10:12,13). This glory is the highest; it is above all kings,\nprinces, and potentates in this world; it is above all angels,\nprincipalities, and powers in heaven. 'He is gone into heaven,\nand is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers\nbeing made subject unto him' (1 Peter 3:32).\n\n2. He gave glory to his name, to his name Jesus, that name being\nexalted above every name--'He hath given him a name above every\nname, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in\nheaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that\nevery tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory\nof God the Father' (Phil 2:9-11).\n\nThis name is said, in another place, to be a name above every name\nthat is named, 'not only in this world, but also in that which is\nto come' (Eph 1:21).\n\nBut should JESUS have been such a name, since he undertook for\nsinners, had this undertaker failed in his work, if his work had\nnot been accepted with God, even the work of our redemption by\nhis blood? No, verily; it would have stunk in the nostrils both of\nGod and man; it would have been the most abhorred name. But Jesus\nis the name; Jesus he was called, in order to his work--'His name\nshall be called JESUS, for he shall save'; he was so named of the\nangel before he was conceived in the womb; and he goeth by that\nname now he is in heaven; by the name Jesus--'Jesus of Nazareth,'\nbecause he once dwelt there. This name, I say, is the highest name,\nthe everlasting name, the name that he is to go by, to be known\nby, to be worshipped by, and to be glorified by; yea, the name by\nwhich also most glory shall redound to God the Father. Now, what\nis the signification of this name but SAVIOUR? This name he hath,\ntherefore, for his work's sake; and because God delighted in his\nundertaking, and was pleased with the price he had paid for us,\ntherefore the Divine Majesty hath given him it, hath made it high,\nand hath commanded all angels to bow unto it; yea, it is the name in\nwhich he resteth, and by which he hath magnified all his attributes.\n\n(1.) This is the name by which sinners should go to God the Father.\n\n(2.) This is the name through which they obtain forgiveness of\nsins, and 'anything'--'If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will\ndo it' (John 14:14).\n\n(3.) This is the name through which our spiritual services and\nsacrifices are accepted, and by which an answer of peace is returned\ninto our bosoms (1 Peter 2). But more of this anon.\n\n(4.) At this name devils tremble, at this name angels bow the head,\nat this name God's heart openeth, at this name the godly man's\nheart is comforted; this name, none but devils hate it, and none\nbut those that must be damned despise it. 'No man speaking by the\nSpirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,' or accounteth him still\ndead, and his blood ineffectual to save the world.\n\n3. He hath also given him the glory of office.\n\n(1.) He is there a priest for ever, intercepting betwixt the Divine\npresence and all that hate us, by his blood; sin, Satan, death, hell,\nthe law, the grave, or the like, cannot be heard, if his blood be\npresented to God as the atonement for us. This is called the blood\nof sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel\n(Heb 12:24). By this blood he entered into heaven, by this blood\nhe secureth from wrath 'all that come unto God by him.' But should\nhis blood have had a voice in heaven to save withal, had it not\nmerited first, even in the shedding of it, the ransom and redemption\nof souls? It is true, a man whose blood cannot save, may, with\nAbel's, cry out for vengeance and wrath on the head of him that shed\nit. But this blood speaks for better things, this blood speaks for\nsouls, for sinners, for pardon, 'having obtained eternal redemption\nfor us.'\n\n(2.) He is there a forerunner for us--'Whither the forerunner is\nfor us entered, even Jesus' (Heb 6:20). This office of harbinger is\ndistinct from, though it comes by virtue of, his priestly office;\ntherefore they are both mentioned in the text--'Whither the\nforerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high-priest for\never, after the order of Melchisedec.' He is therefore our forerunner\nby virtue of his priesthood, his blood giving worth to all he does.\n\nIn this office of harbinger or forerunner, he prepareth for believers\ntheir dwelling-places in the heavens; their dwelling-places according\nto their place, state, calling, service, or work, in his body, the\nchurch--'In my Father's house,' saith he, 'are many mansions; if\nit were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for\nyou' (John 14:2).\n\nThis is that mentioned in the forty-seventh Psalm--'He shall choose\nour inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved.'\nBut should he have had power to choose our inheritance for us, to\nprepare for us our dwelling-places; should he have power to give\neven heaven itself to a company of poor men, had he not in the first\nplace obtained by his blood the deliverance of our souls from death?\n\n(3.) He is there a prophet for us, by which office of his he hath\nreceived to communicate the whole will of the eternal God, so far\nas is fit for us to know in this world, or in that which is to come.\nHence he is called the prophet of the church--'The Lord shall raise\nyou up a prophet,' 'and this is of a truth that prophet that should\ncome into the world.' But this office he hath also now in heaven,\nby virtue of the blood he shed for us upon earth. Hence the new\ntestament is called, 'the new testament in his blood'; and his blood\nis said to be 'the blood of the everlasting covenant' or testament;\nyea, such virtue doth his blood give to the new testament, or\ncovenant of grace, as that severed from that it is nothing worth;\n'for a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of\nno strength at all while the testator liveth' (Heb 9:17). So that\nevery word of God which he hath by Christ given to us for our\neverlasting consolation, is dipped in blood, is founded in blood,\nand stands good to sinners purely--I mean with respect to merit--upon\nthe account of blood, or because his blood that was shed for us on\nthe cross prevailed for us for the remission of our sins. Let not\nman think to receive any benefit by Christ's prophetical office,\nby any of the good words of grace, and forgiveness of sins that\nare sprinkled up and down in the new testament; that looketh not\nfor that good to come to him for the sake of that blood by which\nthis testament is established; for 'neither was the first testament\ndedicated without blood; for when Moses had spoken every precept\nto all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves\nand of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled\nboth the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of\nthe testament which God hath enjoined unto you' (Heb 9:18-20).\n\nThe prophetical office of Christ standeth of two parts--first, in\npromises of grace: secondly, in directions of worship. But neither\nis this last--to wit, the doctrine of worship, or our subjection\nto that worship--of any value any further than as sprinkled also\nwith his blood; for as in the first testament, the tabernacle and\nall the vessels of the ministry were sprinkled with blood, and it was\nnecessary that so it should be, so the heavenly things themselves\nmust be also purified with sacrifices, but yet 'with better sacrifices\nthan these'; for now, not Moses, but Christ, doth sprinkle, not\nwith blood of calves, but with his own blood; neither as entered\ninto places made with hands, but from heaven doth Jesus sprinkle\nall that doctrine of worship, and subjection of his saints thereto,\nwhich is of his own instituting and commanding (Heb 9:23-26).\n\n(4.) He hath received there the office of a king, by which he ruleth\nin the church, and over all things for her sake. 'The government\nshall be upon his shoulder'; the Lord God hath given him the throne\nof his father David. Hence it is that he saith, 'All power is given\nunto me in heaven and in earth'; but now this kingly office, he\nhath it by his blood, because he humbled himself to death, therefore\nGod hath highly exalted him, and given him the highest name. And\nhence, again, he is called a Lamb upon the throne--'In the midst\nof the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the\nelders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns';\na demonstration of kingly power. But mark, he was a Lamb upon the\nthrone, he had his horns as a lamb. Now by 'Lamb' we are to understand,\nnot only his meek and sweet disposition, but his sacrifice; for\nhe was as a lamb to be slain and sacrificed; and so his having a\nthrone and seven horns, as a lamb, giveth us to understand that he\nobtained this dignity of king by his blood (Rev 5). 'When he had\nby himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the\nMajesty on high' (Heb 1:3). When 'he had offered one sacrifice for\nsins for ever, he sat down on the right hand of God' (Heb 10:12).\n\nNow, put all these together--to wit, his resurrection from the\ndead, his ascension, and exaltation to office; and remember also\nthat the person thus exalted is the same Jesus of Nazareth that\nsometime was made accursed of God for sin, and also that he obtained\nthis glory by virtue of the blood that was shed for us, and it must\nunavoidably follow that Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath\npaid a full price to God for sinners, and obtained eternal redemption\nfor them.\n\nTHE THIRD DEMONSTRATION.\n\nTHIRD. But to proceed. A third demonstration that Jesus Christ,\nby what he hath done, hath paid full price to God for sinners, and\nobtained eternal redemption for them, is, because he hath received\nfor them the Holy Spirit of God.\n\n'This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof,' said Peter, 'we all are\nwitnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and\nhaving received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he\nhath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear' (Acts 2:32,33).\n\nThe receiving of the Holy Ghost at the hand of the Father, who\nhad bruised him before for the transgressions of his people; the\nreceiving of it, I say, upon his resurrection, and that to give them\nfor whom, just before, he had spilt his blood to make an atonement\nfor their souls, argueth that the Divine Majesty found rest and\ncontent in that precious blood, and found it full price for the\nsinners for whom he shed it.\n\nAnd if you consider the necessity of the giving of this good Spirit\nto men, and the benefit that they receive by his coming upon them,\nyou will see yet more into the truth now contended for. First, then,\nOf the necessity of giving this good Spirit; and then, Second, Of\nthe benefit which we receive at his coming.\n\nFirst. Of the necessity of its being given.\n\n1. Otherwise, Jesus could never have been proved to be the Saviour;\nfor the promise was, that Messias should have the Spirit given\nhim; given him to communicate--'As for me, this is my covenant with\nthem, saith the Lord, My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words\nwhich I have put in thy mouth,' meaning the Redeemer, 'shall not\ndepart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out\nof the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth\nand for ever' (Isa 59:20,21).\n\nHere is the promise of the Spirit to be given to Christ, and by\nhim to his seed for ever. And this was signified long before in\nthe anointing of Aaron and his sons--'And thou shalt anoint Aaron\nand his sons, and consecrate them' (Exo 30:30).\n\nThis Spirit Jesus promised to send unto his at his exaltation on\nthe right hand of God; the Spirit, I say, in the plentiful pourings\nof it out. True, the church in all ages had something of it by\nvirtue of the suretyship of the Lord Jesus; but this, in comparison\nof what was to come into the church after his resurrection, is not\nreckoned a pouring forth; therefore pourings forth are reserved\nto the time of the ascension and exaltation of this Jesus. 'I will\npour out of my Spirit in those days.'\n\nHence Jesus reserves it till his going away, and it is expressly\nsaid, 'The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was\nnot yet glorified.' Accordingly did the apostles wait after his\nresurrection for the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost, and at the\nset time did receive it; by the giving of which he declared himself\nto be the Son of God and Saviour of the world (John 7:39, 14:26,\n15:26, 16:7; Acts 1:4,5, 2:16,17; Joel 2:28; Rom 1:4).\n\n2. Without the giving of the Holy Ghost, there had wanted a testimony\nthat his gospel was the gospel of Messias. Moses' ministration was\nconfirmed by signs and wonders and mighty deeds, both in Egypt,\nin the wilderness, and at the Red Sea; wherefore it was necessary\nthat the doctrine of redemption by blood, which is the doctrine\nof the gospel of this Jesus, should be also 'confirmed with signs\nfollowing.' Hence both himself and apostles did as frequently work\nmiracles and do mighty deeds as his ministers now do preach; which\nsigns and miracles and wonders confirmed their doctrine, though\nthemselves, both master and scholar, were in appearance the\nmost considerable mean [in outward show the meanest of men]; yea,\nthey by the means of the Holy Ghost have so ratified, confirmed,\nand settled the gospel in the world, that no philosopher, tyrant,\nor devil, hath been able hitherto to move it out of its place. He\nconfirmed 'the word with signs following' (Mark 16:20; Heb 2:4).\n\n3. As the giving of the Holy Ghost was necessary thus, so was\nit necessary also to strengthen them that were intrusted with the\ngospel, (1.) To preach it effectually; (2.) To stand to it boldly;\nand (3.) To justify it to be the doctrine of Messias incontrollably.\n(1.) To preach it effectually, in demonstration of the Spirit (1\nCor 2:4; John 16:8,9; Acts 8:13). (2.) To stand to it boldly--'Then\nPeter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said.' 'And they saw the boldness\nof Peter and John' (2 Cor 6:4-6; Acts 4:8,13). (3.) To justify the\ndoctrine incontrollably--'I will give you a mouth and wisdom which\nall your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist' (Luke\n21:15). 'And they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by\nwhich he spake' (Acts 6:10).\n\nNow I say, that God should give the Holy Ghost to Jesus to confirm\nthis gospel, redemption from sin by his blood, what is it but\nthat by his blood he hath paid full price to God for sinners, and\nobtained eternal redemption for them?\n\n[Second.] But again; the benefit which we receive at the coming\nof the Holy Ghost doth more demonstrate this truth; hath Christ\npurchased sinners, and are they the price of his blood? Yes. But\nhow doth that appear? Why, because by the Holy Ghost which he hath\nreceived to give us, we are fitted for the inheritance which by\nhis blood is prepared for us.\n\n1. By the Spirit of God we are quickened and raised from a state\nof sin, but that we could not be were it not that an atonement\nis made for us first, by the blood of Christ our Saviour. This is\ntrue; for they that are quickened by the Holy Ghost are quickened\nby it through the word of the gospel, which offereth justification\nto sinners through faith in his blood; yea, we are said to be\nquickened together with him, dead and risen with him, yet so as by\nthe Spirit of God.\n\n2. We are not only quickened by the Holy Ghost, but possessed\ntherewith; it is given to dwell in our hearts--'Because ye are\nsons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts'\n(Gal 4:6). Which Spirit is also our earnest for heaven, until the\nredemption of the purchased possession--that is, until our body,\nwhich is the purchased possession, be redeemed also out of the\ngrave by the power of the same mighty Spirit of God (Eph 1:13,14).\n\n3. By this Holy Spirit we are made to believe (Rom 15:13).\n\n4. By this Holy Spirit we are helped to pray and call God Father.\n\n5. By this Holy Spirit we are helped to understand and apply the\npromises.\n\n6. By this Holy Spirit the joy of heaven and the love of God is\nshed abroad in the heart of the saved.\n\n7. By this Holy Spirit we are made to wait for the hope of righteousness\nby faith; that is, to stand fast through our Lord Jesus in the day\nwhen he shall judge the world.\n\nAnd all this is the fruit of redemption by blood, of redemption by\nthe blood of Christ.\n\nThis is yet further evident, (1.) Because the work of the Spirit is\nto lead us into the sayings of Christ, which, as to our redemption\nfrom death, are such as these--'I lay down my life, that you may\nhave life'; 'I give my life a ransom for many'; and, 'The bread\nthat I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life\nof the world' (John 6:51). (2.) Because the Spirit, in the wisdom\nof heaven, is not counted a sufficient testimony on earth, but as\njoined with the blood of Christ--'There are three that bear witness\non earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood'; these are the\nwitnesses of God. The Spirit, because it quickeneth; the blood,\nbecause it hath merited; and the water--to wit, the word--because\nby that we are clean as to life and conversation (1 John 5:8; Eph\n5:26; Rom 8:16; Psa 119:9). (3.) Because, as by the Spirit, so we\nare sanctified by faith in the blood of Jesus (Heb 13:12). (4.)\nBecause, when most full of the Spirit, and when that doth work\nmost mightily in us, we are then most in the belief and admiring\napprehensions of our deliverance from death by the blood of Jesus\n(Rev 5:9, 15). (5.) The Holy Ghost breatheth nowhere so as in the\nministry of this doctrine, this doctrine is sent with the Holy Ghost\nfrom heaven; yea, as I have hinted, one of the great works of the\nHoly Ghost, under the Old Testament, was to testify 'of the sufferings\nof Christ, and the glory that should follow' (1 Peter 1:11,12).\n\nPut all these things together, and see if Jesus Christ, by what\nhe hath done, hath not paid full price to God for sinners, if he\n'hath not obtained eternal redemption for them?'\n\nTHE FOURTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nFOURTH. That Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full\nprice to God for sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for them,\nis evident, if you consider how the preaching thereof hath been,\nfrom that time to this, a mighty conqueror over all kinds of\nsinners. What nation, what people, what kind of sinners have not\nbeen subdued by the preaching of a crucified Christ? He upon the\nwhite horse with his bow and his crown hath conquered, doth conquer,\nand goeth forth yet 'conquering and to conquer' (Rev 6:2). 'And\nI,' saith he, 'if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men\nunto me' (John 12:32). But what was it to be lifted up from the\nearth? Why, it may be expounded by that saying, 'As Moses lifted\nup the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be\nlifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but\nhave eternal life' (John 3:14,15).\n\nHe was then lifted up when he was hanged upon a tree between the\nheavens and the earth, as the accursed of God for us. The revelation\nof this, it conquers all nations, tongues, and people. 'And they\nsung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to\nopen the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us\nto God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,\nand nation' (Rev 5:9). Hence the apostle Paul chose above all\ndoctrines to preach up a crucified Christ, and resolved so to do;\n'for I determined,' saith he, 'not to know anything among you, save\nJesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Cor 2:2).\n\nFirst. The doctrine of forgiveness of sin conquered his very\nmurderers; they could not withstand the grace; those bloody ones\nthat would kill him, whatever it cost them, could stand no longer,\nbut received his doctrine, fell into his bosom, and obtained the\nsalvation which is in Christ Jesus--'They shall look upon me whom\nthey have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth\nfor his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that\nis in bitterness for his first-born' (Zech 12:10). Now was this\nscripture eminently fulfilled, when the kindness of a crucified\nChrist broke to pieces the hearts of them that had before been his\nbetrayers and murderers. Now was there a great mourning in Jerusalem;\nnow was there wailing and lamentation, mixed with joy and rejoicing.\n\nSecond. Though Paul was mad, exceeding mad against Jesus Christ of\nNazareth; yea, though he was his avowed enemy, seeking to put out\nhis name from under heaven, yet the voice from heaven, 'I am Jesus,'\n&c., 'I am the Saviour,' how did it conquer him, make him throw down\nhis arms, fall down at his feet, and accept of the forgiveness of\nsins freely by grace, through redemption by faith in his blood!\n\nThird. They at Samaria (though before Philip preached to them)\nworshipped and admired the devil in Magus, yet when they believed\nPhilip's preaching of Christ unto them, and forgiveness of sins\nthrough faith in his name, great joy was amongst them, and they\nwere baptized, both men and woman (Acts 8). 'He preached,' saith\nthe text, 'the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name\nof Jesus Christ'--that is, all the blessings of life, through the\nname of Jesus Christ; for he is the Mediator, and without his blood\ncome no spiritual blessings to men.\n\nFourth. How was the sturdy jailer overcome by a promise of\nforgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ! It stopped his hand\nof self-murder, it eased him of the gnawings of a guilty conscience\nand fears of hell-fire, and filled his soul with rejoicing in God\n(Acts 16:30-34).\n\nFifth. How were those that used curious arts, that were next to,\nif not witches indeed; I say, how were they prevailed upon and\novercome by the word of God, which is the gospel of good tidings,\nthrough faith in the blood of Christ! (Acts 19:17,18).\n\nSixth. How were the Ephesians, who were sometimes far from God;\nhow, I say, were they made nigh by the blood of Christ! (Eph 2:13).\n\nSeventh. The Colossians, though sometimes dead in their sins, yet\nhow were they quickened by God, through the forgiveness of all\ntheir trespasses; and they had that through his blood! (Col 1:14,\n2:13).\n\nWhat shall I say? No man could as yet stand before and not fall\nunder the revelation of the forgiveness of sins through a crucified\nChrist, as hanged, as dying, as accursed for sinners; he draws all\nmen unto him, men of all sorts, of all degrees.\n\nShall I add, how have men broken through the pricks to Jesus when\nhe hath been discovered to them! Neither lions, nor fires, nor sword,\nnor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, 'neither death, nor life,\nnor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,\nnor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,\nshall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in\nChrist Jesus our Lord' (Rom 8:35-39).\n\nTHE FIFTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nFIFTH. That Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price\nto God for sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for them, is\nevident, by the peace and holiness that by that doctrine possesseth\nmen's souls; the souls of men awakened, and that continue so. By\nawakened men I mean such as, through the revelation of their sin\nand misery, groan under the want of Jesus to save them, and that\ncontinue sensible that they needs must perish if his benefits be\nnot bestowed upon them; for otherwise the gospel ministereth neither\npeace nor holiness to any of the souls of the sons of men; that\nis to say, not saving peace and holiness. The gospel of grace and\nsalvation is above all doctrines the most dangerous, if in word\nonly it be received by graceless men; if it be not attended with\na revelation of men's need of a Saviour; if it be not accompanied\nin the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost. For such men as have\nonly the notions of it are of all men liable to the greatest sins,\nbecause there wanteth in their notions the power of love, which\nalone can constrain them to love Jesus Christ. And this is the reason\nof these scriptures--They turn the grace of God into wantonness.\n'They turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness' (Jude 4).\n\nFor some, when they hear of the riches of grace through Christ,\nthat hearing not being attended with the faith and love which is in\nChrist Jesus, those men receive the notions of this good doctrine\nonly to cloak their wickedness, and to harden themselves in their\nvillainies.\n\nOthers, when they hear, being leavened before with the leaven\nof some other doctrine, some doctrine of the righteousness of the\nworld, or doctrine of devils, forthwith make head against and speak\nevil of the blessed doctrine; and because some that profess it are\nnot cleansed from their filthiness of flesh and spirit, and do not\nperfect holiness in the fear of God, therefore others conclude that\nall that profess it are such, and that the doctrine itself tendeth\nto encourage, or at least to tolerate, licentiousness, as they\nimagined and affirmed of Paul that he should say, 'Let us do evil,\nthat good may come' (Rom 3:8).\n\nThe ground of that wicked conclusion of theirs was, because he by\nthe allowance of God affirmed that, as sin had reigned unto death,\nso grace reigned unto life in a way of righteousness by Jesus Christ\nour Lord. Nay, then, says the adversary, we may be as unholy as we\nwill, and that by the doctrine you preach; for if where sin abounds\ngrace abounds more, the consequence of a wicked life is but the\nheightening, advancing, and magnifying of grace. But what saith the\napostle? My conclusions are true that grace doth reign above sin,\nbut to say, 'Let us therefore sin,' that man's damnation is just;\nbecause such an one abuseth and maketh the most devilish use of\nthe blessedest doctrine that ever was heard of in the world amongst\nmen. Besides, it is evident that such know not the power thereof,\nnor have felt or savoured its blessedness; for where this gospel\ncometh in truth, it naturally produceth peace and holiness.\n\nFirst. Peace. He is our peace, he is the Prince of peace, he giveth\npeace in his high places. This word 'peace' hath in it a double\nrespect.\n\n1. It respecteth God--He hath 'made peace by the blood of his cross';\nthat is, he hath made peace for us with God, having appeased the\nrigour of his law, and satisfied justice for us. Hence it is said,\n'The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your\nhearts and minds through Christ Jesus' (Col 1:20; Phil 4:7). 'The\npeace of God'--that is, the doctrine of reconciliation by Christ's\nbeing made to be sin for us, THAT shall keep the heart--that is, from\ndespair or fainting, under apprehensions of weakness and justice.\nBut yet this peace of God cannot be apprehended, nor be of any\ncomfort to the heart, but as the man looks for it through Christ\nJesus; therefore that clause is added, 'through Christ Jesus';\nfor he is peace-maker, it is he that reconcileth us to God 'in the\nbody of his flesh through death'; for by his doing and suffering\nhe presented God with everlasting righteousness, with everlasting\nrighteousness for sinners. Upon this we have peace with God. Hence\nChrist is called King of righteousness first; 'first being by\ninterpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of\nSalem, which is, King of peace' (Heb 7:1,2). For he could not make\npeace with God betwixt us and him but by being first the Lord of\nrighteousness, the Lord our righteousness; but having first completed\nrighteousness, he then came and preached peace, and commanded his\nambassadors to make proclamation of it to the world, for it was\nwant of righteousness that caused want of peace (2 Cor 5:19-21).\nNow, then, righteousness being brought in, it followeth that he\nhath made peace. 'For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and\nhath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having\nabolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments\ncontained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new\nman, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in\none body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came\nand preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that\nwere nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto\nthe Father' (Eph 2:14-18).\n\n2. This word 'peace' respecteth our inward quietness of heart which\nwe obtain by beholding this reconciliation made by Christ with God\nfor us--'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through\nour Lord Jesus Christ' (Rom 5:1). 'The God of peace fill you with\nall joy and peace in believing' (Rom 15:13).\n\nThis peace is expressed diversely--(1.) Sometimes it is called\n'quietness,' for it calms the soul from those troublous fears of\ndamning because of sin--'And the work of righteousness shall be\npeace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance\nfor ever' (Isa 32:17). (2.) Sometimes it is called 'boldness'; for\nby the blood of Christ a man hath encouragement to approach unto\nGod--'Having, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the\nblood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated\nfor us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh' (Heb 10:19,20).\n(3.) It is sometimes called 'confidence'; because by Jesus Christ\nwe have not only encouragement to come to God, but confidence, that\nif we ask anything according to his will, he not only heareth, but\ngranteth the request which we put up to him (1 John 5:14,15). 'In\nwhom we have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of\nJesus' (Eph 3:12). (4.) Sometimes this peace is expressed by 'rest';\nbecause a man having found a sufficient fulness to answer all his\nwants, he sitteth down, and looks no further for satisfaction--'Come\nunto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give\nyou rest' (Matt 11:28). (5.) It is also expressed by 'singing';\nbecause the peace of God when it is received into the soul by faith\nputteth the conscience into a heavenly and melodious frame. 'And\nthe ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs\nand everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and\ngladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away' (Isa 35:10). (6.)\nSometimes it is expressed or discovered by a heavenly glorying and\nboasting in Jesus Christ; because this peace causeth the soul to\nset its face upon its enemies with faith of a victory over them\nfor ever by its Lord Jesus--'Let him that glorieth, glory in the\nLord' (Jer 9:23,24). And, 'My soul shall make her boast in the\nLord; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad' (Psa 34:2). (7.)\nSometimes it is expressed or discovered by joy, 'joy unspeakable':\nbecause the soul, having seen itself reconciled to God, hath not\nonly quietness, but such apprehensions do now possess it of the\nunspeakable benefits it receiveth by Christ with respect to the\nworld to come, that it is swallowed up with them--'Whom having not\nseen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing,\nye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory' (1 Peter 1:8).\n(8.) Lastly, it is expressed or discovered by the triumph that\nariseth sometimes in the hearts of the believers, for they at times\nare able to see death, sin, the devil, and hell, and all adversity,\nconquered by, and tied as captives at the chariot-wheels of Jesus\nChrist; taken captive, I say, and overthrown for ever. 'Thanks\nbe unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ' (2 Cor\n2:14). 'O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the\nvoice of triumph' (Psa 47:1).\n\n[The Authors of this peace.]--Now that all this should be a cheat\nis impossible--that is, it is impossible that believers should thus\nhave peace with God through the blood of his cross, he having not\npaid full price to God for them; especially if you consider that\nthe authors of this peace are all the three in the Godhead, and\nthat upon a double account.\n\n1. In that they have given us a gospel of peace (Rom 10:15). Or a\nnew testament which propoundeth peace with God through the redemption\nthat is in Christ. Now as this is called the gospel of peace, so\nit is called the gospel of God (1 Thess 2:9). The gospel of Christ\n(Rom 15:19; 2 Thess 1:8). A gospel indited by the Holy Ghost (1\nThess 4:8). I say, therefore, that redemption and salvation being\nthat through Christ, and the truth thereof proclaimed by the\nFather, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, in the word of the truth of\nthe gospel, it must needs be that we who believe shall be saved,\n'if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm\nunto the end.'\n\n2. As the three in the Godhead are the authors of this peace by\ninditing for us the gospel of peace, or the good tidings of salvation\nby Jesus Christ, so they are the authors of our peace by working\nwith that word of the gospel in our hearts. And hence, (1.) The\nFather is called the God of peace, 'Now the God of peace be with\nyou all' (Rom 15:33). 'And the very God of peace sanctify you'\n(1 Thess 5:23). And because he is the God of peace, therefore he\nfilleth those that believe in his Christ with joy and peace through\nbelieving (Rom 15:13). (2.) Again, Christ is called the Prince of\npeace; therefore the prayer is, 'Grace unto you, and peace, from\nGod our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess 1:2). (3.) The\nHoly Ghost also is the author of this peace, this inward peace, even\n'righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost' (Rom 14:17).\n\nAnd I say, as I also already have said, the procuring or meritorious\ncause of this peace is the doings and sufferings of Christ; therefore\nby his doings and sufferings he paid full price to God for sinners,\nand obtained eternal redemption for them; else God would never have\nindited a proclamation of peace for them, and the tenor of that\nproclamation to be the worthiness of the Lord Jesus; yea, he would\nnever have wrought with that word in the heart of them that believe,\nto create within them peace, peace.\n\nSecond. [Holiness.] As peace with God is an evidence--the blood of\nChrist being the cause thereof--that Christ hath by it paid full\nprice to God for sinners, so holiness in their hearts, taking its\nbeginning from this doctrine, makes its fifth demonstration of\ndouble strength.\n\n1. That holiness, true gospel holiness, possesseth our hearts by\nthis doctrine it is evident, because the ground of holiness, which\nis the Spirit of God in us, is ministered to us by this doctrine.\nWhen the apostle had insinuated that the Galatians were bewitched\nbecause they had turned from the doctrine of Christ crucified, he\ndemands of them whether 'they received the Spirit by the works of\nthe law, or by the hearing of faith?' (Gal 3:1-4). That is, whether\nthe Spirit took possession of their souls by their obedience to\nthe ten commandments, or by their giving credit to the doctrine of\nthe forgiveness of their sins by faith in this crucified Christ,\nstrongly concluding, not by the law, but by the hearing or preaching\nof faith--that is, of the Lord Jesus as crucified, who is the object\nof faith.\n\n2. As this doctrine conveyeth the ground or groundwork, which is\nthe Spirit, so also it worketh in the heart those three graces,\nfaith, hope, love, all which as naturally purify the heart from\nwickedness as soap and nitre cleanseth the cloth. He purified 'their\nhearts by faith,' by faith in Christ's blood. 'And every man that\nhath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure.' And\nalso love, you shall see what that doth if you look into the text\n(Acts 15:9; 1 John 3:3,4; 1 Cor 13). Now, I say, this faith groundeth\nitself in the blood of Christ; hope waiteth for the full enjoyments\nof the purchase of it in another world; and love is begot, and\nworketh by the love that Christ hath expressed by his death, and by\nthe kindness he presented us with in his heart's blood (Rom 3:24;\n1 Cor 15:19; 2 Cor 5:14).\n\nBesides, what arguments so prevailing as such as are purely gospel?\nTo instance a few--(1.) What stronger than a free forgiveness of\nsins? 'A certain man had two debtors, the one owed five hundred\npence, and the other fifty; and when they had nothing to pay, he\nfrankly forgave them both; tell me therefore which of them will\nlove him most?' (Luke 7:41,42,47). (2.) What stronger argument to\nholiness than to see that though forgiveness comes free to us, yet\nit cost Christ Jesus heart-blood to obtain it for us. 'Herein is\nlove, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his\nSon to be the propitiation for our sins.' And this love of God\nin giving his Christ, and of Christ in dying for us, there is no\nargument stronger to prevail with a sensible and awakened sinner\nto judge 'he should live to him that died for him, and rose again'\n(2 Cor 5:15). (3.) What stronger argument to holiness than this:\n'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous?' (1 John 2:1). Unsanctified and graceless wretches\nknow not how to use these words of God; the hypocrites also fly in\nour faces because we thus urge them; but a heart that is possessed\nwith gospel ingenuity, or, to speak more properly, that is possessed\nwith gospel grace, and with divine considerations, cries, If it\nbe thus, O let me never sin against God, 'for the love of Christ\nconstraineth me' (2 Cor 5:14). (4.) What greater argument to\nholiness than to see the holy Scriptures so furnished with promises\nof grace and salvation by Christ, that a man can hardly cast his\neye into the Bible but he espieth one or other of them? Who would\nnot live in such a house, or be servant to such a prince, who,\nbesides his exceeding in good conditions, hath gold and silver as\ncommon in his palace as stones are by the highway side? 'Having,\ntherefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves\nfrom all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness\nin the fear of God' (2 Cor 7:1). (5.) What greater argument\nto holiness than to have our performances, though weak and infirm\nfrom us, yet accepted of God in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-6). (6.)\nWhat greater argument to holiness than to have our soul, our body,\nour life, hid and secured with Christ in God? 'Mortify therefore\nyour members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness,\ninordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which\nis idolatry' (Col 3:1-5). (7.) What greater argument to holiness\nthan to be made the members of the body, of the flesh, and of the\nbones of Jesus Christ? 'Shall I then take the members of Christ,\nand make them the members of an harlot? God forbid' (Eph 5:30; 1\nCor 6:15).\n\nNow all these, and five times as many more, having their foundation\nin the love, blood, and righteousness of Christ, and operating in\nthe soul by faith, are the great arguments unto that holiness to\nwhich is annexed eternal life. It is worth our observing, that in\nActs 26:18, the inheritance belongs 'to them which are sanctified\nby faith in Jesus Christ'; for all other pretences to holiness, they\nare but a stolen semblance of that which is true and acceptable,\nthough it is common for even that which is counterfeit to be called\nby the deluded the true, and to be reckoned to be in them that are\nutter strangers to faith, and the holiness that comes by faith. 'But\nwhosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it\nupon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people' (Exo 30:23).\nGod knoweth which is holiness that comes by faith in forgiveness of\nsins, and acceptance with God through Christ; and God knows which\nis only such feignedly; and accordingly will he deal with sinners\nin that great day of God Almighty.\n\nTHE SIXTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nSIXTH. That Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price\nto God for sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for them, is\nevident, because prayers are accepted of God only upon the account\nand for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ--'Verily, verily,\nI say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he\nwill give it you' (John 16:23). In my name, in the name of Jesus\nChrist of Nazareth, in the name of him that came into the world\nto save sinners, by dying for them a grievous, bloody death; in\nhis name that hath by himself put away sin, and brought unto God\nacceptable righteousness for sinners; in his name. Why in his name,\nif he be not accepted of God? why in his name if his undertakings\nfor us are not well-pleasing to God? But by these words, 'in\nmy name,' are insinuated that his person and performances, as our\nundertaker, are accepted by the Father of spirits. We may not go\nin our own names, because we are sinners; not in the name of one\nanother, because all are sinners. But why not in the name of an\nangel? Because they are not those that did undertake for us; or\nhad they, they could not have done our work for us. 'He putteth no\ntrust in his saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight'\n(Job 4:18, 15:15). It may further be objected--\n\nSince Jesus Christ is God, equal with the Father, and so hath\nnaturally the same power to give us the Father, why should the\nFather rather than the Son be the great giver to the sinners of the\nworld? and why may we not go to Christ in the name of the Father,\nas well as to the Father in the name of Christ? I say, how can\nthese things be solved, but by considering that sin and justice\nput a necessity upon it that thus must our salvation be obtained.\nSin and justice could not reconcile, nor could a means be found out\nto bring the sinner and a holy God together, but by the intercepting\nof the Son, who must take upon him to answer justice, and that by\ntaking our sins from before the face of God by bloody sacrifice, not\nby blood of others, as the high-priests under the law--'For every\nhigh-priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore\nit is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer' (Heb\n8:3). Which offering and sacrifice of his being able to perfect\nfor ever them that are sanctified and set apart for eternal life,\ntherefore the name of the person that offered--even Jesus, made of\nGod a high-priest--is acceptable with God; yea, therefore is he\nmade for ever, by his doing for us, the appeaser of the justice\nof God, and the reconciler of sinners to him. Hence it is that HIS\nname is that which it behoveth us to mention when we come before\nGod, for what God hath determined in his counsels of grace to bestow\nupon sinners, because for his name's sake he forgiveth them. 'I\nwrite unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you\nfor his name's sake' (1 John 2:12). 'To him give all the prophets\nwitness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall\nreceive remission of sins' (Acts 10:43).\n\nThey therefore that would obtain the forgiveness of sins must ask\nit of God, through the name of Jesus; and he that shall sensibly\nand unfeignedly do it, he shall receive the forgiveness of\nthem--'Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give\nit you.' Hence it is evident that he hath not only paid full price\nto God for them, but also obtained eternal redemption for them.\n\nAnd it is observable, the Lord Jesus would have his disciples\nmake a proof of this, and promiseth that if they do, they shall\nexperimentally find it so--'Hitherto,' saith he, 'have ye asked\nnothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may\nbe full' (John 16:24). As who should say, O my disciples, you have\nheard what I have promised to you, even that my Father shall do\nfor you whatsoever ye shall ask him in my name. Ask now, therefore,\nand prove me, if I shall not make my words good: ask, I say, what\nyou need, and see if you do not receive it to the joying of your\nhearts. 'At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto\nyou that I will pray the Father for you.' I do not bid you ask in\nmy name as if the Father was yet hard to be reconciled, or unwilling\nto accept you to mercy; my coming into the world was the design\nof my Father, and the effect of his love to sinners; but there is\nsin in you and justice in God; therefore that you to him might be\nreconciled, I am made of my Father mediator; wherefore ask in my\nname, for 'there is none other name under heaven given among men\nwhereby we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). Ask in my name; love is\nlet out to you through me; it is let out to you by me in a way of\njustice, which is the only secure way for you. Ask in my name, and\nmy Father will love you--'The Father himself loveth you, because\nye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God' (John\n16:27). My Father's love is set first upon me, for my name is chief\nin his heart, and all that love me are beloved of my Father, and\nshall have what they need, if they ask in my name.\n\nBut, I say, what cause would there be to ask in his name more than\nin the name of some other, since justice was provoked by our sin,\nif he had not undertook to make up the difference that by sin was\nmade betwixt justice and us? For though there be in this Jesus\ninfinite worth, infinite righteousness, infinite merit, yet if he\nmake not with these interest for us, we get no more benefit thereby\nthan if there were no mediator. But this worth and merit is in him\nfor us, for he undertook to reconcile us to God; it is therefore\nthat his name is with God so prevailing for us poor sinners, and\ntherefore that we ought to go to God in his name. Hence, therefore,\nit is evident that Jesus Christ hath paid full price to God for\nsinners, and obtained eternal redemption for them.\n\nTHE SEVENTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nSEVENTH. That Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full\nprice to God for sinners, &c., is evident, because we are commanded\nalso to give God thanks in his name--'By him, therefore, let us offer\nthe sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of\nour lips, giving thanks to his name' (Heb 3:15).\n\n'By him therefore.' Wherefore? Because he also, that he might\n'sanctify us with his own blood, suffered without the gate' (v 12).\n\nHe sanctified us with his blood; but why should the Father have\nthanks for this? Even because the Father gave him for us, that he\nmight die to sanctify us with his blood--'Giving thanks unto the\nFather, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance\nof the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of\ndarkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son;\nin whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness\nof sins' (Col 1:12-14). The Father is to be thanked, for the\ncontrivance was also his; but the blood, the righteousness, or\nthat worthiness, for the sake of which we are accepted of God, is\nthe worthiness of his own dear Son. As it is meet, therefore, that\nGod should have thanks, so it is necessary that he have it in his\nname for whose sake we indeed are accepted of him.\n\nLet us therefore by him offer praise first for the gift of his Son,\nand for that we stand quit through him in his sight, and that in\ndespite of all inward weakness, and that in despite of all outward\nenemies.\n\nWhen the apostle had taken such a view of himself as to put himself\ninto a maze, with an outcry also, 'Who shall deliver me?' he quiets\nhimself with this sweet conclusion, 'I thank God through Jesus\nChrist' (Rom 7:24,25). He found more in the blood of Christ to\nsave him than he found in his own corruptions to damn him; but that\ncould not be, had he not paid full price for him, had he not obtained\neternal redemption for him. And can a holy and just God require\nthat we give thanks to him in his name, if it was not effectually\ndone for us by him?\n\nFurther, when the apostle looks upon death and the grave, and\nstrengtheneth them by adding to them sin and the law, saying, 'The\nsting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,' he\npresently addeth, 'But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory,\nthrough Jesus Christ' (1 Cor 15)--the victory over sin, death, and\nthe law, the victory over these through our Lord Jesus Christ: but\nGod hath given us the victory; but it is through our Lord Jesus\nChrist, through his fulfilling the law, through his destroying death,\nand through his bringing in everlasting righteousness. Elisha said\nto the king of Israel, that had it not been that he regarded the\npresence of Jehoshaphat, he would not look to him nor regard him\n(2 Kings 3:14); nor would God at all have looked to or regarded\nthee, but that he respected the person of Jesus Christ.\n\n'Let the peace of God [therefore] rule in our hearts, to the which\nalso ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful' (Col 3:15). The\npeace of God, of that we have spoken before. But how should this\nrule in our hearts? He by the next words directs you--'Let the\nword of Christ dwell in you richly'--that is, the word that makes\nrevelation of the death and blood of Christ, and of the peace that\nis made with God for you thereby.\n\n'Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father,\nin the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Eph 5:20). For all things;\nfor all things come to us through this name Jesus--redemption,\ntranslation, the kingdom, salvation, with all the good things\nwherewith we are blessed.\n\nThese are the works of God; he gave his Son, and he brings us to\nhim, and puts us into his kingdom--that is, his true body, which\nJeremiah calleth a putting among the children, and a 'giving us a\ngoodly heritage of the hosts of nations' (Jer 3:19; John 6).\n\n'Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in\nChrist' (2 Cor 2:14).\n\nSee here our cause of triumph is through Christ Jesus; and God causeth\nus through him to triumph, first and chiefly, because Christ Jesus\nhath done our work for us, hath pleased God for our sins, hath\nspoiled the powers of darkness. God gave Jesus Christ to undertake\nour redemption; Christ did undertake it, did engage our enemies,\nand spoiled them--He 'spoiled principalities and powers, and made\na show of them openly, triumphing over them' upon the cross (Col\n2:14,15). Therefore it is evident that he paid full price to God\nfor sinners with his blood, because God commands us to give thanks\nto him in his name, through his name--'And whatsoever ye do in\nword or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks\nto God and the Father by him' (Col 3:17).\n\nTake this conclusion from the whole: no thanks are accepted of God\nthat come not to him in the name of his Son; his Son must have the\nglory of conveying our thanks to God, because he was he that by\nhis blood conveyeth his grace to us.\n\nTHE EIGHTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nEIGHTH. In the next place, that Jesus Christ, by what he hath\ndone, hath paid full price to God for sinners, and obtained eternal\nredemption for them, is evident, because we are exhorted to wait\nfor, and to expect, the full and glorious enjoyment of that eternal\nredemption, at the second coming of the Lord from heaven--'Let your\nloins by girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves\nlike unto men that wait for their Lord,--that when he cometh and\nknocketh, they may open unto him immediately' (Luke 12:35,36).\n\nJesus Christ hath obtained by his blood eternal redemption for\nus, and hath taken it up now in the heavens, is, as I have showed,\npreparing for us there everlasting mansions of rest; and then he\nwill come again for us. This coming is intended in this text, and\nthis coming we are exhorted to wait for; and that I may more fully\nshow the truth of this demonstration, observe these following\ntexts--\n\nFirst. It is said, he shall choose our inheritance for us--'He\nshall choose our inheritance for us; the excellency of Jacob whom\nhe loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout,' &c. (Psa 47:4,5). These\nlatter words intend the ascension of Jesus Christ; his ascension,\nwhen he had upon the cross made reconciliation for iniquity; his\nascension into the heavens to prepare our mansions of glory for\nus; for our inheritance is in the heavens; our house, our hope, our\nmansion-house, and our incorruptible and undefiled inheritance is\nin heaven (2 Cor 5:1,2; Col 1:5,6; John 14:1,2; 1 Peter 1:3-5).\n\nThis is called the eternal inheritance, of which we that are called\nhave received the promise already (Heb 9:14,15).\n\nThis inheritance, I say, he is gone to choose for us in the heavens,\nbecause by his blood he obtained it for us (Heb 9:12). And this\nwe are commanded to wait for; but how ridiculous, yea, how great\na cheat would this be, had he not by his blood obtained it for us.\n\nSecond. 'We wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the\ndead, even Jesus [Christ], which delivered us from the wrath to\ncome' (1 Thess 1:10). He delivered us by his blood, and obtained\nthe kingdom of heaven for us, and hath promised that he would go\nand prepare our places, and come again and fetch us thither--'And\nif I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive\nyou unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also' (John\n14:3). This, then, is the cause that we wait for him, we look for\nthe reward of the inheritance at his coming who have served the\nLord Christ in this world.\n\nThird. 'For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we\nlook for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil 3:20). We look\nfor him to come yet as a Saviour--a Saviour he was at his first\ncoming, and a Saviour he will be at his second coming. At his first\ncoming, he bought and paid for us; at his second coming, he will\nfetch us to himself. At his first coming, he gave us promise of\nthe kingdom; at his second coming, he will give us possession of\nthe kingdom. At his first coming, he also showed us how we should\nbe, by his own transfiguration; at his second coming, 'he will\nchange our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious\nbody' (Phil 3:21).\n\nFourth. Hence therefore it is that his coming is called our blessed\nhope--'Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing\nof the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ' (Titus 2:13). A\nblessed hope indeed, if he hath bought our persons with his blood,\nand an eternal inheritance for us in the heavens; a blessed hope\nindeed, if also at his coming we be certainly carried thither.\nNo marvel, then, if saints be bid to wait for it, and if saints\nthemselves long for it. But what a disappointment would these\nwaiting believers have, should all their expectations be rewarded\nwith a fable! and the result of their blessed hope can amount to\nno more, if our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ either denieth to\ncome, or coming, bringeth not with him the hope, the blessed hope\nthat is laid up for us in heaven, whereof we have certainly been\ninformed by 'the word of the truth of the gospel' (Col 1:5).\n\nFifth. 'For Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and\nunto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without\nsin unto salvation' (Heb 9:28). Here we have it promised that he\nshall come, that he shall appear the second time, but not with sin,\nas he did before--to wit, with and in the sin of his people, when\nhe bare them in his own body; but now without sin, for he before\ndid put them away by the sacrifice of himself. Now, then, let the\nsaints look for him, not to die for the purchasing of their persons\nby blood, but to bring to them, and to bring them also to that\nsalvation that before when he died he obtained of God for them by\nhis death.\n\nThese things are to be expected therefore by them that believe in\nand love Jesus Christ, and that from faith and love serve him in\nthis world; they are to be expected by them, being obtained for\nthem by Jesus Christ. And he shall give the crown, saith Paul,\n'not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing' (2\nTim 4:8,9).\n\nNow forasmuch as this inheritance in the heavens is the price,\npurchase, and reward of his blood, how evidently doth it appear\nthat he hath paid full price to God for sinners! Would God else\nhave given him the heaven to dispose of to us that believe, and\nwould he else have told us so? Yea, and what comfort could we have\nto look for his coming, and kingdom, and glory as the fruits of\nhis death, if his death had not for that purpose been sufficiently\nefficacious? O 'the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that shall\nfollow!' (1 Peter 1:11).\n\nTHE NINTH DEMONSTRATION.\n\nNINTH. That Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price\nto God for sinners, and obtained eternal redemption for sinners, is\nevident, because of the threatenings wherewith God hath threatened,\nand the punishments wherewith he punisheth those that shall refuse\nto be saved by Christ, or seek to make insignificant the doctrine\nof righteousness by faith in him.\n\nThis demonstration consisteth of three parts--First. It suggesteth\nthat some refuse to be justified or saved by Christ, and also seek\nto make insignificant the doctrine of righteousness by faith in\nhim. Second. That God doth threaten these. Third. That God will\npunish these.\n\n[First.] That some refuse to be saved by Christ is evident from\nmany texts. He is the stone which the builders have rejected; he is\nalso disallowed of men; the Jews stumble at him, and to the Greeks\nhe is foolishness; both saying, This man shall not rule over us,\nor, How can this man save us? (Psa 118:22; Matt 21:44; Luke 19:14;\n1 Cor 1:23; 1 Peter 2:4).\n\nThe causes of men's refusing Christ are many--1. Their love to sin.\n2. Their ignorance of his excellency. 3. Their unbelief. 4. Their\ndeferring to come to him in the acceptable time. 5. Their leaning\nto their own righteousness. 6. Their entertaining damnable doctrines.\n7. Their loving the praise of men. 8. The meanness of his ways, his\npeople, &c. 9. The just judgment of God upon them. 10. The kingdom\nis given to others.\n\nNow these, as they all refuse him, so they seek, more or less, some\npractically, others in practice and judgment also, to make insignificant\nthe doctrine of righteousness by faith in him. One does it by\npreferring his sins before him. Another does it by preferring his\nrighteousness before him. Another dies it by preferring his delusions\nbefore him. Another does it by preferring the world before him.\n\nNow these God threateneth, these God punisheth.\n\nSecond. God threateneth them.\n\n1. Whosoever shall 'not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from\namongst the people' (Acts 3:23). The prophet is Jesus Christ; the\ndoctrine that he preached was, that he would lay down his life for\nus, that he would give us his flesh to eat, and his blood to drink\nby faith; and promised, that if we did eat his flesh, and drink his\nblood, we should have eternal life. He therefore that seeth not,\nor that is afraid to venture his soul for salvation on the flesh\nand blood of Christ by faith, he refuseth this prophet, he heareth\nnot this prophet, and him God hath purposed to cut off. But would\nGod thus have threatened, if Christ by his blood, and the merits of\nthe same, had not paid full price to God for sinners, and obtained\neternal redemption for them?\n\n2. 'Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy\nfootstool' (Psa 110:1; Matt 22:44; Heb 1:13). The honour of sitting\nat God's right hand was given him because he died, and offered his\nbody once for all. 'This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for\nsins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth\nexpecting till his enemies be made his footstool' (Heb 10:12,13).\nExpecting, since God accepted his offering, that those that refused\nhim should be trodden under foot; that is, sunk by him into and\nunder endless and insupportable vengeance. But would God have given\nthe world such an account of his sufferings, that by one offering\nhe did perfect for ever them that are sanctified? yea, and would he\nhave threatened to make those foes his footstool that shall refuse\nto venture themselves upon his offering--for they are indeed his\nfoes--had not his eternal Majesty been well pleased with the price\nhe paid to God for sinners; had he not obtained eternal redemption\nfor them?\n\n3. He shall come 'from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming\nfire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey\nnot the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess 1:7,8).\n\nHere he expressly telleth us wherefore they shall be punished;\nbecause 'they know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord\nJesus Christ'; where also is notably intimated that he that obeyeth\nnot the gospel of Christ knoweth not God, neither in his justice\nnor mercy. But what is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but\ngood tidings of good things--to wit, forgiveness of sins by faith\nin his blood, an inheritance in heaven by faith in his blood, as\nthe whole of all the foregoing discourse hath manifested? Now, I\nsay, can it be imagined that God would threaten to come upon the\nworld with this flaming, fiery vengeance to punish them for their\nnon-subjection to his Son's gospel, if there had not been by\nhimself paid to God full price for the souls of sinners, if he had\nnot obtained eternal redemption by his blood for sinners?\n\n4. 'And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these,\nsaying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints,\nto execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly\namong them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly\ncommitted, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners\nhave spoken against him' (Jude 14,15).\n\nThe Lord that is here said to come with ten thousands of his saints\nis Jesus Christ himself; and they that come with him are called\nhis saints, because given to him by the Father, for the sake of the\nshedding of his blood. Now in that he is said to come to execute\njudgment upon all, and especially those that speak hard speeches\nagainst him, it is evident that the Father tendereth his name,\nwhich is Jesus, a Saviour, and his undertaking for our redemption;\nand as evident that the hard speeches intended by the text are\nsuch as vilify him as Saviour, counting the blood of the covenant\nunholy, and trampling him that is Prince of the covenant under the\nfeet of their reproachful language; this is counted a putting of\nhim to open shame, and a despising the riches of his goodness (Heb\n6:10; Rom 2). Time would fail to give you a view of the revilings,\ndespiteful sayings, and of the ungodly speeches which these\nabominable children of hell let fall in their pamphlets, doctrines,\nand discourses against the Lord the King. But the threatening is,\nhe shall 'execute judgment upon them for all their ungodly deeds,\nand for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken\nagainst him.'\n\n5. 'Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in\nthe prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I\nwork a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe,\nthough a man declare it unto you' (Acts 13:40,41).\n\nThis work is the same we have been all this while treating of--to\nwit, redemption by the blood of Christ for sinners, or that Christ\nhath paid full price to God for sinners, and obtained eternal\nredemption for them. This is manifest from verses 23 to 29 of this\nchapter.\n\nNow, observe, there are and will be despisers of this doctrine, and\nthey are threatened with the wrath of God--'Behold, ye despisers,\nand wonder, and perish.' But would God so carefully have cautioned\nsinners to take heed of despising this blessed doctrine, and have\nbacked his caution with a threatening that they shall perish, if\nthey persist, had not he himself received by the blood of Christ\nfull price for the souls of sinners?\n\nThird. As God threateneth, so he punisheth those that refuse his\nSon, or that seek to vilify or make insignificant the doctrine of\nrighteousness by faith in him.\n\n1. He punished them with the abidings of his wrath--'He that believeth\nnot the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on\nhim' (John 3:36).\n\nThe wrath of God for men; for sin stands already condemned by\nthe law; and the judgment is, that they who refuse the Lord Jesus\nChrist shall have this wrath of God for ever lie and abide upon\nthem; for they want a sacrifice to pacify wrath for the sin they\nhave committed, having resisted and refused the sacrifice of the\nbody of Christ. Therefore it cannot be that they should get from\nunder their present condition who have refused to accept of the\nundertaking of Christ for them.\n\nBesides, God, to show that he taketh it ill at the hands of sinners\nthat they should refuse the sacrifice of Christ, hath resolved\nthat there shall be no more sacrifice for sin. Therefore 'if we sin\nwillfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,\nthere remaineth no more sacrifice for sins' (Heb 10:26). God doth\nneither appoint another, neither will he accept another, whoever\nbrings it. And here those sayings are of their own natural force:\n'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' And again,\n'See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not\nwho refused him that spake on earth (Moses), much more shall not\nwe escape, if we turn away from him (Christ) that speaketh from\nheaven' (Heb 2:3, 12:25).\n\nThis therefore is a mighty demonstration that Christ by what he\nhath done hath paid full price to God for the souls of sinners,\nbecause God so severely threateneth, and also punisheth them that\nrefuse to be justified by his blood: he threateneth, as you have\nheard, and punisheth, by leaving such men in their sins, under his\nheavy and insupportable vengeance here.\n\n2. 'He that believeth not shall be damned,' damned in hell-fire\n(Mark 16:16). 'He that believeth not.' But what should he believe?\nWhy,\n\n(1.) That Jesus is the Saviour. 'If,' saith he, 'ye believe not\nthat I am he, ye shall die in your sins.'\n\n(2.) He that believeth not that he [Jesus] hath undertaken and\ncompletely perfected righteousness for us, shall die in his sins,\nshall be damned, and perish in hell-fire; for such have no cloak for\ntheir sin, but must stand naked to the show of their shame before\nthe judgment of God, that fearful judgment. Therefore, after he\nhad said, 'there remaineth' for such 'no more sacrifice for sin,'\nhe adds, 'but a certain fearful looking for of judgment'; there\nis for them left nothing but the judgment of God, and his fiery\nindignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 'He that despised\nMoses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how\nmuch sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who\nhath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood\nof the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and\nhath done despite unto the Spirit of grace' (Heb 10:28,29).\n\nSee here, if fury comes not up now into the face of God; now is\nmention made of his fearful judgment and fiery indignation. Now, I\nsay, is mention made thereof, when it is suggested that some have\nlight thoughts of him, count his blood unholy, and trample his\nsacrificed body under the feet of their reproaches; now is he a\nconsuming fire, and will burn to the lowest hell. 'For we know him\nthat hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,\nsaith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people' (Heb\n10:30). These words are urged by the Holy Ghost on purpose to beget in\nthe hearts of the rebellious reverend thoughts, and a high esteem\nof the sacrifice which our Lord Jesus offered once for all upon\nMount Calvary unto God the Father for our sins; for that is the\nvery argument of the whole epistle.\n\nIt is said to this purpose, in one of Paul's epistles to the\nThessalonians, that because men receive not the love of the truth,\nthat they might be saved; 'for this cause God shall send them\nstrong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they might\nbe damned' (2 Thess 2:11,12).\n\n'The truth' mentioned in this place is Jesus Christ. 'I am the\ntruth,' saith he (John 14:6). The love of the truth is none else\nbut the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in shedding his blood\nfor man's redemption. 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a\nman lay down his life for his friends' (John 15:13). This, then, is\nthe love of the Truth (of Jesus), that he hath laid down his life\nfor us. Now, that the rejecters of this love should by this their\nrejecting procure such wrath of God against them, that rather than\nthey shall miss of damnation, himself will choose their delusions\nfor them, and also give them up to the effectual working of these\ndelusions, what doth this manifest but that God is displeased with\nthem that accept not of Jesus Christ for righteousness, and will\ncertainly order that their end shall be everlasting damnation?\ntherefore Jesus Christ hath paid full price to God for sinners,\nand obtained eternal redemption for them.\n\nTHE USE OF THE DOCTRINE.\n\nI come now to make some use of and to apply this blessed doctrine\nof the undertaking of Jesus Christ, and of his paying full price to\nGod for sinners, and of his obtaining eternal redemption for them.\n\nTHE FIRST USE.\n\n[FIRST.] By this doctrine we come to understand many things which\notherwise abide obscure and utterly unknown, because this doctrine\nis accompanied with the Holy Ghost, that revealer of secrets, and\nsearcher of the deep things of God (1 Peter 1:2; Eph 1:17; 1 Cor\n2). The Holy Ghost comes down with this doctrine as that in which\nit alone delighteth; therefore is it called 'the Spirit of wisdom\nand revelation in the knowledge' of Jesus Christ. He giveth also\n'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus\nChrist' (2 Cor 4:6). Little of God is known in the world where the\ngospel is rejected; the religious Jew and the wise Gentile may see\nmore of God in a crucified Christ than in heaven and earth besides;\nfor in him 'are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' not\nonly in his person as God, but also in his undertakings as Mediator\n(Col 2:3). Hence Paul telleth us, that he 'determined not to know\nanything among' the Corinthians but 'Jesus Christ and him crucified'\n(1 Cor 2:2). I say, more of God is revealed to us in this doctrine\nthan we can see of him in heaven and earth without it.\n\nFirst. Here is more of his WISDOM seen than in his making and\nupholding all the creatures. His wisdom, I say, in devising means\nto reconcile sinners to a holy and infinite Majesty; to be a just God,\nand YET a Saviour; to be just to his law, just to his threatening,\njust to himself, and yet save sinners, can no way be understood\ntill thou understandest why Jesus Christ did hang on the tree; for\nhere only is the riddle unfolded, 'Christ died for our sins,' and\ntherefore can God in justice save us (Isa 45:21). And hence is Christ\ncalled the Wisdom of God, not only because he is so essentially,\nbut because by him is the greatest revelation of his wisdom towards\nman. In redemption, therefore, by the blood of Christ, God is said\nto abound towards us in all wisdom (Eph 1:7,8). Here we see the\nhighest contradictions reconciled, here justice kisseth the sinner,\nhere a man stands just in the sight of God while confounded at\nhis own pollutions, and here he that hath done no good hath yet a\nsufficient righteousness, even the righteousness of God, which is\nby faith of Jesus Christ.\n\nSecond. The JUSTICE of God is here more seen than in punishing all\nthe damned. 'He spared not his own Son,' is a sentence which more\nrevealeth the nature of the justice of God than if it had said,\nHe spared not all the world. True, he cast angels from heaven, and\ndrowned the old world; he turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, with\nmany more of like nature; but what were all these to the cursing\nof his Son? Yea, what were ten thousand such manifestations of his\nireful indignation against sin, to that of striking, afflicting,\nchastising, and making the darling of his bosom the object of his\nwrath and judgment? Here it is seen he respecteth not persons, but\njudgeth sin, and condemneth him on whom it is found; yea, although\non Jesus Christ his well-beloved (Rom 8:32; Gal 3:13).\n\nThird. The mystery of God's WILL is here more seen than in hanging\nthe earth upon nothing, while he condemneth Christ, though righteous,\nand justifieth us, though sinners, while he maketh him to be sin\nfor us, and us the righteousness of God in him (1 Peter 3:18; 2\nCor 5:20).\n\nFourth. The POWER of God is here more seen than in making of\nheaven and earth; for one to bear, and get the victory over sin,\nwhen charged by the justice of an infinite majesty, in so doing he\nshoweth the height of the highest power; for where sin by the law\nis charged, and that by God immediately, there an infinite majesty\nopposeth, and that with the whole of his justice, holiness, and\npower; so then, he that is thus charged and engaged for the sin of\nthe world, must not only be equal with God, but show it by overcoming\nthat curse and judgment that by infinite justice is charged upon\nhim for sin.\n\nWhen angels and men had sinned, how did they fall and crumble before\nthe anger of God! they had not power to withstand the terror, nor\ncould there be worth found in their persons or doings to appease\ndispleased justice. But behold here stands the Son of God before\nhim in the sin of the world; his Father, finding him there, curseth\nand condemns him to death; but he, by the power of his Godhead, and\nthe worthiness of his person and doings, vanquisheth sin, satisfieth\nGod's justice, and so becomes the Saviour of the world. Here, then,\nis power seen: sin is a mighty thing, it crusheth all in pieces save\nhim whose Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14). Set Christ and his sufferings\naside, and you neither see the evil of sin nor the displeasure\nof God against it; you see them not in their utmost. Hadst thou\na view of all the legions that are now in the pains of hell, yea,\ncouldst thou hear their shrieks and groans together at once, and\nfeel the whole of all their burden, much of the evil of sin and of\nthe justice of God against it would be yet unknown by thee, for\nthou wouldest want power to feel and bear the utmost. A giant shows\nnot his power by killing of a little child, nor yet is his might\nseen by the resistance that such a little one makes, but then\nhe showeth his power when he dealeth with one like himself; yea,\nand the power also of the other is then made manifest in saving\nhimself from being swallowed up with his wrath. Jesus Christ also\nmade manifest his eternal power and Godhead, more by bearing and\novercoming our sins, than in making or upholding the whole world;\nhence Christ crucified is called 'the power of God' (1 Cor 1:23,24).\n\nFifth. The LOVE and MERCY of God are more seen in and by this\ndoctrine than any other way. Mercy and love are seen, in that God\ngives us rain and fruitful seasons, and in that he filleth our\nhearts with food and gladness; from that bounty which he bestoweth\nupon us as men, as his creatures. O! but herein is love made manifest,\nin that 'Christ laid down his life for us.' 'And God commendeth\nhis love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died\nfor us' (1 John 3:16; Rom 5:8).\n\nNever love like this, nor did God ever give such discovery of his\nlove from the beginning to this day. 'Herein is love, not that\nwe loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the\npropitiation for our sins' (1 John 4:10).\n\nHere is love, that God sent his Son, his darling, his Son that never\noffended, his Son that was always his delight! Herein is love, that\nhe sent him to save sinners, to save them by bearing their sins,\nby bearing their curse, by dying their death, and by carrying their\nsorrows! Here is love, in that while we were yet enemies, Christ\ndied for us; yea, here is love, in that while 'we were yet without\nstrength, Christ died for the ungodly' (Rom 5:6).\n\nTHE SECOND USE.\n\n[SECOND.] But as this doctrine giveth us the best discovery of\nGod, so also it giveth us the best discovery of ourselves and our\nown things.\n\nFirst. It giveth us the best discovery of ourselves. Wouldst thou\nknow, sinner, what thou art? look up to the cross, and behold a\nweeping, bleeding, dying Jesus: nothing could do but that, nothing\ncould save thee but his blood; angels could not, saints could not,\nGod could not, because he could not lie, because he could not deny\nhimself. What a thing is sin, that it should sink all that bear\nits burden! yea, it sunk the Son of God himself into death and the\ngrave, and had also sunk him into hell-fire for ever had he not\nbeen the Son of God, had he not been able to take it on his back,\nand bear it away! O this Lamb of God! Sinners were going to hell,\nChrist was the delight of his Father, and had a whole heaven to\nhimself; but that did not content him, heaven could not hold him;\nhe must come into the world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Aye, and\nhad he not come, thy sins had sunk thee, thy sins had provoked the\nwrath of God against thee, to thy perdition and destruction for\never. There is no man but is a sinner, there is no sin but would\ndamn an angel, should God lay it to his charge. Sinner, the doctrine\nof Christ crucified crieth therefore aloud unto thee, that sin\nhath made thy condition dreadful. See yourselves, your sin, and\nconsequently the condition that your souls are in, by the death and\nblood of Christ; Christ's death giveth us the most clear discovery\nof the dreadful nature of our sins. I say again, if sin be so\ndreadful a thing as to break the heart of the Son of God, for so he\nsaid it did, how shall a poor, wretched, impenitent, damned sinner\nwrestle with the wrath of God? Awake, sinners; you are lost, you\nare undone, you are damned, hell-fire is your portion for ever,\nif you abide in your sins, and be found without a Saviour in the\ndreadful day of judgment.\n\nSecond. For your good deeds cannot help you; the blood of Christ\ntells you so. For by this doctrine, 'Christ died for our sins,'\nGod damneth to death and hell the righteousness of the world.\nChrist must die, or man be damned. Where is now any room for the\nrighteousness of men? room, I say, for man's righteousness, as to\nhis acceptance and justification? Bring, then, thy righteousness\nto the cross of Jesus Christ, and in his blood behold the demands\nof justice; behold them, I say, in the cries and tears, in the\nblood and death of Jesus Christ. Look again, and behold the person\ndying; such an one as never sinned nor offended at any time, yet\nhe dies. Could a holy life, an innocent, harmless conversation,\nhave saved one from death, Jesus had not died. But he must die;\nsin was charged, therefore Christ must die.\n\nMen, therefore, need to go no further to prove the worth of their\nown righteousness than to the death of Christ; they need not be\nwaiting to seek in that matter till they stand before the judgment-seat.\n\nQuest. But how should I prove [or try] the goodness of mine own\nrighteousness by the death and blood of Christ?\n\nAnsw. Thus: if Christ must die for sin, then all thy righteousness\ncannot save thee. 'If righteousness come by the law, then Christ\nis dead in vain' (Gal 2:21). By this text it is manifest that\neither Christ died in vain, or thy righteousness is vain. If thy\nrighteousness can save thee, then Christ died in vain; if nothing\nbelow or besides the death of Christ could save thee, then thy\nrighteousness is in vain; one of the two must be cast away, either\nChrist's or thine. Christ crucified to save the world, discovereth\ntwo great evils in man's own righteousness; I mean, when brought\nfor justification and life. 1. It opposeth the righteousness of\nChrist. 2. It condemneth God of foolishness.\n\n1. It opposeth the righteousness of Christ, in that it seeketh\nitself to stand where should the righteousness of Christ--to wit,\nin God's affection for the justification of thy person; and this\nis one of the highest affronts to Christ that poor man is capable\nto give him: right worthily, therefore, doth the doctrine of the\ngospel damn the righteousness of men, and promiseth the kingdom of\nGod to publicans and harlots rather.\n\n2. It condemneth God of foolishness; for if works of righteousness\nwhich we can do can justify from the curse of the law in the sight\nof God, then are not all the treasures of wisdom found in the heart\nof God and Christ; for this dolt-headed sinner hath now found out\na way of his own, unawares to God, to secure his soul from wrath\nand vengeance; I say, unawares to God, for he never imagined that\nsuch a thing could be; for had he, he would never have purposed\nbefore the world began to send his Son to die for sinners. Christ\nis the wisdom of God, as you have heard, and that as he is our\njustifying righteousness. God was manifest in the flesh to save us,\nis the great mystery of godliness. But wherein lieth the depth of\nthis wisdom of God in our salvation, if man's righteousness can\nsave him? (Job 40:10-14).\n\nYea, wherefore hath God also given it out that there is none other\nname given to men under heaven whereby we must be saved? I say again,\nwhy is it affirmed 'without shedding of blood is no remission,' if\nman's good deeds can save him?\n\nThis doctrine, therefore, of the righteousness of Christ being\nrightly preached, and truly believed, arraigneth and condemneth\nman's righteousness to hell; it casteth it out as Abraham cast out\nIshmael. Blood, blood, the sound of blood, abaseth all the glory\nof it! When men have said all, and showed us what they can, they\nhave no blood to present God's justice with; yet it is blood that\nmaketh an atonement for the soul, and nothing but blood can wash\naway from us our sins (Lev 17:11; Rev 1:5; Heb 9).\n\nJustice calls for blood, sins call for blood, the righteous law\ncalls for blood, yea, the devil himself must be overcome by blood.\nSinner, where is now thy righteousness? Bring it before a consuming\nfire, for our God is a consuming fire; bring it before the justice\nof the law; yea, try if aught but the blood of Christ can save thee\nfrom thy sins, and devils; try it, I say, by this doctrine; go not\none step further before thou hast tried it.\n\nThird. By this doctrine we are made to see the worth of souls. It\ncannot be but that the soul is of wonderful price, when the Son of\nGod will not stick to spill his blood for it. O sinners, you that\nwill venture your souls for a little pleasure, surely you know not\nthe worth of your souls. Now, if you would know what your souls\nare worth, and the price which God sets them at, read that price by\nthe blood of Christ. The blood of Christ was spilt to save souls.\n'For ye are bought with a price,' and that price none other than\nthe blood of Christ; 'therefore glorify God in your body and in\nyour spirit, which are God's (1 Cor 6:20). Sinners, you have souls,\ncan you behold a crucified Christ, and not bleed, and not mourn,\nand not fall in love with him?\n\nTHE THIRD USE.\n\n[THIRD.] By this doctrine sinners, as sinners, are encouraged to\ncome to God for mercy, for the curse due to sin is taken out of\nthe way. I speak now to sinners that are awake, and see themselves\nsinners.\n\nThere are two things in special when men begin to be awakened, that\nkill their thoughts of being saved. 1. A sense of sin. 2. The wages\ndue thereto. These kill the heart; for who can bear up under the\nguilt of sin? 'If our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them,\nhow should we then live?' (Eze 33:10). How indeed! it is impossible.\nSo neither can man grapple with the justice of God. 'Can thine heart\nendure, or can thine hands be strong?' They cannot (Eze 22:14).\n'A wounded spirit who can bear?' (Prov 18:14). Men cannot, angels\ncannot. Wherefore, if now Christ be hid, and the blessing of faith\nin his blood denied, woe be to them; such go after Saul and Judas,\none to the sword, and the other to the halter, and so miserably\nend their days; for come to God they dare not; the thoughts of that\neternal Majesty strike them through.\n\nBut now, present such poor dejected sinners with a crucified Christ,\nand persuade them that the sins under which they shake and tremble\nwere long ago laid upon the back of Christ, and the noise and sense\nand fear of damning begins to cease, depart, and fly away; dolors\nand terrors fade and vanish, and that soul conceiveth hopes of\nlife; for thus the soul argueth, Is this indeed the truth of God,\nthat Christ was made to be sin for me? was made the curse of God for\nme? Hath he indeed borne all my sins, and spilt his blood for my\nredemption! O Blessed tidings! O welcome grace! 'Bless the Lord,\nO my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.' Now is\npeace come; now the face of heaven is altered; 'Behold, all things\nare become new.' Now the sinner can abide God's presence, yea,\nsees unutterable glory and beauty in him; for here he sees justice\nsmite. While Jacob was afraid of Esau, how heavily did he drive\neven towards the promised land? but when killing thoughts were\nturned into kissing, and the fears of the sword's point turned into\nbrother embraces, what says he?--'I have seen thy face as though\nit had been the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me' (Gen\n33:10).\n\nSo and far better is it with a poor distressed sinner at\nthe revelation of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. 'God was\nin Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their\ntrespasses unto them.' O what work will such a word make upon a\nwounded conscience, especially when the next words follow--'For he\nhath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be\nmade the righteousness of God in him!'\n\nNow, the soul sees qualifications able to set him quit in the sight\nof God; qualifications prepared already. Prepared, I say, already;\nand that by God through Christ; even such as can perfectly answer\nthe law. What doth the law require? If obedience, here it is; if\nbloody sacrifice, here it is; if infinite righteousness, here it\nis! Now, then, the law condemns him that believes before God no\nmore; for all its demands are answered, all its curses are swallowed\nup in the death and curse Christ underwent.\n\nObject. But reason saith, since personal sin brought the death,\nsurely personal obedience must bring us life and glory.\n\nAnsw. True reason saith so, and so doth the law itself (Rom 10:5);\nbut God, we know, is above them both, and he in the covenant of\ngrace saith otherwise; to wit, that 'if thou shalt confess with\nthy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that\nGod hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved' (Rom 10:9).\n\nLet reason, then, hold its tongue, yea, let the law with all its\nwisdom subject itself to him that made it; let it look for sin\nwhere God hath laid it; let it approve the righteousness which\nGod approveth; yea, though it be not that of the law, but that by\nfaith of Jesus Christ.\n\nGod hath made him our righteousness, God hath made him our sin, God\nhath made him our curse, God hath made him our blessing; methinks\nthis word, 'God hath made it so,' should silence all the world.\n\nTHE FOURTH USE.\n\n[FOURTH.] By this doctrine, sufficiency of argument is ministered\nto the tempted to withstand hereby the assaults of the devil.\n\nWhen souls begin to seek after the Lord Jesus, then Satan begins\nto afflict and distress, as the Canaanites did the Gibeonites, for\nmaking peace with Joshua (Josh 10:1,6).\n\nThere are three things that do usually afflict the soul that is\nearnestly looking after Jesus Christ. First. Dreadful accusations\nfrom Satan. Second. Grievous defiling and infectious thoughts.\nThird. A strange readiness in our nature to fall in with both.\n\nFirst. By the first of these, the heart is made continually to\ntremble. Hence his temptations are compared to the roaring of a\nlion, for as the lion by roaring killeth the heart of his prey, so\ndoth Satan kill the spirit of these that hearken to him (1 Peter\n5:8); for when he tempteth, especially by way of accusation, he\ndoth to us as Rabshakeh did to the Jews; he speaks to us in our own\nlanguage; he speaks our sin at every word, our guilty conscience\nknows it; he speaks our death at every word, our doubting conscience\nfeels it.\n\nSecond. Besides this, there doth now arise, even in the heart,\nsuch defiling and foul infectious thoughts that putteth the tempted\nto their wits' end; for now it seems to the soul that the very\nflood-gates of the flesh are opened, and that to sin there is no\nstop at all; now the air seems to be covered with darkness, and\nthe man is as if he was changed into the nature of a devil; now if\nignorance and unbelief prevail, he concludeth that he is a reprobate,\nmade to be taken and destroyed.\n\nThird. Now also he feeleth in him a readiness to fall in with every\ntemptation; a readiness, I say, continually present (Rom 7:21). This\nthrows all down. Now despair begins to swallow him up; now he can\nneither pray, nor read, nor hear, nor meditate on God, but fire\nand smoke continually bursteth forth of the heart against him. Now\nsin and great confusion puts forth itself in all; yea, the more the\nsinner desireth to do a duty sincerely, the further off it always\nfind itself; for by how much the soul struggleth under these distresses,\nby so much the more doth Satan put forth himself to resist, still\ninfusing more poison, that if possible it might never struggle\nmore, for strugglings are also as poison to Satan. The fly in the\nspider's web is an emblem of the soul in such a condition--the fly\nis entangled in the web; at this the spider shows himself; if the\nfly stir again, down comes the spider to her, and claps a foot\nupon her; if yet the fly makes a noise, then with poisoned mouth\nthe spider lays hold upon her; if the fly struggle still, then\nhe poisons her more and more. What shall the fly do now? Why, she\ndies, if somebody does not quickly release her. This is the case\nof the tempted; they are entangled in the web, their feet and wings\nare entangled; now Satan shows himself; if the soul now struggleth,\nSatan laboureth to hold it down; if it now shall make a noise, then\nhe bites with blasphemous mouth, more poisonous than the gall of\na serpent; if it struggle again, then he poisoneth more and more,\ninsomuch that it needs, at last, must die in the net, if the man,\nthe lord Jesus, help not out.[6]\n\nThe afflicted conscience understands my words.\n\nFurther, though the fly in the web is altogether incapable of\nlooking for relief, yet this awakened, tempted Christian is not.\nWhat must he do therefore? How should he contain hopes of life? If\nhe look to his heart, there is blasphemy; if he look to his duties,\nthere is sin; if he strive to mourn and lament, perhaps he cannot;\nunbelief and hardness hinder. Shall this man lie down and despair?\nNo. Shall he trust to his duties? No. Shall he stay from Christ\ntill his heart is better? No. What then? Let him NOW look to Jesus\nChrist crucified, then shall he see his sins answered for, then\nshall he see death a-dying, then shall he see guilt borne by another,\nand there shall he see the devil overcome. This sight destroys the\npower of the first temptation, purifies the heart, and inclines\nthe mind to all good things.\n\nAnd to encourage thee, tempted creature, to this most gospel duty,\nconsider that when Jesus Christ read his commission upon the entering\ninto his ministry, he proclaimed, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon\nme, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;\nhe hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance\nto the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at\nliberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of\nthe Lord' (Luke 4:18,19).\n\nThese things therefore should the tempted believe; but believing\nis now sweating work; for Satan will hold as long as possible, and\nonly steadfast faith can make him fly. But O, the toil of a truly\ngracious heart in this combat! If faith be weak, he can scarce get\nhigher than his knees; Lord, help! Lord, save! and then down again,\ntill an arm from heaven takes him up, until Jesus Christ be evidently\nset forth crucified for him, and cursed for his sin; for then, and\nnot till then, the temptation rightly ceaseth, at leastwise for a\nseason. Now the soul can tend to look about it, and thus consider\nwith itself: if Christ hath borne my sin and curse, then it is taken\naway from me; and seeing thus to take away sin was the contrivance\nof the God of heaven, I will bless his name, hope in his mercy, and\nlook upon death and hell with comfort. 'Thine heart shall meditate\nterror,' thou shalt see the land that is very far off (Isa 33:16-18).\n\nTHE FIFTH USE.\n\n[FIFTH.] this doctrine makes Christ precious to the believers--'Unto\nyou therefore which believe, he is precious' (1 Peter 2:7).\n\nThis head might be greatly enlarged upon, and branched out into\na thousand particulars, and each one full of weight and glory. 1.\nBy considering what sin is. 2. By considering what hell is. 3. By\nconsidering what wrath is. 4. By considering what eternity is. 5.\nBy considering what the loss of a soul is. 6. What the loss of God\nis. 7. What the loss of heaven is. 8. And what it is to be in utter\ndarkness with devils and damned souls for ever and ever. And after\nall to conclude, from all the miseries the Lord Jesus delivered\nme.\n\nFurther, this makes Christ precious, if I consider, in the next\nplace,\n\n1. How he did deliver me; it was with his life, his blood; it cost\nhim tears, groans, agony, separation from God; to do it he endured\nhis Father's wrath, bore his Father's curse, and died thousands of\ndeaths at once.\n\n2. He did this while I was his enemy, without my desires, without\nmy knowledge, without my deserts; he did it unawares to me.\n\n3. He did it freely, cheerfully, yea, he longed to die for me;\nyea, heaven would not hold him for the love he had to my salvation,\nwhich also he hath effectually accomplished for me at Jerusalem.\nHonourable Jesus! precious Jesus! loving Jesus! Jonathan's kindness\ncaptivated David, and made him precious in his eyes for ever. 'I am\ndistressed for thee, my brother Jonathan,' said he; 'very pleasant\nhast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the\nlove of women' (2 Sam 1:26). Why, what had Jonathan done? O, he had\ndelivered David from the wrath of Saul. But how much more should he\nbe precious to me who hath saved me from death and hell! who hath\ndelivered me from the wrath of God! 'The love of Christ constraineth\nus.' Nothing will so edge the spirit of a Christian as, 'Thou wast\nslain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.' This makes the\nheavens themselves ring with joy and shouting. Mark the words,\n'Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of\nevery kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us\nunto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.'\nWhat follows now? 'And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many\nangels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders: and\nthe number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands\nof thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that\nwas slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,\nand honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is\nin heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are\nin the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing,\nand honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon\nthe throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever' (Rev 5:9-14).\n\nThus also is the song, that new song that is said to be sung by\nthe hundred forty and four thousand which stand with the Lamb upon\nMount Sion, with his Father's name written in their foreheads. These\nare also called harpers, harping with their harps: 'And they sung\nas it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts,\nand the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred\nand forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth'\n(Rev 14:1-3).\n\nBut why could they not learn that song? Because they were not\nredeemed: none can sing of this song but the redeemed; they can\ngive glory to the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain, and that redeemed\nthem to God by his blood. It is faith in his blood on earth that\nwill make us sing this song in heaven. These shoutings and heavenly\nsongs must needs come from love put into a flame by the sufferings\nof Christ.\n\nTHE LAST USE.\n\nIf all these things be true, what follows but a demonstration of\nthe accursed condition of those among the religious in these nations\nwhose notions put them far off from Jesus, and from venturing their\nsouls upon his bloody death? I have observed such a spirit as this\nin the world that careth not for knowing of Jesus; the possessed\ntherewith do think that it is not material to salvation to venture\nupon a crucified Christ, neither do they trouble their heads or\nhearts with inquiring whether Christ Jesus be risen and ascended\ninto heaven, or whether they see him again or no, but rather are\nfor concluding that there will be no such thing: these men speak\nnot by the Holly Ghost, for in the sum they call Jesus accursed;\nbut I doubt not to say that many of them are anathematized of God,\nand shall stand so, till the coming of the Lord Jesus, to whom be\nglory for ever and ever. Amen.[7]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. In this quotation, Bunyan has followed the Genevan or Puritan\nversion. It was a favourite version with our pilgrim forefathers,\nand is in many texts more faithful than our authorized translation;\nbut, in this passage, our present version is more literal. The same\nHebrew word, to 'break' or 'bruise,' is used as to Satan's head\nand the Saviour's heel.--Ed.\n\n2. Genevan or Puritan version.--Ed.\n\n3. 'Common' means public. 'Not doing nor dying in a private capacity,\nbut in the room and stead of sinners.'--Ed.\n\n4. It was common with the Reformers and Puritans, when condemning\nthe absurdities of Aquinas and the schoolmen, to call it 'Dunsish\nsophistry,' from one of the chief of these writers named Duns,\nusually called, from the place of his birth, Duns Scotus.--Ed.\n\n5. The apostle evidently means by 'Christ made sin for us,' that\nhe was made an offering or sacrifice for our sins. He was made sin\nwho knew no sin. Our sins were laid upon him; he bore them away\nin his own body on the tree. The clean animals sacrificed by the\npatriarchs, and under the law, were types of this great sacrifice\nof Christ.--Ed.\n\n6. 'I hid myself when I for flies do wait, So doth the devil when\nhe lays his bait; If I do fear the losing of my prey, I stir me,\nand more snares upon her lay, This way and that her wings and legs\nI tie, That sure as she is caught, so she must die.'--Bunyan's\nDivine Emblems, No. XVIII. 'Dialogue between a spider and a sinner.'\n\n7. Here is faithful dealing! This is a most solemn and awful\nappeal to the consciences of those who, forsaking the fountain of\nsalvation, venture to build their hopes of pardon upon some other\nfoundation than Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages. They seek refuge\nin lies, which, at the great and trying day, will be fearfully and\nswiftly swept away, leaving them, with all their guilt upon their\nheads, to suffer under the curse. Reader, do not indulge in vain\nimaginations as to whether any sect is here alluded to; Bunyan's\nappeal is to persons--to you and me. If WE, either by secret or\nopen sins, or by carelessness of eternal realities, or by departing\nfrom a simple and entire reliance by faith in the work and merits\nof Christ--we trample under foot the blood of the covenant, there\nis nothing left us but a fearful looking for of judgment, and\nfiery indignation to devour us. May we appeal to our God, Lord, is\nit I? Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. O lead me in the way\neverlasting.--Ed\n\n***\n\nA TREATISE OF THE FEAR OF GOD;\n\nSHOWING\n\nWHAT IT IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT WHICH IS NOT SO.\n\nALSO, WHENCE IT COMES; WHO HAS IT; WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS; AND WHAT\nTHE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE THAT HAVE IT IN THEIR HEARTS.\n\nLondon: Printed for N. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, over\nagainst the Stocks market: 1679.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\n\"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,\" and \"a fountain\nof life\"--the foundation on which all wisdom rests, as well as the\nsource from whence it emanates. Upon a principle so vastly important,\nall the subtle malignity of Satan has been directed, if possible\nto mislead the very elect; while the ungodly and impenitent fall\nunder his devices. To the mind enlightened by Divine truth, the\ndifference between a filial fear of offending God and the dread of\npunishment is very plain. Still, by the devil's sophistry, some of\nthe most pious Christians have been puzzled and bewildered. Bunyan\nwas not ignorant of Satan's devices, and he has roused the energies\nof his powerful mind, guided by Divine truth, to render this important\ndoctrine so clear and easy to be understood, that the believer may\nnot err.\n\nThis rare volume, first published in 1679, soon became so scarce\nthat Chandler, Wilson, Whitefield, and others, omitted it from\ntheir editions of Bunyan's works. At length it appeared in the more\ncomplete collection by Ryland and Mason, about 1780. Since then,\nit has been reprinted, somewhat modernized, by the Tract Society,\nfrom an original copy, discovered by that ardent lover of Bunyan,\nthe Rev. Joseph Belcher. Of this edition, four thousand copies have\nbeen printed.\n\nThe great line of distinction that Bunyan draws is between that\nterror and dread of God, as the infinitely Holy One, before whom\nall sin must incur the intensity of punishment; and the love of\nGod, as the Father of mercies, and fountain of blessedness, in the\ngift of his Son, and a sense of adoption into his family; by the\ninfluences of which the soul fears to offend him. This fear is purely\nevangelical; for if the slightest dependence is placed upon any\nsupposed good works of our own, the filial fear of God is swallowed\nup in dread and terror--for salvation depends upon the perfection\nof holiness, without which none can enter heaven, and which can\nonly be found in Christ.\n\nMr. Mason, on reading this treatise, thus expressed his feelings--\"When\nthe fear of the Lord is a permanent principle, inwrought in the\nsoul by the Divine Spirit, it is an undoubted token of election\nto life eternal; for the most precious promises are made to God's\nfearers, even the blessings of the everlasting covenant. Such are\nsure to be protected from every enemy; to be guided by unerring\ncounsel; and what will crown all, to be beloved of God the Father,\nSon, and Holy Ghost; till, by almighty and effectual grace, he will\nbe translated to those mansions of glory and blessedness prepared\nfor him, where he will sing the praises of his covenant-God while\neternity endures.\"\n\nMay this be the blessed experience of all those who prayerfully\nread this important treatise.\n\nGeo. Offor.\n\nA TREATISE ON THE FEAR OF GOD\n\n\"BLESSED IS EVERY ONE THAT FEARETH THE LORD.\"--PSALM 128:1\n\n\"FEAR GOD.\"--REVELATION 14:7\n\nThis exhortation is not only found here in the text, but is in\nseveral other places of the Scripture pressed, and that with much\nvehemency, upon the children of men, as in Ecclesiastes 12:13; 1\nPeter 1:17, &c. I shall not trouble you with a long preamble, or\nforespeech to the matter, nor shall I here so much as meddle with\nthe context, but shall immediately fall upon the words themselves,\nand briefly treat of the fear of God. The text, you see, presenteth\nus with matter of greatest moment, to wit, with God, and with the\nfear of him.\n\nFirst they present us with God, the true and living God, maker of\nthe worlds, and upholder of all things by the word of his power:\nthat incomprehensible majesty, in comparison of whom all nations\nare less than the drop of a bucket, and than the small dust of the\nbalance. This is he that fills heaven and earth, and is everywhere\npresent with the children of men, beholding the evil and the good;\nfor he hath set his eyes upon all their ways.\n\nSo that, considering that by the text we have presented to our\nsouls the Lord God and Maker of us all, who also will be either\nour Saviour or Judge, we are in reason and duty bound to give the\nmore earnest heed to the things that shall be spoken, and be the\nmore careful to receive them, and put them in practice; for, as I\nsaid, as they present us with the mighty God, so they exhort us to\nthe highest duty towards him; to wit, to fear him. I call it the\nhighest duty, because it is, as I may call it, not only a duty in\nitself, but, as it were, the salt that seasoneth every duty. For\nthere is no duty performed by us that can by any means be accepted\nof God, if it be not seasoned with godly fear. Wherefore the apostle\nsaith, \"Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with\nreverence and godly fear.\" Of this fear, I say, I would discourse\nat this time; but because this word fear is variously taken in\nthe Scripture, and because it may be profitable to us to see it in\nits variety, I shall therefore choose this method for the managing\nof my discourse, even to show you the nature of the word in its\nseveral, especially of the chiefest, acceptations. FIRST. Then by\nthis word fear we are to understand even God himself, who is the\nobject of our fear. SECOND. By this word fear we are to understand\nthe Word of God, the rule and director of our fear. Now to speak\nto this word fear, as it is thus taken.\n\n[THIS WORD FEAR AS TAKEN FOR GOD HIMSELF.]\n\nFIRST. Of this word \"fear,\" AS IT RESPECTETH GOD HIMSELF, who is\nthe object of our fear.\n\nBy this word fear, as I said, we are to understand God himself,\nwho is the object of our fear: For the Divine majesty goeth often\nunder this very name himself. This name Jacob called him by, when\nhe and Laban chid together on Mount Gilead, after that Jacob had\nmade his escape to his father's house; \"Except,\" said he, \"the\nGod of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had\nbeen with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty.\" So again,\na little after, when Jacob and Laban agree to make a covenant of\npeace each with other, though Laban, after the jumbling way of the\nheathen by his oath, puts the true God and the false together, yet\n\"Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac\" (Gen 31:42,53).[1]\n\nBy the fear, that is, by the God of his father Isaac. And, indeed,\nGod may well be called the fear of his people, not only because they\nhave by his grace made him the object of their fear, but because\nof the dread and terrible majesty that is in him. \"He is a mighty\nGod, a great and terrible, and with God is terrible majesty\" (Dan\n7:28, 10:17; Neh 1:5, 4:14, 9:32; Job 37:22). Who knows the power\nof his anger? \"The mountains quake at him, the hills melt, and\nthe earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that\ndwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? who can abide\nin the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire,\nand the rocks are thrown down by him\" (Nahum 1:5,6). His people\nknow him, and have his dread upon them, by virtue whereof there is\nbegot and maintained in them that godly awe and reverence of his\nmajesty which is agreeable to their profession of him. \"Let him be\nyour fear, and let him be your dread.\" Set his majesty before the\neyes of your souls, and let his excellency make you afraid with\ngodly fear (Isa 8:13).\n\nThere are these things that make God to be the fear of his people.\n\nFirst. His presence is dreadful, and that not only his presence\nin common, but his special, yea, his most comfortable and joyous\npresence. When God comes to bring a soul news of mercy and salvation,\neven that visit, that presence of God, is fearful. When Jacob went\nfrom Beersheba towards Haran, he met with God in the way by a dream,\nin the which he apprehended a ladder set upon the earth, whose top\nreached to heaven; now in this dream, from the top of this ladder,\nhe saw the Lord, and heard him speak unto him, not threateningly;\nnot as having his fury come up into his face; but in the most sweet\nand gracious manner, saluting him with promise of goodness after\npromise of goodness, to the number of eight or nine; as will appear\nif you read the place. Yet I say, when he awoke, all the grace that\ndiscovered itself in this heavenly vision to him could not keep him\nfrom dread and fear of God's majesty. \"And Jacob awaked out of his\nsleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it\nnot; and he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! this\nis none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven\"\n(Gen 28:10-17).\n\nAt another time, to wit, when Jacob had that memorable visit from\nGod, in which he gave him power as a prince to prevail with him;\nyea, and gave him a name, that by his remembering it he might\ncall God's favour the better to his mind; yet even then and there\nsuch dread of the majesty of God was upon him, that he went away\nwondering that his life was preserved (Gen 32:30). Man crumbles to\ndust at the presence of God; yea, though he shows himself to us in\nhis robes of salvation. We have read how dreadful and how terrible\neven the presence of angels have been unto men, and that when they\nhave brought them good tidings from heaven (Judg 13:22; Matt 28:4;\nMark 16:5,6). Now, if angels, which are but creatures, are, through\nthe glory that God has put upon them, so fearful and terrible in\ntheir appearance to men, how much more dreadful and terrible must\nGod himself be to us, who are but dust and ashes! When Daniel had\nthe vision of his salvation sent him from heaven, for so it was,\n\"O Daniel,\" said the messenger, \"a man greatly beloved\"; yet behold\nthe dread and terror of the person speaking fell with that weight\nupon this good man's soul, that he could not stand, nor bear up under\nit. He stood trembling, and cries out, \"O my lord, by the vision\nmy sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For\nhow can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as\nfor me, straightway there remained no strength in me\" (Dan 10:16-17).\nSee you here if the presence of God is not a dreadful and a fearful\nthing; yea, his most gracious and merciful appearances; how much\nmore then when he showeth himself to us as one that disliketh our\nways, as one that is offended with us for our sins?\n\nAnd there are three things that in an eminent manner make his\npresence dreadful to us.\n\n1. The first is God's own greatness and majesty; the discovery\nof this, or of himself thus, even as no poor mortals are able to\nconceive of him, is altogether unsupportable. The man dies to whom\nhe thus discovers himself. \"And when I saw him,\" says John, \"I fell\nat his feet as dead\" (Rev 1:17). It was this, therefore, that Job\nwould have avoided in the day that he would have approached unto\nhim. \"Let not thy dread,\" says he, \"make me afraid. Then call\nthou, and I will answer; or let me speak, and answer thou me\" (Job\n13:21,22). But why doth Job after this manner thus speak to God?\nWhy! it was from a sense that he had of the dreadful majesty of\nGod, even the great and dreadful God that keepeth covenant with his\npeople. The presence of a king is dreadful to the subject, yea,\nthough he carries it never so condescendingly; if then there be\nso much glory and dread in the presence of the king, what fear and\ndread must there be, think you, in the presence of the eternal God?\n\n2. When God giveth his presence to his people, that his presence\ncauseth them to appear to themselves more what they are, than at\nother times, by all other light, they can see. \"O my lord,\" said\nDaniel, \"by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me\"; and why\nwas that, but because by the glory of that vision, he saw his own\nvileness more than at other times. So again: \"I was left alone,\"\nsays he, \"and saw this great vision\"; and what follows? Why, \"and\nthere remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned\ninto corruption, and I retained no strength\" (Dan 10:8,16). By the\npresence of God, when we have it indeed, even our best things, our\ncomeliness, our sanctity and righteousness, all do immediately turn\nto corruption and polluted rags. The brightness of his glory dims\nthem as the clear light of the shining sun puts out the glory of\nthe fire or candle, and covers them with the shadow of death. See\nalso the truth of this in that vision of the prophet Isaiah. \"Wo\nis me,\" said he, \"for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean\nlips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.\" Why,\nwhat is the matter? how came the prophet by this sight? Why, says\nhe, \"mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts\" (Isa 6:5).\nBut do you think that this outcry was caused by unbelief? No; nor\nyet begotten by slavish fear. This was to him the vision of his\nSaviour, with whom also he had communion before (vv 2-5). It was\nthe glory of that God with whom he had now to do, that turned, as\nwas noted before of Daniel, his comeliness in him into corruption,\nand that gave him yet greater sense of the disproportion that was\nbetwixt his God and him, and so a greater sight of his defiled and\npolluted nature.\n\n3. Add to this the revelation of God's goodness, and it must needs\nmake his presence dreadful to us; for when a poor defiled creature\nshall see that this great God hath, notwithstanding his greatness,\ngoodness in his heart, and mercy to bestow upon him: this makes\nhis presence yet the more dreadful. They \"shall fear the Lord and\nhis goodness\" (Hosea 3:5). The goodness as well as the greatness\nof God doth beget in the heart of his elect an awful reverence of\nhis majesty. \"Fear ye not me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble\nat my presence?\" And then, to engage us in our soul to the duty,\nhe adds one of his wonderful mercies to the world, for a motive,\n\"Fear ye not me?\" Why, who are thou? He answers, Even I, \"which have\"\nset, or \"placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual\ndecree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss\nthemselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can\nthey not pass over it?\" (Jer 5:22). Also, when Job had God present\nwith him, making manifest the goodness of his great heart to him,\nwhat doth he say? how doth he behave himself in his presence? \"I\nhave heard of thee,\" says he, \"by the hearing of the ear, but now\nmine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust\nand ashes\" (Job 42:5,6).\n\nAnd what mean the tremblings, the tears, those breakings and shakings\nof heart that attend the people of God, when in an eminent manner\nthey receive the pronunciation of the forgiveness of sins at his\nmouth, but that the dread of the majesty of God is in their sight\nmixed therewith? God must appear like himself, speak to the soul like\nhimself; nor can the sinner, when under these glorious discoveries\nof his Lord and Saviour, keep out the beams of his majesty from the\neyes of his understanding. \"I will cleanse them,\" saith he, \"from\nall their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and I will\npardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby\nthey have transgressed against me.\" And what then? \"And they shall\nfear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity\nthat I procure unto it\" (Jer 33:8,9). Alas! there is a company of\npoor, light, frothy professors in the world, that carry it under\nthat which they call the presence of God, more like to antics,\nthan sober sensible Christians; yea, more like to a fool of a play,\nthan those that have the presence of God. They would not carry it\nso in the presence of a king, nor yet of the lord of their land,\nwere they but receivers of mercy at his hand. They carry it even\nin their most eminent seasons, as if the sense and sight of God,\nand his blessed grace to their souls in Christ, had a tendency in\nthem to make men wanton: but indeed it is the most humbling and\nheart-breaking sight in the world; it is fearful.[2]\n\nObject. But would you not have us rejoice at the sight and sense\nof the forgiveness of our sins?\n\nAnsw. Yes; but yet I would have you, and indeed you shall, when God\nshall tell you that your sins are pardoned indeed, \"rejoice with\ntrembling\" (Psa 2:11). For then you have solid and godly joy; a\njoyful heart, and wet eyes, in this will stand very well together;\nand it will be so more or less. For if God shall come to you indeed,\nand visit you with the forgiveness of sins, that visit removeth\nthe guilt, but increaseth the sense of thy filth, and the sense of\nthis that God hath forgiven a filthy sinner, will make thee both\nrejoice and tremble. O, the blessed confusion that will then cover\nthy face whilst thou, even thou, so vile a wretch, shalt stand\nbefore God to receive at his hand thy pardon, and so the firstfruits\nof thy eternal salvation--\"That thou mayest remember, and be\nconfounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame\n(thy filth), when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast\ndone, saith the Lord God\" (Eze 16:63). But,\n\nSecond. As the presence, so the name of God, is dreadful and\nfearful: wherefore his name doth rightly go under the same title,\n\"That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD\nTHY GOD\" (Deut 28:58). The name of God, what is that, but that by\nwhich he is distinguished and known from all others? Names are to\ndistinguish by; so man is distinguished from beasts, and angels\nfrom men; so heaven from earth, and darkness from light; especially\nwhen by the name, the nature of the thing is signified and expressed;\nand so it was in their original, for then names expressed the\nnature of the thing so named. And therefore it is that the name of\nGod is the object of our fear, because by his name his nature is\nexpressed: \"Holy and reverend is his name\" (Psa 111:9). And again,\nhe proclaimed the name of the Lord, \"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful\nand gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;\nkeeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression,\nand sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty\" (Exo 34:6,7).\n\nAlso his name, I am, Jah, Jehovah, with several others, what is\nby them intended but his nature, as his power, wisdom, eternity,\ngoodness, and omnipotency, &c., might be expressed and declared.\nThe name of God is therefore the object of a Christian's fear. David\nprayed to God that he would unite his heart to fear his name (Psa\n86:11). Indeed, the name of God is a fearful name, and should\nalways be reverenced by his people: yea his \"name is to be feared\nfor ever and ever,\" and that not only in his church, and among\nhis saints, but even in the world and among the heathen--\"So the\nheathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all kings thy glory\"\n(Psa 102:15). God tells us that his name is dreadful, and that he\nis pleased to see men be afraid before his name. Yea, one reason\nwhy he executeth so many judgments upon men as he doth, is that\nothers might see and fear his name. \"So shall they fear the name of\nthe Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun\"\n(Isa 59:19; Mal 2:5).\n\nThe name of a king is a name of fear--\"And I am a great king,\nsaith the Lord of hosts\" (Mal 1:14). The name of master is a name\nof fear--\"And if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord\" (v\n6). Yea, rightly to fear the Lord is a sign of a gracious heart.\nAnd again, \"To you that fear my name,\" saith he, \"shall the Sun\nof righteousness arise with healing in his wings\" (Mal 4:2). Yea,\nwhen Christ comes to judge the world, he will give reward to his\nservants the prophets, and to his saints, \"and to them that fear his\nname, small and great\" (Rev 11:18). Now, I say, since the name of\nGod is that by which his nature is expressed, and since he naturally\nis so glorious and incomprehensible, his name must needs be the\nobject of our fear, and we ought always to have a reverent awe\nof God upon our hearts at what time soever we think of, or hear\nhis name, but most of all, when we ourselves do take his holy and\nfearful name into our mouths, especially in a religious manner,\nthat is, in preaching, praying, or holy conference. I do not by\nthus saying intend as if it was lawful to make mention of his name\nin light and vain discourses; for we ought always to speak of it\nwith reverence and godly fear, but I speak it to put Christians\nin mind that they should not in religious duties show lightness of\nmind, or be vain in their words when yet they are making mention\nof the name of the Lord--\"Let every one that nameth the name of\nChrist depart from iniquity\" (2 Tim 2:19).\n\nMake mention then of the name of the Lord at all times with great\ndread of his majesty upon our hearts, and in great soberness and\ntruth. To do otherwise is to profane the name of the Lord, and to\ntake his name in vain; and \"the Lord will not hold him guiltless\nthat taketh his name in vain.\" Yea, God saith that he will cut off\nthe man that doth it; so jealous is he of the honour due unto his\nname (Exo 20:7; Lev 20:3). This therefore showeth you the dreadful\nstate of those that lightly, vainly, lyingly, and profanely make use\nof the name, this fearful name of God, either by their blasphemous\ncursing and oaths, or by their fraudulent dealing with their\nneighbour; for some men have no way to prevail with their neighbour\nto bow under a cheat, but by calling falsely upon the name of the\nLord to be witness that the wickedness is good and honest; but how\nthese men will escape, when they shall be judged, devouring fire and\neverlasting burnings, for their profaning and blaspheming of the\nname of the Lord, becomes them betimes to consider of (Jer 14:14,15;\nEze 20:39; Exo 20:7).[3]\n\nBut,\n\nThird. As the presence and name of God are dreadful and fearful in\nthe church, so is his worship and service. I say his worship, or\nthe works of service to which we are by him enjoined while we are\nin this world, are dreadful and fearful things. This David conceiveth,\nwhen he saith, \"But as for me, I will come into thy house in the\nmultitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy\nholy temple\" (Psa 5:7). And again, saith he, \"Serve the Lord with\nfear.\" To praise God is a part of his worship. But, says Moses, \"Who\nis a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,\ndoing wonders?\" (Exo 15:11). To rejoice before him is a part of\nhis worship; but David bids us \"rejoice with trembling\" (Psa 2:11).\nYea, the whole of our service to God, and every part thereof, ought\nto be done by us with reverence and godly fear. And therefore let\nus, as Paul saith again, \"Cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of\nthe flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God\" (2\nCor 7:1; Heb 12).\n\n1. That which makes the worship of God so fearful a thing, is, for\nthat it is the worship of GOD: all manner of service carries more\nor less dread and fear along with it, according as the quality\nor condition of the person is to whom the worship and service is\ndone. This is seen in the service of subjects to their princes,\nthe service of servants to their lords, and the service of children\nto their parents. Divine worship, then, being due to God, for it is\nnow of Divine worship we speak, and this God so great and dreadful\nin himself and name, his worship must therefore be a fearful thing.\n\n2. Besides, this glorious Majesty is himself present to behold his\nworshippers in their worshipping him. \"When two or three of you\nare gathered together in my name, I am there.\" That is, gathered\ntogether to worship him, \"I am there,\" says he. And so, again, he\nis said to walk \"in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks\"\n(Rev 1:13). That is, in the churches, and that with a countenance\nlike the sun, with a head and hair as white as snow, and with eyes\nlike a flame of fire. This puts dread and fear into his service;\nand therefore his servants should serve him with fear.\n\n3. Above all things, God is jealous of his worship and service.\nIn all the ten words, he telleth us not anything of his being a\njealous God, but in the second, which respecteth his worship (Exo\n20). Look to yourselves therefore, both as to the matter and manner\nof your worship; \"for I the Lord thy God,\" says he, \"am a jealous\nGod, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.\" This\ntherefore doth also put dread and fear into the worship and service\nof God.\n\n4. The judgments that sometimes God hath executed upon men for\ntheir want of godly fear, while they have been in his worship and\nservice, put fear and dread upon his holy appointments. (1.) Nadab\nand Abihu were burned to death with fire from heaven, because they\nattempted to offer false fire upon God's altar, and the reason\nrendered why they were so served, was, because God will be sanctified\nin them that come nigh him (Lev 10:1-3). To sanctify his name\nis to let him be thy dread and thy fear, and to do nothing in his\nworship but what is well-pleasing to him. But because these men had\nnot grace to do this, therefore they died before the Lord. (2.)\nEli's sons, for want of this fear, when they ministered in the\nholy worship of God, were both slain in one day by the sword of the\nuncircumcised Philistines (see 1 Sam 2). (3.) Uzzah was smitten,\nand died before the Lord, for but an unadvised touching of the\nark, when the men forsook it (1 Chron 13:9,10). (4.) Ananias and\nSapphira his wife, for telling a lie in the church, when they were\nbefore God, were both stricken dead upon the place before them all,\nbecause they wanted the fear and dread of God's majesty, name, and\nservice, when they came before him (Acts 5).\n\nThis therefore should teach us to conclude, that, next to God's\nnature and name, his service, his instituted worship, is the most\ndreadful thing under heaven. His name is upon his ordinances, his\neye is upon the worshippers, and his wrath and judgment upon those\nthat worship not in his fear. For this cause some of those at Corinth\nwere by God himself cut off, and to others he has given the back,\nand will again be with them no more (1 Cor 11:27-32).[4]\n\nThis also rebuketh three sorts of people.\n\n[Three sorts of people rebuked.]\n\n1. Such as regard not to worship God at all; be sure they have\nno reverence of his service, nor fear of his majesty before their\neyes. Sinner, thou dost not come before the Lord to worship him;\nthou dost not bow before the high God; thou neither worshippest\nhim in thy closet nor in the congregation of saints. The fury of\nthe Lord and his indignation must in short time be poured out upon\nthee, and upon the families that call not upon his name (Psa 79:6;\nJer 10:25).\n\n2. This rebukes such as count it enough to present their body in\nthe place where God is worshipped, not minding with what heart, or\nwith what spirit they come thither. Some come into the worship of\nGod to sleep there; some come thither to meet with their chapmen,\nand to get into the wicked fellowship of their vain companions.\nSome come thither to feed their lustful and adulterous eyes with\nthe flattering beauty of their fellow-sinners. O what a sad account\nwill these worshippers give, when they shall count for all this,\nand be damned for it, because they come not to worship the Lord\nwith that fear of his name that became them to come in, when they\npresented themselves before him![5]\n\n3. This also rebukes those that care not, so they worship, how they\nworship; how, where, or after what manner they worship God. Those,\nI mean, whose fear towards God \"is taught by the precept of men.\"\nThey are hypocrites; their worship also is vain, and a stink in\nthe nostrils of God. \"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this\npeople draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour\nme, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward\nme is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold I will proceed\nto do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work\nand a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and\nthe understanding of their prudent men shall be hid\" (Isa 29:13,14;\nMatt 15:7-9; Mark 7:6,7).[6] Thus I conclude this first thing,\nnamely, that God is called our dread and fear.\n\nOF THIS WORD FEAR AS IT IS TAKEN FOR THE WORD OF GOD.\n\nI shall now come to the second thing, to wit, to the rule and\ndirector of our fear.\n\nSECOND. But again, this word FEAR is sometimes to be taken for THE\nWORD, the written Word of God; for that also is, and ought to be,\nthe rule and director of our fear. So David calls it in the nineteenth\nPsalm: \"the fear of the Lord,\" saith he, \"is clean, enduring for\never.\" The fear of the Lord, that is, the Word of the Lord, the\nwritten word; for that which he calleth in this place the fear\nof the Lord, even in the same place he calleth the law, statutes,\ncommandments, and judgments of God. \"The law of the Lord is perfect,\nconverting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making\nwise the simple: the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the\nheart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes:\nthe fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of\nthe Lord are true and righteous altogether.\" All these words have\nrespect to the same thing, to wit, to the Word of God, jointly\ndesigning the glory of it. Among which phrases, as you see, this\nis one, \"The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever.\" This\nwritten Word is therefore the object of a Christian's fear. This\nis that also which David intended when he said, \"Come, ye children,\nhearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord\" (Psa\n34:11). I will teach you the fear, that is, I will teach you the\ncommandments, statutes, and judgments of the Lord, even as Moses\ncommanded the children of Israel--\"Thou shalt teach them diligently\nunto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in\nthine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest\ndown, and when thou risest up\" (Deut 6:4-7).\n\nThat also in the eleventh of Isaiah intends the same, where the\nFather saith of the Son, that he shall be of quick understanding\nin the fear of the Lord; that he may judge and smite the earth with\nthe rod of his mouth. This rod in the text is none other but the\nfear, the Word of the Lord; for he was to be of a quick understanding,\nthat he might smite, that is, execute it according to the will of\nhis Father, upon and among the children of men. Now this, as I said,\nis called the fear of the Lord, because it is called the rule and\ndirector of our fear. For we know not how to fear the Lord in a\nsaving way without its guidance and direction. As it is said of the\npriest that was sent back from the captivity to Samaria to teach\nthe people to fear the Lord, so it is said concerning the written\nWord; it is given to us, and left among us, that we may read\ntherein all the days of our life, and learn to fear the Lord (Deut\n6:1-3,24, 10:12, 17:19). And here it is that, trembling at the\nWord of God, is even by God himself not only taken notice of, but\ncounted as laudable and praiseworthy, as is evident in the case of\nJosiah (2 Chron 34:26,27). Such also are the approved of God, let\nthem be condemned by whomsoever: \"Hear the word of the Lord, ye\nthat tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast\nyou out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but\nhe shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed\" (Isa 66:5).\n\nFurther, such shall be looked to, by God himself cared for,\nand watched over, that no distress, temptation, or affliction may\novercome them and destroy them--\"To this man will I look,\" saith\nGod, \"even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that\ntrembleth at my word.\" It is the same in substance with that in\nthe same prophet in chapter 57: \"For thus saith the high and lofty\nOne that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the\nhigh and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble\nspirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart\nof the contrite ones.\" Yea, the way to escape dangers foretold,\nis to hearken to, understand, and fear the Word of God--\"He that\nfeared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, made\nhis servants and his cattle flee into the houses,\" and they were\nsecured; but \"he that regarded not the word of the Lord, left his\nservants and his cattle in the field,\" and they were destroyed of\nthe hail (Exo 9:20-25).\n\nIf at any time the sins of a nation or church are discovered and\nbewailed, it is by them that know and tremble at the word of God.\nWhen Ezra heard of the wickedness of his brethren, and had a desire\nto humble himself before God for the same, who were they that would\nassist him in that matter, but they that trembled at the word of\nGod?--\"Then,\" saith he, \"were assembled unto me every one that trembled\nat the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of\nthose that had been carried away\" (Ezra 9:4). They are such also\nthat tremble at the Word that are best able to give counsel in the\nmatters of God, for their judgment best suiteth with his mind and\nwill: \"Now therefore,\" said he, \"let us make a covenant with our\nGod to put away all the (strange) wives,--according to the counsel\nof my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our\nGod, and let it be done according to the law\" (Ezra 10:3). Now\nsomething of the dread and terror of the Word lieth in these things.\n\nFirst. As I have already hinted, from the author of them, they are\nthe words of God. Therefore you have Moses and the prophets, when\nthey came to deliver their errand, their message to the people,\nstill saying, \"Hear the word of the Lord,\" \"Thus saith the Lord,\"\nand the like. So when Ezekiel was sent to the house of Israel, in\ntheir state of religion, thus was he bid to say unto them, \"Thus\nsaith the Lord God\"; \"Thus saith the Lord God\" (Eze 2:4, 3:11).\nThis is the honour and majesty, then, that God hath put upon his\nwritten Word, and thus he hath done even of purpose, that we might\nmake them the rule and directory of our fear, and that we might\nstand in awe of, and tremble at them. When Habakkuk heard the word\nof the Lord, his belly trembled, and rottenness entered into his\nbones. \"I trembled in myself,\" said he, \"that I might rest in the\nday of trouble\" (Hab 3:16). The word of a king is as the roaring\nof a lion; where the word of a king is, there is power. What is it,\nthen, when God, the great God, shall roar out of Zion, and utter\nhis voice from Jerusalem, whose voice shakes not only the earth,\nbut also heaven? How doth holy David set it forth; \"The voice of\nthe Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty,\"\n&c. (Psa 29).\n\nSecond. It is a Word that is fearful, and may well be called the\nfear of the Lord, because of the subject matter of it; to wit, the\nstate of sinners in another world; for that is it unto which the\nwhole Bible bendeth itself, either more immediately or more mediately.\nAll its doctrines, counsels, encouragements, threatenings, and\njudgments, have a look, one way or other, upon us, with respect to\nthe next world, which will be our last state, because it will be\nto us a state eternal. This word, this law, these judgments, are\nthey that we shall be disposed of by--\"The word that I have spoken,\"\nsays Christ, \"it shall judge you (and so consequently dispose of\nyou) in the last day\" (John 12:48). Now, if we consider that our\nnext state must be eternal, either eternal glory or eternal fire,\nand that this eternal glory or this eternal fire must be our portion,\naccording as the words of God, revealed in the holy Scriptures,\nshall determine; who will not but conclude that therefore the words\nof God are they at which we should tremble, and they by which we\nshould have our fear of God guided and directed, for by them we\nare taught how to please him in everything?\n\nThird. It is to be called a fearful Word, because of the truth and\nfaithfulness of it. The Scriptures cannot be broken. Here they are\ncalled the Scriptures of truth, the true sayings of God, and also\nthe fear of the Lord, for that every jot and tittle thereof is\nfor ever settled in heaven, and stand more steadfast than doth the\nworld--\"Heaven and earth,\" saith Christ, \"shall pass away, but my\nwords shall not pass away\" (Matt 24:35). Those, therefore, that are\nfavoured by the Word of God, those are favoured indeed, and that\nwith the favour that no man can turn away; but those that by the\nword of the Scriptures are condemned, those can no man justify and\nset quit in the sight of God. Therefore what is bound by the text,\nis bound, and what is released by the text, is released; also the\nbond and release is unalterable (Dan 10:21; Rev 19:9; Matt 24:35;\nPsa 119:89; John 10:35). This, therefore, calleth upon God's people\nto stand more in fear of the Word of God than of all the terrors\nof the world.[7] There wanteth even in the hearts of God's people\na greater reverence of the Word of God than to this day appeareth\namong us, and this let me say, that want of reverence of the\nWord is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart, life,\nconversation, and in Christian communion. Besides, the want of\nreverence of the Word layeth men open to the fearful displeasure\nof God--\"Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed; but he that\nfeareth the commandment shall be rewarded\" (Prov 13:13).\n\nAll transgression beginneth at wandering from the Word of God; but,\non the other side, David saith, \"Concerning the works of men, by\nthe word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer\"\n(Psa 17:4). Therefore Solomon saith, \"My son, attend to my words;\nincline thine ear unto my sayings; let them not depart from thine\neyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart; for they are life\nunto those that find them, and health to all their flesh\" (Prov\n4:20-22). Now, if indeed thou wouldest reverence the Word of the\nLord, and make it thy rule and director in all things, believe that\nthe Word is the fear of the Lord, the Word that standeth fast for\never; without and against which God will do nothing, either in\nsaving or damning of the souls of sinners. But to conclude this,\n\n1. Know that those that have no due regard to the Word of the Lord,\nand that make it not their dread and their fear, but the rule of\ntheir life is the lust of their flesh, the desire of their eyes,\nand the pride of life, are sorely rebuked by this doctrine, and\nare counted the fools of the world; for \"lo, they have rejected\nthe word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?\" (Jer 8:9). That\nthere are such a people is evident, not only by their irregular\nlives, but by the manifest testimony of the Word. \"As for the word\nof the Lord,\" said they to Jeremiah, \"that thou hast spoken to us\nin the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will\ncertainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth\"\n(Jer 44:16). Was this only the temper of wicked men then? Is not\nthe same spirit of rebellion amongst us in our days? Doubtless\nthere is; for there is no new thing--\"The thing that hath been, it\nis that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall\nbe done; and there is no new thing under the sun\" (Eccl 1:9).\nTherefore, as it was then, so it is with many in this day.\n\nAs for the Word of the Lord, it is nothing at all to them; their\nlusts, and whatsoever proceedeth out of their own mouths, that they\nwill do, that they will follow. Now, such will certainly perish\nin their own rebellion; for this is as the sin of witchcraft; it\nwas the sin of Korah and his company, and that which brought upon\nthem such heavy judgments; yea, and they are made a sign that thou\nshouldest not do as they, for they perished (because they rejected\nthe word, the fear of the Lord) from among the congregation of\nthe Lord, \"and they became a sign.\" The word which thou despisest\nstill abideth to denounce its woe and judgment upon thee; and\nunless God will save such with the breath of his word--and it is\nhard trusting to that--they must never see his face with comfort\n(1 Sam 15:22,23; Num 26:9,10).\n\n2. Are the words of God called by the name of the fear of the\nLord? Are they so dreadful in their receipt and sentence? Then\nthis rebukes them that esteem the words and things of men more than\nthe words of God, as those do who are drawn from their respect of,\nand obedience to, the Word of God, by the pleasures or threats of\nmen. Some there be who verily will acknowledge the authority of\nthe Word, yet will not stoop their souls thereto. Such, whatever\nthey think of themselves, are judged by Christ to be ashamed of the\nWord; wherefore their state is damnable as the other. \"Whosoever,\"\nsaith he, \"shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous\nand sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed,\nwhen he cometh in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels\"\n(Mark 8:38).\n\n3. And if these things be so, what will become of those that mock\nat, and professedly contemn, the words of God, making them as a\nthing ridiculous, and not to be regarded? Shall they prosper that do\nsuch things? From the promises it is concluded that their judgment\nnow of a long time slumbereth not, and when it comes, it will devour\nthem without remedy (2 Chron 36:15). If God, I say, hath put that\nreverence upon his Word as to call it the fear of the Lord, what will\nbecome of them that do what they can to overthrow its authority,\nby denying it to be his Word, and by raising cavils against\nits authority? Such stumble, indeed, at the Word, being appointed\nthereunto, but it shall judge them in the last day (1 Peter 2:8;\nJohn 12:48). But thus much for this.\n\nOF SEVERAL SORTS OF FEAR OF GOD IN THE HEART OF THE CHILDREN OF\nMEN.\n\nHaving thus spoken of the object and rule of our fear, I should come\nnow to speak of fear as it is a grace of the Spirit of God in the\nhearts of his people; but before I do that, I shall show you that\nthere are divers sorts of fear besides. For man being a reasonable\ncreature, and having even by nature a certain knowledge of God,\nhath also naturally something of some kind of fear of God at times,\nwhich, although it be not that which is intended in the text,\nyet ought to be spoken to, that that which is not right may be\ndistinguished from that that is.\n\nThere is, I say, several sorts or kinds of fear in the hearts of\nthe sons of men, I mean besides that fear of God that is intended\nin the text, and that accompanieth eternal life. I shall here make\nmention of three of them. FIRST. There is a fear of God that flows\neven from the light of nature. SECOND. There is a fear of God that\nflows from some of his dispensations to men, which yet is neither\nuniversal nor saving. THIRD. There is a fear of God in the heart\nof some men that is good and godly, but doth not for ever abide so.\nTo speak a little to all these, before I come to speak of fear, as\nit is a grace of God in the hearts of his children, And,\n\nFIRST. To the first, to wit, that there is a fear of God that flows\neven from the light of nature. A people may be said to do things\nin a fear of God, when they act one towards another in things\nreasonable, and honest betwixt man and man, not doing that to others\nthey would not have done to themselves. This is that fear of God\nwhich Abraham thought the Philistines had destroyed in themselves,\nwhen he said of his wife to Abimelech, \"She is my sister.\" For when\nAbimelech asked Abraham why he said of his wife, She is my sister;\nhe replied, saying, \"I thought surely the fear of God is not in\nthis place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake\" (Gen 20:11).\nI thought verily that in this place men had stifled and choked that\nlight of nature that is in them, at least so far forth as not to\nsuffer it to put them in fear, when their lusts were powerful in\nthem to accomplish their ends on the object that was present before\nthem. But this I will pass by, and come to the second thing, namely--\n\nSECOND. To show that there is a fear of God that flows from some\nof his dispensations to men, which yet is neither universal nor\nsaving. This fear, when opposed to that which is saving, may be\ncalled an ungodly fear of God. I shall describe it by these several\nparticulars that follow--\n\nFirst. There is a fear of God that causeth a continual grudging,\ndiscontent, and heart-risings against God under the hand of God;\nand that is, when the dread of God in his coming upon men, to\ndeal with them for their sins, is apprehended by them, and yet by\nthis dispensation they have no change of heart to submit to God\nthereunder. The sinners under this dispensation cannot shake God out\nof their mind, nor yet graciously tremble before him; but through\nthe unsanctified frame that they now are in, they are afraid with\nungodly fear, and so in their minds let fly against him. This fear\noftentimes took hold of the children of Israel when they were in\nthe wilderness in their journey to the promised land; still they\nfeared that God in this place would destroy them, but not with\nthat fear that made them willing to submit, for their sins, to the\njudgment which they fear, but with that fear that made them let fly\nagainst God. This fear showed itself in them, even at the beginning\nof their voyage, and was rebuked by Moses at the Red Sea, but it\nwas not there, nor yet at any other place, so subdued, but that\nit would rise again in them at times to the dishonour of God, and\nthe anew making of them guilty of sin before him (Exo 14:11-13;\nNum 14:1-9). This fear is that which God said he would send before\nthem, in the day of Joshua, even a fear that should possess the\ninhabitants of the land, to wit, a fear that should arise for that\nfaintness of heart that they should be swallowed up of, at their\napprehending of Joshua in his approaches towards them to destroy\nthem. \"I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the\npeople to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies\nturn their backs unto thee\" (Exo 23:27). \"This day,\" says God,\n\"will I begin to put the dread of thee, and the fear of thee upon\nthe nations that are under the whole heaven who shall hear report\nof thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee\"\n(Deut 2:25, 11:25).\n\nNow this fear is also, as you here see, called anguish, and in\nanother place, an hornet; for it, and the soul that it falls upon,\ndo greet each other, as boys and bees do. The hornet puts men in\nfear, not so as to bring the heart into a sweet compliance with\nhis terror, but so as to stir up the spirit into acts of opposition\nand resistance, yet withal they flee before it. \"I will send hornets\nbefore thee, which shall drive out the Hivite,\" &c. (Exo 23:28).\nNow this fear, whether it be wrought by misapprehending of the\njudgments of God, as in the Israelites, or otherwise as in the\nCanaanites, yet ungodliness is the effect thereof, and therefore\nI call it an ungodly fear of God, for it stirreth up murmurings,\ndiscontents, and heart-risings against God, while he with his\ndispensations is dealing with them.\n\nSecond. There is a fear of God that driveth a man away from God--I\nspeak not now of the atheist, nor of the pleasurable sinner, nor\nyet of these, and that fear that I spoke of just now--I speak now\nof such who through a sense of sin and of God's justice fly from\nhim of a slavish ungodly fear. This ungodly fear was that which\npossessed Adam's heart in the day that he did eat of the tree\nconcerning which the Lord has said unto him, \"In the day that thou\neatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.\" For then was he possessed\nwith such a fear of God as made him seek to hide himself from his\npresence. \"I heard,\" said he, \"thy voice in the garden, and I was\nafraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself\" (Gen 3:10). Mind it,\nhe had a fear of God, but it was not godly. It was not that that\nmade him afterwards submit himself unto him; for that would have\nkept him from not departing from him, or else have brought him to\nhim again, with bowed, broken, and contrite spirit. But this fear,\nas the rest of his sin, managed his departing from his God, and\npursued him to provoke him still so to do; by it he kept himself\nfrom God, by it his whole man was carried away from him. I call\nit ungodly fear, because it begat in him ungodly apprehensions of\nhis Maker; because it confined Adam's conscience to the sense of\njustice only, and consequently to despair.\n\nThe same fear also possessed the children of Israel when they heard\nthe law delivered to them on Mount Sinai; as is evident, for it\nmade them that they could neither abide his presence nor hear his\nword. It drove them back from the mountain. It made them, saith\nthe apostle to the Hebrews, that \"they could not endure that which\nwas commanded\" (Heb 12:20). Wherefore this fear Moses rebukes,\nand forbids their giving way thereto. \"Fear not,\" said he; but had\nthat fear been godly, he would have encouraged it, and not forbid\nand rebuke it as he did. \"Fear not,\" said he, \"for God is come to\nprove you\"; they thought otherwise. \"God,\" saith he, \"is come to\nprove you, and that his fear may be before your faces.\" Therefore\nthat fear that already had taken possession of them, was not the\nfear of God, but a fear that was of Satan, of their own misjudging\nhearts, and so a fear that was ungodly (Exo 20:18-20). Mark you,\nhere is a fear and a fear, a fear forbidden, and a fear commended;\na fear forbidden, because it engendered their hearts to bondage,\nand to ungodly thoughts of God and of his word; it made them that\nthey could not desire to hear God speak to them any more (vv 19-21).\n\nMany also at this day are possessed with this ungodly fear; and\nyou may know them by this,--they cannot abide conviction for sin,\nand if at any time the word of the law, by the preaching of the\nword, comes near them, they will not abide that preacher, nor such\nkind of sermons any more. They are, as they deem, best at ease,\nwhen furthest off of God, and of the power of his word. The word\npreached brings God nearer to them than they desire he should come,\nbecause whenever God comes near, their sins by him are manifest, and\nso is the judgment too that to them is due. Now these not having\nfaith in the mercy of God through Christ, nor that grace that\ntendeth to bring them to him, they cannot but think of God amiss,\nand their so thinking of him makes them say unto him, \"Depart\nfrom us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways\" (Job 21:14).\nWherefore their wrong thoughts of God beget in them this ungodly fear;\nand again, this ungodly fear doth maintain in them the continuance\nof these wrong and unworthy thoughts of God, and therefore, through\nthat devilish service wherewith they strengthen one another, the\nsinner, without a miracle of grace prevents him, is drowned in\ndestruction and perdition.\n\nIt was this ungodly fear of God that carried Cain from the presence\nof God into the land of Nod, and that put him there upon any carnal\nworldly business, if perhaps he might by so doing stifle convictions\nof the majesty and justice of God against his sin, and so live\nthe rest of his vain life in the more sinful security and fleshly\nease. This ungodly fear is that also which Samuel perceived at the\npeople's apprehension of their sin, to begin to get hold of their\nhearts; wherefore he, as Moses before him, quickly forbids their\nentertaining of it. \"Fear not,\" said he, \"ye have done all this\nwickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord.\" For to\nturn them aside from following of him, was the natural tendency of\nthis fear. \"But fear not,\" said he, that is, with that fear that\ntendeth to turn you aside. Now, I say, the matter that this fear\nworketh upon, as in Adam, and the Israelites mentioned before, was\ntheir sin. You have sinned, says he, that is true, yet turn not\naside, yet fear not with that fear that would make you so do (1 Sam\n12:20). Note by the way, sinner, that when the greatness of thy\nsins, being apprehended by thee, shall work in thee that fear of\nGod, as shall incline thy heart to fly from him, thou art possessed\nwith a fear of God that is ungodly, yea, so ungodly, that not any\nof thy sins for heinousness may be compared therewith, as might be\nmade manifest in many particulars, but Samuel having rebuked this\nfear, presently sets before the people another, to wit, the true\nfear of God; \"fear the Lord,\" says he, \"serve him--with all your\nheart\" (v 24). And he giveth them this encouragement so to do, \"for\nthe Lord will not forsake his people.\" This ungodly fear is that\nwhich you read of in Isaiah 2, and in many other places, and God's\npeople should shun it, as they would shun the devil, because its\nnatural tendency is to forward the destruction of the soul in which\nit has taken possession.[8]\n\nThird. There is a fear of God, which, although it hath not in it that\npower as to make men flee from God's presence, yet it is ungodly,\nbecause, even while they are in the outward way of God's ordinances,\ntheir hearts are by it quite discouraged from attempting to exercise\nthemselves in the power of religion. Of this sort are they which\ndare not cast off the hearing, reading, and discourse of the word\nas others; no, nor the assembly of God's children for the exercise\nof other religious duties, for their conscience is convinced this\nis the way and worship of God. But yet their heart, as I said,\nby this ungodly fear, is kept from a powerful gracious falling in\nwith God. This fear takes away their heart from all holy and godly\nprayer in private, and from all holy and godly zeal for his name\nin public, and there be many professors whose hearts are possessed\nwith this ungodly fear of God; and they are intended by the slothful\none. He was a servant, a servant among the servants of God, and had\ngifts and abilities given him, therewith to serve Christ, as well\nas his fellows, yea, and was commanded too, as well as the rest,\nto occupy till his master came. But what does he? Why, he takes his\ntalent, the gift that he was to lay out for his master's profit,\nand puts it in a napkin, digs a hole in the earth, and hides his\nlord's money, and lies in a lazy manner at to-elbow all his days,\nnot out of, but in his lord's vineyard;[9] for he came among the\nservants also at last. By which it is manifest that he had not cast\noff his profession, but was slothful and negligent while he was in\nit. But what was it that made him thus slothful? What was it that\ntook away his heart, while he was in the way, and that discouraged\nhim from falling in with the power and holy practice of religion\naccording to the talent he received? Why, it was this, he gave way\nto an ungodly fear of God, and that took away his heart from the\npower of religious duties. \"Lord,\" said he, \"behold, here is thy\npound, which I have kept, laid up in a napkin, for I feared thee.\"\nWhy, man, doth the fear of God make a man idle and slothful? No,\nno; that is, if it be right and godly. This fear was therefore\nevil fear; it was that ungodly fear of God which I have here been\nspeaking of. For I feared thee, or as Matthew hath it, \"for I\nwas afraid.\" Afraid of what? Of Christ, \"that he was an hard man,\nreaping where he sowed not, and gathering where he had not strawed.\"\nThis his fear, being ungodly, made him apprehend of Christ contrary\nto the goodness of his nature, and so took away his heart from\nall endeavours to be doing of that which was pleasing in his sight\n(Luke 19:20; Matt 25:24, 25). And thus do all those that retain\nthe name and show of religion, but are neglecters as to the power\nand godly practice of it. These will live like dogs and swine in\nthe house; they pray not, they watch not their hearts, they pull\nnot their hands out of their bosoms to work, they do not strive\nagainst their lusts, nor will they ever resist unto blood, striving\nagainst sin; they cannot take up their cross, or improve what\nthey have to God's glory. Let all men therefore take heed of this\nungodly fear, and shun it as they shun the devil, for it will\nmake them afraid where no fear is. It will tell them that there is\na lion in the street, the unlikeliest place in the world for such\na beast to be in; it will put a vizard upon the face of God, most\ndreadful and fearful to behold, and then quite discourage the soul\nas to his service; so it served the slothful servant, and so it\nwill serve thee, poor sinner, if thou entertainest it, and givest\nway thereto. But,\n\nFourth. This ungodly fear of God shows itself also in this. It\nwill not suffer the soul that is governed thereby to trust only to\nChrist for justification of life, but will bend the powers of the\nsoul to trust partly to the works of the law. Many of the Jews\nwere, in the time of Christ and his apostles, possessed with this\nungodly fear of God, for they were not as the former, to wit, as\nthe slothful servant, to receive a talent and hide it in the earth\nin a napkin, but they were an industrious people, they followed\nafter the law of righteousness, they had a zeal of God and of the\nreligion of their fathers; but how then did they come to miscarry?\nWhy, their fear of God was ungodly; it would not suffer them\nwholly to trust to the righteousness of faith, which is the imputed\nrighteousness of Christ. They followed after the law of righteousness,\nbut attained not to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? because\nthey sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the\nlaw. But what was it that made them join their works of the law\nwith Christ, but their unbelief, whose foundation was ignorance and\nfear? They were afraid to venture all in one bottom, they thought\ntwo strings to one bow would be best, and thus betwixt two stools\nthey came to the ground. And hence, to fear and to doubt, are\nput together as being the cause one of another; yea, they are put\nofttimes the one for the other; thus ungodly fear for unbelief:\n\"Be not afraid, only believe,\" and therefore he that is overruled\nand carried away with this fear, is coupled with the unbeliever that\nis thrust out from the holy city among the dogs. But the fearful\nand unbelievers, and murderers are without (Rev 21:8). \"The fearful\nand unbelieving,\" you see, are put together; for indeed fear, that\nis, this ungodly fear, is the ground of unbelief, or, if you will,\nunbelief is the ground of fear, this fear: but I stand not upon\nnice distinctions. This ungodly fear hath a great hand in keeping\nof the soul from trusting only to Christ's righteousness for\njustification of life.\n\nFifth. This ungodly fear of God is that which will put men upon\nadding to the revealed will of God their own inventions, and their\nown performances of them, as a means to pacify the anger of God.\nFor the truth is, where this ungodly fear reigneth, there is no end\nof law and duty. When those that you read of in the book of Kings\nwere destroyed by the lions, because they had set up idolatry in\nthe land of Israel, they sent for a priest from Babylon that might\nteach them the manner of the God of the land; but behold when they\nknew it, being taught it by the priest, yet their fear would not\nsuffer them to be content with that worship only. \"They feared\nthe Lord,\" saith the text, \"and served their own gods.\" And again,\n\"So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images\"\n(2 Kings 17). It was this fear also that put the Pharisees upon\ninventing so many traditions, as the washing of cups, and beds,\nand tables, and basins, with abundance of such other like gear,[10]\nnone knows the many dangers that an ungodly fear of God will drive\na man into (Mark 7). How has it racked and tortured the Papists\nfor hundreds of years together! for what else is the cause but this\nungodly fear, at least in the most simple and harmless of them,\nof their penances, as creeping to the cross, going barefoot on\npilgrimage, whipping themselves, wearing of sackcloth, saying so\nmany Pater-nosters, so many Ave-marias, making so many confessions\nto the priest, giving so much money for pardons, and abundance of\nother the like, but this ungodly fear of God? For could they be\nbrought to believe this doctrine, that Christ was delivered for our\noffences, and raised again for our justification, and to apply it\nby faith with godly boldness to their own souls, this fear would\nvanish, and so consequently all those things with which they so\nneedlessly and unprofitably afflicted themselves, offend God, and\ngrieve his people. Therefore, gentle reader, although my text doth\nbid that indeed thou shouldest fear God, yet it includeth not, nor\naccepteth of any fear; no, not of any [or every] fear of God. For\nthere is, as you see, a fear of God that is ungodly, and that is to\nbe shunned as their sin. Wherefore thy wisdom and thy care should\nbe, to see and prove thy fear to be godly, which shall be the next\nthing that I shall take in hand.\n\nTHIRD. The third thing that I am to speak to is, that there is a\nfear of God in the heart of some men that is good and godly, but\nyet doth not for ever abide so. Or you may take it thus--There\nis a fear of God that is godly but for a time. In my speaking to,\nand opening of this to you, I shall observe this method. First. I\nshall show you what this fear is. Second. I shall show you by whom\nor what this fear is wrought in the heart. Third. I shall show you\nwhat this fear doth in the soul. And, Fourth, I shall show you when\nthis fear is to have an end.\n\nFirst. For the first, this fear is an effect of sound awakenings\nby the word of wrath which begetteth in the soul a sense of its\nright to eternal damnation; for this fear is not in every sinner;\nhe that is blinded by the devil, and that is not able to see that\nhis state is damnable, he hath not this fear in his heart, but he\nthat is under the powerful workings of the word of wrath, as God's\nelect are at first conversion, he hath this godly fear in his\nheart; that is, he fears that that damnation will come upon him,\nwhich by the justice of God is due unto him, because he hath broken\nhis holy law. This is the fear that made the three thousand cry\nout, \"Men and brethren, what shall we do?\" and that made the jailer\ncry out, and that with great trembling of soul, \"Sirs, what must\nI do to be saved?\" (Acts 2, 16). The method of God is to kill and\nmake alive, to smite and then heal; when the commandment came to\nPaul, sin revived, and he died, and that law which was ordained\nto life, he found to be unto death; that is, it passed a sentence\nof death upon him for his sins, and slew his conscience with that\nsentence. Therefore from that time that he heard that word, \"Why\npersecutest thou me?\" which is all one as if he had said, Why dost\nthou commit murder? he lay under the sentence of condemnation by\nthe law, and under this fear of that sentence in his conscience.\nHe lay, I say, under it, until that Ananias came to him to comfort\nhim, and to preach unto him the forgiveness of sin (Acts 9). The\nfear therefore that now I call godly, it is that fear which is\nproperly called the fear of eternal damnation for sin, and this\nfear, at first awakening, is good and godly, because it ariseth in\nthe soul from a true sense of its very state. Its state by nature\nis damnable, because it is sinful, and because he is not one that\nas yet believeth in Christ for remission of sins: \"He that believeth\nnot shall be damned.\"--\"He that believeth not is condemned already,\nand the wrath of God abideth on him\" (Mark 16:16; John 3:18,36).\nThe which when the sinner at first begins to see, he justly fears\nit; I say, he fears it justly, and therefore godly, because by\nthis fear he subscribes to the sentence that is gone out against\nhim for sin.\n\nSecond. By whom or by what is this fear wrought in the heart? To\nthis I shall answer in brief. It is wrought in the heart by the\nSpirit of God, working there at first as a spirit of bondage, on\npurpose to put us in fear. This Paul insinuateth, saying, \"Ye have\nnot received the spirit of bondage again to fear\" (Rom 8:15). He\ndoth not say, Ye have not received the spirit of bondage; for that\nthey had received, and that to put them in fear, which was at their\nfirst conversion, as by the instances made mention of before is\nmanifest; all that he says is, that they had not received it again,\nthat is, after the Spirit, as a spirit of adoption, is come; for\nthen, as a spirit of bondage, it cometh no more. It is then the\nSpirit of God, even the Holy Ghost, that convinceth us of sin,\nand so of our damnable state because of sin (John 16:8,9). For it\ncannot be that the Spirit of God should convince us of sin, but it\nmust also show us our state to be damnable because of it, especially\nif it so convinceth us, before we believe, and that is the intent\nof our Lord in that place, \"of sin,\" and so of their damnable state\nby sin, because they believe not on me. Therefore the Spirit of\nGod, when he worketh in the heart as a spirit of bondage, he doth\nit by working in us by the law, \"for by the law is the knowledge\nof sin\" (Rom 3:20). And he, in this his working, is properly called\na spirit of bondage.\n\n1. Because by the law he shows us that indeed we are in bondage to\nthe law, the devil, and death and damnation; for this is our proper\nstate by nature, though we see it not until the Spirit of God shall\ncome to reveal this our state of bondage unto our own senses by\nrevealing to us our sins by the law.\n\n2. He is called, in this his working, \"the spirit of bondage,\"\nbecause he here also holds us; to wit, in this sight and sense of\nour bondage-state, so long as is meet we should be so held, which\nto some of the saints is a longer, and to some a shorter time. Paul\nwas held in it three days and three nights, but the jailer and the\nthree thousand, so far as can be gathered, not above an hour; but\nsome in these later times are so held for days and months, if not\nyears.[11] But, I say, let the time be longer or shorter, it is\nthe Spirit of God that holdeth him under this yoke; and it is good\nthat a man should be in HIS time held under it, as is that saying\nof the lamentation, \"It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in\nhis youth\" (Lam 3:27). That is, at his first awakening; so long as\nseems good to this Holy Spirit to work in this manner by the law.\nNow, as I said, the sinner at first is by the Spirit of God held\nin this bondage, that is, hath such a discovery of his sin and of\nhis damnation for sin made to him, and also is held so fast under\nthe sense thereof, that it is not in the power of any man, nor\nyet of the very angels in heaven, to release him or set him free,\nuntil the Holy Spirit changeth his ministration, and comes in the\nsweet and peaceable tidings of salvation by Christ in the gospel\nto his poor, dejected, and afflicted conscience.\n\nThird. I now come to show you what this fear doth in the soul.\nNow, although this godly fear is not to last always with us, as I\nshall further show you anon, yet it greatly differs from that which\nis wholly ungodly of itself, both because of the author, and also\nof the effects of it. Of the author I have told you before; I now\nshall tell you what it doth.\n\n1. This fear makes a man judge himself for sin, and to fall down\nbefore God with a broken mind under this judgment; the which is\npleasing to God, because the sinner by so doing justifies God in\nhis saying, and clears him in his judgment (Psa 51:1-4).\n\n2. As this fear makes a man judge himself, and cast himself down\nat God's foot, so it makes him condole and bewail his misery before\nhim, which is also well-pleasing in his sight: \"I have surely heard\nEphraim bemoaning himself,\" saying, \"Thou hast chastised me, and\nI was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke,\" &c. (Jer\n31:18,19).\n\n3. This fear makes a man lie at God's foot, and puts his mouth in\nthe dust, if so be there may be hope. This also is well-pleasing\nto God, because now is the sinner as nothing, and in his own eyes\nless than nothing, as to any good or desert: \"He sitteth alone\nand keepeth silence,\" because he hath now this yoke upon him; \"he\nputteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope\" (Lam\n3:28,29).\n\n4. This fear puts a man upon crying to God for mercy, and that\nin most humble manner; now he sensibly cries, now he dejectedly\ncries, now he feels and cries, now he smarts and criest out, \"God\nbe merciful to me a sinner\" (Luke 18:13).\n\n5. This fear makes a man that he cannot accept of that for support\nand succour which others that are destitute thereof will take up,\nand be contented with. This man must be washed by God himself, and\ncleansed from his sin by God himself (Psa 51).\n\n6. Therefore this fear goes not away until the Spirit of God doth\nchange his ministration as to this particular, in leaving off\nto work now by the law, as afore, and coming to the soul with the\nsweet word of promise of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. Thus\nfar this fear is godly, that is, until Christ by the Spirit in the\ngospel is revealed and made over unto us, and no longer.\n\nThus far this fear is godly, and the reason why it is godly is\nbecause the groundwork of it is good. I told you before what this\nfear is; namely, it is the fear of damnation. Now the ground for\nthis fear is good, as is manifest by these particulars. 1. The soul\nfeareth damnation, and that rightly, because it is in its sins.\n2. The soul feareth damnation rightly, because it hath not faith\nin Christ, but is at present under the law. 3. The soul feareth\ndamnation rightly now, because by sin, the law, and for want of\nfaith, the wrath of God abideth on it. But now, although thus far\nthis fear of God is good and godly, yet after Christ by the Spirit\nin the word of the gospel is revealed to us, and we made to accept\nof him as so revealed and offered to us by a true and living faith;\nthis fear, to wit, of damnation, is no longer good, but ungodly.\nNor doth the Spirit of God ever work it in us again. Now we do not\nreceive the spirit of bondage again to fear, that is to say, to\nfear damnation, but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby\nwe cry, Father, Father. But I would not be mistaken, when I say,\nthat this fear is no longer godly. I do not mean with reference to\nthe essence and habit of it, for I believe it is the same in the\nseed which shall afterwards grow up to a higher degree, and into\na more sweet and gospel current and manner of working, but I mean\nreference to this act of fearing damnation, I say it shall never\nby the Spirit be managed to that work; it shall never bring forth\nthat fruit more. And my reasons are,\n\n[Reasons why the Spirit of God cannot work this ungodly fear.]\n\n1. Because that the soul by closing through the promise, by the\nSpirit, with Jesus Christ, is removed off of that foundation upon\nwhich it stood when it justly feared damnation. It hath received\nnow forgiveness of sin, it is now no more under the law, but in\nJesus Christ by faith; there is \"therefore now no condemnation to\nit\" (Acts 26:18; Rom 6:14, 8:1). The groundwork, therefore, being\nnow taken away, the Spirit worketh that fear no more.\n\n2. He cannot, after he hath come to the soul as a spirit of adoption,\ncome again as a spirit of bondage to put the soul into his first\nfear; to wit, a fear of eternal damnation, because he cannot say\nand unsay, do and undo. As a spirit of adoption he told me that\nmy sins were forgiven me, that I was included in the covenant of\ngrace, that God was my Father through Christ, that I was under the\npromise of salvation, and that this calling and gift of God to me\nis permanent, and without repentance. And do you think, that after\nhe hath told me this, and sealed up the truth of it to my precious\nsoul, that he will come to me, and tell me that I am yet in my\nsins, under the curse of the law and the eternal wrath of God? No,\nno, the word of the gospel is not yea, yea; nay, nay. It is only\nyea, and amen; it is so, \"as God is true\" (2 Cor 1:17-20).\n\n3. The state therefore of the sinner being changed, and that, too,\nby the Spirit's changing his dispensation, leaving off to be now\nas a spirit of bondage to put us in fear, and coming to our heart\nas the spirit of adoption to make us cry, Father, Father, he cannot\ngo back to his first work again; for if so, then he must gratify,\nyea, and also ratify, that profane and popish doctrine, forgiven\nto-day, unforgiven to-morrow--a child of God to-day, a child of\nhell to-morrow; but what saith the Scriptures? \"Now therefore ye\nare no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the\nsaints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation\nof the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief\ncorner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth\nunto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together\nfor an habitation of God through the Spirit\" (Eph 2:19-22).\n\nObject. But this is contrary to my experience. Why, Christian, what\nis thy experience? Why, I was at first, as you have said, possessed\nwith a fear of damnation, and so under the power of the spirit of\nbondage. Well said, and how was it then? Why, after some time of\ncontinuance in these fears, I had the spirit of adoption sent to\nme to seal up to my soul the forgiveness of sins, and so he did;\nand was also helped by the same Spirit, as you have said, to call\nGod Father, Father. Well said, and what after that? Why, after that\nI fell into as great fears as ever I was in before.[12]\n\nAnsw. All this may be granted, and yet nevertheless what I have\nsaid will abide a truth; for I have not said that after the spirit\nof adoption is come, a Christian shall not again be in as great fears,\nfor he may have worse than he had at first; but I say, that after\nthe spirit of adoption is come, the spirit of bondage, as such, is\nsent of God no more, to put us into those fears. For, mark, for we\n\"have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.\" Let the\nword be true, whatever thy experience is. Dost thou not understand\nme?\n\nAfter the Spirit of God has told me, and also helped me to believe\nit, that the Lord for Christ's sake hath forgiven mine iniquities:\nhe tells me no more that they are not forgiven. After the Spirit\nof God has helped me, by Christ, to call God my Father, he tells\nme no more that the devil is my father. After he hath told me that\nI am not under the law, but under grace, he tells me no more that\nI am not under grace, but under the law, and bound over by it, for\nmy sins, to the wrath and judgment of God; but this is the fear that\nthe Spirit, as a spirit of bondage, worketh in the soul at first.\n\nQuest. Can you give me further reason yet to convict me of the\ntruth of what you say?\n\nAnsw. Yes.\n\n1. Because as the Spirit cannot give himself the lie, so he cannot\noverthrow his own order of working, nor yet contradict that testimony\nthat his servants, by his inspiration, hath given of his order of\nworking with them. But he must do the first, if he saith to us--and\nthat after we have received his own testimony, that we are under\ngrace--that yet we are under sin, the law, and wrath.\n\nAnd he must do the second, if--after he hath gone through the first\nwork on us as a spirit of bondage, to the second as a spirit of\nadoption--he should overthrow as a spirit of bondage again what\nbefore he had built as a spirit of adoption.\n\nAnd the third must therefore needs follow, that is, he overthroweth\nthe testimony of his servants; for they have said, that now we\nreceive the spirit of bondage again to fear no more; that is, after\nthat we by the Holy Ghost are enabled to call God Father, Father.\n\n2. This is evident also, because the covenant in which now the soul\nis interested abideth, and is everlasting, not upon the supposition\nof my obedience, but upon the unchangeable purpose of God, and the\nefficacy of the obedience of Christ, whose blood also hath confirmed\nit. It is \"ordered in all things, and sure,\" said David; and this,\nsaid he, \"is all my salvation\" (2 Sam 23:5). The covenant then is\neverlasting in itself, being established upon so good a foundation,\nand therefore standeth in itself everlastingly bent for the good\nof them that are involved in it. Hear the tenor of the covenant,\nand God's attesting of the truth thereof--\"This is the covenant\nthat I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith\nthe Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in\ntheir hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to\nme a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and\nevery man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know\nme, from the least to the greatest; for I will be merciful to\ntheir unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will\nremember no more\" (Heb 8:10-12). Now if God will do thus unto those\nthat he hath comprised in his everlasting covenant of grace, then\nhe will remember their sins no more, that is, unto condemnation--for\nso it is that he doth forget them; then cannot the Holy Ghost, who\nalso is one with the Father and the Son, come to us again, even\nafter we are possessed with these glorious fruits of this covenant,\nas a spirit of bondage, to put us in fear of damnation.\n\n3. The Spirit of God, after it has come to me as a spirit of adoption,\ncan come to me no more as a spirit of bondage, to put me in fear,\nthat is, with my first fears; because, by that faith that he, even\nhe himself, hath wrought in me, to believe and call God \"Father,\nFather,\" I am united to Christ, and stand no more upon mine\nown legs, in mine own sins, or performances; but in his glorious\nrighteousness before him, and before his Father; but he will not\ncast away a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; nor\nwill he, that the Spirit of God should come as a spirit of bondage\nto put him into a grounded fear of damnation, that standeth complete\nbefore God in the righteousness of Christ; for that is an apparent\ncontradiction.[13]\n\nQuest. But may it not come again as a spirit of bondage, to put me\ninto my first fears for my good?\n\nAnsw. The text saith the contrary; for we \"have not received the\nspirit of bondage again to fear.\" Nor is God put to it for want of\nwisdom, to say and unsay, do and undo, or else he cannot do good.\nWhen we are sons, and have received the adoption of children, he\ndoth not use to send the spirit after that to tell us we are slaves\nand heirs of damnation, also that we are without Christ, without\nthe promise, without grace, and without God in the world; and yet\nthis he must do if it comes to us after we have received him as a\nspirit of adoption, and put us, as a spirit of bondage, in fear as\nbefore.\n\n[This ungodly fear wrought by the spirit of the devil.]\n\nQuest. But by what spirit is it then that I am brought again into\nfears, even into the fears of damnation, and so into bondage?\n\nAnsw. By the spirit of the devil, who always labours to frustrate\nthe faith, and hope, and comfort of the godly.\n\nQuest. How doth that appear?\n\nAnsw. 1. By the groundlessness of such fears. 2. By the unseasonableness\nof them. 3. By the effects of them.\n\n1. By the groundlessness of such fears. The ground is removed;\nfor a grounded fear of damnation is this--I am yet in my sins, in\na state of nature, under the law, without faith, and so under the\nwrath of God. This, I say, is the ground of the fear of damnation,\nthe true ground to fear it; but now the man that we are talking of,\nis one that hath the ground of this fear taken away by the testimony\nand seal of the spirit of adoption. He is called, justified, and\nhas, for the truth of this his condition, received the evidence of\nthe spirit of adoption, and hath been thereby enabled to call God\n\"Father, Father.\" Now he that hath received this, has the ground of\nthe fear of damnation taken from him; therefore his fear, I say,\nbeing without ground, is false, and so no work of the Spirit of\nGod.\n\n2. By the unseasonableness of them. This spirit always comes too\nlate. It comes after the spirit of adoption is come. Satan is always\nfor being too soon or too late. If he would have men believe they\nare children, he would have them believe it while they are slaves,\nslaves to him and their lusts. If he would have them believe they\nare slaves, it is when they are sons, and have received the spirit\nof adoption, and the testimony, by that, of their sonship before.\nAnd this evil is rooted even in his nature--\"He is a liar, and the\nfather of it\"; and his lies are not known to saints more than in\nthis, that he labours always to contradict the work and order of\nthe Spirit of truth (John 8).\n\n3. It also appears by the effects of such fears. For there is a\ngreat deal of difference betwixt the natural effects of these fears\nwhich are wrought indeed by the spirit of bondage, and those which\nare wrought by the spirit of the devil afterwards. The one, to\nwit, the fears that are wrought by the spirit of bondage, causeth\nus to confess the truth, to wit, that we are Christless, graceless,\nfaithless, and so at present; that is, while he is so working in\na sinful and damnable case; but the other, to wit, the spirit of\nthe devil, when he comes, which is after the spirit of adoption is\ncome, he causeth us to make a lie; that is, to say we are Christless,\ngraceless, and faithless. Now this, I say, is wholly, and in all\npart of it, a lie, and HE is the father of it.\n\nBesides, the direct tendency of the fear that the Spirit of God,\nas a spirit of bondage, worketh in the soul, is to cause us to come\nrepenting home to God by Jesus Christ, but these latter fears tend\ndirectly to make a man, he having first denied the work of God, as\nhe will, if he falleth in with them, to run quite away from God, and\nfrom his grace to him in Christ, as will evidently appear if thou\ngivest but a plain and honest answer to these questions following.\n\n[This fear driveth a man from God.]\n\nQuest. 1. Do not these fears make thee question whether there was\never a work of grace wrought in thy soul? Answ. Yes, verily, that\nthey do. Quest. 2. Do not these fears make thee question whether\never thy first fears were wrought by the Holy Spirit of God? Answ.\nYes, verily, that they do. Quest. 3. Do not these fears make thee\nquestion whether ever thou hast had, indeed, any true comfort from\nthe Word and Spirit of God? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest.\n4. Dost thou not find intermixed with these fears plain assertions\nthat thy first comforts were either from thy fancy, or from the\ndevil, and a fruit of his delusions? Answ. Yes, verily, that I do.\nQuest. 5. Do not these fears weaken thy heart in prayer? Answ.\nYes, that they do. Quest. 6. Do not these fears keep thee back\nfrom laying hold of the promise of salvation by Jesus Christ? Answ.\nYes; for I think if I were deceived before, if I were comforted by\na spirit of delusion before, why may it not be so again? so I am\nafraid to take hold of the promise. Quest. 7. Do not these fears\ntend to the hardening of thy heart, and to the making of thee\ndesperate? Answ. Yes, verily, that they do. Quest. 8. Do not these\nfears hinder thee from profiting in hearing or reading of the Word?\nAnsw. Yes, verily, for still whatever I hear or read, I think\nnothing that is good belongs to me. Quest. 9. Do not these fears\ntend to the stirring up of blasphemies in thy heart against God?\nAnsw. Yes, to the almost distracting of me. Quest. 10. Do not these\nfears make thee sometimes think, that it is in vain for thee to\nwait upon the Lord any longer? Answ. Yes, verily; and I have many\ntimes almost come to this conclusion, that I will read, pray, hear,\ncompany with God's people, or the like, no longer.\n\nWell, poor Christian, I am glad that thou hast so plainly answered\nme; but, prithee, look back upon thy answer. How much of God dost\nthou think is in these things? how much of his Spirit, and the grace\nof his Word? Just none at all; for it cannot be that these things\ncan be the true and natural effects of the workings of the Spirit\nof God: no, not as a spirit of bondage. These are not his doings.\nDost thou not see the very paw of the devil in them; yea, in every\none of thy ten confessions? Is there not palpably high wickedness\nin every one of the effects of this fear? I conclude, then, as I\nbegan, that the fear that the spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage,\nworketh, is good and godly, not only because of the author, but\nalso because of the ground and effects; but yet it can last no\nlonger as such, as producing the aforesaid conclusion, than till\nthe Spirit, as the spirit of adoption, comes; because that then\nthe soul is manifestly taken out of the state and condition into\nwhich it had brought itself by nature and sin, and is put into\nChrist, and so by him into a state of life and blessedness by grace.\nTherefore, if first fears come again into thy soul, after that the\nspirit of adoption hath been with thee, know they come not from\nthe Spirit of God, but apparently from the spirit of the devil,\nfor they are a lie in themselves, and their effects are sinful and\ndevilish.\n\nObject. But I had also such wickedness as those in my heart at my\nfirst awakening, and therefore, by your argument, neither should\nthat be but from the devil.\n\nAnsw. So far forth as such wickedness was in thy heart, so far did\nthe devil and thine own heart seek to drive thee to despair, and\ndrown thee there; but thou hast forgot the question; the question\nis not whether then thou wast troubled with such iniquities, but\nwhether thy fears of damnation at that time were not just and good,\nbecause grounded upon thy present condition, which was, for that\nthou wast out of Christ, in thy sins, and under the curse of the\nlaw; and whether now, since the spirit of adoption is come unto thee,\nand hath thee, and hath done that for thee as hath been mentioned;\nI say, whether thou oughtest for anything whatsoever to give way\nto the same fear, from the same ground of damnation; it is evident\nthou oughtest not, because the ground, the cause, is removed.\n\nObject. But since I was sealed to the day of redemption, I have\ngrievously sinned against God, have not I, therefore, cause to\nfear, as before? may not, therefore, the spirit of bondage be sent\nagain to put me in fear, as at first? Sin was the first cause, and\nI have sinned now.\n\nAnsw. No, by no means; for we have not received the spirit of\nbondage again to fear; that is, God hath not given it us, \"for God\nhath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love,\nand of a sound mind\" (2 Tim 1:7). If, therefore, our first fears\ncome upon us again, after that we have received at God's hands the\nspirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind, it is to be refused,\nthough we have grievously sinned against our God. This is manifest\nfrom 1 Samuel 12:20; \"Fear not; ye have done all this wickedness.\"\nThat is, not with that fear which would have made them fly from God,\nas concluding that they were not now his people. And the reason\nis, because sin cannot dissolve the covenant into which the sons of\nGod, by his grace, are taken. \"If his children forsake my law, and\nwalk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not\nmy commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod,\nand their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness\nwill I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to\nfail\" (Psa 89:30-33). Now, if sin doth not dissolve the covenant;\nif sin doth not cast me out of this covenant, which is made personally\nwith the Son of God, and into the hands of which by the grace of\nGod I am put, then ought I not, though I have sinned, to fear with\nmy first fears.\n\nSin, after that the spirit of adoption is come, cannot dissolve\nthe relation of Father and son, of Father and child. And this the\nchurch did rightly assert, and that when her heart was under great\nhardness, and when she had the guilt of erring from his ways, saith\nshe. \"Doubtless thou art our Father\" (Isa 63:16,17). Doubtless\nthou art, though this be our case, and though Israel should not\nacknowledge us for such.\n\nThat sin dissolveth not the relation of Father and son is further\nevident--\"When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth\nhis Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that\nwere under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.\nAnd because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son\ninto your hearts, crying, [Abba, or] Father, Father.\" Now mark,\n\"wherefore thou art no more a servant\"; that is, no more under the\nlaw of death and damnation, \"but a son; and if a son, then an heir\nof God through Christ\" (Gal 4:4-7).\n\nSuppose a child doth grievously transgress against and offend his\nfather, is the relation between them therefore dissolved? Again,\nsuppose the father should scourge and chasten the son for such\noffence, is the relation between them therefore dissolved? Yea,\nsuppose the child should now, through ignorance, cry, and say,\nThis man is now no more my father; is he, therefore, now no more\nhis father? Doth not everybody see the folly of such arguings? Why,\nof the same nature is that doctrine that saith, that after we have\nreceived the spirit of adoption, that the spirit of bondage is sent\nto us again to put us in fear of eternal damnation.\n\nKnow then that thy sin, after thou hast received the spirit of adoption\nto cry unto God, Father, Father, is counted the transgression of a\nchild, not of a slave, and that all that happeneth to thee for that\ntransgression is but the chastisement of a father--and \"what son is\nhe whom the father chasteneth not?\" It is worth your observation,\nthat the Holy Ghost checks those who, under their chastisements\nfor sin, forget to call God their Father--\"Ye have,\" said Paul,\n\"forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children,\nMy son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint\nwhen thou art rebuked of him.\" Yea, observe yet further, that God's\nchastising of his children for their sin, is a a sign of grace and\nlove, and not of his wrath, and thy damnation; therefore now there\nis no ground for the aforesaid fear--\"For whom the Lord loveth he\nchasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth\" (Heb 12).\nNow, if God would not have those that have received the Spirit of\nthe Son, however he chastises them, to forget the relation that by\nthe adoption of sons they stand in to God, if he checks them that\ndo forget it, when his rod is upon their backs for sin, then it\nis evident that those fears that thou hast under a colour of the\ncoming again of the Spirit, as a spirit of bondage, to put thee\nin fear of eternal damnation, is nothing else but Satan disguised,\nthe better to play his pranks upon thee.\n\nI will yet give you two or three instances more, wherein it will be\nmanifest that whatever happeneth to thee, I mean as a chastisement\nfor sin, after the spirit of adoption is come, thou oughtest to hold\nfast by faith the relation of Father and son. The people spoken\nof by Moses are said to have lightly esteemed the rock of their\nsalvation, which rock is Jesus Christ, and that is a grievous sin\nindeed, yet, saith he, \"Is not God thy Father that hath bought\nthee?\" and then puts them upon considering the days of old (Deut\n32:6). They in the prophet Jeremiah had played the harlot with\nmany lovers, and done evil things as they could; and, as another\nscripture hath it, gone a-whoring from under their God, yet God calls\nto them by the prophet, saying, \"Wilt thou not from this time cry\nunto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?\" (Jer 3:4).\nRemember also that eminent text made mention of in 1 Samuel 12:20,\n\"Fear not; ye have done all this wickedness\"; and labour to maintain\nfaith in thy soul, of thy being a child, it being true that thou hast\nreceived the spirit of adoption before, and so that thou oughtest\nnot to fall under thy first fears, because the ground is taken\naway, of thy eternal damnation.\n\nNow, let not any, from what hath been said, take courage to live\nloose lives, under a supposition that once in Christ, and ever\nin Christ, and the covenant cannot be broken, nor the relation of\nFather and child dissolved; for they that do so, it is evident,\nhave not known what it is to receive the spirit of adoption. It is\nthe spirit of the devil in his own hue that suggesteth this unto\nthem, and that prevaileth with them to do so. Shall we do evil that\ngood may come? shall we sin that grace may abound? or shall we be\nbase in life because God by grace hath secured us from wrath to\ncome? God forbid; these conclusions betoken one void of the fear\nof God indeed, and of the spirit of adoption too. For what son is\nhe, that because the father cannot break the relation, nor suffer\nsin to do it--that is, betwixt the Father and him--that will\ntherefore say, I will live altogether after my own lusts, I will\nlabour to be a continual grief to my Father?\n\n[Considerations to prevent such temptations.]\n\nYet lest the devil (for some are \"not ignorant of his devices\" ),\nshould get an advantage against some of the sons, to draw them away\nfrom the filial fear of their Father, let me here, to prevent such\ntemptations, present such with these following considerations.\n\nFirst. Though God cannot, will not, dissolve the relation which\nthe spirit of adoption hath made betwixt the Father and the Son,\nfor any sins that such do commit, yet he can, and often doth, take\naway from them the comfort of their adoption, not suffering children\nwhile sinning to have the sweet and comfortable sense thereof on\ntheir hearts. He can tell how to let snares be round about them,\nand sudden fear trouble them. He can tell how to send darkness that\nthey may not see, and to let abundance of waters cover them (Job\n22:10,11).\n\nSecond. God can tell how to hide his face from them, and so to\nafflict them with that dispensation, that it shall not be in the\npower of all the world to comfort them. \"When he hideth his face,\nwho then can behold him?\" (Job 23:8,9, 34:29).\n\nThird. God can tell how to make thee again to possess the sins\nthat he long since hath pardoned, and that in such wise that things\nshall be bitter to thy soul. \"Thou writest bitter things against\nme,\" says Job, \"and makest me to possess the iniquities of my\nyouth.\" By this also he once made David groan and pray against it\nas an insupportable affliction (Job 13:26; Psa 25:7).\n\nFourth. God can lay thee in the dungeon in chains, and roll a stone\nupon thee, he can make thy feet fast in the stocks, and make thee\na gazing-stock to men and angels (Lam 3:7,53,55; Job 13:27; Nahum\n3:6).\n\nFifth. God can tell how to cause to cease the sweet operations\nand blessed influences of his grace in thy soul, and to make those\ngospel showers that formerly thou hast enjoyed to become now to\nthee nothing but powder and dust (Psa 51; Deut 28:24).\n\nSixth. God can tell how to fight against thee \"with the sword of\nhis mouth,\" and to make thee a butt for his arrows; and this is a\ndispensation most dreadful (Rev 2:16; Job 6:4; Psa 38:2-5).\n\nSeventh. God can tell how so to bow thee down with guilt and distress\nthat thou shalt in no wise be able to lift up thy head (Psa 40:12).\n\nEighth. God can tell how to break thy bones, and to make thee by\nreason of that to live in continual anguish of spirit: yea, he can\nsend a fire into thy bones that shall burn, and none shall quench\nit (Psa 51:8; Lam 3:4, 1:13; Psa 102:3; Job 30:30).\n\nNinth. God can tell how to lay thee aside, and make no use of thee\nas to any work for him in thy generation. He can throw thee aside\n\"as a broken vessel\" (Psa 31:12; Eze 44:10-13).\n\nTenth. God can tell how to kill thee, and to take thee away from\nthe earth for thy sins (1 Cor 11:29-32).\n\nEleventh. God can tell how to plague thee in thy death, with great\nplagues, and of long continuance (Psa 78:45; Deut 28).\n\nTwelfth. What shall I say? God can tell how to let Satan loose upon\nthee; when thou liest a dying he can license him then to assault\nthee with great temptations, he can tell how to make thee possess\nthe guilt of all thy unkindness towards him, and that when thou,\nas I said, art going out of the world, he can cause that thy life\nshall be in continual doubt before thee, and not suffer thee to\ntake any comfort day nor night; yea, he can drive thee even to a\nmadness with his chastisements for thy folly, and yet all shall be\ndone by him to thee, as a father chastiseth his son (Deut 28:65-67).\n\nThirteenth. Further, God can tell how to tumble thee from off thy\ndeathbed in a cloud, he can let thee die in the dark; when thou art\ndying thou shalt not know whither thou art going, to wit, whether\nto heaven or to hell. Yea, he can tell how to let thee seem to come\nshort of life, both in thine own eyes, and also in the eyes of them\nthat behold thee. \"Let us therefore fear,\" says the apostle,--though\nnot with slavish, yet with filial fear--\"lest a promise being left\nus of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short\nof it\" (Heb 4:1).\n\nNow all this, and much more, can God do to his as a Father by his\nrod and fatherly rebukes; ah, who know but those that are under\nthem, what terrors, fears, distresses, and amazements God can bring\nhis people into; he can put them into a furnace, a fire, and no\ntongue can tell what, so unsearchable and fearful are his fatherly\nchastisements, and yet never give them the spirit of bondage again\nto fear. Therefore, if thou art a son, take heed of sin, lest all\nthese things overtake thee, and come upon thee.\n\nObject. But I have sinned, and am under this high and mighty hand\nof God.\n\nAnsw. Then thou knowest what I say is true, but yet take heed of\nhearkening unto such temptations as would make thee believe thou\nart out of Christ, under the law, and in a state of damnation; and\ntake heed also, that thou dost not conclude that the author of\nthese fears is the Spirit of God come to thee again as a spirit\nof bondage, to put thee into such fears, lest unawares to thyself\nthou dost defy the devil, dishonour thy Father, overthrow good\ndoctrine, and bring thyself into a double temptation.\n\nObject. But if God deals thus with a man, how can he otherwise think\nbut that he is a reprobate, a graceless, Christless, and faithless\none?\n\nAnsw. Nay, but why dost thou tempt the Lord thy God? Why dost\nthou sin and provoke the eyes of his glory? Why \"doth a living man\ncomplain, a man for the punishment of his sins?\" (Lam 3:39). He\ndoth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men; but if\nthou sinnest, though God should save thy soul, as he will if thou\nart an adopted son of God, yet he will make thee know that sin is\nsin, and his rod that he will chastise thee with, if need be, shall\nbe made of scorpions; read the whole book of the Lamentations; read\nJob's and David's complaints; yea, read what happened to his Son,\nhis well-beloved, and that when he did but stand in the room of\nsinners, being in himself altogether innocent, and then consider,\nO thou sinning child of God, if it is any injustice in God, yea, if\nit be not necessary, that thou shouldest be chastised for thy sin.\nBut then, I say, when the hand of God is upon thee, how grievous soever\nit be, take heed, and beware that thou give not way to thy first\nfears, lest, as I said before, thou addest to thine affliction; and\nto help thee here, let me give you a few instances of the carriages\nof some of the saints under some of the most heavy afflictions that\nthey have met with for sin.\n\n[Carriages of some of the saints under heavy afflictions for sin.]\n\nFirst. Job was in great affliction and that, as he confessed, for\nsin, insomuch that he said God had set him for his mark to shoot\nat, and that he ran upon him like a giant, that he took him by the\nneck and shook him to pieces, and counted him for his enemy; that\nhe hid his face from him, and that he could not tell where to find\nhim; yet he counted not all this as a sign of a damnable state, but\nas a trial, and chastisement, and said, when he was in the hottest\nof the battle, \"when he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.\"\nAnd again, when he was pressed upon by the tempter to think that\nGod would kill him, he answers with greatest confidence, \"Though\nhe slay me, yet will I trust in him\" (Job 7:20, 13:15, 14:12, 16,\n19:11, 23:8-10).\n\nSecond. David complained that God had broken his bones, that he\nhad set his face against his sins, and had taken from him the joy\nof his salvation: yet even at this time he saith, \"O God, thou God\nof my salvation\" (Psa 51:8,9,12,14).\n\nThird. Heman complained that his soul was full of troubles, that\nGod had laid him in the lowest pit, that he had put his acquaintance\nfar from him, and was casting off his soul, and had hid his face\nfrom him. That he was afflicted from his youth up, and ready to die\nwith trouble: he saith, moreover, that the fierce wrath of God went\nover him, that his terrors had cut him off; yea, that by reason\nof them he was distracted; and yet, even before he maketh any of\nthese complaints, he takes fast hold of God as his, saying, \"O Lord\nGod of my salvation\" (Psa 88).\n\nFourth. The church in the Lamentations complains that the Lord had\nafflicted her for her transgressions, and that in the day of his\nfierce anger; also that he had trodden under foot her mighty men,\nand that he had called the heathen against her; she says, that he\nhad covered her with a cloud in his anger, that he was an enemy,\nand that he had hung a chain upon her; she adds, moreover, that he\nhad shut out her prayer, broken her teeth with gravel stones, and\ncovered her with ashes, and in conclusion, that he had utterly\nrejected her. But what doth she do under all this trial? doth she\ngive up her faith and hope, and return to that fear that begot the\nfirst bondage? No: \"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore\nwill I hope in him\"; yea, she adds, \"O Lord, thou hast pleaded the\ncauses of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life\" (Lam 1:5, 2:1,2,5,\n3:7,8,16, 5:22, 3:24,31,58).\n\nThese things show, that God's people even after they have received\nthe spirit of adoption, have fell foully into sin, and have been\nbitterly chastised for it; and also, that when the rod was most\nsmart upon them, they made great conscience of giving way to their\nfirst fears wherewith they were made afraid by the Spirit as it\nwrought as a spirit of bondage; for indeed there is no such thing\nas the coming of the spirit of bondage to put us in fear the second\ntime, as such, that is, after he is come as the spirit of adoption\nto the soul.\n\nI conclude then, that that fear that is wrought by the spirit of\nbondage is good and godly, because the ground for it is sound; and\nI also conclude, that he comes to the soul as a spirit of bondage\nbut once, and that once is before he comes as a spirit of adoption:\nand if therefore the same fear doth again take hold of thy heart,\nthat is, if after thou hast received the spirit of adoption thou\nfearest again the damnation of thy soul, that thou art out of Christ\nand under the law, that fear is bad and of the devil, and ought by\nno means to be admitted by thee.\n\n[How the devil worketh these fears.]\n\n1. Quest. But since it is as you say, how doth the devil, after\nthe spirit of adoption is come, work the child of God into those\nfears of being out of Christ, not forgiven, and so an heir of\ndamnation again?\n\nAnsw. 1. By giving the lie, and by prevailing with us to give it\ntoo, to the work of grace wrought in our hearts, and to the testimony\nof the Holy Spirit of adoption. Or, 2. By abusing of our ignorance\nof the everlasting love of God to his in Christ, and the duration\nof the covenant of grace. Or, 3. By abusing some scripture that\nseems to look that way, but doth not. Or, 4. By abusing our senses\nand reason. Or, 5. By strengthening of our unbelief. Or, 6. By\novershadowing of our judgment with horrid darkness. Or, 7. By giving\nof us counterfeit representations of God. Or, 8. By stirring up,\nand setting in a rage, our inward corruptions. Or, 9. By pouring\ninto our hearts abundance of horrid blasphemies. Or, 10. By putting\nof wrong constructions on the rod, and chastising hand of God. Or,\n11. By charging upon us, that our ill behaviours under the rod,\nand chastising hand of God, is a sign that we indeed have no grace,\nbut are downright graceless reprobates. By these things and other\nlike these, Satan, I say, Satan bringeth the child of God, not only\nto the borders, but even into the bowels of the fears of damnation,\nafter it hath received a blessed testimony of eternal life, and\nthat by the Holy Spirit of adoption.\n\n[The people of God should fear his rod.]\n\nQuest. But would you not have the people of God stand in fear of\nhis rod, and be afraid of his judgments?\n\nAnsw. Yes, and the more they are rightly afraid of them, the less\nand the seldomer will they come under them; for it is want of fear\nthat brings us into sin, and it is sin that brings us into these\nafflictions. But I would not have them fear with the fear of slaves;\nfor that will add no strength against sin; but I would have them\nfear with the reverential fear of sons, and that is the way to\ndepart from evil.\n\nQuest. How is that?\n\nAnsw. Why, having before received the spirit of adoption; still\nto believe that he is our father, and so to fear with the fear\nof children, not as slaves fear a tyrant. I would therefore have\nthem to look upon his rod, rebukes, chidings, and chastisements,\nand also upon the wrath wherewith he doth inflict, to be but the\ndispensations of their Father. This believed, maintains, or at least\nhelps to maintain, in the heart, a son-like bowing under the rod.\nIt also maintains in the soul a son-like confession of sin, and a\njustifying of God under all the rebukes that he grieveth us with.\nIt also engageth us to come to him, to claim and lay hold of former\nmercies, to expect more, and to hope a good end shall be made of\nall God's present dispensations towards us (Micah 7:9; Lam 1:18;\nPsa 77:10-12; Lam 3:31-34).[14]\n\nNow God would have us thus fear his rod, because he is resolved\nto chastise us therewith, if so be we sin against him, as I have\nalready showed; for although God's bowels turn within him, even\nwhile he is threatening his people, yet if we sin, he will lay on\nthe rod so hard as to make us cry, \"Woe unto us that we have sinned\"\n(Lam 5:16); and therefore, as I said, we should be afraid of his\njudgments, yet only as afore is provided as of the rod, wrath, and\njudgment of a Father.\n\n[Five considerations to move to child-like fear.]\n\nQuest. But have you yet any other considerations to move us to fear\nGod with child-like fear?\n\nAnsw. I will in this place give you five. 1. Consider that God thinks\nmeet to have it so, and he is wiser in heart than thou; he knows\nbest how to secure his people from sin, and to that end hath given\nthem law and commandments to read, that they may learn to fear him\nas a Father (Job 37:24; Eccl 3:14; Deut 17:18,19). 2. Consider he\nis mighty in power; if he touch but with a fatherly touch, man nor\nangel cannot bear it; yea, Christ makes use of that argument, he\n\"hath power to cast into hell; Fear him\" (Luke 12:4,5). 3. Consider\nthat he is everywhere; thou canst not be out of his sight or\npresence; nor out of the reach of his hand. \"Fear ye not me? saith\nthe Lord.\" \"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not\nsee him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the\nLord\" (Jer 5:22, 23:24). 4. Consider that he is holy, and cannot\nlook with liking upon the sins of his own people. Therefore, says\nPeter, be \"as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according\nto the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called\nyou is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because\nit is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the\nFather, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every\nman's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.\" 5.\nConsider that he is good, and has been good to thee, good in that\nhe hath singled thee out from others, and saved thee from their\ndeath and hell, though thou perhaps wast worse in thy life than\nthose that he left when he laid hold on thee. O this should engage\nthy heart to fear the Lord all the days of thy life. They \"shall\nfear the Lord, and his goodness in the latter days\" (Hosea 3:5).\nAnd now for the present, I have done with that fear, I mean as to\nits first workings, to wit, to put me in fear of damnation, and\nshall come, in the next place, to treat\n\nOF THE GRACE OF FEAR MORE IMMEDIATELY INTENDED IN THE TEXT.\n\nI shall now speak to this fear, which I call a lasting godly fear;\nfirst, by way of explication; by which I shall show, FIRST. How by\nthe Scripture it is described. SECOND. I shall show you what this\nfear flows from. And then, THIRD. I shall also show you what doth\nflow from it.\n\n[How this Fear is described by the Scripture.]\n\nFIRST. For the first of these, to wit, how by the Scripture this\nfear is described; and that, First. More generally. Second. More\nparticularly.\n\nFirst. More generally.\n\n1. It is called a grace, that is, a sweet and blessed work of the\nSpirit of grace, as he is given to the elect by God. Hence the\napostle says, \"let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably,\nwith reverence and godly fear\" (Heb 12:28). For as that fear that\nbrings bondage is wrought in the soul by the Spirit as a spirit of\nbondage, so this fear, which is a fear that we have while we are\nin the liberty of sons, is wrought by him as he manifesteth to us\nour liberty; \"where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,\"\nthat is, where he is as a spirit of adoption, setting the soul\nfree from that bondage under which it was held by the same Spirit\nwhile he wrought as a spirit of bondage. Hence as he is called\na spirit working bondage to fear, so he, as the Spirit of the Son\nand of adoption, is called \"the Spirit of the fear of the Lord\"\n(Isa 11:2). Because it is that Spirit of grace that is the author,\nanimater, and maintainer of our filial fear, or of that fear that\nis son-like, and that subjecteth the elect unto God, his word, and\nways; unto him, his word, and ways, as a Father.\n\n2. This fear is called also the fear of God, not as that which is\nungodly is, nor yet as that may be which is wrought by the Spirit\nas a spirit of bondage, but by way of eminency; to wit, as a\ndispensation of the grace of the gospel, and as a fruit of eternal\nlove. \"I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not\ndepart from me\" (Jer 32:38-41).\n\n3. This fear of God is called God's treasure, for it is one of his\nchoice jewels, it is one of the rarities of heaven, \"The fear of\nthe Lord is his treasure\" (Isa 33:6). And it may well go under such\na title; for as treasure, so the fear of the Lord is not found in\nevery corner. It is said all men have not faith, because that also\nis more precious than gold; the same is said about this fear--\"There\nis no fear of God before their eyes\"; that is, the greatest part\nof men are utterly destitute of this godly jewel, this treasure,\nthe fear of the Lord. Poor vagrants, when they come straggling to\na lord's house, may perhaps obtain some scraps and fragments, they\nmay also obtain old shoes, and some sorry cast-off rags, but they\nget not any of his jewels, they may not touch his choicest treasure;\nthat is kept for the children, and those that shall be his heirs.\nWe may say the same also of this blessed grace of fear, which is\ncalled here God's treasure. It is only bestowed upon the elect,\nthe heirs and children of the promise; all others are destitute of\nit, and so continue to death and judgment.\n\n4. This grace of fear is that which maketh men excel and go beyond\nall men, in the account of God; it is that which beautifies a man,\nand prefers him above all other; \"Hast thou,\" says God to Satan,\n\"considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth,\na perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth\nevil?\" (Job 1:8, 2:3). Mind it, \"There is none like him, none alike\nhim in the earth.\" I suppose he means either [that Job was the\nonly most perfect and upright man] in those parts, or else he was\nthe man that abounded in the fear of the Lord; none like him to fear\nthe Lord, he only excelled others with respect to his reverencing\nof God, bowing before him, and sincerely complying with his will;\nand therefore is counted the excellent man. It is not the knowledge\nof the will of God, but our sincere complying therewith, that proveth\nwe fear the Lord; and it is our so doing that putteth upon us the\nnote of excelling; hereby appears our perfection, herein is manifest\nour uprightness. A perfect and an upright man is one that feareth\nGod, and that because he escheweth evil. Therefore this grace of\nfear is that without which no part or piece of service which we do\nto God, can be accepted of him. It is, as I may call it, the salt\nof the covenant, which seasoneth the heart, and therefore must not\nbe lacking there; it is also that which salteth, or seasoneth all\nour doings, and therefore must not be lacking in any of them (Lev\n2:13).\n\n5. I take this grace of fear to be that which softeneth and mollifieth\nthe heart, and that makes it stand in awe both of the mercies and\njudgments of God. This is that that retaineth in the heart that due\ndread, and reverence of the heavenly majesty, that is meet should\nbe both in, and kept in the heart of poor sinners. Wherefore when\nDavid described this fear, in the exercise of it, he calls it an\nawe of God. \"Stand in awe,\" saith he, \"and sin not\"; and again, \"my\nheart standeth in awe of thy word\"; and again, \"Let all the earth\nfear the Lord\"; what is that? or how is that? why? \"Let all the\ninhabitants of the world stand in awe of him\" (Psa 4:4, 119:161,\n33:8). This is that therefore that is, as I said before, so excellent\na thing in the eyes of God, to wit, a grace of the Spirit, the fear\nof God, his treasure, the salt of the covenant, that which makes\nmen excel all others; for it is that which maketh the sinner to\nstand in awe of God, which posture is the most comely thing in us,\nthroughout all ages. But,\n\nSecond. And more particularly.\n\n1. This grace is called \"the beginning of knowledge,\" because by the\nfirst gracious discovery of God to the soul, this grace is begot:\nand again, because the first time that the soul doth apprehend God\nin Christ to be good unto it, this grace is animated, by which the\nsoul is put into an holy awe of God, which causeth it with reverence\nand due attention to hearken to him, and tremble before him (Prov\n1:7). It is also by virtue of this fear that the soul doth inquire\nyet more after the blessed knowledge of God. This is the more\nevident, because, where this fear of God is wanting, or where the\ndiscovery of God is not attended with it, the heart still abides\nrebellious, obstinate, and unwilling to know more, that it might\ncomply therewith; nay, for want of it, such sinners say rather, As\nfor God, let him \"depart from us,\" and for the Almighty, \"we desire\nnot the knowledge of his ways.\"\n\n2. This fear is called \"the beginning of wisdom,\" because then,\nand not till then, a man begins to be truly spiritually wise;\nwhat wisdom is there where the fear of God is not? (Job 28:28; Psa\n111:10). Therefore the fools are described thus, \"For that they\nhated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord\" (Prov\n1:29). The Word of God is the fountain of knowledge, into which\na man will not with godly reverence look, until he is endued with\nthe fear of the Lord. Therefore it is rightly called \"the beginning\nof knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction\" (Prov\n1:7). It is therefore this fear of the Lord that makes a man wise\nfor his soul, for life, and for another world. It is this that\nteacheth him how he should do to escape those spiritual and eternal\nruins that the fool is overtaken with, and swallowed up of for\never. A man void of this fear of God, wherever he is wise, or in\nwhatever he excels, yet about the matters of his soul, there is\nnone more foolish than himself; for through the want of the fear of\nthe Lord, he leaves the best things at sixes and sevens, and only\npursueth with all his heart those that will leave him in the snare\nwhen he dies.\n\n3. This fear of the Lord is to hate evil. To hate sin and vanity.\nSin and vanity, they are the sweet morsels of the fool, and such\nwhich the carnal appetite of the flesh runs after; and it is only\nthe virtue that is in the fear of the Lord that maketh the sinner\nhave an antipathy against it (Job 20:12). \"By the fear of the Lord\nmen depart from evil\" (Prov 16:6). That is, men shun, separate\nthemselves from, and eschew it in its appearances. Wherefore it is\nplain that those that love evil, are not possessed with the fear\nof God.\n\nThere is a generation that will pursue evil, that will take it in,\nnourish it, lay it up in their hearts, hide it, and plead for it,\nand rejoice to do it. These cannot have in them the fear of the\nLord, for that is to hate it, and to make men depart from it: where\nthe fear of God and sin is, it will be with the soul, as it was\nwith Israel when Omri and Tibni strove to reign among them both at\nonce, one of them must be put to death, they cannot live together\n(see 1 Kings 16): sin must down, for the fear of the Lord begetteth\nin the soul a hatred against it, an abhorrence of it, therefore\nsin must die, that is, as to the affections and lusts of it; for\nas Solomon says in another case, \"where no wood is, the fire goeth\nout.\" So we may say, where there is a hatred of sin, and where men\ndepart from it, there it loseth much of its power, waxeth feeble,\nand decayeth. Therefore Solomon saith again, \"Fear the Lord, and\ndepart from evil\" (Prov 3:7). As who should say, Fear the Lord,\nand it will follow that you shall depart from evil: departing from\nevil is a natural consequence, a proper effect of the fear of the\nLord where it is. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil,\nthat is, in their judgment, will, mind, and affections. Not that\nby the fear of the Lord sin is annihilated, or has lost its being\nin the soul; there still will those Canaanites be, but they are\nhated, loathed, abominated, fought against, prayed against, watched\nagainst, striven against, and mortified by the soul (Rom 7).\n\n4. This fear is called a fountain of life--\"The fear of the Lord\nis a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death\" (Prov\n14:27). It is a fountain, or spring, which so continually supplieth\nthe soul with variety of considerations of sin, of God, of death,\nand life eternal, as to keep the soul in continual exercise of\nvirtue and in holy contemplation. It is a fountain of life; every\noperation thereof, every act and exercise thereof, hath a true and\nnatural tendency to spiritual and eternal felicity. Wherefore the\nwise man saith in another place, \"The fear of the Lord tendeth to\nlife, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be\nvisited with evil\" (Prov 19:23). It tendeth to life; even as of\nnature, everything hath a tendency to that which is most natural\nto itself; the fire to burn, the water to wet, the stone to fall,\nthe sun to shine, sin to defile, &c. Thus I say, the fear of the Lord\ntendeth to life; the nature of it is to put the soul upon fearing\nof God, of closing with Christ, and of walking humbly before him.\n\"It is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.\" What\nare the snares of death, but sin, the wiles of the devil, &c. From\nwhich the fear of God hath a natural tendency to deliver thee, and\nto keep thee in the way that tendeth to life.\n\n5. This fear of the Lord, it is called \"the instruction of wisdom\"\n(Prov 15:33). You heard before that it is the beginning of wisdom,\nbut here you find it called the instruction of wisdom; for indeed\nit is not only that which makes a man begin to be wise, but to\nimprove, and make advantage of all those helps and means to life,\nwhich God hath afforded to that end; that is, both to his own, and\nhis neighbour's salvation also. It is the instruction of wisdom;\nit will make a man capable to use all his natural parts, all his\nnatural wisdom to God's glory, and his own good. There lieth, even\nin many natural things, that, into which if we were instructed,\nwould yield us a great deal of help to the understanding of spiritual\nmatters; \"For in wisdom has God made all the world\"; nor is there\nanything that God has made, whether in heaven above, or on earth\nbeneath, but there is couched some spiritual mystery in it. The\nwhich men matter no more than they do the ground they tread on,\nor than the stones that are under their feet, and all because they\nhave not this fear of the Lord; for had they that, that would teach\nthem to think, even from that knowledge of God, that hath by the\nfear of him put into their hearts, that he being so great and so\ngood, there must needs be abundance of wisdom in the things he hath\nmade: that fear would also endeavour to find out what that wisdom\nis; yea, and give to the soul the instruction of it. In that it\nis called the instruction of wisdom, it intimates to us that its\ntendency is to keep all even, and in good order in the soul. When\nJob perceived that his friends did not deal with him in an even\nspirit and orderly manner, he said that they forsook \"the fear of\nthe Almighty\" (Job 6:14). For this fear keeps a man even in his\nwords and judgment of things. It may be compared to the ballast of\nthe ship, and to the poise of the balance of the scales; it keeps\nall even, and also makes us steer our course right with respect to\nthe things that pertain to God and man.\n\nWhat this fear of God flows from.\n\nSECOND. I come now to the second thing, to wit, to show you what\nthis fear of God flows from.\n\nFirst. This fear, this grace of fear, this son-like fear of God,\nit flows from the distinguishing love of God to his elect. \"I will\nbe their God,\" saith he, \"and I will put my fear in their hearts.\"\nNone other obtain it but those that are enclosed and bound up\nin that bundle. Therefore they, in the same place, are said to be\nthose that are wrapt up in the eternal or everlasting covenant of\nGod, and so designed to be the people that should be blessed with\nthis fear. \"I will make an everlasting covenant with them\" saith\nGod, \"that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I\nwill put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from\nme\" (Jer 32:38-40). This covenant declares unto men that God hath,\nin his heart, distinguishing love for some of the children of men;\nfor he saith he will be their God, that he will not leave them, nor\nyet suffer them to depart, to wit, finally, from him. Into these\nmen's hearts he doth put his fear, this blessed grace, and this\nrare and effectual sign of his love, and of their eternal salvation.\n\nSecond. This fear flows from a new heart. This fear is not in men\nby nature; the fear of devils they may have, as also an ungodly\nfear of God; but this fear is not in any but where there dwelleth\na new heart, another fruit and effect of this everlasting covenant,\nand of this distinguishing love of God. \"A new heart also will I\ngive them\"; a new heart, what a one is that? why, the same prophet\nsaith in another place, \"A heart to fear me,\" a circumcised one, a\nsanctified one (Jer 32:39; Eze 11:19, 36:26). So then, until a man\nreceive a heart from God, a heart from heaven, a new heart, he\nhas not this fear of God in him. New wine must not be put into old\nbottles, lest the one, to wit, the bottles, mar the wine, or the\nwine the bottles; but new wine must have new bottles, and then\nboth shall be preserved (Matt 9:17). This fear of God must not be,\ncannot be found in old hearts; old hearts are not bottles out of\nwhich this fear of God proceeds, but it is from an honest and good\nheart, from a new one, from such an one that is also an effect of\nthe everlasting covenant, and love of God to men.\n\n\" I will give them one heart\" to fear me; there must in all actions\nbe heart, and without heart no action is good, nor can there be\nfaith, love, or fear, from every kind of heart. These must flow\nfrom such an one, whose nature is to produce, and bring forth such\nfruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? so\nfrom a corrupt heart there cannot proceed such fruit as the fear of\nGod, as to believe in God, and love God (Luke 6:43-45). The heart\nnaturally is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;\nhow then should there flow from such an one the fear of God? It\ncannot be. He, therefore, that hath not received at the hands of\nGod a new heart, cannot fear the Lord.\n\nThird. This fear of God flows from an impression, a sound impression,\nthat the Word of God maketh on our souls; for without an impress of\nthe Word, there is no fear of God. Hence it is said that God gave\nto Israel good laws, statutes, and judgments, that they might learn\nthem, and in learning them, learn to fear the Lord their God.\nTherefore, saith God, in another place, \"Gather the people together,\nmen, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy\ngates, that they may hear, and that they may learn and fear the Lord\nyour God\" (Deut 6:1,2, 31:12). For as a man drinketh good doctrine\ninto his soul, so he feareth God. If he drinks it in much, he\nfeareth him greatly; if he drinketh it in but little, he feareth\nhim but little; if he drinketh it not in at all, he feareth him\nnot at all. This, therefore, teacheth us how to judge who feareth\nthe Lord; they are those that learn, and that stand in awe of the\nWord. Those that have by the holy Word of God the very form of\nitself engraven upon the face of their souls, they fear God (Rom\n6:17).[15]\n\nBut, on the contrary, those that do not love good doctrine, that\ngive not place to the wholesome truths of the God of heaven, revealed\nin his Testament, to take place in their souls, but rather despise\nit, and the true possessors of it, they fear not God. For, as\nI said before, this fear of God, it flows from a sound impression\nthat the Word of God maketh upon the soul; and therefore,\n\nFourth. This godly fear floweth from faith; for where the Word\nmaketh a sound impression on the soul, by that impression is faith\nbegotten, whence also this fear doth flow. Therefore right hearing\nof the Word is called \"the hearing of faith\" (Gal 3:2). Hence it\nis said again, \"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not\nseen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his\nhouse, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the\nrighteousness which is by faith\" (Heb 11:7). The Word, the warning\nthat he had from God of things not seen as yet, wrought, through\nfaith therein, that fear of God in his heart that made him prepare\nagainst unseen dangers, and that he might be an inheritor of unseen\nhappiness. Where, therefore, there is not faith in the Word of God,\nthere can be none of this fear; and where the Word doth not make\nsound impression on the soul, there can be none of this faith. So that\nas vices hang together, and have the links of a chain, dependence\none upon another, even so the graces of the Spirit also are the\nfruits of one another, and have such dependence on each other,\nthat the one cannot be without the other. No faith, no fear of God;\ndevil's faith, devil's fear; saint's faith, saint's fear.\n\nFifth. This godly fear also floweth from sound repentance for and\nfrom sin; godly sorrow worketh repentance, and godly repentance\nproduceth this fear--\"For behold,\" says Paul, \"this self-same thing,\nthat ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought\nin you! yea, what clearing of yourselves! yea, what indignation!\nyea, what fear!\" (2 Cor 7:10,11). Repentance is the effect of sorrow,\nand sorrow is the effect of smart, and smart the effect of faith.\nNow, therefore, fear must needs be an effect of, and flow from\nrepentance. Sinner, do not deceive thyself; if thou art a stranger\nto sound repentance, which standeth in sorrow and shame before God\nfor sin, as also in turning from it, thou hast no fear of God; I\nmean none of this godly fear; for that is the fruit of, and floweth\nfrom, sound repentance.\n\nSixth. This godly fear also flows from a sense of the love and\nkindness of God to the soul. Where there is no sense of hope of\nthe kindness and mercy of God by Jesus Christ, there can be none\nof this fear, but rather wrath and despair, which produceth that\nfear that is either devilish, or else that which is only wrought\nin us by the Spirit, as a spirit of bondage; but these we do\nnot discourse of now; wherefore the godly fear that now I treat\nof, it floweth from some sense or hope of mercy from God by Jesus\nChrist--\"If thou, Lord,\" says David, \"shouldest mark iniquities,\nO Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that\nthou mayest be feared\" (Psa 130:3,4). \"There is mercy with thee\";\nthis the soul hath sense of, and hope in, and therefore feareth\nGod. Indeed nothing can lay a stronger obligation upon the heart\nto fear God, than sense of, or hope in mercy (Jer 33:8,9). This\nbegetteth true tenderness of heart, true godly softness of spirit;\nthis truly endeareth the affections to God; and in this true\ntenderness, softness, and endearedness of affection to God, lieth\nthe very essence of this fear of the Lord, as is manifest by the\nfruit of this fear when we shall come to speak of it.\n\nSeventh. This fear of God flows from a due consideration of the\njudgments of God that are to be executed in the world; yea, upon\nprofessors too. Yea further, God's people themselves, I mean as\nto themselves, have such a consideration of his judgments towards\nthem, as to produce this godly fear. When God's judgments are in\nthe earth, they effect the fear of his name, in the hearts of his\nown people--\"My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am,\" said\nDavid, \"afraid of thy judgments\" (Psa 119:120). When God smote\nUzzah, David was afraid of God that day (1 Chron 13:12). Indeed,\nmany regard not the works of the Lord, nor take notice of the\noperation of his hands, and such cannot fear the Lord. But others\nobserve and regard, and wisely consider of his doings, and of the\njudgments that he executeth, and that makes them fear the Lord.\nThis God himself suggesteth as a means to make us fear him. Hence\nhe commands the false prophet to be stoned, \"that all Israel might\nhear and fear.\" Hence also he commanded that the rebellious son\nshould be stoned, \"that all Israel might hear and fear.\" A false\nwitness was also to have the same judgment of God executed upon\nhim, \"that all Israel might hear and fear.\" The man also that did\nought presumptuously was to die, \"that all Israel might hear and\nfear\" (Deut 13:11, 21:21, 17:13, 19:20). There is a natural tendency\nin judgments, as judgments, to beget a fear of God in the heart\nof man, as man; but when the observation of the judgment of God is\nmade by him that hath a principle of true grace in his soul, that\nobservation being made, I say, by a gracious heart, produceth a\nfear of God in the soul of its own nature, to wit, a gracious or\ngodly fear of God.\n\nEighth. This godly fear also flows from a godly remembrance of our\nformer distresses, when we were distressed with our first fears; for\nthough our first fears were begotten in us by the Spirit's working\nas a spirit of bondage, and so are not always to be entertained\nas such, yet even that fear leaveth in us, and upon our spirits,\nthat sense and relish of our first awakenings and dread, as also\noccasioneth and produceth this godly fear. \"Take heed,\" says God,\n\"and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which\nthine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the\ndays of thy life, but teach them thy sons, and thy son's sons.\"\nBut what were the things that their eyes had seen, that would so\ndamnify them should they be forgotten? The answer is, the things\nwhich they saw at Horeb; to wit, the fire, the smoke, the darkness,\nthe earthquake, their first awakenings by the law, by which they\nwere brought into a bondage fear; yea, they were to remember this\nespecially--\"Specially,\" saith he, \"the day that thou stoodest before\nthe Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me\nthe people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they\nmay learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the\nearth\" (Deut 4:9-11). The remembrance of what we saw, felt, feared,\nand trembled under the sense of, when our first fears were upon us,\nis that which will produce in our hearts this godly filial fear.\n\nNinth. This godly fear flows from our receiving of an answer\nof prayer, when we supplicated for mercy at the hand of God. See\nthe proof for this--\"If there be in the land famine, if there be\npestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar;\nif their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoever\nplague, whatsoever sickness there be: what prayer and supplication\nsoever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall\nknow every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his\nhands toward this house: then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place,\nand forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways,\nwhose heart thou knowest (for thou, even thou only, knowest the\nhearts of all the children of men). That they may fear thee all the\ndays of their life, that they live in the land which thou gavest\nunto our fathers\" (1 Kings 8:37-40).\n\nTenth. This grace of fear also flows from a blessed conviction of\nthe all-seeing eye of God; that is, from a belief that he certainly\nknoweth the heart, and seeth every one of the turnings and returnings\nthereof; this is intimated in the text last mentioned--\"Whose heart\nthou knowest, that they may fear thee,\" to wit, so many of them as\nbe, or shall be convinced of this. Indeed, without this conviction,\nthis godly fear cannot be in us; the want of this conviction made\nthe Pharisees such hypocrites--\"Ye are they,\" said Christ, \"which\njustify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts\" (Luke\n16:15). The Pharisees, I say, were not aware of this; therefore they\nso much preferred themselves before those that by far were better\nthan themselves, and it is for want of this conviction that men go\non in such secret sins as they do, so much without fear either of\nGod or his judgments.[16]\n\nEleventh. This grace of fear also flows from a sense of the\nimpartial judgment of God upon men according to their works. This\nalso is manifest from the text mentioned above. And give unto every\nman according to his works or ways, \"that they may fear thee,\" &c.\nThis is also manifest by that of Peter--\"And if ye call on the\nFather, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every\nman's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear\" (1 Peter\n1:17). He that hath godly conviction of this fear of God, will\nfear before him; by which fear their hearts are poised, and works\ndirected with trembling, according to the will of God. Thus you see\nwhat a weighty and great grace this grace of the holy fear of God\nis, and how all the graces of the Holy Ghost yield mutually their\nhelp and strength to the nourishment and life of it; and also how\nit flows from them all, and hath a dependence upon every one of\nthem for its due working in the heart of him that hath it. And thus\nmuch to show you from whence it flows. And now I shall come to the\nthird thing, to wit, to show you\n\nWhat flows from this godly fear.\n\nTHIRD. Having showed you what godly fear flows from, I come now, I\nsay, to show you what proceedeth or flows from this godly fear of\nGod, where it is seated in the heart of man. And,\n\nFirst. There flows from this godly fear a godly reverence of God.\n\"He is great,\" said David, \"and greatly to be feared in the assembly\nof his saints.\" God, as I have already showed you, is the proper\nobject of godly fear; it is his person and majesty that this fear\nalways causeth the eye of the soul to be upon. \"Behold,\" saith David,\n\"as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and\nas the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes\nwait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us\" (Psa\n123:2). Nothing aweth the soul that feareth God so much as doth the\nglorious majesty of God. His person is above all things feared by\nthem; \"I fear God,\" said Joseph (Gen 42:18). That is, more than any\nother; I stand in awe of him, he is my dread, he is my fear, I do\nall mine actions as in his presence, as in his sight; I reverence\nhis holy and glorious majesty, doing all things as with fear and\ntrembling before him. This fear makes them have also a very great\nreverence of his Word; for that also, I told you, was the rule of\ntheir fear. \"Princes,\" said David, \"persecuted me without a cause,\nbut my heart standeth in awe,\" in fear, \"of thy word.\" This grace\nof fear, therefore, from it flows reverence of the words of God; of\nall laws, that man feareth the word; and no law that is not agreeing\ntherewith (Psa 119:116). There flows from this godly fear tenderness\nof God's glory. This fear, I say, will cause a man to afflict his\nsoul, when he seeth that by professors dishonour is brought to the\nname of God and to his Word. Who would not fear thee, said Jeremiah,\nO king of nations, for to thee doth it appertain? He speaks it as\nbeing affected with that dishonour, that by the body of the Jews\nwas continually brought to his name, his Word, and ways; he also\nspeaks it of a hearty wish that they once would be otherwise minded.\nThe same saying in effect hath also John in the Revelation--\"Who\nshall not fear thee, O Lord,\" said he, \"and glorify thy name?\"\n(Rev 15:4); clearly concluding that godly fear produceth a godly\ntenderness of God's glory in the world, for that appertaineth unto\nhim; that is, it is due unto him, it is a debt which we owe unto\nhim. \"Give unto the Lord,\" said David, \"the glory due unto his name.\"\nNow if there be begotten in the heart of the godly, by this grace\nof fear, a godly tenderness of the glory of God, then it follows\nof consequence, that where they that have this fear of God do see\nhis glory diminished by the wickedness of the children of men,\nthere they are grieved and deeply distressed. \"Rivers of waters,\"\nsaid David, \"run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law\"\n(Psa 119:136). Let met give you for this these following instances--\n\nHow was David provoked when Goliath defied the God of Israel (1\nSam 17:23-29,45,46). Also, when others reproached God, he tells us\nthat that reproach was even as \"a sword in his bones\" (Psa 42:10).\nHow was Hezekiah afflicted when Rabshakeh railed upon his God (Isa\n37). David also, for the love that he had to the glory of God's\nword, ran the hazard and reproach \"of all the mighty people\" (Psa\n119:151, 89:50). How tender of the glory of God was Eli, Daniel, and\nthe three children in their day. Eli died with fear and trembling\nof heart when he heard that \"the ark of God was taken\" (1 Sam\n4:14-18). Daniel ran the danger of the lions' mouths, for the tender\nlove that he had to the word and worship of God (Dan 6:10-16). The\nthree children ran the hazard of a burning fiery furnace, rather than\nthey would dare to dishonour the way of their God (Dan 3:13,16,20).\nThis therefore is one of the fruits of this godly fear, to wit, a\nreverence of his name and tenderness of his glory.\n\nSecond. There flows from this godly fear, watchfulness. As it is\nsaid of Solomon's servants, they \"watched about his bed, because\nof fear in the night,\" so it may be said of them that have this\ngodly fear--it makes them a watchful people. It makes them watch\ntheir hearts, and take heed to keep them with all diligence, lest\nthey should, by one or another of its flights, lead them to do that\nwhich in itself is wicked (Prov 4:23; Heb 12:15). It makes them\nwatch, lest some temptation from hell should enter into their heart\nto the destroying of them (1 Peter 5:8). It makes them watch their\nmouths, and keep them also, at sometimes, as with a bit and bridle,\nthat they offend not with their tongue, knowing that the tongue is\napt, being an evil member, soon to catch the fire of hell, to the\ndefiling of the whole body (James 3:2-7). It makes them watch over\ntheir ways, look well to their goings, and to make straight steps\nfor their feet (Psa 39:1; Heb 12:13). Thus this godly fear puts the\nsoul upon its watch, lest from the heart within, or from the devil\nwithout, or from the world, or some other temptation, something\nshould surprise and overtake the child of God to defile him, or\nto cause him to defile the ways of God, and so offend the saints,\nopen the mouths of men, and cause the enemy to speak reproachfully\nof religion.\n\nThird. There flows from this fear a holy provocation to a reverential\nconverse with saints in their religious and godly assemblies, for\ntheir further progress in the faith and way of holiness. \"Then they\nthat feared the Lord spake often one to another.\" Spake, that is,\nof God, and his holy and glorious name, kingdom, and works, for\ntheir mutual edification; \"a book of remembrance was written before\nhim for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name\"\n(Mal 3:16). The fear of the Lord in the heart provoketh to this\nin all its acts, not only of necessity, but of nature: it is the\nnatural effect of this godly fear, to exercise the church in the\ncontemplation of God, together and apart. All fear, good and bad,\nhath a natural propenseness in it to incline the heart to contemplate\nupon the object of fear, and though a man should labour to take\noff his thoughts from the object of his fear, whether that object\nwas men, hell, devils, &c., yet do what he could the next time his\nfear had any act in it, it would return again to its object. And\nso it is with godly fear; that will make a man speak of, and think\nupon, the name of God reverentially (Psa 89:7); yea, and exercise\nhimself in the holy thoughts of him in such sort that his soul\nshall be sanctified, and seasoned with such meditations. Indeed,\nholy thoughts of God, such as you see this fear doth exercise the\nheart withal, prepare the heart to, and for God. This fear therefore\nit is that David prayed for, for the people, when he said, \"O Lord\nGod of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel our fathers, keep this for\never in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people,\nand prepare their heart unto thee\" (1 Chron 29:18).\n\nFourth. There flows from this fear of God great reverence of his\nmajesty, in and under the use and enjoyment of God's holy ordinances.\nHis ordinances are his courts and palaces, his walks and places,\nwhere he giveth his presence to those that wait upon him in them,\nin the fear of his name. And this is the meaning of that of the\napostle: \"Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and\nGalilee, and Samaria, and were edified; and, walking in the fear\nof the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied\"\n(Acts 9:31). \"And walking\"--that word intendeth their use of the\nordinances of God. They walked in all the commandments and ordinances\nof the Lord blameless. This, in Old Testament language, is called,\ntreading God's courts, and walking in his paths. This, saith\nthe text, they did here, in the fear of God. That is, in a great\nreverence of that God whose ordinances they were. \"Ye shall keep\nmy Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am the Lord\" (Lev 19:30,\n26:2).\n\nIt is one thing to be conversant in God's ordinances, and another\nto be conversant in them with a due reverence of the majesty and\nname of that God whose ordinances they are: it is common for men\nto do the first, but none can do the last without this fear. \"In\nthy fear,\" said David, \"will I worship\" (Psa 5:7). It is this fear\nof God, therefore, from whence doth flow that great reverence that\nhis saints have in them, of his majesty, in and under the use and\nenjoyment of God's holy ordinances; and, consequently, that makes\nour service in the performance of them acceptable to God through\nChrist (Heb 12). For God expects that we serve him with fear and\ntrembling, and it is odious among men, for a man in the presence,\nor about the service of his prince, to behave himself lightly, and\nwithout due reverence of that majesty in whose presence and about\nwhose business he is. And if so, how can their service to God have\nanything like acceptation from the hand of God, that is done, not\nin, but without the fear of God? This service must needs be an\nabomination to him, and these servers must come off with rebuke.\n\nFifth. There flows from this godly fear of God, self-denial. That\nis, a holy abstaining from those things that are either unlawful or\ninexpedient; according to that of Nehemiah, \"The former governors\nthat had been before me, were chargeable unto the people, that had\ntaken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver, yea,\neven their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I,\nbecause of the fear of God\" (Neh 5:15).[17]\n\nHere not was self-denial; he would not do as they did that went\nbefore him, neither himself, nor should his servants; but what was\nit that put him upon these acts of self-denial? The answer is, the\nfear of God: \"but so did not I, because of the fear of God.\"\n\nNow, whether by the fear of God in this place be meant his Word, or\nthe grace of fear in his heart, may perhaps be a scruple to some,\nbut in my judgment the text must have respect to the latter, to wit,\nto the grace of fear, for without that being indeed in the heart,\nthe word will not produce that good self-denial in us, that here\nyou find this good man to live in the daily exercise of. The fear\nof God, therefore, that was the cause of his self-denial, was\nthis grace of fear in his heart. This made him to be, as was said\nbefore, tender of the honour of God, and of the salvation of his\nbrother: yea, so tender, that rather than he would give an occasion\nto the weak to stumble, or be offended, he would even deny himself\nof that which others never sticked to do. Paul also, through the\nsanctifying operations of this fear of God in his heart, did deny\nhimself even of lawful things, for the profit and commodity of his\nbrother--\"I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make\nmy brother to offend\"; that is, if his eating of it would make his\nbrother to offend (1 Cor 8:13).\n\nMen that have not this fear of God in them, will not, cannot deny\nthemselves--of love to God, and the good of the weak, who are\nsubject to stumble at indifferent things--but where this grace of\nfear is, there follows self-denial; there men are tender of offending;\nand count that it far better becomes their profession to be of a\nself-denying, condescending conversation and temper, than to stand\nsturdily to their own liberty in things inexpedient, whoever is\noffended thereat. This grace of fear, therefore, is a very excellent\nthing, because it yieldeth such excellent fruit as this. For this\nself-denial, of how little esteem soever it be with some, yet the\nwant of it, if the words of Christ be true, as they are, takes\nquite away from even a professor the very name of a disciple (Matt\n10:37,38; Luke 14:26,27,33). They, says Nehemiah, lorded it over\nthe brethren, but so did not I. They took bread and wine, and\nforty shekels of silver of them, but so did not I; yea, even their\nservants bare rule over the people, \"but so did not I, because of\nthe fear of God.\"\n\nSixth. There flows from this godly fear of God \"singleness of heart\"\n(Col 3:22). Singleness of heart both to God and man; singleness of\nheart, that is it which in another place is called sincerity and\ngodly simplicity, and it is this, when a man doth a thing simply\nfor the sake of him or of the law that commands it, without respect\nto this by-end,[18]\n\nor that desire of praise or of vain-glory from others; I say, when\nour obedience to God is done by us simply or alone for God's sake,\nfor his Word's sake, without any regard to this or that by-end or\nreserve, \"not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness\nof heart, fearing God.\" A man is more subject to nothing than to\nswerve from singleness of heart in his service to God, and obedience\nto his will. How doth the Lord charge the children of Israel, and\nall their obedience, and that for seventy years together, with\nthe want of singleness of heart towards him--\"When ye fasted and\nmourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years,\ndid ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and\nwhen ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for\nyourselves?\" (Zech 7:5,6).\n\nThey wanted this singleness of heart in their fasting, and in their\neating, in their mourning, and in their drinking; they had double\nhearts in what they did. They did not as the apostle bids; \"whether\nye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of\nGod.\" And the reason of their want of this thing was, they wanted\nthis fear of God; for that, as the apostle here saith, effecteth\nsingleness of heart to God, and makes a man, as John said of Gaius,\n\"do faithfully whatsoever he doth\" (3 John 5). And the reason is,\nas hath been already urged, for that grace of fear of God retaineth\nand keepeth upon the heart a reverent and awful sense of the dread\nmajesty and all-seeing eye of God, also a due consideration of the\nday of account before him; it likewise maketh his service sweet\nand pleasing, and fortifies the soul against all discouragements;\nby this means, I say, the soul, in its service to God or man, is\nnot so soon captivated as where there is not this fear, but through\nand by it its service is accepted, being single, sincere, simple,\nand faithful; when others, with what they do, are cast into hell\nfor their hypocrisy, for they mix not what they do with godly fear.\nSingleness of heart in the service of God is of such absolute\nnecessity, that without it, as I have hinted, nothing can be accepted;\nbecause where that is wanting, there wanteth love to God, and to\nthat which is true holiness indeed. It was this singleness of heart\nthat made Nathanael so honourable in the eyes of Jesus Christ.\n\"Behold,\" said he, \"an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no\nguile\" (John 1:47). And it was the want of it that made him so much\nabhor the Pharisees. They wanted sincerity, simplicity, and godly\nsincerity in their souls, and so became an abhorrence in his esteem.\nNow, I say, this golden grace, singleness of heart, it flows from\nthis godly fear of God.\n\nSeventh. There flows from this godly fear of God, compassion and\nbowels to those of the saints that are in necessity and distress.\nThis is manifest in good Obadiah; it is said of him, \"That he took\nan hundred\" of the Lord's \"prophets, and hid them by fifty in a\ncave, and fed them with bread and water,\" in the days when Jezebel,\nthat tyrant, sought their lives to destroy them (1 Kings 18:3,4).\nBut what was it that moved so upon his heart, as to cause him to\ndo this thing? Why, it was this blessed grace of the fear of God.\n\"Now Obadiah,\" saith the text, \"feared the Lord greatly, for it\nwas so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah\ntook an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed\nthem with bread and water.\" This was charity to the distressed,\neven to the distressed for the Lord's sake.\n\nHad not Obadiah served the Lord, yea, had he not greatly feared him,\nhe would not have been able to do this thing, especially as the\ncase then stood with him, and also with the church at that time,\nfor then Jezebel sought to slay all that indeed feared the Lord;\nyea, and the persecution prevailed so much at that time, that even\nElijah himself thought that she had killed all but him. But now,\neven now, the fear of God in this good man's heart put forth itself\ninto acts of mercy though attended with so imminent danger. See\nhere, therefore, that the fear of God will put forth itself in the\nheart where God hath put it, even to show kindness, and to have\ncompassion upon the distressed servants of God, even under Jezebel's\nnose; for Obadiah dwelt in Ahab's house, and Jezebel was Ahab's\nwife, and a horrible persecutor, as was said before: yet Obadiah\nwill show mercy to the poor because he feared God, yea, he will\nventure her displeasure, his place, and neck, and all, but he will\nbe merciful to his brethren in distress. Cornelius, also, being\na man possessed with this fear of God, became a very free-hearted\nand open-handed man to the poor--\"He feared God, and gave much\nalms to the people.\" Indeed this fear, this godly fear of God, it\nis a universal grace; it will stir up the soul unto all good duties.\nIt is a fruitful grace; from it, where it is, floweth abundance of\nexcellent virtues; nor without it can there be anything good, or\ndone well, that is done. But,\n\nEighth. There flows from this fear of God hearty, fervent, and\nconstant prayer. This also is seen in Cornelius, that devout man.\nHe feared God; and what then? why, he gave much alms to the people,\n\"and prayed to God alway\" (Acts 10:1,2).\n\nDid I say that hearty, fervent, and constant prayer flowed from\nthis fear of God? I will add, that if the whole duty, and the\ncontinuation of it, be not managed with this fear of God, it profiteth\nnothing at all. It is said of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, \"He\nwas heard in that he feared.\" He prayed, then, because he feared,\nbecause he feared God, and therefore was his prayer accepted of\nhim, even because he feared--\"He was heard in that he feared\" (Heb\n5:7). This godly fear is so essential to right prayer, and right\nprayer is such an inseparable effect and fruit of this fear, that\nyou must have both or none; he that prayeth not feareth not God,\nyea, he that prayeth not fervently and frequently feareth him not;\nand so he that feareth him not cannot pray; for if prayer be the\neffect of this fear of God, then without this fear, prayer, fervent\nprayer, ceaseth. How can they pray or make conscience of the duty\nthat fear not God? O prayerless man, thou fearest not God! Thou\nwouldest not live so like a swine or a dog in the world as thou\ndost, if thou fearest the Lord.\n\nNinth. There floweth from this fear of God a readiness or\nwillingness, at God's call, to give up our best enjoyments to his\ndisposal. This is evident in Abraham, who at God's call, without\ndelay, rose early in the morning to offer up his only and well-beloved\nIsaac a burnt-offering in the place where God should appoint him.\nIt was a rare thing that Abraham did; and had he not had this rare\ngrace, this fear of God, he would not, he could not have done to\nGod's liking so wonderful a thing. It is true the Holy Ghost also\nmakes this service of Abraham to be the fruit of his faith--\"By\nfaith Abraham offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises\noffered up his only-begotten son\" (Heb 11; James 2). Aye, and\nwithout doubt love unto God, in Abraham, was not wanting in this\nhis service, nor was this grace of fear; nay, in the story where\nit is recorded. There it is chiefly accounted for the fruit of his\ngodly fear, and that by an angel from heaven--\"And the angel called\nout of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am\nI. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou\nanything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou\nhast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me\" (Gen 22:11,12).\nNow I know it; now, now thou hast offered up thine only Isaac, thine\nall, at the bidding of thy God. Now I know it. The fear of God is\nnot presently discerned in the heart and life of a man. Abraham had\nlong before this done many a holy duty, and showed much willingness\nof heart to observe and do the will of God; yet you find not, as\nI remember, that he had this testimony from heaven that he feared\nGod till now; but now he has it, now he has it from heaven. \"Now I\nknow that thou fearest God.\" Many duties may be done--though I do\nnot say that Abraham did them--without the fear of God; but when\na man shall not stick at, or withhold, his darling from God, when\ncalled upon by God to offer it up unto him, that declareth, yea,\nand gives conviction to angels, that now he feareth God.\n\nTenth. There floweth from this godly fear humility of mind. This\nis evident, because, when the apostle cautions the Romans against\nthe venom of spiritual pride, he directs them to the exercise of\nthis blessed grace of fear as its antidote. \"Be not high-minded,\"\nsaith he, \"but fear\" (Rom 11:20). Pride, spiritual pride, which is\nhere set forth by the word \"high-minded,\" is a sin of a very high\nand damnable nature; it was the sin of the fallen angels, and is\nthat which causeth men to fall into the same condemnation--\"Lest\nbeing lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the\ndevil.\" Pride, I say, it damns a professor with the damnation of\ndevils, with the damnation of hell, and therefore it is a deadly,\ndeadly sin. Now against this deadly sin is set the grace of\nhumility; that comely garment, for so the apostle calls it, saying,\n\"be clothed with humility.\" But the question is now, how we should\nattain to, and live in, the exercise of this blessed and comely\ngrace? to which the apostle answers, Fear; be afraid with godly fear,\nand thence will flow humility--\"Be not high-minded, but fear.\" That\nis, Fear, or be continually afraid and jealous of yourselves, and\nof your own naughty hearts, also fear lest at some time or other\nthe devil, your adversary, should have advantage of you. Fear,\nlest by forgetting what you are by nature, you also forget the need\nthat you have of continual pardon, support, and supplies from the\nSpirit of grace, and so grow proud of your own abilities, or of\nwhat you have received of God, and fall into the condemnation of\nthe devil. Fear, and that will make you little in your own eyes,\nkeep you humble, put you upon crying to God for protection, and\nupon lying at his foot for mercy; that will also make you have low\nthoughts of your own parts, your own doings, and cause you to prefer\nyour brother before yourself, and so you will walk in humiliation,\nand be continually under the teachings of God, and under his conduct\nin your way. The humble, God will teach--\"The meek will he guide\nin judgment, the meek will he teach his way.\" From this grace of\nfear then flows this excellent and comely thing, humility; yea, it\nalso is maintained by this fear. Fear takes off a man from trusting\nto himself, it puts a man upon trying of all things, it puts a man\nupon desiring counsel and help from heaven, it makes a man ready\nand willing to hear instruction, and makes a man walk lowly, softly,\nand so securely in the way.\n\nEleventh. There flows from this grace of fear, hope in the mercy\nof God--\"The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them\nthat hope in his mercy\" (Psa 147:11). The latter part of the text\nis an explanation of the former: as if the psalmist had said, They\nbe the men that fear the Lord, even they that hope in his mercy;\nfor true fear produceth hope in God's mercy. And it is further\nmanifest thus. Fear, true fear of God inclineth the heart to a\nserious inquiry after that way of salvation which God himself hath\nprescribed; now the way that God hath appointed, by the which the\nsinner is to obtain the salvation of his soul, is his mercy as so\nand so set forth in the Word, and godly fear hath special regard\nto the Word. To this way, therefore, the sinner with this godly\nfear submits his soul, rolls himself upon it, and so is delivered\nfrom that death into which others, for want of this fear of God,\ndo headlong fall.\n\nIt is, as I also hinted before, the nature of godly fear to be very\nmuch putting the soul upon the inquiry which is, and which is not,\nthe thing approved of God, and accordingly to embrace it or shun\nit. Now I say, this fear having put the soul upon a strict and\nserious inquiry after the way of salvation, at last it finds it to\nbe by the mercy of God in Christ; therefore this fear putteth the\nsoul upon hoping also in him for eternal life and blessedness; by\nwhich hope he doth not only secure his soul, but becomes a portion\nof God's delight--\"The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him,\nin them that hope in his mercy.\"\n\nBesides, this godly fear carrieth in it self-evidence that the state\nof the sinner is happy, because possessed with this happy grace.\nTherefore, as John saith, \"We know we have passed from death unto\nlife, because we love the brethren\" (1 John 3:14). So here, \"The\nLord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in\nhis mercy.\" If I fear God, and if my fearing of him is a thing in\nwhich he taketh such pleasure, then may I boldly venture to roll\nmyself for eternal life into the bosom of his mercy, which is\nChrist. This fear also produceth hope; if therefore, poor sinner,\nthou knowest thyself to be one that is possessed with this fear of\nGod, suffer thyself to be persuaded therefore to hope in the mercy\nof God for salvation, for the Lord takes pleasure in thee. And it\ndelights him to see thee hope in his mercy.\n\nTwelfth. There floweth from this godly fear of God an honest and\nconscientious use of all those means which God hath ordained, that\nwe should be conversant in for our attaining salvation. Faith and\nhope in God's mercy is that which secureth our justification and\nhope, and as you have heard, they do flow from this fear. But now,\nbesides faith and hope, there is a course of life in those things\nin which God hath ordained us to have our conversation, without\nwhich there is no eternal life. \"Ye have your fruit unto holiness,\nand the end everlasting life\"; and again, \"without holiness no man\nshall see the Lord.\" Not that faith and hope are deficient, if they\nbe right, but they are both of them counterfeit when not attended\nwith a reverent use of all the means: upon the reverent use of which\nthe soul is put by this grace of fear. \"Wherefore, beloved,\" said\nPaul, \"as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but\nnow much more in mine absence, work out your own salvation with\nfear and trembling\" (Rom 6:22; Heb 12:14; Phil 2:11).\n\nThere is a faith and hope of mercy that may deceive a man (though\nthe faith of God's elect, and the hope that purifies the heart\nnever will), because they are alone, and not attended with those\ncompanions that accompany salvation (Heb 6:3-8). But now this godly\nfear carries in its bowels, not only a moving of the soul to faith\nand hope in God's mercy, but an earnest provocation to the holy\nand reverent use of all the means that God has ordained for a man\nto have his conversation in, in order to his eternal salvation.\n\"Work out your salvation with fear.\" Not that work is meritorious,\nor such that can purchase eternal life, for eternal life is obtained\nby hope in God's mercy; but this hope, if it be right, is attended\nwith this godly fear, which fear putteth the soul upon a diligent\nuse of all those means that may tend to the strengthening of hope,\nand so to the making of us holy in all manner of conversation, that\nwe may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in\nlight. For hope purifieth the heart, if fear of God shall be its\ncompanion, and so maketh a man a vessel of mercy prepared unto\nglory. Paul bids Timothy to fly pride, covetousness, doting about\nquestions, and the like, and to \"follow after righteousness,\ngodliness, faith, love, patience; to fight the good fight of faith,\nand to lay hold on eternal life\" (1 Tim 6).\n\nSo Peter bids that we \"add to our faith virtue; and to virtue\nknowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience;\nand to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness;\nand to brotherly kindness charity\"; adding, \"for if these things\nbe in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren\nnor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore\nthe rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and\nelection sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For\nso an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the\neverlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ\" (2 Peter\n1:5-11). The sum of all which is that which was mentioned before;\nto wit, \"to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.\"\nFor none of these things can be conscientiously done, but by and\nwith the help of this blessed grace of fear.\n\nThirteenth. There flows from this fear, this godly fear, a great delight\nin the holy commands of God, that is, a delight to be conformable\nunto them. \"Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth\ngreatly in his commandments\" (Psa 112:1). This confirmeth that\nwhich was said before, to wit, that this fear provoketh to a holy\nand reverent use of the means; for that cannot be, when there is\nnot an holy, yea, a great delight in the commandments. Wherefore\nthis fear maketh the sinner to abhor that which is sin, because that\nis contrary to the object of his delight. A man cannot delight\nhimself at the same time in things directly opposite one to another,\nas sin and the holy commandment is; therefore Christ saith of the\nservant, he cannot love God and mammon--\"Ye cannot serve God and\nmammon.\" If he cleaves to the one, he must hate and despise the\nother; there cannot at the same time be service to both, because\nthat themselves are at enmity one with the other. So is sin\nand the commandment. Therefore if a man delighteth himself in the\ncommandment, he hateth that which is opposite, which is sin: how\nmuch more when he greatly delighteth in the commandment? Now, this\nholy fear of God it taketh the heart and affections from sin, and\nsetteth them upon the holy commandment. Therefore such a man is\nrightly esteemed blessed. For no profession makes a man blessed\nbut that which is accompanied with an alienation of the heart from\nsin, nor doth anything do that when this holy fear is wanting.\nIt is from this fear then, that love to, and delight in, the holy\ncommandment floweth, and so by that the sinner is kept from those\nfalls and dangers of miscarrying that other professors are so\nsubject to: he greatly delights in the commandment.\n\nFourteenth. Lastly, There floweth from this fear of God, enlargement\nof heart. \"Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart\nshall fear, and be enlarged\" (Isa 60:5). \"Thine heart shall fear,\nand be enlarged,\" enlarged to God-ward, enlarged to his ways,\nenlarged to his holy people, enlarged in love after the salvation\nof others. Indeed when this fear of God is wanting, though the\nprofession be never so famous, the heart is shut up and straitened,\nand nothing is done in that princely free spirit which is called\n\"the spirit of the fear of the Lord\" (Psa 51:12; Isa 11:2). But with\ngrudging, legally, or with desire of vain-glory, this enlargedness\nof heart is wanting, for that flows from this fear of the Lord.\n\nThus have I showed you both what this fear of God is, what it flows\nfrom, and also what doth flow from it. I come now to show you some\n\nOF THE PRIVILEGES OF THEM THAT THUS DO FEAR THE LORD.\n\nHaving thus briefly handled in particular thus far this fear of\nGod, I shall now show you certain of the excellent privileges of\nthem that fear the Lord, not that they are not privileges that have\nbeen already mentioned; for what greater privileges than to have\nthis fear producing in the soul such excellent things so necessary\nfor us for good, both with reference to this world, and that which\nis to come? But because those fourteen above named do rather flow\nfrom this grace of fear where it is, than from a promise to the\nperson that hath it, therefore I have chosen rather to discourse\nof them as the fruits and effects of fear, than otherwise. Now,\nbesides all these, there is entailed by promise to the man that hath\nthis fear many other blessed privileges, the which I shall now in\na brief way lay open unto you.\n\nFirst Privilege, then. That man that feareth the Lord, has a grant\nand a license \"to trust in the Lord,\" with an affirmation that\nhe is their help, and their shield--\"Ye that fear the Lord, trust\nin the Lord; he is their help and their shield\" (Psa 115:11). Now\nwhat a privilege is this! an exhortation in general to sinners, as\nsinners, to trust in him, is a privilege great and glorious; but\nfor a man to be singled out from his neighbours, for a man to be\nspoken to from heaven, as it were by name, and to be told that God\nhath given him a license, a special and peculiar grant to trust in\nhim, this is abundantly more; and yet this is the grant that God\nhath given that man! He hath, I say, a license to do it--a license\nindicted by the Holy Ghost, and left upon record for those to be\nborn that shall fear the Lord, to trust in him. And not only so, but\nas the text affirmeth, \"he is their help and their shield.\" Their\nhelp under all their weaknesses and infirmities, and a shield to\ndefend them against all the assaults of the devil and this world.\nSo then, the man that feareth the Lord is licensed to make the\nLord his stay and God of his salvation, the succour and deliverer\nof his soul. He will defend him because his fear is in his heart.\nO ye servants of the Lord, ye that fear him, live in the comfort of\nthis; boldly make use of it when you are in straits, and put your\ntrust under the shadow of his wings, for indeed he would have you\ndo so, because you do fear the Lord.\n\nSecond Privilege. God hath also proclaimed concerning the man that\nfeareth the Lord, that he will also be his teacher and guide in\nthe way that he shall choose, and hath moreover promised concerning\nsuch, that their soul shall dwell at ease--\"What man is he that\nfeareth the Lord?\" says David, \"him shall he teach in the way that\nhe shall choose\" (Psa 25:12). Now, to be taught of God, what like\nit? yea, what like to be taught in the way that thou shalt choose?\nThou hast chosen the way to life, God's way; but perhaps thy\nignorance about it is so great, and those that tempt thee to turn\naside so many and so subtle, that they seem to outwit thee and\nconfound thee with their guile. Well, but the Lord whom thou fearest\nwill not leave thee to thy ignorance, nor yet to thine enemies'\npower or subtlety, but will take it upon himself to be thy teacher\nand thy guide, and that in the way that thou hast chosen. Hear,\nthen, and behold thy privilege, O thou that fearest the Lord; and\nwhoever wanders, turns aside, and swerveth from the way of salvation,\nwhoever is benighted, and lost in the midst of darkness, thou shalt\nfind the way to the heaven and the glory that thou hast chosen.\n\nFurther, He doth not only say, that he will teach them the way, for\nthat must of necessity be supplied, but he says also that he will\nteach such in it--\"Him shall he teach in the way that he shall\nchoose.\" This argueth that, as thou shalt know, so the way shall\nbe made, by the communion that thou shalt have with God therein,\nsweet and pleasant to thee. For this text promiseth unto the man\nthat feareth the Lord, the presence, company, and discovery of the\nmind of God, while he is going in the way that he hath chosen. It\nis said of the good scribe, that he is instructed unto, as well as\ninto, the way of the kingdom of God (Matt 13:52). Instructed unto;\nthat is, he hath the heart and mind of God still discovered to him\nin the way that he hath chosen, even all the way from this world\nto that which is to come, even until he shall come to the very gate\nand door of heaven. What the disciples said was the effect of the\npresence of Christ, to wit, \"that their hearts did burn within\nthem while he talked to them by the way,\" shall be also fulfilled\nin thee, he will meet with thee in the way, talk with thee in the\nway; he will teach thee in the way that thou shalt choose (Luke\n24:32).\n\nThird Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? he will open his secret\nunto thee, even that which he hath hid and keeps close from all\nthe world, to wit, the secret of his covenant and of thy concern\ntherein--\"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and\nhe will shew them his covenant\" (Psa 25:14). This, then, further\nconfirmeth what was said but just above; his secret shall be with\nthem, and his covenant shall be showed unto them. His secret, to\nwit, that which hath been kept hid from ages and generations; that\nwhich he manifesteth only to the saints, or holy ones; that is, his\nChrist, for he it is that is hid in God, and that no man can know\nbut he to whom the Father shall reveal him (Matt 11:27).\n\nBut O! what is there wrapped up in this Christ, this secret of God?\nwhy, all treasures of life, of heaven, and happiness--\"In him are\nhid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\" And \"in him dwelleth\nall the fulness of the Godhead bodily\" (Col 2).\n\nThis also is that hidden One, that is so full of grace to save\nsinners, and so full of truth and faithfulness to keep promise and\ncovenant with them, that their eyes must needs convey, even by\nevery glance they make upon his person, offices, and relation, such\naffecting ravishments to the heart, that it would please them that\nsee him, even to be killed with that sight. This secret of the\nLord shall be, nay is, with them that fear him, for he dwelleth in\ntheir heart by faith. \"And he will shew them his covenant.\" That is,\nthe covenant that is confirmed of God in Christ, that everlasting\nand eternal covenant, and show him too that he himself is wrapped\nup therein, as in a bundle of life with the Lord his God. These\nare the thoughts, purposes, and promises of God to them that fear\nhim.\n\nFourth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? his eye is always over\nthee for good, to keep thee from all evil--\"Behold the eye of the\nLord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;\nto deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine\"\n(Psa 33:18,19). His eye is upon them; that is, to watch over them\nfor good. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. His\neyes are upon them, and he will keep them as a shepherd doth his\nsheep; that is, from those wolves that seek to devour them, and\nto swallow them up in death. His eyes are upon them; for they are\nthe object of his delight, the rarities of the world, in whom, saith\nhe, is all my delight. His eye is upon them, as I said before, to\nteach and instruct them--\"I will instruct thee and teach thee in\nthe way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye\" (Psa\n32:8; 2 Chron 7:15,16). The eye of the Lord, therefore, is upon\nthem, not to take advantage of them, to destroy them for their sins,\nbut to guide, to help, and deliver them from death; from that death\nthat would feed upon their souls--\"To deliver their soul from\ndeath and to keep them alive in famine.\" Take death here for death\nspiritual, and death eternal; and the famine here, not for that\nthat is for want of bread and water, but for that which comes on\nmany for want of the Word of the Lord (Rev 20:14; Amos 8:11,12);\nand then the sense is this, the man that feareth the Lord shall\nneither die spiritually nor eternally; for God will keep him with\nhis eye from all those things that would in such a manner kill\nhim. Again, should there be a famine of the Word; should there want\nboth the Word and them that preach it in the place that thou dost\ndwell, yet bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure;\nthou shalt not die of the famine, because thou fearest God. I say,\nthat man shall not, behold he shall not, because he feareth God,\nand this the next head doth yet more fully manifest.\n\nFifth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? fear him for this advantage\nmore and more--\"O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want\nto them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger,\nbut they that seek the Lord,\" that fear him, \"shall not want any\ngood thing\" (Psa 34:9,10). Not anything that God sees good for them\nshall those men want that fear the Lord. If health will do them\ngood, if sickness will do them good, if riches will do them good,\nif poverty will do them good, if life will do them good, if death\nwill do them good, then they shall not want them, neither shall any\nof these come nigh them, if they will not do them good. The lions,\nthe wicked people [19] of the world that fear not God, are not\nmade sharers in this great privilege; all things fall out to them\ncontrary, because they fear not God. In the midst of their sufficiency,\nthey are in want of that good that God puts into the worst things\nthat the man that feareth God doth meet with in the world.\n\nSixth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? he hath given charge to the\narmies of heaven to look after, take charge of, to camp about,\nand to deliver thee--\"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about\nthem that fear him, and delivereth them\" (Psa 34:7). This also is\na privilege entailed to them that in all generations fear the Lord.\nThe angels, the heavenly creatures, have it in commission to take\nthe charge of them that fear the Lord; one of them is able to slay of\nmen in one night 185,000. These are they that camped about Elisha\nlike horses of fire, and chariots of fire, when the enemy came\nto destroy him. They also helped Hezekiah against the band of the\nenemy, because he feared God (2 Kings 6:17; Isa 37:36; Jer 26:19).\n\"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them\"; that is, lest\nthe enemy should set upon them on any side; but let him come where\nhe will, behind or before, on this side or that, the angel of the\nLord is there to defend them. \"The angel.\" It may be spoken in the\nsingular number, perhaps, to show that every one that feareth God\nhath his angel to attend on him, and serve him. When the church,\nin the Acts, was told that Peter stood at the door and knocked; at\nfirst they counted the messenger mad, but when she did constantly\naffirm it, they said, It is his angel (Acts 12:13-15). So Christ\nsaith of the children that came unto him, \"their angels behold\nthe face of my Father which is in heaven.\" Their angels; that is,\nthose of them that feared God, had each of them his angel, who had\na charge from God to keep them in their way. We little think of\nthis, yet this is the privilege of them that fear the Lord; yea,\nif need be, they shall all come down to help them and to deliver\nthem, rather than, contrary to the mind of their God, they should\nby any be abused--\"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth\nto minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?\" (Heb 1:14).\n\n[Quest.] But how do they deliver them? for so says the text--\"The\nangel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and\ndelivereth them.\" Answ. The way that they take to deliver them\nthat fear the Lord, is sometimes by smiting of their enemies with\nblindness, that they may not find them; and so they served the\nenemies of Lot (Gen 19:10,11). Sometimes by smiting of them with\ndeadly fear; and so they served those that laid siege against\nSamaria (2 Kings 7:6). And sometimes by smiting of them even with\ndeath itself; and thus they served Herod, after he had attempted\nto kill the apostle James, and also sought to vex certain others of\nthe church (Acts 12). These angels that are servants to them that\nfear the Lord, are them that will, if God doth bid them, revenge\nthe quarrel of his servants upon the stoutest monarch on earth.\nThis, therefore, is a glorious privilege of the men that fear the\nLord. Alas! they are, some of them, so mean that they are counted\nnot worth taking notice of by the high ones of the world; but their\nbetters do respect them. The angels of God count not themselves\ntoo good to attend on them, and camp about them to deliver them.\nThis, then, is the man that hath his angel to wait upon him, even\nhe that feareth God.\n\nSeventh Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? salvation is nigh unto\nthee--\"Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory\nmay dwell in our land\" (Psa 85:9). This is another privilege for\nthem that fear the Lord. I told you before, that the angel of the\nLord did encamp about them, but now he saith, \"his salvation is\nalso nigh them\"; the which although it doth not altogether exclude\nthe conduct of angels,[20] but include them; yet it looketh further.\n\"Surely his salvation,\" his saving, pardoning grace, \"is nigh them\nthat fear him\"; that is, to save them out of the hand of their\nspiritual enemies. The devil, and sin, and death, do always wait\neven to devour them that fear the Lord, but to deliver them from\nthese his salvation doth attend them. So then, if Satan tempts,\nhere is their salvation nigh; if sin, by breaking forth, beguiles\nthem, here is God's salvation nigh them; yea, if death itself shall\nsuddenly seize upon them, why, here is their God's salvation nigh\nthem.\n\nI have seen that great men's little children must go no whither\nwithout their nurses be at hand. If they go abroad, their nurses\nmust go with them; if they go to meals, their nurses must go with\nthem; if they go to bed, their nurses must go with them; yea, and\nif they fall asleep, their nurses must stand by them. O my brethren,\nthose little ones that fear the Lord, they are the children of the\nhighest, therefore they shall not walk alone, be at their spiritual\nmeats alone, go to their sick-beds, or to their graves alone; the\nsalvation of their God is nigh them, to deliver them from the evil.\nThis is then the glory that dwells in the land of them that fear\nthe Lord.\n\nEighth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? hearken yet again--\"The\nmercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them\nthat fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children\" (Psa\n103:17). This still confirms what was last asserted, that is, that\nhis salvation is nigh unto them. His salvation, that is, pardoning\nmercy, that is nigh them. But mind it, there he says it is nigh\nthem; but here it is upon them. His mercy is upon them, it covereth\nthem all over, it encompasseth them about as with a shield. Therefore\nthey are said in another place to be clothed with salvation,\nand covered with the robe of righteousness. The mercy of the Lord\nis upon them, that is, as I said, to shelter and defend them. The\nmercy, the pardoning preserving mercy, the mercy of the Lord is\nupon them, who is he then that can condemn them? (Rom 8).\n\nBut there yet is more behind, \"The mercy of the Lord is from\neverlasting to everlasting upon them.\" It was designed for them\nbefore the world was, and shall be upon them when the world itself\nis ended; from everlasting to everlasting it is on them that fear\nhim. This from everlasting to everlasting is that by which, in another\nplace, the eternity of God himself is declared--\"From everlasting\nto everlasting, thou art God\" (Psa 90:2). The meaning, then, may\nbe this; that so long as God hath his being, so long shall the\nman that feareth him find mercy at his hand. According to that\nof Moses--\"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the\neverlasting arms; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before\nthee, and shall say, Destroy them\" (Deut 33:27).\n\nChild of God, thou that fearest God, here is mercy nigh thee, mercy\nenough, everlasting mercy upon thee. This is long-lived mercy. It\nwill live longer than thy sin, it will live longer than temptation,\nit will live longer than thy sorrows, it will live longer than thy\npersecutors. It is mercy from everlasting to contrive thy salvation,\nand mercy to everlasting to weather it out with all thy adversaries.\nNow what can hell and death do to him that hath this mercy of God\nupon him? And this hath the man that feareth the Lord. Take that\nother blessed word, and O thou man that fearest the Lord, hang it\nlike a chain of gold about thy neck--\"As the heaven is high above\nthe earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him\" (Psa\n103:11). If mercy as big, as high, and as good as heaven itself\nwill be a privilege, the man that feareth God shall have a privilege.\n\nNinth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?--\"Like as a father pitieth\nhis children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him\" (Psa 103:13).\n\n\" The Lord pitieth them that fear him\"; that is, condoleth and is\naffected, feeleth and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions.\nIt is a great matter for a poor man to be in this manner in the\naffections of the great and mighty, but for a poor sinner to be\nthus in the heart and affections of God, and they that fear him are\nso, this is astonishing to consider. \"In his love and in his pity\nhe redeemed them.\" In his love and in his pity! \"In all their\naffliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved\nthem; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare\nthem, and carried them all the days of old\" (Isa 63:9). I say, in\nthat he is said to pity them, it is as much as to say, he condoleth,\nfeeleth, and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions and\ntemptations. So that this is the happiness of him that feareth God,\nhe has a God to pity him and to be touched with all his miseries.\nIt is said in Judges, \"His soul was grieved for the misery of\nIsrael\" (Judg 10:16). And in the Hebrews, he is \"touched with the\nfeeling of our infirmities,\" and can \"succour them that are tempted\"\n(4:15, 2:17,18).\n\nBut further, let us take notice of the comparison. \"As a father\npitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.\" Here\nis not only pity, but the pity of a relation, a father. It is said\nin another place; \"Can a woman,\" a mother, \"forget her sucking\nchild, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?\nyea, they may, yet will not I forget thee.\" The pity of neighbours\nand acquaintance helpeth in times of distress, but the pity of\na father and a mother is pity with an over and above. \"The Lord,\"\nsays James, \"is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.\" Pharaoh called\nJoseph his tender father,[21] because he provided for him against\nthe famine, but how tender a father is God! how full of bowels!\nhow full of pity! (James 5:11; Gen 41:43). It is said, that when\nEphraim was afflicted, God's bowels were troubled for him, and turned\nwithin him towards him. O that the man that feareth the Lord did\nbut believe the pity and bowels that are in the heart of God and\nhis father towards him (Jer 31:18-20).\n\nTenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?--\"He will fulfil the desire\nof them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save\nthem\" (Psa 145:19). Almost all those places that make mention of\nthe men that fear God, do insinuate as if they still were under\naffliction, or in danger by reason of an enemy. But I say, here\nis still their privilege, their God is their father and pities\nthem--\"He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him.\" Where now\nis the man that feareth the Lord? let him hearken to this. What\nsayest thou, poor soul? will this content thee, the Lord will fulfil\nthy desires? It is intimated of Adonijah, that David his father\ndid let him have his head and his will in all things. \"His father,\"\nsays the text, \"had not displeased him at any time in (so much as)\nsaying, Why hast thou done so?\" (1 Kings 1:6). But here is more,\nhere is a promise to grant thee the whole desire of thy heart,\naccording to the prayer of holy David, \"The Lord grant thee, according\nto thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.\" And again, \"The\nLord fulfil all thy petitions\" (Psa 20).\n\nO thou that fearest the Lord, what is thy desire? All my desire,\nsays David, is all my salvation (2 Sam 23:5), so sayest thou, \"All\nmy salvation\" is \"all my desire.\" Well, the desire of thy soul is\ngranted thee, yea, God himself hath engaged himself even to fulfil\nthis thy desire--\"He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him,\nhe also will hear their cry, and will save them.\" O this desire when\nit cometh, what a tree of life will it be to thee! Thou desirest\nto be rid of thy present trouble; the Lord shall rid thee out of\ntrouble. Thou desirest to be delivered from temptation; the Lord\nshall deliver thee out of temptation. Thou desirest to be delivered\nfrom thy body of death; and the Lord shall change this thy vile\nbody, that it may be like to his glorious body. Thou desirest to\nbe in the presence of God, and among the angels in heaven. This\nthy desire also shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt be made equal\nto the angels (Exo 6:6; 2 Peter 2:9; Phil 3:20,21; Luke 16:22,\n20:35,36). O but it is long first! Well, learn first to live upon\nthy portion in the promise of it, and that will make thy expectation\nof it sweet. God will fulfil thy desires, God will do it, though\nit tarry long. Wait for it, because it will surely come, it will\nnot tarry.\n\nEleventh Privilege. Dost thou fear God?--\"The Lord taketh pleasure\nin them that fear him\" (Psa 147:11). They that fear God are among\nhis chief delights. He delights in his Son, he delights in his works,\nand takes pleasure in them that fear him. As a man takes pleasure\nin his wife, in his children, in his gold, in his jewels; so the\nman that fears the Lord is the object of his delight. He takes\npleasure in their prosperity, and therefore sendeth them health from\nthe sanctuary, and makes them drink of the river of his pleasures\n(Psa 35:27). \"They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness\nof thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy\npleasures\" (Psa 36:8). That or those that we take pleasure in,\nthat or those we love to beautify and adorn with many ornaments.\nWe count no cost too much to be bestowed on those in whom we place\nour delight, and whom we make the object of our pleasure. And even\nthus it is with God. \"For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people,\"\nand what follows? \"he will beautify the meek with salvation\" (Psa\n149:4).\n\nThose in whom we delight, we take pleasure in their actions; yea,\nwe teach them, and give them such rules and laws to walk by, as may\nyet make them that we love more pleasurable in our eyes. Therefore\nthey that fear God, since they are the object of his pleasure, are\ntaught to know how to please him in everything (1 Thess 4:1). And\nhence it is said, that he is ravished with their looks, that he\ndelighteth in their cry, and that he is pleased with their walking\n(Can 4:9; Prov 15:8, 11:20).\n\nThose in whom we delight and take pleasure, many things we will\nbear and put up that they do, though they be not according to our\nminds. A man will suffer that in, and put up that at, the hand\nof the child or wife of his pleasure, that he will not pass by nor\nput up in another. They are my jewels, says God, even them that\nfear me; and I will spare them, in all their comings-short of my\nwill, \"even as a man spareth his own son that serveth him\" (Mal\n3:16,17). O how happy is the man that feareth God! His good thoughts,\nhis good attempts to serve him, and his good life pleases him,\nbecause he feareth God.\n\nYou know how pleasing in our eyes the actions of our children are,\nwhen we know that they do what they do even of a reverent fear and\nawe of us; yea, though that which they do amounts but to little, we\ntake it well at their hands, and are pleased therewith. The woman\nthat cast in her two mites into the treasury, cast in not much, for\nthey both did but make one farthing; yet how doth the Lord Jesus\ntrumpet her up,[22] he had pleasure in her, and in her action (Mark\n12:41-44). This, therefore, that the Lord taketh pleasure in them\nthat fear him, is another of their great privileges.\n\nTwelfth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? the least dram of that fear\ngiveth the privilege to be blessed with the biggest saint--\"He will\nbless them that fear the Lord, small and great\" (Psa 115:13). This\nword small may be taken three ways--1. For those that are small\nin esteem, for those that are but little accounted of (Judg 6:15;\n1 Sam 18:23). Art thou small or little in this sense, yet if thou\nfearest God, thou art sure to be blessed. \"He will bless them that\nfear him, small and great,\" be thou never so small in the world's\neyes, in thine own eyes, in the saints' eyes, as sometimes one saint\nis little in another saint's eye; yet thou, because thou fearest\nGod, art put among the blessed. 2. By small, sometimes is meant\nthose that are but small of stature, or young in years, little\nchildren, that are easily passed by and looked over: as those that\nsang Hosanna in the temple were, when the Pharisees deridingly said\nof them to Christ, \"Hearest thou what these say?\" (Matt 21:16).\nWell, but Christ would not despise them, of them that feared God,\nbut preferred them by the Scripture testimony far before those that\ndid contemn them. Little children, how small soever, and although\nof never so small esteem with men, shall also, if they fear the\nLord, be blessed with the greatest saints--\"He will bless them\nthat fear him, small and great.\" 3. By small may sometimes be meant\nthose that are small in grace or gifts; these are said to be the\nleast in the church, that is, under this consideration, and so are\nby it least esteemed (Matt 25:45). Thus also is that of Christ to\nbe understood, \"Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of\nthese, ye did it not to me\" (1 Cor 6:4).\n\nArt thou in thine own thoughts, or in the thoughts of others, of\nthese last small ones, small in grace, small in gifts, small in\nesteem upon this account, yet if thou fearest God, if thou fearest\nGod indeed, thou art certainly blessed with the best of saints. The\nleast star stands as fixed, as the biggest of them all, in heaven.\n\"He will bless them that fear him, small and great.\" He will bless\nthem, that is, with the same blessing of eternal life. For the\ndifferent degrees of grace in saints doth not make the blessing,\nas to its nature, differ. It is the same heaven, the same life,\nthe same glory, and the same eternity of felicity that they are\nin the text promised to be blessed with. That is observable which\nI mentioned before, where Christ at the day of judgment particularly\nmentioneth and owneth the least--\"Inasmuch as ye did it not to one\nof the least.\" The least then was there, in his kingdom and in his\nglory, as well as the biggest of all. \"He will bless them that fear\nhim, small and great.\" The small are named first in the text, and\nare so the first in rank; it may be to show that though they may\nbe slighted and little set by in the world, yet they are much set\nby in the eyes of the Lord.\n\nAre great saints only to have the kingdom, and the glory everlasting?\nAre great works only to be rewarded? works that are done by virtue\nof great grace, and the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost?\nNo: \"Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones\na cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say\nunto you, he shall in no wise lose his (a disciple's) reward.\" Mark,\nhere is but a little gift, a cup of cold water, and that given to\na little saint, but both taken special notice of by our Lord Jesus\nChrist (Matt 10:42). \"He will give reward to his servants the\nprophets, and to his saints, and to them that fear his name, small\nand great\" (Rev 11:18). The small, therefore, among them that\nfear God, are blessed with the great, as the great, with the same\nsalvation, the same glory, and the same eternal life; and they\nshall have, even as the great ones also shall, as much as they can\ncarry; as much as their hearts, souls, bodies, and capacities can\nhold.\n\nThirteenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? why, the Holy Ghost\nhath on purpose indited for thee a whole psalm to sing concerning\nthyself. So that thou mayest even as thou art in thy calling, bed,\njourney, or whenever, sing out thine own blessed and happy condition\nto thine own comfort and the comfort of thy fellows. The psalm is\ncalled the 128th Psalm; I will set it before thee, both as it is\nin the reading[23] and in the singing Psalms--\n\n\" Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his\nways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt\nthou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a\nfruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children, like olive\nplants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be\nblessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of\nZion; and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy\nlife. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon\nIsrael.\"\n\nAS IT IS SUNG.\n\nBlessed art thou that fearest God, And walkest in his way: For of\nthy labour thou shalt eat; Happy art thou, I say! Like fruitful\nvines on thy house side, So doth thy wife spring out; Thy children\nstand like olive plants Thy table round about.\n\nThus art thou blest that fearest God, And he shall let thee see\nThe promised Jerusalem, And her felicity. Thou shalt thy children's\nchildren see, To thy great joy's increase; And likewise grace on\nIsrael, Prosperity and peace.[24]\n\nAnd now I have done with the privileges when I have removed one\nobjection.\n\nObject. But the Scripture says, \"perfect love casteth our fear\";\nand therefore it seems that saints, after that a spirit of adoption\nis come, should not fear, but do their duty, as another Scripture\nsaith, without it (1 John 4:18; Luke 1:74,75).\n\nAnsw. Fear, as I have showed you, may be taken several ways. 1.\nIt may be taken for the fear of devils. 2. It may be taken for the\nfear of reprobates. 3. It may be taken for the fear that is wrought\nin the godly by the Spirit as a spirit of bondage; or, 4. It may\nbe taken for the fear that I have been but now discoursing of.\n\nNow the fear that perfect love casts out cannot be that son-like,\ngracious fear of God, that I have in this last place been treating\nof; because that fear that love casts out hath torment, but so has\nnot the son-like fear. Therefore the fear that love casts out is\neither that fear that is like the fear of devils and reprobates,\nor that fear that is begot in the heart by the Spirit of God as a\nspirit of bondage, or both; for, indeed, all these kinds of fear\nhave torment, and therefore may be cast out; and are so by the\nspirit of adoption, which is called the spirit of faith and love,\nwhen he comes with power into the soul; so that without this fear\nwe should serve him. But to argue from these texts that we ought\nnot to fear God, or to mix fear with our worship of him, is as much\nas to say that by the spirit of adoption we are made very rogues;\nfor not to fear God is by the Scripture applied to such (Luke\n23:40). But for what I have affirmed the Scripture doth plentifully\nconfirm, saying, \"Happy is the man that feareth alway.\" And again,\n\"It shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.\"\nFear, therefore; the spirit of the fear of the Lord is a grace\nthat greatly beautifies a Christian, his words, and all his ways:\n\"Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed, and\ndo it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect\nof persons, nor taking of gifts\" (2 Chron 19:7).\n\nI come now to make some use and application of this doctrine.\n\nTHE USE OF THIS DOCTRINE.\n\nHaving proceeded thus far about this doctrine of the fear of God,\nI now come to make some use and application of the whole; and my\n\n[USE FIRST, of Examination.]\n\nFIRST USE shall be a USE OF EXAMINATION. Is this fear of God such\nan excellent thing? Is it attended with so many blessed privileges?\nThen this should put us, every soul of us, upon a diligent examination\nof ourselves, to wit, whether this grace be in us or not, for if\nit be, then thou art one of these blessed ones to whom belong these\nglorious privileges, for thou hast an interest in every of them;\nbut if it shall appear that this grace is not in thee, then thy\nstate is fearfully miserable, as hath partly been manifest already,\nand will further be seen in what comes after. Now, the better to\nhelp thee to consider, and not to miss in finding out what thou art\nin thy self-examination, I will speak to this--First. In general.\nSecond. In particular.\n\nFirst. In general. No man brings this grace into the world with\nhim. Every one by nature is destitute of it; for naturally none\nfear God, there is no fear of God, none of this grace of fear before\ntheir eyes, they do not so much as know what it is; for this fear\nflows, as was showed before, from a new heart, faith, repentance\nand the like; of which new heart, faith, and repentance, if thou be\nvoid, thou art also void of this godly fear. Men must have a mighty\nchange of heart and life, or else they are strangers to this fear\nof God. Alas, how ignorant are the most of this! Yea, and some\nare not afraid to say they are not changed, nor desire so to be.\nCan these fear God? can these be possessed with this grace of fear?\nNo: \"Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God\"\n(Psa 55:19; Psa 36:1; Rom 3:18).\n\nWherefore, sinner, consider whoever thou art that art destitute\nof this fear of God, thou art void of all other graces; for this\nfear, as also I have showed, floweth from the whole stock of grace\nwhere it is. There is not one of the graces of the Spirit, but\nthis fear is in the bowels of it; yea, as I may say, this fear is\nthe flower and beauty of every grace; neither is there anything,\nlet it look as much like grace as it will, that will be counted so\nindeed, if the fruit thereof be not this fear of God; wherefore,\nI say again, consider well of this matter, for as thou shalt be\nfound with reference to this grace, so shall thy judgment be. I\nhave but briefly treated of this grace, yet have endeavoured, with\nwords as fit as I could, to display it in its colours before thy\nface, first by showing you what this fear of God is, then what it\nflows from, as also what doth flow from it; to which, as was said\nbefore, I have added several privileges that are annexed to this\nfear, that by all, if it may be, thou mayest see it if thou hast\nit, and thyself without it if thou hast it not. Wherefore I refer\nthee thither again for information in this thing; or if thou art\nloath to give the book a second reading, but wilt go on to the end\nnow thou art gotten hither; then\n\nSecond and particularly, I conclude with these several propositions\nconcerning those that fear not God.\n\n1. That man that is proud, and of a high and lofty mind, fears not\nGod. This is plain from the exhortation, \"Be not high-minded, but\nfear\" (Rom 11:20). Here you see that a high mind and the fear of\nGod are set in direct opposition the one to the other; and there\nis in them, closely concluded by the apostle, that where indeed\nthe one is, there cannot be the other; where there is a high mind,\nthere is not the fear of God; and where there is the fear of God,\nthe mind is not high but lowly. Can a man at the same time be a\nproud man, and fear God too? Why, then, is it said God beholdeth\nevery one that is proud, and abases him? and again, He beholds the\nproud afar off? He therefore that is proud of his person, of his\nriches, of his office, of his parts, and the like, feareth not God.\nIt is also manifest further, for God resisteth the proud, which he\nwould not do, if he feared him, but in that he sets him at such a\ndistance from him, in that he testifies that he will abase him and\nresist him, it is evident that he is not the man that hath this\ngrace of fear; for that man, as I have showed you, is the man of\nGod's delight, the object of his pleasure (Psa 138:6; James 4:6;\n1 Peter 5:5; Mal 4:1).\n\n2. The covetous man feareth not God. This also is plain from\nthe Word, because it setteth covetousness and the fear of God in\ndirect opposition. Men that fear God are said to hate covetousness\n(Exo 18:21). Besides, the covetous man is called an idolater, and\nis said to have no part in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And\nagain, \"The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the\ncovetous, whom the Lord abhorreth\" (Eze 33:31; Eph 5:5; Psa 10:3).\nHearken to this, you that hunt the world to take it, you that care\nnot how you get, so you get the world. Also you that make even\nreligion your stalking-horse to get the world, you fear not God.\nAnd what will you do whose hearts go after your covetousness? you\nwho are led by covetousness up and down, as it were by the nose;\nsometimes to swear, to lie, to cozen, and cheat and defraud, when\nyou can get the advantage to do it. You are far, very far, from the\nfear of God. \"Ye adulterers and adulteresses,\" for so the covetous\nare called, \"know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity\nwith God? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is\nthe enemy of God\" (James 4:4).\n\n3. The riotous eaters of flesh have not the fear of God. For this\nis done \"without fear\" (Jude 12). Gluttony is a sin little taken\nnotice of, and as little repented of by those that use it, but\nyet it is odious in the sight of God, and the practice of it a\ndemonstration of the want of his fear in the heart: yea, so odious\nis it, that God forbids that his people should so much as company\nwith such. \"Be not,\" saith he, \"among wine-bibbers, among riotous\neaters of flesh\" (Prov 23:20). And he further tells us, that they\nthat are such, are spots and blemishes to those that keep them\ncompany, for indeed they fear not God (2 Peter 2:13; Rom 13:13;\n1 Peter 4:4). Alas! some men are as if they were for nought else\nborn but to eat and to drink, and pamper their carcasses with the\ndainties of this world, quite forgetting why God sent them hither;\nbut such, as is said, fear not God, and so consequently are of the\nnumber of them upon whom the day of judgment will come at unawares\n(Luke 21:34).\n\n4. The liar is one that fears not God. This also is evident from\nthe plain text, \"Thou hast lied,\" saith the Lord, \"and hast not\nremembered me, nor laid it to thy heart: have not I held my peace\neven of old,\" saith the Lord, \"and thou fearest me not?\" (Isa\n57:11). What lie this was is not material; it was a lie, or a course\nof lying that is here rebuked, and the person or persons in this\npractice, as is said, were such as feared not God; a course of lying\nand the fear of God cannot stand together. This sin of lying is a\ncommon sin, and it walketh in the world in several guises. There\nis the profane scoffing liar, there is the cunning artificial liar,\nthere is the hypocritical religious liar, with liars of other ranks\nand degrees. But none of them all have the fear of God, nor shall\nany of them, they not repenting, escape the damnation of hell--\"All\nliars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire\nand brimstone\" (Rev 21:8). Heaven and the New Jerusalem are not a\nplace for such--\"And there shall in no wise enter into it anything\nthat defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh\na lie\" (v 27). Therefore another scripture says that all liars are\nwithout--\"For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,\nand murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a\nlie\" (Rev 22:15). But this should not be their sentence, judgment,\nand condemnation, if they that are liars were such as had in them\nthis blessed fear of God.\n\n5. They fear not God who cry unto him for help in the time of their\ncalamity, and when they are delivered, they return to their former\nrebellion. This, Moses, in a spirit of prophecy, asserteth at the\ntime of the mighty judgment of the hail. Pharaoh then desired him\nto pray to God that he would take away that judgment from him. Well,\nso I will, said Moses, \"But as for thee and thy servants, I know\nthat ye will not yet fear the Lord God\" (Exo 9:30). As who should\nsay, I know that so soon as this judgment is removed, you will to\nyour old rebellion again. And what greater demonstration can be\ngiven that such a man feareth not God, than to cry to God to be\ndelivered from affliction to prosperity, and to spend that prosperity\nin rebellion against him? This is crying for mercies that they may\nbe spent, or that we may have something to spend upon our lusts,\nand in the service of Satan (John 4:1-3). Of these God complains in\nthe sixteenth of Ezekiel, and in the second of Hosea--\"Thou hast,\"\nsaith God, \"taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which\nI had given thee, and madest to thyself images\" &c. (Eze 16:17).\nThis was for want of the fear of God. Many of this kind there be\nnow in the world, both of men, and women, and children; art not\nthou that readest this book of this number? Hast thou not cried\nfor health when sick, for wealth when poor, when lame for strength,\nwhen in prison for liberty, and then spent all that thou gottest\nby thy prayer in the service of Satan, and to gratify thy lusts?\nLook to it, sinner, these things are signs that with thy heart thou\nfearest not God.\n\n6. They fear not God that way-lay his people and seek to overthrow\nthem, or to turn them besides the right path, as they are journeying\nfrom hence to their eternal rest. This is evident from the plain\ntext, \"Remember,\" saith God, \"what Amalek did unto thee by the way\nwhen ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way,\nand smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind\nthee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God\" (Deut\n25:17,18). Many such Amalekites there be now in the world that set\nthemselves against the feeble of the flock, against the feeble of\nthe flock especially, still smiting them, some by power, some with\nthe tongue, some in their lives and estates, some in their names and\nreputations, by scandals, slanders, and reproach, but the reason\nof this their ungodly practice is this, they fear not God. For did\nthey fear him, they would be afraid to so much as think, much more\nof attempting to afflict and destroy, and calumniate the children\nof God; but such there have been, such there are, and such there\nwill be in the world, for all men fear not God.\n\n7. They fear not God who see his hand upon backsliders for their\nsins, and yet themselves will be backsliders also. \"I saw,\" saith\nGod, \"when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed\nadultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce,\nyet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played\nthe harlot also\" (Jer 3:8, 2:19). Judah saw that her sister was\nput away, and delivered by God into the hands of Shalmaneser, who\ncarried her away beyond Babylon, and yet, though she saw it, she\nwent and played the harlot also--a sign of great hardness of heart,\nand of the want of the fear of God indeed. For this fear, had it\nbeen in her heart, it would have taught her to have trembled at\nthe judgment that was executed upon her sister, and not to have\ngone and played the harlot also: and not to have done it while\nher sister's judgment was in sight and memory. But what is it that\na heart that is destitute of the fear of God will not do? No sin\ncomes amiss to such: yea, they will sin, they will do that themselves,\nfor the doing of which they believe some are in hell-fire, and all\nbecause they fear not God.\n\nBut pray observe, if those that take not warning when they see the\nhand of God upon backsliders, are said to have none of the fear\nof God, have they it, think you, that lay stumbling-blocks in the\nway of God's people, and use devices to cause them to backslide,\nyea, rejoice when they can do this mischief to any? and yet many\nof this sort there are in the world, that even rejoice when they\nsee a professor fall into sin, and go back from his profession, as\nif they had found some excellent thing.\n\n8. They fear not God who can look upon a land as wallowing in\nsin, and yet are not humbled at the sight thereof. \"Have ye,\" said\nGod by the prophet to the Jews, \"forgotten the wickedness of your\nfathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness\nof their wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah\nand in the streets of Jerusalem? They are not humbled to this day,\nneither have they feared, nor walked in my law\" (Jer 44:9,10).\nHere is a land full of wickedness, and none to bewail it, for they\nwanted the fear of God, and love to walk in his law. But how say\nyou, if they that are not humbled at their own and others' wickedness\nare said not to fear, or have the fear of God, what shall we think\nor say of such that receive, that nourish and rejoice in such\nwickedness? Do they fear God? Yea, what shall we say of such that\nare the inventors and promoters of wickedness, as of oaths, beastly\ntalk, or the like? Do they, do you think, fear God? Once again,\nwhat shall we say of such that cannot be content to be wicked\nthemselves, and to invent and rejoice in other men's wickedness,\nbut must hate, reproach, vilify and abuse those that they cannot\npersuade to be wicked? Do they fear God?\n\n9. They that take more heed to their own dreams than to the Word\nof God, fear not God. This also is plain from the Word--\"For in\nthe multitude of dreams, there are also divers vanities, but fear\nthou God\"; that is, take heed unto his Word (Eccl 5:7; Isa 8:20).\nHere the fearing of God is opposed to our overmuch heeding dreams:\nand there is implied, that it is for want of the fear of God that\nmen so much heed those things. What will they say to this that give\nmore heed to a suggestion that ariseth from their foolish hearts,\nor that is cast in thither by the devil, than they do to the holy\nWord of God? These are \"filthy dreamers.\" Also, what shall we\nsay to those that are more confident of the mercy of God to their\nsoul, because he hath blessed them with outward things, than they\nare afraid of his wrath and condemnation, though the whole of the\nWord of God doth fully verify the same? These are \"filthy dreamers\"\nindeed.\n\nA dream is either real, or so by way of semblance, and so some\nmen dream sleeping, and some waking (Isa 29:7). And as those that\na man dreams sleeping are caused either by God, Satan, business,\nflesh, or the like; so are they that a man dreams waking, to pass\nby those that we have in our sleep. Men, when bodily awake, may\nhave dreams, that is, visions from heaven; such are all they that\nhave a tendency to discover to the sinner his state, or the state\nof the church according to the Word. But those that are from Satan,\nbusiness, and the flesh, are such--especially the first and last,\nto wit, from Satan and the flesh--as tend to embolden men to hope\nfor good in a way disagreeing with the Word of God.[25]\n\nThese Jude calls \"filthy dreamers,\" such whose principles were\ntheir dreams, and they led them \"to defile the flesh,\" that is, by\nfornication and uncleanness; \"to despise dominion,\" that the reins\nmight be laid upon the neck of their lusts; \"to speak evil of\ndignities,\" of those that God had set over them, for their governing\nin all the law and testament of Christ, these dreamt that to live\nlike brutes, to be greedy of gain, and to take away for it, as Cain\nand Balaam did by their wiles, the lives of the owners thereof,\nwould go for good coin in the best of trials. These also Peter\nspeaks of (2 Peter 2). And he makes their dreams, that Jude calls\nso, their principle and errors in life and doctrine; you may read\nof them in that whole chapter, where they are called cursed children,\nand so by consequence such as fear not God.\n\n10. They fear not God, who are sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers,\nand that oppress the hireling of his wages. It is a custom with some\nmen to keep back by fraud from the hireling that which by covenant\nthey agreed to pay for their labour; pinching, I say, and paring\nfrom them their due that of right belongs to them, to the making of\nthem cry in \"the ears of the Lord of sabaoth\" (James 5:4). These\nfear not God; they are reckoned among the worst of men, and in\ntheir day of account God himself will bear witness against them.\n\"And I,\" saith God, \"will come near to you to judgment; and I will\nbe a swift witness against the adulterers, and against the false\nswearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,\nthe widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from\nhis right, and fear not me, saith the Lord\" (Mal 3:5).\n\n11. They fear not God, who instead of pitying of, rail at God's\npeople in their affliction, temptations, and persecutions, and\nrather rejoice and skip for joy, than sympathize with them in their\nsorrow. Thus did David's enemies, thus did Israel's enemies, and\nthus did the thief, he railed at Christ when he hanged upon the\ncross, and was for that, even by his fellow, accounted for one\nthat feared not God (Luke 23:40; Psa 35:1,22-26. Read Oba 10-15;\nJer 48:2-6). This is a common thing among the children of men, even\nto rejoice at the hurt of them that fear God, and it ariseth even\nof an inward hatred to godliness. They hate you, saith Christ,\nbecause they hated me. Therefore Christ takes what is done to his,\nin this, as done unto himself, and so to holiness of life. But\nthis falls hard upon such as despise at, and rejoice to see, God's\npeople in their griefs, and that take the advantage, as dogged\nShimei did, to augment the griefs and afflictions of God's people\n(2 Sam 16:5-8). These fear not God, they do this of enmity, and\ntheir sin is such as will hardly be blotted out (1 Kings 2:8,9).\n\n12. They fear not God, who are strangers to the effects of fear.\n\"If I be a master, where is my fear?\" That is, show that I am so\nby your fear of me in the effects of your fear of me. \"You offer\npolluted bread upon mine altar.\" This is not a sign that you fear\nme, ye offer the blind for sacrifices, where is my fear? ye offer\nthe lame and the sick, these are not the effects of the fear of\nGod (Mal 1:6-8). Sinner, it is one thing to say, I fear God, and\nanother to fear him indeed. Therefore, as James says, show me thy\nfaith by thy works, so here God calls for a testimony of thy fear\nby the effects of fear. I have already showed you several effects\nof fear; if thou art a stranger to them, thou art a stranger to this\ngrace of fear. Therefore, to conclude this, it is not a feigned\nprofession that will do; nothing is good here, but what is salted\nwith this fear of God, and they that fear him are men of truth,\nmen of singleness of heart, perfect, upright, humble, holy men;\nwherefore, reader, examine, and again, I say examine, and lay the\nWord and thy heart together, before that thou concludest that thou\nfearest God.\n\nWhat! fear God, and in a state of nature? fear God without a change\nof heart and life? What! fear God and be proud, and covetous,\na wine-bibber, and a riotous eater of flesh? How! fear God and a\nliar, and one that cries for mercies to spend them upon thy lusts?\nThis would be strange. True, thou mayest fear as devils do, but\nwhat will that profit? Thou mayest by thy fear be driven away from\nGod, from his worship, people, and ways, but what will that avail?\nIt may be thou mayest so fear at present, as to be a little stopped\nin thy sinful course; perhaps thou hast got a knock from the Word\nof God, and are at present a little dazzled and hindered from being\nin thy former and full career after sin; but what of that? if by\nthe fear that thou hast, thy heart is not united to God, and to the\nlove of his Son, Word, and people, thy fear is nothing worth.[26]\nMany men also are forced to fear God, as underlings are forced to\nfear those that are by force above them. If thou only thus fearest\nGod, it is but a false fear; it flows not from love to God: this\nfear brings not willing subjection, which indeed brings the effect\nof right fear; but being over-mastered like an hypocrite, thou\nsubjected thyself by feigned obedience, being forced, I say, by\nmere dread to do it (Psa 66:3).\n\nIt is said of David, \"that the fame of him went out into all lands,\nand the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations\" (1 Chron\n14:17). But what, did they now love David? did they now choose him\nto be their king? no verily; they, many of them, rather hated him,\nand, when they could, made resistance against him. They did even\nas thou dost--feared, but did not love; feared, but did not choose\nhis government that ruled over them. It is also said of Jehoshaphat,\nwhen God had subdued before him Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, that\n\"the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of these countries, when\nthey had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel\"\n(2 Chron 20:29). But, I say, was this fear, that is called now the\nfear of God, anything else, but a dread of the greatness of power\nof the king? No verily, nor did that dread bring them into a willing\nsubjection to, and liking of his laws and government; it only made\nthem like slaves and underlings, stand in fear of his executing\nthe vengeance of God upon them.\n\nTherefore still, notwithstanding this fear, they were rebels to him\nin their hearts, and when occasion and advantage offered themselves,\nthey showed it by rising in rebellion against Israel. This fear\ntherefore provoked but feigned and forced obedience, a right emblem\nof the obedience of such, who being still enemies in their minds to\nGod, are forced by virtue of present conviction to yield a little,\neven of fear to God, to his Word, and to his ordinances. Reader,\nwhoever thou art, think of this, it is thy concern, therefore\ndo it, and examine, and examine again, and look diligently to thy\nheart in thine examination, that it beguile thee not about this\nthy so great concern, as indeed the fear of God is.\n\nOne thing more, before I leave thee, let me warn thee of. Take\nheed of deferring to fear the Lord. Some men, when they have had\nconviction upon their heart that the fear of God is not in them,\nhave through the overpowering of their corruptions yet deferred\nand put off the fear of God from them, as it is said of them in\nJeremiah: \"This people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart;\nthey are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let\nus now fear the Lord\" (Jer 5:23,24). They saw that the judgments\nof God attended them because they did not yet fear God, but that\nconviction would not prevail with them to say, \"Let us now fear\nthe Lord.\" They were for deferring to fear him still; they were for\nputting off his fear from them longer. Sinner, hast thou deferred\nto fear the Lord? is thy heart still so stubborn as not to say\nyet, \"Let us fear the Lord?\" O! the Lord hath taken notice of this\nthy rebellion, and is preparing some dreadful judgment for thee.\n\"Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; shall not\nmy soul be avenged on such a nation as this?\" (v 29). Sinner, why\nshouldest thou pull vengeance down upon thee? why shouldest thou\npull vengeance down from heaven upon thee? Look up, perhaps thou\nhast already been pulling this great while, to pull it down upon\nthee. O! pull no longer; why shouldest thou be thine own executioner?\nFall down upon thy knees, man, and up with thy heart and thy hands\nto the God that dwells in the heavens; cry, yea cry aloud, Lord,\nunite mine heart to fear thy name, and do not harden mine heart\nfrom thy fear. Thus holy men have cried before thee, and by crying\nhave prevented judgment.\n\n[A few things that may provoke thee to fear the Lord.]\n\nBefore I leave this use, let me give thee a few things, that, if\nGod will, may provoke thee to fear the Lord.\n\n1. The man that feareth not God, carrieth it worse towards him than\nthe beast, the brute beast, doth carry it towards that man. \"The\nfear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the\nearth,\" yea, \"and upon every fowl of the air,\" and \"upon all that\nmoveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea\" (Gen\n9:2).\n\nMark, all my creatures shall fear you, and dread you, says God.\nNone of them shall be so hardy as to cast of all reverence of you.\nBut what a shame is this to man, that God should subject all his\ncreatures to him, and he should refuse to stoop his heart to God?\nThe beast, the bird, the fish, and all, have a fear and dread of\nman, yea, God has put it in their hearts to fear man, and yet man\nis void of fear and dread, I mean of godly fear of him, that thus\nlovingly hath put all things under him. Sinner, art thou not ashamed,\nthat a silly cow, a sheep, yea, a swine, should better observe the\nlaw of his creation, than thou dost the law of thy God?\n\n2. Consider, he that will not fear God, God will make him fear him\nwhether he will or no. That is, he that doth not, will not now so\nfear him, as willingly to bow before him, and put his neck into his\nyoke. God will make him fear him when he comes to take vengeance\non him. Then he will surround him with terror, and with fear on\nevery side, fear within, and fear without; fear shall be in the\nway, even in the way that thou goest when thou art going out of\nthis world; and that will be dreadful fear (Eccl 12:5). \"I will\nbring their fears upon them,\" saith the Lord (Isa 66:4).\n\n3. He that fears not God now, the Lord shall laugh at his fears\nthen. Sinner, God will be even with all them that choose not to\nhave his fear in their hearts: for as he calls and they hear not\nnow, so they shall cry, yea, howl then, and he will laugh at their\nfears. \"I will laugh,\" saith he, \"at their destruction; I will mock\nwhen their fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation and\nyour destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish\ncometh upon you; then shall they call upon me, but I will not\nanswer: they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for\nthat they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord\"\n(Prov 1:27-29).\n\nSinner! thou thinkest to escape the fear; but what wilt thou do\nwith the pit? Thou thinkest to escape the pit; but what wilt thou\ndo with the snare? The snare, say you, what is that? I answer, it\nis even the work of thine own hands. \"The wicked is snared in the\nwork of his own hands,\" he is \"snared by the transgression of his\nlips\" (Psa 9:16; Prov 12:13).\n\nSinner! what wilt thou do when thou comest into this snare; that\nis, into the guilt and terror that thy sins will snaffle[27] thee\nwith, when they, like a cord, are fastened about thy soul? This\nsnare will bring thee back again to the pit, which is hell, and\nthen how wilt thou do to be rid of thy fear? The fear, pit, and\nthe snare shall come upon thee, because thou fearest not God.\n\nSinner! art thou one of them that hast cast off fear? poor man,\nwhat wilt thou do when these three things beset thee? whither wilt\nthou fly for help? And where wilt thou leave thy glory? If thou\nfliest from the fear, there is the pit; if thou fliest from the\npit, there is the snare.\n\n[USE SECOND, an exhortation to fear God.]\n\nSECOND USE. My next word shall be AN EXHORTATION TO FEAR GOD.\nI mean an exhortation to saints--\"O fear the Lord, ye his saints,\nfor there is no want to them that fear him.\" Not but that every\nsaint doth fear God, but as the apostle saith in another case, \"I\nbeseech you, do it more and more.\" The fear of the Lord, as I have\nshowed you, is a grace of the new covenant, as other saving graces\nare, and so is capable of being stronger or weaker, as other graces\nare. Wherefore I beseech you, fear him more and more.\n\nIt is said of Obadiah, that he feared the Lord greatly: every saint\nfears the Lord, but every saint does not greatly fear him. O there\nare but few Obadiahs in the world, I mean among the saints on\nearth: see the whole relation of him (1 Kings 18). As Paul said\nof Timothy, \"I have none like-minded,\" so it may be said of some\nconcerning the fear of the Lord; they have scarce a fellow. So it\nwas with Job, \"There is none like him in the earth, one that feareth\nGod,\" &c. (Job 1:8). There was even none in Job's day that feared\nGod like him, no, there was not one like him in all the earth, but\ndoubtless there were more in the world that feared God; but this\nfearing of him greatly, that is the thing that saints should do,\nand that was the thing that Job did do, and in that he did outstrip\nhis fellows. It is also said of Hananiah, that \"he was a faithful\nman, and feared God above many\" (Neh 7:2). He also had got, as to\nthe exercise of, and growth in, this grace, the start of many of\nhis brethren. He \"feared God above many.\" Now then, seeing this\ngrace admits of degrees, and is in some stronger, and in some weaker,\nlet us be all awakened as to other graces, so to this grace also.\nThat like as you abound in everything, in faith, in utterance,\nin knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see\nthat ye abound in this grace also. I will labour to enforce this\nexhortation upon you by several motives.\n\nFirst. Let God's distinguishing love to you be a motive to you to\nfear him greatly. He hath put his fear in thy heart, and hath not\ngiven that blessing to thy neighbour; perhaps not to thy husband,\nthy wife, thy child, or thy parent. O what an obligation should\nthis consideration lay upon thy heart greatly to fear the Lord!\nRemember also, as I have showed in the first part of this book,\nthat this fear of the Lord is his treasure, a choice jewel, given\nonly to favourites, and to those that are greatly beloved. Great\ngifts naturally tend to oblige, and will do so, I trust, with thee,\nwhen thou shalt ingeniously consider it. It is a sign of a very\nbad nature when the contrary shows itself; could God have done more\nfor thee than to have put his fear in thy heart? This is better\nthan to have given thee a place even in heaven without it. Yea,\nhad he given thee all faith, all knowledge, and the tongue of men\nand angels, and a place in heaven to boot, they had all been short\nof this gift, of the fear of God in thy heart. Therefore love it,\nnourish it, exercise it, use all means to cause it to increase and\ngrow in thy heart, that it may appear it is set by at thy hand,\npoor sinner.\n\nSecond. Another motive to stir thee up to grow in this grace of the\nfear of God may be the privileges that it lays thee under. What or\nwhere wilt thou find in the Bible, so many privileges so affectionately\nentailed to any grace, as to this of the fear of God? God speaks\nof this grace, and of the privileges that belong unto it, as if,\nto speak with reverence, he knew not how to have done blessing of\nthe man that hath it. It seems to me as if this grace of fear is\nthe darling grace, the grace that God sets his heart upon at the\nhighest rate. As it were, he embraces the hugs, and lays the man\nin his bosom, that hath, and grows strong in this grace of the fear\nof God. See again the many privileges in which the man is interested\nthat hath this grace in his heart: and see also that there are\nbut few of them, wherever mentioned, but have entailed to them the\npronunciation of a blessing, or else that man is spoken of by way\nof admiration.\n\nThird. Another motive may be this: The man that groweth in this\ngrace of the fear of the Lord will escape those evils that others\nwill fall into. Where this grace is, it keepeth the soul from final\napostasy, \"I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not\ndepart from me\" (Jer 32:40). But yet, if there be not an increase\nin this grace, much evil may attend, and be committed notwithstanding.\nThere is a child that is healthy, and hath its limbs, and can go,\nbut it is careless; now the evil of carelessness doth disadvantage\nit very much; carelessness is the cause of stumblings, of falls,\nof knocks, and that it falls into the dirt, yea, that sometimes\nit is burned, or almost drowned. And thus it is, even with God's\npeople that fear him, because they add not to their fear a care\nof growing more in the fear of God, therefore they reap damage;\nwhereas, were they more in his fear, it would keep them better,\ndeliver them more, and preserve them from these snares of death.\n\nFourth. Another motive may be this: To grow in this grace of\nthe fear of God, is the way to be kept always in a conscientious\nperformance of Christian duties. An increase in this grace, I say,\nkeeps every grace in exercise, and the keeping of our graces in\ntheir due exercise, produceth a conscientious performance of duties.\nThou hast a watch perhaps in thy pocket, but the hand will not\nas yet be kept in any good order, but does always give the lie as\nto the hour of the day; well, but what is the way to remedy this,\nbut to look well to the spring, and the wheels within? for if they\nindeed go right, so will the hand do also. This is thy case in\nspiritual things; thou art a gracious man, and the fear of God is\nin thee, but yet for all that, one cannot well tell, by thy life,\nwhat time of day it is.[28] Thou givest no true and constant sign\nthat thou art indeed a Christian; why, the reason is, thou dost\nnot look well to this grace of the fear of God. Thou dost not grow\nand increase in that, but sufferest thy heart to grow careless,\nand hard, and so thy life remiss and worldly: Job's growing great\nin the fear of God made him eschew evil (Job 1, 2:3).\n\nFifth. Another motive is: This is the way to be wise indeed. A\nwise man feareth and departeth from evil. It doth not say a wise\nman hath the grace of fear, but a wise man feareth, that is, putteth\nthis grace into exercise. There is no greater sign of wisdom than\nto grow in this blessed grace. Is it not a sign of wisdom to depart\nfrom sins, which are the snares of death and hell? Is it not a\nsign of wisdom for a man yet more and more to endeavour to interest\nhimself in the love and protection of God? Is it not a high point\nof wisdom for a man to be always doing of that which lays him under\nthe conduct of angels? Surely this is wisdom. And if it be a blessing\nto have this fear, is it not wisdom to increase in it? Doubtless it\nis the highest point of wisdom, as I have showed before, therefore\ngrow therein.\n\nSixth. Another motive may be this: It is seemly for saints to\nfear, and increase in this fear of God. He is thy Creator; is it\nnot seemly for creatures to fear and reverence their Creator? He\nis thy King; is it not seemly for subjects to fear and reverence\ntheir King? He is thy Father; is it not seemly for children to\nreverence and fear their Father? yea, and to do it more and more?\n\nSeventh. Another motive may be: It is honourable to grow in this\ngrace of fear; \"When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in\nIsrael\" (Hosea 13:1). Truly, to fear, and to about in this fear, is\na sign of a very princely spirit; and the reason is, when I greatly\nfear my God, I am above the fear of all others, nor can anything\nin this world, be it never so terrible and dreadful, move me at all\nto fear them. And hence it is that Christ counsels us to fear--\"And\nI say unto you, my friends,\" saith he, \"be not afraid of them\nthat kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.\"\nAye, but this is a high pitch, how should we come by such princely\nspirits? well, I will forewarn you whom you shall fear, and by\nfearing of him, arrive to this pitch, \"Fear him, which after he\nhath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you,\nfear him\" (Luke 12:4,5). Indeed this true fear of God sets a man\nabove all the world. And therefore it saith again, \"Neither fear\nye their fear,\"--but \"sanctify the Lord God\" in your hearts, \"and\nlet him be your fear, and let him be your dread\" (Isa 8:12,13).\n\nYour great ranting, swaggering, roysters,[29] that are ignorant of\nthe nature of the fear of God, count it a poor, sneaking, pitiful,\ncowardly spirit in men to fear and tremble before the Lord; but\nwhoso looks back to jails and gibbets, to the sword and burning\nstake, shall see, that there, in them, has been the most mighty\nand invincible spirit that has been in the world!\n\nYea, see if God doth not count that the growth of his people in\nthis grace of fear is that which makes them honourable, when he\npositively excludeth those from a dwelling-place in his house, that\ndo not honour them that fear him (Psa 15:4). And he saith moreover,\n\"A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.\" If the world\nand godless men will not honour these, they shall be honoured some\nway else. Such, saith he, \"that honour me I will honour,\" and they\nshall be honoured in heaven, in the churches, and among the angels.\n\nEighth. Another motive to grow in this fear of God may be: This\nfear, and the increase of it, qualifies a man to be put in trust\nwith heavenly and spiritual things, yea, and with earthly things\ntoo.\n\n1. For heavenly and spiritual things. \"My covenant,\" saith God,\n\"was with [Levi] of life and peace, and I gave them to him, for the\nfear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name\" (Mal\n2:5).\n\nBehold what a gift, what a mercy, what a blessing this Levi is\nintrusted with; to wit, with God's everlasting covenant, and with\nthe life and peace that is wrapped up in this covenant. But why is\nit given to him? the answer is, \"for the fear wherewith he feared\nme, and was afraid before my name.\" And the reason is good, for\nthis fear of God teaches a man to put a due estimation upon every\ngift of God bestowed upon us; also it teaches us to make use of\nthe same with reverence of his name, and respect to his glory in\nmost godly-wise, all which becomes him that is intrusted with any\nspiritual gift. The gift here was given to Levi to minister to his\nbrethren doctrinally thereof, for he, saith God, shall teach Jacob\nmy statutes and Israel my law. See also Exodus 18:21 and Nehemiah\n7:2, with many other places that might be named, and you will find\nthat men fearing God and hating covetousness; that men that fear\nGod above others, are intrusted by God, yea, and by his church\ntoo, with the trust and ministration of spiritual things before\nany other in the world.\n\n2. For earthly things. This fear of God qualifies a man to be put\nin trust with them rather than with another. Therefore God made\nJoseph lord of all Egypt; Obadiah, steward of Ahab's house; Daniel,\nMordecai, and the three children, were set over the province of\nBabylon; and this by the wonderful working hand of God, because\nhe had to dispose of earthly things now, not only in a common way,\nbut for the good of his people in special. True, when there is\nno special matter or thing to be done by God in a nation for his\npeople, then who will (that is, whether they have grace or no)\nmay have the disposal of those things; but if God has anything in\nspecial to bestow upon his people of this world's goods, then he\nwill intrust it in the hands of men fearing God. Joseph must now\nbe made lord of Egypt, because Israel must be kept from starving;\nObadiah must now be made steward of Ahab's house, because the Lord's\nprophets must be hid from and fed in despite of the rage and bloody\nmind of Jezebel; Daniel, with his companions, and Mordecai also,\nthey were all exalted to earthly and temporal dignity, that they\nmight in that state, they being men that abounded in the fear of God,\nbe serviceable to their brethren in their straits and difficulties\n(Gen 42:18, 41:39; 1 Kings 18:3; Esth 6:10; Dan 2:48, 3:30, 5:29,\n6:1-3).\n\nNinth. Another motive to grow in this grace of fear is, Where the\nfear of God in the heart of any is not growing, there no grace\nthrives, nor duty done as it should.\n\nThere no grace thrives, neither faith, hope, love, nor any grace.\nThis is evident from that general exhortation, \"Perfecting holiness\nin the fear of God\" (2 Cor 7:1). Perfecting holiness, what is that?\nbut as James says of patience, let every grace have its perfect\nwork, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing (James\n1:4).\n\nBut this cannot be done but in the fear of God, yea, in the exercise\nof that grace, and so consequently in the growth of it, for there\nis no grace but grows by being exercised. If then you would be\nperfect in holiness, if you would have every grace that God has\nput into your souls, grow and flourish into perfection; lay them,\nas I may say, a-soak in this grace of fear,[30] and do all in the\nexercise of it; for a little done in the fear of the Lord is better\nthan the revenues of the wicked. And again, the Lord will not suffer\nthe soul of the righteous, the soul that liveth in the fear of the\nLord, to famish, but he casteth away the abundance of the wicked.\nBring abundance to God, and if it be not seasoned with godly fear,\nit shall not be acceptable to him, but loathsome and abominable\nin his sight; for it doth not flow from the spirit of the fear of\nthe Lord.\n\nTherefore, where there is not a growth in this fear, there is no\nduty done so acceptably. This flows from that which goes before,\nfor if grace rather decays than grows, where this grace of fear is\nnot in the growth and increase thereof, then duties in their glory\nand acceptableness decay likewise.\n\nTenth. Another motive to stir thee up to grow in the increase of\nthis grace of fear is, It is a grace, do but abound therein, that\nwill give thee great boldness both with God and men. Job was a man\na none-such in his day for one that feared God; and who so bold with\nGod as Job? who so bold with God, and who so bold with men as he?\nHow bold was he with God, when he wishes for nothing more than that\nhe might come even to his seat, and concludes that if he could come\nat him, he would approach even as a prince unto him, and as such\nwould order his cause before him (Job 23:3-7, 31:35-37). Also before\nhis friends, how bold was he? For ever as they laid to his charge\nthat he was an hypocrite, he repels them with the testimony of a good\nconscience, which good conscience he got, and kept, and maintained\nby increasing in the fear of God; yea, his conscience was kept so\ngood by this grace of fear, for it was by that that he eschewed\nevil, that it was common with him to appeal to God when accused,\nand also to put himself for his clearing under most bitter curses\nand imprecations (Job 13:3-9, 18, 19:23,24, 31).\n\nThis fear of God is it that keeps the conscience clean and tender,\nand so free from much of that defilement that even a good man may\nbe afflicted with, for want of his growth in this fear of God.\nYea, let me add, if a man can with a good conscience say that he\ndesires to fear the name of God, it will add boldness to his soul\nin his approaches into the presence of God. \"O Lord,\" said Nehemiah,\n\"I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of\nthy servant, and servants, who desire to fear thy name\" (Neh 1:11).\nHe pleaded his desire of fearing the name of God, as an argument\nwith God to grant him his request; and the reason was, because God\nhad promised before \"to bless them that fear him, both small and\ngreat\" (Psa 115:13).\n\nEleventh. Another motive to stir you up to fear the Lord, and to\ngrow in this fear is, By it thou mayest have thy labours blessed,\nto the saving of the souls of others. It is said of Levi, of whom\nmention was made before, that he feared God and was afraid before\nhis name--that he saved others from their sins. \"The law of truth\nwas in his mouth, and he walked with me in peace and equity, and\ndid turn away many from iniquity\" (Mal 2:6). The fear of God that\ndwelt in his heart, showed its growth in the sanctifying of the Lord\nby his life and words, and the Lord also blessed this his growth\nherein, by blessing his labours to the saving of his neighbours.\n\nWouldest thou save thy husband, thy wife, thy children, &c., then\nbe greatly in the fear of God.\n\nThis Peter teaches, \"Wives,\" saith he, \"be in subjection to your\nown husbands, that, if any obey not the word, they also may without\nthe word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold\nyour chaste conversation, coupled with fear\" (1 Peter 3:1,2). So\nthen, if wives and children, yea, if husbands, wives, children,\nservants, &c., did but better observe this general rule of Peter,\nto wit, of letting their whole conversation be coupled with fear,\nthey might be made instruments in God's hand of much more good than\nthey are. But the misery is, the fear of God is wanting in actions,\nand that is the cause that so little good is done by those that profess.\nIt is not a conversation that is coupled with a profession--for a\ngreat profession may be attended with a life that is not good, but\nscandalous; but it is a conversation coupled with fear of God--that\nis, with the impressions of the fear of God upon it--that is convincing\nand that ministereth the awakenings of God to the conscience, in\norder to saving the unbeliever. O they are a sweet couple, to wit,\na Christian conversation coupled with fear.\n\nThe want of this fear of God is that that has been a stumbling-block\nto the blind oftentimes. Alas, the world will not be convinced by\nyour talk, by your notions, and by the great profession that you\nmake, if they see not, therewith mixed, the lively impressions of\nthe fear of God; but will, as I said, rather stumble and fall, even\nat your conversation and at your profession itself. Wherefore, to\nprevent this mischief, that is, of stumbling of souls while you\nmake your profession of God, by a conversation not becoming your\nprofession, God bids you fear him; implying that a good conversation,\ncoupled with fear, delivers the blind world from those falls that\notherwise they cannot be delivered from. \"Thou shalt not curse the\ndeaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear\nthy God: I am the Lord\" (Lev 19:14). But shalt fear thy God, that\nis the remedy that will prevent their stumbling at you, at what\nelse soever they stumble. Wherefore Paul says to Timothy, \"Take\nheed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in\ndoing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee\"\n(1 Tim 4:16).\n\nTwelfth. Another motive to fear, and to grow in this fear of God\nis, This is the way to engage God to deliver thee from many outward\ndangers, whoever falls therein (Psa 34:7). This is proved from that\nof the story of the Hebrew midwives. \"The midwives,\" said Moses,\n\"feared God,\" and did not drown the men-children as the king\nhad commanded, but saved them alive. And what follows? \"Therefore\nGod dealt well with the midwives; and it came to pass because the\nmidwives feared God, that he made them houses\" (Exo 1). That is,\nhe sheltered them and caused them to be hid from the rage and fury\nof the king, and that perhaps in some of the houses of the Egyptians\nthemselves for why might not the midwives be there hid as well\nas was Moses even in the king's court?[31] And how many times are\nthey that fear God said to be delivered both by God and his holy\nangels? as also I have already showed.\n\nThirteenth. Another motive to fear and to grow in this fear of\nGod is, This is the way to be delivered from errors and damnable\nopinions. There are some that perish in their righteousness, that\nis an error; there be some that perish in their wickedness, and\nthat is an error also. Some again prolong their lives by their\nwickedness, and others are righteous over-much, and also some are\nover-wise, and all these are snares, and pits, and holes. But then,\nsayest thou, how shall I escape? Indeed that is the question, and\nthe Holy Ghost resolves it thus, \"He that feareth God shall come\nforth of them all\" (Eccl 7:18).\n\nFourteenth. Another motive to fear, and to grow in this fear of\nGod, is, Such as have leave, be they never so dark in their souls,\nto come boldly to Jesus Christ, and to trust in him for life. I told\nyou before, that they that fear God have in the general a license\nto trust in him; but now I tell you, and that in particular, that\nthey, and they especially, may do it, and that though in the dark;\nyou that sit in darkness and have no light, if this grace of fear\nbe alive in your hearts, you have this boldness--\"Who is among you\nthat feareth the Lord,\" mark, that feareth the Lord, \"that obeyeth\nthe voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no\nlight? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his\nGod\" (Isa 50:10). It is no small advantage, you know, when men\nhave to deal in difficult matters, to have a patent or license to\ndeal; now to trust in the Lord is a difficult thing, yet the best\nand most gainful of all. But then, some will say, since it is\nso difficult, how may we do without danger? Why, the text gives a\nlicense, a patent to them to trust in his name, that have his fear\nin their hearts--\"Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay\nupon his God.\" [32]\n\nFifteenth. Another motive to fear and grow in this grace of fear,\nis, God will own and acknowledge such to be his, whoever he rejecteth.\nYea he will distinguish and separate them from all others, in\nthe day of his terrible judgments. He will do with them as he did\nby those that sighed for the abominations that were done in the\nland--command the man that hath his ink-horn by his side \"to set\na mark upon their foreheads,\" that they might not fall in that\njudgment with others (Eze 9). So God said plainly of them that\nfeared the Lord, and that thought upon his name, that they should\nbe writ in his book--\"A book of remembrance was written before\nhim for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name;\nand they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when\nI make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his\nown son that serveth him\" (Mal 3:16,17). Mark, he both acknowledges\nthem for his, and also promises to spare them, as a man would spare\nhis own son; yea, and moreover, will wrap them up as his chief\njewels with himself in the bundle of life. Thus much for the motives.\n\nHow to grow in this fear of God.\n\nHaving given you these motives to the duty of growing in this fear\nof God, before I leave this use, I will, in a few words, show you\nhow you may grow in this fear of God.\n\nFirst. Then, if thou wouldest grow in this fear of God, learn aright\nto distinguish of fear in general. I mean, learn to distinguish\nbetween that fear that is godly, and that which in itself is indeed\nungodly fear of God; and know them well the one from the other,\nlest the one, the fear that in itself indeed is ungodly, get the\nplace, even the upper hand of that which truly is godly fear. And\nremember the ungodly fear of God is by God himself counted an enemy\nto him, and hurtful to his people, and is therefore most plentifully\nforbidden in the Word (Gen 3:15, 26:24, 46:3; Exo 14:13, 20:20;\nNum 14:9, 21:34; Isa 41:10,14, 43:1, 44:2,8; 54:4; Jer 30:10; Dan\n10:12,19; Joel 2:21; Hagg 2:5; Zech 8:13).\n\nSecond. If thou wouldest grow in this godly fear, learn rightly\nto distinguish it from that fear, in particular, that is godly but\nfor a time; even from that fear that is wrought by the Spirit, as\na spirit of bondage. I say, learn to distinguish this from that,\nand also perfectly to know the bounds that God hath set to that\nfear that is wrought by the Spirit, as a spirit of bondage; lest,\ninstead of growing in the fear that is to abide with thy soul for\never, thou be over-run again with that first fear, which is to\nabide with thee but till the spirit of adoption come. And that thou\nmayest not only distinguish them one from the other, but also keep\neach in its due place and bounds, consider in general of what hath\nalready been said upon this head, and in particular that the first\nfear is no more wrought by the Holy Spirit, but by the devil, to\ndistress thee, and make thee to live, not like a son, but a slave.\nAnd for thy better help in this matter, know that God himself hath\nset bounds to this fear, and has concluded that after the spirit\nof adoption is come, that other fear is wrought in thy heart by\nhim no more (Rom 8:15; 2 Tim 1:7).\n\nAgain, before I leave this, let me tell thee that if thou dost not\nwell bestir thee in this matter, this bondage fear, to wit, that\nwhich is like it, though not wrought in thee by the Holy Ghost,\nwill, by the management and subtlety of the devil, the author\nof it, haunt, disturb, and make thee live uncomfortably, and that\nwhile thou art an heir of God and his kingdom. This is that fear\nthat the apostle speaks of, that makes men \"all their lifetime\nsubject to bondage\" (Heb 2:14,15). For though Christ will deliver\nthee indeed at last, thou having embraced him by faith, yet thy\nlife will be full of trouble; and death, though Jesus hath abolished\nit, will be always a living bugbear to thee in all thy ways and\nthoughts, to break thy peace, and to make thee to draw thy loins\nheavily after him.\n\nThird. Wouldest thou grow in this godly fear? then, as thou shouldest\nlearn to distinguish of fears, so thou shouldest make conscience\nof which to entertain and cherish. If God would have his fear--and\nit is called HIS fear by way of eminency--\"that his fear may be\nbefore you, that ye sin not\" (Exo 20:20; Jer 32:40)--I say, if God\nwould have his fear be with thee, then thou shouldest make conscience\nof this, and not so lightly give way to slavish fear, as is common\nfor Christians to do.\n\nThere is utterly a fault among Christians about this thing; that\nis, they make not that conscience of resisting of slavish fear as\nthey ought; they rather cherish and entertain it, and so weaken\nthemselves, and that fear that they ought to strengthen.\n\nAnd this is the reason that we so often lie grabbling[33] under\nthe black and amazing thoughts that are engendered in our hearts\nby unbelief; for this fear nourisheth unbelief; that is, now it\ndoth, to wit, if we give way to it after the spirit of adoption is\ncome, and readily closeth with all the fiery darts of the wicked.\n\nBut Christians are ready to do with this fear as the horse does\nwhen the tines[34] of the fork are set against his side; even lean\nto it until it entereth into his belly. We lean naturally to this\nfear, I mean, after God has done good to our souls; it is hard\nstriving against it, because it has even our sense and feeling of\nits side. But I say, if thou wouldest be a growing Christian--growing, I\nsay, in the fear that is godly, in the fear that is always so--then\nmake conscience of striving against the other, and against all\nthese things that would bring thee back to it. \"Wherefore should\nI fear,\" said David, \"in the day of evil, when the iniquity of my\nheels shall compass me about?\" (Psa 49:5).\n\nWhat! not fear in the day of evil? What! not when the iniquity of\nthy heels compasseth thee about? No, not then, saith he, that is,\nnot with that fear that would bring him again into bondage to the\nlaw; for he had received the spirit of adoption before. Indeed, if\never a Christian has ground to give way to slavish fear, it is at\nthese two times, to wit, in the day of evil, and when the iniquity\nof his heels compasseth him about; but you see, David would not\nthen, no, not then, give way thereto, nor did he see reason why\nhe should. \"Wherefore should I,\" said he? Aye, wherefore indeed?\nsince now thou art become a son of God through Christ, and hast\nreceived the Spirit of his Son into thy heart, crying, Father,\nFather.\n\nFourth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of godly fear? then grow\nin the knowledge of the new covenant, for that is indeed the girdle\nof our reins, and the strength of our souls. Hear what Zacharias\nsaith: God, says he, \"hath raised up an horn of salvation for\nus in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of\nhis holy prophets which have been since the world began.\" But what\nwas it? what was it that he spake? Why, \"That he would grant unto\nus, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might\nserve him without fear,\" without this slavish bondage fear, \"in\nholiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.\"\nBut upon what is this princely fearless service of God grounded?\nWhy, upon the holy covenant of God, upon the oath that he swore\nunto Abraham (Luke 1:69-74). Now in this covenant is wrapped up all\nthy salvation; in it is contained all thy desire, and I am sure,\nthat then it containeth the complete salvation of thy soul; and I\nsay, since this covenant is confirmed by promise, by oath, and by\nthe blood of the Son of God, and that on purpose that thou mightest\nserve thy God without slavish fear, then the knowledge and faith\nof this covenant is of absolute necessity to bring us into this\nliberty, and out of our slavish terrors, and so, consequently, to\ncause us to grow in that son-like, godly fear, which became even\nthe Son of God himself, and becomes all his disciples to live in\nthe growth and exercise of.\n\nFifth. Wouldest thou grow in this godly fear? then labour even always\nto keep thine evidences for heaven and of thy salvation alive upon\nthy heart; for he that loseth his evidences for heaven, will hardly\nkeep slavish fear out of heart; but he that hath the wisdom and\ngrace to keep them alive, and apparent to himself, he will grow in\nthis godly fear. See how David words it, \"From the end of the earth,\"\nsaith he, \"will I cry unto thee; when my heart is overwhelmed, lead\nme to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter\nfor me, and a strong tower from the enemy: I will abide in thy\ntabernacle for ever. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows; thou hast\ngiven me the heritage of those that fear thy name\" (Psa 61:2-5).\nMark a little, David doth by these words, in the first place,\nsuggest that sometimes, to his thinking, he was as far off of his\nGod as the ends of the earth are asunder, and that at such times he\nwas subject to be overwhelmed, afraid: [And] second, the way that\nhe took at such times, to help himself, was to cry to God to lead\nhim again to Jesus Christ--\"lead me to the rock that is higher\nthan I\"; for indeed without faith in him, and the renewing of that\nfaith, there can be no evidence for heaven made to appear unto the\nsoul. This therefore he prays for first. Then he puts that faith\ninto exercise, and that with respect to the time that was past,\nand also of the time that was to come. For the time past, says\nhe, \"Thou hast been a shelter to me, and a strong tower from the\nenemy\"; and for the time to come, he said, \"I will abide in thy\ntabernacle,\" that is, in thy Christ by faith, and in thy way of\nworship by love, \"forever.\" And observe it, he makes the believing\nremembrance of his first evidences for heaven the ground of this\nhis cry and faith, \"For thou,\" says he, \"O God, hast given me the\nheritage of those that fear thy name.\" Thou hast made me meet to\nbe a partaker of the mercy of thy chosen, and hast put me under\nthe blessing of goodness wherewith thou hast blessed those that\nfear thee. Thus you see how David, in his distresses, musters up\nhis prayers, faith, and evidences for eternal life, that he might\ndeliver himself from being overwhelmed, that is, with slavish\nfear, and that he might also abound in that son-like fear of\nhis fellow-brethren, that is not only comely, with respect to our\nprofession, but profitable to our souls.\n\nSixth. Wouldest thou grow in this fear of God? then set before\nthine eyes the being and majesty of God; for that both begetteth,\nmaintaineth, and increaseth this fear. And hence it is called the\nfear of God, that is, an holy and awful dread and reverence of his\nmajesty. For the fear of God is to stand in awe of him, but how\ncan that be done if we do not set him before us? And again, if we\nwould fear him more, we must abide more in the sense and faith of\nhis glorious majesty. Hence this fear and God's name is so often\nput together: as fear God, fear the Lord, fear thy God, do this in\nthe fear of the Lord, and thou shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord.\nFor these words, \"I am the Lord thy God,\" and the like, are on\npurpose put in, not only to show us whom we should fear, but also\nto beget, maintain, and increase in us that fear that is due from\nus to that \"glorious and fearful name, the Lord our God\" (Deut\n28:58).\n\nSeventh. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then keep\nalways close to thy conscience the authority of the Word; fear the\ncommandment as the commandment of a God both mighty and glorious,\nand as the commandment of a father, both loving and pitiful; let\nthis commandment, I say, be always with thine eye, with thine ear,\nand with thine heart; for then thou wilt be taught, not only to\nfear, but to abound in the fear of the Lord. Every grace is nourished\nby the Word, and without it there is no thrift in the soul (Prov\n13:13, 4:20-22; Deut 6:1,2).\n\nEighth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then be much in\nthe faith of the promise, of the promise that maketh over to thy\nsoul an interest in God by Christ, and of all good things. The\npromise naturally tendeth to increase in us the fear of the Lord,\nbecause this fear, it grows by goodness and mercy; they shall fear\nthe Lord, and his goodness; now this goodness and mercy of God,\nit is wrapt up in, and made over to us by promise; for God gave it\nto Abraham by promise. Therefore the faith and hope of the promise\ncauseth this fear to grow in the soul--\"Having therefore these\npromises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness\nof the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God\"\n(2 Cor 7:1). \"Perfecting holiness in the fear of God\"; therefore\nthat fear by the promise must needs grow mighty, for by, with, and\nin it, you see holiness is perfected.\n\nNinth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then remember\nthe judgments of God that have, or shall certainly overtake, those\nprofessors, that have either been downright hypocrites, or else\nunwatchful Christians. For both these sorts partake of the judgments\nof God; the one, to wit, the true Christian, for his unwatchfulness,\nfor his correction; the other, to wit, the hypocrite, for his\nhypocrisy, to his destruction. This is a way to make thee stand in\nawe, and to make thee tremble, and grow in the grace of fear before\nthy God.\n\nJudgments! you may say, what judgments? Answ. Time will fail me\nhere to tell thee of the judgments that sometimes overtake God's\npeople, and that always certainly overtake the hypocrite for his\ntransgressions. For those that attend God's people, I would have\nthee look back to the place in this book where they are particularly\ntouched upon. And for those that attend the hypocrite, in general\nthey are these. 1. Blindness of heart in this world. 2. The death\nof their hope at the day of their death. 3. And the damnation\nof their souls at the day of judgment (Matt 23:15-19; Job 8:13,\n11:20, 18:14, 20:4-7, Matt 23:33, 24:51; Luke 20:47). The godly\nconsideration of these things tend to make men grow in the fear of\nGod.\n\nTenth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then study the\nexcellencies of the grace of fear, and what profit it yieldeth\nto them that have it, and labour to get thy heart into the love,\nboth of the exercise of the grace itself, and also of the fruit\nit yieldeth; for a man hardly grows in the increase of any grace,\nuntil his heart is united to it, and until it is made lovely in\nhis eyes (Psa 119:119,120). Now the excellencies of this grace of\nfear have also been discoursed of in this book before, where by\nreading thou shalt find the fruit it bears, and the promises that\nare annexed to it, which, because they are many, I refer thee also\nthither for thy instruction.\n\nEleventh. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then remember\nwhat a world of privileges do belong to them that fear the Lord,\nas also I have hinted; namely, that such shall not be hurt, shall\nwant no good thing, shall be guarded by angels, and have a special\nlicense, though in never so dreadful a plight, to trust in the name\nof the Lord, and stay upon their God.\n\nTwelfth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then be much in\nprayer to God for abundance of the increase thereof. To fear God\nis that which is according to his will, and if we ask anything\naccording to his will, he heareth us. Pray therefore that God will\nunite thy heart to fear his name; this is the way to grow in the\ngrace of fear.\n\nLastly, Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then devote\nthyself to it (Psa 119:38). Devote myself to it, you will say, how\nis that? I answer, why, give thyself to it, addict thyself to it.\nSolace thyself in the contemplation of God, and of a reverence of\nhis name, and word, and worship. Then wilt thou fear, and grow in\nthis grace of fear.\n\nWhat things they are that have a tendency in them to hinder the\ngrowth of the fear of God in our hearts.\n\nAnd that I may yet be helpful to thee, reader, I shall now give\nthee caution of those things that will, if way be given to them,\nhinder thy growth in this fear of God, the which, because they are\nvery hurtful to the people of God, I would have thee be warned by\nthem. And they are these which follow:\n\nFirst. If thou wouldest grow in this grace of fear, take heed of\nA HARD HEART, for that will hinder thy growth in this grace. \"Why\nhast thou hardened our heart from thy fear?\" was a bitter complaint\nof the church heretofore; for it is not only the judgment that in\nitself is dreadful and sore to God's people, but that which greatly\nhindereth the growth of this grace in the soul (Isa 63:17). A hard\nheart is but barren ground for any grace to grow in, especially\nfor the grace of fear: there is but little of this fear where the\nheart is indeed hard; neither will there ever be much therein.\n\nNow if thou wouldest be kept from a hard heart, 1. Take heed of the\nbeginnings of sin. Take heed, I say, of that, though it should be\nnever so small; \"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.\" There\nis more in a little sin to harden, than in a great deal of grace\nto soften. David's look upon Bathsheba was, one would think, but\na small matter; yet that beginning of sin contracted such hardness\nof heart in him, that it carried him almost beyond all fear of\nGod. It did carry him to commit lewdness with her, murder upon the\nbody of Uriah, and to abundance of wicked dissimulation; which are\nthings, I say, that have direct tendency to quench and destroy all\nfear of God in the soul.\n\n2. If thou hast sinned, lie not down without repentance; for the\nwant of repentance, after one has sinned, makes the heart yet harder\nand harder. Indeed a hard heart is impenitent, and impenitence\nalso makes the heart harder and harder. So that if impenitence be\nadded to hardness of heart, or to the beginning of sin which makes\nit so, it will quickly be with that soul, as is said of the house\nof Israel, it will have a whore's forehead, it will hardly be\nbrought to shame (Jer 3:3).\n\n3. If thou wouldest be rid of a hard heart, that great enemy to the\ngrowth of the grace of fear, be much with Christ upon the cross in\nthy meditations; for that is an excellent remedy against hardness\nof heart: a right sight of him, as he hanged there for thy sins,\nwill dissolve thy heart into tears, and make it soft and tender.\n\"They shall look upon me whom they have pierced,--and mourn\" (Zech\n12:10). Now a soft, a tender, and a broken heart, is a fit place\nfor the grace of fear to thrive in. But,\n\nSecond. If thou wouldest have the grace of fear to grow in thy soul,\ntake heed also of A PRAYERLESS HEART, for that is not a place for\nthis grace of fear to grow in. Hence he that restraineth prayer\nis said to cast off fear. \"Thou castest off fear,\" said one of his\nfriends to Job. But how must he do that? Why the next words show,\n\"Thou restrainest prayer before God\" (Job 15:4). Seest thou a\nprofessor that prayeth not? that man thrusteth the fear of God away\nfrom him. Seest thou a man that prays but little, that man feareth\nGod but little; for it is the praying soul, the man that is mighty\nin praying, that has a heart for the fear of God to grow in. Take\nheed, therefore, of a prayerless heart, if you would grow in this\ngrace of the fear of God. Prayer is as the pitcher that fetcheth\nwater from the brook, therewith to water the herbs; break the pitcher,\nand it will fetch no water, and for want of water the garden withers.\n\nThird. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of\nA LIGHT AND WANTON HEART, for neither is such a heart good ground\nfor the fear of God to grow in. Wherefore it is said of Israel,\n\"She feared not, but went and played the harlot also.\" She was\ngiven to wantonness, and to be light and vain, and so her fear of\nGod decayed (Jer 3:8). Had Joseph been as wanton as his mistress,\nhe had been as void of the fear of God as she; but he was of a\nsober, tender, godly, considerate spirit, therefore he grew in the\nfear of God.\n\nFourth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed\nof A COVETOUS HEART, for neither is that which is such an one good\nground for this grace of fear to grow in. Therefore this covetousness\nand the fear of God are as enemies, set the one in opposition to the\nother: one that feareth God and hateth covetousness (Exo 18:21).\nAnd the reason why covetousness is such an obstruction to the growth\nof this grace of fear, is because covetousness casteth those things\nout of the heart which alone can nourish this fear. It casteth out\nthe Word and love of God, without which no grace can grow in the\nsoul; how then should the fear of God grow in a covetous heart?\n(Eze 33:30-32; 1 John 2:15).\n\nFifth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of\nAN UNBELIEVING HEART, for an unbelieving heart is not good ground\nfor this grace of fear to grow in. An unbelieving heart is called\n\"an evil heart,\" because from it flows all the wickedness that is\ncommitted in the world (Heb 3:12). Now it is faith, or a believing\nheart, that nourisheth this fear of God, and not the other; and\nthe reason is, for that faith brings God, heaven, and hell, to the\nsoul, and maketh it duly consider of them all (Heb 11:7). This is\ntherefore the means of fear, and that which will make it grow in\nthe soul; but unbelief is a bane thereto.\n\nSixth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of\nA FORGETFUL HEART. Such a heart is not a heart where the grace of\nfear will flourish, \"when I remember, I am afraid,\" &c. Therefore\ntake heed of forgetfulness; do not forget but remember God, and\nhis kindness, patience, and mercy, to those that yet neither have\ngrace, nor special favour from him, and that will beget and nourish\nhis fear in thy heart, but forgetfulness of this, or of any other\nof his judgments, is a great wound and weakening to this fear (Job\n21:6). When a man well remembers that God's judgments are so great\na deep and mystery, as indeed they are, that remembrance puts a man\nupon such considerations of God and of his judgments as to make him\nfear--\"Therefore,\" said Job, \"I am afraid of him.\" See the place,\nJob 23:15. \"Therefore am I troubled at his presence; when I consider,\nI am afraid of him\"--when I remember and consider of the wonderful\ndepths of his judgments towards man.\n\nSeventh. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed\nof A MURMURING AND REPINING HEART, for that is not a heart for\nthis grace of fear to grow in. As for instance, when men murmur and\nrepine at God's hand, at his dispensations, and at the judgments that\novertake them, in their persons, estates, families, or relations,\nthat their murmuring tendeth to destroy fear; for a murmuring\nspirit is such an one as seems to correct God, and to find fault\nwith his dispensations, and where there is that, the heart is far\nfrom fear. A murmuring spirit either comes from that wisdom that\npretends to understand that there is a failure in the nature and\nexecution of things, or from an envy and spite at the execution of\nthem. Now if murmurings arise from this pretended wisdom of the\nflesh, then instead of fearing of God, his actions are judged to be\neither rigid or ridiculous, which yet are done in judgment, truth,\nand righteousness. So that a murmuring heart cannot be a good one\nfor the fear of God to grow in. Alas! the heart where that grows\nmust be a soft one; as you have it in Job 23:15, 16; and a heart\nthat will stoop and be silent at the most abstruse of all his\njudgments--\"I was dumb, because THOU didst it.\" The heart in which\nthis fear of God doth flourish is such, that it bows and is mute,\nif it can but espy the hand, wisdom, justice, or holiness of God in\nthis or the other of his dispensations, and so stirs up the soul\nto fear before him. But if this murmuring ariseth from envy and\nspite, that looketh so like to the spirit of the devil, that nothing\nneed be said to give conviction of the horrible wickedness of it.\n\nEighth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed\nof A HIGH AND CAPTIOUS SPIRIT, for that is not good ground for the\nfear of God to grow in. A meek and quiet spirit is the best, and\nthere the fear of God will flourish most; therefore Peter puts\nmeekness and fear together, as being most suited in their nature\nand natural tendency one to another (1 Peter 3:15). Meekness of\nspirit is like that heart that hath depth of earth in it in which\nthings may take root and grow; but a high and captious spirit is\nlike to the stony ground, where there is not depth of earth, and\nconsequently, where this grace of fear cannot grow; therefore take\nheed of this kind of spirit, if thou wouldest that the fear of God\nshould grow in thy soul.\n\nNinth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed\nof AN ENVIOUS HEART, for that is not a good heart for the fear of\nGod to grow in. \"Let not thine heart envy sinners; but be thou in\nthe fear of the Lord all the day long\" (Prov 23:17). To envy any\nis a sign of a bad spirit, and that man takes upon him, as I have\nalready hinted, to be a controller and a judge, yea, and a malicious\nexecutioner too, and that of that fury that ariseth from his own\nlusts and revengeful spirit, upon (perhaps) the man that is more\nrighteous than himself. But suppose he is a sinner that is the object\nof thine envy, why, the text sets that envy in direct opposition\nto the fear of God; \"Envy not sinners, but be thou in the fear of\nGod.\" These two, therefore, to wit, envy to sinners and fearing of\nGod, are opposites. Thou canst not fear God, and envy sinners too.\nAnd the reason is, because he that envieth a sinner, hath forgotten\nhimself, that he is as bad; and how can he then fear God? He that\nenvies sinners rejects his duty of blessing of them that curse,\nand praying for them that despitefully use us; and how can he that\nhath rejected this, fear God? He that envieth sinners, therefore,\ncannot be of a good spirit, nor can the fear of God grow in his\nheart.\n\nTenth. Lastly, Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take\nheed of HARDENING THY HEART at any time against convictions to\nparticular duties, as to prayer, alms, self-denial, or the like.\nTake heed also of hardening thy heart, when thou art under any\njudgment of God, as sickness, losses, crosses, or the like. I bid\nyou before to beware of a hard heart, but now I bid you beware of\nhardening your soft ones. For to harden the heart is to make it\nworse than it is; harder, more desperate, and bold against God,\nthan at the present it is. Now, I say, if thou wouldest grow in this\ngrace of fear, take heed of hardening thy heart, and especially of\nhardening of it against convictions to good; for those convictions\nare sent of God like seasonable showers of rain, to keep the tillage of\nthy heart in good order, that the grace of fear may grow therein;\nbut this stifling of convictions makes the heart as hard as a\npiece of the nether millstone. Therefore happy is he that receiveth\nconviction, for so he doth keep in the fear of God, and that fear\nthereby nourished in his soul; but cursed is he that doth\notherwise--\"Happy is the man that feareth alway; but he that\nhardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief\" (Prov 28:14).\n\nUSE THIRD, of encouragement.\n\nUSE THIRD. I come now to A USE OF ENCOURAGEMENT to those that are\nblessed with this grace of fear. The last text that was mentioned\nsaith, \"Happy is the man that feareth alway,\" and so doth many\nmore. Happy already, because blessed with this grace; and happy\nfor time to come, because this grace shall abide, and continue till\nthe soul that hath it is brought unto the mansion-house of glory.\n\"I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from\nme.\" Therefore, as here it saith, Happy is he, so it saith also,\nIt shall go well with him, that is, in time to come. \"It shall be\nwell with them that fear God\" (Eccl 8:12).\n\nFirst. Had God given thee all the world, yet cursed hadst thou been,\nif he had not given thee the fear of the Lord; for the fashion of\nthis world is a fading thing, but he that feareth the Lord shall\nabide for ever and ever. This therefore is the first thing that I\nwould propound for thy encouragement, thou man that fears the Lord.\nThis grace will dwell in thy heart, for it is a new covenant grace,\nand will abide with thee for ever. It is sent to thee from God,\nnot only to join thy heart unto him, but to keep thee from final\napostasy--\"I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not\ndepart from me\" (Jer 32:40). That thou mayest never forsake God,\nis his design, and therefore, to keep thee from that wicked thing,\nhe hath put his fear in thy heart. Many are the temptations,\ndifficulties, snares, traps, trials, and troubles that the people\nof God pass through in the world, but how shall they be kept, how\nshall they be delivered, and escape? Why, the answer is, The fear\nof God will keep them--\"He that feareth God shall come forth of\nthem all.\"\n\nIs it not therefore a wonderful mercy to be blessed with this\ngrace of fear, that thou by it mayest be kept from final, which\nis damnable apostasy? Bless God, therefore, thou blessed man, that\nhast this grace of fear in thy soul. There are five things in this\ngrace of fear that have a direct tendency in them to keep thee from\nfinal apostasy.\n\n1. It is seated in the heart, and the heart is, as I may call it,\nthe main fort in the mystical world, man. It is not placed in the\nhead, as knowledge is; nor in the mouth, as utterance is, but in\nthe heart, the seat of all, \"I will put my fear in their hearts.\"\nIf a king will keep a town secure to himself, let him be sure to\nman sufficiently the main fort thereof. If he have twenty thousand\nmen well armed, yet if they lie scattered here and there, the town\nmay be taken for all that, but if the main fort be well manned, then\nthe town is more secure. What if a man had all the parts, yea, all\nthe arts of men and angels? That will not keep the heart to God.\nBut when the heart, this principal fort, is possessed with the fear\nof God, then he is safe, but not else.\n\n2. As the heart in general, so the will in special. That chief and\ngreat faculty of the soul is the principle that is acted by this\nfear. The will, which way that goes, all goes; if it be to heaven\nor hell. Now the will, I say, is that main faculty that is governed\nby this fear that doth possess the soul, therefore all is like\nto go well with it. This Samuel insinuateth, where he saith, \"If\nye will fear the Lord.\" Fearing of God is a voluntary act of the\nwill, and that being so, the soul is kept from rebellion against\nthe commandment, because by the will where this fear of God is\nplaced, and which it governeth, is led all the rest of the powers\nof the soul (1 Sam 12:14). In this will, then, is this fear of God\nplaced, that this grace may the better be able to govern the soul,\nand so by consequence the whole man; for as I said before, look\nwhat way the will goes, look what the will does, thither goes, and\nthat does, the whole man (Psa 110:3). Man, when his will is alienate\nfrom God, is reckoned rebellious throughout, and that not without\nground, for the will is the principal faculty of the soul as to\nobedience, and therefore things done without the will are as if\nthey were not done at all. The spirit is willing; if ye be willing;\n\"she hath done what she could,\" and the like; by these and such-like\nsayings the goodness of the heart and action is judged, as to the\nsubjective part thereof. Now this fear that we have been speaking\nof, is placed in the soul, and so consequently in the will, that the\nman may thereby the better be kept from final and damnable apostasy.\n\n3. This fear, as I may say, even above every other grace, is God's\nwell-wisher; and hence it is called, as I also have showed you, his\nfear. As he also says in the text mentioned above, \"I will put my\nfear in their hearts.\" These words, his and my, they are intimate\nand familiar expressions, bespeaking not only great favour to man,\nbut a very great trust put in him. As who should say, this fear\nis my special friend, it will subject and bow the soul, and the\nseveral faculties thereof, to my pleasure; it is my great favourite,\nand subdueth sinners to my pleasure. You shall rarely find faith\nor repentance, or parts, go under such familiar characters as this\nblessed fear of the Lord doth. Of all the counsellors and mighties\nthat David had, Hushai only was called the king's friend (2 Sam\n15:37, 16:16). So of all the graces of the Spirit this of the fear\nof God goes mostly, if not always, by the title of MY fear, God's\nfear, HIS fear, &c. I told you before, if the king will keep a town,\nthe main fort therein must be sufficiently manned: and now I will\nadd, that if he have not to govern those men some trusty and special\nfriend, such as Hushai was to David, he may find it lost when it\nshould stand him in greatest stead. If a soul should be possessed\nwith all things possible, yet if this fear of God be wanting, all\nother things will give place in time of rebellion, and the soul\nshall be found in, and under the conduct of hell, when it should\nstand up for God and his truth in the world. This fear of God, it\nis God's special friend, and therefore it has given unto it the\nchief seat of the heart, the will, that the whole man may now be,\nand also be kept hereafter, in the subjection and obedience of the\ngospel. For,\n\n4. This grace of fear is the softest and most tender of God's honour\nof any other grace. It is that tender, sensible, and trembling\ngrace, that keepeth the soul upon its continual watch. To keep a\ngood watch is, you know, a wonderful safety to a place that is in\ncontinual danger because of the enemy. Why, this is the grace that\nsetteth the watch, and that keepeth the watchmen awake (Can 3:7,8).\nA man cannot watch as he should, if he be destitute of fear: let him\nbe confident, and he sleeps; he unadvisedly lets into the garrison\nthose that should not come there. Israel's fault when they came to\nCanaan was, that they made a covenant with the inhabitants of the\nland, to wit, the Gibeonites, without asking counsel of God. But\nwould they have done so, think you, if at the same time the fear\nof God had had its full play in the soul, in the army? no, they at\nthat time forgot to fear. The grace of fear had not at that time\nits full stroke and sway among them.\n\n5. This grace of fear is that which, as I may so say, first affects\nthe hearts of saints with judgments, after we have sinned, and so\nis as a beginning grace to bring again that to rights that by sin\nis put out of frame. O it is a precious grace of God! I know what\nI say in this matter, and also where I had been long ago, through\nthe power of my lusts, and the wiles of the devil, had it not been\nfor the fear of God.\n\nSecond. But secondly, another encouragement for those that are\nblessed with this blessed grace of fear is this,--this fear fails\nnot to do this work for the soul, if there in truth, be it never\nso small in measure. A little of this leaven \"leaveneth the whole\nlump.\" True, a little will not do, or help the soul to do those\nworthy exploits in the heart or life as well as a bigger measure\nthereof; nor, indeed, can a little of any grace do that which\na bigger measure will; but a little will preserve the soul from\nfinal apostasy, and deliver it into the arms of the Son of God at\nthe final judgment. Wherefore, when he saith, \"I will put my fear\nin their hearts,\" he says not, I will put so much of it there, such\na quantity, or such a degree; but, \"I will put my fear there.\" I\nspeak not this in the least to tempt the godly man to be content\nwith the least degree of the fear of God in his heart. True, men\nshould be glad that God hath put even the least degree of this\ngrace into their souls, but they should not be content therewith;\nthey should earnestly covet more, pray for more, and use all lawful,\nthat is, all the means of God's appointing, that they may get more.\n\nThere are, as I have said already, several degrees of this grace of\nfear, and our wisdom is to grow in it, as in all the other graces\nof the Spirit. The reasons why, I have showed you, and also the way\nto grow therein; but the least measure thereof will do as I said,\nthat is, keep the soul from final apostasy. There are, as I have\nshowed you, those that greatly fear the Lord, that fear exceedingly,\nand that fear him above many of their brethren; but the small in\nthis grace are saved as well as those that are great therein: \"He\nwill bless\" or save \"them that fear him, both small and great.\"\nThis fear of the Lord is the pulse of the soul; and as some pulses\nbeat stronger, some weaker, so is this grace of fear in the soul.\nThey that beat best are a sign of best life, but they that beat\nworst show that life is [barely] present. As long as the pulse\nbeats, we count not that the man is dead, though weak; and this\nfear, where it is, preserves to everlasting life. Pulses there are\nalso that are intermitting; to wit, such as have their times for\na little, a little time to stop, and beat again; true, these are\ndangerous pulses, but yet too a sign of life. This fear of God also\nis sometimes like this intermitting pulse; there are times when it\nforbears to work, and then it works again. David had an intermitting\npulse, Peter had an intermitting pulse, as also many other of the\nsaints of God. I call that an intermitting pulse, with reference\nto the fear we speak of, when there is some obstruction by the\nworkings of corruptions in the soul; I say, some obstruction from,\nand hindrance of, the continual motion of this fear of God; yet\nnone of these, though they are various, and some of them signs\nof weakness, are signs of death, but life. \"I will put my fear in\ntheir hearts, that they shall not depart from me.\"\n\nQuest. But you may say, How shall I know that I fear God?\n\nAnsw. If I should say that desires, true sincere desires to fear\nhim, is fear itself. I should not say amiss (Neh 1:11). For although\na desire to be, or do so and so, makes not a man to be in temporal\nor natural things what he desires to be--for a sick, or poor,\nor imprisoned man may desire to be well, to be rich, or to be\nat liberty, and yet be as they are, sick, poor, or in prison--yet\nin spirituals, a man's desire to be good, to believe, to love, to\nhope, and fear God, doth flow from the nature of grace itself.\n\nI said before, that in temporals a man could not properly be said\nto be what he was not; yet a man, even in naturals or temporals,\nshows his love to that thing that he desires, whether it be health,\nriches, or liberty; and in spirituals, desires of, from love to\nthis or that grace of God, sincere desires of it flow from the root\nof the grace itself--\"Thy servants who desire to fear thy name.\"\nNehemiah bore himself before God upon this, \"that he desired to\nfear his name.\" And hence again it is said concerning desires, true\ndesires, \"The desire of man is his kindness\" (Prov 19:22). For a\nman shows his heart, his love, his affections, and his delights,\nin his desires; and since the grace of the fear of God is a grace\nso pleasant in the sight of God, and of so sanctifying a nature\nin the soul where it is, a true sincere desire to be blessed with\nthat grace must needs flow from some being of this grace in the\nsoul already.\n\nTrue desires are lower than higher acts of grace, but God will not\noverlook desires--\"But now they desire a better country, that is,\nan heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God;\nfor he hath prepared for them a city.\" Mark, they desire a country,\nand they shall have a city. At this low place, to wit, sincere\ndesires, God will meet the soul and will tell him that he hath\naccepted of his desires, that his desires are his kindness, and\nflow from grace itself: \"He will fulfil the desire of them that fear\nhim.\" Therefore desires are not rejected of God; but they would,\nif they did not flow from a principle of grace already in the soul;\ntherefore desires, sincere desires to fear God, flow from grace\nalready in the soul. Therefore, since thou fearest God, and it is\nevident by thy desires that thou dost so do, thou art happy now\nin this thy fear, and shalt be happy for ever hereafter in the\nenjoyment of that which God in another world hath laid up for them\nthat fear him.\n\nThird. Another encouragement for those that have this grace of fear\nis this; this grace can make that man, that in many other things\nis not capable of serving of God, serve him better than those that\nhave all without it. Poor Christian man, thou hast scarce been able\nto do anything for God all thy days, but only to fear the Lord.\nThou art no preacher, and so canst not do him service that way;\nthou art no rich man, and so canst not do him service with outward\nsubstance; thou art no wise man, and so canst not do anything that\nway; but here is thy mercy, thou fearest God. Though thou canst\nnot preach, thou canst fear God. Though thou hast no bread to feed\nthe belly, nor fleece to clothe the back of the poor, thou canst\nfear God. O how \"blessed is the man that feareth the Lord\"; because\nthis duty of fearing of God is an act of the mind, and may be\ndone by the man that is destitute of all things but that holy and\nblessed mind.\n\nBlessed therefore is that man, for God hath not laid the comfort\nof his people in the doing of external duties, nor the salvation\nof their souls, but in believing, loving, and fearing God. Neither\nhath he laid these things in actions done in their health nor in the\ndue management of their most excellent parts, but in the receiving\nof Christ, and fear of God. The which, good Christian, thou mayest\ndo, and do acceptably, even though thou shouldest lie bed-rid all\nthy days; thou mayest also be sick and believe; be sick and love,\nbe sick and fear God, and so be a blessed man. And here the poor\nChristian hath something to answer them that reproach him for his\nignoble pedigree, and shortness of the glory of the wisdom of the\nworld. True, may that man say, I was taken out of the dunghill, I\nwas born in a base and low estate, but I fear God. I have no worldly\ngreatness, nor excellency of natural parts, but I fear God.\n\nWhen Obadiah met with Elijah, he gave him no worldly and fantastical\ncompliment, nor did he glory in his promotion by Ahab the king of\nIsrael, but gravely, and after a gracious manner, said, \"I thy servant\nfear the Lord from my youth.\" Also when the mariners inquired of\nJonah, saying, \"What is thine occupation, and whence comest thou?\nwhat is thy country, and of what people art thou?\" This was the\nanswer he gave them, \"I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God\nof heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land\" (Jonah 1:8,9).\nIndeed this answer is the highest, and most noble in the world,\nnor are there any, save a few, that in truth can thus express\nthemselves, though other answers they had enough; most can say,\nI have wisdom, or might, or riches, or friends, or health, or the\nlike; these are common, and are greatly boasted in by the most;\nbut he is the man that feareth God, and he that can say, when they\nsay to him, What art thou? \"I thy servant fear the Lord,\" he is\nthe man of many, he is to be honoured of men: though this, to wit,\nthat he feareth the Lord, is all that he hath in the world. He\nhath the thing, the honour, the life, and glory that is lasting;\nhis blessedness will abide when all men's but his is buried in the\ndust, in shame and contempt.[35]\n\nA word to hypocrites.\n\nHypocrites, my last word is to you; the hypocrite is one that would\nappear to be that in men's eyes that is nothing of in God's--thou\nhypocrite, that wouldest be esteemed to be one that loves and that\nfears God, but does not; I have this to say to thee, thy condition\nis damnable, because thou art a hypocrite, and seekest to deceive\nboth God and man with guises, vizards, masks, shows, pretences, and\nthy formal, carnal, feigned subjection to the outside of statutes,\nlaws, and commandments; but within thou art full of rottenness and\nall excess.\n\nHypocrite, thou mayest by thy cunning shifts be veiled and hid from\nmen, but thou art naked before the eyes of God, and he knoweth that\nhis fear is not in thy heart (Luke 16:15).\n\nHypocrite, be admonished that there is not obedience accepted of\nGod, where the heart is destitute of this grace of fear. Keeping\nof the commandments is but one part of the duty of man, and Paul\ndid that, even while he was a hypocrite (Phil 3). To \"fear God and\nkeep his commandments, this is the whole duty of man\" (Eccl 12:13).\nThis--fear God--the hypocrite, as a hypocrite, cannot do, and\ntherefore, as such, cannot escape the damnation of hell.\n\nHypocrite, thou must fear God first, even before thou dost offer to\nmeddle with the commandments, that is, as to the keeping of them.\nIndeed, thou shouldest read therein, that thou mayest learn to fear\nthe Lord, but yet, \"fear God\" goes before the command to keep his\ncommandments. And if thou dost not fear God first, thou transgressest,\ninstead of keeping of the commandments.\n\nHypocrite, this word, FEAR GOD, is that which the hypocrite quite\nforgets, although it is that which sanctifies the whole duty of\nman. For this is that, and nothing without it, that can make a man\nsincere in his obedience; the hypocrite looks for applause abroad,\nand forgets that he is condemned at home, and both these he does\nbecause he wanteth the fear of God.\n\nHypocrite, be admonished that none of the privileges that are\nspoken of in the former part of the book belongs to thee, because\nthou art a hypocrite; and if thou hope, thy hope shall be cut off,\nand if thou lean upon thy house, both thou and it shall fall into\nhell-fire. Triumph then, thy triumph is but for awhile. Joy then,\nbut the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment (Job 8:13,15,\n20:4-6).\n\nPerhaps thou wilt not let go now, what, as a hypocrite, thou hast\ngot; but \"what is the hope of the hypocrite, when God taketh away\nhis soul?\" (Job 27:8). Hypocrite, thou shouldest have chosen the\nfear of God, as thou hast chosen a profession without it, but thou\nhast cast off fear, because thou art a hypocrite; and because thou\nart such, thou shalt have the same measure that thou metest; God\nwill cast thee off, because thou art a hypocrite. God hath prepared\na fear for thee because thou didst not choose the fear of God, and\nthat fear shall come upon thee like desolation, and like an armed\nman, and shall swallow thee up, thou and all that thou art (Prov\n1:27).\n\nHypocrite, read this text and tremble--\"The sinners in Zion are\nafraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us\nshall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with\neverlasting burnings?\" (Isa 33:13,14).\n\nHypocrite, thou art not under the fatherly protection of God,\nbecause thou art a hypocrite, and wantest his fear in thine heart.\nThe eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, to deliver them.\nBut the fearless man or hypocrite is left to the snares and wiles\nof the devil, to be caught therein and overcome, because he is\ndestitute of the fear of God.\n\nHypocrite, thou art like to have no other reward of God for thy\nlabour than that which the goats shall have;[36] the hypocrite,\nbecause he is a hypocrite, shall not stand in God's sight. The\ngain of thy religion thou spendest as thou gettest it. Thou wilt\nnot have one farthing overplus at death and judgment.\n\nHypocrite, God hath not intrusted thee with the least dram of his\nsaving grace, nor will he, because thou art a hypocrite: and as for\nwhat thou hast, thou hast stolen it, even every man of you from his\nneighbour; still pilfering out of their profession, even as Judas\ndid out of the bag. Thou comest like a thief into thy profession,\nand like a thief thou shalt go out of the same. Jesus Christ hath\nnot counted thee faithful to commit to thee any of his jewels to\nkeep, because thou fearest him not. He hath given his \"banner to\nthem that fear him, that it may be displayed because of the truth\"\n(Psa 60:4).\n\nHypocrite, thou art not true to God nor man, nor thine own soul,\nbecause thou art a hypocrite! How should the Lord put any trust\nin thee? Why should the saints look for any good from thee? Should\nGod give thee his Word, thou wilt sell it. Should men commit their\nsouls to thee, thou wilt destroy them, by making merchandise of\nthem, for thy own hypocritical designs. Yea, if the sun waxes hot,\nthou wilt throw all away, and not endure the heat, because thou\nart a hypocrite!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1]This is a very remarkable illustration of godly fear. Jacob does\nnot swear by the omnipresence or omniscience of God--nor by his\nomnipotence--nor by his love or mercy in his covenant--nor by the\nGod of Abraham, but by the \"fear of his father Isaac\"--the sole\nobject of his adoration. A most striking and solemn appeal to\nJehovah, fixing upon our hearts that Divine proverb, \"The fear of\nthe Lord is the beginning of wisdom\"--the source of all happiness,\nboth in time and in eternity.--Ed.\n\n[2] It is of solemn importance that we feel the vast difference\nbetween holy and unholy familiarity with God. Has he adopted us into\nhis family? Can we, by a new birth, say \"Our Father?\" Still he is\nin heaven, we on earth. He is infinite in purity; Holy, Holy, Holy\nis his name. We are defiled, and can only approach his presence\nin the righteousness of the Saviour and Mediator. Then, O my soul,\nif it is thy bliss to draw near to the throne of grace with holy\nboldness, let it be with reverence and godly fear.--Ed.\n\n[3] It is an awful thing to appeal to God for the truth of a lie!\nAll appeals to God, not required by law, are worse than useless;\nthey are wicked, and cast a doubt on the veracity of those who make\nthem--Ed.\n\n[4] \"To give the back\"; to forsake, to depart, to treat with\ncontempt. See Imperial Dictionary, vol. i. p. 145.--Ed.\n\n[5] The genuine disciple \"who thinketh no evil\" will say, Can this\nbe so now? Yes, reader, it is. Some go to God's house to worship\ntheir ease and forgetfulness in sleep; some for worldly purposes;\nsome to admire the beauty of the frail body; but many to worship God\nin spirit and in truth. Reader, inquire to which of these classes\nyou belong.--Ed.\n\n[6] They worshipped God, not according to his appointment, but\ntheir own inventions--the direction of their false prophets, or\ntheir idolatrous kings, or the usages of the nations round about\nthem. The tradition of the elders was of more value and validity\nwith them than God's laws by Moses. This our Saviour applies to the\nJews in his time, who were formal in their devotions, and wedded to\ntheir own inventions; and pronounces concerning them that in vain\ndo they worship God. How many still in worship regard the inventions\nof man, and traditions of the church, more than the commands of\nGod.--Ed.\n\n[7] The Word is the decree upon which we must depend or perish. In\nvain, poor sinner, is any reliance upon churches or men; neither\nPapist nor Protestant have any power \"committed unto them\" to\nforgive sins. If they claim it, believe them not, but pity their\npride and delusion. Christ is the Rock, and not poor erring Peter,\nas some have vainly imagined. Peter is dead, awaiting the resurrection\nof his body, and the great day of judgment; but Christ ever liveth\nat all times, and in all places, able to save unto the uttermost.\nPut no trust in man, but in thy broken spirit seek the blessing of\nChrist, that he may pardon thy sins.--Ed.\n\n[8] The fear of the wicked arises from a corrupt, sinful,\nself-condemning conscience; they fear God as an angry judge, and\ntherefore consider him as their enemy. As they love and will not part\nwith their sins, so they are in continual dread of punishment.--Mason.\n\n[9] \"To-elbow all his days in his lord's vineyard\"; to sit or stand\nidly resting upon his elbows, instead of labouring in the vineyard.\n\"A sovereign shame so elbows him.\"--King Lear, Act iv, Scene 3.--Ed.\n\n[10] \"Gear\"; apparel, furniture, implements. \"The apostles were\nnot fixed in their residence, but were ready in their gears to move\nwhither they were called.\"--Barrow.--Ed.\n\n[11] God does not limit himself as to his mode of calling poor\nsinners. The three thousand he convinced at one hour, and they\nimmediately made a profession, but Bunyan was for years in a state\nof alarming uncertainty; some are driven by fiery terrors, others\nby a still small voice. Reader, our anxious inquiry should be,\nHave we entered in by Christ the gate? Are our fruits meet for\nrepentance? Let no one vaunt of his experience, because he go\nwell bedaubed with the dirt of the slough. Every soul that enters\nthe gate is equally a miracle of grace.--Ed.\n\n[12] This is remarkably instanced in Bunyan's Grace Abounding.--Ed.\n\n[13] Those who are adopted into the family of heaven are \"justified\nfrom all things\"; being delivered from sin, the curse, and wrath,\n\"there is now no condemnation for them\"; and trusting to Jesus'\nprecious blood of pardon, to his righteousness for acceptance, and\nto his grace for sanctification, they are, by the indwelling of\nthe Spirit which adopted them, possessed of that love which casteth\nout fear, and rejoiceth in hope of the glory of God. And to those\nwho, through their manifold infirmities and departures, are often\nbeset with unbelieving fears, the Lord says, for their encouragement,\n\"Fear thou not, for I am with thee; I will help thee; yea, I will uphold\nthee with the right hand of my righteousness\" (Isa 41:10).--Mason.\n\n[14] Effectual grace in the soul is accompanied by doubts and\nfears, owing to the remains of indwelling corruption; hence arises\na continual warfare. Believer, how needful is it ever to retain\nyour confidence and assurance of your Lord's love to you! Rely on\nhis faithfulness, persevere steadfastly in the way of duty, looking\nto Jesus, and living upon his fulness.--Mason. How does all this\nreasoning remind us of Bunyan's own experience, recorded in his\nGrace Abounding; he was not ignorant of Satan's devices.--Ed.\n\n[15] Alas! how few attain to this most blessed state. To delight\nso in the Word--to make it so much our daily study, and the object\nof our meditations at night, as to have \"its very form engraven\nupon the face of our souls.\" Happy is the man that is in such a\ncase. O my soul, why is it not thy case?--Ed.\n\n[16] The filial fear of God is most prevalent when the heart\nis impressed with a lively sense of the love of God manifested in\nChrist. As a dutiful and obedient child fears to offend an affectionate\nparent, or as a person of grateful heart would be extremely careful\nnot to grieve a kind and bountiful friend, who is continually loading\nhim with favours and promoting his true happiness; so, and much\nmore, will the gracious soul be afraid of displeasing the Lord,\nhis bountiful and unwearied benefactor, who is crowning him with\nloving kindness and tender mercies.--Mason.\n\n[17] It is no new thing for those who are in public places, to\nseek themselves more than the public welfare; nay, and to serve\nthemselves by the public loss.--Henry.\n\n[18] How does this remind us of the character of By-ends in the\n\"Pilgrim's Progress\" !--Ed.\n\n[19] So Ainsworth understands, p. 134, vol. 10. He renders it,\n\"lurking lions, which are lusty, strong-toothed, fierce, roaring,\nand ravenous. And hereby,\" says he, \"may be meant the rich and mighty\nof the world, whom God often bringeth to misery.\" \"They that are\nravenous, and prey on all about them, shall want, but the meek shall\ninherit the earth; they shall not want who, with quiet obedience,\nwork and mind their own business; plain-hearted Jacob has pottage\nenough, when Esau, the cunning hunter, is ready to perish.\"\nHenry.--Ed.\n\n[20] \"The conduct of angels\" means not merely their guiding pilgrims\nin the way, but also, in a military sense, a guard, or what is now\ncalled a convoy.--Ed.\n\n[21] See margin, Genesis 41:43, and 40:8.--Ed.\n\n[22] To publish by sound of trumpet, to trumpet good tidings. In\nBunyan's time it was never used ironically.--Ed.\n\n[23] This if from the Bible, and not from the inferior version in\nthe Book of Common Prayer, commonly called the reading Psalms.--Ed.\n\n[24] Sternhold and Hopkin's edit. 1635.--The propriety of singing\nin public worship was strongly debated by some of the Nonconformists.\nThere were very weighty reasons, in persecuting times, for meetings\nbeing held as quietly as possible. The Quakers to this day do not\nadmit singing in their assemblies. The introduction of this psalm\nproves that Bunyan was acquainted with the \"singing\" Psalms, and,\nin all probability, practised singing in public worship. When\nJames I. improved this version for church use, called the Psalms\nof KING David, translated by KING James, his last four lines are--\n\n\n    Thou of Jerusalem shalt see\n        While as thou liv'st the good,\n    Thou shalt thy children's children see,\n        And peace on Israel's brood.\n\n\nHow blessed are we in our day with the poetry of Watts, Wesley,\nand a host of others, who have supplied the church with beautiful\nsoul-inspiring compositions, without fear to restrain us in using\nthem.--Ed.\n\n[25] No one can charge Bunyan with a superstitious notion of dreams,\nwhether asleep or as if asleep. Such a mode of interpretation\nas he recommends is both rational and scriptural. To dream awake\nis thus explained--\"They dream on in a course of reading without\ndigesting.\"--Locke.--Ed.\n\n[26] Whoever thou art, beseech the Lord to weigh thee in the\nbalances of the sanctuary. No fear of God--no grace in the soul.\nOf this class is the proud, the covetous, the glutton, the liar,\nthe apostate, the perverter of God's people from the right way;\nobstinate and incorrigible backsliders; those who neither mourn\nnor sigh for the wickedness of the land; they that prefer their\nown fancies, dreams, frames, and feelings, to the Word of God;\nswearers, adulterers, perjured persons, and oppressors of the poor;\nthey that insult the godly, and rejoice at their sufferings; they\nthat have no love, gratitude, nor sense of duty to God, as the\nfountain of their unmerited mercies. O reader, give God no rest\nuntil, by his Word and Spirit, he imparts to thee this holy fear as\nthe earnest of glory hereafter; without it you are perishing.--Mason.--Ed.\n\n[27] \"Snaffle\"; a loose bridle with a curb. \"To snaffle\"; to be\neasily led.\n\n\n    \"The third o' the' world is yours, which with a snaffle,\n    You may pace easy, but not such a wise.\"\n            Antony and Cleopatra.--Ed.\n\n\n[28] How familiar but striking an illustration. Reader, look well\nto the mainspring, and see also that the wheels are not clogged.\nWe ought to be living epistles, known and read of all men.--Ed.\n\n[29] \"A royster\"; a violent, riotous, blustering, turbulent,\nfellow--a species of men now much out of date, as are jails and\ngibbets, sword and burning stake. How great and true that courage\nwhich could look at, and expect, such trials, without shrinking,\nwhen they were threatened as a reward for love to Christ and holy\nobedience to his gospel!--Ed.\n\n[30] This is a very strong and striking expression. \"To soak,\"\nmeans to imbibe as much as we can contain; and as to the influence\nof godly fear, happy shall we be in proportion as we are enabled\nto follow Bunyan's advice.--Ed.\n\n[31] The words, \"he made them houses,\" we humbly suggest, may not\nonly mean that these God-fearing women had safe dwelling-places,\nbut, in a more extensive sense, God made them the heads of honourable\nfamilies, see 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:11, 13, 27, 29; 1 Kings\n2:24, 11:28. So David's prayer was, \"Let my house be established\nbefore thee; thou, O my God, wilt build me an house\" (1 Chron\n17:24,25).--Ed.\n\n[32] Royal patents, in Bunyan's time, were lucrative but most oppressive,\nconferring upon favourites, or their nominees, an exclusive right\nto deal in any article of manufacture. But the patent to God's\nfearers, to trust in him when involved in darkness and distress,\nis a blessed privilege, injurious to none.--Ed.\n\n[33] \"Grabbling\"; sprawling along, drawing the body, by the hands,\nthrough a small aperture in a mine.--Ed.\n\n[34] \"Tines\"; from the Saxon; the teeth or spikes in the rowel of\na spur.--Ed.\n\n[35] \"Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.\" Blessedness\nshall attend him all the way to heaven, in proportion as that fear\nabounds. It is a heaven on earth to live in the constant fear of\nGod--to have a reverential awe and fear of his majesty immovably\nfixed and implanted in the soul. The grace of fear has an eminent\ninfluence in a Christian's sanctification; it is a powerful restraint\nfrom sin. A holy fear of God, and a humble fear of ourselves,\nwhich are alike of Divine operation, will preserve us from sin and\nengage us to obedience. God will be our protector and instructor,\nour guide and our everlasting deliverer from all evil. Let us not\nrest satisfied with the greatest attainments short of \"perfecting\nholiness in the fear of God.\"--Mason.\n\n[36] By the goats we are to understand the hypocrites and the\nfinally impenitent, who will depart into everlasting fire, prepared\nfor the devil and his angels; see Matthew 25:32, 33-41.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE DOCTRINE\n\nOF\n\nTHE LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED;\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE LAW AND GRACE; THE NATURE OF THE ONE, AND\nTHE NATURE OF THE OTHER; SHOWING WHAT THEY ARE, AS THEY ARE THE\nTWO COVENANTS; AND LIKEWISE, WHO THEY BE, AND WHAT THEIR CONDITIONS\nARE, THAT BE UNDER EITHER OF THESE TWO COVENANTS:\n\nWherein, for the better understanding of the reader, there are\nseveral questions answered touching the law and grace, very easy to\nbe read, and as easy to be understood, by those that are the sons\nof wisdom, the children of the second covenant.\n\n\"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better\nhope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God\" (Heb 7:19).\n\n\"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without\nthe deeds of the law\" (Rom 3:28).\n\n\"To him [therefore] that worketh not, but believeth on Him that\njustifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness\"\n(Rom 4:5).\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nIt is difficult to understand those peculiar trials which called\nforth the mighty energies of Bunyan's mind, unless we are acquainted\nwith the times in which he lived. The trammels of statecraft and\npriestcraft had been suddenly removed from religion, and men were\nleft to form their own opinions as to rites and ceremonies. In this\nstate of abrupt liberty, some wild enthusiasts ran into singular\nerrors; and Bunyan's first work on \"Gospel Truths\" was published\nto correct them. Then followed that alarm to thoughtless souls--\"A\nFew Sighs from Hell\"; and, in 1659, as a further declaration of the\nmost important truths of revelation, this work on the two covenants\nwas sent forth to chastise error, and comfort the saints of God.\nIt was published many times during the author's life; and since\nthen, to a late period, very large impressions have been circulated.\nUpon a subject of such vast importance--upon which hangs all our\neternal interests--all our indescribable joys or sorrows in a future\nand never-ending state--the requirements of our Creator--and His\ngracious provision of pardoning mercy, upon our failing to keep\nHis Law--these are subjects of intense interest. How important is\nit that all our researches into these solemn realities should be\nguided simply by the revealed will of God! That was the fountain\nat which Bunyan drunk in all his knowledge; and with simplicity,\nand most earnest desire to promote the glory of God in the salvation\nof sinners, he here gives the result of his patient, prayerful,\npainful investigation. The humble dependence upon Divine mercy which\nthe author felt is very striking. He was sensible of his want of\neducation; \"no vain, whimsical, scholar-like terms\"--no philosophy\nfrom Plato or Aristotle. He felt, as to human teaching, his weakness,\nbut proved that, \"when he was weak, then was he strong.\" He claimed\nan interest in the fervent prayers of his fellow saints--\"My heart\nis vile, the devil lieth at watch, trust myself I dare not; if\nGod do not help me, my heart will deceive me.\" This was the proper\nspirit in which to enter upon so solemn a subject; and the aid he\nsought was vouchsafed to him, and appears throughout this important\nwork. His first object is to define what is the Law, a strict\nobedience to which is exacted upon all mankind. It was given to\nAdam, and was afterwards more fully developed upon Mount Sinai.\nIt commands implicit, universal, perfect obedience, upon pain of\neternal ruin. He shows us that man, under the influence of that\nlaw, and while a stranger to the Law of Grace, may repent and reform\nhis conduct, become a member of a Christian church, be a virgin\nwaiting for his Lord, \"but not step even upon the lowest round of\nthe ladder that reacheth to heaven.\" While man is a stranger to the\nnew birth, \"his destiny is the lion's den; yea, worse than that,\nto be thrown into Hell to the very devils.\" Bunyan in this, as\nwell as all other of his works, is awfully severe upon those who\nsay, \"Let us sin that grace may abound,\" perverting the consolatory\ndoctrine of Divine grace to their souls' destruction. \"What!\nbecause Christ is a Saviour, wilt thou be a sinner! because His\ngrace abounds, therefore thou wilt abound in sin! O wicked wretch!\nrake Hell all over, and surely I think thy fellow will scarce\nbe found. If Christ will not serve their turn, but they must have\ntheir sins too, take them, Devil; if Heaven will not satisfy them,\ntake them, Hell; devour them, burn them, Hell!\" \"Tell the hogs of\nthis world what a hog-sty is prepared for them, even such an one\nas a God hath prepared to put the devil and his angels into.\"\n\nTo the distressed, sin-beaten Christian, this book abounds with\nconsolation, and instructions how to overcome the devices of Satan,\nwho will plant the Ten Commandments, like ten great guns, to destroy\nthy hopes. \"Learn to outshoot the devil in his own bow, and to cut\noff his head with his own sword. Doth Satan tell thee thou prayest\nbut faintly and with cold devotions? Answer him, I am glad you told\nme, I will trust the more to Christ's prayers, and groan, sigh,\nand cry more earnestly at the Throne of Grace.\" To such readers\nas have been driven to the verge of despair by a fear of having\ncommitted the unpardonable sin, here is strong consolation, and a\nvery explicit scriptural definition of that awful crime. Want of\nspace prevents me adding more than my earnest desire that the reading\nof this treatise may be productive of solid peace and comfort.--ED.\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE READER\n\nREADER,\n\nIf at any time there be held forth by the preacher the freeness\nand fullness of the Gospel, together with the readiness of the Lord\nof Peace to receive those that have any desire thereto, presently\nit is the spirit of the world to cry out, Sure this man disdains\nthe law, slights the law, and counts that of none effect; and all\nbecause there is not, together with the Gospel, mingled the doctrine\nof the law, which is not a right dispensing of the Word according\nto truth and knowledge. Again; if there be the terror, horror, and\nseverity of the law discovered to a people by the servants of Jesus\nChrist, though they do not speak of it to the end people should\ntrust to it, by relying on it as it is a covenant of works; but\nrather that they should be driven further from that covenant, even\nto embrace the tenders and privileges of the second, yet, poor\nsouls, because they are unacquainted with the natures of these\ntwo covenants, or either of them, therefore, \"they say,\" \"Here\nis nothing but preaching of the law, thundering of the law\"; when,\nalas, if these two be not held forth--to wit, the Covenant of\nWorks and the Covenant of Grace, together with the nature of the\none and the nature of the other--souls will never be able either to\nknow what they are by nature or what they lie under. Also, neither\ncan they understand what grace is, nor how to come from under the\nlaw to meet God in and through that other most glorious covenant,\nthrough which and only through which, God can communicate of Himself\ngrace, glory, yea, even all the good things of another world.\n\nI, having considered these things, together with others, have made\nbold to present yet once more to thy view, my friend, something of\nthe mind of God, to the end, if it shall be but blessed to thee,\nthou mayest be benefited thereby; for verily these things are not\nsuch as are ordinary and of small concernment, but do absolutely\nconcern thee to know, and that experimentally too, if ever thou\ndo partake of the glory of God through Jesus Christ, and so escape\nthe terror and insupportable vengeance that will otherwise come\nupon thee through His justice, because of thy living and dying in\nthy transgressions against the Law of God. And therefore, while\nthou livest here below, it is thy duty, if thou wish thyself happy\nfor the time to come, to give up thyself to the studying of these\ntwo covenants treated of in the ensuing discourse; and so to study\nthem until thou, through grace, do not only get the notion of the\none and of the other in thy head, but until thou do feel the very\npower, life, and glory of the one and of the other: for take this\nfor granted, he that is dark as touching the scope, intent, and\nnature of the law, is also dark as to the scope, nature, and glory\nof the Gospel; and also he that hath but a notion of the one, will\nbarely have any more than a notion of the other.\n\nAnd the reason is this: because so long as people are ignorant of\nthe nature of the law, and of their being under it--that is, under\nthe curse and condemning power of it, by reason of their sin against\nit--so long they will be careless, and negligent as to the inquiring\nafter the true knowledge of the Gospel. Before the commandment\ncame--that is, in the spirituality of it--Paul was alive--that is,\nthought himself safe; which is clear, (Rom 7:9,10 compared with\nPhil 3:5-11, etc). But when that came, and was indeed discovered\nunto him by the Spirit of the Lord, then Paul dies (Rom 7) to all\nhis former life (Phil 3) and that man which before could content\nhimself to live, though ignorant of the Gospel, cries out now, \"I\ncount all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of\nChrist Jesus my Lord\" (verse 8). Therefore, I say, so long they will\nbe ignorant of the nature of the Gospel, and how glorious a thing\nit is to be found within the bounds of it; for we use to say, that\nman that knoweth not himself to be sick, that man will not look\nout for himself a physician; and this Christ knew full well when\nHe saith, \"The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick\";1\nthat is, none will in truth desire the physician unless they know\nthey be sick. That man also that hath got but a notion of the\nlaw--a notion, that is, the knowledge of it in the head, so as to\ndiscourse and talk of it--if he hath not felt the power of it, and\nthat effectually too, it is to be feared will at the best be but a\nnotionist in the Gospel; he will not have the experimental knowledge\nof the same in his heart; nay, he will not seek nor heartily desire\nafter it; and all because, as I said before, he hath not experience\nof the wounding, cutting, killing nature of the other.\n\nI say, therefore, if thou wouldst know the authority and power of\nthe Gospel, labour first to know the power and authority of the law;\nfor I am verily persuaded that the want of this one thing--namely,\nthe knowledge of the law, is one cause why so many are ignorant of\nthe other. That man that doth know the law doth not know in deed\nand in truth that he is a sinner; and that man that doth not know\nhe is a sinner, doth not know savingly that there is a Saviour.\n\nAgain; that man that doth not know the nature of the law, that man\ndoth not know the nature of sin; and that man that knoweth not the\nnature of sin, will not regard to know the nature of a Saviour;\nthis is proved (John 8:31-36). These people were professors, and\nyet did not know the truth--the Gospel; and the reason was, because\nthey did not know themselves, and so not the law. I would not have\nthee mistake me, Christian reader; I do not say that the law of\nitself will lead any soul to Jesus Christ; but the soul being killed\nby the law, through the operation of its severity seizing on the\nsoul, then the man, if he be enlightened by the Spirit of Christ\nto see where remedy is to be had, will not, through grace, be\ncontented without the real and saving knowledge through faith of\nHim.\n\nIf thou wouldst, then, wash thy face clean, first take a glass and\nsee where it is dirty; that is, if thou wouldst indeed have thy\nsins washed away by the blood of Christ, labour first to see them\nin the glass of the law, and do not be afraid to see thy besmeared\ncondition, but look on every spot thou hast; for he that looks on\nthe foulness of his face by the halves, will wash by the halves;\neven so, he that looks on his sins by the halves, he will seek for\nChrist by the halves. Reckon thyself, therefore, I say, the biggest\nsinner in the world, and be persuaded that there is none worse than\nthyself; then let the guilt of it seize on thy heart, then also\ngo in that case and condition to Jesus Christ, and plunge thyself\ninto His merits and the virtue of His blood; and after that, thou\nshalt speak of the things of the law and of the Gospel experimentally,\nand the very language of the children of God shall feelingly drop\nfrom thy lips, and not till then (James 1).\n\nLet this therefore learn thee thus much: he that hath not seen his\nlost condition hath not seen a safe condition; he that did never\nsee himself in the devil's snare, did never see himself in Christ's\nbosom. \"This my Son was dead, and is alive again: he was lost, and\nis found.\" \"Among whom we also had our conversation in time past.\"\n2 \"But now are (so many of us as believe) returned unto\" Jesus\nChrist, \"the\" chief \"Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.\"\n\nI say, therefore, if thou do find in this treatise, in the first\nplace, something touching the nature, end, and extent of the law,\ndo not thou cry out, therefore, all of a sudden, saying, \"Here is\nnothing but the terror, horror, and thundering sentences of the\nlaw.\"\n\nAgain; if thou do find in the second part of this discourse\nsomething of the freeness and fullness of the Gospel, do not thou\nsay neither, \"Here is nothing but grace, therefore, surely, an\nundervaluing of the law.\" No; but read it quite through, and so\nconsider of it; and I hope thou shalt find the two covenants--which\nall men are under, either the one or the other--discovered, and\nheld forth in their natures, ends, bounds, together with the state\nand condition of them that are under the one, and of them that are\nunder the other.\n\nThere be some that through ignorance do say how that such men as\npreach terror and amazement to sinners are beside the book, and\nare ministers of the letter--the law, and not of the Spirit--the\nGospel; but I would answer them, citing them to the Sixteenth of\nLuke, from the nineteenth verse to the end; and (1 Cor 6:9,10; Gal\n3:10; Rom 3:9-19) only this caution I would give by the way, how\nthat they which preach terror to drive souls to the obtaining of\nsalvation by the works of the law, that preaching is not the right\nGospel preaching; yet when saints speak of the sad state that man\nare in by nature, to discover to souls their need of the Gospel,\nthis is honest preaching, and he that doth do so, he doth the work\nof a Gospel minister (Rom 3:9-25).\n\nAgain, there are others that say, because we do preach the free,\nfull, and exceeding grace discovered in the Gospel, therefore we\nmake void the law; when indeed, unless the Gospel be held forth in\nthe glory thereof without confusion, by mingling the Covenant of\nWorks therewith, the law cannot be established. \"Do we then make\nvoid the law through faith,\" or preaching of the Gospel; nay, stay,\nsaith Paul, \"God forbid: yea, we establish the law\" (Rom 3:31).\n\nAnd verily, he that will indeed establish the law, or set it in\nits own place, for so I understand the words, must be sure to hold\nforth the Gospel in its right colour and nature; for if a man be\nignorant of the nature of the Gospel and the Covenant of Grace,\nthey, or he, will be very apt to remove the law out of its place,\nand that because they are ignorant, not knowing \"what they say,\nnor whereof they affirm.\"\n\nAnd let me tell you, if a man be ignorant of the Covenant of Grace,\nand the bounds and boundlessness of the Gospel, though he speak and\nmake mention of the name of the Father, and of the Son, and also\nof the name of the new covenant, and the blood of Christ, yet at\nthis very time, and in these very words, he will preach nothing\nbut the law, and that as a Covenant of Works.\n\nReader, I must confess it is a wonderfully mysterious thing, and\nhe had need have a wiser spirit than his own that can rightly set\nthese two covenants in their right places, that when he speaks of\nthe one he doth not jostle the other out of its place. O, to be so\nwell enlightened as to speak of the one--that is, the law--for to\nmagnify the Gospel; and also to speak of the Gospel so as to establish,\nand yet not to idolize, the law, nor any particular thereof! It is\nrare, and to be heard and found but in very few men's breasts.\n\nIf thou shouldst say, What is it to speak to each of these two\ncovenants so as to set them in their right places, and also to use\nthe terror of the one so as to magnify and advance the glory of\nthe other? To this I shall answer also, read the ensuing discourse,\nbut with an understanding heart, and it is like thou wilt find a\nreply therein to the same purpose, which may be to thy satisfaction.\n\nReader, if thou do find this book empty of fantastical expressions,\nand without light, vain, whimsical, scholar-like terms, thou must\nunderstand it is because I never went to school to Aristotle,\nor Plato, but was brought up at my father's house, in a very mean\ncondition, among a company of poor countrymen. But if thou do find\na parcel of plain, yet sound, true, and home sayings, attribute that\nto the Lord Jesus His gifts and abilities, which He hath bestowed\nupon such a poor creature as I am and have been. And if thou,\nbeing a seeing Christian, dost find me coming short, though rightly\ntouching at some things, attribute that either to my brevity, or,\nif thou wilt, to my weaknesses, for I am full of them. A word or\ntwo more, and so I shall have done with this.\n\nFirst. And the first is, Friend, if thou do not desire the salvation\nof thy soul, yet I pray thee to read this book over with serious\nconsideration; it may be it will stir up in thee some desires to\nlook out after it, which at present thou mayest be without.\n\nSecondly, If thou dost find any stirrings in thy heart by thy reading\nsuch an unworthy man's works as mine are, be sure that in the first\nplace thou give glory to God, and give way to thy convictions,\nand be not too hasty in getting them off from thy conscience; but\nlet them so work till thou dost see thyself by nature void of all\ngraces, as faith, hope, knowledge of God, Christ, and the Covenant\nof Grace.\n\nThirdly, Then, in the next place, fly in all haste to Jesus Christ,\nthou being sensible of thy lost condition without Him, secretly\npersuading of thy soul that Jesus Christ standeth open-armed\nto receive thee, to wash away thy sins, to clothe thee with His\nrighteousness, and is willing, yea, heartily willing, to present thee\nbefore the presence of the glory of God and among the innumerable\ncompany of angels with exceeding joy. This being thus, in the next\nplace, do not satisfy thyself with these secret and first persuasions,\nwhich do or may encourage thee to come to Jesus Christ; but be\nrestless till thou dost find by blessed experience the glorious\nglory of this the second covenant extended unto thee, and sealed\nupon thy soul with the very Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And\nthat thou mayest not slight this my counsel, I beseech thee, in\nthe second place, consider these following things--\n\nFirst, If thou dost get off thy convictions, and not the right\nway (which is by seeing thy sins washed away by the blood of Jesus\nChrist), it is a question whether ever God will knock at thy heart\nagain or no; but rather say, such an one \"is joined to idols, let\nhim alone\" (Hosea 4:17). Though he be in a natural state, \"let him\nalone.\" Though he be in or under the curse of the law, \"let him\nalone.\" Though he be in the very hand of the devil, \"let him alone.\"\nThough he be a-going post-haste to Hell, \"let him alone.\" Though\nhis damnation will not only be damnation for sins against the law,\nbut also for slighting the Gospel, yet \"let him alone.\" My Spirit,\nMy ministers, My Word, My grace, My mercy, My love, My pity, My\ncommon providences, shall no more strive with him; \"let him alone.\"\nO sad! O miserable! who would slight convictions that are on their\nsouls, which (if not slighted) tend so much for their good?\n\nSecondly, If thou shalt not regard how thou do put off convictions,\nbut put them off without the precious blood of Christ being savingly\napplied to thy soul, thou art sure to have the mis-spending of that\nconviction to prove the hardening of thy heart against the next\ntime thou art to hear the Word preached or read. This is commonly\nseen, that those souls that have not regarded those convictions\nthat are at first set upon their spirits, do commonly, and that by\nthe just judgments of God upon them, grow more hard, more senseless,\nmore seared and sottish in their spirits; for some, who formerly\nwould quake and weep, and relent under the hearing of the Word, do\nnow for the present sit so senseless, so seared, and hardened in\ntheir consciences, that certainly if they should have hell-fire\nthrown in their faces, as it sometimes cried up in their ears, they\nwould scarce be moved; and this comes upon them as a just judgment\nof God (2 Thess 2:11,12).\n\nThirdly, If thou do slight these, or those convictions that may\nbe set upon thy heart by reading of this discourse, or hearing of\nany other good man preach the Word of God sincerely, thou wilt have\nthe stifling of these or those convictions to account and answer\nfor at the day of judgment; not only thy sins, that are commonly\ncommitted by thee in thy calling and common discourse, but thou shalt\nbe called to a reckoning for slighting convictions, disregarding\nof convictions, which God useth as a special means to make poor\nsinners see their lost condition and the need of a Saviour. Now\nhere I might add many more considerations besides these, to the\nend thou mayest be willing to tend and listen to convictions; as,\n\nFirst, Consider thou hast a precious soul, more worth than the whole\nworld; and this is commonly worked upon, if ever it be saved, by\nconvictions.\n\nSecondly, This soul is for certain to go to Hell, if thou shalt be\na slighter of convictions.\n\nThirdly, If that go to Hell, thy body must go thither too, and then\nnever to come out again. \"Now consider this, ye that\" are apt to\n\"forget God,\" and His convictions, \"lest He tear you in pieces,\nand there be none to deliver\" (Psa 50:22).\n\nBut if thou shalt be such an one that shall, notwithstanding thy\nreading of thy misery, and also of God's mercy, shall persist to\ngo on in thy sins, know, in the first place, that here thou shalt\nbe left, by the things that thou readest, without excuse; and in\nthe world to come thy damnation will be exceedingly aggravated for\nthy not regarding of them, and turning from thy sins, which were\nnot only reproved by them, but also for rejecting of that Word of\nGrace that did instruct thee how and which way thou shouldst be\nsaved from them. And so farewell; I shall leave thee, and also this\ndiscourse, to God, who I know will pass a righteous judgment both\nupon that and thee. I am yours, though not to serve your lusts\nand filthy minds, yet to reprove, instruct, and, according to that\nproportion of faith and knowledge which God hath given me, to declare\nunto you the way of life and salvation. Your judgings, railings,\nsurmisings, and disdaining of me, that I shall leave till the fiery\njudgment comes, in which the offender shall not go unpunished, be\nhe you or me; yet I shall pray for you, wish well to you, and do\nyou what good I can. And that I might not write or speak in vain,\nChristian, pray for me to our God with much earnestness, fervency,\nand frequently, in all your knockings at our Father's door, because\nI do very much stand in need thereof; for my work is great, my heart\nis vile, the devil lieth at watch, the world would fain be saying,\n\"Aha, aha, thus we would have it\"; and of myself, keep myself I\ncannot; trust myself I dare not; if God do not help me, I am sure\nit will not be long before my heart deceive me, and the world would\nhave their advantage of me, and so God be dishonoured by me, and\nthou also ashamed to own me. O, therefore, be much in prayer for\nme, thy fellow! I trust, in that glorious grace that is conveyed\nfrom Heaven to sinners, by which they are not only sanctified here\nin this world, but shall be glorified in that which is to come;\nunto which, the Lord of His mercy bring us all.\n\nJohn Bunyan. ___________________\n\nThese are several titles which are set over the several TRUTHS\ncontained in this book, for thy sooner finding of them--\n\nTHE FIRST PART\n\n1. The words of the text opened, and the doctrines laid down. [This\ndoctrine, that there are some that are under the law, or under the\nCovenant of Works.] 2. What the Covenant of Works is, and when it\nis given. 3. What it is to be under the Covenant of Works. 4. Who\nthey are that are under the Covenant of Works. 5. What men may\nattain to that are under this Covenant of Works.\n\nTHE SECOND PART\n\n1. The doctrine proved. 2. The new covenant made with Christ. 3.\nThe conditions of the new covenant. 4. The suretiship of Christ. 5.\nChrist the Messenger of the new covenant. 6. Christ the Sacrifice\nof the new covenant. 7. Christ the High Priest of the new covenant.\n8. Christ completely fulfilled the conditions of the new covenant.\n9. The Covenant of Grace unchangeable; the opposers answered. 10.\nWho, and how men are actually brought into the new covenant. 11.\nA word of experience. 12. The privileges of the new covenant. 13.\nTwo Hell-bred objections answered. 14. A use of examination about\nthe old covenant. 15. A legal spirit. 16. The use of the new covenant.\n17. The unpardonable sin. 18. Objections answered for their comfort\nwho would have their part in the new covenant. ___________________\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF THE LAW AND GRACE UNFOLDED; OR, A DISCOVERY OF THE\nLAW AND GRACE; THE NATURE OF THE ONE, AND THE NATURE OF THE OTHER,\nAS THEY ARE THE TWO COVENANTS, ETC.\n\n\"FOR YE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE\" (Rom 6:14).\n\n[THE WORDS OF THE TEXT OPENED, AND THE DOCTRINES LAID DOWN.]\n\nIn the three former chapters, the Apostle is pleading for the\nsalvation of sinners by grace without the works of the law, to the\nend he might confirm the saints, and also that he might win over\nall those that did oppose the truth of this doctrine, or else leave\nthem the more without excuse; and that he might so do, he taketh\nin hand, first, to show the state of all men naturally, or as they\ncome into the world by generation, saying, in the Third Chapter, \"There\nis none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth;\nthere is none that doeth good,\" etc. As if he had said, It seems there\nis a generation of men that think to be saved by the righteousness\nof the law; but let me tell them that they are much deceived, in that\nthey have already sinned against the law; for by the disobedience\nof one, many, yea all, were brought into a state of condemnation\n(Rom 5:12-20). Now, in the Sixth Chapter he doth, as if he had\nturned him round to the brethren, and said, My brethren, you see\nnow that it is clear and evident that it is freely by the grace of\nChrist that we do inherit eternal life. And again, for your comfort,\nmy brethren, let me tell you that your condition is wondrous safe,\nin that you are under grace; for, saith he, \"Sin shall not have\ndominion over you\"; that is, neither the damning power, neither the\nfilthy power, so as to destroy your souls: \"For ye are not under\nthe law\"; that is, you are not under that that will damn you for\nsin; \"but\" you are \"under grace,\" or stand thus in relation to\nGod, that though you have sinned, yet you shall be pardoned. \"For\nye are not under the law, but under grace.\" If any should ask what\nis the meaning of the word \"under,\" I answer, it signifieth, you\nare not held, kept, or shut up by it so as to appear before God\nunder that administration, and none but that; or thus, you are\nnot now bound by the authority of the law to fulfill it and obey\nit, so as to have no salvation without you so do; or thus, if you\ntransgress against any one tittle of it, you by the power of it\nmust be condemned. No, no, for you are not so under it; that is,\nnot thus under the law. Again, \"For ye are not under the law.\" What\nis meant by this word \"law\"? The word \"law,\" in Scripture, may be\ntaken more ways than one, as might be largely cleared. There is the\nlaw of faith, the law of sin, the law of men, the law of works,\notherwise called the Covenant of Works, or the first or old\ncovenant. \"In that He saith a new covenant,\" which is the grace of\nGod, or commonly called the Covenant of Grace, \"He hath made the\nfirst old,\" that is, the Covenant of Works, or the law (Heb 8:13).\nI say, therefore, the word \"law\" and the word \"grace,\" in this\nSixth of the Romans, do hold forth the two covenants which all men\nare under; that is, either the one or the other. \"For ye are not\nunder the law\"--that is, you to whom I do now write these words,\nwho are and have been effectually brought into the faith of Jesus,\nyou are not under the law, or under the Covenant of Works. He\ndoth not, therefore, apply these words to all, but to some, when\nhe saith, \"But ye\"; mark, ye, ye believers, ye converted persons,\nye saints, ye that have been born. (YE) \"for ye are not under the\nlaw,\" implying others are that are in their natural state, that\nhave not been brought in to the Covenant of Grace by faith in Jesus\nChrist.\n\nThe words, therefore, being thus understood, there is discovered\nthese two truths in them--DOCTRINE FIRST. That there are some in\nGospel times that are under the Covenant of Works. DOCTRINE SECOND.\nThat there is never a believer under the law, as it is the Covenant\nof Works, but under grace through Christ. \"For ye,\" you believers,\nyou converted persons, ye \"are not under the law but under grace\";\nor, for you are delivered and brought into or under the Covenant\nof Grace.\n\nDOCTRINE FIRST.\n\nFor the first, THAT THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE UNDER THE LAW, OR UNDER\nTHE COVENANT OF WORKS, see, I pray you, that Scripture in the Third\nof the Romans, where the Apostle, speaking before of sins against\nthe law, and of the denunciations thereof against those that are\nin that condition, he saith, \"What things soever the law saith, it\nsaith to them who are under the law\"; mark, \"it saith to them who\nare under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the\nworld become guilty before God\" (Rom 3:19). That is, all those that\nare under the law as a Covenant of Works, that are yet in their\nsins, and unconverted, as I told you before. Again he saith, \"But\nif ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law\" (Gal 5:18).\nImplying again, that those which are for sinning against the law,\nor the works of the law, either as it is the old covenant, these\nare under the law, and not under the Covenant of Grace. Again he\nsaith, \"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the\ncurse\" (Gal 3:10). That is, they that are under the law are under\nthe curse; for mark, they that are under the Covenant of Grace are\nnot under the curse. Now, there are but two covenants, therefore,\nit must needs be that they that are under the curse are under the\nlaw, seeing those that are under the other covenant are not under\nthe curse, but under the blessing. \"So, then, they which be of\nfaith are blessed with faithful Abraham,\" but the rest are under\nthe law (Gal 3:9).\n\nNow I shall proceed to what I do intend to speak unto. FIRST.\nI shall show you what the Covenant of Works, or the law, is, and\nwhen it was first given, together with the nature of it. SECOND. I\nshall show you what it is to be under the law, or Covenant of Works,\nand the miserable state of all those that are under it. THIRD. I\nshall show you who they are that are under this covenant, or law.\nFOURTH. I shall show you how far a man may go and yet be under\nthis covenant, or law.\n\n[WHAT THE COVENANT OF WORKS IS, AND WHEN IT WAS GIVEN.]\n\nFIRST. What this Covenant of Works is, and when it was given. [What\nthis covenant is.] The Covenant of Works or the law, here spoken\nof, is the law delivered upon Mount Sinai to Moses, in two tables\nof stone, in ten particular branches or heads; for this see Galatians\n4. The Apostle, speaking there of the law, and of some also that\nthrough delusions of false doctrine were brought again, as it were,\nunder it, or at least were leaning that way (verse 21) he saith,\nAs for you that desire to be under the law, I will show you the\nmystery of Abraham's two sons, which he had by Hagar and Sarah;\nthese two do signify the two covenants; the one named Hagar signifies\nMount Sinai, where the law was delivered to Moses on two tables of\nstone (Exo 24:12; 34:1; Deu 10:1). Which is that, that whosoever\nis under, he is destitute of, and altogether without the grace of\nChrist in his heart at the present. \"For I testify again to every\nman,\" saith he, speaking to the same people, that \"Christ has become\nof no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,\"\nnamely, that given on Mount Sinai--\"ye are fallen from grace\" (Gal\n5:3,4). That is, not that any can be justified by the law; but this\nmeaning is, that all those that seek justification by the works of\nthe law, they are not such as seek to be under the second covenant,\nthe Covenant of Grace. Also the Apostle, speaking again of these\ntwo covenants, saith, \"But if the ministration of death,\" or the\nlaw, for it is all one, \"written and engraven in stones,\" mark that,\n\"was glorious, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit,\" or\nthe Covenant of Grace, \"be rather glorious?\" (2 Cor 3:7,8). As if\nhe had said, It is true, there was a glory in the Covenant of Works,\nand a very great excellency did appear in it--namely, in that given\nin the stones on Sinai--yet there is another covenant, the Covenant\nof Grace, that doth exceed it for comfort and glory.\n\n[When it was given.] But, though this law was delivered to Moses\nfrom the hands of angels in two tables of stones, on Mount Sinai,\nyet this was not the first appearing of this law to man; but even\nthis in substance, though possibly not so openly, was given to the\nfirst man, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, in these words: \"And the\nLORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden\nthou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good\nand evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest\nthereof thou shalt surely die\" (Gen 2:16,17). Which commandment\nthen given to Adam did contain in it a forbidding to do any of\nthose things that was and is accounted evil, although at that time\nit did not appear so plainly, in so many particular heads, as it\ndid when it was again delivered on Mount Sinai; but yet the very\nsame. And that I shall prove thus--\n\nGod commanded Adam in Paradise to abstain from all evil against\nthe first covenant, and not from some sins only; but if God had\nnot commanded Adam to abstain from the sins spoken against in the\nTen Commandments, He had not commanded to abstain from all, but\nfrom some; therefore it must needs be that He then commanded to\nabstain from all sins forbidden in the law given on Mount Sinai. Now\nthat God commanded to abstain from all evil or sin against any of\nthe Ten Commandments, when He gave Adam the command in the garden,\nit is evident that He did punish the sins that were committed\nagainst those commands that were then delivered on Mount Sinai,\nbefore they were delivered on Mount Sinai, which will appear as\nfolloweth--\n\nThe First, Second, and Third Commandments were broken by Pharaoh and\nhis men; for they had false gods which the Lord executed judgment\nagainst (Exo 12:12); and blasphemed their true God (Exo 5:2) which\nescaped not punishment (Exo 7:17-25). For their gods could neither\ndeliver themselves nor their people from the hand of God; but\n\"in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them\" (Exo\n18:11).\n\nAgain; some judge that the Lord punished the sin against the\nSecond Commandment, which Jacob was in some measure guilty of in\nnot purging his house from false gods, with the defiling of his\ndaughter Dinah (Gen 34:2).\n\nAgain; we find that Abimelech thought the sin against the Third\nCommandment so great, that he required no other security of Abraham\nagainst the fear of mischief that might be done to him by Abraham,\nhis son, and his son's son, but only Abraham's oath (Gen 21:23).\nThe like we see between Abimelech and Isaac (Gen 31:53). The like\nwe find in Moses and the Israelites, who durst not leave the bones\nof Joseph in Egypt, because of the oath of the Lord, whose name,\nby so doing, would have been abused (Exo 13:19).\n\nAnd we find the Lord rebuking His people for the breach of the\nFourth Commandment (Exo 16:27-29).\n\nAnd for the breach of the Fifth, the curse came upon Ham (Gen\n9:25-27). And Ishmael dishonouring his father in mocking Isaac\nwas cast out, as we read (Gen 21:9,10). The sons-in-law of Lot for\nslighting their father perish in the overthrow of Sodom (Gen 19:14).\n\nThe Sixth Commandment was broken by Cain, and so dreadful a curse\nand punishment came upon him that it made him cry out, \"My punishment\nis greater than I can bear\" (Gen 4:13).\n\nAgain; when Esau threatened to slay his brother, Rebecca sent him\naway, saying, \"Why should I be deprived also of you both in one\nday?\" hinting unto us, that she knew murder was to be punished\nwith death (Gen 27:45) which the Lord Himself declared likewise to\nNoah (Gen 9:6).3 Again; a notable example of the Lord's justice in\npunishing murder we see in the Egyptians and Pharaoh, who drowned\nthe Israelites' children in the river (Exo 1:22); and they themselves\nwere drowned in the sea (Exo 14:27).\n\nThe sin against the Seventh Commandment was punished in the Sodomites,\netc., with the utter destruction of their city and themselves (Gen\n19:24,25). Yea, they suffer \"the vengeance of eternal fire\" (Jude\n7). Also the male Shechemites, for the sin committed by Hamor's\nson, were all put to the sword (Gen 34:25,26).\n\nOur first parents sinned against the Eighth Commandment in taking\nthe forbidden fruit, and so brought the curse on themselves and\ntheir posterity (Gen 3:16). Again; the punishment due to the breach\nof this Commandment was by Jacob accounted death (Gen 31:30,32).\nAnd also by Jacob's sons (Gen 44:9,10).\n\nCain sinning against the Ninth Commandment as in Genesis 4:9, was\ntherefore cursed as to the earth (Verse 11). And Abraham, though\nthe friend of God, was blamed for false-witness by Pharaoh, and\nsent out of Egypt (Gen 12:18-20) and both he and Sarah reproved by\nAbimelech (Gen 20:9,10,16).\n\nPharaoh sinned against the Tenth Commandment, and was therefore\nplagued with great plagues (Gen 12:15,17). Abimelech coveted\nAbraham's wife, and the Lord threatened death to him and his, except\nhe restored her again; yea, though he had not come near her, yet\nfor coveting and taking her the Lord fast closed up the wombs of\nhis house (Gen 20:3,18).\n\n[Further Arguments.] I could have spoken more fully to this, but\nthat I would not be too tedious, but speak what I have to say with\nas much brevity as I can. But before I pass it, I will besides\nthis give you an argument or two more for the further clearing of\nthis, that the substance of the law delivered on Mount Sinai was,\nbefore that, delivered by the Lord to man in the garden. As, first,\n\"death reigned over them that had not sinned after the similitude\nof Adam's transgression\"--that is, though they did not take the\nforbidden fruit as Adam did; but had the transgression been no\nother, or had their sin been laid to the charge of none but those\nthat did eat of that fruit, then those that were born to Adam\nafter he was shut out of the garden had not had sin, in that they\ndid not actually eat of that fruit, and so had not been slaves to\ndeath; but, in that death did reign from Adam to Moses, of from\nthe time of his transgression against the first giving of the law,\ntill the time the law was given on Mount Sinai, it is evident that\nthe substance of the Ten Commandments was given to Adam and his\nposterity under that command, \"Eat not of the tree that is in the\nmidst of the garden.\" But yet, if any shall say that it was because\nof the sin of their father that death reigned over them, to that I\nshall answer, that although original sin be laid to the charge of\nhis posterity, yet it is also for their sins that they actually\ncommitted that they were plagued. And again, saith the Apostle,\n\"For where no law is, there is no transgression\" (Rom 4:15). For\n\"sin is not imputed when there is no law; nevertheless death reigned\nfrom Adam to Moses.\" saith he (Rom 5:13,14). But if there had been\nno law, then there had been no transgression, and so no death to\nfollow after as the wages thereof; for death is the wages of sin\n(Rom 6:23) and sin is the breach of the law; an actual breach in\nour particular persons, as well as an actual breach in\nour public person (1 John 3:4). 4\n\nAgain; there are no other sins than those against that law given\non Sinai, for the which those sins before mentioned were punished;\ntherefore the law given before by the Lord to Adam and his posterity\nis the same with that afterwards given on Mount Sinai. Again; the\nconditions of that on Sinai and of that in the garden are all one;\nthe one saying, \"Do this and live,\" the other saying the same. Also\njudgment denounced against men in both kinds alike; therefore this\nlaw it appeareth to be the very same that was given on Mount Sinai.\n\nAgain; the Apostle speaketh but of two covenants--to wit, grace\nand works--under which two covenants all are; some under one, and\nsome under the other. Now this to Adam is one, therefore that on\nSinai is one, and all one with this; and that this is a truth, I\nsay, I know, because the sins against that on Sinai were punished\nby God for the breech thereof before it was given there; so it doth\nplainly appear to be a truth; for it would be unrighteous with God\nfor to punish for that law that was not broken; therefore it was\nall one with that on Sinai.\n\nNow the law given on Sinai was for the more clear discovery of\nthose sins that were before committed against it; for though the\nvery substance of the Ten Commandments were given in the garden\nbefore they were received from Sinai, yet they lay so darkly in\nthe heart of man, that his sins were not so clearly discovered as\nafterwards they were; therefore, saith the Apostle, the law was\nadded (Gal 3:19). Or, more plainly, given on Sinai, on tables of\nstone, \"that the offence might abound,\"--that is, that it might\nthe more clearly be made manifest and appear (Rom 5:20).\n\nAgain; we have a notable resemblance of this at Sinai, even in giving\nthe law; for, first, the law was given twice on Sinai, to signify\nthat indeed the substance of it was given before. And, secondly,\nthe first tables that were given on Sinai were broken at the foot\nof the mount, and the others were preserved whole, to signify that\nthough it was the true law that was given before, with that given\non Sinai, yet it was not so easy to be read and to be taken notice\nof, in that the stones were not whole, but broken, and so the law\nwritten thereon somewhat defaced and disfigured.\n\n[Object.] But if any object and say, though the sins against the\none be the sins against the other, and so in that they do agree,\nyet it doth not appear that the same is therefore the same Covenant\nof Works with the other.\n\nAnsw. That which was given to Adam in Paradise you will grant was\nthe Covenant of Works; for it runs thus: Do this and live; do it\nnot and die; nay, \"Thou shalt surely die.\" Now there is but one\nCovenant of Works. If therefore I prove that that which was delivered\non Mount Sinai is the Covenant of Works, then all will be put out\nof doubt. Now that this is so it is evident--\n\n1. Consider the two covenants are thus called in Scripture, the\none the administration of death, and the other the administration\nof life; the one the Covenant of Works, the other of grace; but\nthat delivered on Sinai is called the ministration of death; that,\ntherefore, is the Covenant of Works. \"But if,\" saith he, \"the\nministration of death, written and engraven on stones was glorious,\"\n(2 Cor 3:7).\n\n2. The Apostle, writing to the Galatians, doth labour to beat\nthem off from trusting in the Covenant of Works; but when he comes\nto give a discovery of that law or covenant--he labouring to take\nthem off from trusting in it--he doth plainly tell them it is that\nwhich was given on Sinai (Gal 4:24,25). Therefore that which was\ndelivered in two tables of stone on Mount Sinai, is the very same\nthing that was given before to Adam in Paradise, they running both\nalike; that in the garden saying, Do this and live; but in the day\nthou eatest thereof--or dost not do this--thou shalt surely die.\n\nAnd so is this on Sinai, as is evident when he saith, \"the man\nwhich doeth those things shall live by them\" (Rom 10:5). And in\ncase they break them, even any of them, it saith, \"Cursed is every\none that continueth not in all things which are written in the\n(whole) book of the law to do them\" (Gal 3:10). Now this being thus\ncleared, I shall proceed.\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO BE UNDER THE COVENANT OF WORKS.]\n\nSECOND. A second thing to be spoken to is this: to show what it is\nto be under the law as it is a Covenant of Works; to which I shall\nspeak, and that thus--\n\nTo be under the law as it is a Covenant of Works, is to be bound,\nupon pain of eternal damnation, to fulfill, and that completely\nand continually, every particular point of the Ten Commandments, by\ndoing them--Do this, and then thou shalt live; otherwise, \"cursed\nis every one that continueth not in all,\" in every particular thing\nor \"things which are written in the book for the law to do them\"\n(Gal 3:10). That man that is under the first covenant stands thus,\nand only thus, as he is under that covenant, or law. Poor souls,\nthrough ignorance of the nature of that Covenant of Works, the law\nthat they are under, they do not think their state to be half so\nbad as it is; when, alas! there is none in the world in such a sad\ncondition again besides themselves; for, indeed, they do not understand\nthese things. He that is under the law, as it is a Covenant of\nWorks, is like the man that is bound by the law of his king, upon\npain of banishment, or of being hanged, drawn, and quartered, not\nto transgress any of the commandments of the king; so here, they\nthat are under the Covenant of Works, they are bound, upon pain of\neternal banishment and condemnation, to keep within the compass of\nthe law of the God of Heaven. The Covenant of Works may, in this\ncase, be compared to the laws of the Medes and Persians, which being\nonce made, cannot be altered. Daniel 6:8. You find that when there\nwas a law made and given forth that none should ask a petition of\nany, God or man, but of the king only; this law being established\nby the king (verse 9). Daniel breaking of it, let all do whatever\nthey can, Daniel must go into the lions' den (verse 16). So here,\nI say, there being a law given, and sealed with the Truth and the\nWord of God,--how that \"the soul that sinneth, it shall die\" (Eze\n18:4). Whosoever doth abide under this covenant, and dieth under\nthe same, they must and shall go into the lion's den; yea, worse\nthan that, for they shall be thrown into Hell, to the very devils.\n\nBut to speak in a few particulars for thy better understanding\nherein, know,\n\nFirst. That the Law of God, or Covenant of Works, doth not contain\nitself in one particular branch of the law, but doth extend itself\ninto many, even into all the Ten Commandments, and those ten into\nvery many more, as might be showed; so that the danger doth not\nlie in the breaking of one or two of these ten only, but it doth\nlie even in the transgression of any one of them. As you know, if\na king should give forth ten particular commands to be obeyed by\nhis subjects upon pain of death; now if any man doth transgress\nagainst any one of these ten, he doth commit treason, as if he had\nbroke them all, and lieth liable to have the sentence of the law\nas certainly passed on him as if he had broken every particular of\nthem.\n\nSecond. Again; you know that the laws being given forth by the\nking, which if a man keep and obey for a long time, yet if at the\nlast he slips and breaks those laws, he is presently apprehended,\nand condemned by that law. These things are clear as touching the\nLaw of God, as it is a Covenant of Works. If a man doth fulfill nine\nof the Commandments, and yet breaketh but one, that being broken\nwill as surely destroy him and shut him out from the joys of Heaven\nas if he had actually transgressed against them all; for indeed,\nin effect, so he hath. There is a notable Scripture for this in\nthe Epistle of James, Second Chapter, at the tenth verse, that runs\nthus:--\"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in\none point, he is guilty of all,\"--that is, he hath in effect broken\nthem all, and shall have the voice of them all cry out against him.\nAnd it must needs be so, saith James, because \"He that said,\" or\nthat law which said, \"Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.\nNow, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become\na transgressor of the law\" (Verse 11). As thus; it may be thou didst\nnever make to thyself a god of stone or wood, or at least not to\nworship them so greatly and so openly as the heathen do, yet if\nthou hast stolen, born false witness, or lusted after a woman in\nthy heart (Matt 5:28) thou hast transgressed the law, and must for\ncertain, living and dying under that covenant, perish for ever by\nthe law; for the law hath resolved on that before-hand, saying,\n\"Cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things\"; mark,\nI pray you, \"in all things\"; that is the Word, and that seals the\ndoctrine.\n\nThird. Again; though a man doth not covet, steal, murder, worship\ngods of wood and stone, etc., yet if he do take the Lord's name in\nvain, he is for ever gone, living and dying under that covenant.\n\"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain\"; there\nis the command. But how if we do? Then he saith, \"the LORD will not\nhold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.\" No; though thou\nlive as holy as ever thou canst, and walk as circumspectly as ever\nany did, yet if thou dost take the Lord's name in vain, thou art\ngone by that covenant: \"For I will not,\" mark \"I will not,\" let\nhim be in never so much danger, \"I will not hold him guiltless that\ntaketh My name in vain\" (Exo 20:7). And so likewise for any other\nof the ten, do but break them, and thy state is irrecoverable, if\nthou live and die under that covenant.\n\nFourth. Though thou shouldest fulfill this covenant, or law, even\nall of it, for a long time, ten, twenty, forty, fifty, or threescore\nyears, yet if thou do chance to slip and break one of them but once\nbefore thou die, thou art also gone and lost by that covenant; for\nmark, \"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things,\" that\ncontinueth not in ALL things, mark that, \"which are written in the\nbook of the law to do them.\" But if a man doth keep all the Law of\nGod his whole lifetime, and only sin one time before he dies, that\none sin is a breach of the law, and he hath not continued in doing\nthe things contained therein. For, so to continue, according to the\nsense of this Scripture, is to hold on without any failing, either\nin thought, word, or deed; therefore, I say, though a man doth walk\nup to the law all his lifetime, but only at the very last sin one\ntime before he die, he is sure to perish for ever, dying under that\ncovenant. For, my friends, you must understand that the Law of God\nis \"yea,\" as well as the Gospel; and as they that are under the\nCovenant of Grace shall surely be saved by it, so, even so, they that\nare under the Covenant of Works and the law, they shall surely be\ndamned by it, if continuing there. This is the Covenant of Works\nand the nature of it--namely, not to abate anything, no, not a mite,\nto him that lives and dies under it: \"I tell thee,\" saith Christ,\n\"thou shalt not depart thence,\" that is, from under the curse,\n\"till thou hast paid the very last mite\" (Luke 12:59).\n\nFifth. Again; you must consider that this law doth not only condemn\nwords and actions, as I said before, but it hath authority to\ncondemn the most secret thoughts of the heart, being evil; so that\nif thou do not speak any word that is evil, as swearing, lying,\njesting, dissembling, or any other word that tendeth to, or\nsavoureth of sin, yet if there should chance to pass but one vain\nthought through thy heart but once in all thy lifetime, the law\ntaketh hold of it, accuseth, and also will condemn thee for it. You\nmay see one instance for all in (Matt 5:27,28) where Christ saith,\nthat though a man doth not lie with a woman carnally, yet if he doth\nbut look on her, and in his heart lust after her, he is counted by\nthe law, being rightly expounded, such an one that hath committed\nthe sin, and thereby hath laid himself under the condemnation of\nthe law. And so likewise of all the rest of the commands; if there\nbe any thought that is evil do but pass through thy heart, whether\nit be against God or against man in the least measure, though\npossibly not discerned of thee, or by thee, yet the law takes hold\nof thee therefore, and doth by its authority, both cast, condemn,\nand execute thee for thy so doing. \"The thought of foolishness is\nsin\" (Prov 24:9).\n\nSixth. Again; the law is of that nature and severity, that it\ndoth not only inquire into the generality of thy life as touching\nseveral things, whether thou art upright there or no; but the law\ndoth also follow thee into all thy holy duties, and watcheth over\nthee there, to see whether thou dost do all things aright there--that\nis to say, whether when thou dost pray thy heart hath no wandering\nthoughts in it; whether thou do every holy duty thou doest perfectly\nwithout the least mixture of sin; and if it do find thee to slip,\nor in the least measure to fail in any holy duty that thou dost\nperform, the law taketh hold on that, and findeth fault with that,\nso as to render all the holy duties that ever thou didst unavailable\nbecause of that. I say, if, when thou art a hearing, there is but\none vain thought, or in praying, but one vain thought, or in any\nother thing whatsoever, let it be civil or spiritual, one vain\nthought once in all thy lifetime will cause the law to take such\nhold on it, that for that one thing it doth even set open all the\nfloodgates of God's wrath against thee, and irrecoverably by that\ncovenant it doth bring eternal vengeance upon thee; so that, I say,\nlook which ways thou wilt, and fail wherein thou wilt, and do it as\nseldom as ever thou canst, either in civil or spiritual things, as\naforesaid--that is, either in the service of God, or in thy employments\nin the world, as thy trade or calling, either in buying or selling\nany way, in anything whatsoever; I say, if in any particular it\nfind thee tardy, or in the least measure guilty, it calleth thee\nan offender, it accuseth thee to God, it puts a stop to all the\npromises thereof that are joined to the law, and leaves thee there\nas a cursed transgressor against God, and a destroyer of thy own soul. 5\n\nHere I would have thee, by the way, for to take notice, that it is\nnot my intent at this time to enlarge on the several commands in\nparticular--for that would be very tedious both for me to write\nand thee to read; only thus much I would have thee to do at the\nreading hereof--make a pause, and sit still one quarter of an hour,\nand muse a little in thy mind thus with thyself, and say, Did I\never break the law; yea or no? Had I ever, in all my lifetime, one\nsinful thought passed through my heart since I was born; yea or\nno? And if thou findest thyself guilty, as I am sure thou canst\nnot otherwise choose but do, unless thou shut thy eyes against thy\nevery day's practice, then, I say, conclude thyself guilty of the\nbreach of the first covenant. And when that this is done, be sure,\nin the next place, thou do not straightway forget it and put it\nout of thy mind, that thou art condemned by the same covenant; and\nthen do not content thyself until thou do find that God hath sent\nthee a pardon from Heaven through the merits of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, the mediator of the second covenant. And if God shall but\ngive thee a heart to take this my counsel, I do make no question\nbut these words spoken by me, will prove an instrument for the\ndirecting of thy heart to the right remedy for the salvation of\nthy soul.\n\nThus much now touching the law, and the severity of it upon the person\nthat is found under it, having offended or broken any particular\nof it, either in thought, word, or action; and now, before I do\nproceed to the next thing, I shall answer four objections that do\nlie in my way, and also, such as do stumble most part of the world.\n\n[Four Objections.]\n\nObject. First. But you will say, Methinks you speak very harsh;\nit is enough to daunt a body. Set the case, therefore, that a man,\nafter he hath sinned and broken the law, repenteth of his wickedness\nand promiseth to do so no more, will not God have mercy then, and\nsave a poor sinner then?\n\nAnsw. I told you before, that the covenant, once broken, will\nexecute upon the offender that which it doth threaten to lay upon\nhim; and as for your supposing that your repenting and promising to\ndo so no more may help well, and put you in a condition to attain\nthe mercy of God by the law, these thoughts do flow from gross\nignorance both of the nature of sin, and also of the nature of the\njustice of God. And if I were to give you a description of one in\na lost condition for the present, I would brand him out with such\na mark of ignorance as this is.\n\nAnsw. 2. [The first answer is expounded by the second]. The law,\nas it is a Covenant of Works, doth not allow of any repentance unto\nlife to those that live and die under it; for the law being once\nbroken by thee, never speaks good unto thee, neither doth God at\nall regard thee, if thou be under that covenant, notwithstanding\nall thy repenting and also promises to do so no more. No, saith\nthe law, thou hast sinned, therefore I must curse thee; for it is\nMy nature to curse, even, and nothing else but curse, every one\nthat doth in any point transgress against Me (Gal 3:10). They brake\nMy covenant \"and I regarded them not, saith the Lord\" (Heb 8:9).\nLet them cry, I will not regard them; let them repent, I will not\nregard them; they have broken My covenant, and done that in which\nI delighted not; therefore, by that covenant I do curse, and not\nbless; damn, and not save; frown, and not smile; reject, and not\nembrace; charge sin and not forgive it. They brake My covenant\n\"and I regarded them not\"; so that I say, if thou break the law,\nthe first covenant, and thou being found there, God looking on\nthee through that, He hath no regard on thee, no pity for thee, no\ndelight in thee.\n\nObject. Second. But hath not the law promises as well as threatenings?\nsaying, \"The man which doeth these things shall live,\" mark, he\nshall live, \"by them,\" or in them (Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12).\n\nAnsw. 1. To break the Commandments is not to keep or fulfill the\nsame; but thou hast broken them, therefore the promise doth not\nbelong to thee by that covenant. 2. The promises that are of the\nlaw are conditional, and so not performed unless there be a full\nand continual obedience to every particular of it, and that without\nthe least sin. \"Do this\"--mark, do this--and afterwards thou shalt\nlive; but if thou break one point of it once in all thy life, thou\nhast not done the law; therefore the promises following the law\ndo not belong unto thee if one sin hath been committed by thee. As\nthus, I will give you a plain instance--\"Set the case, there be a\nlaw made by the king, that if any man speak a word against him he\nmust be put to death, and this must not be revoked, but must for\ncertain be executed on the offender; though there be a promise made\nto them that do not speak a word against him, that they should have\ngreat love from him; yet this promise is nothing to the offender;\nhe is like to have no share in it, or to be ever the better for it;\nbut contrariwise, the law that he hath offended must be executed\non him; for his sin shutteth him out from a share of, or in, the\npromises.\" So it is here, there is a promise made indeed, but to\nwhom? Why, it is to none but those that live without sinning against\nthe law; but if thou, I say, sin one time against it in all thy\nlifetime, thou art gone, and not one promise belongs to thee if\nthou continue under this covenant. Methinks the prisoners at the\nbar, having offended the law, and the charge of a just judge towards\nthem, do much hold forth the law, as it is a Covenant of Works,\nand how it deals with them that are under it. The prisoner having\noffended, cries out for mercy; Good, my lord, mercy, saith he,\npray, my lord, pity me. The judge saith, What canst thou say for\nthyself that sentence of death should not be passed upon thee?\nWhy, nothing but this, I pray my lord be merciful. But he answers\nagain, Friend, the law must take place, the law must not be broken.\nThe prisoner saith, Good, my lord, spare me, and I will never do\nso any more. The judge, notwithstanding the man's outcries and sad\ncondition, must, according to the tenor of the law, pass judgment\nupon him, and the sentence of condemnation must be read to the\nprisoner, though it makes him fall down dead to hear it, if he\nexecutes the law as he ought to do. And just thus it is concerning\nthe Law of God.\n\nObject. Third. Ay, but sometimes, for all your haste, the judge doth\nalso give some pardons, and forgives some offenders, notwithstanding\ntheir offences, though he be a judge.\n\nAnsw. It is not because the law is merciful, but because there is\nmanifested the love of the judge, not the love of the law. I beseech\nyou to mark this distinction; for if a man that hath deserved\ndeath by the law be, notwithstanding this, forgiven his offence,\nit is not because the law saith, \"spare him\"; but it is the love\nof the judge or chief magistrate that doth set the man free from\nthe condemnation of the law. But mark; here the law of men and\nthe Law of God do differ; the law of man is not so irrevocable;\nbut if the Supreme please he may sometimes grant a pardon without\nsatisfaction given for the offence; but the Law of God is of this\nnature, that if a man be found under it, and a transgressor, or\none that hath transgressed against it, before that prisoner can be\nreleased there must be a full and complete satisfaction given to\nit, either by the man's own life or by the blood of some other man;\nfor \"without shedding of blood is no remission\" (Heb 9:22); that\nis, there is no deliverance from under the curse of the Law of God;\nand therefore, however the law of man may be made of none effect\nsometimes by showing mercy without giving of a full satisfaction,\nyet the Law of God cannot be so contented, nor at the least give\nway, that the person offending that should escape the curse and not\nbe damned, except some one do give a full and complete satisfaction\nto it for him, and bring the prisoner into another covenant--to\nwit, the Covenant of Grace, which is more easy, and soul-refreshing,\nand sin-pardoning.\n\nI say, therefore, you must understand that if there be a law made\nthat reaches the life, to take it away for the offence given by\nthe offender against it, then it is clear that if the man be spared\nand saved, it is not the law that doth give the man this advantage,\nbut it is the mere mercy of the king, either because he hath a ransom\nor satisfaction some other way, or being provoked thereto out of\nhis own love to the person whom he saveth. Now, thou also having\ntransgressed and broken the Law of God, if the law be not executed\nupon thee, it is not because the law is merciful, or can pass by\nthe least offence done by thee, but thy deliverance comes another\nway; therefore, I say, however it be by the laws of men where they\nbe corrupted and perverted, yet the Law of God is of that nature,\nthat if it hath not thy own blood or the blood of some other\nman--for it calls for no less, for to ransom thee from the curse\nof it, being due to thee for thy transgression, and to satisfy the\ncries, the doleful cries, thereof, and ever for to present thee\npure and spotless before God, notwithstanding this fiery law--thou\nart gone if thou hadst a thousand souls; for \"without shedding\nof blood there is no remission\" (Heb 9:22); no forgiveness of the\nleast sin against the law.\n\nObject. Fourth. But, you will say, \"I do not only repent me of\nmy former life, and also promise to do so no more, but now I do\nlabour to be righteous, and to live a holy life; and now, instead\nof being a breaker of the law, I do labour to fulfill the same.\nWhat say you to that?\"\n\nAnsw. Set the case, thou couldst walk like an angel of God; set\nthe case, thou couldst fulfill the whole law, and live from this\nday to thy life's end without sinning in thought, word, or deed,\nwhich is impossible; but, I say, set the case it should be so, why,\nthy state is as bad, if thou be under the first covenant, as ever\nit was. For, first, I know thou darest not say but thou hast at\none time or other sinned; and if so, then the law hath condemned\nthee; and if so, then I am sure that thou, with all thy actions\nand works of righteousness, canst not remove the dreadful and\nirresistible curse that is already laid upon thee by that law which\nthou art under, and which thou hast sinned against; though thou\nlivest the holiest life that any man can live in this world, being\nunder the law of works, and so not under the Covenant of Grace,\nthou must be cut off without remedy; for thou hast sinned, though\nafterwards thou live never so well.\n\nThe reasons for this that hath been spoken are these--\n\nFirst, The nature of God's justice calls for it--that is, it calls\nfor irrecoverable ruin on them that transgress against this law;\nfor justice gave it, and justice looks to have it completely and\ncontinually obeyed, or else justice is resolved to take place, and\nexecute its office, which is to punish the transgressor against it.\nYou must understand that the justice of God is as unchangeable as\nHis love; His justice cannot change its nature; justice it is, if\nit be pleased; and justice it is, if it be displeased. The justice\nof God in this case may be compared to fire; there is a great fire\nmade in some place; if thou do keep out of it, it is fire; if thou\ndo fall into it, thou wilt find it fire; and therefore the Apostle\nuseth this as an argument to stir up the Hebrews to stick close\nto Jesus Christ, lest they fall under the justice of God by these\nwords, \"For our God is a consuming fire\" (Heb 12:29); into which,\nif thou fall, it is not for thee to get out again, as it is with\nsome that fall into a material fire; no, but he that falls into\nthis, he must lie there for ever; as it is clear where he saith,\n\"Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings, and with\ndevouring fire?\" (Isa 33:14). For justice once offended knoweth\nnot how to show any pity or compassion to the offender, but runs on\nhim like a lion, takes him by the throat, throws him into prison,\nand there he is sure to lie, and that to all eternity, unless\ninfinite satisfaction be given to it, which is impossible to be\ngiven by any of us the sons of Adam.\n\nSecondly, The faithfulness of God calls for irrecoverable ruin to\nbe poured out on those that shall live and die under this covenant.\nIf thou, having sinned but one sin against this covenant, and shouldst\nafterwards escape damning, God must be unfaithful to Himself and\nto His Word, which both agree as one. First, he would be unfaithful\nto Himself; to Himself, that is, to His justice, holiness,\nrighteousness, wisdom, and power, if He should offer to stop the\nrunning out of His justice for the damning of them that have offended\nit. And secondly, He would be unfaithful to His Word, His written\nWord, and disown, deny, and break that, of which He hath said, \"It\nis easier for Heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law\nto fail,\" or be made of none effect (Luke 16:17). Now, if He should\nnot, according to His certain declarations therein, take vengeance\non those that fall and die within the threat and sad curses denounced,\nin that His Word could not be fulfilled.\n\nThirdly, Because otherwise he would disown the sayings of His\nProphets, and gratify the sayings of His enemies; His Prophets say\nHe will take vengeance; His enemies say He will not; His Prophets\nsay He will remember their iniquities, and recompense them into\ntheir bosom; but His enemies say they should do well, and they\nshall have peace, though they walk after the imaginations of their\nown hearts, and be not so strict as the Word commands, and do not\nas it saith (Deu 29:19,20). But let me tell thee, hadst thou a\nthousand souls, and each of them was worth a thousand worlds, God\nwould set them all on a light by fire, if they fall within the\ncondemnings of His Word, and thou die without a Jesus, even the\nright Jesus; \"for the Scriptures cannot be broken.\" What! dost thou\nthink that God, Christ, Prophets, and Scriptures, will all lie for\nthee? and falsify their words for thee? It will be but ill venturing\nthy soul upon that.\n\nAnd the reasons for it are these:--First, Because God is God; and\nsecondly, Because man is man.\n\nFirst, Because God is perfectly just and eternally just, perfectly holy\nand eternally holy, perfectly faithful and eternally faithful; that\nis, without any variableness or shadow of turning, but perfectly\ncontinueth the same, and cannot as well cease to be God as to alter\nor change the nature of His Godhead. As He is thus the perfection\nof all perfections, He gave out His Law to be obeyed; but if\nany offend it, then they fall into the hands of this His eternal\njustice, and so must drink of His irrevocable wrath, which is the\nexecution of the same justice. I say, this being thus, the law being\nbroken, justice takes place, and so faithfulness followeth to see\nthat execution be done, and also to testify that He is true, and\ndoth denounce His unspeakable, insupportable, and unchangeable\nvengeance on the party offending.\n\nSecondly, Because thou art not as infinite as God, but a poor created\nweed, that is here today and gone tomorrow, and not able to answer\nGod in His essence, being, and attributes; thou art bound to fall\nunder Him, for thy soul or body can do nothing that is infinite\nin such a way as to satisfy this God, which is an infinite God in\nall His attributes.\n\n[Misery of man by this law.]\n\nBut to declare unto you the misery of man by this law to purpose,\nI do beseech you to take notice of these following particulars,\nbesides what has been already spoken:--First, I shall show the danger\nof them by reason of the law, as they come from Adam; Second, as\nthey are in their own persons particularly under it.\n\n[First, The danger of them by reason of the law, as they come from\nAdam.]\n\n1. As they come from Adam, they are in a sad condition, because he\nleft them a broken covenant. Or take it thus: because they, while\nthey were in him, did with him break that covenant. O! this was the\ntreasure that Adam left to his posterity; it was a broken covenant,\ninsomuch that death reigned over all his children, and doth still\nto this day, as they come from him, both natural and eternal death\n(Rom 5). It may be, drunkard, swearer, liar, thief, thou dost not\nthink of this.\n\n2. He did not only leave them a broken covenant, but also made\nthem himself sinners against it. He [Adam] made them sinners--\"By\none man's disobedience many were made sinners\" (Rom 5:19). And this\nis worse than the first.\n\n3. Not only so, but he did deprive them of their strength, by which\nat first they were enabled to stand, and left them no more than\ndead men. O helpless state! O how beggarly and miserable are the\nsons of Adam!\n\n4. Not only so, but also before he left them he was the conduit\npipe through which the devil did convey off his poisoned spawn\nand venom nature into the hearts of Adam's sons and daughters, by\nwhich they are at this day so strongly and so violently carried\naway, that they fly as fast to Hell, and the devil, by reason of\nsin, as chaff before a mighty wind.\n\n5. In a word, Adam led them out of their paradise, that is one\nmore; and put out their eyes, that is another; and left them to the\nleading of the devil. O sad! Canst thou hear this, and not have thy\nears to tingle and burn on thy head? Canst thou read this, and not\nfeel thy conscience begin to throb and dag? If so, surely it is\nbecause thou art either possessed with the devil, or besides thyself.\n\n[Second.] But I pass this, and come to the second thing, which is,\nthe cause of their being in a sad condition, which is by reason of\ntheir being in their particular persons under it.\n\n1. Therefore, they that are under the law, they are in a sad\ncondition, because they are under that which is more ready, through\nour infirmity, to curse than to bless; they are under that called\nthe ministration of condemnation, that is, they are under that\ndispensation, or administration, whose proper work is to curse and\ncondemn, and nothing else (2 Cor 3).\n\n2. Their condition is sad who are under the law, because they are\nnot only under that ministration that doth condemn, but also that\nwhich doth wait an opportunity to condemn; the law doth not wait\nthat it might be gracious, but it doth wait to curse and condemn;\nit came on purpose to discover sin, \"The law entered,\" saith\nthe Apostle, \"that the offence might abound\" (Rom 5:20) or appear\nindeed to be that which God doth hate, and also to curse for that\nwhich hath been committed; as he saith, \"Cursed is every one that\ncontinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the\nlaw to do them\" (Gal 3:10).\n\n3. They are in a sad condition, because that administration they\nare under that are under the law doth always find fault with the\nsinner's obedience as well as his disobedience, if it be not done\nin a right spirit, which they that are under that covenant cannot\ndo, by reason of their being destitute of faith; therefore, I say,\nit doth control them, saying, \"This was not well done, this was\ndone by the halves, this was not done freely, and that was not\ndone perfectly, and out of love to God.\" And hence it is that some\nmen, notwithstanding they labour to live as holy as ever they can\naccording to the law, yet they do not live a peaceable life, but\nare full of condemnings, full of guilt and torment of conscience,\nfinding themselves to fail here, and to fall short there, omitting\nthis good which the law commands, and doing that evil which the law\nforbids, but never giveth them one good word for all their pains.\n\n4. They that are under the law are in a sad condition, because they\nare under that administration that will never be contented with\nwhat is done by the sinner. If thou be under this covenant, work\nas hard as thou canst, the law will never say, \"Well done\"; never\nsay, \"My good servant\"; no; but always it will be driving thee\nfaster, hastening of thee harder, giving thee fresh commands, which\nthou must do, and upon pain of damnation not to be left undone.\nNay, it is such a master that will curse thee, not only for thy\nsins, but also because thy good works were not so well done as they\nought to be.\n\n5. They that are under this covenant or law, their state is very\nsad, because this law doth command impossible things of him that\nis under it; and yet doth but right in it, seeing man at the first\nhad in Adam strength to stand, if he would have used it, and the\nlaw was given them, as I said before, when man was in his full\nstrength; and therefore no inequality if it commands the same still,\nseeing God that gave thee strength did not take it away. I will\ngive you a similitude for the clearing of it. Set the case that I\ngive to my servant ten pounds, with this charge, Lay it out for my\nbest advantage, that I may have my own again with profit; now if\nmy servant, contrary to my command, goeth and spends my money in a\ndisobedient way, is it any inequality in me to demand of my servant\nwhat I gave him at first? Nay, and though he have nothing to pay, I\nmay lawfully cast him into prison, and keep him there until I have\nsatisfaction. So here; the law was delivered to man at the first\nwhen he was in a possibility to have fulfilled it; now, then, though\nman have lost his strength, yet God is just in commanding the same\nwork to be done. Ay, and if they do not do the same things, I say,\nthat are impossible for them to do, it is just with God to damn\nthem, seeing it was they themselves that brought themselves into\nthis condition; therefore, saith the Apostle, \"What things soever\nthe law (or commands) saith, it saith to them who are under the\nlaw; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become\nguilty before God\" (Rom 3:19). And this is thy sad condition that\nart under the law (Gal 3:10).\n\nBut if any should object, and say, But the law doth not command\nimpossible things of natural man,--\n\nI should answer in this case as the Apostle did in another very\nmuch like unto it, saying, \"Understanding neither what they say,\nnor whereof they affirm.\" For doth not the law command thee to love\nthe Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all they strength, with\nall thy might, etc., and can the natural man do this? How can those\nthat are accustomed to do evil, do that which is commanded in this\nparticular? \"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his\nspots?\" (Jer 12:23).\n\nDoth the law command thee to do good, and nothing but good, and that\nwith all thy soul, heart, and delight? which the law as a Covenant\nof Works calleth for; and canst thou, being carnal, do that? But\nthere is no man that hath understanding, if he should hear thee\nsay so, but would say that thou wast either bewitched or stark mad.\n\n6. They that are under the law are in a sad condition, because that\nthough they follow the law, or Covenant of Works; I say, though they\nfollow it, it will not lead them to Heaven; no, but contrariwise,\nit will lead them under the curse. It is not possible, saith Paul,\nthat any should be justified by the law, or by our following of it;\nfor by that \"is the knowledge of sin,\" and by it we are condemned\nfor the same, which is far from leading us to life, being the\nministration of death (2 Cor 3). And again; \"Israel, which followeth\nafter the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of\nrighteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but\nby the law, and by the works thereof\" (Rom 9:30-32).\n\n7. They that are under the law are in a sad condition, because they\ndo not know whether ever they shall have any wages for their work\nor no; they have no assurance of the pardon of their sins, neither\nany hopes of eternal life; but poor hearts as they are, they work\nfor they do not know what, even like a poor horse that works hard\nall day, and at night hath a dirty stable for his pains; so thou\nmayest work hard all the days of thy life, and at the day of death,\ninstead of having a glorious rest in the Kingdom of Heaven, thou\nmayest, nay, thou shalt, have for thy sins the damnation of thy\nsoul and body in Hell to all eternity; forasmuch, as I said before,\nthat the law, if thou sinnest, it doth not take notice of any good\nwork done by thee, but takes its advantage to destroy and cut off\nthy soul for the sin thou hast committed.\n\n8. They that are under the law are in a sad condition, because\nthey are under that administration; upon whose souls God doth not\nsmile, they dying there; for the administration that God doth smile\nupon His children through, is the Covenant of Grace, they being in\nJesus Christ, the Lord of life and consolation; but contrariwise\nto those that are under the law; for they have His frowns, His\nrebukes, His threatenings, and with much severity they must be dealt\nwithal--\"For they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them\nnot, saith the Lord\" (Heb 8:9).\n\n9. They are in a sad condition, because they are out of the faith of\nChrist; they that are under the law have not the faith of Christ\nin them; for that dispensation which they are under is not the\nadministration of faith. The law is not of faith, saith the Apostle\n(Gal 3:12).\n\n10. Because they have not received the Spirit; for that is received\nby the hearing of faith, and not by the law, nor the works thereof\n(Gal 3:2).\n\n11. In a word, if thou live and die under that covenant, Jesus\nChrist will neither pray for thee, neither let thee have one drop\nof His blood to wash away thy sins, neither shalt thou be so much\nas one of the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; for all these privileges\ncome to souls under another covenant, as the Apostle saith--\"For\nsuch are not under the law, but under grace\"--that is, such as have\na share in the benefits of Jesus Christ, or such as are brought from\nunder the first covenant into the second; or from under the law\ninto the grace of Christ's Gospel, without which Covenant of Grace,\nand being found in that, there is no soul can have the least hope\nof eternal life, no joy in the Holy Ghost, no share in the privileges\nof saints, because they are tied up from them by the limits and\nbonds of the Covenant of Works. For you must understand that these\ntwo covenants have their several bounds and limitations, for the\nruling and keeping in subjection, or giving of freedom, to the\nparties under the said covenants. Now they that are under the law\nare within the compass and the jurisdiction of that, and are bound\nto be in subjection to that; and living and dying under that, they\nmust stand and fall to that, as Paul saith, \"To his own master he\nstandeth or falleth.\" The Covenant of Grace doth admit to those that\nare under it also liberty and freedom, together with commanding of\nsubjection to the things contained in it, which I shall speak to\nfurther hereafter. [For what purpose the Law was added and given.]\n\nBut now, that the former things may be further made to appear--that\nis, what the sad condition of all them that are under the law is,\nas I have shown you something of the nature of the law, so also shall\nI show that the law was added and given for this purpose, that it\nmight be so with those that are out of the Covenant of Grace.\n\nFirst, God did give the law that sin might abound, not that\nit should take away sin in any, but to discover the sin which is\nalready begotten, or that may be hereafter begotten, by lust and\nSatan (Rom 5:20). I say, this is one proper work of the law, to\nmake manifest sin; it is sent to find fault with the sinner, and it\ndoth also watch that it may do so, and it doth take all advantages\nfor the accomplishing of its work in them that give ear thereto, or\ndo not give ear, if it have the rule over them. I say, it is like\na man that is sent by his lord to see and pry into the labours\nand works of other men, taking every advantage to discover their\ninfirmities and failings, and to chide them? yea, to throw them\nout of the Lord's favour for the same.\n\nSecond. Another great end why the Lord did add or give the law, it\nwas that no man might have anything to lay to the charge of the\nLord for His condemning of them that do transgress against the same.\nYou know that if a man should be had before an officer or judge,\nand there be condemned, and yet by no law, he that condemns him\nmight be very well reprehended or reproved for passing the judgment;\nyea, the party himself might have better ground to plead for his\nliberty than the other to plead for the condemning of him; but this\nshall not be so in the judgment-day, but contrariwise; for then\nevery man shall be forced to lay his hand on his mouth, and hold\nhis tongue at the judgment of God when it is passed upon them;\ntherefore saith the Apostle, \"What things soever the law saith, it\nsaith to them who are under the law\"; that is, all the commands,\nall the cursings and threatenings that are spoken by it, are spoken,\nsaith he, \"that every mouth may be stopped\"; mark, I beseech you,\n\"it saith,\" saith he, \"that every mouth may be stopped, and all\nthe world may become guilty before God\" (Rom 3:19). So that now,\nin case any in the judgment-day should object against the judgment\nof God, as those in the 25th of Matthew do, saying, Lord, when saw\nwe Thee thus and thus? and why dost Thou pass such a sad sentence\nof condemnation upon us? surely this is injustice, and not equity:\nnow for the preventing of this the law was given; ay, and that it\nmight prevent thee to purpose, God gave it betimes, before either\nthy first father had sinned, or thou wast born. So that again, if\nthere should be these objections offered against the proceedings\nof the Lord in justice and judgment, saying, Lord, why am I thus\ncondemned, I did not know it was sin? Now against these two was\nthe law given and that betimes, so that both these are answered. If\nthe first come in and say, Why am I judged? why am I damned? then\nwill the law come in, even all the Ten Commandments, with every one\nof their cries against thy soul; the First saying, He hath sinned\nagainst Me, damn him; the Second saying also, He hath transgressed\nagainst Me, damn him; the Third also saying the same, together with\nthe Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth; even all\nof them will discharge themselves against thy soul if thou die under\nthe first covenant, saying, He or they have transgressed against\nus, damn them, damn them: and I tell thee also, that these ten great\nguns, the Ten Commandments, will, with discharging themselves in\njustice against thy soul, so rattle in thy conscience, that thou\nwilt in spite of thy teeth be immediately put to silence, and have\nthy mouth stopped. And let me tell thee further, that if thou shalt\nappear before God to have the Ten Commandments discharge themselves\nagainst thee, thou hadst better be tied to a tree, and have ten,\nyea, ten thousand of the biggest pieces of ordnance in the world\nto be shot off against thee; for these could go no further but only\nto kill the body; but they, both body and soul, to be tormented in\nHell with the devil to all eternity.\n\nThird, Again; if the second thing should be objected, saying, But\nLord, I did not think this had been sin, or the other had been sin,\nfor nobody told me so; then also will the giving of the law take\noff that, saying, Nay, But I was given to thy father Adam before\nhe had sinned, or before thou wast born, and have ever since been\nin thy soul to convince thee of thy sins, and to control thee for\ndoing the thing that was not right. Did not I secretly tell thee\nat such a time, in such a place, when thou wast doing of such a\nthing, with such an one, or when thou was all alone, that this was\na sin, and that God did forbid it, therefore if thou didst commit\nit, God would be displeased with thee for it: and when thou was\nthinking to do such a thing at such a time, did not I say, Forbear,\ndo not so? God will smite thee, and punish thee for it if thou dost\ndo it. And besides, God did so order it that you had me in your\nhouses, in your Bibles, and also you could speak and talk of me;\nthus pleading the truth, thou shalt be forced to confess it is\nso; nay, it shall be so in some sort with the very Gentiles and\nbarbarous people that fall far short of that light we have in these\nparts of the world; for, saith the Apostle, \"The Gentiles which have\nnot the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these,\nhaving not the law,\" that is, not written as we have, yet they \"are\na law unto themselves: which show the works of the law written in\ntheir hearts\" (Rom 2:14,15). That is, they have the law of works\nin them by nature, and therefore they shall be left without excuse;\nfor their own consciences shall stand up for the truth of this\nwhere he saith, \"Their conscience also bearing witness, and their\nthoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.\" Ay,\nbut when? Why, \"in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men\nby Jesus Christ according to my Gospel\" (Rom 2:15,16). So this, I\nsay, is another end for which the Lord did give the law--namely,\nthat God might pass a sentence in righteousness, without being\ncharged with any injustice by those that shall fall under it in\nthe judgment.\n\nFourth, A fourth end why the Lord did give the law it was, because\nthey that die out of Jesus Christ might not only have their mouths\nstopped, but also that their persons \"might become guilty before\nGod\" (Rom 3:19). And indeed this will be the ground of silencing,\nas I said before, they finding themselves guilty, their consciences\nbacking the truth of the judgment of God passed upon them, \"they\nshall become guilty\"--that is, they shall be fit vessels for the\nwrath of God to be poured out into, being filled with guilt by\nreason of transgressions against the commandments; thus, therefore,\nshall the parties under the first covenant be \"fitted to destruction\"\n(Rom 9:22) even as wood or straw, being well dried, is fitted\nfor the fire; and the law was added and given, and speaks to this\nvery end, that sins might be shown, mouths might be stopped from\nquarreling, and that \"all the world,\" mark, \"the world may become\nguilty before God,\" and so be in justice for ever and ever overthrown\nbecause of their sins.\n\nAnd this will be so for these reasons--\n\n1. Because God hath a time to magnify His justice and holiness,\nas well as to show His forbearance and mercy. We read in Scripture\nthat His eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, and then we shall\nfind it true (Hab 1:13). We read in Scripture that He will magnify\nthe law, and make it honourable, and then He will do it indeed.\nNow, because the Lord doth not strike so soon as He is provoked by\nsin, therefore poor souls will not know nor regard the justice of\nGod, neither do they consider the time in which it must be advanced,\nwhich will be when men drop under the wrath of God as fast as hail\nin a mighty storm (2 Peter 3:9; Psa 50:21,22). Now, therefore, look\nto it all you that count the long-suffering and forbearance of God\nslackness; and because for the present He keepeth silence, therefore\nto think that He is like unto yourselves. No, no; but know that\nGod hath His set time for every purpose of His, and in its time it\nshall be advanced most marvelously, to the everlasting astonishment\nand overthrow of that soul that shall be dealt withal by justice\nand the law. O! how will God advance His justice! O! how will\nGod advance His holiness! First, by showing men that He in justice\ncannot, will not regard them, because they have sinned; and,\nsecondly, in that His holiness will not give way for such unclean\nwretches to abide in His sight, His eyes are so pure.\n\n2. Because God will make it appear that He will be as good as His\nWord to sinners. Sinners must not look to escape always, though they\nmay escape awhile, yet they shall not go far all adoe unpunished;\nno, but they shall have their due to a farthing, when every\nthreatening and curse shall be accomplished and fulfilled on the\nhead of the transgressor. Friend, there is never an idle word that\nthou speakest but God will account with thee for it; there is never\na lie thou tellest, but God will reckon with thee for it; nay, there\nshall not pass so much as one passage in all thy lifetime but God,\nthe righteous God, will have it in the trial by His law, if thou\ndie under it, in the judgment-day.\n\n[WHO THE ARE THAT ARE UNDER THE COVENANT OF WORKS.]\n\nTHIRD. But you will say--\"But who are those that are thus under\nthe law?\"\n\nAnsw. Those that are under the law may be branched out into three\nranks of men; either, first, such as are grossly profane, or such\nas are more refined; which may be two ways, some in a lower sort,\nand some in a more eminent way.\n\nFirst, Then they are under the law as a Covenant of Works who are\nopen profane, and ungodly wretches, such as delight not only in\nsin, but also make their boast of the same, and brag at the thoughts\nof committing of it. Now, as for such as these are, there is a\nScripture in the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy Chapter 1, verses\n9, 10, which is a notable one to this purpose, \"The law,\" saith\nhe, \"is not made for a righteous man,\" not as it is a Covenant of\nWorks, \"but for the\" unrighteous or \"lawless and disobedient, for\nthe ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers\nof fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,\nfor them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers,\nfor liars,\" look to it, liars, \"for perjured persons, and,\" in a\nword, \"if there be any other thing that is not according to sound\ndoctrine.\" These are one sort of people that are under the law,\nand so under the curse of the same, whose due is to drink up the\nbrimful cup of God's eternal vengeance, and therefore I beseech you\nnot to deceive yourselves; for \"know ye not that the unrighteous\nshall not inherit the kingdom of God? Neither fornicators, nor\nidolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves\nwith mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,\nnor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God\" (1 Cor 6:9,10).\nPoor souls, you think that you may have your sins, your lusts, and\npleasures, and yet you shall do pretty well, and be let to go free\nin the judgment-day; but see what God saith of such in Deuteronomy\n29:19, 20--which shall \"bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall\nhave peace,\" I shall be saved, I shall do as well as others, in\nthe day when God shall judge the world by Jesus Christ; but, saith\nGod, I will not spare them, no, but My anger and My jealousy shall\nsmoke against them. How far? Even to the executing all the curses\nthat are written in the Law of God upon them. Nay, saith God, I\nwill be even with them, \"for I will blot out their names from under\nHeaven.\" And indeed it must of necessity be so, because such souls\nare unbelievers, in their sins, and under the law, which cannot,\nwill not, show any mercy on them; for it is not the administration\nof mercy and life, but the administration of death and destruction,\nas you have it (2 Cor 3:7,9); and all those, every one of them,\nthat are open profane, and scandalous wretches are under it, and\nhave been so ever since they came into the world to this day; and\nthey will for certain live and die under the same dispensation,\nand then be damned to all eternity, if they be not converted from\nunder that covenant into and under the Covenant of Grace, of which\nI shall speak in its place; and yet for all this, how brag and crank\n6 are our poor wantons and wicked ones in this day of forbearance!\nas if God would never have a reckoning with them, as if there was\nno law to condemn them, as if there was no hellfire to put them\ninto. But O how will they be deceived when they shall see Christ\nsitting upon the judgment-seat, having laid aside his priestly and\nprophetical office, and appearing only as a judge to the wicked?\nwhen they shall see all the records of Heaven unfolded and laid\nopen; when they shall see each man his name in the Book of Life,\nand in the book of the law; when they shall see God in His majesty,\nChrist in His majesty, the saints in their dignity, but themselves\nin their impurity. What will they say then? whither will they fly\nthen? where will they leave their glory? O sad state! (Isa 10:3).\n\nSecond. They are under the law also who do not only so break and\ndisobey the law, but follow after the law as hard as ever they\ncan, seeking justification thereby--that is, though a man should\nabstain from the sins against the law, and labour to fulfill the\nlaw, and give up himself to the law, yet if he look no further\nthan the law he is still under the law, and for all his obedience\nto the law, the righteous Law of God, he shall be destroyed by that\nlaw. Friend, you must not understand that none but profane persons\nare under the law; no, but you must understand that a man may be\nturned from a vain, loose, open, profane conversation and sinning\nagainst the law, to a holy, righteous, religious life, and yet be\nin the same state, under the same law, and as sure to be damned as\nthe other that are more profane and loose. And though you may say\nthis is very strange, yet I shall both say it and prove it to be\ntrue. Read with understanding that Scripture in Romans 9:30-31,\nwhere the Apostle, speaking of the very thing, saith, \"But Israel,\nwhich followed after the law of righteousness\"; mark, that followed\nafter the law of righteousness; they notwithstanding their earnest\npursuit, or hunting after the law of righteousness, \"hath not\nattained to the law of righteousness.\" It signifies thus much to\nus, that let a man be never so earnest, so fervent, so restless,\nso serious, so ready, so apt and willing to follow the law and the\nrighteousness thereof, if he be under that covenant, he is gone,\nhe is lost, he is deprived of eternal life, because he is not under\nthe ministration of life if he die there. Read also that Scripture,\nGalatians 3:10, which saith, \"For as many as are of the works of\nthe law are under the curse\"; mark, they that are of the works of\nthe law. Now, for to be of the works of the law, it is to be of the\nworks of the righteousness thereof--that is, to abstain from sins\nagainst the law, and to do the commands thereof as near as ever\nthey can for their lives, or with all the might they have: and\ntherefore I beseech you to consider it, for men's being ignorant of\nthis is the cause why so many go on supposing they have a share in\nChrist, because they are reformed, and abstain from the sins against\nthe law, who, when all comes to all, will be damned notwithstanding,\nbecause they are not brought out from under the Covenant of Works,\nand put under the Covenant of Grace.\n\nObject. \"But can you in very deed make these things manifestly\nevident from the Word of God? Methinks to reason thus is very\nstrange, that a man should labour to walk up according to the Law\nof God as much as ever he can, and yet that man notwithstanding\nthis, should be still under the curse. Pray clear it.\"\n\nAnsw. Truly this doth seem very strange, I do know full well, to\nthe natural man, to him that is yet in his unbelief, because he\ngoeth by beguiled reason; but for my part, I do know it is so, and\nshall labour also to convince thee of the truth of the same.\n\n1. Then, the law is thus strict and severe, that if a man do sin but\nonce against it, he, I say, is gone for ever by the law, living and\ndying under that covenant. If you would be satisfied as touching the\ntruth of this, do but read Galatians 3:10, where it saith \"Cursed\nis every one,\" that is, not a man shall miss by that covenant, \"that\ncontinueth not in all,\" mark, in all \"things which are written in\nthe book of the law to do them.\" (1.) Pray mark, here is a curse,\nin the first place, if all things written in the book of the law be\nnot done, and that, continually too--that is, without any failing\nor one slip, as I said before. Now there is never a one in the world\nbut before they did begin to yield obedience to the least command,\nthey in their own persons did sin against it by breaking of it.\nThe Apostle, methinks, is very notable for the clearing of this\nin Romans 3:5. In the one he endeavours for to prove that all\nhad transgressed in the first Adam as he stood a common person,\nrepresenting both himself and us in his standing and falling.\n\"Wherefore,\" saith he, \"as by one man sin entered into the world,\nand death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,\" mark that; but\nwhy? \"for that all have sinned\" (Rom 5:12). That is, forasmuch as\nall naturally are guilty of original sin, the sin that was committed\nby us in Adam; so this is one cause why none can be justified by\ntheir obedience to the law, because they have in the first place\nbroken it in their first parents. But, (2.) in case this should be\nopposed and rejected by quarrelsome persons, though there be no\nground for it, Paul hath another argument to back his doctrine,\nsaying, For we have proved (already) that both Jews and Gentiles\nare all under sin. \"As it is written, There is none righteous, no,\nnot one.\" \"They are all gone out of the way, they are together,\"\nmark, together, \"become unprofitable, there is none that doeth\ngood, no, not one.\" \"Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their\ntongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their\nlips.\" Their \"mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.\" \"Their\nfeet are swift to shed blood.\" In a word, \"Destruction and misery\nare in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known.\" Now\nthen, saith he, having proved these things so clearly, the conclusion\nof the whole is this, \"That what things soever the law saith,\" in\nboth showing of sin, and cursing for the same, \"it saith\" all \"to\nthem who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and\nall the world may become guilty before God\" (Rom 3:10,19). So that\nhere, I say, lieth the ground of our not being justified by the\nlaw, even because, in the first place, we have sinned against it;\nfor know this for certain, that if the law doth take the least\nadvantage of thee by thy sinning against it, all that ever thou\nshalt afterwards hear from it is nothing but Curse, curse, curse\nhim, \"for not continuing in all things which are written in the\nbook of the law to do them.\"\n\n2. Thou canst not be saved by the righteous Law of God, the first\ncovenant, because that, together with this thy miserable state, by\noriginal and actual sins, before thou didst follow the law, since\nthy turning to the law thou hast committed several sins against the\nlaw--\"In many things we offend all.\" So that now thy righteousness\nto the law being mixed with sometimes the lust of concupiscence,\nfornication, covetousness, pride, heart-risings against God, coldness\nof affection towards Him, backwardness to good duties, speaking\nidle words, having of strife in your hearts, and such like; I say,\nthese things being thus, the righteousness of the law is become\ntoo weak through this our flesh (Rom 8:3), and so, notwithstanding\nall our obedience to the law, we are yet through our weakness under\nthe curse of the law; for, as I said before, the law is so holy,\nso just, and so good, that it cannot allow that any failing or slip\nshould be done by them that look for life by the same. \"Cursed is\nevery one that continuteth not in everything\" (Gal 3:10). And this\nPaul knew full well, which made him throw away all his righteousness.\nBut you will say, that was his own. Answ. But it was even that which\nwhile he calls it his own, he also calls it the righteousness of\nthe law (Phil 3:7-10) and to account it but dung, but as dirt on\nhis shoes, and that, that he might be found in Christ, and so be\nsaved by Him \"without the deeds of the law\" (Rom 3:28). But,\n\n3. Set the case, the righteousness of the law which thou hast was\npure and perfect, without the least flaw or fault, without the\nleast mixture of the least sinful thought, yet this would fall far\nshort of presenting of thee blameless in the sight of God. And that\nI prove by these arguments--(1.) The first argument is, that that\nwhich is not Christ cannot redeem souls from the curse, it cannot\ncompletely present them before the Lord; now the law is not Christ;\ntherefore the moral law cannot, by all our obedience to it, deliver\nus from the curse that is due to us (Acts 4:12). (2.) The second\nargument is, that that righteousness that is not the righteousness\nof faith, that is, by believing in Jesus Christ, cannot please\nGod; now the righteousness of the law as a Covenant of Works is\nnot the righteousness of faith; therefore the righteousness of the\nlaw as acted by us, being under that covenant, cannot please God.\nThe first is proved in Hebrews 11:6, \"But without faith it is\nimpossible to please Him\"; mark, it is impossible. The second thus,\n\"The law is not of faith\" (Gal 3:12; Rom 10:5,6), compared with\nGalatians 3:11. \"But that no man is justified by the law in the\nsight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith.\nAnd the law is not of faith.\"\n\nBut for the better understanding of those that are weak of\napprehension, I shall prove it thus--1. The soul that hath eternal\nlife, he must have it by right of purchase or redemption (Heb 9:12;\nEph 1:7). 2. This purchase of redemption must be through the blood\nof Christ. \"We have redemption through His blood.\" \"Without shedding\nof blood is no remission.\" Now the law is not in a capacity to die,\nand so to redeem sinners by the purchase of blood, which satisfaction\njustice calls for. Read the same Scriptures (Heb 9:22). Justice\ncalls for satisfaction, because thou hast transgressed and sinned\nagainst it, and that must have satisfaction; therefore all that\never thou canst do cannot bring in redemption, though thou follow\nthe law up the to the nail-head, as I may say, because all this\nis not shedding of blood; for believe it, and know it for certain,\nthat though thou hadst sinned but one sin before thou didst turn\nto the law, that one sin will murder thy soul, if it be not washed\naway by blood, even by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that\nwas shed when He did hang upon the cross on Mount Calvary.\n\nObject. But you will say, \"Methinks, that giving of ourselves up\nto live a righteous life should make God like the better of us,\nand so let us be saved by Christ, because we are so willing to obey\nHis law.\"\n\nAnsw. The motive that moveth God to have mercy upon sinners is not\nbecause they are willing to follow the law, but because He is willing\nto save them. \"Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprighteous\nof thine heart dost thou go to possess their land\" (Deu 9:4-6).\nNow understand this: if thy will to do righteousness was the first\nmoving cause why God had mercy on thee through Christ, then it must\nnot be freely by grace--I say, freely. But the Lord loves thee and\nsaves thee upon free terms, having nothing beforehand to make Him\naccept of thy soul, but only the blood of Christ; therefore to allow\nof such a principle it is to allow that grace is to be obtained\nby the works of the law, which is as gross darkness as lies in\nthe darkest dungeon in Popery, and is also directly opposite to\nScripture--For we are \"justified freely by His grace, through the\nredemption that is in Christ\"; not through the good that is in our\nselves, or done by us, no, \"but by faith, without\"--mark that--\"without\nthe deeds of the law\" (Rom 3:24-28). Again, \"Not of works, least\nany man should boast\" (Eph 2:9). No, no, saith he, \"Not according\nto our works,\" or righteousness, \"but according to His own purpose\";\nmark \"according to His own purpose and grace, which was\" a free\ngift, \"given us in Christ Jesus,\" not lately, but \"before the world\nbegan\" (2 Tim 1:9).\n\nObject. But you will say, \"Then why did God give the law, if we\ncannot have salvation by following of it?\"\n\nAnsw. I told you before that the law was given for these following\nreasons--1. That thou mightest be convinced by it of thy sins, and\nthat thy sins might indeed appear very sinful unto thee, which is\ndone by the law these ways--(1.) By showing of thee what a holy God\nHe is that did give the law; and, (2.) By showing thee thy vileness\nand wickedness, in that thou, contrary to this holy God, hast\ntransgressed against and broken this His holy Law; therefore, saith\nPaul, \"the law entered, that the offence might abound,\" that is, by\nshowing the creature the holiness of God, and also its own vileness\n(Rom 5:20). 2. That thou mayest know that God will not damn thee for\nnothing in the judgment-day. 3. Because He would have no quarreling\nat His just condemning of them at that day. 4. Because He will make\nthee to know that He is a holy God and pure.\n\nWHAT MEN MAY ATTAIN TO THAT ARE UNDER THIS COVENANT OF WORKS.\n\n[FOURTH] Quest. \"But seeing you have spoken thus far, I wish you\nwould do so much as to show in some particulars, both what men\nhave done, and how far they have gone, and what they have received,\nbeing yet under this covenant, which you call the ministration of\ncondemnation.\"\n\nAnsw. This is somewhat a difficult question, and had need be not only\nwarily, but also home and soundly answered. The question consists\nof three particulars--First, What men have done; Second, How far\nmen have gone; Third, What they have received, and yet to be under\nthe law, or Covenant of Works, and so in a state of condemnation.\n\n[First.] As for the first, I have spoken something in general to\nthat already; but for thy better understanding I shall yet speak\nmore particularly.\n\n1. A man hath and may be convinced and troubled for his sins, and\nyet be under this covenant, and that in a very heavy and dreadful\nmanner, insomuch that he find the weight of them to be intolerable\nand too heavy for him to bear, as it was with Cain, \"My punishment,\"\nsaith he, \"is greater than I can bear\" (Gen 4:13).\n\n2. A man living thus under a sense of his sins may repent and be\nsorry for them, and yet be under this covenant, and yet be in a\ndamned state. And when he, Judas, saw what was done, he \"repented\"\n(Matt 27:3).\n\n3. Men may not only be convinced, and also repent for their sins,\nbut they may also desire the prayers of the children of God for\nthem too, and yet be under this covenant and curse, \"Then Pharaoh\ncalled for Moses and Aaron, in haste, and he said, I have sinned;\nentreat the LORD your God that He may take away from me this death\"\n(Exo 10:16, 17).\n\n4. A man may also humble himself for his offences and disobedience\nagainst his God, and yet be under this covenant (1 Kings 21:24-19).\n\n5. A man may make restitution unto men for the offence he hath done\nunto them, and yet be under this covenant.\n\n6. A man may do much work for God in his generation, and yet be\nunder this first covenant; as Jehu, who did do that which God bid\nhim (2 Kings 9:25, 26). And yet God threateneth even Jehu, because\nthough he did do the thing that the Lord commanded him, yet he did\nit not from a right principle; for had he, the Lord would not have\nsaid, \"Yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel\nupon the house of Jehu\" (Hosea 1:4).\n\n7. Men may hear and fear the servants of the Lord, and reverence\nthem very highly; yea, and when they hear, they may not only hear,\nbut hear and do, and that gladly too, not one or two things, but\nmany; mark, many things gladly, and yet be lost, and yet be damned,\n\"For Herod feared John,\" why? not because he had any civil power\nover him, but because \"he was a just man and an holy, and observed\nhim; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly\"\n(Mark 6:20). It may be that thou thinkest that because thou hearest\nsuch and such, therefore thou art better than thy neighbours; but\nknow for certain that thou mayest not only hear, but thou mayest\nhear and do, and that not with a backward will, but gladly--mark,\n\"gladly\"--and yet be Herod still, an enemy to the Lord Jesus still.\nConsider this, I pray you.\n\nSecond. But to the second thing, which is this, How far may such\nan one go? To what may such an one attain? Whither may he arrive,\nand yet be an undone man, under this covenant? [1] answer--\n\n1. Such an one may be received into fellowship with the saints, as\nthey are in a visible way of walking one with another; they may\nwalk hand in hand together, \"The Kingdom of Heaven,\" that is, a\nvisible company of professors of Christ, is likened to ten virgins,\nwhich took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom, \"five\nof them were wise, and five were foolish\" (Matt 25:1,2). These,\nin the first place, are called virgins--that is, such as are clear\nfrom the pollutions of the world; secondly, they are said to go\nforth--that is, from the rudiments and traditions of men; thirdly,\nthey do agree to take their lamps with them--that is, to profess\nthemselves the servants of Jesus Christ, that wait upon Him, and\nfor Him; and yet when He came, He found half of them, even the\nvirgins, that had lamps, that also went forth from the pollutions\nof the world and the customs of men, to be such as lost their\nprecious souls (verse 12) which they should not have done, had they\nbeen under the Covenant of Grace, and so not under the law.\n\n2. They may attain to a great deal of honour in the said company\nof professors, that which may be accounted honour, insomuch that\nthey may be put in trust with church affairs, and bear the bag, as\nJudas did. I speak not this to shame the saints, but, being beloved,\nI warn them; yet I speak this on purpose that it might, if the Lord\nwill, knock at the door of the souls of professors. Consider Demas!\n\n3. They may attain to speak of the Word as ministers, and become\npreachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, insomuch that the people\nwhere they dwell may even take up a proverb concerning them, saying,\n\"Is he among the prophets?\" his gifts may be so rare, his tongue\nmay be so fluent, and his matter may be so fit, that he may speak\nwith a tongue like an angel, and speak of the hidden mysteries,\nyea, of them all; mark that, and yet be nothing, and yet be none\nof the Lord's anointed ones, with the Spirit of grace savingly,\nbut may live and die under the curse of the law (1 Cor 13:1-4).\n\n4. They may go yet further; they may have the gifts of the Spirit\nof God, which may enable them to cast out devils, to remove the\nbiggest hills or mountains in the world; nay, thou mayest be so\ngifted as to prophesy of things to come, the most glorious things,\neven the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign over all His\nenemies, and yet be but a Balaam, a wicked and a mad prophet (2\nPeter 2:16; Num 24:16-25).\n\n5. There may not only stand thus for awhile, for a little season,\nbut they may stand thus till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ\nwith His holy angels; ay, and not be discovered of the saints till\nthat very day. \"Then all those virgins arose,\"--the wise and the\nfoolish; then! when? why, when this voice was heard, \"Behold the\nBridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him\" (Matt 25:1-6). And yet\nwere out of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet were under the law.\n\n6. Nay, further, they may not only continue in a profession till\nthen, supposing themselves to be under the grace of the Gospel,\nwhen indeed they are under the curse of the law, but even when the\nBridegroom is come, they may still be so confident of their state\nto be good, that they will even reason out the case with Christ why\nthey are not let into the kingdom of glory, saying, \"Lord, Lord,\nwe have eaten and drunk in Thy presence; and Thou hast taught in\nour streets.\" Nay, further, \"Have we not prophesied in Thy name?\nand in Thy name have cast out devils?\" Nay, not only thus, but,\n\"done many,\" mark, we have \"done many wonderful works.\" Nay, further,\nthey were so confident, that they commanded, in a commanding way,\nsaying, \"Lord, open to us.\" See here, I beseech you, how far these\nwent; they thought they had had intimate acquaintance with Jesus\nChrist, they thought He could not choose but save them; they had eat\nand drunk with Him, sat at the table with Him, received power from\nHim, executed the same power. In Thy name have we done thus and thus;\neven wrought many wonderful works (Matt 7:22; Luke 13:25,26). And\nyet these poor creatures were shut out of the kingdom. O consider\nthis, I beseech you, before it be too late, lest you say, Lord, let\nus come in, when Christ saith, Thrust him out (Verse 28). Hears you\ncry, \"Lord open to us,\" when He saith, \"Depart, I know you not\";\nlest though you think of having joy, you have \"weeping and gnashing\nof teeth.\"\n\nThird. But the third thing touched in the question was this--What\nmay such an one receive of God who is under the curse of the law?\n\n1. They may receive an answer to their prayers from God at some\ntimes, for some things as they do stand in need of. I find in\nScripture that God did hear these persons that the Apostle saith\nwere cast out (Gen 21:17). \"And God heard the voice of the lad,\"\neven of cast-out Ishmael; \"and the angel of God called to Hagar\"\nwhich was the bond-woman, and under the law (Gal 4:30). \"out of\nheaven, and said unto her, Fear not; for God hath heard the voice\nof the lad where he is.\" Friends, it may be you may think, because\nyou have your prayers answered in some particular things, therefore\nyou may suppose that as to your eternal state your condition is very\ngood. But you must know that God doth hear the cry of a company of\nIshmaelites, the sons of the bondwomen, who are under the law as a\nCovenant of Works. I do not say He hears them as to their eternal\nstate, but He heareth them as to several straits that they go through\nin this life, ay, and gives them ease and liberty from their trouble.\nHere this poor wretch was almost perished for a little water, and\nhe cried, and God heard him, yea, He heard him out of Heaven. Read\nalso Psalm 107:23-29. \"He gave them their desire, but He\nsent leanness into their soul\" (Psa 106:15). 7\n\nBut some may say, Methinks this is yet more strange that God should\nhear the prayers, the cries of those that are under the law, and\nanswer them. Answ. I told you before, He doth not hear them as to\ntheir eternal state, but as to their temporal state; for God as\ntheir Creator hath a care for them, and causeth the sun to shine\nupon them, and the rain to distill upon their substance (Matt\n5:45). Nay, He doth give the beasts in the field their appointed\nfood, and doth hear the young ravens when they cry, which are far\ninferior to man (Psa 147:9). I say, therefore, that God doth hear\nthe cries of His creatures, and doth answer them too, though not\nas to their eternal state; but may damn them nevertheless when they\ndie for all that.\n\n2. They may receive promises from the mouth of the Lord. There are\nmany that have promises made to them by the Lord in a most eminent\nway, and yet, as I said before, are such as are cast out and called\nthe children of the bond-woman, which is the law--\"And the angel\nof God called to Hagar out of Heaven,\" that was the bond-woman,\nsaying, \"Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where\nhe is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; FOR\nI WILL MAKE HIM,\"--mark, there is the promise,--\"for I will make\nhim,\" of the son of the bond-woman, \"a great nation\" (Gen 21:17,18).\n\n3. Nay, they may go further; for they may receive another heart\nthan they had before, and yet be under the law. There is no man,\nI think, but those that do not know what they say, that will think\nor say that Saul was under the Covenant of Grace; yet after he had\ntalked with Samuel, and had turned his back to go from him, saith\nthe Scripture, \"God gave him another heart\" (1 Sam 10:9). Another\nheart, mark that, and yet an out-cast, a rejected person (1 Sam\n15:26,29). Friends, I beseech you, let not these things offend\nyou, but let them rather beget in your hearts an inquiring into\nthe truth of your condition, and be willing to be searched to\nthe bottom; and also, that everything which hath not been planted\nby the Lord's right hand may be rejected, and that there may be a\nreaching after better things, even the things that will not only\nmake thy soul think thy state is good now, but that thou mayest be\nable to look sin, death, Hell, the curse of the law, together with\nthe Judge, in the face with comfort, having such a real, sound,\neffectual work of God's grace in thy soul, that when thou hearest\nthe trumpet sound, seest the graves fly open, and the dead\ncome creeping forth out of their holes; when thou shalt see the\njudgment set, the books opened, and all the world standing before\nthe judgment-seat; I say, that then thou mayest stand, and have\nthat blessed sentence spoken to thy soul, \"Come, ye blessed of My\nFather, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation\nof the world\" (Matt 25:34).\n\n[Objection to this head.] But, you will say, for all this, We cannot\nbelieve that we are under the law, for these reasons--As, First.\nBecause we have found a change in our hearts. Second. Because we\ndo deny that the Covenant of Works will save any. Third. Because,\nfor our parts, we judge ourselves far from legal principles; for we\nare got up into as perfect a Gospel order, as to matter of practice\nand discipline in church affairs, as any this day in England, as\nwe judge.\n\n[Answer to reason first.] That man's belief that is grounded upon\nanything done in him, or by him only, that man's belief is not grounded\nupon the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession\nof Jesus Christ; for that man that hath indeed good ground of his\neternal salvation, his faith is settled upon that object which God\nis well pleased or satisfied withal, which is that man that was\nborn of Mary, even her first-born Son--that is, he doth apply by\nfaith to his soul the virtues of His death, blood, righteousness,\netc., and doth look for satisfaction of soul nowhere else than from\nthat, neither doth the soul seek to give God any satisfaction as\nto justification any other ways; but doth willingly and cheerfully\naccept of and embrace the virtues of Christ's death, together with\nthe rest of His things done by Himself on the cross as a sacrifice,\nand since also as a priest, advocate, mediator, etc.; and doth\nso really and effectually receive the glories of the same, that\nthereby--mark that--thereby he is \"changed into the same image,\nfrom glory to glory\" (2 Cor 3:18). Thus in general; but yet more\nparticular--\n\n1. To think that your condition is good because there is some\nchange in you from a loose profane life, to a more close, honest,\nand civil life and conversation; I say, to think this testimony\nsufficient to ground the stress of thy salvation upon is very\ndangerous. First, because such a soul doth not only lay the stress\nof its salvation besides the man Christ Jesus that died upon the\ncross; but secondly, because that his confidence is not grounded\nupon the Saviour of sinners, but upon his turning from gross sins\nto a more refined life,--and it may be to the performance of some\ngood duties--which is no Saviour; I say, this is very dangerous;\ntherefore read it, and the Lord help you to understand it; for\nunless you lay the whole stress of the salvation of your souls upon\nthe merits of another man--namely, Jesus--and that by what He did\ndo and is adoing without you, for certain, as sure as God is in\nHeaven, your souls will perish. And this must not be notionally\nneither, as with an assenting of the understanding only; but it must\nbe by the wonderful, invisible, invincible power of the Almighty\nGod, working in your souls by His Spirit such a real, saving, holy\nfaith, that can, through the operation of the same Spirit by which\nit is wrought, lay hold on and apply these most heavenly, most\nexcellent, most meritorious benefits of the man Christ Jesus, not\nonly to your heads and fancies, but to your very souls and consciences,\nso effectually, that you may be able by the same faith to challenge\nthe power, madness, malice, rage, and destroying nature either of\nsin, the law, death, the devil, together with Hell and all other\nevils, throwing your souls upon the death, burial, resurrection,\nand intercession of that man Jesus without (Rom 8:32-39). But,\n\n2. Do you think that there was no change in the five foolish\nvirgins spoken of (Matt 25:1-3). Yes; there was such a change in\nthose very people, that the five wise ones could give them admittance\nof walking with them in the most pure ways and institutions of the\nGospel of Christ, and yet but foolish; nay, they walked with them,\nor shall walk with them, until the Lord Jesus Christ shall break\ndown from Heaven, and yet be but foolish virgins, and yet but under\nthe law, and so under the curse, as I said before.\n\n[Second part of objection.] But, say you, We have disowned the\nCovenant of Works, and turned from that also.\n\n[Answer to reason second.] This is sooner said than done. Alas, alas!\npoor souls think because they say, \"Grace, grace, it is freely by\ngrace,\" therefore they are under the Covenant of Grace. A very wide\nmistake. You must understand thus much, that though you be such as\ncan speak of the grace of the Gospel, yet if you yourselves be not\nbrought under the very Covenant of Grace, you are yet, notwithstanding\nyour talk and profession, very far wide of a sense and of a share\nin the Covenant of the Grace of God held forth in the Gospel.\n\nThe Jews were of a clearer understanding many of them than to\nconclude that the law, and only the law, was the way to salvation;\nfor they, even they that received not the Christ of God, did expect\na Saviour should come (John 7:27,41-43). But they were men that\nhad not the Gospel Spirit, which alone is able to lead them to the\nvery life, marrow, or substance of the Gospel in right terms; and\nso being muddy in their understandings, being between the thoughts\nof a Saviour and the thoughts of the works of the law, thinking\nthat they must be accomplished for the obtaining of a Saviour, and\nHis mercy towards them; I say, between these they fell short of a\nSaviour. As many poor souls in these days, they think they must be\nsaved alone by the Saviour, yet they think there is something to\nbe done on their parts for the obtaining of the good-will of the\nSaviour, as their humiliation for sin, their turning from the same,\ntheir promises, and vows, and resolutions to become new men, join\nin church-fellowship, and what not; and thus they, bringing this\nalong with them as a means to help them, they fall short of eternal\nsalvation if they are not converted; see that Scripture (Rom\n9:30-32). The Apostle saith there, that they that sought not did\nobtain, when they that did seek fell short. \"What shall we say then?\"\nsaith he. \"That the Gentiles which sought not after righteousness,\nhave attained to righteousness,\" yea, \"even the righteousness\nwhich is of faith.\" And what else? Why, \"but Israel which followed\nafter the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of\nrighteousness.\" How came that to pass? \"Because,\" saith he, \"they\nsought it not by faith, but as it were\"--mark, he doth not say,\naltogether, no, \"but as it were\"--that is, because as they sought,\nthey did a little by the bye lean upon the works of the law. And\nlet me tell you, that this is such a hard thing to beat men off of,\nthat though Paul himself did take the work in hand, he did find\nenough to do touching it; how is he fain to labour in the ten\nfirst chapters of his Epistle to the Romans, for the establishing\nof those that did even profess largely in the doctrine of grace, and\nalso in that Epistle to the Galatians; and yet lost many, do what\nhe could. Now, the reason why the doctrine of grace doth so hardly\ndown--even with professors--in truth, effectually, it is because\nthere is a principle naturally in man that doth argue against the\nsame, and that thus: Why, saith the soul, I am a sinner, and God\nis righteous, holy, and just; His holy Law, therefore, having been\nbroken by me, I must, by all means, if ever I look to be saved,\nin the first place, be sorry for my sins; secondly, turn from the\nsame; thirdly, follow after good duties, and practise the good\nthings of the law and ordinances of the Gospel, and so hope that\nGod for Christ's sake may forgive all my sins; which is not the\nway to God as a Father in Christ, but the way, the very way to come\nto God by the Covenant of Works, or the law, which things I shall\nmore fully clear when I speak to the second doctrine.\n\nAgain, therefore, those that this day profess the Gospel, for\nthe generality of them they are such, that, notwithstanding their\nprofession, they are very ignorant of that glorious influence and\nlustre of the same; I say, they are ignorant of the virtue and\nefficacy of the glorious things of Christ held forth by and in\nthe Gospel, which doth argue their not being under the Covenant of\nGrace, but rather under the law or old covenant (2 Cor 4:3). As,\nfor instance, if you do come among some professors of the Gospel,\nin general you shall have them pretty busy and ripe; also able to\nhold you in a very large discourse in several points of the same\nglorious Gospel; but if you come to the same people and ask them\nconcerning heart-work, or what work the Gospel hath wrought on\nthem, and what appearance they have had of the sweet influences and\nvirtues on their souls and consciences, it may be they will give\nyou such an answer as this--I do find by the preaching thereof that\nI am changed, and turned from my sins in a good measure, and also\nhave learned (but only in tongue), to distinguish between the law\nand the Gospel, so that for the one--that is, for the Gospel--I\ncan plead, and also can show the weakness and unprofitableness of\nthe other. And thus far, it is like they may go, which is not far\nenough to prove them under the Covenant of Grace, though they may\nhave their tongues so largely tipped with the profession of the\nsame (2 Peter 2:20) where he saith \"For if after they have escaped\nthe pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and\nSaviour Jesus Christ,\" which was not a saving knowledge, \"they are\nagain entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end\" of that man\n\"is worse than the beginning\" (Matt 25:1-4, etc.; Matt 7:22).\n\nObject. But, you will say, is not this a fair declaring of the work\nof grace, or doth it not discover that, without all gainsaying,\nwe are under the Covenant of Grace, when we are able, not only to\nspeak of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also to tell,\nand that by experience, that we have been changed from worse to\nbetter, from sin to a holy life, by leaving of the same, and that\nby hearing of the Word preached?\n\nAnswer 1. A man may, in the first place, be able to talk of all\nthe mysteries of the Gospel, and that like an angel of God, and yet\nbe no more in God's account than the sounding of a drum, brass, or\nthe tinkling of a cymbal, which are things that, notwithstanding\ntheir sound and great noise, are absolutely void of life and motion,\nand so are accounted with God as nothing--that is, no Christians,\nno believers, not under the Covenant of Grace for all that (1 Cor\n13:1-4). 2. Men may not only do this, but may also be changed in\nreality, for a season, from what they formerly were, and yet be\nnothing at all in the Lord's account as to an eternal blessing.\nRead 2 Peter 2:20, the Scripture which I mentioned before; for,\nindeed, that one Scripture is enough to prove all that I desire to\nsay as to this very thing; for, if you observe, there is enfolded\ntherein these following things--(1.) That reprobates may attain to\na knowledge of Christ. (2.) This knowledge may be of such weight\nand force, that, for the present, it may make them escape the\npollutions of the world, and this by hearing the Gospel. \"For if\nafter they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the\nknowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again\nentangled therein, and overcome, the latter end of that man is worse\nthan the beginning.\" [Some professors, take them at the best, they\nare but like dogs, spewing out their filth for a time.] Now that\nthey are reprobates, dogs, or sows, read further; \"But,\" saith he,\n\"it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog\nis turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to\nher wallowing in the mire\" (Verse 22).\n\n[Third part of objection.] The last part of the objection. But, say\nyou, our practices in the worship of God shall testify for us that\nwe are not under the law; for we have by God's goodness attained to\nas exact a way of waking in the ordinances of God, and as near the\nexamples of the Apostles, as ever any churches since the primitive\ntimes, as we judge.\n\n[Answer to reason third.] What then? Do you think that the walking\nin the order of the churches of old, as to matter of outward worship,\nis sufficient to clear you of your sins at the judgment-day? or, do\nyou think that God will be contented with a little bodily subjection\nto that which shall vanish and fade like a flower, when the Lord\nshall come from Heaven in flaming fire, with His mighty angels (2\nThess 1:7,8). Alas, alas, how will such professors as these are fall\nbefore the judgment-seat of Christ! Then such a question as this,\n\"Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?\"\nwill make them be speechless, and fall down into everlasting\nburnings, thousands on a heap; for you must know that it is not\nthen your crying, Lord, Lord, that will stand you in stead; not\nyour saying, We have ate and drank in Thy presence, that will keep\nyou from standing on the left hand of Christ. It is the principle\nas well as the practice that shall be inquired into at that day.\n\nQuest. The principle, you will say, what do you mean by that?\n\nAnsw. My meaning is, the Lord Jesus Christ will then inquire\nand examine whether the spirit from which you acted was legal or\nevangelical--that is, whether it was the Spirit of adoption that\ndid draw you out to the thing you took in hand, or a mere moral\nprinciple, together with some shallow and common illuminations into\nthe outward way of the worship of God, according to Gospel rule.\n\nQuest. But, you will say, it is like, How should this be made\nmanifest and appear?\n\nAnsw. I shall speak briefly in answer hereunto as followeth--First,\nthen, that man that doth take up any of the ordinances of God--namely,\nas prayer, baptism, breaking of bread, reading, hearing, alms-deeds,\nor the like; I say, he that doth practise any of these, or such like,\nsupposing thereby to procure the love of Christ to his own soul,\nhe doth do what he doth from a legal, and not from an evangelical\nor Gospel spirit: as thus--for a man to suppose that God will hear\nhim for his prayer's sake, for his alm's sake, for his humiliation's\nsake, or because he hath promised to make God amends hereafter,\nwhereas there is no such thing as a satisfaction to be made to God\nby our prayers or whatever we can do; I say, there is no such way\nto have reconciliation with God in. And so also for men to think,\nbecause they are got into such and such an ordinance, and have\ncrowded themselves into such and such a society, that therefore\nthey have got pretty good shelter from the wrath of the Almighty;\nwhen, alas, poor souls, there is no such thing. No, but God will\nso set His face against such professors, that His very looks will\nmake them to tear their very flesh; yea, make them to wish would\nthey had the biggest millstone in the world hanged about their\nneck, and they cast into the midst of the sea. For, friends, let me\ntell you, though you can now content yourselves without the holy,\nharmless, undefiled, perfect righteousness of Christ; yet there\nis a day a-coming in which there is not one of you shall be saved\nbut those that are and shall be found clothed with that righteousness;\nGod will say to all the rest, \"Take them, bind them hand and foot,\nand cast them into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing\nof teeth\" (Matt 22:13). For Christ will not say unto men in that\nday, Come, which of you made a profession of Me, and walked in\nchurch-fellowship with My saints: no; but then it shall be inquired\ninto, who have the reality of the truth of grace wrought in their\nhearts. And, for certain, he that misseth of that shall surely be\ncast into the Lake of Fire, there to burn with the devils and damned\nmen and women; there to undergo the wrath of an eternal God, and\nthat not for a day, a month, a year, but for ever, for ever, for\never and ever; there is that which cutteth to the quick. Therefore,\nlook to it, and consider now what you do, and whereon you hang your\nsouls; for it is not every pin that will hold in the judgment, not\nevery foundation that will be able to hold up the house against\nthose mighty, terrible, soul-drowning floods and destroying tempests\nwhich then will roar against the soul and body of a sinner (Luke\n6:47-49). And, if the principle be rotten, all will fall, all\nwill come to nothing. Now, the principle is this--Not to do things\nbecause we would be saved, but to do them from this--namely, because\nwe do really believe that we are and shall be saved. But do not\nmistake me; I do not say we should slight any holy duties; God\nforbid; but I say, he that doth look for life because he doth do\ngood duties, he is under the Covenant of Works, the law; let his\nduties be never so eminent, so often, so fervent, so zealous. Ay,\nand I say, as I said before, that if any man or men, or multitudes\nof people, do get into never so high, so eminent; and clear practices\nand Gospel order, as to church discipline, if it be done to this\nend I have been speaking of, from this principle, they must and\nshall have these sad things fall to their share which I have made\nmention of.\n\nObject. But, you will say, can a man use Gospel ordinances with a\nlegal spirit?\n\nAnsw. Yes, as easily as the Jews could use and practise circumcision,\nthough not the moral or Ten Commandments. For this I shall be\nbold to affirm, that it is not the commands of the New Testament\nadministration that can keep a man from using of its self [that\nadministration] in a legal spirit; for know this for certain, that\nit is the principle, not the command, that makes the subjector to\nthe same either legal or evangelical, and so his obedience from\nthat command to be from legal convictions or evangelical principles.\n\nNow, herein the devil is wondrous subtle and crafty, in suffering\npeople to practise the ordinances and commands of the Gospel, if\nthey do but do them in a legal spirit, [I beseech you, do not think\nbecause I say this, therefore I am against the ordinances of the\nGospel, for I do honour them in their places, yet would not that\nany of them should be idolized, or done in a wrong spirit,] from\na spirit of works; for he knows then, that if he can but get the\nsoul to go on in such a spirit, though they do never so many duties,\nhe shall hold them sure enough; for he knows full well that thereby\nthey do set up something in the room of, or, at the least, to have\nsome, though but a little, share with the Lord Jesus Christ in\ntheir salvation; and if he can but get thee here, he knows that he\nshall cause thee by thy depending a little upon the one, and so\nthy whole dependence being not upon the other, that is, Christ, and\ntaking of him upon his own terms, thou wilt fall short of life by\nChrist, though thou do very much busy thyself in a suitable walking,\nin an outward conformity to the several commands of the Lord Jesus\nChrist. And let me tell you plainly, that I do verily believe\nthat as Satan by his instruments did draw many of the Galatians\nby circumcision (though, I say, it was none of the commands of the\nmoral law) to be debtors to do upon pain of eternal damnation the\nwhole of the moral law, so also Satan, in the time of the Gospel,\ndoth use even the commands laid down in the Gospel, some of them,\nto bind the soul over to do the same law; the thing being done\nand walked in, by and in the spirit; for, as I said before, it is\nnot the obedience to the command that makes the subjector thereto\nevangelical, or of a Gospel spirit; but, contrariwise, the principle\nthat leads out the soul to the doing of the command, that makes\nthe persons that do thus practise any command, together with the\ncommand by them practised, either legal or evangelical. As, for\ninstance, prayer--it is a Gospel command; yet if he that prays\ndoth it in a legal spirit, he doth make that which in itself is a\nGospel command an occasion of leading him into a Covenant of Works,\ninasmuch as he doth it by and in that old covenant spirit.\n\nAgain; giving of alms is a Gospel command; yet if I do give alms\nfrom a legal principle, the command to me is not Gospel, but legal,\nand it binds me over, as aforesaid, to do the whole law--\"For\nhe is not a Jew,\" nor a Christian, \"which is one outwardly\"--that\nis, one only by an outward subjection to the ordinances of prayer,\nhearing, reading, baptism, breaking of bread, etc.--\"But he is a\nJew,\" a Christian, \"which is one inwardly,\" who is rightly principled,\nand practiseth the ordinances of the Lord from the leadings forth\nof the Spirit of the Lord, from a true and saving faith in the\nLord (Rom 2:28,29). Those men spoken of in the 7th of Matthew, for\ncertain, for all their great declaration, did not do what they did\nfrom a right Gospel spirit; for had they, no question but the Lord\nwould have said, \"Well done, good and faithful servant.\" But in\nthat the Lord Jesus doth turn them away into Hell, notwithstanding\ntheir great profession of the Lord, and of their doing in His name,\nit is evident that notwithstanding all that they did do, they were\nstill under the law, and not under that covenant as true believers\nare--to wit, the Covenant of Grace; and if so, then all their duties\nthat they did, of which they boasted before the Lord, was not in\nand by a right evangelical principle or spirit.\n\nAgain, saith the Apostle, \"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,\" (Rom\n14:23); but there are some that do even practise baptism, breaking\nof bread, together with other ordinances, and yet are unbelievers;\ntherefore unbelievers doing these things, they are not done in\nfaith but sin. Now to do these things in sin, or without faith, it\nis not to do things in an evangelical or Gospel spirit; also they\nthat do these things in a legal spirit, the very practising of them\nrenders them not under the law of Christ, as Head of His Church,\nbut the works they do are so much contradiction to the Gospel of\nGod, or the Covenant of Grace, that they that do them thus do even\nset up against the Covenant of Grace; and the very performance of\nthem is of such force that it is sufficient to drown them that are\nsubjects thereunto, even under the Covenant of Works; but this poor\nsouls are not aware of, and there is their misery.\n\nQuest. But have you no other way to discover the things of the\nGospel, how they are done with a legal principle, but those you\nhave already made mention of?\n\nAnsw. That thou mightest be indeed satisfied herein, I shall show\nyou the very manner and way that a legal, or old-covenant-converted\nprofessor, bear with the terms, doth take both in the beginning,\nmiddle, and the end of his doing of any duty or command, or whatsoever\nit be that he doth do. 1. He thinking this or that to be his duty,\nand considering of the same, he is also presently persuaded in\nhis own conscience that God will not accept of him if he leave it\nundone; he seeing that he is short of his duty, as he supposeth,\nwhile this is undone by him, and also judging that God is angry with\nhim until the thing be done, he, in the second place, sets to the\ndoing of the duty, to the end he may be able to pacify his conscience\nby doing of the same, persuading of himself that now the Lord is\npleased with him for doing of it. 2. Having done it, he contents\nhimself, sits down at his ease, until some further convictions of\nhis duty to be done, which when he seeth and knoweth, he doth do\nit as aforesaid, from the same principle as he did the former, and\nso goeth on in his progress of profession. This is to do things\nfrom a legal principle, and from an old-covenant spirit; for thus\nruns that covenant, \"The man that doth these things shall live in\nthem,\" of \"by them\" (Lev 18:5; Gal 3:12; Rom 10:5). But more of\nthis in the use of this doctrine.\n\nObject. But, you will say, by these words of yours you do seem\nto deny that there are conditional promises in the Gospel, as is\nclear, in that you strike at such practices as are conditional,\nand commanded to be done upon the same.\n\nAnsw. The thing that I strike at is this, that a man in or with a\nlegal spirit should not, nay, cannot, do any conditional command\nof the Gospel acceptably, as to his eternal state, because he doth\nit in an old-covenant spirit. \"No man putteth new wine into old\nbottles\"; but new wine must have new bottles, a Gospel command must\nhave a Gospel spirit, or else the wine will break the bottles, or\nthe principle will break the command.\n\nObject. Then you do grant that there are conditional promises in\nthe New Testament, as in the moral law, or Ten Commands.\n\nAnsw. Though this be true, yet the conditional promises in the\nNew Testament do not call to the same people in the same state of\nunregeneracy to fulfill them upon the same conditions.\n\nThe Law and the Gospel being two distinct covenants, they are made\nin divers ways, and the nature of the conditions also being not\nthe same, as saith the Apostle, the righteousness of the law saith\none thing, and the righteousness of faith saith another (Rom 10:4-6).\nThat is, the great condition in the law is, If you do these things,\nyou shall live by them; but the condition, even the greatest condition\nlaid down for a poor soul to do, as to salvation--for it is that\nwe speak of--is to believe that my sins be forgiven me for Jesus\nChrist's sake, without the works or righteousness of the law, on my\npart, to help forward. \"To him that worketh not,\" saith the Apostle\n[that is] for salvation, \"but believeth on Him that justifieth the\nungodly, his faith\"--mark, \"his faith is counted for righteousness\"\n(Rom 4:5). So that we, saith, he, \"conclude that a man is justified\nby faith without\"--mark again, \"without the deeds of the law\" (Rom\n3:28).\n\nBut again; there is never a condition in the Gospel that can\nbe fulfilled by an unbeliever; and therefore, whether there be\nconditions or whether there be none, it makes no matter to thee\nwho art without the faith of Christ; for it is impossible for thee\nin that state to do them, so as to be ever the better as to thy\neternal estate; therefore, lest thou shouldst split thy soul upon\nthe conditions laid down in the Gospel, as thou wilt do if thou go\nabout to do them only with a legal spirit; but, I say, to prevent\nthis, see if thou canst fulfill the first condition; that is, to\nbelieve that all thy sins are forgiven thee, not for any condition\nthat hath been or can be done by thee, but merely for the Man's sake\nthat did hang on Mount Calvary, between two thieves, some sixteen\nhundred years ago and odd. And, I say, see if thou canst believe\nthat at that time He did, when He hanged on the Cross, give full\nsatisfaction, for all thy sins, before thou in thy person hadst\ncommitted ever a one. I say, see if thou canst believe this; and\ntake heed thou deceive not thyself with an historical, notional,\nor traditional acknowledgment of the same. And, secondly, see if\nthou canst so well fulfill this condition, that the very virtue\nand efficacy that it hath on thy soul will engage thee to fulfill\nthose other conditions, really in love to that Man whom thou\nshouldst believe hath frankly and freely forgiven thee all, without\nany condition acted by thee to move Him thereto, according to that\nsaying in 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; and then thy doing will arise\nfrom a contrary principle than otherwise it will do--that is, then\nthou wilt not act and do because thou wouldst be accepted of God,\nbut because thou hast some good hope in thy heart that thou art\naccepted of Him already, and not on thine, but wholly and alone\nupon another man's account; for here runs the Gospel spirit of\nfaith: \"We believe,\"--mark, \"We believe, and therefore speak.\" So\nwe believe, and therefore do (2 Cor 4:13). Take heed, therefore,\nthat you do not DO, that you may believe, but rather believe\nso effectually that you may DO, even all that Jesus doth require\nof you from a right principle, even out of love to your dear Lord\nJesus Christ, which thing I shall speak to more fully by and by.\n\nObject. But what do you mean by those expressions? Do not do that\nyou may believe, but believe so effectually that you may do.\n\nAnsw. When I say, Do not do that you may believe, I mean, do\nnot think that any of the things that thou canst do will procure\nor purchase faith from God unto thy soul; for that is still the\nold-covenant spirit, the spirit of the law, to think to have it for\nthy doing. They that are saved, they are saved by grace, through\nfaith, and that not of themselves, not for anything that they can\ndo, for they are both the free gift of God, \"Not of\" doing, or of\n\"works, lest any man should,\" be proud, and \"boast\" (Eph 2:8,9).\nNow, some people be so ignorant as to think that God will give them\nChrist, and so all the merits of His, if they will be but valiant,\nand do something to please God, that they may obtain Him at His\nhands; but let me tell them, they may lose a thousand souls quickly,\nif they had so many, by going this way to work, and yet be never\nthe better; for the Lord doth not give His Christ to any upon such\nconditions, but He doth give Him freely; that is, without having\nrespect to anything that is in thee (Rev 22:17; Isa 55:1,2). To him\nthat is athirst will I give; He doth not say, I will sell; but, I\nwill give him the water of life freely (Rev 21:6).\n\nNow, if Christ doth give it, and that freely, then He doth not\nsell if for anything that is in the creature; but Christ doth give\nHimself, as also doth His Father, and that freely, not because\nthere is anything in us, or done by us, that moves Him thereunto.\nIf it were by doing, then, saith Paul, \"Grace is not grace,\" seeing\nit is obtained by works; but grace is grace, and that is the reason\nit is given to men without their works. And if it be by grace,\nthat is, if it be a free gift from God, without anything foreseen\nas done, or to be done, by the creature, then it is not of works,\nwhich is clear; therefore it is grace, without the works of the\nlaw. But if you say, Nay, it is of something in the man done by\nhim that moves God thereunto; then you must conclude that either\ngrace is no grace, or else that works are grace and not works. Do\nbut read with understanding (Rom 11:6).\n\nNow before I go any further, it may be necessary to speak a word\nor two to some poor souls that are willing to close in with Jesus\nChrist, and would willingly take Him upon His own terms, only\nthey being muddy in their minds, and have not yet attained the\nunderstanding of the terms and conditions of the two covenants,\nthey are kept off from closing with Christ; and all is, because\nthey see they can do nothing [to merit His favour]. As, for example,\ncome to some souls, and ask them how they do, they will tell you\npresently that they are so bad that it is not to be expressed. If\nyou bid them believe in Jesus Christ, they will answer that they\ncannot believe; if you ask them why they cannot believe, they will\nanswer, because their hearts are so hard, so dead, so dull, so\nbackward to good duties; and if their hearts were but better, if\nthey were more earnest, if they could pray better, and keep their\nhearts more from running after sin, then they could believe; but\nshould they believe with such vile hearts, and presume to believe\nin Christ, and be so filthy? Now all this is because the spirit of\nthe law still ruleth in such souls, and blinds them so that they\ncannot see the terms of the Gospel. To clear this, take the substance\nor the drift of these poor souls, which is this--\"If I were better,\nthen I think I could believe; but being so bad as I am, that\nis the reason that I cannot.\" This is just to do something that I\nmay believe, to work that I may have Christ, to do the law that I\nmay have the Gospel; or thus, to be righteous that I may come to\nChrist. O man! thou must go quite back again, thou art out of the\nway, thou must believe, because thou canst not pray, because thou\ncanst not do; thou must believe, because there is nothing in thee\nnaturally that is good, or desireth after good, or else thou wilt\nnever come to Christ as a sinner; and if so, then Christ will not\nreceive thee; and if so, then thou mayest see that to keep off\nfrom Christ because thou canst not do, is to be kept from Christ\nby the law, and to stand off from Him because thou canst not buy\nHim. Thus having spoken something by the way for the direction of\nthose souls that would come to Christ, I shall return to the former\ndiscourse, wherein ariseth this objection--\n\nObject. But you did but even now put souls upon fulfilling the\nfirst condition of the Gospel, even to believe in Christ, and so\nbe saved; but now you say it is alone by grace, without condition;\nand therefore by these words, there is first a contradiction to your\nformer sayings, and also that men may be saved without the condition\nof faith, which to me seems a very strange thing. I desire, therefore,\nthat you would clear out what you have said, to my satisfaction.\n\nAnswer, 1. Though there be a condition commanded in the Gospel,\nyet He that commands the condition doth not leave His children to\ntheir own natural abilities, that in their own strength they should\nfulfill them, as the law doth; but the same God that doth command\nthat the condition be fulfilled, even He doth help His children\nby His Holy Spirit to fulfill the same condition; \"For it is God\nwhich worketh in you,\"--mark \"in you,\" believers, \"both to will\nand to do of His own good pleasure\" (Phil 2:13). \"Thou also hast\nwrought all our works in us, and for us\" (Isa 26:12). So that, if\nthe condition be fulfilled, it is not done by the ability of the\ncreature. But,\n\n2. Faith, as it is a gift of God, or an act of ours, take it which\nway you will, if we speak properly of salvation, it is not the first\nnor the second cause of our salvation, but the third, and that but\ninstrumentally neither--that is, it only layeth hold of and applieth\nto us that which saveth us, which is the love of God, through the\nmerits of Christ, which are the two main causes of our salvation,\nwithout which all other things are nothing, whether it be faith,\nhope, love, or whatever can be done by us. And to this the great\nApostle of the Gentiles speaks fully, for, saith he, \"God, who\nis rich in mercy, loved us, even when we were dead in sins\" (Eph\n2:4,5). That is, when we were without faith, and that was the cause\nwhy we believed for He thereby hath quickened us together, through\nthe meritorious cause, which is Christ, and so hath saved us by\ngrace--that is, of His own voluntary love and good will; the effect\nof which was this, He gave us faith to believe in Christ. Read\nsoberly Ephesians 2:4-8. Faith, as the gift of God, is not the\nSaviour, as our act doth merit nothing; faith was not the cause\nthat God gave Christ as the first, neither is it the cause why God\nconverts men to Christ; but faith is a gift bestowed upon us by the\ngracious God, the nature of which is to lay hold on Christ, that\nGod afore did give for a ransom to redeem sinners; this faith hath\nits nourishment and supplies from the same God that at the first\ndid give it, and is the only instrument, through the Spirit, that\ndoth keep the soul in a comfortable frame, both to do and suffer for\nChrist; helps the soul to receive comfort from Christ when it can\nget none from itself, beareth up the soul in its progress heavenwards.\nBut that it is the first cause of salvation, that I deny, or that\nit is the second, I deny; but it is only the instrument, or hand,\nthat receiveth the benefits, that God hath prepared for thee before\nthou hadst any faith; so that we do nothing for salvation as we\nare men. But if we speak properly, it was God's grace that moved\nHim to give Christ a ransom for sinners; and the same God, with\nthe same grace, that doth give to the soul faith to believe, and\nso, by believing, to close in with Him whom God out of His love\nand pity did send into the world to save sinners, so that all the\nworks of the creature are shut out as to justification and life,\nand men are saved freely by grace. I shall speak no more here; but\nin my discourse upon the second covenant, I shall answer a Hell-bred\nobjection or two, to forewarn sinners how they turn the grace of\nGod into wantonness.\n\nAnd thus, you see, I have briefly spoken to you something touching\nthe law. First, what it is, and when given; secondly, how sad those\nmen's conditions are that are under it; thirdly, who they are that\nbe under it; fourthly, how far they may go, and what they may do\nand receive, and yet be under it; which hath been done by way of\nanswers to several questions, for the better satisfaction of those\nthat may stand in doubt of the truth of what hath been delivered.\n\nNow, in the next place, I shall come to some application of the\ntruth of that which hath been spoken; but I shall in the first\nplace speak something to the second doctrine, and then afterwards\nI shall speak something by way of use and application to this first\ndoctrine.\n\n[DOCTRINE SECOND.]\n\nThe second doctrine now to be spoken to is, TO SHOW THAT THE PEOPLE\nOF GOD ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW BUT UNDER GRACE--\"For ye are not under\nthe law, but under grace\" (Rom 6:14).\n\nYou may well remember that from these words I did observe these\ntwo great truths of the Lord--FIRST, That there are some in Gospel\ntimes that are under the law, or Covenant of Works. SECOND, That\nthere is never a believer under the law, or Covenant of Works,\nbut under grace. I have spoken something to the former of these\ntruths--to wit, that there are some under the law, together with\nwho they are, and what their condition is, that are under it. Now\nI am to speak to the second, and to show you who they are, and what\ntheir condition is, that are under that [Covenant of Grace].\n\nBut before I come to that, I shall speak a few words to show you\nwhat the word \"grace\" in this place signifies; [I touched upon\nthis in the first doctrine] for the word \"grace\" in the Scripture\nreferreth sometimes to favour with men (Gen 33:10; 39:4; 50:4).\nSometimes to holy qualifications of saints (2 Cor 8:7). And sometimes\nto hold forth the condescension of Christ in coming down from the\nglory which He had with His Father before the world was, to be\nmade of no reputation, and a servant to men (2 Cor 8:9; Phil 2:7).\nAgain: sometimes it is taken for the free, rich, and unchangeable\nlove of God to man, through Jesus Christ, that for our cause and\nsakes did make Himself poor; and so it is to be understood in these\nwords, \"For ye are not under the law,\" to be cursed, and damned, and\nsent headlong to Hell, \"but\" you are \"under grace,\" to be saved,\nto be pardoned, to be preserved, \"and kept by the mighty power\nof God, through faith,\" which alone is the gift of grace, \"unto\neternal glory.\" This one Scripture alone proves the same--\"For by\ngrace are ye saved\" (Eph 2:8), by free grace, by rich grace, by\nunchangeable grace. And you are saved from the curse of the law;\nfrom the power, guilt, and filth of sin; from the power, malice,\nmadness, and rage of the devil; from the wishes, curses, and desires\nof wicked men; from the hot, scalding, flaming, fiery furnace\nof Hell; from being arraigned as malefactors, convinced, judged,\ncondemned, and fettered with the chains of our sins to the devils\nto all eternity; and all this freely, freely by His grace (Rom\n3:24) by rich grace unchangeable grace; for, saith He, \"I am the\nLORD, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed\"\n(Mal 3:6). This is grace indeed.\n\nThe word \"grace,\" therefore, in this Scripture (Rom 6:14) is to be\nunderstood of the free love of God in Christ to sinners, by virtue\nof the new covenant, in delivering them from the power of sin,\nfrom the curse and condemning power of the old covenant, from the\ndestroying nature of sin, by its continual workings; as is all\nevident if you read with understanding the words as they lie--\"For,\"\nsaith he, \"sin shall not have dominion over you,\" or, it shall\nnot domineer, reign, or destroy you, though you have transgressed\nagainst the Covenant of Works, the law; and the reason is rendered\nin these words, \"For ye are not under the law\"--that is, under\nthat which accuseth, chargeth, condemneth and brings execution on\nthe soul for sin,--\"but under grace\"; that is, under that which\nfrees you, forgives you, keeps you, and justifies you from all your\nsins, adversaries, or whatever may come in to lay anything to your\ncharge to damn you. For that is truly called grace in this sense\nthat doth set a man free from all his sins, deliver him from all\nthe curses of the law, and what else can be laid to His charge,\nfreely, without any foresight in God to look at what good will be\ndone by the party that hath offended; and also that doth keep the\nsoul by the same power through faith--which also is his own proper\ngift--unto eternal glory.\n\nAgain; that it is a pardon not conditional, but freely given,\nconsider, first, it is set in opposition to works--\"Ye are not under\nthe law.\" Secondly, The promise that is made to them (saying, \"Sin\nshall not have dominion over you\") doth not run with any condition\nas on their part to be done; but merely and alone because they were\nunder, or because they had the grace of God extended to them. \"Sin\nshall not have dominion over you: for,\" mark the reason, \"ye are\nnot under the law, but under grace.\"\n\nThe words being thus opened, and the truth thus laid down, HOW THERE\nIS NEVER A BELIEVER UNDER THE COVENANT OF WORKS, BUT UNDER GRACE,\nthe free, rich, unchangeable love of God, it remaineth that, in\nthe first place, we prove the doctrine, and after that proceed.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE PROVED.\n\nNow in the doctrine there are two things to be considered and\nproved--FIRST, That believers are under grace. SECONDLY, Not under\nthe law as a Covenant of Works; for so you must understand me. For\nthese two we need go no further than the very words themselves;\nthe first part of the words proves the first part of the doctrine,\n\"Ye are not under the law\"; the second part proves the other,\n\"but\" ye are \"under grace.\" But besides these, consider with me a\nfew things for the demonstrating of these truths, as,\n\nFirst. They are not under the law, because their sins are pardoned,\nwhich could not be if they were dealt withal according to the law,\nand their being under it; for the law alloweth of no repentance,\nbut accuseth, curseth and condemneth every one that is under\nit--\"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which\nare written in the Book of the Law to do them\" (Gal 3:10). But, I\nsay, believers having their sins forgiven them, it is because they\nare under another, even a new covenant--\"Behold, the days come,\nsaith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with them.\"--\"For\nI will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and\ntheir iniquities will I remember no more\" (Heb 8:12).\n\nSecond. They are not under the law, because their sins and iniquities\nare not only forgiven, but they are forgiven them freely. They\nthat stand in the first covenant, and continue there, are to have\nnever a sin forgiven them unless they can give God a complete\nsatisfaction; for the law calls for it at their hands, saying, \"Pay\nme that thou owest.\" O! but when God deals with His saints by the\nCovenant of Grace it is not so; for it is said, \"And when\" He saw\n\"they had nothing to pay, He frankly\" and freely \"forgave them\"\nall--\"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely.\"--I\nwill blot \"out thy transgressions for Mine own sake,\" etc. (Luke\n7:42; Hosea 14:4; Isa 43:25).\n\nThird. The saints are not under the law, because the righteousness\nthat they stand justified before God in is not their own actual\nrighteousness by the law, but by imputation, and is really the\nrighteousness of Another--namely, of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21;\nPhil 3:9). \"Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of\nJesus Christ unto all and upon all,\" that is, imputed to \"them that\nbelieve\" (Rom 3:22). But if they were under the old covenant, the\nCovenant of Works, then their righteousness must be their own, [But\nit is impossible that the righteousness of man by the law should\nsave him.] or no forgiveness of sins--\"If thou doest well, shalt\nthou not be accepted?\" but if thou transgress, \"sin lieth at the\ndoor,\" saith the law (Gen 4:7).\n\nFourth. In a word, whatsoever they do receive, whether it be conversion\nto God; whether it be pardon of sin; whether it be faith or hope;\nwhether it be righteousness; whether it be strength\" whether it be\nthe Spirit, or the fruits thereof; whether it be victory over sin,\ndeath, or Hell; whether it be Heaven, everlasting life, and glory\ninexpressible; or whatsoever it be, it comes to them freely, God\nhaving no first eye to what they would do, or should do, for the\nobtaining of the same. But to take this in pieces--1. In a word,\nare they converted? God finds them first, for, saith He, \"I am\nfound of them that sought Me not\" (Isa 65:1). 2. Have they pardon\nof sin? They have that also freely,--\"I will heal their backsliding,\nI will love them freely\" (Hosea 14:4). 3. Have they faith? It is\nthe gift of God in Christ Jesus, and He is not only the Author,\nthat is, the beginner thereof, but He doth also perfect the same\n(Heb 12:2). 4. Have they hope? It is God that is the first cause\nthereof--\"Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast\ncaused me to hope\" (Psa 119:49). 5. Have they righteousness? It is\nthe free gift of God (Rom 5:17). Have they strength to do the work\nof God in their generations, or any other thing that God would\nhave them do? That also is a free gift from the Lord, for without\nHim we neither do nor can do anything (John 15:5). 7. Have we comfort,\nor consolation? We have it not for what we have done, but from God\nthrough Christ; for He is the God of all comforts and consolation\n(2 Cor 1:3-7). 8. Have we the Spirit, or the fruits thereof? it is\nthe gift of the Father--\"how much more shall your heavenly Father\ngive the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him (Luke 11:13)? \"Thou has\nwrought all our works in us\" (Isa 26:12).\n\nAnd so, I say, whether it be victory over sin, death, Hell, or the\ndevil, it is given us by the victory of Christ--\"But thanks be to\nGod which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ\" (1\nCor 15:57; Rom 7:24,25). Heaven and glory it is also the gift of\nHim who giveth us richly all things to enjoy (Matt 25:34).\n\nSo that these things, if they be duly and soberly considered, will\ngive satisfaction in this thing. I might have added many more for\nthe clearing of these things; as 1. When God came to man to convert\nhim, He found him a dead man (Eph 2:1,2). He found him an enemy\nto God, Christ, and the salvation of his own soul; He found him\nwallowing in all manner of wickedness; He found him taking pleasure\ntherein; with all delight and greediness. 2. He was fain to quicken\nhim by putting His Spirit into him, and to translate him by the\nmighty operation thereof. He was fain to reveal Christ Jesus unto\nhim, man being altogether senseless and ignorant of this blessed\nJesus (Matt 11:25,27; 1 Cor 2:7-10). 4. He was fain to break the\nsnare of the devil, and to let poor man, poor bound and fettered\nman, out of the chains of the enemy.\n\n[THE NEW COVENANT FREE AND UNCHANGEABLE, WHO ARE UNDER IT, AND\nTHEIR PRIVILEGES.]\n\nNow we are to proceed, and the things that we are to treat upon\nin the second place are these--First. [Besides the reasons already\ngiven.] Why is it a free and unchangeable grace? SECOND. Who they are\nthat are actually brought into His free and unchangeable Covenant\nof Grace, and how they are brought in? THIRD. What are the privileges\nof those that are actually brought into this free and glorious\ngrace of the glorious God of Heaven and glory?\n\n[THE NEW COVENANT FREE AND UNCHANGEABLE BECAUSE MADE WITH CHRIST.]\n\nFIRST. WHY IT IS A FREE AND UNCHANGEABLE GRACE.\n\nAnd for the opening of this we must consider, first, How and through\nWhom this grace doth come to be, first, free to us, and, secondly,\nunchangeable? This grace is free to us through conditions in\nAnother--that is, by way of covenant or bargain; for this grace\ncomes by way of covenant or bargain to us, yet made with Another\nfor us.\n\nFirst. That it comes by way of covenant, contract, or bargain, though\nnot personally with us, be pleased to consider these Scriptures,\nwhere it is said, \"I have made a covenant with My Chosen: I have\nsworn unto David [The word David in this place signifieth Christ,\nas also in these Scriptures--(Eze 34:23,24; 37:24,25).] My servant\"\n(Psa 89:3). \"And as for Thee also, by the blood of Thy covenant,\"\nspeaking of Christ, \"I have sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit\nwherein is no water,\" (Zech 9:9-11). Again; \"Ye have sold yourselves\nfor nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money\" (Isa 52:3).\n\"Blessed be the Lord,\" therefore, saith Zacharias, \"for He hath\nvisited and\" also \"redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn\nof salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spake\nby the mouth of His holy Prophets, which have been since the world\nbegan; that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hands\nof all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers,\nand to remember His holy covenant,\" or bargain (Luke 1:68-72). [I\nmight give you more Scriptures; but pray consider the second thing.]\nAnd if any should be offended with the plainness of these words,\nas some poor souls may be through ignorance, let them be pleased\nto read soberly Isaiah 49:1-12, and there they may see that it runs\nas plain a bargain as if two would be making of a bargain between\nthemselves, and concluding upon several conditions on both sides.\nBut more of this hereafter. Now,\n\nSecond. This covenant, I say, was made with One, not with many, and\nalso confirmed in the conditions of it with One, not with several.\nFirst, that the covenant was made with One (Gal 3:16). \"Now to\nAbraham and his Seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to\nseeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ\"\n(Verse 17). \"And this, I say, that the covenant that was confirmed\nbefore of God, in Christ,\" etc. The covenant was made with the Seed\nof Abraham; not the seeds, but the Seed, which is the Lord Jesus\nChrist, our Head and Undertaker in the things concerning the\ncovenant.\n\nThird. The condition was made with One, and also accomplished\nby Him alone, and not by several; yet in the nature, and for the\neverlasting deliverance of many; even by one man Jesus Christ, as\nit is clear from Romans 5:15-17, etc., and in Zechariah 9:11, the\nLord saith to Christ, \"And as for Thee\"--mark, \"As for Thee also,\nby the blood of Thy covenant,\" or as for Thee whose covenant was\nby blood; that is, the condition of the covenant was, that Thou\nshouldst spill Thy blood; which having been done in the account of\nGod, saith He, I according to My condition have let go the prisoners,\nor sent them \"out of the pit wherein is no water.\" Those Scriptures\nin Galatians 3:16,17 that are above cited, are notably to our purpose;\nVerse 16 saith it was made with Christ, Verse 17 saith it was also\nconfirmed in or with God in Him. Pray read with understanding. \"Now,\"\nsaith Paul, \"the promises were not made unto seeds, as of many;\nbut as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ.\" . . . . \"The law,\nwhich was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that\nit should make the promise of none effect.\" Not that the covenant\nwas made with Abraham and Christ together, as two persons that\nwere the undertakers of the same; the promise was made with, or\nto, Abraham afterwards; but the covenant with Christ before.\n\n[Neither Abraham nor the fathers able to undertake the accomplishment\nof this covenant.]\n\nFurther, that the covenant was not personally made with Abraham,\nno, nor with any of the fathers, neither so as that they were the\npersons that should stand engaged to be the accomplishers thereof,\neither in whole or in part; which is very clear.\n\nFirst. Because this covenant was not made with God and the creature;\nnot with another poor Adam, that only stood upon the strength\nof natural abilities; but this covenant was made with the second\nPerson, with the Eternal Word of God; with Him that was everyways\nas holy, as pure, as infinite, as powerful, and as everlasting as\nGod (Prov 8:22-31; Isa 9:6; Zech 13:7; Phil 2:6; Heb 1; Rev 1:11-17;\n22:13,17).\n\nSecond. This covenant or bargain was made in deed and in truth\nbefore man was in being. O! God thought of the salvation of man\nbefore there was any transgression of man; for then, I say, and\nnot since then, was the Covenant of Grace made with the Undertaker\nthereof; for all the other sayings are to show unto us that glorious\nplot and contrivance that was concluded on before time between\nthe Father and the Son, which may very well be concluded on for a\ntruth from the Word of God, if you consider, 1. That the Scripture\ndoth declare that the price was agreed on by the Son before time;\n2. The promise was made to Him by the Father that He should have His\nbargain before time; 3. The choice, and who they were that should\nbe saved was made before time, even before the world began.\n\n1. For the first, That the price was agreed upon before the world\nbegan. Consider the word which speaketh of the price that was paid\nfor sinners, even the precious blood of Christ; it saith of Him,\n\"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but\nwas manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe,\"\netc. (1 Peter 1:20,21). Mark, it was foreordained or concluded on\nbetween the Father and the Son before the world began.\n\n2. The promise from God to the Son was also made in the same manner,\nas it is clear where the Apostle saith with comfort to his soul,\nthat he had \"hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,\npromised before the world began,\" (Titus 1:2) which could be to\nnone but the Mediator of the new covenant, because there was none\nelse to whom it should be made but He.\n\n3. The choice was also made then, even before man had a being in\nthis world, as it is evident where he saith, \"Blessed be the God\nand Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all\nspiritual blessings in heavenly places IN Christ: according as He\nhath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we\nshould be holy and without blame before Him in love\" (Eph 1:3,4).\n[Did I think this would meet with any opposition, I should be in\nthis more large.] Nay, did I look upon it here to be necessary, I\nshould show you very largely and clearly that God did not only make\nthe covenant with Christ before the world began, and the conditions\nthereof, but I could also show you that the very saints' qualifications,\nas part of the covenant, was then concluded on by the Father and\nthe Son according to these Scriptures, which, it may be, I may\ntouch upon further anon (Eph 1:3,4; 2:10; Rom 8:28). But,\n\nThird. This covenant was not made with any of the fathers, neither\nin whole nor in part, as the undertakers thereof; for then it must\nbe also concluded that they are co-partners with Christ in our\nsalvation, and so that Christ is not Mediator alone; but this would\nbe blasphemy for any once to surmise. And therefore, by the way,\nwhen thou readest of the new covenant in Scripture as though it\nwas made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, or David, thou art to consider\nthus with thyself--1. That God spake to them in such a way for to\nshow or signify unto us how He did make the covenant that He did\nmake with Christ before the world began, they being types of Him.\n2. That He thereby might let them understand that He was the same\nthen as He is now, and now as He was then; and that then it was\nresolved on between His Son and HIM, that in after ages His Son\nshould in their natures, from their loins, and for their sins, be\nborn of a woman, hanged on the Cross, etc., for them: for all along\nyou may see that when He speaketh to them of the new covenant, He\nmentions their seed--their seed--still aiming at Christ; Christ,\nthe Seed of the woman, was to break the serpent's head (Gen 3:15;\n17; Psa 89:36). Now to Abraham and his Seed was the promise made;\nhis Seed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the days of\nHeaven, etc.; still pointing at Christ. And, 3. To stir up their\nfaith and expectations to be constant unto the end in waiting for\nthat which He and His Son had concluded on before time, and what He\nhad since the conclusion declared unto the world by the Prophets.\n4. It appeareth that the heart of God was much delighted therein\nalso, as is evident, in that He was always in every age declaring\nof that unto them which before He had prepared for them. O this\ngood God of Heaven!\n\nObjection: But you will say, perhaps, the Scriptures say plainly\nthat the new covenant was and is made with believers, saying, \"The\ndays come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with\nthe house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to\nthe covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I led\nthem out of the land of Egypt,\" etc. (Heb 8:8-10). So that it doth\nnot run with Christ alone, but with believers also--I will make a\nnew covenant with the house of Israel and Judah, etc. (Jer 31:33).\n\nAnswer first: It cannot be meant that the new covenant was made\nwith Christ, and the house of Israel and Judah as the undertakers\nthereof; for so it was made with Christ alone, which is clear, in\nthat it was made long before the house of Israel and Judah had a\nbeing, as I showed before. But,\n\nAnswer second: These words here are spoken, first, to show rather\nthe end of the ceremonies than the beginning or rise of the new\ncovenant. Mind a little; the Apostle is labouring to beat the Jews,\nto whom he wrote this Epistle, off of the ceremonies of the law,\nof the priests, altar, offerings, temple, etc., and to bring them\nto the right understanding of the thing and things that they held\nforth, which were to come, and to put an end to those. If you do\nbut understand the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is a discourse that\nshoweth that the Son of God being come, there is an end put to the\nceremonies; for they were to continue so long and no longer--\"It,\"\nsaith the Apostle, \"stood in meats and drinks, and divers washings,\nand carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation\";\nthat is, until Christ did come. \"But Christ being come an high\npriest of good things to come,\" etc., puts an end to the things\nand ordinances of the Levitical priesthood. Read the 7th, 8th, 9th,\nand 10th Chapters of Hebrews, and you will find this true. So,\nthen, when He saith, \"The days come in which I make a new covenant,\"\nit is rather to be meant a changing of the administration, taking\naway the type, the shadow, the ceremonies from the house of Israel\nand Judah, and relieving by the birth of Christ, and the death of\nChrist, and the offering of the body of Him whom the shadows and\ntypes did point out to be indeed He whom God the Father had given\nfor a ransom by covenant for the souls of the saints; and also to\nmanifest the truth of that covenant which was made between the Father\nand the Son before the world began; for though the new covenant\nwas made before the world began, and also every one in all ages was\nsaved by the virtue of that covenant, yet that covenant was never\nso clearly made manifest as at the coming, death, and resurrection\nof Christ; and therefore, saith the Scripture, \"He hath brought\nlife and immortality to light through the Gospel.\" \"Who hath saved\nus, and called us with an holy calling\" not according to the\n\"works\" of righteousness which we have done, \"but according to His\nown purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before\nthe world began,\" there is the covenant, but it was \"made MANIFEST\nby the APPEARING of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished\ndeath, and brought life and immortality to LIGHT through the Gospel\"\n(2 Tim 1:9,10). Therefore, I say, these words are therefore to\ndiscover that the time was come to change the dispensation, to take\naway the type, and bring in the substance, and so manifesting that\nmore clearly which before lay hid in dark sayings and figures. And\nthis is usual with God to speak in this manner.\n\nAgain; if at any time you do find in Scripture that the Covenant\nof Works is spoken of as the first covenant that was manifested,\nand so before the second covenant, yet you must understand that\nit was so only as to manifestation--that is, it was first given to\nman, yet not made before that which was made with Christ; and indeed\nit was requisite that it should be given or made known first, that\nthereby there might be a way made for the second, by its discovering\nof sin, and the sad state that man was in after the Fall by reason\nof that. And again, that the other might be made the more welcome\nto the sons of men. Yet the second Adam was before the first, and\nalso the second covenant before the first. [This is a riddle]. And\nin this did Christ in time most gloriously answer Adam, who was\nthe figure of Christ, as well as of other things. Romans 5. For,\nWas the first covenant made with the first Adam? so was the second\ncovenant made with the second; for these are and were the two\ngreat public persons, or representators of the whole world, as to\nthe first and second covenants; and therefore you find God speaking\non this wise in Scripture concerning the new covenant--\"My covenant\nshall stand fast with HIM.\" \"My mercy will I keep for HIM for\nevermore,\" saith God: \"My covenant shall stand fast with HIM\" (Psa\n89:28,34,35); this HIM is Christ, if you compare this with Luke\n1:32, \"My covenant will I not break\"--namely, that which was made\nwith HIM--\"nor alter the thing that is gone out of My mouth. Once I\nhave sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David,\" [David\nhere is to be understood Christ.] to whom this was spoken figuratively\nin the Person of Christ; for that was God's usual way to speak of\nthe glorious things of the Gospel in the time of the Law, as I said\nbefore.\n\nThe conditions of the new covenant.\n\nThe conditions also were concluded on and agreed to be fulfilled\nby Him: as it is clear, if you understand His saying in the 12th\nof John, at the 27th verse, where He foretelleth His death, and\nsaith, \"Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father,\nsave Me from this hour: but for this cause came I\" into the world\n\"unto this hour\"; as if He had said, My business is now not to\nshrink from My sufferings that are coming upon Me; for these are\nthe things that are a great part of the conditions contracted in\nthe covenant which stands between My Father and Me; therefore I\nshall not pray that this might be absolutely removed from Me; For,\n\"for this cause came I\" into the world; even this was the very\nterms of the covenant. By this you may see, \"we are under grace.\"\n\nNow in a covenant there are these three things to be considered--First.\nWhat it is that is covenanted for. Second. The conditions upon\nwhich the persons who are concerned in it do agree. Third. If the\nconditions on both sides be not according to the agreement fulfilled,\nthen the covenant standeth not, but is made void. And this new\ncovenant in these particulars is very exactly fulfilled and made\nout in Christ.\n\nFirst. The thing or things covenanted for was the salvation of\nman, but made good in Christ--\"The Son of Man is come to seek and\nto save that which was lost. The Son of Man did not come to destroy\nmen's lives, but to save them. I gave My life a ransom for many.\nAnd this is the will,\" or covenant, \"of Him that sent Me, that of\nall which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise\nit up again at the last day\" (John 6:39).\n\nSecond. As touching the conditions agreed on, they ran thus--1. On\nthe Mediator's side, that He should come into the world; and then\non the Father's side, that He should give Him a body. This was one\nof the glorious conditions between the Father and Christ; \"Wherefore,\nwhen He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering\nThou wouldest not\"--that is, the old covenant must not stand, but\ngive way to another sacrifice which Thou hast prepared, which is\nthe giving up My Manhood to the strokes of Thy justice--\"for a body\nThou hast prepared Me\" (Heb 10:5). This doth prove us under grace.\n\n2. On the Mediator's side, that He should be put to death; and on\nGod the Father's side, that He should raise Him up again; this was\nconcluded on also to be done between God the Father and His Son\nJesus Christ. On Christ's side, that He should die to give the\njustice of His Father satisfaction, and so to take away the curse\nthat was due to us, wretched sinners, by reason of our transgressions;\nand that God His Father, being every ways fully and completely\nsatisfied, should by His mighty power revive and raise Him up again.\nHe hath \"brought again--our Lord Jesus\"; that is, from death to life,\nthrough the virtue or effectual satisfaction that He received from\nthe blood that was shed according to the terms \"of the Everlasting\nCovenant\" (Heb 13:20).\n\n3. On the Mediator's side, that He should be made a curse; and on\nthe Father's side, that through Him sinners should be inheritors\nof the blessing. What wonderful love doth there appear by this in\nthe heart of our Lord Jesus, in suffering such things for our poor\nbodies and souls? (Gal 3:13,14). This is grace.\n\n4. That on the Mediator's side there should be by Him a victory\nover Hell, death, and the devil, and the curse of the Law; and on\nthe Father's side, that these should be communicated to sinners,\nand they set at liberty thereby--\"Turn you to the stronghold,\"\nsaith God, \"ye prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I\nwill render double unto thee\" (Zech 9:12). Why so? It is because of\nthe blood of My Son's covenant (Verse 11); which made Paul, though\nsensible of a body of death, and of the sting that death did strike\ninto the souls of all those that are found in their sins, bold to\nsay, \"O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?\nThe sting of death is sin.\" That is true, and the terrible Law of\nGod doth aggravate and set it home with insupportable torment and\npain. But shall I be daunted at this? No, \"I thank my God through\nJesus Christ He hath given me this victory.\" So that now, though\nI be a sinner in myself, yet I can, by believing in Jesus Christ,\nthe Mediator of this new covenant, triumph over the devil, sin,\ndeath, and Hell; and say, Do not fear, my soul, seeing the victory\nis obtained over all my enemies through my Lord Jesus Christ (1\nCor 15:55-57). This is the way to prove ourselves under grace.\n\n5. That on the Mediator's side He should by thus doing bring in\neverlasting righteousness for saints (Dan 9:24); and that the Father\nfor this should give them an everlasting kingdom (1 Peter 1:3-5;\nEph 1:4; 2 Tim 4:18; Luke 22:28,29). But,\n\nThird. [How the conditions are fulfilled]. In the next place, this\nwas not all--that is, the Covenant of Grace, with the conditions\nthereof, was not only concluded on by both parties to be done, but\nJesus Christ [Christ is put into office by the Father, to do all\nthings contained in the new covenant]. must be authorized to do\nwhat was concluded on touching this covenant by way of office. I\nshall therefore speak a word or two also touching the offices, at\nleast, some of them, that Christ Jesus did and doth still execute\nas the Mediator of the new covenant, which also were typed out in\nthe Levitical law; for this is the way to prove that we are not\nunder the law, but under grace. And,\n\nChrist is the Surety of the new covenant.\n\nFIRST. His first office, after the covenant was made and concluded\nupon, was that Jesus should become bound as a Surety, [His Suretyship].\nand stand engaged upon oath to see that all the conditions of the\ncovenant that were concluded on between Him and His Father should,\naccording to the agreement, be accomplished by Him; and that after\nthat, He should be the Messenger from God to the world to declare\nthe mind of God touching the tenor and nature of both the covenants,\nespecially of the new one. The Scripture saith, that Jesus Christ\nwas not only made a priest by an oath, but also a Surety, or\nbondsman, as in Hebrews 7:21, 22. In the 21st Verse he speaketh of\nthe priesthood of Christ, that it was with an oath; and saith, in\nthe 22nd Verse, \"By so much\" also \"was Jesus made a Surety of a\nbetter testament,\" or covenant.\n\nNow the covenant was not only made on Jesus Christ's side with an\noath, but also on God the Father's side, that it might be for the\nbetter ground of establishment to all those that are, or are to be,\nthe children of the promise. Methinks it is wonderful to consider\nthat the God and Father of our souls, by Jesus Christ, should be\nso bent upon the salvation of sinners, that He would covenant with\nHis Son Jesus for the security of them, and also that there should\npass an oath on both sides for the confirmation of Their resolution\nto do good. As if the Lord had said, My Son, Thou and I have here\nmade a covenant, that I on My part should do thus and thus, and\nthat Thou on Thy part shouldst do so and so. Now that We may give\nthese souls the best ground of comfort that may be, there shall\npass an oath on both sides, that Our children may see that We do\nindeed love them. \"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show\nunto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,\" in\nmaking of the covenant, \"confirmed it by an oath: that we might\nhave a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon\nthe hope set before us\" (Heb 6:17,18; 7:21). Mark, the 6th Chapter\nsaith, God confirmed His part by an oath; and the 7th saith, Christ\nwas made or set on His office also by an oath. Again, \"Once,\"\nsaith God, \"have I sworn by My holiness, that I will not lie unto\nDavid,\" \"nor alter the thing that is gone out of My mouth,\" (Psa\n89:34,35) as was before cited.\n\nHerein you may see that God and Christ were in good earnest about\nthe salvation of sinners; for as soon as ever the covenant was made,\nthe next thing was, who should be bound to see all those things\nfulfilled which were conditioned on between the Father and the\nSon: the angels, they could have no hands in it; the world could\nnot do it; the devils had rather see them damned than they would\nwish them the least good; thus Christ looked, and there was none\nto help; though the burden lay never so heavy upon His shoulder,\nHe must bear it Himself; for there was none besides Himself to\nuphold, or so much as to step in to be bound, to see the conditions,\nbefore mentioned, fulfilled neither in whole nor in part (Isa\n63:1-7). So that He must not be only He with whom the covenant was\nmade, but He must also become the bondsman or surety thereof, and\nso stand bound to see that all and every particular thing conditioned\nfor should be, both in manner, and matter, at the time and place,\naccording to the agreement, duly and orderly fulfilled. Is not this\ngrace?\n\nNow as touching the nature of a surety and his work, in some things\nit is well known to most men; therefore I shall be very brief upon\nit.\n\nFirst. You know a surety is at the bargain's making; and so was\nChrist--\"Then was I beside Him\" (Prov 8:30).\n\nSecond. A surety must consent to the terms of the agreement, or\ncovenant; and so did Christ Jesus. Now that which He did engage\nshould be done for sinners, according to the terms of the covenant;\nit was this--1. That there should be a complete satisfaction given\nto God for the sins of the world; for that was one great thing\nthat was agreed upon when the covenant was made (Heb 10:5,17). 2.\nThat Jesus Christ should, as aforesaid, bring in an everlasting\nrighteousness to clothe the saints (His body) withal (Dan 9:24,25).\nHere is grace. 3. That He should take in charge to see all those\nforthcoming without spot or wrinkle at the day of His glorious\nappearing from Heaven in judgment, and to quit them before the\nJudgment-seat. Again,\n\nThird. In the work of a surety there is required by the creditor\nthat the surety should stand to what he is bound; and on the surety's\nside there is a consenting thereunto. 1. The creditor looks, that\nin case the debtor proves a bankrupt, that then the surety should\nengage the payment. Is not this grace? [However it is in other\nengagements, it is thus in this]. 2. The creditor looks that the\nsurety should be an able man. Now our Surety was, and is, in this\ncase, every way suitable; for He is heir of all things. 3. The\ncreditor appoints the day, and also looks that the covenant should\nbe kept, and the debt paid, according to the time appointed; and it\nis required of sureties, as well as stewards, that they be found\nfaithful--namely, to pay the debt according to the bargain; and\ntherefore it is said, \"When the fullness of the time was come, God\nsent forth His Son--made under the law, to redeem them that were\nunder the law,\" (Gal 4:4,5). Thus comes grace to saints. 4. The\ncreditor looks that his money should be brought into his house, to\nhis own habitation. Jesus, our Surety, in this also is faithful;\nfor by His own blood, which was the payment, He is entered into the\nholy place, even into Heaven itself, which is God's dwelling-place,\nto render the value and price that was agreed upon for the salvation\nof sinners. But I shall speak more of this in another head, therefore\nI pass it. Again,\n\nFourth. If the surety stands bound, the debtor is at liberty; and\nif the law do issue out any process to take any, it will be the\nsurety. [Though the debtor, together with the surety, is liable to\npay the debt by the law of man, yet Christ our Surety only by the\nCovenant of Grace]. And, O! how wonderfully true was this accomplished\nin that, when Christ our Surety came down from Heaven, God's Law\ndid so seize upon the Lord Jesus, and so cruelly handle Him, and\nso exact upon Him, that it would never let Him alone until it had\naccused Him and condemned Him, executed Him, and screwed His very\nheart's blood out of His precious heart and side; nay, and more\nthan this too, as I shall show hereafter. But,\n\nChrist the Messenger of the new covenant.\n\nSECOND. [His second office]. After that Jesus Christ had stood bound,\nand was become our Surety in things pertaining to this covenant,\nHis next office was to be the Messenger of God touching His mind\nand the tenor of the covenant unto the poor world; and this did the\nProphet foresee long before, when he saith, \"Behold, I will send\nMy messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me\"; speaking\nof John the Baptist. \"And he shall prepare the way before Me.\" And\nthen He speaketh of Christ to the people, saying, \"And the Lord\nwhom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple.\" Who is He? Even\nthe Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, that is Christ.\n\"Behold, He shall come, saith the LORD of Hosts\" (Mal 3:1).\n\nNow the covenant being made before between the Father and the Son,\nand Jesus Christ becoming bound to see all the conditions fulfilled,\nthis being done, He could come down from Heaven to earth, to declare\nto the world what God the Father and HE had concluded on before,\nand what was the mind of the Father towards the world concerning\nthe salvation of their souls; and indeed, who could better come on\nsuch an errand than He that stood by when the covenant was made?\nthan He that shook hands with the Father in making of the covenant?\nthan He that was become a Surety in the behalf of poor sinners,\naccording to the terms of the covenant.\n\nNow, you know, a messenger commonly when he cometh, doth bring\nsome errand to them to whom he is sent, either of what is done\nfor them, or what they would have them whom they send unto do for\nthem, or such like. Now what a glorious message was that which\nour Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven withal to declare unto\npoor sinners, and that from God His Father? I say, how glorious\nwas it; and how sweet is it to you that have seen yourselves lost\nby nature? and it will also appear a glorious one to you who are a\nseeking after Jesus Christ, if you do but consider these following\nthings about what He was sent--\n\nFirst. Jesus Christ was sent from Heaven to declare unto the world\nfrom God the Father that He was wonderfully filled with love to poor\nsinners. First, in that He would forgive their sins. Secondly, in\nthat He would save their souls. Thirdly in that He would make them\nheirs of His glory. \"For God so loved the world, that He gave His\nonly begotten Son.--For God sent not His Son into the world to\ncondemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved\"\n(John 3:16,17).\n\nSecond. God sent Jesus Christ to tell the poor world how that He\nwould do this for poor sinners, and yet be just, and yet do His\njustice no wrong; and that was to be done by Jesus Christ's dying\nof a cursed death in the room of poor sinners, to satisfy justice,\nand make way for mercy; to take away the stumbling-blocks, and set\nopen Heaven's gates; to overcome Satan, and break off from sinners\nhis chains (Luke 4:18) to set open the prison doors, and to let\nthe prisoners go free (Isa 61:1-3). And this was the message that\nChrist was to deliver to the world by commandment from His Father;\nand this did He tell us when He came of His errand, where he saith,\n\"I lay down My life for the sheep--no man taketh it from Me, but\nI lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and to take\nit again. This commandment have I received of My Father\" (John\n10:15-18). Even this commandment hath My Father given Me, that I\nshould both do this thing and also tell it unto you.\n\nThird. He was not only sent as a Messenger to declare this His\nfather's love, but also how dearly He himself loved sinners, what a\nheart He had to do them good, where He saith, \"All that the Father\ngiveth Me shall come to Me\"; and let me tell you, MY heart too,\nsaith Christ--\"Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out\"\n(John 6:37). As My Father is willing to give you unto Me, even so\nam I as willing to receive you. As My Father is willing to give\nyou Heaven, so am I willing to make you fit for it, by washing you\nwith My own blood; I lay down My life that you might have life;\nand this I was sent to tell you of My Father.\n\nFourth. His message was further; He came to tell them how and\nwhich way they should come to enjoy these glorious benefits; also\nby laying down motives to stir them up to accept of the benefits.\nThe way is laid down in John 3:14,15, where Christ saith, \"As Moses\nlifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of\nMan be lifted up,\" or caused to be hanged on the Cross, and die\nthe death--\"that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but\nhave everlasting life.\" The way, therefore, that thou shalt have the\nbenefit and comfort of that which My Father and I have covenanted\nfor, for thee, I am come down from Heaven to earth on purpose to\ngive thee intelligence, and to certify thee of it. Know, therefore,\nthat as I have been born of a woman, and I have taken this Body\nupon Me, it is on purpose that I might offer it up upon the Cross\na sacrifice to God, to give Him satisfaction for thy sins, that\nHis mercy may be extended to thy soul, without any wrong done to\njustice; and this thou art to believe, and not in the notion but\nfrom thy very whole soul. Now the motives are many. 1. If they do\nnot leave their sins, and come to Jesus Christ, that their sins may\nbe washed away by His blood, they are sure to be damned in Hell;\nfor the law hath condemned them already (John 3:18,19). 2. But if\nthey do come, they shall have the bosom of Christ to lie in, the\nKingdom of Heaven to dwell in, the angels and saints for their\ncompanions, shall shine there like the sun, shall be there for\never, shall sit upon the thrones of judgment, etc. Here is grace.\n\nMethinks if I had but the time to speak fully to all things\nthat I could speak to from these two heavenly truths, and to make\napplication thereof, surely, with the blessing of God, I think\nit might persuade some vile and abominable wretch to lay down his\narms that he hath taken up in defiance against God, and is marching\nHellwards, post-haste with the devil; I say, methinks it should stop\nthem, and make them willing to look back and accept of salvation\nfor their poor condemned souls, before God's eternal vengeance is\nexecuted upon them. O, therefore! you that are upon this march, I\nbeseech you consider a little. What! shall Christ become a drudge\nfor you; and will you be drudges for the devil? Shall Christ covenant\nwith God for the salvation of sinners; and shall sinners covenant\nwith Hell, death, and the devil for the damnation of their souls?\nShall Christ come down from Heaven to earth to declare this\nto sinners; and shall sinners stop their ears against these good\ntidings? Will you not hear the errand of Christ, although He telleth\nyou tidings of peace and salvation? How, if He had come, having\ntaken a commandment from His Father to damn you, and to send you\nto the devils in Hell? Sinner, hear His message; He speaketh no\nharm, His words are Eternal Life; all men that give ear unto them,\nthey have eternal advantage by them; advantage, I say, that never\nhath an end. Besides, do but consider these two things, it is like\nthey have some sway upon thy soul--1. When He came on His message,\nHe came with tears in His eyes, and did even weepingly tender the\nterms of reconciliation to them; I say, with tears in his eyes. And\nwhen He came near the city--i.e., with His message of peace--beholding\nthe hardness of their hearts, He wept over it, and took up a\nlamentation over it; because He saw they rejected His mercy, which\nwas tidings of peace; I say, wilt thou then slight a weeping Jesus,\nOne that so loveth thy soul that, rather than He will lose thee, He\nwill with tears persuade with thee? 2. Not only so, but also when\nHe came, He came all on a gore blood to proffer mercy to thee, to\nshow thee still how dearly He did love thee; as if He had said,\nSinner, here is mercy for thee; but behold My bloody sweat, My\nbloody wounds, My cursed death; behold and see what danger I have\ngone through to come unto thy soul; I am come indeed unto thee,\nand do bring thee tidings of salvation, but it cost Me My heart's\nblood before I could come at thee, to give thee the fruits of My\neverlasting love. But more of this anon.\n\nThus have I spoken something concerning Christ's being the Messenger\nof the new covenant; but because I am not willing to cut too short\nof what shall come after, I shall pass by these things not half\ntouched, and come to the other which I promised even now; which was\nto show you, that as there were Levitical ceremonies in or belonging\nto the first covenant, so these types, or Levitical ceremonies,\ndid represent the glorious things of the new covenant. In those\nceremonies you read of a sacrifice, of a priest to offer up the\nsacrifice, the place where, and the manner how, he was to offer\nit; of which I shall speak something.\n\nChrist the sacrifice of the new covenant.\n\nTHIRD. [A third office of Christ, in reference to the new covenant,\nwas His becoming the sacrifice]. As touching the sacrifice; you\nfind that it was not to be offered up of all kind of beasts, as of\nlions, bears, wolves, tigers, dragons, serpents, or such like; to\nsignify, that not all kind of creatures that had sinned, as devils,\nthe fallen angels, should be saved; but the sacrifice was to be\ntaken out of some kind of beasts and birds, to signify, that some\nof God's creatures that had sinned He would be pleased to reconcile\nthem to Himself again; as poor fallen man and woman, those miserable\ncreatures, God, the God of Heaven, had a good look for after their\nfall; but not for the cruel devils, though more noble creatures by\ncreation than we. Here is grace.\n\nNow though these sacrifices were offered, yet they were not offered\nto the end they should make the comers to, or offerers thereof,\nperfect; but the things were to represent to the world what God\nhad in after ages for to do, which was even the salvation of His\ncreatures by that offering of the body of Jesus Christ, of which\nthese were a shadow and a type for the accomplishing of the second\ncovenant. For Christ was by covenant to offer a sacrifice, and that\nan effectual one too, if He intended the salvation of sinners--\"A\nbody hast Thou prepared for Me; I am come to do Thy will\" (Heb\n10:5). I shall therefore show you, First. What was expected by God\nin the sacrifice in the type, and then show you how it was answered\nin the antitype. Second. I shall show you the manner of the offering\nof the type, and so answerable thereto to show you the fitness\nof the sacrifice of the body of Christ, by way of answering some\nquestions.\n\nFirst. For the first of these, [What was expected by God in the\nsacrifice in the type, and how answered in the antitype]--1. God\ndid expect that sacrifice which He Himself had appointed, and not\nanother, to signify, that none would serve His turn but the body\nand soul of His appointed Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant\n(John 1:29). 2. This sacrifice must not be lame nor deformed; it\nmust have no scar, spot, or blemish; to signify, that Jesus Christ\nwas to be a complete sacrifice by covenant (1 Peter 1:19). 3. This\nsacrifice was to be taken out of the flock or herd; to signify, that\nJesus Christ was to come out of the race of mankind, according to\ncovenant (Heb 10:5). But,\n\nSecond. As to the manner of it [The offering of the types, and so\nanswerable thereto, to show the fitness of the sacrifice of the\nbody of Christ]--1. The sacrifice, before it was offered, was to\nhave all the sins of the children of Israel confessed over it; to\nsignify, that Jesus Christ must bear the sins of all His children\nby covenant (Isa 53:4-7; 1 Peter 2:24). \"As for Thee also, by the\nblood of Thy covenant,\" in His own body on the tree (Zech 9:11).\n2. It must be had to the place appointed--namely, without the camp\nof Israel; to signify, that Jesus Christ must be led to the Mount\nCalvary (Luke 23:33). 3. The sacrifice was to be killed there; to\nsignify, that Jesus Christ must and did suffer without the city of\nJerusalem for our salvation. 4. The sacrifice must not only have\nits life taken away, but also some of its flesh burned upon the\naltar; to signify, that Jesus Christ was not only to die a natural\ndeath, but also that He should undergo the pains and torments of\nthe damned in Hell. 5. Sometimes there must be a living offering\nand a dead offering, as the goat that was killed, and the scape-goat,\nthe dead bird and the living bird, to signify, that Jesus Christ\nmust die, and come to life again (Lev 19:4-6). 6. The goat that\nwas to die was to be the sin-offering; that is, to be offered as\nthe rest of the sin-offerings, to make an atonement as a type; and\nthe other goat was to have all the sins of the children of Israel\nconfessed over him, and then let go into the wilderness, never to\nbe catched again (Lev 16:7-22). To signify, that Christ's death\nwas to make satisfaction for sin, and His coming to life again was\nto bring in everlasting justification from the power, curse, and\ndestroying nature of sin (Rom 4:25). 7. The scape-goat was to be\ncarried by a fit man into the wilderness; to signify that Jesus Christ\nshould both be fit and able to carry our sins quite a way from us,\nso as they should never be laid to our charge again. Here is grace.\n8. The sacrifices under the law, commonly part of them must be\neaten; to signify, that they that are saved should spiritually feed\non the body and blood of Jesus Christ, or else they have no life\nby Him (Exo 12:5-11; John 6:51-53). 9. This sacrifice must be eaten\nwith unleavened bread; to signify, that they which love their sins,\nthat devilish leaven of wickedness, they do not feed upon Jesus Christ. 8\n\nNow of what hath been spoken this is the sum, that there is a\nsacrifice under the new covenant, as there were sacrifices under the\nold; and that this sacrifice did every way answer that, or those;\nindeed, they did but suffer for sin in show, but He in reality;\nthey are the shadow, but He as the substance. O! when Jesus Christ\ndid come to make Himself a sacrifice, or to offer Himself for sin,\nyou may understand that our sins were indeed charged to purpose\nupon Him. O! how they scarred his soul, how they brake His body,\ninsomuch that they made the blood run down His blessed face and from\nHis precious side; therefore thou must understand these following\nthings--First, that Jesus Christ by covenant did die for sin.\nSecondly, that His death was not a mere natural death, but a \"cursed\ndeath,\" even such an one as men do undergo from God for their sins,\nthough He Himself had none, even such a death as to endure the very\npains and torments of Hell. O sad pains and inexpressible torments\nthat this our Sacrifice for sin went under! The pains of His body\nwere not all; no, but the pains of His soul; for His soul was made\nan offering as well as His body, yet all but one sacrifice (Isa\n53). [As Christ did not suffer in His body without suffering in\nsoul, nor yet in soul without His suffering in body; it was because\nnot the body without the soul, but both the body and soul of the\nsaints should be for ever saved]. To signify, that the suffering\nof Christ was not only a bodily suffering, but a soul suffering;\nnot only to suffer what man could inflict upon Him, but also to\nsuffer soul torments that none but God can inflict, or suffer to\nbe inflicted upon Him. O, the torments of His soul! they were the\ntorments indeed; His soul was that that felt the wrath of God. \"My\nsoul,\" saith He, \"is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death\" (Matt\n26:38). \"Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say?\" (John\n12:27). The rock was not so rent as was His precious soul; there\nwas not such a terrible darkness on the face of the earth then as\nthere was on His precious soul. O! the torments of Hell and the\neclipsings of the Divine smiles of God were both upon Him at once;\nthe devils assailing of Him, and God forsaking of Him, and all\nat once! \"My God, My God,\" saith He, \"why hast Thou forsaken Me?\"\n(Matt 27:46). Now in my greatest extremity; now sin is laid upon\nMe, the curse takes hold of Me, the pains of Hell are clasped\nabout Me, and Thou hast forsaken Me. O sad! Sinners, this was not\ndone in pretence, but in reality; not in show, but in very deed;\notherwise Christ had dissembled, and had not spoken the truth; but\nthe truth of it His bloody sweat declares, His mighty cries declare,\nthe things which and for what He suffered declare. Nay, I must\nsay thus much, that all the damned souls in Hell, with all their\ndamnations, did never yet feel that torment and pain that did this\nblessed Jesus in a little time. Sinner, canst thou read that Jesus\nChrist was made an offering for sin, and yet go in sin? Canst thou\nhear that the load of thy sins did break the very heart of Christ,\nand spill His precious blood? and canst thou find in thy heart\nto labour to lay more sins upon His back? Canst thou hear that He\nsuffered the pains, the fiery flames of Hell, and canst thou find\nin thy heart to add to His groans by slighting of His sufferings?\nO hard-hearted wretch! how canst thou deal so unkindly with such\na sweet Lord Jesus?\n\nQuest. But why did Christ offer Himself in sacrifice?\n\nAnsw. That thou shouldst not be thrown to the very devils.\n\nQuest. But why did He spill His precious blood?\n\nAnsw. That thou mightest enjoy the joys of Heaven.\n\nQuest. But why did He suffer the pains of Hell?\n\nAnsw. That thou mightest not fry with the devil and damned souls.\n\nQuest. But could not we have been saved if Christ had not died?\n\nAnsw. No; for without the shedding of blood there is no remission;\nand besides, there was no death that could satisfy God's justice\nbut His, which is evident, because there was none in a capacity\nto die, or that was able to answer an infinite God by His\nso suffering but He. 9\n\nQuest. But why did God let Him die?\n\nAnsw. He standing in the room of sinners, and that in their names\nand natures, God's justice must fall upon Him; for justice takes\nvengeance for sin wheresoever it finds it, though it be on His dear\nSon. Nay, God favoured His Son no more, finding our sins upon Him,\nthan He would have favoured any of us; for, should we have died?\nso did He. Should we have been made a curse? so was He. Should we\nhave undergone the pains of Hell? so did He.\n\nQuest. But did He indeed suffer the torments of Hell?\n\nAnsw. Yea, and that in such a horrible way too, that it is unspeakable.\n\nQuest. Could He not have suffered without His so suffering? Would\nnot His dying only of a natural death have served the turn?\n\nAnsw. No, in nowise. [1]. The sins for which He suffered called for\nthe torments of Hell; the conditions upon which He died did call\nfor the torments of Hell; for Christ did not die the death of a\nsaint, but the death of a sinner, of a cursed and damned sinner;\nbecause He stood in their room, the law to which He was subjected\ncalled for the torments of Hell; the nature of God's justice could\nnot bate Him anything; the death which He was to suffer had not\nlost its sting; all these being put together do irresistibly declare\nunto us that He, as a sacrifice, did suffer the torments of Hell\n(Gal 3:13). But, 2. Had He not died and suffered the cursed death,\nthe covenant had been made void, and His Suretyship would have\nbeen forfeited, and, besides this, the world damned in the flames\nof Hell-fire; therefore, His being a sacrifice was one part of the\ncovenant; for the terms of the covenant were that He should spill\nHis blood. O blessed Jesus! O blessed grace! (Zech 9:10,11).\n\nQuest. But why, then, is His death so slighted by some?\n\nAnsw. Because they are enemies to Him, either through ignorance\nor presumption; either for want of knowledge or out of malice; for\nsurely did they love or believe Him, they could not choose but break\nand bleed at heart to consider and to think of Him (Zech 12:10,11.)\n\nChrist the High Priest of the New Covenant.\n\nFOURTH, [A fourth office of Christ under the new covenant is\nHis priestly]. Thus, passing this, I shall now speak something to\nChrist's priestly office. But, by the way, if any should think that\nI do spin my thread too long in distinguishing His priestly office\nfrom His being a sacrifice, the supposing that for Christ to be a\npriest and a sacrifice is all one and the same thing; and it may\nbe it is, because they have not thought on this so well as they\nshould--namely, that as He was a sacrifice He was passive, that is,\nled or had away as a lamb to His sufferings (Isaiah 53); but as a\npriest He was active--that is, He did willingly and freely give up\nHis Body to be a sacrifice. \"He hath given His life a ransom for\nmany.\" This consideration being with some weight and clearness on\nmy spirit, I was and am caused to lay them down in two particular\nheads.\n\nAnd therefore I would speak something to is this, that as there\nwere priests under the first covenant, so there is a Priest under\nthis, belonging to this new covenant, a High Priest, the Chief\nPriest; as it is clear where it is said, We \"having a high priest\nover the house of God\" (Heb 3:1; 5:5,10; 7:24-26; 8:1, 4; 10:21).\n\nNow the things that I shall treat upon are these--First, I shall\nshow you the qualifications required of a priest under the Law;\nSecond, his office; and, Third, how Jesus Christ did according to\nwhat was signified by those under the law; I say, how He did answer\nthe types, and where He went beyond them.\n\nFirst, For his qualifications:--\n\n1. They must be called thereto of God--\"No man taketh this honour\nunto himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron\" (Heb 5:4).\nNow Aaron's being called of God to be a priest signifies that Jesus\nChrist is a Priest of God's appointment, such an one that God hath\nchosen, likes of, and hath set on work--\"Called of God an High\nPriest,\" etc. (Heb 5:10).\n\n2. The priests under the law they must be men, complete, not\ndeformed--\"Speak unto Aaron,\" saith God to Moses, \"saying, Whosoever\nhe be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let\nhim not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man\nhe be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach; a blind man, or\na lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, or\na man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backt, or\na dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed,\nor hath his stones broken; no man that hath a blemish of the seed\nof Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the\nLord made by fire; he that hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh\nto offer the bread of his God\" (Lev 21:17-21). What doth all this\nsignify but that, (1.) He must not be lame, to signify he must not\ngo haltingly about the work of our salvation. (2.) He must not be\nblind, to signify that he must not go ignorantly to work, but he\nmust be quick of understanding in the things of God. (3.) He must\nnot be scabbed, to signify that the priest must not be corrupt of\nfilthy in his office. (4.) In a word, he must be every way complete,\nto signify to us that Jesus Christ was to be, and is, most complete\nand most perfect in things pertaining to God in reference to His\nsecond covenant.\n\n3. The priests under the law were not to be hard-hearted, but\npitiful and compassionate, willing and ready, with abundance of\nbowels, to offer for the people, and to make an atonement for them\n(Heb 5:1,2). To signify, that Jesus Christ should be a tender-hearted\nHigh Priest, able and willing to sympathize and be affected with\nthe infirmities of others, to pray for them, to offer up for them\nHis precious blood; He must be such an One who can have compassion\non a company of poor ignorant souls, and on them that are out of\nthe way, to recover them, and to set them in safety (Heb 4:15).\nAnd that He might thus do, He must be a man that had experience of\nthe disadvantages that infirmity and sin did bring unto those poor\ncreatures (Heb 2:17).\n\n4. The high priests under the law were not to be shy or squeamish\nin case there were any that had the plague or leprosy, scab or\nblotches; but must look on them, go to them, and offer for them (Lev\n13), all which is to signify, that Jesus Christ should not refuse\nto take notice of the several infirmities of the poorest people,\nbut to teach them, and to see that none of them be lost by reason\nof their infirmity, for want of looking to or tending of. 10\n\nThis privilege also have we under this second covenant. This is\nthe way to make grace shine.\n\n5. The high priests under the law they were to be anointed with\nvery excellent oil, compounded by art (Exo 29:7; 30:30). To signify,\nthat Jesus, the Great High Priest of this new covenant, would be\nin a most eminent way anointed to His priestly office by the Holy\nSpirit of the Lord.\n\n6. The priest's food and livelihood in the time of his ministry\nwas to be the consecrated and holy things (Exo 29:33). To signify,\nthat it is the very meat and drink of Jesus Christ to do His priestly\noffice, and to save and preserve His poor, tempted, and afflicted\nsaints. O what a new-covenant High Priest have we!\n\n7. The priests under the law were to be washed with water (Exo\n29:4). To signify, that Jesus Christ should not go about the work\nof His priestly office with the filth of sin upon Him, but was\nwithout sin to appear as our High Priest in the presence of His\nFather, to execute His priestly office there for our advantage--\"For\nsuch a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,\nseparate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens\" (Heb 7:26).\n\n8. The high priest under the law, before they went into the holy place,\nthere were to be clothed--with a curious garment, a breastplate, and\nan ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle,\nand they were to be made of gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet,\nand fine linen; and in his garment and glorious ornaments there\nmust be precious stones, and on those stones there must be written\nthe names of the children of Israel (read Exodus 28), and all this\nwas to signify what a glorious High Priest Jesus Christ should be,\nand how in the righteousness of God He should appear before God as\nour High Priest, to offer up the sacrifice that was to be offered\nfor our salvation to God His Father. But I pass that.\n\nSecond, Now I shall speak to His office. The office of the high\npriest in general was twofold. 1. To offer the sacrifice without\nthe camp. 2. To bring it within the veil--that is, into the holiest\nof all, which did type out Heaven.\n\n1. [First part of the high priest's office]. (1.) It was the office\nof the priest to offer the sacrifice; and so did Jesus Christ; He\ndid offer His own Body and Soul in sacrifice. I say, HE did OFFER\nit, and not another, as it is written, \"No man taketh away My life,\nbut I lay it down of Myself; I have power to lay it down, and I\nhave power to take it again\" (John 10:17,18). And again it is said,\n\"When He,\" Jesus, \"had offered up one sacrifice for sin, for ever\nsat down on the right hand of God\" (Heb 10:12). (2.) The priests\nunder the law must offer up the sacrifice that God had appointed,\nand none else, a complete one without any blemish; and so did our\nHigh Priest, where He saith, \"Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest\nnot, but a body has Thou prepared Me,\" and that I will offer (Heb\n10:5). (3.) The priest was to take of the ashes of the sacrifice,\nand lay them in a clean place; and this signifies, that the Body\nof Jesus, after it had been offered, should be laid into Joseph's\nsepulchre, as in a clean place, where never any man before was laid\n(Lev 6:11, compared with John 19:41,42).\n\n2. [Second part of the high priest's office]. This being one part\nof his office, and when this was done, then in the next place he\nwas, (1.) To put on the glorious garment, when he was to go into\nthe holiest, and take of the blood, and carry it thither, etc., he\nwas to put on the holy garment which signifieth the righteousness\nof Jesus Christ. (2.) He was in this holy garment, which hath in\nit the stones, and in the stones the names of the twelve tribes\nof the children of Israel, to appear in the holy place. \"And thou\nshalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the\nchildren of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other\nsix names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth\"\n(Exo 28:9,10). And this was to signify, that Jesus Christ was to\nenter into the holiest, then He was there to bear the names of His\nelect in the tables of His heart before the Throne of God and the\nMercy-seat (Heb 12:23). (3.) With this he was to take of the blood\nof the sacrifices, and carry it into the holiest of all, which was\na type of Heaven, and there was he to sprinkle the mercy-seat; and\nthis was to be done by the high priest only; to signify, that none\nbut Jesus Christ must have this office and privilege, to be the\npeople's High Priest to offer for them. \"But into the second went\nthe high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he\noffered for himself, and for the errors of the people\" (Heb 9:7).\n(4.) He was there to make an atonement for the people with the blood,\nsprinkling of it upon the mercy-seat; but this must be done with\nmuch incense. \"And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin-offering\nwhich is for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock\nof the sin-offering which is for himself: and he shall take a censor\nfull of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord,\nand his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it\nwithin the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before\nthe Lord, that he cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat\nthat is upon the testimony, that he die not: and he shall take of\nthe blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the\nmercy-seat eastward, and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle\nof the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the\ngoat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, and bring his\nblood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the\nblood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat and before\nthe mercy-seat.\" (Lev 16:11-15). Now this was for the priest and\nthe people; all which doth signify that Jesus Christ was after\nHis death to go into Heaven itself, of which this holy place was a\nfigure, and there to carry the sacrifice that He offered upon the\nCross into the presence of God, to obtain mercy for the people\nin a way of justice (Heb 9). And in that he is said to take his\nhands full of sweet incense, it signifies that Jesus Christ was to\noffer up His sacrifice in the presence of His Father in a way of\nintercession and prayers.\n\nI might have branched these things out into several particulars,\nbut I would be brief. I say, therefore, the office of the priest\nwas to carry the blood into the holy place, and there to present\nit before the mercy-seat, with his heart full of intercessions for\nthe people for whom he was a priest (Luke 1:8-11). This is Jesus\nChrist's work now in the Kingdom of Glory, to plead His own blood,\nthe nature and virtue of it, with a perpetual intercession to the\nGod of Mercy on behalf of us poor miserable sinners (Heb 7:25).\n\n[Comfortable considerations from Christ's intercession]. Now, in the\nintercession of this Jesus, which is part of His priestly office,\nthere are these things to be considered for our comfort--\n\n1. There is a pleading of the virtue of His Blood for them that are\nalready come in, that they may be kept from the evils of heresies,\ndelusions, temptations, pleasures, profits, or anything of this\nworld which may be too hard for them. \"Father, I pray not that Thou\nshouldest take them out of the world,\" saith Christ, \"but that Thou\nshouldest keep them from the evil\" (John 17:15).\n\n2. In case the devil should aspire up into the presence of God,\nto accuse any of the poor saints, and to plead their backslidings\nagainst them, as he will do if he can, then there is Jesus, our Lord\nJesus, ready in the Court of Heaven, at the right hand of God, to\nplead the virtue of His Blood, not only for the great and general\nsatisfaction that He did give when He was on the Cross, but also\nthe virtue that is in it now for the cleansing and fresh purging\nof His poor saints under their several temptations and infirmities;\nas saith the Apostle, \"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled\nto God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall\nbe saved by His life\"--that is, by His intercession (Rom 5:10).\n\n3. The maintaining of grace, also, is by Jesus Christ's intercession,\nbeing the second part of His priestly office. O, had we not a Jesus\nat the right hand of God making intercession for us, and to convey\nfresh supplies of grace unto us through the virtue of His Blood\nbeing pleaded at God's right hand, how soon would it be with us\nas it is with those for whom He prays not at all (John 17:9)? But\nthe reason why thou standest while others fall, the reason why thou\ngoest through the many temptations of the world, and shakest them\noff from thee, while others are ensnared and entangled therein, it\nis because thou hast an interceding Jesus. \"I have prayed,\" saith\nHe, \"that thy faith fail not\" (Luke 22:32).\n\n4. It is partly by the virtue of Christ's intercession that the\nelect are brought in. There are many that are to come to Christ\nwhich are not yet brought in to Christ: and it is one part of His\nwork to pray for their salvation too--\"Neither pray I for these\nalone, but for them also which shall believe,\" though as yet they\ndo not believe \"on Me,\" but that they may believe \"through their\nword\" (John 17:20). And let me tell thee, soul, for thy comfort, who\nart a-coming to Christ, panting and sighing, as if thy heart would\nbreak, I tell thee, soul, thou wouldst never have come to Christ,\nif He had not first, by the virtue of His blood and intercession,\nsent into thy heart an earnest desire after Christ; and let me tell\nthee also, that it is His business to make intercession for thee,\nnot only that thou mightest come in, but that thou mightest be\npreserved when thou art come in (Compare Heb 7:25; Rom 8:33-39).\n\n5. It is by the intercession of Christ that the infirmities of the\nsaints in their holy duties are forgiven. Alas, if it were not for\nthe priestly office of Christ Jesus, the prayers, alms, and other\nduties of the saints might be rejected, because of the sin that is\nin them; but Jesus being our High Priest, He is ready to take away\nthe iniquities of our holy things, perfuming our prayers with the\nglory of His own perfections; and therefore it is that there is an\nanswer given to the saints' prayers, and also acceptance of their\nholy duties (Rev 8:3,4). \"But Christ being come an high priest of\ngood things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not\nmade with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by\nthe blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in\nonce into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.\nFor if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer\nsprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:\nhow much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal\nSpirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience\nfrom dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is\nthe mediator of the New Testament,\" or covenant, \"that by means\nof death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under\nthe first testament, they which are called,\" notwithstanding all\ntheir sins, \"might receive the promise of eternal inheritance\" (Heb\n9:11-15).\n\nThird. The third thing now to be spoken to is, to show where and\nhow Jesus Christ outwent and goes beyond these priests, in all\ntheir qualifications and offices, for the comfort of poor saints.\n\n1. They that were called to the priesthood under the law were but\nmen; but He is both God and man (Heb 7:3,28).\n\n2. Their qualifications were in them in a very scanty way; but\nJesus was every way qualified in an infinite and full way.\n\n3. They were consecrated but for a time, but He for evermore (Heb\n7:23,24).\n\n4. They were made without an oath, but He with an oath (Verses\n20,21).\n\n5. They as servants; but He as a Son (Hebrews 3:6).\n\n6. Their garments were but such as could be made with hands, but\nHis the very righteousness of God (Exo 28; Rom 3:22; Phil 3:8,9).\n\n7. Their offerings were but the body and blood of beasts, and such\nlike, but His offering was His own body and soul (Heb 9:12,13;\n10:4,5; Isa 53:10).\n\n8. Those were at best but a shadow or type, but He the very substance\nand end of all those ceremonies (Heb 9:1,10,11).\n\n9. Their holy place was but made by men, but His, or that which\nJesus is entered, is into Heaven itself (Heb 9:2,3,24).\n\n10. When they went to offer their sacrifice, they were forced to\noffer for themselves, as men compassed about with infirmity, but He\nholy, harmless, who did never commit the least transgression (Heb\n7:26; 10:11).\n\n11. They when they went to offer they were fain to do it standing,\nto signify that God had no satisfaction therein; but He, when \"He\nhad offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right\nhand of God,\" to signify that God was very well pleased with His\noffering (Heb 10:12).\n\n12. They were fain to offer \"oftentimes the same sacrifices, which\ncan never take away sins\"; but He, \"by one offering hath perfected\nfor ever them that are sanctified\" (Heb 10:11,14).\n\n13. Their sacrifices at the best could but serve for the cleansing\nof the flesh, but His for cleansing both body and soul--the blood\nof Jesus Christ doth purge the conscience from dead works, to live\na holy life (Heb 9:13,14).\n\n14. Those high priests could not offer but once a year in the holiest\nof all, but our High Priest He ever liveth to make intercession\nfor us (Heb 9:7; 12:24,25).\n\n15. Those high priests, notwithstanding they were priests, they\nwere not always to wear their holy garments; but Jesus never puts\nthem off of Him, but is in them always.\n\n16. Those high priests, death would be too hard for them, but our\nHigh Priest hath vanquished and overcome that cruel enemy of ours,\nand brought life and immortality to light through the glorious\nGospel (Heb 7:21,23; 2:15; 2 Tim 1:10).\n\n17. Those high priests were not able to save themselves; but this\nis able to save Himself, and all that come to God, by Him (Heb\n7:25).\n\n18. Those high priests' blood could not do away sin; but the blood\nof Jesus Christ, who is our High Priest, \"cleanseth us from all\nsin\" (1 John 1:7).\n\n19. Those high priests sometimes by sin caused God to reject their\nsacrifices; but this High Priest doth always the things that please\nHim.\n\n20. Those high priests could never convey the Spirit by virtue of\ntheir sacrifices or office; but this High Priest, our Lord Jesus,\nHe can and doth give all the gifts and graces that are given to\nthe sons of men.\n\n21. Those high priests could never by their sacrifices bring the\nsoul of any sinner to glory by virtue of itself; but Jesus hath by\none offering, as I said before, perfected for ever those that He\ndid die for. Thus in brief I have showed in some particulars how\nand wherein Jesus our High Priest doth go beyond those high priests;\nand many more without question might be mentioned, but I forbear.\n\nChrist the forerunner of the saints.\n\nFIFTH. A fifth office of Christ in reference to the second covenant\nwas, that He should be the forerunner to Heaven before His saints\nthat were to follow after. First, He strikes hands in the covenant,\n[and then] He stands bound as a Surety to see everything in the\ncovenant accomplished that was to be done on His part; [next] He\nbrings the message from Heaven to the world; and before He goeth\nback, He offereth Himself for the same sins that He agreed to suffer\nfor; and so soon as this was done, He goeth post-haste to Heaven\nagain, not only to exercise the second part of His priestly office,\nbut as our forerunner, to take possession for us, even into Heaven\nitself, as you may see, where it is said, \"Whither the Forerunner\nis for us entered\" (Heb 6:20).\n\nFirst. He is run before to open Heaven's gates--Be ye open, ye\neverlasting doors, that the King of Glory may enter in.\n\nSecond. He is run before us to take possession of glory in our\nnatures for us.\n\nThird. He is run before to prepare us our places against we come\nafter--\"I go to prepare a place for you\" (John 14:1-3).\n\nFourth. He is run thither to make the way easy, in that He hath\nfirst trodden the path Himself.\n\nFifth. He is run thither to receive gifts for us. All spiritual\nand heavenly gifts had been kept from us had not Christ, so soon\nas the time appointed was come, run back to the Kingdom of Glory to\nreceive them for us. But I cannot stand to enlarge upon these glorious\nthings, the Lord enlarge them upon your hearts by meditation. [These\nthings have I spoken to show you that saints are under grace.]\n\nChrist completely fulfilled the conditions of the new covenant.\n\nHere now I might begin to speak of His prophetical and kingly office,\nand the privileges that do and shall come thereby, but that I fear\nI shall be too tedious, therefore at this time I shall pass them\nby. Thus you may see how the Covenant of Grace doth run, and with\nWhom it was made, and also what were the conditions thereof.\n\nNow, then, this grace, this everlasting grace of God, comes to be\nfree to us through the satisfaction, according to the conditions,\ngiven by Another for us; for though it be free, and freely given\nto us, yet the obtaining of it did cost our Head, our public Man,\na very dear price. \"For ye are bought with a price,\" even with the\nprecious blood of Christ. So it is by Another, I say, not by us;\nyet it is as surely made over to us, even to so many of us as do\nor shall believe, as if we had done it, and obtained the grace of\nGod ourselves (1 Cor 6:20; 1 Peter 1:9). Nay, surer; for consider,\nI say, this grace is free to us, and comes upon a clear score,\nby virtue of the labour and purchase of Another for us; mark,\nthat which is obtained by Another for us is not obtained for us\nby ourselves--No, but Christ hath, not by the blood of goats and\ncalves, \"obtained eternal redemption for us,\" which were things\noffered by men under the law, \"but by His own blood,\" meaning\nChrist's, \"He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained\neternal redemption for us\" (Heb 9:12).\n\nIt comes to be unchangeable through the perfection of that satisfaction\nthat was given to God through the Son of Mary for us; for whatever\nthe Divine, infinite, and eternal justice of God did call for\nat the hands of man, if ever he intended to be a partaker of the\ngrace of God, this Jesus, this one Man, this public Person, did,\ndid completely give a satisfaction to it, even so effectually; which\ncaused God not only to say, I am pleased, but \"I am well pleased\";\ncompletely and sufficiently satisfied with Thee on their behalf;\nfor so you must understand it (Matt 3:17). Mark therefore these\nfollowing words--\"And, having made peace,\" or completely made up\nthe difference, \"through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile\nall things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in\nearth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated\nand enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled,\"\nhow? \"in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy,\"\nmark, \"holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight\" (Col\n1:20-22). And thus it is grace, unchangeable grace to us; because\nit was obtained, yea, completely obtained, for us, by Jesus Christ,\nGod-man.\n\nObject. But some may say, How was it possible that one man Jesus,\nby one offering, should so completely obtain and bring in unchangeable\ngrace for such an innumerable company of sinners as are to be saved?\n\nAnsw. First. In that He was every way fitted for such a work. And,\nSecond. In that, as I said before, He did every way completely\nsatisfy that which was offended by our disobedience to the former\ncovenant.\n\n[First. He was every way fitted for such a work]. And, for the\nclearing of this,\n\n1. Consider, was it man that had offended? He was Man that gave\nthe satisfaction--\"For since by man came death, by man came also\nthe resurrection of the dead\" (1 Cor 15:21).\n\n2. Was it God that was offended? He was God that did give a\nsatisfaction--\"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.--and\nHis name shall be called The mighty God\" (Isa 9:6). \"He thought\nit not robbery to be equal with God: but,\" for our sakes, He \"made\nHimself of no reputation,\" etc. (Phil 2:6-7).\n\n3. For the further clearing of this, to show you that in everything\nHe was rightly qualified for this great work, see what God Himself\nsaith of Him; He calls Him, in the first place, Man; and, secondly,\nHe owns Him to be His Fellow, saying, \"Awake, O sword, against My\nShepherd, and against the Man\"--mark, \"the Man that is My Fellow,\nsaith the LORD of hosts\" (Zech 13:7).\n\nSo that now, let Divine and infinite justice turn itself which way\nit will, it finds one that can tell how to match it; for if it say,\nI will require the satisfaction of man, here is a Man to satisfy\nits cry; and if it say, But I am an infinite God, and must and will\nhave an infinite satisfaction; here is One also that is infinite,\neven fellow with God, fellow in His essence and being; fellow in\nHis power and strength; fellow in His wisdom; fellow in His mercy\nand grace; together with the rest of the attributes of God; so\nthat, I say, let justice turn itself which way it will, here is a\ncomplete Person to give a complete satisfaction (Prov 8:23; 1 Cor\n1:24; Titus 2:10; compared with Verse 11). Thus much of the fitness\nof the Person.\n\nSecond. For the completeness of the satisfaction given by Him for\nus. And that is discovered in these particulars--\n\n1. Doth justice call for the blood of that nature that sinned? here\nis the heart-blood of Jesus Christ--\"We have redemption through\nHis blood,\" (Eph 1:7,14; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Zech 9:10,11).\n\n2. Doth justice say that this blood, if it be not the blood of One\nthat is really and naturally God, it will not give satisfaction\nto infinite justice? then here is God, purchasing His Church \"with\nHis own blood\" (Acts 20:28).\n\n3. Doth justice say, that it must not only have satisfaction for\nsinners, but they that are saved must be also washed and sanctified\nwith this blood? then here is He that so loved us, that He \"washed\nus from our sins in His own blood\" (Rev 1:5).\n\n4. Is there to be a righteousness to clothe them with that is to\nbe presented before Divine justice? there here is the righteousness\nof Christ, which is \"even the righteousness of God by faith\" (Rom\n3:22; Phil 3:8-10).\n\n5. Are there any sins now that will fly upon this Saviour like so\nmany lions, or raging devils, if He take in hand to redeem man?\nHe will be content to bear them all Himself alone, even in His own\nbody upon the tree (1 Peter 2:24).\n\n6. Is there any law now that will curse and condemn this Saviour\nfor standing in our persons to give satisfaction to God for the\ntransgression of man? He will be willing to be cursed, yea, to\nbe made a curse for sinners, rather than they shall be cursed and\ndamned themselves (Gal 3:13).\n\n7. Must the great and glorious God, whose eyes are so pure that\nHe cannot behold iniquity; I say, must He not only have the blood,\nbut the very life of Him that will take in hand to be the Deliverer\nand Saviour of us poor miserable sinners? He is willing to lay down\nHis life for His sheep (John 10:11).\n\n8. Must He not only die a natural death, but must His soul descend\ninto hell, though it should not be left there, He will suffer that\nalso Psalms 16:10; and Acts 2:31. 11\n\n9. Must He not only be buried, but rise again from the dead, and\novercome death, that He might be the first-fruits to God of them\nthat sleep, which shall be saved? He will be buried, and also\nthrough the strength of His Godhead, He will raise Himself out of\nthe grave, though death hold Him never so fast, and the Jews lay\nnever such a great stone upon the mouth of the selpulchre, and seal\nit never so fast (1 Cor 15:4; Luke 24:34).\n\n10. Must He carry that body into the presence of His Father, to\ntake possession of Heaven, and must He appear there as a priest,\nas a forerunner, as an advocate, as prophet, as a treasure-house,\nas an interceder and pleader of the causes of His people? He will\nbe all these, and much more, to the end the grace of God by faith\nin Jesus Christ might be made sure to all the seed. \"Who then\ncan condemn? It is God that justifieth; because Christ hath died,\nyea rather, that is risen again.\" Who, now seeing all this is so\neffectually done, shall lay anything, the least thing? who can find\nthe least flaw, the least wrinkle, the least defect or imperfection,\nin this glorious satisfaction (Rom 8:33-34; Heb 6:20; 9:24; John\n14:2,3; 1 John 2:1)?\n\nObject. But is it possible that He should so soon give infinite\njustice a satisfaction, a complete satisfaction? for the eternal\nGod doth require an eternal lying under the curse, to the end He\nmay be eternally satisfied.\n\nAnsw. Indeed, that which is infinite must have an eternity to satisfy\nGod in--that is, they that fall into the prison and pit of utter\ndarkness must be there to all eternity, to the end the justice of\nGod may have its full blow at them. But now He that I am speaking\nof is God, and so is infinite (Isa 9:6; Titus 1:16,17; Heb 1:8,9;\nPhil 2:4-6). Now, He which is true God is able to give in as\nlittle a time an infinite satisfaction as Adam was in giving the\ndissatisfaction. Adam himself might have given satisfaction for\nhimself as soon as Christ had he been very God, as Jesus Christ was.\nFor the reason why the posterity of Adam, even so many of them as\nfall short of life, must lie broiling in Hell to all eternity is\nthis--they are not able to give the justice of God satisfaction, they\nbeing not infinite, as aforesaid. \"But Christ,\" that is, God-man,\n\"being come an High Priest,\" that is, to offer and give satisfaction,\n\"of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,\nnot made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither\nby the blood of goats and calves, but by His own,\"--mark you that,\n\"but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place,\nhaving obtained eternal redemption for us.\" But how? \"For if the\nblood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling\nthe unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much\nmore shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit,\"\nwho through the power and virtue of His infinite Godhead, \"offered\nHimself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works\nto serve the living God? And for this cause,\" that is, for that\nHe is God as well as man, and so able to give justice an infinite\nsatisfaction, therefore, \"He is the mediator of the new testament,\nthat by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions\nthat were under the first testament, they which are called might\nreceive the promise of eternal inheritance\" (Heb 9:11-15). As I\nsaid before.\n\nObject. This is much; but is God connected with this? Is He satisfied\nnow in the behalf of sinners by this Man's thus suffering? If He\nis, then how doth it appear?\n\nAnsw. It is evident, yea, wonderful evident, that this hath pleased\nHim to the full, as appeareth by these following demonstrations.--\n\nFirst. In that God did admit Him into His presence; yea, receive\nHim with joy and music, even with the sound of the trumpet, at His\nascension into Heaven (Psa 47:5). And Christ makes it an argument\nto His children that His righteousness was sufficient, in that He\nwent to His Father, and they saw Him no more, \"of righteousness,\"\nsaith He, \"because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more\" (John\n16:10). As if He had said, My Spirit shall show to the world that\nI have brought in a sufficient righteousness to justify sinners\nwithal, in that when I go to appear in the presence of My Father\non their behalf, He shall give Me entertainment, and not throw Me\ndown from Heaven, because I did not do it sufficiently.\n\nAgain; if you consider the high esteem that God the Father doth set\non the death of His Son, you will find that He hath received good\ncontent thereby. When the Lord Jesus, by way of complaint, told\nHis Father that He and His merits were not valued to the worth,\nHis Father answered, It is a light thing that I should give Thee,\nO My Servant, to bring Jacob again; \"I will also give Thee for a\nlight to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the\nend of the earth\" (Isa 49:6). As if the Lord had said, \"My Son, I\ndo value Thy death at a higher rate than that Thou shouldst save\nthe tribes of Israel only; behold the Gentiles, the barbarous\nheathens, they also shall be brought in as the price of Thy blood.\nIt is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant only to bring,\nor redeem, the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of\nIsrael: I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that\nThou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth.\" 12\n\nAgain; you may see it also by the carriage of God the Father to\nall the great sinners to whom mercy was proffered. We do not find\nthat God maketh any objection against them to come to Him for the\npardon of their sins; because He did want a satisfaction suitable\nto the greatness of their sins. There was Manasseh, who was one that\nburned his children in the fire to the devil, that used witchcraft,\nthat used to worship the host of heaven, that turned his back on\nthe Word that God sent unto him; nay, that did worse than the very\nheathen that God cast out before the children of Israel (2 Chron\n33:1-13). Also those that are spoken of in the Nineteenth of Acts,\nthat did spend so much time in conjuration, and the like, for such\nI judge they were, that when they came to burn their books, they\ncounted the price thereof to be fifty thousand pieces of silver\n(Acts 19:19). Simon Magus also, that was a sorcerer, and bewitched\nthe whole city, yet he had mercy proffered to him once and again\n(Acts 8). I say, it was not the greatness of the sins of these\nsinners; no, nor of an innumerable company of others, that made\nGod at all to object against the salvation of their souls, which\njustice would have constrained Him to had He not had satisfaction\nsufficient by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Nay, further, I do find\nthat because God the Father would not have the merits of His Son\nto be undervalued, I say, He doth therefore freely by His consent\nlet mercy be proffered to the greatest sinners--in the first place,\nfor the Jews, that were the worst of men in that day for blasphemy\nagainst the Gospel; yet the Apostle proffered mercy to them in the\nfirst place--\"It was necessary,\" saith he, \"that the Word of God\nshould first have been spoken to you\" (Acts 3:26; 13:46). And Christ\ngave them commission so to do; for, saith He, Let repentance and\nremission of sins be preached in My name among all nations, and\nbegin--mark that, \"beginning at Jerusalem\" (Luke 24:47), Let them\nthat but the other day had their hands up to the elbows in My\nheart's blood have the first proffer of My mercy. And, saith Paul,\n\"For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ\nmight show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which\nshould hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting\" (1 Tim 1:16).\nAs the Apostle saith, those sinners that were dead, possessed with\nthe devil, and the children of wrath, He hath quickened, delivered,\nand saved. That He might, even in the very \"ages to come He might\nshow the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us,\"\nand that \"through Christ Jesus\" (Eph 2:7).\n\nSecond. It is evident that that which this Man did as a common\nperson He did it completely and satisfactorily, as appears by the\nopenness, as I may so call it, which was in the heart of God to\nHim at His resurrection and ascension--\"Ask of Me,\" saith He, \"and\nI shall give Thee the\" very \"heathen for Thine inheritance, and\nthe uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession\" (Psa 2:8).\nAnd this was at His resurrection (Acts 13:33). Whereas, though He\nhad asked, yet if He had not given a full and complete satisfaction,\njustice would not have given Him any thing; for justice, the justice\nof God, is so pure, that if it be not completely satisfied in every\nparticular, it giveth nothing but curses (Gal 3:10).\n\nThird. It is yet far more evident that He hath indeed pleased\nGod in the behalf of sinners, in that God hath given Him gifts to\ndistribute to sinners, yea, the worst of sinners, as a fruit of His\nsatisfaction, and that at His ascension (Psa 68:18). Christ hath\nso satisfied God, that He hath given Him all the treasures both of\nHeaven and earth to dispose of as He seeth good; He hath so pleased\nGod, that He hath given Him a name above every name, a sceptre above\nevery sceptre, a crown above every crown, a kingdom above every\nkingdom; He hath given Him the highest place in Heaven, even His\nown right hand; He hath given Him all the power of Heaven and earth,\nand under the earth, in His own hand, to bind whom He pleaseth, and\nto set free whom He thinks meet; He hath, in a word, such a high\nesteem in the eyes of His Father, that He hath put into His hands\nall things that are for the profit of His people, both in this\nworld and that which is to come; and all this as the fruit of\nHis faithfulness in doing of His work, as the Mediator of the new\ncovenant (Phil 2:9; Rev 19:6). Thou hast ascended on high, Thou\nhast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts--mark, Thou\nhast received them--for men, even for the worst of men, for the\nrebellious also; and hath sent forth some, being furnished with these\ngifts; some, I say, for the work of the ministry, to the edifying\nof them that are already called, and also for the calling in of\nall those for whom He covenanted with His Father, till all come in\nthe unity of faith, etc. (Eph 4:8-13).\n\nFourth. It doth still appear yet far more evident; for will you hear\nwhat the Father Himself saith for the showing of His well-pleasedness\nin these two particulars--First, in that He bids poor souls to\nhear and to do as Christ would have them (Matt 3:17; Luke 9:35).\nSecondly, in that He resolves to make them that turn their backs\nupon Him, that dishonour Him, which is done in a very great measure\nby those that lay aside His merits done by Himself for justification; I\nsay, He that resolved to make this His footstool, where He saith,\n\"Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool\"\n(Psa 110:1). Are they enemies to Thee? saith God. I will be even\nwith them. Do they slight Thy merits? Do they slight Thy groans,\nThy tears, Thy blood, Thy death, Thy resurrection and intercession,\nThy second coming again in heavenly glory? I will tear them and\nrend them; I will make them as mire in the streets; I will make\nThy enemies Thy footstool (Matt 22:44; Heb 1:13; 10:13). Ay, saith\nHe, and \"Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel\"\n(Psa 2:9). Look to it you that slight the merits of the blood of\nChrist.\n\nFifth. Again further; yet God will make all the world to know that He\nhath been and is well pleased in His Son, in that God hath given,\nand will make it appear He hath given, the world to come into\nHis hand; and that He shall raise the dead, bring them before\nHis judgment-seat, execute judgment upon them, which He pleaseth\nto execute judgment on to their damnation; and to receive them to\neternal life whom He doth favour, even so many as shall be found\nto believe in His name and merits (Heb 2). \"For as the Father\nhath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in\nHimself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also,\nbecause He is the Son of man. For the hour is coming, in the which\nall that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come\nforth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;\nand they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation\"\n(John 5:26-29). Ay, and the worst enemy that Christ hath now shall\ncome at that day with a pale face, with a quaking heart, and bended\nknees, trembling before Him, confessing the glory of His merits,\nand the virtue there was in them to save, \"to the glory of God the\nFather\" (Rom 14:11; Phil 2:11).\n\nMuch more might be added to discover the glorious perfection\nof this Man's satisfaction; but for you that desire to be further\nsatisfied concerning this, search the Scriptures, and beg of God\nto give you faith and understanding therein; and as for you that\nslight these things, and continue so doing, God hath another way to\ntake with you, even to dash you in pieces like a potter's vessel;\nfor this hath Christ received of His Father to do unto you (Rev\n2:27).\n\nThus I have showed you in particular, that the Covenant of Grace\nof God is free and unchangeable to men--that is, in that it hath\nbeen obtained for men, and that perfectly, to the satisfying of\njustice, and taking all things out of the way that were any ways\na hindrance to our salvation (Col 2:14).\n\nThe Covenant of Grace unchangeable; the opposers answered.\n\nThe second thing for the discovering of this freeness and constancy\nof the Covenant of Grace of God is manifested thus--\n\nFirst. Whatsoever any man hath of the grace of God, he hath it\nas a free gift of God through Christ Jesus the Mediator of this\ncovenant, even when they are in a state of enmity to Him, whether\nit be Christ as the foundation-stone, or faith to lay hold of Him,\nmark that (Rom 5:8,9; Col 1:21,22). \"For by grace are ye saved\nthrough faith; and that not of yourselves,\" not for anything in\nyou, or done by you for the purchasing of it, but \"it is the gift\nof God,\" (Eph 2:8) and that bestowed on you, even when ye \"were dead\nin trespasses and sins\" (Eph 2:1,9). Nay, if thou hast so much as\none desire that is right, it is the gift of God; for of ourselves,\nsaith the Apostle, we are not able to speak a good word, or think\na good thought (2 Cor 3:5).\n\nWas it not grace, absolute grace, that God made promise to Adam\nafter transgression? (Gen 3:15). Was it not free grace in God to save\nsuch a wretch as Manasseh was, who used enchantments, witchcraft,\nburnt his children in the fire, and wrought much evil? (2 Chron\n33). Was it not free grace to save such as those were that are\nspoken of in the 16th of Ezekiel, which no eye pitied? Was it not\nfree grace for Christ to give Peter a loving look after he had\ncursed, and swore, and denied Him? Was it not free grace that met\nPaul when he was agoing to Damascus to persecute, which converted\nhim, and made him a vessel of mercy?\n\nAnd what shall I say of such that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians\n6:9, 10, speaking there of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,\neffeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous,\ndrunkards, revilers, extortioners, the basest of sinners in the\nworld, and yet were washed, and yet were justified; was it not\nfreely by grace? O saints, you that are in heaven cry out, \"We came\nhither by grace; and you that are on the earth, I am sure you cry,\nIf ever we do go thither, it must be freely by grace!\"\n\nSecond. In the next place, it appears to be unchangeable in this--1.\nBecause justice being once satisfied doth not use to call for the\ndebt again. No; let never such a sinner come to Jesus Christ, and\nso to God by Him, and justice, instead of speaking against the\nsalvation of that sinner, it will say, I am just as well as faithful\nto forgive him his sins (1 John 1:9). When justice itself is pleased\nwith a man, and speaks on his side, instead of speaking against\nhim, we may well cry out, Who shall condemn? 2. Because there is\nno law to come in against the sinner that believes in Jesus Christ;\nfor he is not under that, and that by right comes in against none\nbut those that are under it. But believers are not under that--that\nis, not their Lord, therefore that hath nothing to do with them;\nand besides, Christ's blood hath not only taken away the curse\nthereof, but also He hath in His own Person completely fulfilled\nit as a public Person in our stead. (Rom 7:1-4). 3. The devil that\naccused them is destroyed (Heb 2:14,15). 4. Death, and the grave,\nand Hell are overcome (1 Cor 15:55; Hosea 13:14). 5. Sin, that\ngreat enemy of man's salvation, that is washed away (Rev 1:5). 6.\nThe righteousness of God is put upon them that believe, and given\nto them, and they are found in it (Phil 3:8-10; Rom 3:22). 7. Christ\nis always in Heaven to plead for them, and to prepare a place for\nthem (Heb 7:24; John 14:1-4). 8. He hath not only promised that\nHe will not leave us, nor forsake us, but He hath also sworn to\nfulfill His promises. O rich grace! O free grace! Lord, who desired\nThee to promise? who compelled Thee to swear? We use to take honest\nmen upon their bare word, but God, \"willing more abundantly to show\nunto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,\" hath\n\"confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things,\" His promise\nand His oath, \"in which it was impossible for God to lie,\" or break\neither of them, \"we might have a strong consolation, who have fled\nfor refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us\" (Heb 6:17-18).\nI will warrant you, God will never break His oath; therefore we\nmay well have good ground to hope from such a good foundation as\nthis, that God will never leave us indeed. Amen.\n\nThird. Not only thus, but, 1. God hath begotten believers again to\nHimself, to be His adopted and accepted children, in and through\nthe Lord Jesus (1 Peter 1:3). 2. God hath prepared a kingdom for\nthem before the foundation of the world, through Jesus Christ (Matt\n25:34). 3. He hath given them an earnest of their happiness while\nthey live here in this world. \"After that ye believed, ye were\nsealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of\nour inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,\nunto the praise of His glory,\" and that through this Jesus (Eph\n1:13,14). [These things are more fully laid down in that part of\nthe book which containeth the discourse of the privileges of the new\ncovenant]. 4. If His children sin through weakness, or by sudden\ntemptation, they confessing of it, He willingly forgives, and heals\nall their wounds, reneweth His love towards them, waits to do them\ngood, casteth their sins into the depths of the sea, and all this\nfreely, without any work done by men as men--Not for your own sakes\ndo I do this, O house of Israel, be it known unto you, saith the\nLord, but wholly and alone by the blood of Jesus (Eze 36:23,23).\n5. In a word, if you would see it altogether, God's love was the\ncause why Jesus Christ was sent to bleed for sinners. Jesus Christ's\nbleeding stops the cries of Divine justice; God looks upon them\nas complete in Him, gives them to Him as His by right of purchase.\nJesus ever lives to pray for them that are thus given unto Him.\nGod sends His Holy Spirit into them to reveal this to them, sends\nHis angels to minister for them; and all this by virtue of an\nEverlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son. Thrice happy\nare the people that are in such a case!\n\nNay, further, He hath made them brethren with Jesus Christ, members\nof His flesh and of His bones, the spouse of this Lord Jesus; and\nall to show you how dearly, how really, how constantly He loveth\nus, who, by faith of His operation, have laid hold upon Him. [These\nthings I might have treated upon more largely].\n\n[Further Arguments and Objections answered].\n\nI shall now lay down a few arguments for the superabundant clearing\nof it, and afterwards answer two or three objections that may be\nmade against it, and so I shall fall upon the next thing.\n\nFirst. God loves the saints as He loves Jesus Christ; and God loves\nJesus Christ with an eternal love; therefore the saints also with\nthe same. \"Thou hast loved them as Thou has loved Me\" (John 17:23).\n\nSecond. That love which is God Himself, must needs be everlasting\nlove; and that is the love wherewith God hath loved His saints in\nChrist Jesus; therefore His love towards His children in Christ\nmust needs be an everlasting love. There is none dare say that the\nlove of God is mixed with a created mixture; if not, then it must\nneeds be Himself (1 John 4:16). [You must not understand that love\nin God is a passion as it is in us; but the love of God is the very\nessence or nature of God].\n\nThird. That love which is always pitched upon us, in an object as\nholy as God, must needs be an everlasting love. Now the love of\nGod was and is pitched upon us, through an object as holy as God\nHimself, even our Lord Jesus; therefore it must needs be unchangeable.\n\nFourth. If He with whom the Covenant of Grace was made, did in every\nthing and condition do even what the Lord could desire or require\nof Him, that His love might be extended to us, and that for ever,\nthen His love must needs be an everlasting love, seeing everything\nrequired of us was completely accomplished for us by Him; and all\nthis hath our Lord Jesus done, and that most gloriously, even on\nour behalf; therefore it must needs be a love that lasts for ever\nand ever.\n\nFifth. If God hath declared Himself to be the God that changeth\nnot, and hath sworn to be immutable in His promise, then surely He\nwill be unchangeable; and He hath done so; therefore it is impossible\nfor God to lie, and so for His eternal love to be changeable (Heb\n6:13-18). Here is an argument of the Spirit's own making! Who can\ncontradict it? If any object, and say, But still it is upon the\ncondition of believing--I answer, The condition also is His own\nfree gift, and not a qualification arising from the stock of nature\n(Eph 2:8; Phil 1:28,29). So that here is the love unchangeable;\nhere is also the condition given by Him whose love is unchangeable,\nwhich may serve yet further for a strong argument that God will\nhave His love unchangeable. Sinner, this is better felt and enjoyed\nthan talked of.\n\nObjection First. But if this love of God be unchangeable in itself,\nyet it is not unchangeably set upon the saints unless they behave\nthemselves the better. [The first objection].\n\nAnsw. As God's love at the first was bestowed upon the saints\nwithout anything foreseen by the Lord in them, as done by them,\nDeuteronomy 9:4-6, so He goeth on with the same, Saying, \"I will\nnever leave thee nor forsake thee\" (Heb 13:5).\n\nObjection Second. But how cometh it to pass then, that many fall\noff again from the grace of the Gospel, after a profession of it\nfor some time; some to delusions, and some to their own sins again?\n[The second objection].\n\nAnsw. They are all fallen away, not from the everlasting love of\nGod to them, but from the profession of the love of God to them.\nMen may profess that God loves them when there is no such matter,\nand that they are the children of God, when the devil is their\nfather; as it is in John 8:40-44. Therefore they that do finally\nfall away from a profession of the grace of the Gospel, it is,\nfirst, because they are bastards and not sons. Secondly, because\nas they are not sons, so God suffereth them to fall, to make it\nappear that they are not sons, not of the household of God--\"They\nwent out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of\nus, they would no doubt,\" mark that, \"no doubt,\" saith he, \"they\nwould have continued with us: but they went out,\" from us, \"that\nthey might be made manifest that they were not all of us\" (1 John\n2:19). And though Hymeneus and Philetus do throw themselves headlong\nto Hell, \"nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having\nthis seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His\" (2 Tim 2:17-19).\n\nObjection Third. But the Scripture saith that there are some that\nhad faith, yet lost it, and have made shipwreck of it. [The third\nobjection]. Now God loves no longer than they believe, as is evident;\nfor \"he that believeth not shall be damned.\" So then, if some may\nhave faith, and yet lose it, and so lose the love of God because\nthey have lost their faith, it is evident that God's love is not\nso immutable as you say it is to every one that believeth.\n\nAnsw. There are more sorts of faith than one that are spoken of in\nScripture--\n\n1. There is a faith that man may have, and yet be nothing, none\nof the saints of God, and yet may do great things therewith (1 Cor\n13:1-4).\n\n2. There is a faith that was wrought merely by the operation\nof the miracles that were done in those days by Christ and his\nfollowers--\"And many of the people believed in Him.\" How came they\nby their faith? Why, by the operation of the miracles that He did\namong them; for said they, \"When Christ cometh, will He do more\nmiracles than these which this man hath done?\" (John 7:31).\n\nThe great thing that wrought their faith in them, was only by seeing\nthe miracles that He did, John 2:23, which is not that saving faith\nwhich is called the faith of God's elect, as is evident; for there\nmust not be only miracles wrought upon outward objects to beget\nthat--that being too weak a thing--but it must be by the same power\nthat was stretched out in raising Christ from the dead; yea, the\nexceeding greatness of that power (Eph 1:18,19). So there is a\nbelieving, being taken with some marvelous work, visibly appearing\nto the outward sense of seeing; and there is a believing that\nis wrought in the heart by an invisible operation of the Spirit,\nrevealing the certainty of the satisfaction of the merits of\nChrist to the soul in a more glorious way, both for certainty and\nfor durableness, both as to the promise and the constancy of it\n(Matt 16:17, 18).\n\n3. There is a faith of a man's own, of a man's self also; but the\nfaith of the operation of God, in Scripture, is set in opposition\nto that, for, saith He, you are saved by grace, \"through faith,\nand that not of yourselves,\" of your own making, but that which is\nthe free gift of God (Eph 2:8).\n\n4. We say there is an historical faith--that is, such as is begotten\nby the co-operation of the Spirit with the Word.\n\n5. We say there is a traditional faith--that is, to believe things\nby tradition, because others say they believe them; this is received\nby tradition, not by revelation, and shall never be able to stand,\nneither at the day of death, nor at the day of judgment; though\npossibly men, while they live here, may esteem themselves and states\nto be very good, because their heads are filled full of it.\n\n6. There is a faith that is called in Scripture a dead faith, the\nfaith of devils, or of the devil; they also that have only this, they\nare like the devil, and as sure to be damned as he, notwithstanding\ntheir faith, if they get no better into their hearts; for it is\nfar off from enabling of them to lay hold of Jesus Christ, and so\nto put Him on for eternal life and sanctification, which they must\ndo if ever they be saved (James 2:19,26).\n\nBut all these are short of the saving faith of God's elect, as\nis manifest; I say, first, Because these may be wrought, and not\nby that power so exceedingly stretched forth. Secondly, Because\nthese are wrought, partly, (1.) By the sense of seeing--namely,\nthe miracles--not by hearing; and, (2.) The rest is wrought by a\ntraditional or historical influence of the words in their heads,\nnot by a heavenly, invisible, almighty, and saving operation of\nthe Spirit of God in their hearts.\n\n7. I do suppose also that there is a faith that is wrought upon\nmen through the influence of those gifts and abilities that God\ngives sometimes to those that are not His own by election, though\nby creation; my meaning is, some men, finding that God hath given\nthem very great gifts and abilities,--as to the gifts of preaching,\npraying, working miracles, or the like--I say, therefore do conclude\nthat God is their Father, and they are His children; the ground of\nwhich confidence is still begotten, not by the glorious operation\nof the Spirit, but by a considering of the great gifts that God hath\nbestowed upon them as to the things before-mentioned. As thus, (1.)\nthe poor soul considers how ignorant it was, and now how knowing\nit is. (2.) Considering how vain it formerly was, and also now how\ncivil it is, presently makes this conclusion--Surely God loves me,\nsurely He hath made me one of His, and will save me. This is now\na wrong faith, as is evident, in that it is placed upon a wrong\nobject; for mark, this faith is not placed assuredly on God's grace\nalone, through the blood and merits of Christ being discovered\neffectually to the soul, but upon God through those things that\nGod hath given it, as of gifts, either to preach, or pray, or do\ngreat works, or the like, which will assuredly come to nought as\nsure as God is in Heaven, if no better faith and ground of faith\nbe found out for thy soul savingly to rest upon.\n\nAs to the second clause of the objection, which runs to this effect,\nGod loves men upon the account of their believing, I answer, that\nGod loves men before they believe; He loves them, He calls them,\nand gives them faith to believe--\"But God, who is rich in mercy,\nfor His great love wherewith He loved us,\" when? when we believed,\nor before? \"even when we were dead in sins,\" and so, far off from\nbelievers, \"hath quickened us together with\" Christ, \"by grace ye\nare saved\" (Eph 2:4,5).\n\nNow, also, I suppose that thou wilt say in thy heart, I would you\nwould show us then what is saving faith; which thing it may be I\nmay touch upon a while hence, in the next thing that I am to speak\nunto. O they that have that are safe indeed!\n\nSECOND. WHO AND HOW MEN ARE ACTUALLY BROUGHT INTO THE NEW COVENANT.\n\nThe SECOND thing that I am to speak unto is this--WHO they are\nthat are actually brought into this free and unchangeable grace;\nand also HOW they are brought in.\n\nAnsw. Indeed, now we come to the pinch of the whole discourse; and\nif God do but help me to run rightly through this, as I do verily\nbelieve He will, I may do thee, reader, good, and bring glory to\nmy God.\n\nThe question containeth these two branches--FIRST. Who are brought\nin; SECOND. How they are brought in.\n\n[FIRST. Who are brought in?] The first is quickly answered--\"Christ\nJesus came into the world to save sinners,\" Jewish sinners, Gentile\nsinners, old sinners, young sinners, great sinners, the chiefest\nof sinners. Publicans and harlots--that is, whores, cheaters, and\nexactors--shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Tim 1:15; Rom\n5:7-11; 1 Cor 6:9,11; Matt 21:31). \"For I come not,\" saith Christ,\n\"to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance\" (Mark 2:17).\n\nA sinner in the Scripture is described in general to be a transgressor\nof the law--\"Whosoever commiteth sin, transgresseth the law; for\nsin is the transgression of the law\" (1 John 3:4). But particularly;\nthey are described in a more particular way, as, 1. Such as in whom\ndwelleth the devil (Eph 2:2,3). 2. Such as will do the service of\nhim (John 8:44). 3. Such as are enemies to God (Col 1:21) 4. Such\nas are drunkards, whoremasters, liars, perjured persons, covetous,\nrevilers, extortionists, fornicators, swearers, possessed with devils,\nthieves, idolaters, witches, sorcerers, conjurors, murderers, and\nthe like (1 Cor 6:9,10; 2 Chron 33:1-13; Acts 2:36,37; 9:1-6; 19:9;\n1 Tim 1:14-16). These are sinners, and such sinners that God hath\nprepared Heaven, happiness, pardon of sin, and an inheritance\nof God, with Christ, with saints, with angels, if they do come in\nand accept of grace, as I might prove at large; for God's grace is\nso great, that if they do come to Him by Christ, presently all is\nforgiven them; therefore never object that thy sins are too great\nto be pardoned; but come, taste and see how good the Lord is to\nany whosoever come unto Him.\n\n[SECOND.] The second thing is, How are these brought into this\nEverlasting Covenant of Grace?\n\nAnsw. When God doth in deed and in truth bring in a sinner into\nthis most blessed covenant, [Come to the Touchstone, sinner]. for\nso it is, He usually goeth this way--\n\nFirst. He slays or kills the party to all things besides Himself,\nand His Son Jesus Christ, and the comforts of the Spirit. For the\nclearing of this I shall show you, 1. With what God kills; 2. How\nGod kills; 3. To what God kills those whom He makes alive in Jesus\nChrist.\n\n1. [What God kills]. When God brings sinners into the Covenant of\nGrace, He doth first kill them with the Covenant of Works, which\nis the moral law, or Ten Commandments. This is Paul's doctrine, and\nalso Paul's experience. It is his doctrine where he saith, \"The\nministration of death, written and engraven in stones--the ministration\nof condemnation,\" which is the law, in that place called the letter,\n\"killeth\" (2 Cor 3:6-9). The letter, saith he, killeth; or the law,\nor the ministration of death, which in another place is called \"the\nvoice of words\" (Heb 12:19), because they have no life in them,\nbut rather death and damnation, through our inability to fulfill\nthem, doth kill (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 6). It is his experience where he\nsaith, \"I was alive\" that is, to my own things, \"without the law\nonce,\" that is, before God did strike him dead by it, \"but when\nthe commandment came,\" that is, to do and exercise its right office\non me, which was to kill me, then \"sin revived, and I died,\" and I\nwas killed. \"And the commandment,\" or the law, \"which was ordained\nto\" be unto \"life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion\nby the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me\" (Rom 7:9-11).\n\n2. But how doth God kill with this law, or covenant?\n\n1. By opening to the soul the spirituality of it--\"The law is\nspiritual,\" saith he, \"but I am carnal, sold under sin\" (Rom 7:14).\nNow the spirituality of the law is discovered this way--\n\n(1.) By showing to the soul that every sinful thought is a sin\nagainst it. Ay, sinner, when the law doth come home indeed upon\nthy soul in the spirituality of it, it will discover such things\nto thee to be sins that now thou lookest over and regardest not;\nthat is a remarkable saying of Paul when he saith, \"Sin revived,\nand I died.\" Sin revived, saith he; as if he had said, Those things\nthat before I did not value nor regard, but looked upon them to be\ntrifles, to be dead, and forgotten; but when the law was fastened\non my soul, it did so raise them from the dead, call them into\nmind, so muster them before my face, and put such strength into\nthem, that I was overmastered by them, by the guilt of them. Sin\nrevived by the commandment, or my sins had mighty strength, life,\nand abundance of force upon me because of that, insomuch that they\nkilled me (Matt 5:28).\n\n(2.) It showeth that every such sin deserveth eternal damnation.\nFriends, I doubt there be but few of you that have seen the\nspirituality of the law of works. But this is one thing in which\nit discovereth its spirituality, and this is the proper work of\nthe Law.\n\n(3.) God, with a discovery of this, doth also discover His own\nDivine and infinite justice, of which the law is a description,\nwhich backs what is discovered by the law, and that by discovering\nof its purity and holiness to be so Divine, so pure, so upright,\nand so far of from winking at the least sin, that He doth by that\nlaw, without any favour, condemn the sinner for that sin (Gal\n3:10). Now, when He hath brought the soul into this praemunire,13\ninto this puzzle, then,\n\n2. He showeth to the soul the nature and condition of the law as\nto its dealings with, or forbearing of, the sinner that hath sinned\nagainst it; which is to pass an eternal curse upon both soul and\nbody of the party so offending, saying to him, Cursed be the man\nthat continueth not in everything that is written in the Book of\nthe Law to do it; for, saith the law, this is my proper work; first,\nto show thee thy sins; and when I have done that, then, in the next\nplace, to condemn thee for them, and that without all remedy, as\nfrom ME, or anything within my bounds, for I am not to save any,\nto pardon any--nay, not to favour any in the least thing that have\nsinned against me; for God did not send me to make alive, but to\ndiscover sin, and to condemn for the same. Now, so soon as this is\npresented to thy conscience, in the next place, the Lord also by\nthis law doth show that now there is no righteous act according to\nthe tenor of that covenant that can replieve him, or take him off\nfrom all this horror and curse that lies upon him; because that is\nnot an administration of pardon, as I said before, to forgive the\nsin, but an administration of damnation, because of transgression.\nO, the very discovery of this striketh the soul into a deadly\nswoon, even above half dead! But when God doth do the work indeed,\nHe doth, in the next place, show the soul that he is the man that\nis eternally under this covenant by nature, and that it is he that\nhath sinned against this law, and doth by right deserve the curse\nand displeasure of the same, and that all that ever he can do will\nnot give satisfaction to that glorious justice that did give this\nlaw; holy actions, tears of blood, selling all, and giving it to\nthe poor, or whatever else can be done by thee, it comes all short\nand is all to no purpose (Phil 3). I will warrant him, he that\nseeth this, it will kill him to that which he was alive unto before,\nthough he had a thousand lives. Ah, sinners, sinners, were you but\nsensible indeed of the severity and truth of this, it would make\nyou look about you to purpose! O, how would it make you strive to\nstop at that that now you drink down with delight! How many oaths\nwould it make you bite asunder! Nay, it would make you bite your\ntongues to think that they should be used as instruments of the\ndevil to bring your souls into such an unspeakable misery; then\nalso we should not have you hang the salvation of your souls upon\nsuch slender pins as now you do; no, no; but you would be in another\nmind then. O, then we should have you cry out, I must have Christ;\nwhat shall I do for Christ? how shall I come at Christ? Would I\nwas sure, truly sure of Christ. My soul is gone, damned, cast away,\nand must for ever burn with the devils, if I do not get precious\nJesus Christ!\n\n3. In the next place, when God hath done this, then He further\nshows the soul that that covenant which it is under by nature is\ndistinct from the Covenant of Grace; and also they that are under\nit are by nature without any of the graces which they have that are\nunder the Covenant of Grace; as, (1.) That it hath no faith (John\n16:9). (2.) No hope (Eph 2:12). Nor none of the Spirit to work\nthese things in it by nature. (4.) Neither will that covenant give\nto them any peace with God. (5.) No promise of safeguard from His\nrevenging law by that covenant. (6.) But lieth by nature liable\nto all the curses, and condemnings, and thunderclaps of this most\nfiery covenant. (7.) That it will accept of no sorrow, no repentance,\nno satisfaction, as from thee. (8.) That it calls for no less than\nthe shedding of thy blood. (9.) The damnation of thy soul and body.\n(10.) And if there be anything proffered to it by thee, as to the\nmaking of it amends, it throws it back again as dirt in thy face,\nslighting all that thou canst bring.\n\nNow, when the soul is brought into this condition, then it is indeed\ndead, killed to that to which it was once alive. And therefore,\n\n3. In the next place, to show you to what it is killed: and that\nis,\n\n1. To sin. O, it dares not sin! it sees Hell-fire is prepared for\nthem that sin, God's justice will not spare it if it live in sin;\nthe Law will damn it if it live in sin; the devil will have it if\nit follows its sins. [Here I am speaking of one that is effectually\nbrought in]. O, I say, it trembles at the very thoughts of sin! Ay,\nif sin do but offer to tempt the soul, to draw away the soul from\nGod, it cries, it sighs, it shunneth the very appearance of sin, it\nis odious unto it. If God would but serve you thus that love your\npleasures, you would not make such a trifle of sin as you do.\n\n2. It is killed to the Law of God as it is the Covenant of Works.\nO, saith the soul, the law hath killed me to itself, \"I through the\nlaw am dead to the law\" (Gal 2:19). The law is another thing than\nI did think it was. I thought it would not have been so soul-destroying,\nso damning a law! I thought it would not have been so severe against\nme for my little sins, for my playing, for my jesting, for my\ndissembling, quarreling, and the like. I had some thoughts, indeed,\nthat it would hew great sinners, but let me pass! and though it\ncondemned great sinners, yet it would pass me by! But now, would\nI were free from this covenant, would I were free from this law! I\nwill tell thee that a soul thus worked upon is more afraid of the\nCovenant of Works than he is of the devil; for he sees it is the\nlaw that doth give him up into his hands for sin; and if he was but\nclear from that, he should not greatly need to fear the devil. O,\nnow every particular command tears the caul of his heart; now every\ncommand is a great gun well charged against his soul; now he sees\nhe had as good run into a fire to keep himself from burning, as\nto run to the law to keep himself from damning; and this he sees\nreally, ay, and feels it too, to his own sorrow and perplexity. 14\n\n3. The soul also now is killed to his own righteousness, and counts\nthat but dung, but dross, not worth the dirt hanging on his shoes.\nO! then, says he, thou filthy righteousness! how hast thou deceived\nme! How hast thou beguiled my poor soul! (Isa 64:6). How did I\ndeceive myself with giving of a little alms; with abstaining from\nsome gross pollutions; with walking in some ordinances, as to\nthe outside of them! How hath my good words, good thinkings, good\nmeanings, as the world calls them, deceived my ignorant soul! I\nwant the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of God; for I\nsee now there is no less will do me any good.\n\n4. It is also killed to its own faith, its notion of the Gospel,\nits own hope, its own repentings, its own promises and resolutions,\nto its own strength, its own virtue, or whatsoever it had before.\nNow, saith the soul, that faith I thought I had, it is but fancy;\nthat hope I thought I had, I see it is by hypocritical, but vain\nand groundless hope. [These things would be too tedious to enlarge\nupon]. Now the soul sees it hath by nature no saving faith, no\nsaving hope, no grace at all by nature, by the first covenant. Now\nit crieth out, How many promises have I broken! and how many times\nhave I resolved in vain, when I was sick at such a time, and in\nsuch a strait at such a place! Indeed, I thought myself a wise man\nonce, but I see myself a very fool now. O, how ignorant am I of\nthe Gospel now, and of the blessed experience of the work of God on\na Christian heart! In a word, it sees itself beset by nature with\nall evil, and destitute of all good, which is enough to kill the\nstoutest, hardest-hearted sinner that ever lived on the earth. O,\nfriends, should you be plainly dealt withal by this discovery of\nthe dealing of God with a sinner when He makes him a saint, and\nwould seriously try your selves thereby, as God will try you one\nday, how few would there be found of you to be so much as acquainted\nwith the work of God in the notion, much less in the experimental\nknowledge of the same! And indeed, God is fain to take this way\nwith sinners, thus to kill them with the old covenant to all things\nbelow a crucified Christ.\n\nSix reasons of this discourse.\n\n1. Because otherwise there would be none in the world that would\nlook after this sweet Jesus Christ. There are but a few that go to\nHeaven in all, comparatively; and those few God is fain to deal with\nthem in this manner, or else His Heaven, His Christ, His glory, and\neverlasting happiness must abide by themselves, for all sinners.\nDo you think that Manasseh would have regarded the Lord, had He not\nsuffered his enemies to have prevailed against him? (2 Chron 33:1-16).\nDo you think that Ephraim would have looked after salvation, had not\nGod first confounded him with the guilt of the sins of his youth?\n(Jer 31:18). What do you think of Paul? (Acts 9:4-6). What do you\nthink of the jailer? (Acts 16:30-32). What do you think of the\nthree thousand? (Acts 2:36,37). Was not this the way that the Lord\nwas fain to take to make them close in with Jesus Christ? Was He not\nfain to kill them to everything below a Christ, that were driven\nto their wits' ends, insomuch that they were forced to cry out,\n\"What shall we do to be saved?\" I say, God might have kept Heaven\nand happiness to Himself, if He should not go this way to work with\nsinners. O stout-hearted rebels! O tender-hearted God!\n\n2. Because then, and not till then, will sinners accept of Jesus\nChrist on God's terms. So long as sinners can make a life out\nof anything below Christ, so long they will not close with Christ\nwithout indenting; 15\n\nBut when the God of Heaven hath killed them to everything below\nHimself and His Son, then Christ will down on any terms in the\nworld. And, indeed, this is the very reason why sinners, when they\nhear of Christ, yet will not close in with Him; there is something\nthat they can take content in besides Him. The prodigal, so long\nas he could content himself with the husks that the swine did eat,\nso long he did keep him away from his father's house; but when\nhe could get no nourishment anywhere on this side of his father's\nhouse, then saith he, and not till then, \"I will arise, and go to\nmy father,\" etc.\n\nI say, this is the reason, therefore, why men come no faster,\nand close no more readily, with the Son of God, but stand halting\nand indenting 16 about the terms they must have Christ upon; for,\nsaith the drunkard, I look on Christ to be worth the having; but\nyet I am not willing to lose ALL for him; all but my pot, saith the\ndrunkard; and all but the world, saith the covetous. I will part\nwith anything but lust and pride, saith the wanton. But if Christ\nwill not be had without I forsake all, cast away all, then it must\nbe with me as it was with the young man in the Gospel, such news\nwill make me sorry at the very heart.\n\nBut now, when a man is soundly killed to all his sins, to all his\nrighteousness, to all his comforts whatsoever, and sees that there\nis no way but the devil must leave him, but he must be damned in\nHell if he be not clothed with Jesus Christ; O, then, saith he,\ngive me Christ on any terms, whatsoever He cost; though He cost\nme friends, though He cost me comforts, though He cost me all that\never I have; yet, like the wise merchant in the Gospel, they will\nsell all to get that pearl. I tell you, when a soul is brought to\nsee its want of Christ aright, it will not be kept back; father,\nmother, husband, wife, lands, livings, nay, life and all, shall go\nrather than the soul will miss of Christ. Ay, and the soul counteth\nChrist a cheap Saviour if he can get him upon any terms; now the\nsoul indents17 no longer. Now, Lord, give me Christ upon any terms,\nwhatsoever He cost; for I am a dead man, a damned man, a castaway,\nif I have not Christ. What say you, O you wounded sinners? Is not\nthis true as I have said? Would you not give ten thousand worlds,\nif you had so many, so be you might be well assured that your sins\nshall be pardoned, and your souls and bodies justified and glorified\nat the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?\n\n3. The Lord goeth this way for this reason also, that it might make\nthe soul sensible what it cost Christ to redeem it from death and\nHell. When a man cometh to feel the sting and guilt of sin, death\nand Hell upon his conscience, then, and not till then, can he\ntell what it cost Christ to redeem sinners. O! saith the soul, if\na few sins are so terrible, and lay the soul under such wrath and\ntorment, what did Christ undergo, who bare the sins of thousands\nand thousands, and all at once?\n\nThis also is one means to make souls tender of sin (it is the burned\nchild that feareth the fire), to make them humble in a sense of\ntheir own vileness, to make them count everything that God giveth\nthem a mercy, to make much of the least glimpse of the love of God,\nand to prize it above the whole world. O sinners, were you killed\nindeed [to sin], then Heaven would be Heaven, and Hell would be\nHell indeed; but because you are not wrought upon in this manner,\ntherefore you count the ways of God as bad as a good man counteth\nthe ways of the devil, and the ways of the devil and Hell as good\nas a saint doth count the ways of God.\n\n4. Again, God is fain to go this way, and all to make sinners make\nsure of Heaven. So long as souls are senseless of sin, and what a\ndamnable state they are in by nature, so long they will even dally\nwith the Kingdom of Heaven and the salvation of their own poor\nsouls; but when God cometh and showeth them where they are, and\nwhat it is like to become of them if they miss of the crucified\nSaviour, O, then, saith the soul, would I were sure of Jesus; what\nshall I do to get assurance of Jesus? And thus is God forced, as\nI may say, to whip souls to Jesus Christ, they being so secure, so\nsenseless, and so much their own enemies, as not to look out after\ntheir own eternal advantage.\n\n5. A fifth reason why God doth deal thus with sinners it is, because\nHe would bring Christ and the soul together in a right way. Christ\nand sinners would never come together in a beloved posture, they\nwould not so suitably suit each other, if they were not brought\ntogether this way, the sinner being killed. O, when the sinner is\nkilled, and indeed struck dead to everything below a naked Jesus,\nhow suitably then doth the soul and Christ suit one with another.\nThen here is a naked sinner for a righteousness Jesus, a poor\nsinner to a rich Jesus, a weak sinner to a strong Jesus, a blind\nsinner to a seeing Jesus, an ignorant, careless sinner to a wise\nand careful Jesus. O, how wise is God in dealing thus with the\nsinner! He strips him of his own knowledge, that He may fill him\nwith Christ's; He killeth him for taking pleasure in sin, that he\nmay take pleasure in Jesus Christ, etc.\n\n6. God goeth this way with sinners, because He would have the glory\nof their salvation. Should not men and women be killed to their own\nthings, they would do sacrifice unto them, and instead of saying to\nthe Lamb, \"THOU ART WORTHY,\" they would say their own arm, their\nown right hand hath saved them; but God will cut off boasting\nfrom ever entering within the borders of eternal glory; for He is\nresolved to have the glory of the beginning, the middle, and the\nend; of the contriving, and saving, and giving salvation to them\nthat enter in to the joys of everlasting glory (Rom 3:27; Eph\n2:8,9; Titus 3:5; Rev 5:9). \"That they might be called trees of\nrighteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified\"\n(Isa 61:3). I might have run through many things as to this; but\nI shall pass them, and proceed.\n\nSecond. Now, the soul being this killed to itself, [The soul that\nhath the right work of God upon its heart, is not only killed to\nitself, but also made alive to Christ]. its sins, its righteousness,\nfaith, hope, wisdom, promises, resolutions, and the rest of its\nthings which it trusted in by nature; in the next place, it hath\nalso given unto it a most glorious, perfect, and never-fading life,\nwhich is--\n\n1. A life imputed to it, yet so really, that the very thought of it\nin the soul hath so much operation and authority, especially when\nthe mediation of it is mixed with faith, as to make it, though\ncondemned by the law, to triumph, and to look its enemies in the\nface with comfort, notwithstanding the greatness of the multitude,\nthe fierceness of their anger, and the continuation of their malice,\nbe never so hot against it.\n\nThis imputed life--for so it is--is the obedience of the Son\nof God as His righteousness, in His suffering, rising, ascending,\ninterceding, and so consequently triumphing over all the enemies\nof the soul, and given to me, as being wrought on purpose for me.\nSo that, is there righteousness in Christ? that is mine. Is there\nperfection in that righteousness? that is mine. Did He bleed for\nsin? it was for mine. Hath He overcome the law, the devil, and\nHell? the victory is mine, and I am counted the conqueror, nay,\nmore than a conqueror, through Him that hath loved me. And I do\ncount this a most glorious life; for by this means it is that I am,\nin the first place, proclaimed both in Heaven and earth guiltless,\nand such an one who, as I am in Christ, am not sinner, and so not\nunder the law, to be condemned, but as holy and righteous as the Son\nof God Himself, because He Himself is my holiness and righteousness,\nand so likewise having by this all things taken out of the way that\nwould condemn me.\n\nSometimes I bless the Lord my soul hath had the life that now I\nam speaking of, not only imputed to me, but the very glory of it\nupon my soul; for, upon a time, when I was under many condemnings\nof heart, and feared, because of my sins, my soul would miss of\neternal glory, methought I felt in my soul such a secret motion of\nthis--Thy righteousness is in Heaven, together with the splendour\nand shining of the Spirit of Grace in my soul, which gave me to see\nclearly that my righteousness by which I should be justified from\nall that could condemn, was the Son of God Himself in His own Person,\nnow at the right hand of His Father representing me complete before\nthe Mercy-seat in His Ownself; so that I saw clearly that night\nand day, wherever I was, or whatever I was a doing, still there\nwas my righteousness just before the eyes of Divine glory; so that\nthe Father could never find fault with me for any insufficiency that\nwas in my righteousness, seeing it was complete; neither could He\nsay, Where is it? because it was continually at His right hand. 18\n\nAlso, at another time, having contracted guilt upon my soul, and\nhaving some distemper of body upon me, I supposed that death might\nnow so seize upon as to take me away from among men; then, thought\nI, what shall I do now? is all right with my soul? Have I the right\nwork of God on my soul? Answering myself, \"No, surely\"; and that\nbecause there were so many weaknesses in me; yes, so many weaknesses\nin my best duties. For, thought I, how can such an one as I find\nmercy, whose heart is so ready to evil, and so backward to that\nwhich is good, so far as it is natural. Thus musing, being filled\nwith fear to die, these words come in upon my soul, \"Being justified\nfreely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\"\n(Rom 3:24). As if God had said, Sinner, thou thinkest because that\nthou hast had so many infirmities and weaknesses in thy soul while\nthou hast been professing of Me, therefore now there can be no hopes\nof mercy; but be it known unto thee, that it was not anything done\nby thee at the first that moved Me to have mercy upon thee: neither\nis it anything that is done by thee now that shall make me either\naccept or reject thee. Behold My Son, who standeth by Me, He is\nrighteous, He hath fulfilled My Law, and given me good satisfaction;\non Him, therefore, do I look, and on thee only as thou art in Him;\nand according to what He hath done, so will I deal with thee. This\nhaving stayed my heart, and taken off the guilt through the strength\nof its coming on my soul, anon after came in that word as a second\ntestimony--\"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,\nnot according to our works,\" of righteousness which we have done,\n\"but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in\nChrist Jesus before the world began\" (2 Tim 1:9). And thus is the\nsinner made alive from the dead, being justified by grace through\nthe righteousness of Christ, which is unto all and upon all them\nthat believe, according to the Scriptures--\"And the life which\nI now live--it is by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,\nand gave Himself for me\" (Gal 2:20). \"I lay down my life for the\nsheep.\" \"I am come that they might have life, and that they might\nhave it more abundantly\" (John 10:10,15). \"For if, when we were\nenemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,\nbeing reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. That as sin hath\nreigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness\nunto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord\" (Rom 5:10,21).\n\n2. This life is not only imputed to him that is wrought on by the\nSpirit of Grace--that is, not only counted his, but also there is\nput into the soul an understanding, enlightened on purpose to know\nthe things of God, which is Christ and His imputed righteousness\n(1 John 5:20) which it never thought of nor understood before (1\nCor 2:9-11). Which understanding being enlightened and made to see\nsuch things that the soul cannot be contented without it lay hold\nof and apply Christ unto itself so effectually; I say, that the\nsoul shall be exceedingly revived in a very heavenly measure with\nthe application of this imputed righteousness; for thereby it\nknoweth it shall find God speaking peace to itself, with a fatherly\naffection, saying, \"Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee\";\nthe righteousness of My Son I bestow upon thee; \"For what the law\ncould not do, in that it was weak through thee,\" thy \"flesh,\" \"I\nhave sent forth My only Son, and have condemned\" thy sins in His\nflesh (Rom 8:3). And though thou hast gone astray like a lost sheep,\nyet on Him I have laid thine iniquities; and though thou thereby\ndidst undo and break thyself for ever, yet by His stripes I have\nhealed thee. Thus, I say, the Lord causeth the soul by faith to\napply that which He doth by grace impute unto it, for thus every\nsoul more or less is dealt withal; the soul being thus enlightened,\nthus quickened, thus made alive from that dead state it was in\nbefore, or at least having the beginnings of this life, it hath\nthese several virtuous advantages, which they have not that are\ndead in their sins and trespasses, and under the law--\n\n[Advantages possessed by the quickened].\n\nFirst. It seeth what a sad condition all men by nature are in, they\nbeing in that state which itself was in but a while since; but now\nby grace it is a beginning to scrabble 19 out of it; now it seeth\n\"the whole world lieth in wickedness,\" and so liable to eternal\nvengeance, because of their wickedness (1 John 5:19). Ah, friends,\nlet me tell you, though you may be ignorant of your state and\ncondition, yet the poor, groaning, hungering saints of God do see\nwhat a sad, woeful, miserable state you are in, which sometimes\nmakes them tremble to think of your most lamentable latter end,\nyour dying so, and also to fly the faster to their Lord Jesus, for\nvery fear that they also should be partakers of that most doleful\ndoom. [Like as the children of Israel, who fled for fear when the\nground opened its mouth to swallow up Korah and his company]. And\nthis it hath by virtue of its own experience, knowing itself was\nbut awhile ago in the same condition, under the same condemnation.\nO! there is now a hearth blessing of God that ever He should show\nto it its sad condition, and that He should incline its heart to\nseek after a better condition. O blessed be the Lord! saith the\nsoul, that ever He should awaken me, stir up me, and bring me out\nof that sad condition that I once with them was in (Psa 103:1-3).\nIt makes also the soul to wonder to see how foolishly and vainly\nthe rest of its neighbours do spend their precious time, that they\nshould be so void of understanding, so forgetful of their latter\nend, so senseless of the damning nature of their sins. O that\ntheir eyes were but enlightened to see whereabouts they are! surely\nthey would be of another mind than they are now in. Now, the soul\nwonders to see what slender pins those poor creatures do hang the\nstress of the eternal salvation of their souls upon. O! methinks,\nsaith the soul, it makes me mourn to see that some should think\nthat they were born Christians; and others, that their baptism makes\nthem so; 20 others depend barely upon a traditional, historical\nfaith, which will leave their souls in the midst of perplexity. That\nthey should trust to such fables, fancies, and wicked sleights of\nthe devil, as their good doings, their good thinkings, their civil\nwalking and living with the world. O miserable profession, and the\nend thereof will be a miserable end!\n\nBut now, when the souls is thus wrought upon, it must be sure to\nlook for the very gates of Hell to be set open against it with all\ntheir force and might to destroy it. Now Hell rageth, the devil\nroareth, and all the world resolveth to do the best they can to\nbring the soul again into bondage and ruin. Also, the soul shall\nnot want enemies, even in its own heart's lust, [But this is but for\nthe exercise of his faith.] as covetousness, adultery, blasphemy,\nunbelief, hardness of heart, coldness, half-heartedness, ignorance,\nwith an innumerable company of attendants, hanging, like so many\nblocks, at its heels, ready to sink it into the fire of Hell every\nmoment, together with strange apprehensions of God and Christ, as\nif now they were absolutely turned to be its enemies, which maketh\nit doubt of the certainty of its salvation; for you must understand,\nthat though a soul may in reality have the righteousness of the Son\nof God imputed to it, and also some faith in a very strong manner\nto lay hold upon it, yet at another time, through temptation, they\nmay fear and doubt again, insomuch that the soul may be put into\na very great fear lest it should return again into the condition\nit once was in (Jer 32:40). O, saith the soul, when I think of my\nformer state, how miserable it was, it makes me tremble; and when\nI think that I may fall into that condition again, how sad are the\nthoughts of it to me! I would not be in that condition again for\nall the world. And this fear riseth still higher and higher, as\nthe soul is sensible of Satan's temptations, or of the working of\nits own corruptions. Ah! these filthy lusts, these filthy corruptions.\nO that I were rid of them, that they were consumed in a moment,\nthat I could be quite rid of them, they do so disturb my soul,\ndishonour my God, so defile my conscience, and sometimes so weaken\nmy hands in the way of God, and my comforts in the Lord; O how glad\nshould I be if I might be stripped of them (Rom 7:24). Which fear\nputs the soul upon flying to the Lord by prayer for the covering\nof His imputed righteousness, and for strength against the devil's\ntemptations and its own corruptions; that God would give down His\nHoly Spirit to strengthen it against the things that do so annoy its\nsoul, and so discourage it in its way, with a resolution, through\ngrace, never to be contented while [until] it doth find in itself\na triumphing over it, by faith in the blood of a crucified Jesus.\n\nSecond. The soul that hath been thus killed by the Law to the things\nit formerly delighted in, now, O now, it cannot be contented with\nthat slender, groundless faith and hope that once it contented\nitself withal. No, no; but now it must be brought into the right\nsaving knowledge of Jesus Christ, now it must have Him discovered\nto the soul by the Spirit, now it cannot be satisfied because such\nand such do tell it is so. No; but now it will cry out, Lord, show\nme continually, in the light of Thy Spirit, through Thy Word, that\nJesus that was born in the days of Caesar Augustus, when Mary, a\ndaughter of Judah, went with Joseph to be taxed at Bethlehem, that\nHe is the very Christ. Lord, let me see it in the light of Thy\nSpirit, and in the operation thereof; and let me not be contented\nwithout such a faith that is so wrought even by the discovery\nof His birth, crucifying, death, blood, resurrection, ascension,\nintercession, and second--which is His personal--coming again, that\nthe very faith of it may fill my soul with comfort and holiness.\nAnd O, how afraid the soul is lest it should fall short of this\nfaith, and of the hope that is begotten by such discoveries as\nthese are! For the soul knoweth that if it hath not this, it will\nnot be able to stand either in death or judgment; and therefore,\nsaith the soul, Lord, whatever other poor souls content themselves\nwithal, let me have that which will stand me in stead, and carry\nme through a dangerous world; that may help me to resist a cunning\ndevil; that may help me to suck true soul-satisfying consolation\nfrom Jesus Christ through Thy promises, by the might and power\nof Thy Spirit. And now, when the poor soul at any time hath any\ndiscovery of the love of God through a bleeding, dying, risen,\ninterceding Jesus, because it is not willing to be deceived, O,\nhow wary [But this may be its temptation, taking place through the\ntimorousness of the soul]. is it of closing with it, for fear it\nshould not be right, for fear it should not come from God! Saith\nthe soul, Cannot the devil give one such comfort I trow? Cannot he\ntransform himself thus into an angel of light? So that the soul,\nbecause that it would be upon a sure ground, cries out, Lord, show\nme Thy salvation, and that not once or twice, but, Lord, let me\nhave Thy presence continually upon my heart, today, and tomorrow,\nand every day. For the soul, when it is rightly brought from under\nthe Covenant of Works, and planted into the Covenant of Grace,\nthen it cannot be, unless it be under some desperate temptation,\ncontented without the presence of God, teaching, comforting,\nestablishing, and helping of the soul to grow in the things of the\nLord Jesus Christ; because it knoweth that if God hath but withdrawn\nHis presence in any way from it, as He doth do sometimes for a while,\nthat then the devil will be sure to be near at hand, working with\nhis temptations, trying all ways to get the soul into slavery and\nsin again; also the corrupt principle, that will be joining and\ncombining with the Wicked One, and will be willing to be a co-partner\nwith him to bring the soul into mischief; which puts a soul upon\nan earnest, continual panting after more of the strengthening,\npreserving, comforting, and teaching presence of God, and for strong\nsupplies of faith, that it may effectually lay hold on him.\n\nThird. The soul is quickened so that it is not satisfied now without\nit do in deed and in truth partake of the peace of God's elect;\nnow it is upon the examination of the reality of its joy and peace.\nTime was indeed that anything would serve its turn, any false\nconceits of its state to be good; but now all kind of peace will\nnot serve its turn, all kind of joy will not be accepted with it;\nnow it must joy in God through Jesus Christ; now its peace must\ncome through the virtues of the blood of Christ speaking peace to\nthe conscience by taking away both the guilt and filth of sin by\nthat blood; also by showing the soul its free acceptance with God\nthrough Christ, He hath completely fulfilled all the conditions of\nthe first covenant, and freely placed it into the safety of what\nHe hath done, and so presents the soul complete and spotless in\nthe sight of God through His obedience. Now, I say, he hath \"peace\nthrough the blood of His Cross,\" and sees himself reconciled to God\nby the death of His Son, or else his comfort will be questioned by\nhim (Col 1:20,21). It is not every promise as cometh now upon his\nheart that will serve his turn, no, but he must see whether the\nbabe Jesus be presented to the soul in and through that promise.\nNow if the babe leap in his womb, as I may so say, it is because\nthe Lord's promise sounds aloud in his heart, coming to him big\nwith the love and pardoning grace of God in Jesus Christ; I say,\nthis is the first and principal joy that the soul hath that is\nquickened and brought into the Covenant of Grace.\n\nFourth. Now the man finds heavenly sanctification wrought in\nhis soul through the most precious blood of the Man whose name is\nJesus Christ--\"Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His\nown blood, suffered without the gate.\" Now the souls finds a change\nin the understanding, in the will, in the mind, in the affections,\nin the judgment, and also in the conscience; through the inward man\na change, and through the outward man a change, from head to foot,\nas we use to say, \"for he that is in Christ,\" and so in this Covenant\nof Grace, \"is a new creature,\" or hath been twice made--made, and\nmade again (2 Cor 5:17). O, now the soul is resolved for Heaven\nand Glory; now it crieth out, Lord, if there be a right eye that\nis offensive to Thee, pluck it out; or a right foot, cut it off;\nor a right hand, take it from me. Now the soul doth begin to study\nhow it may honour God, and bring praise to Him. Now the soul is\nfor a preparation for the second coming of Christ, endeavouring to\nlay aside everything that may hinder; and for the closing in with\nthose things that may make it in a beloved posture against that\nday.\n\nFifth. And all this is from a Gospel spirit, and not from a legal,\nnatural principle, for the soul hath these things as the fruits and\neffects of its being separated unto the Covenant of Grace, and so\nnow possessed with that Spirit that doth attend, yea, and dwell\nin them that are brought into the Covenant of Grace from under the\nold covenant; I say, these things do spring forth in the soul from\nanother root and stock than any of the actings of other men do;\nfor the soul that is thus wrought upon is as well dead to the law\nand the righteousness thereof--as the first covenant--as well as\nto its sins.\n\nSixth. Now the soul begins to have some blessed experience of the\nthings of God, even of the glorious mysteries of the Gospel.\n\n1. Now it knoweth the meaning of those words, \"My flesh is meat\nindeed, and My blood is drink, indeed,\" and that by experience; for\nthe soul hath received peace of conscience through that blood, by\nthe effectual application of it to the soul (John 6:55). First,\nby feeling the guilt of sin die off from the conscience by the\noperation thereof. Secondly, By feeling the power thereof to take\naway the curse of the law. Thirdly, By finding the very strength\nof Hell to fail when once the blood of that Man Jesus Christ is\nreceived in reality upon the soul.\n\n2. Now the soul also knoweth by experience the meaning of that\nScripture that saith, \"Our old man is crucified with Him, that the\nbody of sin might be destroyed\" (Rom 6:6). Now it sees that when\nthe Man Jesus did hang on the tree on Mount Calvary, that then the\nbody of its sins was there hanged up, dead and buried with Him,\nthough it was then unborn, so as never to be laid to its charge,\neither here or hereafter; and also, so as never to carry it captive\ninto perpetual bondage, being itself overcome by Him, even Christ,\nthe Head of that poor creature. And indeed this is the way for\na soul both to live comfortably as touching the guilt of sin, and\nalso as touching the power of the filth of sin; for the soul that\ndoth or hath received this in deed and in truth, finds strength\nagainst them both by and through that Man that did for him and the\nrest of his fellow-sinners so gloriously overcome it, and hath given\nthe victory unto them, so that now they are said to be overcomers,\nnay, \"more than conquerors through Him,\" the one Man Jesus Christ\n(Rom 7:33-37).\n\n3. Now the soul hath received a faith indeed, and a lively hope\nindeed, such an one as now it can fetch strength from the fullness\nof Christ, and from the merits of Christ.\n\n4. Yea, now the soul can look on itself with one eye, and look upon\nChrist with another, and say, Indeed, it is true; I am an empty\nsoul, but Christ is a full Christ; I am a poor sinner, but Christ\nis a rich Christ; I am a foolish sinner, but Christ is a wise\nChrist; I am an unholy, ungodly, unsanctified creature in myself,\nbut Christ is made of God \"unto me, wisdom, and righteousness, and\nsanctification, and redemption\" (1 Cor 1:30).\n\n5. Now also that fiery law, that it could not once endure, nor\ncould not once delight in, I say, now it can delight in it after\nthe inward man; now this law is its delight, it would always be\nwalking in it, and always be delighting in it, being offended with\nany sin or any corruption that would be anyways an hinderance to it\n(Rom 7:24,25). And yet it will not abide, it will not endure that\nthat, even that that law should offer to take the work of its\nsalvation out of Christ's hand; no, if it once comes to do that,\nthen out of doors it shall go, if it were as good again. For that\nsoul that hath the right work of God indeed upon it, cries, Not my\nprayers, not my tears, not my works, not my things, do they come\nfrom the work of the Spirit of Christ itself within me, yet these\nshall not have the glory of my salvation; no, it is none but the\nblood of Christ, the death of Christ, of the Man Christ Jesus of\nNazareth, the carpenter's son, as they called Him, that must have\nthe crown and glory of my salvation. None but Christ, none but\nChrist. And thus the soul labours to give Christ the preeminence\n(Col 1:18).\n\nA word of experience.\n\nNow, before I go any further, I must needs speak a word from my\nown experience of the things of Christ; and the rather, because we\nhave a company of silly ones in this day of ignorance that do either\ncomfort themselves with a notion without the power, or else do\nboth reject the notion and the power of this most glorious Gospel;\ntherefore, for the further conviction of the reader, I shall tell\nhim, with David, something of what the Lord hath done for my soul;\nand indeed a little of the experience of the things of Christ is\nfar more worth than all the world. It would be too tedious for me\nto tell thee here all from the first to the last; but something I\nshall tell thee, that thou mayest not think these things are fables.\n[This conviction seized on my soul one Sabbath day, when I was at\nplay, being one of the first that I had, which when it came, though\nit scared me with its terror, yet through the temptation of the\ndevil, immediately striking in therewith, I did rub it off again,\nand became as vile for some time as I was before, like a wretch\nthat I was]. 21\n\nReader, when it pleased the Lord to begin to instruct my soul, He\nfound me one of the black sinners of the world; He found me making\na sport of oaths, and also of lies; and many a soul-poisoning meal\ndid I make out of divers lusts, as drinking, dancing, playing,\npleasure with the wicked ones of the world. The Lord finding of me\nin this condition, did open the glass of His Law unto me, wherein\nHe showed me so clearly my sins, both the greatness of them, and\nalso how abominable they were in His sight, that I thought the very\nclouds were charged with the wrath of God, and ready to let fall\nthe very fire of His jealousy upon me; yet for all this I was so\nwedded to my sin, that, thought I with myself, I will have them though\nI lose my soul, (O wicked wretch that I was!) but God, the great,\nthe rich, the infinite merciful God, did not take this advantage\nof my soul to cast me away, and say, Then take him, Devil, seeing\nhe cares for Me no more; no, but He followed me still, and won\nupon my heart, by giving me some understanding, not only into my\nmiserable state, which I was very sensible of, but also that there\nmight be hopes of mercy; also taking away that love to lust, and\nplacing in the room thereof a love to religion; and thus the Lord\nwon over my heart to some desire after the means, to hear the Word,\nand to grow a stranger to my old companions, and to accompany the\npeople of God, together with giving of me many sweet encouragements\nfrom several promises in the Scriptures. But after this, the Lord\ndid wonderfully set my sins upon my conscience, those sins especially\nthat I had committed since the first convictions; temptations\nalso followed me very hard, and especially such temptations as did\ntend to the making me question of the very way of salvation--viz.,\nwhether Jesus Christ was the Saviour or no; and whether I had\nbest to venture my soul upon His blood for salvation, or take some\nother course. But being through grace kept close with God, in some\nmeasure, in prayer and the rest of the ordinances, but went about\na year and upwards without any sound evidence as from God to my\nsoul touching the salvation that comes by Jesus Christ. But, at\nthe last, as I may say, when the set time was come, the Lord, just\nbefore the men called Quakers came into the country, did set me\ndown so blessedly in the truth of the doctrine of Jesus Christ,\nthat it made me marvel to see, first, how Jesus Christ was born of\na virgin, walked in the world awhile with His disciples, afterwards\nhanged on the Cross, spilt His blood, was buried, rose again, ascended\nabove the clouds and heavens, there lives to make intercession, and\nthat He also will come again at the last day to judge the world,\nand take His saints unto Himself.\n\nThese things, I say, I did see so evidently, even as if I had stood\nwhen He was in the world, and also when He was caught up. I having\nsuch a change as this upon my soul, it made me wonder; and musing\nwith myself at the great alteration that was in my spirit--for the\nLord did also very gloriously give me in His precious Word to back\nthe discovery of the Son of God unto me, so that I can say, through\ngrace, it was according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:1-4). And as\nI was musing with myself what these things should mean, methought\nI heard such a word in my heart as this--I have set thee down on\npurpose, for I have something more than ordinary for thee to do;\nwhich made me the more marvel, saying, What, my Lord, such a poor\nwretch as I? Yet still this continued, I have set thee down on\npurpose, and so forth, with more fresh incomes of the Lord Jesus,\nand the power of the blood of His Cross upon my soul, even so\nevidently that I saw, through grace, that it was the blood shed on\nMount Calvary that did save and redeem sinners, as clearly and as\nreally with the eyes of my soul as ever, me thought, I had seen a\npenny loaf bought with a penny; which things then discovered had\nsuch operation upon my soul, that I do hope they did sweetly season\nevery faculty thereof. Reader, I speak in the presence of God, and\nHe knows I lie not; much of this, and such like dealings of His,\ncould I tell thee of; but my business at this time is not so to do,\nbut only to tell what operation the blood of Christ hath had over\nand upon my conscience, and that at several times, and also when\nI have been in several frames of spirit.\n\nAs, first, sometimes, I have been so loaden with my sins, that I\ncould not tell where to rest, nor what to do; yea, at such times I\nthought it would have taken away my senses; yet at that time God\nthrough grace hath all of a sudden so effectually applied the blood\nthat was spilt at Mount Calvary out of the side of Jesus, unto my\npoor, wounded, guilty conscience, that presently I have found such\na sweet, solid, sober, heart-comforting peace, that it hath made\nme as if it [my terror] had not been, and withal the same, I may\nsay, and I ought to say, the power of it, hath had such a powerful\noperation upon my soul, that I have for a time been in a strait\nand trouble to think that I should love and honour Him no more,\nthe virtue of His blood hath so constrained me.\n\nAgain; sometimes methinks my sins have appeared so big to me that\nI thought one of my sins have been as big as all the sins of all\nthe men in the nation; ay, and of other nations too, reader; these\nthings be not fancies, for I have smarted for this experience, but\nyet the least stream of the heart blood of this Man 22 Jesus hath\nvanished all away, and hath made it to fly, to the astonishment\nof such a poor sinner; and as I said before, hath delivered me up\ninto sweet and heavenly peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.\n\nAgain; sometimes when my heart hath been hard, dead, slothful, blind,\nand senseless, which indeed are sad frames for a poor Christian to\nbe in, yet at such a time, when I have been is such a case, then\nhath the blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ, the admirable\nblood of the God of Heaven, that run out of His body when it did\nhang on the Cross, so softened, livened, quickened, and enlightened\nmy soul, that truly, reader, I can say, O it makes me wonder!\n\nAgain; when I have been loaden with sin, and [I cannot stand here\nto tell thee of particular temptations]. pestered with several\ntemptations, and in a very sad manner, then have I had the trial\nof the virtue of Christ's blood with the trial of the virtue of\nother things; and I have found that when tears would not do, prayers\nwould not do, repentings and all other things could not reach my\nheart; O then, one touch, one drop, one shining of the virtue of\nthe blood, of that blood that was let out with the spear, it hath\nin a very blessed manner delivered me, that it hath made me to\nmarvel. O! methinks it hath come with such life, such power, with\nsuch irresistible and marvelous glory, that it wipes off all the\nslurs, silences all the outcries, and quenches all the fiery darts,\nand all the flames of Hell-fire, that are begotten by the charges\nof the Law, Satan, and doubtful remembrances of my sinful life.\n\nFriends, as Peter saith to the church, so I say to you, I have\nnot preached to you cunningly devised fables in telling you of the\nblood of Christ, and what authority it hath had upon my conscience;\nO no, but as Peter saith touching the coming of the Lord Jesus into\nthe world, so in some measure I can say of the blood of the Lord\nJesus Christ that was shed when He did come into the world. There\nis not only my single testimony touching this; no, but there are\nall the Prophets do agree in advancing this in writing, and also\nall the saints do now declare the same, in speaking forth the\namiableness and many powerful virtues thereof. \"As for Thee also,\nby the blood of Thy covenant,\" saith God to Christ, \"I have sent\nforth Thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water\" (Zech 9:11).\n\"We have redemption through His blood\" (Eph 1:7). Again, \"We have\nredemption through His blood\" (Col 1:14). Our robes are washed\nand made \"white in the blood of the Lamb\" (Rev 7:14). The devil\nis overcome through \"the blood of the Lamb\" (Rev 12:11). Yea, and\nconscience is purged, too, and that through the blood of the Lamb\n(Heb 9:14). We have free recourse to the Throne of Grace through\nthe blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19). I could bring thee a cloud of\nwitnesses out of all the types and shadows, and out of the sundry\nProphets, and much more out of the New Testament, but I forebear,\nbecause I would not be too tedious to the reader in making too\nlarge a digression, though I have committed here in this discourse\nno transgression, for the blood of Christ is precious blood (1\nPeter 1:18,19).\n\nTHIRD. THE PRIVILEGES OF THE NEW COVENANT.\n\nIn the next place, I shall show you the several privileges and\nadvantages that the man or woman hath that is under this Covenant\nof Grace, over what they have that are under the Covenant of the\nLaw and Works. As,\n\nFirst. The Covenant of Grace is not grounded upon our obedience,\nbut upon God's love, even His pardoning love to us through Christ\nJesus. The first covenant is stood to be broken or kept by us,\nand God's love or anger to be lost or enjoyed thereafter as we, as\ncreatures, behaved ourselves; but now, the very ground of the Covenant\nof Grace is God's love, His mere love through Jesus Christ--\"The\nLORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye\nwere more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all\npeople: but because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep\nthe oath which He had sworn unto your fathers\" (Deu 7:7,8). Again,\n\"In His love and in His pity He redeemed them,\" \"and the angel of\nHis presence saved them,\" that is, Jesus Christ (Isa 63:9). And again,\n\"Who hath saved us--not according to our works\" of righteousness\nwhich we have done, \"but according to His own purpose and grace,\nwhich was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began\" (2 Tim\n1:9).\n\nSecond. This love is not conveyed to us through what we have done,\nas is before proved, but through what He hath done with Whom the\ncovenant was made, which was given us in Christ--According as He\nhath chosen us in Christ. \"Who hath blessed us with all spiritual\nblessings in heavenly places in Christ.\" \"God for Christ's sake hath\nforgiven you,\" that is, through Christ's doings, through Christ's\nsufferings (2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:3,4; 4:32). Now if this be but rightly\nunderstood, it doth discover abundance of comfort to them, that\nare within the bounds of the Covenant of Grace. For,\n\n1. Here a believer seeth he shall stand, if Christ's doings and\nsufferings stand; which is sure foundation, for God dealeth with\nhim through Christ. And so, secondly, he shall not fall, unless\nthe suffering and merits of Christ be thrown over the bar, being\nfound guilty, which will never be, before the eyes of Divine justice;\nfor with Him the covenant was made, and He was the Surety of it;\nthat is, as the covenant was made with Him, so He stood bound to\nfulfill the same (Zech 9:11; Heb 7:22). For you must understand\nthat the covenant was made between the Father and the Son long\nbefore it was accomplished, or manifestly sealed with Christ's\nblood; it was made before the world began (Titus 1:2; Eph 1:4; 1\nPeter 1:18-20). But the conditions thereof were not fulfilled until\nless than two thousand years ago; and all that while did Jesus stand\nbound as a surety, as I said before, is used to do, till the time\nin which the payment should be made. And it was by virtue of His\nSuretyship, having bound Himself by covenant to do all things agreed\non by the Father and Him, that all those of the election that were\nborn before He came, that they might be saved, and did enter into\nrest. For the forgiveness of sins that were past, though it was\nthrough the blood of Christ, yet it was also through the forbearance\nof God (Rom 3:25). That is, Christ becoming Surety for those that\ndied before His coming, that He should in deed and in truth, at\nthe fullness of time, or at the time appointed, give a complete and\nfull satisfaction for them according to the tenor or condition of\nthe covenant. (Gal 4:4). Again,\n\n2. The second covenant, which believers are under, as the ground\nand foundation, if it is safe, so the promises thereof are better,\nsurer, freer, and fuller, etc.\n\n(1.) They are better, if you compare the excellency of the one\nwith the excellency of the other. The first hath promised nothing\nbut an early paradise--Do this, and thou shalt live; namely, here\nin an earthly paradise. But the other doth bring the promise of a\nheavenly paradise.\n\n(2.) As the Covenant of Works doth promise an earthly paradise,\nyet it is a paradise or blessing, though once obtained, yet might\nbe lost again; for no longer than thou doest well, no longer art\nthou blessed by that. O, but the promises in the new covenant do\nbring unto us the benefit of an eternal inheritance--That \"they\nwhich are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.\"\nO rare! it is an \"eternal inheritance\" (Heb 9:15).\n\n(3.) The other, as it is not so good as this, so neither is it so\nsure as this; and therefore he calls the one such an one as might\nbe, and was, shaken, but this is said to be such an one that cannot\nbe shaken. \"And this Word,\" saith he, treating of the two covenants\nfrom verse the 8th to the 24th--\"And this Word, yet once more,\nsignifieth the removing of those things that are,\" or may be,\n\"shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot\nbe shaken,\" which is the second covenant, \"may remain,\" (Heb 12:27);\nfor, saith he (verse 28) \"which cannot be moved.\" Therefore, ye\nblessed saints, seeing you have received a kingdom \"which cannot\nbe moved,\" therefore, \"let us have grace, whereby we may serve\"\nour \"God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.\"\n\nThus in general, but more particularly.\n\n(4.) They are surer, in that they are founded upon God's love also,\nand they come to us without calling for those things at our hands\nthat may be a means of putting of a stop to our certain enjoying\nof them. The promises under, or for the law, they might easily\nbe stopped by our disobedience; but the promises under the Gospel\nsay, \"If Heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the\nearth searched,\" then, and not till then, \"I will also cast off\nall the seed of Israel for all that they have done\" (Jer 31:37).\nAgain, \"I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for\nMine own\" name's \"sake, and will not remember thy sins\" (Isa 43:25).\nI will make thee a partaker of My promise; and that I may so do,\nI will take away that which would hinder; \"I will cast all their\nsins into the depths of the sea,\" that My promise may be sure to\nall the seed; and therefore, saith the Apostle, when he would show\nus that the new-covenant promises were more sure than the old, he\ntells us plainly that the law and works are set aside and they are\nmerely made ours through the righteousness of faith, which is the\nrighteousness of Christ--\"For the promise, that he [Abraham] should\nbe the heir of the world,\" saith he, \"was not to Abraham, or to his\nseed, through the law,\" or works, \"but through the righteousness of\nfaith. For if they which are of the law,\" or of works, \"be heirs,\"\nthen \"faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.\nTherefore it is of faith--to the end the promise might be sure to\nall the seed\" (Rom 4:13-14,16).\n\n(5.) Surer, because that as that is taken away that should hinder,\nso they are committed to a faithful Friend of ours in keeping. For\nall the promises of God are in Christ, not yea and nay, but yea\nand amen; certain and sure; sure, because they are in the hand of\nour Head, our Friend, our Brother, our Husband, our flesh and bones,\neven in the heart and hand of our precious Jesus.\n\n(6.) Because all the conditions of them are already fulfilled for\nus by Jesus Christ, as aforesaid; every promise that is a new-covenant\npromise, if there be any condition in it, our Undertaker hath\naccomplished that for us, and also giveth us such grace as to receive\nthe sweetness as doth spring from them through His obedience to\nevery thing required in them.\n\n(7.) Surer, because that as they are grounded upon the love of God,\neverything is taken out of the way, in the hand of a sure Friend.\nAnd has Christ has fulfilled every condition as to justification\nthat is contained therein, so the Lord hath solemnly sworn with an\noath for our better confidence in this particular--\"For when God\nmade promise to Abraham,\" and so to all the saints, \"because He\ncould swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely,\nblessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.\nAnd so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.\nFor men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation\nis to them an end of all strife,\" that there might be no more\ndoubt or scruple concerning the certain fulfilling of the promise.\n\"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of\npromise the immutability of His counsel,\" or certain, constant,\nunchangeable decree of God in making of the promise, for the comfort\nof his children, \"confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable\nthings,\" His promise backed with an oath, \"in which it was impossible\nfor God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled\nfor refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us\" (Heb 6:13-18).\n\n(8.) That they are better it appears also in that they are freer\nand fuller. That they are freer, it is evident, in that one saith,\nNo works, no life--Do this, and then thou shalt live; if not, thou\nshalt be damned. But the other saith, We are saved by believing in\nwhat Another hath done, without the works of the Law--\"Now to him\nthat worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly,\nhis faith is counted for righteousness\" (Rom 4:4,5). The one saith,\nPay me that thou owest; the other say, I do frankly and freely\nforgive thee all. The one saith, Because thou hast sinned, thou\nshalt die; the other saith, Because Christ lives, thou shalt live\nalso (John 15).\n\n(9.) And as they are freer, so they are fuller; fuller of encouragement,\nfuller of comfort; the one, to wit, the law, looks like Pharaoh's\nseven ill-favoured kine, more ready to eat one up than to afford\nus any food; the other is like the full grape in the cluster, which\nfor certain hath a glorious blessing in it. The one saith, If thou\nhast sinned, turn again; the other saith, If thou hast sinned, thou\nshalt be damned, for all I have a promise in me.\n\n3. They that are of the second are better than they that are\nof the first; and it also appeareth in this--The promises of the\nLaw, through them we have neither faith, nor hope, nor the Spirit\nconveyed; but through the promises of the Gospel there are all\nthese--\"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious\npromises, that by these we might be partakers of the Divine nature\"\n(2 Peter 1:4). O therefore \"let us hold fast the profession of\nour faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised\" (Heb\n10:23). \"In hope of eternal life,\" how so? because \"God, that cannot\nlie, promised it before the world began\" (Titus 1:2).\n\n4. They that are in this covenant are in a very happy state; for\nthough there be several conditions in the Gospel to be done, yet\nChrist Jesus doth not look that they should be done by man, as\nman, but by His own Spirit in them, as it is written, \"Thou hast\nwrought all our works in us.\" Is there that condition, they must\nbelieve? Why, then, He will be both the \"author and finisher of\ntheir faith\" (Heb 12:2,3). Is there also hope to be in His children?\nHe also doth and hath given them \"good hope through His grace\" (2\nThess 2:16). Again, are the people of God to behave themselves\nto the glory of God the Father? then He will work in them \"both to\nwill and to do of His own good pleasure\" (Phil 2:13).\n\n5. Again, as He works all our works in us and for us, so also\nby virtue of this covenant we have another nature given unto us,\nwhereby, or by which we are made willing to be glorifying of God,\nboth in our bodies and in our spirits, which are His--\"Thy people\nshall be willing in the day of Thy power\" (1 Cor 6:20; Psa 110:3).\n\n6. In the next place, all those that are under this second covenant\nare in a wonderful safe condition; for in case they should slip\nor fall after their conversion into some sin or sins for who lives\nand sins not? (Prov 24:16), yet through the merits and intercession\nof Christ Jesus, who is their Undertaker in this covenant, they\nshall have their sins pardoned, their wounds healed, and they raised\nup again; which privilege the children of the first covenant have\nnot; for if they sin, they are never afterwards regarded by that\ncovenant--They brake My covenant and I regarded them not, saith\nthe Lord (Heb 8:9). But when He comes to speak of the Covenant of\nGrace, speaking first of the public person under the name of David,\nHe saith thus, \"He shall cry unto Me, Thou art My Father, My God,\nand the rock of My salvation. Also I will make Him My firstborn,\nhigher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him\nfor evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed\nalso will I make to endure for ever, and His throne as the days of\nheaven. If His children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments;\nIf they break my statutes, and keep not My commandments; Then will\nI visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with\nstripes. Nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take\nfrom Him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I\nnot break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Once\nhave I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His\nseed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the sun before Me.\nIt shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful\nwitness in heaven\" (Psa 89:26-37). \"My covenant shall stand fast with\nhim\"--mark that. As if God had said, I did not make this covenant\nwith man, but with My Son, and with Him I will perform it; and\nseeing He hath given Me complete satisfaction, though His children\ndo, through infirmity, transgress, yet My covenant is not therefore\nbroken, seeing He with whom it was made standeth firm, according\nto the desire of my heart; so that My justice that is satisfied,\nand My Law, hath nothing to say, for there is no want of perfection\nin the sacrifice of Christ. If you love your souls, and would have\nthem live in the peace of God, to the which you are called in one\nbody, even all believers, then I beseech you seriously to ponder,\nand labour to settle in your souls this one thing, that the new\ncovenant is not broken by our transgressions, and that because it\nwas not made with us. The reason why the very saints of God have\nso many ups and downs in this their travel towards Heaven, it is\nbecause they are so weak in the faith of this one thing; for they\nthink that if they fail of this or that particular performance, if\ntheir hearts be dead and cold, and their lusts mighty and strong,\ntherefore now God is angry, and now He will shut them out of His\nfavour, now the new covenant is broken, and now Christ Jesus will\nstand their Friend no longer; now also the devil hath power again,\nand now they must have their part in the resurrection of damnation;\nwhen, alas! the covenant is not for all this never the more broken,\nand so the grace of God no more straitened than it was before.\nTherefore, I say, when thou findest that thou art weak here, and\nfailing there, backward to this good, and thy heart forward to\nthat evil; then be sure thou keep a steadfast eye on the Mediator\nof this new covenant, and be persuaded that it is not only made\nwith Him, and His part also fulfilled, but that He doth look upon\nHis fulfilling of it, so as not to lay thy sins to thy charge, though\nHe may as a Father chastise thee for the same--\"If His children\nforsake My law, and walk not in My judgments; if they break My\nstatutes, and keep not My commandments; then will I visit their\ntransgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless,\"\nmark \"nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from\nHIM, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not\nbreak, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.\" And what\nwas that? Why, that \"His seed shall endure for ever, and His throne\nas the sun before Me\" (Psa 89:30-34,36).\n\n7. Another privilege that the saints have by virtue of the new\ncovenant is, that they have part of the possession or hold of Heaven\nand Glory already, and that two manner of ways--(1.) The Divine\nnature is conveyed from Heaven into them; and, secondly, the human\nnature, i.e., the nature of man, is received up, and entertained\nin, and hath got possession of Heaven. We have the first-fruits\nof the Spirit, saith the man of God; we have the earnest of the\nSpirit, which is instead of the whole, for it is the earnest of the\nwhole--\"Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption\nof the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory\" (Eph\n1:13,14; Rom 8:8-11). (2.) The nature of man, our nature is got\ninto glory as the first-fruits of mankind, as a forerunner to take\npossession till we all come thither (1 Cor 15:20). For the Man born\nat Bethlehem is ascended, which is part of the lump of mankind,\ninto glory as a public Person, as the first-fruits, representing\nthe whole of the children of God; so that in some sense it may be\nsaid that the saints have already taken possession of the kingdom\nof Heaven by their Jesus, their public Person, He being in their\nroom entered to prepare a place for them (John 14:1-4). I beseech\nyou consider, when Jesus Christ came down from Glory, it was that\nHe might bring us to Glory; and that He might be sure not to fail,\nHe clothed Himself with our nature, as if one should take a piece\nout of the whole lump instead of the whole, until the other comes,\nand investeth it in that glory which He was in before He came down\nfrom Heaven (Heb 2:14,15). And thus is that saying to be understood,\nspeaking of Christ and His saints, which saith, \"And\" He \"hath\nraised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places\nin Christ Jesus\" (Eph 2:6).\n\n8. Again, not only thus, but all the power of God, together with\nthe rest of His glorious attributes, are on our side, in that they\ndwell in our nature, which is the Man Jesus, and doth engage for us\npoor, simple, empty, nothing creatures as to our eternal happiness\n(1 Peter 1:5). \"For in Him,\" that is, in the Man Christ, who is\nour nature, our Head, our root, our flesh, our bone, \"dwelleth all\nthe fullness of the Godhead bodily\" (Col 2:9,10). Mark how they\nare joined together, \"In whom dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead.\nAnd ye are complete in Him.\" God dwelleth completely in Him, and you\nalso are completely implanted in Him, which is the Head of all\nprincipality and power; and all this by the consent of the Father--\"For\nit pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell\" (Col\n1:19). Now mark, the Godhead doth not dwell in Christ Jesus for\nHimself only, but that it may be in a way of righteousness conveyed\nto us, for our comfort and help in all our wants--\"All power is\ngiven unto Me in heaven and in earth,\" saith He (Matt 28:18). And\nthen followeth, \"And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end\nof the world\" (Verse 20). \"He hath received gifts for men, yea for\nthe rebellious\" (Psa 68:18). \"Of His fullness have all we received,\nand grace for grace\" (John 1:16). And this the saints cannot be\ndeprived of, because the covenant made with Christ, in every tittle\nof it, was so completely fulfilled as to righteousness, both active\nand passive, that justice cannot object anything; holiness now can\nfind fault with nothing; nay, all the power of God cannot shake\nanything that hath been done for us by the Mediator of the new\ncovenant; so that now there is no Covenant of Works to a believer;\nnone of the commands, accusations, condemnations, or the least\ntittle of the old covenant to be charged on any of those that are\nthe children of the second covenant; no sin to be charged, because\nthere is no law to be pleaded, but all is made up by our middle\nman, Jesus Christ. O blessed covenant! O blessed privilege! Be\nwise, therefore, O ye poor drooping souls that are the sons of this\nsecond covenant, and \"stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ\nhath made you free, and be not entangled AGAIN,\" nor terrified in\nyour consciences, \"with the yoke of bondage\"; neither the commands,\naccusations, or condemnations of the Law of the old covenant (Gal\n5:1).\n\nTwo Hell-bred objections answered.\n\nObject. If it be so, then one need not care what they do; they\nmay sin and sin again, seeing Christ hath made satisfaction. [The\nfirst objection].\n\nAnsw. If I were to point out one that was under the power of the\ndevil, and going post-haste to Hell, for my life I would look no\nfarther for such a man than to him that would make such a use as\nthis of the grace of God. What, because Christ is a Saviour, thou\nwilt be a sinner! because His grace abounds, therefore thou wilt\nabound in sin! O wicked wretch! rake Hell all over, and surely I think\nthy fellow will scarce be found! And let me tell thee this before\nI leave thee--as God's covenant with Christ for His children, which\nare of faith, stands sure, immutable, unrevocable, and unchangeable,\nso also hath God taken such a course with thee, that unless thou\ncanst make God forswear Himself, it is impossible that thou shouldst\ngo to Heaven, dying in that condition--\"They tempted Me, proved\nMe,\" and turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, \"so I sware,\"\nmark that, \"so I sware,\" and that in My wrath, too, that they\nshould never enter into My rest. Compare Hebrews 3:9-11, with 1\nCorinthians 10:5-10. No, saith God; if Christ will not serve their\nturns, but they must have their sins too, take them, Devil; if\nHeaven will not satisfy them, take them, Hell; devour them, Hell;\nscald them, fry them, burn them, Hell! God hath more places than\none to put sinners into. If they do not like Heaven, He will fit\nthem with Hell; if they do not like Christ, they shall be forced\nto have the devil. Therefore we must and will tell of the truth of\nthe nature of the Covenant of Grace of God to His poor saints for\ntheir encouragement and for their comfort, who would be glad to leap\nat Christ upon any terms; yet therewith, we can tell how, through\ngrace, to tell the hogs and sons of this world what a hog-sty there\nis prepared for them, even such an one that God hath prepared to\nput the devil and his angels into, is fitly prepared for them (Matt\n25:41).\n\nObject. But if Christ hath given God a full and complete satisfaction,\nthen though I do go on in sin, I need not fear, seeing God hath\nalready been satisfied. [The second objection]. It will be injustice\nin God to punish for those sins for which He is already satisfied\nfor by Christ.\n\nAnsw. Rebel, rebel, there are some in Christ and some out of Him.\n[1]. They that are in Him have their sins forgiven, and they\nthemselves made new creatures, and have the Spirit of the Son, which\nis a holy, living, self-denying Spirit. And they that are thus in\nJesus Christ are so far off from delighting in sin, that sin is the\ngreatest thing that troubleth them; and O how willing would they\nbe rid of the very thoughts of it (Psa 119:113). It is the grief\nof their souls, when they are in a right frame of spirit, that they\ncan live no more to the honour and glory of God than they do; and\nin all their prayers to God, the breathings of their souls are as\nmuch sanctifying grace as pardoning grace, that they might live a\nholy life. They would as willing live holy here as they would be\nhappy in the world to come; they would as willingly be cleansed\nfrom the filth of sin as to have the guilt of it taken away; they\nwould as willingly glorify God here as they would be glorified by\nHim hereafter (Phil 3:6-22). [2]. But there are some that are out\nof Christ, being under the Law; and as for all those, let them be\ncivil or profane, they are such as God accounts wicked; and I say,\nas for those, if all the angels in Heaven can drag them before the\njudgment-seat of Christ, they shall be brought before it to answer\nfor all their ungodly deeds; and being condemned for them, if all\nthe fire in Hell will burn them, they shall be burned there, if\nthey die in that condition (Jude 15). And, therefore, if you love\nyour souls, do not give way to such a wicked spirit. \"Let no man\ndeceive you with\" such \"vain words,\" as to think, because Christ\nhath made satisfaction to God for sin, therefore you may live in\nyour sins. O no, God forbid that any should think so, \"for because\nof these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of\ndisobedience\" (Eph 5:6).\n\nThus have I, reader, given thee a brief discourse touching the\nCovenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, also of the nature\nof the one, together with the nature of the other. I have also in\nthis discourse endeavoured to show you the condition of them that\nare under the Law, how sad it is, both from the nature of the\ncovenant they are under, and also by the carriage of God unto them\nby that covenant. And now, because I would bring all into as little\na compass as I can, I shall begin with the use and application of\nthe whole in as brief a way as I can, desiring the Lord to bless\nit to thee.\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION].\n\nA use of examination about the old covenant.\n\nFirst. And, first of all, let us here begin to examine a little\ntouching the covenant you stand before God in, whether it be the\nCovenant of Works or the Covenant of Grace; [The first use is a\nuse of examination]. and for the right doing of this, I shall lay\ndown this proposition--namely, that all men naturally come into the\nworld under the first of these, which is called the old covenant,\nor the Covenant of Works, which is the Law; \"And were all by nature\nthe children of wrath, even as others\"; which they could not be, had\nthey not been under the law; for there are none that are under the\nother covenant that are still the children of wrath, but the children\nof faith, the children of the promise, the accepted children, the\nchildren not of the bond-woman, but of the free (Gal 4:28-31).\n\n[Quest.] Now here lieth the question. Which of these two covenants\nart thou under, soul?\n\nAnsw. I hope I am under the Covenant of Grace.\n\nQuest. But what ground hast thou to think that thou art under that\nblessed covenant, and not rather under the Covenant of Works, that\nstrict, that soul-damning covenant?\n\nAnsw. What ground? Why, I hope I am.\n\nQuest. But what ground hast thou for this thy hope? for a hope\nwithout a ground is like a castle built in the air, that will never\nbe able to do thee any good, but will prove like unto that spoken\nof in Job 8, \"Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall\nbe\" like \"a spider's web. He shall lean upon his house, but it\nshall not stand; he shall hold it fast,\" as thou wouldst thy hope,\nit is like, \"but it shall not endure\" (Job 8:13-15).\n\nAnsw. My hope is grounded upon the promises; what else should it\nbe grounded upon?\n\nReply. Indeed, to build my hope upon Christ Jesus, upon God in\nChrist, through the promise, and to have this hope rightly, by the\nshedding abroad of the love of God in the heart, it is a right-grounded\nhope (Rom 5:1-7).\n\nQuest. But what promises in the Scripture do you find your hope built\nupon? and how do you know whether you do build your hope upon the\npromises in the Gospel, the promises of the new covenant, and not\nrather on the promises of the old covenant, for there are promises\nin that as well as in the other?\n\nAnsw. I hope that if I do well I shall be accepted; because God\nhath said I shall (Gen 4:7).\n\nReply. O soul, if thy hope be grounded there, thy hope is not\ngrounded upon the Gospel promises, or the new covenant, but verily\nupon the old; for these words were spoken to Cain, a son of the\nold covenant; and they themselves are the tenor and scope of that;\nfor that runs thus: \"Do this, and thou shalt live. The man that\ndoth these things shall live by them. If thou do well, thou shalt\nbe accepted\" (Lev 18:5; Eze 20:11; Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12; Gen 4:7).\n\nReply. Why, truly, if a man's doing well, and living well, and\nhis striving to serve God as well as he can, will not help him to\nChrist, I do not know what will; I am sure sinning against God will\nnot.\n\nQuest. Did you never read that Scripture which saith, \"Israel, which\nfollowed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the\nlaw of righteousness\"? (Rom 9:30-32).\n\nObject. But doth not the Scripture say, \"Blessed are they that do\nHis commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life\"?\n(Rev 22:14).\n\nAnsw. There is first, therefore, to be inquired into, whether to keep\nHis commandments be to strive to keep the Law as it is a Covenant\nof Works, or whether it be meant of the great commandments of the\nNew Testament which are cited in 1 John 3:22,23--\"And whatsoever\nwe ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and\ndo those things that are pleasing in His sight.\" But what do you\nmean, John? Do you mean the covenant of the Law, or the covenant\nto the Gospel? Why, \"this is His commandment,\" saith he, \"That we\nshould believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one\nanother,\" as the fruits of this faith, \"as He gave us commandment.\"\nIf it be of the old covenant, as a Covenant of Works, then the\nGospel is but a lost thing. If it were of works, then no more of\ngrace; therefore it is not the old covenant, as the old covenant.\n\nQuest. But what do you mean by these words--the old covenant as\nthe old covenant? Explain your meaning.\n\nAnsw. My meaning is, that the Law is not to be looked upon for\nlife, so as it was handed out from Mount Sinai, if ever thou wouldst\nindeed be saved; though after thou hast faith in Christ, thou\nmayest and must solace thyself in it, and take pleasure therein,\nto express thy love to Him who hath already saved thee by His\nown blood, without thy obedience to the law, either from Sinai or\nelsewhere.\n\nQuest. Do you think that I do mean that my righteousness will save\nme without Christ? If so, you mistake me, for I think not so; but\nthis I say, I will labour to do what I can; and what I cannot do,\nChrist will do for me.\n\nAnsw. Ah, poor soul, this is the wrong way too; for this is to make\nChrist but a piece of a Saviour; thou wilt do something, and Christ\nshall do the rest; thou wilt set thy own things in the first place,\nand if thou wantest at last, then thou wilt borrow of Christ; thou\nart such an one that dost Christ the greatest injury of all. First,\nin that thou dost undervalue His merits by preferring of thy own\nworks before His; and, secondly, by mingling of thy works thy dirty,\nragged righteousness with His.\n\nQuest. Why, would you have us do nothing? Would you have us make\nChrist such a drudge as to do all, while we sit idling still?\n\nAnsw. Poor soul, thou mistakest Jesus Christ in saying thou makest\nHim a drudge in letting Him do all; I tell thee, He counts it a\ngreat glory to do all for thee, and it is a great dishonour unto\nHim for thee so much as to think otherwise. And this the saints\nof God that have experienced the work of grace upon their souls do\ncount it also the same--\"Saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,\nand to open the seals thereof\" (Rev 5:9). \"Worthy is the Lamb, that\nwas slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,\nand honour, and glory, and blessing\" (Verse 12). And why so? read\nagain in the 9th verse, \"For Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed\nus to God by Thy\" own \"blood\" (See also Eph 1:6,7). \"To the praise\nof the glory of His grace--in whom we have redemption through His\nblood.\"\n\nReply. All this we confess, that Jesus Christ died for us; but he\nthat thinks to be saved by Christ, and liveth in his sins, shall\nnever be saved.\n\nAnsw. I grant that. But this I say again, a man must not make his\ngood doings the lowest round of the ladder by which he goeth to\nHeaven--that is, he that will and shall go to Heaven, must, wholly\nand alone, without any of his own things, venture his precious soul\nupon Jesus Christ and His merits.\n\nQuest. What, and come to Christ as a sinner?\n\nAnsw. Yea, with all thy sins upon thee, even as filthy as ever thou\ncanst.\n\nQuest. But is not this the way to make Christ to loath us? You know\nwhen children fall down in the dirt, they do usually before they\ngo home make their clothes as clean as they can, for fear their\nparents should chide them; and so I think should we.\n\nAnsw. This comparison is wrongly applied, if you bring it to show\nus how we must do when we come to Christ. He that can make himself\nclean hath no need of Christ; for the whole, the clean, and\nrighteous have no need of Christ, but those that are foul and sick.\nPhysicians, you know, if they love to be honoured, they will not\nbid the patients first make themselves whole, and then come to\nthem; no, but bid them come with their sores all running on them,\nas the woman with her bloody issue (Mark 5). And as Mary Magdalene\nwith her belly full of devils, and the lepers all scabbed; and that\nis the right coming to Jesus Christ.\n\nReply. Well, I hope that Christ will save me, for His promises and\nmercy are very large; and as long as He hath promised to give us\nlife, I fear my state the less.\n\nAnsw. It is very true, Christ's promises are very large, blessed\nbe the Lord for ever; and also so is His mercy; but notwithstanding\nall that, there are many go in at the broad gate; and therefore I\nsay, your business is seriously to inquire whether you are under\nthe first or second covenant; for unless you are under the second,\nyou will never be regarded of the Lord, forasmuch as you are a\nsinner (Heb 8:9). And the rather, because if God should be so good\nto you as to give you a share in the second, you shall have all\nyour sins pardoned, and for certain have eternal life, though you\nhave been a great sinner. But do not expect that thou shalt have\nany part or share in the large promises and mercy of God, for the\nbenefit and comfort of thy poor soul, whilst thou art under the\nold covenant; because so long thou art out of Christ, through whom\nGod conveyeth His mercy, grace, and love to sinners. \"For all the\npromises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen.\" Indeed, His mercy,\ngrace, and love are very great, but they are treasured up in Him,\n\"given forth in Him, through Him.\" \"But God, who is rich in mercy,\nfor His great love wherewith He loved us--that He might show the\nexceeding riches of His grace\"--but which way?--\"in His kindness\ntowards us through Jesus Christ.\"\n\nBut out of Christ thou shalt find God a just God, a sin-avenging\nGod, a God that will by no means spare the guilty; and be sure that\nevery one that is found out of Jesus Christ will be found guilty in\nthe judgment-day, upon whom the wrath of God shall smoke to their\neternal ruin. Now, therefore, consider of it, and take the counsel\nof the Apostle, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, which is, to examine thyself\nwhether thou art \"in the faith,\" and to prove thy ownself whether\nthou hast received the Spirit of Christ into thy soul, whether thou\nhast been converted, whether thou hast been born again, and made\na new creature, whether thou hast had thy sins washed away in the\nblood of Christ, whether thou hast been brought from under the old\ncovenant into the new; and do not make a slight examination, for\nthou hast a precious soul either to be saved or damned.\n\nAnd that thou mayest not be deceived, consider that it is one\nthing to be convinced, and another to be converted; one thing to\nbe wounded, and another to be killed, and so to be made alive again\nby the faith of Jesus Christ. When men are killed, they are killed\nto all things they lived to before, both sin and righteousness, as\nall their old faith and supposed grace that they thought they had.\nIndeed, the old covenant will show thee that thou art a sinner,\nand that a great one too; but the old covenant, the Law, will not\nshow thee, without the help of the Spirit, that thou are without\nall grace by nature; no; but in the midst of thy troubles thou\nwilt keep thyself from coming to Christ by persuading thy soul that\nthou art come already, and hast some grace already. O, therefore,\nbe earnest in begging the Spirit, that thy soul may be enlightened,\nand the wickedness of thy heart discovered, that thou mayest see\nthe miserable state that thou art in by reason of sin and unbelief,\nwhich is the great condemning sin; and so in a sight and sense of thy\nsad condition, if God should deal with thee in severity according\nto thy deservings. Do thou [now] cry to God for faith in a crucified\nChrist, that thou mayest have all thy sins washed away in His blood,\nand such a right work of grace wrought in thy soul that may stand\nin the judgment-day. Again,\n\nSecond. In the next place, you know I told you that a man might go\na great way in a profession, and have many excellent gifts, [Second\nuse]. so as to do many wondrous works, and yet be but under the\nLaw; from hence you may learn not to judge yourselves to be the\nchildren of God, because you may have some gifts of knowledge or\nunderstanding more than others: no, for thou mayest be the knowingest\nman in all the country as to head-knowledge, and yet be but under\nthe law, and so consequently under the curse, notwithstanding that,\n1 Corinthians 13. Now, seeing it is so, that men may have all this\nand yet perish, then what will become of those that do no good at\nall, and have no understanding, neither of their own sadness, nor\nof Christ's mercy? O, sad! Read with understanding, Isaiah 27:11,\n\"Therefore He that made them will not have mercy on them, and He\nthat formed them will show them no favour\" (See also 2 Thess 1:8,\n9).\n\nNow there is one thing which, for want of, most people do miscarry\nin a very sad manner, and that is, because they are not able to\ndistinguish between the nature of the Law and the Gospel. O, people,\npeople, your being blinded here as to the knowledge of this is one\ngreat cause of the ruining of many. As Paul saith, \"While Moses\nis read,\" or while the law is discovered, \"the veil is upon their\nheart\" (2 Cor 3:15) that is, the veil of ignorance is still upon\ntheir hearts, so that they cannot discern either the nature of\nthe law or the nature of the Gospel, they being so dark and blind\nin their minds, as you may see, if you compare it with Chronicles\n4:3, 4. And truly I am confident, that were you but well examined,\nI doubt many of you would be found so ignorant that you would not\nbe able to give a word of right answer concerning either the Law or\nthe Gospel. Nay, my friends, set the case, one should ask you what\ntime you spend, what pains you take, to the end you may understand\nthe nature and difference of these two covenants, would you not say,\nif you should speak the truth, that you did not so much as regard\nwhether there were two or more? Would you not say, I did not think\nof covenants, or study the nature of them? I thought that if I had\nlived honestly, and did as well as I could, that God would accept\nof me, and have mercy upon me, as He had on others. Ah, friends,\nthis is the cause of the ruin of thousands; for if they are blinded\nto this, both the right use of the law, and also of the Gospel, is\nhid from their eyes, and so for certain they will be in danger of\nperishing most miserably, poor souls that they are, unless God, of\nHis mere mercy and love, doth rend the veil from off their hearts,\nthe veil of ignorance, for that is it which doth keep these poor\nsouls in this besotted and blindfolded condition, in which if they\ndie they may be lamented for, but not helped; they may be pitied,\nbut not preserved from the stoke of God's everlasting vengeance.\n\nA legal spirit.\n\nIn the next place, if you would indeed be delivered from the first\ninto the second covenant, I do admonish you to the observing of\nthese following particulars. First. Have a care that you do not\ncontent yourselves, though you do good works--that is, which in\nthemselves are good. Secondly. In and with a legal spirit, which\nare done these ways as followeth.\n\nFirst. If you do anything commanded in Scripture, and your doing\nof it do think that God is well pleased therewith, because you, as\nyou are religious men, do do the same. Upon this mistake was Paul\nhimself in danger of being destroyed; for he thought, because he\nwas zealous, and one of the strictest sects for religion, therefore\nGod would have been good unto him, and have accepted his doings,\nas it is clear, for he counted them his gain (Phil 3:4-8). Now this\nis done thus--When a man doth think that because he thinks he is\nmore sincere, more liberal, with more difficulty, or to the weakening\nof his estate; I say, if a man, because of this doth think that\nGod accepteth his labour, it is done from an old-covenant spirit.\n\nAgain; some men think that they shall be heard because they have\nprayer in their families, because they can pray long, and speak\nexcellent expressions, or express themselves excellently in prayer,\nthat because they have great enlargements in prayer, I say, that\ntherefore to think that God doth delight in their doings, and accept\ntheir works, this is from a legal spirit.\n\nAgain; some men think that because their parents have been religious\nbefore them, and have been indeed the people of God, they think if\nthey also do as to the outward observing of that which they learned\nfrom their forerunners, that therefore God doth accept them; but this\nalso is from a wrong spirit; and yet how many are there in England\nat this day that think the better of themselves merely upon that\naccount; ay, and think the people of God ought to think so too,\nnot understanding that it is ordinary for an Eli to have a Hophni\nand a Phinehas, both sons of Belial; also a good Samuel to have a\nperverse offspring; likewise David an Absalom. I say, their being\nignorant of, or else negligent in regarding this, they do think\nthat because they do spring from such and such, as the Jews in their\ngeneration did, that therefore they have a privilege with God more\nthan others, when there is no such thing; but for certain, if the\nsame faith be not in them which was in their forerunners, to lay\nhold of the Christ of God in the same spirit as they did, they\nmust utterly perish, for all their high conceits that they have of\nthemselves (John 8:33-35; Matt 3:7-9).\n\nSecond. When people come into the presence of God without having\ntheir eye upon the Divine Majesty, through the flesh and blood\nof the Son of Mary, the Son of God, then also do they come before\nGod, and do whatsoever they do from a legal spirit, an old-covenant\nspirit. As, for instance, you have some people, it is true, they\nwill go to prayer, in appearance very fervently, and will plead\nvery hard with God that He would grant them their desires, pleading\ntheir want, and the abundance thereof; they will also plead with\nGod His great mercy, and also His free promises; but yet they\nneglecting the aforesaid body or Person of Christ, the righteous\nLamb of God, to appear before Him in, I say, in thus doing they\ndo not appear before the Lord no otherwise than in an old-covenant\nspirit; for they go to God as a merciful Creator, and they themselves\nas His creatures; not as He is, their Father in the Son, and they\nHis children by regeneration through the Lord Jesus. Ay, and though\nthey may call God their Father, in the notion--not knowing what\nthey say, only having learned such things by tradition--as the\nPharisees did, yet Christ will have His time to say to them, even\nto their faces, as He did once to the Jews, Your father, for all this\nyour profession, is the devil, to their own grief and everlasting\nmisery (John 8:44).\n\nThird. The third thing that is to be observed, if we would not be\nunder the Law, or do things in a legal spirit, is this--to have a\ncare that we do none of the works of the holy Law of God for life,\nor acceptance with Him; no, nor of the Gospel neither. To do the\nworks of the law to the end we may be accepted of God, or that we\nmay please Him, and to have our desires of Him, is to do things\nfrom a legal or old-covenant spirit, and that is expressly laid down\nwhere it is said, \"To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned\nof grace, but of debt\"; that is, he appears before God through the\nLaw, and his obedience to it (Rom 4:4,5). And again, though they\nbe in themselves Gospel-ordinances, as baptism, breaking of bread,\nhearing, praying, meditating, or the like; yet, I say, if they be\nnot done in the right spirit, they are thereby used as a hand by\nthe devil to pull thee under the Covenant of Works, as in former\ntimes he used circumcision, which was no part of the Covenant\nof Works, the Ten Commands, but a seal of the righteousness of\nfaith; yet, I say, they being done in a legal spirit, the soul was\nthereby brought under the Covenant of Works, and so most miserably\ndestroyed unawares to itself, and that because there was not a\nright understanding of the nature and terms of the said covenants.\nAnd so it is now; souls being ignorant of the nature of the old\ncovenant, do even by their subjecting to several Gospel ordinances,\nrun themselves under the old covenant, and fly off from Christ,\neven when they think they are acoming closer to him. O, miserable!\nIf you would know when or how this is done, whether in one particular\nor more, I shall show you as followeth--\n\n1. That man doth bring himself under the Covenant of Works, by Gospel\nordinances, when he cannot be persuaded that God will have mercy\nupon him except he do yield obedience to such or such a particular\nthing commanded in the Word. This is the very same spirit that\nwas in the false brethren (spoken of Acts 15; Galatians, the whole\nEpistle), whose judgment was, that unless such and such things were\ndone, \"they could not be saved.\" As now-a-days we have also some\nthat say, Unless your infants be baptized they cannot be saved;23\nand others say, unless you be rightly baptized, you have no ground\nto be assured that you are believers, or members of churches; which\nis so far off from being so good as a legal spirit, that it is the\nspirit of blasphemy, as is evident, because they do reckon that\nthe Spirit, righteousness, and faith of Jesus, and the confession\nthereof, is not sufficient to declare men to be members of the Lord\nJesus; when, on the other side, though they be rank hypocrites,\nyet if they do yield an outward subjection to this or that, they\nare counted presently communicable members, which doth clearly\ndiscover that there is not so much honour given to the putting on\nthe righteousness of the Son of God as there is given to that which\na man may do, and yet go to Hell within an hour after; nay, in the\nvery doing of it doth shut himself for ever from Jesus Christ.\n\n2. Men may do things from a legal or old-covenant spirit when they\ncontent themselves with their doing of such and such a thing, as\nprayers, reading, hearing, baptism, breaking of bread, or the like;\nI say, when they can content themselves with the thing done, and\nsit down at ease and content because the thing is done. As, for\ninstance, some men being persuaded that such and such a thing is\ntheir duty, and that unless they do do it, God will not be pleased\nwith them, nor suffer them to be heirs of His kingdom, they from\nthis spirit do rush into and do the thing, which being done, they\nare content, as being persuaded that now they are without doubt in\na happy condition, because they have done such things, like unto\nthe Pharisee, who, because he had done this and the other thing,\nsaid therefore, in a bragging way, \"Lord, I thank thee that I am\nnot as this publican\"; for I have done thus and thus; when, alas!\nthe Lord give him never a good word for his labour, but rather a\nreproof.\n\n3. That man doth act from a legal spirit who maketh the strictness\nof his walking the ground of his assurance for eternal life. Some\nmen, all the ground they have to believe that they shall be saved,\nit is because they walk not so loose as their neighbours, they\nare not so bad as others are, and therefore they question not but\nthat they shall do well. Now this is a false ground, and a thing\nthat is verily legal, and savours only of some slight and shallow\napprehensions of the old covenant. I call them shallow apprehensions,\nbecause they are not right and sound, and are such as will do the\nsoul no good, but beguile it, in that the knowledge of the nature\nof this covenant doth not appear to the soul, only some commanding\npower it hath on the soul, which the soul endeavouring to give up\nitself unto, it doth find some peace and content, and especially\nif it find itself to be pretty willing to yield itself to its\ncommands. And is not this the very ground of thy hoping that God\nwill save thee from the wrath to come? If one should ask thee what\nground thou hast to think thou shalt be saved, wouldst thou not\nsay, Truly, because I have left my sins, and because I am more\ninclinable to do good, [Do not think that I am against the order\nof the Gospel]. and to learn, and get more knowledge; I endeavour\nto walk in church order, as they call it, and therefore I hope God\nhath done a good work for me, and I hope will save my soul. Alas,\nalas! this is a very trick of the devil to make souls build the\nground of their salvation upon this their strictness, and abstaining\nfrom the wickedness of their former lives, and because they desire\nto be stricter and stricter. Now, if you would know such a man or\nwoman, you shall find them in this frame--namely, when they think\ntheir hearts are good, then they think also that Christ will have\nmercy upon them; but when their corruptions work, then they doubt\nand scruple until again they have their hearts more ready to do the\nthings contained in the law and ordinances of the Gospel. Again,\nsuch men do commonly cheer up their hearts, and encourage themselves\nstill to hope all shall be well, and that because they are not so\nbad as the rest, but more inclinable than they, saying, I am glad\nI am not as this publican, but better than he, more righteous than\nhe (Luke 18:11).\n\n4. This is a legal and old-covenant spirit that secretly persuades\nthe soul that if ever it will be saved by Christ, if must be fitted\nfor Christ by its getting of a good heart and good intentions to\ndo this and that for Christ; I say, that the soul when it comes\nto Christ may not be rejected or turned off; when in deed and in\ntruth this is the very way for the soul to turn itself from Jesus\nChrist, instead of turning to Him; for such a soul looks upon\nChrist rather to be a painted Saviour or a cypher than a very and\nreal Saviour. Friend, if thou canst fit thyself, what need hast\nthou of Christ? If thou cant get qualifications to carry to Christ\nthat thou mightst be accepted, thou dost not look to be accepted\nin the Beloved. Shall I tell thee? Thou art as if a man should say,\nI will make myself clean, and then I will go to Christ that He may\nwash me; or like a man possessed, that will first cast the devils\nout of himself, and then come to Christ for cure from Him. Thou,\nmust, therefore, if thou wilt so lay hold of Christ as not to be\nrejected by Him; I say, thou must come to Him as the basest in the\nworld, more fit to be damned, if thou hadst thy right, than to\nhave the least smile, hope, or comfort from Him. Come with the fire\nof Hell in thy conscience, come with thy heart hard, dead, cold,\nfull of wickedness and madness against thy own salvation; come as\nrenouncing all thy tears, prayers, watchings, fastings; come as a\nblood-red sinner; do not stay from Christ till thou hast a greater\nsense of thy own misery, nor of the reality of God's mercy; do not\nstay while thy heart is softer and thy spirit in a better frame,\nbut go against thy mind, and against the mind of the devil and sin,\nthrow thyself down at the foot of Christ, with a halter about thy\nneck, and say, Lord Jesus, hear a sinner, a hard-hearted sinner,\na sinner that deserveth to be damned, to be cast into Hell; and\nresolve never to return, or to give over crying unto Him, till thou\ndo find that He hath washed thy conscience from dead works with\nHis blood virtually, and clothed thee with His own righteousness,\nand make thee complete in Himself; this is the way to come to\nChrist.\n\nTHE USE OF THE NEW COVENANT\n\nNow a few words to the second doctrine, and so I shall draw towards\na conclusion.\n\nFIRST USE. The doctrine doth contain in it very much comfort to\nthy [The use, for the second doctrine]. soul who art a new-covenant\nman, or one of those who are under the new covenant. There is,\nFirst, pardon of sin; and, Second, the manifestation of the same;\nand, Third, as power to cause thee to persevere through faith to\nthe very end of thy life.\n\nFirst, There is, first, pardon of sin, which is not in the old\ncovenant; for in that there is nothing but commands; and if not\nobeyed, condemned. O, but there is pardon of sin, even of all thy\nsins, against the first and second covenant, under which thou art,\nand that freely upon the account of Jesus Christ the righteousness,\nHe having in thy name, nature, and in the room of thy person,\nfulfilled all the whole law in Himself for thee, and freely giveth\nit unto thee. O, though the law be a ministration of death and\ncondemnation, yet the Gospel, under which thou art, is the ministration\nof life and salvation (2 Cor 3:6-9). Though they that live and die\nunder the first covenant, God regardeth them not (Heb 8:9). Yet they\nthat are under the second are as the apple of His eye (Deu 32:10;\nPsa 17:8; Zech 2:8). Though they that are under the first, the Law,\nare \"called to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, the sound of\na trumpet,\" and a burning mountain, which sight was so terrible,\nthat Moses said, \"I exceedingly fear and quake\" (Heb 12:18-22).\n\"But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living\nGod, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,\nto the general assembly and church of the firstborn,\" whose names\n\"are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the\nspirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus,\" to blessed Jesus,\n\"the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling,\nthat speaketh better things than that of Abel\" (Heb 12:22-24). Even\nforgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7).\n\nSecond, The covenant that thou art under doth allow of repentance\nin case thou chance to slip or fall by sudden temptation; but the\nlaw allows of none (Rev 2:5; Gal 3:10). The covenant that thou art\nunder allows thee strength also; but the law is only a sound of\nwords, commanding words, but no power is given by them to fulfill\nthe things commanded (Heb 12:19). Thou that art under this second,\nart made a son; but they that art under that first, are slaves and\nvagabonds (Gen 4:12). Thou that art under this, hast a Mediator,\nthat is to stand between justice and thee; but they under the other,\ntheir mediator is turned an accuser, and speaketh most bitter things\nagainst their souls (1 Tim 2:5; John 5:45). Again; the way that\nthou hast into Paradise is a new and living way--mark, a living way;\nbut they that are under the old covenant, their way into Paradise\nis a killing and destroying way (Heb 10:20; Gen 3:24). Again; thou\nhas the righteousness of God to appear before God withal; but they\nunder the old covenant have nothing but the righteousness of the\nLaw, which Paul counts dirt and dung (Phil 3:7-9). Thou hast that\nwhich will make thee perfect, but the other will not do so--\"The\nlaw made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did,\"\nwhich is the Son of God, \"by the which we draw nigh unto God\" (Heb\n7:19).\n\nThird, The new covenant promiseth thee a new heart, as I said before;\nbut the old covenant promiseth none; and a new spirit, but the old\ncovenant promiseth none (Eze 36:26). The new covenant conveyeth\nfaith, but the old one conveyeth none (Gal 3). Through the new\ncovenant the love of God is conveyed into the heart; but through\nthe old covenant there is conveyed none of it savingly through Jesus\nChrist. Romans 5. The new covenant doth not only give a promise\nof life, but also with that the assurance of life, but the old one\ngiveth none; the old covenant wrought wrath in us and to us, but\nthe new one worketh love (Rom 4:15; Gal 5:6). Thus much for the\nfirst use.\n\nSECOND USE. As all these, and many more privileges, do come to thee\nthrough or by the new covenant, and that thou mightst not doubt of\nthe certainty of these glorious privileges, God hath so ordered it\nthat they do all come to thee by way of purchase, being obtained\nfor thee, ready to thy hand, by that one Man Jesus, who is the\nMediator, or the Person that hath principally to do both with God\nand thy soul in the things pertaining to this covenant; so that\nnow thou mayst look on all the glorious things that are spoken of\nin the new covenant, and say, All these must be mine; I must have\na share in them; Christ hath purchased them for me, and given them\nto me. Now I need not to say, O! but how shall I come by them? God\nis holy, I am a sinner; God is just, and I have offended. No; but\nthou mayst say, Though I am vile, and deserve nothing, yet Christ\nis holy, and He deserveth all things; though I have so provoked\nGod by breaking His law that He could not in justice look upon me,\nyet Christ hath so gloriously paid the debt that now God can say,\nWelcome, soul, I will give thee grace, I will give thee glory,\nthou shalt lie in My bosom, and go no more out; My Son hath pleased\nMe, He hath satisfied the loud cries of the Law and justice, that\ncalled for speedy vengeance on thee; He hath fulfilled the whole\nLaw, He hath brought in everlasting righteousness (Dan 9:24,25).\nHe hath overcome the devil, He hath washed away thy sins with His\nmost precious blood, He hath destroyed the power of death, and\ntriumphs over all the enemies. This He did in His own Person,\nas a common Jesus, for all persons in their stead, even as for so\nmany as shall come in to Him; for His victory I give to them, His\nrighteousness I give to them, His merits I bestow on them, and\nlook upon them holy, harmless, undefiled, and for ever comely in\nmy eye, through the victory of the Captain of their salvation (1\nCor 15:55-57).\n\nAnd that thou mayest, in deed and in truth, not only hear and read\nthis glorious doctrine, but be found one that hath the life of it\nin thy heart, thou must be much in studying of the two covenants,\nthe nature of the one, and the nature of the other, and the conditions\nof them that are under them both. Also, thou must be well-grounded\nin the manner of the victory, and merits of Christ, how they are\nmade thine.\n\nFirst, And here thou must, in the first place, believe that the\nbabe that was born of Mary, lay in a manger at Bethlehem, in the\ntime of Caesar Augustus; that He, that babe, that child, was the\nvery Christ.\n\nSecond, Thou must believe that in the days of Tiberius Caesar,\nwhen Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and Pontius Pilate governor\nof Judea, that in those days He was crucified, or hanged on a tree\nbetween two thieves, which by computation, or according to the best\naccount, is above sixteen hundred years since. 24\n\nThird, Thou must also believe that when He did hang upon that cross\nof wood on the Mount Calvary, that then He did die there for the\nsins of those that did die before He was crucified; also for their\nsins that were alive at the time of His crucifying, and also that\nHe did by that one death give satisfaction to God for all those\nthat should be born and believe in Him after His death, even unto\nthe world's end. I say, this thou must believe, upon pain of eternal\ndamnation, that by that one death, that when He did die, He did put\nan end to the curse of the Law and sin [This is the doctrine that\nI will live and die by, and be willing to be damned if it saves me\nnot. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power\nof God to salvation; therefore I preach Christ crucified, to the\nJews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness (Rom 1:16; 1\nCor 1:23).] and at that time by His death on the Cross, and by His\nresurrection out of Joseph's sepulchre, He did bring in a sufficient\nrighteousness to clothe thee withal completely--\"For by one offering\nHe hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.\" Not that He\nshould often offer Himself--\"for then must He often have suffered\nsince the foundation of the world; but now ONCE in the end of the\nworld hath He appeared to put,\" or do, \"away sin by the sacrifice\nof Himself\"--namely, when He hanged on the Cross. For it is by the\noffering up of the body of this blessed Jesus Christ ONCE for all.\nIndeed, other priests may offer oftentimes sacrifices and offerings\nwhich can never take away sins; but this Man, this Jesus, this\nanointed and appointed sacrifice, when He had offered ONE sacrifice\nfor sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 10:14;\n9:24,25).\n\n[A word of advice]. But because thou in thy pursuit after the faith\nof the Gospel wilt be sure to meet with devils, heretics, particular\ncorruptions, as unbelief, ignorance, the spirit of works animated\non by suggestions, false conclusions, with damnable doctrines, I\nshall therefore briefly, besides what hath been already said, speak\na word or two before I leave thee of further advice, especially\nconcerning these two things. First, How thou art to conceive of\nthe Saviour. Second, How thou art to make application of Him.\n\nFirst. For the Saviour. 1. Thou must look upon Him to be very God\nand very Man; not man only, nor God only, but God and Man in one\nPerson, both natures joined together, for the putting of Him in a\ncapacity to be a suitable Saviour; suitable, I say, to answer both\nsides and parties, with whom He hath to do in the office of His\nMediatorship and being of a Saviour. 2. Thou must not only do this,\nbut thou must also consider and believe that even what was done\nby Jesus Christ, it was not done by one nature without the other;\nbut thou must consider that both natures, both the Godhead and the\nmanhood, did gloriously concur and join together in the undertaking\nof the salvation of our bodies and souls; not that the Godhead\nundertook anything without the manhood, neither did the manhood\ndo anything without the virtue and union of the Godhead; and thou\nmust of necessity do this, otherwise thou canst not find any sound\nground and footing for thy soul to rest upon.\n\nFor if thou look upon any of these asunder--that is to say, the\nGodhead without the manhood, or the manhood without the Godhead--thou\nwilt conclude that what was done by the Godhead was not done for\nman, being done without the manhood; or else, that that which was\ndone with the manhood could not answer Divine justice, in not doing\nwhat it did by the virtue and in union with the Godhead; for it\nwas the Godhead that gave virtue and value to the suffering of the\nmanhood, and the manhood being joined therewith, that giveth us an\ninterest into the heavenly glory and comforts of the Godhead.\n\nWhat ground can a man have to believe that Christ is his Saviour,\nif he do not believe that He suffered for sin in his nature? And\nwhat ground also can a man have to think that God the Father is\nsatisfied, being infinite, if he believe not also that He who gave\nthe satisfaction was equal to Him who was offended?\n\nTherefore, beloved, when you read of the offering of the body of\nthe Son of Man for our sins, then consider that He did it in union\nwith, and by the help of, the eternal Godhead. \"How much more\nshall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered\nHimself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead\nworks,\" etc.\n\nAnd when thou readest of the glorious works and splendour of the\nGodhead in Christ, then consider that all that was done by the\nGodhead, it was done as it had union and communion with the manhood.\nAnd then thou shalt see that the devil is overcome by God-man;\nsin, death, Hell, the grave, and all overcome by Jesus, God-man,\nand then thou shalt find them overcome indeed. They must needs be\novercome when God doth overcome them; and we have good ground to\nhope the victory is ours, when in our nature they are overcome.\n\nSecond. The second thing is, how to apply, or to make application\nof this Christ to the soul. And for this there are to be considered\nthe following particulars--\n\n1. That when Jesus Christ did thus appear, being born of Mary, He\nwas looked upon by the Father as if the sin of the whole world was\nupon Him; nay, further, God did look upon Him and account Him the\nsin of man--\"He hath made Him to be sin for us,\" (2 Cor 5:21) that\nis, God made His Son Jesus Christ our sin, or reckoned Him to be,\nnot only a sinner, but the very bulk of sin of the whole world, and\ncondemned Him so severely as if He had been nothing but sin. \"For\nwhat the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,\nGod sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for\nsin, condemned sin in the flesh\"--that is, for our sins condemned\nHis Son Jesus Christ; as if He had in deed and truth been our\nvery sin, although altogether \"without sin\" (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21).\nTherefore, as to the taking away of thy curse, thou must reckon\nHim to be made sin for thee. And as to His being thy justification,\nthou must reckon Him to be thy righteousness; for, saith the\nScripture, \"He,\" that is, God, \"hath made HIM to be SIN for us,\nthough He knew no sin, that we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of\nGod in HIM.\"\n\n2. Consider for whose sakes all this glorious design of the Father\nand the Son was brought to pass; and that you shall find to be for\nman, for sinful man (2 Cor 8:9).\n\n3. The terms on which it is made ours; and that you will find to be\na free gift, merely arising from the tender-heartedness of God--you\nare \"justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that\nis in Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through\nfaith in His blood,\" etc. (Rom 3:25).\n\n4. How men are to reckon it theirs; and that is, upon the same terms\nwhich God doth offer it, which is freely, as they are worthless\nand undeserving creatures, as they are without all good, and also\nunable to do any good. This, I say, is the right way of applying\nthe merits of Christ to thy soul, for they are freely given to\nthee, a poor sinner, not for anything that is in thee, or done by\nthee, but freely as thou art a sinner, and so standest in absolute\nneed thereof.\n\nAnd, Christian, thou art not in this thing to follow thy sense\nand feeling, but the very Word of God. The thing that doth do the\npeople of God the greatest injury, it is their too little hearkening\nto what the Gospel saith, and their too much giving credit to what\nthe Law, sin, the devil, and conscience saith; and upon this very\nground to conclude that because there is a certainty of guilt upon\nthe soul, therefore there is also for certain, by sin, damnation\nto be brought upon the soul. This is now to set the Word of God\naside, and to give credit to what is formed by the contrary; but\nthou must give more credit to one syllable of the written Word\nof the Gospel than thou must give to all the saints and angels in\nHeaven and earth; much more than to the devil and thy own guilty\nconscience.\n\nLet me give you a parable:--There was a certain man that had\ncommitted treason against his king; but forasmuch as the king had\ncompassion upon him, he sent him, by the hand of a faithful messenger,\na pardon under his own hand and seal; but in the country where this\npoor man dwelt, there were also many that sought to trouble him,\nby often putting of him in mind of his treason, and the law that\nwas to be executed on the offender. Now which way should this man\nso honour his king, but as by believing his handwriting, which was\nthe pardon. Certainly he would honour him more by so doing than to\nregard all the clamours of his enemies continually against him.\n\nJust thus it is here: thou having committed treason against the\nKing of Heaven, He through compassion, for Christ's sake, hath\nsent thee a pardon; but the devil, the Law, and thy conscience do\ncontinually seek to disturb thee by bringing thy sins afresh into\nthy remembrance. But now, wouldst thou honour thy King? Why then,\nhe that believeth \"the record that God hath given of His Son,\" hath\nset to his seal that God is true. \"And this is the record, that\nGod hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son\"\n(1 John 5:11). And therefore, my brethren, seeing God our Father\nhath sent us damnable traitors a pardon from Heaven, even all the\npromises of the Gospel, and also hath sealed to the certainty of\nit with the heart-blood of His dear Son, let us not be daunted,\nthough our enemies, with terrible voices, do bring our former life\nnever so often into our remembrance.\n\nObject. But, saith the soul, how, if after I have received a pardon,\nI should commit treason again? What should I do then?\n\nAnsw. Set the case: thou hast committed abundance of treason, He\nhath by Him abundance of pardons--\"Let the wicked forsake his way,\nand the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the\nLORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will\nabundantly pardon\" (Isa 55:7).\n\nSometimes I myself have been in such a strait that I have been almost\ndriven to my wit's ends with the sight and sense of the greatness\nof my sins; but calling to mind that God was God in His mercy, pity,\nand love, as well as in His holiness, justice, etc.; and again,\nconsidering the ability of the satisfaction that was given to\nholiness and justice, to the end there might be way made for sinners\nto lay hold of this mercy; I say, I considering this, when tempted\nto doubt and despair, I have answered in this manner--\n\n\"Lord, here is one of the greatest sinners that ever the ground\nbare; a sinner against the Law, and a sinner against the Gospel. I\nhave sinned against light, and I have sinned against mercy. And now,\nLord, the guilt of them breaks my heart. The devil also he would\nhave me despair, telling of me that Thou art so far from hearing\nmy prayers in this my distress, that I cannot anger Thee worse\nthan to call upon Thee; for saith he, Thou art resolved for ever\nto damn, and not to grant me the least of Thy favour; yet, Lord,\nI would fain have forgiveness. And Thy Word, though much may be\ninferred from it against me, yet it saith, If I come unto Thee,\nThou will in nowise cast me out. Lord, shall I honour Thee most\nby believing Thou canst pardon my sins, or by believing Thou canst\nnot? Shall I honour Thee most by believing Thou wilt pardon my\nsins, or by believing Thou wilt not? Shall I honour the blood of Thy\nSon also by despairing that the virtue thereof is not sufficient,\nor by believing that it is sufficient to purge me from all my\nblood-red and crimson sins? Surely, Thou that couldst find so much\nmercy as to pardon Manasseh, Mary Magdalene, the three thousand\nmurderers, persecuting Paul, murderous and adulterous David, and\nblaspheming Peter--Thou that offeredst mercy to Simon Magus, a\nwitch, and didst receive the astrologers and conjurors in the 19th\nof Acts--Thou hast mercy enough for one poor sinner. Lord, set\nthe case: my sins were bigger than all these, and I less deserved\nmercy than any of these, yet Thou hast said in Thy Word that he\nthat cometh to thee Thou wilt in \"nowise cast out.\" And God hath\ngiven comfort to my soul, even to such a sinner as I am. And I tell\nyou, there is no way so to honour God, and to beat out the devil,\nas to stick to the truth of God's Word and the merits of Christ's\nblood by believing. When Abraham believed--even against hope and\nreason--he gave glory to God (Rom 4). And this is our victory,\neven our faith (1 John 5:4). Believe, and all things are possible\nto you. He that believeth shall be saved. He that believeth on the\nSon hath everlasting life, and shall never perish, neither shall\nany man pluck them out of Christ's Father's hands.\"\n\nAnd if thou dost indeed believe this, thou wilt not only confess\nHim as the Quakers do--that is, that He was born at Bethlehem of\nMary, suffered on Mount Calvary under Pontius Pilate, was dead and\nburied, rose again, and ascended, etc.; for all this they confess,\nand in the midst of their confession they do verily deny that His\ndeath on that Mount Calvary did give satisfaction to God for the sins\nof the world, and that His resurrection out of Joseph's sepulchre\nis the cause of our justification in the sight of God, angels, and\ndevils; but, I say, if thou dost believe these things indeed, thou\ndost believe that then, so long ago, even before thou wast born,\nHe did bear thy sins in His own body, which then was hanged on\nthe tree, and never before nor since; that thy old man was then\ncrucified with Him, namely, in the same body then crucified (See\n1 Peter 2:24; and Rom 6:6). This is nonsense to them that believe\nnot; but if thou do indeed believe, thou seest it so plain, and\nyet such a mystery, that it makes thee wonder. But,\n\n[THIRD USE]. In the third place, this glorious doctrine of the new\ncovenant, and the Mediator thereof, will serve for the comforting,\nand the maintaining of the comfort, of the children of the new\ncovenant this way also--that is, that He did not only die and rise\nagain, but that He did ascend in His own Person into Heaven to\ntake possession thereof for me, to prepare a place there for me,\nstandeth there in the second part of His suretyship to bring me\nsafe in my coming thither, and to present me in a glorious manner,\nwithout spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; that He is there\nexercising of His priestly office for me, pleading the perfection\nof His own righteousness for me, and the virtue of His blood for\nme; that He is there ready to answer the accusations of the Law,\ndevil, and sin for me. Here thou mayst through faith look the very\ndevil in the face, and rejoice, saying, O Satan! I have a precious\nJesus, a soul-comforting Jesus, a sin-pardoning Jesus. Here thou\nmayst hear the biggest thunder-crack that the Law can give, and\nyet not be daunted. Here thou mayst say, O Law! thou mayst roar\nagainst sin, but thou canst not reach me; thou mayst curse and\ncondemn, but not my soul; for I have righteous Jesus, a holy Jesus,\na soul-saving Jesus, and He hath delivered me from thy threats,\nfrom thy curses, from thy condemnations; I am out of thy reach,\nand out of thy bounds; I am brought into another covenant, under\nbetter promises, promises of life and salvation, free promises to\ncomfort me without my merit, even through the blood of Jesus, the\nsatisfaction given to God for me by Him; therefore, though thou\nlayest my sins to my charge, and sayest thou wilt prove me guilty,\nyet so long as Christ is above ground, and hath brought in everlasting\nrighteousness, and given that to me, I shall not fear thy threats,\nthy charges, thy soul-scarring denunciations; my Christ is all, hath\ndone all, and will deliver me from all that thou, and whatsoever\nelse can bring an accusation against me. Thus also thou may say when\ndeath assaulteth thee--O death, where is thy sting? Thou mayst bite\nindeed, but thou canst not devour; I have comfort by and through\nthe one Man Jesus; Jesus Christ, He hath taken thee captive, and\ntaken away thy strength; He hath pierced thy heart, and let out\nall thy soul-destroying poison; therefore, though I see thee, I am\nnot afraid of thee; though I feel thee, I am not daunted; for thou\nhast lost thy sting in the side of the Lord Jesus; through Him I\novercome thee, and set foot upon thee. Also, O Satan! though I hear\nthee grumble, and make a hellish noise, and though thou threaten me\nvery highly, yet my soul shall triumph over thee, so long as Christ\nis alive and can be heard in Heaven; so long as He hath broken thy\nhead, and won the field of thee; so long as thou are in prison, and\ncanst not have thy desire. I, therefore, when I hear thy voice, do\npitch my thoughts on Christ my Saviour, and do hearken when He will\nsay, for He will speak comfort; He saith, He hath got the victory,\nand doth give to me the crown, and causeth me to triumph through\nHis most glorious conquest.\n\nNay, my brethren, the saints under the Levitical Law, who had not\nthe new covenant sealed or confirmed any further than by promise\nthat it should be; I say, they, when they thought of the glorious\nprivileges that God had promised should come, though at that time\nthey were not come, but seen afar off, how confidently were they\npersuaded of them, and embraced them, and were so fully satisfied\nas touching the certainty of them, that they did not stick at the\nparting with all for the enjoying of them. [Shall not we then that\nsee all things already done before us make it a strong argument\nto increase our faith (Heb 11).] How many times doth David in the\nPsalms admire, triumph, and persuade others to do so also, through\nthe faith that he had in the thing that was to be done? Also Job,\nin what faith doth he say he should see his Redeemer, though He\nhad not then shed one drop of blood for him, yet because He had\npromised so to do; and this was signified by the blood of bulls\nand goats. Also Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, etc., how\ngloriously in confidence did they speak of Christ, and His death,\nblood, conquest, and everlasting priesthood, even before He did\nmanifest Himself in the flesh which He took of the Virgin. [For\nthey were so many sure promises, with a remembrance in them, also\nfor the better satisfaction of them that believed them]. We that\nhave lived since Christ, have more ground to hope than they under\nthe old covenant had, though they had the word of the just God for\nthe ground of their faith. Mark, they had only the promise that He\nshould and would come; but we have the assured fulfilling of those\npromises, because He is come; they were told that He should spill\nHis blood, but we do see He hath spilt His blood; they ventured all\nupon His standing Surety for them, but we see He hath fulfilled,\nand that faithfully too, the office of His Suretyship, in that,\naccording to the engagement, He hath redeemed us poor sinners;\nthey ventured on the new covenant, though not actually sealed, only\n\"because He judged Him faithful who had promised\" (Heb 11:11). But\nwe have the covenant sealed, all things are completely done, even\nas sure as the heart-blood of a crucified Jesus can make it.\n\nThere is a great difference between their dispensation and ours\nfor comfort, even as much as there is between the making of a bond\nwith a promise to seal it, and the sealing of the same. It was\nmade indeed in their time, but it was not sealed until the time\nthe blood was shed on the Mount Calvary; and that we might indeed\nhave our faith mount up with wings like an eagle, he showeth us what\nencouragement and ground of faith we have to conclude we shall be\neverlastingly delivered, saying, \"For where a testament\" or covenant\n\"is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For\na testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no\nstrength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the\nfirst testament was dedicated without blood\" (Heb 9:16-18). As\nChrist's blood was the confirmation of the new covenant, yet it\nwas not sealed in Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob's days to confirm the\ncovenant that God did tell them of, and yet they believed; therefore\nwe ought to give the more earnest heed to believe the things that\nwe have heard, and not in any wise to let them be questioned; and\nthe rather, because you see the testament is not only now made,\nbut confirmed; not only spoken of and promised, but verily sealed\nby the death and blood of Jesus, who is the Testator thereof.\n\nMy brethren, I would not leave you ignorant of this one thing, that\nthough the Jews had the promise of a sacrifice, of an everlasting\nHigh Priest that should deliver them, yet they had but the promise;\nfor Christ was not sacrificed, and was not then come a high priest\nof good things to come; only the type, the shadow, the figure, the\nceremonies they had, together with Christ's engaging as Surety to\nbring all things to pass that were promised should come, and upon\nthat account received and saved.\n\nIt was with them and their dispensation as this similitude gives\nyou to understand:--Set the case that there be two men who make a\ncovenant that the one should give the other ten thousand sheep on\ncondition the other give him two thousand pound; but forasmuch as\nthe money is not to be paid down presently, therefore if he that\nbuyeth the sheep will have any of them before the day of payment,\nthe creditor requesteth a surety; and upon the engagement of the\nsurety there is part of the sheep given to the debtor even before\nthe day of payment, but the other at and after. So it is here; Christ\ncovenanted with His Father for His sheep--\"I lay down My life for\nMy sheep,\" saith He--but the money was not to be paid down so soon\nas the bargain was made, as I have already said, yet some of the\nsheep were saved even before the money was paid, and that because\nof the Suretyship of Christ; as it is written, \"Being justified,\" or\nsaved, \"freely by His grace through the redemption,\" or purchase,\n\"that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation\nthrough faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the\nremission of sins that are past,\" or the sinners who died in the\nfaith before Christ was crucified, through God's forbearing till the\npayment was paid; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness;\n\"that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth\nin Jesus\" (Rom 3:24-26).\n\nThe end of my speaking of this is, to show you that it is not wisdom\nnow to doubt whether God will save you or no, but to believe, because\nall things are finished as to our justification: the covenant not\nonly made, but also sealed; the debt paid, the prison doors flung\noff of the hooks, with a proclamation from Heaven of deliverance\nto the prisoners of hope, saying, \"Turn you to the stronghold, ye\nprisoners of hope, even today do I declare,\" saith God, \"that I\nwill render double unto thee\" (Zech 9:12). And, saith Christ, when\nHe was come, \"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath\nanointed Me to preach the Gospel,\" that is, good tidings \"to the\npoor,\" that their sins should be pardoned, that their souls shall\nbe saved. \"He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach\ndeliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind,\nto set at liberty them that are bruised,\" and to comfort them that\nmourn, \"to preach the acceptable year of the Lord\" (Luke 4:18,19).\n\nTherefore here, soul, thou mayst come to Jesus Christ for anything\nthou wantest, as to a common treasure-house, being the principal\nMan for the distributing of the things made mention of in the new\ncovenant, He having them all in His own custody by right of purchase;\nfor He hath bought them all, paid for them all. Dost thou want\nfaith? then come for it to the Man Christ Jesus (Heb 12:2). Dost\nthou want the Spirit? then ask it of Jesus. Dost thou want wisdom?\nDost thou want grace of any sort? Dost thou want a new heart? Dost\nthou want strength against thy lusts, against the devil's temptations?\nDost thou want strength to carry thee through afflictions of body,\nand afflictions of spirit, through persecutions? Wouldst thou\nwillingly hold out, stand to the last, and be more than a conqueror?\nthen be sure thou meditate enough on the merits of the blood of\nJesus, how He hath undertaken for thee, that He hath done the work\nof thy salvation in thy room, that He is filled of God on purpose\nto fill thee, and is willing to communicate whatsoever is in Him\nor about Him to thee. Consider this, I say, and triumph in it.\n\nAgain; this may inform us of the safe state of the saints as touching\ntheir perseverance, that they shall stand though Hell rages, though\nthe devil roareth, and all the world endeavoureth the ruin of the\nsaints of God, though some, through ignorance of the virtue of the\noffering of the body of Jesus Christ, do say a man may be a child\nof God today, and a child of the devil tomorrow, which is gross\nignorance; for what? Is the blood of Christ, the death of Christ,\nthe resurrection of Christ, of no more virtue than to bring in for\nus an uncertain salvation? or must the effectualness of Christ's\nmerits, as touching our perseverance, be helped on by the doings\nof man? Surely they that are predestinated are also justified;\nand they that are justified, they shall be glorified (Rom 8:30).\nSaints, do not doubt of the salvation of your souls, unless you do\nintend to undervalue Christ's blood; and do not think but that He\nthat hath begun the good work of His grace in you will perfect it\nto the second coming of our Lord Jesus (Phil 1:6). Should not we,\nas well as Paul, say, I am persuaded that nothing shall separate\nus from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 8). O let\nthe saints know, that unless the devil can pluck Christ out of\nHeaven, he cannot pull a true believer out of Christ. When I say\na true believer, I do mean such an one as hath the faith of the\noperation of God in his soul.\n\nLastly, Is there such mercy as this? such privileges as these? Is\nthere so much ground of comfort, and so much cause to be glad? Is\nthere so much store in Christ, and such a ready heart in Him to\ngive it to me? Hath His bleeding wounds so much in them, as that\nthe fruits thereof should be the salvation of my soul, of my sinful\nsoul, as to save me, sinful me, rebellious me, desperate me? What\nthen? Shall not I now be holy? Shall not I now study, strive, and\nlay out myself for Him that hath laid out Himself soul and body\nfor me? Shall I now love ever a lust or sin? Shall I now be ashamed\nof the cause, ways, people, or saints of Jesus Christ? Shall I now\nyield my members as instruments of righteousness, seeing my end\nis everlasting life? (Rom 6). Shall Christ think nothing too dear\nfor me? and shall I count anything too dear for Him? Shall I grieve\nHim with my foolish carriage? Shall I slight His counsel by following\nof my own will? Thus, therefore, the doctrine of the new covenant\ndoth call for holiness, engage to holiness, and maketh the children\nof that covenant to take pleasure therein. Let no man, therefore,\nconclude on this, that the doctrine of the Gospel is a licentious\ndoctrine; but if they do, it is because they are fools, and such\nas have not tasted of the virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ;\nneither did they ever feel the nature and sway that the love of\nChrist hath in the hearts of His. And thus also you may see that\nthe doctrine of the Gospel is of great advantage to the people of\nGod that are already come in, or to them that shall at the consideration\nhereof be willing to come in, to partake of the glorious benefits\nof this glorious covenant. But, saith the poor soul,\n\nObject. Alas! I doubt this is too good for me.\n\nInquirer. Why so, I pray you?\n\nObject. Alas! because I am a sinner.\n\nReply. Why, all this is bestowed upon none but sinners, as it is\nwritten, While we were ungodly, Christ died for us (Rom 5:6,8).\n\"He came into the world to save sinners\" (1 Tim 1:15).\n\nObject. O, but I am one of the chief of sinners.\n\nReply. Why, this is for the chief of sinners--\"Christ Jesus came\ninto the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,\" saith Paul (1\nTim 1:15).\n\nObject. O, but my sins are so big, that I cannot conceive how I\nshould have mercy.\n\nReply. Why, soul? Didst thou ever kill anybody? Didst thou ever burn\nany of thy children in the fire to idols? Hast thou been a witch?\nDidst thou ever use enchantments and conjuration? [You that are\nresolved to go on in your sins, meddle not with this]. Didst thou\never curse, and swear, and deny Christ? And yet if thou hast,\nthere is yet hopes of pardon; yea, such sinners as these have been\npardoned, as appears by these and the like Scriptures, 2 Chronicles\n33:1-10, compared with verses 12, 13. Again, Acts 19:19, 20; 8:22,\ncompared with verse 9; Matthew 26:74, 75.\n\nObject. But though I have not sinned in such kind of sins, yet it\nmay be I have sinned as bad.\n\nAnsw. That cannot likely be; yet though thou hast, still there is\nground of mercy for thee, forasmuch as thou art under the promise\n(John 6:37).\n\nThe unpardonable sin.\n\nObject. Alas! man, I am afraid that I have sinned the unpardonable\nsin, and therefore there is no hope for me.\n\nAnsw. Dost thou know what the unpardonable sin, the sin against\nthe Holy Ghost, is? and when it is committed?\n\nReply. It is a sin against light.\n\nAnsw. That is true; yet every sin against light is not the sin\nagainst the Holy Ghost.\n\nReply. Say you so?\n\nAnsw. Yea, and I prove it thus--If every sin against light had been\nthe sin that is unpardonable, then had David and Peter and others\nsinned that sin; but though they did sin against light, yet they\ndid not sin that sin; therefore every sin against light is not the\nsin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable sin.\n\nObject. But the Scripture saith, \"If we sin willfully after that we\nhave received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more\nsacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment\nand fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.\"\n\nAnsw. Do you know what that willful sin is?\n\nReply. Why, what is it? Is it not for a man to sin willingly after\nenlightening?\n\nAnsw. 1. Yes; yet doubtless every willing sin is not that; for then\nDavid had sinned it when he lay with Bathsheba; and Jonah, when he\nfled from the presence of the Lord; and Solomon also, when he had\nso many concubines. 2. But that sin is a sin that is of another\nnature, which is this--For a man after he hath made some profession\nof salvation to come alone by the blood of Jesus, together with\nsome light and power of the same upon his spirit; I say, for him\nafter this knowingly, willfully, and despitefully to trample upon\nthe blood of Christ shed on the Cross, and to count it an unholy\nthing, or no better than the blood of another man, and rather to\nventure his soul any other way than to be saved by this precious\nblood. And this must be done, I say, after some light (Heb 6:4,5)\ndespitefully (Heb 10:29) knowingly (2 Peter 2:21) and willfully (Heb\n10:26 compared with verse 29) and that not in a hurry and sudden\nfit, as Peter's was, but with some time beforehand to pause upon\nit first, with Judas; and also with a continued resolution never\nto turn or be converted again; \"for it is impossible to renew such\nagain to repentance,\" they are so resolved and so desperate (Heb\n6).\n\nQuest. And how sayest thou now? Didst thou ever, after thou hadst\nreceived some blessed light from Christ, willfully, despitefully,\nand knowingly stamp or trample the blood of the Man Christ Jesus\nunder thy feet? and art thou for ever resolved so to do?\n\nAnsw. O no; I would not do that willfully, despitefully, and\nknowingly, not for all the world.\n\nInquiry. But yet I must tell you, now you put me in mind of it,\nsurely sometimes I have most horrible blasphemous thoughts in me\nagainst God, Christ, and the Spirit. May not these be that sin I\ntrow?\n\nAnsw. Dost thou delight in them? Are they such things as thou takest\npleasure in?\n\nReply. O no; neither would I do it for a thousand worlds. O, methinks\nthey make me sometimes tremble to think of them. But how and if I\nshould delight in them before I am aware?\n\nAnsw. Beg of God for strength against them, and if at any time thou\nfindest thy wicked heart to give way in the least thereto, for that\nis likely enough, and though thou find it may on a sudden give way\nto that Hell-bred wickedness that is in it, yet do not despair,\nforasmuch as Christ hath said, \"All manner of sins and blasphemies\nshall be forgiven to the sons of men. And whosoever speaketh a word\nagainst the Son of man,\" that is Christ, as he may do with Peter,\nthrough temptation, yet upon repentance, \"it shall be forgiven him\"\n(Matt 12:31, 32).\n\nObject. But I thought it might have been committed all on a sudden,\neither by some blasphemous thought, or else by committing some\nother horrible sin.\n\nAnsw. For certain, this sin and the commission of it doth lie in a\nknowing, willful, malicious, or despiteful, together with a final\ntrampling the blood of sweet Jesus under foot (Heb 10).\n\nObject. But it seems to be rather a resisting of the Spirit, and the\nmotions thereof, than this which you say; for, first, its proper\ntitle is the sin against the Holy Ghost; and again, \"They have done\ndespite unto the Spirit of grace\"; so that it rather seems to be,\nI say, that a resisting of the Spirit, and the movings thereof, is\nthat sin.\n\nAnsw. First. For certain, the sin is committed by them that do as\nbefore I have said--that is, by a final, knowing, willful, malicious\ntrampling under foot the blood of Christ, which was shed on Mount\nCalvary when Jesus was there crucified. And though it be called\nthe sin against the Spirit, yet as I said before, every sin against\nthe Spirit is not that; for if it were, then every sin against the\nlight and convictions of the Spirit would be unpardonable; but that\nis an evident untruth, for these reasons--First, Because there be\nthose who have sinned against the movings of the Spirit, and that\nknowingly too, and yet did not commit that sin; as Jonah, who when\nGod had expressly by His Spirit bid him go to Nineveh, he runs\nthereupon quite another way. Secondly, Because the very people that\nhave sinned against the movings of the Spirit are yet, if they\ndo return, received to mercy. Witness also Jonah, who though he\nhad sinned against the movings of the Spirit of the Lord in doing\ncontrary thereunto, \"yet when he called,\" as he saith, \"to the\nLord,\" out of the belly of Hell, \"the LORD heard him, and gave\nhim deliverance, and set him again about his work.\" Read the whole\nstory of that Prophet. But,\n\nAnsw. Second. I shall show you that it must needs be willfully,\nknowingly, and a malicious rejecting of the Man Christ Jesus as\nthe Saviour--that is, counting His blood, His righteousness, His\nintercession in His own Person, for he that rejects one rejects\nall, to be of no value as to salvation; I say, this I shall show\nyou is the unpardonable sin, and then afterwards in brief show you\nwhy it is called the sin against the Holy Ghost.\n\n[Must be a willfully and maliciously rejecting the Saviour.]\n\n1. That man that doth reject, as aforesaid, the blood, death,\nrighteousness, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of the Man\nChrist, doth reject that sacrifice, that blood, that righteousness,\nthat victory, that rest, that God alone hath appointed for\nsalvation--\"Behold the Lamb,\" or sacrifice, \"of God\" (John 1:29).\n\"We have redemption through His blood\" (Eph 1:7). That I may \"be\nfound in Him\"--to wit, in Christ's righteousness, with Christ's\nown personal obedience to His Father's will (Phil 3:7-10). By His\nresurrection comes justification (Rom 4:25). His intercession now\nin His own Person in the Heavens, now absent from His saints, is\nthe cause of the saints' perseverance (Rom 8:33-39).\n\n2. They that reject this sacrifice, and the merits of this Christ,\nwhich He by Himself hath brought in for sinners, have rejected Him\nthrough whom alone all the promises of the New Testament, together\nwith all the mercy discovered thereby, doth come unto poor creatures--\"For\nall the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the\nglory of God\" (2 Cor 1:20). And all spiritual blessings are made\nover to us through Him; that is, through and in this Man, which is\nChrist, we have all our spiritual, heavenly, and eternal mercies\n(Eph 1:3,4).\n\n3. He that doth knowingly, willfully, and despitefully reject this\nMan for salvation doth sin the unpardonable sin, because there is\nnever another sacrifice to be offered. \"There is no more offering\nfor sin.--There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,\" (Heb 10:18-26);\nnamely, than the offering of the body of Jesus Christ a sacrifice\nonce for all (Heb 10:10,14, compared with 18, 26). No; but they that\nshall, after light and clear conviction, reject the first offering\nof His body for salvation, do crucify Him the second time, which\nirrecoverably merits their own damnation--\"For it is impossible for\nthose who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly\ngift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted\nthe good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they\nshall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they\ncrucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open\nshame\" (Heb 6:4-6). \"If they shall fall away, to renew them again\nunto repentance.\" And why so? Seeing, saith the Apostle, they do\ncrucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and do put Him to an\nopen shame. O, then, how miserably hath the devil deceived some,\nin that he hath got them to reject the merits of the first offering\nof the body of Christ, which was for salvation, and got them to\ntrust in a fresh crucifying of Christ, which unavoidably brings\ntheir speedy damnation.\n\n4. They that do reject this Man, as aforesaid, do sin the unpardonable\nsin, because in rejecting Him they do make way for the justice of\nGod to break out upon them, and to handle them as it shall find\nthem; which will be, in the first place, sinners against the first\ncovenant; and also despising of, even the life, and glory, and\nconsolations, pardon, grace, and love, that is discovered in the\nsecond covenant, forasmuch as they reject the Mediator and priest\nof the same, which is the Man Jesus. And the man that doth so, I\nwould fain see how his sins should be pardoned, and his soul saved,\nseeing the means, which is the Son of Man, the Son of Mary, and His\nmerits, are rejected; \"for,\" saith He, \"if you believe not that I\nam He, you shall,\" mark, \"you shall,\" do what you can; \"you shall,\"\nappear where you can; \"you shall,\" follow Moses' law, or any holiness\nwhatsoever, \"ye shall die in your sins\" (John 8:24). So that, I say,\nthe sin that is called the unpardonable sin is a knowing, willful,\nand despiteful rejecting of the sacrificing of the Son of Man the\nfirst time for sin.\n\n[Why it is called the sin against the Holy Ghost.]\n\nAnd now to show you why it is called the sin against the Holy Ghost,\nas in these Scriptures, (Matt 12; Heb 10; Mark 3).\n\n1. Because they sin against the manifest light of the Spirit, as I\nsaid before; it is a sin against the light of the Spirit--that is,\nthey have been formerly enlightened into the nature of the Gospel\nand the merits of the Man Christ, and His blood, righteousness,\nintercession, etc.; and also professed and confessed the same,\nwith some life and comfort in and through the profession of Him;\nyet now against all that light, maliciously, and with despite to\nall their former profession, turn their backs and trample upon the\nsame.\n\n2. It is called the sin against the Holy Ghost because such a\nperson doth, as I may say, lay violent hands on it; one that sets\nhimself in opposition to, and is resolved to resist all the motions\nthat do come in from the Spirit to persuade the contrary. For I do\nverily believe that men, in this very rejecting of the Son of God,\nafter some knowledge of Him, especially at their first resisting\nand refusing of Him, they have certain motions of the Spirit of\nGod to dissuade them from so great a soul-damning act. But they,\nbeing filled with an overpowering measure of the spirit of the\ndevil, do despite unto these convictions and motions by studying\nand contriving how they may answer them, and get from under\nthe convincing nature of them, and therefore it is called a doing\ndespite unto the Spirit of Grace (Heb 10:29). And so,\n\n3. In that they do reject the beseeching of the Spirit, and all its\ngentle entreatings of the soul to tarry still in the same doctrine.\n\n4. In that they do reject the very testimony of the Prophets and\nApostles with Christ Himself; I say, their testimony, through the\nSpirit, of the power, virtue, sufficiency, and prevalency of the\nblood, sacrifice, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession\nof the Man Christ Jesus, of which the Scriptures are full both in the\nOld and New Testament, as the Apostle saith, for all the Prophets\nfrom Samuel, with them that follow after, have showed of these\ndays--that is, in which Christ should be a sacrifice for sin (Acts\n3:24, compared with verses 6, 13-15, 18, 26). Again, saith, he, \"He\ntherefore that despiseth not man, but God; who hath also given unto\nus His Holy Spirit\" (1 Thessalonians 4:8); that is, he rejecteth\nor despiseth the very testimony of the Spirit.\n\n5. It is called the sin against the Holy Ghost, because he that\ndoth reject and disown the doctrine of salvation by the Man Christ\nJesus, through believing in Him, doth despise, resist, and reject\nthe wisdom of the Spirit; for the wisdom of God's Spirit did never\nmore appear than its finding out a way for sinners to be reconciled\nto God by the death of this Man; and therefore Christ, as He is a\nsacrifice, is called the wisdom of God. And again, when it doth reveal\nthe Lord Jesus it is called the \"Spirit of wisdom and revelation\nin the knowledge of Him\" (Eph 1:17).\n\nObject. But, some may say, the slighting or rejecting of the Son\nof Man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, cannot be the sin that\nis unpardonable, as is clear from that Scripture in Matthew 12:32,\nwhere He Himself saith, \"Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son\nof Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the\nHoly Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world,\nneither in the world to come.\" Now by this it is clear that the sin\nthat is unpardonable is one thing, and the sin against the Son of\nMan another; that sin that is against the Son of Man is pardonable;\nbut if that was the sin against the Holy Ghost, it would not be\npardonable; therefore the sin against the Son of Man is not the\nsin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable sin.\n\nAnsw. 1. I do know full well that there are several persons that\nhave been pardoned, yet have sinned against the Son of Man, and\nthat have for a time rejected Him, as Paul (1 Tim 1:13, 14) also\nthe Jews (Acts 2:36,37). But there was an ignorant rejecting of\nHim, without the enlightening, and taste, and feeling of the power\nof the things of God, made mention in Hebrews 6:3-6. 2. There is\nand hath been a higher manner of sinning against the Son of Man,\nwhich also hath been, and is still, pardonable; as in the case\nof Peter, who in a violent temptation, in a mighty hurry, upon a\nsudden denied Him, and that after the revelation of the Spirit of\nGod from Heaven to him, that He, Jesus, was the Son of God (Matt\n16:16-18). This also is pardonable, if there be a coming up again\nto repentance. O, rich grace! O, wonderful grace! that God should\nbe so full of love to His poor creatures, that though they do sin\nagainst the Son of God, either through ignorance, or some sudden\nviolent charge breaking loose from Hell upon them, but yet take if\nfor certain that if a man do slight and reject the Son of God and\nthe Spirit in that manner as I have before hinted--that is, for a\nman after some great measure of the enlightening by the Spirit of\nGod, and some profession of Jesus Christ to be the Saviour, and\nHis blood that was shed on the mount without the gates of Jerusalem\nto be the Atonement; I say, he that shall after this knowingly,\nwillfully, and out of malice and despite reject, speak against, and\ntrample that doctrine under foot, resolving for ever so to do, and\nif he there continue, I will pawn my soul upon it, he hath sinned\nthe unpardonable sin, and shall never be forgiven, neither in this\nworld, nor in the world to come; or else these Scriptures that\ntestify the truth of this must be scrabbled out, and must be looked\nupon for mere fables, which are these following--\"For if after they\nhave escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of\nour Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,\" which is the Son of Man (Matt\n16:13) \"and are again entangled therein, and overcome,\" which must\nbe by denying this Lord that brought them (2 Peter 2:1) \"the latter\nend is worse with them than the beginning,\" (2 Peter 2:20). For it\nis impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted\nof the heavenly gift--and have tasted the good Word of God, and\nthe powers of the world to come; if they shall fall away, not only\nfall, but fall away, that is, finally (Heb 10:29) \"it is impossible\nto renew them again unto repentance\"; and the reason is rendered,\n\"seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God,\" which is the\nSon of Man, \"afresh, and put Him to an open shame\" (Heb 6:4-6).\nNow if you would further know what it is to crucify the Son of God\nafresh, it is this--for to undervalue and trample under foot the\nmerits and virtue of His blood for remission of sins, as is clearly\nmanifested in Hebrews 10:26-28, where it is said, \"For if we sin\nwillfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth,\nthere remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful\nlooking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour\nthe adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy,--of\nhow much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy,\nwho hath trodden under foot the Son of God,\" there is the second\ncrucifying of Christ, which the Quakers think to be saved by, \"and\nhath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,\nan unholy thing,\"--and then followeth--\"and hath done despite unto\nthe Spirit of Grace?\" (verse 29). All that Paul had to keep him\nfrom this sin was, his ignorance in persecuting the Man and merits\nof Jesus Christ (Acts 9). But I obtained mercy, saith he, because\nI did it ignorantly (1 Tim 1:13). And Peter, though he did deny Him\nknowingly, yet he did it unwillingly, and in a sudden and fearful\ntemptation, and so by the intercession of Jesus escaped that\ndanger. So, I say, they that commit this sin, they do it after\nlight, knowingly, willfully, and despitefully, and in the open view\nof the whole world reject the Son of Man for being their Lord and\nSaviour, and in that it is called the sin against the Holy Ghost.\nIt is a name most fit for this sin to be called the sin against\nthe Holy Ghost, for these reasons but now laid down; for this sin\nis immediately committed against the motions, and convictions, and\nlight of the Holy Spirit of God that makes it its business to hand\nforth and manifest the truth and reality of the merits and virtues\nof the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man. And therefore beware, Ranters and\nQuakers, for I am sure you are the nearest that sin by profession,\nwhich is, indeed, the right committing of it, of any persons that\nI do know at this day under the whole heavens, forasmuch as you\nwill not venture the salvation of your souls on the blood shed on\nMount Calvary, out of the side of that Man that was offered up in\nsacrifice for all that did believe (Luke 23:33). In that His offering\nup of His body at that time, either before He offered it, or that\nhave, do, or shall believe on it for the time since, together with\nthat time that He offered it, though formerly you did profess that\nsalvation was wrought out that way, by that sacrifice then offered,\nand also seemed to have some comfort thereby; yea, insomuch that\nsome of you declared the same in the hearing of many, professing\nyourselves to be believers of the same. O, therefore, it is sad for\nyou that were once enlightened, and have tasted these good things,\nand yet, notwithstanding all your profession, you are now turned\nfrom the simplicity that is in Christ to another doctrine, which\nwill be your destruction, if you continue in it; for without blood\nthere is no remission (Heb 9:22).\n\nMany other reasons might be given, but that I would not be too\ntedious; yet I would put in this caution, that if there be any\nsouls that be but now willing to venture their salvation upon the\nmerits of a naked Jesus, I do verily for the present believe they\nhave not sinned that sin, because there is still a promise holds\nforth itself to such a soul where Christ saith, \"Him that cometh\nto me, I will in nowise,\" for nothing that he hath done, \"cast him\nout\" (John 6:37). That promise is worth to be written in letters\nof gold.\n\nObjections answered for their comfort who would have their part in\nthe New Covenant.\n\nObject. But, alas, though I should never sin that sin, yet I have\nother sins enough to damn me.\n\nAnsw. What though thou hadst the sins of a thousand sinners, yet\nif thou come to Christ, He will save thee (John 6:37; See also\nHebrews 7:25).\n\nObject. Alas, but how shall I come? I doubt I do not come as I\nshould do? My heart is naught and dead; and, alas! then how should\nI come?\n\nAnsw. Why, bethink thyself of all the sins that ever thou didst\ncommit, and lay the weight of them all upon thy heart, till thou\nart down loaden with the same, and come to Him in such a case as\nthis, and He will give thee rest for thy soul (Matt 11:28-30). And\nagain; if thou wouldst know how thou shouldst come, come as much\nundervaluing thyself as ever thou canst, saying, Lord, here is a\nsinner, the basest in all the country; if I had my deserts, I had\nbeen damned in Hell-fire long ago; Lord, I am not worthy to have\nthe least corner in the Kingdom of Heaven; and yet, O that Thou\nwouldst have mercy! Come like Benhadad's servants to the king of\nIsrael, with a rope about thy neck (1 Kings 20:31,32) and fling\nthyself at Christ's feet, and lie there a while, striving with Him\nby thy prayers, and I will warrant thee speed (Matt 11:28-30; John\n6:37).\n\nObject. O, but I am not sanctified.\n\nAnsw. He will sanctify thee, and be made thy sanctification also\n(1 Cor 1:30; 6:10,11).\n\nObject. O, but I cannot pray.\n\nAnsw. To pray is not for thee to down on thy knees, and say over\na many Scripture words only; for that thou mayest do, and yet do\nnothing but babble. But if thou from a sense of thy baseness canst\ngroan out thy heart's desire before the Lord, He will hear thee,\nand grant thy desire; for He can tell what is the meaning of the\ngroanings of the Spirit (Rom 8:26,27).\n\nObject. O, but I am afraid to pray, for fear my prayers should be\ncounted as sin in the sight of the great God.\n\nAnsw. That is a good sign that thy prayers are more than bare words,\nand have some prevalence at the Throne of Grace through Christ\nJesus, or else the devil would never seek to labour to beat thee\noff from prayer by undervaluing thy prayers, telling thee they are\nsin; for the best prayers he will call the worst, and the worst he\nwill call the best, or else how should he be a liar?\n\nObject. But I am afraid the day of grace is past; and if it should\nbe so, what should I do then?\n\nAnsw. Truly, with some men indeed it doth fare thus, that the day\nof grace is at an end before their lives are at end. Or thus, the\nday of grace is past before the day of death is come, as Christ\nsaith, \"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,\nthe things which belong unto thy peace,\" that is, the word of grace\nor reconciliation, \"but now they are hid from thine eyes\" (Luke\n19:41,42). But for the better satisfying of thee as touching this\nthing, consider these following things--\n\nFirst, Doth the Lord knock still at the door of thy heart by His\nWord and Spirit? If so, then the day of grace is not past with thy\nsoul; for where He doth so knock, there He doth also proffer and\npromise to come in and sup, that is, to communicate of His things\nunto them, which he would not do was the day of grace past with\nhis soul (Rev 3:20).\n\nObject. But how should I know whether Christ do so knock at my\nheart as to be desirous to come in? That I may know also, whether\nthe day of grace be past with me or no?\n\nAnsw. Consider these things--1. Doth the Lord make thee sensible of\nthy miserable state without an interest in Jesus Christ, and that\nnaturally thou hast no share in Him, no faith in Him, no communion\nwith Him, no delight in Him, or love in the least to Him? If He\nhath, and is doing this, He hath, and is knocking at thy heart. 2.\nDoth He, together with this, put into thy heart an earnest desire\nafter communion with Him, together with holy resolutions not to\nbe satisfied without real communion with Him. 3. Doth He sometimes\ngive thee some secret persuasions, though scarcely discernible,\nthat thou mayest attain, and get an interest in Him? 4. Doth He\nnow and then glance in some of the promises into thy heart, causing\nthem to leave some heavenly savour, though but for a very short\ntime, on thy spirit? 5. Dost thou at some time see some little\nexcellency in Christ? And doth all this stir up in thy heart some\nbreathing after Him? If so, then fear not, the day of grace is not\npast with thy poor soul; for if the day of grace should be past\nwith such a soul as this, then that Scripture must be broken where\nChrist saith, \"Him that cometh to Me, I will in nowise,\" for nothing,\nby no means, upon no terms whatsoever, \"cast out.\" (John 6:37).\n\nObject. But surely, if the day of grace was not past with me, I\nshould not be so long without an answer of God's love to my soul;\nthat therefore doth make me mistrust my state the more is, that I\nwait and wait, and yet am not delivered.\n\nAnsw. 1. Hast thou waited on the Lord so long as the Lord hath waited\non thee? It may be the Lord hath waited on thee these twenty, or\nthirty, yes, forty years or more, and thou hath not waited on Him\nseven years. Cast this into thy mind, therefore, when Satan tells\nthee that God doth not love thee, because thou hast waited so long\nwithout an assurance, for it is his temptation, for God did wait\nlonger upon thee, and was fain to send to thee by His ambassadors\ntime after time; and, therefore, say thou, I will wait to see what\nthe Lord will say unto me; and the rather, because He will speak\npeace, for He is the Lord thereof. But, 2. Know that it is not thy\nbeing under trouble a long time that will be an argument sufficiently\nto prove that thou art past hopes; nay, contrariwise, for Jesus Christ\ndid take our nature upon Him, and also did undertake deliverance\nfor those, and bring it in for them who \"were all their LIFETIME\nsubject to bondage\" (Heb 2:14,15).\n\nObject. But alas! I am not able to wait, all my strength is gone;\nI have waited so long, I can wait no longer.\n\nAnsw. It may be thou hast concluded on this long ago, thinking\nthou shouldst not be able to hold out any longer; no, not a year,\na month, or a week; nay, it may be, not so long. It may be in the\nmorning thou hast thought thou shouldst not hold out till night;\nand at night, till morning again; yet the Lord hath supported thee,\nand kept thee in waiting upon Him many weeks and years; therefore\nthat is but the temptation of the devil to make thee think so, that\nhe might drive thee to despair of God's mercy, and so to leave off\nfollowing the ways of God, and to close in with thy sins again.\nO therefore do not give way unto it, but believe that thou shalt\n\"see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on\nthe Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart;\nwait, I say, on the Lord\" (Psa 28:13,14). And that thou mayest so\ndo, consider these things--(1.) If thou, after thou hast waited\nthus long, shouldst now give over, and wait no longer, thou wouldst\nlose all thy time and pains that thou hast taken in the way of God\nhitherto, and wilt be like to a man that, because he sought long\nfor gold, and did not find it, therefore turned back from seeking\nafter it, though he was hard by it, and had almost found it, and\nall because he was loath to look and seek a little further. (2.)\nThou wilt not only lose thy time, but also lose thy own soul, for\nsalvation is nowhere else but in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). (3.)\nThou wilt sin the highest sin that ever thou didst sin before, in\ndrawing finally back, insomuch that God may say, My soul shall have\nno pleasure in him (Heb 10:38). But, 2. Consider, thou sayest, all\nmy strength is gone, and therefore how should I wait? Why, at that\ntime when thou feelest and findest thy strength quite gone, even\nthat is the time when the Lord will renew and give thee fresh\nstrength. \"The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men\nshall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew\ntheir strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall\nrun and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint\" (Isa 40:30,31).\n\nObject. But though I do wait, yet if I be not elected to eternal\nlife, what good will all my waiting do me? \"For it is not of him\nthat willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth\nmercy.\" Therefore, I say, if I should not be elected, all is in\nvain.\n\nAnsw. 1. Why in the first place, to be sure thy backsliding from God\nwill not prove thy election, neither thy growing weary of waiting\nupon God. But, 2. Thou art, it may be, troubled to know whether\nthou art elected; and, sayest thou, If I did but know that, that\nwould encourage me in my waiting on God. Answ. I believe thee;\nbut mark, thou shalt not know thy election in the first place, but\nin the second--that is to say, thou must first get acquaintance\nwith God in Christ, which doth come by thy giving credit to His\npromises, and records which He hath given of Jesus Christ's blood\nand righteousness, together with the rest of His merits--that is,\nbefore thou canst know whether thou are elected, thou must believe\nin Jesus Christ so really, that thy faith laying hold of, and\ndrinking and eating the flesh and blood of Christ, even so that\nthere shall be life begotten in thy soul by the same; life from\nthe condemnings of the Law; life from the guilt of sin; life over\nthe filth of the same; life also to walk with God in His Son and\nways; the life of love to God the Father, and Jesus Christ His Son,\nsaints and ways and that because they are holy, harmless, and such\nthat are altogether contrary to iniquity.\n\nFor these things must be in thy soul as a forerunner of thy being\nmade acquainted with the other; God hath these two ways to show\nHis children their election--(1.) By testimony of the Spirit--that\nis, the soul being under trouble of conscience and grieved for\nsin, the Spirit doth seal up the soul by its comfortable testimony;\npersuading of the soul that God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven\nall those sins that lie so heavy on the conscience, and that do\nso much perplex the soul, by showing it that that Law, which doth\nutter such horrible curses against it, is by Christ's blood satisfied\nand fulfilled (Eph 1:13,14). (2.) By consequence--that is, the soul\nfinding that God hath been good unto it, in that He hath showed\nit its lost state and miserable condition, and also that He hath\ngiven it some comfortable hope that He will save it from the same;\nI say, the soul, from a right sight thereof, doth, or may, draw\nthis conclusion, that if God had not been minded to have saved it,\nHe would not have done for it such things as these. But for the\nmore sure dealing with thy soul, it is not good to take any of\nthese apart--that is, it is not good to take the testimony of the\nSpirit, as thou supposest thou hast, apart from the fruits thereof, so\nas to conclude the testimony thou hast received to be a sufficient\nground without the other; not that it is not, if it be the testimony\nof the Spirit, but because the devil doth also deceive souls by the\nworkings of his spirit in them, pretending that it is the Spirit\nof God. And again; thou shouldst not satisfy thyself, though thou\ndo find some seekings in thee after that which is good, without\nthe testimony of the other--that is to say, of the Spirit--for it\nis the testimony of two that is to be taken for the truth; therefore,\nsay I, as thou shouldst be much in praying for the Spirit to\ntestify assurance to thee, so also thou shouldst look to the end\nof it when thou thinkest thou hast it; which is this, to show thee\nthat it is alone for Christ's sake that thy sins are forgiven thee,\nand also thereby a constraining of thee to advance Him, both by\nwords and works, in holiness and righteousness all the days of thy\nlife. From hence thou mayst boldly conclude thy election--\"Remembering\nwithout ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and\npatience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and\nour Father. Knowing, brethren,\" saith the Apostle, \"beloved, your\nelection of God.\" But how? why by this, \"For our Gospel came not\nunto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,\nand in much assurance. And ye became followers of us, and of the\nLord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of\nthe Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in\nMacedonia and Achaia. And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom\nHe raised from the dead, even Jesus, which\" hath \"delivered us from\nthe wrath to come\" (1 Thess 3:4-6, 10).\n\nObject. But alas, for my part, instead of finding in me anything that\nis good, I find in me all manners of wickedness, hard-heartedness,\nhypocricy, coldness of affection to Christ, very great unbelief,\ntogether with everything that is base and of an ill savour. What\nhope therefore can I have?\n\nAnsw. If thou wast not such an one, thou hadst no need of mercy.\nIf thou wast whole, thou hadst no need of the physician. Dost thou\ntherefore see thyself in such a sad condition as this? Thou hast the\nmore need to come to Christ, that thou mayst be not only cleansed\nfrom these evils, but also that thou mayst be delivered from that\nwrath they will bring upon thee, if thou dost not get rid of them,\nto all eternity.\n\nQuest. But how should I do? and what course should I take to be\ndelivered from this sad and troublesome condition?\n\nAnsw. Dost thou see in thee all manner of wickedness? The best way\nthat I can direct a soul in such a case is, to pitch a steadfast\neye on Him that is full, and to look so steadfastly upon Him by\nfaith, that thereby thou mayst even draw down of His fullness into\nthy heart; for that is the right way, and the way that was typed\nout, before Christ came in the flesh, in the time of Moses, when\nthe Lord said unto him, \"Make thee a fiery serpent\" of brass, which\nwas a type of Christ \"and set it upon a pole; and it shall come\nto pass\" that when a serpent hath bitten any man, \"when he looketh\nupon it, shall live\" (Num 21:8). Even so now in Gospel times, when\nany soul is bitten with the fiery serpents--their sins--that then\nthe next way to be healed is, for the soul to look upon the Son of\nMan, who, as the serpent was, was hanged on a pole, or tree, that\nwhosoever shall indeed look on Him by faith may be healed of all\ntheir distempers whatever (John 3:14,15).\n\nAs now to instance in some things. 1. Is thy heart hard? Why, then,\nbehold how full of bowels and compassion is the heart of Christ\ntowards thee, which may be seen in His coming down from Heaven to\nspill His heart-blood for thee. 2. Is thy heart slothful and idle?\nThen see how active the Lord Jesus is for thee in that He did not\nonly die for thee, but also in that He hath been ever since His\nascension into Heaven making intercession for thee (Heb 7:25). 3.\nDost thou see and find in thee iniquity and unrighteousness? Then\nlook up to Heaven, and see there a righteous Person, even thy\nrighteous Jesus Christ, now presenting thee in His own perfection\nbefore the throne of His Father's glory (1 Cor 1:30). 4. Dost\nthou see that thou art very much void of sanctification? Then look\nup, and thou shalt see that thy sanctification is in the presence\nof God a complete sanctification, representing all the saints as\nrighteous, as sanctified ones in the presence of the great God of\nHeaven. And so whatsoever thou wantest, be sure to strive to pitch\nthy faith upon the Son of God, and behold Him steadfastly, and thou\nshalt, by so doing, find a mighty change in thy soul. For when we\nbehold Him as in a glass, even the glory of the Lord, we are changed,\nnamely, by beholding, \"from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit\nof the Lord\" (2 Cor 3:18). This is the true way to get both comfort\nto thy soul, and also sanctification and right holiness into thy\nsoul.\n\nPoor souls that are under the distemper of a guilty conscience,\nand under the workings of much corruption, do not go the nearest\nway to Heaven if they do not in the first place look upon themselves\nas cursed sinners by Law; and yet at that time they are blessed,\nfor ever blessed saints by the merits of Jesus Christ. \"O wretched\nman that I am,\" saith Paul; and yet, O blessed man that I am, through\nmy Lord Jesus Christ; for that is the scope of the Scripture (Rom\n7:24,25).\n\nObject. But, alas, I am blind, and cannot see; what shall I do now?\n\nAnsw. Why, truly, thou must go to Him that can make the eyes that\nare blind to see, even to our Lord Jesus, by prayer, saying, as the\npoor blind man did, \"Lord, that I might receive my sight\"; and so\ncontinue begging Him, till thou do receive sight, even a sight of\nJesus Christ, His death, blood, resurrection, ascension, intercession,\nand that for thee, even for thee. And the rather, because, 1. He\nhath invited thee to come and buy such eye-salve of Him that may\nmake thee see (Rev 3:18). 2. Because thou shalt never have any true\ncomfort till thou dost thus come to see and behold the Lamb of God\nthat hath taken away thy sins (John 1:29). 3. Because that thereby\nthou wilt be able through grace, to step over and turn aside from the\nseveral stumbling-blocks that Satan, together with his instruments,\nhath laid in our way, which otherwise thou wilt not be able to shun,\nbut will certainly fall when others stand, and grope and stumble\nwhen others go upright, to the great prejudice of thy poor soul.\n\nObject. But, alas, I have nothing to carry with me; how then should\nI go?\n\nAnsw. Hast thou no sins? If thou hast, carry them, and exchange\nthem for His righteousness; because He hath said, \"Cast thy burden\nupon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee\" (Psa 54:22); and again,\nbecause He hath said, though thou be heavy laden, yet if thou do\nbut come to Him, He will give thee rest (Matt 11:28).\n\nObject. But, you will say, Satan telleth me that I am so cold in\nprayers, so weak in believing, so great a sinner, that I do go so\nslothfully on in the way of God, that I am so apt to slip at every\ntemptation, and to be entangled therewith, together with other things,\nso that I shall never be able to attain those blessed things that\nare held forth to sinners by Jesus Christ; and therefore my trouble\nis much upon this account also, and many times I fear that will\ncome upon me which Satan suggesteth to me--that is, I shall miss\nof eternal life.\n\nAnsw. 1. As to the latter part of the objection, that thou shalt\nnever attain to everlasting life, that is obtained for thee already,\nwithout thy doing, either thy praying, striving, or wrestling against\nsin. If we speak properly, it is Christ that hath in His own body\nabolished death on the Cross, and brought light, life, and glory\nto us through this His thus doing. But this is the thing that thou\naimest at, that thou shalt never have a share in this life already\nobtained for so many as do come by faith to Jesus Christ; and all\nbecause thou art so slothful, so cold, so weak, so great a sinner,\nso subject to slip and commit infirmities. 2. I answer, Didst thou\nnever learn for to outshoot the devil in his own bow, and to cut\noff his head with his own sword, as David served Goliath, who was\na type of him.\n\nQuest. O how should a poor soul do this? This is rare, indeed.\n\nAnsw. Why, truly thus--Doth Satan tell thee thou prayest but\nfaintly, and with very cold devotion? Answer him thus, and say, I\nam glad you told me, for this will make me trust the more to Christ's\nprayers, and the less to my own; also I will endeavour henceforth\nto groan, to sigh, and to be so fervent in my crying at the Throne\nof Grace, that I will, if I can, make the heavens rattle again\nwith the mighty groans thereof. And whereas thou sayest that I am\nso weak in believing, I am glad you mind me of it; I hope it will\nhenceforward stir me up to cry the more heartily to God for strong\nfaith, and make me the more restless till I have it. And seeing\nthou tellest me that I run so softly, and that I shall go near to\nmiss of glory, this also shall be, through grace, to my advantage,\nand cause me to press the more earnestly towards the mark for the\nprize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And seeing thou\ndost tell me that my sins are wondrous great, hereby thou bringest\nthe remembrance of the unsupportable vengeance of God into my mind,\nif I die out of Jesus Christ, and also the necessity of the blood,\ndeath, and merits of Christ to help me; I hope it will make me fly\nthe faster, and press the harder after an interest in Him; and the\nrather, because, as thou tellest me, my state will be unspeakably\nmiserable without Him. And so all along, if he tell thee of thy\ndeadness, dullness, coldness, or unbelief, or the greatness of thy\nsins, answer him, and say, I am glad you told me, I hope it will\nbe a means to make me run faster, seek earnestlier, and to be the\nmore restless after Jesus Christ. If thou didst but get this art\nas to outrun him in his own shoes, as I may say, and to make his\nown darts to pierce himself, then thou mightst also say, how doth\nSatan's temptations, as well as all other things, work together\nfor my good, for my advantage (Rom 8:28).\n\nObject. But I do find many weaknesses in every duty that I do perform,\nas when I pray, when I read, when I hear, or any other duty, that\nit maketh me out of conceit with myself, it maketh me think that\nmy duties are nothing worth.\n\nAnsw. I answer, it may be it is thy mercy that thou art sensible\nof infirmities in thy best things thou doest; ay, a greater mercy\nthan thou art aware of.\n\nQuest. Can it me a mercy for me to be troubled with my corruptions?\nCan it be a privilege for me to be annoyed with my infirmities, and\nto have my best duties infected with it? How can it possibly be?\n\nAnsw. Verily, thy sins appearing in thy best duties, do work for\nthy advantage these ways--1. In that thou findest ground enough\nthereby to make thee humble; and when thou hast done all, yet to\ncount thyself but an unprofitable servant. And, 2. Thou by this\nmeans art taken off from leaning on anything below a naked Jesus\nfor eternal life. It is like, if thou wast not sensible of many\nby-thoughts and wickednesses in thy best performances, thou wouldst\ngo near to be some proud, abominable hypocrite, or a silly, proud\ndissembling wretch at the best, such an one as would send thy soul\nto the devil in a bundle of thy own righteousness. But now, thou,\nthrough grace, seest that in all and everything thou doest there is\nsin enough in it to condemn thee. This, in the first place, makes\nthee have a care of trusting in thy own doings; and, secondly,\nshoweth thee that there is nothing in thyself which will do thee\nany good by working in thee, as to the meritorious cause of thy\nsalvation. No; but thou must have a share in the birth of Jesus,\nin the death of Jesus, in the blood, resurrection, ascension, and\nintercession of a crucified Jesus. And how sayest thou? Doth not\nthy finding of this in thee cause thee to fly from a depending on\nthy own doings? And doth it not also make thee more earnestly to\ngroan after the Lord Jesus? Yea, and let me tell thee also, it will\nbe a cause to make thee admire the freeness and tender heartedness\nof Christ to thee, when He shall lift up the light of His countenance\nupon thee, because He hath regarded such an one as thou, sinful\nthou; and therefore, in this sense, it will be mercy to the saints\nthat they do find the relics of sin still struggling in their\nhearts. But this is not simply the nature of sin, but the mercy and\nwisdom of God, who causeth all things to work together for the good\nof those that love and fear God (Rom 8). And, therefore, whatever\nthou findest in thy soul, though it be sin of never so black\na soul-scarring nature, let it move thee to run the faster to the\nLord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt not be ashamed--that is, of thy\nrunning to Him.\n\nBut when thou dost apprehend that thou art defiled, and also thy\nbest duties annoyed with many weaknesses, let that Scripture come\ninto thy thoughts which saith, \"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who\nof God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,\nand redemption\"; and if thou shalt understand that, what thou canst\nnot find in thyself thou shalt find in Christ. Art thou a fool in\nthyself? then Christ is made of God thy wisdom. Art thou unrighteous\nin thyself? Christ is made of God thy righteousness. Dost thou\nfind that there is but very little sanctifying grace in thy soul?\nstill here is Christ made thy sanctification; and all this in His\nown Person without thee, without thy wisdom, without thy righteousness,\nwithout thy sanctification, without in His own Person in thy\nFather's presence, appearing there perfect wisdom, righteousness,\nand sanctification in His own Person; I say, as a public Person for\nthee; so that thou mayest believe, and say to thy soul, My soul,\nthough dost find innumerable infirmities in thyself, and in thy\nactions, yet look upon thy Jesus, the Man Jesus; He is wisdom, and\nthat for thee, to govern thee, to take care for thee, and to order\nall things for the best for thee. He is also thy righteousness now\nat God's right hand, always shining before the eyes of His glory;\nso that there it is unmoveable, though thou art in never such a sad\ncondition, yet thy righteousness, which is the Son of God, God-man,\nshines as bright as ever, and is as much accepted of God as ever.\nO this sometimes hath been life to me; and so, whatever thou, O my\nsoul, findest wanting in thyself, through faith thou shalt see all\nlaid up for thee in Jesus Christ, whether it be wisdom, righteousness,\nsanctification, or redemption. Nay, not only so, but, as I said\nbefore, He is all these in His own Person without thee in the\npresence of His Father for thee.\n\nObject. But now, if any should say in their hearts, O, but I am one\nof the old-covenant men, I doubt--that is, I doubt I am not within\nthis glorious Covenant of Grace. And how if I should not?\n\nAnsw. Well, thou fearest that thou are one of the old covenant, a\nson of the bond-woman. [1.] In the first place, know that thou wast\none of them by nature, for all by nature are under that covenant;\nbut set the case that thou art to this day under that, yet let me\ntell thee, in the first place, there are hopes for thee; for there\nis a gap open, a way made for souls to come from under the Covenant\nof Works, by Christ, \"for He hath broken down the middle wall of\npartition between us\" and you (Eph 2:14). And therefore, if thou\nwouldst be saved, thou mayest come to Christ; if thou wantest a\nrighteousness, as I said before, there is one in Christ; if thou\nwouldst be washed, thou mayest come to Christ; and if thou wouldst\nbe justified, there is justification enough in the Lord Jesus Christ.\nThat is the first. [2.] And thou canst not be so willing to come\nto Christ as He is willing thou shouldst come to Him. Witness His\ncoming down from Heaven, His humiliation, His spilling of His blood\nfrom both His cheeks, by sweat under the burden of sin (Luke 22:44)\nand His shedding of it by the spear when He hanged on the Cross.\nIt appears also by His promises, by His invitations, by His sending\nforth His messengers to preach the same to poor sinners, and\nthreateneth damnation upon this very account, namely, the neglect\nof Him; and declares that all the thousands and ten thousands of\nsins in the world should not be able to damn those that believed\nin Him; that He would pardon all, forgive and pass by all, if they\nwould but come unto Him; moreover, promiseth to cast out none,\nno, not the poorest, vilest, contemptiblest creature in the whole\nworld. \"Come unto Me all,\" every one, though you be never so many,\nso vile, though your load be never so heavy and intolerable, though\nyou deserve no help, not the least help, no mercy, not the least\ncompassion, yet \"cast your burden upon Me, and you shall find rest\nfor your souls.\" Come unto Me and I will heal you, love you, teach\nyou, and tell you the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Come unto Me,\nand I will succour you, help you, and keep you from all devils and\ntheir temptations, from the Law and its curses, and from being for\never overcome with any evil whatever. Come unto Me for what you\nneed, and tell Me what you would have, or what you would have Me\ndo for you, and all My strength, love, wisdom, and interest that I\nhave with My Father shall be laid out for you. Come unto Me, your\nsweet Jesus, your loving and tender-hearted Jesus, your everlasting\nand sin-pardoning Jesus. Come unto Me, and I will wash you, and put\nMy righteousness upon you, pray to the Father for you, and send My\nSpirit into you, that you might be saved. Therefore,\n\nConsider, besides this, what a privilege thou shalt have at the\nDay of Judgment above thousands, if thou do in deed and in truth\nclose in with this Jesus and accept of Him; for thou shalt not only\nhave a privilege in this life, but in the life everlasting, even\nat the time of Christ's second coming from Heaven; for then, when\nthere shall be the whole world gathered together, and all the good\nangels, bad angels, saints, and reprobates, when all thy friends\nand kindred, with thy neighbours on the right hand and on the left\nshall be with thee, beholding of the wonderful glory and majesty\nof the Son of God; then shall the Son of Glory, even Jesus, in the\nvery view and sight of them all, smile and look kindly upon thee;\nwhen a smile or a kind look from Christ shall be worth more than\nten thousand worlds, then thou shalt have it. You know it is counted\nan honour for a poor man to be favourably looked upon by a judge,\nor a king, in the sight of lords, earls, dukes, and princes; why,\nthus it will be with thee in the sight of all the princely saints,\nangels, and devils, in the sight of all the great nobles in the\nworld; then, even thou that closest in with Christ, be thou rich or\npoor, be thou bond or free, wise or foolish, if thou close in with\nHim, He will say unto thee, \"Well done, good and faithful servant,\"\neven in the midst of the whole world; they that love thee shall\nsee it, and they that hate thee shall all to their shame behold\nit; for if thou fear Him here in secret, He will make it manifest\neven at that day upon the house-tops.\n\nSecondly, Not only thus, but thou shalt also be lovingly received\nand tenderly embraced of Him at that day, when Christ hath thousands\nof gallant saints, as old Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Isaiah,\nJeremiah, together with all the Prophets, and Apostles, and martyrs,\nattending on Him; together with many thousands of glittering angels\nministering before Him; besides, when the ungodly shall appear\nthere with their pale faces, with their guilty consciences, and\ntrembling souls, that would then give thousands and ten thousands\nof worlds, if they had so many, if they could enjoy but one loving\nlook from Christ. I say, then, then shalt thou have the hand of\nChrist, reached to thee kindly to receive thee, saying, Come, thou\nblessed, step up hither; thou was willing to leave all for Me, and\nnow will I give all to thee; here is a throne, a crown, a kingdom,\ntake them; thou wast not ashamed of Me when thou wast in the world\namong my enemies, and now will not I be ashamed of thee before\nthine enemies, but will, in the view of all these devils and damned\nreprobates promote thee to honour and dignity. \"Come, ye blessed of\nMy Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation\nof the world.\" Thou shalt see that those who have served Me in truth\nshall lose nothing by the means. No; but ye shall be as pillars\nin My temple, and inheritors of My glory, and shall have place to\nwalk in among My saints and angels (Zech 3:7). O! who would not be\nin this condition? who would not be in this glory? It will be such\na soul-ravishing glory, that I am ready to think the whole reprobate\nworld will be ready to run mad, to think that they should miss of\nit (Deu 28:34). Then will the vilest drunkard, swearer, liar, and\nunclean person willingly cry, \"Lord, Lord, open to us,\" yet be denied\nof entrance; and thou in the meantime embraced, entertained, made\nwelcome, have a fair mitre set upon thy head, and clothed with immortal\nglory (Zech 3:5). O, therefore, let all this move thee, and be of\nweight upon thy soul to close in with Jesus, this tender-hearted\nJesus. And if yet, for all what I have said, thy sins do still\nstick with thee, and thou findest thy hellish heart loath to let\nthem go, think with thyself in this manner--Shall I have my sins\nand lose my soul? Will they do me any good when Christ comes? Would\nnot Heaven be better to me than my sins? and the company of God,\nChrist, saints, and angels, be better than the company of Cain,\nJudas, Balaam, with the devils in the furnace of fire? Canst thou\nnow that readest or hearest these lines turn thy back, and go on\nin your sins? Canst thou set so light of Heaven, of God, of Christ,\nand the salvation of thy poor, yet precious soul? Canst thou hear of\nChrist, His bloody sweat and death, and not be taken with it, and\nnot be grieved for it, and also converted by it? If so, I might lay\nthee down several considerations to stir thee up to mend thy pace\ntowards Heaven; but I shall not; there is enough written already\nto leave thy soul without excuse and to bring thee down with a\nvengeance into Hell-fire, devouring fire, the Lake of Fire, eternal\neverlasting fire; O to make thee swim and roll up and down in the\nflames of the furnace of fire!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 These words are quoted from the Genevan or Breeches Bible (Mark\n2:17).--Ed.\n\n2 This quotation is from the Genevan translation (Eph 2:3).--Ed.\n\n3 It is observable that the reason given for the punishment of the\nmurderer with death (Gen 9:6) is taken from the affront he offers\nto God, not from the injury he does to man.--Scott.\n\n4 The reader need scarcely be reminded, that by \"public person\" is\nmeant the Saviour, in whom all His people have an equal right. \"For\nHe made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us\" (2 Cor 5:21).--ED.\n\n5 Bunyan's first sight of the spiritual, inward, and extensive\nrequirements of the law filled his heart with despair; see \"Grace\nAbounding,\" No. 28. It was like the alarming sound of the drum\nDiabolus mentioned in the \"Holy War,\" which caused Mansoul to shake\nwith terror and dismay. Thus the soul is stripped of self-righteousness,\nand flies to Christ, whose blood alone cleanseth from all sin.--ED.\n\n6 \"Crank,\" brisk, jolly, lusty, spiritful, buxom.--ED.\n\n7 From the Puritan or Genevan version.--ED.\n\n8 These nine particulars are very methodically arranged, and are\nall deeply interesting. Very few of those who read the scriptural\nlaw of sacrifices see how clearly they pointed as types to Christ\nthe great Antitype.--ED.\n\n9 It is a mark of prying and dangerous, if not wicked curiosity\nto inquire whether God could have found any other way of salvation\nthan by the atoning death of our blessed Lord. Instead of such vain\nresearches, how much more consistent would it be to call upon our\nsouls, and all that is within us, to bless His name, who hath thus\nprovided abundant pardon, full remission, even to the chief of\nsinners.--ED.\n\n10 The duty of the priests, under the law, led them to be familiar\nwith the most loathsome and catching diseases; and doubtless they\ntook every precaution to avoid contagion. Poor sin-sick soul, do you\nconsider your state more loathsome and dangerous than the leprosy?\nFly to Christ, our High Priest and Physician; He will visit you\nin the lowest abyss of misery, without fear of contagion, and with\nfull powers to heal and save.--ED.\n\n11 The word \"hell\" in the two verses means the unseen place of the\ndead, the invisible world, or the grave.--ED.\n\n12 How awful and vast must have been the sufferings of the Saviour,\nwhen He paid the redemption price for the countless myriads of His\nsaints; redeemed \"out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,\nand nation.\" How magnificent His glory when \"ten thousand times\nten thousands, and thousands of thousands, shall sing with a loud\nvoice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,\nand wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, for\never and ever.\" Such were the ecstatic vision which Bunyan enjoyed,\ndrawn from the unerring pages of eternal truth.--ED.\n\n13 This singular use of the law term \"premunire,\" meaning that the\nsoul has trusted in a foreign jurisdiction, incurred God's anger,\nand forfeited its liberty and all its goods.--ED.\n\n14 These are solemn truths, in homely, forcible language. Let the\nsoul be convinced that by the obedience of Christ it is released\nfrom the law, it has no fear of Satan or of future punishment;\nChrist is all and in all.--ED.\n\n15 \"Indenture\"; a written agreement, binding one party to reward\nthe other for specified services. As man is by nature bound to\nlove God with all his soul, he cannot be entitled to any reward\nfor anything beyond his duty. When he feels that he has failed in\nhis obedience, he must fly to Christ for that mercy which he can\nnever obtain by indenture of service or merit and reward.--ED.\n\n16 Same as 15--Ed.\n\n17 Same as 15--Ed.\n\n18 For a deeply affecting account of the author's experience about\nthis period read Grace Abounding, No. 259-261.--ED.\n\n19 \"Scrabble\"; to go on the hands and feet or knees. See a remarkable\nillustration of the word \"scrabble\" in Grace Abounding, No. 335.--ED.\n\n20 As Bunyan was a Baptist, this is full proof that his friends did\nnot ascribe regeneration to water baptism. It is an awful delusion\nto suppose that immersion in or sprinkling with water can effect\nor promote the new birth or spiritual regeneration of the soul.--ED.\n\n21 This is one of the very thrilling circumstances described by\nBunyan in his Grace Abounding, No. 24:--Sunday sports were then\nallowed by the State, and after hearing a sermon on the evil of\nSabbath-breaking, he went as usual to his sport. On that day it was\na game at cat, and as he was about to strike, \"a voice did suddenly\ndart from Heaven into my soul, which said, Wilt thou leave thy sins\nand go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to Hell?\"--ED.\n\n22 The word Man was essential in Bunyan's days, as an antidote to\nthe jargon of the Ranters, who affirmed that Jesus only existed in\nthe heart of the believer.--ED.\n\n23 Same As 20--Ed.\n\n24 Same as 22--Ed.\n\n***\n\nISRAEL'S HOPE ENCOURAGED;\n\nOR,\n\nWHAT HOPE IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM FAITH:\n\nWITH ENCOURAGEMENTS FOR A HOPING PEOPLE.\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\n\n   'Auspicious hope! in thy sweet garden grow\n    Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe.'\n\n\nChristian hope is a firm expectation of all promised good, but\nespecially of eternal salvation and happiness in heaven, where we\nshall be like the Son of God. This hope is founded on the grace,\nblood, righteousness, and intercession of Christ--the earnest\nof the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and the unchangeable truths and\nenlightening power of God.[1] 'Every man that hath this hope in\nhim purifieth himself even as God is pure' (1 John 3:3). Blessed\nhope! (Titus 2:13). Well might the apostle pray for the believing\nRomans, 'That ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy\nGhost' (15:13). 'Which is Christ in you the hope of glory' (Col\n1:27). This is the sacred, the solemn, the all-important subject\nwhich Bunyan in his ripe age makes the theme of his meditations\nand of his deeply impressive exhortations.\n\nWhen drawing near the end of his pilgrimage--while in the fullest\nfruition of his mental powers--he gives the result of his long and\nhallowed experience to comfort and cherish his fellow pilgrims in\ntheir dangerous heaven-ward journey. One of his last labours was\nto prepare this treatise for the press, from which it issued three\nyears after his decease, under the care of his pious friend Charles\nDoe.\n\nHere, as drawn from the holy oracles of God, we contemplate Hope,\nthe helmet of salvation, without which our mental powers are exposed\nto be led captive into despair at the will of Satan. Our venerable\nauthor pictures most vividly the Christian's weakness and the power\nof his enemies; 'Should you see a man that could not go from door\nto door but he must be clad in a coat of mail, a helmet of brass\nupon his head, and for his lifeguard a thousand men, would you not\nsay, surely this man has store of enemies at hand?' This is the\ncase, enemies lie in wait for Israel in every hole, he can neither\neat, drink, wake, sleep, work, sit still, talk, be silent--worship\nhis God in public or private, but he is in danger. Poor, lame, infirm,\nhelpless man, cannot live without tender--great--rich--manifold--abounding\nmercies. 'No faith, no hope,' 'to hope without faith is to see\nwithout eyes, or expect without reason.' Faith is the anchor which\nenters within the vail; Christ in us the hope of glory is the\nmighty cable which keeps us fast to that anchor. 'Faith lays hold\nof that end of the promise that is nearest to us, to wit, in the\nBible--Hope lays hold of that end that is fastened to the mercy-seat.'\nThus the soul is kept by the mighty power of God. They who have\nno hope, enter Doubting Castle of their own free will--they place\nthemselves under the tyranny of Giant Despair--that he may put out\ntheir eyes, and send them to stumble among the tombs, and leave\ntheir bones in his castle-yard, a trophy to his victories, and a\nterror to any poor pilgrim caught by him trespassing on Bye-path\nMeadow.[2] Hope is as a guardian angel--it enables us to come boldly\nto a throne of grace 'in a goodly sort.' The subject is full of\nconsolation. Are we profanely apt to judge of God harshly, as of\none that would gather where he had not strawn? Hope leads us to\nform a holy and just conception of the God of love. 'Kind brings\nforth its kind, know the tree by his fruit, and God BY HIS MERCY\nIN CHRIST. What has God been doing for and to his church from the\nbeginning of the world, but extending to and exercising loving-kindness\nand mercy for them? Therefore he laid a foundation for this in\nmercy from everlasting.' 'There is no single flowers in God's gospel\ngarden, they are all double and treble; there is a wheel within a\nwheel, a blessing within a blessing in all the mercies of God; they\nare manifold, a man cannot receive one but he receives many, many\nfolded up one within another.' Bless the Lord, O my soul!!\n\nReader, my deep anxiety is that you should receive from this treatise\nthe benefits which its glorified author intended it to produce. It\nis accurately printed from the first edition. My notes are intended\nto explain obsolete words or customs or to commend the author's\nsentiments. May the Divine blessing abundantly replenish our earthen\nvessels with this heavenly hope.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Cruden.\n\n2. Pilgrim's Progress.\n\nIsrael's Hope Encouraged;\n\n'Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy,\nand with him is plenteous redemption.'--Psalms 130:7\n\nThis Psalm is said to be one of 'the Psalms of Degrees,' which some\nsay, if I be not mistaken, the priests and Levites used to sing\nwhen they went up the steps into the temple.[1] But to let that\npass, it is a psalm that gives us a relation of the penman's praying\nframe, and of an exhortation to Israel to hope in God.\n\nVerse 1. 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord'; that\nis, out of deep or great afflictions, and said, 'Lord, hear my voice,\nlet thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.' The\nlatter words explain the former; as who should say, By voice I mean\nthe meaning and spirit of my prayer. There are words in prayer, and\nspirit in prayer, and by the spirit that is in prayer, is discerned\nwhether the words be dead, lifeless, feigned, or warm, fervent,\nearnest; and God who searcheth the heart, knoweth the meaning of\nthe Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according\nto the will of God (Rom 8:27). Verse 3. 'If thou, Lord, shouldest\nmark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?' Here he confesseth,\nthat all men by the law must fall before God for ever; for that\nthey have broken it, but cannot make amends for the transgression\nthereof. But, he quickly bethinking himself of the mercy of God\nin Christ, he saith, verse 4, 'But there is forgiveness with thee\nthat thou mayest be feared.' Then he returns, saying, verse 5,\n'I wait for the Lord,' that is, in all his appointments; yea, he\ndoubleth it, saying, 'My soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.'\nBy which repetition he insinuates, that many are content to give\ntheir bodily presence to God in his appointments, while their hearts\nwere roving to the ends of the earth; but for his part he did not\nso. Verse 6. 'My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that\nwatch for the morning, I say, more than they that watch for the\nmorning.' As who should say, even as it is with those that are tired\nwith the night, either by reason of dark or wearisome journies,\nor because of tedious sickness, to whom the night is most doleful\nand uncomfortable, waiting for spring of day; so wait I for the\nLord, that his presence might be with my soul. So and more too\nI say, 'More than they that wait for the morning.' Then he comes\nto the words which I have chosen for my text, saying, 'Let Israel\nhope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him\nis plenteous redemption.'\n\nIn which words we have, FIRST, AN EXHORTATION; SECOND, A REASON OF\nTHAT EXHORTATION; and THIRD, AN AMPLIFICATION OF THAT REASON. 'Let\nIsrael hope in the Lord'; there is the exhortation; 'For with the\nLord there is mercy'; there is the reason of it; 'And with him is\nplenteous redemption'; there is the amplification of that reason.\n\n[FIRST. AN EXHORTATION.]\n\nIn the exhortation there are three things to be inquired into.\nFIRST, The matter contained in it; SECOND, The manner by which it\nis expressed; THIRD, The inferences that do naturally flow therefrom.\n\n[FIRST. The matter contained in the exhortation.]\n\nWe will speak first to the matter contained in the text, and that\npresenteth itself unto us under three heads. First, A duty. Second,\nA direction for the well management of that duty. Third, The persons\nthat are so to manage it.\n\nFirst, Then, to speak to the duty, and that is HOPE; 'Let Israel\nHOPE.' By which word there is something pre-admitted, and something\nof great concern insinuated.\n\nThat which is pre-admitted is faith; for when we speak properly of\nhope, and put others distinctly to the duty of hoping, we conclude\nthat such have faith already; for no faith, no hope. To hope without\nfaith, is to see without eyes, or to expect without a ground: for\n'Faith is the substance of things hoped for,' as well with respect\nto the grace, as to the doctrine of faith (Heb 11:1). Doth such\na one believe? No. Doth he hope? Yes. If the first is true, the\nsecond is a lie; he that never believed, did never hope in the\nLord. Wherefore, when he saith, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord,' he\npre-supposeth faith, and signifieth that he speaketh to believers.\n\nThat which is of great concern insinuated, is, that hope has in it\nan excellent quality to support Israel in all its troubles. Faith\nhas its excellency in this, hope in that, and love in another\nthing. Faith will do that which hope cannot do. Hope can do that\nwhich faith doth not do, and love can do things distinct from\nboth their doings. Faith goes in the van, hope in the body, and\nlove brings up the rear: and thus 'now abideth faith, hope,' and\n'charity' (1 Cor 13:13). Faith is the mother-grace, for hope is\nborn of her, but charity floweth from them both.\n\nBut a little, now we are upon faith and hope distinctly, to let\nyou see a little. 1. Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17), hope by\nexperience (Rom 5:3,4). 2. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God,\nhope by the credit that faith hath given to it (Rom 4:18). 3. Faith\nbelieveth the truth of the Word, hope waits for the fulfilling of\nit. 4. Faith lays hold of that end of the promise that is next to\nus, to wit, as it is in the Bible; hope lays hold of that end of\nthe promise that is fastened to the mercy-seat; for the promise is\nlike a mighty cable, that is fastened by one end to a ship, and by\nthe other to the anchor: the soul is the ship where faith is, and\nto which the hither[2] end of this cable is fastened; but hope is the\nanchor that is at the other end of this cable, and which entereth\ninto that within the vail. Thus faith and hope getting hold of\nboth ends of the promise, they carry it safely all away. 5. Faith\nlooketh to Christ, as dead, buried, and ascended; and hope to his\nsecond coming (1 Cor 15:1-4). Faith looks to him for justification,\nhope for glory (Rom 4:1-8). 6. Faith fights for doctrine, hope for\na reward (Acts 26:6,7). Faith for what is in the bible, hope for\nwhat is in heaven (Col 1:3-5). 7. Faith purifies the heart from bad\nprinciples (1 John 5:4,5). Hope from bad manners (2 Peter 3:11,14;\nEph 5:8; 1 John 3:3). 8. Faith sets hope on work, hope sets patience\non work (Acts 28:20, 9:9). Faith says to hope, look for what is\npromised; hope says to faith, So I do, and will wait for it too. 9.\nFaith looks through the word to God in Christ; hope looks through\nfaith beyond the world to glory (Gal 5:5).\n\nThus faith saves, and thus hope saves. Faith saves by laying hold\nof God by Christ (1 Peter 1:5). Hope saves by prevailing with the\nsoul to suffer all troubles, afflictions, and adversities that it\nmeets with betwixt this and the world to come, for the sake thereof\n(Rom 8:24). Take the matter in this plain similitude. There was a\nking that adopted such a one to be his child, and clothed him with\nthe attire of the children of the king, and promised him, that if\nhe would fight his father's battles, and walk in his father's ways,\nhe should at last share in his father's kingdoms. He has received\nthe adoption, and the king's robe, but not yet his part in the\nkingdom; but now, hope of a share in that will make him fight the\nking's battles, and also tread the king's paths. Yea, and though he\nshould meet with many things that have a tendency to deter him from\nso doing, yet thoughts of the interest promised in the kingdom,\nand hopes to enjoy it, will make him out his way through those\ndifficulties, and so save him from the ruin that those destructions\nwould bring upon him, and will, in conclusion, usher him into a\npersonal possession and enjoyment of that inheritance. Hope has a\nthick skin, and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience\nas a vestment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure\nall things, if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set\nbefore it. Hence patience is called, 'Patience of hope,' because\nit is hope that makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering\nunder the cross, until the time comes to enjoy the crown (1 Thess\n1:3). The Psalmist, therefore, by this exhortation, persuadeth\nthem that have believed the truth, to wait for the accomplishment\nof it, as by his own example he did himself--'I wait for the Lord,'\n'my soul waiteth,' 'and in his word do I hope.' It is for want of\nhope that so many brisk professors that have so boasted and made\nbrags of their faith, have not been able to endure the drum[3] in\nthe day of alarm and affliction. Their hope in Christ has been such\nas has extended itself no further than to this life, and therefore\nthey are of all men the most miserable.\n\nThe Psalmist therefore, by exhorting us unto this duty, doth put\nus in mind of four things. I. That the best things are yet behind,\nand in reversion for the saints. II. That those that have believed,\nwill yet meet with difficulties before they come at them. III. The\ngrace of hope well exercised, is the only way to overcome these\ndifficulties. IV. They therefore that have hope, and do exercise\nit as they should, shall assuredly at last enjoy that hope that is\nlaid up for them in heaven.\n\nI. For the first of these, that the best things are yet behind,\nand in reversion for believers; this is manifest by the natural\nexercise of this grace. For 'hope that is seen, is not hope; for\nwhat a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that\nwe see not, then do we with patience wait for it' (Rom 8:24,25).\nHope lives not by sight, as faith doth; but hope trusteth faith,\nas faith trusts the Word, and so bears up the soul in a patient\nexpectation at last to enjoy what God has promised. But I say, the\nvery natural work of this grace proveth, that the believer's best\nthings are behind in reversion.\n\nYou may ask me, what those things are? and I may tell you, first,\nin general, they are heavenly things, they are eternal things, they\nare the things that are where Christ sitteth on the right hand of\nGod (John 3:12; 2 Cor 4:18; Col 3:1). Do you know them now? They\nare things that 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor that have\nentered into the heart of man to conceive of' (Isa 64:4; 1 Cor\n2:9). Do you know them now? They are things that are referred to\nthe next world, for the saints when they come into the next world;\ntalked of they may be now, the real being of them may be believed\nnow, and by hope we may, and it will be our wisdom to wait for\nthem now; but to know what they are in the nature of them, or in\nthe enjoyment of them, otherwise than by faith, he is deceived that\nsaith it. They are things too big as yet to enter into our hearts,\nand things too big, if they were there to come out, or to be\nexpressed by our mouths.\n\nThere is heaven itself, the imperial heaven; does any body know what\nthat is? There is the mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the\ninnumerable company of angels; doth any body know what all they\nare? There is immortality and eternal life: and who knows what they\nare? There are rewards for services, and labour of love showed\nto God's name here; and who knows what they will be? There are\nmansion-houses, beds of glory, and places to walk in among the\nangels; and who knows what they are? There will be badges of honour,\nharps to make merry with, and heavenly songs of triumph; doth any\nhere know what they are? There will be then a knowing, an enjoying\nand a solacing of ourselves with prophets, apostles, and martyrs,\nand all saints; but in what glorious manner we all are ignorant\nof. There we shall see and know, and be with for ever, all our\nrelations, as wife, husband, child, father, mother, brother, or\nsister that have died in the faith; but how gloriously they will\nlook when we shall see them, and how gloriously we shall love when\nwe are with them, it is not for us in this world to know (1 Thess\n4:16,17). There are thoughts, and words, and ways for us, which\nwe never dreamed on in this world. The law was but the shadow, the\ngospel the image; but what will be the substance that comes to us\nnext, or that rather we shall go unto, who can understand? (Heb\n10:1). If we never saw God nor Christ as glorified, nor the Spirit\nof the Lord, nor the bottom of the Bible, nor yet so much as one\nof the days of eternity,, and yet all these things we shall see\nand have them, how can it be that the things laid up for us, that\nshould be the object of our hope, should by us be understood in\nthis world? Yet there are intimations given us of the goodness\nand greatness of them.[4]\n\n1. Of their goodness, and that, (1.) In that the Holy Ghost scorns\nthat things that are here should once be compared with them; hence\nall things here are called vanities, nothings, less than nothings\n(Isa 40:15-17). Now, if the things, all the things that are here,\nare so contemptuously considered, when compared with the things that\nare to be hereafter, and yet these things so great in the carnal\nman's esteem, as that he is willing to venture life and soul, and\nall to have them, what are the things that God has prepared for\nthem that wait, that is, that hope for him? (2.) Their goodness\nalso appears in this, that whoever has had that understanding of\nthem, as is revealed in the Word, whether king or beggar, wise mean\nor fool, he has willingly cast this world behind him in contempt\nand scorn, for the hope of that (Psa 73:25; Heb 11:24-26, 37-40).\n(3.) The goodness of them has even testimony in the very consciences\nof them that hate them. Take the vilest man in the country, the man\nwho is so wedded to his lusts, that he will rather run the hazard\nof a thousand hells than leave them; and ask this man his judgment\nof the things of the next world, and he will shake his head, and\nsay, They are good, they are best of all. (4.) But the saints have\nthe best apprehension of their goodness, for that the Lord doth\nsometimes drop some of the juice of them out of the Word, into\ntheir hungry souls.\n\n2. But as they are good, so they are great: 'O how great is thy\ngoodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which\nthou hast wrought for them that trust,' that hope, 'in thee before\nthe sons of men!' (Psa 31:19). (1.) Their greatness appears, in that\nthey go beyond the Word; yea, beyond the word of the Holy Ghost;\nit doth not yet appear to us by the Word of God to the full, the\ngreatness of what is prepared for God's people. 'Beloved, now are\nwe the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be'\n(1 John 3:2). It doth not appear in the Word; there is a greatness\nin the things that we are to hope for, that could never be expressed:\nthey are beyond word, beyond thought, beyond conceiving of! Paul,\nwhen he was come down again from out of paradise, into which he\nwas caught up, could not speak a word about the words he heard, and\nthe things that there he saw. They were things and words which he\nsaw and heard, 'which it is not possible[5] for a man to utter.'\n(2.) Their greatness is intimated by the word Eternal; he that\nknows the bottom of that word, shall know what things they are.\n'The things which are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor 4:18). They are\n'incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' reserved\nin heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). (3.) Their greatness is showed in\nthat one right thought of them will fill the heart so full, that\nboth it and the eyes will run over together; yea, so full, that the\ncreature shall not be able to stand up under the weight of glory\nthat by it is laid upon the soul. Alas! all the things in this\nworld will not fill one heart; and yet one thought that is right,\nof the things that God has prepared, and laid up in heaven for us,\nwill, yea, and over fill it too. (4.) The greatness of the things\nof the next world appears, in that when one of the least of them\nare showed to us, we are not able, without support from thence,\nto abide the sight thereof. I count that the angels are of those\nthings that are least in that world; and yet the sight of one of\nthem, when the sight of them was in use, what work would it make\nin the hearts and minds of mortal men, the scripture plainly enough\ndeclares (John 13:22).[6] (5.) Their greatness is intimated, in that\nwe must be as it were new made again, before we can be capable of\nenjoying them, as we must enjoy them with comfort (Luke 20:36).\nAnd herein will be a great part of our happiness, that we shall not\nonly see them, but be made like unto them, like unto their King.\nFor 'when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see\nhim as he is' (1 John 3:2). We shall see him, and therefore must be\nlike him, for else the sight of him would overcome us and destroy\nus; but because we are to see him with comfort and everlasting\njoy, therefore we must be like him in body and mind (Rev 1:17; Phil\n3:20,21).\n\nII. But to come to the second thing, namely, That those that have\nbelieved, there are such things as these, will meet with difficulties\nbefore they come at them. This is so grand a truth, that nothing\ncan be said against it. Many are the afflictions of the righteous;\nand we must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of\nheaven (Acts 14:22). The cause from whence these afflictions arise\nis known to be,\n\n1. From ourselves; for sin having got such hold in our flesh, makes\nthat opposition against our soul and the welfare of that, that puts\nus continually to trouble. Fleshly lusts work against the soul,\nand so do worldly lusts too (1 Peter 2:11); yea, they quench our\ngraces, and make them that would live, 'ready to die' (Rev 3:2).\nYea, by reason of these, such darkness, such guilt, such fear, such\nmistrust, ariseth in us, that it is common for us, if we live any\nwhile, to make a thousand conclusions, twice told, that we shall\nnever arrive with comfort at the gates of the kingdom of heaven.\nThe natural tendency of every struggle of the least lust against\ngrace is, if we judge according to carnal reason, to make us question\nthe truth of a work of grace in us, and our right to the world to\ncome. This it was that made Paul cry out, 'O wretched man that\nI am! who shall deliver me!' (Rom 7:24). Only he had more wisdom\nthan to follow the natural conclusions that carnal reason was apt\nto make thereupon, and so hoisted up his soul to hope.\n\n2. Sin, by its working in us, doth not only bring darkness, guilt,\nfear, mistrust, and the like; but it doth oft-times as it were\nhamstring us, and disable us from going to God by faith and prayer\nfor pardon. It makes the heart hard, senseless, careless, lifeless,\nspiritless as to feeling, in all Christian duty; and this is a\ngrievous thing to a gracious soul. The other things will create a\ndoubt, and drive it up to the head into the soul; but these will\ngo on the other side and clench it.[7] Now all these things make\nhoping difficult.\n\n3. For by these things the judgment is not only clouded, and the\nunderstanding greatly darkened, but all the powers of the soul made\nto fight against itself, conceiving, imagining, apprehending, and\nconcluding things that have a direct tendency to extirpate and\nextinguish, if possible, the graces of God that are planted in the\nsoul; yea, to the making of it cry out, 'I am cut off from before\nthine eyes!' (Psa 31:22).\n\n4. Add to these, the hidings of the face of God from the soul; a\nthing to it more bitter than death; yet nothing more common among\nthem that hope in the Lord. He 'hideth his face from the house of\nJacob!' (Isa 8:17). Nor is this done only in fatherly displeasure,\nbut by this means some graces are kept alive; faith is kept alive\nby the word, patience by hope, and hope by faith; but oft-times a\nspirit of prayer, by the rod, chastisement, and the hiding of God's\nface (Hosea 5:14,15; Isa 26:16; Cant 5:6). But I say, this hiding\nof this sweet face is bitter to the soul, and oft-times puts both\nfaith and hope to a sad and most fearful plunge. For at such a day,\nit is with the soul as with the ship at sea, that is benighted and\nwithout light; to wit, like a man bewildered upon the land; only\nthe text saith, for the help and succour of such, 'Who is among\nyou that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,\nthat walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the\nname of the Lord, and stay upon his God' (Isa 50:10). Yet as it\nis with children, so it is with saints; we are a great deal more\nsubject to fears in the night than in the day. That, therefore,\nthat tendeth to the help of some graces, if there be not great care\ntaken, will prove an hindrance to others.\n\n5. Nor is the ruler of the darkness of this world wanting to apply\nhimself and his engines, so as, if possible, to make use of all\nthese things for the overthrowing of faith, and for the removing\nof our hope from the Lord, as a tree is removed from rooting in the\nground (Job 19:10). Behold! he can expound all things, so as that\nthey shall fall directly in the way of our believing. As thus, we\nhave sin, therefore we have no grace; sin struggleth in us, therefore\nwe fear not God; something in us sideth with sin, therefore we are\nwholly unregenerate; sin is in our best performances, therefore\nwherefore should I hope? Thus I say, he can afflict us in our\npilgrimage, and make hope difficult to us. Besides the hiding of\nGod's face, he can make not only a cause of sorrow, for that indeed\nit should, but a ground of despair, and as desperately concluding\nhe will never come again. How many good souls has he driven to\nthese conclusions, who afterwards have been made to unsay all again?\n\n6. And though spiritual desertions, darkness of soul, and guilt of\nsin, are the burdens most intolerable, yet they are not all; for\nthere is to be added to all these, that common evil of persecution,\nanother device invented to make void our hope. In this, I say, we\nare sure to be concerned; that is, if we be godly. For though the\napostle doth not say, 'All that will live in Christ,' that is,\nin the common profession of him, shall suffer persecution; yet he\nsaith, 'All that will live godly in him shall' (2 Tim 3:12). Now\nthis in itself is a terror to flesh and blood, and hath a direct\ntendency in it to make hope difficult (1 Peter 3:6,14). Hence men\nof a persecuting spirit, because of their greatness, and of their\nteeth (the laws), are said to be a terror, and to carry amazement\nin their doings; and God's people are apt to be afraid of them\nthough they should die, and to forget God their Maker; and this\nmakes hoping hard work (Isa 51:12,13).[8]\n\n7. For besides that grimness that appears in the face of\npersecutors, Satan can tell how to lessen, and make to dwindle in\nour apprehensions, those truths unto which our hearts have joined\nthemselves afore, and to which Christ our Lord has commanded us to\nstand. So that they shall now appear but little, small, inconsiderable\nthings; things not worth engaging for; things not worth running\nthose hazards for, that in the hour of trial may lie staring us in\nthe face. Moreover, we shall not want false friends in every hole,\nsuch as will continually be boring our ears with that saying,\nMaster, do good to thyself. At such times also, 'stars' do use to\n'fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken';\nand so every thing tends to weaken, or at least to lay stumbling-blocks\nin their way, who are commanded to hope in the Lord (Matt 24).\n\n8. Again, as Satan can make use of his subtilty, thus to afflict\nand weaken the hands and hearts of those that hope in God, so he\ncan add to these the dismalness of a suffering state. He can make\nthe loss of goods, in our imagination, ten times bigger than it\nis in itself; he can make an informer a frightful creature, and a\njail look like hell itself; he can make banishment and death utterly\nintolerable, and things that must be shunned with the hazard of\nour salvation. Thus he can greaten and lessen, lessen and greaten,\nfor the troubling of our hearts, for the hindering of our hope.[9]\n\n9. Add to all these, that the things that we suffer for were never\nseen by us, but are quite beyond our sight: things that indeed are\nsaid to be great and good; but we have only the word and the Bible\nfor it. And be sure if he that laboureth night and day to devour\nus, can help it, our faith shall be molested and perplexed at such\na time, that it may, if possible, be hard to do the commandment\nthat here the text enjoins us to the practice of; that is, to hope\nin the Lord. And this brings me to the third particular.\n\nIII. That the grace of hope well exercised, is the only way to\novercome those difficulties.--Abraham had never laughed for joy,\nhad he not hoped when the angel brought him tidings of a son; yea,\nhad he not hoped against all things that could have been said to\ndiscourage (Gen 17:17). Hence it is said, that 'against hope' he\n'believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations,\naccording to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be' (Rom\n4:18). There is hope against hope; hope grounded on faith, against\nhope grounded on reason. Hope grounded on reason, would have made\nAbraham expect that the promise should surely have been ineffectual,\nbecause of the deadness of Abraham's body, and of the barrenness\nof Sarah's womb. But he hoped against the difficulty, by hope that\nsprang from faith, which confided in the promise and power of God,\nand so overcame the difficulty, and indeed obtained the promise.\nHope, therefore, well exercised, is the only way to overcome. Hence\nPeter bids those that are in a suffering condition, 'Be sober, and\nhope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at\nthe revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:13). And therefore it\nis, as you heard before, that we are said to be 'saved by hope'\n(Rom 8:24).\n\nHope is excellent, 1. Against those discouragements that arise\nup out of our bowels. 2. It is excellent to embolden a man in the\ncause of God. 3. It is excellent at helping one over the difficulties\nthat men, by frights and terrors may lay in our way.\n\n1. It is excellent to help us against those discouragements that\narise out of our own bowels (Rom 4). This is clear in the instance\nlast mentioned about Abraham, who had nothing but discouragements\narising from himself; but he had hope, and as well he exercised\nit; wherefore, after a little patient enduring, he overcame the\ndifficulty, and obtained the promise (Heb 6:13-18). The reason is,\nfor that it is the nature of true hope to turn away its ear from\nopposing difficulties, to the word and mouth of faith; and perceiving\nthat faith has got hold of the promise, hope, notwithstanding\ndifficulties that do or may attempt to intercept, will expect, and\nso wait for the accomplishment thereof.\n\n2. Hope is excellent at emboldening a man in the cause of God.\nHence the apostle saith, 'Hope maketh not ashamed'; for not to be\nashamed there, is to be emboldened (Rom 5:5). So again, when Paul\nspeaks of the troubles he met with for the profession of the gospel,\nhe saith, that they should turn to his salvation. 'According,'\nsaith he, 'to my earnest expectation, and my hope, that in nothing\nI shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now\nChrist shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by\ndeath' (Phil 1:19,20). See here, a man at the foot of the ladder,\nnow ready in will and mind, to die for his profession; but how\nwill he carry it now? Why, with all brave and innocent boldness!\nBut how will he do that? O! By the hope of the gospel that is in\nhim; for by that he is fully persuaded that the cause he suffereth\nfor will bear him up in the day of God, and that he shall then be\nwell rewarded for it.[10]\n\n3. It is also excellent at helping one over those difficulties that\nmen, by frights and terrors, may lay in our way. Hence when David\nwas almost killed with the reproach and oppression of his enemies,\nand his soul full sorely bowed down to the ground therewith; that\nhe might revive and get up again, he calls to his soul to put in\nexercise the grace of hope, saying, 'Why art thou cast down, O my\nsoul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for\nI shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and\nmy God' (Psa 42:11). So again saith he in the next Psalm after,\nas afore he had complained of the oppression of the enemy, 'Why\nart thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within\nme? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health\nof my countenance and my God' (Psa 43:5). Hope, therefore, is a\nsoul-encouraging grace, a soul-emboldening grace, and a soul-preserving\ngrace. Hence it is called our helmet or head-piece, the helmet of\nsalvation (Eph 6:17; 1 Thess 5:8). This is one piece of the armour\nwith which the Son of God was clothed, when he came into the world;\nand it is that against which nothing can prevail (Isa 49:17). For\nas long as I can hope for salvation, what can hurt me! This word\nspoken in the blessed exercise of grace, I HOPE FOR SALVATION,\ndrives down all before it. The truth of God is that man's 'shield\nand buckler' that hath made the Lord his hope (Psa 91:4).\n\n[Encouragements to exercise this grace.]--And now to encourage\nthee, good man, to the exercise of this blessed grace of hope as the\ntext bids, let me present thee with that which followeth. 1. God,\nto show how well he takes hoping in him at our hands, has called\nhimself 'the God of hope' (Rom 15:13), that is, not only the author\nof hope, but the God that takes pleasure in them that exercise it,\n'The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope\nin his mercy' (Psa 147:11). 2. He will be a shield, a defence to\nthem that hope in him. 'Thou art my hiding-place and my shield,'\nsaith David, 'I hope in thy word'; that is, he knew he would be\nso; for he hoped in his word (Psa 119:114). 3. He has promised us\nthe life we hope for, to encourage us still to hope, and to endure\nall things to enjoy it (Titus 1:2). 'That he that ploweth should\nplow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope, should be partaker\nof his hope' (1 Cor 9:10).\n\nQuest. But you may say, What is it to exercise this grace aright?\n\nAnsw. 1. You must look well to your faith, that that may prosper,\nfor as your faith is, such your hope will be. Hope is never ill\nwhen faith is well; nor strong if faith be weak. Wherefore Paul\nprays that the Romans might be filled 'with all joy and peace\nin believing,' that they might 'abound in hope' (Rom 15:13). When\na man by faith believes to joy and peace, then hope grows strong,\nand with an assurance looketh for a share in the world to come.\nWherefore look to your faith, and pray heartily that the God of\nhope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing. 2. Learn\nof Abraham not to faint, stumble, or doubt, at the sight of your\nown weakness; for if you do, hope will stay below, and creak in the\nwheels as it goes, because it will want the oil of faith. But say\nto thy soul, when thou beginnest to faint and sink at the sight of\nthese, as David did to his, in the places made mention of before.\n3. Be much in calling to mind what God has done for thee in former\ntimes. Keep thy experience as a choice thing (Rom 5:4). 'Remember\nall the way the Lord led thee these forty years in the wilderness'\n(Deut 8:2). 'O my God,' saith David, 'my soul is cast down within\nme, therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and\nof the Hermonites from the hill Mizar' (Psa 42:6). 4. Be much in\nlooking at the end of things, or rather to the end of this, and\nto the beginning of the next world. What we enjoy of God in this\nworld, may be an earnest of hope, or a token that the thing hoped\nfor is to be ours at last; but the object of hope is in general the\nnext world (Heb 11:1). We must therefore put a difference betwixt\nthe mother of hope, Faith; the means of hope, the Word; the earnest\nof hope, Christ in us; and the proper object of hope, to wit, the\nworld to come, and the goodness thereof (Psa 119:49; Col 1:27).\n\nIf Christians have not much here, their hope, as I may so say, lies\nidle, and as a grace out of its exercise. For as faith cannot feed\nupon patience, but upon Christ, and as the grace of hungering and\nthirsting cannot live upon self-fulness, but upon the riches of the\npromise; so hope cannot make what is enjoyed its object: 'for what\na man seeth why doth he yet hope for?' (Rom 8:24). But the proper\nobject of hope is, that we see not. Let faith then be exercised\nupon Christ crucified for my justification, and hope upon the next\nworld for my glorification; and let love show the truth of faith in\nChrist, by acts of kindness to Christ and his people; and patience,\nthe truth of hope, by a quiet bearing and enduring that which may\nnow be laid upon me for my sincere profession's sake, until the\nhope that is laid up for us in heaven shall come to us, or we be\ngathered to that, and then hope is in some measure in good order,\nand exercised well. But,\n\nIV. We now come to the last thing propounded to be spoken to, which\nis, they that have hope and exercise it well, shall assuredly at\nlast enjoy that hope that is laid up for them in heaven; that is,\nthey that do regularly exercise the grace of hope shall at last enjoy\nthe object of it, or the thing hoped for. This must of necessity\nbe concluded, else we overthrow the whole truth of God at once, and\nthe expectation of the best of men; yea, if this be not concluded,\nwhat follows, but that Atheism, unbelief, and irreligion, are the\nmost right, and profane and debauched persons are in the rights\nway?\n\n1. But to proceed, this must be, as is evident; for that the things\nhoped for are put under the very name of the grace that lives in\nthe expectation of them. They are called HOPE; 'looking for that\nblessed hope'; 'for the hope that is laid up for them in heaven'\n(Titus 2:13; Col 1:5). God has set that character upon them, to\nsignify that they belong to hope, and shall be the reward of hope.\nGod doth in this, as your great traders do with the goods that their\nchapmen have either bought or spoke for; to wit, he sets their name\nor mark upon them, and then saith, This belongs to this grace, and\nthis belongs to that; but the kingdom of heaven belongs to HOPE,\nfor his name is set upon it. This therefore is one thing, to prove\nthat the thing hoped for shall be thine; God has marked it for\nthee: nor can it be given to those that do not hope. That is, to\nthe same purpose that you read of, 'That ye may be counted worthy\nof the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer' (2 Thess 1:5).\nSuffering flows from hope; he that hopes not for an house in\nheaven, will not for it choose to suffer the loss of the pleasures\nand friendships of this world. But they that suffer for it, and\nthat all do, one way or other, in whom is placed this grace of\nhope, they God counteth worthy of it, and therefore, hath marked\nit with their mark, HOPE; for that it belongs to hope, and shall\nbe given to those that hope. That is the first.\n\n2. They that do, as afore is said, exercise this grace of hope,\nshall assuredly enjoy the hope that is laid up for them in heaven,\nas is evident also from this; because, as God has marked and set\nit apart for them, so what he has done to and with our Lord and\nHead, since his death, he hath done it to this very end; that is,\nto beget and maintain our hope in him as touching this thing. He\n'hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of\nJesus Christ form the dead' (1 Peter 1:3). The meaning is, Christ\nis our undertaker, and suffered death for us, that we might enjoy\nhappiness and glory: and God, to show how wiling he was that we\nshould have this glory, raised up Christ again, and delivered him\nfrom their sorrows of death. Wherefore, considering this, Paul said,\n'He rejoiced in hope of the glory of God'; to wit, of that glory,\nthat sin, had he not had Jesus for his undertaker, would have caused\nthat he should certainly have come short of (Rom 3:23, 5:2). But,\nagain, God 'raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory,' too,\nand that to this very end, 'that your faith and hope might be in\nGod' (1 Peter 1:21). I say, he did it to this very end, that he\nmight beget in you this good opinion of him, as to hope in him,\nthat he would give you that good thing hoped for--to wit, eternal\nlife. He 'gave him glory,' and put it into his hand for you who\nis your head and Saviour, that you might see how willing God is to\ngive you the hope you look for, 'that your faith and hope might be\nin God.'\n\n3. That we that have hope and rightly exercise it, might assuredly\nenjoy that hope that is laid up for us in heaven: God has promised\nit, and that to our Saviour for us. Had he promised it to us, we\nmight yet have feared, for that with our faults we give a cause\nof continual provocation to him. But since he hath promised it to\nChrist, it must assuredly come to us by him, because Christ, to\nwhom it is promised, never gave occasion of provocation to him to\ntake it back. And that it was promised to Christ, it is evident,\nbecause it was promised before the world began: 'In hope of eternal\nlife,' saith Paul, 'which God, that cannot lie, promised before\nthe world began' (Titus 1:2). And this is, that we might hope. Men\nthat use to hope to enjoy that money or estate, that by those that\nare faithful is promised to them, and put into the hands of trusty\npersons for them; why this is the case, God that cannot lie, has\npromised it to the hopers, and has put it into the hand of the\ntrusty Jesus for us, therefore let us hope that in his times we\nshall both see and enjoy the same we hope for.\n\n4. Yea, that all ground of doubt and scruple as to this might be\nremoved out of the way, when Christ, who as to what was last said,\nis our hope (1 Tim 1:1), shall come, he shall bring that grace and\nmercy with him that shall even from before his judgment-seat remove\nall those things that might have any tendency in them to deprive\nus of our hope, or of the thing hoped for by us. Hence Peter bids\nus, 'Be sober and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be\nbrought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:13).\nAlso as to this, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, joins with\nhim, saying, 'Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the\nmercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life' (Jude 21). Here\nthen you see that there is grace and mercy still for us in reversion;\ngrace and mercy to be brought unto us at the revelation, or second\ncoming of Jesus Christ. How then can we be hindered of our hope?\nFor transporting mercy will then be busy for them that indeed have\nhere the hope of eternal life. 'And they shall be mine, saith the\nLord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will\nspare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him' (Mal\n3:17). None knows the mystery of God's will in all things revealed\nin his Word. Therefore many texts are looked over, or laid by, as\nthose whose key doth go too hard; nor will I boast of any singular\nknowledge in any particular thing.[11] Yet methinks since grace and\nmercy was not only brought by Christ when he came into the world,\nbut shall be brought again with him when he comes in his Father's\nglory, it signifies, that as the first brought the beginning of\neternal life to us while we were enemies, this second will bring the\nfull enjoyment of it to us while we are saints, attended with many\nimperfections. And that as by the first grace of all unworthiness\nwas pardoned and passed by; so by this second grace, the grace\nthat is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ,\nall shortness in duties, and failings in performances, shall be\nspared also; and we made possessors by virtue of this grace and\nmercy of the blessings hoped for, to wit, the blessings of eternal\nlife. But thus much for the duty contained in the exhortation, to\nwit, of hoping.\n\n[Second. A direction to the well managing of the duty of hope.]\n\nI shall therefore come, in the next place, to treat of the well\nmanaging of this duty with reference to this primary object, which\nis the Lord himself. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' There is a\ngeneral object of hope, and there is a particular object; there is\na common object, and there is a special one. Of the general and\ncommon object, to wit, of heaven and happiness, I have said something\nalready; wherefore it remains that now we come and treat of this\nparticular and special object of our hope: 'Let Israel hope in the\nLord.' The Lord, therefore, is to be the particular and special\nobject of our hope: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' Now in that there\nis not only a duty here exhorted to, but a direction for the better\nmanagement of that duty, to the particular and special object upon\nwhich this duty should be exercised, it suggesteth, how apt good\nmen are, especially in times of trouble, the case of Israel now,\nto fix their hopes in other things than on the Lord. We have seen\na great deal of this in our days; our days indeed have been days\nof trouble, especially since the discovery of the Popish plot, for\nthen we began to fear cutting of throats, of being burned in our beds,\nand of seeing our children dashed in pieces before our faces. But\nlooking about us, we found we had a gracious king, brave parliaments,\na stout city, good lord-mayors, honest sheriffs, substantial laws\nagainst them, and these we made the object of our hope, quite\nforgetting the direction in this exhortation, 'Let Israel hope in\nthe Lord.' For indeed the Lord ought to be our hope in temporals,\nas well as in spirituals and eternals. Wherefore Israel of old were\nchecked, under a supposition of placing their hope for temporals\nin men; 'It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence\nin man. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence\nin princes' (Psa 118:8,9). And again, 'Put not your trust in princes,\nnor in the son of man, in whom there is no help' (Psa 146:3). This\nimplieth that there is in us an incidency to forget God our hope,\nand to put confidence in something else. And to be sure we shall find\nit the more difficult to make the Lord our hope only, when things\nthat are here, though deceitfully, proffer us their help.[12] But\nmy design is not to treat of the object of hope but with reference\nto the next world. And as to that we must take heed that we set\nour hope in God, in God in the first place, and in nothing below or\nbesides himself. To this end it is that he has given us his word,\nand appointed a law to Israel.\n\nI. Because of his own grace he is become the special object of hope,\ndesignating himself in the most special sense to be the portion of\nhis people (Psa 78:5-7)--'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,\ntherefore will I hope in him' (Lam 2:24). Wherefore this we must\nlook well to, and take heed that we miss not of this object (Psa\n146:5). This is the special object, the ultimate object, the object\nthat we cannot be without; and that, short of which, we cannot be\nhappy as, God willing, shall be showed more anon (Jer 50:7). God\nis not only happiness in himself, but the life of the soul, and\nhe that puts goodness into every thing in the next world, in which\ngoodness shall be found (Jer 17:13). And this our Lord Jesus Christ\nhimself affirmeth, when he saith, 'I am the way,' to wit, the way\nto life and happiness. And yet he saith, 'I am the way to the Father,'\nfor that it is HE that is the fountain and ocean of happiness and\nbliss.\n\nSo then, that we might in the next world be heirs of the highest\ngood, God has made us heirs of his own good self; 'Heirs of God, and\njoint heirs with Christ'; heirs of God through Christ (Rom 18:17;\nGal 4:7). This God, this eternal God, therefore, is of necessity\nto be the object of our hope, because he is, of grace, become our\nhope. The church in heaven, called the body and temple of God, is\nto be an habitation for himself, when it is finished, to dwell in\nfor ever and ever. This then we hope for, to wit, to be possessed\nat that day with eternal life; eternal glory (1 Tim 6:12,19). Now\nthis eternal life and eternal glory is through God the hope of his\npeople (1 Peter 5:10; 1 John 5:20). And for this end, and to this\nbliss, are we called and regenerate in this world, 'That being\njustified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to the\nhope of eternal life' (Titus 3:7). Nor can it be, that heaven and\nhappiness should ever be the portion of them that make not God their\nhope, any more than such a lady should hope to enjoy the estate of\nsuch a lord, who first makes not the lord himself her husband.[13]\nHeaven, heaven is the talk of the ignorant, while the God of heaven\nthey cannot abide. But shall such ever come to glory? But,\n\nII. God must be the special object of our hope, and him in special\nthat must be enjoyed by us in the next world, or nothing can make\nus happy. We will suppose now, for the illustrating of this matter,\nthat which is not to be supposed. As,\n\n1. Suppose a man, when he dieth, should go to heaven, that golden\nplace, what good would this do him, if he was not possessed of the\nGod of it? It would be, as to sweetness, but a thing unsavoury; as\nto durableness, but a thing uncertain; as to society, as a thing\nforlorn; and as to life, but a place of death. All this is made to\nappear by the angels that fell; for when fallen, what was heaven\nto them? Suppose they staid but one quarter of an hour there after\ntheir fall, before they were cast out, what sweetness found they\nthere, but guilt? What stay, but a continual fall of heart and mind?\nWhat society, but to be abandoned of all? And what life, but death\nin its perfection? Yea, if it be true that some think, that for\nthe promoting of grace, they are admitted yet to enter that place\nto accuse the saints on earth, yet what do they find there but what\nis grievous to them? It is the presence of God that makes heaven\nHeaven in all its beauteousness. Hence David, when he speaks of\nheaven, says, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee?' (Psa 73:25). As\nwho should say, What would heaven yield to me for delights, if I\nwas there without my God? It is the presence of God that will make\nheaven sweet to those who are his. And as it is that that makes\nthe place, so it is interest in him that makes the company, and\nthe deeds that are done there, pleasant to the soul. What solace\ncan he that is without God, though he were in heaven, have with\nAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets and angels? How could he\njoin in their thanks, and praises, and blessings of him for ever\nand ever, in whose favour, mercy, and grace, they are not concerned?\n\n2. Suppose a man, when he dieth, should be made to live for ever,\nbut without the enjoyment of God, what good would his life do him?\nWhy, it would be filled full of horror, darkness, desolation,\nsorrow, and all things that would tend to make it bitter to the\nsoul. Witness they that live in hell; if it be proper to say they\nlive in hell? It is no more possible for a man to live happily,\nwere he possessed of all that heaven and life could afford him,\nsuppose him to be without interest in God, than it is for a man\nthat hath all the enjoyments of this world, if the sun was taken\nfrom him out of the firmament. As all things, whether it be heaven,\nangels, heavenly pleasures and delights, have had their being of\nhim, so their being is continued by him, and made sweet of him.\n\nNow, for the well managing of our hope, with reference to this\nspecial object of it, there are these things to be considered. And\nnow I speak to all. We must know him right, we must come to him\nright. (1.) We must know him right. It is essential to happiness,\nand so to the making of the God of heaven our hope, to know him\nrightly (John 17:1-3). It is not every fancy, or every imagination\nof God, that thou mayst have, that will prove that therefore thou\nknowest God aright. In him there 'is no variableness, neither shadow\nof turning' (James 1:17). He only is what he is, what imaginations\nsoever we have of him. We may set up idols and images of him, as\nmuch in our minds as some do in their houses and in their temples,\nand be as great, though not so gross idolaters as they.[14] Now\nif thou wouldst know him, thou must diligently feel for him in his\nworks, in his Word, and in his ways, if perhaps thou mayst find the\nknowledge of him (Prov 2:1-5; Acts 17:27). (2.) Beware, when thou\nhast found him, that thou go to him by his Son, whom he has sanctified\nand sent into the world, to be the way for sinners to go to God;\nand see that thou keepest in this path always, for out of him he\nis found intolerable, and a consuming-fire. (3.) Busy thyself with\nall thy might to make an interest in his Son, and he will willingly\nbe thy Saviour, for he must become thine before his Father can be\nthe object of thy hope (John 3:36). He that hath the Son, hath the\nFather, but contrariwise, he that hath not him has neither (2 John\n9). (4.) Stay not in some transient comforts, but abide restless\ntill thou seest an union betwixt thee and this Blessed One; to wit,\nthat he is a root, and thou a branch; that he is head, and thou a\nmember. And then shalt thou know that the case is so between thee\nand him, when grace and his Spirit has made thee to lay the whole\nstress of thy justification upon him and has subdued thy heart\nand mind to be 'one spirit' with him (Rom 4:4,5; 1 Cor 6:17). (5.)\nThis done, hope thou in God, for he is become thy hope, that is,\nthe object of it. And for thy encouragement so to do, consider\nthat he is able to bear up thy heart, and has said he will do it,\nas to this very thing, to all those that thus hope in him. 'Be\nof good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart,' all ye that\nhope in the Lord (Psa 31:24). It is manifest, as was said before,\nthat many difficulties lie in the way of hoping; but God will make\nthose difficulties easy, by strengthening the heart of him that\nhopeth, to hope. He has a way to do that, which no creature can\nhinder, by the blessed work of his Holy Spirit. He can show us he\nloves us, that he may encourage our hope. And as he can work in\nus for our encouragement, so he can and will, as was said before,\nhimself, in his time, answer our hope, by becoming our hope himself.\n'The Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the\nchildren of Israel' (Joel 3:16).\n\nHis faithfulness also is a great encouragement to his, to hope for\nthe accomplishment of all that he hath promised unto his people.\n'Hath he said it, and shall he not make it good?' When he promised\nto bring Israel into the land of Canaan, he accomplished it to a\ntittle. 'There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord\nhad spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass' (Josh 21:45,\n23:14). Also what he with his mouth had promised to David, with\nhis hand he fulfilled to Solomon in the view of all the thousands\nof Israel (1 Kings 8:22-24; 2 Chron 6:7-10).\n\n[Third. The persons who are concerned in the management of this\nduty of hope.]\n\nI will omit making mention again of the encouragements spoken of\nbefore, and shall now come to the third thing specified in this\npart of the text, to wit, to show more distinctly, who, and what\nparticular persons they are, who are concerned in this exhortation\nto hope.\n\nThey are put, as you see, under this general term Israel; 'Let\nIsrael hope in the Lord.' And, 'He shall save Israel from all his\ntroubles.' Israel is to be taken three ways, in the Scripture. 1.\nFor such that are Israel after the flesh. 2. For such as are such\nneither after the flesh nor the Spirit; but in their own fancies\nand carnal imaginations only. 3. For such as are Israel after God,\nor the Spirit.\n\n1. Israel is to be taken for those that are such after the flesh;\nthat is, for those that sprang from the loins of Jacob, and are\ncalled, 'Israel after the flesh, the children of the flesh.' Now\nthese, as such, are not the persons interested in this exhortation,\nfor by the flesh comes no true spiritual and eternal grace (Rom\n9:6-8; 2 Cor 1:10-18). Men are not within the bounds of the promise\nof eternal life, as they are the children of the flesh, either in\nthe more gross or more refined sense (Phil 3:4-6). Jacob was as\nspiritual a father as any HE, I suppose that now professeth the\ngospel; but his spiritualness could not convey down to this children,\nthat were such only after the flesh, that spirit and grace that\ncauseth sound conversion, and salvation by Jesus Christ. Hence Paul\ncounts it a carnal thing to glory in this; and tells us plainly,\nIf he had heretofore known Christ thus, that is, to have been his\nbrother or kinsman, according to the flesh, or after that, he would\nhenceforth know him, that is, so, 'no more' (2 Cor 5:16-18). For\nthough the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet not\nthat multitude, but the remnant that the Lord hath chosen and shall\ncall, shall be saved (Rom 9:27; Joel 2:32). This, therefore, is\nas an arrow against the face of that false doctrine that the Jews\nleaned upon, to wit, that they were in the state of grace, and\neverlasting favour of God, because the children and offspring of\nAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But,\n\n2. Israel may be taken for such as are neither so after the flesh,\nnor the Spirit, but in their own fancy and imagination only. And\nsuch I take to be all those that you read of in Revelation 2:9\nwhich said 'they were Jews, and were not,' 'but did lie' (3:9).\n\nThese I take to be those carnal gospellers,[15] that from among the\nGentiles pretended themselves to be Jews inwardly, whose circumcision\nis that of the heart in the spirit, when they were such only in\ntheir own fancies and conceits, and made their profession out as a\nlie (Rom 2:28,29). Abundance of these there are at this day in the\nworld; men who know neither the Father, nor the Son, nor anything\nof the way of the Spirit, in the work of regeneration; and yet\npresume to say, 'They are Jews'; that is, truly and spiritually\nthe seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 'For' now, 'he is not a\nJew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is\noutward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and\ncircumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,--whose praise is\nnot of men, but of God.' And although it may please some now to\nsay, as they of old said to them of the captivity, 'We seek your\nGod as ye do' (Ezra 4:2); yet at last it will be found, that as\nthey, such have 'no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem'\n(Neh 2:20). And I would from hence caution all to take heed of\npresuming to count themselves Jews, unless they have a substantial\nground so to do. For to do this without a good bottom, makes all\nour profession a lie; and not only so, but it hindereth us of a\nsight of a want of an interest in Jesus Christ, without which we\ncannot be saved; yea, such an one is the great self-deceiver, and\nso the worst deceiver of all: for he that deceives his own self,\nhis own heart, is a deceiver in the worst sense; nor can any\ndisappointment be like unto that which casts away soul and body at\nonce (James 1:22,26). O slender thread! that a man should think, that\nbecause he fancieth himself 'an Israelite indeed,' that therefore\nhe shall go for such an one in the day of judgment; or that he\nshall be able to cheat God with a pitiful say-so!\n\n3. But the Israel under consideration in the text, is Israel after\nGod, or the Spirit; hence they are called 'the Israel of God,'\nbecause they are made so of him, not by generation, nor by fancy,\nbut by Divine power (Can 6:16). And thus was the first of this name\nmade so, 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel' (Gen\n32:28). This then is the man concerned in the text, 'Let Israel\nhope in the Lord'; to wit, Israel that is so of God's making, and\nof God's allowance: for men are not debarred from calling themselves\nafter this most godly name, provided they are so indeed; all that\nis dangerous is, when men shall think this privilege comes by carnal\ngeneration, or that their fancying of themselves to be such will\nbear them out in the day of judgment. Otherwise, if men become the\ntrue servants of God by Christ, they have, as I said, an allowance\nso to subscribe themselves. 'One shall say, I am the Lord's and\nanother shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall\nsubscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the\nname of Israel' (Isa 44:5). But then, for the further describing\nof such, they must be men of circumcised and tender hearts; they\nmust be such 'which worship God in the spirit, and that rejoice\nin Christ Jesus, and that have no confidence in the flesh' (Phil\n3:3), for these are the Nathaniels, the Israelites indeed in whom\nthere is no guile (John 1:47), and these are they that are intended\nin the exhortation, when he saith, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.'\n\nFor these are formed for that very end, that they might hope in\nthe Lord; yea, the word and testament are given to them for this\npurpose (Psa 78:5-7). These are prisoners of hope all the time they\nare in the state of nature, even as the whole creation is subjected\nunder hope, all the time of its bondage, by the sin and villainy\nof man; and unto them it shall be said, in the dispensation of the\nfullness of time, 'Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of\nhope' (Zech 9:12); as certainly as that which is called the creature\nitself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the\nglorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:18-21). Only here,\nas I said before, let all men have a care in this thing: this is\nthe pinnacle, the point; he that is right here, is right in all\nthat is necessary to salvation; but he that misses here, can by no\nmeans be right anywhere to his soul's advantage in the other world.\n\n[Improvement.] If I should a little improve the text where this\ntitle is first given to man, and show the posture he was in when\nit was said to him, 'Thy name shall be called Israel'; and should\nalso debate upon the cause or ground of that, 'An Israelite indeed,'\nthou mightest not repent it who shall read it; and therefore a few\nwords to each.\n\n1. When Jacob received the name of Israel, he was found wrestling\nwith the angel; yea, and so resolved a wrestler was he, that he\npurposed, now he had begun, not to give out without a blessing, 'I\nwill not let thee go,' said he, 'except thou bless me' (Gen 32:26).\nDiscouragements he had while he wrestled with him, to have left\noff, before he obtained his desire; for the angel bid him leave\noff; 'let me go,' said he. He had wrestled all night, and had not\nprevailed; and now the day brake upon him, and consequently his\ndiscouragement was like to be the greater, for that now the majesty\nand terribleness of him with whom he wrestled would be seen more\napparently; but this did not discourage him: besides, he lost the\nuse of a limb as he wrestled with him; yet all would not put this\nIsrael out. Pray he did, and pray he would, and nothing should make\nhim leave off prayer, until he had obtained, and therefore he was\ncalled 'Israel.' 'For as a prince hast thou power with God and\nwith men, and hast prevailed' (Gen 32:28,30). A wrestling spirit\nof prayer is a demonstration of an Israel of God; this Jacob had,\nthis he made use of, and by this he obtained the name of 'Israel.'\nA wrestling spirit of prayer in straits, difficulties, and distresses;\na wrestling spirit of prayer when alone in private, in the night,\nwhen none eye seeth but God's then to be at it, then to lay hold\nof God, then to wrestle, to hold fast, and not to give over until\nthe blessing is obtained, is a sign of one that is an Israel of\nGod.\n\n2. 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile' (John 1:47).\nThis was the testimony of the Lord Jesus concerning Nathaniel (v\n46). Nathaniel was persuaded by Philip to come to Jesus, and as\nhe was coming, Jesus saith to the rest of the disciples concerning\nhim, 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' Then said\nNathaniel to Jesus, 'Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said\nunto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the\nfig-tree I saw thee' (v 15). Nathaniel, as Jacob, was at prayer,\nat prayer alone under the fig-tree, wrestling in prayer, for what\nno man can certainly tell, but probably for the Messias, or for the\nrevelation of him: for the seeing Jews were convinced that the time\nof the promise was out; and all men were in expectation concerning\nJohn, whether he might not be he (Luke 3:15). But Nathaniel was\nunder the fig-tree, alone with God, to inquire of him, and that\nwith great earnestness and sincerity; else the Lord Jesus would\nnot thus have excused him of hypocrisy, and justified his action\nas he did, concluding from what he did there that he was a true\nson of Jacob; and ought, as he, to have his name changed from what\nhis parents gave him, to this given him of Christ, 'An Israelite\nindeed.' Wherefore, from both these places, it is apparent, that\na wrestling spirit of prayer, in private, is one of the best signs\nthat this or that man or woman is of Israel; and, consequently,\nsuch who are within the compass of the exhortation here, saying,\n'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' I say, it is this wrestling spirit\nof prayer with God alone; for as for that of public prayer, though\nI will not condemn it, it gives not ground for this character,\nnotwithstanding all the flourishes and excellencies that may\ntherein appear. I am not insensible what pride, what hypocrisy,\nwhat pretences, what self-seekings of commendations and applause,\nmay be countenanced by those concerned in, or that make public\nprayers; and how little thought or savour of God may be in all so\nsaid; but this closet, night, or alone prayer, is of another stamp,\nand attended, at least so I judge, with that sense, those desires,\nthat simplicity, and those strugglings, wherewith that in public is\nnot.[16] Nay, I think verily a man cannot addict himself to these\nmost solemn retirements, without some of Jacob's and Nathaniel's\nsense and sincerity, wrestlings and restlessness for mercy; wherefore,\nlaying aside all other, I shall abide by this, That the man that\nis as I have here described, is not an Israelite of the flesh, nor\none so only in his fancy or imagination, but one made so of God; one\nthat is called a child of promise, and one to whom this exhortation\ndoth belong: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord'; to wit, they that serve\nGod by prayer day and night (Luke 2:37; Acts 26:5-7). These, I say,\nare Israel, the Israel of God, and let these hope in the Lord, from\nnow, 'henceforth, and for ever' (Psa 131:3).\n\n[SECOND. The manner by which the exhortation is expressed.]\n\nHaving thus briefly touched upon those three things that are\ncontained in the matter of the exhortation, I now come to speak a\nword to the manner of praises by which the exhortation is presented\nto us, 'Let Israel hope'; he doth not say, Israel hath hoped; Israel\ndid hope; or Israel can hope, but 'let Israel hope in the Lord.'\n'Let' is a word very copious, and sometimes signifies this, and\nsometimes that, even according as the nature or reason of the thing\nunder debate, or to be expressed, will with truth and advantage\nbear. Let him hope,\n\nFirst. Sometimes 'let' is equivalent to a command; 'Let every soul be\nsubject to the higher powers,' this is a command. 'Let all things\nbe done decently and in order,' this also is a command. So here,\n'Let Israel hope,' this also is a command; and so enjoins a duty\nupon Israel; for why, since they seek for mercy, should they not\nhave it; now a command lays a very strong obligation upon a man\nto do this or another duty. 'He commandeth all men every where\nto repent'; but Israel only to hope in his mercy. Now take the\nexhortation and convert it into a commandment, and it showeth us,\n(1.) in what good earnest God offers his mercy to his Israel; he\ncommands them to hope in him, as he is and will be so to them. (2.)\nIt supposes an impediment in Israel, as to the faculty of receiving\nor hoping in God for mercy; we that would have God be merciful, we\nthat cry and pray to him to show us mercy, have yet that weakness\nand impediment in our faith, which greatly hindereth us from a\nsteadfast hoping in the Lord for mercy. (3.) It suggesteth also,\nthat Israel SINS, if he hopeth not in God, God would not that all\nshould attempt to hope, because they have no faith; for he is for\nhaving of them first believe, knowing that it is in vain to think\nof hoping, until they have believed; but Israel has believed, and\ntherefore God has commanded them to hope, and they sin if they obey\nhim not in this, as in all other duties. He commands thee, I say,\nsince thou hast believed in his Son, to hope, that is, to expect\nto see his face in the next world with joy and comfort; this is\nhoping, this is thy duty, this God commands thee.\n\nSecond. As this word 'let' is sometimes equivalent to a command, so\nit is expressed sometimes also to show a grant, leave, or license,\nto do a thing: such are these that follow, 'Let us come boldly to\nthe throne of grace' (Heb 4:6). 'Let us draw near with a true heart'\n(ch 10). 'Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without\nwavering' (vv 22,23). Here also this manner of expressing the\nthing may be taken in the same sense, to wit, to show that Israel\nhas a grant, a leave, a license, to trust in the Lord. And O! what\na privilege is this, but who believes it? And yet as truly as God\nhas granted to Jacob, to Israel, repentance unto life, and by that\nmeans has made him fly for refuge, to lay hold of Christ set before\nhim as a justifier; so has he granted him leave and license to\ntrust in him for ever, and to hope for his favour in the next world.\n\nAnd if you take the word in this sense, to wit, for a grant, leave,\nor license, to hope in God; then (1.) This shows how liberal God\nis of himself, and things, to Israel. Let Israel hope in me, trust\nto me, expect good things at my hand; I give him leave and license\nto do it. Let him live in a full expectation of being with me, and\nwith my Son in glory; I give him leave to do so; he has license\nfrom me to do so. (2.) Understand the word thus, and it shows us\nwith what boldness and confidence God would have us hope in him.\nThey that have leave and license to do a thing, may do it with\nconfidence and boldness, without misgivings and reluctance of mind;\nthis is our privilege; we may live in a full assurance of hope unto\nthe end, we may hope perfectly to the end, we have leave, license,\nand a grant to do it. (3.) Understand the word thus, and it also\nshows you how muddy, how dark those of Israel are, and how little\nthey are acquainted with the goodness of their God, who stand\nshrinking at his door like beggars, and dare not in a godly sort\nbe bold, with his mercy. Wherefore standest thou thus with thy Ifs\nand thy O-buts, O thou poor benighted Israelite. Wherefore puttest\nthou thy hand in thy bosom, as being afraid to touch the hem of\nthe garment of the Lord? Thou hast a leave, a grant, a license,\nto hope for good to come, thy Lord himself has given it to thee,\nsaying, 'LET Israel hope in the Lord.'\n\nThird. This word 'let' is also sometimes used by way of rebuke and\nsnub; 'Let her alone, for her soul is vexed' (2 Kings 4:27). 'Let\nher alone, why trouble ye her?' (Mark 14:6). 'Refrain from these\nmen, and let them alone' (Acts 5:38). And it may also so be taken\nhere. But if so, then it implies, that God in this exhortation\nrebuketh those evil instruments, those fallen angels, with all\nothers that attempt to hinder us in the exercise of this duty. As\nBoaz said to his servants, when Ruth was to glean in his field,\n'let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not' (Ruth\n2:15,16). We have indeed those that continually endeavour to hinder\nus of living in the full assurance of hope, as to being with God\nand with Christ in glory: but here is a rebuke for such, 'Let Israel\nhope in the Lord.' And it shows us, 1. That what suggestions come\nfrom Satan to make us that are Israelites to doubt, come not for\nthat end, by virtue of any commission that he hath from God. God\nhas rebuked him in the text, and you may see it also elsewhere.\nThese temptations, therefore, are rather forged of malice, and of\ndespite to our faith and hope; and so should be accounted by us\n(Zech 1:1-3). 2. This shows us also that we should take heed of\ncrediting of that which comes unto us to hinder our hope in the\nLord; lest we take part with Satan, while God rebuketh him, and\ncountenanceth that which fights against the grace of God in us. 3.\nIt shows us also that as faith, so hope, cannot be maintained with\ngreat difficulty, and that we should endeavour to maintain it, and\nhope through every difficulty.\n\nFourth. This word 'LET' is sometimes used by way of request or\nintreaty. 'I pray thee, LET Tamar my sister come' (2 Sam 13:6).\n'LET it be granted to the Jews to do,' &c. (Esth 9:13). And if it\nbe so to be taken here, or if in the best sense this interpretation\nof it may here be admitted, the consideration thereof is amazing;\nfor then it is all one as if God by the mouth of his servant, the\npenman of this psalm, did intreat us to hope in him. And why this\nmay not be implied here, as well as expressed elsewhere, I know\nnot. 'God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be\nye reconciled to God' (2 Cor 5:20). Why should God beseech us to\nreconcile to him, but that we might hope in him? and if it be thus\ntaken here, it shows, 1. The great condescension of God, in that\nhe doth not only hold out to us the advantages of hoping in God,\nbut desires that we should hope, that we might indeed be partakers\nof those advantages. 2. It teaches us also humility, and that\nalways in the acts of faith and hope we should mix blushing, and\nshame, with our joy and rejoicing. Kiss the ground, sinner; put\n'thy mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope' (Lam 3:29).\n\nFifth. And lastly, This word is used sometimes by way of caution.\n'Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall' (1\nCor 10:12). 'Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of\nentering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it'\n(Heb 4:1), and if it should be so taken here, then, 1. This shows\nus the evil of despair, and that we at times are incident to it; our\ndaily weaknesses, our fresh guilt, our often decays, our aptness to\nforget the goodness of God, are direct tendencies unto this evil,\nof which we should be aware; for it robs God of his glory, and\nus of our comfort, and gratifies none but the devil and unbelief.\n2. It showeth us that despair is a fall, a falling down from our\nliberty; our liberty is to hope; it is our portion from God; for\nhe hath said that himself will be the hope of his people. To do\nthe contrary, is therefore a falling from God, a departing from\nGod through an evil heart of unbelief. It is the greatest folly in\nthe world for an Israelite to despair; 'Why sayest thou, O Jacob,\nand speakest, O Israel. My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment\nis passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not\nheard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends\nof the earth, fainteth not? There is no searching of his understanding.\nHe giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he\nincreaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and\nthe young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon,' that\nis, hope in, 'the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount\nup with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they\nshall walk and not faint' (Isa 40:27-31).\n\n[THIRD. Inferences from the exhortation.]\n\nNow we come to those inferences that do naturally flow from this\nexhortation, and they are in number four.\n\nFirst. That hope and the exercise of it, is as necessary in its\nplace, as faith, and the exercise of it. All will grant that there\nis need of a daily exercise of faith; and we are bid to hope unto\nthe end, because hope is the grace that relieveth the soul when dark\nand weary. Hope is as the bottle to the faint and sinking spirit.\nHope calls upon the soul not to forget how far it is arrived in\nits progress towards heaven. Hope will point and show it the gate\nafar off; and therefore it is called the hope of salvation. Hope\nexerciseth itself upon God.\n\n1. By those mistakes that the soul hath formerly been guilty of,\nwith reference to the judgment that it hath made of God, and of his\ndealings with it. And this is an excellent virtue. 'I said,' once\nsays the church, that 'my hope is perished from the Lord,' but I\nwas deceived; 'this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope';\nthat is, why, if I give way to such distrusting thoughts, may I not\nbe wrong again? (Lam 3:18-21). Therefore will I hope! This virtue\nis that which belongs to this grace only; for this and this only is\nit that can turn unbelief and doubts to advantage. 'I said in my\nhaste,' said David, 'I am cut off from before thine eyes'; nevertheless\nI was mistaken; 'thou heardest the voice of my supplications when\nI cried unto thee' (Psa 31:22). And what use doth he make of this?\nWhy, an exhortation to all good men to hope, and to take advantage\nto hope from the same mistakes. I think I am cast off from God,\nsays the soul; so thou thoughtest afore, says memory, but thou\nwast mistaken then, and why not the like again? and therefore will\nI hope. When I had concluded that God would never come near me\nmore, yet after that he came to me again, and as I was then, so I\nam now; therefore will I hope.\n\n2. True hope, in the right exercise of it upon God, makes no stick\nat weakness or darkness; but rather worketh up the soul to some\nstay, by these. Thus Abraham's hope wrought by his weakness (Rom\n4). And so Paul, when I am weak, then I am strong; I will most\ngladly therefore rejoice in mine infirmities (2 Cor 12). But this\ncannot be done where there is no hope, nor but by hope: for it is\nhope, and the exercise of it, that can say, Now I expect that God\nshould bring good out of all this. And as for the dark, it is its\nelement to act in that: 'But hope that is seen is not hope' (Rom\n8:24). But we must hope for that we see not. So David, 'Why art\nthou cast down, O my soul? hope thou in God.' Christians have no\nreason to mistrust the goodness of God, because of their weakness,\n&c. 'I had fainted unless I had believed to see' (Psa 27:13). By\nbelieving there, he means hoping to see, as the exhortation drawn\nfrom thence doth import.\n\n3. Hope will make use of our calling, to support the soul, and to\nhelp it, by that, to exercise itself in a way of expectation of good\nfrom God. Hence the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that they may\nbe made to see what is 'the hope of their calling'; that is, what\ngood that is which by their calling they have ground to hope is\nlaid up in heaven, and to be brought unto them at the appearance\nof Jesus Christ (Eph 1:17,18). For thus the soul by this grace of\nhope will reason about this matter: God has called me; surely it is\nto a feast. God has called me to the fellowship of his Son, surely\nit is that I may be with him in the next world. God has given me\nthe spirit of faith and prayer; surely it is that I might hope for\nwhat I believe is, and wait for what I pray for. God his given me\nsome tastes already; surely it is to encourage me to hope that he\npurposeth to bring me into the rich fruition of the whole.\n\n4. Hope will exercise itself upon God by those breakings wherewith\nhe breaketh his people for their sins. 'The valley of Achor' must\nbe given 'for a door of hope' (Hosea 2:15). The valley of Achor; what\nis that? Why, the place where Achan was stoned for his wickedness,\nand the place where all Israel was afflicted for the same (Josh 7).\nI say, hope can gather by this, that God has a love to the soul; for\nwhen God hateth a man he chastiseth him not for his trespasses.[17]\n'If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are\nye bastards, and not sons' (Heb 12:8). Hence Moses tells Israel,\nthat when the hand of God was upon them for their sins, they should\nconsider in their heart, 'that as a man chasteneth his son, so the\nLord thy God chasteneth thee' (Deut 8:5). And why thus consider,\nbut that a door might be opened for hope to exercise itself upon\nGod by this? This is that also that is intended in Paul to the\nCorinthians, 'When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord,\nthat we should not be condemned with the world' (1 Cor 11:32). Is\nnot here a door of hope? And why a door of hope, but that by it,\nGod's people, when afflicted, should go out by it from despair by\nhope?\n\n[Second.] But it is to be inferred, secondly, That the exercise\nof hope upon God is very delightful to him: else he would not have\ncommanded and granted us a liberty to hope, and have snibbed those\nthat would hinder. 'Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that\nfear him; upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul\nfrom death, and to keep them alive in famine' (Psa 33:18,19). That\nGod is much delighted in the exercise of this grace, is evident,\nbecause of the preparation that he has made for this grace, wherewith\nto exercise itself. 'For whatsoever things were writ aforetime, were\nwritten for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of\nthe Scriptures might have hope' (Rom 15:4). Mark, the whole history\nof the Bible, with the relation of the wonderful works of God with\nhis people from the beginning of the world, are written for this\nvery purpose, that we, by considering and comparing, by patience\nand comfort of them, might have hope. The Bible is the scaffold or\nstage that God has builded for hope to play his part upon in this\nworld. It is therefore a thing very delightful to God to see hope\nrightly given its colour before him; hence he is said, 'to laugh\nat the trial of the innocent' (Job 9:23). Why at his trial? Because\nhis trial puts him upon the exercise of hope: for then indeed there\nis work for hope, when trials are sharp upon us. But why is God\nso delighted in the exercise of this grace of hope?\n\n1. Because hope is a head-grace and governing. There are several\nlusts in the soul that cannot be mastered, if hope be not in\nexercise; especially if the soul be in great and sore trials. There\nis peevishness and impatience, there is fear and despair, there\nis doubting and misconstruing of God's present hand; and all these\nbecome masters, if hope be not stirring; nor can any grace besides\nput a stop to their tumultuous raging in the soul. But now hope in\nGod makes them all hush, takes away the occasion of their working,\nand lays the soul at the foot of God. 'Surely,' saith the Psalmist,\n'I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of\nhis mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.' But how came he to\nbring his soul into so good a temper? Why, that is gathered by the\nexhortation following, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth\nand for ever' (Psa 131:2,3). It was by hoping in the Lord that he\nquieted his soul, and all its unruly sinful passions.\n\n2. As hope quasheth and quieteth sinful passions, so it putteth\ninto order some graces that cannot be put into order without it:\nas patience, meekness, silence, and long-suffering, and the like.\nThese are all in a day of trial out of place, order, and exercise,\nwhere hope forbeareth to work. I never saw a distrusting man, a\npatient man, a quiet man, a silent man, and a meek man, under the\nhand of God, except he was 'dead in sin' at the time. But we are not\nnow talking of such. But now let a man hope in the Lord, and he\npresently concludes this affliction is for my good, a sign God loves\nme, and that which will work out for me a far more and exceeding\nand eternal weight of glory; and so it puts the graces of the soul\ninto order (Luke 21:19). Wherefore patience, by which a man is bid\nto possess or keep his soul under the cross, is called 'the patience\nof hope' (1 Thess 1:3). So in another place, when he would have the\nchurch patient in tribulation, and continue instant in prayer, he\nbids them 'rejoice in hope,' knowing that the other could not be\ndone without it (Rom 12:12).\n\n3. God takes much delight in the exercise of hope, because it\nconstrueth all God's dispensations, at present, towards it, for the\nbest: 'When he hath tried me I shall come forth like gold' (Job\n23:10). This is the language of hope. God, saith the soul, is doing\nof me good, making of me better, refining of my inward man. Take a\nprofessor that is without hope, and either he suffereth affliction\nof pride and ostentation, or else he picks a quarrel with God and\nthrows up all. For he thinks that God is about to undo him; but hope\nconstrueth all to the best, and admits no such unruly passions to\ncarry the man away.\n\n4. Therefore hope makes the man, be the trials what they will, to\nkeep still close to the way and path of God. 'My foot,' said hoping\nJob, 'hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined,\nneither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips' (Job\n23:11,12). And again, 'Our heart is not turned back, neither have\nour steps declined from thy way: though thou hast sore broken us\nin the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death'\n(Psa 44:18,19). But how came they thus patiently to endure? Why,\nthey by hope put patience and prayer into exercise. They knew that\ntheir God was as it were but asleep, and that in his time he would\narise for their help; and when he did arise he would certainly\ndeliver. Thus is this psalm applied by Paul (Rom 8).\n\n[Third.] There is also inferred from this exhortation, that\nthe hope of those that are not Israelites is not esteemed of God.\n'Let Israel hope.' The words are exclusive, shutting out the rest.\nHe doth not say, Let Amalek hope, let Babylon, or the Babylonians\nhope; but even in and by this exhortation shutteth out both the\nrest and their hope from his acceptance. This being concluded, it\nfollows, that some may hope and not be the better for their hope.\n'The hypocrite's hope shall perish' (Job 8:13); their hope shall\nbe as the giving up of the ghost (11:20). 'For what is the hope of\nthe hypocrite?' (27:8). Again, 'The hope of unjust men perisheth'\n(Prov 11:7). There is a hope that perisheth, both it and he that\nhoped with it together. The reasons are,\n\n1. Because it floweth not from faith and experience, but rather\nfrom conceit and presumption. Hope, as I have told you, if it be\nright, cometh of faith, and is brought forth by experience: but the\nhope now under consideration is alone, and has no right original,\nand therefore not regarded. It is not the hope of God, but the hope\nof man; that is, it is not the hope of God's working, but the hope\nthat standeth in natural abilities. 'Thou washest away the things\nwhich grow out of the dust of the earth, and thou destroyest the hope\nof man' (Job 14:19). Whatsoever in religious matters is but of a\ncarnal and earthly existence, must be washed away, when the overflowing\nscourge shall at the end pass over the world (Isa 28:17-19).\n\n2. Because the Lord's mercy is not the object of it. The worldly\nman makes gold, or an arm of flesh his hope; that is, the object\nof it, and so he despiseth God (Job 31:24; Jer 3:23). Or if he be\na religious hypocrite, his hope terminates in his own doings: he\ntrusteth, or hopeth, in himself, that he is righteous (Luke 18:9).\nAll these things are abhorred of God, nor can he, with honour to\nhis name, or in a compliance with his own eternal designs, give\nany countenance to such a hope as this.\n\n3. This hope has no good effect on the heart and mind of him that\nhath it. It purifieth not the soul, it only holds fast a lie, and\nkeeps a man in a circuit, at an infinite distance from waiting upon\nGod.\n\n4. This hope busieth all the powers of the soul about things that\nare of the world, or about those false objects on which it is pitched;\neven as the spider diligently worketh in her web--unto which also\nthis hope is compared--in vain. This hope will bring that man that\nhas it, and exercises it, to heaven, when leviathan is pulled out\nof the sea with a hook; or when his jaw is bored through with a\nthorn: but as he that thinks to do this, hopeth in vain; so, even\nso, will the hope of the other be as unsuccessful; 'So are the\npaths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish;\nwhose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's\nweb. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall\nhold it fast, but it shall not endure' (Job 8:13-15, 41:1-9). This\nis the hope that is not esteemed of God, nor the persons that have\nit, preferred by him a whit before their own dung (Job 20:4-8).\n\n[Fourth.] There is also inferred from these words, That Israel\nhimself is subject to swerve in his soul about the object of hope.\nFor this text is to him as a command and grant, so an instruction\nby which he is to be informed, how and upon whom to set his hope.\nThat Israel is apt to swerve as to the object of his hope, is\nevident, for that so much ado is made by the prophets to keep him\nupon his God; in that so many laws and statutes are made to direct\nhim to set his hope in God: and also by his own confession (Psa\n78:7; Jer 3:23-25; Lam 4:17). The fears also and the murmurings and\nthe faintings that attend the godly in this life, do put the truth\nof this inference out of doubt. It is true, the apostle said, that\nhe had the sentence of death in himself, that he might not trust\nor hope in himself, but in God that raiseth the dead. But this was\nan high pitch; Israel is not always here; there are many things\nthat hinder. (1.) The imperfection of our graces. There is no grace\nperfected in the godly. Now it is incident to things defective,\nto be wanting in their course. Faith is not perfect; and hence the\nsensible Christian feels what follows: love is not perfect, and\nwe see what follows; and so of hope and every other grace; their\nimperfection makes them stagger. 2. Israel is not yet beyond\ntemptations. There is a deal to attend him with temptations, and he\nhas a soul so disabled by sin, that at all times he cannot fix on\nGod that made him, but is apt to be turned aside to lying vanities:\nthe very thing that Jonah was ensnared with (2:8).\n\n3. The promising helps that seem to be in other things, are great\nhindrances to a steady fixing, by hope, on God; there are good\nframes of heart, enlargements in duties, with other the like, that\nhave through the darkness, and the legality of our spirits been\ngreat hindrances to Israel. Not that their natural tendency is to\nturn us aside; but our corrupt reason getting the upper hand, and\nbearing the stroke in judgment, converts our minds and consciences\nto the making of wrong conclusions upon them. 4. Besides, as the\nmind and conscience, by reason, is oft deluded to draw these wrong\nconclusions upon our good frames of heart, to the removing of our\nhope from the right object unto them; so by like reason, are we\nturned by unwholesome doctrines, and a carnal understanding of the\nWord, to the very same thing: 'cisterns, broken cisterns that can\nhold no water,' Israel, even God's people, are apt to make unto\nthemselves to the forsaking of their God (Jer 2:11-13).\n\nThus have I gone through the first part of the text, which consists\nof an exhortation to hope in the Lord. And have showed you, 1. The\nmatter contained therein. 2. Something of the reason of the manner\nof the phrase. 3. And have drawn, as you see, some inferences from\nit.\n\n[SECOND. THE REASON URGED TO ENFORCE THE EXHORTATION.]\n\nI now come to the second part of the text, which is a reason urged\nto enforce the exhortation, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' Why?\n'For with the Lord there is mercy.' There is the reason, let him\nhope, for there is mercy; let him hope in the Lord, for with him\nthere is mercy. The reason is full and suitable. For what is the\nground of despair, but a conceit that sin has shut the soul out\nof all interest in happiness? and what is the reason of that, but\na persuasion that there is no help for him in God? Besides, could\nGod do all but show mercy, yet the belief of that ability would\nnot be a reason sufficient to encourage the soul to hope in God.\nFor the block SIN, which cannot be removed but by mercy, still\nlies in the way. The reason therefore is full and suitable, having\nnaturally an enforcement in it, to the exhortation. And,\n\nFirst. To touch upon the reason in a way general, and then [Second]\nto come to it more particularly. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for\nwith the Lord there is mercy,' mercy to be bestowed, mercy designed\nto be bestowed.\n\n1. Mercy to be bestowed. This must be the meaning. What if a man\nhas never so much gold or silver, or food, or raiment: yet if he\nhas none to communicate, what is the distressed, or those in want,\nthe better? What if there be mercy with God, yet if he has none\nto bestow, what force is there in the exhortation, or what shall\nIsrael, if he hopeth, be the better. But God has mercy to bestow,\nto give. 'He saith on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies\nof David' (Acts 13:34). And again, 'The Lord give mercy unto\nthe house of Onesiphorus' (2 Tim 1:16). Now then, here lies the\nencouragement. The Lord has mercy to give; he has not given away\nALL his mercy; his mercy is not clean gone for ever (Psa 77:8).\nHe has mercy yet to give away, yet to bestow upon his Israel. 'Let\nIsrael hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.'\n\n2. As there is with God mercy to be bestowed, so there is mercy\ndesigned to be bestowed or given to Israel. Some men lay by what\nthey mean to give away, and put that in a bag by itself, saying,\nThis I design to give away, this I purpose to bestow upon the poor.\nThus God; he designeth mercy for his people (Dan 9:4). Hence the\nmercy that God's Israel are said to be partakers of, is a mercy kept\nfor them. And 'thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the\npoor,' and laid up for them (Psa 68:10). This is excellent and is\ntrue, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for there is with him mercy,'\nkept, prepared, and laid up for them! (Psa 61:7). When God designs\nthe bestowing of mercy, we may well hope to be partakers (Psa 31:19).\nThe poor will go merrily to weddings and funerals, and hope for an\nalms all the way they go, when they come to understand that there\nis so much kept, prepared, and laid up for them by the bridegroom,\n&c.[18] But 'He keepeth mercy for thousands!' (Exo 34:7).\n\n3. As God has mercies to bestow, and as he has designed to bestow\nthem, so those mercies are no fragments or the leavings of others:\nbut mercies that are full and complete to do for thee, what thou\nwantest, wouldst have, or canst desire. As I may so say, God has\nhis bags that were never yet untied, never yet broken up, but laid\nby him through a thousand generations, for those that he commands\nto hope in his mercy. As Samuel kept the shoulder for Saul, and as\nGod brake up that decreed place for the sea, so hath he set apart,\nand will break up his mercy for his people: mercy and grace that\nhe gave us before we had a being, is the mercy designed for Israel\n(2 Tim 1:9). Whole mercies are allotted to us; however, mercy\nsufficient (1 Sam 9:23-24; Job 38:10). But to be a little more\ndistinct.\n\n[Second, particularly.] I find that the goodness of God to his\npeople is diversely expressed in his word: sometimes by the word\ngrace; sometimes by the word love; and sometimes by the word mercy;\neven as our badness against him is called iniquity, transgression,\nand sin. When it is expressed by that word 'grace,' then it is to\nshow that what he doth is of his princely will, his royal bounty,\nand sovereign pleasure. When it is expressed by that word 'love,'\nthen it is to show us that his affection was and is in what he\ndoth, and that he doth what he doth for us, with complacency and\ndelight. But when it is set forth to us under the notion of 'mercy,'\nthen it bespeaks us to be in a state both wretched and miserable,\nand that his bowels and compassions yearn over us in this our fearful\nplight. Now, the Holy Ghost chooseth--as it should seem--in this\nplace, to present us with that goodness that is in God's heart\ntowards us, rather under the term of mercy; for that, as I said\nbefore, it so presenteth us with our misery, and his pity and\ncompassion; and because it best pleaseth us when we apprehend God\nin Christ as one that has the love of compassion and pity for us.\nHence we are often presented with God's goodness to us to cause us\nto hope, under the name of pity and compassion. 'In his pity he\nredeemed them,' and 'like as a father pitieth his children, so the\nLord pitieth them that fear him' (Isa 63:9; Psa 103:13). 'The Lord\nis very pitiful and of tender mercy,' he also is gracious and 'full\nof compassion' (James 5:11; Psa 78:38). 'Thou, O Lord, art a God\nfull of compassion,' and thy 'compassions fail not' (Psa 86:15,\n111:4; Lam 3:22).\n\nThe words being thus briefly touched upon, I shall come to treat\nof two things. FIRST, more distinctly, I shall show you what kind\nof mercy is with the Lord, as a reason to encourage Israel to\nhope. SECONDLY, And then shall show what is to be inferred from\nthis reason, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there\nis mercy.'\n\n[FIRST, The kind of mercy that Israel is to hope for.]\n\nFirst, 'With him there is TENDER MERCY, and therefore let Israel\nhope' (Psa 25:6, 103:4, 119:156). Tender mercy is mercy in mercy,\nand that which Israel of old had in high estimation, cried much for,\nand chose that God would deal with their souls by that. 'Withhold\nnot thou thy tender mercies from me,' said David, and 'according\nunto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions'\n(Psa 40:11, 51:1). And again, 'Let thy tender mercies come unto\nme, that I may live' (Psa 119:77). Now of this sort of mercies God\nhas a great many, a multitude to bestow upon his people. And they\nare thus mentioned by the word, to cause us to hope in him. And\nis not this alluring, is not this enticing to the Israel of God to\nhope, when the object of their hope is a God 'very pitiful, and of\ntender mercy?' Yea, a God whose tender mercies are great and many.\nThere are two things that this word tender mercy importeth. 1. The\nfirst is, that sin will put a believer, if he giveth way thereto,\ninto a very miserable condition. 2. That God would have them hope,\nthat though sin may have brought any of them into this condition,\nthe Lord will restore them with much pity and compassion. 'Let\nIsrael hope in the Lord,' for with the Lord there is mercy, tender\nmercy.\n\n1. For the first of these, That sin will put a believer, if he\ngives way thereto, into a very miserable condition, and that upon\na double account. (1.) For that it will bring him into fears of\ndamnation. (2.) In that it will make his soul to be much pained\nunder those fears.\n\nWe will wave the first, and come to the second of these. The pains\nthat guilt will make, when it wounds the conscience, none knows\nbut those to whom sin is applied by the Spirit of God, in the law.\nYet all may read of it in the experience of the godly; where this\npain is compared to a wound in the flesh, to fire in the bones, to\nthe putting of bones out of joint, and the breaking of them asunder\n(Psa 38:3,5,7,8, 102:3, 22:14; Lam 1:13, 3:4). He that knows what\nwounds and broken bones are, knows them to be painful things. And\nhe that knows what misery sin will bring the soul into with its\nguilt, will conclude the one comes no whit short of the other. But\nnow he that hath these wounds, and also these broken bones, the\nvery thoughts of a man that can cure, and of a bonesetter, will\nmake him afraid, yea, quake for fear; especially if he knows that\nthough he has skill, he has a hard heart, and fingers that are like\niron. He that handleth a wound, had need have fingers like feathers\nor down; to be sure the patient wisheth they were! Tenderness is a\nthing of great worth to such; and such men are much inquired after\nby such; yea, their tenderness is an invitation to such to seek\nafter them. And the thing is true in spirituals (Isa 42:3). Wherefore\nDavid cried, as I said before, 'Have mercy upon me, O God! according\nunto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions'\n(Psa 51:1). O handle me tenderly, Lord, handle me tenderly, cried\nDavid. O cure me, I beseech thee, and do it with thy tender mercy.\n\nNow, answerable to this, the Lord is set forth to Israel, as one\nwith whom is mercy, consequently tender mercy. Let Israel hope in\nthe Lord, for with the Lord there is tender mercy. God therefore\nwould have the wounded and bruised, and those whose pains may be\ncompared to the pains and pangs of broken bones, to hope that he\nwill restore them with much pity and compassion, or as you have it\nbefore, in pity and tender mercy. See how he promiseth to do it by\nthe prophet. 'A bruised reed shall he not break; and the smoking\nflax shall he not quench' (Isa 42:3). See how tender he is in the\naction. 'When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him,\nand bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on\nhis own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him'\n(Luke 10:33-35). Every circumstance is full of tenderness and\ncompassion. See also how angry he maketh himself with those of his\nservants that handle the wounded or diseased without this tenderness;\nand how he catcheth them out of their hand, with a purpose to deal\nmore gently with them himself. 'The diseased,' saith he, 'have\nye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick;\nneither have ye bound up that which was broken; neither have ye\nbrought again that which was driven away; neither have ye sought\nthat which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled\nthem; therefore, ye shepherds, hear the words of the Lord: I will\nfeed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord\nGod. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which\nwas driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and\nwill strengthen that which was sick' (Eze 34:4,7,15,16). Here is\nencouragement to hope, even according to the reason urged: 'Let\nIsrael hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy,' tender\nmercy. Second. As with him is mercy tender, so there is with him\nmercy that is GREAT, for with him is great mercy. 'The Lord is\nlong-suffering, and of great mercy' (Num 14:18). When tenderness\naccompanies want of skill, the defect is great; but when tenderness\nand great skill meet together, such a surgeon is a brave accomplished\nman. Besides, some are more plagued with the sense of the greatness\nof their sins than others are; the devil having placed or fixed the\ngreat sting there. These are driven by the greatness of sin into\ndespairing thoughts, hotter than fire: these have the greatness of\ntheir sin betwixt God and them, like a great mountain; yea, they are\nlike a cloud that darkeneth the sun and air.[19] This man stands\nunder Cain's gibbet, and has the halter of Judas, to his own\nthinking, fastened about his neck.\n\nAnd now, cries, he, 'GREAT mercy or NO mercy; for little mercy will\ndo me no good'; such a poor creature thus expostulateth the case\nwith God, 'Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise\nand praise thee?' (Psa 88:10). Lord, I have destroyed myself, can\nI live? My sins are more than the sands, can I live? Lord, every\none of them are sins of the first rate, of the biggest size, of the\nblackest line, can I live? I never read that expression but once\nin all the whole Bible; 'For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine\niniquity, for it is great' (Psa 25:11). Not that there was but one\nman in Israel that had committed great iniquities, but because men\nthat have so done, have rather inclined to despair, than to an\nargument so against the wind. If he had said, Pardon, for they are\nlittle, his reason had carried reason in it; but when he saith,\nPardon, for they are great, he seems to stand like a man alone. This\nis the common language, 'if our transgressions be upon us, and we\npine away in them, How should we then live?' (Eze 33:10). Or thus,\n'Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off for\nour parts' (Eze 37:11). Wherefore to such as these, good wishes,\ntender fingers, and compassion, without GREAT mercy, can do\nnothing. But behold, O thou man of Israel, thou talkest of great\nsins; answerable to this, the Scripture speaks of great mercy; and\nthy great sins are but the sins of a man, but these great mercies\nare the mercies of a God; yea, and thou art exhorted, even because\nthere is mercy with him, therefore to trust thy soul with him,\n'let Israel trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy,'\ngreat mercy. This therefore is a truth of singular consolation,\nthat mercy is with the Lord, that tender mercy is with him, that\ngreat mercy is with him, both TENDER and GREAT. What would man have\nmore? But,\n\nThird. As great mercy is with the Lord to encourage us to hope,\nso this mercy that is great, is RICH. 'God is rich in mercy' (Eph\n2:4). There is riches of goodness and riches of grace with him\n(Rom 2:4; Eph 1:7). Things may be great in quantity, and little of\nvalue; but the mercy of God is not so. We use to prize small things\nwhen great worth is in them; even a diamond as little as a pea, is\npreferred before a pebble, though as big as a camel. Why, here is\nrich mercy, sinner; here is mercy that is rich and full of virtue!\na drop of it will cure a kingdom. 'Ah! but how much is there of\nit?' says the sinner. O, abundance, abundance! for so saith the\ntext--'Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his' rich\n'mercies are great' (2 Sam 24:14). Some things are so rich, and of\nsuch virtue, that if they do but touch a man, if they do but come\nnigh a man, if a man doth but look upon them, they have a present\noperation upon him; but the very mentioning of mercy, yea, a very\nthought of it, has sometimes had that virtue in it as to cure a\nsin-sick soul. Here is virtuous mercy!\n\nIndeed mercy, the best of mercies, are little worth to a self-righteous\nman, or a sinner fast asleep; we must not, therefore, make our esteems\nof mercy according to the judgment of the secure and heedless man,\nbut according to the verdict of the Word; nay, though the awakened\nsinner, he that roareth for mercy all day long, by reason of the\ndisquietness of his heart is the likeliest among sinful flesh, or\nas likely as another, to set a suitable estimate upon mercy; yet\nhis verdict is not always to pass in this matter. None can know\nthe riches of mercy to the full, but he that perfectly knoweth the\nevil of sin, the justice of God, all the errors of man, the torments\nof hell, and the sorrows that the Lord Jesus underwent, when mercy\nmade him a reconciler of sinners to God. But this can be known\nby none but the God whose mercy it is. This is the pearl of great\nprice.\n\nThe richness of mercy is seen in several things. It can save from\nsin, from great sin, from all sin (Titus 3:5; Matt 15:22,28). It\ncan save a soul from the devil, from all devils (Matt 17:15,18).\nIt can save a soul from hell, from all hells (Psa 116:3,5,6). It\ncan hold us up in the midst of all weaknesses (Psa 94:18). It can\ndeliver from eternal judgment (Rom 9:23). Yea, what is it that we\nhave, or shall need, that this virtuous mercy cannot do for us:\n'Let Israel hope in the Lord: for which the Lord is RICH mercy,'\nmercy full of virtue, and that can do great things.\n\nFourth. As the mercies that are with the Lord are tender, great,\nand rich, so there is a MULTITUDE of them, and they are called\n'manifold,' there is a multitude of these rich and virtuous mercies\n(Psa 69:13; Rev 9:19). By multitude, I understand mercies of every\nsort or kind; mercies for this, and mercies for the other malady;\nmercies for every sickness, a salve for every sore. Some things\nthat are rich and very full of virtue, have yet their excellency\nextending itself but to one, or two, or three things for help; and\nthis is their leanness in the midst of their excellencies. But it\nis not thus with the mercy of God. Some things that are rich and\nvirtuous, are yet so only but at certain seasons; for there are\ntimes in which they can do nothing. But it is not so with this\ntender, great, and rich mercy of God. There are some things, though\nrich, that are sparingly made use of. But it is not so with this\nmercy of God. There is a multitude of them; so if one will not\nanother will. There is a multitude of them; so one or other of\nthem is always in their season. There is a multitude of them; and\ntherefore it must not be supposed that God is niggardly as to the\ncommunicating of them.\n\nAs they are called a multitude, so they are called mercies\nmanifold. There is no single flower in God's gospel-garden, they\nare all double and treble; there is a wheel within a wheel, a\nblessing within a blessing, in all the mercies of God. Manifold; a\nman cannot receive one, but he receives many, many folded up, one\nwithin another. For instance,\n\n1. If a man receiveth Christ, who is called God's tender mercy;\nwhy, he shall find in him all the promises, pardons, justifications,\nrighteousnesses, and redemptions, that are requisite to make him\nstand clear before the justice of the law, in the sight of God,\nfrom sin (Luke 1:76-79; 1 Cor 1:30; Eph 4:32; 2 Cor 1:20).\n\n2. If a man receive the Spirit, he shall have as folded up in that,\nfor this is the first unfolding itself, many, very many mercies (Ezra\n1:4). He shall have the graces, the teachings, the sanctifications,\nthe comforts, and the supports of the Spirit: When he saith in one\nplace, 'He will give the Spirit,' he calleth that in another place,\n'the good things' of God (Luke 11:13; Matt 7:11).\n\n3. If a man receive the mercy of the resurrection of the body,\nand God's people shall assuredly receive that in its time, what a\nbundle of mercies will be received, as wrapt up in that? He will\nreceive perfection, immortality, heaven, and glory; and what is\nfolded up in these things, who can tell?\n\nI name but these three, for many more might be added, to show you\nthe plenteousness, as well as the virtuousness of the tender, great,\nand rich mercy of God. A multitude! There is converting mercy,\nthere is preserving mercy, there is glorifying mercy: and how many\nmercies are folded up in every one of these mercies, none but God\ncan tell. A multitude! There are mercies for the faithful followers\nof Christ, for those of his that backslide from him, and also\nfor those that suffer for him; and what mercies will by these be\nfound folded up in their mercies, they will better know when they\ncome to heaven. A multitude of preventing mercies in afflictions,\nin disappointments, in cross providences, there are with God: and\nwhat mercies are folded up in these afflicting mercies, in these\ndisappointing mercies, and in these merciful cross providences, must\nrest in the bosom of him to be revealed, who only is wonderful in\ncounsel, and excellent in working. A multitude of common mercies;\nof every day's mercies, of every night's mercies, of mercies in\nrelations, of mercies in food and raiment, and of mercies in what\nof these things there is; and who can number them? David said, He\ndaily was loaded with God's benefits. And I believe, if, as we are\nbound, we should at all times return God thanks for all particular\nmercies, particularly, it would be a burden intolerable, and would\nkill us out of hand! (Psa 68:19). And all this is written, that\nIsrael might hope in the Lord: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for\nwith the Lord there is mercy.'\n\nFifth. As the mercies that are with the Lord are tender, great,\nrich, a multitude, and manifold; so they are mercies that DIMINISH\nNOT in the using, but that rather increase in the exercising of\nthem. Hence it is said, grace aboundeth, and hath abounded unto\nmany; and that God is able to make all grace abound towards us\n(Rom 5:15; 2 Cor 9:8; Eph 1:7,8). The grace of forgiveness I mean,\nwherein he hath abounded towards us. Now, to abound, is to flow,\nto multiply, to increase, to greaten, to be more and more; and of\nthis nature is the mercy that is with the Lord; mercy that will abound\nand increase in the using. Hence he is said to pardon abundantly,\nto pardon and multiply to pardon: and, again, to exercise\nloving-kindness; to exercise it, that is, to draw it out to the\nlength; to make the best advantage and improvement of every grain\nand quality of it (Isa 55:7; Jer 9;24). 'The Lord, the Lord God,\nmerciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness\nand truth' (Exo 34:6).\n\nMercy to a man under guilt, and fear of hell-fire, seems as a\nlittle, shrunk-up, or shrivelled thing; there appears no quantity\nin it. There is mercy, said Cain, but there is not enough; and he\ndied under that conceit (Gen 4:13). Nor is it as to judgment and\nthought many times much better with the Israel of God. But behold\nwhen God sets mercy to work, it is like the cloud that at first\nwas but like a man's hand, it increaseth until it hath covered the\nface of heaven. Many have found it thus, yea they have found it\nthus in their distress (1 Kings 18:41-44). Paul has this expression,\n'The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant,' that is, increased\ntowards me exceedingly (1 Tim 1:13-15). And this is the cause of\nthat change of thoughts that is wrought at last in the hearts of\nthe tempted; at first they doubt, at last they hope; at first they\ndespair, at last they rejoice; at first they quake, while they\nimagine how great their sins are, and how little the grace of God\nis; but at last they see such a greatness, such a largeness, such\nan abundance of increase, in this multiplying mercy of God, that with\ngladness of heart, for their first thoughts, they call themselves\nfools, and venture their souls, the next world, and their interest\nin it, upon this mercy of God.\n\nI tell you, Sirs, you must not trust your own apprehensions nor\njudgments with the mercy of God; you do not know how he can cause\nit to abound; that which seems to be short and shrunk up to you, he\ncan draw out, and cause to abound exceedingly. There is a breadth,\nand length, and depth, and height therein, when God will please\nto open it; that for the infiniteness can swallow up not only all\nthy sins, but all thy thoughts and imaginations, and that can also\ndrown thee at last. 'Now unto him that is able,' 'as to mercy,' 'to\ndo exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according\nto the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by\nChrist Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen!' (Eph\n3:20,21). This, therefore, is a wonderful thing, and shall be\nwondered at to all eternity; that that river of mercy, that at first\ndid seem to be but ankle deep, should so rise, and rise, and rise,\nthat at last it became 'waters to swim in, a river that could not\nbe passed over!' (Eze 47:3-5). Now all this is written, that Israel\nmight hope. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there\nis mercy.'\n\nSixth. As there are with God mercies, tender, great, rich, a\nmultitude, and mercy that abounds; so to encourage us to trust in\nhim, there is mercy to COMPASS US ROUND ABOUT. 'Many sorrows shall\nbe to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall\ncompass him about' (Psa 32:10). This is, therefore, the lot of\nthe Israel of God, that they shall, they trusting in their God, be\ncompassed with mercy round about. This is mercy to do for us in\nthis world, that we may arrive safely in that world which is to\ncome. Another text saith, 'For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;\nwith favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield' (Psa 5:12). As\nwith a shield. This compassing of them, therefore, is, to the end\nthey may be defended and guarded from them that seek their hurt.\nWhen Elisha was in danger, by reason of the army of the Syrians,\n'behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, round\nabout him,' to deliver him (2 Kings 6:15-17). Round about on every\nside; or as David hath it, 'Thou shalt increase my greatness, and\ncomfort me on every side' (Psa 71:21). 'I will encamp about mine\nhouse,' saith God, 'because of the army, because of him that passeth\nby, and him that returneth' (Zech 9:1).\n\nThis, therefore, is the reason why, notwithstanding all our\nweaknesses, and also the rage of Satan, we are kept and preserved\nin a wicked world; we are compassed round about. Hence, when God\nasked Satan concerning holy Job, he answered, 'Hast thou not made\na hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath\non every side?' (Job 1:10). I cannot come at him; thou compassest\nhim, and keepest me out. By this, then, is that scripture opened,\n'Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble,\nthou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance' (Psa 32:7).\nAnd, indeed, it would be comely, if we, instead of doubting and\ndespairing, did sing in the ways of the Lord: have we not cause\nthus to do, when the Lord is round about us with sword and shield,\nwatching for us against the enemy, that he may deliver us from\ntheir hand? (Jer 31:12).\n\nThis also is the reason why nothing can come at us, but that it\nmay do us good. If the mercy of God is round about us, about us\non every side; then no evil thing can by any means come at us, but\nit must come through this mercy, and so must be seasoned with it,\nand must have its deadly poison, by it, taken away. Hence Paul,\nunderstanding this, saith, 'And we know that all things work together\nfor good to them that love God' (Rom 8:28). But how can that be,\ndid they not come to us through the very sides of mercy? and how\ncould they come to us so, since Satan pryeth to wound us deadly in\nevery, or in some private place, if mercy did not compass us round\nabout, round about as with a shield? He went round about Job, to\nsee by what hog-hole he might get at him, that he might smite him\nunder the fifth rib.[20] But, behold, he found he was hedged out\nround about; wherefore he could not come at him but through the\nsides of mercy; and, therefore, what he did to him must be for\ngood. Even thus also shall it be in conclusion with all the wrath\nof our enemies, when they have done what they can; by the mercy\nof God, we shall be made to stand. 'Why boasteth thou thyself in\nmischief,' said David, 'O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth\ncontinually' (Psa 52:1). And that will sanctify to me whatever thou\ndoest against me! This, therefore, is another singular encouragement\nto Israel to hope in the Lord; for that there is with him mercy to\ncompass us round about.\n\nHere is, I say, room for hope, and for the exercise thereof; when\nwe feel ourselves after the worst manner assaulted. 'Wherefore\nshould I fear,' said David, 'in the day of evil, when the iniquity\nof my heels shall compass me about?' (Psa 49:5). Wherefore? Why\nnow there is all the reason in the world to fear the day of evil\nis come upon thee, and the iniquity of thy heels doth compass thee\nabout. The hand of God is upon thee, and thy sins, which are the\ncause, stand round about thee, to give in evidence against thee; and\ntherefore thou must fear. No, saith David, that is not a sufficient\nreason; he that trusteth in the Lord, Mercy shall compass him about.\nHere is ground also to pray in faith, as David, saying, 'Keep me\nas the apple of the eye, hid me under the shadow of thy wings, from\nthe wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me\nabout' (Psa 17:8,9).\n\nSeventh. As all this tender, great, rich, much abounding mercy,\ncompasseth us about; so that we may hope in the God of our mercy,\nit is said this mercy IS TO FOLLOW US. 'Surely goodness and mercy\nshall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the\nhouse of the Lord for ever' (Psa 23:6). It shall follow me, go with\nme, and be near me, in all the way that I go (Psa 32:8). There are\nthese six things to be gathered out of this text, for the further\nsupport of our hope.\n\n1. It shall follow us to guide us in the way. I will guide thee\nwith mine eye, says God, that is, in the way that thou shalt go. The\nway of man to the next world, is like the way from Egypt to Canaan,\na way not to be wound out but by the pillar of a cloud by day, and\na flame of fire by night; that is, with the Word and Spirit. 'Thou\nshalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory'\n(Psa 73:24). Thou shalt guide me from the first step to the last\nthat I shall take in this my pilgrimage: Goodness and mercy shall\nfollow me.\n\n2. As God in mercy will guide, so by the same he will uphold our\ngoings in his paths. We are weak, wherefore though the path we go\nin were never so plain, yet we are apt to stumble and fall. But\n'when I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up' (Psa\n94:18). Wherefore we should always turn our hope into prayer, and\nsay, Lord, 'hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip\nnot' (Psa 17:5). Be not moved; let mercy follow me.\n\n3. As the God of our mercy has mercy to guide us, and uphold us; so\nby the same will he instruct us when we are at a loss, at a stand.\n'I led Israel about,' says God, 'I instructed him, and kept him as\nthe apple of mine eye' (Deut 32:10). I say we are often at a loss;\nDavid said, after all his brave sayings, in Psalm 119, 'I have\ngone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant' (v 176). Indeed\na Christian is not so often out of the way, as he is at a stand\ntherein, and knows not what to do. But here also is his mercy as\nto that. 'Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This\nis the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when\nye turn to the left' (Isa 30:21). Mercy follows for this.\n\n4. Mercy shall follow to carry thee when thou art faint. We have\nmany fainting and sinking fits as we go. 'He shall gather the lambs\nwith his arm, and carry them in his bosom,' or upon eagles' wings\n(Isa 40:11). He made Israel to ride on the high places of the earth,\nand made him to suck honey out of the rock (Deut 32:13).\n\n5. Mercy shall follow us, to take us up when we are fallen, and\nto heal us of those wounds that we have caught by our falls. 'The\nLord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed\ndown' (Psa 145:14). And again: 'The Lord openeth the yes of the\nblind; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down; the Lord loveth\nthe righteous' (Psa 146:8). Or, as we have it in another place, 'The\nsteps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in\nhis way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down; for the\nLord upholdeth him with his hand' (Psa 37:23,24). Here is mercy\nfor a hoping Israelite; and yet this is not all.\n\n6. Mercy shall follow us to pardon our sins as they are committed.\nFor though by the act of justification, we are for ever secured\nfrom a state of condemnation; yet as we are children, we need\nforgiveness daily, and have need to pray, 'Our Father, forgive us\nour trespasses.' Now, that we may have daily forgiveness for our\ndaily sins and trespasses, mercy and goodness must follow us; or\nas Moses has it, 'And he said, If now I have found grace in thy\nsight, O Lord! let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is\na stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take\nus for thine inheritance' (Exo 34:9). Join to this that prayer of\nhis, which you find in Numbers: 'Now I beseech thee let the power\nof my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The\nLord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, and\ntransgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the\niniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth\ngeneration. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people\naccording to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven\nthis people from Egypt even until now,' or hitherto (Num 14:17-19).\nHow many times, think you, did Israel stand in need of pardon, from\nEgypt, until they came to Canaan? Even so many times wilt thou need\npardon from the day of thy conversion to the day of death; to the\nwhich God will follow Israel, that he may dwell in the house of\nthe Lord for ever.\n\nEighth. As all this tender, great, rich, abounding, compassing mercy,\nshall follow Israel to do him good; so shall it do him EVERY GOOD\nTURN, in delivering of him from every judgment that by sin he hath\nlaid himself obnoxious to, with rejoicing. For 'mercy rejoiceth\nagainst judgment' (James 2:13). That is, applying it to the mercy\nof God towards his, it rejoiceth in delivering us form the judgments\nthat we have deserved; yea, it delivereth us from all our woes with\nrejoicing. In the margin it is 'glorieth'; it glorieth in doing\nthis great thing for us. I have thought, considering how often I\nhave procured judgments and destructions to myself, that God would\nbe weary of pardoning, or else that he would pardon with grudging.\nBut the Word said, 'He fainteth not nor is weary' (Isa 40;28). 'I\nwill rejoice over them to do them good,--with my whole heart, and\nwith my whole soul' (Jer 32:41). This doing of us good with rejoicing,\nthis saving of us from deserved judgments with rejoicing, this\ngetting the victory over our destructions for us, with rejoicing;\nO! it is a marvellous thing! 'O sing unto the Lord a new song,\nfor he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy\narm hath gotten him the victory'; the victory for us (Psa 98:1).\nAnd as Paul said, 'We are more than conquerors through him' (Rom\n8:37); and this he did with triumph and rejoicing (Col 2:15). The\nheart is seen oft-times, more in the manner than in the act that\nis acted; more in the manner of doing than in doing of the thing.\nThe wickedness of the heart of Moab was more seen in the manner of\naction than in the words that he spake against Israel. 'For since\nthou spakest [of] against him thou skippedst for joy' (Jer 48:27).\nSo Edom rejoiced at the calamity of his brother; he looked on it and\nrejoiced: and in his rejoicing appeared the badness of his heart,\nand the great spite that he had against his brother Jacob (Oba\n10:14).\n\nNow, my brethren, I beseech you consider, that God hath not only\nshowed you mercy, but hath done it with rejoicing. Mercy doth not\nonly follow you, but it follows you with rejoicing: yea, it doth\nnot only prevent your ruin, by our repeated transgressions procured,\nbut it doth it with rejoicing. Here is the very heart of mercy seen,\nin that it rejoiceth against judgment. Like unto this is that in\nZephaniah: 'The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty: he\nwill save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his\nlove, he will joy over thee with singing' (Zeph 3:17,18).\n\nThere are many things that show with what an heart mercy is of God\nextended, as is afore described, to Israel for his salvation; but\nthis, that it acteth with rejoicing, that it saveth with rejoicing,\nand gets the victory over judgment with rejoicing! is a wonderful\none, and one that should be taken notice of by Israel, for his\nencouragement to hope. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him\nthere is mercy,' tender, great, rich, multiplying mercy, mercy that\ncompasseth us about, that goeth with us all the way, and mercy that\nrejoiceth to overcome every judgment that seeketh our destruction,\nas we go toward our Father's house and kingdom!\n\nIt is said in the Word, God delighteth in mercy. 'Who is a God like\nunto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression\nof the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for\never, because he delighteth in mercy' (Micah 7:18). Here then is\na reason of the rejoicing of mercy against judgment. Why, mercy is\nGod's delight; or, as another hath it, 'Mercy pleaseth thee.' What\na man delights in, that he will set on foot, and that he will seek\nto manage, that he will promote, and that he will glory in the\nsuccess and prosperity of. Why, the text saith, God delighteth in\nmercy: nor do I believe, how odious soever the comparison may seem\nto be, that ever man delighteth more in sin, than God hath delighted\nin showing mercy. Has man given himself for sin? God has given his\nSon for us, that he might show us mercy (John 3:16). Has man lain\nat wait for opportunities for sin? God has waited to be gracious,\nthat he might have mercy upon us (Isa 30:10). Has man, that he might\nenjoy his sin, brought himself to a morsel of bread? Why Christ,\nLord of all, that he might make room for mercy, made himself the\npoorest man (Luke 9:58; 2 Cor 8:9). Has man, when he has found his\nsin, pursued it with all his heart? Why God, when he sets a showing\nmercy, shows it with rejoicing, for he delighteth in mercy.\n\nHere also you may see the reason why all God's paths are mercy and\ntruth to his (Psa 25:10). I have observed that what a man loveth he\nwill accustom himself unto, whether it be fishing, hunting, or the\nlike. These are his ways, his course, the paths wherein he spends\nhis life, and therefore he is seldom found out of one or another\nof them. 'Now,' saith David, 'all the paths of the Lord are mercy'\n(Psa 25:10). He is never out of them: for wherever he is, still\nhe is coming towards his Israel in one or other of these paths,\nstepping steps of mercy. Hence again it is that you find that at\nthe end of every judgment there is mercy; and that God in the midst\nof this remembers that (Habb 2:3). Yea, judgment is in mercy; and\nwere it not for that, judgment should never overtake his people\n(1 Cor 11:32). Wherefore let Israel hope in the Lord, seeing with\nhim is all this mercy.\n\nNinth. Besides all this, the mercy that is with God, and that is\nan encouragement to Israel to hope in him, IS EVERLASTING: 'The\nmercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that\nfear him' (Psa 103:17). From everlasting to everlasting; that is\nmore, more than I said. Well,\n\n1. Then from everlasting; that is, from before the world began; so\nthen, things that are, and are to be hereafter, are to be managed\naccording to those measures that God in mercy took for his people\nthen. Hence it is said, that he has blessed us according as he\nchose us in Christ, before the world began; that is, according to\nthose measures and grants that were by mercy allotted to us then\n(Eph 1:4). According to that other saying, 'according to his mercy he\nsaved us,' that is, according as mercy had allotted for us before\nthe world began (Titus 3:5). 'According to his own purpose and\ngrace, which was given us in Christ before the world began' (2 Tim\n1:9). This is mercy from everlasting, and is the ground and bottom\nof all dispensations that have been, are, or are to come to his\npeople. And now, though it would be too great a step to a side, to\ntreat of all those mercies that of necessity will be found to stand\nupon that which is called mercy from everlasting, yet it will be\nto our purpose, and agreeable to our method, to conclude that mercy\nto everlasting stands upon that; even as vocation, justification,\npreservation, and glorification, standeth upon our being chosen in\nChrist before the foundation of the world (Rom 8:29,30). Here then\nis the mercy that is with God and that should encourage Israel to\nhope. The mercy that has concerned itself with them, is mercy from\neverlasting. Nor may it be thought that a few quarrels of some\nbrain-sick fellows will put God upon taking new measures for his\npeople; what foundation has been laid for his, before he laid the\nfoundation of the world, shall stand; for that it was laid in Christ\nby virtue of mercy: that is, from everlasting (Rom 9:11). The old\nlaws, which are the Magna Charta, the sole basis of the government\nof a kingdom, may not be cast away for the pet that is taken by every\nlittle gentleman against them.[21] We have indeed some professors\nthat take a great pet against that foundation of salvation, that\nthe mercy that is from everlasting has laid; but since the kingdom,\ngovernment, and glory of Christ is wrapped up in it, and since\nthe calling, justification, perseverance, and glorification of his\nelect, which are called his body and fulness, is wrapt up therein,\nit may not be laid aside nor despised, nor quarrelled against by\nany, without danger of damnation.\n\nHere then is the mercy with which Israel is concerned, and which\nis with God as an encouragement to them that should hope, to hope\nin him. It is mercy from everlasting; it is mercy of an ancient\ndate; it is mercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this\nmercy in the root of the thing. For it is from this mercy, this\nmercy from everlasting, that all, and all those sorts of mercies,\nof which we have discoursed before, do flow. It is from this that\nChrist the Saviour flows; this is it, from which that tender mercy,\nthat great mercy, that rich mercy that aboundeth towards us, doth\nflow; and so of all the rest. Kind brings forth its kind; know the\ntree by his fruit; and God by his mercy in Christ; yea, and know\nwhat God was doing before he made the world, by what he has been\ndoing ever since. And what has God been doing for and to his church\nfrom the beginning of the world, but extending to, and exercising\nloving-kindness and mercy for them? therefore he laid a foundation\nfor this in mercy from everlasting.\n\n2. But mercy from everlasting is but the beginning, and we\nhave discoursed of those mercies that we have found in the bowels\nof this already, wherefore a word of that which is to everlasting\nalso. 'From everlasting to everlasting.' Nothing can go beyond\nto everlasting; wherefore this, to everlasting, will see an end\nof all. The devil will tempt us, sin will assault us, men will\npersecute; but can they do it to everlasting? If not, then there is\nmercy to come to God's people at last; even when all evils have\ndone to us what they can. After the prophet had spoken of the\ninconceivable blessedness that God hath prepared for them that wait\nfor him, he drops to present wrath, and the sin of God's people in\nthis life. This done, he mounts up again to the first, and saith,\n'in those is continuance'; that is, the things laid up for us are\neverlasting, and therefore 'we shall be saved' (Isa 64:4,5). How\nmany things since the beginning have assaulted the world to destroy\nit, as wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, &c., and yet to this\nday it abideth. But what is the reason of that? Why, God liveth,\nupon whose word, and by whose decree it abideth. 'He hath established\nthe earth, and it abideth'; it standeth fast, and 'cannot be moved'\n(Psa 119:90, 93:1, 96:10). Why, my brethren, mercy liveth, mercy\nis everlasting; 'His mercy endureth for ever!' (Psa 136). And\ntherefore the church of God liveth; and when all her enemies have\ndone their all, this is the song that the church shall sing over\nthem: 'They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen, and\nstand upright!' (Psa 20:8). Everlasting mercy, with everlasting\narms, are underneath (Deut 33:27).\n\nAnd as this shows the cause of the life of the church, notwithstanding\nher ghostly and bodily enemies, so it showeth the cause of her\ndeliverance from her repeated sins. As God said of leviathan 'I will\nnot conceal his parts,' &c. (Job 41:12). So it is very unbecoming\nof God's people to conceal their sins and miscarriages, for it\ndiminisheth this mercy of God. Let therefore sin be acknowledged,\nconfessed, and not be hid nor dissembled; it is to the glory of\nmercy that we confess to God and one another what we are; still\nremembering this, but mercy is everlasting!\n\nAs this shows the reason of our life, and the continuance of that,\nnotwithstanding our repeated sins, so it shows the cause of the\nreceiving [or renewing] of our graces, from so many decays and\nsickness. For this mercy will live, last, and outlast, all things\nthat are corruptible and hurtful unto Israel. Wherefore 'let Israel\nhope in the Lord,' for this reason, 'for with the Lord there is\nmercy.' 1. Tender mercy for us. 2. Great mercy for us. 3. Rich mercy.\n4. Manifold mercy. 5. Abounding mercy towards us. 6. Compassing\nmercy wherewith we are surrounded. 7. Mercy to follow us wherever\nwe go. 8. Mercy that rejoiceth against judgment. And, 9. Mercy\nthat is from everlasting to everlasting. All these mercies are with\nGod, to allure, to encourage, and uphold Israel in hope.\n\n[SECOND. What is to be inferred from this reason.]\n\nI come now to the second thing, which is to show what is to be\ninferred from this reason. And,\n\nFirst. This, to be sure, is to be inferred, That Israel, as the\nchild of God, is a pitiful thing of himself; one that is full of\nweaknesses, infirmities, and defects, should we speak nothing of\nhis transgressions. He that is to be attended with so many mercies,\nabsolutely necessary mercies, for there is not in these mercies\none that can be spared, must needs be in himself a poor indigent\ncreature. Should you see a child attended with so many engines to\nmake him go, as the child of God is attended with mercies to make\nhim stand, you would say, What an infirm, decrepit, helpless thing\nis this![22] Alas! I have here counted up mercies in number nine.\nIf I had counted up nine hundred and ninety-nine, all had been the\nsame, for the child of God would not have one to spare. The text\nsaith, 'The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy,' and all little\nenough to preserve his Israel (Psa 119:64). Indeed, those that I\nhave presented the reader with are the chief heads of mercies; or\nthe head-mercies from which many others flow. But, however, were they\nbut single mercies, they show with great evidence our deficiency;\nbut being double, they show it much more.\n\nShould it be said there is such a lord has a son, a poor decrepit\nthing; he is forced to wear things to strengthen his ancles, things\nto strengthen his knees, things to strengthen his loins, things to\nkeep up his bowels, things to strengthen his shoulders, his neck,\nhis hands, fingers; yea, he cannot speak but by the help of an\nengine, nor chew his food but by the help of an engine. What would\nyou say? What would you think? Would you not say such a one is not\nworth the keeping, and that his father cannot look for any thing\nfrom him, but that he should live upon high charge and expense, as\nlong as he liveth; besides all the trouble such an one is like to\nbe of to others. Why this is the case: Israel is such an one, nay,\na worse. He cannot live without tender mercy, without great mercy,\nwithout rich mercy, without manifold mercy and unless mercy abounds\ntowards him. He cannot stand if mercy doth not compass him round\nabout, nor go unless mercy follows him. Yea, if mercy that rejoiceth\nagainst judgment doth not continually flutter over him, the very\nmoth will eat him up, and the canker will consume him (Job 4:19).\nWherefore it is necessary to the making of Israel live and flourish,\nthat everlasting mercy should be over his head, and everlasting\nmercy under his feet, with all the afore-mentioned mercies, and\nmore in the bowels of it. But I say doth not this sufficiently show,\nhad we but eyes to see it, what a sad and deplorable creature the\nchild of God of himself is? O! this is not believed nor considered\nas it should. Vain man would be wise; sinful man would be holy;\nand poor, lame, infirm, helpless man, would be strong, and fain\npersuade others that he hath a sufficiency of himself. But I say,\nif it be so, what need all this mercy? If thou canst go lustily,\nwhat mean thy crutches? No, no, Israel, God's Israel, when awake,\nstands astonished at his being surrounded with mercies, and cries\nout, 'I am not worthy of the least [I am less than the least] of\nall thy mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto\nthy servant' (Gen 32:10).\n\nSecond. This also showeth how sorely the enemies of Israel are bent\nto seek his destruction. The devil is, by way of eminency, called\nthe enemy of God's people: 'the devil, your adversary' (1 Peter\n5:8). And this, that there are so many mercies employed about us,\nand all to bring us to the place which God hath appointed for us,\ndoth demonstrate it. Should you see a man that was not to go from\ndoor to door, but he must be clad in a coat of mail, must have\na helmet of brass upon is head, and for his life-guard not so few\nas a thousand men to wait upon him; would you not say, Surely this\nman has store of enemies at hand, surely this man goes continually\nin danger of his life? Why, this is the case, enemies lie in wait\nfor poor Israel in every hole; he can neither eat, drink, wake,\nsleep, work, sit still, talk, be silent; worship his God in public\nor in private, but he is in danger of being stabbed, or being\ndestroyed. Hence, as was said before, he is compassed about with\nmercy as with a shield (Micah 7:20). And again it is said concerning\nthese, 'God's truth,' his mercy, 'shall be thy shield and buckler'\n(Psa 91:4). And again, 'He is a buckler to all them that trust\nin him' (2 Sam 22:31). Yea, David being a man sensible of his own\nweakness, and of the rage and power of his enemies, cries out to\nhis God to take hold of shield and buckler, and to stand up for his\nhelp (Psa 35:2). But what need these things be asserted, promised,\nor prayed for? if Israel had no enemies, or none but such, he could,\nas we say, make his party good with all. Alas, their cries, their\ntears, sighs, watchings, and outcries, at sundry times, make this,\nbeyond all show of doubt, a truth.\n\nIf Solomon used to have about his bed no less than threescore of\nthe valiantest of Israel, holding swords, and being expert in war,\nevery one with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the\nnight--and yet these fears were only concerning men--what guard and\nsafe-guard doth God's poor people need, who are continually, both\nnight and day, roared upon by the unmerciful fallen angels of\nhell! (Can 3:7,8). I will add, if it be but duly considered, all\nthis guard and safeguard by mercy notwithstanding, how hardly this\npeople do escape being destroyed for ever, yea, how with hearts\nbroken, and loins broken, many of them with much difficulty get to\nthe gates of heaven! it will be easily concluded, that her enemies\nare swifter than eagles, stronger than lions; and that they often\novertake her between the straits.\n\nTo say nothing of the many thousands that dare not so much as once\nthink of true religion, because of the power of the enemy which\nthey behold, when alas! they see nobody but the very scarecrows\nwhich the devil hath set up for I count the persecutor of God's\npeople but the devil's scarecrow, the old one himself lies quat--yet,\nI say, how are they frighted! how are they amazed! What a many of\nthe enemies of religion have these folks seen today![23] yea, and\nthey will as soon venture to run the hazard of hell-fire, as to be\nengaged by these enemies in this way. Why, God's people are fain to\ngo through them all, and yet no more able than the other to do it\nof themselves. They therefore are girded, compassed, and defended by\nthis mercy, which is the true cause indeed of their godly perseverance.\n\nThird. A third thing that I infer from these words is, What a loving\nGod has Israel! 'Truly God is good to Israel. Let the redeemed of\nthe Lord say so.' A loving God, that should take this care of him,\nand bestow so many mercies upon him. Mercies of all sorts, for\nall cases, for all manner of relief and help against all manner\nof perils. What is man that God should so unweariedly attend upon\nhim, and visit him every moment? Is he a second God? Is he God's\nfellow? Is he of the highest order of the angels? or what is he?\nO! he is a flea, a worm, a dead dog, sinful dust and ashes; he comes\nup like a flower and is cut down, and what a thing is it that God\nshould so much as open his eyes upon such a one! (1 Sam 26:20; Job\n25:6, 45:2,3). But then, what a thing is it that God should magnify\nhim, and that he should set his heart upon him! (Job 7:17). Yea,\nthat he should take him into acquaintance with him, give his angels\nto be all ministering spirits for him! Yea, engage his mercy for\nhim, his tender, great, manifold, and everlasting mercy for him,\nto compass him round withal, as with a shield, that nothing might\nwork his ruin for ever and ever!\n\nIt may well be said, 'God is love'! (1 John 4:16). Man may well\nsay so, 'O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy\nendureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he\nhath redeemed from the hand of the enemy' (Psa 107:1-3). If it be\nlove for a fellow-creature to give a bit of bread, a coat, a cup\nof cold water, what shall we call this? when God, the great God,\nthe former of all things, shall not only give an alms, an alms\nto an enemy, but shall rise up, take shield and buckler, and be a\nguard, a protection, a deliverer from all evil, until we come into\nhis heavenly kingdom? This love is such as is not found on earth,\nnor to be paralleled among the creatures. None hopes this but one\nthat is good. Nor does any believe as they should, that God doth\nlove as these things declare he does. Our heart staggereth at the\ngreatness of the thing, and who is it that has any reason left in\nhim, and knows anything of what a wretched thing sin hath made him,\nthat can without starting so much as hear of all this mercy! But,\n\nFourth. Another thing that I infer from these words is this, What\nground is here to Israel to hope in the Lord! The Lord is not that\nbroken reed of Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his\nhand and pierce it. God's word is steadfast for ever, even the word\nby which we are here exhorted to hope. Nor shall we have cause to\ndoubt of the cause of the exhortation to such a soul-quieting duty;\nfor mercy is with the Lord: 'Let Israel rejoice in him that made\nhim; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king' (Psa 149:2).\nFor with the Lord there is mercy, wherewith to beautify the meek\nwith salvation. What sayest thou, child of God? Has sin wounded,\nbruised thy soul, and broken thy bones? Why, with the Lord there is\ntender mercy. Art thou a sinner of the first rate, of the biggest\nsize? Why, with the Lord there is great mercy for thee? Have thy\nsins corrupted thy wounds, and made them putrefy and stink? Why,\nwith the Lord there is rich, that is, virtuous[24] mercy for thee.\nArt thy sins of diverse sorts? Why, here is a multitude of manifold\nmercies for thee. Dost thou see thyself surrounded with enemies?\nWhy, with the Lord there is mercy to compass thee about withal.\nIs the way dangerous in which thou art to go? Surely goodness and\nmercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life. Doth iniquity\nprevail against thee? The mercy of this Lord aboundeth towards thee.\nDoth judgments for thy miscarriages overtake thee; There is with\nthy Lord mercy that rejoiceth to deliver thee from those judgments.\nWhat shall I say? There is mercy from everlasting to everlasting\nupon thee. What wouldst thou have? There is mercy underneath, mercy\nabove, and mercy for thee on every side; therefore 'let Israel\nhope in the Lord!' I will add, it is the greatest unkindness thou\ncanst return to the Lord to doubt this mercy notwithstanding. Why,\nwhat wilt thou make of God? Is there no truth nor trust to be put\nin him, notwithstanding all that he hath said? O the depravedness\nof man's nature! Because he speaketh the truth, therefore we believe\nhim not! (John 8:45). The odiousness of unbelief is manifest\nby this, yea, also the unreasonableness thereof. God is true, his\nWord is true; and to help us to hope in him, how many times has he\nfulfilled it to others, and that before our eyes? Hope then; it is\ngood that a man should hope. Hope then; it pleases God that thou\nshouldest hope. Hope then to the end, for the grace that is to be\nbrought unto thee will surely come, with Christ thy Saviour.\n\nMen that have given up themselves to their sins, hope to enjoy\nsome benefit by them, though the curse of God, and his wrath, is\nrevealed from heaven against them for it (Rom 1:18). And yet thou\nthat hast given thyself to God by Christ, art afraid to hope in his\nmercy! For shame, hope, and do not thus dishonour thy God, would\nthine own soul, and set so bad an example to others. I know thou\nhast thy objections in a readiness to cast in my way, and were\nthey made against doctrine, reason would that some notice should\nbe taken of them; but since they are made against duty, duty urged\nfrom, and grounded upon, a word which is stedfast for ever, thou\ndeservest to be blamed, and to be told, that of all sins that ever\nthou didst commit, thou now art managing the vilest, while thou art\ngiving way to, and fortifying of, unbelief and mistrust, against\nthis exhortation to hope, and against the reason for encouragement\nto the duty.\n\n[THIRD. THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE REASON 'TO HOPE IN THE LORD.']\n\nBut I shall pass from this to the third thing found in the text,\nand that is the AMPLIFICATION of the reason. I told you that there\nwere in the text these three things, I. An exhortation to the\nchildren of God to hope in the Lord: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.'\nII. A reason to enforce that exhortation, 'For with the Lord there\nis mercy.' III. An amplification of that reason, 'And with him is\nplenteous redemption.' I have gone through the two first, and shall\nnow come to this last.\n\nIn these last words, which I call the Amplification of the reason,\nwe have two things. FIRST. A more particular account of the nature\nof the mercy propounded for an encouragement to Israel to hope.\nSECOND. An account of the sufficiency of it. The nature of the mercy\npropounded, is expressed by that word 'redemption.' The sufficiency\nof it is expressed by that word 'plenteous.' 'Let Israel hope in the\nLord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous\nredemption.'\n\n[FIRST. The nature of the mercy propounded.]\n\nRedemption may be diversely taken, as shall be further showed anon;\nbut forasmuch as the term here is made mention of indefinitely,\nwithout nominating of this or that part of redemption particularly,\nI shall speak to it in the general, with respect at least to the\nmain heads thereof.\n\nTo redeem is to fetch back, by sufficient and suitable means, those\nat present in an enthralled, captivated, or an imprisoned condition;\nand there are two sorts of this redemption. First, Redemption\nby purchase. Second, Redemption by power. Redemption by purchase\nis from the cause of captivities. Redemption by power is from the\neffects.\n\nFirst, If we speak of redemption by purchase, then three things\npresent themselves to our consideration--I. The person redeeming.\nII. The nature of the price paid to redeem withal. III. The thing\nor state from which this redeemer with this price redeemeth.\n\n[I. The Person redeeming.] The subject of this redemption, or person\nredeemed, is Israel, of him we have spoken before. For the person\nredeeming, it is Jesus of Nazareth; Jesus that was born at Bethlehem,\nat the time, and as the Scriptures relate (Matt 1; Luke 2). Now,\nwith reference to his person, we have two things to inquire after.\nWhat this person was. How he addressed himself to this work.\n\n1. What this person was. This Jesus was and is the natural and eternal\nSon of God Almighty, without beginning or end, from everlasting;\nthe Creator and Upholder of the world (Prov 8; John 1; Heb 1).\n\n2. How he addressed himself to the work of redeeming, take as follows.\nHe became true man: for he was conceived through the power of the\nHoly Ghost in the womb of a maid, and in the fulness of time brought\nforth of her, true, real, natural man; I say, though not in the\nworst, yet in the best sense (Luke 2:31-35). Being thus brought\nforth without spot or blemish, he began to address himself to the\nwork. (1.) By works preparatory, and then, (2.) By the act itself.\n\n(1.) The works preparatory were as follow. He prepares himself\na priestly robe, which was his own obediential righteousness; for\nwithout these holy garments he might not adventure to come into\nthe presence of God to offer his gift (Rom 5:19; Exo 28:40, 40:13).\nBefore he offered his gift for the people, he was to be himself\nsanctified to his office: and that--by blood--by prayers and tears\n(1 Peter 1:19). (a.) By blood; for before Aaron was to offer his\nsacrifice for the people, he must himself be sprinkled with blood\n(Exo 29:19-22). And because Jesus could not be sprinkled with the\nblood of beasts, therefore was he sprinkled with that of his own:\nnot as Aaron was, upon the tip of his ear, and upon the tip of his\ntoe; but from top to toe, from head to foot, his sweat was blood\n(Luke 22:44). So that from his agony in the garden to the place\nwhere he was to lay down the price of our redemption, he went as\nconsecrated in his own blood. (b.) He offered also his sacrifice\nof strong crying and tears, as his drink-offering to God, as a\nsacrifice preparatory, not propitiatory, in pursuit of his office;\nnot to purge his person (Heb 5:5-8). This is the person redeeming,\nand this was his preparation to the work.\n\n(2.) The act itself. Now the redemption is often ascribed particularly\nto his blood; yet in general, the act of his redeeming of us must\neither more remotely or more nearly be reckoned from his whole\nsuffering for us in the flesh; which suffering I take to begin at\nhis agony, and was finished when he was raised again from the dead.\nBy his flesh I understand his whole man, as distinguished from his\nDivine nature; and so that word doth comprehend his soul as well\nas his body, as by the 53rd of Isaiah appears. His soul after that\nmanner which was proper to it; and his body after that manner which\nwas proper to it.\n\n[II. The nature of the price paid to redeem.] His sufferings began\nin his soul, some time before his body was touched, by virtue of\nwhich was his bloody sweat in his body. The sorrows of his soul\nbegan at the apprehension of what was coming from God, for our sakes,\nupon him; but the bloody sweat of his body was from that union it\nhad with such a soul. His sufferings were from the hand of God,\nnot of man; not by constraint, but of his own will (Lev 1:3; John\n10:18); and they differ from ours in these six things. 1. His\nsufferings were by the rigour of the law; ours according to the\ntenor of the gospel (Gal 3:13; Heb 12:10). 2. His sufferings were\nfrom God's hand immediately; ours by and through a Mediator (Isa\n53:6; Heb 9:22). 3. God delighted himself in every stroke he gave\nhim; he doth not willingly grieve nor afflict his people (Isa 53;\nPsa 103; Lam 3:33). 4. He suffereth as a common or public person;\nwe for our own private offences (1 Cor 15:3; Lam 3:39). 5. He\nsuffered to make amends to justice for the breach of a holy law;\nwe to receive some small correction, and to be taught to amend our\nlives (Heb 9:26; Rom 10:3,4; Deut 8:5; 2 chron 6:27). 6. He was\ndelivered from the nature of suffering by the merit of his person\nand sufferings; we from ours by the mercy of God through Christ\n(Acts 2:24; Eph 4:32, 5:2). Redemption, then, by a price, was this;\nthe blood of Christ, which he willingly suffered to be spilt on\nthe cross, before the face of God.\n\n[III. The state from which this price redeemeth.] The cause of\nthis price was our sins; by which we were justly delivered up to\nthe curse, the devil, death, and hell; and should everlastingly\nhave so continued, but that this price of redemption was for us\npaid. Hence it is said, Christ died for us. Christ died for our\nsins. Christ gave himself for our sins. We have redemption through\nhis blood, the forgiveness of sins. And that we are bought with\nthis price. Now, in all this Christ respected the holiness of the\nlaw, and the worth of our souls; giving full satisfaction to the\none, for the love that he bare to the other. And this has redeemed\nhis people from sin and the curse, the cause of our captivity.\n\nSecond, But besides this, there is redemption by power, and that\nrespecteth that, or those things, unto which we become not legally\nindebted by our transgression. There was that unto which we became\nlegally indebted, and that was the justice and holiness of the law\n(Gen 2:17). Now from this, because God had said it, for his Word\nmade it so, there could be no deliverance, but by a reverend and due\nrespect to its command and demand, and an answer to every whit of\nwhat it would require; for not one tittle, not one jot or tittle of\nthe law could fail (Matt 5:18). Jesus Christ, therefore, with respect\nto the law, that he might redeem us, paid a full and sufficient\nprice of redemption; but as for these things that hold us captive,\nnot for any injury we have done to them, but of power, tyranny, or\nthe like; from them he redeemed us by power (Eph 4). Hence, when\nhe had made satisfaction or amends for us to the law, he is said\nto 'lead captivity captive, to spoil principalities and powers,\nand to make a show of them openly' (Col 2). But to take captive,\nand to spoil, must be understood of what he did, not to the law, but\nto those others of our enemies from which we were to be redeemed,\nnot by price but by power. And this second part of redemption is\nto be considered under a twofold head. 1. That these were overcome\npersonally, in and by himself, for us. 2. That they shall be overcome\nalso, in and by his church, through the power of his Spirit.\n\n1. For the first, these were overcome personally, in and by himself\nfor us; to wit, at his resurrection from the dead. For as by his\ndeath he made amends for our breach of the law, so by his resurrection\nhe spoiled those other enemies, to wit, death, the devil, and the\ngrave, &c., unto which we were subjected, not for any offence we\nhad committed against them, but for our sin against the law; and\nmen when they have answered to the justice of the law, are by law\nand power delivered from the prison. Christ therefore, by power, by\nhis glorious power, did overcome the devil, hell, sin, and death,\nthen when he arose and revived from his grave, and so got the victory\nover them, in and by himself, for us. For he engaging as a common\nor public person for us, did on our behalf what he did, both in\nhis death and resurrection. So then, as he died for us, he rose\nfor us; and as by his death he redeemed us from some, so by his\nresurrection from other, of our enemies. Only it must be considered,\nthat this redemption, as to the fulness of it as yet, resides in\nhis own person only, and is set out to his church as she has need\nthereof, and that orderly too. First, that part thereof which\nrespecteth our redemption from the law; and then that part of it\nwhich respecteth our redemption from those other things. And although\nwe are made partakers of redemption from the curse of the law in\nthis life, so far forth as to be justified therefrom; and also as\nto the receiving of an earnest while here, of being wholly possessed\nof the glory of the next world hereafter; yet we neither are, nor\nshall be redeemed from all those things, which yet our head has,\nas head, got a complete and eternal victory over, until just before\nhe shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all\nin all; for 'the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death' (1\nCor 15:26). Death, as it has hold upon us, for death as it had hold\non our head, was destroyed, when he rose from the dead, but death,\nas we are subject to it, shall not be destroyed until we all and\nevery one of us shall attain to the resurrection from the dead; a\npledge of which we have by our spiritual resurrection, from a state\nof nature to a state of grace (Col 3:1-4). A promise of which we\nhave in the word of the truth of the gospel; and an assurance of\nit we have by the resurrection of Christ from the dead (Eph 4:30;\nLuke 20:35; Acts 17:30,31). Wherefore let us hope!\n\nNow, as to redemption from the law, and from those other things from\nwhich we are, and are to be redeemed with power; do but consider\nthe different language which the Holy Ghost useth, with reference\nto our redemption from each.\n\nWhen it speaketh of our redemption from the just curse of the law,\nwhich we have sufficiently deserved, it is said to be done, not by\ndestroying, but by fulfilling the law. 'Think not,' says Christ,\n'that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come\nto destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven\nand earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from\nthe law, till all be fulfilled' (Matt 5:17,18). For it became him,\nas our Redeemer, to fulfil all, and all manner of righteousness,\nby doing and suffering what justly should have been done or borne\nof us (Rom 8:3-5; Gal 3:13,14).\n\nBut now when our redemption from those other things is made mention\nof, the dialect is changed; for then we read, to the end we might\nbe delivered from them, Christ was to destroy and abolish them (2\nTim 1:10); 'that through death he might destroy him that had the\npower of death, that is, the devil,' and so deliver (Heb 2:14).\nAnd again, 'O death, I will be thy plagues! O grace, I will be\nthy destruction!' (Hosea 13:14). And again, 'that the body of sin\nmight be destroyed' (Rom 6:6); and I have the keys of hell and of\ndeath (Rev 1:18). Having thereby sufficiently declared that the\npower of it is destroyed as to Israel, who are the people concerned\nin this redemption.\n\n2. They shall be overcome by his church through the power of\nhis Spirit. Now, as was hinted before, the redemption is already\nobtained, and that completely, by the person of Christ for us (Heb\n9:24), as it is written, 'Having obtained eternal redemption for\nus'; yet these enemies, sin, death, the devil, hell, and the grave,\nare not so under the feet of his [saints] as he will put them,\nand as they shall be in conclusion under the feet of Christ (Heb\n2:8,9). I say they are not; wherefore, as the text also concludeth,\nthis redemption is with the Lord, and under our feet they shall\nbe by the power of God towards us (2 Cor 13:4). And for this let\nIsrael hope. The sum then is, God's people have with the Lord\nredemption, and redemption in reversion; redemption, and redemption\nto come; all which is in the hand of the Lord for us, and of all\nwe shall be possessed in his time. This is that called plenteous\nredemption. 'For with him is plenteous redemption.' A little\ntherefore to touch upon the redemption that we have in reversion,\nor of the redemption yet to come.\n\n(1.) There is yet much sin and many imperfections that cleave to\nour persons and to our performances, from which, though we be not\nyet in the most full sense delivered, yet this redemption is with\nour Lord, and we shall have it in his time; and in the meantime it\nis said, It shall not have dominion over us. 'Sin shall not have\ndominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace'\n(Rom 6:14). We are, by what Christ has done, taken from under the\nlaw, the curse; and must, by what Christ will do, be delivered\nfrom the very being of sin. 'He gave himself for us, that he might\nredeem us from all iniquity'; that he might present us to himself\na glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,\nbut that we should be without blemish (Titus 2:13,14; Eph 5:25,27).\nThat we are already without the being of sin, none but fools and\nmadmen will assert; and that we shall never be delivered from it,\nnone but such men will affirm neither. It remains then, that there\nis a redemption for Israel in reversion, and that from the being\nof sin. And of this it is that the text also discourseth, and for\nwhich let the godly hope.\n\n(2.) We are not yet quite free from Satan's assaulting of us, though\nour Head by himself, and that for us, has got a complete conquest\nover him; but the time is coming, and himself knows that it is but\na little while to it, in which he shall forever be bruised under\nour feet. Be wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning\nevil, and the God of peace shall bruise, tread down Satan under\nyour feet shortly (Rom 16:20). Some may think that this text will\nhave a fulfilling in the ruin and downfall of Antichrist; and so\nit may; but yet it will never be wholly fulfilled, as long as Satan\nshall have any thing to do with one of the children of God. There\nis therefore a redemption in reversion for the children of God from\nSatan, which they are to hope for, because this redemption is with\nthe Lord their Head, and that to manage and bring about for them.\nFor he shall bruise him under their feet in his time.\n\n(3.) There is yet belonging to the church of God a redemption from\nwhat remains of Antichrist, although as yet he is stronger than\nwe, which I also call a redemption in reversion, for that it is yet\nto come, nor shall it be accomplished till the time appointed. In\nthis redemption, not only saints, but truths will have a share; yea,\nand many also of the men that belong not to the kingdom of Christ\nand of God. This redemption God's people are also to hope for,\nfor it is with their Lord, and he has promised it to them, as the\nScripture doth plentifully declare.\n\n(4.) There is yet a redemption to come, which is called the\nredemption of our body (Rom 8:23). Of this redemption we have both\nthe earnest and the seal, to wit, the Spirit of God (Eph 1:14,\n4:30). And because the time to it is long, therefore we are to wait\nfor it; and because it will be that upon which all our blessedness\nwill be let out to us, and we also let in to it, therefore we\nshould be comforted at all the signs of the near approach thereof;\n'then,' saith Christ, 'look up and lift up your heads' (Luke\n21:28). The bodies of saints are called the purchased possession;\npossession, because the whole of all that shall be saved shall be\nfor a temple or house for God to dwell in, in the heavens. A purchased\npossession, because the body, as well as the soul, is bought with\nthe price of blood (1 Cor 6:14-20). But what then doth he mean by\nthe redemption of this purchased possession? I answer, he meaneth\nthe raising it up from the dead; 'I will ransom them from the\npower of the grave, I will redeem them from death' (Hosea 13:14).\nAnd then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written,\n'Death is swallowed up in victory'; that saying, that is this, and\nthat in Isaiah, for they speak both the selfsame thing (1 Cor 15;\nIsa 25:8).\n\nAnd this was signified by Moses, where he speaks of the year of\njubilee, and of the redemption of the house that was sold in Israel,\nhow of that year it should return to the owner (Lev 25). Our bodies\nof right are God's, but sin still dwells in them; we have also sold\nand forfeited them to death and the grave, and so they will abide;\nbut at the judgment day, that blessed jubilee, God will take our\nbody, which originally is his, and will deliver it from the bondage\nof corruption, unto which, by our souls, through sin, it has been\nsubjected; he will take it, I say, because it is his, both by\ncreation and redemption, and will bring it to that perfect freedom\nthat is only to be found in immortality and eternal life. And for\nthis should Israel hope! From what hath been said to this first\nthing, it appears that the mercy that is with God for his people,\nas it is in general what has been described before, so it is redeeming\nmercy, or mercy that has with it the virtue of redemption; of the\nadvantageousness of this mercy, we will further discourse by and\nby, but now we will look into the second thing, that from this\namplification of the reason was propounded to be spoken to, to wit,\n\n[SECOND. The sufficiency of this redemption.]\n\nAn account of the sufficiency of this redemption. 'Let Israel hope\nin the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is\nplenteous redemption.' The sufficiency or plenteousness of it may\nbe spoken to, as it respecteth the many difficulties and dangers\nthat by sin we have brought ourselves into; or as it respecteth\nthe superabundant worth that is found therein, let the dangers\nattending us be what they will, though we should not be acquainted\nwith the half or the hundredth part thereof.\n\nTo speak to it as it respecteth those particular difficulties\nand dangers that by sin we have brought ourselves unto; and that,\nFirst. By showing the suitableness of it. Second. By showing the\nsufficiency of the suitableness thereof.\n\nFirst. The suitableness of it lieth in the fit application thereof\nto all the parts of thraldom and bondage. Have we sinned? Christ\nhad our sins laid upon his back; yea, of God was made, that is,\nreputed, sin for us (Isa 53; 2 Cor 5:21). Were we under the curse\nof the law by reason of sin? Christ was made under the law, and\nbare the curse thereof to redeem (Gal 4:4, 3:13; Rom 3:24). Had\nsin set us at an indefinite distance from God? Christ has become,\nby the price of his redeeming blood, a reconciler of man to God\nagain (Col 1:20). Were we by sin subject to death? Christ died the\ndeath to set us free therefrom (Rom 6:23). Had our sins betrayed\nus into and under Satan's slavery? Christ has spoiled and destroyed\nthis work, and made us free citizens of heaven (Acts 26:18; 2 Tim\n2:26; Heb 2:14; Eph 2:19). Thus was our Redeemer made, as to those\nthings, a suitable recoverer, taking all and missing nothing that\nstood in the way of our happiness; according to that a little below\nthe text, 'And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,'\nthat is, from them, together with their evil fruits.\n\nSecond. Now as to the sufficiency that was in this suitableness,\nthat is declared by his resurrection, by his ascension, by his\nexaltation to the right hand of God; that is also declared by God's\nputting all things under his feet, and by giving of him to be head\nover all things for his redeemed's sake. It is also further declared\nin that God now threateneth none but those that refuse to take\nJesus for their Saviour, and for that he is resolved to make his\nfoes his footstool. What are more natural consequences flowing\nfrom anything, than that by these things is the sufficiency of the\nsuitableness of redemption by Christ proved? For all these things\nfollowed Christ, for, or because he humbled himself to the death\nof the cross, that he might become a Redeemer; therefore God raised\nhim up, took him to his throne, and gave him glory, that your faith\nand hope might be in God by him (Phil 2).\n\nBut alas! what need we stand to prove the sun is light, the fire\nhot, the water wet? What was done by him was done by God, for he\nwas true God; and what comparison can there be betwixt God and the\ncreature, betwixt the worth of God's acts, and the merit of the\nsin of poor man! And can death, or sin, or the grave hold us, when\nGod saith, 'Give up?' Yea, where is that, or he, that shall call\ninto question the superabounding sufficiency that is in the merit\nof Christ, when God continueth to discharge, day by day, yea,\nhourly, and every moment, sinners from their sin, and death, and\nhell, for the sake of the redemption that is obtained for us by\nChrist?\n\nGod be thanked here is plenty; but no want of anything! Enough and\nto spare! It will be with the merit of Christ, even at the end of\nthe world, as it was with the five loaves and two fishes, after\nthe five thousand men, besides women and children, had sufficiently\neaten thereof. There was, to the view of all at last, more than\nshowed itself at fist. At first there was but five loaves and two\nfishes, which a lad carried. At last there were twelve baskets\nfull, the weight of which, I suppose, not the strongest man could\nbear away. Nay, I am persuaded, that at the end of the world, when\nthe damned shall see what a sufficiency there is left of merit\nin Christ, besides what was bestowed upon them that were saved by\nhim, they will run mad for anguish of heart to think what fools\nthey were not to come to him, and trust in him that they might\nbe saved, as their fellow-sinners did. But this is revealed that\nIsrael, that the godly may hope and expect. Let Israel therefore\nhope in the Lord, for with him is plenteous redemption.\n\n[Amplifying reasons as a conclusion of the whole.]\n\nNow as this last clause, as I termed it, is the amplification of\nthe reason going before; so itself yieldeth amplifying reasons as\na conclusion of the whole. For,\n\nFirst. Add redemption unto mercy, and then things still are\nheightened and made greater. And it must, because the text adds\nit, and because both the nature of God, the holiness of his law,\nand the present state of the sinner that is to be saved, requireth\nthat it should be so. God is justice as well as mercy; the law is\nholy and just; that man that is to be saved is not only a sinner,\nbut polluted. Now, then, that mercy and justice may meet and kiss\nin the salvation of the sinner, there must be a redemption; that the\nsinner may be saved, and the law retain its sanction and authority,\nthere must be a redemption; that the sinner may be purged as well\nas pardoned, there must be a redemption. And, I say, as there must,\nso there is: 'For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is\nplenteous redemption.' Mercy is the original, the cause, and the\nmanager of our redemption. Redemption is the manifestation, and\nthe completing of that mercy. If there had been no mercy, there\nhad been no redemption. Mercy had been defective as to us, or must\nhave offered violence to the law and justice of God, and have saved\nus contrary to that word, 'In the day thou eatest thou shalt die,'\nand 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written\nin the book of the law to do them.' But now, redemption coming in\nby mercy, the sin is done away, and the sinner saved, in a way of\nrighteousness.\n\nSecond. By law as well as grace; that is, in a way of justice as\nwell as in a way of mercy. Hence it saith we are 'justified freely\nby his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' (Rom\n3:24). Through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God\nhath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, and\nso to show the world the equity of his proceeding with sinners in\nthe saving of their souls. As if God should say to all those who\nstumble at the salvation of sinners by grace, Behold, I act according\nto law and justice. For of grace I save them through a redemption,\nand therefore am faithful and just to my law, as well as free\nand liberal of my mercy. Wherefore thus I declare I am righteous,\nfaithful, and just in passing over or remitting of sin. Nay, the\nmatter so standeth now betwixt me and the sinful world, that I\ncould not be just if I did not justify him that hath faith in the\nblood of Jesus, since by that blood my justice is appeased for all\nthat this or that sinner has done against my law!\n\nThis is a way that God, nor any child of his, need be ashamed of\nbefore any that shall call in question the legality and justice of\nthis procedure. For why may not God be merciful, and why may not\nGod be just? And since he can be both merciful and just in the\nsalvation of sinners, why may he not also save them from death\nand hell? Christ is God's salvation, and to show that he is not\nashamed of him, he hath presented him, and the way of redemption\nby him, before the face of all people (Luke 2:30-32). Nor is the\nSon, who is become, with respect to the act of redemption, the\nauthor of eternal salvation, ashamed of this his doings. 'I gave\nmy back to the smiters,' saith he, 'and my cheeks to them that\nplucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and smiting'\n(Isa 50:6). This he speaks to show what were some of his sufferings\nwhen he engaged in the work of our redemption, and how heartily he\ndid bear and go through them. 'For,' says he, 'the Lord God will\nhelp me,' that is, justify me in it, 'therefore shall I not be\nconfounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know\nthat I shall not be ashamed' (v 7). And if God, and his Son Jesus\nChrist, are neither of them ashamed to own this way of salvation,\nwhy should the sinners concerned thereabout be afraid thereupon to\nventure their soul? I know, saith he, 'I shall not be ashamed'; I\nshall not, that is, when all things come to light, and everything\nshall appear above board; when the heart and soul of this undertaking\nof mine shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops, I know I shall\nnot be ashamed.\n\nIt was also upon this account that Paul said he was not ashamed of\nthe gospel (Rom 1). For he knew that it was a declaration of the\nhighest act of wisdom that ever God did spread before the face of\nthe sons of men. And of what wisdom is the gospel a declaration\nbut of that of forgiveness of sins by grace, through the redemption\nthat is by the blood of Jesus Christ? 'In whom we have redemption\nthrough his blood,' even 'the forgiveness of sins, according to\nthe riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all\nwisdom and prudence' (Eph 1:7,8).\n\nAnd as Paul speaketh here as a minister, so he speaketh after the\nsame manner also as he is a believer, saying, 'I am not ashamed'\nof this gospel, 'for I know whom I have believed,' or trusted with\nmy soul, 'and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I\nhave committed unto him against that day' (2 Tim 1:11,12). Wherefore\nseeing that mercy is not presented to us alone, or singly, but as\naccompanying and concurring with redemption; it is manifest enough\nthat mercy standeth not above, and consequently that it saveth\nnone but in, by, and through a Redeemer. He that believeth not in\nChrist shall be damned. But what needs that, if mercy could save\nthe soul without the redemption that is by him? If any say, Christ\nis the mercy of God to us. True, if you count him a Redeemer, a\nworker out of a redemption for us by his death and blood upon the\ncross. But otherwise he is none; I mean, if you make him a lawgiver,\nand a Saviour, only as he has set an example to us to get to heaven\nby doing commandments, or by treading in his steps. Yea, though you\nsay his commandment is that we believe in him: for, take the work\nof redemption by his blood from the curse, out of his hand, and then\nwhat concerning him is left from me to believe, but, as was said\nbefore, that he is a lawgiver, and as such, at best, but a pattern\nto us to get to heaven, as here? And whoso counteth him as such,\nis so far off from counting of Christ the mercy of God to us, that\nthey make him a contradictor of mercy, both in the fountain and\nall the streams of it. For to propound life eternal to us, through\nthe observation of laws, is to set before us that which contradicteth\ngrace and mercy, let the work be what it will; nor will it help at\nall to say, that they that do the law of Christ, or that take him\nfor their law and example, shall be sure of mercy to pass by their\nshortness of attaining to the perfection of what is set before them.\nFor all this might have been done, and not one drop of blood spilt\nfor the redemption of man. Besides, this makes Christ's death, as a\nRedeemer, as an act unadvisedly undertaken; for what need he have\ndied, if his doctrine and example had been sufficient, through\nthat which they call mercy, to have brought the soul to glory? 'If\nrighteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain' (Gal\n2:21). I will add, put man's righteousness, God's mercy, and Christ's\nredemption, all together, and they will not save a man; though the\nlast two alone will sufficiently do it: but this third is a piece\nwhen put to that, does, instead of mending, make the rent worse.\nBesides, since man's righteousness cannot be joined in justification\nwith God's mercy and Christ's redemption, but through a disbelief\nof the sufficiency of them, should it be admitted as a cause, though\nbut the least cause thereof, what would follow, but to make that\ncursed sin of unbelief a good inventor, and a necessary worker in\nthe manner of the justification of a sinner? For, I say, unbelief\nis the cause of this hodge-podge in any; and the effects of it are\nshowed in the 9th chapter of the epistle of Paul to the Romans, at\nthe latter end thereof (vv 31-35).\n\nAnd there are three things that follow upon that opinion that denieth\nthe absolute necessity of the shedding of the blood of Christ for\nthe redemption of man, that mercy might be let out to him.\n\n1. It followeth from thence, that there is no such attribute\nas absolute justice in God; justice to stand to his word, and to\nvindicate every tittle of his law. For let but this be granted, and\nthe death of Christ must be brought in, or by justice the floodgate\nof mercy still be shut against sinful man; or that God must have\nmercy upon man, with the breach of his Word.\n\n2. It also followeth from the premises, that Christ's death was of\npleasure only, and not of necessity also; contrary to the Scripture,\nthat makes his death the effect of both; of pleasure, to show\nhow willing God the Father was that Christ should die for man: of\nnecessity, to show that man could not be saved without it; of pleasure,\nto show how justice did deal with him for our sin; of necessity,\nto show that mercy could not be communicated to us without it (Isa\n53:10; Matt 26:39; Acts 17:3).\n\n3. There also followeth therefrom, that by the blood of Christ we\nhave not redemption from law, and justice, as to the condemning\npart of both, but that rather this title is given to it for honour\nand glory, to dignify it; as the name of God is also given to him:\nfor they that affirm the one, are bold to affirm the other. For\nas by them is concluded, that there is no necessity why the blood\nof Christ should be counted the absolutely necessary price of our\nredemption from the curse of the law and severity of justice; so by\nthem it is concluded, that it is not necessary to hold that Christ\nthe Redeemer is naturally and co-eternally God, as the Father. But\n'let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,\nand with him is plenteous redemption.'\n\nThird. Must there be redemption by blood added to mercy, if the\nsoul be saved? This shows us what an horrible thing the sin of man\nis. Sin, as to the nature of it, is little known in the world. O!\nit sticks so fast to us, as not to be severed from us by all the\nmercy of God: do but exclude redemption by the blood of Christ. I\nwill say it over again. All the mercy of God cannot save a sinner,\nwithout respect to redemption from the curse of the law, by the death\nand blood of Christ. 'Without shedding of blood is no remission'\n(Heb 9:22). No remission, no pardon, or passing by of the least\ntransgression, without it. Tears! Christ's tears will not do it.\nPrayers! Christ's prayers will not do it. An holy life! the holy\nlife that Christ lived, will not do it, as severed from his death\nand blood. The word redemption, therefore, must be well understood,\nand close stuck to, and must not be allowed, as properly spoken,\nwhen we talk of deliverance from sin, the law, and God's curse,\nunless it be applied particularly to the death and blood of Christ\n(Eph 1:7). We have redemption through his blood (Rev 1:5). 'Christ\nhath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for\nus; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree'\n(Gal 3:13). He has redeemed us to God by his blood. 'For thou wast\nslain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood' (Rev 5:9). This is\nthe redemption that is joined with mercy, yea, that is the fruit\nthereof; and it is that without which sin cannot be removed out\nof the sight of God. Moses, that was a better preacher of the law,\nand the sufficiency of the righteousness thereof, than any now\ncan pretend to be, yet he full well declared by all his bloody\nsacrifices, that the blood and death of Jesus Christ is of absolute\nnecessity for the redemption of the soul. Besides, he tells us that\nthe man that should flee to the city of refuge, from the avenger\nof blood, should not be at liberty from the law, unless he kept\nhimself close in that city until the death of the high-priest. Mark\nthe words, 'Ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to\nthe city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the\nland, until the death of the' high 'priest' (Num 35:32). Wherefore,\nChristian man, know thou thy sin in the nature of it and persuade\nthyself, that the removing of it from before the face of God is by\nno less means than the death and blood of Christ. But it is a poor\nshift that the enemies of the truth are put to, when, to defend\ntheir errors, they are forced to diminish sin, and to enlarge the\nborders of their fig-leaf garments, and to deny or cast away, as\nmuch as in them lies, one of the attributes, the justice of God.\nIndeed they will say they abhor to do thus, and all erroneous\npersons will put the best face they can upon their bad matters;\nbut the natural consequences of things amount to it; nor can they,\nwhen men stick close to their sides, avoid the charge.\n\nFourth. Then here you see the reason of that free course that mercy\nhath among the sons of men, and why it doth, as has been showed\nbefore what it doth. Why justice is content. Blood hath answered\nthe demand of justice. The law hath nothing to object against his\nsalvation that believeth in Jesus Christ. Blood has set the door\nopen for us with boldness to go to God for mercy, and for God to\ncome with his abundant grace to us. We have 'boldness, brethren, to\nenter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living\nway, which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to\nsay, his flesh' (Heb 10:19,20). This is the way that Moses desired\nto find, when God so largely spake to him of his mercy. 'Thou hast\nsaid,' says Moses to God, 'I know thee by name, and thou hast also\nfound grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found\ngrace in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may know thee,' &c.\n(Exo 33:12,13). What if it should be applied thus? thou now talkest\nof mercy, but in thy words to us from the Mount, thou spakest fire\nand justice; and since thou hast delivered us to holy a law, and\nare resolved that the least tittle thereof shall by no means fall\nto the ground; by what means is it that mercy should come unto\nus? Well, saith God, I will show thee my way, I will put thee in a\nclift of the rock, which was a figure of Christ, for Christ says,\n'I am the way' (Exo 34; John 14:6). This done, he proclaimed his\nname, and showed him how he could be gracious, and gave him the\nsign of his being merciful, a promise that his presence should go\nwith him. The breaking then of the body of Jesus was, the renting\nof the vail, that out of which came blood, that the way to God might\nbe living; and not death, or sword, or flame, to the poor children\nof men. Out hence therefore bubbleth continually the tender mercy,\nthe great mercy, the rich mercy, the abundant mercy, the multiplying\nmercy, and every other mercy of God to us for our present and\neverlasting good.\n\nNot that God was sparing of his mercy, and would not part with it\nunless paid for it; for this way of redemption by blood was his\ncontrivance, the fruit of his wisdom (Eph 1:8). So then, God was\nbig with mercy for a sinful world; but to be continually extending\nof mercy, since sin and justice, because of the sanction of the\nlaw, lay in the way as a turning flaming sword, there did lie the\nwork (Gen 3:24); so it was concluded, that mercy might, in a way\nof justice, be let out to sinners; Christ, the Son of God, should\ndie for the sin of man. By which means the outcries of the law\nand justice against us for our sins did cease, and mercy flowed\nfrom heaven like the waters of Noah, until it became a sea (Micah\n7:18,19).\n\nBy redemption by blood, therefore, is this great mystery--That a\njust God can save that man that has broken that law, that God has\nsaid he will inflict the penalty for the breach thereof upon, and\ndo his justice no wrong--expounded; not by a relaxation of the\npunishment, as the doltish wisdom of this world imagines; but by\nan inflicting of the exactest justice upon that nature that has\noffended. If the question be asked, How a just God can save that\nman from death, that by sin has put himself under the sentence of\nit? any fool can answer, 'By a pardon.' And if it be asked, But\nwhat will become of the threatening wherewith he threatened the\noffender? He that knows no mysteries can say, Why, man must repent\nof his sin, and God of his threatening. But if it be asked, How\nGod can execute his threatening to the utmost, and yet deliver the\nsinner by his mercy from it; the sinner that has deserved it, and\nyet be just to his law, faithful to his law, and one that will\nstand by every tittle of his law? this, to expound, is to high for\na fool; therefore these men are for despising of mysteries, and\nfor counting of mysteries in the gospel, follies.\n\nBut this key of heaven is no where but in the Word of the Spirit;\nit is not seen in the law, nor in the reason or righteousness of the\nworld. To punish 'the just for the unjust,' and to make him 'to be\nsin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness\nof God in him,' seems unreasonable; so cross to the wisdom of man\nare the wards of this lock (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Cor 5:21). Wherefore\nusually, when they come at this doctrine, they belch out their\nfrumps, their taunts, their scoffs, and their scorns against it;\nand in opposition thereto, comment, exalt, cry up, and set on high,\nSocinianism, Mahometanism, man's ragged righteousness, or anything.\nBut we will pass these things.\n\nFifth. The knowledge of redemption, and the faith of redemption,\nis the only means of settling, composing, and upholding the soul\nof the thoroughly awakened, in the hope of enjoying a portion in\nmercy for ever. What senseless, secure, besotted, and deluded men,\nconclude of themselves, and of the means of future happiness, is\none thing; and what the thoroughly awakened soul concludes upon,\nis another. And I say, one thoroughly awakened about the nature of\nGod, the nature of sin, and the worth of the soul, will find but\nlittle ease of mind, notwithstanding notions of mercy, until he\ncomes and sees that he must be saved by mercy and justice both; and\nthat to be sure he shall never do, until he is taught that by the\nblood of Christ the law is, as to the curse that is in it against\nthe sinner, taken out of the way (Col 2).\n\nThese things, sin and justice, are too great to be played with by\nhim that shall see them in the light of the law, and that shall\nfeel them in their terror upon a trembling conscience. But when the\nsoul shall see that a propitiation is made to justice by blood,\nthen, and not till then, it sees sin taken away: and when it sees, by\nthis means, sin taken away, then it can behold to hope in the mercy\nof God. Yea, and it will be as hard to wring off him that is settled\nhere, from this belief to another, as it would be to persuade him\nthat stands upon sound ground to venture his life upon a shaking\nbottomless quag. O! It is a pleasant thing for the wounded conscience\nto taste the sweetness of redeeming blood! (John 6:51-56). This is\nlike the best wine that goes down sweetly; this carries with the\nlast of it the very tang[25] of eternal life! (Heb 9:14). And know\nthat dead works, or works of death, will abide in the conscience,\nnotwithstanding all talk and notions of mercy, until that be purged\nwith blood applied thereto, by the Spirit and faith. This is one\nof the three that abide to witness on earth, that 'God hath given\nus eternal life, and that this life is in his Son'; because he died\nfor us, and rose again (1 John 5:8-11).\n\nThis, therefore, is that that will establish a man with that peace\nthat shall not be shaken, because by this such an one seeth the\njustice of God is quieted. For peace is made by the blood of the\ncross; peace with God for sinners (Col 1:20). Yea, God himself, by\nthe blood of the cross, has made it, that by him, Christ, he might\nreconcile to himself all things, whether they be things on earth,\nor things in heaven. Nor will a man that is truly spiritually wise,\nrest till he comes where God towards man doth rest; but that can\nbe only there, where such means are offered for the taking away of\nsin, that are of a sweet-smelling savour to God. Now this is the\noffering that Christ offered, to wit, himself; for Christ loved\nus, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to\nGod, for a sweet-smelling savour (Eph 5:2). Therefore it is by it,\nthe body of his flesh, through death, that we are presented holy,\nunblameable, and unreproveable in his sight (Col 1:21). Wherefore\nit must be true which was said before, to wit, That the knowledge\nof redemption, and the faith of redemption, is the only means of\nsettling, composing, and upholding of the soul of the thoroughly\nawakened, in the hope of enjoying a portion in mercy for ever. He\nthat hath the Son of God, hath the Father, hath life; because with\nhim is the means of peace with the Father, and so of eternal life\n(1 John 2:23). But then, to have the Son, is to believe on him, and\non the Father through him (1 John 5:10-12). On him, that he is the\nSaviour by his blood; and on the Father through him, as believing\nthat he, for his Son's sufferings, is pacified with us, and of his\ngrace hath forgiven us, through him, all trespasses (2 John 9; Eph\n4:32).\n\nSixth. The knowledge and faith of this redemption fortifieth the\nChristian against temptations. We that do believe, know what it is\nto be assaulted by the devil, and to have knotty objections cast\ninto our minds by him. We also know what advantage the vile sin\nof unbelief will get upon us, if our knowledge and faith in this\nredemption be in the least, below the common faith of saints,\ndefective. If we talk of mercy, he can talk of justice; if we talk\nof grace, he can talk of the law. And all his words, when God will\nsuffer it, we shall find as sharp, and subject to stick in our\nminds, as bearded arrows are to stick in flesh. Besides, he can\nand doth, and that often, work in our fancies and imaginations such\napprehensions of God, that he shall seem to be to us one that cannot\nabide us, one that hates us, and that lieth in wait to destroy us.\nAnd now, if any body speaks to us of mercy, we think we might hope\nin that, had we nothing to trouble us but the guilt of actual sins.\nBut we see our nature as full of the filth of sin, as the egg is of\nmeat, or the toad of poison: which filth vilely recoileth against\nthe commandments, flieth in the face of God, and continueth all\nhis judgments.[26] This is felt, this is seen by the sinner, who\ncannot help it; nor can he be brought to that consideration as to\nsay, 'It is no more I' (Rom 7). Now, what shall this man do? Shall\nhe look to the commandment? There is death? Shall he look to God?\nThere is justice! Shall he look to himself? There is sin out of\nmeasure! Let him look, then, to one as dying, to the 'lamb as it\nhad been slain,' and there let him see himself by this Lamb, as\ncursed, and a dying of a cursed death for this sin that doth so\nfright and so distress the soul (Rev 5:6). Then let him turn again,\nand behold this Lamb alive and well, and highly exalted by this\nGod, that but just before laid the curse of the law upon him; but\nlet him be sure to reckon that he has died for his sins by the\nperson of Christ, and it will follow that this man is now acquitted,\nbecause Christ is still alive. Say I these things as a man? Saith\nnot the gospel the very same? 1. As to Christ's dying for us; as\nalso that we are dead to the law by the body of Christ (Rom 6:6;\n7). 2. And that we should so reckon as to this matter, because that\nGod has transferred our sin from us to him.\n\n1. Did not Christ die for us; and dying for us, are we not become\ndead to the law by the death of his body? or will the law slay both\nhim and us, and that for the same transgression? (Rom 7:1,2). If\nthis be concluded in the affirmative, what follows but that Christ,\nthough he undertook, came short in doing for us? But he was raised\nup from the dead, and believing marrieth us to him as risen, and\nthat stops the mouth of all. I am crucified with Christ, our old\nman was crucified with him, and we are become dead to the law by\nthe body of Christ (Rom 5:3,4). What then?\n\n2. Why, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive\nunto God through Jesus Christ. Ay, but says the soul, 'How can I\nreckon thus, when sin is yet strong in me?' Answ. Read the words\nagain, He saith not, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,\nin yourselves; but dead unto it through Jesus Christ. Not alive\nunto God in yourselves, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.\nFor Christ in his death and resurrection representeth me. As I\ndied by him, I arose again by him, and live through the faith of\nthe gospel in the presence of God by him. This must in the first\nplace be allowed and believed, or no true peace can come near\nthe soul, nor the soul be prepared to assoil the assaults of the\nadversary. Let therefore thy faith, if thou wouldst be a warrior,\nO thou faint-hearted Christian, be well instructed in this! Then\nwill thy faith do thee a twofold kindness. 1. It will conform thee\nto the death and resurrection of Christ. And, 2. It will give thee\nadvantage, when thou seest sin strong in thyself, yet to conclude\nthat by Christ thou art dead thereto, and by him alive therefrom.\nNor can there but two objections be made against this. The first\nis to question whether any are said to die and rise, by the death\nand resurrection of Christ? or if it so may be said; yet whether\nthou art one of them? To the first the scripture is full. To the\nsecond, thy faith must be strong: for let go faith here, and all\nfalls flat to the ground, I mean as to comfort and consolation.\nChrist died for us, or in our stead; therefore, by the Word of God,\nI am allowed so to reckon. Christ rose and revived, though he died\nfor me; therefore I rose and revived by Christ: unless any does\nhold, that though he died in a common, yet he arose as considered\nbut in a single capacity. Now, then, if Satan comes and tells me\nof my sins, I answer, 'Christ has taken them upon himself.' If he\ncomes and tells me of the death that is due to me for sin, by the\ncurse of the holy law, I answer, I have already undergone that by\nChrist. If he asks me, How I know that the law will not lay hold\nof me also? I answer, Because Christ is risen from the dead. If he\nasks me, By what authority I take upon me thus to reason? I tell\nhim, By the authority and allowance of the holy and most blessed\ngospel, which saith, He 'was delivered for our offences, and\nwas raised again for our justification' (Rom 4). And to encourage\nthee thus to believe, and thus to hold, when thou art in an hour\nof temptation, this is the way to see mercy stand and smile upon\nthee; for mercy will smile upon him that shall thus believe (2\nCor 3:16-18). This is the way to put faith and hope both to work\nagainst the devil; and to do this is very pleasing to God. This\nthe way to make that hell-bound retreat and leave off to assault\n(James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9). And this is the way to find an answer\nto many scriptures, with which else thou wilt not know what to do,\nas with many of the types and shadows; yea, and with the moral law\nitself.\n\nBesides, thus believing setteth thy soul against the fear of death,\nand judgment to come; for if Christ be raised from the dead who\ndied for our sins; and if Christ who died for our sins is entered\ninto glory: I say again, if Christ who died for our sins has purchased\nus to himself, and is purposed that the fruit of this his purchase\nshall be, that we may behold his face in glory; then, cast off\nslavish fear of death and judgment: for Christ being raised from\nthe dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him!\n\nSeventh. The knowledge and faith of this redemption prepareth man\nto a holy life. By a holy life, I mean a life according to the\nmoral law, flowing from a spirit of thankfulness to God for giving\nof his Son to be my Redeemer. This I call a holy life, because it\nis according to the rule of holiness, the law, and this I call a\nholy life, because it floweth from such a principle as giveth to\nGod the heart, and life, for the gift bestowed on us. What pretences\nsoever there are to holiness, if it floweth not from thankfulness\nfor mercy received, it floweth from a wrong principle, and so cannot\nbe good. Hence, men were required of old, to serve the Lord with\njoyfulness, 'for the abundance of all things'; and threatened, if\nthey did not, that 'they should serve their enemies in hunger and\nin thirst, and in nakedness, and in the want of all things' (Deut\n28:47,48). But then, though there are many mercies that lay an\nobligation upon men to be holy, yet he that shall want the obligation\nthat is begotten by the faith of redeeming mercy, wanteth the main\nprinciple of true holiness: nor will any other be found sufficiently\nto sanctify the heart to the causing of it to produce such a life;\nnor can such holiness be accepted, because it comes not forth\nin the name of Christ. That that obliged David was forgiving and\nredeeming mercy; and that that obliged Paul was the love that Christ\nshowed to him, in dying for his sins, and in rising from the dead\n(Psa 103:1-5; 2 Cor 5:14,15). Paul also beseecheth the Romans, by\nthe redeeming, justifying, preserving, and electing mercy of God,\nthat they present their body 'a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable\nto God; which is,' saith he, 'your reasonable service' (Rom 12:1).\nFor we must be holy and without blame before him in love (Eph 4:1).\n\nHence, all along, they that are exhorted to holiness in the New\nTestament, are exhorted to it upon the supposition of the benefit\nof redemption which they have received by Jesus Christ. 'Walk\nin love as Christ also hath loved us' (Eph 5:2). 'If there be any\nconsolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship\nof the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that\nye be like minded, having the same love,' &c. (Phil 2:1,2). 'If\nye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,\nwhere Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection\non things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and\nyour life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,\nshall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify\ntherefore your members which are upon the earth,' &c. (Col 3:1-5).\n'Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies,\nand envies, and all evil-speakings, as new-born babes desire the\nsincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have\ntasted that the Lord is gracious' (1 Peter 2:1-3). I will conclude\nthis with that of Peter, to those to whom he wrote concerning\nthis very thing. Be 'obedient children,' saith he, 'not fashioning\nyourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as\nhe which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of\nconversation: because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy, And\nif ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth\naccording to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning\nhere in fear. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with\ncorruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation\nreceived by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious\nblood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot' (1\nPeter 1:14-19).\n\nFrom all which it appears, that mercy by Christ, or from the benefit\nof redemption by the precious blood of Christ, I say, from the\nfaith of that, flows that which is holiness indeed. And I believe\nthat those very men that are pleased to taunt at this kind of\ninference, would condemn a man was he laid under these obligations\nconcerning things of this life, and yet did carry it as one\nnot touched thereby. We will make an instance: Suppose a Socinian\nshould, through his contracting a great debt, be forced to rot in\nprison, unless redeemed by silver and gold: and suppose a man, unto\nwhom this Socinian was an enemy, should lay down the whole debt\nto the creditor, that this Socinian might be at liberty, might\ntrade, and live comfortably in this world; and if, after this, this\nSocinian should taunt at them that should tell him he is engaged\nto this redeemer, ought to love and respect this redeemer; what\nwould they say but that this Socinian that was a debtor is an\ninconsiderate and stupefied rascal? Why, this is the case; Paul was\na debtor to the law and justice of God; Jesus Christ his Son, that\nPaul might not perish for ever, paid for him a price of redemption,\nto wit, his most precious blood. But what! Shall Paul now, though\nredeemed from perpetual imprisonment in hell, be as one that never\nwas beholden to Jesus Christ; or if others say he was, taunt at them\nfor their so saying? No, he scorns it. Though the love of Christ,\nin dying to pay a price of redemption, will not engage a Socinian,\nyet it will engage a true Christian to think and believe that he\nought to live to Jesus, that died for him and rose again.\n\nI know it will be objected that the Satisfactionists, as the quaking\nPenn is pleased to call them, show but little of this to the world;\nfor their pride, covetousness, false dealing, and the like, since\nthey profess as I have said, shows them as little concerned to the\nfull as to the Socinian under consideration. I answer, it must be\nthat the name of Christ should be scandalized through some that\nprofess him; and they must answer it at the tribunal of the great\nJudge; yet what I have said stands fast as a rock that cannot be\nmoved.\n\nEighth. The knowledge and faith of redemption is a very great\nencouragement to prayer. It is great encouragement for the poor to\ngo even to a prince for what he wanteth, when he considereth that\nwhat he goeth to him for is the price of redemption. All things\nthat we want, we must ask the Father for, in the name of Christ:\nwe must ask it of him for the sake of his redeeming blood, for the\nsake of the merit of his passion (John 15:16). Thus David means,\nwhen he says, 'For thy name's sake' do it (Psa 25:11); and Daniel\nwhen he saith here, 'For the Lord's sake' (9:17). For Jesus Christ\nis God's great name; and to do for his sake is to do for what\nworthiness is in him.\n\nUnworthiness! The consideration of unworthiness is a great\nstumbling-block to the tempted when he goes to seek the Lord. But\nnow, remembering the worthiness of Christ, and that he is now on\nthe right hand of God, on purpose to plead that on the behalf of\nthe petitioner, this is great encouragement. The Jews, by God's\nordinance, when they went morning and evening by their priest to\nspeak with God, were to offer a lamb for a burnt-offering, and it\nmust be thus continually (Exo 29:38-46). Now this lamb was a figure\nof the sacrificing of the body of Christ which was to be offered\nfor them in time to come; and, in that it was to be continually,\nmorning and evening, so repeated, what doth it signify, but that we\nshould remember to go, when we went to God, in the name and faith\nof the merits of Jesus Christ for what we stood in need of? This\nwill support, and this will encourage, for now we see that the\nthing desired--it being according to his will--is obtained for us\nby the sacrificing of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.\n\nWhen Israel begged of Samuel that he would not cease to cry to\nthe Lord their God for them, it is said he took a sucking lamb and\noffered it for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord; and Samuel\ncried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him (1 Sam 7:8,9).\nBut why did he take a sucking lamb, and why did he offer it, and\nthat wholly unto the Lord, as he cried, but to show to Israel that\nhe was not heard for his own, or for his righteousness sake, but\nfor the sake of Christ, whose merits were prefigured by Samuel's\nburning of the lamb?\n\nAlso when David spake for himself to Saul, he put himself upon\nthis, 'If,' saith he, 'the Lord hath stirred thee up against me,\nlet him accept an offering, a smell, a sweet-smelling sacrifice; a\nfigure of the satisfactoriness of the sufferings of Jesus Christ'\n(1 Sam 26:19). What is the meaning of all these passages, if not to\nshow that when we go to pray to God, we should turn away our face\nfrom every thing of ours, and look to God, only by the price of\nredemption paid for us by Jesus Christ, and plead that alone with\nhim as the great prevailing argument, and that by and for the\nsake of which he giveth pardon and grace to help in time of need?\nWherefore, wouldst thou be a praying man, a man that would pray\nand prevail? why, pray to God in the faith of the merits of Christ,\nAND SPEED.[27]\n\nNinth. For this is the very cause why this is added in the text,\nto wit, the plenteousness of redemption, it is, I say, that men\nshould hope to partake by it, of the goodness and mercy of God.\n'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,\nand with him is plenteous redemption.' Mercy and redemption, mercy\nthrough a Redeemer, therefore 'let Israel hope'! It must also be\nnoted, that this word redemption is, as it were, the explicatory\npart of the text, for the helping of Israel to hope. As who should\nsay, as there is with God mercy, so there is with him a way to his\nmercy, and that way is redemption, or a price paid for your sins;\nand that you should not be discouraged through the greatness of\nyour sins, I tell you there is with God plenty of this redemption,\nor a price paid to the full; to an over and above. It also is as\nif he had said, Forget not this, for this is the key of all the\nrest, and the great support to the saints in prayer, or while they\nwait upon God in any of his appointments to encourage them to hope.\n\nTenth. And lastly, This also should teach the saints, when they\nsin or praise the Lord, they should not sing of mercy only, but of\nmercy and judgment too; 'I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto\nthee, O Lord, will I sing' (Psa 101:1). Of mercy and judgment, or\njustice in the manifestation of it, as smiling upon our forgiveness.\nWhen Hannah sang of, and rejoiced in God's salvation, she sang\naloud of holiness, saying, 'There is none holy as the Lord' (1\nSam 2:1,2). Holy in keeping his word, though it cost the blood of\nhis Son. This also is that that is called a helping of his servant\nIsrael in remembrance of his mercy, and the performing of the mercy\npromised; even the oath that he sware to our father Abraham, that\nhe would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands\nof our enemies--by a Redeemer--might serve him without fear, &c.\n(Luke 1:49,54). When you praise, therefore, remember Christ and\nhis blood, and how justice and judgment took hold on him, that they\nmight not take hold on thee; yea, how they by taking hold on him,\nleft a way to thee to escape. Isaac should have been sacrificed,\nhad not the Lord provided a ram; and thou thyself shouldest have\nbeen damned, had not the Lord provided a lamb (Gen 22; Rev 5).\nHence Christ is called the 'Lamb of God which taketh away the sin\nof the world,' that taketh them away by the sacrifice of himself.\nSing therefore in your praises unto God, and to the Lamb!\n\n[THE APPLICATION OR USE OF THE WHOLE.]\n\nI would come now to speak one short word of use to the whole. And,\n\nFirst. This still shows more and more, what a sad state God's\npeople have brought themselves into by sin. I told you before that\nthe revelation of so much mercy as is presented unto us by the first\npart of the text, sufficiently declared our state to be miserable\nby sin. But what shall we say, when there must be added to that\nthe heart blood of the Son of God, and all to make our salvation\ncomplete? For albeit mercy is essential to our salvation, and that\nwithout which there can be no salvation; yet it is the blood that\nmaketh the atonement for the soul, THAT propitiates, and so makes\ncapable of enjoying of it. It was mercy and love, as I said afore,\nthat sent one to shed his blood for us; and it is the blood of him\nthat was sent, that puts us into the enjoyment of mercy. O! I have\nthought sometimes, what bloody creatures hath sin made us![28] The\nbeasts of the field must be slain by thousands before Christ came,\nto signify to us we should have a Saviour; and after that, he must\ncome himself, and die a worse death than died those beasts, before\nthe work of saving could be finished. O redemption, redemption by\nblood, is the heart-endearing consideration! This is that which\nwill make the water stand in our eyes, that will break a heart of\nflint, and that will make one do as they do, that are 'in bitterness\nfor their first-born' (Zech 12:10).\n\nSinner, wouldst thou have mercy? wouldst thou be saved? Go thou\nthen to the blood of the cross, as set forth in the word of the\ntruth of the gospel, and there thou shalt find that mercy that\nthou hast need of first; for there is a mercy that may be called\na FIRST mercy, and that is the mercy that gives admittance into,\nand an interest in all the rest. Now the mercy that doth this, is\nthat which reconcileth us to God; but that other things cannot do,\nif we stand off from the blood of the cross. Wherefore we are said\nto be reconciled to God, by the death of his Son. 'For if when we\nwere enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son;\nmuch more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life' (Rom\n5:10). According to that other saying, 'He that spared not his own\nSon, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also\nfreely give us all things?' (8:32). In both these places the Son\nof God, and our Redeemer, is set forth to us in the first place,\nas the only one that reconcileth to God the sinner by the blood\nof his cross; wherefore to this Christ, as crucified, the sinner\nmust come first; because nothing else can reconcile to God; and if\nthou be not reconciled to God, what art thou but an enemy to him,\npartake of what mercy thou canst? (Col 1:20). Go to him, did I say?\nreceive him into the arms of thy faith; hold him fast, for he is a\nSaviour; yea, carry him as set forth by the gospel, dying for thee,\nand pray God for his sake to bestow upon thee all those mercies\nthat will compass thee about as with a shield, and follow thee all\nthy days, till thou enterest in at the doors of eternity; and this\nis the way to speed! For he that hath the Son hath life, in the\nbeginning of it; and he that holds fast the Son, shall have life in\nthe consummation of it. I do the oftener touch upon this matter,\nbecause this Christ is the door, in at which whosoever entereth shall\nbe saved; but he that climbs up any other way, shall be judged as\na thief and a robber (John 10:1).[29] But,\n\nSecond. Is Christ, as crucified, the way and door to all spiritual\nand eternal mercy? And doth God come to the sinner, and the sinner\nagain go to God in a saving way by him, and by him only? And is\nthere no other way to the Father but by his blood, and through the\nveil, that is to say, his flesh? (Heb 10:19,20). Then this shows\nthe danger, upon what pretence soever, of casting off the daily\nsacrifice, and setting up in its place the abomination that maketh\ndesolate. I mean, of casting away a crucified Christ, and the setting\nup the vanity of moral obedience as the more substantial and most\nacceptable thing with God. I call not a crucified Christ the daily\nsacrifice, as if I thought he often suffered for sin, since the\nfoundation of the world; but because the virtue of that one offering\nis that, and only that, by the which we daily draw nigh unto God;\nand because the virtuousness of that one sacrifice will for ever\nabide beneficial to them that come to God, to the world's end by\nhim.\n\nBut I say, into what a miserable plight have such people put\nthemselves, that have cast off coming to God by Christ, as he is\nthe propitiation for their sins, and that seek to come another way?\nSuch are lapsed again to Gentilism, to Paganism, to Heathenism; nor\nwill it help at all to say they rely on the mercy and goodness of\nGod, for there is no such thing as spiritual and eternal mercy can\ncome from God to him, that comes not to him by Christ. The Turks,\nif I be not mistaken, have this for the beginning of every chapter\nof their Alcoran, 'The Lord, God, gracious and merciful,'[30]\nyet are counted unbelievers, and are verily so, for they have not\nreceived the faith of Christ. The Lord God, gracious and merciful,\nwill not save them, no not by grace and mercy, unless repenting of\ntheir presuming upon mercy, without a bloody sacrifice, they come\nto him by his Son (Acts 4:12). Men therefore that have laid aside\nthe necessity of reconciliation to God by the precious blood of\nChrist, are in a damned state; nor will it help at all to say they\ndo indeed believe in him. I am not so void of reason as to think\nthat they that have cast away Christ, as he is a propitiatory\nsacrifice with God for sin, should also cast away his name out\nof their mouth; no, his name is too honorable, and the profession\nof it too glorious for them to do such a thing. But retaining his\nname, and the notion of him as a Saviour, they yet cast him off,\nand that in those very things wherein the essential part of his\nsacrifice, the merit of it, and his everlasting priesthood, consists;\nand in this lies the mystery of their iniquity.\n\nThey will have him to be a Saviour, but it must not be by fulfilling\nof the law for us; but it must not be by the putting of his glorious\nrighteousness, that which he performed by subjecting himself to\nthe law, on our behalf, upon us; but it must not be by washing of\nus from our sins in his own blood; but it must be by his kingly\nand prophetical offices. When, as for his kingly and prophetical\noffices, he puts those people under the government of them that he\nhas afore made to stand justified before God, from the curse of the\nlaw by his priesthood. Nor dare they altogether deny that Christ\ndoth save his people as a priest, but then their art is to confound\nthese offices, by pleading that they are in effect but one and the\nself-same thing; and then with a noise of morality and government,\nthey jostle the merit of his blood, and the perfection of his\njustifying righteousness, out of doors; and so retaining the name\nof Christ in their mouths, they cast those things of Christ, that\nthey like not, under feet; which things, they who have not the\nfaith of, must not, cannot see the kingdom of God.\n\nThe term of mercy is but a general sound, and is as an arrow shot\nat rovers, unless the blood and death of the Son of God be set before\nus, as the mark or mean by which our spirits are to be directed\nto it. What profit shall a man have, and what shelter or succour\nshall he find, in hearing of the most exact relation of the strength\nof the most impregnable castle in the world, unless he knows the\ndoor, and entereth in by that, into that place of strength, in the\ntime when the enemy shall pursue him? Why, this is the case: We\nhear a noise of mercy, and of being at peace with God; what a good\nGod, God is, and what a blessed thing it is to be a child of God;\nhow many privileges the children of God have, and what will be\ntheir exaltation and glory in the next world! And all the while they\nthat tell us these things conceal from us the way thereto, which is\nChrist, not in the naming of him, but in the right administration\nof his gospel to us.\n\nChrist, and faith in him as a Saviour, not in the name only, but\nin the true sense thereof, is the mark, as I have said, from which\nif any swerve, they err from the saving way, and so come nothing near\nthat mercy that can save them. Hence Christ is called a standard,\nan ensign (Isa 5:26). 'And in that day there shall be a root of\nJesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall\nthe Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious' (Isa 11:10). And\nagain, 'Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand\nto the Gentiles; and set up my standard to the people' (49:22).\n'Go through, go through the gates, prepare ye the way of the\npeople,--gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people.\nBehold the Lord hath proclaimed to the end of the world; say ye\nto the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh. Behold his\nreward is with him, and his work before him' (62:10,11). Hence\nagain he is called the captain, the chieftain, of our salvation,\nand him without whom there neither is nor can be any.\n\nBut now the men of this confederacy, rather than they will submit\nthemselves to the righteousness of God, will lay odiums and scandals\nupon them that preach they should (Rom 10:2,4). Not forsooth, if you\nwill believe them, but that they are highly for the righteousness\nof God, let it be that which they count so; but then to be sure it\nshall never be the personal performances of Christ, by which they\nthat believe in him are justified from all things; but that which\nthey call 'first principles,' 'dictates of human nature,' 'obedience\nto a moral precept,' followed and done as they have Christ for an\nexample; not understanding that Christ, in his own doings, is the\nend of all these things to every one that believeth. But if it\nbe urged that Gentiles and Pagans are possessed with those very\nprinciples, only they have not got the art, as our men have, to\ncover them with the name of Christ and principles of Christianity,\nthen they fall to commending the heathens and their philosophers,\nand the natural motives and principles by which they were actuated;\npreferring of them much before what by others are called the graces\nof the Spirit, and principles upon what the doctrine of the free\ngrace and mercy of God by Christ are grounded. But, as I said, all\nthe good that such preachers can do as to the next world, is, to\ndraw the people away from their ensign and their standard, and so\nlead them among the Gentiles and infidels, to seek by their rules\nthe way to this unspeakable mercy of God. Wherefore their state\nbeing thus deplorable, and their spirits thus incorrigible, they\nmust be pitied, and left, and fled from, if we would live.\n\nThird. Is Christ Jesus the redemption; and, as such, the very\ndoor and inlet into all God's mercies? Christian man, look well\nto thyself, that thou goest no whither, and dost nothing, I mean\nin any part of religious worship, &c., but as thou art in him (2\nCor 12:18,19).[31] Walk in him, speak in him, grow in him, for he\nis THE ALL (Col 2:6,7). And though others regard not to 'hold the\nhead, from which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment\nministered,' yet have thou a care! (Eph 4:15; Col 2:19). This is\nhe that is thy life, and the length of thy days, and without whom\nno true happiness can be had. Many there be that count this but a\nlow thing; they desire to soar aloft, to fly into new notions, and\nto be broaching of new opinions, not counting themselves happy,\nexcept they can throw some new-found fangle, to be applauded for,\namong their novel-hearers. But fly thou to Christ for life; and\nthat thou mayest so do, remember well thy sins, and the judgment\nand wrath of God; and know also that he is merciful, but at mercy\nnone can come, but through the cursed death Christ underwent. And\nalthough some of the wanton professors of our age may blame thee\nfor poring so much upon thy sins, and the pollution of thy nature,\nyet know that there is an advantage in it. There be some alive in\nthe world, who, though they count the nature and commission of sin\nthe very evil of evils, yet can say that the remembrance of how\nvile they are, and of what evils they have committed, has been to\nthem a soul-humbling, a Christ-advancing, and a creature-emptying\nconsideration. Though sin made death bitter to Christ, yet sin\nmakes Christ sweet to his. And though none should sin, that grace\nmight abound, yet where sin has abounded, grace doth much more\nabound, not only as an act of God, but also in the eye of faith.\n\nA sight of the filth, and a sense of the guilt of sin, makes a\npardon to such a soul more than empty notion; and makes the mean\nthrough which the pardon comes more to be desired than is either\nlife or limb. This is it that makes the sensible soul prize the\nLord Jesus, while the self-justiciary[32] laugheth him to scorn.\nThis is it which makes the awakened sinner cast away his own\nrighteousness, while the self-conceited one makes it his advocate\nwith the Father.\n\nSome, indeed, count their own doings the only darling of their\nsoul, while others cast it to the dogs. And why should a man cumber\nhimself with what is his, when the good of all that is in Christ\nis laid, and to be laid out for him? Not that a believer casts\noff to do good, for he knows that what good thing is done in faith\nand love, is acceptable to God, and profitable to his neighbour.\nBut this is it, he setteth not his good deed against the judgment\nof God; he cometh not in his own good. When he comes to God for\nforgiveness of sins, then he sees nothing, knows nothing, mentions\nnothing as righteousness, but that which Christ wrought out in the\ndays of his flesh, and that only. But how then is what he doth\naccepted of God? Verily as the duty of a son, and as the work\nof one that is justified. We must therefore conclude that there\nis acceptation, and acceptation: acceptation of the person, and\nacceptation of his performance. Acceptation of the person may be\nconsidered with respect to justification from the curse, and so\nacceptation there can be none, but through the one offering of the\nbody of Jesus Christ once for all. Also the acceptation of a duty\ndone by such a person is, by virtue of the self-same offering,\nthe person being considered as standing just through Christ before\nGod. And the reason why a justified person must have his duties\naccepted the same way, as is his person, is because justifying\nrighteousness sets not the person free from sin, save only in the\nsight of God and conscience; he remaineth still infirm in himself,\nand standeth still in need of the fresh and continual application\nof the merits of the Lord Jesus, which also the soul receiveth by\nvirtue of Christ's intercession. I speak now of acceptation with\nreference to the justice of the law, and the judgment of God upon\nperson or work, according to the self-same law. For so they both\nmust be accepted through the self-same Mediator, or they cannot be\naccepted at all. Nor is it a thing to be wondered at, that a man\nshould stand just in the sight of God, when polluted and defiled\nin his own sight. He stands just before God in the justice of his\nSon, upon whom God looks, and for whose sake he accepts him. May not\na scabbed, mangy man, a man all over-run with blains and blotches,\nbe yet made beautiful to the view of a beholder, through the silken,\nsilver, golden garment that may be put upon him, and may cover all\nhis flesh? Why, the righteousness of Christ is not only unto but\nupon all them that believe (Rom 3:22). And whoso considers the\nparable of the wretched infant, shall find, that before it was\nwashed with water it was wrapped up or covered, as it was found,\nin its blood, in and with the skirt of his garment that found it in\nits filth. And then he washed it with water, and then he sanctified\nit by the anointing oil of the Spirit of God (Eze 16:8,9). I speak\nthus to thee, Christian reader, partly because in the faith of these\nthings is thy life; and because I would yet enforce the exhortation\nupon thee with the reason and the amplification thereof, to wit, to\nput thee upon trusting in the Lord through the encouragement that\nthou hast in redeeming mercy so to do.\n\nSome may say, Will God see that which is not? and will he judge a\nman just that is a sinner? But I will answer, The man that had the\nrainbow about his head, was to look on, or be looked upon, while\nhe shone like a jasper and a sardix-stone (Rev 4:3). The blood of\nthe paschal lamb was to be looked upon by him that came to destroy\nthe land of Egypt in their firstborn (Exo 12:13). I add, The rainbow\nthat God gave to Noah for a token that he would no more destroy the\nearth with the waters of the flood, was to be looked upon, that\nGod might remember to show mercy to his people (Gen 9:8-17). Now\nall these meet in the man Christ Jesus, who is the only one, for\nthe sake of whom the sinner that believeth in him stands acquitted\nin the sight of God. His is the blood, he is the prince, that is\nmore than the token of the covenant: nor do all the colours in the\nrainbow appear so beautiful in the eyes of man, as does the garment\nof Christ; which is from his loins, even upward, and from his loins,\neven downward, in the eyes of the God of heaven (Eze 1:27,28). And\nwilt thou say these are things that are not? Also, he can legally\njudge a man just, that is a sinner. Do but admit of a diverse\nconsideration, and God will so consider of that sinner which he\njustifieth, in despite of all the teeth in thy proud mouth! 'He\njustifieth the ungodly' (Rom 4:5). Not that were, but that are such\nnow, in the judgment and verdict of the law, might deal with them\nin their own persons as men (Rom 5:5-10). He will then consider them\nin his Son; in, and under the skirt of his Son. He will consider\nthem as washed in the blood of his Son, and will also consider\n'that in him is no sin,' and so he will deal with them. 'We know\nthat he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin'\n(1 John 3:5).\n\nWhat though I have broke a thousand pound in my creditor's debt--yet\nif another will discharge the whole freely, what has the law to\ndo with me as to that? Or what if I cannot but live upon the spend\nall my days, yet if my friend will always supply my need, and,\nthrough his bounty, keep me from writ, bailiff, or jail, is it not\nwell for me? Yea, what if what I can get shall be laid up for me\nfor hereafter, and that my friend, so long as there is death or\ndanger in the way, will himself secure me, and bear my charges to\nthe world's end; may I not accept thereof, and be thankful? Blessed\nbe God for Jesus Christ! I believe he is more than all this to me.\n'In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall\nglory' (Isa 45:25). I know similitudes will not hold in all things;\nbut we that believe are set free from the curse of the law by\nanother man's obedience. For 'by the obedience of one shall many\nbe made righteous' (Rom 5:19). Let then the believer, as was said,\nstudy and pray, and read God's Word continually, for the sake\nof the glory of this truth, that it may be made more his own, and\nthat his conscience may be more and more settled in the power and\nglory thereof.[33]\n\nFourth. As the Christian should most labour to get into the power\nand glory of this doctrine, so let him see that he holds it fast.\nThis doctrine is foreign to flesh and blood; it is not earthly,\nbut from heaven (Matt 16:17). It is with many that begin with this\ndoctrine, as it is with boys that go to the Latin school; they\nlearn till they have learned the grounds of their grammar, and then\ngo home and forget all. How have many, that as to the grounds of\nChristian religion, one would think, had been well taught, yet not\ntaking such heed thereto as they should, they have let slip all,\nand their hearts have been filled with the world again, or else\nhave drunk in some opinion that has been diametrically opposite\nto what they professed of the truth before (Heb 2:1-4). Wherefore\nhast thou anything of the truth of Christ in thy heart? 'Hold that\nfast, that no man take thy crown' (Rev 3:11). Yea 'grow in grace,\nand in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter\n3:18).\n\nHe that will retain and hold fast the doctrine of redemption, and\nso by that have, through faith, an inlet into all the abounding\nmercy of God, must not deal in God's matters with a slack hand. It\nis not enough for them that would do so, to be content with sermons,\nfamily duties, and other public assemblies for worship, but there\nmust be a continual exercise of the mind about these matters, and\na labour of the soul to retain them in their glory and sweetness;\nelse they will, first as to their excellency, then as to the very\nnotion of them, slip from the heart and be gone (Heb 2:1-3). Not\nthat there is treachery or deceit therein, but the deceit lies in\nthe heart about them. He that will keep water in a sieve, must use\nmore than ordinary diligence. Our heart is the leaking vessel; and\n'therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things\nwhich we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.'\n\nThat this doctrine may remain with us, we must also mortify our\ncarnal reason: for that makes head against the truth thereof, and\nwhat can foolishness do else? And the wisdom of this world, which\nis carnal reason in its improvements, is foolishness with God (1\nCor 1:20-25). It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed\ncan it be. It judges this doctrine that we have been speaking of,\nfoolishness; wherefore it must be avoided, opposed and mortified,\nand the word of faith the more carefully submitted to. 'Trust in the\nLord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding'\n(Rom 3:5). See here, that trusting in the Lord, and leaning to our\nown understanding, are opposites; wherefore they must either be\nreconciled, or one quite adhered unto, in a way of mortification\nof the other. Now, it is safest in this matter to keep a continual\nguard upon our carnal powers; and to give up ourselves to the\nconduct of our God, and in all our ways acknowledge him, that he,\nnot ourselves, may direct our paths (v 6). It is a great thing for\na man, when the Word and his reason clashes, then to adhere to the\nWord, and let his reason fall to the ground. And this indeed is\nChristianity in the practical part thereof. The Spirit of Christ\nin the Word is to be hearkened unto, above all things (2 Cor 10:3-5).\n\nThere must also be a continual war maintained upon all the lusts\nof the flesh, that they may not draw away the heart from the study\nand delight, the love and faith, of the things that are hid in\nChrist (Isa 28:9). This, I say, must be done, else the heart cannot\nbe at liberty to wait upon the Lord without distraction, for the\nfurther communications of himself in his Son, according to his\nblessed gospel to us. Many Christians are lean in their faith and\ntoo barren in their lives, and all for want of being diligent here.\nWherefore having faith in this blessed Lord Jesus Christ, as has\nbeen afore discoursed; in the next place, 'giving all diligence, add\nto your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge,\ntemperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness;\nand to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness,\ncharity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you\nthat ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge\nof our Lord' and Saviour 'Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 1:5-8). There is\na method that the Holy Ghost has prescribed in the Word, for them\nthat hath faith to observe, and without the observation thereof,\nthough they indeed may be of the number of them that shall be\nsaved, yet they shall not have much, nor do much, for Christ and\nhis name, in this world. Now the unskilful, that are so in the word\nof righteousness, finding this method, and not discerning to whom\nit belongs, forthwith apply it to all; and forgetting that faith\nmust go before, they press them as duties preparatory to faith, or\nelse so call that which is not so; and so the blind leading of the\nblind, both fall into the ditch, and are smothered. But do thou, O\nchild of God, distinguish, and keep faith and duty for justification\nof thy person in the sight of God far asunder; also be sure to let\nfaith go before, and be always with thy Saviour, but add unto thy\nfaith, virtue, &c., not as though thy faith could not lay hold of\nChrist, unless accompanied with these, but to show that thy faith\nis of the right kind, as also for the emboldening of thee to an\nholy endeavour yet to press further into his everlasting kingdom\nand his word; for he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot\nsee afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old\nsins.\n\nFifth. That thou mayest keep steadfast to this doctrine take heed\nof being offended, or of stumbling at the Word, because of the\noffensive lives and conversations of some that are professors of\nthe same. There will be offences, and it is needful there should;\nyea, scandals and heresies also, that they that are approved of\nGod 'may be made manifest among you' (1 Cor 11:19). There are many\ncauses of the offensive lives of them that profess this faith, some\nof which I will give a touch upon here.\n\n1. Many that adhere to, and profess this gospel, are short of the\npower and glory of the things which they profess: now the word, the\nword only, will not bring those that profess it into a conformity to\nit; into a conformity in heart and life (1 Cor 4:18-20). Wherefore\nthey that know it only in word, live scandalous lives, to the reproach\nof the faith, the emboldening of its enemies, the stumbling of the\nignorant, and grief of the godly, that are so indeed, and such must\nbear their judgment in the next world.\n\n2. This also flows from the wisdom of hell: the devil knows that\nthe faith of the gospel rightly professed, is, not only saving to\nthose in whom it is, but alluring unto beholders: wherefore that he\nmay prevent the beauteous lustre thereof, he sows his tares among\nGod's wheat, and goes his way, that is, to the end those that stumble\nmay not see what he hath done, or whose are the tares indeed. Now\nby these the sunshine of the faith of the true professors of the\nblessed gospel is clouded; yea, and the world made believe, that such\nas the worst are, such are the best; but there is never a barrel\nbetter herring,[34] but that the whole lump of them are, in truth,\na pack of knaves. Now has the devil got the point aimed at, and\nhas caused many to fall; but behold ye now the good reward these\ntares shall have at the day of reward for their doings. 'As therefore\nthe tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in\nthe end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels,\nand they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,\nand them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of\nfire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth' (Mat 13:37-42).\n\n3. It also happeneth, sometimes, through the anger and judgment\nof God against sinners, that some of them truly gracious do fall,\nas David, Peter, &c., the which is a great trial to the godly, a\nwound to the persons fallen, and a judgment of God to the world.\nFor since these last would not be converted, nor made turn to God\nby the convincing glory that has attended their faith in a holy\nand unblameable life annexed, God has suffered them to fall, that\nthey also might stumble and fall, and be dashed in pieces by their\nvices. But thou, Christian man, be not thou offended at any of\nthese things; do thou look unto Jesus, do thou look unto his Word,\ndo thou live by faith, and think much of thy latter end; do thou\nbe base in thine own eyes, be humble and tender, and pray to God\nalways; do thou add to thy faith virtue, and to virtue what else\nis mentioned; and 'give diligence to make thy calling and election\nsure; for if thou doest these things thou shalt never fall: for\nso an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the\neverlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter\n1:10,11).\n\nSixth. If it be so, that there is so much mercy in the heart of\nGod for his people, and that Jesus his Son has by his blood made\nso living a way for us that we might enjoy it, and the benefit of\nit for ever, 'then let Israel hope': for to that end is this goodness\nrevealed: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is\nmercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.' Hope! Who would not\nhope to enjoy life eternal, that has an inheritance in the God of\nIsrael? 'Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people\nsaved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword\nof thy excellency?' (Deut 33:29). Did but the people of God see to\nwhat they are born, and how true the God of truth will be to what\nby his Word they look for at his hands, they would be above alway;\nthey would be weary of life, of estates, of relations; they would\ngroan earnestly under all their enjoyments to be with him, who is\ntheir life, their portion, and their glory for ever. But we profess,\nand yet care not for dying; we profess, and yet long not for the\ncoming of the day of God; we profess the faith, and yet by our whole\nlife show to them that can see how little a measure of it we have\nin our hearts. The Lord lead us more into the power of things;\nthen shall the virtues of him that has saved us, and called us out\nof darkness into his marvellous light, and the savour of his good\nknowledge, be made known to others far otherwise than it is. Amen.\n\nSeventh. And lastly, Sinner, doth not all this discourse make\nthy heart twitter after the mercy that is with God, and after the\nway that is made by this plenteous redemption thereto? Methinks\nit should; yea, thou couldst not do otherwise, didst thou but see\nthy condition: look behind thee, take a view of the path thou hast\ntrodden these many years. Dost thou think that the way that thou\nart in will lead thee to the strait gate, sinner? Ponder the path\nof thy feet with the greatest seriousness, thy life lies upon it;\nwhat thinkest thou? But make no answer till in the night, till thou\nart in the night-watches. 'Commune with your own heart upon your\nbed' (Psa 4:4), and then say what thou thinkest of, whether thou\nart going?\n\nO that thou wert serious! Is not it a thing to be lamented, that\nmadness and folly should be in thy heart while thou livest, and\nafter that to go to the dead, when so much life stands before thee,\nand light to see the way to it? (Eccl 9:3). Surely, men void of\ngrace, and possessed of carnal minds, must either think that sin\nis nothing, that hell is easy, and that eternity is short; or else\nthat whatever God has said about the punishing of sinners, he will\nnever do as he has said; or that there is no sin, no God, no heaven,\nno hell, and so no good or bad hereafter; or else they could not\nlive as they do. But perhaps thou presumest upon it, and sayest, I\nshall have peace, though I live so sinful a life. Sinner, if this\nwicked thought be in thy heart, tell me again, dost thou thus think\nin earnest? Canst thou imagine thou shalt at the day of account\nout-face God, or make him believe thou wast what thou wast not?\nor that when the gate of mercy is shut up in wrath, he will at thy\npleasure, and to the reversing of his own counsel, open it again\nto thee? Why shall thy deceived heart turn thee aside, that thou\ncanst not deliver thy soul, 'nor say, Is there not a lie in my\nright hand?' (Isa 44:20).\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The titles to the Psalms have puzzled all the commentators.\nBunyan follows Luther; who adds, that the title to the Psalms of\nDegrees does not pertain to any doctrine, but only to the ceremony\nof the singers. Ainsworth applies it to the place or tone of voice\nof the singers, or to a special excellency of the Psalm. Calmet\nand Bishop Horsley consider that the title refers to the progress\nof the soul towards eternal felicity, ascending by degrees. Watford\nimagines that these Psalms were written or selected to be sung on\nthe ascent of the Jews from the captivity in Babylon. Luther wisely\nconcludes that the Christian has only to do with the brief and very\nnotable doctrine contained in these fifteen steps or degrees.--Ed.\n\n[2] 'The hither,' or nearest end; now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n[3] When Diabolus, in the Holy War, marched against Mansoul, his\ninfernal drum affrighted the backsliding Mansoul with its roaring.\n'This, to speak truth, was amazingly hideous to hear; it frighted\nall men seven miles round.' This drum was beat every night, and\n'when the drum did go, behold darkness and sorrow over Mansoul; the\nlight was darkened in the heaven thereof, no noise was ever heard\nupon earth more terrible; Mansoul trembled, and looked to be\nswallowed up.' This awful alarm--this terrible drum--is a want of\na good hope through faith, which purifieth the heart.--Ed.\n\n[4] How comforting is that declaration of the Holy Spirit, 'For now\nwe see through a glass darkly, but then face to face'! however we\nmay have had a glimpse of glory to strengthen us in the way. This\nrevelation was through one who had been 'caught up into paradise,'\nand who had 'abundance of revelations,' so great that it was needful\nfor him to have 'a thorn in the flesh,' to keep him humble. Blessed\nis Israel's 'Hope' of happiness, inconceivable and eternal.--Ed.\n\n[5] See the marginal reading to this text.--Ed.\n\n[6] Ecclesiastical writers, previous to Bunyan's time, made\nan hierarchy of nine orders of celestial spirits, viz., seraphim,\ncherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities,\narchangels, and angels; agreeing with Bunyan as to the angels\nbeing the lowest order in these celestial hierarchies. The angels\nare ministering spirits. May not the glorified saints become angels?\nWho was that angel who said to John, 'I and thy fellow-servant,\nand of thy brethren the prophets' (Rev 22:9).--Ed.\n\n[7] This is a striking illustration. Fear 'makes us question our\nright to the world to come,' and nails us to the earth; but it is\nsin which clenches the nail, and makes us cry, O wretched man that\nI am! who can deliver me? Poor Bunyan, in his Grace Abounding,\nmournfully illustrates this fact.--Ed.\n\n[8] In Bunyan's days, persecution for conscience sake was more\nextensive under the Protestant Church of England than it was even\nin the fiery days of Mary. Tens of thousands fled to seek an asylum\namong savages in America, who were not permitted to live among men\nworse than savages in England. Thousands were immured in prisons,\nwhere many hundreds perished, and with those who suffered a violent\ndeath received the crown of martyrdom. Even now they that will live\ngodly in Christ Jesus, must submit to taunts, jeers, and reproaches.\nMay we forget not the Saviour's comforting declaration, 'Blessed\nare you when persecuted, reviled, and spoken against falsely for\nmy sake.'--Ed.\n\n[9] This is the language of an eye-witness, and not a theory. Our\nauthor had associated with every man in jail, whose bitter suffering,\nand that of their families, tried the faith and patience of the\nsaints, and winnowed the church of formal professors.--Ed.\n\n[10] Often have God's saints rejoiced in tribulation, and, like\nStephen, when put to death with excruciating torments, have prayed\nfor their enemies. Bunyan's fear was, when threatened to be hung\nfor preaching Christ, that he should make but 'a scrabbling shift\nto clamber up the ladder.' He was, however, comforted with the hope\nthat his dying speech might be blessed to some of the spectators.--Grace\nAbounding, Nos. 334, 335.--Ed.\n\n[11] How forcibly does this remind us of the escape of the poor\ndoubting pilgrims from the castle of Giant Despair. The outer gate,\nlike that of the prison in which Peter was confined, was of iron\n(Acts 12:10). But Peter had a heavenly messenger as his guide, and\nfaith was in lively exercise, so that 'the gate opened to them of\nhis own accord.' 'God cut the gates of iron in sunder' (Psa 107:16).\nThe pilgrims lay for four days under dreadful sufferings, bordering\non black despair. He had overlooked or laid by the 'key that doth\ngo too hard'; prayer brought it to his recollection, and he cried\nout, 'What a fool am I thus to be in a stinking dungeon, when I may\nas well walk at liberty.' He recollected the 'key called promise,'\nwhich will open ALL the gates in Doubting Castle; and although the\nlock of that iron gate went damnable hard, yet the key did open\nit, and the prisoners escaped; see Grace Abounding, Nos 261-263.\nFellow-pilgrims 'look not over,' nor 'lay by,' those keys that\n'go too hard,' the prayerful use of which may save us much bitter\ndejection and gloomy doubts.--Ed.\n\n[12] The murder of Sir E. Godfrey, and the fears of a Popish plot,\ngreatly alarmed the country at this time. The recollection of the\nfrightful atrocities committed by the Papists upon the unoffending\nand unarmed Protestants in Ireland, led to the fears which are here\nso forcibly, but naturally, expressed. Although we re here directed\nto the sole ground of hope in the spiritual warfare, yet doubtless,\nin temporal things, Bunyan felt the necessity of human agency. Had\nhe lived to witness the punishment inflicted on these murderers by\nWilliam III, he would have owned with gratitude the services rendered\nto the nation by that warlike king and his brave parliament.--Ed.\n\n[13] How infinite is the condescension of Jehovah to enter into\nsuch a relationship with every member of his mystical body, the\nchurch. 'Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name'\n(Isa 14:5). Surely it hath not entered into the heart of man to\nconceive the riches of that endowment, the magnificence of that\nestate.--Ed.\n\n[14] Beware lest an evil heart, and Satan's devices, lead us to\nidolatry. All our ideas of God must be formed and governed by his\nrevelation of himself in his Word.--Ed.\n\n[15] Gospellers was the nick-name for those who loved the gospel\nat the Reformation, as Puritan or Methodist in a later age.--Ed.\n\n[16] These are solemn and bitter truths. While the public assembly\nis at times the gate of heaven to the soul, sincerity is better\nevidenced by heart-wrestling with God in private. No duty draws\ndown such blessings from heaven, nor has greater opposition from\nSatan, than earnest closet prayer. While it humbles the soul before\nGod, it excites our zeal in good works and a heavenly conduct\ntowards man.--Ed.\n\n[17] 'For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every\nson whom he receiveth' (Heb 12:6,7).--Ed.\n\n[18] In Popish times, the poor wretchedly and lazily depended upon\nthe alms of the rich, which were especially bestowed at a funeral,\nto buy their prayers for the repose of the soul; and at wedding,\nfor a blessing on the newly-married couple. Happily for them they\nare now taught, by gospel light, to depend, under God, upon their\nhonest exertions to produce the means of existence and enjoyment,\nas the most valuable class of society.--Ed.\n\n[19] Bunyan had felt all this. 'Alas!' says he, 'I could neither\nhear Christ, nor see him, nor feel him, nor savour any of his\nthings; I was driven with a tempest, my heart would be unclean, the\nCanaanites would come into the land.'--Grace Abounding, No. 78.--Ed.\n\n[20] See 2 Samuel 2:23, 3:27. To smite under the fifth rib is to\ngive a mortal blow.--Ed.\n\n[21] Human laws we must obey, unless they infringe upon the prerogative\nof God and upon conscience; to such we must refuse obedience, and\ncount it an honour to suffer as Daniel and the Hebrew youths. These\nlaws we may strive to get repealed or amended; but the laws of God\nare immutable and eternal--they must be obeyed, or we perish.--Ed.\n\n[22] How striking an exemplification is this of our utter helplessness\nand the unbounded love of God. O my soul, it is impossible to number\nor recollect all his mercies, but take heed lest thou forget them\nall.--Ed.\n\n[23] The reader will easily understand this passage if he considers\n'these folks' to mean those who were deterred from making a public\nprofession of faith, by the fear of 'the enemies,' or persecutors,\nproperly called the devil's scarecrows. 'Today,' refers to the time\nin which this encouraging treatise was written. Then persecutors\nand informers were let loose upon the churches, like a swarm of\nlocusts. Many folks were terrified, and much defection prevailed.\nBut for such a time God prepared Bunyan, Baxter, Owen, Howe, and\nmany others of equal piety. Thus, when the enemy cometh in like\na flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against\nhim.--Ed.\n\n[24] The word 'virtuous' is now very rarely used in this sense;\nit means, 'efficacious by inherent qualities,' or having great or\npowerful properties, as, 'By virtue of our Lord's intercession';\nsee Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n[25] 'Tang'; a strong sense, flavour, or relish.--Ed.\n\n[26] 'O the unthought of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors\nthat are affected by a thorough application of guilt, yielded\nto desperation! This is the man that hath his dwelling among the\ntombs.'--Bunyan's experience in Grace Abounding, No. 185.--Ed.\n\n[27] This is not merely an exhortation to diligence in the Christian\ncalling, but it is meant to convey to all the certain fact, that\nthe prayer of faith in the merits of the Redeemer will and must be\nfollowed by renewed speed in running the race that is set before\nus.--Ed.\n\n[28] There is something about the word blood at which the mind\nrecoils, as if intended to impress upon us the evils of sin and its\nawful punishment--the death, spiritual and eternal, of the sinner.\n'Without shedding of blood is no remission.' Blessed are those\nwho were in Christ when his precious blood was shed as an atoning\nsacrifice.--Ed.\n\n[29] See the character of Ignorance in the Pilgrim's Progress.--Ed.\n\n[30] The words are, 'In the name of God, gracious and merciful,'\nbefore each of the 114 chapters of which Alcoran consists.--Ed.\n\n[31] No service on the part of those who are out of Christ, can be\naccepted (Prov 15:8). We are accepted IN the Beloved (Eph 1:6).--Ed.\n\n[32] One who justifies himself; the self-righteous. The word is\nonly used by religious writers, and never now.--Ed.\n\n[33] What is this to me, O law, that thou accusest me, and sayest\nthat I have committed many sins? Indeed, I grant that I have\ncommitted many sins, yea, and still do commit sins daily without\nnumber. This toucheth me nothing. Thou talkest to me in vain. I am\ndead unto thee.--Luther. In the person of his Surety, the believer\nhas died, and paid the penalty of the law. It can have no claim on\nhim.--Ed.\n\n[34] A proverbial saying, which means that all are alike, 'there\nis no one barrel better than another, the whole cargo is bad.'--Ed.\n\n***\n\nI WILL PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO-\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER;\n\nWHEREIN IS BRIEFLY DISCOVERED,\n\n1. WHAT PRAYER IS. 2. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 3. WHAT\nIT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO.\n\nWRITTEN IN PRISON, 1662. PUBLISHED, 1663.\n\n\"For we know not what we should pray for as we ought:--the\nSpirit--helpeth our infirmities\" (Rom 8:26).\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThere is no subject of more solemn importance to human happiness\nthan prayer. It is the only medium of intercourse with heaven.\n\"It is that language wherein a creature holds correspondence with\nhis Creator; and wherein the soul of a saint gets near to God, is\nentertained with great delight, and, as it were, dwells with his\nheavenly Father.\"1 God, when manifest in the flesh, hath given\nus a solemn, sweeping declaration, embracing all prayer--private,\nsocial, and public--at all times and seasons, from the creation to\nthe final consummation of all things--\"God is a Spirit, and they\nthat worship him MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH\" (John\n4:24).\n\nThe great enemy of souls, aided by the perverse state of the human\nmind, has exhausted his ingenuity and malice to prevent the exercise\nof this holy and delightful duty. His most successful effort has\nbeen to keep the soul in that fatal lethargy, or death unto holiness,\nand consequently unto prayer, into which it is plunged by Adam's\ntransgression. Bunyan has some striking illustrations of Satan's\ndevices to stifle prayer, in his history of the Holy War. When\nthe troops of Emmanuel besiege Mansoul, their great effort was to\ngain \"eargate\" as a chief entrance to Mansoul, and at that important\ngate there were placed, by order of Diabolous, \"the Lord Will-be-will,\nwho made one old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow,\ncaptain of that ward, and put under his power sixty men called\nDeafmen to keep it,\" and these were arrayed in the most excellent\narmour of Diabolous, \"A DUMB AND PRAYERLESS SPIRIT.\" Nothing but the\nirresistible power of Emmanuel could have overcome these obstacles.\nHe conquers and reigns supreme, and Mansoul becomes happy; prayer\nwithout ceasing enables the new-born man to breathe the celestial\natmosphere. At length Carnal Security interrupts and mars this\nhappiness. The Redeemer gradually withdraws. Satan assaults the soul\nwith armies of doubts, and, to prevent prayer, Diabolous \"lands up\nMouthgate with dirt.\"2 Various efforts are made to send petitions,\nbut the messengers make no impression, until, in the extremity\nof the soul's distress, two acceptable messengers are found, not\ndwelling in palaces, but in \"a very mean cottage,\"3 their names\nwere \"Desires Awake and Wet Eyes,\" illustrating the inspired words,\n\"Thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose\nname is holy: I dwell--with him--that is of a contrite and humble\nspirit\" (Isa 57:15). By this we are taught the utter worthlessness\nof depending upon the prayers of saints on earth, or the glorified\nspirits of heaven. Our own prayers alone are availing. Our own\n\"Desires-awake\" and \"Wet-eyes,\" our own aspirations after God, our\nown deep repentance and sense of utter helplessness drives us to\nthe Saviour, through whom ALONE we can find access and adoption\ninto the family of our Father who is in heaven.\n\nThe soul that communes with God attains an aptitude in prayer which\nno human learning can give; devotional expressions become familiar;\nthe Spirit of adoption leads them with deep solemnity to approach\nthe Infinite Eternal as a father. Private prayer is so essentially\nspiritual that it cannot be reduced to writing. \"A man that truly\nprays one prayer, shall after that never be able to express with\nhis mouth, or pen the unutterable desires, sense, affection, and\nlonging that went to God in that prayer\". Prayer leads to \"pure\nreligion and undefiled,\" \"to visit the fatherless and widows in\ntheir affliction,\" and to preserve us \"unspotted from the world\"\n(James 1:27). Blessed indeed are those who enjoy an abiding sense\nof the Divine presence; the Christian's divine life may be measured\nby his being able to \"pray without ceasing,\" to \"seek God's face\ncontinually.\" Men ought \"always to pray,\" and to \"continue in prayer.\"\nThis does not consist in perpetually repeating any form of prayer,\nbut in that devotional frame of mind which enables the soul to say,\n\"For me to live is Christ.\" When David was compassed about with the\nsorrows of hell, he at once ejaculates, \"O Lord, I beseech thee\ndeliver my soul.\" When the disciples were in danger they did not\nrecite the Lord's Prayer, or any other form, but at once cried,\n\"Lord, save us, we perish.\" Bunyan, speaking of private prayer,\nkeenly inquires, will God not hear thee \"except thou comest before\nhim with some eloquent oration?\" \"It is not, as many take it to\nbe, even a few babbling, prating, complimentary expressions, but\na sensible feeling in the heart.\" Sincerity and a dependence upon\nthe mediatorial office of Christ is all that God requires. \"The Lord\nis nigh unto all them that call upon him--IN TRUTH\" (Psa 145:18).\nIn all that related to the individual approach of the spirit to its\nheavenly Father, our pious author offended not; but having enjoyed\ncommunion with God, he was, as all Christians are, desirous of\ncommunion with the saints on earth, and in choosing the forms of\npublic worship, he gave great offence to many by rejecting the Book\nof Common Prayer.\n\nTo compel or to bribe persons to attend religious services is\nunjustifiable, and naturally produces hypocrisy and persecution.\nSo it was with the decree of King Darius, (Dan 6); and so it has\never been with any royal or parliamentary interference with Christian\nliberty. \"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his\nown master he standeth or falleth\" (Rom 14:4). \"EVERY ONE of us shall\ngive account of himself to God\" (Rom 14:12). All the solemnities\nof the day of judgment point not merely to the right, but to the\nnecessity of private decision on all questions of faith, worship,\nand conduct, guided solely by the volume of inspiration. Mansoul,\nin its regenerate state, is the temple which the Creator has chosen\nfor his worship; and it is infinitely more glorious than earthly\nedifices, which crumble into dust, while God's temples will be ever\nglorious as eternity rolls on.\n\nBunyan, to the sixteenth year of his age, had, when he attended\npublic worship, listened to the Book of Common Prayer. At that time\nan Act of Parliament prohibited its use under severe and unjust\npenalties, and ordered the services to be conducted by the rules of\na directory. In this an outline is given of public thanksgivings,\nconfessions, and petitions; but no form of prayer. In the preface\nthe Puritans record their opinion, that the Liturgy of the Church\nof England, notwithstanding all the pains and religious intentions\nof its compilers, hath proved an offence; unprofitable ceremonies\nhath occasioned much mischief; its estimation hath been raised by\nprelates, as if there were no other way of worship; making it an\nidol to the ignorant and superstitious, a matter of endless strife,\nand of increasing an idle ministry. Bunyan had weighed these\nobservations, and recollected his former ignorance and superstition,\nwhen he counted all things holy connected with the outward forms,\nand did \"very devoutly say and sing as others did.\"4 But when he\narose from the long and dread conflict with sin, and entered upon\nhis Christian life, he decidedly preferred emancipation from forms\nof prayer, and treated them with great severity. He considered\nthat the most essential qualification for the Christian ministry\nis the gift of prayer. Upon this subject learned and pious men have\ndiffered; but the opinions of one so eminently pious, and so well-taught\nin the Scriptures, are worthy of our careful investigation. Great\nallowances must be made for all that appears harsh in language,\nbecause urbanity was not the fashion of that day in religious\ncontroversy. He had been most cruelly imprisoned, with threats of\ntransportation, and even an ignominious death, for refusing conformity\nto the Book of Common Prayer. Being conscientiously and prayerfully\ndecided in his judgment, he set all these threats at defiance, and\nboldly, at the risk of his life, published this treatise, while yet\na prisoner in Bedford jail; and it is a clear, concise, and scriptural\ndiscourse, setting forth his views upon this most important subject.\n\nAny preconceived form would have fettered Bunyan's free spirit; he\nwas a giant in prayer, and commanded the deepest reverence while\nleading the public devotions of the largest congregations. The\ngreat question as to public prayer is whether the minister should,\nrelying upon Divine assistance, offer up prayer to God in the\nSaviour's name, immediately conceived under a sense of His presence;\nor whether it is better, as it is certainly easier, to read a form\nof prayer, from time to time, skillfully arranged, and with every\nregard to beauty of language? Which of these modes is most in\naccordance with the directions of the Sacred Scriptures, and most\nlikely to be attended with spiritual benefit to the assembled\nchurch? Surely this inquiry does not involve the charge of schism\nor heresy upon either party. \"Let every man be fully persuaded in\nhis own mind.\" Nor should such differences lead us to despise each\nother. Let our first inquiry be, whether the Saviour intended a\nfixed form of prayer? And if so, did he give His church any other\nthan that most beautiful and comprehensive form called the Lord's\nPrayer? And did he license any one, and if so, who, to alter, add\nto, or diminish from it? On the other hand, should we conclude\nthat \"We know not what we should pray for as we ought, only as the\nSpirit helpeth our infirmities,\" then must we rely, as Bunyan did,\nupon the promised aid of that gracious Spirit. Blessed, indeed, are\nthose whose intercourse with heaven sheds an influence on their\nwhole conduct, gives them abundance of well-arranged words in\npraying with their families and with the sick or dejected, and--whose\nlives prove that they have been with Jesus, and are taught by him,\nor who, in Scripture language, \"pray with the spirit and with the\nunderstanding also.\"\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nON PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT.\n\n\"I WILL PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND I WILL PRAY WITH THE UNDERSTANDING\nALSO\"--(I Cor 14:15).\n\nPRAYER is an ORDINANCE of God, and that to be used both in public\nand private; yea, such an ordinance as brings those that have the\nspirit of supplication into great familiarity with God; and is also\nso prevalent in action, that it getteth of God, both for the person\nthat prayeth, and for them that are prayed for, great things.5 It\nis the opener of the heart of God, and a means by which the soul,\nthough empty, is filled. By prayer the Christian can open his\nheart to God, as to a friend, and obtain fresh testimony of God's\nfriendship to him. I might spend many words in distinguishing\nbetween public and private prayer; as also between that in the heart,\nand that with the vocal voice. Something also might be spoken to\ndistinguish between the gifts and graces of prayer; but eschewing\nthis method, my business shall be at this time only to show you the\nvery heart of prayer, without which, all your lifting up, both of\nhands, and eyes, and voices, will be to no purpose at all. \"I will\npray with the Spirit.\"\n\nThe method that I shall go on in at this time shall be, FIRST. To\nshow you what true prayer is. SECOND. To show you what it is to\npray with the Spirit. THIRD. What it is to pray with the Spirit\nand understanding also. And so, FOURTHLY. To make some short use\nand application of what shall be spoken.\n\nWHAT PRAYER IS.\n\nFIRST, What [true] prayer is. Prayer is a sincere, sensible,\naffectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ,\nin the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things\nas God hath promised, or according to the Word, for the good of\nthe church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God.\n\nIn this description are these seven things. First, It is a sincere;\nSecond, A sensible; Third, An affectionate, pouring out of the\nsoul to God, through Christ; Fourth, By the strength or assistance\nof the Spirit; Fifth, For such things as God hath promised, or,\naccording to his word; Sixth, For the good of the church; Seventh,\nWith submission in faith to the will of God.\n\nFirst. For the first of these, it is a SINCERE pouring out of the\nsoul to God. Sincerity is such a grace as runs through all the\ngraces of God in us, and through all the actings of a Christian,\nand hath the sway in them too, or else their actings are not any\nthing regarded of God, and so of and in prayer, of which particularly\nDavid speaks, when he mentions prayer. \"I cried unto him,\" the Lord\n\"with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard\niniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear\" my prayer (Psa\n66:17,18). Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without\nwhich God looks not upon it as prayer in a good sense (Psa 16:1-4).\nThen \"ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me\nwith all your heart\" (Jer 29:12-13). The want of this made the Lord\nreject their prayers in Hosea 7:14, where he saith, \"They have not\ncried unto me with their heart,\" that is, in sincerity, \"when they\nhowled upon their beds.\" But for a pretence, for a show in hypocrisy,\nto be seen of men, and applauded for the same, they prayed. Sincerity\nwas that which Christ commended in Nathaniel, when he was under\nthe fig tree. \"Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.\"\nProbably this good man was pouring out of his soul to God in prayer\nunder the fig tree, and that in a sincere and unfeigned spirit before\nthe Lord. The prayer that hath this in it as one of the principal\ningredients, is the prayer that God looks at. Thus, \"The prayer of\nthe upright is his delight\" (Prov 15:8).\n\nAnd why must sincerity be one of the essentials of prayer which\nis accepted of God, but because sincerity carries the soul in\nall simplicity to open its heart to God, and to tell him the case\nplainly, without equivocation; to condemn itself plainly, without\ndissembling; to cry to God heartily, without complimenting. \"I have\nsurely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou has chastised me,\nand I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke\" (Jer\n31:18). Sincerity is the same in a corner alone, as it is before\nthe face of the world. It knows not how to wear two vizards, one\nfor an appearance before men, and another for a short snatch in a\ncorner; but it must have God, and be with him in the duty of prayer.\nIt is not lip-labour that it doth regard, for it is the heart that\nGod looks at, and that which sincerity looks at, and that which\nprayer comes from, if it be that prayer which is accompanied with\nsincerity.\n\nSecond. It is a sincere and SENSIBLE pouring out of the heart\nor soul. It is not, as many take it to be, even a few babbling,\nprating, complimentary expressions, but a sensible feeling there is\nin the heart. Prayer hath in it a sensibleness of diverse things;\nsometimes sense of sin, sometimes of mercy received, sometimes of\nthe readiness of God to give mercy, &c.\n\n1. A sense of the want of mercy, by reason of the danger of sin.\nThe soul, I say, feels, and from feeling sighs, groans, and breaks\nat the heart. For right prayer bubbleth out of the heart when it\nis overpressed with grief and bitterness, as blood is forced out\nof the flesh by reason of some heavy burden that lieth upon it (I\nSam 1:10; Psa 69:3). David roars, cries, weeps, faints at heart,\nfails at the eyes, loseth his moisture, &c., (Psa 38:8-10). Hezekiah\nmourns like a dove (Isa 38:14). Ephraim bemoans himself (Jer 31:18).\nPeter weeps bitterly (Matt 26:75). Christ hath strong cryings and\ntears (Heb 5:7). And all this from a sense of the justice of God,\nthe guilt of sin, the pains of hell and destruction. \"The sorrows\nof death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I\nfound trouble and sorrow.\" Then cried I unto the Lord (Psa 116:3,4).\nAnd in another place, \"My sore ran in the night\" (Psa 77:2). Again,\n\"I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long\" (Psa\n38:6). In all these instances, and in hundreds more that might be\nnamed, you may see that prayer carrieth in it a sensible feeling\ndisposition, and that first from a sense of sin.\n\n2. Sometimes there is a sweet sense of mercy received; encouraging,\ncomforting, strengthening, enlivening, enlightening mercy, &c.\nThus David pours out his soul, to bless, and praise, and admire\nthe great God for his loving-kindness to such poor vile wretches.\n\"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy\nname. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.6\nWho forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases;\nwho redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee\nwith loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth\nwith good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's\"\n(Psa 103:1-5). And thus is the prayer of saints sometimes turned\ninto praise and thanksgiving, and yet are prayers still. This is\na mystery; God's people pray with their praises, as it is written,\n\"Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer, and supplication,\nwith thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God\" (Phil\n4:6). A sensible thanksgiving, for mercies received, is a mighty\nprayer in the sight of God; it prevails with him unspeakably.\n\n3. In prayer there is sometimes in the soul a sense of mercy to be\nreceived. This again sets the soul all on a flame. \"Thou, O lord of\nhosts,\" saith David, \"hast revealed to thy servant, saying I will\nbuild thee an house; therefore hath thy servant found in his heart\nto pray--unto thee\" (II Sam 7:27). This provoked Jacob, David,\nDaniel, with others--even a sense of mercies to be received--which\ncaused them, not by fits and starts, nor yet in a foolish frothy\nway, to babble over a few words written in a paper; but mightily,\nfervently, and continually, to groan out their conditions before\nthe Lord, as being sensible, sensible, I say, of their wants, their\nmisery, and the willingness of God to show mercy (Gen 32:10,11;\nDan 9:3,4).\n\nA good sense of sin, and the wrath of God, with some encouragement\nfrom God to come unto him, is a better Common-prayer-book than that\nwhich is taken out of the Papistical mass-book,7 being the scraps\nand fragments of the devices of some popes, some friars, and I wot\nnot what.\n\nThird. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, and an AFFECTIONATE pouring\nout of the soul to God. O! the heat, strength, life, vigour, and\naffection, that is in right prayer! \"As the hart panteth after the\nwater-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God\" (Psa 42:1). \"I\nhave longed after thy precepts\" (Psa 119:40). \"I have longed for\nthy salvation\" (ver 174). \"My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth,\nfor the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for\nthe living God\" (Psa 84:2). \"My soul breaketh for the longing that\nit hath unto thy judgments at all times\" (Psa 119:20). Mark ye here,\n\"My soul longeth,\" it longeth, it longeth, &c. O what affection is\nhere discovered in prayer! The like you have in Daniel. \"O Lord,\nhear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine\nown sake, O my God\" (Dan 9:19). Every syllable carrieth a mighty\nvehemency in it. This is called the fervent, or the working prayer,\nby James. And so again, \"And being in an agony, he prayed more\nearnestly\" (Luke 22:44). Or had his affections more and more drawn\nout after God for his helping hand. O! How wide are the most of\nmen with their prayers from this prayer, that is, PRAYER in God's\naccount! Alas! The greatest part of men make no conscience at\nall of the duty; and as for them that do, it is to be feared that\nmany of them are very great strangers to a sincere, sensible, and\naffectionate pouring out their hearts or souls to God; but even\ncontent themselves with a little lip-labour and bodily exercise,\nmumbling over a few imaginary prayers. When the affections are\nindeed engaged in prayer, then, then the whole man is engaged, and\nthat in such sort, that the soul will spend itself to nothing, as\nit were, rather than it will go without that good desired, even\ncommunion and solace with Christ. And hence it is that the saints\nhave spent their strengths, and lost their lives, rather than go\nwithout the blessing (Psa 69:3; 38:9,10; Gen 32:24,26).\n\nAll this is too, too evident by the ignorance, profaneness, and\nspirit of envy, that reign in the hearts of those men that are so\nhot for the forms, and not the power of praying. Scarce one of forty\namong them know what it is to be born again, to have communion with\nthe Father through the Son; to feel the power of grace sanctifying\ntheir hearts: but for all their prayers, they still live cursed,\ndrunken, whorish, and abominable lives, full of malice, envy,\ndeceit, persecuting of the dear children of God. O what a dreadful\nafter-clap is coming upon them! which all their hypocritical\nassembling themselves together, with all their prayers, shall never\nbe able to help them against, or shelter them from.\n\nAgain, It is a pouring out of the heart or soul. There is in prayer\nan unbosoming of a man's self, an opening of the heart to God, an\naffectionate pouring out of the soul in requests, sighs, and groans.\n\"All my desire is before thee,\" saith David, \"and my groaning is\nnot hid from thee\" (Psa 38:9). And again, \"My soul thirsteth for\nGod, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?\nWhen I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me\" (Psa 42:2,4).\nMark, \"I pour out my soul.\" It is an expression signifying, that in\nprayer there goeth the very life and whole strength to God. As in\nanother place, \"Trust in him at all times; ye people,--pour out\nyour heart before him\" (Psa 62:8). This is the prayer to which\nthe promise is made, for the delivering of a poor creature out of\ncaptivity and thralldom. \"If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord\nthy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart\nand with all thy soul\" (Deut 4:29).\n\nAgain, It is a pouring out of the heart or soul TO GOD. This showeth\nalso the excellency of the spirit of prayer. It is the great God\nto which it retires. \"When shall I come and appear before God?\"\nAnd it argueth, that the soul that thus prayeth indeed, sees an\nemptiness in all things under heaven; that in God alone there is\nrest and satisfaction for the soul. \"Now she that is a widow indeed,\nand desolate, trusteth in God\" (I Tim 5:5). So saith David, \"In\nthee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion.\nDeliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline\nthine ear to me, and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto\nI may continually resort:--for thou art my rock and my fortress;\ndeliver me, O my God,--out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel\nman. For thou art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my trust from my\nyouth\" (Psa 71:1-5). Many in a wording way speak of God; but right\nprayer makes God his hope, stay, and all. Right prayer sees nothing\nsubstantial, and worth the looking after, but God. And that, as I\nsaid before, it doth in a sincere, sensible, and affectionate way.\n\nAgain, It is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the\nheart or soul to God, THROUGH CHRIST. This through Christ must needs\nbe added, or else it is to be questioned, whether it be prayer,\nthough in appearance it be never so eminent or eloquent.\n\nChrist is the way through whom the soul hath admittance to God,\nand without whom it is impossible that so much as one desire should\ncome into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (John 14:6). \"If ye shall\nask anything in my name\"; \"whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in\nmy name, I will do it\" (John 14:13,14). This was Daniel's way in\npraying for the people of God; he did it in the name of Christ.\n\"Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his\nsupplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that\nis desolate, for the Lord's sake\" (Dan 9:17). And so David, \"For\nthy name's sake,\" that is, for thy Christ's sake, \"pardon mine\niniquity, for it is great\" (Psa 25:11). But now, it is not every one\nthat maketh mention of Christ's name in prayer, that doth indeed,\nand in truth, effectually pray to God in the name of Christ, or\nthrough him. This coming to God through Christ is the hardest part\nthat is found in prayer. A man may more easily be sensible of his\nworks, ay, and sincerely too desire mercy, and yet not be able to\ncome to God by Christ. That man that comes to God by Christ, he\nmust first have the knowledge of him; \"for he that cometh to God,\nmust believe that he is\" (Heb 11:6). And so he that comes to God\nthrough Christ, must be enabled to know Christ. Lord, saith Moses,\n\"show me now thy way, that I may know thee\" (Exo 33:13).\n\nThis Christ, none but the Father can reveal (Matt 11:27). And to\ncome through Christ, is for the soul to be enabled of God to shroud\nitself under the shadow of the Lord Jesus, as a man shroudeth himself\nunder a thing for safeguard (Matt 16:16).8 Hence it is that David\nso often terms Christ his shield, buckler, tower, fortress, rock\nof defence, &c., (Psa 18:2; 27:1; 28:1). Not only because by him\nhe overcame his enemies, but because through him he found favour\nwith God the Father. And so he saith to Abraham, \"Fear not, I am\nthy shield,\" &c., (Gen 15:1). The man then that comes to God through\nChrist, must have faith, by which he puts on Christ, and in him\nappears before God. Now he that hath faith is born of God, born\nagain, and so becomes one of the sons of God; by virtue of which he\nis joined to Christ, and made a member of him (John 3:5,7; 1:12).\nAnd therefore, secondly he, as a member of Christ, comes to God;\nI say, as a member of him, so that God looks on that man as a part\nof Christ, part of his body, flesh, and bones, united to him by\nelection, conversion, illumination, the Spirit being conveyed into\nthe heart of that poor man by God (Eph 5:30). So that now he comes\nto God in Christ's merits, in his blood, righteousness, victory,\nintercession, and so stands before him, being \"accepted in his\nBeloved\" (Eph 1:6). And because this poor creature is thus a member\nof the Lord Jesus, and under this consideration hath admittance to\ncome to God; therefore, by virtue of this union also, is the Holy\nSpirit conveyed into him, whereby he is able to pour out himself,\nto wit, his soul, before God, with his audience. And this leads me\nto the next, or fourth particular.\n\nFourth. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate, pouring out\nof the heart or soul to God through Christ, by the strength or\nASSISTANCE OF THE SPIRIT. For these things do so depend one upon\nanother, that it is impossible that it should be prayer, without there\nbe a joint concurrence of them; for though it be never so famous,\nyet without these things, it is only such prayer as is rejected of\nGod. For without a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of\nthe heart to God, it is but lip-labour; and if it be not through\nChrist, it falleth far short of ever sounding well in the ears of\nGod. So also, if it be not in the strength and assistance of the\nSpirit, it is but like the sons of Aaron, offering with strange\nfire (Lev 10:1,2). But I shall speak more to this under the second\nhead; and therefore in the meantime, that which is not petitioned\nthrough the teaching and assistance of the Spirit, it is not possible\nthat it should be \"according to the will of God\" (Rom 8:26,27).\n\nFifth. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of\nthe heart, or soul, to God, through Christ, in the strength and\nassistance of the Spirit, FOR SUCH THINGS AS GOD HATH PROMISED,\n&c., (Matt 6:6-8). Prayer it is, when it is within the compass of\nGod's Word; and it is blasphemy, or at best vain babbling, when the\npetition is beside the book. David therefore still in his prayer\nkept his eye on the Word of God. \"My soul,\" saith he, \"cleaveth to\nthe dust; quicken me according to thy word.\" And again, \"My soul\nmelteth for heaviness, strengthen thou me according unto thy word\"\n(Psa 119:25-28; see also 41, 42, 58, 65, 74, 81, 82, 107, 147, 154,\n169, 170). And, \"remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which\nthou hast caused me to hope\" (ver 49). And indeed the Holy Ghost\ndoth not immediately quicken and stir up the heart of the Christian\nwithout, but by, with, and through the Word, by bringing that\nto the heart, and by opening of that, whereby the man is provoked\nto go to the Lord, and to tell him how it is with him, and also\nto argue, and supplicate, according to the Word; thus it was with\nDaniel, that mighty prophet of the Lord. He understanding by books\nthat the captivity of the children of Israel was hard at an end;\nthen, according unto that word, he maketh his prayer to God. \"I\nDaniel,\" saith he, \"understood by books,\" viz., the writings of\nJeremiah, \"the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord\ncame to Jeremiah,--that he would accomplish seventy years in the\ndesolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face to the Lord God, to\nseek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and\nashes\" (Dan 9:2,3). So that I say, as the Spirit is the helper and\nthe governor of the soul, when it prayeth according to the will\nof God; so it guideth by and according to, the Word of God and his\npromise. Hence it is that our Lord Jesus Christ himself did make\na stop, although his life lay at stake for it. I could now pray\nto my Father, and he should give me more than twelve legions of\nangels; but how then must the scripture be fulfilled that thus it\nmust be? (Matt 26:53,54). As who should say, Were there but a word\nfor it in the scripture, I should soon be out of the hands of mine\nenemies, I should be helped by angels; but the scripture will not\nwarrant this kind of praying, for that saith otherwise. It is a\npraying then according to the Word and promise. The Spirit by the\nWord must direct, as well in the manner, as in the matter of prayer.\n\"I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding\nalso\" (I Cor 14:15). But there is no understanding without the\nWord. For if they reject the word of the Lord, \"what wisdom is in\nthem?\" (Jer 8:9).\n\nSixth. FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH. This clause reacheth in whatsoever\ntendeth either to the honour of God, Christ's advancement, or his\npeople's benefit. For God, and Christ, and his people are so linked\ntogether that if the good of the one be prayed for, to wit, the\nchurch, the glory of God, and advancement of Christ, must needs\nbe included. For as Christ is in the Father, so the saints are\nin Christ; and he that toucheth the saints, toucheth the apple of\nGod's eye; and therefore pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and you\npray for all that is required of you. For Jerusalem will never\nbe in perfect peace until she be in heaven; and there is nothing\nthat Christ doth more desire than to have her there. That also is\nthe place that God through Christ hath given to her. He then that\nprayeth for the peace and good of Zion, or the church, doth ask\nthat in prayer which Christ hath purchased with his blood; and also\nthat which the Father hath given to him as the price thereof. Now\nhe that prayeth for this, must pray for abundance of grace for the\nchurch, for help against all its temptations; that God would let\nnothing be too hard for it; and that all things might work together\nfor its good, that God would keep them blameless and harmless, the\nsons of God, to his glory, in the midst of a crooked and perverse\nnation. And this is the substance of Christ's own prayer in John\n17. And all Paul's prayers did run that way, as one of his prayers\ndoth eminently show. \"And this I pray, that your love may abound\nyet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment; that ye may\napprove things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere, and\nwithout offence, till the day of Christ. Being filled with the\nfruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory\nand praise of God\" (Phil 1:9-11). But a short prayer, you see, and\nyet full of good desires for the church, from the beginning to the\nend; that it may stand and go on, and that in the most excellent\nframe of spirit, even without blame, sincere, and without offence,\nuntil the day of Christ, let its temptations or persecutions be\nwhat they will (Eph 1:16-21; 3:14-19; Col 1:9-13).\n\nSeventh. And because, as I said, prayer doth SUBMIT TO THE WILL\nOF GOD, and say, Thy will be done, as Christ hath taught us (Matt\n6:10); therefore the people of the Lord in humility are to lay\nthemselves and their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot\nof their God, to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom\nseeth best. Yet not doubting but God will answer the desire of\nhis people that way that shall be most for their advantage and his\nglory. When the saints therefore do pray with submission to the\nwill of God, it doth not argue that they are to doubt or question\nGod's love and kindness to them. But because they at all times\nare not so wise, but that sometimes Satan may get that advantage\nof them, as to tempt them to pray for that which, if they had it,\nwould neither prove to God's glory nor his people's good. \"Yet\nthis is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything\naccording to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear\nus, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that\nwe desired of him,\" that is, we asking in the Spirit of grace and\nsupplication (I John 5:14,15). For, as I said before, that petition\nthat is not put up in and through the Spirit, it is not to be\nanswered, because it is beside the will of God. For the Spirit only\nknoweth that, and so consequently knoweth how to pray according\nto that will of God. \"For what man knoweth the things of a man,\nsave the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God\nknoweth no man but the Spirit of God\" (I Cor 2:11). But more of\nthis hereafter. Thus you see, first, what prayer is. Now to proceed.\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT.]\n\nSECOND. I will pray with the Spirit. Now to pray with the Spirit--for\nthat is the praying man, and none else, so as to be accepted of\nGod--it is for a man, as aforesaid, sincerely and sensibly, with\naffection, to come to God through Christ, &c.; which sincere,\nsensible, and affectionate coming must be by the working of God's\nSpirit.\n\nThere is no man nor church in the world that can come to God\nin prayer, but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. \"For through\nChrist we all have access by one Spirit unto the Father\" (Eph\n2:18). Wherefore Paul saith, \"For we know not what we should pray\nfor as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us\nwith groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the\nhearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh\nintercession for the saints according to the will of God\" (Rom\n8:26,27). And because there is in this scripture so full a discovery\nof the spirit of prayer, and of man's inability to pray without\nit; therefore I shall in a few words comment upon it.\n\n\"For we.\" Consider first the person speaking, even Paul, and, in his\nperson, all the apostles. We apostles, we extraordinary officers,\nthe wise master-builders, that have some of us been caught up into\nparadise (Rom 15:16; I Cor 3:10; II Cor 12:4). \"We know not what\nwe should pray for.\" Surely there is no man but will confess, that\nPaul and his companions were as able to have done any work for God,\nas any pope or proud prelate in the church of Rome, and could as\nwell have made a Common Prayer Book as those who at first composed\nthis; as being not a whit behind them either in grace or gifts.9\n\n\"For we know not what we should pray for.\" We know not the matter\nof the things for which we should pray, neither the object to whom\nwe pray, nor the medium by or through whom we pray; none of these\nthings know we, but by the help and assistance of the Spirit. Should\nwe pray for communion with God through Christ? should we pray for\nfaith, for justification by grace, and a truly sanctified heart?\nnone of these things know we. \"For what man knoweth the things of\na man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things\nof God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God\" (I Cor 2:11). But\nhere, alas! the apostles speak of inward and spiritual things,\nwhich the world knows not (Isa 29:11).\n\nAgain, as they know not the matter, &c., of prayer, without the\nhelp of the Spirit; so neither know they the manner thereof without\nthe same; and therefore he adds, \"We know not what we should pray\nfor as we ought\"; but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, with sighs\nand groans which cannot be uttered. Mark here, they could not so\nwell and so fully come off in the manner of performing this duty,\nas these in our days think they can.\n\nThe apostles, when they were at the best, yea, when the Holy Ghost\nassisted them, yet then they were fain to come off with sighs and\ngroans, falling short of expressing their mind, but with sighs and\ngroans which cannot be uttered.\n\nBut here now, the wise men of our days are so well skilled as that\nthey have both the manner and matter of their prayers at their\nfinger-ends; setting such a prayer for such a day, and that twenty\nyears before it comes. One for Christmas, another for Easter, and\nsix days after that. They have also bounded how many syllables must\nbe said in every one of them at their public exercises. For each\nsaint's day, also, they have them ready for the generations yet\nunborn to say. They can tell you, also, when you shall kneel, when\nyou shall stand, when you should abide in your seats, when you\nshould go up into the chancel, and what you should do when you come\nthere. All which the apostles came short of, as not being able to\ncompose so profound a manner; and that for this reason included in\nthis scripture, because the fear of God tied them to pray as they\nought.\n\n\"For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.\" Mark this,\n\"as we ought.\" For the not thinking of this word, or at least the\nnot understanding it in the spirit and truth of it, hath occasioned\nthese men to devise, as Jeroboam did, another way of worship, both\nfor matter and manner, than is revealed in the Word of God (I Kings\n12:26-33). But, saith Paul, we must pray as we ought; and this\nWE cannot do by all the art, skill, and cunning device of men or\nangels. \"For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but\nthe Spirit\"; nay, further, it must be \"the Spirit ITSELF\" that\nhelpeth our infirmities; not the Spirit and man's lusts; what man\nof his own brain may imagine and devise, is one thing, and what they\nare commanded, and ought to do, is another. Many ask and have not,\nbecause they ask amiss; and so are never the nearer the enjoying\nof those things they petition for (James 4:3). It is not to pray at\nrandom that will put off God, or cause him to answer. While prayer\nis making, God is searching the heart, to see from what root and\nspirit it doth arise (I John 5:14). \"And he that searcheth the heart\nknoweth,\" that is, approveth only, the meaning \"of the Spirit,\nbecause he maketh intercession for the saints according to the\nwill of God.\" For in that which is according to his will only, he\nheareth us, and in nothing else. And it is the Spirit only that can\nteach us so to ask; it only being able to search out all things,\neven the deep things of God. Without which Spirit, though we had a\nthousand Common Prayer Books, yet we know not what we should pray\nfor as we ought, being accompanied with those infirmities that make\nus absolutely incapable of such a work. Which infirmities, although\nit is a hard thing to name them all, yet some of them are these\nthat follow.\n\nFirst. Without the Spirit man is so infirm that he cannot, with\nall other means whatsoever, be enabled to think one right saving\nthought of God, of Christ, or of his blessed things; and therefore\nhe saith of the wicked, \"God is not in all his thoughts,\" (Psa\n10:4); unless it be that they imagine him altogether such a one as\nthemselves (Psa 50:21). For \"every imagination of the thoughts of\nhis heart was only evil,\" and that \"continually\" (Gen 6:5; 8:21).\nThey then not being able to conceive aright of God to whom they\npray, of Christ through whom they pray, nor of the things for which\nthey pray, as is before showed, how shall they be able to address\nthemselves to God, without the Spirit help this infirmity?\nPeradventure you will say, By the help of the Common Prayer Book;\nbut that cannot do it, unless it can open the eyes, and reveal to\nthe soul all these things before touched. Which that it cannot, it\nis evident; because that is the work of the Spirit only. The Spirit\nitself is the revealer of these things to poor souls, and that\nwhich doth give us to understand them; wherefore Christ tells his\ndisciples, when he promised to send the Spirit, the Comforter, \"He\nshall take of mine and show unto you\"; as if he had said, I know\nyou are naturally dark and ignorant as to the understanding any\nof my things; though ye try this course and the other, yet your\nignorance will still remain, the veil is spread over your heart,\nand there is none can take away the same, nor give you spiritual\nunderstanding but the Spirit. The Common Prayer Book will not\ndo it, neither can any man expect that it should be instrumental\nthat way, it being none of God's ordinances; but a thing since the\nScriptures were written, patched together one piece at one time, and\nanother at another; a mere human invention and institution, which\nGod is so far from owning of, that he expressly forbids it, with\nany other such like, and that by manifold sayings in his most holy\nand blessed Word. (See Mark 7:7,8, and Col 2:16-23; Deut 12:30-32;\nProv 30:6; Deut 4:2; Rev 22:18). For right prayer must, as well in\nthe outward part of it, in the outward expression, as in the inward\nintention, come from what the soul doth apprehend in the light of\nthe Spirit; otherwise it is condemned as vain and an abomination,\nbecause the heart and tongue do not go along jointly in the same,\nneither indeed can they, unless the Spirit help our infirmities\n(Mark 7; Prov 28:9; Isa 29:13). And this David knew full well, which\ndid make him cry, \"Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show\nforth thy praise\" (Psa 51:15). I suppose there is none can imagine\nbut that David could speak and express himself as well as others,\nnay, as any in our generation, as is clearly manifested by his\nword and his works. Nevertheless when this good man, this prophet,\ncomes into God's worship, then the Lord must help, or he can do\nnothing. \"Lord, open thou my lips, and\" then \"my mouth shall show\nforth thy praise.\" He could not speak one right word, except the\nSpirit itself gave utterance. \"For we know not what we should pray\nfor as we ought, but the Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities.\"\nBut,\n\nSecond. It must be a praying with the Spirit, that is, the\neffectual praying; because without that, as men are senseless, so\nhypocritical, cold, and unseemly in their prayers; and so they,\nwith their prayers, are both rendered abominable to God (Matt 23:14;\nMark 12:40; Luke 18:11, 12; Isa 58:2, 3). It is not the excellency\nof the voice, nor the seeming affection, and earnestness of him\nthat prayeth, that is anything regarded of God without it. For man,\nas man, is so full of all manner of wickedness, that as he cannot\nkeep a word, or thought, so much less a piece of prayer clean, and\nacceptable to God through Christ; and for this cause the Pharisees,\nwith their prayers, were rejected. No question but they were excellently\nable to express themselves in words, and also for length of time,\ntoo, they were very notable; but they had not the Spirit of Jesus\nChrist to help them, and therefore they did what they did with their\ninfirmities or weaknesses only, and so fell short of a sincere,\nsensible, affectionate pouring out of their souls to God, through\nthe strength of the Spirit. That is the prayer that goeth to heaven,\nthat is sent thither in the strength of the Spirit. For,\n\nThird. Nothing but the Spirit can show a man clearly his misery\nby nature, and so put a man into a posture of prayer. Talk is but\ntalk, as we use to say, and so it is but mouth-worship, if there\nbe not a sense of misery, and that effectually too. O the cursed\nhypocrisy that is in most hearts, and that accompanieth many\nthousands of praying men that would be so looked upon in this day,\nand all for want of a sense of their misery! But now the Spirit,\nthat will sweetly show the soul its misery, where it is, and what\nis like to become of it, also the intolerableness of that condition.\nFor it is the Spirit that doth effectually convince of sin and\nmisery, without the Lord Jesus, and so puts the soul into a sweet,\nsensible, affectionate way of praying to God according to his word\n(John 16:7-9).\n\nFourth. If men did see their sins, yet without the help of the\nSpirit they would not pray. For they would run away from God, with\nCain and Judas, and utterly despair of mercy, were it not for the\nSpirit. When a man is indeed sensible of his sin, and God's curse,\nthen it is a hard thing to persuade him to pray; for, saith his\nheart, \"There is no hope,\" it is in vain to seek God (Jer 2:25;\n18:12). I am so vile, so wretched, and so cursed a creature, that\nI shall never be regarded! Now here comes the Spirit, and stayeth\nthe soul, helpeth it to hold up its face to God, by letting into\nthe heart some small sense of mercy to encourage it to go to God,\nand hence it is called \"the Comforter\" (John 14:26).\n\nFifth. It must be in or with the Spirit; for without that no man\ncan know how he should come to God the right way. Men may easily\nsay they come to God in his Son: but it is the hardest thing of\na thousand to come to God aright and in his own way, without the\nSpirit. It is \"the Spirit\" that \"searcheth all things, yea, the\ndeep things of God\" (I Cor 2:10). It is the Spirit that must show\nus the way of coming to God, and also what there is in God that\nmakes him desirable: \"I pray thee,\" saith Moses, \"show me now thy\nway, that I may know thee\" (Exo 33:13). And, He shall take of mine,\nand \"show it unto you\" (John 16:14).\n\nSixth. Because without the Spirit, though a man did see his misery,\nand also the way to come to God; yet he would never be able to claim\na share in either God, Christ, or mercy, with God's approbation.\nO how great a task is it, for a poor soul that becomes sensible\nof sin and the wrath of God, to say in faith, but this one word,\n\"Father!\" I tell you, however hypocrites think, yet the Christian\nthat is so indeed finds all the difficulty in this very thing,\nit cannot say God is its Father. O! saith he, I dare not call him\nFather; and hence it is that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts\nof God's people for this very thing, to cry Father: it being too\ngreat a work for any man to do knowingly and believingly without\nit (Gal 4:6). When I say knowingly, I mean, knowing what it is to\nbe a child of God, and to be born again. And when I say believingly,\nI mean, for the soul to believe, and that from good experience, that\nthe work of grace is wrought in him. This is the right calling of\nGod Father; and not as many do, to say in a babbling way, the Lord's\nprayer (so called) by heart, as it lieth in the words of the book.\nNo, here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man\nbeing made sensible of sin, and how to come to the Lord for mercy;\nhe comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth Father.\nThat one word spoken in faith, is better than a thousand prayers,\nas men call them, written and read, in a formal, cold, lukewarm\nway. O how far short are those people of being sensible of this,\nwho count it enough to teach themselves and children to say the\nLord's prayer, the creed, with other sayings; when, as God knows,\nthey are senseless of themselves, their misery, or what it is to\nbe brought to God through Christ! Ah, poor soul! Study your misery,\nand cry to God to show you your confused blindness and ignorance,\nbefore you be so rife in calling God your Father, or teaching\nyour children either so to say. And know, that to say God is your\nFather, in a way of prayer or conference, without any experiment of\nthe work of grace on your souls, it is to say you are Jews and are\nnot, and so to lie. You say, Our Father; God saith, You blaspheme!\nYou say you are Jew, that is, true Christians; God saith, You\nlie! \"Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say\nthey are Jews, and are not, but do lie\" (Rev 3:9). \"And I know the\nblasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not, but are the\nsynagogue of Satan\" (Rev 2:9). And so much the greater the sin is,\nby how much the more the sinner boasts it with a pretended sanctity,\nas the Jews did to Christ, in the 8th of John, which made Christ,\neven in plain terms, to tell them their doom, for all their\nhypocritical pretences (John 8:41-45). And yet forsooth every cursed\nwhoremaster, thief, and drunkard, swearer, and perjured person;\nthey that have not only been such in times past, but are even so\nstill: these I say, by some must be counted the only honest men,\nand all because with their blasphemous throats, and hypocritical\nhearts, they will come to church, and say, \"Our Father!\" Nay further,\nthese men, though every time they say to God, Our Father, do most\nabominably blaspheme, yet they must be compelled thus to do. And\nbecause others that are of more sober principles, scruple the truth\nof such vain traditions; therefore they must be looked upon to be\nthe only enemies of God and the nation: when as it is their own\ncursed superstition that doth set the great God against them, and\ncause him to count them for his enemies (Isa 53:10). And yet just\nlike to Bonner, that blood-red persecutor, they commend, I say,\nthese wretches, although never so vile, if they close in with their\ntraditions, to be good churchmen, the honest subjects; while God's\npeople are, as it hath always been, looked upon to be a turbulent,\nseditious, and factious people (Ezra 4:12-16).\n\nTherefore give me leave a little to reason with thee, thou poor,\nblind, ignorant sot.\n\n(1.) It may be thy great prayer is to say, \"Our Father which art\nin heaven,\" &c. Dost thou know the meaning of the very first words\nof this prayer? Canst thou indeed, with the rest of the saints,\ncry, Our Father? Art thou truly born again? Hast thou received\nthe spirit of adoption? Dost thou see thyself in Christ, and canst\nthou come to God as a member of him? Or art thou ignorant of these\nthings, and yet darest thou say, Our Father? Is not the devil thy\nfather? (John 8:44). And dost thou not do the deeds of the flesh?\nAnd yet darest thou say to God, Our Father? Nay, art thou not a\ndesperate persecutor of the children of God? Hast thou not cursed\nthem in thine heart many a time? And yet dost thou out of thy\nblasphemous throat suffer these words to come, even our Father? He\nis their Father whom thou hatest and persecutest. But as the devil\npresented himself amongst the sons of God, (Job 1), when they were\nto present themselves before the Father, even our Father, so is it\nnow; because the saints were commanded to say, Our Father, therefore\nall the blind ignorant rabble in the world, they must also use the\nsame words, Our Father.\n\n(2.) And dost thou indeed say, \"Hallowed be thy name\" with thy\nheart? Dost thou study, by all honest and lawful ways, to advance the\nname, holiness, and majesty of God? Doth thy heart and conversation\nagree with this passage? Dost thou strive to imitate Christ in all\nthe works of righteousness, which God doth command of thee, and\nprompt thee forward to? It is so, if thou be one that can truly\nwith God's allowance cry, \"Our Father.\" Or is it not the least of\nthy thoughts all the day? And dost thou not clearly make it appear,\nthat thou art a cursed hypocrite, by condemning that with thy daily\npractice, which thou pretendest in thy praying with thy dissembling\ntongue?\n\n(3.) Wouldst thou have the kingdom of God come indeed, and also his\nwill to be done in earth as it is in heaven? Nay, notwithstanding,\nthou according to the form, sayest, Thy kingdom come, yet would it\nnot make thee ready to run mad, to hear the trumpet sound, to see\nthe dead arise, and thyself just now to go and appear before God,\nto reckon for all the deeds thou hast done in the body? Nay, are\nnot the very thoughts of it altogether displeasing to thee? And if\nGod's will should be done on earth as it is in heaven, must it not\nbe thy ruin? There is never a rebel in heaven against God, and if\nhe should so deal on earth, must it not whirl thee down to hell?\nAnd so of the rest of the petitions. Ah! How sadly would even\nthose men look, and with what terror would they walk up and down\nthe world, if they did but know the lying and blaspheming that\nproceedeth out of their mouth, even in their most pretended sanctity?\nThe Lord awaken you, and teach you, poor souls, in all humility,\nto take heed that you be not rash and unadvised with your heart,\nand much more with your mouth! When you appear before God, as the\nwise man saith, \"Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine\nheart be hasty to utter any thing,\" (Eccl 5:2); especially to call\nGod Father, without some blessed experience when thou comest before\nGod. But I pass this.\n\nSeventh. It must be a praying with the Spirit if it be accepted,\nbecause there is nothing but the Spirit that can lift up the soul\nor heart to God in prayer: \"The preparations of the heart in man,\nand the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord\" (Prov 16:1). That\nis, in every work for God, and especially in prayer, if the heart\nrun with the tongue, it must be prepared by the Spirit of God.\nIndeed the tongue is very apt, of itself, to run without either\nfear or wisdom: but when it is the answer of the heart, and that\nsuch a heart as is prepared by the Spirit of God, then it speaks\nso as God commands and doth desire.\n\nThey are mighty words of David, where he saith, that he lifteth\nhis heart and his soul to God (Psa 25:1). It is a great work for\nany man without the strength of the Spirit, and therefore I conceive\nthat this is one of the great reasons why the Spirit of God is\ncalled a Spirit of supplications, (Zech 12:10), because it is that\nwhich helpeth the heart when it supplicates indeed to do it; and\ntherefore saith Paul, \"Praying with all prayer and supplication\nin the Spirit\" (Eph 6:18). And so in my text, \"I will pray with\nthe Spirit.\" Prayer, without the heart be in it, is like a sound\nwithout life; and a heart, without it be lifted up of the Spirit,\nwill never pray to God.\n\nEighth. As the heart must be lifted up by the Spirit, if it pray\naright, so also it must be held up by the Spirit when it is up, if\nit continue to pray aright. I do not know what, or how it is with\nothers' hearts, whether they be lifted up by the Spirit of God,\nand so continued, or no: but this I am sure of, First, That it\nis impossible that all the prayer-books that men have made in the\nworld, should lift up, or prepare the heart; that is the work of\nthe great God himself. And, in the second place, I am sure that\nthey are as far from keeping it up, when it is up. And indeed here\nis the life of prayer, to have the heart kept with God in the duty.\nIt was a great matter for Moses to keep his hands lifted up to God\nin prayer; but how much more then to keep the heart in it! (Exo\n17:12).\n\nThe want of this is that which God complains of; that they draw\nnigh to him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, but\ntheir hearts were far from him (Isa 29:13; Eze 33), but chiefly\nthat they walk after the commandments and traditions of men, as\nthe scope of Matthew 15:8, 9 doth testify. And verily, may I but\nspeak my own experience, and from that tell you the difficulty of\npraying to God as I ought, it is enough to make your poor, blind,\ncarnal men to entertain strange thoughts of me. For, as for my\nheart, when I go to pray, I find it so loth to go to God, and when\nit is with him, so loth to stay with him, that many times I am\nforced in my prayers, first to beg of God that he would take mine\nheart, and set it on himself in Christ, and when it is there, that\nhe would keep it there. Nay, many times I know not what to pray for,\nI am so blind, nor how to pray, I am so ignorant; only, blessed be\ngrace, the Spirit helps our infirmities (Psa 86:11).\n\nO! the starting-holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer;\nnone knows how many bye-ways the heart hath, and back-lanes, to\nslip away from the presence of God. How much pride also, if enabled\nwith expressions. How much hypocrisy, if before others. And how\nlittle conscience is there made of prayer between God and the soul\nin secret, unless the Spirit of supplication be there to help?\nWhen the Spirit gets into the heart, then there is prayer indeed,\nand not till then.\n\nNinth. The soul that doth rightly pray, it must be in and with\nthe help and strength of the Spirit; because it is impossible that\na man should express himself in prayer without it. When I say, it\nis impossible for a man to express himself in prayer without it, I\nmean, that it is impossible that the heart, in a sincere and sensible\naffectionate way, should pour out itself before God, with those\ngroans and sighs that come from a truly praying heart, without\nthe assistance of the Spirit. It is not the mouth that is the main\nthing to be looked at in prayer, but whether the heart is so full\nof affection and earnestness in prayer with God, that it is impossible\nto express their sense and desire; for then a man desires indeed,\nwhen his desires are so strong, many, and mighty, that all the\nwords, tears, and groans that can come from the heart, cannot utter\nthem: \"The Spirit--helpeth our infirmities,--and maketh intercession\nfor us with [sighs and] groanings which cannot be uttered\" (Rom\n8:26).\n\nThat is but poor prayer which is only discovered in so many words.\nA man that truly prays one prayer, shall after that never be able\nto express with his mouth or pen the unutterable desires, sense,\naffection, and longing that went to God in that prayer.\n\nThe best prayers have often more groans than words: and those\nwords that it hath are but a lean and shallow representation of the\nheart, life, and spirit of that prayer. You do not find any words\nof prayer, that we read of, come out of the mouth of Moses, when\nhe was going out of Egypt, and was followed by Pharaoh, and yet\nhe made heaven ring again with his cry (Exo 14:15). But it was\ninexpressible and unsearchable groans and cryings of his soul in\nand with the Spirit. God is the God of spirits, and his eyes look\nfurther than at the outside of any duty whatsoever (Num 16:22). I\ndoubt this is but little thought on by the most of them that would\nbe looked upon as a praying people (I Sam 16:7).\n\nThe nearer a man comes in any work that God commands him to the doing\nof it according to his will, so much the more hard and difficult\nit is; and the reason is, because man, as man, is not able to do\nit. But prayer, as aforesaid, is not only a duty, but one of the\nmost eminent duties, and therefore so much the more difficult:\ntherefore Paul knew what he said, when he said, \"I will pray with\nthe Spirit.\" He knew well it was not what others writ or said that\ncould make him a praying person; nothing less than the Spirit could\ndo it.\n\nTenth. It must be with the Spirit, or else as there will be a failing\nin the act itself, so there will be a failing, yea, a fainting, in\nthe prosecution of the work. Prayer is an ordinance of God, that\nmust continue with a soul so long as it is on this side glory.\nBut, as I said before, it is not possible for a man to get up his\nheart to God in prayer; so it is as difficult to keep it there,\nwithout the assistance of the Spirit. And if so, then for a man to\ncontinue from time to time in prayer with God, it must of necessity\nbe with the Spirit.\n\nChrist tells us, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint\n(Luke 18:1). And again tells us, that this is one definition of\na hypocrite, that either he will not continue in prayer, or else\nif he do it, it will not be in the power, that is, in the spirit\nof prayer, but in the form, for a pretence only (Job 27:10; Matt\n23:14). It is the easiest thing of a hundred to fall from the\npower to the form, but it is the hardest thing of many to keep in\nthe life, spirit, and power of any one duty, especially prayer; that\nis such a work, that a man without the help of the Spirit cannot\nso much as pray once, much less continue, without it, in a sweet\npraying frame, and in praying, so to pray as to have his prayers\nascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.\n\nJacob did not only begin, but held it: \"I will not let thee go,\nunless thou bless me\" (Gen 32). So did the rest of the godly (Hosea\n12:4). But this could not be without the spirit of prayer. It is\nthrough the Spirit that we have access to the Father (Eph 2:18).\n\nThe same is a remarkable place in Jude, when he stirreth up the\nsaints by the judgment of God upon the wicked to stand fast, and\ncontinue to hold out in the faith of the gospel, as one excellent\nmeans thereto, without which he knew they would never be able to\ndo it. Saith he, \"Building up yourselves on your most holy faith,\npraying in the Holy Ghost\" (Jude 20). As if he had said, Brethren,\nas eternal life is laid up for the persons that hold out only, so\nyou cannot hold out unless you continue praying in the Spirit. The\ngreat cheat that the devil and antichrist delude the world withal,\nit is to make them continue in the form of any duty, the form of\npreaching, of hearing, or praying, &c. These are they that have \"a\nform of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn\naway\" (II Tim 3:5).\n\nHere followeth the third thing; to wit,\n\nWHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT, AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING.\n\nTHIRD. And now to the next thing, what it is to pray with the\nSpirit, and to pray with the understanding also. For the apostle\nputs a clear distinction between praying with the Spirit, and\npraying with the Spirit and understanding: therefore when he saith,\n\"he will pray with the Spirit,\" he adds, \"and I will pray with the\nunderstanding ALSO.\" This distinction was occasioned through the\nCorinthians not observing that it was their duty to do what they\ndid to the edification of themselves and others too: whereas they\ndid it for their own commendations. So I judge: for many of them\nhaving extraordinary gifts, as to speak with divers tongues, &c.,\ntherefore they were more for those mighty gifts than they were\nfor the edifying of their brethren; which was the cause that Paul\nwrote this chapter to them, to let them understand, that though\nextraordinary gifts were excellent, yet to do what they did\nto the edification of the church was more excellent. For, saith\nthe apostle, \"if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth,\nbut my understanding,\" and also the understanding of others, \"is\nunfruitful\" (I Cor 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the\nwhole chapter). Therefore, \"I will pray with the Spirit, and I will\npray with the understanding also.\"\n\nIt is expedient then that the understanding should be occupied\nin prayer, as well as the heart and mouth: \"I will pray with the\nSpirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.\" That which\nis done with understanding, is done more effectually, sensibly,\nand heartily, as I shall show farther anon, than that which is done\nwithout it; which made the apostle pray for the Colossians, that\nGod would fill them \"with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom\nand spiritual understanding\" (Col 1:9). And for the Ephesians, that\nGod would give unto them \"the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in\nthe knowledge of him\" (Eph 1:17). And so for the Philippians, that\nGod would make them abound \"in knowledge, and in all judgment\"\n(Phil 1:9). A suitable understanding is good in everything a man\nundertakes, either civil or spiritual; and therefore it must be\ndesired by all them that would be a praying people. In my speaking\nto this, I shall show you what it is to pray with understanding.\n\nUnderstanding is to be taken both for speaking in our mother-tongue,\nand also experimentally. I pass the first, and treat only on the\nsecond.\n\nFor the making of right prayers, it is to be required that there\nshould be a good or spiritual understanding in all them who pray\nto God.\n\nFirst. To pray with understanding, is to pray as being instructed\nby the Spirit in the understanding of the want of those things\nwhich the soul is to pray for. Though a man be in never so much\nneed of pardon of sin, and deliverance from wrath to come, yet\nif he understand not this, he will either not desire them at all,\nor else be so cold and lukewarm in his desires after them, that\nGod will even loathe his frame of spirit in asking for them. Thus\nit was with the church of the Laodiceans, they wanted knowledge\nor spiritual understanding; they knew not that they were poor,\nwretched, blind, and naked. The cause whereof made them, and all\ntheir services, so loathsome to Christ, that he threatens to spew\nthem out of his mouth (Rev 3:16, 17). Men without understanding\nmay say the same words in prayer as others do; but if there be an\nunderstanding in the one, and none in the other, there is, O there\nis a mighty difference in speaking the very same words! The one\nspeaking from a spiritual understanding of those things that he in\nwords desires, and the other words it only, and there is all.\n\nSecond. Spiritual understanding espieth in the heart of God a\nreadiness and willingness to give those things to the soul that it\nstands in need of. David by this could guess at the very thoughts\nof God towards him (Psa 40:5). And thus it was with the woman of\nCanaan; she did by faith and a right understanding discern, beyond\nall the rough carriage of Christ, tenderness and willingness in his\nheart to save, which caused her to be vehement and earnest, yea,\nrestless, until she did enjoy the mercy she stood in need of (Matt\n15:22-28).\n\nAnd understanding of the willingness that is in the heart of God\nto save sinners, there is nothing will press the soul more to seek\nafter God, and to cry for pardon, than it. If a man should see a\npearl worth an hundred pounds lie in a ditch, yet if he understood\nnot the value of it, he would lightly pass it by: but if he once\nget the knowledge of it, he would venture up to the neck for it.\nSo it is with souls concerning the things of God: if a man once\nget an understanding of the worth of them, then his heart, nay,\nthe very strength of his soul, runs after them, and he will never\nleave crying till he have them. The two blind men in the gospel,\nbecause they did certainly know that Jesus, who was going by them,\nwas both able and willing to heal such infirmities as they were\nafflicted with: therefore they cried, and the more they were rebuked,\nthe more they cried (Matt 20:29-31).\n\nThird. The understanding being spiritually enlightened, hereby\nthere is the way, as aforesaid, discovered, through which the soul\nshould come unto God; which gives great encouragement unto it. It\nis else with a poor soul, as with one who hath a work to do, and\nif it be not done, the danger is great; if it be done, so is the\nadvantage. But he knows not how to begin, nor how to proceed; and\nso, through discouragement, lets all alone, and runs the hazard.\n\nFourth. The enlightened understanding sees largeness enough in the\npromises to encourage it to pray; which still adds to it strength\nto strength. As when men promise such and such things to all that\nwill come for them, it is great encouragement to those that know\nwhat promises are made, to come and ask for them.\n\nFifth. The understanding being enlightened, way is made for the\nsoul to come to God with suitable arguments, sometimes in a way of\nexpostulation, as Jacob (Gen 32:9). Sometimes in way of supplication,\nyet not in a verbal way only, but even from the heart there is\nforced by the Spirit, through the understanding, such effectual\narguments as moveth the heart of God. When Ephraim gets a right\nunderstanding of his own unseemly carriages towards the Lord, then\nhe begins to bemoan himself (Jer 31:18-20). And in bemoaning of\nhimself, he used such arguments with the Lord, that it affects his\nheart, draws out forgiveness, and makes Ephraim pleasant in his\neyes through Jesus Christ our Lord: \"I have surely heard Ephraim\nbemoaning himself thus,\" saith God, \"Thou hast chastised me, and\nI was chastised; as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou\nme, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after\nthat I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed,\"\nor had a right understanding of myself, \"I smote upon my thigh, I\nwas ashamed; yea, even confounded; because I did bear the reproach\nof my youth.\" These be Ephraim's complaints and bemoanings of\nhimself; at which the Lord breaks forth into these heart-melting\nexpressions, saying, \"Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant\nchild? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him\nstill; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have\nmercy upon him, saith the Lord.\" Thus, you see, that as it is required\nto pray with the Spirit, so it is to pray with the understanding\nalso. And to illustrate what hath been spoken by a similitude:--set\nthe case, there should come two a-begging to your door; the one is\na poor, lame, wounded, and almost starved creature, the other is\na healthful lusty person; these two use the same words in their\nbegging; the one saith he is almost starved, so doth the other:\nbut yet the man that is indeed the poor, lame, or maimed person, he\nspeaks with more sense, feeling, and understanding of the misery\nthat is mentioned in their begging, than the other can do; and\nit is discovered more by his affectionate speaking, his bemoaning\nhimself. His pain and poverty make him speak more in a spirit of\nlamentation than the other, and he shall be pitied sooner than the\nother, by all those that have the least dram of natural affection\nor pity. Just thus it is with God: there are some who out of custom\nand formality go and pray; there are others who go in the bitterness\nof their spirits: the one he prays out of bare notion and naked\nknowledge; the other hath his words forced from him by the anguish\nof his soul. Surely that is the man that God will look at, \"even\nto him that is poor,\" of an humble \"and of a contrite spirit, and\ntrembleth at my word\" (Isa 66:2).\n\nSixth. An understanding well enlightened is of admirable use\nalso, both as to the matter and manner of prayer. He that hath his\nunderstanding well exercised, to discern between good and evil, and\nin it placed a sense either of the misery of man, or the mercy of\nGod; that soul hath no need of the writings of other men to teach\nhim by forms of prayer. For as he that feels the pain needs not to\nbe taught to cry O! even so he that hath his understanding opened\nby the Spirit needs not so to be taught of other men's prayers, as\nthat he cannot pray without them. The present sense, feeling, and\npressure that lieth upon his spirit, provokes him to groan out his\nrequest unto the Lord. When David had the pains of hell catching\nhold on him, and the sorrows of hell compassing him about, he needs\nnot a bishop in a surplice to teach him to say, \"O Lord, I beseech\nthee, deliver my soul\" (Psa 116:3, 4). Or to look into a book, to\nteach him in a form to pour out his heart before God. It is the\nnature of the heart of sick men, in their pain and sickness, to\nvent itself for ease, by dolorous groans and complainings to them\nthat stand by. Thus it was with David, in Psalm 38:1-12. And thus,\nblessed be the Lord, it is with them that are endued with the grace\nof God.\n\nSeventh. It is necessary that there be an enlightened understanding,\nto the end that the soul be kept in a continuation of the duty of\nprayer.\n\nThe people of God are not ignorant how many wiles, tricks, and\ntemptations the devil hath to make a poor soul, who is truly willing\nto have the Lord Jesus Christ, and that upon Christ's terms too;\nI say, to tempt that soul to be weary of seeking the face of God,\nand to think that God is not willing to have mercy on such a one\nas him. Ay, saith Satan, thou mayest pray indeed, but thou shalt\nnot prevail. Thou seest thine heart is hard, cold, dull, and dread;\nthou dost not pray with the Spirit, thou dost not pray in good\nearnest, thy thoughts are running after other things, when thou\npretendest to pray to God. Away hypocrite, go no further, it is but\nin vain to strive any longer! Here now, if the soul be not well\ninformed in its understanding, it will presently cry out, \"the\nLord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me\" (Isa 49:14).\nWhereas the soul rightly informed and enlightened saith, Well,\nI will seek the Lord, and wait; I will not leave off, though the\nLord keep silence, and speak not one word of comfort (Isa 40:27).\nHe loved Jacob dearly, and yet he made him wrestle before he had\nthe blessing (Gen 32:25-27). Seeming delays in God are no tokens\nof his displeasure; he may hide his face from his dearest saints\n(Isa 8:17). He loves to keep his people praying, and to find them\never knocking at the gate of heaven; it may be, says the soul, the\nLord tries me, or he loves to hear me groan out my condition before\nhim.\n\nThe woman of Canaan would not take seeming denials for real ones;\nshe knew the Lord was gracious, and the Lord will avenge his people,\nthough he bear long with them (Luke 18:1-6). The Lord hath waited\nlonger upon me than I have waited upon him; and thus it was with\nDavid, \"I waited patiently,\" saith he; that is, it was long before\nthe Lord answered me, though at the last \"he inclined\" his ear \"unto\nme, and heard my cry\" (Psa 40:1). And the most excellent remedy\nfor this is, an understanding well informed and enlightened. Alas,\nhow many poor souls are there in the world, that truly fear the\nLord, who, because they are not well informed in their understanding,\nare oft ready to give up all for lost, upon almost every trick and\ntemptation of Satan! The Lord pity them, and help them to \"pray\nwith the Spirit, and with the understanding also.\" Much of mine\nown experience could I here discover; when I have been in my fits\nof agony of spirit, I have been strongly persuaded to leave off,\nand to seek the Lord no longer;10 but being made to understand\nwhat great sinners the Lord hath had mercy upon, and how large his\npromises were still to sinners; and that it was not the whole, but\nthe sick, not the righteous, but the sinner, not the full, but the\nempty, that he extended his grace and mercy unto. This made me,\nthrough the assistance of his Holy Spirit, to cleave to him, to hang\nupon him, and yet to cry, though for the present he made no answer;\nand the Lord help all his poor, tempted, and afflicted people to\ndo the like, and to continue, though it be long, according to the\nsaying of the prophet (Hab 2:3). And to help them (to that end) to\npray, not by the inventions of men, and their stinted forms, but\n\"with the Spirit, and with the understanding also.\"\n\n[Queries and Objections answered.]\n\nAnd now to answer a query or two, and so to pass on to the next\nthing.\n\nQuery First. But what would you have us poor creatures to do that\ncannot tell how to pray? The Lord knows I know not either how to\npray, or what to pray for.\n\nAnsw. Poor heart! thou canst not, thou complainest, pray. Canst\nthou see thy misery? Hath God showed thee that thou art by nature\nunder the curse of his law? If so, do not mistake, I know thou dost\ngroan and that most bitterly. I am persuaded thou canst scarcely\nbe found doing any thing in thy calling, but prayer breaketh from\nthy heart. Have not thy groans gone up to heaven from every corner\nof thy house? (Rom 8:26). I know it is thus; and so also doth thine\nown sorrowful heart witness thy tears, thy forgetfulness of thy\ncalling, &c. Is not thy heart so full of desires after the things\nof another world, that many times thou dost even forget the things\nof this world? Prithee read this scripture, Job 23:12.\n\nQuery Second. Yea, but when I go into secret, and intend to pour\nout my soul before God, I can scarce say anything at all.\n\nAnsw. 1. Ah! Sweet soul! It is not thy words that God so much\nregards, as that he will not mind thee, except thou comest before\nhim with some eloquent oration. His eye is on the brokenness of\nthine heart; and that it is that makes the very bowels of the Lord\nto run over. \"A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not\ndespise\" (Psa 51:17).\n\n2. The stopping of thy words may arise from overmuch trouble in\nthy heart. David was so troubled sometimes, that he could not speak\n(Psa 77:3, 4). But this may comfort all such sorrowful hearts as\nthou art, that though thou canst not through the anguish of thy\nspirit speak much, yet the Holy Spirit stirs up in thine heart groans\nand sighs, so much the more vehement: when the mouth is hindered,\nyet the spirit is not. Moses, as aforesaid, made heaven ring again\nwith his prayers, when (that we read of) not one word came out of\nhis mouth (Exo 14:15). But,\n\n3. If thou wouldst more fully express thyself before the Lord,\nstudy, first, Thy filthy estate; secondly, God's promises; thirdly,\nThe heart of Christ. Which thou mayest know or discern, (1.) By\nhis condescension and bloodshed. (2.) By the mercy he hath extended\nto great sinners formerly, and plead thine own vileness, by way\nof bemoaning; Christ's blood by way of expostulation; and in thy\nprayers, let the mercy that he hath extended to other great sinners,\ntogether with his rich promises of grace, be much upon thy heart.\nYet let me counsel thee, (a.) Take heed that thou content not thyself\nwith words. (b.) That thou do not think that God looks only at them\nneither. But, (c.) However, whether thy words be few or many, let\nthine heart go with them; and then shalt thou seek him, and find\nhim, when thou shalt seek him with thy whole heart (Jer 29:13).\n\nObjection. But though you have seemed to speak against any other\nway of praying but by the Spirit, yet here you yourself can give\ndirection how to pray.\n\nAnsw. We ought to prompt one another forward to prayer, though we\nought not to make for each other forms of prayer. To exhort to pray\nwith Christian direction is one thing, and to make stinted forms\nfor the tying up the Spirit of God to them is another thing. The\napostle gives them no form to pray withal, yet directs to prayer\n(Eph 6:18; Rom 15:30-32). Let no man therefore conclude, that\nbecause we may with allowance give instructions and directions to\npray, that therefore it is lawful to make for each other forms of\nprayer.\n\nObject. But if we do not use forms of prayer, how shall we teach\nour children to pray?\n\nAnsw. My judgment is, that men go the wrong way to teach their\nchildren to pray, in going about so soon to teach them any set\ncompany of words, as is the common use of poor creatures to do.\n\nFor to me it seems to be a better way for people betimes to tell\ntheir children what cursed creatures they are, and how they are\nunder the wrath of God by reason of original and actual sin; also\nto tell them the nature of God's wrath, and the duration of the\nmisery; which if they conscientiously do, they would sooner teach\ntheir children to pray than they do. The way that men learn to\npray, it is by conviction for sin; and this is the way to make our\nsweet babes do so too. But the other way, namely, to be busy in\nteaching children forms of prayer, before they know any thing else,\nit is the next way to make them cursed hypocrites, and to puff them\nup with pride. Teach therefore your children to know their wretched\nstate and condition; tell them of hell-fire and their sins, of\ndamnation, and salvation; the way to escape the one, and to enjoy\nthe other, if you know it yourselves, and this will make tears\nrun down your sweet babes' eyes, and hearty groans flow from their\nhearts; and then also you may tell them to whom they should pray,\nand through whom they should pray: you may tell them also of God's\npromises, and his former grace extended to sinners, according to\nthe word.\n\nAh! Poor sweet babes, the Lord open their eyes, and make them\nholy Christians. Saith David, \"Come ye children, hearken unto me;\nI will teach you the fear of the Lord\" (Psa 34:11). He doth not\nsay, I will muzzle you up in a form of prayer; but \"I will teach\nyou the fear of the Lord\"; which is, to see their sad states by\nnature, and to be instructed in the truth of the gospel, which doth\nthrough the Spirit beget prayer in every one that in truth learns\nit. And the more you teach them this, the more will their hearts\nrun out to God in prayer. God never did account Paul a praying\nman, until he was a convinced and converted man; no more will it\nbe with any else (Acts 9:11).\n\nObject. But we find that the disciples desired that Christ would\nteach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples; and that\nthereupon he taught them that form called the LORD'S PRAYER.\n\nAnsw. 1. To be taught by Christ, is that which not only they, but\nwe desire; and seeing he is not here in his person to teach us, the\nLord teach us by his Word and Spirit; for the Spirit it is which\nhe hath said he would send to supply in his room when he went away,\nas it is (John 14:16; 16:7).\n\n2. As to that called a form, I cannot think that Christ intended\nit as a stinted form of prayer. (1.) Because he himself layeth it\ndown diversely, as is to be seen, if you compare Matthew 6 and Luke\n11. Whereas if he intended it as a set form, it must not have been\nso laid down, for a set form is so many words and no more. (2.) We\ndo not find that the apostles did ever observe it as such; neither\ndid they admonish others so to do. Search all their epistles, yet\nsurely they, both for knowledge to discern and faithfulness to\npractice, were as eminent as any HE ever since in the world which\nwould impose it.\n\n[3.] But, in a word, Christ by those words, \"Our Father,\" &c.,\ndoth instruct his people what rules they should observe in their\nprayers to God. (1.) That they should pray in faith. (2.) To God\nin the heavens. (3.) For such things as are according to his will,\n&c. Pray thus, or after this manner.\n\nObject. But Christ bids pray for the Spirit; this implieth that\nmen without the Spirit may notwithstanding pray and be heard. (See\nLuke 11:9-13).\n\nAnsw. The speech of Christ there is directed to his own (verse\n1). Christ's telling of them that God would give his Holy Spirit\nto them that ask him, is to be understood of giving more of the\nHoly Spirit; for still they are the disciples spoken to, which had\na measure of the Spirit already; for he saith, \"when ye pray, say,\nOur Father,\" (verse 2) I say unto you (verse 8). And I say unto\nyou, (verse 9) \"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts\nunto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give\nthe Holy Spirit to them that ask him,\" (verse 13). Christians ought\nto pray for the Spirit, that is, for more of it, though God hath\nendued them with it already.\n\nQuest. Then would you have none pray but those that know they are\nthe disciples of Christ?\n\nAnsw. Yes.\n\n1. Let every soul that would be saved pour out itself to God, though\nit cannot through temptation conclude itself a child of God. And,\n\n2. I know if the grace of God be in thee, it will be as natural to\nthee to groan out thy condition, as it is for a sucking child to\ncry for the breast. Prayer is one of the first things that discovers\na man to be a Christian (Acts 9:12). But yet if it be right, it is\nsuch prayer as followeth. (1.) To desire God in Christ, for himself,\nfor his holiness, love, wisdom, and glory. For right prayer, as it\nruns only to God through Christ, so it centers in him, and in him\nalone. \"Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon\nearth that I desire,\" long for, or seek after, \"beside thee\" (Psa\n73:25). (2.) That the soul might enjoy continually communion\nwith him, both here and hereafter. \"I shall be satisfied, when I\nawake with\" thine image, or in \"thy likeness,\" (Psa 17:15). \"For\nin this we groan earnestly,\" &c., (II Cor 5:2). (3.) Right prayer\nis accompanied with a continual labour after that which is prayed\nfor. \"My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for\nthe morning\" (Psa 130:6). \"I will rise now, I will seek him whom\nmy soul loveth\" (Song 3:2). For mark, I beseech you, there are\ntwo things that provoke to prayer. The one is a detestation to sin,\nand the things of this life; the other is a longing desire after\ncommunion with God, in a holy and undefiled state and inheritance.\nCompare but this one thing with most of the prayers that are made\nby men, and you shall find them but mock prayers, and the breathings\nof an abominable spirit; for even the most of men either do pray at\nall, or else only endeavour to mock God and the world by so doing;\nfor do but compare their prayer and the course of their lives\ntogether, and you may easily see that the thing included in their\nprayer is the least looked after by their lives. O sad hypocrites!\n\nThus have I briefly showed you, FIRST, What prayer is; SECOND, What\nit is to pray with the Spirit; THIRD, What it is to pray with the\nSpirit, and with the understanding also.\n\nFOURTH. [USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\nI shall now speak a word or two of application, and so conclude\nwith, First, A word of information; Second, A word of encouragement;\nThird, A word of rebuke.\n\nUSE First, A word of information.\n\nFor the first to inform you; as prayer is the duty of every one of\nthe children of God, and carried on by the Spirit of Christ in the\nsoul; so every one that doth but offer to take upon him to pray to\nthe Lord, had need be very wary, and go about that work especially\nwith the dread of God, as well as with hopes of the mercy of God\nthrough Jesus Christ.\n\nPrayer is an ordinance of God, in which a man draws very near to\nGod; and therefore it calleth for so much the more of the assistance\nof the grace of God to help a soul to pray as becomes one that is\nin the presence of him. It is a shame for a man to behave himself\nirreverently before a king, but a sin to do so before God. And as\na king, if wise, is not pleased with an oration made up with unseemly\nwords and gestures, so God takes no pleasure in the sacrifice\nof fools (Eccl 5:1, 4). It is not long discourses, nor eloquent\ntongues, that are the things which are pleasing in the ears of\nthe Lord; but a humble, broken, and contrite heart, that is sweet\nin the nostrils of the heavenly Majesty (Psa 51:17; Isa 57:15).\nTherefore for information, know that there are these five things\nthat are obstructions to prayer, and even make void the requests\nof the creature.\n\n1. When men regard iniquity in their hearts, at the time of their\nprayers before God. \"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will\nnot hear\" my prayer (Psa 66:18). For the preventing of temptation,\nthat by the misunderstanding of this may seize thy heart, when there\nis a secret love to that very thing which thou with thy dissembling\nlips dost ask for strength against. For this is the wickedness of\nman's heart, that it will even love, and hold fast, that which with\nthe mouth it prays against: and of this sort are they that honour\nGod with their mouth, but their heart is far from him (Isa 29:13;\nEze 33:31). O! how ugly would it be in our eyes, if we should see\na beggar ask an alms, with an intention to throw it to the dogs!\nOr that should say with one breath, Pray, you bestow this upon\nme; and with the next, I beseech you, give it me not! And yet thus\nit is with these kind of persons; with their mouth they say, \"Thy\nwill be done\"; and with their hearts nothing less. With their mouth\nsay, \"Hallowed be thy name\"; and with their hearts and lives thy\ndelight to dishonour him all the day long. These be the prayers\nthat become sin (Psa 109:7), and though they put them up often,\nyet the Lord will never answer them (II Sam 22:42).\n\n2. When men pray for a show to be heard, and thought somebody in\nreligion, and the like; these prayers also fall far short of God's\napprobation, and are never like to be answered, in reference to\neternal life. There are two sorts of men that pray to this end.\n\n(1.) Your trencher chaplains, that thrust themselves into great\nmen's families, pretending the worship of God, when in truth the\ngreat business is their own bellies; and were notably painted out\nby Ahab's prophets, and also Nebuchadnezzar's wise men, who, though\nthey pretended great devotion, yet their lusts and their bellies were\nthe great things aimed at by them in all their pieces of devotion.\n\n(2.) Them also that seek repute and applause for their eloquent\nterms, and seek more to tickle the ears and heads of their hearers\nthan anything else. These be they that pray to be heard of men, and\nhave all their reward already (Matt 6:5). These persons are discovered\nthus, (a.) They eye only their auditory in their expressions. (b.)\nThey look for commendation when they have done. (c.) Their hearts\neither rise or fall according to their praise or enlargement. (d.)\nThe length of their prayer pleaseth them; and that it might be\nlong, they will vainly repeat things over and over (Matt 6:7). They\nstudy for enlargements, but look not from what heart they come;\nthey look for returns, but it is the windy applause of men. And\ntherefore they love not to be in their chamber, but among company:\nand if at any time conscience thrusts them into their closet, yet\nhypocrisy will cause them to be heard in the streets; and when their\nmouths have done going their prayers are ended; for they wait not\nto hearken what the Lord will say (Psa 85:8).\n\n3. A third sort of prayer that will not be accepted of God, it is,\nwhen either they pray for wrong things, or if for right things,\nyet that the thing prayed for might be spent upon their lusts, and\nlaid out to wrong ends. Some have not, because they ask not, saith\nJames, and others ask and have not, because they ask amiss, that\nthey may consume it on their lusts (James 4: 2-4). Ends contrary to\nGod's will is a great argument with God to frustrate the petitions\npresented before him. Hence it is that so many pray for this and\nthat, and yet receive it not. God answers them only with silence;\nthey have their words for their labour; and that is all. Object.\nBut God hears some persons, though their hearts be not right with\nhim, as he did Israel, in giving quails, though they spent them\nupon their lusts (Psa 106:14). Answ. If he doth, it is in judgment,\nnot in mercy. He gave them their desire indeed, but they had better\nhave been without it, for he \"sent leanness into their soul\" (Psa\n106:15). Woe be to that man that God answereth thus.\n\n4. Another sort of prayers there are that are not answered; and\nthose are such as are made by men, and presented to God in their\nown persons only, without their appearing in the Lord Jesus. For\nthough God hath appointed prayer, and promised to hear the prayer\nof the creature, yet not the prayer of any creature that comes not\nin Christ. \"If ye shall ask anything in my name.\" And whether ye\neat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord\nJesus Christ (Col 3:17). \"If ye shall ask anything in my name,\" &c.,\n(John 14:13, 14), though you be never so devout, zealous, earnest\nand constant in prayer, yet it is in Christ only that you must be\nheard and accepted. But, alas! the most of men know not what it is\nto come to him in the name of the Lord Jesus, which is the reason\nthey either live wicked, pray wicked, and also die wicked. Or else,\nthat they attain to nothing else but what a mere natural man may\nattain unto, as to be exact in word and deed betwixt man and man,\nand only with the righteousness of the law to appear before God.\n\n5. The last thing that hindereth prayer is, the form of it without\nthe power. It is an easy thing for men to be very hot for such\nthings as forms of prayer, as they are written in a book; but yet\nthey are altogether forgetful to inquire with themselves, whether\nthey have the spirit and power of prayer. These men are like a\npainted man, and their prayers like a false voice. They in person\nappear as hypocrites, and their prayers are an abomination (Prov\n28:9). When they say they have been pouring out their souls to God\nhe saith they have been howling like dogs (Hosea 7:14).\n\nWhen therefore thou intendest, or art minded to pray to the Lord of\nheaven and earth, consider these following particulars. 1. Consider\nseriously what thou wantest. Do not, as many who in their words\nonly beat the air, and ask for such things as indeed they do not\ndesire, nor see that they stand in need thereof. 2. When thou seest\nwhat thou wantest, keep to that, and take heed thou pray sensibly.\n\nObject. But I have a sense of nothing; then, by your argument, I\nmust not pray at all.\n\nAnsw. 1. If thou findest thyself senseless in some sad measure,\nyet thou canst not complain of that senselessness, but by being\nsensible there is a sense of senselessness. According to thy sense,\nthen, that thou hast of the need of anything, so pray; (Luke 8:9),\nand if thou art sensible of thy senselessness, pray the Lord to\nmake thee sensible of whatever thou findest thine heart senseless\nof. This was the usual practice of the holy men of God. \"Lord,\nmake me to know mine end,\" saith David (Psa 39:4). \"Lord, open to\nus this parable,\" said the disciples (Luke 8:9). And to this is\nannexed the promise, \"Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show\nthee great and mighty things which thou knowest not,\" that thou\nart not sensible of (Jer 33:3). But,\n\nAnsw. 2. Take heed that thy heart go to God as well as thy mouth.\nLet not thy mouth go any further than thou strivest to draw thine\nheart along with it. David would lift his heart and soul to the\nLord; and good reason; for so far as a man's mouth goeth along\nwithout his heart, so far it is but lip-labour only; and though\nGod calls for, and accepteth the calves of the lips, yet the lips\nwithout the heart argueth, not only senselessness, but our being\nwithout sense of our senselessness; and therefore if thou hast a\nmind to enlarge in prayer before God, see that it be with thy heart.\n\nAnsw. 3. Take heed of affecting expressions, and so to please thyself\nwith the use of them, that thou forget not the life of prayer.\n\nI shall conclude this use with a caution or two.\n\nCaution 1. And the first is, take heed thou do not throw off prayer,\nthrough sudden persuasions that thou hast not the Spirit, neither\nprayest thereby. It is the great work of the devil to do his best,\nor rather worst, against the best prayers. He will flatter your\nfalse dissembling hypocrites, and feed them with a thousand fancies\nof well-doing, when their very duties of prayer, and all other,\nstink in the nostrils of God, when he stands at a poor Joshua's\nhand to resist him, that is, to persuade him, that neither his\nperson nor performances are accepted of God (Isa 65:5; Zech 3:1).\nTake heed, therefore, of such false conclusions and groundless\ndiscouragements; and though such persuasions do come in upon thy\nspirit, be so far from being discouraged by them, that thou use them\nto put thee upon further sincerity and restlessness of spirit, in\nthy approaching to God.\n\nCaution 2. As such sudden temptations should not stop thee from\nprayer, and pouring out thy soul to God; so neither should thine\nown heart's corruptions hinder thee. (Let not thy corruptions stop\nthy prayers). It may be thou mayest find in thee all those things\nbefore mentioned, and that they will be endeavouring to put forth\nthemselves in thy praying to him. Thy business then is to judge\nthem, to pray against them, and to lay thyself so much the more at\nthe foot of God, in a sense of thy own vileness, and rather make an\nargument from thy vileness and corruption of heart, to plead with\nGod for justifying and sanctifying grace, than an argument of\ndiscouragement and despair. David went this way. \"O Lord,\" saith\nhe, \"pardon mine iniquity, for it is great\" (Psa 25:11).\n\nUSE Second. A word of encouragement.\n\nAnd therefore, secondly, to speak a word by way of encouragement,\nto the poor, tempted, and cast down soul, to pray to God through\nChrist. Though all prayer that is accepted of God in reference to\neternal life must be in the Spirit--for that only maketh intercession\nfor us according to the will of God, (Rom 8:27)--yet because many\npoor souls may have the Holy Spirit working on them, and stirring\nof them to groan unto the Lord for mercy, though through unbelief\nthey do not, nor, for the present, cannot believe that they are the\npeople of God, such as he delights in; yet forasmuch as the truth\nof grace may be in them, therefore I shall, to encourage them, lay\ndown further these few particulars.\n\n1. That scripture in Luke 11:8 is very encouraging to any poor soul\nthat doth hunger after Christ Jesus. In verses 5-7, he speaketh a\nparable of a man that went to his friend to borrow three loaves,\nwho, because he was in bed, denied him; yet for his importunity-sake,\nhe did arise and give him, clearly signifying that though poor\nsouls, through the weakness of their faith, cannot see that they\nare the friends of God, yet they should never leave asking, seeking,\nand knocking at God's door for mercy. Mark, saith Christ, \"I say\nunto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his\nfriend; yet because of his importunity,\" or restless desires, \"he\nwill rise and give him as many as he needeth.\" Poor heart! thou\ncriest out that God will not regard thee, thou dost not find that\nthou art a friend to him, but rather an enemy in thine heart by\nwicked works (Col 1:21). And thou art as though thou didst hear the\nLord saying to thee, Trouble me not, I cannot give unto thee, as\nhe in the parable; yet I say, continue knocking, crying, moaning,\nand bewailing thyself. I tell thee, \"though he will not rise and give\nthee, because thou art his friend; yet, because of thy importunity,\nhe will arise and give thee as many as thou needest.\" The same in\neffect you have discovered, Luke 18, in the parable of the unjust\njudge and the poor widow; her importunity prevailed with him. And\nverily, mine own experience tells me, that there is nothing that\ndoth more prevail with God than importunity. Is it not so with you\nin respect of your beggars that come to your door? Though you have\nno heart to give them anything at their first asking, yet if they\nfollow you, bemoaning themselves, and will take no nay without an\nalms, you will give them; for their continual begging overcometh\nyou. Are there bowels in you that are wicked, and will they be\nwrought upon by an importuning beggar? Go thou and do the like. It\nis a prevailing motive, and that by good experience, he will arise\nand give thee as many as thou needest (Luke 11:8).\n\n2. Another encouragement for a poor trembling convinced soul is to\nconsider the place, throne, or seat, on which the great God hath\nplaced himself to hear the petitions and prayers of poor creatures;\nand that is a \"throne of grace\" (Heb 4:16). \"The mercy-seat\" (Exo\n25:22). Which signifieth that in the days of the gospel God hath\ntaken up his seat, his abiding-place, in mercy and forgiveness;\nand from thence he doth intend to hear the sinner, and to commune\nwith him, as he saith (Exo 25:22),--speaking before of the\nmercy-seat--\"And there I will meet with thee,\" mark, it is upon\nthe mercy-seat: \"There I will meet with thee, and\" there \"I will\ncommune with thee, from above the mercy-seat.\" Poor souls! They\nare very apt to entertain strange thoughts of God, and his carriage\ntowards them: and suddenly to conclude that God will have no regard\nunto them, when yet he is upon the mercy-seat, and hath taken up\nhis place on purpose there, to the end he may hear and regard the\nprayers of poor creatures. If he had said, I will commune with thee\nfrom my throne of judgment, then indeed you might have trembled and\nfled from the face of the great and glorious Majesty. But when he\nsaith he will hear and commune with souls upon the throne of grace,\nor from the mercy-seat, this should encourage thee, and cause thee\nto hope, nay, to \"come boldly unto the throne of grace, that thou\nmayest obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need\" (Heb\n4:16).\n\n3. There is yet another encouragement to continue in prayer with\nGod: and that is this:\n\nAs there is a mercy-seat, from whence God is willing to commune\nwith poor sinners; so there is also by his mercy-seat, Jesus Christ,\nwho continually besprinkleth it with his blood. Hence it is called\n\"the blood of sprinkling\" (Heb 12:24). When the high-priest under\nthe law was to go into the holiest, where the mercy-seat was, he\nmight not go in \"without blood\" (Heb 9:7).\n\nWhy so? Because, though God was upon the mercy-seat, yet he\nwas perfectly just as well as merciful. Now the blood was to stop\njustice from running out upon the persons concerned in the intercession\nof the high-priest, as in Leviticus 16:13-17, to signify that all\nthine unworthiness that thou fearest should not hinder thee from\ncoming to God in Christ for mercy. Thou criest out that thou art\nvile, and therefore God will not regard thy prayers; it is true,\nif thou delight in thy vileness, and come to God out of a mere\npretence. But if from a sense of thy vileness thou do pour out thy\nheart to God, desiring to be saved from the guilt, and cleansed\nfrom the filth, with all thy heart; fear not, thy vileness will not\ncause the Lord to stop his ear from hearing of thee. The value of\nthe blood of Christ which is sprinkled upon the mercy-seat stops\nthe course of justice, and opens a floodgate for the mercy of the\nLord to be extended unto thee. Thou hast therefore, as aforesaid,\n\"boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,\" that\nhath made \"a new and living way\" for thee, thou shalt not die (Heb\n10:19, 20).\n\nBesides, Jesus is there, not only to sprinkle the mercy-seat with\nhis blood, but he speaks, and his blood speaks; he hath audience,\nand his blood hath audience; insomuch that God saith, when he doth\nbut see the blood, he \"will pass over you, and the plague shall\nnot be upon you,\" &c., (Exo 12:13).\n\nI shall not detain you any longer. Be sober and humble; go to\nthe Father in the name of the Son, and tell him your case, in the\nassistance of the Spirit, and you will then feel the benefit of\npraying with the Spirit and with the understanding also.\n\nUSE Third. A word of reproof.\n\n1. This speaks sadly to you who never pray at all. \"I will pray,\"\nsaith the apostle, and so saith the heart of them that are Christians.\nThou then art not a Christian that art not a praying person. The\npromise is that every one that is righteous shall pray (Psa 32:6).\nThou then art a wicked wretch that prayest not. Jacob got the name\nof Israel by wrestling with God (Gen 32). And all his children bare\nthat name with him (Gal 6:16). But the people that forget prayer,\nthat call not on the name of the Lord, they have prayer made for\nthem, but it is such as this, \"Pour out thy fury upon the heathen,\"\nO Lord, \"and upon the families that call not on thy name\" (Jer 10:25).\nHow likest thou this, O thou that art so far off from pouring out\nthine heart before God, that thou goest to bed like a dog, and risest\nlike a hog, or a sot, and forgettest to call upon God? What wilt\nthou do when thou shalt be damned in hell, because thou couldst\nnot find in thine heart to ask for heaven? Who will grieve for thy\nsorrow, that didst not count mercy worth asking for? I tell thee,\nthe ravens, the dogs, &c., shall rise up in judgment against thee,\nfor they will, according to their kind, make signs, and a noise\nfor something to refresh them when they want it; but thou hast not\nthe heart to ask for heaven, though thou must eternally perish in\nhell, if thou hast it not.\n\n2. This rebukes you that make it your business to slight, mock at,\nand undervalue the Spirit, and praying by that. What will you do,\nwhen God shall come to reckon for these things? You count it high\ntreason to speak but a word against the king, nay, you tremble at\nthe thought of it; and yet in the meantime you will blaspheme the\nSpirit of the Lord. Is God indeed to be dallied with, and will the\nend be pleasant unto you? Did God send his Holy Spirit into the\nhearts of his people, to that end that you should taunt at it? Is\nthis to serve God? And doth this demonstrate the reformation of\nyour church? Nay, is it not the mark of implacable reprobates? O\nfearful! Can you not be content to be damned for your sins against\nthe law, but you must sin against the Holy Ghost?\n\nMust the holy, harmless, and undefiled Spirit of grace, the nature\nof God, the promise of Christ, the Comforter of his children, that\nwithout which no man can do any service acceptable to the Father--must\nthis, I say, be the burthen of your song, to taunt, deride, and\nmock at? If God sent Korah and his company headlong to hell for\nspeaking against Moses and Aaron, do you that mock at the Spirit\nof Christ think to escape unpunished? (Num 16; Heb 10:29). Did\nyou never read what God did to Ananias and Sapphira for telling\nbut one lie against it? (Acts 5:1-8). Also to Simon Magus for but\nundervaluing of it? (Acts 8:18-22). And will thy sin be a virtue,\nor go unrewarded with vengeance, that makest it thy business to rage\nagainst, and oppose its office, service, and help, that it giveth\nunto the children of God? It is a fearful thing to do despite unto\nthe Spirit of grace (Compare Matt 12:31, with Mark 3:28-30).\n\n3. As this is the doom of those who do openly blaspheme the Holy\nGhost, in a way of disdain and reproach to its office and service:\nso also it is sad for you, who resist the Spirit of prayer, by\na form of man's inventing. A very juggle of the devil, that the\ntraditions of men should be of better esteem, and more to be owned\nthan the Spirit of prayer. What is this less than that accursed\nabomination of Jeroboam, which kept many from going to Jerusalem,\nthe place and way of God's appointment to worship; and by that\nmeans brought such displeasure from God upon them, as to this day\nis not appeased? (I Kings 12:26-33). One would think that God's\njudgments of old upon the hypocrites of that day should make them\nthat have heard of such things take heed and fear to do so. Yet\nthe doctors of our day are so far from taking of warning by the\npunishment of others, that they do most desperately rush into the\nsame transgression, viz., to set up an institution of man, neither\ncommanded nor commended of God; and whosoever will not obey herein,\nthey must be driven either out of the land or the world.\n\nHath God required these things at your hands? If he hath, show us\nwhere? If not, as I am sure he hath not, then what cursed presumption\nis it in any pope, bishop, or other, to command that in the worship\nof God which he hath not required? Nay further, it is not that part\nonly of the form, which is several texts of Scripture that we are\ncommanded to say, but even all must be confessed as the divine\nworship of God, notwithstanding those absurdities contained therein,\nwhich because they are at large discovered by others, I omit the\nrehearsal of them. Again, though a man be willing to live never\nso peaceably, yet because he cannot, for conscience sake, own that\nfor one of the most eminent parts of God's worship, which he never\ncommanded, therefore must that man be looked upon as factious,\nseditious, erroneous, heretical--a disparagement to the church, a\nseducer of the people, and what not? Lord, what will be the fruit\nof these things, when for the doctrine of God there is imposed,\nthat is, more than taught, the traditions of men? Thus is the Spirit\nof prayer disowned, and the form imposed; the Spirit debased, and\nthe form extolled; they that pray with the Spirit, though never\nso humble and holy, counted fanatics; and they that pray with the\nform, though with that only, counted the virtuous! And how will the\nfavorers of such a practice answer that Scripture, which commandeth\nthat the church should turn away from such as have \"a form\nof godliness, and deny the power thereof\"? (II Tim 3:5). And if I\nshould say that men that do these things aforesaid, do advance a\nform of prayer of other men's making, above the spirit of prayer,\nit would not take long time to prove it. For he that advanceth the\nbook of Common Prayer above the Spirit of prayer, he doth advance\na form of men's making above it. But this do all those who banish,\nor desire to banish, them that pray with the Spirit of prayer;\nwhile they hug and embrace them that pray by that form only, and\nthat because they do it. Therefore they love and advance the form\nof their own or others' inventing, before the Spirit of prayer,\nwhich is God's special and gracious appointment.\n\nIf you desire the clearing of the minor, look into the jails in\nEngland, and into the alehouses of the same; and I trow you will\nfind those that plead for the Spirit of prayer in the jail, and them\nthat look after the form of men's inventions only in the alehouse.\nIt is evident also by the silencing of God's dear ministers, though\nnever so powerfully enabled by the Spirit of prayer, if they in\nconscience cannot admit of that form of Common Prayer. If this be\nnot an exalting the Common Prayer Book above either praying by the\nSpirit, or preaching the Word, I have taken my mark amiss. It is\nnot pleasant for me to dwell on this. The Lord in mercy turn the\nhearts of the people to seek more after the Spirit of prayer; and\nin the strength of that, to pour out their souls before the Lord.\nOnly let me say it is a sad sign, that that which is one of the\nmost eminent parts of the pretended worship of God is Antichristian,\nwhen it hath nothing but the tradition of men, and the strength of\npersecution, to uphold or plead for it.\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nI shall conclude this discourse with this word of advice to all\nGod's people. 1. Believe that as sure as you are in the way of God\nyou must meet with temptations. 2. The first day therefore that\nthou dost enter into Christ's congregation, look for them. 3. When\nthey do come, beg of God to carry thee through them. 4. Be jealous\nof thine own heart, that it deceive thee not in thy evidences for\nheaven, nor in thy walking with God in this world. 5. Take heed of\nthe flatteries of false brethren. 6. Keep in the life and power of\ntruth. 7. Look most at the things which are not seen. 8. Take heed\nof little sins. 9. Keep the promise warm upon thy heart. 10. Renew\nthy acts of faith in the blood of Christ. 11. Consider the work of\nthy generation. 12. Count to run with the foremost therein.\n\nGrace be with thee.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 Dr. Watt's Guide to Prayer.\n\n2 Vol iii., p. 346.\n\n3 Vol iii., p. 298.\n\n4Pilgrimage of Perfection, 4to, 1526, vol. iii., p. 9.\n\n5 Effectual fervent prayer is wrought in the heart by the Holy\nGhost, and those objects for which HE inclines the soul to pray are\nbestowed by God. Thus great things were obtained by Jacob, (Gen\n32:24-28); by Moses, (Exo 30:11-14; Num 14:13-21); by Joshua,\n(10:12-14); by Hezekiah, (II Kings 19:14-37); by the woman of Canaan,\n(Matt 15:21-28). The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man\navaileth much, (James 5:16).--ED.\n\n6 How easy to forget all God's benefits, and how impossible it is\nto remember them all!--ED.\n\n7 See Mr. Fox's citation of the mass, in the last volume of the\nBook of Martyrs.\n\n8 Jesus Christ has opened the way to God the Father, by the\nsacrifice He made for us upon the cross. The holiness and justice\nof God need not frighten sinners and keep them back. Only let them\ncry to God in the name of Jesus, only let them plead the atoning\nblood of Jesus, and they shall find God upon a throne of grace,\nwilling and ready to hear. The name of Jesus is a never-failing\npassport to our prayers. In that name a man may draw near to God\nwith boldness, and ask with confidence. God has engaged to hear him.\nReader, think of this; is not this encouragement?--J. C. Ryle--ED.\n\n9 See Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments, v.2.\n\n10 \"In these days, I should find my heart to shut itself up against\nthe Lord, and against his holy Word: I have found my unbelief to\nset, as it were, the shoulder to the door to keep him out.\"--Grace\nAbounding, No. 81.--ED.\n\n***\n\nTHE SAINTS' PRIVILEGE AND PROFIT;\n\nOR,\n\nTHE THRONE OF GRACE\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThe churches of Christ are very much indebted to the Rev. Charles\nDoe, for the preservation and publishing of this treatise. It\nformed one of the ten excellent manuscripts left by Bunyan at his\ndecease, prepared for the press. Having treated on the nature of\nprayer in his searching work on 'praying with the spirit and with the\nunderstanding also,' in which he proves from the sacred scriptures\nthat prayer cannot be merely read or said, but must be the spontaneous\neffusions of the heart principally in private, or at the domestic\naltar upon set times in the morning and evening, or more publicly\nin social meetings for praise and prayer, or in the public assembly\nof the church--all being acceptable, only as it is offered up in\nspirit and in truth--he now directs us to the proper medium which\nour mental powers should use in drawing near to the Divine Being. We\nhave to approach the universal spirit, the creator, the preserver,\nthe bountiful benefactor of our race; and, at the same time,\nthe infinitely holy one, the supreme judge and just rewarder or\npunisher of all creatures. How shall we, who are impure and unclean\nby nature and by practice, draw near unto him who is so infinitely\nholy? Others of our race who were equally guilty have held acceptable\nconverse with God, and received special marks of his favour. We\nall know that a talented man, high in office, retired at certain\ntimes for prayer; this gave offence, and a law was made, by which\nprayer to God was interdicted for thirty days. He refused obedience\nto a human law which interfered with the divine authority, and\nfor this he was cast into the den of lions; but they hurt him not,\nalthough they devoured his persecutors. When a beloved minister\nwas seized and imprisoned for his love to Christ, the church held\na prayer meeting on his account, and while they were praying God\nsent his angel to the prison. In vain four quaternions of soldiers\nkept guard, two of them in the prisoner's cell, while the servant\nof Christ, who was loaded with chains and doomed to an ignominious\ndeath, slept sweetly between the armed men. The angel awakes him,\nhis chains fall off, no noise can awake his guard, the prison\ndoors open, and he was restored to his beloved charge. They were\nyet imploring his deliverance, when he stood in their midst to tell\nthe wondrous miracle, wrought in answer to their prayer. Again,\ntwo of their much-loved ministers were seized and beaten, and cast\ninto jail, their feet being made fast in the stocks. In the dark\nhour of midnight they prayed and praised God, when an earthquake\nwas sent, which shook the prison and threw open its doors, and the\njailor, with his house, became converts to the faith. Millions of\ninstances might have been recorded of prayer heard and answered.\nThe child Samuel, and also Ishmael. The Magdalene. The thief on the\ncross. Ananias, who was directed to relieve the stricken persecutor\nSaul, for 'behold he prayeth.' But innumerable prayers have been\nread and offered up which have not been answered. What then is the\nacceptable form, and what the appointed medium consecrated for our\naccess to God, by which prayer is sanctified and accepted? If ye\nlove me, saith the Saviour, keep my commandments, and whatsoever\nye shall ask IN MY NAME that will I do. A sense of our want and\nunworthiness leads us to God in that new and living way consecrated\nby Christ though the veil, that is to say, his flesh (Heb 10:20).\nBy that way we can 'come boldly,' because it is 'a throne of grace,'\nand there and there only we can 'obtain mercy and find grace to\nhelp in time of need.' Wondrous throne! Blessed encouragement to\nthe poor pilgrim, traversing the desert surrounded by enemies, his\nown heart by nature being one of the most formidable of them!\n\nIt is of great importance to all, and especially to the young,\nto attain correct definite ideas of religious truths. Bunyan had\nremarkably clear views, arising from his strong feelings and the\nrugged path by which he was led to Christ. His definition of the\ndifference between grace and mercy is very striking: 'Mercy signifies\npitifulness to objects in a miserable condition. Grace acts as a\nfree agent, not wrought upon by our misery but of God's own princely\nmind.' Christ is the throne of grace--in him dwells all the fulness\nof the Godhead, and yet he was found in fashion as a man, he took\non him the seed of Abraham, and was made like unto his brethren,\nand offered himself up as the sacrifice for sin. Thus he is the\nthrone of grace on the mercy-seat covering the law. Here he is an\nobject of worship to the angels on the right hand of God. In him\nthe uncreated glory, the dazzling effulgence of God, is so veiled\nin his glorified body, that man, poor sinful man, can lift up his\neyes to behold the place where God's honour most richly dwelleth,\nand find acceptance and grace to help in every time of need.\n\nTake heed, sinner, this is your only access to heaven. The\nmercy-seat and throne of grace is God's resting-place; the throne\nwhich governs his church, and which eventually will govern all\nnations. This throne, invisible to mortal eyes, is present at all\ntimes and in all places. After the saints have been supplied with\nall needful grace in this world, their glorified spirits will see\nthe great white throne, and hear the voice proceeding from it,\nsaying, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared\nfor you; while from that throne the direful thunderbolts will be\nhurled upon the despisers of divine grace, and they will hurry into\nirretrievable misery. The safety of the Christian entirely depends\nupon his being found 'looking unto Jesus': his glorified human\nbody is the throne of grace--the source of all blessedness to his\nworshippers--the gate of heaven--the way, the truth and the life.\nYes, proud nature, HE who was the babe at Bethlehem, the poor\ncarpenter's son, who, notwithstanding his miracles of wisdom, power,\nand mercy, was despised and rejected of men, HIM hath God exalted\nto be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the remission\nof sins, the only medium of access to heaven. Before him every knee\nshall bow. Wonders of grace to God belong. 'Busy thyself, fellow\nchristian, about this blessed office of Christ. It is full of good,\nit is full of sweet, it is full of heaven, it is full of relief\nand succour for the tempted and dejected; wherefore, I say again,\nstudy these things, give thyself wholly to them.' Reader, listen\nto these words of Bunyan, and may the Divine blessing attend the\nreading of his works.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nTHE SAINTS' PRIVILEGE AND PROFIT\n\n'LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE\nMAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.'--HEBREWS\n4:16\n\nThis epistle is indited and left to the church by the Holy Ghost,\nto show particularly, and more distinctly, the high priesthood\nof Jesus Christ, and the excellent benefits that his people have\nthereby. In which both the excellency of his person, and transcendent\nglory of his office, beyond either priest or priesthood of the law,\nis largely set forth before us, in chapter 1:2, &c.\n\nWherefore, in order to our beneficial reading of this epistle,\nthe Spirit of God calls upon us, first, most seriously to consider\nwhat an one this excellent person is: 'Wherefore, holy brethren,'\nsaith he, you that are 'partakers of the heavenly calling,'\nconsequently you that are related to and that are concerned in the\nundertaking of this holy one, 'consider the Apostle and High Priest\nof our profession, Christ Jesus' (Heb 3:1). Consider how great and\nhow fit this man is for so holy and glorious a calling. He being\nso high, as to be far above all heavens; so great, as to be the\nSon of, and God equal with the Father. Consider him also as to\nhis humanity, how that he is really flesh of our flesh; sinlessly\nso, sympathisingly so, so in all the compassions of a man; he is\ntouched with, compassioneth, pitieth, loveth, succoureth us, and\nfeeleth our infirmities, and maketh our case his own. Nay, he again,\nfrom the consideration of his greatness and love, puts us upon a\nconfident reliance on his undertaking, and also presseth us to a\nbold approach of that throne of grace where he continually abideth\nin the execution of his office: 'Seeing then,' saith he, 'that we\nhave a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus\nthe Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not\nan high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our\ninfirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet\nwithout sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace'\n(Heb 3:14-16).\n\nIn the words we have, First, An exhortation; [and] Second, An\nimplication that we shall reap a worthy benefit, if we truly put\nthe exhortation into practice. The exhortation is that we shall\ncome boldly to the throne of grace: 'Let us therefore come boldly\nunto the throne of grace.' In all we have an intimation of five\nthings.\n\nFIRST, That God hath more thrones than one; else the throne of\ngrace need not to be specified by name. 'Let us come unto the throne\nof grace.' SECOND, That the godly can distinguish one throne from\nanother. For the throne here is not set forth by where or what\nsigns it should be known; it is only propounded to us by its name,\nand so left for saints to make their approach unto it: 'Let us come\nunto the throne of grace.' THIRD, The third thing is, the persons\nintended by this exhortation, 'Let us therefore come.' Us: What us?\nor who are they that by this exhortation are called upon to come?\n'Let us.' FOURTH, The manner of the coming of these persons to this\nthrone of grace; and that is through the veil, boldly, confidently:\n'Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.' FIFTH, the motive\nto this exhortation; and that is twofold, First, Because we have\nso great an high priest, one that cannot but be touched with the\nfeeling of our infirmities: 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the\nthrone of grace.' And, second, because we are sure to speed: 'That\nwe may obtain mercy, and find grace,' &c. I shall, as God shall\nhelp me, handle these things in order.\n\n[THAT GOD HATH MORE THRONES THAN ONE.]\n\nFIRST. For the first, That God hath more thrones than one. He hath\na throne in heaven, and a throne on earth: 'The Lord's throne is\nin heaven,' and 'they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord'\n(Psa 11:4; Jer 3:17). He ruleth over the angels; he ruleth in his\nchurch. 'He ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth' (Psa\n59:13). Yea, he has a throne and seat of majesty among the princes\nand great ones of the world. He ruleth or 'judgeth among the gods'\n(Psa 82:1). There is a throne for him as a Father, and a throne\nfor Christ as a giver of reward to all faithful and overcoming\nChristians: 'To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in\nmy throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father\nin his throne' (Rev 3:21).\n\nThere is also to be a throne of judgment, on which God by Christ, at\nthe great and notable day, shall sit to give to the whole world,\ntheir last or final sentence; from which, no, not, not by any\nmeans, they shall never be released. This throne is made mention\nof in the New Testament, and is called by Christ 'the throne of\nhis glory,' and 'a great white throne' (Matt 25:31; Rev 20:11). And\nhis presence, when he sits upon this throne, will be so terrible,\nthat nothing shall be able to abide it that is not reconciled to\nGod by him before.\n\nWherefore it is not amiss that I give you this hint, because it may\ntend to inform unwary Christians, when they go to God, that they\naddress not themselves to him at rovers, or at random; but that\nwhen they come to him for benefits, they direct their prayer to the\nthrone of grace, or to God as considered on a throne of grace.[1]\nFor he is not to be found a God merciful and gracious, but as he\nis on the throne of grace. This is his holy place, out of which he\nis terrible to the sons of men, and cannot be gracious unto them.\nFor as when he shall sit at the last day upon his throne of judgment,\nhe will neither be moved with the tears of misery of the world to\ndo any thing for them, that in the least will have a tendency to a\nrelaxation of the least part of their sorrow; so now let men take\nhim where they will, or consider him as they list, he gives no\ngrace, no special grace, but as considered on the throne of grace:\nwherefore they that will pray, and speed, they must come to a\nthrone of grace: to a God that sitteth on a throne of grace: 'Let\nus therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain,'\n&c.\n\nThe unbeliever, the erroneous and superstitious, consider not this:\nwherefore they speak to God as their fancies lead them, not as the\nword directs them, and therefore obtain nothing. Ask the carnal\nman to whom he prays? he will say to God. Ask him where this God\nis? he will say in heaven. But ask him how, or under what notion\nhe is to be considered there? and he will give a few generals, but\ncannot direct his soul unto him as he is upon a throne of grace,\nas the apostle here biddeth, saying, 'Let us come boldly unto the\nthrone of grace.' Wherefore they come and go, or rather go and\ncome to no advantage at all: they find nothing but their labour or\nwords for their pains. For the right considering of God when I go\nunto him, and how or where I may find him gracious and merciful,\nis all in all; and mercy and grace is then obtained when we come\nto him as sitting upon a throne of grace.\n\n[THE GODLY CAN DISTINGUISH ONE THRONE FROM ANOTHER.]\n\nSECOND. We will therefore come to the second thing, to wit, that\nthe godly can distinguish one thing from another. And the reason\nwhy I so conclude, is, as I said, because the throne here is not\nset forth unto us here, by where or what signs it should be known;\nit is only propounded to us by its name, a throne of grace, and so\nleft for saints to make their approach thereto: 'Let us therefore\ncome boldly unto the throne of grace.' We will therefore take\nthis conclusion into two parts, and consider it under this double\nposition. FIRST, That there is a throne of grace. SECOND, That it\nis the privilege of the godly to distinguish from all other thrones\nwhatever this throne of grace.\n\nFIRST, There is a throne of grace. This must be true, because\nthe text saith it;[2] also it is that of which the mercy-seat, so\noften made mention of in the Old Testament, was a type, shadow, or\nfigure; nor is the terms of seat and throne of any strength to make\nthis supposition void. For it is common for the antitype to be put\nforth in words unto us more glorious than is the figure or shadow\nof that thing. And the reason is, for that the heavenly things\nthemselves are far more excellent than the shadow by which they are\nrepresented. What is a sheep, a bull, an ox, or calf, to Christ,\nor their blood to the blood of Christ? What is Jerusalem that stood\nin Canaan, to that new Jerusalem that shall come down from heaven?\nor the tabernacle made with corruptible things, to the body of\nChrist, or heaven itself? No marvel then, if they be set forth unto\nus by words of an inferior rank; the most full and aptest being\nreserved to set out the highest things withal.\n\nBefore I proceed to give you a more particular description of this\nthrone of grace, as also how it may be know, I will a little touch\nupon the terms themselves, and show briefly what must be implied\nby them.\n\n[Import of the term grace.]\n\nFirst, By this word grace, we are to understand God's free,\nsovereign, good pleasure, whereby he acteth in Christ towards his\npeople. Grace and mercy therefore are terms that have their distinct\nsignifications; mercy signifies pitifulness, or a running over of\ninfinite bowels to objects in a miserable and helpless condition.\nBut grace signifies that God still acts in this as a free agent,\nnot being wrought upon by the misery of the creature, as a procuring\ncause; but of his own princely mind.\n\nWere there no objects of pity among those that in the old world\nperished by the flood, or that in Sodom were burned with fire from\nheaven? doubtless, according to our apprehension, there were many:\nbut Noah, and he only, found grace in God's eyes; not because that\nof himself he was better than the rest, but God acted as a gracious\nprince towards him, and let him share in mercy of his own sovereign\nwill and pleasure. But this at first was not so fully made manifest\nas it was afterwards. Wherefore the propitiatory was not called, as\nhere, a throne of grace, but a mercy-seat, albeit there was great\nglory in these terms also; for, by mercy-seat was showed, not only\nthat God had compassion for men, but that also to be good was as\nhis continual resting-place, whither he would at length retire, and\nwhere he would sit down and abide, whatever terrible or troublesome\nwork for his church was on the wheel[3] at present. For a seat is\na place of rest, yea, is prepared for that end; and in that here\nmercy is called that seat, it is to show, as I said, that whatever\nwork is on the wheel in the world, let it be never so dreadful and\namazing, yet to God's church it shall end in mercy, for that is\nGod's resting-place. Wherefore after God had so severely threatened\nand punished his church under the name of a whorish woman, as you\nmay read in the prophet Ezekiel, he saith, 'So will I make my fury\ntoward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I\nwill be quiet, and will be no more angry.' And again, speaking of\nthe same people and of the same punishments, he saith, 'Nevertheless,\nI will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,\nand I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.' And again,\n'I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that\nI am the Lord; that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never\nopen thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified\ntoward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God' (Eze\n16:42,60-63). These, with many more places, show that mercy is\nGod's place of rest, and thither he will retire at last, and from\nthence will bless his church, his people.\n\nBut yet these terms, a throne, the throne of grace, doth more exceed\nin glory: not only because the word grace shows that God, by all\nthat he doth towards us in saving and forgiving, acts freely as\nthe highest Lord, and of his own good-will and pleasure, but also\nfor that he now saith, that his grace is become a king, a throne of\ngrace. A throne is not only a seat for rest, but a place of dignity\nand authority. This is known to all. Wherefore by this word, a\nthrone, or the throne of grace, is intimated, that God ruleth and\ngoverneth by his grace. And this he can justly do: 'Grace reigns\nthrough righteousness, unto eternal life,[4] through Jesus Christ\nout Lord' (Rom 5:21). So then, in that here is mention made of\na throne of grace, it showeth that sin, and Satan, and death, and\nhell, must needs be subdued. For these last mentioned are but weakness\nand destruction; but grace is life, and the absolute sovereign over\nall these to the ruling of them utterly down. A throne of grace!\n\nBut this then God plainly declareth, that he is resolved this way\nto rule, and that he pointeth at sin as his deadly foe: and if\nso, then, 'where sin aboundeth, grace must much more abound' (Rom\n5:20).[5] For it is the wisdom and discretion of all that rule, to\nfortify themselves against them that rebel against them what they\ncan. Wherefore he saith again, 'Sin shall not have dominion over\nyou; for ye are not under the law, but under grace' (Rom 6:14).\nSin seeks for the dominion, and grace seeks for the dominion; but\nsin shall not rule, because it has no throne in the church among\nthe godly. Grace is king. Grace has the throne, and the people of\nGod are not under the dominion of sin, but of the grace of God,\nthe which they are here implicitly bid to acknowledge, in that they\nare bid to come boldly to it for help: 'That we may obtain mercy,\nand find grace to help; to help in time of need.' For as from the\nhand and power of the king comes help and succour to the subject,\nwhen assaulted by an enemy; so from the throne of grace, or from\ngrace as it reigns, comes the help and health of God's people.\nHence it is said again, 'A glorious high throne from the beginning\nis the place of our sanctuary' (Jer 17:12). Here then the saints\ntake shelter from the roaring of the devil, from the raging of\ntheir lusts, and from the fury of the wicked. That also is a very\nnotable place, 'He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast\nall their sins into the depths of the sea' (Micah 7:19). He speaks\nhere of God as solacing himself in mercy, and as delighting of himself\nin the salvation of his people, and that without comparison: 'Who\nis a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by\nthe transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not\nhis anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy' (Micah 7:18).\nThus is mercy and grace got into the throne, reigns, and will\nassuredly conquer all; yea, will conquer, and that with a shout.\n'Mercy rejoiceth against judgment' (James 2:13). Yea, glorieth\nwhen it getteth the victory of sin, and subdueth the sinner unto\nGod and to his own salvation, as is yet more fully showed in the\nparable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). But this, briefly to show\nyou something of the nature of the terms, and what must necessarily\nbe implied thereby.\n\n[What is to be inferred from the term 'throne of grace.']\n\nSecond. We will in the next place show what is to be inferred from\nhence. And,\n\n1. To be sure this is inferred, that converted men are not every\nway, or in every sense, free from the being of sin. For, were they,\nthey need not betake themselves to a throne of grace for help; when\nit saith there is grace in God, it inferreth, that there is sin in\nthe godly; and when it saith, grace reigns, as upon a throne, it\nimplies, that sin would ascend the throne, would reign, and would\nhave the dominion over the children of God. This also is manifest,\nwhen he saith, 'Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,\nthat ye should obey it in the lusts thereof' (Rom 7:12). And the\nonly way to prevent it is to apply ourselves, as by the text we\nare directed, to the throne of grace for help against it.\n\n2. The text implies, that at certain times the most godly man in\nthe world may be hard put to it by the sin that dwelleth in him;\nyea, so hard put to it, as that there can be no ways to save himself\nfrom a fall, but by imploring heaven and the throne of grace for\nhelp. This is called the needy time, the time when the wayfaring\nman that knocked at David's door shall knock at ours (2 Sam 12);\nor when we are got into the sieve into which Satan did get Peter\n(Luke 22:31); or when those fists are about our ears that were\nabout Paul's; and when that thorn pricks us that Paul said was in\nhis flesh (2 Cor 12:7,8). But why, or how comes it to pass, that\nthe godly are so hard put to it at these times, but because there\nis in them, that is, in their flesh, no good thing, but consequently\nall aptness to close in with the devil and his suggestions, to the\noverthrow of the soul? But now here we are presented with a throne\nof grace, unto which, as presented with a throne of grace, unto\nwhich, as David says, we must 'continually resort'; and that is the\nway to obtain relief, and to find help in time of need (Psa 71:3).\n\n3. As Christians are sometimes in imminent dangers of falling, so\nsometimes it is so, that they are fallen, are down, down dreadfully,\nand can by no means lift up themselves. And this happeneth unto them\nbecause they have been remiss as to the conscionable performance of\nwhat by this exhortation they are enjoined to. They have not been\nconstant supplicants at this throne for preserving grace; for had\nthey, they should, as the text suggests, most certainly have kept\nfrom such a fall; help should have been granted them in their\nneedful time. But that is it, of which such are guilty, which is\nwritten in the prophet Isaiah, 'But thou hast not called upon me,\nO Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel' (Isa 43:22).\nTherefore thou art profaned, therefore thou art given to reproaches\n(Isa 43:28). Now, as they which are falling are kept from coming\ndown by coming to this throne of grace, so those that are fallen\nmust rise by the sceptre of love extended to them from thence. Men\nmay fall by sin, but cannot raise up themselves without the help of\ngrace. Wherefore, it is worthy of our inquiry after a more thorough\nknowledge of this throne of grace, whence, as we may well perceive,\nour help comes, and by what comes from thence we are made to\nstand. I therefore come now to a more particular description of\nthis throne of grace; and to show how the godly know, or may know\nit, from other thrones of God.\n\n[What this throne of grace is.]\n\nFirst, then, this throne of grace is the humanity, or heart and\nsoul of Jesus Christ, in which God sits and resteth for ever in\nlove towards them that believe in him. Forasmuch as Christ did, by\nthe body of his flesh, when here, reconcile them unto the Father.\n'The key of the house of David,' saith God, 'will I lay upon his\nshoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut\nand none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place;\nand he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house' (Isa\n22:22,23). For a glorious throne to his Father's house, that is,\nfor his Father's house, to come to their Father by; for that they\nshall always find him thereon; or, as another scripture saith,\nin Christ reconciling them unto him, not imputing to them their\ntrespasses and sins (2 Cor 5:19). Nor is it possible, that we lay\naside the human nature of Christ, for us to find any such thing as\na throne of grace, either in earth or heaven; for that then nothing\ncan be found to be the rest of God. 'This is my beloved Son, in\nwhom I am well pleased,' is God's own language; but there is none\nother of whom he hath so said (Matt 3:17). Wherefore he resteth in\nhim towards us, and in him only. Besides, grace cannot be extended\ntowards us but in a way of justice; for that the law and our sin\nobstructeth another way (Gen 3:24). But, lay the human nature of\nChrist aside, and where will you find, THAT that shall become such\na sacrifice to justice for the sin of men, as that God, for the sake\nof that, shall both forgive, and cause that grace for ever should\nreign towards us in such a way? It reigns through righteousness, or\njustice, by Jesus Christ, and no way else. Christ Jesus, therefore,\nis this throne of grace; or him, or that, by which grace reigns\ntowards the children of God (Rom 5:21).\n\nThat scripture also gives us a little light herein, 'And I beheld,\nand lo! in the midst of the throne,' &c., 'stood a Lamb, as it\nhad been slain' (Rev 5:6). This is to show the cause why grace is\nso freely let out to us, even for that there stands there, in the\nmidst of the throne, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb as it\nhad been slain, or, as it was made a sacrifice for our sin; for,\nas a slain lamb, he now lives in the midst of the throne, and is\nthe meritorious cause of all the grace that we enjoy. And though\nit seems by this text that the throne is one thing and the Lamb\nanother, yet the Lamb of God is the throne, though not as a lamb\nor sacrifice, but as one that by his sacrifice has made way for\ngrace to run like a river into the world. The Son of God, Jesus\nChrist, is ALL; he is the throne, the altar, the priest, the\nsacrifice, and all: but he is the throne, the priest, the altar,\nand the sacrifice, under divers considerations. He is not the throne\nas he is the priest; he is not the priest as he is the sacrifice;\nhe is not the sacrifice as he is the altar; yet is truly all these.\nYea, there is no throne of grace, no high priest, no propitiatory\nsacrifice, &c., but he. Of all which we may yet speak further before\nwe conclude this treatise. I conclude, then, that Christ Jesus, in\nhis human nature, is this throne of grace. In his human nature, I\nsay, he has by that completely accomplished all things necessary\nfor the making way for grace to be extended to men; and that that\nis not only God's place of rest, but that by and from which, as\nupon a glorious throne, his grace shall reign over devil, death,\nsin, hell, and the grave, for ever. This human nature of Christ is\nalso called the tabernacle of God; for the fullness of the Godhead\ndwells in it bodily. It is God's habitation, his dwelling-place,\nhis chair and throne of state. He doth all in and by it, and without\nit he doth not any thing. But to pass this, let us come to the next\nthing.\n\n[Where the throne of grace is erected.]\n\nSecond. We will now come to discourse of the placing of this\nthrone of grace, or to discover where it is erected. And for this\nwe must repair to the type, which, as was said before, is called\nthe mercy-seat; the which we find, not in the outward court, nor\nyet within the first veil (Heb 9:3-5); which signifies, not in the\nworld, nor in the church on earth, but in the holy of the holies,\nor after the second veil, the flesh of Christ (Heb 10:20). There\nthen is this throne of God, this throne of grace, and no where\nhere below. And for as much as it is called the throne of God, of\ngrace, and is there, it signifieth that it is the highest and most\nhonourable. Hence he is said to be far above all heavens, and to\nhave a name above every name. Wherefore he that will come to this\nthrone of grace, must know what manner of coming it is by which he\nmust approach it; and that is, not personally,[6] but by runnings\nout of heart; not by himself, but by his Priest, his High Priest;\nfor so it was in the type (Heb 9:7). Into the second, where the\nmercy-seat was, went the high priest alone, that is, personally,\nand the people by him, as he made intercession for them. This then\nmust be done by those that will approach this throne of grace.\nThey must go to God, as he is enthroned IN Christ; BY Christ, as\nhe is the High Priest of his church; and they must go to him in\nthe holiest, by him.\n\nBut again, as this throne of grace is in the Holiest, not in the\nworld, not in the church on earth, so it is in this Holiest set up\nabove the ark of the testimony; for so was the mercy-seat, it was\nset up in the most holy place, above the ark of the testimony (Deut\n10:1-5; 1 Kings 8:9; 2 Chron 5:10). The ark of the testimony. What\nwas that? Why it was the place of the law, the ark in which it was\nkept: the testimony was the law, the ark was prepared to put that\nin. This ark in which was put this law was set up in the holiest,\nand the mercy-seat was set above it, for so was Moses commanded\nto place them. Thou shalt make an ark, saith God, 'and thou shalt\nmake a mercy-seat': the ark shall be called the ark of the testimony,\nand there 'thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee,'\nthat is, the law, 'and thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon\nthe ark, and there I will meet with thee, from above the mercy-seat\nbetween the two cherubims, which are upon,' that is, above, 'the\nark of the testimony,' 'shadowing the mercy-seat' (Exo 25:16-22;\nHeb 9:5).\n\nThus, then, were things of old ordained in the type, by which we\ngather what is now to be minded in our worshipping of God. There\nwas an ark made, and the two tables of stone, in which the law\nwas writ, was put therein (Deut 10:2-5). This ark, with these two\ntables, were put into the holiest, and this mercy-seat was set\nabove it. The Holy Ghost, in my mind, thus signifying that grace\nsits upon a throne that is higher than the law, above the law; and\nthat grace, therefore, is to rule before the law, and notwithstanding\nall the sentence of the law; for it sitteth, I say, upon a throne,\nbut the law sits on none; a throne, I say, which the law, instead\nof accusing, justifieth and approveth. For although it condemneth\nall men, yet it excepteth Christ, who, in his manhood, is this throne\nof grace. Him, I say, it condemneth not, but approveth, and liketh\nwell of all his doings; yea, it granteth him, as here we see, as\na throne of grace, to be exalted above itself: yea, it cannot but\nso do, because by wisdom and holiness itself, which is also the Lord\nof the law, it is appointed so to do. Here, then, is the throne of\nGod, the throne of grace, namely, above the ark of the testimony;\non this God and his grace sits, reigns, and gives leave to sinners\nto approach his presence for grace and mercy. He gives, I say for\nthose sinners so to do, that have washed before in the brazen laver\nthat is prepared to wash in first, of which we may speak more anon.\nNow, behold the wisdom of God in his thus ordaining of things;\nin his placing, in the first place, the law, and Christ the ark\nof the testimony, and the mercy-seat, or throne of grace, so nigh\ntogether; for doubtless it was wisdom that thus ordained them, and\nit might so ordain for these reasons--\n\n[Why the law and the mercy-seat are so near together.]\n\n1. That we that approach the throne of grace might, when we come\nthere, be made still to remember that we are sinners--'for by the\nlaw is the knowledge of sin' (Rom 3:20)--and behold just before\nus is this ark in which are the two tables that condemn all flesh:\nyea, we must look that way, if we look at all; for just above it\nis the mercy-seat or throne of grace. So then here is a memento\nfor them that come to God, and to his throne of grace, for mercy,\nto wit, the law, by which they are afresh put in remembrance of\nthemselves, their sins, and what need they have of fresh supplies\nof grace. I read that the laver of brass and the foot of it was made\nof the looking-glasses of the women that assembled at the door of\nthe tabernacle (Exo 38:8), methinks to signify, that men might see\ntheir smyrches[7] when they came to wash; so here you see the law\nis placed even with the mercy-seat, only that stood above, whereby\nthose that come to the throne of grace for mercy might also yet\nmore be put in mind that they are sinners.\n\n2. This also tendeth to set an edge upon prayer, and to make us the\nmore fervent in spirit when we come to the throne of grace. Should\na king ordain that the axe and halter should be before all those\nthat supplicate him for mercy, it would put yet an edge upon all\ntheir petitions for his grace, and make them yet the more humbly\nand fervently implore his majesty for favour. But, behold, the\nmercy-seat stands above, is set up above the ark and testimony\nthat is in it. Here, therefore, we have encouragement to look for\ngood. For observe, though here is the law, and that too in the\nholiest of all, whither we go; yet above it is the mercy-seat and\nthrone of grace triumphant, unto which we should look, and to which\nwe should direct our prayers. Let us therefore come boldly to the\nthrone of grace, notwithstanding the ark and testimony is by; for\nthe law cannot hurt us when grace is so nigh; besides, God is now\nnot in the law, but upon the throne of grace that is above it, to\ngave forth pardons, and grace, and helps at a time of need.\n\nThis, then, may serve to inform some whereabout they are, when they\nare in their closets, and at prayer. Art thou most dejected when\nthou art at prayer? Hear me, thou art not far from the throne of\ngrace; for thy dejection proceedeth from thy looking into the ark,\ninto which God hath ordained that whosoever looks shall die (1 Sam\n6:19). Now if thou art indeed so near as to see thy sins, by thy\nreading of thyself by the tables in the ark, cast but up thine eyes\na little higher, and behold, there is the mercy-seat and throne of\ngrace to which thou wouldest come, and by which thou must be saved.\nWhen David came to pray to God, he said he would direct his prayer\nto God, and would look up (Psa 5:3). As who should say, When I pray,\nI will say to my prayers, O my prayers, mount up, stay not at the\nark of the testimony, for there is the law and condemnation; but\nsoar aloft to the throne that stands above, for there is God, and\nthere is grace displayed, and there thou mayest obtain what is\nnecessary to help in time of need. Some, indeed, there be that know\nnot what these things mean; they never read their sin nor condemnation\nfor it; when they are upon their knees at their devotion, and so\nare neither dejected at the sight of what they are, nor driven with\nsense of things to look higher for help at need; for need, indeed,\nthey see none. Of such I shall say, they are not concerned in our\ntext, nor can they come hither before they have been prepared so\nto do, as may appear before we come to an end.\n\n[How the godly distinguish the throne of grace.]\n\nSECOND. And thus have I showed you what this throne of grace is,\nand where it stands. And now I shall come to show you how you shall\nfind it, and know when you are come to it, by several other things.\n\nFirst, then, about the throne of grace there is 'a rainbow--in\nsight like unto an emerald' (Rev 4:1-3). This was the first sight\nthat John saw after he had received his epistles for the seven\nchurches. Before he received them, he had the great vision of his\nLord, and heard him say to him, I am he that was dead and am alive,\nor 'that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore,\namen; and have the keys of hell and of death' (Rev 1:18). And a\ngood preparation it was for a work of that nature that now he was\ncalled unto; to wit, that he might the more warmly, and affectionately,\nand confidently attest the truth which his Lord had now for him to\ntestify to them. So here, before he entereth upon his prophecy of\nthings to come, he hears a first voice, and sees a first sight.\nThe first voice that he heard was, 'Come up hither,' and the first\nsight that he saw was a throne with a rainbow round about it. 'And\nimmediately,' saith he, 'I was in the Spirit; and behold a throne\nwas set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was\nto look upon like a jasper, and a sardine stone, and there was a\nrainbow round about the throne' (Rev 4:1-3).\n\nThe firs time that we find in God's Word mention made of a rainbow,\nwe read also of its spiritual signification, to wit, that it was a\ntoken of the firmness of the covenant that God made with Noah, as\ntouching his not drowning the earth any more with the waters of a\nflood. 'I do set,' saith he, 'my bow in the cloud, and it shall be\nfor a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall\ncome to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow\nshall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant which\nis between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh: and\nthe waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh' (Gen\n9:13-15). The first use, therefore, of the rainbow, it was to be\na token of a covenant of mercy and kindness to the world; but that\nwas not the utmost end thereof. For that covenant was but a shadow\nof the covenant of grace which God hath made with his elect in\nChrist, and that bow but a shadow of the token of the permanency\nand lastingness of that covenant. Wherefore the next time we read\nof the rainbow is in the first of Ezekiel, and there we read of\nit only with reference to the excellencies of its colour; for that\nit is there said to be exactly like the colour of the glory of the\nman that the prophet there saw as sitting upon a throne (v 28).\nThe glory, that is, the priestly robes; for he is a priest upon\nthe throne, and his robes become his glory and beauty (Zech 6:13).\nHis robes--what are they but his blessed righteousness, with the\nskirts of which he covereth the sinful nakedness of his people,\nand with the perfection of which he decketh and adorneth them, 'as\na bride adorneth herself with her jewels' (Exo 28:2; Eze 16:8; Isa\n61:10).\n\nNow here again, in the third place, we find a rainbow, a rainbow round\nabout the throne; round about the throne of grace. A rainbow--that\nis, a token of the covenant, a token of the covenant of grace in\nits lastingness; and that token is the appearance of the man Christ.\nThe appearance--that is, his robes, his righteousness, 'from the\nappearance of his loins even upward,' and 'from the appearance of\nhis loins even downward' (Eze 1:27); even down to the foot, as you\nhave it in the book of the Revelation (1:13). 'As the appearance\nof the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the\nappearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance\nof the likeness of the glory of the Lord' (Eze 1:28). The sum then\nis, that by the rainbow round about the throne of grace upon which\nGod sitteth to hear and answer the petitions of his people, we are\nto understand the obedential righteousness of Jesus Christ, which\nin the days of his flesh he wrought out and accomplished for\nhis people; by which God's justice is satisfied, and their person\njustified, and they so made acceptable to him. This righteousness,\nthat shines in God's eyes more glorious than the rainbow in the\ncloud doth in ours, saith John, is round about the throne. But for\nwhat purpose? Why, to be looked upon. But who must look upon it?\nWhy, God and his people; the people when they come to pray, and\nGod when he is about to hear and give. 'And the bow shall be in\nthe cloud'; says God, 'and I will look upon it, that I may remember\nthe everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of\nall flesh that is upon the earth' (Gen 9:16). And, I say, as the\nbow is for God to look on, so it is also for our sight to behold.\nA rainbow round about the throne, in sight; in whose sight? in\nJohn's and his companions, like unto an emerald.\n\nWe read of Solomon's great throne of ivory, that though there was\nnot its like in any kingdom, yet he was not willing that the bow of\nit should stand before him. It was round behind (1 Kings 10:18-20).\nO! but God's throne has the bow before, even round about to view,\nto look upon in sight. Solomon's was but a shadow, and therefore\nfit to be put behind; but this is the sum and substance, and\ntherefore fit to be before, in view, in sight, for God and his\npeople to behold. Thus you see that a rainbow is round about the\nthrone of grace, and what this rainbow is. Look then, when thou\ngoest to prayer, for the throne; and that thou mayest not be deceived\nwith a fancy, look for the rainbow too. The rainbow, that is, as\nI have said, the personal performances of Christ thy Saviour for\nthee. Look, I say, for that, it is his righteousness; the token of\nthe everlastingness of the covenant of grace; the object of God's\ndelight, and must be the matter of the justification of thy person\nand performances before God. God looks at it, look thou at it, and\nat it only (Psa 71:16). For in heaven or earth, if that be cast\naway, there is nothing to be found that can please God, or justify\nthee. If it be said faith pleases God; I answer, faith is a relative\ngrace; take then the relative away, which, as to justification, is\nthis spangling robe, this rainbow, this righteousness of Christ,\nand faith dies, and becomes, as to what we now treat of, extinct\nand quenched as tow.\n\nAnd a very fit emblem the rainbow is of the righteousness of Christ;\nand that in these particulars. 1. The rainbow is an effect of the\nsun that shines in the firmament; and the righteousness by which\nthis throne of grace is encompassed, is the work of the Son of\nGod. 2. The rainbow was a token that the wrath of God in sending\nthe flood was appeased; this righteousness of Christ is that for\nthe sake of which God forgiveth us all trespasses. 3. The rainbow\nwas set in the cloud, that the sinful man might look thereon, and\nwax confident in common mercy; this righteousness is showed us in\nthe word, that we may by it believe unto special mercy. 4. The bow\nis seen but now and then in the cloud; Christ's righteousness is\nbut here and there revealed in the Word. 5. The bow is seen commonly\nupon, or after rain; Christ's righteousness is apprehended by faith\nupon, or soon after the apprehensions of wrath. 6. The bow is seen\nsometimes more, sometimes less; and so is this righteousness, even\naccording to the degree or clearness of the sight of faith. 7.\nThe bow is of that nature, as to make whatever you shall look upon\nthrough it, to be of the same colour of itself, whether that thing\nbe bush, or man, or beast; and the righteousness of Christ is that\nthat makes sinners, when God looks upon them through it, to look\nbeautiful, and acceptable in his sight, for we are made comely\nthrough his comeliness, and made accepted in the Beloved (Eze 16:14;\nEph 1:6).\n\nOne word more of the rainbow, and then to some other things. As\nhere you read that the rainbow is round about the throne; so if\nyou read on even in the same place, you shall find the glorious\neffects thereof to be far more than all that I have said. But,\n\nSecond. As the throne of grace is known by the rainbow that is\nround about it; so also thou shalt know it by this, the high priest\nis continually ministering before it; the high priest, or Christ\nas priest, is there before God in his high priest's robes, making\ncontinual intercession for thy acceptance there. Now, as I said\nbefore, Christ is priest and throne and all; throne in one sense,\npriest in another; even as he was priest, and sacrifice, and altar\ntoo, when he became our reconciler to God.\n\nAs a priest here, he is put under the notion of an angel, of an\nangel that came and stood at the altar to offer incense for the\nchurch, all the time that the seven angels were to sound out with\ntrumpets the alarm of God's wrath against the anti-christian world;\nlest that wrath should swallow them up also. 'And,' saith John,\n'another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer;\nand there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer\nit with the prayers of all saint upon the golden altar which was\nbefore the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the\nprayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's\nhand' (Rev 8:1-4).\n\nHere then you have before the throne, that is, the throne or\nmercy-seat, the high priest; for there it was that God appointed\nthat the altar of incense, or that to burn incense on, should\nbe placed (Exo 30:1-7). This incense-altar in the type was to be\noverlaid with gold; but here the Holy Ghost implies, that it is all\nof gold. This throne then is the mercy-seat, or throne of grace,\nto which we are bid to come; and, as you see, here is the angel,\nthe high priest with his golden censer, and his incense, ready to\nwait upon us. For so the text implies, for he is there to offer\nhis incense with the prayers of all saints that are waiting without\nat his time of offering incense within (Luke 1:10). So, then, at\nthe throne of grace, or before it, stands the high priest of our\npropitiation, Christ Jesus, with his golden censer in his hand,\nfull of incense, therewith to perfume the prayers of saints, that\ncome thither for grace and mercy to help in time of need.[8] And\nhe stands there, as you see, under the name of an angel, for he is\nthe angel of God's presence, and messenger of his covenant.\n\nBut now it is worth our considering, to take notice how, or\nin what method, the high priest under the law was to approach the\nincense-altar. When he came to make intercession for the saints\nbefore the throne, he was to go in thither to do this work in his\nrobes and ornaments; not without them, lest he died. The principal\nof these ornaments were, 'a breast-plate, and an ephod, and a robe,\nand a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle' (Exo 28:4). These are\nbriefly called his garments, in Revelation the first, and in the\ngeneral they show us, that he is clothed with righteousness, girded\nwith truth and faithfulness, for that is the girdle of his reins\nto strengthen him (Isa 11:5). And that he beareth upon his heart\nthe names of the children of Israel that are Israelites indeed;\nfor as on Aaron's breast-plate was fixed the names of the twelve\ntribes of Israel, and he was to bear the weight of them by the\nstrength of his shoulders, so are we on the heart of Christ (Isa\n22:21).\n\nThus therefore is our high priest within the holiest to offer\nincense upon the golden altar of incense, that is, before the throne.\nWherefore, when thou goest thither, even to 'the throne of grace,'\nlook for him, and be not content, though thou shouldst find God\nthere, if thou findest him not there, I suppose now an impossibility,\nfor edification's sake, for without him nothing can be done; I\nsay, without him as a priest. He is the throne, and without him as\na throne, God has no resting-place as to us; he is a priest, and\nwithout him as such we can make no acceptable approach to God; for\nby him as priest our spiritual sacrifices are accepted (1 Peter\n2:5). 'By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to\nGod continually,--giving thanks,' and confessing to and 'in his\nname' (Heb 13:15). And for our further edification herein, let us\nconsider, that as God has chosen and made him his throne of grace;\nso he has sworn, that he shall be accepted as a priest for ever\nthere. For his natural qualifications we may speak something to\nthem afterwards; in the meantime know, that there is no coming to\nGod, upon pain of death without him.\n\nNor will it out of my mind, but that his wearing the rainbow\nupon his head doth somewhat belong to him as priest, his priestly\nvestments being for glory and beauty, as afore was said, compared\nto the colour of it (Rev 10:1; Eze 1). But why doth he wear\nthe rainbow upon his head; but to show, that the sign, that the\neverlastingness of the covenant of grace is only to be found in\nhim; that he wears it as a mitre or frontlet of gold, and can always\nplead it with acceptance to God, and for the subduing of the world\nand good of his people. But,\n\nThirdly, The throne of grace is to be known by the sacrifice that\nis presented there. The high priest was not to go into the holiest,\nnor come near the mercy-seat; the which, as I have showed you,\nwas a type of our throne of grace, 'without blood.' 'But into the\nsecond went the high priest alone once every year, not without\nblood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the\npeople' (Heb 9:7). Yea, the priest was to take of the blood of\nhis sacrifice, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, that\nis, before the mercy-seat, or throne of grace; and was to put some\nof the blood upon the horns of the altar of incense before the Lord\n(Lev 4:5-7, 16:13-15). So then the throne of grace is known by the\nblood that is sprinkled thereon, and by the atonement that by it\nis made there. I told you before that before the throne of grace\nthere is our high-priest; and now I tell you, there is his sacrifice\ntoo; his sacrifice which he there presenteth as amends for the sins\nof all such as have a right to come with boldness to the throne\nof grace. Hence, as I mentioned before, there is said to be in\nthe midst of the throne, the same throne of which we have spoken\nbefore, 'a lamb as it had been slain' (Rev 5:6). The words are to\nthe purpose, and signify that in the midst of the throne is our\nsacrifice, with the very marks of his death upon him; showing to\nGod that sitteth upon the throne, the holes of the thorns, of the\nnails, of the spear; and how he was disfigured with blows and blood\nwhen at his command he gave himself a ransom for his people; for\nit cannot be imagined that either the exaltation or glorification\nof the body of Jesus Christ should make him forget the day in which\nhe died the death for our sins; specially since that which puts\nworth into his whole intercession is the death he died, and the\nblood he shed upon the cross, for our trespasses.\n\nBesides, there is no sight more taketh the heart of God, than to\nsee of the travail of the soul, and the bruisings of the body of his\nSon for our transgressions. Hence it is said, He 'is in the midst\nof the throne' as he died, or as he had been slain (Rev 7:17). It\nis said again, 'The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall\nfeed them.' The Lamb, that is, the Son of God as a sacrifice,\nshall be always in the midst of the throne to feed and comfort his\npeople. He is the throne, he is the priest, he is the sacrifice.\nBut then how as a Lamb is he in the midst of the throne? Why, the\nmeaning in mine opinion is, that Christ, as a dying and bleeding\nsacrifice, shall be chief in the reconciling of us to God; or\nthat his being offered for our sins shall be of great virtue when\npleaded by him as priest, to the obtaining of grace, mercy, and\nglory for us (Heb 9:12). By his blood he entered into the holy\nplace; by his blood he hath made an atonement for us before the\nmercy-seat. His blood it is that speaketh better for us than the\nblood of Abel did for Cain (Heb 12:24). Also it is by his blood that\nwe have bold admittance into the holiest (Heb 10:19). Wherefore no\nmarvel if you find him here a Lamb, as it had been slain, and that\nin the midst of the throne of grace.\n\nWhile thou art therefore thinking on him, as he is the throne\nof grace, forget him not as he is priest and sacrifice; for as a\npriest he makes atonement; but there is no atonement made for sin\nwithout a sacrifice. Now, as Christ is a sacrifice, so he is to be\nconsidered as passive, or a sufferer; as he is a priest, so he is\nactive, or one that hath offered up himself; as he is an altar,\nso he is to be considered as God; for in and upon the power of his\nGodhead he offered up himself. The altar then was not the cross, as\nsome have foolishly imagined. But as a throne, a throne of grace;\nso he is to be considered as distinct from these three things, as\nI also have hinted before. Wouldst thou then know this throne of\ngrace, where God sits to hear prayers and give grace? then cast the\neyes of thy soul about, and look till thou findest the Lamb there;\na Lamb there 'as it had been slain,' for by this thou shalt know\nthou art right. A slain Lamb, or a Lamb as it had been slain, when\nit is seen by a supplicant in the midst of the throne, whither he\nis come for grace, is a blessed sight! A blessed sight indeed! And\nit informs him he is where he should be.\n\nAnd thou must look for this, the rather because without blood is\nno remission. He that thinks to find grace at God's hand, and yet\nenters not into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, will find himself\nmistaken, and will find a DEAD,[9] instead of 'a living way' (Heb\n10:19). For if not anything below, or besides blood, can yield\nremission on God's part, how should remission be received by us\nwithout our acting faith therein? We are justified by his blood,\nthrough faith in his blood (Rom 5:6-9). Wherefore, I say, look\nwhen thou approachest the throne of grace, that thou give diligence\nto see for the Lamb; that is, 'as it had been slain' in the midst\nof the throne of grace; and then thou wilt have, not only a sign\nthat thou presentest thy supplications to God, where, and as thou\nshouldst; but there also wilt thou meet with matter to break,\nto soften, to bend, to bow, and to make thy heart as thou wouldst\nhave it; for if the blood of a goat will, as some say, dissolve an\nadamant, a stone that is harder than flint;[10] shall not the sight\nof 'a Lamb as it had been slain' much more dissolve and melt down\nthe spirit of that man that is upon his knees before the throne\nof grace for mercy; especially when he shall see, that not his\nprayers, not his tears, not his wants, but the blood of the Lamb,\nhas prevailed with a God of grace to give mercy and grace to an\nundeserving man? This then is the third sign by which thou shalt\nknow when thou art at the throne of grace: that throne is sprinkled\nwith blood; yea, in the midst of that throne there is to be seen\nto this day, a Lamb as it had been slain; and he is in the midst\nof it, to feed those that come to that throne, and to lead them by\nand to 'living fountains of waters' (Rev 7:17). Wherefore,\n\nFourth. The throne of grace is to be known, by the streams of\ngrace that continually proceed therefrom, and that like a river\nrun themselves out into the world. And, saith John, 'He showed me\na pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of\nthe throne of God and of the Lamb' (Rev 22:1). Mark you, here is\nagain a throne; the throne of God, which, as we have showed, is\nthe human nature of his Son; out of which, as you read, proceeds a\nriver, a river of water of life, clear as crystal. And the joining\nof the Lamb also here with God is to show that it comes, I say, from\nGod, by the Lamb; by Christ, who as a lamb or sacrifice for sin,\nis the procuring cause of the running of this river; it proceedeth\nout of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Behold, therefore, how\ncarefully here the Lamb is brought in, as one from or through whom\nproceeds the water of life to us. God is the spring-head; Christ\nthe golden pipe of conveyance; the elect the receivers of this\nwater of life. He saith not here, 'the throne of the Lamb,' but\n'and of the Lamb, to show, I say, that he it is out of or through\nwhom this river of grace should come.' But and if it should be\nunderstood that it proceedeth from the throne of the Lamb, it may\nbe to show that Christ also has power as a mediator, to send grace\nlike a river into the church. And then it amounts to this, that\nGod, for Christ's sake, gives this river of grace, and that Christ,\nfor his merits sake, has power to do so too. And hence is that\ngood wish, so often mentioned in the epistles, 'Grace to you, and\npeace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ' (Rom 1:7; 1\nCor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Thess\n1:2; 2 Thess 1:2; Phile 3). And again, 'Grace, mercy, and peace,\nfrom God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:2; 2\nTim 1:2; Titus 1:4). For Christ has power with the Father to give\ngrace and forgiveness of sins to men (John 5:21-26; Mark 2:10).\nBut let us come to the terms in this text. Here we have a throne,\na throne of grace; and to show that this throne is it indeed,\ntherefore there proceeds therefrom a river of this grace, put here\nunder the term of 'water of life,' a term fit to express both the\nnature of grace and the condition of him that comes for it to the\nthrone of grace.\n\nIt is called by the name of water of life, to show what a reviving\ncordial the grace of God in Christ is, shall be, and will be found\nto be, of all those that by him shall drink thereof. It shall be\nin him, even in him that drinks it, 'a well of water springing up\ninto everlasting life' (John 4:14). It will therefore beget life,\nand maintain it; yea, will itself be a spring of life, in the very\nheart of him that drinks it. Ah! it will be such a preservative\nalso to spiritual health, as that by its virtue the soul shall for\never be kept, I say, the soul that drinks it, from total and final\ndecay; it shall be in them a well of living water, springing up\ninto everlasting life.\n\nBut there is also by this phrase or term briefly touched the present\nstate of them that shall come hither to drink; they are not the\nhealthful, but the sick. It is with the throne of grace, as it is\nwith the Bath, and other places of sovereign and healing waters,\nthey are most coveted of them that are diseased, and do also show\ntheir virtues on those that have their health and limbs; so, I say,\nis the throne of grace; its waters are for healing, for soul-healing,\nthat is their virtue (Eze 47:8,9). Wherefore, as at those waters\nabove mentioned, the lame leave their crutches, and the sick [obtain]\nsuch signs of their recovery as may be a sign of their receiving\nhealth and cure there; so at the throne of grace, it is where true\npenitents, and those that are sick for mercy, do leave their sighs\nand tears; 'and the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall\nfeed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters;\nand God shall,' there, 'wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Rev\n7:17). Wherefore, as Joseph washed his face, and dried his tears\naway, when he saw his brother Benjamin, so all God's saints shall\nhere, even at the throne of grace, where God's Benjamin, or the\nSon of his right hand, is, wash their souls from sorrow, and have\ntheir tears wiped from their eyes. Wherefore, O thou that are\ndiseased, afflicted, and that wouldst live, come by Jesus to God\nas merciful and gracious; yea, look for this river when thou art\nupon thy knees before him, for by that thou shalt find whereabout\nis the throne of grace, and so where thou mayest find mercy.\n\nBut again, as that which proceeds out of this throne of grace is\ncalled 'water of life,' so it is said to be a river, a river of water\nof life. This, in the first place, shows, that with God is plenty\nof grace, even as in a river there is plenty of water; a pond, a\npool, a cistern, will hold much, but a river will hold more; from\nthis throne come rivers and streams of water of life, to satisfy\nthose that come for life to the throne of God. Further, as by a\nriver is showed what abundance of grace proceeds from God through\nChrist, so it shows the unsatiable thirst and desire of one that\ncomes indeed aright to the throne of grace for mercy. Nothing but\nrivers will satisfy such a soul; ponds, pools, and cisterns, will\ndo nothing: such an one is like him of whom it is said, 'Behold he\ndrinketh up a river, and hasteth not; he trusteth that he can draw\nup Jordan into his mouth' (Job 40:23). This David testifies when\nhe saith, 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth\nmy soul after thee, O God' (Psa 42:1). Hence the invitation is\nproportionable, 'Drink abundantly' (Cant 5:1), and that they that\nare saved, are saved to receive abundance of grace; 'they which\nreceive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall\nreign in life by one, Jesus Christ' (Rom 5:17). And hence it is\nsaid again, 'When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,\nand their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I\nthe God of Israel will not forsake them.' But, Lord, how wilt thou\nquench their boundless thirst? 'I will open rivers in high places,\nand fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness\na pool of water, and the dry land springs of water' (Isa 41:17,18).\nBehold here is a pool of water as big as a wilderness, enough one\nwould think to satisfy any thirsty soul. O, but that will not do!\nwherefore he will open rivers, fountains, and springs, and all\nthis is to quench the drought of one that thirsteth for the grace\nof God, that they have enough. 'They shall be abundantly satisfied\nwith the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of\nthe river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain of life';\n&c. (Psa 36:8,9).\n\nThis abundance the throne of grace yieldeth for the help and health\nof such as would have the water of life to drink, and to cure their\ndiseases withal: it yields a river of water of life. Moreover,\nsince grace is said here to proceed as a river from the throne of\nGod and of the Lamb, it is to show the commonness of it; rivers you\nknow are common in the stream, however they are at the head (Judg\n5). And to show the commonness of it, the apostle calls it 'the\ncommon salvation'; and it is said in Ezekiel and Zecharias, to go\nforth to the desert, and into the sea, the world, to heal the beasts\nand fish of all kinds that are there (Eze 47:8; Zech 14:8). This,\ntherefore, is a text that shows us what it is to come to a throne,\nwhere the token of the covenant of grace is, where the high priest\nministereth, and in the midst of which there is a Lamb, 'as it had\nbeen slain': for from thence there cometh not drops, nor showers,\nbut rivers of the grace of God, a river of water of life.\n\nAgain, as the grace that we here read of is said, as it comes from\nthis throne, to come as a river of water of life; so it is said to\nbe pure and clear as crystal. Pure is set in opposition to muddy\nand dirty waters, and clear is set in opposition to those waters\nthat are black, by reason of the cold and icyish nature of them;\ntherefore there is conjoined to this phrase the word crystal, which\nall know is a clear and shining stone (Eze 34:19; Job 6:15,16).\nIndeed the life and spirit that is in this water, will keep it from\nlooking black and dull; and the throne from whence it comes will\nkeep it from being muddy, so much as in the streams thereof. 'The\nblessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with\nit' (Prov 10:22). Indeed, all the sorrow that is mixed with our\nChristianity, it proceedeth, as the procuring cause, from ourselves,\nnot from the throne of grace; for that is the place where our tears,\nas was showed you, are wiped away; and also where we hang up our\ncrutches. The streams thereof are pure and clear, not muddy nor\nfrozen, but warm and delightful, and that 'make glad the city of\nGod' (Psa 46).\n\nThese words also show us, that this water of itself can do without\na mixture of anything of ours. What comes from this throne of grace\nis pure grace, and nothing else; clear grace, free grace, grace\nthat is not mixed, nor need be mixed with works of righteousness\nwhich we have done; it is of itself sufficient to answer all our\nwants, to heal all our diseases, and to help us at a time of need.\nIt is grace that chooses, it is grace that calleth, it is grace that\npreserveth, and it is grace that brings to glory: even the grace\nthat like a river of water of life proceedeth from this throne. And\nhence it is, that from first to last, we must cry, 'Grace, grace\nunto it!'[11]\n\nThus you see what a throne the Christian is invited to; it is\na throne of grace whereon doth sit the God of all grace; it is a\nthrone of grace before which the Lord Jesus ministereth continually\nfor us; it is a throne of grace sprinkled with the blood, and in\nthe midst of which is a Lamb as it had been slain; it is a throne\nwith a rainbow round about it, which is the token of the everlasting\ncovenant, and out of which proceeds, as here you read, a river, a\npure river of water of life, clear as crystal. Look then for these\nsigns of the throne of grace, all you that would come to it, and\nrest not, until by some of them you know that you are even come\nto it; they are all to be seen have you but eyes; and the sight of\nthem is very delectable, and has a natural tendency in them, when\nseen, to revive and quicken the soul. But,\n\nFifth. As the throne of grace is known and distinguished by the\nthings above named, so it is by the effects which these things\nhave wrought. There is about that throne 'four and twenty seats,\nand upon the seats four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white\nraiment, and they have on their heads crowns of gold' (Rev 4:4).\nThere is no throne that has these signs and effects belonging to it\nbut this; wherefore, as by these signs, so by the effects of them\nalso, one may know which is, and so when he is indeed come to the\nthrone of grace. And a little as we commented upon what went before,\nwe will also touch upon this.\n\n1. By seats, I understand places of rest and dignity; places of\nrest, for that they that sit on them do rest from their labours;\nand places of dignity, for that they are about the throne (Rev\n14:13). 'And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on\ntheir seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God' (Rev 11:16).\nAnd forasmuch as the seats are mentioned, before they are mentioned\nthat sat thereon, it is to show, that the places were prepared\nbefore they were converted.\n\n2. The elders, I take to be the twelve patriarchs and the twelve\napostles, or the first fathers of the churches; for they are the\nelders of both the churches, that is, both of the Jewish and Gentile\nchurch of God; they are the ancients, as also they are called in\nthe prophet Isaiah, which are in some sense the fathers of both\nthese churches (Isa 24:23). These elders are well set forth by\nthat four and twenty that you read of in the book of Chronicles,\nwho had every one of them for sons twelve in number. There therefore\nthe four and twenty are (1 Chron 25:8-31).\n\n3. Their sitting denoteth also their abiding in the presence of\nGod. 'Sit thou at my right hand,' was the Father's word to the\nSon, and also signifieth the same (Psa 110:1). It is then the throne\nof grace where the four and twenty seats are, and before which the\nfour and twenty elders sit.\n\n4. Their white robes are Christ's righteousness, their own good\nworks and glory; not that their works brought them thither, for\nthey were of themselves polluted, and were washed white in the\nblood of the Lamb; but yet God will have all that his people have\ndone in love to him to be rewarded. Yea, and they shall wear their\nown labours, being washed as afore is hinted, as a badge of their\nhonour before the throne of grace, and this is grace indeed. 'They\nhave washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the\nLamb, therefore are they before the throne of God' (Rev 7:14,15).\nThey have washed as others did do before them.\n\n5. 'And they had on their heads crowns of gold' (Rev 4:4). This\ndenotes their victory, and also that they are kings, and as kings\nshall reign with him for ever and ever (Rev 5:10).\n\n6. But what! were they silent? did they say, did they do nothing\nwhile they sat before the throne? Yes, they were appointed to be\nsingers there. This was signified by the four and twenty that we\nmade mention of before, who with their sons were instructed in the\nsongs of the Lord, and all that were cunning to do so then, were two\nhundred fourscore and eight (1 Chron 25:7). These were the figure\nof that hundred forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth.\nFor as the first four and twenty, and their sons, are said to sing\nand to play upon cymbals, psalteries, and harps; and as they are\nthere said to be instructed and cunning in the songs of the Lord;\nso these that sit before the throne are said also to sing with\nharps in their hands their song before the throne; and such song\nit was, and so cunningly did they sing it, that 'no man could learn\nit, but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed\nfrom the earth' (Rev 14:3).\n\nNow, as I said, as he at first began with four and twenty in\nDavid, and ended with four and twenty times twelve, so here in John\nhe begins with the same number, but ends with such a company that\nno man could number. For, he saith, 'After this I beheld, and lo,\na great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and\nkindreds, and people, and tongues stood before the throne, and before\nthe Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. And\ncried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth\nupon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round\nabout the throne, and the elders, and the four beasts, and fell\nbefore the throne on their faces, and worshipped God' (Rev 7:9-11).\nThis numberless number seems to have got the song by the end;[12]\nfor they cry aloud, 'Salvation, salvation to our God and to the\nLamb'; which to be sure is such a song that none can learn but them\nthat are redeemed from the earth.\n\nBut I say, what a brave encouragement is it for one that is come\nfor grace to the throne of grace, to see so great a number already\nthere, on their seats, in their robes, with their palms in their\nhands, and their crowns upon their heads, singing of salvation to\nGod, and to the Lamb! And I say again, and speak now to the dejected,\nmethinks it would be strange, O thou that art so afraid that the\ngreatness of thy sins will be a bar unto thee, if amongst all this\ngreat number of pipers and harpers that are got to glory, thou canst\nnot espy one that when here was as vile a sinner as thyself. Look\nman, they are there for thee to view them, and for thee to take\nencouragement to hope, when thou shalt consider what grace and\nmercy has done for them. Look again, I say, now thou art upon thy\nknees, and see if some that are among them have not done worse than\nthou hast done. And yet behold, they are set down; and yet behold\nthey have their crowns on their heads, their harps in their hands,\nand sing aloud of salvation to their God, and to the Lamb.\n\nThis then is a fifth note or sign that doth distinguish the throne\nof grace from other thrones. There are, before that, to be seen,\nfor our encouragement, a numberless number of people sitting and\nsinging round about it. Singing, I say, to God for his grace, and\nto the Lamb for his blood, by which they are secured from the wrath\nto come. 'And the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,\nhaving every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours,\nwhich are the prayers of saints, and they sung a new song, saying,\nThou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for\nthou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of\nevery kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us\nunto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth'\n(Rev 5:8-10). Behold, tempted soul, dost thou not yet see what a\nthrone of grace here is, and what multitudes are already arrived\nthither, to give thanks unto his name that sits thereon, and to\nthe Lamb for ever and ever? And wilt thou hang thy harp upon the\nwillows, and go drooping up and down the world, as if there was\nno God, no grace, no throne of grace, to apply thyself unto, for\nmercy and grace to help in time of need? Hark! dost thou not hear\nthem what they say, 'Worthy,' say they, 'is the Lamb that was\nslain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and\nhonour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in\nheaven,' where they are, 'and on the earth,' where thou art, 'and\nunder the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in\nthem, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be\nunto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever\nand ever' (Rev 5:12,13).\n\nAll this is written for our learning, that we through patience and\ncomfort of the scriptures might have hope; and that the drooping\nones might come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain grace and\nfind mercy to help in time of need. They bless, they all bless;\nthey thank, they all thank; and wilt thou hold thy tongue? 'They\nhave all received of his fulness, and grace for grace'; and will\nhe shut thee out? Or is his grace so far gone, and so near spent,\nthat now he has not enough to pardon, and secure, and save one\nsinner more? For shame, leave off this unbelief! Wherefore, dost\nthou think, art thou told of all this, but to encourage thee to\ncome to the throne of grace? And wilt thou hang back or be sullen,\nbecause thou art none of the first? since he hath said, 'The\nfirst shall be last, and the last first.' Behold the legions, the\nthousands, the untold and numberless number that stand before the\nthrone, and be bold to hope in his mercy.\n\nSixth. [The throne of grace is known by what proceeds from it.] As\nthe throne of grace is distinguished from other thrones by these,\nso 'out of this throne proceeds lightnings, and thunderings, and\nvoices.' Also before this throne are 'seven lamps of fire burning,\nwhich are the seven spirits of God' (Rev 4:5). This then is another\nthing by which the throne of grace may be known as an effect of what\nis before. So again, chapter the eighth, it is said, that from the\naltar of incense that stood before the throne, 'there were voices,\nand thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake' (Rev 8:5). All\nthese then come out of the holiest, where the throne is, and are\ninflamed by this throne, and by him that sits thereon.\n\n1. Lightnings here are to be taken for the illuminations of the\nSpirit in the gospel (Heb 10:32). As it is said in the book of\nPsalms, 'They looked unto him,' on the throne, 'and were lightened'\n(Psa 34:5). Or, as it is said in other places, 'The voice of thy\nthunder was in the heaven, the lightnings lightened the world' (Psa\n77:18). And again, 'His lightnings enlightened the world, the earth\nsaw and trembled' (Psa 97:4). This lightning therefore communicates\nlight to them that sit in darkness. 'God,' saith the apostle, 'who\ncommanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our\nhearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God\nin the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor 4:6). It was from this throne\nthat the light came that struck Paul off his horse, when he went\nto destroy it and the people that professed it (Acts 9:3). These\nare those lightnings by which sinners are made to see their sad\ncondition, and by which they are made to see the way out of it.\nArt thou then made to see thy condition how bad it is, and that the\nway out of it is by Jesus Christ? for, as I said, he is the throne\nof grace. Why then, come orderly in the light of these convictions\nto the throne from whence thy light did come, and cry there, as\nSamuel did to Eli, 'Here am I, for thou has called[13] me' (1 Sam\n3:8). Thus did Saul by the light that made him see; by it he came\nto Christ, and cried, 'Who art thou, Lord?' and, 'What wouldst thou\nhave me do?' (Acts 9:5,6). And is it not an encouragement to thee\nto come to him, when he lights thy candle that thou mightest see\nthe way; yea, when he doth it on purpose that thou mightest come\nto him? 'He gives light to them that sit in darkness, and in\nthe shadow of death,' what to do? 'to guide our feet into the way\nof peace' (Luke 1:79). This interpretation of this place seems to\nme most to cohere with what went before; for first you have here\na throne, and one sitting on it; then you have the elders, and in\nthem presented to you the whole church, sitting round about the\nthrone; then you have in the words last read unto you, a discourse\nhow they came thither, and that is, by the lightnings, thunderings,\nand voices that proceed out of the throne.\n\n2. As you have here lightnings, so thereto is adjoined thunders.\nThere proceeded out of this throne lightnings and thunders. By\nthunders, I understand that powerful discovery of the majesty of\nGod by the word of truth, which seizeth the heart with a reverential\ndread and awe of him: hence it is said, 'The voice of the Lord is\nfull of majesty; the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars' (Psa\n29:45). The voice, that is, his thundering voice. 'Canst thou thunder\nwith a voice like him?' (Job 40:9). And 'the thunder of his power\nwho can understand?' (Job 26:14). It was upon this account that\nPeter, and James, and John, were called 'the sons of thunder,'\nbecause, in the word which they were to preach, there was to be\nnot only lightnings, but thunders; not only illuminations, but a\ngreat seizing of the heart, with the dread and majesty of God, to\nthe effectual turning of the sinner to him (Mark 3:16,17).\n\nLightnings without thunder are in this case dangerous, because they\nthat receive the one without the other are subject to miscarry.\nThey were 'once enlightened,' but you read of no thunder they had;\nand they were subject to fall into an irrecoverable state (Heb\n6:4-6). Saul had thunder with his lightnings to the shaking of\nhis soul; so had the three thousand; so had the jailor (Acts 2, 9,\n16). They that receive light without thunder are subject to turn\nthe grace of God into wantonness; but they that know the terror of\nGod will persuade men (Rom 3:8; Jude 4; 2 Cor 5:11). So then, when\nhe decrees to give the rain of his grace to a man, he makes 'a way\nfor the lighting of the thunder,' not the one without the other,\nbut the one following the other (Job 28:26). Lightning and thunder\nis made a cause of rain, but lightning alone is not: 'Who hath\ndivided a water-course for the overflowing of waters? or a way for\nthe lightning of thunder to cause it to rain on the earth, where\nno man is: on the wilderness wherein there is no man?' (Job 38:25,26).\n\nThus therefore you may see how in the darkest sayings of the\nHoly Ghost there is as great an harmony with truth as in the most\nplain and easy; there must be thunder with light, if thy heart be\nwell poised and balanced with the fear of God: we have had great\nlightnings in this land of late years, but little thunders; and\nthat is one reason why so little grace is found where light is, and\nwhy so many professors run on their heads in such a day as this is,\nnotwithstanding all they have seen. Well then, this also should be\na help to a soul to come to the throne of grace; the God of glory\nhas thundered, has thundered to awaken thee, as well as sent\nlightnings to give thee light; to awaken thee to a coming to him,\nas well as to the enabling of thee to see his things; this then has\ncome from the throne of grace to make thee come hither; wherefore\nobserve, where it is by these signs made mention of before, and by\nthese effects; and go, and come to the throne of grace.\n\n3. As there proceeds from this throne lightnings and thunders, so\nfrom hence it is said voices proceed also: now these voices may\nbe taken for such as are sent with this lightning and thunder to\ninstruct, or for such [instruction] as this lightning and thunder\nbegets in our hearts.\n\n(1.) It may be taken in the first sense for light and dread, when\nit falleth from God into the soul, is attended with a voice or voices\nof instruction to the soul, to know what to do (Acts 2:3-7). This\nit was in Paul's case. He had light and dread, and voices for his\ninstruction; he had lightnings, and thunderings, and voices: 'Good\nand upright is the Lord; therefore will he teach sinners in the way.\nThe meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his\nway' (Psa 25:8,9).\n\n(2.) Or by voices you may understand, such as the lightning and\nthunder begets in our hearts: for though man is as mute as a fish\nto Godward, before this thunder and lightning comes to him, yet\nafter that he is full of voices (2 Cor 4:13, 7:14). And how much\nmore numerous are the voices that in the whole church on earth are\nbegot by these lightnings and thunders that proceed from the throne\nof grace; their faith has a voice, their repentance has a voice,\ntheir subjection to God's word has a voice in it; yea, there is\na voice in their prayers, a voice in their cry, a voice in their\ntears, a voice in their groans, in their roarings, in their bemoaning\nof themselves, and in their triumphs! (1 Thess 1:2-8; Psa 5:3,\n7:17, 20:2-5, 22:1, 138:5; Jer 31:18).\n\nThis then is an effect of the throne of grace; hence it is said\nthat they proceed from it, even the lightning, and the thunder,\nand the voices; that is, effectual conversion to God. It follows\nthen, that if all these are with thy soul, the operations of the\nthrone of grace have been upon thee to bring thee to the throne\nof grace; first in thy prayers, and then in thy person. And this\nleads me to the next thing propounded to be spoken to, which is\nto show who are the persons invited here to come to the throne of\ngrace. 'Let us therefore come.'\n\n[THE PERSONS INTENDED BY THIS EXHORTATION.]\n\nTHIRD. Now the persons here called upon to come to the throne\nof grace, are not all or every sort of men, but the men that may\nproperly be comprehended under this word Us and We; 'let Us therefore\ncome boldly, that We may obtain.' And they that are here put under\nthese particular terms, are expressed both before and after, by\nthose that have explication in them.\n\nThey are called [in the epistle to the Hebrews], 1. Such as give\nthe most earnest heed to the word which they have heard (Heb 2:1).\n2. They are such as see Jesus crowned with glory and honour (Heb\n2:9). 3. They are called the children (Heb 2:14). 4. They are\ncalled the seed of Abraham (Heb 2:16). 5. They are called Christ's\nbrethren (Heb 2:17).\n\nSo, chapter the third, they are called holy brethren, and said to\nbe partakers of the heavenly calling, and the people of whom it\nis said that Christ Jesus is the apostle and high priest of their\nprofession (Heb 3:1-6). They are called Christ's own house, and\nare said to be partakers of Christ (Heb 3:14). They are said to be\nthe believers, those that do enter in into rest, those that have\nChrist for a high priest, and with the feeling of whose infirmities\nhe is touched and sympathiseth (Heb 4:3,14,15).\n\nSo, in chapter the sixth, they are called beloved, and the heirs\nof promise; they that have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope\nset before them; they are called those that have hope as an anchor,\nand those for whom Christ as a forerunner hath entered and taken\npossession of heaven (Heb 6:9,17-20). So, chapter the seventh, they\nare said to be such as draw nigh unto God (Heb 7:19). And, chapter\nthe eighth, they are said to be such with whom the new covenant is\nmade in Christ. Chapter the ninth, they are such for whom Christ\nhas obtained eternal redemption, and such for whom he has entered\nthe holy place (Heb 9:12,22). Chapter the tenth, they are such as\nare said to be sanctified by the will of God, such as have boldness\nto enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus; such as draw near\nwith a true heart, in full assurance of faith, or that have liberty\nto do so, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,\nand their bodies washed with pure water; they were those that had\nsuffered much for Christ in the world, and that became companions\nof them that so were used (Heb 10:10,19,22-25). Yea, he tells them,\nin the eleventh chapter, that they and the patriarchs must be made\nperfect together (Heb 11:40). He also tells them, in the twelfth\nchapter, that already they are come to Mount Zion, to the city\nof the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable\ncompany of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first\nborn which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all; and\nto the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator\nof the New Testament, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh\nbetter things than that of Abel (Heb 12:22-24).\n\nThus you see what terms, characters, titles, and privileges, they\nare invested with that are here exhorted to come to the throne of\ngrace. From whence we may conclude that every one is not capable\nof coming thither, no not every one that is under convictions, and\nthat hath a sense of the need of and a desire after the mercy of\nGod in Christ.\n\n[The orderly coming to the throne of grace.]\n\nWherefore we will come, in the next place, to show the orderly\ncoming of a soul to the throne of grace for mercy: and for this\nwe must first apply ourselves to the Old Testament, where we have\nthe shadow of what we now are about to enter upon the discourse\nof, and then we will come to the antitype, where yet the thing is\nfar more explained.\n\nFirst. Then, the mercy-seat was for the church, not for the world;\nfor a Gentile could not go immediately from his natural state to\nthe mercy-seat, by the high priest, but must first orderly join\nhimself, or be joined, to the church, which then consisted of the\nbody of the Jews (Exo 12:43-49). The stranger then must first be\ncircumcised, and consequently profess faith in the Messiah to come,\nwhich was signified by his going from his circumcision directly\nto the passover, and so orderly to other privileges, specially to\nthis of the mercy-seat which the high priest was to go but once a\nyear into (Eze 44:6-9).\n\nSecond. The church is again set forth unto us by Aaron and his sons.\nAaron as the head, his sons as the members; but the sons of Aaron\nwere not to meddle with any of the things of the Holiest, until\nthey had washed in a laver: 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,\nThou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass,\nto wash in; and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the\ncongregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For\nAaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.\nWhen they go into the tabernacle of the congregation they shall\nwash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the\naltar to minister, to burn offerings made by fire unto the Lord.\nSo they shall wash their hands and their feet that they die not:\nand it shall be a statute for ever unto them, even to him, and to\nhis seed throughout their generations.' See the margin (Exo 30:17-21,\n40:30-32).[14]\n\nThird. Nay, so strict was this law, that if any of Israel, as well\nas the stranger, were defiled by any dead thing, they were to wash\nbefore they partook of the holy things, or else to abstain: but if\nthey did not, their sin should remain upon them (Lev 17:15,16). So\nagain, 'the soul that hath touched any such' uncleanness 'shall be\nunclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things,' much less\ncome within the inner veil, 'unless he wash his flesh with water'\n(Lev 22:4-6). Now, I would ask, what all this should signify, if a\nsinner, as a sinner, before he washes, or is washed, may immediately\ngo unto the throne of grace? Yea, I ask again, why the apostle\nsupposes washing as a preparation to the Hebrews entering into\nthe holiest, if men may go immediately from under convictions to a\nthrone of grace? For thus, he says, 'let us draw near' 'the holiest'\n(Heb 12:19), 'with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; having\nour hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed\nwith pure water' (Heb 12:22). Let us draw near; he saith not that\nwe may have; but having FIRST been washed and sprinkled.\n\nThe laver then must first be washed in; and he that washed not first\nthere, has not right to come to the throne of grace; wherefore you\nhave here also a sea of glass standing before the throne of grace,\nto signify this thing (Rev 4:6). It stands before the throne, for\nthem to wash in that would indeed approach the throne of grace. For\nthis sea of glass is the same that is shadowed forth by the laver\nmade mention of before, and with the brazen sea that stood in\nSolomon's temple, whereat they were to wash before they went into\nthe holiest. But you may ask me, What the laver or molten sea\nshould signify to us in the New Testament? I answer, It signifieth\nthe word of the New Testament, which containeth the cleansing doctrine\nof remission of sins, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ (John\n15:3).[15] Wherefore we are said to be clean through the Word,\nthrough the washing of water by the Word (Titus 3:5). The meaning\nthen is, A man must first come to Christ, as set forth in the\nWord, which is this sea of glass, before he can come to Christ in\nheaven, as he is the throne of grace. For the Word, I say, is this\nsea of glass that stands before the throne, for the sinner to wash\nin first. Know therefore, whoever thou art, that art minded to be\nsaved, thou must first begin with Christ crucified, and with the\npromise of remission of sins through his blood; which crucified\nChrist thou shalt not find in heaven as such; for there he is alive;\nbut thou shalt find him in the Word; for there he is to this day\nset forth in all the circumstances of his death, as crucified before\nour eyes (Gal 3:1,2). There thou shalt find that he died, when he\ndied, what death he died, why he died, and the Word open to thee\nto come and wash in his blood. The word therefore of Christ's\nTestament is the laver for all New Testament priests, and every\nChristian is a priest to God, to wash in.\n\nHere therefore thou must receive thy justification, and that\nbefore thou goest one step further; for if thou art not justified\nby his blood, thou wilt not be saved by his life. And the justifying\nefficacy of his blood is left behind, and is here contained in\nthe molten sea, or laver, or word of grace, for thee to wash in.\nIndeed, there is an interceding voice in his blood for us before\nthe throne of grace, or mercy-seat; but that is still to bring us\nto wash, or for them that have washed therein, as it was shed upon\nthe cross. We have boldness therefore to enter into the holiest by\nthe blood of Jesus, that is, by faith in his blood, as shed without\nthe gate; for as his blood was shed without the gate, so it sanctifies\nthe believer, and makes him capable to approach the holy of holies.\nWherefore, after he had said, 'That he might sanctify the people\nwith his own blood,' he 'suffered without the gate' (Heb 13:11-15).\nLet us by him therefore, that is, because we are first sanctified\nby faith in his blood, offer to God the sacrifice of praise\ncontinually, that is, the fruits of our lips, giving thanks in his\nname. Wherefore the laver of regeneration, or Christ set forth by\nthe Word as crucified, is for all coming sinners to wash in unto\njustification; and the throne of grace is to be approached by saints,\nor as sinners justified by faith in a crucified Christ; and so, as\nwashed from sin in the sea of his blood, to come to the mercy-seat.\n\nAnd it is yet far more evident; for that those that approach this\nthrone of grace, they must do it through believing; for, saith the\napostle, 'How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed,'\nof whom they have not heard, and in whom they have not believed?\nfor to that purpose runs the text (Rom 10:14). 'How then shall they\ncall on him in whom they have not believed,' antecedent to their\ncalling on him, 'and how shall they believe in him of whom they\nhave not heard' first? So then hearing goes before believing, and\nbelieving before calling upon God, as he sits on the throne of grace.\nNow, believing is to be according to the sound of the beginning of\nthe gospel, which presenteth us, not first with Christ as ascended,\nbut as Christ dying, buried, and risen.[16] 'For I delivered unto\nyou first of all, that which I also received; how that Christ died\nfor our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried,\nand that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures'\n(1 Cor 15:3,4).\n\nI conclude then, as to this, that the order of heaven is, that men\nwash in the laver of regeneration, to wit, in the blood of Christ,\nas held forth in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is the\nordinance of God; for there sinners, as sinners, or men as unclean,\nmay wash, in order to their approach to God as he sits upon the\nthrone of grace.\n\nAnd besides, Is it possible that a man that passeth by the doctrine\nof Christ as dead, should be admitted with acceptance to a just and\nholy God for life; or that he that slighteth and trampleth under\nfoot the blood of Christ, as shed upon the cross, should be admitted\nto an interest in Christ, as he is the throne of grace? It cannot\nbe. He must then wash there first, or die--let his profession, or\npretended faith, or holiness, be what it will. For God sees iniquity\nin all men; nor can all the nitre or soap in the world cause that\nour iniquity should not be marked before God (Jer 2:22). 'For\nwithout shedding of blood is NO remission' (Heb 9:22). Nothing\nthat polluteth, that defileth, or that is unclean, must enter into\nGod's sanctuary; much less into the most holy part thereof, but by\ntheir sacrifice, by which they are purged, and for the sake of the\nperfection thereof, they believing are accepted. We have 'therefore,\nbrethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,'\nand no way else (Heb 10:19).\n\n[HOW WE ARE TO APPROACH THE THRONE OF GRACE.]\n\nFOURTH. But this will yet be further manifest by what we have yet\nto say of the manner of our approach unto the throne of grace.\n\nFIRST, then, we must approach the throne of grace by the second\nveil; for the throne of grace is after the second veil. So, then,\nthough a man cometh into the tabernacle or temple, which was a\nfigure of the church, yet if he entered but within the first veil,\nhe only came where there was no mercy-seat or throne of grace (Heb\n9:3). And what is this second veil, in, at, or through which, as\nthe phrase is, we must, by blood, enter into the holiest? why, as\nto the law, the second veil did hang up between the holy and the\nmost holy place, and it did hide what was within the holiest from\nthe eyes or sight of those that went no further than into the first\ntabernacle. Now this second veil in the tabernacle or temple was\na figure of the second veil that all those must go through that\nwill approach the throne of grace; and that veil is the flesh of\nChrist.\n\nThis is that which the holy apostle testifies in his exhortation,\nwhere he saith, We have 'boldness to enter into the holiest by the\nblood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated\nfor us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh' (Heb 10:19,20).\nThe second veil then is the flesh of Christ, the which until a\nman can enter or go through by his faith, it is impossible that he\nshould come to the holiest where the throne of grace is, that is,\nto the heart and soul of Jesus, which is the throne. The body of\nChrist is the tabernacle of God, and so that in which God dwells;\nfor the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily (Col 2:9).\nTherefore, as also has been hinted before, Christ Jesus is the\nthrone of grace. Now, since his flesh is called the veil, it is\nevident that the glory that dwells within him, to wit, God resting\nin him, cannot be understood but by them that by faith can look\nthrough, or enter through, his flesh to that glory. For the glory\nis within the veil; there is the mercy-seat, or throne of grace;\nthere sitteth God as delighted, as at rest, in and with sinners,\nthat come to him by and through that flesh, and the offering of\nit for sin without the gate. 'I am the way,' saith Christ; but to\nwhat? and how? (John 14:6). Why, to the Father, through my flesh.\n'And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to\nreconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be\nthings in earth, or things in heaven. And you that were sometime\nalienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath\nhe reconciled [but how?] in the body of his flesh, [that then\nmust be first: to what?] to present you holy and unblameable, and\nunreprovable in his sight' (Col 1:20-22). That is, when you enter\ninto his presence, or approach by this flesh, the mercy-seat, or\nthe throne of grace.\n\nThis therefore is the manner of our coming, if we come aright to the\nthrone of grace for mercy, we must come by blood through his flesh,\nas through the veil; by which, until you have entered through it,\nthe glory of God, and that he is resolved that grace shall reign,\nwill be utterly hid from your eyes. I will not say, but by the notion\nof these things, men may have their whirling fancies,[17] and may\ncreate to themselves wild notions and flattering imaginations of\nChrist, the throne of grace, and of glory; but the gospel knowledge\nof this is of absolute necessity to my right coming to the throne\nof grace for mercy. I must come by his blood, through his flesh,\nor I cannot come at all, for here is no back door. This then is\nthe sum, Christ's body is the tabernacle, the holiest; 'thy law,'\nsaith he, 'is within my heart,' or in the midst of my bowels (Psa\n40:7,8). In this tabernacle then God sitteth, to wit, on the heart\nof Christ, for that is the throne of grace. Through this tabernacle\nmen must enter, that is, by a godly understanding of what by this\ntabernacle or flesh of Christ has been done to reconcile us to God\nthat dwells in him. This is the way, all the way, for there is no\nway but this to come to the throne of grace. This is the new way\ninto the heavenly paradise, for the old way is hedged and ditched\nup by the flaming sword of cherubims (Gen 3:24). The NEW and LIVING\nway, for to go the other is present death; so then, this 'new and\nliving way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that\nis to say, his flesh,' is the only way into the holiest, where the\nthrone of grace is (Heb 10:20).\n\nSECOND. We must approach this throne of grace, as having our hearts,\nfirst, sprinkled from an evil conscience. The priest that was the\nrepresentator of all Israel, when he went into the holiest, was\nnot to go in, but as sprinkled with blood first (Exo 29). Thus it\nis written in t he law; 'not without blood'; and thus it is written\nin the gospel (Heb 9:7). And now since by the gospel we have all\nadmittance to enter in through the veil, by faith, we must take heed\nthat we enter not in without blood; for if the blood, virtually, be\nnot seen upon us, we die, instead of obtaining mercy, and finding\nthe help of grace. This I press the oftener, because there is nothing\nto which we are more naturally inclined, than to forget this. Who,\nthat understands himself, is not sensible how apt he is to forget\nto act faith in the blood of Jesus, and to get his conscience\nsprinkled with the virtue of that, that attempteth to approach the\nthrone of grace? Yet the scripture calls upon us to take heed that\nwe neglect not THUS to prepare ourselves. 'Let us draw near with a\ntrue heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled\nfrom an evil conscience,' to wit, with the blood of Christ, lest\nwe die (Heb 10:22, 9:14). In the law all the people were to be\nsprinkled with blood, and it was necessary that the patterns of\nthings in the heavens should be purified with these, that is, with\nthe blood of bulls, but the heavenly things themselves with better\nsacrifices than these, that is, with the offering of the body, and\nshedding of the blood of Christ. By this then must thou be purified\nand sprinkled, who by Christ wouldst approach the throne of grace.\n\nTHIRD. Therefore it is added, 'And our bodies washed with pure\nwater.' This the apostle taketh also out of the law; where it was\nappointed, as was showed before. Christ also, just before he went\nto the Father, gave his disciples a signification of this, saying\nto Peter, and by him to all the rest, 'If I wash thee not, thou\nhast no part with me' (John 13:8). This pure water is nothing but\nthe wholesome doctrine of the word mixed with Spirit, by which,\nas the conscience was before sprinkled with blood, the body and\noutward conversation is now sanctified and made clean. 'Now ye are\nclean through the word,' saith Christ, 'which I have spoken unto\nyou' (John 15:3). Hence, washing, and sanctifying, and justifying,\nare put together, and are said to come by the name of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:11). Thou must then\nbe washed with water, and sprinkled with blood, if thou wouldst\norderly approach the throne of grace: if thou wouldst orderly\napproach it with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; or if\nthou wouldst, as the text biddeth thee here, to wit, 'come boldly\nunto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help\nin time of need.'\n\nTo tell you what it is to come boldly, is one thing; and to tell\nyou how you should come boldly, is another. Here you are bid to\ncome boldly, and are also showed how that may be done. It may be\ndone through the blood of sprinkling, and through the sanctifying\noperations of the Spirit which are here by faith to be received.\nAnd when what can be said shall be said to the utmost, there is no\nboldness, godly boldness, but by blood. The more the conscience is\na stranger to the sprinkling of blood, the further off it is of\nbeing rightly bold with God, at the throne of grace; for it is the\nblood that makes the atonement, and that gives boldness to the soul\n(Lev 17:11; Heb 10:19). It is the blood, the power of it by faith\nupon the conscience, that drives away guilt, and so fear, and\nconsequently that begetteth boldness. Wherefore, he that will be\nbold with God at the throne of grace, must first be well acquainted\nwith the doctrine of the blood of Christ; namely, that it was shed,\nand why, and that it has made peace with God, and for whom. Yea,\nthou must be able by faith to bring thyself within the number of\nthose that are made partakers of this reconciliation, before thou\ncanst come boldly to the throne of grace. But,\n\n[What it is to come to the throne of grace without boldness.]\n\nFirst. There is a coming to the throne of grace before or without\nthis boldness; but that is not the coming to which by these texts\nwe are exhorted; yet that coming, be it never so deficient, if\nit is right, it is through some measure an inlet into the death\nand blood of Christ, and through some management, though but very\nlittle, or perhaps scarce at all discerned of the soul, to hope\nfor grace from the throne; I say, it must arise, the encouragement\nmust, from the cross, and from Christ as dying there. Christ himself\nwent that way to God, and it is not possible but we must go the\nsame way too. So, then, the encouragement, be it little, be it\nmuch--and it is little or much, even as the faith is in strength\nor weakness, which apprehendeth Christ--it is according to the\nproportion of faith; strong faith gives great boldness, weak faith\ndoth not so, nor can it.\n\nSecond. There is a sincere coming to the throne of grace without\nthis boldness, even a coming in the uprightness of one's heart\nwithout it. Hence a true heart and full assurance are distinguished.\n'Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith'\n(Heb 10:22). Sincerity may be attended with a great deal of weakness,\neven as boldness may be attended with pride; but be it what kind\nof coming to the throne of grace it will, either a coming with\nboldness, or with that doubting which is incident to saints, still\nthe cause of that coming, or ground thereof, is some knowledge of\nredemption by blood, redemption which the soul seeth it has faith\nin, or would see it has faith in. For Christ is precious, sometimes\nin the sight of the worth, sometimes in the sight of the want, and\nsometimes in the sight of the enjoyment of him.[18]\n\nThird. There is an earnest coming to the throne of grace even with\nall the desire of one's soul. When David had guilt and trouble,\nand that so heavy that he knew not what to do, yet he could say,\n'Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid\nfrom thee' (Psa 38:1-9). He could come earnestly to the throne of\ngrace; he could come thither with all the desire of his soul: but\nstill this must be from that knowledge that he had of the way of\nremission of sins by the blood of the Son of God.\n\nFourth. There is also a constant coming to the throne of grace.\n'Lord,' said Heman, 'I have cried day and night before thee, let\nmy prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my\nsoul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave'\n(Psa 88:1-3). Here you see is constant crying before the throne of\ngrace, crying night and day; and yet the man that cries seems to\nbe in a very black cloud, and to find hard work to bear up in his\nsoul; yet this he had, namely, the knowledge of how God was the\nGod of salvation; yea, he called him his God as such, though with\npretty much difficulty of spirit, to be sure. Wherefore it must\nnot be concluded, that they come not at all to the throne of grace,\nthat come not with a full assurance; or that men must forbear to\ncome, till they come with assurance; but this I say, they come not\nat all aright, that take not the ground of their coming from the\ndeath and blood of Christ; and that they that come to the throne\nof grace, with but little knowledge of redemption by blood, will\ncome with but little hope of obtaining grace and mercy to help in\ntime of need.\n\nI conclude then, that it is the privilege, the duty and glory of\na man, to approach the throne of grace as a prince, as Job said,\ncould he but find it, he would be sure to do. 'O that I knew where\nI might find him!' saith he, 'that I might come even to his seat:\nI would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments:\nI would know the words which he would answer me, and understand\nwhat he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great\npower? No; but he would put strength in me. There the righteous\nmight dispute with him: so should I be delivered for ever from my\njudge' (23:3-7). Indeed, God sometimes tries us. 'He holdeth back,'\nsometimes, 'the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon\nit' (Job 26:9). And this seems to be Job's case here, which made\nhim to confess he was at a loss, and to cry out, 'O that I knew\nwhere I might find him!' And this he doth for trial, and to prove\nour honesty and constancy; for the hypocrite will not pray always.\nWill he always call upon God? No, verily; especially not when thou\nbindest them, afflictest them, and makest praying hard work to them\n(Job 36:13).\n\nBut difficulty as to finding of God's presence, and the sweet shining\nof the face of his throne, doth not always lie in the weakness of\nfaith. Strong faith may be in this perplexity, and may be hard put\nto it to stand at times. It is said here, that God did hold back the\nface of his throne, and did spread a cloud upon it; not to weaken\nJob's faith, but to try Job's strength, and to show to men of after\nages how valiant a man Job was. Faith, if it be strong, will play\nthe man in the dark; will, like a mettled horse, flounce in bad\nway, will not be discouraged at trials, at many or strong trials:\n'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,' is the language of\nthat invincible grace of God (Job 13:15). There is also an aptness\nin those that come to the throne of grace, to cast all degrees of\nfaith away, that carrieth not in its bowels self-evidence of its\nown being and nature, thinking that if it be faith, it must be known\nto the soul; yea, if it be faith, it will do so and so: even so as\nthe highest degrees of faith will do. When, alas! faith is sometimes\nin a calm, sometimes up, and sometimes down, and sometimes at it\nwith sin, death, and the devil, as we say, blood up to the ears.[19]\nFaith now has but little time to speak peace to the conscience; it\nis now struggling for life, it is now fighting with angels, with\ninfernals; all it can do now, is to cry, groan, sweat, fear, fight,\nand gasp for life.[20]\n\nIndeed the soul should now run to the cross, for there is the\nwater, or rather the blood and water, that is provided for faith,\nas to the maintaining of the comfort of justification; but the\nsoul whose faith is thus attacked will find hard work to do this,\nthough much of the well-managing of faith, in the good fight of\nfaith, will lie in the soul's hearty and constant adhering to the\ndeath and blood of Christ; but a man must do as he can. Thus now\nhave I showed you the manner of right coming to the throne of grace,\nfor mercy and grace to help in time of need.\n\n[None but the godly know the throne of grace.]\n\nThe next thing that I am to handle, is, first, To show you, that\nit is the privilege of the godly to distinguish from all thrones\nwhatsoever this throne of grace. This, as I told you, I gathered from\nthe apostle in the text, for that he only maketh mention thereof,\nbut gives no sign to distinguish it by; no sign, I say, though he\nknew that there were more thrones than it. 'Let us come boldly,'\nsaith he, 'to the throne of grace,' and so leaves it, knowing\nfull well that they had a good understanding of his meaning, being\nHebrews (Heb 9:1-8). They being now also enlightened from what\nthey were taught by the placing of the ark of the testimony, and\nthe mercy-seat in the most holy place; of which particular the\napostle did then count it, not of absolute necessity distinctly to\ndiscourse. Indeed the Gentiles, as I have showed, have this throne\nof grace described and set forth before them, by those tokens which\nI have touched upon in the sheets that go before--for with the book\nof Revelation the Gentiles are particularly concerned--for that\nit was writ to churches of the Gentiles; also the great things\nprophesied of there relate unto Gentile-believers, and to the\ndownfall of Antichrist, as he standeth among them.\n\nBut yet, I think that John's discourse of the things attending the\nthrone of grace were not by him so much propounded, because the\nGentiles were incapable of finding of it without such description,\nas to show the answerableness of the antitype with the type; and\nalso to strengthen their faith, and illustrate the thing; for they\nthat know, may know more, and better of what they know; yea, may\nbe greatly comforted with another's dilating on what they know.\nBesides, the Holy Ghost by the word doth always give the most perfect\ndescription of things; wherefore to that we should have recourse\nfor the completing of our knowledge. I mean not, by what I say, in\nthe least to intimate, as if this throne of grace was to be known\nwithout the text, for it is that that giveth revelation of Jesus\nChrist: but my meaning is, that a saint, as such, has such a working\nof things upon his heart, as makes him able by the Word to find\nout this throne of grace, and to distinguish it to himself from\nothers. For,\n\nFirst. The saint has strong guilt of sin upon his conscience,\nespecially at first; and this makes him better judge what grace,\nin the nature of grace, is, than others can that are not sensible\nof what guilt is. What it was to be saved, was better relished by\nthe jailor when he was afraid of and trembled at the apprehensions\nof the wrath of God, than ever it was with him all his life\nbefore (Acts 16:29-33). Peter then also saw what saving was, when\nhe began to sink into the sea: 'Lord, save me,' said he, I perish\n(Matt 14:30). Sin is that without a sense of which a man is not\napprehensive what grace is. Sin and grace, favour and wrath, death\nand life, hell and heaven, are opposites, and are set off, or out,\nin their evil or good, shame or glory, one by another. What makes\ngrace so good to us as sin in its guilt and filth? What makes sin\nso horrible and damnable a thing in our eyes, as when we see there\nis nothing can save us from it but the infinite grace of God?\nFurther, there seems, if I may so term it, to be a kind of natural\ninstinct in the new creature to seek after the grace of God; for so\nsaith the Word, 'They that are after the flesh, do mind the things\nof the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of\nthe Spirit' (Rom 8:5). The child by nature nuzzles in its mother's\nbosom for the breast; the child by grace does by grace seek to live\nby the grace of God. All creatures, the calf, the lamb, &c., so\nsoon as they are fallen from their mother's belly, will by nature\nlook for, and turn themselves towards the teat, and the new creature\ndoth so too (1 Peter 2:1-3). For guilt makes it hunger and thirst,\nas the hunted hart does pant after the water brooks. Hunger directs\nto bread, thirst directs to water; yea, it calls bread and water\nto mind. Let a man be doing other business, hunger will put him\nin mind of his cupboard, and thirst of his cruse of water; yea, it\nwill call him, make him, force him, command him, to bethink what\nnourishing victuals is, and will also drive him to search out after\nwhere he may find it, to the satisfying of himself. All right talk\nalso to such an one sets the stomach and appetite a craving; yea,\ninto a kind of running out of the body after this bread and water,\nthat it might be fed, nourished, and filled therewith. Thus it is\nby nature, and thus it is by grace; thus it is for the bread that\nperisheth, and for that which endureth to everlasting life. But,\n\nSecond. As nature, the new nature, teaches this by a kind of\nheavenly natural instinct; so experience also herein helpeth the\ngodly much. For they have found all other places, the throne of\ngrace excepted, empty, and places or things that hold no water.\nThey have been at Mount Sinai for help, but could find nothing there\nbut fire and darkness, but thunder and lightning, but earthquake\nand trembling, and a voice of killing words, which words they\nthat heard them once could never endure to hear them again; and as\nfor the sight of vengeance there revealed against sin, it was so\nterrible, that Moses, even Moses, said, 'I exceedingly fear and\nquake' (Heb 12:18-21; Exo 19; 2 Cor 3). They have sought for grace\nby their own performances; but alas! they have yielded them nothing\nbut wind and confusion; not a performance, not a duty, not an act\nin any part of religious worship, but they looking upon it in the\nglass of the Lord, do find it spaked[21] and defective (Isa 64:5-8).\nThey have sought for grace by their resolutions, their vows, their\npurposes, and the like; but alas! they all do as the other, discover\nthat they have been very imperfectly managed, and so such as can by\nno means help them to grace. They have gone to their tears, their\nsorrow, and repentance, if perhaps they might have found some help\nthere; but all has either fled away like the early dew, or if they\nhave stood, they have stunk even in the nostrils of those whose\nthey were. How much more, then, in the nostrils of a holy God!\n\nThey have gone to God, as the great Creator, and have beheld how\nwonderful his works have been; they have looked to the heavens\nabove, to the earth beneath, and to all their ornaments, but neither\nhave these, nor what is of [or resulting from] them, yielded grace\nto those that had sensible want thereof. Thus have they gone, as\nI said, with these pitchers to their fountains, and have returned\nempty and ashamed; they found no water, no river of water of life;\nthey have been as the woman with her bloody issue, spending and\nspending till they have spent all, and been nothing better, but\nrather grew worse (Mark 5). Had they searched into nothing but\nthe law, it had been sufficient to convince them that there was no\ngrace, nor throne of grace, in the world. For since the law, being\nthe most excellent of all the things of the earth, is found to\nbe such as yieldeth no grace--for grace and truth comes by Jesus\nChrist, not by Moses (John 1:17)--how can it be imagined that it\nshould be found in anything inferior? Paul, therefore, not finding\nit in the law, despairs to find it in anything else below, but\npresently betakes himself to look for it there where he had not yet\nsought it--for he sometimes sought it not by faith, but as it were\nby the works of the law (Phil 3:6-8)--he looked for it, I say, by\nJesus Christ, who is the throne of grace, where he found it, and\nrejoiced in hope of the glory of God (Rom 9:29-31, 5:1-3). But,\n\nThird. Saints come to know and distinguish the throne of grace from\nother thrones, by the very direction of God himself; as it is said\nof the well that the nobles digged in the wilderness--they digged\nit by the direction of the lawgiver, so saints find out the throne\nof grace by the direction of the grace-giver. Hence Paul prays,\nthat the Lord would direct the hearts of the people into the love\nof God (2 Thess 3:5). Man, as man, cannot aim directly at this\nthrone; but will drop his prayers short, besides, or the like, if\nhe be not helped by the Spirit (Rom 8:26). Hence the Son saith of\nhimself, 'No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent\nme draw him' (John 6:44). Which text doth not only justify what is\nnow said, but insinuates that there is an unwillingness in man of\nhimself to come to this throne of grace; he must be drawn thereto.\nHe setteth us in the way of his steps, that is, in that way to the\nthrone by which grace and mercy is conveyed unto us.\n\nFourth. We know the throne of grace from other thrones, by the\nglory that it always appears in, when revealed to us of God: its\nglory outbids all; there is no such glory to be seen anywhere else,\neither in heaven or earth. But, I say, this comes by the sight\nthat God gives, not by any excellency that there is in my natural\nunderstanding as such; my understanding and apprehension, simply\nas natural, is blind and foolish. Wherefore, when I set to work in\nmine own spirit, and in the power of mine own abilities, to reach\nto this throne of grace, and to perceive somewhat of the glory\nthereof, then am I dark, rude, foolish, see nothing; and my heart\ngrows fat, dull, savourless, lifeless, and has no warmth in the\nduty. But it mounts up with wings like an eagle, when the throne\nis truly apprehended. Therefore that is another thing by which\nthe Christian knows the throne of grace from all others; it meets\nwith that good there that it can meet with nowhere else. But at\npresent let these things suffice for this.\n\n[MOTIVES FOR COMING BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE.]\n\nFIFTH. I come now to the motives by which the apostle stirreth\nup the Hebrews, and encourageth them to come boldly to the throne\nof grace. FIRST. The first is, because we have there such an high\npriest, or an high priest so and so qualified. SECOND. Because we\nthat come thither for grace are sure there to speed, or find grace\nand obtain it.\n\n[The first motive, because we have such an high priest there.]\n\nFIRST. For the fist of these, to wit, we have an encouragement\nto move us to come with boldness to the throne of grace, because\nwe have an high priest there; because we have such an high priest\nthere. 'For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with\nthe feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like\nas we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the\nthrone of grace.' Of this high priest I have already made mention\nbefore, to wit, so far as to show you that Christ Jesus is he, as\nwell as he is the altar, and sacrifice, and throne of grace, before\nwhich he also himself makes intercession. But forasmuch as by the\napostle here, he is not only presented unto us as a throne of grace,\nbut as an high priest ministering before it, it will not be amiss\nif I do somewhat particularly treat of his priesthood also. But the\nmain or chief of my discourse will be to treat of his qualifications\nto his office, which I find to be in general of two sorts. I. LEGAL.\nII. NATURAL.\n\n[THE LEGAL qualifications of Jesus Christ for the office of high\npriest.]\n\nI. LEGAL. When I say legal, I mean, as the apostle's expression\nis, not by 'the law of a carnal commandment,' but by an eternal\ncovenant, and 'the power of an endless life' thereby; of which the\npriesthood of old was but a type, and the law of their priesthood\nbut a shadow (Heb 7:16, 9:15,24). But because their law, and their\nentrance into their priesthood thereby, was, as I said, 'a shadow\nof good things to come,' therefore where it will help to illustrate,\nwe will make use thereof so to do; and where not, there we will\nlet it pass (Heb 10:1). The thing to be now spoken to is, that\nthe consideration of Jesus Christ being an high priest before the\nthrone of grace, is a motive and encouragement to us to come boldly\nthither for grace: 'Seeing then that we have a great high priest\nthat is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold\nfast our profession,' and 'come boldly unto the throne of grace'\n(Heb 4:14,16). Now, how he was made an high priest; for so is\nthe expression, 'made an high priest for ever after the order of\nMelchisedec' (Heb 6;20).\n\nFirst. He took not his honour upon himself without a lawful call\nthereto. Thus the priests under the law were put into office; and\nthus the Son of God. No man taketh this honour to himself, but he\nthat is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not\nhimself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou\nart my Son, today have I begotten thee. Wherefore he was 'called of\nGod an high priest after the order of Melchisedec' (Heb 5:4-6,10).\nThus far, therefore, the law of his priesthood answereth to the law\nof the priesthood of old; they both were made priests by a legal\ncall to their work or office. But yet the law by which this Son\nwas made high priest excelleth, and that in these particulars--\n\n1. He was made a priest after the similitude of Melchisedec,\nfor he testifieth, 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order\nof Melchisedec' (Heb 7:17). Thus they under the law were not made\npriests but after the order of Aaron, that is, by a carnal commandment,\nnot by an everlasting covenant of God.\n\n2. And, saith he, 'inasmuch as not without an oath he was made\npriest, for those priests were made without an oath, but this with\nan oath, by him that said unto him, The Lord sware, and will not\nrepent, thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec'\n(Heb 7:20,21).\n\n3. The priesthood under the law, with their law and sacrifices,\nwere fading, and were not suffered to continue, by reason of the\ndeath of the priest, and ineffectualness of his offering (Heb 7:23).\n'But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable\npriesthood' (v 24). 'For the law maketh men high priests which\nhave infirmity, but the word of the oath which was since the law,\nmaketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore' (v 28). From what\nhath already been said, we gather, (1.) What kind of person it is\nthat is our high priest. (2.) The manner of his being called to,\nand stated[22] in that office.\n\n(1.) What manner of person he is. He is the Son, the Son of God,\nJesus the Son of God. Hence the apostle saith, 'we have a great\nhigh priest,' such an high priest 'that is passed into the heavens'\n(Heb 4:14). Such an high priest as is 'made higher than the heavens'\n(Heb 7:26). And why doth he thus dilate upon the dignity of his\nperson, but because thereby is insinuated the excellency of his\nsacrifice, and the prevalency of his intercession, by that, to\nGod for us. Therefore he saith again, 'Every' Aaronical 'priest\nstandeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same\nsacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man,' this\ngreat man, this Jesus, this Son of God, 'after he had offered one,'\none only, one once, but one (Heb 9:25,26), 'sacrifice for sins for\never, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting\ntill his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he\nhath perfected for ever them that are sanctified' (Heb 10:11-14).\nThus, I say, the apostle toucheth upon the greatness of his person,\nthereby to set forth the excellency of his sacrifice, and prevalency\nof his intercession. 'Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of\nthe heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and high priest of our\nprofession, Christ Jesus' (Heb 3:1). Or, as he saith again, making\nmention of Melchisedec, 'consider how great this man was' (Heb\n7:4), we have such a high priest, so great a high priest; one that\nis entered into the heavens: Jesus the Son of God.\n\n(2.) The manner also of his being called to and stated in his office,\nis not to be overlooked. He is made a priest after the power of an\nendless life, or is to be such an one as long as he lives, and as\nlong as we have need of his mediation. Now Christ being raised from\nthe dead, dies no more; death hath no more dominion over him. He\nis himself the Prince of life. Wherefore it follows, 'he hath an\nunchangeable priesthood.' And what then? Why, then 'he is able also\nto save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing\nhe ever liveth to make intercession for them' (Heb 7:24,25). But\nagain, he is made a priest with an oath, 'the Lord sware, and will\nnot repent, thou art a priest for ever.' Hence I gather, (a) That\nbefore God there is no high priest but Jesus, nor ever shall be.\n(b) That God is to the full pleased with his high priesthood; and\nso with all those for whom he maketh intercession. For this priest,\nthough he is not accepted for the sake of another, yet he is upon\nthe account of another. 'For every high priest taken from among\nmen is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,' to make\nreconciliation for the sins of the people (Heb 5:1,2). And again,\nhe is entered 'into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of\nGod for us' (Heb 9:24). God therefore, in that he hath made him a\npriest with an oath, and also determined that he will never repent\nof his so doing, declareth that he is, and for ever will be,\nsatisfied with his offering. And this is a great encouragement to\nthose that come to God by him; they have by this oath a firm ground\nto go upon, and the oath is, 'Thou art a priest for ever,' shalt be\naccepted for ever for every one for whom thou makest intercession;\nnor will I ever reject any body that comes to me by thee; therefore\nhere is ground for faith, for hope and rejoicing; for this consideration\na man has ground to come boldly to the throne of grace.\n\nSecond. But again, as Christ is made a priest by call and with an\noath, and so, so far legally; so he, being thus called, has other\npreparatory legal qualifications. The High Priest under the law was\nnot by law to come into the holiest, but in those robes that were\nordained for him to minister in before God; which robes were not\nto be made according to the fancy of the people, but according to\nthe commandment of Moses (Exo 28). Christ our high priest in heaven\nhas also his holy garment, with which he covereth the nakedness of\nthem that are his, which robe was not made of corruptible things,\nas silver and gold, &c., but by a patient continuance in a holy\nlife, according to the law of Moses, both moral and ceremonial.\nNot that either of these were that eternal testament by which he\nwas made a priest; but the moral law was to be satisfied, and the\ntypes of the ceremonial law to be as to this eminently fulfilled;\nand he was bound by that eternal covenant by which he is made a\nmediator to do so. Wherefore, before he could enter the holiest of\nall, he must have these holy garments made; neither did he trust\nothers, as in the case of Aaron, to make these garments for him, but\nhe wrought them all himself, according to all that Moses commanded.\n\nThis garment Christ was a great while a-making. What time, you\nmay ask, was required? And I answer, All the days of his life; for\nall things that were written concerning him, as to this, were not\ncompleted till the day that he hanged upon the cross. For then it\nwas that he said, 'It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave\nup the ghost' (John 19:28-30). This robe is for glory and for beauty.\nThis is it that afore I said was of the colour of the rainbow, and\nthat compasseth even round about this throne of grace, unto which\nwe are bid to come. This is that garment that reaches down to his\nfeet, and that is girt to him with a golden girdle (Rev 1:13). This\nis that garment that covereth all his body mystical, and that hideth\nthe blemishes of such members from the eye of God, and of the law.\nAnd it is made up of his obedience to the law, by his complete\nperfect obedience thereto (Rom 5:19). This Christ wears always, he\nnever puts it off, as the [former] high priests put off theirs by\na ceremonial command. He ever lives to make intercession; consequently\nhe ever wears this priestly robe. He might not go into the holy\nplace without it, upon danger of death, or at least of being sent\nback again; but he died not, but lives ever; is not sent back, but\nis set down at God's right hand; and there shall sit till his foes\nare made his footstool (John 16:10).\n\nThis is that for the sake of which all are made welcome, and embraced\nand kissed, forgiven and saved, that come unto God by him. This\nis that righteousness, that mantle spotless, that Paul so much\ndesired to be found wrapt in; for he knew that being found in that\nhe must be presented thereby to God a glorious man, not having\nspot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This therefore is another of\nthe Lord Jesus' legal qualifications, as preparatory to the executing\nof his high priest's office in heaven. But of this something has\nbeen spoken before; and therefore I shall not enlarge upon it here.\n\nThird. When the high priest under the law was thus accomplished\nby a legal call, and a garment suitable to his office, then again\nthere was another thing that must be done, in order to his regular\nexecution of his office; and that was, he must be consecrated, and\nsolemnly ushered thereunto by certain offerings, first presented\nto God for himself. This you have mention made of in the Levitical\nlaw; you have there first commanded, that, in order to the high\npriest's approaching the holiest for the people, there must first\nbe an offering of consecration for himself, and this is to succeed\nhis call, and the finishing of his holy garments (Exo 29:5-7,19-22).\nFor this ceremony was not to be observed until his garments were\nmade and put upon him; also the blood of the ram of consecration\nwas to be sprinkled upon him, his garments, &c., that he might be\nhallowed, and rightly set apart for the high priest's office (Lev\n8). The Holy Ghost, I think, thus signifying that Jesus the Son\nof God, our great high priest, was not only to sanctify the people\nwith his blood; but first, by blood must to that work be sanctified\nhimself; 'For their sakes,' saith he, 'I sanctify myself, that they\nalso might be sanctified through the truth' (John 17:19).\n\nBut it may be asked, When was this done to Christ, or what sacrifice\nof consecration had he precedent to the offering up of himself for\nour sins? I answer, It was done in the garden when he was washed in\nhis own blood, when his sweat was in great drops of blood, falling\ndown to the ground. For there it was he was sprinkled with his blood,\nnot only the tip of his ear, his thumb, and toe, but there he was\nwashed all over; there therefore was his most solemn consecration\nto his office; at least, so I think. And this, as Aaron's was, was\ndone by Moses; it was Moses that sprinkled Aaron's garments. It\nwas by virtue of an agony also that his bloody sweat was produced;\nand what was the cause of that agony, but the apprehension of the\njustice and curse of Moses' law, which now he was to undergo for\nthe sins of the people.\n\nWith this sacrifice he then subjoined another, which was also\npreparatory to the great acts of his high priest's office, which he\nwas afterwards to perform for us. And that was his drink-offering,\nhis tears, which were offered to God with strong cries (Exo 29:40;\nNum 28:7). For this was the place and time that in a special manner\nhe caused his strong wine to be poured out, and that he drank\nhis tears as water. This is called his offering, his offering for\nhis own acceptance with God. After 'he had offered up prayers and\nsupplications, with strong crying and tears unto him that was able\nto save him,' he 'was heard' for his piety, for his acceptance as\nto this office, for he merited his office as well as his people (Heb\n5:7). Wherefore it follows, 'and being made perfect,' that is, by\na complete performance of all that was necessary for the orderly\nattaining of his office as high priest, 'he became the author of\neternal salvation, unto all them that obey him' (Heb 5:9).\n\nFor your better understanding of me as to this, mind that I speak of\na twofold perfection in Christ; one as to his person, the other as\nto his performances. In the perfection of his person, two things are\nto be considered; first, the perfection of his humanity, as to the\nnature of it; it was at first appearing, wholly without pollution\nof sin, and so completely perfect; but yet this humanity was to\nhave joined to this another perfection; and that was a perfection\nof stature and age. Hence it is said that as to his humanity he\nincreased, that is, grew more perfect. For this his increasing was,\nin order to a perfection, not of nature, simply as nature, but of\nstature. 'Jesus increased in wisdom and stature' (Luke 2:52). The\npaschal lamb was a lamb the first day it was yeaned; but it was not\nto be sacrificed until it attained such a perfection of age as by\nthe law of God was appointed to it (Exo 12:5,6). It was necessary,\ntherefore, that Christ as to his person should be perfect in both\nthese senses. And indeed 'in due time Christ died for the ungodly'\n(Rom 5:6).\n\nAgain, as there was a perfection of person, or of nature and personage\nin Christ, so there was to be a perfection of performances in him\nalso. Hence it is said, that Jesus increased in favour with God\n(Luke 2:52); that is, by perfecting of his obedience to him for us.\nNow, his performances were such as had a respect to his bringing\nin of righteousness for us in the general; or such as respected\npreparations for his sacrifice as a high priest. But let them be\napplied to both, or to this or that in particular; it cannot be,\nthat while the most part of his performances were wanting, he should\nbe as perfect as when he said, 'The things concerning me have an\nend' (Luke 22:37).\n\nNot but that every act of his obedience was perfect, and carried\nin it a length and breadth proportionable to that law by which it\nwas demanded. Nor was there at any time in his obedience that which\nmade to interfere one commandment with another. He did all things\nwell, and so stood in the favour of God. But yet one act was not\nactually all, though virtually any one of his actions might carry\nin it a merit sufficient to satisfy and quiet the law. Hence, as\nI said, it is told us, not only that he is the Son of God's love,\nbut that he increased in favour with God; that is, by a going on\nin doing, by a continuing to do that always that pleased the God\nof heaven.\n\nA man that pays money at the day appointed, beginning first at one\nshilling, or one pound, and so ceaseth not until he hath in current\ncoin told over the whole sum to the creditor, does well at the\nbeginning; but the first shilling, or first pound, not being the\nfull debt, cannot be counted or reckoned the whole, but a part;\nyet is it not an imperfect part, nor doth the creditor find fault\nat all, because there is but so much now told; but concludes that\nall is at hand, and accepteth of this first, as a first-fruits: so\nChrist, when he came into the world, began to pay, and so continued\nto do, even until he had paid the whole debt, and so increased in\nfavour with God. There was then a gradual performance of duties,\nas to the number of them, by our Lord when he was in the world, and\nconsequently a time wherein it might be said that Christ had not,\nas to act, done all, as was appointed him to do, to do as preparatory\nto that great thing which he was to do for us. Wherefore, in\nconclusion, he is said to be made perfect, 'and being made perfect,\nhe became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey\nhim' (Heb 5:9).\n\nIt will be objected, then, that at some time it might be said of\nChrist that he was imperfect in his obedience. Answ. There was a\ntime wherein it might have been said, Christ had not done all that\nhe was to do for us on earth. But it doth not follow thereupon,\nthat he therefore was imperfect in his obedience; for that all his\nacts of obedience were done in their proper time, and when they\nshould, according to the will of God. The timing of performances\nadds or diminishes as to the perfection of obedience, or the\nimperfection of it. Had these Jews killed the passover three days\nsooner than the time appointed, they had transgressed (Exo 12:6).\nHad the Jews done that on the fourth day to Jericho, which was to\nhave been done on the seventh day, they had sinned (Josh 6:10-16).\nDuty is beautiful in its time, and the Son of God observed the time.\n'I must,' saith he, 'work the works of him that sent me, while it\nis day,' that is, in their seasons. You must keep in mind that we\nspeak all this while of that part of Christ's perfection, as to\nduties, which stood in the number of performances, and not in the\nnature or quality of acts. And I say, as to the thing in hand,\nChrist had duty to do, with respect to his office as high priest\nfor us, which immediately concerned himself; such duties as gave\nhim a legal admittance unto the execution thereof; such duties,\nthe which, had they not orderly been done, the want of them would\nhave made him an undue approacher of the presence of God, as\nto that. Wherefore, as I said afore, by what he did thereabout,\nhe consecrated, or sanctified himself for that work, according to\nGod, and was accepted for his piety, or in that he feared and did\norderly do what he should do.\n\nFourth. The next thing preparatory to the execution of this office\nof high priest was the sacrifice itself. The sacrifice, you know,\nmust, as to the being of it, needs precede the offering of it; it\nmust be before it can be offered. Nor could Christ have been an\nhigh priest, had he not had a sacrifice to offer. 'For every high\npriest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is\nof necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer' (Heb 8:3).\nAnd I bring in the sacrifice as the last thing preparatory, not\nthat it was last, as to being, for it was before he could be capable\nof doing any of the afore-named duties, being his body, in and by\nwhich he did them, but it was the last as to fitness; it was not to\nbe a sacrifice before the time, the time appointed of the Father;\nfor since he had prepared it to that end, it was fit as to the time\nof its being offered, that that should be when God thought best\nalso (Heb 10:5).\n\nBehold then, here is the high priest with his sacrifice; and behold\nagain, how he comes to offer it. He comes to offer his burnt-offering\nat the call of God; he comes to do it in his priestly garments,\nconsecrated and sanctified in his own blood; he comes with blood and\ntears, or by water and blood, and offereth his sacrifice, himself\na sacrifice unto God for the sin of the world; and that too at a\ntime when God began to be weary of the service and sacrifices of\nall the world. 'Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,\nSacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou\nprepared me,' thou hast fitted me; 'in burnt-offerings and sacrifices\nfor sin thou hast had no pleasure; then said I, Lo I come, in the\nvolume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God' (Heb\n10:5-7).\n\n[Christ the sacrifice as well as the high priest, and how he offered\nit.]\n\nThus you see our high priest proceeded to the execution of his\npriestly office; and now we are come to his sacrifice, we will\nconsider a little of the parts thereof, and how he offered, and\npleads the same. The burnt-offering for sin had two parts, the\nflesh and the fat, which fat is called the fat of the inwards, of\nthe kidneys, and the like (Lev 3:12-16). Answerable to this, the\nsacrifice of Christ had two parts, the body and the soul. The body\nis the flesh, and his soul the fat; that inward part that must\nnot by any means be kept from the fire (Isa 53:10). For without\nthe burning of the fat, the burnt-offering and sin-offering, both\nwhich was a figure of the sacrifice of our high priest, was counted\nimperfect, and so not acceptable.\n\nAnd it is observable, that in these kind of offerings, when they\nwere to be burned, the fat and the head must be laid and be burned\ntogether; and the priest 'shall cut it into his pieces with his\nhead and his fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the\nwood that is on the fire which is upon the altar' (Lev 1:12). To\nsignify, methinks, the feeling sense that this sacrifice of his\nbody and soul should have of the curse of God due to sin, all the\nwhile that it suffered for sin. And therefore it is from this that\nthis sacrifice has the name of burnt-offering, it is the burnt-offering\nfor the burning, because of the burning upon the altar all night,\nuntil the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be burning in\nit.\n\nThe fat made the flame to increase and to ascend; wherefore God\nspeaks affectionately of the fat, saying, The fat of mine offerings.\nAnd again, 'He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall\nbe satisfied' (Isa 53:10-12). The soul-groans, the soul-cries,\nthe soul-conflicts that the Son of God had, together with his\nsoul-submission to his Father's will, when he was made a sacrifice\nfor sin, did doubtless flame bright, ascend high, and cast out\na sweet savour unto the nostrils of God, whose justice was now\nappeasing for the sin of men.\n\nHis flesh also was part of this sacrifice, and was made to feel\nthat judgment of God for sin that it was capable of. And it was\ncapable of feeling much, so long as natural life, and so, bodily\nsense, remained. It also began to feel with the soul, by reason of\nthe union that was betwixt them both; the soul felt, and the body\nbled; the soul was in an agony, and the body sweat blood; the soul\nwrestled with the judgment and curse of the law, and the body, to\nshow its sense and sympathy, sent out dolorous cries, and poured\nout rivers of tears before God. We will not here at large speak of\nthe lashes, of the crown of thorns, of how his face was bluft[23]\nwith blows and blood; also how he was wounded, pierced, and what\npains he felt while life lasted, as he suffered for our sins; though\nthese things are also prefigured in the old law, by the nipping or\nwringing of the head, the cutting of the sacrifice in pieces, and\nburning it in the fire (Lev 1). Now, you must know, that as the\nhigh priest was to offer his sacrifice, so he was to bring the\nblood thereof to the mercy-seat or throne of grace, where now our\nJesus is; he was to offer it at the door of the tabernacle, and to\ncarry the blood within the veil; of both which a little.\n\n[Christ a willing and an effectual sacrifice.]\n\n1. He was to offer it, and how? Not grudgingly, nor as by compulsion,\nbut of a voluntary will and cheerful mind: 'If his offering be a\nburnt-sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish;\nhe shall offer it of his own voluntary will' (Lev 1:3). Thus did\nChrist when he offered up himself, as is manifest by that which\nfollows. (1.) He offered a male, 'himself,' without blemish (Heb\n7:27). (2.) He gave himself a ransom; he 'gave his life a ransom'\n(Matt 20;28). (3.) He laid down his life of himself (John 10:18;\nLuke 12:5). (4.) He longed for the day of his death, that he might\ndie to redeem his people. (5.) Nor was he ever so joyful in all\nhis life, that we read of, as when his sufferings grew near; then\nhe takes the sacrament of his body and blood into his own hands,\nand with thanksgiving bestows it among his disciples; then he sings\nan hymn, then he rejoices, then he comes with a 'Lo, I come.' O\nthe heart, the great heart, that Jesus Christ had for us to do us\ngood! He did it with all the desire of his soul.\n\n2. He did it, not only voluntarily, and of a free will, but of love\nand affection to the life of his enemies. Had he done thus for the\nlife of his friends, it had been much; but since he did it out of\nlove to the life of his enemies, that is much more. 'Scarcely for\na righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some\nwould even dare to die; but God commended his love toward us, in\nthat while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us' (Rom 5:7,8).\n\n3. He did it without relinquishment of mind, when he was in: no\ndiscouragement disheartened him; cry and bleed he did, yea, roar\nby reason of the troubles of his soul, but his mind was fixed; his\nFather sware and did not repent, that he should be his priest; and\nhe vowed, and said he would not repent that he had threatened to\nbe the plague and death of death (Hosea 13:13,14).\n\n4. He did it effectually and to purpose: he hath stopped the mouth\nof the law with blood; he hath so pacified justice, that it now\ncan forgive; he hath carried sin away from before the face of God,\nand set us quit in his sight; he hath destroyed the devil, abolished\ndeath, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel;\nhe hath wrought such a change in the world by what he has done for\nthem that believe, that all things work together for their good,\nfrom thenceforward and for ever.\n\n[Christ the altar.]\n\nI should now come to the second part of the office of this\nhigh-priest, and speak to that; as also to those things that were\npreparatory unto his executing it; but first, I think convenient\na little to treat of the altar also upon which this sacrifice was\noffered to God.\n\nSome, I conceive, have thought the altar to be the cross on which\nthe body of Christ was crucified, when he gave himself an offering\nfor sin; but they are greatly deceived, for he also himself was\nthe altar through which he offered himself; and this is one of the\ntreasures of wisdom which are hid in him, and of which the world\nand Antichrist are utterly ignorant. I touched this in one hint\nbefore, but now a little more express. The altar is always greater\nthan the gift; and since the gift was the body and soul of Christ--for\nso saith the text, 'He gave himself for our sins'--the altar must\nbe something else than a sorry bit of wood, or than a cursed tree.\nWherefore I will say to such, as one wiser than Solomon said to\nthe Jews, when they superstitiated the gift, in counting it more\nhonourable than the altar, 'Ye fools, and blind, for whether is\ngreater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?' (Matt\n23:18,19).\n\nIf the altar be greater than the gift, and yet the gift so great a\nthing as the very humanity of Christ, can it--I will now direct my\nspeech to the greatest fool--can that greater thing be the cross?\nIs, was the cross, the wooden cross, the cursed tree, that some\nworship, greater than the gift, to wit, than the sacrifice which\nChrist offered, when he gave himself for our sins! O idolatry, O\nblasphemy![24]\n\nQuest. But what then was the altar? Answ. The divine nature\nof Christ, that Eternal Spirit, by and in the assistance of which\nhe 'offered himself without spot to God'; he, through the Eternal\nSpirit 'offered himself' (Heb 9:14).\n\n1. And it must be THAT, because, as was said, the altar is greater\nthan the gift; but there is nothing but Christ's divine nature\ngreater than his human; to be sure, a sorry bit of wood, a tree,\nthe stock of a tree, is not.\n\n2. It must be this, because the text says plainly 'the altar\nsanctifies the gift,' that is, puts worth and virtue into it; but\nwas it the tree, or the Godhead of Christ, that put virtue and\nefficacy into this sacrifice that he offered to God for us? If thou\ncanst but tell thy fingers, judge.\n\n3. The altar was it of old that was to bear up the sacrifice\nuntil it was consumed; and with reference to the sacrifice under\nconsideration, the tree could not bear up that; for our sacrifice\nbeing a man, consisting of soul and body, that which could bear\nhim up in his suffering condition, must be that that could apply\nitself to his reasonable and sensible part for relief and succour,\nand that was of power to keep him even in his spirit, and in a\ncomplete submissiveness to God, in the present condition in which\nhe was; and could the tree do this, think you? Had the tree that\ncommand and government of the soul and sense of Christ, of the\nreason and feeling of the Lord Jesus, as to keep him in this bitter\nsuffering, in that evenness and spotlessness in his torment, as to\ncause that he should come off this great work, without the least\nsmell or tang[25] of imperfection? No, no; it was through the\nEternal Spirit that he 'offered himself without spot to God.'\n\nQuest. Wherefore then served the cross? Answ. I ask, and wherefore\nthen served the wood by which the sacrifices were burned? The\nsacrifices were burned with wood upon the altar; the wood then was\nnot that altar, the wood was that instrument by which the sacrifice\nwas consumed, and the cross that by which Christ suffered his torment\nand affliction. The altar then was it that did bear both the wood\nand sacrifice, that did uphold the wood to burn, and the sacrifice\nto abide the burning. And with reference to the matter in hand,\nthe tree on which Christ was hanged, and the sacrifice of his body,\nwere both upheld by his divine power; yet the tree was no more a\nsacrifice, nor an altar, than was the wood upon the altar; nor was\nthe wood, but the fire, holy, by which the sacrifice was consumed.\nLet the tree then be the tree, the sacrifice the sacrifice, and\nthe altar the altar; and let men have a care how, in their worship,\nthey make altars upon which, as they pretend, they offer the body\nof Christ; and let them leave off foolishly to dote upon wood, and\nthe works of their hands: the altar is greater than the gift or\nsacrifice that was, or is, upon it.\n\n[How Christ executes the office of high-priest.]\n\nWe come now to the second part of the office of this high-priest\nand to show how he performeth that. In order to which, I must,\nas I did with reference to the first, show you what things, as\npreparatory, were to precede the execution of it. We have here, as\nyou see, 'our passover sacrificed for us,' for our encouragement\nto come to the throne of grace; and now let us look to it, as it\nis presented in the holiest of all, and to the order of its being\nso presented.\n\n1. First, then, before there was anything further done, I mean by\nthis high-priest, as to a further application of his offering, the\njudgment of God was waited for by him, with respect to his estimation\nof what was already done, to wit, how that was resented[26] by him;\nthe which he declared to the full by raising him from the dead.\nFor in that he was raised from the dead, when yet he died for our\nsins, it is evident that his offering was accepted, or esteemed\nof value sufficient to effect that for the which it was made a\nsacrifice, which was for our sins; this, therefore, was in order\nto his being admitted into heaven. God, by raising him from the\ndead, justified his death, and counted it sufficient for the saving\nof the world. And this Christ knew would be the effect of his death,\nlong before he gave himself a ransom; where he saith, 'This also\nshall please the Lord better than an ox, or bullock that hath horns\nand hoofs' (Psa 69:31). And again, 'For the Lord God will help me,\ntherefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face\nlike a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed. He is near that\njustifieth me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together; who\nis mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God\nwill help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall\nwax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up' (Isa 50:7-9).\nAll this is the work of the Lord God, his Father, and he had faith\ntherein, as I said before. And since it was God who was to be\nappeased, it was requisite that he should be heard in the matter,\nto wit, whether he was pacified or no: the which he has declared,\nI say, in raising him up from the dead. And this the apostles, both\nPaul and Peter, insinuate, when they ascribe his resurrection to\nthe power of another, rather than to his raising of himself, saying,\n'this Jesus hath God raised up' (Acts 2:32). 'God hath raised' him\nup 'from the dead' (3:15), 'whom God raised from the dead,' and\nthe like (4:10, 5:30, 8:56, 13:30). I say, therefore, that God,\nby raising up Christ from the dead, hath said, that thus far his\noffering pleased him, and that he was content.\n\n2. But lest the world, being besotted by sin, should not rightly\ninterpret actions, therefore God added to his raising him up\nfrom the dead, a solemn exposing of him to view, not to all men,\nbut to such as were faithful, and that might be trusted with the\ncommunicating of it to others: 'Him,' saith Peter, 'God raised'\nfrom the dead, 'and showed him openly, not to all the people, but\nto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink\nwith him, after he rose from the dead' (Acts 10:40,41). And this\nwas requisite, not for that it added anything to the value and worth\nof his sacrifice, but for the help of the faith of them that were\nto have eternal salvation by him. And it is for this cause that\nPaul so enlargeth upon this very thing, to wit, that there were\nthem that could testify that God had raised him up from the dead,\nnamely, that men might see that God was well pleased, and that they\nhad encouragement to come boldly by him to the throne of grace for\nmercy (1 Cor 15:1-8). And this exposing of him to view, was not\nfor the length of a surprising or dazzling moment, but days and\nnights, to the number of no less than forty; and that to the self-same\npersons, to wit, 'the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also,'\nsays the text, 'he showed himself alive after his passion, by many\ninfallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of\nthe things pertaining to the kingdom of God' (Acts 1:2,3). Thus God\ntherefore being willing more abundantly to show him unto the world,\nordered this great season betwixt his resurrection and ascension,\nthat the world might see that they had ground to believe an atonement\nwas made for sin.\n\n3. But again, a third thing that was to precede the execution of\nthe second part of this his priestly office was, the manner and\norder of his going into the holiest; I say, the manner and order\nof his going. He was to go thither in that robe of which mention\nwas made before, to wit, in the virtue of his obedience, for it\nwas that which was to make his way for him as now sprinkled with\nhis blood. He was to go thither with a noise which the Holy Ghost\ncalls a shout, saying, 'God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with\nthe sound of a trumpet' (Psa 47:5). This was prefigured by the bells,\nas I said, which did hang on the border of Aaron's garments. This\nshout seems to signify the voice of men and angels; and this trumpet\nthe voice and joy of God; for so it says, he shall descend: 'For\nthe Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the\nvoice of the archangel, and with the trump of God' (1 Thess 4:16).\nEven as he ascended and went up; for Aaron's bells were to be heard\nwhen he went into, and when he came out of, the holy place (Exo\n28:33-35). But what men were to ascend with him, but, as was said\nafore, the men that 'came out of the graves after his resurrection?'\n(Matt 27:53). And what angels but those that ministered to him here\nin the day of his humiliation? As for the evil ones, he then rode\nin triumph over their heads, and crushed them as captives with\nhis chariot wheels. He is ascended on high, he has 'led captivity\ncaptive, he has received gifts for men' (Eph 4:8).\n\nThus then he ascended unto, into the holy paradise, where he was\nwaited for of a multitude of the heavenly host, and of thousands\nof millions of the spirits of just men made perfect. So approaching\nthe highest heavens, the place of the special presence of God, he was\nbid sit down at his right hand, in token that, for his sufferings'\nsake, God had made him the highest of every creature, and given him\na name above every name, and commanded that at the name of Jesus\nnow all things in heaven should bow, and promised, that at the day\nof judgment, all on earth, and under it, should bow too, to the\nglory of God the Father (Phil 2:6-11). Thus he presented himself\non our behalf unto God, a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour, in\nwhich God resteth for ever, for that the blood of this sacrifice\nhas always with him a pleasing and prevailing voice. It cannot be\ndenied, it cannot be outweighed by the heaviness, circumstances,\nor aggravations of any sin whatsoever, of them that come unto God\nby him. He is always, as I said before, in the midst of the throne,\nand before the throne, 'a Lamb as it had been slain,' now appearing\nin the presence of God for us. Of the manner of his intercession,\nwhether it was vocal or virtual, whether by voice of mouth, or\nmerit of deed, or both, I will not determine; we know but little\nwhile here, how things are done in heaven, and we may soon be too\ncarnal, or fantastical in our apprehensions. Intercession he makes,\nthat is, he manages the efficacy and worth of his suffering with\nGod for us, and is always prevalent in his thus managing of his\nmerits on our behalf. And as to the manner, though it be in itself\ninfinitely beyond what we can conceive while here, yet God hath\nstooped to our weakness, and so expressed himself in this matter,\nthat we might somewhat, though but childishly, apprehend him (1\nCor 13:11,12). And we do not amiss if we conceive as the Word of\nGod hath revealed; for the scriptures are the green poplar, hazel,\nand the chestnut rods that lie in the gutters where we should come\nto drink; all the difficulty is, in seeing the white strakes, the\nvery mind of God there, that we may conceive by it.\n\nBut the text says he prayeth in heaven, he makes intercession there.\nAgain, it saith his blood speaks, and, consequently, why may not\nhis groans, his tears, his sighs, and strong cries, which he uttered\nhere in the days of flesh? I believe they do, and have a strong\nvoice with God for the salvation of his people. He may then intercede\nboth vocally and virtually; virtually to be sure he does, and we are\nallowed so to apprehend, because the text suggesteth such a manner\nof intercession to us; and because our weakness will not admit us\nto understand fully the thing as it is, our belief that he maketh\nintercession for us has also the advantage of being purged from\nits faultiness by his intercession, and we shall be saved thereby,\nbecause we have relied upon his blood shed, and the prevalency of\nthe worthiness of it with God for us; though as to this circumstance,\nthe manner of his interceding, we should be something at a loss.\n\nThe Word says that we have yet but the image of heavenly things,\nor of things in the heavens. I do not at all doubt but that many\nof those that were saved before Christ came in the flesh, though\nthey were, as to the main, right, and relied upon him to the saving\nof their souls, yet came far short of the knowledge of many of the\ncircumstances of his suffering for them (Heb 10:1). Did they all\nknow that he was to be betrayed of Judas? that he was to be scourged\nof the soldiers? that he was to be crowned with thorns? that he\nwas to be crucified between two thieves, and to be pierced till\nblood and water came out of his side? or that he was to be buried\nin Joseph's sepulchre? I say, did all that were saved by faith\nthat he was to come and die for them, understand these, with many\nmore circumstances that were attendants of him to death? It would\nbe rude to think so; because for it we have neither scripture nor\nreason. Even so, we now that believe that 'he ever liveth to make\nintercession for us,' are also very short of understanding of the\nmanner or mode of his so interceding. Yet we believe that he died,\nand that his merits have a voice with God for us; yea, that he\nmanages his own merits before God in way of intercession for us,\nfar beyond what we, while here, are able to conceive.\n\nThe scripture saith that 'all the fulness of the Godhead' dwells\nin him 'bodily' (Col 2:9). It also saith that he is the throne of\nGod, and yet again, that he sits 'on the right hand of the throne' (Isa\n22:23; Heb 12:2). These things are so far from being comprehended\nby the weakest, that they strain the wits and parts of the strongest,\nyet there is a heavenly truth in all. Heavenly things are not easily\nbelieved, no not of believers themselves, while here on earth, and\nwhen they are, they are so but weakly and infirmly.[27] I believe\nthat the very appearing of Christ before God is an intercession as\na priest, as well as a plea of an advocate; and I believe again,\nthat his very life there is an intercession there, a continual\nintercession (Heb 9:24; Rom 5:10).\n\nBut there is yet something further to be said: Christ, the humanity\nof Christ, if in it dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,\nhow then appears he before him to make intercession? or if Christ\nis the throne of grace and mercy-seat, how doth he appear before\nGod as sitting there, to sprinkle that now with his blood? Again,\nif Christ be the altar of incense, how stands he as a priest by\nthat altar to offer the prayers of all the saints thereon, before\nthe throne?\n\n[How these mysteries are to be learned.]\n\nThat all this is written is true; and that it is all truth, is as\ntrue: but that it is all understood by every one that is saved I\ndo not believe is true. I mean, so understood as that they could\nall reconcile the seeming contradictions that are in these texts.\nThere are therefore three lessons that God has set us as to the\nperfecting of our understanding in the mysteries of God. 1. Letters.\n2. Words. 3. Meanings.\n\n1. Letters. I call the ceremonial law so; for there all is set\nforth distinctly, everything by itself; as letters are to children:\nthere you have a priest, a sacrifice, an altar, a holy place a\nmercy-seat: and all distinct.\n\n2. Words. Now in the gospel these letters are put all in a word,\nand Christ is that word, that word of God's mind; and therefore\nthe gospel makes Christ that priest, Christ that sacrifice, Christ\nthat altar, Christ that holy place, Christ that throne of grace,\nand all; for Christ is all: all these meet in him as several letters\nmeet in one word.\n\n3. Meanings. Next to the word you have the meaning, and the meaning\nis more difficult to be learned than either the letters or the\nword; and therefore the perfect understanding of that is reserved\ntill we arrive to a higher form, till we arrive to a perfect man;\n'But when that which is perfect is come, then that' knowledge\n'which is in part, shall be done away' (1 Cor 13:10). Meantime our\nbusiness is to learn to bring the letters into a word, to bring the\nceremonies to Christ, and to make them terminate in him; I mean, to\nfind the priesthood in Christ, the sacrifice in Christ, the altar\nin Christ, the throne of grace in Christ, and also God in Christ,\nreconciling the world unto himself by him. And if we can learn\nthis well, while here, we shall not at all be blamed! for this is\nthe utmost lesson set us, to wit, to learn Christ as we find him\nrevealed in the gospel: 'I determined,' saith Paul, 'not to know\nany thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified' (1 Cor\n2:2). And Christians, after some time, I mean those that pray and\npry into the Word well, do attain to some good measure of knowledge\nof him. It is life eternal to know him, as he is to be known here,\nas he is to be known by the Holy Scriptures (James 17:3). Keep then\nclose to the Scriptures, and let thy faith obey the authority of\nthem, and thou wilt be sure to increase in faith; 'for therein is\nthe righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is\nwritten, The just shall live by faith' (Rom 1:17, 16:25-27).[28]\n\nBelieve then that Christ died, was buried, rose again, ascended,\nand ever liveth to make intercession for thee: and take heed of\nprying too far, for in mysteries men soon lose their way. It is\ngood therefore that thou rest in this, to wit, that he doth so,\nthough thou canst not tell how he doth it. A man at court gets by\nhis intercession a pardon for a man in the country; and the party\nconcerned, after he had intelligence of it, knows that such an one\nhath obtained his pardon, and that by his interceding, but for all\nthat he may be ignorant of his methods of intercession, and so are\nwe, at least in part, of Christ. The meaning then is that I should\nbelieve, that for Christ's sake God will save me since he has\njustified me with his blood; 'being now justified by his blood,\nwe shall be saved from wrath through him' (Rom 5:9). Through his\nintercession, or through his coming between the God whom I have\noffended and me, a poor sinner: through his coming between with\nthe voice of his blood and merits, which speaketh on my behalf to\nGod, because that blood was shed for me, and because those merits,\nin the benefit of them, are made over to me by an act of the grace\nof God, according to his eternal covenant made with Christ. This\nis what I know of his intercession; I mean with reference to the\nact itself; to wit, HOW he makes intercession. And since all the\nfulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily, and sine he also, as\nto his humanity, is the throne of grace; yea, and since he also is\nthe holiest of all, and the rest of God for ever, it has been some\nscruple to me, whether it be not too carnal to imagine as if Christ\nstood distinct in his humanity; distinct, I say, as to space, from\nthe Father as sitting upon a throne, and as so presenting his merits,\nand making vocal prayers for the life and salvation of his people.\nThe more true meaning in my apprehension is, that the presence and\nworth of the human nature, being with the divine, yea, taken into\nunion with God for ever, for the service that was done by God for\nit, in the world, in reconciling his elect unto him, is still, and\never will be, so deserving in his sight as to prevail--I know not\nhow else to express it--with the divine nature, in whom alone is\na power to subdue all impossibilities to itself, to preserve those\nso reconciled to eternal life.\n\nWhen I speak of the human nature, I mean the man Christ, not bereft\nof sense and reasons, nor of the power of willing and affecting;[29]\nbut thus I mean, that the human nature so terminates in the will\nof the divine; and again, the will of the divine so terminates,\nas to saving of sinners, in the merit and will of the human, that\nwhat the Father would the Son wills, and what the Son wills the\nFather acquiesces in for ever. And this the Son wills, and his\nwill is backed with infinite merit, in which also the Father rests,\nthat those, all those whom the Father hath given him, be with him\nwhere he is, that they may behold his glory (John 17:24). And now\nI am come to the will and affections of the high-priest.\n\nII. NATURAL. [The natural qualifications of Jesus Christ to be our\nhigh priest.]\n\nThis leads me to the second head, namely, to the natural qualifications\nof him. And,\n\nFirst. This is one thing that I would urge, he is not of a nature\nforeign to that of man; the angels love us well, but they are not\nso capable of sympathising with us in our distresses, because they\nare not partakers of our nature. Nature hath a peculiar sympathy\nin it; now he is naturally one with us, sin only excepted, and that\nis our advantage too. He is man as we are, flesh and blood as we\nare: born of a woman, and in all points made like unto us, that\nexcepted which the Holy Ghost excepteth. 'Forasmuch then as the\nchildren are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise\ntook part of the same. For verily he took not on him the nature\nof angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham' (Heb 2:14,16).\nThis doth qualify him much; for, as I said before, there is a sympathy\nin nature. A man will not be so affected with the hurt that comes\nto a beast, as he naturally will with the hurt that comes to a man:\na beast will be more affected with those attempts that are made\nupon its own kind to hurt it, than it will be with those that are\nmade upon man. Wherefore? Why, there is a sympathy in nature. Now\nthat Christ, the high priest of the house of God, is naturally one\nwith us, you see the Scriptures plainly affirm. 'God sent forth\nhis Son, made of a woman' (Gal 4:4); he was 'made of the seed of\nDavid, according to the flesh' (Rom 1:3); from the fathers of whom,\n'as concerning the flesh Christ came,' &c. (Rom 9:5; 2 Tim 2:8).\nAnd this must needs then to make him a well-qualified high priest\n(Heb 2:14,15). We will not now speak of the necessity of his taking\nupon him the human nature, to wit, that he might destroy him that\nhad the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver his people;\nfor that would be here too much beside our matter, and be a diversion\nto the reader. We are now upon his High Priest's office, and of\nthose natural qualifications that attend him, as to that; and I\nsay, nature is a great qualification, because in nature there is\nsympathy; and where there is sympathy, there will be a provocation\nto help, a provocation to help with jealousy and indignation against\nthose that afflict. A bear robbed of her whelps is not more provoked\nthan is the Lord Jesus when there are means used to make them miss\nof life eternal, for whom he hath died, and for whom he ever lives\nto make intercession. But,\n\nSecond. As there is natural sympathy in Christ to those for whom he\nis an High Priest, so there is relative sympathy; he has not only\ntaken to or upon him our nature, but he is become one brotherhood\nwith us; now you know brotherhood will carry a man further than\nnature; so then, when nature and relation meet, there is a double\nobligation. 'For both he that sanctifieth,' which is Christ, 'and\nthey who are sanctified,' his saints, 'are all of one,' which is\nGod; and they are all of God, as children of a Father; 'for which\ncause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will\ndeclare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will\nI sing praise unto thee' (Heb 2:11,12). Now a relation is much,\nand a natural relation most of all. Why, here is a natural relation\nbetwixt Christ the High Priest, and those for whom 'he ever liveth\nto make intercession'; a natural relation, I say, and that with\nrespect to the humanity which is the nature subject to affliction\nand distress; 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of\nflesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same'\n(Heb 2:14). So then it is for a brother that he is engaged, for\na brother that he doth make intercession. When Gideon knew by the\nconfession of Zeba and Zalmunna, that the men that they slew at\nTabor were his brethren, his fury came into his face, and he sware\nthey should therefore die (Judg 8:18-21). Relation is a great\nmatter. And therefore it is said again, 'In all things it behoved\nhim to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful\nHigh Priest' (Heb 2:17). A brother is born for adversity; and a\nbrother will go far. This therefore is a second thing or another\nqualification, with which Christ Jesus is furnished to be an High\nPriest; he is a brother, there is a brotherly relation betwixt him\nand us; therefore by virtue of this relation he maketh intercession\nfor us more affectionately.\n\nThird. There are other things in Christ Jesus that makes him naturally\nof an excellent qualification with reference to his priesthood for\nus, and they are the temptations and infirmities wherewith he was\nexercised in the days of his humiliation. It is true, temptations\nand infirmities, strictly considered, are none of our nature, no\nmore are they of his; but yet, if it be proper to say temptations\nand afflictions have a nature, his and ours were naturally the same;\nand that in all points too; for so says the text, 'He was tempted\nin all points, like as we are, yet without sin' (Heb 4:15). Are\nwe tempted to distrust God? so was he: are we tempted to murder\nourselves? so was he: are we tempted with the bewitching vanities\nof this world? so was he: are we tempted to commit idolatry, and to\nworship the devil? so was he (Matt 4:3-10; Luke 4:1-13). So that\nherein we also were alike; yea, from his cradle to his cross he was\na man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, a man of affliction\nthroughout the whole course of his life.\n\nAnd observe it, He was made so, or subjected thereto by the ordinance\nof God; nay, further, it behoved him to be made so, that is, to be\nmade like unto us in all things, the better to capacitate him to\nthe work of his priesthood, with the more bowels and compassion.\nWe will read to you the text; 'Wherefore in all things it behoved\nhim to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be,' qualified\nto be, 'a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining\nto God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in\nthat he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour\nthem that are tempted' (Heb 2:17,18). See here how he is qualified,\nand to what end; he was tempted as we are, suffered by temptations\nas we do, in all points and things as we are; that he might be\nbowels, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, in\nthings pertaining to God, to make up the difference that is made\nby sin between God and his people, to make reconciliation for the\nsins of the people. Yea, he by being tempted, and by suffering as\nhe did, he is prepared and enabled so to do; 'for in that he himself\nhath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are\ntempted.' Wherefore, I also call this qualification both natural\nand necessary; natural, because in kind the same with ours; that\nis, his temptations were the same with ours; the same in nature,\nthe same in design, the same as to their own natural tendency; for\ntheir natural tendency was to have ruined both him and us, but God\nprevented. They also were necessary, though not of themselves, yet\nmade so by him that can bring good out of evil, and light out of\ndarkness; made so, I say, to us, for whose sakes they were suffered\nto assault and afflict him, namely, that he might be able to be\nmerciful, faithful, and succouring to us.\n\nFourth. Another qualification with which our High Priest is\nfurnished, for the better fitting of him to make intercession for\nus, is, that we are his members; to be a member is more than to\nbe of the same nature, or the nearest of relations, that excepted.\nSo, then, now he makes intercession for his own self, for his own\nbody, and for the several members of his body. The High Priest\nunder the law did use to offer up sacrifice for himself; first\n'for himself,' for his own sins, and then 'for the errors of the\npeople.' I will not say that Christ had any sin that was personally,\nor by his act, his own; for that would be to blaspheme the name of\nthat Holy One; but yet I will say, he made the sins of the people\nhis own (Psa 69:5). Yea, God the Father made them his; those also\nfor whom he ever liveth to make intercession, are united to him,\nmade members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; and so\nare any part of himself (2 Cor 5:21).\n\nBut we are now about his natural qualifications, and this is one;\nthat they for whom he ever liveth to make intercession are his\nmembers, the members of his body; 'we are members of his body, of\nhis flesh, and of his bones,' so saith the Word (Eph 5:30). Wherefore\nhere is a near concern, for that his church is part of himself; it\nis his own concern, it is for our own flesh. 'No man ever yet hated\nhis own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it' (Eph 5:29).--Things\nare thus spoken, because of the infirmity of our flesh.--So that\nhad Christ no love to us as we are sinners, yet because we are\npart of himself, he cannot but care for us, nature puts him upon\nit; yea, and the more infirm and weak we are, the more he is touched\nwith the feeling of our infirmities, the more he is afflicted for\nus: 'For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with\nthe feeling of our infirmities' (Heb 4:15). He at no time loseth\nthis his fellow-feeling, because he always is our head, and we the\nmembers of his. I will add, the infirm member is most cared for,\nmost pitied, most watched over to be kept from harms, and most\nconsulted for.[30]\n\nI love to play the child with little children, and have learned\nsomething by so doing; I have met with a child that has had a sore\nfinger; yea, so sore as to be altogether at present useless; and\nnot only so, but by reason of its infirmity, has been a let or\nhindrance to the use of all the fingers that have been upon that\nhand, then have I began to bemoan the child, and said, Alas! my\npoor boy, or girl, hast got a sore finger! Ah! quoth the child,\nwith water in its eyes, and hath come to me to be bemoaned. Then I\nhave begun to offer to touch the sore finger. O! saith the child,\npray do not hurt me: I then have replied, Canst thou do nothing\nwith this finger? No, saith the child, nor with this hand either;\nthen have I said, Shall we cut off this finger, and buy my child\na better, a brave golden finger? At this the child has started,\nstared in my face, gone back from me, and entertained a kind of\nindignation against me, and has no more cared to be intimate with\nme. Then have I begun to make some use of that good sermon which\nthis little child has preached unto me; and thus have I gone on.\nIf membership be so dear, if this child has such tenderness to the\nmost infirm, the most useless of its members; if it counts me its\nfriend no longer than when I have a mouth to bemoan and carriages\nthat show tenderness to this useless finger; what an interest doth\nmembership give on in the body, and what compassions hath the soul\nfor such an useless thing, because it is a member! and turning all\nthis over to Jesus Christ, then instead of matter and corruption,\nthere presently comes honey to me out of this child's sore finger;\nI take leave to tell you now how I use to play. And though\nI have told this tale upon so grave a truth, as is the membership\nof Christians with their head, yet bear with me; no child can be\nso tender of its sore finger as is the Son of God of his afflicted\nmembers; he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our\ninfirmities.[31]\n\nAh! who would not make many supplications, prayers, and intercessions,\nfor a leg, for an eye, for a foot, for a hand, for a finger, rather\nthan they will lose it? And can it be imagined that Christ alone\nshall be like the foolish ostrich, hardened against his young, yea,\nagainst his members? It cannot be.\n\nShould he lose a member, he would be disfigured, maimed, dismembered,\nimperfect, next to monstrous. For his body is called his fulness,\nyea, the fulness of him that fills all in all. This has naturally\na respect for those for whom he ever liveth to make intercession;\nyea, an unfathomable respect for them, because they are his members.\n\nFifth. But again, when nature, relation, and membership is urged\nto show the fit qualifications wherewith Christ is endued, I intend\nnot to intimate, as if the bottom of all lay here; for then it might\nbe urged that one imperfect has all these; for who knows not that\nsinful man has all these qualifications in him towards his nature,\nrelations, and members? I have therefore, as I said, thus discoursed,\nonly for demonstration-sake, and to suit myself with the infirmity\nof your flesh. I might come, also, in the next place, to tell you,\nthat Jesus Christ our High Priest is thus, with reference to other\ndesigns. We are his purchase and he counts us so; his jewels, and\nhe counts us so; his estate real, and he counts us so (Psa 16:5,6).\nAnd you know a man will do much, speak much, intercede much and\nlong, for that which he thus is interested in. But we will come to\nspeak more particularly of the exceeding excellency of his natural\nqualifications, and show you that he hath such as are peculiar to\nhimself alone, and that we are concerned in them.\n\n[The peculiar natural qualifications of Christ as our High Priest.]\n\n1. He is holy, and so a suitable High Priest. There is a holiness\nthat sets further from, and a holiness that brings one nearer\nto, and to be concerned the more with the condition of those in\naffliction; and that holiness is that which is entailed unto office.\nWhen a man is put into an office, the more unholy he is, the worse\nhe performs his office; and the more holy, the better he performs\nhis office. For his holiness obliges him to be faithful unto men,\nwherein he is concerned by his office. Hence you read, that he is\n'a faithful High Priest,' because he is a holy one, and 'such an\nHigh Priest became us, who is holy,' &c. (Heb 2:17, 7:26). 'Good\nand upright is the Lord' Jehovah, Christ Jesus, 'therefore will\nhe teach sinners in the way' (Psa 25:8). 'He that ruleth over men\nmust be just, ruling in the fear of God' (2 Sam 23:3). I mention\nthese texts to show you, that holiness, when entailed to office,\nmakes a man do that office the better. Now then, Christ is holy,\nand he is made, called, and made of God an High Priest, after\nthe order of Melchisedec, and is to manage that his office for\nthee with God; that is to say, to continue to make reconciliation\nfor iniquity; for that iniquity that cleaveth unto thee, and that\nspuriously breaketh, or issueth from thy flesh after thou art\ncalled and converted. For we are now upon the second part of the\nexecution of the priesthood of Christ; that which he executeth, I\nsay; and by executing takes away the iniquity of our holy things\nand of our life, after our turning to God by him. Now he that is to\ndo this is holy, and so one that will make conscience of performing\nthat office for us, with which he is intrusted of God. Hence he is\nset in opposition to those high priests that had infirmities, that\nwere not holy, and upon this very account preferred above them.\n'For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the\nword of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is\nconsecrated,' perfected, or holy 'for evermore' (Heb 7:28). This\ntherefore is a great thing, to wit, that we have an High Priest\nthat is holy, and so one that will not fail to perform to the utmost\nthe trust committed to him in our behalf, to wit, 'to offer both\ngifts and sacrifices for sins' (Heb 5:1). This is one thing.\n\n2. There is added to this of his holiness another; and that is\nharmless. 'For such an High Priest became us who is holy, harmless'\n(Heb 7:26). A harmful man, when he is in office, O how much mischief\nmay he do! Such an one is partial in doing his office, such an\none will put the poor by his right, such an one will buy and sell\na cause, a man, an interest, will do or not do, as his harmfulness\nprompts him to it; 'so is a wicked ruler over the poor people' (Prov\n28:15). But now our Jesus, our High Priest, is holy, harmless; he\nwill wrong no man, he will deprive no man, he will contemn no man,\nhe will deny to no man that comes to God by him, the benefit and\nadvantage of his blessed intercession; he respecteth not persons,\nnor taketh reward. A harmful man will stomach, and hate, and\nprejudice a man; will wait for an opportunity to do him a mischief;\nwill take the advantage, if he can, to deny him his right, and keep\nfrom him his due, when yet it is in the power of his hand to help\nhim. O! but Christ is harmless, harmless as a dove, he thinks\nno ill, intends no ill, doth no ill; but graciously, innocently,\nharmlessly, makes intercession for thee; nor will he be prevailed\nwith to prejudice thy person, or to forbear to take up thy name\ninto his lips, be thy infirmities, and weaknesses, and provocations\nnever so many, if thou indeed comest to God by him. He is holy,\nand harmless, and so the more fit to become our High Priest and to\nmake intercession for us.\n\n3. But again, this is not all, he also is undefiled; 'For such an\nHigh Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled.' This term\nis put in to show, that he neither is, nor can be found, neither\nnow, nor at any time, faulty in his office. A man that is holy may\nyet be defiled; a man that is harmless may yet be defiled. We are\nbid to be holy and harmless; and in a gospel sense so every Christian\nis. O! but Christ is so in a legal sense; in the eye of the law,\nperfectly so. This is a great matter, for it shows, that as nothing\ndone by us can tempt him to be hurtful to us; so there is nothing\nin himself that can tempt him so to be. A man that is defiled\nhas that within him that will put him upon using of his office\nunfaithfully, though he should have no provocation from those for\nwhose good he is to execute his office; but he that is undefiled--undefiled\nin a law sense--as our Lord Jesus is, is such an one as doth not\nonly not do hurt, and not act falsely in his office, but one that\ncannot, one that knoweth not, how to be unfaithful to his trust.\nHe is holy, harmless, undefiled, this therefore is a great thing.\nHe has not the original of hurtfulness in him, there is no such root\nthere; there is a root of bitterness, springing up in us, by which\nnot only ourselves, but ofttimes others are defiled (Heb 12:15). O!\nbut our High Priest is undefiled, he is not corrupt, nor corrupteth;\nhe doth his office fairly, faithfully, holily, justly, according\nto, or answering, our necessities, and the trust reposed in him,\nand committed to him. But,\n\n4. This is not all; as he is holy, harmless, and undefiled; so he\nis separate from sinners, both in his conception, in his composition,\nand the place ordained for him to execute this part of his High\nPriest's office in. He was not conceived in the womb by carnal\ngeneration; he was not made up of polluted and defiled nature; he\nofficiateth not with those materials that are corrupt, stained, or\nimperfect; but with those that are unspotted, even with the spotless\nsacrifice of his own unblemished offering. He, nor his offering,\nhas any such tang, as had the priests, and their sacrifices under\nthe law, to wit, sin and imperfection; he is separate from them in\nthis respect, further than is an angel from a beast. He has none\nof the qualities, actions, or inclinations of sinners; his ways\nare only his own; he never saw them, nor learned them, but of the\nFather; the none upright among men, wherefore he is separated from\nthem to be a priest. Again,\n\n5. As he is thus, so again, he is said to be 'higher than the\nheavens.' For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, and\nundefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.\nThe text saith, that neither saint, nor heavens, are clean in God's\nsight. 'Behold he puts no trust in his servants,' he chargeth his\nangels with folly; and again, 'Behold he putteth no trust in his\nsaints, yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight' (Job 4:18,\n15:15). Wherefore, by this expression, he shows us that our High\nPriest is more noble than either heaven or angel: yea, more clean\nand perfect than any. It shows us also that all the heavenly host\nare at his command, to do as his intercession shall prevail with\nthe Father for us. All angels worship him, and at his word they\nbecome, they all become ministering spirits for them who shall be\nheirs of salvation.\n\nBesides, by this word he shows, that it is impossible that our High\nPriest should degenerate or decay; for that he is made 'higher than\nthe heavens'; the spirits sometimes in the heavens have decayed (2\nPeter 2:4). The heavens themselves decay and wax old; and that is\nthe farthest that by the Word we are admitted to go (Heb 1:10-12).\nBut as for him that is above the heavens, that is made higher than\nthe heavens, that is ascended up far above all heavens; he is the\nsame, and 'his years fail not' (Heb 1:12). 'The same yesterday,\ntoday, and for ever' (Heb 13:8). This therefore is added, to show\nthat Christ is neither as the angels, nor heavens, subject to\ndecay, or degenerate, or to flag and grow cold in the execution of\nhis office; but that he will be found even at the last, when he is\ncome to the end of this work, and is about to come out of the holy\nplace, as affectionate, as full of love, as willing, and desirous\nafter our salvation, as he was the first moment that he was made\nHigh Priest, and took upon him to execute that his blessed office\nfor us. Wherefore our High Priest is no such one as you read\nof in the law (Lev 21:18). He is no dwarf, hath no blemish, nor\nany imperfection; therefore is not subject to flag or fail in due\nexecution of his office, but is able to save to the uttermost them\nthat come unto God by him, 'seeing he ever liveth to make intercession\nfor them.' And it is well worth our consideration, that it is\nsaid he is made thus; that is, appointed, instituted, called, and\nqualified thus of God; this shows the Father's heart as well as\nthe Son's, to usward, to wit, that this priesthood was of him, and\nthe glorious effects thereof by him. 'Let us therefore come boldly\nunto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace\nto help in time of need.'\n\n[The second motive, we are sure to speed.]\n\nSECOND. I come now to the second motive, to wit, that we may find\ngrace and mercy to help in time of need; or we shall find grace and\nmercy to help, if we come as we should, to the throne of grace. In\nthis motive we have these three things considerable. First, That\nsaints are like to meet with needy times while they are in this\nworld. Second, That nothing can carry us through our needy times\nbut more, or a continual supply of mercy and grace. Third, That\nmercy and grace is to be had at the throne of grace, and we must\nfetch it from thence by prayer, if we would, as we should, go\nthrough these needy times.\n\nFirst. For the first of these, that saints are like to meet with\nneedy times, or with such times as will show them that they need a\ncontinual assistance of the grace of God, that they may go rightly\nthrough this world. This is therefore a motive, that weareth a\nspur in the heel of it, a spur to prick us forward to supplicate\nat the throne of grace. This needy time is in other places called\nthe perilous time, the evil day, the hour and power of darkness,\nthe day of temptation, the cloudy and dark day (2 Tim 3:1; Eph 6:13;\nLuke 22:53; Heb 3:8; Eze 34:12; Gen 47:9; Matt 6:34). And indeed,\nin the general, all the days of our pilgrimage here are evil,\nyea, every day has a sufficiency of evil in it to destroy the best\nsaint that breatheth, were it not for the grace of God. But there\nare also, as I have hinted, particular special times, times more\neminently dangerous and hazardous unto saints. As,\n\n[Ten special times of need.]\n\nThere are their young days, the days of their youth, and childhood\nin grace. This day is usually attended with much evil towards him\nor them that are asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward.\nNow the devil has lost a sinner; there is a captive has broke prison,\nand one run away from his master: now hell seems to be awakened\nfrom sleep, the devils are come out, they roar, and roaring they\nseek to recover their runaway. Now tempt him, threaten him, flatter\nhim, stigmatise him, throw dust into his eyes, poison him with\nerror, spoil him while he is upon the potter's wheel; any thing\nto keep him from coming to Jesus Christ. And is not this a needy\ntime; doth not such an one want abundance of grace? is it not\nof absolute necessity that thou, if thou art the man thus beset,\nshouldst ply it at the throne of grace, for mercy and grace to help\nthee in such a time of need as this? To want a spirit of prayer\nnow, is as much as thy life is worth. O, therefore, you that know\nwhat I say, you that are broke loose from hell, that are fled for\nrefuge to lay hold on the hope set before you, and that do hear\nthe lion roar after you, and that are kept awake with the continual\nvoice of his chinking chain, cry as you fly; yea, the promise is,\nthat they that come to God with weeping, with supplication, he will\nlead them. Well, this is one needy time, now thy hedge is low, now\nthy branch is tender, now thou art but in the bud. Pray that thou\nbeest not marred in the potter's hand.\n\n2. The time of prosperity is also a time of need, I mean of thy\nspiritual prosperity. For as Satan can tell how to suit temptations\nfor thee in the day of thy want, so he has those that can entangle\nthee in the day of thy fulness. He has his spiritual wickednesses\nin the high and heavenly places (Eph 6:12). He can tell how to lay\na snare for thee in the land of Canaan, as well as in the wilderness;\nin thy time of receiving good things, as well as in thy hungry and\nempty hours. Nay, such times seem to be the most dangerous, not\nin themselves, but through the deceits of our heart. Hence Moses\ngives this caution to the children of Israel, that when God had\ngiven them the promised land, and vineyards, and wells, and olive\ntrees, and when they had eaten and were full, 'Then,' says he,\n'beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of\nthe land of Egypt, from the house of bondage' (Deut 6:10-13). And\nagain, he doubleth this caution, saying, 'When thou hast eaten and\nart full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land\nwhich he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy\nGod in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his\nstatutes, which I command thee this day; lest when thou hast eaten\nand art full,' and thou in all good things art increased, 'then\nthine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which\nbrought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of\nbondage'; all this may be applied spiritually (Deut 8:10-14). For\nthere are, as I said, snares laid for us in our best things; and\nhe that has great enjoyments, and forgets to pray for grace to\nkeep him humble then, shall quickly be where Peter was, after his\nknowledge of the Lord Jesus by the revelation of the Father.\n\n3. Another needy time is a time when men are low and empty, as to\nworldly good; this time is full of temptations and snares. At this\ntime, men will, if they look not well to their doings and goings,\nbe tempted to strain curtesies both with conscience and with God's\nWord, and adventure to do things that are dangerous, and that have\na tendency to make all their religion and profession vain. This\nholy Agur was aware of; so he prayed, Let me not be rich and full,\nlest I deny thee; let me not be poor, lest I steal, and take the\nname of my God in vain (Prov 30:7-9). There are many inconveniences\nthat attend him that is fallen into decay in this world. It is\nan evil day with him, and the devils will be as busy with him, as\nthe flies are with a lean and scabbed sheep. It shall go hard but\nsuch a man shall be full of maggots; full of silly, foolish, idle\ninventions, to get up, and to abound with fulness again. It is not\na time now, will Satan say, to retain a tender conscience, to regard\nthy word or promise, to pay for what thou buyest, or to stick at\npilfering, and filch from thy neighbour.[32] This Agur was afraid\nof; therefore he prayed that God would keep him from that which\nwould be to him a temptation to do it. How many in our day have,\non these very accounts, brought religion to a very ill savour, and\nthemselves unto the snare of the devil, and all because they have\nnot addicted themselves to pray to God for grace to help in this\ntime of need, but rather have left off the thing that is good, and\ngiven up themselves to the temptations of the devil, and the subtle\nand ensnaring motions of the flesh.\n\n4. Another needy time is the day of persecution; this is called,\nas was hinted before, 'the hour of darkness,' 'the cloudy and dark\nday.' This day, therefore, is full of snares, and of evils of every\nkind. Here is the fear of man, the terrors of a prison, of loss of\ngoods and life.[33] Now all things look black, now the fiery trial\nis come. He that cannot now pray; he that now applieth not himself\nto God on the throne of grace, by the priesthood of Jesus Christ,\nis like to take a fall before all men upon the stage; a foul fall,\na fall that will not only break his own bones, but also the hearts\nof those that fear God and behold it: 'Come therefore boldly unto\nthe throne of grace, that ye may obtain mercy, and find grace to\nhelp in time of need.'\n\n5. Another time of need is that time wherein thou changest thy\ncondition, and enterest into a new relation. For here also the\nsnares and traps lie waiting for thee. There is a hopeful child goes\nto service, or to be an apprentice; there is a young man, a young\nmaid, entereth into a married condition, and though they pray before,\nyet they leave off to pray then. Why, these people are oftentimes\nruined and undone; the reason is, this change is attended with new\nsnares, with new cares, and with new temptations, of the which,\nbecause through unwatchfulness they are not aware, they are taken,\ndrawn to perdition and destruction by them. Many in my short day\nhave gone, I doubt, down to the pit, THIS way, that have sometimes\nbeen to appearance the very foremost and hopefulest in the place\nwhere they have lived. O how soon has their fire gone out; has their\nlamps forborne to burn! How quickly have they lost their love to\ntheir ministers, by whom they were illuminated, and to the warmest\nChristians, through communion with whom they used to be kept awake\nand savoury! How quickly have they found them out new friends, new\ncompanions, new ways and methods of life, and new delights to feed\ntheir foolish minds withal! Wherefore, O thou that art in this fifth\nhead concerned, 'Come boldly unto the throne of grace, to obtain\nmercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'\n\n6. Another time of need is, when the generality of professors are\ndecayed; when the custom of fancies and fooleries have taken away\nall gravity and modesty from among the children of men. Now pray,\nor thou diest; yea, pray against those decays, those vain customs,\nthose foolish fancies, those light and vain carriages that have\novertaken others, else they will assuredly knock at thy door, and\nobtain favour at thy hand, the which if they do, they will quickly\nbring thee down into the dirt with others, and put thee in peril\nof damnation as well as they.\n\n7. Another time of need is, the time of guilt contracted, and of\nthe hiding of God's face. This is a dangerous time. If thou now\nshalt forbear to pray, thou art undone, for the natural tendency\nof guilt is to drive a man from God. So it served our first father;\nand ofttimes when God hides his face, men run into desperation, and\nso throw up all duties, and say as he of old, 'What should I wait\nfor the Lord any longer?' (2 Kings 6:33). Now thy great help against\nthis is prayer, continuing in prayer. Prayer wrestleth with the\ndevil, and will overthrow him: prayer wrestleth with God, and will\novercome him: prayer wrestleth with all temptations, and makes them\nfly. Great things have been done by prayer, even by the prayer of\nthose that have contracted guilt, and that have by their sins lost\nthe smiles and sense of the favour of God. Wherefore, when this\nneedy, this evil time has overtaken thee, pray: 'Come boldly unto\nthe throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in\ntime of need.'\n\n8. The day of reproach and slander is another time of need, or a\nday in which thou wilt want supplies of grace. Sometimes we meet\nwith such days wherein we are loaden with reproaches, slanders,\nscandals, and lies. Christ found the day of reproach a burdensome\nday unto him; and there is many a professor driven quite away from\nall conscience towards God, and open profession of his name, by\nsuch things as these (Psa 69:7). Reproach is, when cast at a man,\nas if he was stoning to death with stones. Now ply it hard at the\nthrone of grace, for mercy and grace to bear thee up, or thou wilt\neither miscarry or sink under ground by the weight of reproach that\nmay fall upon thee.[34]\n\n9. Another time of need is that wherein a man's friends desert\nand forsake him, because of his gospel principles, or of those\ntemptations that attend his profession. This is a time that often\nhappeneth to those that are good. Thus it was with Christ, with\nPaul, with Job, with Heman, and so has been with many other of\nGod's servants in the day of their temptations in this world; and\na sore time it is. Job complained under it, so did Heman, Paul,\nand Christ (John 6:66; 2 Tim 1:15; Job 19:13-19). Now a man is as\nforlorn as a pelican in the wilderness, as an owl in the desert,\nor as a sparrow upon the house-top. If a man cannot now go to the\nthrone of grace by prayer, through Christ, and so fetch grace for\nhis support from thence, what can he do? He cannot live of himself\n(John 15:4). Wherefore this is a sore evil.\n\n10. Another time of need is the day of death, when I am to pack up\nand to be gone from hence, the way of all the earth.[35] Now the\ngreatest trial is come, excepting that of the day of judgment. Now\na man is to be stripped of all, but that which cannot be shaken.\nNow a man grows near the borders of eternity. Now he begins to\nsee into the skirts of the next world. Now death is death, and the\ngrave the grave indeed! Now he begins to see what it is for body\nand soul to part, and what to go and appear before God (Eccl 12:5).\nNow the dark entry, and the thoughts of what is in the way from\na deathbed to the gate of the holy heaven, comes nearer the heart\nthan when health and prosperity do compass a man about. Wherefore\nthis is like to be a trying time, a time of need indeed. A prudent\nman will make it one of the great concerns of his whole life to\nget, and lay up a stock of grace for this day, though the fool will\nrage and be confident: for he knows all will be little enough to\nkeep him warm in his soul, while cold death strokes his hand over\nhis face, and over his heart, and is turning his blood into jelly;\nwhile strong death is loosing his silver cord, and breaking his\ngolden bowl! (Eccl 12:6). Wherefore, I say, this motive weareth\na spur on his heel, a spur to prick us on to the throne of grace\nfor mercy, and grace to help in time of need. But,\n\n[Continual supplies of grace essential to our welfare.]\n\nSecond. I come now to the next thing, which is, to show that nothing\ncan carry us through our needy times, but more or a continual\nsupply of mercy and grace. This the text fully implies, because it\ndirecteth us to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace for that\nvery end. And had there been any thing else that could have done\nit, the apostle would have made mention of it, and would also have\ndirected the saints unto it. But forasmuch as he here makes mention\nof the needy time, and directs them to the throne of grace for\nmercy and grace to help, it followeth that mercy and grace, and that\nonly, can help us in the evil time. Now mercy and grace are to be\ndistinctly considered. 1. Mercy, for that by it we have through\nChrist the continuation and multiplication of forgivenesses,\nwithout which there is no salvation. 2. Grace, for that by it we\nare upheld, supported, and enabled to go through our needy times,\nas Christians, without which there is no salvation neither. The\nfirst all will grant, the second is clear: 'If any man draws back,\nmy soul shall have no pleasure in him; but we are not of them who\ndraw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving\nof the soul' (Heb 10:38,39).\n\n1. Mercy is that by which we are pardoned, even all the falls,\nfaults, failings, and weaknesses, that attend us, and that we are\nincident to, in this our day of temptation; and for this mercy we\nshould pray, and say, 'Our Father, forgive us our trespasses' (Matt\n6:9-12). For though mercy is free in the exercise of it to usward,\nyet God will have us ask, that we may have; as he also saith in\nthe text, 'Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may\nobtain mercy.' Here then we have one help, and that is, the mercy\nof God is to be extended to us from his throne through Jesus Christ,\nfor our pardon and forgiveness in all those weaknesses that we are\nattended with in the needy or evil times; and we should come to\nGod for this very thing. This is that which David means, when he\nsays, 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of\nmy life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever' (Psa\n23:6). And again, 'When I said my foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord,\nheld me up' (Psa 94:18). Set me clear and free from guilt, and from\nthe imputation of sin unto death, by Christ.\n\nNor can any thing help where this is wanting; for our parts, our\nknowledge, our attainments, nor our graces, cannot so carry us\nthrough this world, but that we shall be guilty of that that will\nsink us down to hell, without God's pardoning mercy. It is not the\ngrace that we have received can do it, nor the grace that is to be\nreceived that can do it; nothing can do it but the pardoning mercy\nof God: for because all our graces are here imperfect, they cannot\nproduce a spotless obedience. But where there is not a spotless\nobedience, there must of necessity follow a continuation of pardon\nand forgiveness by mercy, or I know what will become of the soul.\nHere, therefore, the apostle lays an obligation upon thee to the\nthrone of grace, to wit, that thou mayest obtain mercy, a continuation\nof mercy, mercy as long as thou art like to live this vain life on\nthe earth; mercy that will reach through all thy days. For there\nis not a day, nor a duty; not a day that thou livest, nor a duty\nthat thou dost, but will need that mercy should come after to take\naway thy iniquity.[36] Nay, thou canst not receive mercy so clearly,\nas not to stand in need of another act of mercy to pardon weakness\nin thy no better receiving the last. We receive not our mercies\nso humbly, so readily, so gladly, and with that thankfulness as\nwe should: and therefore, for the want of these, have the need of\nanother, and another act of God's sin-pardoning mercy, and need\nshall have thereof, as long as evil time shall last with us.\n\nBut is not this great grace, that we should thus be called upon\nto come to God for mercy? Yea, is not God unspeakably good, in\nproviding such a throne of grace, such a sacrifice, such a high\npriest, and so much mercy for us, and then to invite us to come\nwith boldness to him for it? Nay, doth not his kindness yet further\nappear, by giving of us items and intimations of needy times, and\nevil days, on purpose to provoke us to come to him for mercy? This\nthen shows us, as also we have hinted before, that the throne of\ngrace, and Christ Jesus our High Priest, are both provided upon\nthe account of our imperfections, namely, that we who are called\nmight not be, by remaining weaknesses, hindered of, but obtain eternal\ninheritance. Weaknesses, such weaknesses remain in the justified,\nand such slips and failings are found in and upon them, that call\nfor a course of mercy and forgiveness to attend them. Farther,\nthis also intimates, that God's people should not be dejected at\nthe apprehensions of their imperfections; I say, not so dejected,\nas therefore to cast off faith, and hope, and prayer; for a throne\nof grace is provided for them, to the which they may, they must,\nthey ought continually to resort for mercy, sin-pardoning mercy.\n\n2. As we are here to obtain mercy, so we are here to find grace.\nThey that obtain mercy, shall find grace, therefore they are put\ntogether. That they may obtain mercy and find grace; only they\nmust find mercy first; for as forgiveness at first goes before\nsanctification in the general, so forgiveness afterwards goes before\nparticular acts of grace for further sanctification. God giveth\nnot the spirit of grace to those that he has not first forgiven by\nmercy, for the sake of Christ.[37] Also so long as he as a Father\nforbears to forgive us as his adopted, so long we go without those\nfurther additions of grace that are here suggested in the text.\nBut when we have obtained mercy to forgive, then we also find grace\nto our renewing. Therefore he saith, First obtain mercy, and then\nfind grace.\n\nGrace here I take to be that grace which God has appointed for us,\nto dwell in us; and that by and through the continual supply of\nwhich we are to be enabled to do and suffer, and to manage ourselves\nin doing and suffering according to the will of God. 'Let us have\ngrace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly\nfear' (Heb 12:28). So again, 'he giveth more grace; wherefore he\nsaith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble'\n(James 4:6; Prov 3:34; 1 Peter 5:5). The grace, therefore, that\nthis text intends, is grace given or to be given; grace received\nor to be received; grace a root, a principle of grace, with its\ncontinual supplies for the perfecting of that salvation that God\nhas designed for us. This was that which comforted Paul, when the\nmessenger of Satan was sent to buffet him, it was said unto him\nby Christ, 'My grace is sufficient for thee' (2 Cor 12:9). As who\nshould say, Paul, be not utterly cast down, I have wherewith all\nto make thee stand, and overcome, and that is my grace, by which\nthou shalt be supported, strengthened, comforted, and made to live\na triumphant life, notwithstanding all that oppress thee. But this\ncame to him upon his praying; for this I prayed to God thrice,\nsaith he. So again, 'God is able to make all grace abound toward\nyou; that ye always have all sufficiency in all things, may abound\nto every good work' (2 Cor 9:8). Thus you see, that by grace in\nthese places is meant that spirit, and those principles of grace,\nby the increase and continual supply of which we are inwardly\nstrengthened, and made to abound to every good work.\n\nThis then is the conclusion, That as there is mercy to be obtained\nby us at the throne of grace, for the pardon of all our weaknesses;\nso there is also grace there to be found that will yet strengthen\nus more, to all good walking and living before him. He giveth more\ngrace, and they receive one time or another abundance of grace\nthat shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. This then teaches us\nseveral things, some of which I will mention. As,\n\n[What this should teach us.]\n\n1. That nature, as nature, is not capable of serving of God: no,\nnot nature where grace dwells, as considered abstract from that\ngrace that dwells in it. Nothing can be done aright without grace,\nI mean no part nor piece of gospel-duty. 'Let us have grace whereby\nwe may serve God acceptably.' Nature, managed by grace, seasoned\nwith grace, and held up with grace, can serve God acceptably. Let\nus have grace, seek for and find grace to do so; for we cannot do\nso but by grace: 'By the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace\nwhich was bestowed upon me, was not in vain; but I laboured more\nabundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was\nwith me' (1 Cor 15:10). What can be more plain than this beautiful\ntext? For the apostle doth here quite shut out nature, sanctified\nnature, for he indeed was a sanctified man, and concludes that even\nhe, as of himself, did nothing of all the great works that he did;\nbut they were done, he did them by the grace of God that was in\nhim. Wherefore nature, sanctified nature, as nature, can of itself\ndo nothing to the pleasing of God the Father.\n\nIs not this the experience of all the godly? Can they do that at\nall times which they can do at some times? Can they pray, believe,\nlove, fear, repent, and bow before God always alike? No. Why so?\nthey are the same men, the same human nature, the same saints.\nAye, but the same grace, in the same degree, operation, and life of\ngrace, doth not so now work on that man, that nature, that saint;\ntherefore, notwithstanding he is what he is, he cannot do at all\ntimes alike. Thus therefore it is manifest, that nature, simply\nas such, is a great way off of doing that which is acceptable with\nGod. Refined, purified, sanctified nature, cannot do but by the\nimmediate supplies, lifts, and helps of that spirit and principle\nof grace by the which it is so sanctified.\n\n2. As nature, even where grace is, cannot, without the assistance\nof that grace, do anything acceptably before God; so grace received,\nif it be not also supplied with more grace, cannot cause that we\ncontinue to do acceptable service to God. This also is clear by the\ntext, For he speaketh there to them that had received grace; yea,\nputs himself into the number, saying, 'Let us come boldly unto the\nthrone of grace, that we may find grace to help in time of need.'\nIf grace received would do, what need for more? What need we pray\nfor more? What need we go to the throne of grace for more? This\nvery exhortation saith it will not: present supplies of grace are\nproportioned to our present need, and to help us to do a present\nwork or duty.[38] But is our present need all the need that we are\nlike to have, and the present work all the work that we have to do\nin the world? Even so the grace that we have received at present,\nthough it can help us to do a present work, it cannot, without\na further supply, help us to do what is to be done hereafter.\nWherefore, the apostle saith, that his continuing to do was through\nhis obtaining help, continual help of God: 'Having, therefore,'\nsaith he, 'obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing\nboth to small and great,' &c. (Acts 26:22). There must be a daily\nimploring of God for daily supplies from him, if we will do our\ndaily business as we should.\n\nA present dispensation of grace is like a good meal, a seasonable\nshower, or a penny in one's pocket, all which will serve for the\npresent necessity. But will that good meal that I ate last week,\nenable me, without supply, to do a good day's work in this? or will\nthat seasonable shower which fell last year, be, without supplies,\na seasonable help to the grain and grass that is growing now? or\nwill that penny that supplied my want the other day, I say, will\nthe same penny also, without a supply, supply my wants today? The\nsame may, I say, be said of grace received; it is like the oil in\nthe lamp, it must be fed, it must be added to. And there, there\nshall be a supply, 'wherefore he giveth more grace.' Grace is the\nsap, which from the root maintaineth the branches: stop the sap,\nand the branch will wither. Not that the sap shall be stopped where\nthere is union, not stopped for altogether; for as from the root\nthe branch is supplied, so from Christ is every member furnished\nwith a continual supply of grace, if it doth as it should; 'of his\nfulness have all we received, and grace for grace' (John 1:16).\n\nThe day of grace is the day of expense: this is our spending time.\nHence we are called pilgrims and strangers in the earth, that is,\ntravellers from place to place, from state to state, from trial to\ntrial (Heb 11:13). Now, as the traveller at a fresh inn is made to\nspend fresh money; so Christians, at a fresh temptation, at a new\ntemptation, are made to spend afresh, and a new supply of grace.\nGreat men, when and while their sons are travellers, appoint\nthat their bags of money be lodged ready, or conveniently paid in\nat such and such a place, for the suitable relief of them; and so\nthey meet with supplies. Why, so are the sons of the Great One,\nand he has allotted that we should travel beyond sea, or at a great\ndistance from our Father's house: wherefore he has appointed that\ngrace shall be provided for us, to supply at such a place, such\na state or temptation, as need requires: but withal, as my lord\nexpecteth his son should acquaint him with the present emptiness\nof his purse, and with the difficulty he hath now to grapple with;\nso God our Father expects that we should plead by Christ our need\nat the throne of grace, in order to a supply of grace:[39] 'Let us\ntherefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain\nmercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'\n\nNow then, this shows the reason why many Christians that are\nindeed possessed with the grace of God, do yet walk so oddly, act\nso poorly, and live such ordinary lives in the world. They are like\nto those gentlemen's sons that are of the more extravagant sort,\nthat walk in their lousy hue, when they might be maintained better.\nSuch young men care not, perhaps scorn to acquaint their fathers\nwith their wants, and therefore walk in their threadbare jackets,\nwith hose and shoes out at heels! a right emblem of the uncircumspect\nchild of God. This also shows the reason of all those dreadful\nfalls and miscarriages that many of the saints sustain, they made\nit not their business to watch to see what is coming, and to pray\nfor a supply of grace to uphold them; they, with David, are too\ncareless, or, with Peter, too confident, or, with the disciples,\ntoo sleepy, and so the temptation comes upon them; and their want\nlike an armed man. This also shows the reason why some that, to\none's thinking, would fall every day; for that their want of parts,\ntheir small experience, their little knowledge of God's matters, do\nseem to bespeak it; yet stand, walk better, and keep their garments\nmore white than those that have, when compared with them, twice as\nmuch as they. They are praying saints, they are often at the throne\nof grace, they are sensible of their weakness, keep a sight of their\ndanger before their faces, and will not be contented without more\ngrace.\n\nThird. And this leads me, in the third place, to show you, that\nwere we wise, and did we ply it at the throne of grace for grace,\nas we should, O what spotless lives might we live! We should then\nhave always help in time of need; for so the text insinuates, 'That\nwe may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.' This\nis that which Peter means, when he says, 'And besides this,' that\nis, besides your faith in Christ, and besides your happy state of\njustification, 'giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue;\nand to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to\ntemperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness,\nbrotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if\nthese things be in you and abound,' and be continually supplied\nwith a supply from the throne of grace, 'they make you that ye shall\nneither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus\nChrist. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see\nafar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.\nWherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling\nand election sure: for if you do these things, ye shall never fall:\nfor so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into\nthe everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2\nPeter 1:5-11).\n\nThe greatest part of professors now-a-days take up their time in\ncontracting of guilt, and asking for pardon, and yet are not much\nthe better. Whereas, if they had but the grace to add to their\nfaith, virtue, &c., they might have more peace, live better lives,\nand not have their heads so often in a bag as they have. 'To him\nthat ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of\nGod' (Psa 50:23). To him that disposeth his way aright; now this\ncannot be done without a constant supplicating at the throne of grace\nfor more grace. This then is the reason why every new temptation\nthat comes upon thee, so foils, so overcomes thee, that thou wilt\nneed a new conversion to be recovered from under the power and\nguilt that cleaves to thee by its overshadowing of thee. A new\ntemptation, a sudden temptation, an unexpected temptation, usually\nfoils those that are not upon their watch; and that have not been\nbefore with God to be inlaid with grace proportionable to what may\ncome upon them.\n\n'That ye may find grace to help in time of need'! There is grace\nto be found at the throne of grace that will help us under the\ngreatest straits. 'Seek and ye shall find'; it is there, and it\nis to be found there; it is to be found there of the seeking soul,\nof the soul that seeketh him. Wherefore I will conclude as I did\nbegin; 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that\nwe may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'\n\n[CONCLUSION. Some lessons to be learned from this text.]\n\nWe will now speak something by way of conclusion, and so wind up\nthe whole.\n\nFirst. You must remember that we have been hitherto speaking of the\nthrone of grace, and showing what it is. That we have also been\nspeaking of Christ's sacrifice, and how he manages his high priest's\noffice before the throne of grace. We have also here, as you see,\nbeen speaking of the mercy and grace that is to be obtained and\nfound at this throne of grace, and of what advantage it is to us\nin this our pilgrimage. Now, from all this it follows, that sin is\na fearful thing: for all this ado is, that men might be saved from\nsin! What a devil then is sin? it is the worst of devils; it is\nworse than all devils; those that are devils sin hath made them\nso; nor could anything else have made them devils but sin. Now,\nI pray, what is it to be a devil, but to be under, for ever, the\npower and dominion of sin, an implacable spirit against God? Such\nan one, from which implacableness all the power in heaven and earth\ncannot release them, because God of his justice has bound them\nover to judgment. These spirits are by sin carried quite away from\nthemselves, as well as from God that made them; they cannot design\ntheir own good; they cannot leave that which yet they know will be\neverlasting mischievous to themselves. Sin has bound them to itself\nso fast, that there can be no deliverance for them, but by the Son\nof God, who also has refused them, and left them to themselves,\nand to the judgment which they have deserved. Sin also has got\na victory over man, has made him an enemy to God and to his own\nsalvation; has caught him, captivated him, carried away his mind,\nand will, and heart, from God; and made him choose to be vain, and\nto run the hazard of eternal damnation, with rejoicing and delight.\nBut God left not man where he left those wicked spirits, to wit,\nunder the everlasting chains of darkness, reserved unto judgment;\nbut devised means for their ransom and reconciliation to himself;\nwhich is the thing that has been discoursed of in the foregoing\npart of this book (2 Sam 15:15). But, I say, what a thing is sin,\nwhat a devil and master of devils is it, that it should, where\nit takes hold, so hang that nothing can unclinch its hold but the\nmercy of God and the heart-blood of his dear Son! O the fretting,\neating, infecting, defiling, and poisonous nature of sin, that it\nshould so eat into our flesh and spirit, body and soul, and so stain\nus with its vile and stinking nature: yea, it has almost turned man\ninto the nature of itself; insomuch as that sometimes, when nature\nis mentioned, sin is meant; and when sin is mentioned, nature is\nmeant (Eph 2:3, 5:8). Wherefore sin is a fearful thing; a thing to\nbe lamented, a thing to be abhorred, a thing to be fled from with\nmore astonishment and trembling than one would fly from any devil,\nbecause it is the worst of things; and that without which nothing\ncan be bad, and because where it takes hold it so fasteneth that\nnothing, as I have said, can release whom it has made a captive,\nbut the mercy of God and the heart-blood of his dear Son. O what\na thing is sin!\n\nSecond. As by what hath been said sin appears to be exceeding sinful;\nso, from hence it also follows, that the soul is a precious thing.\nFor you must know all this is for the redemption of the soul. The\nredemption of the soul is precious (Psa 49:8,20). I say, it is for\nthe redemption of the soul; it was for this that Christ was made\na priest, a sacrifice, an altar, a throne of grace; yea, sin, a\ncurse, and what not, that was necessary for our deliverance from\nsin, and death, and everlasting damnation. He that would know what\na soul is, let him read in letters of blood the price and purchase\nof the soul. It was not for a light, a little, an inconsiderable\nthing, that Christ Jesus underwent what he suffered when he was in\nthe world, and gave himself a ransom for souls. No, no! The soul\nis a great, a vast great thing, notwithstanding it is so little\nset by of some. Some prefer anything that they fancy, above the\nsoul; a slut, a lie, a pot, an act of fraudulency, the swing of a\nprevailing passion, anything shall be preferred when the occasion\noffereth itself.[40] If Christ had set as little by souls as some\nmen do, he had never left his Father's bosom, and the glory that\nhe had with him; he had never so humbled himself, so gave himself\nto punishment, affliction, and sorrow; and made himself so the object\nof scorn, and contempt, and reproach, as he did, and all that the\nsouls of sinners might live a life in glory with him.\n\nBut methinks this is the mystery of all as to this, that the soul\nshould take that pains, contrive such ways, and take such advantages\nagainst itself! For it is the soul that sins, that the soul might\ndie! O! sin, what art thou? What hast thou done? and what still\nwilt thou further do, if mercy, and blood and grace doth not prevent\nthee? O silly soul! what a fool has sin made of thee? what an ass\nart thou become to sin? that ever an immortal soul, at first made in\nthe image of God, for God, and for his delight, should so degenerate\nfrom its first station, and so abase itself that it might serve\nsin, as to become the devil's ape, and to play like a Jack Pudding\nfor him upon any stage or theatre in the world! But I recall\nmyself; for if sin can make one who was sometimes a glorious angel\nin heaven, now so to abuse himself as to become, to appearance,\nas a filthy frog, a toad, a rat, a cat, a fly, a mouse, a dog, or\nbitch's whelp,[41] to serve its ends upon a poor mortal, that it\nmight gull them of everlasting life, no marvel if the soul is so\nbeguiled as to sell itself from God, and all good, for so poor a\nnothing as a momentary pleasure is. But,\n\nThird. If sin and the soul are such great things, then behold the\nlove and care of God; the love to souls, the care he hath taken\nto deliver them from sin. Sin, as I have said, is such a thing as\nfrom which no man can deliver himself; the soul is such a thing,\nso rich and valuable in the nature of it, that scarce one in twenty\nthousand counts of it as they should. But God, the lover of mankind,\nand the greatest enemy to sin, has provided means effectually\nto overthrow the one, and to save and secure the other. Behold,\ntherefore, the love of God, the care of God for us; for when we\nneither loved nor cared for ourselves, God both loved us and cared\nfor us. God commended his love towards us in sending his Son to be\nthe propitiation for our sins.\n\nLet it be then concluded that 'GOD IS LOVE,' and that the love that\nGod hath to us is such as we never had for ourselves. We have been\noften tried about our own love to ourselves, and it has been proved\nover, and over, and over, that sometimes even we that are Christians\ncould, and would, had it been possible, have pawned ourselves, our\nsouls, and our interest in Christ, for a foul and beastly lust. But\nGod, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved\nus, would not suffer it so to be. Now, if we are so fickle and\nuncertain in our love to ourselves, as to value our salvation at\nso low and so base a rate, can it be imagined that ever we should,\nhad it been left to our choice, have given the best of what we\nhave for the salvation of our souls? Yet God gave his Son to be\nthe Saviour of the world. I say again, if our love is so slender\nto our own souls, can any think that it should be more full to the\nsouls of others? And yet God had such love to us, as to give his\nonly begotten Son for our sins. Yet again, how should it be that we,\nwho are usually so affected with the conceit of our own happiness,\nsince we care no more for our own souls, do our best to secure the\nsouls of others? and yet God, who is infinitely above all creatures,\nhas so condescended, as to concern himself, and to give the best\nof his flock, even his only beloved Son, for very dust and ashes.\nWherefore, 'Herein is love, not that we loved God,' or our neighbour,\n'but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation\nfor our sins' (1 John 4:10).\n\nFourth. Is sin so vile a thing? is the soul so precious a thing?\nand is God's love and care of the salvation of the souls of sinners\ninfinitely greater than is their own care for their own souls?\nThen this should teach those concerned to blush, to blush, I say,\nand to cover their faces with shame. There is nothing, as I know\nof, that more becomes a sinner, than blushing and shame doth; for\nhe is the harbourer, the nurse, and the nourisher of that vile\nthing called sin; that so great an enemy of God, and that so great\nan enemy to the soul. It becomes him also, if he considers what a\ncreature God has made him, and how little he hath set by his own\ncreation, and by the matter of which God hath made his soul. Let him\nalso consider unto what base things he hath stooped and prostrated\nhimself, while things infinitely better have stood by and offered\nthemselves unto him freely; yea, how he has cast that God that made\nhim, and his Son that came to redeem him, quite behind his back,\nand before their faces embraced, loved, and devoted himself unto\nhim that seeks nothing more than the damnation of his soul.\n\nAh, Lord! when will foolish man be wise, and come to God with his\nhands upon his head, and with his face covered with shame, to ask\nhim forgiveness for that wickedness which he has committed? which\nis wickedness committed not only against holiness and justice,\nagainst which also men by nature have an antipathy, but against\nmercy and love, without which man cannot tell what to do. Blush,\nsinner, blush. Ah, that thou hadst grace to blush! But this is God's\ncomplaint, 'Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?\nNay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush' (Jer\n8:12). It is a sad thing that men should be thus void of consideration,\nand yet they are so. They are at a continual jest with God and his\nWord, with the devil and sin, with hell and judgment. But they will\nbe in earnest one day; but that one day will be too late!\n\nFifth. Is it so that God, though sin is so fearful a thing, has\nprepared an effectual remedy against it, and purposed to save us\nfrom the evil and damning effects thereof? (1.) Then this should\nbeget thankfulness in the hearts of the godly, for they are made\npartakers of this grace; I say, it should beget thankfulness in\nthy heart. 'Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift,' said the\napostle, when he seriously thought of that which was much inferior\nto what we have been a discoursing of (2 Cor 9:15). That was about\nman's willingness to do good; this is about God's. That was about\nmen's willingness to give money to poor saints; this about God's\nwillingness to give Christ Jesus his Son to the world. It was the\nthoughts of this redemption and salvation that made David say,\n'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his\nholy name' (Psa 103:1). O! they that are partakers of redeeming\ngrace, and that have a throne of grace, a covenant of grace, and\na Christ, that is the Son of God's love, to come to, and to live\nby, should be a thankful people. 'By him therefore let us offer the\nsacrifice of praise to God continually,--giving thanks in his name'\n(Heb 13:15). How many obligations has God laid upon his people,\nto give thanks to him at every remembrance of his holiness. (2.)\nStudy the priesthood, the high priesthood of Jesus Christ, both\nthe first and second part thereof. The first part was that when he\noffered up himself without the gate, when he bare our sins in his\nown body on the tree. The second part is that which he executeth\nthere whither he is now gone, even in heaven itself, where the throne\nof grace is. I say, study what Christ has done, and is adoing. O!\nwhat is he adoing now? he is sprinkling his blood with his priestly\nrobes on, before the throne of grace; that is too little thought\non by the saints of God: 'We have such a high priest, who is set\non the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,\na minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the\nLord pitched, and not man' (Heb 8:1,2). Busy thyself, fellow-Christian,\nabout this blessed office of Christ. It is full of good, it is full\nof sweet, it is full of heaven, it is full of relief and succour\nfor the tempted and dejected; wherefore, I say again, study these\nthings, give thyself wholly to them.\n\nSixth. Since God has prepared himself a lamb, a sacrifice, a priest, a\nthrone of grace, and has bid thee come to him, come to him as there\nsitting; come, come boldly, as he bids thee. What better warrant\ncanst thou have to come, than to be bid to come of God? When the\ngoodman himself bids the beggar come to his house, then he may come,\nthen he may come boldly; the consideration of the invitation doth\nencourage. That we have our friend at court, should also make us\ncome boldly. Jesus, as has been showed, as sacrifice and high priest,\nis there, 'in whom we have boldness, and access with confidence by\nthe faith of him' (Eph 3:12). Again, 'By whom also we have access\nby faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of\nthe glory of God' (Rom 5:2). Again, 'We have boldness, brethren,\nto enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus' (Heb 10:19,20).\nWhat can be more plain, more encouraging, more comfortable to them\nthat would obtain mercy, 'and find grace to help in time of need.'\nIt is a dishonour to God, disadvantage to thee, and an encouragement\nto Satan, when thou hangest back, and seemest afraid to 'come boldly\nunto the throne of grace.' 'Let us,' therefore, 'draw near with a\ntrue heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled\nfrom an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water;\nlet us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for\nhe is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another, to\nprovoke unto love and to good works' (Heb 10:22-24). Farewell.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. How many thousands rush into the presence of God with unholy,\nthoughtless familiarity, by repeating the form called the Lord's\nprayer. His infinite holiness should make us tremblingly apply\nto his throne of grace. In the name of the Redeemer, and in his\nmediation alone, the sinner can find access, and be emboldened to\ndraw nigh and receive grace to help in our everyday time of need.--Ed.\n\n2. 'Though the phrase, \"throne of grace,\" be only once named\nin the Bible, yet the thing signified is so savoury, significant,\nand suitable, that this form of speaking is become famous among\nChristians, and will be used to the end of time.'--Traill.--Ed.\n\n3. This is an allusion to Jeremiah 18:1-10 the potter and his wheel,\nupon which he forms his vessels of clay to honour or to dishonour\nas he pleaseth. So God worketh all things according to his will,\nall tending to the good of his church, because his resting-place\nis the mercy-seat.--Ed.\n\n4. Quoted from the Genevan or puritan version.--Ed.\n\n5. 'Grace was poured so plentifully from heaven, that it did not\nonly countervail sin, but above measure passeth it.' Note to the\nGenevan Bible.--Ed.\n\n6. Not by the person or body, but mentally. It matters little whether\nthe body is sitting, kneeling, or standing; riding, walking, or\nlying down; the throne of grace is equally accessible, if the spirit\nis prostrate before it--the spontaneous effusions of the soul in\nsighs or groans, or joyful exclamations, or the pouring forth of\nheart-felt words; but all must be under a sense of the mediation\nof Jesus.--Ed.\n\n7. Smutches or smudges. 'And with a kind of amber smirch my\nface.'--Shakespeare.--Ed.\n\n8. 'In all our distresses, infirmities, and darkness in this world,\nwe should get up to that mountain of myrrh and hill of frankincense,\nCanticles 4:6;--the passion of Christ, which was bitter like myrrh;\nand to the intercession of Christ, which is sweet like incense.'--Dr.\nBates.--Ed.\n\n9. How dreadful for a sinner to enter upon a way, expecting it to\nbe a living way to life and happiness, and find it the dead way to\ndeath and eternal destruction. O my soul, try thy way, and, by the\nassistance of the Holy Spirit, ascertain whether it is the living\nway to everlasting life, or the dead way to eternal misery.--Ed.\n\n10. Such was the opinion of naturalists in the olden time,\nBartolomeus, on the properties of things, thus speaks of goats'\nblood--'The goat's hot blood neshethe (softeneth) and carveth the\nhard ardamant stone, that neither fire nor iron may overcome.' Book\n18 cap. 60.--Ed.\n\n11. What laid the cornerstone of this throne, but grace? What brings\nin the inhabitants, preserves them, perfects them, but grace?--Traill.\n\n\n   'Grace all the work shall crown,\n        Thro' everlasting days;\n    It lays in heaven the topmost stone,\n        And well deserves the praise.'--Rippon.\n\n\n12. Perfectly impressed upon their memories.--Ed.\n\n13. From the Genevan version.--Ed.\n\n14. Bunyan here refers to the marginal note in the Genevan bible,\nExodus 30. The high priest's washing 'signifying that he that cometh\nto God must be washed from all sin and corruption.'--Ed.\n\n15. This sea was full of pure water, a figure of the word, without\nmixture of men's inventions. See the typical meaning of the molten\nsea and the laver, fully explained and illustrated by Bunyan, in\nSolomon's Temple Spiritualized of this edition.--Ed.\n\n16. Our first lesson is of sin, righteousness, and judgment; second,\nChrist's obedience unto death for our salvation; third, Christ\nascended to God's right hand, the Mediator and Advocate. Thus the\nbitter comes before the sweet, to make the sweet the sweeter.--Ed.\n\n17. Alluding to these destructive operations of nature, the whirlwind\nand the whirlpool, the first whirling fancies that Christ saves\nfrom the punishment, and not from the power of sin, takes them from\nthe gospel hope, and the second receives them into the vortex of\nmisery. O my soul, be watchful unto prayer at a throne of grace,\nfor who can withstand the whirlpool if once within its influence?--Ed.\n\n18. To see the fulness and freeness of the treasures of grace in\nChrist--to see that we must partake of it or perish--to be looking\nunto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, are indeed powerful\nincentives to keep us near the throne of grace.--Ed.\n\n19. Probably a frightful military saying heard by Bunyan, when\nserving in the debauched army of Charles I, from some of Prince\nRupert's cavaliers.--Ed.\n\n20. How much this paragraph reminds us of the experience of poor\nChristian in his fearful battle with the fiend! 'In this combat\nno man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what\nyelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the\nfight--he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs\nand groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him, all the\nwhile, give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had\nwounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he did\nsmile and look upward; but it was the dreadfullest fight that ever\nI saw.'--Ed.\n\n21. 'Spaked'; marked with small spots.--Ed.\n\n22. Instituted, inducted, or installed.--Ed.\n\n23. Exposed to violence--blindfolded or hoodwinked.--Ed.\n\n24. Protestants can have little idea of the idolatry used in\nthe Church of Rome. Something may be gathered from the following\ndirections, given in a very beautiful office for Good Friday,\ncorrected by royal authority, in conformity with the breviary and\nmissal of our holy father Pope Urban VIII, printed at Paris by\nPosset:--\n\n'The priest having retired a little behind the altar, the deacon\ntakes the cross (a plain wooden cross without the figure), covered\nwith a veil, and gives it to the priest, who turns to the people\nand shows the top of the cross, before which they all prostrate\nthemselves and kiss the ground, singing Ecce lignum crucis. He\nthen removes the veil from the right limb of the cross, and lifts\nit up, singing, still louder, Behold the wood of the cross; again\nthe people prostrate themselves. The priest then comes to the\nmiddle of the altar, and taking off the veil, exhibits the wooden\ncross to be adored; then setting it down, he goes on his knees,\nand rising, takes off his shoes and approaches the cross to worship\nit, making three genuflections, and kisses it. All the clergy who\nare present take off their shoes, prostrate themselves, worship and\nkiss the cross in the order of their dignity. All the officers of\nthe church, and all the people, follow in the same manner to adore\nit, while solemn music and chanting attends and completes the\nceremony.' Thus a wooden board, made into the shape of a cross by\nsome joiner, receives Divine honours. Talk not of heathen idols. Who\ncan wonder that honest John Bunyan felt indignation, and exclaimed,\n'O idolatry! O blasphemy!'--Ed.\n\n25. An extraneous taste that leaves a sting behind, as, 'She had\na tongue with a tang.' 'The wine has a tang of the cask.'--Ed.\n\n26. This use of the word 'resent' has been long obsolete; it expressed\na deep sense or strong perception of good as well as evil; in this\nplace it means, 'proved to have been satisfactory or gratifying.'--Ed.\n\n27. How sublime is the Christian system, in its adaptation to all\nGod's intelligent creatures! So lovely in its simplicity, that\nthe child--nay, even the poor Bushman of Africa, or the half-idiot\nnative of New South Wales--is able readily to comprehend how God,\nfor Christ's sake, can blot out all iniquities and transgressions;\nwhile the noblest intellect admires and adores its vast and extensive\nramifications of mercies. Blessings numerous and unbounded are\ndeveloped, reaching, in their ultimate effects, far beyond the\nutmost stretch of human perception, even when the most brilliant\nimagination is enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The\nintentions of mercy commence in the purposes of God before the\ncreation--are infinite in extent--and eternal in duration. How is\nDivine wisdom and mercy thus displayed in the adaptation of the\ngospel to the personal inquiry and reception of every individual\nof the human race!--Ed.\n\n28. The beginning, increase, and perfection of life eternal,\nconsists in holy knowledge; that God and Christ are of the same\nnature, equal in power and glory. As Christ is the most excellent\nobject, therefore the knowledge of Christ is, and must be the most\nexcellent knowledge; not only all the excellencies of the creatures\nare found in him, but all excellencies, yea, the fulness of the\nGodhead, dwells in him bodily. All learning, in comparison of the\nknowledge of Christ, is the most contemptible ignorance. He is the\nwisdom of God, and our highest wisdom will be, with holy Paul, to\npart with whatever is most dear and precious to us, that we may win\nChrist, receiving him as he is revealed in the word of truth.--Mason.\n\n29. Power of exercising affection and feeling.--Ed.\n\n30. Bunyan's daughter, Mary, was blind, and thus became an object\nof his tenderest solicitude. When he was sent to prison for\npreaching, he felt for her far more than for all other worldly\nobjects. 'My poor blind child. O the thoughts of the hardship she\nmight go under would break my heart to pieces.'--Grace Abounding,\nNo. 320 and 329.--Ed.\n\n31. It is a stupendous and unspeakably blessed privilege that Christ\nand believers are one flesh. Husband and wife, soul and body, are\nnot so closely united as Christ and believers are to each other.\nHe has carried their sorrows, borne their punishment, and procured\ncomplete redemption for them. And eternal blessings on him! he\nnow ever liveth in heaven to act and intercede for them. He there\nexercises a tender and compassionate spirit towards his suffering\nchildren and servants here on earth. His love and pity to every\nindividual of his church, infinitely exceeds that of the most\naffectionate parent towards their offspring. Our extremity is his\nopportunity--he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities,\nwill give consolation under, sanctify, and at length deliver the\ngodly out of all temptations and afflictions.--Mason.\n\n32. As this is Satan's temptation in the time of poverty, so the\ntime of prosperity is equally dangerous--the love of gain, when it\npossesses the soul, is insatiable. Satan whispers into the ear, and\nthe heart too readily entertains the wicked thought--'Get money; if\nyou cannot do it honestly, still get money.' The most contemptible\nmeannesses have been practised by the wealthy. O beware of that\nruinous idolatry, covetousness.--Ed.\n\n33. Query, is this that part of a Christian's experience referred\nto in the Pilgrim's Progress, the second part of the Valley of the\nShadow of Death?--Ed.\n\n34. No man could speak more experimentally on the pain inflicted by\nslander, although utterly unfounded, than John Bunyan. So eminent\na man became a mark for Satan and his emissaries to shoot at. He was\ncharged with witchcraft, called a highwayman, and every slander\nthat malice could invent was heaped upon him. His remedy, his\nconsolation, was the throne of grace--a specific that never did,\nnor ever will fail.--Ed.\n\n35. The late Rev. John Newton, who lived to a good old age,\nin his latter days used to tell his friends--'I am like a parcel,\npacked up and directed, only waiting the carrier to take me to my\ndestination'; blessed tranquility under such solemn circumstances.--Ed.\n\n36. This is illustrated by the account of Hopeful's experience in\nthe Pilgrim's Progress; he says, 'If I look narrowly into the best\nof what I do now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with\nthe best of that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that,\nnotwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties, I\nhave committed sin enough IN ONE DUTY to send me to hell, though\nmy former life had been faultless.'--Ed.\n\n37. Grace, mercy, peace, justification, sanctification, and\nglorification, all flow from Christ the propitiatory sacrifice, in\nwhom, as his beloved, the Father accepts us graciously, and loves\nus freely.--Mason.\n\n38. Spiritual strength, like bodily food, must be renewed day by\nday. The necessity of daily food for our bodies should remind us\nof that bread that cometh down from heaven, and that water of life\nwhich, as a river, maketh glad the city of our God. 'As oft as ye\ndo this,' eat and drink, 'ye do show the Lord's death.' O that such\na recollection may have an abiding influence upon our souls!--Ed.\n\n39. In those days travellers did well to advance as far in a day\nas we now do in an hour. To make a country tour, required then\nthe same precautions, as to supplies, as it now does to make the\ngrand tour of Europe. To have carried coin would have been a great\nencumbrance, as well as risk from robbers. How accurately Bunyan\nknew the mode used in such cases to secure supplies, and with what\nbeautiful simplicity it is spiritualized.--Ed.\n\n40. How truly and solemnly is the downward road of a sinner here\nportrayed. 1. Drawn aside by lust. 2. A lie to conceal his wicked\nfolly. 3. Intoxication, to drown his convictions and harden his\nconscience. 4. The consequent ruin of his worldly prospects; and,\n5. A vain effort by fraud to keep up his credit!!!--Ed.\n\n41. It was in Bunyan's time the universally received opinion that\nSatan appeared in the shape of animals to allure poor wretches into\nsin--Shakespeare, Judge Hale, Cotton Mather, Baxter, with all our\neminent men, believed in these supernatural appearances.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE;\n\nOR,\n\nTHE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART:\n\nSHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT.\n\nBEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER\nOF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD.\n\nWITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE\nGOSPEL IN LONDON.\n\nLondon: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates,\n1692.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThe very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George\nCokayn, will inform the reader of the melancholy circumstances under\nwhich it was published, and of the author's intention, and mode\nof treatment. Very little more need be said, by way of introducing\nto our readers this new edition of Bunyan's Excellency of a Broken\nHeart. George Cokayn was a gospel minister in London, who became\neventually connected with the Independent denomination. He was\na learned man--brought up at the university--had preached before\nthe House of Commons--was chaplain to that eminent statesman and\nhistorian, Whitelocke--was rector of St. Pancras, Soper Lane--remarkable\nfor the consistency of his conduct and piety of his life--but as he\ndared not to violate his conscience, by conformity to ceremonies or\ncreeds which he deemed antichristian, he suffered under persecution,\nand, with upwards of two thousand godly ministers, was ejected\nfrom his living, and thrown upon the care of Divine Providence for\ndaily food. The law ordered him to be silent, and not to set forth\nthe glories of his Saviour; but his heavenly Father had ordained\nhim to preach. There was no hesitation as to whom he would obey. At\nthe risk of imprisonment, transportation, and death, he preached;\nand God honoured his ministry, and he became the founder of\na flourishing church in Hare Court, London. His preface bears the\ndate of September, 1688; and, at a good old age, he followed Bunyan\nto the celestial city, in 1689. It is painful to find the author's\nBaptist friends keeping aloof because of his liberal sentiments;\nbut it is delightful to witness the hearty affection with which an\nIndependent minister recommends the work of a Baptist; and truly\nrefreshing to hear so learned a man commending most earnestly the\nwork of a poor, unlettered, but gigantic brother in the ministry.\nSurely there is water enough connected with that controversy to\nquench any unholy fire that differences of opinion might ignite.\nGeorge Cokayn appears to have possessed much a kindred spirit with\nJohn Bunyan. Some of his expressions are remarkably Bunyanish. Thus,\nwhen speaking of the jailor, 'who was a most barbarous, hard-hearted\nwretch; yet, when God came to deal with him, he was soon tamed, and\nhis heart became exceeding soft and tender.' And when alluding to\nthe Lord's voice, in softening the sinner's heart, he says: 'This\nis a glorious work indeed, that hearts of stone should be dissolved\nand melted into waters of godly sorrow, working repentance.'\n\nThe subject of a broken heart is one of vital importance, because\nit is essential to salvation. The heart, by nature, is hard, and\ncannot, and will not break itself. Angels have no power to perform\nthis miracle of mercy and of justice. It is the work of the Holy\nSpirit in the NEW BIRTH. Some have supposed that God always prepares\nthe heart for this solemn, this important change, by a stroke of\nhis providence; but it is not so. Who dares limit the Almighty? He\ntakes his own way with the sinner--one by a whisper, another by a\nhurricane. Some are first alarmed by the preaching of the Word--many\nby conversation with a pious friend or neighbour; some by strokes\nof Providence--but all are led to a prayerful searching of the holy\noracles, until there, by the enlightening influence of the Spirit,\nthey find consolation. The great question is, not as to the means,\nbut the fact--Have I been born again? Have I been grafted into\nChrist? Do I bring forth the fruits of godliness in mourning over\nmy sins, and, in good words and works, am I a living epistle known\nand read of all--men, angels, devils--and of the Omniscient God?\nThese are the all-important inquiries which, I trust, will deeply\ninfluence every reader. Let two of Bunyan's remarks make an\nindelible impression on every mind: 'God will break ALL hearts for\nsin, either here to repentance and happiness, or in the world to\ncome to condemnation and misery.' 'Consider thou must die but once;\nI mean but once as to this world, for if thou, when thou goest\nhence, dost not die well, thou canst not come back again and die\nbetter.' May our spirits be baptized into these solemn truths, and\nour broken hearts be an acceptable sacrifice to God.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nA PREFACE TO THE READER.\n\nThe author of the ensuing discourse--now with God, reaping the\nfruit of all his labour, diligence, and success, in his Master's\nservice--did experience in himself, through the grace of God, the\nnature, excellency, and comfort of a truly broken and contrite\nspirit. So that what is here written is but a transcript out of\nhis own heart: for God--who had much work for him to do--was still\nhewing and hammering him by his Word, and sometimes also by more\nthan ordinary temptations and desertions. The design, and also the\nissue thereof, through God's goodness, was the humbling and keeping\nof him low in his own eyes. The truth is, as himself sometimes\nacknowledged, he always needed the thorn in the flesh, and God in\nmercy sent it him, lest, under his extraordinary circumstances, he\nshould be exalted about measure; which perhaps was the evil that\ndid more easily beset him than any other. But the Lord was pleased\nto overrule it, to work for his good, and to keep him in that broken\nframe which is so acceptable unto him, and concerning which it is\nsaid, that 'He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their\nwounds' (Psa 147:3). And, indeed, it is a most necessary qualification\nthat should always be found in the disciples of Christ, who are most\neminent, and as stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of\nthe church. Disciples, in the highest form of profession, need to\nbe thus qualified in the exercise of every grace, and the performance\nof every duty. It is that which God doth principally and more\nespecially look after, in all our approaches and accesses to him. It\nis to him that God will look, and with him God will dwell, who is\npoor, and of a contrite spirit (Isa 57:15, 66:2). And the reason why\nGod will manifest so much respect to one so qualified, is because\nhe carries it so becomingly towards him. He comes and lies at his\nfeet, and discovers a quickness of sense, and apprehensiveness of\nwhatever may be dishonourable and distasteful to God (Psa 38:4).\nAnd if the Lord doth at any time but shake his rod over him, he\ncomes trembling, and kisses the rod, and says, 'It is the Lord;\nlet him do what seemeth him good' (1 Sam 3:18). He is sensible he\nhath sinned and gone astray like a lost sheep, and, therefore, will\njustify God in his severest proceedings against him. This broken\nheart is also a pliable and flexible heart, and prepared to receive\nwhatsoever impressions God shall make upon it, and is ready to be\nmoulded into any frame that shall best please the Lord. He says,\nwith Samuel, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth' (1 Sam 3:10).\nAnd with David, 'When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said\nunto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek' (Psa 27:8). And so with\nPaul, who tremblingly said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?'\n(Acts 9:6).\n\nNow, therefore, surely such a heart as this is must needs be very\ndelightful to God. He says to us, 'My son, give me thine heart'\n(Prov 23:26). But, doubtless, he means there a broken heart: an\nunbroken heart we may keep to ourselves; it is the broken heart\nwhich God will have us to give to him; for, indeed, it is all the\namends that the best of us are capable of making, for all the injury\nwe have done to God in sinning against him. We are not able to give\nbetter satisfaction for breaking God's laws, than by breaking our\nown hearts; this is all that we can do of that kind; for the blood\nof Christ only must give the due and full satisfaction to the\njustice of God for what provocations we are at any time guilty of;\nbut all that we can do is to accompany the acknowledgments we make\nof miscarriages with a broken and contrite spirit. Therefore we\nfind, that when David had committed those two foul sins of adultery\nand murder, against God, he saw that all his sacrifices signified\nnothing to the expiating of his guilt; therefore he brings to God\na broken heart, which carried in it the best expression of indignation\nagainst himself, as of the highest respect he could show to God (2\nCor 7:11).\n\nThe day in which we live, and the present circumstances which the\npeople of God and these nations are under, do loudly proclaim a\nvery great necessity of being in this broken and tender frame; for\nwho can foresee what will be the issue of these violent fermentations\nthat are amongst us? Who knows what will become of the ark of God?\nTherefore it is a seasonable duty with old Eli to sit trembling\nfor it. Do we not also hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of\nwars; and ought we not, with the prophet, to cry out, 'My bowels,\nmy bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise\nin me, I cannot hold my peace,' &c. (Jer 4:19). Thus was that holy\nman affected with the consideration of what might befall Jerusalem,\nthe temple and ordinances of God, &c., as the consequence of the\npresent dark dispensations they were under. Will not a humble posture\nbest become us when we have humbling providences in prospect? Mercy\nand judgment seem to be struggling in the same womb of providence;\nand which will come first out we know not; but neither of them can\nwe comfortably meet, but with a broken and a contrite spirit. If\njudgment comes, Josiah's posture of tenderness will be the best we\ncan be found in; and also to say, with David, 'My flesh trembleth\nfor fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments' (Psa 119:120).\nIt is very sad when God smites, and we are not grieved; which the\nprophet complains of, 'Thou hast stricken them, but they have not\ngrieved,' &c. 'They have made their faces harder than a rock, they\nhave refused to return' (Jer 5:3).\n\nBut such as know the power of his anger will have a deep awe of\nGod upon their hearts, and, observing him in all his motions, will\nhave the greatest apprehensions of his displeasure. So that when he\nis coming forth in any terrible dispensation, they will, according\nto their duty, prepare to meet him with a humble and broken heart.\nBut if he should appear to us in his goodness, and farther lengthen\nout the day of our peace and liberty, yet still the contrite frame\nwill be most seasonable; then will be a proper time, with Job, to\nabhor ourselves in dust and ashes, and to say, with David, 'Who am\nI that thou hast brought me hitherto'! (Job 42:6; 2 Sam 7:18).\n\nBut we must still know that this broken tender heart is not a plant\nthat rows in our own soil, but is the peculiar gift of God himself.\nHe that made the heart must break the heart. We may be under\nheart-breaking providences, and yet the heart remain altogether\nunbroken; as it was with Pharaoh, whose heart, though it was under\nthe hammers of ten terrible judgments, immediately succeeding one\nanother, yet continued hardened against God. The heart of man is\nharder than hardness itself, till God softeneth and breaks it. Men\nmove not, they relent not, let God thunder never so terribly; let\nGod, in the greatest earnest, cast abroad his firebrands, arrows,\nand death, in the most dreadful representations of wrath and judgment,\nyet still man trembles not, nor is any more astonished than if in\nall this God were but in jest, till he comes and falls to work with\nhim, and forces him to cry out, What have I done? What shall I do?\n\nTherefore let us have recourse to him, who, as he gives the new\nheart, so also therewith the broken heart. And let men's hearts be\nnever so hard, if God comes once to deal effectually with them, they\nshall become mollified and tender; as it was with those hardened\nJews who, by wicked and cruel hands, murdered the Lord of life:\nthough they stouted it out a great while, yet how suddenly, when\nGod brought them under the hammer of his Word and Spirit, in Peter's\npowerful ministry, were they broken, and, being pricked in their\nhearts, cried out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?' (Acts\n2:37).\n\nAnd the like instance we have in the jailor, who was a most barbarous,\nhard-hearted wretch; yet, when God came to deal with him, he was\nsoon tamed, and his heart became exceeding soft and tender (Acts\n16:29,30).\n\nMen may speak long enough, and the heart not at all be moved; but\n'The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full\nof majesty,' and breaketh the rocks and cedars (Psa 29:4). He\nturns 'the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain\nof waters' (Psa 114:8). And this is a glorious work indeed, that\nhearts of stone should be dissolved and melted into waters of godly\nsorrow, working repentance not to be repented of (2 Cor 7:10).\n\nWhen God speaks effectually the stoutest heart must melt and\nyield. Wait upon God, then, for the softening thy heart, and avoid\nwhatsoever may be a means of hardening it; as the apostle cautions\nthe Hebrews, 'Take heed,--lest any of you be hardened through the\ndeceitfulness of sin' (Heb 3:13).\n\nSin is deceitful, and will harden all those that indulge it. The\nmore tender any man is to his lust, the more will he be hardened\nby it. There is a native hardness in every man's heart; and though\nit may be softened by gospel means, yet if those means be afterwards\nneglected, the heart will fall to its native hardness again: as it\nis with the wax and the clay. Therefore, how much doth it behove\nus to keep close to God, in the use of all gospel-means, whereby\nour hearts being once softened, may be always kept so; which is\nbest done by repeating the use of those means which were at first\nblessed for the softening of them.\n\nThe following treatise may be of great use to the people of\nGod--through his blessing accompanying it--to keep their hearts\ntender and broken, when so many, after their hardness and impenitent\nheart, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).\n\nO let none who peruse this book herd with that generation of\nhardened ones, but be a companion of all those that mourn in Zion\nand whose hearts are broken for their own, the church's, and the\nnation's provocations; who, indeed, are the only likely ones that\nwill stand in the gap to divert judgments. When Shishak, king of\nEgypt, with a great host, came up against Judah, and having taken\ntheir frontier fenced cities, they sat down before Jerusalem, which\nput them all under a great consternation; but the king and princes\nupon this humbled themselves; the Lord sends a gracious message to\nthem by Shemaiah the prophet, the import whereof was, That because\nthey humbled themselves, the Lord would not destroy them, nor pour\nout his wrath upon them, by the hand of Shishak (2 Chron 12:5-7).\n\nThe greater the party is of mourning Christians, the more hope we\nhave that the storm impending may be blown over, and the blessings\nenjoyed may yet be continued. As long as there is a sighing party\nwe may hope to be yet preserved; at least, such will have the mark\nset upon themselves which shall distinguish them from those whom\nthe slaughtermen shall receive commission to destroy (Eze 9:4-6).\n\nBut I shall not further enlarge the porch, as designing to make\nway for the reader's entrance into the house, where I doubt not\nbut he will be pleased with the furniture and provision he finds in\nit. And I shall only further assure him, that this whole book was\nnot only prepared for, but also put into, the press by the author\nhimself, whom the Lord was pleased to remove--to the great loss\nand unexpressible grief of many precious souls--before the sheets\ncould be all wrought off.\n\nAnd now, as I hinted in the beginning, that what was transcribed\nout of the author's heart into the book, may be transcribed out of\nthe book into the hearts of all who shall peruse it, is the desire\nand prayer of\n\nA lover and honourer of all saints as such,\n\nGeorge Cokayn September 21, 1688\n\nTHE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE;\n\nOR,\n\nTHE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART.\n\n'THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT: A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE\nHEART, O GOD, THOU WILT NOT DESPISE.'--Psalm 51:17\n\nThis psalm is David's penitential psalm. It may be fitly so called,\nbecause it is a psalm by which is manifest the unfeigned sorrow\nwhich he had for his horrible sin, in defiling of Bathsheba, and\nslaying Uriah her husband; a relation at large of which you have in\nthe 11th and 12th of the Second of Samuel. Many workings of heart,\nas this psalm showeth, this poor man had, so soon as conviction\ndid fall upon his spirit. One while he cries for mercy, then he\nconfesses his heinous offences, then he bewails the depravity of\nhis nature; sometimes he cries out to be washed and sanctified,\nand then again he is afraid that God will cast him away from his\npresence, and take his Holy Spirit utterly from him. And thus he\ngoes on till he comes to the text, and there he stayeth his mind,\nfinding in himself that heart and spirit which God did not dislike;\n'The sacrifices of God,' says he, 'are a broken spirit'; as if\nhe should say, I thank God I have that. 'A broken and a contrite\nheart,' says he, 'O God, thou wilt not despise'; as if he should\nsay, I thank God I have that.\n\n[I. THE TEXT OPENED IN THE MANY WORKINGS OF THE HEART.]\n\nThe words consist of two parts. FIRST. An assertion. SECOND.\nA demonstration of that assertion. The assertion is this, 'The\nsacrifices of God are a broken spirit.' The demonstration is this,\n'Because a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.'\n\nIn the assertion we have two things present themselves to our\nconsideration. First. That a broken spirit is to God a sacrifice.\nSecond. That it is to God, as that which answereth to, or goeth\nbeyond, all sacrifices. 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.'\n\nThe demonstration of this is plain: for that heart God will not\ndespise it. 'A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not\ndespise.' Whence I draw this conclusion: That a spirit rightly\nbroken, a heart truly contrite, is to God an excellent thing. That\nis, a thing that goeth beyond all external duties whatever; for that\nis intended by this saying, The sacrifices, because it answereth\nto all sacrifices which we can offer to God; yea it serveth in\nthe room of all: all our sacrifices without this are nothing; this\nalone is all.\n\nThere are four things that are very acceptable to God. The\n\nFirst is The sacrifice of the body of Christ for our sins.\nOf this you read (Heb 10) for there you have it preferred to all\nburnt-offerings and sacrifices; it is this that pleaseth God; it\nis this that sanctifieth, and so setteth the people acceptable in\nthe sight of God.\n\nSecond. Unfeigned love to God is counted better than all sacrifices,\nor external parts of worship. 'And to love him [the Lord thy God]\nwith all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all\nthe soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as\nhimself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices'\n(Mark 12:33).\n\nThird. To walk holily and humbly, and obediently, towards and before\nGod, is another. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings\nand sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?--'Behold, to\nobey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken than the fat of rams'\n(Micah 6:6-8; 1 Sam 15:22).\n\nFourth. And this in our text is the fourth: 'The sacrifices of God\nare a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou\nwilt not despise.'\n\nBut note by the way, that this broken, this broken and contrite\nheart, is thus excellent only to God: 'O God,' saith he, 'THOU\nwilt not despise it.' By which is implied, the world have not this\nesteem or respect for such a heart, or for one that is of a broken\nand a contrite spirit. No, no, a man, a woman, that is blessed with\na broken heart, is so far off from getting by that esteem with the\nworld, that they are but burdens and trouble houses wherever they\nare or go. Such people carry with them molestation and disquietment:\nthey are in carnal families as David was to the king of Gath,\ntroublers of the house (1 Sam 21).\n\nTheir sighs, their tears, their day and night groans, their cries\nand prayers, and solitary carriages, put all the carnal family out\nof order.[1] Hence you have them brow-beaten by some, contemned by\nothers, yea, and their company fled from and deserted by others.\nBut mark the text, 'A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt\nnot despise,' but rather accept; for not to despise is with God to\nesteem and set a high price upon.\n\n[II. THE DOCTRINE, ASSERTION, DEMONSTRATION, AND CONCLUSION, THAT\nA BROKEN AND TRULY CONTRITE HEART IS AN EXCELLENT HEART.]\n\nBut we will demonstrate by several particulars, that a broken\nspirit, a spirit RIGHTLY broken, an heart TRULY contrite, is to\nGod an excellent thing.\n\nFirst. This is evident from the comparison, 'Thou desirest not\nsacrifice, else would I give it, thou delightest not in burnt-offering.\nThe sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,' &c. Mark, he rejecteth\nsacrifices, offerings and sacrifices: that is, all Levitical\nceremonies under the law, and all external performances under the\ngospel; but accepteth a broken heart. It is therefore manifest by\nthis, were there nothing else to be said, that proves, that a heart\nrightly broken, a heart truly contrite, is to God an excellent\nthing; for as you see such a heart is set before all sacrifice; and\nyet they were the ordinances of God, and things that he commanded;\nbut lo, a broken spirit is above them all, a contrite heart goes\nbeyond them, yea, beyond them when put all together. Thou wilt not\nhave the one, thou wilt not despise the other. O brethren, a broken\nand a contrite heart is an excellent thing. Have I said a broken\nheart, a broken and a contrite heart is esteemed above all sacrifices;\nI will add,\n\nSecond. It is of greater esteem with God than is either heaven\nor earth; and that is more than to be set before external duties.\n'Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my\nfootstool, where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is\nthe place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and\nall those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will\nI look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and\ntrembleth at my word' (Isa 66:1,2). Mark, God saith, he hath made\nall these things, but he doth not say, that he will look to them,\nthat is, take complacency and delight in them; no, there is that\nwanting in all that he hath made that should take up and delight\nhis heart. But now, let a broken-hearted sinner come before him;\nyea, he ranges the world throughout to find out such an one, and\nhaving found him, 'To this man,' saith he, 'will I look.' I say\nagain, that such a man to him is of more value than is either heaven\nor earth; 'They,' saith he, 'shall wax old'; 'they shall perish'\nand vanish away; but this man he continues: he, as is presented to\nus in another place, under another character, 'he shall abide for\never' (Heb 1:10-12; 1 John 2:17).\n\n'To this man will I look,' with this man will I be delighted; for\nso to look doth sometimes signify. 'Thou hast ravished my heart,\nmy sister, my spouse,' saith Christ to his humble-hearted, 'thou\nhast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes' (Cant 4:9). While\nit is as a conduit to let the rivers out of thy broken heart. I am\ntaken, saith he, 'with one chain of thy neck' (Can 4:9). Here you\nsee he looks and is ravished, he looks and is taken, as it saith\nin another place, 'The king is held in the galleries'; that is, is\ntaken with his beloved, with the dove's eyes of his beloved, with\nthe contrite spirit of his people (Cant 7:5, 1:15). But it is not\nthus reported of him with respect to heaven or earth: them he sets\nmore lightly by, them he 'reserves unto fire against the day of\njudgment and perdition of ungodly men' (2 Peter 3:7), but the broken\nin heart are his beloved, his jewels.\n\nWherefore, what I have said as to this must go for the truth of\nGod, to wit, That a broken-hearted sinner, a sinner with a contrite\nspirit, is of more esteem with God than is either heaven or earth.\nHe saith he hath made them, but he doth not say he will look to\nthem. He saith they are his throne and footstool, but he doth not\nsay they have taken or ravished his heart. No, it is those that are\nof a contrite spirit do this. But there is yet more in the words,\n'To this man will I look': that is, For this man will I care, about\nthis man will I camp, I will put this man under my protection; for\nso to look to one doth sometimes signify; and I take the meaning\nin this place to be such (Prov 27:23; Jer 39:12, 40:4). 'The Lord\nupholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed\ndown' (Psa 145:14). And the broken-hearted are of this number;\nwherefore he careth for, campeth about, and hath set his eyes upon\nsuch an one for good. This, therefore, is a second demonstration\nto prove, that the man that hath his spirit rightly broken, his\nheart truly contrite, is of great esteem with God.\n\nThird. Yet further, God doth not only prefer such an one, as has\nbeen said, before heaven and earth, but he loveth, he desireth to\nhave that man for an intimate, for a companion; he must dwell; he\nmust cohabit with him that is of a broken heart, with such as are\nof a contrite spirit. 'For thus saith the high and lofty One that\ninhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I will dwell in the high\nand holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble\nspirit' &c. (Isa 57:15).\n\nBehold here both the majesty and condescension of the high and lofty\nOne; his majesty, in that he is high, and the inhabiter of eternity;\n'I am the high and lofty One,' saith he, 'I inhabit eternity.'\nVerily this consideration is enough to make the broken-hearted man\ncreep into a mouse-hole to hide himself from such a majesty! But\nbehold his heart, his condescending mind; I am for dwelling also\nwith him that hath a broken heart, with him that is of a contrite\nspirit; that is the man that I would converse with, that is the\nman with whom I will cohabit; that is, he, saith God, I will choose\nfor my companion. For to desire to dwell with one supposeth all\nthese things; and verily, of all the men in the world, none have\nacquaintance with God, none understand what communion with him, and\nwhat his teachings mean, but such as are of a broken and contrite\nheart. 'He is nigh unto them that are of a broken spirit' (Psa 34:18).\nThese are they intended in the 14th Psalm, where it is said, 'The\nLord looked down from heaven,--to see if any did understand and\nseek God'; that he might find some body in the world with whom he\nmight converse; for indeed there is none else that either understand,\nor that can tend to hearken to him. God, as I may say, is forced\nto break men's hearts, before he can make them willing to cry to\nhim, or be willing that he should have any concerns with them; the\nrest shut their eyes, stop their ears, withdraw their hearts, or\nsay unto God, Be gone (Job 21:14). But now the broken in heart can\ntend it; he has leisure, yea, leisure, and will, and understanding,\nand all; and therefore is a fit man to have to do with God. There\nis room also in this man's house, in this man's heart, in this\nman's spirit, for God to dwell, for God to walk, for God to set up\na kingdom.\n\nHere, therefore, is suitableness. 'Can two walk together,' saith\nGod, 'except they be agreed?' (Amos 3:3). The broken-hearted\ndesireth God's company; when wilt thou come unto me? saith he. The\nbroken-hearted loveth to hear God speak and talk to him. Here is\na suitableness. 'Make me,' saith he, 'to hear joy and gladness,\nthat the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice' (Psa 51:8). But\nhere lies the glory, in that the high and lofty One, the God that\ninhabiteth eternity, and that was a high and holy place for his\nhabitation, should choose to dwell with, and to be a companion of\nthe broken in heart, and of them that are of a contrite spirit.\nYea, and here also is great comfort for such.\n\nFourth. God doth not only prefer such a heart before all sacrifices,\nnor esteems such a man above heaven and earth; nor yet only desire\nto be of his acquaintance, but he reserveth for him his chief comforts,\nhis heart-reviving and soul-cherishing cordials. 'I dwell,' saith\nhe, with such to revive them, and to support and comfort them, 'to\nrevive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the\ncontrite ones' (Isa 57:15). The broken-hearted man is a fainting\nman; he has his qualms, his sinking fits; he ofttimes dies away\nwith pain and fear; he must be stayed with flagons, and comforted\nwith apples, or else he cannot tell what to do: he pines, he pines\naway in his iniquity; nor can any thing keep him alive and make him\nwell but the comforts and cordials of Almighty God (Exo 33:10,11).\nWherefore with such an one God will dwell, to revive the heart,\nto revive the spirit. 'To revive the spirit of the humble, and to\nrevive the heart of the contrite ones.'\n\nGod has cordials, but they are to comfort them that are cast down\n(2 Cor 7:6); and such are the broken-hearted; as for them that are\nwhole, they need not the physician (Mark 2:17). They are the broken\nin spirit that stand in need of cordials; physicians are men of\nno esteem but with them that feel their sickness; and this is one\nreason why God is so little accounted of in the world, even because\nthey have not been made sick by the wounding stroke of God. But\nnow when a man is wounded, has his bones broken, or is made sick,\nand laid at the grave's mouth, who is of that esteem with him as\nis an able physician? What is so much desired as are the cordials,\ncomforts, and suitable supplies of the skilful physician in those\nmatters. And thus it is with the broken-hearted; he needs, and God\nhas prepared for him plenty of the comforts and cordials of heaven,\nto succour and relieve his sinking soul.\n\nWherefore such a one lieth under all the promises that have succour\nin them, and consolation for men, sick and desponding under the\nsense of sin and the heavy wrath of God; and they, says God, shall\nbe refreshed and revived with them. Yea, they are designed for them;\nhe hath therefore broken their hearts, he hath therefore wounded\ntheir spirits, that he might make them apt to relish his reviving\ncordials, that he might minister to them his reviving comforts.\nFor indeed, so soon as he hath broken them, his bowels yearn, and\nhis compassions roll up and down within him, and will not suffer\nhim to abide afflicting. Ephraim was one of these; but so soon as\nGod had smitten him, behold his heart, how it works towards him.\n'Is Ephraim,' saith he, 'my dear son?' that is, he is so; 'is he\na pleasant child?' that is, he is so; 'for since I spake against\nhim, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are\ntroubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the\nLord' (Jer 31:18-20). This therefore is another demonstration.\n\nFifth. As God prefers such a heart, and esteems the man that has\nit above heaven and earth; as he covets intimacy with such an one,\nand prepares for him his cordials; so when he sent his Son Jesus\ninto the world to be a Saviour, he gave him in special a charge to\ntake care of such; yea, that was one of the main reasons he sent\nhim down from heaven, anointed for his work on earth. 'The Spirit\nof the Lord God is upon me,' saith he; 'because he hath anointed\nme to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to bind up the\nbroken-hearted,' &c. (Luke 4:18; Isa 61:1). Now that this is meant\nof Christ, is confirmed by his own lips; for in the days of his\nflesh he takes this book in his hand, when he was in the synagogue\nat Nazareth, and read this very place unto the people; and then\ntells them that that very day that Scripture was fulfilled in their\nears (Luke 6:16-18).\n\nBut see, these are the souls whose welfare is contrived in the\nheavens. God consulted their salvation, their deliverance, their\nhealth, before his Son came down from thence. Doth not therefore\nthis demonstrate, that a broken-hearted man, that a man of a contrite\nspirit, is of great esteem with God. I have often wondered at David\nthat he should give Joab and the men of war a charge, that they\ntake heed that they carry it tenderly to that young rebel Absalom\nhis son (2 Sam 18:5). But that God, the high God, the God against\nwhom we have sinned, should, so soon as he has smitten, give his Son\na command, a charge, a commission to take care of, to bind up and\nheal the broken in heart; this is that which can never be sufficiently\nadmired or wondered at by men or angels.\n\nAnd as this was his commission, so he acted; as is evidently set\nforth by the parable of the man who fell among thieves. He went\nto him, poured into his wounds wine and oil; he bound him up, took\nhim, set him upon his own beast, had him to an inn, gave the host\na charge to look well to him, with money in hand, and a promise at\nhis return to recompence him in what farther he should be expensive\nwhile he was under his care (Luke 10:30-35). Behold, therefore,\nthe care of God which he has for the broken in heart; he has given\na charge to Christ his Son, to look well to them, and to bind up\nand heal their wounds. Behold also the faithfulness of Christ, who\ndoth not hide, but read this commission as soon as he entereth upon\nhis ministry, and also falls into the practical part thereof. 'He\nhealeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds' (Psa\n147:3).\n\nAnd behold again into whose care a broken heart and a contrite\nspirit hath put this poor creature; he is under the care of God,\nthe care and cure of Christ. If a man was sure that his disease\nhad put him under the special care of the king and the queen, yet\ncould he not be sure of life, he might die under their sovereign\nhands. Ay, but here is a man in the favour of God, and under the\nhand of Christ to be healed; under whose hand none yet ever died\nfor want of skill and power in him to save their life; wherefore\nthis man must live; Christ has in commission not only to bind up\nhis wounds, but to heal him. He has of himself so expounded it in\nreading his commission; wherefore he that has his heart broken,\nand that is of a contrite spirit, must not only be taken in hand,\nbut healed; healed of his pain, grief, sorrow, sin, and fears\nof death and hell-fire; wherefore he adds, that he must give unto\nsuch 'beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment\nof praise for the spirit of heaviness,' and must 'comfort all that\nmourn' (Isa 61:2,3). This, I say, he has in the commission, the\nbroken-hearted are put into his hand, and he has said himself he\nwill heal him. Hence he says of that same man, 'I have seen his\nways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts\nunto him, and to his mourners;--and I will heal him' (Isa 57:18,19).\nAnd this is a fifth demonstration.\n\nSixth. As God prefers such a heart, and so esteems the man that has\nit; as he desires his company, has provided for him his cordials,\nand given a charge to Christ to heal him, so he has promised in\nconclusion to save him. 'He saveth such as be of a contrite spirit,'\nor, as the margin has it, that be 'contrite of spirit' (Psa 34:18).\n\nAnd this is the conclusion of all; for to save a man is the end of\nall special mercy. 'He saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.' To\nsave, is to forgive; for without forgiveness of sins we cannot be\nsaved. To save, is to preserve one in this miserable world, and\nto deliver one from all those devils, temptations, snares, and\ndestructions that would, were we not kept, were we not preserved\nof God, destroy us body and soul for ever. To save, is to bring\na man body and soul to glory, and to give him an eternal mansion\nhouse in heaven, that he may dwell in the presence of this good God,\nand the Lord Jesus, and to sing to them the songs of his redemption\nfor ever and ever. This it is to be saved; nor can any thing less\nthan this complete the salvation of the sinner. Now, this is to\nbe the lot of him that is of a broken heart, and the end that God\nwill make with him that is of a contrite spirit. 'He saveth such\nas be contrite of spirit.' He saveth such! This is excellent!\n\nBut, do the broken in spirit believe this? Can they imagine that\nthis is to be the end that God has designed them to, and that he\nintended to make with them in the day in which he began to break\ntheir hearts? No, no; they, alas! think quite the contrary. They\nare afraid that this is but the beginning of death, and a token\nthat they shall never see the face of God with comfort, either in\nthis world or that which is to come. Hence they cry, 'Cast me not\naway from thy presence'; or, Now I am 'free among the dead whom\nGod remembers no more' (Psa 51:11, 88:4,5). For indeed there goes\nto the breaking of the heart a visible appearance of the wrath\nof God, and a home charge from heaven of the guilt of sin to the\nconscience. This to reason is very dreadful; for it cuts the soul\ndown to the ground; 'for a wounded spirit who [none] can bear?'\n(Prov 18:14).\n\nIt seems also now to this man, that this is but the beginning of\nhell; but as it were the first step down to the pit; when, indeed,\nall these are but the beginnings of love, and but that which makes\nway for life. The Lord kills before he makes alive; he wounds\nbefore his hands make whole. Yea, he does the one in order to, or\nbecause he would do the other; he wounds, because his purpose is to\nheal; 'he maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands\nmake whole' (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; Job 5:18). His design, I say,\nis the salvation of the soul. He scourgeth, he breaketh the heart\nof every son whom he receiveth, and woe be to him whose heart God\nbreaketh not.\n\nAnd thus have I proved what at first I asserted, namely, that\na spirit rightly broken, an heart truly contrite, is to God an\nexcellent thing. 'A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt\nnot despise.' For this say I, First. This is evident; for that it\nis better than sacrifices, than all sacrifice. Second. The man that\nhas it is of more esteem with God than heaven or earth. Third. God\ncoveteth such a man for his intimate and house companion. Fourth.\nHe reserveth for them his cordials and spiritual comforts. Fifth.\nHe has given his Son a Charge, a commandment to take care that the\nbroken-hearted be healed; and he is resolved to heal them. Sixth.\nAnd concluded, that the broken-hearted, and they that are of a\ncontrite spirit, shall be saved, that is, possessed of the heavens.\n\n[III. WHAT A BROKEN HEART, AND WHAT A CONTRITE SPIRIT IS.]\n\nI come now in order to show you what a broken heart and what a\ncontrite spirit is. This must be done, because in the discovery of\nthis lies both the comfort of them that have it, and the conviction\nof them that have it not. Now, that I may do this the better, I\nmust propound and speak to these four things. FIRST. I must show\nyou what an one that heart is that is not broken, that is not\ncontrite. SECOND. I must show you how, or with what the heart is\nbroken and made contrite. THIRD. Show you how, and what it is, when\nbroken and made contrite. And, FOURTH. I shall, last of all, give\nyou some signs of a broken and contrite heart.\n\nFIRST. For the first of these, to wit, What an one that heart is,\nthat is not a broken, that is not a contrite heart.\n\nFirst. The heart, before it is broken, is hard and stubborn, and\nobstinate against God, and the salvation of the soul (Zech 7:12;\nDeut 2:30, 9:27).\n\nSecond. It is a heart full of evil imaginations and darkness (Gen\n18:12; Rom 1:21).\n\nThird. It is a heart deceitful and subject to be deceived, especially\nabout the things of an eternal concernment (Isa 44:20; Deut 11:16).\n\nFourth. It is a heart that rather gathereth iniquity and vanity to\nitself than anything that is good for the soul (Psa 41:6, 94:11).\n\nFifth. It is an unbelieving heart, and one that will turn away from\nGod to sin (Heb 3:12; Deut 17:17).\n\nSixth. It is a heart not prepared for God, being uncircumcised, nor\nfor the reception of his holy word (2 Chron 12:14; Psa 78:8; Acts\n7:51).\n\nSeventh. It is a heart not single, but double; it will pretend to\nserve God, but will withal lean to the devil and sin (Psa 12:2;\nEze 33:31).\n\nEighth. It is a heart proud and stout: it loves not to be controlled,\nthough the controller be God himself (Psa 101:5; Prov 16:5; Mal\n3:13).\n\nNinth. It is a heart that will give place to Satan, but will resist\nthe Holy Ghost (Acts 5:3, 7:51).\n\nTenth. In a word, 'It is deceitful above all things, and desperately\nwicked'; so wicked that none can know it (Jer 17:9).\n\nThat the heart before it is broken is such, and worse than I have\ndescribed it to be, is sufficiently seen by the whole course of\nthe world. Where is the man whose heart has not been broken, and\nwhose spirit is not contrite, that according to the Word of God\ndeals honestly with his own soul? It is one character of a right\nheart, that it is sound in God's statutes, and honest (Psa 119:18;\nLuke 8:15). Now, an honest heart will not put off itself, nor\nbe put off with that which will not go for current money with the\nmerchant; I mean, with that which will not go for saving grace at\nthe day of judgment. But alas! alas! but few men, how honest soever\nthey are to others, have honesty towards themselves; though he is\nthe worst of deceivers who deceiveth his own soul, as James has\nit, about the things of his own soul (1:22,26). But,\n\nSECOND. I now come to show you with what and how the heart is\nbroken, and the spirit made contrite.\n\n[First. With what the heart is broken, and the spirit made contrite.]\n\nThe instrument with which the heart is broken, and with which the\nspirit is made contrite, is the Word. 'Is not my word like as a\nfire, saith the Lord; and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in\npieces?' (Jer 23:29). The rock, in this text, is the heart, which\nin another place is compared to an adamant, which adamant is harder\nthan flint (Zech 7:11,12; Eze 3:9). This rock, this adamant, this\nstony heart, is broken and made contrite by the Word. But it only\nis so, when the Word is as a fire, and as a hammer to break and\nmelt it. And then, and then only, it is as a fire, and a hammer to\nthe heart to break it, when it is managed by the arm of God. No\nman can break the heart with the Word; no angel can break the heart\nwith the Word; that is, if God forbears to second it by mighty power\nfrom heaven. This made Balaam go without a heart rightly broken,\nand truly contrite, though he was rebuked by an angel; and the\nPharisees die in their sins, though rebuked for them, and admonished\nto turn from them, by the Saviour of the world. Wherefore, though\nthe Word is the instrument with which the heart is broken, yet it\nis not broken with the Word, till that Word is managed by the might\nand power of God.\n\nThis made the prophet Isaiah, after long preaching, cry out, that\nhe had laboured for nought, and in vain; and this made him cry to\nGod, 'to rend the heavens and come down,' that the mountains, or\nrocky hills, or hearts, might be broken, and melt at his presence\n(Isa 44:4, 64:1,2). For he found by experience, that as to this\nno effectual work could be done, unless the Lord put to his hand.\nThis also is often intimated in the Scriptures, where it saith,\nwhen the preachers preached effectually to the breaking of men's\nhearts, 'the Lord wrought with them;[2] the hand of the Lord was\nwith them,' and the like (Mark 16:20; Acts 11:21).\n\nNow when the hand of the Lord is with the Word, then it is mighty:\nit is 'mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds' (2\nCor 10:4). It is sharp, then, as a sword in the soul and spirit;\nit sticks like an arrow in the hearts of sinners, to the causing\nof the people to fall at his foot for mercy (Heb 4:12). Then it\nis, as was said afore, as a fire and as a hammer to break this rock\nin pieces (Psa 110:3). And hence the Word is made mention of under\na double consideration. 1. As it stands by itself. 2. As attended\nwith power from heaven.\n\n1. As it stands by itself, and is not seconded with saving operation\nfrom heaven, it is called the Word only, the Word barely, or as if\nit was only the word of men (1 Thess 1:5-7; 1 Cor 4:19,20; 1 Thess\n2:13). Because, then, it is only as managed by men, who are not\nable to make it accomplish that work. The Word of God, when in a\nman's hand only, is like the father's sword in the hand of the sucking\nchild; which sword, though never so well pointed, and though never\nso sharp on the edges, is not now able to conquer a foe, and to\nmake an enemy fall and cry out for mercy, because it is but in the\nhand of the child. But now, let the same sword be put into the hand\nof a skilful father--and God is both skilful and able to manage\nhis Word--and then the sinner, and then the proud helpers too, are\nboth made to stoop, and submit themselves; wherefore, I say, though\nthe Word be the instrument, yet of itself doth do no saving good\nto the soul; the heart is not broken, nor the spirit made contrite\nthereby; it only worketh death, and leaveth men in the chains of\ntheir sins, still faster bound over to eternal condemnation (2 Cor\n2:15,16).\n\n2. But when seconded by mighty power, then the same Word is as the\nroaring of a lion, as the piercing of a sword, as a burning fire\nin the bones, as thunder and as a hammer that dashes all to pieces\n(Jer 25:30; Amos 1:2, 3:8; Acts 2:37; Jer 20:9; Psa 29:3-9). Wherefore,\nfrom hence it is to be concluded, that whoever has heard the Word\npreached, and has not heard the voice of the living God therein,\nhas not as yet had their hearts broken, nor their spirits made\ncontrite for their sins.\n\n[Second. How the heart is broken, and the spirit made contrite.]\n\nAnd this leads me to the second thing, to wit, To show how the heart\nis broken and the spirit made contrite by the Word, and verily it\nis when the Word comes home with power. But yet this is but general;\nwherefore, more particularly,\n\n1. Then the Word works effectually to this purpose, when it findeth\nout the sinner and his sin, and shall convince him that it has found\nhim out. Thus it was with our first father; when he had sinned,\nhe sought to hide himself from God; he gets among the trees of the\ngarden, and there he shrouds himself; but yet, not thinking himself\nsecure, he covers himself with fig-leaves; and now he lieth quiet.\nNow God shall not find me, thinks he, nor know what I have done.\nBut lo! by and by, he 'hears the voice of the Lord God walking in\nthe garden.' And now, Adam, what do you mean to do? Why, as yet,\nhe skulketh, and hides his head, and seeks yet to lie undiscovered;\nbut behold, the voice cries out, ADAM! and now he begins to tremble.\n'Adam, where art thou?' says God; and now Adam is made to answer\n(Gen 3:7-11). But the voice of the Lord God doth not leave him here:\nno, it now begins to search, and to inquire after his doings, and\nto unravel what he had wrapt together and covered, until it made\nhim bare and naked in his own sight before the face of God. Thus,\ntherefore, doth the Word, when managed by the arm of God. It findeth\nout, it singleth out the sinner; the sinner finds it so; it finds\nout the sins of the sinner; it unravels his whole life, it strips\nhim and lays him naked in his own sight before the face of God;\nneither can the sinner nor his wickedness be longer hid and covered;\nand now begins the sinner to see what he never saw before.\n\n2. Another instance for this is David, the man of our text. He\nsins, he sins grossly, he sins and hides it; yea, and seeks to hide\nit from the face of God and man. Well, Nathan is sent to preach\na preaching to him, and that in common, and that in special: in\ncommon, by a parable; in special, by a particular application of\nit to him. While Nathan only preached in common, or in general,\nDavid was fish-whole,[3] and stood as right in his own eyes as if\nhe had been as innocent and as harmless as any man alive. But God\nhad a love for David; and therefore commands his servant Nathan\nto go home, not only to David's ears, but to David's conscience.\nWell, David now must fall. Says Nathan, 'Thou art the man'; says\nDavid, 'I have sinned,' and then his heart was broken, and his\nspirit made contrite; as this psalm and our text doth show (2 Sam\n12:1-13).\n\n3. A third instance is that of Saul; he had heard many a sermon,\nand was become a great professor, yea, he was more zealous than\nwere many of his equals; but his heart was never broken, nor his\nspirit ever made contrite, till he heard one preach from heaven,\ntill he heard God, in the Word of God, making inquiry after his\nsins: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' says Jesus; and then\nhe can stand no longer: for then his heart brake, then he falls\nto the ground, then he trembles, then he cries out, 'Who art thou,\nLord?' and, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' (Acts 9). Wherefore,\nas I said, Then the word works effectually to this purpose, when it\nfindeth out the sinner and his sin, and also when it shall convince\nhim that it has found him out. Only I must join here a caution,\nfor every operation of the Word upon the conscience is not saving;\nnor doth all conviction end in the saving conversion of the sinner.\nIt is then only such an operation of the Word that is intended,\nnamely, that shows the sinner not only the evil of his ways, but\nbrings the heart unfeignedly over to God by Christ. And this brings\nme to the third thing.\n\nTHIRD. I am therefore come to show you how and what the heart is\nwhen broken and made contrite. And this I must do, by opening unto\nyou the two chief expressions in the text. First. What is meant by\nthis word broken. Second. What is meant by this word contrite.\n\nFirst. For this word broken, Tindal renders it a troubled heart;[4]\nbut I think there is more in it. I take it, therefore, to be\na heart disabled, as to former actions, even as a man whose bones\nare broken is disabled, as to his way of running, leaping, wrestling,\nor ought else, which vainly he was wont to do; wherefore, that which\nwas called a broken heart in the text, he calls his broken bones,\nin verse the eighth: 'Cause me,' saith he, 'to hear joy and gladness,\nthat the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice' (Psa 51:8). And\nwhy is the breaking of the heart compared to the breaking of the\nbones? but because as when the bones are broken, the outward man\nis disabled as to what it was wont to do; so when the spirit is\nbroken, the inward man is disabled as to what vanity and folly it\nbefore delighted in; hence, feebleness is joined with this brokenness\nof heart. 'I am feeble,' saith he, 'and sore broken' (Psa 38:8).\nI have lost my strength and former vigour, as to vain and sinful\ncourses.\n\nThis, then, it is to have the heart broken; namely, to have it\nlamed, disabled, and taken off by sense of God's wrath due to sin,\nfrom that course of life it formerly was conversant in; and to show\nthat this work is no fancy, nor done but with great trouble to the\nsoul, it is compared to the putting the bones out of joint, the\nbreaking of the bones, the burning of the bones with fire, or as\nthe taking the natural moisture from the bones, the vexing of the\nbones, &c. (Psa 23:14; Jer 20:9; Lam 1:13; Psa 6:2; Prov 17:22).\nAll which are expressions adorned with such similitudes, as do\nundeniably declare that to sense and feeling a broken heart is a\ngrievous thing.\n\nSecond. What is meant by the word contrite. A contrite spirit is\na penitent one; one sorely grieved, and deeply sorrowful, for the\nsins it has committed against God, and to the damage of the soul;\nand so it is to be taken in all those places where a contrite spirit\nis made mention of; as in Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 57:15, 66:2.\n\nAs a man that has by his folly procured a broken leg or arm, is\nheartily sorry that ever he was so foolish as to be engaged in such\nfoolish ways of idleness and vanity; so he whose heart is broken\nwith a sense of God's wrath due to his sin, hath deep sorrow in\nhis soul, and is greatly repentant that ever he should be such a\nfool, as by rebellious doings to bring himself and his soul to so\nmuch sharp affliction. Hence, while others are sporting themselves\nin vanity, such a one doth call his sin his greatest folly. 'My wounds\nstink, and are corrupt,' saith David, 'because of my foolishness.'\nAnd again, 'O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are\nnot hid from thee' (Psa 38:5, 69:5).\n\nMen, whatever they say with their lips, cannot conclude, if yet\ntheir hearts want breaking, that sin is a foolish thing. Hence it\nsays, 'The foolishness of fools is folly' (Prov 14:24). That is,\nthe foolishness of some men, is that they take pleasure in their\nsins; for their sins are their foolishness, and the folly of their\nsoul lies in their countenancing of this foolishness. But the man\nwhose heart is broken, he is none of these, he cannot be one of\nthese, no more than he that has his bones broken can rejoice that\nhe is desired to play a match at football. Hence, to hear others\ntalk foolishly, is to the grief of those whom God has wounded: or,\nas it is in another place, their words are 'like the piercings of\na sword' (Psa 69:26; Prov 12:18). This, therefore, I take to be\nthe meaning of these two words, a broken and a contrite spirit.\n\nFOURTH. Lastly, As to this, I now come more particularly to give\nyou some signs of a broken heart, of a broken and a contrite spirit.\n\nFirst. A broken-hearted man, such as is intended in the text, is\na sensible man; he is brought to the exercise of all the senses of\nhis soul. All others are dead, senseless, and without true feeling\nof what the broken-hearted man is sensible of.\n\n1. He sees himself to be what others are ignorant of; that is, he\nsees himself to be not only a sinful man, but a man by nature in the\ngall and bond of sin. In the gall of sin: it is Peter's expression\nto Simon, and it is a saying common to all men: for every man\nin a state of nature is in the gall of sin; he was shapen in it,\nconceived in it; it has also possession of, and by that possession\ninfected the whole of his soul and body (Psa 51:5; Acts 8:23).\nThis he sees, this he understands; every professor sees not this,\nbecause the blessing of a broken heart is not bestowed on every\none. David says, 'There is no soundness in my flesh'; and Solomon\nsuggest that a plague or running sore is in the very heart. But\nevery one perceives not this (Psa 38:3; 1 Kings 8:38). He saith\nagain, that his 'wounds stank, and were corrupted': that his 'sore\nran, and ceased not' (Psa 38:5, 77:2). But these things the brutish\nman, the man whose heart was never broken, has no understanding of.\nBut the broken-hearted, the man that has a broken spirit, he sees,\nas the prophet has it, he sees his sickness, he sees his wound:\n'When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound'; he sees\nit to his grief, he sees it to his sorrow (Hosea 5:13).\n\n2. He feels what others have no sense of; he feels the arrows of\nthe Almighty, and that they stick fast in him (Psa 38:2). He feels\nhow sore and sick, by the smiting of God's hammer upon his heart\nto break it, his poor soul is made. He feels a burden intolerably\nlying upon his spirit (Hosea 5:13). 'Mine iniquities,' saith he,\n'are gone over mine head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for\nme' (Psa 38:4). He feels also the heavy hand of God upon his soul,\na thing unknown to carnal men. He feels pain, being wounded, even\nsuch pain as others cannot understand, because they are not broken.\n'My heart,' saith David, 'is sore pained within me.' Why so? Why!\n'The terrors of death are fallen upon me' (Psa 55:4). The terrors\nof death cause pain, yea, pain of the highest nature; hence that\nwhich is here called pains, is in another place called pangs (Isa\n21:3).\n\nYou know broken bones occasion pain, strong pain, yea, pain that will\nmake a man or woman groan 'with the groanings of a deadly wounded\nman' (Eze 30:24). Soul pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to\nwhich the pain of the body is a very tolerable thing (Prov 18:14).\nNow here is soul pain, here is heart pain; here we are discoursing\nof a wounded, of a broken spirit; wherefore this is pain to be felt\nto the sinking of the whole man, neither can any support this but\nGod. Here is death in this pain, death for ever, without God's\nspecial mercy. This pain will bring the soul to, and this the\nbroken-hearted man doth feel. 'The sorrows of death,' saith David,\n'compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me, I found\ntrouble and sorrow' (Psa 116:3). Ay, I'll warrant thee, poor man,\nthou foundest trouble and sorrow indeed; for the pains of hell and\nsorrows of death are pains and sorrow the most intolerable. But\nthis the man is acquainted with that has his heart broken.[5]\n\n3. As he sees and feels, so he hears that which augments his woe\nand sorrow. You know, if a man has his bones broken, he does not\nonly see and feel, but oft-times also hears what increases his\ngrief; as, that his wounds are incurable; that his bone is not\nrightly set; that there is danger of a gangrene; that he may be\nlost for want of looking to. These are the voices, the sayings,\nthat haunt the house of one that has his bones broken. And a\nbroken-hearted man knows what I mean by this; he hears that which\nmakes his lips quiver, and at the noise of which he seems to feel\nrottenness enter into his bones; he trembleth in himself, and wishes\nthat he may hear joy and gladness, that the bones, the heart, and\nspirit, which God has broken, may rejoice (Habb 3:16; Psa 51:8).\nHe thinks he hears God say, the devil say, his conscience say, and\nall good men to whisper among themselves, saying, there is no help\nfor him from God. Job heard this, David heard this, Heman heard\nthis; and this is the common sound in the ears of the broken-hearted.\n\n4. The broken-hearted smell what others cannot scent. Alas! sin\nnever smelled so to any man alive as it smells to the broken-hearted.\nYou know wounds will stink: but [there is] no stink like that\nof sin to the broken-hearted man. His own sins stink, and so doth\nthe sins of all the world to him. Sin is like carrion; it is of\na stinking nature; yea, it has the worst of smells; however, some\nmen like it (Psa 38:5). But none are offended with the scent thereof\nbut God and the broken-hearted sinner. 'My wounds stink, and are\ncorrupt,' saith he, both in God's nostrils and mine own. But, alas!\nwho smells the stink of sin? None of the carnal world; they, like\ncarrion-crows, seek it, love it, and eat it as the child eats bread.\n'They eat up the sin of my people,' saith God, 'and they set their\nheart on their iniquity' (Hosea 4:8). This, I say, they do, because\nthey do not smell the nauseous scent of sin. You know, that what\nis nauseous to the smell cannot be palatable to the taste. The\nbroken-hearted man doth find that sin is nauseous, and therefore\ncries out it stinketh. They also think at times the smell of fire,\nof fire and brimstone, is upon them, they are so sensible of the\nwages due to sin.\n\n5. The broken-hearted is also a tasting man. Wounds, if sore, and\nfull of pains, of great pains, do sometimes alter the taste of a\nman; they make him think his meat, his drink, yea, that cordials\nhave a bitter taste in them. How many times doth the poor people\nof God, that are the only men that know what a broken-heart doth\nmean, cry out that gravel, wormwood, gall, and vinegar, was made\ntheir meat (Lam 3:15,16,19). This gravel, gall, and wormwood, is\nthe true temporal taste of sin; and God, to make them loathe it\nfor ever, doth feed them with it till their hearts both ache and\nbreak therewith. Wickedness is pleasant of taste to the world; hence\nit is said they feed on ashes, they feed on the wind (Isa 44:20;\nHosea 12:1). Lusts, or any thing that is vile and refuse, the\ncarnal world think relishes well; as is set out most notably in\nthe parable of the prodigal son. 'He would fain have filled his\nbelly,' saith our Lord, 'with the husks that the swine did eat'\n(Luke 15:16). But the broken-hearted man has a relish that is true\nas to these things, though, by reason of the anguish of his soul,\nit abhors all manner of dainty meat (Job 33:19,20; Psa 107:17-19).\nThus I have showed you one sign of a broken-hearted man; he is a\nsensible man, he has all the senses of his soul awakened, he can\nsee, hear, feel, taste, smell, and that as none but himself can\ndo. I come now to another sign of a broken and contrite man.\n\nSecond. And that is, he is a very sorrowful man. This, as the\nother, is natural; it is natural to one that is in pain, and that\nhas his bones broken, to be a grieved and sorrowful man. He is\nnone of the jolly ones of the times; nor can he, for his bones,\nhis heart, his heart is broken.\n\n1. He is sorry for that he feels and finds in himself a pravity\nof nature; I told you before he is sensible of it, he sees it, he\nfeels it; and here I say he is sorry for it. It is this that makes\nhim call himself a wretched man; it is this that makes him loathe\nand abhor himself; it is this that makes him blush, blush before\nGod and be ashamed (Rom 7:24; Job 42:5,6; Eze 36:31). He finds by\nnature no form nor comeliness in himself, but the more he looks in\nthe glass of the Word, the more unhandsome, the more deformed he\nperceiveth sin has made him. Every body sees not this, therefore\nevery body is not sorry for it; but the broken in heart sees that\nhe is by sin corrupted, marred, full of lewdness and naughtiness;\nhe sees that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing;\nand this makes him sorry, yea, it makes him sorry at heart. A man\nthat has his bones broken finds he is spoiled, marred, disabled\nfrom doing as he would and should, at which he is grieved and made\nsorry.\n\nMany are sorry for actual transgressions, because they do oft\nbring them to shame before men; but few are sorry for the defects\nthat sin has made in nature, because they see not those defects\nthemselves. A man cannot be sorry for the sinful defects of nature,\ntill he sees they have rendered him contemptible to God; nor is\nit any thing but a sight of God that can make him truly see what\nhe is, and so be heartily sorry for being so. Now 'mine eye seeth\nthee,' saith Job, now 'I abhor myself.' 'Woe is me, for I am\nundone,' saith the prophet, 'for mine eyes have seen the King the\nLord.' And it was this that made Daniel say his 'comeliness was\nturned in him into corruption'; for he had now the vision of the\nHoly One (Job 42:6; Isa 6:1-5; Dan 10:8). Visions of God break the\nheart, because, by the sight the soul then has of his perfections,\nit sees its own infinite and unspeakable disproportion, because of\nthe vileness of its nature.\n\nSuppose a company of ugly, uncomely, deformed persons dwelt together\nin one house; and suppose that they never yet saw any man or woman\nmore than themselves, or that were arrayed with the splendours\nand perfections of nature; these would not be capable of comparing\nthemselves with any but themselves, and consequently would not\nbe affected and made sorry for their uncomely natural defections.\nBut now bring them out of their cells and holes of darkness, where\nthey have been shut up by themselves, and let them take a view of\nthe splendour and perfections of beauty that are in others, and\nthen, if at all, they will be sorry and dejected at the view of\ntheir own defects. This is the case; men by sin are marred, spoiled,\ncorrupted, depraved, but they may dwell by themselves in the dark;\nthey see neither God, nor angels, nor saints, in their excellent\nnature and beauty: and therefore they are apt to count their own\nuncomely parts their ornaments and their glory. But now let such,\nas I said, see God, see saints, or the ornaments of the Holy Ghost,\nand themselves as they are without them, and then they cannot\nbut must be affected with and sorry for their own deformity. When\nthe Lord Christ put forth but little of his excellency before his\nservant Peter's face, it raised up the depravity of Peter's nature\nbefore him to his great confusion and shame; and made him cry out\nto him in the midst of all his fellows, 'Depart from me, for I am\na sinful man, O Lord' (Luke 5:4-8).\n\nThis therefore is the cause of a broken heart, even a sight of\ndivine excellencies, and a sense that I am a poor, depraved, spoiled\ndefiled wretch; and this sight having broken the heart, begets\nsorrow in the broken-hearted.\n\n2. The broken-hearted is a sorrowful man; for that he finds his\ndepravity of nature strong in him, to the putting forth itself\nto oppose and overthrow what his changed mind doth prompt him to;\n'When I would do good,' saith Paul, 'evil is present with me' (Rom\n7:21). Evil is present to oppose, to resist, and make head against\nthe desires of my soul. The man that has his bones broken, may\nhave yet a mind to be industriously occupied in a lawful and honest\ncalling; but he finds, by experience, that an infirmity attends\nhis present condition that strongly resists his good endeavours;\nand at this he shakes his head, makes complaints, and with sorrow\nof heart he sighs and says, I 'cannot do the thing that I would' (Rom\n7:15; Gal 5:17). I am weak, I am feeble; I am not only depraved,\nbut by that depravity deprived of ability to put good motions,[6]\ngood intentions and desires into execution, to completeness; O says\nhe, I am ready to halt, my sorrow is continually before me!\n\nYou must know that the broken-hearted loves God, loves his soul,\nloves good, and hates evil. Now, for such an one to find in himself\nan opposition and continual contradiction to this holy passion, it\nmust needs cause sorrow, godly sorrow, as the apostle Paul calls\nit. For such are made sorrow after a godly sort. To be sorry for\nthat thy nature is with sin depraved, and that through this depravity\nthou art deprived of ability to do what the Word and thy holy mind\ndoth prompt thee to, is to be sorry after a godly sort. For this\nsorrow worketh that in thee of which thou wilt never have cause to\nrepent; no, not to eternity (2 Cor 7:9-11).\n\n3. The broken-hearted man is sorry for those breaches that, by\nreason of the depravity of his nature, are made in his life and\nconversation. And this was the case of the man in our text. The\nvileness of his nature had broken out to the defiling of his life,\nand to the making of him, at this time, base in conversation. This,\nthis was it, that all to[7] brake his heart. He saw in this he had\ndishonoured God, and that cut him, 'Against thee, thee only, have\nI sinned, and done this evil in thy sight' (Psa 51:4). He saw\nin this he had caused the enemies of God to open their mouths and\nblaspheme; and this cut him to the heart. This made him cry, I have\nsinned against thee, Lord. This made him say, 'I will declare mine\niniquity, I will be sorry for my sin' (Psa 38:18).\n\nWhen a man is designed to do a matter, when his heart is set upon\nit, and the broken-hearted doth design to glorify God, an obstruction\nto that design, the spoiling of this work, makes him sorrowful.\nHannah coveted children, but could not have them, and this made\nher 'a woman of a sorrowful spirit' (1 Sam 1:15). A broken-hearted\nman would be well inwardly, and do that which is well outwardly; but\nhe feels, he finds, he sees he is prevented, prevented at least in\npart. This makes him sorrowful; in this he groans, groans earnestly,\nbeing burdened with his imperfections (2 Cor 5:1-3). You know one\nwith broken bones has imperfections many, and is more sensible of\nthem, too, as was said afore, than any other man; and this makes\nhim sorrowful, yea, and makes him conclude that he shall go softly\nall his days in the bitterness of his soul (Isa 38:15).\n\nThird. The man with a broken heart is a very humble man; or, true\nhumility is a sign of a broken heart. Hence, brokenness of heart,\ncontrition of spirit, and humbleness of mind, are put together.\n'To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of\nthe contrite ones' (Isa 57:15).\n\nTo follow our similitude. Suppose a man, while in bodily health,\nstout and strong, and one that fears and cares for no man; yet\nlet this man have but a leg or an arm broken, and his courage is\nquelled; he is now so far off from hectoring of it with a man, that\nhe is afraid of every little child that doth but offer to touch\nhim. Now he will court the most feeble that has ought to do with\nhim, to use him and handle him gently. Now he is become a child in\ncourage, a child in fear, and humbleth himself as a little child.\n\nWhy, thus it is with that man that is of a broken and contrite\nspirit. Time was, indeed, he could hector, even hector it with God\nhimself, saying, 'What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?'\nor what profit shall I have if I keep his commandments? (Job 21:15;\nMal 3:13,14). Ay! But now his heart is broken; God has wrestled\nwith him, and given him a fall, to the breaking of his bones, his\nheart; and now he crouches, now he cringes, now he begs of God that\nhe will not only do him good, but do it with tender hands. 'Have\nmercy upon me, O God,' said David; yea, 'according unto the multitude\nof thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions' (Psa 51:1).\n\nHe stands, as he sees, not only in need of mercy, but of the tenderest\nmercies. God has several sorts of mercies, some more rough, some\nmore tender. God can save a man, and yet have him a dreadful way to\nheaven! This the broken-hearted sees, and this the broken-hearted\ndreads, and therefore pleads for the tenderest sort of mercies; and\nhere we read of his gentle dealing, and that he is very pitiful, and\nthat he deals tenderly with his. But the reason of such expressions\nno man knows but he that is broken-hearted; he has his sores, his\nrunning sores, his stinking sores; wherefore he is pained, and\ntherefore covets to be handled tenderly. Thus God has broken the\npride of his spirit, and humbled the loftiness of man. And his\nhumility yet appears,\n\n1. In his thankfulness for natural life. He reckoneth at night,\nwhen he goes to bed, that like as a lion, so God will tear him to\npieces before the morning light (Isa 38:13). There is no judgment\nthat has fallen upon others, but he counts of right he should be\nswallowed up by it. 'My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am\nafraid of thy judgments' (Psa 119:120). But perceiving a day added\nto his life, and that he in the morning is still on this side hell,\nhe cannot choose but take notice of it, and acknowledge it as a\nspecial favour, saying, God be thanked for holding my soul in life\ntill now, and for keeping my life back from the destroyer (Job\n33:22; Psa 56:13, 86:13).\n\nMan, before his heart is broken, counts time his own, and therefore\nhe spends it lavishly upon every idle thing. His soul is far from\nfear, because the rod of God is not upon him; but when he sees\nhimself under the wounding hand of God, or when God, like a lion,\nis breaking all his bones, then he humbleth himself before him,\nand falleth at his foot. Now he has learned to count every moment\na mercy, and every small morsel a mercy.\n\n2. Now also the least hopes of mercy for his soul, O how precious\nis it! He that was wont to make orts[8] of the gospel, and that\nvalued promises but as stubble, and the words of God but as rotten\nwood; now, with what an eye doth he look on the promise? Yea, he\ncounted a peradventure of mercy more rich, more worth, than the\nwhole world. Now, as we say, he is glad to leap at a crust; now,\nto be a dog in God's house is counted better by him than to 'dwell\nin the tents of the wicked' (Matt 15:16,27; Luke 15:17-19).\n\n3. Now he that was wont to look scornfully upon the people of God,\nyea, that used to scorn to show them a gentle cast of his countenance;\nnow he admires and bows before them, and is ready to lick the dust\nof their feet, and would count it his greatest, the highest honour,\nto be as one of the least of them. 'Make me as one of thy hired\nservants,' says he (Luke 15:19).\n\n4. Now he is, in his own eyes, the greatest fool in nature; for\nthat he sees he has been so mistaken in his ways, and has not yet\nbut little, if any true knowledge of God. Every one now, says he,\nhave more knowledge of God than I; every one serves him better than\nI (Psa 73:21,22; Prov 30:2,3).\n\n5. Now may he be but one, though the least in the kingdom of\nheaven! Now may he be but one, though the least in the church on\nearth! Now may he be but loved, though the least beloved of saints!\nHow high an account doth he set thereon!\n\n6. Now, when he talketh with God or men, how doth he debase himself\nbefore them! If with God, how does he accuse himself, and load\nhimself with the acknowledgments of his own villanies, which he\ncommitted in the days wherein he was the enemy of God! 'Lord,' said\nPaul, that contrite one, 'I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue\nthem that believed on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen\nwas shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death,\nand kept the raiment of them that slew him' (Acts 22:19,20). Yea,\nI punished thy saints 'oft in every synagogue, and compelled them\nto blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted\nthem even unto strange cities' (Acts 26:9-11).\n\nAlso, when he comes to speak to saints, how doth he make himself\nvile before them! 'I am,' saith he, 'the least of the apostles; that\nam not meet to be called an apostle'; I am 'less than the least of\nall saints'; I was a blasphemer; I was a persecutor, and injurious,\n&c. (1 Cor 15:9; Eph 3:8; 1 Tim 1:13). What humility, what self-abasing\nthoughts, doth a broken heart produce! When David danced before the\nark of God, also how did he discover his nakedness to the disliking\nof his wife; and when she taunted him for his doings, says he, 'It\nwas before the Lord,' &c., 'and I will yet be more vile than thus,\nand will be base in mine own sight' (2 Sam 6:20-22). O, the man\nthat is, or that has been kindly broken in his spirit, and that is\nof a contrite heart, is a lowly, humble man.\n\nFourth. The broken-hearted man is a man that sees himself in\nspirituals to be poor. Therefore, as humble and contrite, so poor\nand contrite are put together in the Word. 'But to this man will\nI look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit' (Isa\n66:1,2). And here we still pursue our metaphor. A wounded man, a\nman with broken bones, concludes his condition to be but poor, very\npoor. Ask him how he does, and he answers, 'Truly, neighbours, in a\nvery poor condition!' Also you have the spiritual poverty of such\nas have, or have had their hearts broken, and that have been of\ncontrite spirits, much made mention of in the Word. And they go\nby two names to distinguish them from others. They are called THY\npoor, that is, God's poor; they are also called 'the poor in spirit'\n(Psa 72:2, 74:19; Matt 5:3). Now, the man that is poor in his own\neyes, for of him we now discourse, and the broken-hearted is such\nan one, is sensible of his wants. He knows he cannot help himself,\nand therefore is forced to be content to live by the charity of\nothers. Thus it is in nature, thus it is in grace.\n\n1. The broken-hearted now knows his wants, and he knew it not till\nnow. As he that has a broken bone, knew no want of a bone-setter\ntill he knew his bone was broken. His broken bone makes him know\nit; his pain and anguish makes him know it; and thus it is in\nspirituals. Now he sees to be poor indeed is to want the sense of\nthe favour of God; for his great pain is a sense of wrath, as hath\nbeen shown before. And the voice of joy would heal his broken bones\n(Psa 51:8). Two things he thinks would make him rich. (1) A right\nand title to Jesus Christ, and all his benefits. (2) And saving\nfaith therein. They that are spiritually rich are rich in him, and\nin the faith of him (2 Cor 8:9; James 2:5).\n\nThe first of these giveth us a right to the kingdom of heaven; and\nthe second yields the soul the comfort of it; and the broken-hearted\nman wants the sense and knowledge of his interest in these. That\nhe knows he wants them is plain; but that he knows he has them is\nwhat, as yet, he wants the attainment of. Hence he says--'The poor\nand needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth\nfor thirst' (Isa 41:17). There is none in their view; none in their\nview for them. Hence David, when he had his broken heart, felt he\nwanted washing, he wanted purging, he wanted to be made white. He\nknew that spiritual riches lay there but he did not so well perceive\nthat God had washed and purged him. Yea, he rather was afraid that\nall was going, that he was in danger of being cast out of God's\npresence, and that the Spirit of grace would be utterly taken from\nhim (Psa 51). That is the first thing. The broken-hearted is poor,\nbecause he knows his wants.\n\n2. The broken-hearted is poor, because he knows he cannot help\nhimself to what he knows he wants. The man that has a broken arm,\nas he knows it, so he knows of himself he cannot set it. This\ntherefore is a second thing that declares a man is poor, otherwise\nhe is not so. For suppose a man wants never so much, yet if he can\nbut help himself, if he can furnish himself, if he can supply his\nown wants out of what he has, he cannot be a poor man. Yea, the\nmore he wants, the greater are his riches, if he can supply his\nown wants out of his own purse.\n\nHe then is the poor man, that knows his spiritual want, and also\nknows he cannot supply or help himself. But this the broken-hearted\nknows, therefore he in his own eyes is the only poor man. True, he\nmay have something of his own, but that will not supply his want,\nand therefore he is a poor man still. I have sacrifices, says\nDavid, but thou dosts not desire them, therefore my poverty remains\n(Psa 51:16). Lead is not gold, lead is not current money with the\nmerchants. There is none has spiritual gold to sell but Christ (Rev\n3:18). What can a man do to procure Christ, or procure faith, or\nlove? Yea, had he never so much of his own carnal excellencies, no,\nnot one penny of it will go for pay in that market where grace is\nto be hand. 'If a man would give all the substance of his house\nfor love, it would utterly be contemned' (Can 8:7).\n\nThis the broken-hearted man perceives, and therefore he sees himself\nto be spiritually poor. True he has a broken heart, and that is of\ngreat esteem with God; but that is not of nature's goodness, that\nis a gift, a work of God; and that is the sacrifices of God. Besides,\na man cannot remain content and at rest with that; for that, in\nthe nature of it, does but show him he is poor, and that his wants\nare such as himself cannot supply. Besides, there is but little\nease in a broken heart.\n\n3. The broken-hearted man is poor, and sees it; because he finds\nhe is now disabled to live any way else but by begging. This David\nbetook himself to, though he was a king; for he knew, as to his\nsoul's health, he could live no way else. 'This poor man cried,'\nsaith he, 'and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his\ntroubles' (Psa 34:6). And this leads me to the fifth sign.\n\nFifth. Another sign of a broken heart is a crying, a crying out.\nPain, you know, will make one cry. Go to them that have upon them\nthe anguish of broken bones, and see if they do not cry; anguish\nmakes them cry. This, this is that which quickly follows, if once\nthy heart be broken, and thy spirit indeed made contrite.\n\n1. I say, anguish will make thee cry. 'Trouble and anguish,' saith\nDavid, 'have taken hold on me' (Psa 119:143). Anguish, you know,\ndoth naturally provoke to crying; now, as a broken bone has anguish,\na broken heart has anguish. Hence the pains of one that has a broken\nheart are compared to the pangs of a woman in travail (John 16:20-22).\n\nAnguish will make one cry alone, cry to one's self; and this\nis called a bemoaning of one's self. 'I have surely heard Ephraim\nbemoaning himself,' saith God (Jer 31:18). That is, being at present\nunder the breaking, chastising hand of God. 'Thou hast chastised\nme,' saith he, 'and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed\nto the yoke.' This is his meaning also who said, 'I mourn in my\ncomplaint, and make a noise.' And why? Why, 'My heart is sore pained\nwithin me' (Psa 4:2-4).\n\nThis is a self-bemoaning, a bemoaning themselves in secret and\nretired places. You know it is common with them who are distressed\nwith anguish, though all alone, to cry out to themselves of their\npresent pains, saying, O my leg! O my arm! O my bowels! Or, as the\nson of the Shunammite, 'My head! my head!' (2 Kings 4:19). O the\ngroans, the sighs, the cries, that the broken-hearted have, when\nby themselves, or alone! O, say they, my sins! my sins! my soul! my\nsoul! How am I loaden with guilt! How am I surrounded with fear!\nO this hard, this desperate, this unbelieving heart! O how sin\ndefileth my will, my mind, my conscience! 'I am afflicted and ready\nto die' (Psa 88:15).[9]\n\nCould some of you carnal people but get behind the chamber-door,\nto hear Ephraim when he is at the work of self-bemoaning, it would\nmake you stand amazed to hear him bewail that sin in himself in\nwhich you take delight; and to hear him bemoan his misspending of\ntime, while you spend all in pursuing your filthy lusts; and to\nhear him offended with his heart, because it will not better comply\nwith God's holy will, while you are afraid of his Word and ways,\nand never think yourselves better than when farthest off from God.\nThe unruliness of the passions and lusts of the broken-hearted make\nthem often get into a corner, and thus bemoan themselves.\n\n2. As they thus cry out in a bemoaning manner of and to themselves,\nso they have their outcries of and against themselves to others; as\nshe said in another case, 'Behold and see, if there be any sorrow\nlike unto my sorrow' (Lam 1:12). O the bitter cries and complaints\nthat the broken-hearted have, and make to one another! Still every\none imagining that his own wounds are deepest, and his own sores\nfullest of anguish, and hardest to be cured. Say they, if our\niniquities be upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then\nlive? (Eze 33:10).\n\nOnce being at an honest woman's house, I, after some pause, asked\nher how she did? She said, Very badly. I asked her if she was sick?\nshe answered, No. What then, said I, are any of your children ill?\nShe told me, No. What, said I, is your husband amiss, or do you go\nback in the world? No, no, said she, but I am afraid I shall not\nbe saved. And broke out with heavy heart, saying, 'Ah, Goodman\nBunyan! Christ and a pitcher; if I had Christ, though I went and\nbegged my bread with a pitcher, it would be better with me than I\nthink it is now!' This woman had her heart broken, this woman wanted\nChrist, this woman was concerned for her soul. There are but few\nwomen, rich women, that count Christ and a pitcher better than the\nworld, their pride, and pleasures. This woman's cries are worthy\nto be recorded; it was a cry that carried in it, not only a sense\nof the want, but also of the worth of Christ. This cry, 'Christ and\na pitcher,' made a melodious noise in the ears of the very angels![10]\n\nBut, I say, few women cry out thus; few women are so in love with\ntheir own eternal salvation, as to be willing to part with all\ntheir lusts and vanities for Jesus Christ and a pitcher. Good Jacob\nalso was thus: 'If the Lord,' said he, 'will give me bread to eat,\nand raiment to put on, then he shall be my God.' Yea, he vowed it\nshould be so. 'And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with\nme, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread\nto eat, and raiment to put on; so that I come again to my father's\nhouse in peace: then shall the Lord be my God' (Gen 28:20).\n\n3. As they bemoan themselves, and make their complaints to one and\nanother, so they cry to God. 'O God,' said Heman, 'I have cried\nday and night before thee.' But when? Why, when his soul was full\nof trouble, and his life drew near to the grave (Psa 88:1-3). Or,\nas it says in another place, out of the deep, 'out of the belly\nof hell cried I' (Psa 130:1; Jonah 2:2). By such words expressing\nwhat painful condition they were in when they cried.\n\nSee how God himself words it. 'My pleasant portion,' says he, is\nbecome 'a desolate wilderness, and being desolate, it mourneth unto\nme' (Jer 12:11). And this also is natural to those whose hearts are\nbroken. Whether goes the child, when it catcheth harm, but to its\nfather, to its mother? Where doth it lay its head, but in their laps?\nInto whose bosom doth it pour out its complaint, more especially,\nbut into the bosom of the father, of a mother, because there are\nbowels, there is pity, there is relief and succour? And thus it is\nwith them whose bones, whose hearts are broken. It is natural to\nthem; they must cry; they cannot but cry to him. 'Lord, heal me,'\nsaid David, 'for my bones are vexed; Lord, heal me, for my soul\nis also sore vexed' (Psa 6:1-3). He that cannot cry feels no pain,\nsees no want, fears no danger, or else is dead.\n\nSixth. Another sign of a broken heart, and of a contrite spirit is,\nit trembleth at God's Word. 'To him that is poor, and of a contrite\nspirit, and trembleth at my Word' (Isa 66:2).\n\nThe Word of God is an awful Word to a broken-hearted man. Solomon\nsays, 'The word of a king is as the roaring of a lion'; and if so,\nwhat is the Word of God? for by the wrath and fear is meant the\nauthoritative word of a king. We have a proverb, 'The burnt child\ndreads the fire, the whipped child fears the rod'; even so the\nbroken-hearted fears the Word of God. Hence you have a remark set\nupon them that tremble at God's Word, to wit, they are they that\nkeep among the godly; they are they that keep within compass; they\nare they that are aptest to mourn, and to stand in the gap, when\nGod is angry; and to turn away his wrath from a people.\n\nIt is a sign the Word of God has had place, and wrought powerfully,\nwhen the heart trembleth at it, is afraid, and stands in awe of it.\nWhen Joseph's mistress tempted him to lie with her, he was afraid\nof the Word of God. 'How then can I do this great wickedness,' said\nhe, 'and sin against God?' He stood in awe of God's Word, durst\nnot do it, because he kept in remembrance what a dreadful thing it\nwas to rebel against God's Word. When old Eli heard that the ark\nwas taken, his very heart trembled within him; for he read by that\nsad loss that God was angry with Israel, and he knew the anger of\nGod was a great and terrible thing. When Samuel went to Bethlehem,\nthe elders of the town trembled; for they feared that he came to\nthem with some sad message from God, and they had had experience of\nthe dread of such things before (Gen 39:7-9; 1 Sam 4:13, 16:1-4).\nWhen Ezra would have a mourning in Israel for the sins of the\nland, he sent, and there came to him 'every one that trembled at\nthe words of the God of Israel, because of the transgressions of\nthose that had been carried away' (Ezra 9:4).\n\nThere are, I say, a sort of people that tremble at the words of\nGod, and that are afraid of doing ought that is contrary to them;\nbut they are only such with whose souls and spirits the Word has\nhad to do. For the rest, they are resolved to go on their course,\nlet God say what he will. 'As for the word' of the Lord, said\nrebellious Israel to Jeremiah, 'that thou hast spoken unto us in\nthe name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will\ncertainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth'\n(Jer 44:16). But do you think that these people did ever feel the\npower and majesty of the Word of God to break their hearts? No,\nverily; had that been so, they would have trembled at the words\nof God; they would have been afraid of the words of God. God may\ncommand some people what he will, they will do what they list. What\ncare they for God? what care they for his Word? Neither threats nor\npromises, neither punishments or favours will make them obedient\nto the Word of God; and all because they have not felt the power\nof it, their hearts have not been broken with it. When king Josias\ndid but read in God's Book what punishment God had threatened\nagainst rebellious Israel, though he himself was a holy and good\nman, he humbled himself, 'he rent his clothes,' and wept before\nthe Lord, and was afraid of the judgment threatened (2 Kings 22;\n2 Chron 34). For he knew what a dreadful thing the Word of God is.\nSome men, as I said before, dare do anything, let the Word of God\nbe never so much against it; but they that tremble at the Word dare\nnot do so. No, they must make the Word their rule for all they do;\nthey must go to the Holy Bible, and there inquire what may or may\nnot be done; for they tremble at the Word. This then is another\nsign, a true sign, that the heart has been broken, namely, 'When\nthe heart is made afraid of, and trembleth at the Word' (Acts 9:4-6,\n16:29,30). Trembling at the Word is caused by a belief of what is\ndeserved, threatened, and of what will come, if not prevented by\nrepentance; and therefore the heart melts, and breaks before the\nLord.\n\n[IV. THE NECESSITY THERE IS THAT THE HEART MUST BE BROKEN.]\n\nI come, in the next place, to speak to this question.\n\nBut what necessity is there that the heart must be broken? Cannot\na man be saved unless his heart be broken? I answer, Avoiding secret\nthings, which only belong to God, there is a necessity of breaking\nthe heart, in order to salvation; because a man will not sincerely\ncomply with the means conducing thereunto until his heart is broken.\nFor,\n\nFirst. Man, take him as he comes into the world, as to spirituals,\nas to evangelical things, in which mainly lies man's eternal\nfelicity, and there he is as one dead, and so stupefied, and wholly\nin himself, as unconcerned with it. Nor can any call or admonition,\nthat has not a heart-breaking power attending of it, bring him to\na due consideration of his present state, and so unto an effectual\ndesire to be saved.\n\nMany ways God has manifested this. He has threatened men with\ntemporal judgments; yea, sent such judgments upon them, once and\nagain, over and over, but they will not do. What! says he, 'I have\ngiven you cleanness of teeth in all your cities; I have withholden\nthe rain from you; I have smitten you with blasting and mildew; I\nhave sent among you the pestilence; I have overthrown some of you,\nas God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet have ye not returned unto\nme, saith the Lord' (Amos 4:6-11). See here! Here is judgment upon\njudgment, stroke after stroke, punishment after punishment, but\nall will not do, unless the heart is broken. Yea, another prophet\nseems to say that such things, instead of converting the soul, sets\nit further off. If heart-breaking work attend such strokes, 'Why\nshould ye be stricken any more?' says he, 'ye will revolt more and\nmore' (Isa 1:5).\n\nMan's heart is fenced, it is grown gross; there is a skin that,\nlike a coat of mail, has wrapped it up, and inclosed it in on every\nside. This skin, this coat of mail, unless it be cut off and taken\naway, the heart remains untouched, whole; and so as unconcerned,\nwhatever judgments or afflictions light upon the body (Matt 13:15;\nActs 28:27). This which I call the coat of mail, the fence of the\nheart, has two great names in Scripture. It is called, 'the foreskin\nof the heart,' and the armour in which the devil trusteth (Deut\n10:16; Luke 11:22).\n\nBecause these shield and fence the heart from all gospel doctrine,\nand from all legal punishments, nothing can come at it till these\nare removed. Therefore, in order unto conversion, the heart is said\nto be circumcised; that is, this foreskin is taken away, and this\ncoat of mail is spoiled. 'I will circumcise thy heart,' saith\nhe, 'to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart'--and then the\ndevil's goods are spoiled--'that thou mayst live' (Deut 30:6; Luke\n11:22).\n\nAnd now the heart lies open, now the Word will prick, cut, and pierce\nit; and it being cut, pricked, and pierced, it bleeds, it faints,\nit falls, and dies at the foot of God, unless it is supported by\nthe grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. Conversion, you know,\nbegins at the heart; but if the heart be so secured by sin and\nSatan, as I have said, all judgments are, while that is so, in\nvain. Hence Moses, after he had made a long relation of mercy and\njudgment unto the children of Israel, suggests that yet the great\nthing was wanting to them, and that thing was, an heart to perceive,\nand eyes to see, and ears to hear unto that day (Deut 29:2,3). Their\nhearts were as yet not touched to the quick, were not awakened,\nand wounded by the holy Word of God, and made tremble at its truth\nand terror.\n\nBut I say, before the heart be touched, pricked, made smart, &c.,\nhow can it be thought, be the danger never so great, that it should\nrepent, cry, bow, and break at the foot of God, and supplicate there\nfor mercy! and yet thus it must do; for thus God has ordained, and\nthus God has appointed it; nor can men be saved without it. But, I\nsay, can a man spiritually dead, a stupid man, whose heart is past\nfeeling, do this; before he has his dead and stupid heart awakened,\nto see and feel its state and misery without it? But,\n\nSecond. Man, take him as he comes into the world--and how wise soever\nhe is in worldly and temporal things--he is yet a fool as to that\nwhich is spiritual and heavenly. Hence Paul says, 'the natural\nman receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are\nfoolishness unto him,' because he is indeed a fool to them; 'neither,'\nsays the text, 'can he know them, because they are spiritually\ndiscerned' (1 Cor 2:14). But how now must this fool be made wise?\nWhy, wisdom must be put into his heart (Job 38:36). Now, none can\nput it there but God; and how doth he put it there, but by making\nroom there for it, by taking away the thing which hinders, which is\nthat folly and madness which naturally dwelleth there? But how doth\nhe take that away but by a severe chastising of his soul for it,\nuntil he has made him weary of it? The whip and stripes are provided\nfor the natural fool, and so it is for him that is spiritually so\n(Prov 19:29).\n\nSolomon intimates, that it is a hard thing to make a fool become\nwise. 'Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat\nwith a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him' (Prov\n27:22). By this it appears that it is a hard thing to make a fool\na wise man. To bray one in a mortar is a dreadful thing, to bray\none there with a pestle; and yet it seems a whip, a mortar, and a\npestle is the way. And if this is the way to make one wise in this\nworld, and if all this will hardly do, how must the fool that is\nso in spirituals be whipped and beaten, and stripped before he is\nmade wise therein? Yea, his heart must be put into God's mortar,\nand must be beaten; yea, brayed there with the pestle of the law,\nbefore it loves to hearken unto heavenly things. It is a great\nword in Jeremiah, 'Through deceit,' that is, folly, 'they refuse to\nknow me, saith the Lord.' And what follows? Why, 'Therefore, thus\nsaith the Lord of hosts, behold I will melt them, and try them,' that\nis, with fire, 'for how shall I do for the daughter of my people'\n(Jer 9:6,7). I will melt them: I will put them into my furnace, and\nthere I will try them; and there will I make them know me, saith\nthe Lord. When David was under spiritual chastisement for his sin,\nand had his heart under the breaking hand of God, then he said, God\nshould make him know wisdom (Psa 51:6). Now he was in the mortar,\nnow he was in the furnace, now he was bruised and melted; yea, now\nhis bones, his heart, was breaking, and now his folly was departing.\nNow, says he, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. If I know anything\nof the way of God with us fools, there is nothing else will make\nus wise men; yea, a thousand breakings will not make us so wise as\nwe should be.\n\nWe say, Wisdom is not good till it is bought; and he that buys it,\naccording to the intention of that proverb, usually smarts for it.\nThe fool is wise in his own conceit; wherefore there is a double\ndifficulty attends him before he can be wise indeed. Not only his\nfolly, but his wisdom, must be removed from him; and how shall that\nbe, but by ripping up of his heart by some sore conviction, that\nmay show him plainly that his wisdom is his folly, and that which\nwill undo him. A fool loves his folly; that is, as treasure, so\nmuch is he in love with it. Now then, it must be a great thing that\nmust make a fool forsake his folly. The foolish will not weigh,\nnor consider, nor compare wisdom with their folly. 'Folly is joy\nto him that is destitute of wisdom.' 'As a dog returneth to his\nvomit, so a fool returneth to his folly' (Prov 15:21, 26:11). So\nloth are they when driven from it to let it go, to let it depart\nfrom them. Wherefore there must go a great deal to the making of\na man a Christian; for as to that, every man is a fool, yea, the\ngreatest fool, the most unconcerned fool, the most self-willed fool\nof all fools; yea, one that will not be turned from his folly but\nby the breaking of his heart. David was one of these fools; Manasseh\nwas one of these fools; Saul, otherwise called Paul, was one of\nthese fools; and so was I--and that the biggest of all.[11]\n\nThird. Man, take him as he comes into the world, and he is not only\na dead man, and a fool, but a proud man also. Pride is one of those\nsins that first showeth itself to children, yea, and it grows up\nwith them, and mixeth itself with all they do: but it lies most hid,\nmost deep in man as to his soul-concerns. For the nature of sin,\nas sin, is not only to be vile, but to hide its vileness from the\nsoul. Hence many think they do well when they sin. Jonah thought\nhe did well to be angry with God (Jonah 4:9). The Pharisees thought\nthey did well when they said, Christ had a devil (John 8:48).\nAnd Paul thought verily, that he ought to do many things against,\nor contrary to, the name of Jesus; which he also did with great\nmadness (Acts 26:9,10). And thus sin puffs up men with pride, and\na conceit of themselves, that they are a thousand times better than\nthey are. Hence they think they are the children of God, when they\nare the children of the devil; and that they are something as to\nChristianity, when they neither are such, nor know what it is that\nthey must have to make them such (John 8:41-44; Gal 6:3).\n\nNow, whence flows this but from pride, and a self-conceit of\nthemselves, and that their state is good for another world, when\nthey are yet in their sins, and under the curse of God? Yea, and\nthis pride is so strong and high, and yet so hid in them, that all\nthe ministers in the world cannot persuade them that this is pride,\nnot grace, in which they are so confident. Hence they slight all\nreproofs, rebukes, threatenings, or admonitions that are pressed\nupon them, to prevail with them to take heed, that they be not\nherein deceived. 'Hear ye,' saith the prophet, 'and give ear: be\nnot proud, for the Lord hath spoken.' 'But if ye will not hear it,\nmy soul shall weep in secret places for your pride' (Jer 13:15-17).\nAnd what was the conclusion? Why, all the proud men stood out still,\nand maintained their resistance of God and his holy prophet (Jer\n43:2).\n\nNor is there any thing that will prevail with these to the saving\nof their souls, until their hearts are broken. David, after he had\ndefiled Bathsheba, and slain her husband, yet boasted himself in\nhis justice and holiness, and would by all means have the man put\nto death that had but taken the poor man's lamb, when, alas! poor\nsoul, himself was the great transgressor. But would he believe\nit? No, no; he stood upon the vindicating of himself to be a just\ndoer; nor would he be made to fall until Nathan, by authority from\nGod, did tell him that he was the man whom himself had condemned;\n'Thou art the man,' said he: at which word his conscience was\nawakened, his heart wounded, and so his soul made to fall under the\nburden of his guilt, at the feet of the God of heaven for mercy (2\nSam 12:1-13).\n\nAh! pride, pride! thou art that which holds many a man in the chains\nof his sins; thou art it, thou cursed self-conceit, and keepest them\nfrom believing that their state is damnable. 'The wicked, through\nthe pride of his countenance, will not seek after God' (Psa 10:4).\nAnd if there is so much in the pride of his countenance, what is\nthere, think you, in the pride of his heart? Therefore Job says it\nis to hide pride from man, and so to save his soul from hell, that\nGod chasteneth him with pain upon his bed, until the multitude of\nhis bones stick out, and until his life draws nigh to the destroyer\n(Job 33:17-22).\n\nIt is a hard thing to take a man off his pride, and make him, instead\nof trusting in, and boasting of his goodness, wisdom, honesty,\nand the like, to see himself a sinner, a fool, yea, a man that is\ncruel, as to his own immortal soul. Pride of heart has a power in\nit, and is therefore compared to an iron sinew, and an iron chain,\nby which they are made stout, and with which they are held in that\nstoutness, to oppose the Lord, and drive his Word from their hearts\n(Lev 26:19; Psa 73:6).\n\nThis was the sin of devils, and it is the sin of man, and the sin,\nI say, from which no man can be delivered until his heart is broken;\nand then his pride is spoiled, then he will be glad to yield. If\na man be proud of his strength or manhood, a broken leg will maul\nhim; and if a man be proud of his goodness, a broken heart will\nmaul him; because, as has been said, a broken heart comes by the\ndiscovery and charge of sin, by the power of God upon the conscience.\n\nFourth. Man, take him as he comes into the world, and he is not only\na dead man, a fool, and proud, but also self-willed and headstrong\n(2 Peter 2:10). A stubborn ungain creature is man before his heart\nis broken. Hence they are so often called rebels, rebellious, and\ndisobedient: they will only do what they list. 'All day long,' says\nGod, 'have I stretched out my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying\npeople.' And hence, again, they are compared to a self-willed or\nheadstrong horse, that will, in spite of his rider, rush into the\nbattle. 'Every one,' says God, 'turneth to his course, as the horse\nrusheth into battle' (Jer 8:6). They say, 'With our tongue will we\nprevail, our lips are our own; who is lord over us' (Psa 12:4).\n\nHence they are said to stop their ears, to pull away their shoulder,\nto shut their eyes, and harden their hearts, 'against the words of\nGod, and contemned the counsel of the Most High' (Psa 107:11; Zech\n7:10,12). They are fitly compared to the rebellious son who would\nnot be ruled by his parents, or to the prodigal, who would have\nall in his own hand, and remove himself far away from father and\nfather's house (Deut 21:20; Luke 15:13). Now for such creatures,\nnothing will do but violence. The stubborn son must be stoned till\nhe dies; and the prodigal must be famished out of all; nothing else,\nI say, will do. Their self-willed stubborn heart will not comply\nwith the will of God before it is broken (Deut 21:21; Luke 15:14-17).\nThese are they that are called the stout-hearted; these are said\nto be far from righteousness, and so will remain until their hearts\nare broken; for so they must be made to know themselves (Isa 9:9-11).\n\nFifth. Man, as he comes into the world, is not only a dead man, a\nfool, proud, and self-willed, but also a fearless creature. 'There\nis,' saith the text, 'no fear of God before their eyes' (Rom 3:18).\nNo fear of God! There is fear of man, fear of losing his favour,\nhis love, his good-will, his help, his friendship; this is seen\neverywhere. How do the poor fear the rich, the weak fear the strong,\nand those that are threatened, them that threaten! But come now to\nGod; why, none fear him; that is, by nature, none reverence him;\nthey neither fear his frowns, nor seek his favour, nor inquire how\nthey may escape his revenging hand that is lifted up against their\nsins and their souls because of sin. Little things they fear the\nlosing of them; but the soul they are not afraid to lose. 'They\nfear not me, saith the Lord' (Mal 3:5).\n\nHow many times are some men put in mind of death by sickness upon\nthemselves, by graves, by the death of others? How many times are\nthey put in mind of hell by reading the Word, by lashes of conscience,\nand by some that go roaring in despair out of this world? How many\ntimes are they put in mind of the day of judgment. As, 1. By God's\nbinding the fallen angels over to judgment. 2. By the drowning of\nthe old world (2 Peter 2:4,5; Jude 6,7). 3. By the burning of Sodom\nand Gomorrah with fire from heaven (2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7). 4. By\nappointing a day (Acts 17:29-31). 5. By appointing a judge (Acts\n10:40-42). 6 By reserving their crimes in records (Isa 30:8; Rev\n20:12). 7. By appointing and preparing of witnesses (Rom 2:15).\n8. And by promising, yea, threatening, yea, resolving, to call the\nwhole world to his bar, there to be judged for all which they have\ndone and said, and for every secret thing (Matt 25:31-33, 12:36;\nEccl 11:9, 12:14).\n\nAnd yet they fear not God: alas! they believe not these things.\nThese things, to carnal men, are like Lot's preaching to his sons\nand daughters that were in Sodom. When he told them that God would\ndestroy that place, he seemed unto them as one that mocked; and\nhis words to them were as idle tales (Gen 19:14). Fearless men are\nnot won by words; blows, wounds, and killings, are the things that\nmust bring them under fear. How many struggling fits had Israel\nwith God in the wilderness? How many times did they declare that\nthere they feared him not? And observe, they were seldom, if ever,\nbrought to fear and dread his glorious name, unless he beset them\nround with death and the grave. Nothing, nothing but a severe hand,\nwill make the fearless fear. Hence, to speak after the manner of\nman, God is put upon it to go this way with sinners when he would\nsave their souls; even bring them, and lay them at the mouth, and\nwithin sight of hell and everlasting damnation: and there also\ncharge them with sin and guilt, to the breaking of their hearts,\nbefore they will fear his name.\n\nSixth. Man, as he comes into the world, is not only a dead man, a\nfool, proud, self-willed, and fearless, but he is a false believer\nconcerning God. Let God report of himself never so plainly, man\nby nature will not believe this report of him. No, they are become\nvain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart is darkened;\nwherefore they turn the glory of God, which is his truth, into a\nlie (Rom 1:21-25). God says, He sees; they say, He seeth not; God\nsaith, He knows; they say, He doth not know: God saith, None is like\nhimself; yet they say, He is altogether like to them: God saith,\nNone shall keep his door for naught; they say, It is in vain, and\nto no profit to serve him: he saith, He will do good; they say,\nHe will neither do good nor evil (Job 22:13,14; Psa 50:21; Job\n21:14,15; Mal 3:14; Zeph 1:12). Thus they falsely believe concerning\nGod; yea, as to the word of his grace, and the revelation of his\nmercy in Christ, they stick not to say by their practice--for a\nwicked man speaketh with his feet (Prov 6:13)--that that is a stark\nlie, and not to be trusted to (1 John 5:10).\n\nNow, what shall God do to save these men? If he hides himself\nand conceals his glory, they perish. If he sends to them by his\nmessengers, and forbears to come to them himself, they perish. If\nhe comes to them and forbears to work upon them by his word, they\nperish: if he worketh on them, but not effectually, they perish.\nIf he works effectually he must break their hearts, and make them,\nas men wounded to death, fall at his feet for mercy, or there can\nbe no good done on them; they will not rightly believe until he\nfires them out of their misbelief, and makes them to know, by the\nbreaking of their bones for their false faith, that he is, and will\nbe, what he has said of himself in his holy Word.[12] The heart,\ntherefore, must be broken before the man can come to good.\n\nSeventh. Man, as he comes into the world, is not only a dead man,\na fool, proud, self-willed, fearless, and a false believer, but\na great lover of sin; he is captivated, ravished, drowned in the\ndelights of it. Hence it [the Word] says, they love sin, delight\nin lies, do take pleasure in iniquity, and in them that do it; that\nthey sport themselves in their own deceivings, and glory in their\nshame (John 3:19; Psa 62:4; Rom 1:32; 2 Peter 2:13; Phil 3:19).\n\nThis is the temper of man by nature; for sin is mixed with and\nhas the mastery of all the powers of his soul. Hence they are said\nto be captives to it, and to be led captive into the pleasures of\nit, at the will of the devil (2 Tim 2:26). And you know it is not\nan easy thing to break love, or to take the affections off that\nobject on which they are so deeply set, in which they are so deeply\nrooted, as man's heart is in his sins. Alas! how many are there\nthat contemn all the allurements of heaven, and that trample upon\nall the threatenings of God, and that say, 'Tush,' at all the flames\nof hell, whenever these are propounded as motives to work them off\ntheir sinful delights! so fixed are they, so mad are they, upon\nthese beastly idols. Yea, he that shall take in hand to stop their\ncourse in this their way, is as he that shall attempt to prevent\nthe raging waves of the sea from their course, when driven by the\nmighty winds.\n\nWhen men are somewhat put to it, when reason and conscience shall\nbegin a little to hearken to a preacher, or a judgment that shall\nbegin to hunt for iniquity, how many tricks, evasions, excuses,\ndemurs, delays, and hiding-holes will they make, invent, and find,\nto hide and preserve their sweet sins with themselves and their\nsouls, in the delights of them, to their own eternal perdition?\nHence they endeavour to stifle conscience, to choke convictions,\nto forget God, to make themselves atheists, to contradict preachers\nthat are plain and honest, and to heap to themselves such of them\nonly as are like themselves, that speak unto them smooth things,\nand prophesy deceits; yea, they say themselves to such preachers,\n'Get you out of the way; turn aside out of the path; cause the Holy\nOne of Israel to cease from before us' (Isa 30:8-11). If they be\nfollowed still, and conscience and guilt shall, like blood-hounds,\nfind them out in their secret places, and roar against them for\ntheir wicked lives, then they will flatter, cogg, dissemble, and\nlie against their soul, promising to mend, to turn, to repent,\nand grow better shortly; and all to daff[13] off convictions and\nmolestations in their wicked ways, that they may yet pursue their\nlusts, their pleasures, and sinful delights, in quiet, and without\ncontrol.\n\nYea, further, I have known some that have been made to roar like\nbears, to yell like dragons, and to howl like dogs, by reason of\nthe weight of guilt, and the lashes of hell upon their conscience\nfor their evil deeds; who have, so soon as their present torments\nand fears were gone, returned again with the 'dog to his vomit; and\nas the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire' (Hosea\n7:14; 2 Peter 2:20-22).\n\nOnce again, some have been made taste of the good Word of God, of\nthe joy of heaven, and of the powers of the world to come, and yet\ncould not by any one, nay, by all of these, be made to break their\nleague for ever with their lusts and sins (Heb 6:4,5; Luke 8:13;\nJohn 5:33-35). O Lord! what is man, that thou art mindful of him?\nWherein is he to be accounted of? He has sinned against thee; he\nloves his sins more than thee. He is a lover of pleasures more than\nhe is a lover of God!\n\nBut now, how shall this man be reclaimed from this sin? How shall\nhe be brought, wrought, and made, to be out of love with it?\nDoubtless it can be by no other means, by what we can see in the\nWord, but by the wounding, breaking, and disabling of the heart\nthat loves it, and by that means making it a plague and gall unto\nit. Sin may be made an affliction, and as gall and wormwood to\nthem that love it; but the making of it so bitter a thing to such\na man, will not be done but by great and sore means. I remember we\nhad in our town some time since, a little girl that loved to eat\nthe heads of foul tobacco-pipes, and neither rod nor good words\ncould reclaim her, and make her leave them. So her father takes\nadvice of a doctor, to wean her from them, and it was this: Take,\nsaith he, a great many of the foulest tobacco-pipe heads you can\nget, and boil them in milk, and make a posset of that milk, and\nmake your daughter drink the posset-drink up. He did so, and gave\nhis girl it, and made her drink it up; the which became so irksome\nand nauseous to her stomach, and made her so sick, that she could\nnever abide to meddle with tobacco-pipe heads any more, and so was\ncured of that disease. Thou lovest thy sin, and neither rod nor\ngood words will as yet reclaim thee. Well, take heed; if thou wilt\nnot be reclaimed, God will make thee a posset of them, which shall\nbe so bitter to thy soul, so irksome to thy taste, so loathsome to\nthy mind, and so afflicting to thy heart, that it shall break it\nwith sickness and grief, till it be loathsome to thee. I say, thus\nhe will do if he loves thee; if not, he will suffer thee to take\nthy course, and will let thee go on with thy tobacco-pipe heads!\n\nThe children of Israel will have flesh, must have flesh; they weep,\ncry, and murmur, because they have not flesh; the bread of heaven,\nthat is but light and sorry stuff in their esteem (Num 11:1-6).\nMoses goes and tells God how the people despised his heavenly bread,\nand how they longed, lusted, and desired to be fed with flesh.\nWell, says God, they shall have flesh, they shall have their fill\nof flesh; I will feed them with it; they shall have to the full;\nand that 'ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days,\nneither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until\nit come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you; because\nye have despised the Lord' (Num 11:11-20). He can tell how to make\nthat loathsome to thee on which thou most dost set thine evil heart.\nAnd he will do so, if he loves thee; else, as I said, he will not\nmake thee sick by smiting of thee nor punish thee for or when thou\ncommittest whoredom, but will let thee alone till the judgment-day,\nand call thee to a reckoning for all thy sins then. But to pass\nthis.\n\nEighth. Man, as he comes into the world, is not only a dead man, a\nfool, proud, self-willed, fearless, a false believer, and a lover\nof sin, but a wild man. He is of the wild olive tree, of that\nwhich is wild by nature (Rom 11:17,24). So, in another place, man\nby nature is compared to the ass, to a wild ass. 'For vain or empty\nman would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt' (Job\n11:12). Isaac was a figure of Christ, and of all converted men\n(Gen 4:28). But Ishmael was a figure of man by nature; and the\nHoly Ghost, as to that, saith this of him, 'And he will be a wild\nman' (Gen 16:12). This man, I say, was a figure of all carnal\nmen, in their wildness or estrangedness from God. Hence it is said\nof the prodigal, at his conversion, that he came to himself then;\nimplying that he was mad, wild, or out of his wits before (Luke\n15:17). I know there is a difference sometimes betwixt one's being\nwild and mad; yet sometimes wildness arriveth to that degree as to\ngive one rightly the denomination of being mad. And it is always\ntrue in spirituals; namely, that he that is wild, as to God, is\nmad, or besides himself, and so not capable, before he is tamed, of\nminding his own eternal good as he should. There are these several\nthings that are tokens of one wild or mad; and they all meet in a\ncarnal man.\n\n1. A wild or mad man gives no heed to good counsel; the frenzy of his\nhead shuts all out, and by its force leads him away from men that\nare wise and sober. And thus it is with carnal men; good counsel\nis to them as pearls are that are cast afore swine; it is trampled\nunder foot of them, and the man is despised that brings it (Matt\n7:6). 'The poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not\nheard' (Eccl 9:16).\n\n2. A wild or mad man, let him alone, and he will greatly busy\nhimself all his life to accomplish that which, when it is completed,\namounts to nothing. The work, the toil, the travel of such a one\ncomes to nothing, save to declare that he was out of his wits that\ndid it. David, imitating of such a one, scrabbled upon the gate of\nthe king, as fools do with chalk; and like to this is all the work\nof all carnal men in the world (1 Sam 21:12,13). Hence, such a one\nis said to labour for the wind, or for what will amount to no more\nthan if he filled his belly with the east wind (Eccl 5:16; Job\n15:2).\n\n3. A wild or mad man, if you set him to do anything, and he does it,\nhe will yet do it, not by or according to your bidding, but after\nthe folly of his own wild fancy; even as Jehu executed the commandment\nof the Lord; he did it in his own madness, taking no heed to the\ncommandment of the Lord (2 Kings 9:20, 10:31). And thus do carnal\nmen do, when they meddle with any of God's matters, as hearing,\npraying, reading, professing; they do all according to their own\nwild fancy; they take no heed to do these after the commandment of\nthe Lord.\n\n4. Wild or mad men, if they deck or array themselves with ought,\nas many times they do, why, the spirit of their wildness or frenzy\nappears even in the mode and way in which they do it. Either the\nthings themselves which they make use of for that purpose are very\ntoys and trifles; or if they seem to be better, they are put on\nafter an antic manner, rather to the rendering of them ridiculous,\nthan to bespeak them sober, judicious, or wise; and so do natural\nmen array themselves with what they would be accepted in with God.\nWould one in his wits think to make himself fine or acceptable to\nmen by arraying himself in menstruous cloths, or by painting his\nface with dross and dung? And yet this is the finery of carnal men,\nwhen they approach for acceptance into the presence of God (Isa\n64:6; Phil 3:7,8).\n\nO the wildness, the frenzy, the madness, that possesses the heart\nand mind of carnal men! they walk according to the course of this\nworld, according to or after that spirit which is in truth the\nspirit of the devil, which worketh in the children of disobedience\n(Eph 2:1-3). But do they believe that thus it is with them? No,\nthey are, in their own account, as other madmen are, the only ones\nin the world. Hence they are so taken and tickled with their own\nfrantic notions, and deride all else that dwell in the world. But\nwhich is the way to make one that is wild, or a madman, sober? To\nlet him alone will not do it; to give him good words only will not\ndo it; no, he must be tamed; means must be used to tame him. 'He\nbrought down their hearts with labour,' or by continual molestation;\nas you have it (Psa 107:10-12). He speaketh there of madmen that\nare kept up in darkness, and bound in afflictions and irons, because\nthey rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel\nof the Most High.\n\nThis, therefore, is the way to deal with such, and none but God\ncan so deal with them. They must be taken, they must be separated\nfrom men; they must be laid in chains, in darkness, afflictions,\nand irons; they must be blooded, half-starved, whipped, purged,\nand be dealt with as mad people are dealt with. And thus they must\nbe dealt with till they come to themselves, and cry out in their\ndistresses. And then they cry to the Lord in their troubles, and\nhe saveth them out of their distresses; then he brings them out of\ndarkness, and the shadow of death, and breaks their bands in sunder\n(Psa 107:13-15). Thus, I say, God tames the wild, and brings mad\nprodigals to themselves, and so to him for mercy.\n\nNinth. Man, as he comes into the world, is not only a dead man, a\nfool, proud, self-willed, fearless, a false believer, a lover of\nsin, and a wild man; but a man that disrelishes the things of the\nkingdom of God. I told you before, that unconverted man is such as\ndid not taste things; but now I add, that he disrelishes things;\nhe calls bitter things sweet, and sweet bitter; he judges quite\namiss. These are they that God threateneth with a woe. 'Woe unto\nthem that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for\nlight, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet\nfor bitter' (Isa 5:20).\n\nThis latter part of this text shows us evidently that the things\nof God are disrelished by some. They call his sweet things bitter,\nand the devil's bitter things sweet; and all this is for want\nof a broken heart. A broken heart relishes otherwise than a whole\nor unbroken one doth. A man that has no pain, or bodily distress,\ncannot find or feel virtue or good in the most sovereign plaister,\nwere it applied to arm or leg; no, he rather says, Away with these\nstinking daubing things. O! but lay the same plaisters where there\nis need, and the patient will relish, and taste, and savour the\ngoodness of them; yea, will prize and commend them to others.\n\nThus it is in spirituals. The world, they know not what the\nanguish or pain of a broken heart means; they say, 'Who will show\nus any good,' that is, better than we find in our sports, pleasures,\nestates, and preferments. 'There be many,' says the Psalmist, speak\nafter this sort. But what says the distressed man? Why, 'Lord,\nlift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us'; and then adds,\n'Thou hast put gladness in my heart'; namely, by the light of thy\ncountenance, for that is the plaister for a broken heart. 'Thou\nhast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their\ncorn and their wine increaseth' (Psa 4:1-7). O! a broken heart\ncan savour pardon, can savour the consolations of the Holy Ghost.\nYea, as a hungry or thirsty man prizes bread and water in the want\nthereof, so do the broken in heart prize and set a high esteem on\nthe things of the Lord Jesus. His flesh, his blood, his promise,\nand the light of his countenance, are the only sweet things both\nto scent and taste, to those that are of a wounded spirit. The full\nsoul loatheth the honey-comb; the whole despise the gospel, they\nsavour not the things that are of God.\n\nIf twenty men were to hear a pardon read, and but one of those\ntwenty were condemned to die, and the pardon was for none but such;\nwhich of these men, think you, would taste the sweetness of that\npardon, they who are not, or he that was condemned? The condemned\nman, doubtless. This is the case in hand. The broken in heart is\na condemned man; yea, it is a sense of condemnation, with other\nthings, that has indeed broken his heart; nor is there anything\nbut sense of forgiveness that can bind it up, or heal it. But could\nthat heal it, could he not taste, truly taste, or rightly relish\nthis forgiveness? no; forgiveness would be to him as it is to him\nthat has not sense of want of it.\n\nBut, I say, what is the reason some so prize what others so despise,\nsince they both stand in need of the same grace and mercy of God\nin Christ? Why, the one sees, and the other sees nothing, of this\nwoeful miserable state. And thus have I showed you the necessity\nof a broken heart. 1. Man is dead, and must be quickened. 2. Man is\na fool, and must be made wise. 3. Man is proud, and must be humbled.\n4. Man is self-willed, and must be broken. 5. Man is fearless, and\nmust be made to consider. 6. Man is a false believer, and must be\nrectified. 7. Man is a lover of sin, and must be weaned from it.\n8. Man is wild, and must be tamed. 9. Man disrelishes the things\nof God, and can take no savour in them, until his heart is broken.\n\n[V. THE REASONS WHY A BROKEN HEART IS ESTEEMED BY GOD SUCH AN\nEXCELLENT THING.]\n\nAnd thus have I done with this, and shall come next to the reasons\nof the point, namely, to show you, why or how it comes to pass, that\na broken heart, a heart truly contrite, is to God such an excellent\nthing. That to him it is so, we have proved by six demonstrations;\nwhat it is, we have showed by the six signs thereof; that it must\nbe, is manifest by those nine reasons but now urged; and why it\nis with God or in his esteem an excellent thing, that is shown by\nthat which follows.\n\nFirst. A broken heart is the handiwork of God; an heart of his\nown preparing, for his own service; it is a sacrifice of his own\nproviding, of his providing for himself; as Abraham said in another\ncase, 'God will provide himself a lamb' (Gen 22:8).\n\nHence it is said, 'The preparations of the heart in man, &c., is from\nthe Lord.' And again, 'God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty\ntroubleth me' (Job 23:16). The heart, as it is by nature hard,\nstupid, and impenetrable, so it remains, and so will remain, until\nGod, as was said, bruiseth it with his hammer, and melts it with\nhis fire. The stony nature of it is therefore said to be taken\naway of God. 'I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,\nand I will give you,' saith he, 'an heart of flesh' (Eze 36:26). I\nwill take away the stony heart, or the stoniness, or the hardness of\nyour heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh; that is, I will\nmake your heart sensible, soft, wieldable, governable, and penitent.\nSometimes he bids men rend their hearts, not because they can, but\nto convince them rather, that though it must be so, they cannot do\nit; so he bids them make themselves a new heart, and a new spirit,\nfor the same purpose also; for if God doth not rend it, it remains\nunrent; if God makes it not new, it abides an old one still.\n\nThis is that that is meant by his bending of men for himself, and\nof his working in them that which is pleasing in his sight (Zech\n9:13). The heart, soul, or spirit, as in itself, as it came from\nGod's fingers, a precious thing, a thing in God's account worth more\nthan all the world. This heart, soul, or spirit, sin has hardened,\nthe devil has bewitched, the world has deceived. This heart, thus\nbeguiled, God coveteth and desireth: 'My son,' saith he, 'give me\nthine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways' (Prov 23:26).\n\nThis man cannot do this thing: for that his heart has the mastery\nof him, and will not but carry him after all manner of vanity. What\nnow must be done? Why, God must take the heart by storm, by power,\nand bring it to a compliance with the Word; but the heart of\nitself will not; it is deluded, carried away to another than God.\nWherefore God now betakes him to his sword, and bring down the\nheart with labour, opens it, and drives out the strong man armed\nthat did keep it; wounds it; and makes it smart for its rebellion,\nthat it may cry; so he rectifies it for himself. 'He maketh sore,\nand bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole' (Job 5:18).\nThus having wrought it for himself, it becomes his habitation, his\ndwelling-place: 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith'\n(Eph 3:17).\n\nBut I would not swerve from the thing in hand. I have told you\na broken heart is the handiwork of God, a sacrifice of his own\npreparing; a material fitted for himself.\n\n1. By breaking of the heart he openeth it, and makes it a receptacle\nfor the graces of his Spirit; that is the cabinet, when unlocked,\nwhere God lays up the jewels of the gospel; there he puts his fear;\n'I will put my fear in their hearts'; there he writes his law; 'I\nwill write my law in their heart'; there he puts his Spirit: 'I will\nput my Spirit within you' (Jer 31:31-33, 32:39-41; Eze 36:26,27).\nThe heart, I say, God chooses for his cabinet: there he hides his\ntreasure; there is the seat of justice, mercy, and of every grace\nof God; I mean, when it is broken, made contrite; and so regulated\nby the holy Word.\n\n2. The heart, when broken, is like sweet gums and spices when\nbeaten; for as such cast their fragrant scent into the nostrils of\nmen, so the heart when broken casts its sweet smells in the nostrils\nof God. The incense, which was a type of prayer of old, was to be\nbeaten or bruised, and so to be burned in the censer. The heart\nmust be beaten or bruised, and then the sweet scent will come out:\neven groans, and cries, and sighs, for the mercy of God; which\ncries, &c. to him, are a very excellent thing, and pleasing in\nhis nostrils.\n\nSecond. A broken heart is in the sight of God an excellent thing;\nbecause a broken heart is submissive; it falleth before God, and giveth\nto him his glory. All this is true from a multitude of scriptures,\nwhich I need not here mention. Hence such a heart is called an\nhonest heart, a good heart, a perfect heart, a heart fearing God,\nand such as is sound in God's statutes.\n\nNow, this cannot but be an excellent thing, if we consider, that by\nsuch a heart, unfeigned obedience is yielded unto him that calleth\nfor it. 'Ye have obeyed from the heart,' says Paul to them at Rome,\n'that form of doctrine which was delivered you' (Rom 6:17). Alas!\nthe heart, before it is broken and made contrite, is quite of another\ntemper: 'It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can\nbe.' The great stir before the heart is broken, is about who shall\nbe Lord, God or the sinner. True, the right of dominion is the\nLord's; but the sinner will not suffer it, but will be all himself;\nsaying 'Who is Lord over us?' and again, say they to God, 'We are\nlords, we will come no more unto thee' (Psa 12:4; Jer 2:31).\n\nThis also is evident by their practice; God may say what he will,\nbut they will do what they list. Keep my sabbath, says God; I will\nnot, says the sinner. Leave your whoring, says God; I will not, says\nthe sinner. Do not tell lies, nor swear, nor curse, nor blaspheme\nmy holy name, says God; O but I will, says the sinner. Turn to\nme, says God; I will not, says the sinner. The right of dominion\nis mine, says God; but, like that young rebel (1 Kings 1:5), I\nwill be king, says the sinner. Now, this is intolerable, this is\nunsufferable, and yet every sinner by practice says thus; for they\nhave not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.\n\nHere can be no concord, no communion, no agreement, no fellowship.\nHere, here is enmity on the one side, and flaming justice on the\nother (2 Cor 6:14-16; Zech 11:8). And what delight, what content,\nwhat pleasure, can God take in such men. None at all; no, though\nthey should be mingled with the best of the saints of God; yea,\nthough the best of saints should supplicate for them. Thus, says\nJeremiah, 'Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel\nstood before me,' that is, to pray for them, 'yet my mind could not\nbe toward this people; cast them out of my sight, and let them go\nforth' (Jer 15:1).\n\nHere is nought but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful\nrebellion, on the sinner's side; and what delight can God take in\nthat? Wherefore, if God will bend and buckle the spirit of such an\none, he must shoot an arrow at him, a bearded arrow, such as may\nnot be plucked out of the wound: an arrow that will stick fast,\nand cause that the sinner falls down as dead at God's foot (Psa\n33:1,2). Then will the sinner deliver up his arms, and surrender\nup himself as one conquered, into the hand of, and beg for the\nLord's pardon, and not till then; I mean not sincerely.\n\nAnd now God has overcome, and his right hand and his holy arm has\ngotten him the victory. Now he rides in triumph with his captive\nat his chariot wheel; now he glories; now the bells in heaven do\nring; now the angels shout for joy, yea, are bid to do so, 'Rejoice\nwith me, for I have found my sheep which was lost' (Luke 15:1-10).\nNow also the sinner, as a token of being overcome, lies grovelling\nat his foot, saying, 'Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the\nking's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee' (Psa 45:3-5).\n\nNow the sinner submits, now he follows his conqueror in chains, now\nhe seeks peace, and would give all the world, were it his own, to\nbe in the favour of God, and to have hopes by Christ of being saved.\nNow this must be pleasing, this cannot but be a thing acceptable\nin God's sight: 'A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt\nnot despise.' For it is the desire of his own heart, the work of\nhis own hands.\n\nThird. Another reason why a broken heart is to God such an excellent\nthing is this, a broken heart prizes Christ, and has a high esteem\nfor him. The whole have no need of a physician, but the sick; this\nsick man is the broken-hearted in the text; for God makes men sick\nby smiting of them, by breaking of their hearts. Hence sickness\nand wounds are put together; for that the one is a true effect of\nthe other (Mark 2:17; Micah 6:13; Hosea 5:13). Can any think that\nGod should be pleased, when men despise his Son, saying, He hath no\nform nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty\nthat we should desire him? And yet so say they of him whose hearts\nGod has not mollified; yea, the elect themselves confess, that\nbefore their hearts were broken, they set light by him also. He\nis, say they, 'despised and rejected of men,--and we hid as it were\nour faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not' (Isa\n53:2,3).\n\nHe is indeed the great deliverer; but what is a deliverer to them\nthat never saw themselves in bondage, as was said before? Hence it\nis said of him that delivered the city, 'No man remembered that same\npoor man' (Eccl 9:15). He has sorely suffered, and been bruised for\nthe transgression of man, that they might not receive the smart,\nand hell, which by their sins they have procured to themselves.\nBut what is that to them that never saw ought but beauty, and that\nnever tasted anything but sweetness in sin? It is he that holdeth\nby his intercession the hands of God, and that causes him to forbear\nto cut off the drunkard, the liar, and unclean person, even when\nthey are in the very act and work of their abomination; but their\nhard heart, their stupefied heart, has no sense of such kindness\nas this, and therefore they take no notice of it. How many times\nhas God said to this dresser of his vineyard, 'Cut down the barren\nfig-tree,' while he yet, by his intercession, has prevailed for\na reprieve for another year! But no notice is taken of this, no\nthanks is from them returned to him for such kindness of Christ.\nWherefore such ungrateful, unthankful, inconsiderate wretches as\nthese must needs be a continual eye-sore, as I may say, and great\nprovocation to God; and yet thus men will do before their hearts\nare broken (Luke 13:6-9).\n\nChrist, as I said, is called a physician; yea, he is the only\nsoul-physician. He heals, how desperate soever the disease be; yea,\nand heals who he undertakes for ever. 'I give unto them eternal\nlife,' and doth all of free cost, of mere mercy and compassion\n(John 10:28). But what is all this to one that neither sees his\nsickness, that sees nothing of a wound? What is the best physician\nalive, or all the physicians in the world, put all together, to him\nthat knows no sickness, that is sensible of no disease? Physicians,\nas was said, may go a-begging for all the healthful. Physicians\nare of no esteem, save only to the sick, or upon a supposition of\nbeing so now, or at any other time.\n\nWhy, this is the cause Christ is so little set by in the world.\nGod has not made them sick by smiting of them; his sword has not\ngiven them the wound, his dart has not been struck through their\nliver; they have not been broken with his hammer, nor melted with\nhis fire. So they have no regard to his physician; so they slight\nall the provision which God has made for the salvation of the\nsoul. But now, let such a soul be wounded; let such a man's heart\nbe broken; let such a man be made sick through the sting of guilt,\nand be made to wallow himself in ashes under the burden of his\ntransgressions; and then, who but Christ, as has been showed afore,\nthen the physician; then, wash me, Lord, then supple my wounds,\nthen pour thy wine and oil into my sore; then Lord Jesus cause me\nto hear the voice of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou\nhast broken may rejoice. Nothing now so welcome as healing; and\nso nothing, no man, so desirable now as Christ. His name to such\nis the best of names; his love to such is the best of love; himself\nbeing now not only in himself, but also to such a soul, the chiefest\nof ten thousand (Can 5:10).\n\nAs bread to the hungry, as water to the thirsty, as light to the\nblind, and liberty to the imprisoned; so, and a thousand times more,\nis Jesus Christ to the wounded, and to them that are broken-hearted.\nNow, as was said, this must needs be excellent in God's eyes,\nsince Christ Jesus is so glorious in his eyes. To contemn what a\nman counts excellent, is an offence to him; but to value, esteem,\nor think highly of that which is of esteem with me, this is pleasing\nto me, such an opinion is excellent in my sight. What says Christ?\n'My Father loveth you, because ye loved me' (John 16:27). Who\nhath an high esteem for Christ, the Father hath an high esteem for\nthem. Hence it is said, 'He that hath the Son, hath the Father';\nthe Father will be his, and will do for him as a Father, who\nreceiveth and sets an honourable esteem on his Son.\n\nBut none will, none can do this, but the broken-hearted; because\nthey, and they only, are sensible of the want and worth of an\ninterest in him.\n\nI dare appeal to all the world as to the truth of this; and do say\nagain, that these, and none but these, have hearts of esteem in\nthe sight of God. Alas! 'the heart of the wicked is little worth,'\nfor it is destitute of a precious esteem of Christ, and cannot but\nbe destitute, because it is not wounded, broken, and made sensible\nof the want of mercy by him (Prov 10:20).\n\nFourth. A broken heart is of great esteem with God, because it is\na thankful heart for that sense of sin and of grace it has received.\nThe broken heart is a sensible heart. This we touched upon before.\nIt is sensible of the dangers which sin leadeth to; yea, and has\ncause to be sensible thereof, because it has seen and felt what sin\nis, both in the guilt and punishment that by law is due thereto.\nAs a broken heart is sensible of sin, in the evil nature and\nconsequences of it; so it is also sensible of the way of God's\ndelivering the soul from the day of judgment; consequently it must\nbe a thankful heart. Now he that praises me, glorifies me, saith\nGod; and God loves to be glorified. God's glory is dear unto him;\nhe will not part with that (Psa 50:23; Isa 42:8).\n\nThe broken-hearted, say I, forasmuch as he is the sensible soul, it\nfollows that he is the thankful soul. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul,'\nsaid David, 'and all that is within me bless his holy name.' Behold\nwhat blessing of God is here! and yet not content herewith, he goes\non with it again, saying, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget\nnot all his benefits.' But what is the matter? O! he has 'forgiven\nall thine iniquities, and healed all thy diseases. He has redeemed\nthy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving kindnesses\nand tender mercies' (Psa 103:1-4). But how came he to be affected\nwith this? Why, he knew what it was to hang over the mouth of hell\nfor sin; yea, he knew what it was for death and hell to beset and\ncompass him about; yea, they took hold of him, as we have said, and\nwere pulling of him down into the deep; this he saw to the breaking\nof his heart. He saw also the way of life, and had his soul relieved\nwith faith and sense of that, and that made him a thankful man. If\na man who has had a broken leg, is but made to understand, that by\nthe breaking of that he kept from breaking of his neck, he will be\nthankful to God for a broken leg. 'It is good for me,' said David,\n'that I have been afflicted.' I was by that preserved from a great\ndanger; for before that I went astray (Psa 119:67,71).\n\nAnd who can be thankful for a mercy that is not sensible that they\nwant it, have it, and have it of mercy? Now, this the broken-hearted,\nthis the man that is of a contrite spirit, is sensible of; and\nthat with reference to mercies of the best sort, and therefore must\nneeds be a thankful man, and so have a heart of esteem with God,\nbecause it is a thankful heart.\n\nFifth. A broken heart is of great esteem with, or an excellent\nthing in, the sight of God, because it is a heart that desires now\nto become a receptacle or habitation for the spirit and graces of\nthe Spirit of God. It was the devil's hold before, and was contented\nso to be. But now it is for entertaining of, for being possessed\nwith, the Holy Spirit of God. 'Create in me a clean heart,' said\nDavid, 'and renew a right spirit within me. Take not thy Holy Spirit\nfrom me, uphold me with thy free Spirit' (Psa 51:10-12). Now he was\nfor a clean heart and a right spirit; now he was for the sanctifying\nof the blessed spirit of grace; a thing which the uncircumcised in\nheart resist, and do despite unto (Acts 7:51; Heb 10:29).\n\nA broken heart, therefore, suiteth with the heart of God; a contrite\nspirit is one spirit with him. God, as I told you before, covets\nto dwell with the broken in heart, and the broken in heart desire\ncommunion with him. Now here is an agreement, a oneness of mind;\nnow the same mind is in thee which was also in Christ Jesus. This\nmust needs be an excellent spirit; this must needs be better with\nGod, and in his sight, than thousands of rams, or ten thousand\nrivers of oil. But does the carnal world covet this, this spirit,\nand the blessed graces of it? No, they despise it, as I said before;\nthey mock at it, they prefer and countenance any sorry, dirty lust\nrather; and the reason is, because they want a broken heart, that\nheart so highly in esteem with God, and remain for want thereof in\ntheir enmity to God.\n\nThe broken-hearted know, that the sanctifying of the Spirit is\na good means to keep from that relapse, out of which a man cannot\ncome unless his heart be wounded a second time. Doubtless David\nhad a broken heart at first conversion, and if that brokenness\nhad remained, that is, had he not given way to hardness of heart\nagain, he had never fallen into that sin out of which he could\nnot be recovered, but by the breaking of his bones a second time.\nTherefore, I say, a broken heart is of great esteem with God; for\nit--and I will add, so long as it retains its tenderness--covets none\nbut God, and the things of his Holy Spirit; sin is an abomination\nto it.\n\n[VI. ADVANTAGES THAT A CHRISTIAN GETS BY KEEPING HIS HEART TENDER.]\n\nAnd here, as in a fit place, before I go any further, I will show\nyou some of the advantages that a Christian gets by keeping of\nhis heart tender. For, as to have a broken heart, is to have an\nexcellent thing, so to keep this broken heart tender, is also very\nadvantageous.\n\nFirst. This is the way to maintain in thy soul always a fear of\nsinning against God. Christians do not wink at, or give way to sin,\nuntil their hearts begin to lose their tenderness. A tender heart\nwill be affected at the sin of another, much more it will be afraid\nof committing of sin itself (2 Kings 22:19).\n\nSecond. A tender heart quickly yieldeth to prayer, yea, prompteth to\nit, puts an edge and fire into it. We never are backward to prayer\nuntil our heart has lost its tenderness; though then it grows cold,\nflat, and formal, and so carnal to and in that holy duty.\n\nThird. A tender hearts has always repentance at hand for the least\nfault or slip, or sinful thought that the soul is guilty of. In many\nthings the best offend; but if a Christian loseth his tenderness,\nif he says he has his repentance to seek, his heart is grown\nhard--has lost that spirit, that kind spirit of repentance, it was\nwont to have. Thus it was with the Corinthians; they were decayed,\nand lost their tenderness; wherefore their sin--yea, great\nsins--remained unrepented of (2 Cor 12:20).\n\nFourth. A tender heart is for receiving often its communion with\nGod, when he that is hardened, though the seed of grace is in him,\nwill be content to eat, drink, sleep, wake, and go days without\nnumber without him (Isa 17:10; Jer 2:32).\n\nFifth. A tender heart is a wakeful, watchful heart. It watches\nagainst sin in the soul, sin in the family, sin in the calling,\nsin in spiritual duties and performances, &c. It watches against\nSatan, against the world, against the flesh, &c. But now, when the\nheart is not tender, there is sleepiness, unwatchfulness, idleness,\na suffering the heart, the family, and calling to be much defiled,\nspotted, and blemished with sin; for a hard heart departs from God,\nand turns aside in all these things.\n\nSixth. A tender heart will deny itself, and that in lawful things,\nand will forbear even that which may be done--for some Jew, or Gentile,\nor the church of God, or any member of it, should be offended, or\nmade weak thereby; whereas the Christian that is not tender, that\nhas lost his tenderness, is so far off of denying himself in lawful\nthings, that he will even adventure to meddle in things utterly\nforbidden, whoever is offended, grieved, or made weak thereby. For\nan instance of this, we need go no further than to the man in the\ntext, who, while he was tender, trembled at little things; but\nwhen his heart was hardened, he could take Bathsheba to satisfy\nhis lust, and kill her husband to cover his wickedness.\n\nSeventh. A tender heart--I mean, the heart kept tender--preserves\nfrom many a blow, lash, and fatherly chastisement; because it shuns\nthe causes, which is sin, of the scourging hand of God. 'With the\npure thou wilt show thyself pure, but with the froward thou wilt\nshew thyself unsavoury' (2 Sam 22:27; Psa 18:25-27).\n\nMany a needless rebuke and wound doth happen to the saints of God\nthrough their unwise behaviour. When I say needless, I mean they are\nnot necessary, but to reclaim us from our vanities; for we should\nnot feel the smart of them, were it not for our follies. Hence the\nafflicted is called a fool, because his folly brings his affliction\nupon him. 'Fools,' says David, 'because of their transgression,\nand because of their iniquities, are afflicted' (Psa 107:17).\nAnd therefore it is, as was said before, that he call his sin his\nfoolishness. And again, 'God will speak peace unto his people, and\nto his saints; but let them not turn again to folly' (Psa 38:5,\n85:8). 'If his children transgress my laws, then will I visit their\ntransgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes' (Psa\n89:30-32).\n\n[How to keep the heart tender.]\n\nQUEST. But what should a Christian do, when God has broke his heart,\nto keep it tender?\n\nANSW. To this I will speak briefly. And, first, give you several\ncautions; secondly, several directions.\n\n[First--Several cautions.]\n\n1. Take heed that you choke not those convictions that at present\ndo break your hearts, by labouring to put those things out of your\nminds which were the cause of such convictions; but rather nourish\nand cherish those things in a deep and sober remembrance of them.\nThink, therefore, with thyself thus, What was it that at first did\nwound my heart? And let that still be there, until, by the grace\nof God, and the redeeming blood of Christ, it is removed.\n\n2. Shun vain company. The keeping of vain company has stifled many\na conviction, killed many a desire, and made many a soul fall into\nhell, that once was hot in looking after heaven. A companion that\nis not profitable to the soul, is hurtful. 'He that walketh with\nwise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed'\n(Prov 13:20).\n\n3. Take heed of idle talk, that thou neither hear nor join with\nit. 'Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest\nnot in him the lips of knowledge' (Prov 14:7). 'Evil communications\ncorrupt good manners. And a fool's lips are the snare of his soul.'\nWherefore take heed of these things (Prov 18:7; 1 Cor 15:33).\n\n4. Beware of the least motion to sin, that it be not countenanced,\nlest the countenancing of that makes way for a bigger.[14] David's\neye took his heart, and so his heart nourishing the thought, made\nway for the woman's company, the act of adultery, and bloody murder.\nTake heed, therefore, brethren, 'lest any of you be hardened through\nthe deceitfulness of sin' (Heb 3:12,13). And remember, that he that\nwill rend the block, puts the thin end of the wedge first thereto,\nand so, by driving, does his work.\n\n5. Take heed of evil examples among the godly; learn of no man to\ndo that which the word of God forbids. Sometimes Satan makes use of\na good man's bad ways, to spoil and harden the heart of them that\ncome after. Peter's false doing had like to have spoiled Barnabas,\nyea, and several others more. Wherefore take heed of men, of good\nmen's ways, and measure both theirs and thine own by no other rule\nbut the holy Word of God (Gal 2:11-13).\n\n6. Take heed of unbelief, or atheistical thoughts; make no question\nof the truth and reality of heavenly things: for know unbelief is\nthe worst of evils; nor can the heart be tender that nourisheth or\ngives place unto it. 'Take heed, therefore, lest there be in any of\nyou an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God'\n(Heb 3:12). These cautions are necessary to be observed with all\ndiligence, of all them that would, when their heart is made tender,\nkeep it so. And now to come,\n\n[Second]--to the Directions.\n\n1. Labour after a deep knowledge of God to keep it warm upon thy\nheart; knowledge of his presence, that is everywhere. 'Do not I fill\nheaven and earth, saith the Lord?' (Jer 23:24). (1.) Knowledge of\nhis piercing eye, that it runneth to and fro through the earth,\nbeholding in every place the evil and the good; that his eyes\nbehold, and his eyelids try the children of men (Prov 15:3). (2.)\nThe knowledge of his power, that he is able to turn and dissolve\nheaven and earth into dust and ashes; and that they are in his\nhand but as a scroll or vesture (Heb 1:11,12). (3.) The knowledge\nof his justice, that the rebukes of it are as devouring fire (Heb\n12:19). (4.) The knowledge of his faithfulness, in fulfilling\npromises to them to whom they are made, and of his threatenings on\nthe impenitent (Matt 5:18, 24:35; Mark 13:31).\n\n2. Labour to get and keep a deep sense of sin in its evil nature,\nand in its soul-destroying effects upon thy heart; be persuaded,\nthat it is the only enemy of God, and that none hate, or are hated\nof God, but through that. (1.) Remember it turned angels into\ndevils, thrust them down from heaven to hell. (2.) That it is the\nchain in which they are held and bound over to judgment (2 Peter\n2:4; Jude 6). (3.) That it was for that that Adam was turned out\nof paradise; that for which the old world was drowned; that for\nwhich Sodom and Gomorrah was burned with fire from heaven; and\nthat which cost Christ his blood to redeem thee from the curse it\nhas brought upon thee; and that, if anything, will keep thee out of\nheaven for ever and ever. (4.) Consider the pains of hell. Christ\nmakes use of that as an argument to keep the heart tender; yea,\nto that end repeats and repeats, and repeats, both the nature and\ndurableness of the burning flame thereof, and of the gnawing of\nthe neverdying worm that dwells there (Mark 9:43-48).\n\n3. Consider of death, both as to the certainty of thy dying, and\nuncertainty of the time when. We must die, we must needs die; our\ndays are determined--the number of our months are with God, though\nnot with us; nor can we pass them, would we, had we them, give a\nthousand worlds to do it (2 Sam 14:14; Job 7:1, 14:1-5). Consider\nthou must die but once--I mean but once as to this world; for if\nthou, when thou goest hence, dost not die well, thou canst not come\nback again and die better. 'It is appointed unto men once to die,\nbut after this the judgment' (Heb 9;27).\n\n4. Consider also of the certainty and terribleness of the day of\njudgment, when Christ shall sit upon his great white throne, when\nthe dead shall, by the sound of the trump of God, be raised up; when\nthe elements, with heaven and earth, shall be on a burning flame;\nwhen Christ shall separate men one from another, as a shepherd\ndivideth his sheep from the goats; when the books shall be opened,\nthe witnesses produced, and every man be judged according to his\nworks; when heaven's gate shall stand open to them that shall be\nsaved, and the jaws of hell stand gaping for them that shall be\ndamned (Acts 5:30-31, 10:42; Matt 25:31,32,34,4; Rev 2:11; 1 Cor\n15:51; Rev 20:12,15; 2 Peter 3:7,10,12; Rom 2:2,15,16; Rev 22:12).\n\n5. Consider, Christ Jesus did use no means to harden his heart\nagainst doing and suffering those sorrows which were necessary for\nthe redemption of thy soul. No; though he could have hardened his\nheart against thee in the way of justice and righteousness, because\nthou hadst sinned against him, he rather awakened himself, and put\non all pity, bowels, and compassion; yea, tender mercies, and did\nit. In his love and in his pity he saved us. His tender mercies\nfrom on high hath visited us. He loved us, and gave himself for us.\nLearn, then, of Christ, to be tender of thyself, and to endeavour\nto keep thy heart tender to God-ward, and to the salvation of thy\nsoul. But to draw to a conclusion.\n\nVII. THE USE.\n\nLet us now, then, make some use of this doctrine. As,\n\nFIRST USE. From the truth of the matter, namely, that the man who\nis truly come to God has had his heart broken--his heart broken\nin order to his coming to him. And this shows us what to judge of\nthe league that is between sin and the soul, to wit, that it is so\nfirm, so strong, so inviolable, as that nothing can break, disannul,\nor make it void, unless the heart be broken for it. It was so with\nDavid, yea, his new league with it could not be broken until his\nheart was broken.\n\nIt is amazing to consider what hold sin has on some men's souls,\nspirits, will, and affections. It is to them better than heaven,\nbetter than God--than the soul, ay, than salvation; as is evident,\nbecause, though all these are offered them upon this condition,\nif they will but leave their sins, yet they will choose rather to\nabide in them, to stand and fall by them. How sayest thou, sinner?\nIs not this a truth? How many times hast thou had heaven and\nsalvation offered to thee freely, wouldst thou but break thy league\nwith this great enemy of God? Of God, do I say; if thou wouldst but\nbreak this league with this great enemy of thy soul? but couldst\nnever yet be brought unto it; no, neither by threatening nor by\npromise couldst thou ever yet be brought unto it.\n\nIt is said of Ahab he sold himself to work wickedness: and in\nanother place, yea, 'for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves'\n(1 Kings 21:25; Isa 50:1). But what is this iniquity? Why, a thing\nof nought; nay, worse than nought a thousand times; but because\nnought is as we say nought, therefore it goes under that term,\nwhere God saith again to the people, 'Ye have sold yourselves for\nnought' (Isa 52:3). But, I say, what an amazing thing is this, that\na rational creature should make no better a bargain; that one that\nis so wise in all terrene things, should be such a fool in the\nthing that is most weighty? And yet such a fool he is, and he tells\nevery one that goes by the way that he is such an one, because he\nwill not break his league with sin until his heart is broken for\nit. Men love darkness rather than light. Ay, they make it manifest\nthey love it, since so great a proffer will not prevail with them\nto leave it.\n\nSECOND USE. Is this a truth, that the man that truly comes to\nGod in order thereto has had his heart broken? then this shows us\na reason why some men's hearts are broken; even a reason why God\nbreaks some men's hearts for sin; namely, because he would not have\nthem die in it, but rather come to God that they might be saved?\nBehold, therefore, in this how God resolved as to the saving of some\nmen's souls! He will have them, he will save them, he will break\ntheir hearts, but he will save them; he will kill them, that they\nmay live; he will wound them, that he may heal them. And it seems\nby our discourse that now there is no way left but this; fair means,\nas we say, will not do; good words, a glorious gospel, entreatings,\nbeseeching with blood and tears, will not do. Men are resolved to\nput God to the utmost of it; if he will have them he must fetch\nthem, follow them, catch them, lame them; yea, break their bones,\nor else he shall not save them.\n\nSome men think an invitation, an outward call, a rational discourse,\nwill do; but they are much deceived, there must a power, an\nexceeding great and mighty power, attend the Word, or it worketh\nnot effectually to the salvation of the soul. I know these things\nare enough to leave men without excuse, but yet they are not enough\nto bring men home to God. Sin has hold of them, they have sold\nthemselves to it; the power of the devil has hold of them, they are\nhis captives at his will; yea, and more than all this, their will\nis one with sin, and with the devil, to be held captive thereby:\nand if God gives not contrition, repentance, or a broken heart, for\nsin, there will not be no not so much as a mind in man to forsake\nthis so horrible a confederacy and plot against his soul (2 Tim\n2:24,25).\n\nHence men are said to be drawn from these breasts, that come, or\nthat are brought to him (Isa 26:9; John 6:44). Wherefore John might\nwell say, 'Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed\nupon us!' Here is cost bestowed, pains bestowed, labour bestowed,\nrepentance bestowed; yea, and an heart made sore, wounded, broken,\nand filled with pain and sorrow, in order to the salvation of the\nsoul.\n\nTHIRD USE. This then may teach us what estimation to set upon a\nbroken heart. A broken heart is such as God esteems, yea, as God\ncounts better than all external service: a broken heart is that\nwhich is in order to salvation, in order to thy coming to Christ\nfor life. The world know not what to make of it, nor what to say\nto one that has a broken heart, and therefore do despise it, and\ncount that man that carries it in his bosom a moping fool, a miserable\nwretch, an undone soul: 'But a broken and a contrite spirit, O God,\nthou wilt not despise'; a broken heart takes thine eye, thy heart:\nthou choosest it for thy companion, yea, has given thy Son a charge\nto look well to such a man, and has promised him thy salvation, as\nhas afore been proved.\n\nSinner, hast thou obtained a broken heart? has God bestowed a contrite\nspirit upon thee? He has given thee what himself is pleased with;\nhe has given thee a cabinet to hold his grace in; he has given thee\na heart that can heartily desire his salvation, an heart after his\nown heart, that is, such as suits his mind. True, it is painful\nnow, sorrowful now, penitent now, grieved now; now it is broken,\nnow it bleeds, now, now it sobs, now it sighs, now it mourns and\ncrieth unto God. Well, very well; all this is because he hath a\nmind to make thee laugh; he has made thee sorry on earth that thou\nmightest rejoice in heaven. 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they\nshall be comforted.--Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall\nlaugh' (Matt 5:4; Luke 6:21).\n\nBut, soul, be sure thou hast this broken heart. All hearts are\nnot broken hearts, nor is every heart that seems to have a wound,\na heart that is truly broken. A man may be cut to, yet not into the\nheart; a man may have another, yet not a broken heart (Acts 7:54;\n1 Sam 10:9). We know there is a difference betwixt a wound in the\nflesh and a wound in the spirit; yea, a man's sin may be wounded,\nand yet his heart not broken: so was Pharaoh's, so was Saul's, so\nwas Ahab's; but they had none of them the mercy of a broken heart.\nTherefore, I say, take heed; every scratch with a pin, every prick\nwith a thorn, nay, every blow that God giveth with his Word upon\nthe heart of sinners, doth not therefore break them. God gave Ahab\nsuch a blow that he made him stoop, fast, humble himself, gird\nhimself with and lie in sackcloth, which was a great matter for a\nking, and go softly, and yet he never had a broken heart (1 Kings\n21:27,29). What shall I say? Pharaoh and Saul confessed their sins,\nJudas repented himself of his doings, Esau sought the blessing,\nand that carefully with tears, and yet none of these had a heart\nrightly broken, or a spirit truly contrite; Pharaoh, Saul, and\nJudas, were Pharaoh, Saul, and Judas still; Esau was Esau still;\nthere was no gracious change, no thorough turn to God, no unfeigned\nparting with their sins, no hearty flight for refuge, to lay hold\non the hope of glory, though they indeed had thus been touched (Exo\n10:16; 1 Sam 26:21; Matt 27:3; Heb 12:14-17).\n\nThe consideration of these things call aloud to us to take heed,\nthat we take not that for a broken and a contrite spirit that will\nnot go for one at the day of death and judgment. Wherefore, seeking\nsoul, let me advise thee, that thou mayest not be deceived as to\nthis thing of so great weight.\n\nFirst. To go back towards the beginning of this book, and compare\nthyself with those six or seven signs of a broken and contrite\nheart, which there I have, according to the Word of God, given to\nthee for that end; and deal with thy soul impartially about them.\n\nSecond. Or, which may and will be great help to thee if thou shalt\nbe sincere therein, namely, to betake thyself to the search of the\nWord, especially where thou readest of the conversion of men, and\ntry if thy conversion be like, or has a good resemblance or oneness\nwith theirs. But in this have a care that thou dost not compare\nthyself with those good folk of whose conversion thou readest\nnot, or of the breaking of whose heart there is no mention made in\nScripture; for all that are recorded in the Scripture for saints\nhave not their conversion, as to the manner or nature of it, recorded\nin the Scripture.\n\nThird. Or else, do thou consider truly of the true signs of\nrepentance which are laid down in Scripture; for that is the true\neffect of a broken heart, and of a wounded spirit. And for this\nsee Matthew 3:5,6; Luke 18:13, 19:8; Acts 2:37-40, &c., 16:29,30,\n19:18,19; 2 Corinthians 7:8-11.\n\nFourth. Or else, take into consideration how God has said, they\nshall be in their spirits that he intends to save. And for this\nread these scriptures: (1.) That in Jeremiah 31, 'They shall come\nwith weeping, and with supplications will I lead them' &c. (v\n9). (2.) Read Jeremiah 50:4,5: 'In those days, and in that time,\nthe children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah\ntogether, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their\nGod. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward,\nsaying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual\ncovenant that shall not be forgotten.' (3.) Read Ezekiel 6:9: 'And\nthey that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither\nthey shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their\nwhorish heart, which have departed from me, and with their eyes,\nwhich go a-whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves\nfor the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.'\n(4.) Read Ezekiel 7:16: 'But they that escape of them shall escape,\nand shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them\nmourning, every one for his iniquity.' (5.) Read Ezekiel 20:43:\n'And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein\nye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own\nsight for all your evils that ye have committed.' (6.) Read Ezekiel\n37:31: 'Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings\nthat were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight\nfor your iniquities and for your abominations.' (7.) Read Zechariah\n12:10: 'And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:\nand they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall\nmourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in\nbitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.'\n\nNow all these are the fruits of the Spirit of God, and of the\nheart, when it is broken: wherefore, soul, take notice of them, and\nbecause these are texts by which God promiseth that those whom he\nsaveth shall have this heart, this spirit, and these holy effects\nin them; therefore consider again, and examine thyself, whether\nthis is the state and condition of thy soul. And that thou mayest\ndo it fully, consider again, and do thou,\n\n1. Remember that here is such a sense of sin, and of the irksomeness\nthereof, as maketh the man not only to abhor that, but himself,\nbecause of that; this is worth the noting by thee.\n\n2. Remember again that here is not only a self-abhorrence, but a\nsorrowful kind mourning unto God, at the consideration that the soul\nby sin has affronted, contemned, disregarded, and set at nought,\nboth God and his holy Word.\n\n3. Remember also that here are prayers and tears for mercy, with\ndesires to be now out of love with sin for ever, and to be in heart\nand soul firmly joined and knit unto God.\n\n4. Remember also that this people here spoken of have all the way\nfrom Satan to God, from sin to grace, from death to life, scattered\nwith tears and prayers, with weeping and supplication; they shall\ngo weeping, and seeking the Lord their God.\n\n5. Remember that these people, as strangers and pilgrims do, are\nnot ashamed to ask the way of those they meet with to Zion, or the\nheavenly country; whereby they confess their ignorance, as became\nthem, and their desire to know the way to life: yea, thereby they\ndeclare that there is nothing in this world, under the sun, or\nthis side heaven, that can satisfy the longings, the desire, and\ncravings of a broken and a contrite spirit. Reader, be advised,\nand consider of these things seriously, and compare thy soul with\nthem, and with what else thou shalt find here written for thy\nconviction and instruction.\n\nFOURTH USE. If a broken heart and a contrite spirit be of such\nesteem with God, then this should encourage them that have it to\ncome to God with it. I know the great encouragement for men to come\nto God is, for that there 'is a mediator between God and men, the man\nChrist Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5). This, I say, is the great encouragement,\nand in its place there is none but that; but there are other\nencouragements subordinate to that, and a broken and a contrite spirit\nis one of them: this is evident from several places of Scripture.\n\nWherefore, thou that canst carry a broken heart and a sorrowful\nspirit with thee, when thou goest to God, tell him thy heart is\nwounded within thee, that thou hast sorrow in thy heart, and art\nsorry for thy sins; but take heed of lying.[15] Confess also thy\nsins unto him, and tell him they are continually before thee. David\nmade an argument of these things, when he went to God by prayer.\n'O Lord,' saith he, 'rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten\nme in thy hot displeasure.' But why so? O! says he, 'Thine arrows\nstick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no\nsoundness in my flesh, because of thine anger: neither is there\nany rest in my bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities are\ngone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.\nMy wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. I am\ntroubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.\nFor my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no\nsoundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken; I have roared\nby reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is\nbefore thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth,\nmy strength faileth me: as for the light for mine eyes, it also is\ngone from me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore':\nand so he goes on (Psa 38:1-4, &c.).\n\nThese are the words, sighs, complaints, prayers, and arguments of\na broken heart to God for mercy; and so are they--'Have mercy upon\nme, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the\nmultitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash\nme thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For\nI acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me' (Psa\n51:1-3).\n\nGod alloweth poor creatures that can, without lying, thus to plead\nand argue with him. 'I am poor and sorrowful,' said the good man\nto him, 'let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high' (Psa 69:29).\nWherefore thou that hast a broken heart take courage, God bids thee\ntake courage; say therefore to thy soul, 'Why are thou cast down,\nO my soul?' as usually the broken-hearted are. 'And why art thou\ndisquieted within me? Hope thou in God.' 'I had fainted,' if I had\nnot been of good courage; therefore 'be of good courage, and he\nshall strengthen thine heart' (Psa 42:11, 43:5, 27:12-14).\n\nBut alas! the broken-hearted are far off from this; they faint;\nthey reckon themselves among the dead; they think God will remember\nthem no more: the thoughts of the greatness of God, and his holiness,\nand their own sins and vilenesses, will certainly consume them.\nThey feel guilt and anguish of soul; they go mourning all the day\nlong; their mouth is full of gravel and gall, and they are made to\ndrink draughts of wormwood and gall; so that he must be an artist\nindeed at believing, who can come to God under his guilt and horror,\nand plead in faith that the sacrifices of God are a broken heart,\nsuch as he had; and that 'a broken and a contrite spirit God will\nnot despise.'\n\nFIFTH USE. If a broken heart, if a broken and contrite spirit, is\nof such esteem with God, then why should some be, as they are, so\nafraid of a broken heart, and so shy of a contrite spirit?\n\nI have observed that some men are as afraid of a broken heart, or\nthat they for their sins should have their hearts broken, as the\ndog is of the whip. O! they cannot away with such books, with such\nsermons, with such preachers, or with such talk, as tends to make\na man sensible of, and to break his heart, and to make him contrite\nfor his sins. Hence they heap to themselves such teachers, get such\nbooks, love such company, and delight in such discourse, as rather\ntends to harden than soften; to make desperate in, than sorrowful\nfor their sin. They say to such sermons, books, and preachers, as\nAmaziah said unto Amos, 'O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the\nland of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there, but prophesy\nnot again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's chapel, and it\nis the king's court' (Amos 7:12,13).\n\nBut do these people know what they do? Yes, think they, for such\npreachers, such books, such discourses tend to make one melancholy\nor mad; they make us that we cannot take pleasure in ourselves, in\nour concerns, in our lives. But, O fool in grain![16] let me speak\nunto thee. Is it a time to take pleasure, and to recreate thyself\nin anything, before thou hast mourned and been sorry for thy sins?\nThat mirth that is before repentance for sin will certainly end\nin heaviness. Wherefore the wise man, putting both together, saith\nthat mourning must be first. There is 'a time to weep, and a time\nto laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance' (Eccl 3:4). What,\nan unconverted man, and laugh! Shouldst thou see one singing merry\nsongs that is riding up Holborn to Tyburn,[17] to be hanged for\nfelony, wouldst thou not count him besides himself, if not worse?\nand yet thus it is with him that is for mirth while he standeth\ncondemned by the Book of God for his trespasses. Man! man! thou\nhast cause to mourn; yea, thou must mourn if ever thou art saved.\nWherefore my advice is, that instead of shunning, thou covet both\nsuch books, such preachers, and such discourses, as have a tendency\nto make a man sensible of, and to break his heart for sin; and the\nreason is, because thou wilt never be as thou shouldst, concerned\nabout, nor seek the salvation of thine own soul, before thou hast\na broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit. Wherefore be not\nafraid of a broken heart; be not shy of a contrite spirit. It is\none of the greatest mercies that God bestows upon a man or a woman.\nThe heart rightly broken at the sense of, and made truly contrite\nfor transgression, is a certain forerunner of salvation. This is\nevident from those six demonstrations which were laid down to prove\nthe point in hand, at first.\n\nAnd for thy awakening in this matter, let me tell thee, and thou\nwilt find it so, thou must have thy heart broken whether thou wilt\nor no. God is resolved to break ALL hearts for sin some time or\nother. Can it be imagined, sin being what it is, and God what he\nis--to wit, a revenger of disobedience--but that one time or other\nman must smart for sin? smart, I say, either to repentance or to\ncondemnation. He that mourns not now, while the door of mercy is\nopen, must mourn for sin when the door of mercy is shut.\n\nShall men despise God, break his law, contemn his threats, abuse\nhis grace, yea, shut their eyes when he says, See; and stop their\nears when he says, Hear; and shall they so escape? No, no, because\nhe called, and they refused; he stretched out his hand, and they\nregarded it not; therefore shall calamity come upon them, as upon\none in travail; and they shall cry in their destruction, and then\nGod will laugh at their destruction, and mock when their fear\ncometh. Then, saith he, 'they shall cry' (Prov 1:24-26). I have\noften observed that this threatening is repeated at least seven\ntimes in the New Testament, saying, 'There shall be weeping and\ngnashing of teeth'; 'there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth'\n(Matt 8:12, 13:42,50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30; Luke 13:28). There.\nWhere? In hell, and at the bar of Christ's tribunal, when he comes\nto judge the world, and shall have shut to the door to keep them\nout of glory, that have here despised the offer of his grace, and\noverlooked the day of his patience. 'There shall be wailing and\ngnashing of teeth.' They shall weep and wail for this.\n\nThere are but two scriptures that I shall use more, and then I shall\ndraw towards a conclusion. One is that in Proverbs, where Solomon\nis counselling of young men to beware of strange, that is, of wanton,\nlight, and ensnaring women. Take heed of such, said he, lest 'thou\nmourn at the last,' that is, in hell, when thou art dead, 'when\nthy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated\ninstruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the\nvoice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ears to them that instructed\nme!' (Prov 5:11-13).\n\nThe other scripture is that in Isaiah, where he says, 'Because when\nI called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but\ndid evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted\nnot. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall\neat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but\nye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye\nshall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart,\nbut ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation\nof spirit' (Isa 65:13,14).\n\nHow many beholds are here! and every behold is not only a call to\ncareless ones to consider, but as a declaration from heaven that\nthus at last it shall be with all impenitent sinners; that is,\nwhen others sing for joy in the kingdom of heaven, they, they shall\nsorrow in hell, and howl for vexation of spirit there.\n\nWherefore, let me advise that you be not afraid of, but that you\nrather covet a broken heart, and prize a contrite spirit; I say,\ncovet it now, now the white flag is hung out, now the golden sceptre\nof grace is held forth to you. Better mourn now God inclines to\nmercy and pardon, than mourn when the door is quite shut up. And\ntake notice, that this is not the first time that I have given you\nthis advice.\n\nUSE SIXTH. Lastly, If a broken heart be a thing of so great esteem\nwith God as has been said, and if duties cannot be rightly performed\nby a heart that has not been broken, then this shows the vanity of\nthose peoples' minds, and also the invalidity of their pretended\nDivine services, who worship God with a heart that was never broken,\nand without a contrite spirit. There has, indeed, at all times been\ngreat flocks of such professors in the world in every age, but to\nlittle purpose, unless to deceive themselves, to mock God, and lay\nstumbling-blocks in the way of others; for a man whose heart was\nnever truly broken, and whose spirit was never contrite, cannot\nprofess Christ in earnest, cannot love his own soul in earnest;\nI mean, he cannot do these things in truth, and seek his own good\nthe right way, for he wants a bottom for it, to wit, a broken heart\nfor sin, and a contrite spirit.\n\nThat which makes a man a hearty, an unfeigned, a sincere seeker\nafter the good of his own soul, is sense of sin, and a godly fear\nof being overtaken with the danger which it brings a man into.\nThis makes him contrite or repentant, and puts him upon seeking\nof Christ the Saviour, with heart-aching and heart-breaking\nconsiderations. But this cannot be, where this sense, this godly\nfear, and this holy contrition is wanting. Profess men may, and\nmake a noise, as the empty barrel maketh the biggest sound; but\nprove them, and they are full of air, full of emptiness, and that\nis all.\n\nNor are such professors tender of God's name, nor of the credit of\nthat gospel which they profess; nor can they, for they want that\nwhich should oblige them thereunto, which is a sense of pardon and\nforgiveness, by the which their broken hearts have been replenished,\nsuccoured, and made to hope in God. Paul said, the love of Christ\nconstrained him. But what was Paul but a broken-hearted and a contrite\nsinner? (Acts 9:3-6; 2 Cor 5:14). When God shows a man the sin he\nhas committed, the hell he has deserved, the heaven he has lost;\nand yet that Christ, and grace, and pardon may be had; this will\nmake him serious, this will make him melt, this will break his heart,\nthis will show him that there is more than air, than a noise, than\nan empty sound in religion; and this is the man, whose heart, whose\nlife, whose conversation and all, will be engaged in the matters\nof the eternal salvation of his precious and immortal soul.\n\n[VIII. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.]\n\nObject. First. But some may object, that in this saying I seem too\nrigid and censorious; and will, if I moderate not these lines with\nsomething milder afterward, discourage many an honest soul.\n\nAnsw. I answer, Not a jot, not an honest soul in all the world will\nbe offended at my words; for not one can be an honest soul, I mean\nwith reference to its concerns in another world, that has not had\na broken heart, that never had a contrite spirit. This I will say,\nbecause I would be understood aright, that all attain not to the\nsame degree of trouble, nor lie so long there under, as some of\ntheir brethren do. But to go to heaven without a broken heart, or\nto be forgiven sin without a contrite spirit, is no article of my\nbelief. We speak not now of what is secret; revealed things belong\nto us and our children; nor must we venture to go further in our\nfaith. Doth not Christ say, 'The whole have no need of a physician';\nthat is, they see no need, but Christ will make them see their\nneed before he ministers his sovereign grace unto them; and good\nreason, otherwise he will have but little thanks for his kindness.\n\nObject. Second. But there are those that are godly educated from\ntheir childhood, and so drink in the principles of Christianity\nthey know not how.\n\nAnsw. I count it one thing to receive the faith of Christ from men\nonly, and another to receive it from God by the means. If thou art\ntaught by an angel, yet if not taught of God, thou wilt never come\nto Christ; I do not say thou wilt never profess him. But if God\nspeaks, and thou shalt hear and understand him, that voice will\nmake such work within thee as was never made before. The voice of\nGod is a voice by itself, and is so distinguished by them that are\ntaught thereby (John 6:44,45; Psa 29; Habb 3:12-16; Eph 4:20,21;\n1 Peter 2:2,3).\n\nObject. Third. But some men are not so debauched and profane as\nsome, and so need not to be so hammered and fired as others; so\nbroken and wounded as others.\n\nAnsw. God knows best what we need. Paul was as righteous before\nconversion as any that can pretend to civility now, I suppose; and\nyet that notwithstanding he was made to shake, and was astonished\nat himself at his conversion. And truly I think the more righteous\nany is in his own eyes before conversion, the more need he has of\nheart-breaking work, in order to his salvation; because a man is\nnot by nature so easily convinced that his righteousness is to God\nabominable, as he is that his debauchery and profaneness is.\n\nA man's goodness is that which blinds him most, is dearest to him,\nand hardly parted with; and therefore when such an one is converted,\nthat thinks he has goodness of his own enough to commend him in\nwhole or in part to God, but, but few such are converted, there\nis required a great deal of breaking work upon his heart, to make\nhim come to Paul's conclusion, 'What! are we better than they? No,\nin no wise' (Rom 3:9). I say, before he can be brought to see his\nglorious robes are filthy rags, and his gainful things but loss\nand dung (Isa 64; Phil 3).\n\nThis is also gathered from these words, 'Publicans and harlots\nenter into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees' (Matt 21:31).\nWhy before them? But because they lie fairer for the Word, are\neasier convinced of their need of Christ, and so are brought home\nto him without, as I may say, all that ado that the Holy Ghost doth\nmake to bring home one of these to him.\n\nTrue; nothing is hard or difficult to God. But I speak after the\nmanner of men. And let who will take to task a man debauched in\nthis life, and one that is not so, and he shall see, if he laboureth\nto convince them both that they are in a state of condemnation\nby nature, that the Pharisee will make his appeals to God, with a\ngreat many God, I thank these; while the Publican hangs his head,\nshakes at heart, and smites upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful\nto me a sinner' (Luke 18:11-13).\n\nWherefore a self-righteous man is but a painted Satan, or a devil\nin fine clothes; but thinks he so of himself? No! no! he saith to\nothers, Stand back, come not near me, I am holier than thou. It is\nalmost impossible, that a self-righteous man should be saved. But\nhe that can drive a camel through the eye of a needle, can cause\nthat even such a one shall see his lost condition, and that he\nneedeth the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.\nHe can make him see, I say, that his own goodness did stand more\nin his way to the kingdom of heaven than he was aware of; and can\nmake him feel too, that his leaning to that is as great iniquity\nas any immorality that men commit. The sum then is, that men that\nare converted to God by Christ, through the Word and Spirit--for\nall this must go to effectual conversion--must have their hearts\nbroken, and spirits made contrite; I say, it MUST be so, for\nthe reasons showed before. Yea, and all decayed, apostatized, and\nbackslidden Christians must, in order to their recovery again to\nGod, have their hearts broken, their souls wounded, their spirits\nmade contrite, and sorry for their sins.\n\nCome, come, conversion to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing\nas some would have men believe it is. Why is man's heart compared\nto fallow ground, God's Word to a plough, and his ministers to\nploughmen? if the heart indeed has no need of breaking, in order to\nthe receiving of the seed of God unto eternal life (Jer 4:3; Luke\n9:62; 1 Cor 9:10). Who knows not that the fallow ground must be\nploughed, and ploughed too before the husbandman will venture his\nseed; yea, and after that oft soundly harrowed, or else he will\nhave but a slender harvest?\n\nWhy is the conversion of the soul compared to the grafting of a\ntree, if that be done without cutting? The Word is the graft, the\nsoul is the tree, and the Word, as the scion, must be let in by a\nwound; for to stick on the outside, or to be tied on with a string,\nwill do no good here. Heart must be set to heart, and back to back,\nor your pretended ingrafting will come to nothing (Rom 11:17,24;\nJer 1:21).\n\nI say, heart must be set to heart, and back to back, or the sap\nwill not be conveyed from the root to the branch; and I say, this\nmust be done by a wound. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, as a\nman openeth the stock to graft in the scions, and so the word was\nlet into her soul, and so the word and her heart cemented, and\nbecame one (Acts 16:14).\n\nWhy is Christ bid to gird his sword upon his thigh? and why must\nhe make his arrows sharp, and all, that the heart may with this\nsword and these arrows be shot, wounded, and made to bleed? Yea,\nwhy is he commanded to let it be so, if the people would bow and\nfall kindly under him, and heartily implore his grace without it?\n(Psa 45; 55:3,4). Alas! men are too lofty, too proud, too wild, too\ndevilishly resolved in the ways of their own destruction; in their\noccasions, they are like the wild asses upon the wild mountains;\nnothing can break them of their purposes, or hinder them from\nruining of their own precious and immortal souls, but the breaking\nof their hearts.\n\nWhy is a broken heart put in the room of all sacrifices which\nwe can offer to God, and a contrite spirit put in the room of all\nofferings, as they are, and you may see it so, if you compare the\ntext with that verse which goes before it; I say, why is it counted\nbetter than all, were they all put together, if any one part or\nif all external parts of worship, were they put together, could\nbe able to render the man a sound and a rightly made new creature\nwithout it? 'A broken heart, a contrite spirit, God will not despise';\nbut both thou, and all thy service, he will certainly slight and\nreject, if, when thou comest to him, a broken heart be wanting;\nwherefore here is the point, Come broken, come contrite, come\nsensible of, and sorry for thy sins, or thy coming will be counted\nno coming to God aright; and if so, consequently thou wilt get no\nbenefit thereby.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] This is beautifully and most impressively described in the\nPilgrim's Progress, when the bitter feelings of poor Christian\nunder convictions of sin, alarm his family and put it quite 'out\nof order.'--Ed.\n\n[2] This quotation is from the Genevan or Puritan version of the\nBible.--Ed.\n\n[3]. 'Fish-whole' is a very striking and expressive term, highly\nillustrative of the feelings and position of David when he was\naccosted by the prophet. The word 'whole' is from the Saxon, which\nlanguage abounded in Bunyan's native county of Bedford--first\nintroduced by an ancient colony of Saxons, who had settled there.\nIt means hale, hearty, free from disease, as a fish is happy in\nits native element--'They that are WHOLE, need not a physician, but\nthey that are sick,' Luke 5:31. David had no smitings of conscience\nfor his cruelty and enormous guilt; he was like a 'fish whole,' in\nthe full enjoyment of every providential blessing; while, spiritually,\nhe was dead in sin. God loved and pitied him, and sent a cunning\nangler. Nathan the prophet there in the bait, which David eagerly\nseized; the hook entered his conscience, and he became as a fish\nwounded, and nigh unto death.--Ed.\n\n[4] The words of Tindal are, 'The sacrifice of God is a troubled\nsprete, a broken and a contrite hert, O God, shalt thou not despise.'\nThe same Hebrew word occurs in the original, both as to the spirit\nand the heart. Bunyan is quite right in preferring our authorised\nversion of this verse. Coverdale, Tindal, Taverner, and Cranmer,\nall agree. The Genevan uses 'a contrite spirit,' and the Bishops\n'a mortified spirit.'--Ed.\n\n[5] No one could speak more feelingly upon this subject than our\nauthor. He had been in deep waters--in soul-harrowing fear, while\nhis heart--hard by nature--was under the hammer of the Word.--'My\nsoul was like a broken vessel. O, the unthought of imaginations,\nfrights, fears, and terrors, that are affected by a thorough\napplication of guilt, yielded to desperation!' Like the man that\nhad his dwelling among the tombs.--Grace Abounding, No. 186.\n\n[6] The Christian, if he thinks of possessing good motions, joins\nwith such thoughts his inability to carry them into effect. 'When\nI would do good, evil is present with me.' How different is this to\nthe self-righteous Ignorance, so vividly pictured in the Pilgrim's\nProgress:--\n\n'Ignor.--I am always full of good motions that come into my mind,\nto comfort me as I walk.\n\nChris.--What good motions? pray tell us.\n\nIgnor.--Why, I think of God and heaven.\n\nChris.--So do the devils and damned souls!'\n\nThe whole of that deeply interesting dialogue illustrates the\ndifficulty of self-knowledge, which can only be acquired by the\nteaching of the Holy Spirit.\n\n[7] 'All to brake'; an obsolete mode of expression for 'altogether\nbroke.'--Ed.\n\n[8] 'Orts'; an obsolete word in England, derived from the Anglo-Saxon.\nAny worthless leaving or refuse. It is thus used by Shakespeare in\nhis Troylus and Cresida, act 5, s. 2:--\n\n\n   'The fractions of her faith, orts of her love:\n    The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics\n    Of her ore-eaten faith.'--Ed.\n\n\n[9] This is in exact agreement with the author's experience, which\nhe had published twenty-two years before, under the title of Grace\nAbounding to the Chief of Sinners,--'I was more loathsome in my\nown eyes than was a toad, and I thought I was so in God's eyes too.\nSin and corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my\nheart as water would out of a fountain. I thought that none but the\ndevil himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution of\nmind.' A sure sign that God, as his heavenly Father, was enlightening\nhis memory by the Holy Spirit.--Ed.\n\n[10] This account of the author's interview with a pious, humble\nwoman, is an agreeable episode, which relieves the mind without\ndiverting it from the serious object of the treatise. It was\nprobably an event which took place in one of those pastoral visits\nwhich Bunyan was in the habit of making, and which, if wisely made,\nso endears a minister to the people of his charge. Christ and a\ncrust is the common saying to express the sentiment that Christ is\nall in all. The pitcher has reference to the custom of pilgrims in\ncarrying at their girdle a vessel to hold water, the staff having\na crook by which it was dipped up from a well or river.--Ed.\n\n[11] However hard, and even harsh, these terms may appear, they\nare fully justified; and with all the author's great ability and\nrenown, he has the grace of humility to acknowledge that, by nature\nand practice, he had been the biggest of fools.--Ed.\n\n[12] Man must be burnt out of the stronghold in which he trusted.\n'Saved, yet so as by fire.' 'Baptized with the Holy Ghost, even\nfire.' 'His word is as a fire.' Reader, the work of regeneration\nand purification is a trying work; may each inquire, Has this fire\nburnt up my wood, hay, stubble?--Ed.\n\n[13] To 'daff' or 'doff'; to do off or throw aside--used by\nShakespeare, but now obsolete,--\n\n\n    Where is his son,\n    The nimble-footed madcap, Prince of Wales,\n    And his comrades, that daft the world aside\n    And let it pass?--Ed.\n\n\n[14] 'Sin will at first, just like a beggar, crave One penny or one\nhalfpenny to have; And if you grant its first suit, 'twill aspire\nFrom pence to pounds, and so will still mount higher To the whole\nsoul!'--Bunyan's Caution Against Sin.--Ed.\n\n[15] This is faithful dealing. How many millions of lies are told\nto the All-seeing God, with unblushing effrontery, every Lord's\nday--when the unconcerned and careless, or the saint of God, happy,\nmost happy in the enjoyment of Divine love, are led to say, 'Have\nmercy upon us miserable sinners.'--Ed.\n\n[16] 'In grain' is a term used in dyeing, when the raw material is\ndyed before being spun or wove; the colour thus takes every grain,\nand becomes indelible. So with sin and folly; it enters every grain\nof human nature.--Ed.\n\n[17] These frightful exhibitions, by drawing a criminal from\nNewgate to Tyburn to be executed, were of common occurrence until\nthe reign of George III, when such numbers were put to death that\nit was found handier for the wholesale butchery to take place at\nNewgate, by a new drop, where twenty or thirty could be hung at\nonce!! When will such brutalizing exhibitions cease?--Ed.\n\n***\n\nPAUL'S DEPARTURE AND CROWN;\n\nOR,\n\nAN EXPOSITION UPON 2 TIM. IV. 6-8\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nHow great and glorious is the Christian's ultimate destiny--a\nkingdom and a crown! Surely it hath not entered into the heart of\nman to conceive what ear never heard, nor mortal eye ever saw? the\nmansions of the blest--the realms of glory--'a far more exceeding\nand eternal weight of glory.' For whom can so precious an inheritance\nbe intended? How are those treated in this world who are entitled\nto so glorious, so exalted, so eternal, and unchangeable an\ninheritance in the world to come? How do the heirs to immortality\nconduct themselves in such a prospect? An inheritance sure and\ncertain--an absolute reversion which no contingency can possibly\naffect. All these are inquiries of the deepest interest--the most\nsolemn importance. Above all, when we inquire as to our personal\ntitle to the heavenly mansions--Am I one of the heirs of God\nand joint heirs with Christ?--most intensely should this question\nagitate the soul, when we reflect that, unless we are entitled to\nthis inestimable reversion, we must be plunged into the most awful,\nthe most irretrievable and external torments! There is no middle\nway--no escape from hell, but by going to heaven. Is heaven reserved\nonly for the noble and the learned, like Paul? God forbid! but, on\nthe contrary, we hear the voice of the divinity proclaiming, 'Not\nmany wise men after the flesh--not many mighty--not many noble.'\n'Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is my throne, the earth my footstool.'\nHe looketh upon the high and low--the learned and the noble--the\nmighty princes and the unlettered labourer; and then makes this\nwondrous declaration--'To this man will I look, even to him that\nis poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.' The\nworld will treat such humble ones as it treated the Lord of life\nand glory, with scorn, contempt, insult, robbery--death. They bear\nall with patience--return good for evil--are the followers of him\nwho went about doing good--are known as living epistles, because\nthey have been with Christ; they daily enjoy his guidance and\nprotection, and in their desires after conformity to his image, they\nbreathe the atmosphere of heaven. This is what the heir of glory\nstrives after; but, alas! he has to encounter an evil heart, an\nensnaring world, and the reproaches and revilings of his fellow-men,\naided by satanic influence. Can we wonder, then, that he who\nis thus besieged, and believes that his work is finished, should,\nwith Paul, be ready to depart and receive his rich inheritance?\nThe lapse of time affects not the strong consolations of hope; as\nit was with Paul, so Bunyan felt. His longings after the heavenly\nmanna abounded when the cold hand of death pressed upon his brow;\nhis desire was 'to be dissolved, and to be with Christ'; when\nhis course of temple and relative duty was run, he waited for the\nmessenger from the celestial city to conduct him home. Christian,\nare you actively engaged in fulfilling the duties of your course?\nor, in the humble hope that your course is accomplished, are you\npatiently waiting the heavenly messenger? If the Christian's state\nis one of trial now, it was much more so in former times. We can have\nvery little idea of the feelings of a dissenter from the religion\nof the State, like Paul, under the cruel Nero, or like Bunyan, under\nthe debauched Charles the Second--both of them liable, without a\nmoment's warning, to be carried away to prison, or to be murdered,\nprivately or publicly, for refusing submission to civil governors\nin matters of faith or worship. Although they possessed every loyal\nand patriotic feeling, they dared not obey those human laws which\nusurped the prerogatives of God, by interfering with divine worship.\nTheir lives were in their hands; in the midst of imminent danger\nthey boldly avowed the truth, and set us a noble example. Their\nintercourse with heaven was doubly sweet from the uncertainty of\nliberty and life. For them to live was Christ, and therefore they\nwell knew the gain of dying. In proportion as temporal blessings\nwere eminently doubtful, so spiritual and eternal benefits were\nprecious.\n\nThis treatise was one of those ten excellent manuscripts found already\nprepared for the press, after the unexpected decease of its pious\nauthor. It bears the marks of having been composed, and perhaps\npreached, towards the end of his pilgrimage. Had his valuable life\nbeen spared a few months longer, this work would, very probably,\nhave been enlarged, and the sub-divisions somewhat improved. The\nprincipal heads are now inserted as separate lines, to assist the\nreader in referring to its several parts; and notes are added to\nexplain old words and customs, and, in some cases, to point out a\nfew of the beautiful and striking passages with which it abounds.\nMany of these ought to be indelibly impressed upon our minds. 'The\nwords of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of\nearth, purified seven times' (Psa 12:6). The question naturally\narises--What is this 'furnace of earth' in which the Lord's words\nare purified? Seven being the number of perfection, conveys the idea\nthat it will be in the furnace until it appears perfectly refined.\nBunyan considers that these earthen furnaces are the bodies of the\nsaints. In the trials, troubles, and persecutions to which they are\nsubjected, the Word bears them up triumphantly, so that the purity\nand excellency of the holy oracles conspicuously appears, like the\ntrial of faith mentioned by Peter (1 Peter 1:7). Dr. Gill considers\nthat these crucibles mean Christ and his ministers; while Bunyan,\nwith his enlarged mind, identifies them with the whole of Christ's\nfollowers. Some of these crucibles prove not to be genuine, and\nperish in the using, not being able to abide the fire. Such was the\ncase with one of Mr. Bunyan's friends. John Childs, who, for fear\nof persecution, conformed, became horror-stricken for the denial\nof his Master, and notorious for having destroyed himself.\n\nIn this treatise it is most affectionately impressed upon us to\nheap up treasures that will go with us into the unseen world, as of\ngreater importance than those things which perish with the using.\n'A Christian, and spend thy time, thy strength, and parts,' for\nthat which maketh to itself wings and fleeth away! 'Remember thou\nart a man of another world, a subject of a more noble kingdom--that\nof God, and of heaven. Make not heavenly things stoop to the world;\nbut hoist up thy mind to the things that are above, and practically\nhold forth before all the world the blessed word of life.' If death\nis the king of terrors to fallen humanity, still there are truths\nabounding with consolation, that when the Christian departs, the\nangels are ready, as in the case of Lazarus, to convey the happy\nspirit to Abraham's bosom; the struggle is short, and then comes\nthe reward. In this world we must have tribulation; but in heaven\nwhite robes, the palm of victory, and the conqueror's crown, await\nthe saints. Paul heard a voice which raised his soul above the\nfears of death, and gave him a desire to depart; its melodious\nsound invited him home--it was the voice of eternal truth, saying,\n'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit,\nthat they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow\nthem.'\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nPAUL'S DEPARTURE AND CROWN.\n\n'For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is\nat hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I\nhave kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of\nrighteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me\nat that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love\nhis appearing.'--2 Timothy 4:6-8\n\nThese words were, by the apostle Paul, written to Timothy, whom he\nhad begot to the faith, by the preaching of the gospel of Christ;\nin which are many things of great concernment both for instruction\nand consolation; something of which I shall open unto you for your\nprofit and edification. But before I come to the words themselves,\nas they are a relation of Paul's case, I shall take notice of\nsomething from them as they depend upon the words going before,\nbeing a vehement exhortation to Timothy to be constant and faithful\nin his work; which, in brief, may be summed up in these particulars:\n1st, A solemn binding charge before God and Jesus Christ our Lord,\nthat he be constant in preaching the Word, whether in or out of\nseason, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all long-suffering\nand doctrine; and that because of that ungodly spirit that would\npossess professors after he was dead; for the time will come,\nsaith he, that they will not endure sound doctrine, neither sound\nreproof, nor sound trial of their state and condition by the Word,\nbut after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,\nhaving itching ears,--the plague that once God threatened to rebellious\nIsrael (Deut 28:27)--and be turned unto fables. Much like this is\nthat in the Acts of the Apostles, 'For I know this, that after my\ndeparting shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the\nflock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse\nthings, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and\nremember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn\nevery one night and day with tears' (Acts 20:29-31)\n\nThis evil then is to be prevented:--by a diligent watchfulness in\nministers;--By a diligent preaching the word of the Lord;--and, By\nsound and close rebukes, reproofs, and exhortations to those in\nwhosoever the least there appears any swerving or turning aside\nfrom the gospel. The ministers of the gospel have each of them all\nthat authority that belongs to their calling and office, and need\nnot to stay for power from men to put the laws of Christ in his\nchurch into due and full execution (Titus 2:15). This 'remnant\nof Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the\nLord,--that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men'\n(Micah 5:7). Therefore he adds, 'Watch thou in all things, endure\nafflictions,' if thou shouldst be opposed in thy work, 'do the work\nof an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry' (2 Tim 4:5).[1]\nHow our time-serving and self-saving ministers will salve their\nconscience from the stroke that God's Word will one day give them,\nand how they will stand before the judgment-seat to render an\naccount of this their doings, let them see to it; surely God will\nrequire it of their hand!\n\nBut, O Timothy, do thou be diligent, do thou watch in all things,\ndo thou endure affliction, do thou the work of an evangelist, make\nthou full proof of thy ministry, 'for I am not ready to be offered,'\n&c. The words, then, of my text are a reason of this exhortation\nto Timothy, that he should continue watchful, and abide faithful\nin his calling. 'For I am now ready to be offered'; that is, to be\nput to death for the gospel.\n\nHence then learn two things,\n\nFirst, That the murders and outrage that our brethren suffer at the\nhands of wicked men should not discourage those that live, from a\nfull and faithful performance of their duty to God and man, whatever\nmay be the consequence thereof. Or thus, when we see our brethren\nbefore us fall to the earth by death, through the violence of the\nenemies of God, for their holy and Christian profession, we should\ncovet to make good their ground against them, though our turn\nshould be the next. We should valiantly do in this matter, as is\nthe custom of soldiers in war; take great care that the ground be\nmaintained, and the front kept full and complete. 'Thou, therefore,'\nsaith Paul, 'endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ'\n(2 Tim 2:3). And in another place, We should not be moved by these\nafflictions, but endure by resisting even unto blood (1 Thess 3:3).\nWherefore Paul saith again, 'Be not thou therefore ashamed of the\ntestimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner; but be thou partaker\nof the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God'\n(2 Tim 1:8). Thus let the spirit of Moses rest upon Joshua (Num\n27:20), and the spirit of Elijah rest upon Elisha (2 Kings 2:15).\nStand up, therefore, like valiant worthies, as the ministers of my\nGod, and fly not every man to his own, while the cause, and ways,\nand brethren of our Lord are buffeted and condemned by the world.\nAnd remember, that those that keep the charge of the Lord when\nmost go a-whoring from under their God, they, when he turns the\ncaptivity of his people, shall be counted worthy to come nigh unto\nhim, 'to offer the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God.' But\nfor the rest, though they may yet stand before the people, because\nthey stood before them in a way of idolatry, yet it shall not be\nto their honour, nor to their comfort; but to their shame, as the\nsame scripture saith (Eze 44:10-16).\n\n1. Let this therefore smite with conviction those that, in this\nday of Jacob's trouble, have been false with God, his cause, and\npeople: I say, those first and especially as the chief ringleaders\nof this cowardliness, who have done it against light, profession,\nand resolutions. Behold, thou hast sinned against the Lord, and be\nsure thy sins will find thee out; and though thou mayest now have\nas a judgment of God upon thee, thy right eye darkened that thou\nmayest not see, yet awakening time will overtake thee, and that too\nbetween the straits, when he will show thee, to the great confusion\nof thy face, and the amazement of them that behold thee, how great\nan affront he counts it to be left by thee, in a day when his\ntruth is cast down to the ground (Rom 11:10). I have often thought\nof that prophet that went down from Judah to Bethel, to prophesy\nagainst the idolatry that was there set up by the King; who, because\nhe kept not the commandment of God, but did eat and drink in that\nplace, at the persuasion of a lying prophet, was met at last by a\nlion, who slew him there in the way, where his carcase was made a\nspectacle of God to passengers (1 Kings 13). If thou be spiritual,\njudge what I say; and think not to be one of that number that shall\nhave the harps of God, when God appears for Zion, and that shall\nsing that song of Moses, and also the song of the Lamb; for that\nis only for those who have fought the godly fight, and gotten the\nvictory over the beast, his image, mark, number, and name.\n\n2. Let this also be an awe to thee, who hast hankerings to do as\nthe other: Beware, and remember Judas, and the end God brought upon\nhim; he will not always bear such things; these times have showed\nus already that he beholds them with great dislike; why should\nthou hang up in chains as a terror to all that know thee? And never\nobject that some have done it, and yet are at peace in their souls;\nfor peace in a sinful course is one of the greatest of curses.\nAnd 'the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall\nremain in the congregation of the dead' (Prov 21:6).\n\n[Second.] The Second thing to be learned from these words, as they\nhave a relation to them going before, is encouragement to those\nthat are yet in the storm; and that from three great arguments.\n\n1. Paul's peace and comfort now at the time of his death, which he\nsignifieth to Timothy by these three expressions, 'I have fought\na good fight--I have finished my course--I have kept the faith.'\n\n2. By the blessed reward he should have for his labour from Christ\nin another world, together with all those that love the appearing\nof the Lord, at 'that great and notable day.'\n\n3. That now his last act should not be inferior to any act he did\nfor God, while he was alive and preached in the world; for his\nbody should now be an offering, a sacrifice well-pleasing to God.\nTo all which I shall speak something in my discourse upon these\nwords; and, therefore, to come to them:\n\n'I AM NOW READY TO BE OFFERED.'\n\nIn these words we have to inquire into two things. FIRST. What it\nis to be 'offered.' SECOND. What it is to be 'ready to be offered\nup.' 'I am now ready to be offered.'\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO BE OFFERED.]\n\nFIRST. For the first of these. Paul, by saying he was 'to be offered,'\nalludeth to some of the sacrifices that of old were under the law;\nand thereby signifieth to Timothy that his death and martyrdom\nfor the gospel should be both sweet in the nostrils of God, and of\ngreat profit to his church in this world; for so were the sacrifices\nof old. Paul, therefore, lifts his eyes up higher than simply to\nlook upon death, as it is the common fate of men; and he had good\nreason to do it, for his death was violent; it was also for Christ,\nand for his church and truth; and it is usual with Paul thus to set\nout the suffering of the saints, which they undergo for the name\nand testimony of Jesus. Yea, he will have our prayers a sacrifice;\nour praises, thanksgiving, and mortification, sacrifices; almsdeed,\nand the offering up of the Gentiles, sacrifices, being sanctified\nby the Holy Ghost; and here his death also must be for a sacrifice,\nand an acceptable offering to God (Heb 13:15,16; Rom 12:1,2, 15:16).\n\nPeter also saith, We are priests 'to offer up spiritual sacrifices\nacceptable to God by Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 2:5). Of which\nsacrifices, it seems by Paul, the death of a Christian for Jesus'\nsake must needs be counted one. Besides, Paul further insinuates this\nby some other sentences in his epistles; as by that in the epistle\nto the Colossians, where he saith, 'I now rejoice in my sufferings\nfor you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions\nof Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church'\n(Col 1:24). Not by way of merit, for so Christ alone, and that by\nonce being offered himself, hath perfected for ever them that are\nsanctified (Heb 10:10-14). But his meaning is, that as Christ was\noffered in sacrifice for his church as a Saviour, so Paul would\noffer himself as a sacrifice for Christ's church, as a saint, as a\nminister, and one that was counted faithful. 'Yea,' saith he, 'and\nif I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I\njoy and rejoice with you all' (Phil 2:17). This, then, teacheth us\nseveral things worthy our consideration.\n\nFirst. That the blood of the saints, that they lose for his name,\nis a sweet savour to God. And so saith the Holy Ghost, 'Precious\nin the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints' (Psa 116:15).\nAnd again, 'He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence,\nand precious shall their blood be in his sight' (Psa 72:14).\n\nSecond. Those that suffer for Christ are of great benefit to his\nchurch, as the sacrifices of old were confirming and strengthening\nto Israel; wherefore Paul saith, his bonds encouraged his brethren,\nand made them much more bold in the way of God to speak his word\nwithout fear (Phil 1:14).\n\nThird. The sufferings, or offering of the saints in sacrifice, it\nis of great use and advantage to the gospel; of use, I say, many\nways. (1.) The blood of the saints defends it; (2.) confirmeth it;\nand (3.) redeemeth that thereof that hath been lost in antichristian\ndarkness.\n\n1. They do thereby defend and preserve it from those that would\ntake it from us, or from those that would impose another upon us.\n'I am set,' saith Paul, 'for the defence of the gospel,' and my\nsufferings have fallen out for the furtherance of it (Phil 1:17).\nThat is, it hath not only continued to hold its ground, but hath\nalso got more by my contentions, sufferings, and hazards for it.\n\n2. It confirms it; and this is part of the meaning of Paul in those\nlarge relations of his sufferings for Christ, saying, 'Are they\nministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more--in prisons more\nfrequent,' &c.; as he saith again, and these things 'I do for the\ngospel's sake.' And again, That the truth of the 'gospel might be\ncontinued with you.' So again, 'I suffer,' saith he, in the gospel\n'as an evil-doer even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound;\nyea,' saith he, 'therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake'\n(2 Tim 2:9,10). That is, that the gospel may be preserved entire,\nthat the souls that are yet unborn may have the benefit of it, with\neternal glory.\n\n3. The sufferings of the saints are of a redeeming virtue; for, by\ntheir patient enduring and losing their blood for the word, they\nrecover the truths of God that have been buried in Antichristian\nrubbish, from that soil and slur that thereby hath for a long time\ncleaved unto them; wherefore it is said, They overcame him, the\nbeast, 'by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,\nand they loved not their lives unto the death' (Rev 12:11). They\novercame him; that is, they recovered the truth from under his\naspersions, and delivered it from all its enemies. David saith,\n'The words of the Lord are--as silver tried in a furnace of earth,\npurified seven times' (Psa 12:6). What is this furnace of earth but\nthe body of the saints of God, in which the Word is tried, as by\nfire in persecution, yea, 'purified seven times'; that is, brought\nforth at last by the death of the Christians in its purity before\nthe world. How hath the headship and lordship of Christ, with\nmany other doctrines of God, been taken away from the Pope by the\nsufferings of our brethren before us? While their flesh did fry in\nthe flames, the Word of God was cleansed, and by such means purified\nin these their earthen furnaces, and so delivered to us. The lamps\nof Gideon were then discovered when his soldiers' pitchers were\nbroken; if our pitchers were broke for the Lord and his gospel's\nsake, those lamps will then be discovered that before lay hid and\nunseen (Judg 7:15-22). Much use might be made of this good doctrine.\n\nLearn thus much:--\n\n1. [Learn] The judgment that is made of our sufferings by carnal\nmen is nothing at all to be heeded; they see not the glory that\nis wrapped up in our cause, nor the innocence and goodness of our\nconscience in our enduring of these afflictions; they judge according\nto the flesh, according to outward appearance. For so, indeed, we\nseem to lie under contempt, and to be in a disgraceful condition;\nbut all things here are converted to another use and end. That\nwhich is contemptible when persons are guilty, is honourable when\npersons are clear; and that which brings shame when persons are\nbuffeted for their faults, is thankworthy in those that endure\ngrief, suffering wrongfully (1 Peter 2:19-22). Though to suffer\nfor sin be the token of God's displeasure, yet to those that suffer\nfor righteousness, it is a token of greatest favour; wherefore matter\nnot how the world doth esteem of thee and thy present distress,\nthat thou bearest with patience for God and his Word; but believe\nthat those things that are both shame and dishonour to others, are\nglory and honour to thee (2 Thess 1:4-10). O for a man to be able\nto say, 'For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain' (Acts\n28:20). It makes his face to shine like the face of an angel, and\nhis lips to drop like the honey-comb (Cant 4:11).\n\n2. We learn also from hence, the reason why some in days before us\nhave made light of the rage of the world; but they have laughed at\ndestruction when it cometh (Job 5:21,22). And have gone forth to\nmeet the armed men; and with Job's war-horse, 'mocketh at fear,\nand is not affrighted, neither turneth he back from the sword; the\nquiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield,\nhe said among the trumpets, Ha, ha' (Job 39:22,25). It hath been\ntheir [God's fearers] glory to suffer for Christ; as it is said of\nthe saints of old, 'they departed from the presence of the counsel,\nrejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his\nname' (Acts 5:41). As Paul also saith, 'most gladly I will,' mark,\n'most gladly, rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of\nChrist may rest upon me' (2 Cor 12:9,10). Therefore I take pleasure\nin infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in\ndistresses, for Christ's sake, &c. Let those that suffer for theft\nand murder hang down their heads like a bulrush, and carry it like\nthose that are going to hanging; but let those whose trials are\nfor the Word of God know, by these very things they are dignified.\n\n3. Learn also in this to be confident, that thy sufferings have\ntheir sound and a voice before God and men. First, Before God, to\nprovoke him to vengeance, 'when he maketh inquisition for blood'\n(Psa 9:12; Gen 4:9-11). The blood of Abel cried until it brought down\nwrath upon Cain; and so did the blood of Christ and his apostles,\ntill it had laid Jerusalem upon heaps. Secondly, Thy blood will\nalso have a voice before men, and that possibly for their good.\nThe faithful Christian, in his patient suffering, knows not what\nwork he may do for God; who knows but thy blood may be so remembered\nby thy children, neighbours, and enemies, as to convince them\nthou wert for the truth? Yea, who knows but their thoughts of thy\nresolution for Christ, in thy resisting unto blood, may have so\ngood an effect upon some, as to persuade them to close with his\nways? The three children in the fiery furnace made Nebuchadnezzar\ncry out there was no God like theirs! Indeed, this is hard labour,\nbut be content, the dearer thou payest for it to win the souls of\nothers, the greater will be thy crown, when the Lord, the righteous\nJudge, shall appear; and in the meanwhile, thy death shall be as\na sacrifice pleasing to God and his saints.\n\n[WHAT IT IS TO BE NOW READY TO BE OFFERED.]\n\nSECOND. The second thing that I would inquire into is this: What\nit is to be 'ready to be offered up'? Or how we should understand\nthis word 'ready': 'I am now ready to be offered up.' Which I think\nmay be understood three manner of ways.\n\nFirst. With respect to that readiness that was continually in the\nheart of those that hated him, to destroy him with his doctrines;\nSecond. Or it may be understood with respect to the readiness of\nthis blessed apostle's mind, his being ready and willing always to\nembrace the cross for the word's sake; or, Third. We may very well\nunderstand it that he had done his work for God in this world, and\ntherefore was ready to be gone.\n\n[Readiness of enemies to destroy the apostle and his doctrine.]\n\nFirst. For the first of these: The enemies of God and his truth,\nthey never want will and malice to oppose the Word of God; they\nare also always so far forth in readiness to murder and slaughter\nthe saints, as the prophet cries to Jerusalem, 'Behold the princes\nof Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood' (Eze\n22:6), that is, they had will and malice always at hand to oppose\nthe upright in heart. And therefore our Lord Jesus saith, 'they\nare they that kill the body'; he doth not say they can do it as\nrelating to their will, and their custom, if let loose; and we may\nunderstand thereby that it is no more to them to kill the people\nof God, than it is to butchers to kill sheep and oxen. For though\nit be indeed a truth that God's hand is always safe upon the hilt\nof their sword, yet by them we are killed all the day long, and\naccounted as sheep for the slaughter (Psa 44:22; Rom 8:36). That is,\nin their desires always, as well as by their deeds, when they are\nlet loose, as Paul's kinsman said to the captain, 'There lie in wait\nfor him of them more than forty men, which have bound themselves\nwith a curse,[2] that they will neither eat nor drink till they\nhave killed him; and now are they ready, looking for a promise from\nthee' (Acts 23:12,13,21). And hence it is, that by the Word they\nare called dragons, lions, bears, wolves, leopards, dogs, and the\nlike; all which are beasts of prey, and delight to live by the\ndeath of others.[3] Paul therefore seeing and knowing that this\nreadiness was in his enemies to pour out his bowels to the earth,\nhe cried out to Timothy, saying, 'make thou full proof of thy\nministry, for' I am now ready to be slain; 'I am now ready to be\noffered' (2 Tim 4:5,6). These words thus understood may be useful\nmany ways.\n\n1. To show us we live, not because of any good nature or inclination\nthat is in our enemies towards us; for they, as to their wills,\nare ready to destroy us; but they are in the hand of God, in whose\nhand is also our times (Psa 31:15). Wherefore, though by the will\nof our enemies, we are always delivered to death, yet 'behold we\nlive' (2 Cor 6:9). Therefore in this sense it may be said, 'Where\nis the fury of the oppressor?' It is not in his power to dispose of,\ntherefore here it may be said again, he is not 'ready to destroy'\n(Isa 51:13). The cup that God's people in all ages have drank of,\neven the cup of affliction and persecution, it is not in the hand\nof the enemy, but in the hand of God; and he, not they, poureth out\nof the same (Psa 75:8). So that they, with all their raging waves,\nhave banks and bounds set to them, by which they are limited within\ntheir range, as the bear is by his chain. 'Surely the wrath of men\nshall praise thee, the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain' (Psa\n76:10; Job 38:10,11).\n\n2. This should encourage us not to forsake the way of our Lord\nJesus, when threatened by our adversaries, because they are in his\nchain: indeed they are ready in their wills to destroy us; but as\nto power and liberty to do it, that is not at all with them; who\nwould fear to go, even by the very nose of a lion, if his chain\nwould not suffer him to hurt us.[4] It is too much below the spirit\nof a Christian to fear a man that shall die (Isa 51:12,13). And\nthey that have so done, have forgotten the Lord their Maker, who\npreserveth the hairs of our head (Luke 12:7). Yea, let me tell\nyou he that so doth, he feareth to trust the Lord with his life,\nestate, and concernments, and chooseth rather to trust to himself,\nand that too out of God's way; and though such persons may lick\nthemselves whole now, while they are fallen and senseless, they\nmust count for these things again, and then they shall see that fear\nof men, and to be ashamed of Christ, will load them with no light\nburden. Also, it is an uncomely thing for any man in his profession\nto be in and out with the times; and to do this when winked at\nby men, that they would not do if they frowned. Do such fear God?\nnay, they fear the fear of men, when they should sanctify the Lord\nhimself, and let him be their dread, and let him be their fear (Isa\n8:12,13).\n\n3. Let the readiness that is in the enemies of God to destroy,\nprovoke thee to make ready also, as I said a little before; go out\nto meet the armed men; 'David ran to meet Goliath'; rub up man,[5]\nput on thy harness, 'put on the whole armour of God, that thou\nmayest be ready,' as well as thy adversaries, as blessed Paul was\nhere, 'I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure\nis at hand' (1 Sam 17:46-48). But because this will fall in fittest\nunder the second head, I shall, therefore, discourse of it there.\n\n[The readiness IN MIND of the blessed apostle to suffer.]\n\nSecond. The second thing considered in the words is this, that to\nbe ready might be understood with respect to the blessed apostle's\nmind, that was graciously brought over into a willingness to embrace\nthe cross for the Word's sake; and thus in other places he himself\nexpounds it. 'I am ready,' saith he, 'not to be bound only, but also\nto die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus' (Acts 21:13).\nThat also implies as much where he saith, 'Neither count I my life\ndear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and\nthe ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify\nthe gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24). As the enemies,\nthen, were ready and willing in their hearts, so he was ready and\nwilling in his. This man was like to those mighty men of Solomon,\nthat were ready prepared for the war, and waited on the king, fit\nto be sent at any time upon the most sharp and pinching service (2\nChron 17:12-19). A thing fitly becoming all the saints, but chiefly\nthose that minister in the word and doctrine. Understand the words\nthus, and they also teach us many things, both for conviction and\nfor edification.\n\n1. Here we see that a Christian's heart should be unclenched from\nthis world; for he that is ready to be made a sacrifice for Christ\nand his blessed Word, he must be one that is not entangled with the\naffairs of this life: how else can he please him who hath chosen\nhim to be a soldier? Thus was it with this blessed man; he was\nbrought to God's foot with Abraham, and crucified to this world\nwith Christ; he had passed a sentence of death upon all earthly\npleasures and profits beforehand, that they might not deaden his\nspirit when he came to suffer for his profession (2 Tim 2:4; 2 Cor\n1:8,9; Gal 2:20, 6:14).\n\n2. This shows us the true effects of unfeigned faith and love,\nfor they were the rise of this most blessed frame of heart; read\n2 Corinthians 4:8-13, and compare it with 2 Corinthians 12:9,10;\nand men may talk what they will of their faith and love to the Lord\nJesus, and to his holy gospel. But if they throw up their open\nprofession of his name for fear of those that hate him, it is\nevident their mouths go before their hearts, and that their words\nare bigger than their graces. 'If thou faint in the day of adversity,\nthy strength is small,' and so thy faith and love (Prov 24:10).\nHerein is love, 'that a man lay down his life for his friends'\n(John 15:13).\n\n3. This shows us the true effects of a right sight and sense of the\nsufferings that attend the gospel; that they shall become truly\nprofitable to those that shall bear them aright. What made he\nready for? it was for sufferings; and why made he ready for them\nbut because he saw they wrought out for him a 'far more exceeding\nand eternal weight of glory?' (2 Cor 4:17). This made Moses also\nspurn at a crown and a kingdom; to look with a disdainful eye\nupon all the glory of Egypt. He saw the reward that was laid up in\nheaven for those that suffered for Christ. Therefore, 'he refused\nto be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer\naffliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of\nsin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ grater riches\nthan the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense\nof reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the\nking, for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible' (Heb 11:21-27).\nEvery one cannot thus look upon the afflictions and temptations\nthat attend the gospel; no, not every one that professeth it, as\nappears by their shrinking and shirking at the noise of the trumpet,\nand alarum to war. They can be content, as cowards in a garrison,\nto lie still under some smaller pieces of service, as hearing the\nWord, entering in, to follow with loving in word and in tongue,\nand the like; but to 'go forth unto him without the camp, bearing\nhis reproach,' and to be in jeopardy every hour for the truth of\nthe glorious gospel, that they dare not do (Heb 13:13; 1 Cor 15:30).\nNay, instead of making ready with Paul to engage the dragon and\nhis angels, they study how to evade and shun the cross of Christ;\nsecretly rejoicing if they can but delude their conscience, and\nmake it still and quiet, while they do yet unworthily (Rev 12:7-9).\n\n4. By this readiness we may discern who are unfeignedly willing to\nfind out that they may do the whole will of God; even those that\nare already made willing to suffer for his sake; they are still\ninquiring, 'Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?' not mattering\nnor regarding the cross and distress that attends it. 'The Holy\nGhost witnesseth' to me, saith Paul, that 'in every city, saying\nthat bonds and afflictions abide me; but none of these things move\nme, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish\nmy course with joy,' &c. (Acts 20:23,24). Counting that to see and\nbe doing of heavenly things, will countervail all the trouble and\nsorrow that attends them; this therefore sharply rebuketh those\nthat can be glad to be ignorant of the knowledge of some truths,\nespecially of them that are persecuted; still answering those that\ncharge them with walking irregularly, that they do but according to\ntheir light. Whereas the hearts that be full of love to the name\nand glory of Christ, will in quiet return and come; yea, and be\nglad, if they find the words of God, and will eat them with savour\nand sweet delight, how bitter soever they are to the belly: because\nof that testimony they bind us up to maintain before peoples, and\nnations, and kings (Rev 10:10,11). 'I am now ready to be offered.'\n\n[Paul ready to depart, having done his work for God in this world.]\n\nThird. The third thing to be considered in the words is this, That\nthe apostle, by saying, 'I am now ready,' doth signify that now he\nhad done that work that God had appointed him to do in the world.\n'I am now ready,' because I have done my work; this is further\nmanifest by the following words of the text; 'I am now ready to be\noffered, and the time of my departure is at hand'; namely, my time\nto depart this world. The words also that follow are much to the\npurpose, 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,'\n&c., much like that of our Lord Jesus. 'I have finished the work\nwhich thou gavest me to do' (John 17:4). Now then, put all these\nthings together, namely, that I am to be offered a sacrifice, and\nfor this my enemies are ready, my heart is also ready; and because\nI have done my work, I am therefore every way ready. This is a frame\nand condition that deserveth not only to stand in the Word of God\nfor Paul's everlasting praise, but to be a provoking argument to\nall that read or hear thereof, to follow the same steps. I shall\ntherefore, to help it forward, according to grace received, draw\none conclusion from the words, and speak a few words to it. The\nconclusion is this: That it is the duty and wisdom of those that\nfear God so to manage their time and work that he hath allotted\nunto them, that they may not have part of their work to do when\nthey should be departing the world.\n\n[THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY AND WISDOM TO BE THUS READY.]\n\nThis truth I might further urge from the very words of the text,\nthey being written on purpose by Paul to stir up Timothy and all\nthe godly to press hard after this very thing. But to pass that,\nand to mind you of some other scriptures that press it hard as a\nduty, and then to proceed to some few examples of the wise and most\neminent saints. Which when I have done I shall, 1. Show you reason\nfor it. 2. Give you encouragement to it. 3. Press it with several\nmotives. 4. Make some use and application of the whole, and so\nconclude.\n\nThat this is the duty and wisdom of those that fear God, you may\nsee by Christ's exhortation to watchfulness, and to prepare for\nhis second coming; 'Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour as\nye think not, the Son of man cometh' (Matt 24:44). These words,\nas they are spoken to stir up the godly to be ready to meet their\nLord at his coming, so because the godly must meet him as well in\nhis judgments and providences here, as at his personal appearing\nat the last day; therefore they should be diligent to be fitting\nthemselves to meet him in all such dispensations. 'And because,'\nsaith God, 'I will do this unto thee; prepare to meet thy God, O\nIsrael' (Amos 4:12). Now death is one of the most certain of those\ndispensations; yea, and such, that it leaveth to those no help at\nall, or means to perform for ever, that which, shouldst thou want\nit, that is lacking to thy work. Wherefore Solomon also doth press\nus to this very work, and that from this consideration, 'whatsoever\nthy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work,\nnor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou\ngoest' (Eccl 9:10). Baulk nothing of thy duty, neither defer to\ndo it; for thou art in thy way to thy grave, and there thou canst\nnot finish ought that by neglect thou leavest undone; therefore be\ndiligent while life lasts.[6]\n\nAnother scripture is that in Peter's epistle to those that were\nscattered abroad. 'Seeing,' saith he, 'that ye look for such things,\nbe diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace,' &c. (2 Peter\n3:14). He is there discoursing of the coming of Christ to judgment,\nas Christ also was in the other; and from the certainty and dread\nof that day he doth press them on to a continual diligence, and is\nto be understood as that of Paul to Timothy, a diligent watching\nin all things, that as he saith again, they may stand complete in\nall the will of God, not lacking this or that of that work which\nwas given them to do of God and this world (2 Tim 4:5). Much might\nbe said for the further proof of this duty; but to give you some\nexamples of the godly men of old, whereby it will appear, that as\nit is our duty to do it so it is also our wisdom. And hence,\n\nIt is said of Enoch, that he 'walked with God' (Gen 5:22), and\nof Noah, that he was faithful in his generation, and also 'walked\nwith God' (Gen 6:9). That is, they kept touch[7] with him, still\nkeeping up to the work and duty that every day required; not doing\ntheir duty by fits and by starts, but in a fervent spirit they\nserved the Lord. So again it is said of Abraham, that his work was\nto walk before God in a way of faith and self-denial, which he with\ndiligence performed. And therefore the Holy Ghost saith, he 'died\nin a good old age' (Gen 25:8); thereby insinuating that he made\nboth ends meet[8] together, the end of his work with the end of his\ndays, and so came to his grave, 'in a full age, as a shock of corn\ncometh in in his season' (Job 5:26). Jacob also, when he blessed\nhis sons, as he lay upon his death-bed before them, doth sweetly\ncomfort himself with this, after all his toil and travel, saying,\n'I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,'[9] as if he had said,\nLord, I have faithfully walked before thee in the days of my\npilgrimage, through the help and power of thy grace; and now having\nnothing to do but to die, I lie waiting for thy coming to gather\nme up to thyself and my father: so, when he 'had made an end of\ncommanding his sons,' now his bottom was wound,[10] 'he gathered up\nhis feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered\nunto his people' (Gen 49:18-33). Caleb and Joshua are said to be\nmen of excellent spirit, because they were faithful in this their\nwork (Num 14:24). David was eminent this way, and had done his work\nbefore his death-day came: 'After he had served his own generation\nby the will of God,' then he 'fell on sleep' (Acts 13:36). Which in\nthe Old Testament is signified by three passages, 1. By his losing\nhis heat before his death, thereby showing his work for God was\ndone, he now only waited to die. 2. By that passage, 'these are\nthe last words of David,' even the wind up of all the doctrines of\nthat sweet psalmist of Israel (2 Sam 23:1,2). 3. That in the Psalms\nis very significant, 'The prayers of David the son of Jesse are\nended' (Psa 72:20). In the whole, they all do doubtless speak forth\nthis in the main, that David made great conscience of walking with\nGod, by labouring to drive his work before him, that his work and\nlife might meet together: for that indeed is a good man's wisdom.\nJob had great conscience also as to this very thing, as witness\nboth God's testimony and his own conscience for him (Job 1:8, 31).\nElijah had brought his work to that issue that he had but to anoint\nHazael to be king of Assyria, Jehu to be king of Israel, and Elisha\nprophet in his room, and then to be caught up into heaven (1 Kings\n19:15,16). What shall I say? I might come to Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat,\nJosias; with old Simeon also, whose days were lengthened chiefly,\nnot because he was behind with God and his conscience as to his\nwork for God in the world, but to see with his eyes now at last\nthe Lord's Christ: a sweet forefitting for death! Zacharias, with\nElizabeth his wife, that good old couple also, how tender and\ndoubtful were they in this matter, to walk 'in all the commandments\nand ordinances of the Lord,' in a blessed blameless way! (Luke\n1:6, 2:25). Their son also is not to be left out, who rather than\nhe would be put out of his way, and hindered from fulfilling his\ncourse, would venture the loss of the love of a king, and the loss\nof his head for a word (Mark 6:17,18). All these, with many more,\nare as so many mighty arguments for the praise of that I asserted\nbefore, to wit, that it is the duty and wisdom of those that fear\nGod, so to manage their time and work, that he hath here allotted\nunto them, that they may not have part of their work to do when they\nshould be departing this world. I might urge also many reasons to\nenforce this truth upon you, as,\n\n[Reasons to enforce this duty.]\n\nFirst. Otherwise, the great and chief design of God in sending us\ninto the world, especially in converting us and possessing our souls\nwith gifts and graces, and many other benefits, that we might here\nbe to the glory of his grace, is as much as in us lies, frustrate\nand disappointed. 'This people have I formed for myself,' saith\nhe, 'they shall show forth my praise' (Isa 43:21): and so again,\n'ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that\nye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should\nremain' (John 15:16). God never intended, when he covered thy\nnakedness with the righteousness of his dear Son, and delivered thee\nfrom the condemning power of sin and the law, that thou shouldst\nstill live as do those who know not God. 'This I say therefore,'\nsaith Paul, 'and testify in the Lord; that ye henceforth walk not\nas other Gentiles, in the vanity of their mind' (Eph 4:17). What,\na Christian, and live as does the world? (John 17:16). A Christian,\nand spend thy time, thy strength, and parts, for things that perish\nin the using? Remember, man, if the grace of God hath taken hold\nof thy soul, thou art a man of another world, and indeed a subject\nof another and more noble kingdom, the kingdom of God, which is the\nkingdom of the gospel, of grace, of faith and righteousness, and\nthe kingdom of heaven hereafter (Rom 14:16-18). In these things\nthou shouldst exercise thyself; not making heavenly things which God\nhath bestowed upon thee to stoop to things that are of the world,\nbut rather here beat down thy body, mortify thy members; hoist up\nthy mind to the things that are above, and practically hold forth\nbefore all the world that blessed word of life (1 Cor 9:26,27).\nThis, I say, is God's design; this is the tendency, the natural\ntendency of every grace of God bestowed upon thee: and herein is\nour Father glorified, that we bring forth much fruit (Col 3:1-4;\nJohn 15:8).\n\nSecond. A second reason why Christians should so manage their\ntime and the work that God hath appointed them to do for his name\nin this world, that they may not have part thereof to do when they\nshould be departing this world, it is because, if they do not,\ndying will be a hard work with them especially if God awakeneth\nthem about their neglect of their duty (1 Cor 11:30-32). The way\nof God with his people is to visit their sins in this life; and\nthe worst time for thee to be visited for them, is when thy life\nis smitten down, as it were to the dust of death, even when all\nnatural infirmities break in like a flood upon thee, sickness,\nfainting, pains, wearisomeness, and the like; now I say, to be\ncharged also with the neglect of duty, when in no capacity to do\nit; yea, perhaps so feeble, as scarce able to abide to hear thy\ndearest friend in this life speak to thee; will not this make dying\nhard. Yea, when thou shalt seem both in thine own eyes, as also\nin the eyes of others, to fall short of the kingdom of heaven for\nthis and the other transgression, will not this make dying hard?\n(Heb 4:1,2). David found it hard, when he cried, 'O spare me'\na little, 'that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be\nno more' (Psa 39:13). David at this time was chastened for some\niniquity; yea, brought for his folly to the doors of the shadow of\ndeath. But here he could not enter without great distress of mind;\nwherefore he cries out for respite and time to do the will of\nGod, and the work allotted to him. So again, 'The sorrows of death\ncompassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found\ntrouble and sorrow: then called I upon the name of the Lord.' Ay,\nthis will make thee cry, though thou be as good as David! Wherefore\nlearn by his sorrow, as he himself also learned, at last, to serve\nhis own generation by the will of God, before he fell asleep. God\ncan tell how to pardon thy sins, and yet make them such a bitter\nthing, and so heavy a burden to thee, that thou wouldst not, if\nthou wast but once distressed with it, come there again for all this\nworld, Ah! it is easy with him to have this pardon in his bosom,\nwhen yet he is breaking all thy bones, and pouring out thy gall\nupon the ground; yea, to show himself then unto thee in so dreadful\na majesty, that heaven and earth shall seem to thee to tremble at\nhis presence! Let then the thoughts of this prevail with thee, as\na reason of great weight to provoke thee to study to manage thy\ntime and work in wisdom while thou art well.[11]\n\nThird. Another reason, why those that fear God should so manage\ntheir time and work for God in this world, that they may not have\npart to do when they should be departing this life, it is, because\nloitering in thy work doth, as much as in it lieth, defer and hold\nback the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One\nthing, amongst many, that letteth[12] the appearing of Christ in\nthe clouds of heaven, is, that his body, with the several members\nthereof, are not yet complete and full; they are not all yet come\nto the knowledge of the Son of God, 'to the measure of the stature\nof the fulness of Christ' (Eph 4:8-13); that is, to the complete\nmaking up of his body; for as Peter saith, 'The Lord is not\nslack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is\nlong-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but\nthat all should come to repentance' (2 Peter 3:9). And so also to\nthe complete performance of all their duty and work they have for\nGod in this world. And I say, the faster the work of conversion,\nrepentance, faith, self-denial, and the rest of the Christian duties,\nare performed by the saints in their day, the more they make way\nfor the coming of the Lord from heaven. Wherefore Peter saith again,\n'Seeing then that' we look for such things, 'what manner of persons\nought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for,\nand hasting unto,' or, as it is in the margin, 'hasting the coming\nof the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be\ndissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat' (2 Peter\n3:11,12). When the bride hath made herself ready, 'the marriage\nof the Lamb is come' (Rev 19:7). That is, the Lord will then wait\nupon the world no longer, when his saints are fit to receive him.\nAs he said to Lot when he came to burn down Sodom, 'Haste thee'\nto Zoar, 'for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither' (Gen\n19:20-22). So concerning the great day of judgment to the world,\nwhich shall be also the day of blessedness and rest to the people\nof God, it cannot come until the Lamb's wife hath made herself\nready; until all the saints that belong to glory are ready. And\nbefore I go further, what might I yet say to fasten this reason\nupon the truly gracious soul? What! wilt thou yet loiter in the work\nof thy day? wilt thou still be unwilling to hasten righteousness?\ndost thou not know that thou by so doing deferrest the coming of thy\ndearest Lord? Besides, that is the day of his glory, the day when\nhe shall come in the glory of his Father and of the holy angels;\nand wilt not thou by thy diligence help it forwards? Must also the\ngeneral assembly and church of the first-born wait upon thee for\ntheir full portions of glory? Wilt thou by thus doing endeavour to\nkeep them wrapt up still in the dust of the earth, there to dwell\nwith the worm and corruption? The Lord awaken thee, that thou mayst\nsee thy loitering doth do this, and doth also hinder thy own soul\nof the inheritance prepared for thee.[13]\n\n4. Another reason why saints should press hard after a complete\nperforming their work that God hath allotted unto them is, because,\nso far forth as they fall short, in that they impair their own\nglory. For as the Lord hath commanded his people to work for him\nin this world, so also he of grace hath promised to reward whatever\nthey Christianly do. For whatsoever good thing any man doth, the\nsame shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bound or free.\nYea, he counts it unrighteousness to forget their work of faith\nand labour of love, but a righteous thing to recompense them for\nit in the day of our Lord Jesus (Heb 6:10; 2 Thess 1:6,7). This,\nwell considered, is of great force to prevail with those that are\ncovetous of glory, such as Moses and Paul, with the rest of that\nspirit. As the apostle saith also to the saints at Corinth, 'Be\nstedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,\nforasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord'\n(1 Cor 15:50).\n\nHaving thus given you the reasons why God's people should be\ndiligent in that work that God hath allotted for them to be doing\nfor him in this world, I shall, in the next place, give you some\ndirections, as helps to further you in this work. And they are such\nas tend to take away those hindrances that come upon thee, either\nby discouragement, or by reason of hardness and benumbedness of\nspirit; for great hindrances overtake God's people from both these\nimpediments.\n\n[Directions, as helps to further in this work.]\n\nFirst. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath\nallotted thee to do in this world for his name, labour to live\nmuch in the favour and sense of thy freedom and liberty by Jesus\nChrist; that is, keep this, if possible, ever before thee, that\nthou art a redeemed one, taken out of this world, and from under\nthe curse of the law, out of the power of the devil, &c., and placed\nin a kingdom of grace, and forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake.\nThis is of absolute use in this matter; yea, so absolute, that it\nis impossible for any Christian to do his word Christianly without\nsome enjoyment of it. For this, in the 1st of Luke, is made the\nvery ground of all good works, both as to their nature and our\ncontinuance in them; and is also reckoned there an essential part\nof that covenant that God made with our fathers; even 'that he\nwould grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our\nenemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness,\nbefore him all the days of our life' (Luke 1:74,75). And indeed,\ntake this away, and what ground can there be laid for any man\nto persevere in good works? None at all. For take away grace and\nremission of sins for Christ's sake, and you leave men nothing to\nhelp them but the terrors of the law and judgment of God, which,\nat best, can beget but a servile and slavish spirit in that man in\nwhom it dwells; which spirit is so far off from being an help to\nus in our pursuit of good works, that it makes us we cannot endure\nthat which is commanded, but, Israel-like, it flieth from God even as\nfrom the face of a serpent (Heb 12:20; Exo 19). As Solomon saith,\n'A servant will not be corrected by words, for, though he understand,\nhe will not answer' (Prov 29:19). Get thou then thy soul possessed\nwith the spirit of the Son, and believe thou art set perfectly\nfree by him from whatsoever thou by sin hast deserved at the hand\nof revenging justice. This doctrine unlooseth thy bands, takes off\nthy yoke, and lets thee go upright. This doctrine puts spiritual\nand heavenly inclinations into thy soul; and the faith of this truth\ndoth show thee that God hath so surprised thee, and gone beyond\nthee, with his blessed and everlasting love, that thou canst not\nbut reckon thyself his debtor for ever. 'Therefore, brethren, we\nare debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh' (Rom 8:12).\nThat argument of Paul to Philemon is here true in the highest\ndegree, thou owest to God for his grace to thee, 'even thine own\nself besides' (Phile 19). This Paul further testifies, both in the\n6th and 7th of the Romans. In the one he saith, we are 'free from\nsin'; in the other he saith, we are 'dead to the law,' that our\nfruit might be unto holiness: that we might 'bring forth fruit unto\nGod' (Rom 6:22, 7:4). For, as I said, if either thy ungodly lusts,\nor the power and force of the law, have dominion over thy spirit,\nthou art not in a condition now to be performing thy work to God in\nthis world. I have heretofore marvelled at the quarrelsome spirit\nthat possessed the people that Malachi speaketh of, how they found\nfault with, in a manner, all things that were commanded them to do;\nbut I have since observed their ungodly disposition was grounded\nupon this, their doubting of the love of God, 'Yet ye say, Wherein\nhast thou loved us?' (Mal 1:2). And, indeed, if people once say\nto God, by way of doubt, 'Wherein hast thou loved us?' no marvel\nthough that people be like those in Malachi's time, a discontented,\na murmuring, backward people about everything that is good. Read\nthat whole book of Malachi.\n\nSecond. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath\nallotted thee to do in this world for his name, then labour to see\na beauty and glory in holiness, and in every good work: this tends\nmuch to the engaging of thy heart. 'O worship the Lord in the beauty\nof holiness; fear before him, all the earth' (Psa 96:9). And for\nthy help in this, think much on this in general, that 'Thus saith\nthe Lord' is the wind-up of every command; for, indeed, much of\nthe glory and beauty of duties doth lie in the glory and excellency\nof the person that doth command them; and hence it is that 'Be it\nenacted by the King's most excellent Majesty' is in the head of\nevery law, because that law should therefore be reverenced by, and\nbe made glorious and beautiful to all. And we see, upon this very\naccount, what power and place the precepts of kings do take in\nthe hearts of their subjects, every one loving and reverencing the\nstatute, because there is the name of their king. Will you rebel\nagainst the king? is a word that shakes the world.[14] Well, then,\nturn these things about for an argument to the matter in hand, and\nlet the name of God, seeing he is wiser and better, and of more\nglory and beauty than kings, beget in thy heart a beauty in all\nthings that are commanded thee of God. And, indeed, if thou do not\nin this act thus, thou wilt stumble at some of thy duty and work\nthou hast to do; for some of the commands of God are, in themselves,\nso mean and low, that take away the name of God from them, and thou\nwilt do as Naaman the Syrian, despise, instead of obeying. What\nis there in the Lord's supper, in baptism, yea, in preaching the\nWord, and prayer, were they not the appointments of God? His name\nbeing entailed to them, makes them every one glorious and beautiful.\nWherefore, no marvel if he that looks upon them without their\ntitle-page goeth away in a rage, like Naaman, preferring others\nbefore them. What is Jordan? 'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of\nDamascus, better than all the waters of Israel; may I not wash in\nthem and be clean?' saith he (2 Kings 5:10-12). This was because\nhe remembered not that the name of God was in the command. Israel's\ntrumpets of ram's horns (Josh 6:2-4), and Isaiah's walking naked\n(Isa 20:3), and Ezekiel's wars against a tile (Eze 4:1-4), would,\ndoubtless, have been ignoble acts, but that the name of God was that\nwhich gave them reverence, power, glory, and beauty. Set therefore\nthe name of God, and 'Thus saith the Lord,' against all reasonings,\ndefamings, and reproaches, that either by the world, or thy own\nheart, thou findest to arise against thy duty, and let his name\nand authority alone be a sufficient argument with thee, 'to behold\nthe beauty' that he hath put upon all his ways, 'and to inquire in\nhis temple' (Psa 27:4).\n\nThird. Wouldst thou be faithful to do that work that God hath\nappointed thee to do in this world for his name? then make much of\na trembling heart and conscience; for though the Word be the line\nand rule whereby we must order and govern all our actions, yet a\ntrembling heart and tender conscience is of absolute necessity for\nour so doing. A hard heart can do nothing with the word of Jesus\nChrist. 'Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word'\n(Isa 66:5). 'Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling'\n(Psa 2:11). I spake before against a servile and slavish frame of\nspirit, therefore you must not understand me here as if I meant now\nto cherish such a one; no, it is a heart that trembleth for, or at\nthe grace of God; and a conscience made tender by the sprinkling\nof the blood of Christ. Such a conscience as is awakened both by\nwrath and grace, by the terror and the mercy of God; for it stands\nwith the spirit of a son to fear before his father; yea, to fear\nchastings, though not to fear damnation. Let, therefore, destruction\nfrom God be a terror to thy heart, though not that destruction that\nattends them that perish by sin for ever (Job 31:23). Though this\nI might add further; it may do thee no harm, but good, to cast\nan eye over thy shoulder at those that now lie roaring under the\nvengeance of eternal fire; it may put thee in mind of what thou wast\nonce, and of what thou must yet assuredly be, if grace by Christ\npreventeth not (Isa 66:24). Keep, then, thy conscience awake with\nwrath and grace, with heaven and hell; but let grace and heaven\nbear sway. Paul made much of a tender conscience, else he had\nnever done as he did, nor suffered what we read of. 'And herein,'\nsaith he, 'do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void\nof offence toward God and toward men' (Acts 24:16). But this could\nnot a stony, benumbed, bribed, deluded, or a muzzled conscience do.\nPaul was like the nightingale with his breast against the thorn.[15]\nThat his heart might still keep waking, he would accustom himself\nto the meditation of those things that should beget both love\nand fear; and would always be very chary, lest he offended his\nconscience. 'Herein do I exercise myself,' &c. Be diligent, then,\nin this matter, if thou wouldst be faithful with God. A tender\nconscience, to some people, is like Solomon's brawling woman, a\nburthen to those that have it (Prov 25:24). But let it be to thee\nlike those that invited David to go up to the house of the Lord\n(Psa 122:1). Hear it, and cherish it with pleasure and delight.\n\nFourth. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath\nappointed thee to do in this world for his name; then let religion\nbe the only business to take up thy thoughts and time. 'Whatsoever\nthy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might' (Eccl 9:10). With all\nthy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Religion,\nto most men, is but a by-business, with which they use to fill up\nspare hours; or as a stalking-horse, which is used to catch the\ngame.[16] How few are there in the world that have their conversation\n'only as becometh the gospel'! (Phil 1:27). A heart sound in God's\nstatutes, a heart united to the fear of God, a heart moulded and\nfashioned by the Word of God, is a rare thing; rare, because it\nis hard to be found, and rare because it is indeed the fruit of an\nexcellent spirit, and a token of one saved by the Lord (Psa 119:80,\n86:11). But this indifferency in religion, this fashioning ourselves\nin our language, gesture, behaviour, and carriage, to the fancies\nand fopperies of this world, as it is in itself much unbecoming a\npeople that should bear the name of their God in their foreheads, so\nit cannot be but a very great and sore obstruction to thy faithful\nwalking with God in this world (Rom 6:17). Gird up, then, thy\nloins like a man,[17] let God and his Christ, and his Word, and\nhis people, and cause, be the chief in thy soul; and as heretofore\nthou hast afforded this world the most of thy time, and travel,\nand study, so now convert all these to the use of religion. 'As ye\nhave yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity\nunto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness\nunto holiness' (Rom 6:19). Holy things must be in every heart where\nthis is faithfully put in practice.\n\n1. Daily bring thy heart and the Word of God together, that thy\nheart may be levelled by it, and also filled with it. The want of\nperforming this sincerely, is a great cause of that unfaithfulness\nthat is in us to God. Bring, then, thy heart to the Word daily, to\ntry how thou believest the Word today, to try how it agrees with\nthe Word today. This is the way to make clean work daily, to keep\nthy soul warm and living daily. 'Wherewithal shall a young man\ncleanse his way?' saith David. 'By taking heed thereto according\nto thy Word' (Psa 119:9). So again, 'Concerning the works of men,\nby the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the\ndestroyer' (Psa 17:4). And again, 'Thy Word have I hid in mine\nheart, that I might not sin against thee' (Psa 119:11). He that\ndelighteth 'in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth meditate\nday and night, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of\nwater, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also\nshall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper' (Psa\n1:2,3).\n\n2. A continual remembrance that to every day thou hast thy work\nallotted thee; and that sufficient for that day are the evils that\nattend thee (Matt 6:34). This remembrance set Paul upon his watch\ndaily; made him die to himself and this world daily, and provoked\nhim also daily to wind up the spirit of his mind; transforming\nhimself by the power of the Word, from that proneness that was in\nhis flesh to carnal things (1 Cor 15:30-33). This will make thee\nkeep the knife at thy throat in all places, and business, and\ncompany (Prov 23:2).\n\n3. Let thy heart be more affected with what concerns the honour\nof God, and the profit and glory of the gospel, than with what are\nthy concernments as a man, with all earthly advantages. This will\nmake thee refuse things that are lawful, if they appear to be\ninexpedient. Yea, this will make thee, like the apostles of old,\nprefer another man's peace and edification before thine own profit,\nand to take more pleasure in the increase of the power of godliness\nin any, than in the increase of thy corn and wine.\n\n4. Reckon with thy own heart every day, before thou lie down to\nsleep, and cast up both what thou hast received from God, done for\nhim, and where thou hast also been wanting. This will beget praise\nand humility, and put thee upon redeeming the day that is past;\nwhereby thou wilt be able, through the continual supplies of grace,\nin some good measure to drive thy work before thee, and to shorten\nit as thy life doth shorten; and mayst comfortably live in the hope\nof bringing both ends sweetly together. But to pass this.\n\nFifth. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath\nappointed thee to do in this world for his name, then beware thou\ndo not stop and stick when hard work comes before thee. It is with\nChristians as it is with other scholars, they sometimes meet with\nhard lessons; but these thou must also learn, or thou canst not do\nthy work. The Word and Spirit of God come sometimes like chain-shot\nto us, as if it would cut down all; as when Abraham was to offer\nup Isaac, and the Levites to slay their brethren (Gen 22; Exo\n32:26-28). Paul also must go from place to place to preach, though\nhe knew beforehand he was to be afflicted there (Acts 20:23). God\nmay sometimes say to thee, as he said to his servant Moses, 'Take\nthe serpent by the tail'; or, as the Lord Jesus said to Peter, Walk\nupon the sea (Exo 4:3,4). These are hard things, but have not been\nrejected when God hath called to do them. O how willingly would\nour flesh and blood escape the cross of Christ! The comforts of\nthe gospel, the sweetness of the promise, how pleasing is it to\nus! Like Ephraim here, we love to tread out the corn (Hosea 10:11),\nand to hear those pleasant songs and music that gospel sermons\nmake, where only grace is preached, and nothing of our duty as to\nworks of self-denial; but as for such, God will tread upon their\nfair neck, and yoke them with Christ's yoke; for there they have\na work to do, even a work of self-denial.[18]\n\nNow this work sometimes lieth in acts that seem to be desperate,\nas when a man must both leave and hate his life, and all he hath\nfor Christ, or else he cannot serve him nor be counted his disciple\n(Luke 14:26-33). Thus it seemed with Christ himself when he went\nhis fatal journey up to Jerusalem; he went thither, as he knew, to\ndie, and therefore trod every step as it were in his own bowels;[19]\nbut yet, no doubt, with great temptation to shun and avoid that\nvoyage; and therefore it is said, 'He set his face steadfastly to\ngo up,' scorning to be invited to the contrary, and to prevent the\nnoise of his weak disciples, Master, save thyself (Luke 9:51). It\nis said he ascended before them, insomuch that they were amazed\nto see his resolution, while they themselves were afraid of that\ndreadful effect that might follow (Mark 10:32-34). Also when he\ncame there, and was to be apprehended, he went to the garden that\nJudas knew, his old accustomed place; so when they asked him the\nkilling question, he answered, 'I am he' (John 18:1-5).\n\nSometimes in acts that seem to be foolish, as when men deny\nthemselves of those comforts, and pleasures, and friendships, and\nhonours, of the world that formerly they used to have, and choose\nrather to associate themselves with the very abjects of this\nworld[20]--I mean, such as carnal men count so--counting their ways\nand manners of life, though attended with a thousand calamities,\nmore profitable, and pleasing, and delightful, than all former\nglory. Thus Elisha left his father's house, though to pour water\nupon the hands of Elijah (2 Kings 3:11). And thus the disciples\nleft their fathers' ships and nets, to live a beggarly life with\nJesus Christ; as Paul did leave the feet of Gamaliel for the whip,\nand the stocks, and the deaths that attended the blessed gospel.\nOne would have thought that had been a simple way of Peter to leave\nall for Christ, before he knew what Christ would give him, as that\n19th of Matthew seems to import; but Christ will have it so (v 27).\nHe that will save his life must lose it; and he that will lose his\nlife in this world for Christ, shall keep it to life eternal (John\n12:25). I might add many things of this nature, to show you what\nhard chapters sometimes God sets his best people; but thy work\nis, if thou wouldst be faithful, not to stop nor stick at anything\n(Matt 10:37). Some, when they come at the cross, they will either\nthere make a stop and go no further, or else, if they can, they\nwill step over it; if not, they will go round about: do not thou\ndo this, but take it up and kiss it, and bear it after Jesus.[21]\n'God forbid,' saith Paul, 'that I should glory, save in the cross\nof our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me,\nand I unto the world' (Gal 6:14).\n\nNow, for thy better performing this piece of service for our\nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ: O it is hard work to pocket up the\nreproaches of all the foolish people, as if we had found great\nspoil; and to suffer all their revilings, lies, and slanders,\nwithout cursing them, as Elisha did the children; to answer them\nwith prayers and blessings for their cursings. It is far more easy\nto give them taunt for taunt, and reviling for reviling; to give\nthem blow for blow; yea, to call for fire from heaven against\nthem. But to 'bless them that curse you, and to pray for them\nthat despitefully use you, and persecute you'--even of malice, of\nold grudge, and on purpose to vex and afflict our mind, and to make\nus break out into a rage--this is work above us; now our patience\nshould look up to unseen things; now remember Christ's carriage to\nthem that spilt his blood; or all is in danger of bursting, and\nthou of miscarrying in theses things. I might here also dilate\nupon Job's case, and the lesson God set him, when, at one stroke,\nhe did beat down all (Job 1:15), only spared his life, but made\nthat also so bitter to him that his soul chose strangling rather\nthan it (Job 7:15). O when every providence of God unto thee is like\nthe messengers of Job, and the last to bring more heavy tidings\nthan all that went before him (Job 1); when life, estate, wife,\nchildren, body, and soul, and all at once, seem to be struck at by\nheaven and earth; here are hard lessons; now to behave myself even\nas a weaned child, now to say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath\ntaken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord' (Job 1:21). Thus,\nwith few words, Job ascribeth righteousness to his Maker; but\nthough they were but few, they proceeded from so blessed a frame\nof heart, that causeth the penman of the Word to stay himself and\nwonder, saying, 'In all this Job sinned not' with his lips, 'nor\ncharged God foolishly.' In all this--what a great deal will the\nHoly Ghost make of that which seems but little when it flows from\nan upright heart! and it indeed may well be so accounted of all\nthat know what is in man, and what he is prone unto.\n\n1. Labour to believe that all these things are tokens of the love\nof God (Heb 12:6; Rev 3:19). 2. Remember often that thou art not\nthe first that hath met with these things in the world. 'It hated\nme,' saith Christ, 'before it hated you' (John 15:18). 3. Arm\nthyself with a patient and quiet mind to bear and suffer for his\nsake (1 Peter 4:1-3). 4. Look back upon thy provocations wherewith\nthou mayst have provoked God (Deut 9:7; Lev 26:41,42); then wilt\nthou accept of the punishment for thy sins, and confess it was less\nthan thine iniquities deserve (Ezra 9:13). 5. Pray thou mayst hear\nthe voice of the rod, and have a heart to answer the end of God\ntherein (Micah 6:9). 6. Remember the promise--'All things work\ntogether for good to them that love God, to them who are the called\naccording to his purpose' (Rom 8:28).\n\nSixth. If thou wouldst be faithful to do that work that God hath\nappointed thee to do in this world for his name, then labour away\nto possess thy heart with a right understanding, both of the things\nthat this world yieldeth, and of the things that shall be hereafter.\nI am confident that most, if not all the miscarriages of the saints\nand people of God, they have their rise from deceivable thoughts\nhere. The things of this world appear to us more, and those that are\nto come less, than they are; and hence it is that many are so hot\nand eager for things that be in the world, and so cold and heartless\nfor those that be in heaven. Satan is here a mighty artist, and\ncan show us all earthly things in a multiplying glass; but when\nwe look up to things above, we see them as through sackcloth of\nhair;[22] but take thou heed, be not ruled by thy sensual appetite\nthat can only savour fleshly things, neither be thou ruled by carnal\nreason, which always darkeneth the things of heaven. But go to the\nWord, and as that says, so judge thou. That tells thee all things\nunder the sun are vanity, nay worse, vexation of spirit (Eccl\n1:2). That tells thee the world is not, even then when it doth most\nappear to be; wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not?\n'for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an\neagle toward heaven' (Prov 23:5). The same may be said for honours,\npleasures, and the like; they are poor, low, base things to be\nentertained by a Christian's heart. The man that hath most of them\nmay 'in the fulness of his sufficiency be in straits'; yea, 'when\nhe is about to fill his belly with them, God may cast the fury of his\nwrath upon him' (Job 20:22,25); 'so is he that layeth up treasure\nfor himself' on earth, 'and is not rich towards God' (Luke 12:20,21). A\nhorse that is loaden with gold and pearls all day, may have a foul\nstable and a galled back at night. And woe be to him that increaseth\nthat which is not his, and that ladeth himself with thick clay. O\nman of God, throw this bone to the dogs; suck not at it, there is\nno marrow there (Heb 2:6). Set thine affections on 'things that are\nabove, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God' (Col 3:1-4).\nBehold what God hath prepared for them that love him. And if God\nhath blessed thee with ought, set not thine heart upon it; honour\nthe Lord with thy substance. Labour to 'be rich in good works,\nready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for\nthemselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they\nmay lay hold on eternal life' (1 Tim 6:17-19). Further, to lighten\nthine eyes a little, and,\n\n1. Concerning the glory of the world.\n\n(1.) It is that which God doth mostly give to those that are not\nhis; for the poor receive the gospel; not many rich, 'not many\nmighty, not many noble are called' (1 Cor 1:26).\n\n(2.) Much of this world and its glory is permitted of God to be\ndisposed of by the devil, and he is called both the prince and god\nthereof (John 14:30; 2 Cor 4:4). Yea, when Satan told Christ he\ncould give it to whom he would, Christ did not say, Thou liest, but\nanswered, by the Word, 'It is written thou shalt worship the Lord\nthy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Luke 4:6-8). Implying\nalso, that commonly when men get much of the honours and glory of\nthis world, it is by bending the knee too low to the prince and\ngod thereof.\n\n(3.) The nature of the best of worldly things, if hankered after,\nis to deaden the spirit (Rom 8:6,7), to estrange the heart from\nGod, to pierce thee through with many sorrows, and to drown thee\nin perdition and destruction (1 John 2:15). 'O man of God, flee\nthose things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,\nlove, patience, meekness'; and 'Fight the good fight, lay hold on\neternal life, whereunto thou art also called,' &c. (1 Tim 6:9-12).\n\n2. As to the things of God, what shall I say? the things of his Word,\nand Spirit, and kingdom, they so far go beyond the conceivings of\nthe heart of man, that none can utter them but by the Holy Spirit;\nbut there is no deceit in them; 'no lie is of the truth,' what they\npromise they will perform with additions of amazing glory (1 John\n2:21). Taste them first, and then thou shalt see them. 'O' come\n'taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that\ntrusteth in him' (Psa 34:8). To stoop low is a good work, which is\nan act of thine, if it be done in faith and love, though but by a\ncup of cold water; it is really more worth in itself, and of higher\nesteem with God, than all worldly and perishing glory; there is no\ncomparison, the one perisheth with the using, and for the other is\nlaid up 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory' (2 Cor\n4:17). But again, as thou shouldst labour to possess thy heart with\na right understanding of the perishing nature of the riches and\npleasures of this world, and of the durable riches and righteousness\nthat is in Christ, and all heavenly things; so thou shouldst labour\nto keep always in thy eye what sin is, what hell is, what the wrath\nof God and everlasting burnings are. Transfer them to thyself, as\nit were on a finger,[23] that thou mayst learn to think of nothing\nmore highly than is meet, but to give to what thou beholdst their\nown due weight; then thou wilt fear where thou shouldst fear, love\nwhat is worthy thy love, and slight that which is of no worth.\nThese are just weights, and even balances; now thou dealest not with\ndeceitful weights; and this is the way to be rich in good works,\nand to bring thy work, that God hath appointed, to a good issue\nagainst thy dying day.\n\nSeventh. But again, if thou wouldst be faithful to do that work\nthat God hath appointed thee to do in this world, for his name, then\nbeware that thou slip not, or let pass by, the present opportunity\nthat providence layeth before thee. Work while it is called today,\n'the night cometh when no man can work' (John 9:4). In that parable\nof the man that took a far journey, it is said, as he gave to every\nservant his work, so he 'commanded the porter to watch'; that is,\nfor his Lord's coming back, and in the mean time, for all opportunities\nto perform the work he left in their hand, and committed unto\ntheir trust (Mark 13:34,35).[24] Seest thou the poor? seest thou\nthe fatherless? seest thou thy foe in distress? draw out thy breast,\nshut not up thy bowels of compassion, deal thy bread to the hungry,\nbring the poor that are cast out into thine house, hide not thyself\nfrom thine own flesh, take the opportunity that presents itself\nto thee, either by the eye or the hearing of the ear, or by some\ngodly motion that passeth over thy heart (Isa 58:7; Rom 12:20).\n'Say not' to such messengers, 'go, and come again tomorrow; if\nthou hast it by thee'; now the opportunity is put into thy hand,\ndelay not to do it, and the Lord be with thee! (Prov 3:28). Good\nopportunities are God's seasons for the doing of thy work; wherefore\nwatch for them, and take them as they come. Paul tells us 'he was\nin watchings often' (2 Cor 11:26,27); surely it was that he might\ntake the season that God should give him to do this work for him;\nas he also saith to Timothy, 'Watch thou in all things,--do the\nwork,' &c. Opportunities as to some things come but once in one's\nlifetime, as in the case of Esther, and of Nicodemus, and holy\nJoseph; when Esther begged the life of the Jews, and the other\nthe body of Jesus; which once had they let slip or neglected, they\ncould not have recovered it again for ever. Watch then for the\nopportunity. 1. Because it is God's season; which, without doubts,\nis the best season and time for every purpose (Eccl 3:11). 2.\nBecause Satan watches to spoil, by mistiming as well as by corrupting\nwhatever thou shalt do for God. 'When I would do good,' saith Paul,\n'evil is present,' that is, either to withdraw me from my purpose,\nor else to infect my work (Rom 7:21). 3. This is the way to\nbe profitable unto others. Thy wickedness may hurt a man, as thou\nart, and thy righteousness may profit the son of man (Job 35:8).\n4. This is also the way to be doing good to thyself (Job 22:2).\n'He that watereth shall be watered himself' (Prov 11:25). 'Cast\nthy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days'\n(Eccl 11:1; Deut 15:10). As God said to Coniah, 'Did not thy father\neat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well\nwith him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was\nwell with him' (Jer 22:15,16).\n\nAnd I say, that the opportunity may not slip thee, either for\nwant of care or provision, (1.) Sit always loose from an overmuch\naffecting thine own concernments, and believe that thou wast not\nborn for thyself; 'a brother is born for adversity' (Prov 17:17).\n(2.) Get thy heart tenderly affected with the welfare and prosperity\nof all things that bear the stamp and image of God (2 Cor 11:29).\n(3.) Study thy own place and capacity that God hath put thee in,\nin this world; for suitable to thy place thy work and opportunities\nare (1 Cor 7:24). (4.) Make provision beforehand, that when things\npresent themselves thou mayst come up to a good performance;\nbe 'prepared to every good work' (2 Tim 2:21). (5.) Take heed of\ncarnal reasonings, keep thy heart tender; but set thy face like a\nflint for God (Gal 1:9). (6.) And look well to the manner of every\nduty.\n\nEighth. Wouldst thou be faithful to do that work that God hath\nappointed thee to do in this world for his name? believe then,\nthat whatever good thing thou dost for him, if done according to\nthe Word, it is not only accepted by him now, but recorded, to be\nremembered for thee, against the time to come; yea, laid up for\nthee as treasure in chests and coffers, to be brought out to be\nrewarded before both men and angels, to thy eternal comfort, by\nJesus Christ our Lord. 'Lay not up,' saith Christ, 'treasures upon\nearth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break\nthrough and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,\nwhere neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not\nbreak through nor steal' (Matt 6:19,20). The treasure that here our\nLord commands we should with diligence lay up in heaven, is found\nboth in Luke, and Paul, and Peter, to be meant by doing good work.\n\n1. Luke renders it thus, 'Sell that ye have and give alms; provide\nyourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that\nfaileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth,'\nthe latter part of the verse expounding the former (Luke 12:33).\n\n2. Paul saith thus, 'Charge them that are rich in this world, that\nthey be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the\nliving God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: that they do\ngood, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing\nto communicate: laying up in store for themselves a good foundation\nagainst the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life'\n(1 Tim 6:17,19).\n\n3. Peter also acknowledgeth and asserteth this, where, in his exhortation\nto elders to do their duty faithfully, and with cheerfulness, he\naffirms, if they do so, they 'shall receive a crown of glory that\nfadeth not away' (1 Peter 5:2-4); which Paul also calleth a reward\nfor cheerful work (1 Cor 9:17; 2 Tim 4:2). And that as an act of\njustice by the hand of a righteous judge, in the day when the Lord\nshall come to give reward to his servants the prophets, and to his\nsaints, and to all that fear his name, small and great; for 'every\nman shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour' (1\nCor 3:8).\n\n[Objections answered.]\n\nBut before I go any further, I must answer three objections that\nmay be made by those that read this book.\n\nThe First Objection. The first is this; some godly heart may say,\nI dare not own that what I do shall ever be regarded, much less\nrewarded by God in another world because of the unworthiness of my\nperson, and because of the many infirmities and sinful weaknesses\nthat attend me every day.\n\nAnswer. This objection is built partly upon a bashful modesty,\npartly upon ignorance, and partly upon unbelief. My answer to it\nis as followeth.\n\nYou must remind and look back to what but now hath been proved,\nnamely, That both Christ and his apostles do all agree in this,\nthat there is a reward for the righteous, and that their good deeds\nare laid up as treasures for them in heaven, and are certainly to\nbe bestowed upon them in the last day with abundance of eternal\nglory. 2. Now then, to speak to thy case, and to remove the\nbottom of thy objection, that the unworthiness of thy person, and\nthy sinful infirmities, that attend thee in every duty, do make\nthee think thy works shall not be either regarded or rewarded in\nanother world. But consider, first, as to the unworthiness of thy\nperson. They that are in Christ Jesus are always complete before\nGod, in the righteousness that Christ hath obtained, how infirm,\nand weak, and wicked soever they appear to themselves. Before God,\ntherefore, in this righteousness thou standest all the day long, and\nthat upon a double account; first, by the act of faith, because\nthou hast believed in him that thou mightest be justified by\nthe righteousness of Christ; but if this fail, I mean the act of\nbelieving, still thou standest justified by God's imputing this\nrighteousness to thee, which imputation standing purely upon the\ngrace and good pleasure of God to thee, that holds thee still as\njust before God, though thou wantest at present the comfort thereof.\nThus, therefore, thy person stands always acccepted; and, indeed,\nno man's works can at all be regarded, if his person, in the first\nplace, be not respected. The Lord had respect first to Abel, and\nafter to his offering (Gen 4:4; Heb 11:4). But he can have respect\nto no man before works done, unless he find them in the righteousness\nof Christ; for they must be accepted through a righteousness, which,\nbecause they have none of their own, therefore they have one of\nGod's imputing, even that of his Son, which he wrought for us when\nhe was born of the Virgin, &c. As to thy sinful infirmities that\nattend thee in every work, they cannot hinder thee from laying up\ntreasure in heaven, thy heart being upright in the way with God;\nnor will he be unrighteous at all to forget thy good deeds in the\nday when Christ shall come from heaven.\n\n1. Because by the same reason then he must disown all the good works\nof all his prophets and apostles; for they have all been attended\nwith weaknesses and sinful infirmities; from the beginning hitherto\nthere is not a man, 'not a just man upon earth, that doeth good\nand sinneth not' (Eccl 7:20). The best of our works are accompanied\nwith sin: 'When I would do good,' saith Paul, 'evil is present\nwith me' (Rom 7:21). This, therefore, must not hinder. And for\nthy further satisfaction in this, consider, as Christ presents thy\nperson before God, acceptable without thy works, freely and alone\nby his righteousness, so his office is to take away the iniquity\nof thy holy things, that they also by him may be accepted of God\n(Exo 28:36-38; 1 Peter 2:5). Wherefore, it is further said, for the\nencouragement of the weak and feeble, He shall not break a bruised\nreed, nor quench the smoking flax, but shall bring forth judgment\nunto victory (Matt 12:20). The bruised reed, you know, is weak;\nand by bruises we should understand sinful infirmities. And so also\nconcerning the smoking flax; by smoking you must understand sinful\nweakness; but none of these shall either hinder the justification\nof thy person, or the acceptation of thy performance, they being\ndone in faith and love, let thy temptations be never so many,\nbecause of Jesus Christ his priestly office now at the right hand\nof God. By him, therefore, let us offer spiritual sacrifices; for\nthey shall be acceptable to God and our Father.\n\n2. Because otherwise God and Christ would prove false to their own\nword, which is horrible blasphemy once to imagine; who hath promised\nthat when the Son of God shall come to judgment, he shall render to\n'every man according to his work' (Rev 22:12); and doth upon this\nvery account encourage his servants to a patient enduring of the\nhottest persecutions: 'for great is your reward in heaven' (Matt\n5:12; Luke 6:23,35; Matt 6:1, 10:41,42). From this also he bindeth\nhis saints and servants to be sincerely liberal, and good, and\nkind to all; first, because otherwise, they have no reward of their\nFather which is in heaven, that is, for what they do not; but if\nthey do it, then, though it be but a cup of cold water given to a\nprophet or righteous man, they shall receive a prophet's reward,\na righteous man's reward; yea, they shall receive it in any wise,\n'they shall in no wise lose their reward.'\n\n3. It must be so, otherwise he should deny a reward to the works\nand operations of his own good grace he hath freely bestowed upon\nus; but that he will not do. He is not unfaithful to forget your\nwork of faith and labour of love (Heb 6:10). And so of all other\ngraces, 'our work shall not be in vain in the Lord' (1 Cor 4:58).\nAnd, as I said before, temptations, weaknesses, and sins, shall not\nhinder the truly gracious of this their blessed reward. Nay, they\nshall further it, 'if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold\ntemptations; that the trial of your faith being much more precious\nthan of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise, and honour,\nand glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:6,7). And\nthe reason is, because the truth and sincerity of God's grace in\nus doth so much the more discover itself, by how much it is opposed\nand resisted by weakness and sin. It is recorded to the everlasting\nrenown of three of David's mighties, that they would break through\na host of giant-like enemies, to fetch water for their longing king;\nfor it bespake their valour, their love, and good-will to him; the\nsame also is true concerning thy graces, and every act of them when\nassaulted with an host of weaknesses (1 Chron 11:12,15-18).\n\nThe Second Objection. And now I come to the second objection, and\nthat ariseth from our being completely justified freely by the\ngrace of God through Christ; and by the same means alone brought to\nglory; and may be framed thus:--but seeing we are freely justified,\nand brought to glory by free grace, through the redemption that is\nin Jesus Christ; and seeing the glory that we shall be possessed\nof upon the account of the Lord Jesus, is both full and complete,\nboth for happiness and continuing therein, what need will there\nbe that our work should be rewarded? Nay, may not the doctrine\nof reward for good works be here not only needless, but indeed an\nimpairing and lessening the completeness of that glory to which\nwe are brought, and in which we shall live inconceivably happy for\never, by free grace?\n\nAnswer. That we are justified in the sight of the Divine Majesty,\nfrom the whole lump of our sins, both past, present, and to come,\nby free grace, through that one offering of the body of Jesus\nChrist, once for all, I bless God I believe it, and that we shall\nbe brought to glory by the same grace, through the same most blessed\nJesus, I thank God by his grace I believe that also. Again, that\nthe glory to which we shall be brought by free grace, through the\nonly merits of Jesus, is unspeakably glorious and complete, I question\nno more than I question the blessed truths but now confessed. But\nyet, notwithstanding all this, there is a reward for the righteous,\na reward for their works of faith and love, whether in a doing or\na suffering way, and that not principally to be enjoyed here, but\nhereafter; 'great is your reward in heaven,' as I proved in the\nanswer to the first objection. And now I shall answer further:--\n\n1. If this reward had been an impairing or derogation to the free\ngrace of God that saveth us, he would never have mentioned it for\nour encouragement unto good works, nor have added a promise of\nreward for them that do them, nor have counted himself unfaithful\nif he should not do it.\n\n2. The same may be said concerning Jesus Christ, who doubtless\nloveth and tendereth the honour of his own merits, as much as any\nwho are saved by him can do, whether they be in heaven or earth;\nyet he hath promised a reward to a cup of cold water, or giving\nof any other alms; and hath further told us, they that do these\nthings, they do lay up treasure in heaven, namely, a reward when\ntheir Lord doth come, then to be received by them to their eternal\ncomfort.\n\n3. Paul was as great a maintainer of the doctrine of God's\nfree grace, and of justification from sin, by the righteousness\nof Christ imputed by grace, as any he that ever lived in Christ's\nservice, from the world's beginning till now: and yet he was for\nthis doctrine; he expected himself, and encouraged others also to\nlook for such a reward, for doing and suffering for Christ, which\nhe calls 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory' (2 Cor\n4:17). Surely, as Christ saith, in a case not far distant from this\nin hand, 'if it were not so, he would have told us' (John 14:1-3).\nNow could I tell what those rewards are that Christ hath prepared,\nand will one day bestow upon those that do for him in faith and\nlove in this world, I should therein also say more than now I dare\nor ought; yet this let me say in general, they are such as should\nmake us leap to think on, and that we should remember with exceeding\njoy, and never think that it is contrary to the Christian faith,\nto rejoice and be glad for that which yet we understand not (Matt\n5:11,12; Luke 6:23). 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it\ndoth not yet appear what we shall be,' &c. But 'every man that hath\nthis hope in him,' namely, that he shall be more than here he can\nimagine, 'purifieth himself even as he is pure' (1 John 3:2,3).\nThings promised when not revealed to be known by us while here,\nare therefore not made known, because too big and wonderful. When\nPaul was up in paradise, he heard unspeakable words not possible for\nman to utter (2 Cor 12:3,4). Wherefore, a reward I find, and that\nlaid up in heaven, but what it is I know not, neither is it possible\nfor any here to know it any further, than by certain general words\nof God, such as these, praise, honour, glory, a crown of righteousness,\na crown of glory, thrones, judging of angels, a kingdom, with a\nfar more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, &c. (1 Cor 4:5; 1\nPeter 1:7; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; Matt 25:34-36). Wherefore, to\nboth these objections, let me yet answer thus a few words. Though\nthy modesty or thy opinion will not suffer thee to look for a\nreward for what thou dost here for thy Lord, by the faith and love\nof the gospel; yea, though in the day of judgment thou shouldst\nthere slight all thou didst on earth for thy Lord, saying, When,\nLord, when did we do it? he will answer, Then, even then when ye\ndid it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me (Matt\n25:37-40).\n\nThe Third Objection. But is not the reward that God hath promised\nto his saints, for their good works to be enjoyed only here?\n\nAnswer. 1. For concerning holy walking, according to God's command,\nyieldeth even here abundance of blessed fruits, as he saith, 'in\nkeeping of them there is great reward,' and again, 'this man shall\nbe blessed in his deed,' that is, now, even in this time, as he\nsaith in another place; for indeed there is so much goodness and\nblessedness to be found in a holy and godly life, that were a man\nto have nothing hereafter, the present comfort and glory that lieth\nas the juice in the grape, in all things rightly done for God, it\nwere sufficient to answer all our travail and self-denial in our\nwork of faith and labour of love, to do the will of God.[25]\n\n2. Dost thou love thy friends, dost thou love thine enemies, dost\nthou love thy family or relations, or the church of God? then cry\nfor strength from heaven, and for wisdom, and a heart from heaven\nto walk wisely before them. For if a man be remiss, negligent, and\ncareless in his conversation, not much mattering whom he offends,\ndispleases, or discourages, by doing this or that, so he may save\nhimself, please his foolish heart, and get this world, or the like,\nthis man hath lost a good report of them that are without, and is\nfallen into reproach and the snare of the devil (1 Tim 3:7). He\nis fallen into reproach, and is slighted, disdained, both he, his\nprofession, and all he says, either by way of reproof, rebuke, or\nexhortation: physician, cure thyself, say all to such a one; this\nman is a sayer, but not a doer, say they; he believeth not what he\nsays; yea, religion itself is made to stink by this man's ungodly\nlife. This is he that hardens his children, that stumbleth the\nworld, that grieveth the tender and godly Christian; but I say, he\nthat walketh uprightly, that tenders[26] the name of God, the credit\nof the gospel, and the welfare of others, seeking with Paul, not\nhis own profit, but the profit of others, that they may be saved;\nthis man holds forth the Word of life, this man is a good savour\nof Christ amongst them that are saved; yea, may prove, by so doing,\nthe instrument in God's hand of the salvation of many souls.\n\n3. This is the way to be clear from the blood of all men, the way\nnot to be charged with the ruin and everlasting misery of poor\nimmortal souls. Great is the danger that attends an ungodly life,\nor an ungodly action, by them that profess the gospel (Jer 2:33).\nWhen wicked men learn to be wicked of professors, when professors\ncause the enemies of God to blaspheme, doubtless sad and woeful\neffects must needs be the fruit of so doing (2 Sam 12:14). How\nmany in Israel were destroyed for that which Aaron, Gideon, and\nManasseh, unworthily did in their day? (Exo 32:25; Judg 8:24-27).\nA godly man, if he take not heed to himself, may do that in his life\nthat may send many to everlasting burnings, when he himself is in\neverlasting bliss. But on the contrary, let men walk with God, and\nthere they shall be excused; the blood of them that perish shall\nlie at their own door, and thou shalt be clear. 'I am pure from\nthe blood of all men,' saith Paul (Acts 20:26). And again, 'your\nblood be upon your own heads, I am clean' (Acts 18:6). Yea, he that\ndoth thus, shall leave in them that perish an accusing conscience,\neven begotten by his good conversation, and by that they shall be\nforced to justify God, his people, and way, in the day of their\nvisitation; in the day when they are descending into the pit to\nthe damned (1 Peter 2:12).\n\n4. This is the way to maintain always the answer, the echoing\nanswer of a good conscience in thy own soul. Godliness is of great\nuse in this way; for the man that hath a good conscience to Godward,\nhath a continual feast in his own soul: while others say there is\ncasting down, he shall say there is lifting up; for he shall save\nthe humble person (Job 22:23-30). Some indeed, in the midst of\ntheir profession, are reproached, smitten, and condemned of their\nown heart, their conscience still biting and stinging of them,\nbecause of the uncleanness of their hands, and they cannot lift up\ntheir face unto God; they have not the answer of a good conscience\ntoward him, but must walk as persons false to their God, and as\ntraitors to their own eternal welfare; but the godly upright man\nshall have the light shine upon his ways, and he shall take his\nsteps in butter and honey. 'The work of righteousness shall be\npeace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for\never' (Isa 32:17). 'If our heart condemn us, God is greater than\nour heart, and knoweth all things; beloved, if our heart condemn\nus not, then have we confidence toward God' (1 John 3:20-22).\n\n5. The godly man that walketh with God, that chiefly careth to\ndo the work that God hath allotted him to do for his name in this\nworld, he hath not only these advantages, but further, he hath as\nit were a privilege of power with God, he can sway much with him;\nas it is said of Jacob, as a prince he had power with God to prevail\nin times of difficulty (Gen 32:28). And so again, it is said of\nJudah, being faithful with the saints, he ruled with God (Hosea\n11:12). How many times did that good man Moses turn away the wrath\nof God from the many thousands of Israel; yea, as it were, he held\nthe hands of God, and staved off the judgments not once nor twice;\nthe effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (2\nSam 5:10). One man that walketh much with God, may work wonders in\nthis very thing; he may be a means of saving whole countries and\nkingdoms from those judgments their sins deserve. How many times,\nwhen Israel provoked the Lord to anger, did he yet defer to destroy\nthem? and the reason of that forbearance, he tells them it was for\nDavid's sake; for my servant David's sake I will not do it. As the\nLord said also concerning Paul, 'Lo, God hath given thee all them\nthat sail with thee'; that is, to save their lives from the rage of\nthe sea (Acts 27:24). Yea, when a judgment is not only threatened,\nbut the decree gone forth for its execution, then godly upright\nmen may sometimes cause the very decree itself to cease without\nbringing forth (Zech 2:1-3). Or else may so time the judgment that\nis decreed, that the church shall best be able to bear it (Matt\n24:20).\n\n6. The man that is tender of God's glory in this world, still ruling\nand governing his affairs by the Word, and desirous to be faithful\nto the work and employment that God hath appointed him to do for\nhis name; that man shall still be let into the secrets of God; he\nshall know that which God will reserve and hide from many; 'Shall\nI hide from Abraham that thing which I do,' saith the Lord?--'For\nI know him, that he will command his children and his household\nafter him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,' &c. (Gen\n18:17,19). So again, 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear\nhim; and he will shew them his covenant' (Psa 25:14). 'And to him\nthat ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation\nof God' (Psa 50:23). Such a man shall have things new as well as\nold. His converse with the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit,\nshall be turned into a kind of familiarity; he shall be led into\nthe Word, and shall still increase in knowledge: when others shall\nbe stinted and look with old faces, being black and dry as a stick,\nhe shall be like a fatted calf, like the tree that is planted by\nthe rivers of water, his flesh shall be fresh as the flesh of a\nchild, and God will renew the face of his soul.\n\n7. If any escape public calamities, usually they are such as are\nvery tender of the name of God, and that make it their business\nto walk before him. They either escape by being mercifully taken\naway before it, or by being safely preserved in the midst of the\njudgment, until the indignation be overpast. Therefore God saith\nin one place, the 'righteous are taken away from the evil to come'\n(Isa 57:1). But if not so, as all be not, then they shall have their\nlife for a prey (Jer 39:15-18). Caleb and Joshua escaped all the\nplagues that befel to Israel in the wilderness, for they followed\nGod (Num 14:24). Somewhat of this you have also in that scripture,\n'Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his\njudgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness, it may be, ye shall be\nhid in the day of the Lord's anger' (Zeph 2:3). According to this\nis that in Luke, 'Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye\nmay be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come\nto pass, and to stand before the Son of man' (Luke 21:36). When a\nman's ways please the Lord, he will make his enemies to be at peace\nwith him. Marvellous is the work of God in the preservation of\nhis saints that are faithful with him, when dangers and calamities\ncome; as Joseph, David, Jeremiah, and Paul, with many others, may\nappear. 'He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there\nshall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death;\nand in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the\nscourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction\nwhen it cometh' (Job 5:19-21).\n\n8. If afflictions do overtake thee, for whom the Lord loveth he\nchasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, yet those\nafflictions shall not befal thee for those causes for which they\nbefal the slothful and backsliding Christian; neither shall they\nhave that pinching and galling operation upon thee, as on those\nwho have left their first love and tenderness for God's glory in\nthe world.\n\n(1.) Upon the faithful upright man, though he also may be corrected\nand chastised for sin, yet, I say, he abiding close with God,\nafflictions come rather for trial and for the exercise of grace\nreceived, than as rebukes for this or that wickedness; when upon\nthe backsliding heartless Christian these things shall come from\nfatherly anger and displeasure, and that for their sins against\nhim. Job did acknowledge himself a sinner, and that God therefore\nmight chastise him: but yet he rather believed it was chiefly for\nthe trial of his grace, as indeed, and in truth, it was (Job 7:20,\n23:10). 'He is a perfect man,' saith God to Satan, 'and one that\nfeareth God, and escheweth evil, and still he holdeth fast his\nintegrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him\nwithout cause' (Job 2:3). God will not say thus of every one when\naffliction is laid upon them, though they yet may be his children;\nbut rather declareth and pronounceth that it is for their\ntransgressions, because they have wickedly departed from him (Psa\n39:11, 38:1-4).\n\n(2.) Now, affliction arising from these two causes, their effects\nin the manner of their working, though grace turns them both\nfor good, is very different one from the other; he who hath been\nhelped to walk with God, is not assaulted with those turnings and\nreturnings of guilt when he is afflicted, as he who hath basely\ndeparted from God; the one can plead his integrity, when the other\nblusheth for shame. See both these cases in one person, even that\ngoodly beloved David. When the Lord did rebuke him for sin, then he\ncries, O blood guiltiness, O 'cast me not away from thy presence'\n(Psa 51:11). But when he at another time knew himself guiltless,\nthough then also sorely afflicted, behold with what boldness he\nturns his face unto God; 'O Lord, my God,' saith he, 'if I have\ndone this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded\nevil unto him that was at peace with me; [yea, I have delivered\nhim that without cause is mine enemy] let the enemy persecute my\nsoul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth,\nand lay mine honour in the dust. Selah,' &c. (Psa 7:3-5).\n\nThis, therefore, must needs be a blessed help in distress, for a\nman to have a good conscience when affliction hath taken hold on\nhim; for a man then, in his looking behind and before, to return\nwith peace to his own soul, that man must needs find honey in this\nlion, that can plead his innocency and uprightness. All the people\ncurse me, saith Jeremiah, but that without a cause, for I have\nneither lent nor taken on usury; which it seems was a sin at that\nday (Jer 15:10).\n\n9. When men are faithful with God in this world, to do the work he\nhath appointed for them, by this means a dying bed is made easier,\nand that upon a double account. (1.) By reason of that present\npeace such shall have, even in their time of languishing. (2.) By\nreason of the good company such shall have at their departure.\n\n(1.) Such souls usually abound in present peace; they look not\nback upon the years they have spent with that shame as the idle and\nslothful Christian does. 'Remember now, Lord,--how I have walked\nbefore thee in truth, and with a perfect heart' (Isa 38:3). Blessed\nis the man that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in\ntime of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive,\nand he shall be blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver\nhim unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon\nthe bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness\n(Psa 41:1-3).\n\nAh! when God makes the bed,[27] he must needs lie easy that weakness\nhath cast thereon; a blessed pillow hath that man for his head,\nthough to all beholders it is hard as a stone. Jacob, on his\ndeathbed, had two things that made it easy:--(a) The faith of his\ngoing to rest, 'I am to be gathered unto my people'; that is, to\nthe blessed that have yielded up the ghost before me (Gen 49:29).\n(b) The remembrance of the sealings of the countenance of God upon\nhim, when he walked before him in the days of his pilgrimage: when\nJoseph came to see him, before he left this world, Israel, saith\nthe Word, 'strengthened himself and sat upon his bed'; and the\nfirst word that dropt out of this good man's mouth, O how full of\nglory was it! 'God Almighty appeared unto me,' saith he, 'at Luz,\nin the land of Canaan, and blessed me,' &c. (Gen 48:1-3). O blessed\ndiscourse for a sick bed, when those can talk thus that lie thereon,\nfrom as true a ground as Jacob; but thus will God make the bed of\nthose who walk close with him in this world.\n\n(2.) The dying bed of such a man is made easy by reason also of\nthe good company such shall have at their departure; and that is,\n(1) The angels; (b) Their good works they have done for God in the\nworld.\n\n(a) The angels of heaven shall wait upon them, as they did upon\nblessed Lazarus, to carry them into Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22).\nI know all that go to paradise are by these holy ones conducted\nthither; but yet, for all that, such as die under the clouds for\nunchristian walking with God, may meet with darkness in that day--may\ngo heavily hence, notwithstanding that (Job 5:14). Yea, their bed\nmay be as uncomfortable to them as if they lay upon nothing but\nthe cords, and their departing from it, as to appearance, more\nuncomfortable by far. But as for those who have been faithful to\ntheir God, they shall see before them, shall know their tabernacles,\n'shall be in peace' (Job 5:24), 'the everlasting gates shall be\nopened unto them,' in all which, from earth, they shall see the\nglory (Acts 7:55,56).[28] I once was told a story of what happened\nat a good man's death, the which I have often remembered, with\nwonderment and gladness. After he had lain for some time sick, his\nhour came that he must depart, and behold, while he lay, as we call\nit, drawing on, to the amazement of the mourners, there was heard\nabout his bed such blessed and ravishing music as they never heard\nbefore; which also continued till his soul departed, and then\nbegan to cease, and grow, as to its sound, as if it was departing\nthe house, and so still seemed to go further and further off, till\nat last they could hear it not longer. 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear\nheard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that\nGod hath prepared for them that love him': behold, then, how God\ncan make thy sick bed easy! (1 Cor 2:9).\n\n(b) A dying bed is made easy by those good works that men have done\nin their life for the name of God: 'Blessed are the dead which die\nin the Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their\nlabours, and their works do follow them'; yea, and go before them\ntoo (Rev 14:13). No man need be afraid to be accompanied by good\ndeeds to heaven. Be afraid of sins, they are like bloodhounds at\nthe heels; and be sure thy sins will find thee out, even thee who\nhast not been pardoned in the precious blood of Christ; but as for\nthose who have submitted themselves to the righteousness of God\nfor their justification, and who have, through faith and love to\nhis name, been frequent in deeds of righteousness, they shall not\nappear empty before their God, 'their works,' their good works,\n'follow them.' These shall enter into rest, and walk with Christ\nin white. I observe, when Israel had passed over Jordan, they were\nto go to possess between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, from whence\nwas to be pronounced the blessing and the cursing (Deut 27). The\ngospel meaning of which I take to be as followeth: I take Jordan\nto be a type of death: and these two mountains, with the cursing\nand blessing, to be a type of the judgment that comes on every man,\nso soon as he goes from hence--'and after death the judgment'--so\nthat he that escapes the cursing, he alone goes into blessedness;\nbut he that Mount Ebal smiteth, he falls short of heaven! O! none\nknows the noise that doth sound in sinners' souls from Ebal and\nGerizim when they are departed hence; yet it may be they know not\nwhat will become of them till they hear these echoings from these\ntwo mountains: but here the good man is sure Mount Gerizim doth\npronounce him blessed. Blessed, then, are the dead that die in\nthe Lord, for their works will follow them till they are past all\ndanger. These are the Christian's train that follow him to rest;\nthese are a good man's company that follow him to heaven.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Solemn indeed is the responsibility of a Christian minister,\nand every follower of the Lamb bears that office privately, and\nshould be earnest in prayer that public ministers may do the work\nof evangelists, not only by insisting upon the necessity of the new\nbirth and its solemn reality, the happiness of a close walk with\nGod, and the glorious rest that remaineth, but to visit the poor\nand rich at their own habitations, in sickness and health, and\nwatch over their people as those that must give an account.--Ed.\n\n[2] 'With a curse,' is from the Puritan version.--Ed.\n\n[3] Wretched are the persecutors, like a troubled sea, casting\nup mire and filth, vainly opposing the sinner's duty of personal\ninquiry for salvation, and harassing him if he refuses to submit\nto human dogmas, creeds, catechisms, and liturgies--the inventions\nof men. Although the power is curtailed, the disposition remains\nthe same; restless and unwearied, they stick at nothing to glut\ntheir revenge upon the disciples of Christ. But all in vain; the\ngospel spreads although the persecutor kicks; it is against the\nsharp goads; he rushes upon Jehovah's buckler and crushes himself;\nis wretched in this life and lost to all eternity; unless, as in\nthe case of Saul, unspeakable mercy arrests him--Ed.\n\n[4] The lions growled and roared upon the pilgrims in Bunyan's days,\nto prevent their making a public profession of Christ by uniting\nwith one of his churches; represented in the Pilgrim's Progress\nby the palace justly called Beautiful. Many were then kept back,\nto their serious injury or ruin, by fear of enormous penalties or\nimprisonment, but NOW, what keeps you back, O Christian. Fears for\nthe loss of property, liberty, or life, would have been a wretched\nplea for the loss of the soul, how much less the fear of ridicule\nfrom ungodly friends or relatives.--Ed.\n\n[5] A familiar expression; 'rub up,' prepare for action. 'Put on\nthy harness,' an obsolete term for armour, weapons, and habiliments\nof war; the spiritual warfare, 'put on the whole armour of God.'--Ed.\n\n[6] Would you be ready to die in peace? then seek a close walk\nand communion with God in time of health. A life of faith ensures\na life of glory. Live and walk in the Spirit; as strangers and\npilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts. To live thus is Christ; to\ndie is gain, the more sudden the more joyful and glorious.--Ed.\n\n[7] This meaning of the word 'touch' is now obsolete. It refers to\ntouching the seal on a deed, called sealing it; a solemn, deliberate\npledge to keep close to your covenants. 'I keep touch with my\npromise.' Sir Thomas More.--Ed.\n\n[8] 'To make both ends meet,' is a proverbial expression, meaning\nthat our expenses should not exceed our income; but, in this more\nsolemn sense we should fulfil our daily duties as they approach, as\nall our moments have duties assigned to them. Omissions can never\nbe recovered; hence the necessity of forgiveness for Christ's sake,\nwho fulfilled every duty, and hence the necessity of perpetual\nwatchfulness.--Ed.\n\n[9] How delightfully does this exclamation flow from the lips of the\npious patriarch, overcome by his exertion in this solemn death-bed\nscene. He pauses, and then, with his recovering breath, appeals to\nheaven--'I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.' Poor old man,\nthe cold sweat of death is on thy brow, the angels stand ready to\nopen the gate of the celestial city; finish thy solemn instructions\nto thy children, and then thou shalt enter upon the fruition of all\nthy patient waiting, thy fearing, fighting, trembling, doubting,\nshall be absorbed in immeasurable, eternal bliss.--Ed.\n\n[10] This is a very illustrative allusion. When a spinner has wound\nup all his material, the technical term is, 'The bottom is wound.'\nWhen a poor spinner by age or infirmity, is incapable of work, it\nwould be said, 'Ah! his bottom is wound.' In this text, Jacob had\nfinally made an end of all his earthly duties, and had now only to\nclose his eyes for the last time upon the world.--Ed.\n\n[11] These are solemn and most weighty arguments to press upon us\nthe fulfilment of our daily duties. How incomprehensible are the\nways of God. His love is proved by bitterly convicting us of sin,\nof righteousness, and of judgment. Like Christian and Hopeful in\nDoubting Castle, sometimes so overwhelming as to drive us to the\nverge of despair and self-destruction. We fall not down the precipice,\nfor still there is hope and pardon in his bosom, and at the proper\ntime it will be revealed.--Ed.\n\n[12] That preventeth; 'letteth' is from the old verb to let or\nhinder, as used Romans 1:13.--Ed.\n\n[13] This language is probably founded on Revelation 22:14, 'Blessed\nare they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the\ntree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.'\nUntil the work that is assigned to us is done, we cannot cross the\nriver and ascend to the New Jerusalem. 'He which testifieth these\nthings saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.' He who is diligent to\nfinish his work may reply with truth, 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'--Ed.\n\n[14] Bunyan was in his politics a thorough loyalist. When a young\nman he even fought at the siege of Leicester, when it was besieged\nby the royal army. Probably the horrible cruelties practised upon\nthe peaceful inhabitants, by the cavaliers, at the taking of that\ncity, induced him to leave the service. His pastor, J. Gifford, had\nalso served in the royal army as an officer; both of them narrowly\nescaped. This may account for Bunyan's high monarchial principles,\nthey appear very prominently in many of his works.--Ed.\n\n[15] Many extraordinary tales are told of the nightingale, as\nto their great memory, and facility in imitating the human voice.\nSitting in thorns is more for protection than penance. See\nGoldsmith's Animated Nature. It was a generally received opinion\nthat the nightingale, to keep himself awake in the night, sat on\na tree of thorn, so that if he nodded he would be pricked in the\nbreast. The learned and witty Dr. Thomas Fuller thus alludes to\nit:--'I am sure the nightingale which would wake will not be angry\nwith the thorn which pricketh her breast when she noddeth.' How\nuseful would it be if a thorn could be so placed as to prick those\nwho nod at church!--Ed.\n\n[16] A painted figure of a horse, behind which the sportsman\nstealthily approaches the game.\n\n\n   'One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk\n    Another over dykes upon his stilts doth walk.'\n           --Drayton's Polyolbion, vol. iii. p. 25.--Ed.\n\n\n[17] So dress as to pass without being noticed; neither precise nor\nformal, slovenly nor dandyish; dress like a man or woman. Conduct\nyourself as one that fears God.--Ed.\n\n[18] The head having been crowned with thorns, it is unsuitable\nthat the feet should tread on rose leaves.--Mason.\n\n[19] How very striking is this expression. O! that it may assist\nin riveting upon our souls a vivid remembrance of the Saviour's\nsufferings.--Ed.\n\n[20] Some Pharisees, falsely called by the Romish churches 'saints,'\nhave claimed merit from associating with dirt and filth, and vermin,\nbeggars, and vagabonds, upon dunghills, to show their contempt of\nthe world! All this was to gain the applause of the world. God's\nsaints will associate with the salt of the earth, with God's fearers,\nwho whether rich or poor, are equally despised by the world.--Ed.\n\n[21] Reader, do not mistake this to mean a piece of wood shaped\nas a cross. It means cherish, love, be conformed to the conduct or\nimage of Christ, follow him in reproaches and revilings, and count\nit your honour to suffer for his sake. 'Kiss it,' has the same\nmeaning as the words of the Psalmist, 'Kiss the Son, lest he be\nangry, and ye perish.' It is the soul mentally kissing the Saviour,\nand not a bit of wood, which would then be an idol, inflicting the\ndeep guilt of idolatry.--Ed.\n\n[22] Upon the opening of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation,\nthere was 'a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth\nof hair, and the moon as blood.' A preternatural and awful darkness\nbroods over nature, preparatory to its final dissolution. Thus\nSatan darkens the things above to the natural man, so that he\ncannot discern spiritual things, while those of time and sense are\nmagnified and multiplied in his estimation.--Ed.\n\n[23] This refers to the phylacteries worn by every Jew while in\nhis daily prayers. These are long strips of leather, having small\nboxes containing the law minutely written in Hebrew, worn upon the\nforehead and wrist, and bound round the fingers. A custom founded\non Exodus 13:9, 16; Proverbs 7:3. That the Divine law should direct\nthe head and fingers, as representing the mind and conduct, so\nwould Bunyan have all Christians carry, at all times, in the mind\nand conduct, the riches and righteousness of Christ.--Ed.\n\n[24] There are no idlers in God's Israel, every one has his appointed\nwork to fulfil against his appointed day. Christian, watch against\nidleness.\n\n\n   'For Satan has some mischief still\n    For idle hands to do.'--Ed.\n\n\n[25] Godliness, saith Paul, has the 'promise of the life that now\nis, and of that which is to come.' This should be more dwelt upon\nby our ministers, as Bunyan sets the example. The mind of a Christian\nhas the richest enjoyments, however his body may be persecuted,\nfor over that only the enemy has power. A prison may be the gate\nof heaven. With God as our Father, a wall of fire round about, and\nthe glory in our midst, 'what can we want beside?'--Ed.\n\n[26] To tender; to care for, to guard. 'He had provoked others to\ntender and seek the glory of God.'--Udal. Not frequently used in\nthis sense.--Ed.\n\n[27] How tenderly does the Psalmist exhibit the love of God to\nhis chosen under this figure, 'Thou wilt make all his bed in his\nsickness.' He will never leave nor forsake them; and, when heart\nand flesh shall fail, he will guide them and receive them to his\nglory. 'Wonders of grace to God belong.' Christian women! with\nsuch an example, can you hesitate to go and make the bed of a poor\nsick and afflicted neighbour?--Ed.\n\n[28]\n\n\n   'Jesus can make a dying bed\n        Feel soft as downy pillows are,\n    While on his breast I lean my head,\n        And breath my life out sweetly there.'--Dr. Watts.\n\n\n***\n\nTHE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS GRANTED;\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nAs the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's\nheart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the\ntouchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of\nthe new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the\nsprings of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of\nall our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God\nand holiness are built--and the root by which they are nourished.\nIt is from this principle of Divine life which flows from Christ\nto his members, that these desires and struggles after holiness of\nthought and conduct arise, and are kept alive. They prove a fountain\nof consolation to the harassed and tried believer; for if we are\nin the sense of this scripture 'righteous,' we shall have those\ndesires to enjoy the presence of God on earth, and with him felicity\nin heaven, which the voice of the Omnipotent declareth SHALL be\ngranted. O! the blessedness of those in whose hearts are planted\n'the desires of the righteous.'\n\nThis brings us to the most important of all the subjects of\nself-examination--am I one of the 'righteous'? or, in other words,\n'am I born again?' Upon this solemn heart-trying inquiry hangs all\nour hopes of escape from misery and ascension to glory--a kingdom,\na crown, a bright, a happy, an eternal inheritance, on the one\nhand, or the gloomy abodes of wretchedness on the other hand, are\nfor ever to be decided. What are our desires? To guide our anxious\ninquiries into this all-important subject, our author unlocks the\nheavenly treasures, and in every point furnishes us with book, and\nchapter, and verse, that we may carefully and prayerfully weigh all\nthat he displays in the unerring scales of the sanctuary. A desire\nafter the presence of God--of conformity to his image and example--for\na greater hatred of sin--yea, as Bunyan expresses it, a desire to\ndesire more of those blessed fruits of the Spirit, inspires the\ninquirer with the cheering hope that he has passed from death unto\nlife--that he has been born again, and has been made righteous.\nAnd if, as we progress in the Divine life, our experience of the\ndelights of communion with God enables us to say with David, 'My\nsoul panteth,' or crieth, or, as the margin of our Bibles have,\nbrayeth, 'yea, thirsteth after God,' however we may be assaulted\nby the enemies within and without, we may say with confidence, 'Why\nart thou disquieted, O my soul? hope thou in God, for I SHALL yet\npraise him.'\n\nDeeply are the churches of Christ indebted to the Holy Spirit for\nhaving assisted his honoured servant to write this treatise; and we\nare under great obligation to his friend, Charles Doe, for having\nhanded it down to us, as he found it prepared for the press, with\nother excellent treatises, among the author's papers after his\ndecease. It abounds with those striking ideas peculiar to the works\nof the author of the Pilgrim's Progress; most faithful home thrusts\nat conscience, which those who really desire to know themselves\nwill greatly prize. It has been very properly observed that the\nwords used by the author, as descriptive of the text, may, with\ngreat propriety, be applied to this treatise--'It is a sharp and\nsmart description' of the desires of a righteous man.\n\nThe desires of the righteous are very graphically impersonated\nand described. They reach beyond time and peep into eternity. 'The\nrighteous have desires that reach further than this world, desires\nthat have so long a neck as to look into the world to come.' 'So\nforcible and mighty are they in operation'; 'is there not life and\nmettle in them? They loose the bands of nature--harden the soul\nagainst sorrow--they are the fruits of an eagle-eyed confidence.'\nThey enable the soul 'to see through the jaws of death--to see Christ\npreparing mansion-houses for his poor ones that are now kicked to\nand fro, like footballs in the world!' 'A desire will take a man\nupon its back and carry him away to God, if ten thousand men oppose\nit.' 'It will carry him away after God to do his will, let the work\nbe never so hard.' The new man is subject to transient sickness,\nduring which desire fails in its power when the inner man has caught\na cold.\n\nBunyan's views of church fellowship are always lovely; they are\ndelightfully expressed. He also introduces us to the unsearchable\nriches of Christ. 'The righteous desire a handful, God gives them\na seaful; they desire a country, God prepares for them a city.'\nWonders of grace to God belong.\n\nBunyan's pictures of the natural man are equally faithful and\nstriking--when guilt and conviction take hold on him--when pestilence\nthreatens to break up his house-keeping--and death takes him by the\nthroat and hauls him down stairs to the grave; then he, who never\nprayed, crieth, Pray for me, and the poor soul is as loath to go\nout of the body for fear the devil should catch it, as the poor\nbird is to go out of the bush while she sees the hawk waiting to\nreceive her. But I must not detain the reader longer from entering\non this solemn and impressive treatise, but commend it to the Divine\nblessing.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nTHE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS GRANTED.\n\n'The desite of the righteous is only good.'--Proverbs 11:23\n\n'The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desite of\nthe righteous shall be granted.'--Proverbs 10:24\n\nThis book of the Proverbs is so called because it is such as\ncontaineth hard, dark, and pithy sentences of wisdom, by which is\ntaught unto young men knowledge and discretion (1-6). Wherefore\nthis book is not such as discloseth truths by words antecedent\nor subsequent to the text, so as other scriptures generally do,\nbut has its texts or sentences more independent; for usually each\nverse standeth upon its own bottom, and presenteth by itself some\nsingular thing to the consideration of the reader; so that I shall\nnot need to bid my reader go back to what went before, nor yet to\nthat which follows, for the better opening of the text; and shall\ntherefore come immediately to the words, and search into them for\nwhat hidden treasures are contained therein.\n\n[First.] The words then, in the first place, present us with the\ngeneral condition of the whole world; for all men are ranked under\none of these conditions, the wicked or the righteous; for he that\nis not wicked is righteous, and he that is not righteous is wicked.\nSo again, 'Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of\nthe righteous, spoil not his resting-place.' I might give you out\nof this book many such instances, for it flows with such; but the\ntruth hereof is plain enough.\n\nThe world is also divided by other general terms, as by these--believers,\nunbelievers; saints, sinners; good, bad; children of God, and\nchildren of the wicked one, &c. These, I say, are general terms,\nand comprehend not this or that sect, or order of each, but the\nwhole. The believer, saint, good, and child of God, are one--to\nwit, the righteous; the unbeliever, the sinner, the bad, and the\nchild of the devil, is one--to wit, the wicked; as also the text\nexpresses it. So that I say, the text, or these two terms in it,\ncomprehend all men; the one all that shall be saved, the other all\nthat shall be damned for ever in hell-fire (Psa 9:17, 11:6). The\nwicked; who is he but the man that loves not God, nor to do his\nwill? The righteous; who is he but the man that loveth God, and\nhis holy will, to do it?\n\nOf the wicked there are several sorts, some more ignorant, some more\nknowing; the more ignorant of them are such as go to be executed,\nas the ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction\nof the stocks; that is, as creatures whose ignorance makes them as\nunconcerned, while they are going down the stairs to hell. But,\nalas! their ignorance will be no plea for them before the bar of God;\nfor it is written, 'It is a people of no understanding; therefore\nhe that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed\nthem will show them no favour' (Isa 27:11; Prov 7:22).\n\nThough, I must confess, the more knowing the wicked is, or the\nmore light and goodness such a one sins against, the greater will\nhis judgment be; these shall have greater damnation: it shall be\nmore tolerable at the judgment for Sodom than for them (Luke 10:12,\n20:47). There is a wicked man that goes blinded, and a wicked man\nthat goes with his eyes open to hell; there is a wicked man that\ncannot see, and a wicked man that will not see the danger he is\nin; but hell-fire will open both their eyes (Luke 16:23). There\nare that are wicked, and cover all with a cloak of religion, and\nthere are that proclaim their profaneness; but they will meet both\nin the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; 'The wicked shall\nbe turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God' (Psa\n9:17).\n\nThere are also several sorts, if I may so express myself, of those\nthat are truly righteous, as children, young men, fathers, or\nsaints that fear God, both small and great (Rev 11:18; 1 John 2).\nSome have more grace than some, and some do better improve the\ngrace they have than others of their brethren do; some also are more\nvaliant for the truth upon the earth than others of their brethren\nare; yea, some are so swallowed up with God, and love to his word\nand ways, that they are fit to be a pattern or example in holiness\nto all that are about them; and some again have their light shining\nso dim, that they render themselves suspicious to their brethren,\nwhether they are of the number of those that have grace or no.[1]\nBut being gracious they shall not be lost, although such will at\nthe day of reward suffer loss; for this is the will of the Father\nthat sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, 'That of all\nwhich he had given him he should lose nothing, but should raise it\nup again at the last day' (John 6:37-39; 1 Cor 3:15).\n\n[Second.] In the next place, we are here presented with some of\nthe qualities of the wicked and the righteous; the wicked has his\nfears, the righteous has his desires. The wicked has his fears. 'The\nfear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desire of the\nrighteous shall be granted.' Indeed, it seems to the godly that\nthe wicked feareth not, nor doth he after a godly sort; for he that\nfeareth God aright must not be reputed a wicked man. The wicked,\nthrough the pride of his countenance, declareth that he feareth\nnot God aright, because he doth not graciously call upon him; but\nyet for all that, the wicked at times are haunted, sorely haunted,\nand that with the worst of fears. 'Terrors,' says Bildad, 'shall\nmake him afraid on every side.' And again, 'His confidence shall\nbe rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king\nof terrors' (Job 18:11-14).\n\nA wicked man, though he may hector it at times with his proud heart,\nas though he feared neither God nor hell, yet again, at times, his\nsoul is even drowned with terrors. 'The morning is to them even as\nthe shadow of death; if one knew them, they are in the terrors of\nthe shadow of death' (Job 24:14-17). At times, I say, it is thus\nwith them, especially when they are under warm convictions that\nthe day of judgment is at hand, or when they feel in themselves\nas if death was coming as a tempest, to steal them away from their\nenjoyments, and lusts, and delights; then the bed shakes on which\nthey lie, then the proud tongue doth falter in their mouth, and\ntheir knees knock one against another; then their conscience stares,\nand roars, and tears, and arraigns them before God's judgment-seat,\nor threatens to follow them down to hell, and there to wreck its\nfury on them, for all the abuses and affronts this wicked wretch\noffered to it in the day in which it controlled his unlawful\ndeeds. O! none can imagine what fearful plights a wicked man is\nin sometimes; though God in his just judgment towards them suffers\nthem again and again to stifle and choke such awakenings, from a\npurpose to reserve them unto the day of judgment to be punished (2\nPeter 2:7-9).\n\n[Third.] In the third place, as the wicked has his fears, so the\nrighteous has his desires. 'The desire of the righteous shall be\ngranted'; but this must not be taken exclusively, as if the wicked\nhad nothing but fears, and the righteous nothing but desires. For,\nboth by Scripture and experience also, we find that the wicked has\nhis desires, and the righteous man his fears.\n\n1. For the wicked, they are not without their desires. 'Let me die\nthe death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,' was\nthe desire of wicked Balaam (Num 23:10), and another place saith,\n'the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire'; that he is for heaven\nas well as the best of you all, but yet, even then, 'he blesseth\nthe covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth' (Psa 10:3). Wicked men\nhave their desires and their hopes too, but the hope and desire of\nunjust men perisheth (Prov 11:7, 14:32). Yea, and though they look\nand long, too, all the day long, with desires of life and glory,\nyet their fears, and them only, shall come upon them; for they are\nthe desires of the righteous that shall be granted (Psa 112:10).\n\nThe desires of the wicked want a good bottom; they flow not from a\nsanctified mind, nor of love to the God, or the heaven now desired;\nbut only from such a sense as devils have of torments, and so, as\nthey, they cry out, 'I beseech thee torment me not' (Luke 8:28,\n16:24). But their fears have a substantial foundation, for they\nare grounded upon the view of an ill-spent life, the due reward of\nwhich is hell-fire; 'the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom\nof God,' their place is without; 'for without are dogs and sorcerers,\nand whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth\nand maketh a lie' (1 Cor 6:9,10; Rev 22:15).\n\nTheir fears, therefore, have a strong foundation; they have also\nmatter to work upon, which is guilt and justice, the which they\nshall never be able to escape, without a miracle of grace and mercy\n(Heb 2:3). Therefore it saith, and that with emphasis, 'The fear\nof the wicked it shall come upon him'; wherefore his desires must\ndie with him: for the promise of a grant of that which is desired\nis only entailed to righteousness. 'The desire of the righteous shall\nbe granted,' but 'grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked,'\nsaith David (Psa 140:8).\n\n2. Nor are the righteous without their fears, and that even all\ntheir life long. Through fear of death, they, some of them, are all\ntheir life time subject to bondage (Heb 2:15). But as the desires\nof the wicked shall be frustrate, so shall also the fears of\nthe godly; hence you have them admonished, yea commanded, not to\nbe afraid neither of devils, death, nor hell; for the fear of the\nrighteous shall not come upon them to eternal damnation (Isa 35:4,\n41:10-14, 43:1, 44:28; Luke 8:50, 12:32; Rev 1:17).\n\n'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.' No, they are not\nto fear what sin can do unto them, nor what all their sins can do\nunto them; I do not say they should not be afraid of sinning, nor\nof those temporal judgments that sin shall bring upon them, for\nof such things they ought to be afraid, as saith the Psalmist, 'My\nflesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments'\n(Psa 119:120). But of eternal ruin, of that, they ought not to be\nafraid of with slavish fear. 'Wherefore should I fear,' said the\nprophet, 'in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall\ncompass me about?' (Psa 49:5). And again, 'Ye have done all this\nwickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord;--for the\nLord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake' (1\nSam 12:20-22).\n\nThe reason is, because the righteous are secured by their faith in\nChrist Jesus; also their fears stand upon a mistake of the nature\nof the covenant, in which they are wrapped up, which is ordered\nfor them in all things, and sure (2 Sam 23:5; Isa 55:3). Besides,\nGod has purposed to magnify the riches of his grace in their\nsalvation; therefore goodness and mercy shall, to that end, follow\nthem all the days of their life, that they may 'dwell in the house\nof the Lord for ever' (Psa 23:6; Eph 1:3-7). They have also their\nintercessor and advocate ready with God, to take up matters for\nthem in such a way as may maintain true peace betwixt their God and\nthem; and as may encourage them to be sober, and hope to the end,\nfor the grace that is to be brought unto them at the revelation of\nJesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13; 1 John 2:1,2). Wherefore, though the\ngodly have their fears, yea, sometimes dreadful fears, and that\nof perishing for ever and ever; yet the day is coming, when their\nfears and tears shall be done away, and when their desires only\nshall be granted. 'The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon them;\nbut the desire of the righteous shall be granted.'\n\nThe words, then, are a prediction or prophecy, and that both\nconcerning the wicked and the righteous, with reference to time and\nthings to come, and shall certainly be fulfilled in their season.\nHence it is said concerning the wicked, that their triumphing is\nshort, and that the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment (Job\n20:5). O, their end will be bitter as wormwood, and will cut like\na two-edged sword! Of this Solomon admonishes youth, when he saith.\n'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee\nin the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart,\nand in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these\nthings God will bring thee into judgment' (Eccl 11:9).\n\nThis, therefore, showeth the desperate spirit that possesses the\nchildren of men, who, though they hear and read all this, yet cannot\nbe reclaimed from courses that are wicked, and that lead to such\na condition (Prov 5:7-14). I say they will not be reclaimed from\nsuch courses as lead to ways that go down to hell, where their soul\nmust mourn, even then when their flesh and their body are consumed.\nO! how dear bought are their pleasures, and how will their laughter\nbe turned into tears and anguish unutterable! and that presently,\nfor it is coming! Their 'judgment now of a long time lingereth not,\nand their damnation slumbereth not' (2 Peter 2:3). But what good\nwill their covenant of death then do them? And will their agreement\nof hell yield them comfort? Is not God as well mighty to punish as\nto save? (Isa 28:18). Or can these sinners believe God out of the\nworld, or cause that he should not pay them home for their sins,\nand recompense them for all the evil they have loved, and continued\nin the commission of? (Job 21:29-31). 'Can thy heart endure, or\ncan thy hands be strong in the days that God shall deal with thee?'\n(Eze 22:14). Thou art bold now, I mean bold in a wicked way; thou\nsayest now thou wilt keep thy sweet morsels of sin under thy tongue,\nthou wilt keep them still within thy mouth. Poor wretch! Thy sins\nshall lie down in the dust with thee (Job 20:11). Thou hast sucked\nthe poison of asps, and the viper's tongue shall slay thee (Job\n20:16). 'Thou shalt not see the rivers, the streaming floods, the\nbrooks of butter and honey' (Job 20:17). 'All darkness shall be hid\nin thy secret places, a fire not blown shall consume thee.' 'This\nis the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed\nto him by God' (Job 20:26-29).\n\nAnd as they [the Scriptures] predict or prophesy what shall become\nof the wicked; so also they plentifully foretell what shall happen\nto the righteous, when he saith their desire shall be granted: of\nwhich more anon. Only here I will drop this short hint, That the\nrighteous have great cause to rejoice; for what more pleasing,\nwhat more comfortable to a man, than to be assured, and that from\nthe Spirit of truth, that what he desireth shall be granted? And\nthis the righteous are assured of here; for he saith it in words\nat length, 'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.' This,\nthen, should comfort them against their fears, and the sense of\ntheir unworthiness; it should also make them hold up their heads\nunder all their temptations, and the affronts that is usual for them\nto meet with in the world. The righteous! Who so vilified as the\nrighteous? He, by the wise men of the world, is counted a very\nAbraham,[2] a fool; like to him who is the father of us all. But\nas he left all for the desire that he had of a better country, and\nat last obtained his desire; for after he had patiently endured,\nhe obtained the promise; so those that walk in the steps of that\nfaith which our father Abraham had, even those also in the end\nshall find place in Abraham's bosom; wherefore it is meet that we\nshould cheer up and be glad, because what we desire shall be granted\nunto us (Heb 6).\n\nTHE NATURE OF THE WORDS.\n\nBut I shall here leave off this short way of paraphrasing upon the\ntext, and shall come more distinctly to inquire into the nature\nof the words; but my subject-matter shall be the last part of the\nverse, 'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.' From which\nwords there are these things to be inquired into.\n\nFIRST. What, or who is the righteous man? SECOND. What are the\ndesires of a righteous man? THIRD. What is meant or to be understood\nby the granting of the desires of the righteous? 'The desire of\nthe righteous shall be granted.'\n\n[WHO IS THE RIGHTEOUS MAN?]\n\nFIRST. For the first of these, namely, 'WHAT OR WHO IS THE RIGHTEOUS\nMAN?\n\nMy way of prosecuting this head shall be to show you, first, that\nI intend a righteous man not in every sense, but in that which is the\nbest; otherwise I shall miscarry as to the intendment of the Holy\nGhost; for it may not be supposed that these words reach to them\nthat are righteous in a general, but in a special sense; such, I\nmean, that are so in the judgment of God. For, as I hinted, there\nare several sorts of righteous men that yet have nothing to do\nwith this blessed promise, or that shall never, as such, have their\ndesires granted.\n\nFIRST. There is one that is righteous in his own eyes, and is yet\nfar enough off from the blessing of the text: 'There is a generation\nthat are pure' or righteous 'in their own eyes, and yet is not washed\nfrom their filthiness' (Prov 29:12). These are they that you also\nread of in the evangelist Luke, that are said to trust 'in themselves\nthat they were righteous, and despised others' (Luke 18:9). These\nare set so low, by this their foolish confidence, in the eyes of\nJesus Christ, that he even preferred a praying publican before them\n(Luke 18:13,14). Wherefore these cannot be the men, I mean those\nrighteous men, to whom this promise is made.\n\nSECOND. There are those that by others are counted righteous; I\nmean they are so accounted by their neighbours. Thus Korah and his\ncompany are called the people of the Lord, and all the congregation\nby them also called holy, every one of them (Num 16:3,41). But as\nhe who commends himself is not approved, so it is no great matter\nif all the world shall count us righteous, if God esteemeth us not\nfor such: 'For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom\nthe Lord commends' (2 Cor 10:18).\n\nTHIRD. There are those that indeed are righteous when compared\nwith others: 'I came not to call the righteous'; 'for scarcely for\na righteous man will one die,' and the like, are texts thus to be\nunderstood. For such as these are, as to life moral, better than\nothers. But these, if they are none otherwise righteous than by\nacts and works of righteousness of their own, are not the persons\ncontained in the text that are to have their desires granted.\n\nFOURTH. The righteous man therefore in the text is, and ought to be,\nthus described: 1. He is one whom God makes righteous, by reckoning\nhim so. 2. He is one that God makes righteous, by possessing of him\nwith a principle of righteousness. 3. He is one that is practically\nrighteous.\n\nFirst. He is one that God makes righteous. Now, if God makes him\nrighteous, his righteousness is not his own, I mean this sort of\nrighteousness: 'Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord' (Isa\n54:17). God then makes a man righteous by putting righteousness\nupon him--by putting the righteousness of God upon him (Phil 3:6-9).\nHence we are said to be made the righteousness of God in Christ:\n'For God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we\nmight be made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Cor 5:21). Thus\nGod, therefore, reckoneth one righteous, even by imputing that\nunto us which is able to make us so: 'Christ of God is made unto\nus--righteousness' (1 Cor 1:30). Wherefore he saith again, 'In the\nLord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory'\n(Isa 45:25).\n\nThe righteousness then by which a man is made righteous, with\nrighteousness to justification of life before God, for that is\nit we are speaking of now, is the righteousness of another than\nhe who is justified thereby. Hence it is said again by the soul\nthus justified and made righteous, 'The Lord hath clothed me with\nthe garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of\nrighteousness' (Isa 61:10). As he also saith in another place, 'I\nspread my skirts over thee, and covered thy nakedness' (Eze 16:8).\nThis we call a being made righteous by reckoning, by the reckoning\nof God; for none is of power to reckon one righteous but God,\nbecause none can make one so to be but him. He that can make me\nrich, though I am in myself the poorest of men, may reckon me rich,\nif together with his so reckoning, he indeed doth make me rich. This\nis the case, God makes a man righteous by bestowing of righteousness\nupon him--by counting the righteousness of his Son for his. He gives\nhim righteousness, a righteousness already performed and completed\nby the obedience of his Son (Rom 5:19).\n\nNot that this righteousness, by being bestowed upon us, is severed\nfrom Jesus Christ; for it is still his and in him. How then, may\nsome say, doth it become ours? I answer, by our being put into\nhim. For of God are we in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us, of\nhim, 'righteousness.' And again, we are made 'the righteousness of\nGod in him.' So then, the righteousness of Christ covereth his, as\na man's garments cover the members of his body, for we are 'the\nbody of Christ, and members in particular' (1 Cor 12:27). The\nrighteousness therefore is Christ's; resideth still in him, and\ncovereth us, as the child is lapped up in its father's skirt, or\nas the chicken is covered with the feathers of the hen. I make use\nof all these similitudes thereby to inform you of my meaning; for\nby all these things are set forth the way of our being made righteous\nto justification of life (Matt 23:37; Eze 16:8; Psa 36:7).\n\nNow thus a man is made righteous, without any regard to what he\nhas, or to what is of him; for as to him, it is utterly another's.\nJust as if I should, with the skirts of my garments, take up and\nclothe some poor and naked infant that I find cast out into the\nopen field. Now if I cover the person, I cover scabs and sores, and\nulcers, and all blemishes. Hence God, by putting this righteousness\nupon us, is said to hide and cover our sins. 'Blessed are they\nwhose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed\nis the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Rom 4:7,8). For\nsince this righteousness is Christ's, and counted or reckoned ours\nby the grace of God, it is therefore bestowed upon us, not because\nwe are, but to make us righteous before the face of God. Hence,\nas I said, it is said to make us righteous, even as gay clothes do\nmake a naked body fine. 'He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew\nno sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'\n\nThis is of absolute necessity to be known, and to be believed. For\nwithout this no man can be counted righteous before God; and if we\nstand not righteous before God, it will benefit us nothing as to\nlife eternal, though we should be counted righteous by all the men\non earth. Besides, if God counts me righteous, I am safe, though\nin and of myself I am nothing but a sinner, and ungodly. The reason\nis, because God has a right to bestow righteousness upon me, for\nhe has righteousness to spare; he has also a right to forgive,\nbecause sin is the transgression of the law. Yea, he has therefore\nsent his Son into the world to accomplish righteousness for sinners,\nand God of his mercy bestows it upon those that shall receive it by\nfaith. Now, if God shall count me righteous, who will be so hardy\nas to conclude I yet shall perish? 'It is God that justifieth. Who\nis he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is\nrisen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh\nintercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'\n(Rom 8:33-35).\n\nThus therefore is a man made righteous, even of God by Christ, or\nthrough his righteousness. Now if, as was said, a man is thus made\nrighteous, then in this sense he is good before God, before he has\ndone anything of that which the law calls good before men; for God\nmaketh not men righteous with this righteousness, because they have\nbeen, or have done good, but before they are capable of doing good\nat all. Hence we are said to be justified while ungodly, even as\nan infant is clothed with the skirt of another, while naked, as\ntouching itself (Rom 4:4,5). Works therefore do not precede, but\nfollow after this righteousness; and even thus it is in nature,\nthe tree must be good before it bear good fruit, and so also must\na man. It is as impossible to make a man bring forth good fruit\nto God, before he is of God made good, as it is for a thorn or\nbramble bush to bring forth figs or grapes (Matt 7:15,16).\n\nBut again, a man must be righteous before he can be good; righteous\nby imputation, before his person, his intellectuals, can be qualified\nwith good, as to the principle of good. For neither faith, the\nSpirit, nor any grace, is given unto the sinner before God has made\nhim righteous with this righteousness of Christ. Wherefore it is\nsaid, that after he had spread his skirt over us, he washed us with\nwater, that is, with the washing of sanctification (Eze 16:8,9).\nAnd to conclude otherwise, is as much as to say that an unjustified\nman has faith, the Spirit, and the graces thereof; which to say is\nto overthrow the gospel. For what need of Christ's righteousness\nif a man may have faith and the Spirit of Christ without it, since\nthe Spirit is said to be the earnest of our inheritance, and that\nby which we are sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph 1, 4). But\nthe truth is, the Spirit which makes our person good, I mean that\nwhich sanctifies our natures, is the fruit of the righteousness\nwhich is by Jesus Christ. For as Christ died and rose again before\nhe sent the Holy Ghost from heaven to his, so the benefit of his\ndeath and resurrection is by God bestowed upon us, in order to the\nSpirit's possessing of our souls.\n\nSecond. And this leads me to the second thing, namely, That God\nmakes a man righteous by possessing[3] of him with a principle of\nrighteousness, even with the spirit of righteousness (Rom 4:4,5).\nFor though, as to justification before God from the curse of the\nlaw, we are made righteous while we are ungodly, and yet sinners;\nyet being made free from sin thus, we forthwith become, through\na change which the Holy Ghost works in our minds, the servants\nof God (Rom 5:7-9). Hence it is said, 'There is therefore now no\ncondemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after\nthe flesh, but after the Spirit' (Rom 8:1). For though, as the apostle\nalso insinuates here, that being in Christ Jesus is antecedent to\nour walking after the Spirit; yet a man can make no demonstration\nof his being in Christ Jesus, but by his walking in the Spirit; because\nthe Spirit is an inseparable companion of imputed righteousness,\nand immediately follows it, to dwell with whosoever it is bestowed\nupon. Now it dwelling in us, principles[4] us in all the powers of\nour souls, with that which is righteousness in the habit and nature\nof it. Hence the fruits of the Spirit are called 'the fruits of\ngoodness and righteousness,' as the fruits of a tree are called\nthe fruit of that tree (Eph 5:9).\n\nAnd again, 'He that doth righteousness is righteous,' not only in\nour first sense, but even in this also. For who can do righteousness\nwithout he be principled so to do? who can act reason that hath\nnot reason? So none can bring forth righteousness that hath not in\nhim the root of righteousness, which is the Spirit of God, which\ncomes to us by virtue of our being made sons of God (1 John 2:19,\n3:7; Gal 4:5-7). Hence the fruits of the Spirit are called 'the\nfruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory\nand praise of God' (Phil 1:11). This then is the thing we say,\nto wit, that he that is made righteous unto justification of life\nbefore God, is also habituated with a principle of righteousness,\nas that which follows that righteousness by which he stood just\nbefore. I say, as that which follows it; for it comes by Jesus\nChrist, and by our being justified before God, and made righteous\nthrough him.\n\nThis second then also comes to us before we do any act spiritually\ngood. For how can a man act righteousness but from a principle of\nrighteousness? And seeing this principle is not of or by nature,\nbut of and by grace, through Christ, it follows that as no man is\njust before God that is not covered with the righteousness of Christ,\nso no man can do righteousness but by the power of the Spirit of\nGod which must dwell in him. Hence we are said through the Spirit\nto mortify the deeds of the body, which works are preparatory to\nfruitful actions. The husbandman, says Paul, that laboureth, must\nfirst be partaker of the fruit; so he that worketh righteousness,\nmust first be blessed with a principle of righteousness (2 Tim\n2:1-6). Men must have eyes before they see, tongues before they\nspeak, and legs before they go; even so must a man be made habitually\ngood and righteous before he can work righteousness. This then is\nthe second thing. God makes a man righteous by possessing him with\na principle of righteousness; which principle is not of nature,\nbut of grace; not of man, but of God.\n\nThird. The man in the text is practically righteous, or one that\ndeclareth himself by works that are good; a virtuous, a righteous\nman, even as the tree declares by the apple or plum it beareth what\nmanner of tree it is: 'Ye shall know them by their fruits' (Matt\n7:16). Fruits show outwardly what the heart is principled with:\nshow me then thy faith, which abideth in the heart, by thy works in\na well spent life. Mark how the apostle words it, We being, saith\nhe, 'made free from sin, and become servants to God, have our fruit\nunto holiness, and the end everlasting life' (Rom 6:23).\n\nMark his order: first we are made free from sin; now that is by\nbeing justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption\nwhich is in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation\nthrough faith in his blood. Now this is God's act, without any\nregard at all to any good that the sinner has or can accomplish;\n'not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according\nto his mercy' thus he saveth us (Titus 3:5; Rom 3:24; 2 Tim 1:9).\nNow, being made free from sin, what follows? We become the servants\nof God, that is, by that turn which the Holy Ghost makes upon our\nheart when it reconciles it to the Word of God's grace. For that,\nas was said afore, is the effect of the indwelling and operation\nof the Holy Ghost. Now having our hearts thus changed by God and\nhis Word, the fruits of righteousness put forth themselves by us.\nFor as when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which is in\nour members, did bring forth fruit unto death, so now, if we are\nin the Spirit, and we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if\nso be the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, by the motions and workings\nof that we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting\nlife (Rom 8:6,9).\n\nBut now by these fruits we are neither made righteous nor good;\nfor the apple maketh not the tree good, it only declares it so to\nbe. Here therefore all those are mistaken that think to be righteous\nby doing of righteous actions, or good by doing good. A man must\nfirst be righteous, or he cannot do righteousness; to wit, that\nwhich is evangelically such. Now if a man is, and must be righteous,\nbefore he acts righteousness, then all his works are born too late\nto make him just before God; for his works, if they be right, flow\nfrom the heart of a righteous man, of a man that had, before he\nhad any good work, a twofold righteousness bestowed on him; one\nto make him righteous in the sight of God, the other to principle\nhim to be righteous before the world. 'That he might be called a\ntree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be\nglorified' (Isa 63:3).\n\nThe want of understanding of this, is that which keeps so many\nin a mist of darkness about the way of salvation. For they, poor\nhearts! when they hear of the need that they have of a righteousness\nto commend them to God, being ignorant of the righteousness of God,\nthat is, of that which God imputeth to a man, and that by which he\ncounteth him righteous, have it not in their thoughts to accept of\nthat unto justification of life. But presently betake themselves\nto the law of works, and fall to work there for the performing of\na righteousness, that they may be accepted of God for the same;\nand so submit not themselves to the righteousness of God, by which,\nand by which only, the soul stands just before God (Rom 10:1-3).\nWherefore, I say, it is necessary that this be distinctly laid\ndown. That a man must be righteous first, even before he doth\nrighteousness; the argument is plain from the order of nature: 'For\na corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit': wherefore make the\ntree good, and so his fruit good; or the tree corrupt, and his\nfruit corrupt (Luke 6:43).\n\nReason also says the same, for how can Blacks beget white children,\nwhen both father and mother are black? How can a man without grace,\nand the spirit of grace, do good; nature is defiled even to the\nmind and conscience; how then can good fruit come from such a stock?\n(Titus 1:15). Besides, God accepteth not any work of a person which\nis not first accepted of him; 'The Lord hath respect unto Abel and\nto his offering' (Gen 4:4). To Abel first, that is, before that\nAbel offered. But how could God have respect to Abel, if Abel was\nnot pleasing in his sight? and how could Abel be yet pleasing in\nhis sight, for the sake of his own righteousness, when it is plain\nthat Abel had not yet done good works? he was therefore first\nmade acceptable in the sight of God, by and for the sake of that\nrighteousness which God of his grace had put upon him to justification\nof life; through and by which also the Holy Ghost in the graces\nof it dwelt in Abel's soul. Now Abel being justified, and also\npossessed with this holy principle, he offers his sacrifice to God.\nHence it is said, that he offered 'by faith,' by the faith which\nhe had precedent to his offering; for if through faith he offered,\nhe had that faith before he offered; that is plain. Now his faith\nlooked not for acceptance for the sake of what he offered, but\nfor the sake of that righteousness which it did apprehend God had\nalready put upon him, and by which he was made righteous; wherefore\nhis offering was the offering of a righteous man, of a man made\nrighteous first; and so the text saith, 'By faith Abel offered\nunto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained\nwitness that he was righteous' (Heb 11:4); that is antecedent to\nhis offering; for he had faith in Christ to come, by which he was\nmade righteous; he also had the spirit of faith, by which he was\npossessed with a righteous principle; and so being in this manner\nmade righteous, righteous before God, and also principled to work,\nhe comes and offereth his more acceptable sacrifice to God. For\nthis, all will grant, namely, that the works of a righteous man are\nmore excellent than are even the best works of the wicked. Hence\nCain's works came behind; for God had not made him righteous, had\nno respect unto his person, had not given him the Spirit and faith,\nwhereby alone men are made capable to offer acceptably: 'But unto\nCain and to his offering, the Lord had not respect' (Gen 4:5).\n\nFrom all which it is manifest, that the person must be accepted\nbefore the duty performed can be pleasing unto God. And if the\nperson must first be accepted, it is evident that the person must\nfirst be righteous; but if the person be righteous before he doth\ngood, then it follows that he is made righteous by righteousness\nthat is none of his own, that he hath no hand in, further than to\nreceive it as the gracious gift of God. Deny this, and it follows\nthat God accepteth men without respect to righteousness; and then\nwhat follows that, but that Christ is dead in vain?\n\nWe must not therefore be deceived, 'He that doeth righteousness\nis righteous, even as he,' the Lord, 'is righteous' (1 John 3:7).\nHe doth not say he that doth righteousness shall be righteous; as\nif his doing works would make him so before God; but he that doth\nrighteousness IS righteous, antecedent to his doing righteousness.\nAnd it must be thus understood, else that which follows signifies\nnothing; for he saith, 'He that doth righteousness is righteous,\neven as he,' the Lord his God, 'is righteous.' But how is the Lord\nrighteous? Even antecedent to his works. The Lord was righteous\nbefore he wrought righteousness in the world; and even so are we,\nto wit, every child of God. 'As he is, so are we, in this world'!\n(1 John 4:17). But we must in this admit of this difference; the\nLord was eternally and essentially righteous before he did any work,\nbut we are imputatively righteous, and also made so by a second\nwork of creation, before we do good works. It holds therefore only\nas to order; God was righteous before he made the world, and we are\nrighteous before we do good works. Thus, therefore, we have described\nthe righteous man. First. He is one whom God makes righteous, by\nreckoning or imputation. Second. He is one that God makes righteous\nby possessing of him with a principle of righteousness. Third. He\nis one that is practically righteous. Nor dare I give a narrower\ndescription of a righteous man than this; nor otherwise than thus.\n\n1. I dare not give a narrower description of a righteous man than\nthis, because whoever pretends to justification, if he be not\nsanctified, pretends to what he is not; and whoever pretends to\nsanctification, if he shows not the fruits thereof by a holy life, he\ndeceiveth his own heart, and professeth but in vain (James 1:22-27).[5]\n\n2. Nor dare I give this description otherwise than thus, because\nthere is a real distinction to be put between that righteousness\nby which we should be just before God, and that which is in us a\nprinciple of sanctification; the first being the obedience of the\nSon of God without us, the second being the work of the Spirit\nin our hearts. There is also a difference to be put betwixt the\nprinciple by which we work righteousness, and the works themselves;\nas a difference is to be put betwixt the cause and the effect, the\ntree and the apple.\n\n[WHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN?]\n\nSECOND. I come now to the second thing into which we are to inquire,\nand that is,\n\nWHAT ARE THE DESIRES OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN?\n\nMy way of handling this question shall be, FIRST, To speak of the\nnature of desire in the general. SECOND, And then to show you, more\nparticularly, what are the desires of the righteous.\n\n[Desires in general.]\n\nFIRST. For the first; desires in general may be thus described:--They\nare the workings of the heart or mind, after that of which the soul\nis persuaded that it is good to be enjoyed; this, I say, is so\nwithout respect to regulation; for we speak not now of good desires,\nbut of desires themselves, even as they flow from the heart of a\nhuman creature; I say, desires are or may be called, the working of\nthe heart after this or that; the strong motions of the mind unto\nit. Hence the love of women to their husbands is called 'their\ndesires' (Gen 3:16); and the wife also is called 'the desire of\nthine' the husband's 'eyes' (Eze 24:16). Also love to woman, to make\nher one's wife, is called by the name of 'desire' (Deut 21:10,11).\nNow, how strong the motions or passions of love are, who is there\nthat is an utter stranger thereto? (Cant 8:6,7).\n\nHunger is also a most vehement thing; and that which is called\n'hunger' in one place, is called 'desire' in another; and he desired\n'to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table'\n(Luke 16:21; Psa 145:16). Exceeding lustings are called 'desires,'\nto show the vehemency of desires (Psa 106:14, 78:27-30). Longings,\npantings, thirstings, prayers, &c., if there be any life in them,\nare all fruits of a desirous soul. Desires therefore flow from the\nconsideration of the goodness, or profitableness, or pleasurableness\nof a thing; yea, all desires flow from thence; for a man desires\nnot that about which he has had no consideration, nor that neither\non which he has thought, if he doth not judge it will yield him\nsomething worth desiring.\n\nWhen Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was a beautiful tree--though\nher sight deceived her--then she desired it, and took thereof\nherself, and gave to her husband, and he did eat; yea, saith the\ntext, 'when she saw that it was a tree to be desired, to make one\nwise, she took' (Gen 3:6). Hence that which is called 'coveting'\nin one place, is called 'desiring' in another; for desires are\ncraving; and by desires a man seeks to enjoy what is not his (Exo\n20:17; Deut 5:21). From all these things, therefore, we see what\ndesire is. It is the working of the heart, after that which the\nsoul is persuaded that it is good to be enjoyed; and of them there\nare these two effects.\n\nFirst. One is--on a supposition that the soul is not satisfied\nwith what it has--to cause the soul to range and hunt through the\nworld for something that may fill up that vacancy that yet the soul\nfinds in itself, and would have supplied. Hence desires are said\nto be wandering, and the soul said to walk by them; 'Better is the\nsight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire,' or than the\nwalking of the soul (Eccl 6:8,9). Desires are hunting things, and\nhow many things do some empty souls seek after, both as to the\nworld, and also as to religion, who have desirous minds!\n\nSecond. The second effect is, If desires be strong, they carry all\naway with them; they are all like Samson, they will pull down the\ngates of a city; but they will go out abroad; nothing can stop\nthe current of desires, but the enjoyment of the thing desired, or\na change of opinion as to the worth or want of worth of the thing\nthat is desired.\n\n[What are the desires of the righteous.]\n\nSECOND. But we will now come to the thing more particularly intended,\nwhich is, To show what are the desires of the righteous; that is\nthat which the text calls us to the consideration of, because it\nsaith, 'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.'\n\nWe have hitherto spoken of desires, as to the nature of them, without\nrespect to them as good or bad; but now we shall speak to them as\nthey are the effects of a sanctified mind, as they are the breathings,\npantings, lustings, hungerings, and thirstings of a righteous man.\nThe text says 'the desire of the righteous shall be granted'; what\nthen are the desires of the righteous? Now I will, First. Speak\nto their desires in the general, or with reference to them as to\ntheir bulk. Second. I will speak to them more particularly as they\nwork this way and that.\n\n[The desires of the righteous in the general.]\n\nFirst. For their desires in the general: the same Solomon that\nsaith, 'The desire of the righteous shall be granted,' saith also,\n'The desire of the righteous is only good' (Prov 11:23). This\ntext giveth us, in the general, a description of the desires of a\nrighteous man; and a sharp and smart description it is: for where,\nmay some say, is then the righteous man, or the man that hath\nnone but good desires? and if it be answered they are good in the\nmain, or good in the general, yet that will seem to come short of\nan answer: for in that he saith 'the desires of the righteous are\nonly good,' it is as much as to say, that a righteous man has none\nbut good desires, or desireth nothing but things that are good.\nWherefore, before we go any further, I must labour to reconcile\nthe experience of good men with this text, which thus gives us a\ndescription of the desires of the righteous.\n\nA righteous man is to be considered more generally, or more strictly.\n\n1. More generally, as he consisteth of the whole man, of flesh and\nspirit, of body and soul, of grace and nature; now consider him\nthus, and you can by no means reconcile the text with his experience,\nnor his experience with the text. For as he is body, flesh, and\nnature--for all these are with him, though he is a righteous man--so\nhe has desires vastly different from those described by this text,\nvastly differing from what is good; yea, what is it not, that is\nnaught, that the flesh and nature, even of a righteous man, will not\ndesire? 'Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit\nthat dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?' (James 4:5). And again, 'In\nme, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing' (Rom 7:18). And\nagain, 'The flesh lusteth against the spirit' (Gal 5:17). And again,\nThe lusts thereof do 'war against the soul' (1 Peter 2:11).\n\nFrom all these texts we find that a righteous man has other workings,\nlusts, and desires than such only that are good; here then, if we\nconsider of a righteous man thus generally, is no place of agreement\nbetwixt him and this text. We must consider of him, then, in the\nnext place, more strictly, as he may and is to be distinguished\nfrom his flesh, his carnal lusts, and sinful nature.\n\n2. More strictly. Then a righteous man is taken sometimes as to or\nfor his best part, or as he is A SECOND CREATION; and so, or as so\nconsidered, his desires are only good.\n\n(1.) He is taken sometimes as to or for his best part, or as he is\na second creation, as these scriptures declare: 'If any man be in\nChrist, he is a new creature,--all things are become new' (2 Cor\n5:17). 'Created in Christ Jesus' (Eph 2:10). 'Born of God' (John\n3; 1 John 3:9). Become heavenly things, renewed after the image of\nhim that created them: Colossians 3:10; Hebrews 9:23 and the like.\nBy all which places, the sinful flesh, the old man, the law of sin,\nthe outward man, all which are corrupt according to the deceitful\nlusts, are excluded, and so pared off from the man, as he is\nrighteous; for his 'delight in the law of God' is 'after the inward\nman.' And Paul himself was forced thus to distinguish of himself,\nbefore he could come to make a right judgment in this matter;\nsaith he, 'That which I do, I allow not; what I would, do I not;\nbut what I hate, that do I.' See you not here how he cleaves himself\nin twain, severing himself as he is spiritual, from himself as he\nis carnal; and ascribeth his motions to what is good to himself\nonly as he is spiritual, or the new man: 'If then I do that which\nI would not, I consent to the law that it is good' (Rom 7).\n\nBut I trow, Sir, your consenting to what is good is not by that part\nwhich doth do what you would not; no, no, saith he, that which doth\ndo what I would not, I disown, and count it no part of sanctified\nPaul: 'Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth\nin me; for--in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for\nto will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good,\nI find not: for the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which\nI would not, that I do: Now, if I do that I would not, it is no\nmore I that do it, but sin that dwells in me' (Rom 7). Thus you\nsee Paul is forced to make two men of himself, saying, I and I; I\ndo; I do not; I do, I would not do; what I hate, that I do. Now it\ncannot be the same I unto whom these contraries are applied; but\nhis sinful flesh is one I, and his godly mind the other: and indeed\nso he concludes it in this chapter, saying, 'So then with the mind\nI myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.'\n\nThus therefore the Christian man must distinguish concerning himself;\nand doing so, he shall find, though he has flesh, and as he is\nsuch, he hath lusts contrary to God: yet as he is a new creature,\nhe allows not, but hates the motions and desires of the flesh, and\nconsents to, and wills and delights in the law of God (Rom 15:17-22).\nYea, as a new creature, he can do nothing else: for the new man,\ninward man, or hidden man of the heart, being the immediate work\nof the Holy Ghost, and consisting only of that which is divine\nand heavenly, cannot breathe, or act, or desire to act, in ways\nand courses that are carnal. Wherefore, in this sense, or as the\nrighteous man is thus considered, 'his desires are only good.'\n\n(2.) As the righteous man must here be taken for the best part, for\nthe I that would do good, for the I that hates the evil; so again,\nwe must consider of the desires of this righteous man, as they flow\nfrom that fountain of grace, which is the Holy Ghost within him;\nand as they are immediately mixed with those foul channels, in and\nthrough which they must pass, before they can be put forth into\nacts. For though the desire, as to its birth, and first being, is\nonly good; yet before it comes into much motion, it gathers that\nfrom the defilements of the passages through which it comes, as\nmakes it to bear a tang of flesh and weakness in the skirts of it;\nand the evil that dwells in us is so universal, and also always\nso ready, that as sure as there is any motion to what is good, so\nsure evil is present with it; 'for when' or whenever 'I would do\ngood,' says Paul, 'evil is present with me' (Rom 7:21). Hence it\nfollows, that all our graces, and so our desires, receive disadvantage\nby our flesh, that mixing itself with what is good, and so abates\nthe excellency of the good.\n\nThere is a spring that yieldeth water good and clear, but the\nchannels through which this water comes to us are muddy, foul,\nor dirty: now, of the channels the waters receive a disadvantage,\nand so come to us as savouring of what came not with them from the\nfountain, but from the channels. This is the cause of the coolness,\nand of the weakness, of the flatness, and of the many extravagancies\nthat attend some of our desires. They come warm from the Spirit and\ngrace of God in us; but as hot water running through cold pipes,\nor as clear water running through dirty conveyances, so our desires\n[cool and] gather soil.\n\nYou read in Solomon's Ecclesiastes of a time when desires fail,\nfor that 'man goeth to his long home' (Eccl 12:5). And as to good\ndesires, there is not one of them, when we are in our prime, but\nthey fail also as to the perfecting of that which a man desires to\ndo. 'To will is present with me,' says Paul, 'but how to perform\nthat which is good I find not' (Rom 7:18). To will or to desire,\nthat is present with me, but when I have willed or desired to\ndo, to perform is what I cannot attain to. But why not attain to\na performance? Why, says he, I find a law 'in my members warring\nagainst the law of my mind'; and this law takes me prisoner, and\nbrings 'me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members'\n(Rom 7:23). Now, where things willed and desired meet with such\nobstructions, no marvel if our willing and desiring, though they\nset out lustily at the beginning, come yet lame home in conclusion.\n\nThere is a man, when he first prostrates himself before God, doth\nit with desires as warm as fire coals; but erewhile he finds, for\nall that, that the metal of those desires, were it not revived with\nfresh supplies, would be quickly spent and grow cold.[6] But yet\nthe desire is good, and only good, as it comes from the breathing\nof the Spirit of God within us. We must therefore, as I said,\ndistinguish betwixt what is good and that which doth annoy it,\nas gold is to be distinguished from the earth and dross that doth\nattend it. The man that believed desired to believe better, and\nso cries out, 'Lord, help mine unbelief' (Mark 9:24). The man that\nfeared God desired to fear him better, saying, 'I desire to fear thy\nname' (Neh 1:11). But these desires failed, as to the performance\nof what was begun, so that they were forced to come off but lamely,\nas to their faith and fear they had; yet the desires were true,\ngood, and such as was accepted of God by Christ; not according to\nwhat they had not, but as to those good motions which they had.\nDistinguish then the desires of the righteous in the nature of\nthem, from that corruption and weakness of ours that cleaveth to\nthem, and then again, 'they are only good.'\n\n(3.) There is another thing to be considered, and that is, the\ndifferent frames that our inward man is in while we live as pilgrims\nin the world. A man, as he is not always well without, so neither\nis he always well within. Our inward man is subject to transient,\nthough not to utter decays (Isa 1:5). And as it is when the outward\nman is sick, strength and stomach, and lust, or desire fails, so\nit is when our inward man has caught a cold likewise (Eze 34:4).\n\nThe inward man I call the new creature, of which the Spirit of God\nis the support, as my soul supports my body. But, I say, this new\nman is not always well. He knows nothing that knows not this. Now\nbeing sick, things fail. As when a man is not in health of body,\nhis pulse beats so as to declare that he is sick; so when a man\nis not well within, his inward pulse, which are his desires--for\nI count the desires for the pulse of the inward man--they also\ndeclare that the man is not well within. They beat too little after\nGod, weak and faintly after grace; they also have their halts, they\nbeat not evenly, as when the soul is well, but so as to manifest\nall is not well there.\n\nWe read that the church of Sardis was under sore sickness, insomuch\nthat some of her things were quite dead, and they that were not so\nwere yet ready to die (Rev 3:2). Yet 'life is life,' we say, and\nas long as there is a pulse, or breath, though breath scarce able\nto shake a feather, we cast not away all hope of life. Desires,\nthen, though they be weak, are, notwithstanding, true desires, if\nthey be the desires of the righteous thus described, and therefore\nare truly good, according to our text. David says he 'opened\nhis mouth and panted,' for he longed for God's commandments (Psa\n119:131). This was a sickness, but not such a one as we have been\nspeaking of. The spouse also cried out that she was 'sick of love.'\nSuch sickness would do us good, for in it the pulse beats strongly\nwell (Cant 5:8).\n\n[Some objections answered.]\n\nObject. But it may be objected, I am yet in doubt of the goodness\nof my desires, both because my desires run both ways, and because\nthose that run towards sin and the world seem more and stronger\nthan those that run after God, and Christ, and grace.\n\nAnsw. There is not a Christian under heaven but has desires that\nrun both ways, as is manifest from what hath been said already.\nFlesh will be flesh; grace shall not make it otherwise. By flesh\nI mean that body of sin and death that dwelleth in the godly (Rom\n6:6). As grace will act according to its nature, so sin will act\naccording to the nature of sin (Eph 2:3). Now, the flesh has desires,\nand the desires of the flesh and of the mind are both one in the\nungodly; thank God it is not so in thee! (Rom 7:24). The flesh,\nI say, hath its desires in the godly; hence it is said to lust\nenviously; it lusts against the Spirit; 'The flesh lusteth against\nthe Spirit' (Gal 5:17). And if it be so audacious as to fly in the\nface of the Holy Ghost, wonder that thou art not wholly carried\naway with it! (Rom 7:25).\n\nObject. But those desires that run to the world and sin seem most\nand strongest in me.\n\nAnsw. The works of the flesh are manifest; that is, more plainly\ndiscovered even in the godly than are the works of the Holy Ghost\n(Gal 5:19). And this their manifestation ariseth from these following\nparticulars:\n\n1. We know the least appearance of a sin better by its native hue\nthan we know a grace of the Spirit. 2. Sin is sooner felt in its\nbitterness to and upon a sanctified soul than is the grace of God.\nA little aloes will be sooner tasted than will much sweet, though\nmixed therewith. 3. Sin is dreadful and murderous in the sight\nof a sanctified soul: wherefore the apprehending of that makes us\noften forget, and often question whether we have any grace or no.\n4. Grace lies deep in the hidden part, but sin lies high, and floats\nabove in the flesh; wherefore it is easier, oftener seen than is\nthe grace of God (Psa 51:6). The little fishes swim on the top of\nthe water, but the biggest and best keep down below, and so are\nseldomer seen. 5. Grace, as to quantity, seems less than sin. What\nis leaven, or a grain of mustard seed, to the bulky lump of a body\nof death (Matt 13:31-33). 6. Sin is seen by its own darkness, and\nalso in the light of the Spirit; but the Spirit itself neither\ndiscovers itself, nor yet its graces, by every glance of its own\nlight. 7. A man may have the Spirit busily at work in him, he may\nalso have many of his graces in their vigorous acts, and yet may be\ngreatly ignorant of either; wherefore we are not competent judges\nin this case. There may a thousand acts of grace pass through thy\nsoul, and thou be sensible of few, if any, of them.[7] 8. Do you\nthink that he that repents, believes, loves, fears, or humbles\nhimself before God, and acts in other graces too, doth always know\nwhat he doth? No, no; grace many times, even in a man, is acted by\nhim, unawares unto him. Did Gideon, think you, believe that he\nwas so strong in grace as he was? Nay, was he not ready to give\nthe lie to the angel, when he told him God was with him? (Judg\n6:12,13). Or what do you think of David, when he said he was cast\noff from God's eyes? (Psa 31:22). Or of Heman, when he said he was\nfree among them whom God remembered no more? (Psa 88). Did these,\nthen, see their graces so clear, as they saw themselves by their\nsins to be unworthy ones? I tell you it is a rare thing for some\nChristians to see their graces, but a thing very common for such\nto see their sins; yea, and to feel them too, in their lusts and\ndesires, to the shaking of their souls.\n\nQuest. But since I have lusts and desires both ways, how shall I\nknow to which my soul adheres?\n\nAnsw. This may be known thus: 1. Which wouldest thou have prevail?\nthe desires of the flesh, or the lusts of the spirit, whose side\nart thou of? Doth not thy soul now inwardly say, and that with\na strong indignation, O let God, let grace, let my desires that\nare good, prevail against my flesh, for Jesus Christ his sake? 2.\nWhat kind of secret wishes hast thou in thy soul when thou feelest\nthe lusts of thy flesh to rage? Dost thou not inwardly, and with\nindignation against sin, say, O that I might never, never feel one\nsuch motion more? O that my soul were so full of grace, that there\nmight be longer no room for ever for the least lust to come into\nmy thoughts! 3. What kind of thoughts hast thou of thyself, now\nthou seest these desires of thine that are good so briskly opposed\nby those that are bad? Dost thou not say, O! I am the basest of\ncreatures, I could even spew at myself? There is no man in all the\nworld in my eyes so loathsome as myself is. I abhor myself; a toad\nis not so vile as I am.[8] O Lord, let me be anything but a sinner,\nanything, so thou subduest mine iniquities for me! 4. How dost thou\nlike the discovery of that which thou thinkest is grace in other\nmen? Dost thou not cry out, O, I bless them in my heart! O, methinks\ngrace is the greatest beauty in the world! Yea, I could be content\nto live and die with those people that have the grace of God in\ntheir souls. A hundred times, and a hundred, when I have been upon\nmy knees before God, I have desired, were it the will of God, that\nI might be in their condition. 5. How art thou when thou thinkest\nthat thou thyself hast grace? O then, says the soul, I am as if I\ncould leap out of myself; joy, joy, joy then is with my heart. It\nis, methinks, the greatest mercy under heaven to be made a gracious\nman.\n\nAnd is it thus with thy soul indeed? Happy man! It is grace that\nhas thy soul, though sin at present works in thy flesh. Yea, all\nthese breathings are the very actings of grace, even of the grace\nof desire, of love, of humility, and of the fear of God within\nthee. Be of good courage, thou art on the right side. Thy desires\nare only good; for that thou hast desired against thy sin, thy\nsinful self; which indeed is not thyself, but sin that dwells in\nthee.[9]\n\n[The distinct or particular desires of the righteous.]\n\nSecond. I come next to speak of desires more distinctly, or particularly,\nas they work this way and that. First, then, the desires of the\nrighteous are either such as they would have accomplished here; or\nelse, Second, such as they know they cannot come at the enjoyment\nof till after death.\n\n[Desires that may be accomplished or enjoyed in this life.]\n\nFirst. For the first of these, the desires of the righteous are for\nsuch good things as they could have accomplished here; that is, in\nthis world, while they are on this side glory. And they, in general,\nare comprised under these two general heads:--1. Communion with their\nGod in spirit, or spiritual communion with him; 2. The liberty of\nthe enjoyment of his holy ordinances. And, indeed, this second is,\nthat they may both attain to, and have the first maintained with\nthem. But for the first:\n\n1. They desire now communion with God. 'With my soul,' said she,\n'have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me\nwill I seek thee early' (Isa 26:9). The reason of this she renders\nin the verse foregoing, saying, 'The desire of our soul is to thy\nname, and to the remembrance of thee.'\n\nNow, thus to desire, declares one already made righteous. For herein\nthere appears a mind reconciled to God. Wherefore the wicked are\nset on the other side, even in that opposition to these; 'they\nsay unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of\nthy ways' (Job 21:14). They neither love his presence, nor to be\nfrequenters of his ordinances. 'What is the Almighty that we should\nserve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?'\n(Job 21:15). So, again, speaking of the wicked, he saith, 'Ye have\nsaid it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have\nkept his ordinance?' (Mal 3:14). This, then, to desire truly to\nhave communion with God, is the property of a righteous man, of\na righteous man only; for this desire arises from a suitableness\nwhich is in the righteous unto God; 'Whom,' said the Prophet, 'have\nI in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire\nbeside thee' (Psa 73:25). This could never be the desire of a man,\nwere he not a righteous man, a man with a truly sanctified mind.\n'The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to\nthe law of God, neither indeed can be' (Rom 8:7).\n\nWhen Moses, the man of God, was with the children of Israel in the\nwilderness, he prays that God would give them his presence unto\nCanaan, or else to let them die in that place. It was death to him\nto think of being in the wilderness without God! And he said unto\nGod, 'If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence' (Exo\n33:14,15). Here, then, are the desires of a righteous man--namely,\nafter communion with God. He chooses rather to be a stranger with\nGod in the world, than to be a citizen of the world and a stranger\nto God. 'For I am,' said David, 'a stranger with thee, and a sojourner,\nas all my fathers were' (Psa 39:12). Indeed, he that walketh with\nGod is but a stranger to this world. And the righteous man's desires\nare to, for, and after communion with God, though he be so.\n\nThe reasons of these desires are many. In communion with God is life\nand favour; yea, the very presence of God with a man is a token of\nit (Psa 30:3-5). For by his presence he helps, succours, relieves,\nand supports the hearts of his people, and therefore is communion\nwith him desired. 'I will,' said David, 'behave myself wisely in\na perfect way; O when wilt thou come unto me?' (Psa 101:2). The\npleasures that such a soul finds in God that has communion with\nhim are surpassing all pleasures and delights, yea, infinitely\nsurpassing them. 'In thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right\nhand there are pleasures for evermore' (Psa 16:11). Upon this account\nhe is called the desire of all nations--of all in all nations that\nknow him. Job desired God's presence, that he might reason with\nGod. 'Surely,' said he, 'I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire\nto reason with God' (Job 13:3). And again, 'O that one would hear\nme! Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me' (Job\n31:35). But why doth Job thus desire to be in the presence of God!\nO! he knew that God was good, and that he would speak to him that\nwhich would do him good. 'Will he plead against me with his great\npower? No: but he would put strength into me. There the righteous\nmight dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my\njudge' (Job 23:6,7).\n\nGod's presence is the safety of a man. If God be with one, who can\nhurt one? As HE said, 'If God be for us, who can be against us?'\nNow, if so much safety flows from God's being for one, how safe\nare we when God is with us? 'The beloved of the Lord,' said Moses,\n'shall dwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the\nday long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders' (Deut 33:12).\nGod's presence keeps the heart awake to joy, and will make a man\nsing in the night (Job 35:10). 'Can the children of the bridechamber\nmourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?' (Matt 9:15). God's\npresence is feasting, and feasting is made for mirth (Rev 3:20;\nEccl 10:19). God's presence keeps the heart tender, and makes it\nready to fall in with what is made known as duty or privilege (Isa\n64:1). 'I will run the ways of thy commandments,' said the Psalmist,\n'when thou shalt enlarge my heart' (Psa 119:32). The presence of\nGod makes a man affectionately and sincerely good; yea, makes him\nwilling to be searched and stripped from all the remains of iniquity\n(Psa 26:1-3).\n\nWhat, what shall I say? God's presence is renewing, transforming,\nseasoning, sanctifying, commanding, sweetening, and enlightening to\nthe soul! Nothing like it in all the world; his presence supplies\nall wants, heals all maladies, saves from all dangers; is life in\ndeath, heaven in hell; all in all. No marvel, then, if the presence\nof, and communion with, God, is become the desire of a righteous\nman (Psa 26:9). To conclude this, by the presence of God being with\nus, it is known to ourselves, and to others, what we are. 'If thy\npresence,' said Moses, 'go not with me, carry us not up hence. For\nwherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found\ngrace in thy sight, is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall\nwe be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are\nupon the face of the earth' (Exo 33:15,16).\n\nThey are then best known to themselves. They know they are his\npeople, because God's presence is with them. Therefore he saith,\n'My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest' (Exo\n33:14). That is, let thee know that thou hast found grace in my\nsight, and art accepted of me. For if God withdraws himself, or\nhides his presence from his people, it is hard for them to bear\nup in the steadfast belief that they belong to him. 'Be not silent\nto me,' O Lord, said David, 'lest I become like them that go down\ninto the pit' (Psa 28:1). 'Be not silent unto me,' that is, as\nhe has it in another place, 'Hide not thy face from me. Hear me\nspeedily, O Lord,' saith he, 'my spirit faileth; hide not thy face\nfrom me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit' (Psa\n143:7). So that God's presence is the desire of the righteous for\nthis cause also, even for that by it they gather that God delighteth\nin them. 'By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine\nenemies doth not triumph over me' (Psa 41:11). And is this all? No.\n'And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest\nme before thy face for ever' (Psa 41:12).\n\nAs by the presence of God being with us we know ourselves to be\nthe people of God: so by this presence of God the world themselves\nare sometimes convinced who we are also.\n\nThus Abimelech saw that God was with Abraham (Gen 21:22). Thus\nAbimelech saw that God was with Isaac (Gen 26:20,29). Pharaoh knew\nthat God was with Joseph (Gen 41:38). Saul 'saw and knew that the\nLord was with David' (1 Sam 18:28). Saul's servant knew that the\nLord was with Samuel (1 Sam 9:6). Belshazzar's queen knew, also, that\nGod was with Daniel. Darius knew, also, that God was with Daniel.\nAnd when the enemy saw the boldness of Peter and John, 'they took\nknowledge of them that they had been with Jesus' (Acts 4:13). The\ngirl that was a witch, knew that Paul was a servant of the most\nhigh God (Acts 16:17). There is a glory upon them that have God\nwith them, a glory that sometimes glances and flashes out into the\nfaces of those that behold the people of God; 'And all that sat in\nthe council, looking stedfastly upon him, saw Stephen's face, as\nit had been the face of an angel'; such rays of Divine majesty did\nshow themselves therein (Acts 6:15).\n\nThe reason is, for that, (1.) such have with them the wisdom\nof God (2 Sam 14:17-20). (2.) Such, also, have special bowels and\ncompassions of God for others. (3.) Such have more of his majesty\nupon them than others (1 Sam 16:4). (4.) Such, their words and\nways, their carriages and doings, are attended with that of God\nthat others are destitute of (1 Sam 3:19,20). (5.) Such are holier,\nand of more convincing lives in general, than other people are (2\nKings 4:9). Now there is both comfort and honour in this; for what\ncomfort like that of being a holy man of God? And what honour like\nthat of being a holy man of God? This, therefore, is the desire\nof the righteous, to wit, to have communion with God. Indeed none\nlike God, and to be desired as he, in the thoughts of a righteous\nman.\n\n2. And this leads me to the second thing, namely, The liberty of\nthe enjoyment of his holy ordinances; for, next to God himself,\nnothing is so dear to a righteous man as the enjoyment of his holy\nordinances.\n\n'One thing,' said David, 'have I desired of the Lord, that will\nI seek after,' namely, 'that I may dwell in the house of the Lord\nall the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to\ninquire in his temple' (Psa 27:4). The temple of the Lord was the\ndwelling-house of God, there he recorded his name, and there he\nmade known himself unto his people (Psa 11:4; Habb 2:20). Wherefore\nthis was the cause why David so earnestly desired to dwell there\ntoo, 'To behold,' saith he, 'the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire\nin his temple.' There he had promised his presence to his people,\nyea, and to bring thither a blessing for them; 'In all places where\nI record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee'\n(Exo 20:24). For this cause, therefore, as I said, it is why the\nrighteous do so desire that they may enjoy the liberty of the ordinances\nand appointments of their God; to wit, that they may attain to, and\nhave communion maintained with him. Alas! the righteous are as it\nwere undone, if God's ordinances be taken from them: 'How amiable\nare thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, yea, even\nfainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth\nout for the living God' (Psa 84:1,2). Behold what a taking the good\nman was in, because at this time he could not attain to so frequent\na being in the temple of God as his soul desired. It even longed\nand fainted, yea, and his heart and his flesh cried out for the\nGod that dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem.\n\nYea, he seems in the next words to envy the very birds that could\nmore commonly frequent the temple than he: 'The sparrow,' saith\nhe, 'hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where\nshe may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my\nKing, and my God' (Psa 84:3). And then blesseth all them that had\nthe liberty of temple worship, saying, 'Blessed are they that dwell\nin thy house, they will be still praising thee' (Psa 84:4). Then\nhe cries up the happiness of those that in Zion do appear before\nGod (Psa 84:7). After this he cries out unto God, that he would\ngrant him to be partaker of this high favour, saying, 'O Lord God\nof hosts, hear my prayer,' &c. 'For a day in thy courts is better\nthan a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my\nGod, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness' (Psa 84:8-10).\n\nBut why is all this? what aileth the man thus to express himself?\nWhy, as I said, the temple was the great ordinance of God; there\nwas his true worship performed, there God appeared, and there his\npeople were to find him. This was, I say, the reason why the Psalmist\nchose out, and desired this one thing, above all the things that\nwere under heaven, even 'to behold there the beauty of the Lord,\nand to inquire in his temple.' There were to be seen the shadows\nof things in the heavens; the candlestick, the table of shewbread,\nthe holiest of all, where was the golden censer, the ark of the\ncovenant overlaid round about with gold, the golden pot that had\nmanna, Aaron's rod that budded, the tables of the covenant, and the\ncherubims of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat, which were all of\nthem then things by which God showed himself merciful to them (Heb\n9:1-5 compared with 9:23 and 8:5).\n\nDo you think that love-letters are not desired between lovers?\nWhy these, God's ordinances, they are his love-letters, and his\nlove-tokens too. No marvel then if the righteous do so desire them:\n'More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold;\nsweeter also than honey and the honey-comb' (Psa 19:10, 119:72-127).\nYea, this judgment wisdom itself passes upon these things. 'Receive,'\nsaith he, 'my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than\nchoice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies: and all the things\nthat may be desired, are not to be compared to it' (Prov 8:10,11).\nFor this cause therefore are the ordinances of God so much desired\nby the righteous. In them they meet with God; and by them they are\nbuilded, and nourished up to eternal life. 'As new born babes,'\nsays Peter, 'desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow\nthereby' (1 Peter 2:2). As milk is nourishing to children, so is\nthe word heard, read, and meditated on, to the righteous. Therefore\nit is their desire.\n\nChrist made himself known to them in breaking of bread; who,\nwho would not then, that loves to know him, be present at such an\nordinance? (Luke 24:35). Ofttimes the Holy Ghost, in the comfortable\ninfluence of it, has accompanied the baptized in the very act of\nadministering it.[10] Therefore, 'in the way of thy judgments,'\nor appointments, 'O Lord, we thy people have waited for thee: the\ndesire of their soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee'\n(Isa 26:8). Church fellowship, or the communion of saints, is the\nplace where the Son of God loveth to walk; his first walking was in\nEden, there he converted our first parents: 'And come, my beloved,'\nsays he, 'let us get up to the vineyards; let us see if the vine\nflourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates\nbud forth; there will I give thee my loves' (Cant 7:12). Church\nfellowship, rightly managed, is the glory of all the world. No place,\nno community, no fellowship, is adorned and bespangled with those\nbeauties as is a church rightly knit together to their head, and\nlovingly serving one another. 'In his temple doth every one speak\nof his glory' (Psa 29:9). Hence the church is called the place of\nGod's desire on earth. 'This is my rest for ever, here I will dwell,\nfor I have desired it' (Psa 132:13-16). And again, thus the church\nconfesseth when she saith, 'I am my beloved's, and his desire is\ntowards me' (Cant 7:10).[11]\n\nNo marvel then if this be the one thing that David desired, and\nthat which he would seek after, namely, 'to dwell in the house of\nthe Lord all the days of his life.' And this also shows you the reason\nwhy God's people of old used to venture so hardly for ordinances,\nand to get to them with the peril of their lives, 'because of the\nsword of the wilderness' (Lam 5:9).[12]\n\nThey were their bread, they were their water, they were their milk,\nthey were their honey. Hence the sanctuary was called 'the desire\nof their eyes, and that which their soul pitieth, or the pity of\ntheir soul.' They had rather have died than lost it, or than that\nit should have been burned down as it was (Eze 24:21,25).\n\nWhen the children of Israel had lost the ark, they count that\nthe glory was departed from Israel. But when they had lost all,\nwhat a complaint made they then! 'He hath violently taken away\nhis tabernacles, as if it were of a garden, he hath destroyed his\nplaces of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and\nsabbaths to be forgotten in Sion, and hath despised, in the indignation\nof his anger, the king and the priest' (Lam 2:6). Wherefore, upon\nthis account, it was that the church in those days counted the\npunishment of her iniquity greater than the punishment of Sodom\n(Lam 4:6; 1 Sam 4:22).\n\nBy these few hints you may perceive what is the 'desire of the\nrighteous.' But this is spoken of with reference to things present,\nto things that the righteous desire to enjoy while they are here;\ncommunion with God while here; and his ordinances in their purity\nwhile here. I come, therefore, in the second place, to show you\nthat the righteous have desires that reach further, desires that\nhave so long a neck as to look into the world to come.\n\n[Desires that can only be accomplished or enjoyed in eternity.]\n\nSecond. Then the desires of the righteous are after that which\nyet they know cannot be enjoyed till after death. And those are\ncomprehended under these two heads--1. They desire that presence of\ntheir Lord which is personal. 2. They desire to be in that country\nwhere their Lord personally is, that heavenly country.\n\n1. [They desire that presence of their Lord which is personal.] For\nthe first of these, says Paul, 'I have a desire to depart, and to\nbe with Christ.' Thus you have it in Philippians 1:23, 'I have a\ndesire to be with Christ.'\n\nIn our first sort of desires, I told you that the righteous desired\nspiritual communion with God; and now I tell you they desire to\nbe with Christ's person--'I have a desire to be with Christ'; that\nis, with his person, that I may enjoy his personal presence, such\na presence of his as we are not capable to enjoy while here. Hence\nhe says, 'I have a desire to depart, that I might be with him;\nknowing,' as he says in another place, 'that whilst we are at home\nin the body, we are,' and cannot but be, 'absent from the Lord' (2\nCor 5:6). Now this desire, as I said, is a desire that hath a long\nneck; for it can look over the brazen wall of this, quite into\nanother world; and as it hath a long neck, so it is very forcible\nand mighty in its operation.\n\n(1.) This desire breeds a divorce, a complete divorce, betwixt\nthe soul and all inordinate love and affections to relations and\nworldly enjoyments. This desire makes a married man live as if he\nhad no wife; a rich man lives as if he possessed not what he has,\n&c. (1 Cor 7:29,30). This is a soul-sequestering desire. This desire\nmakes a man willing rather to be absent form all enjoyments, that\nhe may be present with the Lord. This is a famous desire; none hath\nthis desire but a righteous man. There are that profess much love\nto Christ, that yet never had such a desire in them all their life\nlong. No, the relation that they stand in to the world, together\nwith those many flesh-pleasing accommodations with which they are\nsurrounded, would never yet suffer such a desire to enter into\ntheir hearts.\n\n(2.) The strength of this desire is such, that it is ready, so\nfar forth as it can, to dissolve that sweet knot of union that is\nbetwixt body and soul, a knot more dear to a reasonable creature\nthan that can be which is betwixt wife and husband, parent and\nchild, or a man and his estate. For even 'all that a man hath will\nhe give for his life,' and to keep body and soul firmly knit together.\nBut now, when this desire comes, this 'silver cord is loosed'; is\nloosed by consent. This desire grants to him that comes to dissolve\nthis union leave to do it delightfully. 'We are confident and\nwilling rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with\nthe Lord' (2 Cor 5:8). Yea, this desire makes this flesh, this mortal\nlife, a burden. The man that has this desire exercises self-denial,\nwhile he waits till his desired change comes. For were it not\nthat the will of God is that he should live, and did he not hope\nthat his life might be serviceable to the truth and church of God,\nhe would not have wherewith to cool the heart of this desire, but\nwould rather, in a holy passion with holy Job, cry out, 'I loathe,'\nor I abhor it, 'I would not live alway: let me alone,' that I may\ndie, 'for my days are vanity' (Job 7:15-17).\n\n(3.) The strength of this desire shows itself in this also, namely,\nin that it is willing to grapple with the king of terrors, rather\nthan to be detained from that sweet communion that the soul looks\nfor when it comes into the place where its Lord is. Death is not\nto be desired for itself; the apostle chose rather to be clothed\nupon with his house which is from heaven, 'that mortality might be\nswallowed up of life' (2 Cor 5:1-4). But yet, rather than he would\nbe absent from the Lord, he was willing to be absent from the body.\nDeath, in the very thoughts of it, is grievous to flesh and blood;\nand nothing can so master it in our apprehensions as that by which\nwe attain to these desires. These desires do deal with death, as\nJacob's love to Rachel did deal with the seven long years which he\nwas to serve for her. It made them seem few, or but a little time;\nnow so, I say, doth these desires deal with death itself. They\nmake it seem little, nay, a servant, nay, a privilege; for that,\nby that a man may come to enjoy the presence of his beloved Lord.\n'I have a desire to depart,' to go from the world and relations,\nto go from my body, that great piece of myself; I have a desire to\nventure the tugs and pains, and the harsh handling of the king of\nterrors, so I may be with Jesus Christ! These are desires of the\nrighteous.\n\nAre not these therefore strong desires? is there not life and mettle\nin them? have they not in them power to loose the bands of nature,\nand to harden the soul against sorrow? flow they not, think you,\nfrom faith of the finest sort, and are they not bred in the bosom\nof a truly mortified soul? are these the effects of a purblind\nspirit? are they not rather the fruits of an eagle-eyed confidence?\nO these desires! they are peculiar to the righteous; they are none\nothers but the desires of the righteous.\n\nQuest. But why do the righteous desire to be with Christ?\n\nAnsw. And I ask, Why doth the wife--that is, as the loving hind--love\nto be in the presence of her husband?\n\n1. Christ in glory is worth the being with. If the man out of whom\nthe Lord Jesus did cast a legion, prayed that he might be with him,\nnotwithstanding all the trials that attended him in this life, how\ncan it be but that a righteous man must desire to be with him now\nhe is in glory? What we have heard concerning the excellency of\nhis person, the unspeakableness of his love, the greatness of his\nsufferings, and the things that he still is doing for us, must\nneeds command our souls into a desire to be with him. When we have\nheard of a man among us that has done for us some excellent thing,\nthe next thing that our hearts doth pitch upon is, I would I could\nset mine eyes upon him. But was ever heard the like to what Jesus\nChrist has done for sinners? who then that hath the faith of\nhim can do otherwise but desire to be with him? It was that which\nsome time comforted John, that the time was coming that he should\nsee him (1 John 3:2). But that consideration made him bray like a\nhart,[13] to hasten the time that he might set his eyes upon him\nquickly (Rev 22:20). To see Jesus Christ, then, to see him as he\nis, to see him as he is in glory, is a sight that is worth going\nfrom relations, and out of the body, and through the jaws of death\nto see; for this is to see him head over all, to see him possessed\nof heaven for his church, to see him preparing of mansion-houses\nfor those his poor ones that are now by his enemies kicked to and\nfro, like footballs in the world; and is not this a blessed sight?\n\n2. I have a desire to be with him, to see myself with him; this is\nmore blessed still; for, for a man to see himself in glory, this\nis a sight worthy seeing. Sometimes I look upon myself, and say,\nWhere am I now? and do quickly return answer to myself again, Why,\nI am in an evil world, a great way from heaven; in a sinful body,\namong devils and wicked men; sometimes benighted, sometimes beguiled,\nsometimes fearing, sometimes hoping, sometimes breathing, sometimes\ndying, and the like. But then I turn the tables, and say, But\nwhere shall I be shortly? where shall I see myself anon, after a\nfew times more have passed over me? And when I can but answer this\nquestion thus--I shall see myself with Jesus Christ; this yields\nglory, even glory to one's spirit now: no marvel, then, if the\nrighteous desire to be with Christ.\n\n3. I have a desire to be with Christ; there the spirits of the just\nare perfected; there the spirits of the righteous are as full as\nthey can hold (Heb 12:23). A sight of Jesus in the Word, some know\nhow it will change them from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18), but how\nthen shall we be changed and filled, when we shall see him as he\nis? 'When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see\nhim as he is' (1 John 3:2). Moses and Elias appeared to Peter, and\nJames, and John, at the transfiguration of Christ, in glory. How\nso? Why, they had been in the heavens, and came thence with some\nof the glories of heaven upon them. Gild a bit of wood, yea, gild\nit seven times over, and it must not compare in difference to wood\nnot gilt, to the soul that but a little while has been dipped in\nglory! Glory is a strange thing to men that are on this side of\nthe heavens; it is that which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor\nentered into the heart of man to conceive of; only the Christian\nhas a Word and Spirit that at times doth give a little of the\nglimmering thereof unto him. But O! when he is in the Spirit, and\nsees in the Spirit, do you think his tongue can tell? But, I say,\nif the sight of heaven, at so vast a distance, is so excellent\na prospect, what will it look like when one is in it? No marvel,\nthen, if the desires of the righteous are to be with Christ.\n\nObject. But if this be the character of a righteous man, to desire\nto depart and to be with Christ, I am none of them, for I never\nhad such a desire in my heart; no, my fears of perishing will not\nsuffer me either to desire to die to be with Christ, nor that Christ\nshould come to judge the world.\n\nAnsw. Though thine is a case that must be excepted, for that thy\ndesires may not as yet be grown so high; yet if thou art a righteous\nman, thy heart has in it the very seeds thereof. There are therefore\ndesires, and desires to desire; as one child can reach so high, and\nthe other can but desire to do so. Thou, if thou art a righteous\nman, hast desires, these desires ready to put forth into act,\nwhen they are grown a little stronger, or when their impediment is\nremoved. Many times it is with our desires as it is with saffron,[14]\nit will bloom and blossom, and be ripe, and all in a night. Tell\nme, dost thou not desire to desire? Yea, dost thou not vehemently\ndesire to desire to depart and to be with Christ? I know, if thou\nart a righteous man, thou dost. There is a man sows his field with\nwheat, but as he sows, soon it is covered with great clods; now,\nthat grows as well as the rest, though it runs not upright as yet;\nit grows, and yet is kept down, so do thy desires; and when one\nshall remove the clod, the blade will soon point upwards.\n\nI know thy mind; that which keeps thee that thou canst not yet arrive\nto this--to desire to depart and to be with Christ, is because some\nstrong doubt or clod of unbelief, as to thy eternal welfare, lies\nhard upon thy desiring spirit. Now let but Jesus Christ remove\nthis clod, and thy desires will quickly start up to be gone. I say,\nlet but Jesus Christ give thee one kiss, and with his lips, as he\nkisses thee, whisper to thee the forgiveness of thy sins, and thou\nwilt quickly break out, and say, Nay then, Lord, let me die in\npeace, since my soul is persuaded of thy salvation!\n\nThere is a man upon the bed of languishing; but O! he dares not\ndie, for all is not as he would have it betwixt God and his poor\nsoul; and many a night he lies thus in great horror of mind; but\ndo you think that he doth not desire to depart? Yes, yes, he also\nwaits and cries to God to set his desires at liberty. At last\nthe visitor comes and sets his soul at ease, by persuading of him\nthat he belongs to God: and what then? 'O! now let me die, welcome\ndeath!' Now he is like the man in Essex, who, when his neighbour\nat his bedside prayed for him that God would restore him to health,\nstarted up in his bed, and pulled him by the arm, and cried out,\nNo, no, pray that God will take me away, for to me it is best to\ngo to Christ.\n\nThe desires of some good Christians are pinioned, and cannot stir,\nespecially these sort of desires; but Christ can and will cut the\ncord some time or other: and then thou that wouldst shalt be able\nto say, 'I have a desire to depart, and to be with Jesus Christ.'\nMeantime, be thou earnest to desire to know thy interest in the\ngrace of God; for there is nothing short of the knowledge of that\ncan make thee desire to depart, that thou mayest be with Christ.\nThis is that that Paul laid as the ground of his desires to be gone:\n'We know,' says he, 'that if our earthly house of this tabernacle\nwere dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with\nhands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly\ndesiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven'\n(2 Cor 5:1,2). And know, that if thy desires be right they will\ngrow as other graces do, from strength to strength; only in this\nthey can grow no faster than faith grows as to justification, and\nthen hope grows as to glory. But we will leave this and come to\nthe second thing.\n\n2. [They desire to be in that country where their Lord personally\nis.] As the righteous men desire to be present with Jesus Christ,\nso they desire to be with him in that country where he is: 'But\nnow they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore\nGod is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared\nfor them a city' (Heb 11:14-16). 'But now they desire a better\ncountry.' Here is a comparison. There was another country, to wit,\ntheir native country, the country from whence they came out, that\nin which they left their friends and their pleasures for the sake\nof another world, which, indeed, is a better country, as is manifest\nfrom its character. 'It is an heavenly.' As high as heaven is above\nthe earth, so much better is that country which is a heavenly, than\nis this in which now we are.\n\nA heavenly country, where there is a heavenly Father (Matt 6:14-16,\n15:13, 18:35), a heavenly host (Luke 2:13), heavenly things (John\n3:12), heavenly visions (Acts 26:19), heavenly places (Eph 1:3,20),\na heavenly kingdom (2 Tim 4:18), and the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb\n12:22), for them that are partakers of the heavenly calling (Heb\n3:1), and that are the heavenly things themselves (Heb 9:23). This\nis a country to be desired, and therefore no marvel if any, except\nthose that have lost their wits and senses, refuse to choose\nthemselves an habitation here. Here is the 'Mount Zion, the city of\nthe living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and an innumerable company\nof angels: here is the general assembly and church of the firstborn,\nand God the Judge of all, and Jesus, and the spirits of just men\nmade perfect' (Heb 12:22-24). Who would not be here? This is the\ncountry that the righteous desire for a habitation: 'but now they\ndesire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is\nnot ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them\na city' (Heb 11:16).\n\nMark, they desire a country, and God prepareth for them a city; he\ngoes beyond their desires, beyond their apprehensions, beyond what\ntheir hearts could conceive to ask for. There is none that are\nweary of this world from a gracious disposition that they have to\nan heavenly, but God will take notice of them, will own them, and\nnot be ashamed to own them; yea, such shall not lose their longing.\nThey desire a handful, God gives them a seaful; they desire a\ncountry, God prepares for them a city; a city that is an heavenly;\na city that has foundation, a city whose builder and maker is God\n(Heb 11:10; Rev 3:12). And all this is, that the promise to them\nmight be fulfilled,, 'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.'\nAnd this is the last thing propounded to be spoken to from the\ntext. Therefore,\n\n[WHAT IS MEANT BY GRANTING THESE DESIRES.]\n\nTHIRD. We then, in conclusion, come to inquire into WHAT IS MEANT,\nor to be understood, BY THE GRANTING OF THE RIGHTEOUS THEIR DESIRES;\n'The desire of the righteous shall be granted.'\n\nFIRST. To grant is to yield to what is desired, to consent that it\nshall be even so as is requested: 'The Lord hear thee in the day of\ntrouble, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help\nfrom the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion, remember all\nthy--sacrifices: grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfil\nall thy counsel' (Psa 20:1-4). SECOND. To grant is to accomplish\nwhat is promised; thus God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto\nlife, namely, for that he had promised it by the prophets from the\ndays of old (Acts 11:18; Rom 15:9-12). THIRD. To grant, therefore,\nis an act of grace and condescending favour; for if God is said to\nhumble himself when he beholds things in heaven, what condescension\nis it for him to hearken to a sinful wretch on earth, and to tell\nhim, Have the thing which thou desireth. A wretch, I call him, if\ncompared to him that hears him, though he is a righteous man, when\nconsidered as the new creation of God. FOURTH. To grant, then, is\nnot to part with the thing desired, as if a desire merited, purchased,\nearned, or deserved it, but of bounty and goodwill, to bestow the\nthing desired upon the humble. Hence God's grants are said to be\ngracious ones (Psa 119:29). FIFTH. I will add, that to grant is\nsometimes taken for giving one authority or power to do, or possess,\nor enjoy such and such privileges; and so it may be taken here: for\nthe righteous has a right to a power, to enjoy the things bestowed\non them by their God. So, then, to grant is to give, to accomplish,\neven of free grace, the desire of the righteous.\n\nThis is acknowledged by David, where he saith to God, 'Thou hast\ngiven him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request\nof his lips' (Psa 21:2). And this is promised unto all that delight\nthemselves in God, 'Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall\ngive thee the desires of thy heart' (Psa 37:4). And again, 'He will\nfulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their\ncry, and will save them' (Psa 145:19). By all these places it\nis plain, that the promise of granting desires is entailed to the\nrighteous, and also that the grant to them is an act of grace and\nmercy. But it also follows, that though the desires of the righteous\nare not meritorious, yet they are pleasing in his sight; and this\nis manifest several ways, besides the promise of a grant of them.\n\nFirst. In that the desires of God, and the desires of the righteous,\njump or agree in one, they are of one mind in their desires: God's\ndesire is to the work of his hands, and the righteous are for\nsurrendering that up to him. 1. In giving up the heart unto him;\n'My son,' says God, 'give me thy heart' (Prov 23:26). 'I lift my\nsoul to thee,' says the righteous man (Psa 25:1, 86:4; Lam 3:41).\nHere, therefore, there is an agreement between God and the righteous;\nit is, I say, agreed on both sides that God should have the heart:\nGod desires it, the righteous man desires it, yea, he desires it\nwith a groan, saying, 'Incline my heart unto thy testimony' (Psa\n119:36). 'Let my heart be sound in thy statutes' (Psa 119:80). 2.\nThey are also agreed about the disposing of the whole man: God is\nfor body, and soul, and spirit; and the righteous desires that God\nshould have it all. Hence they are said to give themselves to the\nLord (2 Cor 8:5), and to addict themselves to his service (1 Cor\n15:16). 3. God desireth truth in the inward parts, that is, that truth\nmay be at the bottom of all (Psa 51:6,16), and this is the desire\nof the righteous man likewise: 'Thy word have I hid in my heart,'\nsaid David, 'that I might not sin against thee' (Psa 119:11). 4.\nThey agree in the way of justification, in the way of sanctification,\nin the way of preservation, and in the way of glorification, to wit,\nwhich way to come at and enjoy all: wherefore, who should hinder\nthe righteous man, or keep him back from enjoying the desire of\nhis heart? 5. They also agree about the sanctifying of God's name\nin the world, saying, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'\nThere is a great agreement between God and the righteous; 'he that\nis joined to the Lord is one spirit' (1 Cor 6:17). No marvel, then,\nif their desires in the general, so far as the righteous man doth\nknow the mind of his God, are one, consequently their desires must\nbe granted, or God must deny himself.\n\nSecond. The desires of the righteous are the life of all their prayers;\nand it is said, 'The prayer of the upright is God's delight.'\n\nJesus Christ put a difference betwixt the form and spirit that is\nin prayer, and intimates the soul of prayer is in the desires of\na man; 'Therefore,' saith he, 'I say unto you, What things soever\nye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall\nhave them' (Mark 11:24). If a man prays never so long, and has never\nso many brave expressions in prayer, yet God counts it prayer no\nfurther than there are warm and fervent desires in it, after those\nthings the mouth maketh mention of. David saith, 'Lord, all my\ndesire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee' (Psa\n38:9). Can you say you desire, when you pray? or that your prayers\ncome from the braying, panting, and longing of your hearts? If not,\nthey shall not be granted: for God looks, when men are at prayer,\nto see if their heart and spirit is in their prayers; for he counts\nall other but vain speaking. Ye shall seek me, and find me, says\nhe, when you shall search for me with all your heart (Rom 8:26,27;\nMatt 6:7; Jer 29:12). The people that you read of in 2 Chronicles\n15 are there said to do what they did 'with all their heart, and\nwith all their soul.' 'For they sought God with their whole desire'\n(2 Chron 15:11-15). When a man's desires put him upon prayer, run\nalong with him in his prayer, break out of his heart and ascend up\nto heaven with his prayers, it is a good sign that he is a righteous\nman, and that his desire shall be granted.\n\nThird. By desire a righteous man shows more of his mind for God,\nthan he can by any manner of way besides; hence it is said, 'The\ndesire of man is his kindness, and a poor man,' that is sincere\nin his desires, 'is better than' he that with his mouth shows much\nlove, if he be 'a liar' (Prov 19:22).\n\nDesires, desires, are copious things; you read that a man may 'enlarge\nhis desire as hell' (Habb 2:5), that is, if they be wicked; yea,\nand a righteous man may enlarge his desires as heaven (Psa 73:25).\nNo grace is so extensive as desires. Desires out-go all. Who believes\nas he desires to believe? and loves as he desires to love? and\nfears as he desires to fear God's name? (Neh 1:11). Might it be\nas a righteous man doth sometimes desire it should be, both with\nGod's church, and also with his own soul, stranger things would be\nthan there are; faith, and love, and holiness, would flourish more\nthan it does! O! what does a righteous man desire? What do you think\nthe prophet desired, when he said, 'O that thou wouldest rend the\nheavens and--come down?' (Isa 54:1). And Paul, when he said, he\ncould wish that himself were accursed from Christ, for the vehement\ndesire that he had that the Jews might be saved? (Rom 9:1-3, 10:1).\nYea, what do you think John desired, when he cried out to Christ\nto come quickly?\n\nLove to God, as I said, is more seen in desires than in any Christian\nact. Do you think that the woman with her two mites cast in all\nthat she desired to cast into the treasury of God? Or do you think,\nwhen David said that he had prepared for the house of God with\nall his might, that his desires stinted when his ability was at\nits utmost? (1 Chron 29). No, no; desires go beyond all actions;\ntherefore I said it is the desires of a man that are reckoned for\nhis kindness. Kindness is that which God will not forget; I mean the\nkindness which his people show to him, especially in their desires\nto serve him in the world. When Israel was come out of Egypt, you\nknow how many stumbles they had before they got to Canaan. But\nforasmuch as they were willing or desirous to follow God, he passes\nby all their failures, saying, 'I remember thee,' and that almost\na thousand years after,[15] 'the kindness of thy youth, the love\nof thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness,\nin a land that was not sown' (Jer 2:2). Israel was holiness to the\nLord, and the first fruits of his increase. There is nothing that\nGod likes of ours better than he likes our true desires. For indeed\ntrue desires, they are the smoke of our incense, the flower of\nour graces, and the very vital part of our new man. They are our\ndesires that ascend, and they that are the sweet of all the sacrifices\nthat we offer to God. The man of desires is the man of kindness.\n\nFourth. Desires, true and right desires, they are they by which a\nman is taken up from the ground, and brought away to God, in spite\nof all opposers. A desire will take a man upon its back, and carry\nhim away to God, if ten thousand men stand by and oppose it. Hence\nit is said, that 'through desire a man having separated himself,'\nto wit, from what is contrary to the mind of God, and so 'seeketh\nand intermeddleth with all wisdom' (Prov 18:1).\n\nAll convictions, conversions, illuminations, favours, tastes,\nrevelations, knowledge, and mercies, will do nothing if the soul\nabides without desires. All, I say, is but like rain upon stones,\nor favours bestowed upon a dead dog. O! but a poor man with desires,\na man that sees but little, that knows but little, that finds in\nhimself but little, if he has but strong desires, they will supply\nall. His desires take him up from his sins, from his companions,\nfrom his pleasures, and carry him away to God. Suppose thou wast\na minister, and wast sent from God with a whip, whose cords were\nmade of the flames of hell, thou mightest lash long enough before\nthou couldest so much as drive one man that abides without desires\nto God, or to his kingdom, by that thy so sore a whip. Suppose again\nthat thou wast a minister, and wast sent from God to sinners with\na crown of glory in thy hand, to offer to him that first comes to\nthee for it; yet none can come without desires: but desire takes\nthe man upon its back, and so brings him to thee.[16] What is the\nreason that men will with mouth commend God, and commend Christ,\nand commend and praise both heaven and glory, and yet all the while\nfly from him, and from his mercy, as from the worst of enemies?\nWhy, they want good desires; their desires being mischievous, carry\nthem another way. Thou entreatest thy wife, thy husband, and the\nson of thy womb, to fall in with thy Lord and thy Christ, but they\nwill not. Ask them the reason why they will not, and they know\nnone, only they have no desires. 'When we shall see him, there is\nno beauty in him that we should desire him' (Isa 53:1-3). And I\nam sure if they do not desire him, they can by no means be made to\ncome to him.\n\nBut now, desires, desires that are right, will carry a man quite\naway to God, and to do his will, let the work be never so hard.\nTake an instance or two for this.\n\nYou may see it in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The text says plainly,\nthey were not mindful of that country from whence they came out,\nthrough their desires of a better (Heb 11:8-16). God gave them\nintimation of a better country, and their minds did cleave to it\nwith desires of it; and what then? Why, they went forth, and desired\nto go, though they did not know whither they went. Yea, they all\nsojourned in the land of promise, because it was but a shadow of\nwhat was designed for them by God, and looked to by their faith,\nas in a strange country; wherefore they also cast that behind their\nback, looking for that city that had foundations, of which mention\nwas made before. Had not now these men desires that were mighty?\nThey were their desires that thus separated them from their dearest\nand choice relations and enjoyments. Their desires were pitched upon\nthe heavenly country, and so they broke through all difficulties\nfor that.\n\nYou may see it in Moses, who had a kingdom at his foot, and was\nthe alone visible heir thereof; but desire of a better inheritance\nmade him refuse it, and choose rather to take part with the people\nof God in their afflicted condition, than to enjoy the pleasures\nof sin for a season. You may say, the Scripture attributes this\nto his faith. I answer, so it attributes to Abraham's faith his\nleaving of his country. But his faith begat in him these desires\nafter the country that is above. So indeed Moses saw these things\nby faith; and therefore his faith begat in him these desires. For\nit was because of his desires that he did refuse, and did choose as\nyou read. And here we may opportunely take an opportunity to touch\nupon the vanity of that faith that is not breeding, and that knows\nnot how to bring forth strong desires of enjoying what is pretended to\nbe believed; all such faith is false. Abraham's, Isaac's, Jacob's,\nand Moses' faith, bred in them desires, strong desires; yea, desires\nso strong as to take them up, and to carry them after what, by\ntheir faith, was made known unto them. Yea, their desires were so\nmightily set upon the things made known to them by their faith, that\nneither difficulties nor dangers, nor yet frowns nor flatteries,\ncould stop them from the use of all lawful attempts of enjoying what\nthey believed was to be had, and what they desired to be possessed\nof.\n\nThe women also that you read of, and others that would not, upon\nunworthy terms, accept of deliverance from torments and sundry\ntrials, that they might,, or because they had a desire to, be made\npartakers of a better resurrection. 'And others,' saith he, 'had\ntrial of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds\nand imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were\ntempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep\nskins, and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of\nwhom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, and in\nmountains, and caves of the earth' (Heb 11:35-38).\n\nBut we will come to the Lord Jesus himself. Whither did his desires\nbring him? Whither did they carry him? and to what did they make\nhim stoop? For they were his desires after us, and after our good,\nthat made him humble himself to do as he did (Cant 7:10). What\nwas it, think you, that made him cry out, 'I have a baptism to be\nbaptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished'!\n(Luke 12:50). What was that baptism but his death? and why did\nhe so long for it, but of desire to do us good? Yea, the passover\nbeing to be eaten on the even of his sufferings, with what desires\ndid he desire to eat it with his disciples? (Luke 22:15). Yea, his\ndesires to suffer for his people made him go with more strength to\nlay down his life for them than they, for want of them, had to go\nto see him suffer. And they were in their way going up to Jerusalem,\nhe to suffer, and they to look on, 'And Jesus went before them,\nand they were amazed, and as they followed, they were afraid' (Mark\n10:32; Matt 20:17).\n\nI tell you, desires are strange things, if they be right; they\njump with God's mind; they are the life of prayer; they are a man's\nkindness to God, and they which will take him up from the ground,\nand carry him away after God to do his will, let the work be never\nso hard. Is it any marvel, then, if the desires of the righteous\nare so pleasing to God as they are, and that God has so graciously\npromised that the desires of the righteous shall be granted? But\nwe come now to\n\n[THE USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\nTHE FIRST USE SHALL BE A USE OF INFORMATION. You have heard what\nhath been said of desires, and what pleasing things right desires\nare unto God. But you must know that they are the desires of his\npeople, of the righteous, that are so. No wicked man's desires are\nregarded (Psa 112:10). This men must be informed of, lest their\ndesires become a snare to their souls. You read of a man whose\n'desire killeth him' (Prov 21:25). And why? but because he rests in\ndesiring, without considering what he is, whether such a one unto\nwhom the promise of granting desires is made; he coveteth greedily\nall the day long, but to little purpose. The grant of desires, of\nthe fulfilling of desires, is entailed to the righteous man. There\nare four sorts of people that desire, that desire the kingdom of\nheaven; consequently, desires have a fourfold root from whence they\nflow.\n\nFirst. The natural man desires to be saved, and to go to heaven\nwhen he dies. Ask any natural man, and he will tell you so. Besides,\nwe see it is so with them, especially at certain seasons. As when\nsome guilt or conviction for sin takes hold upon them; or when some\nsudden fear terrifies them; when they are afraid that the plague\nor pestilence will come upon them, and break up house-keeping for\nthem; or when death has taken them by the throat, and is hauling\nthem down stairs to the grave. Them, O then, 'Lord, save me, Lord,\nhave mercy upon me; good people, pray for me! O! whither shall I\ngo when I die, if sweet Christ has not pity for my soul?' And now\nthe bed shakes, and the poor soul is as loath to go out of the body,\nfor fear the devil should catch it, as the poor bird is to go out\nof the bush, while it sees the hawk waits there to receive her.\nBut the fears of the wicked, they must come upon the wicked; they\nare the desires of the righteous that must be granted. Pray, take\ngood notice of this. And to back this with the authority of God,\nconsider that scripture, 'The wicked man travaileth with pain all\nhis days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. A\ndreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall\ncome upon him. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall\nprevail against him as a king ready to the battle' (Job 15:20-24).[17]\n\nCan it be imagined that when the wicked are in this distress,\nbut that they will desire to be saved? Therefore he saith again,\n'Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away\nin the night. The east wind,' that blasting wind, 'carrieth him\naway, and he departeth, and as a storm hurleth him out of' the\nworld, 'his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare'; in\nflying 'he would fain fly out of his hand' (Job 27:20-23). Their\nterrors and their fears must come upon them: their desires and\nwishes for salvation must not be granted (Isa 65:13, 66:4). 'They\nshall call upon me,' says God, 'but I will not answer; they shall\nseek me early, but they shall not find me' (Prov 1:28).\n\nSecond. There is the hypocrite's desire. Now his desire seems\nto have life and spirit in it. Also he desires, in his youth, his\nhealth, and the like; yet it comes to naught. You shall see him\ndrawn to the life in Mark 10:17. He comes running and kneeling,\nand asking, and that, as I said, in youth and health; and that is\nmore than men merely natural do. But all to no purpose; he went as\nhe came, without the thing desired. The conditions propounded were\ntoo hard for this hypocrite to comply withal (Mark 10:21,22).[18]\nSome indeed make a great noise with their desires over some again\ndo; but in conclusion all comes to one, they meet together there\nwhere they go, whose desires are not granted.\n\n'For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained' to\na higher strain of desires, 'when God taketh away his soul?' 'Will\nGod hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?' (Job 27:8,9). Did\nhe not, even when he desired life, yet break with God in the day\nwhen conditions of life were propounded to him? Did he not, even\nwhen he asked what good things were to be done that he might have\neternal life, refuse to hear or to comply with what was propounded\nto him? How then can his desires be granted, who himself refused\nto have them answered? No marvel then if he perishes like his own\ndung, if they that have seen him shall say they miss him among\nthose that are to have their desires granted.\n\nThird. There are the desires of the cold formal professor; the\ndesires, I say, of him whose religion lies in a few of the shells\nof religion; even as the foolish virgins who were content with\ntheir lamps, but gave not heed to take oil in their vessels. These\nI take to be those whom the wise man calls the slothful: 'The soul\nof the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the\ndiligent shall be made fat' (Prov 13:4). The sluggard is one that\ncomes to poverty through idleness--that contents himself with forms:\n'that will not plough' in winter 'by reason of the cold; therefore\nshall he beg in harvest,' or at the day of judgment, 'and have\nnothing' (Prov 20:4).\n\nThus you see that there are many that desire; the natural man, the\nhypocrite, the formalist, they all desire. For heaven is a brave\nplace, and nobody would go to hell. 'Lord, Lord, open to us,' is\nthe cry of many in this world, and will be the cry of more in the\nday of judgment. Of this therefore thou shouldst be informed; and\nthat for these reasons:--\n\nBecause ignorance of this may keep thee asleep in security, and\ncause thee to fall under such disappointments as are the worst,\nand the worst to be borne. For, for a man to think to go to heaven\nbecause he desires it, and when all is done to fall into hell, is\na frustration of the most dismal complexion. And yet thus it will\nbe when desires shall fail, 'when man goes to his long home, and\nwhen the mourners go about the streets' (Eccl 12:5). Because, as\nwas said before, else thy desires, and that which should be for thy\ngood, will kill thee. They kill thee at death, when thou shalt find\nthem every one empty. And at judgment, when thou shalt be convinced\nthat thou oughtest to go without what thou desirest, because thou\nwast not the man to whose desires the promise was made, nor the\nman that didst desire aright. To be informed of this is the way to\nput thee upon such sense and sight of thy case as will make thee\nin earnest betake thyself in that way to him that is acceptable,\nwho grants the desires of the righteous. And then shalt thou be\nhappy when thou shunnest to desire as the natural man desireth,\nas the hypocrite desireth, or as the formalist desireth. When thou\ndesirest as the righteous do, thy desire shall be granted.\n\nTHE SECOND USE IS OF EXAMINATION. If this be so, then what cause\nhast thou that art conscious to thyself that thou art a desiring\nman to examine thyself whether thou art one whose desires shall be\ngranted? For to what purpose should a man desire, or what fruits\nwill desire bring him whose desires shall not be granted? Such a\nman is but like to her that longs, but loses her longing; or like\nto him that looks for peace while evil overtakes him.\n\nThou hast heard it over and over that the grant of desires belong\nto the righteous: shouldst thou then not inquire into thy condition,\nand examine thyself whether thou art a righteous man or no? The\napostle said to the Corinthians, 'Examine yourselves whether ye be\nin the faith; prove your own selves; know you not--how that Jesus\nChrist is in you, except ye be reprobates?' (2 Cor 13:5). You may\nbe reprobates and not be aware of it, if you do not examine and\nprove your own selves. It is therefore FOR THY LIFE, wherefore do\nnot deceive thyself. I have given you before a description of a\nrighteous man, namely, that he is one made so of God by imputation--by\nan inward principle, and one that brings forth fruit to God. Now,\nthis last thou mayst think thou hast; for it is easy and common for\nmen to think when they bring forth fruit to themselves, that they\nbring it forth to God. Wherefore examine thyself.\n\nFirst. Art thou righteous? If thou sayest, Yea; I ask, How comest\nthou righteous? If thou thinkest that obedience to the law of\nrighteousness has made thee so, thou art utterly deceived; for he\nthat thus seeks righteousness, yet is not righteous, because he\ncannot, by so doing, attain that thing he seeketh for (Rom 9:31,32).\nDid not I tell thee before, that a man must be righteous before he\ndoth one good work, or he can never be righteous? The tree must be\ngood first, even before it brings forth one good apple.\n\nSecond. Art thou righteous? In whose judgment art thou righteous?\nIs it in the judgment of God, or of man? If not of God, it is no\nmatter though all the men on earth should justify thee; thou for\nthat art no whit the more righteous.\n\nThird. Art thou righteous in the judgment of God? Who told thee so?\nor dost thou but dream thereof? Indeed, to be righteous in God's\nsight is that, and only that, which can secure a man from wrath\nto come; for 'if God justifies, who is he that condemns?' (Rom\n8:33,34). And this only is the man whose desires shall be granted.\n\nFourth. But still, I say, the question is, How comest thou to know\nthat thou art righteous in the judgment of God? Dost thou know by\nwhat it is that God makes a man righteous? Dost thou know where\nthat is by or with which God makes a man righteous? and also how\nGod doth make a man righteous with it? These are questions, in the\nanswer of which thou must have some heavenly skill, or else all that\nthou sayest about thy being righteous will seem without a bottom.\n\nFifth. Now, if thou answerest, That that which makes me righteous\nis the obedience of Christ to his Father's will, that this righteousness\nis before the throne of God, and that it is made mine by an act of\nGod's free grace; I shall ask thee yet again,\n\nSixth. How camest thou to see thy need of this righteousness? And\nby what is this righteousness by thee applied to thyself? For this\nrighteousness is bestowed upon those that see their need thereof.\nThis righteousness is the refuge whereto the guilty fly for succour,\nthat they may be sheltered from the wrath to come. Hast thou then\nfled, or dost thou indeed fly to it? (Heb 6:16-19).\n\nSeventh. None flies to this righteousness for life, but those who\nfeel the sentence of condemnation by God's law upon their conscience;\nand that in that extremity have sought for righteousness first\nelsewhere, but cannot find it in all the world.\n\nEighth. For man, when he findeth himself at first a sinner, doth\nnot straightway betake himself for righteousness to God by Christ;\nbut, in the first place, seeks it in the law on earth, by labouring to\nyield obedience thereto, to the end he may, when he stands before\nGod at death and judgment, have something to commend him to him, and\nfor the sake of which he may at least help forward his acceptance\nwith him.\n\nNinth. But being wearied out of this, and if God loves him he will\nweary him out of it, then he looks unto heaven and cries to God\nfor righteousness; the which God shows him in his own good time he\nhath reckoned to him, for the sake of Jesus Christ.\n\nTenth. Now by this very discovery the heart is also principled\nwith the spirit of the gospel; for the Spirit comes with the gospel\ndown from heaven to such an one, and fills his soul with good; by\nwhich he is capacitated to bring forth fruit, true fruit, which are\nthe fruits of righteousness imputed, and of righteousness infused,\nto the glory and praise of God.\n\nEleventh. Nor can anything but faith make a man see himself thus\nmade righteous; for this righteousness is revealed from faith\nto faith, from the object of faith to the grace of faith, by the\nSpirit of faith. A faithless man, then, can see this no more than\na blind man can see colours; nor relish this, no more than a dead\nman tasteth victuals. As, therefore, blind men talk of colours, and\nas dead men relish food, so do carnal men talk of Jesus Christ; to\nwit, without sense or savour; without sense of the want, or savour\nof the worth and goodness of him to the soul.\n\nTwelfth. Wherefore, I say, it is of absolute necessity that with\nthy heart thou deal in this point, and beware of self-deceiving;\nfor if thou fail here, thy desires will fail thee for ever: 'for\nthe desire of the righteous,' and that only, 'must be granted.'\n\nTHE THIRD USE IS CAUTIONARY. Let me here, therefore, caution thee\nto beware of some things, by which else, perhaps, thou mayest\ndeceive thyself.\n\nFirst. Take heed of taking such things for grants of desires, that\naccidentally fall out; accidentally, I mean, as to thy desires; for\nit is possible that that very thing that thou desirest may come to\npass in the current of providence, not as an answer of thy desires.\nNow, if thou takest such things for a grant of thy desires, and\nconsequently concludest thyself a righteous man, how mayest thou\nbe deceived? The ark of God was delivered into the hand of the\nPhilistines, which they desired; but not for the sake of their\ndesires, but for the sins of the children of Israel. The land of\nCanaan was given unto Israel, not for the sake of their desires,\nbut for the sins of those whom God cast out before them; and to\nfulfil the promise that God, before they were born, had made unto\ntheir fathers (Deut 9:5,6). Israel was carried away captive out of\ntheir own land, not to fulfil the desires of their enemies, but to\npunish them for their transgressions. These, with many of smaller\nimportance, and more personal, might be mentioned, to show that\nmany things happen to us, some to our pleasing, and some to the\npleasing of our enemies; which, if either we or they should count\nthe returns of our prayer, or the fruits of our desires, and so\ndraw conclusions of our estate to be for the future happy, because\nin such things we seemed to be answered of God, we might greatly\nswerve in our judgments, and become the greatest at self-deceiving.\n\nSecond. Or shouldest thou take it for granted that what thou enjoyest\nthou hast it as the fruit of thy desires; yet if the things thou\nboast of are things pertaining to this life, such may be granted\nthee as thou art considered of God as his creature, though thyself\nart far enough off from being a righteous man. 'Thou openest\nthy hand,' says the Psalmist, 'and satisfiest the desire of every\nliving thing' (Psa 145:16). Again, 'He feeds the young ravens that\ncry to him; and the young lions seek their meat from God' (Psa\n147:9, 104:21). Cain, Ishmael, Ahab too, had in some things their\ndesires granted them of God (Gen 4:14,15, 21:17,18; 1 Kings 21:29).\nFor if God will hear the desire of the beast of the field, the\nfishes of the sea, and of the fowls of heaven; no marvel if the\nwicked also may boast him of his heart's desire (Psa 10:3). Into\nwhose hand, as he saith in another place, 'God bringeth abundantly.'\nTake heed, therefore, neither these things, nor the grant of them,\nare any signs that thou art a righteous man, or that the promise\nmade to the righteous in granting their desires are accomplished\nupon thee. I think a man may say, that the men that know not God\nhave a fuller grant, I mean generally, of their desires of temporal\nthings, than has the child of God himself; for his portion lying\nin better things, his desires are answered another way.\n\nThird. Take heed, God grants to some men their desires in anger,\nand to their destruction. He gave to some 'their own desire,' 'but\nsent leanness into their soul' (Psa 78:29, 106:15; Jer 42:22). All\nthat God gives to the sons of men, he gives not in mercy; he gives\nto some an inferior, and to some a superior portion; and yet so also\nhe answereth them in the joy of their heart. Some men's hearts are\nnarrow upwards, and wide downwards; narrow as to God, but wide for\nthe world; they gape for the one, but shut themselves up against\nthe other; so as they desire they have of what they desire; 'whose\nbelly thou fillest with thy hid treasure,' for that they do desire;\nbut 'as for me,' said David, these things will not satisfy, 'I\nshall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness' (Psa 17:14,15).\n\nI told you before, that the heart of a wicked man was widest downward,\nbut it is not so with the righteous: therefore the portion of Jacob\nis not like them; God has given to him himself. The temple that\nEzekiel saw in the vision was still widest upward; it spread itself\ntoward heaven (Eze 41:7). So is the church, and so is the righteous,\nand so are his desires. Thy great concern, therefore, is to consider,\nsince thou art confident that God also heareth thy desires; I say,\nto consider, whether he answereth thee in his anger; for if he doth\nso, thy desires come with a woe; therefore, I say, look to thyself.\nA full purse and a lean soul, is a sign of a great curse. 'He gave\nthem their desire, but he sent leanness into their soul.' Take\nheed of that; many men crave by their desires, as the dropsical man\ncraves drink; his drinking makes his belly swell big, but consumes\nother parts of his body. O! it is a sad grant, when the desire is\ngranted, only to make the belly big, the estate big, the name big;\nwhen even by this bigness the soul pines, is made to dwindle, to\ngrow lean, and to look like an anatomy.\n\nI am persuaded that it is thus with many, who, while they were lean\nin estates, had fat souls; but the fattening of their estates has\nmade their souls as to good, as lean as a rake. They cannot now\nbreathe after God; they cannot now look to their hearts; they cannot\nnow set watch and ward over their ways; they cannot now spare time\nto examine who goes out, or who comes in. They have so much their\ndesires in things below, that they have no leisure to concern\nthemselves with, or to look after things above; their hearts are\nnow as fat as grease; their eyes do now too much start out, to be\nturned and made to look inward (Psa 119:70, 83:7). They are now\nbecome, as to their best part, like the garden of the slothful, all\ngrown over with nettles and briars, that cover the face thereof;\nor, like Saul, removed from a little estate, and low condition, to\nmuch, even worse and worse. Men do not know what they do in desiring\nthings of this life, things over and above what are necessary;\nthey desire them, and they have them with a woe. 'Surely he shall\nnot feel quietness in his belly,' his belly is taken for his conscience\n(Prov 20:27). 'He shall not save of that which he desired,' to\nhelp him in an evil day (Job 20:20, 1 Tim 6:17-19).\n\nI shall not here give my caution to the righteous, but shall reserve\nthat for the next use. But, O! that men were as wise in judging\nof the answering of the desires, as they are in judging of the\nextravagancies of their appetites. You shall have a man even from\nexperience reclaim himself from such an excess of eating, drinking,\nsmoking, sleeping, talking, or pleasurable actions, as by his\nexperience he finds is hurtful to him, and yet all this may but hurt\nthe body, at least the body directly; but how blind, how unskilled\nare they in the evils that attend desires! For, like the man in\nthe dropsy, made mention of before, they desire this world, as he\ndoth drink, till they desire themselves quite down to hell. Look to\nit, therefore, and take heed; God's granting the things pertaining\nto this life unto thee, doth neither prove that thou art righteous,\nnor that he acts in mercy towards thee, by giving of thee thy\ndesires.\n\nTHE FOURTH USE IS FOR ENCOURAGEMENT. Is it so? shall the desire\nof the righteous be granted? Then this should encourage them that\nin the first place have sought the kingdom of God and his Son's\nrighteousness, to go on in their desires. God has given thee his\nSon's righteousness to justify thee; he has also, because thou art\na son, sent forth the Spirit of his Son into thy heart to sanctify\nthee, and to help thee to cry unto him, Father, Father. Wilt thou\nnot cry? wilt thou not desire? thy God has bidden thee 'open thy\nmouth wide'; he has bid thee open it wide, and promised, saying,\n'And I will fill it'; and wilt thou not desire? (Psa 81:10). O! thou\nhast a licence, a leave, a grant to desire; wherefore be not afraid\nto desire great mercies of the God of heaven; this was Daniel's\nway, and he set others to do it too (Dan 2:18).\n\nObject. But I am an unworthy creature.\n\nAnsw. That is true; but God gives to no man for his worthiness,\nnor rejects any for their sinfulness, that come to him sensible of\nthe want and worth of mercy for them. Besides, I told thee before,\nthat the desires of a righteous man, and the desires of his God,\ndo jump or agree. God has a desire to thee; thou hast a desire to\nhim (Job 14:15). God desires truth in the inward parts, and so dost\nthou with all thy heart (Psa 5:1-6; Hosea 6:5). God desires mercy,\nand to show it to the needy; that is it thou also wantest, and that\nwhich thy soul craves at his hand. Seek, man, ask, knock, and do\nnot be discouraged; the Lord grant all thy desires. Thou sayest\nthou art unworthy to ask the biggest things, things spiritual\nand heavenly; well, will carnal things serve thee, and answer the\ndesires of thy heart? Canst thou be content to be put off with a\nbelly well filled, and a back well clothed? O! better I never had\nbeen born!\n\nSee, thou wilt not ask the best, and yet canst not make shift without\nthem. Shift, no, no shift without them; I am undone without them,\nundone for ever and ever, sayest thou; well then desire; so I do,\nsayest thou. Ah! but desire with more strong desires, desire with\nmore large desires, desire spiritual gifts, covet them earnestly,\nthou hast a licence too to do so (1 Cor 14:1). God bids thee do\nso; and I, says the apostle, 'desire that ye faint not' (Eph 3:13),\nthat is, in the prosecution of your desires, what discouragements\nsoever you may meet with in the way; for he hath said, 'The desire\nof the righteous shall be granted.'\n\nObject. But I find it not so, says one: for though I have desired\nand desired, a thousand times upon my knees, for something that\nI want, yet I have not my desire; and indeed the consideration of\nthis hath made me question whether I am one of those to whom the\npromise of granting desires is made.\n\nAnsw. To this objection many things must be replied. First. By way\nof question. Second. Then by way of answer.\n\nFirst. By way of question; what are the things thou desirest, are\nthey lawful or unlawful? for a Christian may desire unlawful things;\nas the mother of Zebedee's children did when she came to Christ,\nnay, her sons themselves had their hearts therein, saying, 'Master,\nwe would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire'\n(Mark 10:35; Matt 20:20). They came with a wide mouth, but their\ndesire was unlawful, as is evident, for that Christ would not grant\nit. James also himself caught those unto whom he wrote, in such\na fault as this, where he says, 'Ye kill, and desire to have, and\ncannot obtain' (James 4:2).\n\nThere are four things that are unlawful to be desired. To desire\nthe life of thine enemy is unlawful (1 Kings 3:11; Deut 5:21). To\ndesire anything that is thy neighbour's is unlawful. To desire to\nshare in the prosperity of the wicked is unlawful (Psa 73:3). To\ndesire spiritual things for evil ends is unlawful (Prov 24:1,19;\nJames 4:2-4).\n\nAre they lawful things which thou desirest? Yet the question is, Are\nthey absolutely or conditionally promised? If absolutely promised,\nhold on in desiring; if conditionally promised, then thou must\nconsider whether they are such as are essential to the well-being\nof thy soul in thy Christian course in this life. Or whether they\nare things that are of a more inferior sort.\n\nIf they are such as are essential to the well-being of thy soul in\nthy Christian course in this world, then hold on in thy desires;\nand look also for the conditions that that word calls for, that\nproffereth them to thee; and if it be not possible to find them\nin thyself, look for them in Christ, and cry to God for them, for\nthe Lord's sake. But if they be of an inferior sort, and thou canst\nbe a good Christian without them, desire them, and yet be content\nto go without them; for who knows but it may be better that thou\nshouldest be denied, than that thou shouldest have now a grant of\nsome things thou desirest? and herein thou hast thy Lord for thy\npattern; who, though he desired that his life might be prolonged,\nyet wound up that prayer with a 'nevertheless, not my will, but\nthine be done' (Matt 26:39-42; Mark 14:36).\n\nSecond. By way of answer; but we will suppose that the thing thou\ndesirest is good; and that thy heart may be right in asking; as\nsuppose thou desirest more grace; or as David has it, more 'truth\nin the inward and hidden part' (Psa 51:6). Yet there are several\nthings for thy instruction, may be replied to thy objection, as,\n\n1. Thou, though thou desirest more of this, mayest not yet\nbe sensible of the worth of what thou askest, as perhaps God will\nhave thee be, before he granteth thy desire; sometimes Christians\nask for good things without having in themselves an estimate\nproportionable to the worth of what they desire; and God may hold\nit therefore back, to learn them to know better the worth and\ngreatness of that thing they ask for. The good disciples asked they\nknew not what (Mark 10:38). I know they asked what was unlawful,\nbut they were ignorant of the value of that thing; and the same may\nbe thy fault when thou askest for things most lawful and necessary.\n\n2. Hast thou well improved what thou hast received already? Fathers\nwill hold back more money, when the sons have spent that profusely\nwhich they had received before. 'He that is faithful in that which\nis least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the\nleast, is unjust also in much.' 'And if ye have not been faithful\nin that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is\nyour own?' (Luke 16:10,12). See here an objection made against a\nfurther supply, or rather against such a supply as some would have,\nbecause they have misspent, or been unfaithful in what they have\nalready had. If thou, therefore, hast been faulty here, go, humble\nthyself to thy friend, and beg pardon for thy faults that are past,\nwhen thou art desiring of him more grace.\n\n3. When God gives to his the grant of their desires, he doth it so\nas may be best for our advantage; now there are times wherein the\ngiving of grace may be best to our advantage; as, (1.) Just before\na temptation comes, then, if it rains grace on thee from heaven,\nit may be most for thy advantage. This is like God's sending of\nplenty in Egypt just before the years of famine came. (2.) For God\nto restrain that which thou desirest, even till the spirit of prayer\nis in a manner spent, may be further to inform thee, that though\nprayer and desires are a duty, and such also to which the promise\nis made; yet God sees those imperfections in both thy prayers and\ndesires, as would utterly bind his hands, did he not act towards\nthee merely from motives drawn from his own bowels and compassion,\nrather than from any deserving that he sees in thy prayers.\nChristians, even righteous men, are apt to lean too much to their\nown doings; and God, to wean them from them, ofttimes defers to do\nwhat they by doing expect, even until in doing their spirits are\nspent, and they as to doing can do no longer. When they that cried\nfor water had cried till their spirits failed, and their tongue\nclave to the roof of their mouth for thirst; then the Lord did\nhear, and then the God of Israel did give them their desire. Also\nwhen Jonas his soul fainted under the consideration of all the\nevils that he had brought upon himself; then his prayer came unto\nGod into his holy temple (Jonah 2:7; Isa 41:17,18). The righteous\nwould be too light in asking, and would too much overprize their\nworks, if their God should not sometimes deal in this manner with\nthem. (3.) It is also to the advantage of the righteous, that they\nbe kept and led in that way which will best improve grace already\nreceived, and that is, when they spin it out and use it to the\nutmost; when they do with it as the prophet did with that meal's\nmeat that he ate under the juniper-tree, 'he went in the strength\nof that meat forty days and forty nights, even to the mount of\nGod' (1 Kings 19:8). Or when they do as the widow did, spend upon\ntheir handful of flour in the barrel, and upon that little oil in\nthe cruse, till God shall send more plenty (1 Kings 17:9-16). The\nrighteous are apt to be like well fed children, too wanton, if God\nshould not appoint them some fasting days. Or they would be apt to\ncast away fragments, if God should give them every day a new dish.\nSo then God will grant the desires of the righteous in that way\nwhich will be most for their advantage. And that is, when they have\nmade the best of the old store (1 Kings 19:4-8). If God should give\nus two or three harvests in a year, we should incline to feed our\nhorse and hogs with wheat; but being as it is, we learn better to\nhusband the matter.\n\nBy this means, we are also made to see, that there is virtue\nsufficient in our old store of grace to keep us with God in the way\nof our duty, longer than we could imagine it would. I myself have\ncried out I can stand no longer, hold out no longer, without a\nfurther supply of grace; and yet I have by my old grace been kept\neven after this, days, and weeks, and months, in a way of waiting\non God. A little true grace will go a great way, yea, and do more\nwonders than we are aware of. If we have but grace enough to keep\nus groaning after God, it is not all the world that can destroy\nus.[19]\n\n4. Perhaps thou mayest be mistaken. The grace thou prayest for,\nmay in great measure be come unto thee. Thou hast been desiring of\nGod, thou sayest, more grace; but hast it not.\n\nBut how, if whilst thou lookest for it to come to thee at one door,\nit should come to thee in at another? And that we may a little\ninquire into the truth of this, let us a little consider what are\nthe effects of grace in its coming to the soul, and then see if\nit has not been coming unto thee almost ever since thou hast set\nupon this fresh desire after it. (1.) Grace, in the general effect\nof it, is to mend the soul, and to make it better disposed. Hence\nwhen it comes, it brings convincing light along with it, by which\na man sees more of his baseness than at other times. More, I say,\nof his inward baseness. It is through the shinings of the Spirit\nof grace that those cobwebs and stinks that yet remain in thee are\ndiscovered: 'In thy light shall we see light.' And again, whatsoever\nmakes manifest is light. If then thou seest thyself more vile than\nformerly, grace by its coming to thee has done this for thee. (2.)\nGrace, when it comes, breaks and crumbles the heart, in the sense\nand sight of its vileness. A man stands amazed and confounded in\nhimself; breaks and falls down on his face before God; is ashamed\nto lift up so much as his face to God, at the sight and apprehension\nof how wicked he is. (3.) Grace, when it comes, shows to a man\nmore of the holiness and patience of God; his holiness to make\nus wonder at his patience, and his patience to make us wonder at\nhis mercy, that yet, even yet, such a vile one as I am, should be\nadmitted to breathe in the land of the living, yea more, suffered\nto come to the throne of grace. (4.) Grace is of a heart-humbling\nnature: it will make a man count himself the most unworthy of\nanything, of all saints. It will make a man put all others afore\nhim, and be glad too, if he may be one beloved, though least beloved,\nbecause most unworthy. It will make him with gladness accept of\nthe lowest room, as counting all saints more worthy of exaltation\nthan himself. (5.) Grace will make a man prize other men's graces\nand gracious actions above his own. As he thinks every man's candle\nburns brighter than his, every man improves grace better than he,\nevery good man does more sincerely his duty than he. And if these\nbe not some of the effects of the renewings of grace, I will confess\nI have taken my mark amiss. (6.) Renewings of grace beget renewed\nself-bemoanings, self-condemnation, self-abhorrences.\n\nAnd say thou prayest for communion with, and the presence of God.\nGod can have communion with thee, and grant thee his presence,\nand all this shall, instead of comforting of thee at present, more\nconfound thee, and make thee see thy wickedness (Isa 6:1-5). Some\npeople think they never have the presence and the renewings of\nGod's grace upon them but when they are comforted, and when they\nare cheered up; when, alas! God may be richly with them, while they\ncry out, By these visions my sorrows are multiplied; or, because\nI have seen God, I shall die (Dan 10:8-17; Judg 13:22).\n\nAnd tell me now, all these things considered, has not grace, even\nthe grace of God, which thou hast so much desired, been coming\nto thee, and working in thee in all these hidden methods? And so\ndoing, has it not also accommodated thee with all the aforenamed\nconveniences? The which when thou considerest, I know thou wouldest\nnot be without for all the good of the world. Thus, therefore,\nthy desire is accomplishing; and when it is accomplished, will be\nsweet to thy soul (Prov 13:19).\n\n5. But we will follow thee a little in the way of thy heart. Thou\nsayest thou desirest, and desirest grace, yea, hast been a thousand\ntimes upon thy knees before God for more grace, and yet thou canst\nnot attain. I answer,\n\n(1.) It may be the grace which thou prayest for, is worthy thy being\nupon thy knees yet a thousand times more. We find, that usually\nthey that go to king's courts for preferment, are there at great\nexpenses; yea, and wait a great while, even until they have spent\ntheir whole estates, and worn out their patience too. Yet they at\nlast prevail, and the thing desired comes. Yea, and when it is come,\nit sets them up anew, and makes them better men--though they did\nspend all that they had to obtain it--than ever they were before.\nWait, therefore, wait, I say, on the Lord (Psa 27:14). Wait therefore\nwith David, wait patiently; bid thy soul cheer up, and wait (Psa\n37:7, 62:5). 'Blessed are all they that wait for him' (Isa 30:18).\n\n(2.) Thou must consider, that great grace is reserved for great\nservice; thou desirest abundance of grace, thou dost well, and thou\nshalt have what shall qualify and fit thee for the service that\nGod has for thee to do for him, and for his name in the world. The\napostles themselves were to stay for great grace until the time\nof their work was come (Acts 1:4-8, 4:33). I will not allot thy\nservice, but assure thyself, when thy desire cometh, thou wilt have\noccasion for it; new work, new trials, new sufferings, or something\nthat will call for the power and virtue of all the grace thou shalt\nhave to keep thy spirit even, and thy feet from slipping, while\nthou art exercised in new engagements. Assure thyself, thy God will\nnot give thee straw, but he will expect brick: 'For unto whomsoever\nmuch is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men\nhave committed much, of him they will ask the more' (Luke 12:48).\nWherefore, as thou art busy in desiring more grace, be also desirous\nthat wisdom to manage it with faithfulness may also be granted unto\nthee. Thou wilt say, Grace, if I had it, will do all this for me.\nIt will, and will not. It will, if thou watch and be sober; it will\nnot, if thou be foolish and remiss. Men of great grace may grow\nconsumptive in grace, and idleness may turn him that wears a plush\njacket into rags.[20] David was once a man of great grace, but his\nsin made the grace which he had to shrink up, and dwindle away, as\nto make him cry out, O! 'take not thy holy spirit' utterly 'from\nme' (Psa 51:11, 119:8). Or, perhaps God withholds what thou wouldest\nhave, that it may be the more prized by thee when it comes: 'Hope\ndeferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is\na tree of life' (Prov 13:12).\n\n6. Lastly, but dost thou think that thy more grace will exempt thee\nfrom temptations? Alas! the more grace, as was hinted, the greater\ntrials. Thou must be, for all that, like the ship of which thou\nreadest, sometimes high, sometimes low; sometimes steady, sometimes\nstaggering; sometimes in, and sometimes even at the end of thy very\nwits. For 'so he brings us to our desired haven' (Psa 107:23-30).\nYet grace is the gold and preciousness of the righteous man: yea,\nand herein appears the uprightness of his soul, in that though all\nthese things attend the grace of God in him, yet he chooseth grace\nhere above all, for that it makes him the more like God and his\nChrist, and for that it seasons his heart best to his own content;\nand also for that it capacitates him to glorify God in the world.\n\n[THE CONCLUSION.]\n\nIs it so? Is this the sum of all, namely, That 'the fear of the\nwicked it shall come upon him,' and that 'the desire of the righteous\nshall be granted?' Then this shows us what is determined concerning\nboth. Concerning the wicked, that all his hopes shall not bring him\nto heaven; and concerning the righteous, that all his fears shall\nnot bring him to hell. But what a sad thing is it for one to be a\nwicked man! Nothing can help him, his wickedness is too strong for\nhim: 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he\nshall be holden with the cords of his sins' (Prov 5:22). He may\ntwist and twine, and seek to work himself from under the sentence\npassed upon him; but all will do him no pleasure: 'the wicked is\ndriven away in his wickedness. But the righteous hath hope in his\ndeath' (Prov 14:32). Loth he is to be righteous now; and as loth he\nwill be to be found in his sins at the dreadful day of doom. But\nso it must be: 'Upon the wicked God shall rain snares, fire, and\nbrimstone, and a horrible' burning 'tempest: this shall be the\nportion of their cup' (Psa 11:6).\n\n'Woe unto the wicked' therefore: 'it shall be ill with him, for the\nreward of his hands shall be given him' (Isa 3:10). The just God\nwill recompense both the righteous and the wicked, even according\nto their works. And yet for all this the wicked will not hear! When\nI read God's Word, and see how the wicked follow their sins, yea,\ndance in the ways of their own destruction, it is astonishing to\nme. Their actions declare them, though not Atheists in principle,\nyet such in practice.[21] What do all their acts declare, but this,\nthat they either know not God, or fear not what he can do unto\nthem? But, O! how will they change their note, when they see what\nwill become of them! How wan will they look! Yea, the hair of their\nheads will stand on end for fear; for their fear is their portion;\nnor can their fears, nor their prayers, nor their entreaties, nor\ntheir wishes, nor their repentings, help them in this day. And thus\nhave I showed you what are the 'desires of the righteous,' and that\nthe 'fear of the wicked shall come upon him, but the desire of the\nrighteous shall be granted.'\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] How blessed are those whose light shines so clearly as to be\nknown and read of all men. A brand plucked from the burning bears\nthe marks of fire, but is not consuming.--Ed.\n\n[2] 'A very Abraham,' or an Abraham cove. Cant terms formerly\napplied to poor silly half-naked men, or to sturdy beggars. Thus\nthe fraternity of Vacabondes, 1575, describes them:--'An Abraham man\nis he that walketh bare-armed or bare-legged, and fayneth hymselfe\nmad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a stycke with baken on it, or\nsuche lyke toy, and nameth poore Tom.' Shakespeare alludes to them\nunder the name of Bedlam Beggars.--Ed.\n\n[3] To possess with or of; to cause to possess or to be possessed\nwith--\n\n\n    'At the port (Lord) he give her to thy hand,\n    And by the way possesse thee what she is.'\n            Troylus and Cressida, act 4, s. 4.\n\n    __________ 'thou hast given me to possess\n    Life in myself for ever.'\n            Milton's Paradise Lost, book iii, 243.\n\n\n[4] Establishes our opinions, or fixes them in us. 'Our young men\nbeing principled by these new philosophers.'--Cudworth.\n\n\n   'A Parliament so principled will sink\n    All ancient schools of empire in disgrace.'\n            Dr. Young.--Ed.\n\n\n[5] Where is the man, except he be a willful perverter of Divine\ntruth, who can charge the doctrines of grace with licentiousness?\nAll hope of election or predestination arises from conformity to the\nimage of Christ. Vain is hope except it is founded upon redemption\nfrom the curse, to walk in newness and holiness of life; equally\nvain is a hope founded on the wicked assumption of man to the power\nof forgiveness of sin.--Ed.\n\n[6] This is admirably illustrated by the Interpreter in the Pilgrim's\nProgress. He shows Christian a fire burning against the wall, and\none standing by it, always casting much water upon it to quench it,\nyet did the fire burn higher and hotter. Christian wonders until\nhe is taken behind the wall, and sees Christ secretly pouring the\noil of grace into the fire. Before Bunyan had been behind the wall,\nhe was scared by the father of lies, who suggested to him--'You are\nvery hot for mercy, but I will cool you, though I be seven years\nin chilling your heart.' Grace Abounding, No. 118.--Ed.\n\n[7] As we escape a thousand bodily dangers unseen and unknown\nto us in time, so, doubtless, acts of grace pass through the soul\nwithout our being sensible of them, although they may be the means\nof saving us from severe tribulations. How wondrous will be the\nreview of our lives when we shall see face to face, and know all\nthings.--Ed.\n\n[8] However disgusting the appearance of a toad may be, this\nis not the first time that Bunyan considered sin as rendering its\nslave more loathsome even than a toad. 'Now I blessed,' said he,\n'the condition of the dog and the toad, and counted the state of\neverything that God had made far better than this state of mine.'\nGrace Abounding, No. 104.--Ed.\n\n[9] 'This inward conflict between opposing principles constitutes\nthe very distinction between the regenerate and the unregenerate,\nand forms part of the recorded experience of the most advanced,\nand elevated, and spiritually-minded believers. Freedom from this\nconflict is not to be expected here by any child of God.'--Dr.\nWardlaw.\n\n[10] This is one of the very few instances, if not the only one,\nin which Bunyan's attachment to believers' baptism appears, except\nwhen writing expressly upon the subject. Of all men, he was the\nmost eminent for non-sectarian feelings, arising from his soul\nbeing so baptized into Christ as to leave no room for controversy\nupon ceremonial observances. I feel bound to confirm the truth of\nhis observation, for if ever I enjoyed a heaven upon earth, it was\non the Lord's day morning, when, publicly professing my faith in\nthe Redeemer, I was solemnly baptized. Nor have I ever witnessed\nthis ceremony since without the strongest emotions of love, and\njoy, and hope.--Ed.\n\n[11] Church fellowship, rightly managed, abounds with blessings,\nwhen the bishops or elders and the people are united in gospel\nbonds to promote each other's peace and holy enjoyments--their great\nhappiness being to extend the benign influence of the Redeemer's\nkingdom. Let Watchful be the porter; Discretion admit the members;\nPrudence take the oversight; Piety conduct the worship; and Charity\nendear the members to each other, and it is a house 'beautiful.'\n'Christians are like the several flowers in a garden; they have\nupon each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken, they let\nfall at each other's roots, and are jointly nourished and nourishers\nof each other.' Bunyan's Pilgrim and Christian Behaviour.--Ed.\n\n[12] Blessed be God the sword is for the present sheathed. Marvellous\nwas the indomitable courage of the martyrs under papacy, and, in\na later day, of the Scottish Covenanters. They saw their friends\nand ministers tortured and murdered--the pain of the boots must have\nbeen inconceivable--the bones of their legs were crushed between\npieces of iron, and, even when death had released the victim, savage\nbarbarity was practised upon his mutilated remains; the head and\nhands were cut off and exhibited upon a pike, the hands fixed as\nin the attitude of prayer, to mock the holiest duty. Can we wonder\nthat lambs became lions, overthrew the horrid enemy, and drove out\nState Episcopacy for ever?--Ed.\n\n[13] The noise made by animals of the stag or hart species is\ncalled, by Goldsmith, bellowing. It strikes the ear as something\nbeneath the dignity of a hart to bray like an ass. Bunyan found\nthe word in the margin of Psalm 42:1, 'The hart panteth.' Heb.\n'Brayeth, after the water brooks.'--Ed.\n\n[14] Saffron was formerly cultivated near Bunyan's residence,\nbut, although sold at a very high price, it scarcely paid for its\nexpense. In the flowering season, it was needful to gather the\nflowers every morning as they came to perfection.--Ed.\n\n[15] The Israelites entered the wilderness fourteen hundred and\nninety-one years before Christ. The prophecy of Jeremiah was delivered\nsix hundred and twenty-nine years before Christ. This remembrance\nwas eight hundred and sixty-two years after that memorable event.\nWith God there can be no forgetfulness; a thousand years in his\nsight are but as yesterday.--Ed.\n\n[16] How striking the contrast, but yet how true! A whip, whose\ncords were made of the flames of hell, could no more arouse a sinner\ndead in trespass and sins than a crown of glory could allure him.\nWith all the dread realities of the world to come pressed upon the\nconscience by a faithful minister, still, alas! how many maintain\ntheir downward course. The duty is ours to prophesy upon the dry\nbones. God and his gracious Spirit alone can raise them up to holy,\nhappy enjoyments.--Ed.\n\n[17] This language is as expressive and original as it is like\nBunyan. Death takes the sinner by the throat, and 'hands him down\nstairs to the grave.' The indulgence in any sinful propensity has\nthis downward, deathly tendency. Every lust, whether for riches or\nhonours, for gambling, wine, or women, leads the deluded wretched\nvotary step by step to the chambers of death. There is no hope in\nthe dread prospect; trouble and anguish possess the spirit. Hast\nthou escaped, O my soul, from the net of the infernal fowler? Never\nforget that it is as a brand snatched from the burning. O to grace\nhow great a debtor.--Ed.\n\n[18] It is not usual to call the rich young man a hypocrite. To\noutward appearance he was in earnest. Negatively, he had kept the\ncommandments. Now he is required to perform positive duties, and\nto live by faith. Here the mask falls off, and he concludes that\neternal life is not worth the sacrifice.--Ed.\n\n[19] We have here an additional section to the Grace Abounding to\nthe Chief of Sinners. The result of long experience convinced him\nthat if he possessed a spark of grace which impelled him to groan\nafter God, all the powers of earth and hell could not destroy\nhim.--Ed.\n\n[20] As it is in temporal things, so it is in spiritual. If new\ndiscoveries of Divine love lead to want of watchfulness, trial and\nsorrow must ensue. About sixty years ago a next door neighbour, a\nhatter, gained a prize in the lottery of ten thousand pounds--he\nbecame intoxicated with his wealth, moved to the fashionable end of\nLondon, went into a large way of business, dissipated his fortune,\nand died in a workhouse! Christian, if you have unexpected enjoyments,\nbe watchful; it is to fit you for trials.--Ed.\n\n[21] This is one of the most decisive proofs of the awfully degraded\nstate of human nature. Men believe, or pretend to believe, that\nthis life is but a span in companions with eternity--that there\nis a heaven to reward the righteous and a hell to receive the\nunconverted sinner; and yet make no personal inquiry at the holy\noracles of God whether they have been born again to newness of life,\nor whether they remain in their sins. The great mass of mankind\nprefer paying their pence to a priest to mislead them to destruction,\nthan to trouble themselves with God's holy Word. O for the outpouring\nof the Holy Spirit, that men may be released from such bondage and\nslavery, and enter upon the happy glorious liberty of the sons of\nGod.--Ed.\n\n\u02c7\n\n\n** End of Volume 1 **\n\n\nTHE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN\n\nWITH AN\n\nINTRODUCTION TO EACH TREATISE, NOTES,\n\nAND A\n\nSKETCH OF HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND CONTEMPORARIES.\n\nVOLUME SECOND.\n\nEXPERIMENTAL, DOCTRINAL, AND PRACTICAL.\n\nEDITED BY\n\nGEORGE OFFOR, ESQ.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SAINTS' KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST'S LOVE; OR, THE UNSEARCHABLE\nRICHES OF CHRIST.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\n\nPREFATORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis treatise is one of those ten distinct works, which the author\nhad prepared for the press, when he was so suddenly summoned to\nthe Celestial City. Well did his friends in the ministry, Ebenezer\nChandler and John Wilson, call it \"an excellent manuscript,\ncalculated to assist the Christian that would grow in grace, and\nto win others over to Jesus Christ.\"\n\nIt was first published, with a selection of Bunyan's Works in a\nfolio volume, in 1692, about four years after the author's decease;\nand although it is a treatise exhibiting very deep research and\ncalculated for extensive usefulness, it does not appear ever to\nhave been published as a separate volume. Like all other of his\nworks, it is original; no one before him treated this subject\nwith such profound depth of thought, nor with such clear Christian\nphilosophy.\n\nThe revered John Bunyan proves in this, as in all other of his\nworks, that he was a real and not a pretended descendant from the\napostles,--he breathes their spirit--he knew his Master's work, and\nfaithfully discharged his solemn requirements. His object was as\npure as it was apparent; to preach not himself, but Christ Jesus\nhis Lord. One desire appears to have influenced him in writing\nall his works--that of shrinking back and hiding himself behind\nhis Master, while exhibiting the unsearchable, Divine, eternal\nriches of His grace.\n\nThis treatise is admirably adapted to warn the thoughtless--break\nthe stony heart--convince the wavering--cherish the young\ninquirer--strengthen the saint in his pilgrimage, and arm him\nfor the good fight of faith--and comfort the dejected, doubting,\ndespairing Christian. It abounds with ardent sympathy for the\nbroken-hearted, a cordial suited to every wounded conscience;\nwhile, at the same time, it thunders in awful judgment upon the\nimpenitent and the hypocritical professor: wonders of grace to\nGod belong, for all these blessings form but a small part of the\nunsearchable riches.\n\nThe reader should keep in his recollection, that this treatise was\noriginally conceived for the pulpit; and afterwards, probably with\ngreat additions, written for the press. This will account for the\ndivisions and sub-divisions, intended to assist a hearer's memory;\nor to enable a ready writer, by taking notes of each part, to digest\nprayerfully in private, what he had heard in the public ministry\nof the word,--a practice productive of great good to individuals,\nand by which families may be much profited while conversing upon\nthe truths publicly taught in the church; instead of what Bunyan\nwould have justly called, frothy conversation about the dress or\nappearances of their fellow-worshippers.\n\nThis discourse has been published in every edition of the works of\nour great author, but, most strangely, the references to Scripture\nare omitted in all the editions since that of 1737. Bunyan's anxiety\nat every step of this momentous inquiry is to shew a \"thus saith\nthe Lord,\" in proof of every assertion. In this treatise only,\nthere are nearly four hundred and forty distinct references to\nthe holy oracles. These are all carefully restored, and have been\ncollated with the standard text, for want of which some imperfections\nhad crept in, even to the old editions; and where the author\npreferred the Genevan or Puritan version, it is shewn by a note\nat the foot of the page.\n\nTo point out beauties in such a discourse, is to point to the\nwhole treatise--it is all admirable; a solemn earnestness is found\nin every sentence; even where Bunyan modestly differs with many\nexcellent divines, when treating upon the sufferings of the Saviour,\nbetween the period of his crucifixion and of his resurrection:\nthis is worthy of our prayerful consideration; ever keeping\nin remembrance those deeply impressive--those awfully triumphant\nwords of our Lord, \"It is finished.\"\n\nThe catholic spirit, which so pervaded the mind of Bunyan, appears\nconspicuously in this discourse; and whatever bitter controversy\nthis spirit occasioned him, it ought to be impressed upon the\nheart of every Christian professor. It is a liberality which shines\nmore brightly, as reflected by one, whose religious education was\ndrawn solely from the pure fountain of truth--the holy oracles; and\nhowever unlettered he was, as to polite literature or the learned\nlanguages, his Christian liberality can no more be enlightened by\nthe niggard spirit of learned sectarians, than the sun could be\nilluminated by a rush-light. The inquiry was then, as, alas, it\nis too frequent now, Are there many that be saved? forgetful of\nthe Saviour's answer and just rebuke, What is that to thee, follow\nthou me, seek thine own salvation. The inquiry is pursued a step\nfarther, \"Can those who differ with me be saved?\" Hear the reply\nof one so honest and so fully imbued with the Scriptures, into\nthe truths of which his spirit had been baptized, \"A man, through\nunbelief, may think that Christ has no love to him; and yet Christ\nmay love him, with a love that passeth knowledge. But when men, in\nthe common course of their profession, will be always terminating\nhere, that they know how, and how far, Christ can love; and will\nthence be bold to conclude of their own safety, and of the loss\nand ruin of all that are not in the same notions, opinions,\nformalities, or judgment, as they. This is the worst [pride] and\ngreatest of all [delusions]. The text, therefore, to rectify those\nfalse and erroneous conclusions, says, [the love of Christ] is a\nlove that passeth knowledge.\"\n\nThroughout the whole, there is a continued effort to comfort the\nsincere, but doubting, Christian. \"Does Satan suggest that God\nwill not hear your stammering and chattering prayers? Does Satan\nsuggest that thy trials, and troubles, and afflictions, are so\nmany that you shall never get beyond them?--relief is at hand,\nfor Christ loves thee with a love that passeth knowledge. This is\na weapon that will baffle the devil, when all other weapons fail.\"\n\nThe practical application of these soul-encouraging truths is, \"To\nwalk in love--filled with all the fullness of God.\" Bunyan has,\nin enforcing this duty, a very remarkable expression, \"these are\nthe men that sweeten the churches, and bring glory to God and to\nreligion. Why should anything have my heart but God, but Christ?\nHe loves me, he loves me with love that passeth knowledge, and\nI will love him. His love stripped him of all for my sake; Lord,\nlet my love strip me of all for thy sake. I am a son of love, an\nobject of love, a monument of love; of free love, of distinguishing\nlove, of peculiar love, and of love that passeth knowledge: and\nwhy should not I walk in love--in love to God, in love to man, in\nholy love, in love unfeigned?\"\n\nAnd will our ministering elders bear with me in respectfully and\naffectionately commending to them John Bunyan, as an example of\ndevotedness to his Master's service; of humble walking with God,\nof tender faithfulness to the souls of men, of holy fervour?\nUnder such a course of sermons as this treatise would make, how\nattentively would our children listen with reverence to the voice\nof truth, and with a Divine blessing our earthen vessels would be\nreplenished with heavenly treasure. It is delightful to read the\ntestimony of Bunyan's ministerial friends, of various denominations,\nwhen recording his extensive usefulness. His works do follow him.\nAnd upon reading of them, we cannot wonder when we hear, that on\na week-day morning, in the depth of winter, long before daylight,\nthe inclemency of frost and snow was braved by crowded assemblies\nof hungry and thirsty souls, who eagerly listened to hear him\nproclaim \"The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love, or the unsearchable\nriches of Christ--which passeth knowledge.\"\n\nMay the effectual blessing of the Holy Spirit attend the reading,\nas it did the preaching, of these soul-saving truths.\n\nHACKNEY, Oct., 1848. GEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\nTHE SAINTS' KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST'S LOVE.\n\n\"THAT YE--MAY BE ABLE TO COMPREHEND WITH ALL SAINTS, WHAT IS THE\nBREADTH, AND LENGTH, AND DEPTH, AND HEIGHT; AND TO KNOW THE LOVE\nOF CHRIST, WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE.\"--EPHESIANS 3:18,19.\n\nThe Apostle having, in the first chapter, treated of the doctrine\nof election, and in the second, of the reconciling of the Gentiles\nwith the Jews to the Father, by his Son, through the preaching of\nthe gospel; comes in the third chapter to shew that that also was,\nas that of election, determined before the world began. Now lest\nthe afflictions that attend the gospel should, by its raging\namong these Ephesians, darken the glory of these things unto them;\ntherefore he makes here a brief repetition and explanation, to\nthe end they might be supported and made live above them. He also\njoins thereto a fervent prayer for them, that God would let them\nsee in the spirit and faith, how they, by God and by Christ, are\nsecured from the evil of the worst that might come upon them.\n\"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named;\nthat he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to\nbe strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that\nChrist may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted\nand grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints,\nwhat is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to\nknow the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,\" &c. Knowing,\nthat their deep understanding what good by these were reserved for\nthem, they would never be discouraged, whatever troubles should\nattend their profession.\n\nBREADTH, and LENGTH, and DEPTH, and HEIGHT, are words that\nin themselves are both ambiguous, and to wonderment; ambiguous,\nbecause unexplained, and to wonderment, because they carry in\nthem an unexpressible something; and that something that which\nfar out-goes all those things that can be found in this world. The\nApostle here was under a spiritual surprise, for while meditating\nand writing, he was caught: The strength and glory of the truths\nthat he was endeavouring to fasten upon the people to whom he\nwrote, took him away into their glory, beyond what could to the\nfull be uttered. Besides, many times things are thus expressed, on\npurpose to command attention, a stop and pause in the mind about\nthem; and to divert, by their greatness, the heart from the world,\nunto which they naturally are so inclined. Also, truths are often\ndelivered to us, like wheat in full ears, to the end we should rub\nthem out before we eat them, and take pains about them, before we\nhave the comfort of them.\n\nBREADTH, LENGTH, DEPTH, and HEIGHT. In my attempting to open these\nwords, I will give you, some that are of the same kind. And then\nshow you, First, The reasons of them; and then also, Secondly,\nSomething of their fullness.\n\nThose of the same kind, are used sometimes to shew us the power,\nforce, and subtilty of the enemies of God's Church, (Dan 4:11,\nRom 8:38,39). But,\n\n[Sometimes] Most properly to shew us the infinite and unsearchable\ngreatness of God, (Job 11:7,8,9, Rom 11:33).\n\nThey are here to be taken in this second sense, that is, to suggest\nunto us the unsearchable and infinite greatness of God; who is\na breadth, beyond all breadths; a length, beyond all lengths; a\ndepth, beyond all depths; and a height, beyond all heights, and\nthat in all his attributes: He is an eternal being, an everlasting\nbeing, and in that respect he is beyond all measures, whether\nthey be of breadth, or length, or depth, or height. In all his\nattributes he is beyond all measure: whether you measure by words,\nby thoughts, or by the most enlarged and exquisite apprehension;\nHis greatness is unsearchable; His judgments are unsearchable (Job\n5:9): He is infinite in wisdom. \"O! the depth of the riches both\nof the wisdom and knowledge of God!\" (Rom 11:33) \"If I speak of\nstrength, lo, he is strong\" (Job 9:19); yea, \"the thunder of his\npower who can understand?\" (Job 26:14) \"There is none holy as the\nLord\" (1 Sam 2:2): \"and his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,\nupon them that fear him\" (Psa 103:17). The greatness of God, of\nthe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that, if rightly\nconsidered, which will support the spirits of those of his people\nthat are frighted with the greatness of their adversaries. For\nhere is a greatness against a greatness. Pharaoh was great, but\nGod more great, more great in power, more great in wisdom, more\ngreat every way for the help of his people; wherein they dealt\nproudly, he was above them. These words therefore take in for this\npeople, the great God who in his immensity and infinite greatness\nis beyond all beings. But, to come\n\nFIRST, to the reason of the words. They are made use of to shew\nto the Ephesians, that God with what he is in himself, and with\nwhat he hath in his power, is all for the use and profit of the\nbelievers. Else no great matter is held out to them thereby. \"But\nthis God is our God!\" there is the comfort: For this cause therefore\nhe presenteth them with this description of him. To wit, by breadth,\nand length, and depth, and height: As who should say, the High\nGod is yours; the God that fills heaven and earth is yours; the\nGod whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, is yours; yea, the\nGod whose works are wonderful, and whose ways are past finding\nout, is yours. Consider therefore the greatness that is for you,\nthat taketh part with you, and that will always come in for your\nhelp against them that contend with you. It is my support, it is\nmy relief; it [is] my comfort in all my tribulations, and I would\nhave it ours, and so it will when we live in the lively faith\nthereof. Nor should we admit of distrust in this matter from\nthe consideration of our own unworthiness, either taken from the\nfiniteness of our state, or the foulness of our ways (Psa 46).\nFor now, though God's attributes, several of them in their own\nnature, are set against sin and sinners; yea, were we righteous,\nare so high that needs they must look over us, for 'tis to him a\ncondescension to behold things in heaven: How much more then to\nopen his eyes upon such as we: yet by the passion of Jesus Christ,\nthey harmoniously agree in the salvation of our souls. Hence God\nis said to be love (1 John 4), God is love; might some say, and\njustice too: but his justice is turned with wisdom, power, holiness\nand truth, to love; yea, to love those that be found in his Son:\nforasmuch as there is nothing fault-worthy in his righteousness\nwhich is put upon us. So then, as there is in God's nature\na length, and breadth, and depth, and height, that is beyond all\nthat we can think: So we should conclude that all this is love to\nus, for Christ's sake; and then dilate with it thus in our minds,\nand enlarge it thus in our meditations; saying still to our low\nand trembling spirits: \"It is high as heaven; what canst thou do?\ndeeper than hell; what canst thou know? the measure thereof is\nlonger than the earth, and1 broader than the sea\" (Job 11:8,9).\nBut we will pass generals, and more particularly speak\n\nSECONDLY, something of their fullness, as they are fitted to suit\nand answer to the whole state and condition of a Christian in this\nlife. The words are boundless; we have here a breadth, a length,\na depth, and height made mention of; but what breadth, what length,\nwhat depth, what height is not so much as hinted. It is therefore\ninfiniteness suggested to us, and that has engaged for us. For the\nApostle conjoins therein, And to know the love of Christ which\npasseth knowledge. Thus therefore it suits and answers a Christian's\ncondition, while in this world, let that be what it will. If his\nafflictions be broad, here is a breadth; if they be long, here\nis a length,; and if they be deep, here is a depth; and if they\nbe high, here is a height. And I will say, there is nothing that\nis more helpful, succouring, or comfortable to a Christian while\nin a state of trial and temptation, than to know that there is a\nbreadth to answer a breadth, a length to answer a length, a depth\nto answer a depth, and a height to answer a height. Wherefore this\nis it that the Apostle prayeth for, namely, that the Ephesians\nmight have understanding in these things, \"That ye may know what\nis the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.\"\n\nOf the largeness of the Apostle's heart in praying for this people,\nto wit, \"That they might be able to comprehend with all saints,\nwhat,\" &c. of that we shall speak afterwards.\n\nBut first, to speak to these four expressions, breadth, length,\ndepth, and height.\n\nFirst, What is the BREADTH. This word is to shew, that God is\nall over, everywhere, spreading of his wings, stretching out his\ngoodness to the utmost bounds, for the good of those that are his\npeople (Deu 32:11,12, Gen 49:26).\n\nIn the sin of his people there is a breadth; a breadth that spreadeth\nover all, wheresoever a man shall look. The sin of the saints is\na spreading leprosy (Lev 13:12). Sin is a scab that spreadeth;\nit is a spreading plague; it knows no bounds (Lev 13:8, 57): or,\nas David saith, \"I have seen the wicked spreading himself\" (Psa\n37:35). Hence it is compared to a cloud, to a thick cloud, that\ncovereth or spreadeth over the face of all the sky. Wherefore here\nis a breadth called for, a breadth that can cover all, or else\nwhat is done is to no purpose. Therefore to answer this, here we\nhave a breadth, a spreading breadth; \"I spread my skirt over thee\":\nBut how far? Even so far as to cover all. \"I spread my skirt over\nthee, and covered thy nakedness\" (Eze 16:8). Here now is a breadth\naccording to the spreading nature of the sin of this wretched one;\nyea, a super-abounding spreading; a spreading beyond; a spreading\nto cover. \"Blessed is he whose sin is covered\" (Psa 32:1), whose\nspreading sin is covered by the mercy of God through Christ (Rom\n4:4-7). This is the spreading cloud, whose spreadings none can\nunderstand (Job 36:29). \"He spread a cloud for a covering, and\nfire to give light in the night\" (Psa 105:39).\n\nThis breadth that is in God, it also overmatcheth that spreading\nand overspreading rage of men, that is sometimes as if it would\nswallow up the whole church of God. You read of the rage of the\nking of Assyria, that there was a breadth in it, an overflowing\nbreadth, to the filling of \"the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel\"\n(Isa 8:8). But what follows? \"Associate yourselves, O ye people,\n[ye Assyrians] and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear,\nall ye of far countries; gird yourselves and ye shall be broken\nin pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought;\nspeak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us\" (Isa\n8:8-10); God will over-match and go beyond you.\n\nWherefore this word, breadth, and what is the breadth: It is here\nexpressed on purpose to succour and relieve, or to shew what\nadvantage, for support, the knowledge of the overspreading grace of\nGod by Christ yieldeth unto those that have it, let their trials\nbe what they will. Alas! the sin of God's children seemeth sometimes\nto overspread not only their flesh, and the face of their souls,\nbut the whole face of heaven. And what shall he do now, that is\na stranger to this breadth, made mention of in the text? Why he\nmust despair, lie down and die, and shut up his heart against all\ncomfort, unless he, with his fellow-christians, can, at least,\napprehend what is this breadth, or the breadth of mercy intended\nin this place. Therefore Paul for the support of the Ephesians,\nprays, that they may know \"what is the breadth.\"\n\nThis largeness of the heart and mercy of God towards his people,\nis also signified by the spreading out of his hand to us in the\ninvitations of the gospel. \"I said,\" saith he, \"Behold me, behold\nme,--I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious\npeople.--to a people that provoketh me continually\" (Isa 65:1-3).\n\nI have spread out my hands, that is, opened my arms as a mother\naffectionately doth, when she stoopeth to her child in the warm\nworkings of her bowels, and claspeth it up in them, and kisseth,\nand putteth it into her bosom.\n\nFor, by spreading out the hands or arms to embrace, is shewed the\nbreadth or largeness of God's affections; as by our spreading out\nour hands in prayer, is signified the great sense that we have of\nthe spreading nature of our sins, and of the great desires that\nare in us, that God would be merciful to us (Ezra 9:5-7).\n\nThis word also answereth to, or may fitly be set against the\nwiles and temptations of the devil, who is that great and dogged\nLeviathan, that spreadeth his \"sharp-pointed things upon the mire\"\n(Job 41:30): For, be the spreading nature of our corruptions never\nso broad, he will find sharp-pointed things enough to stick in\nthe mire of them, for our affliction. These sharp-pointed things\nare those that in another place are called \"fiery darts\" (Eph 6:16),\nand he has abundance of them, with which he can and will sorely\nprick and wound our spirits: Yea, so sharp some have found these\nthings to their souls, that they have pierced beyond expression.\n\"When,\" said Job, \"I say, my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall\nease my complaint; then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest\nme through visions; so that my soul chooseth strangling, and\ndeath rather than my life\" (Job 7:13-15). But now, answerable to\nthe spreading of these sharp-pointed things, there is a super-abounding\nbreadth in the sovereign grace of God, the which whoso seeth and\nunderstandeth, as the Apostle doth pray we should, is presently\nhelped: for he seeth that this grace spreadeth itself, and is\nbroader than can be, either our mire, or the sharp-pointed things\nthat he spreadeth thereupon for our vexation and affliction: \"It\nis broader than the sea\" (Job 11:9).\n\nThis therefore should be that upon which those that see the\nspreading nature of sin, and the leprosy and contagion thereof,\nshould meditate, to wit, The broadness of the grace and mercy\nof God in Christ. This will poise and stay the soul; this will\nrelieve and support the soul in and under those many misgiving\nand desponding thoughts unto which we are subject when afflicted\nwith the apprehensions of sin, and the abounding nature of it.\n\nShall another man pray for this, one that knew the goodness and\nbenefit of it, and shall not I meditate upon it? and shall not I\nexercise my mind about it? Yes surely, for it is my duty, it is my\nprivilege and mercy so to do. Let this therefore, when thou seest\nthe spreading nature of thy sin be a memento to thee, to the end\nthou mayest not sink and die in thy soul.\n\nSecondly, What is the breadth and LENGTH. As there is a breadth\nin this mercy and grace of God by Christ, so there is a LENGTH\ntherein, and this length is as large as the breadth, and as much\nsuiting the condition of the child of God, as the other is. For,\nthough sin sometimes is most afflicting to the conscience, while\nthe soul beholdeth the overspreading nature of it, yet here it\nstoppeth not, but oft-times through the power and prevalency of\nit, the soul is driven with it, as a ship by a mighty tempest, or\nas a rolling thing before the whirlwind: driven, I say, from God,\nand from all hopes of his mercy, as far as the east is from the\nwest, or as the ends of the world are asunder. Hence it is supposed\nby the prophet, that for and by sin they may be driven from God\nto the utmost part of heaven (Deu 30:4); and that is a sad thing,\na sad thing, I say, to a gracious man. \"Why,\" saith the prophet\nto God, \"Art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of\nmy roaring?\" (Psa 22:1). Sometimes a man, yea, a man of God, is,\nas he apprehends, so far off from God, that he can neither help\nhim, nor hear him, and this is a dismal state. \"And thou hast\nremoved my soul,\" said the church, \"far off from peace: I forgat\nprosperity\" (Lam 3:17). This is the state sometimes of the\ngodly, and that not only with reference to their being removed by\npersecutors, from the appointments and gospel-seasons, which are\ntheir delight, and the desire of their eyes; but also with reverence\nto their faith and hope in their God. They think themselves beyond\nthe reach of his mercy. Wherefore in answer to this conceit it is,\nthat the Lord asketh, saying, \"Is my hand shortened at all that it\ncannot redeem?\" (Isa 50:2). And again, \"Behold, the Lord's hand\nis not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that\nit cannot hear\" (Isa 59:1). Wherefore he saith again, \"If any of\nthem be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence\nwill the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch\nthee\" (Deu 30:4). God has a long arm, and he can reach a great\nway further than we can conceive he can (Neh 1:9): When we think\nhis mercy is clean gone, and that ourselves are free among the\ndead, and of the number that he remembereth no more, then he can\nreach us, and cause that again we stand before him. He could reach\nJonah, tho' in the belly of hell (Jonah 2); and reach thee, even\nthen, when thou thinkest thy way is hid from the Lord, and thy\njudgment passed over from thy God. There is length to admiration,\nbeyond apprehension or belief, in the arm of the strength of the\nLord; and this is that which the Apostle intended by this word,\nLength; namely, To insinuate what a reach there is in the mercy\nof God, how far it can extend itself. \"If I take the wings of the\nmorning,\" said David, \"and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;\neven there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold\nme\" (Psa 139:9,10). I will gather them from the east, and from\nthe west, and from the north, and from the south, saith he: That\nis, from the utmost corners.\n\nThis therefore should encourage them that for the present cannot\nstand, but that do fly before their guilt: Them that feel no help\nnor stay, but that go, as to their thinking, every day by the power\nof temptation, driven yet farther off from God, and from the hope\nof obtaining of his mercy to their salvation; poor creature, I will\nnot now ask thee how thou camest into this condition, or how long\nthis has been thy state; but I will say before thee, and I prithee\nhear me, O the length of the saving arm of God! As yet thou art\nwithin the reach thereof; do not thou go about to measure arms\nwith God, as some good men are apt to do: I mean, do not thou\nconclude, that because thou canst not reach God by thy short stump,\ntherefore he cannot reach thee with his long arm. Look again, \"Hast\nthou an arm like God\" (Job 40:9), an arm like his for length and\nstrength? It becomes thee, when thou canst not perceive that God\nis within the reach of thy arm, then to believe that thou art\nwithin the reach of his; for it is long, and none knows how long.\n\nAgain, is there such a length? such a length in the arm of the\nLord, that he can reach those that are gone away, as far as they\ncould? then this should encourage us to pray, and hope for the\nsalvation of any one of our backslidden relations, that God would\nreach out his arm after them: Saying, \"Awake,--O arm of the Lord,--art\nthou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou\nnot it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep,\nthat hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass\nover?\" (Isa 51:9,10). Awake, O arm of the Lord, and be stretched\nout as far as to where my poor husband is, where my poor child,\nor to where my poor backslidden wife or dear relation is, and lay\nhold, fast hold; they are gone from thee, but, O thou the hope of\nIsrael, fetch them again, and let them stand before thee. I say,\nhere is in this word LENGTH matter of encouragement for us thus\nto pray; for if the length of the reach of mercy is so great, and\nif also this length is for the benefit of those that may be gone\noff far from God, (for they at present have no need thereof that\nare near) then improve this advantage at the throne of grace for\nsuch, that they may come to God again. Thirdly, As there is a breadth\nand length here, so there is a DEPTH. What is the breadth, and\nlength, and depth? And this depth is also put in here, on purpose\nto help us under a trial that is diverse from the two former. I\ntold you, that by the breadth the Apostle insinuates a remedy and\nsuccour to us, when we see our corruptions spread like a leprosy;\nand by length he would shew us, that when sin has driven God's\nelect to the farthest distance from him, yet his arm is long enough\nto reach them, and fetch them back again.\n\nBut, I say, as we have here a breadth, and a length, so we have\nalso a depth. That ye may know what is the DEPTH. Christians have\nsometimes their sinking fits, and are as if they were always\ndescending: or as Heman says, \"counted with them that go down into\nthe pit\" (Psa 88:4). Now guilt is not to such so much a wind and\na tempest, as a load and burden. The devil, and sin, and the curse\nof the law, and death, are gotten upon the shoulders of this poor\nman, and are treading of him down, that he may sink into, and be\nswallowed up of his miry place.\n\n\"I sink,\" says David, \"in deep mire, where there is no standing.\nI am come into DEEP waters, where the floods overflow me\" (Psa\n69:2). Yea, there is nothing more common among the saints of old,\nthan this complaint: \"Let neither the water flood overflow me,\nneither let the deep swallow me up, neither let the pit shut her\nmouth upon me\" (Psa 69:14,15). Heman also saith, \"Thou hast laid\nme in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth\nhard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves\" (Psa\n88:6,7). Hence it is again that the Psalmist says: \"Deep calleth\nunto deep, at the noise of thy water spouts: all thy waves, and\nthy billows are gone over me\" (Psa 42:7). Deep calleth unto deep:\nWhat's that? Why, it is expressed in the verse before: \"O God,\"\nsays he, \"My soul is cast down within me.\" \"Down,\" that is, deep\ninto the jaws of distrust and fear. And, Lord, my soul in this\ndepth of sorrow calls for help to thy depth of mercy. For though\nI am sinking and going down, yet not so low, but that thy mercy\nis yet underneath me: Do of thy compassions open those everlasting\narms (Deu 33:27), and catch him that has no help or stay in himself:\nFor so it is with one that is falling into a well or a dungeon.\n\nNow mark, as there is in these texts, the sinking condition of\nthe godly man set forth, of a man whom sin and Satan is treading\ndown into the deep; so in our text which I am speaking to at this\ntime, we have a depth that can more than counterpoise these deeps,\nset forth with a hearty prayer, that we may know it. And although\nthe deeps, or depths of calamity into which the godly may fall,\nmay be as deep as Hell, and methinks they should be no deeper:\nyet this is the comfort, and for the comfort of them of the godly\nthat are thus a sinking: The mercy of God for them lies deeper \"It\nis deeper than hell, what canst thou know?\" (Job 11:8). And this\nis that which made Paul that he was not afraid of this depth, \"I\nam persuaded,\" saith he, \"that neither--height nor depth shall\nbe able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ\nJesus our Lord\" (Rom 8:38,39). But of this he could by no means\nhave been persuaded, had he not believed that mercy lieth deeper\nfor the godly to help them, than can all other depths be to destroy\nthem: This is it at which he stands and wonders, saying, \"O the\ndepth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God\" (Rom\n11:33), that is to find out a way to save his people, notwithstanding\nall the deep contrivances that the enemy hath, and may invent to\nmake us come short [of] home.\n\nThis is also that, as I take it, which is wrapped up in the blessing,\nwherewith Jacob blessed his son Joseph. \"God shall bless thee,\"\nsaith he, \"with blessings of heaven above,\" and with the \"blessings\nof the deep that lieth under\" (Gen 49:25). A blessing which he had\nground to pronounce, as well from his observation of God's good\ndealing with Joseph, as in a spirit of prophecy: For he saw that\nhe lived and was become a flourishing bough, by a wall, after that\nthe archers had done their worst to him (Gen 49:22-24). Moses also\nblesseth God for blessing of Joseph thus, and blessed his portion\nto him, as counting of it sufficient for his help in all afflictions.\n\"Blessed,\" saith he, \"of the Lord, be his land, for the precious\nthings of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth\nbeneath\" (Deu 33:13).\n\nI am not of belief that these blessings are confined to things\ntemporal, or carnal, but to things spiritual and divine; and that\nthey have most chiefly respect to soul, and eternal good. Now\nmark, he tells us here, that the blessings of the deep, do couch\nbeneath. Couch, that is, lie close, so as hardly to be discerned by\nhim that willingly would see that himself is not below these arms\nthat are beneath him. But that as I said, is hard to be discerned\nby him that thus is sinking, and that has as he now smartingly\nfeels, all God's waves, and his billows rolling over him. However,\nwhether he sees or not, for this blessing lieth couched; yet\nthere it is, and there will be, though one should sink as deep as\nhell: And hence they are said to be \"everlasting arms\" that are\n\"underneath\" (Deu 33:27): That is, arms that are long and strong,\nand that can reach to the bottom, and also beyond, of all misery\nand distress, that Christians are subject to in this life. Indeed\nmercy seems to be asleep, when we are sinking: for then we are\nas if all things were careless of us, but it is but as a lion\ncouchant, it will awake in time for our help (Psa 44:22,26, Mark\n4:36-39). And forasmuch as this term is it, which is applicable\nto the lion in his den; it may be to shew that as a lion, so will\nGod at the fittest season, arise for the help and deliverance of\na sinking people. Hence when he is said to address himself to the\ndelivering of his people, it is that he comes as a roaring lion.\n\"The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy\nlike a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail\nagainst his enemies\" (Isa 42:13). However here is a depth against\nthe depth that's against us, let that depth be what it will. As\nlet it be the depth of misery, the depth of mercy is sufficient.\nIf it be the depth of hellish policy, the depth both of the wisdom\nand knowledge of God shall go beyond it, and prevail.\n\nThis therefore is worthy of the consideration of all sinking souls;\nof the souls that feel themselves descending into the pit. There\nis such a thing as this experienced among the godly. Some come to\nthem (when tempted) when you will, they will tell you, they have\nno ground to stand on, their feet have slipped, their foundation is\nremoved, and they fell themselves sinking, as into a pit that has\nno bottom (Psa 11:3). They inwardly sink, not for want of something\nto relieve the body, but for want of some spiritual cordial to\nsupport the mind. \"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains,\"\nsaid Jonah, \"the earth with her bars was about me for ever;--my\nsoul fainted within me\" (Jonah 2:6,7).\n\nNow for such to consider that underneath them, even at the bottom\nthere lieth a blessing, or that in this deep whereinto they are\ndescending, there lieth a delivering mercy couching to catch them,\nand to save them from sinking for ever, this would be relief unto\nthem, and help them to hope for good.\n\nAgain, As this, were it well considered by the sinking ones, would\nyield them stay and relief, so this is it by the virtue whereof,\nthey that have been sinking heretofore, have been lifted up, and\nabove their castings down again. There are of those that have been\nin the pit, now upon mount Sion, with the harps of God in their\nhands, and with the song of the Lamb in their mouths. But how is\nit that they are there? why, David, by his own deliverance shews\nyou the reason. \"For great is thy mercy towards me,\" saith he,\n\"and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell\" (Psa 86:13).\nAnd again, \"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,\" (a pit\nof noise, a pit wherein was the noise of devils, and of my heart\nanswering them with distrust and fear) \"out of the miry clay,\"\n(into which I did not only sink, but was by it held from getting\nup: but he brought me up) \"and set my feet upon a rock, and\nestablished my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth,\neven praise to our God\" (Psa 40:2,3).\n\nBut let me here give, if it may be, a timely caution to them that\nthink they stand upon their feet. Give not way to falling because\neverlasting arms are underneath, take heed of that: God can let\nthee fall into mischief, he can let thee fall, and not help thee\nup. Tempt not God, lest he cast thee away indeed. I doubt there\nare many that have presumed upon this mercy, that thus do couch\nbeneath, and have cast themselves down from their pinnacles into\nvanity, of a vain conceit that they shall be lifted up again: whom\nyet God will leave to die there, because their fall was rather\nof willfulness, than weakness, and of stubbornness, and desperate\nresolutions, than for want of means and helps to preserve them\nfrom it.\n\nFourthly, As there is a breadth, and length, and depth, in this\nmercy and grace of God through Christ towards his people: So there\nis also a HEIGHT, \"That ye may comprehend with all saints, what is\nthe breadth and length, and depth, and HEIGHT.\" There are things\nthat are high, as well as things that are low; things that are\nabove us, as well as things that are under, that are distressing\nto God's people. It is said when Noah was a preacher of righteousness,\nthere were giants in the earth in those days (Gen 6:4). And these,\nas I conceive, were some of the heights that were set against Noah;\nyea, they were the very dads and fathers of all that monstrous\nbrood that followed in the world in that day. Of this sort were\nthey who so frighted, and terrified Israel, when they were to go\nto inherit the land of promise. The men that were tall as cedars,\nand strong as the oaks, frighted them: they were in their own\nsight, when compared with these high ones, but as grasshoppers.\nThis therefore was their discouragement (Num 13:31-33, Deu 2:10,\n9:2).\n\nBesides, together with these, they had high walls, walls as high\nas heaven; and these walls were of purpose to keep Israel out of\nhis possession. See how it is expressed: The people is greater\nand taller than we, the cities are great and walled up to heaven:\nand moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there (Deu\n1:28). One of these, to wit, Goliath by name, how did he fright\nthe children of Israel in the days of Saul! How did the appearance\nof him, make them scuttle together on heaps before him (1 Sam 17).\nBy these giants, and by these high walls, God's children to this\nday are sorely distressed, because they stand in the cross ways\nto cut off Israel from his possession.\n\nBut now to support us against all these, and to encourage us to\ntake heart notwithstanding all these things; there is for us, a\nheight in God. He hath made his Son higher than the kings of the\nearth (Psa 89:26-28): His word also is settled for ever in heaven,\nand therefore must needs be higher than their walls (Psa 119:89):\nHe also saith in another place, \"If thou seest the oppression\nof the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in\na province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than\nthe highest, regardeth, and there be higher than they\" (Eccl\n5:8). 'Twas this that made Paul, that he feared not the height:\nnot things present, nor things to come (Rom 8:39).\n\nBut again, As there are these things standing, or lying in our\nway: So there are another sort of heights that are more mischievous\nthan these: And they are the fallen angels. These are called spiritual\nwickedness, or wicked spirits, in high places (Eph 6:12): For God\nhas suffered them for a time to take to themselves principality\nand power, and so they are become the rulers of the darkness of\nthis world. By these we are tempted, sifted, threatened, opposed,\nundermined: also by these there are snares, pits, holes, and what\nnot made and laid for us, if peradventure by something we may be\ndestroyed. Yea, and we should most certainly be so, were it not\nfor the rock that is higher than they. \"But he that cometh from\nheaven is above all!\" (John 3:31) These are they that our king\nhas taken captive, and hath rid (in his chariots of salvation)\nin triumph over their necks. These are they, together with all\nothers, whose most devilish designs he can wield, and turn and\nmake work together for his ransomed's advantage (Rom 8:28), There\nis a height, an infinitely overtopping height in the mercy and\ngoodness of God for us, against them.\n\nThere are heights also that build up themselves in us, which are\nnot but to be taken notice of: Yea, there are a many of them, and\nthey place themselves directly so, that if possible they may keep\nthe saving knowledge of God out of our hearts. These high things\ntherefore are said to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God\n(2 Cor 10:5): and do ofttimes more plague, afflict, and frighten\nChristian men and women, than any thing besides. It is from these\nthat our faith and spiritual understanding of God and his Christ\nis opposed and contradicted, and from these also that we are so\ninclinable to swerve from right doctrine into destructive opinions.\n'Tis from these that we are so easily persuaded to call into\nquestion our former experience of the goodness of God towards us,\nand from these that our minds are so often clouded and darkened\nthat we cannot see afar off. These would betray us into the hands\nof fallen angels, and men, nor should we by any means help or\ndeliver ourselves, were it not for one that is higher. These are\nthe dark mountains at which our feet would certainly stumble, and\nupon which we should fall, were it not for one who can leap and\nskip over these mountains of division, and come in to us (Song\n2:8,17).\n\nFurther, There is a height also that is obvious to our senses, the\nwhich when it is dealt withal by our corrupted reason, proves a\ngreat shaking to our mind, and that is the height, and exceeding\ndistance that heaven is off of us, and we off it. \"Is not God in\nthe height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high\nthey are?\" (Job 22:12) Hence heaven is called the place for height\n(Prov 25:3), Also when Ahaz is bid to ask with reference to heaven,\nhe is bid to ask it, In the height, the height above (Isa 7:11).\nNow saith reason, how shall I come thither? especially when a good\nman is at his furthest distance therefore: which is, when he is\nin the grave. Now I say, every height is a difficulty to him that\nis loaden with a burden, especially the heaven of heavens, where\nGod is, and where is the resting-place of his, to them that are\noppressed with the guilt of sin. And besides, the dispensation which\nhappeneth to us last, to wit, death, as I said before, makes this\nheaven, in my thoughts while I live so much the more unaccessible.\nChrist indeed could mount up (Acts 1:9), but me, poor me, how\nshall I get thither? Elias indeed had a chariot sent him to ride\nin thither, and went up by it into that holy place (2 Kings 2:11):\nbut I, poor I, how shall I get thither? Enoch is there, because\nGod took him (Gen 5:24), but as for me, how shall I get thither?\nThus some have mourningly said. And although distrust of the power\nof God, as to the accomplishing of this thing, is by no means to\nbe smiled upon, yet methinks the unconcernedness of professors\nthereabout, doth argue that considering thoughts about that, are\nwanting.\n\nI know the answer is ready. Get Christ and go to heaven. But\nmethinks the height of the place, and the glory of the state that\nwe are to enjoy therein, should a little concern us, at least\nso as to make us wonder in our thinking, that the time is coming\nthat we must mount up thither. And since there are so many heights\nbetween this place, between us, and that; it should make us admire\nat the heights of the grace and mercy of God, by which, means is\nprovided to bring us thither. And I believe that this thing, this\nvery thing, is included here by the Apostle when he prays for the\nEphesians, that they might know the height.\n\nMethinks, How shall we get thither will still stick in my mind.\n\"I will ascend,\" says one, \"above the height of the clouds, I will\nbe like the most High\" (Isa 14:14). And I, says another, will set\nmy nest among the stars of heaven (Oba 4). Well, but what of all\nthis? If heaven has gates, and they shall be shut, how wilt thou\ngo in thither? Though such should climb up to heaven, from thence\nwill God bring them down (Amos 9:2), Still I say, therefore, how\nshall we get in thither? Why, for them that are godly, there is\nthe power of God, the merits of Christ, the help of angels, and\nthe testimony of a good conscience to bring them thither; and he\nthat has not the help of all these, let him do what he can, shall\nnever come thither. Not that all these go to the making up of the\nheight that is intended in the text: for the height there, is\nwhat is in God through Christ to us alone. But the angels are the\nservants of God for that end (Luke 16:22, Heb 1:14): and none with\nill consciences enter in thither (Psa 15:1, 24:3,4), What, \"know\nye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?\nbe not deceived\" (1 Cor 6:9), such have none inheritance in the\nkingdom of Christ and of God (Eph 5:5).\n\nThis then should teach us that in God is a power that is able to\nsubdue all things to himself. In the completing of many things,\nthere seems to be an utter impossibility, as that a virgin should\nconceive in her womb, as a virgin, and bring a Son into the world;\nthat the body that is turned into dust, should arise and ascend\ninto the highest heaven (Phil 3:21). These things with many more\nseem to be utterly impossible: but there is that which is called\nthe power of God, by the which he is able to make all things\nbend to his will, and to make all obstructions give place to what\nhe pleases. God is high above all things and can do whatever it\npleaseth him. But since he can do so, why doth he suffer this,\nand that thing to appear, to act, and do so horribly repugnant to\nhis word? I answer, he admits of many things, to the end he may\nshew his wrath, and make his power known; and that all the world\nmay see how he checks and overrules the most vile and unruly\nthings, and can make them subservient to his holy will. And how\nwould the breadth and the length, and the depth, and the height\nof the love and mercy of God in Christ to us-ward, be made to\nappear, so as in all things it doth, were there not admitted that\nthere should be breadths, and lengths, and depths and heights, to\noppose. Wherefore these oppositions are therefore suffered, that\nthe greatness of the wisdom, the power, the mercy, and grace of\nGod to us in Christ might appear and be made manifest unto us.\n\nThis calls therefore upon Christians, wisely to consider of the\ndoings of their God. How many opposite breadths, and lengths, and\ndepths, and heights did Israel meet with in their journey from\nEgypt to Canaan, and all to convince them of their own weakness,\nand also of the power of their God. And they that did wisely consider\nof his doings there, did reap the advantage thereof. Come, behold\nthe works of the Lord towards me, may every Christian say. He hath\nset a Saviour against sin; a heaven against a hell; light against\ndarkness; good against evil, and the breadth, and length, and\ndepth, and height of the grace that is in himself, for my good,\nagainst all the power, and strength, and force, and subtilty, of\nevery enemy.\n\nThis also, as I hinted but just before, shews both the power of\nthem that hate us, and the inability of us to resist. The power\nthat is set against us none can crush, and break, but God: for it\nis the power of devils, of sin, of death, and hell. But we for our\nparts are crushed before the moth: being a shadow, a vapour, and\na wind that passes away (Job 4:19). Oh! how should we, and how would\nwe, were but our eyes awake, stand and wonder at the preservations,\nthe deliverances, the salvations and benefits with which we are\nsurrounded daily: while so many mighty evils seek daily to swallow\nus up, as the grave. See how the golden psalm of David reads\nit. \"Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up; he\nfighting daily oppresseth me. Mine enemies would daily swallow\nme up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most high\"\n(Psa 56:1,2). This is at the beginning of it. And he concludes\nit thus, \"Thou hast delivered my soul from death: will not thou\ndeliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the\nlight of the living\" (verse 13).\n\nBy this also we see the reason why it is so impossible for man or\nangel to persuade unbelievers to come in to, and close with Christ;\nwhy there is a breadth that they cannot get over, a length that\nthey cannot get beyond, a depth that they cannot pass, and heights\nthat so hinder them of the prospect of glory, and the way thereto,\nthat they cannot be allured thither. And that nothing can remove\nthese; but those that are in God, and that are opposite thereto;\neven the breadth, and length, and depth and height that is in\nthe text expressed, is to all awakened men an undoubted truth. 2\n\nOne item I would here give to him that loveth his own soul, and\nthen we will pass on in pursuance of what is to come. Since there\nis an height obvious to sense, and that that height must be overcome\nere a man can enter into life eternal: let thy heart be careful\nthat thou go the right way to overpass this height, that thou\nmayest not miss of the delectable plains, and the pleasures that are\nabove. Now, there is nothing so high, as to overtop this height;\nbut Jacob's ladder, and that can do it: that ladder, when the foot\nthereof doth stand upon the earth, reacheth with its top to the\ngate of heaven. This is the ladder by which angels ascend thither:\nand this is the ladder by which thou mayest ascend thither. \"And\nhe dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top\nof it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending\nand descending on it\" (Gen 28:12).\n\nThis ladder is Jesus Christ, the son of man, as is clear by the\nevangelist John (John 1:51). And in that it is said to stand upon\nthe earth, that is to shew that he took hold of man who is of the\nearth, and therein laid a foundation for his salvation: in that\nit is said the top reached up to heaven, that is to shew that the\ndivine nature was joined to the human, and by that means he was\nevery way made a Saviour complete. Now concerning this ladder,\n'tis said, Heaven was open where it stood, to shew that by him\nthere is entrance into life: 'tis said also concerning this ladder,\nthat the Lord stood there, at the top, above it: saying, \"I am the\nLord God of Abraham\" (Gen 28:13), to shew his hearty and willing\nreception of those that ascend the height of his sanctuary this\nway. All which Christ further explains by saying, \"I am the way,\nand the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the father, but\nby me\" (John 14:6). Look to thyself then, that thou do truly and\nafter the right manner embrace this ladder, so will he draw thee\nup thither after him (John 12:32). All the rounds of this ladder\nare sound and fitly placed, not one of them is set further than\nthat by faith thou mayest ascend step by step unto, even until\nthou shalt come to the highest step thereof, from whence, or by\nwhich thou mayest step in at the celestial gate where thy soul\ndesireth to dwell.\n\nTake my caution then, and be wary, no man can come thither but by\nhim. Thither I say to be accepted: thither, there to dwell, and\nthere to abide with joy for ever.\n\n\"That ye--may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love\nof Christ which passeth knowledge.\"\n\nHaving thus spoke of the breadth, and length, and depth, and\nheight, that is in God's mercy by Christ to us-ward; we will now\ncome more directly to\n\nTHE PRAYER OF THE APOSTLE FOR THESE EPHESIANS, WITH REFERENCE\nTHEREUNTO; to wit, that they might be able to comprehend with all\nsaints what they are. And\n\nFIRST, As to THE ABILITY that he prays for, to the end that they\nmay be capable to do this thing.\n\nFirst, That ye may be able. The weakness that is here supposed to\nhinder their thus comprehending, &c., did doubtless lie in their\ngrace, as well as their nature: for in both, with reference to\nthem that are Christians, there is great disability, unless they be\nstrengthened mightily by the Holy Ghost. Nature's ability depends\nupon graces, and the ability of graces, depends upon the mighty\nhelp of the spirit of God. Hence as nature itself, where grace\nis not, sees nothing; so nature by grace sees but weakly, if that\ngrace is not strengthened with all might by the spirit of grace.\nThe breadths, lengths, depths and heights here made mention of,\nare mysteries, and in all their operations, do work wonderfully\nmysteriously: insomuch that many times, though they are all of\nthem busily engaged for this and the other child of God, yet they\nthemselves see nothing of them. As Christ said to Peter, \"What I\ndo thou knowest not now\" (John 13:7); so may it be said to many\nwhere the grace and mercy of God in Christ is working: they do not\nknow, they understand not what it is, nor what will be the end of\nsuch dispensations of God towards them. Wherefore they also say as\nPeter to Christ, \"Dost thou wash my feet?--thou shalt never wash\nmy feet\" (John 13:6-8); Yea, and when some light to convince of\nthis folly breaks in upon them, yet if it be not very distinct and\nclear; causing the person to know the true cause, nature, and end\nof God's doing of this or that, they swerve with Peter, as much\non the other side (John 13:9,10). They have not known my ways, and\nmy methods with them in this world, were that that caused Israel\nalways to err in their hearts (Heb 3:10), and lie cross to all,\nand each of these breadths, lengths, depths, and heights, whenever\nthey were under the exercise of any of them in the wilderness.\n\nAnd the reason is, as I said before, for that they are very\nmysterious in their workings. For they work by, upon, and against\noppositions; for, and in order to the help and salvation of his\npeople. Also (as was hinted a while since) that the power and\nglory of this breadth, and length, &c. of the mercy and grace of\nGod, may the more shew its excellency and sufficiency as to our\ndeliverance; we by him seem quite to be delivered up to the breadths,\nlengths, and depths, and heights that oppose, and that utterly seek\nour ruin: wherefore at such times, nothing of breadths, lengths,\ndepths, or heights can be seen, save by those that are very well\nskilled in those mysterious methods of God, in his gracious actings\ntowards his people. \"Who will bring me into the strong city,\"\nand \"wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O\nGod, which didst not go out with our armies?\" (Psa 60:9,10) is a\nlesson too hard for every Christian man to say over believingly.\nAnd what was it that made Jonah say, when he was in the belly of\nhell, \"Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple\" (Jonah 2:4),\nbut the good skill that he had in understanding of the mystery of\nthese breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights of God, and\nof the way of his working by them. Read the text at large. \"Thou\nhadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the\nfloods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed\nover me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look\nagain toward thy holy temple\" (Jonah 2:3,4).\n\nThese, and such like sentences, are easily played with by a\npreacher, when in the pulpit, specially if he has a little of the\nnotion of things, but of the difficulty and strait, that those\nare brought into, out of whose mouth such things, or words are\nextorted, by reason of the force of the labyrinths they are fallen\ninto: of those they experience nothing, wherefore to those they\nare utterly strangers.\n\nHe then that is able to comprehend with all saints what is the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height; must be a good expositor\nof providences, and must see the way, and the workings of God by\nthem. Now there are providences of two sorts, seemingly good, and\nseemingly bad, and those do usually as Jacob did, when he blessed\nthe sons of Joseph, cross hands; and lay the blessing where we\nwould not. \"And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right\nhand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him\" (Gen 48:17). I\nsay there are providences unto which we would have the blessings\nentailed, but they are not. And they are providences that smile\nupon the flesh; to wit, such as cast into the lap, health, wealth,\nplenty, ease, friends, and abundance of this world's good: because\nthese, [Manasseh, as his name doth signify,] have in them an aptness\nto make us forget our toil, our low estate, and from whence we\nwere (Gen 41:51): but the great blessing is not in them. There are\nprovidences again, that take away from us whatever is desirable\nto the flesh; such is the sickness, losses, crosses, persecution\nand affliction; and usually in these though they make us shuck 3\nwhenever they come upon us, blessing coucheth, and is ready to help\nus. For God, as the name of Ephraim signifies, makes us \"fruitful\nin the land of our affliction\" (Gen 41:52). He therefore, in blessing\nof his people, lays his hands across, guiding them wittingly, and\nlaying the chiefest blessing on the head of Ephraim, or in that\nprovidence, that sanctifies affliction. Abel! what, to the reason\nof Eve was he, in comparison of Cain. Rachel called Benjamin the\nson of her sorrow: but Jacob knew how to give him a better name\n(Gen 35:18). Jabez also, though his mother so called him, because,\nas it seems, she brought him forth with more than ordinary sorrow,\nwas yet more honourable, more godly, than his brethren (1 Chron\n4:9,10). He that has skill to judge of providences aright, has a\ngreat ability in him to comprehend with other saints, what is the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height: but he that has not\nskill as to discerning of them, is but a child in his judgment\nin those high and mysterious things. And hence it is, that some\nshall suck honey out of that, at the which others tremble for fear\nit should poison them, I have often been made to say, \"Sorrow is\nbetter than laughter; and the house of mourning better than the\nhouse of mirth\" (Eccl 7:3-5). And I have more often seen, that\nthe afflicted are always the best sort of Christians. There is a\nman, never well, never prospering, never but under afflictions,\ndisappointments and sorrows: why this man, if he be a Christian,\nis one of the best of men. \"They that go down to the sea,--that\ndo business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and\nhis wonders in the deep.\" 4 (Psa 107:23,24) And it is from hence,\nfor aught I know, that James admonishes the brother of high degree\nto rejoice in that he is made low. And he renders the reason of\nit, to wit, for that the fashion of the world perisheth, the rich\nman fadeth away in his way; but the tempted, and he that endureth\ntemptation is blessed (James 1:10-12). Now, I know these things\nare not excellent in themselves, nor yet to be desired for any\nprofit that they can yield, but God doth use by these, as by a\ntutor or instructor, to make known to them that are exercised with\nthem, so much of himself as to make them understand that riches of\nhis goodness that is seldom by other means broken up to the sons\nof men. And hence 'tis said, that the afterwards of affliction\ndoth yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which\nare exercised thereby (Heb 12:11).\n\nThe sum is, these breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights\nof God, are to be discerned; and some that are good, do more, and\nsome do less discern them, and how they are working, and putting\nforth themselves in every providence, in every change, in every turn\nof the wheel that passeth by us in this world. I do not question\nbut that there are some that are alive that have been able\nto say, the days of affliction have been the best unto them; and\nthat could, if it were lawful, pray that they might always be in\naffliction, if God would but do to them as he did when his hand\nwas last upon them. For by them he caused his light to shine: Or\nas Job has it, \"Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou\nshewest thyself marvelously upon me\" (Job 10:16). See also the\nwriting of Hezekiah, and read what profit he found in afflictions\n(Isa 38).\n\nBut again, these breadths, lengths, depths, and heights, have in\nthemselves naturally that glory, that cannot be so well discerned,\nor kept in view by weak eyes. He had need have an eye like an\neagle, that can look upon the sun, that can look upon these great\nthings, and not be stricken blind therewith. You see how Saul was\nserved when he was going to Damascus (Acts 9): But Stephen could\nstand and look up steadfastly into heaven; and that too when with\nJonah he was going into the deep (Acts 7). But I have done with\nthis, and proceed.\n\nSecond--That ye may be able to comprehend. Although apprehending\nis included in comprehending; yet to comprehend is more. To\ncomprehend is to know a thing fully; or, to reach it all. But here\nwe must distinguish, and say, that there is a comprehending that\nis absolute, and a comprehending that is comparative. Of comprehending\nabsolutely, or perfectly, we are not here to speak; for that the\nApostle could not, in this place, as to the thing prayed for,\ndesire: For it is utterly impossible perfectly to know whatsoever\nis in the breadths, lengths, depths, and heights here spoken\nof. Whether you call them mercies, judgments, or the ways of God\nwith men. \"How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past\nfinding out!\" (Rom 11:33) Or, if you take them to signify his\nlove, unto which you see I am inclined; why, that you read of in\nthe same place, to be it \"which passes knowledge.\" Wherefore should\nthe Apostle by this term, conclude, or insinuate, that what he\ncalls here breadths, lengths, depths, or heights, might be fully,\nor perfectly understood and known, he would not only contradict\nother scriptures, but himself, in one and the self same breath.\nWherefore it must be understood comparatively; that is, and that\nhe says, with, or as much as others, as any, even with all saints.\nThat ye may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height. I would ye were as\nable to understand, to know, and to find out these things, as ever\nany were; and to know with the very best of saints, The love of\nChrist, which passeth knowledge. There are, as has before been\nhinted, degrees of knowledge of these things; some know more,\nsome less; but the Apostle prays that these Ephesians might see,\nknow, and understand as much thereof as the best, or as any under\nheaven.\n\n1. And this, in the first place, shews us the love of a minister of\nJesus Christ. A minister's love to his flock is seen in his praying\nfor them: wherefore Paul, commonly, by his epistles, either first\nor last, or both, gives the churches to understand, That he did\noften heartily pray to God for them (Rom 16:20,24, 1 Cor 16:23,\nGal 6:18, Eph 1:16, Phil 1:4, Col 1:3, 1 Thess 1:2, 1 Tim 6:21,\n2 Tim 4:22): And not only so, but also specifies the mercies, and\nblessings, and benefits which he earnestly begged for them of God\n(2 Cor 13:7, 2 Thess 1:11).\n\n2. But, secondly, This implies that there are great benefits\naccrued to Christians by the comprehending of these things: Yea,\nit implies that something very special is ministered to us by this\nknowledge of these; and here to touch upon a few of them.\n\n(1.) He that shall arrive to some competent knowledge of these\nthings, shall understand more thoroughly the greatness, the wisdom,\nthe power, &c. of the God that is above. For by these expressions\nare the attributes of God set forth unto us: And although I have\ndiscoursed of them hitherto under the notion of grace and mercy,\nyet it was not for that I concluded, they excluded the expressing\nof his other attributes, but because they all, as it were, turn\ninto loving methods in the wheel of their heavenly motion towards\nthe children of God. Hence it is said, \"God is love\" (1 John 4:16),\n\"God is light\" (1 John 1:5), God is what He is for His own glory,\nand the good of them that fear Him. God! Why God in the breadth,\nlength, depth, height, that is here intended, comprehends the whole\nworld (Col 1:17). The whole world is in him: for he is before,\nabove, beyond, and round about all things. Hence it is said,\nThe heavens for breadth, are but his span: That he gathereth the\nwind in his fists (Prov 30:4): measureth the waters in the hollow\nof his hand, weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in\na balance (Isa 40:12). Yea, that \"all nations before him are as\nnothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity\"\n(verse 17). Hence we are said to live and move in him (Acts 17:28),\nand that He is beyond all search.\n\nI will add one word more, notwithstanding there is such a revelation\nof Him in his word, in the book of creatures, and in the book of\nprovidences; yet the scripture says, \"Lo, these are parts of his\nways: but how little a portion is heard of him?\" (Job 26:14) So\ngreat is God above all that we have read, heard, or seen of Him,\neither in the bible, in heaven, or earth, the sea, or what else\nis to be understood. But now, That a poor mortal, a lump of sinful\nflesh, or, as the scripture-phrase is, poor dust and ashes, should\nbe in the favour, in the heart, and wrapped up in the compassions\nof SUCH a God! O amazing! O astonishing consideration! And yet\n\"This God is our God for ever and ever; and He will be our guide\neven unto death\" (Psa 48:14).\n\nIt is said of our God, \"That he humbleth himself when he beholds\nthings in heaven.\" How much more then when he openeth his eyes\nupon man; but most of all when he makes it, as one may say, his\nbusiness to visit him every morning, and to try him every moment,\nhaving set His heart upon him, being determined to set him also\namong his princes. \"The Lord is high above all nations, and his\nglory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who\ndwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that\nare in heaven, and in the earth! He raiseth up the poor out of\nthe dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may\nset him with princes, even with the princes of his people\" (Psa\n113:3-8).\n\n(2.) IF this God be our God; or if our God be such a God, and could\nwe but attain to that knowledge of the breadth, and length, and\ndepth, and height that is in him, as the Apostle here prays, and\ndesires we may, we should never be afraid of anything we shall\nmeet with, or that shall assault us in this world. The great God,\nthe former of all things, taketh part with them that fear Him, and\nthat engage themselves to walk in His ways, of love, and respect,\nthey bear unto him; so that such may boldly say, \"The Lord is my\nhelper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me\" (Heb 13:6).\nWould it not be amazing, should you see a man encompassed with\nchariots and horses, and weapons for his defence, yet afraid of\nbeing sparrow blasted, or over-run by a grasshopper! Why \"It is\nhe that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and\" to whom \"the\ninhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers\" (Isa 40:22): that is the\nGod of the people that are lovers of Jesus Christ; therefore we\nshould not fear them. To fear man, is to forget God; and to be\ncareless in a time of danger, is to forget God's ordinance. What\nis it then? Why, let us fear God, and diligently keep his way,\nwith what prudence and regard to our preservation, and also the\npreservation of what we have, we may: And if, we doing this, our\nGod shall deliver us, and what we have, into the hands of them\nthat hate us, let us laugh, be fearless and careless, not minding\nnow to do anything else but to stand up for Him against the workers\nof iniquity; fully concluding, that both we, and our enemies, are\nin the hand of him that loveth his people, and that will certainly\nrender a reward to the wicked, after that he has sufficiently\ntried us by their means. \"The great God that formed all things,\nboth rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors\" (Prov 26:10).5\n\n(3.) Another thing that the knowledge of what is prayed for of the\nApostle, if we attain it, will minister to us, is, An holy fear\nand reverence of this great God in our souls; both because he is\ngreat, and because he is wise and good (Jer 10:7). \"Who shall not\nfear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?\" (Rev 15:4)\n\nGreatness should beget fear, greatness should beget reverence:\nNow who so great as our God; and so, who to be feared like him!\nHe also is wise, and will not be deceived by any. \"He will bring\nevil, and not call back his words, but will rise against the house\nof evil-doers, and against the help of them that work iniquity\"\n(Isa 31:2). Most men deal with God as if he were not wise; as if\nhe either knew not the wickedness of their hearts and ways, or\nelse knew not how to be even with them for it: When, alas! he is\nwise in heart, and mighty in power; and although he will not, without\ncause, afflict, yet he will not let wickedness go unpunished. This\ntherefore should make us fear. He also is good, and this should\nmake us serve him with fear. Oh! that a great God should be a\ngood God; a good God to an unworthy, to an undeserving, and to a\npeople that continually do what they can to provoke the eyes of\nhis glory; this should make us tremble. He is fearful in service,\nfearful in praises.\n\nThe breadth, and length, and depth, and height of his out-going\ntowards the children of men, should also beget in us a very great\nfear and dread of his majesty. When the prophet saw the height of\nthe wheels, he said they were dreadful (Eze 1:18), and cried out\nunto them, O wheel! (10:13). His judgments also are a great deep\n(Psa 36:6); nor is there any \"searching of his understanding\" (Isa\n40:28). He can tell how to bring his wheel upon us; and to make\nour table a snare, a trap, and a stumbling-block unto us (Isa\n8:14, Rom 11:8-10). He can tell how to make his Son to us a rock\nof offence, and his gospel to be a savour of death unto death,\nunto us (2 Cor 2:15,16). He can tell how to choose delusions for\nus (Isa 66:4, 2 Thess 2:11,12), and to lead us forth with the\nworkers of iniquity (Psa 125:5), He can out-wit, and out-do us, and\nprevail against us for ever (Job 14:20); and therefore we should\nbe afraid and fear before Him, for our good, and the good of ours\nfor ever: Yea, it is for these purposes, with others, that the\nApostle prayeth thus for this people: For the comprehending of\nthese things, do poise and keep the heart in an even course. This\nyields comfort; this gives encouragement; this begets fear and\nreverence in our hearts of God.\n\n(4.) This knowledge will make us willing that he should be our\nGod; yea, will also make us abide by that willingness. Jacob said\nwith a vow, \"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way\nthat I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,\nso that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall\nthe Lord be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar,\nshall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will\nsurely give the tenth unto thee\" (Gen 28:20-22). Thus he considered\nthe greatness of God, and from a supposition that he was what he\nhad heard him, of his father, to be; he concluded to choose him for\nhis God, and that he would worship him, and give him that honour\nthat was due to him as God. How did the king of Babylon set him\nabove all gods, when but some sparkling rays from him did light upon\nhim: he calls him \"a God of gods\" (Dan 2:47), prefers him above\nall gods, charges all people and nations that they do nothing amiss\nagainst him (Dan 3:28,29): he calls him \"the most high\" God, the\nGod \"that liveth for ever\"; and confesses, that he doth whatsoever\nhe will in heaven and earth; and concludes with praising and\nextolling of him (Dan 4). We naturally love greatness; and when\nthe glorious beauty of the King of glory shall be manifest to us,\nand we shall behold it, we shall say as Joshua did; Let all men\ndo as seems them good; but I, and my house will serve the Lord\n(Josh 24:15).\n\nWhen the Apostle Paul sought to win the Athenians to him, he sets\nHim forth before them with such terms as bespeaks his greatness;\ncalling of him (and that rightly) \"God that made the world, and\nall things:--the Lord of heaven and earth;--One that giveth to all\nlife and breath, and all things\"; One that is nigh to every one;\n\"he in whom we live, and move, and have our being\": God that hath\nmade of one blood all nations of men, and that hath determined\nthe times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,\n&c. (Acts 17:24-28) These things bespeak the greatness of God, and\nare taking to considering men. Yea, these very Athenians, while\nignorant of him, from those dark hints that they had by natural\nlight concerning him, erected an altar to him, and put this\nsingular inscription upon it, \"To the unknown God\": to shew, that\naccording to their mode, they had some kind of reverence for him:\nbut how much more when they came to know him? and to believe that\nGod, in all his greatness, had engaged himself to be theirs; and\nto bring them to himself, that they might in time be partakers of\nhis glory.\n\n(5.) The more a man knows, or understands of the greatness of God\ntowards him, expressed here by the terms of unsearchable breadth,\nlength, depth, and height; the better will he be able in his heart\nto conceive of the excellent glory and greatness of the things\nthat are laid up in the heavens for them that fear him. They that\nknow nothing of this greatness, know nothing of them; they that\nthink amiss of this greatness, think amiss of them; they that\nknow but little of this greatness, know but little of them: But\nhe that is able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,\nand length, and depth, and height; he is best able to conceive\nof, and, consequently to make a judgment concerning the due worth,\nand blessed glory of them.\n\nThis is both evident to reason; also experience confirmeth the same.\nFor, as for those dark souls that know nothing of his greatness,\nthey have in derision those who are, through the splendor of the\nglory, captivated and carried away after God. Also, those whose\njudgments are corrupted, and themselves thereby made as drunkards,\nto judge of things foolishly, they, as it were, step in the same\nsteps with the other, and vainly imagine thereabout. Moreover,\nwe shall see those little spirited Christians, though Christians\nindeed, that are but in a small measure acquainted with this God,\nwith the breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights that are\nin him, taken but little with the glory and blessedness that they\nare to go to when they die: wherefore they are neither so mortified\nto this world, so dead to sin, so self-denying, so delighted in\nthe book of God, nor so earnest in desires to be acquainted with\nthe heights, and depths that are therein. No, this is reserved\nonly for those who are devoted thereto: who have been acquainted\nwith God in a measure beyond that which your narrow-spirited Christians\nunderstand. There doth want as to these things, enlargings in the\nhearts of the most of saints, as there did in those of Corinth,\nand also in those at Ephesus: Wherefore, as Paul bids the one, and\nprays that the other may be enlarged, and have great knowledge\nthereabout: so we should, to answer such love, through desire,\nseparate ourselves from terrene things that we may seek and\nintermeddle with all wisdom (Prov 18:1). Christ says, \"If any man\nwill do his will, he shall know of the doctrine\" (John 7:17, Isa\n28:9). Oh! that we were indeed enlarged as to these breadths, and\nlengths, and depths, and heights of God, as the Apostle desired\nthe Ephesians might.\n\n(6.) Then those great truths; the coming of Christ, the resurrection\nof the dead, and eternal judgment, would neither seem so like\nfables, nor be so much off our hearts as they do, and are (1 Cor\n15:35). For the thorough belief of them depends upon the knowledge\nof the abilities that are in God to perform what he has said\nthereabout: And hence it is that your inferiour sort of Christians\nlive so like, as if none of these things were at hand; and hence\nit is again, that they so soon are shaken in mind about them,\nwhen tempted of the devil, or briskly assaulted by deceivers. But\nthis cometh to pass that there may be fulfilled what is written:\n\"And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept\"\n(Matt 25:1-7). Surely, the meaning is, they were asleep about his\ncoming, the resurrection and the judgment; and, consequently had\nlost much of that knowledge of God, the which if they had retained;\nthese truths, with power, would have been upon their hearts. The\nCorinthians were horribly decayed here, though some more than\nothers: Hence Paul, when he treats of this doctrine, bids them\n\"awake to righteousness,\" and not sin, telling them, that some\namong them had not the knowledge of God (1 Cor 15:34). To be sure,\nthey had not such a knowledge of God as would keep them steady in\nthe faith of these things (verse 51).\n\nNow, the knowledge of the things above-mentioned, to wit, \"this\ncomprehending knowledge\"; will greaten these things, bring them\nnear, and make them to be credited as are the greatest of God's\ntruth: and the virtue of the faith of them is, to make one die\ndaily. Therefore,\n\n(7.) Another advantage that floweth from this knowledge, is, that\nit makes the next world desirable, not simply as it is with those\nlean souls, that desire it only as the thief desireth the judge's\nfavour, that he may be saved from the halter; but out of love such\nhave to God and to the beauties of the house he dwells in; and\nthat they may be rid of this world, which is to such as a dark\ndungeon. The knowledge of God that men pretend they have, may\neasily be judged of, by the answerable or unanswerableness of their\nhearts and lives thereto. Where is the man that groans earnestly\nto be gone to God, that counts this life a strait unto him: that\nsaith as a sick man of my acquaintance did, when his friend at his\nbed-side prayed to God to spare his life, No, no, said he, pray\nnot so; for it is better to be dissolved and be gone. Christians\nshould shew the world how they believe; not by words on paper, not\nby gay and flourishing notions (James 2:18): but by those desires\nthey have to be gone, and the proof that these desires are true,\nis a life in heaven while we are on earth (Phil 3:20,21). I know\nwords are cheap, but a dram of grace is worth all the world. But\nwhere, as I said, shall it be found, not among carnal men, not\namong weak Christians, but among those, and those only, that enjoy\na great measure of Paul's wish here. But to come to the\n\nSECOND PART OF THE TEXT.\n\nAND TO KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE. These\nwords are the second part of the text, and they deal mainly about\nthe love of Christ, who is the Son of God. We have spoken already\nbriefly of God, and therefore now we shall speak also of his Son.\nThese words are a part of the prayer afore-mentioned, and have\nsomething of the same strain in them. In the first part, he prays\nthat they might comprehend that which cannot absolutely by any\nmeans be comprehended: and here he prays that that might be known,\nwhich yet in the same breath he saith, passeth knowledge, to wit,\nthe love of Christ. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth\nknowledge. In the words we are to take notice of three things:\n\nFIRST, Of the love of Christ.\n\nSECOND, Of the exceeding greatness of it.\n\nTHIRD, Of the knowledge of it.\n\nFIRST, We will begin with the first of these, to wit, Of the love\nof Christ. Now for the explication of this we must inquire into\nthree things, First, Who Christ is. Second, What love is. Third,\nWhat the love of Christ is.\n\nFirst, Christ is a person of no less quality than he is of whom\nwe treated before: to wit, very God. So I say, not titularly, not\nnominally, not so counterfeitly, but the self-same in nature with\nthe Father (John 1:1,2, 1 John 5:7, Phil 2:6). Wherefore what we\nhave under consideration, is so much the more to be taken notice\nof; namely, that a person so great, so high, so glorious, as this\nJesus Christ was, should have love for us, that passes knowledge.\nIt is common for equals to love, and for superiors to be beloved;\nbut for the King of princes, for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ\nto love man thus: this is amazing, and that so much the more, for\nthat man the object of this love, is so low, so mean, so vile, so\nundeserving, and so inconsiderable, as by the scriptures, everywhere\nhe is described to be.\n\nBut to speak a little more particularly of this person. He is called\nGod (John 1:1). The King of glory (Psa 24:10), and Lord of glory\n(1 Cor 2:8). The brightness of the glory of his Father (Heb 1:3).\nThe head over all things (Eph 1:22). The Prince of life (Acts\n3:15). The Creator of all things (Col 1:16). The upholder of all\nthings (Heb 1:3). The disposer of all things (Matt 28:18). The\nonly beloved of the Father (Matt 11).\n\nBut the persons of him beloved, are called transgressors, sinners,\nenemies, dust and ashes, fleas (1 Sam 24:14), worms, shadows,\nvapours: vile, sinful, filthy, unclean, ungodly fools, madmen.\nAnd now is it not to be wondered at, and are we not to be affected\nherewith, saying, And wilt thou set thine eye upon such an one?\nBut how much more when He will set his heart upon us. And yet\nthis great, this high, this glorious person, verily, verily loveth\nsuch.\n\nSecond, We now come to the second thing, namely, to shew what is\nlove; not in a way of nice distinction of words, but in a plain\nand familiar discourse, yet respecting the love of the person\nunder consideration.\n\nLove ought to be considered with reference to the subject as well\nas to the object of it.\n\nThe subject of love in the text, is Christ; but forasmuch as love\nin him is diverse from the love that is in us; therefore it will\nnot be amiss, if a little [of] the difference be made appear.\n\nLove in us is a passion of the soul, and being such, is subject\nto ebb and flow, and to be extreme both ways. For whatever is a\npassion of the soul, whether love or hatred, joy or fear, is more\napt to exceed, or come short, than to keep within its due bounds.\nHence, oft-times that which is loved today is hated tomorrow\n(2 Sam 13:15); yea, and that which should be loved with bounds\nof moderation, is loved to the drowning of both soul and body in\nperdition and destruction (1 Tim 6:9,10).\n\nBesides, love in us is apt to choose to itself undue and unlawful\nobjects, and to reject those, that with leave of God, we may\nembrace and enjoy; so unruly, as to the laws and rules of divine\ngovernment, oft-times is this passion of love in us.\n\nLove in us, requires, that something pleasing and delightful be\nin the object loved, at least, so it must appear to the lust and\nfancy of the person loving, or else love cannot act; for the love\nthat is in us, is not of power to set itself on work, where no\nallurement is in the thing to be beloved.\n\nLove in us decays, though once never so warm and strongly fixed,\nif the object falls off, as to its first alluring provocation; or\ndisappointeth our expectation with some unexpected reluctancy to\nour fancy or our mind.\n\nAll this we know to be true from nature, for every one of us are\nthus; nor can we refuse, or choose as to love, but upon, and after\nthe rate, and the working thus of our passions. Wherefore our\nlove, as we are natural, is weak, unorderly, fails and miscarries,\neither by being too much or too little; yea, though the thing which\nis beloved be allowed for an object of love, both by the law of\nnature and grace. We therefore must put a vast difference betwixt\nlove, as found in us, and love as found in Christ, and that, both\nas to the nature, principle, or object of love.\n\nLove in Christ is not love of the same nature, as is love in us;\nlove in him is essential to his being (1 John 4:16); but in us\nit is not so, as has been already shewed. God is love; Christ is\nGod; therefore Christ is love, love naturally. Love therefore is\nessential to His being. He may as well cease to be, as cease to\nlove. Hence therefore it follows, that love in Christ floweth not\nfrom so low and beggarly a principle, as doth love in man; and\nconsequently is not, nor can be attended with those infirmities\nor defects, that the love of man is attended with.\n\nIt is not attended with those unruly or uncertain motions that ours\nis attended with: here is no ebbing, no flowing, no going beyond,\nno coming short; and so nothing of uncertainty. \"Having loved his\nown which were in the world, he loved them unto the end\" (John\n13:1).\n\nTrue, there is a way of manifesting of this love, which is suited\nto our capacities, as men, and by that we see it sometimes more,\nsometimes less (Song 7:11,12): also it is manifested to us as we\ndo, or do not walk with God in this world (John 14:23). I speak\nnow of saints.\n\nLove in Christ pitcheth not itself upon undue or unlawful objects;\nnor refuseth to embrace what by the eternal covenant is made\ncapable thereof. It always acteth according to God; nor is there\nat any time the least shadow of swerving as to this.\n\nLove in Christ requireth no taking beauteousness in the object\nto be beloved, as not being able to put forth itself without such\nattracting allurements (Eze 16:6-8). It can act of and from itself,\nwithout all such kind of dependencies. This is manifest to all who\nhave the least true knowledge of what that object is in itself,\non which the Lord Jesus has set his heart to love them.\n\nLove in Christ decays not, nor can be tempted so to do by anything\nthat happens, or that shall happen hereafter, in the object so\nbeloved. But as this love at first acts by, and from itself, so\nit continueth to do until all things that are imperfections, are\ncompletely and everlastingly subdued. The reason is, because Christ\nloves to make us comely, not because we are so (Eze 16:9-14).\n\nObject. But all along Christ compareth his love to ours; now, why\ndoth he so, if they be so much alike?\n\nAnswer. Because we know not love but by the passions of love that\nwork in our hearts; wherefore he condescends to our capacities,\nand speaketh of His love to us, according as we find love to work\nin ourselves to others. Hence he sets forth his love to us, by\nborrowing from us instances of our love to wife and children (Eph\n5:25). Yea, he sometimes sets forth his love to us, by calling to\nour mind how sometimes a man loves a woman that is a whore, \"Go,\"\n(saith God to the prophet) \"love a woman beloved of her friend,\nyet an adulteress, according to the word of the Lord toward the\nchildren of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of\nwine.\" (Hosea 3:1) But then, these things must not be understood\nwith respect to the nature, but the dispensations and manifestations\nof love; no, nor with reference to these neither, any further than\nby making use of such suitable similitudes, thereby to commend his\nlove to us, and thereby to beget in us affections to him for the\nlove bestowed upon us. Wherefore Christ's love must be considered\nboth with respect to the essence, and also as to the divers\nworkings of it. For the essence thereof, it is as I said, natural\nwith himself, and as such, it is the root and ground of all those\nactions of his, whereby he hath shewed that himself is loving to\nsinful man. But now, though the love that is in him is essential\nto his nature, and can vary no more than God himself: yet we see\nnot this love but by the fruits of it, nor can it otherwise be\ndiscerned. \"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid\ndown his life for us\" (1 John 3:16). We must then betake ourselves\nto the discoveries of this love, of which there are two sorts;\n[namely,] such as are the foundations, and such as are the\nconsequences of those fundamental acts. Those which I call the\nfoundations, are they upon which all other discoveries of his\ngoodness depend, and they are two. 1. His dying for us. 2. His\nimproving of his death for us at the right hand of God.\n\nThird, And this leads me to the third particular, to wit, to shew\nyou what the love of Christ is; namely, in the discovery of it.\nAnd to know the love of Christ.\n\nThe love of Christ is made known unto us, as I said, First, By his\ndying for us. Second, By his improving of his dying for us.\n\n1. His dying for us appears, (1.) To be wonderful in itself. (2.)\nIn his preparations for that work.\n\n(1.) It appears to be wonderful in itself, and that both with\nrespect to the nature of that death, as also, with respect to the\npersons for whom he so died.\n\nThe love of Christ appears to be wonderful by the death he died: In\nthat he died, in that he died such a death. 'Twas strange love in\nChrist that moved him to die for us: strange, because not according\nto the custom of the world. Men do not use, in cool blood,\ndeliberately to come upon the stage or ladder, to lay down their\nlives for others; but this did Jesus Christ, and that too for such,\nwhose qualification, if it be duly considered, will make this act\nof his, far more amazing, He laid down his life for his enemies\n(Rom 5), and for those that could not abide him; yea, for those,\neven for those that brought him to the cross: not accidentally, or\nbecause it happened so, but knowingly, designedly, (Zech 12:10),\nhe knew it was for those he died, and yet his love led him to lay\ndown his life for them. I will add, That those very people for\nwhom he laid down his life, though they by all sorts of carriages\ndid what they could to provoke him to pray to God his Father,\nthat he would send and cut them off by the flaming sword of angels\n(Matt 26:53), would not be provoked, but would lay down his life\nfor them. Nor must I leave off here: We never read that Jesus\nChrist was more cheerful in all his life on earth, than when he\nwas going to lay down his life for them, now he thanked God (Luke\n22:19), now he sang (Matt 26:30).\n\nBut this is not all. He did not only die, but died such a death,\nas indeed cannot be expressed. He was content to be counted the\nsinner: yea, to be counted the sin of the sinner, nor could this\nbut be odious to so holy a Lamb as he was, yet willing to be this\nand thus for that love that he bare to men.\n\nThis being thus, it follows, that his sufferings must be inconceivable;\nfor that, what in justice was the proper wages of sin and sinners,\nhe must undergo; and what that was can no man so well know as\nhe himself and damned spirits; for the proper wages of sin, and\nof sinners for their sin, is that death which layeth pains, such\npains which it deserveth upon the man that dieth so: But Christ\ndied so, and consequently was seized by those pains not only in\nbody but in soul. His tears, his cries, his bloody sweat (Luke\n22:44), the hiding of his Father's face; yea, God's forsaking of\nhim in his extremity (Matt 27:46), plainly enough declares the\nnature of the death he died (Mark 15:39). For my part, I stand\namazed at those that would not have the world believe, that the\ndeath of Jesus Christ was, in itself, so terrible as it was.\n\nI will not stand here to discourse of the place called Hell, where\nthe spirits of the damned are, we are discoursing of the nature of\nChrist's sufferings: and I say, if Christ was put into the very\ncapacity of one that must suffer what in justice ought to be\ninflicted for sin; then, how we can so diminish the greatness of\nhis sufferings, as some do, without undervaluing of the greatness\nof his love, I know not; and how they will answer it, I know not.\nAnd on the contrary, what if I should say, that the soul of Christ\nsuffered as long as his body lay in the grave, and that God's\nloosing of the pains of death at Christ's resurrection, must not\nso much be made mention of with reference to his body, as to his\nsoul, if to his body at all. For what pain of death was his body\ncapable of, when his soul was separate from it? (Acts 2:24) And\nyet God's loosing the pains of death, seems to be but an immediate\nantecedent to his rising from the dead. And this sense Peter doth\nindeed seem to pursue, saying, \"For David speaketh concerning him;\nI foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right\nhand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,\nand my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope,\nbecause thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou\nsuffer thine holy one to see corruption\" (Acts 2:25-27). This,\nsaith Peter, was not spoken of David, but he being a prophet,\nand knowing that God had sworn with an oath, that of the fruit of\nhis loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit\non his throne (verse 29,30): He seeing this before, spake of the\nresurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither\ndid his flesh see corruption (verse 31). \"Thou wilt not leave my\nsoul in hell\"; his soul was not left in hell. Of what use are these\nexpressions, if the soul of Christ suffered not, if it suffered\nnot when separated from the body? for of that time the Apostle\nPeter seems to treat. Besides, if it be not improper to say, that\nsoul was not left there, that never was there, I am at a loss. Thou\nwilt not leave, his soul was not left there; ergo, It was there,\nseems to be the natural conclusion. If it be objected, that by\nhell is meant the grave, 'tis foolish to think that the soul of\nChrist lay there while his body lay dead therein. But again, the\nApostle seems clearly to distinguish between the places where the\nsoul and body of Christ was; counting his body to be in the grave,\nand his soul, for the time, in hell. If there be objected what\nwas said by him to the thief upon the cross (Luke 23:43), I can\nanswer, Christ might speak that with reference to his God-head,\nand if so, that lies as no objection to what hath been insinuated.\nAnd why may not that be so understood, as well as where he said,\nwhen on earth, \"The Son of man which is in heaven\" (John 3:13),\nmeaning himself. For the personality of the Son of God, call him\nSon of man, or what other term is fitting, resideth not in the\nhuman, but divine nature of Jesus Christ. However, since hell\nis sometimes taken for the place (Acts 1:25), sometimes for the\ngrave, sometimes for the state (Psa 116:3), and sometimes but for\na figure of the place where the damned are tormented (Jonah 2:2);\nI will not strictly assign to Christ the place, the prison where\nthe damned spirits are (1 Peter 3:19), but will say, as I said\nbefore, that he was put into the place of sinners, into the sins\nof sinners, and received what by justice was the proper wages of\nsin both in body and soul: As is evident from that 53rd of Isaiah\n(verse 10,11). This soul of his I take to be that which the inwards\nand the fat of the burnt sacrifices was a figure, or shadow of.\n\"And the fat and the inwards were burnt upon the altar, whilst\nthe body was burned for sin without the camp\" (Exo 29:13,14, Lev\n8:14-17).\n\nAnd now having said this much, wherein have I derogated from the\nglory and holiness of Christ? Yea, I have endeavoured to set forth\nsomething of the greatness of his sorrows, the odiousness of sin,\nthe nature of justice, and the love of Christ. And be sure, by how\nmuch the sufferings of the Son of God abounded for us, by so much\nwas this unsearchable love of Christ made manifest. Nor can they\nthat would, before the people, pare away, and make but little these\ninfinite sufferings of our Lord, make his love to be so great as\nthey ought, let them use what rhetoric they can. For their objecting\nthe odious names and place of hell, accounting it not to be fit to\nsay, That so holy a person as the Son of God was there. I answer,\nthough I have not asserted it, yet let me ask, which is more\nodious, hell or sin? Or whether such think that Christ Jesus was\nsubject to be tainted by the badness of the place, had he been\nthere? Or whether, when the scripture says, God is in hell, it\nis any disparagement to him? (Psa 139:8) Or if a man should be so\nbold as to say so, Whether by so saying, he confineth Christ to\nthat place for ever? And whether by so thinking he has contradicted\nthat called the Apostles' creed?6\n\n(2.) Having thus spoken of the death and sufferings of Christ,\nI shall in the next place speak of his preparations for his so\nsuffering for us; and by so doing, yet shew you something more of\nthe greatness of his love.\n\nChrist, as I have told you, was even before his sufferings, a person\nof no mean generation, being the Son of the eternal God: Neither\nhad his Father any more such sons but he; consequently he of right\nwas heir of all things, and so to have dominion over all worlds.\nFor, \"for him were all things created\" (Col 1:16). And hence all\ncreatures are subject to him; yea the angels of God worship him\n(Heb 1). Wherefore as so considered, he augmented not his state\nby becoming lower than the angels for us, for what can be added\nto him, that is naturally God. Indeed he did take, for our sakes,\nthe human nature into union with himself, and so began to manifest\nhis glory; and the kindness that he had for us before all worlds,\nbegan now eminently to shew itself. Had this Christ of God, our\nfriend, given all he had to save us, had not his love been wonderful?\nBut when he shall give for us himself, this is more wonderful. But\nthis is not all, the case was so betwixt God and man, that this\nSon of God could not, as he was before the world was, give himself\na ransom for us, he being altogether incapable so to do, being\nsuch an one as could not be subject to death, the condition that\nwe by sin had put ourselves into.\n\nWherefore that which would have been a death to some, to wit, the\nlaying aside of glory and becoming, of the King of princes, a\nservant of the meanest form; this he of his own good-will, was\nheartily content to do. Wherefore, he that once was the object\nof the fear of angels, is now become a little creature, a worm,\nan inferior one (Psa 22:6), born of a woman, brought forth in a\nstable, laid in a manger (Luke 2:7), scorned of men, tempted of\ndevils (Luke 4:2), was beholden to his creatures for food, for\nraiment, for harbour, and a place wherein to lay his head when\ndead. In a word, he \"made himself of no reputation, took upon him\nthe form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men\" (Phil\n2:7), that he might become capable to do this kindness for us.\nAnd it is worth your noting, that all the while that he was in the\nworld, putting himself upon those other preparations which were\nto be antecedent to his being made a sacrifice for us, no man,\nthough he told what he came about to many, had, as we read of, an\nheart once to thank him for what he came about (Isa 53:3). No,\nthey railed on him, they degraded him, they called him devil,\nthey said he was mad, and a deceiver, a blasphemer of God, and a\nrebel against the state: They accused him to the governor; yea,\none of his disciples sold him, another denied him, and they all\nforsook him, and left him to shift for himself in the hands of\nhis horrible enemies; who beat him with their fists, spat on him,\nmocked him, crowned him with thorns, scourged him, made a gazing\nstock of him, and finally, hanged him up by the hands and the feet\nalive, and gave him vinegar to increase his affliction, when he\ncomplained that his anguish had made him thirsty. And yet all this\ncould not take his heart off the work of our redemption. To die\nhe came, die he would, and die he did before he made his return\nto the Father, for our sins, that we might live through him.\n7 Nor may what we read of in the word concerning those temporal\nsufferings that he underwent be over-looked, and passed by without\nserious consideration; they being a part of the curse that our sin\nhad deserved! For all temporal plagues are due to our sin while we\nlive, as well as the curse of God to everlasting perdition, when\nwe die. Wherefore this is the reason why the whole life of the\nLord Jesus was such a life of affliction and sorrow, he therein\nbare our sicknesses, and took upon him our deserts: So that now\nthe curse in temporals, as well as the curse in spirituals, and\nof everlasting malediction, is removed by him away from God's\npeople; and since he overcame them, and got to the cross, it was\nby reason of the worthiness of the humble obedience that he yielded\nto his Father's law in our flesh. For his whole life (as well as\nhis death) was a life of merit and purchase, and desert. Hence it\nis said, \"he increased in favour with God\" (Luke 2:52). For his\nworks made him still more acceptable to him: For he standing in the\nroom of man, and becoming our reconciler to God; by the heavenly\nmajesty he was counted as such, and so got for us what he earned\nby his mediatory works; and also partook thereof as he was our\nhead himself. And was there not in all these things love, and\nlove that was infinite? Love which was not essential to his divine\nnature, could never have carried him through so great a work as\nthis: Passions here would a failed, would a retreated, and have\ngiven the recoil; yea, his very humanity would here have flagged\nand fainted, had it not been managed, governed, and strengthened\nby his eternal Spirit. Wherefore it is said, that \"through the\neternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God\" (Heb 9:14).\nAnd that he was declared to be the Son of God, with so doing, and\nby the resurrection from the dead (Rom 1:4).\n\n2. We come now to the second thing propounded, and by which his\nlove is discovered, and that is his improving of his dying for\nus. But I must crave pardon of my reader, if he thinks that I\ncan discover the ten hundred thousandth part thereof, for it is\nimpossible; but my meaning is, to give a few hints what beginnings\nof improvement he made thereof, in order to his further progress\ntherein.\n\n(1.) Therefore, This his death for us, was so virtuous, that in the\nspace of three days and three nights, it reconciled to God in the\nbody of his flesh as a common person, all, and every one of God's\nelect. Christ, when he addressed himself to die, presented himself\nto the justice of the law, as a common person; standing in the\nsted, place, and room of all that he undertook for; He gave \"his\nlife a ransom for many\" (Matt 20:28). \"He came into the world to\nsave sinners\" (1 Tim 1:15). And as he thus presented himself, so\nGod, his Father, admitted him to this work; and therefore it is\nsaid, \"The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all\": And again,\n\"surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows\" (Isa\n53:4,6,12). Hence it unavoidably follows, that whatever he felt,\nand underwent in the manner, or nature, or horribleness of the\ndeath he died, he felt and underwent all as a common person; that\nis, as he stood in the sted of others: Therefore it is said, \"He\nwas wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities\";\nand that \"the chastisement of our peace was upon him\" (Isa 53:5).\nAnd again \"the just died for the unjust\" (1 Peter 3:18).\n\nNow then, if he presented himself as a common person to justice,\nif God so admitted and accounted him, if also he laid the sins\nof the people, whose persons he represented, upon him, and under\nthat consideration punishes him with those punishments and death,\nthat he died. Then Christ in life and death is concluded by the\nFather to live and die as a common or public person, representing\nall in this life and death, for whom he undertook thus to live,\nand thus to die. So then, it must needs be, that what next befalls\nthis common person, it befalls him with respect to them in whose\nroom and place he stood and suffered. Now, the next that follows,\nis, \"that he is justified of God\": That is, acquitted and discharged\nfrom this punishment, for the sake of the worthiness of his death\nand merits; for that must be before he could be raised from the\ndead (Acts 2:24): God raised him not up as guilty, to justify him\nafterwards: His resurrection was the declaration of his precedent\njustification. He was raised from the dead, because it was neither\nin equity or justice possible that he should be holden longer\nthere, his merits procured the contrary.\n\nNow he was condemned of God's law, and died by the hand of justice,\nhe was acquitted by God's law, and justified of justice; and all\nas a common person; so then, in his acquitting, we are acquitted,\nin his justification we are justified; and therefore the Apostle\napplieth God's justifying of Christ to himself; and that rightly\n(Isa 50:8, Rom 8:33,34). For if Christ be my undertaker, will stand\nin my place, and do for me, 'tis but reasonable that I should be\na partaker: Wherefore we are also said to be \"quickened together\nwith him\" (Eph 2:5): That is, when he was quickened in the grave;\nraised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in\nChrist Jesus. Therefore another scripture saith, \"Hath He quickened\nyou--together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses\" (Col\n2:13). This quickening, must not be understood of the renovation\nof our hearts, but of the restoring of Jesus Christ to life after\nhe was crucified; and we are said to be quickened together with\nhim, because we were quickened in him at his death, and were to\nfall or stand by him quite through the three days and three nights\nwork; and were to take therefore our lot with him: Wherefore it\nis said again, That his resurrection is our justification (Rom\n4:25). That by one offering he has purged our sins for ever (Heb\n10:12); and that by his death he hath \"delivered us from the wrath\nto come\" (1 Thess 1:10). But I say, I would be understood aright:\nThis life resideth yet in the Son, and is communicated from him\nto us, as we are called to believe his word; mean while we are\nsecured from wrath and hell, being justified in his justification,\nquickened in his quickening, raised up in his resurrection; and\nmade to sit already together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!\n8 And is not this a glorious improvement of his death, that after\ntwo days the whole body of the elect, in him, should be revived,\nand that in the third day we should live in the sight of God, in\nand by him (Heb 6:18-20).\n\n(2.) Another improvement of his death for us, was this, By that he\nslew for us, our infernal foes; by it he abolished death (2 Tim\n1:1); by death he destroyed him that had the power of death (Heb\n2:14): By death he took away the sting of death (1 Cor 15:55,56);\nby death he made death a pleasant sleep to saints, and the grave\nfor a while, an easy house and home for the body. By death he\nmade death such an advantage to us, that it is become a means of\ntranslating of the souls of them that believe in him, to life.\nAnd all this is manifest, for that death is ours, a blessing to\nus, as well as Paul and Apollos, the world and life itself (1 Cor\n3:22). And that all this is done for us by his death, is apparent,\nfor that his person is where it is, and that by himself as a common\nperson he has got the victory for us. For though as yet all things\nare not put under our feet, yet we see Jesus crowned with honour\nand glory, who by the grace of God tasteth death for every man.\n\"For it became God, for whom are all things, and by whom are all\nthings, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through\nsufferings\" (Heb 2:7-10). It became him; that is, it was but just\nand right, he should do so, if there was enough in the virtuousness\nof his death and blood to require such a thing. But there was so.\nWherefore God has exalted him, and us in him, above these infernal\nfoes. Let us therefore see ourselves delivered from death first,\nby the exaltation of our Jesus, let us behold him I say as crowned\nwith glory and honour, as, or because, he tasted death for us.\nAnd then we shall see ourselves already in heaven by our head,\nour undertaker, our Jesus, our Saviour.\n\n(3.) Another improvement that has already been made of his death\nfor us, is thus, he hath at his entrance into the presence of God,\nfor his worthiness sake, obtained that the Holy Ghost should be\ngiven unto him for us, that we by that might in all things, yet\nto be done, be made meet to be partakers personally, in ourselves,\nas well as virtually by our head and forerunner, of the inheritance\nof the saints in light. Wherefore the abundant pourings out of\nthat was forborn until the resurrection, and glorification of our\nLord Jesus. \"For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that\nJesus was not yet glorified\" (John 7:39). Nor was it given so soon\nas received: for he received it upon his entering into the holy\nplace, when he had sprinkled the mercy seat with the blood of\nsprinkling, but it was not given out to us till sometimes after\n(Acts 4): however it was obtained before (Acts 2:32,33). And it\nwas meet that it should in that infinite immeasurableness in which\nhe received it, first abide upon him, that his human nature, which\nwas the first fruits of the election of God, might receive by its\nabidings upon him, that glory for which it was ordained; and that\nwe might receive, as we receive all other things, first by our\nhead and undertaker, sanctification in the fullness of it. Hence\nit is written, that as he is made unto us of God, wisdom, and\nrighteousness, and redemption, so sanctification too (1 Cor 1:30):\nFor first we are sanctified in his flesh, as we are justified by\nhis righteousness. Wherefore he is that holy one that setteth us,\nin himself, a holy lump before God, not only with reference to\njustification and life, but with reference to sanctification and\nholiness: For we that are elect, are all considered in him as he\nhas received that, as well as in that he has taken possession of\nthe heaven for us. I count not this all the benefit that accrueth\nto us by Jesus his receiving the Holy Ghost, at his entrance into\nthe presence of God for us: For we also are to receive it ourselves\nfrom him, according as by God we are placed in the body at the\ntimes appointed of the Father. That we, as was said, may receive\npersonal quickening, personal renovation, personal sanctification;\nand in conclusion, glory. But I say, for that he hath received\nthis holy Spirit to himself, he received it as the effect of his\nascension, which was the effect of his resurrection, and of the\nmerit of his death and passion. And he received it as a common\nperson, as a head and undertaker for the people.\n\n(4.) Another improvement that has been made of his death, and of\nthe merits thereof for us, is that he has obtained to be made of\nGod, the chief and high Lord of heaven and earth, for us, (All this\nwhile we speak of the exaltation of the human nature, in, by, and\nwith which, the Son of God became capable to be our reconciler\nunto God). \"All things,\" saith he, \"are delivered unto me of my\nFather. And all power in heaven and earth is given unto me\"; and\nall this because he died. \"He humbled himself, and became obedient\nunto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God hath highly\nexalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the\nname of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things\nin earth, or things under the earth: and that every tongue shall\nconfess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father\"\n(Phil 2). And all this is, as was said afore, for our sakes. He\nhas given him to be head over all things to the church (Eph 1:22).\n\nWherefore, whoever is set up on earth, they are set up by our Lord.\n\"By me,\" saith he, \"kings reign, and princes decree justice. By\nme princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth\"\n(Prov 8:15,16). Nor are they when set up, left to do, though they\nshould desire it, their own will and pleasure. The Metheg-Ammah,9\nthe bridle, is in his own hand, and he giveth reins, or check,\neven as it pleaseth him (2 Sam 8:1), He has this power, for the\nwell-being of his people. Nor are the fallen angels exempted from\nbeing put under his rebuke: He is the \"only potentate\" (1 Tim 6:15),\nand in his times will shew it, Peter tells us, he \"is gone into\nheaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities,\nand powers being made subject unto him\" (1 Peter 3:22).\n\nThis power, as I said, he has received for the sake of his church\non earth, and for her conduct and well-being among the sons of\nmen. Hence, as he is called the king of nations, in general (Jer\n10:7); so the King of saints, in special (Rev 15:3): and as he is\nsaid to be head over all things in general; so to his church in\nspecial.\n\n(5.) Another improvement that he hath made of his death for us,\nis, he hath obtained, and received into his own hand sufficiency\nof gifts to make ministers for his church withal. I say, to make\nand maintain, in opposition to all that would hinder, a sufficient\nministry (1 Cor 12:28-30). Wherefore he saith, \"When he ascended\non high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he\ngave some Apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors\nand teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of\nthe ministry, for edifying of the body of Christ. Until we all come\nin the unity of the faith, and knowledge of the Son of God, unto\na perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of\nChrist\" (Eph 4:8-14). Many ways has Satan devised to bring into\ncontempt this blessed advantage that Christ has received of God\nfor the benefit of his church; partly while he stirs up persons\nto revile the sufficiency of the Holy Ghost, as to this thing:\npartly, while he stirs up his own limbs and members, to broach\nhis delusions in the world, in the name of Christ, and as they\nblasphemously call it by the assistance of the Holy Ghost;10 partly\nwhile he tempteth novices in their faith, to study and labour in\nnice distinctions, and the affecting of uncouth expressions, that\nvary from the form of sound words, thereby to get applause, and\na name, a forerunner of their own destruction (John 3:6).\n\nBut, notwithstanding all this, \"Wisdom is justified of her children\"\n(Matt 11:19): and at the last day, when the outside, and inside\nof all things shall be seen and compared, it will appear that the\nSon of God has so managed his own servants in the ministry of his\nword, and so managed his word, while they have been labouring in\nit, as to put in his blessing by that, upon the souls of sinners,\nand has blown away all other things as chaff (James 1:18).\n\n(6.) Another improvement that the Lord Christ has made of his\ndeath, for his, is the obtaining, and taking possession of heaven\nfor them. \"By his own blood he entered in once into the holy\nplace, having obtained eternal redemption for us\" (Heb 9:12). This\nheaven! who knows what it is? (Matt 22:23) This glory! who knows\nwhat it is? It is called God's throne, God's house (John 14:2),\nGod's habitation; paradise (2 Cor 12:4), the kingdom of God, the\nhigh and holy place (Isa 57:15). Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22),\nand the place of heavenly pleasures (Psa 16:11); in this heaven\nis to be found, the face of God for ever (Psa 41:12): Immortality,\nthe person of Christ, the prophets, the angels, the revelation of\nall mysteries, the knowledge of all the elect, ETERNITY.\n\nOf this heaven, as was said afore, we are possessed already, we are\nin it, we are set down in it, and partake already of the benefits\nthereof, but all by our head and undertaker; and 'tis fit that\nwe should believe this, rejoice in this, talk of this, tell one\nanother of this, and live in the expectation of our own personal\nenjoyment of it. And as we should do all this, so we should bless\nand praise the name of God who has put over this house, this\nkingdom, and inheritance into the hand of so faithful a friend.\nYea, a brother, a Saviour and blessed undertaker for us. And\nlastly, since all these things already mentioned, are the fruit\nof the sufferings of our Jesus, and his sufferings the fruit of\nthat love of his that passeth knowledge: how should we bow the\nknee before him, and call him tender Father; yea, how should we\nlove and obey him, and devote ourselves unto his service, and be\nwilling to be also sufferers for his sake, to whom be honour and\nglory for ever. And thus much of the love of Christ in general.\n\nI might here add many other things, but as I told you before,\nwe would under the head but now touched upon, treat about the\nfundamentals or great and chief parts thereof, [Christ's love] and\nthen.\n\nSECOND, Of the exceeding greatness of it more particularly: Wherefore\nof that we must say something now.\n\nAnd to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. In that it\nis said to pass knowledge, 'tis manifest it is exceeding great, or\ngreatly going beyond what can be known; for to exceed, is to go\nbeyond, be above, or to be out of the reach of what would comprehend\nthat which is so. And since the expression is absolutely indefinite,\nand respecteth not the knowledge of this or the other creature\nonly: it is manifest, that Paul by his thus saying, challengeth\nall creatures in heaven and earth to find out the bottom of this\nlove if they can. The love of Christ which passeth knowledge. I will\nadd, that forasmuch as he is indefinite also about the knowledge,\nas well as about the persons knowing, it is out of doubt that he\nhere engageth all knowledge, in what enlargements, attainments,\nimprovements, and heights soever it hath, or may for ever attain\nunto. It passeth knowledge (Eph 3:19).\n\nOf the same import also is that other passage of the Apostle a\nlittle above in the self-same chapter. I preach, saith he, among\nthe Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: or those riches of\nChrist that cannot by searching, be found out in the all of them:\nThe riches, the riches of his love and grace. The riches of his\nlove and grace towards us. \"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became\npoor, that ye through his poverty might be made 11 rich\" (2 Cor\n8:9). Ye know the grace, that is so far, and so far every believer\nknows it: for that his leaving heaven and taking upon him flesh,\nthat he might bring us thither, is manifest to all. But yet,\nall the grace that was wrapped up in that amazing condescension,\nknoweth none, nor can know: for if that might be, that possibility\nwould be a flat contradiction to the text: \"The love of Christ\nwhich passeth knowledge.\" Wherefore the riches of this love\nin the utmost of it, is not, cannot be known by any: let their\nunderstanding and knowledge, be heightened and improved what it\nmay. Yea, and being heightened and improved, let what search there\ncan by it be made into this love and grace. \"That which is afar\noff, and exceeding deep, who can find out?\" (Eccl 7:24) And that\nthis love of Christ is so, shall anon be made more apparent. But\nat present we will proceed to particular challenges for the making\nout of this, and then we will urge those reasons that will be for\nthe further confirmation of the whole.\n\nFirst, This love passes the knowledge of the wisest saint, we now\nsingle out the greatest proficient in this knowledge; and to confirm\nthis, I need go no further than to the man that spake these words;\nto wit, Paul, for in his conclusion he includes himself. The love\nof Christ which passeth knowledge, even my knowledge. As who should\nsay; though I have waded a great way in the grace of Christ, and\nhave as much experience of his love as any he in all the world,\nyet I confess myself short, as to the fullness that is therein,\nnor will I stick to conclude of any other, That \"he knows nothing\nyet as he ought to know\" (1 Cor 8:2, 13:12).\n\nSecond, This love passeth the knowledge of all the saints, were\nit all put together, we, we all, and every one, did we each of us\ncontribute for the manifesting of this love, what it is, the whole\nof what we know, it would amount but to a broken knowledge; we know\nbut in part, we see darkly (1 Cor 13:9-12), we walk not by sight,\nbut faith (2 Cor 5:7). True, now we speak of saints on earth.\n\nThird, But we will speak of saints in heaven; they cannot to the\nutmost, know this love of Christ. For though they know more thereof\nthan saints on earth, because they are more in the open visions\nof it, and also are more enlarged, being spirits perfect, than we\non earth. Yet, to say no more now, they do not see the rich and\nunsearchable runnings out thereof unto sinners here on earth. Nor\nmay they there measure that, to others, by what they themselves\nknew of it here. For sins, and times and persons and other\ncircumstances, may much alter the case, but were all the saints\non earth, and all the saints in heaven to contribute all that\nthey know of this love of Christ, and to put it into one sum of\nknowledge, they would greatly come short of knowing the utmost of\nthis love, for that there is an infinite deal of this love, yet\nunknown by them. 'Tis said plainly, that they on earth do not yet\nknow what they shall be (1 John 3:2). And as for them in heaven,\nthey are not yet made perfect as they shall be (Heb 11:39,40).\nBesides, we find the souls under the altar, how perfect now\nsoever, when compared with that state they were in when with the\nbody (Isa 63:16); yet are not able in all points, though in glory,\nto know, and so to govern themselves there without directions\n(Rev 6:9-11). I say, they are not able, without directions and\ninstructions, to know the kinds and manner of workings of the love\nof Christ towards us that dwell on earth.\n\nFourth, We will join with these, the angels, and when all of them,\nwith men, have put all and every whit of what they know of this\nlove of Christ together, they must come far short of reaching to,\nor of understanding the utmost bound thereof. I grant, that angels\ndo know, in some certain parts of knowledge of the love of Christ,\nmore than saints on earth can know while here; but then again, I\nknow that even they do also learn many things of saints on earth,\nwhich shews that themselves know also but in part (Eph 3:10);\nso then, all, as yet, as to this love of Christ, and the utmost\nknowledge of it, are but as so many imperfects (1 Peter 1:12), nor\ncan they all, put all their imperfects together, make up a perfect\nknowledge of this love of Christ; for the texts do yet stand where\nthey did, and say, his riches are unsearchable, and his love that\nwhich passeth knowledge. We will come now to shew you, besides\nwhat has been already touched on.\n\nTHE REASON why this riches is unsearchable, and that love such as\npasseth knowledge; and the\n\nReason First is, Because It is eternal. All that is eternal, has\nattending of it, as to the utmost knowledge of it, a fourfold\nimpossibility. 1. It is without beginning. 2. It is without end.\n3. It is infinite. 4. It is incomprehensible.\n\n1. It is without beginning: That which was before the world was,\nis without a beginning, but the love of Christ was before the\nworld.\n\nThis is evident from Proverbs the eighth, \"his delights,\" before\nGod had made the world, are there said to be, \"with the sons of\nmen.\" Not that we then had being, for we were as yet uncreated;\nbut though we had not beings created, we had being in the love and\naffections of Jesus Christ. Now this love of Christ must needs,\nas to the fullness of it, as to the utmost of it, be absolutely\nunknown to man. Who can tell how many heart-pleasing thoughts Christ\nhad of us before the world began? Who can tell how much he then\nwas delighted in that being we had in his affections; as also, in\nthe consideration of our beings, believings, and being with him\nafterwards.\n\nIn general we may conclude, it was great; for there seems to be\na parallel betwixt his Father's delights in him, and his delights\nin us. \"I was daily his delight,--any my delights were with the\nsons of men\" (Prov 8:22,30,31). But I say, who can tell, who can\ntell altogether, what and how much the Father delighted in his\nSon before the world began? Who can tell what kind of delight the\nFather had in the Son before the world began? Why there seems to\nbe a parallel betwixt the Father's love to Christ, and Christ's\nlove to us; the Father's delight in Christ, and his delight in\nus. Yea, Christ confirms it, saying, \"As the Father hath loved me,\nso have I loved you, continue ye in my love\" (John 15:9). I know\nthat I am not yet upon the nature of the word eternal; yet since,\nby eternal, we understand, before the world began, as well as\nforward, to an endless forever: We may a little enquire of folks\nas they may read, if they can tell the kind or measure of the love\nwherewith Christ then loved us. I remember the question that God\nasked Job, \"Where,\" saith he, \"wast thou when I laid the foundation\nof the earth? declare if thou hast understanding\" (Job 38:4): Thereby\ninsinuating that because it was done before he had his being,\ntherefore he could not tell how it was done. Now, if a work so\nvisible, as the creation is, is yet as to the manner of the workmanship\nthereof wholly unknown to them that commenced in their beings\nafterwards: How shall that which has, in all the circumstances of\nit, been more hidden and inward, be found out by them that have\nintelligence thereof by the ear, and but in part, and that in a\nmystery, and long afterwards. But to conclude this, That which is\neternal is without all beginning. This was presented to consideration\nbefore, and therefore it cannot to perfection be known.\n\n2. That which is eternal is without end, and how can an endless\nthing be known, that which has no end has no middle, wherefore\nit is impossible that the one half of the love that Christ has\nfor his church should ever by them be known. I know that those\nvisions that the saved shall have in heaven of this love, will far\ntranscend our utmost knowledge here, even as far as the light of\nthe sun at noon, goes beyond the light of a blinking candle at\nmidnight; and hence it is, that when the days of those visions\nare come, the knowledge that we now have, shall be swallowed up.\n\"When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part\nshall be done away\" (1 Cor 13:10). And although he speaks here of\nperfections, \"when that which is perfect is come,\" &c., yet even\nthat perfection must not be thought to be such as is the perfection\nof God; for then should all that are saved be so many externals\nand so many infinites, as he is infinite. But the meaning is,\nwe shall then be with the eternal, shall immediately enjoy him\nwith all the perfection of knowledge, as far as is possible for\na creature, when he is wrought up to the utmost height that his\ncreated substance will bear to be capable of. But for all that,\nthis perfection will yet come short of the perfection of him that\nmade him, and consequently, short of knowing the utmost of his\nlove; since that in the root is his very essence and nature. I\nknow it says also, that we shall know even as we are known. But\nyet this must not be understood, as if we should know God as fully\nas he knows us. It would be folly and madness so to conclude; but\nthe meaning is, we are known for happiness; we are known of God,\nfor heaven and felicity; and when that which is perfect is come,\nthen shall we perfectly know, and enjoy that for which we are\nnow known of God. And this is that which the Apostle longed for,\nnamely, If by any means, he might apprehend that for which he was\nalso apprehended of Christ Jesus (Phil 3:12). That is, know, and\nsee that, unto the which he was appointed of God and apprehended\nof Christ Jesus. 'Tis said again, \"We shall be like him, for we\nshall see him as he is\" (1 John 3:2). This text has respect to\nthe Son, as to his humanity, and not as to his divinity. And not\nas to his divinity, simply, or distinctly considered; for as to\nthat it is as possible for a spirit to drink up the sea, as for\nthe most enlarged saint that is, or ever shall be in glory, so to\nsee God as to know him altogether, to the utmost, or throughout.\nBut the humanity of the Son of God, we shall see throughout, in\nall the beauty and glory that is upon him; and that was prepared\nfor him before the foundation of the world. And Christ will that\nwe see this glory, when he takes us up in glory to himself (John\n17:24); but the utmost boundlessness of the divine majesty, the\neternal deity of the Son of God, cannot be known to the utmost\nor altogether. I do not doubt, but that there will then in him,\nI mean in Christ, and in us, break forth these glorious rays\nand beams of the eternal majesty, as will make him in each of us\nadmirable one to another (2 Thess 1:10); and that then, that of\nGod shall be known of us, that now never entered into our hearts\nto think of. But the whole, is not, cannot, shall never be fully\nknown of any. And therefore the love of Christ, it being essential\nto himself, cannot be known because of the endlessness that is in\nit. I said before, that which has no end, has no middle, how then\nshall those that shall be in heaven eternally, ever pass over half\nthe breadth of eternity. True, I know that all enjoyments there\nwill be enjoyments eternal. Yea, that whatever we shall there\nembrace, or what embraces we shall be embraced with, shall be\neternal; but I put a difference betwixt that which is eternal, as\nto the nature, and that which is so as to the durableness thereof.\nThe nature of eternal things we shall enjoy, so soon as ever we\ncome to heaven, but the duration of eternal things, them we shall\nnever be able to pass through, for they are endless. So then, the\neternal love of Christ, as to the nature of it, will be perfectly\nknown of saints, when they shall dwell in heaven; but the endlessness\nthereof they shall never attain unto. And this will be their\nhappiness. For could it be, that we should in heaven ever reach\nthe end of our blessedness: (as we should, could we reach to the\nend of this love of Christ) why then, as the saying is, We should\nbe at the land's end, and feel the bottom of all our enjoyments.\nBesides, whatsoever has an end, has a time to decay, and to\ncease to be, as well as to have a time to shew forth its highest\nexcellencies. Wherefore, from all these considerations it is most\nmanifest, that the love of Christ is unsearchable, and that it\npasses knowledge.\n\n3. and 4. Now the other two things follow of course, to wit, That\nthis love is infinite and incomprehensible. Wherefore here is that\nthat still is above and beyond even those that are arrived to the\nutmost of their perfections. And this, if I may so say, will keep\nthem in an employ, even when they are in heaven; though not an\nemploy that is laboursome, tiresome, burdensome, yet an employ\nthat is dutiful, delightful and profitable; for although the work\nand worship of saints in heaven is not particularly revealed as\nyet, and so \"it doth not yet appear what we shall be,\" yet in the\ngeneral we may say, there will be that for them to do, that has\nnot yet by them been done, and by that work which they shall do\nthere, their delight will be delight unto them. The law was the\nshadow and not the very image of heavenly things (Heb 10:1). The\nimage is an image, and not the heavenly things themselves (the\nheavenly things they are saints) there shall be worship in the\nheavens (Heb 9:23). Nor will this at all derogate from their glory.\nThe angels now wait upon God and serve him (Psa 103:20); the Son\nof God, is now a minister, and waiteth upon his service in heaven\n(Heb 8:1,2); some saints have been employed about service for God\nafter they have been in heaven (Luke 9:29-32); and why we should\nbe idle spectators, when we come thither, I see not reason to\nbelieve. It may be said, \"They there rest from their labours.\"\nTrue, but not from their delights. All things then that once were\nburdensome, whether in suffering or service, shall be done away,\nand that which is delightful and pleasurable shall remain. But\nthen will be a time to receive, and not to work. True, if by work\nyou mean such as we now count work; but what if our work be there,\nto receive and bless. The fishes in the sea do drink, swim and\ndrink. But for a further discourse of this, let that alone till\nwe come thither. But to come down again into the world, for now\nwe are talking of things aloft:\n\nReason Second, This love of Christ must needs be beyond our\nknowledge, because we cannot possibly know the utmost of our sin.\nSin is that which sets out, and off, the knowledge of the love\nof Christ. There are four things that must be spoken to for the\nclearing of this. 1. The nature of sin. 2. The aggravations of sin.\n3. The utmost tendencies of sin. 4. And the perfect knowledge of\nall this.\n\n1. Before we can know this love of Christ, as afore, we must\nnecessarily know the nature of sin, that is, what sin is, what sin\nis in itself. But no man knows the nature of sin to the full; not\nwhat sin in itself is to the full. The Apostle saith, \"That sin,\n[that is in itself] is exceeding sinful\" (Rom 7:13). That is,\nexceeding it as to its filthiness, goes beyond our knowledge: But\nthis is seen by the commandment. Now the reason why none can, to\nthe full, know the horrible nature of sin, is because none, to the\nfull, can know the blessed nature of the blessed God. For sin is\nthe opposite to God. There is nothing that seeketh absolutely,\nand in its own nature to overcome, and to annihilate God, but sin,\nand sin doth so. Sin is worse than the devil; he therefore that\nis more afraid of the devil than of sin, knows not the badness\nof sin as he ought; nor but little of the love of Jesus Christ.\nHe that knows not what sin would have done to the world, had not\nChrist stepped betwixt those harms and it. How can he know so much\nas the extent of the love of Christ in common? And he that knows\nnot what sin would have done to him in particular, had not Christ\nthe Lord, stepped in and saved, cannot know the utmost of the love\nof Christ to him in particular. Sin therefore in the utmost evil\nof it, cannot be known of us: so consequently the love of Christ\nin the utmost goodness of it, cannot be known of us.\n\nBesides, there are many sins committed by us, dropping from us,\nand that pollute us, that we are not at all aware of; how then\nshould we know that love of Christ by which we are delivered from\nthem? Lord, \"who can understand his errors?\" said David (Psa\n19:12). Consequently, who can understand the love that saves him\nfrom them? moreover, he that knows the love of Christ to the full,\nmust also know to the full that wrath and anger of God, that like\nhell itself, burneth against sinners for the sake of sin: but this\nknows none. Lord, \"who knoweth the power of thine anger?\" said\nMoses (Psa 90:11). Therefore none knows this love of Christ to\nthe full. The nature of sin is to get into our good, to mix itself\nwith our good, to lie lurking many times under the formality and\nshew of good; and that so close, so cunningly, and invisibly,\nthat the party concerned, embraces it for virtue, and knows not\notherwise to do; and yet from this he is saved by the love of\nChrist; and therefore, as was hinted but now, if a man doth not\nknow the nature of his wound, how should he know the nature and\nexcellency of the balsam that hath cured him of his wound.\n\n2. There are the due aggravations that belong to sin, which men\nare unacquainted with; it was one of the great things that the\nprophets were concerned with from God towards the people, (as to\nshew them their sins, so) to shew them what aggravations did belong\nthereto (Jer 2, Jer 3, Eze 16).\n\nThere are sins against light, sins against knowledge, sins against\nlove, sins against learning, sins against threatenings, sins\nagainst promises, vows and resolutions, sins against experience,\nsins against examples of anger, and sins that have great, and\nhigh, and strange aggravations attending of them; the which we are\nignorant of, though not altogether, yet in too great a measure.\nNow if these things be so, how can the love that saveth us from\nthem be known or understood to the full?\n\nAlas! our ignorance of these things is manifest by our unwillingness\nto abide affliction, by our secret murmuring under the hand of\nGod; by our wondering why we are so chastised as we are, by our\nthinking long that the affliction is no sooner removed.\n\nOr, if our ignorance of the vileness of our actions is not manifest\nthis way, yet it is in our lightness under our guilt, our slight\nthoughts of our doings, our slovenly doing of duties, and asking\nof forgiveness after some evil or unbecoming actions. 'Tis to\nno boot to be particular, the whole course of our lives doth too\nfully make it manifest, that we are wonderful short in knowing\nboth the nature, and also the aggravations of our sins: and how\nthen should we know that love of Christ in its full dimensions,\nby which we are saved and delivered therefrom?\n\n3. Who knows the utmost tendencies of sin? I mean, what the least\nsin driveth at, and what it would unavoidably run the sinner into.\nThere is not a plague, a judgment, an affliction, an evil under\nheaven, that the least of our transgressions has not called for\nat the hands of the great God! nay, the least sin calleth for all\nthe distresses that are under heaven, to fall upon the soul and\nbody of the sinner at once. This is plain, for that the least sin\ndeserveth hell; which is worse than all the plagues that are on\nearth. But I say, who understandeth this? And I say again, if one\nsin, the least sin deserveth all these things, what thinkest thou\ndo all thy sins deserve? how many judgments! how many plagues!\nhow many lashes with God's iron whip dost thou deserve? besides\nthere is hell itself, the place itself, the fire itself, the nature\nof the torments, and the durableness of them, who can understand?\n\nBut this is not all, the tendencies of thy sins are to kill others.\nMen, good men little think how many of their neighbours one of their\nsins may kill. As, how many good men and good women do unawares,\nthrough their uncircumspectness, drive their own children down into\nthe deep? (Psa 106:6,7) We will easily count them very hardhearted\nsinners, that used to offer their children in sacrifice to devils;\nwhen 'tis easy to do worse ourselves: they did but kill the body,\nbut we body and soul in hell, if we have not a care.\n\nDo we know how our sins provoke God? how they grieve the Holy Ghost?\nhow they weaken our graces? how they spoil our prayers? how they\nweaken faith? how they tempt Christ to be ashamed of us? and how\nthey hold back good from us? And if we know not every one of all\nthese things to the full, how shall we know to the full the love\nof Christ which saveth us from them all?\n\n4. Again, But who has the perfect knowledge of all these things?\nI will grant that some good souls may have waded a great way in\nsome one, or more of them; but I know that there is not any that\nthoroughly know them all. And yet the love of Christ doth save\nus from all, notwithstanding all the vileness and soul-damning\nvirtue12 that is in them. Alas! how short are we of the knowledge\nof ourselves, and of what is in us. How many are there that do\nnot know that man consisteth of a body made of dust, and of an\nimmortal soul? Yea, and how many be there of those that confess\nit, that know not the constitution of either. I will add, how\nmany are there that profess themselves to be students of those\ntwo parts of man, that have oftentimes proved themselves to be\nbut fools as to both? and I will conclude that there is not a man\nunder heaven that knoweth it all together: For man is \"fearfully\nand wonderfully made\" (Psa 139:14): nor can the manner of the\nunion of these two parts be perfectly found out. How much more\nthen must we needs be at loss as to the fullness of the knowledge\nof the love of Christ? But,\n\nReason Third, He that altogether knoweth the love of Christ, must,\nprecedent to that, know not only all the wiles of the devil; but\nalso all the plottings, contrivings and designs and attempts of\nthat wicked one; yea, he must know, all the times that he hath been\nwith God, together with all the motions that he has made that he\nmight have leave to fall upon us, as upon Job and Peter, to try\nif he might swallow us up (Job 1 and 2, Luke 22:31). But who knows\nall this? no man, no angel. For, if the heart of man be so deep,\nthat none, by all his actions, save God, can tell the utmost\nsecrets that are therein; how should the heart of angels, which\nin all likelihood are deeper, be found out by any mortal man.\nAnd yet this must be found out before we can find out the utmost\nof the love of Christ to us. I conclude therefore from all these\nthings, that the love of Christ passeth knowledge: or that by no\nmeans, the bottom, the utmost bounds thereof can be understood.\n\nReason Fourth, He that will presume to say, this love of Christ can\nbe to the utmost known by us, must presume to say that he knoweth\nthe utmost of the merits of his blood, the utmost exercise of his\npatience, the utmost of his intercession, the utmost of the glory\nthat he has prepared and taken possession of for us. But I presume\nthat there is none that can know all this, therefore I may without\nany fear assert, there is none that knows, that is, that knows to\nthe full, the other.\n\nWe come now more particularly to speak of the knowledge of the\nlove of Christ; we have spoken of the love of Christ; and of the\nexceeding greatness of it: and now we come,\n\nTHIRD, To speak of the knowledge of it; that is to say, we will\nshew\n\nWHAT KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST'S LOVE IS ATTAINABLE IN THIS WORLD,\n\nunder these three heads. As to this, First, It may be known as to\nthe nature of it. Second, It may be known in many of the degrees\nof it. Third, But the greatest knowledge that we can have of it\nhere, is to know that it passes knowledge.\n\nFirst, We may know it in the nature of it. That is, that it is\nlove free, divine, heavenly, everlasting, incorruptible. And this\nno love is but the love of Christ; all other love is either love\ncorruptible, transient, mixed, or earthly. It is divine, for 'tis\nthe love of the holy nature of God. It is heavenly, for that it\nis from above: it is everlasting, for that it has no end: it is\nimmortal, for that there is not the appearance of corruptibleness\nin it, or likelihood of decay.\n\nThis is general knowledge, and this is common among the saints,\nat leastwise in the notion of it. Though I confess, it is hard in\ntime of temptation, practically to hold fast the soul to all these\nthings. But, as I have said already, this love of Christ must be\nsuch, because love in the root of it, is essential to his nature,\nas also I have proved now, as is the root, such are the branches;\nand as is the spring, such are the streams, unless the channels\nin which those streams do run, should be corrupted, and so defile\nit; but I know no channels through which this love of Christ is\nconveyed unto us, but those made in his side, his hands, and his\nfeet, &c. Or those gracious promises that dropped like honey from\nhis holy lips, in the day of his love, in which he spake them:\nand seeing his love is conveyed to us, as through those channels,\nand so by the conduit of the holy and blessed spirit of God, to\nour hearts, it cannot be that it should hitherto be corrupted. I\nknow the cisterns, to wit, our hearts, into which it is conveyed,\nare unclean, and may take away much, through the damp that they\nmay put upon it, of the native savour and sweetness thereof. I\nknow also, that there are those that tread down, and muddy those\nstreams with their feet (Eze 34:18,19); but yet neither the love\nnor the channels in which it runs, should bear the blame of this.\nAnd I hope those that are saints indeed, will not only be preserved\nto eternal life, but nourished with this that is incorruptible\nunto the day of Christ. I told you before, that in the hour of\ntemptation, it will be hard for the soul to hold fast to these\nthings; that is, to the true definition of this love; for then,\nor at such seasons, it will not be admitted that the love of\nChrist is either transient, or mixed; but we count that we cannot\nbe loved long, unless something better than yet we see in us, be\nfound there, as an inducement to Christ to love, and to continue\nto love our poor souls (Isa 64:6). But these the Christian at length\ngets over; for he sees, by experience, he hath no such inducement\n(Deu 9:5); also, that Christ loves freely, and not for, or because\nof such poor, silly, imaginary enticements (Eze 16:60-62). Thus\ntherefore the love of Christ may be known, that is, in the nature\nof it: it may, I say, but not easily (Eze 36:25-33). For this\nknowledge is neither easily got, though got, nor easily retained,\nthough retained. There is nothing that Satan setteth himself more\nagainst, than the breaking forth of the love of Christ in its\nown proper native lustre. For he knows it destroys his kingdom,\nwhich standeth in profaneness, in errors and delusions, the only\ndestruction of which is the knowledge of this love of Christ (2 Cor\n5:14). What mean those swarms of opinions that are in the world?\nwhat is the reason that some are carried about as clouds, with a\ntempest? what mean men's waverings, men's changing, and interchanging\ntruth for error, and one error for another? why, this is the thing,\nthe devil is in it. This work is his, and he makes this ado, to\nmake a dust; and a dust to darken the light of the gospel withal.\nAnd if he once attaineth to that, then farewell the true knowledge\nof the love of Christ.\n\nAlso he will assault the spirits of Christians with divers and sundry\ncogitations, such as shall have in them a tendency to darken the\njudgment, delude the fancy, to abuse the conscience. He has an art\nto metamorphose all things. He can make God seem to be to us, a\nmost fierce and terrible destroyer; and Christ a terrible exactor\nof obedience, and most amazingly pinching of his love. He can\nmake supposed sins unpardonable; and unpardonable ones, appear as\nvirtues. He can make the law to be received for gospel, and cause\nthat the gospel shall be thrown away as a fable. He can persuade,\nthat faith is fancy, and that fancy is the best faith in the world.\nBesides, he can tickle the heart with false hope of a better life\nhereafter, even as if the love of Christ were there. But, as I\nsaid before, from all these things the true love of Christ in the\nright knowledge of it, delivereth those that have it shed abroad\nin the heart by the Holy Ghost that he hath given (Rom 5). Wherefore\nit is for this purpose that Christ biddeth us to continue in his\nlove (John 15:9); because the right knowledge, and faith of that\nto the soul, disperseth and driveth away all such fogs, and mists\nof darkness; and makes the soul to sit fast in the promise of\neternal life by him; yea, and to grow up into him who is the head,\n\"in all things.\"\n\nBefore I leave this head, I will present my reader with these\nthings, as helps to the knowledge of the love of Christ. I mean\nthe knowledge of the nature of it, and as HELPS to retain it.\n\nHelp First, Know thy self, what a vile, horrible, abominable sinner\nthou art: For thou canst not know the love of Christ, before thou\nknowest the badness of thy nature. \"O wretched man that I am\" (Rom\n7:24), must be, before a man can perceive the nature of the love\nof Christ. He that sees himself but little, will hardly know much\nof the love of Christ: he that sees of himself nothing at all,\nwill hardly ever see anything of the love of Christ. But he that\nsees most of what an abominable wretch he is, he is like to see\nmost of what is the love of Christ. All errors in doctrine take\ntheir rise from the want of this (I mean errors in doctrine as\nto justification). All the idolizing of men's virtues, and human\ninventions, riseth also from the want of this. So then if a man\nwould be kept sure and stedfast, let him labour before all things\nto know his own wretchedness. People naturally think that the\nknowledge of their sins is the way to destroy them; when in very\ndeed, it is the first step to salvation. Now if thou wouldest\nknow the badness of thy self, begin in the first place to study\nthe law, then thy heart, and so thy life. The law thou must look\ninto, for that's the glass; thy heart thou must look upon, for\nthat's the face; thy life thou must look upon, for that's the\nbody of a man, as to religion (James 1:25). And without the wary\nconsideration of these three, 'tis not to be thought that a man\ncan come at the knowledge of himself, and consequently to the\nknowledge of the love of Christ (James 1:26,27).\n\nHelp Second, Labour to see the emptiness, shortness, and the\npollution that cleaveth to a man's own righteousness. This also\nmust in some measure be known, before a man can know the nature\nof the love of Christ. They that see nothing of the loathsomeness\nof man's best things, will think, that the love of Christ is of\nthat nature as to be procured, or won, obtained or purchased by\nman's good deeds. And although so much gospel light is broke forth\nas to stop men's mouths from saying this, yet 'tis nothing else\nbut sound conviction of the vileness of man's righteousness, that\nwill enable men to see that the love of Christ is of that nature,\nas to save a man without it; as to see that it is of that nature\nas to justify him without it: I say, without it, or not at all. There\nis shortness, there is hypocrisy, there is a desire of vain glory,\nthere is pride, there is presumption in man's own righteousness:\nnor can it be without these wickednesses, when men know not the\nnature of the love of Christ. Now these defile it, and make it\nabominable. Yea, if there were no imperfection in it, but that\nwhich I first did mention, to wit, shortness; how could it cover\nthe nakedness of him that hath it, or obtain for the man, in whole\nor in part, that Christ should love, and have respect unto him.\n\nOccasions many thou hast given thee to see the emptiness of man's\nown righteousness, but all will not do unless thou hast help from\nheaven: wherefore thy wisdom will be, if thou canst tell where\nto find it, to lie in the way of God, that when he comes to visit\nthe men that wait upon him in the means of his own appointing,\nthou mayest be there; if perhaps he may cast an eye of pity upon\nthy desolate soul, and make thee see the things above mentioned.\nThat thou mayest know the nature of the love of Christ.\n\nHelp Third, If thou wouldest know the nature of this love, be much\nin acquainting of thy soul with the nature of the law, and the\nnature of the gospel (Gal 3:21). The which though they are not\ndiametrically opposite one to another, yet do propound things so\ndifferently to man, that if he knows not where, when, and how to\ntake them, 'tis impossible but that he should confound them, and\nin confounding of them, lose his own soul (Rom 9:31,32). The law\nis a servant, both first and last, to the gospel (Rom 10:3,4): when\ntherefore it is made a Lord, it destroyeth: and then to be sure\nit is made a Lord and Saviour of, when its dictates and commands\nare depended upon for life.\n\nThy wisdom therefore will be to study these things distinctly, and\nthoroughly; for so far as thou art ignorant of the true knowledge\nof the nature of these, so far thou art ignorant of the true\nknowledge of the nature of the love of Christ. Read Paul to the\nGalatians, that epistle was indicted by the Holy Ghost, on purpose\nto direct the soul, in, and about this very thing.\n\nHelp Fourth, The right knowledge of the nature of the love of Christ,\nis obtained, and retained, by keeping of these two doctrines at an\neverlasting distance as to the conscience; to wit, not suffering\nthe law to rule but over my outward man, not suffering the gospel\nto be removed one hair's breadth from my conscience. When Christ\ndwells in my heart by faith (Eph 3:17), and the moral law dwells\nin my members (Col 3:5), the one to keep up peace with God, the\nother to keep my conversation in a good decorum: then am I right,\nand not till then.\n\nBut this will not be done without much experience, diligence, and\ndelight in Christ. For there is nothing that Satan more desireth,\nthan that the law may abide in the conscience of an awakened\nChristian, and there take up the place of Christ, and faith; for\nhe knows if this may be obtained, the vail is presently drawn over\nthe face of the soul, and the heart darkened as to the knowledge\nof Christ; and being darkened, the man is driven into despair of\nmercy, or is put upon it to work for life (2 Cor 3:13-15). There\nis therefore, as I say, much diligence required of him that will\nkeep these two in their places assigned them of God. I say much\ndiligent study of the word, diligent prayer; with diligence to\nwalk with God in the world. But we will pass this, and come to\nthe second head.\n\nSecondly, As the love of Christ may be known in the nature of it,\nso it may be known in many degrees of it. That which is knowable,\nadmits of degrees of knowledge: the love of Christ is knowable.\nAgain, that which is not possible to be known to the utmost, is\nto be known, we know not how much; and therefore they that seek\nto know it, should never be contented or satisfied to what degree\nof the knowledge of it soever they attain; but still should be\nreaching forward, because there is more to be known of it before\nthem. \"Brethren,\" said Paul, \"I count not myself to have apprehended,\n(that is to the utmost) but this one thing I do, forgetting those\nthings which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things\nwhich are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the\nhigh calling of God in Christ Jesus\" (Phil 3:13,14). I might here\ndiscourse of many things, since I am upon this head of reaching\nafter the knowledge of the love of Christ in many of the degrees\nof it. But I shall content myself with few.\n\n1. He that would know the love of Christ in several degrees of\nit, must begin at his person, for in him dwells all the treasures\nof wisdom and knowledge. Nay, more; In him \"are hid all the\ntreasures of wisdom and knowledge\" (Col 2:3). In him, that is, in\nhis person: For, for the godhead of Christ, and our nature to be\nunited in one person, is the highest mystery, and the first\nappearance of the love of Christ by himself, to the world (1 Tim\n3:16). Here I say, lie hid the treasures of wisdom, and here, to\nthe world, springs forth the riches of his love (John 1:14). That\nthe eternal word, for the salvation of sinners, should come down\nfrom heaven and be made flesh, is an act of such condescension, a\ndiscovery of such love, that can never to the full be found out.\nOnly here we may see, love in him was deep, was broad, was long,\nand high: let us therefore first begin here to learn to know the\nlove of Christ, in the high degrees thereof.\n\n(1.) Here, in the first place, we perceive love, in that the human\nnature, the nature of man, not of angels, is taken into union with\nGod. Who so could consider this, as it is possible for it to be\nconsidered, would stand amazed till he died with wonder. By this\nvery act of the heavenly wisdom, we have an inconceivable pledge\nof the love of Christ to man: for in that he hath taken into\nunion with himself our nature, what doth it signify, but that he\nintendeth to take into union with himself our person. For, for this\nvery purpose did he assume our nature. Wherefore we read that in\nthe flesh he took upon him, in that flesh, he died for us, the\njust for the unjust, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).\n\n(2.) As he was made flesh, so as was said afore, he became a public\nor common person for us: and hereby is perceived another degree\nof his love; undertaking to do for his, what was not possible they\nshould do for themselves, perfecting of righteousness to the very\nend of the law, and doing for us, to the reconciling of us unto\nhis Father, and himself (Rom 10:3,4, 3:24).\n\n(3.) Herein also we may attain to another degree of knowledge of\nhis love, by understanding that he has conquered, and so disabled\nour foes, that they cannot now accomplish their designed enmity\nupon us (Rom 5, Eph 5:26,27): but that when Satan, death, the grave\nand sin have done to his people, whatever can by them be done, we\nshall be still more than conquerors, (though on our side be many\ndisadvantages), through him that has loved us, over them (Rom\n8:37).\n\n(4.) By this also we may yet see more of his love, in that as a\nforerunner, he is gone into heaven to take possession thereof for\nus (Heb 6:20): there to make ready, and to prepare for us our\nsummer-houses, our mansion, dwelling-places. As if we were the\nlords, and he the servant! (John 14:2,3) Oh this love!\n\n(5.) Also we may see another degree of his love, in this, that\nnow in his absence, he has sent the third person in the Trinity to\nsupply his place as another comforter of us (John 16:7, 15:26),\nthat we may not think he has forgot us, not be left destitute of\na revealer of truth unto us (John 14:16). Yea, he has sent him to\nfortify our spirits, and to strengthen us under all adversity; and\nagainst our enemies of what account, or degree soever (Luke 21:15).\n\n(6.) In this also we may see yet more of the love of Christ, in\nthat though he is in heaven and we on earth: Nothing can happen\nto his people to hurt them, but he feels it, is touched with it,\nand counteth it as done unto himself: Yea, sympathizes with them,\nand is afflicted, and grieved in their griefs, and their afflictions.\n\n(7.) Another thing by which also yet more of the love of Christ\nis made manifest, and so may by us be known, is this: He is now,\nand has been ever since his ascension into glory, laying out himself\nas high-priest for us (Heb 7:24-26), that by the improving13 of\nhis merits before the throne of grace, in way of intercession, he\nmight preserve us from the ruins that our daily infirmities would\nbring upon us (Heb 8:12): yea, and make our persons and performances\nacceptable in his Father's sight (Rom 5:10, 1 Peter 2:5).\n\n(8.) We also see yet more of his love by this, that he will have\nus where himself is, that we may behold and be partakers of his\nglory (John 17:24). And in this degree of his love, there are many\nloves.\n\nThen he will come for us, as a bridegroom for his bride (Matt\n25:6-10). Then shall a public marriage be solemnized, and eternized\nbetwixt him and his church (Rev 19:6,7). Then she shall be wrapped\nup in his mantles and robes of glory (Col 3:4). Then they shall be\nseparated, and separated from other sinners, and all things that\noffend shall be taken away from among them (Matt 25:31, 13:41).\nThen shall they be exalted to thrones, and power of judgment;\nand shall also sit in judgment on sinful men and fallen angels,\nacquiescing, by virtue of authority, with their king and head,\nupon them (1 Cor 6:2,3). Then or from thenceforth for ever, there\nshall be no more death, sorrow, hidings of his face, or eclipsing\nof their glory for ever (Luke 20:36). And thus you may see what\nrounds this our Jacob's ladder hath, and how by them we may climb,\nand climb, even until we are climbed up to heaven: but now we are\nset again; for all the glories, all the benefits, all the blessings,\nand all the good things that are laid up in heaven for these; Who\ncan understand?\n\n2. A second thing whereby the love of Christ is some degrees of\nit may be known, is this: That he should pass by angels and take\nhold of us. Who so considereth the nature of spirits, as they are\nGod's workmanship, must needs confess, that as such, they have a\npre-eminency above that which is made of dust: This then was the\ndisparity 'twixt us and them; they being, by birth, far more noble\nthan we. But now, when both are fallen, and by our fall, both in\na state of condemnation, that Jesus Christ should choose to take\nup us, the most inconsiderable, and pass by them, to their eternal\nperdition and destruction: O love! love in a high degree to man:\nFor verily he took not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham\nhe took hold (Heb 2:16). Yet this is not all: In all probability\nthis Lord Jesus has ten times as much to do now he has undertaken\nto be our Saviour, as he would have had, had he stepped over us\nand taken hold on them.\n\n(1.) He needed not to have stooped so low as to take flesh upon\nhim; theirs being a more noble nature.\n\n(2.) Nor would he in all likelihood, have met with those contempts,\nthose scorns, those reproaches and undervaluings from them, as he\nhas all-along received in this his undertaking, and met with from\nsinful flesh. For they were more noble than we, and would sooner\nhave perceived the design of grace, and so one would think more\nreadily have fallen in therewith, than [creatures in] such darkness\nas we were, and still by sin are.\n\n(3.) They would not have had those disadvantages as we, for that\nthey would not have had a tempter, a destroyer, so strong and\nmighty as ours is. Alas! had God left us, and taken them, though\nwe should have been ever so full of envy against their salvation;\nyet being but flesh, what could we have done to them to have laid\nobstacles in the way of their faith and hope, as they can and do\nin ours?\n\n(4.) They, it may fairly be presumed, had they been taken, and we\nleft, and made partakers in our sted, while we had been shut out,\nas they are, would not have put Christ so to it, now in heaven\n(pray bear with the expression, because I want a better) as we by\nour imperfections have done and do. Sin, methinks, would not have\nso hanged in their natures as it doth in ours: their reason, and\nsense, and apprehensions being more quick, and so more apt to have\nbeen taken with this love of Christ, and by it more easily have\nbeen sanctified.\n\n(5.) The law which they have broken, being not so intricate, as\nthat against which we have offended, theirs being a commandment\nwith faithfulness to abide in the place in which their Creator had\nset them; methinks, considering also the aptness of their natures\nas angels, would not have made their complete obedience so difficult.\n\n(6.) Nor can I imagine, but had they been taken, they, as creatures\nexcelling in strength, would have been more capable of rendering\nthese praises and blessings to God for eternal mercies, than such\npoor sorry creatures as we are, could. But! \"behold what manner\nof love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called\nthe children of God\" (1 John 3:1). That we, not they, that we\nnotwithstanding all that they have, or could have done to hinder\nit, should be called the children of God.\n\nThis therefore is an high degree of the love of Jesus Christ to\nus, that when we and they were fallen, he should stoop and take up\nus, the more ignoble, and leave so mighty a creature in his sins\nto perish.\n\n3. A third thing whereby the love of Christ in some of the degrees\nof it may be known, will be to consider more particularly the\nway, and unwearied work that he hath with man to bring him to that\nkingdom, that by his blood he hath obtained for him.\n\n(1.) Man, when the Lord Jesus takes him in hand to make him partaker\nof the benefit, is found an enemy to his redeemer; nor doth all\nthe intelligence that he has had of the grace and love of Christ\nto such, mollify him at all, to wit, before the day of God's power\ncomes (Rom 4:5, 5:7-10). And this is a strange thing. Had man,\nthough he could not have come to Christ, been willing that Christ\nshould have come to him, it had been something; it would have shewn\nthat he had taken his grace to heart, and considered of it: yea,\nand that he was willing to be a sharer in it. But verily here is\nno such thing; man, though he has free will, yet is willing by no\nmeans to be saved God's way, to wit, by Jesus Christ, before (as\nwas said before) the day of God's power comes upon him. When the\ngood shepherd went to look for his sheep that was lost in the\nwilderness, and had found it: did it go one step homewards upon\nits own legs? did not the shepherd take her and lay her upon his\nshoulder, and bring her home rejoicing (Luke 15). This then is\nnot love only, but love to a degree.\n\n(2.) When man is taken, and laid under the day of God's power:\nWhen Christ is opening his ear to discipline, and speaking to him\nthat his heart may receive instruction; many times that poor man\nis, as if the devil had found him, and not God. How frenzily he\nimagines? how crossly he thinks? How ungainly he carries it under\nconvictions, counsels, and his present apprehension of things?\nI know some are more powerfully dealt withal, and more strongly\nbound at first by the world; but others more in an ordinary manner,\nthat the flesh, and reason may be seen, to the glory of Christ.\nYea, and where the will is made more quickly to comply with its\nsalvation, 'tis no thanks to the sinner at all (Job 4:18). 'Tis\nthe day of the power of the Lord that has made the work so soon\nto appear. Therefore count this an act of love, in the height of\nlove; Love in a great degree (John 15:16).\n\n(3.) When Christ Jesus has made this mad man to come to himself,\nand persuaded him to be willing to accept of his salvation: yet\nhe may not be trusted, nor left alone, for then the corruptions\nthat still lie scattering up and down in his flesh will tempt him\nto it, and he will be gone; yea, so desperately wicked is the flesh\nof saints, that should they be left to themselves but a little\nwhile, none knows what horrible transgressions would break out.\nProof of this we have to amazement, plentifully scattered here\nand there in the word. Hence we have the patience of God, and\nhis gentleness so admired (2 Chron 32:21): for through that it is\nthat they are preserved. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers\nnor sleeps (Psa 121:4), but watches for them, and over them every\nmoment, for he knows else they will be hurt (Isa 27:3).\n\n(4.) Yea, notwithstanding this, how often are saints found playing\ntruant, and lurking like thieves in one hole or other. Now, in\nthe guilt of backsliding by the power of this, and then in filth\nby the power of that corruption (Jer 2:26). Yea, and when found in\nsuch decayings, and under such revoltings from God, how commonly\ndo they hide their sin with Adam, and David, even until their\nSaviour fireth out of their mouths a confession of the truth of\ntheir naughtiness. \"When I keep silence,\" said David, (and yet he\nchose to keep silence after he had committed his wickedness) \"my\nbones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and\nnight thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the\ndrought of summer\" (Psa 32:3,4). but why didst thou not confess\nwhat thou hadst done then? So I did, saith he, at last, and thou\nforgavest the iniquity of my sin (verse 5).\n\n(5.) When the sins of saints are so visible and apparent to others,\nthat God for the vindication of his name and honour must punish\nthem in the sight of others; yea, must do it, as he is just: Yet\nthen for Christ's sake, he waveth such judgments, and refuseth to\ninflict such punishments as naturally tend to their destruction,\nand chooseth to chastise them with such rods and scourges, as may\ndo them good in the end; and that they may not be condemned with\nthe world (1 Cor 11:31,32). Wherefore the Lord loves them, and\nthey are blessed, whom he chasteneth and teacheth out of his law\n(Heb 12:5-8, Psa 94:12). And these things are love to a degree.\n\n(6.) That Christ should supply out of his fullness the beginnings\nof grace in our souls, and carry on that work of so great concern,\nand that which at times we have so little esteem of, is none of\nthe least of the aggravations of the love of Christ to his people.\nAnd this work is as common as any of the works of Christ, and\nas necessary to our salvation, as is his righteousness, and the\nimputation thereof to our justification: For else how could we\nhold out to the end (Matt 24:13); and yet none else can be saved.\n\n(7.) And that the love of Christ should be such to us that he\nwill thus act, thus do to, and for us, with gladness; (as afore\nis manifest by the parable of the lost sheep) is another degree\nof his love towards us: And such an one too, as is none of the\nlowest rate. I have seen hot love, soon cold; and love that has\ncontinued to act, yet act towards the end, as the man that by\nrunning, and has run himself off his legs, pants, and can hardly\nrun any longer: but I never saw love like the love of Christ, who\nas a giant, and bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and as a\nstrong man, rejoiceth to run his race (Psa 19:5). Loving higher\nand higher, stronger and stronger, I mean as to the lettings out\nof love, for he reserveth the best wine even till the last (John\n2:10).\n\n(8.) I will conclude with this, that his love may be known in many\ndegrees of it, by that sort of sinners whose salvation he most\nrejoiceth in, and that is, in the salvation of the sinners that are\nof the biggest size: Great sinners, Jerusalem sinners, Samaritan\nsinners, publican sinners. I might urge moreover, how he hath\nproportioned invitations, promises and examples of his love, for\nthe encouragement and support of those whose souls would trust in\nhim: By which also great degrees of his love may be understood.\nBut we will come now to the third thing that was propounded.\n\nThirdly, But the greatest attainment that as to the understanding\nof the love of Christ, we can arrive to here, is to know that\nit passes knowledge: And to know the love of Christ that passeth\nknowledge. This truth discovereth itself,\n\n1. By the text itself, for the Apostle here, in this prayer of his\nfor the Ephesians, doth not only desire that they may know, but\ndescribeth that thing which he prays they may know, by this term,\nIt passeth knowledge. And to know the love of Christ which passeth\nknowledge. As our reason and carnal imagination will be rudely,\nand unduly tampering with any thing of Christ, so more especially\nwith the love and kindness of Christ: Judging and concluding that\njust such it is, and none other, as may be apprehended by them:\nYea, and will have a belief that just so, and no otherwise are\nthe dimensions of this love; nor can it save beyond our carnal\nconceptions of it. Saying to the soul as Pharaoh once did to Israel\nin another case: \"Let the Lord be with you as I shall\" (judge it\nmeet he should) \"let you go.\" We think Christ loves us no more\nthan we do think he can, and so conclude that his love is such as\nmay by us be comprehended, or known to the utmost bounds thereof.\nBut these are false conceptions, and this love of Christ that\nwe think is such, is indeed none of the love of Christ, but a\nfalse image thereof, set before our eyes. I speak not now of weak\nknowledge, but of foolish and bold conclusions. A man through\nunbelief may think that Christ has no love for him, and yet Christ\nmay love him with a love that passeth knowledge. But when men in\nthe common course of their profession, will be always terminating\nhere, that they know how, and how far Christ can love, and\nwill thence be bold to conclude of their own safety, and of the\nloss and ruin of all that are not in the same notions, opinions,\nformalities, or judgments as they: this is the worst and greatest\nof all. The text therefore, to rectify those false and erroneous\nconclusions, says, It is a love that passeth knowledge.\n\nAnd it will be worth our observation to take notice that men,\nerroneous men, do not put these limits so commonly to the Father\nand his love, as [to] the Son and his. Hence you have some that\nboast that God can save some who have not the knowledge of the\nperson of the mediator Jesus Christ the righteous; as the heathens\nthat have, and still do make a great improvement of the law and\nlight of nature: crying out with disdain against the narrowness,\nrigidness, censoriousness, and pride of those that think the\ncontrary. Being not ashamed all the while to eclipse, to degrade,\nto lessen and undervalue the love of Jesus Christ; making of him\nand his undertakings, to offer himself a sacrifice to appease the\njustice of God for our sins, but a thing indifferent, and in its\nown nature but as other smaller matters.\n\nBut all this while the devil knows full well at what game he plays,\nfor he knows that without Christ, without faith in his blood, there\nis no remission of sins. Wherefore, saith he, let these men talk\nwhat they will of the greatness of the love of God as creator, so\nthey sleight and undervalue the love of Christ as mediator. And\nyet it is worth our consideration, that the greatness of the love\nof God is most expressed in his giving of Christ to be a Saviour,\nand in bestowing his benefits upon us that we may be happy through\nhim.\n\nBut to return, The love of Christ that is so indeed, is love that\npasseth knowledge: and the best and highest of our knowledge of\nit is, that we know it to be such.\n\n2. Because I find that at this point, the great men of God, of old,\nwere wont to stop, be set, and beyond which they could not pass.\n'Twas this that made Moses wonder (Deu 4:31-34). 'Twas this that\nmade David cry out, How great and wonderful are the works of God?\n\"thy thoughts to usward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto\nthee: If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than\ncan be numbered\" (Psa 40:5). And again, \"How precious also are thy\nthoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should\ncount them, they are more in number than the sand\" (Psa 139:17,18).\nAnd a little before, \"such knowledge is too wonderful for me\"\n(verse 6). Isaiah saith, there hath not entered into the heart of\nman what God has prepared for them that wait for him (Isa 64:4).\nEzekiel says, this is the river that cannot be passed over (47:5):\nAnd Micah to the sea, (7:19) and Zechariah to a fountain, hath\ncompared this unsearchable love (13:1). Wherefore the Apostle's\nposition, That the love of Christ is that which passeth knowledge,\nis a truth not to be doubted of: Consequently, to know this, and\nthat it is such, is the farthest that we can go. This is to justify\nGod, who has said it, and to magnify the Son, who has loved us\nwith such a love: And the contrary is to dishonour him, to lessen\nhim, and to make him a deficient Saviour. For suppose this should\nbe true, that thou couldest to the utmost comprehend this love;\nyet unless, by thy knowledge thou canst comprehend beyond all\nevil of sin, or beyond what any man sins, who shall be saved, can\nspread themselves or infect: Thou must leave some pardonable man\nin an unpardonable condition. For that thou canst comprehend this\nlove, and yet canst not comprehend that sin. This makes Christ a\ndeficient Saviour. Besides, if thou comprehendest truly; the word\nthat says, it passeth knowledge, hast lost its sanctity, its truth.\n\nIt must therefore be, that this love passeth knowledge; and that\nthe highest pitch that a man by knowledge can attain unto, as to\nthis, is to know that it passeth knowledge. My reason is, for that\nall degrees of love, be they never so high, or many, and high, yet,\nif we can comprehend them, rest in the bowels of our knowledge,\nfor that only which is beyond us, is that which passeth knowledge.\nThat which we can reach, cannot be the highest: And if a man\nthinks there is nothing beyond what he can reach, he has no more\nknowledge as to that: but if he knows that together with what he\nhath already reached, there is that which he cannot reach, before\n[him]; then he has a knowledge for that also, even a knowledge, that\nit passeth knowledge. 'Tis true a man that thus knoweth may have\ndivers conjectures about that thing that is beyond his knowledge. Yea,\nin reason it will be so, because he knows that there is something\nyet before him: But since the thing itself is truly beyond his\nknowledge, none of his conjectures about that thing may be counted\nknowledge. Or suppose a man that thus conjectureth, should hit\nright as to what he now conjectures; his right hitting about that\nthing may not be called knowledge: It is as yet to him but as an\nuncertain guess, and is still beyond this knowledge.\n\nQuest. But, may some say, what good will it do a man to know that\nthe love of Christ passeth knowledge? one would think that it should\ndo one more good to believe that the knowledge of the whole love\nof Christ might be attainable.\n\nAnswer. That there is an advantage in knowing that the love of\nChrist passeth knowledge; must not be questioned, for that the\nApostle saith it doth (2 Tim 3:16). For to know what the holy word\naffirms, is profitable: nor would he pray that we might know that\nwhich passeth knowledge, were there not by our knowing of it, some\nhelp to be administered. But to shew you some of the advantages\nthat will come to us by knowing that the love of Christ passeth\nknowledge.\n\n(1.) By knowing of this a child of God has in reserve for himself,\nat a day, when all that he otherwise knows, may be taken from him\nthrough the power of temptation. Sometimes a good man may be so\nput to it, that all that he knows comprehensively may be taken from\nhim: to wit, the knowledge of the truth of his faith, or that he\nhas the grace of God in him, or the like, that I say may be taken\nfrom him. Now if at this time, he knows the love of Christ that\npasseth knowledge, he knows a way in all probability to be recovered\nagain. For if Christ Jesus loves with a love that passeth knowledge:\nthen, saith the soul, that is thus in the dark, he may love me\nyet, for ought I know, for I know that he loves with a love that\npasseth knowledge; and therefore I will not utterly despond. Yea,\nif Satan should attempt to question whether ever Christ Jesus will\nlook upon me or no: the answer is, if I know the love that passes\nknowledge: But he may look upon me, (O, Satan) yea, and love,\nand save me too, for ought I poor sinner know; for he loves with\na love that passeth knowledge. If I be fallen into sin that lies\nhard upon me, and my conscience fears, that for this there is no\nforgiveness. The help for a stay from utter despair is at hand:\nbut there may, say I, for Christ loves, with a love that passeth\nknowledge. If Satan would dissuade me from praying to God,\nby suggesting as if Christ would not regard the stammering, and\nchattering prayer of mine. The answer is ready, but he may regard\nfor ought I know; for he loves with a love that passeth knowledge.\nIf the tempter doth suggest that thy trials, and troubles, and\nafflictions, are so many, that it is to be thought thou shall\nnever get beyond them. The answer is near, but for ought we know,\nChrist may carry me through them all, for he loves with a love\nthat passeth knowledge. Thus I say, is relief at hand, and a help\nin reserve for the tempted, let their temptations be what they will.\nThis therefore is the weapon that will baffle the devil when all\nother weapons fail; for ought I know, Christ may save me, for he\nloves with a love that passeth knowledge. Yea, suppose he should\ndrive me to the worst of fears, and that is to doubt that I\nneither have nor shall have for ever the grace of God in my soul.\nThe answer is at hand, but I have or may have it, for Christ\nloves with a love that passeth knowledge. Thus therefore you may\nsee that in this prayer of Paul, there is a great deal of good.\nHe prays, when he prays that we might know the love of Christ that\npasseth knowledge: that we may have a help at hand, and relief\nagainst all the horrible temptations of the devil. For this is a\nhelp at hand, a help that is ready to fall in with us, if there\nbe yet remaining with us, but the least grain of right reasoning\naccording to the nature of things. For if it be objected against\na man that he is poor, because he has but a groat in his pocket;\nyet if he has an unknown deal of money in his trunks, how easy\nis it for him to recover himself from that slander, by returning\nthe knowledge of what he has, upon the objector. This is the case,\nand thus it is, and will be with them that know the love of Christ\nthat passeth knowledge. Wherefore,\n\n(2.) By this knowledge, room is made for a Christian, and liberty\nis ministered unto him, to turn himself every way in all spiritual\nthings. This is the Christian's rehoboth, that well for which the\nPhilistines have no heart to strive, and that which will cause\nthat we be fruitful in the land (Gen 26:22).\n\nIf Christians know not with this knowledge, they walk in the world\nas if they were pinioned; or as if fetters were hanged on their\nheels. But this enlarged their steps under them (2 Sam 22:37):\nby the knowledge of this love they may walk at liberty, and their\nsteps shall not be straitened. This is that which Solomon intends\nwhen he saith, \"Get wisdom, and get understanding\" (Prov 4:5).\nThen \"when thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when\nthou runnest, thou shalt not stumble\" (Prov 4:12). A man that has\nonly from hand to mouth, is oft put to it to know how to use his\npenny, and comes off also, many times, but with an hungry belly;\nbut he that has, not only that, but always over and to spare, he\nis more at liberty, and can live in fullness, and far more like a\ngentleman. There is a man has a cistern, and that is full of water:\nthere is another also, that has his cistern full, and withal, his\nspring in his yard; but a great drought is upon the land in which\nthey dwell: I would now know, which of these two have the most\nadvantage to live in their own minds at liberty, without fear of\nwanting water? Why this is the case in hand. There is a Christian\nthat knows Christ in all those degrees of his love that are\nknowable, but he knoweth Christ nothing in his love that passeth\nknowledge. There is another Christian, and he knows Christ, as the\nfirst, but withal, he also knows him as to his love that passeth\nknowledge. Pray now tell me, which of these two are likeliest to\nlive most like a Christian, that is, like a spiritual prince, and\nlike him that possesseth all things? which has most advantage to\nlive in godly largeness of heart, and is most at liberty in his\nmind? which of these two have the greatest advantage to believe,\nand the greatest engagements laid upon him to love the Lord Jesus?\nwhich of these have also most in readiness to resist the wiles of\nthe devil, and to subdue the power and prevalency of corruptions?\n'Tis this, that makes men fathers in Christianity. \"I write unto\nyou, fathers, because ye have known;--I have written unto you,\nfathers, because ye have known\" (1 John 2:13-14), why, have not\nothers known, not so as the fathers? The fathers have known and\nknown. They have known the love of Christ in those degrees of love\nwhich are knowable, and have also known the love of Christ to be\nsuch which passeth knowledge. In my father's house is bread enough\nand to spare, was that that fetched the prodigal home (Luke\n15:17). And when Moses would speak an endless all to Israel, for\nthe comfort and stay of their souls, he calls their God, \"The\nfountain of Jacob upon a land of corn and wine\" (Deu 33:28).\n\n(3.) By this knowledge, or knowing of the love of Christ which\npasseth knowledge, there is begot in Christians a greater desire to\npress forwards to that which is before them (Phil 3:12-21). What\nis the reason of all that sloth, carnal contentedness, and listlessness\nof spirit in Christians, more than the ignorance of this. For he\nthat thinks he knows what can be known, is beyond all reason that\nshould induce him to seek yet after more. Now the love of Christ\nmay be said, not to be knowable, upon a threefold account: [namely].\nFor that my knowledge is weak. For that my knowledge is imperfect.\nOr for that, though my knowledge be never so perfect, because the\nlove of Christ is eternal.\n\nThere is love that is not to be apprehended by weak knowledge.\nConvince a man of this, and then, if the knowledge of what he\nalready has, be truly sweet to his soul (Prov 2:10), it will stir\nhim up with great heartiness to desire to know what more of this\nis possible.\n\nThere is love beyond what he knows already, who is indued with the\nmost perfect knowledge, that man here may have. Now if what this\nman knows already of this love is indeed sweet unto him; then it\nputs him upon hearty desires that his soul may yet know more. And\nbecause there is no bound set to man, how much he may know in this\nlife thereof; therefore his desires, notwithstanding what he has\nattained, are yet kept alive, and in the pursuit after the knowledge\nof more of the love of Christ. And God in old time has taken it\nso well at the hands of some of his, that their desires have been\nso great, that when, as I may say, they have known as much on earth\nas is possible for them to know; (that is by ordinary means) he\nhas come down to them in visions and revelations; or else taken\nthem up to him for an hour or two into paradise, that they might\nknow, and then let them down again.\n\nBut this is not all, There is a knowledge of the love of Christ,\nthat we are by no means capable of until we be possessed of the\nheavens. And I would know, if a man indeed loveth Christ, whether\nthe belief of this be not one of the highest arguments that can\nbe urged, to make such an one weary of this world, that he may be\nwith him. To such an one, \"to live is Christ, and to die is gain\"\n(Phil 1:21-23). And to such an one, it is difficult to bring\nhis mind to be content to stay here a longer time; except he be\nsatisfied that Christ has still work for him here to do.\n\nI will yet add, There is a love of Christ, I will not say, that\ncannot be known, but I will say, that cannot be enjoyed; no, not\nby them now in heaven (in soul) until the day of judgment. And the\nknowledge of this, when it has possessed even men on earth, has\nmade them choose a day of judgment, before a day of death, that\nthey might know what is beyond that state and knowledge which\neven the spirits of just men made perfect, now do enjoy in heaven\n(2 Cor 5:4). Wherefore, as I said at first, To know the love of\nChrist that passeth knowledge, is advantageous upon this account;\nit begetteth in Christians a great desire to reach, and press\nforward to that which is before.\n\nOne thing more, and then, as to this reason, I have done. Even that\nlove of Christ that is absolutely unknowable, as to the utmost\nbound thereof because it is eternal, will be yet in the nature\nof it sweet and desirable, because we shall enjoy or be possessed\nof it so. This therefore, if there were no more, is enough, when\nknown, to draw away the heart from things that are below, to\nitself.\n\n(4.) The love that passeth knowledge. The knowledge of that is a\nvery fruitful knowledge. It cannot be, but it must be fruitful.\nSome knowledge is empty, and alone, not attended with that good,\nand with those blessings wherewith this knowledge is attended. Did\nI say, it is fruitful? I will add, it is attended with the best\nfruit; it yieldeth the best wine: It fills the soul with all the\nfullness of God. \"And to know the love of Christ which passeth\nknowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.\"\nGod is in Christ, and makes himself known to us by the love of\nChrist. \"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine\nof Christ, hath not God,\" for God is not to be found nor enjoyed,\nbut in him, consequently, he that hath, and abideth in the doctrine\nof Christ, \"hath both the Father and the Son\" (2 John 9). Now,\nsince there are degrees of knowledge of this doctrine, and since\nthe highest degree of the knowledge of him, is to know that he\nhas a Love that passeth knowledge, it follows, that if he that\nhas the least saving knowledge of this doctrine, hath God; he that\nhath the largest knowledge of it, has God much more, or, according\nto the text, is filled with all the fullness of God. What this\nfullness of God should be, is best gathered from such sayings of\nthe Holy Ghost, as come nearest to this, in language, filled,\n\nFull of goodness (Rom 15:14).\n\nFull of faith (Acts 6:5).\n\nFull of the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:55).\n\nFull of assurance of faith (Heb 10:22).\n\nFull of assurance of hope (Heb 6:11).\n\nFull of joy unspeakable, and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).\n\nFull of joy (1 John 1:4).\n\nFull of good works (Acts 11:36).\n\nBeing filled with the knowledge of his will (Col 1:9).\n\nBeing filled with the spirit (Eph 5:18).\n\nFilled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ\nunto the glory and praise of God (Phil 4:11). These things to be\nsure are included either for the cause or effect of this fullness.\nThe cause they cannot be, for that is God's, by his Holy Spirit.\nThe effects therefore they are, for wherever God dwells in the\ndegree intended in the text, there is shewn in an eminent manner,\nby these things, \"what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance\nin the saints\" (Eph 1:18). But these things dwell not in that\nmeasure specified by the text, in any, but those who know the love\nof Christ which passeth knowledge.\n\nBut what a man is he that is filled with all these things! or that\nis, as we have it in the text, \"filled with all the fullness of\nGod!\" Such men are, at this day, wanting in the churches. These\nare the men that sweeten churches, and that bring glory to God\nand to religion. And knowledge will make us such, such knowledge\nas the Apostle here speaketh of.14 I have now done, when I have\nspoken something by way of USE unto you, from what hath been said.\nAnd,\n\nUse First, Is there such breadth, and length, and depth, and\nheight in God, for us? And is there toward us love in Christ that\npasseth knowledge? Then this shews us, not only the greatness of\nthe majesty of the Father and the Son, but the great good will\nthat is in their heart to them that receive their word.\n\nGod has engaged the breadth, and length and depth, and height of\nthe love, the wisdom, the power, and truth that is in himself, for\nus; and Christ has loved us with a love that passeth knowledge.\nWe may well say, \"Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods?\" (Exo\n15:11). Or, as another prophet has it, \"Who is a God like unto\nthee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression\nof the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for\never: because he delighteth in mercy\" (Micah 7:18). Yea, no words\ncan sufficiently set forth the greatness of this love of God and\nhis Son to us poor miserable sinners.\n\nUse Second, Is there so great a heart for love, towards us, both\nin the Father and in the Son? Then let us be much in the study\nand search after the greatness of this love. This is the sweetest\nstudy that a man can devote himself unto; because it is the study\nof the love of God and of Christ to man. Studies that yield far\nless profit than this, how close are they pursued, by some who\nhave adapted themselves thereunto? Men do not use to count telling\nover of their money burdensome to them, nor yet the recounting of\ntheir grounds, their herds, and their flocks, when they increase.\nWhy? the study of the unsearchable love of God in Christ to man,\nis better in itself, and yields more sweetness to the soul of\nman, than can ten thousand such things as but now are mentioned.\nI know the wise men of this world, of whom there are many, will\nsay as to what I now press you unto; Who can shew us any good in\nit? But Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.\nThou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that\ntheir corn and their wine increaseth (Psa 4:6,7). David also said\nthat his meditation on the Lord should be sweet. Oh, there is in\nGod and in his Son, that kindness for the sons of men, that, did\nthey know it, they would like to retain the knowledge of it in\ntheir hearts. They would cry out as she did of old; \"Set me as a\nseal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong\nas death\" (Song 8:6,7). Every part, crumb, grain, or scrap of this\nknowledge, is to a Christian, as drops of honey are to sweet-palated\nchildren, worth the gathering up, worth the putting to the taste\nto be relished. Yea, David says of the word which is the ground\nof knowledge: \"It is sweeter than honey or the honey-comb. More,\"\nsaith he, \"to be desired are they than gold; yea, than much fine\ngold; sweeter also than honey or the honey-comb\" (Psa 19:10). Why\nthen do not Christians devote themselves to the meditation of this\nso heavenly, so goodly, so sweet, and so comfortable a thing, that\nyieldeth such advantage to the soul? The reason is, these things\nare talked of, but not believed: did men believe what they say,\nwhen they speak so largely of the love of God, and the love of\nJesus Christ, they would, they could not but meditate upon it.\nThere are so many wonders in it, and men love to think of wonders.\nThere is so much profit in it, and men love to think of that\nwhich yields them profit. But, as I said, the belief of things is\nwanting. Belief of a thing will have strong effects, whether the\nground for it be true, or false. As suppose one of you should,\nwhen you are at a neighbour's house, believe that your own house\nis on fire, whilst your children are fast asleep in bed, though\nindeed there were no such thing; I will appeal to any of you if\nthis belief would not make notable work with and upon your hearts.\nLet a man believe he shall be damned, though afterwards it is\nevident he believed a lie, yet what work did that belief make in\nthat man's heart; even so, and much more, the belief of heavenly\nthings will work, because true and great, and most good; also,\nwhere they are indeed believed, their evidence is managed upon\ntheir spirit, by the power and glory of the Holy Ghost itself:\nWherefore let us study these things.\n\nUse Third, Let us cast ourselves upon this love. No greater\nencouragement can be given us, than what is in the text and about\nit. It is great, it is love that passeth knowledge. Men that are\nsensible of danger, are glad when they hear of such helps upon\nwhich they may boldly venture for escape. Why such an help and\nrelief, the text helpeth trembling and fearful consciences to.\nFear and trembling as to misery hereafter, can flow but from what\nwe know, feel, or imagine: but the text speaks of a love that\nis beyond that we can know, feel, or imagine, even of a love\nthat passeth knowledge; consequently of a love that goes beyond\nall these. Besides, the Apostle's conclusion upon this subject,\nplainly makes it manifest that this meaning which I have put upon\nthe text, is the mind of the Holy Ghost. \"Now unto him,\" saith\nhe, \"that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask\nor think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be\nglory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world\nwithout end. Amen\" (Eph 3:20,21). What can be more plain? what\ncan be more full? What can be more suitable to the most desponding\nspirit in any man? He can do more than thou knowest he will. He\ncan do more than thou thinkest he can. What dost thou think? why,\nI think, saith the sinner, that I am cast away. Well, but there\nare worse thoughts than these, therefore think again. Why, saith\nthe sinner, I think that my sins are as many as the sins of all\nthe world. Indeed this is a very black thought, but there are worse\nthoughts than this, therefore prithee think again. Why, I think,\nsaith the sinner, that God is not able to pardon all my sins. Ay,\nnow thou hast thought indeed. For this thought makes thee look\nmore like a devil than a man, and yet because thou art a man and\nnot a devil, see the condescension and the boundlessness of the\nlove of thy God. He is able to do above all that we think! Couldest\nthou (sinner) if thou hadst been allowed, thyself express what thou\nwouldest have expressed, the greatness of the love thou wantest,\nwith words that could have suited thee better? for 'tis not said\nhe can do above what we think, meaning our thinking at present,\nbut above all we can think, meaning above the worst and most\nsoul-dejecting thoughts that we have at any time. Sometimes the\ndejected have worse thoughts than at other times they have. Well,\ntake them at their worst times, at times when they think, and\nthink, till they think themselves down into the very pangs of hell;\nyet this word of the grace of God, is above them, and shews that\nhe can yet recover and save these miserable people. And now I am\nupon this subject, I will a little further walk and travel with\nthe desponding ones, and will put a few words in their mouths for\ntheir help against temptations that may come upon them hereafter.\nFor as Satan follows such now, with charges and applications of\nguilt, so he may follow them with interrogatories and appeals:\nfor he can tell how by appeals, as well as by charging of sin,\nto sink and drown the sinner whose soul he has leave to engage.\nSuppose therefore that some distressed man or woman, should after\nthis way be engaged, and Satan should with his interrogatories,\nand appeals be busy with them to drive them to desperation; the\ntext last mentioned, to say nothing of the subject of our discourse,\nyields plenty of help for the relief of such an one. Says Satan,\ndost thou not know that thou hast horribly sinned? yes, says the\nsoul, I do. Says Satan, dost thou not know, that thou art one of\nthe vilest in all the pack of professors? yes, says the soul, I\ndo. Says Satan, doth not thy conscience tell thee that thou art\nand hast been more base than any of thy fellows can imagine thee\nto be? Yes, says the soul; my conscience tells me so. Well, saith\nSatan, now will I come upon thee with my appeals. Art thou not a\ngraceless wretch? Yes. Hast thou an heart to be sorry for this\nwickedness? No, not as I should. And albeit, saith Satan, thou prayest\nsometimes, yet is not thy heart possessed with a belief that God\nwill not regard thee? yes, says the sinner. Why then despair, and\ngo hang thyself, saith the devil. And now we are at the end of\nthe thing designed and driven at by Satan. But what shall I now\ndo, saith the sinner; I answer, take up the words of the text\nagainst him, Christ loves with a love that passeth knowledge, and\nanswereth him farther, saying Satan, though I cannot think that\nGod loves me; though I cannot think that God will save me; yet I\nwill not yield to thee: for God can do more than I think he can.\nAnd whereas thou appealest unto me, if whether when I pray, my\nheart is not possessed with unbelief that God will not regard me;\nthat shall not sink me neither: for God can do abundantly above\nwhat I ask or think. Thus this text helpeth, where obstructions\nare put in against our believing, and thereby casting ourselves\nupon the love of God in Christ for salvation.\n\nAnd yet this is not all, for the text is yet more full: \"He is\nable to do abundantly more,\" yea, \"exceeding abundantly more,\" or\n\"above all that we ask or think.\" It is a text made up of words\npicked and packed together by the wisdom of God, picked and packed\ntogether on purpose for the succour and relief of the tempted, that\nthey may when in the midst of their distresses, cast themselves\nupon the Lord their God. He can do abundantly more than we ask.\nOh! says the soul, that he would but do so much for me as I could\nask him to do! How happy a man should I then be. Why, what wouldest\nthou ask for, sinner? you may be sure, says the soul, I would ask\nto be saved from my sins; I would ask for faith in, and love to,\nChrist; I would ask to be preserved in this evil world, and ask\nto be glorified with Christ in heaven. He that asketh of all this,\ndoth indeed ask for much, and for more than Satan would have him\nbelieve that God is able or willing to bestow upon him; but mark,\nthe text doth not say, that God is able to do all that we can ask\nor think, but that he is able to do above all, yea, abundantly\nabove all, yea, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or\nthink. What a text is this! What a God have we! God foresaw the\nsins of his people, and what work the devil would make with their\nhearts about them, and therefore to prevent their ruin by his\ntemptation, he has thus largely, as you see, expressed his love by\nhis word. Let us therefore, as has been bidden us, make this good\nuse of this doctrine of grace, as to cast ourselves upon this love\nof God in the times of distress and temptation.\n\nUse Fourth, Take heed of abusing this love. This exhortation seems\nneedless; for love is such a thing, that one would think none could\nfind in their heart to abuse. But for all that, I am of opinion,\nthat there is nothing that is more abused among professors this\nday, than is this love of God. There has of late more light about\nthe love of Christ broke out, than formerly: every boy now can talk\nof the love of Christ; but this love of Christ has not been rightly\napplied by preachers, or else not rightly received by professors.\nFor never was this grace of Christ so turned into lasciviousness,\nas now. Now it is a practice among professors to learn to be vile,\nof the profane. Yea, and to plead for that vileness: Nay, we will\nturn it the other way, now it is so that the profane do learn to\nbe vile of those that profess (They teach the wicked ones their\nways): a thing that no good man should think on but with blushing\ncheeks (Jer 2:33).15 Jude speaketh of these people, and tells us\nthat they, notwithstanding their profession, deny the only Lord\nGod, and our Saviour Jesus Christ (verse 4). \"They profess,\" saith\nPaul, \"that they know God; but in works they deny him, being\nabominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate\"\n(Titus 1:16).\n\nBut I say, let not this love of God and of Christ, be abused. 'Tis\nunnatural to abuse love, to abuse love is a villany condemned of\nall, yea, to abuse love, is the most inexcusable sin of all. It is\nnext the sin of devils to abuse love, the love of God and of Christ.\n\nAnd what says the Apostle? \"Because they received not the love\nof the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God shall send\nthem strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all\nmight be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness\" (2 Thess 2:10-12). And what can such an one say\nfor himself in the judgment, that shall be charged with the abuse\nof love? Christians, deny yourselves, deny your lusts, deny the\nvanities of this present life, devote yourselves to God; become\nlovers of God, lovers of his ways, and \"a people zealous of good\nworks\"; then shall you show one to another, and to all men, that you\nhave not received the grace of God in vain (2 Cor 6:1). Renounce\ntherefore the hidden things of dishonesty, walk not in craftiness,\nnor handle God's word deceitfully, but by manifestation of the\ntruth, commend yourselves to every man's conscience in the sight\nof God. Do this, I say, yea, and so endeavour such a closure with\nthis love of God in Christ, as may graciously constrain you to do\nit, because, when all proofs of the right receiving of this love\nof Christ shall be produced, none will be found of worth enough\nto justify the simplicity of our profession, but that which makes\nus \"zealous of good works\" (Titus 2:14). And what a thing will it\nbe to be turned off at last, as one that abused the love of Christ!\nas one that presumed upon his lusts, this world, and all manner\nof naughtiness, because the love of Christ to pardon sins was so\ngreat! What an unthinking, what a disingenuous one wilt thou be\ncounted at that day! yea, thou wilt be found to be the man that\nmade a prey of love, that made a stalking-horse of love, that made\nof love a slave to sin, the devil and the world, and will not that\nbe bad? (Read Eze 16)\n\nUse Fifth, Is the love of God and of Christ so great? let us then\nlabour to improve it to the utmost for our advantage, against all\nthe hindrances of faith.\n\nTo what purpose else is it revealed, made mention of, and commended\nto us? We are environed with many enemies, and faith in the love\nof God and of Christ, is our only succour and shelter. Wherefore\nour duty and wisdom and privilege is, to improve this love for\nour own advantage. Improve it against daily infirmities, improve\nit against the wiles of the devil; improve it against the threats,\nrage, death, and destruction, that the men of this world continually\nwith their terror set before you. But how must that be done? why,\nset this love and the safety that is in it, before thine eyes;\nand behold it while these things make their assaults upon thee.\nThese words, the faith of this, God loves me, will support thee\nin the midst of what dangers may assault thee. And this is that\nwhich is meant, when we are exhorted to rejoice in the Lord (Phil\n3:1), to make our boast in the Lord (Psa 44:8); to triumph in\nChrist (2 Cor 2:14); and to set the Lord always before our face\n(Psa 16:8). For he that can do this thing stedfastly, cannot\nbe overcome. For in God there is more than can be in the world,\neither to help or hinder; wherefore if God be my helper, if God\nloves me, if Christ be my redeemer, and has bestowed his love that\npasseth knowledge upon me, who can be against me? (Heb 13:6, Rom\n8:31) and if they be against me, what disadvantage reap I thereby;\nsince even all this also, worketh for my good? This is improving\nthe love of God and of Christ for my advantage. The same course\nshould Christians also take with the degrees of this love, even\nset it against all the degrees of danger; for here deep calleth\nunto deep. There cannot be wickedness and rage wrought up to\nsuch or such a degree, as of which it may be said, there are not\ndegrees in the love of God and of Christ to match it. Wherein\nPharaoh dealt proudly against God's people, the Lord was above\nhim (Exo 18:11), did match and overmatch him; he came up to him,\nand went beyond him; he collared with him, overcame him, and\ncast him down. \"The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name.\nPharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea--they\nsank into the bottom as a stone\" (Exo 15:5). There is no striving\nagainst the Lord that hath loved us; there is none that strive\nagainst him can prosper. If the shields of the earth be the Lord's\n(Psa 47:9), then he can wield them for the safeguard of his body\nthe church; or if they are become incapable of being made use of\nany longer in that way, and for such a thing, can he not lay them\naside, and make himself new ones? Men can do after this manner,\nmuch more God. But again, if the miseries, or afflictions which\nthou meetest with, seem to thee to overflow, and to go beyond\nmeasure, above measure, and so to be above strength, and begin to\ndrive thee to despair of life (2 Cor 1:8); then thou hast also,\nin the love of God, and of Christ, that which is above, and that\ngoes beyond all measure also, to wit, love unsearchable, unknown,\nand \"that can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or\nthink.\" Now God hath set them one against the other, and 'twill\nbe thy wisdom to do so too, for this is the way to improve this\nlove. But, though it be easy, thus to admonish you to do, yet you\nshall find the practical part more difficult; wherefore, here it\nmay not be amiss, if I add to these, another head of COUNSEL.\n\nCounsel First, Then, Wouldest thou improve this love of God and\nof Christ to thy advantage, Why then thou must labour after the\nknowledge of it. This was it that the Apostle prayed for, for\nthese Ephesians, as was said before, and this is that that thou\nmust labour after, or else thy reading and my writing, will, as to\nthee, be fruitless. Let me then say to thee, as David to his son\nSolomon, \"And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy\nfather\" (1 Chron 28:9). Empty notions of this love will do nothing\nbut harm, wherefore, they are not empty notions that I press thee\nto rest in, but that thou labour after the knowledge of the favour\nof this good ointment (Song 1:3), which the Apostle calleth the\nfavour of the knowledge of this Lord Jesus (2 Cor 2:14). Know it,\nuntil it becometh sweet or pleasant to thy soul, and then it will\npreserve and keep thee (Prov 2:10,11). Make this love of God and\nof Christ thine own, and not another's. Many there are that can\ntalk largely of the love of God to Abraham, to David, to Peter and\nPaul. But that is not the thing, give not over until this love\nbe made thine own; until thou find and feel it to run warm in\nthy heart by the shedding of it abroad there, by the spirit that\nGod hath given thee (Rom 5:5). Then thou wilt know it with an\nobliging and engaging knowledge; yea, then thou wilt know it with\na soul-strengthening, and soul-encouraging knowledge.\n\nCounsel Second, Wouldest thou improve this love? then set it\nagainst the love of all other things whatsoever, even until this\nlove shall conquer thy soul from the love of them to itself.\n\nThis is Christian. Do it therefore, and say, why should any thing\nhave my heart but God, but Christ? He loves me, he loves me with\nlove that passeth knowledge. He loves me, and he shall have me:\nhe loves me, and I will love him: his love stripped him of all for\nmy sake; Lord let my love strip me of all for thy sake. I am a son\nof love, an object of love, a monument of love, of free love, of\ndistinguishing love, of peculiar love, and of love that passeth\nknowledge: and why should not I walk in love? In love to God, in\nlove to men, in holy love, in love unfeigned? This is the way to\nimprove the love of God for thy advantage, for the subduing of\nthy passions, and for sanctifying of thy nature. 'Tis an odious\nthing to hear men of base lives talking of the love of God, of\nthe death of Christ, and of the glorious grace that is presented\nunto sinners by the word of the truth of the gospel. Praise is\ncomely for the upright, not for the profane. Therefore let him\nspeak of love that is taken with love, that is captivated with\nlove, that is carried away with love. If this man speaks of it,\nhis speaking signifies something; the powers, and bands of love are\nupon him, and he shews to all that he knows what he is speaking of.\nBut the very mentioning of love, is in the mouth of the profane,\nlike a parable in the mouth of fools, or as salt unsavory. Wherefore,\nChristian, improve this love of God as thou shouldest, and that\nwill improve thee as thou wouldest. Wherefore,\n\nCounsel Third, If thou wouldest improve this love, keep thyself\nin it. \"Keep yourselves in the love of God\" (Jude 21). This text\nlooks as if it favoured the Socinians, but there is nothing of that\nin it. And so doth that, \"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall\nabide in my love: even as I have kept my Father's commandments and\nabide in his love\" (John 15:10). The meaning then is this, that\nliving a holy life is the way, after a man has believed unto\njustification, to keep himself in the savour and comfort of the\nlove of God. And Oh, that thou wouldest indeed so do. And that\nbecause, if thou shall want the savour of it, thou will soon want\ntenderness to the commandment, which is the rule by which thou\nmust walk, if thou wilt do good to thyself, or honour God in the\nworld. \"To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew\nthe salvation of God\" (Psa 50:23). He that would live a sweet,\ncomfortable, joyful life, must live a very holy life. This is the\nway to improve this love to thyself indeed.\n\nCounsel Fourth, To this end, you must take root and be grounded\nin love; that is, you must be well settled, and stablished in this\nlove, if indeed you would improve it. You must not be shaken as\nto the doctrine and grounds of it (Eph 3:17). These you must be\nwell acquainted with: for he that is but a child in this doctrine,\nis not capable as yet, of falling in with these exhortations: For\nsuch waver, and fear when tempted; and \"he that feareth is not\nmade perfect in love\" (1 John 4:18), nor can he so improve it for\nhimself and soul's good as he should.\n\nCounsel Fifth, and lastly, Keep, to this end, those grounds, and\nevidences that God hath given you of your call to be partakers of\nthis love, with all clearness upon your hearts, and in your minds.\nFor he that wants a sight of them, or a proof that they are true\nand good, can take but little comfort in this love. There is a\ngreat mystery in the way of God with his people. He will justify\nthem without their works, he will pardon them for his Son's sake:\nbut they shall have but little comfort of what he hath done, doth,\nand will do for them that are careless, carnal, and not holy in\ntheir lives. Nor shall they have their evidences for heaven at\nhand, nor out of doubt with them, yea, they shall walk without\nthe sun, and have their comforts by bits and knocks;16 while others\nsit at their father's table, have liberty to go into the wine-cellar,\nrejoice at the sweet and pleasant face of their heavenly Father\ntowards them; and know it shall go well with them at the end.\n\nSomething now for a conclusion should be spoken to the carnal\nworld, who have heard me tell of all this love. But what shall\nI say unto them? If I should speak to them, and they should not\nhear; or if I should testify unto them, and they should not believe;\nor intreat them, and they should scorn me; all will but aggravate,\nand greaten their sin, and tend to their further condemnation.\nAnd therefore I shall leave the obstinate where I found him, and\nshall say to him that is willing to be saved, Sinner, thou hast\nthe advantage of thy neighbour, not only because thou art willing\nto live, but because there are [those] that are willing thou\nshouldest; to wit, those unto whom the issues from death do belong,\nand they are the Father and the Son, to whom be glory with the\nblessed Spirit of grace, world without end. Amen.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 In the first edition of this treatise, which was published four\nyears after Bunyan's death, this is quoted \"deeper than the sea,\"\nprobably a typographical error. It is afterwards quoted correctly.--Ed.\n\n2 How admirably does Bunyan bring home to the Christian's heart\nthese solemn truths. The breadth and length and depth and height\nof our guilt and misery, requires a remedy beyond all human power.\nThis can only be found in the love of God in Christ: this extends\nbeyond all bounds. It is divine, unsearchable, eternal mercy,\nswallowing up all our miseries.--Ed.\n\n3 Shuck, a corruption of shrug, to express horror by motions of\nthe body.\n\n4 This is a very striking application of these words of David,\nwhich so fearfully describe the agitation of those who are exposed\nto a hurricane at sea. We too generally limit this passage to\nits literal sense. To Bunyan, who had passed through such a deep\nexperience of the \"terrors of the Lord,\" when he came out of\ntribulation and anguish, he must have richly enjoyed the solemn\nimagery of these words, depicting the inmost feelings of his soul\nwhen in the horrible deeps of doubt and despair. But young Christians\nmust not be distressed because they have never experienced such\ntempests: thousands of vessels of mercy get to heaven, without\nmeeting with hurricanes in their way.--Ed.\n\n5 How thankful should we be, for the great spread of gospel light\nin this country, since Bunyan's days. He for refusing to attend,\nwhat he considered, an unscriptural church; suffered above twelve\nyears incarceration in a miserable den; while all his friends were\neither imprisoned or plundered. It was a dreadful attempt to root\nout Christianity from this country; but was overruled to make it\ntake deeper root. How long will Antichrist still hold up his head\nin this country? He has had some hard knocks of late.--Ed.\n\n6 The descent of Christ into hell has been the subject of much\ncontroversy, and the question is as far from solution now as\nit was in the dark ages, when it was first propounded, and then\narbitrarily decreed to be an article of faith. Those who explain hell\nas hades, the place of departed souls, or of the dead generally,\nfortify themselves with Psalm 139:8, and also Psalm 16:10; and\nyet the first passage may only imply the omnipresence of God, and\nthe second, the resurrection of the incorruptible body of Christ\nfrom the grave. The descent of Christ into the place of torment is\na figment, a monkish fable, in which Bible incidents and heathen\nmyths are woven together to delude a credulous and ignorant\nlaity. The formulary designated the Apostles' creed, has, beyond\nquestion, a high claim to antiquity, but none whatever to be the\nwork of the Apostles themselves. The \"descent into hell\" was an\nafter interpolation, and its rejection has been suggested.--Ed.\n\n7 This is one of those strikingly solemn passages, which abound in\nBunyan's works. It almost irresistibly brings to our imagination\nhis expressive countenance, piercing eyes and harmonious voice;\npressed on by his rapid conceptions and overpowering natural\neloquence. How must it have riveted the attention of a great\ncongregation. It is a rush of words, rolling on like the waves of\nthe sea; increasing in grandeur and in force as they multiply in\nnumber.--Ed.\n\n8 The reader must not misunderstand the word common as here applied\nto the Saviour. It has the same meaning that is applied to a piece\nof land, to which many persons have an equal or common right;\nbut which none but those, who have a right or title, can use. It\nstrikingly illustrates the union of Christ and his church.--Ed.\n\n9 There is no affectation of learning in Bunyan's giving the meaning\nof the Hebrew word, Metheg; it is translated in the margin of our\nBibles, \"the bridle\" of Ammah.--Ed.\n\n10 Bunyan seems here evidently to refer to the case of unregenerate\nand worldly men entering into the ministry, and making a public\nand solemn declaration that they \"are inwardly moved thereto by\nthe Holy Ghost,\" and \"truly called according to the will of our\nLord Jesus Christ.\" See form and manner of ordaining deacons and\npriests in the Church of England.--Ed.\n\n11 Bunyan quotes this passage from the puritan version; vulgarly\ncalled \"The Breeches Bible.\" The present authorized translation\nis \"might be rich.\"\n\n12 \"Virtue,\" secret agency: efficacy without visible or material\naction. \"Walker's Dictionary.\"--Ed.\n\n13 \"Improving,\" not in quality but by extending the benefits,\nemploying to good purpose; turning to profitable account.--Ed.\n\n14 How delightfully has Bunyan brought forth the marrow of this\nimportant text. He felt that those who were filled with all the\nfullness of God, sweetened the churches in his day; they were\nwanted then; are they not equally wanted now?--Ed.\n\n15 Bunyan lived in singularly eventful times. Under the Commonwealth\nthe strictest outward morality was enforced. But when a licentious\nmonarch was placed upon the throne, a flood of the grossest\ndebauchery was let loose; and those hypocrites, who had put on a\ncloak of religion to serve a temporary purpose, threw it off and\nbecame ringleaders in the vilest iniquities. See Matthew 12:43-45.--Ed.\n\n16 \"Bits and knocks\"; this phrase is now obsolete: it alludes to a\ndog at table, who while picking up the crumbs, often gets a bite\nand a buffet or knock with it, but still perseveres.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nOF ANTICHRIST, AND HIS RUIN: AND OF THE SLAYING THE WITNESSES.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\n\n\nPREFATORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR\n\nThis important treatise was prepared for the press, and left by\nthe author, at his decease, to the care of his surviving friend\nfor publication. It first appeared in a collection of his works\nin folio, 1692; and although a subject of universal interest; most\nadmirably elucidated; no edition has been published in a separate\nform.\n\nAntichrist has agitated the Christian world from the earliest ages;\nand his craft has been to mislead the thoughtless, by fixing upon\nthe humble followers of the Lamb his own opprobrious proper name.\nThe mass of professed Christians, whose creed and mode of worship\nhave been provided by human laws, has ever been opposed to the sincere\ndisciples of Christ. To imbibe every principle from investigation\nand conviction of the holy oracles--to refuse submission to any\nauthority in the spiritual kingdom of God, except it is to Christ,\nthe supreme head and only lawgiver in his church--to refuse\nobedience to human laws in the great concern of salvation and of\nworship; whether those laws or decrees emanate from a Darius, a\nNebuchadnezzar, a Bourbon, a Tudor, or a Stuart--to be influenced\nby the spirit which animated Daniel, the three Hebrew youths, and\nthe martyrs, brought down denunciations upon them, and they were\ncalled antichristian: but alas! the sincere disciples of Jesus have\never known and FELT who and what is Antichrist. They have been\nin dungeons--racked and tormented--transported--drowned--hung or\nburned. The most frightful atrocities have been committed upon\nthe most peaceful and valuable members of society; because they\nvalued their soul's peace in preference to temporal advantages.\nThese cruelties are THY cursed deeds, O Antichrist! The hand\nwriting against thee is exhibited in blood-stained and indelible\ncharacters. The Great God has decreed thy downfall and ruin--\"That\nwicked--whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,\"\n(2 Thess 2:8). All who are found partakers in his community, must\nbe consumed with an everlasting destruction. No \"paper-winkers\" 1\ncan hide this truth from the enlightened regenerated mind. \"O my\nsoul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, mine\nhonour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man.\nCursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it\nwas cruel!\"\n\nIn Bunyan's time great cruelties were practised to compel\nuniformity. To that absurd shrine many thousand invaluable lives\nwere sacrificed. Blessed be God, that happier days have dawned upon\nus. Antichrist can no longer put the Christian to a cruel death.\nIt very rarely sends one to prison for refusing obedience to human\nlaws that interfere with religious worship. \"My kingdom is not of\nthis world,\" said the Redeemer: and his followers dare not render\nunto Caesar, or temporal governments, that which belongs exclusively\nto God. Human coercion, in anything connected with religion, whether\nit imposes creeds, liturgies, or modes of worship, is Antichrist:\nwhom to obey, is spiritual desolation, and if knowingly persevered\nin, leads to death.\n\nOn the contrary, the kingdom of Christ is love, meekness, forbearance,\npersuasion, conviction, and holy faith. The Christian who dares\nnot obey Antichrist may still, in some countries, suffer personal\nviolence; but the olden cruelties have given way to the spread of\nthe gospel. Should the wicked spirit of persecution still light\nits unhallowed fire in any sect; may heaven forgive and convert\nsuch misguided men, before the divine wrath shall consume all\nthat pertains to Antichrist. \"Come out from among them and be ye\nseparate, saith the Lord.\"\n\nBunyan conceives that previous to the universal triumphs of the\nSaviour, Antichrist will spread his influence over the whole earth;\nand the church be hidden from outward observation, in the hearts\nof believers. This idea, which was also cherished by Dr. Gill,\nand others, deserves careful consideration; while we keep in mind,\nthat leaven which must spread, however invisible in its operation,\nuntil the whole earth shall be leavened.\n\nThe dread enemy may yet appear in a different shape to any that\nhe has hitherto assumed. When mankind, by the spread of knowledge,\nshall throw off the absurdities and disgraceful trammels of\nhypocrisy, fanaticism, and tyranny, which has so long oppressed\nthem; there may be experienced a vast overflowing of infidelity,\nand perverted reason assume the place of Antichrist. Through\nthis and all other opposing systems, Christianity must make its\nirresistible progress: all that opposes is doomed to ruin by the\nGreat God. Every heart will be subdued by that blessed knowledge,\nwhich has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that\nwhich is to come. Bloodless victory! The ark being exhibited, every\nDagon must fall before it, then shall be realized the heavenly\nanthem, \"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good\nwill towards men.\"\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\nA PREMONITION TO THE READER.\n\nAfter that God had delivered Babylon and her king into the hands\nof the kings of the Medes and Persians, then began the liberty\nof the Jews, from their long and tedious captivity: For though\nNebuchadnezzar and his sons did tyrannically enslave, and hold\nthem under; yet so wrought God with the hearts of those kings that\nsucceeded them, that they made proclamation to them to go home,\nand build their city, temple, &c., and worship their own God\naccording to his own law (2 Chron 30:6; Ezra 1). But because I\nwould not be tedious in enumerating instances for the clearing of\nthis, therefore I will content myself with one, and with a brief\nnote upon it. It is that in the seventh of Ezra 26: 'And whosoever\nwill not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let\njudgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be to death, or\nto banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.'\nThis is the conclusion of a letter that king Artaxerxes gave to\nEzra the priest and scribe, when he granted his petition, and gave\nhim leave to go to Jerusalem to build the temple, and to offer\nsacrifice there to the God whose house is in Jerusalem. And\na conclusion it was, both comfortable and sharp; comfortable to\nEzra and his companions, but sharp unto his enemies. I shall here\npresent you with a copy of the letter at large.\n\n'Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the\nlaw of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I\nmake a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his\npriests and levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own\nfree-will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. Forasmuch as thou\nart sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to inquire\nconcerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God\nwhich is in thine hand; And to carry the silver and gold, which\nthe king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of\nIsrael, whose habitation is in Jerusalem. And all the silver and\ngold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with\nthe free-will-offering of the people, and of the priests, offering\nwillingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem: That\nthou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs,\nwith their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings, and offer them\nupon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.\nAnd whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do\nwith the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will\nof your God. The vessels also that are given thee for the service\nof the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of\nJerusalem. And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of\nthy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out\nof the king's treasure-house. And I, even I Artaxerxes the king,\ndo make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river,\nthat whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the\nGod of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily. Unto an\nhundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat,\nand to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil,\nand salt without prescribing how much. Whatsoever is commanded by\nthe God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the\nGod of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of\nthe king and his sons? Also we certify you, that touching any of\nthe priests and levites, singers, porters, nethinims, or ministers\nof this House of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll,\ntribute, or custom, upon them. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom\nof thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges,\nwhich may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all\nsuch as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them\nnot. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of\nthe king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it\nbe unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or\nto imprisonment' (Ezra 7:11-26).\n\nThis is the letter; and now for the scope thereof. First, Generally.\nSecondly, Particularly.\n\nGENERALLY. The general scope of the letter is this: A grant given\nby the king to Ezra the scribe, to go to Jerusalem, and build there\nthe temple of God, and offer sacrifice in it according to the law:\nWith commissions annexed thereunto, to the king's lieutenants,\ntreasurers and governors on that side the river, to further the\nwork with such things as by the king was commanded they should.\n\nPARTICULARLY. But we will consider the matter particularly. 1.\nAs to the manner of the grant which the king gave to Ezra and his\nbrethren to go thither. 2. As to the king's grant, with reference\nto their building, and way of worship. 3. With reference to the\nking's liberality and gifts towards the building of the temple,\nand by what rules it was to be bestowed. 4. As to the way that the\nking concluded they should be governed in their own land. 5. With\nreference to the king's charge to his officers that were thereabout,\nnot to hinder Ezra in his work. 6. And lastly, with reference to\nthe king's threat and commandment to do judgment if they should\nhinder it.\n\nFirst, As to the manner of the grant that the king gave to Ezra and\nhis brethren to go to build, it was such an one as forced none,\nbut left every Jew to his own choice, whether he would go, or\nforbear. The words are these: 'Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto\nEzra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect\npeace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the\npeople of Israel, and of his priests and levites, in my realm,\nwhich are minded of their own free-will to go up to Jerusalem, go\nwith thee' (verse 12,13).\n\nThus gracious then was the king: He made a decree, That all they\nof the captive Jews, their priests and levites, that would return\nto their own land, to build their temple, and to sacrifice there,\nmight: He would hinder none, force none, but left them free, to\ndo as they would.\n\nSecondly, As to the king's grant, with reference to their building,\nand way of worship there, nothing was to be done therein, but\naccording to the law of the God of Ezra, which was in his hands\n(verse 14). Hence, when he was come to Jerusalem, he was to inquire\nconcerning Judah and Jerusalem; to wit, what was wanting in order\nto the temple and worship of God there, according to the law of\nhis God, which was in his hand. Also when they went about to build,\nand to sacrifice, all was to be done according as was commanded by\nthe God of heaven (verse 23): Yea, this was granted by the king,\nand his seven counsellors.\n\nThirdly, As to the king's liberality towards the building of this\nhouse, &c. it was large: He gave silver, gold, bullocks, rams,\nlambs; with wheat, wine, oil, and salt (verse 17,22); but would by\nhis royal power, give no orders how in particular things should\nbe bestowed, but left all that to Ezra the priest, to do with it\naccording to the will, word, or law of his God (verse 18).\n\nFourthly, As to the way that the king concluded they should be\ngoverned in their own land, it was by their own laws; yea, he did\nbid Ezra the priest, after the wisdom of his God that was in his\nhand, set magistrates and judges, which might judge all the people,\n&c. only he bid him make them such, which did know the law of his\nGod: Also the king added, That they should teach it to them that\nknew it not.\n\nFifthly, As to the king's officers, he gave them a charge not to\nhinder, but further this work. To further this work, not by putting\ntheir hand thereto, (that was to be left to the Jews alone, especially\nto Ezra, according to the law of his God,) but that they should\nspeedily give him such things which the king had commanded, to\nwit, silver, and wheat, and wine, and oil, and salt, for their\nencouragement; and to do therewith, as by the law of their God\nthey should. Further, That they should not impose toll, tribute,\nor custom, upon the priests, levites, singers, porters, nethinims,\nor ministers (verse 20-22).\n\nSixthly, And now we come to the conclusion, to wit, the king's\nthreat and command to do judgment on them that obeyed not the law\nof Ezra's God, and the king.\n\nConsidering what hath been said before, I conclude,\n\n1. That this king imposed no law, no priest, no people upon these\nJews; but left them wholly to their own law, their own ministers,\nand their own people: All which were the laws of God, the priests\nof God, the people of God, as to their building of their temple,\nand the worship of their God.\n\n2. He forced not THIS people, no, not to their land, their temple,\nnor their worship, by his or their law; but left them free to\ntheir own mind, to do thereabout as they would.\n\n3. He added not any law therefore of his own, either to prescribe\nworship, or to enforce it upon the Jews.\n\nBut you will say, upon what then was the threatening and the command\nto punish grounded? I answer, upon a supposed breach of two laws.\nHe of the Jews, that in Jerusalem, rebelled against the law of\nthe Lord, was in his own land left by the king to be punished by\nthe same law, according to the penalties thereof: And he of the\nking's officers, that refused to do the king's laws, that refused\nto give the Jews such things as the king commanded, and that would\nyet exact such customs and tributes as the king forbade, should be\npunished by the king's laws, whether unto death or unto banishment,\nor unto confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.\n\nAnd if all kings would but give such liberty, to wit, that God's\npeople should be directed in their temple-building, and temple\nworship, as they find it in the law of their God, without the\nadditions of man's inventions: and if all kings did but lay the\nsame penalty upon them of their pretended servants, that should\nhinder this work, which this brave king Artaxerxes laid upon his;\nhow many of the enemies of the Jews, before this time, would have\nbeen hanged, banished, had their goods confiscated to the king,\nor their bodies shut up in prison! The which we desire not; we\ndesire only that this letter of the king might be considered of,\nand we left to do as is there licensed and directed: And when we\ndo the contrary, let us be punished by the law of God, as we are\nhis servants, and by the law of the king, as we are his subjects;\nand we shall never complain.\n\nOnly I cannot but observe how prettily it is done of some, who urge\nthis text to colour their malice, ignorance and revenge withal,\nwhile they cry, The law of God, and The law of the king, when they\nwill neither let, according to this scripture, the law of God,\nnor the law of the king take place: Not the law of God; for that\nthey will not leave us to that, to square and govern ourselves in\ntemple-work, and sacrificing by. Nor will they do the law of the\nking, which has made void, ipso facto, whatever law is against\nthe word of God; but because themselves can do, they will\nforce us to do so too. 2\n\nBefore I leave this, I would touch once again upon the candour\nof this king Artaxerxes, who thus did: Because he gave this leave\nand license to the Jews, contrary (if he had any) to his own\nnational worship; yea, and also to the impairing of his own incomes.\nMethinks he should have a religion of his own; and that, not that\nof the Jews, because he was a Gentile; and not, as we read of,\nproselyted to the Jews religion. Indeed, he spake reverently of\nthe God of Israel, and of his temple-worship, and sacrifices, as\ndid also several other kings; but that will not prove that he was\nadapted to that religion.\n\nThat his incomes were impaired, 'tis evident; because he took\noff toll, tribute, and custom from them, of whom mention is made\nbefore; nor is it, I think, to be believed, that he did exact it\nof their brethren. But we may see what the Lord can do; for thus\nto do, was put into the heart of the king by the God of heaven\n(verse 27). This therefore ariseth not of nature: no more did the\nkindness of Cyrus or Darius, of whom we read in the beginning of\nthis history. As God therefore did put it into the hearts of the\nwicked kings of Babylon, to distress his church and people for\ntheir sins; so he put it into the hearts of the kings of the Medes\nand Persians, who were to be, in a sense, their saviours; to ease\nthem of those distresses, to take off the yoke, and let them go\nfree. Indeed, there was an Artaxerxes that put a stop to this work\nof God (chap 4), and he also was of the kings that had destroyed\nthe Babylonians; for it doth not follow, because God hath begun\nto deliver his people, that therefore their deliverance must be\ncompleted without stop or let. The protestants in France had more\nfavour formerly, than from their prince they at this time have;\nyet I doubt not but that God will make that horn also one of them\n(in his time) that (indeed) shall hate the whore. As the sins of\nGod's people brought them into captivity; so their sins can hold\nthem there; yea, and when the time comes that grace must fetch\nthem out, yet the oxen that draw this cart may stumble; and the\nway through roughness, may shake it sorely. However, heaven rules\nand over-rules; and by one means and another, as the captivity of\nIsrael did seem to linger, so it came out at the time appointed;\nin the way that best pleased God, most profited them, and that\nmost confounded those that were their implacable enemies. This\ntherefore should instruct those that yet dwell where the woman\nsitteth, to quietness and patience.\n\nTo quietness: For God rules, and has the dispose of things. Besides,\nit is a kind of arraigning of his wisdom, to be discontent at that\nwhich at present is upon the wheel. Above all, it displeases him\nthat any should seek, or go about to revenge their own injuries,\nor to work their own deliverances; for that is the work of God,\nand he will do it by the kings: Nor is he weak, nor has he missed\nthe opportunity; nor doth he sleep but waketh, and waiteth to be\ngracious.\n\nThis also should teach them to be patient, and put them upon bearing\nwhat at present they may undergo, patiently. Let them wait upon\nGod; patiently let them wait upon men, and patiently let them bear\nthe fruits of their own transgressions; which though they should\nbe none other but a deferring of the mercy wished for, is enough\nto try, and crack, and break their patience, if a continual supply,\nand a daily increase thereof be not given by the God of heaven.\n\nAnd before I do conclude this, let me also add one word more; to\nwit, to exhort them to look that they may see that which God at\npresent may be doing among the Babylonians.\n\nWhen God had his people into Babylon of old, he presented them\nwith such rarities there, as he never shewed them in their own\ncountry. And is there nothing now to be seen by them that are not\nyet delivered from that oppression, that may give them occasion to\nstay themselves and wonder! What, is preservation nothing? What,\nis baffling and befooling the enemies of God's church nothing? In\nthe Maryan days here at home, there was such sweet songs sung in\nthe fire, such sweet notes answering them from prison, and such\nprovidences, that coals of burning fire still dropped here and\nthere upon the heads of those that hated God; that it might, and\ndoubtless did make those that did wisely consider of God's doings,\nto think God was yet near, with, and for, a despised and afflicted\npeople.3\n\nI conclude then, first with a word of counsel, and then with a\nword of caution.\n\nFirst, Let us mend our pace in the way of reformation, that\nis the way to hasten the downfall of Antichrist, ministers need\nreforming, particular congregations need reforming, there are but\nfew church-members but need reforming. This twenty years we have\nbeen degenerating, both as to principles, and as to practice; and\nhave grown at last into an amazing likeness to the world, both as\nto religion and civil demeanour: Yea, I may say, so remiss have\nchurches been in instructing those that they have received into\nfellowship with them; and so careless have the received been, of\nconsidering the grounds of their coming into churches, that most\nmembers, in some places, seem now to be at a loss; yea, and those\nchurches stand with their fingers in their mouths, and are as if\nthey would not, durst not, or could not help it.\n\nMy Second is, A word of caution.\n\n1. Take heed of over-looking, or of shutting your eyes upon your\nown guilt: 'He that covereth his sins, shall not prosper.' It is\nincident to some men, when they find repentance is far from them,\nto shut their eyes upon their own guilt, and to please themselves\nwith such notions of deliverance from present troubles, as will\nstand with that course of sin which is got into their families,\npersons, and professions, and with a state of impenitence: But I\nadvise you to take heed of this.\n\n2. Take heed in laying the cause of your troubles in the badness\nof the temper of governors. I speak not now with reflection upon\nany, excepting those concerned in this caution: God is the chief,\nand has the hearts of all, even of the worst of men, in his hand.\nGood tempered men have sometimes brought trouble; and bad tempered\nmen have sometimes brought enlargement to the churches of God:\nSaul brought enlargement (1 Sam 14:28). David brought trouble (2\nSam 12:10). Ahab brought enlargement (1 Kings 21:29). Jehoshaphat\nand Hezekiah did both sometimes bring trouble (2 Chron 19:2; 20:35;\n32:25). Therefore, the good or bad tempers of men sway nothing\nwith God in this matter; they are the sins or repentances of his\npeople, that make the church either happy or miserable upon earth.\n\nTake heed, I say therefore, of laying of the trouble of the church\nof God at the doors of governors; especially at the doors of kings,\nwho seldom trouble churches of their own inclinations: (I say,\nseldom; for some have done so, as Pharaoh:) But I say, lay not the\ncause of your trouble there; for oftentimes they see with other\nmen's eyes, hear with other men's ears, and act and do by the\njudgments of others: Thus did Saul, when he killed the priests of\nthe Lord (1 Sam 22:18); and thus did Darius, when he cast Daniel\ninto the lions' den (Dan 6:7). But rather labour to see the true\ncause of trouble, which is sin; and to attain to a fitness to be\ndelivered out thence, and that is by repentance, and amendment\nof life. If any object, That God oft-times delivers his of mere\ngrace: I answer, That's no thanks to them; besides, we must mind\nour duty. Further, When God comes to save his people, he can cut\noff such objectors, if they be impenitent, as the sinners of his\npeople; and can save his church, without letting of them be sharers\nin that salvation: So he served many in the wilderness; and 'tis\nto be feared, so he will serve many at the downfall of Antichrist.\n\nI shall say no more, but to testify my loyalty to my king, my love\nto my brethren, and service for my country, has been the cause of\nthis my present scribble. Farewell.\n\nThine in the Lord,\n\nJ. BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nOF ANTICHRIST.\n\nAntichrist is the adversary of Christ; an adversary really, a friend\npretendedly: So then, Antichrist is one that is against Christ;\none that is for Christ, and one that is contrary to him: And this\nis that mystery of iniquity (2 Thess 2:7). Against him in deed;\nfor him in word, and contrary to him in practice. Antichrist is\nso proud as to go before Christ; so humble as to pretend to come\nafter him, and so audacious as to say that himself is he. Antichrist\nwill cry up Christ; Antichrist will cry down Christ: Antichrist\nwill proclaim that himself is one above Christ. Antichrist is the\nman of sin, the son of perdition; a beast, [that] hath two horns\nlike a lamb, but speaks as a dragon (Rev 13:11).\n\nChrist is the Son of God; Antichrist is the son of Hell.\n\nChrist is holy, meek, and forbearing: Antichrist is wicked,\noutrageous, and exacting.\n\nChrist seeketh the good of the soul: Antichrist seeks his own\navarice and revenge.\n\nChrist is content to rule by his word: Antichrist saith, The word\nis not sufficient.\n\nChrist preferreth his Father's will above heaven and earth: Antichrist\npreferreth himself and his traditions above all that is written,\nor that is called God, or worshiped.\n\nChrist has given us such laws and rules as are helpful and healthful\nto the soul: Antichrist seeketh to abuse those rules to our hurt\nand destruction.\n\nAntichrist may be considered either more particularly, or more\ngenerally. 1. More particularly: And so there are many Antichrists\n(1 John 2:18). 2. More generally: And so the many maketh but one\ngreat Antichrist, one man of sin, one enemy, one great whore, one\nson of perdition (2 Thess 2:3; Rev 19:2).\n\nAgain, Antichrist must be distinguished, with respect to his more\ninternal and external parts; and so there is the spirit, soul, or\nlife (1 John 4:3); and also the body and flesh of Antichrist (2\nThess 2:7). The spirit, or soul, or life of Antichrist, is that\nspirit of error, that wicked, that mystery of iniquity, that under\ncolour and pretence of verity, draweth men from truth to falsehood.\nThe body or flesh of Antichrist, is that heap of men, that assembly\nof the wicked, that synagogue of Satan that is acted and governed\nby that spirit. But God will destroy both soul and body; He 'shall\nconsume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both\nsoul and body: [or from the soul, even to the flesh] and they shall\nbe [both soul and body] as when a standard-bearer fainteth' (Isa\n10:18).\n\nA PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nAntichrist therefore is a mystical man, so made, or begotten of\nthe devil, and sent into the world, himself being the chief and\nhighest of him. Three things therefore go to the making up of\nAntichrist, the head, body, and soul. The devil he is the head;\nthe synagogue of Satan, that is the body; that wicked spirit of\niniquity, that is the soul of Antichrist. Christ then is the head\nof his church; the devil is the head of Antichrist; the elect\nare the body of Christ; the reprobate professors are the body of\nAntichrist; the Holy Ghost is the spirit of life that actuateth\nChrist's body; that wicked spirit of iniquity, is that which\nactuateth the body of Antichrist. Thus therefore are the two great\nmighties set forth before us, who are the heads of those two\nbodies; and thus are these two bodies set before us, who are to\nbe actuated by these two spirits.\n\nThe reason why Christ came into the world, was, That he might\ndestroy all the works of the head of Antichrist, and they which he\nendeavoureth to complete by his wicked spirit working in his body\n(1 John 3:8). And the reason why Antichrist came into the world,\nwas, That the church, which is the body of Christ, might be tried,\nand made white by suffering under his tyranny, and by bearing\nwitness against his falsehoods. For, for the trial of the faithful,\nand for the punishment of the world, Antichrist was admitted to\ncome: But when he came, he first appeared there where one would\nhave thought there had been no place nor corner for his reception.\n\nWHERE ANTICHRIST FIRST APPEARED.\n\nThe devil then, made use of the church of God to midwife this\nmonster into the world, as the Apostle plainly shews, there he\nfirst sat, shewing himself (2 Thess 2:4). Here therefore was his\nfirst appearance, even in the church of God: Not that the church of\nGod did willingly admit him there to sit as such; he had covered\nhis cloven foot; he had plumbs in his dragon's mouth, and so came\nin by flatteries; promising to do for Christ and his church, that\nwhich he never meant to perform. For he shewed himself that he\nwas God, and in appearance, set his heart to do as the heart of\nGod (Eze 28:2-6). And who could have found in their hearts to shut\nthe door upon such an one? True, he came, when he came thither,\nout of the bottomless-pit; but there came such a smoke out thence\nwith him, and that smoke so darkened the light of the sun, of the\nmoon, of the stars, and of the day, that had they [the church] been\nupon their watch, as they were not, they could not have perceived\nhim from another man. Besides, there came with him so many locusts\nto usher him into the house of God (Rev 9:2,3), and they so suited\nthe flesh and reason of the godly of that day, that with good words\nand fair speeches, by their crafty and cunning sleights, whereby\nthey lay in wait to deceive, they quite got him in, and set him\nup, and made him a great one, even the chief, before they were\naware. Further, He quickly got him a beast to ride on, far, for\nsumptuous glory, beyond (though as to nature, as assish a creature\nas) that on which Baalam was wont to ride: And by this exaltation\nhe became not only more stately, but the horns of the beast would\npush for him (Rev 17:3-6).\n\nAgain, This man of sin, when he came into the world, had the art of\nmetamorphosing, and could change himself, both in form and shape,\ninto the likeness of a beast, a man, or woman; and the kings of\nthe earth, with the inhabitants of the world, began then to love\nsuch women dearly; wherefore they went to her into the bed of love,\nand defiled themselves with the filthiness of her fornications,\ngave her their troth, and became her husbands, and beloved sons;\ntook up helmet and shield, and stood to defend her; yea, though\nChrist himself, and some of the chief of his followers, cried out\nof her shame, and of the evil of their doings; yet would she be\naudacious.\n\nAlso this woman had now arrayed herself in flesh-taking ornaments,\nof the colour of purple and scarlet, and was decked with gold,\nand precious stones, and pearls, after the manner or attire of\nharlots. Thus came she to them, and lay in their bosoms, and gave\nthem out of her golden cup of the wine of her fornication; of the\nwhich they bibbed till they were drunken; and then, in requital,\nthey also gave her of such liquors as they could, to wit, to drink\nof the blood of saints, and of martyrs of Jesus, till she, like\nthese beasts, was drunken also.\n\nNow when they were drunken, they did as drunkards do, revel, roar,\nand belch out their own shame, in the sight of them that were\nsober: Wherefore they cried out upon such doings, and chose rather\nto die, than to live with such company. And so 'tis still with\nthem where she yet sitteth, and so will be till she shall fall\ninto the hands of the strong Lord, who will judge her according\nto her ways. And that she must do, as is implied by this, That\nher fornications are in a cup; she has therefore but her cup to\nbe drank out; wherefore when it is empty, then, whether she will\nor no, the Lord God will call her to such a reckoning, that all\nthe clothes on her back, with what pearls and jewels she has,\nshall not be able to pay the shot.\n\nOF THE RUIN OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nAntichrist, as was said, had a time to come into the world, and so\nmust have a time to go out again: For although he saith that he\nis a God, yet must he be subject to the will of God, and must go\nas well as come according to that will. Nor can all the fallen\nangels, with all the members and limbs of Antichrist, cause that\nthis their brat should abide so much as one day longer than our\nGod's prefixed time. And this the head of Antichrist understandeth\nvery well: Wherefore the Holy Ghost saith, 'Woe to the inhabiters\nof the earth, and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you,\nhaving great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short\ntime' (Rev 12:12).\n\nBesides, the text says plainly, The Lord shall destroy him (2 Thess\n2:8), and that he goeth into perdition (Rev 17:11; 19:26). Also\nthe church of God believes it, and the limbs of Antichrist fear\nit.\n\nNow when, or as his time shall come to be destroyed, so he shall\nbe made a hand of; and that with such instruments and weapons of\nGod's indignation, as best shall be suited to his several parts.\n\nSuch weapons as are best for the destroying of his soul, shall be\nused for the destroying of it; and such weapons as are best for the\ndestroying of his body, shall be made use of for the destroying\nof it.\n\nTHE SOUL OF IT DESTROYED, AND HOW.\n\nAnd therefore, as to his soul, or that spirit of error that governs\nhim in all his works of mischief; this must be consumed by the\nspirit of Christ's mouth, and be destroyed by the brightness of\nhis coming.\n\nThis we have in the words of Paul: 'For [saith he] the mystery of\niniquity [the spirit of Antichrist] doth already work: only he who\nnow letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then\nshall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with\nthe spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of\nhis coming' (2 Thess 2:7,8). The Apostle here treateth of Antichrist,\nwith reference to his more subtil and spiritual part, since that\nindeed is the chiefest of Antichrist: Wherefore he calls it that\nwicked; not, that wicked one, as referring to the whole; but that\nwicked, as referring to the mystery or spirit of iniquity, the\nheart and soul of Antichrist; and tells us, that the Lord shall\n'consume him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy him\nwith the brightness of his coming.'\n\nNow, by the spirit of his mouth, I understand his holy word, which\nis called 'The word and breath of his lips' (Isa 11:4). And also,\n'The sword of his mouth' (Rev 2:16). By 'the brightness of his\ncoming,' I also understand, not only his presence, but an increase\nof light by his presence; not only to help Christians to begin\nto bear witness against some parts and pieces of the errors\nof Antichrist, but until the whole is rooted out of the world.\nBy this, I say, must the soul, spirit, or life of Antichrist be\ntaken away. But how shall Christ by this rod, sword, or spirit of\nhis mouth, consume this wicked, this mystery of iniquity? Not by\nhimself immediately, but by his spirit and word in his church;\nthe which he will use, and so manage in this work, that they shall\nnot rest till he by them has brought this beast to his grave. This\nbeast is compared to the wild boar, and the beast that comes out\nof the wood to devour the church of God, (as we read in the book\nof Psalms: 80:13) But Christ, with the dogs that eat the crumbs\nof his table, will so hunt and scour him about, that albeit he\nmay let out some of their bowels with the tushes of his chaps,\nyet they will not let him alone till they have his life: For the\nchurch shall single him out from all beasts, and so follow him\nwith cries, and pinch him with their voices, that he alone shall\nperish by their means.4 Thus shall Christ consume and wear him out\nby the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness\nof his coming\n\nHence you find again, That this wicked, is to melt and consume\naway as grease: For the Lord Jesus shall consume him, and cause\nhim to melt away; not all at once, but now this part, and then\nthat; now his soul, and after that his body, even until soul and\nbody are both destroyed.\n\nAnd that you may be convinced of the truth of this thing, do but\nlook back and compare Antichrist four or five hundred years ago,\nwith Antichrist as he is now, and you shall see what work the Lord\nJesus has begun to make with him, even with the spirit and soul,\nand life of Antichrist; both in confounding and blasting of it by\nthis spirit of his mouth, as also by forcing of it to dishonourable\nretreats, and by making of it give up to him, as the conqueror,\nnot only some of his superstitious and diabolical rites and\nceremonies, to be destroyed, but many a goodly truth, which this\nvile one had taken from his church, to be renewed to them: Nay,\nfurther, he hath also already began to take from him both kingdoms\nand countries, though as to some not so absolutely as he shall do\nby and by. And in the meantime, this is the plague wherewith the\nLord shall plague or smite the people that have fought against\nJerusalem: 'Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon\ntheir feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and\ntheir tongue shall consume away in their mouth' (Zech 14:12). And\nhow has this long ago been fulfilled here in England! as also in\nScotland, Holland, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and\nother places! (Isa 17:4-6). Nor hath this spirit of Antichrist,\nwith all his art and artificers, been able to reduce to Antichrist\nagain, those people, nations, or parts of nations, that by the\nspirit of Christ's mouth, and 'the brightness of his coming,'\nhave been made to forsake him, and to turn from him to Christ:\nThe reason is, for that the Lord has not retreated, but is still\ngoing on in the spirit of his mouth, and his brightness, to\nmake that conquest over him that is determined, in the way that\nis determined: Of which more shall be spoken afterward; for the\npath-way that he goeth, is as the shining light, which shines\nmore and more unto noon. True, the fogs of Antichrist, and the\nsmoke that came with him out of the bottomless-pit, has darkened\nand eclipsed the glorious light of the gospel: But you know, in\neclipses, when they are on the recovering hand, all the creatures\nupon the face of the earth cannot put a stop to that course, until\nthe sun or the moon have recovered their glory. And thus it shall\nbe now, the Lord is returned to visit the earth, and his people\nwith his primitive lustre; he will not go back, nor slack his hand,\nuntil he has recovered what Antichrist has darkened of his. 'The\nanger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and\ntill he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days\nye shall consider it perfectly' (Jer 23:20). Therefore he saith\nagain, 'The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun [was\nin her eclipse;] and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as\nthe light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the\nbreach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound,' &c.\nas the verse before has it: 'In the day when the towers fall.' For\n(as was said before) as to the recovery of the light of the gospel\nfrom under antichristian mists, and fogs of darkness; Christ will\ndo that, not by might nor power, but by the spirit of his mouth,\nand the brightness of his coming: Wherefore the soul of Antichrist,\nor that spirit of wickedness by which this gospel-light hath been\ndiminished, must be consumed and destroyed by that spirit also. Nor\ncan any other way of conquest over that be thorough, and lasting;\nbecause that spirit can by no other means be slain. The body\nof Antichrist may be destroyed by other instruments, but spirits\ncannot be killed but by spirits. The temporal sword then may kill\nthe body, but after that it hath no more that it can do, wherefore,\nthe other must be dealt with by another kind of weapon: And here\nis one sufficient, the spirit against the spirit; the spirit and\nface of Christ, against the spirit, that wicked, of Antichrist.\nAnd by this spirit of Christ's mouth, all the spirit that is in\nall the trinkets and wash of Antichrist shall also be destroyed;\nso that those trinkets, those rites, ceremonies, and ordinances\nof this man of sin, shall be left as carrion upon the face of the\nearth, and shall stink in the noses of men, as doth the corrupted\nblood of a dead man.\n\nTHE ORDINANCES OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nNow therefore will the beauty of Antichrist fade like a flower,\nand fall as doth a leaf when the sap of the tree has left it; or\nas the beauty departeth from the body, when the soul, or life,\nor spirit is gone forth. And as the body cannot be but unpleasant\nand unsavoury when under such a state; so the body of Antichrist\nwill be to beholders, when the Lord has slain the spirit thereof.\nIt is the spirit of Antichrist that puts life into the body; and\nthat puts lustre into the ordinances of Antichrist, as the light\nof the sun, and of the moon, and of the stars, do put lustre upon\nthe things of this visible world: Wherefore, when this spirit, and\nsoul, and life of Antichrist is slain, then it will be with him\nas 'twould be with the world, had it no light of the sun, of the\nmoon, or of the stars.\n\nAnd hence, as the loss of our natural life is compared to the loss\nof these lights (Eccl 12:2); so the loss of the life, soul and\nspirit of Antichrist is compared to these things also. For, the\nsoul of Antichrist is compared to a heaven; and her ordinances\nand rites, to the ordinances of heaven: wherefore, when the Lord\ncomes to fight against her with the spirit of his mouth, he saith,\n'The stars of heaven [shall be darkened], and the constellations\nthereof shall not give their light' (Isa 13:10); because he will slay\nthat spirit of Antichrist that is in them (Isa 34; Rev 6:13,14).\n\nTake things therefore more distinctly, thus: The antichristians'\nspirit, is the heaven of antichristians; their sun, moon and stars,\nare their superstitious ordinances; their earth is the body or\nflesh of Antichrist, otherwise called the church and synagogue\nof Satan. Now as the earth cannot live, and be desirable, without\nthe influences of the spirit of the heavens; so neither can Antichrist\nlive, when the Lord shall darken the light of his heaven, and shall\nslay the spirit thereof. Hence you read, as I touched before, that\nwhen his heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll, 'all the\nhost thereof,' unto which I compare the ordinances of Antichrist,\n'shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as\na falling fig from the fig-tree' (Isa 34:4). But how, or why doth\nthe leaf, or the fig fall from the tree? Why, because the spirit,\nor sap of the tree, is gone from them.\n\nTherefore, the first and chief proceeding of the Lord with the man\nof sin, is to slay his soul, that his body may also be consumed:\nAnd when the spirit of Antichrist shall be made to leave both the\nbody and ordinances of Antichrist, 'twill be easy to deal both\nwith the one and the other. And first, for the ordinances of\nAntichrist; because the spirit of error is in them, as well as in\nthe body itself. When that spirit, as I said, has left them, they\nwill of themselves even moulder away, and not be: As we have seen\nby experience here in England, as others also have seen in other\ncountries. For as concerning his masses, prayers for the dead,\nimages, pilgrimages, monkish vows, sinful fasts, and the beastly\nsingle life of their priests, though when the spirit of Antichrist\nwas in them, they did bear some sway in the world; yet now, of\nwhat esteem are they? or who has reverence for them? They are now\nblown together under hedges, as the dry leaves, for the mice and\nfrogs to harbour in: yea, the locusts too, camp in the hedges\namong the dry leaves, in the cold day, and 'when the sun ariseth\nthey flee away' (Nahum 3:15-17). When 'tis a cold day for them in\na nation, then they lurk in the hedges, though their ordinances\nlie there, as leaves that are dry, and fallen down from the tree;\nbut when the sun ariseth, and waxeth warm, they abide not, but\nbetake them to their wings, and fly away. But one would think that\nfallen leaves should have no great nourishment in them: True, if\nyou have respect to men, but with vermin any thing will do: We\nspeak then of them with reference to men, not with respect to the\nvery members of Antichrist: And I say, as to them, when the spirit\nof Antichrist is gone out of these ordinances, they will be with\nthem as dry leaves that no body seeketh after. The ordinances\ntherefore of Antichrist are not able to bear up themselves in\nthe world, as the ordinances of the Lord Jesus are, for even the\nordinances of Christ, where the spirit of Christ is not, are yet\nin some esteem with men: But THESE, when the spirit of delusion\nhas left them, are abhorred, both skin and bones: For in themselves\nthey are without any sense, or rationality (Eze 20:25,26); yea,\nthey look as parts of things which are used to conjure up devils\nwith: These were prefigured by the ordinances that were NOT\ngood, and by the judgments whereby one should not live. For what\nis there, or can there be of the least dram of truth or profit in\nthe things that are without the word, that being the only stamp\nby which one is distinguished from the other? I say, What is there\nin any of them, to the man whose eyes are open, but delusion and\ndeceit! Wherefore, as has been expressed already, when the Lord\nChrist, by the spirit of his mouth, &c. shall drive this mystery\nof iniquity from them, and strip them of that spirit of delusion\nthat now by its craft puts bewitching excellency upon them, they\nwill of themselves become such stinking rivers, ponds and pools,\nthat flesh and blood will loathe to drink of them; yea, as it was\nwith the ponds and pools of Egypt, they will be fit for nought\nbut to breed and hatch up frogs in.\n\nWherefore these ordinances shall be rejected, not one of them shall\nfind favour with men on earth; when the Lord, 'by the spirit of\nhis mouth, and the brightness of his coming,' shall have separated\ntheir spirit from them.\n\nNow, by ordinances of Antichrist, I do not intend things that only\nrespect matters of worship in Antichrist's kingdom, but those civil\nlaws that impose and enforce them also; yea, that enforce THAT\nworship with pains and penalties, as in the Spanish inquisition:\nFor these must, as the other, be overthrown by Christ, by the\nspirit of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming: For these\nlaws, as the other, took their being, and have their soul and\nlife by the spirit of Antichrist; yea, as long as there is life\nin them, 'tis because the spirit of that man of sin yet remaineth\nin them. Wherefore, these are also great ordinances, though of\nanother nature than those mentioned before: Great, I say, are they;\nforasmuch as neither the church of Antichrist, nor his instruments\nof worship, can either live or stand without them. Wherefore, it\nwas admitted to the image of the beast, not only to speak, but to\ncause. To speak out his laws of worship, 'and cause that as many\nas would not worship the image of the beast, should be killed'\n(Rev 13:15). And mark, This is because that the life that was\ncommunicated to the image of the beast, was by him also communicated\nto his word and authority. Wherefore, these laws must not be\nseparated from those in which the spirit of Antichrist is; yea,\nthey are the very pillars and sinews by which antichristianism\nremains: And were these dis-spirited, the whole building would\nquickly become a ruinous heap.\n\nWhat could the king of Babylon's golden image have done, had it\nnot been for the burning fiery furnace that stood within view of\nthe worshippers? (Dan 3). Yea, what could that horrible command,\nto pray, for thirty days, to neither God nor man, but to the king,\nhave done, had it not been for the dark den, and the roaring lions\nthere in readiness to devour those that disobeyed it? (Dan 6). As\ntherefore the burning fiery furnace, and the den of lions, were\nthe support of the horrible religion of the Babylonians of old; so\npopish edicts are the support of the religion of Antichrist now;\nand as long as there is spirit, that is, authority, in them, they\nare like to those now mentioned; the spirit of such laws is that\nthat makes them dreadful: For as the furnace would have been next\nto nothing, if void of fire; and the den as little frightful, if\ndestitute of lions; so these laws will be as insignificant, when\nChrist has slain that spirit that is in them; that spirit that\ncauses that as many as will not worship the image of the beast,\nshould be killed.\n\nNor can any sword reach that life of Antichrist that is in these,\nbut the sword of Christ's mouth: Therefore, as all the religious\nrites and ceremonies of Antichrist are overthrown by his spirit\nworking in his, as Christians; so those antichristian laws will\nhave their soul and their life taken from them also by this spirit\nof his mouth working in some of his, as magistrates, and no otherwise;\nfor before kings and princes, &c. come to be enlightened about the\nevils that are in such edicts, by the spirit of the living God,\nthey will let this image of the beast both speak and cause, &c.\nBut when they shall see, they will say, let it be decreed that\nthis prop of Antichrist be taken down. It was decreed by Darius,\nthat they that prayed, for thirty days, to any God but him, should\nbe cast into the den of lions (Dan 6:9); but this was before he\nsaw; but when he came to see, then he decreed again; a decree that\nquite took away the power of that which he had decreed before (Dan\n6:26).\n\nNor are we without instances of this kind nearer home: who is now\nafraid of the act for burning of those that papists call heretics,\nsince by the king and parliament, as by the finger of God, the\nlife and soul is taken out of it. I bring this to shew you, that\nas there is life in wicked antichristian penal laws, as well as\nin those that are superstitiously religious; so the life of these,\nof all these, must be destroyed by the same spirit working in\nthose that are Christ's, though in a diverse way.\n\nNor will the life of these sinews, as I have called them, be\ntaken away; but as God shall enlighten men to see the abominable\nfilthiness of that which is antichristian worship: as would easily\nbe made appear, if some that dwell in those countries where the\nbeast and his image have been worshiped, would but take the pains\nto inquire into antiquity about it. As the noble king, king Henry\nVIII did cast down the antichristian worship; so he cast down the\nlaws that held it up: so also did the good king Edward his son.\nThe brave queen, queen Elizabeth also, the sister to king Edward,\nhath left of things of this nature, to her lasting fame behind\nher. And if one such law of Antichrist hath escaped the hand of\none, another hath taken it, and done that execution on it that\ntheir zeal and piety prompted them to.\n\nThere is yet another thing that the spirit of Antichrist is\nimmediately concerned in; and that is, the antichristian names\nof the men that worship the beast: the names, I mean, that the\nAntichrist hath baptized them into: for those names are breathed\nupon them by the very spirit of Antichrist; and are such as\nare absolutely names of blasphemy, or such as do closely border\nthereupon; some such as Elihu durst not for his life give unto\nmen, only he calls them 'flattering titles' (Job 32:21,22). Now\ntherefore, of the danger (though not of the names themselves) you\nread sufficiently in the scripture; and perhaps the Holy Ghost\nhas contented himself with giving of items that are general, that\nmen might, as to them, be the more cautious of what names they\ngive one to another (Rev 17:5); but this is clear, they are worn\nby men of spiritual employ: but since they are but mentioned, and\nare not distinctly nominated, how should we know which are they,\nand which not? Verily, by searching the word of God, and by seeing\nby that what names we are allowed to give unto men, with reference\nto their offices, dignities, and places: for God has a quarrel with\nthe names, as well as with the persons that wear them; and when\nhis Son shall down with Antichrist, he will slay seven thousand\nnames of men, as well as the persons of the worshippers of the\nbeast (Rev 11:13).\n\nBut there are things, as well as men (Job 22:28); and these also have\nbeen baptized into those names by the very spirit of Antichrist,\nand must be destroyed by Christ, the spirit of his mouth, and the\nbrightness of his coming: 'The idols he shall utterly abolish' (Isa\n2:18); and there are men that are idols as well as things (Zech\n11:17): wherefore, let men have a care, as to shun the worship of\nidols, so that they bare not the name, or stand in the place of\none: and the reason of this caution is, because name and thing\nare both abominable unto God.\n\nTo give you the number of these names that the spirit of Antichrist\nhas baptized men into, (besides the things that do also wear such\nblasphemies upon them,) would be a task too great for me, and too\nwearisome for you. It shall satisfy then, that I give you notice\nthat there are such things and men and names; and that I put you\nupon search to find out what they be. But whatsoever of the spirit,\nor soul, or life of Antichrist is in these names, men, or things,\nmust be consumed by Christ, by the spirit of his mouth, and the\nbrightness of his coming.5\n\nAnother thing that I would touch upon is this; to wit, The lying\nlegends, and false miracles that Antichrist cries up: These, by\nthe means of which such as dwell upon the earth are deceived, and\nmade to adore and worship the beast: these have their life and soul\n(as had those mentioned before) from the spirit of wickedness;\nand must be destroyed as they, namely, by Christ, the spirit of\nhis mouth, and the brightness of his coming: for these are not of\nthe body of Antichrist, but rather such implements, or whatever\nyou will call them, by which the spirit and soul of Antichrist\nis conveyed into, and kept also alive in the body of Antichrist,\nwhich is the church and synagogue of Satan; you may call them\norgans and means by which that wicked worketh in the mysteries of\niniquity, for the begetting of, and maintaining a lying and false\nbelief of the religion of the beast: nor can it be thought, but\nthat, as the antichristian statists6 of Antichrist, mentioned\nbefore, do put a dread and fear upon men that are worshippers\nof the beast, and his image, to the holding of them still to his\nservice; so these legends and miracles do, on the other hand,\nabridge and bind their consciences to that worship; but all because\nof that spirit of Antichrist that is in them.7\n\nSo then, here is the spirit of Antichrist diffusing itself into all\nthe things pertaining to the kingdom of the beast; for it dwells\nin the body of Antichrist; it dwells in the matters and things\nof worship of Antichrist; it dwells in the titles and names that\nare antichristian; and it dwells in the laws, legends and miracles\nof Antichrist. And as it is the spirit of Antichrist, so it must\nbe destroyed; not by sword, nor by bow, but by Christ, as fighting\nagainst it with the spirit of his mouth, and as conquering of it\nby the brightness of his coming.\n\nTHE BODY OF ANTICHRIST DESTROYED, AND HOW.\n\nWe come now to discourse of the body or flesh of Antichrist, and\nof the destruction of that; for that must be destroyed also. Now\nthe body of Antichrist, is that church or synagogue in which the\nspirit of Antichrist dwells, or unto which the spirit of Antichrist\nis become a soul and life.\n\nAnd this is to be destroyed, either as it is a body mystical, or\nunder the more gross consideration.\n\nFirst, As it is a body mystical, and so it is to be destroyed\nabsolutely.\n\nSecondly, As it is to be considered more grossly, and so it is to\nbe destroyed conditionally. That is, if repentance doth not save\nthe men that have gone to the making up of this body, and to the\nrejoicing in it.\n\nAs she is a body mystical, so she is to be destroyed the same way\nthat the things of Antichrist, of which we discoursed before, were\nto be destroyed; to wit, by Christ, the spirit of his mouth, and\nthe brightness of his coming.\n\nThis then is the sum, as to this: That the church of Antichrist,\nas a church, shall be destroyed by the word and spirit of Christ.\nNor can anything in heaven prevent it, because the strong God\nhas decreed it: 'and a mighty angel took up a stone, like a great\nmill-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence\nshall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found\nno more at all' (Rev 18:21). This city, Babylon, is here sometimes\nconsidered in the whole, and sometimes as to the parts of it;\nbut always, whether in whole, or in part, as some, or else as the\nwhole of the antichristian church; and as such, it must not be\ndestroyed, but by the means aforesaid. By which means her witchcrafts,\nspiritual whoredoms, spiritual murders, thefts, and blasphemies,\nshall be so detected and made manifest, so laid open, and so\ndiscovered, that the nations shall abhor her, flee from her, and\nbuy her merchandise no more (Rev 18:11). Hence her tempting things\nrot, and moulder away; for these will not keep, they are things\nnot lasting, but that perish in the using: what then will they\ndo when they are laid by? Therefore it follows, 'All things which\nwere [thy] dainty and goodly [ones] are departed from thee, and\nthou shalt find them no more at all' (Rev 18:14). Now, if when\nshe had things to trade with, her dealers left her; how shall she\nthink of a trade, when she has nothing to traffic with? Her things\nare slain, and stink already, by the weapons that are made mention\nof before; what then will her carcase do? It follows then, that\nas to her church-state, she must of necessity tumble: wherefore,\nfrom Revelation 18:22 to 24, you have the manner of her total ruin\nas a church, and something of the cause thereof.\n\nBut as she must, with reference to her body, be considered\nmystically as a church; so also she must be considered as a body\nof men, (this is that which I called more grossly,) and as such,\nagainst whom the wrath of God will burn, and against whom, if\nrepentance prevent not, he will have indignation for ever. These,\nI saw are them; to wit, as they are the body of the people, that\nhave been seduced by this spirit of Antichrist, that have been\nmade use of to do all the mischiefs that have been done both to\ntrue religion, and to the professors of it, for this many hundred\nyears, wherefore these must not escape. Wherefore you find, that\nafter Antichrist, as to the spirit and mystery of Antichrist, is\nslain, that the body of Antichrist, or the heap of people that\nbecame her vassals, come next to be dealt withal.\n\nTherefore, the angel that standeth in the sun, makes a proclamation\nto all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, to gather\nthemselves, and to come unto the supper of the great God; that\nthey may eat the flesh of the several sorts of the men that have\nbeen the lovers, the countenancers, the upholders and defenders of\nher antichristian state, worship, and falsehoods (Rev 19:17,18):\nfor abundance of their hearts shall be hardened, and made yet more\nobdurate, that they may be destroyed for the wickedness that they\nhave done.\n\nWherefore, you find (as did the enemies of the church of old,)\nthat they might revenge themselves for the loss of their idol, or\nantichristian state, begin a new war with the king, whose name\nis the Lord of hosts: 'And I saw the beast, and the kings of the\nearth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him\nthat sat on the horse, and against his army' (Rev 19:19).\n\nTheir implacable malice remained when their church-state was gone;\nwherefore they will now at last make another attempt upon the men\nthat had been the instruments in Christ's hand to torment them\nthat dwelt on the earth; of which more hereafter.\n\nNow therefore is the last stroke of the batter,8 with reference to\nthe destroying of the body of Antichrist; only the head of this\nmonster remains, and that is SATAN himself: wherefore, the next\nnews that we hear, is, that he is taken also: 'And I saw an angel\ncome down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a\ngreat chain in his hand. and he laid hold on the Dragon, that old\nserpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand\nyears, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and\nset a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more,\ntill the thousand years should be fulfilled,' &c. (Rev 20:1-3).\n\nBRAVE DAYS WHEN ANTICHRIST IS DEAD.\n\nNow therefore there will be nothing of Antichrist to be seen\nthroughout the nations, but ruinous heaps, and desolate places. It\nis said of the army of the man of sin, when he came into the land\nof God's people, though it was before him 'as the garden of Eden,'\nyet behind him 'twould be as 'a desolate wilderness' (Joel 2:3);\nsuch ruins would he make of the flock of God, and of all their\nordinances, and heavenly dainties. But when the days that I have\nspoken of, shall come, it will be to him a time of retaliation:\nfor it shall then be done unto Antichrist, as he hath done to the\nchurch of God: As he hath made women childless, so shall he be\nmade childless; as he has made Zion sit upon the ground, so now\nmust this wicked one come down and sit in the dust; yea, as he\nhas made many churches desolations, so now shall he be also made\na desolation. Wherefore, whoso will find his body, they must look\nfor it in the side of the pit's mouth; and whoso will find his\nfriends and companions, they must look for them there likewise.\n'They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her\nmultitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised,\nslain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land\nof the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go\ndown to the pit, he is put in the midst of them that be slain.\nThere is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude:--There is Edom,\nher kind, and all her princes, &c.--There be the princes of the\nnorth, all of them,--which--with their--might' are laid with them\nthat are 'slain by the sword, and bare their shame with them that\ngo down to the pit' (Eze 32:25-30). For 'as Babylon hath caused\nthe slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain\nof all the earth' (Jer 51:49). The margin reads it thus: Both\nBabylon is to fall, O ye slain of Israel! And with Babylon the\nslain of all the earth. Now then she is gone down, when all these\nthings shall be fulfilled; and what remains now, but to talk of\nher, as folk used to do of them that are dead: for the day will\ncome that the church of God shall have no more of Antichrist,\nBabylon, or the mother of harlots, than only the remembrance of\nher; to wit, that there was such an enemy of God in the world; that\nthere was such a superstitious, idolatrous, bloody people in the\nworld. Wherefore the people that shall be born, that shall live\nto serve God in these happy days, they shall see Antichrist only\nin its ruins; they shall, like the sparrows, the little robins,\nand the wren, sit and sing, and chirrup one to another, while\ntheir eyes behold this dead hawk. 'Here [shall they say] did once\nthe lion dwell; and there was once a dragon inhabited: here did\nthey live that were the murderers of the saints; and there another,\nthat did used to set his throat against the heavens; but now in\nthe places where these ravenous creatures lay, grows grass, with\nreeds and rushes (Isa 35:7), [or else, now their habitation is\ncursed, nettles grow, and so do thorns and brambles, where their\npalaces were wont to be]. And as no good was with them while they\nlived, so their name stinketh now they are dead: yea, as they\nwrought mischiefs, and lived like the wild beasts when they enjoyed\ntheir abundance; so now the wild beasts of the desert, yea, they\nof the desert, shall meet with the wild beasts of the island: and\nthe satyr shall cry to his fellows. Their houses shall be full\nof doleful creatures, even as devils and wicked spirits do haunt\nthe desolate houses of the wicked, when they are dead' (Isa 34).\n'And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees\nexcellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.\nIt shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from\ngeneration to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent\nthere: neither shall the shepherds make their folds there' (Isa\n13:19,20). A while after this, as was hinted before, the Christians\nwill begin with detestation to ask what Antichrist was? Where\nAntichrist dwelt? Who were his members? And, What he did in the\nworld? and it shall be answered by them that shall have skill\nto consider his features by the word, by way of taunt and scorn,\n'Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake\nkingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the\ncities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All\nthe kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every\none in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an\nabominable branch; and as the raiment of those that are slain,\nthrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the\npit, as a carcase trodden under feet' (Isa 14:16-19).\n\nThere will be a strange alteration when Antichrist is dead, and that\nboth in the church, and in the world. The church and the members\nof it then, shall wear the name of their God in their foreheads;\nthat is, they shall be bold in the profession of their king, and\ntheir God; yea, it shall be their glory to be godly; and carnal\nmen shall praise them for it: the praise of the whole earth shall\nthe church of God be in those days.\n\nThen there shall no more be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord:\nno lion shall be there; the unclean shall no more tread in the\npaths of God's people, but the ransomed of the Lord shall walk\nthere.\n\nGlory that has not been seen nor heard of by the people that used\nto walk in sackcloth, shall now be set in the land of the living.\nFor as it was said of Christ, with reference to his day; so it\nshall be said of saints, with reference to this day: many kings\nand righteous men have desired to see the things that will be seen\nthen, and shall not see them: but without all doubt, the men that\nshall be born at this time, will consider that these glories, and\nliberties, and privileges of theirs, cost the people that walked in\nthe king of Babylon's fiery furnace, or that suffered the trials,\ntroubles and tyranny of the antichristian generation, more groans\nand hearty wishes, than they did them that shall enjoy them. Thus\nthen it will go; the afflicted prayed for them, and the possessors\nbless God for the enjoyment of them.\n\nOh! now shall the church walk in the light of the Lord, and sit\nevery man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall\nmake him afraid!\n\n'For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel,\nand set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined\nwith them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the\npeople shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the\nhouse of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for\nservants and handmaids: And they shall take them captives, whose\ncaptives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. And\nit shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee\nrest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage\nwherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this\nproverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor\nceased! the golden city, (or the exactress of gold) ceased! The\nLord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the\nrulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,\nhe that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none\nhindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break\nforth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the\ncedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no seller is\ncome up against us' (Isa 14:1-8).\n\nAlso the world will now be (as it were) another thing than it was\nin the days of Antichrist: now will kings, and princes, and nobles,\nand the whole commonality be rid of that servitude and bondage\nwhich in former times (when they used to carry Bell and the dragon\nupon their shoulders) they were subjected to. They were then\na burden to them, but now they are at ease. 'Tis with the world,\nthat are the slaves of Antichrist now, as it is with them that are\nslaves and captives to a whore: they must come when she calls, run\nwhen she bids, fight with and beat them that she saith miscall her,\nand spend what they can get by labour or fraud upon her, or she\nwill be no more their whore, and they shall be no more her bosom\nones. But now! Now it will be otherwise! Now they will have no whore\nto please! Now they will have none to put them upon persecuting\nof the saints! Now they shall not be made, as before, guilty of\nthe blood of those against whom this gentleman shall take a pet!\nNow the world shall return and discern between the righteous and\nthe wicked; yea, they shall cleave to, and countenance the people\nof God, being persuaded, as Laban was of Jacob, that the Lord will\nbless them for his people's sakes: for at this day, 'the remnant of\nJacob shall be [among the Gentiles] in the midst of many people,\nas a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth\nnot for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men' (Micah 5:7).\n\nAlso in these days men shall come flocking into the house of God,\nboth kings and princes, and nobles, and the common people, as the\ndoves do to their windows: and for that cause it is spoken to the\nchurch, with reference to the latter days, saying, 'Enlarge the\nplace of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy\nhabitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy\nstakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand, and on the\nleft; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate\ncities to be inhabited' (Isa 54:2,3).\n\nNow will be broken up those prophecies and promises that to this\nday lie as under lock and key, and that cannot be opened until\nthey be fulfilled. Now will the Spirit of God be poured forth\nabundantly; and our rivers shall be in high places, that is, shall\nbreak forth from the hearts of great ones; yea, then shall our\nwaters be made deep: 'And I will cause their rivers to run like\noil, saith the Lord God' (Eze 32:14). Then shall the differences,\nthe divisions and debates that are among the godly, cease: for\nmen 'shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion'\n(Isa 52:8): yea, the watchmen of God's people shall do so; for it\nis for want of light in them, that the lambs have so butted one\nanother.\n\nNow the church of God shall read with great plainness the depths\nof providence, and the turnings and windings of all God's dark and\nintricate dispensations, through which she hath waded in the cloudy\nand dark day: now, I say, they shall see there was an harmony in\nthem; and that if one of them had been wanting, the work and way\nof her deliverance could not have been so full of the wisdom,\nand justice, and goodness of God; Wherefore now will that song be\nsung with clearer notes than ever: 'Great and marvellous are thy\nworks, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king\nof Saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?\nfor thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship\nbefore thee; for thy judgments are made manifest' (Rev 15:3,4).\nAnd again, 'For true and righteous are his judgments: For he\nhath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her\nfornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her\nhand' (Rev 19:2).\n\nOF THE MANNER OF THE RUIN OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nWhat Antichrist is, I have told you; and that as to his soul and\nbody. I have also told you where, or in what things the spirit\nand life of Antichrist lieth, and how he shall reign for a time.\nI have moreover shewed you that he shall be destroyed, and by\nwhat, and that with reference both to his soul and body. Wherefore,\nwaving other things, I shall here only present you with a few short\nhints concerning the manner of his downfall.\n\nThere is the downfall, the time of the downfall, and the manner\nof the downfall of Antichrist.\n\nThe manner of the downfall of Antichrist, may be considered, either\nwith respect to the suddenness, unexpectedness, terribleness, or\nstrangeness thereof. It may also be considered with respect to the\nway of God's procedure with her, as to the gradualness thereof.\nAs to the suddenness thereof, 'tis said to be in an hour. It is\nalso to be, when by her unexpected; for then she saith, 'I sit\na queen' (Rev 18:7,8). For the terribleness of it, The nations\nshall shake at the sound of her fall (Eze 31:16,17). And for the\nstrangeness thereof, it shall be to the wonder of the world (Isa\n14:12), it will be as when God overthrew Sodom.\n\nBut I shall not enlarge upon this method in my discourse, but\nshall shew you the manner of the ruin of Antichrist, with respect\nto the gradualness thereof (Eze 16:36-43; Rev 18:8; Isa 47:9).\n\nAntichrist then shall be brought to ruin gradually; that is, by\ndegrees: A part after a part; here a fenced city, and there a high\ntower, even until she is made to lie even with the ground. And yet\nall shall be within the compass of God's days, hours, or moments;\nfor within the compass of these limited times Antichrist shall be\ndestroyed.9\n\nNow, (as I said) He, she, Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, Antichrist, shall\nbe destroyed, not all at once, after the way of our counting of\ntime; but by step after step, piece after piece. And perhaps there\nmay be in the words now following, something that signifies this:\nThey shall 'shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one\nend' (Jer 51:31). This is also shewed by the vessels in which is\ncontained the wrath of God for her, together with the manner of\npouring of it out. The vessels in which it is contained are called\nVIALS; Now a vial is that which letteth out what is contained in\nit by degrees, and not all at once.\n\nThere are also two things to be considered, as to the manner of\nits being poured out of them. The first respecteth the nature of\nthe vial. The other, the order of the angels that poured forth this\nwrath.\n\nFor the First: The vial, as it letteth out what is in it by degrees;\nso it doth it with certain gusts, that are mixed with strength and\nviolence, bolting it out with noise, &c.\n\nAs for the order of the angels, or that order that they observe,\nthey plainly shew that this enemy must come down by degrees; for\nthat these vials are by them poured out one after another, each one\nworking something of their own effects, before another is poured\nforth. The first is poured forth upon the antichristian earth: The\nsecond, upon her sea: The third is poured forth upon her rivers:\nAnd the fourth, upon her sun: The fifth is poured forth upon the\nseat of the beast: The sixth, upon her Euphrates: And the seventh,\ninto her air (Rev 16:2-17). And, I say, they are poured forth\nnot all at one time, but now one, and then another. Now, since by\nthese vials Antichrist must fall; and since also they are poured\nforth successively: 'Tis evident that this man of sin, this son\nof perdition, is to fall and die by degrees. He would not die at\nall, as is manifest by his wrestling with it; but he is a strong\nGod that judges, and therefore he must come down: His friends\nalso, with what cordials they can, will labour to lengthen out his\ntranquility; but God hath set his bounds, and he cannot go beyond\nthe time appointed.\n\nWe must also put a difference betwixt her being fought withal and\nwounded, and that of her dying the death. Michael and his angels\nhave been holding of her in play a long season; but yet she is\nnot dead (Rev 12): But, as I said, she shall descend in battle\nand perish, and shall be found no more for ever.\n\nA TENTH PART FALLS FIRST.\n\nTo speak then to the manner of the ruin of this Antichrist, with\nrespect to the gradualness thereof: It must piece after piece be\noverthrown, until at last every whit thereof is rolled down from\nthe rocks as a burnt mountain.\n\nAnd hence we read that this city falls first in a tenth part\nthereof, even while nine parts remain yet standing: Nor doth this\ntenth part, notwithstanding the faith and faithful testimony of the\ntwo witnesses, quite fall, until they are slain, and also raised\nagain: For 'tis said, The same hour that the witnesses were raised,\nthe tenth part of the city fell (Rev 11:13): The tenth part of\nthat city that reigneth over the kings of the earth, which city\nis Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, or the great whore (Rev 17:18).\n\nBy the city then, I understand the church of Antichrist in its\nutmost bounds; and so it reacheth as far as the beast with seven\nheads and ten horns hath dominion. Hence this city is also called\ncities, as one universe is called by the name of several countries,\n&c. And them cities also are called 'the cities of the nations'\n(Rev 16:19): For as when they are put together, they all make but\none; so when they are considered apart, they are found in number\nten, and answer to the ten horns upon the heads of the (seven\nheaded) beast that carries her, and do give her protection.\n\nThis then I take to be the meaning: That the antichristian church\nis divided into ten parts, and each part is put under one of the\nhorns of the beast for protection: But that aid and protection\nshall not help, when God shall come to execute judgment upon her:\nFor it saith, 'A tenth part of the city fell'; that is, first, and\nas a forerunner of the fall of all the rest: Now where this tenth\npart is, or which of the ten parts must fall first, or whether\nindeed a tenth part is already fallen, that I will leave to those\nthat are wiser than myself to determine.\n\nBut since I am speaking of the fall of a tenth part of Antichrist;\na word or two about the means of the fall thereof.\n\nThe means of the fall of this tenth part, is an earthquake; yet\nnot such as is universal, over the face of all, but an earthquake\nin that tenth part where that city stood that should fall. Now\nby earthquakes here, cannot be meant any thing but such a shaking\nas unsettleth the foundations of this tenth part: But whether it\nshall be in this tenth part as a city, or in it as a state, that\nI shall not determine; only my thoughts are, That it shall be\nan earthquake in that kingdom where this tenth part shall happen\nto be: An earthquake not to overthrow further than is appointed;\nand that is the city which is called the tenth part of the great\nAntichrist. So far as that state is a state, so far then it is\nshaken for reformation, not for destruction; for in the earthquake\nwere slain seven thousand (names of) men; and the remnant were\naffrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. But thus much for\nthe first: Great Babylon falleth first, in a tenth part of it.\n\nTHE NINE PARTS FALL.\n\nAgain, The next step that the strong God taketh towards the utter\noverthrow of Antichrist, will be more sore upon the whole, though\nnot at first universal neither, yet in conclusion, it shall throw\ndown the nine parts that are left: For thus it is recorded: 'And\nthe cities of the nations fell': The cities of the nations, the\nantichristian churches, otherwise called the daughters of the\nmother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.\n\nNow to shew you the hand of God in this second stroke, wherewith\nthe Lord will smite this enemy. 1. Here we have a great earthquake.\n\n2. And then, The fall of the cities of the nations.\n\nFor the earthquake, it is said to be such as never was, 'so mighty\nan earthquake, and so great' (Rev 16:18); for it extended itself\nas far as the other nine cities had any ground to stand on; for\nit shook the foundations of them all.\n\nThe fall of the cities, was not immediately upon the shake that was\nmade, but the earthquake produced an eruption, an eruption in the\nnine remaining parts of this city: And such an eruption as is of\nthe worser sort, for it divided them into a three-headed division:\n'And the great city was divided into three parts': the great city,\nto wit, the powers by which they were upheld. The meaning then is\nthis; when God shall strike this man of sin the second time, he\nwill not be so sparing as he was at first, when he struck but a\ntenth part to the ground; but now he will so shake, so confound,\nso divide, so raise up Antichrist against himself, to wit, in the\nbody and members of him, that they shall set to fighting, and to\ntearing one another in pieces, until they have consumed the whole\nof these nine parts. It was, saith the text, divided into three\nparts, which divisions are the worst of all: It will be therefore\nsuch a division as will bring them all to ruin. Hence it follows,\n'And the cities of the nations fell.'\n\nWherefore, this three-cornered eruption will be the most dreadful\nto Antichrist that ever was: It will be like that that was in\nJerusalem when she came to be laid even with the ground; and like\nthat that came upon the armies of the Gentiles, when they came up\nto fight against Jehoshaphat.\n\n'For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants\nof Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: And when they\nhad made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to\ndestroy another' (2 Chron 20:23). This, I say, is the division\nthat this mighty earthquake shall make betwixt the horns that are\nleft to these nine parts that remained, when the tenth part of\nthe city fell. And this will come to pass through the increase of\nthe heat of God's anger: For he is angry with the waters where\nthe woman sitteth, because they have delivered up his beloved to\nthe bloody whore; wherefore, he now will give them blood to drink\nin fury.\n\nHence his beginning to deal with Antichrist, is called, the\nbeginning of revenges: 'I will make [saith God] mine arrows drunk\nwith blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood\nof the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges\nupon the enemy' (Deu 32:42). And therefore it is said again, that\nwhen God comes to do this work upon this Antichrist, it is because\n'it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences\nfor the controversy of Zion' (Isa 34:8). 'For the day of vengeance\nis in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come' (Isa 63:4).\n\nA peace therefore cannot be made among these cities when God has\nforbidden it: Wherefore the effect of all, is, The cities of the\nnations fall. There is therefore like to be no more good days\nfor Antichrist after this earthquake has begun to shake her: No,\nnothing now is to be expected of her, but rumours, tumults, stirs,\nand uproars: 'One post shall run to meet another,--to shew the\nking of Babylon that his city is taken at one end': And again, 'A\nrumour shall both come one year; and after that in another year\nshall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against\nruler,' &c. (Jer 51:31,46). So that this earthquake has driven\naway peace, shaken the foundations, and will cast the nine cities\ndown to the ground.\n\nGREAT BABEL FALLS.\n\nAnd this is a second stroke that God will give this man of sin,\nand a third cometh quickly. Wherefore it follows upon the downfall\nof these cities of the nations, that 'great Babylon came into\nremembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of\nthe fierceness of his wrath.' Now then, have at great Babylon.\nGreat Babylon! What is that? Why, I take it to be the mother, the\nmetropolitan, the great whore herself: For though sometimes, by\nthe great whore, or great Babylon, we may understand, the church\nof Antichrist in general; yet by it is meant more properly, the\nmother of the daughters, of whose overthrow we have spoken before.\nWe are now then come to the threshold of the door of the house of\nthe OLD one; to the door of the mother of harlots, and abomination\nof the earth. This then that but now is said to come into remembrance\nwith God, is that which gave being to the cities destroyed before;\nto wit, the mistress, the queen, the mother-church, as she calleth\nherself.\n\nAnd this is the wisdom of God concerning her, that she should not\nbe the first that should die; but that she should live to see the\ndestruction of her daughters, and pine away under the sight and\nsense of that, even until judgment also shall overtake herself.\n\nThus Pharaoh and his chief ones did live to see the greatest part\nof Egypt destroyed before judgment overtook them, but at last it\ncame to their doors also.\n\nZedekiah lived to see his children slain before his face, before\njudgment overtook him to his own personal destruction (Jer 52:8-11).\n\nBabylon also, when God sent the cup of his fury unto her, yet was\nto live to see the nations drink before her: 'Take the wine cup\nof my fury [said God to the prophet,] and cause all the nations\nto whom I send thee, to drink it' (Jer 25:15). To wit, All the\nkingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. 'And\nSheshach shall drink after them' (verse 26). But what was Sheshach?\nmay some say. I answer, It was Babylon, the princess of the world,\nand at that time the head of all those nations (Dan 4:22), (as this\nqueen is now the mother of harlots). Wherefore, the same prophet,\nspeaking of the destruction of the same Sheshach, saith, 'How is\nSheshach taken? and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised!\nHow is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!' (Jer\n51:41).\n\nNow, if this was the method of God's proceeding with his enemies\nin the way of his judgments of old, why may we not suppose that\nhe will go the same way with his great enemy now: especially since\nthose judgments mentioned before, were executed upon those, which,\nin some things, were figures of the great whore. Besides, we read\nhere plainly, that when the cities of the nations were fallen,\ngreat Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give her to\ndrink of the cup.\n\nFrom all which I conclude, as I did before, that the mother, the\nmetropolitan, the lady of kingdoms, shall live to see her daughters\nexecuted before her face: After which she shall come into\nconsideration herself; for she must assuredly drink of the cup.10\n\nThis destruction therefore must be last, for the reasons urged\nbefore, and also because she most deserves the bottom of the cup.\nThe bottom is the dregs, the most bitter part, and that where the\nmost heat, and fiercest wrath of God doth lie (Psa 75:8): Wherefore,\nalthough you find that by the first earthquake a great slaughter\nwas made, and that a tenth part of the city fell; yet from\nthat judgment some did escape: 'And the remnant were affrighted,\nand gave glory to the God of heaven' (Rev 11:13). But now, this\nearthquake, by virtue of which the cities of the nations fall,\nand as an effect of which great Babylon is come into 'remembrance\nbefore God,' neither spares one of the daughters of this whore,\nnor any man that is a lover of them; but it so is seconded by a\n'hail-storm,' and that hail-storm worketh so in wrath, that not\none escapes by repentance. Every hail-stone was the weight of a\ntalent, which some say is six pounds above half an hundred weight:11By\nthis therefore God shews, that now his anger was wrought up to the\nheight. I know not wherewith so to compare these hail-stones, as\nwith the talent of lead that was laid over the mouth of the ephah,\nwhich was prepared to hold the woman, whose name was wickedness,\nthis very whore of Babylon: For that talent of lead was to keep\ndown this mistress, that she might get no more out of the ephah,\nand these hail-stone are to banish her out of the world (Zech\n5:5-11): Therefore it follows, that she must have the most heavy\njudgment, even the bottom of the cup.\n\n'And great Babylon came into remembrance before God.' To remember\nwith God, is to visit either with grace or wrath, God is said to\nremember Rachel, when he visited her with the blessing of a fruitful\nwomb (Gen 30:22). It is said also that God remembered Noah, when\nthe time came on that he was to be delivered from the flood (Gen\n8:1). Here also he is said to remember Babylon, that is, to visit\nher with his anger for the wickedness that she had committed: 'To\ngive unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.'\n\nNow then is the time of iniquity, when it will be come to the full;\nand now also is the time of God's anger, when it will be come to\nthe full: Now therefore must the murders (Rev 18:24), and thefts,\nand blasphemies, and fornications, &c., belonging to this mother\nof harlots, be recompensed to the full, to wit, with the dregs of\nthis cup: Yet since the hail-stones come by weight, and the wrath\ncomes by measure, (for so a talent and a cup imports) it follows,\nthat the Almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this\nanger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is\ndealing with this enemy: He has not passions, to carry him beyond\nrules of judgment; nor weakness, to cause him to fall short of\ndoing justice: Therefore he has (as was said) his judgments for\nher by weight, and his indignation by measure: But yet this weight\nand measure is not suited to her constitution, not with an intent\nto purge or refine her; but it is disposed according to the measure\nand nature of her iniquity, and comes to sweep her, as with the\nbesom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all\nthe earth.\n\nAnd thus I have shewed you the manner of the ruin of Antichrist;\nthat is, That it will be gradual, part after part, until the whole\nbe overthrown. And this truth may be applied both to the soul, as\nwell as to the body of Antichrist: For the soul, spirit, or life\nof Antichrist must also after this manner be destroyed. And hence\nit is said to be consumed, that is, by degrees: For to consume, is\nto destroy by degrees: Only this caution I would have the reader\nremember, That much of the soul of Antichrist may be destroyed,\nwhen none of her daughters are; and that the destruction of her\nspirit is a certain forerunner of the destruction of her body in\nthe manner that we have related.\n\nNow since she is dying, let us ring her passing-bell; for when she\nis dead, we that live to see it, intend to ring out.\n\n'For thus saith the Lord God; When I shall make thee a desolate\ncity, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring\nup the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; when I\nshall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with\nthe people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the\nearth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the\npit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land\nof the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no\nmore: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found\nagain, saith the Lord God' (Eze 26:19-21).\n\nOF THE SIGNS OF THE APPROACH OF THE DOWNFALL OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nHaving in the foregoing discourse spoken of Antichrist his ruin,\nand the manner thereof, I now come to speak of the signs of the\napproach of her destruction. And whether I shall hit right, as to\nthese, that I must leave to time to make manifest; and in the mean\nwhile to the wise in heart to judge.\n\nThat she shall fall, there is nothing more certain; and when she\nis fallen, that she never shall rise again, is also as firmly\ndecreed; yea, and shewed too by him that cast the millstone into\nthe sea, and said, 'Thus with violence shall that great city\nBabylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all' (Rev\n18:21). This is therefore her fate and destiny, from the mouth\nof the holy one; and is sealed up in the scriptures of truth, for\nthe comfort of the people that have been afflicted by her.\n\nTrue, the time of her fall is not certainly known by the saints, nor\nat all believed by her; wherefore, her plagues must come unlooked\nfor by her. And as to the saints, their guesses, as to the time of\nher ruin, must needs be conjectural and uncertain. For her part,\nshe shall say, and that when she stands where she must suddenly\nfall, 'I shall be a lady for ever' (Isa 47:7-9). And as to the\nsaints that would very willingly see her downfall, how often have\nthey been mistaken as to the set time thereof.\n\nNor have I been without thought, but that this mistake of the godly\nmay become a snare to Antichrist, and a trap to her upholders.\nFor what can be a greater judgment, or more effectually harden the\nhearts of the wicked, than for them to behold that the predictions,\nprophecies, expectation and hopes of their enemies (as to their\nruin) should quite (as to the time) be frustrate, and made void.\n\nMoses prophesied, and the people hoped that God would give Israel\n'the land of Canaan'; and yet the Canaanites beat them (Num 14:40;\nJosh 7:5-9).\n\nJeremiah prophesied that the enemy should come and take the city\n[of] Jerusalem; but because he came once, and went back without\ndoing it, how stout and hardened were the hearts of that people\nagainst all the rest of his prophetic sayings, as to such a thing\n(Jer 37). Now the error lay not in these prophets, but in the people's\nmistaking the times: and if mistakes do so much harden the heart\nof the wicked, what will they do to such of them who make it their\nbusiness to blind and harden their hearts against God, by abusing\nall truths? Surely, when men seek to harden their hearts by\nabusing of truth, they will do it to purpose, when they have also\nthe advantage of the weakness of their professed enemies to do\nit by: especially when their enemies shall say they speak by the\nword of the Lord, and time shall manifest it to be both a mistake\nand a falsehood.\n\nIt is to be bewailed, namely, the forwardness of some in this\nmatter, who have predicted concerning the time of the downfall of\nAntichrist, to the shame of them and their brethren: nor will the\nwrong that such by their boldness have done to the church of God,\nbe ever repaired by them nor their works. But the judgments of God\nare a great deep; and therefore who can tell, since the enemy of\nGod would not be convinced by the power of truth, and the virtuous\nlives of some, but that God might leave them to be snared, hardened\nand emboldened to run upon their unavoidable destruction, by the\nlies and lightness of others. They begin to vaunt it already, and\nto say, Where is the word of the Lord, as to this, let it come\nnow. But when Agag said, 'surely the bitterness of death is past,'\nthen was the time for him to be hewn in pieces (1 Sam 15:32,33).\nI shall not therefore meddle with the times and seasons which the\nFather hath put in his own power; no, though they as to Antichrist's\nruin are revealed; because by the Holy Ghost there is a challenge\nmade, notwithstanding the time is set, and by the word related to\nthe man of wisdom, to find it out if he can (Rev 13:18).\n\nIf Samson's riddle was so puzzling, what shall we think of this?\nand though the angel hath intimated, that this sealed matter shall\nbe opened towards the time of the end (Dan 12:9); yet 'tis evident,\nsome have either been so hasty, or presumed too much upon their\nown abilities: for I am sure they have missed the mark, hardened\nthe heart of the enemy, stumbled the weak, and shamed them that\nloved them.\n\nBut since the most high hath irreversibly determined her downfall\nalso, let us see if we can have better success in discoursing upon\nthe signs, than others have had who have meddled with the timing\nthereof.\n\nFIRST SIGN.\n\nFirst then. The downfall and ruin of Antichrist draws near, when the\nchurch and people of God are driven from all those hiding-places\nthat God has prepared for them in the wilderness. The church of\nGod, when the dragon did his worst, had an hiding-place prepared\nher of God, that she might not utterly be devoured by him; and so\nshall have till the time of his end shall come.\n\nOf this you read in the 12th of the Revelation, a place worthy to\nbe noted for this. But now, when the time of the ruin of Antichrist\ndraws on, then is the church deprived of her shelter, and laid\nopen, as one would think, to be utterly swallowed up for ever,\nhaving no more place in the wilderness, that is, among the nations,\nto hide herself from the face of the serpent. But how comes this\nto be a SIGN of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist? why thus.\nThe time of this beast's war with the church of God, and the time\nthat the church shall have an hiding-place in the wilderness, are\nboth of a length, the one continuing forty-two months, the other a\nthousand two hundred and threescore days. Now since the war that\nthis beast makes with the woman and her seed, and the woman's\nhiding-place in the wilderness from his face, are, for length of\ntime, the same; what hindereth but that when the woman and her\nseed can find no more shelter in the nations, the time that the\nbeast hath allotted him to make war against her, should be finished\nalso? when we therefore shall see that plots and conspiracies,\nthat designs for utter ruin, are laid against God's church all the\nworld over; and that none of the kings, princes, or mighty states\nof the world, will open their doors, or give them a city for refuge;\nthen is the ruin of Antichrist at hand: for Haman's plot, though\nthe most universal that ever yet was hatching, (being laid in an\nhundred twenty-seven provinces,) did but presage the deliverance\nand exaltation of the Jews, and the hanging of Haman and his\nsons: yea, and I take it, that the very day that this great enemy\nhad set for the utter overthrow of the church, God made the day\nin which their deliverance began, and that from whence it was\ncompleted; and I take that to be a type of this.\n\nThere is but one thing that I can think of that can give matter of\na shew of doubt about this thing; and that is, though the time of\nthis war against the saints, and that of the woman's shelter in the\nwilderness as to length, be one and the same; yet whether they did\ncommence together, and begin to take their rise, as men do that\nbegin to run a race? a word therefore to this. I suppose they did\ncommence much together; for else with whom should this beast make\nwar, and how should the church escape? Or, if the beast began\nhis war before the woman began to have a hiding-place, why was she\nnot swallowed up, since in the wilderness was her only place of\nshelter? Again, what needed the woman to have a place of shelter\nin the wilderness, when there was no war made against her? And\nyet this must be, if her thousand two hundred and threescore days,\nbegan before the beast's forty-two months: but they ended both\ntogether; for the beast could not kill the witnesses before they\nhad finished their testimony; which testimony of theirs lasted\nthis full time that the beast had granted him to make war with\nthem, to wit, one thousand two hundred and threescore days (Rev\n11:3): therefore their times went out together, as will be made\nappear, if you consider also that the witnesses were slain, by\nvirtue, not of the old, but of a new war levied against them; and\nthat, as it should seem, at the very time when her hiding-place\nwas taken from her; for then indeed, for a little season, will\nthe church of God be overcome, as I shall shew by and by.\n\nWherefore, let God's people consider and remember that when God's\nchurch is absolutely forlorn, and has no hiding-place any longer\nin the world, the kingdom of Antichrist will quickly begin to\ntumble. Nor is this the alone place from whence we may gather\nthese conclusions.\n\nThe time of Pharaoh's tyranny, of his life, and of the deliverance\nof the children of Israel, came out much together; as any will\ndiscern that shall consider the history of them (Gen 15:13).\n\nDavid, when Saul did sorely prosecute him, fled last into the\nwilderness to Achish the king of Gath, a Philistine, for shelter;\nand he gave him Ziklag for his refuge (1 Sam 27:5,6). And that\nplace so continued to David, 'till just about the time in which\nSaul must die; and then behold, David's Ziklag is burnt with fire,\nand himself stript naked of harbour! (1 Sam 30:1). But what matter!\nThe time of Saul's life, as well as of David's Ziklag, was now\nupon expiring; for within three or four days after, David became\nthe king of Israel (1 Sam 31:1-6).\n\nAnd thus also it was with the Babel-beast: His time expired, when\nthe captivity of Israel was upon the finishing: then was the time\nof his land come, and 'in that' very 'night was Belshazzar the\nking of the Chaldeans slain' (Dan 5:25-30).\n\nThus therefore it will happen to the church in the latter days:\nher place of shelter in the wilderness; her Ziklag will be taken\nfrom her, about the time that the war that the beast has to make\nupon the woman and her seed shall be finished. But now the church\nis not therefore immediately delivered, when her Ziklag is taken\nfrom her; for after that, the beast levieth a new war, to the\novercoming and killing of the church: I say therefore, that this\nis a sign, not of the downfall of Antichrist, but of the approach\nthereof: for the church's bondage shall continue but three days,\nand a little after this [shall be her deliverance]. Much like to\nthis was that of David; for after he had lost his Ziklag, for two\nor three days he had sore distress: but lo, then came the kingdom\nto him.\n\nIndeed, sense and reason saith, it is a fearful thing for the church\nof God to be exposed to the rage of her enemy all over the world\nat once; and that all nations should shut up their gates, let\ndown their portcullises, bolt up their doors, and set open their\nflood-gates to destroy them: but so will be the dispensation of\nGod, to the end deliverance may be the sweeter, and the enemies\nfall the more headlong, and the arm of God the more manifest,\nboth for the one, and against the other. And in this will that\nscripture be fulfilled: 'And there shall be a time of trouble,\nsuch as never was since there was a nation--and at that time thy\npeople shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written\nin the book' (Dan 12:1).\n\nLet us gather up what has been said again; namely, that it is a\nsign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist, when God's church\ncan find no more shelter in the wilderness; because when her Ziklag\nis burned, the time of the war that the beast is to make against\nher, is finished. Wherefore, when she hath given one desperate\nstruggle more, and laid the church of God, or his witnesses,\nfor dead, in the street of his great city, for three days and an\nhalf, then comes the kingdom, and the long, long-looked-for rest\nand glory. Wherefore it remains, that an angel should stand in\nthe sun, and make proclamation to all the fowls that fly in the\nmidst of heaven, to gather themselves together to the supper of\nthe great God: 'That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh\nof captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses,\nand of them that sit on them; and the flesh of all men, both free\nand bond, both small and great' (Rev 19:18). This is to be after\nthe forty-two months of the beast; and consequently, after the\nthousand two hundred and threescore days that the church was to\nbe in sackcloth; yea, after the resurrection of the witnesses, as\nis evident by that which follows: 'And the beast was taken, [that\nis, after the second year] and with him the false prophet that\nwrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that\nhad received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his\nimage. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with\nbrimstone' (verse 20).\n\nSECOND SIGN.\n\nSecondly, Another sign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist,\nis this: towards the end of her reign, the nations will be made\nto see her baseness, and to abhor her and her ways. They will, I\nsay, be made to see these things, in order to her ruin: also, when\nthey shall be made to see, her ruin will not be far off. For so\nlong as the nations and their rulers shall continue in that dead\nsleep that she hath bewitched them into, by their drinking of the\nwine of her fornication; so long we have no ground to think that\nher ruin is at the door: but when God shall lay her before kings,\nand shall discover her nakedness to the nations, then be sure her\ndestruction is at hand. Hence you read, that precedent to her\ndownfall: An angel comes down from heaven, and enlightens the earth\nwith his glory (Rev 10:1). [The earth;] that is, the kingdoms,\ncountries, and nations where the woman sitteth, or they that border\nthereupon. [Enlightened;] to let them see the filthiness of the\nwhore. [With his glory;] with the doctrine that he had commission\nto preach against her, for the discovering of her lewdness to\nthe earth. This also was the way that God took with backsliding\nIsrael of old, (and she was a type of our religious Babel) when\nhe intended to bring her to judgment for her sins (Eze 16:37);\nand this is the way that God will take to destroy our religious\nAntichrist, when he comes to deliver his people out of her hand.\n\nFor though the people that suffer at her hand, can do nothing\nagainst her, but lay, in prayers and tears against her before the\nGod of heaven, and bear their witness against her before the gods\nof the earth; yet when kings shall come to be concerned, and they\nwill count themselves concerned when they shall see how they have\nbeen deceived by her; then let her look to it. 'Behold, I am\nagainst thee, saith the Lord of Hosts; and I will discover thy\nskirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness,\nand the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon\nthee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock.'\nAnd what follows? 'And it shall come to pass, that all they that\nlook upon thee, shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid\nwaste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for\nthee?' (Nahum 3:5-7).\n\nWherefore, there wants nothing but that she be discovered to the\nnations and their kings; for did they but see her, though they lay\nyet in her bosom, they would rise up against her, that she must\ndie: wherefore it is written again, I will 'bring forth a fire from\nthe midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to\nashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee'\n(Eze 28:18).\n\nThe chief of the wisdom of Antichrist this day is laid out, if\nperhaps by it she may cover her nakedness, and keep it from the eyes\nof kings and their people. But God has said it shall not avail:\n'Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen:\nI will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man' (Isa\n47:3). But how will he make her naked? Verily, by kings. But how\nshall kings do it? Why, by virtue of the glory of the angel: yea,\nthey 'shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,\nand burn her with fire' (Rev 17:16).\n\nLet this, I pray, be considered, That Antichrist shall not down,\nbut by the hand of kings. The preacher then kills her soul, and the\nking kills her body. And why should not the kings have it granted\nunto them, that she should fall by their hand? the kings are those\nthat she has abused, that she has in the grossest manner abused,\nand has served herself of them: but the time of the end of\nAntichrist, mystery Babylon is coming, 'and then many nations and\ngreat kings shall serve themselves of him' (Jer 27:7).12\n\nNor shall all the tricks, lies, and deceit under which formerly\nshe used to shroud herself, be able to prove a balm to her any\nlonger: No, 'in vain shalt thou use many medicines'; for no cure\nshall be unto thee; 'the nations have heard of thy shame' (Jer\n46:11,12).\n\nBabylon has for a long time been 'a lady of kingdoms,' and\n'a golden cup in the Lord's hand': the nations also have largely\ndrank of her cup, and the kings have committed fornication with her\n(Rev 18:3). But now the angel is come down, and hath enlightened\nthe earth with his glory. Wherefore now it follows immediately,\n'Babylon is fallen! is fallen!' That is, in the eyes and esteem\nof the nations, as well as otherwise.\n\nTrue, some of the kings will bewail her fall, and will cry, Alas!\nAlas! when they see that they cannot help her; for that they shall\nsee, as is evident, because they stand afar off to lament her,\n'afar off for the fear of her torment.' The kings therefore into\nwhose hands God shall deliver her, and who shall execute his\njudgments upon her, shall be more mighty and powerful to bring her\ndown, than shall be the whole world besides to uphold her.\n\nThe Protestant Kings.\n\nAnd this observe further, That as the kings that shall hate her,\nshall hate her because in the light of the glory of the angel they\nare made able to see her filthiness; so the kings that shall bewail\nher, are such as in judgment are left in the dark, and that shall\nbe bewitched by her to the end. This therefore will let us see\nsomething of the meaning of God, in that he has drawn off from\nher some of the kings already; to wit, that he might train them\nup by the light of the gospel, that they may be expert, like men\nof war, to scale her walls, when the king of kings shall give out\nthe commandment to them so to do.\n\nThere has been a great deal of talk in the countries about the ruin\nand destruction of Babylon; but could we see more of the kings\nengaged against her, we should hope groundedly that her fall was\nat the door. Well, blessed be God for what kings there are, and\nthe Lord turn the hearts of many more to hate her.\n\nSome, as I said before, have adventured to foretell the time of\nher downfall; but give me the signs thereof. This therefore is a\nsign, a sign that her downfall approaches, when God shall lay her\nnakedness before the nations, and put it into the hearts of kings\nto abhor her. The signs of the times the Lord Jesus would have us\nmind; and because the Jews neglected them, though as to the time\nthey hit pretty right, yet they missed of the thing that the time\nbrought forth.\n\nTHIRD SIGN.\n\nThirdly, A third sign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist,\nis this: 'When Babylon is become the habitation of devils, &c.,'\nthen the downfall thereof is upon us. True, Babylon was always an\nhabitation for devils; but not an habitation only for them; Israel\nonce dwelt there, and our Antichrist was sometimes a place of\nresidence for good men. The meaning then, is, When you shall see\nthe church and people of God so forsake her that she is left in\na manner to herself, and to her disciples, then she is to fall\nquickly. When you hear it proclaimed by them that are yet in her,\nof God's people, 'We would have healed Babylon, but she is not\nhealed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country'\n(Jer 51:9): Then she will soon be hissed out of the world: for\nthis is the way of the wisdom of God; namely, to bring his people\nout of a city or place, when he intends the ruin of that place.\nWhen God was about to destroy the old world, he put his Noah into\nan ark: when God was about to destroy Sodom, he sent his Lot away\nthence to Zoar: when Christ was about to destroy Jerusalem, he bid\nhis disciples flee from the midst of that: and when there shall\nbe by God a hissing for his people; and when they shall hear him,\nand obey, and gather to him, then you shall see what will become\nof this enemy of Christ: 'I will hiss for them, and gather them;\nfor I have redeemed them' (Zech 10:8-12).\n\nI say therefore, when Babylon shall become the habitation of\ndevils, a hold for all foul spirits, and a cage for every unclean\nand hateful bird, then Babylon is fallen.\n\nAnd thus the angel that lightened the earth with his glory,\nproclaimed, 'Babylon the great is fallen! is fallen! and is become\nthe habitation of devils, and a hold for every foul spirit, and a\ncage for every unclean and hateful bird.' Wherefore it must be,\nthat by that her time is come that she should fall, God will have\ngleaned his people from the midst of her. And when God shall have\ngleaned his people from the midst of her, those that are left behind\nwill appear more than ever to be what they are, to wit, devils,\nfoul spirits, and hateful birds; wherefore, now will Antichrist\nappear in his own most proper colours.\n\nBut to comment a little upon the words.\n\nBabylon 'Mystery Babylon' (Rev 17:5). The antichristian church.\n\n'Is fallen! Is fallen!' In the eyes and faith of the godly, by\nher dropping into the dregs of degeneracy, and so is become the\nhabitation of devils, &c., in order to her falling into utter and\nunavoidable destruction for ever.\n\n'Is become.' That is, through the labour of the fanners and winnowers\nthat God hath sent to fan Babylon, and to fetch out his people,\nthat she might be left to her chaff: 'I will send [saith God to\nBabylon] fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land\n[of good men;] for in the day of trouble they shall be against\nher round about' (Jer 51:2).\n\n'An habitation of devils.' Devils: not such by nature, but by\npractice. Incarnate devils. For when the time is come that Babylon\nmust be destroyed, she shall be found to be an habitation for the\nmost vile of the sons of men. For as devils have acted towards the\nworld, so shall the sons of this sorceress, and this whore, act\ntowards Christ and his members in the latter days. And, perhaps,\nthe departing of Zion from the midst of her, will blow her up\ninto this spirit of devilism. Let God's people therefore, when\nAntichrist is towards her end, look for nothing from her, but what\nthe devil, in times past, used to do; to wit, all sinful subtilty,\nmalice, wrath, fraud, deceit, lying, murder, false accusings, and\nimplacable madness of spirit to do them mischief. (But Lord God!\nthink I, what will become of good men! and where will they be safe\nin such days? Only I comfort myself, by saying to myself again,\nthis a sign that the ruin of Antichrist is at the door.) But this\nI say, he must needs be a tuneable man, that shall be able in those\ndays to sing this song to himself at all seasons: for this is to\ndrive reason backward, and to set the cart before the horse. For\nwhat will the good man's reason say, when it seeth all Babylonians\nare become devils, but that the church of God will certainly\nbe torn in pieces? But behold! the text and the Holy Ghost runs\ncounter. 'Babylon is fallen! is fallen! and [or, for it] is become\nthe habitation of devils.' These words for certain are the words\nof an holy angel; for it could not have entered into the heart of\nmere man to have conceived them.\n\n'An habitation.' To be an habitation (for devils) is to be their\nhouse, their dwelling-place, their place of privilege, their place\nof rest and abode, or thither whither they have right to go.\nAnd thus will Babylon be; that is, an house, an habitation, a\ndwelling-place, and a place of rest, only for devilish-minded men;\nthither may such men come; for such her doors stand open, and\nthere may such inhabit. When therefore you see good men come out\nthence, and all sorts of wicked men flock in thither, then know\nthat Babylon is near her end.\n\n'And a hold for every foul spirit.' Understand by spirit, either\nthose that are devils by nature, or such as are such otherwise.\nBut I think that the angel chiefly intends all manner of unclean\nand filthy spirits; and so the church and members of Babylon, their\nonly place of safety: Or if you understand it of the uncleanness\nof the spirits and minds of men, then the meaning is, that they\nare called foul spirits, in allusion to those of devils which go\nby the same name (Mark 9:25). But however, or which way soever\ntaken, it seems Babylon is their hold; that is, their place of\ndefence: For by an hold, we often understand a place of strength,\na castle, a fort, a tower; so that these devils, these foul-spirited\nmen, these Babylonians, will not only find house-room and harbour\nin Babel, but shelter, defence and protection, when she is near\nher ruin: yea, they will find her an upholder to them, and a\ncountenancer of them, in all their foul and devilish pranks; yea,\nsuch an hold shall she be to such foul spirits in such foul acts,\nthat it shall not be possible that they should be driven from her,\nor from them: For an hold is often taken in the scriptures for a\nplace that is impregnable, and must be so taken here. This intimates\nthen, that some faint opposition by the kings and nations will be\nmade against these inhabiters, foul spirits, but to little purpose,\nuntil the time of her land shall come (Jer 27:7); for in their\nhold they still will be secured and defended from what reason,\nlaw and scripture can or would do unto them. Thus then we see how\nBabel, towards her end, will be filled, and with what, to wit,\nwith devils and foul spirits; yea, and that she will not only be\nan habitation, but a place of defence for such.\n\n'And a cage for every unclean and hateful bird.' Those that before\nare called devils, and foul spirits, are also here called 'birds,\nunclean and hateful beasts.' By the term [Birds,] he may allude\nto that of the prophet Isaiah, where these unclean birds are\nmentioned (34:11-17) And by cage, he may allude to the prophet\nJeremiah, from whom, as I think, the Holy Ghost takes those words;\nbut then we must put men in the place of birds, and the Babylonian\nkingdom for the cage (Jer 5:27).\n\n'Every unclean bird.' As was said before, a hold for every foul\nspirit. These unclean birds therefore are not all of one feather,\nor kind, but of all and every kind; and it intimates, that the\nworst act of all professions, shall be, as in a cage, in Babylon,\na little before her downfall. But I say, if they will not be all\nof one feather, yet in their temper they will somewhat agree,\nbeing either in shape, monstrous; of appetite, ravenous; or,\nof inclination, lovers of the night. For of all these sorts were\nthe forbidden, or unclean birds among the Jews. Now since these\nunclean birds are not all of one feather, or kind, it intimates\nthat the basest of all sorts, sects, professions and degrees, shall\ntake shelter in Babylon towards her end; and that they shall there,\nin their temper, unanimously agree to show themselves monstrous,\nto devour and eat up the poor and needy, and to blow out the light\nof the gospel.\n\n'A cage.' Not to imprison them in, but for them to sit and sing\nin, to confer their notes in, to make melodious music in; I mean,\nmelodious to their own thinking; for the ass thinks that he sings\nfull favouredly, and the owl endeavours to lift up her voice above\nall the birds of the wood: But it will be a prediction of her fall,\nand that her ruin is at the door.\n\nOf these birds Zephaniah speaks, when he prophecies of the downfall\nof Nineveh, saying, 'The cormorant and the bittern [shall] lodge in\nthe uppermost lintels of it, their voice shall sing in the windows;\n[when] desolation shall be in the thresholds' (Zeph 2:14). An\nunseasonable time to sing in; for when death is coming in at the\ndoor, mourning should be in the chambers. But this is the judgment\nof God, That she should be a cage for every unclean bird to sing\nin, even then when her destruction and desolation cometh upon her.\n\nTo sing, as in a cage, doth also denote security, and that the\nheart is far from fear; for she saith, 'I shall see no sorrow, in\nthat hour in which her judgment comes.'\n\nBut is this a sign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist? And\nmust those that shall live to see those days, rejoice when these\nthings begin to come to pass? Are not these things rather a sign\nthat the utter overthrow of the church of God is at the door?\nIndeed, to sense it is, and reason will be apt to say so: But hark\nwhat the Holy Ghost saith! 'She is fallen! is fallen now!'\n\nWhen therefore we shall see men like devils; yea, every foul spirit,\nand hateful bird, flock to, and take shelter in Babylon; let us\nnot be frighted or dejected, but pluck up our hearts, and say,\nThis is one of the signs that the downfall of Babylon is near.\nWherefore it follows, after that the prophet had told us that these\nbirds should dwell in the land of the people of God's curse (Isa\n34). That 'the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad\nfor them; [for that they are there] and the desert shall rejoice,\nand blossom as the rose: It shall blossom, [saith he] abundantly,\nand rejoice even with joy and singing: The glory of Lebanon shall\nbe given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall\nsee the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.' And\nto support the weak from those fears that in those days will be\npulling of them down, he adds, 'Strengthen ye the weak hands, and\nconfirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart,\nBe strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance,\neven God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the\neyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall\nbe unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the\ntongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break\nout, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become\na pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: In the habitation\nof dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.\nAnd an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called,\nThe way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it\nshall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err\ntherein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go\nup thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall\nwalk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to\nZion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: They shall\nobtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away'\n(Isa 35).\n\nWhat say ye now, ye sons of God! Will you learn to make a judgment\nof things according to the mystery of the wisdom of God, or will\nye longer conclude according to sense and reason: 'He turneth\nthe shadow of death into the morning' (Amos 5:8). And commands\noft-times, that the fairest day should succeed the foulest night.\nWherefore, when we see these devils, foul spirits, and unclean birds\nin Babylon; yea, when we see good men leave her, and the vilest\nrun in to her, then let us sing the angels' song, and say, 'Babylon\nthe great is fallen! is fallen! and is become the habitation of\ndevils, and a hold for every foul spirit, and a cage for every\nunclean and hateful bird.'\n\nFOURTH SIGN.\n\nFourthly, another sign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist,\nis, 'The Slaying of the Witnesses': For the witnesses are to be\nslain before the fall of Antichrist; and that by the hand of the\nbeast, who shall manage the members of Antichrist, having qualified\nthem before that work, with those qualifications of which you\nread in the sign foregoing. For what can better fit a generation\nfor such a work, than to be themselves all turned devils, and\nalso succourers of all foul spirits. Wherefore, they must be the\nwickedest of men that shall do this: the very scum of the nations,\nand the very vilest of people. Nor is this a new notion: God\nthreatened to give his sanctuary 'into the hands of strangers for\na prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil' (Eze 7:21);\nTo robbers, burglars, and they should defile it (verse 22). Again,\nsaith God of his people, 'I will bring the worst of the heathen,\nand they shall possess their houses' (verse 24). For the truth\nis, this work is too bad for men either of reason or conscience\nto be found in the practice of. The hangman is usually none of\nthe best: The witnesses are also to be slain; but not a man, but\na beast must slay them; 'a den of thieves, a hold of foul spirits,'\nmust do it.\n\nThat the witnesses must be slain before the fall of Babylon, has\nbeen hinted already. Also, that their death is a forerunner of\nthe ruin of Antichrist, has before been touched upon; but in this\nplace I shall a little enlarge.\n\nAnd therefore I proceed: 'And when they shall have finished their\ntestimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit\nshall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill\nthem. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great\ncity, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also\nour Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds and\ntongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and\nan half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into\ngraves.' 'And after three days and an half, the spirit of life\nfrom God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and\ngreat fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great\nvoice from heaven, saying unto them, Come up hither: And they\nascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them'\n(Rev 11:7-12).\n\nThus you see their death is before their deliverance. Also their\ndeath is to be by the hand of the beast; to wit by the men that\nhave and hold his mark, and that of his image, and that are of the\nnumber of his name. You see also that their death is not only a\nforerunner of their deliverance, but a sign that their deliverance\nis at the door; since the one is but three days and an half before\nthe other.\n\nAnd if a short comment upon this text will give a little light to\nthe reader, I shall not count my labour lost.\n\nAnd when they shall have finished their testimony, when, or about\nthe time they have done their work of witness-bearing for God\nin the world: When they have made or are making an end of giving\ntheir testimony for Christ, and against the witchcrafts, idolatries,\nsorceries, fornications, thefts, murders, and wickedness of\nAntichrist: Then and not till then.\n\n'The beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit.' The beast:\nThe power that carrieth and beareth up Antichrist, the mother of\nharlots: The beast upon which the woman sitteth, and by the heads\nand horns of which she is protected and defended; he is said to\nascend out of the bottomless pit; for that he manifesteth by his\ndoings, that he was born there, and came to [do] the work of the\nking thereof.\n\n'Shall make war against them.' We read that he made war against them\nall the time of their prophesying in sackcloth, while they were\nbearing their testimony against his doing; and that his commission\nwas, That he should have leave to make war so long (Rev 12:6). But\nhere we read again, that when they had finished their testimony,\nand so consequently he had run out the time of his first commission\nfor war, he makes war again. So that this war which now he raiseth\nagainst them, seems to be another, a new war, and such as is\ngrounded upon other, to wit, new arguments, besides those upon\nwhich his first war stood. By his first war, he sought to beat down\nand overthrow their testimony (Rev 13:4). By this war he seeketh\nto overthrow themselves. The first war he made, was grounded upon a\nvain confidence of his ability to destroy their faith; but this\nlast was grounded upon madness against them, because their testimony\nhad prevailed against him: Wherefore, Torment, wherewith these\nwitnesses by their testimony tormented him and his followers, was\nthe cause of this last war. And this is insinuated when he saith,\n'They make merry for their victory over them, because these two\nprophets,' (to wit, by their testimony,) 'tormented them that\ndwelt on the earth' (Rev 11:10).\n\nThe beast therefore will make a war against the witnesses all the\ntime of their prophesying in sackcloth, which will be a thousand\ntwo hundred and threescore days (Rev 12:6). In all which time\nthey shall give him the foil, and overcome him by their faith and\ntestimony; and be proclaimed more than conquerors over him, through\nthe Christ that loved them. But now in this second war he overcomes\nthem, 'he overcomes them, and kills them.'\n\nJezebel for a long time made war against Elias the prophet,\nseeking to overthrow the worship of God which he maintained, and\nto establish the religion of Baal: But when she saw that by all\nshe could do she got nothing, but that the prophet got the day of\nher worship, priests and worshippers (1 Kings 18:30-40), she breaks\nout into a rage, as one tormented almost to death, and raises a new\nwar; not now against his religion, but his person, and desperately\nswears by all the gods that she had, That by tomorrow that time\nthe life of the prophet should be as the life of one of her priests\nwhom he had slain for an idolater (1 Kings 19:2). When the devil\nsees that he cannot do by argument, he will try if he can by blows.\n\nWhen Zedekiah, the son of Chenanah, saw that with argument he\ncould not overcome Micaiah, he steps to him, and takes him a box\nof the ear (1 Kings 22:24). This new war, is a box of the ear which\nthe beast will give the witnesses, because they overcame him by\ntheir faith and testimony, all the time that the first war lasted.\n\nNow how long this second war will last, and what strugglings the\nwitnesses will make before he shall overcome them, I know not:\nThis I know, that the text saith, 'by this war he shall overcome\nthem.'\n\n'And shall overcome them.' Saints are not said to be overcome,\nwhen they are imprisoned, banished, and killed for their faithful\ntestimony: No, by these things they overcome. To overcome then,\nis to get the mastery, to subdue, to turn out of possession, to\ntake and hold captive, to strip the subdued of power and privilege,\nas is sufficiently manifest both by scripture and reason: 'For of\nwhom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought in bondage' (2\nPeter 2:19).\n\nSo then, when he is said to overcome them, it is meant, he shall\nget the mastery of them, they shall grow faint before him, have no\nheart or spirit to bear up in their profession against him: Against\nhim, I say, as she did the thousand two hundred and threescore\ndays' war with him; for then they were overcomers, and did bear\naway the garland.\n\nNor do I, for my part, wonder at this, when I consider that these\nwitnesses are a succession of good men; and that when Israel came\nout of Egypt of old, the feeble and weak-handed did come behind\n(Deu 25:17-19). It will be the lot therefore of the church, in\nthe latter end of the reign of the beast, to be feeble and weak in\ntheir profession, the valiant ones having gone before: These will\ncome, when those that were able have bravely borne their testimony,\nor when they are upon finishing of that: In comparison of whom,\nthey that come after will be but like eggs to the cocks of the\ngame: wherefore they must needs be crushed, cowed, and overcome.\nAnd then will the beast boast himself, as did his type of old,\nand say, 'My hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people:\nand as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the\nearth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth,\nor peeped' (Isa 10:14).\n\nA sad time, and it is to happen to the people that are left, to the\nlatter end of the witness-bearers; and that too when they shall\nhave finished their testimony.\n\nOf this tyranny the cruelty of Amalek was a type; who, as was hinted\nbefore, smote the hindermost, the weak: But his judgment is, That\n'he shall perish for ever.'\n\n'And shall overcome them.' There are two ways of overcoming; to\nwit, by power and policy: And perhaps by both these ways they may\nbe overcome. However, overcome they shall be; for so saith the\nholy word of God; yea, the beast shall overcome them. Wherefore\nthe church of God, at that day, will be under such a cloud as she\nnever was since Christ's day. Now how long they shall thus be held\ncaptive before they are brought to execution; whether the beast\nwill ride in triumph while they are in his bonds; or whether he\nwill suddenly kill them; that time, and observation, and experience,\nmust make manifest: But kill them he shall, that's most certain,\nfor so says the Holy Ghost.\n\n'And shall overcome them, and kill them.' In this method therefore\nGod will suffer the beast to proceed with the church of God, after\nshe has sufficiently borne her testimony for him in the world. He\nshall 'war against them,' but that is not all: He shall overcome\nthem, but that is not all; he 'shall overcome them, and kill them.'\n\n'And kill them.' Of their slaughter also I shall speak a word or\ntwo. But first I would note, as all know, that there is a difference\nto be put betwixt killing and overcoming: For though every one\nthat is killed, is overcome: yet every one that is overcome, is\nnot killed (Acts 21:32): men may be overcome, and yet live (Jer\n12:11); but when they are killed, it is otherwise: There may be a\ncry heard from the mouth of them that are overcome, but not from\nthe mouth of them that are killed (Exo 32:18; Acts 7:34): They that\nare overcome, may consult their own enlargement, and deliverance;\nbut they that are killed, cannot do so. I do therefore distinguish\nbetween killed and overcome, because the text doth so: 'He shall\nmake war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.'\n\n'And kill them.' From these words therefore I will take occasion\nto inquire,\n\n1. How they are to be considered as to this slaughter.\n\n2. What death they must die to accomplish this prophecy.\n\nFIRST, How they are to be considered?\n\nI answer: Not in a carnal or natural, but in a mystical sense. For,\nfirst, they are called witnesses. Secondly, They are put under the\nnumber of two: 'My two witnesses' (Rev 11:3). Both which are to\nbe mystically taken.\n\nFirst, Because their testimony standeth not in their words only,\nbut in their conversation; yea, in their suffering also: and that\nis a mystical witness-bearing.\n\nSecondly, They go under the number of two: Not because there were\nindeed two such men in the world, but because two are a sufficient\nnumber to bear witness (Num 35:30; Deu 17:6; 19:15); and God's\nchurch, in the most furious heat and rage of Antichrist, has\nbeen at least of such a number of professing saints, to proclaim\nagainst the beast and his worship in the name of God. To think\nthat there have been two such men in the world, is ridiculous;\nfor these witnesses must continue to give their testimony for God\nagainst Antichrist, a thousand two hundred and threescore years.\nNor can they scripturally bear this title, My two witnesses, but\nwith respect to their prophesying so long. The witnesses therefore\nare nothing else but a successive church, or the congregation of\nGod abiding for him against Antichrist, by reason of a continual\nsuccession of men that is joined by the special blessing of God\nunto it.\n\nSECONDLY, What death they must die? I answer, Not a corporeal one,\nbut that which is mystically such. And I choose to understand it\nthus, because this suiteth best with their state and condition,\nwhich is mystical. Besides, thus did they (when they did overcome,)\nslay their enemies, even with the fire or sword of their mouth:\n'If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth,\nand devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he\nmust in this manner be killed' (Rev 11:5). As therefore they went\nabout to kill their enemies, so their enemies will kill them: But\nthey sought to kill their enemies by their testimony, as to their\nantichristian spirit, and church-state; and their enemies will\nkill them, as to their Christian heat and fervency of mind; and\nalso as to their Christian church-state. So that, (at least so\nI think,) there will be such ruins brought both upon the spirit\nof Christianity, and the true Christian church-state, before this\nAntichrist is destroyed, that there will for a time scarce be\nfound a Christian spirit, or a true visible living church of Christ\nin the world: Nothing but the dead bodies of these will be to be\nseen of the nations; nor them neither, otherwise than as so many\nruinous heaps. For the love that I bear to the church of Christ,\nI wish, as to this, I may prove a false prophet: But this looks\nso like the text, and also so like the dispensations of God with\nhis church of old, that I cannot but think it will be so. For the\ntext, I have spoken to that already; wherefore I will now present\nyou with some things that look like parallel cases.\n\nFirst, When the church was coming out of Egypt, just before they\nwere delivered from Pharaoh, they were in their own eyes, and\nin the eyes of their enemies, none other than dead: 'It had been\nbetter [said they to Moses] for us to serve the Egyptians, than\nthat we should die in the wilderness' (Exo 14:12). The people\nsaid so, Moses feared, and Pharaoh concluded they were all dead\nmen (Exo 12:33). Also Paul tells us, 'that they were baptized\n[that is, buried] unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea.' They\nwere, for the time, to use the expression, a dead church both in\nthe eyes of Pharaoh, in the eyes of Moses, and also in their own.\n\nAnd 'tis to be taken notice of: As the witnesses in the text were\nslain but a little before the ruin of Antichrist began; so this\nchurch was baptized in the sea but a little before great Pharaoh\nwas drowned there.\n\nSecondly, In the time of Elias, which time also was typical of\nthis, what church was there to be seen in Israel? None but what\nwas under ground, buried in dens, and in caves of the earth: Yea,\nthe prophet could see none, and therefore he cried to God, and\nsaid, Lord, they have 'digged down thine altars,' and slain thy\nprophets, 'and I am left alone, and they seek my life' (1 Kings\n19:14; Rom 11:3). What visible living church was now in the land,\nI mean, either with reference to a godly spirit for it, or the\nform and constitution of it? What was, was known to God, but dead\nto every man alive.\n\nThirdly, What was the dry bones that we read of in the 37th\nof Ezekiel, but the church of God, and also a figure of what we\nare treating of? And why called dry bones, since the people were\nalive, with their substance, wives, and children; but to shew, that\nthat church of God was now, as to their spirit and church-state,\naccounted as dead, not only by themselves, but by the king of\nBabylon, and the nations round about? Babylon then was the valley,\nand the grave; and the church of God were the bones: Bones without\nflesh, sinews, or skin; bones exceeding dry; yea so dry and dead\nwere they, that the prophet himself could not tell whether ever\nthey should live again (Eze 37:1-3).\n\nNow this, as I said, was a state that was not to end with the church\nof Israel, but to be acted over once again by the beast with the\nchurch of the new testament: Yea, it is an easy matter to make\ntheir witnesses in this their death, and the church of Israel in\nthis their grave, in many things to symbolize.\n\nFourthly, Take another instance, or rather comparison, into which\nthe church of God compared herself, when under the king of Babylon's\ntyranny: And that is, she counted herself as the dung that the\nbeast lets fall to the ground from behind him. And doth this look\nlike a visible church-state? Or has it the smell or savour of such\na thing? Nebuchadnezzar (said she) 'hath swallowed me up like a\ndragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast\nme out' (Jer 51:34). Pray, what would you think of a man, of whom\none should tell you, That he was eaten up of a dragon; made to\nfill the belly of a dragon; and cast out as the dung of a dragon?\nWould you think that such an one did all this while retain the\nshape, form, or similitude of a man? Why, thus the church said she\nwas, and thus the church shall be again: For she is once more to\nbe overcome, to be overcome and killed; and that by the beast,\nthe dragon's whelp, of which the king of Babylon was a type. And\ntherefore I conclude the premises; that is, That the beast will kill\nthe church that shall be in the latter days, as to her Christian\nspiritedness, and her church-state. And I could further add, That\nif we hold they die corporeally, we must conclude, that their\nnatural body being slain, shall lie three years and an half in\nthe street; yea, that their resurrection shall be corporeal, &c.\nBut why we should think thus, as yet I can see no reason, since the\npersons are such mystically; the beast mystically so; the street\nin which they be, mystically such; and the days of their unburied\nstate, to be taken mystically likewise. But we will pass this,\nand descend to other things.\n\nFifthly, I will yet add another thing. When Israel was coming out\nof Babylon; yea, while they were building of the temple of God,\nwhich was a figure of our church-state now under the Gospel; they\nwere not only troubled, hindered and molested in their work, but\nwere made for a time to cease, and let the work lie still.\n\n'Now [says the text] when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter\n[which he sent to forbid the Jews in their work] was read before\nRehum and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went\nup in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by\nforce and power. Then ceased the work of the house of God which\nis at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign\nof Darius king of Persia' (Ezra 4:23,24).\n\nAnd I pray, since their temple-worship was a type of a new testament\nchurch-state and worship, what doth their causing of that work to\ncease signify to us, but that we must have a time also to cease as\nthey? And since their temple-work was caused to cease before the\nhouse was finished, what face could there be at present thereupon,\nbut that, to look to, it was like some deformed, battered, broken\nbuilding, or as such an one that was begun by foolish builders?\nYea, and since the Jews left off to build God's house at the\ncommand of the heathens, what did that bespeak, but that they had\nlost their spirit, were quashed, and so as to their temple-work,\nkilled, as it were, to all intents and purposes? And thus it will\nbe, a little before the church of God shall be set free from the\nbeast, and all his angels: For these things were writ for our\nadmonition, to show us what shall be done hereafter; yea, and\nwhether we believe or disbelieve hereabout, time will bring it to\npass.\n\nI do not question but many good men have writ more largely of\nthis matter: but as I have not seen their books, so I walk not by\ntheir rules. If I mistake, the mistakes are only mine; and if I\nshall merit shame, I alone must bear it.\n\nSome may think they have said enough, when they assert, that for\nthe witnesses to be killed, is, To be dead in law. But I answer,\nThat is not to be overcome. They are here said to be overcome;\nand that is more than to be dead in law: For a man may be dead in\nlaw, and yet not be overcome; and if so, then far enough off from\nbeing killed. So then, for as much as they are said to be overcome\nand killed, it must be more than to be dead in law. Besides, the\ntext supposeth that they had yielded up, as dying men do, their\nsouls, their spirit of life into the hands of God: For it saith\nconcerning them, That at their resurrection, the spirit of life\nfrom God entered again into them: Into them, antecedent thereunto.\n'and after three days and an half the spirit of life from God\nentered into them, and they stood upon their feet' (Rev 11:11).\nthus it was concerning the dry bones, of which mention was made\nbefore: 'Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy,\nson of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come\nfrom the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that\nthey may live' (Eze 37:9). And thus much concerning their killing.\n\nNow, as I said, since in death, the body doth not only lie dead,\nbut the spirit of life departs therefrom; it is to shew, that not\nonly their bodies, their church-state, shall die, [for churches\nare called bodies, (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 3:6; 4:12; 5:23; Col 1:18)]\nbut that spirit of life that acted those bodies, shall be taken\nup to God. There shall, for a time, be no living visible church\nof Christ in the world: A church, but no living church, as to\nchurch-state: A church in ruins, but not a church in order: Even\nas there was once a Christ, but no living Christ in the grave; yet\nthe gates of hell shall not prevail to an utter overthrow thereof,\nno more than they prevailed to an utter overthrow of Christ; but\nas one did, so shall the other, revive, and rise again, to the utter\nconfusion and destruction of their enemies: Yea, and as Christ,\nafter his resurrection, was, as to this body, more glorious than\nhe was before; so the witnesses, after their resurrection, shall\nbe more spiritual, heavenly, and exact in all their ways, than they\nwere before they were killed. Resurrections are always attended\nwith new additions of glory; and so shall the church of God, as\nto her church-state, be in the latter days.\n\nBut yet the beast shall not altogether have his will, (if that at\nall was his will) that these witnesses, in this second war, should\nbe conquered to a compliance with Antichrist in his foolish and\nvain religion: For it is not with dead men to comply; but as they\nare dead to their own church-state, so they are to his. When the\nJews had killed Christ, it was beyond all the art of hell to cause\nthat his body should see corruption; so when the beast has killed\nthe witnesses, he shall not be able to corrupt them with any of\nhis vices.\n\nHence you find, that not the witnesses, but the dwellers upon the\nearth were them that danced after the devil's pipe, when he had\nfulfilled their murder.\n\nNor doth this murder, as to the fulfilling of it in those nations\nwhere the woman sitteth, seem to be a great way off, if all be true\nthat from foreign parts some have said: For what a withdrawing of\nGod and of his Spirit is there already in some of the churches of\nGod! The word worketh not that sound repentance which it was wont\nto do: Preachers preach for little, but to spend themselves, as\nmen that are wounded do when with groans they let out their life.\nWhere (say some) is the spirit and life of communion? And where\nthat practical holiness that formerly used to be seen in the\nhouses, lives and conversations of professors? The whole head is\nsick, and the whole heart faint already; and how long will it be\nbefore churches die of the wound that the beast has given them,\ntime must make appear: But die I perceive they must; for if the\nwound already given will not kill, repeated blows shall.\n\nBy all that I have said, I do not deny but that many of the people\nof God may die corporeally, by the hand of the beast, in this second\nwar that shall be made by him against the witnesses. But should\nas many more die, that will not prove that that death will be that\nthat by the killing of the witnesses is intended.\n\nSome thing I would bestow upon the reader, for him to carry with\nhim as a memorandum, while he reads this account of things: As,\n\nFirst, This victory of the beast, is not to be until the witnesses\nhave finished their testimony; and so by all that he shall do, he\nshall not hinder the revelation of any of the truths that they\neither were to bring to light, or to confirm by their witness-bearing.\n\nWitnesses are not always bound to speak: There is a time 'to keep\nsilence' (Eccl 3:7), and 'thou shalt be dumb' (Eze 3:26). But how\nshall we know when this time is come?\n\n1. When a sufficient testimony has been given for Christ, and\nagainst Antichrist, before the God of heaven; for he must be the\njudge.\n\n2. When her enemies forbear to plead against her by argument, and\nrather betake themselves to blows (Matt 10:19).\n\n3. When the spirit of testimony-bearing is taken from the church;\nfor that is not essential to Christianity, but is given and taken\naway as there is occasion.\n\n4. When testimony-bearing becomes a vain or needless repetition,\nwhen they have heard sufficiently of things before (John 9:27).\n\nSecondly, This victory of the beast shall not invalidate or weaken\ntheir testimony; no, not in the eyes of the world; for they will\nstill remember, and have a reverence for it: This is intimated\nby this, That 'they of the people and kindreds and tongues and\nnations--(that are neither the witnesses, nor they that in the\nnext verse are called the inhabiters, or they that dwell upon the\nearth,)--shall not suffer their dead bodies to be (buried, or be)\nput in graves' (Rev 11:9).\n\nThirdly, This shall not lengthen the reign and tranquility of the\nantichristian kingdom; nor frustrate, drive back (or cause to tarry)\nthe glorious freedom and liberty of the saints. But some may say,\nThis will be a SAD day.\n\nSo it will, and gloomy; but it will be but short, and 'the righteous\nshall have dominion over them next morning.' 'Twill last but three\ndays and an half; nor shall it come, but for the sins of churches\nand saints, and to hasten the downfall of the kingdom of the beast,\nand for the sweetening to the church her future mercies. Christ\nJesus, our Lord, in answer to the question of his disciples, about\nthe destruction of Jerusalem, presented them with a relation of\nmany sad things; but when he was come even to the hearts of men,\nand had told them 'that they should fail for fear': He said,\n'when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift\nup your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh' (Luke 21:25-28).\n\n'Tis as ordinary as for the light to shine, for God to make black\nand dismal dispensations, to usher in bright and pleasing [ones];\nyea, and the more frightful that is which goes before, the more\ncomforting is that which follows after. Instances in abundance\nmight be given as to this, but at present let this suffice that is\nhere upon the paper before us; namely, the state of the witnesses,\nwith their glorious resurrection.\n\nFIFTH SIGN.\n\nFifthly, Another sign of the approach of the ruin of Antichrist,\nwill be this: The great joy that will be in her, and among her\ndisciples, when they shall see that the witnesses are slain, and\nlie dead upon the spot: 'And they that dwell upon the earth shall\nrejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to\nanother; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on\nthe earth' (Rev 11:10). Babylon has been always a merry city, and\nher disciples merry men; but the poor church of Christ has been\nsolitary, and as a wife forsaken; her tears upon her cheeks bear\nher witness, and so doth her sackcloth-weed.\n\nHence our Babylon, under the name of Nineveh, is called, 'the\nrejoicing city' (Zeph 2:15). Only her joy is distinguished from\nthat which is the joy of God's people, by these two things.\n\nFirst, Either she rejoiceth in outward and carnal glory, or else\nin the ruin of the church of God. This last, to wit, the supposed\nruin of the church of God, is that which will be now the cause of\nher glorying. And this is the joy that God complaineth of, and for\nthe which he said that he would punish Babylon: 'Chaldea shall be\na spoil: All that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord.\nBecause ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of\nmine heritage,' &c. (Jer 50:10,11). The joy therefore of Babylon,\nAntichrist; the joy that she shall conceive in her heart upon the\nslaughter of the witnesses, is a sure sign of her unavoidable ruin\nand destruction. These two prophets tormented her; they were to\nBabylon as Mordecai was to Haman, a continual plague and eye-sore:\nAs also was David to the wretched Saul: But now they are overcome,\nnow they are killed; now she rejoiceth, and maketh merry. And this\nher joy was of old prefigured by them that in her spirit have gone\nbefore her: As, First, When the Philistines had, as they thought,\nfor ever overcome Samson, that Nazarite of God, how joyful were\nthey of the victory! 'Then the lords of the Philistines gathered\nthem together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god,\nand to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our\nenemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, [saw him in chains]\nThey praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into\nour hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew\nmany of us' (Judg 16:23,24). Poor Samson! While thou hadst thy\nlocks, thy liberty, and thine eyes, thou didst shake the pillar\nthat did bear up their kingdom! But now they have conquered thee,\nhow great is their joy! How great is their joy, and how near their\ndownfall! This therefore is a joy that is like that we have under\nconsideration, to wit, the joy of them that dwell upon the earth;\nfor that the witnesses that did bear up the name of God in the\nworld, were overcome and killed.\n\nSecondly, Like to this, is that which you read of in the first\nbook of Samuel, concerning the men that had burnt David's Ziklag.\nZiklag was poor David's place of safety; nor had he any else but\nthat under the whole heaven: But the children of the east came upon\nit, and took it; set it on fire, and carried thence all David's\nsubstance, with his wives and his children. (Very ill done to a\nman in affliction; to a man that went always in fear of his life,\nbecause of the rage of his master Saul.) But how were they that had\ngot the victory? Oh! joyful, and glad, and merry at heart at the\nthoughts of the richness of the booty? 'Behold, they were spread\nabroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because\nof all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the\nPhilistines (from Ziklag) and out of the land of Judah' (1 Sam\n30:16). Here again you find a joy and merriment like these that\nwe have under consideration, and that upon such like accounts.\nNothing pleases the wicked more, than to see the godly go down the\nwind; for their words, and lives, and actions are a plague and a\ntorment to them: As 'tis said of these two prophets, 'They tormented\nthem that dwelt on the earth.'\n\nThirdly, While the church of God lay dead in Babylon, and as bones\nexceeding dry; what a trampling upon them was there by Belshazzar\na little before his death! He called for his golden and silver\nvessels that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple\nof God that was at Jerusalem, (those holy vessels once dedicated\nto the worship and service of God) that his princes, his wives\nand his concubines might drink therein. An high affront to heaven:\n'They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of\nbrass, of iron, of wood, and of stone' (Dan 5:4). And all to shew\nwhat a conquest, as he thought, he had got over the God of heaven,\nand over his people that dwelt in Jerusalem, and over his ordinances\nand vessels used in his worship and service: Yea, this he did\nwith such joy that was not usual, as is intimated by his doing of\nit before 'a thousand of his lords,' and that till he had drank\nhimself drunken. But all this while, as was hinted before, the\nchurch of God, as it were, lay dead at his feet; or as the phrase\nis, 'as bones exceeding dry.' This too will be the joy of the\nbeast and his followers in the latter days; they will make war\nwith the witnesses; they shall overcome them, and kill them; and\nwhen that is done, they shall rejoice over them, and make merry.\nBut as Belshazzar soon after this, saw the handwriting that made\nhis knees knock together; and as he lived not to see the light of\nanother day; so 'twill be with the beast and his followers; the\nnext news that we hear upon this mirth and jollity, is, the tenth\npart of his kingdom falls, and so on till the whole is ruined.\n\nThirdly, Moab also, in the day that Israel was taken captive by\ntheir enemies, could not forbear but skip for joy, so glad was he\nin his heart thereat. But what saith the jealous Lord? 'Make ye\nhim drunken: for he magnified himself against the Lord: Moab also\nshall--be in derision: For was not Israel (saith God) a derision\nunto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of\nhim, thou skippedst for joy' (Jer 48:26,27). Of all things, God\ncannot away with this: For when the wicked would rejoice that they\nhave been suffered to make havoc of the church of God, they deny\nthe wisdom and power by which they were permitted to do this,\nand offer sacrifice to their own net and drag (Hab 1:16); which\nprovoketh the holiness of Israel: 'Shall the axe boast itself\nagainst him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself\nagainst him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself\nagainst them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up\nitself, as if it were no wood.' But what follows? Why, burning\nand consuming of soul and body of them that do such a thing (Isa\n10:15-18). And this text I the rather bring, because 'tis to be\nthe portion of Antichrist.\n\nAnd therefore let this be a caution to the men that wonder after\nthe beast, to caution them to repentance, for he will assuredly go\ninto perdition. What! shall the witnesses of God be killed! Shall\nthe beast stand glorying over them while they are dead, with his\nfeet in their neck? and shall none be angry at it? Let them that\nlove themselves look to themselves: God will be concerned, and will\nassuredly for this quickly put a period to the kingdom and reign\nof Antichrist (Jer 50:13).\n\nAnd although this glorying mistress of iniquity, this Antichrist\nand Babylon, may say that her power is the hammer of the whole\nearth; yet God will cut him in sunder, and break him in pieces\nwith his bout-hammers,13 with the kings14 of the earth, that he\nwill use to do this work withal; that is, when this last sign is\nfulfilled: I call it the last sign; I find none that doth intervene\nbetwixt the slaying of the witnesses, and the beginnings of the\nruin of Antichrist but this.\n\nBut a little to comment upon their joy, as the Holy Ghost doth set\nit forth. The cause of their joy we have touched already; which\nwas, for that they had slain their tormentors. For, as was shewed\nyou, the witnesses had been their tormentors: But when they shall\novercome them, and kill them, they rejoice, make merry, and send\ngifts one to another.\n\nThis repeating, and repeating with aggravation, doth manifest, and\nat that day their joy will be exceeding great: 'They shall rejoice,\nand make merry,' &c. They shall rejoice over them, over their slain,\ntheir enemies, their tormenting enemies. This joy therefore, is\na joy that flows from victory, from victory after a war that has\nlasted a thousand two hundred and threescore years. They shall\nrejoice, as they do that have a most potent, vexatious, and\ntormenting enemy lying dead at their foot, and as those that ride\nin triumph over them. They shall therefore rejoice as conquerors\nused to do, who make the slaughters of their spoiled enemies the\ntrophy of their joy.\n\nFor the devil, that great deceiver of mankind, will so flush up\nand bewitch the men that wonder after the beast, with the victory\nthat they shall get over the faithful witnesses for God and his\nSon, that they will think ('twill never be day) that the victory is\nso complete, so universal, so thorough, that the conquest must be\nlasting. And from sense and reason they will have ground to think\nso; for who now is left in the world any more to make head against\nthem? but here comes in that which will utterly spoil this joy;\nthese conquered, killed, dead men must come to life again, and\nthen what's become of their joy? 'And great fear fell upon them\nwhich saw them' (Rev 11:11). Wherefore, this joy must fade and\nvanish: But, I say, the followers of the beast will be far from\nthinking so; for they will 'rejoice over them, make merry, and\nsend gifts one to another,' concluding that these tormentors shall\nnever torment them more. But Jacob's blessing upon his son Gad,\nshall be fulfilled upon these witnesses: 'Gad [saith he] a troop\nshall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last' (Gen\n49:19). So then these conquerors must not always rejoice, though\nthey will suppose they shall, and also make merry too.\n\n'And make merry.' To make merry, is more than to rejoice. To rejoice,\ndoth shew the present act of the soul; but to make merry, is to\nuse the means as will keep this joy alive, and on foot. Joy is\none thing, and the continuance of it is another (1 Sam 25:36). Joy\nmay be begotten by a conceit, a thought; but it cannot be maintained\nso; because deliberation will come in and spoil it (Esth 5:4), if\nsufficient means is not used to continue it: wherefore he adds,\nThey rejoiced over them, 'And made merry.'\n\nAnd there are five things that are usually made use of to keep up\nwicked joy. 1. There is the merriment of music (Luke 15:25,32).\n2. The merriment of feasting (Judg 19:6,9). 3. The merriment of\nlaughter (Eccl 10:19). 4. The merriment of fleshly solace (Jer\n31:4). 5. Revenge upon a supposed enemy (2 Sam 13:28). So then,\nby these five things we see what is the way that sinful joy is\nmaintained in the hearts of wicked men; and also by what means the\nlimbs and brats of Antichrist will keep up that joy that at first\nwill be conceived in their hearts at the thought that now they have\nkilled their tormentors. They shall have music. They shall have\nfeasting. They shall have laughter. They shall have fleshly solace.\nAnd they shall have their fill, for the time, of revenge. Thus\ntherefore shall they rejoice over them, and make merry, all the\ntime of that little, short everlasting that they are to live in\nthe world.\n\n'And make merry.' To make merry, to make wicked mirth, there must\nbe a continual fraternity, or brotherhood in iniquity, maintained\namong them, and that where none may come to interrupt; and that\nthey will be capable of doing any where then, for that their\ntormentors will be dead. Wickedness shall walk with open face\nin those days; for then there will be none alive for God and his\nways; wherefore, the beast and his train may do what they will: now\nwill be the time for men to live carelessly and wantonly, and to\nmake their wantonness their joy, (after the manner of the Zidonians)\nfor there will be none to put them to shame.\n\n'And shall send gifts one to another.' This is another token of\ntheir gladness, and also a means to buoy them up still. And it will\nbe a sign that they have joined hand in hand to do this wickedness,\nnot dreaming of the punishment that must follow. This sending\nof gifts to each other, and that after they have slain these two\nprophets, doth also declare that they will be far from repentance,\nfor the commission of so great an offence. Nay, it signifies\nfurther, that they were resolved, and determined to quench all\nmanner of convictions one in another, that might arise in their\nhearts for the sin which they had committed: for a gift blinds\nthe eyes of the wise, and perverts the judgment of the righteous;\nhow much more then will it stifle and choke appearances of such\nupon the spirits of wicked men! I question not at all but many\nhave been, by the favours and gifts of wicked men, drawn down into\nthe belly of hell.\n\nNow what these gifts will be, either as to kind or quantity, that\nI can say nothing to: but probably, whatever they will be, there\nwill be but little of their own cost in them. Victors and conquerors\ndo used to visit their friends with their spoils won in battle,\nwith the spoil of the enemies of their God (Ezra 10:7).\n\nAnd this was David's way, after ha had recovered the loss that he\nhad sustained at the burning of his Ziklag; he sent to his friends\nof what he had taken from his enemies, as token of victory: 'David\nsent of the spoil (says the text) unto the elders of Judah, even\nto his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoils of\nthe enemies of the Lord' (1 Sam 30:26); And why may not those we\nhave now under consideration, do so to their god, and their friends\nalso? Spoiling is like to be one of the last of the mischiefs\nthat Antichrist shall do to the church of God in this world: And\nmethinks, since the beast will have power to overcome, and to\nkill, he should also have power to take away (Dan 11:33): 'Hast\nthou killed, and also taken possession?' said the prophet to wicked\nAhab.\n\nHowever, whatever their gifts may be, and at whose cost soever\nbought, 'tis a sign their hearts will be open, they shall send\ngifts one to another: their merry days will then be come, and their\nenemies will then be dead at their feet; wherefore, now they will\nhave nothing to do but to rejoice over them, and to make merry,\nand to send gifts one to another.\n\nThus as to sense and reason, all shall be hush, all shall be quiet\nand still: the followers of the Lamb shall be down; the followers\nof the Beast be up, cry peace and safety, and shall be as secure as\nan hard heart, false peace, and a deceitful devil can make them.\nBut behold! While they thus 'sing in the windows,' death is\nstraddling over the threshold! (Zeph 2:14). While they are crying\npeace and safety, sudden destruction cometh: By that they have\nwell settled themselves at their table with Adonijah (1 Kings 1),\nthey shall hear it proclaimed with sound of trumpet, the witnesses\nare risen again.\n\nNow the Christians' pipes will go again, and surely the earth will\nbe rent with the sound of their shouts and acclamations, while they\ncry with joyful sound, 'The kingdoms of this world are become the\nkingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for\never and ever' (Rev 11:15).\n\nBut woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them; for the Lord\nJesus will now begin to shew his jealousy, and to make known his\nindignation towards those that have thus cruelly slain his prophets,\ndigged down his altars, and made such havoc of the afflicted\nchurch of God (Isa 66:14). Now will he whet his glittering sword,\nand his hand shall take hold on vengeance, that he may render\na recompence to his enemies, and repay them that hate him (Deu\n32:41).\n\nBut this he will not do immediately by himself, but by such instruments\nas have been spoken of before: of which more particularly to treat,\nshall be that I shall next take in hand.\n\nOF THE INSTRUMENTS THAT GOD WILL USE TO BRING ANTICHRIST TO HIS\nRUIN.\n\nAlthough I have hinted at this before, yet it may be convenient\nbriefly to touch it again. Antichrist, as I have told you, consisteth\nof soul and body, and must be destroyed by such instruments as may\nmost properly be applied to each. Further, As to the soul, spirit\nor life of Antichrist, and its destruction, of that we have also\nspoken already: It remains then that now we discourse of the ruin\nof his body and flesh.\n\nI then take it, That the destruction of her flesh shall come by the\nsword, as managed in the hands of kings, who are God's ministers\nfor the punishment of evil deeds, and the praise of them that do\nwell (Rom 13). Not that the church, even as a church, shall be\nquite exempt and have therein no hand at all; for she, even as\nsuch, shall with her faith and prayers help forward that destruction.\n\nThe church therefore, as a church, must use such weapons as are\nproper to her as such; and the magistrate, as a magistrate, must\nuse such weapons as are proper to him as such. When the church\nof Israel were prisoners in Babylon, they did not fight their way\nthrough their foes, and the countries to Jerusalem; but waited\nin their captivated state with patience, until the kings of the\nMedes and Persians came to deliver them. Nor is it to be sleighted,\nbut to be thought on seriously, that before there was an Israelite\ncaptive in Babylon, their deliverer Cyrus was prophesied of:\nwhich Cyrus did afterwards come and take Babylon, and deliver the\ncaptives, as it was foretold he should. He saith unto Cyrus, 'He\nis my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to\nJerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation\nshall be laid' (Isa 44:28). And again, 'Thus saith the Lord to\nhis anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue\nnations before him, &c. I have raised him up in righteousness, and\nI will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall\nlet go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of\nHosts' (Isa 45:1,13). And this accordingly he did, to wit, when\nthe time was come; as may be seen in those holy records where these\nthings are made mention of. Indeed, as I said, the church is not\nexcluded (2 Chron 36:2); she may, and ought, with her faith and\nprayer, and holy life, to second this work of kings (Ezra 1:2,3).\nWherefore, when God speaks of bringing down the lofty city and of\nlaying it low in the dust by the church, he saith, they shall do\nit by their feet, and with their steps: 'The foot shall tread it\ndown, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy' (Isa\n26:6).\n\nBy feet and steps, I understand the good lives of the children of\nGod: but now, when kings come to deal with her, as kings, they\nserve her as Samuel served Agag, as a judge, 'cut her in pieces\nwith their swords': or as you have it elsewhere, 'They make her\ndesolate and naked; they eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.'\nThe sword will be put into their hands for this very purpose. Thus\ntherefore must their deliverance be begun.\n\nIt is also to be considered, That after these first kings of the\nMedes and Persians had broken the yoke of the king of Babylon from\noff the neck of the captive church, and had given her license\nto go to her place to build her temple and city, and to sacrifice\nthere according to the law of their God, (as both in Ezra and\nNehemiah we read;) and when their work was hindered by under-officers,\nor they endeavoured so to do, they pleaded the license that they\nreceived to build and sacrifice by the decree of the first kings,\nand so finished their deliverance: They went not on in headstrong\nmanner, as if they regarded neither king nor Caesar: 'But Zerubbabel,\nand Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel,\nsaid unto them,' that sought to hinder their work, 'Ye have nothing\nto do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves\nwill build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of\nPersia hath commanded us' (Ezra 4:3). And as they said, so also\nthey did: 'The elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered\nthrough the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the\nson of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the\ncommandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment\nof Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia' (Ezra 6:14).\nYea, they did not only accept of the kindness of kings, but did\nacknowledge that kindness with thanksgiving, as a gift of the God\nof heaven: for the kings had commanded and given leave to the Jews\nto go to Jerusalem, to build their temple, and to do sacrifice\nthere, according to the counsel of the priests that were at\nJerusalem, and according to the law of God that they had in their\nhand (Ezra 7:13,14). For Artaxerxes sent Ezra the priest to inquire\nafter the condition that Jerusalem and Judah was in, according to,\nor by the law of God that was in his hand (verse 14). And he had\nlicense also further to do with the king's silver and gold, which\nhe gave of the service of the house of the Lord, 'according to the\nwill, word or law of HIS God.' 'And thou, Ezra, [says the king]\nafter the wisdom of thy God, [that is, after his word] that is in\nthine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the\npeople that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of\nthy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will\nnot do the law of thy God, [that is, worship, and walk by the\nrule of his testament,] and the law of the king, [that is, shall\nrefuse to give Ezra such things as by the king was appointed for\nEzra's help in the furthering of the worship of God, according to\nthe law of his God,] let judgment be executed speedily upon him\nwhether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation\nof goods, or to imprisonment' (Ezra 7:25,26). This was therefore\na wonderful gracious license that the king now gave to Ezra: he\nimposed nothing upon him or the Jews in matters of religion and\nworship, but left him and them wholly to the law, will, and word\nof God, only he laid check upon wicked and ungodly people: that\nif they did things contrary to the laws of Ezra's God, or did\nsleight the king's law, as aforesaid, that then such penalties\nand pains should be inflicted upon them.\n\nTo the same purpose was the decree of Cyrus, and that of Darius,\nto put it in execution. Also the penalty enacted against such\noffenders, was full as sharp and severe: 'Also I have made a\ndecree [said the king,] that whosoever shall alter this word, let\ntimber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be\nhanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.--And\nthe God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings\nand people, that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy\nthis house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a\ndecree; let it be done with speed' (Ezra 6:11,12).\n\nIndeed, sometimes a stop was put to this work by the kings, and\nthe Jews were made to cease by force and power, (Ezra 4:23,24) the\nwhich the good people did bear with patience (Ezra 4:11-21): also\nthey waited to see their God go before them among the kings, who\nat length took away Artaxerxes, who for a time had put a stop to\nthe work, and brought in another, who gave leave that with speed\nit should be set on foot again (Ezra 5).\n\nThe Jews did also in these vacancies, or times in the which\nhindrances were put, carry it very tenderly and lovingly to those\nkings that at present they were under, submitting of their bodies\nand their goods to their will, and meekly endured the trial and\naffliction, serving them with all faithfulness, watching to save\ntheir lives from the hands of bloody men. Also when the king's laws,\nand the law of their God, did at any time come in competition,\nthey would indeed adhere to, and do the law of their God; yet with\nthat tenderness to the king, his crown and dignity, that they could\nat all times appeal to the righteous God about it (Dan 6:22). Nor\ndid they lose by so doing; yea, they prospered; for by this means\nMordecai was made a great man, and a saviour of his people (Esth\n2:21-23) By this means also was Daniel made a great man, and\nhelpful to his brethren (Dan 5:29).\n\nKings, I say, must be the men that must down with Antichrist, and\nthey shall down with her in God's time.\n\nGod hath begun to draw the hearts of some of them from her\nalready, and he will set them, in time, against her round about.\nIf therefore they do not that work so fast as we would have them,\nlet us exercise patience and hope in God: 'tis a wonder that they\ngo so fast as they do, since the concerns of whole kingdoms lie\nupon their shoulders, and that there are so many Sanballats and\nTobias's to flatter with them and misinform them concerning the\npeople that are delivered but in part. See what an ugly account\nwas given of Jerusalem by the enemies of the Jews, even then when\nthey were in the hands of their deliverers: 'Be it known unto the\nking, that the Jews which came up from thee to us, are come unto\nJerusalem, building the rebellious and bad city, and have set up\nthe walls thereof, and joined the foundations.--Be it known now\nunto the king, that, if this city be builded, and the walls set\nup again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and\nso thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings' (Ezra 4:12,13).\nOh! what a be it known, be it known, is here! But were not these\ngentlemen more afraid of losing their own places and preferments,\nthan of the king's losing of his toll and custom? But the whole\nwas a lie, though it hindered the work for a time, and the patience\nof the people, and their loyalty to the king, did conquer and\novercome all.\n\nI speak the more to this, because, (as I have said) I believe that\nby magistrates and powers we shall be delivered and kept from\nAntichrist; and because God has already begun to do it by such,\nby which also she shall be destroyed: and I have a few things to\npresent to good men, to be conversant in, in such a day as this.\n\nLet the king have verily a place in your hearts, and with heart and\nmouth give God thanks for him; he is a better saviour of us than\nwe may be aware of, and may have delivered us from more deaths\nthan we can tell how to think. We are bidden to 'give thanks to\nGod for all men, and in the first place, for kings, and all that\nare in authority' (1 Tim 2:1,2).\n\nBe not angry with them, no, not in thy thought; but consider, if\nthey go not on in the work of reformation so fast as thou wouldest\nthey should, the fault may be thine; know that thou also hast\nthy cold and chill frames of heart, and sittest still when thou\nshouldest be up and doing.\n\nPray for kings to the God of heaven, who has the hearts of kings\nin his hand: and do it 'without wrath, and doubting'; without wrath,\nbecause thy self is not perfect; and without doubting, because\nGod governeth them, and has promised to bring down Antichrist by\nthem.\n\nPray for the long life of the king.\n\nPray that God would always give wisdom and judgment to the king.\n\nPray that God would discover all plots and conspiracies against\nhis person and government.\n\nPray also that God would make him able to drive away all evil and\nevil men from his presence; and that he may be a greater countenancer\nthan ever, of them that are holy and good, and wait and believe,\nthat God that has begun his quarrel with Babylon, Antichrist, the\nmother of Antichrist, the whore; would in his own time, and in\nhis own way, bring her down by the means which he has appointed.\n\nI do confess myself one of the old-fashion professors, that covet\n'to fear God, and honour the king.' I also am for blessing of\nthem that curse me, for doing good to them that hate me, and for\npraying for them that despitefully use me, and persecute me. And\nhave had more peace in the practice of these things, than all\nthe world are aware of. I only drop this, because I would shew my\nbrethren that I also am one of them; and to set them right that\nhave wrong thoughts of me, as to so weighty matters as these.15\n\nNow these kings whose hearts God shall set to destroy Antichrist,\nshall do it without those inward reluctancies that will accompany\ninferior men: they shall be stript of all pity and compassion.\nHence they are compared to the mighty waves of the sea (Jer\n51:42), which saith, when the wrecked and dying mariners cry out\nfor mercy for themselves, and for their children, I am a sea; 'I\ntravail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up\nyoung men, nor bring up virgins' (Isa 23:4,5): I have therefore no\npity for these, or any of them. Therefore they must be swallowed\nup of this sea, and sink like a stone in the midst of these mighty\nwaters.\n\nAnd thus much for the means by which God will destroy the body\nand flesh of Antichrist.\n\nOF THE CAUSES OF THE RUIN OF ANTICHRIST.\n\nAlthough the causes of the ruin of Antichrist be to some conspicuous\nenough, yet to some they may be otherwise; yea, and will to all\nkings and people whose eyes shall be held, that they may not see\nthe judgment, in the reasonableness and equitableness thereof; and\nthese shall wail when they see 'the smoke of her--torment'; and\nthese shall cry, Alas! Alas! (Rev 18:10). Wherefore, for further\nedification, as I have treated of the man of sin already; so will\nI now, of the causes of his downfall. And,\n\nFIRST CAUSE.\n\nFirst, He must down, for that he hath usurped, and taken the name\nand attributes of God upon himself: He hath said, 'I am God': He\nhath set in the temple of God, 'shewing himself that he is God';\nyea, and that in contempt and scorn of any other, 'exalting himself\nabove all that is called God, or that is worshiped' (2 Thess 2);\nyea, hath cried down all gods but himself. Wherefore it must needs\nbe, that he be brought to judgment, that the truth of his saying\nmay be proved. And for this cause he is threatened, under the name\nof the prince of Tyrus: 'Because thine heart is lifted up (saith\nthe Lord) and thou hast said, I am a god,--therefore I will bring\nstrangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall\ndraw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall\ndefile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and\nthou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of\nthe seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am\ngod? but thou shalt be a man, and no god, in the hand of him that\nslayeth thee' (Eze 28:2,7-9).\n\nIf God will not give his name or glory to another, be sure he will\nnot be under another; but this to have, and thus to do, Antichrist\nhas attempted. But how? In that he has been so bold as to prescribe\nand impose a worship besides, and without reverence of that which\nGod has prescribed and imposed: For to do this, is, to make one's\nself a God. 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or\nthe likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in\nthe earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou\nshalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them': For he that\nthus doth, is an idolater; and he that these things doth impose,\nis one that shews himself a God. But this doth Antichrist do: And\n'tis worth the noting, That God forbids not only images, but the\nlikeness of any thing; books, altars, fancies, imaginations, or\nany thing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, to bow down\nto, or to make them a means to worship or come to God by, if he\nhas not commanded nor tolerated them in his holy word.\n\nThus saith the Lord: And, I am the Lord, is the stamp, the seal,\nand sign of all true rules of worship; and therefore it is so often\nrepeated both in Moses, and in the prophets, where God commandeth\nworship to be performed, and imposeth the means and methods of it.\nNow this, Thus saith the Lord, Antichrist has rejected; and I am\nthe Lord, he hath assumed to himself: and therefore without the\nlaw, the word and commandment, hath framed and imposed a worship,\nexalting himself in the temple of God, although he is but the man\nof sin, above all that is called God, or that is worshiped.\n\nNor is he in this his so foul a fact, without them that adore,\nworship his image, and wonder after him; yea, he hath got by this\nmeans almost the whole world to himself, who say, 'Who is like\nunto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?' (Rev 13:4).\nAnd that they might shew their resolvedness to stand by him, they\nreceive his mark in their forehead, or in their hand; His mark;\nthat is, they either openly or seriously become his disciples,\nand worship him according to the rules, methods, and ways that he\nhath prescribed. Wherefore, these with him, are also to drink of\nthe fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God: 'If any man worship\nthe beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or\nin his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,\nwhich is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation;\nand he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence\nof the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb' (Rev 14:9,10).\n\nBut, I say, for that Antichrist hath thus taken the place of God,\nprescribed and imposed a worship as a God, got the world to worship\nand wonder after him as after a God. Therefore shall he die the\ndeath of the uncircumcised, both in the soul, spirit, body, or\nflesh of Antichrist; therefore will God enlighten, and gather,\nand set the kings and nations against him, that both he and his\nmay be buried, and have their dolesome withdrawing-rooms from the\nworld in the sides of the pit's mouth.\n\nSECOND CAUSE.\n\nSecondly, Antichrist must be destroyed, because he hath set himself\nagainst the Son of God; against the Father, and against the Son.\nHe had a spite against the Son betimes, even then when he came\nforth but in little bits, when he attempted to deny that he was\ncome in the flesh (1 John 4:1-4). But seeing he could make no\nearnings of that, he hath changed his methods, and seeks to run\nhim out and down by other means and ways: because therefore he\nhath set himself against the Son of God, the king, therefore he\nmust die. That he hath set himself against the Son of God, is also\nevident; for he hath his name from thence: He is therefore called\nAntichrist. That he hath set himself against him, is yet further\nevident; for that he hath endeavoured to take from him his headship\nover, and his offices for and in the church, which is his body.\nHe hath plainly endeavoured to be head, for that he hath striven\nto take his wife from him, and to cause that she should be called\nHIS: Yea, he hath endeavoured by all inventions to prostrate her\nto his lusts, to deflower her, and to maker her an adulteress. He\nhas been worse than Pharaoh, who took Abraham's wife (Gen 12); and\nworse than Abimelech, who lusted after Isaac's (Gen 26): Yea, worse\nthan Phalti, who run away with David's (1 Sam 25:44); forasmuch\nas she is higher, beloved better, and cost more than did any\nof these. Would it not be counted an high affront, for a base\ninferior fellow, to call himself the head of the queen? Yet thus\nhas Antichrist done, and worse; he has called himself the head of\nthe universal church of God.\n\nAnd as he has attempted to be head in his stead, so to be king,\npriest, and prophet.\n\n[1.] He has attempted to wrest his sceptre and kingdom from him,\nin that he hath endeavoured to thrust himself into his throne,\nwhich is the heart and conscience of his people. The heart and\nconscience is that which Christ claimeth for his own proper and\npeculiar seat: 'My son, give me thy heart.' 'That Christ may dwell\nin your hearts by faith' (Eph 3:17). In this therefore the church\nis not to be for another man, so will he be for her; but this\nthrone Antichrist has lusted for, attempted to take, and made war\nwith Christ and his church, because they would not yield up to\nhim this glorious throne of his, and therefore he must die.\n\n[2.] He hath intruded upon the priestly office of Christ, hath\ncalled himself high-priest; though the Lord hath said, 'Because\nthou has rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou\nshalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of\nthy God, I will also forget thy children' (Hosea 4:6). But he will\nmake himself a priest; he hath invented sacrifices for the quick\nand the dead: he hath put, as he presumes, merit and worth into\nthese sacrifices; he hath commanded that those that worship, should\nhave faith in, and expect benefit by these sacrifices, although\nhe offereth to his God nought else but the flesh of the hog, and\nof the mouse, with the broth of his abominable things (Isa 66:17).\nMany and sundry ways he hath set himself up to be high-priest,\nthough God knows no high-priest but one, though the church ought\nto know no high-priest but one; yea, though no high-priest but\none can approach God's mercy-seat, to do for us the necessary and\ndesired work.\n\n[3.] He hath intruded upon the prophetical office of Jesus Christ.\nWhat else means his pretences to infallibility?16 And that too when\nhe imposes unwritten verities, abominable traditions, blasphemous\nrites and ceremonies; and forbids or dispenseth with the holy\ncommands of God: Yea, when he enforceth these his Omrian statutes,\nand doth impose the works of the house of Ahab (Micah 6:16), he\ndoth all in the name of the Lord Christ, when himself hath set\nhimself in his place, and in his room. This is mystery Babylon,\nthe mystery of iniquity: This is Antichrist's soul and body, and\nas such, must be destroyed. But,\n\nTHIRD CAUSE.\n\nThirdly, Antichrist must be destroyed, because he hath blasphemed\nagainst the Holy Ghost, and so set himself above the Father, the\nSon, the Spirit; against ALL that is called God. The Holy Ghost\nis that Spirit of truth that Christ has promised to give unto his\nchurch, to help her in the understanding of his holy word, and to\nenable her to believe, and walk humbly and holily before God and\nman. The spirit of Antichrist is that spirit of error that hath\npuffed up the false church into a conceit of herself, and unscriptural\nworship; and that hath made this false church, which is his body,\nto ascribe all the horrible things and acts thereof, to the wisdom,\nguidance, directions or operations of the Holy Ghost: As,\n\n1. In all her unscriptural councils, assemblies and convocations,\nthey blasphemously father what they do upon the Holy Ghost, and\nmake him the inventor and approver thereof.\n\n2. She also blasphemeth the Holy Ghost, in accusing and condemning\nthe holy scriptures of insufficiency, for that she saith, though\nit is a rule, yet but an imperfect one; one deficient, one that\nis not able to make the man of God perfect in all things, without\nthe traditions, inventions, and blasphemous helps of antichristian\nwisdom.\n\n3. She hath also blasphemed the Holy Ghost, in that she hath set\nup her own church-government, offices, officers and discipline:\nNone of all which is the church of Christ directed to by the wisdom\nof the Spirit of God in his testament.\n\n4. She hath also sinned against the Holy Ghost, in that she hath,\nas it were, turned the Holy Ghost out of doors, in concluding that\nhe, without the works of the flesh, is not sufficient to govern\nthe hearts of worshippers, in the service and worship of God.\n\n5. She hath also thus sinned, in that she hath wrought many lying\nmiracles in the face of the world, and imposed them upon her disciples\nfor the confirming of her errors and blasphemous opinions, to the\nconfronting of the true miracles wrought by the Holy Ghost; and\nalso to the concluding, that there was an insufficiency in those\nthat were true, to confirm the truth, without the addition of\nhers; which she has wrought by the power of Satan, and the spirit\nof delusion, only to confirm her lies.\n\n6. She hath sinned against the Holy Ghost, in that she hath, with\nJeroboam the son of Nebat, striven against the judgments wherewith\nGod hath punished her; to call her back from her wicked way; and\npersisted therein, to the effectual proving of herself to be the\nlewd woman (2 Kings 13:4-7,23,24).\n\n7. She hath sinned, by labouring to hide all her wickedness, by\nlies, dissimulations, and filthy equivocations of her priests,\nfriars, Jesuits, &c. I say, her labouring to hide the wickedness\nthat she hath committed against kings, countries, nations, kingdoms\nand people. She hath hid these things by the means or persons made\nmention of before; as by the tail; for they indeed are the tail\nof the beast, that cover his most filthy parts: The prophet that\nspeaketh lies, he is the tail (Isa 9:15). But,\n\nFOURTH CAUSE.\n\nFourthly, Antichrist must be destroyed, for the horrid outrage,\nand villainous murders that she hath committed upon the bodies of\nthe saints. For there is none, as to these things, for cruelty,\nto be compared with the church of Antichrist, and her followers:\nFor upon whom hath not her cruelty been shewed; have they never so\nlittle stood in her way, though never so innocently and honestly\nby so doing, stood to the truth and verity of God? Yea, the\npromoting of her own superstition, idolatry, and blasphemous rites\nand ceremonies, have been so pursued by her, that she has waded\nthrough a sea of innocent blood for the accomplishment thereof.\n\nThe poor church of God is a sensible bleeding witness of this, and\nso has been for hundreds of years together; witness the chronicles\nof all nations where she hath had to do; yea, and the sackcloth\nand ashes, and tears, and widows, and fatherless children, and\ntheir cries, of all which the holy word of God is a sufficient\nconfirmation; 'And in her,' when God shall come to make inquisition\nfor blood, 'will be found the blood of prophets and of saints,\nand of all that were slain upon the earth' (Rev 18:24). And yet\nhas she such a whore's forehead, such a blindness in her judgment,\nand such an hard and obdurate heart, that it is not possible\nshe should ever repent. Murders have been so natural to her, and\nin them her hand has been so exercised, that it is now become\na custom, a trade, a pastime to her, to be either in the act, or\nlaying some foundation for murders: Witness those plots, designs\nconspiracies, and frequent attempts that are, one or other of them,\ncontinually on foot in the world for the commission of murders.\n\nNay, the text last mentioned seems to import, that blood is so\nnatural to her, that she sticketh not at any condition, sex, age,\nor degree, so she may imbrue her hands in blood. In her was found\nthe blood of saints and prophets, and of all other carnal, natural,\nignorant, graceless men that have been slain upon the earth. It is\nshe that sets kings and kingdoms at variance: It is she that sets\nparents and children at variance, by her abuse of the word of our\nLord and Christ. And besides, is it not easy, if we do but consider\nthose bloody massacres that have been committed by her hand,\nboth in France, Ireland, Piedmont, and in several places besides,\nwithout wronging of her, to conclude, that the blood of thousands,\nthat have not known their right hand from their left in religion,\nhath been shed, to quench, if it might have been, her insatiate\nthirst after blood. Therefore, for these things shall she be\njudged, as women that shed blood are judged; because she is an\nadulteress, and blood is in her hands (Eze 23:45). She hath been\nas a beast of prey: Nay, worse; for they do but kill and tear for\nthe hunger of themselves, and of their whelps: but she, to satisfy\nher wanton and beastly lusts. 'They have cast lots for my people;\n[saith God] and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl\nfor wine, that they might drink' (Joel 3:3): and therefore must\nAntichrist be destroyed. Forbearance is no payment, God's patience\nis not a sign that he forgetteth to take vengeance; but rather,\nthat he waiteth till his own are come out of her, and until\nher iniquity is filled up: For then he will execute the judgment\nwritten, and will remember, as has been said, the Babylonians,\nand all their ways. 17\n\nFIFTH CAUSE.\n\nFifthly, Antichrist must be destroyed, because she hath put out\nof order, and confounded the rule and government that God has set\nup in the world. I say, she has put it out of order, and confounded\nit in all places where she rules; so that it cannot accomplish\nthe design of him that ordained it, To wit, To be a terror to evil\nworks, and a praise to them that do well. Wherefore we read, That\nthose horns or kings where Mystery Babylon sitteth, are upon the\nheads of that beast that carrieth her, which beast is her protector.\nMagistracy is God's ordinance, appointed for the good of society,\nand for the peace and safety of those that are good. But this\nAntichrist has, where she rules, put all out of order; and no\nwonder, for she has bepuddled the word of God; no wonder, then,\nI say, if the foundations of the world be out of course. 'Tis she\nthat hath turned the sword of the magistrate against those that\nkeep God's law: 'Tis she that has made it the ruin of the good and\nvirtuous, and a protection to the vile and base. Wherefore, when\nthe Holy Ghost tells us, that the time is coming in which God will\ncount with the bloody-minded, for the murders that they have\ncommitted; he in a manner doth quite excuse the magistrate, saying,\n'Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the\nprey departeth not: The noise of a whip, and the noise of the\nrattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the\njumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword,\nand the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and\na great number of carcases; and there is no end of their corpses;\nthey stumble upon their corpses' (Nahum 3:1-3). But what is the\ncause of all this slaying, and the reason of this abundance of\ncorpses? Why, it is because of the unsatiable thirst of the bloody\ncity after blood: and, 'Because of the multitude of the whoredoms\nof the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that\nselleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her\nwitchcrafts' (verse 4). But doth this bloody city spill this blood\nby herself simply, as she is the adulterated whore? No, this church\nhas found out a trick; that is to say, to quarrel with Christ in\nhis members; and to persuade the powers where she rules to set\nensnaring laws to catch them, and to execute the same upon them.\n\nThus when the synagogue of Satan, of old, had taken Christ, and\naccused him, they made Pontius Pilate to condemn and hang him.\nBut God has begun to shew to some of the kings this wickedness,\nand has prevailed with them to PROTEST against her. And in the\nmean time, for those that are yet in the bed of love with her,\nthe Holy Ghost doth, in the text last mentioned, and in Revelation\n18:24 much excuse them for the blood that they have shed, and for\nthe injuries that they have done to his people; because they have\nnot done it of their mere inclinations, nor in the prosecution of\ntheir office, but through the whoredoms and witchcrafts of this\nwell-favoured harlot, who hath with false doctrines, false promises,\nand causeless curses, prevailed on them to do it. And they have\ndone it, rather of fear than favour. Some indeed have more doted\nupon her beauty, and have more thoroughly been devoted to her\nservice: But they also had not that aptness to do so of themselves,\nbut have been forced to it by the power of her enchantments:\nTherefore, I say, the main guilt shall be laid at her door, for\nthat she in chief has deserved it. 'Son of man [says God] take\nup a lamentation for the princes of Israel.' Why? Because their\nmother, the church, was at that time adulterated, and become\na lioness, had lain down with the heathen, and so brought forth\nyoung lions, that is, rulers: 'And she brought up one of her\nwhelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey;\nit devoured men' (Eze 19:1-3). It learnt, It learnt: But of who\nbut of its dam, or of the lioness to whom she had put it to learn\nto do such things? Therefore they are to be lamented and pitied,\nrather than condemned, and their mother made to bear the blame.\nWherefore it follows, 'She was plucked up in fury, she was cast down\nto the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong\nrods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. And now\nshe is planted in the wilderness, (in the provinces of Babylon,)\nin a dry and thirsty ground. And fire is gone out of a rod of her\nbranches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that he hath no strong\nrod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be\nfor a lamentation' (Eze 19:12-14).\n\nSIXTH CAUSE.\n\nSixthly, Antichrist must be destroyed, because of her exceeding\ncovetousness. Religion, such as it is, is the thing pretended to:\nBut the great things of this world, are the things really intended\nby her in all her seeming self-denials and devotions. And for this\ncovetousness also it is that this destruction is to fall upon her:\n'Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, (to\nhis church) that he may set his nest on high' (Hab 2:9); (for he\ncould not do the one, before he had obtained the other:) for then\nindeed they began to be high, when they had so inveigled Constantine,\nthat he bestowed upon them much riches and honour; and then it was\ncried by an angel, and the cry was heard in the city, Constantinople!\n'Woe! woe! woe! this day is venom poured into the church of God!'\n(as both my Lord Cobham and Mr. Fox witness in the book of Acts\nand Monuments).18\n\nNor has any generation since the world began, been so insatiably\ngreedy of gain, as these poor people have been: They have got\nkingdoms, they have got crowns, they have got,--What have they\nnot got? They have got everything but grace and pardon. Did I say\nbefore, that religion is their pretence? Doth not the whole course\nof their way declare it to their face? Every one of them, from\nthe least even to the greatest, is given to covetousness, from the\nprophet even to the priest, every one dealeth falsely (Jer 6:13,\n8:10): Money, money, as the peddlar cries,19 broken or whole, is\nthe sinews of their religion: And it is for that they set kingdoms,\ncrowns, principalities, places, preferments, sacraments, pardons,\nprayers, indulgences, liberty; yea, and souls and bodies of men,\nwomen and children, to sale. Yea, it is for this that they have\ninvented so many places, offices, names, titles, orders, vows,\n&c. It is to get money, to rob countries, that they may make their\nnests on high. And indeed they have done it, to the amazement of\nall the world. They are clambered up above kings and princes, and\nemperors:20 They wear the triple-crown: They have made kings bow\nat their feet, and emperors, stand barefoot at their gates: They\nhave kicked the crowns of princes from their heads, and set them\non again with their toes.21 Thus their covetousness has set them\nhigh, even above the suns, moons and stars of this world: but to\nwhat end? That they may be cast down to hell.\n\nSEVENTH CAUSE.\n\nSeventhly, Antichrist must be destroyed, because he standeth in\nthe way of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the world.\nMany princes were in Edom before there was a king in Israel; and\nChrist has suffered Antichrist to set up before him. And he standeth\nin his way, and has so overspread the world in all places, with\nthat which is directly contrary to him, that he cannot set up his\nkingdom, until that which is Antichrist's is tumbled down to the\nground; even as a man whose ground is full of thorns, and briars,\nand weeds, cannot sow in expectation of a crop, until he hath\nremoved them. And these seeds has Antichrist sown where the kingdom\nof Christ should stand: 'Upon the land of my people shall come up\nthorns and briars; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous\ncity: Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the\ncity shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for\never, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks, [this is to happen\nto the church of God,] Until the Spirit be poured upon us from\non high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful\nfield be counted for a forest' (Isa 32:13-15). And the antichristian\nsynagogue be turned into a wilderness.\n\nWhen God came from Egypt with his people, to set up his kingdom\nin Canaan, he cast out the heathen before them in order thereunto;\n'Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the\nheathen, and planted it' (Psa 80:8). Wherefore, Antichrist must\nbe removed and destroyed for this: For Antichrist is in flat\nopposition to Christ, as Tibni was to Omri (1 Kings 16:21,22):\nWherefore Antichrist must die. The reason is, because Christ's\nkingdom shall be peaceable, without molestation; and glorious,\nwithout the fumes and fogs of antichristian darkness: Because also,\nas the world hath seen the manner of the reign of Antichrist, and\nhow tyrannical and outrageous a kingdom his is: so they shall see\nthe reign of Christ, by his word and spirit in his people, how\npeaceable, how fruitful in blessedness and prosperity his kingdom\nis. And hence it is that God purposeth to bury Antichrist, before\nhe sets 'glory in the land of the living' (Eze 26:20,21). As\nalso you read in the book of Revelations; for there you find the\nkingdom of Antichrist was destroyed before the new Jerusalem was\nset up. When men intend to build a new house, if in the place\nwhere the old one stood, they first pull down the old one, raze\nthe foundation, and then they begin their new. Now God, as I said,\nwill have his primitive church-state set up in this world, (even\nwhere Antichrist has set up his;) wherefore, in order to this,\nAntichrist must be pulled down, down stick and stone; and then\nthey that live to see it, will behold the new Jerusalem come down\nfrom heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband.\n\nNew wine is not put into old bottles, nor a new piece into an old\ngarment; nor shall any of the old anti-scriptural ordinances,\nceremonies, rites, or vessels of the man of sin, be made use of,\nor accounted anything worth, in this day of the kingdom of Jesus\nChrist. And thus I have shewed you something of Antichrist, of\nhis ruin, and of the manner and signs of the approach thereof;\ntogether with the means and causes of his ruin. All which I leave\nto the judgment of the godly, and beg their instruction where\nthey see me to be out; and shall conclude, after a short word of\napplication.\n\nFirst, Must Antichrist be destroyed? Then this informs us, that\na time is coming wherein there shall be no Antichrist to afflict\nGod's church any more. 'Tis Antichrist, antichristians, and\nantichristianism, that is the cause of the troubles of Christians,\nfor being Christians. And therefore 'tis from the consideration of\nthis that it is said, men 'shall beat their swords into plough-shares,\nand their spears into pruning-hooks,' and that they 'shall learn\nwar no more' (Isa 2:4): Yea it is from the consideration of this,\nthat it is said the child shall play with venomous and destroying\nbeasts, and that a little child shall lead the wolf, the leopard,\nand the young lion, and that the weaned child shall put his hand\ninto the cockatrice's den, and catch no hurt thereby (Isa 11:6-9).\nFor as was said before, 'tis through the instigation of this\nspirit of error, that the governors of the world have heretofore\ndone hurt to Zion, and I say now again, all things shall turn to\ntheir right course, and occupy their places, as do the bodies in\nthe higher orbs.\n\nSecondly, Is Antichrist to be destroyed, and must she have an\nend? Then this gives us to understand, that a day is coming when\nAntichrist shall be unknown, not seen, nor felt by the church of\nGod. There are men to be born who shall not know Antichrist, but\nas they read in the word that such a thing has been. These shall\ntalk of her, as Israel's childrens' children were to talk of\nPharaoh, of his cruelty; of his tasks, of his pride, of the Red\nSea, and how he was drowned there: They shall talk of them, as of\nthose that have been long dead; as of those who for their horrible\nwickedness, are laid in the pit's mouth. This will be some of\nthat sweet chat that the saints shall, at their spare hours, have\nin time to come. When God has pulled this dragon out of the sea,\nthis leviathan out of his river, and cast his dead carcase upon\nthe open field, then shall those whose ancestors have been put\ninto terrors by him, come flocking to see the monster; and shall\nrejoice for all the mercy. In that day, the church of God shall\nsay, 'O Lord I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me,\nthine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.--In that day\nshall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his\ndoings among the people,' &c. (Isa 12:1,4). O how sweetly did David,\nand the church in his day, sing of the ruins of the Egyptians,\nand the deliverances of their fathers, which had been in times of\nold! (Psa 68). to wit, what God did in Egypt, what he did at the\nRed Sea; what he did to Sihon, to Og, and to the remnant of the\ngiants: How he divided the waters of Jordan, and gave the land of\nCanaan in its fruitfulness among his people (Psa 105): How that\nthough Pharaoh and his horsemen and chariots were terrible then,\nyet now there is nothing left but their souls, their feet, and\nthe palms of their hands; nothing but that which can do no hurt;\nnothing but what may minister an occasion of joyful remembrance\nof them (Psa 106; 132).\n\nThirdly, Is Antichrist to be destroyed? Then this calls aloud to\nGod's people to make haste to come out of her. 'Ho, ho,' says the\nprophet: He cries out as if the people were asleep: 'Come forth,\nand flee from the land of the north' (Zech 2:6). The people of\nGod in the latter days will want a heart to come out of her, with\nthat fear of her plagues as they should: Wherefore another says,\n'Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins\nand that ye receive not of her plagues' (Rev 18:4). When Israel\nwas carried into Babylon, 'twas not that they should dwell there\nfor ever: Though they were bid to build them houses, and beget\nthem children there. But when they had built, planted vineyards,\nand got wives and children there, 'twas hard getting them from\nthence again: For now they were as it were naturalized to the\ncountry, and to the manners of it (Jer 29:4-7). But God will have\nthem out, (but they must not think to carry thence their houses\nand vineyards on their backs,) or he will destroy them with those\ndestructions wherewith he hath threatened to destroy Babylon\nitself. Flesh will hang behind, because it favoureth the things\nof the flesh, plenty of which there is in that country: But they\nthat will live after the flesh must die. 'Wherefore come out from\namong them, and be ye separate,--and touch not the unclean thing;\nand I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye\nshall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty' (2 Cor\n6:17,18). But why (some may say) must we come out? I answer, because\nGod has temple-work to do, temple-worship to do, temple-sacrifices to\noffer, and none of these things can by any means be done, but at\nJerusalem. But if you still object and say, 'The Lord has raised\nus up prophets in Babylon,' and we will not come out; you must\nnot murmur if you feel what is to follow. And that such may know\nupon what bottom they stand, let them read the 29th chapter of\nJeremiah 15-19.\n\nFourthly, Must Antichrist be destroyed? Then what mean they, who\nwere to appearance once come out, but now are going thither again?\nIf it cost Lot's wife dear for but looking back, shall not it cost\nthem much dearer, that are going back, that are gone back again?\nand that, AFTER the angel had fled through the midst of heaven,\npreaching the gospel to those that dwell on the earth? (Rev 14:6-10).\nThey that received the mark of the beast at first, before this\nangel came forth, are when compared with these, excusable (Rev\n13:16,17): Wherefore, they are not threatened with that smoking\nwrath, as are these which are here under consideration.\n\nYou dread, that which is like to become of them that will be so\nmad to run into an house, when fire is putting to the gunpowder\nbarrel, in order to its blowing up: Why thus do they, let their\npretended cause be what it will, that are returning again to Babel.\nAre her plagues pleasant or easy to be borne? Or dost thou think\nthat God is at play with thee, and that he threateneth but in jest?\nHer plagues are death, and mourning, and famine, and fire (Rev\n18:8); are these things to be overlooked? And they that, as before\nis hinted, shall receive the mark of the beast in their forehead,\nor in their hand, and shall worship him, they, 'the same shall\ndrink of the wine of the wrath of God' (Rev 14:10): And will this\nbe a delightsome draught? Remember how ill God took it, that his\npeople of old, in their hearts, though but in their hearts, went\nback again into Egypt. You may say, but I have friends, relations,\nand concerns in Babylon. And, I answer, so had Lot in Sodom (Gen\n19:14-16); but for all that, he must either quickly come out, or\nrun the hazard of being burned there with them. But methinks, a\npeople that belong to God, should be willing to leave all to follow\nhim: Besides, his presence is promised at Jerusalem, there also\nwill he accept thy offerings.\n\nFifthly, Is Antichrist to be destroyed? Then let them that love\nGod, his Son, and his Zion, cry to God, that it may be hastened\nin its time. One of the songs of Zion is, that Babylon shall be\ndestroyed. The cries of the souls of them that were slain for the\nwitness of Jesus is, that Babylon may be counted with, and that\ntheir blood may be revenged upon her. The promise is, that Babylon\nshall be destroyed: And do we hold our tongues? The church of God\nwill not flourish as it should, until Babylon is destroyed: The\nworld will never be in its right wits, until Babylon is destroyed:\nThe kingdom of Christ will never be set up, in and by his church,\nas it ought, and shall, until Antichrist is destroyed: There will\nnever be peace upon earth till Antichrist is destroyed: And God\nhas promised that there shall be peace and truth, and glory, when\nBabylon is destroyed: And do we hold our peace? Besides, your\ninnocency in suffering; your honesty towards God, in your testimony\nfor his truth; the substantial ground which you have for the bottom\nof your faith, as to things controverted betwixt Antichrist and\nyou, will never be manifested as it will then; and so consequently,\nyou never so brought out to the light, and your enemies never so\nput to shame as then. 'Then shame shall cover her that said unto\nthee, Where is the Lord thy God?' Wherefore, as I said, cry unto\nthe Lord, keep not silence, give him no rest, let him not alone,\nuntil he has delivered his miserable people out of the mouth of\nthis lion, and from the paw of this bear.\n\nSixthly, Is Antichrist to be destroyed? Then let us live in the\nexpectation of it; and let this be one of our songs in the house\nof our pilgrimage. God bids his people, while in Babylon, to let\nJerusalem come into their mind (Jer 51:50), and writes to them that\nthen were in her, to acquaint them that he remembered them still,\nand would assuredly deliver them from that place and state. And\nwherefore doth he thus, but to beget an expectation in them of\ntheir salvation and deliverance? (Jer 29:13,14). The Lord is so\npleased with the faith and expectation of his people, as to this,\nthat they seldom are herein concerned as they should, but he steps\nin with them, and warms their hearts. The reason is, because the\nfaith of God's people, as to the downfall of Babylon, stands upon\nas sure a foundation as doth the salvation of their souls; and that\nnext to that, God is as much delighted in what he has purposed to\ndo against Babylon, as in anything else in the earth: And therefore,\nif you consider it well, the great and glorious promises that are\nto be fulfilled on earth, are to be fulfilled when Antichrist is\ndead and buried: These bits are too good even for his children\nto have, so long as this dog is by, lest he should snatch at the\ncrumbs thereof; wherefore they are reserved until he is gone: For\nthus saith the Lord, 'That after seventy years be accomplished at\nBabylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you,\nin causing you to return to this place: For I know the thoughts\nthat I think toward you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, and\nnot of evil, to give you an expected end.' This is in Jeremiah\nthe 29th chapter, verses 10, 11 and in the 31st chapter he adds,\n'Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and\nshall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and\nfor wine, and for oil, and of the young of the flock and of the\nherd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall\nnot sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the\ndance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their\nmourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice\nfrom their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests\nwith fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,\nsaith the Lord' (verse 12-14). Again, in the 32nd chapter, still\nspeaking of the same thing, he saith, 'Yea, I will rejoice over\nthem to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly\nwith my whole heart and with my whole soul' (verse 41).\n\nI conclude this with that which I find in the 33rd chapter: 'And\nI will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have\nsinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby\nthey have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.\nAnd it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before\nall the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that\nI do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble, for all the goodness\nand for all the prosperity that I procure unto it' (verse 8,9).\n\nSeventhly, Must Antichrist be destroyed? Then this should make us\nglad, when we see the signs of his fall presenting themselves to\nour view. Indeed, the signs of his fall, or those that forerun\nit, are terrible, and amazing to behold. But what of that, since\nthe wrinkles that are in their faces threaten not us but them?\nA man is angry, and will punish; yea, and whets his sword, makes\nhis rod, and he speaks not a word, but blood, blood, is in it.\nIndeed, this should make them that are concerned in this anger,\nbe afraid; (but the judgment is, they are fast asleep,) but what\nis in all this of terror to them, for the pleading whose cause he\nis so angry with the other? Nothing whereat the innocent should\nbe afraid. Cold blasts in November are not received with that\ngentleness as are colder in March and April; for that these last\ncold ones are but the farewell notes of a piercing winter; they also\nbring with them the signs and tokens of a comfortable summer. Why,\nthe church is now at the rising of the year; let then the blasts\nat present, or to come, be what they will, Antichrist is assuredly\ndrawing towards his downfall: And though the devil, knowing what\nis to be done to him, and to his kingdom, shall so blind his\ndisciples, and fright the godly, do something like it upon the\nchurch of Christ; yet we should look through these paper-winkers,22\nand espy in all this, that fear, yea, certain terrible judgments\nare following of him at the heels, by which not only the soul,\nspirit, and life of Antichrist, but the body thereof; yea, body,\nand soul, and head, are quickly to go down thither; from whence\nthey, as such, shall not arise again. Amen.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n1 'Paper-winkers,' in every edition, except the first, which was\nfrom the author's manuscript, has been altered to 'paper-windows.'\nBunyan's allusion is to the winkers, called by many 'blinkers,'\nput by the side of a horse's eyes, to keep him under the complete\ncontrol of his driver--and by 'paper-winkers' the flimsy attempt\nof Antichrist to hoodwink mankind by printed legends, miracles,\nand absurd assumptions--it is one of the almost innumerable sparks\nof wit, which render all the writings of Bunyan so entertaining\nand strikingly instructive.--Ed.\n\n2 The absurd act to compel uniformity in modes of worship, (14)\nCharles II, had then recently passed; and when this treatise was\nwritten, it desolated the country. This paved the way for the\nglorious Revolution. The wicked fell into the pit which they had\ndug for the righteous; the hopes of the Papists were crushed;\ntoleration to worship God was established. Let us follow Bunyan's\nexample, and attribute these mercies to a gracious God.--Ed.\n\n3 When seven members of the first protesting church in London were\nburned, a proclamation was made that no one should pray for them,\nspeak to them, nor once say, 'God help them.' But the church\npressed through the officers,--embraced and prayed for and with the\nmartyrs; and all the people with one consent said, Amen; to the\nastonishment of the officers. And so these godly martyrs, praying\nand praising God, sweetly ended their lives in the flames at\nSmithfield.--Clarke's Martyrology, p. 500 and 516.--Ed.\n\n4 Christian, read in these words your duty. Bunyan felt the tusks\nof the wild boar, even to the peril of his life. He bore with\nresignation all his sufferings, and was blest. Pity those whose\nsouls are under the yoke. Antichrist, if cruel to the body, is more\ndangerous to the souls of men. Your prayers and exertions should\nbe redoubled until it is delivered up to the just judgment of the\nAlmighty. Come out, O Christian, and be separate from every system\nwhich is stained with the blood and defiled with the soul-harrowing\ngroans of the saints of God.--Ed.\n\n5 No man of the most refined education could have manifested\ngreater delicacy than Bunyan has in treating this subject, leaving\nhis reader to imagine whether the high-sounding titles, such as\n'His Holiness,' 'God's Vicegerent upon earth,' which are given to\nmen, are consistent with the simplicity of the gospel or not. If\nthey are not, they belong to Antichrist, and will be consumed with\nthe stubble at the brightness of Christ's coming, when he shall\njudge the earth.--Ed.\n\n6 Antichristian statists of Antichrist. Those who weigh things to\nplace them in their relative order in the kingdom of Antichrist,\nas the decree followed by the lions' den, &c.\n\n7 The homilies read in the Church of England prior to the Reformation,\ncalled 'The Festival,' contains the pith of these lying legends\nand pretended miracles. Omitting the obscene parts, it ought to be\nrepublished, to exhibit the absurdities of popery as it was then\nseen in England.--Ed.\n\n8 'The last stroke of the batter,' probably alludes to an engine\nof war used by the ancients, called a battering-ram.--Ed.\n\n9 Upon the Sunday sports being authorized, and pious ministers\npersecuted for refusing to wear popish vestments in the reign of\nJames I, that godly Puritan, Mr. Carter, exclaimed, 'I have had\na longing desire to see or hear of the fall of Antichrist: but\nI check myself. I shall go to heaven, and there news will come,\nthick, thick, thick.'--Life by his Son, p. 13.\n\n10 How remarkably has this come to pass since Bunyan's time; a slow\nbut sure progression. That darling ugly daughter, Intolerance, was\nexecuted by the Act of Toleration. The impious Test by the repeal\nof the Sacramental Test Act, &c., &c.--Ed.\n\n11 There is great difficulty in estimating the weight of a talent.\nDr. Gill considers it about sixty pounds; this was the lesser\nRoman talent. Michaelis estimates the Jewish talent at thirty-two\npounds and a half. The attic talent of gold used in Greece in\nthe time of Homer is estimated at less than an ounce. The safest\nconclusion as to the weight of the hail-stones is, that they were\nenormous, and fell with a velocity to crush all animals to instant\ndeath.--Ed.\n\n12 The reader must not misunderstand the words, 'The king kills her\nbody.' Bunyan does not in the slightest degree concede to kings or\nnations a right to interfere with 'the soul' or religious principles\nor practices--these are to be slain, if false, by persecution of\nthe preacher. Kings and nations will restore to the people the\nimmense property and revenue of which they have been plundered,\nunder the hollow knavish pretence of curing souls and forgiving\nsins. THUS will human laws kill the body of Antichrist. Every\nmotive for professing to believe absurdities and contradictions\nwill be at an end, when neither rule nor honour, nor pelf is to\nbe gained by hypocrisy.--Ed.\n\n13 This is a very expressive term, but better understood by Bunyan\nthe brazier than by many of his readers. It is well known to\nthose who live near a coppersmith's, when three or four athletic\nmen are keeping up, bout and bout, incessant blows upon a rivet,\nuntil their object is accomplished.--Ed.\n\n14 Protestant kings.\n\n15 This Christian temper of Bunyan certainly saved him from much\nsuffering while under persecution. It probably saved his invaluable\nlife. But how deeply it increases the guilt of his persecutors,\nto send such a man to a damp wretched prison, for more than twelve\nyears, because he dared not join in the worship established by\nlaw; and after all this, to hear his prayers and good wishes to\nhis persecutors, ought to have cut them to the quick.--Ed.\n\n16 Lord, what is man, to pretend to infallibility! His heart, be\nhe pope or pagan, is 'deceitful above all things, and desperately\nwicked.' Pope Sixtus V in 1589 issued his infallible Bible; but\nthe edition of Clement VIII, in 1592, differs much from that of\n1589. Infallibles ought never to differ with each other; but how\noften it has happened.--Ed.\n\n17 These bloody massacres, to which Bunyan here alludes, were\nattended with atrocities at which nature shudders. In France,\nunder a Bourbon and a Guise, the murder of hundreds of thousands\nof pious men and women, with helpless infants, threw down every\nbarrier to the spread of infidelity, and a frightful reaction took\nplace at the Revolution. In Ireland, under a Stuart and a Bourbon,\nstill more frightful atrocities were perpetrated, and which were\nseverely punished by Cromwell and his Roundheads. Under a second\nStuart, awful wholesale murders were again committed, and punished\nby William III; and the voice of the blood that was shed by\nAntichrist, and the voices of people enslaved by prejudice, and\nvindictive, ferocious enmity--these voices cry for vengeance, and\ndesolate that unhappy country.--Ed.\n\n18 In the first examination of Lord Cobham (Fox, vi p. 732, edit.\n1632) the gallant knight was asked by his bitter persecutor, what\nhe meant by 'the venom shed over the church'; his reply was, 'Your\npossession and lordships.' For then cried an angel in the air--'Wo!\nWo! Wo! this day is venom shed into the church of God.--Rome is\nthe very nest of Antichrist--prelates, priests and monks are the\nbody; and these pild [bald, but query, pillaging] friars are the\ntail, which covereth his most filthy part.' How peaceful and blessed\nwill be the church when ALL her ministers can glory with Paul,\nin Acts 20:33,34.--Ed. 19 The principal cry of the traveling\npeddlars was for broken or light money, to exchange for their\nwares: now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n20 Such has been the tendency of the antichristian church in\nall ages; witness the cases of the Emperor Henry IV, Henry II of\nEngland, and many others. The spirit and precept of Christianity,\non the contrary, is, while fearing God, to honour the king; and\nthat we be subject to principalities and powers, Titus 3:1; see\nalso Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1-7.--Ed.\n\n21 See Fox's Martyr, folio, vol. i., last leaf.--Ed.\n\n22 'Paper-winkers,' in every edition, except the first, which was\nfrom the author's manuscript, has been altered to 'paper-windows.'\nBunyan's allusion is to the winkers, called by many 'blinkers,'\nput by the side of a horse's eyes, to keep him under the complete\ncontrol of his driver--and by 'paper-winkers' the flimsy attempt\nof Antichrist to hoodwink mankind by printed legends, miracles,\nand absurd assumptions--it is one of the almost innumerable sparks\nof wit, which render all the writings of Bunyan so entertaining\nand strikingly instructive.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND ETERNAL JUDGMENT:\n\nOR, THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODIES, BOTH OF GOOD AND\nBAD AT THE LAST DAY: ASSERTED, AND PROVED BY GOD'S WORD.\n\nALSO, THE MANNER AND ORDER OF THEIR COMING FORTH OF THEIR GRAVES;\nAS ALSO, WITH WHAT BODIES THEY DO ARISE. TOGETHER, WITH A DISCOURSE\nOF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE FINAL CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE WORLD.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN, A SERVANT OF THE LORD'S CHRIST.\n\n\"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall\nall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the\nlast trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be\nraised incorruptible, and we shall be changed\"--(1 Cor 15:51,52).\n\n\"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that\nare in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they\nthat have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that\nhave done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation\"--(John 5:28,29).\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis very important treatise, judging from the style in which it is\nwritten, was, probably, one of the first books composed by Bunyan.\nThe form in which it is prepared, with minute divisions to assist\nthe memory, and its colloquial language, indicate that it was first\nintended for the pulpit and then enlarged to form a more complete\ntreatise; while the frequent recurrence of the words \"I say,\" shew\nthe unpolished style in which he was in the habit of committing\nhis thoughts to paper, when he became an author.\n\nA good copy of what appears to be the first edition, is in the\nBritish Museum, a small 8vo, without date--and from this, collated\nwith the reprint by C. Doe in Bunyan's works, 1691, the present\nedition is published. Doe, in his catalogue of all Mr. Bunyan's\nbooks, appended to the Heavenly Footman, 1690, states that \"The\nresurrection of the Dead, and eternal Judgment by John Bunyan, a\nservant of the Lord's Christ, was first published in 1665.\" I have\nnot been able to discover any subsequent edition in a separate\nvolume.\n\nThe resurrection of the body is a subject of universal and deep\nimportance. It defies our reasoning powers, while it exalts our\nideas of the divine omnipotence. With God, all things revealed\nin his word are not only possible, but certain of accomplishment.\nThe bodies of the saints, which are a part of the Redeemer's\npurchase will be raised in heavenly and wondrous perfection; like\nto the Saviour's glorious body. That body, which being transfigured\n\"did shine as the sun, and his raiment became as the light.\" That\nbody which, after his resurrection, might be touched, but which\ncould appear and disappear to mortal eyes; in the room at Emmaus,\nor in a closed room filled with his disciples; could be touched,\nyet vanish away; could eat with them on the sea shore, and could\nascend to heaven from the mount. Thus it was foretold by the prophet\nand reiterated by the apostle--\"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,\nneither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God\nhath prepared for them that love him\" (Isa 64:4; 1 Cor 2:9). Not\none atom of our dust can be lost; a bright, a glorious anticipation\nto the saints; but how solemn and awful a thought to those who die\nwithout hope. Among Christians it is common to think and talk of\nthe happiness of the spirits of the just made perfect; but alas,\nhow seldom do we think or speak of the perfect bliss of our\nwhole nature, body, soul, and spirit--incorruptible, undefiled,\nglorified--every part equally the object of the Saviour's purchase\nand of his care.\n\nThis treatise, which will be ever new, and ever important, was\npeculiarly required in Bunyan's early days. Under the protectorate,\nthe minds of men, which had been kept in slavery, became suddenly\nemancipated from human creeds and formularies of public worship.\nThe personal attention of every one was then directed to the\nBible--the Lord's day was observed, men were chosen as ministers\nnot from high connections, but from deep and humble piety. Tens\nof thousands became happy in a personal knowledge of divine truth.\nAt such a period, it must have happened that some evil spirits\nwould exalt themselves, and that even some serious inquirers would\ndraw strange conclusions from a misconception of divine truth;\nand dimly see \"men as trees walking.\" Among these there appeared\nteachers, who, unable to comprehend how that body, which had gone\nto dust, or in some cases had been reduced by fire to its primary\nelements, and dispersed to the winds or waves, could be again\nproduced. They revived an ancient error, That the new birth was\nthe only resurrection from death; and consequently, that to those\nwho were born again, the resurrection was passed. The individuals\nwho promulgated these opinions, do not appear to have been associated\ntogether as a sect, or a church. The greater number were called\nin derision \"ranters,\" and some \"quakers.\" It is very probable,\nthat this treatise was intended as an antidote to these delusions.\nWe must not infer from the opinions of a few unworthy individuals,\nwho justly deserved censure, that Bunyan meant to reflect upon the\nSociety of Friends. This treatise was printed in 1665: but it was\nnot until 1675 that the Quakers' rules of discipline were first\npublished, and they from that time as a sect have been, in a high\ndegree, conformable to the morality and heavenly influences of\nthe gospel. But even before this, Fox, Crisp, Penn, Barclay, and\nothers, who afterwards formed the Society of Friends, had declared\ntheir full belief in this doctrine. \"The resurrection of the just\nand unjust--the last judgment--heaven and hell as future rewards--we\nbelieve and confess.\" \"We believe the holy manhood of Christ to be\nin heavenly glory.\" \"We acknowledge a resurrection in order to\neternal recompence, and rest contented with that body which it\nshall please God to give us.\" \"We do firmly believe that besides\nthe resurrection of the soul from the death of sin, to a life of\nrighteousness while here, there will be a resurrection of the dead\nhereafter, and that we must all appear before the judgment seat\nof Christ.\" Barclay, in his catechism, 1673, clearly asserts\nBunyan's own ideas of the resurrection. But in the face of these,\nand a thousand similar declarations, the grossest calumnies were\nasserted by a fanatic clergyman, Alexr. Ross, in his View of all\nReligions:--\"The Ranters are a sect of beasts that neither divide\nthe hoof, nor chew the cud; that is to say, very unclean ones.\nThey, like the Quakers, oppose forms and order (the form and order\nof Common Prayer). To anatomize this monster: 1st, They hold that\nGod, Devils, Angels, Heaven, and Hell, are fictions. 2d, That\nMoses, the Baptist, and Christ were impostors. 3d, That preaching\nand praying is lying.\" 8vo., 1696, p. 273. And such wild slanders\nwere uttered occasionally against all dissenters, until a much\nlater period. Happily they are now better known, and the truths\nof Christianity are more appreciated. I have been careful to guard\nthe reader upon this subject, lest it should be thought that Bunyan\nhad in any degree manifested the spirit of those, who even to the\npresent day misrepresent the opinions of the Quakers. This may\nbe occasioned by their distinguishing tenet--That the work of the\nministry is purely a labour of love, and ought not to be performed\nfor hire--derived from the command of Christ to his disciples,\n\"Freely ye have received, freely give.\" This, however, is no reason\nthat they should be, as to their general views of divine truth,\nmisrepresented and traduced.\n\nBunyan, at all times solemn and impressive, is peculiarly earnest\nand searching in this treatise. The dead will arise involuntarily\nand irresistibly--conscience uncontrolled, must testify the truth,\nyea, all the truth to the condemnation of the soul and body,\nunless cleansed from sin by faith in the Redeemer and the sacred\ninfluences of the Holy Spirit. The books will be opened, and\nevery thought and word and action be seen inscribed in characters\nlegible to all. Every soul will be able to read and clearly to\nunderstand those mysterious books--God's omniscient, his penetrating,\nhis universal sight of all things from the creation of the world\nto the final consummation; and his perfect remembrance of all\nthat he saw--are one and the same. There is then no refuge, no\nescape--the word depart impels obedience, and the sinner plunges\ninto eternal woe!! O that the living may lay these awful realities\nto heart, and fly for refuge to the bosom of the Redeemer--he only\nis able--he is willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto\nGod by him. And they who find in him a refuge from the storms of\nlife, shall hear his voice irresistibly impelling them to heaven,\n\"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for\nyou from the foundation of the world.\"\n\nO glorious hour! O blest abode! I shall be like and near my God! And\nflesh and sin no more control The sacred pleasures of the soul.\n\nMay the divine blessing abundantly attend the reading of these\nawful or joyful realities.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nThough this be a small treatise, yet it doth present thee with\nthings of the greatest and most weighty concernment, even with a\ndiscourse of life and death to eternity: opening, and clearing,\nby the scriptures of God, that the time is at hand, when, there\nshall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust;\neven of the bodies of both, from the graves where they are, or\nshall be, at the approach of that day.\n\nThou hast also in these few lines, the order and manner of the\nrising of these two sorts of people, wherein is shewed thee with\nwhat body they shall then rise, as also their states and condition\nat this day, with great clearness.\n\nFor here thou shalt see the truth, and manner of the terrible\njudgment, the opening of the books, the examining of witnesses,\nwith a final conclusion upon good and bad. Which, I hope will be\nprofitable to thy soul that shall read it. For if thou art godly,\nthen here is that which will, through God's blessing, encourage\nthee to go on in the faith of the truth of the gospel; but if thou\nart ungodly, then here thou mayst meet with conviction: yea, and\nthat of what will be, without fail, thy end, at the end of the world:\nwhether thou continue in thy sins, or repent. If thou continue in\nthem, blackness, and darkness, and everlasting destruction; but\nif thou repent, and believe the gospel, then light, and life, and\njoy, and comfort, and glory, and happiness, and that to eternity.\n\nWherefore let me here beg these things at thy hand,\n\nFirst, That thou take heed of that spirit of mockery that saith,\n\"Where is the promise of his coming?\" (2 Peter 3:4,5).\n\nSecondly, Take heed that thy heart be not overcharged with surfeiting\nand drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come\nupon thee unawares (Luke 21:34,35).\n\nThirdly, But be diligent in making thy calling and election sure;\nthat thou in the day, of which thou shalt read more in this book,\nbe not found without that glorious righteousness that will then\nstand thee in stead, and present thee before his glorious presence,\nwith exceeding joy. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus,\nworld without end. Amen.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nOF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.\n\n\"BUT THIS I CONFESS UNTO THEE, THAT AFTER THE WAY WHICH THEY CALL\nHERESY, SO WORSHIP I THE GOD OF MY FATHERS, BELIEVING ALL THINGS\nWHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE LAW AND IN THE PROPHETS: AND HAVE HOPE\nTOWARD GOD, WHICH THEY THEMSELVES ALSO ALLOW, THAT THERE SHALL BE\nA RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, BOTH OF THE JUST AND UNJUST\"--(Acts\n24:14,15).\n\nMy discourse upon this text, will chiefly concern the resurrection\nof the dead: wherefore to that I shall immediately apply myself,\nnot meddling with what else is couched in the words.\n\nYou see here, that Paul, being upon his arraignment, accused of\nmany things, by some that were violent for his blood; and being\nlicensed to speak for himself by the then heathen magistrate; he\ndoth in few words tell them, that as touching the crimes wherewith\nthey charged him, he was utterly faultless, only this he confessed,\nthat after that way which they call heresy, so he worshipped the\nGod of his fathers; believing all things that are written in the\nlaw and the prophets, and that he had the same hope towards God,\nwhich they themselves did allow, that there should be a resurrection\nof the dead, both of the just and unjust.\n\nWhence note by the way, that a hypocritical people, will persecute\nthe power of those truths in others, which themselves in words\nprofess. I have hopes towards God, and that, such a hope which\nthemselves do allow, and yet I am this day, and that for this very\nthing, persecuted by them.\n\nBut to come to my purpose, \"There shall be a resurrection of\nthe dead,\" &c. By these words, the apostle sheweth us what was\nthe substance of his doctrine, to wit, that there should be \"a\nresurrection of the dead;\" and by these words also, what was the great\nargument with his soul, to carry him through these temptations,\nafflictions, reproaches, and necessities he met with in this\nworld, even the doctrine of a resurrection. I have hope towards\nGod, saith he, and there is my mind fixed; for there shall be \"a\nresurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.\" The reason\nwhy I cannot do what these Jews would have me; also why I cannot\nlive as do the Gentiles, it is, because I have in my soul, the faith\nof the resurrection. This is the doctrine I say, which makes me\nfear to offend, and that is as an undergirder to my soul, whereby\nI am kept from destruction and confusion, under all the storms and\ntempests I here go through. In a word, this is it that hath more\nawe upon my conscience than all the laws of men, with all the\npenalties they inflict. \"And herein do I exercise myself, to have\nalways a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men\"\n(verse 16).\n\nNow here, seeing this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead hath\nthat power, both to bear up and to awe; both to encourage and to\nkeep within compass, the spirit and body of the people of God;\nit will be requisite, and profitable for us, to inquire into the\ntrue meaning and nature of this word, \"the resurrection of the\ndead.\"\n\nAnd for the better compassing of this matter, I shall briefly\nenquire,\n\nFirst, What in this place is meant by the dead.\n\nSecondly, What is meant by the resurrection.\n\nThirdly, Why the apostle doth here speak of the resurrection of the\ndead as of a thing yet to come--\"There shall be a resurrection of\nthe dead, both of the just and unjust.\"\n\nFirst. The dead in scripture go under a five-fold consideration;\nas,\n\n1. Such as die a natural death, or as when a man ceaseth to be any\nmore in this world, as David, whom Peter tells us \"is both dead\nand buried, and his sepulchre is with us to this day\" (Acts 2:29).\n\n2. There is a people that are reckoned dead in trespasses and\nsins, as those are, who never yet were translated from darkness\nto light, and from the power of Satan to God. Such, I say, who\nyet never felt the power of the Word and Spirit of God, to raise\nthem from that state, to walk with him in the regeneration; making\na life out of Christ, and his present benefits (Eph 2:1,2; John\n5:25).\n\n3. There is a death seizeth men often after some measure of light\nreceived from God, and some profession of the gospel of Christ. These,\nfor the certainty of their damnation, are said to be dead--dead,\ntwice dead, and plucked up by the roots (Jude 12).\n\n4. There is in scripture mention made of a death to sin, and the\nlusts of the flesh; this death is the beginning of true life and\nhappiness, and is a certain forerunner of a share in Christ, and\nwith him in another world (Rom 6:6-8; 2 Tim 2:11).\n\n5. Lastly, There is also in the word, a relation of eternal death.\nThis is the death that those are in, and swallowed up of, that\ngo out of this world Godless, Christless, and graceless; dying\nin sin, and so under the curse of the dreadful God; who, I say,\nbecause they have missed of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour in\nthis day of grace: are fallen into the gulf and jaws of eternal\ndeath and misery, in the fire that never shall be quenched (Mark\n9:43,44; Luke 16:23-26).\n\nNow then, seeing there is death, or to be dead, taken under so many\nconsiderations in the scripture; it is evident, that to be dead in\nChrist, the text is not meant of them all: I then must distinguish,\nand inquire which of these deaths it is, that here the apostle\ndid look for a resurrection from. (1.) then, It cannot be meant\na resurrection from eternal death, for from that there is no\nredemption (Psa 49:8). (2.) Neither is it a resurrection from that\ndouble death; for they that are in that, are past recovery also.\n(3.) And as for those that are dead to sin, it is nonsense to say\nthere shall, or can be a resurrection from that: for that itself\nis a resurrection; which resurrection also, the apostle had then\npassed through: and also all the brethren, as he saith, You hath he\nquickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Col 2:12,13,20).\nAnd again, \"If ye then be risen with Christ\" (Col 3:1), and again,\n\"Wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the\noperation of God, who hath raised him from the dead\" (Col 2:12).\n(4.) The dead therefore in this scripture, must be understood\nof those that have departed this life, that have body and soul\nseparated each from the other; and so the resurrection, a resurrection\nof the body out of the grave; as Daniel saith, \"Many of them that\nsleep in the dust of the earth shall awake\" (Dan 12:2). And again,\n\"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall\nhear his voice, and shall come forth,\" &c. (John 5:28,29).\n\nSecond. [What is meant by the resurrection.] The resurrection of\nthe just, then, is the rising of the bodies of the just, and the\nresurrection of the unjust, the rising of their bodies, at the\nlast judgment. This also is the meaning of that saying of Paul to\nAgrippa, \"I stand,\" saith he, \"and am judged for the hope of the\npromise made of God unto our fathers\" (Acts 26:6), which promise\nat first began to be fulfilled in the resurrection of the body\nof Christ (Acts 13:32,33), and hath its accomplishment, when the\ndead, small and great, are raised out of their graves. Wherefore,\nthough Paul saith in the 13th of the Acts, it is already fulfilled;\nyet here he saith, he hopes it shall come. \"Which promise,\" saith\nhe, \"our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope\nto come\" (Acts 26:7). As God told Daniel, saying, \"go thy way,\ntill the end be: for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the\nend of the days\" (Dan 12:13).\n\nChrist is already risen, and therefore so far the promise is\nfulfilled; but his saints are yet in their graves, and therefore\nthat part of the fulfilling of it is yet to come, as he saith,\n\"Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God\nshould raise the dead?\" (Acts 26:8).\n\nAgain, That it is the resurrection of the dead bodies of both\nsaints and sinners that is here inserted, it is further evident;\nbecause the apostle saith, it is the resurrection, that the very\nPharisees themselves allowed. I have hope towards God, saith he,\nwhich themselves also allow; then what that hope is, he in the\nnext words sheweth, namely, that there shall be a resurrection of\nthe dead, &c. Now we know, that the Pharisees did not allow of a\nresurrection from a state of nature, to a state of grace, which is\nthe same with the new birth; but did confidently allow and teach,\nthat they were the children of Abraham, according to the flesh.\nYea, when any of them began to adhere, or incline to Christ's\ndoctrine in some things, yet the doctrine of the new birth, or\nof being raised from a state of nature, to a state of grace, they\nwould very much stick at; though in the meantime, they utterly were\nagainst the doctrine of the Sadducees, which denied the resurrection\nof the body (John 3:1-9; 8:51-56; Acts 23:6-8).\n\nFurther, the resurrection here spoken of, must needs be the\nresurrection of the body, because it is called, \"a resurrection of\nthe dead, both of the just and unjust\"--that is, of both saints and\nsinners, according to the saying of Christ, \"The hour is coming,\nin the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and\nshall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection\nof life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of\ndamnation\" (John 5:28,29).\n\nThird. [The resurrection spoken of is a thing yet to come;] the\nresurrection here mentioned, is a resurrection to come, not already\nenjoyed, either by saints or sinners--\"There shall be a resurrection\nof the dead, both of the just and unjust.\" Now, I say, the\nresurrection here being yet deferred by the just, and counted\nalso the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust:\nit must needs be the same resurrection that is spoken of by Job,\nwho saith, \"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be\nno more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep\"\n(Job 14:12).\n\nHaving thus, in few words, opened this scripture unto you, I shall\nin the next place, for the further satisfaction of those that are\nyet wavering, and for the refreshment of those that are strong\nand steadfast, lay down before you, several undeniable scripture\ndemonstrations of the resurrection of the dead, both of the just,\nand unjust.\n\nFIRST, I shall first begin with,\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.\n\nFirst, The just must arise, because Christ is risen from the dead.\nChrist is the head of the just, and they are the members of his\nbody; and because of this union, therefore the just must arise.\nThis is the apostle's own argument--\"If Christ,\" saith he, \"be\npreached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that\nthere is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection\nof the dead, then is Christ not risen\" (1 Cor 15:12,13). Now,\nI say, the reason why the apostle thus argueth the resurrection\nfrom the dead, by the resurrection of Christ, it is, because the\nsaints, of whose resurrection he here chiefly discourseth, are in\ntheir bodies, as well as in their souls, the members of Christ;\n\"Know ye not,\" saith he, \"that your bodies are the members of\nChrist\" (1 Cor 6:15). A very weighty argument; for if a good man\nbe a member of Christ, then he must either be raised out of his\ngrave, or else sin and death must have power over a member of\nChrist. I say again, if this body be not raised, then also Christ\nis not a complete conqueror over his enemies; forasmuch as death\nand the grave have still power over his members. \"The last enemy\nthat shall be destroyed is death\" (1 Cor 15:26). Now, though Christ\nin his own person hath a complete conquest over death, &c., yet\ndeath hath still power over the bodies of all that are in their\ngraves: now, I say, Christ being considered with relation to his\nmembers, then he hath not yet a complete conquest over death,\nneither will he, until they every one be brought forth of their\ngraves; for then, and not till then, shall that saying be every\nway fulfilled, \"Death is swallowed up in victory\" (1 Cor 15:53,54).\n\nSecond, As there must be a resurrection of the just, because Christ\nis their head, and they his members: so also, because the body\nof the saints, as well as their soul, is the purchase of Christ's\nblood. \"Ye are bought with a price:\" saith Paul; \"therefore glorify\nGod in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's\" (1 Cor\n6:20). Christ will not lose the purchase of his blood. O death,\nsaith Christ, I will have them; O grave, I will make thee let them\ngo; I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem\nthem from death. I have bought them, and they shall be mine. \"O\ndeath, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction\"\n(Hosea 13:14): I say, though the power of the grave be invincible,\nand death be \"the king of terrors\" (Job 18:14), yet he who hath\nthe keys of hell and of death at his girdle (Rev 1:18), to him\nbelongeth the issues from death. \"He that is our God is the God\nof salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death\"\n(Psa 68:20), and we, the price of his blood, shall be delivered.\n\nThird, As the body is the member of Christ, and the price of his\nblood: so it is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in us.\n\"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost\nwhich is in you,--and ye are not your own?\" (1 Cor 6:19). The body\nis no such ridiculous thing in the account of Christ as it was in\nthe account of the Sadducees. \"The body is not for fornication,\nbut for the Lord; and the Lord for the body\" (verse 13), and that\nnot only in this world, but that which is to come; wherefore he\nsaith, \"God hath both raised up the Lord [Jesus,] and will also\nraise us up by his own power\"--that is, as he hath raised up the\nbody of Christ, so will he raise up ours also by Christ.\n\nFourth, The bodies of the just must arise again, because of that\nsimilitude, that must be betwixt the body of the Lord Jesus Christ\nand the bodies of the saints. \"When he shall appear, we shall\nbe like him\" (1 John 3:2). Now we have it abundantly manifest in\nscripture, that the body of the Lord Jesus, was raised out of the\ngrave, caught up into heaven, and that it ever remaineth in the\nholiest of all, a glorified body (Luke 24:3-7; 36-43; John 20:24-28;\nActs 1:2-11; 2:31; 17:30-32; Mark 16:6,7,19; Heb 7:24-26; 8:1-3;\n10:12).\n\nNow, I say, it would be very strange to me if Christ should be\nraised, ascended, and glorified in that body; and yet that his\npeople should be with him, no otherwise than in their spirits;\nespecially, seeing that he in his resurrection, is said to be but\n\"the first-born from the dead, and the first-fruits of them that\nsleep\" (Col 1:18; 1 Cor 15:23). For we know, that a first-begotten\ndoth imply more sons, and that first-fruits do foreshew an\nafter-crop; wherefore we conclude, that \"as in Adam all die, even\nso in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own\norder: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's\nat his coming\" (1 Cor 15:22,23).\n\nAnd hence it is that the scripture saith, He \"shall change our vile\nbody, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body\" (Phil\n3:21). And hence it is again, that the day of Christ is said to\nbe the day of the manifestation of the sons of God, and of the\nredemption of our body (Rome 8:21-24), for then shall the saints\nof God not only be, but appear as their Saviour, being delivered\nfrom their graves, as he is from his, and glorified in their\nbodies, as he is in his.\n\nFifth, There must be a resurrection of the body of the saints,\nbecause the body, as well as the mind, hath been a deep sharer\nin the afflictions that we meet with for the gospel's sake. Yea,\nthe body is ofttimes the greater sufferer, in all the calamities,\nthat for Christ's sake we here undergo; it is the body that feels\nthe stocks, the whip, hunger and cold, the fire and rack, and\na thousand calamities; it is the body in which we have the dying\nmarks of the Lord Jesus, \"that the life also of Jesus might be\nmade manifest in our mortal1 flesh\" (Gal 6:17; 2 Cor 4:11). God\nis so just a God, and so merciful to his people, that though the\nbodies of his saints should, through the malice of the enemy, be\nnever so dishonourably tortured, killed, and sown in the grave:\nyet he will, as further will be shewn anon, raise it again in\nincorruption, glory, and honour: as he saith also in another place,\nthat we who have continued with Christ in his temptations, that\nhave for his sake underwent the reproach and malice of the world,\nto you, saith Christ. \"I appoint a kingdom, as my Father hath\nappointed unto me\" (Luke 22:28,29). If we suffer, we shall also\nreign with him (2 Tim 2:12): \"and he that hateth his life in this\nworld shall keep it unto life eternal\" (John 12:25). All this is\nto be enjoyed, especially at the resurrection of the just. But,\n\nSixth, There must be a resurrection of the just, otherwise, there\nwill be the greatest disappointment on all sides that ever was,\nsince man had a being on the earth. A disappointment, I say,\n\n1. Of the will of God--\"And this is the Father's will which hath\nsent me,\" saith Christ, \"that of all which he hath given me I\nshould lose nothing, [not a dust,] but should raise it up again\nat the last day\" (John 6:39).\n\n2. A disappointment of the power of God; for he that hath raised\nup the Lord Jesus, doth also intend to raise us up by his power,\neven our bodies; as Paul saith, \"The body is not for fornication,\nbut for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both\nraised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his power\" (1\nCor 6:13,14).\n\n3. If there should be no resurrection of the just, Christ also would\nbe wonderfully disappointed of the fruits of all his sufferings.\nAs I told you before, his people are the price of his blood, and\nthe members of his body, and he is now at the right hand of God,\n\"far above all principalities and powers, and every name that\nis named,\" expecting till his enemies be made his footstool (Heb\n1:13), and brought under the foot of the weakest saint; which will\nnot be, until the last enemy death is destroyed. We know that he\nsaid, when he went away, that he would come again, and fetch all\nhis people to himself, even up into heaven, that where he is, there\nwe may be also (John 12:26; 14:1-3; 17:24). But, I say, how will\nhe be disappointed, if when he comes, the grave and death should\nprevent and hinder him, and with its bars, keep down those, whom\nhe hath ransomed with his blood, from the power thereof.\n\n4. If the bodies of the just arise [not] from the dead, then they\nalso will be disappointed. 'Tis true, the saints departed, have\nfar more fellowship and communion with God and the Lord Jesus,\nthan we have, or are not yet capable of having, they being in\nparadise, and we in this world (Luke 23:43); but yet, I say for\nall that, they are, though there, very much longing for the day\nof the Lord's vengeance, which will be the day in which they will,\nand must arise from the dead. This, I say, is the time that they\nlong for, when they cry under the altar, \"How long, O Lord, holy\nand true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that\ndwell on the earth?\" (Rev 6:10,11). When they died, they died in\nhope to \"obtain a better resurrection\" (Heb 11:35), and now they\nare gone, they long till that day be come; till the day come, I\nsay, when the dead, even all the enemies of Christ, shall be judged;\nfor then will he give rewards to his servants the prophets, and\nto his saints, and to all that fear his name, small and great (Rev\n11:18).\n\n5. If the just arise not, great disappointment also will be\nto the saints yet alive in this world; for, notwithstanding they\nhave already received the first-fruits of the Spirit, yet they\nwait, not only for more of that, but also for the resurrection,\nredemption, and changing of this vile body. \"For our conversation\nis in heaven,\" saith Paul, \"from whence also we look for the\nSaviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body,\nthat it may be fashioned like to his glorious body\" (Rom 8:20-23;\nPhil 3:20,21). But now, I say, if the body riseth not, then how\ncan it be made like to the glorious body of Christ Jesus: yea,\nwhat a sad disappointment, infatuation, and delusion, are those\npoor creatures under, that look, and that by scripture warrant,\nfor such a thing? They look for good, but behold evil; they expect\nto be delivered in their whole man from every enemy; but lo, both\ndeath and the grave, their great enemies, do swallow them up for\never. But, beloved, be not deceived. \"The needy shall not always\nbe forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever\"\n(Psa 9:18). Saith Christ, He that seeth the Son, and believeth on\nhim that sent him, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up\nat the last day (John 6:40).\n\n6. If the just arise not out of their graves, then also is every\ngrace of God in our souls defeated; for though the spirit of\ndevotion can put forth a feigned show of holiness with the denial\nof the resurrection, yet every grace of God in the elect doth\nprompt them forward to live as becomes the gospel, by pointing\nat this day; as, (1.) 'Tis this that faith looks at, according as\nit is written, \"I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also\nbelieve, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the\nLord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us\nwith you\" (2 Cor 4:13,14). (2.) Hope looks at this. \"We,\" saith\nPaul, \"which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves\ngroan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the\nredemption of our body\"--that is, we expect this by hope; \"but\nhope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth,\" or hath in\npresent possession, \"why doth he yet hope for?\" (Rom 8:23,24).\n(3.) The grace of self-denial also worketh by this doctrine--\"If\nafter the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,\nwhat advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?\" (1 Cor 15:32). As\nwho should say, Wherefore do I deny myself of those mercies and\nprivileges that the men of this world enjoy? Why do not I also,\nas well as they, shun persecution for the cross of Christ? If the\ndead rise not, what shall I be the better for all my trouble that\nhere I meet with for the gospel of Christ? (4.) Both zeal and\npatience, with all other the graces of the Spirit of God in our\nhearts, are much, yea, chiefly encouraged, animated, and supported\nby this doctrine; as James saith, \"Be patient, therefore, brethren,\nunto the coming of the Lord,\" for then shall the dead be raised (1\nThess 4:16,17). \"Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious\nfruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive\nthe early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts;\nfor the coming of the Lord draweth nigh\" (James 5:7,8).\n\nSeventh, The doctrine of the resurrection of the just, must needs\nbe a certain truth of God, if we consider the devilish, and\nsatanical errors and absurdities that must unavoidably follow the\ndenial thereof; as, he that holdeth no resurrection of our body,\nhe denieth the resurrection of the body of Christ. This is the\nSpirit's own doctrine--\"For if the dead rise not, then is not\nChrist raised\" (1 Cor 15:16). He that denieth the resurrection\nof the members, denieth the resurrection of the head; for seeing\nthe resurrection of the saints is proved by the resurrection of\nChrist, he that doth deny the resurrection of the saints, must\nneeds deny the resurrection of Christ, that proves it. Now this\nerror, as it is in itself destructive to all Christian religion:\nso it, like an adder, carrieth within its bowels, many other alike\ndevilish and filthy; as,\n\n1. He that denieth the resurrection of the saints, he concludeth,\nthat to preach deliverance from sin and death, it is vain preaching;\nfor how can he be freed of sin, that is swallowed up for ever\nof death and the grave? as he most certainly is, that is always\ncontained therein, as Paul saith, \"If Christ be not risen,\" whose\nresurrection is the ground of ours, \"then is our preaching vain,\nand your faith is also vain\" (1 Cor 15:14), then we preach fables,\nand you receive them for truth.\n\n2. This error, casteth the lie in the face of God, of Christ,\nand the Scriptures--\"Yea, and we,\" saith Paul, \"are found false\nwitnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised\nup Christ:--if so be that the dead rise not\" (1 Cor 15:15).\nMark, before he said, Christ in his resurrection, doth prove our\nresurrection; but now he saith, that our resurrection will prove\nthe truth of his; and indeed both are true; for as by Christ's\nrising, ours is affirmed; so by ours, his is demonstrated.\n\n3. The denial of the resurrection, it also damneth all those that\nhave departed this world in the faith of this doctrine. \"If Christ\nbe not raised,\" (as if he is not, we rise not, then is not only)\nyour faith vain, ye are yet in your sins (that are alive,) but\n\"then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished\"\n(1 Cor 15:17,18).\n\n4. He that denieth the resurrection of the just, he concludeth, that\nthe Christian is of all men the most miserable. Mark the words:\n\"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men\nmost miserable\" (1 Cor 15:19). First of all, men the most miserable,\nbecause we let go present enjoyments for those that will never\ncome, \"if the dead rise not.\" Of all men most miserable, because\nour faith, our hope, our joy, and peace, are all but a lie, \"if\nthe dead rise not.\" But you will say, he that giveth up himself\nto God shall have comfort in this life. Ah! but \"if the dead rise\nnot,\" all our comfort that now we think we have from God, will\nthen be found presumption and madness, because we believe, that\nGod hath so loved us, as to have us in his day, in body and soul,\nto heaven: which will be nothing so, if the dead rise not. If in\nthis life only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most\nmiserable. Poor Christian! thou that lookest for the blessed hope\nof the resurrection of the body, at the glorious appearing of the\ngreat God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, how wilt thou be deceived,\nif the dead rise not! \"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and\nbecome the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came\ndeath, by man came also the resurrection of the dead\" (1 Cor\n15:20,21).\n\n5. But again; he that denieth the resurrection of the dead, he\nsetteth open a flood-gate to all manner of impiety; he cutteth the\nthroat of a truly holy life, and layeth the reins upon the neck\nof the most outrageous lusts; for if the dead rise not, let us\neat and drink; that is, do anything, though never so diabolical\nand hellish; \"let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die\" (1 Cor\n15:32), and there is an end of us; we shall not arise again, to\nreceive either evil or good.\n\n6. To deny this resurrection, nay, if a man do but say, it is past\neither with him or any Christian: his so saying tendeth directly\nto the destruction and overthrow of the faith of them that hear\nhim; and is so far from being according to the doctrine of God,\nthat it eateth out good and wholesome doctrine even as cankers\neat the face and flesh of a man. How ill-favouredly do they look,\nthat have their nose and lips eaten off with the canker? Even so\nbadly doth the doctrine of no resurrection of the dead, look in\nthe eyes of God, Christ, saints, and scripture (2 Tim 2:18).\n\n7. I conclude then, that to deny the resurrection of the bodies of\nthe just, it argueth,\n\n(1.) Great ignorance of God, ignorant of his power to raise, ignorant\nof his promise to raise, ignorant of his faithfulness to raise;\nand that both to himself, Son, and saints, as I shewed before.\nTherefore saith Paul to those that were thus deluded, \"Awake to\nrighteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God.\nI speak this to your shame\" (1 Cor 15:34). As if he had said, Do\nyou profess Christianity? and do you question the resurrection\nof the body? Do you now know, that the resurrection of the body,\nand glory to follow, is the very quintessence of the gospel of\nJesus Christ? Are you ignorant of the resurrection of the Lord\nJesus, and do you question the power and faithfulness of God,\nboth to his Son and his saints; because you say, there shall be\nno resurrection of the dead? You are ignorant of God; of what he\ncan do, of what he will do, and of what he will by doing glorify\nhimself.\n\n(2.) As it argueth very great ignorance of God's power, faithfulness,\n&c., so it argueth gross ignorance of the tenor and current of\nthe scriptures; for \"as touching the dead, that they rise: have\nye not read in the book of Moses [saith Christ] how in the bush,\nGod spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God\nof Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but\nthe God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err\" (Mark 12:26,27).\n\nTo be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is to be understood\nof his being their God under a new covenant consideration; as he\nsaith, \"I will be their God, and they shall be my people.\" Now,\nthus he is not the God of the dead--that is, of those that perish,\nwhether they be angels or men (Heb 8:10,11; John 8:42; 1 John\n3:8-10; Hosea 6:2; Col 3:4; Eph 1:4).\n\nNow, I say, they that are the children of God, as Abraham,\nIsaac, and Jacob, they are counted the living under a threefold\nconsideration--(a.) In their Lord and head, and thus all the elect\nmay be said to live; for they are from eternity chosen in him, who\nalso is their life, though possibly many of them yet unconverted.\nI say, yet Christ is their life, by the eternal purpose of God.\n(b.) The children of the new covenant, do live both in their spirits\nin glory, by open vision, and here by faith and the continual\ncommunication of grace from Christ into their souls (Gal 2:20).\n(c.) They live also with respect to their rising again; for God\n\"calleth those things which be not as though they were\" (Rom 4:17).\nTo be born, dead, buried, risen, and ascended, are all present with\nGod, he liveth not by time, as we do--a thousand years to him are\nbut as the day that is past. And again, \"One day is as a thousand\nyears\" (2 Peter 3:8). Eternity, which is God himself, admitteth of\nno first, second, and third; all things are naked and bare before\nhim, and present with him (Heb 4:13; Isa 46:9,10); all his live\nunto him. There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the\njust and unjust (Rom 8:29-34).\n\nA resurrection--of what? Of that which is sown, or of that which\nwas never sown? If of that which is sown, then it must be either\nof that nature that was sown, or else of the corruption that\ncleaveth to it; but it is the nature, and not the corruption that\ncleaveth unto it, that riseth again. And verily, the very term\n\"resurrection\" is a forcible argument to prove the dead shall come\nforth of their graves; for the Holy Ghost hath always spoken more\nproperly than to say, \"There shall be a resurrection of the dead,\nboth of the just and unjust;\" when yet neither the good nor the\nbad shall come forth of their graves, but rather something else\nto delude the world withal.\n\nHaving thus in few words, shewed you the truth of the resurrection\nof the dead, I now come,\n\nSECOND--To the manner of their rising.\n\nTHE MANNER OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST.\n\nAnd FIRST of the just.\n\nThe apostle, when he had in the fifteenth of the 1st of the\nCorinthians proved the truth and certainty of the resurrection,\nhe descends to the discovery of the manner of it; and to the end,\nhe might remove those foolish scruples that attend the hearts of\nthe ignorant, he begins with one of their questions--\"But some man\nwill say,\" saith he, \"How are the dead raised up? and with what\nbody do they come?\" (verse 35). To which he answereth,\n\nFirst, By a similitude of seed, that is sown in the earth. In which\nsimilitude, he inserteth three things--\n\n1. That our reviving or rising, must be after death--\"That which\nthou sowest is not quickened except it die\" (verse 36).\n\n2. That at our rising, we shall not only revive and live, but\nbe changed into a far more glorious state than when we were sown.\n\"That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall\nbe,\" &c. \"But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him\" (verse\n38)--that is, he giveth the body more splendour, lustre, and beauty\nat its resurrection. But,\n\n3. Neither its quickening, not yet its transcendent splendour, shall\nhinder it from being the same body--as to the nature of it--that\nwas sown in the earth; for as God giveth it a body, for honour\nand splendour as it pleaseth him, so \"to every seed his own body\"\n(verse 38).\n\nAnd, indeed, this similitude by which he here reasoneth the manner of\nthe resurrection of the just, is very natural, and fitly suiteth\neach particular; for, as to its burial--(1.) The corn of wheat\nis first dead, and after sown and buried in the earth; and so is\nthe body of man. (2.) After the corn is thus dead and buried, then\nit quickeneth and reviveth to life: so also shall it be with our\nbody; for after it is laid in the grave and buried, it shall then\nquicken, rise, and revive.\n\nAgain, as to the manner of its change in its rising, this similitude\nalso doth fitly suit; as,\n\nIt is sown a dead corn; it is raised a living one. It is sown dry,\nand without comeliness; it riseth green and beautiful. It is sown\na single corn; it riseth a full ear. It is sown in its husk; but\nin its rising it leaveth that husk behind it.\n\nFurther, though the kernel thus die, be buried, and meet with all\nthis change and alteration in these things, yet none of them can\ncause the nature of the kernel to cease--it is wheat still. Wheat\nwas sown and wheat ariseth; only it was sown dead, dry, and barren\nwheat; and riseth living, beautiful, and fruitful wheat. It hath\nthis alteration, then, that it doth greatly change its resemblance,\nthough yet it hath this power, as still to retain its own nature.\nGod giveth it a body as it pleaseth him, \"but to every seed his\nown body.\"\n\nThe apostle having thus presented the manner of the resurrection of\nthe saints by the nature of seed sown and rising again; he proceedeth,\n\nSecond, for further illustration, to three more similitudes--The\nfirst is, to shew us the variety and glory of flesh. The second\nis, to shew us the difference of glory that is between heavenly\nbodies, and those that are earthy. The third is, to shew us the\ndifference that is between the glory of the light of the sun, from\nthat of the moon; and also how one star differeth from another in\nglory: and then concludeth, \"so is the resurrection of the dead\"\n(1 Cor 15:39-43). As who should say, at the resurrection of the\nbodies, they will be abundantly more altered and changed, than if\nthe flesh of beasts and fowls were made as noble as the flesh of\nmen; or the bodies of earth, were made as excellent as the heavenly\nbodies, or as if the glory of the moon should be made as bright,\nand as clear as the glory of the sun; or as if the glory of the\nleast star was as glorious, and as shining, as the biggest in the\nfirmament of heaven.\n\nIt is a resurrection indeed, a resurrection every way. The body\nariseth, as to the nature of it, the self-same nature; but as to\nthe manner of it; how far transcendent is it! There is a poor,\ndry, wrinkled kernel cast into the ground, and there it lieth, and\nswelleth, breaketh, and, one would think, perisheth; but behold,\nit receiveth life, it chitteth,2 it putteth forth a blade, and\ngroweth into a stalk, there also appeareth an ear; it also sweetly\nblossoms, with a full kernel in the ear: it is the same wheat, yet\nbehold how the form and fashion of that which now ariseth, doth\ndiffer from that which then was sown; its glory also when 'twas\nsown, is no glory, when compared with that in which it riseth.\nAnd yet it is the same that riseth that was sown, and no other;\nthough the same after a far more glorious manner; not the same with\nits husk, but without it. Our bran shall be left behind us when we\nrise again. The comparison also between the bodies heavenly and\nbodies earthly holds forth the same--\"The glory of the celestial\nis one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.\" Now mark\nit; he doth not speak here of the natures of each of these bodies;\nbut of the transcendent glory of one above another. \"The glory\nof the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.\"\nWherefore I say, at our rising, we shall not change our nature,\nbut our glory; we shall be equal to the angels (Luke 20:36), not\nwith respect to their nature, but glory. The nature also of the\nmoon is one thing, and the glory of the moon is another; and so\none star also differeth from another in glory.\n\nA beggar hath the same nature as a king, and gold in the ore, the\nsame nature with that which is best refined; but the beggar hath\nnot the same glory with the king, nor yet the gold in ore, the\nsame glory with that which is refined. But our state will be far\nmore altered than any of these in the days when we, like so many\nsuns in the firmament of heaven, arise out of the heart and bowels\nof the earth.\n\nThese things thus considered do shew you how vainly they argue,\nthat say, our human nature consisting of body and soul, shall not\ninherit the kingdom of God, and also how far from their purpose,\nthat saying of the apostle is, which saith, that \"flesh and blood\nshall not inherit the kingdom of God.\" And now also, because I am\nfallen upon the objection itself, I shall not pass it, but with\na short dash at it. Wherefore reader, whoever thou art, consider\nthat frequently in scripture the words \"flesh\" and \"blood,\" as\nalso in the place alleged, are not to be understood of that matter\nwhich God made; which flesh cleaveth to our bones, and blood runs\nin our veins: but is taken for that corruption, weakness, mortality,\nand evil that cleaveth to it; which weakness and corruption,\nbecause it possesseth all men, and also wholly ruleth where the\nsoul is unconverted; therefore it beareth the name of that which\nis ruled and acted by it--to wit, our whole man, consisting of\nbody and soul; yet, I say, is a thing distinct from that flesh and\nblood which is essential to our being, and without which we are\nno men. As, for instance, he that is Christ's, saith Paul, \"hath\ncrucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts\" (Gal 5:24),\nWho is so vain as to think that the apostle by these words, should\nmean our material flesh that hangeth on our bones, and that is\nmixed with our natural blood, sinews, and veins; and not rather\nof that inward fountain of sin, corruption, and wickedness, which\nin another place he calleth \"the old man,\" with his \"deceitful\nlusts\" (Eph 4:22). Again, \"The flesh lusteth against the spirit,\nand the spirit against the flesh.\" Is it our flesh that hangeth\non our bones, which lusteth against the spirit? and that also\nagainst which the spirit lusteth? Certainly, if the spirit lusteth\nagainst our material flesh, then it is our duty not to nourish it\nat all, because, by nourishing of it we nourish that against which\nthe Spirit of God fighteth, and warreth. Nay, if the spirit lust\nagainst the flesh on our bones simply considered as flesh; and if\nit be our duty to follow the Spirit, as it is, then we must needs\nkill ourselves, or cut our flesh from our bones. For whatever the\nSpirit of God lusteth against, it must be destroyed; yea, it is\nour duty with all speed to destroy it. But wilt thou know, O vain\nman, that by flesh here is to be understood, not the nature that\nGod hath made, but the corrupt apprehension, and wisdom, with\nthose inclinations to evil, that lodge within us, which in another\nplace are called the \"wisdom of the flesh,\" yea, in plain terms,\n\"flesh and blood,\" where Christ saith, \"Flesh and blood hath not\nrevealed [this] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven\" (Matt\n16:17).\n\nNay, observe it, all these places, with many others, do rather point\nat a corrupt soul, than a corrupt body; for, indeed, sin and all\nspiritual wickedness, they have their seat in the heart and soul\nof a man, and by their using this or that member of the body, so\ndefile the man; the weaknesses of the body, or that attend our\nmaterial flesh and blood, they are weaknesses of another kind, as\nsickness, aches, pains, sores, wounds, defection of members, &c.\nWherefore, where you read of flesh and blood, as rejected of God;\nespecially, when it speaks of the flesh and blood of saints, you\nare not to understand it as meant of the flesh, which is their\nproper human nature, but of that weakness which cleaveth to it.\n\nPaul in another place, reckoneth up the works of the flesh, in many\nthings, as in witchcraft, hatred, variance, strife, emulation,\nfornication, and many others. But can any imagine, that he there\nshould strike at that flesh which hangeth on our bones, or rather\nat that malignity and rebellion that is in the mind of man against\nthe Lord, by reason of which the members of the body are used\nthis way, and also sometimes that, to accomplish its most filthy\nand abusive deeds (Gal 5:17-21). \"They were--enemies in [their]\nmind by wicked works\" (Col 1:21).\n\nThus you see that \"flesh and blood\" is not to be taken always for\nthe flesh that is upon our hands, and feet, and other parts of our\nbody; but for that sin, weakness, and infirmity, that cleaveth to\nour whole man.\n\nFurther then, touching our real substantial flesh, it may be either\nconsidered as God's creature purely, or as corrupted with sin and\ninfirmity. Now if you consider it as corrupted, so it shall not\ninherit the kingdom of God: but yet consider it as God's creature,\nand so all that God hath converted to himself, through Jesus Christ,\nshall, even with that body when changed, inherit the kingdom of\nGod. The woman whose clothes are foul, can yet distinguish between\nthe dirt and the cloth on which it hangeth; and so deals God with\nus. 'Tis true, there is not one saint, but while he liveth here,\nhis body is arrayed and infected with many corrupt and filthy\nthings, as touching bodily weaknesses; yea, and also with many\nsinful infirmities, by reason of that body of sin and death that\nyet remains in us: but yet God, I say, distinguisheth between\nour weaknesses, and his workmanship, and can tell how to save the\nwhole man of his people, while he is destroying the corruption\nand weakness that cleaveth to them.\n\nAnd now to return to the place objected--\"Flesh and blood shall\nnot inherit the kingdom of God.\" It cannot be truly understood,\nthat that flesh which is man's nature shall not enter the kingdom;\nfor then, as I said before, Christ must lose his members, the\npurchase of his blood, the vessels and temples of his Spirit; for\nall this is our body. Again, then Christ also, in that his body,\nwhich is also our flesh and blood, is not in glory, contrary to the\nwhole current of the New Testament (Heb 2:14,15; 7:24,25; 8;3,4;\n10:10-12; Rev 1:18; 2:8).\n\nYea, it would be nonsense to say, there should be a resurrection,\nand that our vile body shall be changed, \"and made like to the\nglorious body of the Son of God;\" if this body do not at all rise\nagain, but some other thing, which is not in us, and our nature.\nBut to be short; the apostle here, when he saith, \"Flesh and\nblood cannot inherit,\" &c., speaks properly of that mortality\nand weakness, that now attends our whole man, and not of our real\nsubstantial body itself. For after he had said, \"Flesh and blood\ncannot inherit the kingdom of God,\" he adds, \"neither doth corruption\ninherit incorruption,\" which two sayings are answerable to what\nhe presently adds, saying, \"Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall\nnot all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the\ntwinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound,\nand the dead\"--mark, \"the dead shall be raised incorruptible\"--that\nis, the dead shall be so raised as that in their rising, incorruption\nshall possess them instead of corruption, and immortality instead\nof that mortality that descended to the grave with them,--\"for this\ncorruptible\"--mark, this corruptible--\"must put on incorruption,\nand this mortal must put on immortality.\" Mark, I say, it is\nthis corruptible, and this mortal, that must be raised, though\nnot corruptible and mortal, as it was buried; but immortal and\nincorruptible; it shall leave its grave-clothes of corruption and\nmortality behind it (1 Cor 15:50-53).\n\nTHIRD. The manner of which their rising, the apostle doth more\ndistinctly branch out a little above in four particulars, which\nparticulars are these that follow--1. It is sown in corruption;\nit is raised in incorruption. 2. It is sown in dishonour, it is\nraised in glory. 3. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.\n4. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (1\nCor 15).\n\n1. It is raised in incorruption. We are brought into this world by\nsin and corruption; corruption is our father, and in sin did our\nmother conceive us (Job 17:14; Psa 51:5). And hence it is that we\nhave our life, not only like a span, shadow, or post, for shortness,\nbut also, that it is attended with so much vanity and vexation of\nspirit. But now being raised from the dead incorruptible, which\nis also called a begetting and birth, these things that now in\nour life annoy us, and at last take away our life, are effectually\ndestroyed; and therefore we live for ever, as saith the Spirit--\"And\nthere shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither\nshall there be any more pain: for the former things,\" that is,\nall our corruptibleness, \"are passed away\" (Rev 21:4).\n\nThere shall be in our resurrection no corruption, either of body\nor of soul; no weakness, nor sickness, nor anything tending that\nway; as he saith, He will present us \"to himself a glorious church,\nnot having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing\" (Eph 5:27).\nTherefore, when he saith it is raised in incorruption, it is as\nif he had said, It is impossible that they should ever sin more,\nbe sick more, sorrow more, or die more. \"They which shall be counted\nworthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead,\nneither marry, nor are given in marriage;\" though 'twas thus with\nthem in this world; \"neither can they die any more, for they are\nequal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the\nchildren of the resurrection\" (Luke 20:35, 36).\n\n2. It is raised in glory. The dishonour that doth attend the\nsaint at his departing this world, it is very great--\"he is sown\nin dishonour;\" he is so loathsome at his death, that his dearest\nfriends are weary of him, stop their noses at him, see no beauty\nin him, nor set any price upon him, (I speak nothing here how\nsome of them are hanged, starved, banished, and so die, torn to\npieces, and not suffered to be put into graves,) but it is raised\nin glory. Glory is the sweetness, comeliness, purity, and perfection\nof a thing. The light is the glory of the sun, strength is the\nglory of youth, and grey hairs are the glory of old age--that is,\nit is the excellency of these things, and that which makes them\nshine (1 Cor 15:40,41; Prov 20:29).\n\nTherefore, to arise in glory, it is first to arise in all the\nbeauty, and utmost completeness that is possible to possess a human\ncreature; I say, in all its features and members, inconceivably\nbeautiful. Sin and corruption have made mad work in our bodies as\nwell as in our souls. 'Tis sin commonly that is the cause of all\nthe deformity and ill-favouredness that now cleaveth to us, and\nthat also rendereth us so dishonourable at our death; but now at\nour rising, we being raised incorruptible, we shall appear in such\nperfections, and that of all sorts, belonging to the body, that\nall the beauty and comeliness, sweetness and amiableness, that\nhath at any time been in this world, it shall be swallowed up a\nthousand times told with this glory. The Psalmist saith of Christ\nthat \"he was fairer than the children of men\" (Psa 45:2), and\nthat, as I believe, in his outward man, as well as in his inward\npart. He was the exactest, purest, completest, and beautifulest\ncreature that ever God made, till his visage was so marred by his\npersecutions; for in all things he had and shall have the pre-eminence\n(Isa 52:14; Col 1:18). Why, our bodies at our resurrection will\nnot only be as free from sin, as his was before he died, but also\nas free from all other infirmities as he was after he was raised\nagain. In a word, if incorruptibleness can put a beauty upon our\nbodies when they arise, we shall have it. There shall be no lame\nlegs, nor crump shoulders, no bleared eyes, nor yet wrinkled\nfaces--He \"shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned\nlike unto his glorious body\" (Phil 3:21).\n\nAgain, all the glory that a glorified soul can help this body to,\nit at this day shall enjoy. That soul that hath been these hundreds\nor thousands of years in the heavens, soaking in the bosom of\nChrist, it shall in a moment come spangling into the body again,\nand inhabit every member and vein of the body, as it did before\nits departure. That Spirit of God also that took its leave of the\nbody when it went to the grave, shall now in all perfection dwell\nin this body again; I tell you, the body at this day will shine\nbrighter than the face of Moses or Stephen, even as bright as the\nsun, the stars, and angels. \"When Christ who is our life, shall\nappear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory\" (Exo 34:29,35;\nActs 6:15; Dan 12:3; Matt 13:43; Luke 20:36; Col 3:3,4).\n\n3. It is raised in power. While we are here, we are attended with\nso many weaknesses and infirmities, that in time the least sin or\nsickness is too hard for us, and taketh away both our strength,\nour beauty, our days, our breath, and life, and all (Job 38:17).\nBut behold, we are raised in power, in that power that all these\nthings are as far below us as a grasshopper is below a giant; at\nthe first appearance of us the world will tremble.\n\nBehold, the gates of death and the bars of the grave are now carried\naway on our shoulders, as Samson carried away the gates of the city\n(Judg 16:3). Death quaketh, and destruction falleth down dead at\nour feet: What, then, can stand before us? We shall then carry\nthat grace, majesty, terror, and commanding power in our souls that\nour countenances shall be like lightning3 (Compare Luke 20:16 with\nMatthew 28:2,3). \"For this corruptible must put on incorruption,\nand this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible\nshall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put\non immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is\nwritten, Death is swallowed up in victory\" (1 Cor 15:53,54).\n\n4. It is raised a spiritual body. This is the last particular,\nand is indeed the reason of the other three; it is an incorruptible\nbody, because it is a spiritual one; it is a glorious body,\nbecause it is a spiritual one; it doth rise in power, because it\nis a spiritual body. When the body is buried, or sown in the earth,\nit is a body corruptible, dishonourable, weak, and natural; but\nwhen it ariseth, it doth rise incorruptible, glorious, powerful,\nand spiritual; so that so far as incorruption is above corruption,\nglory above dishonour, power above weakness, and spiritual above\nnatural; so great an alteration will there be in our body, when\nraised again. And yet it is this body and not another; this in\nnature, though changed into a far more glorious state, a thousand\ntimes further than if a hoggard4 was changed to be an emperor.\nMark, \"it is sown a natural body;\" a very fit word; for though\nthere dwell never so much of the Spirit and grace of God in it\nwhile it liveth, yet so soon as the soul is separate from it, so\nsoon also doth the Spirit of God separate from it, and so will\ncontinue while the day of its rising be come. Therefore, it is\nlaid into the earth a mere lump of man's nature--\"It is sown a\nnatural body;\" but now at the day when \"the heavens be no more,\"\nas Job saith (14:12), then the trump shall sound, even the trump\nof God, and, in a moment, the dead shall be raised incorruptible,\nglorious, and spiritual (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16,17). So that\nI say, the body when it ariseth, will be so swallowed up of life\nand immortality, that it will be, as if it had lost its own human\nnature; though, in truth, the same substantial real nature is\nevery whit there still. 'Tis the same it that riseth, that was\nsown; \"It is sown,\" \"it is raised;\" \"it is sown,\" \"it is raised,\"\nsaith the apostle. You know, that things which are candied, by the\nart of the apothecary, they are so swallowed up with the sweetness\nand virtue of that in which they are candied, that they are now,\nas though they had no other nature, than that in which they are\nboiled: when yet, in truth, the thing candied doth still retain\nits own proper nature and essence; though by virtue of its being\ncandied, it loseth its former sourness, bitterness, stinking,\nsmell, or the like. Just thus, at the last day, it will be with\nour bodies: we shall be so candied, by being swallowed up of life,\nas before is shewed, that we shall be, as if we were all spirit,\nwhen in truth, it is but this body that is swallowed up of life.\nAnd it must needs be, that our nature still remain, otherwise it\ncannot be us that shall be in heaven, but something besides us.\nLet us lose our proper human nature, and we lose absolutely our\nbeing, and so are annihilated into nothing. Wherefore it, the same\nit, that is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.\n\nBut again, as I said, concerning things that are candied; our body,\nwhen thus risen, it shall lose all that sourness and stink, that\nnow, by reason of sin and infirmity, cleaveth to it: neither shall\nits lumpishness, or unwieldiness, be any impediment to its acting\nafter the manner of angels. Christ hath shewed us, what our body\nat our resurrection shall be, by shewing of us, in his word, what\nhis body was, at and after, his resurrection. We read, that his\nbody, after he was risen from the dead, though it yet retained\nthe very same flesh and bones that did hang upon the cross, yet\nhow angelical was it at all times, upon all occasions! He could\ncome in to his disciples with that very body, when the doors were\nshut upon them: He could, at pleasure, to their amazement, appear\nin the twinkling of an eye, in the midst of them: he could be visible\nand invisible as he pleased, when he sat at meat with them: in a\nword, he could pass and repass, ascend and descend in that body,\nwith far more pleasure and ease, than the bird by the art of her\nwing (Luke 24:31,32,36-42,50,51; John 20:19,24-26; Acts 1:1-12;\nMark 16:19; Eph 4:7-10).\n\nNow, I say, as we have in this world borne the image of our first\nfather; so, at that day, we shall have the image of Jesus Christ,\nand be as he is--\"As is the earthy, such are they also that\nare earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are\nheavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall\nalso, (at our resurrection,) bear the image of the heavenly\" (1\nCor 15:48,49). It is so in part now, but shall so be in perfection\nthen.\n\nTo mount up to heaven, and to descend again at pleasure, shall, with\nus, in that day, be ordinary. If there were ten thousand bars of\niron, or walls of brass, to separate between us, and our pleasure\nand desire, at that day, they should as easily be pierced by us,\nas is the cobweb, or air by the beams of the sun: And the reason\nis, because to the Spirit, wherewith we shall be inconceivably\nfilled at that day, nothing is impossible (Matt 17:20); and the\nworking of it at that day, shall be in that nature and measure\nas to swallow up all impossibilities. He \"shall change our vile\nbody, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,\"--now\nmark, \"according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue\nall things unto himself\" (Phil 3:21). As who should say, I know\nthat there are many things, that in this world hinder us from having\nour bodies like the body of Christ; but when God shall raise us\nfrom the dead, because he will then have our body like the body\nof his Son; He will stretch forth such a power to work upon, and\nin our body, that he will remove all impossibilities and hindrances.\n\nNay, further, we do not only see what operation the Spirit will have\nin our body, by the carriage of Christ, after his resurrection;\nbut even by many a saint before their death. The Spirit used to\ncatch Elijah away, no man could tell whither. It carried Ezekiel\nhither and thither: It carried Christ from the top of the pinnacle\nof the temple into Galilee; through it he walked on the sea; the\nSpirit caught away Philip from the eunuch, and carried him as far\nas Azotus (1 Kings 18:11,12; 2 Kings 2:11; Eze 3:14; Luke 4:14;\nMatt 14:25; Acts 8:39,40).\n\nThus the great God hath given us a taste of the power and glory that\nis in himself, and how easily it will help us, by its possessing\n5 of us at the resurrection, to act and do like angels; as Christ\nsaith, They that shall be counted worthy of that world, and of\nthe resurrection from the dead, they shall not die, but be equal\nto the angels (Luke 21:36).\n\nFurther, as the body by being thus spiritualized, shall be as I\nhave said; so again it must needs be, that hereby all the service\nof the body, and faculties of the soul, must be infinitely enlarged\nalso. Now \"we shall see him as he is,\" and now we shall know even\nas we are known (1 John 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12).\n\nFirst, Now we shall see him; to wit, Christ in his glory; not by\nrevelation only, as we do now, but then face to face; and he will\nhave us with him to this very end (John 17:24). Though John was\nin the Spirit when he had the vision of Christ, yet it made him\nfall at his feet as dead (Rev 1:17); and also turned Daniels'\nbeauty into corruption (Dan 10:8). It was so glorious, and so\noverweighing a glory, that he appeared in; but we shall, at the\nday of our resurrection, be so furnished, that we shall with the\neagle, be able to look upon the sun in his strength: we shall\nthen, I say, \"see Him as he is,\" who now is in the light, that no\neye hath seen, nor any man can see till that day (1 Tim 6:16).\n\nNow we shall see into all things; there shall not be anything hid\nfrom us; there shall not be a saint, a prophet, or saved soul,\nsmall or great, but we shall then perfectly know them. Also, all\nthe works of creation, election, and redemption, and shall see\nand know as thoroughly, all the things of heaven, and earth, and\nhell, even as perfectly, as now we know our A, B, C. For the Spirit,\nwith which we shall in every cranny of soul and body be filled,\nI say, \"searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God\" (1 Cor\n2:10). We see what strange things have been known by the prophets\nand saints of God, and that when they knew but \"in part.\"\n\nAbraham could, by it, tell to a day, how long his seed should be\nunder persecution in Egypt (Gen 15:13); Elisha, by it, could tell\nwhat was done in the king of Assyria's bed-chamber (2 Kings 6:12);\nAhijah could know by this, Jeroboam's wife, so soon, yea before\nher feet entered within his door, though he saw her not (1 Kings\n14:1-6).\n\nThe prophet of Judah could tell by this, what God would do to Bethel,\nfor the idolatry there committed; and could also point out the man\nby name that should do the execution, long before he was born (1\nKings 13:2). What shall I say, Enoch by it could tell what should\nbe done at the end of the world (Jude 14,15). How did the prophets,\nto a circumstance, prophesy of Christ's birth, his death, his\nburial, of their giving him gall and vinegar, of their parting his\nraiment, and piercing his hands and feet! (Isa 53). Of his riding\non an ass also; all this they saw, when they spake of him (John\n12:41). Peter also, though half asleep, could at the very first\nword, call Moses and Elias by their names, when they appeared to\nChrist in the holy mount (Luke 9:33). He is very ignorant of the\noperation of the Spirit of God, that scrupleth these things. But\nnow, I say, if these things have been done, seen, and known, by\nspiritual men, while their knowledge hath been but in part, how\nshall we know, see, and discern, when that which is perfect is\ncome? Which will be at the resurrection; \"It is raised a spiritual\nbody.\"\n\nThus, in few words, have I shewed you the truth of the resurrection\nof the just, and also the manner of their rising. Had I judged it\nconvenient, I might have much enlarged on each particular, and have\nadded many more; for the doctrine of the resurrection, however\nquestioned by heretics, and erroneous persons; yet is such a truth,\nthat almost all the holy scriptures of God point at, and centre\nin it.\n\nGod hath, from the beginning of the world, shewed to us, that our\nbody must be with him, as well as our soul, in the kingdom of\nheaven. I say, he hath shewed us, how he will deal with those that\nare alive at Christ's coming, by his translating of Enoch (Gen\n5:24), and by taking him body and soul to himself (Heb 11:5); As\nalso, by his catching of Elias up body and soul into heaven, in\na fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11), and,\n\nSecondly He hath often put us in remembrance of the rising of those\nthat are dead, at that day, as, (1.) By the faith he gave Abraham,\nconcerning the offering of his son: for when he offered him, he\naccounted \"that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;\nfrom whence also he received him in a figure\" (Heb 11:19). In a\nfigure of the resurrection of Christ, for Abraham's justification;\nand of Abraham's resurrection by Christ at the last day, for his\nglorification. (2.) By the faith he gave Joseph concerning his\nbones; which charge, the godly in Egypt, did diligently observe,\nand to that end, did keep them four hundred years; and at length,\ncarried them, I say, from Egypt to Canaan, which was a type of our\nbeing carried in our body, from this world to heaven (Heb 11:22).\n\nBesides, how oft did God give power to his prophets, servants, and\nChrist Jesus, to raise some that were now dead, and some that had\nbeen long so; and all, no doubt, to put the present generations,\nas also the generations yet unborn, in mind of the resurrection of\nthe dead. To this end, I say, how was the Shunammite's son raised\nfrom the dead? (2 Kings 4). The man also at the touching of the\nbones of Elisha? (2 Kings 13:20,21). Together with the body of\nLazarus, with Jairus's daughter, and Tabitha, and many others,\nwho, after their souls were departed from them, Lazarus lying in\nhis grave four days, were all raised to life again, and lived with\nthat very body out of which the soul, at their death, had departed\n(Luke 8:53-56; John 11:43,44; Acts 9:40,41). But above all, that\nnotable place in Matthew, at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,\ngives us a notable fore-word of the resurrection of the just.\nSaith the text, \"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of\nthe saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after\nhis resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto\nmany\" (Matt 27:52,53).\n\nWhen the author to the Hebrews had given us a catalogue of the\nworthies of the Old Testament, he saith at last, \"These all died\nin faith.\" In the faith of what? That they should lie and rot in\ntheir grave eternally? No, verily; this is the faith of Ranters,\nnot of Christians. They all died in faith, that they should rise\nagain; and therefore counted this world not worth the living in,\nupon unworthy terms, that after death \"they might obtain a better\nresurrection\" (Heb 11:13,35).\n\nIt is also worth the considering, that of Paul to the Philippians,\nwhere he saith that he was confident that that God that had begun\na good work in them would \"perform it until the day of Jesus\nChrist\" (Phil 1:6). Which day of Christ, was not the day of their\nconversion, for that was passed with them already, they were now\nthe children of God; but this day of Christ, it is the same which\nin other places is called the day when he shall come with the\nsound of the last trump to raise the dead. For you must know, that\nthe work of salvation is not at an end with them that are now in\nheaven; no, nor ever will, until (as I shewed you before) their\nbodies be raised again. God, as I have told you, hath made our\nbodies the members of Christ, and God doth not count us thoroughly\nsaved, until our bodies be as well redeemed and ransomed out of\nthe grave and death, as our souls from the curse of the law, and\ndominion of sin.\n\nThough God's saints have felt the power of much of his grace, and\nhave had many a sweet word fulfilled on them; yet one word will be\nunfulfilled on their particular person, so long as the grave can\nshut her mouth upon them: but, as I said before, when the gates\nof death do open before them, and the bars of the grave do fall\nasunder; then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written,\n\"Death is swallowed up of victory;\" and then will they hear that\nmost pleasant voice, \"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for\nthy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the\ndead\" (Isa 26:19). Thus much touching the truth of the resurrection\nof the just, with the manner of their rising.\n\nNow you must know, that the time of the rising of these just, will\nbe at the coming of the Lord: for when they arise, nay, just before\nthey are raised, the Lord Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds\nin flaming fire, with all his mighty angels; the effect of which\nappearing will be the rising of the dead, &c. \"For the Lord himself\nshall descend from heaven with a shout,\" saith Paul, \"and with the\nvoice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead\nshall rise\" (2 Thess 1:8; 1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52).\n\nNow at the time of the Lord's coming, there will be found in the\nworld alive both saints and sinners. As for the saints that then\nshall be found alive, they shall, so soon as all the saints are\nraised out of their graves, not die, but be changed, and swallowed up\nof incorruption, immortality, and glory; and have the soul-spiritual\ntranslation, as the raised saints shall have; as he saith, \"We\nshall not all [die, or] sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a\nmoment, in the twinkling of an eye,--for the trumpet shall sound,\nand the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed\"\n(1 Cor 15:51,52). And again, \"For the Lord himself shall descend\nfrom heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and\nwith the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:\nthen we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together\nwith them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall\nwe ever be with the Lord\" (1 Thess 4:16,17). As he saith also\nin another place, he \"shall judge the quick and the dead at his\nappearing and his kingdom\" (2 Tim 4:1).\n\nNow when the saints that sleep shall be raised thus incorruptible,\npowerful, glorious, and spiritual; and also those that then shall\nbe found alive, made like them: then forthwith, before the unjust\nare raised, the saints shall appear before the judgment-seat of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, there to give an account to their Lord the\nJudge, of all things they have done; and to receive a reward for\ntheir good according to their labour.\n\nThey shall rise, I say, before the wicked, they being themselves\nthe proper children of the resurrection; that is, Those that must\nhave all the glory of it, both as to pre-eminency and sweetness;\nand therefore they are said, when they rise, to rise from the dead;\nthat is, in their rising, they leave the reprobate world behind\nthem (Luke 20:35,36; Acts 3:15; 4:10; 13:30; John 12:1,9,17).\nAnd it must be so, because also the saints will have done their\naccount, and be set upon the throne with Christ, as kings and\nprinces with him, to judge the world, when the wicked world are\nraised. The saints shall judge the world; they shall judge angels;\nyea, they shall sit upon the thrones of judgment to do it (1\nCor 6:2,3; Psa 122:5). But to pass that, [we come THIRD, to the\nexamination the just must undergo, and the account they must give\nto the Lord the Judge; or,]\n\nTHE JUDGMENT OF THE JUST.\n\nNow when the saints are raised, as ye have heard, they must give\nan account of all things, in general, that they have done while\nthey were in the world; of all things, I say, whether they be good\nor bad.\n\nFIRST, Of all their bad; but mark, not under the consideration of\nvagabonds, slaves and sinners, but as sons, stewards, and servants\nof the Lord Jesus. That this shall be, it is evident from divers\nplaces of the holy Scriptures:\n\nFirst, Paul saith, \"We shall all stand before the judgment-seat\nof Christ,\"--we saints--\"For it is written, As I live, saith the\nLord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess\nto God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to\nGod\" (Rom 14:10-12). Again, \"Wherefore we labour, that, whether\npresent or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all\nappear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one [of us]\nmay receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath\ndone, whether it be good or bad\" (2 Cor 5:9,10).\n\nIt is true, God loveth his people, but yet he loveth not their sins,\nnor anything they do, though with the greatest zeal for him, if\nhe be contrary to his word; wherefore as truly as God will given\na reward to his saints and children for all that they have indeed\nwell done; so truly will he at this day distinguish their good\nand bad: and when both are manifest by the righteous judgment of\nChrist; he will burn up their bad, with all their labour, travel,\nand pains in it for ever. He can tell how to save his people, and\nyet take vengeance on their inventions (Psa 99:8).\n\nThat is an observable place, in the first epistle of Paul to the\nCorinthians, and the third chapter, \"If any man build,\" saith he,\n\"upon this foundation [Christ] gold, silver, precious stones,\nwood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for\nthe day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire;\nand the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any\nman's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive\na reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss;\nbut he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire\" (1 Cor 3:12-15).\nNow observe,\n\n1. As I said before, the foundation is Christ (verse 11).\n\n2. The gold, silver, and precious stones that here are said to be\nbuilt upon him, are all the actings in faith and love, according\nto the word, that the saints are found doing for his sake in the\nworld (1 Peter 1:7; Rev 3:18).\n\n3. To build on him wood, hay, and stubble, it is to build, together\nwith what is right in itself, human inventions and carnal ordinances,\nfathering them still on God and his allowance.\n\n4. The fire that here you read of, it is the pure word and law of\nGod (Jer 23:29; John 12:48).\n\n5. The day that here you read of, it is the day of Christ's coming\nto judgment, to reveal the hidden things of darkness, and to make\nmanifest the counsels of the heart (1 Cor 4:5).\n\n6. At this day, the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and\nstubble, and that of every man, shall be tried by this fire, that\nit may be manifest of what sort it is; the wind, the rain, and\nfloods, beat now as vehemently against the house upon the rock,\nas against that on the sand (Luke 6:48,49).\n\nObserve again,\n\n(1.) That the apostle speaks here of the saved, not of the\nreprobate--\"He himself shall be saved.\"\n\n(2.) That this saved man may have wood, hay, and stubble; that is,\nthings that will not abide the trial.\n\n(3.) That neither this man's goodness, nor yet God's love to him,\nshall hinder all his wood, hay, or stubble from coming on the\nstage, \"Every man's work shall be manifest: the fire shall try\nevery man's work, of what sort it is.\"\n\n(4.) Thus, a good man shall see all his wood, hay, and stubble\nburnt up in the trial before his face.\n\n(5.) That good man then shall suffer loss, or, the loss of all\nthings that are not then according to the word of God--\"If any\nman's works shall be burnt,\" or any of them, \"he shall suffer\nloss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire\"--that is,\nyet so as that all that ever he hath done, shall be tried, and\nsquared by the word of God.\n\nFrom all which, it must be unavoidably concluded, that the whole\nbody of the elect must count with their Lord for all things they\nhave done, whether good or bad, and that he will destroy all\ntheir bad, with the purity of his word, yea, and all their pains,\ntravel, and labour that they have spent about it. I am persuaded\nthat there are now many things done by the best of saints, that\nthen they will gladly disown and be ashamed of; yea, which they\nhave and do still do with great devotion. Alas, what gross things\ndo some of the saints in their devotion father upon God, and\ndo reckon him the author thereof, and that he also prompts them\nforward to the doing thereof, and doth give them his presence in\nthe performance of them! Yea, and as they father many superstitions and\nscriptureless things upon him; so they die in the same opinion,\nand never come in this world, to the sight of their evil and\nignorance herein.6\n\nBut now the judgment-day is the principal time wherein everything\nshall be set in its proper place; that which is of God in its\nplace, and that which is not, shall now be discovered, and made\nmanifest. In many things now we offend all; and then we shall see\nthe many offences we have committed, and shall ourselves judge\nthem as they are. The Christian, is in this world, so candid a\ncreature, that take him when he is not under some great temptation,\nand he will ingeniously confess to his God, before all men, how\nhe hath sinned and transgressed against his Father; and will fall\ndown at the feet of God, and cry, Thou art righteous, for I have\nsinned; and thou art gracious, that, notwithstanding my sin, thou\nshouldest save me. Now, I say, if the Christian is so simple and\nplain-hearted with God, in the days of his imperfection, when he\nis accompanied with many infirmities and temptations; how freely\nwill he confess and acknowledge his miscarriages, when he comes\nbefore his Lord and Saviour; absolutely stript of all temptation\nand imperfection. \"As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall\nbow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God\" (Rom 14:11; Phil\n2:10,11). Every knee shall bow, and reverence God the Creator, and\nChrist the Redeemer of the world; and every tongue shall confess,\nthat his will alone ought by them to have been obeyed in all things;\nand shall confess also, and that most naturally and freely--I mean,\nthe saints shall--in how many things they were deceived, mistaken,\ndeluded, and drawn aside in their intended devotion and honour to\nGod.\n\n[Second.] But yet take notice, that in this day, when the saints\nare thus counting for their evil before their Saviour and Judge;\nthey shall not then, as now, at the remembrance and confession\nof sin, be filled with the guilt, confusion, and shame that now\nthrough the weakness of faith attendeth their souls; neither shall\nthey in the least be grieved or offended, that God hath before the\nangels and the rest of their holy brethren, laid open to a tittle\ntheir infirmities, from the least and first, to the biggest and\nlast. For,\n\n1. The God to whom they confess all, they will now more perfectly\nthan ever see he doth love them, and free them from all, even when\nand before they confess and acknowledge them to him; and they\nshall, I say, have their soul so full of the ravishing raptures\nof the life and glory that now they are in, that they shall be\nof it swallowed up in that measure and manner, that neither fear,\nnor guilt, nor confusion can come near them, or touch them. Their\nJudge is their Saviour, their Husband, and Head; who, though he\nwill bring every one of them for all things to judgment, yet he\nwill keep them for ever out of condemnation, and anything that\ntendeth that way. \"Perfect love casteth out fear,\" even while we\nare here; much more then, when we are with our Saviour, our Jesus,\nbeing passed from death to life (John 5:24; 1 John 4:18).\n\n2. The saints at this day, shall have their hearts and souls so\nwrapped up in the pleasure of God their Saviour, that it shall be\ntheir delight, to see all things, though once never so near and\ndear unto them; yet now to perish, if not according to his word\nand will. \"Thy will be done,\" is to be always our language here\n(Matt 6:10); but to delight to see it done in all things, though\nit tend never so much to the destruction of what we love; to\ndelight, I say, to see it done in the height and perfection of\ndelight; it will be when we come to heaven, or when the Lord shall\ncome to judge the world. But,\n\n3. The sole end of the counting of the saints at the day of God,\nit will be, not only for the vindication of the righteousness,\nholiness, and purity of the word, neither will it centre only in\nthe manifestation of the knowledge and heart-discerning nature\nof Christ [though both these will be in it, (Rev 2:22,23)]. But\ntheir very remembrances and sight of the sin and vanity that they\nhave done while here; it shall both set off, and heighten the\ntender affections of their God unto them; and also increase their\njoy and sweetness of soul, and clinging of heart to their God.\nSaints while here, are sweetly sensible that the sense of sin,\nand the assurance of pardon, will make famous work in their poor\nhearts. Ah, what meltings without guilt! what humility without\ncasting down! and what a sight of the creature's nothingness, yet\nwithout fear, will this sense of sin work in the soul! The sweetest\nframe, the most heart-endearing frame, that possibly a Christian\ncan get into while in this world, is to have a warm sight of sin,\nand of a Saviour upon the heart at one time. Now it weeps not for\nfear and through torment, but by virtue of constraining grace and\nmercy, and is at this very time, so far off of disquietness of\nheart, by reason of the sight of its wickedness, that it is driven\ninto an ecstasy, by reason of the love and mercy that is mingled\nwith the sense of sin in the soul.\n\nThe heart never sees so much of the power of mercy as now, nor of\nthe virtue, value, and excellency of Christ in all his offices as\nnow, and the tongue so sweetly enlarged to proclaim and cry up\ngrace as now; now will Christ \"come to be glorified in his saints,\nand to be admired in all them that believe\" (2 Thess 1:10).\n\nWherefore, though the saints receive by faith the forgiveness\nof sins in this life, and so are passed from death to life; yet\nagain, Christ Jesus, and God his Father, will have every one of\nthese sins reckoned up again, and brought fresh upon the stage in\nthe day of judgment, that they may see and be sensible for ever,\nwhat grace and mercy hath laid hold upon them. And this I take\nto be the reason of that remarkable saying of the apostle Peter,\n\"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted\nout, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence\nof the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was\npreached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times\nof restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth\nof all his holy prophets since the world began\" (Acts 3:19-21).\n\nIf a sense of some sin, [for who sees all? (Psa 19:12)], and\na sight of the love of God, will here so work upon the spirit of\nthe godly: what will a sight of all sin do, when together with it\nthey are personally present with their Lord and Saviour?\n\nYea, if a sight of some sins, with a possibility of pardon,\nwill make the heart love, reverence, and fear with guiltless and\nheart-affecting fears; what will a general sight of all sin, and\ntogether with them an eternal acquittance from them, work on the\nheart of the saint for ever?\n\nYea, I say again, if a sight of sin, and the love of God, will make\nsuch work in that soul where yet there is unbelief, blindness,\nmistrust, and forgetfulness: what will a sight of sin do in that\nsoul, who is swallowed up of love, who is sinless, and temptationless;\nwho hath all the faculties of soul and body strained by love and\ngrace, to the highest pin of perfection, that is possible to be in\nglory enjoyed and possessed? Oh the wisdom and goodness of God,\nthat he at this day, should so cast about the worst of our things,\neven those that naturally tend to sink us, and damn us, for our\ngreat advantage! \"All things shall work together for good,\" indeed,\n\"to them that love God\" (Rom 8:28). Those sins that brought a curse\nupon the whole world, that spilt the heart-blood of our dearest\nSaviour, and that laid his tender soul under the flaming wrath of\nGod, shall by his wisdom and love, tend to the exaltation of his\ngrace, and the inflaming of our affections to him for ever and\never (Rev 5:9-14).\n\nIt will not be thus with devils; it will not be thus with reprobates; the\nsaved only have this privilege peculiar to themselves. Wherefore,\nto vary a little from the matter in hand: will God make that use\nof sin, even in our counting for it, that shall in this manner work\nfor our advantage? Why then, let saints also make that advantage\nof their sin, as to glorify God thereby, which is to be done, not\nby saying, \"Let us do evil, that good may come;\" or, \"Let us sin,\nthat grace may abound;\" but by taking occasion by the sin that is\npast to set the crown upon the head of Christ for our justification;\ncontinually looking upon it, so as to press us, to cleave close\nto the Lord Jesus, to grace and mercy through him, and to the\nkeeping of us humble for ever, under all his dispensations and\ncarriages to us.\n\nNow, having counted for all their evil, and confessed to God's glory,\nhow they fell short, and did not the truth in this, or that, or\nother particulars, and having received their eternal acquittance\nfrom the Lord and Judge, in the sight of both angels and saints;\nforthwith the Lord Jesus will make inquiry,\n\nSECOND, into all the good and holy actions and deeds they did do\nin the world. Now here shall all things be reckoned up, from the\nvery first good thing that was done by Adam or Abel, to the last\nthat will fall out to be done in the world. The good of all the\nholy prophets, of all apostles, pastors, teachers, and helps in\nthe church; here also will be brought forth and to light, all the\ngood carriages of masters of families, of parents, of children,\nof servants, of neighbours, or whatever good thing any man doth.\nBut to be general and short,\n\nFirst, here will be a recompense for all that have sincerely laboured\nin the word and doctrine--I say, a recompense for all the souls\nthey have saved by their word, and watered by the same. Now shall\nPaul the planter, and Apollos the waterer, with every one of the\ntheir companions, receive the reward that is according to their\nworks (1 Cor 3:6-8).\n\nNow, all the preaching, praying, watching, and labour thou hast\nbeen at, in thy endeavouring to catch men from Satan to God, shall\nbe rewarded with spangling glory. Not a soul thou hast converted\nto the Lord Jesus, nor a soul thou hast comforted, strengthened,\nor helped by thy wholesome counsel, admonition, and comfortable\nspeech, but it shall stick as a pearl in that crown \"which the Lord\nthe righteous Judge, shall give thee at that day\" (2 Tim 4:7,8).\nThat is, if thou dost it willingly, delighting to lift up the name\nof God among men; if thou doest it with love, and longing after\nthe salvation of sinners, otherwise thou wilt have only thy labour\nfor thy pains, and no more. \"If I do this thing willingly, I have\na reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is\ncommitted to my charge\" (1 Cor 9:17; Phil 1:15). But, I say, if\nthou do it graciously, then a reward followeth; \"For what is our\nhope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye,\" saith Paul,\n\"in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are\nour glory and joy\" (1 Thess 2:19,20). Let him therefore that Christ\nhath put into his harvest, take comfort in the midst of all his\nsorrow, and know that God acknowledgeth, that he that converteth\na sinner from the error of his way, doth even save that soul from\ndeath, \"and covereth a multitude of sins\" (James 5:20). Wherefore\nlabour to convert, labour to water, labour to build up, and to\n\"Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight\nthereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre,\nbut of a ready mind;--and when the chief Shepherd shall appear,\nye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away\" (1 Peter\n5:2,4).\n\nSecondly, And as the ministers of Christ's gospel shall at this day\nbe recompensed; so shall also those more private saints be with\ntender affections, and love looked on, and rewarded for all their\nwork and labour of love, which they have shewed to the name of\nChrist, in ministering to his saints, and suffering for his sake\n(Heb 6:10). \"Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall\nhe receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free\" (Eph 6:8).\nAh! little do the people of God think, how largely and thoroughly,\nGod will at that day, own and recompense all the good and holy\nacts of his people. Every bit, every drop, every rag, and every\nnight's harbour, though but in a wisp of straw, shall be rewarded\nin that day before men and angels--\"Whosoever shall give to drink\nunto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name\nof a disciple, verily I say unto you,\" saith Christ, \"he shall in\nno wise lose his [a disciple's] reward\" (Matt 10:42). Therefore\n\"When thou makest a feast,\" saith he, \"call the poor, the maimed,\nthe lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot\nrecompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection\nof the just\" (Luke 14:13,14). If there be any repentance among\nthe godly at this day, it will be, because the Lord Jesus, in his\nperson, members, and word, was no more owned, honoured, entertained,\nand provided for by them, when they were in this world: For it\nwill be ravishing to all, to see what notice the Lord Jesus will\nthen take of every widow's mite. He, I say, will call to mind, even\nall those acts of mercy and kindness, which thou hast shewed to\nhim, when thou wast among men. I say, he will remember, cry up,\nand proclaim before angels and saints, those very acts of thine,\nwhich thou hast either forgotten, or, through bashfulness wilt\nnot at that day count worth the owing. He will reckon them up so\nfast, and so fully, that thou wilt cry, Lord, when did I do this?\nand when did I do the other? \"When saw we thee an hungered, and\nfed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a\nstranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when\nsaw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King\nshall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch\nas ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,\nye have done it unto me\" (Matt 25:37-40). \"The good works of some\nare manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be\nhid\" (1 Tim 5:25). Whatever thou hast done to one of the least of\nthese my brethren, thou hast done it unto me. I felt the nourishment\nof thy food, and the warmth of thy fleece. I remember thy loving\nand holy visits when my poor members were sick, and in prison, and\nthe like. When they were strangers, and wanderers in the world, thou\ntookest them in. \"Well done, thou good and faithful servant;--enter\nthou into the joy of thy Lord\" (Matt 25:21-23; 34-47).\n\nThirdly, Here also will be a reward for all that hardness, and\nChristian enduring of affliction that thou hast met with for thy\nLord, while thou wast in the world. Here now will Christ begin from\nthe greatest suffering, even to the least, and bestow a reward on\nthem all: from the blood of the suffering saint, to the loss of\na hair: nothing shall go unrewarded (Heb 11:36-40; 2 Cor 8:8-14).\n\"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for\nus a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory\" (2 Cor 4:17).\nBehold by the scriptures how God hath recorded the sufferings of\nhis people, and also how he hath promised to reward them--\"Blessed\nare they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs\nis the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile\nyou,\" and speak \"all manner of evil against you falsely, for my\nsake. Rejoice,\" leap for joy, \"and be exceeding glad: for great is\nyour reward in heaven\" (Matt 5:11,12; Luke 6:22,23). \"And every\none that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,\nor mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake,\nshall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life\"\n(Matt 19:29).\n\nFourthly, There is also a reward at this day, for all the more\nsecret, and more retired works of Christianity. 1. There is not\nnow one act of faith in thy soul, either upon Christ, or against\nthe Devil, and Antichrist; but it shall in this day be found out,\nand praised, honoured and glorified, in the face of heaven (1\nPeter 1:7). 2. There is not one groan to God in secret, against\nthy own lusts, and for more grace, light, spirit, sanctification,\nand strength to go through this world like a Christian: but it\nshall even at the coming of Christ be rewarded openly (Matt 6:6).\n3. There hath not one tear dropped from thy tender eye against thy\nlusts, the love of this world, or for more communion with Jesus\nChrist, but as it is now in the bottle of God; so then it shall\nbring forth such plenty of reward, that it shall return upon thee\nwith abundance of increase. \"Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye\nshall laugh\" (Luke 6:21). \"Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou\nmy tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?\" (Psa 56:8).\n\"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and\nweepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with\nrejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him\" (Psa 126:5,6).\n\nHaving thus in brief shewed you something concerning the resurrection\nof the saints, and that they shall count with their Lord at his\ncoming, both for the burning up what was not according to the\ntruth, and rewarding them for all their good. It remains, that I\nnow in few words,\n\nFOURTH, Shew you something also of that with which they shall be\nrewarded.\n\nTHE REWARD OF THE JUST.\n\nFirst then, those that shall be found in the day of their resurrection,\nwhen they shall have all their good things brought upon the stage;\nthey I say, that then shall be found the people most laborious for\nGod while here; they shall at that day enjoy the greatest portion of\nGod, or shall be possessed with most of the glory of the Godhead\nthen. For that is the portion of saints in general (Rom 8:17;\nLam 3:24). And why shall he that doth most for God in this world,\nenjoy most of him in that which is to come? But because by doing\nand acting, the heart, and every faculty of the soul is enlarged,\nand more capacitated, whereby more room is made for glory. Every\nvessel of glory shall at that day be full of it; but every one will\nnot be capable to contain a like measure; and so if they should\nhave it communicated to them, would not be able to stand under it;\nfor there is \"an eternal weight in the glory that saints shall\nthen enjoy\" (2 Cor 4:17), and every vessel must be at that day\nfilled--that is, have its heavenly load of it.\n\nAll Christians have not the same enjoyment of God in this life,\nneither indeed were they able to bear it if they had it (1 Cor\n3:2). But those Christians that are most laborious for God in this\nworld, they have already most of him in their souls, and that not\nonly because diligence in God's ways, is the means whereby God\ncommunicates himself; but also because thereby the senses are\nmade more strong, and able, by reason of use, to understand God,\nand to discern both good and evil (Heb 5:13,14). To him that hath,\nto him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance (Matt\n13:11,12). He that laid out his pound for his master, and gained\nten therewith, he was made ruler over ten cities; but he that by\nhis pound gained but five, he was made ruler over but five (Luke\n19:16-19). Often, he that is best bred in his youth, he is best\nable to manage most, when he is a man, touching things of this\nlife (Dan 1:3,4); but always he that is best bred, and that is most\nin the bosom of God, and that so acts for him here; he is the man\nthat will be best able to enjoy most of God in the kingdom of\nheaven. It is observable that Paul saith, \"Our--affliction--worketh\nfor us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory\" (2 Cor\n4:17). Our afflictions do it, not only because there is laid up a\nreward for the afflicted, according to the measure of affliction;\nbut because afflictions, and so every service of God, doth make\nthe heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound;\nand so more able to hold, contain, and bear more (Psa 119:71).\n\"Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own\nlabour\" (1 Cor 3:8). And this is the reason of such sayings as\nthese--Lay up for yourselves a good foundation against the time\nto come, that you may lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim 6:19), which\neternal life, is not the matter of our justification from sin in\nthe sight of God; for that is done freely by grace, through faith\nin Christ's blood; (but here the apostle speaks of giving of alms)\nbut it is the same that in the other place he calls \"the far more\nexceeding and eternal weight of glory.\" And hence it is that he\nin his stirring them up to be diligent in good works, doth tell\nthem, that he doth not exhort them to it because he wanted, but\nbecause he would have \"fruit that might abound to their account\"\n(Phil 4:17); as he saith also in another place, \"Beloved brethren,\nbe ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the\nLord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the\nLord\" (1 Cor 15:58). Therefore I say, the reward that the saints\nshall have at this day for all the good they have done, it is the\nenjoyment of God, according to their works: though they shall be\nfreely justified and glorified without works.\n\nSecond, As the enjoyment of God at that day, will be to the saints,\naccording to their works and doings--I speak not now of justification\nfrom sin--so will their praise and commendations at that day, be\naccording to the same, and both of them their degrees of glory; for\nI say, as God by communicating of himself unto us at that day,\nwill thereby glorify us, so also he will for the adding all things\nthat may furnish with glory every way, cause to be proclaimed in\nthe face of heaven, and in the presence of all the holy angels;\neverything that hath for God, his ways, and people, been done by\nus while here we have been. \"Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness\nshall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in\nthe ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops\" (Luke\n12:2,3). Again, He that \"shall confess me,\" saith Christ, \"before\nmen, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven\"\n(Matt 10:32).\n\nNow as he of whom Christ is ashamed when he comes in his glory, and\nin the glory of the holy angels, will then lie under inconceivable\ndisgrace, shame, dishonour, and contempt: so he whom Christ shall\nconfess, own, commend, and praise at that day, must needs have very\ngreat dignity, honour, and renown, \"for then shall every man have\npraise of God\"--to wit, according to his works (1 Cor 4:5). Now\nwill Christ proclaim before thee and all others what thou hast\ndone, and what thou hast suffered, what thou hast owned, and what\nthou hast withstood for his name (Mark 8:38). This is he that forsook\nhis goods, his relations, his country, and life for me: this is\nthe man that overcame the flatteries and threats, allurements and\nenticings, of a whole world for me; behold him, he is an Israelite\nindeed (John 1:47), the top man in his generation, \"none like him\nin all the earth\" (Job 1:8). It is said, that when king Ahasuerus\nhad understanding of how good service Mordecai the Jew had done\nto and for him, he commanded that the royal apparel and the crown,\nwith the horse that the king did ride on, should be given to him,\nand that he should with that crown, apparel, and horse, be had\nthrough the city, in the presence of all his nobles, and that\nproclamation should be made before him, \"Thus shall it be done\nunto the man whom the king delighteth to honour\" (Esth 6:9-11).\n\nAhasuerus in this was a type to hold forth to the children of God,\nhow kindly he will take all their labour and service of love, and\nhow he will honour and dignify the same; as Christ saith, \"Let your\nloins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves\nlike unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from\nthe wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto\nhim immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he\ncometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall\ngird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth\nand serve them\" (Luke 12:35-57). The meaning is, that those souls\nthat shall make it their business to honour the Lord Jesus Christ,\nin the day of their temptation; he will make it his business\nto honour and glorify them in the day of his glorification (John\n12:26). \"Verily, I say unto you, that he will make them sit down\nto meat, and shall come forth and serve them. If any man will\nserve me,\" saith he, \"him will my Father honour.\" It hath been\nGod's way in this world to proclaim the acts and doings of his\nsaints in his word before all in this world, and he will do it in\nthat which is to come (Mark 14:9; Rev 3:4; 14:1-6).\n\nThird, Another thing that shall be yet added to the glory of the\nsaints, in the kingdom of their Saviour, at his coming is, they\nshall every one of them then have his throne and place of degree\non Christ's right hand, and on his left, in his glorious kingdom,\naccording to the relation they stand in to Christ, as the members\nof his body; for as Christ will have a special eye on us, and\na tender and affectionate heart, to recompense to the full every\ngood thing that any man doth for his name in this world: so also\nhe will have as great regard, that there be to every member of his\nbody, the place, and state that is comely for every such member.\nWhen the mother of Zebedee's children petitioned our Saviour that\nhe would grant to her, that her two sons might sit, the one on his\nright hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom: though he\ndid not grant to her the request for her children, yet he affirmed\nthat there would be places of degrees and honour in heaven,\nsaying, \"To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to\ngive, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my\nFather\" (Matt 20:20-23). In the temple, there were chambers bigger\nand lesser, higher and lower, more inward and more outward: which\nchambers were types of the mansions that our Lord when he went\naway, told us he went to prepare for us. \"In my Father's house\nare many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go\nto prepare a place for you\" (John 14:2,3). The foot here, shall\nnot have the place prepared for the eye, nor yet the hand, that\nwhich is prepared for the ear, but every one shall have his own\nplace in the body of Christ, and the glory also prepared for such\na relation. Order, as it is comely in earth, so much more in the\nkingdom of the God of order, in heaven; where all things shall be\ndone in their utmost perfections. Here shall Enoch, Noah, Abraham,\nMoses, Joshua, David, with the prophets, have every one his place,\naccording to the degree of Old Testament saints. As God said to\nDaniel, \"Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest,\nand stand in thy lot at the end of the days\" (Dan 12:13). And here\nalso shall Peter, Paul, Timothy, and all other the church officers\nhave their place, and heavenly state, according as God hath\nset them in the church in the New Testament. As Paul saith of the\ndeacons, \"They that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase\nto themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which\nis in Christ Jesus\" (1 Tim 3:13). And so of all other saints, be\nthey here of what rank, quality, or place in the church soever,\nthey shall have every one his state, his heavenly state, according\nas he standeth in the body. As he saith, seeing those members\nthat are most feeble are necessary, to them shall be given \"more\nabundant honour\" (1 Cor 12:22,23). Of this heavenly order in the\nkingdom of Christ, when his saints are risen from the dead, was\nSolomon a notable type in his family, and among his servants and\nofficers, who kept such exactness in the famous order in which he\nhad placed all about him, that it did amaze and confound beholders.\nFor \"when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and\nthe house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the\nsitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and\ntheir apparel; his cup-bearers also, and their apparel; and his\nascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no\nmore spirit in her\" (2 Chron 9:3,4). \"Glorious things are spoken\nof thee, O city of God\" (Psa 87:3). Having gone thus far, I shall\nnow come to\n\nTHE SECOND PART OF THE TEXT,\n\nTo wit, that there shall be a resurrection of the wicked. \"There\nshall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust;\"\nfor as the just go before the unjust, in name and dignity,\nand honour, so they shall in the last day, go before them in the\nresurrection.\n\nNow, then, when the saints have thus risen out of their graves,\ngiven up their accounts, received their glory, and are set upon\nthe thrones, \"for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones\nof the house of David\" (Psa 122:5). When, I say, they are all\nof them in their royal apparel, with crowns of glory, every one\npresenting the person of a king, then come the unjust out of their\ngraves, to receive their judgment for what they have done in the\nbody. As Paul saith, \"We must all appear before the judgment-seat\nof Christ, that every one,\" both saints and sinners, \"may receive\nthe things done in the body, whether it be good, or whether it be\nbad.\"\n\nBut now, because I would prove by the word, whatever I would have\nothers receive for a truth, therefore I shall in few particulars,\n\nFIRST, prove the resurrection of the wicked.\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF THE WICKED.\n\nFirst, then, it is evident, that the wicked shall rise, from the\nvery terms and names that the raised shall then go under, which\nare the very same names that they did go under when they lived in\nthis world. They are called the heathen, the nations, the world,\nthe wicked, and those that do iniquity; they are called men,\nwomen, [of] Sodom, Sidon, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Tyre. The men\nof Nineveh shall rise up in judgment (Luke 10:12-14); the queen\nof the south shall rise up in the judgment (Matt 12:41,42); and\nit shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than\nfor other sinners that have resisted more light (Matt 11:21-24).\n\"The heavens and the earth, which are now,--are kept in store,\nreserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition\nof ungodly men\" (2 Peter 3:7; Joel 3:12-14). Now these terms, or\nnames, are not given to the spirits of the wicked only, but to\nthem as consisting of body and soul. Further, Christ tells his\nadversaries, when they had apprehended him, and shamefully entreated\nhim, that yet they should see him sit on the right hand of power,\nand coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt 25:31,32; 26:64; Jude\n14,15), as John also doth testify, saying, \"Behold, he cometh with\nclouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced\nhim: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him\" (Rev\n1:7). Now none of these sayings are yet fulfilled, neither shall\nthey, until his second coming; for though the Jews did many of\nthem see him, when he did hang upon the cross, yet then he was not\ncoming in the clouds of heaven, neither did then all kindreds of\nthe earth wail because of him. No, this is reserved till he comes\nto judge the world; for then shall the ungodly be so put to it, that\ngladly they would creep into the most invincible rock or mountain\nunder heaven, to hide themselves from his face, and the majesty of\nhis heavenly presence (Rev 6:14-17). There shall therefore, that\nthis may be brought to pass, be a resurrection of the dead, both\nof the just and unjust. For though an opinion of no resurrection\nmay now lull men asleep, in security and impiety, yet the Lord\nwhen he comes will rouse them, and cause them to awake; not only\nout of their security, but out of their graves, to their doom,\nthat they may receive for their error, the recompense that is meet.\n\nSecond, The body of the ungodly must, at the last, arise out of\nthe grave, because that body and their soul, while they lived in\nthe world, were co-partners in their lusts and wickedness. \"The\nLord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed\" (1\nSam 2:3). He will therefore bring every work into judgment, \"with\nevery secret thing\" (Eccl 12:14). And as he will bring into judgment\nevery work, so will he also the worker thereof, \"even the dead,\nsmall and great\" (Rev 20:12-14). It is not in God to lay the\npunishment where the fault is not, neither to punish a part of\nthe damned for the whole. \"With righteousness shall he judge the\nworld, and the people with equity\" (Psa 98:9). \"Shall not the\nJudge of all the earth do right?\" (Gen 18:25). As therefore the\nbody was co-partner with the soul in sinning, so shall every man\nreceive the things done in his body, according to what he hath\ndone. Wherefore he saith in another place, \"Behold, I come quickly;\nand my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work\nshall be\" (Rev 22:12). There shall therefore be a resurrection of\nthe dead, both of the just and unjust.\n\nThird, The body of the wicked must rise again, because as the whole\nman of the just also that is the vessel of mercy and glory; so the\nwhole man of the unjust is the vessel of wrath and destruction.\nThere are, saith Paul, in a great house not only vessels of gold\nand of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour\nand some to dishonour. Now, as he sheweth us, these vessels to\nhonour, they are good men, and the vessels to dishonour are the bad\n(2 Tim 2:20,21). Now as these vessels to dishonour, are called the\nvessels of wrath: so it is said, that God with much long-suffering,\ndoth suffer them to be fitted to destruction (Rom 9:22). How they\nare thus fitted he also further sheweth, where he saith, They do\n\"after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto thyself\nwrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous\njudgment of God\" (Rom 2:5), which treasures of wickedness, James\nsaith, it is treasure up against the last days (which is the time\nof judgment), and observe it, he saith, that then it shall eat\ntheir flesh as it were fire (James 5:2,3). Now then, their bodies\nbeing the vessels of the wrath of God, and again, seeing with this\nwrath they must be possessed at the last day, that their flesh must\nwith it be eaten, it is evident, that their body must rise again\nout of their graves, and before the judgment-seat appear; for it\nis from thence, that each of them must go with his full load to\ntheir long and eternal home, \"where their worm dieth not, and the\nfire is not quenched\" (Mark 9:47,48).\n\nFourth, The severity of the hand of God towards his children, with\nhis forbearance of his enemies, doth clearly bespeak a resurrection\nof the ungodly, that they may receive the reward for their wickedness\nwhich they have committed in this world. We know, that while the\neyes of the wicked start out with fatness, the godly are plagued\nall the day long, and chastened every morning (Psa 73:3-15),\nwherefore it is evident, that the place and time of the punishment\nof the ungodly, it is another world. If \"judgment must begin at\nthe house of God,--what shall the end be of them that obey not\nthe gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where\nshall the ungodly and the sinner appear?\" (1 Peter 4:17,18). Alas,\npoor creatures! they now plot against the righteous, and gnash\nupon them with their teeth; but \"the Lord shall laugh at him, for\nhe seeth that his day is coming\" (Psa 37:13); for as he saith, the\nwicked is reserved, or let alone in his wickedness, to the day of\ndestruction, and shall then be brought forth to the day of wrath,\nthough in the meantime, he may go to his grave in his banner, and\nrest within is tomb7 (Job 21:29-32). As Peter saith again, \"The\nLord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to\nreserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished\" (2\nPeter 2:9): And Jude saith, For them \"is reserved the blackness\nof darkness for ever\" (Jude 13). The punishment of the ungodly,\nit is reserved till the day of judgment, which will be the time\nof their resurrection. Observe,\n\n1. The wicked must be punished.\n\n2. The time of their punishment is not now, but at the day of\njudgment.\n\n3. This day of judgment, must be the same with the resurrection of\nthe dead, at the end of this world. \"As therefore the tares are\ngathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of\nthis world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they\nshall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them\nwhich do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:\nthere shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth\" (Matt 13:40,41).\nThere shall then be resurrection of the dead, both of the just\nand unjust.\n\n4. The sovereignty of the Lord Jesus over all creatures, doth plainly\nforeshew a resurrection of the bad, as well as of the good. Indeed,\nthe unjust shall not arise, by virtue of any relation they stand\nin to the Lord Jesus, as the saints shall; but yet, because all\nare delivered into his hand, and he made sovereign Lord over them;\ntherefore by an act of his sovereign power, they that are ungodly,\nshall arise; this is Christ's own argument, \"The Father judgeth\nno man,\" saith he, \"but hath committed all judgment unto the\nSon\"--that is, count him, and fall before him as their sovereign\nLord, even as they honour the Father, and he hath given him authority\nto execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. And then\nhe adds, \"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which\nall that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come\nforth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;\nand they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation\"\n(John 5:22-29). From hence also Paul argueth, saying, \"For to this\nend Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord\nboth of the dead and living,\" and then adds, \"We shall all stand\nbefore the judgment-seat of Christ\" (Rom 14:9,10).\n\nPray mind these words, Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection,\ndid not only purchase grace, and remission of sins, for his elect,\nwith their eternal glory; but did thereby also obtain of the Father\nto be Lord, and head over all things, whether they be things in\nheaven, or things on earth, or things under the earth. \"All power,\"\nsaith he, \"is given unto me, in heaven and in earth, and I have\nthe keys of hell and of death\" (Matt 28:18; Rev 1:18), So that\nall things, I say, whether they be visible, or invisible, whether\nthey be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all\nthings were created by him, and for him (Col 1:16). This being\nthus, \"at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,--and that every\ntongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of\nGod the Father\" (Phil 2:10,11). Now, that this may be done, He\nhath his resolutions upon a judgment-day, in which he, to shew\nhimself his people, his way, and word in their glory, will have\nall his enemies raised out of their graves, and brought before\nhim, where he will sit upon them in the throne of his glory, and\nwill shew them then, \"who is the blessed and only potentate, the\nKing of kings, and Lord of lords\" (Matt 25:31,32; 1 Tim 6:14,15).\n\nBehold, He comes, \"with ten thousand of his saints, to execute\njudgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them\nof all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of\nall their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against\nhim\" (Jude 14,15).\n\nFifth, The great preparation that God hath made for the judgment\nof the wicked, doth clearly demonstrate their rising forth out\nof their graves. 1. He hath appointed the day of their rising. 2.\nHe hath appointed their judge, to judge them. 3. He hath recorded\nall their acts and doings against that day. 4. He hath also\nalready appointed the witnesses to come in against them. 5. The\ninstruments of death and misery, are already prepared for them.\n\n1. He hath appointed the day of their rising, which day John calleth\nthe time of the dead, that they should be judged (Rev 11:18),\nwhich time, Paul saith, is a time fixed; \"He hath appointed a day\nin which he will judge the world,\" &c. (Acts 17:31). This time and\nday Christ brings down to an hour, saying, \"The hour is coming,\nin the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and\nshall come forth;\" &c. (John 5:28,29).\n\n2. As he hath appointed the day, so he hath appointed the judge,\n\"He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in\nrighteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath\ngiven assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the\ndead\" (Acts 17:31). This man is Jesus Christ; for it is he that\nis \"ordained of God to be the judge of quick an dead\" (Acts 10:42).\n\n3. All their deeds and works, to a word and thought, are every one\nalready recorded and enrolled in the books of the laws of heaven\nagainst that day. \"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,\nand with the point of a diamond:--upon the table of their heart\"\n(Jer 17:1). And again saith God, \"Write it--in a table, and note\nit in a book, that it may be for the time to come, even for ever\nand ever, that this is a rebellious people,\" &c. (Isa 30:8,9).\n\n4. God hath prepared his witnesses against this day (James 5:1-3;\nJob 20:27; Matt 24:14; Rom 2:14,15; Mal 3:5).\n\n5. The instruments of death, and eternal misery, are already\nprepared. \"He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he\nordaineth his arrows against the persecutors\" (Psa 7:13; 21:12).\nHell is of old prepared, he hath made it deep and large, the fire,\nthe everlasting fire, is also now of a long time prepared (Isa\n30:33; Matt 25:41); the heavy weights of God's curse are also ready\n(Deu 29:20) and their \"damnation now of a long time slumbereth\nnot\" (2 Peter 2:3). But now I say, how ridiculous a business would\nall this be, if these things should be all prepared of the only\nwise God, and there should be none to be judged; or if he that is\nordained judge, should not, either through want of power or will,\ncommand these rebels, and force them before his judgment-seat.\nGlad indeed, would the sinners be, if these things might be true;\nglad I say, at very heart, if they might be in their secret places\nof darkness, and the grave for ever; but it must not be; the day\nof their rising is set; the judge is appointed; their deeds are\nwritten; the deep dungeon is with open mouth ever waiting for\nthem; wherefore at the day appointed, neither earth, nor death,\nnor hell can hinder: There shall be a resurrection of the dead,\nboth of the just and unjust.\n\nSixth and Lastly, Besides what hath been said, I cannot but\nbelieve, there shall be a resurrection of the wicked at the last\nday, because of the ungodly consequences, and errors that do most\nnaturally follow the denial thereof. For,\n\n1. He that taketh away the doctrine of the resurrection of the\nwicked; he taketh away one of the main arguments that God hath\nprovided for to convince a sinner of the evil of his ways; for\nhow shall a sinner be convinced of the evil of sin, if he be not\nconvinced of the certainty of eternal judgment? and how shall\nhe be convinced of eternal judgment, if you persuade him, that\nwhen he is dead, he shall not at all rise? especially seeing the\nresurrection of the dead and eternal judgment must unavoidably be\none the forerunner of the other (Heb 6:2). It was Paul's reasoning\nof righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come that made Felix\ntremble (Acts 24:25). It is this also he calleth the argument\nof terror, wherewith he persuaded men (2 Cor 5:10,11). This was\nSolomon's argument (Eccl 11:9); and Christ's also, where he saith,\n\"that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account\nthereof in the day of judgment\" (Matt 12:36).\n\n2. They that deny the resurrection of the wicked, they do both allow\nand maintain the chief doctrine of the ranters, with most of the\ndebauched persons in the world. For the ranters deny it both in\nprinciple and practice, and the other in practice at least. Now\nto me it is very strange, that these men above all other, should\nboth know and live8 in the doctrines of the kingdom of God: especially\nseeing the denial hereof is an evident token of one appointed to\nwrath and destruction (2 Tim 2:18). But to be plain; there shall\nbe a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust:\nwherefore, whatever others may say or profess, being beguiled by\nSatan, and their own hearts, yet do thou fear him that can \"destroy\nboth soul and body in hell\" (Matt 10:28).\n\nThere shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and\nunjust. \"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death\nand hell delivered up the dead which were in them\" (Rev 20:13).\n\nHaving in the first place shewed you, that the wicked must arise;\nI shall in the next place,\n\nSECOND, Shew you the manner of their rising. And observe it, as\nthe very title of the just and unjust, are opposites, so they are\nin all other matters, and in their resurrections.\n\nMANNER OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE WICKED.\n\nFirst then, as the just in their resurrection do come forth in\nincorruption: the unjust in their resurrection, shall come forth in\ntheir corruptions; for though the ungodly at their resurrection,\nshall for ever after, be incapable of having body and soul separate;\nor of their being annihilated into nothing, yet it shall be far from\nthem to rise in incorruption; for if they arise in incorruption,\nthey must arise to life, and also must have the conquest over sin\nand death (1 Cor 15:45), but that they shall not; for it is the\nrighteous only, that put on incorruption, that are swallowed up\nof life. The wicked's resurrection, it is called the resurrection\nof damnation (John 5:28). These in their very resurrection, shall\nbe hurt of the second death. They shall arise in death, and shall\nbe under it, under the gnawings, and terrors of it, all the time\nof their arraignment. As it were, a living death shall feed upon\nthem; they shall never be spiritually alive, nor yet absolutely\ndead; but much after that manner, that natural death, and hell, by\nreason of guilt, doth feed on him, that is going before the judge,\nto receive his condemnation to the gallows. You know, though a\nfelon go forth of the jail, when he is going to the bar for his\narraignment, yet he is not out of prison, or out of his irons for\nthat; his fetters are still making a noise on his heels,9 and the\nthoughts of what he is to hear by and by from the judge, is still\nfrighting and afflicting his heart; death, like some evil spirit\nor ghost, doth continually haunt him, and playeth the butcher\ncontinually in his soul and conscience, with frights and fears\nabout the thoughts of the sudden, and insupportable after-clap,\nby and by he is to meet withal.\n\nThus I say, will the wicked come out of their graves, having yet\nthe chains of eternal death hanging on them, and the talons of\nthat dreadful ghost fastened in their souls; so that life will be\nfar from them, even as far as heaven is from hell. This morning\nto them, is even as the shadow of death. They will then be in the\nvery terrors of the shadow of death (Job 24:17). As Christ saith,\n\"Their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched\" (Mark 9:44).\nFrom death to eternity, it never shall be quenched, their bed is\nnow among the flames; and when they rise, they will rise in flames;\nwhile they stand before the judge, it will be in flames, even in\nthe flames of a guilty conscience; they will in their coming before\nthe judge, be within the very jaws of death and destruction. Thus\nI say, the ungodly shall be far off from rising as the saints; for\nthey will be even in the region and shadow of death. The first\nmoment of their rising, death will be ever over them, ever feeding\non their souls; and ever presenting to their hearts, the heights\nand depths, of the misery that now must seize them, and, like\na bottomless gulf, must swallow them up. \"They shall move out of\ntheir holes like worms of the earth: They shall be afraid of the\nLord our God\" (Micah 7:17).\n\nSecond, As the resurrection of the godly shall be a resurrection in\nglory: so the resurrection of the wicked, it will be a resurrection\nin dishonour. Yea, as the glory of saints, at the day of their\nrising, will be glory unspeakable; so the dishonour of the ungodly\nat that day, it will be dishonour beyond expression. As Daniel\nsaith, the good shall rise to everlasting life, but the wicked\nto shame and everlasting contempt (Dan 12:2). And again, \"O Lord,\nwhen thou awakest,\" that is, to judge them, \"thou shalt despise\ntheir image\" (Psa 73:20). Never was toad or serpent more loathsome\nto any, than these will be in the eyes of God, in their rising\nforth of their graves. When they go to their graves, saith Job,\n\"His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down\nwith him in the dust\" (Job 20:11). And arise they shall, in the same\nnoisome and stinking condition; for as death leaves, so judgment\nfinds them. At the resurrection then of these ungodly, they will\nbe in a very loathsome condition.\n\nThe ungodly at their death are like the thistle seed, but at\ntheir rising, they will be like the thistle grown; more noisome,\noffensive, and provoking to rejection abundance.10\n\nThen such dishonour, shame, and contempt will appear in them, that\nneither God nor Christ, saints nor angels, will so much as once\nregard them, or vouchsafe once to come near them. \"He beholdeth\nthe wicked afar off;\" because in the day of grace, they would\nnot come to hand, and be saved, therefore now they shall, all as\nthorns, be thrust away, as with fences of iron (2 Sam 23:6,7),\nTheir rising, is called the resurrection of the unjust, and so\nthey at that day will appear, and will more stink in the nostrils\nof God, and all the heavenly hosts, than if they had the most\nirksome plague-sores in the world running on them. If a man at his\nbirth, be counted as one cast forth to the loathing of his person;\nhow loathsome, and irksome, dishonourable, and contemptible, will\nthose be that shall arise Godless, Christless, Spiritless, and\ngraceless, when the trumpet sounds to their judgment, they coming\nout of their graves, far more loathsome, and filthy, than if they\nshould ascend out of the most filthy hole on earth.\n\nThird, As the just shall arise in power, so the wicked and unjust,\nin weakness and astonishment. Sin and guilt bringeth weakness, and\nfaintness in this life; how much more, when both with all their\npower and force, like a giant, fasten on them; as God saith, \"Can\nthine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that\nI shall deal with thee?\" (Eze 22:14). Now will the ghastly jaws\nof despair gape upon thee, and now will condemnings of conscience,\nlike thunder-claps, continually batter against thy weary spirit.\nIt is the godly that have boldness in the day of judgment (1\nJohn 4:17); but the wicked will be like the chaff which the wind\ndriveth away (Psa 1:4). Oh the fear, and the heart-aching that\nwill seize them in their rising! the frightful thoughts that then\nwill fill their throbbing hearts! Now must that soul that hath\nbeen in hell-fire among the devils possess the body again. Possess\nit, I say, with the hot scalding stink of hell upon it. They shall\nnot be able to lift up the head for ever; pangs shall take hold\non them, all their hands shall faint, and every man's heart shall\nmelt; \"They shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be\nas flames\" (Isa 13:6-8). Everything they see, hear, or think of,\nshall tend to their discomfort. They must needs be weak, whom God\nhath left, whom guilt hath seized, and whom death is swallowing\nup for ever.\n\nFourth, As the just shall arise spiritual bodies, so the unjust shall\narise only as mere and naked lumps of sinful nature; not having\nthe least help from God, to bear them up under this condition.\nWherefore, so soon as ever they are risen out of their graves;\nthey will feel a continual sinking under every remembrance of every\nsin, and thoughts of judgment; in their rising they fall--fall,\nI say, from thenceforth, and for ever. And for this reason the\ndungeon into which they fall is called \"bottomless\" (Rev 20:1).\nBecause, as there will be no end of their misery, so there will\nbe no stay or prop to bear them up in it. Only, as I said before,\nthey shall not now, as afore, be separate body from soul; but\nboth together, be bound in the cords of sin and iniquity, in which\nthey shall now tremble as thieves and murderers, &c., as they go\nbefore the Judge, to hear what he will say unto them.\n\n[THIRD--The examination and judgment of the wicked.]--Now, when the\nwicked are thus raised out of their graves, they shall, together\nwith all the angels of darkness, their fellow-prisoners, be brought\nup, being shackled in their sins, to the place of judgment; where\nthere shall sit upon them Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord\nof lords, the Lord Chief Judge of things in heaven, and things in\nearth, and things under the earth. On whose right hand, and left,\nshall sit all the princes, and heavenly nobles; the saints and\nprophets, the apostles and witnesses of Jesus; every one in his\nkingly attire, upon the throne of his glory (Joel 3:11-14). Then\nshall be fulfilled that which is written, \"But those mine enemies,\nwhich would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and\nslay them\" (Luke 19:27).\n\n[THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED.]\n\nWhen every one is thus set in his proper place, the Judge on his\nthrone, with his attendants, and the prisoners coming up to judgment,\nforthwith there shall issue forth a mighty fire and tempest from\nbefore the throne, which shall compass it round about; which\nfire, shall be as bars and bounds to the wicked, to keep them at\na certain distance from the heavenly Majesty. As David saith, \"Our\nGod shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour\nbefore him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him\"\n(Psa 50:3). And again, \"His throne was like the fiery flame, and\nhis wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth\nfrom before him;\" &c. (Dan 7:9,10).\n\nThis preparation being made, to wit, the Judge with his attendants,\non the throne; the bar for the prisoners, and the rebels all\nstanding with ghastly jaws, to look of what comes after: presently\nthe books are brought forth, to wit, the books both of death and\nlife; and every one of them opened before the sinners, now to be\njudged and condemned. For after that he had said before, \"A fiery\nstream issued and came forth from before him\": he adds, \"Thousand\nthousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand\nstood before him: the judgment was set, and the book was opened\"\n(Dan 7:10). And again, \"I saw a great white throne, and him that\nsat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;\nand there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small\nand great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and\nanother book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead\nwere judged out of those things which were written in the books,\naccording to their works\" (Rev 20:11,12).\n\nHe doth not say, the book was opened, as of one, but the books, as\nof many. And indeed, they are more than one, two, or three, out\nof which the dead shall in the judgment be proceeded against.\n\nFirst then, there is the book of the creatures to be opened. Second,\nThe book of God's remembrance. Third, The book of the law. And\nfourth, the book of life. For by every one of these, that is, out\nof what is written in them, shall the world of the ungodly be\njudged.\n\n\"And the books were opened.\"\n\nFirst, The book of the creatures shall be opened, and that first,\nit concerns man's nature; and next, as it relates to all other\ncreatures.\n\nI. He will shew in what the principles of nature were, as they\nwere God's creation; and how contrary to these principles, the\nworld have walked, acted, and done. The principles of nature are\nconcluded under three general heads.\n\n1. That man by his own natural reason and judgment may gather, that\nthere is a God, a Deity, a chief, or first, or principal Being,\nwho is over all, and supreme above all. This instinct, I say, man\nmerely as he is a rational creature findeth in himself; and hence\nit is, that all heathens that mind their own natural reason, do\nconclude, that we are his offspring; that is, His creation and\nworkmanship. That He made heaven and earth, and hath made of one\nblood, all nations of men; that \"in him we live, and move, and\nhave our being;\" &c. (Acts 17:24-29).\n\nIt appears further, that man by his own nature, doth know that\nthere is such a God.\n\n(1.) By his being able to judge by nature, that there is such\na thing as sin; as Christ saith, \"Why even of yourselves judge\nye not what is right?\" (Luke 12:57). As if he had said, You are\ndegenerated even from the principles of nature, and right reason;\nas Paul saith in another place, \"Doth not even nature itself teach\nyou?\" (1 Cor 11:14). Now he that can judge, that there is such a\nthing as sin, it must of necessity be, that he understandeth that\nthere is a God, to whom sin is opposite; for if there be no God,\nthere is no sin against him; and he that knows not the one, knows\nnot the other.\n\n(2.) It is evident further, that man by nature knows that there is\na God, by those fits of fear, and dread that are often begotten\nin themselves, even in every man that breatheth in this world;\nfor they are by their own consciences, and thoughts, convicted\nand reproved, judged and condemned, though they know neither Moses\nnor Christ--For the Gentiles which have not the law, these are a\nlaw to themselves, and shew the work of the law written in their\nhearts (Rom 2:14,15)--that is, by this very thing, they hold forth\nto all men, that God created them in that state and quality, that\nthey might in and by their own nature, judge and know that there is\na God. And it further sheweth itself, saith he, by those workings\nof heart, convictions of conscience, and accusations, that\nevery thought maketh within them, together with the fear that is\nbegotten in them, when they transgress, or do those things that\nare irrational, or contrary to what they see they shall do. I\nmight add further, that the natural proneness that is in all men\nto devotion and religion, that is, of one kind or another, doth\nclearly tell us, that they by the book of nature, which book is\nthemselves, do read that there is one great and eternal God.\n\n2. The second principle of nature is, that this God should by man\nbe sought after, that they might enjoy communion with him for\never. As I said before, the light of nature sheweth man, that there\nis a great God, even God that made the world; and the end of its\nshewing him this is, that \"they should seek the Lord, if haply\nthey might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from\nevery one of us\" (Acts 17:27).\n\n3. This light of nature teacheth, that men between themselves,\nshould do that which is just and equal. As Moses said, and that\nlong before the law was given, \"Sirs, ye are brethren, why do ye\nwrong one another?\" (Acts 7:26; Exo 2:13). as who should say, You\nare of equal creation, you are the same flesh; you both judge,\nthat it is not equally done of any, to do you wrong, and therefore\nought to judge by the same reason, that ye ought not to wrong one\nanother.\n\nNow against every one of these three principles, hath every man in\nthe whole world transgressed; as Paul saith, \"For both Jews and\nGentiles--are all under sin\" (Rom 3:9). For as touching the first,\n(1.) who is he that hath honoured, reverenced, worshipped, and\nadored the living God, to the height, both of what they saw in\nhim, and also according to the goodness and mercy they have as\nmen received from him? All have served and worshipped the creature\nmore than the Creator, who is blessed for ever (Rom 1:25), and\nso have walked contrary to, and have sinned against, this bond of\nnature, in this first principle of it.\n\n(2.) Men, instead of minding their own future happiness, as nature\nteacheth, they have, through their giving way to sin and Satan,\nminded nothing less; for though reason teacheth all men to love\nthat which is good and profitable, yet they, contrary to this,\nhave loved that which is hurtful and destructive. Yea, though sense\nteacheth to avoid the danger that is manifest; yet man, contrary\nto reason and sense both, even all men, have both against light\nand feeling, rejected their own happiness; as Paul saith, \"Who\nknowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things\nare worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in\nthem that do them\" (Rom 1:31).\n\n(3.) Man, instead of doing equity, and as he would be done by,\nwhich nature itself teacheth: he hath given up himself to vile\naffections, being filled, by refusing the dictates of nature,\n\"with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,\nmaliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity;\nwhisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,\ninventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,\ncovenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful\"\n(Rom 1:29-31).\n\nAnd observe it, he doth not say, that all these things are by every\nman put into practice; but every man hath all these in his heart,\nwhich there defile the soul, and make it abominable in the sight\nof God. They are filled with all unrighteousness, which also appears,\nas occasion serveth, sometimes one of them, sometimes more. Now,\nman having sinned against that natural light, judgment, reason,\nand conscience, that God hath given him; therefore, though as I\nsaid before, he neither knew Moses nor Christ, yet he shall perish.\n\"As many,\" saith Paul, \"as have sinned without law, shall also\nperish without law\" (Rom 2:12).\n\nYea, here will man be found not only a sinner against God, but an\nopposer of himself, a contradictor of his own nature, and one that\nwill not do that which he judgeth even of himself to be right (2\nTim 2:25). Their sin is written upon the tables of their own heart\n(Jer 17:1), and their own wickedness and backsliding shall both\ncorrect and reprove them (Jer 2:19).\n\nIt is marvellous, if we consider, how curious a creature man was made\nof God; to behold how much below, besides, and against that state\nand place, man acts and does in this state of sin and degeneracy.\nMan in his creation was made in the image of God (Gen 1:26), but\nman, by reason of his yielding to the tempter, hath made himself\nthe very figure and image of the devil. Man by creation was made\nupright and sinless; but man by sin, hath made himself crooked\nand sinful (Eccl 7:29). Man by creation had all the faculties of\nhis soul at liberty to study God his creator, and his glorious\nattributes and being; but man by sin, hath so bound up his own\nsenses and reason; and hath given way for blindness and ignorance\nof God, so to reign in his soul; that now he is captivated and\nheld bound in alienation and estrangedness both from God, and all\nthings truly spiritually good; \"Because,\" saith he, \"that when\nthey knew God, they glorified him not as God,--but became vain\nin their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened\"\n(Rom 1:21). And again, \"Having the understanding darkened, being\nalienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in\nthem, because of the blindness of their hearts\" (Eph 4:18).\n\nNow, for this abuse of the workmanship of God, shall man be brought\nforth to the judgment, shall be convicted, cast, and condemned as\na rebel, against both God and his own soul, as Paul affirmeth,\nand that when he reasoned but as a man (Rom 3:5,6).\n\nWhen this part of the book touching man's nature is opened, and\nman convicted and cast by it, by reason of his sinning against\nthe three general principles thereof:\n\nII. Then forthwith is the second part of the book opened, which\nis the mystery of the creatures; for the whole creation, that\nis before thee, are not only made to shew the power of God in\nthemselves; but also to teach thee, and to preach unto thee, both\nmuch of God and thyself; as also the righteousness, and justice\nof God against sin; \"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven\nagainst all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold\nthe truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of\nGod is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For\nthe invisible things of him from the creation of the world are\nclearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even\nhis eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse\"\n(Rom 1:18-20).\n\n1. The creation then of the world, namely, of the heavens, earth,\nsun, moon, stars, with all other the creatures of God: they preach\naloud to all men, the eternal power and Godhead of their Creator\n(Psa 8:3). In wisdom he hath made them all (Psa 104:24): to be\nteachable, and carrying instruction in them; and he that is wise,\nand will understand these things, even he shall understand the\nloving-kindness of the Lord; for \"the works of the Lord are great,\nsought out of all them that have pleasure therein\" (Psa 107;\n111:2).\n\n2. As the creation in general preacheth to every man something of\nGod; so they do hold forth, how man should behave himself both to\nGod, and one to another; and will assuredly come in, in the judgment,\nagainst all those that shall be found crossers, and thwarters of\nwhat God by the creatures doth hold forth to us.\n\n(1.) As First, The obedience of the creatures, both to God and\nthee. (a.) To God, they are all in subjection (set devils and men\naside) even the very dragons, and all deeps, fire, hail, snow,\nand vapours (Psa 148:7,8), fulfilling his word. Yea, the winds\nand seas obey him (Mark 4:41). Thus, I say, by their obedience to\nGod they teach thee obedience, and by their obedience shall thy\ndisobedience be condemned in the judgment (Psa 147:15-18). (b.)\nTheir obedience to thee, also teacheth thee obedience to all\nsuperiors; for every kind of beasts, and of birds, and serpents,\nand things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, and brought\ninto obedience by mankind. Man only remains untamed and unruly,\nand therefore by these is condemned (James 3:7,8).\n\n(2.) The fruitfulness of all the creatures in their kind, doth\nteach and admonish thee to a fruitful life to Godward, and in the\nthings of his holy word. God did but say in the beginning, Let\nthe earth bring forth fruit, grass, herbs, trees, beasts, creeping\nthings, and cattle after their kind; and it was so (Gen 1:24).\nBut to man, he hath sent his prophets, rising early, and sending\nthem, saying, \"O do not this abominable thing that I hate\" (Jer\n44:4). but they will not obey. For if the Gentiles, which have not\nthe law, do, by some acts of obedience, condemn the wickedness of\nthose who do by the letter and circumcision, break the law: how\nmuch more shall the fruitfulness of all the creatures come in,\nin the judgment, against the whole world! As Job saith, By the\nobedience and fruitfulness of the creatures he judgeth, and so will\njudge, the people (Job 36:27-32).\n\n(3.) The knowledge and wisdom of the creatures, do with a check,\ncommand thee to be wise, and do teach thee wisdom. The stork in\nthe heaven, the swallow and the crane, by observing the time and\nseason of their coming, do admonish thee to learn the time of\ngrace, and of the mercy of God (Jer 8:7). The ox and the ass, by\nthe knowledge they have of their master's crib, do admonish thee\nto know the bread and table of God, and both do and shall condemn\nthy ignorance of the food of heaven (Isa 1:3).\n\n(4.) The labour and toil of the creatures doth convict thee of\nsloth and idleness. \"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her\nways, and be wise;\" for she provideth her food in the summer, and\nlayeth up against the day of trial (Prov 6:6,7). But thou spendest\nthe whole summer of thy life in wasting both time and soul. All\nthings are full of labour, saith Solomon (Eccl 1:8), only man\nspendeth all the day idle (Matt 20:6), and his years like a tale\nthat is told (Psa 90:9; Rom 10:21). The coney is but a feeble\nfolk, yet laboureth for a house in the rock, to be safe from the\nrage of the hunter (Prov 30:26).\n\nThe spider also, taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's palaces\n(Prov 30:28). It is man only that turneth himself upon the bed of\nsloth, as the door doth itself upon the hinges. 'Tis man, I say,\nthat will neither lay hold on the rock Christ, as the coney doth\nteach, nor lay hold on the kingdom of heaven, as the spider doth\nbid him (John 5:40).\n\n(5.) The fear that is in all creatures, when they perceive that\ndanger is near, it teacheth men to fly from the wrath to come,\n\"In vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird\" (Prov 1:17),\nbut man, man only is the fool-hardy creature, that lieth wait for\nhis own blood, and that lurketh privily for his own life. How I\nsay, will every creature fly, run, strive, and struggle to escape\nthe danger it is sensible of! 'Tis man only that delighteth to\ndance about the mouth of hell, and to be knowingly smitten with\nSatan's snare (Rom 1:32).\n\n(6.) The dependence that all the creatures have upon God; they\nteach thee to depend on him that made thee; yea, and will in the\njudgment condemn thee for thy unlawful practices, and dealings for\nthy preservation. The young ravens seek their food from God (Psa\n147:9; Job 38:41), and will condemn thy lying, cheating, overreaching,\ndefrauding, and the like. They provide neither storehouse, nor\nbarn (Luke 12:24); but thou art so greedy of these things, that\nthou for them shuttest thyself out of the kingdom of heaven (Prov\n17:16).\n\n(7.) The love and pity that is in their hearts to their young,\nand one another: will judge and condemn the hard-heartedness that\nis in thee to thy own soul. What shall I say? \"The heaven shall\nreveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him\" (Job\n20:27). That is, all the creatures of God, they will, by their\nfruitfulness and subjection to the will of their Creator, judge\nand condemn thee for thy disobedience, and rebellion against him.\n\n3. Now, as these creatures do every day call unto thee, and lay\nbefore thee these things: so he hath for thy awakening, in case\nthou be asleep, and senseless, creatures of another nature; as,\n\n(1.) Thy bed, when thou liest down in it, preacheth to thee thy\ngrave; thy sleep, thy death; and thy rising in the morning, thy\nresurrection to judgment (Job 14:12; 17:13; Isa 26:19).\n\n(2.) The jail that thou seest with thine eyes, and the felons that\nlook out at the grate, they put thee in mind of the prison of hell,\nand of the dreadful state of those that are there (Luke 12:58,59).\n\n(3.) The fire that burns in thy chimney, it holds forth the fire\nof hell unto thee (Isa 10:16; Rev 20:14).\n\n(4.) The ugly smell, stench, and steam, of the burning brimstone,\nit shews thee the loathsome, odious, and dreadful torments of hell\n(Rev 19:20).\n\n(5.) The darkness of the night in solitary places, and the fears\nthat do commonly haunt those that walk therein: it preacheth to\nthee the fears and frights, the scares and amazements, that will\nfor ever attend all damned souls (Matt 8:12; Deu 28:65-67).\n\n(6.) By thy delighting, when thou art cold, to lay sticks on the\nfire to warm thyself, not caring how fiercely they flame therein,\nso thou canst be warm and be refreshed thereby, by this, I say,\nGod preacheth to thee, with what delight he will burn sinners in\nthe flames of hell, for the easing of his mind, and the satisfaction\nof his justice. \"Ah,\" saith he, \"I will ease me of mine adversaries,\nand avenge me of mine enemies\" (Isa 1:24).\n\n(4.) Yea, by thy blowing the fire, that it may fasten upon the wood\nthe better; thou preachest to thyself how God will blow the fire\nof hell by the rigour of his law, to the end, it may by its flames,\nto purpose, kindle upon damned sinners (Isa 30:33).\n\nAll these things, as inconsiderable and unlikely as they may appear to\nyou now, yet in the judgment will be found the items, and warning\nwords of God to your souls. And know, that he who could overthrow\nthe land of Egypt with frogs, lice, flies, locusts, &c., will\noverthrow the world, at the last day, by the book of the creatures;\nand that by the least and most inconsiderable of them, as well as\nby the rest. This book of the creatures, it is so excellent, and\nso full, so easy, and so suiting the capacity of all, that there\nis not one man in the world but is catched, convicted, and cast\nby it. This is the book, that he who knows no letters may read\nin; yea, and that he who neither saw New Testament, nor Old, may\nknow both much of God, and himself by. 'Tis this book, out of which\ngenerally, both Job and his friends did so profoundly discourse\nof the judgments of God; and that out of which God himself did so\nconvincingly answer Job. Job was as perfect in this book, as we\nare, many of us in the scriptures; yea, and could see further by\nit, than many now adays do see by the New Testament and Old. This\nis the book out of which, both Christ, the prophets, and apostles,\ndo so frequently discourse by their similitudes, proverbs, and\nparables, as being the most easy way to convince the world, though\nby reason of their ignorance, nothing will work with them, but\nwhat is set on their heart by the Holy Ghost.\n\nOne word further, and I have done with this, and that is, God hath\nsealed the judgment of the world by the book of the creatures;\neven by man's own carriage unto such of them, which, through any\nimpediment, have disappointed his expectations. As thus: if thou\nhast but a tree in thy orchard, that neither beareth fruit, nor\naught else that is good; why, thou art for hewing it down, and\nfor appointing it, as fuel for the fire. Now thou little thinkest\nthat by thy thus judging thou shouldst pass sentence upon thy own\nfruitless soul; but it is so; \"And now also the axe is laid unto\nthe root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not\nforth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.\" For as\ntruly as thou sayest of thy fruitless tree, Cut it down, why doth\nit cumber the ground? so truly doth thy voice cause heaven to echo\nagain upon thy head, Cut him down; why doth he cumber the ground?\n(Matt 3:10; Luke 13:6-8; Eze 15:1-6).11\n\nFurther, the inclination of thy heart towards fruitless and\nunprofitable creatures, doth fore-preach to thee, the inclination\nof the heart of God towards thee in the judgment. If thou hast\neither cow, or any other beast, that is now unprofitable to thee,\nthough thou mayst suffer them for some time to be with thee, as\nGod suffereth sinners in the world, yet all this while thy heart\nis not with them, but thou wilt take thy time to clear thy hands\nof them. Why, just so shall thy judgment be, as God saith, \"Though\nMoses and Samuel stood before me,\" that is, to pray me to spare this\npeople, \"yet my mind could not be towards this people: cast them\nout of my sight, and let them go forth\" (Jer 15:1; Eze 14:13,14).\n\nThus I say, will God judge the world at the last day; he will open\nbefore them, how they have degenerated and gone back from the\nprinciples of nature in which he created them. Also how they have\nslighted all the instructions that he hath given them, even by the\nobedience, fruitfulness, wisdom, labour, fear, and love of the\ncreatures; and he will tell them, that as to their judgment, they\nthemselves have decided it, both by their cutting down that which\nwas fruitless, and by the withdrawing of their hearts from those\nthings, which to them were unprofitable, \"As therefore the tares\nare gathered, and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end\nof the world.\" As men deal with weeds, and rotten wood: so will\nGod deal with sinners in the day of judgment: and will bring in,\nI say, all the counsels and warnings he hath given men by these\nthings, both to clear up and to aggravate their judgment to them.\n\nSecond. The second book that will be opened at this day, it will\nbe the book of God's remembrance (Mal 3:16). For as God hath in\nhis remembrance, recorded all and every particular good thing that\nhis own people hath done to, and for his name while they were in\nthis world: so he hath in his remembrance, recorded all the evil\nand sin of his adversaries, even everything (Eccl 12:14). Now\nGod's remembrance is so perfect every way, that it is impossible\nthat anything should be lost, that is committed to it to be kept,\nand brought forth to the judgment at the time appointed; for as\na thousand years are but as yesterday, with his eternity: so the\nsins that have been committed thousands of years since, they are\nall so firmly fixed in the remembrance of the eternal God, that\nthey are always as fresh and clear in his sight, as if they were\nbut just now in committing. He calleth again the things that are\npast (Eccl 3:15), and hath set \"our [most] secret sins in the\nlight of his countenance\" (Psa 90:8). As he also saith in another\nplace, \"Hell [itself] is naked before him, and destruction hath\nno covering\" (Job 26:6), that is, the most secret, cunning, and\nhidden contrivances of the most subtle of the infernal spirits,\nwhich yet are far more slethy,12 than men, to hide their wickedness;\nyet, I say, all their ways, hearts, and most secret doings, are\nclear, to the very bottom of them, in the eyes of the great God.\nAll things are open and bare before the eyes of him with whom we\nhave to do; who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,\nand will make manifest the counsels of the heart (Heb 4:13; 1 Cor\n4:5).\n\n\"Ye that say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of\nJacob regard it. Understand, [O] ye brutish among the people: and\nye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall\nhe not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? he that\nchastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man\nknowledge, shall not he know?\" (Psa 94:8-10; Hosea 7:2; 8:13). \"Can\nany hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?\"--that\nis, when he is committing wickedness--\"saith the Lord: Do not I\nfill heaven and earth? saith the Lord\" (Jer 23:24).\n\nNow to know and see things, it is the cause among men of their\nremembrance. Wherefore, God to shew us, that he will remember all\nour sins if we die out of Christ, he tells us, that he knoweth,\nand seeth them all, and therefore must needs remember them; for\nas is his sight and knowledge, so is his remembrance of all things.\n\nWhen this book of his remembrance therefore is opened, as it shall\nbe, in the judgment, then shall be brought forth of their hidden\nholes, all things, whatsoever hath been done since the world\nbegan, whether by kingdoms in general, or persons in particular.\nNow also shall be brought forth to open view, all the transactions\nof God and his Son, among the sons of men, and everything shall\nbe applied to every particular person, in equity and justice,\nto whom they belong: the sins that thou hast committed shall be\nthy own, and thou thyself shalt bear them. \"The Lord is a God of\nknowledge, and by him actions are weighed\" (1 Sam 2:3).\n\nIt will be marvellous to behold how by thousands, and ten thousands,\nGod will call from their secret places, those sins, that one would\nhave thought, had been dead, and buried, and forgotten; yea, how\nhe will shew before the sun, such things, so base and so horrid,\nthat one would think, it was not in the hearts of any to commit;\nfor all is recorded in the book of God's remembrance. While men\nare here, they have a thousand tricks to present themselves one to\nanother, far more fair, and honest than they are, or ever were. As\nChrist said to the Pharisees, \"Ye are they which justify yourselves\nbefore men: but God knoweth your hearts\" (Luke 16:15): Ay, God\nknoweth, indeed, what a nest, what a heap, what swarms; yea, what\nlegions of hellish wickednesses, there are with power lurking,\nlike cockatrices, in those men, that one would swear a thousand\ntimes, are good and honest men. The way of men in their sins, it\nis like \"an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the\nway of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with\na maid,\" saith Solomon (Prov 30:19), that is, hiddenly, closely,\ncovertly, burying all under fair pretences, wipeth their mouths\nin the close of their evil, saying, \"I have done [no] wickedness\"\n(Prov 30:20).\n\nBut this, though it may serve for the time present, and no longer,\nGod will not be deluded, nor blinded, nor mocked, nor put off (Gal\n6:7). \"They consider not--that I remember all their wickedness\"\n(Hosea 7:2); saith he, \"but I will reprove thee, and set them in\norder before thine eyes\" (Psa 50:21). Here will be laid open the\nvery heart of Cain the murderer, of Judas the traitor, of Saul the\nadversary of David, and of those that under pretences of holiness\nhave persecuted Christ, his word, and people. Now shall every\ndrunkard, whoremaster, thief, and other wicked person, be turned\ntheir inside outward; their hearts right open, and every sin,\nwith every circumstance of place, time, person with whom, with\nthe causes also that drew them to the commission of every evil,\nbe discovered to all. Here will be no hiding yourselves behind\ncurtains, nor no covering yourselves with the black and dark night.\n\"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall\nbe light about me: Yea,\" O God, \"darkness hideth not from thee;\nbut the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are\nboth alike to thee\" (Psa 139:11,12).\n\nThe piercing eye of God, beholds all places, persons, and things;\nthe holy hand of his justice writeth them down in the book of his\nremembrance; and by his power and wisdom, will he open and read\nto all men exactly, distinctly, and convincingly, whatever hath\npassed from them, or been done by them, in their whole life; for,\n\"For all these things God will bring thee into judgment\" (Eccl\n11:9). Again, as God will bring out of the book of his remembrance,\nwhatever hath passed from thee against him; so also will he then\nbring forth by the same book, all things and carriages of his\ntowards thee.\n\nHere will he bring to thy mind, every sermon thou hast heard,\nevery chapter thou hast read; every conviction thou hast had on\nthy conscience; and every admonition that hath been given thee in\nall thy life, when thou wast in the land of the living.\n\nNow will God lay open before thee, what patience he extended to\nthee, how he let thee live one year, two years, ten, yea, twenty\nand twenty years, 13 and all to try thee. Yea, now also will he\nbring to thy view, how many times he warned, rebuked, threatened,\nand chastised thee for thy wickedness; how many awakening providences\nand judgments he continually laid before thy face; yea, how many\na time thou didst, like Balaam, run upon the point of the sword\nof justice, and how he gave back, as being loath to kill thee (Num\n22:23-34).\n\nNow also again, shall be brought before thee and all men, how many\nstrugglings God had with thy heart, on thy sick-bed, to do thee good;\nyea, and at such times, how many vows, promises, engagements, and\nresolutions thou madest before God, to turn, if he would release\nthee from thy affliction, and take off his rod from thy back; and\nyet, how thou didst, like the man possessed (Mark 5:1-5), break\nand snap in twain all these chains of iron, with which thou hadst\nbound thy soul, and that for a very lust and sin. Here also, will\nbe opened before thee, how often thou hath sinned against thy light\nand knowledge; how often thou hast laid violent hands on thy own\nconscience; how often thou hast laboured to put out that light\nthat hath stood in thy way to hinder thee from sinning against\nthy soul. Ah, Lord, what a condition will the Christless soul be\nin at this day! how will every one of these things afflict the\ndamned soul! They will pierce like arrows, and bite like serpents,\nand sting like an adder. With what shame, will that man stand before\nthe judgment-seat of Christ who must have all things he hath done\nagainst God, to provoke the eyes of his glory to jealousy, laid\nopen before the whole host of the heavenly train! It would make a\nman blush to have his pockets searched, for things that are stolen in\nthe midst of a market, especially, if he stand upon his reputation\nand honour. But thou must have thy heart searched, the bottom of\nthy heart searched; and that, I say, before thy neighbour whom\nthou hast wronged, and before the devils whom thou hast served;\nyea, before God, whom thou hast despised, and before the angels,\nthose holy and delicate creatures, whose holy and chaste faces\nwill scarce forbear blushing, while God is making thee vomit up,\nall thou hast swallowed; for God shall bring it out of thy belly\n(Job 20:12-15).\n\nFor as for God to forget iniquity, is one of the chief heads of the\ncovenant of grace, and is an argument of the highest nature, to\nbeget and to continue consolation in the godly: so the remembrance\nof iniquity, by the Lord, it is one of the heaviest loads and\njudgments, that can befall any poor creature. \"Lord,\" saith the\nprophet, \"remember not against us former iniquities.\" And again,\n\"If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall\nstand?\" (Psa 130:3). And the reason is, because, that which the\nLord forgetteth, is forgiven for ever (Heb 8:12; Rom 4:6-8); but\nthat which he remembereth, it is charged for ever, and nothing\ncan take it away--\"Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee\nmuch soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord\nGod\" (Jer 2:22).\n\nThird. The third book that will at this day be opened, and out\nof which God will judge the world: it is the book of the law, or\nten words given forth on the Mount Sinai. But this book will more\nspecially concern those that have received it, or that have had\nknowledge thereof. Every one shall not be judged by this book, as\nthere delivered, though they shall be judged by the works of it,\nwhich are written in their hearts. \"As many as have sinned without\nlaw, shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned\nin the law, shall be judged by the law\" (Rom 2:12). That is, the\nheathens that never knew the law, as delivered on Sinai, they\nshall be judged by the law, as it was written in man's heart in\nhis creation, which is comprised within the book of the creatures,\nbut those that have knowledge of the law, as delivered on Sinai:\nthey shall be judged by the law as there given.\n\nNow then, this book when it is opened at the day of judgment, it\nwill to those to whom it especially relates, be a most terrible\nlaw, far surpassing the two afore-mentioned. This law, as I may\nso say, it is the chief and most pure resemblance of the justice\nand holiness of the heavenly majesty, and doth hold forth to all\nmen the sharpness and keenness of his wrath above the other two\nthat I have before mentioned. I say, both because it hath been\ndelivered more plain and open, both as to the duty enjoined, and\nthe sin prohibited; and therefore must of necessity, fall with\nthe more violence upon the head of all that shall be found within\nthe compass of it. This law, it hath in it to be opened at this\nday, these two general heads:\n\n1. A discovery of the evil of sin, that is so, against plain light\nand truth; and, secondly, a discovery of the vanity of all things,\nthat will at this day be brought by sinners for their help and plea\nat the judgment. Alas, who can but imagine, that the poor world,\nat the day of their arraignment, should muster up all that ever\nthey can think of, as arguments to shelter them from the execution\nof that fierce wrath, that then, with sinking souls, they will\nsee prepared for them.\n\nAs to the first of these, the apostle tells us that \"the law entered,\nthat the offence might abound\" (Rom 5:20), or be discovered what\nit is. As he saith again, \"I had not known sin, but by the law\"\n(Rom 7:7,13). Thus it is in this life, and thus it will be in\nthe day of judgment, that is, those that see sin, and that in its\nabounding nature, and in its exceeding sinfulness, they must see\nit by the law, for that is indeed the glass by which God discovereth\nsin, and the filthy spots of leprosy, that are in the soul (James\n1:22-25). Now those that have not the happiness to see their sin by\nthe law in this life, while there is a fountain of grace to wash\nin, and be clean; they must have the misery to see it at the judgment,\nwhen nothing is left but misery and pain, as the punishment for\nthe same. At which day, those little tittles of this holy law, that\nnow men so easily look over, and sin against with ease, they will\nevery one of them appear with such dread, and with such flaming\njustice against every offence committed; that if heaven and earth\nitself, should step in to shelter the sinner from the justice and\nwrath due to sin, it would turn them up by the roots. \"It is easier\nfor heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail\"\n(Luke 16:17). If there appeared such flames, such thunderings,\nand tempests, as there were at the giving of the law; what flames\nand blackness will there appear at the execution thereof! And\nif at the giving of the law there appeared so much holiness and\njustice, that it made all Israel fly; yea, holy Moses \"exceedingly\nfear and quake,\" what will become of these that God shall judge\nby the rigour of this law in the day of judgment? (Exo 19:16; Heb\n12:21).\n\nO what thunderings and lightnings, what earthquakes and tempests,\nwill there be in every damned soul, at the opening of this book?\nThen, indeed, will God visit them \"with thunder, and with earthquake,\nand great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring\nfire\" (Isa 29:6). \"For behold,\" saith the prophet, \"the Lord will\ncome with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render\nhis anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire\" (Isa\n66:15).\n\nThe Lord will come with fire, that is, in the flaming heat of his\njustice and holiness against sin, and sinners, to execute the\nrigour of his threatenings upon their perishing souls.\n\n2. The second general head, that is contained in this law, to be\nopened at this day is, its exactness, and purity, and strictness as\nto all acts of good that any poor creature hath done in this life,\nwhereby he in the judgment will think to shelter, or secure himself\nfrom the wrath of God. This is the rule, and line, and plummet,\nwhereby every act of every man shall be measured (Rom 3:21,22);\nand he whose righteousness is not found every way answerable to\nthis law, which all will fall short of, but they that have the\nrighteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ: he must perish, as\nhe saith, \"Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness\nto the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,\nand the waters shall overflow the hiding place\" (Isa 28:17). That\nis, though men may not shelter themselves under legal repentance,\ncold profession, good meaning, thinkings, and doings: yet all these\nthings must be measured, and weighed in the balance of God's most\nrighteous law: and, as I said, whatever in that day is not found\nthe righteousness of God, it will be found a refuge of lies, and\nwill be drowned by the overflowing of the wrath of God, as the\nwaters of Noah overflowed the world. And hence it is that all the\nungodly will at this day, be found as stubble, and the law as fire\n(Mal 4:1). As it saith, \"From his right hand went a fiery law\"\n(Deu 33:2). And again, \"His lips are full of indignation, and\nhis tongue as a devouring fire\" (Isa 30:27). For as fire, where\nit seizeth, doth burn, eat, destroy, devour and consume: so will\nthe law, all those that at this day, shall be found under the\ntransgression of the least tittle of it. It will be with these\nsouls at the day of judgment, as it is with those countries that\nare overrun with most merciless conquerors, who leave not anything\nbehind them, but swallow up all with fire and sword. \"For by fire,\nand by his sword, will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the\nslain of the Lord shall be many\" (Isa 66:16). There are two things\nat the day of judgment, will meet in their height and utmost\nstrength, and they are sin and the law; for the judgment will not\nbe, till the iniquity of the world be full ripe (Joel 3:13; Rev\n14:15-20).\n\nNow then, when sin is come to its full, having played all its pranks,\nand done all the mischief it can against the Lord of glory: then\nGod brings forth the law, his holy and righteous law, one of which\nwill now reign for ever, that is, either the law or sin: wherefore\nsin and sinners, they must tremble, with all that help, and hold\nthem up; for God \"will magnify the law, and make it honourable\"\n(Isa 42:21). That is, will give it the victory over the world for\never; for that is holy, just, and good; they are unholy, unjust,\nand bad. Therefore by this law \"the Lord shall rain snares, fire,\nand brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion\nof their cup\" (Psa 11:6). Let no man say then, that because God\nis so famous in his mercy and patience, in this day of his grace,\nthat therefore he will not be fierce, and dreadful in his justice,\nin the day of judgment; for judgment and justice, are the last\nthings that God intends to bring upon the stage, which will then\nbe to the full, as terrible, as now his goodness and patience,\nand long-sufferance are admirable. Lord, \"who knoweth the power\nof thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath\" (Psa\n90:11).\n\nYou may see, if you will, a few of the sparks of the justice of\nGod against sin and sinners. By his casting off angels for sin,\nfrom heaven to hell; by his drowning the old world; by his burning\nof Sodom and Gomorrah, to ashes; condemning them with an overthrow,\nmaking them an example to those that after should live ungodly (2\nPeter 2:4-6; Jude 6,7).\n\nFor \"what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are\nunder the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world\nmay become guilty before God\" (Rom 3:19).\n\nMoses seems to wonder, that the children of Israel could continue to\nlive, when they did but hear the law delivered on the mountain--\"Did\never people,\" saith he, \"hear the voice of God speaking out of\nthe midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?\" (Deu 4:33).\nO that ye did but know the law, and the wondrous things that are\nwritten therein, before the Lord cause that fearful voice to be\nheard--\"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that\nare written in the book of the law to do them\" (Gal 3:10); which\ncurse must fall on all that walk not in all the commandments of\nGod without iniquity (Eze 33:15); which none do, I say, but they\nthat walk in Christ, who hath alone fulfilled them all (Col 2:10).\n\nThe law is that which standeth at the entrance of the paradise of\nGod, as a flaming sword, turning every way to keep out those that\nare not righteous with the righteousness of God (Gen 3:24); that\nhave not skill to come to the throne of grace by that new and\nliving way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil; that\nis to say, his flesh (Heb 10:20), for though this law, I say, be\ntaken away by Christ Jesus, for all that truly and savingly believe\n(Col 2:14); yet it remains in full force and power, in every tittle\nof it, against every soul of man, that now shall be found in his\ntabernacle, that is, in himself, and out of the Lord Jesus (Rom\n3:19); it lieth, I say, like a lion rampant at the gates of heaven,\nand will roar upon every unconverted soul, fiercely accusing every\none that now would gladly enter in through the gates into this\ncity (Job 18:14; John 5:45). So, then, he that can answer all its\nmost perfect and legal commands, and that can live in the midst of\ndevouring fire, and there enjoy God and solace himself, he shall\ndwell on high, and shall not be hurt by this law--\"His place\nof defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given\nhim; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in\nhis beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off\" (Isa\n33:16,17). Blessed then is he whose righteousness doth answer\nevery point of the law of God, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30 he\nshall be able to escape all those things that shall come to pass,\nand to stand before the Son of man; for in himself, our God is a\nconsuming fire, and man out of Christ, is but as stubble, chaff,\nthorns, briars, and fuel for the wrath of this holy and sinner-consuming\nGod to seize upon for ever (Heb 12:29; Mal 4:1; Matt 3:12; Heb 6:8;\nIsa 27:4; 2 Sam 23:6,7). \"Who can stand before his indignation?\nAnd who can abide the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured\nout like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him\" (Nahum 1:6).\n\nNow when these three books are thus opened, there will without\ndoubt, be sad throbbing and pricking, in every heart that now stands\nfor his life, before the judgment-seat of Christ, the righteous\nJudge; and without all question, they will be studying a thousand\nways to evade and shift the stroke, that by the sin that these\nthree books do charge them with, will immediately fall upon them.\n\nBut now to cut off all these at a blow, forthwith appear the\nwitnesses, who are ready to evince, and make full and soul-killing\nproof of every particular charged against them.\n\n[First Witness.]--and the first is God himself. \"I,\" saith he,\n\"will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the\nadulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that\noppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,\nand that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me,\nsaith the Lord of hosts\" (Mal 3:5).\n\nThis must needs be of great sway with every soul, that God should\nnow come in. I will witness, saith God, that these things of which\nyou are accused before the Judge are true. I have seen all, know\nall, and write down all. There hath not been a thought in your\nheart, nor a word in your tongue, but I have known it altogether;\nall things have always been open and naked to mine eye (Heb 4:13).\nYea, my eyelids try the children of men (Psa 11:4). I have known\nyour down-sitting, and your up-rising; and have understood your\nthoughts afar off. I have compassed your path, and am well acquainted\nwith all your ways (Psa 139:1-3).\n\n1. You have not continued in that state of nature in which I did\nat first create you (Eccl 7:29); you have not liked to retain that\nknowledge and understanding of God, that you had, and might have\nhad, by the very book of the creatures (Rom 1). You gave way to\nthe suggestions of fallen angels, and so your foolish hearts were\ndarkened and alienated, and estranged from God.\n\n2. All the creatures that were in the world, have even condemned\nyou; they have been fruitful, but you fruitless; they have been\nfearful of danger, but you foolhardy; they have taken the fittest\nopportunity for their own preservation, but thou hast both blindly,\nand confidently gone on to thy punishment (Prov 22:3).\n\n3. Touching the book of my remembrance, who can contradict it?\nDo not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. Was not I in all\nplaces to behold, to see, and to observe thee in all thy ways? My\neye saw the thief, and the adulterer, and I heard every lie and\noath of the wicked. I saw the hypocrisy of the dissembler. \"They\nhave committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with\ntheir neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name,\nwhich I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness,\nsaith the Lord\" (Jer 29:23).\n\n4. God will also come in against them for their transgressing his\nlaw, even the law which he delivered on Mount Sinai; he will, I\nsay, open every tittle thereof in such order and truth: and apply\nthe breach of each particular person with such convincing argument,\nthat they will fall down silenced for ever--\"Every mouth shall be\nstopped, and all the world shall become guilty before God\" (Rom\n3:19).\n\n[Second Witness.]--There is yet another witness, for the condemning\nthe transgressors of these laws, and that is, conscience--\"Their\nconscience also bearing witness,\" saith the apostle (Rom 2:15).\nConscience is a thousand witnesses. Conscience, it will cry amen to\nevery word that the great God doth speak against thee. Conscience\nis a terrible accuser, it will hold pace with the witness of God\nas to the truth of evidence, to a hair's breadth. The witnesses\nof conscience, it is of great authority, it commands guilt,14\nand fasteneth it on every soul which it accuseth; and hence it is\nsaid, \"If our heart [or conscience] condemn us\" (1 John 3:20).\nConscience will thunder and lighten at this day; even the consciences\nof the most pagan sinners in the world, will have sufficiently\nwherewith to accuse, to condemn, and to make paleness appear in\ntheir faces, and breaking in their loins, by reason of the force\nof its conviction. Oh, the mire and dirt, that a guilty conscience,\nwhen it is forced to speak, will cast up, and throw out before the\njudgment-seat! It must out, none can speak peace, nor health, to\nthat man upon whom God hath let loose his own conscience. Cain\nwill now cry, \"My punishment is greater than I can bear;\" Judas\nwill hang himself; and both Belshazzar and Felix will feel the\njoints of their loins to be loosened, and their knees to smite one\nagainst another, when conscience stirreth (Gen 4:13; Matt 27:3;\nDan 5:6; Acts 24:23). When conscience is once thoroughly awakened,\nas it shall be before the judgment-seat: God need say no more to\nthe sinner than Solomon said to filthy Shimei, \"thou knowest all\nthe wickedness which thine heart is privy to\" (1 Kings 2:44). As\nwho should say, Thy conscience knoweth, and can well inform thee\nof all the evil, and sin that thou art guilty of. To all which\nit answereth, even as face answereth to face in a glass; or as\nan echo answereth the man that speaketh; as fast, I say, as God\nchargeth conscience will cry out, Guilty, guilty; Lord, guilty of\nall, of every whit; I remember clearly all the crimes thou layest\nbefore me. Thus, I say, will conscience be a witness against the\nsoul, in the day of God.\n\n[Third Witness.]--As God and conscience will at this day be most\ndreadful witnesses against the sinful man; so also will those several\nthoughts that have passed through man's heart, be a witness also\nagainst him. As he said before, \"Their conscience also baring witness,\nand their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one\nanother; In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by\nJesus Christ according to my gospel\" (Rom 2:15,16).\n\nThe thoughts come in as a witness for God against the sinner upon\nthe account of that unsteadiness and variety that were in them,\nboth touching God, and their own selves. Sometimes the man thinks\nthere is no God, but that everything hath its rise of itself, or\nby chance, or fortune--\"The fool hath said in his heart, There is\nno God\" (Psa 14:1).\n\nSometimes, again, they think there is a God, but yet they think\nand imagine of him falsely. \"Thou thoughtest that I was altogether\nsuch an one as thyself,\" saith God; \"but I will reprove thee\" (Psa\n50:21).\n\nMen think, that because they can sin with delight: that therefore\nGod can let them escape without punishment. Nay, oftentimes they\nthink, that God doth either quite forget their wickedness, or\nelse that he will be pleased with such satisfaction as they are\npleased to give him, even a few howling prayers (Hosea 7:14),\nfeigned and hypocritical tears, and weepings, which pass from them\nmore for fear of the punishment of hell-fire, than because they\nhave offended so holy, so just, and so glorious a God, and so\nloving and so condescending a Jesus (Mal 2:13).\n\nSometimes again, they have had right thoughts of something of God,\nbut not of him together; either thinking so of his justice, as to\ndrive them from him, and also cause them to put him out of their\nmind (Job 21:14). Or else so thinking of his mercy as that they\nquite forget his holiness and justice. Now both these are but base\nthoughts of God, and so erroneous, and sinful thoughts.\n\nSometimes also, they have pretty right thoughts of God, both as\nto justice and mercy, but then, through the wretchedness of their\nunsatisfied nature, they, against this light and knowledge, do,\nwith shut eyes, and hardened hearts, rush fiercely, knowingly, and\nwillingly again into their sins and wickedness (Heb 6:4-6; 10:26;\n2 Peter 2:20).\n\nAs men have these various thoughts of God, so also their thoughts\nare not steady about themselves.\n\nSometimes they think they are sinners, and therefore they have need\nof mercy.\n\nSometimes again, they think they are righteous, and so have not\nso much need; mark, and yet both alike rotten and base; because,\nas the last is altogether senseless, so the first is not at all\nsavingly sensible (Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:11,12).\n\nSometimes again, they think they are gods (Eze 28:1-6); that they\nshall never die; or that if they do die, yet they shall never rise\nagain (1 Cor 15:12); or if they do rise again, yet they shall be\nsaved, though they have lived vilely and in their sins all the\ndays of their life (Deu 29:18-20). Now, I say, every one of these\nthoughts, with ten thousand more of the like nature, will God\nbring in against the rebels in the judgment-day. Which thoughts\nshall every one of them be brought forth in their distinct order.\nHe sheweth to man what is his thought (Amos 4:13). And, again, \"I\nknow that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be\nwith-holden from thee\" (Job 42:2). We read, that when the strangers\nat Jerusalem did but hear the apostles speak to every one of them\nin their own language, how it amazed and confounded them (Acts\n2:6-8). But, I say, how will they look and be amazed when God\nshall evidently, clearly, and fully speak out all their hearts,\nand every thought they have had before them!\n\nNow the reason and strength of this witness will lie here, that God\nwill by the variety and crossness that their thoughts had one to\nanother, and by the contradiction that was in them, prove them\nsinners and ungodly; because that, I say, sometimes they thought\nthere was a God, sometimes again, they thought there was none.\nSometimes they thought, that he was such a God, and sometimes\nagain, they thought of him quite contrary; sometimes they thought\nhe was worth regarding, and sometimes they thought he was not; as\nalso, sometimes they thought he would be faithful, both to mercy,\nand justice, and sinners; and sometimes again, they thought he\nwould not.\n\nWhat greater argument now can there be, to prove men, vanity,\nfroth, a lie, sinners, deluded by the devil, and such as had\nfalse apprehensions of God, his ways, his word, his justice, his\nholiness, of themselves, their sins, and every action?\n\nNow they will indeed appear a very lump of confusion, a mass of\nsin, a bundle of ignorance, of atheism, of unbelief, and of all\nthings that should lay them obnoxious to the judgments of God.\nThis will God, I say, by mustering up the thoughts of man, and\nby shewing of them, that every imagination and thought of their\nheart was only evil, and that continually, (by shewing of them\nwhat staggering, drunken, wild, and uncomely thoughts they have\nhad, both of him, and of themselves,) convince them, cast them,\nand condemn them for sinners, and transgressors against the book\nof creatures, the book of his remembrance, and the book of the law.\nBy the variety of their thoughts, they shall be proved unstable,\nignorant, wandering stars, clouds carried with a tempest, without\norder or guidance, and taken captive of the devil at his will.\n\nNow, while the wicked are thus standing upon their trial and lives\nbefore the judgment-seat, and that in the view of heaven and hell,\nthey, I say, hearing and seeing such dreadful things, both written\nand witnessed against every one of them, and that by such books\nand such witnesses as do not only talk, but testify, and that with\nthe whole strength of truth against them: they will then begin,\nthough poorly, and without any advantage, to plead for themselves,\nwhich plea will be to this effect.\n\nLord, we did find in the scriptures, that thou didst send a Saviour\ninto the world, to deliver us from these sins and miseries. We\nheard this Saviour also published, and openly proffered to such\npoor sinners as we are. Lord, Lord, we also made profession of this\nSaviour, and were many of us frequenters of his holy ordinances.\nWe have eaten and drank in thy presence, and thou hast taught in\nour streets. Lord, we have also some of us, been preachers ourselves,\nwe have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have we cast out\ndevils, and done many wondrous works. Nay, Lord, we did herd among\nthy people; we forsook the profane and wicked world, and carried\nour shining lamps before us in the face of all men; Lord, Lord,\nopen to us (Matt 7:21-23; 25:1,2,10,11; Luke 13:24-28).\n\nAnd all the while they are thus pleading, and speaking for themselves:\nbehold, how earnestly they groan, how ghastly they look, and how\nnow the brinish tears flow down like rivers from their eyes, ever\nredoubling their petition, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord: first thinking\nof this thing, and then of that, ever contending, seeking, and\nstriving to enter in at this strait gate. As Christ saith, \"When\nonce the master of the house is risen up,\" that is, when Christ\nhath laid aside his mediation for sinners, and hath taken upon\nhim only to judge and condemn; then will the wicked begin to stand\nwithout, and to knock and contend for a portion among them that\nare the blessed. Ah, how will their hearts twitter while they\nlook upon the kingdom of glory! and how will they ache and throb\nat every view of hell, their proper place! still crying, O that\nwe might inherit life, and O that we might escape eternal death!\n\nFourth, But now, to take away all cavils and objections, that of\nthis nature will arise in the hearts of these men: forthwith the\nbook of life is brought out for a conclusion, and a final end\nof eternal judgment. As John saith, \"The books were opened; and\nanother book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead\nwere judged out of those things which were written in the books,\naccording to their works\" (Rev 20:12).\n\nBut this book of life, it is not at this time opened, because there\nare not any godly to be tried; for as I have shewed before, their\njudgment is past and over, before the wicked rise. The book of life,\nthen, is now opened for further conviction of damned reprobates,\nthat their mouths may be stopped for ever, as touching all their\ncavils, contendings, and arguments against God's proceeding in\njudgment with them. For believe it, while God is judging them,\nthey will fall to judging him again; but he will be justified in\nhis sayings, and will overcome when he is judged at this day (Rom\n3:4-6). Yet not by a hasty and angry casting them away, but by\na legal and convincing proceeding against them, and overthrowing\nall their cavils by his manifest and invincible truth. Wherefore,\nto cut off all that they can say, he will now open the book of life\nbefore them, and will shew them what is written therein, both as\nto election, conversion, and a truly gospel conversation. And will\nconvince them that they neither are of the number of his elect,\nneither were they ever regenerate, neither had they ever a truly\ngospel conversation in the world.\n\nBy these three things, then, out of this book, thou, who art not\nsaved, must at last be judged and overcome.\n\n1. Here will be tried, whether thou art within that part of this\nbook wherein all the elect are recorded; for all the elect are\nwritten here, as Christ saith, \"Rejoice, because your names are\nwritten in heaven\" (Luke 10:20); and again, \"In thy book,\" saith\nhe to his Father, \"all my members were written\" (Psa 139:16; Heb\n12:22,23). Now, then, if thy name be not found, either among the\nprophets, apostles, or the rest of saints, thou must be put by,\nas one that is cast away, as one polluted, and as an abominable\nbranch (Isa 14:19); thy name is wanting in the genealogies and\nrolls of heaven (Ezra 2:62), thou art not pricked15 for everlasting\nlife, therefore thou must not be delivered from that soul-amazing\nmisery; for there are no souls can, though they would give a\nthousand worlds, be delivered at the day of God but such that are\nfound written in this book. Every one of those that are written,\nthough never an one of those that are not written, shall in that\nday be delivered from the wrath to come (Dan 12:1).\n\nBut, O methinks, with what careful hearts will the damned now begin\nto look for their names in this book. Those that, when once the\nlong-suffering of God waited on them, made light of all admonition,\nand slighted the counsel of making their calling and election\nsure: would now give thousands of treasures, that they could but\nspy their names, though last and least among the sons of God. But,\nI say, how will they fail? how will they faint? how will they die\nand languish in their souls? when they shall still as they look,\nsee their names wanting. What a pinch will it be to Cain to see\nhis brother there recorded, and he himself left out. Absalom will\nnow swoon, and be as one that giveth up the ghost, when he shall\nsee David his father, and Solomon his brother written here, while\nhe withal is written in the earth, among the damned. Thus, I say,\nwill sadness be added to sadness, in the soul of the perishing\nworld when they fail of finding their names in this part of \"the\nbook of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world\"\n(Rev 13:8).\n\n2. The second part of this book, is that in which is recorded, the\nnature of conversion, of faith, love, &c. And those that have not\nhad the effectual word of God upon them, and the true and saving\noperation of grace in their hearts, which is indeed the true life\nwhich is begun in every Christian, they will be found still not\nwritten in this book; for the living, the holy living souls, are\nthey only that are written therein; as the prophet saith, \"and\nhe that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every\none that is written among the living in Jerusalem\" (Isa 4:3):\nEternal life is already in this life, begun in every soul that\nshall be saved; as Christ saith, \"He that believeth in me hath\neverlasting life.\" And again, \"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh\nmy blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last\nday\" (John 6:54). And hence they are called the living, that are\nwritten in this book. Here then, the Lord will open before thee,\nwhat conversion is, in the true and simple nature of it, which\nwhen thou beholdest, thou wilt then be convinced, that this thou\nhast missed of; for it must needs be, that when thou beholdest by\nthe records of heaven, what a change what a turn; what an alteration\nthe work of regeneration maketh on every soul, and in every heart,\nwhere the effectual call, or the call according to his purpose,\nis; that thou who hast lived a stranger to this, or that hast\ncontented thyself with the notion only, or a formal, and feigned\nprofession thereof: I say, it cannot be but that thou must forthwith\nfall down, and with grief conclude, that thou hast no share in\nthis part of the book of life neither, the living only are written\nherein. There is not one dead, carnal, wicked man recorded here.\nNo; but when the Lord shall at this day make mention of Rahab, of\nBabylon, of Philistia, and Ethiopia: that is, of all the cursed\nrabble and crew of the damned: then he will say, that this man\nwas born there--that is, amongst them, and so hath his name where\nthey have theirs; namely, under the black rod, in the king's\nblack book, where he hath recorded all his enemies and traitors.\nIt shall be said of this man, of this ungodly man, that he was born\nthere (Psa 87:4), that he lived and died in the state of nature,\nand so under the curse of God, even as others: for as he said of\nwicked Coniah, \"Write ye this man childless\" (Jer 22:30), so he\nsaith of every ungodly man that so departeth out of this world,\nWrite this man graceless.\n\nWherefore, I say, among the Babylonians and Philistines; among the\nunbelieving Moors and pagans, his name will be found in the day\nwhen it will be inquired where every man was born; for God at this\nday, will divide the whole world into these two ranks--the children\nof the world, and the children of Zion. Wherefore here is the\nhonour, the privilege, and advantage that the godly above the\nwicked will have at the day of their counting, when the Lord maketh\nmention of Zion, it shall be then acknowledged that this and that\n(good) man was born in her. \"The Lord shall count,\" saith the\nprophet, \"when he writeth up the people, that this man was born\nthere\" (Psa 87:6). This man had the work of conversion, of faith,\nand grace in his soul. This man is a child of Zion, of the heavenly\nJerusalem, which is also written in heaven (Gal 4:26; Heb 12:23).\nBlessed is the people that is in such a case (Psa 144:15).\n\nBut, poor soul, counters16 will not go for gold now; for though so\nlong as thou didst judge thyself by the crooked rule of thy own\nreason, fancy, and affection, thou wast pure in thine own eyes:\nyet now thou must be judged alone by the words and rule of the Lord\nJesus: which word shall not now, as in times past, be wrested and\nwrung, both this way and that, to smooth thee up in thy hypocrite's\nhope and carnal confidence; but be thou king or keser,17 be thou\nwho thou wilt, the word of Christ, and that with this interpretation\nonly, it shall judge thee in the last day (John 12:48).\n\nNow will sinners begin to cry with loud and bitter cries, Oh! ten\nthousand worlds for a saving work of grace. Crowns and kingdoms for\nthe least measure of saving faith, and for the love, that Christ\nwill say, is the love of his own Spirit.\n\nNow they will begin also to see the work of a broken and a contrite\nspirit, and of walking with God, as living stones, in this world. But\nalas! these things appear in their hearts to the damned too late;\nas also do all things else. This will be but like the repentance\nof the thief, about whose neck is the halter, and he turning off\nthe ladder; for the unfortunate hap of the damned will be, that\nthe glory of heavenly things will not appear to them till out of\nseason. Christ must now indeed be shewed to them, as also the true\nnature of faith and all grace; but it will be, when the door is\nshut, and mercy gone. They will pray, and repent most earnestly;\nbut it will be in the time of great waters of the floods of eternal\nwrath, when they cannot come nigh him (1 Tim 6:15; Matt 25:10,11;\nPsa 32:6).\n\nWell, then, tell me, sinner, if Christ should now come to judge the\nworld, canst thou abide the trial of the book of life? art thou\nconfident that thy profession, that thy conversion, thy faith,\nand all other graces thou thinkest thou hast, will prove gold,\nsilver, and precious stones in this day? Behold, he comes as a\nrefiner's fire, and as fuller's soap. Shalt thou indeed abide the\nmelting and washing of this day? Examine, I say, beforehand, and\ntry thyself unfeignedly; for every one \"that doth truth cometh\nto the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are\nwrought in God\" (John 3:21).\n\nThou sayest thou art a Christian, that also thou hast repented,\ndost believe, and love the Lord Jesus; but the question is, whether\nthese things will be found of equal length, height, and breadth\nwith the book of life, or whether, when thou art weighed in the\nbalance, thou wilt yet be found wanting (Dan 5:27). How if, when\nthou comest to speak for thyself before God, thou shouldst say\nSibboleth instead of Shibboleth: that is, though almost, yet not\nrightly and naturally the language of the Christians (Judg 12:6).\n\nIf thou miss but one letter in thy evidence, thou art gone; for\nthough thou mayest deceive thy own heart with brass, instead of\ngold, and with tin instead of silver, yet God will not be so put\noff (Gal 6:7). You know how confident the foolish virgins were,\nand yet how they were deceived. They herded with the saints, they\nwent forth from the gross pollutions of the world, they every\none had shining lamps, and all went forth to meet the bridegroom,\nand yet they missed the kingdom; they were not written among the\nliving at Jerusalem; they had not the true, powerful, saving work\nof conversion, of faith, and grace in their souls: they that are\nfoolish take their lamps, but take no oil, no saving grace, with\nthem (Matt 25:1-4). Thus you see how sinners will be put to it\nbefore the judgment-seat from these two parts of this book of life.\nBut,\n\n3. There is yet another part of this book to be opened, and that\nis, that part of it in which are recorded those noble and Christian\nacts, that they have done since the time of their conversion and\nturning to Christ. Here, I say, are recorded the testimony of the\nsaints against sin and antichrist; their suffering for the sake\nof God, their love to the members of Christ, their patience under\nthe cross, and their faithful frequenting the assemblies of the\nsaints, and their encouraging one another to bear up in his ways\nin the worst of times; even when the proud were called happy, and\nwhen they that wrought wickedness were even set up. As he there\nsaith, \"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another:\nand the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance\nwas written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that\nthought upon his name\" (Mal 3:16).\n\nFor indeed, as truly as any person hath his name found in the first\npart of this book of life, and his conversion in the second; so\nthere is a third part, in which there are his noble, spiritual, and\nholy actions recorded and set down. As it is said by the Spirit\nto John, concerning those that suffered martyrdom for the truth of\nJesus, \"Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord:--Yea,\nsaith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their\nworks do follow them\" (Rev 14:13).\n\nAnd hence it is that the labours of the saints and the book of life,\nare mentioned together, signifying that the travels, and labours,\nand acts of the godly, are recorded therein (Phil 4:3).\n\nAnd hence it is again, that the Lord doth tell Sardis, that those\namong them that stood it out to the last gasp, in the faith and\nlove of the gospel, should not be blotted out of the book of life;\nbut they, with the work of God on their soul, and their labour\nfor God in this world; should be confessed before his Father, and\nbefore his angels (Rev 3:5).\n\nThis part of this book, is in another place called, \"The book\nof the wars of the Lord,\" (Num 21:14), because in it, I say, are\nrecorded these famous acts of the saints against the world, flesh,\nand the devil.\n\nYou find also, how exact the Holy Ghost is, in recording the travels,\npains, labour, and goodness of any of the children of Israel, in\ntheir journey from Egypt to Canaan, which was a representation of\nthe travels of the saints, from nature to grace, and from grace\nto glory. King Ahasuerus, kept in his library a book of records,\nwherein was written, the good service that his subjects did for\nhim at any time, which was a type also of the manner and order of\nheaven. And as sure as ever Mordecai, when search was made in the\nrolls, was found there to have done such and such service for the\nking and his kingdom (Esth 6:1,2): so surely will it be found, what\nevery saint hath done for God, at the day of inquiry. You find in\nthe Old Testament also, still as any of the kings of Judah died,\nthere was surely a record in the book of Chronicles, of their\nmemorable acts and doings for their God, the church, and the\ncommonwealth of Israel, which still doth further hold forth unto\nthe children of men, this very thing, that all the kings of the\nNew Testament, which are the saints of God, have all their acts,\nand what they have done for their God, &c., recorded in the book\nof Chronicles in the heavenly Jerusalem.\n\nNow, I say, when this part of the book of life shall be opened,\nwhat can be found in it, of the good deeds and heaven-born actions\nof wicked men? Just nothing; for as it is not to be expected that\nthorns should bring forth grapes, or that thistles should bear\nfigs: so it cannot be imagined, that ungodly men should have\nanything to their commendations, recorded in this part of the book\nof life. What hast thou done, man, for God in this world? Art thou\none of them that hast set thyself against those strong strugglings\nof pride, lust, covetousness, and secret wickedness, that remain\nin thy heart, like Job and Paul? (Job 1:8; 2 Cor 10:4,5). And do\nthese strugglings against these things, arise from pure love to\nthe Lord Jesus, or from some legal terrors and conviction for sin\n(Gal 5:6). Dost thou, I say, struggle against thy lusts, because\nthou dost in truth, love the sweet, holy, and blessed leadings of\nthe Spirit of the Lord Jesus; its leadings of thee, I say, into\nhis blood and death, for thy justification and deliverance from\nwrath to come (Phil 3:6-8; 2 Cor 5:14).\n\nWhat acts of self-denial, hast thou done for the name of the Lord\nJesus, among the sons of men? I say, what house, what friend, what\nwife, what children, and the like, hast thou lost, or left for the\nword of God, and the testimony of his truth in the world? (Matt\n19:27,28; Rev 12:11). Wast thou one of them, that didst sigh, and\nafflict thyself for the abominations of the times? and that Christ\nhath marked and recorded for such an one? (Eze 9:4; Zeph 3:18).\n\nIn a word, art thou one of them, that wouldst not be won, neither\nby fear, frowns, nor flatteries, to forsake the ways of God, or\nwrong thy conscience? or art thou one of them that slightest those\nopportunities that Satan and this world did often give thee to\nreturn to sin in secret (Heb 11:15). These be the men whose praise\nis in the gospel, and whose commendable and worthy acts are recorded\nbefore the Judge of all the world. Alas, alas, these things are\nstrange things to a carnal and wicked man. Nothing of this hath\nbeen done by him in this life, and therefore how can any such be\nrecorded for him in the book of life? wherefore he must needs be\nshut out of this part also. As David saith, \"Let them be blotted\nout of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous\"\n(Psa 69:28).\n\nThus I say, the wicked will find nothing for their comfort, either\nin the first part of this book, where all the names of the elect\nare, neither will they find anything in the second part thereof,\nwhere are recorded the true nature and operation of effectual\nconversion, of faith, or love, or the like; and I say, neither\ncan anything be found in this third part, wherein are recorded the\nworthy acts, and memorable deeds of the saints of the Lord Jesus.\nThus, when Christ therefore hath opened before them this book of\nlife, and convinced the ungodly at this day out of it, he will\nthen shut it up again, saying, I find nothing herein that will do\nyou good; you are none of my elect, you are the sons of perdition.\nFor as these things will be found clear and full in the book of\nlife, so they will be found effectually wrought in the hearts\nof the elect, all whose conversion and perseverance shall now be\nopened before thine eyes, as a witness, I say, of the truth of what\nthou here seest opened before thee, and also of thy unregenerate\nestate. Now, thou wilt see what a turn, what a change, and what\na clinging to God, to Christ, and his word and ways; there was\nfound in the souls of the saved ones! Here shall be seen also how\nresolvedly, unfeignedly, and heartily the true child of God did\noppose, resist, and war against his most dear and darling lusts\nand corruptions. Now the saints are hidden ones, but then they\nshall be manifest; this is the morrow in which the Lord will shew\nwho are his, and who they are that fear the Lord, and who that\nfear him not (Psa 83:3; 1 Sam 8:19; Num 16:5; Mal 3:18). Now you\nshall see how Abraham left his country (Heb 11:8); how close good\nLot did stick to God in profane and wicked Sodom (2 Peter 2:7,8);\nhow the apostles left all to follow Jesus Christ (Matt 19:29); and\nhow patiently they took all crosses, afflictions, persecutions,\nand necessities for the kingdom of heaven's sake; how they endured\nburning, striving, stoning, hanging, and a thousand calamities; how\nthey manifested their love to their Lord, his cause, and people in\nthe worst of times, and in the days when they were most rejected,\nslighted, abused, and abased; \"then shall the King say to them on\nhis right hand, (and that when all the devils and damned sinners\nstand by,) Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom\nprepared for you from the foundation of the world: (you are indeed\nthe truly converted souls, as appears by the grace that was in\nyour hearts) for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was\nthirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:\nNaked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in\nprison, and ye came unto me\" (Matt 25:34-36). You owned me, stood\nby me, and denied yourselves to nourish me and my poor members,\nin our low, and weak, and most despised condition. This, I say,\nthe world shall see, hear, and be witnesses of, against themselves\nand their souls for ever; for how can it be, but these poor damned\nsinners should be forced to confess, that they were both Christless\nand graceless, when they shall find, both in the book of life, and\nin the hearts of the holy and beloved souls, that which themselves\nare quite barren of, and greatest strangers to. The saints, by\nthe fruits of regeneration, even in this world, do testify to the\nworld, not only the truth of conversion in themselves, but also\nthat they are yet Christless, and so heavenless, and salvationless,\nthat are not converted (1 Tim 6:12; 1 Thess 2:10; 2 Tim 2:2). But\nalas! while we are here, they will evade this testimony, both of\nour happiness, by calling our faith, phantasy; our communion with\nGod, delusion; and the sincere profession of his word before the\nworld, hypocrisy, pride, and arrogancy: yet, I say, when they see\nus on the right hand of Christ, commingled among the angels of\nlight, and themselves on his left hand, and commingled with the\nangels of darkness; and, I say, when they shall see our hearts and\nways opened before their eyes, and owned by the Judge for honest\nhearts and good ways, and yet the same ways that they hated,\nslighted, disowned and contemned, what will they, or what can they\nsay, but thus--We fools counted their lives madness, and their end\nto be without honour; but how are they numbered with the saints,\nand owned by God and Christ!\n\nAnd truly, was it not that the world might, by seeing the turn that\nis wrought on the godly at their conversion, be convinced of the\nevil of their ways, or be left without excuse the more in the day\nof God, (with some other reasons) they should not, I am persuaded,\nstay so long from heaven as they do, nor undergo so much abuse\nand hardship as frequently befalls them. God, by the lengthening\nout the life of his people that are scattered here and there\namong men in this world, is making work for the day of judgment,\nand the overthrow of the implacable, for ever and ever; and, as\nI have said, will by the conversion, life, patience, self-denial,\nand heavenly-mindedness of his dear children, give them a heavy\nand most dreadful blow. Now, when God hath thus laid open the\nwork of grace, both by the book of life and the Christian's heart:\nthen, of itself will fall to the ground, their pleading what gifts\nand abilities they had in this world; they will now see that gifts,\nand grace, are two things: and also, that whosoever is graceless,\nlet their gifts be never so excellent, they must perish and be lost\nfor ever; wherefore, for all their gifts, they shall be found the\nworkers of iniquity, and shall so be judged and condemned (Matt\n7:22,23). That is a notable place in the prophecy of Ezekiel, \"Thus\nsaith he Lord GOD,\" saith he, \"If the prince,\" the Prince of Life,\n\"give a gift to any of his sons,\"--that is, to any that are truly\ngracious--\"the inheritance,\" or the profit that he gets thereby,\n\"shall be his son's\"--that is, for the exercise of his gift he\nshall receive a reward; \"but if he give a gift of his inheritance\nto one of his servants,\" that is not a son, \"then it shall be\nhis\" but \"to the year of liberty; after, it shall return to the\nprince,\" &c. (Eze 46:16,17). This day of liberty it is now, when\nthe Judge is set upon the throne to judgment, even the glorious\nliberty of the children of God (Rom 8:21), wherefore then will\nChrist say to them that stand by, \"Take from him the pound, and\ngive it to him that hath ten pounds. This servant must not abide\nin the house for ever, though with the son it shall be so\" (John\n8:35; Luke 19:24). A man may be used as a servant in the church of\nGod, and may receive many gifts, and much knowledge of the things\nof heaven, and yet at last himself be no more than a very bubble\nand nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3).\n\nBut now, I say, at this day, they shall clearly see the difference\nbetween gifts and grace, even as clearly, as now they that have\neyes can see the difference between gifts and ignorance, and very\nfoolishness. This our day doth indeed abound with gifts; many\nsparkling wits are seen in every corner; men have the word and\ntruths of Christ at their fingers' ends; but alas, with many,\nyea, a great many, there is nought but wits and gifts; they are\nbut words, all their religion lieth in their tongues and heads,\nthe power of what they say and know, it is seen in others, not\nin themselves. These are like the lord on whom the king of Israel\nleaned, they shall see the plenty, the blessed plenty that God\ndoth provide, and will bestow upon his church, but they shall not\ntaste thereof (2 Kings 7:17-20).\n\nObs. First. Before I conclude this matter, observe, [first,] that\namong all the objections and cavils that are made, and will be\nmade, by the ungodly, in the day of the Lord Jesus, they have not\none hump18 about election and reprobation; they murmur not at all\nthat they were not predestinated to eternal life; and the reason\nis, because then they shall see, though now they are blind, that\nGod could in his prerogative royal, without prejudice to them that\nare damned, choose and refuse at pleasure; and besides, they at\nthat day shall be convinced, that there was so much reality and\ndownright willingness in God, in every tender of grace and mercy\nto the worst of men; and also so much goodness, justness, and\nreasonableness in every command of the gospel of grace, which they\nwere so often entreated and beseeched to embrace, that they will\nbe drowned in the conviction of this, that did refuse love, grace,\nreason, &c.: love, I say, for hatred, grace for sin, and things\nreasonable, for things unreasonable and vain. Now they shall see\nthey left glory for shame, God for the devil, heaven for hell, light\nfor darkness. Now they shall see that though they made themselves\nbeasts, yet God made them reasonable creatures, and that he\ndid with reason expect that they should have adhered to, and have\ndelighted in, things that are good, and according to God; yea, now\nthey shall see, that though God did not determine to bring them to\nheaven against their hearts and wills, and the love that they had\nto their sins: yet then they shall be convinced, that God was far\nfrom infusing anything into their souls, that should in the least\nhinder, weaken, obstruct, or let them in seeking the welfare of\ntheir souls. Now men will tattle and prattle at a mad rate, about\nelection and reprobation, and conclude, that because all are not\nelected, therefore God is to blame that any are damned: but then\nthey will see, that they are not damned because they were not\nelected, but because they sinned; and also that they sinned, not\nbecause God put any weakness into their souls, but because they\ngave way, and that willfully, knowingly, and desperately, to Satan\nand his suggestions; and so turned away from the holy commandment\ndelivered unto them; yea, then they will see, that though God at\nsome times did fasten his cords about their heads, and heels, and\nhands, both by godly education, and smarting convictions, yet they\nrushed away with violence from all, saying, \"Let us break their\nbands asunder, and cast away their cords from us\" (Psa 2:3). God\nwill be justified in his sayings, and clear when he judgeth (Psa\n51:4), though thy proud ignorance thinks to have, and to multiply,\ncavils against him.\n\nObs. Second. But secondly, as the whole body of the elect, by the\nnature of conversion in their hearts, shall witness a non-conversion\nin the hearts of the wicked; and as the ungodly shall fall under\nthe conviction of this cloud of witnesses: so, to increase their\nconviction, there will also be opened before them all the labours\nof the godly, both ministers and others, and the pains that they\nhave taken, to save, if it had been possible, these damned wretches;\nand now will it come burning hot upon their souls, how often they\nwere forewarned of this day; now they shall see, that there was\nnever any quarter-sessions, nor general jail-delivery more publicly\nforetold of, than this day. You know that the judges before they\nbegin their assizes, do give to the country in charge, that they\ntake heed to the laws and statutes of the king. Why rebel, thou\nshalt be at this day convicted, that every sermon thou hast heard,\nand that every serious debate thou hast been at about the things\nof God, and laws of eternity, they were to thee as the judge's\ncharge before the assizes and judgment began. Every exhortation of\nevery minister of God, it is as that which Paul gave to Timothy,\nand commanded him to give in charge to others--\"I charge thee before\nGod, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,\" saith he,\n\"that thou observe these things;\" and again, \"I give thee charge\nin the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus\nChrist, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;\nThat thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until\nthe appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ\" (1 Tim 5:21; 6:13,14). These\nthings give in charge, saith he, that they may be blameless. This,\nI say, hast thou heard and seen, and yet thou hast not held fast,\nbut hast cast away the things that thou hast heard, and hast been\nwarned of: alas! God will multiply his witnesses against thee.\n\n1. Thy own vows and promises shall be a witness against thee, that\nthou hast, contrary to thy light and knowledge, destroyed thy soul,\nas Joshua said to the children of Israel, when they said the Lord\nshould be their God. Well, saith he, \"Ye are witnesses against\nyourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him.\" That\nis, if now you turn back again, even this covenant and resolution\nof yours will in the great day be a witness against you--\"And they\nsaid, We are witnesses\" (Josh 24:22).\n\n2. Every time you have with your mouth said well of godliness, and\nyet gone on in wickedness; or every time you have condemned sin\nin others, and yet have not refrained it yourselves; I say, every\nsuch word and conclusion that hath passed out of thy mouth, sinner,\nit shall be as a witness against thee in the day of God, and the\nLord Jesus Christ; as Christ saith, \"By thy words thou shalt be\njustified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned\" (Matt 12:37).\nI observe, that talk with who you will, they will with their mouth\nsay, serving of God, and loving of Christ, and walking in ways of\nholiness, are best, and best will come of them. I observe again,\nthat men that are grossly wicked themselves, will yet, with heavy\ncensures and judgments, condemn drunkenness, lying, covetousness,\npride, and whoring, with all manner of abominations in others;\nand yet, in the meantime, continue to be neglecters of God, and\nembracers of sin and the allurements of the flesh themselves. Why,\nsuch souls, every time they speak well of godliness, and continue\nin their sins; they do pass judgment upon themselves, and provide\na witness, even their own mouth, against their own soul, at the\njudgment-seat--\"Out of thy own mouth,\" saith Christ, \"will I judge\nthee, thou wicked servant;\" thou knewest what I was, and that\nI loved to see all my servants zealous, and active for me, that\nat my coming, I might have received again what I gave thee, with\nincrease; thou oughtest therefore to have been busying thyself in\nmy work, for my glory, and thy own good; but seeing thou hast,\nagainst thy own light and mouth gone contrary: Angels, take this\nunprofitable servant, and cast ye him into utter darkness, there\nshall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; he sinned against his\nlight, he shall go to hell against his will (Matt 25:26-31).\n\nThe very same I say, will befall all those that have used their\nmouth to condemn the sins of others, while they themselves live\nin their sins. Saith God, O thou wicked wretch, thou didst know\nthat sin was bad, thou didst condemn it in others, thou dist also\ncondemn, and pass judgment upon them for their sin, \"Therefore\nthou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for\"\nthou that judgest dost the same thing; wherefore, \"wherein thou\nhast judged another, thou condemnest thyself.\" I must therefore,\nsaith Christ, look upon thee to be no other but a sinner against\nthy own mouth, and cannot but judge thee as a despiser of my\ngoodness, and the riches of my forbearance; by which means, thou\nhast treasured up wrath against this day of wrath, and revelation\nof the righteous judgment of God (Rom 2:1-5). He that knoweth to\ndo good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. Thus will God, I say,\njudge and condemn poor sinners, even from and by themselves, to\nthe fire, that lake of brimstone and fire.\n\n3. God hath said in his word, that rather than there shall want\nwitness at the day of judgment, against the workers of iniquity:\nthe very dust of their city, that shall cleave to his messengers\nthat publish the gospel shall itself be a witness against them;\nand so Christ bid his servants say--\"Into whatsoever city ye enter,\nand they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the\nsame, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on\nus, we do wipe off against you\": &c. \"But I say unto you,\" saith\nhe to his ministers, \"it shall be more tolerable for Sodom\" at\nthe judgment \"than for that city\" (Luke 10:10-12).\n\nIt may be, that when thou hearest that the dust of the street,\n(that cleaveth to a minister of the gospel, while thou rejectest\nhis word of salvation,) shall be a witness against thee at the\nday of judgment: thou wilt be apt to laugh, and say, The dust a\nwitness! Witnesses will be scarce where dust is forced to come in\nto plead against a man. Well sinner, mock not; God doth use to\nconfound the great and mighty by things that are not, and that\nare despised. And how sayest thou? If God had said by a prophet\nto Pharaoh, but two years before the plague, that he would shortly\ncome against him with one army of lice, and a second army of\nfrogs, and with a third army of locusts, &c., and would destroy\nhis land, dost thou think it had been wisdom in Pharaoh, now to\nhave laughed such tidings to scorn? \"Is anything too hard for the\nLord? Hath he said it, and shall he not bring it to pass?\" You\nshall see in the day of judgment, of what force all these things\nwill be, as witnesses against the ungodly.\n\nMany more witnesses might I here reckon up, but these at this time\nshall suffice to be nominated; for out of the mouth of two or three\nwitnesses, every word shall be established (2 Cor 13:1). \"And at\nthe mouth of two or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of\ndeath, be put to death\" (Deu 17:6; John 8:17).\n\n[Fourth--the sentence of the ungodly.] Thus then, the books being\nopened, the laws read, the witnesses heard, and the ungodly\nconvicted; forthwith the Lord and Judge proceeds to execution.\n\n[THE SENTENCE AND PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED.]\n\nAnd to that end doth pass the sentence of eternal death upon them,\nsaying, \"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared\nfor the devil and his angels\" (Matt 25:41). You are now by the\nbook of the creatures, by the book of God's remembrance, by the\nbook of the law, and by the book of life, adjudged guilty of high\ntreason against God and me; and as murderers of your own souls,\nas these faithful and true witnesses here have testified, every\none of them appearing in their most upright testimony against\nyou. Also, you never had a saving work of conversion, and faith,\npassed upon you, you died in your sins; neither can I find anything\nin the last part of this book that will serve your turn, no worthy\nact is here recorded of you--When \"I was an hungered, and ye gave\nme no meat\": when \"I was thirsty, ye game me no drink: when I was\na stranger, ye took me not in: I was naked, but ye clothed me not:\nI was sick and in prison, but ye visited me not\": I have made a\nthorough search among the records of the living, and find nothing\nof you, or of your deeds, therein--\"Depart from me, ye cursed,\"\n&c. (Matt 25:42,43).\n\nThus will these poor ungodly creatures be stripped of all hope\nand comfort, and therefore must need fall into great sadness and\nwailing, before the Judge; yea, crying out, as being loath to\nlet go all for lost; and even as the man that is fallen into the\nriver, will catch hold of anything when he is struggling for life,\nthough it tend to hold him faster under the water to drown him:\nso, I say, while these poor creatures, as they lie struggling and\ntwining under the ireful countenance of the Judge; they will bring\nout yet one more faint and weak groan, and there goes life and\nall; their last sigh is this--Lord, when saw we thee an hungered,\nand gave thee no meat: or when saw we thee thirsty, and gave thee\nno drink? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee not in? or\nnaked, and clothed thee not? or when wast thou sick, or in prison,\nand we did not minister unto thee? (Matt 25:44).\n\nThus you see, how loath the sinner is now to take a \"nay\" of life\neverlasting. He that once would not be persuaded to close with the\nLord Jesus, though one should have persuaded him with tears of\nblood: behold how fast he now hangs about the Lord, what arguments\nhe frames with mournful groans; how with shifts and words he seeks\nto gain the time, and to defer the execution: Lord, open unto us!\nLord, Lord, open unto us! (Matt 25:11). Lord, thou hast taught in\nour streets, and we have both taught in thy name and in thy name\nhave we cast out devils (Matt 7:22). We have eaten and drank in\nthy presence (Luke 13:26). And when did we see thee an hungry, or\nthirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did\nnot minister to thee? (Matt 25:10,11). O poor hearts! how loath,\nhow unwillingly do they turn away from Christ! How loath are they\nto partake of the fruit of their ungodly doings! Christ must say,\nDepart once, and depart twice, before they will depart. When he\nhath shut the door upon them, yet they knock, and cry, \"Lord, open\nunto us;\" when he hath given them their answer, \"that he knows\nthem not,\" yet they plead and mourn. Wherefore he is fain to answer\nagain, \"I tell you, I know you not whence you are; depart\" (Luke\n13:25-27).\n\n\"DEPART.\" O this word, Depart! How dreadful is it! with what weight\nwill it fall on the head of every condemned sinner! For you must\nnote, that while the ungodly stand thus before the Judge; they\ncannot choose but have a most famous view both of the kingdom of\nheaven, and of the damned wights in hell. Now they see the God of\nglory, the King of glory, the saints of glory, and the angels of\nglory; and the kingdom in which they have their eternal abode. Now,\nthey also begin to see the worth of Christ, and what it is to be\nsmiled upon by him; from all which they must depart; and as I say,\nthey shall have the view of this; so they will most famously19\nbehold the pit, the bottomless pit, the fire, the brimstone, and\nthe flaming beds that justice hath prepared for them of old (Jude\n4). Their associates also, will be very conspicuous, and clear\nbefore their watery eyes. They will see now, what and which are\ndevils, and who are damned souls; now their great-grandfather\nCain, and all his brood, with Judas and his companions, must be\ntheir fellow-sighers in the flames and pangs for ever. O heavy\nday! O heavy word!\n\nThis word \"depart,\" therefore, it looketh two ways, and commands\nthe damned to do so too. Depart from heaven, depart to hell; depart\nfrom life, depart to death: \"depart from me\"--now the ladder doth\nturn from under them indeed.20\n\nThe Saviour turns them off, the Saviour throws them down. He hath\ngiven him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the\nSon of man (John 5:27). Depart from me: I would come to have done\nyou good; but then you would not. Now then, though you would have\nit never so willingly, yet you shall not.\n\n\"Depart from me, ye cursed.\" You lie open to the stroke of justice\nfor your sins; ye forsaken, and left of God, ye vessels of wrath,\nye despisers of God and goodness, you must now have vengeance feed\non you; for you did, when you were in the world, feed on sin, and\ntreasure up wrath against this day of wrath, and revelation of the\nrighteous judgment of God (Rom 2:3-6).\n\n\"Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.\" Fire is that which of\nall things is the most insufferable and insupportable. Wherefore,\nby fire, is shewed the grievous state of the ungodly, after\njudgment. Who can eat fire, drink fire, and lie down in the midst\nof flames of fire? Yet this must the wicked do. Again; not only\nfire, but everlasting fire. \"Behold how great a fire a little\nmatter kindleth.\" A little sin, a little pleasure, a little unjust\ndealing and doing; what preparation is made for the punishment\nthereof. And hence it is, that the fire into which the damned fall,\nis called the lake, or sea of fire--\"And whosoever,\" saith John,\n\"was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake\nof fire and brimstone\" (Rev 20:15). Little did the sinner seriously\nthink, that when he was sinning against God, he was making such\nprovision for his poor soul; but now 'tis too late to repent, his\nworm must never die, and his fire never shall be quenched (Mark\n9:48). Though the time in which men commit sin is short, yet the\ntime of God's punishing of them for their sin, is long.\n\n\"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the\ndevil and his angels.\" In that he saith, \"prepared for the devil\nand his angels\": he insinuates a further conviction upon the\nconsciences of the damned. As if he had said, As for this fire\nand lake that you must go to, though you thought but little of\nit, because you were careless, yet I did betimes put you in mind\nof what would be the fruits of sin; even by preparing of this\njudgment for the devil and his angels. The devil in his creation\nis far more noble than you; yet when he sinned, I spared him not.\nHe sinned also before man; and I, upon his sinning, did cast him\ndown from heaven to hell, and did hang the chains of everlasting\ndarkness upon him (Jude 6), which might, yea, ought to have been\na fair item to you to take heed, but you would not (Gen 3:2-5).\nWherefore, seeing you have sinned as he hath done, and that too,\nafter he had both sinned, and was bound over to eternal punishment;\nthe same justice that layeth hold on these more noble creatures,\nmust surely seize on you (Rev 20:1). The world should be convinced of\njudgment then, \"because the prince of this world is judged\" (John\n16:8). And that before they came to this condition of hearing the\neternal sentence rattle in their ears; but seeing they did not\nregard it then, they must and shall feel the smart of it now.\n\"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for\nthe devil and his angels.\"\n\nGod would have men learn both what mercy and justice is to them,\nby his shewing it to others; but if they be sottish and careless\nin the day of forbearance, they must learn by smarting in the day\nof rebukes and vengeance. Thus it was with the old world; God gave\nthem one hundred and twenty years' warning, by the preparation of\nNoah, for the flood that should come; but forasmuch as they then\nwere careless, and would not consider the works of the Lord, nor\nhis threatening them by this preparation: therefore he brought in\nthe flood upon the world of the ungodly, as he doth here the last\njudgment upon the workers of iniquity, and sweeps them all away\nin their willful ignorance (Matt 24:37-39).\n\nWherefore, I say, the Lord Chief Judge by these words, \"Prepared\nfor the devil and his angels,\" doth as good as say, This fire into\nwhich now I send you, it did of itself, even in the preparation of\nit, had you considered it, forewarn you of this that now is come\nupon you. Hell-fire is no new, or unheard-of thing; you cannot now\nplead, that you heard not of it in the world, neither could you\nwith any reason judge, that seeing I prepared it for angels, for\nnoble, powerful, and mighty angels; that you, poor dust and ashes,\nshould escape the vengeance.\n\n\"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the\ndevil and his angels\": The sentence being thus passed, it remains\nnow, the work being done, that every one goeth to his eternal\nstation. Wherefore, forthwith this mighty company, do now with\nheavy heart, return again from before the judgment-seat: and that\nfull hastily, God knoweth, for their proper centre, is the hell\nof hell; into which they descend like a stone into a well, or like\nPharaoh into the bottom of the Red Sea (Exo 15:10). For all hope\nbeing now taken from them, they must needs fall with violence, into\nthe jaws of eternal desperation, which will deal far worse with\nthe souls of men, and make a greater slaughter in their tortured\nconsciences, than the lions in the den with Daniel, could possibly\ndo with the men that were cast in among them (Dan 6:24).\n\nThis is that which Paul calleth eternal judgment (Heb 6:2), because\nit is that which is last and final. Many are the judgments that\nGod doth execute among the sons of men, some after this manner,\nand some after that; divers of which, continue but for awhile, and\nnone of them are eternal; no, the very devils and damned spirits\nin hell, though there, is the longest and most terrible of all\nthe judgments of God, yet on foot: yet I say, they must pass under\nanother judgment, even this last, great, and final judgment--\"The\nangels which kept not their first estate, but left their own\nhabitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness,\nunto the judgment of the great day\" (Jude 6). And so also it is\nwith damned souls; for both Sodom and Gomorrah, with all other,\nthough already in hell in their souls; yet they must, as I have\nbefore shewed, all arise to this judgment, which will be their final\njudgment. Other of the judgments of God, as they have an end, so\nthe end of many of them prove the profit of those on whom they are\ninflicted, being I say, God's instrument of conversion to sinners;\nand so may fitly be compared to those petty judgments among men,\nas putting in the stocks, whipping, or burning in the hand: which\npunishments, and judgments, do often prove profitable to those that\nare punished with them; but eternal judgment, it is like those\nmore severe judgments among men, as beheading, shooting to death,\nhanging, drawing and quartering, which swoop21 all, even health,\ntime, and the like, and cut off all opportunity of good, leaving no\nplace for mercy or amendment--\"These shall go away into everlasting\npunishment,\" &c. (Matt 25:46). This word, \"depart,\" &c., is the\nlast word the damned for ever are like to hear--I say, it is the\nlast voice, and therefore will stick longest, and with most power,\non their slaughtered souls; there is no calling of it back again;\nit is the very wind-up of eternal judgment.\n\nThus then, the judgment being over, the kingdom ceaseth to be any\nlonger in the hand of the man Christ Jesus; for as the judges here\namong men, when they have gone their circuit, do deliver up their\ncommission to the king; so Christ the judge, doth now deliver up\nhis kingdom to his Father (Matt 21:8), and now, all is swallowed\nup of eternity. The damned are swallowed up of eternal justice and\nwrath; the saved, of eternal life and felicity; and the Son also\ndelivereth up, I say, the kingdom to the Father, and subjects\nhimself under him that did put all things under him, that God may\nbe all in all (1 Cor 15:24-28).\n\nFor now is the end come, and not before, even the end of the reign\nof death itself; for death, and hell, and sinners, and devils,\nmust now [fall] together into the lake, that burns with fire and\nbrimstone (Rev 20:14,15). And now is the end of Christ's reign, as\nthe Son of man; and the end of the reign of the saints with him,\nin this his kingdom, which he hath received of his Father for his\nwork sake, which he did for him, and for his elect. \"Then cometh\nthe end,\" saith Paul, \"when he shall have delivered up the kingdom\nto God, even the Father;\" But when shall that be? Why, he answers\nsaying, \"When he shall have put down all rule and all authority\nand power. For he must reign,\" saith he, \"till he hath put all\nenemies under his feet,\" which will not be until the final sentences\nand judgment be over; for \"the last enemy that shall be destroyed\nis death. For he (God) hath put all things under his feet. But\nwhen he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that\nhe is excepted which did put all things under him. And when all\nthings shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself\nbe subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may\nbe all in all\" (1 Cor 15:24-28).\n\nAll things being now at this pass--to wit, every one being in its\nproper place, God in his, Christ in his, the saint in his, and the\nsinner in his; I shall conclude with this brief touch upon both\nthe state of the good and bad after this eternal judgment--\n\nThe righteous now shall never fear death, the devil, and hell more;\nand the wicked shall never hope of life.\n\nThe just shall ever have the victory over these things: but the\nwicked shall everlastingly be swallowed up of them.\n\nThe holy shall be in everlasting light: but the sinner in everlasting\ndarkness. Without light, I say, yet in fire ever burning, yet not\nconsumed; always afraid of death and hell, vehemently desiring to be\nannihilated to nothing. Continually fearing to stay long in hell,\nand yet certainly sure they shall never come out of it. Ever\ndesiring the saints' happiness, and yet always envying their\nfelicity. They would have it, because it is easy and comfortable;\nyet cannot abide to think of it, because they have lost it for ever.\nEver laden with the delight of sin; and yet that is the greatest\ntorture; always desiring to put it out of their mind, and yet\nassuredly know they must for ever abide the guilt and torment\nthereof.\n\nThe saints are always inflamed with the consideration of the grace\nthat once they embraced; but the wicked, most flamingly tormented\nwith the thoughts of rejecting and refusing it.\n\nThe just, when they think of their sins, they are comforted with\nthe thoughts of their being delivered from them; but the ungodly,\nwhen they think of their righteousness, will gnaw themselves, to\nthink that this would not deliver them from hell.\n\nWhen the godly think of hell, it will increase their comfort; but\nwhen the wicked think of heaven, it will twinge them like a serpent.\nOh, this eternal judgment! What would a damned soul give that\nthere might be, though after thousands and hundreds of thousands\nof millions of years, an end put to this eternal judgment. But\ntheir misery is, they have sinned against a God that is eternal;\nthey have offended that justice that will never be satisfied; and\ntherefore they must abide the fire that never shall be quenched.\nHere is judgment, just and sad.\n\nAgain; as it will be thus with good and bad in general, so again,\nmore particularly, when the wicked are thus adjudged and condemned,\nand also received of the fiery gulf, then they shall find, That\nas he that busieth himself to do good, shall have more glory than\nothers; so they that have been more busy and active in sin than\nothers, they shall have more wrath and torment than others. For\nas doing good abundantly, doth enlarge the heart to receive and\nhold more glory: so doing evil abundantly, doth enlarge the heart\nand soul to receive punishment so much the more. And hence it is\nthat you have such sayings as these--It shall be more tolerable\nin the judgment for Sodom than for others (Luke 10:12)--that is,\nthan for those that had sinned against much greater light and\nmercy. \"For these,\" as he saith in another place, \"shall receive\ngreater damnation\" (Luke 20:47). Yea, it standeth to reason, that\nhe who had most light, most conviction, most means of conversion,\nand that was highest towards heaven, he must needs have the greatest\nfall, and so sink deepest into the jaws of eternal misery. As one\nstar--that is, as one saint--differeth from another in heaven; so\none damned soul shall differ from another in hell. It is so among\nthe devils themselves; they are some worse than others; Beelzebub\nis the prince, or chief of the devils (Matt 9:34; Mark 3:22).\nThat is, one that was most glorious in heaven; chief among the\nreprobate angels before his fall (Isa 14:12), and therefore sinned\nagainst the greater light, mercy, and goodness; and so became the\nchief for wickedness, and will also have as the wages thereof, the\nchief of torments. For that will be true of the damned in hell,\nwhich is prayed for against Babylon.--\"How much she hath glorified\nherself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give\nher\" (Rev 18:7). Can it be imagined that Judas should have no more\ntorment, who betrayed the Prince of life and Saviour of the world,\nthan others who never came near his wickedness by ten thousand\ndegrees? He that knew his master's will, and prepared not himself,\nneither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many\nstripes; with many more stripes, than others that through ignorance\ndid commit sin worthy of many stripes. But what should I thus\ndiscourse of the degrees of the torments of the damned souls in\nhell? For he that suffers least, will the waters of a full cup be\nwrung out to him; the least measure of wrath, it will be the wrath\nof God, eternal and fiery wrath, insupportable wrath; it will lay\nthe soul in the gulf of that second death, which will for ever have\nthe mastery over the poor damned perishing sinner. \"And death and\nhell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.\nAnd whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast\ninto the lake of fire\" (Rev 20:14,15).\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 Bunyan quotes this from the Genevan or Puritan version; our\npresent translation has \"in our body.\"--Ed.\n\n2 From the verb \"to chit,\" to sprout--to shoot at the end of the\ngrain; provincial and almost obsolete.--Ed.\n\n3 These ideas are as new as they are striking and splendid. Our\nvile bodies, when raised from the dust, shall be spiritual--like\nthat of Christ--with him in glory; \"bright as the sun and stars\nand angels.\" How amazingly superior is our preaching mechanic,\nto all the fathers (so called) and dignitaries of state churches\nthat ever wrote upon this subject. Bunyan proves his apostolic\ndescent in the right line; he breathes the spirit--the holy fire\nof the inspired writers.--Ed.\n\n4 I have continued this word as Bunyan spelt it, but he probably\nmeant hog-herd, a keeper or driver of swine, one of the dirtiest\nand lowest employments.\n\n\"No boorish hog-herd fed his rooting swine\" Browne's Pastorals.--Ed.\n\n5 \"Its possessing of us,\" or to give us possession. \"This possesses\nus of the most valuable blessing of human life, friendship.\" Gov.\nof Tongue.--Ed.\n\n6 This is an awful state of delusion; to imagine that God is the\nauthor of gross things, such as worshipping a wafer, or applying\nto a priest to forgive sins; and that a holy God prompts them to\nthe doing thereof, and sanctions them by his presence!! \"Every man\nis tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed,\"\nJames 1:14. Christian, take care that you receive not any doctrine,\nnor conform to any practice in religion, without prayerful\ninvestigation, and a \"thus saith the Lord\" for its sanction.--Ed.\n\n7 \"Go to his grave in his banner,\" alluding to splendid funerals,\nthe hearse being ornamented with banners captured in war, or\narmorial bearings.--Ed.\n\n8 Unsanctified knowledge, accompanied by a degree of conformity in\nconduct, may be the portion of some who indulge soul-destroying\nheresies.--Ed.\n\n9 A graphic writer, addressing us at the distance of two centuries,\nfrequently makes interesting mention of manners and customs prevailing\nat the time wherein he lived. From the illustration here employed\nby Bunyan, we learn that the culprit before trial, and therefore\nbefore convicted of crime, was in a manner prejudged, and loaded\nwith fetters. These extreme judicial severities belong to the past.\n\n10 \"Abundance,\" exuberance, more than enough.--Ed.\n\n11 Bunyan's sanctified mind, well stored with the sacred scriptures,\nrichly enjoyed the contemplation of nature. No writer, however\nblessed with extensive learning, sanctified by deep and glowing\npiety, has opened the book of creation with such a master mind, as\na witness against man at the day of judgment. In this, as in many\nother things, Bunyan stands pre-eminent; a striking illustration\nof the ways of God, who poured such abundance of heavenly treasure\ninto an earthen vessel, despised and persecuted of men.--Ed.\n\n12 \"Slethy,\" now obsolete, sly, cunning, stealthy. \"Darkened with\nmen's sleightie jugling, and counterfeit crafts.\" Bishop Gardiner.--Ed.\n\n13 \"Twenty and twenty years,\" a singular mode of expression,\nprobably alluding to the forty years' trial of the Israelites in\nthe wilderness.--Ed.\n\n14 Conscience, at the day of judgment, will imperatively \"command\nguilt,\" which had been committed, to appear, and will fasten it\nupon the soul, which it accuseth. This is a most impressive and\nsolemn appeal;--there can then be no concealment, no subterfuge.--Ed.\n\n15 \"Pricked,\" nominated by a puncture or mark, as our sheriffs are\npricked.--Ed.\n\n16 \"Counters,\" false coin--\"Will you with counters sum The vast\nproportion of his infinite.\" Shakespeare.--Ed.\n\n17 \"Keser,\" Caesar or emperor.--Ed.\n\n\n18 \"Hump;\" or \"hump-back\" is a deformity in nature, so Bunyan uses\nthe word \"hump\" as a deformity in judgment.--Ed.\n\n19 \"Famously,\" plainly, openly; in this sense obsolete. Tillotson\nused the words \"famous malefactors.\" Sermon on 1 John 4:9.--Ed.\n\n20 Bunyan here alludes to men convicted of crime; but how many\ninnocent, nay, pious servants of Christ, have been compelled to go\nup the ladder to the gibbet, and when the rope has been adjusted\nand the ladder turned, have been ignominiously murdered by the\nsanction of wicked laws.--Ed.\n\n21 The physician looks with another eye on the medicinal herb than the\ngrazing ox, which swoops it in with the common grass. Glanville.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nSOME GOSPEL TRUTHS OPENED, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES; OR, THE\nDIVINE AND HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST JESUS;\n\nHIS COMING INTO THE WORLD; HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, DEATH, RESURRECTION,\nASCENSION, INTERCESSION, AND SECOND COMING TO JUDGMENT, PLAINLY\nDEMONSTRATED AND PROVED.\n\nAND ALSO,\n\nAnswers to several Questions, with profitable Directions to stand\nfast in the Doctrine of Jesus the Son of MARY, against those\nblustering Storms of the Devil's Temptations, which do at this\nDay, like so many Scorpions, break loose from the bottomless Pit,\nto bite and torment those that have not tasted the Vertue of Jesus,\nby the Revelation of the Spirit of God.\n\nPublished for the good of God's chosen ones, by that unworthy\nservant of CHRIST, JOHN BUNYAN, of BEDFORD, By the grace of GOD,\npreacher of the GOSPEL of his dear SON.\n\n'Jesus saith,--I am the way, and the truth and the life: no man\ncometh unto the Father but by me.'--John 14:6\n\n'Neither is there salvation in any other.'--Acts 4:12\n\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThis was the first work published by the indefatigable servant of\nChrist, John Bunyan; and he modestly sought the patronage of his\nbrethren in the ministry, and Messrs. Burton, Spencly and Child\nwrote prefatory recommendations. The latter of these, Mr. John\nChild, for some temporal advantages afterwards conformed; and\nbecame notorious for having, in a fit of despair, destroyed himself.\n\nWell might Bunyan in this treatise, call the early period of his\nministry 'distracted and dangerous times,' in which many a poor\nsincere inquirer stood 'tottering and shaking,' bewildered with the\nnew din of sectaries, each boldly declaring his divine authority.\nIn the midst of this storm of contending opinions, Bunyan stood\nforth conspicuously to declare 'Gospel Truths'; and to open and\nvindicate them these discourses were written. To enable the reader\nto understand and appreciate them, it will be needful to take a\nrapid glance at the state of society which then prevailed. The\nfrivolities of dress and laxity of morals introduced by James\nthe First, increased by the mixture of French fashions under the\npopish wife of Charles the First, had spread their debauching\ninfluence throughout the kingdom. George Fox, the founder of the\nSociety of Friends, in an address 'To such as follow the world's\nfashions,' gives an almost incredible description of the tomfooleries\nof dress which prevailed. 'How doth the devil garnish himself,\nand the people are carried away with vanity--women plaiting their\nhair--men and women powdering it, making their backs like bags\nof meal. The men having store of ribbands of divers colours about\ntheir waists, and at their knees, and in their hats. The women with\ntheir spots on their noses, cheeks, and foreheads--rings on their\nfingers--cuffs double, like a butcher in his white sleeves--ribbands\nabout their arms, hands, back, waists, knees--and hats like unto\nfidlers' bags--is not this the devil's adorning?'[1]\n\nAt this period the iron hand of tyranny and oppression over the\nworship of God had been suddenly paralyzed. The ruinous penalties,\nand even capital punishments, which had enforced attendance on a\nform of common prayer, and a pretence to believe articles, creeds,\nand catechisms, ordained by Acts of Parliament, were removed.\nMan, by nature averse to religious inquiries, was now stimulated,\nunder a threat of eternal ruin, personally and individually, to\nseek for truth and salvation. At this time a little persecuted\nband of puritans had directed every inquirer after salvation to\nthe sacred Scriptures, which alone were able to make wise unto\nsalvation, by the aid of the Holy Spirit enlightening their minds\nto understand, and subduing their wills to receive those eternal\ntruths. But a new light was now discovered--that which lighteneth\nevery man that cometh into the world; and which, it was alleged,\nwould alone, if cherished and followed, lead the honest inquirer\ninto all truth. National religion, so called, had been propagated\nat an incredible expense of treasure, and by the sacrifice of the\nbest blood in the country, to the shrine of infallibility--called\nuniformity. A hireling priesthood had limited to themselves the\nright to teach men how to be Christians. The result of all this\nwas clearly seen, when the people were driven to think and choose\nfor themselves. Their minds were in darkness and confusion,\nwhich quickly produced the most whimsical, mischievous, and even\nludicrous opinions, mixed with truth.\n\nNational establishments, whether Pagan, Mohamedan, or Christian--be\nthis latter either Greek, Roman, or Protestant--have a direct and\nnatural tendency to repress and prevent personal inquiries, lest\nthey should interfere with uniformity in faith and worship; which is\na presumed incapability of error on the part of those who impose\nthem. Systems, which IN FACT, although not in words, claim\ninfallibility, by requiring implicit and absolute submission, must\nhave had a direct tendency to hoodwink and blind the people; nor\ncan we be surprised, that when their eyes were first opened, they\nsaw indistinctly; or, to use a scripture phrase, 'men as trees\nwalking.' They utterly failed in preparing the mind to receive divine\ntruth, or in furnishing an antidote to extravagant speculations\nin religion.\n\nThe state of the millions can hardly be conceived; they had paid\na priest to think on religion for them--to read the Bible for\nthem--and to pray for them. They had paid the church to make them\nChristians--to confirm them--to forgive their sins--and to bury\ntheir bodies in sure and certain hope of heaven. From this fatal\nsleep of ignorance and error, they were aroused by itinerant\npreachers; many of whom were men of education, of irreproachable\nmorals, and most benevolent habits. They went forth upon their\nmission at a fearful sacrifice of comfort, property, health, and\neven of life; calling all to repentance, and to obey the light\nwithin--to follow on to perfection in this life--and, at the\nsame time, denouncing all hireling ministers. They were called\nin derision, Familists, Ranters, Quakers, New Lights, &c. The\nold leaven, which had led the people without inquiry to follow\nthe priests, now operated on multitudes to follow those ardent\nand self-denying leaders. The Familists, or family of love, were\nconsistent in their lives;--considered every day a sabbath, and\nbaptized none under thirty years of age. The Ranters mingled a\nlittle truth with much error--abused their Christian liberty--and\nlived licentiously, and were a scandal to religion. The Quakers--so\ncalled from their trembling agitation when under a powerful sense\nof eternal realities, and because, in preaching, they admonished\ntheir hearers to tremble and quake at the word of God--considered\nthe sacraments as mere ceremonies, inconsistent with spiritual\nworship--lived and dressed with the utmost simplicity, and took\nthe lead in attacking error at all risks.\n\nThese itinerants went through the whole length and breadth of the\nland, and in every place of public resort they made proclamation.\nIn fairs, markets, meetings, assizes, and steeple-houses, their\nvoice was heard denouncing evil and exhorting to righteousness.\nShort weights and deceit were declared an abomination to the\nLord, in fairs and markets. Every religious delusion was exposed\nin meetings and parish churches. The journals of George Fox, and\nothers, are exceedingly interesting in recounting their hazardous\nadventures, zeal, and no ordinary degree of ready wit and talent.\nSome of these itinerants came to Bedford, and in the parish church,\ncalled 'the steeple-house,' in Bedford town, on the 23d of May,\n1656, they met John Bunyan, probably after he had been ministering\nthere. With him they held a public disputation or controversy, to\nwhich allusions are made by both parties,[2] and in Bunyan they\nmet a master spirit who confounded them. The subjects in dispute\nwere of the deepest importance--the work of the Holy Spirit in\nconversion--the authority of the Bible--the perfection of holiness\nin this life--and whether it was lawful to perform the work of\nthe ministry for hire.\n\nAfter a very careful perusal of E. Burrough's answers to Bunyan,\nit is gratifying to find that the whole truth is set forth in\nthe following pages;--some of the facts are worthy of a careful\nnotice. The Baptists and Independents had long existed in this\ncountry, and had published confessions of faith. The Ranters and\nFamilists existed not as sects but in name, and soon disappeared.\nThe Quakers, who were confounded with the Ranters and Familists,\nwere not at this time formed into a society; nor had they published\nany book of discipline. The Society of Friends were some years\nafter united, and have been one of the most useful as well as\nthe brightest ornaments to this kingdom. The works of Fox, Penn,\nBarclay, and others, with their books of discipline, and yearly\nepistles, shew that they, to a very great extent, agree with Bunyan\nin his sentiments; and it is well worthy of notice that, in the\nlatter part of his life, when he wrote his admirable treatise\non the resurrection of the dead, he does not accuse the Society\nof Friends with holding any false opinions. Bunyan is clear and\nscriptural upon the 'Light within,' or that conscience of right\nand wrong which all possess to their condemnation--as distinguished\nfrom the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God to his\npeople, revealing in them the pardon of sin and hope of glory, by\nopening their understandings to receive the truths of the Bible.\nWhen Ann Blakeley bid Bunyan 'throw away the Scriptures,' he\nreplied, 'No, for then the devil would be too hard for me.'[3] And\nwhen accused of being a hireling priest, how triumphant was the\nreply--it ought to be printed in letters of gold. He was charged\nwith making merchandize of souls, and he answered--'Friend, dost\nthou speak this from thy own knowledge, or did any other tell thee\nso? However, that spirit that led thee out this way is a lying\nspirit. For though I be poor, and of no repute in the world, as\nto outward things; yet through grace I have learned by the example\nof the apostle, to preach the truth; and also to work with my\nhands, both for my own living, and for those that are with me,\nwhen I have opportunity. And I trust that the Lord Jesus, who hath\nhelped me to reject the wages of unrighteousness hitherto, will\nalso help me still, so that I shall distribute that which God hath\ngiven me FREELY, and not for filthy lucre's sake.'[4] How does\nthis contrast with the description of the state clergy, before\nthe triers were appointed.[5]\n\nFavoured by the kind assistance of Charles Bowden, the secretary\nto the Society of Friends, access was afforded me to the extensive\nlibrary in Devonshire House, and upon collation of Bunyan's\nquotations with the original editions of Burrough's exceedingly\nrare tracts, my gratification was great to find that every extract\nmade by John Bunyan was perfectly faithful.\n\nEdward Burrough, called a son of thunder and of consolation,\nanswered both these treatises of Bunyan's,--denying, on the part\nof the Quakers, many of the charges made against them, as connected\nwith the Ranters. He was a man of great talent--fearless, devoted,\nand pious. He became extensively useful; and like thousands of\nmost excellent men, was sacrificed at the shrine of that fanatical\nchurch over which the profligate and debauched Charles the Second\nwas the supreme head. He died in the prime of life, receiving the\ncrown of martyrdom, when his happy spirit ascended from Newgate\nin 1662: aged 28 years.\n\nNo sect was so severely tormented as the Quakers. A fanatical\nclergyman, Edward Lane, in a book called 'Look unto Jesus,' 1663,\nthus pours forth his soul, breathing out cruelty--'I hope and pray\nthe Lord to incline the heart of his majesty our religious King,\nto suppress the Quakers, that none of them may be suffered to abide\nin the land.' A prayer as full of cruelty against a most peaceful\nand valuable part of the community, as it was hypocritical in\ncalling a debauched and profligate man [Charles the Second] 'our\nreligious king.'\n\nControversy was carried on in those days with extreme virulence;\nlearned and unlettered men alike used violent language, which, in\nthis enlightened and comparatively happy age, is read with wonder.\nBurrough called his answer 'The Gospel of Peace contended for in\nthe spirit of meekness and of love.' He meekly commences with--'How\nlong, ye crafty fowlers, will ye prey upon the innocent; how long\nshall the righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye subtle foxes; your\ndens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched upon your beds\nof secret whoredoms.' He says, 'I own the words but I deny thy\nvoice.' Such was the unhallowed spirit of controversy in that\nage. A harsh epithet was called faithful dealing: thus, a learned\nclergyman, writing upon Baptism, entitled his work--'The Anabaptists\nducked and plunged over head and ears--washed and shrunk in the\nwashing'; to which an equally learned Baptist replied, in his\n'Baby Baptism mere Babyism.' All this unseemly violence has passed\naway, and with it much of the virulence of persecution; soon may\nit pass away altogether, only to be pointed at as the evidence\nof a barbarous age. We now look back to cruelties perpetrated in\nthe times of Bunyan by the national religion, as a stigma upon\nhuman nature. 'What a church is this of yours, to be defended by\ngaols, and prisons, and whips, and stocks, and violent dealing.'\n'Let us fairly try our spiritual weapons, and not carnal cruel\ntortures.' 'Let us not hurt or imprison each other, nor put in\nthe stocks, nor cruelly whip and lacerate each others' bodies; but\nlet us thrash deceit, whip and beat that and all false doctrines':\nthese were the breathings of our pilgrim forefathers,--it is the\nlanguage of common sense and of real religion. May such sentiments\nspread, and soon cover the earth!--GEO. OFFOR.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. George Fox's Journal, folio, p. 144.\n\n2. See Burrough's Works, p. 304.\n\n3. Page 201.\n\n4. Page 201.\n\n5. Page 178.\n\n\n\nTHE AUTHOR TO THE READER.\n\nSeeing the Lord hath been pleased to put it into my heart, to\nwrite a few things to thee (Reader) touching those things which\nare most surely believed by all those that are, or shall be saved\n(Luke 1:1; Acts 13:38). I think it meet also, to stir up thy\nheart by way of remembrance, touching those things that are the\nhindrances of thy believing the things that are necessary to the\nwelfare of thine immortal soul. And indeed, this is the only thing\nnecessary; it is better to lose all that ever thou hast, than to\nhave thy soul and body for ever cast into hell; And therefore,\nI beseech thee to consider with me a few things touching the\nstratagems, or subtle temptations of the devil, whereby he lieth\nin wait, if by any means he may, to make thee fall short of eternal\nlife (1 Peter 5:8).\n\nAnd first of all, he doth endeavour by all means to keep thee in\nlove with thy sins and pleasures, knowing that he is sure of thee,\nif he can but bewitch thee to live and die in them (1 Cor 6:9,10;\n2 Thess 2:12). Yea, he knows that he is as sure of thee, as if he\nhad thee in hell already (John 3:19). And that he might accomplish\nhis design on thee in this particular, he laboureth by all means\npossible to keep thy conscience asleep in security and self-conceitedness,\nkeeping thee from all things that might be a means to awaken and\nrouse up thine heart. As first, he will endeavour to keep thee\nfrom hearing of the word, by suggesting unto [thee] this and the\nother worldly business which must be performed; so that thou wilt\nnot want excuse to keep thee from the ordinances of Christ, in\nhearing, reading, meditation, &c., or else, he seeks to disturb,\nand distract thy mind when thou art conversant in these things,\nthat thou canst not attend to them diligently, and so they become\nunprofitable; or else if thou art a little more stirred, he labours\nto rock thee asleep again, by casting thee upon, and keeping thee\nin evil company, as among rioters, drunkards, jesters, and other\nof his instruments, which he employeth on purpose to keep thee\nsecure, and so ruin thy soul and body for ever and ever.\n\nIf not thus, then peradventure he will seek to persuade thee it\nis but a melancholy fit, and will put thee upon the works of thy\ncalling, or thy pleasures, or phys; or some other trick he will\ninvent, such as best agreeth with thy nature. And thus thy heart\nis again deaded, and thou art kept in carnal security, that thou\nmightest perish for ever. But if notwithstanding these, and many\ncunning slights more which might be named, he cannot so blind, and\nbenumb thy conscience, but that it doth see and feel sin to be a\nburden, intolerable and exceeding sinful; Then in the second place,\nhis design is to drive thee to despair, by persuading thee that\nthy sins are too big to be pardoned; he will seek by all means\npossible to aggravate them by all the circumstances of time,\nplace, person, manner, nature, and continuance of thy sins, he\nwill object in thy soul, thou hast out-sinned grace, by rejecting\nso many exhortations, and admonitions, so many reproofs, so many\ntenders of grace; hadst thou closed in with them it had been well\nwith thee, but now thou hast stood it out so long, that there is\nno hope for thee: thou mightest have come sooner, if thou didst\nlook to be saved, but now it is too late. And withal, that he\nmight carry on his design upon thee to purpose, he will be sure to\npresent to thy conscience, the most sad sentences of the scripture;\nyea, and set them home with such cunning arguments, that, if it\nbe possible, he will make thee despair, and make away thyself, as\ndid Judas.\n\nBut if he be prevented in this his intended purpose; the next\nthing he doth beset thee with, is to make thee rest upon thine own\nrighteousness, telling thee, that if thou wilt needs be saved,\nthou must earn heaven with thy fingers' ends; and it may be,\nhe represents to thy soul such a scripture; 'If thou doest well,\nshalt thou not be accepted?' And thou having (but in the strength\nof nature) kept thyself from thy former grosser pollutions, and\nit may be from some more secret sins, are ready to conclude, now\nthou dost well; now God accepts thee; now he will pardon, yea,\nhath pardoned thee; now thy condition is good, and so goest on\ntill thou meetest with a searching word, and ministry, which tells\nthee, and discovers plainly unto thee, that thou doest all this\nwhile deceive thyself, by a vain hope and confidence; for tho' thou\nseek after the law of righteousness, thou hast not yet attained\nto the law of righteousness, nor yet canst, because thou seekest\nit 'not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law' (Rom\n9:31,32). Here again, thou art left in the mire, and now peradventure\nthou seest, that thou art not profited by the works of the law,\nnor thy own righteousness: And this makes thee stir a little, but\nin process of time, (through the subtle sleights of the devil, and\nthe wickedness of thine own heart;) thou forgettest thy trouble\nof conscience, and slippest into a notion of the gospel, and the\ngrace thereof, and now thou thinkest thyself cock-sure: Now thou\nart able to say, 'He that lives and dies in his sins, shall be\ndamned for them: He that trusts in his own righteousness, shall\nnot be saved': Now thou canst cry, 'grace, grace, it's freely by\ngrace, it's through the death of the man Christ Jesus, that sinners\ndo attain unto eternal life' (Heb 9:14). This, I say, thou hast\nin the notion, and hast not the power of the same in thine heart,\nand so it may be thine head is full of the knowledge of the\nscriptures, though thine heart be empty of sanctifying grace. And\nthus thou dost rejoice for a time. Yet because thou hast not the\nroot of the matter within thee, in time of temptation thou fallest\naway (Luke 8:13).\n\nNow being in this condition, and thinking thyself to be wondrous\nwell, because of that notion of the truth, and that notion thou\nhast in the things of God: I say, being in this state, thou art\nliable to these dangers.\n\nFirst, Thou art like to perish if thou die with this notion in\nthine head, except God out of his rich grace do work a saving work\nof grace and knowledge in thy heart; for know this, thou mayest\nunderstand glorious mysteries, and yet be a cast-away (1 Cor\n13:1-3). Or else,\n\nSecondly, Thou art liable to the next damnable heresy that the\ndevil sendeth into the world. See and consider Luke 8:13; 2 Timothy\n2:18. I say, thou dost lie liable to be carried away with it, and\nto be captivated by it; so that at last, through the delusions of\nthe devil, thou mayest have thy conscience seared as with an hot\niron, so hard, that neither law, nor gospel, can make any entrance\nthereinto, to the doing of thee the least good. And indeed, who\nare the men that at this day are so deluded by the quakers, and\nother pernicious doctrines; but those who thought it enough to\nbe talkers of the gospel, and grace of God, without seeking and\ngiving all diligence to make it sure unto themselves? 'And for\nthis cause God' [shall send] hath sent 'them strong delusion,\nthat they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned, who\nbelieved not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,' as\nit is written (2 Thess 2:11,12). And indeed if you mark it, you\nshall see, that they be such kind of people, who at this day are\nso carried away with the quakers' delusions; namely, a company\nof loose ranters, and light notionists, with here and there\na legalist, which were shaking in their principles from time to\ntime, sometimes on this religion, sometimes on that.[1] And thus\nthese unstable souls are deluded and beguiled at last (2 Peter\n2:14). So that these who before (as one would have thought)\nhad something of God in them, are now turned such enemies to the\nglorious truths of the gospel, that there are none so obstinately\nerroneous as they. And indeed it is just with God, to give them\nover to 'believe a lie' (2 Thess 2:11), who before were so idle\nthat they would not receive the truth of God into their hearts,\nin the love of it. And to be bewitched by the devil to obey his\ntemptations, and be damned, who would not obey the truth, that\nthey might be saved (Gal 3:1).\n\nBut you will say, what lies are those, that the devil beguileth\npoor souls withal? I shall briefly tell you some of them, but\nhaving before said, that they especially are liable to the danger\nof them, who slip into high notions, and rest there; taking that\nfor true faith which is not. I shall desire thee seriously to\nconsider this one character of a NOTIONIST. Such an one, whether\nhe perceives it or not, is puffed up in his fleshly mind, and\nadvanceth himself above others, thinking but few may compare with\nhim for religion and knowledge in the scriptures, but are ignorant\nand foolish in comparison of him: (Thus knowledge puffeth up, (1\nCor 8:1)) whereas when men receive truth in the love of the truth,\nthe more the head and heart is filled with the knowledge of the\nmystery of godliness, the more it is emptied of its own things,\nand is more sensible of its own vileness, and so truly humbled in\nits own eyes.\n\nAnd further, a notionist, though he fall from his former strictness\nand seeming holiness, and appear more loose, and vain in his\npractices, yet speaks as confidently of himself, as to assurance\nof salvation, the love of God, and union with God, as ever. But\nnow to return, and declare some of those lies which the devil\npersuades some of these men to believe.\n\nI. That salvation was not fully, and completely wrought out for\npoor sinners by the man Christ Jesus, though he did it gloriously\n(Acts 13:38,39), by his death upon the cross, without the gates\nof Jerusalem (Heb 13:12 compared with John 19:19,20).\n\nII. This is another of his lies wherewith he doth deceive poor\nsinners, bidding them follow the light that they brought into the\nworld with them, telling them, that light will lead them to the\nkingdom; for (say they) it will convince of sin, as swearing,\nlying, stealing, covetousness, and the rest of the sins against\nthe law (Rom 3:20). But 'the law is not of faith' (Gal 3:13). And\nthen I am sure, that it, with all its motions and convictions, is\nnever able to justify the soul of any poor sinner. 'For as many\nas are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is\nwritten, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things\nwhich are written in the book of the law to do them' (Gal 3:10),\nbut that no man is justified by the law is evident, 'for, The\njust shall live by faith' (v 11). Now because I am not altogether\nignorant of the delusion of the devil touching this grace of faith\nalso, I shall therefore in short give thee (reader) a brief, yet\ntrue description from the scripture. 1. What true justifying faith\nis, and what it lays hold upon. 2. I shall shew who it doth come\nfrom. 3. That every one hath it not. 4. What are the fruits of\nit.\n\n1. First therefore, true faith is a fruit, work, or gift of the\nSpirit of God (Gal 5:22; 2 Thess 1:11; 1 Cor 12:9) whereby a poor\nsoul is enabled through the mighty operation of God (Col 2:12)\nin a sense of its sins and wretched estate to lay hold on the\nrighteousness, blood, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession,\nand coming again of the Son of God which was crucified without the\ngates of Jerusalem, for eternal life (John 3:16-18 compared with\nMatt 3:17; Gal 2:20; Rom 5:8-10; Rom 3:25; Acts 16:31; Heb 13:12)\naccording to that saying in Hebrews 11:1 'Now faith is the substance\nof things hoped for,' and 'the evidence of things not seen,' that\nis, the things that are hoped for faith sees, lays hold upon, and\nembraces them (Heb 11:13) as if they were present; yea, it seals\nup the certainty of them to the soul. Therefore saith the Apostle,\nit is the evidence, or testimony, or witness, of those things\nthat are not seen as yet with a bodily eye; which are obtained\nby the blood of the man Christ Jesus (Heb 9:14 compared with Heb\n10:12,19,20) by which the soul sees as in a glass the things that\nGod hath laid up for them that fear him (1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 3:18).\n\n2. If you would know who this faith comes from, read Ephesians 2:8\n'For by grace ye are saved [saith the scripture] through faith;\nand that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.' Again,\nin Philippians 1:29 it is thus written: 'For unto you [that are\nbelievers] it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe\non him, but also to suffer for his sake'; And thus much do the\nApostles hold forth to us in their prayer, or request to the Lord\nJesus, when they say, 'Lord increase our faith' (Luke 17:5), and\nhe is therefore called 'the author and finisher of our faith'\n(Heb 12:2). Also we find in James 1:17 that 'Every good gift and\nevery perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father\nof lights,' &c., and therefore faith comes from God, for true\njustifying faith is a good gift, and perfect in respect of the\nauthor God, in respect of its object, Christ; and in respect of\nthe nature, though not in respect of the degree, and measure of\nit in us: even as a grain of gold, is as perfect gold, as a pound\nof gold, though not so much.\n\n3. All men have not faith, this the Apostle witnesseth in so many\nwords as we find (2 Thess 3:2; Deut 32:20). Also in Timothy 1:15\n'Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure,'\n&c. It appeareth also in this, that all do not attain salvation,\nwhich they must needs do if they had true justifying faith (compare\nLuke 13:24 and 1 John 5:19 with Mark 16:16. And Heb 4:3 with vv\n6 and 11 'they that believe shall be saved').\n\n4. The fruits of it are, (1.) to purify the heart (Acts 15:9;\n1 John 3:3), and that, as I said before, by laying hold on what\nJesus Christ had done and suffered for sinners (Acts 13:38,39).\n(2.) It fills the soul with peace and joy, in that it lays hold\non the things that are obtained for it (Rom 5:1; 2 Tim 1:9,10;\n1 Peter 1:8). (3.) It makes the soul to wait patiently, for the\nglory that is to be revealed at the second appearing of the man\nChrist Jesus, whom God hath raised from the dead, which hath also\ndelivered it from the wrath to come, as in Timothy 2:13, 14; 1\nPeter 4:13 and 5:1, 4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10.\n\nQuest.--But how (may some say) doth the devil make his delusions\ntake place in the hearts of poor creatures?\n\nAns. 1.--Why, first, He labours to render the doctrine of the\nLord Jesus, and salvation by him alone, very odious and low: and\nalso his ordinances, as hearing, reading, meditation, use of the\nscriptures, &c. telling poor sinners that these things are but\npoor, low, carnal, beggarly, empty notions; preached up by the\nclergymen, who are the scribes and pharisees of this generation;\nwho have the letter, but not the Spirit of God in them; which lead\nmen into the form, but not into the power of the Lord Jesus: And\nwith this persuasion, he also represents the ungodly and base\ncarriage, or behaviour, of some, who have taken in hand to preach\nthe doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thereby he doth render\nthe gospel of our Lord Jesus the more contemptible and base. But\nwoe, woe, woe, be to them by whom such offences come (Matt 18:7;\nLuke 17:1,2).\n\nAns. 2. He pretends to lead them up into some higher light,\nmysteries, and revelations of the Spirit, into which a very few\nhave attained or can attain, also bewitching their affections,\nand taking them with an earnest pursuit after these his pretended\ntruths; persuading them, that they shall be as God himself, able\nto discern between good and evil (Gen 3:5). And in this he is\nexceeding subtle and expert, as having practised it ever since\nthe days of Adam. These things being thus considered, and in some\nmeasure hungered after, and the rather because they are good (as\nthey think) to make one wise (Gen 3:6). The poor soul is all on\nthe sudden possessed with a desperate spirit of delusion, which\ncarries it away headlong with some high, light, frothy notions, and\nspiritual wickedness (which drown it in perdition and destruction)\nthat doth feed and tickle the heart a while, to the end it may\nmake way for a farther manifestation of itself in the poor deluded\nsoul; which when it hath attained to, it doth then begin to bring\nthe soul into a clearer sight of those things, which it was loth\nit should know at the first; but having fitted the soul by degrees\nfor a further possession of itself, at last it begins to hold forth\nits new gospel; shewing the soul a new Christ, and new scriptures.\nThe new and false Christ, is a Christ crucified within, dead\nwithin, risen again within, and ascended within, in opposition to\nthe Son of Mary, who was crucified without, dead without, risen\nagain without, and ascended in a cloud away from his disciples\ninto heaven without them (Acts 1:9-11).\n\nNow this new and false Christ, hath a new and false faith belonging\nto his gospel, which faith is this, to apprehend this Christ\ncrucified within, dead within, risen again within, and ascended\nwithin: But ask them for a scripture that doth positively prove\ntheir doctrine, they also have a scripture, but it is within, it\ndoth bear witness within, and if they had not that, (though that\nbe of the devil's making) I am sure they would have none out of\nGod's holy scriptures, for they will allow of no crucified Christ,\nbut he that was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem (Heb\n13:12; John 19:17,18). Dead and buried in the sepulchre of Joseph\nof Arimathea (John 19:38-41). Was raised again out of that sepulchre\ninto which Joseph had laid him (John 20:1-12). Who went before his\ndisciples into Galilee (Mark 16:7). And to Emmaus (Luke 24:15).\nShewed them his hands and his feet, where the nails had gone through\n(Luke 24:39,40). Did eat and drink with them after his resurrection:\nWas seen of them on earth forty days after his resurrection (Acts\n1:3). And after that ascended away in a cloud, out of the sight of\nhis disciples into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). Which Christ ever lives\nto make intercession for us (Heb 7:25). Who will come again also\nat the end of the world to judgment (Acts 10:42, 17:31; 2 Peter\n3:10,11). Who also is the same that hath obtained eternal redemption\nfor us (Acts 13:37-39; Rom 3:25; Eph 1:7; Rev 1:5; Heb 1:2, 9:14).\nThis I say, or rather the scriptures say, is God's Christ (Matt\n16:16). In whom he is well pleased (Matt 3:17). Neither doth God\nown any other, or allow of any other: For there is none other name\nunder heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, than the\nname of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 4:10 compared with vv 11,12). But\nas I told you before, the way to be thus deluded, is first to\nrender God's Christ odious and low, with a pretence of some further\nlight and revelations; and thus professing themselves to be wise,\nthey became fools (Rom 1:22).\n\nQuest.--But you will say, doth not the scripture make mention of\na Christ within? (Col 1:27; 2 Cor 13:5; Rom 8:10).\n\nAns.--I answer, God's Christ was, and is, true God and true man;\nhe was born of the Virgin Mary, true God, and true man (Matt 1:23).\n'And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted\nis, God with us,' or God in our nature, according to 1 Timothy\n3:16 'God was manifested in the flesh': And John 1:14 'the word\nwas made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the\nglory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and\ntruth.' And in Hebrews 2:14 'Forasmuch then as the children are\npartakers of flesh and blood, he,' that is, God (Heb 1:8), 'also\nhimself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might\ndestroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.' Now\nas he was thus true God, and true man, so he became our redeemer\nand Saviour. Compare the first and second chapters to the Hebrews\ntogether, and you may clearly see that this is a glorious truth,\nthat he who is the first and the last (Rev 1:17,18, 2:8) humbled\nhimself, and made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the\nform of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And was\nthis all? No. He humbled himself unto death, even the death of\nthe cross (Phil 2:7,8 compared with Rev 1:17,18 and Rev 2:8 with\nGal 1:4). Now after this Christ of God, true God and true man,\nhad wrought out eternal redemption for us poor miserable sinners\n(Heb 9:14 compared with 1 Tim 1:15). I say, after he had done\nthis, he ascended up into heaven, and there ever lives to make\nintercession for us. Now this Christ, having thus completely wrought\nout our salvation, sends his disciples abroad to preach the same\nto poor sinners (Acts 2; 2 Cor 5:19,20) and so many as were ordained\nto eternal life, when they heard the word, or the gospel preached\nby the Apostles, which gospel was this Christ (1 Cor 1:17 compared\nwith v 23). I say, so many as were ordained to eternal life, when\nthey heard the word, the Holy Ghost or Spirit of Christ, fell upon\nthem (Acts 10:44 compared with Acts 13:48) which did lead them\ninto the redemption and glorious things that the Lord Jesus had\nlaid up and prepared for them (John 16:13-15; 1 Cor 2:9). Which\nSpirit was the earnest of their inheritance, until the redemption\nof the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:13,14).\nThe earnest of their inheritance was a glorious encouragement to\nthem that had it, to hope for the glory that was to be revealed\nat the appearing of Jesus Christ, which is the meaning of that\nplace in Colossians 1:27. And that will be seen clearly, if we\ncompare it with Ephesians 1:13,14 before recited. Now this Spirit,\nwhich sometimes is called the Spirit of Christ (2 Cor 13:5). This\nSpirit, I say, being given to all those that were ordained to\neternal life, it must needs follow, that those that had not this\nSpirit, but did live and die without it, were not ordained to\neternal life, and so were none of Christ's; but were reprobates\n(Rom 8:9) for the Spirit of Christ is the distinguishing character\nbetwixt a believer and an unbeliever, he that hath it, and is led\nby it, is a child of God (Rom 7:4), but he that hath it not is\nnone of Christ's.\n\nSo then, the answer that I give to the question, is this. The\nSpirit of Christ that is given to believers, is the earnest or\nhope of that inheritance that Christ hath already purchased, and\nis now preparing for so many as he hath given, or shall give this\nholy spirit unto. And for the proof hereof, read Ephesians 1:13,\n14. In whom (saith the scripture) ye also trusted, after that ye\nheard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom\nalso, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit\nof promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance; (which\ninheritance is the eternal redemption that was purchased by Christ\nfor poor sinners (Heb 9:15)) until the redemption of the purchased\npossession, unto the praise of his glory. Again (Gal 5:5), 'For ye\nthrough the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.'\nAnd (Col 1:27) the Apostle speaking of this great mystery, saith,\n'To whom God would make know what is the riches of the glory of\nthis mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you the hope of\nglory'; which glory was then revealed to the saints no otherwise\nthan by faith, as the Apostle saith, 'We rejoice in hope of the\nglory of God' (Rom 5:2). Which hope is begotten by the Spirit's\nshedding abroad the love of God in our hearts (v 5), which hope\nis not yet seen, that is, not yet actually enjoyed; 'For we are\nsaved by hope: But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man\nseeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see\nnot, then do we with patience wait for it' (Rom 8:24,25). And as\nI say, the cause of believers' hope is this, Christ, or the Spirit\nof Christ, in them, the hope of glory. And indeed he may well hope\nfor glory to come, who hath already an earnest thereof given him\nof God, and that earnest no less than the Spirit of the Lord Jesus\n(Rom 8:16,17).\n\nBut now, this Spirit, which is the cause of a believer's hope,\nall men have not (Jude 19; Eph 2:12; Rom 8:9; John 14:16,17).\nTherefore what a sad doctrine is that which saith, follow the light\nthat Christ hath enlightened every man withal, which cometh into\nthe world; which light is the conscience, that convinceth of sins\nagainst the law; and that you may see clearly if you mind that\nscripture (John 8:9) which saith, That the Pharisees, [which\nhad neither the love of God, nor his word, abiding in them (John\n5:38,43)] when they had heard Christ speaking thus to them, He\nthat is without sin among you, &c. being convicted by their own\nconsciences, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even\nto the least. But the devil, that he might be sure not to miss of\nhis design, labours by all means to render the scriptures also\nodious and low, telling them of the scriptures within; which\nChrist never taught, nor yet his disciples: But they being given\nup of God to a reprobate mind, have given themselves over, rather\nto follow the suggestions of the devil, than the holy scriptures\nwhich God hath commanded us to betake ourselves to (Isa 8:20\ncompared with John 5:39) which scripture is called the sword of\nthe Spirit (Eph 6:17), which weapon our Lord Jesus himself held\nup, to overcome the devil withal (Matt 4:4,7,10; Luke 4:4,8,12).\nBut this design (as I told you) the devil carries on, by pretending\nto shew them a more excellent way which they may attain to, if\nthey be but wise, and follow what is made known unto them from\nthe light within them.\n\nBut, reader, that thou mayest be able to escape the snare of this\ncunning hunter, I shall lay thee down some few directions, which\nif the Lord give thee grace to follow, thou shalt escape these\nWICKED DELUSIONS.\n\nDirect. 1. And first of all, I do admonish thee to be very serious\ntouching thine estate and condition; and examine thine own heart\nby the rule of the word of God, whether or no, thou hast as yet\nany beginnings of desiring after religion: and if thou findest that\nthou hast lived until now in ignorance, and hast not set thyself\nto remember thy Creator as thou art commanded (Eccl 12:1), then\nI beseech thee consider that thou art under the wrath of Almighty\nGod, and hast been so ever since thou camest into the world (Eph\n2:1,2), being then in thy first parents, those didst transgress\nagainst thy maker (Rom 5:18), 'Therefore as by the offence\nof one,' that is, of Adam (v 14), 'judgment came upon all men\nto condemnation.' Besides the many SINS thou hast committed ever\nsince thou wast born: sins against the law of God, and sins against\nthe gospel of the grace of God; sins against the long-suffering\nand forbearance of God, and sins against his judgments; sins of\nomission, and sins of commission, in thoughts, words, and actions:\nconsider, I say, thy condition; yea, get a very great sense of thy\nsins that thou hast committed; and that thou mayest so do, beg of\nGod to convince thee by his Holy Spirit, not only of sins against\nlaw, but also of that damning sin, the sin of unbelief.\n\nDirect. 2. If thou by grace, art but brought into such an estate\nas to see thyself in a lost condition because of sin, without the\nLord Jesus; then in the next place, have a care of resting on any\nDUTY done, though it be never so specious; I say, have a care of\nmaking any stay anywhere on this side the Lord Jesus Christ: but\nabove all strive to believe, that that very Man that was born of\nthe Virgin Mary, did come into the world on purpose to save thee,\nas well as other poor sinners: I say, thou must not be content\ntill thou art enabled to say, 'He loved me, and gave himself for\nme' (Gal 2:20). And that thou mayest be sure to attain to this\nmost precious faith, (for so it is) be much in applying the freest\npromises to thy own soul; yea, those that have no conditions annexed\nto them, as these, or other like (Rev 22:17; Jer 31:3, John 6:37\nalso 14:19; Hosea 14:3). I say, labour to apply to thy own soul\nin particular, the most glorious and freest promises in the book\nof God. And if at any time the devil besets thee by his temptations,\n(for so is his wonted manner to do, and so much the more, as he\nsees thee labour to get out of his reach) I say, when he assails\nthee with his fiery darts, be sure to act faith on the most free\npromises, and have a care that thou dost not enter into any dispute\nwith him, but rather resist him by those blessed promises that\nare laid down in the word of God: And withal, be sure to meditate\nupon the blood of the man Christ Jesus, who also is the true God,\nand read those scriptures that do most fully and clearly speak of\nit (as 1 John 1:7; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:14; Rom 3:25).\n\nDirect. 3. But if thou say (as it is often the speech of poor\nsouls lying under a sense of sin, and the apprehensions of wrath\ndue to it) I cannot apply the promises to mine own soul; and the\nreason is, because my SINS are so great, and so many. Consider,\nand know it for a truth, that the more and greater thou seest thy\nsins to be, the more cause hast thou to believe; yea, thou must\ntherefore believe because thy sins are great: David made it an\nencouragement to himself, or rather the Spirit of the Lord made\nit his encouragement, to crave, yea to hope for pardon, because\nhe had greatly transgressed (Psa 25:11). 'For thy name's sake,\nO Lord, [saith he] pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.' As if\nhe had said, O Lord, thy name will be more glorified, the riches\nof thy grace will be more advanced, thy mercy and goodness will\nmore shine, and be magnified in pardoning me who am guilty of\ngreat iniquity, than if thou pardonest many others who have not\ncommitted such heinous offences. And I dare say, the reason why\nthou believest not, is not because thy sins are great, but because\nthou dost reason too much with that wicked enemy of man's salvation,\nand givest way too much to the fleshly reasoning of thine own\nheart. For Christ hath said, 'He that cometh unto me, I will in\nno wise cast out' (John 6:37). And again, 'Though your sins be as\nscarlet, they shall be as white as snow' (Isa 1:18). And Christ\ncalleth those that labour, and are heavy laden, to come to him,\nwith promise to give them rest (Matt 11:28). Wherefore thou must\nnot say, my sins are too big; but thou must say, because I am a\ngreat sinner; yea, because I have sinned above many of my companions,\nand am nearer to hell, and eternal damnation than they, because\nof my sins, therefore will I cry unto the Lord, and say, O Lord,\npardon my sins, for they are great.\n\nNow that thou mayest not be deceived in a matter of so great\nconcernment, have a special care of these three things.\n\nCaution 1. First, Have a care of putting off thy trouble of spirit\nthe wrong way, which thou mayest do three ways; (1.) When thy\nconscience flieth in thy face, and tells thee of thy sins, thou\ndost put off convictions the wrong way, if thou dost stop thy\nconscience by promising to reform thyself, and lead a new life,\nand gettest off thy guilt by so doing: for though thou mayest by\nthis means still and quiet thy conscience for a time, yet thou\ncanst not hereby satisfy and appease the wrath of God: yea, saith\nGod to such, 'Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much\nsoap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me' (Jer 2:22).\n\n(2.) If when thou art under the guilt of thy sins, thou puttest\noff convictions by thy performance of DUTIES, and so satisfiest\nthy conscience, then also thou dost put off thy convictions the\nwrong way: for God will not be satisfied with anything less than\nthe blood, righteousness, resurrection, and intercession of his\nown Son (Acts 4:12). And thou shouldest not satisfy thyself with\nany less than God would have thee to satisfy thyself withal, and\nthat is the water of life (Isa 55:1,2) which water of life thy\nduties, and all thy righteousness, is not; for they are as filthy\nrags (Isa 64:6).\n\n(3.) Have a care that when thou art under conviction, thou dost\nnot satisfy thyself with a notion of the free grace of the gospel;\nmy meaning is, do not content thyself with any measure of knowledge\nthat thou canst attain unto, or bottom thy peace upon it, thinking\nthou art now well enough, because thou canst speak much of the\ngrace of God, and his love in Christ to poor sinners. For this\nthou mayest have, and do; and yet be but a companion for Demas,\nyea, for Judas and the rest of the damned multitude: As the Apostle\nsaith, For all this thou mayest be but as sounding brass, and as\na tinkling cymbal; that is, nothing but a sound (1 Cor 13:1-3).\n\nCaution 2. But Secondly, If thou wouldest not be deceived, then\nhave a care to avoid false doctrines, which are according to the\nspirit of the devil, and not after Christ. As,\n\n(1.) If any doctrine doth come unto thee, that tells thee, except\nthou art circumcised after the manner of Moses, thou canst not\nbe saved: that is, if any man come unto thee, and tell thee, thou\nmust do such and such works of the law, to the end thou mayest\npresent thyself the better before God, do not receive him: For\n'to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth\nthe ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness' (Rom 4:5).\n\n(2.) If any come unto thee, and bring such a doctrine as this; That\nthou mayest be saved by grace, though thou walk in the imaginations\nof thy own wicked heart: His doctrine also is devilish, do not\nreceive him (Deut 29:19-23).\n\n(3.) But if any come unto thee, and doth in truth advance the blood,\nrighteousness, resurrection, intercession, and second coming of\nthat very Man in the clouds of heaven, that was born of the virgin\nMary; and doth press thee to believe on what he hath done (shewing\nthee thy lost condition without him) and to own it as done for\nthee in particular, and withal doth admonish thee, not to trust in\na bare notion of it, but to receive it into thy heart, so really,\nthat thy very heart and soul may burn in love to the Lord Jesus\nChrist again: and doth also teach thee, that the love of Christ\nshould and must constrain thee, not to live to thyself: But to\nhim that loved thee, and gave himself for thee (2 Cor 5:14,15;\nEph 4:21-24; 1 Cor 7:23). 'Ye are bought with a price; be not ye\nthe servants of men.' If his conversation be also agreeable to\nhis doctrine, a believing, honest, loving self-denying, courteous\nconversation, (he also is a true Christian). Receive that doctrine\nand receive it really; for it is the doctrine of God, and of\nChrist (Gal 4:4, 1:4; Eph 1:7; Rev 1:5; Acts 13:38; John 1:29;\nActs 4:12, 10:40-42; 1 Thess 1:10; Mark 13; 2 Peter 1:5-10).\nConsidering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ, yesterday,\nand to-day, and the same for ever (Heb 13:7,8).\n\nCaution 3. Again, If thou wouldest not be deceived, then beware\nof slighting any known truth that thou findest revealed, or made\nknown to thee in the gospel; but honour and obey it in its place,\nbe it (as thou thinkest) never so low (John 14:15).\n\n(1.) Have a care that thou do not undervalue, or entertain low\nthoughts of God, Christ the Son of Mary, and the holy scriptures,\nbut search them (John 5:39). And give attendance to the reading\nof them (1 Tim 4:13). For, I will tell thee, he that slights the\nscriptures, doth also slight him of whom they testify. And I will\ntell thee also, that for this cause God hath given up many to\nstrong delusions, that they might believe a lie: 'that they all\nmight be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness' (2 Thess 2:11,12).\n\n(2.) Therefore I say unto thee, In the name of the Lord Jesus,\nthe Son of Mary, the Son of God, the very creator of heaven and\nearth, and all things that are therein; have a care of thyself;\nfor the devil doth watch for thee day and night (1 Peter 5:8).\nThine own heart also doth labour to deceive thee, if by any means\nit may (Jer 17:9). Therefore do not thou trust it; for if thou\ndo, thou wilt not do wisely (Prov 28:26). I say therefore, have a\ncare that thou labour in the strength of the Lord Jesus, to escape\nall these things; for if thou fall into any one of them, it will\nmake way for a farther income of sin and the devil, through whose\ndeceitfulness thy heart will be hardened, and thou wilt be more\nincapable of receiving instruction, or reaping advantage, by and\nfrom the ordinances of Jesus Christ: the rather therefore, give\nall diligence to believe in the Christ of God, which is the Son\nof Mary, and be sure to apply all that he hath done, and is doing,\nunto thyself, as for thee in particular; which thing if thou dost,\nthou shalt never fall.\n\nAnd now, reader, I shall also give thee some few considerations,\nand so I shall commit thee to the Lord.\n\nConsider, 1. That God doth hold out his grace, and mercy freely,\nand that to every one (Rev 22:17; Isa 55:1-7).\n\nConsider, 2. That there is no way to attain to this free mercy\nand grace, but by him that was born of the Virgin Mary; for he\nhimself saith, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man\ncometh unto the Father but by me' (John 14:6 compared with Matt\n1:20,21).\n\nConsider, 3. If thou strivest to go over any other way, thou wilt\nbe but a thief and a robber (John 10:1 compared with 9). And know\nthat none of these (so continuing) shall enter into the kingdom\nof heaven (1 Cor 6:9,10).\n\nConsider, 4. That if the devil should be too hard for thee, and\ndeceive thee, by persuading thee to embrace, or entertain a new\ngospel, which neither Christ nor his disciples did allow of, it\nwould make thee gnash teeth when it is too late.\n\nConsider, 5. That though thou hast been deluded by Satan to this\nday, yet if now thine eyes be opened to see and acknowledge it,\nthough as yet thou hast been either exceedingly wicked (1 Tim\n1:13), or an idle (Matt 20:6,7) lukewarm, hypocritical professor\n(Rev 3:17-19); and hast stood it out to the last (Eze 18:20-22);\nfor all this there is hope; and if now thou receive the truth in\nthe love of the truth, being as willing to be rid of the filth of\nsin, as the guilt of it, thou shalt be saved.\n\nConsider, 6. That the Lord will call thee to judgment for all thy\nsins past, present, and what else thou shalt practise hereafter,\nespecially for thy rejecting and trampling on the blood of his\nSon, the Man Christ Jesus: And if thou dost not agree with thine\nadversary, now, while thou art in the way, 'Lest he hale thee\nto the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the\nofficer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart\nthence, till thou hast paid the very last mite' (Luke 12:58,59).\n\nAnd therefore I beseech thee to consider; Here is at this time\nlife and death, heaven and hell, everlasting joy, and everlasting\ntorment set before thee. Here is also the way to have the one,\nand the way to escape the other. Now if the Lord shall do thee any\ngood by what I have spoken, I hope it will be a means to stir me\nup to thank the Lord that ever he did use such a sinner as I am,\nin the work of his gospel. And here I shall close up what I have\nsaid, desiring thee (if thou be a christian) to pray for him who\ndesires to continue.\n\nThy servant in the Lord Jesus Christ, though less than the least\nof all saints,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n1. The word 'quakers' must not be misunderstood as referring to\nthe society of friends, but to some deluded individuals calling\nthemselves quakers; the friends were not formed into a society\nfor some years after this was written--Ed.\n\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE WRIT BY MR. BURTON, MINISTER AT BEDFORD\n\nTO THE READER,\n\nReader, thou hast in this small treatise, set before thee, the\nseveral pieces of that great and glorious mystery, Jesus Christ,\nGod manifested in the flesh: And if thou art enlightened by the\nSpirit of Christ, here thou mayest see by that Spirit how Jesus\nChrist the Son of God, the Son of Mary, is both true God and true\nMan, both natures making but one Christ, one Jesus, as Philippians\n2:5-9 where speaking first of his being God, and then of his\ntaking upon him the nature of man; afterwards in the 8th and 9th\nverses, he saith, he (meaning this Jesus) humbled himself, &c.,\nand God (meaning the Father) hath highly exalted him, &c. speaking\nof both natures God and man as together making but one Christ; who\nis the Saviour, and is to be believed and trusted in for salvation\nnot only as God, but as man also; and those who do not thus make\nhim the object of their faith, will surely fall short of pardon\nof sin, and of salvation; 'through this man [speaking of Christ\nas crucified at Jerusalem] is preached unto you the forgiveness\nof sins' (Act 13:38). And saith he, there is 'one mediator between\nGod and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5); and this discovers\nthe damnable errors of those commonly called Socinians, who on\nthe one hand deny him that was born of the Virgin Mary to be true\nGod as well as true Man: And this is also quite contrary to those\ncommonly called Familists, Ranters, Quakers, or others, who on\nthe other hand either deny Christ to be a real Man without them,\nblasphemously fancying him to be only God manifest in their flesh;\nor else make his human nature with the fulness of the godhead in\nit, to be but a type of God, to be manifest in the saints, and\nso according to their wicked imagination, his human nature was\nto be laid aside after he had offered it up on the cross without\nthe gate at Jerusalem, contrary to Acts 1:1-3, 9-11 compared with\nthe last chapter of Luke, vv 39, 40, 50, 51 where it is clearly\nheld forth, that the man Christ rose again out of the grave, with\nthe same body which was crucified and laid in the grave, and was\ntaken up above the clouds into heaven with the same real body,\nand that he shall again descend form heaven in that same glorious\nbody of flesh, as Acts 1:9-11. And this sure truth of Christ being\nthe Saviour and Mediator, as Man, and not only as God, will also\nshew serious believers what to think of some, who though they\nwill not (it may be) deny that Christ is a real man without them\nin the heavens as well as God, yet do own him to be the Saviour\nonly as God, first dwelling in that flesh that was born of the\nVirgin, and then dwelling in saints, and thus both beginning and\nperfecting their salvation within them, and so indeed do hold Christ\nas Man, to be only (I say to be only) the saved or glorified one\nof God, together with the saints his members, only something in\nanother and more glorious manner and measure than the saints; and\nthese high flown people are in this very like to Familists and\nQuakers, undervaluing the Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, and though\nthey may speak much of Christ, yet they do not rightly and savingly\nlay him for their foundation.\n\nNow as a help against all these dangerous things, thou hast here\nthe main things of Christ laid down before thee briefly, and fully\nproved by the scriptures:\n\nFirst, Of his being true God out of flesh from eternity, and then\nof his taking flesh, or the nature of man upon him in the womb of\nthe Virgin, and so his fulfilling the law, his dying for sins at\nJerusalem, his rising again without, his ascending into heaven\nwithout, and not into a fancied heaven only within, as some say;\nhis interceding in heaven for all his, and his coming again in his\nbody of flesh to judge the world. And if thou art yet in a state\nof nature, though covered over with an outside profession, here\nthou mayest find something (if the Spirit of Christ meet thee in\nreading) to convince thee of the sad condition thou art in, and\nto shew thee the righteousness thou art to fly to by faith,\nand to trust in for salvation, when convinced of sin; which is a\nrighteousness wrought by that God-man Jesus Christ without thee,\ndying without thee at Jerusalem for sinners: here also thou mayest\nsee the difference between true and false faith. If thou art a\ntrue believer, as these things are the foundation of thy faith, so\nthey may be of great use for thee to mediate upon, and to exercise\nthy faith in, particularly in mediation, and in this way to seek\ndaily for a higher faith in these truths, to be given into thy\nheart from heaven; and there is a great need of this, for though\nthese truths be commonly known amongst professors to the notion of\nthem, yet very few know or believe them aright: nay, it may well\nbe said in this age, that, if the faith of the true saints was well\nsifted, and tradition, notion, and the apprehensions of their own\nreason and fancy was sifted out, most of them would be found to\nhave very little knowledge of, and faith in, these common truths.\n\nSecondly, These truths being put thus together, and plainly\nproved by the scriptures, may be a great help (through the Spirit\nconcurring) to strengthen thee against all those damnable heresies\nwhich are spread abroad, which deny the Lord Jesus Christ either\nplainly, or more cunningly and mysteriously. And\n\nThirdly, The more thou art rooted and set down from heaven in the\nfaith of these truths of Christ, to believe fully the glorious\nreality of them, and their interest in them, the more heavenly\npeace and joy thou wilt have (1 Peter 1:7,8) and also thou wilt\nhereby attain the more true holiness and purity of heart and life,\n'purifying their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:9). And then the more\nthou hast of the right faith of Christ, and of his things in thy\nheart, the more strong and valiant wilt thou be in spirit, to do\nany work private or public for Jesus Christ, like Stephen, who\nbeing full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, was also full of\npower (Acts 6:8).\n\nIn this book thou hast also laid down from the scriptures, how\nJesus Christ is without the saints as Man, and yet dwelleth within\nthem, that is, something of his divine nature or his blessed Spirit\ndwells within them, which Spirit is sometime called, The Spirit\nof Christ (Rom 8:9). He that hath not the Spirit of Christ, &c.\nand sometime called Christ, 'If Christ be in you' &c. (Rom 8:10).\nAnd also how we may know whether it be Christ and the Spirit of\nChrist within, or a false spirit calling itself Christ, and that\nis thus; If it be indeed Christ within, that is, the Spirit of\nChrist God-man; why then it teaches that man or woman in whom it\nis, to apply, and trust in Christ without for salvation; Christ\nas born of the Virgin Mary, as fulfilling the law without them,\nas dying without the gate of Jerusalem as a sacrifice for sin; it\nteaches them to trust in the Man Christ as rising again out of the\ngrave without them, as ascending into, and interceding in heaven\nwithout for them; and as to come from that heaven again in his\nflesh to judge the world. Thus the man Christ himself saith, 'When\nhe [the Spirit of truth] is come, &c. he shall glorify me' (John\n16:13,14). He shall make you more to prize, admire and glorify me,\nwho am both God and man, and who shall be absent from you touching\nmy body. Then follows, for he shall take of mine (of my glorious\nthings) and shew them to you; he shall take my divine and human\nnature, my birth, my person and offices, my obedience, death,\nsatisfaction, my resurrection, ascension and intercession, and of\nmy second coming in the clouds with my mighty angels to judgment,\nand shall shew them, or clear them up to you: He shall take of my\nsalvation, which I have wrought for you in my own person without\nyou: And he shall take of my glory and exaltation in the heavens,\nand shew to you. Now to mind this one thing, and to be set down in\na right understanding of it, by the Spirit, from the scriptures,\nwill be of great concernment to thee and me; for, for want of this,\nmany professors have split themselves, some looking only on what\nChrist hath done and suffered without them, resting in an historical,\ntraditional, and indeed a fancied faith of it, without looking for\nthe Spirit of Jesus Christ to come with power into their hearts,\nwithout which they cannot rightly know, nor rightly believe in\nChrist the Son of God without them, so as to have any share or\ninterest in him, 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is\nnone of his' (Rom 8:9). Others have been depending too much upon\nsomething they call Christ, and the righteousness of Christ within\nthem, in opposition to Christ and his righteousness without them,\nfrom which all true saints have their justification and comfort,\nit being received through the operation of the Spirit which dwells\nin them; and however these may talk much of Christ within them,\nyet it is manifest, that it is not the Spirit of Christ, but the\nspirit of the devil; in that it doth not glorify, but slight and\nreject the man Christ and his righteousness which was wrong without\nthem: Reader, in this book thou wilt not meet with high flown airy\nnotions, which some delight in, counting them high mysteries,\nbut the sound, plain, common, (and yet spiritual and mysterious)\ntruths of the gospel, and if thou art a believer, thou must needs\nreckon them so, and the more, if thou hast not only the faith of\nthem in thy heart, but art daily living in the spiritual sense and\nfeeling of them, and of thy interest in them. Neither doth this\ntreatise offer to thee doubtful controversial things, or matters\nof opinions, as some books chiefly do, which when insisted upon,\nthe weightier things of the gospel have always done more hurt\nthan good: But here thou hast things certain, and necessary to be\nbelieved, which thou canst not too much study. Therefore pray, that\nthou mayest receive this word which is according to the scriptures\nin faith and love, not as the word of man, but as the word of God,\nwithout respect of persons, and be not offended because Christ\nholds forth the glorious treasure of the gospel to thee in a poor\nearthen vessel, by one who hath neither the greatness nor the\nwisdom of this world to commend him to thee; for as the scripture,\nsaith Christ, (who was low and contemptible in the world himself)\nordinarily chooseth such for himself, and for the doing of his\nwork (1 Cor 1:26-28). Not many wise men after the flesh, not many\nmighty, not many noble are called: But God hath chosen the foolish\nthings of the world, &c. This man is not chosen out of an earthly,\nbut out of the heavenly university, the church of Christ, which\nchurch, as furnished with the Spirit, gifts, and graces of Christ,\nwas in the beginning, and still is, and will be to the end of the\nworld, that out of which the word of the Lord, and so all true\ngospel ministers must proceed, whether learned or unlearned, as\nto human learning (1 Cor 12:27,28). And though this man hath not\nthe learning or wisdom of man, yet, through grace he hath received\nthe teaching of God, and the learning of the Spirit of Christ, which\nis the thing that makes a man both a Christian and a minister of\nthe gospel. 'The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,'\n&c. (Is 50:4 compared with Luke 4:18) where Christ, as man, saith,\n'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to\npreach the gospel to the poor,' &c. He hath, through grace taken\nthese three heavenly degrees, to wit, union with Christ, the anointing\nof the Spirit, and experience of the temptations of Satan, which\ndo more fit a man for that mighty work of preaching the gospel,\nthan all university learning and degrees that can be had.\n\nMy end in writing these few lines is not to set up man, but having\nhad experience with many other saints of this man's soundness in\nthe faith, of his godly conversation, and his ability to preach\nthe gospel, not by human art, but by the Spirit of Christ, and that\nwith much success in the conversion of sinners when there are so\nmany carnal empty preachers, both learned and unlearned; I say having\nhad experience of this, and judging this book may be profitable\nto many others, as well as to myself: I thought it my duty upon\nthis account (though I be very unfit for it) to bear witness with\nmy brother to the plain and simple (and yet glorious) truths of\nour Lord Jesus Christ. And now reader, the Lord give thee and me a\nright understanding in these things, that we may live and die not\nwith a traditional notional dead faith, but with a right spiritual\nlively faith of Christ in our heart, wrought by the mighty power\nof God; such a faith as may make Jesus Christ more real and precious\nto us than any thing in the world, as may purify our hearts, and\nmake us new creatures, that so we may be sure to escape the wrath\nto come, and after this life enjoy eternal life and glory through\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.\n\nFarewell, thine to serve thee in the Lord Jesus, JOHN BURTON.\n\n\n\nSOME GOSPEL TRUTHS OPENED, &c.\n\nForasmuch as many have taken in Hand to set forth their several\nJudgments concerning the Son of the Virgin Mary, the Lord JESUS\nCHRIST; and some of those many having most grossly erred from the\nsimplicity of the Gospel, it seemed good to me, having had some\nKnowledge of these things, to write a few words, to the end, if\nthe Lord will, Souls might not be so horribly deluded by those\nseveral corrupt Principles that are gone into the World concerning\nhim.\n\nNow, that there is such a thing as a Christ, I shall not spend\nmuch time in proving of; only I shall shew you, that he was first\npromised to the fathers, and afterwards expected by their children:\nBut before I do that, I shall speak a few words concerning God's\nFORE-ORDAINING AND PURPOSING, THAT A CHRIST, A SAVIOUR, SHOULD\nBE, AND THAT BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN. Now God in his own wisdom and\ncounsel, knowing what would come to pass, as if it were already\ndone (Rom 4:17). He knowing that man would break his commandments,\nand so throw himself under eternal destruction, did in his own\npurpose fore-ordain such a thing as the rise of him that should\nfall, and that by a Saviour, 'According as he hath chosen us in\nhim, [meaning the Saviour] before the foundation of the world'\n(Eph 1:4). That is, God seeing that we would transgress, and break\nhis commandment, did before choose some of those that would fall,\nand give them to him that should afterward purchase them actually,\nthough in the account of God, his blood was shed before the world\nwas (Rev 13:8). I say, in the account of God, his Son was slain!\nthat is, according to God's purpose and conclusion, which he\npurposed in himself before the word was; as it is written (2 Tim\n1:9), 'Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,\naccording to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in\nChrist Jesus before the world began.' As also, in 1 Peter 1:20,\nWhere the Apostle speaking of Christ, and the redemption purchased\nby him for sinners, saith of him, 'Who verily was fore-ordained\nbefore the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last\ndays for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up\nfrom the dead.' God having thus purposed in himself, that he would\nsave some of them that by transgression had destroyed themselves,\ndid with the everlasting Son of his love, make an agreement, or\nbargain, that upon such and such terms, he would give him a company\nof such poor souls as had by transgression fallen from their own\ninnocency and uprightness, into those wicked inventions that they\nthemselves had sought out (Eccl 7:29). The agreement also how this\nshould be, was made before the foundation of the world was laid\n(Titus 1:2). The Apostle, speaking of the promise, or covenant\nmade between God and the Saviour (for that is his meaning,) saith\non this wise; 'In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie,\npromised before the world began.' Now this promise, or covenant\nwas made with none but with the Son of God, the Saviour. And it\nmust needs be so; for there was none with God before the world\nbegan, but he by whom he made the world, as in Proverbs 8 from\nverse 22 to verse 31 which was and is, the Son of his love.\n\nThis covenant, or bargain, had these conditions in it.\n\nFirst, That the Saviour should take upon him flesh and blood,\nthe same nature that the sons of men were partakers of (sin only\nexcepted) (Heb 2:14, 4:15). And this was the will or agreement\nthat God had made with him: And therefore when he speaks of doing\nthe will of God (Heb 10:5) he saith, 'a body hast thou prepared\nme,' (as according to thy promise (Gen 3:15) which I was to take\nof a woman,) and in it I am come to do thy will, O God, as it is\nwritten of me in the volume of thy book (v 7).\n\nSecond, The Saviour was to bring everlasting righteousness to\njustify sinners withal (Dan 9:24,25). The Messias, or Saviour, shall\nbring in everlasting righteousness, and put an end to iniquity,\nas it is there written, 'To make an end of sins, and to\nmake reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting\nrighteousness.' This, I say, was to be brought into the world by\nthe Saviour, according to the covenant, or agreement, that was\nbetween God and Christ before the world began, which God, that\ncannot lie, promised at that time (Titus 1:2).\n\nThird, He was to accomplish this everlasting righteousness by\nspilling his most precious blood, according to the terms of the\ncovenant, or bargain; and therefore when God would shew his people\nwhat the agreement was that he and the Saviour had made, even\nbefore the covenant was accomplished and sealed actually. See for\nthis Zechariah 9 (where he is speaking of him that should be the\nSaviour,) verse 11, 'As for thee also [meaning the Saviour] by\nthe blood of thy covenant,' or as some render it, whose covenant\nis by blood (which is all to one purpose) 'I [meaning God] have\nsent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.'\nThe meaning is this: As for thee also, seeing the covenant, or\nbargain that was made between me and thee before the world was,\nis accomplished in my account, as if it were actually and really\ndone, with all the conditions that were agreed upon by me and\nthee; I have therefore, according to that agreement that was on\nmy part, sent forth the prisoners, and those that were under the\ncurse of my law, out of the pit wherein there is no water; seeing\nthou also hast completely fulfilled in my account whatsoever was\non thy part to be done, according to our agreement. And thus is\nthat place to be understood in John 17:9, 'I pray for them: I pray\nnot for the world, but for them which thou hast given me' (which\nI covenanted with thee for) 'thine they were and thou gavest them\nme,' (but on such and such conditions as are before-mentioned (Zech\n9)). And again, 'According as he hath chosen us in him, [that is,\nin Christ,] before the foundation of the world, that we should be\nholy and without blame before him in love' (Eph 1:4). Now, seeing\nthis was thus concluded upon by those that did wish well to the\nsouls and bodies of poor sinners, after the world was made by them,\nand after they had said, 'let us make man in our image, after our\nlikeness' (Gen 1:26). And after man, whom God had made upright,\nhad by transgression fallen from that state into which God at first\nplaced him, and thrown himself into a miserable condition by his\ntransgression, then God brings out of his love that which he and\nhis Son had concluded upon, and begins now to make forth that to\nthe world, which he had purposed in himself before the world began\n(Eph 1:4,9; 2 Tim 1:9).\n\n1. Now the first discovery that was made to a lost creature of\nthe love of God, was made to fallen Adam (Gen 3:15). Where it is\nsaid, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between\nthy seed and her seed'; which is the Saviour (Gal 4:4), 'It shall\nbruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' This was the\nfirst discovery of the love of God to lost man: This was the gospel\nwhich was preached to Adam in his generation; in these words was\nheld forth to them in that generation, that which should be farther\naccomplished in after generations.\n\n2. Another discovery of the love of God in the gospel, was held\nforth to Noah, in that he would have him to prepare an ark to\nsave himself withal; which ark did type out the Lord that was to\ncome, and be the Saviour of those whom he before had covenanted\nfor with God the Father. 'And God said unto Noah, The end of all\nflesh is come before me;--make thee an ark of gopher wood' (Gen\n6:13,14, 7:1). 'The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy\nhouse into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in\nthis generation.'\n\n3. God breaks out with a farther discovery of himself in love\nto that generation in which Abraham lived, Where he saith, 'And\nin thee, [that is, from thee shall Christ come through, in whom]\nshall all families of the earth be blessed' (Gen 12:3). This was\nalso a farther manifestation of the good will of God to poor lost\nsinners; and through this discovery of the gospel, did Abraham\nsee that which made him rejoice (John 8:56).\n\n4. When the time was come that Moses was to be a prophet to the\npeople of his generation, then God did more gloriously yet break\nforth with one type after another, as the blood of bulls, and\nlambs, and goats: Also sacrifices of divers manners, and of several\nthings, which held forth that Saviour more clearly which God had\nin his own purpose and decree determined to be sent; for these\nthings (the types) were a shadow of that which was to come, which\nwas the substance (Heb 9:9,10, 10:1,5-7). Now when these things\nwere thus done, when God had thus signified to the world, what\nhe intended to do in after times, presently all that had faith\nto believe that God would be as good as his word, began to look\nfor, and to expect that the Lord should accomplish and bring to\npass what he had promised, what his hand and counsel had before\ndetermined to be done.\n\n(1.) Now Abraham begins to look for what God had promised and\nsignified; namely, that he would send a Saviour into the world in\nhis appointed time, which thing being promised, Abraham embraces,\nbeing persuaded of the certainty of it; as in Hebrews 11:13. And\nthis did fill his heart with joy and gladness, as I said before;\nfor 'he saw it, and was glad' (John 8:56).\n\n(2.) Jacob also, while he was blessing his sons, concerning things\nto come, breaks forth with these words, 'I have waited for thy\nsalvation' (Gen 49:18). He was also put in expectation of salvation\nto come by this Saviour.\n\n(3.) David was in earnest expectation of this, which was held\nforth by types and shadows in the law; for as yet the Saviour was\nnot come, which made him cry out with a longing after it, 'O that\nthe salvation of Israel were come out of Sion' (Psa 53:6). And\nagain, 'O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion!'\n(Psa 14:7). The thing that David waited for, was not in his time\ncome, though before his time it was promised; which makes him cry\nout, O that it were come, that it were come out of Sion! Where,\nby the way, take notice, that the true salvation and Saviour of\nIsrael was to come out of Sion, that is, out of the church of God,\ntouching the flesh, as it is written; A prophet shall the Lord\nyour God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me (Deut\n18:15,18). And again, 'I have laid help upon one that is mighty;\nI have exalted one chosen out of the people' (Psa 89:19; Rom 9:5).\n'Whoso are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ\ncame, who is over all, God blessed for ever.' Christ, as concerning\nthe flesh, did come of the fathers.\n\n(4.) Isaiah did prophesy of this, that God would thus save his\npeople; yea, he breaks forth with these words, 'But Israel shall\nbe saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation' (Isa 45:17). He\nalso tells them how it shall be accomplished in that 53d chapter.\nYea, he had such a glorious taste of the reality of it, that he\nspeaks as though it had been actually done.\n\n(5.) In the days of Jeremiah, this that God had promised to the\nfathers, was not yet accomplished; in chapter 23:5 he saith,\n'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will [mark, it was\nnot yet done] but I will [saith God] raise unto David a righteous\nbranch, and a king shall reign and prosper.--In his days Judah\nshall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his\nname wherewith he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.'\n\n(6.) He was also to come in Zechariah's time (Zech 3:8). Where he\nsaith 'for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.'\n\n(7.) He was not come in the time of Malachi neither, though he\nwas indeed at that time near his coming. For he saith himself,\n'Behold, I will send my messenger, [meaning John the baptist,]\nand he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye\nseek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of\nthe covenant, whom ye delight in: behold he shall come, saith the\nLord of hosts' (Mal 3:1; Isa 40:3; Luke 1:76).\n\n(8.) Old Simeon did also wait for the consolation of Israel a\nlong time (Luke 2:25). Where it is said, 'And, behold, there was\na man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was\njust and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.' That is,\nwaiting for him that was to be the Saviour, as is clear, if you\nread with understanding a little farther: 'And it was revealed\nunto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before\nhe had seen the Lord's Christ' (v 26).\n\nAnd thus have I in brief shewed you, 1. That there is such a thing\nas Christ. 2. That this Christ was promised and signified out\nby many things before he did come. 3. How he was waited for, and\nexpected before the time that God had appointed in the which he\nshould come.\n\nThe SECOND THING that I will (through the strength of Christ)\nprove, is this, THAT HE THAT WAS OF THE VIRGIN, IS HE THAT IS THE\nSAVIOUR.\n\nFIRST, And first, I shall lay down this for a truth; That it is not\nany Spirit only by, and of itself, without it do take the nature\nof man, that can be a Saviour of man from eternal vengeance.\n\nOr thus: That that [which] will be a Saviour of man, must in the\nnature of man satisfy and appease the justice and wrath of God.\nAnd the arguments that I do bring to prove it by, are these.\n\nFirst, Because it was man that had offended; and justice required\nthat man must give the satisfaction: And therefore, when he that\nshould be the Saviour, was come, he 'took upon him the form of a\nservant, and was made in the likeness of men' (Phil 2:7; Heb 2:14).\nBecause 'the children are partakers of flesh and blood; he also\nhimself likewise took part of the same'; To what end? 'that through\ndeath he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is,\nthe devil.' And is that all? No; but also that he might 'deliver\nthem who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject\nto bondage' (v 15).\n\nSecond, The second argument is this; because, if a spirit only\ncould have made satisfaction for the sin of mankind, and have\nsubdued Satan for man, without the nature of man, either there had\nbeen weakness in Body when he made that promise to fallen Adam,\nThat the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head; (for\nthere hath been no need of and so no room for that promise) or\nelse God having made it, would have appeared unfaithful, in not\nfulfilling his promise, by redeeming the world without it.\n\nThird, If a spirit only could have made satisfaction, and so have\nsaved man; then Christ needed not to have come into the world, and\nto have been born of a woman (Gal 4:4). But in that he must come\ninto the world, and must be born of a woman, it is clear, that\nwithout this, he could not have been a Saviour: For he was made\nof a woman, made under the law, to this end, that he might redeem\nthem that were under the law; implying, No subjection to this, (viz.\nthe taking of the nature of man) no redemption from the curse of\nthe law. But Christ hath delivered from the curse of the law (all\nthat believe in his name) being in their nature made a curse for\nthem.\n\nAnd this is the reason, why the fallen angels are not recovered\nfrom their damnable estate, because, he did not take hold of their\nnature, 'For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but\nhe took on him the seed of Abraham' (Heb 2:16).\n\nSECOND, Now then, seeing this is the very truth of God, I shall\nnext prove, that Jesus that was born of the virgin, to be the\nSaviour. And,\n\nFirst, I shall prove it by comparing some places of the Old and New\ntestament together, and by some arguments drawn from the scriptures.\n\n1. And first, see Genesis 3:15, where he is called the seed of\nthe woman, saying, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman,\nand between thy seed and her seed'; and so was Jesus (Gal 4:4)\nwhere it is said, 'God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,' or\nborn of a woman.\n\n2. This woman must be a virgin (Isa 7:14) where it is said, 'A\nvirgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name\nImanuel.' And Jesus is he that was the fulfilling of this scripture\n(Matt 1:22,23), 'Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled\nwhich was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a\nvirgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they\nshall call his name Imanuel.'\n\n3. The Saviour must be of the tribe of Judah. And this Jacob\nprophesied of on his death-bed, saying, 'Judah, thou art he whom\nthy brethren shall praise,' or honour, 'thy hand shall be in the\nneck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before\nthee' (Gen 49:8).\n\nAnd again (Micah 5:2), 'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou\nbe little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he\ncome forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.' Jesus also came\nof the tribe of Judah, and that will clearly appear, if you read\n(Matt 1). Matthew, he begins first with Abraham (v 2) and thence\nto Judah (v 3) from Judah to David (v 6) from David to Zorobabel\n(v 13) then to Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary,\nof whom was born Jesus (v 16).\n\nNow Mary was one of the same house also, and for this consider,\nJesus came from the loins of David (Matt1); but that he could not\ndo, if Mary had not been of the seed of David: For Christ came from\nher, not from him, for Joseph 'knew her not till she had brought\nforth her first-born' (Matt 1:25). Again, the angel told her, that\nhe was the son of David, saying, 'And the Lord God shall give unto\nhim the throne of his father David' (Luke 1:32).\n\nAnd again, The Jews knew this very well, or else they would have\nbeen sure to have laid it open before all the world; for they\nsought by all means to disown him. And though they did through the\ndevilishness of their unbelief disown him, yet could they find no\nsuch thing as to question the right of his birth from Mary. If it\nhad been to be done, they would no doubt have done it; they did\nnot want malice to whet them on; neither did they want means so far\nas might help forward their malice; without manifest and apparent\ninjury; for they had exact registers, or records of their genealogies,\nso that, if they had had any colour for it, they would sure have\ndenied him to have been the son of David. There was reasoning\nconcerning him when he was with them (John 7:27,43) and I do\nbelieve, part of it was about the generation of which he came.\nAnd this was so commonly known, that the blind man that sat by\nthe way-side could cry out, 'Jesus thou Son of David, have mercy\non me.--Thou Son of David, have mercy on me' (Luke 18:38,39). It\nwas so common, that he came from the loins of his father David\naccording to the flesh, that it was not so much as once questioned.\n'And when' Herod 'demanded of the chief priests and scribes of\nthe people where Christ should be born. They said unto him, in\nBethlehem of Judea: For thus it is written by the prophet, And\nthou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the\nprinces of Juda, for out of thee shall come a governor, that shall\nrule my people Israel' (Matt 1:4-6). (For out of thee) mark that;\nif Mary had not been of Judah, Christ had not come out of Judah,\nbut Christ came out of Judah; therefore Mary is also a daughter\nof Judah. And this is evident, as saith the scripture, 'for--our\nLord sprang out of Judah' (Heb 7:14).\n\nAgain, when Christ the Saviour was to come into the world, at\nthat time the sceptre was to depart from Judah, according to the\nprophecy of Jacob. 'The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor\na law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come' (Gen 49:10).\n\nNow the sceptre was then departed from those that were Jews by\nnature, and also the law-giver, and Herod who was a stranger, and\nnot of Judea, was king over them, as Caesar's deputy; and Caesar\nAugustus imposed laws on them.\n\nThe stubborn Jews also confessed the sceptre to be departed, when\nbefore Pontius Pilate a Roman governor of Judea, they cried out\nagainst Christ: 'We have no king but Cesar' (John 19:15).\n\nNay farther, the Jews from that day to this, have been without a\nking of their own nation to govern them: they never had the sceptre\nswayed since by any of themselves, but have been a scattered\ndespised people, and have been as it were liable to all dangers,\nand for a long time driven out from their country, and scattered\nover all the nations of the earth, as was prophesied concerning\nthem (Jer 14:10; Zech 6:14,15). And yet these poor souls are so\nhorribly deluded by the devil, that though they see these things\ncome to pass, yet they will not believe. And one reason among\nmany, of their being thus deluded, is this, they say that the word\nsceptre in Genesis 49 is not meant of a kingly government; but\nthe meaning is, (say they) a rod, or persecutions shall not depart\nfrom Judah till Shiloh come. Now they do most grossly mistake\nthat place; for though I am not skilled in the Hebrew tongue,\nyet through grace, I am enlightened into the scriptures; whereby\nI find that the meaning is not persecutions, nor the rod of\nafflictions, but a governor or sceptre of the kingdom shall not\ndepart from Judah till Shiloh come. And that this is the meaning\nof the place, weigh but the very next words of the same verse,\nand you will find it to be the sceptre of a king that is meant;\nfor he addeth, 'nor a law-giver from between his feet.' Mark it,\nThe sceptre, nor a law-giver; the legislative power depending on\nthe sceptre of the kingdom, shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh\ncome. According to that scripture, written in Isaiah 7:16, 'For\nbefore the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the\ngood, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her\nkings.' Which scripture hath been fulfilled from that same time.\n\nBut a word to the Jews' exposition of the sceptre to be a rod,\nor persecutions; saying, that persecutions shall not depart from\nJudah till Shiloh come. This cannot be the meaning of the place;\nfor the Jews have had rest oftentimes, and that before Shiloh did\ncome; at one time they 'had rest four-score years' (Judg 3:30).\nAgain, 'And the land had rest from war' (Josh 14:15). And again,\n'And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he\nsware unto their fathers, and there stood not a man of all their\nenemies before them' (Josh 21:44). 'And the land had rest forty\nyears' (Judg 3:11). There was rest many a time from persecution\nand from the rod, though it were but for a season; but the sceptre,\nor kingdom, did not depart from Judah, and a law-giver from between\nhis feet till Shiloh came.\n\nSecond, Again, To prove that Jesus is the Christ, it is clear from\nthe hand of God against the Jews, for putting him to death. What\nwas the reason why they did put him to death, but this, He did\nsay that he was the Christ the Son of God? (Luke 22:70) 'Then said\nthey all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye\nsay that I am.' That is, I am he as you say, I am the Son of God;\nyea, the only begotten Son of the Father, and I was with him before\nthe world was (John 9:37, 17:5).\n\nNow the Jews did put him to death for his thus owning his own;\nthat is, for not denying of his Sonship, but making himself equal\nwith God, therefore did they put him to death (John 19:7).\n\nNow God did, and doth most miserably plague them to this very\nday, for their crucifying of him: But I say, had he not been the\nChrist of God, God's Son, he would not have laid sin to their\ncharge, for crucifying him; but rather have praised them for their\nzeal, and for taking him out of the way, who did rob God of his\nhonour, in that he made himself equal with God, and was not. He\nwould have praised them for doing the thing that was right, as\nhe did Phineas the son of Eleazar, for executing judgment in his\ntime, on the adulterer and adulteress (Num 25:8).\n\nBut in that he said he was the Son of God, and accounted it no\nrobbery so to call himself (Phil 2:6). And seeing that they did\nput him to death, because he said he was the Son of God; and in\nthat God doth so severely charge them with, and punish them for\ntheir sin in putting him to death, for saying that he was the Son\nof God, it is evident that he was and is the Son of God, and that\nSaviour that should come into the world. For his blood hath been\nupon them to this very day for their hurt, according to their\ndesire (Matt 27:25).\n\nAgain, Jesus himself doth in this day hold forth that he is the\nChrist, where he saith, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of\nGod is at hand' (Mark 1:15). What time is this that Jesus speaks\nof? Surely, 'tis that of Daniel's seventy weeks, spoken of in\nchapter 9:24 where he saith, 'Seventy weeks are determined upon\nthy people--to finish the transgression, and to make an end of\nsins, and to make reconciliation' or satisfaction 'for iniquity,\nand to bring in everlasting righteousness,--and to anoint the most\nHoly.' This time, that here Daniel speaks of, is it that Christ\nsaith hath an end; and the argument that he brings to persuade them\nto believe the gospel, is this, 'The kingdom of God is at hand,'\n(according as was prophesied of it by Daniel) 'repent, and believe\nthe gospel.' Repent, and believe that this is the gospel; and that\nthis is the truth of God; consider, that Daniel had a revelation\nof these days from the angel of God, and also the time in which it\nshould be accomplished: namely, Seventy weeks was the determined\ntime of the Messias his coming, from the time when the angel spake\nthese words to Daniel: Seventy weeks, that is, about 490 years, if\nyou reckon every day in the said seventy weeks for a year: A day\nfor a year, a day for a year; for so is the Holy Spirit's way\nsometimes to reckon days (Eze 4:6). And this the Jews were convinced\nof, when Christ saith to them, 'Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the\nface of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?'\n(Matt 16:3). Do you not see that those things that are spoken\nof as forerunners of my coming, are accomplished? Do you not see\nthat the sceptre is departed from Judah? Do you not see the time\nthat Daniel spake of is accomplished also? There shall no sign be\ngiven unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: O ye hypocritical\ngeneration! (v 4).\n\nThird, Another argument to prove that Jesus is the Christ, is\nthis, By his power the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the\ndumb speak, the dead are raised up, the devils are dispossessed.\nIn Isaiah 35:4 it is thus prophesied of him, 'Behold your God will\ncome with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and\nsave you'; But how shall we know when he is come? Why, 'Then the\neyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall\nbe unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the\ntongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break\nout, and streams in the desert' (vv 5,6). Now when John would\nknow whether he were the Christ or no, Jesus sends him this very\nanswer, 'Go, and shew John [saith he] again those things which\nyou do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame\nwalk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are\nraised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them' (Matt\n11:3-5).\n\nFourth, Another argument that doth prove this Jesus to be the\nChrist, is this, namely, he to whom it was revealed, that he should\nsee him, though he waited long for him. So soon as ever he did but\nsee that sweet babe that twas born of the virgin Mary, he cried\nout, 'Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according\nto thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou\nhast prepared before the face of all people'; as it is in Luke\n2:26-31. The prophetess Anna also, so soon as she had seen him,\n'gave thanks to the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked\nfor redemption in Jerusalem' (vv 36-38).\n\nFifth, Another argument is, the sign of the prophet Jonah. He,\neven Jonah, was three days and three nights in the whale's belly\n(Jonah 1:17) and Jesus makes this very thing an argument to the\nJews, that he was the true Messias, where he saith, 'An evil and\nadulterous generation seeketh after a sign'; that is, they would\nhave me to show them a sign, to prove that I am the Saviour, 'And\nthere shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet\nJonah: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's\nbelly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in\nthe heart of the earth' (Matt 12:39,40). And this, the Apostle\nmakes mention of to be accomplished, where he says, The Jews slew\nJesus, and hanged him on a tree (Acts 10:39) and laid him in\na sepulchre (Matt 27). But God raised him up the third day, and\nshewed him openly (Acts 10:40).\n\nSixth, Another scripture argument to prove that Jesus is the Christ,\nis this, that there was not one of his bones broken; which thing\nwas foretold and typed out by the Paschal Lamb, where he saith,\n'They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone\nof it' (Exo 12:46; Num 9:12), which thing was fulfilled in the Son\nof the virgin, (though contrary to the customs of that nation,)\nas it is written, 'Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of\nthe first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when\nthey came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they break\nnot his legs' (John 19:32,33): 'that the scripture should be\nfulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken' (v 36).\n\nSeventh, Another scripture demonstration is, in that they did\nfulfil the saying that was written, 'They part my garments among\nthem, and cast lots upon my vesture' (Psa 22:18). But this was\nalso fulfilled in Jesus, as it is written; 'Then the soldiers,\nwhen they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four\nparts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was\nwithout seam,--They said therefore among themselves, let us not\nrend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be: that the scripture\nmight be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among\nthem, and for my vesture they did cast lots' (John 19:23,24).\n\nEighth, Again, The scripture saith, 'they shall look upon me, whom\nthey have pierced' (Zech 12:10). But the soldier thrust a spear\ninto his side, That it might be fulfilled which was written, 'they\nshall look on him whom they pierced' (John 19:34-37).\n\nError 1. Now then, seeing this is the truth of God, that Jesus\nthat was born of the virgin, is the Christ of God; how horribly\nare those deceived who look on Jesus the Son of Mary, to be but\na shadow or type, of something that was afterward to be revealed;\nwhereas the scriptures most lively hold him forth to be the Christ\nof God, and not a shadow of a spirit, or of a body afterwards\nto be revealed, but himself was the very substance of all things\nthat did any way type out Christ to come; and when he was indeed\ncome, then was an end put to the law for righteousness, or\njustification to every one that believeth; 'Christ is the end\nof the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,' as it\nis written (Rom 10:4). That is, he was the end of the ceremonial\nlaw, and of that commonly called the moral law, the substance of\nwhich is laid down (Exo 20:1-17) though that law, as handed out\nby Christ, still remains of great use to all believers, which\nthey are bound to keep for sanctification, as Christ saith (Matt\n5:19 to the end of the chapter). But Christ Jesus hath obtained\neverlasting righteousness, having fulfilled all the law of God\nin the body of his flesh, wherein he also suffered on the cross\nwithout the gates, and doth impute this righteousness to poor man,\nhaving accomplished it for him in the body of his flesh, which\nhe took of the virgin (Gal 4:4). 'God sent forth his Son, made of\na woman, [that is, born of the virgin] made under the law,' that\nis, to obey it, and to bear the curse of it, 'being made a curse\nfor us' (Gal 3:13); to redeem them that were under the law, that\nis, to redeem such as were ordained to life eternal, from the curse\nof the law. And this he did by his birth, being made or born of a\nwoman; by his obedience, yea, by his perfect obedience 'he became\nthe author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him' (Heb\n5:8,9); and by his doing and suffering, did completely satisfy\nthe law and the justice of God, and bring in that glorious and\neverlasting salvation, without which we had all eternally been\nundone, and that without remedy; for without shedding of his blood\nthere was no remission.\n\nError 2. Seeing Jesus Christ, the Son of the virgin Mary, was and\nis the Christ of God: and that salvation came in alone by him, for\nthere is salvation in no other (Acts 4:12), then how are they\ndeceived, that think to obtain salvation by following the convictions\nof the law, which they call Christ (though falsely) when alas,\nlet them follow those convictions that do come from the law,\nand conscience set on work by it; I say, let them follow all the\nconvictions that may be hinted in upon their spirits from that law,\nthey shall never be able to obtain salvation by their obedience\nto it, 'for by the law is the knowledge of sin' (Rom 3:20; Gal\n3:10; John 10:15; Heb 9:12). And 'It is not of works lest any man\nshould boast,' as those fond hypocrites called Quakers would do.\nAnd again, 'If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead\nin vain' (Gal 2:21). 'But that no man is justified by the works of\nthe law, in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall\nlive by faith' (Gal 3:11). Which living by faith, is to apply the\nLord Jesus Christ his benefits, as birth, righteousness, death,\nblood, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, with the glorious\nbenefits of his second coming to me, as mine, being given to me,\nand for me, and thus much doth the Apostle signify, saying; 'The\nlife which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son\nof God, who loved me, and gave himself for me' (Gal 2:20).\n\nError 3. Again, Seeing God's Christ, which was with him before\nthe world was (John 17:5) took upon him flesh and blood from the\nvirgin Mary, (who was espoused to Joseph the carpenter) and in\nthat human nature yielded himself an offering for sin, (for it\nwas the body of his flesh by which sin was purged [Col 1:22]). I\nsay, seeing the Son of God, as he was in a body of flesh, did bring\nin salvation for sinners, and by this means, as I said before, we\nare saved, even by faith in his blood, righteousness, resurrections,\n&c. How are they then deceived who own Christ no otherwise than\nas he was before the world began, who was then without flesh and\nblood (for he took that in time of the virgin [Gal 4:4; Heb 2:14]).\nI say, they are wickedly deluded, who own him no otherwise but as\nhe was before the world was: For in their owning of him thus and\nno otherwise, they do directly deny him to be come in the flesh,\nand are of that antichristian party which John speaks of (1 John\n4:3) 'Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come\nin the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist,\nwhereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already\nis it in the world.' Now because the enemy doth most notably wrest\nthis scripture, as they do others, to their own damnation, I\nshall speak something to it; and therefore, when he saith, every\nspirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,\nis not of God, his meaning is, Every spirit that doth not confess\nthat that Christ that was with the Father before the world was, did\nin the appointed time of the Father come into the world, took on\nhim a body from the virgin, and was very man as well as very God,\nand in that body of flesh did do and suffer whatsoever belonged\nto the sons of men for the breach of the holy law of God, and\nimpute his glorious righteousness which he fulfilled in that body\nof his flesh, to the souls that shall believe on what he hath\ndone, and is adoing in the same body.\n\nConsider 1. And that this is the mind of the Spirit of God, consider,\nfirst, he himself saith, handle me and see, for a spirit hath not\nflesh and bones, as ye see me have, when his disciples had thought\nhe had been but a spirit (Luke 24:39,40).\n\nConsider 2. Now that in this flesh he died for sins: consider,\nsecondly, that scripture which saith, 'Who his own self, [that\nis, the Christ that was born of the Virgin] bare our sins in his\nown body on the tree' (1 Peter 2:24). See Colossians 1:22 'in the\nbody of his flesh,' saith he, 'to present you holy and unblameable,\nand unreprovable in his sight.' Now that he arose again from the\ndead, with the body of flesh wherewith he was crucified, consider, that\nforenamed scripture (Luke 24:39,40) spoken after his resurrection.\n\nNow that he went away with the same body from them into heaven,\nconsider that it is said, 'And he led them out as far as to Bethany,\nand he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass,\nwhile he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up\ninto heaven' (Luke 24:50,51). This is the meaning of those words\ntherefore; Jesus Christ is come into the flesh, that is, Jesus\nChrist hath come in the flesh that he took of the Virgin, hath\nbrought us who were enthralled to the law, the devil, and sin,\nto liberty; and that by his obedience and death. 'Forasmuch then\nas the children are partakers of flesh and blood, [saith the\nscripture] he, [Christ] also himself likewise took part of the\nsame'; wherefore? 'That through death he might destroy him that\nhad the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who\nthrough fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage'\n(Heb 2:14,15). For he 'was delivered for our offences, and was\nraised again for our justification' (Rom 4:25). For he, even that\nman, through the power of the eternal Spirit, did offer up himself\nwithout spot to God, and thereby, or by that offering, 'obtained\neternal redemption for us' (Heb 9:12,14). And therefore I say again\nand again, look to yourselves, that you receive no Christ except\nGod's Christ: For he is like to be deceived that will believe every\nthing that calls itself a Christ. 'For many, [saith he] shall come\nin my name,--and shall deceive many' (Matt 24:5).\n\nNow having spoken thus much touching the Saviour, the Lord Jesus\nChrist, I shall, according to the assistance of the Lord Jesus,\nproceed, and shall speak something of his godhead, birth, death,\nresurrection, ascension, and intercession; together with his most\nglorious and personal appearing the second time, which will be to\nraise the dead, and bring every work to judgment (Eccl 12:14).\n\nAnd FIRST I shall shew you that he (Christ) is very God, co-eternal,\nand also co-equal with his Father. SECOND, That by this Son of\nMary (which is equal with his Father) the world was made. THIRD,\nThat he in the fulness of time, was made of a woman, made under\nthe law, to redeem them that were (or are) under the law; that\nis, was born of a woman: and in our nature (for he made himself\nof no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, and was\nmade in the likeness of men) and in our stead he did fulfil the\nlaw in point of justification (Rom 10:4) and was crucified for our\ntransgressions (1 Cor 1:23-25). FOURTH, That very body of the Son\nof Mary which was crucified, did rise again from the dead, after\nhe had been buried in Joseph's sepulchre; that he in that very\nbody ascended up into heaven; and in that very body shall come\nagain to these ends, 1. To judge the quick and the dead. 2. To\nreceive his saints to himself. 3. To pass eternal condemnation on\nhis enemies. These things in brief I shall touch upon, according\nto the wisdom given me.\n\nFIRST, And therefore that Christ is very God, I shall first prove\nby plain texts of scripture. Second, From the testimony of God,\nangels, and men, witnessed by the scriptures. Third, By several\narguments drawn from scripture, which will prove the same clearly.\n\nFirst, Then to prove it by the scriptures; tho' indeed the whole\nbook of God's holy scripture, testify these things plainly to be\nmost true, yet there be some places more pregnant and pertinent\nto the thing than others; and therefore I shall mention some of\nthem: as that in Proverbs 8:22, &c. and there you shall find him\nspoken of under the name of wisdom, the same name that is given\nhim in 1 Corinthians 1:24. I say in that place of the Proverbs\nabove mentioned, you shall find these expressions from his own\nmouth. 'The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before\nhis works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,\nor ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought\nforth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before\nthe mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:\nWhile as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor\nthe highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the\nheavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the\ndepth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened\nthe fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree,\nthat the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed\nthe foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought\nup with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before\nhim; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights\nwere with the sons of men.' Also in John 1:1, 2 you have these words\nspoken of Christ, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word\nwas with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning\nwith God.' As also in Hebrews 1:2 the Apostle being about to prove\nthe Son of Mary to be very God, saith; He 'hath in these last\ndays spoken unto us by his Son'; which Son is the Son of Mary,\nas in Matthew 3, 'But [saith the Apostle (Heb 1:8)] unto the Son\nhe saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of\nrighteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.' Again, in John 17:5\nyou have the words of the Son of Mary for it, saying, 'And now, O\nFather, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which\nI had with thee before the world was.' Again, he himself saith,\nbefore Abraham was, I am: And again, I and my Father are one. And\nin Philippians 2:5 the Apostle saith, 'Let this mind be in you\nwhich was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God,\nthought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of\nno reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was\nmade in the likeness of men.' Also Revelation 2:8 Christ himself\nsaith, I am 'the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.'\nAnd thus have I quoted some few scriptures to prove that the Son\nof Mary is the true God.\n\nSecond, I shall give you the testimony of God himself touching\nthe truth of this, viz. That Christ, the Son of the Virgin, is\nthe true God:\n\n1. And first see Zechariah 12:7 and there you shall find these\nwords, 'Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man\nthat is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.' In this place the\nLord doth call that Man his fellow, which he doth not do to any\nmere creature. Again, in Matthew 3:17 he calls him his beloved\nSon, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'\nAnd in the aforesaid place of the Hebrews (ch 1) the Apostle advancing\nthe Lord Jesus, brings in this question. 'To which of the angels\nsaid he at any time, Thou art my Son?' (v 5). 'But unto the Son he\nsaith' (v 8) 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever': And thus\nfar of the testimony that God himself hath given of the Son of\nMary, Jesus Christ.\n\n2. The angels do shew that he is God: (1.) In that they do obey\nhim. (2.) In that they worship him.\n\n(1.) That they obey him, is clear, if we compare Revelation 21:9\nwith 22:6. In the first of these places we find, that there came\none of the angels of the seven vials, which had the seven last\nplagues, and talked with John. He came not of himself; for in that\n22nd chapter, verse 6 he saith, 'The Lord--sent his angel to shew\nunto his servants, the things which must shortly be done.' Now in\nthe 16th verse you may see who this Lord God is: He saith there,\n'I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify--these things in the\nchurches [compare Rev 1:1]. I am the root and [as well as] the\noffspring of David, and the bright and morning star.' I say this\nobedience of the angels doth testify that Jesus, which is the Son\nof Mary, is the true and very God; for they do obey God only.\n\n(2.) The angels do shew that the Son of Mary, is the true God,\nin that they do not only obey him, but worship him also; yea,\nthey are commanded so to do (Heb 1:6) where it is written, 'When\nhe bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he [i.e. God,]\nsaith, And let all the angels of God worship him,' viz. the Son of\nMary. Now the angels themselves command that we worship none but\nGod (Rev 22:8,9). When John fell down to worship the angel, the angel\nsaid, 'See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant,--worship\nGod.' Now if the angels should command to worship God, and they\nthemselves should worship him that by nature is no god, they should\noverthrow themselves, in commanding one thing, and doing another,\nand so lose their own habitations, and be shut up in chains of\ndarkness, to be punished with everlasting destruction from God\nhimself at the great day. And thus much concerning the testimony\nof angels touching Jesus the son of Mary, the Son of God, yea,\nvery and true God (Isa 9:6).\n\n3. [The testimony of men witnessed by the scriptures do shew that\nChrist is very God.] Now followeth David his testimony among other\nof the saints, who witness Jesus the Son of Mary to be true God;\nand that you may find in Psalm 110:1 where he saith, 'The LORD\nsaid unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine\nenemies thy footstool.' Also Isaiah in the 9th chapter, verse 6\nsaith, 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and\nthe government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall\nbe called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting\nFather, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and\npeace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, [which is\nnot, nor ever was the heart of any believer] and upon his kingdom,\nto order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice\nfrom henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will\nperform this.' Again, see Peter's testimony of this Son of Mary;\nWhen Jesus asked his disciples, whom say ye that I am? Peter,\nas the mouth of the rest, said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of\nthe living God' (Matt 16:16). Also when Thomas, one of Christ's\ndisciples, would not be persuaded by the others that they had\nseen the Lord, except he did also see in his hands the print of\nthe nails, and put his fingers into the print of the nails, and\nthrust his hand into his side, he would not believe. Saith the\nSon of Mary, 'Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and\nreach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not\nfaithless but believing.' And then Thomas breaks out with a mighty\nfaith, and a glorious testimony for his master, and saith, 'My\nLord, and my God' (John 20:27,28). Again, See Paul's testimony of\nhim (Rom 9:5) where speaking of the Son of Mary, he saith, That\nChrist came of the Father, 'who is over all, God blessed for ever,\nAmen.' And the apostle John doth also witness as much (1 John 5:20)\nwhere speaking of Jesus Christ, he saith on this wise, 'And we know\nthat the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,\nthat we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true,\n[Who is that? why, saith John] even in his Son Jesus Christ.' Who\nis he? Why, 'This is the true God, and eternal life.'\n\nI could here also bring in the testimony of the very devils\nthemselves as Luke 4:41, 8:28 where he is by them acknowledged to\nbe the Son of the living God: But it is needless so to do; for we\nhave plainly proved it already.\n\nThird, Now followeth the several scripture arguments, which will\nprove that Jesus the Son of Mary is very God.\n\n1. There is none but he that is the true God, can satisfy the\njustice of the true God, for the breach of his holy law; but if\nyou compare Isaiah 53:6 with Matthew 3:17 you shall find, that\nJesus the Son of Mary did give God a full and complete satisfaction\nfor the breach of his holy law; therefore Jesus the Son of Mary\nmust needs be the great and true God.\n\n2. He that hath power of his own to lay down his life, and hath\npower of his own to take it up again, must needs be the true God:\nbut this did Jesus the Son of Mary the virgin; therefore he must\nneeds be the true God (John 10:17; Rom 1:4).\n\n3. There was never any able to bear the sins of all the believers\nin the world, that ever were, now are, or hereafter shall be,\nbut the true God: But Jesus, the Son of the Virgin Mary, did bear\nthem all, 'in his own body on the tree' (1 Peter 2:24; Isa 53:6).\nTherefore Jesus the Son of Mary must needs be the true God as well\nas man.\n\n4. There was never any mere man able, by his own power, to overcome\nthe devil in all his temptations, but he that is also the true\nGod (for Adam in his state of innocency was overcome by them, and\nfell under them:) But Jesus the Son of the Virgin did overcome\nthem all by his own power; therefore he is very God, as well as\nvery Man. See Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 51:9, 63:5; Matthew 4:24; Luke\n4:12.\n\n5. There was never any that did call himself the true God (and was\nnot) which did please God in so doing. But Jesus the Son of Mary\ndid call himself the true God, or account himself equal with God\n(which is all one) yet God was well pleased with him (Matt 3:17;\nPhil 2:6,7; John 8:29). And therefore Jesus the Son of Mary must\nneeds be true God as well as man.\n\n6. There was never any that had all power in heaven and in earth, but\nthe true God. Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary, who was espoused\nto Joseph, hath all power in heaven and in earth in his own hand.\nTherefore he is the true and great God (Matt 28:18).\n\n7. There was never any able to keep poor souls from falling from\nGod, saving he that is the true God. Jesus the Son of Mary did,\nand doth this (John 10:27-30, 17:12). Therefore he is the true\nand great God.\n\n8. Never could any justly call himself the first and the last,\nexcept the true God, nor truly (as the Lord did say) I AM. But\nthese did Jesus the Son of Mary (Rev 1:1 compared with vv 17,18;\nRev 2:8 and John 8:58). Therefore Jesus must needs be true God as\nwell as man.\n\n9. Never was there any that could absolutely forgive sins but God\n(Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21). But Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary, can\nforgive sins (Luke 5:20; Mark 2:5). Therefore Jesus the Son of\nMary must needs be true God, as well as man.\n\n10. The scriptures never call any the true and living God; but he\nthat is the true God. The scriptures call Jesus, the Son of the\nVirgin, the true God (Isa 9:6; 1 John 5:20). Therefore he is the\ntrue and great God.\n\n11. He that made all things, whether they be visible, or invisible,\nwhether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers,\nmust needs be the true God. But Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary\ndid make all these (Col 1:14-18; John 1:1-16; Heb 1:2,3). And\ntherefore he is the true God as well as man.\n\n12. The blood of a mere finite creature could never obtain eternal\nredemption for sinners. But the blood of Jesus, the Son of the\nVirgin Mary, hath obtained eternal redemption for sinners (Rom\n3:23, 5:9; Heb 9:12,14, 10:19,20). Therefore the blood of the Son\nof the Virgin, must needs be the blood of God. And so the Apostle\ncalleth it, saying to the pastors of the churches, 'Feed the church\nof God, which he hath purchased with his own blood' (Acts 20:28;\n1 John 3:16).\n\n13. Never was there any that could overcome death in his own power,\nbut the true God (Hosea 13:14; 2 Tim 1:10; Heb 1:2). Jesus the\nSon of the Virgin Mary did overcome death by himself (Heb 3:14).\nTherefore he is the true God as well as man.\n\n14. He that searcheth the hearts, and knoweth the thoughts of men,\nmust needs be the true God (Jer 17:10). But Jesus the Son of the\nVirgin doth (Luke 5:22, 9:47; John 2:24,25). Therefore he is the\ntrue God.\n\n15. He that by his own power commandeth the raging sea, must needs\nbe the true God (Job 38:10,11; Prov 8:29). But this did Jesus the\nSon of Mary (Mark 4:39-41; Luke 8:24). Therefore, he is the true\nGod.\n\n16. He that is the WISDOM, power, and glory of God, must needs\nbe the true God. But Jesus the Son of the Virgin is all these as\n1 Corinthians 1:24; Hebrews 1:3. Therefore Jesus the Son of the\nVirgin must needs be true God as well as man.\n\nSECOND.--The next thing that I am to prove, is this; namely, That\nby this Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin, the world was made:\nAnd here I shall be brief, having touched on it already. Only\nI shall lay down some of the scriptures, that hold forth this to\nbe a truth, and so pass to the next things that I intend to speak\nof.\n\nAnd therefore in the first place, see Hebrews 1:2 where the Apostle\nis speaking of the Son of God, which Son was born of the Virgin\nMary, according to these scriptures mentioned before (Matt 1:18-23;\nLuke 2; Matt 3:17) where God himself saith, This is my beloved\nSon, &c. This Son of God, saith the Apostle, by whom God hath\nspoken to us, by him also he made the worlds. And Colossians\n1 the Apostle speaking of the deliverance of the saints, saith,\n'who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated\nus into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption\nthrough his blood, even the forgiveness of sins': And is that all?\nNo, but he is (also) 'the image of the invisible God, the first\nborn of every creature' (v 15). And in verses 16, 17, 'By him\nwere all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth,\nvisible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or\nprincipalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for\nhim: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.'\nAlso Hebrews 1:10 it is thus written of this Son of God, Christ\nJesus the Son of Mary, 'And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast\nlaid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the works\nof thine hands.' And again, John 1 and the first 9 verses, the\nEvangelist, or Apostle, speaking of the Son, saith, 'In the beginning\nwas the Word,' which Word was the Son (Rev 19:13). This Word, or\nSon, was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by\nhim, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 'In\nhim was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light\nshineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.' But\nin the ninth verse of this first chapter of John, it is written,\n'That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh\ninto the world.' Now seeing the Lord hath brought me thus far;\nand because the Quakers by wresting this scripture, do not only\nsplit themselves upon it, but endeavour also to split others, I\nshall therefore, before I proceed any further, speak a few words\nto it; and they are these that follow.\n\nThe Apostle in these nine first verses, or most of them, is speaking\nof the divinity or godhead of the Son of Mary, and shewing that\nhe made the world: Now in this ninth verse he speaketh of man as\nhe is in his coming into the world, and not as he is a regenerate\nperson. Now every man as he comes into the world, receives a light\nfrom Christ, as he is God, which light is the conscience, that\nsome call Christ though falsely. This light, or conscience, will\nshew a man that there is a God, and that this God is eternal (Rom\n1:20). This light doth discover this eternal God by his works in\nthe world; for saith the scripture before named, 'The invisible\nthings of him [meaning God] from the creation of the world are\nclearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even\nhis eternal power and godhead'; This light also will reprove of\nsin, or convince of, and make manifest sins against the law of\nthis eternal God: so that man, before he is regenerate, is able\nby that light to know that sins against the law, are sins against\nGod, as is manifested in the unconverted Pharisees, who, (as\nChrist told them) had neither the love of God, nor the word of God\nabiding in them (John 5:38,42) yet knew sins against the law, to\nbe sins; for they were offended at a woman for committing adultery,\nwhich act was forbidden, by the law (Matt 5:27,28); and it is said\nalso, they were convicted of sin by their own consciences (John\n8:7-10).\n\nAgain, The Apostle writing to the Corinthians, and admonishing\nthem to walk orderly (1 Cor 11:14) turns them to nature itself,\nsaying, 'Doth not even nature itself teach you?' &c. This light\nsurely is that, wherewith Christ, as he is God, hath enlightened\nevery man that cometh into the world, which doth convince of\nsins against the law of God. Therefore, as the Apostle saith (Rom\n1:20). They are left without excuse. That is, they have their own\nconscience, that doth shew them there is a God, and that this God\nis to be served and obeyed; and the neglect of this will be sure\nto damn them, though the obedience to the law will not save them,\nbecause they are not able to make a full recompense to God for the\nsins that are past; neither are they able for the time to come,\nto yield a full, continual, and complete obedience to the law\nof this almighty, infinite, and eternal God. For as many as are\nof the works of the law, are under the curse; for it is written,\n'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are\nwritten in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is\njustified by the [works of the] law,--it is evident: for, The just\nshall live by faith' (Gal 3:10,11).\n\nBut now, though Christ, as he is God, doth give a light to every\none that cometh into the world, which light is the conscience, (as\nthey themselves confess;) yet it doth not therefore follow that\nthis conscience is the Spirit of Christ, or the work of grace,\nwrought in the heart of any man whatsoever; for every one hath\nconscience, yet every one hath not the Spirit of Christ: For Jude\nspeaks of a company of men in his days, who had not the Spirit of\nChrist (Jude 19). 'These be they who separate themselves, [saith\nhe] sensual, having not the spirit.' Yea, Heathens, Turks, Jews,\nPagans, Atheists, have that also that doth convince of sin, and\nyet are so far from having the Spirit of Christ in them, that it\nis their great delight to serve their lusts, this world, their sins;\nwhereas the Apostle saith plainly, 'If Christ be in you, the body\nis dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life for righteousness\nsake' (Rom 8:10)[1] So that those who are alive to their sins, have\nnot the Spirit of Christ. Nay, let me tell you, the very devils\nthemselves, who were thrown from their first state by sin (Jude 6)\nhave such a taste of their horrible sins (2 Peter 2:4) that when\nthey did but suppose that Jesus was come to put an end to their\ntyrannical dealing with the world, and to bring them to judgment\nfor their sins, (to which they know they shall be brought,) it\nmade them cry out, 'Art thou come hither to torment us before the\ntime?' (Matt 8:29). James doth also signify this much unto us,\nwhere he saith, 'The devils also believe and tremble' (James 2:19).\nWhich belief of theirs is not a believing in Christ to save them;\nfor they know he did not take hold on their nature (Heb 2:16).\nBut they do believe that Christ will come to their everlasting\ntorment; and the belief of this doth make these proud spirits to\ntremble.\n\nAgain, Man at his coming into the world, hath his conscience given\nhim, which doth convince of sin (John 2:9, 8:9), yet man, as he\ncometh into the world, hath not the Spirit of Christ in him; for\nthat must be received afterward, by the preaching of the word,\nwhich is preached by the ministers and servants of Jesus Christ.\nThis is God's usual way to communicate of his Spirit into the\nhearts of his elect; and this is clear in so many words, where\nPeter preaching to a certain number, the scripture saith, 'While\nPeter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost, [or Holy Spirit,]\nfell on all them which heard the word' (Acts 10:44). And again (Gal\n3:2,5 compared together), 'Received ye the Spirit by the works of\nthe law, [saith the Apostle] or by the hearing of faith?' or the\nGospel, which is the word of faith preached by us? Which Spirit,\nas Christ saith, the world cannot receive, because it seeth him\nnot, neither knoweth him, though his children shall have fellowship\nwith him to the great comfort of their own souls (John 14:16,17).\n\nBut now, this merciless butcherer of men, the devil, that he\nmight be sure to make the soul fall short of glory, if possible,\nendeavours to persuade the soul that its state is good; that\nit hath the Spirit of Christ in it; and for a proof of the same,\nsaith he, turn thy mind inward, and listen within, and see if\nthere be not that within thee that doth convince of sin: Now the\npoor soul; finding this to be so, all on haste (if it be willing\nto profess) through ignorance of the Gospel, claps in with these\nmotions of its own conscience, which doth command to abstain from\nthis evil, and to practise that good; which, if neglected, will\naccuse and torment for the same neglect of others, both now and\nhereafter (Rom 2:15).\n\nNow the soul seeing that there is something within that convinceth\nof sin, doth all on a sudden close with that, supposing it is the\nSpirit of Christ, and so through this mistake, is carried away\nwith the teachings and convictions of its own conscience, (being\nmisinformed by the devil) unto the works of the law; under which,\nthough it work all its days, and labour with its might and main,\nyet it never will be able to appease the wrath of God, nor get\nfrom under the curse of the law, nor get from under the guilt of\none sinful thought the right way, which is to be done by believing\nwhat another man hath done by himself, without us, on the cross,\nwithout the gates of Jerusalem (Heb 1:2,3; Rom 5:15). See also\nfor this 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 13:12. The one saith, He bare our\nsins in his own body on the tree; the other saith, It was done\nwithout the gate.\n\nAnd thus the poor soul is most horribly carried away headlong, and\nthrown down violently under the curse of the law, under which it\nis held all its days, if God of his mere mercy prevent not; and\nat the end of its life doth fall into the very belly of hell.\n\nAgain, That the devil might be sure to carry on his design, he now\nbegins to counterfeit the work of grace: here he is very subtle,\nand doth transform himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).\nNow he makes the soul believe that he is its friend, and that he\nis a gospel minister; and if the soul will be led by what shall be\nmade known unto it by the light (or conscience) within, it shall\nnot need to fear but it shall do well.\n\nNow he counterfeits the new birth, persuading them, that it is\nwrought by following the light that they brought into the world\nwith them. Now he begins also to make them run through difficulties:\nand now, like Baal's priests, they must lance themselves with knives,\n&c. Now, 1656, quakers are changed to the laws of the world. Now\nthey must wear no hatbands; now they must live with bread and\nwater; now they must give heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines\nof devils, which bids them abstain from marriage, and commands\nthem to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received\nwith thanksgiving, of them which love and know the truth, as in 1\nTimothy 4:1-3. Now they must not speak, except their spirit moves\nthem, (I do not say the Spirit of Christ) though when it moves,\nthey will speak such sad blasphemies, and vent such horrible\ndoctrines, that it makes me wonder to see the patience of God,\nin that he doth not command, either the ground to open her mouth,\nand swallow them up, or else suffer the devil to fetch them away\nalive, to the astonishment of the whole world.\n\nObject. But you will say, doth not the scripture say, that it is\nthe Spirit of Christ that doth make manifest or convince of sin?\n(John 16:8).\n\nAns. Yes, it doth so. But for the better understanding of this\nplace, I shall lay down this; namely, That there are two things\nspoken of in the scriptures, which do manifest sin, or convince of\nsin. First, The law, as saith the Apostle (Rom 3:20). 'Therefore\nby the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his\nsight: [viz., God's sight:] for by the law is the knowledge of sin.'\nSecondly, The Spirit of Christ doth make manifest, or reprove of\nsin, as it is written (John 16:8,9). 'And when he [the Spirit] is\ncome, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and\nof judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me'; saith the\nSon of Mary, which is Christ.\n\nNow the law doth sometimes by its own power manifest sin without\nthe Spirit of Christ; as in the case of Judas, who was convinced\nof the sin of murder, which made him cry out, 'I have sinned';\nyet at that time he was so far from having the Spirit of Christ\nin him, that he was most violently possessed of the devil (Luke\n22:3,4).\n\nAgain, Sometimes the Spirit of Christ takes the law, and doth\neffectually convince of sin, of righteousness, and judgment to\ncome.\n\nQuery. But you will say, How should I know whether I am convinced\nby the law alone, or that the law is set home effectually by the\nSpirit of the Lord Jesus upon my conscience?\n\nAns. 1. Unto this I answer. First, When the law doth convince by\nits own power, without the help of the Spirit of Christ, it doth\nonly convince of sins against the law, as of swearing, lying,\nstealing, murdering, adultery, covetousness, and the like. I say,\nit doth only make manifest sins against the law, pronouncing a\nhorrible curse, against thee, if thou fulfil it not, and so leaves\nthee; but it gives thee no strength to fulfil it completely, and\ncontinually, (which thou must do, if thou wilt be saved thereby).\nNow thy own strength being insufficient for these things, having\nlost it in Adam, thou art a breaker of the law. Here the law finds\nthee in thy sins, and condemns thee for thy sins: But gives thee\nno power to come wholly out of them; neither doth it shew thee\nthy right Saviour, to save thee from them (which is the Son of the\nVirgin Mary, the man Christ Jesus) but commands thee upon pain of\neternal damnation, to continue in all things that are written in\nthe book of the law to do them (Gal 3:10). And therefore if thou\nhast been convinced of no other sins, but what are against the law,\nfor all thy convictions and horror of conscience, thou mayest be\nbut a natural man, at the best, and so under the curse.\n\n(Obj.) But, perhaps thou wilt say, I am not only convinced of my\nsins against the law, but I have also some power against my sins,\nso that I do in some considerable measure abstain from those things\nthat are forbidden in the law.\n\n(Ans.) This thou mayest have, and do, as thou thinkest, perfectly,\nas those blind Pharisees called quakers, do think that they also\ndo, and yet be but a natural man: And therefore I pray consider\nthat place, in Romans 2:14, 15, the Apostle there speaks on this\nwise, concerning the Gentiles' obedience to the law, 'For when\nthe Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things\ncontained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto\nthemselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts.'\nWhich work of the law, Christ as he is God, hath enlightened\nevery one withal, that cometh into the world (John 1:9), which, as\nthe quakers say, doth convince of sin, yet of no other than sins\nagainst the law: and therefore must needs be all one light or\nlaw; for 'the law is light' (Prov 6:23) and gives 'the knowledge\nof sin' (Rom 3:20). And therefore, as I said before, so say I now\nagain, if thy convictions are no other than for the sins against\nthe law, though thy obedience be the strictest that ever was\nwrought by any man, (except the Lord Jesus the Son of Mary) thou\nart at the best but under the law, and so consequently under the\ncurse, and under the wrath of God, whether thou believest it or\nnot (Gal 3:10; John 3:36).\n\nAns. 2. But now the second thing, how thou shouldest know, whether\nthe Spirit of Christ doth effectually set home the law upon thy\nconscience, or not; and therefore to speak directly to it, if the\nSpirit of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, doth set home the law\neffectually; then the same Spirit of Christ shews thee more sin\nthan the sins against the law. For,\n\n(1.) It shews thee, that 'all our righteousnesses are as filthy\nrags' (Isa 64:6). Thou seest all thy praying, meditation, hearing,\nreading, alms-deeds, fasting, reformation, and whatsoever else\nthou hast done, doest, or canst do, being an unbeliever, deserves\nat the hands of God his curse and condemnation, and that for ever:\nAnd therefore thou art so far from trusting to it, that in some\nmeasure thou even loathest it, and art ashamed of it, as being a\nthing abominable, both in God's sight and thine own (Phil 3:8).\nThou countest thy own performances, when at best, and thine\nown righteousness, A bed too short to stretch thyself upon, and\na covering too narrow to wrap thyself in (Isa 28:20). And these\nthings thou seest not[2] overly, or slightly, and as at a great\ndistance, but really and seriously, and the sense of them sticks\nclose unto thee.\n\n(2.) It shews thee that thou hast no faith in the man Christ Jesus\nby nature, and that though thou hadst no other sins, yet thou art\nin a perishing state because of unbelief, according to that 16th\nof John, verse 9, 'Of sin, because they believe not on me.' If\ntherefore thou hast been convinced aright by the Spirit, thou hast\nseen that thou hadst no faith in Christ the Son of Mary, the Son\nof God, before conversion. It shews thee also, that thou canst\nnot believe in thine own strength, though thou wouldest never so\nwillingly; yea, though thou wouldest give all the world (if thou\nhadst it) to believe, thou couldest not.\n\n(3.) In the next place it will shew thee, that if thou doest not\nbelieve in the man Christ Jesus, and that with 'the faith of the\noperation of God' (Col 2:12), thou wilt surely perish, and that\nwithout remedy; Also it shews thee, that if thou hast not that\nrighteousness, which the man Christ Jesus accomplished in his\nown person for sinners; I say, if thou be not clothed with that\ninstead of thine own, thou art gone for ever; and therefore saith\nChrist, (speaking of the Spirit) 'When he is come he will reprove\nthe world of sin, and of righteousness' too (John 16:8). That is,\nthe Spirit shall convince men and women of the sufficiency of that\nrighteousness that Christ, in his human nature, hath fulfilled: So\nthat they need not run to the law for righteousness: 'For Christ\nis the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth'\n(Rom 10:4). Again, if the Spirit of Jesus setteth home the law\nupon thy conscience, thou wilt freely confess, that although the\nlaw curseth, and condemneth thee for thy sins, and gives thee no\npower either to fulfil it, or to come out of thy sins: Yet God is\njust in giving that law, and 'the law is holy, and the commandment\nholy, and just, and good' (Rom 7:12).\n\n(4.) Lastly, It also convinceth of judgment to come: He (viz. the\nSpirit) shall reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, yea, and\nof judgment too (Acts 24:25). Then doth the soul see, that that\nvery man that was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified upon the\ncross without the gates of Jerusalem, shall so come again; even\nthat same Jesus, in like manner as he was seen to go up from his\ndisciples (Acts 1:11). Yea, they that are thus convinced by the\nSpirit of Christ, know that God 'hath appointed a day, in the\nwhich he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom\nhe hath ordained' (Acts 17:31): which is the man Christ Jesus:\nFor 'it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick\nand dead' (Acts 10:42).\n\nAnd now, O man, or woman, whoever thou art, that art savingly\nconvinced by the Spirit of Christ, thou hast such an endless desire\nafter the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou canst not be satisfied or\ncontent with anything below the blood of the Son of God to purge\nthy conscience withal; even that blood that was shed without the\ngate (Heb 13:12, 9:14). Also thou canst not be at quiet, till thou\ndost see by true faith, that the righteousness of the Son of Mary\nis imputed unto thee, and put upon thee (Rom 3:21-23). Then also\nthou canst not be at quiet, till thou hast power over thy lusts,\nand corruptions, till thou hast brought them into subjection to\nthe Lord Jesus Christ. Then thou wilt never think that thou hast\nenough faith. No, thou wilt be often crying out, Lord, give me\nmore precious faith: Lord, more faith in thy righteousness; more\nfaith in thy blood and death; more faith in thy resurrection:\nAnd Lord, more faith in this, that thou art now at the right hand\nof thy father in thy human nature, making intercession for me a\nmiserable sinner (John 16:5-7; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 7:24,25). And then,\nO poor soul, if thou comest but hither, thou wilt never have an\nitching ear after another gospel. Nay, thou wilt say, if a presbyter,\nor anabaptist, or independent, or ranter, or quaker, or papist,\nor pope, or an angel from heaven, preach any other doctrine, let\nhim be accursed, again and again (Gal 1:8). And thus have I briefly\nshewed you.\n\nFirst, How Christ, as he is God, doth enlighten every man that\ncomes into the world.\n\nSecondly, What this light will do, viz. shew them that there is\na God, by the things that are made; and that this God must be\nworshiped (Rom 1:20).\n\nThirdly, I have shewed you the difference between that light and\nthe Spirit of Christ the Saviour.\n\nFourthly, I have also shewed you, how you should know the one from\nthe other, by their several effects.\n\nThe first light convinces of sins, but of none other than sins\nagainst the law; neither doth it shew the soul a Saviour, or deliver\n(for that is the work of the Spirit) from the curse wherewith it\ndoth curse it. But I shewed you, that when the Spirit of Christ\ncomes and works effectually, it doth not only shew men their sins\nagainst the law, but also shews them their lost condition, if they\nbelieve not in the righteousness, blood, death, resurrection, and\nintercession of Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, the Son of God\n(John 6:44, 16:24; Matt 3:17; Heb 1:9). And thus much I thought\nnecessary to be spoken at this time, touching the nature of\nconviction.\n\nTHIRD. Now in the third Place. Though I have spoken something to\nthis thing already, namely, concerning our Lord the Saviour, yet\nagain, in few words, through grace, I shall shew, that he was made,\nthat is, born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem them\nthat are under the law. My meaning is, That God is our Saviour.\n\nFirst, And for this, see Isaiah 45:15 where you have these words,\n'Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the\nSaviour': And verse 21, 22 you have these words, 'Who hath declared\nthis from ancient time?--Have not I the LORD? And there is no God\nelse beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside\nme. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth':\nWhy, who art thou? 'For I am God, and there is none else.' Also\nin Isaiah 54:5 'For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts\nis his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of\nthe whole earth shall he be called.' Read also verses 6-8 of that\nchapter. I could abundantly multiply scriptures to prove this to\nbe truth, but I shall only mind you of two or three, and so pass\non; the first is in Jude, verse 25, 'To the only wise God our\nSaviour be glory.' And Acts 20:23; John 3:16; 1 John 5:20.\n\nObject. But you will say, How is God a Saviour of sinners, seeing\nhis eyes are so pure that he cannot behold iniquity (Hab 1:13).\n\nAnsw. For answer hereunto. 'When the fulness of the time was come'\nwherein the salvation of sinners should be actually wrought out,\n'God sent forth his Son, [which Son is equal with the Father (John\n1:1, 17:5, 10:30)] made of a woman, made under the law,' (that\nis, he was subject to the power and curse of the law) to this end,\n'to redeem them that [are, or] were under the law' (Gal 4:4,5),\nthat is, to deliver us 'from the curse of the law, being made a\ncurse for us' (Gal 3:13). From whence take notice, that when the\nsalvation of sinners was to be actually wrought out, then God sent\nforth the everlasting Son of his love into the world, clothed with\nthe human nature, according to that in John 1:14; Hebrews 2:14\nand 1 Timothy 3:16 which saith, 'God was manifest in the flesh,'\nthat is, took flesh upon him.\n\nSecond, This Son of God, which is equal with the Father, did in\nthat flesh, which he took upon him, completely fulfil the whole\nlaw: So that the Apostle saith, 'Christ is the end of the law\nfor righteousness to every one that believeth' (Rom 10:4). This\nrighteousness which this Christ did accomplish, is called, 'The\nrighteousness of God' (Rom 3:22). This righteousness of God, is\nby the faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that\nbelieve: My meaning is, it is imputed to so many as shall by faith\nlay hold on it. This is also part of the meaning of that speech\nof the Apostle: 'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ,\nhave put on Christ' (Gal 3:27). That is, by faith have put on the\nrighteousness of Christ, with the rest of that which Christ hath\nbestowed upon you, having accomplished it for you. This is also\nthe meaning of the Apostle (Col 2:9,10) where he saith, 'for in\nhim [that is the Son of Mary, (1:13,14)] dwelleth all the fulness\nof the godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him.' That is, in\nhis obedience and righteousness; which also the Apostle himself\ndoth so hard press after (Phil 3:8,9), saying, 'doubtless, and I\ncount all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of\nChrist Jesus my Lord'; which Lord was crucified by the Jews, as\nit is in 1 Corinthians 2:8 'for whom, [that is for Christ,] I have\nsuffered the loss of all things [as well the righteousness of the\nlaw, in which I was blameless (Phil 3:6) as all other things]\nand do count them but dung, that I may win Christ: And be found\nin him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,\nbut that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness\nwhich is of God by faith': which is 'unto all, and upon all them\nthat believe' (Rom 3:22). That place also in the ninth of Daniel\n(vv 24,25), holdeth forth as much where prophesying of the Messias,\nhe saith, that it is he that came 'to finish the transgression, and\nto make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,\nand to bring in everlasting righteousness.' Now that the righteousness\nof the Son of Mary is it, mind the 26th verse, where he saith\nthus, 'And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut\noff,' that is, Christ shall be crucified, 'but not cut off,' that\nis, Christ shall be crucified, 'but not for himself,' that is, not\nfor any sin that he hath committed; for he committed none. Then\nsurely, it must be for the sins of the people (John 11:50), as\nthe high priest said, 'It is expedient for us that one man should\ndie for the people,' which man was the true Messias (Dan 9:24),\nwhich also is the Son of Mary (Matt 1:18-23). And the Son of God\n(Matt 3:17). And also the true God (1 John 5:20). And this Messias,\nthis Son of the Virgin, this Son of God, this true God, did not\ndie for himself, for he had not offended; neither did he fulfil the\nlaw or finish transgression, and bring in everlasting righteousness\nfor himself, for he had not sinned (1 Peter 2:22), therefore it\nmust of necessity follow, that this righteousness of God, this\neverlasting righteousness, is imputed to all, and upon all them\nthat believe (Rom 3:22; 2 Cor 5:19-21). But,\n\nThirdly, this Messias, this Son of Mary, this Son of God, this\ntrue God, he was put to death for the sins that his children had\ncommitted, according to that saying, 'Herein perceive we the love\nof God, because he laid down his life for us' (1 John 3:16). Also\nin Acts 20:28 the apostle speaking to the pastors of the churches,\nsaith, 'feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his\nown blood.' See also Zechariah 12:10.\n\nNow, I would not be mistaken. I do not think, or say, that he died\nin his divine nature, but as it is written, he in his own body\non the tree did bear our sins (1 Peter 2:24); which tree was the\ncross (Col 2:14). And as the apostle saith again, who 'when he\nhad by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the\nmajesty on high' (Heb 1:3). And again, the apostle speaking of\nthis glorious God, saith on this wise, (being before speaking of\nhis godhead) in Colossians 1:19-22, 'For it pleased the Father\nthat in him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through\nthe blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself:\nby him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in\nheaven. And you, who were sometime alienated and enemies in your\nmind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.' But how? why\nin verse 22 he tells you, that it is 'in the body of his flesh\nthrough death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable\nin his sight.' That is, Christ, who is the true God, after that\nhe had finished all actual obedience on earth, did in the power\nand strength of his godhead (John 19:30, 10:18) yield up himself\nto the wrath of his Father, which was due to poor sinners (and\nthat willingly) (Isa 63:3) [see Heb 9:14 and read that verse with\nunderstanding] according to that saying in 1 Peter 3:18, 'For Christ\nalso hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust': That\nis, the Son of God for poor sinners: 'that he might bring us to\nGod, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.'\nAgain (1 Peter 4:1), 'Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for\nus [not for himself (Dan 9:26)] in the flesh, [in his own body\nwhich he took of the Virgin (1 Peter 2:24)] arm yourselves likewise\nwith the same mind': That is, let us die to sin as he did, that\nwe might live to God as he did, and doth (Rom 6:10). And thus have\nI briefly showed you.\n\nI. That the Son of Mary is very God.\n\nII. That he made the world.\n\nIII. That he is our Saviour, and how.\n\nIV. That he died for sinners, and how, namely, not in his divine\nnature, but in his human, in his own body, and in his own flesh\n(Col 1:22) redeeming his church with his own blood (Acts 20:28)\nand with his own life (1 John 3:16; John 10:18).\n\nWe shall now pass on to some other things (the Lord willing) touching\nhis burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession, second coming,\nresurrection of the body, and eternal judgment.\n\nHIS BURIAL PROVED.--I shall prove by several scriptures that he\nwas buried, and so pass on. Therefore see that place, Matthew\n27 verse 57 and so forward. After that Jesus the Son of God had\nbeen crucified a while, he gave up the ghost; that is, he died;\nand after he had been awhile dead, Joseph of Arimathea went into\nPilate, and begged the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave consent\nthereto. And Joseph took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in clean\nlinen, and laid it (viz. the body of Jesus) in his own tomb, and\nrolled a stone upon the mouth of the sepulchre, and departed. Also\nin Luke 23:51-53. The apostle Paul also teacheth so much (1 Cor\n15:3,4) where he saith, 'For I delivered unto you first of all that\nwhich I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according\nto the scripture; And that he was buried.' Again, in Acts 13:29\nthe apostle speaking there of Jesus Christ, saith, 'And when they\nhad fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from\nthe tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.' And so much touching the\nburial of Jesus Christ the Son of God.\n\nRESURRECTION. In the next place, I am to prove, That that very\nman, whom the Jews did crucify between two thieves, called Jesus\nChrist, did rise again. That very man, with that very body wherewith\nhe was crucified upon the cross, did rise again out of the grave\nin which he was laid. And this I shall prove 1. by scripture, 2.\nby the testimony of angels, 3. by Christ's own words after he was\nrisen, and 4. by the testimony of the apostles in the scripture.\n\nFirst therefore consider, Psalm 16 verse10 where the prophet speaks\non this wise of Christ's resurrection; 'For thou wilt not leave\nmy soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see\ncorruption.' Which words the Apostle Peter cites in Acts 2 from\nverse 22 to 32, also Isaiah 26:19 in the person of Christ saith,\n'Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall\nthey rise.' See also John 20:15, 16 where mention is made of his\nappearing unto Mary Magdalene, and he called her Mary, and she\ncalled him master; which signifies that he was risen, and that\nshe knew him after his resurrection; for he was come out of the\ngrave, see verses 6, 7, 8. Again, another scripture is that in Luke\n24:1-3. The disciples of Jesus coming to the sepulchre, thinking\nto anoint the body of Jesus, found the stone that was on the mouth\nof the sepulchre rolled away; and when they went in, they found\nnot the body of the Lord Jesus; and at this they were troubled and\nperplexed (v 4). But as two of them went up to Emmaus, and were\ntalking of what had befallen to Jesus, Jesus himself drew near,\nand went with them (v 15). Another scripture is that in Mark 16:9\nwhich saith on this wise, 'Now when Jesus was risen early the first\nday of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalen, out of whom\nhe had cast seven devils.' Where take notice how the Holy Ghost\nlays it down in these words, out of whom he had cast seven devils.\nTo intimate to us the certainty, that it was the same Jesus that\nwas born of the virgin Mary, who did many miracles, and cured many\ndiseases, who did also cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalen,\nthat did rise again. Yea, saith the Holy Ghost, it was the same\nJesus that did work such a wonderful miracle on Mary, he appeared\nto her first, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And let these\nscriptures suffice to prove the resurrection of the Son of God.\n\nSecond, you shall have the testimony of the holy angels also by the\nscriptures. And first look into Mark 16:3-7 the words are these,\n'And they [viz. the disciples] said among themselves, Who shall\nroll us away the stone?' They had a good mind to see their Lord,\nbut they could not, as they thought, get away the stone which\ncovered the mouth of the sepulchre. 'And when they looked [that\nis, towards the sepulchre] they saw that the stone was rolled\naway: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they\nsaw a young man [that is, an angel] sitting on the right side,\nclothed in a long white garment; and They [the disciples] were\naffrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted [you have\nno cause for it] Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified:\nhe is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid\nhim.' What scripture can be plainer spoken than this? Here is an\nangel of the Lord ready to satisfy the disciples of Jesus, that\nhe was risen from the dead. And lest they should think it was not\nthe right Jesus he spoke of, Yes, saith he, it is the same Jesus\nthat you mean; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, do you not? Why he is\nrisen, he is not here. But do you speak seriously, and in good\nearnest? Yea surely, if you will not believe me, behold the place\nwhere they laid him. This scripture, or testimony is very clear\nto our purpose. But again, the next place is in Matthew 28:3-7.\nIn the third verse there is an angel (as before) bearing witness\nof the resurrection of Jesus. 'His countenance was like lightning,\nand his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did\nshake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said\nunto them, [viz. to the women who came to seek Jesus] Fear not\nye': but let them that seek to keep the Lord in his grave fear if\nthey will; for you have no ground of fear, who seek Jesus who was\ncrucified; He is not here, for he is risen; he cannot be in body\nhere and risen too: If you will not believe me, come, see where\nthe Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is\nrisen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee,\nthere shall you see him. But shall we be sure of it? Yea, saith\nthe angel, Lo, it is I that have told you. See how plainly this\nscripture also doth testify of Christ his resurrection. Here,\nsaith the angel, you seek a Saviour and none will content you but\nhe, even the same that was crucified: Well you shall have him,\nbut he is not here. Why, where is he then? He is risen from the\ndead. But are you sure it is the same that we look for? Yea, it is\nthe same that was crucified (v 5). But where should we find him?\nwhy, he goeth before you into Galilee, where he used to be in his\nlife-time, before he was crucified: And that you might be sure of\nit, there to find him, know that he is an angel of God that hath\ntold you (v 7). And thus have you in brief the testimony of the\nangels of God, to witness that Jesus the son of the virgin, the\nSon of God, is risen from the dead.\n\nObject. But you will say, might they not be deceived? Might not\ntheir eyes dazzle, and they might think they did see such a thing,\nwhen indeed there was no such matter?\n\nAns. Well, because it is so difficult a matter, to be persuaded\nof the truth of this thing, that Christ is raised again out of\nthe grave, that very man, with that very body; though these things\nthat have been already spoken, might be enough (through grace)\nto satisfy, yet because of the unbelief of some, we shall turn to\nsome more of those infallible proofs that are spoken of in Acts\n1:3 to prove the point yet more clear.\n\nThird, Do but see how the Lord doth deal with an unbelieving\ndisciple (John 20:23-29). You shall see in the 23d verse, Christ\nafter his resurrection is talking with his disciples, but Thomas\nwas not with them. But when the disciples saw him again, they\nsaid unto him, We have seen the Lord (v 25) but Thomas would not\nbelieve them. Another time Jesus comes to his disciples again,\nand then Thomas was with them; then so soon as the Lord had said,\n'Peace be unto you,' he turned himself to Thomas, and said to him;\n'Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach\nhither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless,\nbut believing' (v 27). As much as if the Lord should have said,\nCome Thomas, thou hast doubted of the truth of my resurrection\nvery much; thou sayest that thou wilt not believe, except thou do\nfeel with thy fingers the print of the nails, and do thrust thy\nhand into my side. Come Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold\nmy hands, and see if there were not the nails driven through them;\nand reach hither thy hands and thrust them into my side, and feel\nif I have not the very hold in it still, that was made with the\nspear that the soldier did thrust into it, and be not so full of\nunbelief, but believe that my resurrection is a glorious truth.\n\nAnother infallible proof, is that in Luke 24 from the 36th, to\nthe end of the 44th verse. In verse 30 it is said that the Lord,\n(even while they were talking) 'stood in the midst of them and\nsaith unto them, Peace be unto you': But they were so far from\nbeing at peace, that they were terrified, and supposed that they\nhad seen a spirit. And Jesus said to them, 'Why are ye troubled,\nand why do thoughts arise in your hearts?' What, do you think that\nI am a spirit? Do you think your eyes dazzle? 'Behold my hands\nand my feet.' Look well upon me, and see my hands, and the holes\nin them, and likewise my feet, and the holes in them, and know\nthat it is I myself, and not a spirit, as you suppose. Know, that\nit is I myself, and not another. Doth your hearts fail you? Then\ntake hold of me with your hands, yea, 'handle me, and see; for a\nspirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he\nhad thus spoken he shewed them his hands and his feet.' As if he\nhad said, Come my disciples, take special notice of me, do not be\ndaunted, nor affrighted, but consider that it is I myself. Well,\nthey could not believe as yet, but wondered that such a thing as\nthis should be: And while they were thus wondering he will give\nthem another infallible proof: And 'he said unto them, have you\nhere any meat?' (v 41). As if the Lord had said, Come my disciples,\nI see that you are very full of unbelief, if you have here any\nmeat, you shall see me eat before you all. And they gave him a\npiece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, 'And he took it, and\ndid eat before them.' Again (v 42), the Lord strives with another\ninfallible proof against their doubting, saying, My disciples,\ndo you not remember what discourse you and I had before I was\ncrucified, how that I told you, that all things must be fulfilled\nwhich were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets\nconcerning me (Mark 8:31, 14:21). Another infallible proof was,\nthat appearance of his at the sea of Tiberias, where he came to\nthem on the shore, and called them, and provided for them a dinner,\nand wrought a notable miracle while he was there with them at that\ntime, namely, the catching of 153 great fishes, and yet their net\nbreak not. (John 21, read that whole chapter, and Acts 10:41.)\nWhich as it was a great miracle, so it did also show his power\nand authority over his creatures. Besides his eating and drinking\nwith his disciples after his resurrection; and also his preaching\nto them (Acts 1:3). This is not the least, viz. that he was with\nhis disciples on earth forty days, which was almost six weeks,\nspeaking to them the things concerning his kingdom: which was a\nmighty confirmation of their faith in his resurrection.\n\nFourth, I shall now briefly touch two or three scriptures, the\nwhich hold forth his disciples' testimony of his resurrection.\nAnd the first is in Acts 10:40, 41. In which place the Apostle\nspeaking of the Lord Jesus, saith, 'Him God raised up the third\nday, and shewed him openly,' yet 'Not to all the people, but unto\nwitnesses chosen before of God, even to us [saith the Apostle] who\ndid eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.' Again,\nActs 4:10 and 13:29-31. The words run thus (the Apostle speaking\nof Jesus, saith) 'And when they had fulfilled all that was written\nof him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a\nsepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many\ndays of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem,\nwho are his witnesses unto the people.' See 1 Corinthians 15:1-8.\nAnd thus far touching his resurrection from the dead.\n\nASCENSION. In the next place I am to prove that this very man,\nChrist Jesus, the Son of the virgin, in his very body, the same\nbody that was crucified, is above the clouds and the heavens. And\nthough this is made light of by those men called quakers, and other\ninfidels of this generation: Yet I am sure that it will prove true\nto their cost, who reject it as erroneous and vain. But to prove\nit, First, I shall prove that he is ascended. Secondly, that he\nis ascended above the clouds, and the heaven.\n\nFirst, that he is ascended, see Ephesians 4:8-10. 'Wherefore\n[saith the Apostle] When he ascended up on high, he led captivity\ncaptive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is\nit but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the\nearth, he that descended is the same also that ascended [again]\nup far above all heavens.'\n\nAgain, read John 20:17 where Christ after his resurrection from\nthe dead, saith to Mary Magdalen, 'Touch me not; for I am not\nyet ascended to my Father': That is, I have not yet ascended with\nthis my body wherewith I was crucified on the cross. 'But go to\nmy brethren, and say unto them [meaning his disciples] I ascend\nunto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.'\n\nObject. But in that place, (may some say) (Eph 4:10) He that\ndescended, is said to be the same that ascended. Now there was no\nhuman nature with God in heaven before the world was; Therefore\nif he be but the same that was with the Father from all eternity,\nthen the humanity of the Son of Mary is not ascended into heaven.\n\nAns. For answer, It is clear from John 1:1 that the Word or Son\nof God, as he was a Spirit, was with the Father before the world\nwas (Titus 1:2). But now, in the fulness of time, that is, when\nthat time that the Father and he had concluded on, was come, 'God\nsent forth his son [which was with him before the world was (John\n17:5)] made of a woman' (Gal 4:4); that is, born of a woman. 'And\ntook upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness\nof men' (Phil 2:6,7). Now as he was born of a woman, as he was\nin the likeness of men, so he ascended to the right hand of his\nFather, in our nature. And for this, I pray turn to Acts 1:9-11\nand there you shall find, that he is the same that was born of the\nvirgin, that very man that was crucified; if you compare verse 3\nwith verses 9, 10, 11 you will find it so to be. Now in verse 9\nafter he had spoken many things while they beheld, that is, while\nhis disciples looked on him, he was taken up, that is, he was taken\nup from them into heaven, as in verse 11 and a cloud received him\nout of their sight. And while they looked up stedfastly towards\nheaven, as he went up (which heaven, was not within them; if it\nhad, they needed not to have looked toward the clouds and the\nheaven without them) behold two men stood by them, not in them,\nin white apparel, which also said (that is, the two men, or angels\nwhich stood by them said) Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing\nup into heaven? Here again, they did not look within them, but\nstood gazing or looking after the Lord Jesus, the Son of Mary,\nwho was carried away from them in a cloud (v 9). But why (say the\nangels) do you stand gazing so much into heaven: your master will\ncome again after a certain time (Matt 25:19; Mark 13:34). For,\nThis same Jesus, namely, which was crucified, which rose again,\nand hath been with you these forty days, which also you see go\ninto heaven, shall so come, (namely in a cloud) as ye have seen\nhim go into heaven (Acts 1:3). But shall he not lose his body\nbefore he come again? No say the angels, he shall so come, that\nis, as ye have seen him go; in like manner, that is, with the same\nbody. Or else I am sure he cannot come in the same manner, if he\nlose his body before he comes again; for he went thither with that\nbody. But that same Jesus that was crucified, is he that went,\nor ascended up into heaven. If you compare Luke 24:39-44 with the\n50th and 51st verses of the same chapter, you may clearly find it\nso to be. And therefore if he come again in like manner, he must\ncome again with the same body wherewith he was crucified.\n\nObject. But you will say, The scripture saith, he that descended\nis the same that ascended, which to me (say you) implies, none\nbut the Spirit's ascending?\n\nAns. For answer, we do not say, (as I said before) that it is\nanother that ascended, but the very same: That is, the very same\nChrist, that was with the Father from everlasting did come down\nfrom heaven: That same Christ also that came down from heaven did\nascend up thither again; only, he descended without a body from\nheaven, and took flesh and blood upon him from the virgin. And\nthough he descended without a body, yet he, the very same Christ\nthat descended without a body, the same did ascend again with\na body, even that very body that he took of the virgin Mary. See\nLuke 24 from 39th to 51st verses; Acts 2:30, 31; John 15:1; 1\nCorinthians 9:24, 25. Now let me give you a similitude, for it is\nwarrantable; for both Christ and his apostles did sometimes use\nthem, to the end, souls might be better informed. The similitude\nis this, Suppose there come into thine house a man that is naked,\nand without clothing, though he go out of thy house again well\nclothed, yet the same man that came in without clothing, is the\nsame man also that goes out of thy house, though very well clothed.\nEven so it is in this case, The Lord Jesus came into the womb of\nthe virgin, Spirit (Matt 1:18), but he came out of the womb clothed\nwith a body, and went up into heaven again clothed with a body.\nCompare Luke 24:39 with Acts 1:11 and 2 :30, 31.\n\nNow also I shall lay down some few things to be considered, for\nthe better clearing of it.\n\nConsider 1. That he did say to his disciples that he would go away\nfrom them (John 14:3, 16:7; Matt 25:19). Yea, saith he, I go and\nprepare a place for you, and then I will, after a long time, come\nagain, and take you to myself, that where I am, that is, whither\nI am going, there ye may be also. Now, I say, if Christ had not\ngone from his disciples (for that was his meaning) touching his\nbodily presence; I say, if he had not gone away from them, in respect\nof his bodily presence, he had said more than he had performed;\nwhich is horrible blasphemy once to assert; which going of his,\nis his going into heaven. See 1 Peter 3:22.\n\nConsider 2. That there it was that he was to receive the promise\nof the Father (Luke 24:49), which promise was the shedding forth\nin an abundant manner the blessed Holy Ghost. And for this see\nActs 2:33-36, 'Therefore being by the right hand of God [which is\nin heaven] exalted, and having received of the Father the promise\nof the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and\nhear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith\nhimself, the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,\nuntil I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house\nof Israel know assuredly [for 'tis very true] that God hath made\nthat same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.'\n\nConsider 3. That if he were on earth, he could not be a priest (Heb\n8:4). Now the man Christ Jesus is a glorious priest (Heb 7:24) in\nthe heavens (Heb 9:24). And therefore he is able to save to the\nuttermost, all that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to\nmake intercession for them. (This man (7:25)).\n\nConsider 4. If he be not gone into heaven, both his own, and his\nApostles' doctrine is false; yea, the witness of the angels also,\nwhich to think were damnable infidelity in any man (1 Peter 3:22;\nActs 1:9-11).\n\nConsider 5. Know that he is gone into heaven, because the scriptures\nsay he is; which is the very truth of God, spoken by his holy\nApostles and prophets: Yea, holy men of God, spake them as they\nwere moved by the Holy Ghost (Eph 6:9; 1 Peter 3:22; Heb 9:24).\n\nConsider 6. If thou sayest that that man is not gone into heaven,\nthen thou must also conclude that he is still in the grave; and if\nso, then thou sayest that the prophets, apostles, angels, Christ,\nGod, and all are liars, who have testified these things in the\nscriptures for glorious truths (Isa 26:19; Acts 10:40-43, 13:30-39,\n1:9-11; Rev 1:17,18, 2:8). And as the Apostle saith of himself,\nand the rest of the Apostles and ministers of Jesus Christ, 'And\nwe are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified\nof God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be\nthat the dead rise not.--But now is Christ risen from the dead,\nand become the first fruits of them that slept. For as by man\ncame death, by MAN came also the resurrection of the dead' (1 Cor\n15:15,20-22).\n\nSecond, Now I am to prove, that he is above the clouds and the\nheavens. My meaning is, he is above the lowest heavens. For there\nare three, as appears in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4. I knew a man in\nChrist, (saith Paul there) caught up into the third heaven. Now,\n\nHeaven in scripture, is taken sometimes metaphorically, and sometimes\nproperly. First, Metaphorically it is taken for the church and\npeople of God, as in Revelation 12:12. Second, Properly, it is\ntaken for the material heaven, where the sun, moon, and stars are\nplaced, as in Genesis 1:8, 14, 15, 16 compared together: above\nwhich heaven, Jesus the Son of Mary is ascended. Therefore I pray\nyou consider with me a little.\n\nConsider 1. That when he went into this heaven into which he is\ngone, he went AWAY from his disciples, as it is written, If I go\nnot away, the comforter will not come (John 14:2,3; John 16:7;\nActs 1:9-11). So that he did not go into a heaven within them in\nhis person and human nature. If so, he must needs go into that\nheaven without, above the clouds and the stars (Gen 1:8,5,16).\n\nConsider 2. He was caught away in a cloud; yea, and was caught\nupwards from them, as it is Acts 1:9-11 and carried away into\nheaven; yea, and his disciples stood gazing or looking up after\nhim into heaven, which heaven must needs be that above the clouds.\n(1.) If you consider the posture of the disciples, they looked\nupwards after the cloud that did take him away. (2.) Consider the\nmanner of his going, it was in a cloud. (3.) He was received out\nof their sight. (4.) And so received up into heaven; which heaven\nmust needs be above the clouds, where God is in his special presence\n(Job 22:12-14). But further,\n\nConsider 3. That those believers that are alive at this day in\nthe body, 'are absent from the Lord' (2 Cor 5:6), but now, if the\nman Christ were ascended into that heaven within them, he would\nneither be 'absent from them,' nor they from him; but in that he\nis absent from them touching his bodily presence, and they from\nhim touching the same, it is evident that that heaven into which\nhe is ascended, must needs be without, above the clouds.\n\nConsider 4. That that heaven into which the man Christ is ascended,\nmust contain him till the time of the restitution of all things,\nas in Acts 3:21 into which heaven he hath been ascended above\nsixteen hundred years by computation. And I am sure there is not\na saint that doth live in the world half so long, before he fall\nasleep, and be gathered to his fathers; so that that heaven into\nwhich he is ascended, is not within, but must needs be that above\nthe clouds. But\n\nConsider 5. That he that ascended from his disciples, was a man,\nwith flesh and bones, not a sprit only; for handle me, and\nsee, (saith he) for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see\nme have (Luke 24:39,50,51). Now let the adversaries show by the\nscriptures, that there is any place in them called heaven, that\nis able to contain a man of some four or five feet long, the space\nof fifteen or sixteen hundred years; besides that: therefore, it\nmust needs be that heaven without, which is above the clouds and\nstars.\n\nConsider 6. That heaven into which the Lord Jesus that man is\nascended must not contain him always; for, saith the Apostle (1\nThess 4:16) 'The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a\nshout, with the voice of the archangel.' So that there is another\ndescending from that heaven into which he is ascended; and his\ndescending from that heaven is to this end, namely, to take his\npeople to himself, as it is verse 17 so that it is clear that it\nis not any heaven within thee, into which the man Christ that was\nborn of the Virgin Mary is ascended, but it must needs be that\nheaven without, which is above the clouds (Heb 12:22). If thou\nconsider, that the place into which he ascended, even the heaven\ninto which he is entered, is the same place where all the deceased\nsaints are in their spirits: 'Therefore,' saith Paul, 'I desire\nto depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.' Now Paul\ndid not in this place (Phil 1:23) mean the enjoying of Christ\nonly in the Spirit; for that he enjoyed in great measure when he\nspake these words; but he spake of a dying, and being with Christ\nafter this life is ended; as is clear if you compare the 20th to\nthe 26th verses together, being absent from him while he was here\nin the body (2 Cor 5:6). For 'whilst we are at home in the body,\nwe are absent from the Lord.'\n\nConsider 7. That that heaven into which the man Christ is ascended,\nis not into his church on earth; but into heaven without, above\nthe clouds and the stars (John 16:7, 14:1-3; 1 Tim 2:5). And this\nDavid doth prophesy of (Psa 47:5), where he saith, 'God is gone up\nwith a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.' Now Christ,\nas God merely, could not go up, being no less in one place than\nanother; but as God-man, or in his human nature, he went up; as\nwill clearly appear (Eph 4:8-10) where he speaketh of his triumph\nover all the enemies of his people at his resurrection and ascension\ninto heaven above the clouds.\n\nConsider 8. When Christ doth descend from that heaven into which\nhe is now ascended, his saints and he will meet one another, just\nin the air, according to the scripture (1 Thess 4:16,17), 'For,'\n(saith he) 'the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a\nshout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:\nand the dead in Christ shall rise first: [that is, they shall come\nout of their graves]. Then we which [shall be saved] are alive\n[at that day] and remain shall be caught up together with them in\nthe clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be\nwith the Lord.'\n\nPray mark here a little, and see what heaven the man Christ is\nascended into, and see if it be not the heaven without, above the\nsun, moon, and stars.\n\nWhen Christ and his saints do meet a second time together, the\none ascends and the other descends; the one is caught up in the\nclouds towards the heaven, the other descends from heaven towards\nthe earth, and they must needs meet one another just in the air,\nthat is, between the heaven and the earth. So then, the one coming\nfrom heaven and the other from the earth, and their meeting being\nin the air, which is between heaven and earth, is an undeniable\ndemonstration, that that heaven into which the man Christ is\nascended, must needs be that heaven without, above the sun, moon,\nand stars (Phil 3:20; 1 Thess 1:10). And thus much touching the\nSon of Mary, his ascending up into the heaven without above the\nclouds (Acts 1:9-11, 3:21; 1 Peter 3:22).\n\nINTERCESSION. In the next place, now I shall prove the intercession\nof the man Christ Jesus to be in the heaven that I have been\nspeaking of; though some have mocked at it, and others have called\nit juggling; which names here I shall not mention, only I shall\nadmonish them, that they do not blaspheme the truth and Son of\nGod in his intercession.\n\nI shall quote some of the scriptures that hold out this truth,\nand so pass on.\n\nFirst, And first of all, see Psalm 16:4 where David prophesying\nof the intercession of Christ, saith, 'Their sorrows shall be\nmultiplied that hasten after another God, [speaking of the wicked]\ntheir drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their\nnames into my lips.' Now, compare this with Hebrews 8:4 where\nhe saith, 'if he were on earth, he should not be a priest.' And\nHebrews 9:24, 'For Christ is not entered into the holy places\nmade with hands, [meaning the temple which Solomon built] which\nare the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear\nin the presence of God for us': 'wherefore he is able also to save\nthem to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever\nliveth to make intercession for them' (Heb 7:25).\n\nSecond, But you will say, is there a man made mention of here?\nYes, for the scripture saith, 'There is one God, and one mediator\nbetween God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5). And in\nthat 8th to the Hebrews made mention of before; where the Apostle\nis speaking of Christ's priestly office, as he is in the heavens,\ncompared with other priests that are on earth; he saith (v 3),\n'For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices:\nwherefore [speaking of Christ] it is of necessity that this man\nhave somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should\nnot be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts\naccording to the law,' which law was the law of Moses (9:19-23),\nwhere also he is speaking of the priesthood of the priests under\nthe law, and their offering of the blood of bulls and goats (v 12\ncompared with vv 19-21). And of the Lord Jesus the high priests\nof saints, and of his blood (v 14 compared with v 24). Now as men\nunder the law did offer up the blood of bulls and goats, so the\nman Christ Jesus did offer up his own blood to his Father; and this\nyou may clearly see, if you compare Hebrews 9:14 where he saith,\n'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal\nSpirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences\nfrom dead works to serve the living God?' [with] Hebrews 10:12\nwhere he saith, 'But this man [meaning the Son of the Virgin (2:14\ncompared with Matt 1:21)] after he had offered one sacrifice for\nsins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God'; again (Heb 7)\nthe chapter I mentioned before, you shall find his intercession\nplainly held forth, if you read verse 22 and so on, where the\nscripture saith, 'By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better\ntestament. And they truly were many priests [meaning the priests\nunder the law] because they were not suffered to continue by\nreason of death': (that is, the high-priest under the law, could\nnot live ever in this world, because it was appointed to all men\nonce to die) (Rev 2:8). But when he speaks of Christ Jesus, he\nsaith on this wise, 'But this man, because he continueth ever,\nhath an unchangeable priesthood' (Rev 1:18). Wherefore he (this\nman) is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto\nGod by him, seeing he (this man) ever liveth to make intercession\nfor them. And thus in brief have I proved through the assistance\nof the Lord, the intercession of the Son of Mary, which is also\nthe Son of God. And this concerning Christ's priestly office,\nmight serve also for a proof of his being in the heaven without,\nabove the stars. But all men may see (unless they be blind) that\nthese are the truths of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of God his\nFather; and that those men that oppose them (as the quakers do)\nare very violently possessed of the devil, and besides themselves;\nand have neither the truth of God, nor his Spirit in them (2 John\n9:10; John 5:38,42).\n\n[CHRIST JUDGE OF QUICK AND DEAD.] And now through the assistance\nof the Lord, I shall come to the last that I promised, and that\nis to prove, that this very man Christ, will come to judge the\nquick and the dead. And first, I shall prove the truth itself,\nviz., That that man shall come again to judge the world, quick\nand dead. Second, I shall shew you that his coming will be very\nshortly. Third, What shall be done at his coming. fourth, Who\nshall stand when he shall come, and who not.\n\nFirst, That that man that was born of the Virgin Mary shall come\nagain to judge the quick and the dead, read 2 Timothy 4:1. 'I,\n[saith Paul] charge thee therefore before God, [speaking to him,\neven to Timothy, and so to all believers] and the Lord Jesus\nChrist, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing\nand his kingdom.' Now if you would know who this Lord Jesus is,\nlook into Acts 10:28 and you shall see it was Jesus of Nazareth;\nwould you know who that was? read Matthew 2 towards the end, and\nyou shall see it was the Son of Mary the Virgin, who was espoused\nto Joseph the carpenter. But read Acts 10:38-42, you shall find\nthese words, 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost\nand with the power: who went about doing good, and healing all\nthat were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him: And we\nare witness of things which he did both in the land of the Jews,\nand in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree, [even\nJesus of Nazareth] Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him\nopenly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before\nof God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose\nfrom the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, [that\nis, God commanded us] and to testify [that is, to be bold in our\npreaching] that it is he [namely, Jesus of Nazareth, whom the\nJews did thus crucify] which was ordained of God to be the judge\nof quick and dead.' This is he also that is spoken of in Acts\n17:30, 31. 'The times of this ignorance God winked at; [meaning\nmen's being without the gospel] but now commandeth all men everywhere\nto repent: Because he hath appointed a day [which day is the day\nof judgment (Matt 12:36)] in the which he will judge the world\nin righteousness, by that man [namely, Jesus of Nazareth] whom he\nhath ordained, [compare this with that in Acts 10:38-42] whereof\nhe hath given assurance unto all men [that is, hath given a sure\nsign unto all men] in that he hath raised him, [that is, in that\nhe hath raised Jesus of Nazareth] from the dead.' This also is\nChrist's own meaning (Matt 24) where speaking of his second coming,\nhe styleth himself the Son of man, saying: 'And then shall appear\nthe sign of the Son of man' (v 30), and 'so shall also the coming\nof the Son of man be' (v 27). So shall also the coming of the Son\nof man be (v 37). So shall also the coming of the Son of man be\n(v 39). Where, by the way, it is observable to see how the Lord\nof life and glory doth in this chapter, where he speaketh of his\nsecond coming, for the most part style himself the Son of man.\nSure he doth it to this end, because he will not have his humanity\nand the doctrine thereof, to be razed out from under heaven: For\nhe knew, that in the last days, there would come mockers 'walking\nafter their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his\ncoming' (2 Peter 3:3). I could multiply scriptures to prove this\ndoctrine of his second coming, as Hebrews 9:28; 2 Peter 3; 2 Thess\n1:6-8; Luke 21; Matt 24, 25; Eve 22:7, 12 and 20; 2 Corinthians\n5:10; Romans 14:10; Acts 24:25. But,\n\nSecondly, I will shew you that his coming will be shortly. It is\ntrue, no man can tell neither the day nor the hour, yet so far as\nthe scriptures will give us light into the nearness of his coming,\nso far we may go. And if you read Matthew 24 you shall see many\nsings of his coming spoken of.\n\n1. There is falling away from the faith spoken of. And that hath\nbeen fulfilled and is fulfilling every day.\n\n2. Wars and rumours of wars is another sign that his coming doth\ndraw night, even at the doors.\n\n3. The love of many waxing cold, is another sign that it is nigh,\neven the coming of Christ. And how cold is the love of many at\nthis day? They that were hot two or three years ago, are now grown\nlukewarm and cold. They are cold in the Lord's appearing. They\nare cold in the profession of the gospel. They are cold in love to\nthe saints, they are cold in the worship of God; Yea, very cold,\nwhich is a notable demonstration that the coming of the Lord\ndraweth nigh.\n\n4. The stars falling from heaven; (That is professors falling\nfrom the faith which once they professed) is another sign that\nthe coming of the Lord is at hand. And how many professors do you\nsee now a-days, fall from the doctrine of God, and his Son Jesus\nChrist, as though there were no such thing as a world to come,\nand no such thing as a Lord Jesus Christ, and his second coming.\n\n5. Many poor souls will go on in their profession with lamps\nwithout oil, just before his second coming (Matt 25:1-7). And the\nLord knows that most of the professors of this generation, are\nsuch kind of professors, yea, very foolish professors, which is\nanother sure sign, that the coming of the Lord draws nigh.\n\n6. When the time of Christ's second coming is at hand, there will\nbe but a very little faith in the world. And the Lord knows, that\nthere be many, who are now as high as lucifer, that at that day\nfor want of faith will be thrown down to the sides of the pit:\neven in the very belly of hell.\n\n7. Another sign of Christ's second coming, is the carnal mindedness\nof the most of the world; and the very carriages of almost all\nmen now living do discover this truth to be at this day fulfilled,\nand know that when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden\ndestruction comes, and they shall not escape (1 Thess 5:1-4).\n\n8. Before Christ's second coming, there shall come many false Christs\nand false prophets, and shall shew great signs, and wonders, to\nseduce if it were possible the elect (Matt 24:24; Mark 13:22). And\nis not this more clearly fulfilled in our days than ever it was,\nespecially among those men called quakers, who being as persons,\nwhose consciences are seared with an hot iron, and they being sealed\nup unto destruction, do some of them call themselves Christ, and\nshew great signs, (as their quaking) and such a legal holiness, as\nmakes the simple admire them, and wonder after them, which shews\nthe coming of Christ to be very nigh.\n\n9. Before Christ's second coming, there shall come scoffers in\nthe world, walking after their own lusts (2 Peter 3:3) and if ever\nthis scripture was fulfilled, it is fulfilled on these men called\nquakers: For they are the men, that at this day make a mock\nat Christ's second coming, which shall be from heaven without (1\nThess 1:10; Phil 3:20); and therefore saith the Holy Ghost, these\nmockers shall be such as shall say, where is the promise of his\ncoming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as\nthey were, see 2 Peter 3:3-7. And there you shall see their mocking\nand the reason of it. Read and the Lord give thee understanding.\nBut I would not have thee think that I speak at random, in this\nthing, Know for certain, that I myself have heard them blaspheme;\nyea, with a grinning countenance, at the doctrine of that man's\nsecond coming from heaven above the stars, who was born of the\nVirgin Mary. Yea, they have told me to my face, that I have used\nconjuration, and witchcraft, because what I preached was according\nto the scriptures. I was also told to my face, that I preached up\nan idol, because I said, that the Son of Mary was in heaven, with\nthe same body that was crucified on the cross; And many other\nthings have they blasphemously vented against the Lord of life and\nglory, and his precious gospel. The Lord reward them according as\ntheir work shall be.\n\nI could have hinted in many other things which Christ and his\nApostles have shewed to be signs of his coming. But I shall commend\nthe holy scriptures unto thee, which are able to make the man of\nGod perfect in all things, through faith in the Lord Jesus (2 Tim\n3:17).\n\nNow you have also the manner of his coming how it shall be, most\nnotably laid down in the scriptures. I shall hint in a few things\ntouching it.\n\n1. He will come when there is but very few looking for his coming.\n'When they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction\ncometh' (1 Thess 5:1-3). Which sudden destruction will be at his\nsecond coming, for that is it which the Apostle spake of in those\nthree verses. Then will all the world be caught at such an unexpected\ntime, that it will come upon them, even as a snare cometh upon\nthose creatures that are caught in it. As it is written (Luke\n21:35) 'For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the\nface of the whole earth.' Which is all on a sudden, before they\nare aware.\n\n2. He cometh with all his saints and angels. Then will the Lord\ndescend from that heaven, into which he is now ascended, as it is\nwritten in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Then will he come, and all his\nsaints with him, as Jude saith in his Epistle, 15. then shall\nAbel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, David and Job, Peter and Paul:\nTogether with all the saints which have been, now are, or hereafter\nshall be, and they shall sit on the throne with the Lord Jesus\nChrist, as in Matthew 19:28. Before whom shall all the nations\nof the world be gathered, as it is written (Joel 3:12). 'Let the\nheathen be wakened [or raised out of their graves (Dan 12:2)]\nand come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to\njudge the heathen round about.' Which never was yet accomplished,\nthough it shall certainly be, in God's time: To the astonishment,\nand everlasting damnation of all those that shall continue mocking,\nor sinning against God and his Christ.\n\n3. He shall come in a flaming fire, (when he doth come again: he\nwill come in such a manner, as will make all that shall be found\nin their sins rather seek to creep under a mountain, than to meet\nthe Lord of glory (Rev 6:15)). As Isaiah saith, 'For, behold, the\nLORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind,\nto render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire'\n(Isa 66:15). 'To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all\nthat are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they\nhave ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which\nungodly sinners have spoken against him' (Jude 15), as I shall\nshew farther by and by.\n\nThird, And therefore in the next place, I shall shew you, what\nshall be done when he is come.\n\n1. When Christ is come the second time, they that are in their\ngraves shall arise, and come forth of their graves (as I said\nbefore) in which they have lain according to that in John 5:28, 29.\nWhere Christ saith, 'Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming,\nin the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and\nshall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection\nof life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of\ndamnation.' You will say, Are these graves spoken of here, the\ngraves that are made in the earth? Yea, that they are, and for\na further proof of the same, look into Daniel 12:2. Daniel there\nspeaking of the same thing saith, 'And many of them that sleep in\nthe dust of the earth shall awake, [or arise] some to everlasting\nlife, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' (or damnation).\n\nI shall not stand here to dispute any distinctions of the\nresurrections, only prove that the dead shall arise; and that is\na clear truth from the scriptures (Acts 10:42; Rev 20:11-14; 1\nThess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52). 'The dead shall be raised.'\n\n2. He shall call all men and women to an account for all their[3]\nclose sinful thoughts, words and actions; then will the secrets\nof all hearts be made manifest. Then shall all thy adulterous,\nand thievish, and covetous, idolatrous, and blasphemous thoughts\nbe laid open, according to that saying, 'Their consciences also\nbearing witness, and their thoughts the mean [time, or] while accusing\nor else excusing one another' (Rom 2:15). But when? Why, 'In the\nday when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ' (v\n16). See also 1 Corinthians 4:5, 'Therefore judge nothing before\nthe time.' What time is that? Why, when the Lord comes; what will\nhe do? He 'will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,'\nthat is, all those cunning, close, hidden wickednesses that thou\nin thy life-time hast committed; yea, he will 'make manifest the\ncounsels of the hearts'; that is, the most hidden and secret things\nthat are contrived and plotted by the sons of men. Then shall all\nthe midnight whore-mongers be laid open with all their sins; Then\nthou (it may be) who has committed such sins as thou wouldest not\nhave thy neighbour, thy father, thy wife, thy husband, or any one\nelse know of for thousands, then thou shalt have them all laid\nopen, even upon the house tops (Luke 12:3). Then thou that hatest\nGod's children; his ways, his word, his Spirit; then thou that\nmakest a mock at Jesus of Nazareth's second coming, then thou\nthat livest in open prophaneness, or secret hypocrisy, then I say,\nwill be such a time of reckoning for you, as never was since the\nworld began, then you that shall die in your sins, will cry to\nthe mountains, Fall on us, and cover us from the face of him that\nsits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (which Lamb\nis the Man Christ Jesus (John 1:29)). And ah, my friends! If the\nvery looks of God be so terrible, what will his blows be, think\nyou? Then if all thy idle words shall be accounted for, as it is\nwritten, 'But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall\nspeak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment' (Matt\n12:36) and also all thy filthy actions shall be then regarded in\nsuch sort, as thou shalt receive a just recompense for them. And\nknow, saith the scripture, 'that for all these things, God will\nbring thee into judgment' (Eccl 11:9). Then\n\nThou that art an unbeliever, shalt be sure to fall under the judgment\nfor all thy sins. (1.) Thou must give an account. (2.) Thou must\nfall in the judgment. Oh my friends, there are hot days a-coming\nfor all those that are found out of the Lord Jesus: Behold, saith\nMalachi, 'The day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all\nthe proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and\nthe day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts,\nthat it shall leave them neither root nor branch' (4:1). The day\nof judgment will burn like an oven, and all that have not the\nrighteousness of Christ upon them shall be as stubble. Ah friends,\nput a red hot oven and stubble together, and what work will there\nbe! Even the one will burn and destroy the other.\n\n3. When Christ doth come the second time, another end of his coming\nwill be to pure out all things that offended in this kingdom (Matt\n13:41,42). 'The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they\nshall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them\nwhich do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire;\nthere shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.' There are many\nthings that do offend in his kingdom now: namely\n\n(1.) The lukewarm professor, he doth offend, (a.) the Lord, (b.)\nhis people. But then thou lukewarm offending professor shalt offend\nthe church of God no more.\n\n(2.) The loose professors do also offend God, Christ and his church.\n(a.) He scandals the gospel by his loose walking, and naughty\ncarriages. (b.) He doth make the world blaspheme the name of God\nby the same. (c.) He grieves the hearts of God's people (Phil\n3:18). But know that thou also shalt be taken away from offending\nany more, God, Christ, and his saints, and thou shalt have weeping\nand gnashing of teeth, for thy thus offending (Matt 18:6,7).\n\n4. Another end of Christ's second coming, is to cut off all the\nignorant persons that are in the world. There is a generation of\npoor souls that do think to be excused for their ignorance: Alas!\nsaith one, I am a poor ignorant man, or woman; and therefore I\nhope that the Lord will have mercy upon me: we cannot, say others,\ndo as such and such, and will the Lord condemn us? And thus poor\nsouls, as they are in the broad way to destruction, lest they\nshould miss of the way to hell; do swallow down by clusters, that\nwhich will poison them, body and soul for ever and ever.\n\nQuest. But you will say, What, will not the Lord have mercy on\nignorant souls?\n\nAns. Not on those who live and die in their ignorance. He himself\nhath said (Isa 27:11), 'For it is a people of no understanding:\ntherefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he\nthat formed them will shew them no favour.' Again, Paul also in\nthat 2 Thessalonians 1:8 saith, that when Jesus Christ shall come\nto judge the world, he doth come to take vengeance on all 'them\nthat know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.'\n\nBut ye will say, Who are those ignorant persons, that shall find\nno favour at that day? or how doth the ignorance discover itself?\nI shall only mention three or four sorts of men; and leave thee to\nthe scriptures, which if thou read them diligently, will further\nlay them open before thee. And,\n\n(1.) The profane scoffer, who makes a mock at the truths of God,\nand so goes on in his sins, for this see in 2 Peter 3:3 which\nthe apostle attributes to their ignorance (v 5). And therefore he\nlikens them to brute beasts (2:10,12) who 'walk after the flesh in\nthe lust of uncleanness,' and 'speak evil of the things that they\nunderstand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption';\nwho because they understand not the scripture, nor the power of\nGod in them, speak evil of the truths therein contained, and think\nthe Lord like unto themselves (Psa 50).\n\n(2.) The formal professor, who hath only a notion of the gospel,\nand some seeming holiness, but wants gospel faith: such are called\nfoolish virgins (Matt 25:2,3) to whom Christ will say in that day,\nVerily, 'I know you not.' Add hereto, those that think it enough\nto confess Christ with their mouths, and profess that they know\nGod, but deny him in their works; such notwithstanding all their\nprofession, shall, if they so continue, perish eternally, being\nabominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, or void\nof judgment, that is, ignorant (Titus 1:16).\n\n(3.) The legal righteous man or woman, though they walk blameless,\nas touching the righteousness that is in the law: For they being\nignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish their own\nrighteousness, as reading, hearing sermons, prayers, public or\nprivate, peaceableness with their neighbours, fasting, alms, good\nworks as they count them, just dealings, abstinence from the grosser\npollutions of the world, stricter obedience to the commandments\nof the first and second table; all which with many other things\nmay be comprehended in their own righteousness, and it is grounded\non their ignorance, and goes on in rebellion; and such ignorant\npersons shall in that day perish, not submitting through ignorance\nto the righteousness of God, Romans 10:3 compared with Luke 19:27\nwhere Christ saith, that when he shall come the second time, he\nwill command those his enemies, who submitted not themselves to\nhim, (who is called the righteousness of God (Isa 46:13)) or would\nnot have him to reign over them, to be slain before his face.\n\n(4.) Those whose hearts are set upon the world, and follow the\nalluring persuasions of it; the Lord calls such fools (Luke\n12:20; Prov 7:7), who go after it (viz. the world, held forth by\na similitude of a woman with the attire of an harlot) as an ox\nto the slaughter, or a fool to the correction of the stocks, till\na dart strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare,\nand knoweth not that it is for his life: and knows not, mark, it\nis through ignorance (v 23).\n\n5. A fit end of Christ's coming, is, that his righteous ones might\nshine as the sun in the glory, or kingdom of their father (Matt\n13:43). There are many things that do hinder the people of God\nfrom shining forth as the sun now.\n\nAs, They have a body of death, which makes them fetch many a groan\nin their journey to Canaan (Rom 7:24; 2 Cor 5:2). They meet with\nmany a sad temptation, which also makes them in heaviness many a\ntime (1 Peter 1:6). They have also many other things that do hinder\ntheir shining now; but then the body of death shall be left off.\nMy meaning is, that sin shall be no more in the natures of God's\npeople then: Their bodies that are now so vile, shall then be made\nlike unto the glorious body of the Son of God, 'Who shall change\nour vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious\nbody, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue\nall things unto himself' (Phil 3:21).\n\n6. Another end of Christ's coming shall be to take an account of\nhis children, how they have laid out their talents, that he hath\ncommitted to their trust (Matt 25:19; Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10).\n\n7. Another end of his coming is, to set up his kingdom, which\nwill be glorious indeed at his appearing (2 Tim 4:1; Rom 8:19-21).\nI do but touch these things, because I would hasten towards a\nconclusion; many other things might have been spoken to, but at\nthis time I shall forbear.\n\nBut you will say, Who shall stand when he appears? Why, I told\nyou before, that 'the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,\nnor sinners in the congregation of the righteous' (Psa 1:5). Let\nhim be close or profane, as I told you even now, all shall be laid\nopen, all shall be made manifest, all shall come into judgment.\n\nAh poor soul! It is not then thy brave words will save thee; it\nis not thine eloquent tongue that will then do thee any good:\nif thou be without the wedding garment, thou wilt be speechless,\nas in Matthew 22:12. But thou that art a converted person, shalt\nstand in the judgment; thou that art born again shalt enter into\nthe kingdom, and none else (John 3:5; Rev 21:27).\n\nBut how shall I know that I am born again?\n\n(1.) Why, if thou art born again, then thou knowest that thou wast\nnot born a Christian at first (Eph 2:1-3). 'You hath he quickened,\nwho were dead in trespasses and sins.'\n\n(2.) Thou knowest that once thou hadst no faith in the Lord Jesus;\nand wert convinced of sin because thou didst not believe in the\nSon of Mary (John 16:9).\n\n(3.) Thou seest all true joy through the blood and righteousness\nof the Son of Mary (1 Cor 15:57; Rom 7:25).\n\n(4.) Art thou born again? Then thou canst not be quiet till thou\nseest God smile, and lift up the light of his countenance upon\nthee (2 Cor 4:6; Psa 4:6) and that through the face of the Son of\nMary, the Son of God.\n\n(5.) Thou knowest that God hath given thee thy faith (Phil 1:29;\nEph 2:8).\n\n(6.) Art thou born again? Then thou knowest that the doctrine of\nthe Son of Mary the Virgin, is a right doctrine (2 John 9).\n\n(7.) Then also thou lookest for the personal appearing of the Son\nof Mary from heaven in the clouds, the second time (Heb 9:28; Rev\n1:7).\n\nThese things, though plain, yet if the Lord set them home upon\nthy conscience, may be profitable both to thee and me. Therefore\nlet us examine the matter a little. And\n\nExamine 1. Thou thinkest that thou art a Christian; thou shouldest\nbe sorry else: Well, But when did God shew thee that thou wert\nno Christian? When didst thou see that: And in the light of the\nSpirit of Christ, see that thou wert under the wrath of God because\nof original sin? (Rom 5:12). Nay, dost thou know what original\nsin means? Is it not the least in thy thoughts? And dost thou not\nrejoice in secret, that thou art the same that thou ever wert? If\nso, then know for certain that the wrath of God to this very day\nabideth on thee (John 3:36). And if so, then thou art one of those\nthat will fall in the judgment, except thou art born again, and\nmade a new creature (2 Cor 5:17).\n\nExam. 2. Thou thinkest that thou hast been born again, ('tis well\nif thou hast) but least thou shouldest deceive thy poor soul,\nI pray thee consider, when did the Spirit of the Lord Jesus shew\nthee, that thou hadst no faith in thee by nature? And when did\nthe Spirit of Christ convince thee of sin, because thou didst not\nbelieve in him? It may be thou hast been convinced of sins against\nthe law, by the law, and thine own conscience, as the Pharisees\nwere (John 8:9; Rom 3:20). Ay, but when didst thou see thyself a\nlost creature for want of faith in the son of Mary? If not, thou\nhast not yet been savingly convinced by the Spirit of Christ; for\nthat, when it convinceth effectually of sin, it convinceth of\nunbelief; though thou hast been never so much convinced of sins\nagainst the law, if thou hast not seen thyself under the power\nand dominion, guilt and punishment of sin, because thou didst not\nbelieve in Christ, thou hast not yet been savingly convinced; for\nthat's one work of the Spirit to convince of sin, 'Because they\nbelieve not on me,' saith Jesus the Son of Mary, who was espoused\nto Joseph the carpenter: But on the contrary, dost thou not say\nin thy heart, thou never hadst thy faith to seek, but hast always\nbelieved with as good a faith as any one alive? If so, then know\nfor certain that thou hast no faith of the operation of God in\nthee, according to God's ordinary working; and if so, then know,\nthat if the Son of Man should come to judge the world at this\nmoment of time, that thou with all thy faith (thou thinkest thou\nhast) wouldst fall in the judgment (2 Thess 2:12).\n\nExam. 3. Art thou born again? Then thou seest that thy great sin\nwas want of faith in the Son of Mary. Then thou seest that it is\nhe that was sent of God to die for the sins of the world (John\n1:29, 3:16-19; Acts 13:38,39) and that thou art complete in him,\nwithout any works of the law (Rom 4:5), then thou rejoicest in\nChrist Jesus, and puttest no confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3)\nyet thou rejoicest in the flesh and blood of the Son of Mary,\nknowing that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink\nindeed (John 6:55) out of which thou wouldest very willingly\nmake thy life all thy days; out of his birth, obedience, death,\nresurrection, ascension, and glorious intercession, now at the\nright hand of his Father (Heb 7:24,25), but if thou art wavering\nin these things, know that thou art but a babe at the best, and\nfor ought thou knowest, God may cut thee off in thy unbelief, and\ncast thee into utter darkness, where there shall be weeping and\nwailing and gnashing of teeth.\n\nExam. 4. Art thou born again? Then thou seest all true peace and\njoy comes through the blood of the Son of Mary, and his righteousness,\nas in Romans 7:25 and 1 Corinthians 15:57, there are many poor\nsouls that are taken with raptures of joy, and false conceited\nconsolation (John 16:20) which doth come from the devil, and their\nown deceitful hearts; but their joy shall be turned into mourning\nand sorrow of heart (Luke 6:24,25), but thou that art a Christian\nin deed, and not in word only, rejoicest in Christ Jesus the Son\nof Mary; yea though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice\nwith joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). And these\ntwo things are the fruits of thy faith, and of thy joy.\n\n(1.) The Lord Jesus Christ is very precious unto thee (1 Peter\n2:7).\n\n(2.) Thou dost purify thine heart by this faith, and the power of\nthe Spirit of Christ, which thou hast received into thy soul (Rom\n8:13; Acts 15:9; John 3:3). But if thy guilt of sin goes off, and\nconvictions go off any other way than by the blood and righteousness\nof the Man Christ Jesus, thy guilt goes off not right, but wrong,\nand thy latter end will be a very bitter end without faith and\nrepentance; for it is his blood through which all true peace comes\n(Col 1:20), and there is no other name under heaven given among\nmen, whereby we should be saved, but by the Lord Jesus of Nazareth\n(Acts 4:10-12 compared together).\n\nExam. 5. Art thou born again? Then thou canst not be quiet till\nthou doest see God lift up the light of his countenance upon thee;\nyea, thou hast such a desire after the light of God's countenance,\nthat, all the glory, riches, honour, pleasure, profits, &c. of this\nworld will not satisfy, till thou doest see God to be a reconciled\nFather to thee in the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is Psalm 4:6; John\n14:8; Psalm 35:3. Then thou wilt not be quiet till thou dost hear\nfrom the Son of Mary, which is the Lord of glory, such a voice as\nthis, Son be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee: And 'my\ngrace is sufficient for thee' (2 Cor 12:9; 1 Cor 2:8). But if thou\ncanst content thyself with anything below this, thou wilt, when\nall comes to all, be found but a rotten-hearted professor, who\nwill have thy portion among the slothful ones, who will fall in\nthe judgment of the Son of Man, when he comes in flaming fire with\nhis mighty angels (2 Thess 1:8).\n\nExam. 6. Art thou born again? Then thou knowest that God hath given\nthee thy faith that thou hast in his Son: Then thou art to say\nthrough grace, there was a time in which I had no faith; there was\na time in which I could not believe in the Son of God for eternal\nlife. 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith\nhe loved us, even when we were dead in sins [and unbelief; which\nis the greatest;] hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace\nye are saved' (Eph 2:4,5), 'through faith' (v 8).\n\nExam. 7. Art thou born again? Then thou knowest that the doctrine\nof the Son of God, the Son of Mary, is a right doctrine, which is\nthis:\n\nThat the Son of God which was with his Father before the world\nwas (John 1:1, 17:5) came into the world in the fulness of time,\nand was made in the likeness of man (Phil 2:7) being made of\na woman or virgin, made under the law, to redeem them that were\nunder the law (Gal 4:4). And that was done in this wise. What the\nlaw could not do in that it was weak through the flesh; that is,\nthrough our flesh; God sending his own Son in likeness of sinful\nflesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that is, condemned\nhim in the flesh for the sins of poor sinners: For this, compare\nRomans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21 with Galatians 3:13 and it will\nappear clearly to be the truth of God: Also, that this Son of\nGod, which is the true God, as well as the Son of Mary, did bear\nour sins in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24) and did spill\nhis own blood, which is also the blood of God (Acts 20:28), that\nhe died, and was laid in Joseph's sepulchre (John 19:38-42) and rose\nagain the third day (Acts 10:40), that very Man (Luke 24:39-45),\nand ascended up into heaven in a cloud (Acts 1:9-11) and there\never lives to make intercession for us, that very man (Heb 7:24,25,\n8:3, 10:12).\n\nExam. 8. And in the last place, If thou art a Christian, then\nthou lookest for that very Jesus again, whom the Jews did crucify\n(John 19), whom God raised again, as it is 1 Thessalonians 1:10.\nI say, thou lookest, thou waitest, thou hasteneth after the coming\nof this Lord Jesus, which doth deliver thee from the wrath to come\n(2 Peter 3:10-12; Heb 9:26-28; 1 Thess 1:10). Yea, thou knowest,\nthat this very man shall so come in like manner, as his disciples\ndid see him go into heaven, which was a very man (Luke 24:39\ncompared with vv 50,51 of the same chapter). Yea, in a cloud he\nwent away from his disciples, and in the clouds he shall come again\n(Rev 1:7) to judge all that are in their graves (John 5:28,29;\nDan 12:2) and shall receive all that look for, and love his second\ncoming, to himself (Heb 9:27,28). And they shall be for ever with\nhim (1 Thess 4:16,17). But the wicked shall be cast into eternal\ndamnation (Matt 25:46). These things, I say, if thou be a Christian\nindeed, thou believest, and ownest, and the faith of them doth\npurify thy heart (1 John 3:3) and wean thee from this world, and\nthe things thereof; and if it is not from this principle; that is,\nif thy obedience do not flow from this faith, which is the faith\nof God's elect, as I have proved at large, thy obedience, thy zeal,\nthy self-denial, thy holiness, righteousness; yea, all that thou\ncanst do, is but sin in the sight of the great God of heaven and\nearth (Heb 11:6; Rom 14:23). For all true sanctification comes\nthrough the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the operation of\nthe Spirit of God (1 Cor 6:11). 'But ye are washed, but ye are\nsanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,\nand by the Spirit of our God.' And (Cant 1:3), 'Thy name is as\nointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.'\n\nWell then, seeing this is a truth of so great concernment, I beseech\nyou, seek to be thoroughly rooted into it by faith. And that thou\nmayest so be, examine thy heart; yea, beg of God to help thee\nto examine it, and to throw out all that fancy that thou takest\ninstead of faith; also throw away all thine own wisdom; yea, thy\nown righteousness also, and come to God in the name of the Son of\nMary, which is the Son of God, and beg faith of him, true faith,\nthe faith of the operation of God; such a faith as he gives to his\nown elect, which will shew thee clearly of these things; so that\nthou shalt not deceive thyself with a fancy of them; and the\nadvantages will be many.\n\nAdvantage 1. It will comfort thy heart against persecutions,\ntemptations, and cross providences, as also James saith to his\npersecuted brethren; 'Be patient [my brethren, saith he], stablish\nyour hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh' (John 5:8).\n\nAdvantage 2. It will through grace, wean thy heart and affections\nabundantly from this world, and the things therein. 'Who is\nhe that overcometh the world, [saith John] but he that believeth\nthat Jesus is the Son of God?' (1 John 5:5). Who is he also that\npurifies his heart, but he that looketh for the second coming of\nChrist from heaven to judge the world? as in 1 John 3:3 compared\nwith 2 Peter 3:10, 11.\n\nAdvantage 3. Hereby thou wilt be able to judge of all doctrines\nwhatsoever, though they come never so nigh the truth, yet if\nthey be not indeed the very truth, thou wilt find them and their\ndoctrine liars (Rev 2:2; 1 Cor 2:15).\n\nAdvantage 4. If thou beest thoroughly set down in this doctrine,\neven in the faith of this doctrine which I have held forth unto\nthee, thou wilt not be taken with any other doctrine whatsoever.\nWhat is the reason I pray you, that there are so many giddy-headed\nprofessors in these days, that do stagger to and fro like a company\nof drunkards, but this, They were never sealed in the doctrine of\nthe Father, and the Son? They were never enabled to believe that\nthat child that was born of the virgin Mary, was the mighty God\n(Isa 9:6). No, saith Christ, he that is built upon this rock,\n(meaning the faith of himself, which is to believe that the son\nof Mary is the Christ of God (Matt 16:16)) the gates of hell shall\nnot prevail against him (v 18).\n\nAdvantage 5. The faith of this doctrine, will make thee labour in\nthe work of God in the world. Oh, it will liven thy heart in the\nwork of the Lord; especially, if thou livest in the faith of thy\ninterest in Christ, it will make thee labour to be found watching\nwhen thy Lord shall return from the wedding; that when he doth\ncome, thou mayest open to him immediately (Luke 12:35,36).\n\nNow seeing the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is so nigh, even\nat the doors, what doth this speak to all sorts of people (under\nheaven) but this?\n\nAdmonition 1. First, to see whether they have oil in their lamps\nor not; that is, to search and see, whether the Spirit of the Man\nChrist Jesus be in them or no; for he that hath not the Spirit of\nChrist in him, is none of Christ's (Rom 8:9). Thou that hast not\nthe Spirit of Christ in thee, why, at that day (let thy profession\nbe what it will) he will say to thee, Depart, I know you not\n(Matt 25), and if so, then thy latter end will be worse than thy\nbeginning, as in 2 Peter 2:20.\n\nAdmonition 2. Then what will become of all the profane, ignorant,\nscoffers, self-righteous, proud, bastard-professors in the world?\nIf the children of God shall 'scarcely be saved, where shall the\nungodly, and the sinner appear?' (1 Peter 4:18).\n\nAdmonition 3. Then what will become of all those that creep into\nthe society of God's people without a wedding garment on? Why, it\nwill be said unto them, Friends, how came you hither? Take them,\nand bind them hand and foot, and cast them into utter darkness;\n'There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matt 22:11-13).\n\nAdmonition 4. Then what will become of all those that mock at\nthe second coming of the Man Christ, as do the Ranters, Quakers,\ndrunkards, and the like? Why read their doom in Matthew 24:50,\n51, 'The Lord of that or these servants, shall come in a day when\nthey look not for him, and in an hour that they are not aware of,\nand shall cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with the\nhypocrites,' And 'there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'\n\nAdmonition 5. Then what doth this speak to the Lord's own people?\nSurely this, that they should be in a watchful posture (Mark\n13:37).\n\n(1.) Watch therefore over your own hearts, least they should be\nover-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of\nthis life, and so that day come upon you unawares; for as a snare\nshall it come upon all the dwellers upon the face of the earth,\nas it is in Luke 31:34-36.\n\n(2.) Watch over the devil's temptations. Oh, have a care in the\nfirst place, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve,\nso your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in\nChrist: And the rather, because at this day he is very busy with\nhis doctrines, and his ministers; trying all ways, if by any means\nhe might deceive you with fair speeches, and enticing carriages;\nwhat a fair shew in the flesh, yet denying the Lord, and refusing\nto be justified by the blood of Jesus the Son of Mary, the Son of\nGod. Watch I say over the devil touching doctrines, for he labours\nas much this way as any way, for he knows that if he can but get\nyou to lay a rotten foundation, he is sure of you, live as godly\nin your conceit as you will, and therefore, it is worth your\nobservation, in that 24th of Matthew when Christ is speaking of\nthe signs of his coming, he breaks forth with a warning word to\nhis disciples, to beware of false teachers (v 4). The very first\nwords that he answers to a question that his disciples put to him\nis this, 'Take heed that no man deceive you.' Again (v 11), 'And\nmany false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.' And\n(v 24) he saith again, 'For there shall [come or] arise, false\nChrists, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders;\ninsomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very\nelect.'\n\n(3.) Take heed that he doth not deceive you in point of worship,\nthat he make you not slight any of the ordinances of God; for if\nhe do, he will quickly make way for another temptation.\n\n(4.) Take heed also that you have not your lamps to trim when the\nbridegroom comes; if you have, you may peradventure be ashamed and\nblush before him at his coming (1 John 2:28). Therefore content\nnot yourselves with a profession of Christ, and no more, for the\ndevil may deceive, yea, doth deceive a professing people many\ntimes. And if he will deceive a professing generation, he must\ncome in this manner: Under the name of Christ. With a fair shew\nin the flesh of outward holiness (Gal 6:12). He must come 'with\ngood words and fair speeches' (Rom 16:18). Now though he come to\ndrunkards, swearers, whore mongers, thieves, liars, murderers,\nand covetous persons, in his black colours; yet if he will come to\ndeceive a professing party, he must appear like an angel of light\n(2 Cor 11:14). And the reason why souls are deceived by him in\nthese his appearances, is, because they are not able to distinguish\nbetwixt the law and the gospel, the convictions of conscience by\nthe law only, and convictions by the Spirit, but do (though they\nprofess the Lord Jesus) give ear to every wind of doctrine, and\nbeing unstable, as Peter saith, do fall into the temptations of\nthe devil, in wresting the scriptures to their own destruction (2\nPeter 3:16).\n\nAdmonition 6. In a word, you that have not yet laid hold on the\nLord Jesus Christ, for eternal life, lay hold upon him; upon his\nrighteousness, blood, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and\nwait for his second coming to 'judge the world in righteousness'\n(Acts 17:31). And you that have laid hold, I say to you, lay\nfaster hold on your Lord Jesus, 'Who hath ears to hear, let him\nhear' (Matt 13:43).\n\nNow, that thou mayest the more clearly understand my faith in the\ndoctrines of God's dear Son, I have thought good to hold forth\nagain the doctrine of the former treatise by way of question and\nanswer, as followeth.\n\nQuest. Seeing there are many false Christs gone out into the world,\naccording as was prophesied of in former times by the Lord himself\n(Matt 24:5,23). And seeing (if we be saved) we must be saved by\na Christ; for he that misses of him (saith the scriptures) cannot\nbe saved, because there is no way to come to the Father but by\nhim, as it is written (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). How therefore, is\nthe knowledge of the true Christ to be attained unto, that we may\nbe saved by him?\n\nAns. Indeed to know Christ, (God's Christ) is as the scripture\nsaith, the one thing necessary (Luke 10:42), without which all\nother things will avail nothing: And therefore I shall according\nto the scriptures, (1.) Tell you what God's Christ is. And, (2.)\nHow the knowledge of him is attained unto. And therefore, God's\nChrist is true God, and true man. That he is true God, is manifest\nby that scripture, in Isaiah 9:6 where it is said, 'unto us a\nchild is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall\nbe upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,\nCounsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of\nPeace.' Also 1 John 5:20. And we are in him that is true, (saith\nthe apostle) even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God,\nand eternal life. See Hebrews 1:8; John 1:12; Romans 9:5; John\n20:28. That he is true man, see again (Isa 9:6) where it is said,\n'Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given'; and compare\nit with Matthew 1:21 where it is said, 'And she shall bring forth\na Son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his\npeople from their sins,' see John 1:14, 'And the word was made\nflesh.' (1 Tim 3:16) 'God was manifest in the flesh.' These two\nscriptures are expounded by Hebrews 2:14 where it is said, 'Forasmuch\nthen as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also\nhimself likewise took part of the same'; that is, of flesh and\nblood, see Romans 8:3 and compare it with Luke 24:39 where Christ\nsaith, 'Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle\nme, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me\nhave.' And he doth often call himself by the name of the Son of\nman to signify that he is very man, as well as very God (Matt 24,\n16:13).\n\nQuest. But why was he true God and true man?\n\nAns. He was true man, because man had offended, and justice\nrequired that man should suffer and make satisfaction, and so it\nis written (1 Cor 15:21). 'For since by man came death, by man\ncame also the resurrection of the dead.' And again, 'All we like\nsheep have gone astray;--and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity\nof us all.' And in 1 Peter 2:24 where that 53rd of Isaiah is\nmentioned, he saith, 'Who his own self bare our sins in his own\nbody on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto\nrighteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.' And again, God\ndid prepare this body, the human nature of Christ, that it should\nbe a sacrifice for sins, 'wherefore--he saith, Sacrifice and\noffering [that is, such as were offered by the law of Moses] thou\nwouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me' (Heb 10:5). In the\nbody which God had prepared for him, which he took of the virgin\n(Gal 4:4) in this he did bear all the sins of all his elect (1\nPeter 2:24).\n\nAnd he must needs be true God, because, it was an infinite God\nthat was transgressed against, and justice required an infinite\nsatisfaction, and therefore he must be infinite that must give\nthis satisfaction, or else justice could not be satisfied, and so\nit was written, where the apostle is telling the pastors of the\nchurch of Ephesus, by what they were redeemed, he tells them,\nthat God did purchase them 'with his own blood' (Acts 20:28). See\n1 John 3:16 where he saith, 'Hereby perceive we the love of God,\nbecause he laid down his life for us.' Not in his divine, but in\nhis human nature; for as I said before, God's Christ was of both\nnatures (Rom 9:5; 1 John 5:20; John 1:1-14). True God, and true\nman, and the divine nature did enable him to undergo in his human\nnature, all that sin, curse, and wrath that was laid upon him for\nus; and to overcome, and obtain eternal redemption for us (Heb\n9:24).\n\nQuest. How did this Christ bring in redemption for man?\n\nAns. (1.) Why first, man broke the law of God; but this man did\nfulfil it again, and became the end of it 'for righteousness to\nevery one that believeth' (Rom 10:4).\n\n(2.) Man was foiled and overcome by the devil; but this Man Christ\ndid overcome him again, and that for us (Luke 4; Heb 2:14,15).\n\n(3.) Man did lose the glory of God, but this Man hath obtained it\nagain.\n\n(4.) Man by sin lost eternal salvation; but this Man by his own\nblood hath obtained it again for him (Heb 9:12).\n\n(5.) Man by sin brought death into the world (Rom 5:12). But Jesus\nChrist, that Man, hath destroyed it again (Heb 2:14 compared with\nHosea 13:14) and brought in life and immortality (2 Tim 1:10; Rom\n5:15).\n\nQuest. But how are we justified by this man's obedience?\n\nAns. All our iniquities were laid upon him (Isa 53:6,8,11,12).\nAnd his righteousness is bestowed on us, if we believe, as it is\nwritten, 'Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus\nChrist unto all and upon all them that believe' (Rom 3:22). And\nthis is it which Paul so much sought after, when he saith, 'Yea\ndoubtless, and I count all things but loss,--and do count them\nbut dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having\nmine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is\nthrough the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by\nfaith' (Phil 3:8,9).\n\nQuest. How do men come by this righteousness and everlasting life?\n\nAns. By faith men lay hold upon it, and apply it to their own souls\nin particular (Gal 2:20). For it is by faith they are justified,\nas also saith the scripture (Rom 5:1). That his faith lays hold\non and applies, that which this Christ of God hath done, and is\na doing, and owns it as his own.\n\nQuest. What is this faith that doth justify the sinner?\n\nAns. It is a gift (Eph 2:8), fruit (Gal 5:22) or work, of the\nSpirit of God, whereby a soul is enabled, under a sight of its\nsins, and wretched estate, to lay hold on the birth, righteousness,\nblood, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession of the Lord\nJesus Christ (1 Thess 2:7), and by the assistance of the Spirit,\nwhereby it is wrought, to apply all the virtue, life and merit of\nwhat hath been done and suffered, or is a doing by the same Lord\nJesus Christ, to its own self in particular (Gal 2:20; Rom 7:24,25),\nas if itself had really done all that the Lord Jesus Christ hath\ndone: I do not say that the soul doth any thing for justification,\nbut it doth know, that whatsoever Jesus Christ hath done in point\nof justification, is given to, and bestowed upon it (Rom 3:22) and\nGod finding the soul in him, that is in Christ, doth 'justify it\nfrom all things, from which it could not be justified by the law\nof Moses' (Acts 13:39).\n\nQuest. Well, but is there no way to come to the Father of mercies\nbut by this man that was born of the virgin? Is there no way to\ncome to God but by the faith of him?\n\nAns. No, 'there is none other name under heaven given among men,\nwhereby we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). And Jesus himself, that\nwas born of the virgin Mary, said, 'I am the way, and the truth,\nand the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me' (John\n14:6).\n\nQuest. And where is this man, that was born of the virgin, that\nwe may come to the Father by him?\n\nAns. He ascended away from his disciples in a cloud, into heaven,\nas we may read (Acts 1:9-11).\n\nQuest. What doth he there?\n\nAns. He ever lives to make intercession for all that come unto\nGod by him (Heb 7:25). That is, they shall come out of themselves\nto him, and venture their souls on what he did and suffered when\nhe was on earth, and is doing now in heaven; shall certainly be\nsaved: For he ever lives to save them, that do thus come to the\nFather by him. And it is, because he spilt his blood for all that\nshall by the faith of God's elect lay hold upon him. And thus it\nis written where he saith, 'Being justified freely by his grace,\nthrough the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [Mark this] whom\nGod hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his\nblood, to declare his righteousness, [that is, to declare God's\nrighteousness] for the remission of sins that are past, through\nthe forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his\nrighteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him\nwhich believeth [or layeth hold] in Jesus' (Rom 3:24-26).\n\nQuest. But did this man rise again from the dead, that very man,\nwith that very body wherewith he was crucified? for you do seem,\nas I conceive, to hold forth so much by these your expressions.\n\nAns. Why do you doubt of it?\n\nQuest. Do you believe it?\n\nAns. Yes, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he hath enabled\nme so to do.\n\nQuest. And can you prove it by the scripture?\n\nAns. Yes.\n\nQuest. How?\n\nAns. First, From that scripture in Luke 24:39, 40 where Christ\nhimself after he was crucified appeared to his disciples, (who\nhaving seen him) supposed they had seen a spirit. But he said, Why\nare ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold\nmy hands and my feet, that it is I myself, and do not think you\nsee a spirit; handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and\nbones, as you see me have. This he spake after he was crucified\n(Luke 23:33) and buried (v 53) and rose again from the dead (24:6,7),\nmany other scriptures could I give for the proof hereof, as Acts\n10:40, 41. And Acts 13:30, 31; 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Only read Acts\n2:29-32 where the apostle proveth the same, bringing in the words\nof the prophet David for a testimony thereof, saying, He 'being a\nprophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that\nof the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise\nup Christ to sit on his throne; [saith] he seeing this before,\nspake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left\nin hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.' Mark it, his flesh\ndid see no corruption (v 31). But if he had not risen again, his\nflesh had seen corruption. But he rose again from the dead, that\nvery man, that very body; for his flesh did see no corruption.\n\nQuest. Why did he rise again from the dead, with that very body?\n\nAns. (1.) Because it was not possible he should be holden of death.\n\n(2.) Because in his human nature he suffered for sin; and if he\nhad not recovered himself from that very curse, even from under\ndeath, and all other things that lay on him, which he had through\nthe sins of his children subjected himself unto, he had not overcome\nsin, hell, death, the law, and the devil (Acts 2:24): but had been\novercome by them; and if so, then had not redemption been obtained\nfor sinners; for it was at his resurrection from the dead, that God\nsaid unto him, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee':\n(As saith the Apostle) 'And we declare unto you glad tidings,\nhow that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath\nfulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised\nup Jesus again'; as it is also written in the second psalm, 'Thou\nart my Son, this day have I begotten thee' (Acts 13:30-36). And\nit is this, namely, the resurrection of that Man from the dead,\nthat doth give us ground of hope; as in 1 Peter 1:3 where he saith,\nHe 'hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection\nof Jesus Christ from the dead.'\n\n(3.) Because God intends to redeem the bodies of his saints out\nof their graves in which they have lain many a year (John 5:28,29;\nRom 8:23; 1 Cor 15:52) and to possess them with his own glory; and\nwhen this comes to pass, then shall that scripture be fulfilled,\nthat saith, He 'shall change our vile body, that it may be\nfashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working\n[of his mighty power] whereby he is able even to subdue all\nthings unto himself' (Phil 2:21). And he hath given us assurance\nthereof, in that he hath raised up Jesus our Lord again from the\ndead (Acts 17:31).\n\nQuest. But do you think, that these our bodies that we do carry\nabout with us in this world, after that they are dead and buried,\nand rotten, shall rise again out of those graves into which they\nare laid; when the scripture saith, flesh and blood shall not\ninherit the kingdom of God? (1 Cor 15:50).\n\nAns. Flesh in scripture is taken more ways than one: As,\n\nIt is taken for the works of the law; where the Apostle saith,\n'Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing\nof faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye\nnow made perfect by the flesh?' (Gal 3:2,3). By flesh here, he\nmeans the law; as is clear, if you compare it with verses 10-12.\nAgain, sometimes flesh is taken for sins (Rom 8:1,5). And sometimes\nit is taken for the bodies of the saints, as subject to distempers,\nto pain, sickness, corruptions, to death; by reason of sin (2 Cor\n4:11, 7:5). Now the Apostle in that place, where he saith, 'Flesh\nand blood cannot inherit the kingdom [of heaven, or] of God,' his\nmeaning is, sinful flesh and blood, or the sin, with any imperfection\nthat is in the bodies of the saints, shall not inherit the kingdom;\nand that you shall find to be the mind of the Holy Ghost, if you\nread with understanding the latter end of the same verse, where\nhe saith, 'Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.' That is,\nsin, or any imperfection of the body, shall not inherit eternal\nlife; for, saith he, in verse 53, 'This corruptible must put on\nincorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' Mark here,\nI pray you, though he saith, 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit\nthe kingdom of God'; yet he saith, 'This corruptible must put on\nincorruption.' For the trump shall blow, and the dead shall be\nraised (as Christ saith) 'They that are in the graves shall hear\nhis voice' (John 5:28). And shall come forth of their grave incorruptible\n(1 Cor 15:52). And shall 'all appear before the judgment seat of\nChrist' (2 Cor 5:10; Rev 2:12,13). See also that scripture (Phil\n3:20,21) where the Apostle saith, He waited for Christ the Saviour\nfrom heaven. And what shall he do when he comes? why, He 'shall\nchange our vile body.' Mark it, it must be our vile body that must\nbe changed. But if it be changed, then how can it be the same? not\nthe same in respect of sin, or bodily infirmities, but the very\nsame in respect of substance: For, saith he, It is our vile body\nthat must be changed; and it is the very same, It shall be 'fashioned\nlike unto his glorious body.' And if you ask, How is it possible\nthat this should be done? He answers, 'According to the working\nwhereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.'\n\nQuest. But do you think this is certain? methinks the scriptures\nseemingly hold forth so much, yet I cannot believe it, for it is\ncontrary to all reason.\n\nAns. Truly the scriptures do not only hold forth so much seemingly,\nbut they do most really, and plainly, hold out these things to\nall those that have received the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.\nFor it is it, and it alone, that can reveal these things. 'For\nthe things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God' (1 Cor\n2:11). Now if thou wouldest know these things, thou must first\nreceive the Spirit of the Son of God, without which, thou canst\nnot know so much as one of the fundamental truths of the gospel\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nQuest. But there are those in our days, who reject this doctrine\nthat you lay down, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, as you lay\nit down, and they are for a Christ within, for a cross within, for\na resurrection, and intercession within; and they do not hold as\nyou do, a Christ without, and a resurrection of Christ without;\nand intercession of Christ without; Ay, and they have very much\nscripture for that which they say too: And therefore what shall\nsuch as we do, that stand tottering and shaking in these distracted\nand dangerous times? For our poor souls are in very much doubt\nwhat way to take.\n\nAns. Therefore I will speak a few words to you by way of discovery\nof the falsity of such opinions; and a word of direction, how you\nshould understand the truth.\n\nTherefore, he that cries up a Christ within, in opposition to a\nChrist without, that man instead of having the Spirit of Christ in\nhim, is possessed with a spirit of delusion; for where the Spirit\nof Christ is in truth, that Spirit causeth the soul to look to the\nChrist that was born of the Virgin, for all justification; as it\nis written, 'Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he\nwill guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;\nbut whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will\nshew you things to come,' mark the next verse, 'He [saith the Son\nof the Virgin] shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you'\n(John 16:13,14). He shall take of mine; What is that? Why surely\nit is, he shall take of my Godhead, my humanity, my birth, my\nrighteousness, my blood, my death, my resurrection, my ascension\nand intercession, my kingly, priestly, and prophetical offices,\nand shall shew you the life, merit, and value of them. And this\nwas it which was revealed to Paul by the Holy Spirit, here spoken\nof (1 Cor 15:1-8). 'Moreover brethren, [saith he] I declare unto\nyou the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have\nreceived, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye\nkeep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed\nin vain.' But what is this doctrine? why, 'I delivered unto you\nfirst of all that which I also received.' What was that? Why,\n'How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;\nAnd that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day\naccording to the scriptures: [there is his death and resurrection\npreached]. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve;\nafter that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;\nof whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are\nfallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the\nApostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, [saith Paul] as\nof one born out of due time.' This is it, I say, that the Spirit\nof Truth doth hold forth to poor sinners, a Christ crucified\nwithout the gates of Jerusalem (Luke 23:33), buried in Joseph's\nsepulchre (53), risen again the third day (Luke 24:6) ascended\naway from his disciples in a cloud into heaven, as in Acts 1:9-11.\nAnd there ever liveth, that very man, with that very body, to make\nintercession for all that receive him (Heb 7:24,25). This is, I\nsay, the doctrine of the Spirit of truth, whatsoever is the spirit\nof error.\n\nQuest. But do not the scriptures make mention of a Christ within?\n(2 Cor 13:5; Col 1:27).\n\nAns. Yes, And he that hath not the Spirit of Christ, is none of\nhis (Rom 8:9). But he that hath it, is led out of himself by it;\nand as I said before, it shews the soul, what the blessed Son\nof the Virgin Mary hath done and suffered, and is a doing for\nit. Therefore hereby know we the Spirit of truth from the spirit\nof error (2 John 7). 'Every spirit that doth confess that Jesus\nChrist is come in the flesh, is of God' (1 John 4:2). That is,\nthat spirit that doth confess, that Jesus Christ took flesh upon\nhim and in that flesh did bear our sins (1 Peter 2:24; Col 1:20-22;\n1 Peter 3:18, 4:1). And after he was taken down from the cross,\nand laid in a sepulchre, rose again from the dead; that very Man\nwith that very body, wherewith he was crucified: That spirit that\ndoth believe and confess this, is of God, and is the blessed Spirit\nof Christ, whereof he spake, when he was yet with his disciples\ntouching his bodily presence: For 'he [saith the Son of Mary]\nshall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto\nyou' (John 16:13,14).\n\nI have answered this already in my epistle to the first treatise.\nTherefore believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they\nbe of God, for many false spirits and prophets are gone out into\nthe world, therefore have a care how thou receivest the voice that\nspeaks to thee, but try whether they are according to the truth\nof God's word as it is written, 'To the law and to the testimony:\nif they speak not according to this word, it is because there is\nno light in them' (Isa 8:20).\n\n(1.) Therefore try a little, Do they slight God's Christ, which\nis the Son of the Virgin? that spirit is of the devil (1 Cor 12:3).\n\n(2.) Do they say that that blood of his which was shed without\nthe gates of Jerusalem, doth not wash away sin, yea, all sin from\nhim that believes? That is a spirit of antichrist (1 John 1:7).\n\n(3.) Do they say, that that Man that was crucified without the gates\nof Jerusalem, is not risen again (with that very body wherewith\nhe was crucified) out of the sepulchre? (Luke 24:38,39). That is\na spirit of antichrist.\n\n(4.) Do they say that that very Man that was crucified with that\nvery body, is not now in the presence of his Father, absent from\nhis people touching his bodily presence, though present in Spirit?\nI say whoever they be, that say he is not there, they are of the\ndevil: for the proof of this see Acts 5:30 and 31 and compare it\nwith Hebrews 7:24, 25. 'The God of our fathers [saith the Apostle]\nraised up Jesus.' But what Jesus? 'he whom ye slew,' saith he to\nthe Jews. 'Him [the very same whom ye slew] hath God exalted with\nhis right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance\nto Israel, and forgiveness of sins.'\n\nAnd indeed, here is my LIFE, namely, the birth of this Man, the\nrighteousness of this Man, the blood of this Man, the death and\nresurrection of this Man, the ascension and intercession of this\nMan for me; and the second coming of this Man to judge the world\nin righteousness (Acts 17:31). I say, here is my LIFE, if I see\nthis by faith without me, through the operation of the Spirit within\nme: I am safe, I am at peace, I am comforted, I am encouraged,\nand I know that my comfort, peace, and encouragement is true, and\ngiven me from heaven, by the Father of mercies, through the Son\nof the Virgin Mary (Matt 1:21) who is the way to the Father of\nmercies (John 14:6), who is able to save to the uttermost, all\nthat come to the Father by him (Heb 7:25). Because he, that very\nMan, with that very body wherewith he was crucified, is ascended\ninto heaven (Acts 1:9-11), and there ever lives to make intercession\nfor them that come to God by him. This is the rock, sinner, upon\nwhich, if thou be built, the gates of hell, nor Ranter, Quaker,\nsin, law, death, no nor the devil himself, shall ever be able to\nprevail against thee (Matt 16:16-18). And here I leave thee to the\nwisdom of the great God, who if he hath chosen thee in his Son,\nand brought thee to him; and hath made thee by faith to lay hold\non him, thou needest not fear the devil with his siftings, snares,\nwiles, and fiery darts, wherewith he doth destroy thousands; but\nmayest with the Apostle (if thou live in the power and life of the\nlove of God towards thee) cry out, 'I am persuaded, that neither\ndeath, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor\nthings present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor\nany other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of\nGod which is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom 8:38,39).\n\nAnd now reader, if thou be a true Christian, I am sure that these\nbe the things that appear to be the glorious substantial truths\nto thy soul, and thou doest not care for that comfort that doth\nnot make this Man, the Son of the Virgin, precious to thy soul (1\nPeter 2:7) for thou knowest, that it is he, that hath delivered\nthee from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10). But as for you that\nare disobedient, except you mend your manners, you will stumble\n'and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken' (Isa\n28:13) and wonder and perish because you believe not (Acts 13:41).\n\nA few words more, and so I shall have done, and they are words of\ncounsel to thee. Have a care thou receive not every Christ that\nis proffered to thee, though it may appear very excellent to thy\nfoolish heart: for under the name Christ, are men deceived, as\nit is written, 'many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;\nand shall deceive many' (Matt 24:5). But have a care that thou\nreceive that Christ, that was born without thee, fulfilled the law\nin his human nature without thee; spilt his blood without thee,\nis risen again and ascended without thee, and maketh intercession\nwithout thee: And that he that very Man that was born of the virgin,\nwill come again in the clouds without thee; and this truth must\nthou receive by that Spirit that he hath promised to send and\ngive to them that ask him: And that shall dwell in thy heart, and\nshall shew thee what the Son of Mary the virgin, the Son of man,\nthe Son of God, the true God hath in his body done for thy soul\n(John 16:13,14). And if thou receive him in truth, then though\nthou do not boast, nor brag of thy holiness, as those painted\nhypocrites called Quakers do: yet thou wilt do more work for God\nin one hour, than they, even all of them, can do in all their\nlifetime.\n\nTake my counsel, and the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thy\nsoul and body. Farewell.\n\n\n\nSOME QUESTIONS TO THE QUAKERS, OR A FEW QUERIES TO THOSE WHO ARE\nPOSSESSED WITH A SPIRIT OF DELUSION IN THIS GENERATION.\n\n'Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a\nreason of the hope that is in you,' (1 Peter 3:15). And I beseech\nyou do it in sincerity.\n\n1. If thou sayest that every one hath a measure of the Spirit\nof Jesus Christ within him, why say the scriptures that some are\n'sensual having not the Spirit' (Jude 19). And when Christ tells\nhis disciples of sending them the Spirit, he also saith, The world\ncannot receive it (John 14:17).\n\n2. What is the church of God redeemed by, from the curse of the\nlaw? Is it by something that is done within them, or by something\ndone without them? If thou answer, it is redeemed from the curse\nof the law by something that worketh in them; then I ask, why did\nthe Man Christ Jesus hang upon the cross on Mount Calvary, without\nthe gates of Jerusalem, for the sins of the people? (Gal 3:3; 1\nPeter 2:24). And why do the scriptures say, that through this Man,\nis preached to us the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38). That is,\nthrough his blood (Eph 1:7; Col 1:20) which was shed without the\ngates of Jerusalem (Heb 13:12).\n\n3. What scripture have you to prove, that Christ is, or was crucified\nwithin you, dead within you, risen within you, and ascended within\nyou?\n\n4. Is that very Man that was crucified on Mount Calvary between\ntwo thieves, whose name is Jesus, the Son of Mary, I say, is he\nthe very Christ of God, yea, or no?\n\n5. Is that very Man, with that very body, within you, yea, or no?\n\n6. Was that Jesus, that was born of the Virgin Mary, a real Man\nof flesh and bones, after his resurrection from the dead, out of\nJoseph's sepulchre, yea, or no? For the scripture saith he was,\nas in Luke 24:39. If so, then did that Man that said handle me\nand see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have;\nI say, did that Man go away from his disciples (and not into them,\nin his body) as these scriptures declare (Luke 24:39,40 compared\nwith 50,51, also Acts 1:9-11) or did he with that body of flesh\ngo into his disciples, as some fond dreamers think?\n\n7. Hath that Christ that was with God the Father before the world\nwas, no other body but his church? If you say no, as it is your\nwonted course; then again I ask you, what that was in which he\ndid bear the sins of his children? If you answer, It was 'in his\nown body on the tree,' for so saith the scripture (1 Peter 2:24).\nThen I ask you further, whether that body in which he did bear our\nsins, (which is also called his own body) was, or is, the church\nof God, yea, or no? Again if you say he hath no body but the\nchurch, the saints, Then I ask, what that was that was taken down\nfrom the cross, and laid into Joseph's sepulchre (Luke 23:53).\n\nNow I know, that as Christ is the head of his church, so the church\nis the body of the head, which is Christ. But as Christ is the\nmediator between God and man, I say, as he is mediator, so he is\na man (1 Tim 2:5) and absent from his saints in the world, as is\nclear (2 Cor 5:6). Therefore as he is a mediator, and a Man, so he\nhath a body that is absent from his church, which body is ascended\nfrom his disciples, above the clouds into heaven (Luke 24:51;\nActs 1:9-11). If you say no, then I ask you, Did he leave the\nbody behind him, which was born of the Virgin Mary, which walked\nup and down with his disciples in the world, was afterwards hanged\nupon the cross (Luke 23:26,33,53), buried, rose again from the dead\n(Matt 24:3,6,15,41,41,39,50) with which body he did eat, drink,\nand likewise walk with his disciples after his resurrection from\nthe dead (Acts 10:41), and did bid his disciples see if he were\nnot flesh and bones, yea, or no?\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Bunyan quotes this passage from the Genevan or Puritan version.--Ed.\n\n2. 'Overly,' carelessly, negligently, inattentively.--Ed.\n\n3. 'Close,' secret, not disclosed.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nA VINDICATION of GOSPEL TRUTHS OPENED,\n\nACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES;\n\nAND THE OPPOSITION MADE AGAINST IT BY EDWARD BORROUGH, A PROFESSED\nQUAKER, BUT PROVED AN ENEMY TO THE TRUTH, EXAMINED AND CONFUTED\nBY THE WORD OF GOD,\n\nAND ALSO,\n\nThe Things that were then laid down, and declare to the World by\nme, are a second Time borne witness to, according to truth: With\nthe Answer of Edward Borrough to the Queries then laid down in my\nBook reproved. And also, a plain answer to his Queries, given in\nSimplicity of Soul; and is now also presented to the World, or\nwho else may read, or hear them; to the end (if God will ) that\nTruth may be discovered thereby.\n\n\"I have found David...a man after mine own heart,\" (saith God,\nActs 13:22)\n\n\"Of his man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto\nIsrael a Saviour, Jesus:\" (saith the Apostle verse 23).\n\n\"And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took\nhim down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre:\" (verse 29).\n\n\"But God raised him from the dead:\" (verse 30).\n\n\"And we declare unto you glad tidings how that the Promise which\nwas made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us\ntheir children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again;\" (verse\n32, 33).\n\n\"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through\nthis man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:\" (verse\n38).\n\n\"And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from\nwhich ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.\" (verse 39).\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nSince it hath please the Lord to work in my soul by his holy Spirit,\nand hath translated me in some measure from darkness to light, I\nhave seen and heard, that such things have been done by those who\ndid once pretend themselves to be the servants of Jesus Christ,\nthat it hath made me marvel: Partly, while I have beheld the vile\nconversation of some, and also the seeming legal holiness of others,\ntogether with their damnable doctrine; which have, notwithstanding\ntheir professions, made shipwreck of the faith, both to themselves,\nand their followers. I having had some in-sight into such things\nas these, was provoked to publish a small treatise touching the\nfundamentals of religion, supposing that God might add his blessing\nthereto, both for the establishing of some, and the convincing of\nothers; which things I doubt not but they have been accomplished;\nand will be still more and more. But, as it was in former days,\nso it is now: That is, some in all former ages have been on foot\nin the world, ready to oppose the truth: So it is now, there are\ncertain men newly started up in our days, called Quakers, who have\nset themselves against the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and do\nin very deed deny, that salvation was then obtained by him, when\nhe did hang on the cross without Jerusalem's gate. Now these men\ndo pretend, that they do verily and truly profess the Lord Jesus\nChrist; but when it comes to the trial, and their principles be\nthoroughly weighed, the best that they do, is to take one truth,\nand corrupt it, that they may thereby fight more stoutly against\nanother. As for instance:\n\nFIRST, They will own that salvation was obtained by Christ, this\nis truth, that salvation was obtained by Christ; But come close\nto the thing, and you will find, that they corrupt the word, and\nonly mean thus much, That salvation is wrought out by Christ as\nhe is within; and by it (though not warranted by the scripture)\nthey will fight against the truth: Namely, that salvation was\nobtained for sinners, by the man that did hang on the cross on\nMount Calvary, between two thieves, called Jesus Christ. I say,\nby what he did then for sinners in his own person or body, which\nhe took from the Virgin Mary, according to the word of God.\n\nSECOND, They will own the doctrine of Christ within. This is truth,\nthat Christ is within his saints: But this doctrine they will take\nto fight against the doctrine of Christ without, ascended from his\ndisciples into heaven, by whom salvation was obtained, \"neither\nis there salvation in any other\" (Acts 4:12).\n\nTHIRD, They will won the resurrection of the saints, but their\nmeaning is only thus much, That the saints are raised from the\nstate of nature to a state of grace, and herewith they will fight\nagainst this truth; namely, the resurrection of the bodies of saints\nout of their graves, into which they were laid, some thousands,\nsome hundreds of years before. And if they do say, they do own the\nresurrection of the saints out of their graves, they so mean out\nof the grave of sin only, and nothing else.\n\nFOURTH, They will say, they do own the second coming of Christ to\njudge the world; but search them to the bottom, and you will find\nthem only to own him in his coming in spirit, within, in opposition\nto the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus, the Son of Mary, from\nheaven in the clouds, with all his mighty angels, to raise the\ndead, and bring them to judgment, according to the scripture. And\nso for the intercession of Christ, and the truths of the gospel,\nthey only own them to be within; in opposition to the glorious\nintercession, and mediation of the man Christ Jesus in his own\nperson without, now in the presence of his Father, between us and\nhim, pleading and making intercession for his children. These\nthings, together with many more, I might mention, but now I\nforbear, knowing the none shall be lost, nor altogether carried\naway by them, nor any heretics, but the sons of perdition. Now\nthat they might the better make their doctrine take place in the\nhearers, they endeavour to make a fair shew in the flesh, that\nthereby they now, as did their fathers in time past, compel and\nconstrain them who are not by the Lord's right hand planted into\nthe truth of Jesus, to follow their covered errors, as it is\nwritten (Gal 6:12). \"As many as desire to make a fair shew in the\nflesh,\" That is, according to works of the law; do \"by good words\nand fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple\" (Rom 16:18).\nAnd indeed it doth clearly appear, that those that are carried\naway, are such as are not able to discern between fair speeches\ndeclared by heretics, and sound doctrine declared by the simple-hearted\nservants of Jesus.\n\nFirst, Now I shall lay down several grounds, not only why errors\nare broached in the world; but also, why so many are carried away\nwith them.\n\n1. One ground, why so many errors do from time to time come into\nthe world, is because those that are not indeed of the planting\nof the Lord's right hand, might be rooted out (Matt 15:13). Now\nthese are many times carried away by deceivable doctrines: And\ntruly in this our God hath both a care of his own glory, and of\nhis church's welfare. For first, should they not be swept away by\nsome heresy or other, there might be great dishonour brought to\nhis name by their continuing among his people: And secondly, that\nhe might take away such grievances as such may bring, had they\ncontinued still in the society of his children.\n\n2. Another ground why the Lord doth suffer such errors to come into\nthe world is, because, those that are Christians indeed might be\napproved and appear (1Cor 11:19). \"For there must be also heresies\namong you, that they which are approved may be made manifest.\"\nShould not the Lord go this way to work (sometimes) there would\nbe many that would make people believe that they are Christians,\nand yet are not. And again, that he might make it appear, that\nthough there be heretics, yet he hath a people, enabled by his\nSpirit, to contradict, and oppose them, and plead to the truth of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, and his glorious gospel against them.\n\n3. Another ground why the Lord doth suffer, yea, even send delusions\namong the people, is, That those who were so idle and slothful,\nas not to seek after the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, might be\ntaken away, and violently possessed with error, and be made to run\ngreedily after the same; that they might smart the more for their\nneglect of the truth. For always, those who were lazy in seeking\nafter the truth when it was proffered, and afterward hasty after\nthe doctrine of devils, when that is declared to them, shall be\nsure to have their latter behavior to rise up in judgment against\nthem, in that when the truth was proffered to them they were idle\nand did not receive it, and yet when delusion did proffer itself,\nthey were industrious, and labouring. Now mark, that they all\nmight be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness; because they received not the truth in the love\nof it, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall\nsend them strong delusions, that they might believe a lie, and be\ndammed (2Thess 2:10-12).\n\nSecond, Now in the second place, why so many are so easily carried\naway with errors in this day: the grounds are these That follow.\n\n1. Because men count it enough to be professors of the truth,\nwithout seeking to be possessors of the same. Now because men are\nbut only professors of the truth, not having it in their hearts in\nreality, they are carried away with an error, if it come in never\nso little power, more that the truth they profess. And this is\nthe reason why so many are carried away with the errors that are\nbroached in these days, because they have not indeed received the\nLord Jesus by the revelation of the Spirit, and with power, but\nby the relation of others only; and so having no other witness to\nset them down withal, but the history of the word, and the relation\nof others concerning the truth contained therein, (though the\nknowledge of the truth this way shall abundantly aggravate their\ndamnation) yet they having not had the Spirit of the Lord to\nconfirm these things effectually unto them, they are carried away\nwith delusions.\n\n2. Another reason why so many are carried away with delusions, is,\nthose differences that are among the children of God about smaller\nmatter. O Friends! how is the hand of the enemy strengthened by\nour carnality, while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am\nof Apollos; many a poor soul is carried away with delusion. And\nwhy so? They are not satisfied that this is the truth, because the\nchildren are at difference among themselves, about some outward\nthings. And again, it makes those that are not so desperately\npossessed with a spirit of delusion, as are others, but are mere\nmoral men: I say it makes them to say within themselves, and one\nto another; There are so many sects and judgments in the world,\nthat we cannot tell which way to take. And therefore you that have\nthe Spirit, pray that these things may cease, least you blush for\nyour folly, at the appearing of Jesus our Lord.\n\n3. The pride, covetousness, and impiety of hypocrites, and carnal\nprofessors, are great stumbling-blocks to the poor world; and the\ncause why many at this day do drink down so greedily a deluding\ndoctrine, and especially if it come with a garment of pretended\nholiness. But as for these, they shall go to their place in their\ntime, with the curse of the Almighty poured out upon them, for\ntheir casting of stumbling-blocks before the simple by their loose\nconversation, if they do not hastily repent of their wickedness,\nand close in reality with our blessed Lord Jesus.\n\n4. Another reason why delusions do so easily take place in the\nhearts of the ignorant, is, because those that pretend to be their\nteachers, do behave themselves so basely among them. And indeed\nI may say of these, as our Lord said of the Pharisees in another\ncase, all the blood of the ignorant, from the beginning of the\nworld, shall be laid to the charge of this generation. They that\npretend they are sent of the Lord, and come, saying, Thus saith\nthe Lord; we are the servants of the Lord, our commission is from\nthe Lord (by succession) and the like; I say, these pretending\nthemselves to be the preachers of truth, (but are not ) do by\ntheir loose conversation, render the doctrine of God, and his Son\nJesus Christ, (by whom the saints are saved) contemptible, and do\ngive the adversary mighty encouragement, to cry out against the\ntruths of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of their wicked walking.\nNow shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this, who\npretend to be teachers of the people in goodness, when, as for\nthe most part of them, they are the men, that at this day do so\nharden their hearers, such ill examples, that none goeth beyond\nthem for impiety. As for example; Would a parishioner learn to\nbe proud? he or she need look no farther than to the priest, his\nwife and family; for there is a notable pattern before them. Would\nthe people learn to be wanton, they may also see a pattern among\ntheir teachers. Would they learn to be drunkards? they may also\nhave that from some of their minister; for indeed they are ministers\nin this, to minister ill example to their congregations. Again,\nwould the people learn to be covetous, they need but look to\ntheir minister, and they shall have a lively, or rather a deadly\nresemblance set before them, in both riding and running after\ngreat benefices, and parsonages by night and by day. Nay, they\namong themselves will scramble for the same. I have seen, that\nso soon as a man hath but departed from his benefice as he calls\nit, either by death or out of covetousness of a bigger, we have\nhad one priest from this town, and another from that, so run,\nfor these tithe-cocks and handfuls of barley, as if it were their\nproper trade, and calling, to hunt after the same. O wonderful\nimpiety and ungodliness! are you not ashamed of your doings? If\nyou say no, it is (perhaps) because you are given over of God to\na reprobate mind (Read Romans 1). towards the end. As it was with\nthem, so (it is to be feared) it is with many of you, who knowing\nthe judgments of God, that they who do such things are worthy of\ndeath, not only do the same, but have (as I may so say) pleasure\nalso in them that do them. And now you that pretend to be the\nteachers of the people in verity and truth, though we know that\nsome of you are not: Is it a small thing with you, to set them\nyou say are your flock such an example as this. Were ever the\nPharisees so profane; to whom Christ said, ye vipers, how can\nye escape the damnation of hell; doth not the ground groan under\nyou? surely, it will favour you no more than it favoured your\nfore-runners. Certainly the wrath of God lies heavy at your doors,\nit is but a very little while, and your recompense shall be upon\nyour own head. And as for you that are indeed of God among them,\nthough not of them; separate yourselves. Why should the righteous\npartake of the same plagues with the wicked? O ye children of the\nharlot! I cannot well tell how to have done with you, your stain\nis so odious, and you are so senseless, as appears by your practices.\nBut I shall at this time forbear, having in some measure discharged\nmy conscience according to the truth against you; hoping if God\ndo give me opportunity, and a fair call, that I shall say no more,\nonly thus much; Be ashamed of your earthly-mindedness, if you can;\nand be converted, or else you shall never be healed.\n\nHere might I also aggravate your sin by its several circumstances,\nbut I shall rather forbear; supposing that you may entertain\nwrong and harsh thoughts of me, though I have spoken the truth;\ntherefore I shall at his time rather keep silence, and wish you\nto amend, than to rake in your sores; for thereby would your stink\ngo more abroad in the world, Therefore I say forbear. And now to\nthe reader, I beseech thee to have a care of thy soul, and look\nwell to the welfare of it: And that you may do so, have a care\nwhat doctrine it is the your receivest. Be not contented until\nthou in deed and in truth, in the light of the Spirit of Christ,\nsee thy sins washed away in the blood of that Lamb, who did offer\nup himself a ransom on the cross on Mount Calvary, for the sins\nof thy soul and body, together with the rest of the saints of God.\n\nAnd let not the legal holiness of the one, nor the loose profane\nconversation of the other, beat thee of from pursuing after the\ntruths of Jesus, as the truth is in Jesus, (and so laid down in this\nmy discourse) neither let the plausibleness of the other beguile\nthy simple heart. And now to you that are carried away with the\ndelusions at this day broached in the world, by the instruments\nof Satan, and that after a profession of the truth: I say to you,\nTurn again, (if you can) peradventure there may be hope, and that\nyou may escape that wrath which justly you have deserved: But if\nyou shall still refuse the Lord that speaks now from heaven in\nmercy to you, you shall not hereafter escape the Lord, that in his\nown time will speak to you in his wrath, and vex you in his sore\ndispleasure.\n\nAnd now a few words to you that have indeed closed in with the\nLord Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, and they are these that follow.\n(1.) Be of good cheer, all \"your sins are forgiven you for his\nname's sake\" (1John 2:12). (3.) Know that though your Lord Jesus,\nwho is in you by his Spirit, be absent from you touching his\nbodily presence, yet he is not forgetful of you, but is preparing\na place for you (John 14:1-3). (4.) Consider, That he is also at\nhis very present, in his very person in the presence of his Father\nnow in the heavens, praying and making intercession for you, that\nyou may be brought safe to glory (Heb 7:24). Father, I will (saith\nhe) that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I\nam; that they may behold my glory (John 17:25). (5.) Know also,\nThat he hath overcome in his own person (when he was in the\nworld) devil, death, sin, hell, the curse of the law, the power\nof the grave, and all other evils, in the body of his flesh for\nyou (Heb 2:14). (6.) Believe also, that while you are in the world,\nall things shall fall out for your good at the end, whether they\nbe temptations, doctrines of devils, workings of corruption, all\nthings shall fall out for your good, who love our precious Lord\nJesus (Rom 8:28). (7.) Be assured, that all your enemies shall\nvery suddenly be under your feet, even Satan and all (Rom 16:20).\n(8.) Consider, That there shall no temptation befall you in the\ndays of your pilgrimage, but God will enable you to bear it; Ay,\nand make a way also for you to escape the destroying danger of it\n(1Cor 10:13). (9.) When the time of your dissolution shall come,\nyour Jesus will deal with you, as he did with blessed Lazarus,\nthat is, he will send his angels to fetch your souls away to glory\n(Luke 16:22). (10.) Believe also, and know assuredly, that at the\nlast day, he will also raise your bodies out of their graves, and\nmake them also for ever vessels of his glory (Rom 8:23), compared\nwith (John 5:28; 1Thess 4:14-18). (11.) And lastly, consider,\nThat though now by the world, and heretics, you be counted as not\nworth the looking after; Yet you have your day a coming, when as\nthe Dive's of this and all other ages, would be glad if they might\nhave but the least favour from you, one drop of cold water on the\ntip of your fingers. O you despised begging Lazarus's (as in Luke\n16:24.) For the world, for all their stoutness, must be forced\nto come to judgment, before your Lord and you (1Cor 6:2). \"This\nhonour have all his saints\" (Psa 149:9).\n\nNow seeing that these things be so, I beseech you by (those ) the\nmercies of God, (1.) That you do give up your bodies, as hands,\ntongue, strength, health, wealth, and all that you have and are, to\nthe service of God, your God (Rom 12:1). (2.) \"Let your moderation\n[in every thing] be known unto all men. (for) The Lord is at hand\"\n(Phil 4:5). (3.) Study to walk as like the Lord Jesus Christ, as\never you can, for your lives (Matt 11:29). (4.) Let that you strive\nfor, be the faith of the gospel of your precious Lord Jesus (Phil\n1:27). (6.) Let your hearts be always in heaven, where our Lord\nJesus is (Col 3:1-3). (7.) Forbear and forgive one another, in love,\nand with all your hearts, as God for Christ sake hath forgiven\nyou (Eph 4:2). (8.) Let your light so shine before men, that they\nmay see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven\n(Matt 5:16). (9.) You are the salt of the earth, have a care you\nlose not your savour (Matt 5:13). (10.) Be forward to distribute\nto those that are in want, for this is well-pleasing to your most\nglorious loving Father (Heb 13:16). (11.) Learn all one of another\nthe things that are good, for this is the command of God, and also\ncommendable in saints (Phil 3:17). (12.) And lastly, O brethren,\nconsider what the Lord hath done for you; he hath bought you, and\npaid for you with his blood, and he doth now also make it his\nbusiness to pray for your safe conduct to glory (Heb 7:25). He hath\ndelivered you from those that would have been your ruin, and hath\npromise to you everlasting life, Let the love of Christ constrain\nyou, let the love of God win upon your souls. What! he that\nspared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: How shall\nhe not with him freely give us all things. Hold out my brethren,\nhold out, for you have but a little while to run: Hold fast unto\nthe death, and Christ will give you a crown of life (Rev 2:10).\nFarewell, dear brethren; the mighty God of Jacob preserve and deliver\nyou from every evil work; and all the days of our pilgrimage let\nus pray one for another, that our God will count us worthy of this\nrich and glorious calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of\nhis goodness, and the work of faith with power, to whom be glory\nnow and ever.\n\nAnd now reader, before I make an end of this discourse, I think it\nmeet to let thee understand, that though there hath been a book put\nforth by Edward Borrough, in seeming opposition to that of mine,\ncalled, \"Some Gospel-Truths opened according to the scripture,\"\nYet the substance of my discourse then published by me, standeth\nuncontrolled by scripture, as from him or others. I do not say\nhe doth not wrangle with them, but I say, he doth not by any one\nplain scripture contradict them. As for instance:\n\n1. The first great thing that I do hold forth in that discourse,\nis this: That that babe that was born of the virgin Mary, and that\nat that time did give satisfaction for sin, was the very Christ\nof God, and not a type of anything afterward to be revealed for\nthe obtaining redemption for sinners within them. Which thing my\nadversary can find no ground in scripture to build an opposition\nupon, see his book, page 12. but is forced to confess it in word,\nthough he do deny the very same in doctrine, see his book p. 29.\nat his 6th query. And p. 26. where in answer to this question of\nmine; Why did the Man Christ hang on the cross on Mount Calvary?\nAll the answer he gives, is this; Because they wickedly judged him\nto be a blasphemer; and as in their account (saith he) he died as\nand evil doer. And his is all the ground he giveth: See his answer\nto my second query in this my book, taken word for word as he laid\nthem down.\n\n2. The next thing I do prove in that book is, that that light which\nevery one hath, is not the Spirit of Christ; because the scripture\nsaith Some have it not (Jude 19). But Edward Borrough saith, It is\ngiven to every one; [p. 18. of his book:] And he saith, They have\nit within them too; [p. 26. of his book,] in answer to my first\nquestion, though he hath no scripture to confirm the same, as I\nhave had to contradict it. See his book.\n\n3. The next thing I prove, is That Jesus Christ did fulfil the law\nin his own person without us for justification, and that his blood\nthen shed, hath washed away the sins of the children of God, as\naforesaid. Which thing he would oppose, but finds no footing for\nhis discourse. See his book, p. 12. where he saith, The law is not\nfulfilled: (read the latter end of that page) [which is] contrary\nto scripture (Col 2:14; Rom 10:4). which saith, \"For Christ is\nthe end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.\"\nAnother thing I prove in that book is, That Christ is ascended\ninto that heaven without, above the clouds and stars; and that I\nprove by eight several scripture demonstration, of which not one\nis confuted by scripture, though secretly in his book smitten\nagainst. Read his whole book.\n\n4. The next thing I prove, is, That the same Jesus that was born\nof Mary, laid in the manger, who is the Saviour, is at this day\nmaking intercession in that body he then took of Mary; which thing\nalso is not confuted by him, by the scripture; though cunningly\nsmitten against in his discourse, where he saith, It is only\nnecessary to salvation to preach Christ within, laying aside all\nthat Christ did when he was in his own person in the world. See\np. 29. of his book, Qu. 6.\n\n5. Another truth I prove, is, That the very same Jesus that was\nborn of Mary, that very Man (that was also hanged on the cross)\nwill come the second time, and that shall be to save his children,\nand to judge the world at the last day, that great day of judgment.\nAnd though they will not own, that he shall so come as he went\naway, which was a very Man without; yet they could not at all by\nthe scripture contradict it. But the very sum of his discourses\nis a wrangling with the thing laid down, as a dog with a bone; but\nhath not, nor cannot by scripture overcome the same. This have I\nwritten, that the reader into whose hand this book may come, may\nhave the more certain information concerning the things before\npublished by me, and also concerning the opposition made against them\nby the adversary. And here, because I am loath to be too tedious,\nI do conclude, and desire thy prayers to God for me (if thou be\na Christian) that I may not only be preserved to the end in the\nfaith of Jesus, cut that God would enable me to be an earnest\ncontender for the same, even to the last; and rest,\n\nThe servant of the Lord JESUS,\n\nJohn Bunyan.\n\nReader,\n\nWe, whose names are here under-written, having (through grace)\nsome blessed faith and experience of the truths declared in this\nbook, and knowing them so to be; having tried them by the scriptures\nin the light of the Spirit, thought it our duty to bear witness\nthereunto, together with our brother, desiring the blessing of God\nmay go along with these endeavours of his, for the doing good to\nour Christian brethren, of any other who may read it. Farewell.\n\nYours in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, for which faith we\ndesire to contend,\n\nRichard Spencly. John Burton. John Child.\n\nA VINDICATION OF GOSPEL TRUTHS, &c.\n\nIt is very expedient that there should be heresies amongst us,\nthat thereby those which are indeed of the truth might be made\nmanifest; and also that the doctrine of God, and his Son Jesus\nChrist, might the more cast forth its luster and glory. For the\ntruth is of that nature, that the more it is opposed, the more glory\nit appears in; and the more the adversary objects against it, the\nmore it will clear itself; which doth give me, and all that stand\nfor it, and doth plead on its side in the wisdom of the Spirit,\nmuch boldness and encouragement, to venture without any slavish\nfear upon those that have already, or shall hereafter, stand up\nto oppose it. I did some few weeks past, put forth a small book,\ncalled, Some Gospel-Truths opened, and so forth; and the thing I\nlooked for from them was, namely, opposition from the adversary,\nwhich hath been accomplished in that, namely, as I did look for\nit, so did it happen; not that it daunted me, for if it had so\ndone, it might have made me kept those truths within my breast,\nwhich are now made manifest by me (as well as others) to the world.\nNow I have not only met with some opposition from others face to\nface in secret, but there is one Edward Burrough (as I heard his\nname is so, by some of themselves) that hath ventured to stand\nup against the truth, with the rest of his companions, and hath\npublished a book, called, \"The true faith of the gospel of peace\ncontended for, &c.\" In which book of his there is a very great\nnumber of heresies cunningly vented by him, and also many things\nthere falsely reported of me, which things in this my discourse I\nshall very plainly discover; and the way that I shall take, shall\nbe by laying down some of thy expressions, and also some of mine;\nand by inquiring into the truth of one, and the error of the other,\nthrough the assistance of the Spirit of Christ, and according\nto the scriptures. Only by the way, I think good to mind thee of\nthy clothing thyself with the words of the prophets and apostles,\nagainst whom thou dost fight (as will appear in my following\ndiscourse) and also of thy endeavouring to wrest the sword out of\nthe hands of the saints, and art fighting against them bitterly,\nwith a parcel of scolding expressions. But I wish thee to learn,\n(if thou canst) to be sober, and to keep under thy unruly spirit;\nand do not so much appear, at least not so grossly, a railing\nRabshakeh; but contrariwise, if you would be looked upon to be\nholy, which ( we know and believe that ) as yet, many of you are\nnot. Let at the least some appearance of moderation be manifest\namong you. After many words that are flung into the wind by thee\nmy adversary, in the first and second page of thy book, thou couldst\nnot be contented therewith, as being too few to vent thyself\nwithal; but thou breakest out in page 3. with a small testimony\nof John Burton, and his fellow, saying,\n\n\"They have joined themselves with the broken army of Magog--And\nhave shewed themselves in the defence of the dragon against the\nLamb, in the day of war betwixt them.\" When alas! poor soul we\ndo know, and are bold to declare, in the name of the Lord Jesus\nthe Son of Mary, that our God hath owned us, with others of his\nservants, in his own work against the devil's devices and false\ndoctrine; as instruments both for the comforting and establishing\nof his own, and also for the convincing and converting of some of\nthem, who aforetime was not converted. And friend, why dost thou\nsay, that we join with Magog in the defence of the dragon against\nthe Lamb, when thou seest the whole drift both of my brother's\nepistle, and also of my writing, is to exalt and advance the\nfirst-born of Mary, the Lord of glory, and to hold on his side,\nnotwithstanding there are so many tempests go through the world,\nAnd the rather, because we know that it is he, and he alone, that\ndid bear our sins in his own body on the tree (1Peter 2:24), for\nit is he that hath taken away the sins of the world. Now I say\ntherefore, do not thou thus accuse the brethren, for speaking good\nof the name of Jesus, lest thou be troubled at thy end for thus\nspending thy beginning in taking part with the devil to accuse\nGod's children.\n\nThen in the same page thou sayest, thou hast numbered up part of\nour work, and the sum is, A corrupted grain of Babylon's treasure,\n&c. Ans. Friend, The sum of our discourse is of the birth,\nrighteousness, death, blood, resurrection, ascension, intercession,\nand second coming of the Son of Mary the virgin, by which\nrighteousness, blood, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and\nintercession we are saved. And dost thou count this a corrupted\ngrain of Babylon's treasure? Have a care what thou sayest, least\nthou utter that with thy mouth now, which will lie heavy on thy\nconscience for ever.\n\nThen, as though this thy unwise speaking were too little, thou\nbreakest out with a taunt, or a jeer, saying; A larger portion, and\nmore to the purpose might have been brought in, but with such as\nyou had, or could procure from your neighbours are you come. Ans.\nFriend, Who hath despised the day of small things? But again, we\ndesire not to bring to others, no nor to know ourselves, anything\nelse but Jesus Christ (the Son of Mary) and him crucified for our\nsins (1Cor 2:2). Then thou sayest further in the same page, that\nthough thou hast not seen our faces, yet our spirit is tried,\nand we are clearly described to thee, (sayest thou) to be of the\nstock of Ishmael, and of the seed of Cain, whose line reacheth to\nthe murdering priests, &c. Ans. Friend, thou art very censorious,\nand utterest many words without knowledge. We bless God, for the\nmost part of our line, we do labour to stretch it out, either in\nbuilding up and exhorting the saints of the most High, to cleave\nclose to their Jesus, or else as much as in us lies, we labour\nto convince poor souls of their lost condition, according to the\nword of God, and not to murder any. Nay contrariwise, we desire\nthrough grace, if at any time we chance to see any of Christ's\nlambs in the teeth of any wolf or bear, be they never so terrible\nin appearance; I say, we desire, we labour, we strive, and lay\nout ourselves, if it be possible, to recover the same, though with\nthe hazard of our lives, or whatsoever may befall us in doing our\nduty. And whereas thou sayest in the 4th page, that we are found\nenemies to Christ, revealed in his saints. Ans. Thou dost us wrong,\nfor we labour all that we may to countenance the same, where he\ndoth indeed appear: and if at any time we do see or discern, that\nany soul hath any breathing after the knowledge of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, we are so far from disowning or discountenancing of the\nsame, that we give them all the encouragement we may: Nay, and\nwe are so far from discountenancing the doctrine of God, and his\nSon Jesus Christ, that we say plainly, some have not the Spirit\nof Christ in them, and they are reprobates, according to that\nscripture (Rom 8:9). \"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,\nhe is none of his.\" And again, Some are \"sensual, having not the\nSpirit\" (Jude 19). And again, we are so far from being against the\ndoctrine of the Spirit of Christ in his saints, we bless God that\nwe say, It is the distinguishing character of a true believer, from\nothers: All which things do I also affirm in my book, and hold\nforth, as doth also my brother in his epistle. Therefore, I marvel,\nthat you should be overseen, as to utter so many false things\ntogether, in less than four sides of paper, I wonder what will be\nthe end of your discourse.\n\nWell, now thou dost come and fall a wrangling with some of the\nwords of my brother Burton, which are to this purpose, (he speaking\nbefore of the doctrine of Jesus) and this is quite contrary\n(saith he) to those commonly called Familists, Ranters, Quakers,\nand others, who on the other hand either deny Christ to be a real\nman without them, blasphemously fancying him to be only God manifest\nin their flesh; or else make his human nature with the fulness of\nthe Godhead in it, to be but a type of God to be manifested in\nthe saints. Now first of all, the great offence thou takest of\nsome of these words, is, because he doth join in his discourse,\nFamilists, Ranters, and Quakers together. Friend, what harm is it\nto join a dog and a wolf together? A fawning dog and a wolf in\nsheep's clothing; they differ a little in outward appearance, but\nthey can both agree to worry Christ's lambs. But again, friend,\nlet us a little compare the principles of a Ranter and a Quaker\ntogether, and it will clearly appear, that in many of their\nprinciples (at least) they agree, or jump in one: As\n\n1. The Ranters will own Christ no otherwise, than only within;\nand this is also the principle of the Quakers, they will not own\nChrist without them. 2. The Ranters, they cry down all teaching,\nbut the teaching within: and so do the Quakers (witness thousands)\nand yet condemn their principles by their practice, as the Ranters\nalso did and do. Now the apostle saith the contrary, saying, \"He\nthat knoweth God heareth us; (meaning himself with the rest of the\napostles and servants of Christ.) He that is not of God heareth\nnot us\" (1John 4:6). Again, 3. the Ranters are neither for the\nordinance of baptism with water, nor breaking of bread. And are\nnot you the same? 4. The Ranters would profess that they were\nwithout sin: and how far short of his opinion are the Quakers? 5.\nThe Ranters would not own the resurrection of the bodies of the\nsaints after they were laid in the graves: And how say you, Do you\nbelieve that the very bodies of the saints, as the very body of\nAbraham, and the body of Isaac, with the bodies of all the saints,\nnotwithstanding some of them have been in the graves thousands\nof years. others hundreds, some less: I say, Do you believe the\nresurrection of these very bodies again, which were buried so\nlong since; or do you hold, as the Ranters do, nothing but the\nresurrection from a sinful to an holy state in this life.\n\nAnd really I tell thee (reader) plainly, that for the generality,\nthe very opinions that are held at this day by the Quakers, are\nthe same that long ago were held by the Ranters. Only the Ranters\nhad made them threadbare at an alehouse, and the Quakers have set\na new gloss upon them again, by an outward legal holiness, or\nrighteousness. But again, Why should you be so angry with my\nbrother, for joining of a sinner and a liar together? Is there any\ngreat harm in that? Surely no. And the joining Ranters and Quakers\ntogether, is but so. The Quakers themselves confess, the Ranters\nare to be disowned, page 4. Nay if they would not, yet God\nhath disowned them in the open view of the nations. Now that the\nQuakers are liars, I shall prove from their own mouth. As first,\nfrom the several things that I did oppose even now, page 1-4, of\nthis book, called, \"the true Faith of the Gospel of Peace,\" &c.\nNow lest they should be slighted and set at nought, I shall shew\nyou clearly this man's lies manifestly laid down in his book,\npage 11, 12. That I said positively, the blood of Christ was shed\nbefore the world began. Whereas I said only this, That in the\naccount of God (mark it, in the account of God) his blood was shed\nbefore the world was, according to that scripture (Rev 13:8). \"The\nLamb slain from the foundation of the world,\" in my book, page 3\n[141]. Secondly, he saith, that I cry aloud against Christ within,\nin page 24. Of his book. And again he saith, \"That all my work is\nan obscure shooting against the manifestation of Christ within.\"\nWhere he speaks very falsely of me, for I confess and own God's\nChrist within as well as without, as appears in my book, page 206.\ntowards the end [173]. And in the epistle to my book you may find\nthe same held out by me for two or three leaves together; besides,\nmany other places of my book dith testify of the same; therefore,\ndoth not he lie miserably in this also?\n\nAgain, he saith, that I am one of those that do preach for hire,\nthrough covetousness, making merchandise of souls, page 23. of book,\nwhich is also an untruth, as I shall shew further when I come to\nthe place.\n\nAgain he saith, in page 30, that I said \"Christ's coming in the\nSpirit was no coming.\" Here also he uttereth falsehood. I never said\nso, as many or our brethren can witness. But of his also in its\nplace, when I come to it, with many other things which he hath very\nuntruly vented of me, which I fear not but they shall be cleared,\nboth now, and also at the second appearance of the man Christ\nJesus. And therefore friend (I say to thee) be not so pharisaical\nas to say within thine heart, \"I am not as this publican.\" Why am\nI reckoned with the Ranters? thou art, both thou and thy fellows,\nof the same mind with them in many things, and shall assuredly\npartake of the same plague with them, if they and you repent not\nspeedily.\n\nAgain, in page7, thou wouldest make us believe, that the Quakers\ndo really and truly lay the Christ of God, God-man, for their\nfoundation. Saying, \"We prize the Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, to\nbe precious to us, and to all that do believe, and have owned him\nto be the foundation,\" &c. Now friend, this is fairly spoken; but\nby word in general we may be deceived, because a man may speak\none thing with his mouth, and mean another thing in his heart;\nespecially it is so with those that use to utter themselves\ndoubtfully; therefore we will a little enquire what it is to lay\nChrist, God-man for a foundation.\n\n1. Then, to lay God's Christ, God-man, for a foundation, is to believe\nthat man that was born of the Virgin Mary, to be the saviour.\n\nHow he was and is the saviour, and therefore if you do indeed lay\nhim for your foundation, then you do believe that when the man\nChrist did hang on the cross on Mount Calvary, that then your\nsins were satisfied for at that time, as it is written, \"Who his\nownself bare our sins in his own body on the tree\" (1Peter 2:24).\n\n2. If the Christ of God, God-man, be indeed your foundation, then\nyou do believe, that that very man in that very body, did fulfil\nall the law, in the point of justification, as it is written,\n\"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that\nbelieveth\" (Rom 10:4). So that now, believe aright in what the Son\nof Mary hath done without on the cross, and be saved.\n\n3. If you have laid Christ that man aright for your foundation,\nthen you do believe, that when he was raised out of the sepulchre\ninto which Joseph had laid him, then at that time was accomplished\nyour justification (Rom 4:25). How say you to these things, Do\nyou make an open profession of them without dissembling? Or do you\nnot (notwithstanding your talk of Christ) in very deed deny the\nvirtue of the death and blood of Christ without, as for justification\nand life? If so, you have not laid him for your foundation.\n\n4.I you have indeed laid Christ, God-man for your foundation, then\nyou do lay the hope of your felicity and joy on this, That the son\nof Mary is now absent from his children in his person and humanity,\nmaking intercession for them and for thee, in the presence of his\nFather (2 Cor 5:6). And the reason that thou canst rejoice here\nat is, because thou hast not only heard of it with thine ear only,\nbut dost enjoy the sweet hope and faith of them in thy heart; which\nhope and faith is begotten by the Spirit of Christ, which Spirit\ndwelleth in thee, (if thou be a believer) and sheweth those things\nto thee to be the only things. And God having shewn thee these\nthings, thus without thee by the Spirit that dwelleth in thee,\nthou hast mighty encouragement to hope for the glory that shall\nbe revealed at the coming again of the man Christ Jesus, of which\nglory thou hast also greater ground to hope for a share in, because\nthat that Spirit that alone is able to discover to thee the truth\nof these things, is given to thee of God, as the first fruits of\nthat glory which is here-after to be revealed, being obtained for\nthee by the man Christ Jesus's death on Mount Calvary, and by his\nblood that was shed there, together with his resurrection from\nthe dead, out of the grave where they had laid him. Also, thou\nbelievest that he is gone away from thee in the same body which\nwas hanged on the cross, to take possession of that glory, which\nthou, through his obedience, shall at his (the very same man's)\nreturn from heaven the second time, have bestowed upon thee,\nhaving all this while prepared and preserved it for thee, as he\nsaith himself: \"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and\nprepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto\nmyself, that where I am, there ye may be also\" (John 14:2,3).\nAgain.\n\n5.If thou hast laid Christ, God-man, for thy foundation, though\nthou hast the Spirit of this man Christ within thee, yet thou dost\nnot look that justification should be wrought out for thee, by that\nSpirit of Christ that dwelleth within thee, for thou knowest that\nsalvation is already obtained for thee by the man Christ Jesus\nwithout thee, and is witnessed to thee by his Spirit which dwelleth\nwithin thee. And thus much doth this man Christ Jesus testify unto\nus where he saith he shall glorify me; mark, \"He shall glorify;\"\n(saith the Son of Mary)but how? Why, \"he shall receive of mine\n(what I have done, and am doing in the presence of the Father)\nand shall shew it unto you\" (John 16:14). I have been a little\nthe larger in this, because it is of weight.\n\nBut again, thou sayest further, The rest of this first epistle I\nshall say little to; only thus much is the mind of the penman's\nspirit, secretly smiting at the doctrine of true faith and salvation,\n(to wit) Christ within. Ans. My friend, by saying that my brother\ndoth strike at the doctrine of true faith and salvation, thou dost\nhim a great deal of wrong; for it is so far from him so to do, that\nhe telleth souls plainly, that without true faith in the blood of\nthe Son of Mary, who was crucified on Mount Calvary, there is no\nremission; for saith he, it is only through that one offering then\ngiven up to the Father, that you must be justified. And that is\naccording to the whole stream of scripture: For by one offering,\nWhat was that? Why, the offering up of the body of Jesus once for\nall (Heb 10:10), he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.\n\"But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever\nsat down.\" Mark it: \"this man after he had offered one sacrifice\nfor sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God\" (verse 19).\n\nAnd as for thy saying, that salvation is Christ within; if thou mean\nin opposition to Christ without; instead of pleading for Christ,\nthou wilt plead against him; for Christ, God-man, without on the\ncross, did bring in salvation for sinners. And the right believing\nof the, doth justify the soul. Therefore Christ within, of the\nSpirit of him who did give himself a ransom, doth not work out\njustification for the soul in the soul; but doth lead the soul\nout if itself, and out of that that can be done within itself, to\nlook for salvation in that man that is now absent from his saints\non earth (2Cor 5:6). Why so? For [because] it knoweth that there\nis salvation in none other (Acts 4:12). And therefore I would wish\nthee to have a care what thou dost, for I tell thee, that man who\nis now jeered by some, because he is preached to be without them,\nwill very suddenly come the second time, to the great overthrow\nof those, who have spoken, and shall still speak against him (Jude\n14,15).\n\nThou sayest also the next thing thou mindest, is this in the second\nepistle,1 where a questions asked, Who are the men that at this\nday are so deluded by the Quakers, and other pernicious doctrines,\nbut they that counted it enough to be talkers of the gospel, &c.\nAnd why? because he saith the Quakers are those deceivers that\nat this day beguile poor souls by their doctrine. Alas poor man,\nwhy shouldest thou be angry for my speaking the truth, in saying:\nThe Quakers are deceivers, this will easily appear.\n\n1. They deny the man Christ to be without them, and own Christ no\notherwise, but as he is within, contrary to that scripture, which\nsaith, for \"while we are at home in the body we are absent from\nthe Lord.\" This is touching his bodily presence. And again, he was\nparted from them, \"and a cloud received him out of their sight.\"\nAnd he was carried away from them, and so received up into heave\n(Acts 1:9-11). Now he that denieth this, is a deceiver, as is\nclear, in that he doth speak against the truth laid down in the\nscripture.\n\n2. The Quakers are deceivers, in that they persuade souls that\nChrist is crucified in them, dead within them, and kept down with\nsome thing within them, which was never taught by those that\nspoke the scripture from the Spirit of God. Shew me a scripture\nto confirm such a doctrine as this, which hath been avouched over\nand over by the Quakers.\n\n3. The Quakers are deceivers, because they do persuade souls, that\nthat man that was born of the Virgin Mary, is not above the clouds\nand the stare, when the scripture saith, \"a cloud received him\nout of the sight of his saints.\" And again, that he is above the\nhighest heavens, which must needs be above the stars, for they\nare not the highest.\n\n4. The Quakers are deceivers, because they persuade souls not to\nbelieve, that that man that was crucified, and rose again flesh\nand bones (Luke 24:38-40). shall so come again, that very man, in\nthe clouds of heaven to judgment as he went away; and at the very\nsame time shall raise up all the men and women out of their graves,\nand cause them to come to the valley of Jehoshaphat; because there\nwill he, that very man, sit to judge all the heathen round about.\nI say, they strive t beat souls off from believing this, though\nit be the truth of God witnessed by the scripture (Joel 3:11,12;\nActs 1:10,11). \"This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into\nheaven, shall so come (mark, the very same) in like manner as ye\nhave seen him go into heaven.\" \"And his feet shall stand in that\nday (the day of his second coming) upon the Mount of Olives\" (Zech\n14:4). Where is that? Not within thee, but that which is without\nJerusalem, before, it on the east side. I say now, he that persuades\nsouls not to believe this, but makes them believe there is no such\nthing, as the Quakers do, he is a deceiver. Again, the Quakers\nmake no difference between that light wherewith Christ, as he is\nGod, hath enlightened all; and the Spirit of Christ he gives not\nto all; and the Spirit of Christ he gives not to all, which I\nshall show by and by to be a deceit.\n\n5. The Quakers are deceivers, because they say, That every one\nhath that which is like the Spirit of Christ, even as good as the\nSpirit of Christ, page 10 of his book, which is desperate blasphemy.\nThe scripture saith plainly, \"That some are sensual, having not\nthe Spirit.\" And yet though they have not that, they have, says\nthe Quakers, that which is as good as that. O wonderful deceit,\nas I shall farther show by and by when I come to the place. But\nto cover himself, and so his deceit, he doth apply that to himself\nthat should be applied for the encouragement of the children of\nGod: saying, the children of God was always counted deceivers, we\n(saith he) have a cloud of witnesses. Answer, friend, they were\ncalled deceivers, and were not so; but you are rightly called so,\nas I have already showed, and shall show farther by and by. In\nthe meantime, know, that the devil knows how to take children's\nbread, and cost it to the dogs.\n\nThen the next thing that he is grieved with, is, because I said,\nthere are none but a company of light notionists, ranters, with\nhere and there a legalist, that was shaking in their principles,\nthat were carried away by the Quakers, &c. When this appears in\nall men's sight that can see, though you would not have it so (it\nis like.) And as for your saying, because all sorts of people are\nbrought to God, I am offended therewith; I answer, No friend, I\nbless God my soul can rejoice that souls come in to Jesus Christ,\nthough it grieves me to see, how some with a spirit of delusion\nare deceived, and destroyed, by its coming unto them as an angel\nof light. And whereas thou sayest I am like the Pharisees, who\nsaid, none believe, but a company of poor people, which know not\nthe law. Answ. I bless God, I do know they are I bless God, I do\nknow they are the poor that receive the gospel; but friend, I must\ntell you, that you and your fellows may seek for justification\nfrom the law, and yet have no better a recompense, than to be\ncondemned by the law.\n\nNow passing many railings, I come to the next thing that thou dost\nstumble at, which is in that I say, some of those delusions the\ndevil doth deceive poor souls withal, is first, in that he doth\npersuade them, that salvation was not completely wrought out for\nsinners by the man Christ Jesus, though he did it gloriously upon\nthe cross without the gates of Jerusalem. Now these words, \"he\ndid it gloriously on the cross, without the gates of Jerusalem,\"\nthou leavest out. Therefore I ask, do you believe that at that\ntime, when he did hang upon that cross on Mount Calvary, that he\ndid by that death he died there, redeem all his elect from eternal\nvengeance? If not, whatever thou sayest, thou wilt certainly see,\nthat Satan hath caught thee in his snare, notwithstanding thy\nrailing against the Lord Jesus. And friend, thou mayest call thy\nconscience the man Christ Jesus, or the light (as thou callest it)\nin thy conscience the man Christ Jesus; which if thou do, this is\na delusion, and a dangerous doctrine. For a Spirit hath not flesh\nand bones, and so hath the man Christ Jesus. Now it may be, you\nthink farther that the church, with the Spirit of Christ, is the\nman Christ Jesus, which is also a damnable heresy. Therefor, speak\nplainly; Dost thou believe that that man Christ Jesus is ascended\nfrom his people in his person? And again, dost thou believe that\nhe which ascended from his disciples, did bring in everlasting\nsalvation for them, in that his body which ascended from them? An\nanswer to this might give great satisfaction to souls, if also it\nmight be made in words easily to be understood. Again,\n\nThou art also offended with the second deceit which I lay down\nin my epistle, which is (say I) for the devil to bid souls follow\nthat light which they brought into the world with them, telling\nthem, that that will lead them to the kingdom. Now thou seemest\ngravelled, because I said, which they brought into the world with\nthem. If thou art offended at that, show me when, and at what time\nevery soul receives a light from Christ after it comes into the\nworld. Now this I say, That every man hath not the Spirit of Christ\nwithin him (Jude 19). And that there is nothing that can show\nthe soul the things of Christ savingly, but the Spirit of Christ\n(1Cor 2:11). Then will not you yourself confess, that he is deluded,\nthat is persuaded to follow that light that cannot reveal Christ\nunto him? But I must mind you of one filthy error also which thou\nlayest down in page 10. Corrupting the scripture to make it good,\nbut in vain; where thou sayest, That light which every man is lightened\nwithal, will lead unto the kingdom of peace and righteousness. And\nthen thou addest, for saith Christ, \"I am the light of the world,\nhe that followeth me shall not [abide in darkness, or] walk in\ndarkness.\" Pray mark, First, thou callest it the light of Christ,\nwhere with he hath lightened every one; and here thou comest a\nstep higher, and callest it, Christ himself; and then corruptest\nthat scripture, where the Son of Mary saith, \"I am the light of\nthe world,\" &c. Here thou wouldest very willingly have room to\nbroach they folly, but it may not be; for though Christ be the\nlight of the world, yet he is not in every one in the world. But\nsecondly, I pray where was Christ when he spake those words? was\nhe I say, within his disciples, or without them, when he said,\n\"I am the light of the world?\" He was without them, and walked up\nand down in the world with them from place to place, a very man.\nTherefore he did not mean at that time any light within, but\nhimself who was without. And indeed, they who will follow Christ\naright, must follow him without, to the cross without, for\njustification on Mount Calvary without, (that is, they must seek\nfor justification by his obedience without.) To the grave without,\nand to his ascension and intercession in heaven without; and this\nmust be done through the operation of his own Holy Spirit, that\nhe hath promised shall show these things unto them, being given\nwithin them for that purpose (John 16:14). Now the Spirit of\nChrist that leads also, but whither? I leads to Christ without,\nwhich said, being without, \"I am the light of the world: he that\nfolloweth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light\nof life\" (John 8:12). Deny this, that Christ was without when he\nspake those words (I am the light of the world) if you can.\n\nBut to come more close, to the thing. That light wherewith Christ,\nas he is God, hath lightened every one that cometh into the world,\nis the soul of man, which is the life of the body, and yet itself\nis but a creature, and made by the creator of all things (Isa 57:16).\nand is not the Spirit, as some do think it is. This creature hath\none faculty of its own nature, called conscience, which hath its\nplace in the soul, where it is as a judge to discern of things\ngood or bad, and judge them accordingly, as the apostle saith,\nspeaking of the heathens, \"Their conscience also bearing witness\nand their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one\nanother\" (Rom 2:14). This conscience is that in which is the law\nof nature (1Cor 11:14). which is able to teach the Gentiles, that\nsin against the law, is sin against God: And yet it is called\nbut even nature itself, as he saith there, \"Doth not even nature\nitself teach you?\" &c.\n\nNow this conscience, this nature itself, because it can control,\nand chide them for sin, who give ear unto it, therefore must it be\nidolized, and made a God of. O wonderful! that men should make a\nGod and a Christ of their consciences, because they can convince\nof sin. But thou goest ramping on, and sayest, there is nothing\nbut the light of Christ that will convince of sin, and thou biddest\nme, mind that. Now dost thou mean the Spirit of Christ? dost\nthou say that that which thou callest the light of Christ, is the\nSpirit of Christ? If so, then there is conscience which is not the\nSpirit of Christ, but a poor dunghill creature, in comparison of\nthe Spirit of Christ; yet will convince of sin, as is clear, from\nthat 8th of John. Where the woman is mentioned, who was taken in\nadultery by the Pharisees, or others, who when they heard brought\nher to Chris, and began to accuse her, Christ said, \"He that\nis without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her.\" And\nwhat then? When they heard that, they were convicted by their\nown consciences. Mark, he doth not say, by the light of Christ\nin their consciences, as some would have it be; No, but by their\nown consciences they were convinced, and went out one by one. And\nwere they all served so? Yea, from the eldest, even to the last;\nfor they all had consciences, though not the Spirit of Christ. So\nthat friend, here is something beside the Spirit of Christ, that\ncan and doth convince of sin, even a man's own conscience, the law\nof nature; nay nature itself, which no man will say is as good as\nthe Spirit of Christ, except they are guided by a deluding Spirit.\nAgain, thou sayest, He that convinceth of sins against the law,\nleads up to the fulfilling of the law. Friend, thy conscience\nconvinceth of sins against the law, follow thy conscience, it may\nlead thee under the curse of the law, through its weakness; but\nit can never deliver thee from the curse of the law by its power.\nFor if righteousness come by the obedience to the law, or by thy\nconscience either, then Christ is dead in vain (Gal 2:21).\n\nAgain thou sayest, \"That I and my generation would leap over the\nlaw.\"\n\nAnsw. For justification we look beyond it to the Son of Mary; yet\nwe know that the law is good, if it be used lawfully; but if it be\nused unlawfully, as those do use it, who seek to be justified by\ntheir obedience to it, it is made and idol of, and a saviour,\nthough it were given to no such purpose: For if there had been a\nlaw given which could have given life, verily righteousness should\nhave come by (thy obedience to) the law (Gal 3:21). Now at thy\nconclusions, sometimes thou dost utter thyself in this wise, Learn\nwhat this means.\n\nAnsw. Indeed thy words are dark, and enough to deceive the hearts\nof the simple; but blessed be God, he hath given me to understand,\nthat thou dost all along in the drift of thy discourse, disown\nChrist without, by pretending to a Christ within; whereas hadst\nthou indeed the Spirit of Christ within thee, it would be thy great\nbusiness to extol and magnify the Son of Mary, the Christ of God\nwithout thee, because it is the nature of the same Spirit so to do,\neven to glorify Christ without, who went away from his disciples\ninto heaven, to prepare a place for them (Luke 24:50,51).\n\nThen thou further sayest (with a kind of disdaining spirit) \"Many\nthings more thou passest by in my book, as being not pertinent\nto the thing in hand.\" But I believe they are so pertinent, that\nneither thou, nor thy friends or fellows are able to contradict\nwithout blaspheming, in the view of all them that have eyes to see:\nfor if they could, it should have been done by thee. And whereas\nthou sayest, \"Fools must be meddling.\" Answer, It must needs be,\nthat the saints of God should be called fools by the enemies of\nthe man Christ Jesus without, because that the doctrine of the man\nChrist Jesus, crucified without for the sins of poor sinners, is\nalso held to be foolishness by them; although it be the wisdom;\nand also the power of God, unto every one that believeth (1Cor\n1:23,24).\n\nAnd further, thou sayest, that the Pope can speak as much of\nChrist without, as I. Answer, friend, dost thou put no difference\nbetwixt the speaking of Christ without, and believing in Christ\nwithout? I tell thee, though there may be many that can speak of\nthe Christ of God without, yet there are but very few that can, or\ndo believe indeed in him without, by the mighty operation of his\nHoly Spirit within. Nay, you yourselves do testify this, who deny\nthat the salvation of sinners was completely wrought out by that one\noffering of Jesus Christ without upon the cross on Mount Calvary,\nand that he is ascentded from his disciples above the clouds,\ntouching his bodily presence. (as in 2Cor 5:6 compared with Acts\n1:9-11).\n\nThen again thou sayest, \"I do ask myself a question, and do also\nanswer it myself deceitfully.\" The question is, Do not the scriptures\nmake mention of a Christ within? And thou sayest, I answer it\ndeceitfully myself. But I answer again, that I am not ashamed of\nthe answer I then gave, because I know it is truth; and whereas\nthou sayest it is deceitful, and yet canst not find fault with any\npoint thereof, it confirms me, that had there been falsity in it,\nsuch an enemy to the truth, as thou art, would have taken that\nadvantage, as to have discovered, that thereby thou mightest have\nrendered the truth the more odious. The answer I shall leave to\nthe Christian reader, which is so indeed; yet am confirmed myself\nconcerning it, and shall give thee an answer to thy question,\nwhich is, Doth not the scriptures say, or witness, that all that\nhave not Christ within are reprobates? Answer: Yes, the scripture\nsaith so, and it is true, they that have not the Spirit of Christ\nin them, are reprobates. But there are some that are reprobates,\nthat you will confess. Then by your own argument you must grant,\nthat some have not the Spirit of Christ in them. Pray take notice,\nthey that have not the Spirit of Christ in them are reprobates.\nThere are some who are reprobates; therefore there are some who\nare sensual, \"having not the Spirit of Christ in them\" (see thy\nfolly how it is made manifest.) (Jude 5:19). The next thing thou\nart offended withal, is, because I say, the devil deceives poor\nsouls by persuading them to follow the light within which all men\nhave. answer, friend, I say, again, and again, That there is nothing\nless than the Spirit of Christ, that can give a soul a sight of\njustification by the blood of the man Christ Jesus without, by\nfollowing of it. Now as thou sayest thyself, some are reprobates,\nand have not the Spirit of Christ.\n\nThen is it any heresy to say, that it is of the devil to persuade\na soul to follow that light which is no better than conscience,\nor nature itself (Rom 2:14), which are not able to lead to Christ\nhis things, being foolishness to it; or is conscience, which every\none is lightened withal, the Spirit of Christ? give an answer in\nsincerity.\n\nThen thou sayest, that my whole purpose is a secret smiting at\nthe light wherewith Christ hath lightened every man. I answer, my\nwhole design in my book, is, and was, these following things:-\n\n1. To show souls, where salvation is to be had. Namely, in Christ\nwithout,\n\n2. To show souls how they should lay hold of this salvation;\nnamely, by the operation of the Spirit of Christ, which must be\ngiven within.\n\n3.To forewarn poor souls, that they should not deceive themselves,\nneither by conscience, nor the law; which are both inferior, and\nmuch below the Spirit of Christ; even as much as he that buildeth\nthe house, hath more honour than the house (Heb 3:3).\n\n4. To show how poor souls should know, whether they had the Spirit\nof Christ, or not, within them, or whether the Spirit of the devil\nhad exalted himself above the Spirit of Christ, by transforming\nhimself into an angel of light.\n\nFarther, thou thinkest I contradict myself, because I admonish\npoor souls to beg of God to convince them by his Holy Spirit; and\nthou sayest, This is my confusion. When alas, confusion is of,\nand from thyself, who wouldst make a defiled conscience, the law\nand the Spirit of Christ to be all one; as I shall further clear\nto the reader by and by.\n\nBut tell thee friend, there are many who have not the Spirit\nof Christ, and yet are convinced of sin by their own consciences\n(John 8:9). He doth not say, \"by the light of Christ in their\nconsciences,\" Mark that: Now I knowing, that a man may be convinced,\nand yet not by the Spirit of Christ (for he may be without that)\nbut by nature itself (1Cor 11:14). I do admonish every soul if\nthey love themselves, to beg of God for Jesus Christ his sake,\nthat he would not only let them be convince by these poor, low,\nempty, beggarly things (their consciences) in respect of the\nSpirit of Christ, but that he would convince them by that Spirit\nof his effectually, which is not only able to show their lost\nstate because of sins against the law, but also, to lead them to\nthe right Saviour, and plant them into him, which all other things\nare not able to do. And thus much in answer to thy scolding against\nmy epistle the truth of which I bless God through the strength of\nChrist, I could be willing to seal with my blood.\n\nAnd now friend, in love to thy soul, I say, have a care of thyself,\nthat thou do not satisfy thyself with anything, until thou seest by\nthe operation of the Spirit of Christ (which thou must have given\nthee from heaven, as being without it before conversion) that the\nblood of that man Christ Jesus that was crucified on Mount Calvary,\ndid at that same time, when it was there shed, wash thee from all\nthy sins, and be not so stout, and so stern against the truth,\nbecause it suits not with thy beguiled conscience. (bear with me\nin patience) and seriously inquire into the truth of things according\nto the scriptures. \"For they are they that testify of Christ, and\nhow salvation doth come by him.\"\n\nIn thy entering upon my book, the first thing I find thee wrangling\nwith, is by corrupting my words, and then by calling me liar.\n\nThou corruptest my words saying, that I said, \"the blood of Christ\nwas shed before the world began.\" Whereas I said, that in the\naccount of God, (mark, in the account of God) the blood of Christ\nwas shed before the world began. Friend, art thou not able to\ndistinguish, betwixt a thing being done in God's account, or\naccording to his foreknowledge, and a thing at that is really and\nactually done. Surely it was either thy folly to speak evil of the\nthing thou knowest not, or else thy madness doth much appear, in\nthat though thou understandest these things, yet for to wrangle\nby corrupting my sayings here, as also in other places, as will\nafterwards appear. this is in page 11, of thine, page 3, of my\nbook.\n\nThen thou goest on, page 12, and quotest the place where I say,\npage 37. How horribly are those deceived who look on Jesus (but\nthou leavest out those words, the Son of Mary) to be but a type;\nwhich thing you say, you know none that do. And again thou sayest,\nthat I say, he is of something afterwards to be revealed. My\nwords thou corruptest; thou wouldst fain gather thus much out of\nmy words, by corrupting them. that though I denied Christ Jesus\nthe Son of Mary to be a type, yet I myself say, He was a type, yet\nI myself say, He was a type of something afterward to be revealed.\nWhich thing, as there in my book, so here again I do most positively\ndeny, and I quote the same words again, for a second confirmation\nof the same, saying as then I died; \"How horribly are those\ndeceived, who look on Jesus the Son of Mary to be but a shadow,\nor type of something that was afterwards to be revealed.\" Whereas\nthe scriptures most lively hold him forth to be the Christ of\nGod; and not a type or shadow of a Spirit, or body afterwards to\nbe revealed, but himself was the very substance of all things that\ndid any way hold forth, or type out, Christ to come: And when he\nwas indeed come, then was an end put to the law for righteousness\nor justification to every one that believeth (Rom 10:4). And\ntherefore, friend, though thou hast, or wouldest corrupt my words,\nyet have a care of corrupting Christ's words, lest thou dost even\nheap up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the\nrighteous judgment of God. And whereas thou sayest, \"Thou deniest\nnot but Jesus is the substance.\" Answer, I doubt thou dost not\nspeak thine heart plainly, but hidest thyself with so saying, as\nwith an apron; if we inquire into what it is to hold froth Jesus\nthe Son of Mary to be the substance. Therefor he that holds forth\nJesus the Son of Mary to be indeed the substance, and not a type;\nholds forth and believes, that that Jesus that was born of the Virgin\nMary, did in his own body of flesh fulfil the law, and impute the\nrighteousness of his obedience unto them that he accomplished then\nwithout them; and that his blood that was shed without on the\ncross, doth, and hath washed away all sin past, present, and to\ncome, from him that believeth his; as it is written, \"For what\nthe law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, (that\nis, through our flesh.) God sending his own Son in the likeness of\nsinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:\" That is,\nhe was condemned in the flesh that he took on him of the Virgin\nMary (Rom 8:3). And again, he bore our sins in his own body on the\ntree, which was the cross on Mount Calvary.\n\nJesus also (saith the apostle) that he might sanctify the people\nwith his own blood, suffered: Where? Not in any believer, but\nwithout the gate of Jerusalem (Heb 13:12). How say you, do you\nreally believe that at that time when Jesus did hang on the cross\nwithout Jerusalem's gate, even at that time he did give the justice\nof God a full and complete satisfaction for all the sins of all\nbelievers, that have been formerly, or are now, or hereafter shall\nbe? Or do you look upon Jesus at that time to be but a shadow, or\ntype of some what that was afterwards to be done within? Answer\nplainly, yea, or no; that the simple may understand you.\n\nI now I come to answer thy query laid down, page 12, in these\nwords; \"Did Christ Jesus put an end to the law, for them who live\nyet in the transgression of the law condemned?\" Indeed a right\nanswer to this will be great satisfaction to some, though I think\nsome trouble to others. And therefore in answer to thy question\nI shall lay down these following things:\n\nAnsw. 1. Christ Jesus did put an end to the law for righteousness,\nfor all that shall be saved; for he shall not be offered a second\ntime: No, \"but once for all\" (Heb 10:10). Once in the end of the\nworld hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;\nand he hath done it once by himself for all (Heb 9:26). Otherwise\nhe must have often suffered since the world began: But that must\nnot be; for he \"dieth no more\" (Rom 6:9). But say you, \"Did he\nput and end to the law for them who still live in transgression?\"\n\nAnsw. 2. There are many poor souls that are given unto Christ,\nwho yet live in their sins. But Christ did at that time, when he\nhanged on the cross, give a full and complete satisfaction for\nthem. \"In due time Christ died for the ungodly: For scarcely for a\nrighteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some\nwould even dare to die.\" Ay, \"But God commendeth his love towards\nus, in the, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\" while\nwe were yet sinners, yet ungodly (Rom 5:6-8). Nay, he did not only\ndie for those who still live in sin, but he also makes intercession\nnow at the throne of his Father's grace for them. \"And he\nmade intercession for the transgressors\" (Isa 53:12). \"Thou hast\nascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive;--and received\ngifts for men.\" For what men? Even \"for the rebellious also.\" To\nwhat end? \"That the Lord God might dwell among them\" (Psa 68:38).\n\nAnsw. 3. That at that very time when Jesus Christ did hang on the\ncross on Mount Calvary, was buried, rose again from the dead, and\nascended above the clouds from his disciples, at that very time\nwas all the law fulfilled for righteousness. He is the end of\nthe law, mark; he is the end of the law for righteousness. But if\nthere were anything yet to be done for justification, which was\nnot then done; there could not be an end put to the law for\nrighteousness, for every one that believeth. But in that there is\nan end put to the law for righteousness by Jesus for all the elect\nof God, Christ having once fulfilled it for them: It is manifest,\nthat there was not anything then left undone by Christ at that\ntime, which was afterward to be done by his own Spirit in his\nchildren for justification, only believe what the man Christ,\nat that time did do, and saved (Acts 13:29-39); and whereas thou\nasketh, whether Christ did justify that which the law condemneth?\n\nAnsw. 4. I answer, Fourthly, That though Christ Jesus did not\njustify sins of ungodliness, yet he justifieth the ungodly. \"Now to\nhim that worketh is the reward [given, or] not reckoned of grace,\nbut of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that\njustifieth the ungodly, (mark the ungodly) his faith is counted\nfor righteousness\" (Rom 4:4). He is he that justifieth, having\nfinished the righteousness of the law in his own person for them.\n\"Mine own arm brought salvation,\" saith he, but how? Even by his\nbleeding on the cross; \"we have redemption through his blood\" (Eph\n1:7), which was shed without the gate (Heb 13:12). Ay, and though\nthe law condemneth a sinner, yet let but that sinner believe in\nChrist, in what he hath done in his own person, and he shall be\n\"justified from all things, from which he could not be justified\nby the law of Moses\" (Acts 13:39).\n\nAnd whereas thou asketh me the meaning of that scripture, \"not\none tittle of the law shall fail till all be fulfilled.\" I answer,\nThat the law hath already been fulfilled for justification, for\nevery one that believeth: And a believer is to do nothing for\njustification, only believe and be saved; though that law be a rule\nfor every one that believeth to walk by, but not for justification.\nBut if you do not put a difference between justification wrought by\nthe man Christ without, and sanctification wrought by the Spirit\nof Christ, within; teaching believers their duty to their God,\nfor his love in giving Christ; you are not able to divide the word\naright: but contrariwise, you corrupt the word of God, and cast\nstumbling-blocks before the people; and will certainly one day most\ndeeply smart for your folly, except you repent. Here is a plain\nanswer that may satisfy the simple. The Lord God grant that they\nmay lay it to heart effectually.\n\nNow this I say further, that if God enable any to receive this\ndoctrine aright ( namely what I said even now) it will more engage\nthe soul to God, than all the threatenings, thunder-claps, and\ncurses that come from the law itself. And a soul will do more for\nGod, seeing itself redeemed by the blood of the Lamb the Son of\nMary (John 1:29). than if he had all the conditions of the law\nto fulfil, and might be sure to have heaven for the fulfilling of\nthem. Now as to the assurance thou speakest of at the end of thy\nquestion. I know in the first place, that though believers themselves\ndo sin, yet they have \"an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous;\" (1John 2:1). And though the doctrine of the gospel\nbe to abstain from all appearance of evil, yet our Lord Jesus\nChrist is so pitiful, as not altogether to deprive his children\nof an assurance of their salvation,2 though sometimes through\nweakness they do transgress. And whereas you would lay an assurance\non our obedience to the law; I say, our assurance comes through our\nbelieving, and our obedience to the law is a fruit of our believing;\nfor every one that hath this hope, that he is one of the children,\nor sons of God, by faith in Jesus (1John 3:3), \"purifieth himself,\neven as he is pure.\" Holiness of life, if it be right, flows from\nan assurance of our being justified by Christ's death on the cross,\non Mount Calvary; as it is written again, that he might sanctify\nhis people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate.\n\nBut again, page 12. thou seemest offended, because I say, \"They\nare deceived, who think to obtain salvation by following the law,\nwhich they call Christ, though falsely.\" Why shouldst thou be\noffended at this, when the scripture saith plainly, \"That by the\ndeeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight:\nfor by the law is the knowledge of sin\" (Rom 3:20). But this is\nthy frothy argument, \"The law convinceth, and is our schoolmaster\nto bring us to Christ; therefore the law is not taken away,\"\nsayest thou. Friend, what is this to the purpose? must we seek for\njustification by the works of the law, because the law convinceth?\nyou may as well say, we must seek for justification from our\nconsciences, because they do convince: Now where the scripture\nsaith, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; do\nyou think it means, we must be first fitted by purification of\nourselves by, or according to the law, before we can be saved by\nChrist from the curse of the law? If you say, yea; then doth not\nthis follow, that Christ Jesus did not come to save sinners, but\nto save the righteous; and if so, then you must say, that Christ,\nPeter, Paul, and all the servants of the Lord are liars, who have\ntestified that Christ died not for the godly, but for the ungodly\nand sinners.\n\nBut where the scripture saith, the law was our schoolmaster to\nbring us to Christ: I ask again, is it the ceremonial law, or the\nmoral law that is meant in this place? If you say the moral, or\nthe ten commandments, I answer; That doth not lead to life and so\nnot to Christ; but is properly the ministration of condemnation\n(2Cor 3:6-11). That is, the proper work of the moral law, or ten\ncommandments, is to condemn, if it be not obeyed; and yet not to\nbless, until it be every jot fulfilled, which is impossible to be\ndone by any man for justification, in that exact and severe way\nwhich the law calls for; which makes the Apostle say, as many as\nare of the works of the law, are under the curse. Mark, he doth\nnot say, as many as are of the works of sin, are under the curse,\nthough that be true; but as many as are of the works of the law,\nare under the curse: \"for it is written, Cursed is every one that\ncontinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the\nlaw to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the\nsight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith\"\n(Gal 3:10,11).\n\nIf it be meant of the ceremonial law, as I am most inclinable to\nbelieve, because he saith it was our schoolmaster; he doth not say\nit is, but it was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, being\ntutor or governor; holding and significations forth, Christ to\ncome by its types until the time appointed of the Father, which\nappointed time (and so that law) was to have an end, when God sent\nforth his Son made of a woman, Jesus the Son of Mary, who was made\nunder the law, to redeem those that were under the law.\n\nNow the ceremonial law did bring or lead to Christ these two ways:\nFirst, In that it did continue in full force until he did come into\nthe world, and had done that which was by it held out for him to\ndo.\n\nSecondly, In that the several types and shadows, as the blood of\nbulls and lambs, with diverse other services did lead to, or hold\nforth Christ that was to come: But the moral law, or ten commandments,\nis so far from leading us to Christ by our following it, that\nit doth even lead those that are led by it under the curse. Not\nbecause the law hath an evil end in it, but because of our weakness\nand inability to do it; therefore it is forced, as it is just,\nto pass a sentence of condemnation on every one, that in every\nparticular fulfils it not.\n\nIn the next place, thou art offended because I said, \"It is not,\nfor I do not know your fellows for boasting under heaven, in that\nyou, (Pharisees like) do cry up yourselves to be the men, and\ncondemns all others; when you are THE MEN that are the greatest\nenemies to the Christ of God without (who is the Saviour) of any\nmen under heaven. And in that you pretend you are perfect, when\nyou are the notablest liars and corrupters of the sayings of the\npeople of God, yea, and of the scriptures also, that ever I came\nnear in all the days of my life; and I doubt not but before I\nhave done with you, I shall make it appear to them that read or\nhear my lines aright.\" the query in page 13. runs thus, \"Will that\nfaith which is without works justify?\" I answer, No, neither will\nthose works which are without faith sanctify. What then, Is it\nfaith and works together that doth justify? No, it is only faith\nin the blood of the man Christ, that did hang on the cross on Mount\nCalvary, that doth justify in the sight of God and the soul, and\nit is the fruits of faith, good works, which do justify in the\nsight of men. So that when it is said, we are justified by works;\nit is not meant that works will justify in the sight of God. No,\nbut shew me (or shew men) thy faith, of justify thy faith to be\ntrue and right before men by thy works. Shew men thy faith by\nthy works, it is in the sight of men. So that we conclude a man\nis justified, or made manifest to be indeed that which is right,\nboth to believers, and to the world by its works. Though I must\nconfess, that both Paul and Peter, and the rest of the saints,\nmay sometimes be deceived in the truth of the faith of others by\ntheir works.\n\nAgain I page 17 thou seemest to be offended, because, I say \"loving\nby faith, is to apply the Lord Jesus Christ, his benefits, as\nbirth, righteousness, death, blood, resurrection, ascension, and\nintercession, together with the glorious benefits of his second\ncoming to me, as mine, and for me, &c\" (Gal 2:20).\n\nFriend, methinks thou shouldest find no fault with this, but that\nthe Man Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, is not very pleasant to\nthee, because thou hast swallowed down secretly another doctrine;\nbut friend, I speak of applying these things. and thou speakest\nof talking of them, I know that there are many who talk of Christ,\nthat will fall short of heaven and glory.\n\nBut tell me, what sayest thou to him that doth apply all these\nthings to his soul, is there not enough in them to justify him, that\ndoth really and truly in the power of the Spirit, believe this to\nbe true which I have said? or dost thou deny it and preach another\ngospel saith not, who shall ascend, to fetch Christ from above\nfor salvation. Though there is never a scripture that saith these\nwords, word for word; yet the scripture saith, \"the word is nigh\nthee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; but mark, it is the word\nof faith, not the Man Christ Jesus, but faith which layeth hold\non him\" (Rom 10:8-9), which is this, \"That if thou shalt confess\nwith thy mouth the Lord Jesus, (who was born of the Virgin, Matt\n1:21) and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him\nfrom the dead, thou shalt be saved.\" These great and precious\nscriptures, with which by corrupting of them, the Quakers have\nbeguiled many, have this meaning, that if thou shalt confess with\nthy mouth the Lord Jesus; that is, in profession and practice, own\nhim, and believe him to be the anointed Saviour. And shalt believe\nin thine heart, that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be\nsaved; \"for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and\nwith the mouth confession is made unto salvation.\" But what should\nmen believe with the heart? Namely this, that God raised him (\nthat is Christ) from the dead (verse 10). And therefore, I wonder\nthou shouldest so scold, as thou dost, against the truth: If this\nbe not truth, blame the scriptures which do testify of these things\nfor truth. For I am ruled and would be ruled by them through the\nSpirit.\n\nBut farther, thou art offended that I should say, \"They are deceived\nwho own Christ no otherwise than as he was before the world\nbegan.\" This question, I briefly ask thee, \"Had Christ a body of\nflesh before the world began?\" If you say no, as you must, if you\nsay true; then do not I say true, when I say, they are deceived\nwho own Christ no otherwise than as he was before the world began?\nbecause they own him not with that body of flesh which he took of\nthe Virgin Mary; and so are antichrists, as the scripture saith.\nAnd how say you? Do you believe that the same Christ who was\nbefore the world, without a body, did in time come into the world\nand take a body from the Virgin, and in that body did obtain\neverlasting redemption for sinners?: and is gone with that very\nbody into the presence of this Father above the clouds into heaven,\nfrom his saints on earth, though in them by his Spirit. A plain\nanswer to this would unlock your double meanings. Again, thou\nsayest the saints drank of the spiritual rock that followed them.\n\nFriend, I confess, that that spiritual rock that did follow the\nfathers, and long after, was from the same loins with them, even\nfrom the loins of Abraham, and the rest of the children of the\npromise, according to the promise, was the meat and drink of saints\n(Rom 9:4,5). But to look upon Christ no otherwise than as he was\nbefore the world was, which was a Spirit only, and not to own him\nnow clothed with a body, absent from his children touching the\nsame body, I dare be bold to say, they are no Christians, but\nantichristians, yea antichrists. He that confesseth not that Jesus\nChrist is come in the flesh is antichrist, and of antichrist.\nAgain,\n\nAt this also thou wranglest, because I said that \"every spirit that\nconfesseth not that Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before\nthe world was, did in the appointed time of the Father, come into\nthe world, take a body upon him, and was very Man as well as very\nGod: and did in the very body suffer what did belong to the sons\nof men, &c.\" So my book, page 42, 43, 44. I answer, if thou didst\nindeed believe the truth, thou wouldest own these things. But being\ndeceived, rather that thou wilt let his pass for truth, though\nthou wilt put on a vail, and venture upon it thus, saying, \"If\nevery spirit were of God, which doth confess in words this, then\nis not the Pope himself antichrist.\"\n\nAnsw. Friend, it is one thing to confess the things in words and\nanother thing to believe them, and to make a life out of them;\nand there fore is thy life made out of Christ without thee, by the\noperation of his Spirit within thee, yea or no? then in answer\nto my bidding people receive no Christ except God's Christ, thou\nsayest thus, \"That Christ is a mystery, and unto him is light, and\nshall be salvation where his person never came.\" this question\nI ask thee, did or doth Christ obtain salvation for any, without\nthat body which he took of the Virgin? And yet thou sayest, it\ncannot be said, here is the place where the Son is not.\n\nI answer: As the Son of God is also very Man, so it may be said,\nhere is the place where he is not, and there is the place where he\nhath not been, though as he is God it is otherwise: lit him that\nreads understand.\n\nAnd now passing by many things that I might justly examine, and\nalso many unseemly expressions, I come to the next thing, and that\nis, where you say, you wrest not the scriptures in John 1:9. But\nit is evident, that you do most horribly wrest it, in the you,\nthough you seem to take it in the plain words, yet would hold,\nthat that light is the Spirit of Christ, notwithstanding here is\nno such thing mentioned in that scripture. For mark, as I have\nsometimes said, and now also will say, that that light wherewith\nChrist, as he is God, hath lightened every one with, is not the\nSpirit of Christ, as is clear, in that some are sensual having not\nthe Spirit, which they must needs have, if it were given to every\none that comes into the world, and therefore, in that you say, I\nsay you lay down that scripture false; I say again, that you say\nmany things which I do know to be blasphemy, as I shall prove\nclearly anon, as also I have already. And therefore, to take thee\nof from this, I shall say, that Christ as he is a mediator, a Man\nbetween God and man, so he doth not lighten every man that comes\ninto the world, though as he is God he doth. And this is manifest,\nwhere he often, (as he was Man) saith, These things are spoken to\nthem that are without in parables; \"that seeing they might not see,\nand hearing they might not understand,\" (Luke 8:10). And again,\nwhere Judas (not Iscariot) said; Lord, how is it, that thou wilt\nmanifest thyself to us, and not unto the world? He saith, \"If a\nman love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him,\nand we (I as mediator, and my Father as reconciled in me) will\ncome unto him, and make our abode with him\" (John 14:23). And\nagain, \"No man knoweth him as a father, but the Son, and he to\nwhom the Son will reveal him (Matt 11:27). But above all, take\nthat scripture where the Son saith, \"I thank thee O Father, Lord\nof heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the\nwise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes\" (verse 25).\nHere the Son and the Father are speaking one to another; the Father\nhe hides the glorious things of the gospel from the, world (Matt\n11:25-27), and the Son he rejoices in so doing. At the same hour\nJesus rejoiced in Spirit, and said, \"I thank thee, O Father, &c.\nTherefore understand thus much, that though Christ as he is God,\ndoth give to every man a light, which is conscience, otherwise\ncalled nature (Rom 2:14; 1Cor 11;14), yet it doth not follow,\nthat every man hath enlightening from Christ as he is mediator.\nNo, Christ as he is mediator doth neither pray for the world (John\n17:9), neither doth he give his Spirit to all that are in the world;\nfor some are sensual, and have it not. But now the argument that\nthou dost bring to colour the contrary with, is this; for what\nthe Father doth, sayest thou, the Son doth also. Answ. Though this\nbe true, that the Son doth what the Father doth; yet it doth not\nappear that either the Father or the son hath given the Spirit to\nevery one that comes into the world (Jude 19).\n\nAgain thou sayest, thou deniest those that say, \"That light which\nevery one hath as he comes into the world, is conscience; though\nsome call it Christ falsely.\" Answ. Friend, What wilt thou have it\ncalled; Christ. No, if not conscience, then call it nature itself;\nfor all have not the Spirit.\n\nBut another great argument thou bringest in page 15, is, \"The light\nof Christ doth convince of sin.\" Now do you call conscience the\nlight of Christ? that will convince of sin (John 8:9). And they\nbeing convinced by their own consciences, &c. if thou dost call\nthe law the light of Christ, that also will convince of or make\nknown sin; For by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). If\nthou dost call even nature itself, the light of Christ; That also\ndoth shew, that sins are a shame, even those sins which some leap\nover (1Cor 11:14), and ruffian-like they will wear long hair,\nwhich nature itself forbiddeth, and is commended for the same by\nthe apostle. The Spirit of Christ also will convince of sin. That,\nbecause these several things will convince of sin, therefore will\nthey needs be the Spirit of Christ? Or do they altogether make\nbut one Spirit of Christ? dost thou profess thyself to walk in the\nlight, and art not able to know these things; Or, if thou dost\nknow them art thou so unfaithful as not to tell poor people of\nthem, who are some of them at their wits end, by reason they are\nnot enlightened into these things.\n\nAnother of thy arguments is, \"They saw the eternal power and\nGodhead, by that which was made manifest of God in them.\"\n\n[I reply] The scripture say not so word for word, but thus: \"Because\nthat which might be known of God, was manifested in them.\" But\nhow? for he hath shewed it unto them. But how? why the invisible\nthings of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,\nbeing understood by the things that are made, (which words in thy\ncharge against me thou didst leave out) but mark: The invisible\nthings of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen,\nbeing understood by the things that are made. But how then doth\nit say, that the knowledge of God is manifested in them? Why,\nbecause God hath shewed it unto them by the things that are made,\neven by the creation of the world. so that this scripture holdeth\nforth thus much; that the invisible things of God, as his power,\nholiness, and common goodness to the sons of men are clearly seen,\nbeing understood by the things that are made. But how feeble an\nargument is this, to prove such a doctrine as this: That every one\nhath the Spirit when this light discovers God only by his works\nin the world. Friend, if they that know God, because he doth shew\nhimself to them by his works in the world, have the Spirit of\nChrist, then the same argument will serve to speak thus much; that\nthe devils themselves have the Spirit of Christ, which would be\nwonderful blasphemy once to affirm. And friend, the very devils,\nboth for the knowledge of sin, and also for the knowledge of\nGod's eternal power and Godhead, have more experience than all the\nunregenerate men in the world; and yet have not the least spark\nof the Spirit of Christ in them.\n\nOther lame arguments thou tumblest over, like a blind man in a\nthicket of bushes, which I pass by. But one thing more thou hast,\nand that is this,\n\nThou askest me \"whether I do know this light which god and Christ\nhath given to every man\" (Rom 2:14; 1Cor 11:14)? First, I deny\nthat Christ as he is mediator, hath given to every man his Spirit.\nAnd Secondly, I deny, that Christ as he is God hath given to\nevery one his Spirit; but this I say as I have often said, it is\nconscience of nature itself that every one hath, take it in either\nof these scripture terms, as I have proved at large. And whereas\nthou askest me, \"Whether that light, which Christ as he is God hath\nlightened every one with that comes into the world, be sufficient\nin itself for life and salvation.\" I answer plainly, no; for then\nChrist Jesus needed not to have come into the world to die for\nsinners; for every one had that light before Christ did come into\nthe world.\n\n2. And secondly I answer, it is not able, for then it would have\nbeen a needles thing for Christ to tell his disciples of sending\nthem his Spirit, to lead them into all truth. The might have said,\nwhy dost thou talk of sending us they Spirit, who have that that\ncan do the deed already, if that could have done it.\n\n3. Because the scripture saith, \"some are sensual, not having the\nSpirit.\" Now a man cannot lay hold on Christ, nor believe in him\nsavingly without the Spirit, because faith is the work of the\nSpirit.\n\n4. Because then it had been in vain for the Lord to have given\nthe scriptures to teach men out of, either concerning himself or\nthemselves: Why? because without it, they had a sufficient light\nto guide them: that thing must not be so.\n\nAnd whereas thou asketh, whether the fault be then in God, or in\nthat thou callest his light, or in the creature? I answer; What\nif God willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known,\nendured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction;\nand that he might make know the riches of his glory on the vessels\nof mercy, which he had afore (before the world was, Eph 1:4)\nordained unto glory? And secondly, O vain man! What is that to\nthee if God should make some vessels to dishonour: hath not the\npotter power over the clay, of the same lump to do therewith as\nhe pleases (Rom 9:16-22).\n\nAnd where I say, \"Christ as he is God hath lightened every one\nthat cometh into the world:\" to it thou givest a glavering answer;\nbut having touched on this before, I pass it by.\n\nTo the next thing, where I say, \"men's neglecting this light, or\nlaw, will be sure to damn them, though their obedience to the law\nwill not save them.\" Here thou sayest I have confessed truth, (and\nI know it is true by experience) and thou commentest on those\nthings laid down by me thus: \"Then surely (sayest thou ) I t\nis good not to neglect it; \"that is, not to neglect following the\nlaw. To which I answer, as their obedience to the law will not\nsave them, so their neglect of obedience to the law will be sure\nto damn them; these things thou canst not deny. But is this all\nthe wit thou hast? Because the neglect of the law will be sure to\ndamn them; therefore wouldst thou put poor souls to follow that\nwhich will not save them? (O wonderful ignorance.) Nay, but thou\nshouldest have said, then surely the best course is, for a poor\nsoul in this case, to fly to the Lord Christ, even the Man Christ\nJesus, who was slain on Mount Calvary for the sins of poor sinners.\nAnd the rather, because he did so willingly, of his own accord\nlay down his life for them. Methinks, I say, thou shouldest rather\nhave said, then lit us follow the Son of Mary, the Man Christ\nJesus, the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world,\nby his blood on the cross; who is now also at his Father's right\nhand making intercession for all those that do come to the Father\nby him; but they that are not for the truth, will advance anything\nbut the truth. And as for that which thou callest the second\nclause, which is. The law (sayest thou) must by obeyed.\n\nI answer, Christ Jesus hath done that in his own person, and justified\nme thereby, and for my part, I will not labour now to fulfil the\nlaw for justification, least I should undervalue the merits of the\nMan Christ Jesus, and what he hath done without me: and yet will\nI labour to fulfil, if it were possible, then thousand laws, if\nthey were so many; An O! let it be out of love to my sweet Lord\nJesus (2Cor 5:14) \"for the love of Christ constrains me.\" And thus\nmuch to thy 16th page.\n\nIn the next place, thou art offended with this, because I say,\nthough Christ doth give a light to every one that comes into the\nworld, yet it doth not therefore follow, that this conscience,\n(or light) is the Spirit of Christ, or the work of grace wrought\nin the heart of any believer. This I shall pass also, as having\nspoken to it already, only mind thee of they weakness, in that thou\nshouldest make this conscience, that Christ hath given to every\nman, to be the same with the Spirit of Christ. And thou sayest\nfurther, that the light, that Christ hath lightened every one with,\nis the same in nature with the Spirit of Christ. O wonderful! that\na man should be so foolish, and so much besides the truth, as to\ncompare that nature, or conscience, that is given to every man;\nequal to the Spirit of Christ: nay, thou sayest that it is one\nwith it in nature. Didst thou not blush when thou laidst it down?\nif thou didst not, thou mightest have done with shame enough. As\nI said before, because thy conscience will convince thee of sin,\ntherefore the law must be called Christ, or as good as Christ.\nWhat! because the law will convince of sin, therefore the law must\nbe called Christ. What ignorance is this? Nay, nature itself, that\nmust have the pre-eminency, even as high as Christ Jesus, because\nit can tell a man that it is a shame for him to wear long hair.\n\nThen thou askest me, can there be a surer thing for the creature\nto walk by, than by the light of Christ, which thou confessest\nevery one hath, that cometh into the world. Answer, Friend, to the\nlaw, and to the testimony (sayeth the scriptures) for they testify\nof Christ. And if thou or any else, shall leave the scriptures, to\nfollow the convictions of their own conscience; ye are not like\nto know Christ Jesus the Lord, for they may be defiled. And again,\nit is through the promises laid down in the scriptures, \"that we\nmight be partakers of the divine nature\" (2Peter 1:4), and not by\nour following of the law, or conscience (Gal 3:1-4).\n\nBut again, where I say, Heathens, Turks, Jews, Atheists, &c. have\nthat which doth convince of sin, and yet are so far from having\nthe Spirit of Christ in them, that they delight to do iniquity;\nand serve their lust. Upon this thou movest this query; do they,\nor I, or any other, serve sin and lust, because Christ hath not\ngiven us light, or because we hate this light.\n\nAns. This I do really confess, that every Heathen, Turk, or Jew,\nin this world, hath a conscience within them, that doth convince\nof sin; for the Gentiles which have not the law, that is, not the\nlaw in tables of stone, or written as we have; these do by nature,\nthe things contained in the law; these having not the law, are a\nlaw unto them selves; which shew the work of the law written in\ntheir hearts, their consciences also bearing them witness, &c.\nAnd all men and women shall be left without excuse, even by the\nconvictions of their own consciences, or the law. But now that\nthese things are the Spirit of Christ, that I deny. For conscience\nis but a creature, a faculty of the soul of man, which God hath\nmade. Neither is the law the Spirit of Christ; for the law is not\nof faith. They that are of the works of the law, are under the\ncurse, but they that have the spirit of Christ they are the children\nof God, and under grace, and delivered from the curse, as it is\nwritten (Gal 3:10) \"As many as are of the words of the law are\nunder the curse.\" But what is it to be of the works of the law, or\nunder the law? Ans. Why to seek to be justified by their obedience\nto the law. \"Israel which followed after the law of righteousness,\"\nmark. They that follow after righteousness, do not attain to the\nlaw of righteousness; if they seek it not by faith: but as it were\nby the works of the law (Rom 9:30,31). But \"Christ hath redeemed\nus from the curse of the law, being ( in our nature) made a curse\nfor us\" (Gal 3:10-13).\n\nBut whereas thou sayest, this conscience or law, which you would\nfain have called the Spirit of Christ, works in all men either to\njustify, or condemn. I do plainly deny, that either conscience,\nor the law can justify, though they can condemn. Mark, The law is\ncalled the ministration of condemnation, but not of life.\n\nThe gospel is called the ministration of life, but not of condemnation.\n(2Cor 3:9). The law was given that sin might be discovered. The\ngospel was sent, that sin might be taken away. The law worketh\nwrath; but the gospel is a gospel of peace (Rom 10). \"The law\nmade nothing perfect\" (Heb 7:19). But Christ justifieth from all\nthose things from which we could not be justified by the law of\nMoses (Acts 13:39).\n\nAnd whereas thou askest me whether any thing doth convince of sin\ncontrary to, or besides the Spirit of Christ.\n\nI answer. There is conscience, and the law, yea, and nature itself\nthat doth convince of son; as before I have proved at large. Yet\nneither is conscience, that law; or nature itself the Spirit of\nChrist; no, but are much inferior to it, as being things of no\nglory in respect of it.\n\nAnd again, that something doth convince of sin besides the Spirit\nof Christ, it is evident, for the law saith, \"Cursed is every on\ne that continueth not in all things which are written in it to do\nthem\" (Gal 3:10). But the Spirit convinceth men of their unbelief,\ntogether with other sins. Now mark, The law also convinceth to\nwork for life, the Spirit convinceth to believe for life; the law\nsaith, He that doth not fulfil me, shall be damned. The Spirit\nsaith, He that believeth in Christ shall be saved. Now observe\nthe terms of the law and of the gospel, are different one from\nanother as to justification. If men seek for life by the law;\nthen the law saith, Fulfil me perfectly, and thou shalt live. The\nspirit saith, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save those\nthat by transgression had broken the law. For, for this cause saith\nthe Spirit \"He (Jesus the Son of Mary, the Man Christ between God\nand us 1Tim 2:5) is the mediator of the New Testament.\" For what?\n\"that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions\nthat were under the first testament, they which are called might\nreceive the promise of eternal inheritance\" (Heb 9:15). Now\nI would not be mistaken; I do not say, that the Spirit of Christ\ndoth give the least liberty to sin; God forbid. But its convictions\nare of a more saving and refreshing nature than the convictions\nof the law, and do more constrain the soul to holiness than that.\n\nThe law saying, work for life; the Spirit saying, \"Now to him that\nworketh not, (for life) but believeth on him that justifieth the\nungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness\" (Rom 4:5), as\nthus, if I should owe to two creditors ten thousand talents; the\none should say unto me, thou owest me five thousand talents, pay\nthat thou owest; the other should say, thou owest me five thousand\ntalents, and I frankly and freely forgive thee all. Now these\nexpressions are contrary one to another: even so is the end of the\nconvictions of the law, not according to the end of the convictions\nof the Spirit of Christ; the one saying, pay me that thou owest,\nthe other saying, thou art frankly and freely forgiven all.\n\nThe next thing thou utterest is, where I say, \"Those that are alive\nunto sins, have not the Spirit of Christ.\" But sayst thou, it is\ngiven to every man. Mark, thou sayest, It is given to every man.\nThe apostle saith, some are sensual, having not the Spirit (Jude\n19). Who must we now believe, the Apostle or you? Certainly your\ndoctrine is not according to truth, but a lie; as is clear, in the\nyou will affirm, that which the Apostle doth deny.\n\nThen thou sayest, I bring other vain arguments to prove that every\none hath not the Spirit of Christ. This one is enough to prove\nit, that the Apostle saith, Some men have it not. But that which\nthou callest vain, I am sure neither thou nor any of they fellows,\nare able to answer. One is to this purpose; the devils are so\nconvinced of son, that they did fear the torment that was to come\nupon them for their sins; and did fear also that the son of Man\nwas come to torment them for their sins, and yet the devils have\nnot the spirit of Christ. so that it is evident, that we may be\nconvinced of sin, and yet not by the Spirit of Christ. A second\nargument which thou callest vain, is this, Man in his coming into\nthe world, hath his conscience given him, which doth convince of\nsin (John 8:9), yet man in his coming into the world, or as he\ncometh into the world, hath not the Spirit of Christ given him,\nfor that must be received ordinarily afterward by the preaching\nof the word, which is preached by the ministers and servants of\nJesus Christ (Acts 10:44). \"while Peter yet spake\" to the people,\n\"the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.\"\n\nBut farther, thou sayest, \"Until I prove the light of Christ contrary\nto the Spirit of Christ, thou wilt say, that every man hath that\nwhich is one in union, and like the Spirit of Christ, even as good\nas the Spirit of Christ in its measure.\"\n\nAnswer. Friend, I have proved already that every man hath not the\nSpirit of Christ, though they have that which thou dost call the\nSpirit of Christ, which is conscience and nature itself. And this\nI say again, that thou hast laid open thy weakness very much, to\nsay that every man hath that which is as good as the Spirit of\nChrist, Friend, seeing the scriptures say, some have not the Spirit\nof Christ, how durst thou so blaspheme, as to say, then it is as\ngood as the Spirit of Christ in its measure. Was there ever such a\ndeal of ignorance discovered at one time by man, as to say, that\nevery man hath the spirit, or that which is as good as the Spirit;\nthough the Spirit saith plainly, that some have not the Spirit,\nas I have proved plainly (Jude 19). Friend, what is there besides\nthe Spirit that is as good as the Spirit. Be silent, and say no\nmore so, lest thou dost through ignorance, or presumption, set\nup thy conscience or nature, as high and as good as the Spirit of\nChrist, when indeed they are not worthy to be compared with it,\nbeing weak, and not able to do that which is and hath been done\nby the Spirit of Christ.\n\nThen thou art offended, because I said the devil doth deceive poor\nsouls by bidding them listen within, and see if there be not that\nwhich doth convince of sin. friend, all men have not the Spirit,\nthough they have that conscience that doth convince of son (John\n8:9). Now seeing all men have not the Spirit, is it not a great\ndeceit of the devil to persuade poor souls, that because they are\nconvinced for son by their own consciences, therefore they have\nthe Spirit of Christ: surely it is from the devil. Because he\nwould make thee believe that conscience, which is but a creature,\nis the Spirit of Christ, by whom the world was made. Again, because\nthe soul, being persuaded that it hath the Spirit (when it hath\nit not) as all men naturally are without it (Eph 5:13,14), it is\nkept off from seeking and begging for it, being already persuaded\n(falsely) that it hath it.\n\nAnd whereas thou sayest, the voice of the gospel is to bid listen\nwithin the heart, as Paul preacheth. I deny that Paul biddeth\nlisten within. But the scripture that you would fain make shelter\nfor your error is this, where he saith, \"The word is nigh thee,\neven in thy mouth, and in thy heart\" (Rom 10:8). That is, The word\nof faith which we preach. Now, Friend, faith is that which layeth\nhold of, or believeth the gospel. And that his is the meaning\nread the next verse: That (saith he) \"If thou shalt confess with\nthy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that\nGod hath raise him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.\" so that\nit is clear that the word of faith, is to believe assuredly from\nthe very heart, that God hath raised up Jesus from the dead, out\nof the grave into which he was laid by Joseph; and that he was\nraised again for my justification (Rom 4:25), as it is written\n(1Cor 15), \"Moreover brethren (saith he,) I declare unto you the\ngospel which I preached unto you\" at the first, \"which also you\nhave received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved,\nif ye keep in memory, ( or assuredly believe,) what I preached unto\nyou, unless ye have believed in vain.\" but what was that gospel\nyou preached? why, saith he (verse 3), \"I delivered unto you first\nof all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our\nsins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that\nhe rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that\nhe was seen of--the brethren after his resurrection,\" &c. the word\nof the gospel, my friend, is, Christ died for our sins according\nto the scriptures, and that he rose again according to the\nscriptures, and that he is ascended from his disciples, to prepare\na place for them according to the scripture.\n\nThat he ever liveth to make intercession in his own person without,\nas mediator between God and man, according to the scripture (Heb\n7:25).\n\nThat he will come again in the clouds with all his mighty angels,\nand before him shall all nation be gathered, according to the\nscriptures (1Thess 4:16,17; Matt 25:31,32), after which time, his\nsaints shall be ever with him according to the scriptures.\n\nAgain, thou art offended in that I said, Now the poor soul finding\nthis to be so (that it is convinced of sin) all in haste (if it be\nwilling to profess) through ignorance of the gospel, claps in with\nthe motions of its own conscience, which doth command to abstain\nfrom this evil, and to practise that good. Which words of mine\nthou corruptest, and wrestest, and layest down in another form,\nas are to be seen in thy book, page 18. But now, friend, is not he\nignorant of the gospel, which thinks his own conscience will lead\nhim to eternal life, by commanding to abstain from this evil, and\npractise that good? Surely, if salvation comes by our conscience,\nor by the convictions or commands thereof, Christ Jesus died for\nnothing (Gal 2:21).\n\nAnd whereas thou askest, what, and how doth the light of the gospel\nwork, if not in the conscience. I answer, Though the light of the\nSpirit of God and the gospel light is hid, and dith not shine so\nmuch as unto, much less into the consciences of some of them that\nbe lost (2Cor 4:3,4) that though the light of the gospel dith shine,\nand that gloriously too in the hearts of God's elect, yet it dith\nnot follow, that the convictions of conscience is the gospel; no,\nnor the convictions of the law neither. And again, though every\none of God's elect have the light of the glorious gospel shining\nin them, what argument is this to prove all men have the light\nof the gospel shining in them. No, saith Christ, \"I thank thee,\nO Father, because thou hast hid these things (the things of the\ngospel) from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto\nbabes\" (Matt 12:25). And whereas thou sayest (as I gather by thy\nwords) that I call conscience the light of Christ, I say, if thou\nmeanest by these words (the light of Christ) the Spirit of Christ,\nI do deny that every man hath it: but if thou callest conscience\nthe light of Christ, or the highest light that is in an unconverted\nman the light of Christ; then, I say, that the highest light that\nis in a natural or unconverted man (which you call the light of\nChrist) is not able by all its motions an convictions, nor yet\nby all the obedience that a man ca yield to these convictions; I\nsay, they are not able to deliver him from the wrath to come; for\ndeliverance from that s obtained by the blood of Jesus, which was\nshed on the cross, without the gate of Jerusalem (as I have often\nsaid) (Eph 1:7 compared with Heb 13:12). and not any light within\na natural man.\n\nAnd whereas thou sayest that I said, the devil counterfeits the new\nbirth by persuading to follow the light of the world. I answer, 3\nThou hast most naughtily belied me. The words that I said (speaking\nof the devil before) are these; Now he counterfeits the new birth\n(said) by persuading them that it is wrought by following the\nlight that they brought into the world with them; as is clearly\nseen in my book, page 76. Friend, I wonder that you should so\nboldly profess yourself to be led by the Spirit of Christ, when\nyou make it manifest that you are guided by the spirit of Satan.\nWas not he a liar? and hast not thou been led by a lying spirit\nalso, in wresting of my words as thou hast done?\n\nBut I do freely declare again, that Satan doth deceive those souls,\nwhom he persuades the new birth is wrought in, by following the\nlight they brought into the world with them; for men as they come\ninto the world, do not receive the Spirit, for it is given to the\nelect afterwards; neither have all men the Spirit. And he that\nhath the new birth, must have it by, and through the Spirit; as\nit is written, \"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,\nhe cannot enter into the kingdom of God.\" Therefore, if men do not\nbring the Spirit into the world with them; and if nothing without\nthe Spirit, or nothing but the Spirit, will or can work the new\nbirth in a man: it must needs follow, that they who think the new\nbirth is wrought by that light or conscience which they brought\ninto the world with them, must needs be beguiled by Satan.\n\nI do pass by many of thy raging expressions, which I might justly\ncharge with much unrighteousness; but I know the time is short,\nand then whatsoever thou has done in secret, shall be laid open\nupon the house tops, therefore I forbear them.\n\nAgain, thou art offended because I said, now Satan makes the soul\nbelieve he is its friend, and that he is a gospel minister (2Cor\n11:14), and if the soul will be led by what shall be made known\nto it, from the light or conscience within, it shall not need to\nfear, but it shall do well, page 76. of my book [153]. I said it\nthen, and I say it now; and I know that he that doth think to be\nborn again by following his conscience, or any other light that is\nin an unregenerate man, will be deceived, and shall one day know,\nthat there is a difference between conscience and Christ; between\nthe light of nature, and the Spirit of God.\n\nQuest. But you may say, how can you prove that conscience is not\nof the same nature, of the Spirit of Christ?\n\nAnsw. 1. They that are unbelieving, even their conscience is\ndefiled. Tit. i. 15. But so cannot be the Spirit of Christ.\n\nAnsw. 2. Conscience is not of the same nature with the Spirit of\nChrist, for conscience may be hardened or seared with an hot iron:\nas it is written (1Tim 4:2). But so cannot be the Spirit of Christ.\n\nAnsw. 3. Our consciences naturally are evil, \"having (saith the\nscripture) our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience\" (Heb\n10:22). But so is not the Spirit of Christ.\n\nBut again whereas you said, that I said, they will not speak except\nthe Spirit move the, &c thou dost falsely speak of me, and dost\ncorrupt my words; for I said, How they will not speak except their\nspirit move them, (I do not say the Spirit of Christ) (said I)\nFriend; if you can be lead to life by your own spirit, if your\nown spirit will learn you the things of the Spirit of God; and if\nyou can speak them with and in your own spirit, in the demonstration\nthat they are spoken, when they are spoken in the Spirit of Christ;\n(which all men have not) then say that I speak false things; but\ntill that time hold your peace. Thus I pass by they 20. page,\nleaving many of thy scolding terms to thyself. The next thing you\nsayest Is, that I did run but was not sent, like unto my forefathers:\nand therefore sayest thou, I do not profit the people at all.\nAnsw. Which accusation of thine, I shall leave to be taken notice\nof by the people of God in the country where I dwell, who will\ntestify the contrary for me, setting aside the carnal ministry,\nwith their retinue; who are as mad against me as thyself.\n\nBut farther, thou art somewhat distempered, and discontented that\nI said, \"Many sad and horrible doctrines are vented by you,\" And\nyour said, I named nothing. Answ. I need not, thine own speech\nbetrayeth thee, that thou art one of them, that do such things;\nand I need go no further than thy own mouth and doctrine. But if\nit will be more satisfaction to tell you wherein, they or your\nsociety do hold sad doctrine I shall.\n\n1. Therefore your society do hold and affirm, that that man which\nwas hanged on the cross between two thieves, called Jesus; in his\nperson is within you, contrary to the scripture (Acts 1:11).\n\n2. You say that Christ is crucified within, dead within risen and\nascended within; which also you have no word of scripture to prove.\n\n3. Your society affirm, that the coming of the Spirit into the hearts\nof believers do plainly hold forth, that the coming of Christ in\nthe spirit was before his coming in the flesh; as in 1Peter 1:10,11\nwhere the apostle speaking of the prophets inquiring into the\ngreat salvation which was afterwards to be accomplished, saith,\n\"searching what, of what manner of time the Spirit of Christ\nwhich was in them did signify, when it testified before hand the\nsufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.\" Mark,\nhere is the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, long before the\nfirst coming of Christ in the flesh, which was when he was born\nof Mary the Virgin, the Spirit of Christ, saith he, did testify\nbefore hand the suffering of Christ, to the prophets, which were\nbefore Christ came in the flesh, as the scriptures hold forth\nplentifully.\n\n4. But again, you deny the second coming of that very Man, with\nthat very body, which was born of the Virgin Mary; and say, his\nsecond coming is not his coming again personally, but his coming\nin the Spirit only; and that is all you look for, when the scripture\nsaith; That same Jesus (who appeared to his disciples after his\npassion (Acts 1:3)), shall so come, even as they did see him depart\nfrom them into heaven; which was a very Man, as well as very God.\nAnd will come again, a very Man, as well as very God, at the end\nof the world. For it is that Man; namely, he that was crucified,\nwhom God raised again, must be the judge of quick and dead (Acts\n10:39-42. seriously compared).\n\n5. Again, you say, that every man hath the spirit of Christ, which\nis a sad doctrine, because contrary to the scripture (Jude 19).\nAnd you say, there is that in every man which is as good as the\nSpirit of Christ; which is a blasphemous doctrine. Besides many\nother things which they of your own spirit have most sadly spoken;\nwhich I shall not mention, being so commonly known to the saints\nof the Lord, before whom you have openly, and without fear (at\nleast in shew) spoken. Which will doubtless be laid open to your\nsorrow and great amazement, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\n\nThen thou art offended because I said, I wonder that the Lord doth\nnot either cause the ground to open her mouth and swallow you up:\nor else suffer the devil to fetch you away, to the astonishing\nthe whole world. Certainly, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram did not so\nhorribly transgress, as you have it were the astonishment of the\nworld. Therefore I may well wonder that you are not served so.\nOnly this I consider, it may be, you have not yet filled up the\nmeasure of your wickedness; therefor is not the hand of God as\nyet upon you.\n\nThe next thing I take notice of is, that thou findest fault with\nmine answer to this question. \"But doth not the scripture say,\nthat it is the Spirit of Christ that doth convince of sin?\" Thou\nsayest it is a good question, but I have confounded it in the answer,\nand not answered plainly. Wherefore I shall not at all stick at\nthe pains, to give the reader in brief some of the heads of the\nanswer I then gave to it word for word, or to the same purpose.\nThe answer was, yes, that Spirit doth convince of sin; but for\nthe better understanding of this place, I shall lay down this,\nsaid I, That there are two things spoken of in scripture, that do\nmanifest or convince of sin. First, the law (Rom 3:20). \"For by\nthe law is the knowledge of sin.\" Secondly, the Spirit of Christ\ndoth also the same, as it is written, \"And when he is come, he will\n4convince the world of sin\" (John 16:7-9). Now say I, sometimes\nthe law itself, by its own power doth manifest sin, as in the\ncase of Judas, who was so far from having the Spirit of Christ,\nthat the devil had very great possession of him. Which things my\nadversary doth wrangle at, yet dares not affirm the contrary: only\nsaith this, he had the righteous law of God written in his heart:\nwhich thing is not the Spirit of Christ. The law in not of faith.\nThe law is not the comforter, but rather a tormentor: yet the Spirit\nof Christ is a comforter. Again say I, the Spirit of Christ doth\ntake the law, and doth effectually convince of sin, &c. Then I put\nforth another question, saying, \"But how should I know whether I\nam convinced by the law alone, or whether the law be effectually\nset home by the spirit?\" To which I answer, when the law doth\nconvince by its own power, it doth convince only of sins against\nthe law; as lying, swearing, stealing, &c. pronouncing an horrible\ncurse against thee if thou fulfil it not, and there leaves thee,\nbut gives thee no power to fulfil it completely and continually,\nwhich thou must do, if thou be saved thereby. With which\nmy adversary is much offended; also saying, that I am confounded\nin my discourse, and so leaves me, confuting none of my words by\nholy scripture, but falls a railing, because I reckon Pharisees\nand Quakers together.\n\nOnly this much he saith; That I make it a light thing to be\nconvinced by the law, and then brings in that scripture; \"this is\nthe condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love\ndarkness rather than light;\" cunningly corrupting of it, and would\nfain have you understand it as spoken of the law, when the son of\nMary speaks it of himself, which was not the law, but the Saviour.\nAnd that he might the better go away undiscerned, he saith, and\nthe law is light, therefor the light is the law (saith he). But\nI perceive that he doth not yet understand the difference between\nthe light of the law, and the light of the gospel; but would\nfain make the law and Christ one Saviour: the one being but only\na condemning light, and nothing else; the other a saving comfortable\nlight. And whereas thou sayest, I make it a light thing to be\nconvinced by the law, I answer; the law is good, if a man use it\nlawfully; and I hour it in its place; yet if they make a Saviour\nif it, they make an idol of it, and wrest it out of its proper\nplace. Also, if they think that it is Christ, they are much deceived.\n\nBut farther, he put me to prove any such distinction in scripture\nas that there is anything made mention of therein that doth convince\nof son, beside the Spirit of Christ: which thing I have already\nanswered, where I said the scripture saith, \"By the law is the\nknowledge of sin\" (Rom 2:20), and again, doth not even nature\nitself teach you, that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair\n(1Cor 11:14), and also conscience, which are neither of them the\nspirit of Christ, but much inferior to the same; yet this also\nconvinceth of sin (John 8:9).\n\nBut to the other thing, which is the answer that I give in my book\nto this objection: But I am not only convinced of my sins (may\nsome say) but have also some power against my sins; so that I do\nin some measure abstain from the sins forbidden in the law. And\nbecause I say, this thou mayest have and do, as thou thinkest,\nperfectly too [as thou thinks, mark that] as those fond hypocrites,\ncalled Quakers [think] that they also do, and yet be but a natural\nman. Here my adversary is very much offended, and calls me perverter\nof the right way of the Lord; and saith, Shew me any natural man\nin the scripture that hath done it. Whereas had he been but willing\nto have laid down the scripture I brought to prove it, he needed\nnot to have looked for a second answer. But because he would have\nit again, I will therefore shew you, that natural men merely by\nnature may be convinced, and abstain from those things forbidden in\nthe law, and think they do it perfectly, nay, they do the things\ncontained in the law. For saith the apostle (Rom 2:14), \"when\nthe Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature [mark, do by\nnature] the things contained in the law, these, [the Gentiles]\nhaving not the law, are a law unto themselves.\" Mark; the Gentiles\ndo by nature the things contained in, or held forth, or made mention\nof by the law; the light also that they have, it is themselves,\nbeing a law to themselves; that is, their consciences (being of\nthemselves) bearing them witness and their thoughts the meanwhile\naccusing, or else excusing one another (verse 15), though they\ncannot be saved thereby.\n\nAgain, when Paul was a natural man, and a persecutor of Jesus Christ,\nhe saith of himself, that then he was, \"touching the righteousness\nwhich is in the law, blameless\" (Phil 3:6). And whereas thou\nsayest, thou hadst rather choose to be one of those who abstain\nfrom those things forbidden in the law, and to have power over\nsin, than to live in the transgression of the law; this is fair\nspoken, and it doth shew that thou art under the convictions of\nthe law; and if it be no worse, I fear thy state the less, though\nit be bad enough; yet this I say, If thy soul be not saved freely\nby the blood of that man who was crucified on Mount Calvary,\nand by his merits alone done by himself in his own person, thou,\nnotwithstanding wilt fall short of eternal life. for by the works\nof the law, shall no flesh living be justified (Rom 3:20). Though\nby it be the knowledge of sin, and a command to abstain from the\nsame. And thus have I spoken to thy 21 page.\n\nBut farther thou sayest, that thou fearest I worship the name Mary,\nbecause I mention her name so much.\n\n[I reply] If thou hadst said, I worship her Son, thou hadst said\ntruly (I hope) But is not thy spite more against her son, than her?\nI doubt it is; for neither thou, nor they companions can endure\nthat one should say, he is still the same that was born Mary, flesh\nand bones, a very man, now absent from his people, though in them\nin his Spirit.\n\nAgain, thou sayest I said, \"That as he is God, Christ lighteneth\nevery man that comes into the world; \"which thing again I say. What\nthen? Then say you, I will mind you of one scripture which you\nyourself have quoted, which saith \"The law is light\" (Prov 6:23).\nTherefore sayest thou, \"The light is the law.\" Give me leave here\nto take thy words in twain:\n\nFirst, if when thou sayest, then the law is light, thou mean, the\nlight of the law is the light of the law, and no more, thou sayest\nright. But if thou mean the light of the law, is the light of the\ngospel, or the Spirit of Christ, I must needs reprove thee. For I\ntell thee again, the law is not of faith, the law makes nothing\nperfect (Heb 7:19). The law is but a weak and unprofitable thing,\nas to justification (Heb 7:18), though as I said before, it is\ngood if it be used lawfully; which is, not to seek or look for\njustification thereby, nor yet to say, it is the sprit of Christ.\n\nThen farther thou art offended, because I said, when the spirit of\nChrist convinceth, it convinceth of more sins than the sins against\nthe law. Friend, will the law shew a man that his righteousness\nis sin and dung? No, for though the law will shew a man that\nhis failing in the acts of righteousness is sin; yet I question,\nwhether the law will shew, that a man's own righteousness is sin.\nFor there is in scripture [that which] saith it doth, or can.\n\nSecondly, shew me, if thou canst, that the sin of unbelief is spoken\nagainst in all the ten commandments, or that called the moral law.\nBut now the Spirit of Christ convinceth of unbelief, that is, it\nsheweth, that if men do not believe, that they have redemption by\nthe obedience of that man who was laid in the manger, hanged on\nthe cross, &c. I say, it sheweth, that those who do not lay hold\non what he hath done and suffered without them in his own body\non the tree (through the operation of his Spirit, which he hath\npromised to give to them that ask him) or else they have not\nyet been convinced of the sin of unbelief, and so are still in a\nperishing condition; notwithstanding their strict obedience, to\nthe light within them, or to the law. And now tell me, you that\ndesire to mingle the law and the gospel together, and to make of\nboth one and the same gospel of Christ: did you ever see yourselves\nundone and lost, unless the righteousness, blood, death, resurrection\nand intercession of the man Christ Jesus (in his own person) was\nimputed to you? and until you could by faith own it as done for\nyou, and counted yours by reputation, yea, or no? Nay rather, have\nyou not set up your consciences, and the law, and counted your\nobedience to them better, and more value, that the obedience of\nthe son of Mary without you, to be imputed to you? and if so, it\nis because you have not been savingly convinced by the Spirit of\nChrist, of the sin of unbelief.\n\nOther things thou dost quarrel against, but seeing they are in\neffect the same with the former, I pass them by; and shall come to\nthe next thing thou dost think to catch me withal, and that is;\nbecause I say, that \"God only is the Saviour, there is none besides\nhim.\" Therefore sayest thou, how contrary is this to that in p.\n24, where I say, How wickedly are they deluded, who own Christ no\notherwise that as he was before the world began. Now this in no\ncontradiction as thou wouldest have it; for though I say there\nis none but God our Saviour, yet I did also then in my book shew\nhow he was our Saviour, namely, \"in that he came into the world,\nbeing born of a virgin, made under the law, that he might redeem\nthem that were under the law, by his obedience in that nature,\nby suffering in that nature, by his rising again in that nature,\nand by carrying that nature into heaven with him,\" as the scriptures\nat large declare; and therefore, though I say God is our Saviour,\nand none besides him; yet they that own him to be the Saviour no\notherwise than as he was before the world began, are such as deny\nthat he is come in the flesh, and so are of antichrist (1John\n2) For before God could actually be a Saviour, he must partake\nof another nature than the divine, even the nature of man (Heb\n2:14,15).\n\nAgain, thou sayest, it is a sander put upon the Quakers, to say,\nthey slight the resurrection: Ans. What say you, do you believe\nthe resurrection of the body after it is laid in the grave? Do you\nbelieve that the saints that have been this four or five thousand\nyears in their graves shall rise, and also the wicked, each one\nwith that very body wherein they acted in this world; some to\neverlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt? Answer plainly,\nand clear yourselves, but I know you dare not, for you deny these\nthings.\n\nBut if you speak doubtfully, or covertly in answer there unto; I\ndoubt not but God will help me to find you out, and lay open your\nfolly; if I shall live till another cavil by you be put forth\nagainst the truth.\n\nThe next thing thou cavillest at is, that query raised from (Eph\n4:10). and thou sayest I have not answered it. You should have\nanswered it better, or else have confuted that answer I gave unto\nit, and then you had done something: But the great thing that\ntroubles thee is, because I say, (further in my book) he that\nascended from his disciples, was a very man, \"Handle me and see;\nsaith Christ, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me\nhave.\" Now let the adversary shew by the scripture (said I) that\nthere is in them any place called heaven, which is able to contain\na man of some four or five foot long (or a competent man of flesh\nand bones) for the space of fifteen or sixteen hundred years, but\nthat above the clouds, which troubles thee so, that it makes thy\ntongue run thou canst not tell how; but know, that when the son\nof man shall come from heaven to judge the world in righteousness,\nthat which thou callest foolishness now, thou wilt find a truth\nthereby to thy own wrong, if thou close not in with him, who said,\n\"Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye\nsee me have\" (Luke 24:39).\n\nAnother thing that thou art troubled at, is, in that I do reckon the\nQuakers to be of the deluding party; when alas, all men that have\neyes to see; may easily discern, that you are of the generation,\nas will appear in part by your own expressions, both now, and\nalso at other times. But that you may take off the brand from\nyourselves, you say, that the false prophets and antichrist, were\nin the apostle days, as though there should be no false prophets\nnow, when the very time we live in doth manifestly declare, and\nhold forth, that there are many, who at this day seek to beguile\nunstable souls, of which sort you are not the least, though for\nought I can learn as yet, you are the last, (that are come into\nthe world) but that you may the better shift it form yourselves,\nyou say, that in those days there was not a Quaker heard of; namely,\nin the days of John. Friend, thou hast rightly said, there was not\na Quaker heard of indeed, though there were many Christians heard\nof then. By this you yourselves do confess, that you are a new\nupstart sect, which was not at other times in the world, though\nChristian saints have been always in the world. Friend, here like\na man in the dark, in seeking to keep thyself out of one ditch,\nthou art fallen into another; instead of proving yourselves no\nfalse prophets, you prove yourselves no Christians, saying, There\nwas not a Quaker heard of then. But if Quakers had been Christians,\nthen they would have been heard of the glory of God, and his\nChrist.\n\nAgain to defend thyself thou throwest the dirt in my face, saying;\nIF we should diligently trace thee, we should find thee in their\nsteps, meaning false prophets, through fained words, through\ncovetousness making merchandise of souls, loving the wages of\nunrighteousness.\n\nFriend, dost thou speak this as from thy own knowledge, or did any\nother tell thee so? However, that spirit that led thee out this\nway, is a lying spirit. For though I be poor, and of no repute in\nthe world, as to outward things; yet through grace I have learned\nby the example of the apostle to preach the truth; and also to\nwork with my hands, both for mine own living, and for those that\nare with me, when I have opportunity. And I trust that the Lord\nJesus, who hath helped me to reject the wages of unrighteousness\nhitherto, will also help me still, so that I shall distribute that\nwhich God hath given me freely, and not for filthy lucre's sake.\nOther things I might speak in vindication of my practice in this\nthing: but ask of others, and they will tell thee that the things\nI say are truth: and hereafter have a care of receiving anything\nby hearsay only, lest you be found a publisher of those lies which\nare brought to you by others, and so render yourself the less\ncredible; but be it so.\n\nAnd as for your thinking, that to drink water,5 and wear no hatbands,\nis not walking after your own lusts; I say, that whatsoever men do\nmake a religion out of, having no warrant for it in the scripture,\nis but walking after their own lusts, and not after the Spirit of\nGod. Thus have I passed thy 23d page.\n\nAnd lest you should think that the Quakers are not such as condemned\nme and others for preaching according to the scriptures; as you\nwould fain clear your selves of this charge laid against you in\nmy book, by your saying, you deny the accusation to be true upon\nany of the Quakers. I shall therefore tell you of your sister Anne\nBlackly, who did bid me in the audience of many, \"To throw away\nthe scriptures.\" to which I answered, \"No, for then the devil\nwould be too hard for me.\"\n\nAnd again, because I said, The man Christ Jesus was above the\nclouds and the heavens, now absent from his people in the world,\ntouching his bodily presence; she said, I preached up an idol,\nand used conjuration and witchcraft. which things I should rather\nhave desire her to repent of, than to make her a public example\nfor others to take warning by; but that it is expedient that your\nfolly be laid open, that others may fear to do as you have done.\n\nBut farther, thou chargest me with a loud crying out against Christ\nwithin. This is thy throwing of dirt in my face again, for I have\nsaid it often, that if any man have not the Sprit of Christ he is\nnone of his.\n\nAgain thou sayest that in page 203, I do take in hand to prove or\ndiscover that the doctrine of Christ within, is a false opinion.\n\nThou dost also here speak falsely of me, for all that I take in hand\nto prove, is this, that they hold a false opinion (and principles\ntoo) who hold up a Christ within, in opposition to Christ without,\nwho is the Saviour; as doth plainly appear by my following discourse,\nif you read from page 203 to the end of my book.\n\nBut in the next place, after much railing, thou comest to the place\nwhere I again ask this question, \"doth not the scripture make\nmention of a Christ within?\"\n\nTo which I answer, Yes, and he that hath it not is note of his. But\nto lay open my folly at last thou sayest, Doth not the scripture\nsay, Christ is within you, except ye be reprobates? and is not\nthis thus much, are not all they reprobates (say you) but they in\nwhim Christ is within?\n\nAns. They are indeed reprobates who have not Christ within them;\nbut now, how is thy folly manifest? that in one place thou shouldest\nconfess some are reprobates, who have not Christ within; and yet\nin page 18, of thy book thou sayest, it is given to every man.\nAnd in page 26, of thy book, thou sayest, that a measure of the\nSpirit is given to every man, and is given within him too, though\nthe scripture declareth the contrary, and thyself also now at\nlast. It is well thou dost recant so much, as to eat thy first\nwords at the last, or at least to show thyself unstable in judgment:\nFriend, thou mayest see, the more thou dost fight against the\ntruth, the more thou foilest thyself: Partly by helping of it,\nand partly by contradiction thyself.\n\nOne thing more thou dost befool thyself with; and that is, in that\nthou in the first place sayest thou ownest the words in my book,\nand yet hath spent some four sheets of paper to vent thy thoughts\nagainst them.\n\nBut peradventure thou wilt say; those words that I own are not those\nthat I speak against, but the other. to which I answer, There are\nmany things in my book spoken of by me that are truth, which if\nyou own, you must leave professing your self a Quaker. As,\n\n1. That that man that was born of the virgin Mary, called Jesus\n(I say you will not own) that he in his own person, by himself\nwithout us, die completely bring in everlasting life for us, by\noffering up himself once for all upon the cross.\n\n2. That Christ who wrought out redemption for his children, did\nafter he had wrought it out, go away from them, and not into them\nin his person.\n\n3. That he ever liveth, that very man to make intercession in his\nperson, in the presence of his Father without, until the end of\nthe world.\n\n4. That that very man who did go away from his disciples into\nheaven, will come again personally the same man the second time,\nand before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall judge\nthem for their sins: and take his to himself, who shall soul and\nbody be with him to all eternity; these things (I say) thou couldest\nnot own, though they are the truth of God. But leaving thee to the\ngreat God, who will give thee according to thy works, in this as\nin other things: I shall come to thy answers to my queries.\n\nQuery 1. The first query that I propounded is, If thou sayest that\nevery man hath a measure of the Spirit of Christ within him, why\nsay the scriptures, \"Some are sensual, having not the Spirit.\" And\nwhen Christ telleth his disciples, of sending them the Spirit, he\nsaith, the world cannot receive it. Here in the first place thou\nhast not only answered deceitfully, but hast also corrupted my\nwords in laying down the query, in that thou didst leave out some\nwords, for thou didst lay it down thus: \"If thou sayest that every\nman hath a measure of the Sprit of Christ within him, why say the\nscriptures, some are sensual, having not the Spirit:\" and Christ\nsaith, \"The world cannot receive it.\" (Reader, compare them both\ntogether.)\n\nNow thy answer, is, \"Some are sensual, having not the spirit,\nbecause they receive it not, and some cannot receive it, because\nthey believe not on him from whence it comes.\" Yet sayest thou,\n\"The measure of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal,\"\nas the scriptures say: when there is no scripture faith, a measure\nof the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. But again,\nsee here thy strange confusion. 1. Say, some have it not. 2. To\nsay every man hath it. but you would make a difference between\nhaving and receiving: but I tell thee, he that hath not received\nit, hath it not (Jude 19).\n\nQuery 2. My second query was, \"What is the church of God redeemed\nby from the curse of law? Is it by something done within them,\nor by something done without them?\" If you say, it is redeemed by\nsomething that worketh in them, then why did the man Christ Jesus\nhang on the cross on Mount Calvary, without the gate of Jerusalem,\nfor the sins of his children? And why do the scriptures say, \"that\nthrough this man is preached to us the forgiveness of sins?\"\n\nThe answer thou givest is, \"The church of God is redeemed by\nChrist Jesus, which is revealed in all believers. and Christ Jesus\nwrought in them mightily; and it was he that wrought in them to\nwill and to do.\"\n\nThis is plain scripture, and the man Christ Jesus (sayest thou) hanged\non the cross on Mount Calvary: because, they wickedly judged him\nto be a blasphemer, and through their envy persecuted him to death;\nbecause he bare witness against them, and as in their account he\ndied, and hanged on the cross, for an evil doer. And this is one\nground (at least) why he hanged on the cross, &c.\n\nHa Friend? I had thought thou hadst not been so much hardened; art\nthou not ashamed thus to slight the death of the Man Chris Jesus\non the cross; and reckon it not effectually for salvation, but\nsayest, the church is redeemed by Christ Jesus which is revealed\nwithin. and to confirm it, thou dost also corruptly bring in two\nscriptures.\n\nThe one saith, \"Whereunto I also labour according to his working,\nwhich worketh in me mightily.\" By which word Paul signifies thus\nmuch, \"That as God was with him in the ministry of the word, so\ndid he also strive according to his working which wrought in him\nmightily.\" what is this to the purpose (See Col 1:26-30)? And\nalso, the other scripture makes nothing to prove, that the church\nof God is redeemed by Christ within, as he is within. Only you\nmust corrupt the scriptures, and be transform (though ministers\nof darkness) into an angel of light, if you will do any mischief.\n\nAnd now, that thy answer is false, I shall clearly prove. Fist,\nbecause thou deniest that redemption was wrought out for sinners\nby the Man Christ Jesus on the cross, or tree, on Mount Calvary;\nwhen the scripture saith plainly, that when he did hang on the\ntree, then did he bear all our sins there in his own body (1Peter\n2:24). And secondly, being within; when the work of the Spirit\nof Christ in believers, is to make known to the soul by dwelling\nwithin, which way and how they were redeemed by the Man Christ\nJesus on the cross. And this I prove farther, because when thou\nart forced to answer to these words, why did the Man Christ Jesus\nhang on the cross on Mount Calvary for the sins of his children?\nThou sayest, because they wickedly judged him to be a blasphemer.\nFriend, I did not ask thee why the Jews did put him to death? But\nwhy was he crucified there for the sins of his children? But thou\nwilling to cover over thine error, goest on cunningly saying, and\nthough their envy they persecuted him to death, for an evil doer.\nThis is one ground at least, &c.\n\nFriend, but that thou art ashamed to own the gospel of Jesus Christ,\nthou wouldest have said, he was crucified there for the sins of\nthe world; and by his offering up of himself upon the cross, he\ndid for ever perfect them that are sanctified. Nay, thou wouldest\nhave studied to exalt his dying there; first, by shewing what a\nsad condition we were in without it; Secondly, by holding forth\nthe manifold and great privileges that we have by his dying for\nus there. But thou art at enmity against the things of God, as is\nclearly seen by those that have indeed the spirit of God in them,\nand are enabled thereby to discern you. and though you say, there\nis no other that can forgive sin, but the blood of god. Yet thou\ndeniest, that the blood of him, who was, and is truly god as well\nas Man, Christ Jesus: I say, thou deniest that his blood that was\nshed without Jerusalem Gates, doth wash away sin from the saints\nof God: and cunningly (though not at this time uttered) concluding\nthat the blood of God was shed for sin on a cross within. If it\nbe not so, then call me liar; but it will clearly appear so to be\nin your answer to my third query.\n\nQuery 3. What scripture have you to prove, that Christ is, or was\ncrucified within you, dead within you, risen within you, ascended\nwithin you?\n\nThy answer is, There is no scripture that mentions every of our names\nin particular. and thy standing of us, so I judge. But Christ is\nwithin us, that we do not deny, and he is the Lamb that was slain\nin the streets of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom,\nand Egypt (mind spiritually) and he is now risen, and ascended;\nthis we know, and leave thee to receive a further answer from them\nthat are led by a spirit of delusion.\n\nFriend, How dost thou run about the bush, seeking to scrabble up\nan answer, but findest not a right one, and wouldest also fain hold\nout, that Christ is, or was crucified within, dead within, risen\nand ascended within; but seeing thou canst not with or by the\nscriptures give an answer; then see in thyself left of them,\nthrough the strength of carnal reason, thou goest about this way.\nIs there any of our names made mention of in scripture, or to that\npurpose, and wouldst fain infer from thence, that because we have\nnames, though not mentioned in scripture, therefore, Christ is,\nand was crucified within, though not mentioned in the scriptures.\nFriend, they sophistry deceives thee.\n\nThe second Argument, which is like the first, is this, He is the\nLamb slain in the streets of the great city, spiritually called\nSodom and Egypt. Now from the word \"spiritually,\" thou wouldest\nwillingly infer also, that Christ is and was crucified within,\ndead within, and risen within you, and therefore thou sayest, mind\nspiritually. Friend, I may well mind thy spiritual wickedness, by\nwhich thou wouldest willingly cover thy heresy, but it will not\nbe. Though thou dare not speak plainly in so many words, yet the\nthoughts of thy heart are made manifest, by the words that flow\nfrom thee.\n\nAh Friend! That thou couldest but close with the truth, and venture\nthy soul upon what was done by Jesus on the cross without the\ngates of Jerusalem, for it is by and through that blood that was\nthere shed that we have redemption (Heb 13:12 compare with Col\n1:20), and remission of sins (Eph 1:7 and 1Peter 2:24).\n\nQuery 4. My fourth query was, Is that very Man that was crucified\nbetween two thieves, whose name was Jesus the Son of Mary, is he\nthe very Christ of God, yea, or nay?\n\nThy Answer is, Yes, he is the very Christ of God, which was before\nthe world was, by whom the world was made, who was made manifest\nfrom Mary's womb, and was persecuted to death by the Scribes and\nPharisees, in whose steps thou treadest in asking subtile questions\nto ensnare the innocent, as they did. Read thy example (sayest\nthou) and thyself to be an enemy to God's Christ.\n\nThis Answer is doubtfully given, I did not ask thee whether he\nwas the Christ of God, that was before the world was; but I asked\nthee whether he was the Christ of God, that did hang between two\nthieves on Mount Calvary. Now I know the Christ of God was before\nthe world was; but thou art afraid to look upon him, as suffering\non the cross on Mount Calvary, between two thieves for our sins.\nBut contrary-wise, wouldst willingly own him to be no otherwise,\nbut as he was before the world, which thing is very dangerous;\nfor he that doth so, doth lay aside all things, that in his own\nperson he did in the flesh that he took from the Virgin Mary, as\nto justification and salvation; only supposing him to be but an\nexample, and so bespatters all his merit and righteousness, by\nyour false conclusions, which in his own person he accomplished\nfor our justification.\n\nAnd Friend, hadst thou not been afraid of thyself, thou wouldst\nhave been so far from calling these my queries, subtil questions,\nthat thou wouldst have owned them, and have given a sober Christian\nanswer to them, instead of a railing accusation. But it matters\nnot, it hath but made thee shew thyself the more, which peradventure\nfor a time might otherwise have lien hid.\n\nQuery 5. My fifth query was, \"Is that very man with that very\nbody within you, yea, or no?\" to which thou answerest: \"The very\nChrist of God is within us, we dare not deny him; and we are members\nof his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, as the Ephesians\nwere: they that are led with a spirit of delusion, shall answer\nthe rest of this thy query, if they will.\"\n\nThy answer is nothing to the question, for I did not ask, whether\nthe Spirit of Christ was in thee? (though I question the truth of\nthat) But I asked you whether that very Man, with that very body,\n(or the body of Christ that was hanged on the cross) be within you?\nBut I see you are minded to famble,6 and will not answer plainly.\nBut thou answerest, saying, \"We are members of his body, of his\nflesh, and of his bones, as the Ephesians were.\" This is nothing\nto the purpose neither; for it is one thing for a man to be a\nmember of the flesh and bones of Christ, and another thing to have\nthe flesh and bones of Christ within him. What, because believers\nare members one of another, must they therefore be also one in\nanother? No. Even so, though a believer be a member of the body,\nflesh and bones of Christ; it doth not therefor follow, that\nChrist, flesh and bones is within him. But thou art loth to discover\nthyself in plain terms, though thou art made manifest full sore\nagainst thy will; for thou dost here also, though very cunningly,\nsignify, that thou ownest Christ no otherwise, but as he is\nwithin. And to own him no otherwise, is still against the gospel\nand faith of the Apostles, who said, they were absent from him\nwhile they were at home in the body, or here below (2Cor 5:6).\n\nQuery 6. My sixth query was this, \"Was that very Jesus, that was\nborn of the Virgin Mary, a real man of flesh and bones after his\nresurrection out of Joseph's sepulchre, yea, or nay. The scriptures\nsay he was; and if so, then did that man go away from his disciples,\nand not into them, as the scriptures declare; or did he with that\nbody of flesh go into his disciples, as some fond dreamers think.\"\n\nThy answer is, What the scripture speaks of Christ, we own to be\ntruth, and own him to be what the scriptures speak of him; and all\nmen's imaginations of him we deny, and their false interpretations\nof the scripture concerning him. and let the fond dreamers, who\nerr in their thoughts, be reproved; for we dare own nothing but\nwhat the Spirit of the Lord bears witness of according to the\nscriptures. And thus far I and answer in behalf of the Quakers;\nand let them that are led with a spirit of delusion answer the\nrest, which concerns themselves.\n\nThis answer hath some pretended fairness in it. But yet we know\nyou, that you can wrest the scriptures to your own destruction; and\nthat is clear, in that though you say you own him as the scriptures\nspeak of him, yet you deny him as the scriptures speak of him in\npart. And if at any time you plead on truth, it is that you might\nby your corrupt dealing with that, clash against another: as for\ninstance: You profess you own Christ within, but withal, with that\ndoctrine you sill smite against the doctrine of Christ Jesus in\nhis person without, and deny that though that is a truth, as is\nalso the other. You do use the truth of the resurrection of saints,\nfrom a state of nature, to a state of grace, to fight against that\ntruth of the resurrection of the bodies of saints out of their\ngraves; together with other things that I might add, as you\nholding forth the intercession of the Spirit of Christ within,\nin opposition to the intercession of Christ in his person without\nin the heavens. Which things being thus done, they shew forth a\ngreat deal either of ignorance or presumption, knowingly to fight\nagainst the truth. And in this that thou answerest so generally,\nand not particularly to the question, it is evident that thou dost\nnot plainly declare thy mind, but dost keep that in thy bosom,\nwhich thou darest not manifest to the world.\n\nQuery 7. My seventh query was, \"Hath that Christ that was with God\nthe Father before the world was, no other body but his church?\"\nIf you say No, as it is your wonted course; then again I ask you,\n\"what was that in which he did bear our sins, was, or is, the church\nof god, yea, or no?\" Again, if you say he hath no other body but\nhis church, then I ask, What that was that was taken down from\nthe cross? But here thou puttest a stop to the rest of my words,\nwith an &c.\n\nThy answer is, I this thou hast not only queried, but slandered;\ntherefore thy slander (sayest thou) I do remove. It is our wonted\ncourse, sayest thou, to say, that Christ hath no other body but\nhis church. thou art here a false accuser. But we say, the church\nis Christ's body; and it is sufficient for salvation to know\nChrist Jesus to be head in us, and over us, and ourselves to be\nmembers of his body; which thou sayest is his church. And what\nthou intendest by making so many foldings in one query, sayest\nthou, it may be judged it is to insnare; and in that thou answerest,\nthou answerest thyself for us in some things, that thou mightest\nhave a further ground to lay a deeper snare; we do deny thee and\nthy spirit, and see thee to be only feeding in thy imaginations\nupon the report of things, without the life: And thy religion\nstands in disputes and controversies, and queries, and many words.\nBut our religion stands in the exercise of a pure conscience towards\nGod, and towards man; whether we speak, or be silent: These are\nthy words.\n\nNow in my query thou sayest I slander, in that I say, you Quakers\nallow of no other body of Christ; but the Church of Christ; yet\ndost thou not clear thyself at all, only thou wouldest say something\nto dazzle the eyes of the ignorant. But friend, if thou wouldest\nhave made it appear that I slandered in saying, you own on other\nbody but the church; you should have said yes, we do own this,\nthat Christ hath a body that is now in glory, ascended from his\ndisciples, according to the scripture (Acts 1:3 compared with verses\n9-11). But thou dost only fling up a few words into the air, that\nthou mightest thereby puzzle thy simple reader. But I bless God,\nfor my part I do see thee, that thou dost, like a beguiled man,\nseek by all means to beguile others. And whereas thou sayest, It\nis sufficient to salvation, to know Christ Jesus as head in us,\nand over us. To this I answer, whatsoever thy meaning is by these\nwords, yet there are none shall be saved, but those who through\nthe mighty operation of the Spirit of Christ, are enabled to apply\nwhat the man Christ Jesus the Son of Mary hath done and suffered,\nand is now a-doing for sinners and saint, (and for him) in the\npresence of his Father, now ascended in his body of flesh and\nbones, from his children which are alive in this world. I say, there\nare none shall be saved, but those that are thus established, or\nshall be so, as is clear from these (1Peter 1:18,19; 2:24; 3:18,22.;\n4:1; 2Peter 1:17; Heb 7:24,25; 10:7,9; 13:12; 1Tim 2:5,6; Eph\n1:7; Acts 13:37-39) with many other scriptures. And again, when\nyou say, I answer you in something, if you mean, that the body\nin which he did bare the sins of his children, is his church (for\nthat is partly my query,) then I do say, that your doctrine is\ndesperate and devilish; and you do thereby undervalue the death,\nblood, resurrection an ascension, intercession and second coming\nagain of that man for salvation; and therefore for a better\nsatisfaction to all who may read your book, I entreat you to\nanswer, \"Did he bear our sins in that body which is his church,\nor did he bear our sins in that body that did hang on the cross\non Mount Calvary?\" Answer plainly I beseech you.\n\nAnd now friend, passing by the rest of thy brawlings, I shall come\nto thy several queries, and shall answer to them in the simplicity\nof my soul, not laying down any doubtful expressions, but in all\nplainness, and not as you do, for the better understanding of them\nby those that read them.\n\nThese be the Quaker's Queries, and my Answers to them.\n\nQuery 1. \"Is any man justified in the sight of God, but he that\nfolloweth Christ; and is it not a work to follow Christ, yea or\nnay, and what is the sight of God.\"\n\nAns. He that followeth Christ; aright, must first believe in Christ;\nfor how shall they follow him, in whom they believe not. Now then\nthe scripture saith, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting\nlife (John 3:16-18), so then we are justified by believing; and\nif so, then to follow Christ is rather a fruit of our believing,\nthat justification itself. And whereas you ask, What is the sight\nof God? I answer, To be justified in the sight of God by Jesus\nChrist, is for God to look on such poor creatures as we are; as\ncomplete, without spot or wrinkle, in the obedience of the man\nChrist Jesus; who otherwise could not behold them in love, because\nof their iniquity (Hab 1:3).\n\nQuery 2. \"Whether will that faith justify a man which hath not\nworks, seeing the scripture, or the Apostle saith, faith without\nworks is dead; and what is that which worketh faith; and where is\nit, within, or without?\"\n\nAns. That faith that hath not works is dead, being alone. Yet it\ndoth not follow, that all that have works, have faith. No; but\ncontrary-wise, men may have works, yea, the works of the law of\nGod too, and yet be under the curse (Gal 2:10-13); which they could\nnot be if they had saving faith. So then, if faith without works\nis dead; and again, if men may have works, and yet no faith, no\nsaving faith, I mean: Then it will be good to inquire, what it is\nto have a right faith, which doth bring forth right good works;\nand who have works without a right faith. And\n\n(1.) A right saving faith, is, for a man to be enabled of God's\nholy Spirit, to lay hold on what the man Christ hath done in his\nwon person, when he was in the world? as his birth, righteousness,\ndeath, blood, resurrection, ascension, and intercession; and to\napply the virtue and merit thereof to himself, so as to see himself\nsaved thereby (Rom 4:24,25). Being justified freely by his grace:\nHow? Even through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom\nGod hath set forth to be a propitiation, or reconciler, through\nfaith in his blood, &c. Again, \"Be it known unto you,--that through\nthis man is preached unto the forgiveness of sins: And by him all\nthat believe: (Mark, all that believe; namely, in his blood which\nwas shed on Mount Calvary) are justified from all things, from which\nye could not be justified by the law of Moses\" (Acts 13:38,39).\nIf the faith that applies these things be of the operation of\nGod, it is very much accompanied with good works. \"For the love\nof Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died\nfor all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they\nwhich live (namely by the faith of this, that Christ died for all\n(Gal 2:29)), should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto\nhim which died for them\" (2Cor 5:14,15). But\n\n(2.) they that deny the merits of the birth, death, righteousness,\nblood, &c. of the man that was born of Mary, which he fulfilled\nin his own person, by himself (Heb 1:3). I say, they that do not\nventure their souls on these glorious, mysterious truths, but deny\nthe belief of them to be sufficient of themselves to save from\nhell, and all other things, and doth expect that salvation should\nbe obtained by some thing that worketh in them, by working in\nthem. It is impossible that these, though they may be, touching\nthe righteousness of the law blameless, (as Paul was while he was\na persecutor (Phil 3:6)), to be saved hereby. Wherefore? because\nthey seek it not by the faith of Christ, but as it were by the\nworks of the law (Rom 9:30,31).\n\nAnd whereas you ask me, \"What is that which worketh faith? And\nwhere is it, within or without?\" I answer, That which worketh\nsaving faith, is the holy spirit of God, which is renewed through\nthe hearing of the word, preached by the apostles or ministers of\nJesus Christ: Now the Spirit when it doth work, it entereth into\nthe soul, and as I said before, doth enable the soul to believe,\nand lay hold on the merits of the son of Mary, Jesus Christ. For\nsaith he, when he is come, he shall glorify me, for he shall take\nof mine, and shew it unto you (John 16:14).\n\nQuery 3. \"Whether any be justified but he that is born of God? And\nwhether doth he that is born of God commit sin? And is that within\nthe creature, or without, that worketh the new birth?\"\n\nAns. Justification may be taken two ways, (1.) either in the sight\nof God, or in the sight of the soul, or creature; my meaning is,\nthat all that are or shall be saved, are justified in the sight\nand foreknowledge of God before the foundation of the world (Eph\n1:4). According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation\nof the world, &c. Having predestinated us to the us to the adoption\nof children by Jesus Christ unto himself. And again, \"Moreover\nwhom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called,\nthem he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also\nglorified\" (Rom 8:30). Mark, all these thing are spoken as being\nalready done; predestinated, called, justified, glorified. He\ndoth not say, they shall be, but he hath done it, that is, in and\naccording to the foreordination of God. (2.) Saints are said to\nby justified in their own sight or knowledge, as when God doth\nmake manifest to the soul, what he had determined before should\nbe done. \"Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.\" this is\njustification in the sight of the creature. And whereas you ask\nme, \"do they that are born of God commit sin?\" To this I answer,\n\nThey shall never commit the sin against the Holy Ghost, as is the\nmeaning of that place (1John 5:16-18). There is a sin unto death,\nand there is a sin not unto death.--He that is born of God sinneth\nnot, but keepeth himself; and that wicked one, (mark, that wicked\none, the sin unto death,) toucheth him not: But they that are\nborn of God notwithstanding, do daily sin, as it is evident (John\n3:2). \"In many things we offend all,\" saith he, I and you, all of\nus. And again, if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves,\nand (instead of having no sin) the truth is not in us (1John\n1:8). And who can say, my heart is clean? There is none righteous,\nno not one. And again, \"There is not a must man upon earth that\ndoeth good, and sinneth not\" (Eccl 7:20). And I am confident, that\nwhile some would persuade others that they have no sin, their own\nconsciences tell them they lie; and if it be not so in the rest,\nit is because they are hardened, and given to believe a lie.\n\nAs to the latter part of your query, I answer; The new birth\nis wrought through hearing of the word preached. And yet not by\nconscience, nor by the obedience to the law, or dictates of nature;\nbut by the Spirit coming into the soul, and shewing its lost\ncondition without the obedience of the Jesus of Mary, the Son\nof God; and his freeness and willingness to communicate, or give\nhimself, and all his things unto it; which being done, the man is\nthereupon given up to god, and is become a new creature. I might\nspend much time in speaking to this, but I forbear, because of\nitself it is enough to fill up a small volume.\n\nQuery 4. \"If Christ hath enlightened all men as he is God (as thou\nconfessest) then hath he not enlightened all men as he is the Son\nof God? and is not the light of God sufficient in itself, to lead\nto God all that follow it, yea, or nay?\"\n\nAns. (1.) Christ as he is God, doth enlighten every man that comes\ninto the world, which light is conscience, or otherwise nature\nitself, which doth also convince of sin (John 7:9). Yet Christ\nas he is God; doth not give unto every man that spirit that doth\nlead to eternal life, for all men have it not (Jude 19). (2.) Christ\nas he was and is the son of God before the world was, being one\nin power, and being with his Father, hath enlightened every one\nthat comes into the world, as aforesaid; but hath not so neither\ngiven them his spirit. \"Some are sensual,\" &c. (3.) Christ as\nGod-man, or as he came into the world to die for those whom before\nas God he knew and loved; I say, he doth not in this way neither\nenlighten every man with the saving light of life, or give unto them\nhis holy Spirit. No, they that have been, and now are believers,\ndo know and can remember, that all the time of their unregenerate\nstate, they were without Christ (Eph 2:12). so that here is no\nway or room for your doctrine, take it how you will, Christ hath\nnot given to every one his Spirit.\n\nSecond Part of the Query. Is not the light of God sufficient in\nitself, to lead to god all that follow it, yea, or nay?\n\nAns. (1.) As I said before, some are sensual, and have not the Spirit\nof Christ. (2.) No man can come to God as a Father by adoption,\nbut by Jesus Christ; then it must needs be that all men, though\nthey do follow that light which is given to every man, it is not\nable to lead to God as a Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ye this\nlight that every man hath, will shew a man there is a God, and that\nthis God is eternal; and also will clear out something of him, to\nthem, by the things that are made. But now, if this light would\nlead to everlasting life, then might the devils also be delivered\nfrom everlasting damnation; seeing they also do know god as a\ncreator and revenger of sin, more perfectly than any natural man\nin the world, though not as a Father by adoption.\n\nBut you say, Doth it not lead to God all that follow it? Answ. (q.)\nNot to be saved, though to be condemned, through the weakness and\nunprofitableness of that light, or conscience, or the law, call\nit either, and I clear it thus: Because, if that light that every\nman receives, were able by our following it, to save us, then Christ\nneeded not to gave suffered, seeing all men had that light. (2.)\nIf that light that every man hath, which is conscience, were able\nto lead a man to justification by following it; that promise was\nmade in vain by Jesus the Son of Mary, when he said, \"I will send\nyou; [Mark, I will send you] the Spirit, and he shall lead you\ninto all truth:\" for they had a light before. But it is evident,\nthat that was not sufficient, because they must have another sent\nthem by Jesus Christ, and that must be that Spirit.\n\nQuery 5. \"Whether is not the same light in him that hates it, as\nit is in him that loves it (John 3). If there be a difference in\nthe light, show it wherein; whether in the nature, or otherwise?\"\n\nAnsw. (1.) That scripture quoted in John 3. \"Light is come into\nthe world,\" &c., is not meant of that light, or conscience, that\nevery man hath; but the Man Christ Jesus is speaking there of\nhimself, as God-man, come into the world, born of the Virgin, if\nthou compare verses 19-21 with 14-18 of the same chapter, it is\nclear, for they all do speak of the same thing; namely, the Son\nof Mary. And again, saith he, \"I am the light of the world.\" Now\nthe man Christ, though he was then in the world, and walked up\nand down in the same, yet he was not within any man in the world\nas man, (though he calls himself the light thereof) though he\nwas in some; I say, in some, as God by his Spirit. Now the light,\nwhich was the Man Christ, was the very same, whether loved by some,\nor hated by others; but if you conclude every man hath Christ,\nor that light spoken of there (John 3), within him; that I deny,\nhaving proved the contrary. But (2.) Whether is there a difference\nin the light? Answ. There are more lights than one, there is a\nlight that may be suspected to be darkness, where he saith, \"If\nthe light that is in thee be darkness,\" &c. Again, there is the\nlight of the law (Prov 6:23). Again, conscience also will convince\nof sin. Now there is none of these that can save a sinner from the\nevil of his ways. Take the best of them, which is the righteous\nlaw of God, that cannot. For had there been a law given, which\nmight have given life, then verily righteousness had come by the\nlaw: But if you conclude that righteousness, or everlasting life\ncometh by the law, you must conclude this again; that Christ\ndid die in vain (Gal 2:21). So then these things being not able\nto save the soul, the next thing is, the Son of God, the Son of\nrighteousness arising with healing under his wings; he is also a\nlight, and indeed the saving light, for surpassing all the other\nmentioned.\n\nNow though Christ doth not differ in himself, yet there is\na difference in the power of these lights; the law and Christ,\nthe one not being able to save, the other being able. And again,\nthere is also a difference in the nature of them; the one being\na condemning light, the other a saving light. It is Moses that\naccuseth you (saith Christ) even Moses in whom ye trust: But do\nnot think, saith Christ, that I will accuse you to the Father: No,\nsaith he, it is Moses, or the law given by him. But again, where\nChrist speaks for himself as a Saviour, he saith \"God sent not\nhis Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world\nthrough him might be saved\" (John 3:17). So that I say, (a.) That\nlight spoken of (John 3), which is the Man Christ, is not in every\nman that comes into the world. (b.) That the Man Christ, or the\nlight spoken of there, is not against himself. (c.) There is the\nlight of the law, conscience, and nature itself, which are in all\nmen, which things are altogether insufficient to save a man from\ndeath, by his seeking of justification thereby. again, there is\nJesus Christ, he is the Saviour, but not in all men. And again,\nneither is the Man Christ Jesus the condemning light.\n\nQuery 6. \"Whether is it possible, that any can be saved, without\nChrist manifested within? If no, then whether is not the doctrine\nof salvation, which is only necessary, to preach Christ within: And\nis not the whole mystery of salvation, God manifest in the flesh?\"\n\nAnsw. There can none be saved, but they that have the Spirit of\nChrist given unto them. But it is not the Spirit of Christ given to\nthe elect, that doth work out the salvation of their souls within\nthem, for that was obtained by the blood of the Man Christ Jesus\non the cross (Heb 9:19 compared with Heb 13:12).\n\nAgain, every one that is, or shall be saved, must, and shall have\nthe Spirit of Christ within them; yet doth it not follow, that to\npreach Christ (only) within, is the only doctrine of salvation. For\nthen also the preaching of the blood of Christ shed on the cross,\nas I said before, must be of non effect. But he that doth preach\nthe doctrine of salvation aright, must first begin to preach that\ndoctrine that Paul preached in 1Corinthians 15:3,4. \"For I delivered\nunto you (saith he) first of all that which I also received, how\nthat Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that\nhe was buried, and that he arose again the third day according to\nthe scriptures.\" Now Christ, or the Spirit of Christ, is received\nby such preaching as this is, as is clear from that scripture (Acts\n10:38-44). Where Peter speaking of the word that was published\nthroughout all Judea: \"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth (or\nwhich dwelt at Nazareth) with the Holy Ghost and with power: who\nwent about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the\ndevil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things\nwhich he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; (saith\nPeter) whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raise up the\nthird day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto\nwitnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink\nwith him, after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach\nunto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained\nof God to be the Judge of quick and dead.\" And is that all? No,\nBut \"to him give all the prophets witness, (to hem, even Jesus\nof Nazareth whom the Jews crucified on the tree) that through\nhis name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission ( or\nforgiveness) of sins.\" Now mark. And \"while Peter yet spake these\nword, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.\" While\nPeter spake these words, that by Jesus of Nazareth forgiveness\nof sins was preached to them that believe in his name, \"the Holy\nGhost fell on all them that heard the word.\" Namely, which Peter\nspake: This is the way in which the Spirit is given? namely, by\npreaching a crucified Christ.\n\nBut now, no man can be saved without Christ, or the Spirit of Christ\nbe given to him, because he cannot be able to lay hold savingly\nof, and to hope for that glory that Christ as he is God-man hath\naccomplished in his own person without, unless he have the Spirit.\nBut farther, thou sayest; Is it not the whole mystery of salvation,\nGod manifested in the flesh?\n\nAnsw. Truly, to know that God out of love to poor sinners, did in\nthe fulness of time send forth his only begotten Son, who is equal\nwith his Father, to be born of a woman, and made under the law,\nmight receive the adoption of sons; this is to know the mystery of\ngodliness. Therefore, when the scriptures say, God was manifested\nin the flesh, they mean, God sent forth his Son, which was and is\nthe word of God, God himself, and he was made flesh (John 1:14).\nAnd so in the nature of man he did become the Lamb of God, or the\nsacrifice of God, that doth take away the sins of the world (verse\n29). Now here I might enlarge abundantly, but that would not be\ntedious.\n\nQuery 7. \"Whether is it not possible, that many may profess as much\nof Christ without, as thou hast said of him, and yet be damned;\nand if this be the faith to profess him born, dead, risen and\nascended without; then is there any unbeliever in England? seeing\nall in the outward sound believes, and professes as much as thou\nhast said. Yea, or nay?\"\n\nAnsw. 1. I know there are many that do profess in word, that Christ\nwas born, dead, risen, and ascended without, and yet may be damned.\nYet he that doth really, with the faith of the operation of God,\nbelieve these things, and doth also apply the virtue and merit of\nthe same to themselves for justification and life, shall be saved.\n\"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt\nbelieve in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou\nshalt be saved\" (Rom 10:9 And also 1Cor 15:2). \"By which also ye\nare saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you..\" What\nwas that? why, \"how that Christ died for our sins according to\nthe scriptures; and that he was buried, and rose again,\" &c.\n\n(2.) It is not faith, only to talk of him with the mouth, but as\nI said before, to believe the same by the operation of the Spirit\nin our hearts. If this be faith, (sayest thou) to profess him born,\ndead, risen and ascended without, then is there any unbeliever in\nEngland? [I reply] All that profess this do not truly believe it;\nfor to profess in word alone, and believe in heart, are two things.\nSecondly, If to profess this were the Faith, yet for the Quakers\nwill not profess him ascended without, neither making intercession\nwithout, but contrarywise strike at this doctrine.\n\nQuery 8. \"Whether hath that man faith in Christ that is not changed\nin the nature, and is not the liar and slanderer an unbeliever,\nand of the cursed nature, yea or no?\"\n\nAnsw. He that hath faith in Christ is a new creature: and the liar\nand slanderer is and unbeliever: and if he live and die in that\ncondition, his state is very sad, though if he turn quickly, or\nelse look to yourselves, for you are the men, as is clear by your\ndiscourse.\n\nQuery 9. \"Whether [doth] and [man] receive Christ, who receives\nhim no into him? if not, show how Christ can be received, and\nwhether many professes him not which never received him.\"\n\nAnsw. Christ as he is Man, as he was a sacrifice for sin, cannot\nbe received really and personally into any, but yet, he that doth\nindeed receive the gospel, and believe that he was a sacrifice\nupon the cross for his sins, doth and hath also received his Spirit\ninto him, which giveth him the comfort of these things (John\n14:26). And there are very many that profess him, that at the day\nof judgment will fall short of eternal life, notwithstanding all\ntheir profession; for as I said before; it is not the professor,\nbut the sound believer that shall be saved by him. But let the\nreader mark, how thou condemnest thy own doctrine by this query,\nfor thou grantest many profess Christ that never receive him. How\nthen hath every man Christ, or the light of Christ within him? If\nit be within him, either he must receive it, or snatch it by force\nagainst the will of another, however the scripture saith, what is\nit that thou hast not received; (yet all men have not received\nthat) (Jude 19).\n\nQuery 10. \"Whether to preach for hire, for gifts and rewards, and\nto divine for money, and to make merchandise of the people for\nso much a year for preaching to them, be not true marks and signs\nof false prophets? or can any give truer signs of false prophets\nthan Isaiah and Micah give, yea or nay?\"\n\nAnsw. There are a company of dumb dogs that are crept into the\nnation, that love give ye, and desire to bear rule by their means;\nand they are every one for his gain from their quarter. there are\na company of wolves crept out also, having wrapped themselves\nabout with sheep's clothing, and these are both alike abominable\nto the Lord. Neither can a man give a more right description of a\nfalse prophet, than the prophets and Christ with his apostles did\ngive, therefore examine yourselves.\n\nQuery 11. \"Whether must not the devil be chained before Christ\nreign, and what is that which chains him, and whether art thou\ncome to one of the days of the thousand years, yea, or no?\"\n\nAnsw. Christ hath two several times wherein Satan must be bound\nby him, one is at the conversion of sinners, the other when he\nshall come the second time, and personally appear, and reign, in\nthe world to come. Again, \"Whether I am come to one of the days\nof the thousand years?\" [I reply] No, because he that doth reign\nwith Christ one of these days, shall live and reign with Christ\na thousand years (Rev 2:4). But there is never a believer in the\nworld, that doth, or in any likelihood shall live half so long,\nbefore they die or be changed at the coming of the Man Christ\nJesus.\n\nQuery 12. \"Whether dost thou know any Christ, preach or profess\nany Christ who hath not lightened every man that comes into the\nworld with the light of life, or of condemnation; and is he not\na deceiver that exhorts people for salvation to any other thing\nthan the light of Christ, yea, or no? And how hath Christ lightened\nevery man if not within him?\"\n\nAnsw. That Christ I preach, is the Christ of God, who as he\nis God hath enlightened every man that comes into the world with\nconscience, and the law, which is the light of condemnation, but\nnot of life; For the law is the ministration of condemnation (2Cor\n3:7,8). And all men have the law and conscience: but these will not\nsave them. Again, there are some that do indeed enjoy the light of\nlife. And whereas thou askest, is not he a deceiver, that exhorts\npeople to anything else than the light of Christ? Answ. He that\ntelleth any man that the ministration of condemnation will save\nhim, which is the law, he is a liar, and a deceiver: but he that\nexhorts people to lay hold on what the Man Christ Jesus hath done\nin his own person for sinners, and presseth souls to venture upon\nthat for salvation, preacheth the truth. Christ hath given to\nevery one the law, and conscience within him: yet these are not\nable to save him, but let him follow the righteousness of the law\nnever so much, yet if he be not directed of God to fly to Jesus\nthe son of Mary, and to what he hath done in his own person for\nthem he shall never be saved (Acts 4:12).\n\nFriend, Thus have I with all plainness of speech answered thy\nqueries, and I fear not at all, but I have spoken the truth as it\nis in Jesus. And as for committing them to the judgment of others,\nas thou wouldst have me; let others say what they will, I am sure\nI have spoken the truth of God; and I make no question but at the\nsecond coming of my Lord Jesus from heaven to judge the world,\nthese things I shall not be ashamed of; neither am I now; but\nam ready, if God shall give me life, to speak the same things to\nany man, face to face; and I desire thee, and all, even as many\nas shall read or hear this treatise, to consider, and look to\nthemselves, lest they sin against God so much in their lifetime\nby rejecting these truths, that it shall never be forgiven them\nto all eternity, though they repent them of their rejecting the\nsame. There is one thing more to which I shall speak a few words,\nand that is to a few words written at the end of thy book, which\nis called the postscript, wherein is several charges against myself\nand some others, which I shall speak somewhat to.\n\nThe first is against John Burton, thus: John Burton said in a\ndiscourse with some friends, that Christ had two bodies, and one\nof them is out of the sight of the saints. My brother Burton being\nabsent, I shall answer for him concerning the charge laid against\nhim. And therefore, that Christ, who is and was before the world\nbegan, God equal with his Father, did in the fulness of time take\nupon him a body from the Virgin Mary, which was so prepared by\nGod his Father, it is evident in scripture; and in it after he had\nlived a while in the world, he did hang on the cross, was taken\ndown thence again, and laid in Joseph's sepulchre, was raise again,\nand ascended away from his disciples therewith into glory (Acts\n1:3,9-11).\n\nAgain he hath another body, and that is his church (Eph 1:23). Now\nthat he is out of the sight of his saints in one of the bodies;\nnamely, that which did hang on the cross, it is also evident (1Tim\n4), where Paul speaking of the very Jesus, who did bear a faithful\nwitness before Pontius Pilate, saith in verse 16 \"Who only hath\nimmortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;\nwhom no man hath seen, nor can see.\" That is, not with their mortal\neyes, in that glory as yet. If you say still, notwithstanding\nthis, that Christ as he was before the world began, hath but one\nbody, and that to be his church. I ask you what that was that was\ntaken down from the cross, and laid into Joseph's sepulchre (Luke\n23:53).\n\nThe second charge is against myself, and is this; John Bunyan\nsaid, Christ's second coming is not his coming in Spirit, for his\ncoming in Spirit is no coming.\n\nThe former part of the words, namely, Christ's second coming is\nnot his coming in the Spirit, those I own. But the Spirit is no\ncoming, is a lie, made of me by the Author, Edward Borrough.\n\nThe former words were spoken at a meeting in Bedford, some Quakers\nbeing present contradicting and blaspheming: And now they could\nnot be content with that; but they must make up all with a lie,\nand publish it in print. A Quaker there and I had some discourse\nconcerning Christ's second coming, and he would affirm, that his\ncoming in Spirit, was his second coming spoken of in scripture.\nThen I asked him which was his first coming? He answered, when\nhe was born of the Virgin, and took flesh upon him from her. Then\nsaid I, shall easily prove, that his coming in the Spirit is not\nhis second coming, for I will prove that his coming in the Spirit\nwas before that which the scripture and you also do call his\nfirst coming; and proved it by that plain scripture, where Peter\nspeaking of the prophets, saith, \"searching what, or what manner\nof time the Spirit of Christ which was in them (the prophets) did\nsignify, when it testified before-hand the sufferings of Christ,\nand the glory that should follow\" (1Peter 1:11 and 3:19), where\nspeaking of Christ's being put to death in the flesh, but quickened\nin the Spirit. \"by which Spirit also he went and preached unto\nthe spirits (now) in prison;\" but when was this, only \"when once\nthe longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah\" (verse 20).\nWhich was long before the first coming of Christ, so called in\nscripture, for that was, as I said, when he took a body from the\nVirgin Mary.\n\nBut is seems clearly by these words that you do look for no other\ncoming but his coming in Spirit. O! how suddenly and unexpected\nof you, will the Son of Man break down from heaven, with all his\nmighty angels in flaming fire, and call you, together with all\nnations to judgment. And though now peradventure you are ready to\nslight the personal appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Man\nto judgment, only looking for a judgment within, yet you will I\nam certain, very suddenly be made to pass under another judgment,\nwhich will be more exceeding great than any judgment you shall\nhave here, and more terrible. As for the latter part of the charge,\nwhich is a very lie; though I shall not trouble myself to lay it\nto your charge (you have so manifestly declared yourselves already\nwhat you are) yet I beseech you, that hereafter you would not be\nso read to receive lies from others, and publish them to the view\nof the world, least you appear to all men (as you do to some) to\nbe such as are of an accusing lying spirit.\n\nBut farther, That Christ's coming in the Spirit is not his second\ncoming, it is evident; partly, in that the coming of Christ in\nSpirit, was before that called in scripture, his first coming.\nSecondly, he that comes the second time is he that came the first\ntime. Now he that came the first time was very God and very Man,\nand not a Spirit only; for handle me, saith he, a Spirit hath not\nflesh and bones, as you see me have (Luke 24:39). Now this same\nJesus that was very God and very Man, so born of Mary, saith, \"I\ngo and prepare a place for you; and I (the very same as also Acts\n1:10,11), will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where\nI am, there ye may be also\" (John 14:3). Here I might spend many\nword, but it needs not; the whole current of scriptures do confirm\nthis thing; and therefore I shall forbear, and content myself\nwith this. He that will be filthy let him be filthy, for the day\nis at hand.\n\nThe Third Charge is also against me, saying, \"I said there was\nnothing in me, nor any man to be taken notice of.\"\n\nThough in some sense I do not deny these words, yet I know, and\nam sure, that directly in this form of words, I did never lay them\ndown, but I pass that. Now in this sense I do not deny them, there\nwas nothing in me, as I was in my unregenerate estate; nor in any\nman else in the same estate, that is worthy to be taken notice\nof for justification. Because every unregenerate man is without\nChrist, before he be converted (Eph 2:12). Wherefore remember,\nthat ye being Gentiles in the flesh (unconverted) that at that\ntime ye were without Christ. Now a man that is without Christ,\nand hath not his Spirit in him, as some, yea, most men are (Jude\n19). What is there in that man, that is worth the taking notice\nof to justify him.\n\nAlso converted Paul saith, \"I know that in me, (that is, in my\nflesh,) dwelleth no good thing\" (Rom 7:18).\n\nAs for others that are charged with things, because their names are\nnot also mentioned, I shall pass them by; only thus much I shall\nsay further to the last charge. that there is nothing in any man\nby nature, before he be converted, that is worth the taking notice\nof, as to seek justification thereby. And that that light which\nevery man hath, being at the best but conscience, nature, or the\nlaw, let a man take notice of it, follow it, obey it never so much,\nit is not able to justify the soul: For if righteousness come by\nthe law, then Christ is dead in vain. And as I said before, every\nman hath not Christ to take notice of, though every man hath\nconscience, or the light of nature in him, which is also able to\nconvince of sins against the law of God, yet is not able to deliver\nfrom that curse pronounced by the Lord, against them that disobey\nthe law. Nay the law itself is not able to save them that do follow\nit, being too weak for such a thing. And indeed god did not give\nit to that end, that saints should have life by it. No (compare\nGal 2:21 with Rev 5:20), you may clearly see why God gave the law,\nnamely, that sins or offences might abound. But how? By discovering\nsin by its workings. Now then you that follow the law, and seek\nlife by it, this is all you are like to have of it: You shall see\nyour transgression against it, made known to you by it (Rev 3:20),\nand an horrible curse pronounced against you, because you cannot\ngive a complete continual obedience to every tittle of it.\n\nAnd now friend to thee, who hast taken in hand to answer my queries\nlaid down in the end of my book; I say, thou hast only wrangled\nand quarrelled at them; but hast not given on plain and right\nanswer to any one of them. Therefor I shall leave them still to\nbe answered by you, or others of your spirit. You will find them\nat the end of the foregoing discourse: And I beseech you to answer\nthem in all plainness of heart, and with as moderate a spirit\nas you may. It is like there may be some addition to them: But\nas I have dealt plainly and sincerely with yours, so do you deal\nuprightly and plainly with mine, for the satisfaction of those\nwho shall read them. And here I shall draw towards a conclusion,\nonly speak some words to those who unawares to themselves may be\ncarried away with the doctrines of the Quakers: And I shall be\nbrief in speaking to it. The way that I shall take, shall be very\nplain to be understood; for I shall not lay down any doubtful\nsentence in my speech to them, nor others. First, I shall shew\nyou that the doctrine of the Quakers is an error, and how. Second,\nWho they are that are carried away with it, and why. Third, The\nway Satan takes to make this delusion, or filthy doctrine to take\nplace in the soul.\n\nFirst, That the doctrine of the Quakers is false, or an error, I\nshall shew,\n\n1. By discovering the doctrine itself. Now the doctrine of the\nQuakers is plainly this; namely, that every man that comes into\nthe world, hath the Spirit of Christ in him. Now that his is an\nerror is clear, because the word of God saith plainly, that some\nare \"sensual, having not the Spirit\" (Jude 19). And again, the\nunregenerate man, in the time of his unregenerate state, is without\nChrist (Eph 2:12).\n\n2. He that will but observe the motions of that light which very\nman hath within him (say they) so as to obey and close in with it\nto follow it, shall undoubtedly be saved from the wrath to come.\nNow this is clearly a gross error; for first, If all men have not\nChrist, as they have not, then is it not an error to press men to\nseek for life, by following that which is not able to give life.\nYet this they do, who labour to persuade men, yea, the souls of\nmen, that it is no less than the very Spirit of Christ in every\nman, that doth convince of sin, when the scriptures say plainly\n\"the law\" (Rom 3:14), \"Conscience\" (Rom 2:15), and nature itself\n(Rom 2:14; 1Cor 11:14), will and doth convince of sin, yet none\nof these is the Spirit of Christ. And the great argument that\nthey bring to prove that it is the Spirit of Christ, is, because\nthe Spirit doth also convince of sin. Now what a poor argument is\nthis, to say, That because the Spirit of Christ doth convince of\nsin, therefore whatsoever doth convince of sin, must needs be the\nSpirit of Christ. As much as to say, because the saints are called\n\"the light of the word\" (Matt 5:14). Therefore the saints are the\nSaviour of the world, seeing Christ also doth call himself the light\nof the world (John 8:12), or because the moon hath, or is light,\ntherefore the moon is the sun. This is but sophistical arguing,\nand doth beget most damnable errors and heresies in the world; but\nhis is the way that they take, to entangle poor souls with their\nsad and erroneous doctrine, see page 22 of his book, lines 12 and\n13. They say, that it must be Christ within them, that must within\nthem work out justification for them; when it is evident from the\nwhole current of scripture, that the Son of Mary was delivered\nto be crucified for our offences, and his resurrection, through\nfaith in it, is our justification; as all along, through grace,\nI have declared and cleared. And the work that the Spirit doth in\npoint of justification, is, to shew us what the Son of Mary hath\ndone an suffered in his own body on the tree, and is now doing in\nthe presence of his Father, in the highest heaven.\n\nAnd to help us to apply this to our souls by faith now, for a\npreservative against these and the like delusions, observe, (1.)\nAs I said before, all have not the spirit of Christ (Jude 19; Eph\n2:12). (2.) That the law, with all our obedience to it, is not able\nto save, or justify any poor soul (Rom 3:20). For by the works of\nthe law shall no flesh living be justified, though it gives the\nknowledge of sin. (3.) That there is none other way to be justified\nin the sight of God, but by laying hold of what the Son of Mary\n(Jesus) did do and suffer in his own person, when he was in the\nworld. For it is by him (and what he hath done in his own person\nby himself (Heb 1:3)), that any man is justified from his sins,\nand the wrath of God due to the same, by believing that his blood\nwas shed for their sins; as it is written, \"With his stripes we are\nhealed\" (Isa 3:5), as if their own blood had been shed for their\nwon sins; and that his righteousness is theirs by imputation, as\nif they themselves had actually fulfilled all the law of God for\ntheir own justification (Rom 10:4).\n\nSecond, The second thing is, who are they that are carried away\nwith this delusion, and why?\n\n1. Not one of God's elect whom he foreknew, shall be utterly\ndestroyed thereby; (I do not say they shall not be led away for a\ntime; but they shall not be utterly destroyed) for they are kept\nby the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation. But they\nare such as are not indeed the elect of god, nor chosen in Christ\nbefore the world began. Though Hymeneus and Philetus fall away,\nand overthrow the faith of some, yet \"the foundation of God stands\nsure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his\" (2Tim\n2:17-19).\n\n2. They are such as in time past, for the generality of them were\neither but light, frothy professors, or else were shaken in their\nprinciples, and unstable therein, as saith the scriptures, They\nthat are deceivers do beguile unstable souls. Or if they were such\nas were in appearance sober and serious in the account of others,\nit was wither from these convictions thy had from the law, or else\nfrom high notions they had of the gospel; which have both such\ninfluence at some time on the soul (though not savingly) that the\nsoul will go very far in obedience to them; as for example, Herod\nwho was an enemy to the truth, yet for a time had such heart-workings,\nbeing convinced by the preaching of John the Baptist, that he\nfeared him, and observed him, and when he heard him, he did many\nthings, and heard hem gladly (Mark 6:20).\n\nNow the reason why such people are carried away with such heresies\nas these, or the like, is,\n\n(1.) That as they were not of the elect of God, so God by suffering\nthem to be carried away finally, may make it appear, that they\nwere not of his elect. They went out from us, but they were not of\nus: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued\nwith us. But they went out from us, that it might be made manifest\n(or that men might see) that they were not all of us (1John 2:19).\n\n(2.) Because God will not have his church so disturbed always with\nsuch as are not of the truth. Now there are some men that have\ntheir time to walk with the church of God by permission, and these\nmen are ever and anon ready to broach their errors, even while they\nare among the saints, to their trouble. Now God having a care of\nhis church, hath a time to suffer the devil to run through the\nworld with some erroneous doctrine or other, which when these men\ntaste, being spirited beforehand for that purpose, do presently\nclose in with the same, to the purifying of the church, and\nthe manifestation of themselves. And thus every branch which the\nLord's right hand hath not planted, shall and must have a time to\nbe rooted up (Matt 15:13).\n\n(3.) Because others that are of the right graffing in, may\nnotwithstanding not presume but fear, lest they also fall through\nthe same example of others who are already fallen, or may fall\nhereafter (Heb 4:1,2,11).\n\n(4.) Because others may see, that it is not by their own strength\nthat they do stand, but freely by the grace of god, and his power\nand love towards them in the Lord Jesus Christ. God hath chosen\nsome before the foundation of the world. Now to manifest this,\nthough they are even as bad as the worst by nature, yet I say,\nbecause God will shew his power and his love, he doth preserve\nsome to eternal life, though others fall into eternal damnation.\nOf all that thou hast given me, saith Christ, have I lost none\nbut the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled\n(John 17:12). Many other reasons might be given why theses things\nmust and shall be; but I rather choose to forbear. Only this much\nI have spoken, because I know it is my duty to speak a few words\nunto you, that you may either close in with the truth, or else\nthe more clearly be left without excuse at the great day.\n\nThird. The third and last thing, is the way that Satan takes to\nmake those delusions take place in the soul.\n\nNow the way whereby he makes these or any other delusions to take\nplace in the soul, is, 1. to persuade the soul an enmity to any\nthing or person that shall declare the contrary.\n\n1. They are given over to believe a lie; that is, to believe false\ndoctrine to be the doctrine of God and of Christ. And that he might\nbring this to pass, he goeth about to change the names of things;\nand because the law, conscience, and nature itself can convince\nof sin, therefore he calleth them Christ, or the light of Christ;\nsaying to a natural man, one that is not yet converted, \"Mind the\nlight within you.\" If they ask what light? say they, That which\ndoth convince of sin. If they farther ask, why, what is that?\nThey say, \"It is the light of Christ, the light of life, or Christ\nwithin.\"\n\nNow these things are nothing else but conscience, nature, or the\nlaw, for a natural man hath nothing else that dwelleth within him\nto convince him of sin; only these things have a new name put upon\nthem. And poor creatures hearing the name Christ, being ignorant\nof the nature of Christ, do presently close in with these things,\nsupposing, nay, verily believing that these are the Spirit of\nChrist. Which things being thus received, if at any time one come\nand oppose them, and tell them that it is an error that they have\ntaken up, to think that that which is in an unregenerate man is\nthe Spirit of Christ, and contrarywise telleth them plainly, that\nit is but their own conscience that doth convince them, or the law\nwritten in their hearts by nature. Nay, say they, it is the light\nof Christ in the conscience, when there is no scripture hath any\nsuch manner of expressions, only a fancy of their own, taken up\nwithout ground from the word.\n\n2. But the soul being possessed with this doctrine, presently its\nheart riseth against anything that doth contradict it, and is filled\nwith a secret enmity against it. Now the way that Satan takes to\nbring this about, is to persuade poor souls, that all these thoughts\nthat do any wise contradict the principles received, is but a\ntemptation of the devil. And if at any time there be the doctrine\nof Jesus held forth in truth, his death, burial, resurrection,\nascension, and intercession; now without in the presence of his\nFather for sinners, and that there is salvation no where else but\nin the merits of the firstborn Mary, which is Jesus Christ, without\nthe works of the law (Rom 3:28). Presently with envy they are\nenraged and cry, \"Dost thou not know that every man hath a measure\nof the spirit given to him? Follow that, listen to that, turn thy\nmind to that, and walk in the light of that.\" When alas, there\nis no such thing as the Spirit of Christ in every man, as I said,\nand proved before at large; only the devil hath gotten this way\nto call conscience Christ, the law Christ; and hereby to entangle\nthe soul with the name of a thing, without the thing itself.\n\nBut now the soul is set down in its principles, and he that doth\nany way confute that spirit, presently it falls a raging, and\ncries out, serpent, liar, wolf, dragon, devil, be silent with thy\nserpentine wisdom, and smoke of the bottomless pit. Now in this\nthe devil is wonderfully cunning; for least he should indeed\nbe discovered, he doth set the face hard against the truth, and\ncounteth it such a deadly enemy, that he will not, cannot bear it;\nbut lets fly against it all the hellish words and madness he can:\nAnd now he begins first to cry, avoid Satan. All which is only to\nharden him in whom he doth dwell, more and more against the truth.\nNow he doth also harden souls in delusions, by presenting the ugly\nand base conversations of a company of covetous wretches, who do\nprofess themselves to be the ministers of the gospel, but are not;\nnow poor creatures being shaking and doubtful what way to take,\nseeing the conversation of these men to be wicked, and the doctrine\nof these deluders covered with a seeming holiness; they presently\nembrace it, saying, surely these men are in the right way; they\ncry down the priests, whose lives we also see to be profane, they\nare very strict in their ways, and if such be not good men, who\nare? But yet that which is most taking is (through the corruption\nand pride that is naturally in the heart of man) these men\npropose such a way to salvation, as is in the compass of a man's\nown ability, even works of righteousness done by him, which is\nvery agreeable to man's nature, which would willingly be saved,\nbut would not be altogether beholden to god for it: and these\nworks not being wrought by the priests or national ministers, but\nby the other, though in opposition to the righteousness of Christ,\nthe Messias God-man, poor souls not only suck in these erroneous\nprinciples, but are hardened in them against the doctrine of God\nand his Son Jesus Christ, by their ungodly conversation; and thus\ndishonour the Son of God. But come brethren, let us be patient,\nstablish our hearts, wait but a while, and I doubt not but you\nwill see that those who dishonour our Jesus shall soon be brought\ndown, both Ranters, Quakers, priests, and people also, that shall\ncontinue in opposing him either in doctrine or practice; for our\nGod hath said, \"Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries.\"\n\nNow, a few words more to those who do believe in Christ aright,\nand lay him for their foundation.\n\nFirst, Bless God that you are not carried away with the delusions\nthat are on foot in this generation. Secondly, See that you are\nlabourers after a more experimental knowledge of our Lord Jesus\nChrist; fly more to his birth, death, blood, resurrection, ascension\nand intercession: and fetch refreshing for your souls more and\nmore from him without, through the operation of his Spirit within;\nand though the fruits of the Spirit be excellent, and to be owned\nwhere they are found; yet have a care you take not away the glory\nof the blood of Christ shed on the cross without the gates of\nJerusalem, and give it them; which you will do, if you do content\nyourselves, and satisfy your consciences with this; that you find\nthe fruits of the Spirit within you, and do not go for peace and\nconsolation of conscience to the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.\n\nTherefore learn of the saints, or rather of the Spirit (Rev 5:9).\nwho teacheth to sing this song, \"Thou art worthy to take the\nbook, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast\nredeemed us to God by thy blood.\"\n\nAnd as for you that cannot yet well endure to think you should\nbe justified by the blood of the Son of Mary shed on the cross\nwithout the gate, I say to you, \"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,\nand ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.\nBlessed are all they that put their trust in him\" (Psa 2:12).\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 Bunyan's epistle to \"Some Gospel Truths Opened.\"\n\n2 For the proof of this, read the good love of God to David, Peter,\nand others, which did most woefully sin again after they were\nconverted.\n\n3 Here is another of his false accusations of me.\n\n4 See margin of the bible.--Ed.\n\n5 There is nothing new under the sun. It appears from this that\nthere was a tee-total movement in the time of the commonwealth.\nFor the meaning of hatband, see editor's advertisement.--Ed.\n\n6 \"To famble,\" to falter, or stammer in speech: obsolete.--Ed. 4\n\n***\n\nA DISCOURSE UPON THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN\n\nWHEREIN SEVERAL GREAT AND WEIGHTY THINGS ARE HANDLED: AS, THE\nNATURE OF PRAYER, AND OF OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW, WITH HOW FAR IT\nOBLIGES CHRISTIANS, AND WHEREIN IT CONSISTS.\n\nWHEREIN IS ALSO SHEWED, THE EQUALLY DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF THE\nPHARISEE, OR HYPOCRITICAL AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS MAN; AND OF THE\nPUBLICAN, OR SINNER THAT LIVES IN SIN, AND IN OPEN VIOLATION OF\nTHE DIVINE LAWS. TOGETHER WITH THE WAY AND METHOD OF GOD'S FREE\nGRACE IN PARDONING PENITENT SINNERS; PROVING THAT HE JUSTIFIES\nTHEM BY IMPUTING CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THEM.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN, AUTHOR OF THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis important treatise unvails, in few but telling words, the\nnature of prayer, about which mankind has made most awful mistakes.\nMultitudes conceive that the heart-searching God can be influenced\nand propitiated by eloquent words and forms of prayer; whilst the\nfew, who are taught by the Holy Spirit, feel and know that the\nardent desire, the aspirations, the fervent wishes of the mind,\ncan alone be accepted by the Eternal; and even then only through\nthe merits of the Redeemer.\n\nThe first edition appeared in 1635, and it soon became a very\npopular book. The use and application announced at the end do not\nappear to have been published, unless the author meant one of his\nlater productions to answer that purpose. The twelfth edition has\nno date on the title page; to it is added Bunyan's last Sermon,\nand his dying sayings,--\"Licensed, Sept. 10th, 1688\"; but this\nannouncement had been probably continued from some earlier edition.\nThe number of cheap reprints of this little volume may account, in\nsome measure, for the amazing errors which crept in and deformed\nthe book; for with the exception of \"Grace Abounding,\" \"The\nPilgrim,\" and \"The Holy War,\" few books have been so carelessly\nand disgracefully printed. For more than a century Bunyan has\nbeen represented as saying, \"How did God deal with sinners before\nhis righteousness was actually in being.\" In fact, no reader can\nconceive the mutilated state in which this valuable treatise has\nbeen published, unless by actual comparison with those printed\nbefore the author's decease. Some considerable omissions, doubtless,\narose from political causes. Bunyan died very shortly before the\nglorious revolution in 1688,--and in drawing a faithful portrait\nof a publican or tax gatherer, he supposed the country to be\nconquered by a foreign power. \"Would it not be an insufferable\nthing? yea, did not that man deserve hanging ten times over, that\nshould, being a Dutchman, fall in with a French invader, and farm\nat his hands, those cruel and grievous taxations, which he, in\nbarbarous wise, should at his conquest lay upon them; and exact\nand force them to be paid with an over, and above of what is\nappointed.\" He goes on to argue, that if this would be a severe\ntrial at the hand of a foreigner, how much more oppressive would\nit appear if exercised by a fellow countryman. \"If these things\nare intolerable, what shall we think of such men as shall join to\nall this compliance with a foreign prince, to rob the church of\nGod? yea, that shall become a man in power under them, to wring out\nof the hand of a brother, his estate; yea, his bread and livelihood.\"\nThese paragraphs, and much more, were omitted, probably, from\na fear of giving offence to the new government, and, until the\npresent edition, they had not been restored. In Bunyan's time,\nsevere and awful persecutions fell upon the church of God in\nEngland, and he must have felt the utmost compassion, mingled with\ndeep abhorrence, for those emissaries of Satan, the Informers, who\nplundered mercilessly all who refused obedience to the order of\ncommon prayer. These men, aided by fanatic justices and clergymen,\nreduced many pious families to the severest sufferings, while\nthousands fled to the wilds of America for that refuge among men\ncalled savages, which was denied them by their much more savage\ncountrymen. It is distressing to read the narrative, published in\n1670, of those proceedings in Bedford, while Bunyan was an inmate\nin its jail. The porters, charged to assist in carrying off the\npeople's goods, ran away, saying, that \"they would be hanged,\ndrawn, and quartered, before they would assist in that work\"; two\nof them were sent to gaol for thus refusing to aid in this severe\nenforcement of impious laws. This populous town \"was so thin of\npeople that it looked more like a country village than a corporation;\nand the shops being generally shut down, it seemed like a place\nvisited with the pest, where usually is written upon the door--Lord,\nhave mercy upon us.\" When in the presence of the justice the officers\ntook all his goods from Thomas Arthur, he appealed to the humane\nfeelings of the magistrate on behalf of his children,--\"Sir, shall\nmy children starve,\" to which he replied, \"yes, your children shall\nstarve.\" All these bitter sufferings were inflicted for worshipping\nGod according to the directions of his holy word. Can we wonder\nthen that Bunyan uses hard words. He felt that state hierarchies\nwere anti-christian; their fruit declared that those who supported\nthem by such cruelties were aliens and enemies to the church of\nChrist.\n\nAs a theological treatise, this of the Pharisee and Publican is\ninvaluable. It is clear and perfectly intelligible to every candid\nand prayerful inquirer. When our author is proving the impossibility\nof a sinner's recommending himself to the divine favour by\nany imperfect good works of his own, he draws a vivid picture.\nA lord invites his friends to a sumptuous banquet, the provision\nis bountiful and in rich abundance, when some of the guests take\na few mouldy crusts out of their pockets and lay them on their\nplates, lest the prince had not provided a sufficient repast for\nhis friends; \"would it not be a high affront to, a great contempt\nof, and a distrust in, the goodness of the Lord.\" We are bound\nto produce good works as a fruit of faith--a proof of love to him\nthat hath redeemed us, but not to recommend us to his favour. The\npicture of such a feast drawn by John Bunyan must make upon every\nreader a deep, a lasting, an indelible impression. How bitter and\nhow true is the irony, when the Pharisee is represented as saying,\n\"I came to thy feast out of civility, but for thy dainties I need\nthem not, I have enough of my own; I thank thee for thy kindness,\nbut I am not as those that stand in need of thy provisions, nor\nyet as this Publican.\" And how excellent is the reasoning and\nthe Christian philosophy of that paragraph which was suppressed\nafter Bunyan's death. The language is bold and striking, but\nit exhibits the unvarnished truth; an inward change of nature is\nthe only cause of good and acceptable works--good or evil actions\nare but the evidences of our state by grace or by nature--they do\nnot work that change or produce that state. It is a soul-humbling\nview of our state of death by sin, or of life by the righteousness\nand obedience of Christ. Bunyan's train of reasoning on Romans 5\nis worthy of our profound consideration,--\"When we were enemies we\nwere reconciled to God by the death of his Son.\" What is a sinful\nman in himself, or in his approach to God, but as stubble fully\ndry in the presence of a consuming fire, unless he is washed and\ncleansed by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.\n\nMay the glorified spirit of Bunyan rejoice among the angels of\nheaven, over souls converted by the instrumentality of this solemn\nand searching treatise.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCourteous Reader,\n\nI have made bold once again to present thee with some of my\nmeditations; and they are now about the PHARISEE and the PUBLICAN:\nTwo men in whose condition the whole world is comprehended, both\nas to their state now, and condition at the judgment.\n\nWherefore in reading this little book thou must needs read thyself.\nI do not say thou must understand thy condition; for it is the\ngift of God must make thee do that. Howbeit, if God will bless it\nto thee, it may be a means to bring thee to see whose steps thou\nart treading, and so at whose end thou art like to arrive.\n\nAnd let me beg this at thy hand, now thou art about to read; reserve\nthy judgment or sentence as to me, until thou hast passed through\nthe discourse.\n\nJustification is treated of here, and the way for men to be saved.\n\nI have also O PUBLICAN here, as my skill hath served me, for thy\nencouragement, set before thee the Pharisee and the Publican in\ntheir colours, and shewed thee, that though the Publican seemed\nto be far behind, yet in running he got the prize from the lofty\nPharisee. I say, Art thou a Pharisee? Here is a Pharisee for thee!\nArt thou a Publican? Here is a Publican for thee!\n\nGod give thee the Publican's heart, if thou art in the Publican's\nsins, that thou mayest partake with the Publican, of mercy.--So\nwisheth thy friend.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\nA DISCOURSE UPON THE PHARISEE AND PUBLICAN.\n\n\"TWO MEN WENT UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY; THE ONE A PHARISEE,\nAND THE OTHER A PUBLICAN: THE PHARISEE STOOD AND PRAYED THUS\nWITH HIMSELF, GOD, I THANK THEE, THAT I AM NOT AS OTHER MEN ARE,\nEXTORTIONERS, UNJUST, ADULTERERS, OR EVEN AS THIS PUBLICAN. I FAST\nTWICE IN THE WEEK, I GIVE TITHES OF ALL THAT I POSSESS. AND THE\nPUBLICAN, STANDING AFAR OFF, WOULD NOT LIFT UP SO MUCH AS HIS EYES\nUNTO HEAVEN, BUT SMOTE UPON HIS BREAST, SAYING, GOD BE MERCIFUL\nTO ME A SINNER.\" LUKE 18:10-13.\n\nIn the beginning of this chapter you read of the reason of the parable\nof the unjust judge and the poor widow; namely, to encourage men\nto pray. He spake a parable to THIS END, that men ought always to\npray and not to faint. And a most sweet parable for that purpose\nit is: For if through importunity, a poor widow-woman may prevail\nwith an unjust judge; and so consequently with an unmerciful and\nhard-hearted tyrant; how much more shall the poor, afflicted,\ndistressed, and tempted people of God, prevail with, and obtain\nmercy at the hands of a loving, just and merciful God? The unjust\njudge would not hearken to, nor regard, the cry of the poor widow\nfor a while: \"But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear\nnot God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me,\nI will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.\"\nHark, saith Christ, \"what the unjust judge saith. And shall not\nGod avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him?\" I\ntell you, that he will avenge them speedily.\n\nThis is therefore a very comfortable parable to such of the saints,\nthat are under hard usages by reason of evil men, their might,\nand tyranny. For by it we are taught to believe and expect, that\nGod, though for a while he seemeth not to regard, yet will, in\ndue time and season, arise and set such in safety from them that\npuff at them. (Psa 12:5)\n\nLet the good Christian pray always; let him pray and not faint at\nseeming delays; for if the widow by importunity prevailed with the\nunjust judge, how much more shall he with his heavenly Father. \"I\ntell you, [says Christ,] that he will avenge them speedily.\"\n\nBut now, forasmuch as this parable reacheth not (so directly) the\npoor publican in the text, therefore our Lord begins again, and\nadds to that another parable, this parable, which I have chosen\nfor my text. By the which he designeth two things: First, The\nconviction of the proud and self-conceited Pharisee. Secondly,\nThe raising up and healing of the cast down and dejected Publican.\nAnd observe it, as by the first parable he chiefly designeth the\nrelief of those that are under the hand of cruel tyrants: So by\nthis he designeth the relief of those that lie under the load and\nburden of a guilty and disquieted conscience.\n\nThis therefore is a parable that is full of singular comfort to\nsuch of the sinners in the world, that are clogged with guilt, and\na sense of sin; and that lie under the apprehensions of, and that\nare driven to God by, the sense of the judgment, that for sin is\ndue unto them.\n\nIn my handling of this text, I shall have respect to these things.\n\nFirst, To the PERSONS in the text.\n\nSecondly, To the CONDITION of the persons in the text.\n\nThirdly, To the CONCLUSION that Christ makes upon them both.\n\nFirst, For the PERSONS. They were, as you see, far one from another\nin their own apprehension of themselves; one good, the other bad;\nbut yet in the judgment of the law, both alike, both the same,\nboth sinners; for they both stood in need of merit.1 True, the\nfirst mentioned did not see it, as the other poor sinner did; but\nthat altereth not the case. He that is in the judgment of the law\na sinner, is in the judgment of the law for sin condemned, though\nin his own judgment he be never so righteous.\n\nMen must not be judged, or justified, according to what themselves\ndo think, but according to the verdict and sentence that cometh\nout of the mouth of God about them.2 Now the sentence of God is,\n\"They are all under sin--There is none righteous, no, not one\"(Rom\n3): 'Tis no matter then what the Pharisee did think of himself,\nGod by his word hath proclaimed him a sinner. A sinner, by reason\nof original sin. A sinner by reason of actual transgression. Personally\ntherefore, with reference to the true nature of their state, they\nboth were sinners, and both by the law under condemnation. True,\nthe Publican's leprosy was outward; but the Pharisee's leprosy was\ninward: his heart, his soul, his spirit, was as foul, and had as\nmuch the plague of sin, as had the other in his life or conversation.\n\nSecondly, As to their CONDITION. I do not mean by condition, so\nmuch a habit of mind, as the state that they had each of them\nput themselves into by that mind. The one, says the text, was a\nPharisee, the other a Publican. A Pharisee: That is, one that hath\nchosen to himself such a course of life. A Publican: That is, one\nthat hath chosen to himself such a course of life. These terms\ntherefore shew, the divers courses of life that they had put\nthemselves into. The Pharisee, as he thought, had put himself into\na condition for heaven and glory; but the Publican was for this\nworld, and his lusts. Wherefore when the Pharisee stands in the\ntemple, he boasteth of himself and good condition; but condemneth\nthe Publican, and bitterly inveigheth against him. But, as\nI said, their personal state by the law, was not at all changed.\nThe Pharisee made himself never the better; the Publican also\nabode in his place. Indeed the Publican is here found to recant,\nand repent of his condition; of the condition that he had put\nhimself into; and the Pharisee to boast of his: But the Publican's\nrepentance was not of himself, but of God; who can also, yea,\nand sometimes it is evident (Acts 9), he doth make Pharisees also\nrepent of that condition that they have chosen to be in themselves.\n(Phil 3:3-8) The Pharisee, therefore in commending of himself,\nmakes himself never the better. The Publican also, in condemning\nof himself, makes himself never the worse. Nay, contrariwise, the\nPharisee by commending of himself makes himself much the worse\n(verse 14). And the Publican, by condemning of himself, makes\nhimself much the better. \"I tell you, [says Christ] This man went\ndown to his house justified rather than the other: For every one\nthat exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself\nshall be exalted.\"\n\nBut, I say, as to men's commending of themselves, yea, though others\nshould commend them also, that availeth, to Godward, nothing at\nall. \"For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom\nthe Lord commendeth.\" So then, men in \"measuring themselves by\nthemselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not\nwise.\" (2 Cor 10:18,12)\n\nNow this was the way of the Pharisee, I am not, saith he, as other\nmen; I am no extortioner, nor unjust, no adulterer, nor yet as\nthis Publican.\n\nTWO MEN WENT UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY. And they two, as I said,\nas opposite one to the other, as any two men that ever went thither\nto pray. One of them was over righteous, and the other wicked over\nmuch. Some would have thought, had they not by the word of Christ\nbeen otherwise described, that they had been both of the same\nreligion; for they both went up into the temple to pray; yea,\nboth to pray, and that at the same time, as if they did it by\nappointment, by agreement, but there was no such thing. The one\nwas a Pharisee, the other a Publican; for so saith the after words:\nAnd therefore persons as opposite as light and darkness, as fire\nand water; I mean as to their apprehensions one of another. The\nPharisee could not abide the Publican, nor could the Publican\nbrook the Pharisee, and yet both went up into the temple to pray.\nIt is strange to see, and yet it is seen, that men cross in their\nminds, cross in their principles, cross in their apprehensions;\nyea, and cross in their prayers too, should yet meet together in\nthe temple to pray.\n\nTWO MEN, Men not of the middle sort, as afore is shewed; but two,\nand them too, picked out of the best and worst that was: as shall\nnow be a little more largely handled. Two men, a Pharisee and a\nPublican.\n\nTo be a Pharisee was in those days counted honourable for religion,\nand for holiness of life. A Pharisee was a man of esteem and\nrepute among the Jews, though it is a term of reproach with us.\nElse Paul would not as he did, and at such a time as he did it, have\nsaid, \"Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee.\"\n(Acts 23:6, Phil 3:5) For now he stood upon his purgation and\njustification, especially it appears so by the place first named.\nAnd far be it from any to think, that Paul would make use of a\ncolour of wickedness, to save, thereby, himself from the fury of\nthe people.\n\nA Publican was in those days counted one of the vilest of men,\nas is manifest; because when they are by the word, by way of\ndiscrimination, made mention of, they are ranked with the most\nvile and base. Therefore they are joined with sinners. \"He eateth\nand drinketh with publicans and sinners\"; and with harlots. \"The\npublicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God.\" Yea, when\nour Lord Christ would have the rebellious professor stigmatized\nto purpose, he saith: \"Let him be unto thee as an heathen man,\nand a publican.\"\n\nWe therefore can make no judgment of men upon the outward appearance\nof them. Who would have thought, but that the Pharisee had been a\ngood man, for he was righteous; for he prayed. And who could have\nthought, that the other had been a good man? For he was a Publican:\nA man, by good men, and bad men, joined with the worst of men, to\nwit, with sinners, harlots, heathens.\n\nThe Pharisee was a sectarian; the Publican was an officer. The\nPharisee even because he was a sectarian, was had the more in\nesteem; and the Publican because he was an officer, was had the\nmore in reproach. To speak a little to both these.\n\nThe Pharisee was a sectarian, one that deviated, that turned aside\nin his worshipping from the way of God, both in matter and manner\nof worship; for such an one I count a sectarian. That he turned\naside from the matter, which is the rule of worship, to wit, the\nwritten word, it is evident; for Christ saith, That they rejected\nthe commandments of God, and made them of no effect, that they\nmight keep their own traditions. (Mark 7:9-14) That they turned\naside also as to their manner of worship, and became sectarians\nthere, is with no less authority asserted; For \"all their works\nthey do for to be seen of men.\" (Acts 26:5, Matt 23:5)\n\nNow this being none of the order or ordinance of Christ, and yet\nbeing chose by, and stuck to of these sort of men, and also made\na singular and necessary part of worship, became a sect, or bottom\nfor these hypocritical factious men to adhere unto, and to make of\nothers, disciples to themselves. And that they might be admired,\nand rendered venerable by the simple people to their fellows, they\nloved to go in long robes; they loved to pray in markets, and in\nthe corners of the streets; they shewed great zeal for the small\nthings of the law, but had only great words for things that were\nsubstantial. \"They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge\nthe borders of their garments.\" (Matt 23:5)\n\nWhen I say the Pharisee was a sectarian, I do not mean that every\nsectarian is a Pharisee. There was the sect of the Herodians, and\nof the Alexandrians, of the Sadducees, with many others; but to\nbe a Pharisee, was to be of the straitest sect: After the most\nstraitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee; that therefore\nof all the sects, was the most strait and strict. Therefore,\nsaith he in another place, I was \"taught according to the perfect\nmanner of the law of the fathers.\" (Acts 22:3, 26:4-6) And again,\n\"Touching the law a Pharisee.\" (Phil 3:5) The Pharisees therefore\ndid carry the bell,3 and did wear the garland for religion; for\nhe out-did, he went beyond all other sectarians in his day. He\nwas the strictest, he was the most zealous; therefore Christ in\nhis making of this parable, waveth all other sects then in being,\nand pitcheth upon the Pharisee as the man most meet, by whose\nrejection he might shew forth, and demonstrate the riches of\nhis mercy in its extension to sinners: \"Two men went up into the\ntemple to pray, the one a Pharisee.\" The one such a brave man as\nyou have heard.\n\nThe PUBLICAN also went up thither to pray. The Publican, I told\nyou before, was an officer. An officer that served the Romans and\nthemselves too; for the Romans at that time were possessors of the\nland of Jewry, the lot of Israel's inheritance, and the Emperor\nTiberius Caesar placed over that land four governors, to wit,\nPilate, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias (Luke 3:1); all these were\nGentiles, heathens, infidels; and the Publicans were a sort of\ninferior men, to whom was let out to farm, and so men that were\nemployed by these to gather up the taxes and customs, that the\nheathens had laid upon the Jews to be paid to the emperor. (Luke\n2:1, 3:12,13)\n\nBut they were a generation of men that were very injurious in the\nexecution of their office. They would exact and demand more than\nwas due of the people; yea, and if their demands were denied, they\nwould falsely accuse those that so denied them to the governor,\nand by false accusation obtain the money of the people, and so\nwickedly enrich themselves. (Luke 3:13, 19:2,8) This was therefore\ngrievous to the Jews, who always counted themselves a free\npeople, and could never abide to be in bondage to any. And this\nwas something of the reason, that they were so generally, by all\nthe Jews, counted so vile and base, and reckoned among the worst\nof men, even as our informers and bum bailiffs are with us at this\nday.\n\nBut that which heightened the spirit of the people against them,\nand that made them so odious and filthy in their eyes, was for\nthat, at least so I think, these Publicans were not, as the other\nofficers, aliens, heathens, and Gentiles, but men of their own\nnation, Jews, and so the brethren of those that they so abused. Had\nthey been Gentiles, it had not been to be wondered at; that they\nabused, accused and by false accusations peeled and wasted the\npeople; for that cannot but be expected at the hands of aliens\nand strangers.\n\nThe Publican then was a Jew, a kind of a renegade Jew, that through\nthe love that he had to unjust gains, fell off in his affections\nfrom his brethren, adhered to the Romans, and became a kind of\nservant to them against their brethren, farming the heathenish\ntaxations at the hand of strangers, and exacting of them upon their\nbrethren with much cruelty, falsehood, and extortion. And hence,\nas I said, it was, that to be a Publican, was to be so odious\na thing, so vile a sinner, and so grievous a man in the eyes of\nthe Jews. And would it not be an insufferable thing? Yea, did not\nthat man deserve hanging ten times over, that should, being a\nDutchman, fall in with a French invader, and take place or farm\nat his hands, those cruel and grievous taxations, which he in\nbarbarous wise should at his conquest lay upon them; and exact\nand force them to be paid him with an over and above of what\nis appointed.4 Why this was the Publican, he was a Jew, and so\nshould have abode with them, and have been content to share with\nhis brethren in their calamities; but contrary to nature, to law,\nto religion, reason, and honesty, he fell in with the heathen,\nand took the advantage of their tyranny, to pole, to peel,5 to\nrob and impoverish his brethren.\n\nBut for proof that the Publican was a Jew.\n\n1. They are, even then, when compared with, yet distinguished from\nthe heathen; Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a Publican\n(Matt 18), which two terms, I think, must not here be applied to\none and the self-same man, as if the heathen was a Publican, or\nthe Publican a heathen, but to men of two distinct nations; as\nthat Publican and Harlot, is to be understood of sinners of both\nsexes. The Publican is not an harlot, for he is a man, &c. and such\na man as has been described before. So by Publicans and Sinners,\nis meant Publicans, and such sinners as the Gentiles were; or\nsuch as, by the text, the Publican is distinguished from: Where\nthe Pharisee saith he was not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer,\nor even as this Publican. Nor can he by Heathen Man, intend\nthe person, and by the term Publican, the office or place of the\nheathen man; but by Publican is meant the renegade Jew, in such a\nplace, &c. as is yet further manifest by that which follows. For,\n\n2. Those Publicans, even every one of them that by name are made\nmention of in the New Testament, have such names put upon them;\nyea, and other circumstances thereunto annexed, as doth demonstrate\nthem to be Jews. I remember the names of no more but three, to\nwit, Matthew, Levi, and Zaccheus, and they were all Jews.\n\n(1.) Matthew was a Jew, and the same Matthew was a Publican; yea,\nand also afterward an apostle. He was a Jew, and wrote his gospel\nin Hebrew; He was an apostle, and is therefore found among\nthe twelve. That he was a Publican too, is as evident by his own\nwords: For though Mark and Luke in their mentioning of his name\nand apostleship, do forbear to call him a Publican. (Mar 3:18,\nLuke 6:15) Yet when this Matthew comes to speak of himself, he\ncalls himself Matthew the Publican (Matt 10:3), for I count this\nthe self-same Matthew that Mark and Luke maketh mention of, because\nI find no other Matthew among the apostles but he: Matthew the\nPublican, Matthew the man so deep in apostasy, Matthew the man\nof that ill fame among his brethren. Love in Mark and Luke, when\nthey counted him among the apostles, did cover with silence this\nhis Publican state; and it is meet for Peter to call Paul his\nbeloved brother, when Paul himself shall call himself the chief\nof sinners; but faithfulness to the world, and a desire to be\nabased, that Christ thereby, and grace by him, might be advanced,\nmade Matthew, in his evangelical writings, call himself by the\nname of Matthew the Publican. Nor has he lost thereby; for Christ\nagain to exalt him, as he hath also done by the apostle Paul, hath\nset, by his special providence, the testimony that this Matthew\nhath given of his birth, life, death, doctrine, and miracles, in\nthe front of all the New Testament.\n\n(2.) The next Publican that I find by the testament of Christ,\nmade mention of by name, is Levi, another of the apostles of Jesus\nChrist. This Levi also, by the Holy Ghost in holy writ, is called\nby the name of James. Not James the brother of John, for Zebedee\nwas his father; but James the son of Alpheus. Now I take this\nLevi also to be another than Matthew; first, because Matthew is\nnot called the son of Alpheus; and because Matthew and Levi, or\nJames the son of Alpheus, are distinctly counted where the names\nof the apostles are mentioned (Matt 10:3), for two distinct persons:\nAnd that this Levi, or James the apostle was a Publican, as was\nthe apostle Matthew, whom we mentioned before, is evident; for\nboth Mark and Luke do count him such. First, Mark saith, Christ\nfound him when he called him, as he also found Matthew, sitting\nat the receipt of custom; yea, Luke words it thus: \"He went forth,\nand saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom:\nand he said unto him, Follow me.\" (Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27)\n\nNow that this Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, was a Jew, his\nname doth well make manifest. Besides, had there been among the\napostles any more Gentiles save Simon the Canaanite; or if this\nLevi James had been [one] here, I think the Holy Ghost would,\nto distinguish him, have included him in the same discriminating\ncharacter as he did the other, when he called him Simon the\nCanaanite. (Matt 10:4)\n\nMatthew, therefore, and Levi or James, were both Publicans, and,\nas I think, called both at the same time;6 were both Publican-Jews,\nand made by grace the apostles of Jesus Christ.\n\n(3.) The next Publican that I find by name, made mention of in the\ntestament of Christ, is one Zaccheus. And he was a chief Publican;\nyea, for ought I know, the master of them all. \"There was a\nman, [saith Luke,] named Zaccheus, which was the chief among the\nPublicans, and he was rich.\" (Luke 19:2) This man, Christ saith,\nwas a son of Abraham, that is, as other Jews were; for he spake that\nto stop the mouths of their Pharisaical cavillations. Besides, the\nPublican shewed himself to be such an one, when under a supposition\nof wronging any man, he has respect to the Jewish law of restoring\nfour-fold. (Exo 22:1, 2 Sam 12:6)\n\nIt is further manifest that he was a Jew, because Christ puts\nhim among the lost; to wit, among the lost sheep of the house of\nIsrael (Luke 19:8-10, Matt 15:24), for Zaccheus was one that might\nproperly be said to be lost, and that in the Jews account: Lost\nI say, and that not only in the most common sense, by reason of\ntransgression against the law, but for that he was an apostate Jew;\nnot with reference to heathenish religion, but as to heathenish,\ncruel, and barbarous actions; and therefore he was, as the other,\nby his brethren counted as bad as heathens, Gentiles, and harlots.\nBut salvation is come to this house, saith Christ, and that\nnotwithstanding his Publican practices, forasmuch as he also is\nthe son of Abraham.\n\n3. Again, Christ by the parable of the lost sheep, doth plainly\nintimate, that the Publican was a Jew. \"Then drew near unto him\nall the Publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees\nand Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and\neateth with them.\" (Luke 15:1,2)\n\nBut by what answer doth Christ repel their objections? Why, he\nsaith, \"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one\nof them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and\ngo after that which is lost until he find it?\" Doth he not here,\nby the lost sheep, mean the poor Publican? Plenty of whom, while\nhe preached this sermon, were there, as objects of the Pharisees'\nscorn; but of the pity and compassion of Jesus Christ! he did\nwithout doubt mean them. For, pray, what was the flock, and who\nChrist's sheep under the law, but the house and people of Israel?\n(Exo 34:30,31) So then, who could be the lost sheep of the house\nof Israel, but such as was Matthew, James, Zaccheus, and their\ncompanions in their, and such like transgressions.\n\n4. Besides, had not the Publican been of the Jews, how easy had\nit been for the Pharisees to have objected, that an impertinency\nwas couched in that most excellent parable of the lost sheep?\nThey might have said, We are offended, because thou receivest the\nPublicans, and thou for vindication of thy practice, propoundest\na parable of lost sheep; but they are the sinners of the house\nof Israel, and the Publicans are aliens and Gentiles. I say, How\neasily might they thus have objected? But they knew full well,\nthat the parable was pertinent, for that the Publicans were of\nthe Jews, and not of the aliens. Yea, had they not been Jews, it\ncannot, it must not be thought, that Christ, in sum, should call\nthem so; and yet he did do so, when he called them lost sheep.\n\nNow that these Publicans were Jews, what follows, but that for\nthis they were a great deal the more abominated of their brethren.\nAnd, as I have also hinted before, it is no marvel though they\nwere; for a treacherous brother is worse than an open enemy. (Psa\n55:12,13) For, if to be debauched in open and common transgressions\nis odious, how odious is it for a brother to be so? For a brother\nin nature and religion to be so? I say again, if these things are\nintolerable, what shall we think of such men, as shall join to all\nthis compliance with a foreign prince to rob the church of God?\nYea, that shall become a tenant, an officer, a man in power under\nthem, to exact, force, and wring out of the hand of a brother\nhis estate; yea, his bread and livelihood. Add to all this, What\nshall we say to him that shall do for an enemy against a brother\nin a way of injury and wrong, more than in strictness of law they\nwere commanded by that same enemy to do? And yet all this they\ndid, as both John insinuates, and Zaccheus confesses.7\n\nThe Pharisee therefore was not so good, but the Publican was as\nbad: Indeed, the Publican was a notorious wretch, one that had a\nway of transgressing by himself; one that could not be sufficiently\ncondemned by the Jews, nor coupled with a viler than himself. 'Tis\ntrue, you find him here in the temple at prayer; not because he\nretained in his apostasy, conscience of the true religion, but\nGod had awakened him, shewn him his sin, and bestowed upon him\nthe grace of repentance, by which he was not only fetched back to\nthe temple, and prayer, but to his God, and to the salvation of\nhis soul.\n\nThe Pharisee, then, was a man of another complexion, and stood as\nto his own thoughts of himself; yea, and in the thoughts of others\nalso, upon the highest and better ground by far. The Publican was\na notorious sinner; the Pharisee was a notorious righteous man.\nThe Publican was a sinner out of the ordinary way of sinning; and\nthe Pharisee was a man for righteousness in a singular way also.\nThe Publican pursued his villanies, and the Pharisee pursued his\nrighteousness; and yet they both meet in the temple to pray. Yea,\nthe Pharisee stuck to, and boasted in the law of God; but the\nPublican did forsake it, and hardened his heart against his way\nand people.\n\nThus diverse were they in their appearances; the Pharisee, very\ngood; the Publican, very bad. But as to the law of God, which\nlooked upon them with reference to the state of their spirits, and\nthe nature of their actions, by that they were both found sinners;\nthe Publican an open outside one, and the Pharisee a filthy inside\none. This is evident, because the best of them was rejected, and\nthe worst of them was received to mercy. Mercy standeth not at\nthe Publican's badness, nor is it enamoured with the Pharisee's\ngoodness: It suffereth not the law to take place on both, though\nit findeth them both in sin, but graciously embraceth the most\nunworthy, and leaveth the best to shift for himself. And good\nreason that both should be dealt with after this manner; to wit,\nthat the word of grace should be justified upon the soul of the\npenitent, and that the other should stand or fall to that, which\nhe had chosen to be his master.\n\nThere are three things that follow upon this discourse.\n\n[Conclusion.] 1. That the righteousness of man is not of any\nesteem with God, as to Justification. It is passed by as a thing\nof naughtiness, a thing not worth the taking notice of. There was\nnot so much as notice taken of the Pharisee's person, or prayer,\nbecause he came into the temple mantled up in his own good things.\n\n[Conclusion.] 2. That the man that has nothing to commend him to\nGod, but his own good doings, shall never be in favour with him.\nThis also is evident from the text: The Pharisee had his own\nrighteousness, but had nothing else to commend him to God; and\ntherefore could not by that obtain favour with God, but abode\nstill a rejected one, and in a state of condemnation.\n\n[Conclusion.] 3. Wherefore, though we are bound by the law of\ncharity to judge of men, according as in appearance they present\nthemselves unto us: yet withal, to wit, though we do so judge,\nwe must leave room for the judgment of God. Mercy may receive him\nthat we have doomed to hell, and justice may take hold on him,\nwhom we have judged to be bound up in the bundle of life. And both\nthese things are apparent by the persons under consideration.\n\nWe, like Joseph, are for setting of Manasseh before Ephraim; but\nGod, like Jacob, puts his hands across, and lays his right hand\nupon the worst man's head, and his left hand upon the best, to\nthe amazement and wonderment even of the best of men. (Gen 48:14)\n\n[THE PHARISEE'S PRAYER.]\n\n\"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and\nthe other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,\nGod, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners,\nunjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the\nweek, I give tithes of all that I possess.\"8\n\nIn these words many things are worth the noting. As,\n\nFIRST. THE PHARISEE'S DEFINITION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS; the which\nstandeth in two things: 1. In negatives. 2. In positives.\n\nIn negatives; to wit, what a man that is righteous must not be: I\nam no extortioner, no unjust man, no adulterer, nor yet as this\nPublican.\n\nIn positives; to wit, what a man that is righteous must be: I fast\ntwice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess, &c.\n\nThat righteousness standeth in negative and positive holiness\nis true; but that the Pharisee's definition is, notwithstanding,\nfalse, will be manifest by and by. But I will first treat of\nrighteousness in the general, because the text leadeth me to it.\n\nFirst then, A Man that is righteous, must have negative holiness;\nthat is, he must not live in actual transgressions: He must not\nbe an extortioner, unjust, an adulterer, or, as the Publican was.\nAnd this the apostle intends, when he saith, \"Flee fornication\n(2 Tim 2:22), flee also youthful lusts (1 Cor 6:18), flee from\nidolatry\" (1 Cor 10:14), and \"Little children, keep yourselves\nfrom idols.\" (1 John 5:21) For it is a vain thing to talk\nof righteousness, and that ourselves are righteous, when every\nobserver shall find us in actual transgression. Yea, though a man\nshall mix his want of negative holiness, with some good actions,\nthat will not make him a righteous man. As suppose, a man that\nis a swearer, a drunkard, an adulterer, or the like, should,\nnotwithstanding this, be open handed to the poor, be a greater\nexecutor of justice in his place, be exact in his buying, selling,\nkeep touch with his promise and with his friend, or the like. These\nthings, yea, many more such, cannot make him a righteous man; for\nthe beginning of righteousness is yet wanting in him, which is\nthis negative holiness: For except a man shall leave off to do\nevil he cannot be a righteous man. Negative holiness is therefore\nof absolute necessity to make one in one's self a righteous man.\nThis therefore condemns them, that count it sufficient if a man\nhave some actions that in themselves, and by virtue of the command\nare good, to make him a righteous man, though negative holiness\nis wanting. This is as saying to the wicked, Thou art righteous,\nand a perverting of the right way of the Lord. Negative holiness\ntherefore must be in a man before he can be accounted righteous.\n\nSecond. As negative holiness is required to declare one a righteous\nman; so also positive holiness must be joined therewith, or the\nman is unrighteous still. For it is not what a man is not, but\nwhat a man does, that declares him a righteous man. Suppose a man\nbe no thief, no liar, no unjust man; or, as the Pharisee saith, no\nextortioner, no adulterer, &c., this will not make him a righteous\nman. But there must be joined to these, holy and good actions,\nbefore he can be declared a righteous man. Wherefore, as the\napostle, when he pressed the Christians to righteousness, did\nput them first upon negative holiness, so he joineth thereto an\nexhortation to positive holiness; knowing, that where positive\nholiness is wanting, all the negative holiness in the whole world\ncannot declare a man a righteous man. When therefore he had said,\n\"But thou, O man of God, flee these things,\" (sins and wickedness)\nhe adds, \"and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,\npatience, meekness.\" (1 Tim 6:11) Here Timothy is exhorted\nto negative holiness, when he is bid to flee sin. Here also he\nis exhorted to positive holiness, when he is bid to follow after\nrighteousness, &c., for righteousness can neither stand in negative\nnor positive holiness, as severed one from another. That man then,\nand that man only, is, as to actions a righteous man, that hath\nleft off to do evil, and hath learnt to do well (Isa 1:16,17),\nthat hath cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour\nof light. Flee also youthful lusts, (said Paul,) but follow\nrighteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the\nLord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim 2:22)\n\nThe Pharisee therefore, as to the general description of\nrighteousness, made his definition right; but as to his person and\npersonal righteousness, he made his definition wrong. I do not\nmean, he defined his own righteousness wrong; but I mean, his\ndefinition of true righteousness, which standeth in negative and\npositive holiness, he made to stoop to justify his own righteousness,\nand therein he played the hypocrite in his prayer: For although\nit is true righteousness, that standeth in negative and positive\nholiness; yet that is not true righteousness, that standeth\nbut in some pieces and ragged remnants of negative and positive\nrighteousness. If then the Pharisee would in his definition of\npersonal righteousness, have proved his own righteousness to be\ngood, he must have proved, that both his negative and positive\nholiness had been universal: to wit, that he had left off to\nact in any wickedness, and that he had given up himself to the\nduty enjoined in every commandment. For so the righteous man is\ndescribed (Job 1:8), As it is also said of Zacharias and Elizabeth\nhis wife, \"they were both righteous before God, walking in all\nthe commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.\" (Luke 1:6)\nHere the perfection, that is, the universality of their negative\nholiness is implied, and the universality of their positive holiness\nis expressed: They walked in all the commandments of the Lord;\nbut that they could not do, if they had lived in any unrighteous\nthing or way. They walked in all blamelessly, that is, sincerely\nwith upright hearts. The Pharisee's righteousness therefore, even\nby his own implied definition of righteousness, was not good, as\nis manifest these two ways.\n\n1. His negative holiness was not universal.\n\n2. His positive holiness was rather criminal9 than moral.\n\n1. His negative holiness was not universal. He saith indeed, he\nwas not an extortioner, nor unjust, no adulterer, nor yet as this\nPublican: but now of these expressions apart, nor all, if put\ntogether, do prove him to be perfect as to negative holiness; that\nis, they do not prove him, should it be granted, that he was as holy\nwith this kind of holiness, as himself of himself had testified.\nFor, (1.) What though he was no extortioner, he might yet be a\ncovetous man. (Luke 16:14)\n\n(2.) What though, as to dealing, he was not unjust to others, yet\nhe wanted honesty to do justice to his own soul. (Luke 16:15)\n\n(3.) What, though he was free from the act of adultery, he might\nyet be made guilty by an adulterous eye, against which the Pharisee\ndid not watch, of which the Pharisee did not take cognizance.\n(Matt 5:28)\n\n(4.) What, though he was not like the Publican, yet he was like,\nyea, was a downright hypocrite; he wanted in those things wherein\nhe boasted himself, sincerity; but without sincerity no action can\nbe good, or accounted of God as righteous. The Pharisee therefore,\nnotwithstanding his boasts, was deficient in his righteousness,\nthough he would fain have shrouded it under the right definition\nthereof.\n\n2. Nor doth his positive holiness help him at all, forasmuch as\nit is grounded mostly, if not altogether, in ceremonial holiness.\nNay, I will recollect myself, it was grounded partly in ceremonial,\nand partly in superstitious holiness, if there be such a thing as\nsuperstitious holiness in the world, this paying of tithes was\nceremonial, such as came in and went out with the typical priesthood.\nBut what is that to positive holiness, when it was but a small\npittance by the by. Had the Pharisee argued plainly and honestly;\nI mean, had he so dealt with that law, by which now he sought to\nbe justified, he should have brought forth positive righteousness\nin morals, and should have said and proved it too, that, as he\nwas no wicked man with reference to the act of wickedness, he was\nindeed a righteous man in acts of moral virtues. He should, I say,\nhave proved himself a true lover of God, no superstitious one, but\na sincere worshipper of him; for this is contained in the first\ntable (Exo 20), and is so in sum expounded by the Lord Christ\nhimself. (Mark 12:30) He should also in the next place have proved\nhimself truly kind, compassionate, liberal, and full of love and\ncharity to his neighbour; for that is the sum of the second table,\nas our Lord also doth expound it, saying, \"Thou shalt love thy\nneighbour as thyself.\" (Mark 12:31)\n\nTrue, he says, he did them no hurt; but did he do them good? To\ndo no hurt is one thing; and to do good, is another; and it is\npossible for a man to do neither hurt nor good to his neighbour.\nWhat then, Is he a righteous man because he hath done him no hurt?\nNo verily; unless, to his power, he hath also done him good.\n\nIt is therefore a very fallacious and deceitful arguing of the\nPharisee, thus to speak before God in his prayer: I am righteous,\nbecause I have not hurt my neighbour, and because I have acted in\nceremonial duties. Nor will that help him at all to say, he gave\nTITHES of all that he possessed. It had been more modest to say,\nthat he had paid them; for they, being commanded, were a due\ndebt; nor could they go before God for a free gift, because by the\ncommandment they were made a payment; but proud men and hypocrites,\nlove so to word it both with God and man, as at least to imply,\nthat they are more forward to do, than God's commandment is to\nrequire them to do.\n\nThe second part of his positive holiness was superstitious; for\nGod hath appointed no such set fasts, neither more nor less, but\njust twice a week: I fast twice a week. Ay, but who did command\nthee to do so;10 commanded to fast when occasion required if thou\nwast, but that thou shouldest have any occasion to do so as thou\ndoest, other than by thy being put upon it by a superstitious and\nerroneous conscience, doth not, nor canst thou make to appear.\nThis part therefore of this positive righteousness, was positive\nsuperstition, an abuse of God's law, and a gratification of thy\nown erroneous conscience. Hitherto therefore, thou art defective\nin thy so seemingly brave and glorious righteousness.\n\nYet this let me say in commendation of the Pharisee: In my\nconscience he was better than many of our English Christians; for\nmany of them are so far off from being at all partakers of positive\nrighteousness, that all their ministers, bibles, good books, good\nsermons, nor yet God's judgments, can persuade them to become so\nmuch as negatively holy, that is, to leave off evil.\n\nSECOND.--The second thing that I take notice of in this prayer of\nthe Pharisee, is, HIS MANNER OF DELIVERY, as he stood praying in\nthe temple. \"God, I thank thee [said he] that I am not as other\nmen are.\" He seemed to be at this time, in more than an ordinary\nframe, while now he stood in the presence of the divine majesty:\nfor a prayer made up of praise, is a prayer of the highest order,\nand is most like the way of them that are now in a state beyond\nprayer. Praise is the work of heaven; but we see here, that\nan hypocrite may get into that vein, even while an hypocrite,\nand while on earth below. Nor do I think that this prayer of his\nwas a premeditated stinted form, but a prayer extempore, made on\na sudden, according to what he felt, thought, or understood of\nhimself.\n\nHere therefore, we may see, that even prayer, as well as other\nacts of religious worship, may be performed in great hypocrisy;\nalthough, I think, that to perform prayer in hypocrisy, is one of\nthe most daring sins that are committed by the sons of men. For\nby prayer, above all duties, is our most direct, and immediate\npersonal approach into the presence of God: and as there is an\nuttering of things before him, especially a giving of him thanks\nfor things received, or a begging, that such and such things might\nbe bestowed upon me. But now to do these things in hypocrisy, and\n'tis easy to do them so, when we go up into the temple to pray,\nmust needs be intolerable wickedness, and it argueth infinite\npatience in God, that he should let such as do so, arise alive\nfrom their knees, or that he should suffer them to go away from\nthe place where they stand, without some token or mark of his wrath\nupon them. I also observe, That this extempore prayer of the\nPharisee, was performed by himself, or in the strength of his own\nnatural parts; for so the text implieth, \"The Pharisee,\" saith\nthe text, \"stood and prayed thus with himself,\" with himself, or\nby himself, and may signify, either that he spoke softly, or that\nhe made this prayer by reason of his natural parts. \"I will pray\nwith the Spirit,\" said Paul. (1 Cor 14:15) The Pharisee prayed\nwith himself, said Christ. It is at this day wonderful common, for\nmen to pray extempore also. To pray by a book, by a premeditated\nset form, is now out of fashion. He is counted no body now, that\ncannot at any time, at a minute's warning, make a prayer of half\nan hour long. I am not against extempore prayer, for I believe it\nto be the best kind of praying; but yet I am jealous, that there\nare a great many such prayers made, especially in pulpits and\npublic meetings, without the breathing of the Holy Ghost in them:\nFor if a Pharisee of old could do so, Why may not a Pharisee do\nthe same now? Wit, and reason, and notion is now screwed up to a\nvery great height; nor do men want words, or fancies, or pride, to\nmake them do this thing. Great is the formality of religion this\nday, and little the power thereof. Now where there is a great form\nand little power, and such there was also among the Jews, in the\ntime of our Saviour Jesus Christ, there men are most strangely\nunder the temptation to be hypocrites; for nothing doth so properly\nand directly oppose hypocrisy, as the power and glory of the\nthings we profess. And so on the contrary, nothing is a greater\ntemptation to hypocrisy, than a form of knowledge of things without\nthe savour thereof. Nor can much of the power and savour of the\nthings of the gospel be seen at this day upon professors, I speak\nnot now of all, if their notions and conversations be compared\ntogether. How proud, how covetous, how like the world in garb and\nguise, in words and actions, are most of the great professors of\nthis our day! But when they come to divine worship, especially to\npray, by their words and carriages there, one would almost judge\nthem to be angels in heaven. But such things must be done in\nhypocrisy, as also the Pharisee's were.\n\nThe Pharisee stood and prayed THUS WITH HIMSELF.\n\nAnd, in that it is said, \"he prayed with himself\"; it may signify,\nthat he went in his prayer no further than his sense and reason,\nfeeling and carnal apprehensions went. True, Christian prayer\nofttimes leaves sense and reason, feeling, and carnal apprehensions\nbehind it, and it goeth forth with faith, hope, and desires to\nknow what at present we are ignorant of, and that unto which our\nsense, feeling, reason, &c., are strangers. The apostle indeed\ndoth say, \"I will pray with the understanding\" (1 Cor 14:15), but\nthen it must be taken for an understanding spiritually enlightened.\nI say, it must be so understood, because the natural understanding,\nproperly as such, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God\nwhen offered, and therefore cannot pray for them; for they to\nsuch, are foolish things. (1 Cor 2:14)\n\nNow a spiritually enlightened understanding may be officious in\nprayer these ways.\n\n1. As it has received conviction of the truth of the being of the\nthings that are of the Spirit of God; For to receive conviction\nof the truth and being of such things, comes from the Spirit of\nGod, not from the law, sense, or reason. (1 Cor 2:10-12) Now the\nunderstanding having, by the Holy Ghost, received conviction of\nthe truth of the being of such things, draweth out the heart to\ncry in prayer to God for them. Therefore he saith, he would pray\nwith the understanding.\n\n2. A spiritually enlightened understanding, hath also received\nby the Holy Ghost, conviction of the excellency and glory of the\nthings that are of the Spirit of God, and so enflameth the heart\nwith more fervent desires in this duty of prayer; for there is a\nsupernatural excellency in the things that are of the Spirit; \"But\nif the ministration of death, [to which the Pharisee adhered]\nwritten and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children\nof Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the\nglory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall\nnot the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious. For if the\nministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration\nof righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made\nglorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory\nthat excelleth.\" (2 Cor 3:7-10) And the Spirit of God sheweth, at\nbest, some things of that excellent glory of them to the understanding\nthat it enlighteneth. (Eph 1:17-19)\n\n3. The spiritually enlightened understanding hath also thereby\nreceived knowledge, that these excellent supernatural things of the\nSpirit, are given by covenant in Christ to those that love God,\nthat are beloved of him. \"Now we have received, [says Paul] not\nthe Spirit of the world, [that the Pharisee had] but the Spirit\nwhich is of God, that we might know the things that are freely\ngiven to us of God.\" (1 Cor 2:12) And this knowledge, that the\nthings of the Spirit of God are freely given to us of God, puts\nyet a greater edge, more vigour, and yet further confidence into\nthe heart to ask for what is mine by gift, by a free gift of\nGod in his Son.11 But all these things the poor Pharisee was an\nutter stranger to; he knew not the Spirit, nor the things of the\nSpirit, and therefore must neglect faith, judgment, and the love\nof God (Matt 23:23, Luke 11:42), and follow himself, and himself\nonly, as to his sense, feeling, reason, and carnal imagination in\nprayer.\n\nHe stood and prayed thus WITH HIMSELF. He prayed thus, talking to\nhimself; for so also it may, I think, be understood. It is said of\nthe unjust judge, \"he said within himself, Though I fear not God,\nnor regard man,\" &c. (Luke 18:4) That is, he said it to himself.\nSo the Pharisee is said to pray with himself. God and the Pharisee\nwere not together, there was only the Pharisee and himself. Paul\nknew not what to pray for without the Holy Ghost joined himself\nwith him, spake with him and helped him with groans unutterable.\nBut the Pharisee had no need of that, it was enough that HE and\nHIMSELF were together at this work; for he thought without doubting\nthat he and himself together could do. How many times have I heard\nancient men, and ancient women, at it, with themselves, when\nall alone in some private room, or in some solitary path; and in\ntheir chat, they have been sometimes reasoning, sometimes chiding,\nsometimes pleading, sometimes praying, and sometimes singing; but\nyet all has been done by themselves when all alone: But yet so\ndone, as one that has not seen them, must needs have concluded,\nthat they were talking, singing, and praying with company, when\nall that they said, they did it with themselves, and had neither\nauditor nor regarder.\n\nSo the Pharisee was at it with himself, he and himself performed,\nat this time, the duty of prayer. Now I observe, that usually when\nmen do speak to, or with themselves, they greatly strive to please\nthemselves: Therefore it is said, there is a man, That \"flattereth\nhimself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.\"\n(Psa 36:2) He flattereth himself in his own way, according as his\nsense and carnal reason dictates to him; and he might do it as\nwell in prayer, as in any other way. Some men will so hear sermons,\nand apply them that they may please themselves: And some men will\npray, but will refuse such words and thoughts in prayer as will\nnot please themselves.\n\nOh, how many men speak all that they speak in prayer, rather to\nthemselves, or to their auditory, than to God that dwelleth in\nheaven! And this I take to be the manner, I mean something of the\nmanner of the Pharisee's praying. Indeed, he made mention of God,\nas also others do; but he prayed with himself to himself, in his\nown spirit, and to his own pleasing, as the matter of his prayer\ndoth manifest. For was it not pleasant to this hypocrite, think\nyou, to speak thus well of himself at this time? doubtless it was.\nAlso children and fools are of the same temper with hypocrites\nas to this; they also love without ground, as the Pharisee, to\nflatter themselves in their own eyes. But not he that commendeth\nhimself is approved.\n\nGod, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners,\nunjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican, &c.\n\nThus he begins his prayer; and it is, as was hinted before, a prayer\nof the highest strain. For to make a prayer all of thanksgiving,\nand to urge in that prayer, the cause of that thanksgiving, is the\nhighest manner of praying, and seems to be done in the strongest\nfaith, &c., in the greatest sense of things. And such was\nthe Pharisee's prayer, only he wanted substantial ground for his\nthanksgiving; to wit, he wanted proof of that he said, \"he was\nnot as other men were,\" except he had meant, as he did not, that\nhe was even of the worst sort of men: For even the best of men by\nnature, and the worst, are all alike. \"What, then? are we better\nthan they?\" said Paul, \"No, in no wise.\" (Rom 3:9) So then, he failed\nin the ground of his thankfulness, and therefore his thankfulness\nwas grounded on an untruth, and so became feigned, and self-flattering,\nand could not be acceptable with the God of heaven.\n\nBesides, in this high prayer of the Pharisee, he fathered that\nupon God which he could by no means own; to wit, that his being\nso good as he thought himself to be, was through distinguishing\nlove and favour of God, \"God, I thank thee, that I am not as\nother men are.\" I thank thee, that thou hast made me better than\nothers. I thank thee that my condition is so good, and that I am\nso far advanced above my neighbour.\n\nTHERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS FLOW FROM THIS PRAYER OF THE PHARISEE,\nTHAT ARE WORTH OUR OBSERVATION. As,\n\nFirst, That the Pharisees and hypocrites, do not love to count\nthemselves sinners, when they stand before God. They choose rather\nto commend themselves before him for virtuous and holy persons,\nsometimes saying, and oftener thinking, that they are more\nrighteous than others. Yea, it seems by the word, to be natural,\nhereditary, and so common for hypocrites to trust to themselves\nthat they are righteous, and then to condemn others; this is the\nfoundation upon which this very parable is built: \"He spake this\nparable, [saith Luke] unto certain which trusted in themselves\nthat they were righteous\"; or that they were so, \"and despised\nothers.\" (verse 9)\n\nI say, hypocrites love not to think of their sins, when they stand\nin the presence of God; but rather to muster up, and to present\nhim with their several good deeds, and to venture a standing or\nfalling by them.\n\nSecond, This carriage of the Pharisee before God informs us, that\nmoral virtues, and the ground of them, which is the law, if trusted\nto, blinds the mind of man, that he cannot for them perceive\nthe way to happiness. While Moses is read, and his law, and the\nrighteousness thereof trusted to, the vail is upon their heart.\n\"For until this day, [said Paul] remaineth the same vail untaken\naway in the reading of the old testament, which vail is done away\nin Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is\nupon their heart.\" (2 Cor 3:14,15) And this is the reason that so\nmany moral men, that are adorned with civil and moral righteousness,\nare yet so ignorant of themselves, and the way of life by Christ.\n\nThe law of works, and the righteousness of the flesh, which is\nthe righteousness of the law, blinds their minds, shuts up their\neyes, and causeth them to miss of the righteousness that they are\nso hotly in the pursuit of. Their minds were blinded, saith the\ntext: Whose minds? Why those that adhered to, that stood by, and\nthat sought righteousness of the law. Now,\n\nThe Pharisee was such an one, he rested in the law, he made his\nboasts of God, and trusted to himself that he was righteous; And\nall this proceeded of that blindness and ignorance that the law\nhad possessed his mind withal; for it is not granted to the law to\nbe the ministration of life and light, but to be the ministration\nof death, when it speaks; and of darkness, when trusted unto,\nthat the Son of God might have the pre-eminence in all things:\nTherefore 'tis said, \"When the heart shall turn to him, the vail\nshall be taken away.\" (2 Cor 3:16)\n\nThird, We may see by this prayer, the strength of vain confidence;\nit will embolden a man to stand in a lie before God; it will\nembolden a man to trust to himself and to what he hath done; yea,\nto plead his own goodness instead of God's mercy before him. For\nthe Pharisee was not only a man that justified himself before\nmen, but one that justified himself before God. And what was the\ncause of his so justifying of himself before God; but that vain\nconfidence that he had in himself and his works, which were both\na cheat and a lie to himself. But, I say, the boldness of the\nman was wonderful, for he stood to the lie that was in his right\nhand, and pleaded the goodness of it before him. But, besides\nthese things, there are four things more that are couched in this\nprayer of the Pharisee.\n\nFourth, By this prayer the Pharisee doth appropriate to himself\nconversion, he challengeth it to himself and to his fellows. I am\nnot, saith he, as other men; that is, in unconversion, in a state\nof sin, wrath, and death. And this must be his meaning; for the\nreligion of the Pharisee was not grounded upon any particular\nnatural privilege. I mean not singly, not only upon that, but upon\na falling in with those principles, notions, opinions, decrees,\ntraditions, and doctrines that they taught distinct from the true\nand holy doctrines of the prophets. And they made to themselves\ndisciples by such doctrine, men, that they could captivate by\nthose principles, laws, doctrines, and traditions: And therefore\nsuch are said to be of the sect of the Pharisees; that is, the\nscholars, and disciples of them, converted to them and to their\ndoctrine. Oh! it is easy for souls to appropriate conversion to\nthemselves, that know not what conversion is. It is easy, I say,\nfor men to lay conversion to God, on a legal, or ceremonial, or\ndelusive bottom, on such a bottom that will sink under the burden\nthat is laid upon it; on such a bottom that will not stand when\nit is brought under the touch-stone of God, nor against the rain,\nwind, and floods that are ordained to put it to the trial, whether\nit is true or false. The Pharisee here stands upon a supposed\nconversion to God; \"I am not as other men\"; but both he, and his\nconversion are rejected by the sequel of the parable: \"That which\nis highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.\"\n(Luke 16:15) That is, that conversion, that men, as men, flatter\nthemselves that they have, is such. But the Pharisee will be\na converted man, he will have more to shew for heaven than his\nneighbour, \"I am not as other men are\"; to wit, in a state of sin\nand condemnation, but in a state of conversion and salvation. But\nsee how grievously this sect, this religion beguiled men. It made\nthem two-fold worse the children of hell than they were before:\nAnd than their teachers were (Matt 23:15), that is, their doctrine\nbegat such blindness, such vain confidence, and groundless boldness in\ntheir disciples, as to involve them in that conceit of conversion\nthat was false, and so if trusted to, damnable.\n\nFifth, By these words, we find the Pharisee, not only appropriating\nconversion to himself, but rejoicing in that conversion: \"God, I\nthank thee,\" saith he, \"that I am not as other men\"; which saying\nof his, gives us to see that he gloried in his conversion; he made\nno doubt at all of his state, but lived in the joy of the safety\nthat he supposed his soul by his conversion to be in. Oh! thanks\nto God, says he, I am not in the state of sin, death, and damnation,\nas the unjust, and this Publican is. But a strong delusion! to\ntrust to the spider's web, and to think, that a few of the most\nfine of the works of the flesh, would be sufficient to bear up the\nsoul in, at, and under the judgment of God. \"There is a generation\nthat are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their\nfilthiness.\" (Prov 30:12) This text can be so fitly applied to\nnone, as to the Pharisee, and to those that tread in the Pharisee's\nsteps, and that are swallowed up with is conceits, and with the\nglory of his own righteousness.\n\nSo again, \"There is a way [a way to heaven] which seemeth right\nunto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,\" (Prov\n14:12) This also is fulfilled in these kind of men; at the end of\ntheir way is death and hell, notwithstanding their confidence in\nthe goodness of their state.\n\nAgain, \"There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.\" (Prov\n13:7) What can be more plain from all these texts, than that some\nmen, that are out of the way think themselves in it; and that some\nmen think themselves clean that are yet in their filthiness; and\nthat think themselves rich for the next world, and yet are poor,\nand miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked.12 Thus the poor,\nblind, naked, hypocritical Pharisee thought of himself, when God\nthreatened to abase him: Yea, he thought himself thus, and joyed\ntherein, when indeed he was going down to the chambers of death.\n\nSixth, by these words, the Pharisee seems to put the goodness of\nhis condition upon the goodness of God. I am not as other men are,\nand I thank God for it. God, saith he, I thank thee that I am not\nas other men are. He thanked God when God had done nothing for\nhim. He thanked God, when the way that he was in was not of Gods\nprescribing, but of his own inventing. So the persecutor thanks\nGod that he was put into that way of roguery that the devil had\nput him into, when he fell to rending and tearing of the church of\nGod: \"Whose possessors slay them, [saith the prophet,] and hold\nthemselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the\nLord, for I am rich.\" (Zech 11:5) I remember that Luther used to\nsay, \"In the name of God begins all mischief.\" All must be fathered\nupon God: the Pharisee's conversion must be fathered upon God; the\nright or rather the villany of the outrageous persecution against\nGod's people, must be fathered upon God. God, \"I thank thee,\"\nand blessed be God, must be the burthen of the heretic's song. So\nagain, the free-willer, he will ascribe all to God; the quaker, the\nranter, the socinian, &c. will ascribe all to God. \"God, I thank\nthee,\" is in every man's mouth, and must be entailed to every\nerror, delusion, and damnable doctrine that is in the world: But\nthe name of God, and their doctrine, worship, and way, hangeth\ntogether, much as doth it and the Pharisee's doctrine; that is to\nsay, nothing at all; for God hath not proposed their principles,\nnor doth he own them, nor hath he commanded them, nor doth he\nconvey by them the least grace or mercy to them; but rather rejecteth\nthem, and holdeth them for his enemies, and for the destroyers of\nthe world.\n\nSeventh, We come in the next place to the ground of all this; and\nthat is, to what the Pharisee had attained. To wit, that he was\nno extortioner, no unjust man, no adulterer, nor even as this\nPublican, and for that he fasted twice a week, and paid tithes of\nall that he possessed. So that you see he pretendeth to a double\nfoundation for his salvation, a moral and a ceremonial one; but\nboth very lean, weak, and feeble: For the first of his foundations,\nwhat is it more, if all be true that he saith, but a being removed\na few inches from the vilest men in their vilest actions, a very\nslender matter to build my confidence for heaven upon.\n\nAnd for the second part of his ground for life, what is it but\na couple of ceremonies, if so good. The first is questioned as a\nthing not founded in God's law; and the second is such, as is of\nthe remotest sort of ceremonies, that teach and preach the Lord\nJesus. But suppose them to be the best, and his conformity to them\nthe thoroughest, they never were ordained to get to heaven by,\nand so are become but a sandy foundation. But anything will serve\nsome men for a foundation and support for their souls, and to\nbuild their hopes of heaven upon. I am not a drunkard, says one,\nnor a liar, nor a swearer, nor a thief, and therefore, I thank\nGod, I have hopes of heaven and glory. I am not an extortioner, nor\nan adulterer, nor unjust, nor yet as this Publican; and therefore\ndo hope I shall go to heaven. Alas! poor men! will your being\nfurnished with these things, save you from the thundering claps and\nvehement batteries, that the wrath of God will make upon sin and\nsinners in the day that shall burn like an oven? No, no, nothing\nat that day can shroud a man from the hot rebukes of that vengeance,\nbut the very righteousness of God, which is not the righteousness\nof the law, however christened, named, or garnished with all those\ngew-gaws that men's heads and fancies can invent, for that is but\nthe righteousness of man.\n\n[MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS REJECTED, AND THE IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF\nCHRIST ALONE TO BE RELIED ON FOR JUSTIFICATION.]\n\nBut, O thou blind Pharisee, since thou art so confident that thy\nstate is good, and thy righteousness is that that will stand, when\nit shall be tried with fire (1 Cor 3:13), let me now reason with\nthee of righteousness. My terror shall not make thee afraid; I am\nnot God, but a man as thou art, we both are formed out of the clay.\n\nFirst, Prithee when didst thou begin to be righteous? Was it before\nor after thou hadst been a sinner? Not afore, I dare say; but if\nafter, then the sins that thou pollutedst thyself withal before,\nhave made thee uncapable of acting legal righteousness. For sin,\nwhere it is, pollutes, defiles, and makes vile the whole man;\ntherefore thou canst not by after acts of obedience make thyself\njust in the sight of that God thou pretended now to stand praying\nunto. Indeed, thou mayest cover thy dirt, and paint thy sepulchre;\nfor that acts of after obedience will do, though sin has gone\nbefore. But Pharisee, God can see through the white of this wall,\neven to the dirt that is within: God also can see through the\npaint and garnish of thy beauteous sepulchre, to the dead men's\nbones that are within; nor can any of thy most holy duties, nor\nall, when put together, blind the eye of the all-seeing majesty\nfrom beholding all the uncleanness of thy soul.13 (Matt 23:27)\nStand not therefore so stoutly to it, now thou art before God; sin\nis with thee, and judgment and justice is before him. It becomes\nthee, therefore, rather to despise and abhor this life of thy\nhand, and to count all thy doings but dross and dung, and to be\ncontent to be justified with another's righteousness instead of\nthine own. This is the way to be secured. I say, blind Pharisee,\nthis is the way to be secured from the wrath which is to come.\n\nThere is nothing more certain than this, that as to justification\nfrom the curse of the law, God has rejected man's righteousness,\nfor the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; and hath accepted\nin the room of that glorious righteousness of his Son; because\nindeed, that, and that only, is universal, perfect, and equal with\nhis justice and holiness. This is in a manner the contents of the\nwhole bible, and therefore must needs be most certainly true. Now\nthen, Mr. Pharisee, methinks, what if thou didst this, and that\nwhile thou art at thy prayers; to wit, cast in they mind what\ndoth God love most, and the resolve will be at hand. The BEST\nrighteousness, surely the BEST righteousness; for that thy reason\nwill tell thee: This done, even while thou art at thy devotion,\nask thyself again, But WHO has the best righteousness? And that\nresolve will be at hand also; to wit, he that in person is equal\nwith God; and that is his Son Jesus Christ. He that is separate\nfrom sinners, and made higher than the heavens; and that is his\nSon Jesus Christ. He that did no sin, nor had any guile found in\nhis mouth; and there never was any such HE in all the world but\nthe Son of God, Jesus Christ.\n\nNow Pharisee, when thou hast done this, then as thou art in thy\ndevotion, ask again, But what is this best righteousness, the\nrighteousness of Christ, to do? And the answer will be ready. It\nis to be made by an act of the sovereign grace of God over to the\nsinner, that shall dare to trust thereto for justification from\nthe curse of the law. He is made unto us of God, righteousness.\n(1 Cor 1:30) \"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,\nthat we might be made the righteousness of God in him.\" (2 Cor\n5:21) \"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every\none that believeth.\" (Rom 10:4)\n\nThis done, and concluded on, then turn again Pharisee, and say thus\nwith thyself; Is it most safe for me to trust in this righteousness\nof God? This righteousness of God-man, this righteousness of Christ?\nCertainly it is. Since, by the text, it is counted the best, and\nthat which best pleaseth God; since it is that which God hath\nappointed, that sinners shall be justified withal. For in the\nLord have we righteousness if we believe: And, in the Lord we are\njustified, and do glory. (Isa 45:24,25)\n\nNay Pharisee, suppose thine own righteousness should be as long,\nas broad, as high, as deep, as perfect, as good, even every way\nas good, as the righteousness of Christ. Yet since God has chosen\nby Christ, to reconcile us to himself, canst thou attempt to seek\nby thine own righteousness to reconcile thyself to God, and not\nbe guilty of attempting, at least, to confront this righteousness\nof Christ before God. Yea, to dare with it, yea, to challenge by\nit, acceptance of thy person contrary to God's design.\n\nSuppose, that when the king has chosen one to be judge in the land,\nand has determined that he shall be judge in all cases, and that\nby his verdict every man's judgment shall stand. I say, suppose,\nafter this another should arise, and of his own head resolve to\ndo his own business himself. Now, though he should be every whit\nas able as the judge of the king's appointing to do it; yea, and\nsuppose he should do it as justly and righteously too, yet his\nmaking of himself a judge, would be an affront to the king, and\nan act of rebellion, and so a transgression worthy of punishment.\n\nWhy Pharisee, God hath appointed, that by the righteousness of his\nSon, and by that righteousness only, men shall be justified in his\nsight from the curse of the law. Wherefore, take heed, and at thy\nperil, whatever thy righteousness is, confront not the righteousness\nof Christ therewith. I say, bring it not in, let it not plead for\nthee at the bar of God, nor do thou plead for that in his court of\njustice; for thou canst not do that and be innocent. If he trusts\nto his righteousness, he hath sinned, says Ezekiel. Mark the text,\n\"When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if\nhe trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his\nrighteousnesses shall not be remembered: but for his iniquity that\nhe hath committed, he shall die for it.\" (Chron 33:13)\n\nObserver a few things from this text, and they are these that\nfollow.\n\nFirst, Here is a righteous man; a man, with whom we do not hear\nthat the God of heaven finds fault.\n\nSecondly, Here is a promise made to this man, that \"he shall\nsurely live\"; but on THIS condition, that he trusts not to his own\nrighteousness. Whence it is manifest, that the promise of life\nto this righteous man, is not for the sake of his righteousness,\nbut for the sake of something else, to wit, the righteousness of\nChrist.\n\n1. Not for the sake of his own righteousness. This is evident, because\nwe are admitted, yea, commanded, to trust in the righteousness that\nsaveth us. The righteousness of God is unto all, and upon all that\nbelieve; that is, trust in it, and trust to it for justification.\nNow therefore, if thy righteousness, when most perfect, could save\nthee, thou mightest, yea oughtest most boldly to trust therein. But\nsince thou art forbidden to trust to it, it is evident it cannot\nsave, nor is it for the sake of that, that the righteous man\nis saved. (Rom 3:21, 22)\n\n2. But for the sake of something else; to wit, for the sake of the\nrighteousness of Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation\nthrough faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the\nremission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.\n\"To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might\nbe just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.\" (Rom\n3:26) See also Philippians 3:7-9.\n\n\"If he trusts to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all\nhis righteousness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity\nthat he hath committed [in trusting to his own righteousness] he\nshall die for it.\"\n\nNote hence further.\n\n1. That there is more virtue in one sin to destroy, than in all thy\nrighteousness to save thee alive. If he trust, if he trust never\nso little, if he do at all trust to his own righteousness, all his\nrighteousness shall be forgotten; and by, and for, and in, the sin\nthat he hath committed in trusting to it, he shall die.\n\n2. Take notice also, that there are more damnable sins than those\nthat are against the moral law. By which of the ten commandments\nis trusting to our own righteousness forbidden? Yet it is a sin.\nIt is a sin therefore forbidden by the gospel, and is included,\nlurketh close in, yea, is the, or a root of unbelief itself;\n\"He that believeth not shall be damned.\" But he that trusteth in\nhis own righteousness doth not believe, neither in the truth or\nsufficiency of the righteousness of Christ to save him, therefore\nhe shall be damned.\n\nBut how is it manifest, that he that trusteth to his own righteousness,\ndoth it through a doubt, or unbelief of the truth or sufficiency\nof the righteousness of Christ?\n\nI answer, Because, even because he trusteth to his own. A man will\nnever willingly choose to trust to the worst of helps, when he\nbelieves there is a better as near, and to be had as soon, and that\ntoo, upon as easy, if not more easy terms. If he that trusteth to\nhis own righteousness for life, did believe, that there is indeed\nsuch a thing as the righteousness of Christ to justify; and that\nthis righteousness of Christ has in it ALL sufficiency to do that\nblessed work, be sure he would choose that, thereon to lay, lean,\nand venture his soul, that he saw was the best, and most sufficient\nto save; especially when he saw also, (and see that he must, when\nhe sees the righteousness of Christ) to wit, that that is to be\nobtained as soon, because as near, and to be had on as easy terms;\nnay, upon easier than may man's own righteousness. I say, he would\nsooner choose it, because of the weight of salvation, of the worth\nof salvation, and of the fearful sorrow, that to eternity will\novertake him, that in this thing shall miscarry. It is for heaven,\nit is to escape hell, wrath, and damnation, saith the soul; and\ntherefore I will, I must, I dare not but choose that, and that\nonly, that I believe to be the best and most sufficient help in\nso great a concern, as soul-concern is. So then he that trusteth\nto his own righteousness, does it of unbelief of the sufficiency\nof the righteousness of Christ to save him.\n\nWherefore this sin of trusting to his own righteousness is\na most high and damning transgression: because it contemneth the\nrighteousness of Christ, which is the only righteousness that is\nsufficient to save from the curse of the law. It also disalloweth\nthe design of heaven, and the excellency of the mystery of the wisdom\nof God, in designing this way of salvation for man. What shall I\nsay, It also seeketh to rob God of the honour of the salvation of\nman. It seeketh to take the crown from the head of Christ, and to\nset it upon the hypocrite's head; therefore, no marvel, that this\none sin be of that weight, virtue and power, as to sink that man\nand his righteousness into hell, that leaneth thereon, or that\ntrusteth unto it.\n\nBut Pharisee, I need not talk thus unto thee, for thou art not\nthe man that hath that righteousness, that God findeth not fault\nwithal; nor is it to be found, but with him that is ordained to be\nthe Saviour of mankind; nor is there any such one besides Jesus, who\nis called Christ. Thy righteousness is a poor pittance, a serap:\nnay, not so good as a serap of righteousness. Thine own confession\nmakes thee partial in the law; for here, in the midst of thy boasts,\nthou hast not, because thou canst not say, thou hast fulfilled\nall righteousness. What madness then has brought thee into the\ntemple, there in audacious manner to stand and vaunt before God;\nsaying, \"God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are.\"\n\nDost thou not know, that he that breaks one, breaks all the commandments\nof God; and consequently, that he that keeps not all, keeps none\nat all of the commandments of God. Say I this of myself? saith\nnot the scriptures the same? \"For whosoever shall keep the whole\nlaw, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.\" (James\n2:10) Be confounded then, be confounded.\n\nDost thou know the God with whom now thou hast to do? He is a God\nthat cannot, no, that cannot, as he is just, accept of an half\nrighteousness for a whole; nor of a lame righteousness for\na sound; nor of a sick righteousness for a well and healthy one.\n(Mal 1:8) And if so, how should he then accept of that which is not\nrighteousness? I say, how should he accept of that which is none\nat all, save an hypocritical and feigned one, for thine is only\nsuch. And if Christ said, when you have done all, say, \"We are\nunprofitable,\" How camest thou to say before thou hadst done one\nthing well, I am better, more righteous than other men?\n\nDidst thou believe, when thou saidst it, That God knew thy heart?\nHadst thou said this to the Publican, it had been a high and rampant\nexpression; but to say this before God, to the face of God, when\nhe knew that thou wast vile, and a sinner from the womb, and from\nthe conception, spoils all. It was spoken to put a check to thy\narrogancy, when Christ said, \"Ye are they which justify yourselves\nbefore me; but God knoweth your hearts.\" (Luke 16:15)\n\nHast thou taken notice of this, that God judgeth the fruit by the\nheart from whence it comes? \"A good man out of the good treasure\nof his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man\nout of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which\nis evil.\" (Luke 6:45) Nor can it be otherwise concluded, but that\nthou art an evil man, and so that all thy supposed good is nought\nbut badness. For that thou hast made it to stand in the room of\nJesus, and hast dared to commend thyself to the living God thereby:\nFor thou hast trusted in thy shadow of righteousness, and committed\niniquity. Thy sin hath melted away thy righteousness, and turned\nit to nothing but dross; or, if you will, to the early dew, like\nto which it goeth away, and so can by no means do thee good, when\nthou shalt stand in need of salvation and eternal life of God.\n\nBut further, thou sayest thou art righteous, but they are but vain\nwords. Knowest thou not that thy zeal, which is the life of thy\nrighteousness, is preposterous in many things. What else means thy\nmadness, and the rage thereof, against men as good as thyself.\nTrue, thy being ignorant that they are good, may save thee from\nthe commission of the sin that is unpardonable, but it will never\nkeep thee from spot in God's sight, but will make both thee and\nthy righteousness culpable.\n\nPaul, who was once as brave a Pharisee as thou canst be, calleth\nmuch of that zeal, which he in that estate was possessed with, and\nlived in the exercise of, madness; yea, exceeding madness (Acts\n26:9-11, Phil 3:5,6), and of the same sort is much of thine, and\nit must be so; for a lawyer, a man for the law, and that resteth\nin it, must be a persecutor; yea, a persecutor of righteous men,\nand that of zeal to God; because by the law is begat, through the\nweakness that it meeteth with in thee, sourness, bitterness of\nspirit, and anger against him that rightfully condemneth thee of\nfolly, for choosing to trust to thine own righteousness, when a\nbetter is provided of God to save us. (Gal 4:28-31) Thy righteousness\ntherefore is deficient; yea, thy zeal for the law, and the men of\nthe law, has joined madness with thy moral virtues, and made thy\nrighteousness unrighteousness; How then canst thou be upright\nbefore the Lord?\n\nFurther, Has not the pride of thy spirit in this hot-headed zeal\nfor thy Pharisaical notions, run thee upon thinking that thou art\nable to do more than God hath enjoined thee, and so able to make\nthyself more righteous, than God requireth thou shouldest be. What\nelse is the use of thy adding of laws to God's laws, precepts to\nGod's precepts, and traditions to God's appointments? (Mark 7:8)\nNay, hast thou not by thus doing, condemned the law of want of\nperfection, and so the God that gave it, of want of wisdom, and\nfaithfulness to himself and thee?\n\nNay, I say again, hath not thy thus doing charged God with being\nignorant of knowing, what rules there needed to be imposed on\nhis creatures to make their obedience complete? And doth not this\napish madness of thine intimate, moreover, that if thou hadst not\nstept in with the bundle of thy traditions, righteousness had been\nimperfect, not through man's weakness, but through impediment in\nGod, or in his ministering rules of righteousness unto us.\n\nNow, when thou hast thought on these things fairly, answer thyself in\nthese few questions: Is not this arrogancy? Is not this blasphemy?\nIs not this to condemn God, that thou mightest be righteous? And\ndost thou think, this is, indeed, the way to be righteous?\n\nBut again, what means thy preferring of thine own rules, laws,\nstatues, ordinances and appointments, before the rules, laws,\nstatutes and appointments of God? Thinkest thou this to be right?\nWhither will thy zeal, thy pride, and thy folly carry thee? Is\nthere more reason, more equity, more holiness in thy traditions,\nthan in the holy, and just, and good commandments of God? (Rom\n7:12) Why then, I say, dost thou reject the commandment of God,\nto keep thine own tradition? Yea, Why dost thou rage, and rail,\nand cry out when men keep not thy law, or the rule of thine order,\nand tradition of thine elders; and yet shut thine eyes, or wink\nwith them, when thou thyself shalt live in the breach of the law\nof God? Yea, why wilt thou condemn men, when they keep not thy\nlaw, but study for an excuse, yea, plead for them that live in the\nbreach of God's (Mark 7:10-13) Will this go for righteousness in\nthe day of God Almighty? Nay rather, will not this, like a millstone\nabout thy neck, drown thee in the deeps of hell? Oh, the blindness,\nthe madness, the pride, and spite, that dwells in the hearts of\nthese pretended righteous men.\n\nAgain, What kind of righteousness of thine, is this, that standeth\nin a misplacing, and so consequently in a misesteeming of God's\ncommands? Some thou settest too high, and some too low; as in the\ntext, thou hast set a ceremony above faith, above love, and above\nhope in the mercy of God: When, as it is evident, the things last\nmentioned, are the things of the first rate, the weightier matters.\n(Matt 23:23)\n\nAgain, Thou hast preferred the gold above the temple that\nsanctifieth the gold, and the gift upon the altar, above the altar\nthat sanctifies the gift. (Matt 23:17)\n\nI say again, What kind of righteousness shall this be called? What\nback will such a suit of apparel fit, that is set together just\ncross and thwart to what it should be? Just as if the sleeves should\nbe sewed upon the pocket-holes, and the pockets set on where the\nsleeves should stand. Nor can other righteousness proceed where\na wrong judgment precedeth it.\n\nThis misplacing of God's laws cannot, I say, but produce misshaped\nand misplaced obedience. It indeed produceth a monster, an\nill-shapened thing, a mole, a mouse, a pig, all which are things\nunclean, and an abomination to the Lord. For see, saith he, if\nthou wilt be making, that thou make all things according to the\npattern shewed to thee in the mount. Set faith, where faith should\nstand, a moral, where a moral should stand; and a ceremony, where\na ceremony should stand; for this turning of things upside down\nshall be esteemed as the potter's clay: And wilt thou call this\nthy righteousness; yea, wilt thou stand in this, plead for this,\nand venture an eternal concern in such a piece of linsey-woolsey\nas this? O fools, and blind!\n\nBut further, let us come a little closer to the point. O blind\nPharisee. Thou standest to thy righteousness, what dost thou mean?\nWouldest thou have MERCY for thy righteousness, or JUSTICE for\nthy righteousness?\n\n[FIRST MERCY.] If mercy, what mercy? Temporal things God giveth\nto the unthankful and unholy; nor doth he use to SELL the world\nto man for righteousness. The earth hath he GIVEN to the children\nof men. But this is not the thing; thou wouldest have eternal mercy\nfor thy righteousness; thou wouldest have God think upon what an\nholy, what a good, what a righteous man thou art, and hast been.\nBut Christ died not for the good and righteous, nor did he come to\ncall such to the banquet, that grace hath prepared for the world.\n\"I came not,\" I am not come, saith Christ, \"to call the righteous,\nbut sinners to repentance.\" (Mark 2:27, Rom 5) Yet this is thy\nplea; Lord God, I am a righteous man, therefore grant me mercy,\nand a share in thy heavenly kingdom. What else dost thou mean,\nwhen thou sayest, \"God I thank thee, that I am not as other\nmen are?\" Why dost thou rejoice, why art thou glad that thou art\nmore righteous, if indeed thou art, than thy neighbour, if it is\nnot because thou thinkest, that thou hast got the start of, the\nbetter of thy neighbour, with reference to mercy; and that by thy\nrighteousness thou hast insinuated thyself into God's affections,\nand procured an interest in his eternal favour. But,\n\nWhat, What hast thou done by thy righteousness? I say, What hast\nthou given to God thereby? And what hath he received of thy hand?\nPerhaps thou wilt say, righteousness pleaseth God: But I answer\nno, not thine, with respect to justification from the curse of\nthe law, unless it be as perfect, as the justice it is yielded\nto, and as the law that doth command it. But thine is not such\na righteousness: no, thine is speckled, thine is spotted, thine\nmakes thee to look like a speckled bird in his eye-sight.\n\nThy righteousness has added iniquity, to thy iniquity, because it\nhas kept thee from a belief of thy need of repentance, and because\nit has emboldened thee to thrust thyself audaciously into the\npresence of God, and made thee there, even before his holy eyes,\nwhich are so pure, that they cannot look on iniquity (Hab 1:13), to\nvaunt, boast, and brag of thyself, and of thy tottering, ragged,\nstinking uncleanness; for all our righteousnesses are as menstruous\nrags, because they flow from a thing, a heart, a man that is\nunclean. But,\n\nAgain, Wouldest thou have mercy for thy righteousness? For who\nwouldest thou have it; for another, or for thyself? If for another,\nand it is most proper, that a righteous man should intercede for\nanother by his righteousness, rather than for himself, then thou\nthrusteth Christ out of his place and office, and makest thyself\nto be a saviour in his stead; for a mediator there is already, even\na mediator between God and man, and he is the man Christ Jesus.\nThere is therefore no need of thine interceding by thy righteousness\nfor the acceptation of any unto justification from the curse.\n\nBut dost thou plead by thy righteousness, for mercy for thyself?\nWhy, in so doing thou impliest,\n\nFirst, That thy righteousness can prevail with God, more than can\nthy sins. I say, that thy righteousness can prevail with God, to\npreserve thee from death, more than thy sins can prevail with\nhim to condemn thee to it. And if so, what follows? but that thy\nrighteousness is more, and has been done in a fuller spirit than\never were thy sins: but thus to insinuate is to insinuate a lie;\nfor there is no man, but while he is a sinner, sinneth with a more\nfull spirit, than any good man can act righteousness withal.\n\nA sinner when he sinneth, he doth it with all his heart, and with\nall his mind, and with all his soul, and with all his strength; nor\nhath he in his ordinary course any thing that bindeth. But with a\ngood man it is not so; all, and every whit of himself, neither is,\nnor can be, in every good duty that he doth. For when he would\ndo good evil is present with him. And again, \"The flesh lusteth\nagainst the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these\nare contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things\nthat ye would.\" (Gal 5:17)\n\nNow if a good man cannot do good things with that wholeness and\noneness of soul, with that oneness and universalness of mind, as\na wicked man doth sin with, then is his sin heavier to weigh him\ndown to hell, than is his righteousness to buoy him up to the\nheavens.\n\nAnd again, I say, if the righteousness of a good man comes short\nof his sin, both in number, weight and measure, as it doth, for\na good man shrinks and quakes at the thoughts of God's entering\ninto judgment with him (Psa 143:2), then is his iniquity more\nthan his righteousness. And I say again, if the sin of one that\nis truly gracious, and so of one that hath the best of principles,\nis heavier and mightier to destroy him, than is his righteousness\nto save him, how can it be, that the Pharisee, that is not gracious,\nbut a mere carnal man, somewhat reformed and painted over with a\nfew, lean, and lousy formalities, should with his empty, partial,\nhypocritical righteousness, counterpoise his great, mighty, and\nweighty sins, that have cleaved to him in every state and condition\nof his, to make him odious in the sight of God?\n\nSecond. Dost thou plead by thy righteousness for mercy for thyself?\nWhy in so doing thou impliest, that mercy thou deservedst; and that\nis next door to, or almost as much as to say, God oweth me what\nI ask for.14 The best that can be put upon it, is, thou seekest\nsecurity from the direful curse of God, as it were by the works\nof the law, and to be sure betwixt Christ and the law, thou wilt\ndrop into hell. (Rom 9:31-33) For he that seeks for mercy, as it\nwere, and but as it were, by the works of the law, doth not altogether\ntrust thereto. Nor doth he that seeks for that righteousness,\nthat should save him, as it were, by the works of the law, seek it\nonly, wholly and solely at the hands of mercy. So then, to seek\nfor that that should save thee, neither at the hands of the law,\nnor at the hands of mercy, is, to be sure, to seek it where it is\nnot to be found; for there is no medium betwixt the righteousness\nof the law, and the mercy of God. Thou must have it either at\nthe door of the law, or at the door of grace. But sayest thou, I\nam for having of it at the hands of both. I will trust solely to\nneither. I love to have two strings to my bow. If one of them, as\nyou think, can help me by itself, my reason tells me, that both\ncan help me better. Therefore will I be righteous, and good, and\nwill seek by my goodness to be commended to the mercy of God: for\nsurely, he that hath something of his own to ingratiate himself\ninto the favour of his prince withal, shall sooner obtain his mercy\nand favour, than one that comes to him as stript of all good.\n\nI answer, But there are not two ways to heaven, not two living ways;\nthere is one new and living way, which Christ hath consecrated for\nus through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; and besides that\none, there is no more. (Heb 10:19-24) Why then dost thou talk\nof two strings to thy bow? What became of him that had, and would\nhave, two stools to sit on? Yea, the text says plainly, that\ntherefore they obtained not righteousness, because they sought it\nnot by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. See here,\nthey are disowned by the gospel, because they sought it not by\nfaith; that is, by faith only. Again, the law, and the righteousness\nthereof, flies from them, nor could they attain it, though they\nfollowed after it, because they sought it not by faith.\n\nMercy then is to be found alone in Jesus Christ! Again, the\nrighteousness of the law is to be obtained only by faith of Jesus\nChrist: that is, in the Son of God is the righteousness of the law\nto be found; for he, by his obedience to his Father, is become the\nend of the law for righteousness. And for the sake of his legal\nrighteousness, which is also called the righteousness of God,\nbecause it was God in the flesh of the Lord Jesus that did accomplish\nit, is mercy and grace from God extended, to whoever dependeth by\nfaith upon God by this Jesus his righteousness for it. And hence\nit is, that we so often read, that this Jesus is the way to the\nFather: That God, for Christ's sake, forgiveth us: That by the\nobedience of one, many are made righteous or justified: And that\nthrough this man, is preached to us the forgiveness of sins; and\nthat by him all that believe are justified from all things, from\nwhich they could not be justified by the law of Moses.\n\nNow, though I here do make mention of righteousness and mercy, yet\nI hold there is but one way, to wit, to eternal life; which way,\nas I said, is Jesus Christ; for he is the new, the only new, and\nliving way to the Father of mercies, for mercy to make me capable\nof abiding with him in the heavens for ever and ever.\n\nBut sayest thou, I will be righteous in myself that I may have\nwherewith to commend me to God, when I go to him for mercy?\n\nI answer, But thou blind Pharisee; I tell thee thou hast\nno understanding of God's design by the gospel; which is, not to\nadvance man's righteousness, as thou dreamest; but to advance the\nrighteousness of his Son, and his grace by him. Indeed, if God's\ndesign by the gospel was to exalt and advance man's righteousness,\nthen that which thou hast said, would be to the purpose. For what\ngreater dignity can be put upon man's righteousness, than to admit\nit?\n\nI say then, for God to admit it, to be an advocate, an intercessor,\na mediator; for all these is that which prevaileth with God to\nshew me mercy. But this God never thought of, much less could he\nthus design by the gospel: for the text runs flat against it. Not\nof works, not of works of righteousness, which we have done; not\nof works, lest any man should boast, saying, Well, I may thank my\nown good life for mercy. It was partly for the sake of mine own\ngood deeds that I obtained mercy to be in heaven and glory. Shall\nthis be the burden of the song of heaven? Or is this that which\nis composed by that glittering heavenly host, and which we have\nread of in the holy book of God! No, no, that song runs upon\nother feet, standeth in far better strains, being composed of far\nhigher, and truly heavenly matter: For God has \"predestinated us\nunto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according\nto the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his\ngrace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we\nhave redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according\nto the riches of his grace.\" (Eph 1:5-7) And it is requisite,\nthat the song be framed accordingly; wherefore he saith, that the\nheavenly song runs thus: \"Thou art worthy to take the book, and\nto open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed\nus to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,\nand nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and\nwe shall reign on the earth.\" (Rev 5:9,10)\n\nHe saith not that they have redeemed, or helped to redeem and deliver\nthemselves; but that the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain; the Lamb\nonly was he that had redeemed them. Nor, saith he, that they had\nmade themselves kings and priests unto God to offer any oblation,\nsacrifice, or offering whatsoever; but that the same Lamb had\nmade them such. For they, as is insinuated by the text, were in,\namong, one with, and no better, than the kindreds, tongues, nations,\nand people of the earth. Better! No, in no wise, saith Paul (Rom\n3:9), therefore their separation from them was of mere mercy, free\ngrace, good will, and distinguishing love: not for, or because\nof, works of righteousness which any of them have done; no, they\nwere all alike. But these, because beloved, when in their blood,\naccording to Ezekiel 16 were separated by free grace. And as another\nscripture hath it, redeemed from the earth, and from among men by\nblood. (Rev 14:3,4) Wherefore deliverance from the ireful wrath\nof God, must not, neither in whole, nor in part, be ascribed to\nthe whole law, or to all the righteousness that comes by it; but\nto the Lamb of God, Jesus, the Saviour of the world; for it is He\nthat delivered us from the wrath to come: and that according to\nGod's appointment; \"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but\nto obtain salvation by [or through] our Lord Jesus Christ.\" (1\nThess 5:9) Let every man, therefore, take heed what he doth, and\nwhereon he layeth the stress of his salvation, \"For other foundation\ncan no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.\" (1 Cor\n3:11)\n\nBut dost thou plead still as thou didst before, and wilt thou stand\nthereto? Why then, thy design must overcome God, or God's design\nmust overcome thee. Thy design is to give thy good life, thy good\ndeeds, a part of the glory of thy justification from the curse.\nAnd God's design is to throw all thy righteousness out into the\nstreet, into the dirt, and dunghill, as to that. Thou art for\nglory, and for glorying here before God; yea, thou art for sharing\nin the glory of justification, when that alone belongeth to God.\nAnd he hath said, \"My glory will I not give to another.\" Thou wilt\nnot trust wholly to God's grace in Christ for justification; and\nGod will not take thy stinking righteousness in, as a partner in\nthy acquitment from sin, death, wrath, and hell. Now the question\nis, who shall prevail? God, or the Pharisee? And whose word shall\nstand? His, or the Pharisee's?\n\nAlas! The Pharisee here must needs come down, for God is greater\nthan all. Also, he hath said, that no flesh shall glory in his\npresence; and that he will have mercy, and not sacrifice. And\nagain, that it is not, nor shall be, in him that wills, nor in him\nthat runs, but in God that sheweth mercy. What hope, help, stay,\nor relief then is there left for the merit-monger? What twig, or\nstraw, or twined thread is left to be a stay for his soul? This\nbesom will sweep away his cobweb: The house that this spider doth\nso lean upon, will now be overturned, and he in it to hell fire;\nfor nothing less than everlasting damnation is designed by God, and\nthat for this fearful and unbelieving Pharisee: God will prevail\nagainst him for ever.\n\nThird, But wilt thou yet plead thy righteousness for mercy? Why,\nin so doing, thou takest away from God the power of giving mercy.\nFor if it be thine as wages, it is no longer his to dispose of\nall pleasure; for that which another man oweth me, is in equity\nnot at his, but at my disposal. Did I say, that by this thy plea,\nthou takest away from God the power of giving mercy; I will add,\nyea, and also of disposing of heaven and life eternal. And then, I\npray you, what is left unto God, and what can he call his own? Not\nmercy; for that by thy good deeds thou hast purchased. Not heaven;\nfor that by thy good deeds thou hast purchased. Not eternal life;\nfor that by thy good deeds thou hast purchased. Thus, Pharisee,\nO thou self-righteous man, hast thou set up thyself above grace,\nmercy, heaven, glory; yea, above even God himself, for the purchaser\nshould in reason be esteemed above the purchase.\n\nAwake man! What hast thou done? Thou hast blasphemed God, thou\nhast undervalued the glory of his grace; thou hast, what in thee\nlieth, opposed the glorious design of heaven! Thou hast sought to\nmake thy filthy rags to share in thy justification.\n\nNow, all these are mighty sins; these have made thine iniquity\ninfinite. What wilt thou do? Thou hast created to thyself a world\nof needless miseries. I call them needless, because thou hadst\nmore than enough before. Thou hast set thyself against God in a\nway of contending; thou standest upon thy points and pantables:15\nThou wilt not bate God an ace, of what thy righteousness is worth,\nand wilt also make it worth what thyself shalt list. Thou wilt be\nthine own judge, as to the worth of thy righteousness; thou wilt\nneither hear what verdict the word has passed about it, nor wilt\nthou endure, that God should throw it out in the matter of thy\njustification, but quarrellest with the doctrine of free grace,\nor else dost wrest it out of its place to serve thy Pharisaical\ndesigns; saying, \"God, I thank thee, I am not as other men\";\nfathering upon thyself, yea, upon God and thyself, a stark lie;\nfor thou art as other men are, though not in this, yet in that;\nyea, in a far worse condition than the most of men are. Nor will\nit help thee any thing to attribute this thy goodness to the God\nof heaven: for that is but a mere toying; the truth is, the God\nthat thou intendest, is nothing but thy righteousness; and the\ngrace that thou supposest, is nothing but thine own good and honest\nintentions. So that,\n\nFourth, In all that thou sayest, thou dost but play the downright\nhypocrite. Thou pretendest indeed to mercy, but thou intendest\nnothing but merit. Thou seemest to give the glory to God; but at\nthe same time takest it all to thyself. Thou despisest others,\nand criest up thyself, and in conclusion fatherest all upon God\nby word, and upon thyself in truth. Nor is there any thing more\ncommon among this sort of men, than to make God, his grace, and\nkindness, the stalking-horse to their own praise, saying, God, I\nthank thee when they trust to themselves that they are righteous,\nand have not need of any repentance; when the truth is, they are\nthe worst sort of men in the world, because they put themselves\ninto such a state as God hath not put them into, and then impute\nit to God, saying, God, I thank thee, that thou hast done it; for\nwhat greater sin [is there] than to make God a liar, or than to\nfather that upon God which he never meant, intended, or did. And\nall this under a colour to glorify God; when there is nothing\nelse designed, but to take all glory from him, and to wear [it] on\nthine own head as a crown, and a diadem in the face of the whole\nworld.\n\nA self-righteous man therefore can come to God for mercy none\notherwise than fawningly: For what need of mercy hath a righteous\nman? Let him then talk of mercy, of grace, and goodness, and come\nin an hundred times with him, \"God, I thank thee,\" in his mouth, all\nis but words, there is no sense, nor savour, nor relish of mercy\nand favour; nor doth he in truth, from his very heart, understand\nthe nature of mercy, nor what is an object thereof; but when he\nthanks God, he praises himself; when he pleads for mercy, he means\nhis own merit; and all this is manifest from what doth follow; for,\nsaith he, \"I am not as this Publican!\" Thence clearly insinuating,\nthat not the good, but the bad, should be rejected of the God\nof heaven: That not the bad but the good; not the sinner, but\nthe self-righteous, are the most proper objects of God's favour.\nThe same thing is done by others in this our day: Favour, mercy,\ngrace, and \"God I thank thee,\" is in their mouths, but their own\nstrength, sufficiency, free-will, and the like, they are the things\nthey mean, by all such high and glorious expressions.\n\n[SECOND JUSTICE.] But, secondly, If thy plea be not for mercy, but\nfor justice, then to speak a little to that. Justice has measures\nand rules to go by; unto which measures and rules, if thou comest\nnot up, justice can do thee no good. Come then, O thou blind\nPharisee, let us pass away a few minutes in some discourse about\nthis. Thou demandest justice, because God hath said, that the man\nthat doth these things shall live in and by them. And again, the\ndoers of the law shall be justified; not in a way of mercy, but in\na way of justice. He shall live by them. But what hast thou done,\nO blind Pharisee! What hast thou done, that thou art emboldened\nto venture, to stand and fall to the most perfect justice of God?\nHast thou fulfilled the whole law, and not offended in one point?\nHast thou purged thyself from the pollutions and motions of sin\nthat dwell in the flesh, and work in thy own members? Is the very\nbeing of sin rooted out of thy tabernacle? And art thou now as\nperfectly innocent as ever was Jesus Christ? Hast thou, by suffering\nthe uttermost punishment that justice could justly lay upon thee\nfor thy sins, made fair and full satisfaction to God, according to\nthe tenor of his law for thy transgressions? If thou hast done\nall these things, then thou mayest plead something, and yet but\nsomething for thyself in a way of justice. Nay, in this I will assert\nnothing, but rather inquire:--What hast thou gained by all this\nthy righteousness? (we will now suppose what must not be granted)\nWas not this thy state when thou wast in thy first parents? Wast\nthou not innocent, perfectly innocent and righteous? And if thou\nshouldest be so now, what hast thou gained thereby? Suppose that\nthe man, that had forty years ago forty pounds of his own, and\nhad spent it all since, should yet be able now to show his forty\npounds again? What has he got thereby, or how much richer is he\nat last, than he was, when he first set up for himself. Nay, doth\nnot the blot of his ill living betwixt his first and his last,\nlie as a blemish upon him, unless he should redeem himself also\nby works of supererogation, from the scandal that justice may lay\nat his door for that?\n\nBut, I say, suppose, O Pharisee, this should be thy case, yet God\nis not bound to give thee in justice that eternal life, which by\nhis grace he bestoweth upon those, that have redemption from sin,\nby the blood of his Son. In justice therefore, when all comes to\nall, thou canst require no more than an endless life in an earthly\nparadise; for there thou wast set up at first; nor doth it appear\nfrom what hath been said, touching all that thou hast done or canst\ndo, that thou deservedst a better place.\n\nDid I say, that thou mayest require justly an endless life in an\nearthly paradise. Why? I must add to that saying, this proviso:\nIf thou continuest in the law, and in the righteousness thereof,\nelse not. But how dost thou know that thou shalt continue therein?\nThou hast no promise from God's mouth for that, nor is grace or\nstrength ministered to mankind by the covenant that thou art under.\nSo that still thou standest bound to thy good behaviour, and in\nthe day that thou dost give the first, though never so little a\ntrip, or stumble in thy obedience, thou forfeitest thine interest\nin paradise, and in justice, as to any benefit there.\n\nBut alas, what need is there that we should thus talk of things,\nwhen it is manifest, that thou hast sinned, not only before thou\nwast a Pharisee, but when, after the most strictest sect of thy\nreligion, thou livedst also a Pharisee; yea, and now in the temple,\nin thy prayer there, thou showest thyself to be full of ignorance,\npride, self-conceit, and horrible arrogancy, and desire of vain-glory,\n&c., which are none of them the seat of fruits of righteousness,\nbut the seat of the devil, and the fruit of his dwelling, even at\nthis time, in thy heart.\n\nCould it ever have been imagined, that such audacious impudence\ncould have put itself forth in any mortal man, in his approach unto\nGod by prayer, as has showed itself in thee? \"I am not as other\nmen!\" sayest thou; but is this the way to go to God in prayer? Is\nthis the way for a mortal man, that is full of sin, that stands in\nneed of mercy, and that must certainly perish without it, to come\nto God in prayer? The prayer of the upright is God's delight. But\nthe upright man glorifies God's justice, by confessing to God the\nvileness and pollution of his state and condition: He glorifies God's\nmercy by acknowledging, that that, and that only, as communicated\nof God by Christ to sinners, can save and deliver from the curse\nof the law.\n\nThis, I say, is the sum of the prayer of the just and upright man\n(Job 1:8, 40:4, Acts 13:22, Psa 38, 51, 2 Sam 6:21,22), and not as\nthou most vain-gloriously vauntest, with thy, \"God, I thank thee,\nthat I am not as other men are.\"\n\nTrue, when a man is accused by his neighbours, by a brother, by\nan enemy, and the like; if he be clear, and he may be so, as to\nwhat they shall lay to his charge, then let him vindicate, justify,\nand acquit himself, to the utmost that in justice and truth he\ncan; for his name, the preservation whereof is more to be chosen\nthan silver and gold; also his profession, yea, the name of God\ntoo, and religion, may now lie at stake, by reason of such false\naccusations, and perhaps can by no means, as to this man, be\nrecovered, and vindicated from reproach and scandal, but by his\njustifying of himself. Wherefore in such a work, a man serveth\nGod, and saves religion from hurt; yea, as he that is a professor,\nand has his profession attended with a scandalous life, hurteth\nreligion thereby: So he that has his profession attended with a good\nlife, and shall suffer it notwithstanding, to lie under blame by\nfalse accusations, when it is in the power of his hand to justify\nhimself, hurteth religion also. But the case of the Pharisee is\notherwise. He is not here a dealing with men, but God; not seeking\nto stand clear in the sight of the world, but in the sight of heaven\nitself; and that too, not with respect to what men or angels, but\nwith respect to what God and his law, could charge him with and\njustly lay at his door.\n\nThis therefore mainly altereth the case; for a man here to stand\nthus upon his points, it is death; for he affronteth God, he\ngiveth him the lie, he reproveth the law, and in sum, accuseth it\nof bearing false witness against him; he doth this, I say, even\nby saying, \"God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are\";\nfor God hath made none of this difference. The law condemneth\nall men as sinners, and testifieth, that every imagination of the\nthought of the heart of the sons of men is only evil, and that\ncontinually. Wherefore they that do as the Pharisee did, to wit,\nseek to justify themselves before God from the curse of the law,\nby their own good doings, though they also, as the Pharisee did,\nseem to give God the thanks for all, yet do most horribly sin, even\nby their so doing, and shall receive a Pharisee's reward at last.\nWherefore, O thou Pharisee, it is a vain thing for thee either to\nthink of, or to ask for, at God's hand, either mercy or justice.\nBecause mercy thou canst not ask for, from sense of want of mercy,\nbecause thy righteousness, which is by the law, hath utterly\nblinded thine eyes, and complimenting with God doth nothing. And\nas for justice, that can do thee no good, but the more just God\nis, and the more by that he acteth towards thee, the more miserable\nand fearful will be thy condition, because of the deficiency of\nthy, so much by thee, esteemed righteousness.\n\n[The Pharisee seeth no need of mercy, but thinketh himself righteous\nbefore God.]\n\nWhat a deplorable condition then is a poor Pharisee in! For mercy\nhe cannot pray, he cannot pray for it with all his heart; for he\nseeth, indeed, no need thereof. True, the Pharisee, though he was\nimpudent enough, yet would not take all from God; he would still\ncount, that there was due to him a tribute of thanks: \"God, I\nthank thee,\" saith he, but yet not a bit of this, for mercy; but\nfor that he had let him live, for I know not for what he did thank\nhimself, till he had made himself better than other men; but that\nbetterment was a betterment in none other judgment than that of\nhis own, and that was none other but such an one as was false.\nSo then, the Pharisee is by this time quite out of doors; his\nrighteousness is worth nothing, his prayer is worth nothing, his\nthanks to God are worth nothing; for that what he had was scanty,\nand imperfect, and it was his pride that made him offer it to\nGod for acceptance; nor could his fawning thanksgiving better his\ncase, or make his matter at all good before God.\n\nBut I'll warrant you, the Pharisee was so far off from thinking thus\nof himself, and of his righteousness, that he thought of nothing\nso much as of this, that he was a happy man; yea, happier by far\nthan other his fellow rationals. Yea, he plainly declares it when\nhe saith, \"God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are.\"\n\nO what a fool's paradise was the heart of the Pharisee now in,\nwhile he stood in the temple praying to God! \"God, I thank thee,\"\nsaid he, for I am good and holy, I am a righteous man; I have been\nfull of good works; I am no extortioner, unjust, nor adulterer,\nno nor yet as this wretched Publican. I have kept myself strictly\nto the rule of mine order, and my order is the most strict of all\norders now in being: I fast, I pray, I give tithes of all that I\npossess. Yea, so forward am I to be a religious man; so ready\nhave I been to listen after my duty, that I have asked both of God\nand man the ordinances of judgment and justice; I take delight in\napproaching to God. What less now can be mine than the heavenly\nkingdom and glory?\n\nNow the Pharisee, like Haman, saith in his heart, To whom would\nthe king delight to do honour, more than to myself? Where is the\nman that so pleaseth God, and consequently, that in equity and\nreason should be beloved of God like me? Thus like the prodigal's\nbrother, he pleadeth, saying, \"Lo, these many years do I serve\nthee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.\" (Luke\n15:29) O brave Pharisee! But go on in thine oration: \"Nor yet as\nthis Publican.\"\n\nPoor wretch, quoth the Pharisee to the Publican, What comest thou\nfor? Dost think that such a sinner as thou art shall be heard of\nGod? God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of\nGod as I am, as I thank God I am, him he heareth. Thou, for thy\npart, hast been a rebel all thy days: I abhor to come nigh thee,\nor to touch thy garments. Stand by thyself, come not near me, for\nI am more holy than thou. (Isa 65:5)\n\nHold, stop there, go no further; fie Pharisee, fie; Dost thou know\nbefore whom thou standest, to whom thou speakest, and of what the\nmatter of thy silly oration is made? Thou art now before God, thou\nspeakest now to God, and therefore in justice and honesty thou\nshouldest make mention of his righteousness, not of thine; of his\nrighteousness, and of his only.\n\nI am sure Abraham, of whom thou sayest he is thy father, never had\nthe face to do as thou hast done, though it is to be presumed he\nhad more cause so to do, than thou hast, or canst have. Abraham\nhad whereof to glory, but not before God; yea, he was called God's\nfriend, and yet would not glory before him; but humbled himself,\nwas afraid, and trembled in himself, when he stood before him,\nacknowledging of himself to be but dust and ashes. (Gen 18:27,30,\nRom 4:2) But thou, as thou hadst quite forgot, that thou wast\nframed of that matter, and after the manner of other men, standest\nand pleadest thy goodness before him. Be ashamed Pharisee! Dost\nthou think, that God hath eyes of flesh, or that he seeth as man\nsees? Is not the secrets of thy heart open unto him? Thinkest thou\nwith thyself, that thou, with a few of thy defiled ways canst cover\nthy rotten wall, that thou hast daubed with untempered mortar,\nand so hide the dirt thereof from his eyes: Or that these fine,\nsmooth, and oily words, that come out of thy mouth, will make him\nforget that thy throat is an open sepulchre, and that thou within\nart full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness? Thy thus cleansing\nof the outside of the cup and platter, and thy garnishing of the\nsepulchres of the righteous, is nothing at all in God's eyes,\nbut things that manifest, that thou art an hypocrite, and blind,\nbecause thou takest no notice of that which is within, which yet is\nthat, which is most abominable to God. For the fruit, alas, what\nis the fruit to the tree, or what are the streams to the fountain!\nThy fountain is defiled; yea, a defiler, and so that which maketh\nthy whole self, with thy works unclean in God's sight. But Pharisee,\nhow comes it to pass, that the poor Publican is now such a mote\nin thine eye, that thou canst not forbear, but must accuse him\nbefore the judgment of God: for in that thou sayest, \"that thou\nart not even as this Publican,\" thou bringest in an accusation,\na charge, a bill against him. What has he done? Has he concealed\nany of thy righteousness, or has he secretly informed against\nthee that thou art an hypocrite, and superstitious? I dare say,\nthe poor wretch has neither meddled nor made16 with thee in these\nmatters.\n\nBut what aileth the Pharisee? Doth the poor Publican stand to vex\nthee? Doth he touch thee with is dirty garments; or doth he annoy\nthee with his stinking breath? Doth his posture of standing so\nlike a man condemned offend thee? True, he now standeth with his\nhand held up at God's bar, he pleads guilty to all that is laid\nto his charge.\n\nHe cannot strut, vapour, and swagger as thou dost? but why offended at\nthis? Oh but he has been a naughty man! and I have been righteous,\nsayest thou. Well, Pharisee, well, his naughtiness shall not\nbe laid to thy charge, if thou hast chosen none of his ways. But\nsince thou wilt yet bear me down, that thou art righteous, shew\nnow, even now, while thou standest before God with the Publican,\nsome, though they be but small, yea, though but very small fruits\nof thy righteousness. Let the Publican alone, since he is speaking\nof his life before God. Or if thou canst not let him alone, yet\ndo not speak against him; for thy so doing will but prove, that\nthou rememberest the evil that the man has done unto thee; yea,\nand that thou bearest him a grudge for it too, and that while you\nstand before God.\n\nBut Pharisee, the righteous man is a merciful man, and while he\nstandeth praying, he forgiveth; yea, and also crieth to God that\nhe will forgive him too. (Mark 11:25,26, Acts 7:60) Hitherto then\nthou hast shewed none of the fruits of thy righteousness. Pharisee,\nrighteousness would teach thee to love this Publican, but thou\nshowest that thou hatest him. Love covereth the multitude of sins;\nbut hatred and unfaithfulness revealeth secrets.\n\nPharisee, thou shouldest have remembered this thy brother in this\nhis day of adversity, and shouldest have shewed, that thou hadst\ncompassion to thy brother in this his deplorable condition; but\nthou, like the proud, the cruel, and arrogant man, hast taken thy\nneighbour at the advantage, and that when he is even between the\nstraits, and standing upon the very pinnacle of difficulty, betwixt\nthe heavens and the hells, and hast done what thou couldest, what\non thy part lay, to thrust him down to the deep, saying, \"I am\nnot even as this Publican.\"\n\nWhat cruelty can be greater; what rage more furious; and what spite\nand hatred more damnable and implacable, than to follow, or take\na man while he is asking of mercy at God's hands, and to put in a\ncaveat17 against his obtaining of it, by exclaiming against him\nthat he is a sinner? The master of righteousness doth not so:\n\"Do not think,\" saith he, \"that I will accuse you to the Father.\"\n(John 5:45) The scholars of righteousness do not so. \"But as for\nme,\" said David, \"when they [mine enemies] were sick, [and the\nPublican here was sick of the most malignant disease] my clothing\nwas sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer [to\nwit, that I made for them] returned into mine own bosom. I behaved\nmyself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down\nheavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.\" (Psa 35:13,14)\n\nPharisee, Dost thou see here how contrary thou art to righteous\nmen? Now then, where shall we find out one to parallel thee, but\nby finding out of him that is called the dragon; for he it is that\naccuseth poor sinners before God. (Zech 3, Rev 12)\n\n\"I am not as this Publican\": Modesty should have commanded thee\nto have bit thy tongue as to this. What could the angels think,\nbut that revenge was now in thine heart, and but that thou comest\nup into the temple, rather to boast of thyself and accuse thy\nneighbour, than to pray to the God of heaven: For what one petition\nis there in all thy prayer, that gives the least intimation, that\nthou hast the knowledge of God or thyself? Nay, what petition\nof any kind is there in thy vain-glorious oration from first to\nlast? only an accusation drawn up, and that against one helpless\nand forlorn; against a poor man, because he is a sinner; drawn up,\nI say, against him by thee, who canst not make proof of thyself\nthat thou art righteous: But come to proofs of righteousness, and\nthere thou art wanting also. What though thy raiment is better\nthan his, thy skin may be full as black: Yea, what if thy skin\nbe whiter than his, thy heart may be yet far blacker. Yea, it is\nso, for the truth hath spoken it; for within you are full of excess\nand all uncleanness. (Matt 23)\n\nPharisee, there are transgressions against the second table, and\nthe Publican shall be guilty of them: But there are sins also\nagainst the first table, and thou thyself art guilty of them.\n\nThe Publican, in that he was an extortioner, unjust, and\nan adulterer, made it thereby manifest that he did not love his\nneighbour; and thou by making a God, a Saviour, a deliverer, of\nthy filthy righteousness, doth make it appear, that thou dost not\nlove thy God; for as he that taketh, or that derogateth from his\nneighbour in that which is his neighbour's due, sinneth against\nhis neighbour, so he that taketh or derogateth from God, sinneth\nagainst God.\n\nNow then, though thou hast not, as thou dost imagine, played at\nthat low game as to derogate from thy neighbour; yet thou hast\nplayed at that high game as to derogate from thy God; for thou\nhast robbed God of the glory of salvation; yea, declared, that as\nto that there is no trust to be put in him. \"Lo, this is the man\nthat made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his\nriches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness\" or substance.\n(Psa 52:7)\n\nWhat else means this great bundle of thy own righteousness, which\nthou hast brought with thee into the temple? yea, what means else\nthy commending of thyself because of that, and so thy implicit\nprayer, that thou for that mightest find acceptance with God?\n\nAll this, what does it argue, I say, but thy diffidence of God?\nand that thou countest salvation safer in thine own righteousness,\nthan in the righteousness of God; and that thy own love to, and\ncare of thy own soul, is far greater, and so much better, than\nis the care and love of God. And is this to keep the first table;\nyea, the first branch of that table, which saith, \"Thou shalt love\nthe Lord thy God?\" For thy thus doing cannot stand with love to\nGod.\n\nHow can that man say, I love God, who from his very heart shrinketh\nfrom trusting in him? Or, how can that man say, I would glorify\nGod, who in his very heart refuseth to stand and fall by his mercy?\n\nSuppose a great man should bid all the poor of the parish to his\nhouse to dinner, and should moreover send by the mouth of his\nservant, saying, My lord hath killed his fatlings, hath furnished\nhis table, and prepared his wine, nor is there want of anything,\ncome to the banquet: Would it not be counted as a high affront to,\ngreat contempt of, and much distrust in the goodness of the man\nof the house, if some of these guests should take with them, out\nof their own poor store, some of their mouldy crusts, and carry\nthem with them, lay them on their trenchers upon the table before\nthe lord of the feast, and the rest of his guests, out of fear that\nhe yet would not provide sufficiently for those he had bidden to\nhis dinner that he made?\n\nWhy Pharisee, this is thy very case, Thou hast been called to a\nbanquet, even to the banquet of God's grace, and thou hast been\ndisposed to go; but behold, thou hath not believed, that he would\nof his own cost make thee a feast, when thou comest; wherefore\nof thy own store thou hast brought with thee, and hast laid upon\nthy trencher 18 on his table, thy mouldy and hoary crusts in the\npresence of the angels, and of this poor Publican; yea, and hast\nvauntingly said upon the whole, \"God, I thank thee, that I am not\nas other men are.\" I am no such NEEDY man. (Luke 15:7) \"I am no\nextortioner, nor unjust, no adulterer, nor even as this Publican.\"\nI am come indeed to thy feast, for of civility I could do no less;\nbut for thy dainties, I need them not, I have of such things\nenough of mine own.19 (Luke 18:9) I thank thee therefore for\nthy offer of kindness, but I am not as those that have, and stand\nin need thereof, \"nor yet as this Publican.\" And thus feeding\nupon thine own fare, or by making a composition of his and thine\ntogether, thou condemnest God, thou countest him insufficient or\nunfaithful; that is, either one that hath not enough, or having\nit, will not bestow it upon the poor and needy, and therefore,\nof mere pretence thou goest to his banquet, but yet trustest to\nthine own, and to that only.\n\nThis is to break the first table; and so to make thyself a sinner\nof the highest form: for the sins against the first table, are\nsins of an higher nature than are the sins against the second.\nTrue, the sins of the second table are also sins against God,\nbecause they are sins against the commandments of God: but the\nsins that are against the first table, are sins not only against\nthe command, but against the very love, strength, holiness, and\nfaithfulness of God. And herein stands thy condition; thou hast\nnot, thou sayest thou hast not done injury to thy neighbour; but\nwhat of that, IF THOU HAST REPROACHED GOD THY MAKER? This is, as\nif a man should be in with his fellow-servant, and out with his\nmaster.\n\nPharisee, I will assure thee, thou art besides the saddle;20 thy\nstate is not good, thy righteousness is so far off from doing of\nthee any good, that it maketh thee to be a greater sinner than\nif thou hadst none at all, because it fighteth more immediately\nagainst the mercy, the love, the grace, and goodness of God, than\nthe sins of other sinners, as to degree, does.\n\nAnd as they are more odious and abominable in the sight of God,\nas they needs must, if what is said be true, as it is; so they are\nmore dangerous to the life and soul of man: for that they always\nappear unto him in whom they dwell, and to him that trusteth in\nthem, not to be sins and transgressions, but virtues and excellent\nthings. Not things that set a man further off, but the things,\nthat bring a man nearer to God, than those that want them are or\ncan be. This therefore is the dangerous estate of those that go\nabout to establish their own righteousness, that neither have, nor\ncan, while they are so doing, submit themselves to the righteousness\nof God. (Rom 10:3) It is far more easy to persuade a poor wretch,\nwhose life is debauched, and whose sins are written in his\nforehead, to submit to the righteousness of God, that is, to the\nrighteousness that is of God's providing and giving; than it is to\npersuade a self-righteous man to do it. For the profane are sooner\nconvinced, as of the necessity of righteousness to save him: so\nthat he has none of his own to do him that pleasure, and therefore\nmost gladly he accepteth of, and submitteth himself to the help\nand health and salvation that is in the righteousness and obedience\nof another man.\n\nAnd upon this account it is, that Christ saith, \"The Publicans and\nthe Harlots\" enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Scribes\nand Pharisees. (Matt 21:31) Poor Pharisee, what a loss art thou\nat? thou art not only a sinner, but a sinner of the highest form.\nNot a sinner by such sins (by such sins chiefly) as the second\ntable doth make manifest; but a sinner chiefly in that way, as no\nself-righteous man did ever dream of. For when the righteous man\nor Pharisee shall hear that he is a sinner, he replieth, \"I am\nnot as other men are.\"\n\nAnd because the common and more ordinary description of sin, is\nthe transgression against the second table, he presently replieth\nagain, I am not as this Publican is; and so shrowdeth himself\nunder his own lame endeavours, and ragged, partial patches of\nmoral or civil righteousness. Wherefore when he heareth, that his\nrighteousness is condemned, slighted, and accounted nothing worth,\nthen he fretteth, and fumeth, and chafeth and would kill the man,\nthat so slighteth and disdaineth his goodly righteousness; but\nChrist and the true gospel-teacher still goeth on, and condemneth\nall his righteousness to be as menstruous rags, an abomination to\nGod, and nothing but loss and dung.\n\nNow menstruous rags, things that are an abomination, and dung, are\nnot fit matter to make a garment of to wear, when I come to God\nfor life, much less to be made my friend, my advocate, my mediator\nand spokesman, when I stand betwixt heaven and hell, to plead for\nme that I might be saved. (Isa 64:6, Luke 16:15, Phil 3:6-8)\n\nPerhaps some will blame me, and count me also worthy thereof,\nbecause I do not distinguish betwixt the matter and the manner of\nthe Pharisee's righteousness. And let them condemn me still; for,\nsaving the holy law, which is neither the matter nor manner of the\nPharisee's righteousness, but rather the rules, if he will live\nthereby, up to which he should completely come in every thing\nthat he doth. And I say again, that the whole of the Pharisee's\nrighteousness is sinful, though not with and to me, yet with and\nbefore the God of heaven. Sinful I say it is, and abominable, both\nin itself, and also in its effects.\n\n[The Pharisee's whole righteousness sinful.]\n\nFirst, In itself; for that it is imperfect, scanty, and short of\nthe rule by which righteousness is enjoined, and EVEN with which\nevery act should be: For shortness here, even every shortness in\nthese duties, is sin, and sinful weakness; wherefore the curse\ntaketh hold of the man for coming short, but that it could not\njustly do, if he coming short was not his sin: Cursed is every one\nthat doeth not, and that continueth not to do all things written\nin the law. (Deu 27:26, Gal 3:10)\n\nSecond, It is sinful, because it is wrought by sinful flesh; for\nall legal righteousness is a work of the flesh. (Rom 4:1, Phil\n3:3-8)\n\nA work, I say, of the flesh; even of that flesh, who, or which\nalso committeth the greatest enormities. For the flesh is but one,\nthough its workings are divers: Sometimes in a way most notoriously\nsensual and devilish, causing the soul to wallow in wickedness as\nthe sow doth to wallow in the mire.\n\nBut these are not all the works of the flesh; the flesh sometimes\nwill attempt to be righteous, and set upon doing actions, that in\ntheir perfection would be very glorious and beautiful to behold.\nBut because the law is only commanding words, and yieldeth no help\nto the man that attempts to perform it; and because the flesh is\nweak, and cannot do of itself that which it beginneth to meddle\nwith, therefore this most glorious work of the flesh faileth.\n\nBut, I say, as it is a work of the flesh, it cannot be good,\nforasmuch as the hand that worketh it, is defiled with sin: For\nin a good man, one spiritually good, \"that is in his flesh there\ndwells no good thing,\" but consequently that which is bad; how\nthen can the flesh of a carnal, graceless man, and such a one is\nevery Pharisee and self-righteous man in the world, produce, though\nit joineth itself to the law, to the righteous law of God, that\nwhich is good in his sight.\n\nIf any shall think that I pinch so hardly, because I call man's\nrighteousness which is of the law, of the righteous law of God,\nflesh; let them consider that which follows; to wit, That though\nman by sin, is said to be dead in sin and trespasses, yet not so\ndead, but that he can act still in his own sphere. That is, to do,\nand choose to do, either that which by all men is counted base,\nor that which by some is counted good, though he is not, nor can\nall the world make him capable of doing anything that may please\nhis God.\n\nMan by nature, as dead as he is, can, and that with the will of\nhis flesh, will his own salvation. Man by nature can, and that by\nthe power of the flesh, pursue and follow after his own salvation;\nbut then he wills it, and pursues or follows after it, not in\nGod's way, but his own. Not by faith in Christ, but by the law of\nMoses, see Romans 10:16, 31, 10:3-7.\n\nWherefore it is no error to say, that a man naturally has Will,\nand a Power to pursue his will, and that as to his salvation. But\nit is a damnable error to say, that he hath will and power to\npursue it, and that in God's way. For then we must hold that the\nmysteries of the gospel are natural; for that natural men, or men\nby nature, may apprehend and know them; yea, and know them to be\nthe only means by which they must obtain eternal life: for the\nunderstanding must act before the will; yea, a man must approve\nof the way to life by Jesus Christ, before his mind will budge,\nor stir, or move that way: \"But the natural man receiveth not the\nthings of the Spirit of God; [of the gospel] for they are foolishness\nunto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually\ndiscerned.\" (1 Cor 2:14)\n\nHe receiveth not these things; that is, his mind and will lie\ncross unto them, for he counts them foolishness; nor can all the\nnatural wisdom in the world, cause that his will should fall in\nwith them, because it cannot discern them.\n\nNature discerneth the law, and the righteousness thereof; yea, it\ndiscerneth it, and approveth thereof; that is, that the righteousness\nof it is the best and only way to life, and therefore the natural\nwill and power of the flesh, as here you see in the Pharisee, do\nsteer their course by that for eternal life. (1 Cor 2:14)\n\nThe righteousness of the law therefore is a work of the flesh,\na work of sinful flesh, and therefore must needs be as filth and\ndung, and abominable as to that for which this man hath produced\nit, and presented it in the temple before God.\n\nNor is the Pharisee alone entangled in this mischief; many souls are\nby these works of the flesh flattered, as also the Pharisee was,\ninto an opinion, that their state is good, when there is nothing\nin it. the most that their conversion amounteth to, is, the Publican\nis become a Pharisee; the open sinner is become a self-righteous\nman. Of the black side of the flesh he hath had enough, now therefore\nwith the white side of the flesh he will recreate himself. And\nnow, most wicked must he needs be, that questioneth the goodness\nof the state of such a man. He, of a drunkard, a swearer, an\nunclean person, a sabbath-breaker, a liar, and the like, is become\nreformed; a lover of righteousness, a strict observer, doer, and\ntrader in the formalities of the law, and a herder with men of\nhis complexion. And now he is become a great exclaimer against\nsin and sinners, defying to acquaint with those that once were\nhis companions, saying, \"I am not even as this Publican.\"\n\nTo turn therefore from the flesh to the flesh, from sin to man's\nrighteousness: yea, to rejoice in confidence, that thy state is\nbetter than is that of the Publican: I mean, better in the eyes of\ndivine justice, and in the judgment of the law; and yet to be found\nby the law, not in the spirit, but in the flesh; not in Christ,\nbut under the law; not in a state of salvation, but of damnation,\nis common among men: For they, and they only, are the right men,\n\"which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,\nand have no confidence in the flesh.\" Where by flesh, must not be\nmeant the horrible transgressions against the law, though they are\nalso called the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19), for they minister\nno occasion unto men, to have confidence in them towards God: but\nthat is that, which is insinuated by Paul, where he saith, he had\n\"no confidence in the flesh,\" though he might have had it, as he\nsaid, \"Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any\nother man,\" saith he, \"thinketh that he hath whereof he might\ntrust in the flesh, I more\" (Phil 3:3,4): And then he repeats a\ntwo-fold privilege that he had by the flesh. First, That he was\none of the seed of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew\nof the Hebrews, &c.\n\nSecondly, That he had fallen in with the strictest men of that\nreligion, which was such after the flesh; to wit, to be a Pharisee,\nand was the son of a Pharisee, had much fleshly zeal for God, and\nwas \"touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.\"\n(Phil 3:6)\n\nBut, I say still, there is nothing but flesh, flesh; fleshly\nprivileges, and fleshly righteousness, and so consequently a fleshly\nconfidence, and trust for heaven. This is manifest for these very\nthings, when the man had his eyes enlightened, he counted all but\nloss and dung, that he might be found in Christ, not having his\nown righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through\nthe faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.\n\n[Godly men are afraid of their own righteousness.]\n\nAnd this leads me to another thing, and that is, to tell thee, O\nthou blind Pharisee that thou canst not be in a safe condition,\nbecause thou hast thy confidence in the flesh, that is, in the\nrighteousness of the flesh. For \"all flesh is grass, and all the\ngoodliness thereof is as the flower of the field\": and the flesh\nand the glory of that being as weak as the grass, which today is,\nand tomorrow is cast into the oven, is but a weak business for a\nman to venture his eternal salvation upon. Wherefore, as I also\nhinted before, the godly-wise have been afraid to be found in their\nrighteousness, I mean their own personal righteousness, though\nthat is far better, than can be the righteousness of any carnal\nman: for the godly man's righteousness is wrought in the spirit and\nfaith of Christ; but the ungodly man's righteousness is of the\nflesh, and of the law. Yet I say, this godly man is afraid to stand\nby his righteousness before the tribunal of God, as is manifest\nin these following particulars.\n\nFirst, He sees sin in his righteousness, for so the prophet intimates,\nwhen he saith, \"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags\" (Isa\n64:6): but there is nothing can make one's righteousness filthy\nbut sin. It is not the poor, the low, the mean, the sickly,\nthe beggarly state of a man, nor yet his being hated of devils,\npersecuted of men, broken under necessities, reproaches, distresses,\nor any kind of troubles of this nature, that can make the godly\nman's righteousness filthy; nothing but SIN can do it, and that\ncan, doth, hath, and will do it. Nor can any man, be he who he\nwill, and though he watches, prays, strives, denies himself, and\nputs his body under what chastisement or hardships he can; yea,\nthough he also shall get his spirit and soul hoisted up to the\nhighest peg, or pin of sanctity, and holy contemplation, and so\nhis lusts to the greatest degree of mortification; but sin will\nbe with him in the best of his performances. With him, I say,\nto pollute and defile his duties, and to make his righteousness\nspecked and spotted, filthy and menstruous.\n\nI will give you two or three instances for this. 1. Nehemiah was\na man, in his day, one that was zealous, very zealous for God, for\nhis house, for his people, and for his ways; and so continued,\nand that from first to last, as they may see that please to read\nthe relation of his action; yet when he comes seriously to be\nconcerned with God about his duties, he relinquisheth a standing\nby them. True, he mentioneth them to God, but confesseth that there\nis imperfections in them, and prayeth that God will not wipe them\naway: \"Wipe not out my good deeds, O my God, that I have done\nfor the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.\" And again,\n\"Remember me, O my God, concerning this,\" also another good deed,\n\"and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy:--Remember\nme, O my God, for good.\" (Neh 13)\n\nI do not think that by these prayers he pleadeth for an acceptation\nof his person, as touching justification from the curse of the\nlaw, as the poor blind Pharisee doth; but that God would accept\nof his service, as he was a son, and not deny to give him a reward\nof grace for what he had done, since he was pleased to declare\nin his testament, that he would reward the labour of love of his\nsaints with an exceeding weight of glory; and therefore prayeth,\nthat God would not wipe away his good deeds, but remember him for\ngood, according to the greatness of his mercy.\n\n2. A second instance is that of David, where he saith, \"Enter not\ninto judgment with thy servant\": O Lord; \"for in thy sight shall no\nman living be justified.\" (Psa 143:2) David, as I also have hinted\nbefore is said to be a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22),\nand as here by the Spirit he acknowledges him for his servant;\nyet behold how he shrinketh, how he draweth back, how he prayeth,\nand petitioneth, that God would vouchsafe so much as not to enter\ninto judgment with him. Lord, saith he, if thou enterest into\njudgment with me, I die, because I shall be condemned; for in thy\nsight I cannot be justified; to wit, by my own good deeds. Lord,\nat the beginning of thy dealing with me, by thy law and my works\nI die, therefore do not so much as enter into judgment with me,\nO Lord. Nor is this my case only, but it is the condition of all\nthe world: \"For in thy sight shall NO man living be justified.\"\n\n3. A third instance is, that general conclusion of the apostle,\n\"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,\nit is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.\" (Gal 3:11) By\nthis saying of Paul, as he taketh up the sentence of the prophet\nHabakkuk (2:4), so he taketh up this sentence, yea, and the personal\njustice of David also. No man, saith he, is justified by the law\nin the sight of God; no, no just man, no holy man, not the strictest\nand most righteous man. But why not? why? Because the just shall\nlive by faith.\n\nThe just man, therefore, must die, if he has not faith in another\nrighteousness, than that which is of the law; called his own:\nI say, he must die, if he has none other righteousness than that\nwhich is his own by the law.21 Thus also Paul confesses of himself:\nI, saith he, know nothing by myself, either before conversion or\nafter; that is, I knew not, that I did anything before conversion,\neither against the law, or against my conscience; for I was then,\ntouching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless. Also,\nsince my conversion, I know nothing by myself; for \"I have lived\nin all good conscience before God unto this day.\" (Acts 23:1)\n\nA great saying, I promise you. I doubt this is more than our\nglorious justitiaries can say, except they say and lie. Well, but\nyet, \"I am not hereby justified.\" (1 Cor 4:4, Phil 3:7) Nor will\nI dare to venture the eternal salvation of my soul upon mine own\njustice, \"but he that judgeth me is the Lord.\" That is, though\nI, through my dimsightedness, cannot see the imperfections of my\nrighteousness; yet the Lord, who is my judge, and before whose\ntribunal I must shortly stand, can and will; and if in his sight\nthere shall be found no more but one spot in my righteousness, I\nmust, if I plead my righteousness, fall for that.\n\nSecond, That the best of men are afraid to stand before God's tribunal,\nthere to be judged by the law as to life and death, according\nto the sufficiency or non-sufficiency of their righteousness, is\nevident, because by casting away their own, in this matter, they\nmake all the means they can for this; that is, that his mercy,\nby an act of grace, be made over to them, and that they in it may\nstand before God to be judged.\n\nHence David cries out so often, \"Lead me, O Lord, in thy\nrighteousness.\" (Psa 5:8) \"Deliver me in thy righteousness.\" (Psa\n31:1) \"Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness.\"\n(Psa 35:24) \"Quicken me in thy righteousness.\" (Psa 119:40) \"O\nLord,\" says he, \"give ear to my supplications; in thy faithfulness\nanswer me, and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment\nwith thy servant\": O Lord: \"For in thy sight shall no man living\nbe justified.\" (Psa 143:1,2) And David, What if God doth thus?\nWhy then, saith he, \"My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness.\"\n(Psa 35:28) \"My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.\"\n(Psa 51:14) \"My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness.\" Yea,\n\"I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.\"\n(Psa 71:15,16)\n\nDaniel also, when he comes to plead for himself and his people, he\nfirst casts away his and their righteousness, saying, \"For we do\nnot present out supplications before thee for our righteousnesses.\"\nAnd pleads God's righteousness, and that he might have a share and\ninterest in that, saying, \"O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto\nthee\" (9:7,18), to wit, that righteousness, for the sake of which,\nmercy and forgiveness, and so heaven and happiness is extended to\nus.\n\nRighteousness belongeth to thee, and is thine, as nearly as sin, shame,\nand confusion, is ours, and belongeth to us, which righteousness\nhe afterwards calleth \"The Lord,\" saying, do it, for the Lord's\nsake; read the 16, 17, verses of the ninth of Daniel. \"O Lord,\"\nsaith he, \"according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let\nthine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem,\nthy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities\nof our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to\nall that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer\nof thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to\nshine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.\"\nFor the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ; for on him Daniel now had\nhis eye, and through him to the Father he made his supplication;\nyea, and the answer was according to his prayer, to wit, that God\nwould have mercy on Jerusalem, and that he would in his time send\nthe Lord, the Messias, to bring them in everlasting righteousness\nfor them.\n\nPaul also, as I have hinted before, disclaims his own righteousness,\nand layeth fast hold on the righteousness of God: seeking to be found\nin that, or in him that has it, not having his own righteousness;\nfor he knew that when the rain descends, the winds blow, and\nthe floods come down falls on all men, but they that have that\nrighteousness. (Phil 3)\n\nNow the earnest desire of the righteous to be found in God's\nrighteousness, ariseth from strong conviction of the imperfections\nof their own, and of good knowledge that was given them of the\nterror that will attend men at the day of the fiery trial; to wit,\nthe day of judgment. For although men can now flatter themselves\ninto a fool's paradise, and persuade themselves that all shall\nbe well with them then, for the sake of their own silly and\nvain-glorious performances; yet when the day comes that shall\nburn like an oven, and when all that have done wickedly shall be\nas stubble, and so will all appear to be that are not found in\nChrist, then will their righteousness vanish like smoke, or be\nlike fuel for that burning flame. And hence the righteousness that\nthe godly seek to be found in, is called the name of the Lord, a\nstrong tower, a rock, a shield, a fortress, a buckler, a rock of\ndefence, UNTO which they resort, and INTO which they run and are\nsafe.\n\nThe godly wise therefore do not, as this Pharisee, bring their own\nrighteousness into the temple, and there buoy up themselves and\nspirits by that into a conceit, that for the sake of that, God\nwill be merciful and good unto them: but throwing away their own,\nthey make to God for his, because they certainly know, even by\nthe word of God, that in the judgment none can stand the trial,\nbut those that are found in the righteousness of God.\n\nThird, That the best of men are afraid to stand before God's\ntribunal by the law, there to be judged to life and death, according\nto the sufficiency or non-sufficiency of their righteousness, is\nevident: for they know, that it is a vain thing to seek by acts\nof righteousness to make themselves righteous men, as is the way\nof all them that seek to be justified by the deeds of the law.\n\nAnd herein lieth the great difference between the Pharisee and the\ntrue Christian man. The Pharisee thinks, by acts of righteousness\nhe shall make himself a righteous man, therefore he cometh into\nthe presence of God well furnished, as he thinks, with his negative\nand positive righteousness.\n\nGrace suffereth not a man to boast it before God, whatever he saith\nbefore me: \"His soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him\"\n(Hab 2:4): And better is the poor in spirit, than the proud in\nspirit. The Pharisee was a very proud man, a proud, ignorant man,\nproud of his own righteousness, and ignorant of God's: for had\nhe not, he could not, as he did, have so condemned the Publican,\nand justified himself.\n\n[The Pharisee ignorant that he must be righteous before he can do\nrighteousness.]\n\nAnd I say again, that all this pride and vain-glorious shew of the\nPharisee, did arise from his not being acquainted with this; that\na man must be good, before he can do good; he must be righteous,\nbefore he can do righteousness. This is evident from Paul, who\ninsinuateth this as the reason, why \"none do good,\" even because\nThere is none that is righteous, no, not one. \"There is none\nrighteous,\" saith he; and then follows, \"There is none that doeth\ngood.\" (Rom 3:10-12) For it is not possible for a man, that is not\nfirst made righteous by the God of heaven, to do anything that in\na proper, in a law, or in a gospel-sense may be called righteousness.\nMeddle with righteous things he may; attempt to make himself\na righteous man, by his so meddling with them, he may; but work\nrighteousness, and so by such works of righteousness, make himself\na righteous man, he cannot.\n\nThe righteousness of a carnal man, is indeed by God called\nrighteousness; but it must be understood, as spoken in the dialect\nof the world; or with reference to the world's matters. The world\nindeed calls it righteousness; and it will do no harm, if it\nbear that term with reference to worldly matters. Hence worldly\ncivilians are called good and righteous men, and so, such as\nChrist, under that notion, neither died for, nor giveth his grace\nunto. (Rom 5:7,8) But we are not now discoursing about any other\nrighteousness, than that which is so accounted either in a law, or\nin a gospel-sense; and therefore let us a little more touch upon\nthat.\n\nA man then must be righteous in a law-sense, before he can do acts\nof righteousness, I mean that are such, in a gospel-sense. Hence\nfirst, you have true gospel-righteousness made the fruit of a\nsecond birth. \"If ye know that he [Christ] is righteous, ye know\nthat every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.\" (1 John\n2:29) Not born of him by virtue of his own righteous actions, but\nborn of him by virtue of Christ's mighty working with his word\nupon the soul; who afterwards, from a principle of life, acteth\nand worketh righteousness.\n\nAnd he saith again, \"Little children, let no man deceive you, he\nthat doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.\"\n(1 John 3:7) Upon this scripture, I will a little comment, for the\nproof of what is urged before; namely, that a man must be righteous\nin a law-sense, before he can do such things that may be called acts\nof righteousness in a gospel-sense. And for this, this scripture,\nministereth to us two things to be considered by us.\n\nThe first is, that he that doeth righteousness is righteous.\n\nThe second is, that he that doeth righteousness is righteous, as\nChrist is righteous.\n\nFirst, He that doeth righteousness; that is, righteousness which\nthe gospel calleth so, is righteous; that is, precedent to, or\nbefore he doth that righteousness. For he doth not say, he shall\nmake his person righteous by acts of righteousness that he shall\ndo; for then an evil tree may bear good fruit: yea, and may make\nitself good by doing so: But he saith, he that doeth righteousness\nis righteous; as he saith, he that doeth righteousness IS born of\nhim.\n\nSo then, a man must be righteous before he can do righteousness,\nbefore he can do righteousness in a gospel-sense.\n\nSecond, Our second thing then is to inquire, with what righteousness\na man must be righteous, before he can do that which in a gospel-sense\nis called righteousness?\n\nAnd first, I answer, He must be righteous in a law-sense; that is,\nhe must be righteous in the judgment of the law. This is evident,\nbecause he saith, he that doeth righteousness is righteous as\nhe is righteous. That is, in a law-sense; for Christ in no sense\nis righteous in the judgment of charity only; but in his meanest\nacts, if it be lawful to make such comparison, he was righteous\nin a law-sense, or in the judgment of the law. Now the apostle\nsaith, \"That he that doeth righteousness IS righteous, as HE is\nrighteous.\" They are the words of God, and therefore I cannot err\nin quoting of them, though I may not so fully, as I would, make\nthe glory of them shine in speaking to them.\n\nBut what righteousness is that, with which a man must stand righteous\nin the judgment of the law, before he shall or can be found to do\nacts of righteousness, that by the gospel are so called? I answer.\n\nFirst, It is none of his own which is of the law, you may be sure;\nfor he hath this righteousness before he doeth any that can be\ncalled his own. \"He that doeth righteousness is righteous\" already,\nprecedent to, or before he doth that righteousness; yea, he is\nrighteous before, even as HE is righteous.\n\nSecond, It cannot be his own which is of the gospel; that is,\nthat which floweth from a principle of grace in the soul: for he\nis righteous before he doeth this righteousness. He that doeth\nrighteousness, IS righteous. He doth not say he that hath done it,\nbut he that doeth it; respecting the act while it is in doing, he\nis righteous. He is righteous even then, when he is a doing of the\nvery first act of righteousness; but an act, while it is in doing,\ncannot, until it is done, be called an act of righteousness; yet,\nsaith the text, \"He is righteous.\"\n\nBut again, if an act, while it is in doing, cannot be called an\nact of righteousness; to be sure, it cannot have such influences\nas to make the actor righteous; to make him righteous, as the Son\nof God is righteous, and yet the righteousness with which this\ndoer is made righteous, and that before he doeth righteousness,\nis such; for so saith the text, that makes him righteous as he is\nrighteous.\n\nBesides, it cannot be his own, which is gospel-righteousness, flowing\nfrom a principle of grace in the soul; for that in its greatest\nperfection in us, while we live in this world, is accompanied with\nsome imperfections; to wit, our faith, love, and whole course of\nholiness is wanting, or hath something lacking in it. They neither\nare apart, nor when put all together, perfect, as to the degree,\nthe uttermost degree of perfection.\n\nBut the righteousness under consideration, with which the man,\nin that of John, is made righteous, is a perfect righteousness;\nnot only with respect to the nature of it, as a penny is as\nperfect silver as a shilling; nor yet with respect to a comparative\ndegree; for so a shilling arriveth more toward the perfection of\nthe number twenty, than doth a two-penny or a three-penny piece:\nbut it is a righteousness so perfect, that nothing can be added\nto it, nor can any thing be taken from it: for so implieth the\nwords of the text, \"he is righteous, as Christ is righteous.\" Yea,\nthus righteous before, and in order to his doing of righteousness.\nAnd in this he is like unto the Son of God, who was also\nrighteous before he did acts of righteousness referring to a law\nof commandment: wherefore it is said, that as he is, so are we\nin this world. As he is or was righteous, before he did acts of\nrighteousness among men by a law, so are HIS righteous, before they\nact righteousness among men by a law. \"He that doth righteousness\nis righteous, as HE is righteous.\"\n\nChrist was righteous, before he did righteousness, with a two-fold\nrighteousness. He had a righteousness as he was God; his godhead\nwas perfectly righteous; yea, it was righteousness itself. His\nhuman nature was perfectly righteous, it was naturally spotless\nand undefiled. Thus his person was righteous, and so qualified to\ndo that righteousness, that because he was born of a woman, and\nmade under the law, he was bound by the law to perform.\n\nNow, as he is, so are we: not by way of natural righteousness,\nbut by way of resemblance thereunto. Had Christ, in order to his\nworking of righteousness, a two-fold righteousness inherent in\nhimself, the Christian, in order to his working of righteousness,\nhath belonging to him a two-fold righteousness. Did Christ's\ntwo-fold righteousness qualify him for that work of righteousness,\nthat was of God designed for him to do? Why the Christian's two-fold\nrighteousness doth qualify him for that work of righteousness,\nthat God hath ordained, that he should do and walk in this world.\n\nBut you may ask, what is that righteousness, with which a Christian\nis made righteous before he doth righteousness?\n\nI answer, It is a two-fold righteousness.\n\nI. It is a righteousness put upon him.\n\nII. It is a righteousness put into him. I. For the first, It\nis righteousness put upon him, with which also he is clothed as\nwith a coat or mantle (Rom 3:22), and this is called the robe of\nrighteousness; and this is called the garments of salvation. (Isa\n61:10)22 This righteousness is none other but the obedience of\nChrist; the which he performed in the days of his flesh, and can\nproperly be called no man's righteousness, but the righteousness\nof Christ; because no man had a hand therein, but he completed\nit himself. And hence it is said, That \"by the obedience of one\nshall many be made righteous.\" (Rom 5:19) By the obedience of one,\nof one man Jesus Christ, as you have it in verse 15 for he came\ndown into the world to this very end; that is, to make a generation\nrighteous, not by making of them laws, and prescribing unto them\nrules: for this was the work of Moses, who said, \"And it shall\nbe our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments\nbefore the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.\" (Deu 6:25,\n24:13) Nor yet by taking away by his grace the imperfections of\ntheir righteousness, and so making of that perfect by additions\nof his own; but he makes them righteous by his obedience; not in\nthem, but for them, while he personally subjected himself to his\nFather's law on our behalf, that he might have a righteousness to\nbestow upon us. And hence we are said to be made righteous, while\nwe work not; and to be justified while ungodly (Rom 4:5), which\ncan be done by no other righteousness than that, which is the\nrighteousness of Christ by performance, the righteousness of God\nby donation, and our righteousness by imputation. For, I say, the\nperson that wrought this righteousness for us, is Christ Jesus; the\nperson that giveth it to us, is the Father; who hath made Christ\nto be unto us righteousness, and hath given him to us for this\nvery end, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (1\nCor 1:30, 2 Cor 5:21), And hence it is so often said, One shall\nsay, surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. And\nagain, \"In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and\nshall glory.\" \"This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,\nand their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.\" (Isa 45:24,25,\n54:17)\n\nThis righteousness is that which justifieth, and which secureth the\nsoul from the curse of the law; by hiding, through its perfection,\nall the sins and imperfections of the soul. Hence it follows,\nin that fourth of the Romans, \"Even as David also describeth\nthe blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness\nwithout works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are\nforgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom\nthe Lord will not impute sin.\"\n\nAnd this it doth, even while the person that by grace is made\na partaker, is without good works, and so ungodly. This is the\nrighteousness of Christ, Christ's personal performances, which\nhe did when he was in this world; that is that, by which the soul\nwhile naked, is covered, and so hid as to its nakedness, from\nthe divine sentence of the law; \"I spread my skirt over thee, and\ncovered thy nakedness.\" (Eze 16:8)\n\nNow this obediential righteousness of Christ, consisteth of two\nparts. 1. In a doing of that which the law commanded us to do. 2.\nIn a paying that price for the transgression thereof, which justice\nhath said, shall be required at the hand of man; and that is the\ncursed death. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die\nthe death; to wit, the death that comes by the curse of the law.\nSo then, Christ having brought in that part of obedience for us,\nwhich consisteth in a doing of such obediential acts of righteousness\nwhich the law commands; he addeth thereto the spilling of his\nblood, to be the price of our redemption from that cursed death,\nthat by sin we had brought upon our bodies and souls. And thus\nare the Christians made perfectly righteous; they have the whole\nobedience of Christ made over to them; to wit, that obedience\nthat standeth in doing the law, and that obedience that standeth\nin paying of a price for our transgressions. So then, Doth the\nlaw call for righteousness? Here it is. Doth the law call for\nsatisfaction for our sins? Here it is. And what can the law say\nany more to the sinner but that which is good, when he findeth in\nthe personal obedience of Christ for him, that which answereth to\nwhat it can command, that which it can demand of us.\n\nHerein then standeth a Christian's safety, not in a bundle of\nactions of his own, but in a righteousness which cometh to him by\ngrace and gift; for this righteousness is such as comes by gift,\nby the gift of God. Hence it is called the gift of righteousness,\nthe gift by grace, the gift of righteousness by grace, which is\nthe righteousness of one, to wit, the obedience of Jesus Christ.\n(Rom 5:15-19)\n\nAnd this is the righteousness by which, he that doth righteousness,\nis righteous as HE is righteous; because it is the very self-same\nrighteousness, that the Son of God hath accomplished by himself.\nNor has he any other or more excellent righteousness, of which\nthe law taketh notice, or that it requireth, than this. For as for\nthe righteousness of his godhead, the law is not concerned with\nthat; for as he is such, the law is his creature, and servant,\nand may not meddle with him.\n\nThe righteousness also of his human nature, the law hath nothing\nto do with that; for that is the workmanship of God, and is as\ngood, as pure, as holy and undefiled, as is the law itself. All\nthen that the law hath to do with, is to exact complete obedience\nof him that is made under it, and a due satisfaction for the breach\nthereof, the which, if it hath, then Moses is content.\n\nNow, this is the righteousness, with which the Christian, as to\njustification, is made righteous; to wit, a righteousness, that\nis neither essential to his godhead, nor to his manhood; but such\nas standeth in that glorious person, who was such, his obedience\nto the law. Which righteousness himself had, with reference to\nhimself, no need of at all, for his godhead; yea, his manhood was\nperfectly righteous without it. This righteousness therefore was\nthere, and there only, necessary, where Christ was to be considered\nas God's servant and our surety, to bring to God Jacob again,\nand to restore the preserved of Israel. For though Christ was a\nSon, yet he became a servant to do, not for himself, for he had\nno need, but for us, the whole law, and so bring in everlasting\nrighteousness for us.\n\nAnd hence it is said, that Christ did what he did for us: He became\nthe end of the law for righteousness for us; he suffered for us\n(1 Peter 2:21); he died for us (1 Thess 5:10); he laid down his\nlife for us (1 John 3:16), and he gave himself for us. (Gal 1:4)\nThe righteousness then that Christ did fulfil, when he was in\nthe world, was not for himself simply considered, nor for himself\npersonally considered, for he had no need thereof; but it was for\nthe elect, the members of his body.\n\nChrist then did not fulfil the law for himself, for he had no need\nthereof. Christ again did fulfil the law for himself, for he had\nneed of the righteousness thereof; he had need thereof for the\ncovering of his body, and the several members thereof; for they,\nin a good sense, are himself, members of his body, of his flesh,\nand of his bones; and he owns them as parts of himself in many\nplaces of the holy scripture. (Eph 5:30, Acts 9:4,5, Matt 25:45,\n10:40, Mark 9:37, Luke 10:16, 1 Cor 12:12,27) This righteousness\nthen, even the whole of what Christ did in answer to the law, it\nwas for his, and God hath put it upon them, and they are righteous\nin it, even righteous as he is righteous. And this they have before\nthey do acts of righteousness.\n\nII. There is righteousness put into them, before they act righteous\nthings. A righteousness, I say, put into them; or I had rather\nthat you should call it a principle of righteousness; for it is a\nprinciple of life to righteousness. Before man's conversion, there\nis in him a principle of death by sin; but when he is converted to\nChrist, there is put into him a principle of righteousness, that\nhe may bring forth fruit unto God. (Rom 7:4-6)\n\nHence they are said to be quickened, to be made alive, to be risen\nfrom death to life, to have the Spirit of God dwelling in them;\nnot only to make their souls alive, but to quicken their mortal\nbodies to that which is good. (Rom 8:11)\n\nHere, as I hinted before, they that do righteousness are said to be\nborn of him, that is, antecedent to their doing of righteousness\n(1 John 2:29), \"born of him,\" that is, made alive with new spiritual\nand heavenly life. Wherefore the exhortation to them is, \"Neither\nyield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:\nbut yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the\ndead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.\"\n(Rom 6:13)\n\nNow this principle must also be in men, before they can do that\nwhich is spiritually and gospelly good: For whatever seeming good\nthing any man doth, before he has bestowed upon him this heavenly\nprinciple from God, it is accounted nothing, it is accounted sin\nand abomination in the sight of God; for an evil tree cannot bring\nforth good fruit: Men do not gather grapes of thorns; neither\nof a bramble gather they figs. Either make the tree good and his\nfruit good, or the tree evil and his fruit evil. (Luke 6:43-45)\nIt is not the fruit that makes the tree, but the tree that makes\nthe fruit. A man must be good, before he can do good, and evil\nbefore he can do evil.\n\nThey be not righteous actions that make a righteous man; nor be\nthey evil actions that make a wicked man: for a tree must be a\nsweeting tree before it yield sweetings;23 and a crab tree before\nit bring forth crabs.24\n\nThis is that which is asserted by the Son of God himself; and it\nlieth so level with reason and the nature of things, that it cannot\nbe contradicted. (Matt 7:16-18) \"A good man out of the good treasure\nof his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man\nout of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which\nis evil.\" (Luke 6:45) But this, notwithstanding all that can\nbe said, seemeth very strange to the carnal world; for they will\nnot be otherwise persuaded, but that they be good deeds that make\ngood men, and evil ones that make evil men: And so by such dotish\napprehensions do what in them lieth to fortify their hearts with\nthe mists of darkness against the clear shining of the word, and\nconviction of the truth.\n\nAnd thus it was from the beginning: Abel did his first services\nto God from this principle of righteousness; but Cain would have\nbeen made righteous by his deed; but his deed not flowing from\nthe same root of goodness, as did Abel's, notwithstanding he did\nit with the very best he had, is yet called evil: For he wanted,\nI say, the principles, to wit, of grace and faith, without which\nno action can be counted good in a gospel sense.\n\nThese two things then, that man must have that will do righteousness.\nHe must have put upon him the perfect righteousness of Christ; and\nhe must have dwelling in him, as a fruit of the new birth, a principle\nof righteousness. Then indeed he is a tree of righteousness, and\nGod is like to be glorified in, and by him; but this the Pharisee\nwas utterly ignorant of, and at the remotest distance from it.\n\n[The righteousness of Christ, unto justification, must be imputed\nto the Christian before he can attain the principle of righteousness\nunto sanctification.]\n\nQuest. You may ask me next, But which of these are first bestowed\nupon the Christian, the perfect righteousness of Christ unto\njustification, or this gospel principle of righteousness unto\nsanctification?\n\nAnsw. The perfect righteousness of Christ unto justification, must\nfirst be made over to him by an act of grace. This is evident,\n\n1. Because, he is justified as ungodly; that is, whilst he is\nungodly: But it must not be said of them, that have this principle\nof grace in them, that they are ungodly; for they are saints and\nholy. But this righteousness, by IT God justifieth the ungodly,\nby imputing it to them, when, and while they, as to a principle\nof grace, are graceless.\n\nThis is further manifested thus: The person must be accepted before\nthe performance of the person can; \"And the Lord had respect unto\nAbel, and to his offering.\" (Gen 4:4) If he had respect to Abel's\nperson first, yet he must have respect unto it for the sake of\nsome righteousness; but Abel, in that, had no righteousness; for\nthat he acted after that God had had respect unto his person.25\n\"And the LORD had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: But unto\nCain, and to his offering, he had not respect.\"\n\nThe prophet Ezekiel also shows us this; where, by the similitude\nof the wretched infant, and of the manner of God's receiving it to\nmercy, he shows how he received the Jews to favour. First, saith\nhe, \"I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness.\"\n(16:8) There is justification; \"I covered thy nakedness.\" But what\nmanner of nakedness was it? Was it utter nakedness, nakedness in\nits perfection? Yes, it was then as naked as naked could be, even\nas naked as in the day that it was born. And as thus naked, it\nwas covered, not with anything, but with the skirt of Christ; that\nis, with his robe of righteousness, with his obedience, that he\nperformed by himself for that very purpose. For by the obedience\nof one many are made righteous.\n\n2. Righteousness unto justification must be first, because the\nfirst duty that a Christian performeth to God, must be accepted,\nnot for the sake of the principle from which in the heart it flows,\nnor yet for the sake of the person that acts it; but for the sake\nof Christ, whose righteousness it is, by which, before the sinner,\nhe stands just before God. And hence it is said, \"By faith Abel\noffered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.\" (Heb 11:4)\nBy faith he did it; but faith hath respect to the righteousness\nthat justifies. For we are justified by faith, not by faith as\nit is a grace, nor by faith as it is an acting grace; but by the\nrighteousness of faith; that is, by that righteousness that faith\nembraceth, layeth hold of, and helpeth the soul to rest upon, and\nto trust to, for justification of life, which is the obedience\nof Christ. Besides, it is said, by faith he offered; faith then,\nfaith in Christ, was precedent to his offering.\n\nNow since faith was in being and in act before his offer, and since\nbefore his offer, he had no personal goodness of his own, faith\nmust look out from home: I say, it must look out to another than\nto him in whom it resided for righteousness; and finding the\nrighteousness of Christ to be the righteousness, which by God\nwas designed to be performed for the justification of a sinner,\nit embraces it, and through it offereth to God a more excellent\nsacrifice than Cain.\n\nHence it follows, \"by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.\"\nBy which, not by his offering, but by his faith. For his offering,\nsimply as an offering, could not have made him righteous, if\nhe had not been righteous before; \"for an evil tree cannot bring\nforth good fruit.\" Besides, if this be granted, why had not God\nrespect to Cain's offering, as well as to Abel's? For, did Abel\noffer? so did Cain. Did Abel offer his best? so did Cain his. And\nif with this, we shall take notice of the order of their offering,\nCain seemed to offer first, and so with the frankest will, and\nforwardest mind; but yet, saith the text, \"The Lord had respect\nto Abel and to his offering.\" But why to Abel? Why, because his\nperson was made righteous before he offered his gift: \"By which\nhe obtained witness that he was righteous.\" God testifying of his\ngifts, that they were good and acceptable, because they declared\nAbel's acceptation of the righteousness of Christ, for his justice,\nthrough the riches of the grace of God.\n\nBy faith then, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than\nCain. He shrouded himself under the righteousness of Christ, and\nso, as out of that righteousness, he offered to God; God also\nlooking and finding him there, where also he could not have been,\nas to his own apprehension, no otherwise than by faith, he accepted\nof his gift; by which acceptation, for so you may understand it\nalso, God testified that he was righteous: For God receiveth not\nthe gifts and offerings of those that are not righteous, for their\nsacrifices are an abomination unto him. (Prov 21:27)\n\nAbel then was righteous before; he was, I say, made righteous first,\nas he stood ungodly in himself; God justifieth the ungodly. (Rom\n4) Now being justified, he was righteous; and being righteous, he\noffered his sacrifice of praise to God, or other offerings which\nGod accepted, because he believed in his Son, as also other scriptures\nmanifest abundantly. But this our Pharisee understandeth not.\n\n3. Righteousness by imputation must be first, because we are made\nso, to wit, by another, \"By the obedience of one shall many be\nmade righteous.\" Now to be made righteous, implies a passiveness\nin him that is so made, and the activity of the work to lie in some\nbody else; except he had said, they had made themselves righteous;\nbut that it doth not, nor doth the text leave to any the least\ncountenance so to insinuate: Nay, it plainly affirms the contrary,\nfor it saith, by the obedience of one, of one man Jesus Christ,\nmany are made righteous; by the righteousness of one (Rom 5), So\nthen, if they be MADE righteous by the righteousness of one: I\nsay, if many be made righteous by the righteousness of one, then\nare they that are so, as to themselves, passive and not active,\nwith reference unto the working out of this righteousness. They\nhave no hand in that; for that is the act of ONE, the righteousness\nof ONE, the obedience of ONE, the workmanship of ONE, even of\nChrist Jesus.\n\nAgain, if they are made righteous by this righteousness, then also\nthey are passive, as to their first privilege by it; for they are\nmade righteous by it; they do not make themselves righteous; no,\nthey do not make themselves righteous by it.\n\nImputation is also the act of God. Even as David also describeth\nthe blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness.\nThe righteousness then is the work of Christ, his own obedience\nto his father's law; the making of it ours, is the act of his\nfather, and of his infinite grace; \"But of him are ye in Christ\nJesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness.\" \"For\nhe [God] hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that\nwe might be made the righteousness of God in him.\" And both these\nthings God showed to our first parents when he acted in grace\ntowards them after the fall.\n\nThere it is said, the Lord God made unto Adam, and unto his wife,\ncoats of skins, and clothed them. (Gen 3:21)\n\nWhence note,\n\n(1.) That Adam and his wife were naked both in God's eye, and in\ntheir own. (verse 10,11)\n\n(2.) That the Lord God made coats of skins.\n\n(3.) That in his making of them, he had respect to Adam and to his\nwife, that is, he made them for them.\n\n(4.) That when he had made them, he also clothed them therewith.\n\nThey made not the coats, nor did God bid them make them; but God\ndid make them himself to cover their nakedness with. Yea, when\nhe had made them, he did not bid them put them on, but he himself\ndid clothe them with them: For thus runs the text; \"Unto Adam also\nand to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed\nthem.\" O! It was the Lord God that made this coat, with which a\npoor sinner is made righteous! And it is also the Lord God that\nputteth it upon us. But this our Pharisee understandeth not.\n\nBut now, if a man is not righteous before he is made so, before\nthe Lord God has, by the righteousness of another, made him so;\nthen whether this righteousness come first or last, the man is\nnot righteous until it cometh, and if he be not righteous until\nit cometh, then what works soever are done before it comes, they\nare not the works of a righteous man, nor the fruits of a good tree,\nbut of a bad. And so again, this righteousness must first come\nbefore a man be righteous, and before a man does righteousness.\nMake the tree good and its fruit will be good.\n\nNow, since a man must be made righteous before he can do\nrighteousness, it is manifest his works of righteousness do not\nmake him righteous, no more than the fig makes its own tree a\nfig-tree, or than the grape doth make its own vine a vine. Hence\nthose acts of righteousness, that Christian men do perform, are\ncalled the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to\nthe glory and praise of God. (Phil 1:11)\n\nThe fruits of righteousness they are by Jesus Christ, as the fruits\nof the tree are by the tree itself. For the truth is, that principle\nof righteousness, of which mention has been made before, and\nconcerning which I have said, it comes in, in the second place;\nit is also originally to be found for us no where but in Christ.\n\nHence it is said to be by Jesus Christ, and again, \"of his fulness\nhave all we received, and grace for grace.\" (John 1:16) A man must\nthen be united to Christ first, and so being united, he partaketh\nof this benefit, to wit, a principle that is supernatural, spiritual,\nand heavenly. Now his being united to Christ, is not of, or from\nhimself, but of, and from the Father, who, as to this work, is\nthe husbandman; even as the twig that is grafted into the tree,\nofficiateth not, that is, grafteth not itself thereinto, but is\ngrafted in by some other, itself being utterly passive as to that.\nNow being united unto Christ, the soul is first made partaker of\njustification, or of justifying righteousness, and now no longer\nbeareth the name of an ungodly man, for he is made righteous by\nthe obedience of Christ, he being also united to Christ, partaketh\nof the root and fatness of Christ; the root, that is, his divine\nnature; the fatness, that is, that fulness of grace that is laid\nup in him to be communicated unto us, even as the branch that is\ngrafted into the olive-tree, partaketh of the root and fatness of\nthe olive-tree. Now partaking thereof, it quickeneth, it groweth,\nit buddeth, and yieldeth fruit to the glory and praise of God.\n(Rom 11:17)\n\nBut these things, as I have often said, the poor Pharisee was\nignorant of, when so swaggeringly he, with his, \"God I thank thee,\"\ncame into the temple to pray and indeed, in that which hath here\nbeen said, is something of the mystery of God's will in his way\nwith his elect; and such a mystery it is, that it lieth hid for\never to nature and natural men; for they think of nothing less\nthan of this, nor of nothing more, when they think of their souls\nand of salvation, than that something must be done by themselves\nto reconcile them to God. Yea, if through some common convictions\ntheir understandings should be swayed to a consenting to that,\nthat justification is of grace by Christ, and not of works by\nmen; yet conscience, reason, and the law of nature, not being as\nyet subdued by the power and glory of grace unto the obedience of\nChrist, will rise up in rebellion against this doctrine, and will\noverrule and bow down the soul again to the law and works thereof\nfor life.\n\n4. Righteousness by imputation must be first, because, else faith,\nwhich is a part, yea, a great part, of that which is called a\nprinciple of grace in the soul, will have nothing to fix itself\nupon, nor a motive to work by. Let this therefore be considered\nby those that are on the contrary side.\n\nFaith, so soon as it has being in the soul, is like the child that\nhas being in the mother's lap, it must have something to feed\nupon, not something at a distance, afar off, or to be purchased,\nI speak now as to justification from the curse, but something by\npromise made over of grace to the soul; something to feed upon to\nsupport from the fears of perishing by the curse for sin. Nor can\nit rest content with all duties and performances, that other\ngraces shall put the soul upon; nor with any of its own works,\nuntil it reaches and takes hold of the righteousness of Christ.\nFaith is like the dove, that found no rest any where in all the\nworld until it returned to Noah into the ark. But this our Pharisee\nunderstandeth not.\n\nObjection. Perhaps some may object, That from this way of reasoning\nit is apparent, that sanctification is first, since the soul may\nhave faith, and so a principle of grace in it; and yet, as yet it\ncannot find Christ to feed and to refresh the soul withal.\n\nAnsw. From this way of reasoning it is not at all apparent, that\nsanctification, or a principle of grace is in the soul before\nrighteousness is imputed, and the soul made perfectly righteous\nthereby. And for the clearing up of this let me propose a few\nthings.\n\n(1.) Justifying righteousness, to wit, the obedience of that one\nman Christ is imputed to the sinner to justify him in God's sight.\nFor his law calls for perfect righteousness, and before that be\ncome TO, and put UPON the poor sinner, God cannot bestow other\nspiritual blessings upon him; because by the law he has pronounced\nhim accursed; by the which curse, he is also so holden, until a\nrighteousness shall be found upon the sinner, that the law, and\nso divine justice can alike approve of, and be contented with.\nSo then, as to the justification of the sinner, there must be\na righteousness for God; I say, for the sinner, and for God. For\nthe sinner to be clothed with, and for God to look upon, that he\nmay, for the sake thereof in a way of justice, bless the sinner\nwith forgiveness of sins: For forgiveness of sins is the next\nthing that followeth upon the appearance of the sinner before God\nin the righteousness of Christ. (Rom 4:6,7)\n\nNow, upon this forgiveness, follows the second blessing. Christ\nhath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for\nus. And so, consequently, hath obtained for us the forgiveness\nof sins: for he that is delivered from the curse, hath received\nforgiveness of sins, or rather is made partaker thereof; now being\nmade a partaker thereof, the second blessing immediately follows:\nto wit, the blessing of Abraham, that is, \"the promise of the spirit\nthrough faith\" (Gal 3:13,14), but this our Pharisee understandeth\nnot.\n\nBut now, although it be of absolute necessity that imputed righteousness\nbe first TO the soul; that is, that perfect righteousness be found\nupon the sinner first by God, that he may bestow other blessings\nin a way of justice. Yet it is not of absolute necessity that the\nsoul should see this first.\n\nLet God then put righteousness, the righteousness of his Son upon\nme; and by virtue of that, let the second blessing of God come\nin to me; and by virtue of that, let me be made to see myself a\nsinner, and Christ's righteousness, and my need of it, in the doctrine\nof it, as it is revealed in the scriptures of truth. Let me then\nbelieve this doctrine to be true, and be brought by my belief\nto repentance for my sins, to hungering and thirsting vehemently\nafter this righteousness; for this is \"the kingdom of God and his\nrighteousness.\" Yea, let me pray, and cry, and sigh, and groan\nday and night to the God of this righteousness, that he will\nof grace make me a partaker: And let me thus prostrate before my\nGod, all the time that in wisdom he shall think fit. And in his\nown time he shall show me, that I am a justified person, a pardoned\nperson, a person in whom the Spirit of God hath dwelt for some\ntime, though I knew it not.\n\nSo then justification before God is one thing; and justification in\nmine own eyes is another: not that these are two justifications,\nbut the same righteousness by which I stand justified before God,\nmay be seen of God, when I am ignorant of it; yea, for the sake\nof it I may be received, pardoned, and accounted righteous of him,\nand yet I may not understand it. Yea, further, he may proceed in\nthe way of blessing, to bless me with additional blessings, and\nyet I be ignorant of it.\n\nSo that the question is not, Do I find that I am righteous? But\nam I so? Doth God find me so, when he seeth that the righteousness\nof his Son is upon me, being made over to me by an act of his grace?\nFor I am justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which\nis in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation\nthrough faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the\nredemption of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.\n(Rom 3:25) But this our Pharisee understandeth not.\n\nI am then made righteous first, by the righteousness of another;\nand because I am thus righteous, God accepteth of my person as\nsuch, and bestoweth upon me his grace; the which, at first, for\nwant of skill and experience in the word of righteousness, I make\nuse of but poorly, and have need to be certified that I am made\nrighteous, and that I have eternal life (Heb 5:13), not by faith\nfirst and immediately, but by the written word, which is called\nthe word of faith; which word declareth unto me, to whom grace,\nand so faith in the seed of it is given, that I have eternal life;\nand that I should with boldness, in peace and joy, believe on the\nSon of God. (Rom 15:13, 1 John 5:13) But,\n\nAgain, I, in the first acts of my faith, when I am come at Christ,\ndo not accept of him, because, I know I am righteous, either with\nimputed righteousness, or with that which is inherent: both these,\nas to my present privilege in them, may be hidden from mine eyes,\nand I only put upon taking of encouragement to close with Christ\nfor life and righteousness, as he is set forth to be a propitiation\nbefore mine eyes, in the word of the truth of the gospel; to which\nword I adhere as, or because I find, I want peace with God in my\nsoul, and because I am convinced, that the means of peace is not\nto be found any where but in Jesus Christ. Now, by my thus adhering\nto him, I find stay for my soul, and peace to my conscience,\nbecause the word doth ascertain me, that he that believeth on him\nhath remission of sins, hath eternal life, and shall be saved from\nthe wrath to come.\n\nBut alas! who knows the many straights, and as I may say, the\nstress of weather, I mean the cold blasts of hell, with which the\npoor soul is assaulted, betwixt its receiving of grace, and its\nsensible closing with Jesus Christ? 26 None, I daresay, but IT and\nits FELLOWS. \"The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger\ndoth not intermeddle with his joy.\" (Prov 14:10) No sooner doth\nSatan perceive that God is doing with the soul, in a way of grace\nand mercy, but he endeavoureth what he may, to make the renewing\nthereof bitter and wearisome work to the sinner. O what mists,\nwhat mountains, what clouds, what darkness, what objections, what\nfalse apprehensions of God, of Christ, of grace, of the word,\nand of the soul's condition, doth he now lay before it, and haunt\nit with; whereby he fighteth, dejecteth, casteth down, daunteth,\ndistresseth, and almost driveth it quite into despair. Now, by the\nreason of these things, faith, and all the grace that is in the\nsoul, is hard put to it to come at the promise; and by the promise\nto Christ, as it is said, when the tempest and great danger of\nshipwreck lay upon the vessel in which Paul was, They \"had much\nwork to come by the boat.\" (Acts 27:16) For Satan's design is, if\nhe cannot keep the soul from Christ, to make his coming to him,\nand closing with him, as hard, difficult, and troublesome, as he\nby his devices can. But faith, true justifying faith, is a grace,\nthat is not weary by all that Satan can do; but meditateth upon\nthe word, and taketh stomach, and courage, fighteth, and crieth,\nand by crying and fighting, by help from heaven, its way is made\nthrough all the oppositions that appear so mighty, and draweth\nup at last to Jesus Christ, into whose bosom it putteth the soul,\nwhere, for the time, it sweetly resteth after its marvellous\ntossings to and fro.27\n\nAnd besides what hath been said, let me yet illustrate this truth\nunto you by this familiar similitude.\n\nSuppose a man, a traitor, that by the law should die for his sin,\nis yet such an one, that the king hath exceeding kindness for; may\nnot the king pardon this man of his clemency; yea, order that his\npardon should be drawn up and sealed, and so in every sense be\nmade sure; and yet, for the present, keep all this close enough\nfrom the ears, or the knowledge of the person therein concerned.\nYea, may not the king after all leave this person, with others\nunder the same transgression, to sue for, and obtain this pardon\nwith great expense and difficulty, with many tears and heart-achings,\nwith many fears, and dubious cogitations.\n\nWhy this is the case between God and the soul that he saveth; he\nsaveth him, pardoneth him, and secureth him from the curse and\ndeath that to him is due for sin, but yet doth not tell him so, but\nascends in his great suit unto God for it. Only this difference\nwe must make in this between God and the potentates of this world:\nGod cannot pardon before the sinner stands before him righteous\nby the righteousness of Christ; because he has in judgment, and\njustice, and righteousness threatened and concluded, that he that\nwants righteousness shall die.\n\nAnd I say again, because this righteousness is God's, and at God's\ndisposal only; it is God that must make a man righteous before\nhe can forgive him his sins, or bestow upon him of his secondary\nblessings; to wit, his Spirit, and the graces thereof. And I say\nagain, it must be this righteousness; for it can be no other, that\nmust justify a sinner from sin in the sight of God, and from the\nsentence of his law. But\n\n(2.) This is, and must be the way of God with the sinner, that\nfaith may not only have an object to work upon, but a motive to\nwork by.\n\nHere, as I said, Faith hath an object to work upon, and that is the\nperson of Christ, and that personal righteousness of his, which\nhe in the days of his flesh did finish to justify sinners withal.\nThis is, I say, the object of faith for justification, whereunto\nthe soul by it doth continually resort. Hence David said to Christ,\n\"Be thou my strong habitation\"; or as you have it in the margin,\n\"Be thou to me for a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually\nresort\" (Psa 71:3): And two things he inserts by so saying.\n\nThe first is, That the Christian is a man under continual exercises,\nsometimes one way, and sometimes another; but all his exercises\nhave a tendency in them more or less to spoil him; if he deals\nwith them hand to hand; therefore he is rather for flying than\nstanding; for flying to Christ, than for grappling with them in\nand by his own power.\n\nThe second is, That Christ is of God, provided to be our shelter as\nto this very thing. Hence his name is said to be a strong tower,\nand that the righteous run into it, and are safe. (Prov 18:10) That\nalso of David in the 56th psalm is very pregnant to this purpose;\n\"Mine enemies,\" saith he, \"would daily swallow me up, for they\nbe many that fight against me, O thou most high.\" And what then?\nWhy, \"what time I am afraid,\" saith he, \"I will trust in thee.\"\nThus you see, faith hath an object to work upon to carry the soul\nunto, and to secure the soul in, in times of difficulty, and that\nthey are almost continually, and that object is Jesus Christ, and\nhis righteousness. But,\n\nAgain, as faith hath an object to work upon, so it hath a motive\nto work by; and that is the love of God in giving of Christ to the\nsoul for righteousness. Nor is there any profession, religion, or\nduty and performance, that is at all regarded, where this faith,\nwhich by such means can work, is wanting. \"For in Jesus Christ\nneither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but\nfaith which worketh by love.\" (Gal 5:6) So he saith not here, but\nfaith which acteth lovely, or but faith whose fruit is love, though\ntrue faith hath love for its offspring, but faith which worketh\nBY love; that is true saving justifying faith, as it beholdeth\nthe righteousness of Christ, as made over to the soul for\njustification, so it beholdeth love, love to be the cause of its\nso being made over. It beholdeth love in the Father, in giving of\nhis Son; and love in the Son, in giving of himself to be made\nsoul-saving righteousness for me. And this seeing, it worketh or\nthis apprehending, it worketh by it; that is, it is stirred up to\nan holy boldness of venturing all eternal concerns upon Christ,\nand also to an holy endeared affecting love of him for his sweet\nand blessed redeeming love. Hence the apostle saith, \"The love of\nChrist constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died\nfor all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they\nwhich live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto\nhim which died for them, and rose again.\" (2 Cor 5:14,15)\n\nThus then is the heart united in affection and love to the Father\nand the Son, for the love that they have shewed to the poor sinner,\nin their thus delivering him from the wrath to come. Nor doth\nthis love of God cause that the faith of the poor man should work\nby IT to him alone, no; for by this love faith worketh, in sweet\npassions and pangs of love, to all that are thus reconciled, as\nthis sinner seeth he is. The motive then, whereby faith worketh,\nboth as to justification, and sanctification, the great motive\nto them, I say, is love, the love of God, and the love of Christ:\n\"We love him because he first loved us.\" That is, when our faith\nhath told us so; for so are the words above, \"We have known and\nbelieved the love that God hath to us.\" And then, \"We love him\nbecause he first loved us.\" And then, \"This commandment have we\nfrom him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also.\" (1 John\n4:16-21) But this our poor Pharisee understandeth not. But,\n\n5. Righteousness by imputation must be first, to cut off boasting\nfrom the heart, conceit, and lips of men, Wherefore he saith as\nalso was hinted before, That we are justified freely by the grace\nof God, not through, or for the sake of an holy gospel principle\nin us; but \"through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ,\" &c.\n\"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works?\nNay: but by the law of faith.\" (Rom 3:24,27) And this is the law\nof faith that we are justified as afore [is shewn].\n\nNor can any man propound such an essential way to cut off boasting\nas this, which is of God's providing: for what has man here to\nboast of? No righteousness, nor yet of the application of it to\nhis soul. The righteousness is Christ's, not the sinner's. The\nimputation is God's, not the sinner's. The cause of imputation\nis God's grace and love, not the sinner's works of righteousness.\nThe time of God's imputing righteousness, is when the sinner was\na sinner, wrapped up in ignorance, and wallowing in his vanity;\nnot when he was good, or when he was seeking of it; for his\ninward gospel goodness is a fruit of the imputation of justifying\nrighteousness, as has been already shewed. \"Where is boasting then?\"\nWhere is our Pharisee then, with his brags of not being as other\nmen are? It is excluded, and he with it, and the poor Publican\ntaken into favour, that boasting might be cut off. \"Not of works,\nlest any man should boast.\" There is no trust to be put in men,\nthose that seem most humble, and that to appearance, are farthest\noff from pride, it is natural to them to boast; yea, to boast\nnow, now they have no cause to boast. For by grace are we saved\nthrough FAITH, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.\nNot of works, lest any man should boast.\n\nBut if man is so prone to boast, when yet there is no ground\nof boasting in him, nor yet in what he doeth, how would he have\nboasted, had he been permitted by the God of heaven to have done\nsomething, though that something had been but a very little\nsomething towards his justification. But God has prevented boasting\nby doing as he has done. (Eph 2:8,9) Nay, the apostle addeth\nfurther, lest any man should boast, that as to good works, \"we\nare God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,\nwhich God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.\"\n(verse 10) Can the tree boast, because it is a sweeting tree,28\nsince it was not the tree, but God that made it such: Where is\nboasting then? \"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is\nmade unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and\nredemption: That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let\nhim glory in the Lord.\" (1 Cor 1:30,31) Where is boasting then?\nWhere is our Pharisee then, with all his works of righteousness,\nand with his boasts of being better than his neighbours?\n\nObjection. It may be said, If we should be justified for the sake\nof our inherent righteousness, since that righteousness is the\ngift of God, will it not follow that boasting is in the occasion\nthereof, cut off.\n\nAns. No, for although the principle of inherent righteousness be\nthe gift of God, yet it bringeth forth fruits by man, and through\nman, and so man having a hand therein, though he should have never\nso little, he has an occasion offered him to boast. Yea, if a man\nshould be justified before God by the grace, or the working of the\ngrace of faith in him, he would have ground of occasion to boast,\nbecause faith, though it be the gift of God, yet as it acteth in\nman, takes man along with it in its so acting; yea, the acting of\nfaith is as often attributed to the man by whom it is acted, and\noftener, than to the grace itself. How then can it be, but that\nman must have a hand therein, and so a ground therein, or thereof\nto boast.\n\nBut now! since justification from the curse of the law before God,\nlieth only and wholly in God's imputing of Christ's righteousness\nto a man, and that too, while the man to whom it is imputed, is\nin himself wicked and ungodly, there is no room left for boasting\nbefore God, for that is the boasting intended; but rather an\noccasion given to shame and confusion of face, and to stop the\nmouth for ever, since justification comes to him in a way so far\nabove him, so vastly without him, his skill, help, or what else\nsoever. (Eze 16:61-63)\n\n6. Righteousness by imputation must be first, that justification\nmay not be of debt, but of mercy and grace. This is evident from\nreason: It is meet that God should therefore justify us by a\nrighteousness of his own, not of his own prescribing, for that he\nmay do, and yet the righteousness be ours; but of his own providing,\nthat the righteousness may be his. \"Now to him that worketh,\nis the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.\" (Rom 4:4) If I\nwork for justifying righteousness, and that way get righteousness,\nmy justification is not of grace but of debt, God giveth it not\nunto me, for he oweth it unto me; so then it is no longer his but\nmine: Mine not of grace, but debt: And if so then, I thank him\nnot for remission of sins, nor for the kingdom of heaven, nor for\neternal life; for if justifying righteousness is of debt, then\nwhen I have it, and what dependeth thereon, I have but mine own,\nthat which God oweth to me.\n\nNor will it help at all to say, but I obtain it by God's grace in\nme, because that doth not cut off my work, nor prevent my having\nof an hand in my justifying righteousness.\n\nSuppose I give a man materials, even all materials that are necessary\nto the completing of such or such a thing; yet if he worketh,\nthough the materials be mine, I am to him a debtor, and he deserveth\na reward. Thou sayest, God has given thee his Spirit, his grace,\nand all other things that are necessary for the working up of\na complete righteousness. Well, but is thy work required to the\nfinishing of this righteousness? If so, this is not the righteousness\nthat justifieth, because it is such as has thy hand, thy workmanship\ntherein, and so obtains a reward. And observe it, righteousness,\njustifying righteousness, consisteth not in a principle of\nrighteousness, but in works of righteousness; that is, in good\nduties, in obedience, in a walking in the law to the pleasing of\nthe law, and the content of the justice of God.\n\nI suppose again, that thou shalt conclude with me, that justifying\nrighteousness, I mean that which justifies from the curse of the\nlaw, resideth only in the obedience of the Son of God; and that the\nprinciple of grace that is in thee, is none of that righteousness,\nno, not then when thou hast to the utmost walked with God according\nto thy gift and grace: Yet if thou concludest that this principle\nmust be in thee, and these works done by thee, before this justifying\nrighteousness is imputed to thee for justification, thou layest\nin a caveat against justification by grace; and also concludest,\nthat though thou art not justified by thy righteousness, but\nby Christ, yet thou art justified by Christ's righteousness, for\nthe sake of thine own, and so makest justification to be still a\ndebt. But here the scripture doth also cut thee off: \"Not for thy\nrighteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou\ngo to possess their land\"; which was but a type of heaven, and\nif our righteousness cannot give us by its excellency a share in\nthe type, be sure, that for it, we shall never be sharers in the\nantitype itself. \"Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth\nthee not this good land to possess it, for thy righteousness; for\nthou art a stiff-necked people.\" (Deu 9:5,6)\n\nGospel-performances therefore are not first; that was first, for\nthe sake of which, God did receive these people into favour with\nhimself, and that was a covenant righteousness; and where could\nthat covenant righteousness be found but in the prince, mediator,\nand high priest of the covenant? For it was HE and HE only that was\nappointed of God, nor could any but himself, bring in everlasting\nrighteousness. (Dan 9:24,25) This is evident from these texts\nlast mentioned; it was not for their righteousness, that they\npossessed the land.\n\nAgain, As it was not for their righteousness, that they were\nmade possessors of the land, so it was not for the sake of their\nrighteousness, that they were made partakers of such a righteousness\nthat did make them possess the land. This is plain to reason; for\nthen inherent or inherent and personal righteousness, when by us\nperformed, is of worth to obtain of God a justifying righteousness.\nBut if it be of worth to obtain a justifying righteousness, then\nit seems, it is more commodious to both parties than is justifying\nrighteousness. First, it is more commodious to him that worketh\nit, for by it he obtaineth everlasting righteousness; and secondly,\nit is more commodious unto him that receiveth it, else why doth\nhe for it give us a due debt, and so put upon us the everlasting\njustifying righteousness.\n\nPerhaps it will be objected, that God doth all this of grace; but\nI answer, that these are but fallacious words, spake by the tongue\nof the crafty. For we are not now discoursing of what rewards God\ncan give to the operations of his own grace in us, but whether\nhe can in a way of justice, or how he will, bestow any spiritual\nblessings upon sinful creatures, against whom, for sin, he has\npronounced the curse of the law, before he hath found them in a\nrighteousness, that is proved to be as good justice and righteousness,\nas is the justice and righteousness of the law, with which we have\nto do.\n\nI assert he cannot, because he cannot lie, because he cannot deny\nhimself: For if he should first threaten the transgression of the\nlaw with death, and yet afterwards receive the transgressor to\ngrace, without a plenary satisfaction, what is this but to lie,\nand to diminish his truth, righteousness, and faithfulness; yea,\nand also to overthrow the sanction and perfect holiness of his\nlaw. His mercy therefore must act so towards this sinner, that\njustice may be content, and that can never be, without a justifying\nrighteousness.\n\nNow what this justifying righteousness should be, and when\nimputed, that is the question. I say, it is the righteousness or\nthe obedience of the Son of God in the flesh, which he assumed,\nand so his own, and the righteousness of no body else, otherwise\nthan by imputation.\n\nI say again, that this righteousness must be imputed first, that\nthe sinner may stand just in God's sight from the curse, and that\nGod might deal with him both in a way of justice as well as mercy,\nand yet do the sinner no harm.\n\nBut you may ask, How did God deal with sinners before this\nrighteousness was actually in being?\n\nI answer, He did then deal with sinners even as he dealeth with\nthem now; he justifieth them by it, by virtue of the suretiship\nof him that was to bring it in. Christ became surety for us, and\nby his suretiship laid himself under an obligation to bring in,\nin time, for those for whom he became a surety, this everlasting\nand justifying righteousness, and by virtue of this those of his\nelect that came into and went out of the world, before he came\nto perform his work, were saved through the forbearance of God.\nWherefore, before the Lord came, they were saved for the Lord's\nsake, and for the sake of his name. And they that were spiritually\nwise understood it, and pleaded it as their necessities required,\nand the Lord for HIS sake also accepted them. (Heb 7:22, Rom 4:24,\nDan 9:17, Psa 25:11)\n\n7. Righteousness by imputation must be first: that justification\nmay be certain; \"therefore it is of faith, [of the righteousness\nthat faith layeth hold on] that it might be by grace; to the end\nthe promise might be sure to all the seed.\" (Rom 4:16) That the\npromise, What promise? The promise of remission of sins, &c. might\nbe sure.\n\nNow a promise of remission of sins supposeth a righteousness, a\nrighteousness going before; for there is no forgiveness of sins,\nnor promise of forgiveness, but for the sake of righteousness: but\nnot for the sake of righteousness that shall be by us, but that IS\nalready found in Christ as head, and so imputed to the elect for\ntheir remission. \"God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.\" (Eph\n4:32) For Christ's sake; that is, for the sake of the righteousness\nof Christ. Therefore imputed righteousness must be first; yea, it\nmust be before forgiveness, and forgiveness is extended by God,\nthen when we lie in our blood, though to us it is manifested\nafterwards.29 Therefore it is OF faith, he saith not BY it,\nrespecting the act of faith; but of, respecting the doctrine or\nword which presenteth me with this blessed imputed righteousness:\n\"They that are of faith, are the children of faithful Abraham.\"\nThey that are of the doctrine of faith, for all the elect are the\nsons of that doctrine in which is this righteousness of Christ\ncontained; yea, they are begotten by it of God to this inheritance,\nto their comfortable enjoyment of the comfort of it by faith.\n\nThat \"the promise might be sure to all the seed\"; to all them\nwrapped up in the promise, and so begotten and born. That it might\nbe sure, implying that there is no certain way of salvation for\nthe elect but this, because God can never by other means reconcile\nus to himself; for his heavenly eyes perceive through and through\nthe silly cobweb righteousness that we work; yea, they spy faults\nand sins in the best of our gospel performances. How then can God\nput any trust in such people, or how can remission be extended\nto us for the sake of that? Yea, our faith is faulty, and also\nimperfect; how then should remission be extended to us for the\nsake of that? But now the righteousness of Christ is perfect,\nperpetual and stable as the great mountains, wherefore he is\ncalled the rock of our salvation, because a man may as soon tumble\nthe mountains before him, as one would tumble a little ball, I\nsay, as soon as sin can make invalid the righteousness of Christ,\nwhen, and unto whom, God shall impute it for justice. (Psa 36:6)\nIn the margin it is said, to be like the mountain of God; to wit,\nthat is called Mount Zion, or that Moriah on which the temple was\nbuilt, and upon which it stood: All other bottoms are fickle, all\nother righteousnesses are so feeble, short, narrow, and thin, yea,\nso specked and full of imperfections. \"For what the law could not\ndo in that it was weak through the flesh,\" Christ did for us in\nthe similitude of sinful flesh. But what could not the law do? Why\nit could not give us righteousness, nor strengthen us to perform\nit. It could not give us any certain, solid, well-grounded hope of\nremission of sin and salvation, \"but the bringing in of a better\nhope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God.\"\n\nWherefore this righteousness being imputed, justice findeth no\nfault therewith, but consenteth to the extending to the sinner\nthose blessings that tend to perfect his happiness in the heavens.\n\n8. Righteousness by imputation must be first, \"that in all things\nhe [Christ] might have the pre-eminence.\" Christ is head of the\nchurch, and therefore let him have the highest honour in the soul;\nbut how can he have that, if any precede as to justification,\nbefore his perfect righteousness be imputed? If it be said, grace\nmay be in the soul, though the soul doth not act it, until the\nmoment that justifying righteousness shall be imputed.\n\nI ask, What should it do there before, or to what purpose is it\nthere, if it be not acted? And gain, how came it thither, how got\nthe soul possession of it, while it was unjustified? Or, How could\nGod in justice give it to a person, that by the law stood condemned,\nbefore they were quitted from that condemnation? And I say, nothing\ncan set the soul free from that curse, but the perfect obedience\nof Christ; nor that either, if it be not imputed for that end to\nthe sinner by the grace of God.\n\nImputed, that is, reckoned, or accounted to him. And why should\nit not be accounted to him for righteousness? Who did Christ bring\nit into the world for, for the righteous or for sinners? no doubt\nfor sinners. And how must it be reckoned to them? when in circumcision\nor in uncircumcision; not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision;\nnot as righteous, but as sinners. And how are they to consider of\nthemselves, even then when they first are apprehensive of their\nneed of this righteousness? Are they to think, that they are\nrighteous or sinners.\n\nAnd again, How are they to believe concerning themselves, then when\nthey put forth the first act of faith towards this righteousness\nfor justification? Are they to think, that they are righteous or\nsinners? Sinners, sinners doubtless they are to reckon themselves,\nand as such to reckon themselves justified by this righteousness.\nAnd this is according to the sentence of God, as appeareth by such\nsayings.\n\n\"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died\nfor the ungodly.\"\n\n\"But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet\nsinners, Christ died for us.\"\n\n\"For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the\ndeath of his Son,\" &c. (Rom 5:6,8,10)\n\nOut of these words I gather these three things.\n\n1. That Christ by God's appointment died for us.\n\n2. That by his death he reconciled us to God.\n\n3. That even then, when the very act of reconciliation was in\nperforming, and also when performed, we were ungodly, sinners,\nenemies.\n\nNow the act by which we are said to be reconciled to God while\nungodly, while sinners, and while enemies, was Christ's offering\nhimself a sacrifice for us, which is, in the words above-mentioned,\ncalled his death. Christ died, Christ died for the ungodly,\nChrist died for us while sinners. Christ reconciled us to God by\nhis death. And just as here Christ is said to die for us, so the\nFather is said to impute righteousness to us; to wit, as we are\nwithout works, as we are ungodly: \"Now to him that worketh not,\nbut believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is\ncounted for righteousness.\" (Rom 4:5) He worketh not, but is ungodly,\nwhen this gracious act of God, in imputing of the righteousness\nof Christ to him, is extended, the which when he shall believe,\nhis faith is counted to him for righteousness. And why should we\nnot have the benefit of the righteousness, while we are ungodly,\nsince it was completed for us while we were yet ungodly? Yea,\nwe have the benefit of it: \"For--when we were enemies, we were\nreconciled to God by the death of his Son.\" (Rom 5:10)\n\nWhen I say, the benefit, I mean that benefit that we are capable\nof, and that is justification before God; for that a man may be\ncapable of while he is in himself ungodly, because this justice\ncomes to him by the righteousness of another. True, was it to be\nhis own righteousness by which he was to be justified, he should\nnot, could not so be, as or while he is ungodly. But the righteousness\nis Christ's, and that imputed by God, not as a reward for work,\nor of debt, but freely by his grace, to the glory of it, and\ntherefore may be done, and is so, while the person concerned is\nwithout works, ungodly, and a sinner.\n\nAnd he that denieth that we are capable of this benefit while we\nare sinners and ungodly, may with like reason deny that we are\ncreated beings. For that which is done for a man without him, may\nbe done for him, not only at any time which they that do it shall\nappoint, but for him while in any condition in this world. While\na man is a beggar, may not I make him worth ten thousand a year,\nif I can and will; yea and yet he shall not know thereof in that\nmoment that I make him so? yet the revenue of that estate shall\nreally be his from the moment that I make him so, and he shall\nknow it too at the rent-day.\n\nThis is the case, we are sinners and ungodly; there is a righteousness\nwrought out by Jesus Christ, the which God hath designed we shall\nbe made righteous by; and by it, if he will impute it to us, we\nshall be righteous in his sight, even then when we are yet ungodly\nin ourselves; \"for he justifies the ungodly.\"\n\nNow though it is irregular and blame-worthy in man to justify the\nwicked, because he cannot for the wicked provide, and clothe him\nwith a justifying righteousness; yet it is glorious and for ever\nworthy of praise for God to do it; because it is in his power not\nonly to forgive, but to make a man righteous, even then when he\nis a sinner, and to justify him, as afore is proved, while he is\nungodly.\n\nObjection. But it may be yet objected, That though God has received\nsatisfaction for sin, and so sufficient terms of reconciliation\nby the obedience and death of his Son, yet he imputeth it not unto\nus but upon condition of our becoming good.\n\nAnsw. This must not be admitted: For,\n\n1. The scripture saith not so; but that we are reconciled to God by\nthe death of his Son, and justified too, and that while, or when\nwe are sinners and ungodly.\n\n2. If this objection carrieth the truth in it, then it follows,\nthat the Holy Ghost, faith, and so all grace, may be given to us,\nand we may have it dwelling in us, yea, acting in us, before we\nstand righteous in the judgment of the law before God; for nothing\ncan make us stand just before God in the judgment of the law, but\nthe obedience of the Son of God without us. And if the Holy Ghost,\nfaith and so consequently the habit of every grace, may be in\nus, acting in us, before Christ's righteousness be by God imputed\nto us, then we are not justified as sinners and ungodly: but as\npersons inherently holy and righteous before.\n\nBut I have over and over already shewed you, that this cannot be,\ntherefore righteousness for justification must be imputed first.\nAnd here let me present the reader with two or three things.\n\n(1.) That justification before God is one thing; and justification\nto the understanding and conscience is another. Now, I am treating\nof justification before God, not of it as to man's understanding\nand conscience, and I say, a man may be justified before God, even\nthen when himself knoweth nothing thereof (Isa 40:2, Matt 9:2),\nand so when and while he hath not faith about it, but is ungodly.\n\n(2.) There is a justification by faith, by faith's applying of\nthat righteousness to the understanding and conscience, which God\nhath afore of his grace imputed for righteousness to the soul for\njustification in his sight. And this is that by which we, as to\nsense and feeling, have peace with God: \"Being justified by faith\nwe have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\" (Rom 5:1)\nAnd these two the Apostle keepeth distinct, a little lower in\nthis chapter: for after that he had said in the tenth verse, that\nwhile \"we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death\nof his Son\": He addeth, \"And not only so, but we also joy in God\nthrough our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the\natonement.\" (verse 11) Here you see that to be reconciled to God\nby the death of his Son, is one thing; and for us actually, for\nthat I think he aimeth at, to receive by faith, this reconciliation,\nis another. That is a thing over and above, and not only so, but\nwe have received the atonement.\n\n(3.) Men do not gather their justification from God's single act\nof imputing of righteousness, that we might stand clear in his\nsight from the curse and judgment of the law; but from the word,\nthe which they neither see nor understand, till it is brought to\ntheir understanding by the light and glory of the Holy Ghost.\n\nWe are not therefore in the ministry of the word to pronounce any\nman justified, from a supposition that God has imputed righteousness\nto him, since that act is not known to us, until the fruits that\nfollow thereupon do break out before our eyes; to wit, the signs\nand effects of the Holy Ghost's indwelling in our souls. And then\nwe may conclude it; that is, that such a one stands just before\nGod, yet not for the sake of his inherent righteousness, nor yet\nfor the fruits thereof, and so not for the sake of the act of\nfaith, but for the sake of Jesus Christ his doing and suffering\nfor us.\n\nNor will it avail to object, That if at first we stand just before\nGod by his imputing of Christ's righteousness unto us, though\nfaith be not in us to act, we may always stand justified so; and\nso what need of faith? For therefore are we justified, first, by\nthe imputation of God, as we are ungodly, that thereby we might\nbe made capable of receiving of the Holy Ghost, and his graces in\na way of righteousness and justice. Besides, God will have those\nthat he shall justify by his grace through the redemption that is\nin Jesus Christ, to have the Holy Ghost, and so faith, that they\nmay know and believe the things not only that shall be, but that\nalready ARE, freely given to us of God. Now, says Paul, \"we have\nreceived, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of\nGod; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of\nGod.\" (1 Cor 2:12) To know, that is, to believe. It is given to\nyou to believe, who believe according to the working of his mighty\npower, \"and we have known and believed the love that God hath to\nus,\" preceding to our believing. (1 John 4:16) He then that is\njustified by God's imputation, shall believe by the power of the\nHoly Ghost; for that must come, and work faith, and strengthen the\nsoul to act it, because imputed righteousness has gone before. He\nthen that believeth shall be saved; for his believing is a sign,\nnot a cause, of his being made righteous before God by imputation:\nAnd he that believeth not shall be damned, because his non-belief\nis a sign that he is not righteous, and a cause that his sins\nabide upon him.\n\nAnd thus much for the Pharisee, and for his information; and now\nI come to that part of the text which remains, which part in special\nrespecteth the Publican.\n\n[THE PUBLICAN'S PRAYER.]\n\nAnd THE PUBLICAN, STANDING AFAR OFF, WOULD NOT LIFT UP SO MUCH AS\nHIS EYES UNTO HEAVEN, BUT SMOTE UPON HIS BREAST, SAYING, GOD BE\nMERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER.\n\nWhat this Publican was, I have shewed you, both with respect to\nhis nation, office, and disposition. Wherefore I shall not here\ntrouble the reader as to that, with a second rehearsal of these\nthings; we now therefore come to his repentance in the whole and\nin the parts of it; concerning which I shall take notice of several\nthings, some more remote, and some more near to the matter and\nlife of it.\n\nBut first let us see how thwart and cross the Pharisee and the\nPublican did lie in the temple one to another, while they both\nwere presenting of their prayers to God.\n\nFirst, The Pharisee he goes in boldly, fears nothing, but trusteth\nin himself that his state is good, that God loves him, and that\nthere was no doubt to be made but of his good speed in this his\nreligious enterprize. But alas! poor Publican, he sneaks, he leers,\nhe is hardly able to crawl into the temple, and when he comes\nthere, stands behind, aloof off, as one not worthy to approach\nthe divine presence.\n\nSecond, The Pharisee at his approach hath his mouth full of\nsomething, yea of many fine things, whereby he strokes himself over\nthe head, and in effect calls himself, and that in his presence,\none of God's white boys, that always kept close to his will, abode\nwith him; or as the prodigal's brother said, \"Lo, these many years\ndo I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment\"\n(Luke 15:29); But alas! poor Publican thy guilt, as to these pleas,\nstops thy mouth, thou hast not one good thing to say of thyself,\nnot one rag of righteousness; thy conversation tells thee so, thy\nconscience tells thee so; yea, and if thou shouldest now attempt\nto set a good face on it, and for thy credit say something after\nthe Pharisee in way of thine own commendations, yet here is God\non the one side, the Pharisee on the other, together with thine\nown heart to give thee check, to rebuke thee, to condemn thee,\nand to lay thee even with the ground for thy insolency.\n\nThird, The Pharisee in his approach to God, wipes his fingers of\nthe Publican's enormities, will not come nigh him, lest he should\ndefile him with his beastly rags: \"I am not as other men are,--or\neven as this Publican.\" But the poor Publican, alas for him, his\nfingers are not clean, nor can he tell how to make them so; besides,\nhe meekly and quietly puts up this reflection of the Pharisee\nupon him, and by silent behaviour, justifies the severe sentence\nof that self-righteous man, concluding with him, that for his part,\nhe is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and\nnot worthy to come nigh, or to stand by, so good, so virtuous, so\nholy, and so deserving a man as our spangling Pharisee is.\n\nFourth, The Pharisee, as at feasts and synagogues, chose the chief\nand first place for his person, and for his prayer, counting that\nthe Publican was not meet, ought not to presume to let his stinking\nbreath once come out of his polluted lips in the temple, till he\nhad made his holy prayer. And poor Publican, how dost thou hear\nand put up this with all other affronts, counting even as the\nPharisee counted of thee, that thou wast but a dog in comparison\nof him, and therefore not fit to go before, but to come as in\nchains, behind, and forbear to present thy mournful and debrorous30\nsupplication to the holy God, till he had presented him with his,\nin his own conceit, brave, gay, and fine oration.\n\nFifth, The Pharisee, as he is numerous in his repeating of his good\ndeeds, so is stiff in standing to them, bearing up himself, that\nhe hath now sufficient foundation on which to bear up his soul\nagainst all the attempts of the law, the devil, sin and hell. But\nalas, poor Publican! Thou standest naked; nay, worse than naked;\nfor thou art clothed with filthy garments, thy sins cover thy face\nwith shame: nor hast thou in, from, or of thyself, any defence\nfrom, or shelter against the attempts, assaults, and censures of\nthy ghostly enemies, but art now in thine own eyes, though in the\ntemple, cast forth into the open field stark naked, to the loathing\nof thy person, as in the day that thou was born, and there ready\nto be devoured or torn in pieces for thy transgressions against\nthy God.\n\nWhat wilt thou do Publican! What wilt thou do! Come, let's see,\nwhich way wilt thou begin to address thyself to God; bethink thyself\nman, has thou any thing to say, speak out man, the Pharisee by\nthis time has done, and received his sentence. Make an O yes;31\nlet all the world be silent; yea, let the angels of heaven come\nnear and listen; for the Publican is come to have to do with God!\nYea, is come from the receipt of custom into the temple to pray\nto him.\n\n\"And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as\nhis eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be\nmerciful to me a sinner.\" And is this thy way poor Publican! O\ncunning sinner! O crafty Publican! thy wisdom has outdone the\nPharisee, for it is better to apply ourselves to God's mercy, than\nto trust to ourselves that we are righteous. But that the Publican\ndid hit the mark, yea, get nearer unto, and more into the heart\nof God and his Son than did the Pharisee, the sequel of the matter\nwill make manifest.\n\nTake notice then of this profound speech of the Publican, every\nword is heavier than the earth, and has more argument in it, than\nhas ten thousand Pharisaical prayers. \"God be merciful to me a\nsinner.\" Yea, the Son of God was so delighted with this prayer,\nthat for the sake of it, he, even as a limner, draweth out the\nPublican in his manner of standing, behaviour, gestures, &c. while\nhe makes this prayer to God: Wherefore we will take notice both\nof the one and of the other; for surely his gestures put lustre\nunto his prayer and repentance.\n\nFIRST, His prayer you see is this, \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nSECOND, His gestures in his prayer were in general three.\n\nFirst, He stood afar off.\n\nSecond, He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.\n\nThird, He smote upon his breast, with his fist, saying, \"God be\nmerciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nFIRST, To begin first with is prayer. In his prayer we have\ntwo things to consider of. First, His confession: I am a sinner.\nSecond, His imploring of help against this malady: \"God be merciful\nto me a sinner.\"\n\n[His Confession.]\n\nFirst, In his confession divers things are to be taken notice of.\nAs,\n\n1. The fairness and simplicity of his confession: A sinner: I am\na sinner; \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\" This indeed he was,\nand this indeed confesses; and this, I say, he doth of godly\nsimplicity. For, for a man to confess himself a sinner, it is to\nspeak all against himself that can be spoken. And man, as degenerate,\nis too much an hypocrite, and too much a self-flatterer, thus to\nconfess against himself, unless made simple and honest about the\nthing through the power of conviction upon his heart. And it is\nyet worth your noting, that he doth not say he was, or had been,\nbut that at that time his state was such, to wit, a sinner. \"God\nbe merciful to me a sinner,\" or who am, and now stand before thee\na sinner, or, in my sins.\n\nNow a little to shew you what it is to be a sinner; for every one\nthat sinneth may not in a proper sense be called a sinner. Saints,\nthe sanctified in Christ Jesus, do often sin, but it is not proper\nto call them sinners: But here the Publican calls himself a sinner;\nand therefore in effect, calls himself an evil tree, one that hath\nneither good nature, nor that beareth good fruit: one whose body\nand soul is polluted, whose mind and conscience is defiled: one\nwho hath \"walked according to the course of this world, and after\nthe spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.\" They\nhaving their minds at enmity with or against God, and are taken\ncaptive by the devil at his will. A sinner, one whose trade hath\nbeen in and about sin, and the works of Satan all his days.\n\nThus he waves all pleas, and shews of pleas, and stoops his neck\nimmediately to the block. Though he was a base man, yet he might\nhave had pleas; pleas, I say, as well as the Pharisee, though not\nso many, yet as good. He was of the stock of Abraham, a Jew, an\nIsraelite of the Israelites, and so a privileged man in the things\nand religion of the Jews, else what doth he do in the temple?\nYea, why did not the Pharisee, if he was a heathen, lay that to\nhis charge while he stood before God? but the truth is, he could\nnot; for the Publican was a Jew as well as the Pharisee, and\nconsequently might, had he been so disposed, have pleaded that\nbefore God. But that he would not, he could not, for his conscience\nwas under convictions, the awakenings of God were upon him;\nwherefore his privileges melt away like grease, and fly from him\nlike the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, which the wind taketh\nup and scattereth as the dust; he therefore lets all privileges\nfall, and pleads only that he is \"a sinner.\"\n\n2. In this confession he judges and condemns himself: For, for a\nman to say, \"I am a sinner,\" is as much as to say, I am contrary to\nthe holiness of God, a transgressor of his law, and consequently\nan object of the curse, and an heir of hell. The Publican therefore\ngoeth very far in this his confession, but this is not all; for,\nfor a man to confess that he is a sinner, is in the\n\n3. Third place, to confess, that there is nothing in him, done, or\ncan be done by him, that should allure, or prevail with God to do\nany thing for him. For a sinner cannot do good; no, nor work up\nhis heart unto one good thought: no, though he should have heaven\nitself, if he could; or was sure to burn in hell fire for ever\nand ever if he could not. For sin, where it is in possession and\nbears rule, as it doth in every one that we may properly call a\nsinner, there it hath the mastery of the man, hath bound up his\nsenses in cords and chains, and made nothing so odious to the soul\nas are the things that be of the Spirit of God. Wherefore it is\nsaid of such, that they are enemies in their minds; that the\ncarnal mind is enmity to God, and that wickedness proceedeth of\nthe wicked; and that the Ethiopian may as well change his skin,\nor the leopard his spots, as they that are accustomed to do evil\nmay learn to do well. (Eph 2, Rom 8, 1 Sam 24:13, Jer 13:23)\n\n4. In this confession, he implicitly acknowledgeth, that sin is\nthe worst of things, forasmuch as it layeth the soul without the\nreach of all remedy that can be found under heaven. Nothing below,\nor short of the mercy of God, can deliver a poor soul from this\nfearful malady. This the Pharisee did not see. Doubtless he did\nconclude, that at some time or other he had sinned; but he never\nin all his life did arrive to a sight of what sin was: His knowledge\nof it was but false and counterfeit, as is manifest by his cure;\nto wit, his own righteousness. For take this for a truth undeniable,\nthat he that thinks himself better before God, because of his\nreformations, never yet had the true knowledge of his sin: But\nthe poor Publican he had it, he had it in truth, as is manifest,\nbecause it drives him to the only sovereign remedy. For indeed,\nthe right knowledge of sin, in the guilt and filth, and damning\npower thereof, makes a man to understand, that not any thing but\ngrace and mercy by Christ, can secure him from the hellish ruins\nthereof.\n\nSuppose a man sick of an apoplexy unto death, and should for his\nremedy make use only of those things that are good against the\nsecond ague, would not this demonstrate that this man was not\nsensible of the nature and danger of this disease. The same may\nbe said of every sinner, that shall make use only of those means\nto justify him before God, that can hardly make him go for a good\nChristian before judicious men. But the poor Publican, he knew the\nnature of his disease, the danger of his disease; and knew also,\nthat nothing but mercy, infinite mercy could cure him thereof.\n\n5. This confession of the Publican, declareth that he himself was\nborn up now, by an almighty, though invisible hand. For sin, when\nseen in its colours, and when appearing in its monstrous shape\nand hue, frighteth all mortals out of their wits, away from God;\nand if he stops them not, also out of the world. This is manifest\nby Cain, Judas, Saul, and others, who could not stand up before\nGod under the sense and appearance of their sin, but fly before\nhim, one to one fruit of despair, and one to another. But now this\nPublican, though he apprehends his sin, and that himself was one\nthat was a sinner, yet he beareth up, cometh into the temple,\napproaches the presence of an holy and sin-revenging God, stands\nbefore him, and confesses that he is that ugly man, that man that\nsin had defiled, and that had brought himself into the danger of\ndamnation thereby.\n\nThis therefore was a mighty act of the Publican. He went against\nthe voice of conscience, against sense and feeling, against the\ncurse and condemning verdict of the law; he went, as I may say,\nupon hot burning coals to one, that to sin and sinners is nothing\nbut consuming fire.\n\nNow then, did the Publican this of his own head, or from his now\nmind? No verily, there was some supernatural power within that\ndid secretly prompt him on, and strengthen him to this most noble\nventure. True, there is nothing more common among wicked men, than\nto tick and toy, and play with this saying of the Publican, \"God\nbe merciful to me a sinner\"; not at all being sensible either\nwhat sin is, or of their need of mercy. And such sinners shall\nfind their speed in the Publican's prayer, far otherwise than the\nPublican sped himself; it will happen unto them much as it happened\nunto the vagabond Jews, exorcists, who took upon them to call over\nthem that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus; that were\nbeaten by that spirit and made fly out of that house naked and\nwounded. (Acts 19:13-16) Poor sinner, dead sinner, thou wilt say\nthe Publican's prayer, and make the Publican's confession, and\nsay, \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\" But hold, dost thou do it\nwith the Publican's heart, sense, dread and simplicity? If not,\nthou dost but abuse the Publican and his prayer, and thyself, and\nhis God; and shalt find God rejecting of thee and thy prayers,\nsaying, The Publican I know, his prayers, and tears, and godly\ntears I know; but who or what art thou? And will send thee away\nnaked and wounded. They are the hungry that he filleth with good\nthings, but the rich and the senseless, he sendeth empty away.\n\nFor my part, I find it one of the hardest things that I can put my\nsoul upon, even to come to God, when warmly sensible that I am a\nsinner, for a share in grace and mercy. Oh! methinks it seems to\nme as if the whole face of the heavens were set against me. Yea,\nthe very thought of God strikes me through, I cannot bear up, I\ncannot stand before him, I cannot but with a thousand tears say,\n\"God be merciful to me a sinner.\" (Ezra 9:15) At another time\nwhen my heart is more hard and stupid, and when his terror doth\nnot make me afraid, then I can come before him and talk of my\nsins, and ask mercy at his hand, and scarce be sensible of sin\nor grace, or that indeed I am before God: But above all, they are\nthe rare times, when I can go to God as the Publican, sensible\nof his glorious majesty, sensible of my misery, and bear up, and\naffectionately cry, \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nBut again, the Publican by his confession, showeth a piece of the\nhighest wisdom that a mortal man can show; because by so doing, he\nengageth as well as imploreth the grace and mercy of God to save\nhim. You see by the text he imploreth it; and now I will shew you\nthat he engageth it, and makes himself a sharer in it.\n\n\"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth\nand forsaketh them shall have mercy.\" (Prov 28:13) And again, \"If\nwe confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our\nsins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\" (1 John 1:9)\n\n[He engageth it.] In the promise of pardon, He shall find mercy;\nhe shall have his sins forgiven. As also Solomon prays, that God\nwill forgive them that know their own sore, and they are indeed,\nsuch as are sensible of the plague of their own heart. (2 Chron\n6:29,30, 1 Kings 8:37,38) And the reason is, because the sinner is\nnow driven to the farthest point; for confession is the farthest\npoint, and the utmost bound unto which God has appointed the\nPublican to go, with reference to his work. As it is said of Saul\nto David, when he was about to give him Micah his daughter to\nwife, \"The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins\nof the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.\" (1 Same\n18:25)\n\nSo says God in this matter, I desire no sacrifices, nor legal\nrighteousness to make thee acceptable to me, only acknowledge and\nconfess thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against me.\n(Jer 3:12,13) And though this by some may be thought to be a very\neasy way to come at, and partake of, the mercy of God; yet let the\nsensible sinner try it, and he shall find it one of the hardest\nthings in the world. And there are two things, to which man is\nprone, that makes confession hard.\n\nI. There is a great incidency in us to be partial, and not thorough\nand plain in our confessions. We are apt to make half confessions;\nto confess some, and hide some; or else to make feigned confessions,\nflattering both ourselves, and also God, while we make confession\nunto him; or else to confess sin as our own fancies apprehend, and\nnot as the word descries them. These things we are very incident\nto: Men can confess little sins, while they hide great ones. Men\ncan feign themselves sorry for sin, when they are not, or else in\ntheir confessions forget to judge of sin by the word. Hence it is\nsaid, They turned to God, not with their whole heart, but as it\nwere feignedly. They spake not aright, saying, what have I done?\nThey flatter him with their lips, and lie unto him with their\ntongues, and do their wickedness in the dark, and sin against him\nwith a high hand, and then come to him and cover the altar with\ntheir tears. These things therefore, demonstrate the difficulty\nof sincere confession of sin; and that to do it as it should, is\nno such easy thing.\n\nTo right confession of sin, several things must go. As,\n\n1. There must be found conviction for sin upon the spirit: for before\na man shall be convinced of the nature, aggravation, and evil of\nsin, how shall he make godly confession of it? Now to convince\nthe soul of sin, the law must be set home upon the conscience by\nthe Spirit of God; \"For by the law is the knowledge of sin.\" (Rom\n3:20) And again, \"I had not known sin except the law had said,\nThou shalt not covet.\" (Rom 7:7) This law, now, when it effectually\nministereth conviction of sin to the conscience, doth it by putting\nof life, and strength, and terror into sin. By its working on the\nconscience, it makes sin revive, \"and the strength of sin is the\nlaw.\" (1 Cor 15:56) It also increaseth and multiplieth sin, both\nby the revelation of God's anger against the soul; and also by\nmustering up, and calling to view sins committed, and forgotten\ntime out of mind. Sin seen in the glass of the law is a terrible\nthing, no man can behold it and live. \"When the commandment came,\nsin revived, and I died\"; when it came from God to my conscience,\nas managed by an almighty arm, \"then it slew me.\" And now is the\ntime to confess sin, because now a soul knows what it is, and sees\nwhat it is, both in the nature and consequence of it.\n\n2. To right confession of sin, there must be sound knowledge of God,\nespecially as to his justice, holiness, righteousness, and purity;\nwherefore the Publican here begins his confession by calling\nupon, or by the acknowledgement of his majesty: \"God be merciful\nto me a sinner.\" As if he should say, God, O God, O great God, O\nsin-revenging God, I have sinned against thee, I have broken thy\nlaw, I have opposed thy holiness, thy justice, thy law, and thy\nrighteous will. O consuming fire! for our God is a consuming fire,\nI have justly provoked thee to wrath, and to take vengeance of me\nfor my transgressions. But, alas! how few, that make confession of\nsin, have right apprehension of God, unto whom confession of sin\ndoth belong! Alas, 'tis easy for men to entertain such apprehensions\nof God as shall please their own humours, and as will admit them\nwithout dying, to bear up under their sense of sin, and that shall\nmake their confession rather facile, and fantastical, than solid\nand heart-breaking. The sight and knowledge of the great God is to\nthe sinful man the most dreadful thing in the world; and is that\nwhich makes confession of sin so rare and wonderful a thing. Most\nmen confess their sins behind God's back, but few to his face;\nand you know there is ofttimes a vast difference in one thus doing\namong men.\n\n3. To right confession of sin, there must be a deep conviction of\nthe certainty and terribleness of the day of judgment. This John\nthe Baptist inserts, where he insinuates, that the Pharisees' want\nof sense of, and the true confession of sin, was because they had\nnot been warned, or had not taken the alarm, to flee from the\nwrath to come. What dread, terror, or frightful apprehension can\nthere be put into a revelation of sin, where there is no sense of\na day of judgment, and of our giving there unto God an account\nfor it. (Matt 3:7, Luke 3:7)\n\nI say therefore, to right confession of sin there must be,\n\n(1.) A deep conviction of the certainty of the day of judgment;\nnamely, that such a day is coming, that such a day shall be. This\nthe apostle insinuates, where he saith, \"God commandeth all men\nevery where to repent; Because he hath appointed a day, in the\nwhich he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom\nhe hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,\nin that he hath raised him from the dead.\" (Acts 17:30,31)\n\nThis will give a sense of what the soul must expect at that day\nfor sin, and so will drive to an hearty acknowledgment of it, and\nstrong cries for deliverance from it. For thus will the soul argue\nthat expecteth the judgment day, and that believes that he must\ncount for all there. O my heart! It is in vain now to dissemble,\nor to hide, or to lessen transgressions; for there is a judgment\nto come, a day in which God will judge \"the secrets of men by his\nSon,\" and at that day he will bring to light \"the hidden things of\ndarkness, and will make manifest the counsel of the heart.\" If it\nmust be so then, to what boot32 will it be now to seek to dissemble,\nor to lessen in this matter. (1 Cor 4:5) This also is in the Old\nTestament urged as an argument to cause youth, and persons of all\nsizes to recall themselves to sobriety, and so to confession of\ntheir sin to God; where the Holy Ghost saith ironically, \"Rejoice,\nO young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the\ndays of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in\nthe sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things\nGod will bring thee into judgment.\" (Eccl 11:9) So again, \"God\nshall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,\nwhether good, or whether evil.\" (Eccl 12:14)\n\nThe certainty of this, I say, must go to the producing of a\nsincere confession of sin, and this is intimated by the Publican,\nwho, with his confession, addeth a hearty crave for mercy, \"God\nbe merciful to me a sinner.\" As if he should say, if thou art\nnot merciful to me, by thy judgment when thou comest I shall be\nswallowed up; without thy mercy I shall not stand, but fall by\nthe judgment which thou hast appointed.\n\n(2.) As there must be, for the producing of sincere confession of\nsin, a deep conviction of the certainty, so there must also be of\nthe terribleness of the day of judgment. Wherefore the apostle,\nmakes use of the first, so of this to put men upon repentance, an\ningredient of which is sincere confession of sin. \"For we must\nall appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may\nreceive the things done in his body, according to that he hath\ndone, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror\nof the Lord, we persuade men.\" (2 Cor 5:10,11) The terror of the\nLord, as we see here, he makes use of that, to persuade men to\ncome by confession of sin, and repentance, to God for mercy.\n\nAnd I am persuaded, that it will be found a truth one day that one\nreason that this day doth so swarm with wanton professors, is,\nbecause they have not begun at sound conviction for, nor gone to\nGod at first with sincere confession of sin. And one cause of that\nhas been, for that they did never seriously fall in with, nor yet\nin heart sink under, either the certainty or terribleness of the\nday of judgment.\n\nO! the terrors of the Lord! the amazing face that will be put upon\nall things before the tribunal of God. Yea, the terror that will\nthen be read in the face of God, of Christ, of saints and angels,\nagainst the ungodly; whoso believes and understands it, cannot\nlive without confession of sin to God, and coming to him for mercy.\n\nMountains, mountains fall upon us, and cover us, will then the cry\nof the ungodly be, and \"hide us from the face of him that sitteth\nupon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great\nday of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?\" This\nterror is also signified where it is said, \"and I saw a great white\nthrone, and him that sat on it, from whose face the [very] earth\nand the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.\nAnd I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the\nbooks were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book\nof life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were\nwritten in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave\nup the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the\ndead which were in them: and they were judged every man according\nto their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.\nThis is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in\nthe book of life was cast into the lake of fire.\" (Rev 20) Here\nis terror, and this terror is revealed afore-hand in the word of\nthe truth of God, that sinners might hear and read and consider\nit, and so come and confess, and implore God's mercy.\n\nThe terror of the Lord, how will it appear, when he \"shall be\nrevealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking\nvengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\" (2 Thess 1:7-9)\n\nThe terror of the Lord, how will it appear, when his wrath shall\nburn and flame out like an oven, or a fiery furnace before him,\nwhile the wicked stand in his sight. (Matt 13:50)\n\nThe terror of the Lord, how will it appear, while the angels at\nhis commandment shall gather the wicked in bundles to burn them!\n\"As--the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it\nbe in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his\nangels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that\noffend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a\nfurnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.\"\n(Matt 13:40-42) Who can conceive of this terror to its full with\nhis mind? Wherefore much more unable are men to express it with\ntongue or pen; yet the truly penitent and sin-confessing Publican,\nhath apprehension so far thereof, by the word of the testimony,\nthat it driveth him to God, with a confession of sin for an\ninterest in God's mercy. But,\n\n4. To right and sincere confession of sin, there must be a good\nconviction of a probability of mercy. This also is intimated by the\nPublican in his confession; \"God [saith he] be merciful to me a\nsinner.\" He had some glimmerings of mercy, some conviction of a\nprobability of mercy, or that he might obtain mercy for his pardon,\nif he went, and with unfeigned lips did confess his sins to God.33\n\nDespair of mercy, shuts up the mouth, makes the heart hard, and\ndrives a man away from God; as is manifest in the case of Adam\nand the fallen angels. But the least intimation of mercy, if the\nheart can but touch, feel, taste, or have the least probability\nof it, that will open the mouth, tend to soften the heart, and to\nmake a very Publican come up to God into the temple and say, \"God\nbe merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nThere must then be this holy mixture of things in the heart of a\ntruly confessing Publican. There must be sound sense of sin, sound\nknowledge of God: deep conviction of the certainty and terribleness\nof the day of judgment, as also of the probability of obtaining\nmercy.\n\nBut to come to that which remains; I told you that there were two\nthings that did make unfeigned confession hard. The first I have\ntouched upon.\n\nII. And now the second follows: And that is, some private, close\nleaning to some piece or parcel of goodness, that a man shall\nconceit that he hath done before, or is doing now, or that he\npurposeth in his deceitful heart that he will do one of these\ndays, with which he hopes to prevail with God for the pardon of\nhis sins. This man to be sure knows not sin in the nature and evil\nof it, only he has some false apprehensions about it. For where\nthe right knowledge of sin is in the heart, that man sees so much\nevil in the least transgression, as that it would, even any one\nsin, break the backs of all the angels of heaven, should the great\nGod but impute it to them. And he that sees this is far enough\noff from thinking of doing to mitigate, or assuage the rigour of\nthe law, or to make pardonable his own transgressions thereby. But\nhe that sees not this, cannot confess his transgressions aright;\nfor the confession consisteth in the general, in a man's taking\nto himself his transgressions, and standing in them, with the\nacknowledgement of them to be his, and that he cannot stir from\nunder them, nor do any thing to make amends for them, or to palliate\nthe rigour of justice against the soul. And this the Publican did\nwhen he cried, \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nHe made his sins his own, he took them to him, he stood before in\nthem, accounting that he was surely undone for ever if God did\nnot extend forgiveness unto him. And this is to do as the prophet\nJeremy bids; to wit, \"only to acknowledge our iniquities,\" to\nacknowledge them and to stand in them at the terrible bar of God's\njustice, until mercy takes them out of the way; not shifting our\nshoulders or conscience of them, by doing, or promising to do,\neither this or that good work, only acknowledge, acknowledge only.\nAnd the reason of this kind of confession is,\n\n1. Because this carrieth in it the true nature of confession, to\nconfess, and to abide under the crimes confessed, without shifts\nand evasions, is the only real simple way of confessions. \"I said\nI would confess my transgressions unto the Lord\"; and what then,\n\"and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.\" (Psa 32:5) Mark,\nnothing comes in betwixt confession and forgiveness of sin, nothing\nof works of righteousness, nothing of legal amendments, nothing\nbut an outcry for mercy; and that act is so far off from lessening\nthe offence, that it greatly heighteneth and aggravates it. That\nis the first reason.\n\n2. A second reason is, because God doth expect that the penitent\nconfessors should for the time that his wisdom shall think meet,\nnot only confess, but bear their shame upon them; yea, saith God,\n\"be thou confounded also and bear thy shame,\" when God takes away\nthine iniquity, thou shalt be confounded and never open thy mouth\nmore because of thy shame. (Eze 16:52,63) We count it convenient\nthat men, when their crimes and transgressions are to be manifested,\nthat they be set in some open place, with a paper, wherein their\ntransgressions are inserted, pinned upon their back or their\nforehead, that they may not only confess, but bear their own\nshame.34 And at the penitential confession of sinners, God has\nsomething of this kind to do; if not before men, yet before angels,\nthat they may behold, and be affected, and rejoice when they shall\nsee, after the revelation of sin, the sinner taken into the favour\nand abundant mercy of God. (Luke 15)\n\n3. A third reason is, For that God will in the forgiveness of sin,\nmagnify the riches of his mercy; but this cannot be, if God shall\nsuffer, or accept of such confession of sin, as is yet intermixed\nwith those things that will darken the heinousness of the offence,\nand that will be darkened either by a partial, feigned, or overly\nconfession: or by a joining with the confession any of the sinners\npretended good deeds.\n\nThat God in the salvation, and so in the confession of the sinner,\ndesigns the magnifying of his mercy, is apparent enough from the\nwhole current of scripture, and that any of the things now mentioned\nwill, if suffered to be done, darken and eclipse this thing, is\nevident to reason itself.\n\nSuppose a man stand indicted for treason, yet shall so order the\nmatter, that it shall ring in the country, that his offences are\nbut petty crimes; though the king shall forgive this man, much\nglory shall not thereby redound to the riches and greatness of\nhis mercy. But let all things lie naked, let nothing lie hid or\ncovered, let sin be seen, shewn, and confessed, as it is with and\nin the sinner himself, and then there will be in his forgiveness\na magnifying of mercy.\n\n4. A fourth reason is, for that else God cannot be justified in\nhis sayings, nor overcome when he is judged. (Psa 51, Rom 3) God's\nword hath told us what sin is, both as to its nature and evil effects.\nGod's word hath told us, that the best of our righteousnesses are\nnot better than filthy rags. God's word has also told us, that\nsin is forgiven us freely by grace, and to for the sake of our\namendments: and all this God will have shewn, not only in the acts\nof his mercy towards, but even in the humiliations and confessions\nof the penitent: For God will have his mercy begin to be displayed\neven there where the sinner hath taken his first step toward him:\n\"That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign\nthrough righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.\"\n(Rom 5:21)\n\n5. A fifth reason is, because God would have by the Publican's\nconversion, others affected with the displays and discoveries of\nwonderful grace; but to cloud and cover it with lessening of sin,\nand the sinful righteousness of man, is not the way to do this.\nWherefore the sinner's confession must be such as is full, nor\nmust anything of his to lessen sin come in betwixt confession and\nmercy; and this is the way to affect others [who are] as bad as\nPublicans and sinners, and to make them come in to God for mercy.\n\nFor what will such say when sin begins to appear to the conscience,\nand when the law shall follow it with a voice of words, each one\nlike a clap of thunder? I say, what will such say when they shall\nread that the Publican did only acknowledge his iniquity, and found\ngrace and favour at the hand of God? But that God is infinitely\nmerciful; merciful indeed, and that to those, or to such, as do\nin truth stand in need of mercy. Also that he sheweth mercy of\nhis own good pleasure, nothing moving him thereto but the bounty\nof his own goodness and the misery of his creature.\n\nI say, this is the way to make others be affected with mercy; as\nhe saith, by the apostle Paul, \"But God, who is rich in mercy,\nfor his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead\nin sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, [by grace ye are\nsaved] and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in\nheavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might\nshew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward\nus through Christ Jesus.\" (Eph 2:4-7) You may also see that: 1\nTimothy 1:15, 16. 6. Another reason of this is, because this is\nthe way to heighten the comfort and consolation of the soul; and\nthat both here and hereafter. What tendeth more to this, than for\nsinners to see, and with guilt and amazement to confess what sin\nis, and so to have pardon extended from God to the sinner as such?\nThis fills the heart; this ravishes the soul! this puts a whole\nheaven of joy into every one of the thoughts of salvation from\nsin, and deliverance from wrath to come. \"And the ransomed of the\nLord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy\nupon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow\nand sighing shall flee away.\" (Isa 35:10) Indeed the belief of\nthis makes joy and gladness endless: I say, it will make it begin\nhere, and make that it shall never have consummation in heaven.\n\n7. Besides, it layeth upon the soul the greatest obligations to\nholiness; what like the apprehension of free forgiveness, and that\napprehension must come in through a sight of the greatness of\nsin, and of my inability to do anything towards satisfaction, to\nengage the heart of a rebel and traitor to love his prince, and\nto submit to his laws.\n\nWhen Elisha had taken the Syrians captives, some were for using\nseverities towards them; but he said, \"Set bread and water before\nthem, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master\"; and\nthey did so. And what follows, \"So the bands of Syria came no\nmore into the land of Israel.\" He conquered their malice with his\ncompassion. And it is the love of Christ that constraineth to live\nto him. (2 Kings 6:22,23, 2 Cor 5:14)\n\nMany other things might possibly be urged, but at present let these\nbe sufficient.\n\n[His imploring of mercy.]\n\nSecond. The second thing that we made mention of in the Publican's\nprayer was, an imploring of help against this malady; GOD BE\nMERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER. In which petition I shall take notice of\nseveral things.\n\nI. That a man's help against sins, doth not so absolutely lie\nin his personal conquest, as in the pardon of them. I suppose a\nconquest, though there can indeed by man be none, so long as he\nliveth in this world; I mean, a complete conquest and annihilation\nof sin.\n\nThe Publican, and so every graciously awakened sinner, is doubtless\nfor the subduing of sin; but yet he looketh that the chief help\nagainst it doth lie in the pardon of it. Suppose a man should\nstab his neighbour with his knife, and afterwards burn his knife\nto nothing in the fire, would this give him help against his\nmurder? No verily, notwithstanding this, his neck is obnoxious\nto the halter, yea, and his soul to hell fire. But a pardon gives\nhim absolute help: \"It is God that justifies, who shall condemn.\"\n(Rom 8) Suppose a man should live many days in rebellion against\nGod, and after that leave off to live any longer so rebelliously,\nwould this help him against the guilt which he contracted before?\nNo verily, without remission there is no help, but the rebel is\nundone. Wherefore the first blessedness, yea, and that without\nwhich all other things cannot make one blessed, it lies in pardon.\n\"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is\ncovered.\" (Psa 32:1) \"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will\nnot impute sin.\" (Rom 4:8)\n\nSuppose a man greatly sanctified and made holy; I say, suppose\nit; yet if the sins, before committed by him, be not pardoned, he\ncannot be a blessed man.\n\nYet again, Suppose a man should be caught up to heaven, not having\nhis sins pardoned, heaven itself cannot make him a blessed man. I\nsuppose these things, not that they can be, but to illustrate my\nmatter. There can be not blessedness upon any man who yet remaineth\nunforgiven. You see therefore here, that there was much of the\nwisdom of the Holy Ghost in this prayer of the Publican. He was\ndirected the right, the only, the next35 way to shelter, where\nblessedness begins even to mercy for the pardon of his sins. Alas!\nWhat would it advantage a traitor to be taken up into the king's\ncoach, to be clothed with the king's royal robe, to have put upon\nhis finger the king's gold ring, and to be made to wear, for the\npresent, a chain of gold about his neck, if after all this the\nking should say unto him, but I will not pardon thy rebellion;\nthou shalt die for thy treason? Pardon then, to him that loves\nlife, is chiefest, is better, and more to be preferred and sought\nafter, than all other things; yea, it is the highest point of\nwisdom in any sinner to seek after that first.\n\nThis therefore confuteth the blindness of some, and the hypocrisy\nof others. Some are so silly, and so blind, as quite to forget and\nlook over the pardon of sin, and to lay their happiness in some\nexternal amendments; when alas poor wretches, as they are, they abide\nstill under the wrath of God. Or if they be not quite so foolish\nas utterly to forget the forgiveness of sin, yet they think of it,\nbut in the second place; they are for setting of sanctification\nbefore justification, and so seek to confound the order of God;\nand that which is worse unto them, they by so doing, do what they\ncan to keep themselves indeed from being sharers in that great\nblessing of forgiveness of sins by grace.\n\nBut the Publican here was guided by the wisdom of heaven: He comes\ninto the temple, he confesseth himself a sinner, and forthwith,\nwithout any delay, before he removeth his foot from where he stands,\ncraveth help of pardon; for he knew that all other things, if yet\nhe remained as involved in guilt, would not help him against that\ndamnation that belonged to a vile and unforgiven sinner.\n\nThis also confuteth the hypocrites, such as is our Pharisee here\nin the text, that glory in nothing more, or so much, as that they\nare \"not as other men,--unjust, adulterers, extortioners, or even\nas this Publican\"; for these men have missed of the beginning of\ngood which is the forgiveness of sin; and if they have missed of\nthe first, of the beginning good, they shall never, as so standing,\nreceive the second, or the third: Justification, sanctification,\nglorification, they are the three things, but the order of God\nmust not be perverted. Justification must be first, because that\ncomes to man while he is ungodly and a sinner.\n\nJustification cannot be where God has not passed a pardon. A pardon\nthen is the first thing to be looked after by the sinner; this the\nPharisee did not, therefore he went down to his house unjustified;\nhe set the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face when\nhe went to enquire of the Lord; and as he neglected, slighted,\nscorned, because he thought that he had no need of pardon; therefore\nit was given to the poor, needy, and miserable Publican, and he\nwent away with the blessing of it.\n\nPUBLICANS, since this is so weighty a point, let me exhort you that\nyou do not forget this prayer of your wise and elder brother, to\nwit, the Publican, that went up into the temple to pray. I say,\nforget it not, neither suffer any vain-glorious or self-conceited\nhypocrite to beat you with arguments, or to allure you with their\nsilly and deceitful tongues, from this most wholesome doctrine.\nRemember that you are sinners, equal to, or as abominable as are the\nPublicans, wherefore do you, as you have him for your pattern, go\nto God, and to him confess in all simple, honest, and self-abasing-wise\nyour great, numerous, and abominable sins; and be sure that in the\nvery next place you forget not to ask for pardon, saying, \"God be\nmerciful to me a sinner.\" And remember that heaven itself cannot\nhelp you against, nor keep you from, the damnation and misery that\ncomes by sin, if 'twas possible you should go thither, if you miss\nof pardon and forgiveness.\n\nII. As the Publican imploreth help, so withal he closely approveth,\nnotwithstanding, of the sentence of the law that was gone out\nagainst him. This is manifest, for he saith to God, \"be merciful\nto me\"; and also in that he concludes himself \"a sinner.\" I say,\nhe justifieth, he approveth of the sentence of the law, that was\ngone out against him, and by which he now stood condemned in his\nown conscience before the tribunal of God's justice. He saith not\nas the hypocrite, \"Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall\nturn from me\" (Jer 2:35); or \"What have we spoken so much against\nthee?\" (Mal 3:13) No, he is none of these murmurers or complainers,\nbut fairly falls before the law, witnesses, judge and jury, and\nconsenteth to the verdict, sentence, and testimony of each of\nthem.\n\nTo illustrate this a little, suppose a malefactor should be\narraigned before a judge, and that after the witnesses, jury, and\njudge, have all condemned him to death for his fact, the judge\nagain should ask him what he can say for himself why sentence of\ndeath should not pass upon him? Now if he saith, nothing, but good,\nmy lord, mercy; he in sum confesseth the indictment, justifieth\nthe witnesses, approveth of the verdict of the jury, and consenteth\nto the judgment of the judge.\n\nThe Publican therefore in crying mercy, justifieth the sentence of\nthe law that was gone out against his sins: He wrangleth not with\nthe law, saying, that was too severe, though many men do thus,\nsaying, God forbid, for then woe be to us. He wrangleth not\nwith the witness, which was his own conscience, though some will\nbuffet, smite, and stop its mouth, or command it to be silent. He\nwrangleth not with the jury, which was the prophets and apostles,\nthough some men cannot abide to hear all that they say. He wrangleth\nnot with the judge, nor sheweth himself irreverently before him,\nbut in all humble-wise, with all manner of gestures that could\nbespeak him acquiescing with the sentence, he flieth to mercy for\nrelief.\n\nNor is this alone the way of the Publican; but of other godly\nmen before his time: When David was condemned, he justified the\nsentence and the judge, out of whose mouth it proceeded, and so\nfled for succour to the mercy of God. (Psa 51) When Shemaiah the\nprophet pronounced God's judgments against the princes of Judah\nfor their sin, they said, \"The Lord is righteous.\" (2 Chron 12:6)\nWhen the church in the Lamentations had reckoned up several of her\ngrievous afflictions wherewith she had been chastised of her God,\nshe, instead of complaining, doth justify the Lord, and approve\nof the sentence that was passed upon her, saying, \"The Lord\nis righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment.\" (Lam\n1:18) So Daniel, after he had enumerated the evils that befell\nthe church in his day, addeth, \"Therefore hath the Lord--brought\nit upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works\nwhich he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.\" (Dan 9:14)\n\nI know that all these do justify the judgment of God that was gone\nout against them, as the Publican did the sentence wherewith he\nwas condemned. And I say, that unless a man doth come hither, his\nconfession and cry for mercy is not right, and so according to\nthe scripture, reason, and nature of things as they ought to be;\nfor he that has any other plea, why doth he cry God, Mercy! Surely\nnot because he concludes that what is done, is done justly and\nrighteously against him, but because he is overruled by spite,\nprejudice, tyranny, or the like.\n\nBut this is not the case with our Publican. He has transgressed a\nlaw that is holy, just, and good: the witness that accuseth him of\nthis, is God and his conscience; he is also cast by the verdict of\nholy men of God; and all this he knows, and implicitly confesses,\neven in that he directs his prayer unto his judge for pardon.\nAnd it is one of the excellentest sights in the world to see, or\nunderstand a sinner thus honestly receiving the sentence of the\nlaw that is gone out against him; to see and hear a Publican thus\nto justify God.36 And this God will have done for these reasons.\n\n1. That it might be conspicuous to all that the Publican has need\nof mercy. This is for the glory of the justice of God, because it\nvindicates it in its goings out against the Publican. God loveth to\ndo things in justice and righteousness, when he goeth out against\nmen, though it be but such a going out against them as only tendeth\nto their conviction and conversions. When he dealt with our father\nAbraham in this matter, he called him to his foot, as here he\ndoth the Publican. And sinner, if ever God counts thee worthy to\ninherit the throne of glory, he will bring thee hither. But,\n\n2. The Publican, by the power of conviction stoops to, and falleth\nunder the righteous sentence gone forth against him, that it might\nbe also manifest that what afterward he shall receive is of the\nmere grace and sovereign goodness of God. And indeed there is\nno way that doth more naturally tend to make this manifest than\nthis. For thus; there is a man proceeded against for life, by the\nlaw, and the sentence of death is in conclusion most justly and\nrighteously passed upon him by the judge. Suppose now that after\nthis, this man lives, and is exalted to honour, enjoys great\nthings, and is put into place of trust and power, and that by him\nthat he has offended, even by him that did pass the sentence upon\nhim. What will all say, or what will they conclude, even upon the\nvery first hearing of this story? Will they not say, well, whoever\nhe was that found himself wrapped up in this strange providence,\nmust thank the mercy of a gracious prince; for all these things\nbespeak grace and favour. But,\n\n3. As the Publican falleth willingly under the sentence, and\njustifieth the passing of it upon him; so by his flying to mercy\nfor help, he declareth to all that he cannot deliver himself: He\nputteth help away from himself, or saith, it is not in me.\n\nThis, I say, is another thing included in this prayer, and it is\na thing distinct from that but now we have been speaking to. For\nit is possible for a man to justify and fall under the sentence of\nthe judge, and yet retain that with himself that will certainly\ndeliver him from that sentence when it has done its worst. Many\nhave held up their hand, and cried guilty at the bar, and yet\nhave fetched themselves off well enough for all that; but then\nthey have not pleaded mercy, for he that doth so, puts his life\naltogether into the hands of another, but privilege or good deeds\neither done or to be done by them. But the Publican in the text\nputs all out of his own hand; and in effect saith to that God\nbefore whom he went up into the temple to pray; Lord, I stand here\ncondemned at the bar of thy justice, and that worthily, for the\nsentence is good, and hath in righteousness gone out against me;\nnor can I deliver myself, I heartily and freely confess I cannot;\nwherefore I betake myself only to thy mercy, and do pray thee to\nforgive the transgressions of me a sinner. O how few be there of\nsuch kind of Publicans! I mean of Publicans thus made sensible,\nthat come unto God for mercy.\n\nMercy with most, is rather a compliment, I mean, while they plead\nit with God, than a matter of absolute necessity; they have not\nawfully, and in judgment and conscience fallen under the sentence,\nnor put themselves out of all plea but the plea of mercy. Indeed,\nthus to do, is the effect of the proof of the vanity and emptiness\nof all experiments made use of before. Now there is a two-fold\nproof of experiments; the one is, the result of practice; the\nother is, the result of faith.\n\nThe woman with her bloody issue made her proof by practice, when\nshe had spent all that she had upon physicians and was nothing\nbettered, but rather grew worse. (Mark 5:26) But our Publican here\nproves the emptiness and vanity of all other helps, by one cast\nof faith upon the contents of the bible, and by another look upon\nhis present state of condemnation; wherefore he presently, without\nany more ado, condemneth all other helps, ways, modes, or means\nof deliverance, and betakes himself only to the mercy of God,\nsaying, \"God be merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\nAnd herein he showeth wonderful wisdom. For,\n\n(1.) By this, He thrusts himself under the shelter and blessing of\nthe promise: and I am sure it is better and safer to do so, than\nto rely upon the best of excellences that this world can afford.\n(Hosea 14:1-4)\n\n(2.) He takes the ready way to please God; for God takes more delight\nin showing of mercy, than in any thing that we can do. (Hosea 6:6,\nMatt 9:13, 12:7) Yea and that also is the man that pleaseth him,\neven he that hopes in his mercy. (Psa 147:11) The Publican therefore,\nwhatever the Pharisee might think, stood all this while upon sure\nground, and had by far the start of him for heaven. Alas! his\ndull head could look no further than to the conceit of the pitiful\nbeauty and splendour of his own stinking righteousness.37 Nor\ndurst he leave that to trust wholly to the mercy of God; but the\nPublican comes out, though in his sins, yet like an awakened,\nenlightened, resolved man, and first abases himself, then gives God\nthe glory of his justice, and after that the glory of his mercy,\nby saying, \"God be merciful to me a sinner\"; and thus in the ears\nof the angels he did ring the changes of heaven. Again,\n\n(3.) The Publican, in his thus putting himself upon mercy, showeth,\nthat in his opinion there is more virtue in mercy to save, than\nthere is in the law and sin to condemn. And although this is not\ncounted a great matter to do, while men are far from the law, and\nwhile their conscience is asleep within them; yet when the law\ncomes near, and conscience is awake, who so tries it, will find\nit a laboursome work. Cain could not do thus for his heart, no,\nnor Saul; nor Judas, neither. This is another kind of thing than\nmost men think it to be, or shall find it, whenever they shall\nbehold God's angry face, and when they shall hear the words of\nhis law.\n\nHowever our Publican did it, and ventured his body, soul, and\nfuture condition for ever in this bottom, with other the saints\nand servants of God, leaving of the world to swim over the sea\nof God's wrath if they will, in their weak and simple vessels of\nbulrushes, or to lean upon their cobweb-hold, when he shall arise\nto the judgment that he hath appointed.\n\nIn the mean time pray God awaken us as he did the Publican; pray\nGod enlighten us as he did the Publican; pray God grant us boldness\nto come to him as the Publican did; and also in that trembling\nspirit as he did, when he cried in the temple before him, \"God be\nmerciful to me a sinner.\"\n\n[His Gestures.]\n\nTHIRD. Thus having in brief passed over his prayer, we come in\nthe next place to his gestures; for in my judgment the right\nunderstanding of them will give us yet more conviction of the\nPublican's sense and awakening of spirit under this present action\nof his.\n\nAnd I have observed many a poor wretch that has readily had recourse\nto the Publican's prayer, that never knew what the Publican's\nGESTURES, in the presence of God, while in prayer before him, did\nmean. Nor must any man be admitted to think, that those gestures\nof his were in custom, and a formality among the Jews in those\ndays; for 'tis evident enough by the carriage of the Pharisee,\nthat it was below them and their mode, when they came into the\ntemple, or when they prayed any where else; and they in those\ndays were counted for the best of men, and men too in religious\nmatters they were to imitate and take their examples at the hands\nof the best, not at the hands of the worst.\n\nThe Publican's gestures then, were properly his own, caused by the\nguilt of sin, and by that dread of the majesty of God that was\nupon his spirit. And a comely posture it was, else Christ Jesus,\nthe Son of God, would never have taken that particular notice\nthereof as he did, nor have smiled upon it so much as to take it,\nand distinctly repeat it as that which made his prayer the more\nweighty, and the more also to be taken notice of. Yea, in mine\nopinion, the Lord Jesus has committed it to record, for that he\nliked it, and for that it shall pass for some kind of touchstone\nof prayer, that is made in good sense of sin, and of God, and of\nneed of his goodness and mercy. For verily, all these postures\nsignify sense, sight of a lost condition, and a heart in good\nearnest for mercy.\n\nI know that they may be counterfeited, and Christ Jesus knows who\ndoth so too; but that will not hinder, or make weak or invalid\nwhat hath already been spoken about it. But to forbear to make a\nfurther prologue, and to come to the handling of particulars.\n\n\"And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much\nas his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast.\"\n\nThree things, as I told you already, we may perceive in these\nwords, by which his Publican posture, or gestures are set forth.\n\nFirst. He stands afar off. Second. He would not lift up so much as\nhis eyes to heaven. Third. He smote upon his breast. First. For\nthe first of these, \"He stood afar off.\" \"And the Publican standing\nafar off.\" This is, I say, the first thing, the first posture of\nhis with which we are acquainted, and it informeth us of several\nthings.\n\n1. That he came not with senselessness of the majesty of God when\nhe came to pray, as the Pharisee did, and as sinners commonly do.\nFor this standing back, or afar off, declares that the majesty of\nGod had an awful stroke upon his spirit: He saw whither, to whom,\nand for what, he was now approaching the temple. It is said in\nthat 20th of Exodus, That when the people saw the thunderings and\nthe lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain\nsmoking, and all these were signs of God's terrible presence, and\ndreadful majesty, they removed themselves, \"and stood afar off.\"\n(Exo 20:18) This behaviour therefore of the Publican did well become\nhis present action, especially since, in his own eyes, he was yet\nan unforgiven sinner. Alas! What is God's majesty to a sinful man,\nbut a consuming fire? And what is a sinful man in himself, or in\nhis approach to God, but as stubble fully dry.\n\nHow then could the Publican do otherwise than what he did, than\nstand afar off, if he either thought of God or himself. Indeed the\npeople afore-named, before they saw God in his terrible majesty,\ncould scarce be kept off from the mount with words and bounds, as\nit is now the case of many: Their blindness gives them boldness;\ntheir rudeness gives them confidence; but when they shall see\nwhat the Publican saw, and felt, and understood as he, they will\npray, and stand afar off, even as these people did. They removed\nand stood afar off, and then fell to praying of Moses that this\ndreadful sight and sound might be taken from them. And what if I\nshould say, he stood afar off for fear of a blow, though he came\nfor mercy, as it is said of them, They stood \"afar off for the\nfear of her torment.\" (Rev 18:10)\n\nI know what it is to go to God for mercy, and what it is to stand\nall that while in my spirit through fear afar off, being possessed\nwith this, will not God now smite me at once to the ground for my\nsins. David thought something when he said as he prayed, \"Cast\nme not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from\nme.\" (Psa 51:11)\n\nThere is none knows, but those that have them, what turns and\nreturns, what coming on and going off, there is in the spirit of a\nman that indeed is awakened, and that stands awakened before the\nglorious Majesty in prayer.38 The prodigal also made his prayer\nto his Father intentionally, while he was yet a great way off. And\nso did the lepers too; \"And as he entered into a certain village,\nthere met him ten men that were lepers, which stood AFAR OFF: And\nthey lift up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on\nus.\" (Luke 17:12,13)\n\nSee here, it has been the custom of praying men to keep their\ndistance, and not to be rudely bold in rushing into the presence\nof the holy and heavenly majesty; especially if they have been\nsensible of their own vileness and sins, as the prodigal, the\nlepers, and our Publican was. Yea, Peter himself, when upon a time\nhe perceived more than commonly he did of the majesty of Jesus his\nLord, what doth he do! \"When Simon Peter saw it,\" says the text,\n\"he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a\nsinful man, O Lord.\" (Luke 5:8) Oh! when men see God and themselves,\nit fills them with holy fear, of the greatness of the majesty of\nGod, as well as with love to, and desire after his mercy.\n\nBesides, by his standing afar off, it might be to intimate that he\nnow had in mind, and with great weight upon his conscience, the\ninfinite distance that was betwixt God, and him. Men should know\nthat, and tremble in the thoughts of it, when they are about to\napproach the omnipotent presence.\n\nWhat is poor sorry man! poor dust and ashes, that he should crowd it\nup, and go jostlingly in the presence of the great God? especially\nsince it is apparent, that besides the disproportion that is betwixt\nGod and him, he is a filthy, leprous, polluted, nasty, stinking,\nsinful bit of carrion.39 Esther, when she went to supplicate the\nking her husband for her people, made neither use of her beauty,\nnor relation, nor other privileges of which she might have had\ntemptation to make use, especially at such a time, and in such\nexigencies, as then did compass her about: But I say, she made\nnot use of them to thrust herself into his presence, but knew,\nand kept her distance, standing in the inward court of his palace,\nuntil he held out the golden sceptre to her; THEN \"Esther drew\nnear, and touched the top of the sceptre.\" (Esth 5:2)\n\nMen also when they come into the presence of God, should know their\ndistance; yea, and shew that they know it too, by such gestures\nand carriages, and behaviors that are seemly. A remarkable saying\nis that of Solomon. \"Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house\nof God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of\nfools; for they consider not that they do evil. [And as they should\nkeep their foot, so also he adds] Be not rash with thy mouth, and\nlet not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for\nGod is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be\nfew.\" (Eccl 5:1,2) Three things the Holy Ghost exhorteth to in\nthis text.\n\nThe one is, that we look to our feet, and not be forward to crowd\ninto God's presence.\n\nAnother is, That we should also look well to our tongues, that\nthey be not rash in uttering anything before God.\n\nAnd the third is, because of the infinite distance that is betwixt\nGod and us, which is intimated by those words, \"For God is in\nheaven, and thou upon earth.\"\n\nThe Publican therefore shewed great wisdom, holy shame, and humility,\nin this brave gesture of his, namely, in his standing afar off,\nwhen he went up into the temple to pray. But this is not all.\n\n2. The Publican, in standing afar off, left room for an advocate,\nan high priest, a day's-man to come betwixt, to make peace between\nGod and this poor creature. Moses, the great mediator of the Old\nTestament, was to go nigher to God than the rest of the leaders,\nor of the people were. (Exo 20:21) Yea, the rest of the people\nwere expressly commanded to worship, standing afar off. (19:21)\nNo man of the sons of Aaron that hath a blemish was to come nigh.\n\"No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest,\nshall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire:\nHe shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.\" (Lev 21:21)\n\nThe Publican durst not be his own mediator, he knew he had a blemish,\nand was infirm, and therefore he stands back; for he knew that it\nwas none of him that his God had chosen to come near unto him, to\noffer the fat and the blood. (Eze 44:13-15) The Publican therefore\nwas thus far right: he took not up the room himself, neither with\nhis person, nor his performances, but stood back, and gave place\nto the high priest that was to be intercessor.\n\nWe read, that when Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense,\nas at that time his lot was, \"The whole multitude of the people\nwere praying without.\" (Luke 1:9,10) They left him where he was,\nnear to God, between God and them, mediating of them; for the\noffering of incense by the chief priest was a figurative making\nof intercession for the people, and they maintained their distance.\n\nIt is a great matter in praying to God, not to go too far, nor\ncome too short in that duty. I mean in the duty of prayer, and a\nman is very apt to do one or the other. The Pharisee went so far,\nhe was too bold, he came into the temple making such a ruffle\nwith his own excellences, there was in his thoughts no need of a\nMediator. He also went up so nigh to God, that he took up the room\nand place of the Mediator himself; but this poor Publican, he knows\nhis distance, and kept it, and leaves room for the High Priest to\ncome and intercede for him with God. He stood afar off, not too\nfar off; for that is the room and place of unbelievers, and in\nthis sense that saying is true, \"For, lo, they that are far from\nthee shall perish\" (Psa 73:27): That is, they whose unbelief hath\nset them in their hearts and affections more upon their idols,\nand that have been made to cast God behind their backs, to follow\nand go a whoring after them.\n\nHitherto therefore it appears, that though the Pharisee had more\nrighteousness than the Publican, yet the Publican had more spiritual\nrighteousness than the Pharisee: And that though the Publican had\na baser, and more ugly outside than the Pharisee, yet the Publican\nknew how to prevail with God for mercy better than he.\n\nAs for the Publican's posture of standing in prayer, it is excusable,\nand that by the very father of the faithful himself: For Abraham\nstood praying when he made intercession for Sodom. (Gen 18:22,23)\nChrist also alloweth it where he saith, \"And when ye STAND PRAYING,\nforgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which\nis in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.\" (Mark 11:25) Indeed\nthere is no stinted order prescribed for our thus or thus behaving\nof ourselves in prayer, whether kneeling, or standing, or walking\nor lying, or sitting; for all these postures have been used by the\ngodly. \"Paul KNEELED down and prayed.\" (Acts 20:36) Abraham and\nthe Publican STOOD and prayed. David prayed as he WALKED. (2 Sam\n15:30,31) Abraham prayed LYING upon his face. (Gen 17:17,18) Moses\nprayed SITTING. (Exo 17:12) And indeed prayer, effectual fervent\nprayer, may be, and often is, made unto God, under all these\ncircumstances of behaviour: for God has not tied us to any of\nthem; and he that shall tie himself, or his people, to any one of\nthese, doth more than he hath warrant for from God; and let such\ntake care of innovating, it is the next way to make men hypocrites\nand dissemblers in those duties, in which they should be sincere.\n\nTrue, which of those soever a man shall chose to himself for the\npresent, to perform this solemn duty in, it is required of him,\nand God expects it, that he should pray to him in truth, and with\ndesire, affection, and hunger, after those things, that with his\ntongue he maketh mention of before the throne of God. And indeed\nwithout this, all is nothing. But alas! how few be there in the\nworld whose heart and mouth in prayer shall go together? Dost\nthou, when thou askest for the spirit, or faith, or love to God,\nto holiness, to saints, to the word, and the like, ask for them\nwith love to them, desire of them, hungering after them? Oh! this\nis a mighty thing! and yet prayer is no more before God, than as\nit is seasoned with these blesssed qualifications. Wherefore it is\nsaid, that while men are praying, God is searching of the heart,\nto see what is the meaning of the spirit, or whether there be the\nspirit and his meaning in all that the mouth hath uttered, either\nby words, sighs, or groans; because it is by him, and through\nhis help only that any make prayers according to the will of God.\n(Rom 8:26,27) Whatever thy posture therefore shall be, see that\nthy prayers be pertinent and fervent, not mocking of thine own\nsoul with words, while thou wantest and art an utter stranger to\nthe very vital and living spirit of prayer.\n\nNow our Publican, had, and did exercises, the very spirit of prayer\nin prayer. He prayed sensibly, seriously, affectionately hungering,\nthirsting, and with longing after that, for which with his mouth\nhe implored the God of heaven: His heart and soul were in his words,\nand it was that which made his PRAYER; even because he prayed in\nPRAYER; he prayed inwardly, as well as outwardly.\n\nDavid tells us, that God heard the VOICE of his supplication, the\nvoice of his cry, the voice of his tears, and the voice of his\nroaring. For indeed there are all these without this acceptable\nsound in them, nor can any thing but sense, and affection, and\nfervent desire, make them sound well in the ears of God. Tears,\nsupplications, prayers, cries, may be all of them done in formality,\nhypocrisy, and from other causes, and to other ends than that which\nis honest and right in God's sight: For God as he had experience\nof, would search and look after the VOICE of his tears, supplications,\nroarings, prayers, and cries.\n\nAnd if men had less care to please men, and more to please God, in\nthe matter and manner of praying, the world would be at a better\npass than it is. But this is not in man's power to help, and to\namen: When the Holy Ghost comes upon men with greater conviction\nof their state and condition, and of the use and excellency of\nthe grace of sincerity and humility in prayer, then, and not till\nthen, will the grace of prayer be more prized, and the spacious\nflouting, complimentary lips of flatterers be more laid aside.\nI have said it already, and I will say it again, that there is\nnow-a-days a great deal of wickedness committed in the very duty\nof prayer; by words, of which men have no sense,40 by reaching\nafter such conclusions and clenches therein, as may make their\npersons to be admired; by studying for, and labouring after such\nenlargements as the spirit accompanieth not the heart in. O Lord\nGod, O Lord God, make our hearts upright in us, as in all points\nand parts of our profession, so in this solemn appointment of God,\n\"If I regard iniquity in my heart,\" said David, \"the Lord will\nnot hear me.\" But if I be truly sincere he will, and then it is\nno mater whether I kneel, or stand, or sit, or lie, or walk; for\nI shall do none of these, nor put up my prayers under any of these\ncircumstances, lightly foolishly, and idly, but to beautify this\ngesture with the inward working of my mind and spirit in prayer;\nthat whether I stand or sit, walk or lie down, glory and gravity,\nhumility and sincerity shall make my prayer profitable, and my\noutward behaviour comely in his eyes, with whom in prayer I now\nhave to do.\n\nAnd had not our Publican been inwardly seasoned with these, Christ\nwould have taken but little pleasure in his modes and outward\nbehaviour: but being so honest inwardly, and in the matter of\nhis prayer, his gestures by that were made beauteous also; and\ntherefore it is that our Lord so delightfully dilateth upon\nthem, and draweth them out at length before the eyes of others.\n\nI have often observed, that that which is natural, and so comely\nin one, looks odiously when imitated by another, I speak as to\ngestures and actions in preaching and prayer. Many, I doubt not,\nbut will imitate the Publican, and that both in the prayer and\ngestures of the Publican, whose persons and actions will yet stink\nfull foully in the nostrils of him that is holy and just, and that\nsearcheth the heart and the reins.\n\nWell, the Publican STOOD and prayed, he stood afar off, and prayed,\nand his prayers came even to the ears and heart of God.\n\n\"AND THE PUBLICAN STANDING AFAR OFF, WOULD NOT LIFT UP SO MUCH AS\nHIS EYES UNTO HEAVEN.\"\n\nSecond, We are now come to another of his postures. \"He would\nnot, [says the text] so much as lift up his eyes to heaven.\" Here\ntherefore was another gesture added to that which went before;\nand a gesture that a great while before had been condemned by the\nHoly Ghost himself. \"Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day\nfor a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a\nbulrush.\" (Isa 58:5)\n\nBut why condemned then, and smiled upon now? Why! Because done\nin hypocrisy then, and in sincerity now. Hypocrisy and a spirit\nof error will so besmut God's ordinances, that he shall take no\npleasure in them: but sincerity, and honesty in duties, will make\neven those circumstances that in themselves are indifferent, at\nleast comely in the sight of men. May I not say before God? the\nRechabites were not commanded of God, but of their father, to do\nas they did; but, because they were sincere in their obedience\nthereto, even God himself maketh use of what they did to condemn the\ndisobedience of the Jews; and moreover doth tell the Rechabites,\nat last, that they should not want a man to stand before him for\never. \"And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus\nsaith the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed\nthe commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts,\nand done according unto all that he hath commanded you; therefore,\nthus saith the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son\nof Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.\" (Jer\n35:18,19)\n\n\"He would not life up his eyes to heaven.\" Why? Surely because\nshame had covered his face. Shame will make a man blush and hang\nhis head like a bulrush. Shame for sin is a virtue, a comely\nthing; yea, a beauty-spot in the face of a sinner that cometh to\nGod for mercy.\n\nGod complains of the house of Israel, that they could sin, and\nthat without shame; yea, and threateneth them too with sore and\nrepeated judgments, \"because they were not ashamed,\" it is in\nJeremiah 8:12. Their crimes in general were, they turned every one\nto his course, as the horse runneth into the battle. In particular,\nthey were such as rejected God's word, they loved this world, and\nset themselves against the prophet's crying peace, peace, peace,\nwhen they cried judgment, judgment: \"Were they ashamed when\nthey had committed abomination: nay, they were not at all ashamed,\nneither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them\nthat fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down,\nsaith the Lord.\" Oh! to stand, or sit, or lie, or kneel, or walk\nbefore God in prayer, with blushing cheeks for sin, is one of the\nexcellentest sights that can be seen in the world. Wherefore the\nchurch taketh some kind of heart to herself in that she could lie\ndown in her shame; yea, and makes that a kind of an argument with\nGod, to prove that her prayers did come from her heart, and also\nthat he would hear them. (Jer 3:25)\n\nShame for sin argueth sense of sin, yea, a right sense of sin,\na godly sense of sin; Ephraim pleads this when under the hand of\nGod: \"I was,\" saith he, \"ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I\ndid bear the reproach of my youth.\" But what follows? \"Is Ephraim\nmy dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against\nhim, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are\ntroubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the\nLord.\" (Jer 31:19,20)\n\nI know that there is a shame that is not the spirit of an honest\nheart; but that rather floweth from sudden surprisal, when\nthe sinner is unawares taken in the act, in the very manner. And\nthus sometimes the house of Israel was taken, and then when they\nblushed, their shame is compared to the shame of a thief. \"As\nthe thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel\nashamed; they, their kings, their princes and their priests, and\ntheir prophets.\"\n\nBut where were they taken, or about what were they found? Why they\nwere found \"saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone,\nThou hast brought me forth.\" (Jer 2:26,27) God catched them thus\ndoing, and this made them ashamed, even as the thief is ashamed\nwhen the owner doth catch him stealing of his horse.\n\nBut this was not the Publican's shame; this shame brings not a man\ninto the temple to pray, to stand willingly, and to take shame\nbefore God in prayer. This shame makes one rather to fly from his\nface, and to count one's self most at ease when they get farthest\noff from God.\n\nThe Publican's shame therefore, which he demonstrateth that he had,\neven by hanging down of his head, was godly and holy, and much\nlike that of the prodigal, when he said, \"Father, I have sinned\nagainst heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called\nthy son.\" (Luke 15:21) I suppose that his postures were much the\nsame with the Publican's, as were his prayers, for the substance\nof them. O however grace did work in both to the same end, they\nwere both of them, after a godly manner ashamed of their sins.\n\nHe would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.\n\nIt saith not he could not, but he would not; which yet more fully\nmakes it appear that it was shame, not guilt, not guilt only or\nchiefly, though it is manifest enough that he had guilt also by\nhis crying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I say, guilt was not\nthe chief cause of hanging down his head, because it saith, he\nwould not; for when guilt is the cause of stooping, it lieth not\nin the will, or in the power thereof, to help one up.\n\nDavid tells us, that when he was under guilt, his iniquities were\ngone over his head: \"As an heavy burden they are too heavy for\nme.\" (Psa 38:4) And that with them he was bowed down greatly. Or,\nas he says in another place, \"Mine iniquities have taken hold upon\nme, so that I am not able to look up\" (Psa 40:12); I am not ABLE\nto do it; guilt disableth the understanding and conscience, shame\nmakes all willingly fall and bare at the feet of Christ.\n\n\"He would not.\" He knew what he was, what he had been, and should\nbe, if God had not mercy upon him: Yea, he knew also that God\nknew what he was, had been, and would be, if mercy prevented not;\nwherefore thought he, Wherefore should I lift up the head? I am\nno righteous man, no godly man; I have not served God, but Satan;\nthis I know, this God knows, this angels know, wherefore I will\nnot \"lift up the head.\" It is as much as to say, I will not be an\nhypocrite, like the Pharisee; for lifting up of the head signifies\ninnocency and harmlessness of life, or good conscience, and the\ntestimony thereof, under, and in the midst of all accusations.\nWherefore this was the counsel of Zophar to Job: \"If thou prepare\nthine heart, and stretch out thine hands towards him; If iniquity\nbe in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell\nin thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without\nspot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear.\" (Job\n11:13-15)\n\nThis was not the Publican's state, he had lived in lewdness and\nvillany all his days; nor had he prepared his heart to seek the\nLord God of his fathers, he had not cleansed his heart nor hands\nfrom violence, nor done that which was lawful and right. He only\nhad been convinced of his evil ways, and was come into the temple\nas he was, all foul, and in his filthy garments, and amidst his\npollutions; how then could he be innocent, holy or without spot?\nAnd consequently how could he lift up his face unto God? I remember\nwhat Abner said to Asahel, \"Turn thee aside, from following me;\nwherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I\nhold up my face to Joab thy brother?\" (2 Sam 2:22)\n\nAs if he had said, if I kill thee, I shall blush, be ashamed, and\nhang my head like a bulrush, the next time I come into the company\nof thy brother.\n\nThis was the Publican's case, he was guilty, he had sinned, he had\ncommitted a trespass, and now being come into the temple, into the\npresence of that God whose laws he had broken, and against whom\nhe had sinned, how could he lift up his head? how could he bear\nthe face to do it? No, it better became him to take his shame, and\nto hang his head in token of guilt; and indeed he did, and did it\nto purpose too, for he would not lift up, no, not so much as his\neyes to heaven.\n\nTrue, some would have done it, the Pharisee did it; though if he had\nconsidered, that hypocrisy, and leaning to his own righteousness\nhad been sin, he would have found as little cause to have done\nit, as did the Publican himself. But, I say, he did it, and sped\nthereafter; he went down to his house as he came up into the\ntemple, a poor unjustified Pharisee, whose person and prayers\nwere both rejected, because, like the whore of whom we read in\nthe Proverbs, after he had practised all manner of hypocrisy, he\ncomes into the temple \"and wipes his mouth, and saith, I have done\nno wickedness.\" (Prov 30:20) He lifts up his head, his face, his\neyes to heaven; he struts, he vaunts himself; he swaggers, he\nvapours, and cries up himself, saying, \"God, I thank thee, that\nI am not as other men are.\"\n\nTrue, had he come and stood before a stock or a stone, he might\nhave said thus, and not have been reprehended; for such are gods\nthat see not, nor hear, neither do they understand. But to come\nbefore the true God, the living God, the God that fills heaven and\nearth by his presence, and that knows the things that come into\nthe mind of man, even every one of them, I say, to come into his\nhouse, to stand before him, and thus to lift up his head and eyes\nin such hypocrisy before him: this was abominable, this was to\ntempt God, and to prove him; yea, to challenge him to know what\nwas in man if he could even as those did who said, \"How doth God\n[see] know? can he judge through the dark cloud?\" (Job 22:13, Psa\n73:11)\n\nBut the Publican, no the Publican could not, durst not, would not\ndo thus: He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. As\nwho should say, O Lord, I have been against thee, a traitor and\na rebel, and like a traitor and rebel before thee will I stand. I\nwill bear my shame before thee in the presence of the holy angels;\nyea, I will prevent thy judging of me by judging myself in thy\nsight, and will stand as condemned before thee, before thou passest\nsentence upon me.\n\nThis is now for a sinner to go to the end of things. For what is\nGod's design in the work of conviction for sin, and in his awakening\nof the conscience about it? What is his end I say, but to make the\nsinner sensible of what he hath done, and that he might unfeignedly\njudge himself for the same. Now this our Publican doth; his will\ntherefore is now subject to the word of God, and he justifies\nhim in all his ways and works towards him. Blessed be God for any\nexperience of these things.\n\n\"He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.\" He knew by\nhis deeds and deservings that he had no portion there; nor would\nhe divert his mind from the remembering, and from being affected\nwith the evil of his ways.\n\nSome men when they are under the guilt and conviction of their evil\nlife, will do what they can to look any ways, and that on purpose\nto divert their minds, and to call them off from thinking on what\nthey have done; and by their thus doing, they bring many evils\nmore upon their own souls: for this is a kind of striving with\nGod, and a shewing a dislike to his ways. Would not you think, if\nwhen you are shewing your son or your servant his faults, if he\nshould do what he could to divert and take off is mind from what\nyou are saying, that he striveth against you, and sheweth dislike\nof your doings. What else means the complaints of masters and of\nfathers in this matter? I have a servant, I have a son, that doth\ncontrary to my will. O but why do you not chide them for it: The\nanswer is, so I do; but they do not regard my words; they do\nwhat they can, even while I am speaking, to divert their minds\nfrom my words and counsels. Why, all men will cry out this is\nbase, this is worthy of great rebuke; such a son, such a servant\ndeserveth to be shut out of doors, and so made to learn better\nbreeding by want and hardship.\n\nBut the Publican would not divert his mind from what at present\nGod was about to make him sensible of, no, not by a look on\nthe choicest object, he would not lift up so much as his eyes to\nheaven. They are but bad scholars, whose eyes, when their master\nis teaching of them, are wandering off of their books.\n\nGod saith unto men, when he is a teaching them to know the evil\nof their ways, as the angel said to the prophet, when he came to\nshew him the pattern of the temple; \"Son of man,\" says he, \"behold\nwith thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart\nupon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might\nshew them unto thee, art thou brought hither.\" (Eze 40:4) So to\nthe intent that God might shew to the Publican the evil of his\nways, therefore was he brought under the power of convictions,\nand the terrors of the law; and he also like a good learner gave\ngood heed unto that lesson that now he was learning of God; for\nhe would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.\n\nLooking downwards doth ofttimes bespeak men very ponderous and deep\nin their cogitations; also that the matter about which in their\nminds they are now concerned, hath taken great hold of their spirits.\nThe Publican hath now new things, great things, and long-lived\nthings, to concern himself about: His sins, the curse, with death,\nand hell, began now to stare him in the face; Wherefore it was no\ntime now to let his heart, or his eyes, or his cogitations wander,\nbut to be fixed, and to be vehemently applying of himself as a\nsinner, to the God of heaven for mercies.\n\nFew know the weight of sin, and how, when the guilt thereof takes\nhold of the conscience, it commands homewards all the faculties\nof the soul. No man can go out or off now. Now he is wind-bound,\nor as Paul says, caught. Now he is made to possess bitter days,\nbitter nights, bitter hours, bitter thoughts; nor can he shift them,\nfor his sin is ever before him. As David said, \"For I acknowledge\nmy transgressions: and my sin is ever before me,\" in mine eye,\nand sticketh fast in every one of my thoughts. (Psa 51:3)\n\nHe would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. THIRD, BUT SMOTE\nUPON HIS BREAST. This was the third and last of his gestures. He\nsmote upon his breast; to wit, with his hand, or with his fist.\nI read of several gestures with the hand and foot, according to\nthe working and passions of the mind. 'Tis said Balak smote his\nhands together, being angry because that Balaam had blessed and\nnot cursed for him the children of Israel. (Num 24:10)\n\nGod says also, that he had smitten his hands together, at the sins\nof the children of Israel. (Eze 22:13) God also bids the prophet\nstamp with his feet, and smite with his hand upon his thigh, upon\nsundry occasions, and at several enormities, but the Publican here\nis said to smite upon his breast. (Chron 6:11, 21:12) And,\n\n1. Smiting upon the breast betokeneth sorrow for something done,\nthis is an experiment common among men. And indeed, therefore as\nI take it, doth our Lord Jesus put him under this gesture in the\nact and exercise of his repentance, because it is that which doth\nmost lively set it forth.\n\nSuppose a man comes to great damage for some folly that he has\nwrought, and he be made sorrowful for being and doing such folly:\nThere is nothing more common than for such a man, if he may,\nto walk to and fro in the room where he is, with head hung down,\nfetching ever and anon a bitter sigh: and smiting himself upon\nthe breast in his dejected condition; \"But smote upon his breast,\nsaying, God be merciful to me a sinner.\"\n\n2. Smiting upon the breast is sometimes a token of indignation and\nabhorrence of something thought upon. I read in Luke, that when\nChrist was crucified, those spectators that stood to behold the\nbarbarous usage that he endured at the hands of his enemies,\n\"smote their breasts and returned.\" \"And all the people that came\ntogether to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote\ntheir breasts, and returned.\" (Luke 23:48) Smote their breasts;\nthat is, in token of indignation against, and abhorrence of their\ncruelty, that so grievously used the Son of God.\n\nHere also we have our Publican smiting upon his breast, in token\nof indignation against, and abhorrence of his former life. And\nindeed without indignation against, and abhorrence of his former\nlife, his repentance had not been good. Wherefore the apostle doth\nmake indignation against sin, and against ourselves for that, one\nsign of true repentance (2 Cor 7:11), and his indignation against\nsin in general, and against his former life in particular,\nwas manifested by his smiting upon the breast. Even as Ephraim's\nsmiting upon the thigh was a sign and token of his: \"Surely,\"\nsays he, \"after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I\nwas instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even\nconfounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.\" (Jer\n31:19) Man when he vehemently dislikes a thing, is very apt to\nshew that dislike that to that thing he hath, by this or another\noutward gesture: as in putting the branch to the nose,41 in\nsnuffing or snorting at it (Eze 8:17, Mal 1:13); or in deriding;\nor, as some say, in blowing of their noses at it. (Luke 16:14) But\nthe Publican here chooseth rather to use this most solemn posture;\nfor smiting upon the breast, seems to imply a more serious, solemn,\ngrave way or manner of dislike, than any of those last mentioned\ndo.\n\n3. Smiting upon the breast, seems to intimate a quarrel with the\nheart for beguiling, deluding, flattering, seducing, and enticing\nof him to sin: For as conviction for sin begets in man, I mean if\nit be thorough, a sense of the sore and plague of the heart. So\nrepentance, if it be right, begets in the man an outcry against\nthe heart; for as much as by that light, by which repentance\ntakes occasion, the sinner is made to see, that the heart is the\nfountain, and well-spring of sin. \"For from within, out of the\nheart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,--covetousness,\"\n&c. (Mark 7:21,22) And hence it is, that commonly young converts\ndo complain so of their hearts, calling them wicked, treacherous,\ndeceitful, desperate ones.\n\nIndeed one difference between true and false repentance lieth\nin this. The man that truly repents crieth out of his heart; but\nthe other, as Eve, upon the serpent, or something else. And that\nthe Publican perceived his heart to be naught I conclude, by his\nsmiting upon his breast.\n\n4. Smiting upon the breast, seems to intimate one apprehensive of\nsome new, sudden, strange and amazing thing: As when a man sees\nsome strange sight in the air, or heareth some sudden or dismal\nsound in the clouds: Why, as he is struck into a deep damp in his\nmind, so 'tis a wonder if he can keep or hold back from smiting\nupon his breast.\n\nNow ofttimes a sight of God and sense of sin, comes to the sinner\nlike a flash of lightning, not for short continuance, but for\nsuddenness, and so for surprisal; so that the sinner is struck,\ntaken and captivated to his own amazement, with what so unexpectedly\nis come upon him. It is said of Paul at his conversion, that when\nconviction of his bad life took fast hold of his conscience, he\ntrembled, and was astonished. (Acts 9:6) And although we read not\nof any particular circumstance of his behaviour under his conviction\noutwardly, yet it is almost impossibly but he must have some, and\nthose of the most solid sort. For there is such a sympathy betwixt\nthe soul and the body, that the one cannot be in distress or\ncomfort, but the other must partake of, and also signify the same.\nIf it be comfort, then 'tis shewn; If comfort of mind, then by\nleaping, skipping, cheerfulness of the countenance, or some other\noutward gesture. If it be sorrow or heaviness of spirit, then that\nis shewed by the body, in weeping, sighing, groaning, softly-going,\nshaking of the head, a lowering countenance, stamping, smiting\nupon the thigh or breast as here the Publican did, or somewhat.\n\nWe must not therefore look upon these outward actions or gestures\nof the Publican, to be empty insignificant things; but to be such,\nthat in truth did express and shew the temper, frame, and present\ncomplexion of his soul. For Christ, the wisdom of God, hath mentioned\nthem to that very end, that in and by them, might be held forth,\nand that men might see, as in a glass, the very emblem of a\nconverted, and truly penitent sinner. \"He smote upon his breast.\"\n\n5. Smiting upon the breast, is sometimes to signify a mixture of\ndistrust, joined with hope. And indeed in young converts, hope and\ndistrust, or a degree of despair, do work and answer one another,\nas doth the noise of the balance of the watch in the pocket. Life\nand death, life and death is always the motion of the mind then,\nand this noise continues until faith is stronger grown, and until\nthe soul is better acquainted with the methods and ways of God\nwith a sinner. Yea, was but a carnal man in a convert's heart, and\ncould see, he should discern these two, to wit, hope and fear,\nto have a continual motion in the soul: wrestling and opposing one\nanother, as doth light and darkness, in striving for the victory.\n\nAnd hence it is that you find such people so fickle and uncertain\nin their spirits; Now on the mount, then in the valleys; now in\nthe sunshine, then in the shade; now warm, then frozen; now bonny\nand blithe, then in a moment pensive and sad; as thinking of a\nportion nowhere but in hell. This will cause smiting on the breast;\nnor can I imagine that the Publican was as yet farther than thus\nfar in the Christian's progress, since yet he was smiting upon\nhis breast.\n\n6. Smiting upon the breast, seems to intimate, that the party so\ndoing is very apprehensive of some great loss that he has sustained;\neither by negligence, carelessness, foolishness, or the like,\nand this is the way in which men do lose their souls. Now to lose\na thing, a great thing, the only choice thing that a man has, negligently,\ncarelessly, foolishly, or the like, why it puts aggravations into\nthe thoughts of the loss that the man has sustained; and aggravations\nin the thoughts of them go out of the soul, and come in upon a\nsudden, even as the bailiff, or the king's sergeant at arms, and\nat every appearance of them makes the soul start; and starting,\nit smites upon the breast.\n\nI might multiply particulars; but to be brief, we have before us a\nsensible soul, a sorrowful soul, a penitent soul: one that prays\nindeed, that prays sensibly, affectionately, effectually. One that\nsees his loss, that fears and trembleth before God in consideration\nof it, and one that knows no way, but the right way, to secure\nhimself from perishing, to wit, by having humble and hearty recourse\nto the God of heaven for mercy.\n\nI should now come to speak something by way of use and application;\nbut before I do that, I will briefly draw up, and present you with\na few conclusions that in my judgment do naturally flow from the\ntext, therefore in this place I will read over the text again.\n\n\"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and\nthe other a Publican: The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,\nGod, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners,\nunjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican: I fast twice in\nthe week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican,\nstanding afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto\nheaven, but smote upon is breast, saying, God be merciful to me\na sinner.\"\n\nFrom these words I gather these several conclusions, with these\ninferences.\n\nConclusion First, It doth not always follow, that they that pray\ndo know God, or love him, or trust in him. This conclusion is\nevident by the Pharisee in the text; he prayed, but he knew not\nGod, he loved not God, he trusted not in God; that is, he knew him\nnot in his Son, nor so loved, nor trusted in him. He was, though\na praying man, far off from this. Whence it may be inferred, that\nthose that pray not at all cannot be good, cannot know, love, or\ntrust in God. For if the star, though it shines, is not the sun,\nthen surely a clod of dirt cannot be the sun. Why, a praying\nman doth as far outstrip a non-praying man, as a star outstrips\na clod of earth. A non-praying man lives like a beast, nay worse,\nand with reference to his station, a more sottish life than he.\n\"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but\n[this man] Israel doth not know, [but this man] my people doth\nnot consider.\" (Isa 1:3) The prayerless man is therefore of no\nreligion, except he be an Atheist, or an Epicurean. Therefore the\nnon-praying man is numbered among the heathens, and among those\nthat know not God, and is appointed and designed by the sentence\nof the word to the fearful wrath of God. (Psa 79:6, Jer 10:25)\n\nConclusion Second, A second conclusion is, That the man that prays,\nif in his prayer he pleads for acceptance, either in whole or in\npart, for his own good deeds, is in a miserable state. This also\nis gathered from the Pharisee here, he prayed, but in his prayer\nhe pleaded his own good deeds for acceptance, that is, of his\nperson, and therefore went down to his house unjustified. Now to\nbe unjustified is the worst condition that a man can be in, and\nhe is in this condition that doth thus. The conclusion is true,\nforasmuch as the Pharisee mentioned in the parable is not so\nspoken of, for the only sake of that sect of men, but to caution,\nforewarn, and bid all men take heed, that they by doing as he,\nprocure not his rejection of God, and be sent away from his presence\nunjustified. I do therefore infer from hence, that if he that\npleadeth his own good doing for personal acceptance with God, be\nthus miserable; then he that teacheth men so to do, is much more\nmiserable. We always conclude, that a ring-leader in an evil way,\nis more blame-worthy, than those that are led of him. This falls\nhard upon the leading Socinians and others, who teach, that men's\nworks make their person accepted of God.\n\nTrue, they say, through Christ; but that is brought in as a\nblandation,42 merely to delude the simple with, and is an horrible\nlie; for we read not in all the word of God, as to personal\njustification in the sight of God from the curse, and that is the\nquestion under consideration, that it must be by man's righteousness,\nas made prevalent by Christ's, but contrariwise by his, and his\nonly, without the deeds, works, or righteousness of the law which\nis our righteousness. Wherefore I say, the teachers and leaders\nof this doctrine have the greater sin.\n\nConclusion Third, A third conclusion is. They that use high and\nflaunting language in prayer, their simplicity and godly sincerity\nis to be questioned, as to the doing of that duty sincerely. This\nstill flows from our text, the Pharisee greatly used this; for\nhigher and more flaunting language can hardly be found, than in\nthe Pharisee's mouth; nor will ascribing to God by the same mouth\nlaud and praise, help the business at all: For to be sure, where\nthe effect is base and rotten, the cause cannot be good.\n\nThe Pharisee would hold himself in hand that he was not as other\nmen, and then gives thanks to God for this: But the conclusion\nwas most vilely false, and therefore the praise for it could not\nbut be foolish, vain, and frivolous. Whence I infer, that if to\nuse such language in prayer is dangerous, then to affect the use\nthereof is yet more dangerous: Prayer must be made with humble\nhearts, and sensible words, and of that we have treated before,\nwherefore high, flaunting, swelling words of vanity becomes not a\nsinner's mouth, no, not at any time, much less when he comes to,\nand presents himself before God in that solemn duty of prayer.\nBut, I say, there are some that so affect the Pharisee's mode,\nthat they cannot be well if in some sort or other they be not in\nthe practice of it; not knowing what they say, nor whereof they\naffirm; but these are greatly addicted to hypocrisy, and to desire\nof vain-glory, especially if the sound of their words be within\nthe reach of other men's ears.\n\nConclusion Fourth, A fourth conclusion is, that reformation and\namendment, though good, with, and before me, are nothing as to\njustification with God. This is manifest by the condition of our\nPharisee; he was a reformed man, a man beyond others for personal\nrighteousness, yet he went out of the temple from God unjustified,\nhis works, came to nothing with God. Hence I infer, that the man\nthat hath nothing to commend him to God of his own, yet stands\nas fair before God for justification, and so acceptance, as any\nother man in the world.\n\nConclusion Fifth, A fifth conclusion is, it is the sensible\nsinner, the self-bemoaning sinner, the self-judging sinner, the\nself-abhorring sinner, and the self-condemning sinner, whose prayers\nprevail with God for mercy. Hence I infer, that one reason why\nmen make so many prayers, and prevail no more with God, is because\ntheir prayers are rather the floatings of Pharisaical fancies, than\nthe fruits of sound sense of sin, and sincere desire of enjoying\nGod in mercy, and in the fruits of the Holy Ghost.\n\nThe use and application we must let alone till another time.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 The word \"merit\" was changed for \"mercy\" after the author's\ndeath.--Ed.\n\n2 \"Not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord\ncommendeth.\" (2 Cor 10:18)\n\n3 \"Carry the bell and wear the garland,\" alluding to our old English\nraces; the winner being rewarded with a silver bell, and crowned\nwith a garland: or to the morris dance, in which the leader carried\nthe garland and danced with bells fixed to his dress.--Ed.\n\n4 The glorious revolution, conducted by William, Prince of Orange,\nafterwards King William the 3rd, took place soon after Bunyan's\ndecease. It was probably on this account that this paragraph was\nomitted from the edition of September, 1688, and all the subsequent\nones to the present time. The popular opinion, in those times,\nwas, that Dutchman and extortioner were nearly synonymous.\n\n\"We trade wid de Yankey, we deal wid de Scot. And cheaten de tain\nand de teither: We cheaten de Jew, aye and better dan dat, We\ncheaten well ein aniether.\" Old Song.\n\n5 \"To pole, to peel,\" to take off the top and branches of a tree,\nand then to peel off the bark; terms used to designate violent\noppressions under pretended legal authority. \"Which pols and pils\nthe poor in piteous wise.\" Fairy Queen. \"Pilling and polling is\ngrown out of request, since plain pilfering came into fashion.\"\nWinwood's Memorials. \"They had rather pill straws than read the\nscriptures.\" Dent's Pathway.--Ed.\n\n6 Immediately after the calling of Matthew and of James, our\nLord sat at meat in Levi's [James'] house, and made that gracious\ndeclaration, \"I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to\nrepentance\"; compare Matthew 9:10-13, with Mark 2:14-17 and Luke\n5:27-32.--Ed.\n\n7 Nearly half this paragraph is omitted from every edition since\n1688, probably from a fear lest it should be misinterpreted as\nreflecting upon the glorious revolution under William and Mary.--Ed.\n\n8 This proud beggar shews not his wounds but his worth; not his\nrags, but his robes; not his misery, but his stoutheartedness: he\nbrings in God Almighty as a debtor to him for his services, and\nthanks God more that others were bad, than for his own fancied\ngoodness.--Ryland.\n\n9 The word \"criminal,\" used by Bunyan, has been altered in modern\neditions to \"ceremonial\"; but it was not only ceremonial but\nsuperstitious, and therefore more criminal than moral.\n\n10 It is singular that our modern Pharisees continue the custom\nof fasting twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday. This is not so\nmonstrous as pretending to do what \"God manifest in the flesh\"\nalone could do--to fast for forty consecutive days.--Ed.\n\n11 God heareth the heart, without the mouth; but never heareth\nthe mouth acceptably, without the heart. (1 Sam 1:13,15) Puritan\nSaying.\n\n12 To such poor deceived souls, our Lord's words are extremely\napplicable; \"If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,\nhow great is that darkness!\" If poor blind sinners are, through\nthe ignorance of their minds, fully persuaded that the destructive\nway in which they walk is the road to true happiness, how dangerous\nis their error, and how deplorable the consequences.--Ryland.\n\n13 What home-thrusts are here! The two-edged sword of the Spirit,\nwielded by such a man, pierces--divides--lays bare every refuge\nof lies to which poor souls vainly fly for succour. It is a solemn\nand most important subject. May every reader have grace given him\nto weigh his hopes of heaven in the balances of divine unerring\ntruth.--Ed.\n\n14 Those who plead for mercy, as the reward of their own righteousness,\nare guilty of gross absurdity. They may claim to employ the mercy\nwhich they have earned: why plead with the God of justice for that\nto which they consider themselves in justice entitled? God will\ngive to all that to which they are entitled, without being sued\nfor their earnings.--Ed.\n\n15 \"Points and pantables\"; quibbles and quirks. \"With periods,\npoints, and tropes, he slurs his crimes; He robb'd not, but he\nborrowed from the poor.\"--Dryden.\n\n\"Pantable,\" from pantoufle, a slipper. To stand upon his pantables,\nwas a contemptuous mode of speech, to express a very dishonourable\nman's \"standing upon his honour,\" which could so easily be slipped\nfrom under him. \"What pride is equal to the pope's in making\nkings kiss his pantables.\" Sir E. Sandys. \"He standeth upon his\npantables, and regardeth greatly his reputation.\" Saker's Character\nof a Fraudulent Fellow. Bunyan was peculiarly happy in his use of\npopular and proverbial expressions.--Ed.\n\n16 \"Meddle nor make,\" to interfere with matters that do not concern\nus.\n\n\"I think it no sin, to sleep in a whole skin, So I neither meddle\nnor make.\"--Old Play.\n\n\"He that will meddle with all things, may go shoe the goslings.\"\n\"I'll neither meddle nor make, said Bill Heaps, when he spill'd\nthe butter milk.\" Old Proverbs.--Ed.\n\n17 The accurate knowledge of Bunyan as to the meaning of law terms\nis very surprising, and proves him to have been an apt scholar.\nA caveat is a caution not to admit a will that may injure some\nother party.--Ed.\n\n18 In this country the introduction of earthenware plates has\ndriven the less cleanly wooden plate, called a trencher, entirely\nout of use.--Ed.\n\n19 Sin-sick souls alone seek the Great Physician, and are the\nproper subjects of Christ's healing power. Pride and unbelief bar\nthe door of mercy and grace; and if not subdued by the blood of\nthe cross, will ruin the soul.--Ryland.\n\n20 \"Thou art besides the saddle.\"\n\n\"I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting\nambition; which o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other.---\"\nMacbeth.\n\nA proud ecclesiastic requested one of his devotees to give him a\nleg on mounting his horse, which he did so heartily as to throw\nhim to the other side of the saddle, and broke his neck.--Ed.\n\n21 \"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one\npoint, he is guilty of all\" (James 2:10).\n\n22 When we had no righteousness of our own to cover us, he put\non us naked beggars that rich robe, the righteousness of Christ.\nThough black in ourselves, we are comely in Christ's comeliness;\nbut we never live upon his righteousness, only as we see none in\nourselves.--Ryland.\n\n23 \"Sweeting,\" an obsolete term for a sweet apple.--Ed.\n\n24 This whole paragraph is omitted from all editions subsequent\nto 1688, when the author died. It is the practical illustration\nof his whole theory. By their fruit ye shall know them; the fruit\ndoes not make them what they are by nature and sin or by grace and\nrighteousness. The rebuke of the Saviour, Matthew 15:16, falls\nheavily on the man who rejected this paragraph.--Ed.\n\n25 Abel possessed righteousness before his offering, which influenced\nhim to make this acceptable sacrifice.--Ed.\n\n26 \"Then was I most distressed with blasphemies, if I have been\nhearing the word, then uncleanness, blasphemies, and despair would\nhold me as captive.\" \"I blessed the condition of the dog and toad,\nand counted their state far better than this sate of mine.\"--Grace\nAbounding.\n\n27 Many are the devices of Satan to keep souls from Christ. The\nworld and the flesh are his grand instruments of seduction, while\nhis temptations and snares drown them in despair. Their wisdom\nis to resist manfully by faith in the serpent-bruiser, Jesus. He\nwill consummate his victories by a glorious triumph over all the\npowers of hell and darkness.--Ryland.\n\n28 \"A sweeting tree,\" a sweet apple, and not a crab apple tree.--Ed.\n\n29 As the disobedience of the first Adam is imputed to all his\nnatural posterity, and brings death upon all; so the righteousness\nof the second Adam is imputed to all his spiritual progeny, to obtain\nlife for them. As the carnal Adam, lost original righteousness,\nderives a corrupt nature to all his descendants; so the spiritual\nAdam, by his obedience, conveys a vital efficacy of grace to us.\nThe same Spirit of holiness which anointed our Redeemer doth quicken\nall his race, that as they have borne the image of the earthly,\nTHEY may henceforth bear the image of the heavenly Adam.--Ryland.\n\n30 \"Debrorous,\" probably a misprint for \"dolorous,\" sorrowful or\ndismal.\n\n\"Through many a dark and dreary vale They passed, and many a region\ndolorous.\"--Milton.\n\n31 \"Make an O yes,\" alluding to the form of proclamation at sessions\nof the peace--\"Oyer,\" the French for \"Hear,\" now corrupted to \"O\nyes.\"--Ed.\n\n32 \"Boot,\" profit or advantage.--Ed.\n\n33 The mercy of God has not only a quick eye to spy out a penitent,\nbut a swift foot to run and embrace him. What infinite condescension!\nGod the Father is said to \"run, fall on the neck of, and kiss\"\nthe sinner, whom he has by his Spirit inclined to sue for mercy\nand peace, which, being obtained, he will withhold from him no\nmanner of thing that is good.--Ryland.\n\n34 The pillory, to which allusion is here made, was a cruel mode\nof punishment, now out of date. In earlier times, the ears were\nnailed to the wood, and after an hour's anguish were cut off, and\nthe nose and cheeks slit; thus were treated Leighton and other holy\nmen. In later days, the victims were subjected to the brutality\nof a mob, and sometimes excited by factious men.\n\n\"Tell us who 'tis upon the ridge stands there So full of fault,\nand yet so void of fear; And from the paper in his hat Let all\nmankind be told for what.\"--Defoe.\n\n35 \"Next,\" nighest or nearest. This sentence is highly poetical,\nas much or more so as any in the writings of the most cultivated\nscholars.--Ed.\n\n36 A humbling view of our sinful selves is manifested to the soul\nby the Word and Spirit of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ has all\nthe properties of a great and true light; it has a piercing power\nand penetrating virtue; it enters the darkest recesses of the soul,\nand detects the errors of men's judgment, as well as discovers\nthe enormities of their lives.--Ryland.\n\n37 This sentence is peculiarly striking, and is very illustrative\nof Bunyan's homely, cutting, faithful phraseology.--Ed.\n\n38 The newly awakened soul, beholding itself in the glass of the\nlaw, is shocked at its own deformity. Sin is truly odious, and an\nintolerable burthen. So felt the royal penitent when he cried, \"My\nflesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.\"\nGod's indignation at sin must be felt on this side the grave,\nin the conscience of the sinner, if ever he hopes to escape the\ndreadful punishment of it in the world to come. But blessed be\nGod, the blood of atonement is a sovereign balsam for sick and\nwounded souls, and is abundantly efficacious for procuring pardon,\npeace, and reconciliation by the application of the eternal\nSpirit.--Ryland.\n\n39 These humbling words, being too rough for ears polite, have\nbeen omitted from all the editions of this book published since\nthe author's death, except the fifth, 1702.--Ed.\n\n40 A simple-hearted man, at a prayer meeting, used the words,\n\"Incline our hearts to cast our bread upon the waters, that we may\nfind it after many days.\" Upon leaving the prayer meeting, while\ncrossing a bridge, a youth said to him, \"If you were to throw a\nloaf into the river, what good would it be even if you did find\nit after many days\"; to which his elder replied, \"Oh, it is a\nscripture expression, though I do not know its meaning\"!!! This\nhappened to the editor forty-five years ago, before Sunday schools\nand the Tract Society had spread their flood of scriptural knowledge\nover the kingdom.--Ed.\n\n41 This is variously interpreted, but may it not mean an ancient\nmode of mocking, now called taking a sight?--Ed.\n\n42 \"Blandation,\" a piece of flattery. \"They flattered the Bishop\nof Ely with this blandation.\"--Camden.\n\n***\n\nA DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION, BY FAITH IN JESUS\nCHRIST;\n\nSHEWING,\n\nTRUE GOSPEL-HOLINESS FLOWS FROM THENCE; OR, MR. FOWLER'S PRETENDED\nDESIGN OF CHRISTIANITY, PROVED TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN TO TRAMPLE\nUNDER FOOT THE BLOOD OF THE SON OF GOD; AND THE IDOLIZING OF MAN'S\nOWN RIGHTEOUSNESS\n\nAS ALSO,\n\nHOW WHILE HE PRETENDS TO BE A MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,\nHE OVERTHROWETH THE WHOLESOME DOCTRINE CONTAINED IN THE 10TH,\n11TH, AND 13TH, OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF THE SAME, AND THAT\nHE FALLETH IN WITH THE QUAKER AND ROMANIST, AGAINST THEM.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\n'Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious.'--1\nPeter 2:4\n\nPrinted for Francis Smith, at the Elephant and Castle, without\nTemple Bar, 1672.\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThis is one of the least known but most deeply interesting productions\nof John Bunyan. It has never been reprinted in a separate form;\nand once only in any edition of his works--that with notes, by\nMason and Ryland, and then with great carelessness, the errata\nremaining uncorrected, and one leaf being entirely omitted. This\ntreatise was published to counteract the pernicious errors in a\nvery popular volume called 'The Design of Christianity, by Edward\nFowler, minister of God's Word at Northill, in Bedfordshire. Printed\nby the authority of the Bishop of London, April 17th, 1671'; an\noctavo volume of 308 pages. The whole object proposed by Mr. Fowler\nwas to shew, that Christianity is intended merely to restore man\nto the original state which he enjoyed before the fall.\n\nBunyan was at that time suffering his tedious imprisonment for\nconscience sake in Bedford jail; and having refused to expatriate\nhimself, was in daily fear lest his cruel sentence, 'you must\nstretch by the neck' for refusing to attend the church service,\nshould be carried into execution.\n\nThe fame of Fowler's gross perversion of the design of Christ's\ngospel reached Bunyan in prison, and its popularity grieved his\nspirit. At length, on the 13th of the 11th Month (February), a\ncopy of the book was brought to him; and in the almost incredible\nspace of forty-two short days, on the 27th of the 12th Month\n(March) 1671-2, he had fully analysed 'The Design,' exposed the\nsophistry, and scripturally answered the gross errors which abound\nin every page of this learned and subtle piece of casuistry.\n\nThe display of Latin and Greek quotations from the heathens and\nfathers, those thunderbolts of scholastic warfare, dwindled into\nmere pop-gun weapons before the sword of the Spirit, which puts all\nsuch rabble to utter rout. Never was the homely proverb of Cobbler\nHowe more fully exemplified, than in this triumphant answer to the\nsubtilities of a man deeply schooled in all human acquirements, by\nan unlettered mechanic, whose knowledge was drawn from one book,\nthe inspired volume:--\n\n'The Spirit's teaching in a cobbler's shop, Doth Oxford and Cambridge\no'ertop.'\n\nThe Babel building of the learned clergyman could not withstand\nthe attack of one who was armed with such irresistible weapons. His\nwords burn 'like a fire,' and consume the wood, hay and stubble;\nwhile they fell with overpowering weight, as 'a hammer that\nbreaketh the rock in pieces' (Jer 23:29). So cunningly was 'the\ndesign' constructed, that nothing but the fire and hammer of\nGod's word could have demolished it. Armed with such weapons, he\nfearlessly from his dungeon made the attack; and, encouraged by\nthe Spirit which animated the prophet, he was not 'dismayed at\ntheir faces,' but became as 'a defenced city, and an iron pillar,\nand brazen walls against the whole land' (Jer 1:48).\n\nSuch internal and powerful support encouraged Bunyan to use the\ngreatest plainness of speech. He as fully aware of his danger,\nand of the great influence of Mr. Fowler, but he had counted the\ncost of plain honest dealing, and was undaunted by the perils which\nsurrounded him. With noble bearing, worthy the descendant of the\napostles, he declares, 'As for your subtle and close incensing THE\nPOWER to persecute Nonconformists, know that we are willing, God\nassisting, to overcome you with truth and patience; not sticking\nto sacrifice our lives, and dearest concerns in a faithful\nwitness-bearing.' 'Wherefore, sir, laying aside all fear of men,\nnot regarding what you may procure to be inflicted upon me, for\nthis my plain dealing with you, I tell you again, that you are\none of them that have closely, privily, and devilishly, by your\nbook, turned the grace of our God into a lascivious doctrine.'\nMr. Fowler's opinions were not only contrary to scripture, but to\nthat which some esteem a more heinous offence, they opposed the\nthirty-nine articles; and the result was that Bunyan, who vindicated\nthe scriptures and those articles, was kept in prison, while the\nclergyman who opposed them was soon after consecrated Bishop of\nGloucester! It may lead some simple readers to wonder how it could\nbe, that state religion thus made a mockery of itself. The reason\nis perfectly obvious; Fowler's religion was that of a statesman,\nwhich may be comprised in one word, expediency; and the man who\ncould publish as truth, that religion consists in obeying the\norders made therein by the state, deserved the primacy of the\nunited churches of England and Ireland. His words are, speaking\nof religious observances, 'Whatsoever of such are commended by\nthe custom of the places we live in, or commanded by superiors,\nor made by any circumstance convenient to be done; our Christian\nliberty consists in this, that we have leave to do them. And,\nindeed, it is so far from being a sin, that it would be so to\nrefuse so to do.' Could the state have selected a fitter tool for\ntheir purposes?\n\nMr. Fowler is somewhat inconsistent with regard to persecution;\nin p. 266 he says, 'As for factious hypocrite, they would be with\nease supprest'; in p. 262 he describes these factious hypocrites,\n'Such as preach up free grace,--laying hold on Christ's righteousness\nand renouncing our own righteousness.' Such are to be suppressed,\nbut for Roman catholics 'imposing their own sense upon the word\nof God, and their persecuting, burning, and damning men for not\nsubscribing to theirs as to God's word can be no better than an\nact of devilish pride and barbarous cruelty,' p. 247. Does not\nthe same pride and cruelty apply equally to the church of Bonner\nfor burning Latimer, of Fowler, for the imprisonment of Bunyan;\nand of Philpot, for dragging his brother, Shore, from his family,\nand shutting him up in Exeter jail?\n\nThe admirers of Bunyan will feel surprised at his strictures upon\npersons calling themselves Quakers. In these severe remarks he\ndoes not refer to the Society of Friends; but to some unworthy\nindividuals who assumed the name of Quakers. They will be equally\nsurprised at his freedom of speech with one who he considered to\nbe an enemy to his Lord. He calls Mr. Fowler 'a brutish, beastly\nman,' 'this thief,' 'a blasphemer,' 'horribly wicked,' 'a learned\nignorant Nicodemus,' 'one that would fling heaven's gates off the\nhinges,' 'a bat,' 'an angel of darkness.' Such epithets sound\nstrangely in our more refined age; but they were then considered\nessential to faithful dealing. The Bishop in his reply, called\n'Dirt wiped off,' beat the tinker in abusive language; he calls\nBunyan 'A wretched scribbler,' 'grossly ignorant,' 'most unchristian\nand wicked,' 'a piece of proud folly,' 'so very dirty a creature\nthat he disdains to dirt his fingers with him,' 'Bunyan can no\nmore disgrace him than a rude creature can eclipse the moon by\nbarking at her; or make palaces contemptible by lifting up their\nlegs against them,' 'a most black-mouthed calumniator,' 'infamous\nin Bedford for a pestilent schismatic,' and with a heart full\nof venom he called upon his majesty not to let such a firebrand,\nimpudent, malicious schismatic to enjoy toleration, or go unpunished,\nlest he should subvert all government. Bunyan had then suffered\nnearly twelve years' incarceration in a miserable jail, and was\nmore zealous and intrepid than ever: and yet this learned fanatic\nwould have added to his privations, because he could not resist the\narrows of truth with which this poor prisoner for Christ assailed\nhim, drawn all burning from the furnace of God's holy word.\n\nBunyan's views of the kingly office of Christ are very striking:\nnot only is he king over the church requiring personal obedience,\nbut over the universe for the benefit of believers. 'Christ is as\nwell a Lord for us, as to, or over us; and it highly concerneth\nthe soul--when it believeth in, or trusteth to, the righteousness\nof Christ, for justification with God--to see that this righteousness\nlords it over death and sin, and the devil and hell for us.' 'He\nled captivity captive, that is, carried them prisoners, whose\nprisoners we were: He rode to heaven in triumph, having in chains\nthe foes of believers.'\n\nThis compendious treatise is upon a most important subject, and\ndetects dangerous errors enveloped in most insinuating sophistry.\nIn preparing this edition for the press, the text has been carefully\ncollated with the original, which is in the editor's possession.\nThe quotations have been verified; those from Fowler by the first\nedition of his 'Design of Christianity,' 1671. The extracts from\n'Penn's Sandy Foundation,' by the second edition, in the Friends'\nlibrary, Devonshire House. Those from Campian have not been\ndiscovered; the author's being confined at Bedford, while his book\nwas printing in London, occasioned numerous typographical errors\nwhich have been corrected, and all the obsolete words explained.\n\nTo assist the reader, a few leading words have been introduced in\nitalics, and between brackets, to distinguish them from the text.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\n\nA PREMONITION TO THE READER\n\nGENTLE READER,\n\nThat thou mayest not be tired with longing to know what errors, and\ndoctrines destructive to Christianity, Mr. Fowler in his feigned\ndesign of Christianity, hath presented the world withal; and that\nthou mayest even in the entry, see that which more fully is shewn\nin the house: namely, of the contradiction that is in his book, to\nthe wholesome doctrine of the church of England, while he stands\na minister of the same, I have thought convenient, instead of an\nepistle, to present thee with those doctrines contained in his;\nand that are refuted by the book that thou hast in thy hand.\nThe which also, I hope, will be a sufficient apology for this my\nundertaking.\n\nHis Doctrines are these:\n\n1. That the first principles of morals, those first written in\nmen's hearts, are the essentials, the indispensable, and fundamental\npoints or doctrines of the gospel (p. 8, 281, 282). 2. That these\nfirst principles, are to be followed, principally, as they are\nmade known to us, by the dictates of human nature: and that this\nobedience is the first, and best sort of obedience, we Christians\ncan perform (p. 8, 9, 10). 3. That there is such a thing as\na soundness of soul; and the purity of human nature in the world\n(p. 6). 4. That the law, in the first principles of it, is far\nbeyond, and more obliging on the hearts of Christians, than is,\nthat of coming to God by Christ (p. 7-10). 5. That the precept\nof coming to God by Christ, &c., is in its own nature, a thing\nindifferent, and absolutely considered neither good nor evil (p.\n7, 8, 9). 6. That Christ's great errand, in coming into the world,\nwas to put us again in possession of the holiness we had lost (p.\n12). 7. That John the Baptist, the Angel that was sent to Zacharias,\nand Mary, preached this doctrine, and so also did Malachi the\nprophet (p. 13). 8. That Christ by saving us from sin, is meant,\nnot first, his saving us from the punishment, but from the filth,\nand from the punishment, as a consequence of that (p. 14, 15). 9.\nThat Christ's work, when he was come, was to establish ONLY an\ninward real righteousness (p. 16). 10. That Christ's fulfilling\nthe law FOR US, was by giving more perfect, and lighter instances\nof moral duties, than were before expressly given (p. 17). 11. That\nChrist's doctrine, life, actions, miracles, death, resurrection,\nascension, and coming again to judgment, is all preached to establish\nus in this righteousness (chap. 2-8). 12. That it is not possible\na wicked man should have God's pardon (p. 119). 13. That it is\nimpossible Christ's righteousness should be imputed to an unrighteous\nman (p. 120). 14. And that if it were, he boldly affirms, it\nwould signify as little to his happiness, while he continueth so,\nas would a gorgeous and splendid garment, to one that is almost\nstarved (p. 120). 15. For God to justify a wicked man,[1] &c.,\nwould far more disparage his justice and holiness, than advance\nhis grace and kindness (p. 130). 16. He saith, men are not capable\nof God's pardoning grace, till they have truly repented them of\nall their sins (p. 130). 17. The devils, saith he, have a large\nmeasure of these attributes of God; as his power, knowledge, &c.[2]\n(p. 124). 18. That Christ did himself perform, as our example,\nwhatever he required of us to do; yea, that he trod himself EVERY\nstep of our way to heaven (p. 148). 19. The salvation of Christ,\nfirst, consists in curing our wounds (our filth) and secondarily,\nin freeing us from the smart (p. 216). 20. That pardon doth not\nso much consist in remission, as in healing; [to wit, our filth,]\n(p. 216). 21. Faith justifieth, as it includeth true holiness in\nthe nature of it; it justifieth AS it doth so (p. 221). 22. That\nfaith which entitles a sinner to so high a privilege as that of\njustification, must needs be such as complieth with all the\npurposes of Christ's coming into the world, &c. And it is no less\nnecessary that it should justify as it doth this (p. 222). 23. He\nwonders that any worthy man should be so difficultly persuaded,\nto embrace THIS account of justifying faith (p. 222). 24. There\ncan be no pretence for a man, to think that faith should be the\ncondition or instrument of justification, as it complieth with,\nonly the precept of relying on Christ's merits for the obtaining of\nit (p. 223). 25. It is, saith he, as clear as the sun at noon-day,\nthat obedience to the other precepts must go before obedience\nto this (p. 223). 26. He shall be his Apollo, that can give\nhim a sufficient reason, why justifying faith should consist in\nrecumbence[3] and reliance on Christ's merits for the pardon of\nsin[4] (p. 224). 27. He will take the boldness to tell those who\nare displeased with this account of justifying faith, that in his\nopinion it is impossible they should ONCE think of any other (p.\n225). 28. The imputation of Christ's righteousness, consisteth in\ndealing with sincerely righteous persons, as if they were perfectly\nso, &c. (p. 225). 29. The grand intent of the gospel is, to make us\npartakers of inward real righteousness; and it is but secondary,\nthat we should be accepted as before (p. 226). 30. It is not\npossible (he saith) that any other notion of this doctrine should\nhave truth in it (p. 226). 31. Whatsoever is commended by the\ncustoms of the place we live in, or commanded by superiors, or made\nby ANY circumstance convenient to be done, our Christian liberty\nconsists in this that we have leave to do them (p. 242). 31. For\nour refusing to comply with these, can hardly proceed from any\nthing, than a proud affectation of singularity, or at best from\nsuperstitious scrupluosity (p. 242). 33. Those ministers hinder the\ndesign of Christianity, that preach up free grace, and Christian\nprivileges, OTHER WAYS than as motives to obedience, and that\nscarce ever insist upon any other duties than those of believing,\nlaying hold of Christ's righteousness, applying the promises, &c.\n(p. 262). 34. But to make the Christian duties to consist either\nwholly or mostly in these, &c., is the way effectually to harden\nhypocrites (p. 262). 35. Those ministers do nothing less than promote\nthe design of Christianity, that are never in their element, but\nwhen they are talking of the irrespectiveness of God's decrees,\nthe absolute [ness of his] promises, the utter disability, and\nperfect impotence of natural men, to do any thing towards their\nown conversion (p. 262). 36. He is the only child of Abraham, who\nin the purity of his heart obeyeth those substantial laws, that\nare by God imposed upon him (p. 283). 37. There is NO duty more\naffectionately commanded in the gospel, than that of almsgiving\n(p. 284). 38. It is impossible we should not have the design of\nChristianity accomplished in us, &c., if we make our Saviour's\nmost excellent life, the pattern of our lives (p. 296). 39. To\ndo well is better than believing (p. 299). 40. To be imitators of\nChrist's righteousness, even of the righteousness we should rely\non, is counted by Mr. Fowler, more noble, than to rely thereon,\nor trust thereto (p. 300).\n\nREADER,\n\nI have given thee here but a taste of these things; and by my book\nbut a brief reply to the errors that he by his hath divulged to\nthe world: Ay, though many more are by me reflected than the forty\nthou are here presented with.\n\nGod give thee eyes to see, and an heart to shun and escape all\nthese things that may yet come to pass, for hurt, and to stand\nbefore the Son of Man.\n\nThus hoping that this short taste may make Mr. Fowler ashamed, and\nthee receive satisfaction, touching the truth and state of this\nman's spirit and principles; I rest,\n\nThine to serve thee in the gospel of Christ,\n\nJ. BUNYAN From Prison, the 27th of the 12th Month, 1671. [27th\nMarch, 1672]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Fowler's words, in place of, &c., are 'while he continues so\n(if it were possible for God to do it).'\n\n2. Holiness is excepted!!\n\n3. 'Recumbence,' depending upon.\n\n4. Fowler adds, 'and not also in his power for the mortification\nof it.'\n\n\n\nA DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST;\n\nPROVING\n\nTHAT GOSPEL-HOLINESS FLOWS FROM THENCE.\n\nSIR,\n\nHaving heard of your book, entitled, The Design of Christianity;\nand that in it was contained such principles as gave just offence\nto Christian ears; I was desirous of a view thereof, that from my\nsight of things I might be the better able to judge. But I could\nnot obtain it till the 13th of this 11th month, which was too\nsoon for you, Sir, a pretended minister of the word, so vilely to\nexpose to public view the rottenness of your heart in principles\ndiametrically opposite to the simplicity of the gospel of Christ.\nAnd had it not been for this consideration, that it is not too\nlate to oppose open blasphemy (such as endangereth the souls of\nthousands) I had cast by this answer, as a thing out of season.\n\nTwo things are the design of your book.\n\n1. To assert and justify a thing which you call inward, real\nrighteousness and holiness.\n\n2. To prove, That the whole, the grand, the only, and ultimate design\nof the gospel of Christ, is to begin and perfect this righteousness.\n\nInto the truth, or untruth, of both these, as briefly as I may,\nI shall at this time inquire.\n\nFirst, Therefore, a little to examine the nature of your holiness\nand righteousness, as yourself hath described the same.\n\n'It is (say you) so sound a complexion of soul, as maintains in\nlife and vigour, whatsoever is essential to it, and suffereth not\nanything unnatural to mix with that which is so; by the force and\npower whereof a man is enabled to behave himself as [becometh]\na creature indued with a principle of reason, keeps his supreme\nfaculty in its throne, brings into due subjection all his inferior\nones, his sensual imagination, his brutish passions and affections.'\n\nYou add farther, 'It is the purity of the human nature, engaging\nthose in whom it resides, to demean themselves suitably in that\nstate in which God hath placed them, and not to act disbecomingly\nin any condition, circumstance or relation.'\n\nYou say, moreover, 'It is a divine, or God-like nature, causing\nan hearty approbation of, and an affectionate compliance with the\neternal laws of righteousness; and a behaviour agreeable to the\nessential, and immutable differences of good and evil' (p. 6).\n\nFarther, You call it a principle or habit of soul, 'originally\ndictates of human nature' (p.8).\n\n'A disposition and temper of the inward man, as powerfully inclines\nit to regard, and attend to; affectionately to embrace and adhere\nto; to be actuated by, and under the government of, all those [good]\npractical principles, that are made known either by revelation,\nnature, or the use of reason' (p. 11). Which in conclusion you\ncall that holiness which already we have lost (p. 12).\n\nThus, Sir, is your holiness, by you described; which holiness\nyou aver is that, which is the great and only design of Christ to\npromote both by his life and glorious gospel.\n\nTo take therefore your description in pieces, if happily there\nmay be found ought, but naught therein.\n\n1. 'It is (say you) an healthful complexion of soul, the purity\nof the human nature,' &c.\n\nAns. These are but words; there is no such thing as the purity of\nour nature, abstract and distinct from the sinful pollution that\ndwelleth in us (Rom 7:24). It is true, a man may talk of, and by\nargument distinguish between nature and sin; but that there is\nsuch a principle in man (since Adam's fall) a principle by which\nhe may act, or that Christ's whole gospel-design is, the helping\nforward such a principle, is altogether without scripture\nor reason. There is no man by nature, that hath any soundness in\nhim (Isa 1:6), no, neither in soul or body; his understanding is\ndarkened, his mind and conscience is defiled (Titus 1:15), his\nwill is perverted and obstinate (Eph 4:18). 'There is no judgment\nin his goings' (Isa 59:6-10). Where now is the sound and healthful\ncomplexion of soul? Let the best come to the best, when we have\nmustered up all the excellences of the soul of man, as man, shall\nnought we find there, but the lame, the blind, the defiled, the\nobstinate and misled faculties thereof. And never think to evade\nme by saying, the graces of the Spirit of God are pure: for with\nthem you have nothing to do; your doctrine is of the sound complexion\nof soul, the purity of the human nature, a habit of soul, and the\nholiness we lost in Adam, things a great way off from the spirit\nof grace, or the gracious workings of the spirit. You talk indeed\nof a divine or godlike nature,[1] but this is still the same with\nyour pure human nature, or with your sound complexion, or habit\nof soul; and so must either respect man, as he was created in the\nimage or likeness of God, or else you have palpable contradiction in\nthis your description. But it must be concluded, that the divine\nnature you talk of, is that, and no other than the dictates of the\nhuman nature, or your feigned purity thereof; because you make it\nby your words the self same; it is the purity of the human nature,\nit is a divine or Godlike nature.\n\n2. But you proceed to tell us of a degree, it is so sound and\nhealthful a complexion or temperature of the faculties, qualities,\nor virtues of soul, 'as maintains in life and vigour whatsoever\nis essential to it, and suffereth not anything unnatural to mix\nwith that which is so.'[2]\n\nAns. If, as was said before, there is no soundness of soul in\nman, as man, and no such thing as a purity of our nature, abstract\nfrom that which is sin; then where shall we find so healthful\na complexion, or temperature of soul, as to maintain in life and\nvigour whatsoever is essential to it, and that suffereth not any\nthing unnatural to mix with that which is so?\n\nBut let us take Paul's definition of a man; 'There is none righteous,\nno, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that\nseeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are\ntogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no,\nnot one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues\nthey have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:\nwhose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift\nto shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the\nway of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before\ntheir eyes' (Rom 3). I the rather give you this of Paul, than any\nof my own; because it is the soundest complexion of soul, that\nthe Holy Ghost himself could draw. Here is now no purity of the\nhuman nature, nor such sound complexion of soul as can keep itself\nfrom mixing with that which is contrary to itself. And note, that\nthis is the state of all men, and that as they stand in themselves\nbefore God: wherefore together, even altogether, all the men in\nthe world, take them in their most pure naturals, or with all the\npurity of humanity, which they can make, and together, they still\nwill be unprofitable, and so much come short of doing good, 'that\nevery mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty\nbefore God' (v 19).[3]\n\n3. But proceeding, you say, that this complexion is so forcible as\nto 'keep his supreme faculty (I suppose you mean the conscience)\nin its throne, (and that) brings into due subjection all his inferior\nones, (as namely) his sensual imagination, brutish passions and\naffections.'[4]\n\nAns. These words suppose that it is within the power of a man's\nown soul, always to keep sin out of itself, and so guilt out of\nthe conscience; albeit the scripture saith, that both the mind\nand it are defiled with the filth of sin, in all whoever do not\nbelieve the gospel, with which belief this description meddleth\nnot (Titus 1:15).\n\nThey suppose that this conscience is perfectly clear and light,\nwhen the scriptures say they have the understanding darkened;\nyea and farther, in despite of these your sayings of the sound\ncomplexion of soul, of the purity of human nature, and of this\nsupreme faculty, the scriptures teach, that man in his best estate\nis altogether vanity, that they are darkness and night, &c. (Eph\n4:18,19; 1 Thess 5; Psa 39:5).\n\n'Yea, (say you) this sound complexion brings into due subjection\nall his inferior ones.'[5]\n\nAns. Here seems to be a contradiction to the former part of this\ndescription, yea, to the nature of the soul itself; for you say\nbefore, it suffereth not any thing unnatural to mix itself therewith,\nwhen yet here you seem to suggest that part, I say, even part of\nitself is disobedient and rebellious, 'it brings into subjection\nall his inferior ones.'\n\n'It brings into due subjection.'\n\nAns. Due subjection is such as is everlasting, universal, perfect\nin nature, kind, and manner, such as the most righteous, perfect,\ncomprehensive law, or commandment cannot object against, or find\nfault therewith. Here's a soul! here's a pure human nature! here\nare pure dictates of a brutish beastly man, that neither knows\nhimself nor one title of the word of God. But 'There is a generation\nthat are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their\nfilthiness' (Prov 30:12).\n\n'It is the purity of the human nature, engaging those in whom it\nresides,' &c.[6]\n\nAns. That is, verily in none at all; for there is no such thing\nin any man in this world, as a purity of human nature: 'we are all\nas an unclean thing' (Isa 64:6) and 'Who can bring a clean thing\nout of an unclean? not one' (Job 14:4). Again,\n\n'What is man, that he should be clean? or he which is born of\na woman, that he should be righteous?' (Job 15:14). These are\ntherefore expressions without the testimony of the word, arising\nfrom your own phantasy.\n\n'It is a divine, or Godlike nature.'[7]\n\nAns. This you seem also to fetch from the similitude or likeness\nof God that was in us at our first creation, before we sinned;\nbut that similitude being at best but created, and since most\nunspeakably defiled, defaced and polluted with sin; there is\nnow, no not in the best of men, as men, any sinless likeness, and\nsimilitude of God to be found, no such petty divine, or Godlike\nnature to be found, as you imagine.\n\nBut having thus stated your holiness in its nature and essence,\nyou come in the next place to tell us, under what considerations\nit moveth a person to act, also by what rules and laws it squareth\nits acts and doings.\n\nFIRST, By or under what considerations it acts, and these you\nscatter here and there in your description of holiness, under these\nheads. I. To act 'as becomes a creature endued with a principle\nof reason,' eyeing the state or place in which God hath set him;\napproving of, affecting and complying with the eternal laws of\nrighteousness (p. 6), which eternal laws in page 8 you call 'divine\nmoral laws,' those that were first written in the hearts of men,\n'and originally dictates of human nature,' &c. II. 'To do these,\nfrom truly generous motives and principles' (p. 7). Such as these,\n1. Because 'it is most highly becoming all reasonable creatures\n(you might also have added, and those unreasonable) to obey God in\neverything; (within their spheres) and as much disbecoming them,\nto disobey him' (p. 8). 2. 'Because it is a base thing to do\nunjustly' (p. 11).\n\nNow a little to touch upon all these, and then to proceed to what\nis behind.\n\nI. To act and do the things of the moral law, but as 'creatures\nendued with a principle of reason,' is but to do things in our\nsphere as men, as the beast, the hog or horse doth things in his,\nas a beast; which is at best, if it could be attained, to act but\nas pure naturals, which state of man is of at infinite distance\nfrom that, in which it is by God expected the man must act, that\ndoth ought that is pleasing in his sight. For,\n\n1. The qualification and consideration by you propounded, is that\nwhich is in all men, in men simply as men, they being reasonable\ncreatures, and somewhat, though but somewhat capable of acting as\nsuch.\n\n2. This qualification is not only in, but of men; reason is of the\nman himself, even that which is as essential to him, as is that\nof his being created or made.\n\n3. The law also, which you call divine, moral, and eternal, is\nthat which is naturally seated in the heart, and as you yourself\nexpress it, is originally the dictates of human nature, or that\nwhich mankind doth naturally assent to (p. 11).\n\nNow I say, that a man cannot by these principles, and these\nqualifications, please the God of heaven, is apparent. (1.) Because\nnone of these are faith, 'But without faith it is impossible to\nplease him' (Heb 11:6). (2.) Because none of these are of the Holy\nGhost, but there is nothing accepted of God, under a New Testament\nconsideration, but those which are the fruits of the Spirit (Gal\n5:22-24). (3.) The man and principles you have stated, may be\nsuch as are utterly ignorant of Jesus Christ, and of all his New\nTestament things, as such: 'But the natural man receiveth not the\nthings of the Spirit of God: [the things of his New Testament] for\nthey are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because\nthey are spiritually discerned' (1 Col 2:14). (4.) Your qualifications\nand considerations, know nothing at all of the adoption of sons,\nand of our acting and doing our duty as such. You only content\nyourself to rest within the confines of the human nature, acts\nof reason, as men or creatures only, or in their supposed pure,\nnatural principles.\n\nAnd Sir, a little by way of digression; I will tell you also of\nour truly Christian righteousness, both as to its original or\nfirst principle; and also how, or under what capacity, it puts\nthe person that is acted by it.\n\nFirst, The principle which is laid within us, it is not the purity\nof the human nature, but of the Holy Ghost itself, which we have\nof God received, by believing in the Son of God, a principle as\nfar above yours of humanity, as is the heavens above the earth;\nyours being but like those of the first Adam, but ours truly those\nof the second (1 Col 6:19). 'As is the earthy, such are they also\nthat are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that\nare heavenly' (1 Cor 15:48).\n\nNow whosoever hath not this principle, although he be a creature,\nand also have the dictates of the human nature, yea, and also\nfollows them, yet he is not Christ's: 'If any man have not the\nSpirit of Christ, he is none of his' (Rom 8:9). Thus therefore is the\nChristian principle another from, and far above, your heathenish\nPagan one. By this Spirit is the Christian qualified with principles,\nnot natural, but spiritual, such as faith, hope, joy, peace, &c.\nall which are the fruits of the revelation of the forgiveness of\nsins, freely by grace (Gal 5:25), 'through the redemption that\nis in Jesus Christ' (Rom 3:24). In this spirit and faith we walk,\nby this spirit we are led (Rom 8:14), even into the joy and peace\nof the New Testament of our Lord; wherefore our holy actions are\nthe fruits of righteousness, that is by Jesus Christ, not by our\nhuman nature, or the purity of it in us; yea, they are the fruits\nof the Spirit of God, the qualifications that attend the new\ncovenant, and those that by the work of regeneration are brought\nwithin the bounds and privileges thereof. Wherefore,\n\nSecond, The capacity that we are in, who act and do from the heavenly\nprinciple; it is that of sons, the sons of God by adoption, as\nthe apostle said, 'Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the\nSpirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal\n4:6). And again, 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they\nare the sons of God' (Rom 8:14). This is a far other than is your\nhuman description of acting as a creature, endued with a principle\nof reason; for here is a man acts as a son, endued with the Holy\nSpirit of God, who hath, before the world was, predestinated him\nto this estate, by Jesus Christ, to himself (Eph 1:4, 4:6). As a\nson therefore, the Christian acts and does, because he is endued\nwith that high and heavenly principle mentioned before; by which\nprinciple this man hath received a new heart, a new spirit, a new\nunderstanding, a good conscience, so made by 'faith in the blood of\nthe Lord Jesus' (Heb 10). Thus being made again anew and another\nman, he acts from a new and another principle than yours; a\nprinciple as far beyond and above you, as is a man above a brute,\nand as is grace above nature (2 Col 5:14-16).\n\nThird, As the Christian acts and does from a better principle,\nand under a better capacity or consideration than that you have\ndescribed; so (to allude to your own notion) the first principles\nby which they receive this spirit and adoption, are not those\nprinciples of morals, or those originally dictates of human nature;\nbut it is through the hearing of faith (Gal 3:1-3), by which we\nunderstand, that the Son of God became a man, died for our sins,\nhath saved us from the curse of God, and accounted us to be the\nrighteousness of God in him; this being heard with the gospel,\nand a New Testament hearing, the Holy Ghost forthwith possesseth\nus, by the glorious working whereof we are helped, through the\nSon, to call the God of heaven, our Father.\n\nNow thus being made free from sin, by the only faith of Jesus\nChrist, 'we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting\nlife' (Rom 6:22).\n\nAnd here come in those reasonable conclusions, which you would\nmake the very radicals of Christianity, they being only remote,\nand after conclusions, drawn from the fore-mentioned mercy of God,\nviz., from predestination, calling, adoption, and justification\nby Christ's blood, while we in ourselves are sinners. I say these\nare the things which Paul endeavoured to provoke the Romans,\nPhilippians, and Colossians, to an holy conversation by.\n\nTo the Romans, 'I beseech you therefore,' saith he, 'by the mercies\nof God, (What mercies? Why those of election, redemption, calling,\njustification, and adoption, mentioned in the foregoing chapters)\nthat ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable\nunto God, which is your reasonable service' (Rom 12:1).\n\nTo the Philippians, 'If there be therefore any consolation in\nChrist, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,\nif any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like\nminded' (Phil 2:1,2).\n\nTo the Colossians, 'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those\nthings which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand\nof God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the\nearth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.\nWhen Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also\nappear with him in glory' (Col 3:1-4). Now mark; mortify therefore,\ntherefore! wherefore? why, because they were risen with Christ;\nbecause they should appear at the end of this world with Christ\nhimself in glory; therefore mortify the deeds of the body, or our\nmembers that are upon the earth.\n\nThese Sir, are the motives by which we Christians act; because we\nare forgiven, because we are sons, and if sons, then heirs, and\nso we act; but to speak to this more anon.\n\nPerhaps you will say I deal not fairly with you, because you treat,\nas of moral, so of gospel or New Testament laws.\n\nBut to that I will answer at present, that in this description of\nyour holy principle, which is the foundation of your book, whether\nthe laws be natural or spiritual, moral or of grace, the principle\nby which you do them, is no other than the principle of nature,\nthe dictates of the human nature; and so such as can by no means\nreach the doctrines of the gospel any farther than to make a\njudgment of them, by that wisdom which is 'enmity with God,' as\nwill farther be seen in my progress through your book.\n\nIndeed you make mention of divine laws, and that under two heads.\n1. Such as are of an indispensable and eternal obligation, as\nthose purely moral. 2. Such which you call positive precepts, in\nthemselves of an indifferent nature, and absolutely considered,\nare neither good nor evil. Of those of this kind that we have under\nthe gospel, you say you know but three, viz., That of coming to\nGod by Christ, and the institutions of baptism, and the Lord's\nsupper.\n\nSo then, although you talk of gospel positive laws, and particularly\nthat of coming to God by Christ; yet those which you call first\nprinciples of morals, are of higher concern with you, and more\nindispensable by far than this, this being a thing of an indifferent\nnature, and in itself absolutely considered, is neither good nor\nevil; but the other is the life of the matter. But a little to\ngather you up.\n\nThe morals, say you, are indispensable, and good in themselves,\nbut that of coming to God by Christ, a thing indifferent, and\nin itself neither good nor evil. Wherefore though in this your\ndescription, you talk of conforming to all those good and practical\nprinciples, that are made known either by revelation, nature, or\nthe use of reason, yet in this your obedience you reckon coming\nto God by Christ, but an act of a very indifferent nature, a thing\nif done not good in itself, neither evil in itself, should a man\nleave it undone; and so consequently a man may have in him the\nground and essentials of Christianity without it, may be saved,\nand go to heaven without it: for this I say, whatsoever is of an\nindifferent nature in itself, is not essential to the Christian\nreligion; but may or may not be done without the hazard of eternal\nsalvation; but say you, this of coming to God by Christ, is one of\nthe positive precepts, which are in themselves things indifferent,\nand neither good nor evil: therefore not of the substance of\nChristianity.\n\nBut, Sir, where learned you this new doctrine, as to reckon coming\nto God by Christ, a thing of so indifferent a nature, a thing not\ngood in itself, but with respect to certain circumstances. Had\nyou said this of baptism and the Supper of the Lord, I could with\nsome allowance have borne your words, but to count coming to God\nby Christ a thing indifferent in itself, is a blasphemy that may\nnot be borne by Christians, it being too high a contempt of the\nblood, and too great a disgrace to the person of the Lord, the\nking of glory; of which more hereafter, but to return.\n\nII. The intent of this your description is to set before us these\ntwo things.\n\n(1.) What are the essentials of the rule of that holiness, which\nby the gospel we are immediately obliged to, if we would be\njustified in the sight of God.\n\n(2.) What are the principles by which we act, when we do these\nworks aright.\n\n1. For the first you tell us, 'they are the first principles of\nmorals, such as are self-evident, and therefore not capable\nof being properly demonstrated; as being no less knowable, and\neasily assented to, than any proposition that may be brought for\nthe proof of them.' Such as are self-evident or evident of themselves;\nto what? To us as men that know the principles of reason, and\nthat are as easily assented to as any proposition; why said you\nnot such as may be as easily known, as we know there is a day or\nnight, winter and summer, or any other thing that may be brought\nfor the proof of them. This law therefore is none other than that\nmentioned in Romans 2:14, 15 which is the law of our nature, or\nthat which was implanted in us in the day of our creation, and\ntherefore is said to be ourselves, even nature itself (1 Cor\n11:14).\n\n2. The principle, say you, by which we act, and in the strength of\nwhich we do this law, it is the principle of reason, or a reasonable\ncompliance with this law written in our hearts, and originally\ndictates of human nature, &c. which certain principle, say you, is\nthis, to count it 'most highly becoming all reasonable creatures,\nto obey God in every thing; and as much disbecoming them, in any\nthing to disobey him.'\n\nThe sum is; this your holiness both in root and act is not other\nthan what is common to all the men on earth; I mean so common\nas that for the first, is in their nature, as the second is also\npart of themselves, they being creatures whose prime or principal\ndistinction from other, consisteth more in that they are reasonable,\nand such as have reason as a thing essential to them; wherefore\nthe excellency that you have discoursed of, is none other than\nthe excellency and goodness that is of this world, such as in\nthe first principles of it, is common to Heathens, Pagans, Turks,\nInfidels: and that as evidently dictates to those that have not\nheard the gospel (I mean as to the nature the good and evil)\nas it doth in them that sit under the sound thereof; and is the\nself-same which our late ungodly heretics the Quakers have made\nsuch a stir to promote and exalt, only in the description thereof\nyou seem more ingenious than they: for whereas they erroneously\ncall it Christ, the light of Christ, faith, grace, hope, the spirit,\nthe word that is nigh, &c. you give it the names due thereto, viz.\nA complexion or complication and combination of all the virtue\nof the soul, the human nature, the dictates of it, the principles\nof reason, such as are self-evident, than which there is nothing\nmankind doth naturally assent to (p. 6-11). Only here, as I have\nsaid, you glorify your errors also, with names and titles that\nare not to be found, but in your own deluded brains: as that the\nvirtues of the souls can keep themselves incommixed, that there is\nyet in us the purity of the humane nature, or such a disposition,\nthat can both by light and power give a man to see, and powerfully\nincline him to, and bring him under the government of all those\ngood and practical principles, that are made known either by\nrevelation, nature, or the use of reason.\n\nBut I say, these principles thus stated by you, being the principles,\nand the goodness of this world, and such as have not faith, but\nthe law; not the Holy Ghost, but humane nature in them; they cannot\nbe those which you affirm, was or is the design, the great, the\nonly, and ultimate design of Christ, or his gospel to promote, and\npropagate in the world; neither with respect to our justification\nbefore God from the curse; neither with respect to the workings\nof his Spirit, and the faith of Jesus in our hearts, the true\ngospel or evangelical holiness.\n\nFirst, It is not the righteousness that justifieth us before God\nfrom the curse; because it is that which is properly our own; and\nacted and managed by principles of our own, arising originally in\nthe roots of it, from our own. There is the righteousness of men,\nand the righteousness of God: that which is the righteousness of\nmen, is that which we do work from matter and principles of our\nown; but that which is the righteousness of God, is that which\nis wrought from matter and principles purely divine, and of the\nnature of God. Again, that which is our own righteousness, is\nthat which is wrought in and by our own persons as men; but that\nwhich is the righteousness of God, is that which is wrought in\nand by the second person in the Trinity, as God and man in one\nperson; and that resideth only in that person of the Son. I speak\nnow of the righteousness by which we stand just before God, from\nthe curse of the law. Now this righteousness of ours, our own\nrighteousness, the apostle always opposeth to the righteousness of\nGod, saying, 'They going about to establish their own righteousness,\nhave not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God' (Rom\n9:3). Father, This righteousness of our own, Paul counts loss\nand dog's-meat, in comparison of that other, far more glorious\nrighteousness, which he calleth as it is in truth, the righteousness of\nGod (Phil 3:7-9), which as I said but now, resideth in the person\nof the Son. Therefore (saith Paul) I cast away my own righteousness,\nand do count it loss, and 'but dung, that I may win Christ, and be\nfound in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the\nlaw, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness\nwhich is of God by faith.' The righteousness therefore, that is\nour own, that ariseth from matter and principles of our own (such\nas that which you have described) justifieth us not before God\nfrom the curse.\n\nSecond, The righteousness that you have described, justifieth us\nnot, as before, because it is the righteousness which is of the\nmoral law, that is, it is wrought by us, as walking in the law.\nNow it mattereth not, whether you respect the law in its first\nprinciples, or as it is revealed in the table of the ten commandments,\nthey are in nature but one and the same, and their substance and\nmatter is written in our hearts, as we are men. Now this righteousness,\nthe apostle casteth away, as was shewn before; 'Not having mine\nown righteousness (saith he) which is of the law'; why? Because\nthe righteousness that saveth us from the wrath of God, is\nthe righteousness of God; and so a righteousness that is without\nthe law. 'But now the righteousness of God without the law is\nmanifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the\nrighteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all\nand upon all them that believe' (Rom 3:21,22). The righteousness of\nGod without the law; the righteousness of Christ who is naturally\nGod; wherefore such a righteousness as was accomplished by him that\nwas Lord, and the very God of the law; whose nature was infinite,\nand not that which the law could command or condemn; neither was\nthe command of the law, the great and principal argument with him,\nno, not in its first and highest principles, to do or continue to\ndo it; but even that which the law commanded of us, that he did,\nnot by the law, but by that spirit of life, that eternal spirit, and\nGodhead, which was essential to his very being: He did naturally\nand infinitely that which the law required of us, from higher,\nand more mighty principles than the law could require of him: for\nI should reckon it a piece of prodigious blasphemy to say, that the\nlaw could command his God; the creature, his Lord and Creator: but\nthis Lord God, Jesus Christ, even he hath accomplished righteousness,\neven righteousness that is without, that is above, higher, and\nbetter than that of the law; and that is the righteousness that is\ngiven to, and put upon all them that believe. Wherefore the Lord\nJesus Christ, in his most blessed life, was neither prompted to\nactions of holiness, nor managed in them, by the purity of humane\nnature, or those you call first principles of morals, or as he was\nsimply a reasonable creature; but being the natural Son of God,\ntruly, and essentially, eternal as the Father; by the eternal\nSpirit, his Godhead, was his manhood governed, and acted, and\nspirited to do and suffer. 'He through the eternal Spirit offered\nhimself without spot to God' (Heb 9:14); which offering respects\nnot only his act of dying, but also that by which he was capacitated\nto die without spot in his sight; which was the infinite dignity,\nand sinlessness of his person; and the perfect justice of his\nactions. Now this person, thus acting, is approved of, or justified\nby the law to be good: for if the righteousness of the law be\ngood, which law is but a creature, the righteousness of the Lord,\nthe God of this law, must needs be much more good; wherefore here\nis the law, and its perfection swallowed up, even as the light of\na candle, or star is swallowed up by the light of the sun. Thus\nthen is the believer made, not the righteousness of the law, 'but\nthe righteousness of God in Christ' (2 Cor 5:21), because Christ\nJesus, who is the righteousness of the Christian, did walk in this\nworld, in, and under the law; not by legal and humane principles,\nwhich are the excellences of men, but in, and by those that are\ndivine, even such as were, and are of his own nature, and the\nessence of his eternal Godhead. This is the righteousness without\nthe law, accomplished by a person and principles, far otherwise,\nthan is he, or those you make description of; and therefore yours\ncannot be that, by which we stand just before the justice of God\nwithout the law. Now if it be a righteousness without the law,\nthen it is a righteousness without men, a righteousness that cannot\nbe found in the world; for take away the law, the rule, and you\ntake away, not only the righteousness, but that by which men,\nas men, work righteousness in the world: 'Mine own righteousness\nwhich is of the law.' The righteousness then by which a man must\nstand just in the sight of God from the curse, is not to be found\nin men, nor in the law, but in him, and him only, who is greater,\nand also, without the law; for albeit, for our sakes he became\nunder the law, even to the curse and displeasure of God; yet the\nprinciples by which he walked in the world to Godward, they were\nneither humane, nor legal, but heavenly, and done in the Spirit of\nthe Son. Wherefore it is not the righteousness you have described,\nby which we stand just before God.\n\nThird, The righteousness you have described, cannot be that which\njustifieth us before God, because of its imperfections, and that\nboth with respect to the principle, and the power with which it\nis managed: for though you have talked of a sound complexion of\nsoul, the purity of the humane nature, and that with this addition\nof power, as to be able to keep itself incommixt with that which\nis not of itself; yet we Christians know, and that by the words\nof God, that there is in man, as man, now no soundness at all,\nbut from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, botches\nand boils, putrefactions and sores (Isa 1:6). We are ALL an unclean\nthing, and our righteousness as filthy ulcerous rags (Isa 64:6).\n'If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily\nrighteousness should have been by the law' (Gal 3:21). Could a\nman perform the law to the liking of the justice of the eternal\nmajesty, then would the law give life to that man; but because\nof the perfection of an infinite justice, and the weakness and\nunprofitableness of the law through our flesh (Rom 8:3), therefore,\nthough you speak yet farther of the excellency of your sound\ncomplexion, and of the purity of the human nature, you must fly\nfrom yourself, to another righteousness for life, or at the last\nstick in the jaws of death and everlasting desperation. 'For by\nthe works of the law shall no flesh be justified' (Gal 2:16).\n\nIt is therefore no better than error, thus to ascribe to poor\nman, 'that hath drank iniquity like water,' a soundness of soul,\na purity of human nature. Wherefore Jude saith of you, and of all\nsuch naturalists, 'That even in the things that you know naturally,\nas the brute, in them you corrupt yourselves' (Jude 10), even\nin the very principles, the first or original dictates of your\nnature or humanity. There is none that understandeth or is good,\ntherefore there is none that doth good, no not one: that is, none\nas continuing in a natural state; none by the power or principles\nof nature; for he meaneth here, in your own sense, as men by\nnatural principles have to do with the justice of the law.\n\nFourth, The righteousness which you have described cannot be that\nwhich justifieth us before God, because it is that which is not\nof faith. 'The law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them\nshall live in them' (Gal 3:12). The apostle also in the 10th chapter\nof the Romans tells us, that the righteousness that is completed\nby doing the law is one, and another besides the righteousness\nof faith. For faith in the justification of a sinner from the\ncurse and wrath of God, respecteth only the mercy of God, and\nforgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ. 'God for Christ's sake\nhath forgiven him that is enabled to believe, that is, trust to,\nand venture the eternal concern of his soul upon the righteousness\nthat is no where to be found, but in the person of the Son of God.'\nFor there is justice more than answerable to all the demands of\nthe law, and equal to the requirements of the eternal justice of\nGod, and he is our justice; he is made unto us of God, righteousness,\nor justice; that is, the righteousness or justice that is in him,\nis by God accounted the man's that shall accept thereof by faith,\nthat he might be made the justice or righteousness of God in him.\nFor the righteousness that saveth a sinner from damnation must\nbe equal to that in the eternal Deity: But where can that be found\nbut in him that is naturally God, as is indeed the Son of the Father;\nin him, therefore, and not in the law, there is a righteousness\nfit for faith to apply to. Besides, the law is not, neither can\nbe, the object of faith to men; for that which is the object of\nfaith (I speak now as to justifying righteousness) it must be a\nrighteousness already completed, and as I said, a righteousness\nto be received and accepted, being now perfected and offered, and\ngiven to us by the kindness and mercy of God; but a man may believe\nlong enough in the law, before that performs for him a perfect\nrighteousness. The law can work nothing unless it be wrath. 'No\nthou must work by, and not believe in, the law' (Rom 4). Besides,\nall that cometh out of the mouth of the law is, 'Cursed is every\none that continueth not in all things which are written in the\nbook of the law to do them' (Gal 3:10), which no man is capable\nof doing, so as to escape the curse by doing, that hath once, or\nfirst transgressed the same. Wherefore it is a vain thing, yea an\nhorrible wickedness in you, thus to abuse the law, and the weakness\nof man, by suggesting that the only, the ultimate, or grand design\nof Christ Jesus was, or is, the promoting of a righteousness by\nthe law, that is performed by humane principles in us.[8]\n\nI could double, yea ten times double the number of these arguments\nagainst you, but I will pass from this to the second thing. 'The\nrighteousness you have described, is not the true gospel inward\nholiness.'\n\nI told you before, that the principles which you have described,\nare not evangelical principles; and now I will add, that as they\nare not such in themselves, so neither do they fetch in, or obtain\nby our adhering to them, those things which alone can make, or\nwork in the soul, those truly gospel inward acts of holiness.\n\n[Things essential to inward gospel holiness.]\n\nThere are three things which are essential to the inward gospel\nholiness; of which as your description is utterly destitute,\nso neither can they by that be obtained, or come into the heart.\n1. The Holy Ghost. 2. Faith in Christ. 3. A new heart, and a new\nspirit.\n\nWithout these three, there is no such thing as gospel holiness in\nman, as before I have also hinted at. But now as there are none\nof these three found in your description of inward holiness; so\nneither can you, or others, by all your inclinations, either to\nthose you call first principles of natural reason, or the dictates\nof human nature, obtain or fetch into the soul the least dram of\nthat which is essential, to that which is indeed according to the\ngospel description of inward gospel holiness, as will further be\nmanifest in this that followeth.\n\n1. The Holy Ghost is not obtained by your description, that consisting\nonly in principles of nature, and in putting forth itself in acts\nof civility and morality. When the apostle would convince the\nbewitched Galatians, that your doctrine which was also the doctrine\nof the false apostles, was that, which instead of helping forward,\ndid hinder, and pervert the gospel of Christ; he applieth himself\nto them in this manner. 'This only would I learn of you, Received ye\nthe Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?'\n(Gal 3:2) By the works of the law, that is, by putting of your\nprinciples into practice. Nay, may I not add, by putting of your\nprinciples into practice, by a more bright and clear rule, than\nin the beginning of your description is inserted by you; for the\nlaw as written and engraven in stones, with the addition of all\nthe Mosaical precepts, was a more ample, and full discovery of the\nmind of God, than can be obtained by your virtues of soul, your\npurity of human nature, or the first principles of morals, as\nthey are written in the heart of man; and originally dictates of\nhuman nature (Rom 3:1-3). Yet by these, by following these, by\nlabouring to live up to the light of these, their own experience\ntold them, that they neither could, nor did obtain the enjoyment\nof the Holy Ghost; but that rather their now declining the word of\nfaith, by which indeed they receive it at first (whatever pretences\nof holiness, and godliness were the arguments to prevail with\nthem so to do) was in truth none other but the very witchcraft,\nand enchantments of the devil.\n\nFarther, The apostle sets this your spirit and principles, and\nthat which indeed is the Spirit of God, in a line diametrically\nopposite one against another; yea the receiving of the one, opposeth\nthe receiving of the other. 'Now we have received, [saith he] not\nthe spirit of the world,' (that is, your spirit, and principles\nof humanity) to walk by it, or live in it; 'but the Spirit which\nis of God; that we may know the things that are freely given to\nus of God' (1 Cor 2:12). But what is the spirit of the world? He\ntells us in the verse before, it is the spirit of a man; which\nSolomon calls, 'the candle of the Lord; searching all the inward\nparts of the belly' (Prov 20:27), by human principles, good motions\nto moral duties, workings of reason, dictates of nature to obey\nGod as Creator. These things flow from the spirit of a man, which\nis the spirit of all the world. They that preach, or speak by this\nspirit, they preach or speak of the world, of the virtues of the\nworld; and the world, 'the whole world heareth them,' or know in\nthemselves what they say (1 John 4:5).\n\nNow when this spirit is received, embraced, and followed, as the\nspirit that is of God, then it must be branded with the mark of the\nspirit of error, and of antichrist; because the act in so doing,\nis most wicked; yea, and Christ himself is made head against, by\nit.\n\nBut I say, the Holy Ghost is not obtained by these principles,\nnor by the pursuit of them.\n\n2. Faith is not obtained by the pursuit of your principles, but\nby hearing of another doctrine; he that presseth men to look to,\nand live by the purity of human nature, principles of natural\nreason, or by the law, as written in the heart, or bible; he sets\nthe word of faith out of the world; for these doctrines are as\nopposite, as the spirits I spake of before; 'For Moses describeth\nthe righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth\nthose things shall live by them.' Now he that receiveth this law,\nto do, and live by; he hath set up, and is in pursuit of a doctrine\nof another nature, than that which is called the righteousness\nof faith; that being such, as for justification, and deliverance\nfrom the curse, maketh no mention at all of hearing the law, or of\ndoing good works; but of hearing of the mercy of God, as extended\nto sinners; and of its coming to us through the death, and\nresurrection of Christ Jesus. 'The righteousness which is of faith,\nspeaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend\ninto heaven? [that is, to bring Christ down from above:] or, Who\nshall descend into the deep? [that is, to bring up Christ again\nfrom the dead]. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even\nin thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which\nwe preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord\nJesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him\nfrom the dead, thou shalt be saved' (Rom 10:5,9). This then is the\ndoctrine of faith, or the righteousness with which faith hath to\ndo. Now as old covenant-works are begotten in men by the doctrine\nof works; so faith is begotten by the doctrine of faith. Therefore\nafter he had said, 'faith cometh by hearing'; he insinuates it\nto be the hearing the preaching of the gospel of peace (peace by\nthe blood of the cross) and the glad tidings of good things (vv\n14-17), of good things promised for the sake of the Lord Jesus;\nnot for the sake of good deeds done of us, by human principles,\nor the dictates of our nature.\n\nFaith, Then the second essential, comes into the heart, not by\nthe preaching, or the practice of your principles; but by another,\na higher, and far more heavenly doctrine. And hence the apostle\ncompletely puts the difference betwixt the worker of good works\nin the spirit of the law, and the believer that taketh hold of\ngrace by Christ, that he may be saved thereby. The one he calls\n'Them that are of the works of the law'; the other, 'They which\nare of faith' (Gal 3). This being done, he tells us, that as they\ndiffer in the principles, to wit, of faith and works, so they shall\ndiffer in conclusion: 'For the law is not of faith, the promise\nis only made to faith; therefore, they only that are of faith,\nare blessed with faithful Abraham.'\n\n3. The third essential is, a new heart, and a new spirit or mind;\nand this also comes not by your principle, that being but the old\ncovenant that gendereth to bondage, and that holds its Ishmaels\nunder the curse for ever: there comes no new heart by the law,\nnor new spirit. It is by the new covenant, even the gospel, that\nall things are made new (Jer 31:33; Eze 36; Heb 8:8; 2 Cor 5:17-19).\n\nThe apostle, after a large discourse of the two ministrations, and\ntheir excellencies (2 Cor 3), tells us that the heart is nothing\nchanged, so long as it abideth in the works of the law, but remaineth\nblind and ignorant: 'Nevertheless [saith he] when it shall turn\n[from the law] to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.' But\nwhat is it to turn from the law to the Lord? Why, even to leave\nand forsake your spirit and principles, and works from those\nprinciples, and fly to the grace and merits; 'the glory of the\nLord Jesus Christ.' Now when the heart is turned to Christ, then\nthe vail of Moses is taken off; wherefore then the soul 'with open\nface beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, is changed--from\nglory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Cor 3:14,18).\n\nObjection. But it seems a paradox to many, that a man should\nlive to the law, that is, devote himself to the works of the ten\ncommandments, the most perfect rule of life; and yet not be counted\none changed, or new.\n\nAnswer. Though it seemeth an untruth, yet it is most true, that\nby the works of the law, no heart is made new, no man made new.\nA man from principle of nature and reason, (which principles are\nof himself, and as old) may give up himself to the goodness of\nthe law: yet these principles are so far off from being new, that\nthey are as old as Adam in Paradise; and come into the world with\nall the children of men. To which principles the law, or the first\nprinciples of morals, so equally suit, that, as you have said (p.\n8), 'they are self-evident, than which there is nothing mankind\ndoth more naturally assent to' (p. 11). Now nature is no new\nprinciple, but an old: even our own, and of ourselves. The law\nis no new principle, but old, and one with ourselves (as also you\nwell have called it) 'first written in men's hearts, and originally\ndictates of human nature.' Let a man then be as devout, as\nis possible for the law, and the holiness of the law. Yet if the\nprinciples from which he acts, be but the habit of soul, the purity\n(as he feigns) of his own nature; principles of natural reason,\nor the dictates of human nature; all this is nothing else but\nthe old gentleman in his holiday clothes: the old heart, the old\nspirit, the spirit of the man, not the spirit of Christ, is here.\n\nAnd hence the apostle, when he would shew us a man alive, or made\na new man indeed; as he talketh of the Holy Ghost and faith, so he\ntells us such are dead to the law, to the law, as a law of works;\nto the law as to principles of nature. 'Wherefore, my brethren, ye\nalso are become dead to the law [the moral law, and the ceremonial\nlaw] by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another\n[another than the law] even to him who is raised from the dead,\nthat we should bring forth fruit unto God' (Rom 7:4).\n\nYe are become dead to the law. Dead to the law! Why? That you should\nbe married to another. Married to another! Why? 'That you should\nbring forth fruit unto God.' But doth not a man bring forth fruit\nunto God, that walketh orderly according to the ten commandments?\nNo, if he do it before faith make this in the spirit of a man,\nby the dictates of human nature, respecting the law, as that, by\nthe obeying of which, he must obtain acceptance with God. This\nis bringing forth fruit unto himself; for all that he doth, he\ndoth it as a man, as a creature, from principles natural, and of\nhimself, his own, and for none other than himself; and therefore\nhe serveth in an old spirit, the oldness of the letter, and for\nhimself. But now (that is, ye being dead to the law, and married\nto Christ) that (the law) being dead; by which (while in ourselves)\nwe were held; now we are delivered from that law, both as to its\ncurse and impositions, as it stands a law of works in the heart\nof the world; we serve in newness of the spirit, 'and not in the\noldness of the letter' (v 6). A man must first then be dead to\nyour principles, both of nature and the law; if he will serve in\na new spirit, if he would bring forth fruit unto God.[9] Wherefore\nyour description of the principle of holiness in man, and also\nthe principles by which this holiness is put forth by him into\nrighteous nets; they are such as are altogether void of the true\nessentials of inward gospel-holiness and righteousness.\n\n\n[FOWLER'S ASSERTION THAT THE GRAND, THE ONLY AND ULTIMATE DESIGN\nOF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS TO RE-PRODUCE MAN'S ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS\nEXAMINED AND CONFUTED.]\n\nBut there is one thing more in this description, or rather effect\nthereof, which I shall also inquire into: and that is your saying,\n'As it was the errand of Christ to effect our deliverance out of\nthat sinful state we had brought ourselves into: so to put us again\ninto possession of that holiness which we had lost' (p. 12). The\nproof of this position is now your next business; that is, if I\nunderstand your learning, the remaining part of your book, which\nconsisteth of well nigh 300 pages, is spent for proof thereof; which\nI doubt not but effectually to confute with less than 300 lines.\nOnly first by the way, I would have my reader to take notice that\nin this last clause, (to put us again into possession of that\nholiness which we had lost) is the sum of all this large description\nof his holiness in the foregoing pages; that is, the holiness\nand righteousness that Mr. Fowler hath been describing; and adds,\nthat Christ's whole business when he came into the world was, as\nto effect our deliverance from sin; 'so to put us again in possession\nof that holiness which we had lost.' The holiness therefore\nthat here he contendeth for, is that, and only that which was in\nAdam before the fall, which he lost by transgression; and we by\ntransgressing in him. A little therefore to inquire into this, if\nperhaps his reader and mine may come to a right understanding of\nthings.\n\nFirst then, Adam before the fall, even in his best and most sinless\nstate, was but a pure natural man, consisting of body and soul;\nthese, to use your own terms, were his pure essentials: (p. 11)\nin this man's heart, God also did write the law; that is, as you\nterm them, the first principles of morals (p. 8). This then was\nthe state of Adam, he was a pure natural man; made by God sinless;\nall the faculties of his soul and members of his body were clean.\n'God made man upright' (Eccl 7:29). But he made him not then a\nspiritual man; 'the first Adam was made a living soul,' 'howbeit\nthat was not first which is spiritual; but that which is natural,\nand afterward that which is spiritual: The first man is of the\nearth, earthy' (1 Cor 15:45-47). A living soul he was; yet but a\nnatural man, even in his first and best estate; but earthly, when\ncompared with Christ, or with them that believe in Christ. So then,\nthe holiness of Adam in his best estate, even that which he lost,\nand we in him, it was none other, than that which was natural,\neven the sinless state of a natural man. This holiness then was\nnot of the nature of that, which hath for its root the Holy Ghost;\nfor of that we read not at all in him, he only was indued with a\nliving soul; his holiness then could not be gospel, nor that which\nis a branch of the second covenant: his acts of righteousness, were\nnot by the operations of the Spirit of grace, but the dictates of\nthe law in his own natural heart. But the apostle when he treateth\nof the christian inherent holiness; first excluding that in Adam,\nas earthly; he tells us, it is such as is in Christ: 'As is the\nearthy, such are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such\nare they that are heavenly.' Let then those that are the sons of\nAdam, in the state of nature as he, though not so pure, and spotless\nas he, be reckoned to bear his image and similitude: but let them\nthat are the children of Christ, though not so pure as he, bear\nthe image and similitude of Christ: 'for they are conformable to\nthe image of the Son of God' (Rom 8:29). The holiness therefore\nthat was in Adam, being but that which was natural, earthly, and\nnot of the Holy Ghost, cannot be that which Christ came into the\nworld to give us possession of.\n\nSecond, Adam in his best, and most sinless state, was but a type\nor figure: 'The figure of him that was to come' (Rom 5:14). A\ntype in what? A type or figure doubtless, in his sinless and holy\nestate, a type and figure of the holiness of Christ: But if Christ\nshould come from heaven, to put us in possession of this sinless\nholiness that was in Adam, or that we lost in him: to what more\nwould his work amount, than to put us into the possession of\na natural, figurative, shadowish righteousness or holiness. But\nthis he never intended; therefore it is not the possessing of his\npeople with that holiness, that was the great errand Christ came\ninto the world upon.\n\nThird, The holiness and righteousness that was in, and that we\nlost by, Adam before the fall; was such as stood in, and was to\nbe managed by his natural perfect compliance with a covenant of\nworks. For, 'Do this sin and die,' were the terms that was from\nGod to Adam. But Christ at his coming brings in another, a better,\na blessed covenant of grace; and likewise possesseth his children,\nwith the holiness, and privileges of that covenant; not with\nAdam's heart nor Adam's mind; but a new heart, a new spirit,\na new principle to act by, and walk in a new covenant. Therefore\nthe holiness that was in Adam before, or that we lost in him by\nthe fall, could not be the holiness that Christ at his coming made\nit his great or only business to put us in possession of.\n\nFourth, The holiness that was in Adam before, and that we lost in\nhim by the fall, was such as might stand with perfect ignorance\nof the mediation of Jesus Christ: for Christ was not made known to\nAdam as a Saviour, before that Adam was a sinner; neither needed\nhe at all to know him to be his Mediator, before he knew he\nhad offended (Gen 3). But Christ did not come into the world to\nestablish us in, or give us possession of such holiness as might\nstand with perfect ignorance of his Mediatorship. No; the holiness\nthat we believers have, and the righteous acts that we fulfil,\nthey come to us, and are done by us, through the knowledge of the\nLord Jesus, and of his being the Messias promised (Eph 4:21,22;\n2 Peter 1:3).\n\nFifth, The holiness that was in Adam, was neither given him\nthrough the promise, neither encouraged by the promise. Adam had\nno promise to possess him with a principle of holiness; it came\nto him by creation; neither had he any promise to strengthen or\nencourage him in holiness. All he had was instructions concerning\nhis duty, and death threatened if he did it not (Gen 2:15-17).\nBut Christ came not to give us possession of an holiness or\nrighteousness, that came to us by our creation, without a promise;\nand that hath no promise to encourage us to continue therein; but\nof an holiness that comes to us by the best of promises, and that\nwe are encouraged to by the best of promises. Therefore it was not\nhis great errand when he came from heaven to earth, to put us in\npossession of that promiseless holiness that Adam had before, and\nthat was lost in him by the fall.\n\nLastly, In a word; the holiness that Adam had before, and that we\nlost in him by the fall; it was a natural shadowish old covenant,\npromiseless holiness; such as stood and might be walked in, while\nhe stood perfectly ignorant of the Mediator Christ. Wherefore it\nis rather the design of your Apollo the devil,[10] whom in p. 101\nyou bring forth to applaud your righteousness; I say, it is rather\nhis design than Christ's, to put men upon an endeavour after a\npossession of that: for that which is truly evangelical, is the\nspiritual, substantial, new covenant promised holiness; that which\ncometh to us by, and standeth in the Spirit, faith and knowledge\nof the Son of God, not that which we lost in Adam. Wherefore the\nsong which there you learnt of the devil, is true, in the sense\nhe made it, and in the sense for which you bring it; which is, to\nbeget in men, the highest esteem of their own human nature; and\nto set up this natural, shadowish, promiseless, ignorant holiness,\nin opposition to that which is truly Christ's.\n\nTo dwell in heaven doth not more please him, than Within the souls\nof pious mortal men.\n\nThis is the song; but you find it not in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or\nJohn, but among the heathens who were his disciples, and who were\nwont to inquire at his mouth, and learn of him.\n\nThus have I razed the foundation of your book, even by overthrowing\nthe holiness, and righteousness, which by you is set up, as\nthat which is the only true gospel, and evangelical. Wherefore\nit remaineth, that the rest of your book, viz. whatever therein\nis brought, and urged for the proof of this your description of\nholiness, &c. it is but the abuse of Christ, of scripture, and\nreason; it is but a wresting and corrupting the word of God, both\nto your own destruction, and them that believe you.\n\n[Fowler's insidious errors routed.]\n\nBut to pass this, and to come to some other passages in your book;\nand first to that in p. 5 where you say,\n\n'The holiness, which is the design of the religion of Christ\nJesus,--is not such as is subjected in any thing without us, or\nis made ours by a mere external application,' &c.\n\nAnswer. 1. These words secretly smite at the justification that\ncomes by the imputation of that most glorious righteousness that\nalone resideth in the person of the Lord Jesus; and that is made\nours by an act of eternal grace, we resting upon it by the faith\nof Jesus.\n\n2. But if the holiness of which you speak, be not subjected in\nany thing without us; then it is not of all that fulness which it\npleased the Father should dwell in Christ: for the holiness and\nrighteousness, even the inward holiness that is in saints, it is\nnone other than that which dwelleth in the person of the Son of\nGod in heaven: neither doth any man partake of, or enjoy the least\nmeasure thereof, but as he is united by faith to this Son of God,\nthe thing is as true in him as in us; in him as the head, and\nwithout measure (1 John 2:8); and is originally seated in him,\nnot in us. 'Of his fulness have all we [saints] received, and\ngrace for grace' (John 1:16). Wherefore the holiness that hath\nits original from us, from the purity of the human nature (which\nis the thing you aim at) and that originally, as you term it, is\nthe dictates thereof, is the religion of the Socinians, Quakers,[11]\n&c., and not the religion of Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd now I will come to your indifferent things, viz., those which\nyou call 'positive precepts'; things, say you, 'of an indifferent\nnature; and absolutely considered, are neither good, nor\nevil;--but are capable of becoming so; only by reason of certain\ncircumstances': of these positive indifferent precepts, you say,\nyou know but three in the gospel; but three, that are purely so,\nviz., 'That of going to God by Christ, and the institutions of\nbaptism, and the Lord's Supper.' This we have in p. 7 and 9.\n\nAnswer. These words, as I hinted before, are highly derogatory to\nthe Lord, the King of glory; and trample as much upon the blood\nof the Son of God, as words can likely do. For,\n\n1. If going to God by Christ, be in itself but an indifferent\nthing, then, as I also hinted before, it is not of the substance\nof Christianity; but a man may be truly a Christian without it;\nmay be saved, and go to heaven without it; this is in truth the\nconsequence of your words: for things purely of an indifferent\nnature, do not in themselves either make or mar the righteousness\nthat justifieth us from the curse before God. Wherefore, by your\nargument, if a man remain ignorant of that positive precept,\nof 'coming to God by Christ'; he remaineth ignorant but of an\nindifferent thing, a thing that in itself is neither good nor evil,\nand therefore not essentially material to his faith or justifying\nrighteousness.\n\n2. An indifferent thing in itself is next to nothing, neither good\nnor evil then, but a thing betwixt them both.\n\nThen is the blood of the Lord Jesus, in itself, of no value at\nall; nor faith in him, of itself, any more than a thing of nought;\ntheir virtue and goodness only dependeth upon certain circumstances\nthat make them so. For the indifferency of the thing lieth not\nsimply in coming to God, but in coming to him by Christ: coming\notherwise to God, even in this man's eyes, being the all in all;\nbut in this coming, in coming to him by Christ, there lieth the\nindifferency. I marvel what injury the Lord Jesus hath done this\nman, that he should have such indifferent thoughts of coming to\nGod by him?\n\nBut hath he no better thoughts of his own good deeds, which are\nby the law? Yes, doubtless, for those (saith he) 'are of an\nindispensable, and eternal obligation, which were first written\nin men's hearts, and originally dictates of human nature' (p. 8).\nMark, not a dictate of human nature, or necessary conclusion or\ndeduction from it, is of an indifferent, but of an indispensable;\nnot of a transient, but of an eternal obligation. It is only\ngoing to God by Christ, and two other things that he findeth in\nthe gospel, that of themselves are of an indifferent nature.\n\nBut how indifferent? Even as indifferent in itself as the blood of\na silly sheep, or the ashes of an heifer; for these are his very\nwords. 'SUCH [that is, such ordinances as in themselves are of an\nindifferent nature] were all the injunctions and prohibitions of\nthe ceremonial law; and some few such we have under the gospel'\n(p. 7). Then, in p. 9 he tells you what these positive precepts\nunder the gospel, or things indifferent, are: 'THAT of going to\nGod by Christ, is one; and the other two, are the institutions\nof baptism, and the Lord's supper.' Such therefore as were the\nceremonies of the law, such, even such, saith he, is that of going\nto God by Christ, &c.\n\nWherefore, he that shall lay no more stress upon the Lord Jesus\nto come to God by, than this man doth, would lay as much, were the\nold ceremonies in force, upon a silly sheep, as upon the Christ\nof God. For these are all alike positive precepts, such as were\nthe ceremonies of the law, things in themselves neither good nor\nevil, but absolutely considered of an indifferent nature.\n\nSo that to come to God by Christ, is reckoned, of itself, by him,\na thing of a very indifferent nature, and therefore this man cannot\ndo it, but with a very indifferent heart; his great, and most\nsubstantial coming to God, must needs be by some other way (John\n10:1). But why should this THIEF love thus to clamber, and seek\nto go to God by other means; such which he reckoneth of a more\nindispensable nature, and eternal; seeing Christ only, as indifferent\nas he is, is the only way to the Father. 'I am the way, [saith he]\nthe truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.'\nIf he be the only way, then there is none other; if he be thus\nthe truth, then is all other the lie; and if he be here the life,\nthen is all other the death; let him call them indispensable and\neternal never so often.\n\nSo then, how far off this man's doctrine is, of sinning against\nthe Holy Ghost, let him that is wise consider it. For if coming\nto God by Christ, be in itself but a thing indifferent, and only\nmade a duty upon the account of certain circumstances; then, to\ncome to God by Christ, is a duty incumbent upon us only by reason\nof certain circumstances; not that the thing in itself is good, or\nthat the nature of sin, and the justice of God, layeth a necessity\non us so to do. But what be these certain circumstances? For it\nis because of these, if you will believe him, that God the Father,\nyea, the whole Trinity, did consult in eternity, and consent,\nthat Christ should be the way to life: now, I say, it is partly\nbecause by him was the greatest safety, he being naturally the\njustice, wisdom, and power of God; and partly, because it would,\nwe having sinned, be utterly impossible we should come to God by\nother means and live. He that will call these circumstances, that\nis, things over and above besides the substantials of the gospel,\nwill but discover his unbelief and ignorance, &c.\n\nAs for your saying, that Calvin, Peter Martyr, Musculus, Zanchy,[12]\nand others, did not question, but that God could have pardoned\nsin, without any other satisfaction, than the repentance of the\nsinner (p. 84). It matters nothing to me, I have neither made my\ncreed out of them, nor other, than the holy scriptures of God.\n\nBut if Christ was from before all worlds ordained to be the\nSaviour, then was he from all eternity so appointed and prepared\nto be. And if God be, as you say, infinitely (p. 136), and I will\nadd, eternally just; how can he pardon without he be presented\nwith that satisfaction for sin, that to all points of the highest\nperfection doth answer the demands of this infinite, and eternal\njustice? Unless you will say, that the repentance of a sinner\nis sufficient to answer whatever could be justly demanded as a\nsatisfaction thereto; which if you should, you would in consequence\nsay, that man is, or may be in himself, just, that is, equal with\nGod; or that the sin of man was not a transgression of the law that\nwas given, and a procurer of the punishment that is threatened,\nby that eternal God that gave it. (But let me give you a caution,\ntake heed that you belie not these men) Christ cries, 'If it\nbe possible let this cup pass from me' (Matt 26:39). If what be\npossible? Why, that sinners should be saved without his blood (Heb\n9:22; Luke 24:26; Acts 17:3). 'Ought not Christ to have suffered?'\n'Christ must needs have suffered,' not because of some certain\ncircumstances, but because the eternal justice of God, could not\nconsent to the salvation of the sinner, without a satisfaction for\nthe sin committed.[13] Of which, more in the next, if you shall\nthink good to reply.\n\nNow, that my reader may see that I have not abused you in this\nreply to your sayings, I will repeat your words at large, and\nleave them upon you to answer it.\n\nYou say, 'Actions may become duties or sins these two ways; first,\nas they are compliances with, or transgressions of, divine positive\nprecepts: These are the declarations of the arbitrary will of God,\nwhereby he restrains our liberty, for great and wise reasons, in\nthings that are of an indifferent nature, and absolutely considered are\nneither good nor evil; and so makes things not good in themselves\n[and capable of becoming so only by reason of certain circumstances]\nduties, and things not evil in themselves, sins. Such were all\nthe injunctions and prohibitions of the ceremonial law, and some\nfew such we have under the gospel' (p. 7). Then p. 9 you tell us,\nthat 'the reasons of the positive laws [that is, concerning things\nin themselves indifferent] contained in the gospel are declared;\nof which [say you] I know not above three that are purely so, viz.\nThat of going to God by Christ, and the institutions of baptism,\nand the Lord's Supper.'\n\nHere now let the reader note, That the positive precepts, declarations\nof the arbitrary will of God, in things of an indifferent nature,\nbeing such, as absolutely considered, are neither good nor evil;\nsome few SUCH, say you, we have under the gospel, namely, that\nof coming to God by Christ, &c. I am the more punctual in this\nthing, because you have confounded your weak reader with a crooked\nparenthesis in the midst of the paragraph, and also by deferring\nto spit your intended venom at Christ, till again you had puzzled\nhim, with your mathematics and metaphysics, &c., putting in another\npage, betwixt the beginning and the end of your blasphemy.\n\nIndeed, in the seventh chapter of your book, you make a great\nnoise of the effects and consequences of the death of Christ, as\nthat it was a sacrifice for sin, an expiatory, and propitiatory\nsacrifice (p. 83). Yet, he that well shall weight you, and compare\nyou with yourself, shall find that words and sense, with you are\ntwo things; and also, that you have learned of your brethren of\nold, to dissemble with words, that thereby your own heart-errors,\nand the snake that lieth in your bosom, may yet there abide the\nmore undiscovered. For in the conclusion of that very chapter,\neven in and by a word or two, you take away that glory, that of\nright belongeth to the death and blood of Christ, and lay it upon\nother things.\n\nFor you say, 'The scriptures that frequently affirm, that the\nend of Christ's death was the forgiveness of our sins, and the\nreconciling of us to his Father, we are not so to understand,\n[those places where this is expressed] as if these blessings\nwere absolutely thereby procured for us any otherwise, than upon\ncondition of our effectual believing' (p. 91).\n\nI answer, By the death of Christ was the forgiveness of sins\neffectually obtained for all that shall be saved, and they, even\nwhile yet enemies, by that were reconciled unto God. So that, as\nto forgiveness from God, it is purely upon the account of grace\nin Christ; 'We are justified by his blood, we are reconciled to\nGod by the death of his Son' (Rom 5:9,10). Yea peace is made by\nthe blood of his cross (Cor 1:20), and God for Christ's sake hath\nforgiven us (Eph 4:32). So then, our effectual believing is not\na procuring cause in the sight of God, or a condition of ours\nforeseen by God, and the motive that prevaileth with him to forgive\nus our manifold transgressions: Believing being rather that which\nmakes application of that forgiveness, and that possesseth the\nsoul with that peace that already is made for us with God, by the\nblood of his Son Christ Jesus; 'Being justified by faith, we have\npeace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ' (Rom 5:1). The peace\nand comfort of it cometh not to the soul, but by believing. Yet\nthe work is finished, pardon procured, justice being satisfied\nalready, or before, by the precious blood of Christ.\n\nObserve, I am commanded to believe, but what should I believe?\nOr what should be the object of my faith in the matter of my\njustification with God? Why, I am to believe in Christ, I am to\nhave faith in his blood? But what is it to believe in Christ: and\nwhat to have faith in his blood? Verily, To believe that while we\nwere yet sinners Christ died for us, that even then, when we were\nenemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: To\nbelieve that there is a righteousness already for us completed.\n\nI had as good give you the apostle's argument and conclusion in\nhis own language. 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,\nwhile we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then,\nbeing now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath\nthrough him' (Rom 5:8,9). And note that the word NOW respects the\nsame time with YET that went before. 'For if, when we were enemies,\nwe were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being\nreconciled, we shall be saved by his life,' or intercession (Rom\n5:10).\n\nBelieving then, as to the business of my deliverance from the\ncurse before God, is an accepting of (1 Tim 1:15), a trusting to\n(Eph 1:12,13), or a receiving (John 1:12), the benefit that Christ\nhath already obtained for me; by which act of faith, I see my\ninterest in that peace that is made before with God by the blood\nof his cross: For if peace be made already by his blood, then is\nthe curse taken away from his sight; if the curse be taken away\nfrom his sight, then there is no sin with the curse of it to\nbe charged from God by the law, for so long as sin is charged by\nthe law, with the curse thereto belonging, the curse, and so the\nwrath of God remaineth.\n\n'But [say you] Christ died to put us into a capacity of pardon'\n(p. 91).\n\nAnswer. True; but that is not all. He died to put us into the\npersonal possession of pardon: Yea, to put us into a personal\npossession of it, and that before we know it.\n\n'But [say you] the actual removing of our guilt is not the necessary\nand immediate result of his death' (p. 91).\n\nAnswer. Yea, but it is from before the face of God, and from the\njudgment and curse of the law; for before God the guilt is taken\naway, by the death and blood of his Son, immediately, for all\nthem that shall be saved; else how can it be said we are justified\nby his blood; he hath made peace by his blood. 'He loved us, and\nwashed us from our sins in his own blood' (Rev 1:5), and that we are\nreconciled to God by the death of his Son; which can by no means\nbe; if, notwithstanding his death and blood, sin in the guilt, and\nconsequently the curse that is due thereto, should yet remain in\nthe sight of God. But what saith the apostle? 'God was in Christ,\nreconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses\nunto them' (2 Cor 5:19). Those that are but reconciling, are not\nyet reconciled: I mean, as Paul, not yet come aright over in their\nown souls by faith; yet to these he imputeth not their trespasses:\nWherefore? because they have none: or because he forgiveth them\nas they believe and work: Neither of both; but because he hath\nfirst made his Son to be sin for them, and laid all the guilt\nand curse of their sin upon him, that they might be made the\nrighteousness of God in him. Therefore even because by him their\nsin and curse is taken off, from before the law of God; therefore,\nGod for the sake of Christ, seeketh for, and beseecheth the sinner\nto be reconciled; that is, to believe in, and embrace his majesty.\n\n'No [say you] the actual removing of our guilt, is not the necessary\nand immediate result of his death; but suspended until such time\nas the forementioned conditions, by the help of his grace, are\nperformed by us' (p. 92).\n\nAnswer. 1. Then may a man have the grace of God within him; yea,\nthe grace and mercy of the new covenant, viz. Faith, and the\nlike, that yet remaineth under the curse of the law; and so hath\nyet his sins untaken away from before the face of God; for where\nthe curse is only suspended, it may stand there notwithstanding,\nin force against the soul. Now, let the soul stand accursed, and\nhis duties must stand accursed: For first the person, and then\nthe offering must be accepted of God. God accepted not the works\nof Cain, because he had not accepted his person (Gen 4:5). But\nhaving first accepted Abel's person, he therefore did accept his\noffering (Heb 11:4). And hence it is said, that Abel offered by\nfaith: He believed that his person was accepted of God, for the\nsake of the promised Messias, and therefore believed also that\nhis offering should be accepted.\n\n2. Faith, as it respecteth justification in the sight of God, must\nknow nothing to rest upon but the mercy of God, through Christ's\nblood: But if the curse be not taken away, mercy also hangeth in\nsuspense; yea, lieth as drowned, and hid in the bottom of the sea.\nThis doctrine then of your's overthroweth faith, and rusheth[14]\nthe soul into the works of the law, the moral law; and so quite\ninvolveth it in the fear of the wrath of God, maketh the soul forget\nChrist, taketh from it the object of faith; and if a miracle of\nmercy prevent not, the soul must die in everlasting desperation.\n\n'But [say you] it is suspended till such time as the forementioned\nconditions, by the help of his grace, are performed by us' (p.\n92).\n\nAnswer. Had you said the manifestation of it is kept from us,\nit might, with some allowance, have been admitted; but yet the\nrevelation of it in the word, which in some sense may be called\na manifestation thereof, is first discovered to us by the word;\nyea, is seen by us, and also believed as a truth recorded; before\nthe enjoyment thereof be with comfort in our own souls (1 John\n5:11).\n\nBut you proceed and say, 'Therefore was the death of Christ designed\nto procure our justification from all sins past, that we might be\nby this means provoked to become new creatures' (p. 92).\n\nAnswer. That the death of Christ is a mighty argument to persuade\nwith the believer, to devote himself to God in Christ, in all\nthings, as becometh one that hath received grace and redemption\nby his blood, is true; but that it is in our power, as is here\ninsinuated, to become new creatures, is as untrue. The new creature,\nis of God; yea, immediately of God; man being as incapable to\nmake himself anew, as a child to beget himself (2 Cor 5:17,18).\nNeither is our conformity to the revealed will of God, any thing\nelse, if it be right, than the fruit and effect of that. All things\nare already, or before, become new in the Christian man. But to\nreturn:\n\nAfter all the flourish you have made about the death of Christ, even\nas he is an expiatory, and propitiatory sacrifice; in conclusion,\nyou terminate the business far short of that for which it\nwas intended of God: for you almost make the effects thereof but\na bare suspension of present justice and death for sin; or that\nwhich hath delivered us at present from a necessity of dying, that\nwe might live unto God; that is, according as you have stated it.\n'That we might from principles of humanity and reason, act towards\nthe first principles of morals, &c. till we put ourselves into a\ncapacity of personal and actual pardon.'\n\nAnswer. The sum of your doctrine therefore is, that Christ by his\ndeath only holds the point of the sword of justice, not that he\nreceived it into his own soul; that he suspends the curse from us,\nnot that himself was made a curse for us, that the guilt might be\nremitted by our virtues; not that he was made to be our sin: But\nPaul and the New Testament, giveth us account far otherwise; viz.\n'That Christ was made our sin, our curse, and death, that we by\nhim [not by the principles of pure humanity, or our obedience to\nyour first principles of morals, &c.] should be set free from the\nlaw of sin and death' (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13).\n\nIf any object that Christ hath designed the purifying our hearts\nand natures; I answer,\n\nBut he hath not designed to promote, or to perfect that righteousness\nthat is founded on, and floweth from, the purity of our human nature;\nfor then he must design the setting up man's righteousness, that\nwhich is of the law: and then he must design also the setting up\nof that which is directly in opposition, both to the righteousness,\nthat of God is designed to justify us; and that by which we are\ninwardly made holy. As I have shewed before.\n\nYou have therefore, Sir, in all that you have yet asserted, shewed\nno other wisdom than a heathen, or of one that is short, even of\na novice in the gospel.\n\nIn the next place, I might trace you chapter by chapter; and at\nlarge refute, not only the whole design of your book by a particular\nreplication to them; but also sundry and damnable errors, that\nlike venom drop from your pen.\n\nBut as before I told you in general, so here I tell you again,\nThat neither the scriptures of God, the promise, or threatenings,\nthe life, or death, resurrection, ascension, or coming again of\nChrist to judgment; hath the least syllable or tendency in them\nto set up your heathenish and pagan holiness or righteousness;\nwherefore your whole discourse is but a mere abuse of, and corrupting\nthe holy scriptures, for the fastening, if it might have been,\nyour errors upon the godly. I conclude then upon the whole, that\nthe gospel hath cast out man's righteousness to the dogs; and\nconclude that there is no such thing as a purity of human nature,\nas a principle in us, thereby to work righteousness withal. Farther,\nIt never thought of returning us again to the holiness we lost in\nAdam, or to make our perfection to consist in the possession of\nso natural, and ignorant[15] a principle as that is, in all the\nthings of the holy gospel; but hath declared another and far better\nway, which you can by no means understand by all the dictates of\nyour humanity.\n\nI will therefore content myself at present with gathering up some\nfew errors, out of those abundance which are in your book; and so\nleave you to God, who can either pardon these grievous errors, or\ndamn you for your pride and blasphemies.\n\n[Fowler's false quotations of scripture.]\n\nYou pretend in the beginning of your second chapter, to prove your\nassertion, viz. 'That the great errand that Christ came upon, was\nto put us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost'\n(p. 12). For proof whereof you bring John the Baptist's doctrine\n(Matt 3:1,2), and the angel's saying to Zacharias (Luke 1:16,17),\nand the prophet Malachi (3:1-3), in which texts there is as much\nfor your purpose, and no more, than there is in a perfect blank;\nfor which of them speak a word of the righteousness or holiness\nwhich we have lost? Or where is it said, either by these mentioned,\nor by the whole scripture, that we are to be restored to, and put\nagain into possession of that holiness? These are but the dictates\nof your human nature.\n\nJohn's ministry was, 'To make ready a people prepared for the\nLord Jesus'; not to possess them with themselves and their own,\nbut now lost, holiness. And so the angel told his father, saying,\n'Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their\nGod': Not to Adam's innocency, or to the holiness that we lost by\nhim. Neither did the prophet Malachi prophesy that Christ at his\ncoming should put men again in possession of the holiness we had\nlost. And I say again, as you here fall short of your purpose, so\nI challenge you to produce but one piece of a text, that in the\nleast looketh to such a thing. The whole tenor of the scripture,\nthat speaks of the errand of Christ Jesus, tells us another\nlesson, to wit, That he himself came to save us, and that by his\nown righteousness; not that in Adam, or which we have lost in\nhim, unless you can say and prove that we had once, even before\nwe were converted, the holiness of Christ within us, or the\nrighteousness of Christ upon us.\n\nBut you yet get on, and tell us, 'That this was also the prophesy\nof the angel to Joseph (p. 14) in these words HE [Jesus] shall save\nhis people from their sins.' 'Not [say you] from the punishment\nof them, although that be a true sense too; but not the primary,\nbut secondary, and implied only, and the consequence of the former\nsalvation' (p. 15).\n\nAnswer. Thus Penn the quaker and you run in this, in one and the\nself same spirit; he affirming that sanctification is antecedent\nto justification, but not the consequence thereof.\n\n2. But what salvation? Why salvation? say you: First from the filth;\nfor that is the primary and first sense: justification from the\nguilt, being the never-failing consequence of this. But how then\nmust Jesus Christ, first save us from the filth? You add in p. 16,\n'That he shall bring in, instead of the ceremonial observations,\na far more noble, viz., An inward substantial righteousness: and\nby abrogating that [namely of the ceremonies] he shall establish\nonly this inward righteousness.' This is, that holiness,\nor righteousness you tell us of, in the end of the chapter going\nbefore, that you acknowledge we had lost; so that the sum of all\nthat you have said, is, That the way that Christ will take to\nsave his people from their sins, is, first to restore unto them,\nand give them possession of, the righteousness that they had lost\nin Adam: and having established this in them, he would acquit them\nalso of guilt. But that this is a shameless error, and blasphemy,\nis apparent, from which hath already been asserted of the nature\nof the holiness, or righteousness, that we have lost, viz., That\nit was only natural of the old covenant, typical: and such as might\nstand with perfect ignorance of the mediation of Jesus Christ: and\nnow I add, That for Christ to come to establish this righteousness,\nis alone, as if he should be sent from heaven, to overthrow, and\nabrogate the eternal purpose of grace, which the Father had purposed\nshould be manifested to the world by Christ. But Christ came not\nto restore, or to give us possession of that which was once our\nown holiness, but to make us partakers of that which is in him,\n'that we might be made partakers of HIS holiness.' Neither (were\nit granted that you speak the truth) is it possible for a man to\nbe filled with inward gospel holiness, and righteousness, that yet\nabideth, as before the face of God, under the curse of the law,\nor the guilt of his own transgressions (Heb 12). The guilt must\ntherefore, first be taken off, and we set free by faith in that\nblood, that did it, before we can act upon pure Christian principles.\nPray tell me the meaning of this one text; which speaking of\nChrist, saith, 'Who when he had by himself purged our sins, sat\ndown on the right hand of the Majesty on high' (Heb 1:3). Tell\nme, I say, by this text, whether is here intended the sins of all\nthat shall be saved? If so, what kind of a purging is here meant,\nseeing thousands, and thousands of thousands, of the persons\nintended by this act of purging were not then in being, nor their\npersonal sins in act? And note, he saith, he purged them, before\nhe sat down at the right hand of God: purging then, in this place,\ncannot first, and primarily, respect the purging of the conscience:\nbut the taking, the complete taking of the guilt, and so the curse\nfrom before the face of God, according to other scriptures: 'He\nhath made him to be sin, and accursed of God for us.' Now he being\nmade the sin which we committed, and the curse which we deserved;\nthere is no more sin nor curse; I mean to be charged by the law,\nto damn them that shall believe, not that their believing takes\naway the curse, but puts the soul upon trusting to him, that\nbefore purged this guilt, and curse: I say, before he sat down on\nthe right hand of God; not to suspend, as you would have it, but\nto take away the sin of the world. 'The Lord hath laid upon him\nthe iniquities of us all' (Isa 53:6). And he bare them in his\nown body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24): nor yet that he should often\noffer himself; for then must he often have suffered since the\nfoundation of the world: but now, (and that at once,) in the end\nof the world hath he appeared, to put away sin, by the sacrifice\nof himself (Heb 9:24-26). Mark, he did put it away by the sacrifice\nof his body and soul, when he died on the cross: but he could\nnot then put away the inward filth of those, that then remained\nunconverted; or those that as yet wanted being in the world. The\nputting away of sin therefore, that the Holy Ghost here intendeth,\nis, such a putting of it away, as respecteth the guilt, curse, and\ncondemnation thereof, as it stood by the accusations of the law,\nagainst all flesh before the face of God; which guilt, curse, and\ncondemnation, Christ himself was made in that day, when he died\nthe death for us. And this is the first and principal intendment\nof the angel, in that blessed saying to godly Joseph, concerning\nChrist; 'He shall save his people from their sins'; from the\nguilt and curse due to them, first: and afterwards from the filth\nthereof. This is yet manifest, further; because the heart is\npurified by faith, and hope (Acts 15:9; 1 John 3:3). Now it is\nnot the nature of faith; I mean, of justifying faith, to have any\nthing for an object; from which it fetcheth peace with God, and\nholiness before, or besides the Christ of God himself; for he is\nthe way to the Father: and no man can come to the Father, but by\nhim. Come; that is, so as to find acceptance, and peace with him:\nthe reason is, because without his blood, guilt remains (Heb 9:22).\nHe hath made peace by the blood of his cross: so then, faith in\nthe first place seeketh peace. But why peace first? Because till\npeace is fetched into the soul, by faith's laying hold on the blood\nof Christ: sin remains in the guilt and curse, though not in the\nsight of God, yet upon the conscience, through the power of\nunbelief. 'He that believeth not, stands yet condemned' (John\n3:18,19). Now, so long as guilt, and the curse in power remains,\nthere is not purity, but unbelief; not joy, but doubting; not\npeace, but peevishness; not content, but murmuring, and angering\nagainst the Lord himself. 'The law worketh wrath' (Rom 4:15).\nWherefore, as yet there can be no purity of heart, because that\nfaith yet wants his object. But having once found peace with God\nby believing what the blood of Christ hath done; joy followeth;\nso doth peace, quietness, content, and love; which is also the\nfulfilling of the law: yet not from such dungish principles as\nyours, for so the apostle calls them (Phil 3:8). But from the Holy\nGhost itself; which God, by faith, hath granted to be received by\nthem that believe in the blood of his Jesus.\n\nBut you add, That Christ giveth, first repentance, and then\nforgiveness of sins (p. 17).\n\nAnswer. 1. This makes nothing for the holiness which we lost in\nAdam: for the proof of which you bring that text (Acts 5:31).\n\n2. But for Christ to take way guilt, and the curse, from before the\nface of God, is one thing; and to make that discovery, is another.\n\n3. Again, Christ doth not give forgiveness for the sake of that\nrepentance, which hath its rise, originally from the dictates\nof our own nature, which is the thing you are to prove; for that\nrepentance is called the sorrow of this world, and must be again\nrepented of: but the repentance mentioned in the text, is that\nwhich comes from Christ: But,\n\n4. It cannot be for the sake of gospel-repentance, that the\nforgiveness of sins is manifested, because both are his peculiar\ngift.\n\n5. Therefore, both faith, and repentance, and forgiveness of sins,\nare given by Christ; and come to us, for the sake of that blessed\noffering of his body, once for all. For after he arose from\nthe dead, having led captivity captive, and taken the curse from\nbefore the face of God: therefore his Father gave him gifts for\nmen, even all the things that are necessary, and effectual, for\nour conversion, and preservation in this world, &c. (Eph 4:8).\n\nThis text, therefore, with all the rest you bring, falleth short\nof the least shew of proof, 'That the great errand for which Christ\ncame into the world was--to put us in possession of the holiness\nthat we had lost.'\n\nYour third chapter is as empty of the proof of your design as\nthat through which we have passed: there being not one scripture\ntherein cited, that giveth the least intimation, that ever it\nentered into the heart of Christ to put us again into possession\nof that holiness which we had before we were converted: for such\nwas that we lost in Adam.\n\nYou tell us the sum of all is, 'that we are commanded to add to\nour faith, virtue,' &c. (p. 25). I suppose you intend a gospel\nfaith, which if you can prove Adam had before the fall, and that\nwe lost this faith in him; and also that this gospel faith is none\nother, but that which originally ariseth from, or is the dictates\nof human nature, I will confess you have scripture, and knowledge\nbeyond me. In the mean time you must suffer me to tell you, you\nare as far in this from the mind of the Holy Ghost, as if you had\nyet never in all your days heard whether there be a Holy Ghost\nor no.\n\nAdd to your faith. The apostle here lays a gospel principle, viz.,\nFaith in the Son of God: which faith layeth hold of the forgiveness\nof sins, alone for the sake of Christ; therefore he is a great\nway off, of laying the purity of the human nature, the law, as\nwritten in the heart of natural man, as the principle of holiness;\nfrom whence is produced good works in the soul of the godly.\n\nIn your fourth chapter also (p. 28) even in the beginning thereof;\neven with one text you have overthrown your whole book.\n\nThis chapter is to prove, that the only design of the promises,\nand threatenings of the gospel, is to promote, and put us again in\npossession of the holiness we had lost. For that the reader must\nstill remember, is the only design of your book (p. 12). Whereas\nthe first text you speak of (2 Peter 1:4), maketh mention of the\nDivine nature, or of the Spirit of the living God, which is also\nreceived by the precious faith of Christ, and the revelation of\nthe knowledge of him; this blessed Spirit, and therefore not the\ndictates of human nature, is the principle that is laid in the\ngodly: but Adam's holiness had neither the knowledge, or faith,\nor Spirit of the Lord Jesus, as its foundation, or principle: yea,\nnature was his foundation, even his own nature was the original,\nfrom whence his righteousness and good works arose.\n\nThe next scriptures also, viz. 2 Corinthians 7:1; Romans 12:1\noverthrow you; for they urge the promises as motives to stir us\nup to holiness. But Adam had neither the Spirit of Jesus, or faith\nhim in him, as a principle: nor any promises to him as motives:\nwherefore this was not that to which he, or which we Christians\nare exhorted to seek the possession of; but that which is operated\nby that Spirit which we receive by the faith of Jesus, and that\nwhich is encouraged by those promises, that God hath since given\nto them that have closed by faith with Jesus.\n\nThe rest also (in p. 29), not one of them doth promise us the\npossession of the holiness we have lost, or any mercy to them that\nhave it.\n\nYou add: 'And whereas the promises of pardon, and of eternal life\nare very frequently made to believing; there is nothing more\nevidently declared, than that this faith is such as purifieth the\nheart, and is productive of good works' (p.30).\n\nAnswer. 1. If the promise be made at all to believing, it is not\nmade to us upon the account of the holiness we had lost; for\nI tell you yet again, that holiness is not of faith, neither was\nfaith the effect thereof. But,\n\n2. The promises of pardon, though they be made to such a faith as\nis fruitful in good works: yet not to it, as it is fruitful in\ndoing, but in receiving good. Sir, the quality of justifying faith\nis this, Not to work, but to believe, as to the business of pardon\nof sin: and that not only, because of the sufficiency that this\nfaith sees in Christ to justify, but also for that it knows those\nwhom God thus pardoneth, he justifieth as ungodly. 'But to him\nthat worketh not, but believeth'; (Mark, here faith and works are\nopposed) 'But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that\njustifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness'\n(Rom 4:5).\n\nYou add farther, 'That the promises may be reduced to these three\nheads; that of the Holy Spirit, of remission of sins, and eternal\nhappiness, in the enjoyment of God' (p. 30).\n\nAnswer. If you can prove that any of these promises were made to\nthe holiness that we had lost, or that by these promises we are to\nbe possessed with that holiness again; I will even now lay down\nthe bucklers. For albeit, the time will come when the saints shall\nbe absolutely, and perfectly sinless; yet then shall they be also\nspiritual, immortal, and incorruptible, which you cannot prove\nAdam was, in the best of his holiness, even that which we lost in\nhim.\n\nThe threatenings you speak of[16] are every one made against sin,\nbut not one of them to drive us into a possession of that holiness\nthat we had lost: nay, contrariwise, he that looks to, or seeks\nafter that, is as sure to be damned, and go to hell, as he that\ntransgresseth the law; because that is not the righteousness of\nGod, the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of faith, nor\nthat to which the promise is made.\n\nAnd this was manifested to the world betimes, even in that day, when\nGod drove the man and his wife out of Eden, and placed cherubims,\nand a flaming sword, in the way by which they came out, to the\nend, that by going back by that way, they might rather be killed\nand die, than lay hold of the 'tree of life' (Gen 3).\n\nWhich the apostle also respects, when he calleth the way of the\ngospel, the NEW and LIVING way, even that which is made by the\nblood of Christ (Heb 10:20); concluding by this description of\nthe way that is by blood, that the other is old, and the way of\ndeath, even that which is by the moral law, or the dictates of our\nnature, or by that fond conceit of the goodly holiness of Adam.\n\n[Our Lord's object not merely to restore man's natural holiness,\nbut to impart his own infinite and eternal holiness to those that\nbelieve.]\n\nYour fifth chapter tells us, 'That the promoting of holiness was\nthe design of our Saviour's whole life and conversation among men'\n(p. 36).\n\nAnswer. 1. Were this granted, it reacheth nothing at all the design\nfor which you in your way present us with it: For,\n\n2. That which you have asserted is: That the errand about which\nChrist came, was, as the effecting our deliverance out of that\nsinful state we had brought ourselves into, so to put us again in\npossession of that holiness which we had lost; for that, you say,\nis the business of your book (p. 12). Wherefore you should have\ntold us in the head of this chapter, not so much that our Saviour\ndesigned the promoting of holiness in general by his life, but that\nthe whole design of our Saviour's life and conversation, was to\nput us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost,\ninto a possession of that natural, old covenant, figurative,\nignorant holiness. But it seems you count that there is no other\nthan that now lost, but never again to be obtained holiness, that\nwas in Adam.\n\n3. Farther, you also falter here, as to the stating of the\nproposition; for in the beginning of your book, you state it thus:\nThat the enduing men with inward real righteousness, or true\nholiness, was the ultimate end of our Saviour's coming into the\nworld, still meaning the holiness we lost in Adam. You should\ntherefore in this place also, have minded your reader of this your\nproposition, and made it manifest if you could, 'that the ultimate\nend of our Saviour's whole life and conversation, was the enduing\nmen with this Adamitish holiness.' But holiness, and that holiness,\nis alone with you; and to make it his end, and whole end; his\nbusiness, and the whole business of his life; is but the same with\nyou.\n\nBut you must know, that the whole life and conversation of our\nSaviour, was intended for another purpose, than to drive us back\nto, or to endue us with, such an holiness and righteousness as I\nhave proved this to be.\n\nYou have therefore, in this your discourse, put an insufferable\naffront upon the Son of God, in making all his life and conversation\nto centre and terminate in the holiness we had lost: As if the Lord\nJesus was sent down from heaven, and the word of God made flesh;\nthat by a perfect life and conversation, he might shew us how holy\nAdam was before he fell; or what an holiness that our holiness\nwas, which we had before we were converted.\n\nYour discourse therefore, of the life and conversation of the\nLord Jesus, is none other than heathenish: For you neither treat\nof the principle, his Godhead, by which he did his works; neither\ndo you in the least, in one syllable, aver the first, the main\nand prime reason of this his conversation; only you treat of it so\nfar, as a mean man might have considered it. And indeed it stood\nnot with your design to treat aright with these things; for had\nyou mentioned the first, though but once, your Babel had tumbled\nabout your ears; for if in the holy Jesus did 'dwell the word,' one\nof the three in heaven; or if the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ\nwas truly, essentially, and naturally God; then must the principle\nfrom whence his works did proceed, be better than the principle\nfrom whence proceeded the goodness in Adam; otherwise Adam must\nbe God and man. Also you do, or may know that the self-same act\nmay be done from several principles: and again, that it is the\nprinciple from whence the act is done, and not the bare doing\nof the act, that makes it better or worse accepted, in the eyes\neither of God or men.\n\nNow then, to shew you the main, or chief design of the life and\nconversation of the Lord Jesus.\n\nFirst, It was not to shew us what an excellent holiness we once\nhad in Adam, but that thereby God, the Eternal Majesty, according\nto his promise, might be seen by, and dwell with, mortal men:\nFor the Godhead being altogether in its own nature invisible, and\nyet desirous to be seen by, and dwell with the children of men;\ntherefore was the Son, who is the self-same substance with the\nFather, closed with, or tabernacled in our flesh; that in that\nflesh, the nature and glory of the Godhead might be seen by,\nand dwell with us: 'The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,\n[and we beheld his glory, (what glory? the glory,) as of the only\nbegotten of the Father] full of grace and truth' (John 1:14). Again,\n'The life [that is, the life of God, in the works and conversation\nof Christ] was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,\nand shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father,\nand was manifested unto us' (1 John 1:2). And hence he is called\nthe image of the invisible God (Col 1:15); or he by whom the\ninvisible God is most perfectly presented to the sons of men.\nDid I say before, that the God of glory is desirous to be seen of\nus? Even so also, have the pure in heart, a desire that it should\nbe so: 'Lord, say they, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us'\n(John 14:8). And therefore the promise is for their comfort, that\n'they shall see God' (Matt 5:8). But how then must they see him?\nWhy, in the person, and by the life and works of Jesus. When\nPhilip, under a mistake, thought of seeing God some other way,\nthan in and by this Lord Jesus Christ; What is the answer? 'Have\nI been so long time with you, [saith Christ] and yet hast thou\nnot known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;\nand how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not\nthat I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I\nspeak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth\nin me, he doth the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father,\nand the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake'\n(John 14:9-11). See here, that both the words and works of the\nLord Jesus, were not to shew you, and so to call you back to the\nholiness that we had lost, but to give us visions of the perfections\nthat are in the Father. He hath given us 'the knowledge of the\nglory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor 4:6). And hence\nit is, that the apostle, in that brief collection of the wonderful\nmystery of godliness, placeth this in the front thereof: 'God was\nmanifest in the flesh' (1 Tim 3:16). Was manifest, viz. In and\nby the person of Christ, when in the flesh he lived among us;\nmanifest, I say, for this, as one reason, that the pure in heart,\nwho long after nothing more, might see him. 'I beseech thee,' said\nMoses, 'shew me thy glory.'[17] 'and will God indeed dwell with\nmen on the earth?' saith Solomon.\n\nNow to fulfil the desires of them that fear him, hath he shewed\nhimself in flesh unto them; which discovery principally is made\nby the words and works of Christ. But,\n\nSecond, Christ by his words and works of righteousness, in the days\nof his flesh, neither shewed us which was, nor called us back to\nthe possession of the holiness that we had lost; but did perfect,\nin, and by himself, the law for us, that we had broken. Man being\ninvolved in sin and misery, by reason of transgression committed\nagainst the law, or ministration of death, and being utterly unable\nto recover himself therefrom, the Son of God himself assumeth the\nflesh of man, and for sin condemned sin in that flesh. And that\nfirst, by walking, through the power of his eternal Spirit, in the\nhighest perfection to every point of the whole law, in its most\nexact and full requirements; which was to be done, not only without\ncommixing sin in his doing, but by one that was perfectly without\nthe least being of it in his nature; yea, by one that now as\nGod-Man, because it was God whose law was broken, and whose justice\nwas offended: For, were it now possible to give a man possession\nof that holiness that he hath lost in Adam, that holiness could\nneither in the principle nor act deliver from the sin by him before\ncommitted. This is evident by many reasons: 1. Because it is not\na righteousness able to answer the demands of the law for sin;\nthat requiring not only a perfect abiding in the thing commanded,\nbut a satisfaction by death, for the transgression committed\nagainst the law. 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom 6:23). Wherefore\nhe that would undertake the salvation of the world, must be one who\ncan do both these things; one that can perfectly do the demands of\nthe law in thought, word, and deed, without the least commixture\nof the least sinful thought in the whole course of his life: He\nmust be also able to give by death, even by the death that hath\nthe curse of God in it, a complete satisfaction to the law for the\nbreach thereof. Now this could none but Christ accomplish; none\nelse having power to do it. 'I have power [said he] to lay down\nmy life, and I have power to take it again: And this commandment\nhave I received of my Father' (John 10:18). This work then must be\ndone, not by another earthly Adam, but by the Lord from Heaven;\nby one that can abolish sin, destroy the devil, kill death, and\nrule as Lord in heaven and earth. Now the words and works of the\nLord Jesus, declared him to be such an one. He was first without\nsin; then he did no sin; neither could either the devil, the whole\nworld, or the law, find any deceit in his mouth: But by being\nunder the law, and walking in the law, by that Spirit which was\nthe Lord God of the law, he not only did always the things that\npleased the Father, but by that means in man's flesh, he did\nperfectly accomplish and fulfil that law which all flesh stood\ncondemned by. It is a foolish and an heathenish thing, nay worse,\nto think that the Son of God should only, or specially fulfil,\nor perfect the law, and the prophets, by giving more and higher\ninstances of moral duties than were before expressly given (p.\n17). This would have been but the lading of men with heavy burthens.\nBut know then, whoever thou art that readest, that Christ's\nexposition of the law was more to shew thee the perfection of his\nown obedience, than to drive thee back to the holiness thou hadst\nlost; for God sent him to fulfil it, by doing it, and dying to the\nmost sore sentence it could pronounce: not as he stood a single\nperson, but common,[18] as Mediator between God and man; making\nup in himself the breach that was made by sin, betwixt God and\nthe world. For,\n\nThird, He was to die as a lamb, as a lamb without blemish, and\nwithout spot, according to the type; 'Your lamb shall be without\nblemish' (Exo 12:5). But because there was none such to be found\nBY and AMONG all the children of men; therefore God sent HIS from\nheaven. Hence John calls him the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and\nPeter him that was without spot, who washed us by his blood (1\nPeter 1:19). Now wherein doth it appear that he was without spot\nand blemish, but as he walked in the law? These words therefore\nwithout spot are the sentence of the law, who searching him could\nfind nothing in him why he should be slain, yet he died because\nthere was sin: Sin! where? Not in him, but in his people; 'For the\ntransgression of my people was he stricken' (Isa 53:8). He died\nthen for our sins, and qualified himself so to do, by coming\nsinless into the world, and by going sinless through it; for had\nhe not done both these, he must have died for himself. But being\nGod, even in despite of all that stumble at him, he conquered\ndeath, the devil, sin, and the curse, by himself, and then sat\ndown at the right hand of God.\n\nFourth, And because he hath a second part of his priestly office\nto do in heaven; therefore it was thus requisite that he should\nthus manifest himself to be holy and harmless, undefiled, and\nseparate from sinners on the earth (Heb 7:26). As Aaron first put\non the holy garments, and then went into the holiest of all. The\nlife, therefore, and conversation of our Lord Jesus, was to shew us\nwith what a curious robe and girdle he went into the holy place;\nand not to shew us with what an Adamitish holiness he would possess\nhis own. 'Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless,\nundefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens';\nthat he might always be accepted, both in person and offering, when\nhe presenteth his blood to God, the atonement for sin. Indeed in\nsome things he was an example to us to follow him; but mark, it\nwas not as he was Mediator, not as he was under the law to God, not\nas he died for sin, nor as he maketh reconciliation for iniquity.\nBut in these things consist the life of our soul, and the beginning\nof our happiness. He was then exemplary to us, as he carried\nit meekly and patiently, and self-denyingly towards the world:\nBut yet not so neither to any but such to whom he first offered\njustification by the means of his righteousness; for before he\nsaith 'learn of me,' he saith, 'I will give you rest'; rest from\nthe guilt of sin, and fear of everlasting burnings (Matt 11). And\nso Peter first tells us, he died for our sins; and next, that he\nleft us an example (1 Peter 2:21). But should it be granted that\nthe whole of Christ's life and conversation among men was for\nour example, for no other end at all, but that we should learn to\nlive by his example, yet it would not follow, but be as far from\ntruth as the ends of the earth are asunder, that by this means he\nsought to possess us with the holiness we had lost, for that he\nhad not in himself; it is true he was born without sin, yet born\nGod and man; he lived in the world without sin, but he lived as\nGod-Man: he walked in and up to the law, but it was as God-Man.\nNeither did his manhood, even in those acts of goodness, which as\nto action, most properly respected it; do ought without, but by\nand in conjunction with his Godhead: Wherefore all and every whit\nof the righteousness and good that he did was that of God-Man, the\nrighteousness of God. But this was not Adam's principle, nor any\nholiness that we had lost.\n\nYour fifth chapter, therefore, consisteth of words spoken to the\nair.\n\nYour sixth chapter tells us, 'That to make men truly virtuous and\nholy, was the design of Christ's inimitable actions, or mighty\nworks and miracles, and these did only tend to promote it' (p.\n68).\n\nHe neither did, nor needed, so much as one small piece of a miracle\nto persuade men to seek for the holiness which they had lost, or\nto give them again possession of that; for that as I have shewed,\nthough you would fain have it otherwise, is not at all the Christian\nor gospel righteousness. Wherefore, in one word, you are as short\nby this chapter to prove your natural old covenant, promiseless,\nfigurative holiness, to be here designed, as if you had said so\nmuch as amounts to nothing. Farther, Christ needed not to work a\nmiracle to persuade men to fall in love with themselves, and their\nown natural dictates; to persuade them that they have a purity\nof the human nature in them; or that the holiness which they have\nlost, is the only true, real, and substantial holiness: These\nthings, both corrupted nature and the devil, have of a long time\nfastened, and fixed in their minds.\n\nHis miracles therefore tend rather to take men off of the pursuit\nafter the righteousness or holiness that we had lost, and to confirm\nunto us the truth of a far more excellent and blessed thing; to\nwit, the righteousness of God, of Christ, of faith, of the Spirit,\nwhich that you speak of never knew; neither is it possible that\nhe should know it who is hunting for your sound complexion, your\npurity of human nature, or its dictates, as the only true, real,\nand substantial righteousness. 'They are ignorant of God's\nrighteousness, that go about to establish their own righteousness';\nand neither have, nor can, without a miracle, submit themselves unto\nthe righteousness of God. They cannot submit themselves thereto;\ntalk thereof they may, notion it they may, profess it too they may;\nbut for a man to submit himself thereto, is by the might power of\nGod.\n\nMiracles and signs are for them that believe not (1 Cor 14:22).\nWhy for them? That they might believe; therefore their state is\nreckoned fearful that have not yet believed for all his wondrous\nworks. And though he did so many miracles among them, yet they\nbelieved him not (John 12:37-40). But what should they believe?\nThat Jesus is the true Messias, the Christ that should come into\nthe world. Do you say that I blaspheme (saith Christ) because\nI said I am the Son of God: 'If I do not the works of my Father\nbelieve me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me believe the\nworks: that ye may know, and believe that the Father is in me,\nand I in him' (John 10:37,38). But what is it to believe that he\nis Messias, or Christ? Even to believe that this man Jesus was\nordained and appointed of God (and that before all worlds) to be\nthe Saviour of men, by accomplishing in himself an everlasting\nrighteousness for them, and by bearing their sins in his body on\nthe tree; that it was he that was to reconcile us to God, by the\nbody of his flesh, when he hanged on the cross. This is the doctrine\nthat at the beginning Christ preached to that learned ignorant\nNicodemus. 'As Moses [said he] lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,\neven so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth\nin him should not perish, but have eternal life' (John 3:14,15).\nThe serpent was lifted up upon a pole (Num 21:9): 'Christ was\nhanged on a tree.' The serpent was lifted up for murmurers: Christ\nwas hanged up for sinners: The serpent was lifted up for them\nthat were bitten with fiery serpents, the fruits of their wicked\nmurmuring: Christ was hanged up for them that are bitten with\nguilt, the rage of the devil, and the fear of death and wrath: The\nserpent was hanged up to be looked on: Christ was hanged up that\nwe might believe in him, that we might have faith in his blood:\nThey that looked upon the serpent of brass lived: They that believe\nin Christ shall be saved, and shall never perish. Was the serpent\nthen lifted up for them that were good and godly? No, but for the\nsinners: 'So God commended his love to us, in that, while we were\nyet sinners Christ died for us.' But what if they that were stung,\ncould not, because of the swelling of their face, look up to the\nbrazen serpent? then without remedy they die: So he that believeth\nnot in Christ shall be damned. But might they not be healed by\nhumbling themselves? one would think that better than to live by\nlooking up only: No, only looking up did it, when death swallowed\nup them that looked not. This then is the doctrine, 'Christ came\ninto the world to save sinners': according to the proclamation\nof Paul, 'Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that\nthrough this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins;\nAnd by him all that believe are justified from all things, from\nwhich ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.' The forgiveness\nof sins: But what is meant by forgiveness? Forgiveness doth strictly\nrespect the debt, or punishment that by sin we have brought upon\nourselves. But how are we by this man forgiven this? Because by\nhis blood he hath answered the justice of the law, and so made\namends to an offended majesty. Besides, this man's righteousness\nis made over to him that looks up to him for life; yea, that man\nis made the righteousness of God in him. This is the doctrine that\nthe miracles were wrought to confirm, and that, both by Christ,\nand his apostles, and not that holiness and righteousness, that\nis the fruit of a feigned purity of our nature.\n\nTake two or three instances for all.\n\nFirst, 'Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him,\nHow long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell\nus plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not;\nthe works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.\nBut ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep' (John 10:24-26).\n\nBy this scripture the Lord Jesus testifies what was the end of\nhis words and wondrous works, viz. That men might know that he\nwas the Christ; that he was sent of God to be the Saviour of the\nworld; and that these miracles required of them, first of all,\nthat they accept of him by believing; a thing little set by, by\nour author, first in p. 299 he preferreth his doing righteousness\nfar before it, and above all things else, his words are verbatim\nthus, 'Let us exercise ourselves unto real and substantial godliness,\n[such as he hath described in the first part of his book, viz.\nThat which is the dictates of his human nature, &c.] and in keeping\nour consciences void of offence, both towards God and towards\nmen, and in studying the gospel to enable us, not to discourse,\nor only to believe, but also and above all things to do well.'\nBut believing, though not with this man, yet by Christ and his\nwondrous miracles, is expected first, and above ALL things, from\nmen; and to do well, in the best sense (though his sense is the\nworst) is that which by the gospel is to come after.\n\nSecond, 'Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every\ncreature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he\nthat believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow\nthem that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils, they\nshall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if\nthey drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them,' &c. (Mark\n16:15-18).\n\nMark you here, it is believing, believing; It is, I say, believing\nthat is here required by Christ. Believing what? The gospel; even\ngood tidings to sinners by Jesus Christ; good tidings of good,\nglad tidings of good things. Mark how the apostle hath it; the\nglad tidings is, 'That through this man [Jesus] is preached unto\nyou the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are\njustified from all things, from which ye could not be justified\nby the law of Moses' (Acts 13:38,39).\n\nThese signs shall follow them that believe. Mark, signs before,\nand signs after, and all to excite to, and confirm the weight of\nbelieving. 'And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord\nworking with them, and confirming the word with signs following.\nAmen' (Mark 16:20).\n\nThird, 'Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the\nthings which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them\nslip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every\ntransgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;\nHow shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at\nthe first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto\nus by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness both with\nsigns and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy\nGhost, according to his own will' (Heb 2:1-4).\n\nHere we are excited to the faith of the Lord Jesus, under these\nwords 'so great salvation.' As if he had said, give earnest heed,\nthe most earnest heed, to the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, because\nit is 'so great salvation.' What this salvation is, he tells us,\nit is that which was preached by the Lord himself; 'For God so\nloved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life'\n(John 3:16). God so loved, that he gave his Son to be so great\nsalvation. Now as is expressed in the text, to be the better for\nthis salvation, is, to give heed to hear it; for 'Faith cometh by\nhearing' (Rom 10:17).\n\nHe saith not give heed to doing, but to the word you have heard;\nfaith, I say, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God\n(Rom 10). But that this hearing is the hearing of faith, is farther\nevident:\n\n1. Because he speaketh of a great salvation, accomplished by the\nlove of God in Christ, accomplished by his blood. 'By his own blood\nhe entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal\nredemption for us' (Heb 9:12).\n\n2. This salvation is set in opposition to that which was propounded\nbefore, by the ministration of angels, which consisted in a law\nof works; that which Moses received to give to the children of\nIsrael. 'For the law [a command to works and duties] was given by\nMoses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' (John 1:17). To\nlive by doing works is the doctrine of the law and Moses; but to\nlive by faith and grace, is the doctrine of Christ, and the gospel.\n\nBesides, the threatening being pressed with an 'How shall we\nescape?' Respects still a better, a freer, a more gracious way\nof life, than either the moral or ceremonial law; for both these\nwere long before: But here comes in another way, not that propounded\nby Moses, or the angels, but since by the Lord himself. 'How shall\nwe escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first\nbegan to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them\nthat heard him.'\n\nNow mark, It is this salvation, this so great and eternal salvation,\nthat was obtained by the blood of the Lord himself. It was this,\neven to confirm faith in this, that the God of heaven himself came\ndown to confirm, by signs and wonders; 'God bearing them witness,\nboth with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts\nof the Holy Ghost, according to his own will' (Heb 2:4).\n\nThus we see, that to establish a holiness that came from the first\nprinciples of morals in us, or that ariseth from the dictates of\nour human nature, or to drive us back to that figurative holiness\nthat we had once, but lost in Adam, is little thought on by Jesus\nChrist, and as little intended by any of the gospel miracles.\n\nA word or two more. The tribute money you mention,[19] was not as\nyou would clawingly insinuate for no other purpose, than to shew\nChrist's loyalty to the magistrate: But first, and above all,\nto shew his godhead, to confirm his gospel, and then to shew his\nloyalty, the which, Sir, the persons you secretly smite at, have\nrespect for, as much as you.\n\nAgain, Also the curse of the barren fig-tree, mentioned (p. 73) was\nnot (if the Lord himself may be believed) to give us an emblem of\na person void of good works; but to shew his disciples the power\nof faith, and what a wonder-working thing that blessed grace is.\nWherefore, when the disciples wondered at that sudden blast that\nwas upon the tree, Jesus answered not, behold an emblem of one void\nof moral virtues; but 'Verily, I say unto you, If ye have faith,\nand doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the\nfig-tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou\nremoved, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And\nall things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall\nreceive' (Matt 21:21,22). Again, Mark saith, When Peter saw the\nfig-tree that the Lord had cursed dried up from the roots, he\nsaid to his master, 'behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is\nwithered away' (11:21). Christ now doth not say as you, this tree\nwas an emblem of a professor void of good works; but, 'Have faith\nin, or the faith of God. For, verily I say unto you, That whosoever\nshall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast\ninto the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe\nthat those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have\nwhatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever\nye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall\nhave them.' Christ Jesus therefore had a higher, and a better end,\nthan that which you propound, in his cursing the barren fig-tree,\neven to shew, as himself expounds it, the mighty power of faith;\nand how it lays hold of things in heaven, and tumbleth before it\nthings on earth. Wherefore your scriptureless exposition, doth\nbut lay[20] you even Solomon's proverb, 'The legs of the lame are\nnot equal,' &c. (Prov 26:7).\n\nI might enlarge; but enough of this; only here I add, that the\nwonders and miracles that attend the gospel, were wrought, and\nare recorded, to persuade to faith in Christ. By faith in Christ\nmen are justified from the curse, and judgment of the law. This\nfaith worketh by love, by the love of God it brings up the heart\nto God, and goodness; but not by your covenant (Eze 16:61), not\nby principles of human nature, but of the Spirit of God; not in\na poor, legal, old covenant, promiseless, ignorant, shadowish,\nnatural holiness, but by the Holy Ghost.\n\n[The death of Christ accomplished an infinitely greater object\nthan the restoring of man to his original temporal holiness.]\n\nI come now to your seventh chapter; but to that I have spoken\nbriefly already, and therefore here shall be the shorter.\n\nIn this chapter you say, 'that to make men holy was the design of\nChrist's death' (p. 78).\n\nAnswer. 1. But not with your described principles of humanity,\nand dictates of human nature. He designed not, as I have fully\nproved, neither by his death, nor life, to put us into a possession\nof the holiness which we had lost, though the proof of that be\nthe business of your book.\n\n2. To make men holy, was doubtless designed by the death and blood\nof Christ: but the way and manner of the proceeding of the Holy\nGhost therein, you write not of; although the first text you\nmention (p. 78,79) doth fairly present you with it. For the way\nto make men inwardly holy, by the death and blood of Christ, is,\nfirst, to possess[21] them with the knowledge of this, that their\nsins were crucified with him, or that he did bar them in his body\non the tree: 'Knowing this, that our Old Man is crucified with\nhim, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we\nshould not serve sin' (Rom 6:6). So he died for all, that they\nthat live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, as you\nwould have them, nor to the law or dictates of their own nature,\nas your doctrine would persuade them; 'but to him that died for\nthem, and rose again' (2 Cor 5:15).\n\nThere are two things, in the right stating of the doctrine of the\neffects of the death and blood of Christ, that do naturally effect\nin us an holy principle, and also a life becoming such a mercy.\n\nFirst, For that by it we are set at liberty, by faith therein,\nfrom the guilt, and curse that is due to guilt, from death, the\ndevil, and the wrath to come. No encouragement to holiness like\nthis, like the persuasion, and belief of this; because this carrieth\nin it the greatest expression of love, that we are capable of\nhearing or believing, and there is nothing that worketh on us so\npowerfully as love. 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but\nthat he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our\nsins' (1 John 4:10). He then that by faith can see that the body\nof his sin did hang upon the cross, by the body of Christ, and\nthat can see by that action, death and sin, the devil and hell,\ndestroyed for him; it is he that will say, 'Bless the Lord, O my\nsoul, and all that is within me bless his holy name,' &c. (Psa\n103:1-4).\n\nSecond, Moreover, the knowledge of this giveth a man to understand\nthis mystery, That Christ and himself are united in one. For faith\nsaith, If our Old Man was crucified with Christ, then were we\nalso reckoned in him, when he hanged on the cross, 'I am crucified\nwith Christ' (Gal 2:20). All the Elect did mystically hang upon\nthe cross in Christ. We then are dead to the law, and sin, first,\nby the body of Christ (Rom 7:4). Now he that is dead is free from\nsin; now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live\nwith him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no\nmore, death hath no more dominion over him; for in that he died,\nhe died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God:\nlikewise reckon yourselves also dead unto sin, but alive unto\nGod, through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 6). This also Peter doth\nlively discourse of, 'Forasmuch then [saith he] as Christ hath\nsuffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the\nsame mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from\nsin' (1 Peter 4:1). By which words he insinuateth the mystical\nunion that is between Christ the head, and the Elect his body:\narguing from the suffering of a part, there should be a sympathy\nin the whole. If Christ then suffered for us, we were (even\nour sins, bodies and souls) reckoned in him when he so suffered.\nWherefore, by his sufferings, the wrath of God for us is appeased,\nthe curse is taken from us: for as Adam by his acts of rebellion,\nmade all that were in him guilty of his wickedness; so Christ by\nhis acts, and doings of goodness, and justice; made all that were\nreckoned in him good, and just also: but as Adam's transgression\ndid first, and immediately reside with, and remain in the person\nof Adam only, and the imputation of that transgression to them\nthat sprang from him; so the goodness, and justice, that was\naccomplished by the second Adam, first, and immediately resideth\nin him, and is made over to his also, by the imputation of God.\nBut again, as they that were in Adam, stood not only guilty of\nsin, by imputation, but polluted by the filth that possessed him\nat his fall; so the children of the second Adam, do not only, though\nfirst, stand just by virtue of the imputation of the personal acts\nof justice, and goodness done by Christ; but they also receive of\nthat inward quality, the grace, and holiness that was in him, at\nthe day of his rising from the dead.[22]\n\nThus therefore come we to be holy, by the death, and blood of the\nLord: this also is the contents of those other scriptures, which\nabusively you cite, to justify your assertion, to wit.\n\n'That the great errand of Christ in coming into the world, was--to\nput us again into possession of the holiness which we had lost.\nAnd that only designed the establishing such a holiness, as is\nseated originally in our natures, and originally dictates of the\nhuman nature.' The rest of the chapter being spoken to already,\nI pass it, and proceed to the next.\n\nYour eighth chapter tells us, 'That it is only the promoting of\nthe design of making men holy, that is aimed at by the apostles\ninsisting on the doctrines of Christ's resurrection, ascension,\nand coming again to judgment.'\n\nThough this should be granted, as indeed it ought not; yet there\nis not one syllable in all their doctrines, that tendeth in the\nleast to drive men back to the possession of the holiness we had\nlost; which is still the thing asserted by you, and that, for the\nproof of which you make this noise, and ado. Neither did Christ\nat all design the promoting of holiness, by such principles as you\nhave asserted in your book; neither doth the holy Spirit of God,\neither help us in, or excite us to our duty, SIMPLY from such\nnatural principles.\n\nBut the apostles in these doctrines you mention, had far other\nglorious designs; such as were truly gospel, and tended to strengthen\nour faith yet farther: As,\n\nFirst, For the resurrection of Christ; they urge THAT, as an\nundeniable argument, of his doing away sin, by his sacrifice and\ndeath: 'He was delivered for our offences,' because he put himself\ninto the room, and state of the wicked, as undertaking their\ndeliverance from death, and the everlasting wrath of God. Now\nputting himself into their condition, he bears their sins, and\ndies their death; but how shall we know, that by undertaking this\nwork, he did accomplish the thing he intended? the answer is, 'He\nwas raised again for our justification' (Rom 4:25). Even to make\nit manifest, that by the offering of himself he had purged our\nsins from before the face of God. For in that he was raised again,\nand that by him, for the appeasing of whose wrath he was delivered\nup to death; it is evident that the work for us, was by him\neffectually done: for God raised him up again. And hence it is\nthat Paul calls the resurrection of Christ, 'the sure mercies of\nDavid. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now\nno more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give\nyou the sure mercies of David' (Acts 13:34). For Christ having\nconquered and overcome death, sin, the devil, and the curse, by\nhimself, as it is manifest he did, by his rising from the dead;\nwhat now remains for him, for whom he did this, but mercy and\ngoodness for ever?\n\nWherefore the resurrection of Christ is that which sealeth the\ntruth of our being delivered from the wrath by his blood.\n\nSecond, As to his ascension they [the inspired writers] urge and\nmake use of that, for divers weighty reasons also.\n\n1. As a farther testimony yet, of the sufficiency of his righteousness\nto justify sinners withal: for if he that undertaketh the work,\nis yet entertained by him, whose wrath he was to appease thereby:\nWhat is it? But that he hath so completed that work. Wherefore he\nsaith, that the Holy Ghost shall convince the world; that he hath\na sufficient righteousness, and that because he went to the Father\nand they saw him no more (John 16), because he, when he ascended\nup to the Father, was there entertained, accepted, and embraced\nof God. That is an excellent word. 'He is chosen of God, and\nprecious.' Chosen of God to be the righteousness, that his Divine\nMajesty is pleased with, and takes complacency in; God hath chosen,\nexalted, and set down Christ at his own right hand; for the sweet\nsavour that he smelled in his blood, when he died for the sins of\nthe world.\n\n2. By his ascension he sheweth how he returned conqueror, and\nvictor over our enemies. His ascension was his going home, from\nwhence he came, to deliver us from death: now it is said, that\nwhen he returned home, or ascended, 'he led captivity captive' (Eph\n4), that is, carried them prisoners, whose prisoners we were: He\nrode to heaven in triumph, having in chains the foes of believers.\n\n3. In that he ascended, it was, that he might perform for us, the\nsecond part of his priestly office, or mediatorship. He is gone\ninto heaven itself, there 'now to appear in the presence of God\nfor us' (Heb 9:24). 'Wherefore, he is able also to save them to\nthe uttermost, that come unto God by him, [as indifferent a thing\nas you make it to be] seeing he ever liveth [viz. in heaven,\nwhither he is ascended] to make intercession for them' (7:25).\n\n4. He ascended, that he might be exalted not only above, but be\nmade head over all things to the church. Wherefore now in heaven,\nas the Lord in whose hand is all power, he ruleth over, both men,\nand devils, sin, and death, hell, and all calamities, for the good\nand profit of his body, the church (Eph 1:19-23).\n\n5. He ascended to prepare a place for us, who shall live and die\nin the faith of Jesus (John 14:1-3).\n\n6. He ascended, because there he was to receive the Holy Ghost,\nthe great promise of the New Testament; that he might communicate\nof that unto his chosen ones, to give them light to see his wonderful\nsalvation, and to be as a principle of holiness in their souls:\n'For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not\nyet glorified' (John 7:39). But when he ascended on high, even as\nhe led captivity captive, so he received gifts for men; by which\ngifts he meaneth the Holy Ghost, and the blessed and saving\noperations thereof (Luke 24; Acts 1:2).\n\nThird. As to his coming again to judgment, that doctrine is urged,\nto shew the benefit that the godly will have at that day, when\nhe shall gather together his elect, and chosen, from one end of\nheaven unto the other. As also to shew you what an end he will\nmake with those who have not obeyed his gospel (Matt 25; 2 Thess\n1:8; 2 Peter 3:7-11).\n\nNow it is true, all these doctrines do forcibly produce an holy,\nand heavenly life, but neither from your principles, nor to the\nend you propound; to wit, that we should be put into possession\nof our first, old covenant righteousness, and act from human and\nnatural principles.\n\nYour ninth chapter is spent, as you suppose, to shew us the\nnature, and evil of sin; but because you do it more like a heathen\nphilosopher, than a minister of the gospel, I shall not much\ntrouble myself therewith.\n\nYour tenth chapter consisteth in a commendation of virtue, but\nstill of that, and no other, though counterfeited for another,\nthan at first you have described (chap. 1) even such, which is\nas much in the heathens you make mention of, as in any other man,\nbeing the same both in root, and branches, which is naturally to be\nfound in all men, even as is sin and wickedness itself. And hence\nyou call it here, a living up to your feigned 'highest principles,\nlike a creature possessed of a mind and reason.' Again, 'While we\ndo thus, we act most agreeably to the right frame and constitution\nof our souls, and consequently most naturally; and all the actions\nof nature, are confessedly very sweet and pleasant'; of which very\nthing you say, 'the heathens had a great sense' (p. 113,114).\n\nAns. No marvel, for it was their work, not to search the deep things\nof God, but those which be the things of a man, and to discourse\nof that righteousness, and principle of holiness, which was\nnaturally founded, and found within themselves, as men; or, as\nyou say, 'as creatures possessed with a mind and reason.' But as\nI have already shewed, all this may be, where the Holy Ghost and\nfaith is absent, even by the dictates, as you call them, of human\nnature; a principle, and actions, when trusted to that, as much\nplease the devil, as any wickedness that is committed by the\nsons of men. I should not have thus boldly inserted it, but that\nyourself did tell me of it (p. 101). But I believe it was only\nextorted from you; your judgment, and your Apollo, suit not here,\nthough indeed the devil is in the right; for this righteousness\nand holiness which is our own, and of ourselves, is the greatest\nenemy to Jesus Christ: the post against his post, and the wall\nagainst his wall. 'I came not to call the righteous [puts you quit\nof the world] but sinners to repentance.'\n\n[Man in wretched uncertainty if he possessed no better holiness\nthan that of Adam in his creation.]\n\nYour eleventh chapter is, to shew what a miserable creature that\nman is, that is destitute of your holiness.\n\nAns. And I add, as miserable is he, that hath, or knoweth no better.\nFor such an one is under the curse of God, because he abideth in\nthe law of works, or in the principles of his own nature, which\nneither can cover his sins from the sight of God, nor possess him\nwith faith or the Holy Ghost.\n\nThere are two things in this chapter, that proclaim you to be\nignorant of Jesus Christ.\n\nFirst, you say, It is not possible a wicked man should have God's\npardon (p. 119,130).\n\nSecondly, You suppose it to be impossible for Christ's righteousness\nto be imputed to an unrighteous man (p. 120).\n\nAns. To both which, a little briefly; God doth not use to pardon\npainted sinners, but such as are really so. Christ died for sinners\n(1 Tim 1:15), and God justifieth the ungodly (Rom 5:6-9), even\nhim that worketh not (4:3-5), nor hath no works to make him godly\n(9:18; Isa 33:11). Besides, pardon supposes sin; now he that is a\nsinner is a wicked man; by nature a child of wrath, and, as such,\nan object of the curse of God, because he hath broken the law of\nGod. But such God pardoneth; not because they have made themselves\nholy, or have given up themselves to the law of nature, or to\nthe dictates of their human principles, but because he will be\ngracious, and because he will give to his beloved Son Jesus Christ,\nthe benefit of his blood.\n\nAs to the second head, what need is there that the righteousness\nof Christ should be imputed, where men are righteous first? God\nuseth not thus to do; his righteousness is for the 'stout-hearted,\nthat are far from righteousness' (Isa 46:12).\n\nThe believing of Abraham was while yet he was uncircumcised; and\ncircumcision was added, not to save him by, but as a seal of the\nrighteousness of that faith, which he had, being yet uncircumcised.\nNow we know that circumcision in the flesh, was a type of circumcision\nin the heart (Rom 2); wherefore the faith that Abraham had, before\nhis outward circumcision, was to shew us, that faith, if it be\nright, layeth hold upon the righteousness of Christ, before we\nbe circumcised inwardly; and this must needs be so: for if faith\ndoth purify the heart, then it must be there before the heart is\npurified. Now this inward circumcision is a seal, or sign of this:\nthat that is the only saving faith, that layeth hold upon Christ\nbefore we be circumcised. But he that believeth before he be\ninwardly circumcised, must believe in another, in a righteousness\nwithout him, and that, as he standeth at present in himself\nungodly; for he is not circumcised; which faith, if it be right,\napproveth itself also so to be, by an after work of circumcising\ninwardly. But, I say, the soul that thus layeth hold on Christ,\ntaketh the only way to please his God, because this is that also,\nwhich himself hath determined shall be accomplished upon us. 'Now\nto him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but\nof debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that\njustifieth THE UNGODLY, his faith is counted for righteousness'\n(Rom 4). He that is ungodly, hath a want of righteousness, even\nof the inward righteousness of works: but what must become of him?\nLet him believe in him that justifieth the ungodly, because, for\nthat purpose, there is in him a righteousness. We will now return\nto Paul himself; he had righteousness before he was justified by\nChrist; yet, he choose to be justified rather as an unrighteous\nman, than as one endued with so brave a qualification. That I may\n'be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,' away with\nmine own righteousness; I choose rather to be justified as ungodly,\nby the righteousness of Christ, than by mine own, and his together\n(Phil 3).\n\nYou argue therefore, like him that desireth to be a teacher of the\nlaw, (nay worse,) that neither knoweth what he saith, nor whereof\nhe affirmeth. But you say,\n\n'Were it possible that Christ's righteousness could be imputed\nto an unrighteous man, I dare boldly affirm that it would signify\nas little to his happiness, while he continueth so, as would a\ngorgeous, and splendid garment, to one that is almost starved,'\n&c (p. 12).\n\nAns. 1. That Christ's righteousness is imputed to men, while\nsinners, is sufficiently testified by the word of God (Eze 16:1-8;\nZech 3:1-5; Rom 3:24-25, 4:1-5, 5:6-9; 2 Cor 5:18-21; Phil 3:6-8;\n1 Tim 1:15,16; Rev 1:5).\n\n2. And that the sinner, or unrighteous man, is happy in this\nimputation, is also as abundantly evident. For, (1.) The wrath\nof God, and the curse of the law, are both taken off by this\nimputation. (2.) The graces and comforts of the Holy Ghost, are\nall entailed to, and followers of, this imputation. 'Blessed is\nhe to whom the Lord will not impute sin.' It saith not, that he is\nblessed that hath not sin to be imputed, but he to whom God will\nnot impute them, he saith, therefore the non-imputation of sin,\ndoth not argue a non being thereof in the soul, but a glorious act\nof grace, imputing the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness, to\njustify him that is yet ungodly.\n\nBut what blessedness doth follow the imputation of the righteousness\nof Christ, to one that is yet ungodly?\n\nAns. Even the blessing of Abraham, to wit, grace and eternal life:\nFor Christ was made the curse, and death, that was due to us as\nsinners; 'That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles,\nthrough [faith in] Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise\nof the Spirit through faith' (Gal 3:13,14). Now faith hath its eye\nupon two things, with respect to its act of justifying. First, it\nacknowledgeth that the soul is a sinner, and then, that there is\na sufficiency in the righteousness of Christ, to justify it in\nthe sight of God, though a sinner.\n\nWe have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the\nfaith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; therefore they\nthat believe aright, receive righteousness, even the righteousness\nof another, to justify them, while yet in themselves they are\nsinners.\n\nWhy do they believe in Christ? the answer is: that they might be\njustified, not because in their own eyes they are. They therefore\nat present stand condemned in themselves, and therefore they\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, that they might be set free from present\ncondemnation. Now being justified by his blood, as ungodly, they\nshall be saved by his life, that is, by his intercession: for whom\nhe justifieth by his blood, he saveth by his intercession; for\nby that is given the spirit, faith, and all grace that preserveth\nthe elect unto eternal life and glory.\n\nI conclude therefore, that you argue not gospelly, in that you so\nBoldly affirm, That it would signify as little to the happiness\nof one, to be justified by Christ's righteousness, while a sinner;\nas would a gorgeous and splendid garment to one that is ready\nto perish. For farther, thus to be justified, is meat and drink\nto the sinner; and so the beginning of eternal life in him. 'My\nflesh is meat indeed [said Christ] and my blood is drink indeed;\nand he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal,\nor everlasting life.' He affirmeth it once again: 'As the living\nFather hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth\nme, even he shall live by me' (John 6:57). Here now is a man an\nhungered, what must he feed upon? Not his pure humanity, not upon\nthe sound complexion of his soul, nor yet on the dictates of his\nhuman nature, nor those neither, which you call truly generous\nprinciples: but upon the flesh and blood of the Son of God, which\nwas once given for the sin of the world. Let those then, that would\nbe saved from the devil and hell, and that would find a fountain\nof grace in themselves, first receive, and feed upon Christ,\nas sinners and ungodly; let them believe that both his body, and\nblood, and soul, was offered for them, as they were sinners. The\nbelieving of this, is the eating of Christ; this eating of Christ,\nis the beginning of eternal life, to wit, of all grace and health\nin the soul; and of glory to be enjoyed most perfectly in the next\nworld.\n\nYour twelfth chapter is to shew, 'That holiness being perfected is\nblessedness itself; and that the glory of heaven consists chiefly\nin it.'\n\nAns. But none of your holiness, none of that inward holiness,\nwhich we have lost before conversion, shall ever come to heaven:\nthat being, as I have shewed, a holiness of another nature, and\narising from another root, than that we shall in heaven enjoy.\n\nBut further, your description of the glory that we shall possess\nin heaven, is questionable, as to your notion of it; your notion\nis, that the substance of it consists 'in a perfect resemblance\nto the divine nature' (p. 123,124).\n\nAns. Therefore not in the enjoyment of the divine nature itself:\nfor that which in substance is but a bare resemblance, though it\nbe a most perfect one, is not the thing itself, of which it is a\nresemblance. But the blessedness that we shall enjoy in heaven, in\nthe very substance of it, consisteth not wholly, nor principally,\nin a resemblance of, but in the enjoyment of God himself; 'Heirs\nof God.' Wherefore there shall not be in us a likeness only to,\nbut the very nature of God: 'Heirs of God, and joint heirs with\nChrist' (Rom 8:17). Hence the apostle tells us, that he 'rejoiced\nin hope of the glory of God' (Rom 5:2). Not only in hope of a\nresemblance of it. 'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.' But\nthis is like the rest of your discourse. You are so in love with\nyour Adamitish holiness, that with you it must be God in earth,\nand heaven.\n\nWho they are that hold, [that] our happiness in heaven shall come\nby a mere fixing our eyes upon the divine perfections, I know\nnot: But thus I read, 'we shall be like him.' Why? or how? 'For\nwe shall see him as he is.' Our likeness then to God, even in the\nvery heavens, will in great part come by the visions of him. And\nto speak the truth, our very entrance into eternal life, or the\nbeginnings of it here, they come to us thus, 'But we all [every\none of us that shall be saved, come by it only thus] with open\nface beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed\ninto the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of\nthe Lord' (2 Cor 3:18).\n\nAnd whereas you tell us (p. 124). That the devils themselves have\na large measure of some of the attributes of God, as knowledge,\npower, &c. though themselves are unlike unto them.\n\nIn this you most prodigiously blaspheme.\n\nYour thirteenth chapter is to show, 'That our Saviour's preferring\nthe business of making men holy, before any other, witnesseth,\nthat this is to do the best service to God.'\n\nBut still respecting the holiness, you have in your first chapter\ndescribed, which still the reader must have his eye upon, it\nis false, and a slander of the Son of God. He never intended to\npromote or prefer your natural old covenant holiness, viz. that\nwhich we had lost in Adam, or that which yet from him, in the dregs\nthereof, remaineth in human nature; but that which is of the Holy\nGhost, of faith, of the new covenant.\n\nI shall not here again take notice of your 130th page, nor with the\nerror contained therein, about justification by imputed righteousness.\n\nBut one thing I observe, that in all this chapter you have nothing\nfortified what you say, by any word of God; no, though you\ninsinuate (p. 129 and p. 131) that some dissent from your opinion.\nBut instead of the holy words of God, being as you feign, conscious\nto yourself, you cannot do it so well as by another method, viz.\nThe words of Mr. John Smith; therefore you proceed with his, as\nhe with Plato's, and so wrap you up the business.\n\n[Christ gives a new and spiritual light.]\n\nYou come next to an improvement upon the whole, where you make a\ncomparison between the heathens and the gospel; shewing how far\nthe gospel helpeth the light the heathens had, in their pursuit\nafter your holiness. But still the excellency of the gospel, as\nyou have vainly dreamt, is to make improvement first of the heathen\nprinciples; such good principles, say you, 'as were by the light\nof nature dictated to them' (p. 133). As,\n\n1. 'That there is but one God; that he is infinitely perfect,'\n&c.\n\n2. 'That we owe our lives, and all the comforts of them to him.'\n\n3. 'That he is our sovereign Lord.'\n\n4. 'That he is to be loved above all things' (p. 136).\n\nAns. 1. Seeing all these are, and may be known, as you yourself\nconfess, by them that have not the gospel; and I add, nor yet\nthe Holy Ghost, nor any saving knowledge of God, or eternal life:\nTherefore it cannot be the design of Jesus Christ by the gospel to\npromote or help forward this knowledge, simply from this principle,\nviz. Natural light, and the dictates of it. My reason is, because\nwhen nature is strained to the highest pin, it is but nature\nstill; and so all the improvement of its light and knowledge is\nbut an increase of that which is but natural. 'But [saith Paul]\nthe natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for\nthey are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because\nthey are spiritually discerned' (1 Cor 2:14).\n\nBut the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit; a revelation of\nanother thing than is found in, or can be acquired by, heathenish\nprinciples of nature.\n\nI say, a revelation of another thing; or rather, another discovery\nof the same. As, 1. Concerning the Godhead; the gospel giveth us\nanother discovery of it, than is possible to be obtained by the\ndictates of natural light; even a discovery of a trinity of persons,\nand yet unity of essence, in the same Deity (1 John 5:1,5,8).\n2. The light of nature will not shew us, that God was in Christ,\nreconciling the world to himself. 3. The light of nature will not\nshew us, that we owe what we are, and have, to God, because we are\nthe price of the blood of his Son. 4. The light of nature will\nnot shew, that there is such a thing as election in Christ. 5. Or,\nthat there is such a thing, as the adoption of children to God,\nthrough him. 6. Nor, that we are to be saved by faith in his blood.\n7. Or, that the man Christ shall come from heaven to judgment.\nThese things, I say, the light of nature teacheth not; but these\nthings are the great and mighty things of the gospel, and those\nabout which it chiefly bendeth itself, touching upon other things,\nstill as those that are knowable, by a spirit inferior to this of\nthe gospel.\n\nBesides, as these things are not known by the light of nature, so\nthe gospel, when it comes, as I also told you before, doth implant\nin the soul another principle, by which they may be received,\nand from which the soul should act and do, both towards God and\ntowards men; as namely the Holy Ghost, faith, hope, the joy of\nthe Spirit, &c.\n\nThe other things you mention, viz.\n\n1. 'The immorality of the soul' (p. 138).\n\n2. 'The doctrine of rewards and punishments in the life to come'\n(p. 140).\n\n3. 'Of the forgiveness of sin upon true repentance,' &c. (p. 142).\n\n[4. The doctrine of God's readiness to assist men by his special\ngrace in their endeavours after virtue (p. 143).]\n\nAns. All these things may be assented to, where yet the grace of\nthe gospel is not, but yet the apprehension must be such, as is\nthe light by which they are discovered; but the light of nature\ncannot discover them, according to the light and nature of the\ngospel; because the gospel knowledge of them, ariseth also from\nanother principle: So then, These doctrines are not confirmed\nby the gospel, as the light of nature teacheth them: Wherefore,\nPaul, speaking of the things of the gospel, and so consequently\nof these, he saith, 'Which things also we speak, NOT in the WORDS\nwhich MAN'S wisdom teacheth, but which the HOLY GHOST teacheth;\ncomparing spiritual things with spiritual' (1 Cor 2:13). As if he\nshould say, We speak of God, of the soul, of the life to come, of\nrepentance, of forgiveness of sins, &c. Not as philosophers do,\nnor yet in their light; but as saints, Christians, and sons of\nGod, as such who have received, not the spirit of the world, but\nthe spirit which is of God; that we may know the things that are\nfreely given to us of God.\n\nBut you add (for the glory of the gospel) That we have other things,\nwhich no man could, without divine revelation, once have dreamed\nof. As,\n\nThat God hath made miserable sinners the objects of such transcendent\nlove, as to give them his only begotten Son.\n\nAns. I must confess, If this one head had by you been handled\nwell, you would have written like a worthy gospel minister. But\nyou add (p. 146).\n\n1. That when Christ was sent, it was to shew us upon what terms\nGod was reconcilable to us, viz. By laying 'before us all the\nparts of that holiness, which is necessary to restore our natures\nto his own likeness;--and most pathetically, moreover to intreat\nus to do what lieth in us to put them in practice, that so it may\nbe to eternity well with us.' What these things are, you mention\nnot here; therefore I shall leave them to be spoken to under the\nthird head.\n\n2. A second thing you mention is, 'That this Son of God conversed\nupon equal terms with men, becoming the Son of Man, born of a\nwoman [a great demonstration that God hath a liking to the human\nnature].' But little to the purpose as you have handled it.\n\n3. 'That the Son of God taught men their duty, by his own example,\nand did himself perform what he required of them; and that himself\ndid tread before us EVERY step of that way, which he hath told us\nleadeth to eternal life.'\n\nAns. Now we are come to the point, viz.: 'That the way to eternal\nlife is, First of all to take Christ for our example, trading his\nstep': And the reason, if it be true, is weighty: 'For he hath\ntrod every step before us, which he hath told us leads to eternal\nlife.'\n\n1. Every step. Therefore he went to heaven by virtue of an imputative\nrighteousness. For this is one of our steps thither.\n\n2. Every step. Then he must go thither, by faith in his own blood\nfor pardon of sin. For this is another of our steps thither.\n\n3. Every step. Then he must go thither by virtue of his own\nintercession at the right hand of God, before he came thither:\nFor this is one of our steps thither.\n\n4. Every step. Then he must come to God, and ask mercy for some\ngreat wickedness, which he had committed. For this is also one of\nour steps thither.\n\nBut again, we will consider it the other way.\n\n1. Every step. Then we cannot come to heaven, before we first be\nmade accursed of God. For so was he before he came thither.\n\n2. Every step. Then we must first make our body and soul an offering\nfor the sin of others. For this did he before he came thither.\n\n3. Every step. Then we must go to heaven for the sake of our own\nrighteousness. For that was one of his steps thither.\n\nO, Sir! What will thy gallant, generous mind do here? Indeed you\ntalk of his being an expiatory sacrifice for us, but you put no\nmore trust to that, than to Baptism, or the Lord's Supper; counting\nthat, with the other two, but things indifferent in themselves\n(p. 6-9).\n\nYou add again, 'That this Son of God being raised from the dead,\nand ascended to heaven, is our high priest there': But you talk\nnot at all of his sprinkling the mercy seat with his blood, but\nclap upon him, the heathens demons; negotiating the affairs of men\nwith the supreme God, and so wrap up, with a testification that\nit is needless to enlarge on the point (p. 149).\n\nBut to be plain, and in one word to tell you, about all these\nthings you are heathenishly dark; there hath not in these one\nhundred and fifty pages one gospel truth been christianity handled\nby you; but rather a darkening of truth by words without knowledge.\nWhat man that ever had read, or assented to the gospel, but would\nhave spoken, yet kept within the bounds of truth, more honourably\nof Christ, than you have done? His sacrifice must be stept over,\nas the spider straddleth over the wasp, his intercession is\nneedless to be enlarged upon. But when it falleth in your way to\ntalk of your human nature, of the dictates, of the first principles\nof morals within you, and of your generous mind to follow it: oh\nwhat needs is there now of amplifying, enlarging, and pressing it\non men's consciences! As if that poor heathenish, pagan principle,\nwas the very spirit of God within us: And as if righteousness\ndone by that, was that, and that only, that would or could fling\nheaven gates off the hinges.\n\nYea, a little after you tell us, that 'The doctrine of his sending\nthe Holy Ghost, was to move and excite us to our duty, and to\nassist, cheer, and comfort us in the performance of it.' Still\nmeaning our close adhering, by the purity of our human nature, to\nthe dictates of the law, as written in our hearts as men. Which\nis as false as God is true. For the Holy Ghost is sent into our\nhearts, not to excite us to a compliance with our old and wind-shaken\nexcellencies, that came into the world with us; but to write new\nlaws in our hearts; even the law of faith, the word of faith and\nof grace, and the doctrine of remission of sins, through the blood\nof the Lamb of God, that holiness might flow from thence.\n\nYour 15th chapter is to shew, That the gospel giveth far greater\nhelps to an holy life, than the Jewish ceremonies did of old. I\nanswer,\n\nBut the reader must here well weigh, that in the gospel you find\nalso some positive precepts, that are of the same nature with the\nceremonies under the law; of which, that of coming to God by Christ,\nyou call one, and baptism, and the Lord's supper, the other two.\nSo then by your doctrine, the excellency of the gospel doth not\nlie in that we have a Christ to come to God by, but in things as\nyou feign more substantial. What are they? 'Inward principles of\nholiness' (p. 159). Spiritual precepts (p. 162). That height of\nvirtue, and true goodness, that the gospel designeth to raise\nus to: all which are general words, falling from a staggering\nconscience, leaving the world, that are ignorant of his mind, in\na muse; but tickling his brethren with the delights of their moral\nprinciples, with the dictates of their human nature, and their\ngallant generous minds. Thus making a very stalking-horse of the\nLord Jesus Christ, and of the words of truth and holiness, thereby\nto slay the silly one; making the Lord of life and glory, instead\nof a saviour, by his blood, the instructor, and schoolmaster\nonly of human nature, a chaser away of evil affections, and an\nextinguisher of burning lusts;[23] and that not so neither, but\nby giving perfect explications of moral precepts (p. 17), and\nsetting himself an example before them to follow him (p. 297).\n\nYour sixteenth chapter, containeth an answer to those that object\nagainst the power of the christian religion to make men holy.\n\nAns. And to speak truth, what you at first render as the cause\nof the unholiness of the professors thereof (p. 171) is to the\npurpose, had it been christianly managed by you, as namely, men's\ngross unbelief of the truth of it; for it 'effectually worketh\nin them that believe' (1 Thess 2:13). But that you only touch and\naway, neither showing what is the object of faith, nor the cause\nof its being so effectual to that purpose; neither do you at all\ntreat of the power of unbelief, and how all men by nature are shut\nup therein (Rom 11:32). But presently, according to your old and\nnatural course, you fall, first, upon a supposed power in men, to\nembrace the gospel, both by closing with the promise, and shunning\nthe threatening (p. 172); farther adding, that 'mankind is endued\nwith a principle of freedom, and that this principle is as essential,\nas any other to the human nature' (p. 173). By all which it is\nmanifest, that however you make mention of unbelief, because the\ngospel hath laid the same in your way, yet your old doctrine of\nthe purity of the human nature, now broken out into a freedom of\nwill, and that, as an essential of the human nature, is your great\nprinciple of faith, and your following of that, as it dictateth\nto you obedience to the first principles of morals, the practice\nof faith, by which you think to be saved. That this is so, must\nunavoidably be gathered from the good opinion you have yourself\nof coming to God by Christ; viz., That in the command thereof, it\nis one of these positive precepts, and a thing in itself absolutely\nconsidered indifferent, and neither good nor evil. Now he that\nlooketh upon coming to God by Christ with such an eye as this,\ncannot lay the stress of his salvation upon the faith, or belief\nthereof: indifferent faith, will serve for indifferent things;\nyea, a man must look beyond that which he believeth is but one\nwith the ceremonial laws, but not the same with baptism, or the\nLord's supper; for with those you compare that of coming to God by\nChrist. Wherefore faith, with you, must be turned into a cheerful\nand generous complying with the dictates of the human nature; and\nunbelief, into that which opposeth this, or that makes the heart\nbackward and sluggish therein. This is also gathered from what you\naver of the divine moral laws, that they be of an indispensable\nand eternal obligation (p. 8), things that are good in themselves\n(p. 9), considered in an abstracted notion (p. 10). Wherefore,\nthings that are good in themselves, must needs be better than those\nthat are in themselves but indifferent; neither can a positive\nprecept make that, which of itself is neither good nor evil,\nbetter than that which in its own nature remaineth the essentials\nof goodness.\n\nI conclude then, by comparing you with yourself, by bringing your\nbook to your book, that you understand neither faith, nor unbelief,\nany farther than by obeying or disobeying the human nature, and\nits dictates in chief; and that of coming to God by Christ, as\none of the things that is indifferent in itself.\n\nBut a little to touch upon your principle of freedom, which in p.\n9 you call an understanding and liberty of will.\n\nAns. First, That there is no such thing in man by nature, as liberty\nof will, or a principle of freedom, in the saving things of the\nkingdom of Christ, is apparent by several scriptures. Indeed there\nis in men, as men, a willingness to be saved their own way, even\nby following, as you, their own natural principles, as is seen\nby the Quakers, as well as yourself; but that there is a freedom\nof will in men, as men, to be saved by the way which God hath\nprescribed, is neither asserted in the scriptures of God, neither\nstandeth with the nature of the principles of the gospel.\n\nThe apostle saith, 'The natural man receiveth not the things of\nthe Spirit of God.' And the reason is, not because, not principally\nbecause, he layeth aside a liberty of will, but because 'they are\nfoolishness to him' (1 Cor 2:14). Because in his judgment they are\nthings of no moment, but things, as you [Mr. Fowler] have imagined\nof them, that in themselves are but indifferent. And that this\njudgment that is passed by the natural man, concerning the things\nof the Spirit of God, of which, that of coming to God by Christ,\nis the chief, is that which he cannot but do as a man, is evident\nfrom that which followeth: 'neither CAN he know them, because they\nare spiritually discerned.' Neither CAN he know them as a man,\nbecause they are spiritually discerned. Now, if he cannot know\nthem, from what principle should he will them? For judgment, or\nknowledge, must be before the will can act. I say, again, a man\nmust know them to be things in chief, that are absolutely, and\nindispensably necessary, and those in which resteth the greatest\nglory; or else his will will not comply with them, nor centre and\nterminate in them as such, but still count themselves, as you,\nthough somewhat convinced that he ought to adhere unto them, things\nthat in themselves are only indifferent, and absolutely considered\nneither good nor evil.\n\nA farther enlargement upon this subject, will be time enough, if\nyou shall contradict.\n\nAnother reason, or cause, which you call an immediate one, of the\nunsuccessfulness of the gospel, is 'men's [strange and] unaccountable\nmistaking the design of it,--not to say worse, as to conceive no\nbetter of it, than as a science, and a matter of speculation,'\n&c. (p. 173).\n\nAns. If this be true, you have shewed us the reason, why yourself\nhave so base and unworthy thoughts thereof: for although coming to\nGod by Christ be the very chief, first, the substance, and most\nessential part of obedience thereto; yet you have reckoned this but\nlike one of the ceremonies of the law, or as baptism with water,\nand the Lord's supper (P. 7-9). Falling more directly upon the body\nof the moral law, as written in the heart of men, and inclining\nmore to the teaching, or dictates of human nature, which were\nneither of them both ever any essential part of the gospel, than\nupon that which indeed is the gospel of Christ.\n\nAnd here I may, if God will, timely advertise my reader, that the\ngospel, and its attendants, are to be accounted things distinct:\nthe gospel, properly taken, being glad tidings of good things; or,\nthe doctrine of the forgiveness of sins freely by grace, through\nthe redemption that is in Christ Jesus. For to speak strictly,\nneither is the grace of faith, hope, repentance, or newness of life,\nthe gospel; but rather things that are wrought by the preaching\nthereof, things that are the effects of it; or its inseparable\ncompanions, to all them that shall be saved. Wherefore the gospel\nis said to be preached in all nations, for the obedience of faith\n(Rom 16:26). Hope also is called the hope of the gospel, not the\ngospel itself. So again, the gospel is preached that men should\nrepent, but it is not preached that men should gospel.\n\nBut your gospel, which principally or chiefly, centres in the dictates\nof human nature; and your faith, which is chiefly a subjecting to\nthose dictates, are so far off from being at all any near attendants\nof the gospel, that they never are urged in the New Testament,\nbut in order to show men they have forgotten to act as men (Rom\n1:19-21, 2:14,15; 1 Cor 11:14).\n\nYour last reason is, because of 'several untoward opinions,' the\ngospel is very unsuccessful (p. 174).\n\nAns. But what these opinions are, we hear not; nor how to shun\nthem, you tell us here nothing at all. This I am sure, there are\nno men in this day have more opposed the light, glory, and lustre\nof the gospel of Christ, than those, as the Quakers and others, that\nhave set up themselves, and their own humanity, as the essential\nparts of it.\n\nYou in answer to other things, add many other reasons to prove they\nare mistaken that count the gospel a thing of but mean operation\nto work holiness in the heart: at which you ought yourself to\ntremble, seeing the Son himself, who is the Lord of the gospel,\nis of so little esteem with you, as to make coming to God by him\nso trivial a business as you have done.\n\nYour large transcript of other men's sayings, to prove the good\nsuccess of the gospel of old, did better become that people and\nage, than you and yours; they being a people that lived in the\npower thereof, but you such bats as cannot see it. That saying\nyou mention of Rigaltias, doth better become you and yours: 'Those\nnow-a-days do retain the name, and society of Christians, which\nlive altogether antichristian lives. Take away publicans, and a\nwretched rabble, &c. and our Christian churches will be lamentably\nweak, small, and insignificant things' (p. 181).\n\nI shall add to yours another reason of the unsuccessfulness of\nthe gospel in our days, and that is, because so many ignorant Sir\nJohns,[24] on the one hand, and so many that have done violence\nto their former light, and that have damned themselves in their\nformer anathematizing of others, have now for a long time, as a\njudgment of God, been permitted to be, and made the mouth to the\npeople: persons whose lives are debauched, and who in the face of\nthe world, after seeming serious detestings of wickedness, have for\nthe love of filthy lucre, and the pampering their idle carcasses,\nmade shipwreck of their former faith, and that feigned good\nconscience they had. From which number if you, Sir, have kept\nyourself clear, the less blood of the damned will fall upon your\nhead: I know you not by face, much less your personal practice;\nyet I have heard as if blood might pursue you, for your unstable\nweathercock spirit, which doubtless could not but stumble the\nweak, and give advantage to the adversary to speak vilifyingly of\nreligion.\n\n[Living faith essential to salvation.]\n\nAs to your seventeenth and eighteenth chapters,[25] I shall say\nlittle, only I wish that your eighteenth had been more express in\ndiscovering how far a man may go, with a notion of the truth of\nthe gospel, and yet perish because he hath it not in power.\n\nOnly in your inveighing so much against the pardon of sin, while\nyou seem so much to cry up healing; you must know that pardon\nof sin is the beginning of health to the soul: He pardoneth our\niniquities, and healeth all our diseases (Psa 103:3). And where\nhe saith, by the stripes of Christ we are healed, it is evident\nthat healing beginneth at pardon, and not pardon after healing,\nas you would rather have it (1 Peter 2:24, compare Isa 53). As for\nyour comparison of the plaister, and the physician's portion,[26]\nI say you do but abuse your reader, and muddy the way of the gospel.\nFor the first thing of which the soul is sick, and by which the\nconscience receiveth wounding; it is the guilt of sin, and fear\nof the curse of God for it. For which is provided the wounds and\nprecious blood of Christ, which flesh and blood, if the soul eat\nthereof by faith, giveth deliverance therefrom. Upon this the filth\nof sin appears most odious, for that it hath not only at present\ndefiled the soul, but because it keeps it from doing those duties\nof love, which by the love of Christ it is constrained to endeavour\nthe perfecting of. For filth, appears filth; that is irksome, and\nodious to a contrary principle now implanted in the soul; which\nprinciple had its conveyance thither by faith in the sacrifice\nand death of Christ going before. 'The love of Christ constraineth\nus; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were\nall dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should\nnot henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for\nthem, and rose again' (2 Cor 5:14). The man that hath received\nChrist, desireth to be holy, because the nature of the faith that\nlayeth hold on Christ (although I will not say as you, it is of\na generous mind) worketh by love, and longeth, yea, greatly\nlongeth that the soul may be brought, not only into an universal\nconformity to his will, but into his very likeness; and because\nthat state standeth not with what we are now, but with what we\nshall be hereafter: therefore 'in this we groan,--being burdened\n[with that which is of a contrary nature] to be clothed upon--with\nour house which is from heaven' (2 Cor 5:1-8). Which state is not\nthat of Adam's innocency; but that which is spiritual and heavenly,\neven that which is now in the Lord in heaven.\n\nBut I will descend to your nineteenth chapter, it may be more may\nbe discovered there.\n\n[Justifying faith and the imputation of Christ's righteousness.]\n\nYour nineteenth chapter is to shew; 'That a right understanding\nof the design of Christianity [viz. as you have laid it down] will\ngive satisfaction concerning the true notion.' First, 'Of justifying\nfaith.' Second, 'Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness' (p.\n221).\n\nFirst, Of justifying faith; 'It is [say you] such a belief of the\ntruth of the gospel, as includes a sincere resolution of obedience\nunto all its precepts.'\n\nAns. To this I shall answer, first, that the faith which we call\njustifying faith, 'Is like precious faith' with all the elect (2\nPeter 1:1), and that which is most holy (Jude 20): but those acts\nof it, which respect our justification with God from the curse\nof the law that is due for sin; are such, as respect not any good\nwork done by us, but the righteousness that resideth in the person\nof Christ; and is made ours by the imputation of grace. His faith,\nI say, accounteth him in whom it is, now a sinner, and without\nworks; yea, if he have any that in his own eyes are such, this faith\nrejects them, and throweth them away; for it seeth a righteousness\nin the person of Christ sufficient; even such as is verily the\nrighteousness of God. 'Now to him that worketh not, but believeth.'\nWorks and faith are put here in opposition, faith being considered\nas justifying, in the sight of God from the curse. The reason\nis, because the righteousness by which the soul must thus stand\njustified, is a righteousness of God's appointing, not of his\nprescribing us; a righteousness that entirely is included in the\nperson of Christ. The apostle also, when he speaks of God's\nsaving the election, which hangeth upon the same hinge, as this\nof justification doth, to wit, on the grace of God; he opposeth\nit to works; and that, not to this or that sort only, but even to\nwork, in the nature of work, 'If by grace, then is it no more of\nworks: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then\nis it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work' (Rom 11:6).\nBy this text, I say, the apostle doth so thoroughly distinguish\nbetween grace and works as that which soever standeth in the case,\nthe other must be annihilated: If it be by grace, then must works\nbe no more, 'then it is no more of works': but if it be of works,\nthen is grace no more, 'then it is no more of grace.'\n\nBut this, notwithstanding, you urge farther; 'that faith justifieth,\nas it includes a sincere resolution,' &c.\n\nAns. Although, as I have said before, the faith which is the\njustifying faith, is that of the holiest nature, yet in the act,\nby which it layeth hold of justifying righteousness, it respects\nit, simply, as a righteousness offered by grace, or given unto the\nperson that by faith layeth hold thereon as he stands yet ungodly\nand a sinner.\n\nFaith justifieth not separate from the righteousness of Christ as\nit is a grace in us, nor as it subjecteth the soul to the obedience\nof the moral law, but as it receiveth a righteousness offered to\nthat sinner, that as such will lay hold on, and accept thereof.\nChrist Jesus came into the world to save sinners, by being their\nredemption, and righteousness himself (1 Cor 1:30).\n\nBut you add, 'The faith which entitles a sinner to so high a\nprivilege as that of justification, must needs be such as complieth\nwith all the purposes of Christ's coming into the world,' &c. (p.\n222).\n\nAns. By this supposition, faith justifieth not by receiving of\nthe righteousness that Christ by himself accomplished for sinners;\nbut by falling in with all good works, which because they cannot\nbe known, much less done, by the soul at first, his faith being\nthen, as to the perfection of knowledge of duties, weak, he\nstandeth still before God unjustified, and so must stand until he\ndoth comply with all those purposes of Christ's coming into the\nworld.\n\nBut yet again you recall yourself, and distinguish one purpose from\nthe rest, as a grand one (p. 222). And that is to receive Christ\nas Lord, as well as a Saviour.\n\nAns. 1. Although the soul that in truth receiveth Christ, receiveth\nhim wholly, and entirely as Christ, and not as chopt, and pulled in\npieces: yet I distinguish between the act of faith, which layeth\nhold of Christ for my justification from the curse before God, and\nthe consequences of that act, which are to engage me to newness\nof life. And indeed, as it is impossible for a man to be a new\nman, before he be justified in the sight of God; so it is also\nas impossible, but that when faith hath once laid hold on Christ\nfor life, it should also follow Christ by love. But,\n\n2. Christ may be received at first as Lord, and that in our\njustification, and yet not at all be considered as a law-giver, for\nso he is not the object of faith for our justification with God,\nbut a requirer of obedience to laws and statutes, of them that already\nare justified by the faith that receiveth him as righteousness.\nBut Christ is as well a Lord for us, as to, or over us; and it\nhighly concerneth the soul, when it believeth in, or trusteth to\nthe righteousness of Christ, for justification with God, to see\nthat this righteousness lords it over death, and sin, and the devil,\nand hell for us: the name wherewith he shall be called, is, 'the\nLord our righteousness' (Jer 23:6). Our righteousness, then is\nLord, and conqueror over all; and we more than conquerors through\nthis Lord that loved us (Rom 8). The author to the hebrews calls\nhim 'King of righteousness' (Heb 7), because by his righteousness\nhe ruleth as Lord and King, and can reign and lord it, at all\ntimes over all those that seek to separate us from the presence,\nand glory of God.[27]\n\nNow, how you will brook this doctrine I know not; I am sure he\nstands in need thereof, that is lorded over by the curse of the\nlaw, the guilt of sin, the rage of the devil, and the fear of\ndeath and hell; he, I say, would be glad to know that in Christ\nthere is a righteousness that LORDS IT, or that Christ, as he is\nrighteousness, is LORD.\n\nWherefore reader, when thou shalt read or hear, that Jesus Christ\nis Lord, if thou art at the same time under guilt of sin, and\nfear of hell, then do thou remember that Christ is Lord more ways\nthan one, He is Lord as he is righteousness; he is Lord as he\nis imputative righteousness; he is 'the Lord our righteousness'\n(Jer 23:6). Of the same import is that also, 'He is a Prince,\nand a Saviour,' he is a Prince, as he is a Saviour; because the\nrighteousness by which he saveth, beareth rule in heaven, and earth.\nAnd hence we read again, that even when he was in the combat with\nour sins, the devils, the curse, and death, upon the cross, he\neven in that place 'made a shew of them openly, triumphing over\nthem' (Col 2:15,16). Now in these things he is Lord for us, and\nthe Captain of our salvation; as also in that 'He led captivity\ncaptive' (Eph 4:8); all which places, with many more, being\ntestimonies to us, of the sufficiency of that righteousness which\nsaveth us from the justice of the law and wrath of God. But you\nrespect not this his manner of lording; but will have him be a\nSaviour, as he giveth laws, especially those you call indispensable,\nand eternal, the moral law. You would have him a Saviour, as he\nbringeth us back to the holiness we had lost. But this is none\nother than barbarous quakerism, the stress of their writing also\ntending to no other purpose.\n\nBut you tell us, 'That you scarcely admired at any thing more in\nall your life, than that any worthy men especially, should be so\ndifficultly persuaded to embrace this account of justifying faith,\nand should perplex and make intricate so very plain a doctrine'\n(p. 222).\n\nAns. And doubtless they far more[28] groundedly stand amazed at\nsuch as you, who while you pretend to shew the design of the gospel,\nmake the very essential of it, a thing in itself indifferent, and\nabsolutely considered neither good nor evil (p. 7), that makes\nobedience to the moral laws (p. 8), more essential to salvation,\nthan that of going to God by Christ (p. 9), that maketh it the great\ndesign of Christ, to put us into a possession of that promiseless,\nnatural, old covenant holiness which we had lost long since in\nAdam, that maketh as if Christ, rejecting all other righteousness,\nor holiness, hath established only this (p. 10-16). Yea, that\nmaketh the very principle of this holiness to consist in 'a sound\ncomplexion of soul, the purity of human nature in us, a habit of\nsoul, truly generous motives and principles, divine moral laws\nwhich were first written in men's hearts, and originally dictates\nof human nature.' All this villainy against the Son of God, with\nmuch more as bad, is comprized within less than the first sixteen\npages of your book.\n\nBut say you, 'what pretence can there be for thinking, that faith\nis the condition, or instrument of justification, as it complieth\nwith only the precept of relying upon Christ's merits for the\nobtaining of it: especially when it is no less manifest than the\nsun at noon-day, that obedience to the other precepts must go\nbefore obedience to this; and that a man may not rely upon the\nmerits of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, and he is most\npresumptuous in so doing, and puts an affront upon his Saviour\ntoo, till he be sincerely willing to be reformed from them' (p.\n223).\n\nAns. That the merits of Christ, for justification, are made over\nto that faith that receiveth them, while the person that believeth\nit, stands in his own account, by the law a sinner; hath already\nbeen shewed. And that they are not by God appointed for another\npurpose, is manifest through all the bible.\n\n1. In the type, when the bloody sacrifices were to be offered, and\nan atonement made for the soul, the people were only to confess\ntheir sins over the head of the bullock, or goat, or lamb, by\nlaying their hands thereon, and so the sacrifice was to be slain.\nthey were only to acknowledge their sins. And observe it, in the\nday that these offerings were made, they were 'not to work at\nall; for he that did any work therein, was to be cut off from his\npeople' (Lev 4, 16, 23).\n\n2. In the antitype thus it runs; 'Christ died for our sins; Christ\ngave himself for our sins; he was made to be sin for us; Christ\nwas made a curse for us.'\n\n'Yea, but [say you] What pretence can there be, that faith is the\ncondition, or instrument of justification, as it complieth with\nonly the precepts of relying upon Christ's merits'; that is, first,\nor before the soul doth other things.\n\nAns. I say, avoiding your own ambiguous terms, that it is the\nduty, the indispensable duty of all that would be saved, First,\nImmediately, now to close in by faith with that work of redemption,\nwhich Christ by his blood hath purchased for them, as they are\nsinners.\n\n1. Because God doth hold it forth, yea, hath set it forth to be\nreceived by us, as such (Rom 3:23-27).\n\n2. Because God hath commanded us by faith to receive it as such\n(Acts 16).\n\nAnd I add, If the jailor was altogether ignorant of what he must\ndo to be saved, and Paul yet bids him then, before he knew anything\nelse, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he should be saved,'\nthat then believing, even believing on Christ for a righteousness\nto justify and save him, must go first, and may, nay ought to be\npressed, even then, when the soul stands ignorant of what else he\nought to do (Acts 16:30-32).\n\n'But [you say] It is evident as the sun at noon-day, that obedience\nto the other precepts must go before obedience to this, that is,\nbefore faith in Christ.'\n\nAns. This you say; but Paul said to the ignorant jailor, that knew\nnothing of the mind of God in the doctrine of justification, that\nhe should first believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and so should\nbe saved. Again, when Paul preached to the Corinthians, the first\ndoctrine that he delivered unto them was, 'That Christ died for\ntheir sins, according to the scriptures,' &c. (1 Cor 15:1-3).\n\nBut what be these other precepts? Not Baptism, nor the supper\nof the Lord; for these you say are, as poor and inconsiderable,\nas that of coming to God by Christ, even all three, things in\nthemselves neither good nor evil, but of an indifferent nature;\nthey must be therefore some more weighty things of the gospel,\nthan these positive precepts. But what things are they? It is good\nthat you tell us, seeing you tacitly forbid all men upon pain of\npresumption and of doing affront to Jesus Christ, that they rely\nnot on the merits of Christ for forgiveness till they be sincerely\nwilling to perform them first; yet I find not here one particular\nprecept instanced by you: But perhaps we shall hear of them hereafter,\ntherefore now I shall let them pass. You tell us farther, 'That\nsuch a reliance [as that of acting faith, first, on the merits\nof Christ for justification] is ordinarily to be found amongst\nunregenerate, and even the worst of men' (p. 223).\n\nAns. This is but a falsehood and a slander, for the unregenerate\nknow him not; how then can they believe on him? (1 John 3:1).\nBesides, the worst of men, so far as they pretend religion, set\nup your idol in their hearts, viz. their own good meanings, their\nown good nature, the notions and dictates of their nature, living\nthat little which they do live upon the snuff of their own light,\nthe sparks of their own fire, and therefore woe unto them.\n\nBut you add, 'How can it be otherwise, than that that act of faith\nmust needs have a hand in justifying, and the special hand too,\nwhich distinguisheth it from that which is to be found in such\npersons.'\n\nAns. 1. There is no act of faith doth more distinguish true faith\nfrom false, and the Christian from the painted hypocrite, than\nthat which first lays hold on Christ, while the person that hath\nit stands in his own esteem, ungodly; all over like yourself,\nbeing fearful and unbelieving (Rev 21:8) despisers, who wonder,\nand perish (Acts 13:40-41).\n\n2. And this faith, by thus acting, doth more subdue sin, though it\ndoth not justify as subduing, but as applying Christ's righteousness,\nthan all the wisdom and purity of human nature, or the dictates\nof that nature that is found in the whole world.\n\nBut you add farther: 'What good ground can men have for this fancy,\nwhen as our Saviour hath merited the pardon of sin for this end,\nthat it might be an effectual motive to turn from it?'\n\nAns. Although you speak this in great derision to faith when it\nworketh right, yet know that therefore (seeing you would hear it)\nI say, therefore hath our Saviour merited pardon, and bestowed it\non men freely, and bid them believe or receive it, and have it;\nthat thereby they might be encouraged to live to him, and love him,\nand comply with his commandments. 'For scarcely for a righteous\nman will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even\ndare to die: But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while\nwe were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being\nNOW justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through\nhim' (Rom 5). Now, as here we are said to be justified by his blood,\nthat is, as his blood appeaseth the justice of God; so again, it\nis said that this blood is set forth by God for us to have faith\nin it, by the term of a propitiation. 'Whom God hath set forth\nto be a propitiation [or a sacrifice to appease the displeasure\nof God] through faith in his blood.--To declare at this time his\nrighteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him\nwhich believeth in Jesus' (Rom 3:25,26).\n\nAgain, As we are thus justified by blood in the sight of God, by\nfaith in it, so also it is testified of his blood, that it sprinkleth\nthe conscience of the faithful, but still only as it is received\nby faith. But from what is the conscience sprinkled, but from those\ndead works that remain in all that have not yet been justified\nby faith in this blood. Now if faith in this blood doth sprinkle\nthe conscience, and so doth purge it from all dead works, then\nmust faith go first to the blood of Christ for justification,\nand must bring this home to the defiled conscience, before it be\ndelivered from those dead works that are in it, and made capable\nof serving the living God (Rom 5:7-10, 3:24,25; Heb 9:14, 10:19-22).\n\nBut you say, 'you will never trust your discursive faculty so long\nas you live, if you are mistaken here' (p. 224).\n\nTell not me of your discursive faculty: The word of God is plain.\nAnd never challenge man, for he that condemneth your way to heaven,\nto the very pit of hell, as Paul doth, can yet set forth a better.\n\nSecond, I come now to the second thing, viz. the doctrine of the\nimputation of Christ's righteousness, which you thus expound.\n\n'It consists in dealing with sincerely righteous persons, as if\nthey were perfectly so, for the sake, and upon the account of\nChrist's righteousness' (p. 225, 226).\n\nAns. 1. Any thing but truth; but I would know how sincerely righteous\nthey were that were justified without works? Or how sincerely\nrighteous they were whom God justified as ungodly? (Rom 4:3-5).\n\n2. Your explication of the imputation of Christ's righteousness\nmakes it respect our works rather than our persons: 'It consists\n[say you] in dealing with sincerely righteous persons, as if\nthey were perfectly so': That is, it justifieth their imperfect\nrighteousness first, and so secondarily their persons for the sake\nof that.\n\nBut observe a few things from this explication.\n\n1. This concludeth that a man may be sincerely righteous in God's\naccount, WITHOUT the righteousness of Christ; for that is to be\nimputed to such, and none but such.\n\n2. This concludeth that men may be sincerely righteous, before\nChrist's righteousness is imputed: For this sincere righteousness\nis precedent to the imputation of Christ's.\n\n3. This concludeth that a man may have true, yea saving grace\nin great and mighty action in him, before he hath faith in the\nrighteousness of Christ. For if a man must be sincerely righteous\nfirst; then he must not only have that we call the habit, but the\npowerful acts of grace.\n\nBesides, if the righteousness of Christ is not to be looked to\nfirst, but secondarily; not before, but after we be made sincerely\nrighteous; then may not faith be thus acted if a man should have\nit, until he be first a sincerely righteous person.\n\n4. This concludeth that a man may be brought from under the curse\nof the law in God's sight, before he have faith in the righteousness\nof Christ, yea before it be imputed to him: for he that in God's\naccount is reckoned sincerely righteous, is beloved of his God.\n\n5. This concludeth that a man may be from under the curse of God,\nwithout the imputation of the righteousness of Christ: For if a\nman must be sincerely righteous in God's account without it, then\nhe is from under the curse of God without it.\n\n6. This doctrine teacheth farther, that Christ came to call, and\njustify the righteous, contrary to his express word. In short,\nby this account of things, first we must be healed, and then the\nplaister comes.\n\nYea, so confident is this man in this his assertion, that he saith,\n'It is not possible any other notion of this doctrine should have\ntruth in it' (p. 226). O this Jesus! This rock of offence! But he\nthat believeth on him shall not be confounded.\n\nBut blessed be God for Jesus Christ, and for that he took our\nnature, and sin, and curse, and death upon him: And for that he\ndid also by himself, by one offering purge our sins. We that have\nbelieved have found rest, even there where God and his Father hath\nsmelled a sweet savour of rest; because we are presented to God,\neven now complete in the righteousness of him, and stand discharged\nof guilt, even by the faith of him: yea, as sins past, so sins\nto come, were taken up and satisfied for, by that offering of the\nbody of Jesus, we who have had a due sense of sins, and of the\nnature of the justice of God, we know that no remission of the guilt\nof any one can be, but by atonement made by blood (Heb 9:22). We\nalso know that where faith in Jesus Christ is wanting, there can\nbe neither good principle, nor good endeavour. For faith is the\nfirst of all graces, and without it there is nothing but sin (Rom\n14:23). We know also, that faith as a grace in us, severed from\nthe righteousness of Christ, is only a beholder of things, but\nnot a justifier of persons, and that if it lay not hold of, and\napplieth not that righteousness which is in Christ, it carrieth\nus no farther than to the [faith of] devils. We know that this\ndoctrine killeth sin, and curseth it at the very roots; I say we\nknow it, 'who have mourned over him whom WE have pierced' (Zech\n12:10), and who have been confounded to see that God by his blood\nshould be pacified towards us for all the wickedness we have done\n(Eze 16:63). Yea, we have a double motive to be holy and humble\nbefore him; one because he died for us on earth, another because\nhe now appears for us in heaven, there sprinkling for us the\nmercy seat with his blood, there ever-living to make intercession\nfor them that come unto God by him. 'If any man sin, we have an\nadvocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is\nthe propitiation for our sins' (1 John 2:1,2). Yet this worketh\nin us no looseness, nor favour to sin, but so much the more an\nabhorrence of it: 'She loveth much, for much was forgiven her'\n(Luke 7:47). Yea, she weeps, she washeth his feet, and wipeth\nthem with the hairs of her head, to the confounding of Simon the\npharisee, and all such ignorant hypocrites.\n\n[The Bible the only measure and standard of truth.]\n\nBut I pass this, and come to the twentieth chapter, which is to\nlearn us by what measure and standard we are to judge of doctrines;\nand that is by the design of Christianity as stated, you must\nknow, by Mr. Fowler. Wherefore it will be requisite here again,\nthat a collection of principles and doctrines be gathered out of\nthis book, that the man that hath a short memory may be helped the\nbetter to bear them in mind, and to make them, if he shall be so\nbewitched by them, instead of the Bible, a standard for truth,\nand a rule for him to obtain salvation by.\n\nFirst then, he must know that the principle by which he must walk\nmust be the purity of the human nature, a divine or God-like nature,\nwhich yet is but an habit of soul, or more plainly the moral law,\nas written in the heart, and originally the dictates of human\nnature, a generous principle, such an one as although it respects\nlaw, yet acts in a sphere above it; above it as a written law,\nthat acts even in the first principles of it (p. 7-10).\n\nSecond, He must know, that the holiness Christ designed to possess\nhis people with, is that which we had lost in Adam, that which he\nhad before he fell, that natural old covenant Christ-less holiness\n(p. 12).\n\nThird, He must put a difference between those laws of the gospel\nthat are essential to holiness, and those positive precepts that\nin themselves are indifferent, and absolutely considered neither\ngood nor evil; but must know also that of these positive precepts,\nhe alloweth but three in the gospel, but three that are purely\nsuch; to wit, that of coming to God by Christ, the institutions\nof baptism, and the Lord's supper (p. 7-9).\n\nFourth, He must hold for certain, that the faith which entitleth\na sinner to so high a privilege as that of justification, must\nneeds be such as complieth with all the purposes of Christ's\ncoming into the world, whether at present it understands them or\nnot, and it is no less necessary it should justify as it doth so\n(p. 222).\n\nFifth, He must know, that a man may not rely upon the merits of\nChrist for the forgiveness of his sins, before he have done other\ngood works first (p. 223).\n\nSixth, And that the right explication of the imputation of Christ's\nrighteousness is this, that it consisteth in having to do with\npersons that are sincerely righteous (p. 225). For it is not\npossible for Christ's righteousness to be imputed to an unrighteous\nman (p. 120).\n\nThese things, with many like to them, being the main points by this\nman handled, and by him asserted to be the design of Christianity,\nby these we must, as by a rule and standard, understand how to\njudge of the truth of doctrines. And, saith he, 'seeing the design\nof Christianity is to make men holy, [still meaning from principles\nof humanity, and by possessing us again, with the often repeated\nholiness which we had lost,] whatsoever opinions do either directly,\nor in their evident consequences, obstruct the promoting of it,\nare perfectly false' (p. 227,228).\n\nAns. Thus with one word, as if he were Lord and Judge himself, he\nsendeth to the pit of hell, all things that sanctify or make holy\nthe hearts of men, if they oppose the design of his christianity.\nBut what if the Holy Ghost will become a principle in the hearts\nof the converted, and will not now suffer them to act simply and\nalone upon the principles of pure humanity; or what now if faith\nwill become a principle to act by, instead of these that are\noriginally dictates of human nature? Or what if a man should act\nnow as a son, rather than simply as a creature endued with\na principle of reason? I question here whether these things thus\ndoing do not obstruct, put by, yea and take the way[29] of his\npure humanity, dictates of human nature, and instead thereof act\nand govern the soul by and with their own principles. For albeit,\nthere be the dictates of human nature in the sons of men, yet\nneither is this nature, nor yet the dictates of it, laid by Jesus\nChrist as the truly christian principles in his. But you add:\n\n'Those doctrines which in their own nature do evidently tend to\nthe serving of THIS design of Christianity, we may conclude are\nmost true and genuine' (p. 229).\n\nAns. The holiness which you so often call the design of Christianity,\nbeing by yourself said to be that which we had lost, for this one\nsentence is it on which your whole book is built (p. 12), whatsoever\ndoctrine or doctor it be that asserts it, both that doctrine\nis of the devil, and that doctor an angel of darkness, or rather\na minister of Satan, become as a minister of righteousness. For\nwhere is it said in all the whole book of God, that ever the Lord\nChrist designed, yea made it his errand from heaven, to put us\nagain in possession of the holiness which we had lost? Yet this\nyou affirm, and tell us the business of your book is to prove it.\nBut blessed be God, your shifts are discovered, and your fig-leaves\nrent from off you, and the righteousness or holiness so much cried\nup by you, proved to be none of the holiness of the gospel, but\nthat which stood with perfect ignorance thereof. I might speak to\nwhat yet remains of falsehood, in the other part of this chapter;\nbut having overthrown the foundation, and broken the head of your\nLeviathan; what remains falleth of itself, and dieth of its own\naccord.\n\nWhat you say of modes or forms, and sticklers for little trifles,\nsuch as place their religion in mere externals, you may fasten\nthem where of due they belong: Yet I tell you the least of the\ncommandments of Christ is better than your Adamitish holiness.\n\n[The necessity of a sound foundation.]\n\nYour twenty-first chapter tells us, if we will believe you, how\nwe shall judge of the necessity of doctrine, to be embraced\nor rejected; also you say, it giveth us a brief discourse of the\nnature of fundamentals: But because your discourse of them is\ngeneral, and not any one particularized, I might leave you in your\ngenerals till you dealt more candidly, both with the word of God\nand your abused reader.\n\nFirst, Indeed you tell us of primary fundamentals. 'Such, as without\nthe knowledge and belief of which it is impossible to acquire\nthat inward righteousness and true holiness which the christian\nreligion aimeth at;--but the particulars of these, say you,\nI shall not enumerate, because [as will appear from what will be\nsaid anon] it is not needful to have a just table of them' (p.\n234).\n\nAns. Deep divinity! (1.) They are such as without the knowledge\nand belief of them, it is not possible we should acquire your true\nholiness; and yet for all that, it is not needful that we be told\nwhat they are, or that we should have a just table of them. (2.)\nBut if they be things necessary, things without the knowledge of\nwhich it is impossible we should be truly holy, then is it needful\nthat we understand what they are: yea, then is it needful that they\nbe written, and presented one by one unto us, that our knowledge\nof them being distinct and full, we may the better be able to\nobtain or acquire your glorious (so pretended) holiness.\n\nBut I know your primary fundamentals, they are your first principles\nof morals; not faith in the righteousness of Christ, for that\nis comprehended in your positive, and in themselves indifferent\nthings: your morals are the things in themselves absolutely\nnecessary; of an indispensable and eternal obligation (p. 8,9).\nBut,\n\nSecond, You tell us of points of faith that are secondarily fundamental;\nthe disbelief of which cannot consist with true holiness, in those\nto whom the gospel is sufficiently made known.\n\nAns. The secondary fundamentals also, are all kept close and hid,\nand not otherwise to be understood, but by implication; however,\nthe disbelief of these is not of so sad a consequence as is that\nof the former, because, say you, 'They are not in their own nature,\nholiness' (p. 235). Yea, he insinuateth that the disbelief of\nthem may stand with true holiness in those to whom the gospel is\nnot sufficiently made known.\n\nOf these secondary fundamentals therefore, whatever is their\nnumber, this is one, even coming to God by Christ; for as in p.\n7 and 9 he calleth it a positive precept, a thing that in itself\nis neither good nor evil; so here he speaks of such as are not in\ntheir own nature holy; not such, as that holiness is not in some\ndegree or other attainable without the belief of them.\n\nThat one of these secondary fundamentals intended by Mr. Fowler,\nis, that of coming to God by Christ, I farther gather, because he\nsaith, that 'in the number of these, are all such doctrines, as\nare with indisputable clearness revealed to us,' that is, by the\nholy scriptures of the New Testament (p. 235). For therein is this\nrevealed to be a fundamental; but he saith, not a primary one,\nbecause, that in itself, it is but indifferent, and not in its own\nnature good. 'Now the belief of these, saith he, though it is not\nin itself any more, than in higher or lower degrees, profitable,\n[confusions! darkness! confusion!] yet it is absolutely necessary\nfrom an external cause': That is, with such abundant clearness,\nas that nothing can cause men to refuse to admit them, but that\nwhich argueth them to be stark naught.\n\nAns. Then, hence it seems that the reason why you admit these\nsecondary sort of fundamentals, is not from any internal power,\nbut an external declaration only. 2. Nay, and you do but admit\nthem neither, and that too, for some external cause; not because\nof the worthiness of the nature of the points themselves. 3. And\nwere it not, but that you are loth to be counted stark naught in\nthe eyes of men, so far as I can discern, you would not at all\nmake profession of them, with pretence as unto God; for, say you,\n'We must take notice here, that all such points [as these][viz.\nthese fundamentals,] are not of equal necessity to be received by\nall Christians, because, that in regard of the diversity of their\ncapacities, educations, and other means and advantages, some of\nthem may be most plainly perceived by some, to be delivered in\nthe scriptures, which cannot be so by others, with the like ease.'\n\nAns. From these words I take notice of four things.\n\n1. That by this universal (all Christians) is comprehended the\nHeathen and Pagan people, they give heed to, and mind to follow\nthat light, that originally, and naturally, stirreth them to moral\nduties. These be they that want the education, and advantages\nof others, and are not in such a capacity, as they to whom these\nthings are delivered by the scriptures.\n\n2. That this people, notwithstanding they want a scripture revelation\nof these secondary fundamentals, yet have the more necessary, the\nfirst sort of fundamentals; for the secondary sort, say you, are\nnot in their own nature such, as that holiness is not in some\ndegree or other attainable without the belief of them.\n\n3. That therefore, these secondary sort of fundamentals, are only\nnecessary to be believed by them that have the indisputable (the\nscripture) revelation of them; and that, in truth, the others may\nbe saved without them.\n\n4. But yet, even those that are made capable, by education and other\nadvantages, to obtain the belief of them, ought, notwithstanding,\nnot to have the same respect for them, as for those of the first\nsort of fundamentals, because they are not in their own nature\nsuch.\n\nBut will this man know, that Christ is not only a fundamental,\nbut the very foundation of all other fundamental truths, revealed\nboth in the Old Testament and the New; and that his pure human nature,\nwith the dictates of it, with his feigned Adamitish holiness, is\nno fundamental at all; I mean no fundamental of faith, no gospel\nfundamental (1 Cor 3:14; Eph 2:19,20). Yea, will he know, that\nfrom heaven there is none other name given, than the name of Jesus\nChrist, whereby we must be saved, none other name given under the\nwhole heavens (Acts 4:12).\n\nOh the witchcrafts, by which some men's spirits are intoxicated!\nand the strength of delusion, by which some are infatuated, and\nturned aside from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ! But I\nproceed:\n\nYour great question, or rather your Urim and Thumim, by which you\nwould have all men make judgment of their saveable, or damnable\nstate(p. 236) is, according to your description of things, most\ndevilish and destructive. For to obey God and Christ in all things,\nwith you, is to do it from principles purely human in the faith\nof this: that Christ hath designed to possess us again with that\nholiness we had lost. Again, to obey God and Christ, with you,\nis, so to obey all their laws, as respecting the first principles\nof morals; and our obedience to them, far more indispensable than\nthat of coming to God by Christ. Farther, he that obeys them in\nall things, with your directions, must not look upon faith in the\nblood of Christ, and justification by his righteousness, as the\nmain and first, but the second part of our duty; other commands,\nor precepts, more naturally holy and good, first being embraced,\nand lived in the practice of, by us.\n\nThis, I say, being the doctrine you have asserted, and the foundation\non which your Urim and Thummim stands; the foundation, with your\ntrial, are both from the devil and hell, as hath at large been\nproved, and discovered in this book.\n\nAnd I now will add, and bid you take your advantage, that should a\nman with all his might, strive to obey all the moral laws, either\nas they are contained in the first principles of morals, or in\nthe express decalogue, or Ten Commandments; without faith, first,\nin the blood, and death, and resurrection of Christ, &c. For his\njustification with God; his thus doing would be counted wickedness,\nand he in the end, accounted a rebel against the gospel, and shall\nbe damned for want of faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus.\n\n[The Christian's great principles.]\n\nYour twenty-second chapter, saith, 'That the design of Christianity,\nteacheth us what doctrines and practices we ought, as Christians,\nto be most zealous for, or against' (p. 237).\n\nAns. But there is not by that, it being rightly stated, one\nsyllable that tendeth to encourage any man, to have lower thoughts\nof coming to God by Christ, than of keeping the moral law. For\neven the first text you bring, doth utterly overthrow it. 'Contend\n[earnestly], say you, for the faith'; I answer then, not for the\nlaw of works, for the law is not of faith; but the man that doth\nthese things, shall live in them, by them. 'Contend earnestly for\nthe faith, for there are certain men crept in unawares, which were\nbefore of old, ordained unto this condemnation'; even the condemnation\nthat is to come upon them that contend against the faith; for\nthese ungodly men turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and\ndeny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now these\ncreeping ungodly men, may be divided in three ranks.\n\n1. Such as by principle, and practice both, say, 'Let us do evil,\nthat good may come: whose damnation is just' (Rom 3:8).\n\n2. Such as by practice only, appear to be such, denying to profess\nthe principle thereof, such are they that made excuse and delay,\nwhen invited to come to the wedding (Matt 22:1-5; Luke 14).\n\n3. There is yet another sort; and they are such as seem to deny\nit, both in principle, and practice also; only they do it covertly,\nPRIVILY bringing in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that\nbought them. These 'bring upon themselves swift destruction' (2\nPeter 2:1).\n\nThis third sort, made of the doctrine of grace, and of the forgiveness\nof sins, through the faith of the righteousness of Christ, a loose\nand licentious doctrine, or a doctrine that giveth liberty to the\nflesh. By reason of these the way of truth is evil spoken of, and\nthe hearts of innocent ones alienated therefrom. These will not\nstick to charge it upon the very chief of the brethren, if they\nshall say, 'As sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded: that\nthey press men to do evil, that good may come of it' (Rom 3:8,9).\nBut, as I said, these vilify Christ, not with open words, but\ncovertly; privily they bring in their blasphemy under a cloak,\ncrying, the law, holiness, strictness, good works, &c. Besides,\nthese clothe their doctrines with names and notions that belong\nnot at all unto them; as of Christ, grace, the spirit, the gospel,\nwhen there is only there, the devil, and his angels, and errors;\nas angels of light, and ministers of righteousness. Of this last\nsort are you, and the subject matter of your book; for you bring\ninto the world an anti-gospel holiness, anti-gospel principles,\nand anti-gospel fundamentals; and that these things might be\nworshiped by your disciples, you give them the name of holiness,\nthe design of Christ, and of Christianity; by which means you remove\nthe Christ of God, from before, and set him behind, forbidding\nmen to believe on him, till they have practised your things first:\nnay, after they have practised yours, they then must come to God\nby him, still respecting the principles and dictates of humanity, as\nthings of the greatest weight, things that are good in themselves;\nstill considering that 'coming to God by Christ, is not good in\nitself, but so only upon the account of certain circumstances; a\nthing in itself of an indifferent nature, and absolutely considered\nneither good nor evil.'\n\nWherefore, Sir, laying aside all fear of men, not regarding what\nyou may procure to be inflicted upon me for this my plain dealing\nwith you, I tell you again, that yourself is one of them, that\nhave closely, privily, and devilishly, by your book, turned the\ngrace of our God into a lascivious doctrine, bespattering it with\ngiving liberty to looseness, and the hardening of the ungodly in\nwickedness, against whom, shall you persist in your wickedness, I\nshall not fail, may I live, and know it, and be helped of God to\ndo it, to discover yet farther the rottenness of your doctrine,\nwith the accursed tendencies thereof.\n\nWhat you say about 'doubtful opinion, alterable modes, rites, and\ncircumstances in religion' (p. 239). I know none so wedded thereto\nas yourselves, even the whole gang of your rabbling counterfeit\nclergy; who generally like the ape you speak of,[30] lie blowing\nup the applause and glory of your trumpery, and like the tail,\nwith your foolish and sophistical arguings, you cover the filthy\nparts thereof, as you sweetly argue in the next chapter (p. 242)\nsaying, 'Whatsoever of such are commended by the custom of the place\nwe live in, or commanded by superiors, or made by any circumstance\nconvenient to be done, our christian liberty consists in this,\nthat we have leave to do them.'[31] So that do but call them things\nindifferent, things that are the customs of the place we live in,\nor made by ANY circumstance convenient, and a man may not doubt but\nhe hath leave to do them, let him live at Rome or Constantinople,\nor amidst the greatest corruption of worship and government. These\nare therefore doubtless, a third sort of fundamentals, by which\nyou can wrestle with conviction of conscience, and stifle it; by\nwhich you can suit yourself for every fashion, mode, and way of\nreligion. Here you may hop from Presbyterianism, to a prelatical\nmode; and if time and chance should serve you, backwards, and\nforwards again: yea, here you can make use of several consciences,\none for this way now, another for that anon; now putting out the\nlight of this by a sophistical delusive argument, then putting\nout the other, by an argument that best suits the time.[32] Yea,\nhow oft is the candle of the wicked put out, by such glorious\nlearning as this. Nay, I doubt not, but a man of your principles,\nwere he put upon it, would not stick to count those you call\ngospel-positive precepts, of no value at all in the christian\nreligion; for now, even now, you do not stick to say that, that\neven that of going to God by Christ, is one of these, and that\nsuch an one, as if absolutely considered in itself, is neither\ngood nor evil. How then, if God should cast you into Turkey,\nwhere Mahomet reigns as Lord? It is but reckoning that it is the\nreligion, and custom of the country, and that which is authorized\nby the power that is there; wherefore it is but sticking to your\ndictates of human nature, and remembering that coming to God by\nChrist is a thing of an indifferent nature in itself, and then for\npeace sake, and to sleep in a whole skin, you may comply, and do\nas your superior commands. Why? Because in Turkey, are your first\nsort of fundamentals found: there are men that have human nature,\nand the law of morals written in their hearts; they have also the\ndictates thereof written within them, which teach them, those you\ncall the eternal laws of righteousness; wherefore you both would\nagree in your essential, and immutable differences of good and\nevil (p. 6), and differ only about these positive laws, indifferent\nthings. Yea, and Mahomet also for the time, because by a custom\nmade convenient, might be now accounted worshipful, and the\ncircumstances that attend his worship, especially those of them\nthat clash not with the dictates of your human nature, might also\nbe swallowed down.\n\nBehold you here then, good reader, a glorious Latitudinarian, that\ncan, as to religion, turn and twist like an eel on the angle; or\nrather like the weather-cock that stands on the steeple.\n\n'For [saith he] our refusing to comply with either of these can\nhardly proceed from anything better than a proud affectation\nof singularity, or at best, from superstitious scrupulosity' (p.\n2424).\n\nDo but believe him therefore in what he saith, and you cannot\nchoose but be ready with him to comply with all modes that may\nserve for advantage.\n\nBesides, he saith, 'that the word superstition, in the Greek implieth,\na frightful, and over-timorous apprehension of the divine nature;\nand consequently a base and under-valuing conception of it.'\n\nSo that to be tender of conscience, especially in things of divine\nworship, binding up the soul to the words of the everlasting\ntestament, in such things especially, as a fool can call little,\nand insignificant trivial matters, rendereth a man such an one as\nhath a very erroneous conscience.\n\nBut he would not be understood (p. 244) as if he here intended\nto vilify things that are plainly commanded, or to tolerate that\nwhich is plainly forbidden, only he would have all things that may\nfall within the reach of these two general heads, be examined by\nthis general rule, 'HIS description of the design of Christianity.'\n\nAns. But I could tell him, that whatsoever is imposed as a part of\nGod's worship, is judged by a better rule than his, both as to its\ngoodness and badness, neither can we account any thing indifferent\nthat is a part thereof. Besides, whatsoever is reputed a part of\nGod's worship, layeth hold on the conscience of the godly: although\na ranting Latitudinarian may say, 'If the devil should preach,\nI would hear him, before I would suffer persecution.' As a brave\nfellow which I could name, in his zeal was pleased to declare.\n\nBut what trust should any man put to the rule to which you direct\nhim for help, and relief therein; seeing that from the beginning\nto the end, from the top to the bottom, it is a cursed blasphemous\nbook; a book that more vilifieth Jesus Christ, than many of the\nQuakers themselves: for which of them said worse of him, and make\ncoming to God by him, a more insignificant thing, than you by your\npretended design of Christianity have done.\n\nWe have therefore a more sure word of the prophets, to the which\n'we do well to take heed' (2 Peter 1:19), by which, both your\ndoctrine, and practice, is already judged to be naught, as will be\nfarther discovered time enough, when you shall justify or condemn\nparticulars.\n\nYour twenty-fourth chapter I shall now pass by, until I can better\ncompare you and popery, against which you there so stoutly[33]\ndiggle together.\n\n[The scandalous lives and foolish doctrines of state priests, not\nthe true ground of dissent.]\n\nYour twenty-fifth chapter carrieth in it an hideous outcry against\nmany of your ministers and guides, complaining and confessing, 'That\nno one thing hath so conduced to the prejudice of your church of\nEngland, and done the separating parties so much service, as the\nscandalous lives of some that exercise the ministerial function\nin her' (p. 258).\n\nAns. I will grant it, if you respect these poor carnal people,\nwho yet have been shamed from your assemblies, by such vicious\npersons you mention: but the truly godly, and spiritually judicious\nhave left you from other arguments, of which I shall not here\ndilate.\n\nBut from p. 261 to the end of the chapter, you take upon you to\nparticularize other of your ministers that are an offence to you,\nand to the design of your Christianity.[34]\n\n1. 'Such as affect to make people stare at their high flown bombast\nlanguage, or to please their phantasies with foolish jugglings,\nand pedantic or boyish wit; or to be admired for their ability in\ndividing of an hair, their metaphysical acuteness, and scholastic\nsubtilty, or for their doughty dexterity in controversial squabbles.'\nAnd I add, had you joined herewith, such as vilify and trample\nupon the blood of the Lord Jesus, preferring the snivel of their\nown brains before him, you had herein but drawn your own picture,\nand given your reader an emblem of yourself.\n\n2. The second sort you blame, are 'such as seek to approve themselves\nto their auditories to be men of mysteries, and endeavour to\nmake the plain and easy doctrines of the gospel as intricate and\nobscure as ever they are able.' I will add to these, such as take\naway the doctrine of faith, and that set themselves and their\nworks in the room thereof: such as have sought to overturn the\nfoundation, Jesus Christ, and have made coming to God by him, in\nitself of a far more indifferent nature than the dictates of our\nhumanity.\n\n3. Another sort (you say) are 'such as preach upon free grace,\nand christian privileges, otherwise than as motives to cite to\nobedience, and never scarce insist upon any duties, but those of\nbelieving, laying hold on Christ's righteousness, applying the\npromises, and renouncing our own righteousness,' which they that\nhave none at all to renounce, have a mighty kindness for.\n\nAns. (1.) Who they are that preach free grace in your church, to\nexcite men to uncleanness, you may know better than I. But if these\nwords, otherwise than to cite men to obedience, be thus thrust in,\nof purpose thereby to speak evil of the preachers of free grace,\nand the exalters of the imputed righteousness of Christ, then look\nto it; for such venom language as this, doth but involve you within\nthe bowels of that most dreadful prophecy, concerning the false\nprophets of the last days, that shall privily bring in damnable\nheresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.\n\n(2.) The preaching of free grace, pressing to believing, and laying\nhold on Christ's righteousness, is the most available means under\nheaven, to make men holy, and righteous:[35] 1. Before God. 2.\nThen before men.\n\n(3.) The preaching of these are first, and principally to beget\nfaith, to beget life, to beget souls to God; yea, to beget in\nmen such a principle, whereby they may serve God acceptably, with\nreverence and godly fear.\n\n(4.) But to preach free grace, doth much condemn your free will;\nto preach Christ's righteousness doth utterly curse, and condemn\nyours; and to preach the promise of grace, doth quite shut out a\ncovenant of works: therefore no marvel if you, who are so wedded\nto these things, be such an enemy to free grace, the righteousness\nof Christ, and the gospel promises, that you make even these things\na characteristical note (first abusing the consequences of them)\nof a church-troubling preacher.\n\n(5.) You tauntingly proceed, saying, 'such preachers also press\nus to renounce our own righteousness, which they that have none\nat all to renounce, have a mighty kindness for.'\n\nAns. Indeed those that have a righteousness of their own, as the\npharisees, and hypocrites of old, had never much kindness for the\ndoctrine of grace, and the ministers of Christ, but the publicans\nand harlots had: and therefore, these, while they that had\nrighteousness stumbled and fell, entered into the kingdom of heaven.\n'The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before\nyou.' But what righteousness have you of your own, to which you\nso dearly are wedded, that it may not be let go, for the sake of\nChrist? seeing also so long as you go about to establish it, you\nsubmit not yourself 'to the righteousness of God' (Rom 10:3).\nYea, why do you taunt those ministers that persuade us to renounce\nour own righteousness, and those also that follow their doctrine?\nSeeing this was both the doctrine and practice of Paul and all\nothers, save only those that had Moses' veil over their hearts.\n\nAnother sort of ministers that you say are enemies to the promoting\nof holiness, are such as 'are never in their element, but when\nthey are talking of the irrespectiveness of God's decrees, the\nabsoluteness of his promises, the utter disability and perfect\nimpotence of natural men, to do any thing towards their own\nconversion, and that insist with great emphasis, and vehemence,\nupon such like false, and dangerous opinions' (p. 262).\n\nAns. The men that preach these things, being rightly stated, preach\nthe truth of God, if the scriptures may bear sway; they having\nall been proved the truth of the gospel, both by the prophets and\napostles: and when you shall think meet by argument to contradict\nthem, either I, or same other may show you the folly of your\nundertaking. In the mean time let the reader take notice that here\nyou have judged not by scripture, nor by reason, but upon a bare\npresumption, arising from your pride or ignorance. Wherefore pray\nyou in your next, shew us, (1.) What is in man that the decree of\nelection should respect as a thing foreseen of God, to prevail\nwith him to predestinate him to eternal life by Jesus Christ our\nLord. (2.) Make it manifest that in the word of God there neither\nis, nor can be any absolute promise contained. (3.) Shew us what\nability there is in a natural man, as such, to do things towards\nhis own conversion; I mean things immediately tending to, and that\nmust infallibly consummate therein, and let us see what things\nthey are. And know that when you have well done all this, according\nto the scriptures of truth, that then it will be time enough to\ncondemn the contrary for false, and dangerous opinions.\n\nBut shall I speak the truth for you? The reason of this your\npresumptuous exclamation, and condemnation of these things; is\nbecause they stand in the way of promoting your ignorant, tottering,\npromiseless, and gospelless holiness; they stand in the way\nof old Adam, they stand in the way of your dunghill rebellious\nrighteousness, they stand in the way of your freedom of will,\nand a great rabble more of such like pretended virtues. Yea, they\ndo, and must, and shall stand there, when you and the rest of the\nSocinians, and Quakers, have said their all against them.\n\nThere is yet another sort of preachers whom you condemn, and so do\nI as well as you, though not in your spirit, nor to advance your\npestiferous principles: and they are 'such as make it their great\nbusiness, to advance the petty interest of any party whatsoever,\nand concern themselves more about doing this, than about promoting,\nand carrying on that, wherein consists the chief good of all mankind,\nand are more zealous to make proselytes to their particular sects,\nthan converts [I will add first to Jesus Christ, and then] to an\nholy life; and press more exact and rigid conformity to their modes\nand forms, than to the laws of God, and the essential duties of\nthe christian religion' (p. 263).\n\nLastly, The caution which you give to ministers, because there\nwanteth for it, among you a foundation, is to be esteemed but an\nerror, and an abuse of the words, and practices of the apostle.\nAnd as for your subtil and close incensing the power to persecute\nNonconformists, know that we are willing, God assisting, to overcome\nyou with truth and patience, not sticking to sacrifice our lives,\nand dearest concerns in a faithful witness-bearing against your\nfilthy errors, compiled and foisted into the world, by your devilish\ndesign to promote Paganism, against Christianity (p. 265,266).\n\n[A compliant temper may prove dangerous.]\n\nI come now to your twenty-sixth chapter, which is spent to prove,\n'That an obedient temper of mind, is a necessary and excellent\nqualification to prepare men for a firm belief, and a right\nunderstanding of the gospel of Christ' (p. 267).\n\nAns. 1. Forasmuch as the obedient temper you mention, is precedent\nto, or before, faith, and the right understanding of the gospel,\nit must needs be also, that which stands with unbelief, and\nignorance of the same. Now that this should be an excellent, and\nnecessary qualification, to a firm belief, and right understanding\nof the gospel, is altogether without proof, and truth. But this\nis affirmed for the farther promoting of your human nature, and\nthe things that originally are dictates thereof. But,\n\n2. The obedience, or inclination to obedience, that is before faith,\nor the understanding of the gospel, is so far off from being an\nexcellent preparative, or good qualification for faith, and the\nknowledge of the gospel, that in its own nature, which is more\nthan in its consequences, it is a great obstruction thereto.\n\nFor, while a man remains faithless and ignorant of the gospel, to\nwhat doth his obedient temper of mind incline? Not to faith, nor\nthe gospel of Christ; for with these, as yet you suppose he hath\nnot to do; therefore he inclineth to the law of morals, either\nas it was delivered in tables of stone from Sinai, or as written\nin the hearts of all the children of men, to it, under the last\nconsideration, which is in truth, the most heathen and pagan to\nit, as so you intend, your obedient temper of mind should incline\n(p. 7-10).\n\nNow this doctrine, being in itself of quite another nature than\nthe doctrine of faith, and also, as such, a covenant by itself,\nit requireth the mind by virtue of its commands, to stand to THAT,\nand to rest in that; for of necessity, the heart and mind of a man\ncan go no farther than it seeth, and hath learnt, but by this moral\ndoctrine, the heart and mind is bound and limited to itself, by\nthe power of the dictate to obedience, and the promise of obtaining\nthe blessing, when the preceptive part of it is fulfilled. Hence\nPaul tells us, that though that ministration, that was written,\nand engraven in stones, (which in nature is the same with this)\nis glorious, yet these imperfections attended the man that was in\nit (2 Cor 3).\n\n1. He was but within the bounds of the ministration of death.\n\n2. In this estate he was blind, and could not see how to be delivered\ntherefrom: 'The vail is over their heart,' so that they could not\nheretofore, neither can they now, see to the end of that which\nwas commanded, neither to the perfection of the command, nor their\nown insufficiency to do it, nor to the death and curse of God,\nthat attended him, that in every thing continued not in [all] that\nwas written in the book of the law to do them.\n\n3. Every lecture, or reading of this old law, is as a fresh\nhood-winking of its disciples, and a doubling of the hindrance of\ntheir coming to Christ for life. 'But their minds were blinded,\nfor until this day, remaineth the same vail untaken away in reading\nof the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even\nunto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their hearts'\n(2 Cor 3:14,15).\n\nAnd let the reader note, that all these things attend the doctrine\nof morals: the ceremonies being in themselves more apt to instruct\nmen in the knowledge of Christ, they being by God's ordination,\nfigures, shadows, representations, and emblems of him; but the morals\nare not so, neither, as written in our natures, nor as written and\nengraven in stones (Gal 3:24). Wherefore, your so highly commended\nobedient temper of mind, you intending thereby an hearty compliance\nbefore faith, with morals for righteousness, is so far off from\nbeing an excellent temper, and a necessary qualification, to help\na man to a firm belief, and right understanding of the gospel;\nthat it is the most ready way of all ways in the world, to keep a\nman perpetually blind, and ignorant thereof. Wherefore the apostle\nsaith, that the vail, the ignorance, cannot be taken away, but\nwhen the heart shall turn to the Lord, that is, from the doctrine\nof morals, as a law and covenant in our natures, or, as it was\nwritten and engraven in stones, to Christ for mercy to pardon\nour transgressions against it, and for imputative righteousness\nto justify us from it. While Moses is read, the vail is over the\nheart; that is, while men with their minds stand bending also to\ndo it. But mark, when it, the heart, shall turn to the Lord, or\nto the word of the gospel, which is the revelation of him, then\nthe vail shall be taken away.\n\nAnd hence it will not be amiss, if again we consider how the\nHoly Ghost compareth, or setteth one against another, these two\nadministrations.\n\nThe law he calls the letter, even the law of morals, that law\nthat was written and engraven in stones. The other ministration,\nhe calls the ministration of the spirit, even that which Christ\noffered to the world, upon believing.\n\nAgain, he denieth himself to be a minister of the law of morals.\nHe hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the\nletter, or law; but of the spirit or gospel. The reason is, for\nthe letter, or law, can do nothing but kill, curse, or condemn;\nbut the spirit, or the gospel, giveth life. Farther, in comparing,\nhe calls the law, the ministration of death, or that which layeth\ndeath at the doors of all flesh; but the gospel, the ministration\nof righteousness, because, by this ministry, there is a revelation\nof that righteousness that is fulfilled by the person of Christ;\nand to be imputed for righteousness to them that believe, that\nthey might be delivered from the ministration of death. How then?\nHath the ministration of God no glory? Yes, forasmuch as it is a\nrevelation of the justice of God against sin. But yet again, its\nglory is turned into no glory, when it is compared with that which\nexcelleth. 'But if the ministration of death, written and engraven\nin stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not\nstedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance;\nwhich glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of\nthe Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation\nbe glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed\nin glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in\nthis respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth' (2 Cor 3:7-10).\n\nSo then, your obedient temper of mind, forasmuch as it respecteth\nthe law of morals, and that too, before faith, or a right\nunderstanding of the gospel, is nothing else but an obedience to\nthe law, a living to death, and the ministration of condemnation;\nand is a persuading the world, that to be obedient to that\nministration, that is not the ministration of the gospel, but\nholdeth its disciples in blindness and ignorance, in which it\nis impossible Christ should be revealed, is an excellent, yea,\na necessary qualification to prepare men for a firm belief, and\na right understanding of the gospel of Christ, which yet even\nblindeth, and holdeth all blind that are the followers of that\nministration. I come now to your proof, which indeed is no proof\nof this anti-gospel assertion, but texts abused, and wrested out\nof their place, to serve to underprop your erroneous doctrine.\nThe first is, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the\ndoctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself'\n(John 7:17, p. 268).\n\nAns. This scripture respecteth not at all the moral law, or obedience\nto the dictates of human nature, as an acceptable qualification\nprecedent to faith; or that, for the sake of which God will give\nmen faith in, and a right understanding of the gospel, but is\nitself an immediate exhortation to believing, with a promise of\nwhat shall follow; as who shall say, The Father hath sent me into\nthe world to be salvation to it, through faith in my blood: My\nFather's will therefore is, 'that men believe in me'; and if any\nwill do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, he shall feel\nthe power thereof, by the peace and comfort that will presently\npossess the soul, and by the holy effects that follow.\n\nThat this is the true exposition of this place will be verified\nif you consider, that to do the will of God, in a New Testament\nsense, is to be taken under a double consideration. 1. As it\nrespecteth Christ. 2. Man.\n\n1. As it respecteth Christ, so it concerns his completing the\nredemption of man by himself, by his own personal performances\n(John 6:38,39; Heb 10:5-10).\n\n2. As it respecteth man, it doth first and immediately respect\nour believing on him for remission of sins and eternal life. 'And\nthis is the will of him [the Father] which sent me [saith Christ]\nthat every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have\neverlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day' (John\n6:40). This then is the will of God; that men do believe in Jesus\nChrist.\n\nAgainst, when the Jews asked Jesus Christ what they should do,\nthat they might work the works of God, he did not send them first\nto the moral precept, or to its first principles in the hearts of\nmen; by obeying that, to fit themselves for faith; but immediately\nhe tells them, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on him\nwhom he hath sent' (John 6:29). This is the work of God; that\nis, 'This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name\nof his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us\ncommandment' (1 John 3:23). If any man will do his will, he shall\nknow of the doctrine, that is, as I have said, he shall feel, and\nhave the authority of this faith in his heart, both to give peace\nand joy in his heart, and assurance, and the sealing of his soul\nto glory. For all these things come in upon believing first in\nChrist.\n\n1. 'By faith we have peace with God' (Rom 5:1).\n\n2. 'We have joy and peace through believing' (Rom 15:13).\n\n3. 'Assurance comes also through believing' (John 6:69; Heb 10:22).\n\n4. Yea, and the sealings up to eternal life; 'In whom also after\nthat ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise'\n(Eph 1:13).\n\n5. Sanctification, and a right obedient temper, is not to be found\nin men before, but after they have believed; 'He purified their\nhearts by faith' (Acts 15:9). Yea, heaven and eternal happiness\nis promised to them who are sanctified by faith which is in Christ\n(26:18).\n\nThis first text, therefore, hath been by you abused, in that you\nhave ungodlily strained it, but in vain, to make it warrant your\nheathenish preparations to faith.\n\nThe second scripture; 'He that is of God heareth God's words; ye\ntherefore hear them not, because ye are not of God' (John 8:47).\n\nAns. This scripture supposeth men must first be of God, before they\ncan hear God's word; before they can hear it with the hearing of\nfaith; and therefore nothing respecteth those that before they\nhave faith, live in the law of works; and least of all, those that\nbecome obedient thereto, that thereby they may obtain everlasting\nlife. For these are not of God, not of him in a New Testament\nsense; not sons, because they are born of men, of the will of men,\nof the law, and according to the wisdom of flesh and blood (John\n1:12,13).\n\nYour third scripture is, 'And as many as were ordained to eternal\nlife believed' (Acts 13:48). Which text you thus expound: 'That as\nmany of the Gentiles as were disposed, or in a ready preparedness\nfor eternal life, believed; that is, those which were proselytes\nof the gate, who were admitted by the Jews to the hope of eternal\nlife, and to have their portion in the age to come, without\nsubmitting to their whole law, or any more than owning the God of\nIsrael, and observing the seven precepts of Noah' (p. 269)[36].\n\nAns. 1. That obedience to the moral law is not a preparative to\nfaith, or an excellent and necessary qualification to the right\nunderstanding of the gospel I have proved.\n\n2. That to be a Jewish proselyte was to live in the faith of\nMessias to come, is the strain of all the scriptures that have to\ndeal with them.\n\n3. But that ordaining men to eternal life respects an act of the\nJews, or that the Jews did dispense with the Gentile proselytes,\nin their casting off all their laws, but the seven precepts of\nNoah.\n\n4. Or that God counted this a fit, or forerunning qualification\nto faith in Jesus Christ, neither stands with the word of God,\nnor the zeal of that people.\n\n5. Besides, the words presently following seem to me to insinuate\nmore, viz. That the Jews and religious proselytes that adhered\nto Paul at his first sermon (v 43), did contradict and blaspheme\nat his second (v 45), and moreover, that it was they that raised\npersecution upon him, and expelled him out of their coasts (v 50).\nWhen the Gentiles, even those that were more barbarously ignorant\nat his coming, when they heard that by Christ there was offered to\nthem the forgiveness of sins, they believed (v 48), and glorified\nthe word of the Lord: The wisdom of heaven so disposing such of\ntheir hearts, that were before by HIM, not by Jews ordained to\nlife. 'And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.'\n\nBut you come again, in p. 269 to the scripture first urged by you,\n'If any man will do his will,' &c. and you tell us, that this must\nalso needs be implied, he shall rightly understand the doctrine\ntoo; which word (understand) you so carry, as may best help you\nin case you should meet with an adversary. As if any should thus\nobject, that here you have granted that the words make promise of\nan understanding of the gospel; yea require in it the very first\nact of the will; then you readily shift it by saying, That this is\nimplied only, suggesting that obedience to morals is expressed,\nand therefore must first be thought on and done. But if one of\nyour brotherhood stop here, and make the objection; then you add,\n'It is knowledge, at least, in all the necessary points thereof,\nabsolutely necessary and essential parts, from among which you\nlong since did cast out, \"Coming to God by Jesus Christ.\"' Yea you\nadd, 'That by [that which you call] the design of the gospel, it\nmay be presumed, that whosoever considereth it, with a design of\nbeing so, [that is, of living up to human principles, and that\ndesireth to be possessed again of the holiness he hath lost, for\nthat is it for the proof of which you have written above 300 pages]\nhe must needs believe the gospel to have come from God, and also\nbe enlightened in the true knowledge of at least the necessary\npoints of it,' viz. All moral duties contained therein, which are\nnever a one of them as such an essential of the gospel, but are\nsuch duties as are consequential to the belief thereof.\n\nWherefore, although you feign it, 'this honest temper,' as you\ncall it, will not help you, 1. To judge of the gospel without\nprejudice; nor 2. To evidence it with satisfaction; nor 3. Secure\nthose in whom it is from error and delusion; no man being more\nbrutish or heathenish, nor so void of satisfaction about it, nor\nmore involved in error concerning it, than yourself; being truly\nwhat you charge upon others; 1. Grossly ignorant; 2. Too highly\nopinionate; 3. Proud in affectation; 4. Liquorish; 5. A self-lover;\n6. And for your blasphemy under the just judgment of God. 'If our\ngospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god\nof this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,\nlest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image\nof God, should shine into them' (2 Cor 4:3,4).\n\n['For me to live is Christ' includes in it more than good habits\nor holy frames of soul.]\n\nI am come now to your last chapter, which tells us wherein the\nessence and life of Christianity consisteth, viz. In a good state\nand habit of mind, in a holy frame and temper of soul (p. 282).\n\nAns. 1. It consisteth in a life of faith, when I live in the belief\nof this, that Christ loved me, and gave himself for me. 'The life\nthat I now live in the flesh [saith Paul] I live by the faith of\nthe Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.'\n\n2. And besides, a good state and habit of mind, or an holy frame\nand temper of soul, in your notion of them, which respecteth purely\nobedience to morals, from natural impulses, or dictates of our\nhumanity, they are rather heathenish than Christian, and being\nalone, end in death rather than life. 'As many as are of the\nworks of the law, are under the curse,' he saith not they that\nsin against it, but they that are OF the works of it, such as do\njustice, righteousness, charity, goodness, mercy, patience, and\nall kind of moral duties, from principles human, natural, or as\nmen, they are under the curse, because they have sinned first, and\nalso are infirm and weak in their pursuit after the perfections\nthey desire. These follow after righteousness, but that flies\nfrom them; wherefore they do not obtain it, because they seek it\nnot by faith in Christ, but as it were by the works; the righteous,\ngood, and holy works of the law (Rom 9:30,32). But you add,\n\n'It is such a habit of mind, such a frame and temper of soul, as\nesteemeth God as the chiefest good, and preferreth him and his\nSon Jesus Christ before all the world, and that prizeth above all\nthings an interest in the divine perfections,' &c. (p. 282).\n\nAns. 1. God must needs be esteemed the chiefest good, by all that\nhave but, and are ruled by, the light of nature, because they see\nhim by his works to be almighty, merciful, and eternal (Rom 1:20).\nBut this may be where the knowledge of the man, the Mediator is\nnot; therefore this, in this and in your sense, cannot be of the\nessence of Christianity, for that it is common to all the world.\nThat estimation of God which is common to natural men, cannot be\nof the essence of Christianity, because they want that knowledge\nof him that comes by Jesus Christ, and so are not capable to esteem\nof him under a Christian consideration.\n\nBut you say, 'it is that good habit and temper of mind that\npreferreth God, and his Son Jesus Christ, before all the world.'\n\nAns. He that esteemeth God above all, must needs, at least in his\njudgment, so prefer him; but whereas you add, and his Son Jesus\nChrist, you put in them words but as a cloak, for yourself have\nnot preferred his Son Jesus Christ, no, not before a moral law, no\nnot before your obedience to it, although but by human principles;\nyea, you have accounted the command of God, by which we are\nenjoined by him to come to God, a thing in itself but like levitical\nceremonies, or as Baptism and the Lord's Supper; a thing in itself\nindifferent, and absolutely considered neither good nor evil (p.\n7,8,9).\n\nYou add; 'It is such a temper as prizeth above all things, an\ninterest in the divine perfections; such as justice and righteousness,\nuniversal charity, goodness, mercy, patience, and all kinds of\npurity' (p. 282).\n\nAns. Seeing by these expressions you only intend moral virtues,\nand those that are inherent in you, and originally operations of\nhumanity, it is evident that you have but impiously and idolatrously\nattributed to your own goodness so high and blessed a title. For\nwhatsoever is in your nature, and originally the dictates thereof,\nand whatsoever proficiency you make therein by human principles,\nand helps of natural endowments; these things are but of yourself,\nyour own justice, your own righteousness, your own charity,\ngoodness, mercy, patience, kindness, &c. Now to call these the\ndivine perfections, when they are only your own human virtues,\nbespeaks you, I say, fond, impious, and idolatrous, and shews you,\nin the midst of all your pretended design to glorify God, such an\none who have set up your own goodness with him, yea and given it\nthe title of his blessed grace and favour.\n\nThat scripture you mention (Rom 14:17), although by the word\nrighteousness there, is intended obedience to the moral law, yet\nto it by persons already justified by Christ's righteousness; hence\nthey are said to do it in the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost,\nor by the joy and peace which they had by faith in Christ's\nrighteousness, as revealed to them by the Spirit of God. Hence\nagain, they are said in IT to serve Christ, or to receive the law\nat his hand, which he giveth to them to walk after, having first\njustified them from the curse thereof by his blood.\n\n2. The law was given twice on Sinai, the last time, with a proclamation\nof mercy going before, and he that receiveth it thus, receiveth\nit after a gospel manner. For they as justified persons are dead\nto the law as a covenant of works by the body of Christ, that they\nmight live to another, even to him that is raised from the dead\n(Rom 7; Gal 2:19). But you by this scripture intend not this\ndoctrine, for you make justification by Christ, come after, not\nbefore obedience to the law; yea, you make obedience thereto,\nthe essential, and coming to God by Christ, but a thing of a more\nremote nature, from true and substantial gospel-righteousness.\n\nIn p. 283, you speak again of the old principle, and thus you\ncomment, 'A principle of holiness that respecteth duty, as with\nrespect to the nature of the command, so not with respect to the\nduty as occasioned by certain external inducements and motives,\nbut from a good temper and disposition of soul.'\n\nAns. This I say, still respecting your old principle of humanity,\nand the purity of your nature, the most amounts but to this: Your\nprinciple is confined to a liberty of will and affections, with\nrespect to doing of the law of works, which many have professed\nto have, and do before you, and yet have come short of the glory\nof God. For as I told you before, I tell you now again, that the\ngospel-principles are the Holy Ghost and faith, which help that\nsoul in whom they dwell to count believing in Jesus Christ the\ngreat and essential part of our Christianity, and our reckoning\nourselves pardoned for the sake of him: 'And thus being set free\nfrom sin, we become the servants of God, and have our fruit unto\nholiness, and the end everlasting life' (Rom 6:22).\n\nYour description of a child of Abraham, you meaning in a New\nTestament sense, is quite beside the truth. For albeit, the sons\nof Abraham will live holy lives, and become obedient to the\nsubstantial laws; yet it is not their subjection to morals, but\nfaith in Jesus, that giveth them the denomination of children of\nAbraham. 'Know ye, therefore, that they that are of faith are the\nchildren of faithful Abraham: They that are of faith, the same are\nthe children of Abraham: Yea, they that are of faith are blessed\nwith faithful Abraham' (Gal 3:7,9). In p. 284, you say, 'That\nthere is no one duty more affectionately recommended to us in the\ngospel than is alms-giving.'\n\nAns. Yes, That there is, and that which more immediately respecteth\nour justification with God, than ten thousand such commandments;\nand that is faith in Christ. Alms-deeds is also a blessed command;\nyet but one of the second table, such as must flow from faith going\nbefore. Faith I mean that layeth hold on Christ's righteousness,\nif it be accepted of God. For before the heart be good the action\nmust be naught; now the heart is good by faith, because faith, by\napplying Christ's righteousness, makes over [a] whole Christ to\nthe soul, of whose fulness it receiveth, and grace for grace (John\n1:16). Many things in this last chapter are worthy reprehension,\nbut because you tell us, in the last two pages thereof, is the\nsum of all that need to be said, I will immediately apply myself\nto what is there contained.\n\nYou say (p. 296), 'It is not possible we should not have the design\nof Christianity accomplished in us, and therefore that we should\nbe destitute of the power of it, if we make our Saviour's most\nexcellent life the pattern of our lives.' By our Saviour's life,\nas by a parenthesis you also express, you mean, as yourself hath in\nshort described it (ch 5) viz., 'The greatest freedom, affability,\ncourtesy, candour, ingenuity, gentleness, meekness, humility,\ncontempt of the world, contention, charity, tenderness, compassion,\npatience, submission to the divine will, love of God, devoutest\ntemper of mind towards him, mighty confidence and trust in God,'\n&c.\n\nAns. Our Saviour's life, in not only these, but all other duties\nthat respected morals, was not principally or first to be imitated\nby us, but that the law, even in the preceptive part thereof,\nmight be fully and perfectly fulfilled for us. 'Christ is the end\nof the law for righteousness'; the end, not only of the ceremonial\nlaw, but the ten commandments too; for if the word righteousness,\nrespecteth in special them. 'Jesus increased in favour with God'\n(Luke 2:52; Matt 3:17). This respecteth him as made under the law,\nand his pleasing of God in that capacity. So also doth that, 'In\nhim I am well pleased.' Now I say, as Jesus stood in this capacity,\nhe dealt with the law in its greatest force and severity, as it\nimmediately came from God, without the advantage of a Mediator, and\nstood by his perfect complying with, and fulfilling every tittle\nthereof. Besides, as Jesus Christ had thus to do with the law,\nhe did it in order to his 'finishing transgression, and putting\nan end to sin' (Dan 9:24), and so consequently as Mediator, and\nundertaker for the world. For his perfect complying withal, and\nfulfilling every tittle of the law, respected nothing his own\nprivate person, that he for himself might be righteous thereby;\nfor in himself he was eternally just and holy, even as the Father,\nbut it respected us, even us. For US he was made under the law,\nthat we, by his fulfilling the law, might by him be redeemed from\nunder the law, and also receive the adoption of SONS (Gal 4:4,5).\nFor we having sinned, and transgressed the law, and the justice of\nGod, yet requiring obedience thereto, and the law being too weak\nthrough our flesh to do it, God therefore sent his own Son in\nthe likeness of sinful flesh, who himself for us did first of all\nwalk in the law, and then for sin suffered also in his flesh, the\nsentence, and curse pronounced against us by the law. For it was\nnothing less necessary, when the Son of God became undertaker\nfor the sin of the world, that he should walk in obedience to the\nwhole of the precepts of the law, to deliver us from the judgment\nof the law; I say it was no less necessary he should so do, than\nthat he should bear our curse and death. For it would have been\nimpossible for him to have overcome the last, if he had not been\nspotless touching the first. For therefore it was impossible he\nshould be holden of death, because he did nothing worthy of death;\nno, not in the judgment of the law, to which he immediately stood.\nNow as Christ Jesus stood thus to, and walked in the law, it is\nblasphemy for any to presume to imitate him; because thus to do is\nto turn Mediator and undertaker for the sin of the world. Besides,\nwhoso doth attempt it, undertakes an impossibility; for no man can\nstand by the moral law, as it immediately comes from the divine\nmajesty; he having sinned first, even before he goeth about to\nfulfil it. And in this sense is that to be understood, 'as many as\nare of the works of the law are under the curse,' held accursed,\nbecause they have sinned first; accursed in their performances,\nbecause of imperfection, and therefore assuredly accursed at last,\nbecause they come short of the righteousness thereof.\n\n1. Christ Jesus did never set himself forth for an example, that\nby imitating his steps in morals should obtain justification with\nGod from the curse of that law; for this would be to overthrow,\nand utterly abolish the work which himself came into the world to\naccomplish, which was not to be our example, that we by treading\nhis steps might have remission of sins, but that through the faith\nof him, through faith in his blood, we might be reconciled to God.\n\n2. Besides, thus to imitate Christ, is to make of him a Saviour, not\nby sacrifice, but by example. Nay, to speak the whole, this would\nbe to make his mediatorship wholly to center, rather in prescribing\nof rules, and exacting obedience to morals, than in giving himself\na ransom for men; yea, I will add to imitate Christ, as you have\nprescribed, may be done by him, that yet may be ignorant of the\nexcellency of his person, and the chief end of his being made\nflesh: For in all these things which you have discoursed in that\nfifth chapter of him, you have only spoken of that, something of\nwhich is apprehended by the light of nature; yea, nature itself will\nteach that men should trust in God, which is the most excellent\nparticular that there you mention. Wherefore our Lord Jesus himself\nforeseeing, that in men there will be a proudness, to content\nthemselves with that confidence, he intimateth that it would be\nin us insignificant, if it stand without faith in himself. 'Ye\nbelieve [naturally] in God [saith he] believe also in me' (John\n14:1). Faith in Jesus is as absolutely necessary as to believe\nimmediately in the divine being. Yea, without faith in Jesus,\nwhosoever believeth in God is sure to perish and burn in hell.\n'If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins' (John\n8:24). And to take Jesus in morals for example, is nowhere called\nbelieving in him, neither is there one promise of eternal life,\nannexed to such a practice. But you say, 'If we tread in his blessed\nsteps, and be such, according to our measure and capacity, as we\nhave understood he was in this world' (p. 296).\n\nAns. I say, for a man to confine himself only to the life of the\nLord Jesus, for an example, or to think it enough to make him,\nin his life, a pattern for us to follow, leaveth us, through our\nshortness in the end, with the devil and his angels, for want of\nfaith in the doctrine of remission of sins; for Christ did nowhere\nmake another mediator between God and him, nor did he ever trust\nto another man's righteousness, to be thereby justified from the\ncurse of the law; neither did he at all stand in need thereof,\nwithout which, we must be damned and perish. Now I say, these\nthings being nowhere practised by him, he cannot therein be an\nexample to us. And I say again, seeing that in these things, by\nfaith in them, is immediately wrapped up our reconciliation with\nGod; it followeth, that though a man take the Lord Christ in\nhis whole life, for an example in the end, that notwithstanding,\nhe abideth unreconciled to God. Neither will that clause, 'and\nbe such,' help such a person at all: For justification with God,\ncomes not by imitating Christ as exemplary in morals, but through\nfaith in his precious blood. In the law I read, that the Paschal\nLamb was neither to be eaten sodden nor raw, but roast with fire,\nmust it be eaten (Exo 12). Now to make salvation principally to\ndepend upon imitating Christ's life, it is to feed upon him raw,\nor at most, as sodden, not sanctified and holy: But the precept\nis, 'Eat it roast with fire'; is to be the antitype, as accursed\nof God for sin, and enduring the punishment for it (Exo 19; Deu\n33:2; Mal 4:1). The law is compared to fire, and its curse to\na burning oven. Now under the curse of this fiery law, was the\nLord Jesus afflicted for the sins of the world: wherefore, as so\nconsidered, our faith must lay hold upon him, for justification\nwith God. 'This is the law of the burnt-offering: [which was the\noffering for sin;] It is the burnt-offering, because of the burning\nupon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the\naltar shall be burning in it' (Lev 6:9). But now I would inquire:\nHad Israel done the commandment, if they had eaten the passover\nraw, or boiled in water? Or if they had offered that offering, that\nwas to be burnt as a sin-offering, otherwise than it was commanded?\nEven so, to feed upon Christ, as he is holy, and of good life only;\nand also, as taking him therein for an example to us, to follow\nhis steps for justification with God; this is, to eat the passover\nraw, and not as roast with fire; this is, to feed upon Jesus,\nwithout respecting him as accursed of God for our sin, and so\nconsequently to miss of that eternal life, that by his blood he\nhath obtained for every one that believeth on him. I have been\npleased with this observation: That none of the signs and wonders\nin Egypt, could deliver the children of Israel thence, till the\nLamb was slain, and roast with fire (Exo 12:31). And I have been\nalso pleased with this: That the Father, not Moses, gave the manna\nfrom heaven, which was a type of the flesh, and blood of Christ,\nthat whoso feedeth on, shall live for ever (John 6:32). Yea,\ncircumcision also, which was a type of inward, and heart-holiness,\nwas not of Moses, but of the Fathers, and principally a consequence\nof the faith of Abraham (John 7:22). Whence I gather, that no\nwonder, but the blood of Christ can save; that no kindness, but\nthe mercy of God, can give this to us; and that no law, but the\nlaw of faith, can make us truly holy in heart. But you add, 'Those\nthat sincerely, and industriously, endeavour to imitate the holy\nJesus in his Spirit and actions, can never be ignorant what it is\nto be truly Christians.' Those that follow Jesus in his Spirit, must\nfirst receive that Spirit from heaven, which Spirit is received,\nas I have often said, by applying first, by faith, the merits of\nChrist to the soul, for life and justification with God. The Spirit\nis not received by the works of the law, but by the hearing of\nfaith; neither comes it in the ministry, or doctrine of morals,\nbut in and by the ministry of faith; and the law is not of faith.\nWherefore seeing you have, in p. 223 of your book, forbidden sinners\nto come first to Jesus for justification with God; the Spirit you\ntalk of, however you call it the Spirit of Jesus, can be no other\nthan the spirit of a man; which you also yourself, in p. 7, 8, 9\ncall 'the purity of human nature, a principle of reason, the first\nprinciples of morals, or those that are originally dictates of\nhuman nature.' Wherefore by these words, 'in his Spirit,' you do\nbut blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and abuse your ignorant reader;\ncalling now, Quaker-like, the dictates of your humanity, and\nyour Socinian compliances therewith, the Spirit of Holy Jesus. I\nconclude therefore, that the way of salvation, or the design of\nChristianity as prescribed by you, is none other than the errors of\nyour own brain, the way of death, the sum and heart of Papistical\nQuakerism, and is quite denied by the Lord Jesus, and by his blessed\nTestament. And now go your ways, and imitate the Lord Jesus, and\ntake the whole history of his life for your example, and walk in\nhis steps, and be such as much as you can, yet without faith in\nhis blood, first; yea, and if you stand not just before God through\nthe imputation of his righteousness, your imitating will be found\nno better than rebellion, because by that, instead of faith in his\nblood, you hope to obtain remission of sins, thrusting him thereby\nfrom his office and work, and setting your dunghill righteousness\nup in his stead.\n\n[Fowler's false and dangerous conclusions.]\n\nI come now to your conclusion. First, in p. 298 'You press men\nto betake themselves to find [that which you call] the design of\nChristianity, accomplished in their hearts and lives.'\n\nAns. Seeing that the holiness that your erroneous book has exalted,\nis none other but that which we have lost; yea, and again, seeing\nyou have set this in the head of, and before the righteousness of\nChrist, I admonish my reader to tremble at the blasphemy of your\nbook, and account the whole design therein, to be none other but\nthat of an enemy to the Son of God, and salvation of the world.\nFor that holiness as I have shewed, is none other but a shadowish,\nChristless, graceless holiness; and your so exalting of it, very\nblasphemy. You proceed, saying, 'Let us exercise ourselves unto\nreal and substantial godliness; [still meaning your Adamitish\nholiness] let us study the gospel not to discourse, or only to\nbelieve, but also, and above all things, to do well.'\n\nAns. Herein still you manifest, either ignorance of, or malice against,\nthe doctrine of faith; that doctrine, which above all doctrines,\nis the quintessence of the New Testament, because therein, and\nnot principally, as you feign, by doing well, is the righteousness\nof God revealed, and that from faith to faith; not from faith to\nworks, nor yet from works to faith. Besides, the gospel is preached\nin all nations, for the obedience of faith (Rom 16:26). Neither\nworks, the law, the dictates of humanity, nor the first principles of\nmorals, knowing what to do with the righteousness of the gospel,\nwhich is a righteousness imputed by God, not wrought by us;\na righteousness given, not earned, a righteousness received by\nbelieving, not that which floweth from our obedience to laws, a\nrighteousness which comes from God to us, not one that goeth from\nus to God. Besides, as I also have hinted before, the apostle and\nyou are directly opposite. You cry, 'above all things, do well':\nthat is, work and do the law; but he, 'above ALL, take the shield\nof faith, wherewith are quenched all the fiery darts of the wicked'\n(Eph 6:16).\n\nBut you add (p. 300), 'Let us do what lieth in us to convince our\nAtheists, that the religion of the blessed Jesus, is no trick or\ndevice; and our wanton and loose Christians, that it is no notional\nbusiness, or speculative science.'\n\nAns. This you cannot do by your moral natural principles of humanity:\nFor even some of your brave philosophers, whose godliness you have\nso much applauded, were even then in the midst of their, and your\nvirtues, atheistically ignorant of the religion of Jesus. And as\nto the loose Christian; Christ neither hath need of, nor will he\nbless your blasphemous opinions, nor feigned godliness, but real\nungodliness, to make them converts to his faith and grace, neither\ncan it be expected it should, seeing you have not only dirty\nthoughts, but vilifying words, and sayings of his person, work,\nand righteousness. you have set your works before his (p. 223),\ncalling them substantial, indispensable, and real; but coming to\nGod by him, a thing in itself indifferent (p. 7-9). You go on, and\nsay, 'Let us declare--that we are not barely reliers on Christ's\nrighteousness, by being imitators of it' (p. 300). You cannot leave\noff to contemn and blaspheme the Son of God. Do you not yet know\nthat the righteousness of Christ on which the sinner ought to rely\nfor life, is such, as consisted in his standing to, and doing of\nthe law, without a Mediator? And would you be doing this? What know\nyou not, that an essential of the righteousness he accomplished\nfor sinners when he was in the world; is, 'That he was conceived\nby the Holy Ghost, born without sin, did all things in the power\nof, and union with his own eternal Godhead.' And are you able\nthus to imitate him? Again, the righteousness on which we ought\nto rely for life, is that which hath in it the merit of blood:\nwe are 'justified by his blood' through faith in his blood (Rom\n5:9). Is this the righteousness you would imitate? Farther, the\nrighteousness on which poor sinners should rely, is that, for the\nsake of which God forgiveth the sins of him that resteth by faith\nthereupon. But would you be imitating of, or accomplishing such\na righteousness?\n\nYour book, Sir, is begun in ignorance, managed with error, and\nended in blasphemy.\n\nNow the God of glory, if it may stand with his glory, give you a\nsight of your sins, against the Son of God, that you may, as Saul,\nlie trembling, and being astonished, cry out to be justified, with\nthe righteousness of God without the law, even that which is by\nfaith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe.\n\nMany other gross absurdities, which I have omitted in your whole\nbook, may perhaps, be more thoroughly gathered up, when you shall\nhave taken the opportunity to reply. In the meantime I shall\ncontent myself with this.\n\n'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world'\n(John 1:29).\n\n'Even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come' (1 Thess\n1:10).\n\n'Who when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right\nhand of the Majesty on high' (Heb 1:3).\n\n'Christ died for our sins' (1 Cor 15:3).\n\n'God hath made him to be sin for us' (2 Cor 5:21).\n\n'Christ was made a curse for us' (Gal 3:13).\n\n'He bare our sins in his own body on the tree' (1 Peter 2:24).\n\n'He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood' (Rev\n1:5).\n\n'God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you' (Eph 4:32).\n\n'We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,\naccording to the riches of his grace' (Eph 1:7).\n\nNow unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise\nGod, be honour, and glory, for ever, and ever. Amen.\n\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nThat my reader may farther perceive that Mr. Fowler, even by the\nchief of the articles of the church of England, is adjudged\nerroneous; and besides the very fundamentals of the doctrine of\nJesus Christ, and that in those very principles that are in the\nmain, I say, and that most immediately concern Christ, faith,\nand salvation, will be evident to them that compare his design of\nChristianity, with these articles hereunto recited.\n\nThe Article [X.] concerning Free-will.\n\n'The condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such, that he\ncannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and\ngood works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no\npower to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without\nthe grace of God by Christ preventing[37] us, that we may have a\ngood will, and working with us, when we have that good will.'\n\nThe Article [XI.] concerning Justification.\n\n'We are accounted righteous before God, ONLY for the merit of\nour Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith; and not for our own\nworks, or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith\nONLY, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort,'\n&c.\n\nThe Article [XIII.] of Works before Justification.\n\n'Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of\nhis Spirit, are not pleasant to God, for as much as they spring\nnot of faith in Jesus Christ,--or deserve grace of congruity: yea\nrather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded\nthem to be done, we doubt not but they have the NATURE of sin.'\n\nThese articles, because they respect the points in controversy\nbetwixt Mr. Fowler, and myself; and because they be also fundamental\ntruths of the christian religion, as I do heartily believe, let\nall men know that I quarrel not with him, about things wherein I\ndissent from the church of England, but do contend for the truth\ncontained, even in these very articles of theirs, from which he\nhath so deeply revolted, that he clasheth with every one of them,\nas may farther be shewn when he shall take heart to reply.\n\nBut to wind up this unpleasant scribble, I shall have done when\nI have farther shewed, how he joineth with papist, and quaker,\nagainst these wholesome, and fundamental articles.\n\nMr. Fowler's Doctrine compared with Campian the Jesuit, upon that\nquestion whether Faith only justifieth: saith Campian,\n\n1. Campian. 'We [Papists] say, that as grace is put into us in\njustification, so also our righteousness is enlarged through good\nworks, and is inherent in us; therefore it is not true that God\ndoth justify by faith ONLY.'\n\nFowler (p. 221), 'Justifying faith is such a belief of the truth\nof the gospel, as includes a sincere resolution of obedience unto\nall its precepts: and that it justifieth as it doth so.--In short,\nis it possible that faith in Christ's blood, for the forgiveness\nof sins, should be the only act which justifieth a sinner?' (p.\n224).\n\n2. Campian. 'So that faith is urged, but not faith ONLY; again,\nby faith is meant all Christianity, and the whole religion of\nChristians.'\n\nFowler (p. 222), 'For surely the faith which entitles the sinner\nto so high a privilege, as that of justification, must needs be\nsuch as complieth with all the purposes of Christ's coming into\nthe world; especially with his grand purpose,--as Lord, and that\nit is no less necessary that it should justify as it doth this.'\n\n3. Campian. 'Though works void of Christ are nothing; yet through\ngrace they serve to justification.'\n\nFowler (p. 225,226), 'Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness,--this\nis the true explication; it consists in dealing with sincerely\nrighteous persons: as if they were perfectly so, for the sake\nand upon the account of Christ's righteousness. The grand intent\nof the gospel being to make us partakers of an inward and real\nrighteousness; and it being but a secondary one, that we should\nbe accepted, and rewarded, as if we were completely righteous.'\n\n4. Campian. 'Speaking of faith, hope, and charity, he confesseth;\nthat faith in nature is before them, but it doth not justify before\nthey come.'\n\nFowler (p. 223), 'What pretence can there be for thinking, that\nfaith is the condition, or instrument of justification, as it\ncomplieth with only the precept of relying on Christ's merits, for\nthe obtaining of it: especially when it is no less manifest than\nthe sun at noon-day, that obedience to the other precepts, [or\nworks of love,] must go before obedience to this' (p. 284).\n\n5. Campian. 'I deny [that faith ONLY doth justify] for you have\nnot in all the word of God, that faith only doth justify.'\n\nFowler (p. 225), 'And for my part, I must confess, that I would\nnot willingly be he that should undertake to encounter one of the\nchampions of that foul cause, with the admission of this principle,\nthat faith justifieth, only as it apprehendeth [resteth or relieth\non (p. 224)] the merits, and righteousness of Jesus Christ, I must\ncertainly have great luck, or my adversary but little cunning, if\nI were not forced to repent me of such an engagement.'\n\n6. Campian. 'Abraham being a just man, was made more just by a\nliving faith.'\n\nFowler (p. 283), 'He only is a true child of Abraham, who in the\npurity of the heart obeyeth those substantial laws, that are\nimposed by God, upon him.'\n\n7. Campian. 'I say that charity and good works, are not excluded\n[in the causes of our justification].'\n\nFowler (p. 214,215), 'For we have shewn, not only that reformation\nof life from the practice, and purification of heart from the\nliking of sin, are as plainly as can be asserted in the gospel\nto be absolutely necessary to give men a right to the promises of\nit, but also that its great salvation doth even consist in it.'\n\nMr. Fowler's Doctrine compared with William Penn the Quaker.\n\n1. Penn's Sandy Foundation (p. 19 [p. 16 ed. 1684]), 'Life and\nsalvation is to them that follow Christ the light, in all his\nrighteousness, which every man comes only to experiment, as he\nwalks in a holy subjection to that measure of light and grace,\nwherewith the fulness hath enlightened him.'\n\nFowler (p. 8), 'That is, those which are of an indispensable, and\neternal obligation, which were first written in men's hearts, and\noriginally dictates of human nature.'\n\n2. Penn (p. 32 [p. 26 ed. 1684]), 'I really confess that Jesus Christ\nfulfilled the Father's will, and offered up a most satisfactory\nsacrifice, but not to pay God, or help him [as otherways being\nunable] to save men.'\n\nFowler (p. 85), 'Christ was set forth to be a propitiatory sacrifice\nfor sin; I will not say that his Father [who is perfectly sui juris]\nmight be put by this means into a capacity of forgiving it.'\n\n3. Penn (p. 16 [p. 14 ed. 1684]), 'God's remission is grounded\non man's repentance, not that it is impossible for God to pardon\nwithout a plenary satisfaction.'\n\nFowler (p. 84), 'There are many that do not question but that God\ncould have pardoned sin, without any other satisfaction, than the\nrepentance of the sinner,' &c.\n\n4. Penn (p. 27 [p. 22 ed. 1684]), 'Justification doth not go before,\nbut is subsequential to the mortification of lusts.'\n\nFowler (p. 14,15), 'This blessing of making men holy, was so much\nthe design of Christ's coming, that he had his very name from\nit': observe the words are, 'He shall save his people from their\nsins'; not from the punishment of them. And that is the primary\nsense of them, which is most plainly expressed in them: 'That he\nshall save his people from the punishment of sin, is a true sense\ntoo; but it is secondary and implied only; as this latter is the\nnever failing and necessary consequent of the former salvation.'\n\n5. Penn (p. 25 [p. 21 ed. 1684]), 'Since therefore there can be\nno admittance had, without performing that righteous will, and\ndoing those holy, and perfect sayings; alas! to what value will\nan imputative righteousness amount?' &c.\n\nFowler (p. 16), 'Christ shall bring in an inward substantial, and\neverlasting righteousness, and by abrogating the outward [ceremonial]\nand establishing ONLY this righteousness, he should enlarge the\nJewish Church, an accession of the Gentiles, being by that means\nmade unto it.'\n\n6. Penn (p. 24,25 [p. 20 ed. 1684]), 'Since God has prescribed\nan inoffensive life, as that which only can give acceptance with\nhim; and on the contrary hath determined never to justify the\nwicked, &c.--Will not the abomination appear greatest of all, where\nGod shall be found condemning the just, on purpose to justify the\nwicked; and that he is thereto compelled, or else no salvation,\nwhich is the tendency of their doctrine, who imagine the righteous,\nand merciful God to condemn and punish his [innocent[38]] righteous\nSon, that he having satisfied for our sins, we might be justified\n[while unsanctified] by the imputation of his perfect righteousness.\nO why should this horrible thing be contended for by Christians!'\n\nFowler (p. 119), 'If it were possible [as it hath been proved it\nis not] that a wicked man should have God's pardon, it would not\nmake him cease to be miserable.'\n\nFowler (p. 120), 'Were it possible that Christ's righteousness could\nbe imputed to an unrighteous man, I dare boldly affirm it would\nsignify as little to his happiness, as would a gorgeous and splendid\ngarment, to one that is almost starved with hunger, or that lieth\nracked by the torturing diseases of the stone, or colic.'\n\nFowler (p. 130), 'To justify a wicked man, while he continueth\nso, if it were possible for God to do it, would far more disparage\nhis justice, and holiness, than advance his grace and kindness.'\n\n7. Penn (p. 26 [p. 22 ed. 1684]), 'Unless we be[come] doers of\nthat law, which Christ came not to destroy, but as our example to\nfulfil, we can never be justified before God.'\n\nFowler (p. 296), 'It is impossible we should not have the design\nof Christianity accomplished in us, and therefore that we should\nbe destitute of the power of it, if we make our Saviour's most\nexcellent life, the pattern of our lives. Those that sincerely,\nand industriously endeavour to imitate the holy Jesus in his\nspirit and actions, can never be ignorant what it is to be truly\nChristians, nor can they fail to be so.'\n\n8. Penn (p. 26), 'Nor let any fancy that Christ hath so fulfilled\nit for them, as to exclude their obedience, from being requisite\nto their acceptance, but only as their pattern.'\n\nFowler (p. 148), 'This Son of God taught men their duty, by his\nown example, and did himself perform among them, what he required\nof them. Now that he should tread before us EVERY step of that way,\nwhich he hath told us leadeth to eternal happiness, and commend\nthose duties which are most ungrateful to our corrupt inclinations,\nby his own practice; our having so brave an example is no small\nencouragement, to a cheerful performance of all that is commanded.'\n\nUnderstandest thou what thou readest?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Fowler's Design, p. 6.\n\n2. Ibid.\n\n3. Seeing, then, it is evident from scripture, how deeply and\ndreadfully man is fallen from God, what a folly it is to suppose,\nin such a depraved creature, conditions previous to his justification!\nThey who talk at this rate, know not what they say, nor whereof\nthey affirm. In a natural man there is no meetness, but a meetness\nto sin, and a meetness to be damned. They who know themselves,\nknow this. And there are no pre-requisites to justification, but\nwhat God, by his Spirit, is pleased to work in men's hearts. None\nare meet to obey the gospel, till God implants in their souls\na principle of faith and evangelical obedience. Before this is\ndone, there is no meetness in the creature, no disposition to do\nanything spiritually good; neither are any of our works, till a\nchange of nature takes place, acceptable and well-pleasing in the\nsight of Almighty God.--Mason and Ryland.\n\n4. Fowler, p. 6.\n\n5. Ibid.\n\n6. Fowler, p. 6.\n\n7. Ibid.\n\n8. Man, in his first estate, was holy and righteous; and he continued\nto be possessed of this righteousness as long as he was obedient\nto his Creator; but as soon as he disobeyed the divine command,\nhe lost all his holiness and righteousness at once; he emptied\nhimself of every spark of goodness, and was full of all manner\nof wickedness; he forfeited all his primitive purity, and became\na sinful, impure, and unrighteous creature. Hence, all mankind are\ndestitute of original righteousness: there is none of the children\nof men righteous, 'no not one: there is none that doeth good,\nno not one' (Rom 3:10,12). What then becomes of the purity and\ndignity of human nature, so vainly boasted of? or how shall man be\nrighteous before God? To this last question, we answer with Paul,\nin the above-quoted chapter (vv 21, 22), 'Now the righteousness of\nGod without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and\nthe prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of\nJesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe.' Without this\nrighteousness, no soul ever was, no soul ever will be, justified\nbefore God.--Mason and Ryland.\n\n9. Great will be the condemnation of all those who profess to know\nGod, but in works deny him; who are abominable and disobedient, and\nunto every good work reprobate (Titus 1:16). A great profession,\nwithout a suitable life and conversation, will only procure a\ngreater condemnation. Therefore, up, ye sleepy virgins; up, and\nbe doing; shew your faith by your works. There is no true religion\nwithout good works, attended with a godly walk and behaviour. There\nmay be works seemingly good, where there is no true religion.\nGood works are not the causes, but the fruits and effects of true\nreligion, of justifying faith wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost;\nand where true religion is, good works, of every divine kind and\nquality, will naturally follow, to the glory and praise of that grace\nwhich alone brings salvation to miserable ruined sinners.--Mason\nand Ryland.\n\n10. Hierocles, the Greek philosopher.\n\n11. Bunyan must have formed his opinions of the Quakers from some\npersons who passed as such. No form either of doctrine or discipline\nhad appeared in 1672. As soon as their tenets were published, they\nprofessed, as they do to this day, entire dependence upon Jesus\nChrist for holiness.--Ed.\n\n12. Mr. Fowler gives no reference to any of the works of these\nlearned divines, nor could he!! He traduces these great reformers\nand the doctrines of his own church, and yet was soon after made\na bishop!!!--Ed.\n\n13. The saints of God experience a mystery of iniquity, a horrible\ndepth of corruption in their own hearts, and groan under the\nplague and burden of it. If we rightly know ourselves, and behold\nour vileness, filthiness, and exceeding sinfulness, in their\ntrue colours, we shall be obliged to own that we are very wicked,\nunholy, ungodly, abominable; and that a principle and inclination\nto evil is so prevalent in the best of us, that were God to leave\nus to ourselves, we should greedily commit the most heinous sins.\nThese truly humbled persons, and these alone, are made sensible\nof the want of the application of the precious atoning blood\nof Christ to cleanse them from the pollution of sin, and of the\nsanctifying grace of the Spirit to deliver them from the dominion\nand tyranny of it.--Mason and Ryland.\n\n14. 'Rusheth the soul.' To rush is a neuter verb, here used in an\nactive sense;--'precipitateth' gives the correct idea.--Ed.\n\n15. 'So natural, and ignorant,' in distinction from that spiritual\nwisdom which is immortal and illuminating.--Ed.\n\n16. Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, such as\ndisbelief, idolatry, adultery, &c. (p. 35).\n\n17. How astonishing the mystery! how condescending the love! that\nthe infinite Deity and finite flesh should meet in one person\n(Christ), in order to display to mankind the glory of God in that\ndivine person! to bring hell-deserving mortals into a nearness,\nyea, into a oneness with his Creator, that they might be made\npartakers of his holiness, and adore and admire his perfections\nfor ever! O Christians, know and prize your inestimable privileges,\nand be instant at the throne of grace, that your souls may be\nso far assimilated to the image of the ever-blessed and adorable\nJesus, that you may be constantly looking and hastening to, and\nlonging for that happy time, when, having dropt the dimming rages\nof mortality, the veil of sinful flesh, you shall be brought to\n'know him even as you are known' of him, because you shall 'see\nhim as he is.'--Ryland.\n\n18. 'Common,' as the head of his church, in whom all his people\nhave an equal or common right.--Ed.\n\n19. 'And even that miracle which might seem the most inconsiderable,\nnamely, his causing his disciple Peter to catch a fish with a small\npiece of money in its mouth, was also instructive of a duty; it\nbeing an instance of his loyalty to the supreme magistrate; for\nthe money was expended in paying tribute, and taken out of the sea\nin that strange manner for no other purpose.'--Fowler's Design,\n&c. p. 72.\n\n20. 'Lay you,' brings forth to yourself. 'Lay' is here used as\nin 'a hen lays eggs'; such an application to this proverb is a\ncutting satire.--Ed.\n\n21. 'To possess them.' Possess was formerly used as an active\nverb, but now is only used as a neuter verb; the meaning is 'to\nfill them with the certainty of the knowledge.'\n\n22. 'As in Adam all died,' were bereft of every good, and became\nobnoxious to wrath and endless misery, so 'IN Christ,' by virtue\nof his life, death, and resurrection, 'shall all be made alive';\nthey shall have that incorruptible seed implanted in their hearts,\nwhich liveth and abideth for ever. Every grace and blessing\nis derived to the renewed soul from its union to Christ, as its\nliving head, through the eternal Spirit. Christ hath fulfilled\nall righteousness for us and in our stead, and this was the end\nand intent of his coming into the world; so that Christ is now\nbecome the righteousness of all them that do truly believe in him.\n'Created IN Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before\nordained that we should walk in them' (Eph 2:10).--Mason and\nRyland.\n\n23. Would to God this legal, self-exalting, Christ-dishonouring\ndoctrine had been confined to the times in which our author wrote, or\nhad been then banished to hell, from whence it came; but alas! it\nis but too prevalent in these degenerate times, in which Arianism,\nArminianism, Socinianism, &c., &c., so dreadfully infect the\nmultitude even of professors! In the national churches, what do\nwe hear but Moses and the law, 'This do and live'; or, in other\nwords, do your duty as well as you can, and Christ will do the\nrest: thus making the gospel the sacrifice of Christ, and the work\nof the Spirit, of no effect. Whereas, on the contrary, unregenerate,\ndepraved, and sinful mortals 'have no power to do good works\npleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God preventing\n[or going before] them, that they may have a good will; and\nworking in and by them, when they have that good will'; which is\nperfectly agreeable to our Lord's declaration, (John 15:5) 'Without\nme, ye can do nothing.'--Mason and Ryland.\n\n24. 'Sir Johns,' formerly the title given to the priests. It was\nsucceeded by the title 'reverend.'--Ed.\n\n25. Chap. 17: 'How fearfully the gospel is abused by the papists.'\nChap. 18: 'Those sottish, who expect salvation without holiness;\nand those more so who encourage themselves by the grace of the\ngospel in unholiness.'--Heads of these Chapters.--Ed.\n\n26. 'Would that man be accounted any better than a perfect idiot,\nwho, being sorely hurt, should expect from his surgeon perfect\nease, when he will not permit him to apply any plaister for the\nhealing of his wound? Or that being deadly sick, should look that\nhis physician should deliver him from his pain, when he will not\ntake any course he prescribes for the removal of the distemper\nthat is the cause of it?'--Fowler's Design, p. 216. How admirably\ndoes Bunyan detect and unravel this casuistic sophistry.--Ed.\n\n27. 'The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith';\nthat is, from one degree of faith to another: therefore increase\nin faith; live nearer to Christ; and the nearer you live to\nthe Saviour, the farther you will be from sin; yea, he will make\nyou, by precious faith in him, more than conqueror over all your\nspiritual enemies: therefore venture wholly upon Christ, and see\nif he will cast you out: indeed, he never will. Trust in him,\nhope in him, believe in him, and you will never be disappointed.\nAll our fitness is in Christ. Believe in him, and he is yours. In\nhim dwells all fullness. Believe in Christ, and all that Christ\nhas is yours: his blood is yours, his wisdom is yours, his\nrighteousness, his sanctification is yours; yea, Christ Jesus\nhimself is yours--he is yours in this world, and in the world to\ncome; he is yours in time, and in eternity. Even so, Amen.--Mason\nand Ryland.\n\n28. 'More groundedly,' with better foundation.\n\n29. 'Take the way,' occupy the place.--Ed.\n\n30. 'Doubtful opinions, modes and rites, eagerly opposed, is like\nthe apes blowing at a glowworm, which affords neither light nor\nwarmth' (p. 239).\n\n31. These sentiments are the essential fundamentals of all state\nreligions, be they heathen, christian, or mohamedan. This plain\navowal of them might have been the cause why the author was soon\nafter made a bishop of the Church of England.--Ed.\n\n32. Like the vicar of Bray, near Maidenhead, who boasted of his\nconsistency. He was under Henry VIII a papist, then a semi-protestant;\nunder Edward, a protestant; under Mary, again a papist; and under\nElizabeth, a protestant. Still he had never ceased to be vicar of\nBray.--Ed.\n\n33. 'Diggle together,' probably from 'degladiation,' a combat,\nquarrel, or contest; a fencing match between two friends.--Ed.\n\n34. Fowler's picture of the want of uniformity in the preachers\nof his sect, all being under the 'Act of Uniformity,' is very\namusing and instructive!!--Ed.\n\n35. Undoubtedly so; because the good works of a man who is under\nthe influence and power of divine grace, flow from the constraining\nlove of a coveannt-reconciled God in Christ Jesus, whom the\nholy-making Spirit glorifies and renders precious to every true\nbeliever in him.--Mason and Ryland.\n\n36. The Jews were divided into three sections: I. The descendants\nof Israel; II. Proselytes who conformed to all the Mosaic rites;\nand, III. Those who were bound to obey the seven precepts of\nNoah--and these, although they did not conform to the Jewish rites,\nyet were admitted to the worship of the true God and the hope of\nthe life to come. According to the Talmud these precepts were--1.\nTo renounce idols and all idolatrous worship. 2. To worship the\ntrue God, the creator of heaven and earth. 3. Bloodshed, to commit\nno murder. 4. Not to be defiled with fornication. 5. Rapine, against\ntheft and robbery. 6. To administer justice. 7. Not eating flesh\nwith the blood in it.--Ed.\n\n37. 'To prevent,' from 'praevenio,' to go before; 'preventing us'\nwas formerly used for 'preparing us.' It is now obsolete in this\nsense, but frequently occurs in the Bible.--Ed.\n\n38. 'Innocent' instead of 'righteous,' ed. 1684.\n\n***\n\nREPROBATION ASSERTED: OR, THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL ELECTION AND\nREPROBATION PROMISCUOUSLY HANDLED, IN ELEVEN CHAPTERS.\n\nWHEREIN THE MOST MATERIAL OBJECTIONS MADE BY THE OPPOSERS OF THIS\nDOCTRINE, ARE FULLY ANSWERED; SEVERAL DOUBTS REMOVED, AND SUNDRY\nCASES OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN OF BEDFORD, A LOVER OF PEACE AND TRUTH.\n\n'What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but\nthe election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.'--Romans\n11:7\n\nLondon: Printed for G. L., and are to be sold in Turn-stile-alley,\nin Holbourn. Small 4to, 44 pages.\n\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThis valuable tract was first published without a date, but according\nto Doe's List, about the year 1674, and has never been reprinted\nin a separate volume; it appeared in only one edition of the\ncollected works of John Bunyan--that with the notes by Ryland and\nMason; and in his select works, published in America in 1832. No\nman could have been better qualified to write upon the subject\nof reprobation than Bunyan.--His extraordinary knowledge of, and\nfervent attachment to, the holy oracles, peculiarly fitted him\nwith unwavering verity to display this doctrine of divine truth.\nHe was incapable of any misrepresentation with a view of concealing\nwhat fallen reason might deem a deformity, or to render the doctrines\nof the cross palatable to mankind. His object is to display the\ntruth, and then humbly to submit to the wisdom of God, and zealously\nto vindicate it. There is no subject which more fully displays\nour fallen nature, than that of reprobation. All mankind agree\nin opinion, that there ever has been an elect, or good class\nof society; and a reprobate, or worthless and bad class; varying\nin turpitude or in goodness to a great extent and in almost\nimperceptible degrees. All must unite in ascribing to God that\ndivine foreknowledge that renders ten thousand years but as one\nday, or hour, or moment in his sight. All ascribe to his omnipotence\nthe power to ordain or decree what shall come to pass--and where\nis the spirit that can demonstrate a shade of difference between\nsuch foreknowledge and preordination. All agree that in the\nlower class of animals some of the same species pass their lives\nin luxury and comfort, while others are cruelly tormented, this\nworld comprising their whole term of existence; and will those\nwho refuse to submit to the sovereignty of God in the doctrine of\nelection dare to arraign his conduct in leaving some out of his\nelecting love? The reprobate or worthless lose nothing by the\nhappiness of others. It is inscrutably hid from mankind who are\nthe elect, until the Holy Spirit influences them with the love\nof God in Christ Jesus, and this sometimes in the last moments of\nlife. There is every encouragement, nay incentive, to the sinner\nwho feels the burthen of guilt to fly for refuge to the hope set\nbefore him in the gospel. 'It is a faithful saying, and worthy\nof all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save\nSINNERS'; even the chief of sinners. The glad tidings are addressed\nto ALL sin-sick souls; and Bunyan's statement of this truth is clear,\nscriptural, and reasonable. Very different is the account of the\nreprobation given by R. Resburie in his Stop to the Gangrene of\nArminianism, 1651. 'For the reprobate God decrees the permitting\nof sin in order to hardening, and their hardening in it, in order\nto their condemnation.' p. 69. 'As election is the book of life,\nso reprobation of death; the names of the reprobate are there\nregistered for destruction.' p. 73. It is much to be regretted\nthat sentiments like these have been too commonly uttered. It is\nas an antidote to such ideas that this little work was written; but,\nunfortunately, it has never been widely circulated and read. May\nthe divine blessing follow this attempt to spread these important,\nalthough to many, unpalatable, doctrines.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\nREPROBATION ASSERTED.\n\n\nCHAPTER 1.\n\nThat there is a Reprobation.\n\nIn my discourse upon this subject, I shall study as much brevity\nas clearness and edification will allow me; not adding words to\nmake the volume swell, but contracting myself within the bounds of\nfew lines, for the profit and commodity of those that shall take\nthe pains to read my labours. And though I might abundantly multiply\narguments for the evincing and vindicating this conclusion, yet I\nshall content myself with some few scripture demonstrations: the\nfirst of which I shall gather out of the ninth of the Romans,\nfrom that discourse of the apostle's, touching the children of\nthe flesh, and the children of the promise.\n\n1. At the beginning of this chapter, we find the apostle grievously\nlamenting and bemoaning of the Jews, at the consideration of their\nmiserable state: 'I say the truth in Christ, [saith he] I lie not,\nmy conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I\nhave great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could\nwish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my\nkinsmen according to the flesh': Poor hearts, saith he, they will\nperish; they are a miserable sad and helpless people; their eyes\nare darkened that they may not see, and their back is bowed down\nalway (Rom 11:10). Wherefore? Have they not the means of grace?\nYes verily, and that in goodly measure. First they 'are Israelites;\nto whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,\nand the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;\nwhose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ\ncame, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' What then\nshould be the reason? Why saith he, though they be the children\nof Abraham according to the flesh, yet they are the children of\nAbraham BUT according to the flesh: 'For they are not all Israel\n[in the best sense] which are of Israel: neither, because they are\nthe seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall\nthy seed be called.' That is, they that are the children of the\nflesh, they are not the children of God; but the children of the\npromise shall be counted for the seed. So then, here you see that\nthey that are only the children of the flesh, as the greatest\npart of Israel were, they are those that are neither counted for\nthe seed, the children of promise, nor the children of God; but\nare rejected, and of the reprobation. This therefore shall at this\ntime serve for the first scripture-demonstration.\n\n2. Another scripture you have in the eleventh chapter of this\nepistle, from these words, 'The election hath obtained it, and the\nREST were blinded' (Rom 11:7). These words are shedding[1] words,\nthey sever between men and men; the election, the rest; the chosen,\nthe left; the embraced, the refused: 'The election have obtained\nit, and the rest were blinded.' By rest here, must needs be\nunderstood those not elect, because set one in opposition to the\nother; and if not elect, what then but reprobate?\n\n3. A third scripture is that in the Acts of the Apostles, 'And as\nmany as were ordained to eternal life, believed' (13:48). 'And as\nmany'; by these words, as by the former, you may see how the Holy\nGhost distinguisheth or divideth between men and men; the sons,\nand the sons of Adam. 'As many as were ordained to eternal life,\nbelieved': If by many here, we are to understand every individual,\nthen not only the whole world must at least believe the gospel,\nof which we see the most fall short, but they must be ordained to\neternal life; which other scriptures contradict: for there is the\nrest, besides the elect; the stubble and chaff, as well as wheat:\nmany therefore must here include but some; 'For though--Israel be\nas the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved' (Rom 9:27; Isa\n1:9, 10:22,23).\n\nI might here multiply many other texts, but in the mouth of two\nor three witnesses shall every word be established. Let these\ntherefore for this, suffice to prove that there is a reprobation.\nFor this I say, though the children of the flesh, the rest besides\nthe election, and the like, were not mentioned in the word; yet\nseeing there is such a thing as the children of the promise, the\nseed, the children of God, and the like, and that too under several\nother phrases, as predestinated, foreknown, chosen in Christ, and\nwritten in the Book of life, and appointed unto life, with many\nothers: I say seeing these things are thus apparent, it is without\ndoubt, that there is such a thing as a reprobation also (Rom 8;\nEph 1:3,4; 1 Thess 5:9).\n\nNay, further, From the very word election, it followeth unavoidably;\nfor whether you take it as relating to this, of distinguishing\nbetween persons as touching the world to come, or with reference\nto God's acts of choosing this or that man to this or that office,\nwork, or employment in this world, it still signifieth such a\nchoosing, as that but some are therein concerned, and that therefore\nsome are thence excluded. Are all the elect, the seed, the saved,\nthe vessels of mercy, the chosen and peculiar? Are not some,\nyea the most, the children of the flesh, the rest, the lost, the\nvessels of wrath, of dishonour, and the children of perdition?\n(Rom 11:9; 1 Peter 2:8,9; Matt 10:16; 2 Sam 6:21; Psa 78:67,68;\nJohn 15:16; 2 Cor 4:3; Rom 9:21,22; John 17:12).\n\n\nCHAPTER 2\n\nWhat Reprobation is.\n\nHaving thus shewed you that there is such a thing as a reprobation,\nI come now to shew you what it is. Which that I may do to your\nedification, I shall First shew you what this word reprobation\nsignifieth in the general, as it concerneth persons temporary and\nvisibly reprobate: Second, more particularly, as it concerneth\npersons that are eternally and invisibly reprobate.\n\nFirst, Generally, As it concerneth persons temporarily and visibly\nreprobate, thus: To be reprobate is to be disapproved, void of\njudgment, and rejected, &c. To be disapproved, that is, when the\nword condemns them, either as touching the faith or the holiness\nof the gospel; the which they must needs be, that are void of\nspiritual and heavenly judgment in the mysteries of the kingdom;\na manifest token [that] they are rejected. And hence it is that\nthey are said to be reprobate or void of judgment concerning the\nfaith; reprobate or void of judgment touching every good work;\nhaving a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient,\neither as to faith or manners. And hence it is again, that they\nare also said to be rejected of God, cast away, and the like (2\nCor 13:6,7; 2 Tim 3:8; Titus 1:16; Rom 1:28; Jer 6:30; 1 Cor 9:27).\n\nI call this temporary visible reprobation, because these appear,\nand are detected by the word as such that are found under the\nabove-named errors, and so adjudged without the grace of God.\nYet it is possible for some of these, however for the present\ndisapproved, through the blessed acts and dispensations of grace,\nnot only to become visible saints, but also saved for ever. Who\ndoubts but that he who now by examining himself, concerning faith,\ndoth find himself, though under profession, graceless, may after\nthat, he seeing his woeful state, not only cry to God for mercy,\nbut find grace, and obtain mercy to help in time of need? though\nit is true, that for the most part the contrary is fulfilled on\nthem.\n\nSecond, But to pass this, and more particularly to touch the\neternal invisible reprobation, which I shall thus hold forth: It\nis to be passed by in, or left out of, God's election; yet so, as\nconsidered upright. In which position you have these four things\nconsiderable: 1. The act of God's election. 2. The negative of\nthat act. 3. The persons reached by that negative. And, 4. Their\nqualification when thus reached by it.\n\n1. For the first. This act of God in electing, it is a choosing\nor fore-appointing of some infallibly unto eternal life, which he\nalso hath determined shall be brought to pass by the means that\nshould be made manifest and efficacious to that very end (Eph\n1:3-5; 1 Peter 1:2).\n\n2. Now the negative of this act is, a passing by, or a leaving\nof those not concerned in this act; a leaving of them, I say,\nwithout the bounds, and so the saving privileges of this act; as\nit followeth by natural consequence, that because a man chooseth\nbut some, therefore he chooseth not all, but leaveth, as the\nnegative of that act, all others whatsoever. Wherefore, as I said\nbefore, those not contained within this blessed act, are called\nthe rest besides the election. 'The election hath obtained it,\nand the rest were blinded.'\n\n3. The persons then that are contained under the negative of this\nact, they are those, and those only, that pass through this wicked\nworld without the saving grace of God's elect; those, I say, that\nmiss the most holy faith, which they in time are blest withal,\nwho are fore-appointed unto glory.\n\n4. And now for the qualification they were considered under, when\nthis act of reprobation laid hold upon them; to wit, They were\nconsidered upright.\n\nThis is evident, From this consideration, that reprobation is God's\nact, even the negative of his choosing or electing, and none of\nthe acts of God make any man a sinner. It is further evident by\nthe similitude that is taken from the carriage of the potter in\nhis making of his pots; for by this comparison the God of heaven\nis pleased to shew unto us the nature of his determining in the\nact of reprobation. 'Hath not the potter power over the clay, of\nthe same lump?' &c. (Rom 9:21). Consider a little, and you shall\nsee that these three things do necessarily fall in, to complete\nthe potter's action in every pot he makes.\n\n(1.) A determination in his own mind what pot to make of this\nor that piece of clay; a determination, I say, precedent to the\nfashion of the pot; the which is true in the highest degree, in\nhim that is excellent in working; he determines the end, before\nthe beginning is perfected (Isa 41:22, 46:10). 'For this cause\n[very purpose] have I raised thee up' (Exo 9:16).\n\n(2.) The next thing considerable in the potter; it is the so\nmaking of the pot, even as he determined; a vessel to honour, or\na vessel to dishonour. There is no confusion nor disappointment\nunder the hand of this eternal God, his work is perfect, and every\nway doth answer to what he hath determined (Deut 32:4).\n\n(3.) Observe again, That whether the vessel be to honour or to\ndishonour, yet the potter makes it good, sound, and fit for service;\nhis fore-determining to make this a vessel to dishonour, hath no\npersuasion at all with him to break or mar the pot: Which very\nthing doth well resemble the state of man as under the act of\neternal reprobation, for 'God made man upright' (Eccl 7:29).\n\nFrom these conclusions then,\n\nConsider, 1. That the simple act of reprobation, it is a leaving\nor passing by, not a cursing of the creature.\n\nConsider, 2. Neither doth this act alienate the heart of God from\nthe reprobate, nor tie him up from loving, favouring, or blessing\nof him; no, not from blessing of him with the gift of Christ, of\nfaith, of hope, and many other benefits. It only denieth them that\nbenefit, that will infallibly bring them to eternal life, and that\nin despite of all opposition; it only denieth so to bless them as\nthe elect themselves are blessed. Abraham loved all the children\nhe had by all his wives, and gave them portions also; but his\nchoice blessing, as the fruit of his chiefest love, he reserved\nfor chosen Isaac (Gen 25:5,6).\n\nConsider Lastly, The act of reprobation doth harm to no man,\nneither means him any; nay, it rather decrees him upright, lets\nhim be made upright, and so be turned into the world.[2]\n\n\nCHAPTER 3.\n\nOf the Antiquity of Reprobation.\n\nHaving now proceeded so far as to shew you what reprobation\nis, it will not be amiss if in this place I briefly shew you its\nantiquity, even when it began its rise; the which you may gather\nby these following particulars.\n\nFirst, Reprobation is before the person cometh into the world,\nor hath done good or evil: This is evident by that of Paul to the\nRomans: 'For the children being not yet born, neither having done\nany good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election\nmight stand not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto\nRebecca, The elder shall serve the younger' (9:11). Here you find\ntwain in their mother's womb, and both receiving their destiny,\nnot only before they had done good or evil, but before they were\nin a capacity to do it, they being yet unborn; their destiny,\nI say, the one unto, the other not unto, the blessing of eternal\nlife; the one chose, the other refused; the one elect, the other\nreprobate. The same also might be said of Ishmael and his brother\nIsaac, both which did also receive their destiny before they came\ninto the world: for the promise that this Isaac should be the\nheir, it was also before Ishmael was born, though he was elder by\nfourteen years, or more, than his brother (Gen 15:4,5, 16:4,5,16,\n17:25, 21:5). And it is yet further evident,\n\n1. Because election is an act of grace; 'There is a remnant according\nto the election of grace' (Rom 11:5). Which act of grace saw no\nway so fit to discover its purity and independency, as by fastening\non the object before it came into the world; that being the state\nin which at least no good were done, either to procure good from\nGod, or to eclipse and darken this precious act of grace. For\nthough it is true that no good thing that we have done before\nconversion, can obtain the grace of election; yet the grace of\nelection then appeareth most, when it prevents[3] our doing good,\nthat we might be loved therefore: wherefore he saith again, 'That\nthe purpose of God according to election might stand, not of\nworks, but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder\nshall serve the younger' (Rom 9:11,12).\n\n2. This is most agreeable to the nature of the promise of giving\nseed to Abraham; which promise, as it was made before the child\nwas conceived, so it was fulfilled at the best time, for the\ndiscovery of the act of grace, that could have been pitched upon:\nAt this time will I come (saith God) 'and Sarah shall have a son'\n(Gen 18:14); which promise, because it carried in its bowels the\nvery grace of electing love, therefore it left out Ishmael, with\nthe children of Keturah: 'For in Isaac shall thy seed be called'\n(Rom 4:16-19, 9:7).\n\n3. This was the best and fittest way for the decrees to receive\nsound bottom, even for God both to choose and refuse, before the\ncreature had done good or evil, and so before they came into the\nworld: 'That the purpose of God according to election might stand,'\nsaith he, therefore before the children were yet born, or had done\nany good or evil, it was said unto her, &c. God's decree would for\never want foundation, should it depend at all upon the goodness\nand holiness either of men or angels; especially if it were to\nstand upon that good that is wrought before conversion, yea, or\nafter conversion either. We find, by daily experience, how hard\nand difficult it is, for even the holiest in the world, to bear\nup and maintain their faith and love to God; yea, so hard, as not\nat all to do it without continual supplies from heaven. How then\nis it possible for any so to carry it before God, as to lay, by\nthis his holiness, a foundation for election, as to maintain that\nfoundation, and thereby to procure all those graces that infallibly\nsaveth the sinner? But now the choice, I say, being a choice of\ngrace, as is manifest, it being acted before the creature's birth;\nhere grace hath laid the cornerstone, and determined the means to\nbring the work to perfection. Thus 'the foundation of God standeth\nsure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his' (2 Tim\n2:19). That is, who he hath chosen, having excluded works, both\ngood and bad, and founded all in an unchangeable act of grace;\nthe negative whereof, is this harmless reprobation.\n\nSecond, But secondly, To step a little backward, and so to make\nall sure: This act of reprobation was before the world began;\nwhich therefore must needs confirm that which was said but now,\nthat they were, before they were born, both destinated before\nthey had done good or evil. This is manifest by that of Paul to\nthe Ephesians, at the beginning of his epistle; where, speaking\nof Election, whose negative is reprobation, he saith, 'God hath\nchosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.' Nay\nfurther, if you please, consider, that as Christ was ordained\nto suffer before the foundation of the world, and as we that are\nelected were chosen in him before the foundation of the world;\nso it was also ordained we should know him, before the foundation\nof the world; ordained that we should be holy before him in love,\nbefore the foundation of the world; and that we in time should be\ncreated in him to good works, and ordained before that we should\nwalk in them. Wherefore reprobation also, it being the negative of\nelecting love; that is, because God elected but some, therefore\nhe left the rest: these rest therefore must needs be of as ancient\nstanding under reprobation, as the chosen are under election;\nboth which, it is also evident, was before the world began. Which\nserveth yet further to prove that reprobation could not be with\nrespect to this or the other sin, it being only a leaving them,\nand that before the world, out of that free choice which he was\npleased to bless the other with. Even as the clay with which the\ndishonourable vessel is made, did not provoke the potter, for the\nsake of this or that impediment, therefore to make it so; but the\npotter of his own will, of the clay of the same lump, of the clay\nthat is full as good as that of which he hath made the vessel to\nhonour, did make this and the other a vessel of dishonour, &c. (1\nPeter 1:20,21; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:3,4, 2:10).[4]\n\n\nCHAPTER 4.\n\nOf the causes of Reprobation.\n\nHaving thus in a word or two shewed the antiquity of Reprobation,\nI now come in this place to shew you the cause thereof; for\ndoubtless this must stand a truth, That whatever God doth, there\nis sufficient ground therefore, whether by us apprehended, or else\nwithout our reach.\n\nFirst then, It is caused from the very nature of God. There are two\nthings in God, from which, or by the virtue of which, all things\nhave their rise, to wit, the eternity of God in general, and the\neternal perfection of every one of his attributes in particular:\nfor as by the first, he must needs be before all things; so by\nvirtue of the second, must all things consist. And as he is before\nall things, they having consistence by him; so also is he before\nall states, or their causes, be they either good or bad, of\ncontinuance or otherwise, he being the first without beginning,\n&c., whereas all other things, with their causes, have rise,\ndependance, or toleration of being from him (Col 1:17).\n\nHence it follows, that nothing, either person or cause, &c., can\nby any means have a being, but first he knows thereof, allows\nthereof, and decrees it shall be so. 'Who is he that saith, and\nit cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?' (Lam 3:37).\nNow then, because that reprobation, as well as election, are\nsubordinate to God; his will also, which is eternally perfect,\nbeing most immediately herein concerned; it was impossible that\nany should be reprobate, before God had both willed and decreed\nit should be so. It is not the being of a thing that administers\nmatter of knowledge or foresight thereof to God, but the perfection\nof his knowledge, wisdom, and power, &c., that giveth the thing\nits being: God did not fore-decree there should be a world, because\nhe foresaw there would be one; but there must be one, because he had\nbefore decreed there should be one. The same is true as touching\nthe case in hand: 'For this cause [very purpose] have I raised\nthee up, for to shew in thee my power' (Exo 9:16; Rom 9:17).\n\nSecond, A second cause of eternal reprobation, is the exercise\nof God's sovereignty; for if this is true, that there is nothing\neither visible or invisible, whether in heaven or earth, but hath\nits being from him: then it must most reasonably follow, that he\nis therefore sovereign Lord, &c., and may also according to his\nown will, as he pleaseth himself, both exercise and manifest the\nsame; being every whit absolute; and can do and may do whatsoever\nhis soul desireth: and indeed, good reason, for he hath not only\nmade them all, but 'for his pleasure they both were and are created'\n(Rev 4:11).\n\nNow the very exercise of this sovereignty produceth reprobation:\n'Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he\nwill he hardeneth' (Rom 9:18). 'Hath not the potter power over the\nclay, of the same lump?' And doth he not make his pots according\nto his pleasure? Here therefore the mercy, justice, wisdom and\npower of God, take liberty to do what they will; saying, 'My\ncounsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure' (Isa 46:10;\nJob 23:13; Dan 4:35; Isa 43:13).\n\nThird, Another cause of eternal reprobation, is the act and working\nof distinguishing love, and everlasting grace. God hath universal\nlove, and particular love; general love, and distinguishing love;\nand so accordingly doth decree, purpose, and determine: from\ngeneral love, the extension of general grace and mercy: but from\nthat love that is distinguishing, peculiar grace and mercy: 'Was\nnot Esau Jacob's brother?' saith the Lord, 'yet I loved Jacob'\n(Mal 1:2). Yet I loved Jacob, that is, with a better love, or\na love that is more distinguishing. As he further makes appear\nin his answer to our father Abraham, when he prayed to God for\nIshmael: 'As for Ishmael, [saith he] I have heard thee: Behold,\nI have blessed him, and will make him fruitful. But my covenant\nwill I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee' (Gen\n17:20,21). Touching which words, there are these things observable.\n\n1. That God had better love for Isaac, than he had for his brother\nIshmael. Yet,\n\n2. Not because Isaac had done more worthy and goodly deeds, for\nIsaac was yet unborn.\n\n3. This choice blessing could not be denied to Ishmael, because\nhe had disinherited himself by sin; for this blessing was entailed\nto Isaac, before Ishmael had a being also (Rom 4:16-19; Gen 15:4,5,\nchapter 16).\n\n4. These things therefore must needs fall out through the working\nof distinguishing love and mercy, which had so cast the business,\n'that the purpose of God according to election might stand.'\n\nFurther, Should not God decree to shew distinguishing love and\nmercy, as well as that which is general and common, he must not\ndiscover his best love at all to the sons of men. Again, if he\nshould reveal and extend his best love to all the world in general,\nthen there would not be such a thing as love that doth distinguish;\nfor distinguishing love appeareth in separating between Isaac\nand Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, the many called, and the few chosen.\nThus by virtue of distinguishing love, some must be reprobate:\nfor distinguishing love must leave some, both of the angels in\nheaven, and the inhabitants of the earth; wherefore the decree\nalso that doth establish it, must needs leave some.\n\nFourth, Another cause of reprobation, Is God's willingness to\nshew his wrath, and to make his power known. This is one of those\narguments that the holy apostle setteth against the most knotty\nand strong objection that ever was framed against the doctrine of\neternal reprobation: 'Thou wilt say then unto me, [saith he] Why\ndoth he yet find fault?' For if it be his will that some should\nbe rejected, hardened, and perish, why then is he offended that\nany sin against him; 'for who hath resisted his will?' Hold, saith\nthe apostle; stay a little here; first remember this, Is it meet\nto say unto God, What doest thou? 'Shall the thing formed say\nto him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the\npotter power over the clay, of the same lump,' &c. Besides, when\nyou have thought your worst, to wit, that the effects of reprobation\nmust needs be consummate in the eternal perdition of the creature;\nyet again consider, 'What if God, willing to shew his wrath,' as\nwell as grace and mercy? And what if he, that he may so do, exclude\nsome from having share in that grace that would infallibly, against\nall resistance, bring us safe unto eternal life? What then? Is he\ntherefore the author of your perishing, or his eternal reprobation\neither? Do you not know that he may refuse to elect who he will,\nwithout abusing of them? Also that he may deny to give them that\ngrace that would preserve them from sin, without being guilty of\ntheir damnation? May he not, to shew his wrath, suffer 'with much\nlong-suffering' all that are 'the vessels of wrath,' by their own\nvoluntary will, to fit themselves for wrath and for destruction?\n(Rom 9:19-22). Yea, might he not even in the act of reprobation,\nconclude also to suffer them thus left, to fall from the state he\nleft them in, that is, as they were considered upright; and when\nfallen, to bind them fast in chains of darkness unto the judgment\nof the great day, but he must needs be charged foolishly? You\nshall see in that day what a harmony and what a glory there will\nbe found in all God's judgments in the overthrow of the sinner;\nalso how clear the Lord will shew himself of having any working\nhand in that which causeth eternal ruin; notwithstanding he hath\nreprobated such, doth suffer them to sin, and that too, that he\nmight shew his wrath on the vessels of his wrath; the which I\nalso, after this next chapter, shall further clear up to you. As\n'the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,'\nwithout approving of their miscarriages; so he also knoweth how\n'to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished'\n(2 Peter 2:9): yet never to deserve the least of blame for his\nso reserving of them; though none herein can see his way, for he\nalone knows how to do it.[5]\n\n\nCHAPTER 5.\n\nOf the Unchangeableness of Eternal Reprobation.\n\nMany opinions have passed through the hearts of the sons of\nmen concerning reprobation; most of them endeavouring so to hold\nit forth, as therewith they might, if not heal their conscience\nslightly, yet maintain their own opinion, in their judgment,\nof other things; still wringing, now the word this way, and anon\nagain that, for their purpose; also framing within their soul such\nan imagination of God and his acts in eternity, as would suit with\nsuch opinions, and so present all to the world. And the rather they\nhave with greatest labour strained unweariedly at this above many\nother truths, because of the grim and dreadful face it carrieth in\nmost men's apprehensions. But none of these things, however they\nmay please the creature, can by any means in any measure, either\ncause God to undo, unsay, or undetermine what he hath concerning\nthis, decreed and established.\n\nFirst, Because they suit not with his nature, especially in\nthese foundation-acts: 'The foundation of God standeth sure' (2\nTim 2:19), even touching reprobation, 'that the purpose of God\naccording to election might stand' (Rom 9:11). 'I know [saith\nSolomon] that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing\ncan be put to it, nor any thing taken from it,' &c. (Eccl 3:14).\n'Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall\nnot make it good?' (Num 23:19). His decrees are composed according\nto his eternal wisdom, established upon his unchangeable will,\ngoverned by his knowledge, prudence, power, justice, and mercy,\nand are brought to conclusion, on his part, in perfect holiness,\nthrough the abiding of his most blessed truth and faithfulness: 'He\nis the rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment:\na God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he' (Deut\n32:4).\n\nSecond, This decree is made sure by the number, measure, and bounds\nof election; for election and reprobation do inclose all reasonable\ncreatures; that is, either the one or the other; election, those\nthat are set apart for glory; and reprobation, those left out of\nthis choice.\n\nNow as touching the elect, they are by this decree confined to\nthat limited number of persons that must amount to the complete\nmaking up the fulness of the mystical body of Christ; yea so\nconfined by this eternal purpose, that nothing can be diminished\nfrom or added thereunto: and hence it is that they are called his\nbody and members in particular, 'the fulness of him that filleth\nall in all' (Eph 1:23) and 'the measure of the stature of the\nfulness of Christ' (Eph 4:13). Which body, considering him as the\nhead thereof, in conclusion maketh up one perfect man, and holy\ntemple for the Lord. These are called Christ's substance, inheritance\nand lot (Psa 16); and are said to be booked, marked, and sealed\nwith God's most excellent knowledge, approbation and liking (2\nTim 2:19). As Christ said to his Father, 'Thine eyes did see my\nsubstance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members\nwere written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet\nthere was none of them' (Psa 139:16). This being thus, I say, it\nis in the first place impossible that any of those members should\nmiscarry, for 'Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's\nelect?' (Rom 8:33) and because they are as to number every way\nsufficient, being his body, and so by their completing to be made\na perfect man: therefore all others are rejected, that the 'purpose\nof God according to election might stand' (Rom 9:11). Besides,\nit would not only argue weakness in the decree, but monstrousness\nin the body, if after this, any appointed should miscarry, or any\nbesides them be added to them (Matt 24:24).\n\nThirdly, Nay further, that all may see how punctual, exact, and\nto a tittle this decree of election is, God hath not only as to\nnumber and quantity confined the persons, but also determined and\nmeasured, and that before the world, the number of the gifts and\ngraces that are to be bestowed on these members in general; and\nalso what graces and gifts to be bestowed on this or that member\nin particular: He 'hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings--in\nChrist, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation\nof the word' (Eph 1:3,4). And bestoweth them in time upon us,\n'According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ\nJesus our Lord' (Eph 3:11). He hath given to the eye, the grace\nthat belongeth to the eye; and to the hand that which he also hath\nappointed for it. And so to every other member of the body elect,\nhe doth deal out to them their determined measure of grace and\ngifts most fit for their place and office. Thus is the decree\nestablished, both of the saved, and also the non-elect (Rom 12:3;\nEph 4:16; Col 2:19; Eph 4:12,13).\n\nFourth, But again, another thing that doth establish this decree\nof eternal reprobation, is the weakness that sin, in the fall,\nand since, hath brought all reprobates into: For though it be most\ntrue, that sin is no cause of eternal reprobation; yet seeing sin\nhath seized on the reprobate, it cannot be but thereby the decree\nmust needs be the faster fixed. If the king, for this or the other\nweighty reason, doth decree not to give this or that man, who yet\ndid never offend him, a place in his privy chamber; if this man\nafter this shall be infected with the plague, this rather fastens\nthan loosens the king's decree. As the angels that were left out\nof God's election, by reason of the sin they committed after, are\nso far off from being by that received into God's decree, that\nthey are therefore bound for it in chains of everlasting darkness\nto the judgment of the great day.\n\n\nCHAPTER 6.\n\nWhether to be reprobated be the same with being appointed before-hand\nunto eternal condemnation? If not, how do they differ? Also whether\nreprobation be the cause of condemnation?\n\nIt hath been the custom of ignorant men much to quarrel at eternal\nreprobation, concluding, for want of knowledge in the mystery of\nGod's will, that if he reprobate any from eternity, he had as good\nhave said, I will make this man to damn him; I will decree this\nman, without any consideration, to the everlasting pains of hell.\nWhen in very deed, for God to reprobate, and to appoint before-hand to\neternal condemnation, are two distinct things, properly relating\nto two distinct attributes, arising from two distinct causes.\n\nFirst, They are two distinct things: Reprobation, a simple leaving\nof the creature out of the bounds of God's election; but to appoint\nto condemnation is to bind them over to everlasting punishment.\nNow there is a great difference between my refusing to make of\nsuch a tree a pillar in my house, and of condemning it unto the\nfire to be burned.\n\nSecond, As to the attributes; reprobation respects God's sovereignty;\nbut to appoint to condemnation, his justice (Rom 9:18; Gen 18:25).\n\nThird, As to the causes; sovereignty being according to the will\nof God, but justice according to the sin of man. For God, though\nhe be the only sovereign Lord, and that to the height of perfection;\nyet he appointeth no man to the pains of everlasting fire, merely\nfrom sovereignty, but by the rule of justice: God damneth not the\nman because he is a man, but a sinner; and fore-appoints him to\nthat place and state, by fore-seeing of him wicked (Rom 1:18,19;\nCol 3:6).\n\nAgain, As reprobation is not the same with fore-appointing to\neternal condemnation; so neither is it the cause thereof.\n\nIf it be the cause, then it must either, 1. Leave him infirm.\nOr, 2. Infuse sin into him. Or, 3. Take from him something that\notherwise would keep him upright. 4. Or both license Satan to\ntempt, and the reprobate to close in with the temptation. But it\ndoth none of these; therefore it is not the cause of the condemnation\nof the creature.\n\nThat it is not the cause of sin, it is evident,\n\n1. Because the elect are as much involved therein, as those that\nare passed by.\n\n2. It leaveth him not infirm; for he is by an after-act, to wit,\nof creation, formed perfectly upright.\n\n3. That reprobation infuseth no sin, appeareth, because it is the\nact of God.\n\n4. That it taketh nothing, that good is, from him, is also manifest,\nit being only a leaving of him.\n\n5. And that it is not by this act that Satan is permitted to tempt,\nor the reprobate to sin, is manifest; because as Christ was tempted,\nso the elect fall as much into the temptation, at least many of\nthem, as many of those that are reprobate: whereas if these things\ncame by reprobation, then the reprobate would be only concerned\ntherein. All which will be further handled in these questions yet\nbehind.\n\nObject. From what hath been said, there is concluded this at least,\nThat God hath infallibly determined, and that before the world,\nthe infallible damnation of some of his creatures: for if God hath\nbefore the world [was made] bound some over to eternal punishment,\nand that as you say, for sin; then this determination must either\nbe fallible or infallible; not fallible, for then your other position\nof the certainty of the number of God's elect, is shaken; unless\nyou hold that there may be a number that shall neither go to heaven\nnor hell. Well then, if God hath indeed determined, fore-determined,\nthat some must infallibly perish; doth not this his determination\nlay a necessity on the reprobate to sin, that he may be damned;\nfor, no sin, no damnation; that is your own argument.\n\nAns. That God hath ordained (Jude 4), the damnation of some of\nhis creatures, it is evident; but whether this his determination\nbe positive and absolute, there is the question: for the better\nunderstanding whereof, I shall open unto you the variety of God's\ndeterminations, and their nature, as also rise.\n\nThe determinations of God touching the destruction of the creature,\nthey are either ordinary or extraordinary: those I count ordinary\nthat were commonly pronounced by the prophets and apostles, &c.,\nin their ordinary way of preaching; to the end men might be affected\nwith the love of their own salvation: now these either bound or\nloosed, but as the condition or qualification was answered by the\ncreature under sentence, and no otherwise (1 Sam 12:25; Isa 1:20;\nMatt 18:3; Luke 13:1-3; Rom 2:8,9, 8:13, 11:23; 1 Cor 6:9-11).\n\nAgain, These extraordinary, though they respect the same conditions,\nyet they are not grounded immediately upon them, but upon the\ninfallible fore-knowledge and fore-sight of God, and are thus\ndistinguished. First the ordinary determination, it stands but\nat best upon a supposition that the creature may continue in sin,\nand admits of a possibility that it may not; but the extraordinary\nstands upon an infallible fore-sight that the creature will continue\nin sin; wherefore this must needs be positive, and as infallible\nas God himself.\n\nAgain, These two determinations are also distinguished thus: the\nordinary is applicable to the elect as well as to the reprobate,\nbut the other to the reprobate only. It is proper to say even to\nthe elect themselves, 'He that believeth shall be saved, and he\nthat believeth not shall be damned'; but not to say to them, These\nare appointed to UTTER destruction, or that they shall utterly\nperish in their own corruptions; or that for them is reserved the\nblackness of darkness for ever (1 Kings 20:42; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude\n13).\n\nSo then, though God by these determinations doth not lay some\nunder irrecoverable condemnation, yet by one of them he doth; as\nis further made out thus:\n\n1. God most perfectly foreseeth the final impenitency of those that\nso die, from the beginning to the end of the world (Prov 15:11;\nPsa 139:2; Isa 46:10).\n\n2. Now from this infallible foresight, it is most easy and rational\nto conclude, and that positively, the infallible overthrow of\nevery such creature. Did I infallibly foresee that this or that\nman would cut out his heart in the morning, I might infallibly\ndetermine his death before night.\n\nObject. But still the question is, Whether God by this his determination\ndoth not lay a necessity on the creature to sin? For, no sin, no\ncondemnation: this is true by your own assertion.\n\nAns. No, by no means: for,\n\n1. Though it be true, that sin must of absolute necessity go\nbefore the infallible condemnation and overthrow of the sinner;\nand that it must also be pre-considered by God; yet it needs not\nlay a necessity upon him to sin: for let him but alone to do what\nhe will, and the determination cannot be more infallible than the\nsin, which is the cause of its execution.\n\n2. As it needs not, so it doth not: for this positive determination is\nnot grounded upon what God will effect, but on what the creature\nwill; and that not through the instigation of God, but the\ninstigation of the devil. What? might not I, if I most undoubtedly\nforesaw that such a tree in my garden would only cumber the ground,\nnotwithstanding reasonable means, might not I, I say, from hence\ndetermine, seven years before, to cut it down, and burn it in the\nfire, but I must, by so determining, necessitate this tree to be\nfruitless? the case in hand is the very same. God therefore may\nmost positively determine the infallible damnation of his creature,\nand yet not at all necessitate the creature to sin, that he might\nbe damned.\n\nObject. But how is this similitude pertinent? For God did not only\nforesee sin would be the destruction of the creature, but let it\ncome into the world, and so destroy the creature. If you, as you\nforesee the fruitlessness of your tree, should withal see that\nwhich makes it so, and that too before it makes it so, and yet let\nthe impediment come and make it so; are not you now the cause of\nthe unfruitfulness of that tree which you have before condemned to\nthe fire to be burned? for God might have chose whether he would\nhave let Adam sin, and so sin to have got into the world by him.\n\nAns. Similitudes never answer every way; if they be pertinent to\nthat for which they are intended, it is enough; and to that it\nanswereth well, being brought to prove no more but the natural\nconsequence of a true and infallible foresight. And now as to\nwhat is objected further, as that God might have chose whether\nsin should have come into the world by Adam, to the destruction\nof so many: to that I shall answer,\n\n1. That sin could not have come into the world without God's\npermission, it is evident, both from the perfection of his foresight\nand power.\n\n2. Therefore all the means, motives, and inducements thereunto,\nmust also by him be not only foreseen, but permitted.\n\n3. Yet so, that God will have the timing, proceeding, bounding,\nand ordering thereof, at his disposal: 'Surely the wrath of man\nshall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain'\n(Psa 76:10; 1 Kings 22:20-22; John 8:20; Luke 22:51,52).\n\n4. Therefore it must needs come into the world, not without, but\nby the knowledge of God; not in despite of him, but by his suffering\nof it.\n\nObject. But how then is he clear from having a hand in the death\nof him that perisheth?\n\nAns. Nothing is more sure than that God could have kept sin out\nof the world, if it had been his will; and this is also as true,\nthat it never came into the world with his liking and compliance;\nand for this, you must consider that sin came into the world by\ntwo steps:\n\n1. By being offered. 2. By prevailing.\n\nTouching the first of these, God without the least injury to any\ncreature in heaven or earth, might not only suffer it, but so far\ncountenance the same: that is, so far forth as for trial only:\nas it is said of Abraham; 'God tempted Abraham' to slay his only\nson (Gen 22:1), and led Christ by the Spirit into the wilderness\nto be tempted of the devil (Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1). This is done\nwithout any harm at all; nay, it rather produceth good; for it\ntends to discover sincerity, to exercise faith in, and love to his\nCreator; also to put him in mind of the continual need he hath of\ndepending on his God for the continuation of help and strength,\nand to provoke to prayers to God, whenever so engaged (Deut 8:1-3;\n1 Peter 1:7; Heb 5:7; Matt 26:22,41).\n\nObject. But God did not only admit that sin should be offered\nfor trial, and there to stay; but did suffer it to prevail, and\novercome the world.\n\nAns. Well, this is granted: but yet consider,\n\n1. God did neither suffer it, nor yet consent it should, but under\nthis consideration; If Adam, upright Adam, gave way thereto, by\nforsaking his command, 'In the day that thou eatest thereof thou\nshalt surely die' (Gen 2:17, 3:3). Which Adam did, not because\nGod did compel him or persuade him to it, but voluntarily of his\nown mind, contrary to his God's command: so then, God by suffering sin\nto break into the world, did it rather in judgment, as disliking\nAdam's act, and as a punishment to man for listening to the tempter;\nand as a discovery of his anger at man's disobedience; than to\nprove that he is guilty of the misery of his creature.\n\n2. Consider also, that when God permitted sin for trial, it was,\nwhen offered first, to them only who were upright, and had sufficient\nstrength to resist it.\n\n3. They were by God's command to the contrary, driven to no strait\nto tempt them to incline to Satan: 'Of every tree of the garden\nthou mayest freely at,' saith God; only let this alone.\n\n4. As touching the beauty and goodness that was in the object unto\nwhich they were allured; What was it? Was it better than God? Yea,\nwas it better than the tree of life? For from that they were not\nexempted till after they had sinned. Did not God know best what\nwas best to do them good?\n\n5. Touching him that persuaded them to do this wicked act; was\nhis word more to be valued for truth, more to be ventured on for\nsafety, or more to be honoured for the worthiness of him that\nspake, than was his that had forbad it? The one being the devil,\nwith a lie, and to kill them; the other being God, with his truth,\nand to preserve them safe.\n\nQuest. But was not Adam unexpectedly surprised? Had he notice\nbeforehand, and warning of the danger? For God foresaw the business.\n\nAns. Doubtless God was fair and faithful to his creature in this\nthing also; as clearly doth appear from these considerations.\n\n1. The very commandment that God gave him, fore-bespake him well\nto look about him; and did indeed insinuate that he was likely to\nbe tempted.\n\n2. It is yet more evident, because God doth even tell him of the\ndanger; 'In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely\ndie.'\n\n3. Nay God by speaking to him of the very tree that was to be\nforborn, telling him also where it stood, that he might the better\nknow it; did in effect expressly say unto him, Adam, if thou\nbe tempted, it will be about that tree, and the fruit thereof:\nwherefore if thou findest the tempter there, then beware thy life.\n\n(1.) To conclude then: though sin did not come into the world\nwithout God's sufferance, yet it did without his liking: God suffered\nalso Cain to kill his brother, and Ishmael to mock at Isaac, but\nhe did not like the same (Gen 4:9-11; Gal 4:30).\n\n(2.) Therefore though God was first in concluding sin should be\noffered to the world; yet man was the first that consented to a\nbeing overcome thereby.\n\n(3.) Then, Though God did fore-determine that sin should enter,\nyet it was not but with respect to certain terms and conditions,\nwhich yet was not to be enforced by virtue of the determination,\nbut permitted to be completed by the voluntary inclination of a\nperfect and upright man. And in that the determination was most\nperfectly infallible, it was through the foresight of the undoubted\ninclination of this good and upright person.\n\nQuest. But might not God have kept Adam from inclining, if he\nwould?\n\nAns. What more certain? But yet consider,\n\n1. Adam being now an upright man, he was able to have kept himself,\nhad he but looked to it as he should and might.\n\n2. This being so, if God had here stept in, he had either added\nthat which had been needless, and so had not obtained thankfulness;\nor else had made the strength of Adam useless, yea his own workmanship\nin so creating him, superfluous; or else by consequence imperfect.\n\n(3.) If he had done so, he had taken Adam from his duty, which was\nto trust and believe his Maker; he had also made void the end of\nthe commandment, which was to persuade to watchfulness, diligence,\nsobriety, and contentedness; yea, and by so doing would not only\nhimself have tempted Adam to transgression, even to lay aside the\nexercise of that strength that God had already given him; but should\nhave become the pattern, or the first father to all looseness,\nidleness, and neglect of duty. Which would also not only have\nbeen an ill example to Adam to continue to neglect so reasonable\nand wholesome duties, but would have been to himself an argument\nof defence to retort upon his God, when he had come at another\ntime to reckon with him for his misdemeanours.[6]\n\nMany other weighty reasons might here be further added for God's\nvindication in this particular, but at this time let these suffice.\n\n\nCHAPTER 7.\n\nWhether any under Eternal Reprobation have just cause to quarrel\nwith God for not electing of them?\n\nThat the answer to this question may be to edification, recall\nagain what I have before asserted; to wit, That for a man to\nbe left out of God's election, and to be made a sinner, is two\nthings; and again, For a man to be not elect, and to be condemned\nto hell-fire, is two things also. Now I say, if non-election\nmakes no man a sinner, and if it appoints no man to condemnation\nneither, then what ground hath any reprobate to quarrel with God\nfor not electing of him? Nay, further, reprobation considereth him\nupright, leaveth him upright, and so turneth him into the world;\nwhat wrong doth God do him, though he hath not elected him? What\nreason hath he that is left in this case to quarrel against his\nMaker?\n\nIf thou say, because God hath not chosen them, as well as chosen\nothers: I answer, 'Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest\nagainst God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,\nWhy hast thou made me thus?' (Rom 9:20). 'Behold, as the clay is\nin the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel,'\nsaith the Lord God (Jer 18:6). So then, if I should say no more but\nthat God is the only Lord and Creator, and that by his sovereignty\nhe hath power to dispose of them according to his pleasure, either\nto choose or to refuse, according to the counsel of his own will,\nwho could object against him and be guiltless? 'He giveth not\naccount of any of his matters' (Job 33:13). 'And what his soul\ndesireth, even that he doeth' (Job 23:13).\n\nAgain, God is wiser than man, and therefore can shew a reason for\nwhat he acts and does, both when and where at present thou seest\nnone. Shall God the only wise, be arraigned at the bar of thy\nblind reason, and there be judged and condemned for his acts done\nin eternity? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, 'or who\nhath been his counsellor?' (Rom 11:34). Do you not know that he\nis far more above us, than we are above our horse or mule that is\nwithout understanding? 'Great things doeth he, which we cannot\ncomprehend' (Job 37:5). 'Great things and unsearchable, marvellous\nthings without number' (Job 5:9).\n\nBut, I say, should we take it well if our beast should call\nus to account for this and the other righteous act, and judge us\nunrighteous, and our acts ridiculous, and all because it sees no\nreason for our so doing? Why, we are as beasts before God (Psa\n73:22).\n\nBut again, to come yet more close to the point: the reprobate\nquarrels with God, because he hath not elected him; well, but is\nnot God the master of his own love? And is not his will the only\nrule of his mercy? And may he not, without he give offence to thee,\nlay hold by electing love and mercy on whom himself pleaseth? Must\nthy reason, nay, thy lust, be the ruler, orderer, and disposer of\nhis grace? 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine\nown?' saith he, 'Is thine eye evil, because I am good?' (Matt\n20:15).\n\nFurther, What harm doth God to any reprobate, by not electing of\nhim; he was, as hath been said, considered upright, so formed in\nthe act of creation, and so turned into the world: indeed he was\nnot elected, but hath that taken anything from him? No, verily,\nbut leaveth him in good condition: there is good, and better, and\nbest of all; he that is in a good estate, though others through\nfree grace are in a far better, hath not any cause to murmur either\nwith him that gave him such a place, or at him that is placed above\nhim. In a word, reprobation maketh no man personally a sinner,\nneither doth election make any man personally righteous. It is the\nconsenting to sin that makes a man a sinner; and the imputation of\ngrace and righteousness that makes [men] gospelly and personally\njust and holy.\n\nBut again, seeing it is God's act to leave some out of the bounds\nof his election, it must needs be, therefore, positively good: Is\nthat then which is good in itself made sin unto thee? God forbid:\nGod doth not evil by leaving this or that man out of his electing\ngrace, though he choose others to eternal life, through Jesus\nChrist our Lord. Wherefore there is not a reprobate that hath any\ncause, and therefore no just cause, to quarrel with his Maker,\nfor not electing of him.\n\nAnd that, besides what hath been spoken, if you consider,\n\n1. For God to elect, is an act of sovereign grace; but to pass\nby, or to refuse so to do, is an act of sovereign power, not of\ninjustice.\n\n2. God might therefore have chosen whether he would have elected\nany, or so many or few; and also which and where he would.\n\n3. Seeing then that all things are at his dispose, he may fasten\nelecting mercy where he pleaseth; and other mercy, if he will, to\nwhom and when he will.\n\n4. Seeing also that the least of mercies are not deserved by the\nbest of sinners; men, instead of quarrelling against the God of\ngrace, because they have not what they list, should acknowledge\nthey are unworthy of their breath; and also should confess that\nGod may give mercy where he pleaseth, and that too, both which\nor what, as also to whom, and when he will; and yet be good, and\njust, and very gracious still: Nay, Job saith, 'He taketh away,\nwho can hinder him? Who will say unto him, What doest thou?' (Job\n9:12).\n\nThe will of God is the rule of all righteousness, neither knoweth\nhe any other way by which he governeth and ordereth any of\nhis actions. Whatsoever God doth, it is good because he doth it;\nwhether it be to give grace, or to detain it; whether in choosing\nor refusing. The consideration of this, made the holy men of old\nascribe righteousness to their Maker, even then when yet they\ncould not see the reason of his actions. They would rather stand\namazed, and wonder at the heights and depths of his unsearchable\njudgments, than quarrel at the strange and most obscure of them\n(Job 34:10-12, 36:3, 37:23; Jer 12:1; Rom 11:33).\n\nGod did not intend that all that ever he would do, should be known\nto every man, no nor yet to the wise and prudent. It is as much\na duty sometimes to stay ourselves and wonder, and to confess our\nignorance in many things of God, as it is to do other things that\nare duty without dispute. So then, let poor dust and ashes forbear\nto condemn the Lord, because he goeth beyond them; and also they\nshould beware they speak not wickedly for him, though it be, as\nthey think, to justify his actions. 'The Lord is righteous in all\nhis ways, and holy in all his works' (Psa 145:17; Matt 11:25; 1\nCor 2:8; Job 13:6-8).[7]\n\n\nCHAPTER 8.\n\nWhether Eternal reprobation in itself, or in its doctrine, be in\nvery deed an hindrance to any man in seeking the salvation of his\nsoul.\n\nIn my discourse upon this question, I must entreat the reader to\nmind well what is premised in the beginning of the former chapter,\nwhich is, That reprobation makes no man a sinner, appoints no\nman to condemnation, but leaveth him upright after all. So then,\nthough God doth leave this most of men without the bounds of his\nelection, his so doing is neither in itself, nor yet its doctrine,\nin very deed, an hindrance to any man in seeking the salvation of\nhis soul.\n\nFirst, It hindreth not in itself, as is clear by the ensuing\nconsiderations:--\n\n1. That which hindreth him is the weakness that came upon him by\nreason of sin. Now God only made the man, but man's listening to\nSatan made him a sinner, which is the cause of all his weakness:\nthis therefore is it that hindreth him, and that also disenableth\nhim in seeking the salvation of his soul. 'Let no man say when he\nis tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with\nevil, neither tempteth he any man' (James 1:13). 'God made man\nupright; but they have sought out many inventions' (Eccl 7:29;\nEze 16:30; Hosea 13:9, 14:1; Gen 3:8-11).\n\n2. It hindreth not in itself, for it taketh not anything from a\nman that would help him, might it continue with him; it takes not\naway the least part of his strength, wisdom, courage, innocency,\nor will to good; all these were lost by the fall, in that day when\nhe died the death. Nay, reprobation under some consideration did\nrather establish all these upon the reprobate; for as it decrees\nhim left, so left upright. Wherefore man's hindrance cometh on him\nfrom other means, even by the fall, and not by the simple act of\neternal reprobation (Gen 3).\n\n3. As reprobation hindreth not either of these two ways, so neither\nis it from this simple act that Satan is permitted either to tempt\nthem, that they might be tried, or that they might be overthrown.\n\n(1.) It is not by this act that Satan is permitted to tempt them\nthat they might be tried; because then the Son of God himself must\nbe reached by this reprobation; he being tempted by the devil as\nmuch, if not more than any. Yea, and then must every one of the\nelect be under eternal reprobation; for they also, and that after\ntheir conversion, are greatly assaulted by him. 'Many are the\ntroubles of the righteous,' &c. (Matt 4:1,2; Heb 2:17, 4:15).\n\n(2.) Neither is it from the act of reprobation that sin hath\nentered the world, no more than from election, because those under\nthe power of election did not only fall at first, but do still\ngenerally as foully, before conversion, as the reprobate himself.\nWhereas, if either the temptation, or the fall, were by virtue of\nreprobation, then the reprobates, and they only, should have been\ntempted, and have fallen. The temptation then, and the fall, doth\ncome from other means, and so the hindrance of the reprobate,\nthan from eternal reprobation. For the temptation, the fall and\nhindrance being universal, but the act of reprobation particular,\nthe hindrance must needs come from such a cause as taketh hold on\nall men, which indeed is the fall; the cause of which was neither\nelection nor reprobation, but man's voluntary listening to the\ntempter (Rom 3:9).\n\n(3.) It is yet far more evident that reprobation hindreth no man\nfrom seeking the salvation of his soul: because notwithstanding all\nthat reprobation doth, yet God giveth to divers of the reprobates\ngreat encouragements thereto; to wit, the tenders of the gospel\nin general, not excluding any; great light also to understand it,\nwith many a sweet taste of the good word of God, and the powers of\nthe world to come; he maketh them sometimes also to be partakers\nof the Holy Ghost, and admitteth many of them into fellowship\nwith his elect; yea, some of them to be rulers, teachers, and\ngovernors in his house: all which, without doubt, both are and\nought to be great encouragements even to the reprobates themselves,\nto seek the salvation of their souls (Matt 11:28; Rev 22:17; Heb\n6:4,5; Matt 25:1,2; Acts 1:16,17).\n\nSecond, As it hindreth not in itself, so it hindreth not by its\ndoctrine: for, all that this doctrine saith is, that some are left\nout of God's election, as considered upright. Now this doctrine\ncannot hinder any man. For,\n\n1. No man still stands upright.\n\n2. Though it saith some are left, yet it points at no man, it\nnameth no man, it binds all faces in secret. So then, if it hinder,\nit hindreth all, even the elect as well as reprobate; for the\nreprobate hath as much ground to judge himself elect, as the very\nelect himself hath, before he be converted, being both alike in a\nstate of nature and unbelief, and both alike visibly liable to the\ncurse, for the breach of the commandment. Again, As they are equals\nhere, so also have they ground alike to close in with Christ and\nlive; even the open, free, and full invitation of the gospel, and\npromise of life and salvation, by the faith of Jesus Christ (Eph\n2:1,2; Rom 3:9; John 3:16; 2 Cor 5:19-21; Rev 21:6, 22:17).\n\n3. It is evident also by experience, that this doctrine doth not,\nin deed, neither can it hinder any (this doctrine I mean, when\nboth rightly stated and rightly used) because many who have been\ngreatly afflicted about this matter, have yet at last had comfort;\nwhich comfort, when they have received it, hath been to them as\nan argument that the thing they feared before, was not because of\nreprobation rightly stated; but its doctrine much abused was the\ncause of their affliction: and had they had the same light at\nfirst they received afterwards, their troubles then would soon\nhave fled, as also now they do. Wherefore discouragement comes\nfrom want of light, because they are not skilful in the word\nof righteousness: for had the discouragement at first been true,\nwhich yet it could not be, unless the person knew by name himself\nunder eternal reprobation, which is indeed impossible, then his\nlight would have pinched him harder; light would rather have fastened\nthis his fear, than at all have rid him of it (Heb 5:12-14).\n\nIndeed the scripture saith, the word is to some the savour of death\nunto death, when to others the savour of life unto life. But mark,\nit is not this doctrine in particular, if so much as some other,\nthat doth destroy the reprobate. It was respited at which Pharaoh\nhardened his heart; and the grace of God that the reprobates of\nold did turn into lasciviousness. Yea, Christ the Saviour of the\nworld, is a stumbling-block unto some, and a rock of offence unto\nothers. But yet again, consider that neither HE, nor any of God's\ndoctrines, are so simply, and in their own true natural force and\ndrift: for they beget no unbelief, they provoke to no wantonness,\nneither do they in the least encourage to impenitency; all this\ncomes from that ignorance and wickedness that came by the fall:\nWherefore it is by reason of that also, that they stumble, and\nfall, and grow weak, and are discouraged, and split themselves,\neither at the doctrine of reprobation, or at any other truth of\nGod (Exo 8:15; Jude 4:1; 1 Peter 2:8).\n\nLastly, To conclude as I began, there is no man while in this world,\nthat doth certainly know that he is left out of the electing love\nof the great God; neither hath he any word in the whole bible, to\npersuade him so to conclude and believe; for the scriptures hold\nforth salvation to the greatest of sinners. Wherefore, though\nthe act of reprobation were far more harsh, and its doctrine also\nmore sharp and severe, yet it cannot properly be said to hinder\nany. It is a foolish thing in any to be troubled with those\nthings which they have no ground to believe concerns themselves;\nespecially when the latitude of their discouragement is touching\ntheir own persons only. 'The secret things belong unto the Lord\nour God' (Deut 29:29). Indeed every one of the words of God ought\nto put us upon examination, and into a serious enquiry of our\npresent state and condition, and how we now do stand for eternity; to\nwit, whether we are ready to meet the Lord, or how it is with us.\nYet, when search is fully made, and the worst come unto the worst,\nthe party can find himself no more than the chief of sinners, not\nexcluded from the grace of God tendered in the gospel; not from an\ninvitation, nay a promise, to be embraced and blest, if he comes\nto Jesus Christ. Wherefore he hath no ground to be discouraged by\nthe doctrine of reprobation (1 Tim 1:15; Acts 3:19; 2 Chron 33;\nJohn 7:37, 6:37; Mark 2:17).\n\n\nCHAPTER 9.\n\nWhether God would indeed and in truth, that the gospel, with the\ngrace thereof, should be tendered to those that yet he hath bound\nup under Eternal Reprobation?\n\nTo this question I shall answer,\n\nFirst, In the language of our Lord, 'Go preach the gospel unto\nevery creature' (Mark 16:15); and again, 'Look unto me, and be\nye saved; all ye ends of the earth' (Isa 45:22). 'And whosoever\nwill, let him take the water of life freely' (Rev 22:17). And the\nreason is, because Christ died for all, 'tasted death for every\nman' (2 Cor 5:15; Heb 2:9); is 'the Saviour of the world' (1 John\n4:14), and the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.\n\nSecond, I gather it from those several censures that even every\none goeth under, that doth not receive Christ, when offered in the\ngeneral tenders of the gospel; 'He that believeth not,--shall be\ndamned' (Mark 16:16); 'He that believeth not God hath made him\na liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his\nson' (1 John 5:10); and, Woe unto thee Capernaum, 'Woe unto thee\nChorazin! woe unto thee Bethsaida!' (Matt 11:21) with many other\nsayings, all which words, with many other of the same nature,\ncarry in them a very great argument to this very purpose; for if\nthose that perish in the days of the gospel, shall have, at least,\ntheir damnation heightened, because they have neglected and refused\nto receive the gospel, it must needs be that the gospel was with\nall faithfulness to be tendered unto them; the which it could not\nbe, unless the death of Christ did extend itself unto them (John\n3:16; Heb 2:3); for the offer of the gospel cannot, with God's\nallowance, be offered any further than the death of Jesus Christ\ndoth go; because if that be taken away, there is indeed no gospel,\nnor grace to be extended. Besides, if by every creature, and the\nlike, should be meant only the elect, then are all the persuasions\nof the gospel to no effect at all; for still the unconverted,\nwho are here condemned for refusing of it, they return it as fast\nagain: I do not know I am elect, and therefore dare not come to\nJesus Christ; for if the death of Jesus Christ, and so the general\ntender of the gospel, concern the elect alone; I, not knowing\nmyself to be one of that number, am at a mighty plunge; nor know\nI whether is the greater sin, to believe, or to despair: for I say\nagain, if Christ died only for the elect, &c. then, I not knowing\nmyself to be one of that number, dare not believe the gospel,\nthat holds forth his blood to save me; nay, I think with safety\nmay not, until I first do know I am elect of God, and appointed\nthereunto.\n\nThird, God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, would have all\nmen whatever, invited by the gospel to lay hold of life by Christ,\nwhether elect or reprobate; for though it be true, that there is\nsuch a thing as election and reprobation, yet God, by the tenders\nof the gospel in the ministry of his word, looks upon men under\nanother consideration, to wit, as sinners; and as sinners invites\nthem to believe, lay hold of, and embrace the same. He saith not\nto his ministers, Go preach to the elect, because they are elect;\nand shut out others, because they are not so: But, Go preach the\ngospel to sinners as sinners; and as they are such, go bid them\ncome to me and live. And it must needs be so, otherwise the preacher\ncould neither speak in faith, nor the people hear in faith. First,\nthe preacher could not speak in faith, because he knoweth not the\nelect from the reprobate; nor they again hear in faith, because,\nas unconverted, they would be always ignorant of that also. So\nthen, the minister neither knowing whom he should offer life unto,\nnor yet the people which of them are to receive it; how could\nthe word now be preached in faith with power? And how could the\npeople believe and embrace it? But now the preacher offering mercy\nin the gospel to sinners, as they are sinners, here is way made\nfor the word to be spoke in faith, because his hearers are sinners;\nyea, and encouragement also for the people to receive and close\ntherewith, they understanding they are sinners: 'Christ Jesus came\ninto the world to save sinners' (1 Tim 1:15; Luke 24:46,47).\n\nFourth, The gospel must be preached to sinners as they are sinners,\nwithout distinction of elect or reprobate; because neither the\none nor yet the other, as considered under these simple acts, are\nfit subjects to embrace the gospel: for neither the one act, nor\nyet the other, doth make either of them sinners; but the gospel\nis to be tendered to men as they are sinners, and personally under\nthe curse of God for sin: wherefore to proffer grace to the elect\nbecause they are elect, it is to proffer grace and mercy to them,\nas not considering them as sinners. And, I say, to deny it to the\nreprobate, because he is not elected, it is not only a denial of\ngrace to them that have no need thereof, but also before occasion\nis given on their part, for such a dispensation. And I say again,\ntherefore, to offer Christ and grace to man elect, as simply so\nconsidered, this administers to him no comfort at all, he being\nhere no sinner; and so engageth not the heart at all to Jesus\nChrist; for that comes in, and is effected on them as they are\nsinners. Yea, to deny the gospel also to the reprobate, because\nhe is not elect, it will not trouble him at all; for saith he, So\nI am not a sinner, and so do not need a Saviour. But now, because\nthe elect have no need of grace in Christ by the gospel, but as\nthey are sinners; nor the reprobates cause to refuse it, but as\nthey are sinners; therefore Christ by the word of the gospel, is\nto be proffered to both, without considering elect or reprobate,\neven as they are sinners. 'The whole have no need of the physician,\nbut they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but\nsinners to repentance' (Mark 2:17; 2 Cor 5:14,15; Luke 7:47).\n\nThus you see the gospel is to be tendered to all in general, as\nwell to the reprobate as to the elect, TO SINNERS AS SINNERS; and\nso are they to receive it, and to close with the tenders thereof.[8]\n\n\nCHAPTER 10.\n\nSeeing then that the grace of God in the gospel, is by that to\nbe proffered to sinners, as sinners; as well to the reprobate as\nthe elect; Is it possible for those who indeed are not elect, to\nreceive it, and be saved?\n\nTo this question I shall answer several things: but first I shall\nshew you what that grace is, that is tendered in the gospel; and\nsecondly, what it is to receive it and be saved.\n\nFirst then, The grace that is offered to sinners as sinners,\nwithout respect to this or that person, it is a sufficiency of\nrighteousness, pardoning grace, and life, laid up in the person\nof Christ, held forth in the exhortation and word of the gospel,\nand promised to be theirs that receive it; yea, I say, in so\nuniversal a tender, that not one is by it excluded or checked in\nthe least, but rather encouraged, if he hath the least desire to\nlife; yea, it is held forth to beget both desires and longings\nafter the life thus laid up in Christ, and held forth by the\ngospel (John 1:16; Col 1:19,23; 1 John 5:11,12; Acts 13:38,39;\nRom 10:12-14, 16:25,26).\n\nSecondly, To receive this grace thus tendered by the gospel, it\nis,\n\n1. To believe it is true.\n\n2. To receive it heartily and unfeignedly through faith. And,\n\n3. To let it have its natural sway, course and authority in the\nsoul, and that in that measure, as to bring forth the fruits of\ngood living in heart, word, and life, both before God and man.\n\nNow then to the question.\n\nIs it possible that this tender, thus offered to the reprobate,\nshould by him be thus received and embraced, and he live thereby?\n\nTo which I answer in the negative. Nor yet for the elect themselves,\nI mean as considered dead in trespasses and sins, which is the state\nof all men, elect as well as reprobate. So then, though there be\na sufficiency of life and righteousness laid up in Christ for all\nmen, and this tendered by the gospel to them without exception;\nyet sin coming in between the soul and the tender of this grace,\nit hath in truth disabled all men, and so, notwithstanding this\ntender, they continue to be dead. For the gospel, I say, coming in\nword only, saveth no man, because of man's impediment; wherefore\nthose that indeed are saved by this gospel, the word comes not to\nthem in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost; is\nmixed with faith even with the faith of the operation of God, by\nwhose exceeding great and mighty power they are raised from this\ndeath of sin, and enabled to embrace the gospel. Doubtless, all\nmen being dead in trespasses and sins, and so captivated under the\npower of the devil, the curse of the law, and shut up in unbelief;\nit must be the power of God, yea the exceeding greatness of that\npower that raiseth the soul from this condition, to receive the\nholy gospel (Eph 2:1-3; 1 Thess 1:5,6; Col 2:12; Heb 4:1,2; Eph\n1:18,19, &c.).\n\nFor man by nature, (consider him at best), can see no more, nor do\nno more than what the principles of nature understands and helps\nto do; which nature being below the discerning of things truly,\nspiritually, and savingly good, it must needs fall short of receiving,\nloving and delighting in them. 'The natural man receiveth not the\nthings of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him:\nneither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned'\n(1 Cor 2:14). Now I say, if the natural man at best (for the elect\nbefore conversion are no more, if quite so much) cannot do this,\nhow shall they attain thereto, being now not only corrupted\nand infected, but depraved, bewitched and dead; swallowed up of\nunbelief, ignorance, confusion, hardness of heart, hatred of God,\nand the like? When a thorn by nature beareth grapes, and a thistle\nbeareth figs, then may this thing be (Matt 7:16-18). To lay hold\nof and receive the gospel by a true and saving faith, it is an\nact of the soul as made a new creature, which is the workmanship\nof God: 'Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing\nis God' (2 Cor 5:5). 'For a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good\nfruit' (Luke 6:43-45). 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?' (Jer\n13:23).\n\nBut yet the cause of this impossibility.\n\n1. Lieth not in reprobation, the elect themselves being as much\nunable to receive it as the other.\n\n2. Neither is it because the reprobate is excluded in the tender,\nfor that is universal.\n\n3. Neither is it because there wanteth arguments in the tenders\nof the gospel, for there is not only plenty, but such as be\npersuasive, clear, and full of rationality.\n\n4. Neither is it because these creatures have no need thereof,\nfor they have broken the law.\n\n5. Wherefore it is, because indeed they are by sin dead, captivated,\nmad, self-opposers, blind, alienated in their minds, and haters\nof the Lord. Behold the ruins that sin hath made!\n\nWherefore whoever receiveth the grace that is tendered in the\ngospel, they must be quickened by the power of God, their eyes must\nbe opened, their understandings illuminated, their ears unstopped,\ntheir hearts circumcised, their wills also rectified, and the Son\nof God revealed in them. Yet as I said, not because there wanteth\nargument in these tenders, but because men are dead, and blind,\nand cannot hear the word. 'Why do ye not understand my speech\n[saith Christ]; Even because ye cannot hear my word' (John 8:43;\nActs 9:15, 26:9,10; Psa 110:3; Gal 1:15; Matt 11:27).\n\nFor otherwise, as I said but now, there is, 1. Rationality enough\nin the tenders of the gospel. 2. Persuasions of weight enough to\nprovoke to faith. And, 3. Arguments enough to persuade to continue\ntherein.\n\n1. Is it not reasonable that man should believe God in the proffer\nof the gospel and life by it? Is there not reason, I say, both\nfrom the truth and faithfulness of God, from the sufficiency of the\nmerits of Christ, as also from the freeness and fullness of the\npromise? What unreasonable thing doth the gospel bid thee credit?\nOr what falsehood doth it command thee to receive for truth? Indeed\nin many points the gospel is above reason, but yet in never a one\nagainst it; especially in those things wherein it beginneth with\nthe sinner, in order to eternal life.\n\n2. Again, touching its persuasions to provoke to faith: With how\nmany signs and wonders, miracles and mighty deeds, hath it been\nonce and again confirmed, and that to this very end? (Heb 1:1-3;\n1 Cor 14:22). With how many oaths, declarations, attestations, and\nproclamations, is it avouched, confirmed, and established? (Heb\n6:17,18; Acts 13:32; Jer 3:12; Gal 3:15). And why should not\ncredence be given to that gospel that is confirmed by blood, the\nblood of the Son of God himself? Yea, that gospel that did never\nyet fail any that in truth hath cast themselves upon it, since\nthe foundation of the world (Heb 9:16-18, 12:1-3).\n\n3. Again, as there is rationality enough, and persuasions sufficient,\nso there is also argument most prevalent to persuade to continue\ntherein, and that to heartily, cheerfully, and unfeignedly, unto\nthe end: did not, as I have said, blindness, madness, deadness, and\nwillful rebellion, carry them away in the vanity of their minds,\nand overcome them (Eph 4:17-19).\n\n(1.) For, first, if they could but consider how they have sinned,\nhow they have provoked God, &c., if they could but consider what\na dismal state the state of the damned is, and also, that in\na moment their condition is like to be the same, would they not\ncleave to the gospel and live?\n\n(2.) The enjoyment of God, and Christ, and saints, and angels,\nbeing the sweetest; the pleasures of heaven the most comfortable,\nand to live always in the greatest height of light, life, joy,\nand gladness imaginable, one would think were enough to persuade\nthe very damned now in hell.\n\nThere is no man then perisheth for want of sufficient reason in the\ntenders of the gospel, nor any for want of persuasions to faith;\nnor yet because there wanteth arguments to provoke to continue\ntherein. But the truth is, the gospel in this hath to do with\nunreasonable creatures; with such as will not believe it, and that\nbecause it is truth: 'And because I tell you the truth, [saith\nChrist] therefore ye believe me not' (John 8:45).\n\nQuest. Well, but if this in truth be thus, how then comes it to\npass that some receive it and live for ever? For you have said\nbefore, that the elect are as dead as the reprobate, and full as\nunable as they, as men, to close with these tenders, and live.\n\nAnsw. Doubtless this is true, and were the elect left to themselves,\nthey, through the wickedness of their heart, would perish as\ndo others. Neither could all the reasonable persuasive prevalent\narguments of the gospel of God in Christ, prevail to make any\nreceive it, and live. Wherefore here you must consider, that as\nthere is mercy proclaimed in the general tenders of the gospel,\nso there is also the grace of election; which grace kindly\nover-ruleth and winneth the spirit of the chosen, working in them\nthat unfeigned closing therewith, that makes it effectual to their\nundoubted salvation; which indeed is the cause that not only in\nother ages, but also to this day, there is a remnant that receive\nthis grace; they being appointed, I say, thereto, before the\nworld began; preserved in time from that which would undo them,\nand enabled to embrace the glorious gospel of grace, and peace,\nand life (1 Kings 19:18; Rom 11:5; 1 Thess 5:9).\n\nNow there is a great difference between the grace of election, and\nthe grace that is wrapped up in the general tenders of the gospel\na difference, I say, and that both as to its timing, latituding,\nand working.\n\n1. Touching its timing; it is before, yea long before, there was\neither tender of the grace wrapped up in the gospel to any, or\nany need of such a tender (Eph 1:4,5).\n\n2. They also differ in latitude; the tenders of grace in the\ngospel are common and universal to all, but the extension of that\nof election special and peculiar to some. 'There is a remnant\naccording to the election of grace' (Rom 11:5).\n\n3. Touching the working of the grace of election; it differs much\nin some things from the working of the grace that is offered in the\ngeneral tenders of the gospel. As is manifest in these particulars:\n\n(1.). The grace that is offered in the general tenders of the\ngospel, calleth for faith to lay hold upon, and accept thereof;\nbut the special grace of election, worketh that faith which doth\nlay hold thereof (Acts 16:31, 13:48; Phil 1:29; 2 Thess 1:11).\n\n(2.) The grace that is offered in the general tenders of the gospel,\ncalleth for faith, as a condition in us, without which there is\nno life; but the special grace of election worketh faith in us\nwithout any such condition (Mark 16:15,16; Rom 11:5,6).\n\n(3.) The grace that is offered in the general tenders of the\ngospel, promiseth happiness upon the condition of persevering in\nthe faith only; but the special grace of election causeth this\nperseverance (Col 1:23; Eph 2:10; Rom 11:7; 1 Peter 1:5-7).\n\n(4.) The grace offered in the general tenders of the gospel, when\nit sparkleth most, leaveth the greatest part of men behind it;\nbut the special grace of election, when it shineth least, doth\ninfallibly bring every soul therein concerned to everlasting life\n(Rom 10:16, 8:33-35).\n\n(5.) A man may overcome and put out all the light and life that\nis begotten in him by the general tenders of the gospel; but none\nshall overcome, or make void, or frustrate the grace of election\n(Jude 4; 2 Peter 2:20-22; Matt 24:24; Rom 11:1-3, &c.).\n\n(6.) The general tenders of the gospel, considered without a\nconcurrence of the grace of election, helps not the elect himself,\nwhen sadly fallen. Wherefore, when I say the grace that is offered\nin the general tenders of the gospel, I mean that grace when\noffered, as not being accompanied with a special operation of\nGod's eternal love, by way of conjunction therewith. Otherwise\nthe grace that is tendered in the general offers of the gospel,\nis that which saveth the sinner now, and that brings him to\neverlasting life; that is, when conjoined with that grace that\nblesseth and maketh this general tender effectually efficacious.\nThe grace of election worketh not without, but by these tenders\ngenerally; neither doth the grace thus tendered, effectually work,\nbut by and with the grace of election: 'As many as were ordained\nto eternal life believed' (Acts 13:48): The word being then effectual\nto life, when the hand of the Lord is effectually therewith to that\nend (Mark 16:20). They 'spake [saith the text] unto the Grecians,\npreaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them;\nand a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord' (Acts\n11:20,21).\n\nWe must always put difference between the word of the gospel, and\nthe power that manageth that word; we must put difference between\nthe common and more special operations of that power also; even as\nthere is evidently a difference to be put between those words of\nChrist that were effectual to do what was said, and of those words of\nhis which were but words only, or at least not so accompanied with\npower. As for instance: that same Jesus that said to the Leper,\n'Say nothing to any man,' said also to Lazarus, 'Come forth';\nyet the one obeyed, the other did not; though he that obeyed was\nleast in a capacity to do it, he being now dead, and stunk in his\ngrave. Indeed unbelief hath hindered Christ much, yet not when he\nputteth forth himself as Almighty, but when he doth suffer himself\nby them to be abused who are to be dealt with by ordinary means:\nOtherwise legions of devils, with ten thousand impediments, must\nfall down before him, and give way unto him. There is a speaking,\nand a so speaking: 'They so spake, that a great multitude, both\nof the Jews, and also of the Greeks, believed' (Acts 14:1). Even\nas I have hinted already, there is a difference between the coming\nof the word when it is in power (1 Thess 1:5), and when it is in\nword only. So then, the blessed grace of election chooseth this\nman to good, not because he is good; it chooseth him to believe,\nnot because he doth believe; it chooseth him to persevere, not\nbecause he doth so; it fore-ordains that this man shall be created\nin Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph 1:4-6), not if a man will\ncreate himself thereto (1 Peter 1:2; Eph 2:10).\n\nWhat shall we say then? Is the fault in God, if any perish?\nDoubtless no; nor yet in his act of eternal reprobation neither:\nit is grace that saveth the elect, but sin that damns the rest:\nit is superabundant grace that causeth the elect to close with the\ntenders of life, and live; and it is the aboundings of sin that\nholds off the reprobate from the rational, necessary, and absolute\ntenders, of grace. To conclude then; the gospel calleth for credence\nas a condition, and that both from the elect and reprobate; but\nbecause none of them both, as dead in sin, will close therewith,\nand live; therefore grace, by virtue of electing love, puts forth\nitself to work and do for some beyond reason; and justice cuts\noff others, for slighting so good, so gracious, and necessary a\nmeans of salvation, so full both of kindness, mercy and reason.\n\n\nCHAPTER 11.\n\nSeeing [that] it is not possible that the reprobate should receive\nthis grace and live, and also seeing [that] this is infallibly\nforeseen of God; and again, seeing God hath fore-determined\nto suffer it so to be; Why doth he yet will and command that the\ngospel, and so grace in the general tenders thereof, should be\nproffered unto them?\n\nWhy then is the gospel offered them? Well, that there is such a\nthing as eternal reprobation, I have shewed you; also what this\neternal reprobation is, I have opened unto you: and shall now shew\nyou also, that though these reprobates will infallibly perish,\nwhich God not only foresaw, but fore-determined to suffer them\nmost assuredly so to do; yet there is reason, great reason, why\nthe gospel, and so the grace of God thereby, should be tendered,\nand that in general terms, to them as well as others.\n\nBut before I come to lay the reasons before you, I must mind you\nafresh of these particulars:\n\n1. That eternal reprobation makes no man a sinner.\n\n2. That the fore-knowledge of God that the reprobate would perish\nmakes no man a sinner.\n\n3. That God's infallibly determining upon the damnation of him\nthat perisheth, makes no man a sinner.\n\n4. God's patience and long-suffering, and forbearance, until the\nreprobate fits himself for eternal destruction, makes no man a\nsinner.\n\nSo then, God may reprobate, may suffer the reprobate to sin, may\npre-determine his infallible damnation, through the pre-consideration\nof him in sin, and may also forbear to work that effectual work\nin his soul that would infallibly bring him out of this condition,\nand yet neither be the author, contriver, nor means of man's sin\nand misery.\n\nAgain, God may infallibly foresee that this reprobate, when he\nhath sinned, will be an unreasonable opposer of his own salvation;\nand may also determine to suffer him to sin, and be thus unreasonable\nto the end, yet be gracious, yea very gracious, if he offer him\nlife, and that only upon reasonable terms, which yet he denieth\nto close with (Isa 1:18; 55:12).\n\nThe reasons are,\n\n1. Because not God, but sin, hath made him unreasonable; without\nwhich, reasonable terms had done his work for him: for reasonable\nterms are the most equal and righteous terms that can be propounded\nbetween parties at difference; yea the terms that most suiteth and\nagreeth with a reasonable creature, such as man; nay, reasonable\nterms are, for terms, the most apt to work with that man whose\nreason is brought into and held captive by very sense itself (Eze\n18; 33).\n\n2. God goeth yet further, he addeth promises of mercy, as those\nthat are inseparable to the terms he offereth, even to pour forth\nhis Spirit unto them; 'Turn at my reproof, and behold I will pour\nforth of my Spirit unto you, and incline your ear; come unto me,\nhear and your soul shall live' (Prov 1:23-27).\n\nNow then to the question itself, to wit, that seeing it is impossible\nthe reprobate should be saved; seeing also this is infallibly\nforeseen of God, and seeing also that God hath beforehand determined\nto suffer it so to be; yet I shall shew you it is requisite, yea\nvery requisite, that he should both will and command that the\ngospel, and so grace in the general tenders thereof should be\nproffered unto them.\n\nFIRST REASON.--And that first, to shew that this reprobation doth\nnot in itself make any man absolutely incapable of salvation: for\nif God had intended that by the act of reprobation, the persons\ntherein concerned should also by that only act have been made\nincapable of everlasting life, then this act must also have tied\nup all the means from them, that tendeth to that end; or at least\nhave debarred the gospel's being offered to them by God's command,\nfor that intent; otherwise who is there but would have charged the\nHoly One as guilty of guile, and worthy of blame, for commanding\nthat the gospel of grace and salvation should be offered unto\nthis or that man, whom yet he hath made incapable to receive it,\nby his act of reprobation. Wherefore this very thing, to wit, that\nthe gospel is yet to be tendered to these eternally reprobated,\nsheweth that it is not simply the act of God's reprobation, but\nsin, that incapacitateth the creature of life everlasting. Which\nsin is no branch of this reprobation, as is evident, because the\nelect and reprobate are both alike defiled therewith.\n\nSECOND REASON.--God also sheweth by this, that the reprobate do\nnot perish for want of the offers of salvation, though he hath\noffended God, and that upon most righteous terms; according to what\nis written, 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in\nthe death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way,\nand live' (Eze 33:11, 18:31,32). 'Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord\nof Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts' (Zech\n1:3). So then, here lieth the point between God and the reprobate,\nI mean the reprobate since he hath sinned, God is willing to save\nhim upon reasonable terms, but not upon terms above reason; but\nnot reasonable terms will [go] down with the reprobate, therefore\nhe must perish for his unreasonableness.\n\nThat God is willing to save even those that perish for ever, is\napparent, both from the consideration of the goodness of his\nnature (Psa 145:9), of man's being his creature, and indeed in a\nmiserable state (Job 14:15, 3:16). But I say, as I have also said\nalready, there is a great difference between his being willing\nto save them, through their complying with these his reasonable\nterms, and his being resolved to save them, whether they, as men,\nwill close therewith, or no; so only he saveth the elect themselves,\neven 'according to the riches of his grace' (Eph 1:7). Even\n'according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus' (Phil 4:19).\nWorking effectually in them, what the gospel, as a condition,\ncalleth for from them. And hence it is that he is said to give\nfaith (Phil 1:29), yea the most holy faith, for that is the faith\nof God's elect, to give repentance (Acts 5:31), to give a new\nheart, to give his fear, even that fear that may keep them for\never from everlasting ruin (Eph 1:4); still engaging his mercy and\ngoodness to follow them all the days of their lives (Jer 32:40;\nEze 36:26,27), that they may dwell in the house of the Lord for\never (Psa 23:6), and as another scripture saith, 'Now he that hath\nwrought us for the selfsame thing, is God' (2 Cor 5:5; Rom 8:26,\n&c.).\n\nBut I say, his denying to do thus for every man in the world,\ncannot properly be said to be because he is not heartily willing\nthey should close with the tenders of the grace held forth in\nthe gospel, and live. Wherefore you must consider that there is\na distinction to be put between God's denying grace on reasonable\nterms, and denying it absolutely; and also that there is a difference\nbetween his withholding further grace, and of hindering men from\nclosing with the grace at present offered; also that God may\nwithhold much, when he taketh away nothing; yea, take away much,\nwhen once abused, and yet be just and righteous still. Further, God\nmay deny to do this or that absolutely, when yet he hath promised\nto do, not only that, but more, conditionally. Which things\nconsidered, you may with ease conclude, that he may be willing to\nsave those not elect, upon reasonable terms, though not without\nthem.\n\nIt is no unrighteousness in God to offer grace unto the world,\nthough but on these terms only, that they are also foreseen by him\ninfallibly to reject; both because to reject it is unreasonable,\nespecially the terms being so reasonable, as to believe the truth\nand live; and also because it is grace and mercy in God, so much\nas once to offer means of reconciliation to a sinner, he being\nthe offender; but the Lord, the God offended; they being but dust\nand ashes, he the heavenly Majesty. If God, when man had broke\nthe law, had yet with all severity kept the world to the utmost\ncondition of it, had he then been unjust? Had he injured man at\nall? Was not every tittle of the law reasonable, both in the first\nand second table? How much more then is he merciful and gracious,\neven in but mentioning terms of reconciliation? especially seeing\nhe is also willing so to condescend, if they will believe his word,\nand receive the love of the truth. Though the reprobate then doth\nvoluntarily, and against all strength of reason, run himself upon\nthe rocks of eternal misery, and split himself thereon, he perisheth\nin his own corruption, by rejecting terms of life (2 Thess 2:10;\n2 Peter 2:12,13).\n\nObject. But the reprobate is not now in a capacity to fulfil these\nreasonable terms.\n\nAns. But I say, suppose it should be granted, is it because\nreprobation made him incapable, or sin? Not reprobation, but sin:\nif sin, then before he quarrel, let him consider the case aright,\nwhere, in the result, he will find sin, being consented to by his\nvoluntary mind, hath thus disabled him: and because, I say, it\nwas sin by his voluntary consent that did it, let him quarrel with\nhimself for consenting, so as to make himself incapable to close\nwith reasonable terms; yea, with those terms because reasonable,\ntherefore most suitable, as terms, for him notwithstanding his\nwickedness. And I say again, forasmuch as those reasonable terms\nhave annexed unto them, as their inseperable companions, such\nwonderful mercy and grace as indeed there is, let even them that\nperish, yet justify God; yea cry, 'His goodness endureth for\never'; though they, through the wretchedness of their hearts, get\nno benefit by it.\n\nTHIRD REASON.--God may will and command that his gospel, and so\nthe grace thereof, be tendered to those that shall never be saved,\n(besides what hath been said) to shew to all spectators what an\nenemy sin, being once embraced, is to the salvation of man. Sin,\nwithout the tenders of the grace of the gospel, could never have\nappeared so exceeding sinful, as by that it both hath and doth: 'If\nI had not come and spoken unto them, [saith Christ] they had not\nhad sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin' (John 15:22).\nAs sins that oppose the law, are discovered by the law, that is,\nby the goodness, and justness, and holiness of the law (Rom 7); so\nthe sins that oppose the gospel, are made manifest by that, even\nby the love, and mercy, and forgiveness of the gospel: If 'he\nthat despised Moses' law died without mercy,--of how much sorer\npunishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden\nunder foot the Son of God?' (Heb 10:28,29). Who could have thought\nthat sin would have opposed that which is just, but especially\nmercy and grace, had we not seen it with our eyes? And how could\nwe have seen it to purpose, had not God left some to themselves?\nHere indeed is sin made manifest: 'For all he had done so many\nmiracles amongst them,' (to wit, to persuade them to mercy) 'yet\nthey believed not on him' (John 12:37). Sin, where it reigneth, is\na mortal enemy to the soul; it blinds the eyes, holds the hands,\nties the legs, and stops the ears, and makes the heart implacable\nto resist the Saviour of souls. That man will neither obey the\nlaw nor the gospel, who is left unto his sin: which also God is\nwilling should be discovered and made manifest, though it cost the\ndamnation of some: For this very purpose, saith God to Pharaoh,\n'have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my\nname may be declared in all the earth' (Exo 9:16; Rom 9:17). For\nGod, by raising up Pharaoh to his kingdom, and suffering him to\nwalk to the height, according as his sin did prompt him forward,\nshewed unto all beholders what a dreadful thing sin is; and that\nwithout the special assistance of his Holy Spirit, sin would\nneither be charmed by law nor gospel. This reason, though it be\nno profit unto those that are damned; yet it is for the honour of\nGod, and the good of those he hath chosen.\n\nIt is for the honour of God, even for the honour of his power and\nmercy: for his power is now discovered indeed, when nothing can\ntame sin but that; and his mercy is here seen indeed; because that\ndoth engage him to do it. Read Romans 9:22,23.\n\nFOURTH REASON.--God commandeth that the tender of the gospel,\nand the grace thereof, be in general offered to all, that means\nthereby might be sufficiently provided for the elect, both to\nbeget them to faith, and to maintain it in them to the end, in\nwhat place, or state, or condition soever they are (Eph 1). God,\nthrough the operation of his manifold wisdom, hath an end and an\nend in his acts and doings amongst the children of men: and, so in\nthat he commandeth that his gospel be tendered to all, an end, I\nsay, to leave the damned without excuse, and to provide sufficiency\nof means for the gathering all his elect. 'Oh that God would speak,\n[saith Zophar] and open his lips against thee; and--shew thee the\nsecrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is' (Job\n11:5,6). For though God worketh with and upon the elect, otherwise\nthan with and upon the reprobate; yet he worketh with and upon\nthe elect, with and by the same word he commandeth should be held\nforth and offered to the reprobate. Now the text thus running in\nmost free and universal terms, the elect then hearing thereof, do\nthrough the mighty power of God close in with the tenders therein\nheld forth, and are saved. Thus that word that was offered to the\nreprobate Jews, and by them most fiercely rejected, even that word\nbecame yet effectual to the chosen, and they were saved thereby.\nThey gladly received the word, 'and as many as were ordained to\neternal life believed' (Acts 13:48).[9] 'Not as though the word\nof God had taken none effect' (Rom 9:6). 'God hath not cast away\nhis people whom he foreknew' (11:2). The word shall accomplish\nthe thing for which God hath sent it, even the salvation of the\nfew that are chosen, when tendered to all; though rejected by most,\nthrough the rebellion of their hearts (Acts 28:28; Heb 4:1-3).\n\nObject. But if God hath elected, as you have said, what need he\nlay a foundation so general for the begetting faith in his chosen\nparticulars, seeing the same Spirit that worketh in them by such\nmeans, could also work in them by other, even by a word, excluding\nthe most, in the first tenders thereof, amongst men?\n\nAns. I told you before, that though this be a principal reason\nof the general tenders of the grace of the gospel, yet it is not\nall the reason why the tender should be so general, as the three\nformer reasons shew.\n\nBut again, in the bowels of God's decree of election, is contained\nthe means that are also ordained for the effectual bringing of\nthose elected to that glory for which they were fore-appointed;\neven to gather together in one, all the children of God (John\n11:52). 'Whereunto he called you, [saith Paul] by our gospel,\nto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess\n2:14). God's decree of election then, destroyeth not the means\nwhich his wisdom hath prepared, it rather establisheth, yea ordains\nand establisheth it; and maketh that means which in the outward\nsound is indefinite and general, effectual to this and that man,\nthrough a special and particular application (Gal 2:20,21): thus\nthat Christ that in general was offered to all, is by a special\nact of faith applied to Paul in particular; 'He loved me, and gave\nhimself for me.'\n\nFurther, As the design of the Heavenly Majesty is to bring his elect\nto glory by means, so by the means thus universal and general, as\nmost behooveful and fit; if we consider not only the way it doth\nplease him to work with some of his chosen, in order to this their\nglory, but also the trials, temptations, and other calamities they\nmust go through thereto.\n\n1. Touching his working with some, how invisible is it to these\nin whose souls it is yet begun? How is the word buried under the\nclods of their hearts for months, yea years together? Only thus\nmuch is discovered thereof, it sheweth the soul its sin, the which\nit doth also so aggravate and apply to the conscience (Jesus still\nrefraining, like Joseph, to make himself known to his brethren)\nthat were there not general tenders of mercy, and that to the worst\nof sinners, they would soon miscarry, and perish, as do the sons\nof perdition. But by these the Lord upholdeth and helpeth them,\nthat they stand, when others fall for ever (Psa 119:49).\n\n2. And so likewise for their trials, temptations, and other\ncalamities, because God will not bring them to heaven without,\nbut by them; therefore he hath also provided a word so large, as\nto lie fair for the support of the soul in all conditions, that\nit may not die for thirst.\n\n3. I might add also in this place, their imperfect state after\ngrace received, doth call for such a word; yea, many other things\nwhich might be named: which God, only wise, hath thought fit should\naccompany us to the ship, yea in the sea, to our desired haven.\n\nFIFTH REASON.--God willeth and commandeth the gospel should be\noffered to all, that thereby distinguishing love, as to an inward\nand spiritual work, might the more appear to be indeed the fruit\nof special and peculiar love. For in that the gospel is tendered\nto all in general, when yet but some do receive it; yea, and seeing\nthese some are as unable, unwilling, and by nature, as much averse\nthereto, as those that refuse it, and perish; it is evident that\nsomething more of heaven and the operation of the Spirit of God\ndoth accompany the word thus tendered for their life and salvation\nthat enjoy it (1 Thess 1:4-7). Not now as a word barely tendered,\nbut backed by the strength of heaven: 'Behold what manner of love\nthe Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the\nsons of God!' (1 John 3:1) even we who believe 'according to the\nworking of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he\nraised him from the dead' (Eph 1:20). This provoketh to distinguishing\nadmiration, yea, and also to a love like that which hath fastened\non the called, the preserved, and the glorified: 'He hath not\ndealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not\nknown them. Praise ye the Lord' (Psa 147:20). Now are the sacrifices\nbound even to the horns of the altar, with a 'Lord, how is it\nthat thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world!'\n(John 14:22). He 'sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of\nmany waters; he delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them\nthat hated me; for they were too strong for me' (2 Sam 22:17; Psa\n18:16).\n\nFor thus the elect considereth: though we all came alike into the\nworld, and are the children of wrath by nature (Eph 2:1-3); yea,\nthough we have alike so weakened ourselves by sin (Rom 3:9), that\nthe whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint (Isa 1:5), being\naltogether gone out of the way, and every one become altogether\nunprofitable, both to God and ourselves (Rom 3:12); yet that God\nshould open mine eyes, convert my soul, give me faith, forgive\nmy sins, raise me, when I fall; fetch me again, when I am gone\nastray; this is wonderful! (Psa 37:23). Yea, that he should prepare\neternal mansions for me (Psa 23:6); and also keep me by his blessed\nand mighty power for that; and that in a way of believing, which\nwithout his assistance I am no way able to perform! (2 Cor 5:5).\nThat he should do this notwithstanding my sins, though I had no\nrighteousness! (Deut 9:5-7). Yea, that he should do it according\nto the riches of his grace, through the redemption that is in\nJesus Christ our Lord! Even according to an everlasting covenant\nof grace, which yet the greatest part of the world are void of,\nand will for ever miss and fall short of! (Eze 16:60-63). Besides,\nthat he should mollify my heart! break it, and then delight in it\n(Psa 51:17); put his fear in it, and then look to me (Isa 66:2;\nPsa 138:6), and keep me as the apple of his eye (Deut 32:10);\nyea, resolve to guide me with his counsel, and then receive me to\nglory! Further, that all this should be the effect of unthought\nof, undeserved, and undesired love! (Mal 1:2; Deut 7:7,8). That the\nLord should think on this before he made the world (Jer 31:3), and\nsufficiently ordain the means before he had laid the foundation of\nthe hills! For this he is worthy to be praised (1 Cor 2:9): yea,\n'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; praise ye the\nLord.'\n\nObject. But you have said before, that the reprobate is also blessed\nwith many gospel mercies, as with the knowledge of Christ, faith,\nlight, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the tastes or relish of\nthe powers of the world to come: if so, then what should be the\nreason that yet he perisheth? Is it because the grace that he\nreceiveth differeth from the grace that the elect are saved by?\nIf they differ, where lieth the difference? Whether in the nature,\nor in the degree, or in the management thereof?\n\nAns. To this objection I might answer many things; but, for brevity,\ntake this reply: That the non-elect may travel very far both in\nthe knowledge, faith, light, and sweetness of Jesus Christ, and\nmay also attain to the partaking of the Holy Ghost; yea, and by\nthe very operation of these things also, escape the pollutions of\nthe world, and become a visible saint, join in church-communion,\nand be as chief amongst the very elect themselves. This the\nscriptures every where do shew us.\n\nThe question then is, whether the elect and reprobate receive a\ndiffering grace? To which I answer, Yes, in some respects, both\nas to the nature thereof, and also the degree.\n\n1. To begin then with the nature of it.\n\n(1.) The faith that the chosen are blessed with, it goeth under\nanother name than any faith besides, even the faith of God's elect\n(Titus 1:1), as of a faith belonging to them only, of which none\nothers do partake; which faith also, for the nature of it, is called\nfaith most holy (Jude 20); to shew it goes beyond all other, and\ncan be fitly matched no where else, but with their most blessed\nfaith who infallibly attain eternal glory: even 'like precious faith\nwith us,' saith Peter (2 Peter 1:1); with his elect companions.\nAnd so of other things. For if this be true, that they differ in\ntheir faith, they must needs therewith differ in other things: for\nfaith being the mother grace, produceth all the rest according to\nits own nature, to wit, love that abounds, that never fails, and\nthat is never contented till it attain the resurrection of the\ndead, &c. (2 Thess 1:3; 1 Cor 13:8; Phil 3).\n\n(2.) They differ as to the nature, in this; the faith, and hope,\nand love, that the chosen receive, it is that which floweth from\nelection itself; he hath blessed us 'according as he hath chosen\nus' (Eph 1:4,5), even with those graces he set apart for us, when\nhe in eternity did appoint us to life before the foundation of the\nworld: which graces, because the decree in itself is most absolute\nand infallible, they also, that they may completely answer the end,\nwill do the work infallibly likewise, still through the management\nof Christ: 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not' (Luke\n22:32). But,\n\n2. As they differ in nature, they differ also in degree: for though\nit be true that the reprobate is blessed with grace, yet this is\nalso as true, that the elect are blessed with more grace. It is\nthe privilege only of those that are chosen, to be blessed with\nALL spiritual blessings, and to have ALL the good pleasure of the\ngoodness of God fulfilled in and upon them. Those who are blessed\nwith ALL spiritual blessings must needs be blessed with eternal\nlife; and those in whom the Lord, not only works all his good\npleasure, but fulfilleth all the good pleasure of his goodness\nupon them, they must needs be preserved to his heavenly kingdom\n(Eph 1:4,5; 1 Thess 1:10); but none of the non-elect have these\nthings conferred upon them; therefore the grace bestowed upon the\none, doth differ both in nature and degree from the other.\n\n3. There is a difference as to the management also. The reprobate\nis principal for the management of the grace he receiveth, but\nJesus Christ is principal for the management of the grace the\nelect receiveth. When I say principal, I mean chief; for though\nthe reprobate is to have the greatest hand in the management of\nwhat mercy and goodness the Lord bestoweth on him, yet not so as\nthat the Lord will not help him at all; nay contrariwise he will,\nif first the reprobate do truly the duty that lieth on him: 'If\nthou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? but if thou doest\nnot well, sin lieth at the door' (Gen 4:7). Thus it was also with\nSaul, who was rejected of God upon this account (1 Sam 13:11-14,\n15:26). And I say, as to the elect themselves, though Jesus Christ\nour blessed Saviour be chief, as to the management of the grace\nbestowed on his chosen, yet not so as that he quite excludeth\nthem from 'striving according to his working, which worketh in\nme mightily' (Col 1:29). Nay contrariwise, if those who in truth\nare elect, shall yet be remiss, and do wickedly, they shall feel\nthe stroke of God's rod, it may be till their bones do break. But\nbecause the work doth not lie at their door to manage as chief,\nbut as Christ's, therefore though he may perform his work with\nmuch bitterness and grief to them; yet he being engaged as the\nprincipal, will perform that which concerneth them, even until\nthe day (the coming) of Jesus Christ (Psa 138:8; Phil 1:6).\n\nFrom what hath been said, there ariseth this conclusion:\n\nThe elect are always under eternal mercy, but those not elect\nalways under eternal justice; for you must consider this: there\nis eternal mercy and eternal justice, and there is present mercy\nand present justice. So then, for a man to be in a state of\nmercy, it may be either a state of mercy present, or both present\nand eternal also. And so again for a man to be in a state under\njustice, it may be understood either of present justice only, or\nof both present and eternal also.\n\nThat this may yet further be opened, I shall somewhat enlarge.\n\nI begin with present mercy and present justice. That which I call\npresent mercy, is that faith, light, knowledge, and taste of the\ngood word of God, that a man may have, and perish. This is called\nin scripture, Believing for a while, during for a while, and\nrejoicing in the light for a season (Heb 6:4,5; 2 Peter 2:20; Matt\n13:22; Luke 8:13). Now I call this mercy, both because none, as\nmen, can deserve it, and also because the proper end thereof is\nto do good to those that have it. But I call it present mercy,\nbecause those that are only blessed with that, may sin it away,\nand perish; as did some of the Galatians, Hebrews, Alexandrians,\nwith the Asians, and others (Gal 5:4; Heb 12:15,16; 1 Tim 1:20; 2\nTim 2:18, 1:15; Heb 12:15). But yet observe again, I do not call\nthis present mercy, because God hath determined it shall last but\na while absolutely; but because it is possible for man to lose\nit, yea determined he shall, conditionally (John 5:35; 1 Cor 12:7).\n\nAgain, as to present justice, it is that which lasteth but a while\nalso; and as present mercy is properly the portion of those left\nout of God's election, so present justice chiefly hath to do with\nGod's beloved; who yet at that time are also under eternal mercy.\nThis is that justice that afflicted Job (6:4), David (Psa 88,\n38:3), Heman, and the godly, who notwithstanding do infallibly\nattain, by virtue of this mercy, eternal life and glory (Amos\n3:2; 1 Cor 11:30,31; Psa 30:5, 103:9; 1 Peter 1:6). I call this\njustice, because in some sense God dealeth with his children\naccording to the quality of their transgressions; and I call\nit also present justice, because though the hand of God for the\npresent be never so heavy on those that are his by election, yet\nit lasteth but a while; wherefore though this indeed be called\nwrath, yet is but a little wrath, wrath for a moment, time, or\nseason. 'In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment;\nbut with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith\nthe Lord thy Redeemer' (Isa 54:8).\n\nThus you see there is present mercy and present justice; also\nthat the elect may be under present justice, when the rest may be\nunder present mercy.\n\nAgain, As there is present mercy and present justice, so there\nis eternal mercy and eternal justice: and I say, as the elect may\nbe under present justice, when the non-elect may be under present\nmercy; so the elect at that time are also under eternal mercy,\nbut the other under eternal justice.\n\nThat the elect are under eternal mercy, and that when under present\njustice, is evident from what hath been said before, namely, from\ntheir being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world;\nas also from the consideration of their sound conversion, and\nsafe preservation quite through this wicked world, even safe unto\neternal life; as he also saith by the prophet Jeremiah, 'Yea, I\nhave loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving\nkindness have I drawn thee' (31:3). And hence it is that he calleth\nthe elect his sheep (John 10:16), his children (11:52), and people\n(Acts 18:9,10), and that before conversion; for though none of them\nas yet were his children by calling, yet were they his according\nto election.\n\nNow the elect being under this eternal grace and mercy, they must\nneeds be under it both before present justice seizeth upon them,\nwhile it seizeth them, and also continueth with them longer than\npresent justice can, it being from everlasting to everlasting.\nThis being so, here is the reason why no sin, nor yet temptation\nof the enemy, with any other evil, can hurt or destroy those thus\nelect of God: yea this is that which maketh even those things that\nin themselves are the very bane of men, yet prove very much for\ngood to those within this purpose (Rom 8:28). And as David saith,\n'It is good for me that I have been afflicted' (Psa 119:71).\nAnd again, 'But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord,\nthat we should not be condemned with the world' (1 Cor 11:32).\nNow afflictions, &c., in themselves are not only fruitless and\nunprofitable, but, being unsanctified, are destructive; 'I smote\nhim, and he went on frowardly' (Isa 57:17). But now eternal mercy\nworking with this or that affliction, makes it profitable to the\nchosen; 'I have seen his ways, and will heal him, and restore\ncomforts unto him and to his mourners' (v 18). As he saith in another\nplace, 'Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and teachest him\nout of thy law' (Psa 94:12). For eternal mercy doth not look on\nthose who are the elect and chosen of God, as poor sinful creatures\nonly, but also as the generation whom the Lord hath blessed,\nin whom he hath designed to magnify his mercy to the utmost, by\npardoning the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage (1 Peter\n2:9; Micah 7:18,19). 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption\nof children by Jesus Christ to himself,--wherein he hath made us\naccepted in the beloved' (Eph 1:6). Wherefore, I say, the elect,\nas they do also receive that grace and mercy that may be sinned\naway, so they have that grace and mercy which cannot be lost,\nand that sin cannot deprive them of, even mercy that abounds, and\ngoeth beyond all sin; such mercy as hath engaged the power of God,\nthe intercession of Christ, and the communication of the blessed\nSpirit of adoption, which Spirit also engageth the heart, directs\nit into the love of God, that it may not depart from God after\nthat rate as the reprobates do (Eph 5:29,30). 'I will make an\neverlasting covenant with them, [saith God] that I will not turn\naway from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their\nhearts, that they shall not depart from me' (Jer 32:40).\n\nBut now I say, God's dealing with the non-elect, is far otherwise,\nthey being under the consideration of eternal justice, even then\nwhen in the enjoyment of present grace and mercy. And hence it\nis that as to their standing before the God of heaven, they are\ncounted dogs, and sows, and devils, even then when before the elect\nof God themselves they are counted saints and brethren: 'The dog\nis turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed\nto her wallowing in the mire' (2 Peter 2:22). And the reason is,\nbecause notwithstanding all their shew before the world, their old\nnature and corruptions do still bear sway within, which in time\nalso, according to the ordinary judgment of God, is suffered so\nto shew itself, that they are visible to saints that are elect,\nas was the case of Simon Magus, and that wicked apostate Judas,\nwho 'went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had\nbeen of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they\nwent out that they might be made manifest that they were not all\nof us' (1 John 2:19). They were not elect as we, nor were they\nsanctified as the elect of God themselves; wherefore eternal justice\ncounts them the sons of perdition, when under their profession.\nAnd I say, they being under this eternal justice, it must needs\nhave to do with them in the midst of their profession; and because\nalso it is much offended with them for conniving with their lust,\nit taketh away from them, and that most righteously, those gifts\nand graces, and benefits and privileges that present mercy gave\nthem; and not only so, but cuts them off for their iniquity, and\nlayeth them under wrath for ever. They 'have forsaken the right way,\n[saith God]--following the way of Baalam the son of Bosor;--these\nare wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest';\ntrees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked\nup by the roots, 'for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness\nfor ever' (2 Peter 2:5,16,17; Jude 11-13; John 17:12; Matt 13:12,\n25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18).\n\nThese things thus considered, you see,\n\n1. That there is present grace and present mercy, eternal grace\nand eternal mercy.\n\n2. That the elect are under eternal mercy, and THAT, when under\npresent justice; and that the reprobate is under eternal justice,\nand THAT when under present mercy.\n\n3. Thus you see again, that the non-elect perish by reason of\nsin, notwithstanding present mercy, because of eternal justice;\nand that the elect are preserved from the death, though they sin\nand are obnoxious to the strokes of present justice, by reason of\neternal mercy. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness\nwith God? God forbid: 'He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,\nand compassion on whom he will have compassion' (Rom 9:15).\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] 'Shedding words' means 'scattering or spreading words,' as in\nActs 2:33; now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n[2] As election took place before the creation of man--all men in\nAdam were decreed, made and turned into the world upright.--Ed.\n\n[3] 'Prevents our doing good.' Few words in the English language\nhave more altered in their meaning than 'prevent'; it is derived\nfrom 'praevenio,' to go before. In Bunyan's time, it meant 'to go\nbefore,' 'clear the way,' 'make the way easy' for our doing good.\nIts present meaning is 'to obstruct,' by going or standing before\nus.--Ed.\n\n[4] They who diligently attend to the scriptures, will find\nthroughout the whole a vein of election and reprobation. The holy\nseed may be traced in many instances, and in divers families, in\nthe Bible, from Adam to the birth of our Saviour, whose ancestors,\naccording to the flesh, were of the line of election or the godly;\nwhich those who are only born after the flesh, and not after the\nSpirit, namely, the reprobate, have always despised and persecuted,\nand will do so to the end of time--Mason and Ryland.\n\n[5] It is of God's mere mercy and grace that any sinners are called\nand admitted to the privilege of justification and adoption, upon\nGod's own terms. The reason why the sinful and unworthy heathen\n(of whom Britain is a part) were called to be a people, who were\nnot a people, while the Jews were left out and cast off for their\nobstinate unbelief, was not because the Gentiles were either more\nworthy or more willing (for they were all dead in trespasses and\nsins), but from God's discriminating grace and mercy.--Mason and\nRyland.\n\n[6] The final condemnation of the wicked does not spring from\nGod's sovereign will to destroy any of his rational creatures;\nthis is evident from the many pressing invitations, declarations,\nand promises in the word of God: for Jehovah swears by his great\nself, that he desires not the death of a sinner. Our Lord assigns\nthe cause of reprobation in these words, (John 5:40) 'Ye will not\ncome unto me, that ye might have life'; wherefore Christ, the only\nremedy for their cure, being rejected, the sinner is condemned,\nand rendered the object of wrath and punishment by the law and\njustice of God; because the same word of truth which says, 'Whosoever\nwill, let him come, and take of the water of life freely,' also\nsays, 'The soul that sinneth [or lives and dies in sin unpardoned]\nshall die.' Thus sin is the object of God's hatred, and not the\nman, abstractedly considered. May we therefore each of us have\ngrace to look to Christ for full and complete salvation, who hath\nput away sin by the sacrifice of himself, whereby he has perfected\nfor ever them that are sanctified!--Ryland and Mason.\n\n[7] 'Secret things belong to God, but those that are revealed\nbelong to us.' It is a vain thing for men to cavil at the doctrine\nof peculiar election, and to quarrel with God for choosing some,\nand passing by others. Their best way would be to assure themselves\nof their own election, by using the means, and walking in the ways\nof God's appointment, as laid down in the word, and then they will\nfind that God cannot deny himself, but will make good to them every\npromise therein; and thus, by scripture evidence, they will find\nthat they are elected unto life, and will be thankful and humble.\nThey will then find that an hearty affectionate trusting in Christ\nfor all his salvation, as freely promised to us, hath naturally\nenough in it to work in our souls a natural bent and inclination\nto, and ability for, the practice of all holiness.--Ryland and\nMason.\n\n[8] None are excluded the benefit of the great and precious salvation\nprocured and finished by the Lord Jesus Christ, but they, who\nby perverseness, unbelief, and impenitency, exclude themselves.\nSinners,--miserable, helpless, and hopeless sinners, are the objects\nof this salvation: whosoever is enabled to see, in the light of\nGod's Spirit, their wretched and forlorn state; to feel their want\nof Christ as a suitable Saviour, and to repent and forsake their\nsins, shall find mercy; for 'God is no respecter of persons' (Acts\n10:34).--Ryland and Mason.\n\n[9] As the same sun which softens the wax, hardens the clay, so\nit is with the preached gospel, which is to some 'the savour of\ndeath unto death, and to others the savour of life unto life' (2\nCor 2:16). The gospel is ineffectual to any saving purpose respecting\nthe reprobate; partly through pride, and in not enduring to be\nreproved by it; partly through slothfulness, in not coming under\nthe sound of it; and principally through cursed infidelity, in not\nbelieving the gracious message it brings. Let it be well attended\nto, that all who hear the gospel, are obliged to the duty of\nbelieving, as well as to all the duties of the moral law, and that\nbefore they know their particular election; for we cannot have\na certain knowledge of our election to eternal life before we do\nbelieve: it is a thing hidden in the unsearchable counsel of God,\nuntil it be manifest by our effectual calling, and believing on\nChrist; therefore we must believe on Christ before we know our\nelection; or else we shall never know it, and shall never believe.\nAll joy, peace, comfort, assurances, are communicated to the soul\nin the way of believing. May the Lord give and increase saving\nfaith!--Mason and Ryland.\n\n***\n\nQUESTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE AND PERPETUITY OF THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH.\n\nAND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN\nSABBATH.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\n'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.'\n\nLondon: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry,\n1685.\n\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nAll our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made\npersonally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold\nfast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding\nupon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our\nobservations of nature, that there is a God; our next inquiry is\ninto the revelation of his will: which, when understood, must be\nimplicitly obeyed, in defiance of any usages of society, and of every\nerroneous pre-conceived opinion. In this important investigation,\nwe shall find, that the commands of God revealed to man, fall\nunder two classes.\n\nFirst, Moral and Eternal, being essential to the happiness of all\ncreated intelligences, whether pure or sinful. As, the fear and\nlove of the Creator, who preserves and bountifully blesses his\ncreatures; and flowing from this is love to all his creation. He\nwho wantonly destroys life in order that he may glut a demoniac\npropensity with the agonizing death struggle, is a practical\natheist. The Christian will cherish and promote the happiness of\nall; he dares only to take away life to preserve life.\n\nSecond, Ceremonial or Temporal. Those which have been commanded\nby God, for local, family or national observances, and which, when\nthey have fulfilled their intended object, are removed or suffered\ngradually to die away.\n\nThe well-being of society requires that a portion of time be set\napart for divine worship. Individuals are commanded to pray without\nceasing. An invaluable custom leads families to unite in morning\nand evening prayer; and it is an important question whether the\nCreator having sanctified, and rested on, the seventh day, intended\nthat rest as a pattern to all his rational creatures. If so, the\nseventh day must depend upon our being able to fix upon which\nday of the week the creation commenced. Again our inquiries will\nextend to those injunctions, given to the Jews in the wilderness,\nto sanctify certain days to public worship; and whether that law\nwas intended for all mankind. In either case it is essential that\nwe ascertain whether those various Sabbaths of weeks--of months\nor of years--with the ceremonies to be performed on them, were to\ncontinue to the end of time or for a limited period.\n\nIn all these inquiries we are strictly confined to revelation,\nfor there is no indication in nature, or in any of its laws, of\na day of rest; but on the contrary a state of progression marks\nevery day alike. Our Lord has taught us that 'the Sabbath was made\nfor man,' and therefore did not exist among the angels, prior to\nthe creation of man, as all moral or universal obligations must\nhave existed; for they are the same from eternity to eternity; and\nover this, like other ceremonial or local commands, the Creator\nclaims dominion. 'The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.'\n\nResearches into these questions were made in earlier times, and\nsome curious calculations have appeared to prove, that the work\nof creation commenced on the day called Monday, so that what is\nnow termed the first day of the week, was originally the rest of\nGod from creation; as it was his rest from the work of redemption,\nby rising from the tomb. But the extent of that period called a\nday, in creation, has never been defined: and the terms 'work' or\n'rest,' as applied to the Deity, are used in condescension to our\nfinite powers. The controversy upon this subject assumed a more\npublic and definite form at the Reformation. Sir Thomas More asserted\nthat the seventh day was superseded by the first, in obedience to\ntradition:[1] it forms the first of the five commandments of Holy\nChurch--'The Sundays hear thou mass.' William Tyndale, in reply,\ncontends that 'we be lords over the Sabbath'; we may change it\nfor Monday, or any other day, as we see need, or have two every\nweek, if one is not enough to teach the people.[2] Calvin preferred a\ndaily assembling of the church, but if that was impossible, then\nat stated intervals: his words are--'Since the Sabbath is abrogate,\nI do not so rest upon the number of seven, that I would bind the\nchurch to the bondage thereof; neither will I condemn those churches\nthat have other solemn days for their meetings.'[3] Luther considers\nthe observance of the Jewish Sabbath one of the 'weak and beggarly\nrudiments.'[4]\n\nThe controversy became still more popular in this country, when\nJames the First and Charles the First put forth the book of sports to\nbe allowed and encouraged on Sundays. The Puritans called Sunday\n'The Sabbath,' and a voluminous contest was carried on as to whether\nit ought not rather to be called 'The Lord's day.' In 1628, Mr.\nBrabourne, a clergyman of note, kept the Jewish Sabbath, and in\na short time several churches, in England, assembled on that day,\nand were called 'seventh day, or Sabbath keepers'--many of them\nwere Baptists. This led to the controversy in which Bunyan took\nhis part, in this very conclusive and admirable treatise.\n\nThe work was first published in the year 1685, and was not reprinted\nuntil the year 1806, when it appeared in the third volume of select\nworks by John Bunyan; since then it has been reprinted in two\nAmerican editions of his works. The reason why it was not republished,\nprobably was, that the churches of the Sabbath keepers died away.\nAt this time only three are known in England; one of these is\nat Millyard, London, where my talented antiquarian friend, W. H.\nBlack, is elder and pastor. These places of worship are supported\nby an endowment. Bunyan's book does not appear to have been\nanswered; indeed, it would require genius of no ordinary kind to\ncontrovert such conclusive evidence.\n\nHis arguments are, that the appearances of nature shew no difference\nof days--that no Sabbath or other day was set apart for worship\nbefore the giving of the Law at Sinai. 'Thou camest down also upon\nMount Sinai, and madest KNOWN unto them thy holy Sabbaths, by the\nhand of Moses' (Neh 9:13,14). 'The seventh day is the Sabbath of\nthe Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work--and remember\nthat thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord\nthy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by\na stretched out arm, THEREFORE the Lord thy God commanded thee to\nkeep the Sabbath day' (Deut 5:14,15). While many crimes are mentioned\nin patriarchal times, there is no complaint of Sabbath-breaking.\nWe read of fratricide, drunkenness, lying, unbelief, theft, idolatry,\nslave-dealing, and other crimes, but no hint as to sanctifying or\ndesecrating the Sabbath. At length, a few days before the giving\nof the law, a natural phenomenon announced to the Jews the great\nchange that was at hand--the manna fell in double quantity on Friday,\nand was not found on Saturday. So new was this that, contrary to\nthe command, the people went out on the seventh day as on other\ndays, and were rebuked but not punished for it. But no sooner\nis the Sabbath instituted by Moses, than it is broken, and the\nSabbath-breaker is punished with a cruel death. It was instituted\nas a peculiar observance to distinguish the Jews from all other\nnations--'The Lord hath given YOU the Sabbath' (Exo 16:39). 'The\nchildren of Israel shall keep the Sabbath' (Exo 31:16,17). 'I gave\nthem [the Israelites who were delivered from Egypt] my Sabbaths\nto be a sign between me and them' (Eze 20:12). Ceremonies were\ncommanded to be performed as the Sabbath worship, which cannot\nnow be observed (see Lev 24; Numb 28: Neh 13:22; Eze 46:4). The\nJewish Sabbath was 'a shadow of things to come, but the body is\nof Christ' (Col 2:16,17). The shadows have fled away; we possess\nthe substance. The covenant of Moses was written on stone--the\nnew covenant is written on our hearts (Heb 8:9,10). Bunyan admits\nno uncertainty as to a fixed day for christian worship: the law\nof nature requires it; the God of nature fixes the day, without\nborrowing it from the ministration of death. The Jewish passover\nand Sabbaths are superseded; Christ our passover is slain, and we\nhave not an annual but a perpetual feast. We have an infinitely\ngreater deliverance to commemorate than that of the Jews from\nEgypt. Released from the dominion and punishment of sin, we have\nentered into a rest boundless as eternity. Manna, which never\nfell on the Jewish Sabbath, falls in peculiar and rich abundance\non the first day of the week, when it first began to fall. The\nfirst day is peculiarly sanctified and honoured of God. On this\nday the Son rested from His work of redemption (Heb 4:10). He is\nLord of the Sabbath, and hath peculiarly blessed his own day.\nOn this day some of the saints that slept arose (Matt 27:52,53).\nOn this day Christ was made the head of the corner, and we will\nrejoice and be glad in it. On the first day God begat his beloved\nSon from the dead (Acts 13:33). Let all the angels of God worship\nhim (Heb 1:6). Hence it is called the Lord's day (Rev 1:10).\nThis day is the only one named upon which Christ appeared to his\ndisciples after his resurrection: it was on the evening of the\nfirst day of the week, and on the evening of the following eighth\nday, that they assembled and Christ appeared in the midst of them.\nOn this day he walked with his disciples to Emmaus, and made their\nhearts to burn within them with holy joy and wonder. The marvels\nof the day of Pentecost honoured the first day of the week. On\nthis day the first great conversion of 'about three thousand souls'\ntook place. On this day the disciples at Jerusalem came together\nto break bread (Acts 20:7). Upon THE, not A, first day they broke\nbread; and upon THE first day, the collections were made for the\npoor saints (1 Cor 16:1,2). With such concurrent and ample testimony\nwe must conclude that the seventh day Sabbath, with its Jewish\nritual, is dissolved, and the first day has taken its place. The\nSaviour said, 'It is finished'; and from that moment to the end\nof the inspired volume, the seventh day is swallowed up in the\nglories of the first day of the week. Let Jews commemorate their\ntemporal deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt with their divers\nceremonies; but Christians, blessed with a foretaste of eternal\nglory, will commemorate the resurrection of their Lord, as the\nfirst fruits of an unspeakable rest from the dominion of sin, of\nSatan, and of hell. Our glorified Redeemer sanctioned and blessed\nthe first day, with his personal appearance in the assemblies of\nhis saints. His inspired apostles kept it, as it is recorded, and\nthus it is sanctioned by the Holy Ghost; and their descendants\nare bound to keep it to the end of the world. Go, little treatise,\nand carry conviction with thee. Emancipate the christian mind from\nall the beggarly rudiments of Jewish rites and ceremonies. Add\nto the holy enjoyments of God's saints in public worship, on the\nday when their eternal redemption is commemorated by the triumphant\nresurrection of their Lord.--GEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nSome may think it strange, since God's church has already been\nso well furnished with sound grounds and reasons by so many wise\nand godly men, for proof that the first day of the week is our\ntrue Christian sabbath, that I should now offer this small treatise\nupon the same account. But when the scales are even by what already\nis put in, a little more, you know, makes the weight the better.\n\nOr grant we had down weight before, yet something over and above\nmay make his work the harder, that shall by hanging fictions on\nthe other end, endeavour to make things seem too light.\n\nBesides, this book being little, may best suit such as have but\nshallow purses, short memories, and but little time to spare,\nwhich usually is the lot of the mean and poorer sort of men.\n\nI have also written upon this subject, for that I would, as in\nother gospel truths, be a fellow witness with good men that the\nday in which our Lord rose from the dead should be much set by of\nChristians.\n\nI have observed that some, otherwise sound in faith, are apt to\nbe entangled with a Jewish sabbath, &c., and that some also that\nare afar off from the observation of that, have but little to\nsay for their own practice, though good; and might I help them I\nshould be glad.\n\nA Jewish seventh-day sabbath has no promise of grace belonging\nto it, if that be true, as to be sure it is, where Paul says, The\ncommand to honour parents is the first commandment with promise\n(Eph 6:1-3).\n\nAlso it follows from hence, that the sabbath that has a promise\nannexed to the keeping of it, is rather that which the Lord Jesus\nshall give to the churches of the Gentiles (Isa 56).\n\nPerhaps my method here may not in all things keep the common path\nof argumentation with them that have gone before me: but I trust\n[that] the godly wise will find a taste of scripture truth in what\nI present them with as to the sanction of our Christian sabbath.\n\nI have here, by handling four questions, proved, that the seventh\nday sabbath was not moral. For that must of necessity be done,\nbefore it can be made appear that the first day of the week is that\nwhich is the sabbath day for Christians. But withal it follows,\nthat if the seventh day sabbath was not moral,[5] the first day is\nnot so. What is it then? Why, a sabbath for holy worship is moral;\nbut this or that day appointed for such service, is sanctified by\nprecept or by approved example. The timing then of a sabbath for\nus lies in God, not man; in grace, not nature; nor in the ministration\nof death, written and engraven in stones: God always reserving to\nhimself a power to alter and change both time and modes of worship\naccording to his own will.\n\nA sabbath then, or day of rest from worldly affairs to solemnize\nworship to God in, all good men do by nature conclude is meet;\nyea, necessary: yet that, not nature, but God reveals.\n\nNor is that day or time by God so fixed on, in its own nature,\nbetter than any other: the holiness then of a sabbath lies, not\nin the nature or place of a day, but in the ordinance of God.\n\nNor doth our sanctifying of it, to the ends for which it is\nordained, lie in a bare confession that it is such; but in a holy\nperformance of the duty of the day to God by Christ, according to\nhis word.\n\nBut I will not enlarge to detain the reader longer from the\nfollowing sheets; but shall commit both him and them to the wise\ndispose of God, and rest,\n\nThine to serve thee,\n\nJOH. BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nQUESTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE AND PERPETUITY OF THE SEVENTH-DAY\nSABBATH.\n\n\nQUESTION I.\n\nWhether the seventh day sabbath is of, or made known to, man by\nthe law and light of nature?\n\nSomething must be here premised before I show the grounds of this\nquestion. First then, by the law or light of nature, I mean that\nlaw which was concreate with man; that which is natural to him,\nbeing original with, and essential to, himself; consequently, that\nwhich is invariable and unalterable, as is that nature. Secondly,\nI grant that by this law of nature, man understands that there\nis one eternal God; that this God is to be worshiped according to\nhis own will; consequently, that time must be allowed to do it\nin: but whether the law or light of nature teacheth, and that of\nitself, without the help of revelation, that the seventh day of\nthe week is that time sanctified of God, and set apart for his\nworship, that is the question; and the grounds of it are these:\n\nFirst, Because the law of nature is antecedent to this day, yea\ncompleted as a law before it was known or revealed to man, that\nGod either did or would sanctify the seventh day of the week at\nall.\n\nNow this law, as was said, being natural to a man, for man is a\nlaw unto himself (Rom 2), could only teach the things of a man,\nand there the Apostle stints it (1 Cor 2:11). But to be able\nto determine, and that about things that were yet without being,\neither in nature or by revelation, is that which belongs not to a\nman as a man; and the seventh day sabbath, as yet, was such. For\nAdam was completely made the day before; and God did not sanctify\nthe seventh day before it was, none otherwise than by his secret\ndecree. Therefore, by the law of nature, Adam understood it not,\nit was not made known to him thereby.\n\nSecond, To affirm the contrary, is to make the law of nature\nsupernatural, which is an impossibility. Yea, they that do so make\nit a predictor, a prophet; a prophet about divine things to come;\nyea, a prophet able to foretell what shall be, and that without\na revelation; which is a strain that never yet prophet pretended\nto.\n\nBesides, to grant this, is to run into a grievous error; for\nthis doth not only make the law of nature the first of prophets,\ncontrary to Genesis 3:10 compared with John 1:1 but it seems to\nmake the will of God, made known by revelation, a needless thing.\nFor if the law of nature, as such, can predict, or foretell God's\nsecrets, and that before he reveals them, and this law of nature\nis universal in every individual man in the world, what need is\nthere of particular prophets, or of their holy writings? And indeed\nhere the Quakers and others split themselves. For if the law of\nnature can of itself reveal unto me one thing pertaining to\ninstituted worship, for that we are treating of now, and the\nexact time which God has not yet sanctified and set apart for the\nperformance thereof, why may it not reveal unto me more, and so\nstill more; and at last all that is requisite for me to know, both\nas to my salvation, and how God is to be worshiped in the church\non earth.\n\nThird, If it be of the law of nature, then all men by nature are\nconvinced of the necessity of keeping it, and that though they\nnever read or heard of the revealed will of God about it; but this\nwe find not in the world.\n\nFor though it is true that the law of nature is common to all, and\nthat all men are to this day under the power and command thereof;\nyet we find not that they are by nature under the conviction of the\nnecessity of keeping of a seventh day sabbath. Yea, the Gentiles,\nthough we read not that they ever despised the law of nature,\nyet never had, as such, a reverence of a seventh day sabbath, but\nrather the contrary.\n\nFourth, If therefore the seventh day sabbath is not of the law\nof nature, then it should seem not to be obligatory to all. For\ninstituted worship, and the necessary circumstances thereunto\nbelonging, is obligatory but to some. The tree that Adam was forbid\nto eat of, we read not but that his children might have eat the\nfruit thereof: and circumcision, the passover, and other parts of\ninstituted worship was enjoined but to some.\n\nFifth, I doubt the seventh day sabbath is not of the law of nature,\nand so not moral; because though we read that the law of nature,\nand that before Moses, was charged upon the world, yet I find\nnot till then, that the profanation of a seventh day sabbath was\ncharged upon the world: and indeed to me this very thing makes a\ngreat scruple in the case.\n\nA law, as I said, we read of, and that from Adam to Moses (Rom\n5:13,14). The transgressions also of that law, we read of them,\nand that particularly, as in Genesis 4:8, 6:5, 9:21, 22, 12:13,\n13:13, 18:12-15, 19:5; (Eze 16:49,50[6]); Genesis 31:30, 35:2,\n40:15, 44:8-10; Deuteronomy 8:19, 20, 12:2; Psalm 106:35-37 and\nRomans the first and second chapters.\n\nBut in all the scriptures we do not read, that the breach of a\nseventh day sabbath was charged upon men as men all that time.\nWhence I gather, that either a seventh day sabbath was not discerned\nby the light of nature, and so not by that law imposed; or else,\nthat men by the help and assistance of that, for we speak of men\nas men,[7] in old time kept it better, than in after ages did the\nchurch of God with better assistance by far. For they are there\nyet found fault with as breakers of the sabbath (Eze 20:13).\n\nIt follows therefore, that if the law of nature doth not of itself\nreveal to us, as men, that the seventh day is the holy sabbath of\nGod. That that day, as to the sanction of it, is not moral, but\nrather arbitrary, to wit, imposed by the will of God upon his\npeople, until the time he thought fit to change it for another\nday.\n\nAnd if so, it is hence to be concluded, that though by the light\nof nature men might see that time must be allowed and set apart\nfor the performance of that worship that God would set up in his\nhouse, yet, as such, it could not see what time the Lord would to\nthat end choose. Nature therefore saw that, by a positive precept,\nor a word revealing it, and by no other means.\n\nNor doth this at all take away a whit of that sanction which God\nonce put upon the seventh day sabbath; unless any will say, and\nby sufficient argument prove, that an ordinance for divine worship\nreceiveth greater sanction from the law of nature than from a\ndivine precept: or standeth stronger when it is established by a\nlaw humane, for such is the law of nature, than when imposed by\nrevelation of God.\n\nBut the text will put this controversy to an end. The sanction of\nthe seventh day sabbath, even as it was the rest of God, was not\ntill after the law of nature was completed; God rested the seventh\nday and sanctified it (Gen 2:3). Sanctified it; that is, set it\napart to the end there mentioned, to wit, to rest thereon.\n\nOther grounds of this question I might produce, but at present I\nwill stop here, and conclude, That if a seventh day sabbath was an\nessential necessary to the instituted worship of God, then itself\nalso as to its sanction for that work, was not founded but by a\npositive precept; consequently not known of man at first, but by\nrevelation of God.\n\n\nQUESTION II.\n\nWhether the seventh day sabbath, as to man's keeping of it holy,\nwas ever made known to, or imposed by, a positive precept upon him\nuntil the time of Moses? which from Adam was about two thousand\nyears.\n\nSomething must also be here premised, in order to my propounding\nof my grounds for this question; and that is, That the seventh\nday was sanctified so soon as it had being in the world, unto the\nrest of God, as it is Genesis 2:2, 3 and he did rest, from all\nhis works which he had made therein. But the question is, Whether\nwhen God did thus sanctify this day to his own rest, he did also\nby the space of time above-mentioned, impose it as an holy sabbath\nof rest upon men; to the end they might solemnize worship to him\nin special manner thereon? And I question this,\n\nFirst, Because we read not that it was. And reading, I mean, of\nthe divine testimony, is ordained of God, for us to find out the\nmind of God, both as to faith and our performance of acceptable\nservice to him.\n\nIn reading also, we are to have regard to two things.\n\nI. To see if we can find a precept: or,\n\nII. A countenanced practice for what we do. For both these ways\nwe are to search, that we may find out what is that good, that\nacceptable will of God.\n\nFor the first of these we have Genesis 2:16, 17 and for the second,\nGenesis 8:20, 21 [as to public worship but not on a stated day].\n\nNow as to the imposing of a seventh day sabbath upon men from\nAdam to Moses, of that we find nothing in holy writ either from\nprecept or example. True, we find that solemn worship was performed\nby the saints that then lived: for both Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,\nJacob, sacrificed unto God (Gen 4:4, 8:20,21, 12:7, 13:4, 35:1),\nbut we read not that the seventh day was the time prefixed of\nGod for their so worshipping, or that they took any notice of it.\nSome say, that Adam in eating the forbidden fruit, brake also the\nseventh day sabbath, because he fell on that day;[8] but we read\nnot that the breach of a sabbath was charged upon him. That which\nwe read is this; 'Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded\nthee that thou shouldest not eat?' (Gen 3:11). Some say also that\nCain killed Abel on a sabbath day;[9] but we read not that, in\nhis charge, God laid any such thing at his door. This was it of\nwhich he stood guilty before God; namely, That his brother's blood\ncried unto God against him from the ground (Gen 4:10).\n\nI therefore take little notice of what a man saith, though he\nflourisheth his matter with many brave words, if he bring not with\nhim, 'Thus saith the Lord.' For that, and that only, ought to be\nmy ground of faith as to how my God would be worshiped by me. For\nin the matters material to the worship of God, it is safest that\nthus I be guided in my judgment: for here only I perceive 'the\nfootsteps of the flock' (Cant 1:8; Eze 3:11). They say further,\nthat for God to sanctify a thing, is to set it apart. This being\ntrue; then it follows, that the seventh day sabbath was sanctified,\nthat is, set apart for Adam in paradise; and so, that it was\nordained a sabbath of rest to the saints from the beginning.\n\nBut I answer, as I hinted before, that God did sanctify it to his\nown rest. 'The LORD [also] hath set apart him that is godly for\nhimself.' But again, it is one thing for God to sanctify this or\nthat thing to an use, and another thing to command that that thing\nbe forthwith in being to us. As for instance: the land of Canaan\nwas set apart many years for the children of Israel before they\npossessed that land. Christ Jesus was long sanctified; that is,\nset apart to be our redeemer before he sent him into the world\n(Deut 32:8; John 10:36).\n\nIf then, by God's sanctifying of the seventh day for a sabbath,\nyou understand it for a sabbath for man, (but the text saith not\nso) yet it might be so set apart for man, long before it should\nbe, as such, made known unto him. And that the seventh day sabbath\nwas not as yet made known to men.\n\nSecond, Consider secondly, Moses himself seems to have the knowledge\nof it at first, not by tradition, but by revelation; as it is\nExodus 16:23, 'This is that [saith he] which the Lord hath said,\n[namely to me; for we read not, as yet, that he said it to any body\nelse]. To morrow is the sabbath of the holy rest unto the Lord.'\n\nAlso holy Nehemiah suggesteth this, when he saith of Israel to\nGod, Thou 'madest known unto them thy holy sabbath [by the hand\nof Moses thy servant]' (Neh 9:14). The first of these texts shews\nus, that tidings of a seventh day sabbath for men, came first to\nMoses from heaven: and the second, that it was to Israel before\nunknown.\n\nBut how could be either the one or the other, if the seventh day\nsabbath was taught to men by the light of nature, which is the moral\nlaw? Or if from the beginning it was given to men by a positive\nprecept for to be kept.\n\nThis therefore strengtheneth my doubt about the affirmative of the\nfirst question, and also prepareth an argument for what I plead\nas to this we have now under consideration.\n\nThird, This yet seems to me more scrupulous, because that the\npunishment due to the breach of the seventh day sabbath was hid\nfrom men to the time of Moses; as is clear, for that it is said\nof the breaker of the sabbath, 'They put him in ward, because it\nwas not [as yet] declared what should be done to him' (Num 15:32-36).\n\nBut methinks, had this seventh day sabbath been imposed upon men\nfrom the beginning, the penalty or punishment due to the breach\nthereof had certainly been known before now.\n\nWhen Adam was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of\ngood and evil, the penalty was then, if he disobeyed, annexed to\nthe prohibition. So also it was as to circumcision, the passover,\nand other ordinances for worship. How then can it be thought,\nthat the seventh day sabbath should be imposed upon men from the\nbeginning; and that the punishment for the breach thereof, should\nbe hid with God for the space of two thousand years! (Gen 2:16,17,\n17:13,14; Exo 12:43-48) and the same chapter (v 19).\n\nFourth, God's giving of the seventh day sabbath was with respect\nto stated and stinted worship in his church; the which, until the\ntime of Moses, was not set up among his people. Things till then\nwere adding or growing: now a sacrifice, then circumcision, then\nagain long after that the passover, &c.\n\nBut when Israel was come into the wilderness, there to receive\nas God's congregation, a stated, stinted, limited way of worship,\nthen he appoints them a time, and times, to perform this worship\nin; but as I said afore, before that it was not so, as the whole\nfive books of Moses plainly shew: wherefore the seventh day\nsabbath, as such a limited day cannot be moral, or of the law of\nnature, nor imposed till then.\n\nAnd methinks Christ Jesus and his apostles do plainly enough declare\nthis very thing. For that when they repeat unto the people, or\nexpound before them the moral law, they quite exclude the seventh\nday sabbath. Yea, Paul makes that law to us complete without it.\n\nWe will first touch upon what Christ doth in this case.\n\nAs in his sermon upon the mount (Matt 5-7). In all that large and\nheavenly discourse upon this law, you have not one syllable about\nthe seventh day sabbath.\n\nSo when the young man came running, and kneeling, and asking what\ngood thing he should do to inherit eternal life, Christ bids him\nkeep the commandments; but when the young man asked which; Christ\nquite leaves out the seventh day, and puts him upon the other. As\nin Matthew 19:16-19. As in Mark 10:17-20. As in Luke 18:18-20.\n\nYou will say, he left out the first, and second, and third likewise.\nTo which I say, that was because the young man by his question\ndid presuppose that he had been a doer of them: for he professed\nin his supplication, that he was a lover of that which is naturally\ngood, which is God, in that his petition was so universal for\nevery thing which he had commanded.\n\nPaul also when he makes mention of the moral law, quite leaves out\nof that the very name of the seventh day sabbath, and professeth,\nthat to us Christians the law of nature is complete without it.\nAs in Romans 3:7-19. As in Romans 13:7-10. As in 1 Timothy 1:8-11.\n\n'He that loveth another, saith he, hath fulfiled the law. For\nthis, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou\nshalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other\ncommandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou\nshalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his\nneighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.'\n\nI make not an argument of this, but take an occasion to mention\nit as I go. But certainly, had the seventh day sabbath been moral,\nor of the law of nature, as some would fain persuade themselves,\nit would not so slenderly have been passed over in all these\nrepetitions of this law, but would by Christ or his apostles have\nbeen pressed upon the people, when so fair an opportunity as at\nthese times offered itself unto them. But they knew what they did,\nand wherefore they were so silent as to the mention of a seventh\nday sabbath when they so well talked of the law as moral.\n\nFifth, Moses and the prophet Ezekiel both, do fully confirm what\nhas been insinuated by us; to wit, that the seventh day, as a\nsabbath, was not imposed upon men until Israel was brought into\nthe wilderness.\n\n1. Moses saith to Israel, 'Remember that thou wast a servant int\nhe land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence\nthrough a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: THEREFORE the\nLord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.' Yea, he\ntells us, that the covenant which God made with them in Horeb,\nthat written in stones, was not made with their forefathers, to\nwit, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but with them (Deut 5:1-15).\n\n2. Ezekiel also is punctual as to this: I caused them, saith God\nby that prophet, 'to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought\nthem into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed\nthem my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.\nMoreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me\nand them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify\nthem' (Eze 20:10-12; Exo 20:8, 31:13, 35:2).\n\nWhat can be more plain? And these to be sure, are two notable\nwitnesses of God, who, as you see, do jointly concur in this; to\nwit, That it was not from paradise, nor from the fathers, but from\nthe wilderness, and from Sinai, that men received the seventh day\nsabbath to keep it holy.\n\nTrue, it was God's sabbath before: for on the first seventh day we\nread, that God rested thereon, and sanctified it. Hence he calls\nit in the first place, MY sabbath. I gave them my sabbath: But\nit seems it was not given to the church till he had brought them\ninto the wilderness.\n\nBut I say, if it had been moral, it had been natural to man; and\nby the light of nature men would have understood it, even both\nbefore it was, and otherwise. But of this you see we read nothing,\neither by positive law, or countenanced example, or any other way,\nbut rather the flat contrary; to wit, that Moses had the knowledge\nof it first from heaven, not by tradition. That Israel had it,\nnot of, or from their fathers, but in the wilderness, from him, to\nwit, Moses, after he had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And\nthat that whole law in which this seventh day sabbath is placed,\nwas given for the bounding and better ordering of them in their\nchurch state for their time, till the Messias should come and\nput, by a better ministration, this out of his church, as we shall\nfurther shew anon.\n\nThe seventh day sabbath therefore was not from paradise, nor from\nnature, nor from the fathers, but from t he wilderness, and from\nSinai.\n\n\nQUESTION III.\n\nWhether when the seventh day sabbath was given to Israel in the\nwilderness the Gentiles, as such, was concerned therein.\n\nBefore I shew my ground for this question, I must also first premise,\nThat the Gentiles, as such, were then without the church of God,\nand pale thereof; consequently had nothing to do with the essentials\nor necessary circumstances of that worship which God had set up\nfor himself now among the children of Israel.\n\nNow then for the ground of the question.\n\nFirst, we read not that God gave it to any but to the seed of\nJacob. Hence it is said to Israel, and to Israel only, 'The Lord\nhath given YOU the sabbath' (Exo 16:29). And again, 'also I gave\nTHEM my sabbath' (Eze 20:5,12).\n\nNow, if the gift of the seventh day sabbath was only to Israel,\nas these texts do more than seem to say; then to the Gentiles, as\nsuch, it was not given. Unless any shall conclude, that God by\nthus doing preferred the Jew to a state of gentileism; or that\nhe bestowed on them, by thus doing, some high Gentile privilege.\nBut this would be very fictious. For, to lay aside reason, the text\nalways, as to preference, did set the Jew in the first of places\n(Rom 2:10). Nor was his giving the seventh day sabbath to them\nbut a sign and token thereof.\n\nBut the great objection is, because the seventh day sabbath\nis found amongst the rest of those precepts which is so commonly\ncalled the moral law; for thence it is concluded to be of a\nperpetual duration.\n\nBut I answer: That neither that as given on Sinai is moral; I\nmean, as to the manner and ends of its ministration, of which,\nGod permitting, we shall say more in our answer to the fourth\nquestion, whither I direct you for satisfaction. But,\n\nSecond, The Gentiles could not be concerned, as such, with God's\ngiving of a seventh day sabbath to Israel, because, as I have\nshewed before, it was given to Israel, considered as a church of\nGod (Acts 7:32). Nor was it given to them, as such, but with rites\nand ceremonies thereto belonging, so Leviticus 24:5-9; Numbers\n28:9, 10; Nehemiah 13:22; Ezekiel 46:4.\n\nNow, I say, if this sabbath hath ceremonies thereto belonging,\nand if these ceremonies were essential to the right keeping of\nthe sabbath: and again, if these ceremonies were given to Israel\nonly, excluding all but such as were their proselytes, then this\nsabbath was given to them as excluding the Gentiles as such. But if\nit had been moral, the Gentiles could as soon have been deprived\nof their nature as of a seventh day sabbath, though the Jews should\nhave appropriated it unto themselves only.\n\nAgain, to say that God gave this seventh day sabbath to the Gentiles,\nas such, (and yet so he must, if it be of the moral law) is as\nmuch as to say, that God hath ordained that that sabbath should\nbe kept by the Gentiles without; but by the Jews, not without her\nceremonies. And what conclusion will follow from hence, but that\nGod did at one and the same time set up two sorts of acceptable\nworships in the world: one among the Jews, another among the Gentiles!\nBut how ridiculous such a thought would be, and how repugnant to\nthe wisdom of God, you may easily perceive.\n\nYea, what a diminution would this be to God's church that then was,\nfor one to say, the Gentiles were to serve God with more liberty\nthan the Jew! For the law was a yoke, and yet the Gentile is called\nthe dog, and said to be without God in the world (Deut 7:7; Psa\n147:19,20; Matt 15:26; Eph 2:11,12).\n\nThird, When the Gentiles, at the Jews' return from Babylon, came\nand offered their wares to sell to the children of Israel at\nJerusalem on this sabbath; yea, and sold them to them too: yet\nnot they, but the Jews were rebuked as the only breakers of that\nsabbath. Nay, there dwelt then at Jerusalem men of Tyre, that on\nthis sabbath sold their commodities to the Jews, and men of Judah:\nyet not they, but the men of Judah, were contended with, as the\nbreakers of this sabbath.\n\nTrue, good Nehemiah did threaten the Gentiles that were merchants,\nfor lying then about the walls of the city, for that by that means\nthey were a temptation to the Jews to break their sabbaths; but\nstill he charged the breach thereof only upon his own people (Neh\n13:15-20).\n\nBut can it be imagined, had the Gentiles now been concerned with\nthis sabbath by law divine, that so holy a man as Nehemiah would have\nlet them escape without a rebuke for so notorious a transgression\nthereof; especially considering, that now also they were upon\nGod's ground, to wit, within and without the walls of Jerusalem.\n\nFourth, Wherefore he saith to Israel again, 'Verily my sabbaths\nYE shall keep.' And again, 'YE shall keep the sabbath.' And again,\n'The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the\nsabbath throughout THEIR generations' (Exo 31:14-16, 16:29).[10]\n\nWhat can be more plain, these things thus standing int he testament\nof God, than that the seventh day sabbath, as such, was given to\nIsrael, to Israel ONLY; and that the Gentiles, as such, were not\nconcerned therein!\n\nFifth, The very reason also of God's giving of the seventh day\nsabbath to the Jews, doth exclude the Gentiles, as such, from having\nany concern therein. For it was given to the Jews, as was said\nbefore, as they were considered God's church, and for a sign and\ntoken by which they should know that he had chosen and sanctified\nthem to himself for a peculiar people (Exo 31:13-17; Eze 20:12,13).\n\nAnd a great token and sign it was that he had so chosen them: for\nin that he had given to them this sabbath, he had given to them\n(his own rest) a figure and pledge of his sending his Son into the\nworld to redeem them from the bondage and slavery of the devil:\nof which indeed this sabbath was a shadow or type (Col 2:16,17).[11]\n\nThus have I concluded my ground for this third question. I shall\ntherefore now propound another.\n\n\nQUESTION IV.\n\nWhether the seventh day sabbath did not fall, as such, with the\nrest of the Jewish rites and ceremonies? Or whether that day, as\na sabbath, was afterwards by the apostles imposed upon the churches\nof the Gentiles?\n\nI would now also, before I shew the grounds of my proposing this\nquestion, premise what is necessary thereunto; to wit, That time\nand day were both fixed upon by law, for the solemn performance\nof divine worship among the Jews; and that time and day is also\nby law fixed, for the solemnizing of divine worship to God in the\nchurches of the Gentiles. But that the seventh day sabbath, as\nsuch, is that time, that day, that still I question.\n\nNow before I shew the grounds of my questioning of it, I shall\nenquire into the nature of that ministration in the bowels of\nwhich this seventh day sabbath is placed. And,\n\nFirst, I say, as to that, the nature of that law is moral, but the\nministration, and circumstances thereunto belonging, are shadowish\nand figurative.\n\nBy the nature of it, I mean the matter thereof: by the ministration\nand circumstances thereto belonging, I do mean the giving of it\nby such hands, at such a place and time, in such a mode, as when\nit was given to Israel in the wilderness.\n\nThe matter therefore, to wit, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God\nwith all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,\nand with all thy strength': and 'thy neighbour as thyself,' is\neverlasting (Mark 12:29-31), and is not from Sinai, nor from the\ntwo tables of stone, but in nature; for this law commenced and\ntook being and place that day in which man was created. Yea, it\nwas concreate with him, and without it he cannot be a rational\ncreature, as he was in the day in which God created him. But for\nthe ministration of it from Sinai, with the circumstances belonging\nto that ministration, they are not moral, nor everlasting, but\nshadowish and figurative only.\n\nThat ministration cannot be moral for three reasons. 1. It commenced\nnot when morality commenced, but two thousand years after. 2.\nIt was not universal as the law, as moral, is; it was given only\nto the church of the Jews in those tables. 3. Its end is past\nas such a ministration, though the same law as to the morality\nthereof abides. Where are the tables of stone and this law as\ntherein contained? We only, as to that, have the notice of such a\nministration, and a rehearsal of the law, with that mode of giving\nof it, in the testament of God.\n\nBut to come to particulars.\n\n1. The very preface to that ministration carrieth in it a type\nof our deliverance from the bondage of sin, the devil, and hell.\nPharaoh, and Egypt; and Israel's bondage there, being a type of\nthese.\n\n2. The very stones in which this law was engraven, was a figure\nof the tables of the heart. The first two were a figure of the\nheart carnal, by which the law was broken: the last two, of the\nheart spiritual, in which the new law, the law of grace is written\nand preserved (Exo 34:1; 2 Cor 3:3).\n\n3. The very mount on which this ministration was given, was typical\nof Mount Zion. See Hebrews 12 where they are compared (vv 18-22).\n\n4. Yea, the very church to whom that ministration was given, was\na figure of the church of the gospel that is on Mount Zion. See the\nsame scripture, and compare it with Acts 7:38; Revelation 14:1-5.\n\n5. That ministration was given in the hand and by the disposition\nof angels, to prefigure how the new law or ministration of the\nSpirit was to be given afterwards to the churches under the New\nTestament by the hands of the angel of God's everlasting covenant\nof grace, who is his only begotten Son (Isa 63:9; Mal 3:1[12];\nActs 3:22,23).\n\n6. It was given to Israel also in the hand of Moses, as mediator,\nto shew, or typify out, that the law of grace was in after times\nto come to the church of Christ by the hand and mediation of Jesus\nour Lord (Gal 3:19; Deut 5:5; Heb 8:6; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 9:15, 12:24).\n\n7. As to this ministration, it was to continue but 'till the seed\nshould come'; and then must, as such, give place to a better\nministration (Gal 3:19). 'A better covenant, established upon\nbetter promises' (Heb 8:6).\n\nFrom all this therefore I conclude, that there is a difference to\nbe put between the morality of the law, and the ministration of\nit upon Sinai. The law, as to its morality was before; but as to\nthis ministration, it was not till the church was with Moses, and\nhe with the angels on Mount Sinai in the wilderness.\n\nNow in the law, as moral, we conclude a time propounded, but no\nseventh day sabbath enjoined. But in that law, as thus ministered,\nwhich ministration is already out of doors;[13] we find a seventh\nday; that seventh day on which God rested, on which God rested\nfrom all his works, enjoined. What is it then? Why the whole\nministration as written and engraven in stones being removed,\nthe seventh day sabbath must also be removed; for that the time\nnor yet the day, was as to our holy sabbath, or rest, moral; but\nimposed with that whole ministration, as such, upon the church,\nuntil the time of reformation: which time being come, this\nministration, as I said, as such, ceaseth; and the whole law,\nas to the morality of it, is delivered into the hand of Christ,\nwho imposes it now also; but not as a law of works, nor as that\nministration written and engrave in stones, but as a rule of life\nto those that have believed in him (1 Cor 9:21).\n\nSo then, that law is still moral, and still supposes, since it\nteaches that there is a God, that time must be set apart for his\nchurch to worship him in, according to that will of his that he\nhad revealed in his word. But though by that law time is required;\nyet by that, as moral, the time never was prefixed.\n\nThe time then of old was appointed by such a ministration of that\nlaw as we have been now discoursing of; and when that ministration\nceaseth, that time did also vanish with it. And now by our new\nlaw-giver, the Son of God, he being 'lord also of the sabbath\nday,' we have a time prefixed, as the law of nature requireth, a\nnew day, by him who is the lord of it; I say, appointed, wherein\nwe may worship, not in the oldness of that letter written and\nengraven in stones, but according to, and most agreeing with,\nhis new and holy testament. And this I confirm further by those\nreasons that now shall follow.\n\nFirst, Because we find not from the resurrection of Christ to\nthe end of the Bible, anything written by which is imposed that\nseventh day sabbath upon the churches. Time, as I said, the law\nas moral requires; but that time we find no longer imposed. And in\nall duties pertaining to God and his true worship in his churches,\nwe must be guided by his laws and testaments. By his old laws,\nwhen his old worship was in force; and by his new laws, when his\nnew worship is in force. And he hath verily now said, 'Behold, I\nmake all things new' (Rev 21:5).\n\nSecond, I find, as I have shewed, that this seventh day sabbath is\nconfined, not to the law of nature as such, but to that ministration\nof it which was given on Sinai: which ministration as it is come\nto an end as such, so it is rejected by Paul as a ministration no\nways capable of abiding in the church now, since the ministration\nof the Spirit also hath taken its place (2 Cor 3). Wherefore\ninstead of propounding it to the churches with arguments tending\nto its reception, he seeks by degrading it of its old lustre and\nglory, to wean the churches from any likement[14] thereof:\n\n1. By calling of it the ministration of death, of the letter, and\nof condemnation, a term most frightful, but no ways alluring to\nthe godly.\n\n2. By calling it a ministration that now has no glory, by reason\nof the exceeding glory of that ministration under which by the\nHoly Spirit the New Testament churches are. And these are weaning\nconsiderations (2 Cor 3).\n\n3. By telling of them it is a ministration that tendeth to blind\nthe mind, and to veil the heart as to the knowledge of their Christ:\nso that they cannot, while under that, behold his beauteous face,\nbut as their heart shall turn from it to him (2 Cor 3).\n\n4. And that they might not be left in the dark, but perfectly know\nwhat ministration it is that he means, he saith expressly, it is\nthat 'written and engraven in stones.' See again 2 Corinthians 3.\nAnd in that ministration it is that this seventh day sabbath is\nfound.\n\nBut shall we think that the apostle speaks any thing of all here\nsaid, to wean saints off from the law of nature, as such! No\nverily, that he retains in the church, as being managed there by\nChrist: but THIS ministration is dangerous now, because it cannot\nbe maintained in the church, but in a way of contempt to the\nministration of the Spirit, and is derogatory to the glory of\nthat.\n\nNow these, as I said, are weaning considerations. No man, I do\nthink, that knows himself, or the glory of a gospel ministration,\ncan, if he understands what Paul says here, desire that such a\nministration should be retained in the churches.\n\nThird. This seventh day sabbath has lost its ceremonies (those\nunto which before you are cited by the texts) which was with it\nimposed upon the old church for her due performance of worship to\nGod thereon. How then can this sabbath now be kept? Kept, I say,\naccording to law. For if the church on which it was first imposed,\nwas not to keep it, yea, could not keep it legally without the\npractising of those ceremonies: and if those ceremonies are long\nago dead and gone, how will those that pretend to a belief of a\ncontinuation of the sanction thereof, keep it, I say, according\nas it is written?\n\nIf they say, they retain the day, but change their manner of\nobservation thereof; I ask, who has commanded them so to do? This\nis one of the laws of this sabbath. 'Thou shalt take fine flour,\nand bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one\ncake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the\npure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense\nupon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even\nan offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath he shall\nset it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the\nchildren of Israel by an everlasting covenant' (Lev 24:5-8). You\nmay see also other places, as Numbers 28:9, 10; Nehemiah 13:22\nand Ezekiel 46:4.\n\nNow if these be the laws of the sabbath, this seventh day sabbath;\nand if God did never command that this sabbath should by his\nchurch be sanctified without them: and, as was said before, if\nthese ceremonies have been long since dead and buried, how must\nthis sabbath be kept?\n\nLet men take heed, lest while they plead for law, and pretend\nthemselves to be the only doers of God's will,[15] they be not\nfound the biggest transgressors thereof. And why can they not as\nwell keep the other sabbaths? As the sabbath of months, of years,\nand the jubilee? For this, as I have shewed, is no moral precept,\nit is only a branch of the ministration of death and condemnation.\n\nFourth, The seventh day sabbath, as such, was a sign and shadow\nof things to come; and a sign cannot be the thing signified and\nsubstance too. Wherefore when the thing signified or substance,\nis come, the sign or thing shadowing ceaseth. And, I say, the\nseventh day sabbath being so, as a seventh day sabbath it ceaseth\nalso. See again Exodus 31:13, 14; Ezekiel 20:12, 21; Colossians\n2:14.\n\nNor do I find that our Protestant writers, notwithstanding their\nreverence of the sabbath, do conclude otherwise; but that though\ntime as to worshipping God, must needs be contained in the bowels\nof the moral law, as moral; yet they for good reasons forbear to\naffix the seventh day as that time there too.\n\nThey do it, I say, for good reasons; reason drawn from the scripture;\nor rather, for that the scripture draws them so to conclude: yet\nthey cast not away the morality of a sabbath of rest to the church.\nIt is to be granted them, that time for God's worship abideth for\never, but the seventh day vanishes as a shadow and sign; because\nsuch indeed it was, as the scripture above cited declares as to\nthe sanction thereof as a sabbath.\n\nThe law of nature then calls for time; but the God of nature\nassigns it, and has given power to his Son to continue SUCH time\nas himself shall by his eternal wisdom judge most meet for the\nchurches of the Gentiles to solemnize worship to God by him in.\nHence he is said to be 'Lord even of the sabbath day' (Matt 12:8).\n\nFifth, I find by reading God's word, that Paul by authority\napostolical, takes away the sanctions of all the Jews' festivals\nand sabbaths.\n\nThis is manifest, for that he leaves the observation or non-observation\nof them, as things indifferent, to the mind and discretion of\nthe believers. 'One man esteemeth one day above another: another\nesteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in\nhis own mind' (Rev 14:5).\n\nBy this last clause of the verse, 'Let every man be fully persuaded\nin his own mind,' he doth plainly declare, that such days are\nnow stript of their sanction.[16] For none of God's laws, while\nthey retain their sanction, are left to the will and mind of the\nbelievers, as to whether they will observe them or no. Men, I say,\nare not left to their liberty in such a case; for when a stamp of\ndivine authority is upon a law, and abides, so long we are bound,\nnot to our mind, but to that law: but when a thing, once sacred,\nhas lost its sanction, then it falls, as to faith and conscience,\namong other common or indifferent things. And so the seventh day\nsabbath did. Again,\n\nSixth, Thus Paul writes to the church of Colosse. 'Let no man\ntherefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an\nholyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath: which are a shadow\nof things to come; but the body is of Christ' (Col 2:16,17). Here\nalso, as he serveth other holy days, he serveth the sabbath. He\ngives a liberty to believers to refuse the observation of it, and\ncommands that no man should judge against them for their so doing.\nAnd as you read, the reason of his so doing is, because the body,\nthe substance is come. Christ saith he, is the body, or that which\nthese things were a shadow or figure of. 'The body is of Christ.'\n\nNor hath the apostle, since he saith 'or of the sabbath' one would\nthink, left any hole, out at which men's inventions could get:\nbut man has sought out many; and, so, many he will use.\n\nBut again, That the apostle by this word 'sabbath' intends the\nseventh day sabbath, is clear; for that it is by Moses himself\ncounted for a sign, as we have shewed: and for that none of the\nother sabbaths were a more clear shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ\nthan this. For that, and that alone, is called 'the rest of God':\nin it God rested from all his works. Hence he calls it by way of\neminency, 'MY sabbath, and MY holy day' (Isa 56:4, 58:13).\n\nYet could that rest be nothing else but typical; for God, never\nsince the world began, really rested, but in his Son. 'This is\nhe,' saith God, 'in whom I am well pleased.' This sabbath then,\nwas God's rest typically, and was given to Israel as a sign of\nhis grace towards them in Christ. Wherefore when Christ was risen,\nit ceased, and was no longer of obligation to bind the conscience\nto the observation thereof. [Or of the sabbath.] He distinctly\nsingleth out this seventh day, as that which was a most noble\nshadow, a most exact shadow. And then puts that with the other\ntogether; saying, they are a shadow of things to come; and that\nChrist has answered them all. 'The body is of Christ.'\n\nSeventh, No man will, I think, deny but that Hebrews 4:45 intends\nthe seventh day sabbath, on which God rested from all his works;\nfor the text doth plainly say so: yet may the observing reader\neasily perceive that both it, and the rest of Canaan also, made\nmention of verse 5 were typical, as to a day made mention of verses\n7 and 8 which day he calls another. He would not afterwards have\nmade mention of another day. If Joshua had given them rest, he\nwould not. Now if they had not that rest in Joshua's days, be sure\nthey had it not by Moses; for he was still before.\n\nAll the rests therefore that Moses gave them, and that Joshua gave\nthem too, were but typical of another day, in which God would give\nthem rest (Heb 4:9,10). And whether the day to come, was Christ,\nor Heaven, it makes no matter: it is enough that they before did\nfail, as always shadows do, and that therefore mention by David is,\nand that afterward, made of another day. 'There remains therefore\na rest to the people of God.' A rest to come, of which the seventh\nday in which God rested, and the land of Canaan, was a type; which\nrest begins in Christ now, and shall be consummated in glory.\n\nAnd in that he saith 'There remains a rest,' referring to that\nof David, what is it, if it signifies not, that the other rests\nremain not? There remains therefore a rest, a rest prefigured by\nthe seventh day, and by the rest of Canaan, though they are fled\nand gone.\n\n'There remains a rest'; a rest which stands not now in signs and\nshadows, in the seventh day, or Canaan, but in the Son of God, and\nhis kingdom, to whom, and to which the weary are invited to come\nfor rest (Isa 28:12; Matt 11:20; Heb 4:11).\n\nYet this casts not out the Christians holiday or sabbath: for that\nwas not ordained to be a type or shadow of things to come, but\nto sanctify the name of their God in, and to perform that worship\nto him which was also in a shadow signified by the ceremonies of\nthe law, as the epistle to the Hebrews doth plentifully declare.\n\nAnd I say again, the seventh day sabbath cannot be it, for the\nreasons shewed afore.\n\nEighth, Especially if you add to all this, that nothing of the\nministration of death written and engraven in stones, is brought\nby Jesus, or by his apostles, into the kingdom of Christ, as a part\nof his instituted worship. Hence it is said of that ministration\nin the bowels of which this seventh day sabbath is found, that it\nhas now NO glory; that its glory is done away, in or by Christ,\nand so is laid aside, the ministration of the Spirit that excels\nin glory, being come in the room thereof.\n\nI will read the text to you. 'But if the ministration of death,\nwritten and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children\nof Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the\nglory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: [It\nwas given at first with this proviso, that it should not always\nretain its glory, that sanction, as a ministration]. How shall not\nthe ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the\nministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration\nof righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made\nglorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that\nexcelleth. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more\nthat which remaineth is glorious' (2 Cor 3:7-11).\n\nWhat can be more plain? The text says expressly, that this\nministration doth NOT remain; yea, and insinuates, that in its\nfirst institution it was ordained with this proviso, 'It was to\nbe done away.' Now if in its first institution upon Sinai it was\nthus ordained; and if by the coming in of the ministration of\nthe spirit, this ordination is now executed; that is, if by it,\nand the apostle saith it, it is done away by a ministration that\nremains: then where is that seventh day sabbath?\n\nThus therefore I have discoursed upon this fourth question: And\nhaving shewed by this discourse that the old seventh day sabbath\nis abolished and done away, and that it has nothing to do with the\nchurches of the Gentiles; I am next to shew what day it is that\nmust abide as holy to the Christians, and for them to perform\ntheir New Testament church service in.\n\nTake the question thus.\n\n\nQUESTION V.\n\nSince it is denied that the seventh day sabbath is moral, and\nit is found that it is not to abide as a sabbath for ever in the\nchurch, What time is to be fixed on for New Testament saints to\nperform together, divine worship to God by Christ in?\n\nUpon this question hangs the stress of all, as to the subject now\nunder consideration: but before I can speak distinctly to it, I\nmust premise, as I have in order to my speaking to the questions\nbefore, something for the better clearing of our way--\n\n[Therefore I remark, that] we are not now speaking of all manner\nof worshipping God, nor of all times in which all manner of worship\nis to be performed; but of that worship, which is church worship,\nor worship that is to be performed by the assembly of saints,\nwhen by the will of God they in all parts of his dominion assemble\ntogether to worship him; which worship hath a prefixed time\nallotted to, or for its performance, and without which it cannot,\naccording to the mind of God, be done. This is the time, I say,\nthat we are to discourse of, and not of ALL time appointed for\nall manner of worship.\n\nI do not question but that worship by the godly is performed to\nGod every day of the week; yea, and every night too, and that\ntime is appointed or allowed of God for the performance of such\nworship. But this time is not fixed to the same moment or hour\nuniversally, but is left to the discretion of the believers, as\ntheir frame of spirit, or occasions, or exigencies, or temptations,\nor duty shall require.\n\nWe meddle then only with that time that the worship aforesaid is\nto be performed in; which time the law of nature as such supposes,\nbut the God of nature chooses. And this time as to the churches of\nthe Gentiles, we have proved is not that time which was assigned\nto the Jews, to wit, THAT seventh day which was imposed upon them\nby the ministration of death; for, as we have shewed already, that\nministration indeed is done away by a better and more glorious\nministration, the ministration of the spirit; which ministration\nsurely would be much more inferior than that which has now no\nglory, was it defective as to this. That is, if it imposed a gospel\nservice, but appointed not time to perform that worship in: or\nif notwithstanding all its commendation, it should be forced to\nborrow of a ministration inferior to itself; that, to wit, the time\nwithout which by no means its most solemn worship can be performed.\n\nThis then is the conclusion, that TIME to worship God in, is\nrequired by the law of nature; but that the law of nature doth,\nas such, fix it on the seventh day from the creation of the world,\nthat I utterly deny, by what I have said already, and have yet to\nsay on that behalf. Yea, I hope to make it manifest, as I have,\nthat this seventh day is removed; that God, by the ministration\nof the spirit, has changed the time to another day, to wit, The\nfirst day of the week. Therefore we conclude the time is fixed\nfor the worship of the New Testament Christians, or churches of\nthe Gentiles, unto that day.\n\nNow in my discourse upon this subject, I shall,\n\nI. Touch upon those texts that are more close, yet have a divine\nintimation of this thing in them.\n\nII. And then I shall come to texts more express.\n\nFIRST, for those texts that are more close, yet have a divine\nintimation of this thing in them.\n\nFirst, The comparison that the Holy Ghost makes between the rest\nof God from his works, and the rest of Christ from his, doth\nintimate such a thing. 'He that is entered into his rest, he also\nhath ceased from his own works, as God did from his' (Heb 4:10).\n\nNow God rested from his works, and sanctified a day of rest to\nhimself, as a signal of that rest, which day he also gave to his\nchurch as a day of holy rest likewise. And if Christ thus rested\nfrom his own works, and the Holy Ghost says he did thus rest, he\nalso hath sanctified a day to himself, as that in which he hath\nfinished his work, and given it (that day) also to his church to\nbe an everlasting memento of his so doing, and that they should\nkeep it holy for his sake.\n\nAnd see, as the Father's work was first, so his day went before;\nand as the Son's work came after, so his day accordingly succeeded.\nThe Father's day was on the seventh day from the creation, the\nSon's the first day following.\n\nNor may this be slighted, because the text says, as God finished\nhis work, so Christ finished his; He also hath ceased from his\nown works as God did from his. He rested, I say, as God did; but\nGod rested on his resting day, and therefore so did Christ. Not\nthat he rested on the Father's resting day; for it is evident,\nthat then he had great part of his work to do; for he had not as\nthen got his conquest over death, but the next day he also entered\ninto his rest, having by his rising again, finished his work, viz.,\nmade a conquest over the powers of darkness, and brought life and\nimmortality to light through his so doing.\n\nSo then, that being the day of the rest of the Son of God, it must\nneeds be the day of the rest of his churches also. For God gave\nhis resting day to his church to be a sabbath; and Christ rested\nfrom his own works as God did from his, therefore he also gave the\nday in which he rested from his works, a sabbath to the churches,\nas did the Father. Not that there are TWO sabbaths at once: the\nFather's was imposed for a time, even until the Son's should come;\nyea, as I have shewed you, even in the very time of its imposing\nit was also ordained to be done away. Hence he saith, that\nministration 'was to be done away' (2 Cor 3:7). Therefore we plead\nnot for two sabbaths to be at one time, but that a succession of\ntime was ordained to the New Testament saints, or churches of the\nGentiles, to worship God in; which time is that in which the Son\nrested from his own works as God did from his.\n\nSecond, Hence he calls himself, The 'Lord even of the sabbath\nday,' as Luke 5; Matthew 12:8 shews. Now to be a LORD, is to have\ndominion, dominion over a thing, and so power to alter or change\nit according to that power; and where is he that dares say Christ\nhas not this absolutely! We will therefore conclude that it is\ngranted on all hands he hath. The question then is, Whether he\nhath exercised that power to the demolishing or removing of the\nJews' seventh day, and establishing another in its room? The which\nI think is easily answered, in that he did not rest from his own\nworks therein, but chose, for his own rest, to himself another\nday.\n\nSurely, had the Lord Jesus intended to have established the seventh\nday to the churches of the Gentiles, he would himself in the first\nplace have rested from his own works therein; but since he passed\nby that day, and took no notice of it, as to the finishing of\nhis own works, as God took notice of it when he had finished his;\nit remains that he fixed upon another day, even the first of the\nweek; on which, by his rising again, and shewing himself to his\ndisciples before his passion, he made it manifest that he had\nchosen, 'as Lord of the sabbath,' that day for his own rest:\nconsequently, and for the rest of his churches, and for his worship\nto be solemnized in.\n\nThird, And on THIS day some of the saints that slept arose, and\nbegan their eternal sabbath (Matt 27:52,53). See how the Lord Jesus\nhath glorified this day! Never was such a stamp of divine honour\nput upon any other day, no not since the world began. 'And the\ngraves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,\nand came out of the graves after his resurrection,' &c. That is,\nthey arose as soon as he was risen. But why was not all this done\non the seventh day? No, that day was set apart that saints might\nadore God for the works of creation, and that saints through that\nmight look for redemption by Christ. But now a work more glorious\nthan that is to be done, and therefore another day is assigned\nfor the doing of it in. A work, I say, of redemption completed,\na day therefore by itself must be assigned for this; and some\nof the saints to begin their eternal sabbath with God in heaven,\ntherefore a day by itself must be appointed for this. Yea, and\nthat this day might not want that glory that might attract the\nmost dim-sighted Christian to a desire after the sanction of it,\nthe resurrection of Christ, and also of those saints met together\non it: yea, they both did begin their eternal rest thereon.\n\nFourth, The psalmist speaks of a day that the Lord Jehovah, the\nSon of God, has made; and saith, 'we will rejoice and be glad in\nit.' But what day is this? Why the day in which Christ was made\nthe 'head of the corner,' which must be applied to the day in\nwhich he was raised from the dead, which is the first of the week.\n\nHence Peter saith to the Jews, when he treateth of Christ before\nthem, and particularly of his resurrection. 'This is the stone\nwhich WAS set at nought of you builders, which IS become the head\nof the croner.' He was set at nought by them, the whole course of\nhis ministry unto his death, and was made the head of the corner\nby God, on that day he rose from the dead. This day therefore\nis the day that the Lord Jehovah has made a day of rejoicing to\nthe church of Christ, and we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psa\n118:24).\n\nFor can it be imagined, that the Spirit by the prophet should thus\nsignalise this day for nothing; saying, 'This is the day which\nthe Lord hath made'; to no purpose? Yes, you may say, for the\nresurrection of his son.\n\nBut I add, that that is not all, it is a day that the Lord has both\nmade for that, and that we might 'rejoice and be glad in it.'[17]\nRejoice, that is before the Lord while solemn divine worship\nis performed on it, by all the people that shall partake of the\nredemption accomplished then.\n\nFifth, God the Father again leaves such another stamp of divine\nnote and honour upon this day as he never before did leave upon\nany; where he saith to our Lord, 'Thou art my Son, this day have\nI begotten thee' (Acts 13:33). Still, I say, having respect to\nthe first day of the week; for that, and no other, is the day here\nintended by the apostle. This day, saith God, is the day: 'And\nas concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to\nreturn to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give thee the\nsure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm,\nThou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.' Wherefore\nthe day in which God did this work, is greater than that in which\nhe finished the work of creation; for his making of the creation\nsaved it not from corruption, but now he hath done a work which\ncorruption cannot touch, wherefore the day on which he did this,\nhas this note from his own mouth, THIS day, as a day that doth\ntranscend.\n\nAnd, as I said, this day is the first of the week; for it was on\nthat day that God begat his beloved Son from the dead. This first\nday of the week therefore, on it God found that pleasure which he\nfound not in the seventh day from the world's creation, for that\nin it his Son did live again to him.\n\nNow shall not Christians, when they do read that God saith, 'This\nday,' and that too with reference to a work done on it by him, so\nfull of delight to him, and so full of life and heaven to them,\nset also a remark upon it, saying, This was the day of God's\npleasure, for that his Son did rise thereon, and shall it not be\nthe day of my delight in him!\n\nThis is the day on which his Son was both begotten and born, and\nbecame the first fruits to God of them that sleep; yea, and in\nwhich also he was made by him the chief, and head of the corner;\nand shall not we rejoice in it? (Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5; Col 1:18;\nRev 1:5).\n\nShall kings, and princes, and great men set a remark upon the day\nof their birth and coronation, and expect that both subjects and\nservants should do them high honour on that day, and shall the\nday in which Christ was both begotten and born, be a day contemned\nby Christians! And his name not be but of a common regard on that\nday?\n\nI say again, shall God, as with his finger, point, and that in\nthe face of the world, at this day, saying, 'Thou art my Son, this\nday,' &c., and shall not Christians fear, and awake from their\nemployments, to worship the Lord on this day!\n\nIf God remembers it, well may I! If God says, and that with all\ngladness of heart, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten\nthee!' may not! ought not I also to set this day apart to sing\nthe songs of my redemption in?\n\nTHIS day my redemption was finished.\n\nThis day my dear Jesus revived.\n\nThis day he was declared to be the Son of God with power.\n\nYea this is the day in which the Lord Jesus finished a greater\nwork than ever yet was done in the world; yea, a work in which the\nFather himself was more delighted than he was in making of heaven\nand earth. And shall darkness and the shadow of death stain this\nday! Or shall a cloud dwell on this day! Shall God regard this\nday from above! And shall not his light shine upon this day! What\nshall be done to them that curse this day, and would not that the\nstars should give their light thereon. This day! After this day\nwas come, God never, that we read of, made mention with delight,\nof the old seventh day sabbath more.\n\nSixth, Nor is that altogether to be slighted, when he saith,\n'When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, Let all\nthe angels of God worship him.' To wit, at that very time and day\n(Heb 1:6).\n\nI know not what our expositors say of this text, but to me it\nseems to be meant of his resurrection from the dead; both because\nthe apostle is speaking of that (v 5), and closes that argument\nwith this text, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?\nand again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?\nAnd again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world,\nhe saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.'\n\nSo then, for God's bringing of his first-begotten now into the\nworld, was by his raising him again from the dead after they by\ncrucifying of him had turned him out of the same.\n\nThus then God brought him into the world, never by them to be hurried\nout of it again. For Christ being now raised from the dead, dies\nno more; death hath no more dominion over him.\n\nNow, saith the text, when he bringeth him thus into the world,\nhe requireth that worship be done unto HIM. When? That very day,\nand that by all the angels of God. And if by all, then ministers\nare not excluded; and if not ministers, then not churches; for\nwhat is said to the angels, is said to the church itself (Rev\n2:1-7,8,11,12,17,18,29, 3:1,6,7,13,14,22).\n\nSo then, if the question be asked, when they must worship him:\nthe answer is, when he brought him into the world, which was on\nthe first day of the week; for then he bringeth him again from the\ndead, and gave the whole world and the government thereof into\nhis holy hand. This text therefore is of weight as to what we have\nnow under consideration, to wit, that the first day of the week,\nthe day in which God brought his first-begotten into the world,\nshould be the day of worshipping him by all the angels of God.\n\nSeventh, Hence this day is called 'the Lord's day,' as John saith,\n'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,' the day in which Jesus\nrose from the dead (Rev 1:10).\n\n'The Lord's day.' Every day, say some, is the Lord's day. Indeed\nthis for discourse sake may be granted; but strictly, no day can\nso properly be called the Lord's day, as this first day of the\nweek; for that no day of the week or of the year has those badges\nof the Lord's glory upon it, nor such divine grace put upon it as\nhas the first day of the week.\n\nThis we have already made appear in part, and shall make appear\nmuch more before we have done therewith.\n\nThere is nothing, as I know of, that bears this title but the\nLord's supper, and this day (1 Cor 11:20; Rev 1:10). And since\nChristians count it an abuse to allegorize the first, let them\nalso be ashamed to fantasticalize the last. The Lord's day is\ndoubtless the day in which he rose from the dead. To be sure it\nis not the old seventh day; for from the day that he arose, to\nthe end of the Bible, we find not that he did hang so much as one\ntwist of glory upon that; but this day is beautified with glory\nupon glory, and that both by the Father and the Son; by the prophets\nand those that were raised from the dead thereon; therefore this\nday must be more than the rest.\n\nBut we are as yet but upon divine intimations, drawn from such texts\nwhich, if candidly considered, do very much smile upon this great\ntruth; namely, that the first day of the week is to be accounted\nthe Christian sabbath, or holy day for divine worship in the\nchurches of the saints. And SECOND, Now I come to the texts that\nare more express.\n\nThen First, This was the day in the which he did use to shew\nhimself to his people, and to congregate with them after he rose\nfrom the dead. On the first first-day, even on the day on which\nhe rose from the dead, he visited his people, both when together\nand apart, over, and over, and over, as both Luke and John do testify\n(Luke 24; John 20). And preached such sermons of his resurrection,\nand gave unto them; yea, and gave them such demonstration of the\ntruth of all, as was never given them from the foundation of the\nworld. Shewing, he shewed them his risen body; opening, he opened\ntheir understandings; and dissipating, he so scattered their unbelief\non THIS day, as he never had done before. And this continued one\nway or another even from before day until the evening.\n\nSecond, On the next first day following the church was within\nagain; that is, congregated to wait upon their Lord. And John so\nrelates the matter, as to give us to understand that they were not\nso assembled together again till then. 'After eight days,' saith\nhe, 'again his disciples were within,' clearly concluding, that\nthey were not so on the days that were between, no not on the old\nseventh day.\n\nNow why should the Holy Ghost thus precisely speak of their\nassembling together upon the first day, if not to confirm us in\nthis, that the Lord had chosen that day for the new sabbath of his\nchurch? Surely the Apostles knew what they did in their meeting\ntogether upon that day; yea, and the Lord Jesus also; for that he\nused so to visit them when so assembled, made his practice a law\nunto them. For practice is enough for us New Testament saints,\nespecially when the Lord Jesus himself is in the head of that\npractice, and that after he rose from the dead.\n\nPerhaps some may stumble at the word 'after,' after eight days;\nbut the meaning is, at the conclusion of the eighth day, or when\nthey had spent in a manner the whole of their sabbath in waiting\nupon their Lord, then in comes their Lord, and finisheth that\ntheir day's service to him with confirming of Thomas' faith, and\nby letting drop other most heavenly treasure among them. Christ\nsaid, he must lie three days and three nights in the heart of the\nearth, yet it is evident, that he rose the third day (1 Cor 15:4).\n\nWe must take then a part for the whole, and conclude, that from\nthe time that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, to the time that\nhe shewed his hands and his side to Thomas, eight days were almost\nexpired; that is, he had sanctified unto them two first days,\nand had accepted that service they had performed to him therein,\nas he testified by giving of them so blessed a farewell at the\nconclusion of both those days.\n\nHence now we conclude, that this was the custom of the church at\nthis day, to wit, upon the first day of the week to meet together,\nand to wait upon their Lord therein. For the Holy Ghost counts it\nneedless to make a continued repetition of things; it is enough\ntherefore if we have now and then mention made thereof.\n\nObj. But Christ shewed himself alive to them at other times also,\nas in John 21 &c.\n\nAns. The names of all those days in which he so did are obliterated\nand blotted out, that they might not be idolized; for Christ did\nnot set them apart for worship, but this day, the first day of\nthe week, by its name is kept alive in the church, the Holy Ghost\nsurely signifying thus much, that how hidden soever other days\nwere, Christ would have his day, the first day had in everlasting\nremembrance among saints.\n\nChurches also meet together now on the week days, and have the\npresence of Christ with them too in their employments; but that\ntakes not off from them the sanction of the first day of the week,\nno more than it would take away the sanction of the old seventh\nday, had it still continued holy to them: wherefore this is no\nlet or objection to hinder our sanctifying of the first day of\nthe week to our God. But,\n\nThird, Add to this, that upon Pentecost, which was the first day\nof the week, mention is made of their being together again: for\nPentecost was always the morrow after the sabbath, the old seventh\nday sabbath. Upon this day, I say, the Holy Ghost saith, they were\nagain 'with one accord together in one place.'\n\nBut oh! the glory that then attended them, by the presence of the\nHoly Ghost among them: never was such a thing done as was done on\nthat first day until then. We will read the text, 'And when the\nday of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord\nin one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a\nrushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were\nsitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of\nfire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with\nthe Holy Ghost' (Acts 2:1-4).\n\nHere is a first day glorified! Here's a countenance given to the\nday of their Christian assembling. But we will note a few things\nupon it.\n\n1. The church was now, as on other first days, all with one accord\nin one place. We read not that they came together by virtue of\nany precedent revelation, nor by accident, but contrariwise by\nagreement, they were together 'with one accord,' or by appointment,\nin pursuance of their duty, setting apart that day, as they had\ndone the first days afore, to the holy service of their blessed\nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\n\n2. We read that this meeting of theirs was not begun on the old\nsabbaths, but when Pentecost was fully come: the Holy Ghost\nintimating, that they had left now, and began to leave, the seventh\nday sabbath to the unbelieving Jews.\n\n3. Nor did the Holy Ghost come down upon them till every moment of\nthe old sabbath was past, Pentecost, as was said, was FULLY come\nfirst. 'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were\nall with one accord in one place.' And then, &c.\n\nAnd why was not this done on the seventh day sabbath? But, possibly,\nto shew, that the ministration of death and condemnation was not\nthat, by or through which Christ the Lord would communicate so\ngood a gift unto his churches (Gal 3:1-5).\n\nThis gift must be referred to the Lord's day, the first day of the\nweek, to fulfil the scripture, and to sanctify yet farther this\nholy day unto the use of all New Testament churches of the saints.\nFor since on the first day of the week our Lord did rise from\nthe dead, and by his special presence, I mean his personal, did\naccompany his church therein, and so preach as he did, his holy\ntruths unto them, it was most meet that they on the same day\nalso should receive the first fruits of their eternal life most\ngloriously.\n\nAnd, I say again, since from the resurrection of Christ to this\nday, the church then did receive upon the first day, but as we\nread, upon no other, such glorious things as we have mentioned,\nit is enough to beget in the hearts of them that love the Son\nof God, a high esteem of the first day of the week. But how much\nmore, when there shall be joined to these, proof that it was the\ncustom of the first gospel church, the church of Christ at Jerusalem,\nafter our Lord was risen, to assemble together to wait upon God\non the first day of the week with their Lord as leader.\n\nTo say little more to this head, but only to repeat what is\nwritten of this day of old, to wit, that it should be proclaimed\nthe selfsame day, to wit, the morrow after the sabbath, which is\nthe first day of the week, 'that it may be an holy convocation unto\nyou; ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute\nfor ever in all your dwellings' (Lev 23:21).\n\nThis ceremony was about the sheaf that was to be waved, and bread\nof first fruits, which was a type of Christ; for he is unto God\n'the first fruits of them that slept' (1 Cor 15:20).\n\nThis sheaf, or bread, must not be waved on the old seventh day,\nbut on the morrow after, which is the first day of the week, the\nday in which Christ rose from the dead, and waved himself as the\nfirst fruits of the elect unto God. Now from this day they were\nto count seven sabbaths complete, and on the morrow after the\nseventh sabbath, which was the first day of the week again; and\nthis Pentecost upon which we now are, then they were to have a\nnew meat offering, with meat offerings and drink offerings, &c.\n\nAnd on the selfsame day they were to proclaim that that first day\nshould be a holy convocation unto them. The which the apostles\ndid, and grounded that their proclamation so on the resurrection\nof Jesus Christ, not on ceremonies, that at the same day they\nbrought three thousand souls to God (Acts 2:41).\n\nNow what another signal [applause] was here put upon the first\nday of the week! The day in which our Lord rose from the dead,\nassembled with his disciples, poured out so abundantly of the\nSpirit, and gathered even by the first draught that his fishermen\nmade by the gospel, such a number of souls to God.\n\nThus then they proclaimed, and thus they gathered sinners on the\nfirst first-day that they preached; for though they had assembled\ntogether over and over with their Lord before therein, yet they\nbegan not jointly to preach until this first day Pentecost.\n\nNow, after this the apostles to the churches did never make mention\nof a seventh day sabbath. For as the wave sheaf and the bread of\nfirst fruits were a figure of the Lord Jesus, and the waving, of\nhis life from the dead: so that morrow after the sabbath on which\nthe Jews waved their sheaf, was a figure of that on which our\nLord did rise; consequently, when their morrow after the sabbath\nceased, our morrow after that began, and so has continued a blessed\nmorrow after their sabbath, as a holy sabbath to Christians from\nthat time ever since.\n\nFourth, We come yet more close to the custom of churches; I mean,\nto the custom of the churches of the Gentiles; for as yet we\nhave spoken but of the practice of the church of God which was at\nJerusalem; only we will add, that the customs that were laudable\nand binding with the church at Jerusalem, were with reverence to\nbe imitated by the churches of the Gentiles; for there was but\none law of Christ for them both to worship by.\n\nNow then, to come to the point, to wit, that it was the custom of\nthe churches of the Gentiles, on the first day of the week, but\nupon no other that we read of,[18] to come together to perform\ndivine worship to their Lord.\n\nHence it is said 'And upon the first day of the week, when the\ndisciples came together to break bread,' &c. (Acts 20:7). This is\na text, that as to matter of fact cannot be contradicted by any,\nfor the text saith plainly they did so, the disciples then came\ntogether to break bread, the disciples among the Gentiles, did\nso.\n\nThus you see that the solemnizing of a first day to holy uses was\nnot limited to, though first preached by the church that was at\nJerusalem. The church at Jerusalem was the mother church, and not\nthat at Rome, as some falsely imagine; for from this church went\nout the law and the holy word of God to the Gentiles. Wherefore\nit must be supposed that this meeting of the Gentiles on the first\nday of the week to break bread, came to them by holy tradition[19]\nfrom the church at Jerusalem, since they were the first that kept\nthe first day as holy unto the Lord their God.\n\nAnd indeed, they had the best advantage to do it; for they had\ntheir Lord in the head of them to back them to it by his presence\nand preaching thereon.\n\nBut we will a little comment upon the text. 'Upon the first day\nof the week.' Thus you see the day is nominated, and so is kept\nalive among the churches. For in that the day is nominated on which\nthis religious exercise was performed, it is to be supposed that\nthe Holy Ghost would have it live, and be taken notice of by the\nchurches that succeed.\n\nIt also may be nominated to shew, that both the church at Jerusalem,\nand those of the Gentiles did harmonize in their sabbath, jointly\nconcluding to solemnize worship on a [the same] day. And then again\nto shew, that they all had left the old sabbath to the unbelievers,\nand jointly chose to sanctify the day of the rising of their Lord,\nto this work.\n\nThey 'came together to break bread,' to partake of the super of\nthe Lord. And what day so fit as the Lord's day for this? This was\nto be the work of that day, to wit, to solemnize that ordinance\namong themselves, adjoining other solemn worship thereto, to fill\nup the day, as the following part of the verse shews. This day\ntherefore was designed for this work, the whole day, for the text\ndeclares it. The first day of the week was set by them apart for\nthis work.\n\n'Upon THE first day'; not upon A first day, or upon one first day,\nor upon such a first day; for had he said so, we had had from\nthence not so strong an argument for our purpose: but when he\nsaith, 'upon the first day of the week' they did it, he insinuates,\nthat it was their custom. [It was] also upon one of these, [that]\nPaul being among them, preached unto them, ready to depart on the\nmorrow. Upon the first day: what, or which first day of this, or\nthat, of the third or fourth week of the month? No, but upon the\nfirst day, every first day; for so the text admits us to judge.\n\n'Upon the first day of the week, WHEN the disciples came together,'\nsupposes a custom when, or as they were wont to come together to\nperform such service among themselves to God: then Paul preached\nunto them, &c.\n\nIt is a text also that supposes an agreement among themselves as\nto this thing. They came together then to break bread; they had\nappointed to do it then, for that then was the day of their Lord's\nresurrection, and that in which he himself congregated after he\nrevived, with the first gospel church, the church at Jerusalem.\n\nThus you see, that breaking of bread, was the work, the work that\nby general consent was agreed to be by the churches of the Gentiles\nperformed upon the first day of the week. I say, by the churches;\nfor I doubt not but that the practice here, was also the practice\nof the rest of the Gentile churches, even as it had been before\nthe practice of the church at Jerusalem.\n\nFor this practice now did become universal, and so this text implies;\nfor he speaks here universally of the practice of all disciples\nas such, though he limits Paul preaching to that church with whom\nhe at present personally was. Upon the first day of the week,\n'when the disciples came together to break bread,' Paul being at\nthat time at Troas preached to them on that day.\n\nThus then you see how the Gentile churches did use to break bread,\nnot on the old sabbath, but on the first day of the week. And, I\nsay, they had it from the church at Jerusalem; where the apostles\nwere first seated, and beheld the way of their Lord with their\neyes.\n\nNow, I say, since we have so ample an example, not only of the\nchurch at Jerusalem, but also of the churches of the Gentiles, for\nthe keeping of the first day to the Lord, and that as countenanced\nby Christ and his apostles, we should not be afraid to tread in\ntheir steps, for their practice is the same with law and commandment.\nBut,\n\nFifth, We will add to this another text. 'Now [saith Paul]\nconcerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order\nto the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of\nthe week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath\nprospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come' (1 Cor\n16:1,2).\n\nThis text some have greatly sought to evade, counting the duty\nhere, on this day to be done, a duty too inferior for the sanction\nof an old seventh day sabbath; when yet to show mercy to an ass\non the old sabbath, was a work which our Lord no ways condemns\n(Luke 13:15, 14:5).\n\nBut to pursue our design, we have a duty enjoined, and that of\nno inferior sort. If charity be indeed as it is, the very bond of\nperfectness: and if without it all our doings, yea and sufferings\ntoo, are not worthy so much as a rush (1 Cor 13; Col 3:14). we\nhave here a duty, I say, that a seventh day sabbath, when in force,\nwas not too big for it to be performed in.\n\nThe work now to be done, was, as you see, to bestow their charity\nupon the poor; yea, to provide for time to come. And I say, it\nmust be collected upon the first day of the week. Upon THE first\nday; not A first day, as signifying one or two, but upon THE\nfirst day, even every first day; for so your ancient Bibles have\nit;[20] also our later must be so understood, or else Paul had left\nthem to whom he did write, utterly at a loss. For if he intended\nnot every first day, and yet did not specify a particular one, it\ncould hardly even have been understood which first day he meant.\nBut we need not stand upon this. This work was a work for A\nfirst-day, for EVERY first day of the week.\n\nNote again that we have this duty here commanded and enforced by\nan apostolical order: 'I have given order,' saith Paul, for this;\nand his orders, as he saith in another place, 'are the commandments\nof the Lord.' You have it in the same epistle (chap. 14:37).\n\nWhence it follows, that there was given even by the apostles\nthemselves, a holy respect to the first day of the week above all\nthe days of the week; yea, or of the year besides.\n\nFurther, I find also by this text, that this order is universal.\nI have, saith he, given this order not only to you, but to the\nchurches of Galatia. Consequently to all other that were concerned\nin this collection (2 Cor 8, 9, &c.).\n\nNow this, whatever others may think, puts yet more glory upon the\nfirst day of the week. For in that all the churches are commanded,\nas to make their collections, so to make them on this day: what\nis it, but that this day, by reason of the sanction that Christ\nput upon it, was of virtue to sanctify the offering through and\nby Christ Jesus, as the altar and temple afore did sanctify the\ngift and gold that was, and was offered on them. The proverb is,\n'The better day, the better deed.' And I believe, that things\ndone on the Lord's day, are better done, than on other days of\nthe week, in his worship.\n\nObj. But yet, say some, here are no orders to keep this first day\nholy to the Lord.\n\nAns. 1. That is supplied; for that by this very text this day is\nappointed, above all the days of the week, to do this holy duty\nin.\n\n2.. You must understand that this order is but additional, and\nnow enjoined to fill up that which was begun as to holy exercise\nof religious worship by the churches long before.\n\n3. The universality of the duty being enjoined to this day, supposes\nthat this day was universally kept by the churches as holy already.\n\n4. And let him that scrupleth this, shew me, if he can, that God\nby the mouth of his apostles did ever command that all the churches\nshould be confined to this or that duty on such a day, and yet\nput no sanction upon that day; or that he has commanded that this\nwork should be done on the first day of the week, and yet has\nreserved other church ordinances as a public solemnization of\nworship to him, to be done of another day, as of a day more fit,\nmore holy.\n\n5. If charity, if a general collection for the saints in the\nchurches is commanded on this day, and on no other day but this\nday; for church collection is commanded on no other, there must\nbe a reason for it: and if that reason had not respect to the\nsanction of the day, I known to why the duty should be so strictly\nconfined to it.\n\n6. But for the apostle now to give with this a particular command\nto the churches to sanctify that day as holy unto the Lord, had\nbeen utterly superfluous; for that they already, and that by the\ncountenance of their Lord, and his church at Jerusalem, had done.\n\nBefore now, I say, it was become a custom, as by what hath been\nsaid already is manifest: wherefore what need that their so solemn\na practice be imposed again upon the brethren? An intimation now\nof a continued respect thereto, by the very naming of the day, is\nenough to keep the sanctity thereof on foot in the churches. How\nmuch more then, when the Lord is still adding holy duty to holy\nduty, to be performed upon that day. So then, in that the apostle\nwrites to the churches to do this holy duty on the first day of\nthe week, he puts them in mind of the sanction of the day,\nand insinuates, that he would still have them have a due respect\nthereto.\n\nQuest. But is there yet another reason why this holy duty should,\nin special as it is, be commanded to be performed on the first\nday of the week?\n\nAns. 1. Yes: for that now the churches were come together in their\nrespective places, the better to agree about collections, and to\ngather them. You know church worship is a duty, so long as we are\nin the world, and so long also is this of making collections for\nthe saints. And for as much as the apostle speaks here, as I have\nhinted afore, of a church collection, when is it more fit to be\ndone, than when the church is come together upon the first day of\nthe week to worship God?\n\n2. This part of worship is most comely to be done upon the first\nday of the week, and that at the close of that day's work. For\nthereby the church shows, not only her thankfulness to God for\na sabbath day's mercy, but also returneth him, by giving to the\npoor, that sacrifice for their benefit that is most behoveful to\nmake manifest their professed subjection to Christ (Prov 19:17;\n2 Cor 9:12-15). It is therefore necessary, that this work be done\non the first day of the week, for a comely close of the worship\nthat we perform to the Lord our God on that day.\n\n3. On the first day of the week, when the church is performing of\nholy worship unto God, then that of collection for the saints is\nmost meet to be performed; because then, in all likelihood, our\nhearts will be most warm with the divine presence; consequently\nmost open and free to contribute to the necessity of the saints.\nYou know, that a man when his heart is open, is taken with some\nexcellent thing; then, if at all, it is most free to do something\nfor the promoting thereof.\n\nWhy, waiting upon God in the way of his appointments, opens, and\nmakes free, the heart to the poor: and because the first day of\nthe week was it in which now such solemn service to him was done,\ntherefore also the apostle commanded, that upon the same day also,\nas on a day most fit, this duty of collecting for the poor should\nbe done. 'For God loveth a cheerful giver' (2 Cor 9:6,7).\n\nWherefore the apostle by this, takes the churches as it were at\nthe advantage, and as we say, [strikes] while the iron is hot,\nto the intent he might, what in him lay, make their collections,\nnot sparing nor of a grudging mind, but to flow from cheerfulness.\nAnd the first day of the week, though its institution be set aside,\ndoth most naturally tend to this; because it is the day, the only\nday, on which we received such blessings from God (Acts 3:26).\n\nThis is the day on which, at first, it rained manna all day long\nfrom heaven upon the new testament church, and so continues to do\nthis day.\n\nOh! the resurrection of Christ, which was on this day, and the\nriches that we receive thereby. Though it should be, and is, I\nhope thought on every day; yet when the first of the week is fully\ncome! Then to-day! This day! This is the day to be warmed; this\nday he was begotten from the dead.\n\nThe thought of this, will do much with an honest mind: this is the\nday, I say, that the first saints did find, and that after saints\ndo find the blessings of God come down upon them; and therefore\nthis is the day here commanded to be set apart for holy duties.\n\nAnd although what I have said may be but little set by of some,\nyet, for a closing word as to this, I do think, could but half\nso much be produced from the day Christ rose from the dead quite\ndown [to the end of revelation], for the sanction of a seventh day\nsabbath in the churches of the Gentiles, it would much sway with\nme. But the truth is, neither doth the apostle Paul, nor any of\nhis fellows, so much as once speak one word to the churches that\nshows the least regard, as to conscience to God, of a seventh day\nsabbath more. No, the first day, the first day, the first day, is\nnow all the cry in the churches by the apostles, for the performing\nchurch worship in to God. Christ began it on THAT day: then the\nHoly Ghost seconded it on that day: then the churches practised\nit on that day. And to conclude; the apostle by the command now\nunder consideration, continues the sanction of that day to the\nchurches to the end of the world.\n\nBut as to the old seventh day sabbath, as hath been said afore in\nthis treatise, Paul, who is the apostle of the Gentiles, has so\ntaken away that whole ministration in the bowels of which it is;\nyea, and has so stript it of its old testament grandeur, both by\nterms and arguments, that it is strange to me it should by any be\nstill kept up in the churches; specially, since the same apostle,\nand that at the same time, has put a better ministration in its\nplace (2 Cor 3).\n\nBut when the consciences of good men are captivated with an error,\nnone can stop them from a prosecution thereof, as if were itself\nof the best of truths.\n\nObj. But Paul preached frequently on the old sabbath, and that\nafter the resurrection of Christ.\n\nAns. To the unbelieving Jews and their proselytes, I grant he\ndid. But we read not that he did it to any new testament church\non that day: nor did he celebrate the instituted worship of Christ\nin the churches on that day. For Paul, who had before cast out\nthe ministration of death, as that which had no glory, would not\nnow take thereof any part for new testament instituted worship;\nfor he knew that that would veil the heart, and blind the mind\nfrom that, which yet instituted worship was ordained to discover.\n\nHe preached then on the seventh day sabbath, of a divine and crafty\nlove to the salvation of the unbelieving Jews.\n\nI say, he preached now on that day to them and their proselytes,\nbecause that day was theirs by their estimation. He did it, I say,\nof great love to their souls, that if possible, he might save some\nof them.\n\nWherefore, if you observe, you shall still find, that where it is\nsaid that he preached on that day, it was to that people, not to\nthe churches of Christ. See Acts 9:20, 13:14-16, 16:13, 17:1-3,\n18:4.\n\nThus, though he had put away the sanction of that day as to himself,\nand had left the Christians that were weak to their liberty as to\nconscience to it, yet he takes occasion upon it to preach to the\nJews that still were wedded to it, the faith, that they might be\nsaved by grace.\n\nPaul did also many other things that were Jewish and ceremonial,\nfor which he had, as then, no conscience at all, as to any sanction\nthat he believed was in them.\n\nAs his circumcising of Timothy (Acts 16:1-3).\n\nHis shaving of his head (Acts 18:18).\n\nHis submitting to Jewish purifications (Acts 21:24-26).\n\nHis acknowledging of himself a Pharisee (chap. 23:6).\n\nHis implicitly owning of Ananias for high priest after Christ was\nrisen from the dead (Acts 23:1-5).\n\nHe tells us also that, 'unto the Jews he became as a Jew' that he\nmight save the Jew. And 'without law,' to them that were without\nlaw, that also he might gain them. Yea, he became, as he saith,\n'all things to all men,' that he might gain the more, as it is 1\nCorinthians 9:19-23.\n\nBut these things, as I said, he did not of conscience to the\nthings; for he knew that their sanction was gone. Nor would he\nsuffer them to be imposed upon the churches directly or indirectly;\nno, not by Peter himself (Gal 2:11).\n\nWere I in Turkey with a church of Jesus Christ, I would keep the\nfirst day of the week to God, and for the edification of his\npeople: and would also preach the word to the infidels on their\nsabbath day, which is our Friday; and be glad too, if I might\nhave such opportunity to try to persuade them to a love of their\nown salvation.\n\nObj. But if the seventh day sabbath is, as you say, to be laid\naside by the churches of the Gentiles, why doth Christ say to\nhis, 'Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on\nthe sabbath day?' For, say some, by this saying it appears, that\nthe old seventh day sabbath, as you have called it, will as to\nthe sanction of it, abide in force after Christ is ascended into\nheaven.\n\nAns. I say first, these words were spoken to the Jewish Christians,\nnot to the Gentile churches. And the reason of this first hint,\nyou will see clearer afterwards.\n\nThe Jews had several sabbaths; as, their seventh day sabbath, their\nmonthly sabbaths, their sabbath of years, and their jubilee (Lev\n25).\n\nNow if he means their ordinary sabbaths, or that called the seventh\nday sabbath, why doth he join the winter thereto? for in that he\njoineth the winter with that sabbath that he exhorteth them to\npray their flight might not be in, it should seem that he meaneth\nrather their sabbath of years, or their jubilee, which did better\nanswer one to another than one day and a winter could.\n\nAnd I say again, that Christ should suppose that their flight\nshould, or might last some considerable part of a winter, and\nyet that then they should have their rest on those seventh day\nsabbaths, is a little beside my reason, if it be considered again,\nthat the Gentiles before whom they were then to fly, were enemies\nto their sabbath, and consequently would take opportunity at their\nsabbaths to afflict them so much the more. Wherefore, I would that\nthey who plead for a continuation of the seventh day sabbath from\nthis text, would both better consider it, and the incoherence that\nseems to be betwixt such a sabbath and a winter.\n\nBut again, were it granted that it is the seventh day sabbath that\nChrist here intendeth; yet, since as we have proved, the sanction\nbefore this was taken away; I mean before this flight should be,\nhe did not press them to pray thus because by any law of heaven\nthey should then be commanded to keep it holy; but because some\nwould, through their weakness, have conscience of it till then.\nAnd such would, if their flight should happen thereon, be as much\ngrieved and perplexed, as if it yet stood obligatory to them by\na law.\n\nThis seems to have some truth in it, because among the Jews that\nbelieved, there continued a long time many that were wedded yet to\nthe law, to the ceremonial part thereof, and were not so clearly\nevangelized as the churches of the Gentiles were. 'Thou seest\nbrother,' said James to Paul, 'how many thousands of Jews there are\nwhich believe; and they are all zealous of the law' (Acts 21:20,\n15:5).\n\nOf these, and such weak unbelieving Jews, perhaps Christ speaks,\nwhen he gives this exhortation to them to pray thus; whose\nconsciences he knew would be weak, and being so, would bind when\nthey were entangled with an error, as fast as if it bound by a\nlaw indeed.\n\nAgain, though the seventh day sabbath and ceremonies lost their\nsanction at the resurrection of Christ, yet they retained some kind\nof being in the church of the Jews, until the desolation spoken\nof by Daniel should be.\n\nHence it is said, that then the oblation and sacrifices shall\ncease (Dan 9:27). And hence it is, that Jerusalem and the temple\nare still called the holy place, even until this flight should be\n(Matt 24:15).\n\nNow if Jerusalem and the temple are still called holy, even after\nthe body and substance, of which they were shadows, were come;\nthen no marvel though some to that day that believed were entangled\ntherewith, &c. For it may very well be supposed that all conscience\nof them would not be quite taken away, until all reason for that\nconscience should be taken away also. But when Jerusalem, and the\ntemple, and the Jews' worship, by the Gentiles was quite extinct\nby ruins, then in reason that conscience did cease. And it seems\nby some texts, that all conscience to them was not taken away\ntill then.\n\nQuest. But what kind of being had the seventh day sabbath, and\nother Jewish rites and ceremonies, that by Christ's resurrection\nwere taken away?\n\nAns. These things had a virtual and a nominal being. As to their\nvirtual being, that died that day Christ did rise from the dead,\nthey being crucified with him on the cross (Col 2).\n\nBut now, when the virtual being was gone, they still with the weak\nretained their name, among many of the Jews that believed, until\nthe abomination that maketh desolate stood in the holy place: for\nin Paul's time they were, as to that, but ready to vanish away.\n\nNow, I say, they still retaining their nominal grandeur, though\nnot by virtue of a law, they could not, till time and dispensation\ncame, be swept out of the way. We will make what hath been said,\nas to this, out by a familiar similitude.\n\nThere is a lord or great man dies; now being dead, he has lost\nhis virtual life. He has now no relation to a wife, to children,\nvirtually; yet his name still abides, and that in that family, to\nwhich otherwise he is dead. Wherefore they embalm him, and also\nkeep him above ground for many days. Yea, he is still reverenced\nby those of the family, and that in several respects. Nor doth\nany thing but time and dispensation wear this name away.\n\nThus then the Old Testament signs and shadows went off the stage\nin the church of Christ among the Jews. They lost their virtue\nand signification when Christ nailed them to his cross (Col 2).\nBut as to their name, and the grandeur that attended that, it\ncontinued with many that were weak, and vanished not, but when\nthe abomination that made them desolate came.\n\nThe sum then and conclusion of the matter is this; the seventh\nday sabbath lost its glory when that ministration in which it was,\nlost its: But yet the name thereof might abide a long time with\nthe Jewish legal Christians, and so might become obligatory still,\nthough not by the law, to their conscience, even as circumcision\nand other ceremonies did: and to them it would be as grievous to\nfly on that day, as if by law it was still in force.\n\nFor, I say, to a weak conscience, that law which has lost its\nlife, may yet through their ignorance, be as binding as if it\nstood still upon the authority of God.\n\nThings then become obligatory these two ways. (1.) By an institution\nof God. (2.) By the over-ruling power of a man's misinformed\nconscience. And although by virtue of an institution divine worship\nis acceptable to God by Christ, yet conscience will make that a\nman shall have but little ease if such rules and dictates as it\nimposes be not observed by him.\n\nThis is my answer, upon a supposition that the seventh day sabbath\nis in this text intended: and the answer, I think, stands firm\nand good.\n\nAlso, there remains, notwithstanding this objection, no divine\nsanction in or upon the old seventh day sabbath.\n\nSome indeed will urge, that Christ here meant the first day of\nthe week, which here he puts under the term of sabbath. But this\nis foreign to me, so I waive it till I receive more satisfaction\nin the thing.\n\nQuest. But if indeed the first day of the week be the new christian\nsabbath, why is there no more spoken of its institution in the\ntestament of Christ?\n\nAns. No more! What need is there of more than enough! Yea, there\nis a great deal found in the testament of the Lord Jesus to prove\nits authority divine.\n\n(1.) For we have shewed from sundry scriptures, that from the very\nday our Lord did rise from the dead, the church at Jerusalem, in\nwhich the twelve apostles were, did meet together on that day, and\nhad the Lord himself for their preacher, while they were auditors;\nand thus the day began.\n\n(2.) We have shewed that the Holy Ghost, the third person in the\nTrinity, did second this of Christ, in coming down from heaven\nupon this day to manage the apostles in their preaching; and in\nthat very day so managed them in that work, that by his help they\nthen did bring three thousand souls to God.\n\n(3.) We have shewed also, that after this the gentile churches did\nsolemnize this day for holy worship, and that they had from Paul\nboth countenance and order so to do.\n\nAnd now I will add, that more need not be spoken: for the practice\nof the first church, with their Lord in the head of them to manage\nthem in that practice, is as good as many commands. What then\nshall we say, when we see a first practice turned into holy custom?\n\nI say, moreover, that though a seventh day sabbath is not natural\nto man as man, yet our christian holy day is natural to us as\nsaints, if our consciences are not clogged before with some old\nfables, or Jewish customs.\n\nBut if an old religion shall get footing and rooting in us, though\nthe grounds thereof be vanished away, yet the man concerned will\nbe hard put to it, should he be saved, to get clear of his clouds,\nand devote himself to that service of God which is of his own\nprescribing.\n\nLuther himself, though he saw many things were without ground which\nhe had received for truth, had yet work hard enough, as himself\nintimates, to get his conscience clear from all those roots and\nstrings of inbred error.\n\nBut, I say, to an untainted and well bred Christian, we have good\nmeasure, shaken together, and running over, for our christian\nLord's day. And I say again, that the first day of the week, and\nthe spirit of such a Christian, suit one another as nature suiteth\nnature; for there is as it were a natural instinct in Christians,\nas such, when they understand what in a first day was brought\nforth, to fall in therewith to keep it holy to their Lord.\n\n1. The first day of the week! Why it was the day of our life. 'After\ntwo days he will revive us,' and in the third day 'we shall live\nin his sight.' 'After two days' there is the Jews' preparation,\nand seventh day sabbath, quite passed over; and in the third day,\nthat is the first day of the week, which is the day our Lord did\nrise from the dead, we began to live by him in the sight of God\n(Hosea 6:2; John 20:1; 1 Cor 15:4).\n\n2. The first day of the week! That is the day in which, as I hinted\nbefore, our Lord was wont to preach to his disciples after he rose\nform the dead; in which also he did use to shew them his hands\nand his feet (Luke 24:38,39; John 20:25). To the end they might\nbe confirmed in the truth of his victory over death and the grave\nfor them. The day in which he made himself known to them in breaking\nbread. The day in which he so plentifully poured out the Holy Ghost\nupon them. The day in which the church, both at Jerusalem and\nthose of the Gentiles, did use to perform to God divine worship:\nall which has before been sufficiently proved. And shall we not\nimitate our Lord, nor the church that was immediately acted[21]\nby him in this, and the churches their fellows? Shall, I say, the\nLord Jesus do all this in his church, and they together with him!\nShall the churches of the Gentiles also fall in with their Lord\nand with their mother at Jerusalem herein! And again, shall all\nthis be so punctually committed to sacred story, with the day in\nwhich these things were done, under denomination, over and over,\nsaying, These things were done on the first day, on the first\nday, on the first day of the week, while all other days are, as to\nname, buried in everlasting oblivion! And shall we not take that\nnotice thereof as to follow the Lord Jesus and the churches herein?\nOh stupidity!\n\n3. This day of the week! They that make but observation of what\nthe Lord did of old, to as many sinners, and with his churches on\nthis day, must needs conclude, that in this day the treasures of\nheaven were broken up, and the richest things therein communicated\nto his church. Shall the children of this world be, as to this\nalso, wiser in their generations than the children of light, and\nformer saints, upon whose shoulders we pretend to stand, go beyond\nus here also.\n\nJacob could by observation gather that the place where he lay down\nto sleep was no other but the house of God, and the very gate of\nheaven (Gen 28:17).\n\nLaban could gather by observation, that the Lord blessed him for\nJacob's sake (Gen 30:27).\n\nDavid could gather by what he met with upon Mount Moriah, that that\nwas the place where God would have the temple builded, therefore\nhe sacrificed there (1 Chron 21:26-28, 22:1,2; 2 Chron 3:1).\n\nRuth was to mark the place where Boaz lay down to sleep, and shall\nnot Christians also mark the day in which our Lord rose from the\ndead (Ruth 3:4).\n\nI say, shall we not mark it, when so many memorable things were\ndone on it, for, and to and in the churches of God! Let saints be\nashamed to think that such a day should be looked over, or counted\ncommon, when tempted to it by Satan, when [it was] kept to religious\nservice of old, and when beautified with so many divine characters\nof sanctity as we have proved, by Christ, his church, the Holy\nGhost, and the command of apostolical authority it was.\n\nBut why, I say, is this day, on which our Lord rose from the dead,\nnominated as it is? why was it not sufficient to say 'he rose\nagain,' or, he rose again the third day? without a specification of\nthe very name of the day. For, as was said afore, Christ appeared\nto his disciples, after his resurrection, on other days also, yea,\nand thereon did miracles to. Why then did not these days live?\nWhy was their name, for all that, blotted out, and this day only\nkept alive in the churches?\n\nThe day on which Christ was born of a virgin; the day of his\ncircumcision, the day of his baptism, and of his transfiguration,\nare not by their names committed by the Holy Ghost to holy writ\nto be kept alive in the world, nor yet such days in which he did\nmany great and wonderful things. But THIS day, this day is still\nnominated; the first day of the week is the day. I say, why are\nthings thus left with us? But because we, as saints of old, should\ngather, and separate, what is of divine authority from the rest.\nFor in that this day is so often nominated while all other days\nlie dead in their graves, it is as much as if God should say,\nRemember the first day of the week to keep it holy to the Lord\nyour God.\n\nAnd set this aside, and I know not what reason can be rendered, or\nwhat prophecy should be fulfilled by the bare naming of the day.\n\nWhen God, of old, did sanctify for the use of his church a day,\nas he did many, he always called them either by the name of the\nday of the month, or of the week, or by some other signal by which\nthey might be certainly known, why should it not then be concluded,\nthat for this very reason the first day of the week is thus often\nnominated by the Holy Ghost in the testament of Christ?\n\nMoreover, he that takes away the first day, as to this service,\nleaves us now no day, as sanctified of God, for his solemn worship\nto be by his churches performed in. As for the seventh day sabbath,\nthat, as we have seen, is gone to its grave with the signs and\nshadows of the Old Testament. Yea, and has such a dash left upon\nit by apostolical authority, that it is enough to make a Christian\nfly from it for ever (2 Cor 3).\n\nNow, I say, since that is removed by God: if we should suffer the\nfirst day also to be taken away by man, what day that has a divine\nstamp upon it, would be left for us to worship God in?\n\nAlas! the first day of the week is the Christian's market day,\nthat which they so solemnly trade in for sole provision for all\nthe week following. This is the day that they gather manna in. To\nbe sure the seventh day sabbath is not that. For of old the people\nof God could never find manna on that day. 'On the seventh day\n[said Moses] which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none' (Exo\n16:26).\n\nAny day of the week manna could be found, but on that day it was\nnot to be found upon the face of the ground. But now our first\nday is the manna day; the only day that the churches of the New\nTestament, even of old, did gather manna in. But more of this\nanon.\n\nNor will it out of my mind but that it is a very high piece of\ningratitude, and of uncomely behaviour, to deny the Son of God\nhis day, the Lord's day, the day that he has made. And as we have\nshewed already, this first day of the week is it; yea, and a great\npiece of unmannerliness is it too, for any, notwithstanding the\nold seventh day is so degraded as it is, to attempt to impose it on\nthe Son of God. To impose a day upon him which yet Paul denies to\nbe a branch of the ministration of the Spirit, and of righteousness.\nYea, to impose a part of that ministration which he says plainly\n'which was done away,' for that a better ministration stript it\nof its glory, is a high attempt indeed (2 Cor 3).\n\nYet again, the apostle smites the teachers of the law upon the\nmouth, saying, 'understanding neither what they say, nor whereof\nthey affirm' (1 Tim 1:7).\n\nThe seventh day sabbath, was indeed God's rest from the works of\ncreation; but yet the rest that he found in what the first day of\nthe week did produce, for Christ was born from the dead on it,\nmore pleased him than did all the seventh days that ever the world\nbrought forth: wherefore, as I said before, it cannot be but that\nthe well-bred Christian must set apart this day for solemn worship\nto God, and to sanctify his name therein.\n\nMust the church of old be bound to remember that night in which\nthey did come out of Egypt! must Jephtha's daughter have four days\nfor the virgins of Israel yearly to lament her hard case in! Yea,\nmust two days be kept by the church of old, yearly, for their being\ndelivered from Haman's fury! And must not one to the world's end\nbe kept by the saints for the Son of God their Redeemer, for all\nhe has delivered them from a worse than Pharaoh or Haman, even\nfrom the devil, and death, and sin, and hell! Oh stupidity! (Exo\n12:24; Judg 11:39,40; Esth 9:26-32).\n\nA day! say some, God forbid but he should have a day. But what\nday? Oh! The old day comprised within the bounds and bowels of\nthe ministration of death.\n\nAnd is this the love that thou hast to thy Redeemer, to keep that\nday to him for all the service that he hath done for thee, which\nhas a natural tendency in it to draw thee off from the consideration\nof the works of thy redemption, to the creation of the world! Oh\nstupidity!\n\nBut why must he be imposed upon? Has he chosen that day? Did he\nfinish his work thereon? Is there in all the New Testament of our\nLord, from the day he rose from the dead, to the end of his holy\nbook, one syllable that signifies in the least the tenth part of\nsuch a thing? where is the scripture that saith that this Lord of\nthe sabbath commanded his church, from that time, to do any part\nof church service thereon? Where do we find the churches to gather\ntogether thereon?\n\nBut why the seventh day? What is it? Take but the shadow thereof\naway. Or what shadow now is left in it since its institution as\nto divine service is taken long since from it?\n\nIs there any thing in the works that was done in that day, more\nthan shadow, or that in the least tends otherwise to put us in mind\nof Christ; and he being come, what need have we of that shadow?\nAnd I say again, since that day was to be observed by a ceremonial\nmethod, and no way else, as we find; and since ceremonies have\nceased, what way of divine appointment is there left to keep that\nold sabbath by Christians in?\n\nIf they say, ceremonies have ceased. By the same argument, so\nis the sanction of the day in which they were to be performed. I\nwould gladly see the place, if it is to be found, where it is said,\nThat day retains its sanction, which yet has lost that method of\nservice which was of God appointed for the performance of worship\nto him thereon.\n\nWhen Canaan worship fell, the sanction of Canaan fell. When temple\nworship, and altar worship, and the sacrifices of the Levitical\npriesthood fell, down also came the things themselves. Likewise\nso, when the service, or shadow and ceremonies of the seventh day\nsabbath fell, the seventh day sabbath fell likewise.\n\nOn the seventh day sabbath, as I told you, manna was not to be found.\nBut why? For that that day was of Moses and of the ministration\nof death. But manna was not of him. Moses, saith Christ, 'gave\nyou not that bread of heaven' (John 6:31,32). Moses, as was said,\ngave that sabbath in tables of stone, and God gave that manna from\nheaven. Christ, nor his Father, gives grace by the law; no not by\nthat law in which is contained the old seventh day sabbath itself.\n\nThe law is not of faith, why then should grace be by Christians\nexpected by observation of the law? The law, even the law written\nand engraven in stones, enjoins perfect obedience thereto on pain\nof the curse of God. Nor can that part of it now under consideration,\naccording as is required, be fulfilled by any man, was the ceremony\nthereto belonging, allowed to be laid aside (Isa 58:13). Never man\nyet did keep it perfectly, except he whose name is Jesus Christ:\nin him therefore we have kept it, and by him are set free from\nthat law, and brought under the ministration of the Spirit.\n\nBut why should we be bound to seek manna on that day, on which\nGod says, none shall be found.\n\nPerhaps it will be said, that the sanction of that day would not\nadmit that manna should be gathered on it.\n\nBut that was not all, for on that day there was none to be found.\nAnd might I choose, I had rather sanctify that day to God on which\nI might gather this bread of God all day long, then set my mind\nat all upon that in which no such bread was to be had.\n\nThe Lord's day, as was said, is to the Christians the principal\nmanna day.\n\nOn this day, even on it manna in the morning very early was gathered\nby the disciples of our Lord, as newly springing out of the ground.\nThe true bread of God: the sheaf of first fruits, which is Christ\nfrom the dead, was ordained to be waved before the Lord on the\nmorrow after the sabbath, the day on which our Lord ceased from\nhis own work as God did from his (Lev 23).\n\nNow therefore the disciples found their green ears of corn indeed!\nNow they read life, both in and out of the sepulchre in which the\nLord was laid. Now they could not come together nor speak one to\nanother, but either their Lord was with them, or they had heart\nenflaming tidings from him. Now cries one and says, The Lord is\nrisen: And then another and says, He hath appeared to such and\nsuch.\n\nNow comes tidings to the eleven that their women were early at\nthe sepulchre, where they had a vision of angels that told them\ntheir Lord was risen: Then comes another and says, The Lord is\nrisen indeed. Two also came from Emmaus and cried, We have seen\nthe Lord: and by and by, while they yet were speaking, their Lord\nshows himself in the midst of them.\n\nNow he calls to their mind some of their eminent passages of his\nlife, and eats and drinks in their presence, and opens the scriptures\nto them: yea, and opens their understanding too, that their hearing\nmight not be unprofitable to them; all which continued from early\nin the morning till late at night. Oh! what a manna day was this\nto the church. And more than all this you will find, if you read\nbut the four evangelists upon this subject.\n\nThus began the day after the sabbath, and thus it has continued\nthrough all ages to this very day. Never did the seventh day sabbath\nyield manna to Christians. A new world was now begun with the\npoor church of God, for so said the Lord of the sabbath, 'Behold,\nI make all things new.' A new covenant, and why not then a new\nresting day to the church? Or why must the old sabbath be joined\nto this new ministration? let him that can, show a reason for it.\n\nChristians, if I have not been so large upon things as some might\nexpect; know, that my brevity on this subject is, from consideration\nthat must needs not be spoken thereto, and because I may have\noccasion to write a second part.\n\nChristians, beware of being entangled with old testament ministrations,\nlest by one you be brought into many inconveniencies.\n\nI have observed, that though the Jewish rites have lost their\nsanction, yet some that are weak in judgment, do bring themselves\ninto bondage by them. Yea, so high have some been carried as to\na pretended conscience to these that they have at last proceeded\nto circumcision, to many wives, and the observation of many bad\nthings besides.\n\nYea, I have talked with some pretending to Christianity, who\nhave said, and affirmed, as well as they could, that the Jewish\nsacrifices must up again.\n\nBut do you give no heed to these Jewish fables 'That turn from\nthe truth' (Titus 1:14). Do you, I say, that love the Lord Jesus,\nkeep close to his testament, his word, his gospel, and observe\nHIS holy day.\n\nAnd this caution in conclusion I would give, to put stop to this\nJewish ceremony, to wit, That a seventh day sabbath pursued according\nto its imposition by law, (and I know not that it is imposed by\nthe apostles) leads to blood and stoning to death those that do but\ngather sticks thereon (Num 15:32-36). A thing which no way becomes\nthe gospel, that ministration of the Spirit and of righteousness\n(2 Cor 3). Nor yet the professors thereof (Luke 9:54-56).\n\nNor can it with fairness be said, that that sabbath day remains,\nalthough the law thereof is repealed. For confident I am, that\nthere is no more ground to make such a conclusion, than there is\nto say, that circumcision is still of force, though the law for\ncutting of the uncircumcised is by the gospel made null and void.\n\nI told you also in the epistle, that if the fifth commandment was\nthe first that was with promise; then it follows, that the fourth,\nor that seventh day sabbath, had no promise entailed to it. Whence\nit follows, that where you read in the prophet of a promise annexed\nto a sabbath, it is best to understand it of our gospel sabbath\n(Isa 56).\n\nNow if it be asked, What promise is entailed to our first day\nsabbath? I answer, The biggest of promises. For,\n\nFirst, The resurrection of Christ was tied by promise to this day,\nand to none other. He rose the third day after his death, and that\nwas the first day of the week, 'according' to what was fore-promised\nin the scriptures (Hosea 6:1,2; 1 Cor 15:3-6).\n\nSecond, That we should live before God by him, is a promise to be\nfulfilled on this day; 'After two days will he revive us: in the\nthird day--we shall live in his sight' (Hosea 6:2). See also Isaiah\n26:19 and compare them again with 1 Corinthians 15:4.\n\nThird, The great promise of the new testament, to wit, the pouring\nout of the Spirit, fixeth upon these days; and so he began in the\nmost wonderful effusion of it upon Pentecost, which was the first\nday of the week, that the scriptures might be fulfilled (Acts\n2:16-19).\n\nNor could these three promises be fulfilled upon any other days,\nfor that the scripture had fixed them to the first day of the\nweek.\n\nI am of opinion that these things, though but briefly touched upon,\ncannot be fairly objected against, however they may be disrelished\nby some.\n\nNor can I believe, that any part of our religion, as we are\nChristians, stand in not kindling of fires, and not seething of\nvictuals, or in binding of men not to stir out of those places on\nthe seventh day, in which at the dawning thereof they were found.\nAnd yet these are ordinances belonging to that seventh day sabbath\n(Exo 16:23-29).\n\nCertainly it must needs be an error to impose these things by divine\nauthority upon new testament believers, our worship standing now\nin things more weighty, spiritual and heavenly.\n\nNor can it be proved, as I have hinted before, that this day was,\nor is to be imposed without those ordinances, with others in other\nplaces mentioned and adjoined, for the sanction of that day they\nbeing made necessary parts of that worship that was to be performed\nthereon.\n\nI have charity for those that abuse themselves and their Lord, by\ntheir preposterous zeal and affection for the continuing of this\nday in the churches. For I conclude, that if they did either\nbelieve, or think of the incoherence that this day with its\nrites and ceremonies has with the ministration of the Spirit, our\nnew testament ministration, they would not so stand int heir own\nlight as they do, nor so stiffly plead for a place for it in the\nchurches of the Gentiles. But as Paul insinuates in other cases,\nthere is an aptness in men to be under the law because they do\nnot hear it (Gal 4).\n\nNor will it out of my mind, but if the seventh day sabbath was\nby divine authority, and to be kept holy by the churches of the\nGentiles, it should not have so remained among the Jews, Christ's\ndeadliest enemies, and have been kept so much hid from the\nbelievers, his best friends. For who has retained the pretended\nsanction of that day from Christ's time, quite down in the world,\nbut the Jews, and a few Jewish Gentiles, I will except some. But,\nI say, since a sabbath is that without which the great worship\nof God under the gospel cannot be well performed: how can it be\nthought, that it should as to the knowledge of it, be confined to\nso blasphemous a generation of the Jews, with whom that worship\nis not?\n\nI will rather conclude, that those Gentile professors that adhere\nthereto are Jewified, legalized, and so far gone back from the\nauthority of God, who from such bondage has set his churches free.\n\nI do at this time but hint upon things, reserving a fuller argument\nupon them for a time and place more fit; where, and when, I may\nperhaps also show, some other wild notions of those that so stiffly\ncleave to this.\n\nMeantime, I entreat those who are captivated with this opinion,\nnot to take it ill at my hand that I thus freely speak my mind.\nI entreat them also to peruse my book without prejudice to my\nperson. The truth is, one thing that has moved me to this work, is\nthe shame that has covered the face of my soul, when I have thought\nof the fictions and fancies that are growing among professors. And\nwhile I see each fiction turn itself to a faction, to the loss of\nthat good spirit of love, and that oneness that formerly was with\ngood men.\n\nI doubt not but some unto whom this book may come, have had seal\nfrom God, that the first day of the week is to be sanctified by\nthe church to Jesus Christ. Not only from his testimony, which\nis, and should be, the ground of our practice; but also, for that\nthe first conviction that the Holy Ghost made upon their consciences,\nto make them know that they were sinners, began with them for\nbreaking this sabbath day; which day, by that same spirit was told\nthem, was that now called the first day, and not the day before,\nand the Holy Ghost doth not use to begin this work with a lie,\nwhich first conviction the Spirit has followed so close, with other\nthings tending to complete the same work, that the soul from so\ngood a beginning could not rest until it found rest in Christ.\nLet this then to such be a second token that the Lord's day is by\nthem to be kept in commemoration of their Lord and his resurrection,\nand of what he did on this day for their salvation. Amen.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Dialogues, 1st chapter, xxv.\n\n2. Answer to More.\n\n3. Institutes, b. ii. ch. 8.\n\n4. Com. on Gal. 4:9.\n\n5. The word 'moral' is here used to mark the difference between\nobligations binding on all mankind and a positive or limited\ncommand: thus, to love God is a moral or universal obligation,\nbut to be baptized is positive and obligatory only on those who\nbelieve (Acts 8:37).--Ed.\n\n6. The original edition refers to (Eze 49, 50), but it is evidently\na typographical error in omitting the chapter.\n\n7. Man unaided by revelation.\n\n8. Adam is supposed by some rabbins not to have passed one night\nin a state of perfection, (see Ainsworth on Gen 3:1, 28:11; Psa\n49:13), and to have fallen on the Sabbath day.\n\n9. The murder of Abel took place 'at the end of days'; see margin\nto Genesis 4:3. Properly rendered 'in process of time'; but by some\nsupposed to mean at the end of the week. See Dr. Gill's Commentary.\n\n10. 'The Lord hath given YOU the sabbath.' See also 31:17, 'It [the\nobservance of the sabbath] is a sign between me and the children\nof Israel for ever.'--Ed.\n\n11. This is a striking application of Colossians 2:17. The sabbath\n'a shadow of things to come'; to the Jews it was a shadow of the\nrest that remaineth to the children of God, reflected from the\ncompletion of the work of creation. The day of rest and worship\nto the Christian, is a much stronger type, yet but a shadow of the\nholy enjoyments of his eternal rest, prefigured from the finishing\nof the mightier work of redemption.--Ed.\n\n12. In Bunyan's original edition it is 'Matt 3, 1,' but this must\nbe a typographical error.--Ed.\n\n13. 'Out of doors,' no more to be found, quite gone, fairly sent\naway.--Locke. 'Out of court.'--Law-term.--Ed.\n\n14. 'Any likement,' any fondness or partiality.--Ed.\n\n15. This spirit is not extinct. Mr. Shenston, in his 'Plea for the\nSeventh-day,' charges those who keep the Lord's day 'that they\nyield to the tide--keep their friends--riches--comforts; they\nbelieve that the seventh-day is the sabbath, and would greatly\nprefer keeping it, if the rulers of the nation would alter the\nday; they imagine that their God is some dumb idol!'+ Language\nmost unseemly and insulting--charging all who observe the Lord's\nday with being hypocrites and the worst of fools. Mr. S. forgot the\nsolemn proverb, 'with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged.'\n\n+ Edit. 1826, pp. 41, 42.\n\n16. This was the opinion of those great reformers, Tyndale, Calvin,\nand Luther; see introduction by the Editor. It was a sentiment\nwhich led to no practical evil.--Ed.\n\n17. Psalm 118:24.\n\n18. 'That we read of' in the New Testament; for this is our sole\nauthority in all inquiries as to a Christian's faith and practice.--Ed.\n\n19. 'Tradition' is a communication without writing, and when\nmade orally by some apostle or messenger from the first church\nat Jerusalem, and the message so obeys as to be left upon record\nby the Holy Ghost, it has the same authority as if it had been\ncommanded in an epistle. It has nothing to do with the vain traditions\nof the fathers (so called), which were not heard of until after the\ninspired volume was completed and closed. Any subsequent commands\nare censures upon God's omniscience, and are deserving only of\ncontempt.--Ed.\n\n20. The New Testament by Whittinghan, 1557; the Genevan or Puritan\nBible by Knox, Coverdale, and others, 1560; and the New Testament\nrevised by Tomson, 1576, very frequently reprinted, and very\nfavourite translations among our puritan and pilgrim forefathers\nin the faith. The marginal note to the Puritan Bible, in Acts\n20:7, 'first day,' is, 'which we call Sunday. Of this place, and\nalso of the 1 Corinthians 16:2, we gather that the Christians\nused to have their solemn assemblies this day, laying aside the\nceremony of the Jewish sabbath.'--Ed.\n\n21. 'Acted by,' a mode of speech now obsolete; it means 'actuated\nby' or 'influenced by.'--Ed.\n\n***\n\nOF THE TRINITY AND A CHRISTIAN, AND OF THE LAW AND A CHRISTIAN.\n\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThese two short treatises were found among Mr. Bunyan's papers\nafter his decease. They probably were intended for publication,\nlike his 'Prison Meditations' and his 'Map of Salvation,' on a\nsingle page each, in the form of a broadside, or handbill. This\nwas the popular mode in which tracts were distributed; and when\nposted against a wall, or framed and hung up in a room, they excited\nnotice, and were extensively read. They might also have afforded\nsome trifling profit to aid this poor but eminent servant of\nChrist in his very limited income. They form two pages in that\nexceedingly interesting volume of 'The Works of Mr. John Bunyan,'\nin small folio, 1692. To which is added 'The Struggler,' containing\nsome most valuable facts, relative to the various works, imprisonment\nand sufferings of the author. The titles to these treatises were\nadded by Mr. Doe, the personal friend of Bunyan, who edited the\nworks and wrote 'The Struggler,' the author having left them without\nany heading or title. They are very unfinished, and may have been\nintended as a syllabus or outline of more extended treatises.--GEO.\nOFFOR.\n\n\n\nOF THE TRINITY AND A CHRISTIAN\n\nHow a young, or shaken Christian should demean himself under the\nweighty thoughts of the doctrine of the Trinity, or plurality of\npersons in the eternal godhead.\n\nThe reason why I say a young, or shaken Christian; it is because\nsome that are not young, but of an ancient standing, may not only\nbe assaulted with violent temptations, concerning gospel principles,\nbut a second time may become a child, a babe, a shallow man, in\nthe things of God; especially, either when by backsliding he hath\nprovoked God to leave him, or when some new, unexpected, and, as\nto present strength, over-weighty objection doth fall upon the\nspirit; by means of which, great shakings of mind do commonly\nattend such a soul, in the most weighty matters of the concerns\nof faith, which this is one that have supposed in the above-named\nquestion. Wherefore passing other things, I will come directly to\nthat, and briefly propose some helps to a soul in such a case.\n\nTHE FIRST PREPARATIVE.\n\nFirst, then, be sure thou keep close to the word of God; for that\nis the revelation of the mind and will of God, both as to the\ntruth of what is either in himself or ways; and also as to what\nhe requireth and expecteth of thee, either concerning faith in,\nor obedience to, what he hath so revealed. Now for thy better\nperforming of this I shall give thee in brief these following\ndirections.\n\n1. Suffer thyself, by the authority of the word, to be persuaded\nthat the scripture indeed is the word of God; the scriptures of\ntruth, the words of the holy one; and that they therefore must be\nevery one true, pure, and for ever settled in heaven.\n\n2. Conclude therefore from the former doctrine, that that God\nwhose words they are, is able to make a reconciliation and most\nsweet and harmonious agreement with all the sayings therein, how\nobscure, cross, dark, and contradictory soever they seem to thee.\nTo understand all mysteries, to have all knowledge, to be able\nto comprehend with all saints, is a great work; enough to crush\nthe spirit, and to stretch the strings of the most capacious and\nwidened soul that breatheth on this side glory, be they notwithstanding\nexceedingly enlarged by revelation. Paul, when he was caught up\nto heaven, saw that which was unlawful, because impossible for man\nto utter. And saith Christ to the reasoning Pharisee, 'If I have\ntold you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe,\nif I tell you of heavenly things?' (John 3:12). It is great lewdness,\nand also insufferable arrogancy to come to the word of God, as\nconceiting already that whatever thou readest, must either by\nthee be understood, or of itself fall to the ground as a senseless\nerror. But God is wiser than man, wherefore fear thou him, and\ntremble at his word, saying still, with godly suspicion of thine\nown infirmity, what I see not, teach thou me, and thou art God only\nwise; but as for me, 'I was as a beast before thee' (Psa 73:22).\n\n3. Take heed of taking a part of the word only, lest thou thereby\ngo away with the truth as mangled in pieces. For instance, where\nthou readest, 'The LORD our God is one Lord' (Deut 6:4); there\ntake heed that thou dost not thence conclude, Then there are not\nthree persons in the godhead: Or when thou readest of the Father,\nthe Son, and the Holy Spirit, then take heed of concluding, there\nmust therefore either be three Gods, or else that Jesus Christ and\nthe Holy Ghost are not true God, but the Father only. Wherefore\nto help thee here, observe,\n\nTHE SECOND PREPARATIVE.\n\n1. That Christian religion requireth credit concerning every\ndoctrine contained in the word; credit, I say, according to the\ntrue relation of every sentence that the Holy Ghost hath revealed\nfor the asserting, maintaining, or vindicating that same truth.\n\n2. And therefore hence it is that a Christian is not called a doer,\na reasoner, an objector, and perverse disputer; but a BELIEVER.\nBe thou an example to the believer. 'And believers were the more\nadded to the Lord,' &c. (Acts 5:14; 1 Tim 4:12).\n\n3. Therefore know again that the word, if it saith and expresseth\nthat this or that is so and so, as to the matter in hand, thou art\nbound and obliged both by the name, profession, and the truth,\nunto which thou hast joined thyself, to assent to, confess\nand acknowledge the same, even then when thy carnal reason will\nnot stoop thereto. 'Righteous art thou, O Lord,' saith Jeremiah,\n'yet let me talk with thee: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked\nprosper?' (Jer 12:1). Mark, first he acknowledgeth that God's way\nwith the wicked is just and right, even then when yet he could\nnot see the reason of his actings and dispensations towards them.\nThe same reason is good as to our present case. And hence it\nis that the apostle teacheth, the spiritual armour of Christians\nshould be much exercised against those high-towering and\nself-exalting imaginations, that within our own bosoms do exalt\nthemselves against the knowledge of God. That every thought, or\ncarnal reasoning, may be not only taken, but brought as captive\ninto obedience to Christ; that is, be made to stoop to the word of\nGod, and to give way and place to the doctrine therein contained,\nhow cross soever our thoughts and the word lie to each other.\nAnd it is observable that he here teacheth, They exalt themselves\nagainst the knowledge of God, which cannot be understood that\nour carnal or natural reason doth exalt itself against an eternal\ndeity, simply considered; for that nature itself doth gather from\nthe very things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead;\nit must be then that they exalt themselves against that God as\nthus and thus revealed in the word, to wit, against the knowledge\nof one God consisting of three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit;\nfor this is the doctrine of the scriptures of truth; and therefore\nit is observable these thoughts must be brought captive, and be\nmade subject in particular to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to the\nsecond person in the godhead; for the Father is ever acknowledged\nby all that profess the least of religion; but the Son is that\nstubmling-stone, and rock of offence, against which thousands dash\nthemselves in pieces; though in him are hid all the treasures of\nwisdom and knowledge, and in him dwells the fulness of the godhead\nbodily.\n\n\n\nOF THE LAW AND A CHRISTIAN.\n\nThe law was given twice upon mount Sinai, but the appearance of\nthe Lord when he gave it the second time, was wonderfully different\nfrom that of his [appearance], when at the first he delivered it\nto Israel (Exo 19 and 34).\n\n1. When he gave it the first time, he caused his terror and\nseverity to appear before Moses, to the shaking of his soul, and\nthe dismaying of Israel (Exo 19:16; Heb 12:18-20). But when he\ngave it the second time, he caused all his goodness to pass before\nMoses, to the comfort of his conscience, and the bowing of his\nheart (Exo 34:8).\n\n2. When he gave it the first time, it was with thunderings and\nlightnings, with blackness and darkness, with flame and smoke, and\na tearing sound of the trumpet (Exo 19:16-18). But when he gave\nit the second time, it was with a proclamation of his name to be\nmerciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and\ntruth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgressions\nand sins (Exo 34:6,7).\n\n3. When he gave it the first time, Moses was called to go up to\nreceive it through the fire, which made him exceedingly fear and\nquake (Exo 19:18; Heb 12:21). But when he went to receive it the\nsecond time, he was laid in a clift of the rock (Exo 31:22).\n\n4. From all which I gather, that, though as to the matter of the\nlaw, both as to its being given the first time, and the second,\nit binds the unbeliever under the pains of eternal damnation, if\nhe close not with Christ by faith; yet as to the manner of its\ngiving at these two times, I think the first doth more principally\nintend its force as a covenant of works, not at all respecting\nthe Lord Jesus; but this second time not, at least in the manner\nof its being given, respecting such a covenant, but rather as a\nrule, or directory, to those who already are found in the clift\nof the rock, Christ: for the saint himself, though he be without\nlaw to God, as it is considered the first or old covenant, yet\neven he is not without law to him as considered under grace, not\nwithout law to God, but under the law to Christ (1 Cor 9:21).\n\n5. Though therefore it be sad with the unbeliever, because he\nonly and wholly standeth under the law, as it is given in fire, in\nsmoke, in blackness, and darkness, and thunder; all which threaten\nhim with eternal ruin if he fulfil not the utmost tittle thereof;\nyet the believer stands to the law under no such consideration,\nneither is he so at all to hear or regard it, for he is now\nremoved from thence to the blessed mountain of Zion, to grace\nand forgiveness of sins; he is now, I say, by faith in the Lord\nJesus shrouded under so perfect and blessed a righteousness, that\nthis thundering law of mount Sinai cannot find the least fault\nor diminution therein; but rather approveth and alloweth thereof\neither when, or wherever it find it (Heb 12). This is called\nthe righteousness of God without the law, and is also said to be\nwitnessed by both the law and the prophets: even the righteousness\nof God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ 'unto all and upon all\nthem that believe, for there is no difference' (Rom 3:22).\n\n6. Wherefore whenever thou who believest in Jesus, dost hear the\nlaw in its thundering and lightning fits, as if it would burn up\nheaven and earth; then say thou, I am freed from this law, these\nthunderings have nothing to do with my soul; nay even this law, while\nit thus thunders and roareth, it doth both allow and approve of\nmy righteousness. I know that Hagar would sometimes be domineering\nand high, even in Sarah's house and against her; but this she\nis not to be suffered to do, nay though Sarah herself be barren;\nwherefore serve IT also as Sarah served her, and expel her out\nfrom thy house. My meaning is, when this law with its thundering\nthreatenings doth attempt to lay hold on thy conscience, shut it\nout with a promise of grace; cry, the inn is took up already, the\nLord Jesus is here entertained, and here is no room for the law.\nIndeed if it will be content with being my informer, and so lovingly\nleave off to judge me; I will be content, it shall be in my sight,\nI will also delight therein; but otherwise, I being now made\nupright without it, and that too with that righteousness, which\nthis law speaks well of and approveth; I am not, will not, cannot,\ndare not make it my saviour and judge, nor suffer it to set up its\ngovernment in my conscience; for by so doing I fall from grace,\nand Christ Jesus doth profit me nothing (Gal 5:1-5).\n\n7. Thus therefore the soul that is married to him that is raised\nup from the dead, both may and ought to deal with this law of\nGod; yea, it doth greatly dishonour its Lord and refuse its gospel\nprivileges, if it at any time otherwise doth, whatever it seeth\nor feels. The law hath power over the wife so long as her husband\nliveth, but if her husband be dead she is freed from that law,\nso that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man\n(Rom 7:1-3). Indeed so long as thou art alive to sin, and to thy\nrighteousness which is of the law, so long thou hast them for thy\nhusband and they must reign over thee: But when once they are\nbecome dead unto thee, as they then most certainly will, when\nthou closest with the Lord Jesus Christ; then I say, thy former\nhusbands have no more to meddle with thee, thou art freed from\ntheir law. Set a case, a woman be cast into prison for a debt of\nhundreds of pounds, if after this she marry; yea, though while\nshe is in the gaoler's hand, in the same day that she is joined\nto her husband, her debt is all become his; yea, and the law also\nthat arrested and imprisoned this woman, as freely tells her, go,\nshe is freed, saith Paul, from that, and so saith the law of this\nland.\n\nThe sum then of what hath been said is this, the Christian hath\nnow nothing to do with the law, as it thundereth and burneth on\nSinai, or as it bindeth the conscience to wrath and the displeasure\nof God for sin; for from its thus appearing, it is freed by faith\nin Christ. Yet it is to have regard thereto, and is to count it\nholy, just and good (Rom 7:12); which that it may do, it is always\nwhenever it seeth or regards it, to remember that he who giveth\nit to us is 'merciful, and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant\nin goodness and truth,' &c. (Exo 34:6).\n\n***\n\nSCRIPTURAL POEMS; BEING SEVERAL PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE DIGESTED INTO\nENGLISH VERSE\n\nviz.,\n\nI. The Book of Ruth II. The History of Samson III. Christ's Sermon\non the Mount IV. The Prophecy of Jonah V. The Life of Joseph VI.\nThe Epistle of James\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\nLicensed According to Order.\n\nLondon: Printed for J. Blare, at the Looking Glass, on London\nBridge, 1701.\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis very interesting little volume of poems, we believe, has not\nbeen reprinted since the year 1701, nor has it ever been inserted\nin any edition or catalogue of Bunyan's works. This may have arisen\nfrom the author's having sold his entire copyright--a fact which\nprevented Charles Doe from publishing many other of Bunyan's\ntreatises, when he projected his edition of the entire works,\nof which the first volume only was printed. With some other of\nBunyan's rarest tracts, it escaped the researches of Wilson, who\npublished the works in 1737, and also of Whitefield, Mason, and all\nother editors of Bunyan's works. Mr. Doe, in his very interesting\npages called 'The Struggler, for the Preservation of Mr. John\nBunyan's Labours,' gives a catalogue table of his books in the\norder in which they were published; but he had not discovered these\npoems, nor the Emblems, nor the Exhortation to Peace and Unity.\n\nThe volume from which this edition is printed consists of one\nhundred pages in crown octavo, with a very rude cut of Ruth and\nBoaz. It is of extreme rarity, if not unique, in a perfect state.\nThe imprint is--London, for J. Blare, at the Looking Glass, on London\nBridge, 1701. It forms part of the Editor's extensive collection\nof the original or early editions of Bunyan's tracts and treatises;\nthe scarcity of which may be accounted for, from their having been\nprinted on very bad paper, and worn out by use, being so generally\nand eagerly read by pious persons among the labouring classes of\nthe community.\n\nThe style and substance of these scriptural poems are entirely\nBunyan's. His veneration for the holy oracles appears through\nevery page, by his close adherence to the text. He fully proves\nwhat he asserts in his address to the reader--\n\n\n'The WORD are for the most part all the same,\nFor I affected plainness more than fame.'\n\n\nHowever uncouth it may appear to use a plural verb after a singular\nnoun, it really expresses his meaning, which is evidently, that\nportions of the WORD of God are rendered into poetry as nearly\nas possible, word for word with the original; and he immediately\napologizes for this rudeness, in neglecting the rules of grammar,\nby stating his earnest plainness of speech, and his want of\neducation in early life.\n\n\n'Nor could'st thou hope to have it better done,\nFor I'm no poet, nor a poet's son,\nBut a mechanic, guided by no rule,\nBut what I gained in a grammar school\nIn my minority.'\n\n\nHow exactly does this agree with his account of himself in\nboyhood,--'It pleased God to put it into my parent's heart to put\nme to school, to learn both to read and write; though, to my shame\nI confess, I did soon lose that I learnt, even almost utterly.'[1]\n\nOur surprise will be excited, not by little inaccuracies of style\nor departures from the rules of grammar, but at the talent of a\npoor mechanic, in so faithfully rendering scripture histories in\nsuch simple and striking language. As Mr. Burton says, in commending\nhis Gospel Truths Vindicated,--'This man hath not the learning or\nwisdom of man, yet through grace he hath received the teaching of\nGod, and the learning of the Spirit of Christ, which is the thing\nthat makes a man both a Christian and a minister of the gospel\n(Isa 50:4). He was not chosen out of an earthly, but out of the\nheavenly University, and hath taken these three heavenly degrees--Union\nwith Christ--The Anointing of the Spirit, and Experience of the\nTemptations of Satan; far better than all the University learning\nand degrees that can be had.' May Bunyan's desire be realized,\nand his verses prove to all our readers\n\n\n'As delighting\nTo thee in reading, as to me in writing.'\n\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\nHackney, August 22, 1849\n\n\n\nSCRIPTURAL POEMS\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nWhoe'er thou art that shall peruse this book,\nThis may inform thee, when I undertook\nTo write these lines, it was not my design\nTo publish this imperfect work of mine:\nComposed only for diversion's sake.\nBut being inclin'd to think thou may'st partake\nSome benefit thereby, I have thought fit,\nImperfect as it is, to publish it.\nThe subjects are a part of the contents,\nBoth of the Old and the New Testaments;\nThe word are for the most part all the same,\nFor I affected plainness more than fame.\nNor could'st thou hope to have it better done:\nFor I'm no poet, nor a poet's son,\nBut a mechanic, guided by no rule,\nBut what I gained in a grammar school\nIn my minority: I can't commend it,\nSuch as it is into the world I send it,\nAnd should be glad to see some hand to mend it.\nWould but those men whose genius leads them to't,\nAnd who have time and parts wherewith to do't,\nEmploy their pens in such a task as this,\n'Twould be a most delightsome exercise\nOf profit to themselves and others too:\nIf what the learned Herbert says, holds true,\nA verse may find him, who a sermon flies,\nAnd turn delight into a sacrifice;[2]\nThus I conclude, and wish it as delighting\nTo thee in reading as to me in writing.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF RUTH\n\nA VERY RUDE WOODCUT:--RUTH GLEANING.--RUTH CREEPING TO BOAZ,\nWHO IS ASLEEP.\n\nCHAP. I.\n\nIn ancient times, e'er Israel knew the way\nOf kingly power, when judges bore the sway:\nA certain man of Bethlehem Juda fled,\nBy reason of a famine that o'erspread\nThe land, into the land of Moab, where\nHe and his wife, and sons, sojourners were.\nHis name Elimelech, his eldest son\nWas called Mahlon, t'other Chilion,\nHis wife was Naomi, Ephrathites they were:\nThey went to Moab and continued there:\nWhere of her husband Naomi was bereft,\nAnd only she and her two sons were left:\nWho took them wives of Moab in their youth.\nThe name of one was Orpah, t'other Ruth:\nAnd there they died ere twice five years were gone;\nAnd Naomi was wholly left alone.\nThen she arose, and her step-daughters with her,\nTo leave the land of Moab altogether:\nFor she had heard the Lord had visited\nHer native country, with increase of bread,\nWherefore the land of Moab she forsook,\nAnd to her native place her course she took,\nHer daughters with her: whom she did desire,\nThat to their mother's house they would retire.\nThe Lord, said she, be kind to you again,\nAs you to me, and to the dead have been.\nGod grant you each may be with husbands blest,\nAnd in the enjoyment of them both find rest,\nThen she embraced them, and there withal,\nDown from their cheeks, the tears began to fall.\nThey wept aloud, and said, Most surely we\nUnto thy people will return with thee.\nBut Naomi replied, Wherefore will ye,\nMy daughters, thus resolve to go with me?\nAre there yet any more sons in my womb,\nThat may your husbands be in time to come?\nReturn again, my daughters, go your way,\nFor I'm too old to marry: should I say\nI've hope? Should I this night conceive a son?\nWould either of you stay till he is grown?\nWould you so long without an husband[3] live?\nNay, nay, my daughters, for it doth me grieve\nExceedingly, even for your sakes, that I\nDo under this so great affliction lie.\nAnd here they wept again. And Orpah kiss'd\nHer mother, But Ruth would be not dismiss'd\nBut clave unto her: unto whom she spake\nAnd said, Behold, thy sister is gone back,\nWith her own gods, and people to abide,\nGo thou along with her. But Ruth replied,\nIntreat me not to leave thee, or return:\nFor where thou goest, I'll go, where thou sojourn,\nI'll sojourn also. And what people's thine,\nAnd who thy God, the same shall both be mine.\nWhere thou shalt die, there will I die likewise,\nAnd I'll be buried where thy body lies.\nThe Lord do so to me, and more, if I\nDo leave thee, or forsake thee till I die.\nAnd when she saw the purpose of her heart,\nShe left off to desire her to depart.\nSo they two travelled along together\nTo Bethlehem, and when they were come thither,\nBehold! the people were surprised, and cried,\nWhat, is this Naomi? But she replied,\nOh! call me Mara, and not Naomi;\nFor I have been afflicted bitterly.\nI went out from you full, but now I come,\nAs it hath pleased God, quite empty home:\nWhy then call ye me Naomi? Since I\nHave been afflicted so exceedingly.\nSo Naomi return'd, and Ruth together,\nWho had come from the land of Moab with her:\nAnd unto Bethlem Judah did they come,\nJust as the Barley Harvest was begun.\n\nCHAP. II.\n\nThere was a man of kin to Naomi,\nOne that was of her husband's family,\nHis name was Boaz, and his wealth was great.\nAnd Ruth, the Moabitess, did intreat\nHer Mother's leave, that she might go, and gather\nSome ears of corn, where she should most find favour:\nGo, daughter, go, said she. She went and came\nNear to the reapers, to glean after them:\nAnd lo, it was her hap to light among\nThe reapers, which to Boaz did belong.\nBehold, now Boaz came from Bethlehem\nUnto his reapers, and saluted them,\nAnd they bless'd him again: and he enquired\nOf him that was set over them he hired,\nFrom whence the damsel was, and was inform'd\nShe was the Moabitess that return'd\nWith Naomi: and she did ask, said he,\nThat here amongst the reapers she might be,\nAnd that she might have liberty to glean\nAmong the sheaves. And she all day hath been,\nEv'n from the morning until now, with us,\nThat she hath stay'd a little in the house.\nThen Boaz said to Ruth, observe, my daughter,\nThat thou go not from hence, or follow after\nThe reapers of another field, but where\nMy maidens are, see that thou tarry there:\nObserve what field they reap, and go thou there,\nHave I not charged the young men to forbear\nTo touch thee? And when thou dost thirst, approach\nAnd drink of what the youths have set abroach.[4]\nThen she fell on her face, and to the ground\nShe bow'd herself, and said, Why have I found\nSuch favour in thine eyes; that thou, to me\nWho am a stranger, should so courteous be?\nAnd Boaz said, it hath been fully shewn\nTo me, what to thy mother-in-law thou'st done,\nSince of thine husband thou hast been bereft:\nHow thou thy father and thy mother left,\nAnd thine own native land; to come unto\nA land which thou before didst never know:\nThe Lord, the God of Israel, the defence\nWhom now thou'st chosen, be thy recompence.\nThen said she, let me in thy sight, my lord,\nFind favour in that thou dost thus afford\nMe comfort, and since thou so kind to me\nDost speak, though I thereof unworthy be.\nAnd Boaz said, at meal time come thou near,\nEat of the bread, and dip i' th' vinegar.\nAnd by the reapers she sat down to meat,\nHe gave her parched corn, and she did eat,\nAnd was suffic'd; and left, and rose to glean:\nAnd Boaz gave command to the young men,\nLet her come in among the sheaves, said he,\nTo glean, and let her not reproached be.\nLet fall some handfuls also purposely,\nAnd let her take them without injury.\nSo she till even glean'd, and then beat out\nHer barley, being an ephah[5] or thereabout.\nShe took it up, and to the city went,\nAnd to her mother-in-law did it present:\nAnd what she had reserv'd to her she gave,\nWhen she had took what she design'd to have.\nThen unto her, her mother-in-law did say,\nIn what field hast thou been to glean to-day?\nAnd where hast thou been working? Blest be he,\nThat thus hath taken cognizance of thee.\nShe told with whom, and furthermore did say,\nThe man's name's Boaz, where I wrought to-day.\nAnd Naomi replied, may he be blest,\nEven of the Lord, whose kindness manifest\nUnto the living and the dead hath been:\nThe man's our kinsman, yea, the next of kin.\nAnd Ruth, the Moabitess, said, he gave\nMe likewise a commandment not to leave,\nOr to depart from following his young men,\nUntil they had brought all his harvest in.\nAnd Naomi said unto Ruth, my daughter,\n'Tis good that thou observe to follow after\nHis maidens, that they meet thee not elsewhere.\nSo she to Boaz's maidens still kept near,\nTill barley and wheat harvest both, she saw\nWere done, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.\n\nCHAP. III.\n\nThen Naomi said, Shall I not, my daughter,\nSeek rest for thee, that thou do well hereafter?\nAnd is not Boaz, with whose maids thou wast,\nOne of the nearest kinsmen that thou hast?\nBehold, this night he in his threshing floor\nIs winnowing Barley, wash thyself therefore,\nAnoint thee, put thy clothes on, and get down\nUnto the floor; but make not thyself known,\nTill he hath eat and drank, and shall prepare\nTo lie him down; then take good notice where\nHe goes about to take his night's repose,\nAnd go thou in there, and lift up the clothes\nFrom off his feet, and likewise lay thee down,\nAnd what thou hast to do he will make known.\nAnd she made answer, Whatsoever thou\nHast me commanded, will I gladly do.\nAnd down unto the floor she hasted, and\nForthwith fulfilled her mother-in-law's command.\nSo now when Boaz had his heart refresh'd,\nWith meat and drink, he laid him down to rest,\nNear to the heap of corn; she softly came,\nUncover'd's feet, and lay down by the same.\nAnd, lo! at midnight, as he turn'd him round,\nHe was afraid, for at his feet he found\nA woman lay. Who art thou? then said he.\nI am thine handmaid Ruth, replied she,\nOver thine handmaid therefore spread thy skirt,\nI pray, because thou a near kinsman art.\nBlessed be thou, said he, because thou hast\nMade manifest more kindness at the last,\nThan at the first, in that thou did'st, my daughter,\nNo young men, whether poor or rich, go after.\nAnd now, my daughter, be not thou afraid,\nI will do to thee all that thou hast said:\nFor all the city of my people knows,\nThou art a woman truly virtuous;\nAnd now though I am kin and undoubtedly,\nYet there is one that's nearer kin than I.\nTarry this night, and when 'tis morning light,\nIf he will like a kinsman, do thee right,\nWe'll let him, but if not, I myself will,\nAs the Lord lives; till morning lie thou still.\nAnd till the morning at his feet she lay,\nAnd then arose about the break of day;\nAnd he gave her a charge, not to declare\nThat there had any womankind been there.\nHe also said, bring here thy veil, and hold\nTo me; she did, and thereinto he told\nSix measures full of barley, and did lay\nIt on her, and she hasted thence away.\nAnd when unto her mother-in-law she came,\nArt thou, said she, my daughter come again?\nThen what the man had done she told, and said,\nHe these six measures full of barley laid\nUpon me, for said he, This I bestow,\nLest to thy mother thou should'st empty go.\nThen, said she, sit still daughter, till thou see\nWhat the event of this intrigue will be;\nFor till the man this day hath made an end,\nNo satisfaction will on him attend.\n\nCHAP. IV.\n\nAnd Boaz went up to the city gate,\nAnd after a short space, while there he sate,\nThe kinsman of whom he had spoke, came by,\nTo whom he said, Ho,[6] such a one, draw nigh,\nAnd sit down here. He came and sat him down.\nThen he took ten men, elders of the town,\nAnd caused them to sit down. Then to the man\nThat was of kin, thus he his speech began,\nNaomi, said he, who not long since sojourn'd\nAmong the Moabites, is now return'd;\nAnd doth intend to sell a piece of ground,\nThe which Elimelech our brother own'd.\nAnd now to give thee notice, I thought fit,\nThat if thou pleasest, thou may'st purchase it.\nIn presence of these men assembled here.\nThen if thou wilt redeem it, now declare\nThy mind, but if thou wilt not, then let me,\nFor thou art next of kin, and I next thee.\nThen said the kinsman, I will it redeem.\nBoaz reply'd, if good to thee it seem,\nTo buy it of the hand of Naomi,\nThou also art obliged the same to buy\nOf Ruth the Moabitess, wife o' th' dead;\nOn his inheritance to raise up seed.\nThe kinsman said, I cannot do this thing\nMyself, lest I an inconvenience bring\nUpon mine own inheritance, what's mine\nBy right, therefore I now to thee resign.\nNow this in Israel did a custom stand,\nConcerning changing and redeeming land;\nTo put all controversy to an end,\nA man pluck'd off his shoe, and gave his friend;\nAnd this in Israel was an evidence,\nWhen e'er they changed an inheritance.\nThen said the kinsman unto Boaz, do\nThou take my right. And off he pluck'd his shoe.\nThen Boaz to the elders thus did say\nAnd to the people, all of you this day\nAppear for me as witnesses, that I\nHave bought all of the land of Naomi,\nThat was Elimelech's or did belong\nEither to Mahlon or to Chilion:\nAnd Ruth the Moabitess, who some time\nWas Mahlon's wife, I've purchas'd to be mine,\nStill to preserve alive the dead man's name\nOn his inheritance, lest that the same\nShould in the gate where he inhabited,\nOr 'mongst his brethren be extinguished:\nBehold, this day, my witnesses you are.\nThen all the people that were present there,\nAnd elders said, We are thy witnesses:\nMay God this woman thou hast taken bless,\nThat she, like Rachel, and like Leah be,\nWhich two did build up Israel's family:\nAnd thou in Ephratah exalt thy name,\nAnd through the town of Bethl'hem spread thy fame;\nAnd may the seed which God shall give to thee\nOf this young woman, full as prosperous be,\nAs was the house of Pharez heretofore,\n(Pharez, whom Tamar unto Judah bore.)\nSo he took Ruth, and as his wife he knew her,\nAnd God was pleased, when he went in to her\nTo grant the blessing of conception,\nAnd she accordingly bare him a son.\nThen said the woman, Blessed be the Lord!\nBless thou him Naomi, who doth afford\nTo thee this day a kinsman, which shall be\nFamous in Israel; and shall be to thee\nAs the restorer of thy life again,\nAnd in thy drooping age shall thee sustain:\nFor that thy daughter-in-law, who loves thee well\nAnd in thy sight doth seven sons excel,\nHath born this child. Then Naomi took the boy\nTo nurse; and did him in her bosom lay.\nHer neighbours too, gave him a name, for why,\nThis son, say they, is born to Naomi:\nThey called him Obed, from whose loins did spring\nJesse, the sire of David, Israel's king.\n\n\n\nTHE HISTORY OF SAMSON\n\nJUDGES, CHAP. XIII.\n\nWhen Israel's sins th' Almighty did provoke,\nTo make them subject to Philistine yoke\nFor forty years: in Zorah dwelt a man,\nHis name Manoah, of the tribe of Dan;\nHis wife was barren, unto whom appeared\nThe angel of the Lord, and thus declared:\nThough thou, said he, art barren, time shall come\nThou shalt enjoy the blessing of thy womb;\nNow therefore I entreat thee to refrain\nFrom wine, strong drink, and things that are unclean,\nFor lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son,\nUpon whose head there shall no razor come:\nFor he to God a Nazarite shall be,\nAnd shall begin to set his people free\nFrom the Philistine yoke. The woman came\nAnd told her husband, she had seen a man\nOf God: his dreadful look made me, said she,\nThink him an angel of the Lord to be:\nBut I inquired not from whence he came,\nNeither did he make known to me his name:\nBut thus he said, Thou shalt conceive a son;\nWherefore strong drink and wine, see that thou shun,\nAnd have a care that thou be not defil'd\nWith things that are unclean; for why, the child\nShall from his separation from the womb,\nBecome a Nazarite, ev'n to his tomb.\nManoah then did supplicate the Lord,\nAnd said, O Lord, be pleased to afford\nThis favour unto me, to send again\nThe man of God, more fully to explain\nThy will to us, that we may rightly know,\nWhen this child shall be born, what we must do.\nAnd to Manoah's prayer God gave ear,\nAnd to his wife the angel did appear\nAgain, as she did in the field retire,\nAt such time as her husband was not nigh her.\nAnd she made haste, and ran, and strait declared\nUnto her husband, that the man appeared\nAgain, whom she had seen the other day.\nManoah then arose, and went his way,\nAnd when he came, he said, Art thou the man\nThat spakest to my wife? He said, I am.\nManoah said, Now let thy words be true;\nHow shall we use the child, What must we do?\nThen said the angel of the Lord, let her\nOf all that I have charged her beware:\nShe may not taste of what comes of the vine,\nNor may she drink strong drink, or any wine,\nNor may she eat of things that are unclean,\nFrom all that I have said let her refrain.\nManoah said unto the angel, stay\nWith us, till we have dress'd a kid, I pray.\nBut he reply'd, though thou shalt me detain,\nI'll eat no bread, but if thou dost design\nA sacrifice unto the Lord, then offer:\nFor ne'er till now, Manoah did discover\nIt was a man of God he spake unto.\nThen said he to the angel, Let me know\nThy name, that when these things shall be perform'd,\nThe honour due to thee may be return'd.\nWhereto the man of God made this reply,\nWhy askest thou, since 'tis a mystery?\nSo he a kid, and a meat-off'ring took,\nAnd offer'd to the Lord upon a rock.\nAnd there the man of God did wond'rously,\nThe whilst Manoah and his wife stood by:\nFor as the altar did send up the flame,\nThe man of God ascended in the same.\nManoah and his wife stood looking on,\nAnd on their faces to the ground fell down.\nBut then the angel did appear no more.\nManoah then knew who he was: therefore\nHe said unto his wife, most surely we\nShall die, for we the face of God did see.\nBut she reply'd, If God would such a thing,\nHe would not now accept our offering,\nOr would he have to us these things made known;\nOr told us, as at this time he hath done.\nAnd now, according to the angel's word,\nThe woman bare a son, to whom the Lord\nWas pleas'd, his blessing graciously to give:\nShe call'd him Samson, and the child did thrive.\nAnd lo! the spirit of the Lord began,\nAt times to move him in the camp of Dan.\n\nCHAP. XIV.\n\nNow down to Timnath Samson's steps incline,\nWhere seeing the daughter of a Philistine,\nHe came up and did of his parents crave,\nThat he in marriage might the woman have.\nThen thus his father and his mother said,\n'Mongst all thy kin can'st thou find ne'er a maid;\nNor yet among my people, fit to make\nA wife, but thou wilt this Philistine take,\nOf race uncircumcised? He replied,\nGet her for me, for I'm well satisfied.\nBut neither of his parents then did know,\nIt was the Lord that moved him thereto,\nTo seek a way to accomplish his designs,\nUpon the then o'er-ruling Philistines.\nThen Samson and his parents both went down\nTo Timnath, and as they came near the town,\nAmong the vineyards a young lion roar'd:\nThen on him came the spirit of the Lord,\nAnd though unarm'd, he rent him like a kid,\nBut he discovered not to them the deed.\nAnd he went down, and with the woman treated,\nAnd was well pleas'd to have the match completed.\nAnd in a while as he returned again\nTo take his wife, behold, where he had slain\nThe beast, he there a swarm of bees set eye on,\nAnd honey in the carcase of the lion:\nHe took thereof, and eating, on he went,\nAnd to his parents did a part present:\nAnd they did also eat, but did not know\nThat from the lion's carcase it did flow.\nSo down his father went unto the woman,\nAnd Samson made a feast, as it was common\nAmong young men. The Philistines provide\nThirty companions with him to abide\nAnd Samson said unto them, now behold,\nI have a riddle for you to unfold;\nWhich if you do before the seven days' feast\nBe ended, I will give to every guest\nA sheet and change of garments; but if ye\nCannot declare it, ye shall give to me\nFull thirty sheets, and thirty changes too.\nThen said they, What's thy riddle, let us know?\nAnd Samson said, The eater sent forth meat,\nAnd from the strong there came a thing most sweet.\nAnd they could not in three days find it out,\nWherefore before the seventh came about,\nThey said unto his wife, Thou must entice\nThy husband to discover this device\nLest we burn thee, and all thy father's house:\nIs it not so, that ye have called us\nTo make a spoil? And Samson's wife wept sore,\nAnd said, thou dost but hate me, and no more;\nTo put a riddle to my countrymen\nAnd not tell't me. And he reply'd again,\nI have not told my father or my mother,\nAnd shall I now to thee this thing discover.\nAnd she continually before him wept,\nDuring the time the feasting days were kept.\nAnd now behold it came to pass that he,\nBy reason of her importunity,\nDid on the seventh day to her unfold\nThe riddle, which she to her brethren told;\nAnd e'er the sun went down on that same day,\nThe Philistines to Samson thus did say,\nWhat is more sweet than honey? What more strong\nThan is a lion? And he said, how long\nWould it have been, e'er you had understood\nThis thing, had you not with my heifer plow'd?\nThen came the spirit of the Lord upon\nHim, and he hasted down to Askelon,\nAnd thirty of the Philistines he slew,\nAnd took their clothes, and gave the garments due.\nTo every one of them that had disclosed\nThe meaning of the riddle he proposed;\nAnd towards them his anger fiercely burned,\nAnd he unto his father's house returned.\nBut Samson's wife was given unto one\nThat was his friend and chief companion.\n\nCHAP. XV.\n\nBut in a while, as Samson visited\nHis wife, in the wheat harvest with a kid,\nTo her into her chamber he would go,\nThe which her father would not let him do;\nBut said, I thought that thou had'st quite forsook her,\nWherefore I gave consent, and thy friend took her;\nDoth not her sister's beauty her's exceed,\nThough young? I pray then take her in her stead.\nAnd Samson said, I shall more blameless be\nThan they, though I shall do them injury.\nAnd then he caught three hundred foxes, and\nTurn'd tail to tail, and put a fiery brand\nBetween two tails, and setting fire thereto,\nInto the standing corn he let them go,\nAnd burnt both shocks and standing corn and vines,\nAnd all the olives of the Philistines.\nThen they inquired who this thing had done,\nAnd were inform'd it was the Timnite's son;\nBecause his father took his wife away,\nAnd gave her his companion to enjoy.\nAnd the Philistines came up, full of wrath,\nAnd burnt with fire, her and her father both.\nAnd Samson said, though you have done this thing,\nA further evil I will on you bring;\nAnd my avenging hand shall cease hereafter;\nAnd hip and thigh he smote them with great slaughter.\nAnd he return'd, and came up to the top\nOf Etam, and dwelt there upon the rock.\nThen the Philistines up to Judah went,\nAnd in the vale of Lehi pitched their tent.\nThen said the men of Judah, for what reason\nAre you come up against us at this season?\nAnd they made answer, We are come to bind\nSamson, to do to him in the same kind\nAs he hath done to us. Then there went up\nThree thousand men of Judah to the top\nOf the rock Etam, and to Samson said,\nDost thou not know that we have long obey'd\nThe Philistines? Wherefore is it that thou\nHast done this thing, to bring this evil now,\nUpon us, let us know it? Then said he\nI did to them as they have done to me.\nThen said they we are come, and have brought bands,\nTo bind, and give thee up into their hands.\nAnd he made answer, you shall swear unto me,\nThat you yourselves no injury will do me.\nAnd they reply'd, no no, we will but bind thee,\nWe will not kill thee, but to them resign thee.\nAnd they took two new cords, and therewith tied him,\nAnd from the rock where he abode convey him:\nWhom when they to the camp at Lehi brought,\nThe Philistines against him gave a shout:\nAnd mightily the Spirit of the Lord\nCame on him, and like burning flax each cord\nThat was upon his arms became; the bands\nWere likewise separated from his hands.\nAnd he the jaw-bone of an ass espied,\nAnd took and smote them till a thousand died.\nThen said he, with an ass's jaw-bone I\nHave made mine enemies in heaps to lie.\nBehold I have destroy'd a thousand men\nWith this same worthless ass's jaw. And when\nHe made an end to speak, it came to pass\nHe cast away the jaw-bone of the ass,\nAnd said, Now let the place where this was done\nBe by the name of Ramath-Lehi known.\nAnd he was sore athirst, and to the Lord\nHe cried, and said, O Lord, thou did'st afford\nThis great deliverance, and now shall I,\nBy reason of my thirst fall down and die,\nAnd fall into the most accursed hands\nOf these uncircumcis'd Philistine bands?\nBut God was pleas'd to cleave an hollow place,\nWithin the jaw, from whence did water pass;\nWhereof when he had drunk, his spirit came\nAs heretofore, and he reviv'd again:\nWherefore that place, which is in Lehi, bore\nUnto this day the name of En-hakkore.\nAnd in the days the Philistines bore sway,\nIsrael for twenty years did him obey.\n\nCHAP. XVI.\n\nThen down to Gaza Samson went, and there\nSeeing an harlot, went in unto her.\nAnd when the Gazites heard he was come thither:\nStraightway they gathered themselves together\nTo compass him about, and lay in wait\nAll night, to take him in the city gate;\nAnd they were still all night, for why? Say they,\nTo-morrow we shall kill him when 'tis day.\nAnd he till midnight lay, and then arose,\nAnd with the city gates away he goes,\nBearing the posts and bar and all away,\nAnd on an hill near Hebron did them lay.\nAnd afterward it came to pass he saw,\nAnd lov'd a woman named Delilah,\nWho in the vale of Sorek dwelt, to whom\nThere did the lords of the Philistines come,\nAnd said, If thou wilt but entice him to reveal\nWhere lies his strength, and which way we may deal\nWith him, to bind him, to afflict him, we\nEach one will give a great reward to thee.\nAnd she to Samson said, I pray thee, tell\nWherein thy strength doth other men excel,\nAnd how thou may'st be bound. And he replied,\nIf they with seven green withs that ne'er were dried,\nShall bind me hand and foot, I shall be then\nAs weak and impotent as other men.\nThen the Philistine lords for her provide\nThe seven green withs which never had been dried,\nAnd she therewith did bind him, (now there were\nMen lying in wait whom she had placed there,)\nThen she cried out, and said, Now Samson stand\nThy ground, for the Philistines are at hand.\nAnd straight he brake the withs, and they became\nLike to a thread of tow when touch'd with flame:\nSo was his strength not found out. Then said she,\nSamson, behold, thou hast deceived me,\nAnd told me lies: therefore no longer blind me,\nBut tell, I pray thee, wherewith I may bind thee.\nBind me with ropes that ne'er were us'd, said he;\nThen weak as other men are, shall I be.\nShe therefore took new ropes, and bound him, and\nCried, Samson, the Philistines are at hand:\n(And in the chamber there were man lay hid)\nAnd from his arms he brake them like a thread.\nThen said she, Thou hast mocked me hitherto,\nAnd told me lies: now tell me what to do\nTo bind thee. He replied, Thou with the web\nMust interweave the seven locks of my head.\nThen she his locks did fasten with the pin,\nAnd said, The Philistines are coming in,\nShift, Samson, for thyself; then he awoke,\nAnd pin and web, and all away he took.\nThen said she, How canst thou pretend to love me,\nWhen thus thy doing towards me disprove thee?\nFor now, behold, thou hast deceived me thrice,\nAnd hast not told me where thy great strength lies.\nAt length his soul being vex'd exceedingly,\nBy reason of her importunity:\nHe told the secrets of his heart, and said,\nNever yet razor on my head was laid;\nFor I have been to God a Nazarite,\nEven from the day that first I saw the light:\nWherefore like other men, if I am shaven,\nI shall be weak, and of my strength bereaven.\nAnd when she saw that he had told her all\nThe secrets of his heart, she sent to call\nThe lords of the Philistines. Come, said she,\nThis once, for now he hath made known to me\nThe very truth. Then they came up together,\nAnd brought the money in their hands to give her.\nThen down to sleep upon her knees she laid him,\nAnd call'd a man, who of his locks betray'd him.\nAnd to afflict him she began, and then\nHis strength became like that of other men.\nThen said she, Samson, thy Philistine foes\nAre just at hand: and he from sleep arose,\nAnd as at other times went forth to shake him,\nNot knowing that the Lord did now forsake him.\nBut the Philistines seized him, and brought\nHim down to Gaza, having first put out\nHis eyes, and did with brazen fetters bind\nAnd made him in the prison house to grind.\nHowbeit the hair upon his head began,\nAfter he had been shaved, to grow again.\nThen the Philistine lords together met,\nAnd a thanksigivng-day apart they set,\nFor to rejoice, and unto Dagon pay\nTheir highest service; For our God, say they,\nDid this: and when the people did behold\nPoor captive Samson, they their god extoll'd,\nAnd said, Our God hath given into our hand\nHim that destroy'd us, and laid waste our land.\nAnd in their height of mirth they sent to call\nSamson, to come and make sport for them all.\nAnd from the prison-house they brought him, and\nBetween the pillars they set him to stand;\nAnd there he made them sport. Then to the lad\nThat led him by the hand, thus Samson said;\nLet me now feel the pillars that sustain\nThe house, that I myself thereon may lean.\nNow in the house there was a mighty throng\nOf men and women gather'd, and among\nThem, all the lords of the Philistines were.\nBesides, upon the roof there did appear,\nAbout three thousand men and women, who\nBeheld, while Samson made them sport below.\nAnd Samson, calling on the Lord, did say,\nO Lord, my God, remember me, I pray,\nThis once give strength, that I aveng'd may be\nOf those Philistines who have blinded me.\nAnd with his right hand and his left, he held\nTwo middle pillars which the house upheld;\nAnd said, Let me with the Philistines die,\nAnd then he bowed himself most mightily:\nAnd down the house fell on the lords, and all\nThe people that were in't; so that the fall\nThereof, slew at his dying many more\nThan he had slain in all his life before.\nThen did his brethren and his kinfolks come\nAnd took him up, and brought him with them home,\nAnd laid him in his father's sepulchre,\nWhen he had judged Israel twenty year.\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT\n\nMATTHEW, CHAP. V.\n\nAnd Jesus, seeing the multitudes, ascended\nUp to a mount, where sitting, and attended\nBy his disciples, he began to preach;\nAnd on this manner following did them teach.\nBlessed are all such as are poor in spirit,\nFor they the heavenly kingdom do inherit.\nBlessed are they that mourn; for in the stead\nThereof shall comfort be administered.\nBlessed are they, whose meekness doth excel:\nFor on the earth their portion is to dwell.\nBlessed are they, who after righteousness\nHunger and thirst; for they shall it possess.\nBlessed are they, for they shall mercy find,\nWho to do mercifully are inclin'd.\nBlessed are all such as are pure in heart;\nFor God his presence shall to them impart.\nBlessed are they that do make peace; for why?\nThey shall be call'd the sons of the Most High.\nBlessed are they which suffer for the sake\nOf righteousness: for they of heav'n partake.\nBlessed are ye, when men shall falsely speak\nAll kind of ill against you for my sake,\nAnd shall revile, and persecute you sore;\nRejoice, and be exceeding glad therefore:\nFor your reward in heav'n will be great:\nFor thus of old they did the prophets treat.\nYe are the salt o' th' earth; but wherewith must\nThe earth be season'd when the savour's lost?\nIt is from thenceforth good for nothing, but\nTo be cast out, and trodd'n under foot.\nYe are the light o' th' world; a city set\nUpon an hill cannot be hid; nor yet\nDo men a candle with a bushel cover,\nBut set it where it lights the whole house over.\nSo shine your light, your good works seen thereby\nMen may your heavenly Father glorify.\nThink not that to destroy the law I came,\nOr prophets; no, but to fulfil the same.\nFor till the heav'n and earth shall pass away,\nOne jot or tittle from the law, I say,\nShall never pass, till all shall be complete.\nWhoso therefore presumes to violate,\nOne of these least commands, and teacheth so,\nShall in God's kingdom be accounted low.\nBut he that doth, and teacheth them likewise,\nShall in God's kingdom have great dignities.\nFor I declare unto you, that unless\nYou shall exceed the scribe and pharisees\nIn righteousness; you shall on no condition,\nInto the heavenly kingdom gain admission.\nYe've heard 'twas said of old, 'Thou shalt not kill.'\nAnd he incurs the judgment who shall spill\nHis brother's blood: but I to you declare,\nThat he that's wroth without a cause, shall bear\nThe judgment. Likewise of the council he\nThat sayeth 'racha' shall in danger be.\nBut whosoe'er shall say, Thou fool, the same\nShall be in danger of eternal flame.\nWhen therefore to the altar thou dost bring\nThy gift, and there rememb'rest any thing\nThy brother hath against thee: leave it there\nBefore the altar, and come thou not near,\nTill thou hast first made reconciliation,\nThen may'st thou come and offer thine oblation.\nMake an agreement with thine adversary\nWhilst thou art in the way, and do not tarry;\nLest he at any time deliver thee\nUnto the judge, and by the judge thou be\nUnto the officer forthwith resign'd,\nAnd in imprisonment thou be confin'd;\nI do affirm thou shalt not be enlarg'd,\nTill thou the utmost farthing hast discharg'd.\nYe've heard that they of old did testify,\nThat men should not commit adultery:\nBut I pronounce him an adulterer,\nWho views a woman to lust after her.\nAnd if thy right eye shall offensive be,\nPluck thou it out and cast the same from thee;\nFor it is better lose one, than that all\nThy members should into hell torments fall.\nAnd if thy right hand doth offend, cut off it,\nAnd cast it from thee, for it will thee profit\nMuch rather that one of thy members fell,\nThan that they should be all condemned to hell.\nIt hath been said, whoso away shall force\nHis wife, shall give her a bill of divorce:\nBut whosoe'er shall put his wife away,\nExcept for fornication's sake, I say,\nMakes her adult'ress, and who marries her,\nSo put away, is an adulterer.\nAgain: Ye've heard, Thou shalt not be forsworn,\nWas ancient doctrine, but thou shalt perform\nUnto the Lord thine oaths: But I declare,\nThat thou shalt not at all presume to swear;\nNeither by heaven, for it is God's throne;\nNor by the earth, for his foot stands thereon:\nNeither swear by Jerusalem, for why?\nIt is the city of the King Most High:\nNor swear thou by thine head, for thou canst make\nNo hair thereof to be or white or black:\nBut let yea, yea; nay, nay, in speech suffice,\nFor what is more from evil doth arise.\nYe've heard, it hath been said; Eye for an eye,\nAnd tooth for tooth: But I do testify,\nThat you shall not resist; but let him smite\nThy left cheek also, who assaults thy right.\nAnd if that any by a lawsuit shall\nDemand thy coat, let them have cloak and all.\nAnd whosoe'er compelleth thee to go\nA mile, refuse not to go with him two.\nGive him that asketh, and from him that may\nHave need to borrow, turn not thou away.\nYe've heard, 'twas said: That thou shalt love thy friend\nAnd hate thy foe: But let your love extend\nUnto your enemies: thus I declare,\nBless them that curse, do good to them that bear\nIll will, and for your persecutors pray,\nAnd them that do reproach you; that you may\nBe children of your Father that's in heaven;\nFor he on good and bad alike hath given\nHis sun to rise, and in like manner doth\nSend rain upon the just and unjust both\nFor what is your reward, if you love them\nThat love you? Do not publicans the same?\nAnd if your brethren only you salute,\nWhat more than they do ye? They also do't.\nI will therefore that you be perfect, ev'n\nAs is your Father perfect that's in heaven.\n\nCHAP. VI.\n\nTake heed you do not your alms-deed bestow\nBefore men, purposely to make a shew;\nFor then there will no recompence be given\nUnto you of your Father that's in heaven:\nWith sound of trumpet do not thou therefore\nProclaim what thou art giving to the poor;\nAs is the manner of the hypocrites\nTo do i' th' synagogues, and in the streets;[7]\nThat men may give them praises. Verily\nThey have their recompence, I testify.\nBut when thou dost alms, let thy left hand know\nNot what thy right hand is about to do:\nThat giving secretly, thy Father may,\nWho sees in secret, openly repay.\nAnd when thou pray'st be not as hypocrites;\nFor they love in the corners of the streets,\nAnd in the synagogues to stand and pray,\nThere to be seen: they've their reward I say.\nBut thou, when thou dost make thy pray'r, go thee\nInto thy closet, shut thy door unto thee,\nAnd there in secret to thy Father cry,\nWho seeing thee shall reward thee openly.\nBut when ye pray use not vain repetitions,\nAs heathens do, for they think their petitions\nPrevail; when they the same do multiply:\nBe ye not like to them therefore; for why;\nYour Father knows what things you need before\nYou ask him, on this wise pray ye therefore.\n\nOur Father which art in heav'n, thy name alone\nBe hallowed. Thy glorious kingdom come.\nThy will be done on earth as 'tis in heaven.\nGive us this day our daily bread. And ev'n\nAs we remit our debtors, grant remission\nTo us. And lead us not into temptation,\nBut from all evil do thou us deliver;\nFor th' kingdom, power and glory's thine for ever.\nAmen.\n\nFor if you do forgive men that offend,\nYour heavenly Father will to you extend\nForgiveness; but if not, nor will he spare,\nAt any time when you offenders are.\nMoreover when you fast beware lest you\nLook sad, as hypocrites are wont to do;\nFor they disguise their faces, that they may\nAppear to fast: they've their reward I say.\nBut thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head\nAnd wash thy face, that undiscovered\nThy fasting may be unto men, but rather\nThat thou be seen in secret of thy Father:\nAnd then thy Father, who in secrecy\nBeholds thee, shall reward thee openly.\nLay not up treasure for yourselves in store\nUpon the earth, where moth and rust devour,\nAnd where by thieves you may be quite bereaven.\nBut lay up treasure for yourselves in heaven,\nWhere neither moth, nor rust, nor thieves can enter:\nFor where's your treasure there your hearts will centre.\nThe eye's the light o' th' body, which if right\nThen thy whole body will be full of light:\nBut if thine eye be evil, then there will\nA total darkness thy whole body fill.\nIf therefore all the light that is in thee\nBe darkness, how great must that darkness be?\nNo man can serve two masters, either he\nWill hate one, and love t'other, or will be\nFaithful to one, and t'other will forego.\nYe cannot serve both God and mammon too.\nTake no thought therefore for your life, I say,\nWhat you shall eat or drink; or how you may\nYour bodies clothe. Is not the life much more\nThan meat; Is not the body far before\nThe clothes thereof? Behold the fowls o' th' air,\nNor sow nor reap, nor take they any care;\nHow they provision into barns may gather;\nYet they are nourish'd by your heavenly Father:\nAre ye not worth much more? Which of you can\nBy taking thought add to his height one span?\nAnd why for raiment are ye taking thought?\nSee how the lilies grow; they labour not,\nNor do they spin; yet Solomon, I say,\nIn all his pomp, had no such gay array.\nIf in the field God so doth clothe the grass,\nWhich is to-day, and doth to-morrow pass\nInto the oven, shall he not therefore\nO ye of little faith, clothe you much more?\nTake no thought therefore, saying, What shall we eat,\nOr drink, or where shall we our raiment get:\n(For thus the heathen people use to do)\nFor that you need them doth your Father know.\nBut seek God's kingdom, and his righteousness\nFirst, and then all these things you shall possess.\nBe not then exercis'd with care and sorrow,\nIn making preparation for the morrow;\nThe morrow shall things for itself prepare:\nSufficient to the day is each day's care.\n\nCHAP. VII.\n\nJudge not that you may not be judg'd; for even\nAs you pass judgment, judgment shall be giv'n:\nAnd with such measure as you mete to men,\nIt shall be measured unto you again.\nAnd why dost thou take notice of the mote\nThat's in thy brother's eye; but dost not note\nThe beam that's in thine own? How wilt thou say\nUnto thy brother, let me take away\nThe mote that's in thine eye, when yet 'tis plain\nThe beam that's in thine own doth still remain?\nFirst cast away the beam, thou hypocrite,\nFrom thine own eye, so shall thy clearer sight\nThe better be enabled to descry,\nAnd pluck the mote out of thy brother's eye.\nGive not to dogs the things that are divine,\nNeither cast ye your pearls before the swine\nLest that they should their feet them trample under,\nAnd turn upon you, and rend you asunder.\nAsk, and obtain; seek, and ye shall find; do ye\nKnock, and it shall be opened unto ye:\nFor he that seeks, shall find; that asks, obtain,\nAnd he that knocks, shall an admittance gain.\nOr what man is there of you, if his son\n\nShall ask him bread, will he give him a stone?\nOr if he ask a fish, will he bestow\nA serpent? If then ye being evil know\nTo give your children good gifts, how much rather\nTo them that ask him shall your heav'nly Father.\nThen what you wou'd men shou'd to you, so do\nTo them: for that's the law and prophets too.\nEnter in at the strait gate, for the road\nThat doth unto destruction lead, is broad;\nAnd wide the gate; and many there be that\nEnter therein: because strait is the gate,\nAnd narrow is the way that is inclin'd\nTo life, and which there are but few that find.\nFalse prophets shun, who in sheep's clothes appear,\nBut inwardly devouring wolves they are:\nYe by their fruits shall know them. Do men either\nPluck grapes of thorns, or figs or thistles gather?\nEven so each good tree good fruit will produce;\nBut a corrupt tree fruit unfit for use:\nA good tree cannot bring forth evil food,\nNor can an evil tree bear fruit that's good:\nEach tree that bears not good fruit's hewn down\nAnd burnt, thus by their fruits they shall be known.\nNot every one that saith Lord, Lord, but he\nThat doth my heav'nly Father's will shall be\nAn heir of heaven: many in that day\nWill call Lord, Lord, and thus to me will say;\nHave we not prophesied in thy name?\nCast devils out, done wonders in the same?\nAnd then will I profess I know you not;\nDepart from me ye that have evil wrought.\nWhoso therefore these sayings of mine doth hear,\nAnd doth them, to a wise man I'll compare,\nThe which upon a rock his building founded,\nThe rain descended and the floods surrounded,\nThe winds arose, and gave it many a shock,\nAnd it fell not, being founded on a rock.\nAnd ev'ry one that hears these sayings of mine,\nAnd not to do them doth his heart incline,\nUnto a foolish man shall be compar'd;\nWho his foundation on the sand prepar'd:\nThe rain descended and the floods were great,\nThe winds did blow, and vehemently beat\nAgainst that house; and down the building came,\nAnd mighty was the downfall of the same.\nAnd now when Jesus thus had finished\nHis sayings, the people were astonished\nThereat: for not as do the scribes taught he\nThem, but as one that had authority.\n\n\n\nTHE PROPHECY OF JONAH\n\nCHAP. I.\n\nNow unto Jonah, old Amittai's son,\nThus did the word of the Almighty come,\nAnd said, Arise, go thou forthwith and cry\n'Gainst that great city Nineveh; for why,\nThe sins thereof are come up in my sight.\nBut he arose, that he to Tarshish might\nFlee from God's presence; and went down and found\nA ship at Joppa unto Tarshish bound:\nHe paid the fare, and with them went on board\nFor Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord.\nBut the Almighty a great wind did raise,\nAnd sent a mighty tempest on the seas,\nSo that the ship was likely to be broken.\nThen were the mariners with horror stricken;\nAnd to his God they cried every one;\nAnd overboard was the ship's lading thrown\nTo lighten it: but down into the ship\nWas Jonah gone, and there lay fast asleep.\nSo to him came the master and did say,\nWhat meanest thou, O sleeper! rise and pray\nUnto thy God, and he perhaps will hear,\nAnd save us from the danger that we fear.\nThen said they to each other, Come let's try,\nBy casting lots, on whom the fault doth lie,\nIn bringing all this evil now upon us.\nSo they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonas.\nThen said they, We entreat thee let us know,\nFor whose cause we this evil undergo,\nWhence comest thou? What is thine occupation?\nWhat countryman art thou? And of what nation?\nAnd unto them himself he did declare,\nAnd said, I am an Hebrew, and do fear\nThe living Lord, the God of heaven, who\nAlone hath made the sea and dry land too.\nThen were the men exceedingly afraid;\nAnd, wherefore hast thou done this thing? they said:\n(For they did understand he did forego\nGod's presence, for himself had told them so.)\nWhat shall we do unto thee, then they said,\nThat so the raging of the sea be stay'd?\n(For it did rage and foam.) Take me, said he,\nAnd cast me overboard into the sea;\nSo shall the sea be calm, for on my score\n\nI know it is, that thus the waves do roar.\nNevertheless they rowed hard to gain\nThe land, but all their labour was in vain;\nSo much against them did the tempest beat.\nWherefore they the Almighty did entreat,\nAnd said, We do beseech thee, and we pray,\nO Lord, that thou would'st not upon us lay\nThe charge of guiltless blood, nor let it be,\nThat now we perish, on th' account that we\nTake this man's life away; for thou alone\nAs it hath pleased thee, O Lord, hast done.\nSo they took Jonah up, and to the seas\nCommitted him, then did the tempest cease.\nThen did the dread of the great God on high,\nSeize on the mariners exceedingly.\nAnd they did offer up a sacrifice,\nAnd vowed vows unto the Lord likewise.\nAnd now the Lord for Jonah did contrive\nA mighty fish, to swallow 'im up alive,\nAnd in the fish's belly for the space\nOf three days and three nights, poor Jonah was.\n\nCHAP. II.\n\nUnto the Lord his God then Jonah pray'd\nOut of the belly of the fish, and said,\nBy reason of affliction, which lay sore\nUpon me, I the Lord God did implore,\nAnd he gave ear; and from Hell's Belly I\nCry'd unto thee, and thou, Lord, heard'st my cry:\nFor thou into the deep hadst cast me out,\nAnd there the floods did compass me about;\nIn the midst of the sea, thy waves were sent,\nAnd all thy billows which my head o'erwent.\nThen said I though thy presence hath forsook\nMe, to thy holy temple will I look.\nThe waters compassed about my soul,\nAnd the great deeps did round about me roll,\nThe weeds were wrapt about my head, I went\nDown to the bottom of the element;\nThe earth with her strong bars surrounded me,\nYet thou, O Lord, from death hast set me free.\nWhen my soul fainted, on the Lord I thought,\nAnd to thee, to thy temple then was brought\nMy prayer. They their own mercies do despise,\nWho have regard to lying vanities.\nBut with the voice of my thanksgiving, I\nWill offer sacrifice to thee on high,\nAnd pay my vows which I have vow'd, each one,\nFor why? Salvation's of the Lord alone.\nAnd now the fish, as God did give command,\nDid vomit Jonah out upon dry land.\n\nCHAP. III.\n\nAnd now the second time to Jonah came\nGod's word, and said, Arise, go and proclaim\nTo that great city Nineveh, what\nHave heretofore commanded thee to cry.\nSo Jonah rose up, and prepar'd to go\nTo Nineveh, as God had bid him do.\n(Now was the city Nineveh so great,\nThat it was three days' journey long complete)\nAnd as into the city Jonah made\nHis first day's journey, he cry'd out and said,\nWhen forty days shall be expired and past,\nThis city Nineveh shall be laid waste.\nThen did the Ninevites with one accord,\nBelieve this was the message of the Lord;\nAnd did proclaim a fast, and every one,\nFrom greatest to the least, put sackcloth on:\nFor to the king this news was quickly flown,\nAnd he arose, and came down from his throne,\nAnd having laid aside his robes of state,\nHe put on sackcloth, and in ashes sate:\nAnd issuing out his royal proclamation,\nAnd through the city making publication\nThereof (being by the king and council sign'd)\nA solemn and a general fast enjoin'd;\nAnd said, I will, that neither man nor beast,\nNor flock, nor herd, shall their provision taste:\nBut let them all put sackcloth on and cry\nUnto the Lord with greatest fervency;\nYea, let them all their evil ways refrain,\nAnd from the violence which they retain.\nWho knows if God will yet be pleas'd to spare,\nAnd turn away the evil that we fear?\nAnd God beheld their works, and saw that they\nHad turned from the evil of their way.\nAnd God turn'd from his wrath, and did revoke\nThe dreadful judgment whereof he had spoke.\n\nCHAP. IV.\n\nBut hereat Jonah was extremely vext,\nAnd in his mind exceedingly perplext:\nAnd to the Lord his God he pray'd, and said,\nO Lord, I pray thee, was not I afraid\nOf this, when I was yet at home? Therefore\nI unto Tarshish took my flight before:\nFor that thou art a gracious God I know,\nOf tender mercy, and to anger slow,\nOf great compassion, and dost oft recall\nThe evil thou dost threat mankind withal.\nNow therefore, Lord, I earnestly do pray\nThat thou would'st please to take my life away,\nFor I had better die than live. Dost thou\nDo well, said God, to be so angry now?\nSo then out of the city Jonah went,\nAnd on the east side of it made a tent,[8]\nAnd underneath the shade thereof he sate,\nExpecting what would be the city's fate.\nAnd over Jonah's head behold the Lord\nPrepar'd, and caused to come up a gourd\nTo shadow him, and ease him of his grief;\nAnd Jonah was right glad of this relief.\nBut God a worm sent early the next day,\nWhich smote the gourd; it withered away:\nAnd when the sun arose, it came to pass,\nThat God a vehement east wind did raise;\nBesides the sun did beat upon his head,\nSo that he fainted, saying, Would I were dead,\nFor it is better for me now to die,\nThan thus to lead my life in misery.\nAnd to distressed Jonah, said the Lord,\nDost thou well to be angry for the gourd?\nAnd he unto the Lord made this reply,\nI do well to be angry e'en to die.\nThou hast had pity, Jonah, on the gourd,\nFor which thou didst not labour, said the Lord,\nNor madest it to grow, which also came\nUp in a night, and perish'd in the same.\nAnd should not I extend my gracious pity\nTo Nineveh, so populous a city,\nWhere more than six score thousand persons dwell,\nWho 'twixt their right hand, and their left can tell\nNo difference, wherein are also found\nCattle which do in multitudes abound.\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF JOSEPH,\nTAKEN OUT OF THE LATTER PART OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS.\n\nCHAP XXXVII.\n\nWhen Jacob from his brother Esau fled,\nHe by the hand of providence was led\nTo Padan-aram, in Assyria, where\nHe serv'd his uncle Laban twenty year;\nDuring which time he was in all things blest,\nAnd with a num'rous issue 'mongst the rest:\nAmongst whom none so pleasing in his sight\nAs Joseph was, who was his chief delight:\nWho by the time that Jacob was return'd\nInto the land, where's fathers had sojourn'd,\nWas full arrived at seventeen years of age;\nAnd by his hopefulness did then presage,\nHe was endued with a noble mind,\nThat would to virtuous actions be inclin'd;\nFor being sent to feed his father's flock,\nAmong his brethren he great notice took\nOf what they did, and if in any sort\nThey did amiss, he thereof made report\nUnto his father, and did thus create\nHis father's favour, but his brethren's hate.\nHis father loved him better than the rest,\nAs being the son wherewith his age was blest.\nAnd that his kindness might the more appear,\nMade him a party colour'd coat to wear.\nBut as it often haps, his father's love\nDid in his brethren greater hatred move.\nBut that which most incens'd them was his dreams,\nBy which, in a prophetic way, he seems\nTheir low submission, and his future state\nOf greatness plainly to prognosticate.\nFor to his brethren thus his dreams he told,\nAnd said, As we were binding sheaves, behold,\nMy sheaf arose and stood up in the field,\nAnd all your sheaves stood round about, to yield\nObeisance unto mine: And what, must we\nIndeed, say they, be subject unto thee?\nTheir wrath increas'd, this added to his crime.\nAnd Joseph dreamed yet a second time;\nAnd said, Behold, I saw the sun and moon,\nAnd the eleven stars to me fall down.\nAt which his father highly was offended,\nAnd for these words, the lad he reprehended,\nAnd said, Fond youth, dost thou pretend to shew\nThat I, thy mother, and thy brethren too,\nMust all submit to thee? Thou dost but dream:\nBut Jacob kept his words, and thought of them.\nNow Jacob's sons did feed their flocks in Shechem,\nAnd he desired Joseph to go seek them,\nAnd find them out, and come again and tell\nIf all things with them and their flocks were well.\nSo Joseph went, and wander'd here and there,\nBut could not find out where his brethren were,\nUntil a man had told him their intent\nOf going to Dotham, where he also went.\nAnd when his brethren at a distance saw him,\nThey held a consultation how to slay him,\nAnd said, Here comes the dreamer, we shall see\nWhat the event of all his dreams will be;\nFor we will kill, and in a pit will hide him,\nAnd say some beast or other hath destroy'd him.\nBut Reuben somewhat tend'rer than the rest,\nEndeavour'd to persuade them to desist\nFrom murder, saying, Into this pit let's cast him,\nAnd this he said in hopes to have releas'd him.\nAnd now when Joseph came not dreading ought,\nThey stript him of his party colour'd coat,\nAnd led him to a pit that was hard by,\nAnd threw him into't, but the pit was dry.\nAnd sitting down to eat, they chanc'd to spy,\nA company of Ishmaelites pass by,\nWho with balm, myrrh, and spice, their camels lading,\nFrom Gilead came, and were to Egypt trading.\nThen Judah said, 'Twill do us little good\nTo slay our brother, and conceal his blood;\nCome therefore, brethren, be advis'd by me,\nLet's sell him to these Ishmaelites, for he\nIs our own flesh, and 'tis a cruel deed,\nTo kill him, and to this they all agreed.\nTheir brother then out of the pit they hale,\nAnd to these merchants offer'd him to sale:\nWho, him for twenty silver pieces bought,\nAnd with them to the land of Egypt brought.\nBut Reuben, ignorant of what was done,\nCame to the pit, and seeing the lad was gone,\nHe rent his clothes in a great consternation,\nReturning back with heavy lamentation.\nAnd now that they might make their story good\nThey kill'd a kid, and dipped in the blood\nTheir brother Joseph's coat, and home they came,\nAnd to their father's view expos'd the same,\nAnd said, This we have found, now thou dost know\nWhether it be thy son's coat, yea or no.\nAnd Jacob knew the coat full well, and said,\nNow hath some evil beast devour'd the lad;\nJoseph is torn in pieces without doubt,\nFor, too, too well I know this is his coat.\nHe rent his clothes, and putting sackcloth on,\nHe for a long time mourned for his son.\nHis children striving to assuage his grief\nEndeavour'd to administer relief:\nBut he refus'd, and said, Since he is gone,\nI will in sorrow to the grave go down.\nSuch lamentation made he for his son.\n\nCHAP. XXXIX.\n\nAnd now these merchants, sons of Ishmael,\nAgain did poor afflicted Joseph sell,\nTo an Egyptian, named Potiphar,\nThe captain of King Pharaoh's men of war.\nAnd God was with him, and did greatly bless,\nAnd crown his undertakings with success.\nWhereof his master being well aware,\nCommitted all he had to Joseph's care;\nAnd made him overseer of his house,\nAnd, from the time his master us'd him thus,\nThe Lord was pleas'd to give him to partake,\nSo many blessings, e'en for Joseph's sake:\nOf that with plenty he was hedg'd about,\nAnd prospered within door and without.\nSuch was his master's love, and he so just,\nThat all things were committed to his trust.\nNow Joseph was grown up to manly stature,\nOf goodly presence, and most comely feature.\nWherefore his mistress, with a lustful eye,\nBeheld his beauty, and resolv'd to try,\nIf to unchaste embraces she could gain\nThe youth, but her endeavours prov'd in vain:\nFor he refus'd, and said, My master knows\nIn all the house of nothing that he owes,[9]\nFor his concerns are all at my dispose:\nThere's not a thing that he hath kept from me\nBut all is in my hand, save only thee;\nThen how can I commit so foul a fact,\nAnd the displeasure of my God contract?\nYet still she sued, and still did he deny her,\nRefusing to be with her, or lie by her.\nNow on a time when all the men were gone\nOut of the house, and she was left alone:\nAnd Joseph at that instant coming in,\nAbout some business he'd to do within;\nShe took advantage of their being together,\nAnd held his clothes to force him to lie with her.\nBut Joseph strove, and from her hands got loose,\nAnd left his coat, and fled out of the house.\nAnd when she saw that he had made's escape,\nShe call'd her servants, and proclaim'd a rape:\nCome see now how this Hebrew slave, said she,\nYour master's favourite, hath affronted me.\nHe came to violate my chastity,\nAnd when he heard that I began to cry,\nAnd call for help, afraid lest you should find him,\nHe's fled, and left his garment here behind him.\nAnd now to give her words the greater credit,\nUntil her husband's coming home, she hid it,\nTo whom she spake, and said, Why hast thou brought\nThis Hebrew here, to set me thus at nought?\nThe slave attempted to defile my bed,\nAnd when I cry'd, he left his coat and fled,\nSee here it is. Which when he saw, and heard\nThe heavy accusation she preferr'd,\nHe was exceeding wroth at his behavior,\nAnd utterly cashier'd him from his favour;\nNay more, he cast him into prison, where\nIn fetters bound, King Pharaoh's pris'ners were.\nBut Joseph's God, who never yet forsook\nHim in extremity, was pleas'd to look\nWith great compassion on his injuries,\nAnd gave him favour in the keeper's eyes;\nSo that he was entrusted with the care\nAnd charge of all the pris'ners that were there:\nAll were committed unto Joseph's hand,\nAnd what was done, was done at his command.\nThe prison-keeper took no care at all,\nOf ought that he entrusted him withal;\nBecause he saw that God was with him, and\nAll things did prosper that he took in hand.\n\nCHAP. XL.\n\nAnd now, whilst Joseph in confinement lay,\nIt came to pass upon a certain day,\nThat Pharaoh King of Egypt, being wroth\nWith his chief butler, and chief baker both,\nFor their offences, put them both in ward,\nIn the house of the captain of the guard:\nInto the place where Joseph was confin'd,\nUnto whose custody they were resign'd;\nAnd he attended on them in the prison.\nAnd there they were continue'd for a season,\nDuring which time it chanced both of them\nDid in the same night dream each man his dream:\nWhich dreams, according to interpretation,\nHad to themselves particular relation.\nAnd Joseph coming early the next day,\nInto the room where Pharaoh's servants lay,\nBeheld their countenances much dejected:\nWherefore he said, What evil hath effected\nThis melancholy frame, what is't that causes\nThese marks of discontentment in your faces?\nThen said they, We have dream'd each man his dream,\nAnd there is no man to interpret them.\nThen Joseph said, Your dreams to me make known.\nInterpretations are from God alone.\nThen unto Joseph the chief butler told\nHis dream, and said, Methought I did behold\nA vine, whereon three branches did appear,\nWhich seem'd to bud, to blossom, and to bear\nClusters of full ripe grapes, which to my thinking\nI press'd into the cup for Pharaoh's drinking.\nAnd Joseph said, Thy dream doth signify,\nThou shalt enjoy thy former dignity:\nThe branches which thou sawest are three days,\nIn which King Pharaoh will his butler raise\nAnd to thy place again will thee restore,\nAnd thou shalt serve him as thou'st done before:\nBut do not, when it shall be well with thee,\nForget me, but show kindness unto me,\nAnd unto Pharaoh represent my case,\nThat I may be deliver'd from this place;\nFor I was stol'n out of the Hebrew's land,\nAnd also here am wrongfully detained.\nThen the chief baker having understood,\nThat the interpretation was so good,\nHe told his dream to Joseph too, and said,\nLo, I had three white baskets on my head,\nAnd in the uppermost there seem'd to be,\nOf baked provision, great variety,\nFit for King Pharaoh's table, and there came\nA flock of birds, and seem'd to eat the same.\nAnd Joseph said, Thy dream portends thy fall,\nFor at the end of three days Pharaoh shall\nLift up thy head, and hang thee on a tree,\nSo that the birds shall feast themselves on thee.\nAnd on the third day Pharaoh made a feast\nUnto his servants, and among the rest\nThe butler and the baker were brought forth,\nThe day being kept in memory of his birth.\nAnd to his place King Pharaoh did restore\nHis butler, and he served him as before.\nBut the chief baker he condemn'd to die,\nAccording unto Joseph's prophecy.\nYet though the butler had regain'd his place,\nHe was unmindful of poor Joseph's case.\n\nCHAP. XLI.\n\nAnd now when two years' time was fully past,\nAnd Joseph from confinement not releast,\nIt came to pass that Pharaoh dream'd, and\nHe seemed by a river-side to stand,\nWhence he seven fat well-favour'd kine beheld,\nCome up and grazed in the neighbouring field.\nAnd after them there came up seven more,\nLean and ill-favour'd, and did soon devour\nThe seven fat kine which came up just before.\nSo Pharaoh 'woke, and mus'd awhile, and then\nSoon as his sleep his dream returned again:\nWherein he saw upon one stalk there stood\nSeven ears of corn exceeding rank and good,\nAnd seven others, with the east wind blasted,\nAnd withered, sprang up, and quickly wasted\nThe seven good ears, and quite devour'd them:\nAnd Pharaoh 'woke, and lo, it was a dream.\nAnd in the morning he was discontent,\nAnd for the wise men and magicians sent,\nTo ease his mind; but there was none of them\nThat could interpret to the king his dream.\nThen the chief butler, making his address\nUnto King Pharaoh, said, I now confess\nMy former faults, for when the king was wroth\nWith his chief butler, and chief baker both,\nIt pleased him, to put us both in ward,\nIn the house of the captain of the guard:\nAnd in one night we dream'd a dream, each one\nAccording to 's interpretation:\nAnd there was then an Hebrew there in ward,\nA youth that serv'd the captain of the guard:\nTo whom we told whereof we had been dreaming,\nAnd he interpreted to us the meaning;\nAnd what he said fell out accordingly,\nMe he restored to my dignity,\nBut told the baker he should surely die.\nThen Pharaoh sent a messenger in haste,\nAnd Joseph from the dungeon was releas'd:\nAnd having shav'd himself and chang'd his clothes,\nInto the presence of the king he goes.\nTo whom King Pharaoh said, I have been told\nThou canst the meaning of a dream unfold:\nNow I have dream'd a dream, and there is none\nCan give me the interpretation.\nAnd Joseph said, I cannot do this thing\nMyself, but God shall answer thee, oh king.\nThen Pharaoh said to Joseph, In my dream,\nAs I stood by a river's side, there came\nUp from the river seven well-favour'd kine,\nAnd fed upon the banks, all fat and fine,\nAnd after them there came up seven more,\nLean and ill-favour'd, and exceeding poor:\nSuch as the land of Egypt never bred,\nAnd on the seven well-favour'd kine they fed,\nAnd eat them up, but 'twas not to be seen\nThat they had eat them, they look'd still so thin.\nSo I awoke, and mus'd awhile, and then\nSoon as my sleep, my dream return'd again;\nWherein I saw upon one stalk there stood\nSeven ears of corn, exceeding rank and good:\nThen seven others, with the east wind blasted,\nAnd withered, came up, and quickly wasted\nThe seven good ears, and quite devoured them.\nAnd being unsatisfied about my dream,\nI sought unto the wise men of the nation,\nBut they could give me no interpretation.\nAnd Joseph said, Thy dream, oh king! is one,\nGod shews to Pharaoh what he will have done.\nThe seven fat kine and seven good ears agree\nTo shew, seven years of plenty there shall be.\nThe seven lean kine, and seven blasted ears,\nDenote there shall be famine seven years.\nThis I declare to Pharaoh, God doth shew\nTo thee, oh king! what he's about to do.\nBehold seven years of plenty are at hand,\nWhich shall be very great throughout the land.\nAnd after them seven years of famine shall\nArise, and shall consume the land, and all\nThe former plenty shall not be perceiv'd,\nSo much the land with famine shall be griev'd.\nAnd since the dream was doubl'd to the king,\nIt is because God hath decreed the thing,\nAnd on this land the same will shortly bring:\nNow therefore if I may the king advise,\nLet him look out a man discreet and wise,\nAnd make him overseer of the land:\nAnd substitute men under his command\nTo gather a fifth part for public use,\nOf what the seven plenteous years produce;\nAnd in the cities lay it up for store,\nAgainst the famine in the land grows sore;\nAnd let it be repos'd in Pharaoh's hand,\nThat so the famine may not waste the land.\nAnd when King Pharaoh and his servants heard\nThe propositions Joseph had preferr'd,\nThey were acceptable in Pharaoh's eyes,\nAnd in the eyes of all his court likewise:\nSo that he said, Can such an one be found?\nA man in whom God's Spirit doth abound.\nAnd Pharaoh said to Joseph, Forasmuch\nAs God's great kindness unto thee is such,\nAs to reveal this thing to thee, I know\nNo man so wise or so discreet as thou.\nBe thou therefore the ruler of the land,\nAnd let my people be at thy command;\nThou shalt in all things be as great as I,\nSave only in the royal dignity.\nBehold this day I have advanced thee\nSaid he, to be a man of high degree\nThroughout the land. And therewithal the king\nBestow'd on Joseph his own royal ring;\nAnd him with robes of state did richly deck,\nAnd put a chain of gold about his neck,\nAnd in his second chariot made him ride,\nAnd as he past, Bow down the knee they cry'd,\nWith so great honour was he dignifi'd.\nAnd Pharaoh said moreover, I am king,\nNo man shall dare to purpose any thing,\nOr move his hand or foot in all this nation,\nUnless it shall be by thy approbation.\nHe also gave to Joseph a new name,\nAnd for a wife gave him a princely dame,\nWho was the daughter of a priest of fame.\n(Now Joseph had attained his thirtieth year,\nWhen he before King Pharaoh did appear.)\nAnd he went out from Pharaoh's presence, and\nBegan his progress over all the land.\nNow in the seven plenteous years, the field\nDid its increase in great abundance yield.\nAnd Joseph gather'd all that plenteous crop,\nAnd in th' adjacent cities laid it up:\nWhich like unto the sand upon the shore,\nDid so abound that he could count no more,\nSuch was the plenty that the earth then bore.\nAnd unto Joseph there was born a son,\nEven by the daughter of the priest of On,\nBefore the years of famine were begun;\nThe which he call'd Manasseh, for, said he,\nGod makes me to forget my misery,\nAnd all my father's house. And after him\nWas born another he called Ephraim;\nFor God, saith he, hath made me to possess\nAbundance in the land of my distress.\nAnd when the seven plenteous years were gone,\nThe seven years of famine next came on,\nAs Joseph said, and there was a great dearth\nIn every nation throughout all the earth;\nBut in the land of Egypt there was bread.\nAnd when the people almost famished,\nComplained to the king, he bade them go\nTo Joseph, and whate'er he said to do.\nAnd now the famine daily waxing sore,\nJoseph began to bring forth of his store,\nWhich he had laid up for the public good;\nTo whom th' Egyptians came and bought their food.\nAnd people from all countries far and near\nTo Egypt came to buy provision there;\nFor in all lands the famine was severe.\n\nCHAP. XLII.\n\nAnd now, behold, when Jacob had been told\nThat there was corn in Egypt to be sold,\nHe said unto his sons, Why stand ye thus?\nGo down to Egypt and buy corn for us;\nThat so our craving stomachs may be fed,\nAnd not be here and die for lack of bread.\nThus Jacob's ten sons were to Egypt sent,\nBut Joseph's brother Benjamin ne'er went.\nFor why, his father said, I will not send him,\nLest peradventure some ill chance attend him.\nAnd Joseph's brethren came among the rest\nTo buy provision, for they were distress'd.\nNow he was governor of all the land,\nAnd all the corn of Egypt in his hand.\nWherefore his brethren, when they came to treat\nWith him for corn, bow'd down e'en at his feet:\nAnd he no sooner saw them but he knew them,\nAnd show'd himself extremely strange unto them:\nAnd very roughly asked who they were,\nFrom whence they came, and what their bus'ness there.\nAnd they made answer, We thy servants from\nThe land of Canaan to buy food are come.\nNow tho' they knew him not, yet he knew them,\nAnd calling now to mind his former dream,\nHe said, I do suspect ye're come as spies,\nTo see in what distress our country lies.\nBut they reply'd again, My lord, we're come\nOnly to buy some food to carry home.\nThink not thy servants spies, but true men rather,\nFor we are all the children of one father.\nNay, nay, said he, but ye are come to pry\nInto the nation's great necessity.\nBut they reply'd again, Thy servants are\nInhabitants of Canaan, and declare,\nThat we're twelve brethren, whom one man begot,\nThe youngest is at home, and one is not\nWell then, said Joseph, hereby shall I know,\nWhether ye're spies, as I have said, or no;\nNow by the life of Pharaoh do I swear,\nUntil your brother come I'll keep you here.\nSend one of you and fetch the lad to me,\nAnd you shall be confin'd, so shall there be\nA proof of what you say before mine eyes,\nOr by the life of Pharaoh ye are spies.\nThen he for three days put them all in ward,\nAnd on the third day said, I have regard\nTo equity, therefore if ye are true\nAnd honest men, do this; let one of you\nBe bound in prison here, and let the other\nGo carry corn home and bring me your brother;\nSo shall ye be approv'd and shall not die.\nAnd they prepared to do accordingly.\nAnd as they were discoursing to each other,\nThey said, We were in fault about our brother,\nIn that we saw his soul in great distress,\nAnd yet were so exceeding pitiless,\nAs not to hearken to his earnest cries:\nThis is the cause of these our miseries.\nAnd Reuben said, You know I did forewarn,\nAnd beg that you would do the child no harm;\nBut you would not do then as I desir'd,\nAnd now his blood is at our hands requir'd.\nThus they discours'd about the cause that brought\nTheir present trouble, but they little thought\nThat Joseph knew of what they did confer,\nBecause he spake by an interpreter.\nAnd he being moved at their words withdrew\nTo weep, and then returned to renew\nHis former talk; and choosing Simeon out,\nBefore them all he bound him hand and foot.\nAnd gave command to fill their sacks with grain,\nAnd to restore their money to 'em again;\nAnd for their journey gave them food to eat;\nIn such sort Joseph did his brethren treat.\nThen with their asses laden towards home\nThey went, and when into their inn they come\nAs one of them his sack of corn unty'd,\nTo give his ass some provender, he spy'd\nHis money in his sack again return'd;\nWherefore he call'd his brethren and inform'd\nThem that his money was returned back.\nBehold, said he, it is here in my sack.\nOn sight whereof their hearts were sore dismay'd,\nAnd being very much affrighted said,\nWhat is the thing that God's about to do,\nThat we do thus these troubles undergo?\nThen coming to their father they related,\nAfter what sort they were in Egypt treated:\nAnd said, the man that's lord of all the land,\nAnd hath the store of corn all in his hand,\nSpake roughly to us, and affirm'd that we\nWere come the weakness of the land to see.\nTo whom we said, We are all honest men;\nWe are twelve brethren, whereof here are ten,\nAnd two elsewhere, all which one man begot,\nThe youngest's with our father, one is not.\nThen said the ruler of the land, Hereby\nShall I make proof of your integrity:\nLet one of you continue here with me,\nAnd take provision for your family;\nAnd get you gone and bring the youngest hither,\nThat so I may be satisfied whether\nYe are true men, as you make protestation,\nThen I'll release him, and give toleration\nTo you to come and traffic in the nation.\nAnd now behold as they their sacks unloos'd\nTo empty out their corn, there was unclos'd\nIn each man's sack his money therein bound,\nAs when they came from home, which when they found,\nBoth they and their old father were afraid;\nAnd to his sons afflicted Jacob said,\nYou of my children have bereaved me,\nJoseph and Simeon now do cease to be;\nAnd of my Benjamin you would deprive me,\nThese things do ev'n into distraction drive me.\nThen Reuben said, My father I resign\nTo thy disposing these two sons of mine;\nGive me the lad, and let them both be slain,\nIf I do not return him safe again.\nBut he reply'd, I will not let him go,\nFor why his brother is deceas'd you know;\nAnd if upon the way some evil thing\nShould happen to the lad, you then will bring\nThese my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave;\nFor he's the only comfort that I have.\n\nCHAP. XLIII.\n\nAnd now the famine still continuing sore,\nAnd having spent all their late purchas'd store,\nTheir father bids them to go down for more\nTo whom when Judah had himself address'd,\nHe said, The man did solemnly protest,\nIf we without our brother came again,\nTo seek his face would be for us in vain:\nIf therefore thou wilt send him, well and good,\nThen will we willingly go down for food;\nBut if thou wilt not, we must let thee know,\nWe are resolved that we will not go:\nFor, as I said before, the ruler swore\nWithout him we should see his face no more.\nThen Israel said, Why were you so unkind\nTo say you had a brother left behind?\nThe man, said they, was so inquisitive,\nHe asked if our father were alive,\nOr if we had a brother, whereunto\nAccordingly we answer'd, could we know\nIf he would bid us bring the lad or no?\nMoreover Judah to his father said,\nIf thou wilt but entrust me with the lad,\nWe will begone, that so both thou and we\nMay be preserved with our family:\nI will be surety for him, if I fail\nTo bring him back, on me the blame entail;\nFor if we had not lingered, we had been\nBy this time here the second time again.\nWell then, said Isr'el, if it must be so,\nMy sons, take my advice before you go;\nProvide some of the best fruits of the land,\nTo give the man a present from your hand;\nBalm, myrrh, and spices, and a little honey,\nSome nuts and almonds, and take double money,\nFor peradventure it was a mistake,\nIn that our money was returned back.\nAnd take your brother Benjamin and go,\nAnd God Almighty grant the man may shew\nYou mercy, that you may bring back again\nYour other brother, and my Benjamin,\nAnd if I am bereav'd, so have I been.\nThen did the men prepare the present, and\nThey took their money double in their hand\nWith Benjamin, and down to Egypt went,\nWho unto Joseph did themselves present.\nWho, when he saw that Benjamin was come,\nOrder'd his steward to conduct them home,\nAnd to provide a dinner, for, said he,\nI do intend these men shall dine with me.\nThen did the steward as his master said,\nAnd brought them home, whereat they were afraid,\nAnd said, The man hath caus'd us to come in,\nBecause our money was return'd again;\nTo take occasion now to fall upon us,\nAnd make us slaves, and take our asses from us.\nUnto the steward they drew nigh therefore,\nAnd thus communed with him at the door:\nO sir, say they, we came at first indeed\nTo buy provision to supply our need;\nAnd in our inn as we our sacks unloos'd,\nWe found our money therein all inclos'd\nIn its full weight, whereat surpris'd with fear,\nNot knowing who had put our money there,\nWe now have brought it in full weight again,\nAnd other money too, to buy more grain.\nPeace, peace, said he, let not fear seize upon you\nFor I had the disposing of your money:\nGod, unto whom you and your father bow,\nHath giv'n you treasure in your sacks I trow.\nAnd then releasing Simon, who had been\nConfin'd in Joseph's house, he brought them in\nAnd set them water, and they wash'd their feet;\nAnd gave their asses provender to eat.\nThen they made ready, against Joseph came,\nTheir gifts, in order to present the same\nAt noon; for they were told he did design\nTo have their company with him to dine.\nAnd now when Joseph was returned home,\nInto his presence they with rev'rence come,\nAnd brought their presents in and laid before him,\nAnd fell down at his feet for to adore him.\nThen he inquired if they all were well,\nAnd said, When you were here I heard you tell\nOf an old man, your father, how does he?\nIs he in health, or doth he cease to be?\nWhereto in humble sort they thus reply'd,\nThy servant, ev'n our father, doth abide\nIn perfect health, which having said,\nThey bowed their heads and great obeisance made.\nAnd Joseph viewing Benjamin his brother\n(They being both the children of one mother)\nHe asked if he were the lad of whom\nThey spake, then said, God give thee grace, my son.\nThen making haste to find a secret place\nTo weep, because his bowels yearn'd apace\nUpon his brother, to his chamber went,\nWhere having giv'n his troubled spirits vent,\nHe washed his face, and did himself refrain,\nAnd to his brethren then came forth again,\nAnd bade his servants they should set on bread.\nAt his command the tables were all spread;\nOne for himself, and for his friends another,\nAnd for the Egyptians one apart from either,\nThat so they might not eat bread altogether;\nFor it is held a great abomination\nFor them to eat among the Hebrew nation,\nAnd they were placed as their age required,\nThe eldest first, whereat the men admired.\nAnd from his table Joseph sent them messes;\nBut in a larger manner he expresses\nTo Benjamin his kindness, which was such,\nThat he appointed him five times as much\nAs to the rest: and they drank plenteously,\nTill they were merry in his company.\n\nCHAP. XLIV.\n\nAnd to his steward Joseph spake, and said,\nGive these men corn as much as they can lade;\nAnd in their sacks bind each man's money up,\nAnd in the youngest's put my silver cup\nBesides his money: and he made haste and did\nAccording as his master had commanded.\nAnd in the morning by the break of day,\nWith asses laden they were sent away:\nAnd now, e'er they had scarce the town's end pass'd,\nHe sent his steward after them in haste,\nAnd said, Go, follow them, and ask them why\nThey have dealt by me so ungratefully?\nAnd say unto them, You have done great evil\nTo rob my master, who hath been so civil,\nAnd steal the cup wherein he drinks his wine;\nIs it not it whereby he doth divine?[10]\nThen he pursu'd and quickly overtook\nThem, and these very words to them he spoke.\nTo whom they said, Why hath my lord such thought?\nOh, God forbid that we should be so naught;[11]\nBehold, thou know'st we brought the money back\nThe which we found bound up in each man's sack,\nWhich shews that we had no design to cheat;\nHow then should we now steal your master's plate?\nWith which of us thy servants it is found\nLet him be slain, and we to slavery bound.\nNow as you say, said he, so let it be,\nHe shall be bound, but you shall all go free.\nThen they unladed ev'ry man his beast,\nAnd to his view expos'd their sacks in haste.\nAnd he from first to last them searched round,\nAnd lo, the cup on Benjamin was found:\nThereat surpris'd, each man his garment rent,\nAnd lade his beast, and back again they went.\nAnd now when Judah and the rest were come\nTo Joseph's house, (for he was yet at home)\nThey fell before him to the ground, to whom\nHe said, What deed is this that you have done?\nAre you not sensible that such a one\nAs I, can certainly thereof make trial?\nThen Judah said, My lord, there's no denial:\nWe cannot clear ourselves. The Lord hath sent,\nFor our misdeed, this heavy punishment.\nBehold, to be thy slaves we all are bound,\nBoth we, and he on whom the cup was found.\nThen Joseph said, The Lord forbid that I\nShould exercise so great severity:\nFor he with whom 'tis found, and he alone\nShall be my servant, you may all be gone.\nThen unto Joseph, Judah drawing near,\nSaid, O my lord! I pray be pleas'd to hear\nThy servant speak, and be not angry now,\nFor as King Pharaoh is ev'n so art thou.\nMy lord did bid thy servants to discover\nWhether we had a father or a brother;\nAnd we made answer that thy servants had\nAn ancient father and a little lad,\nThe child of his old age, who was our brother,\nAnd he the only child left of his mother,\nHis brother being dead; and that this lad\nWas all the comfort that our father had.\nThen thou wert pleas'd to bid thy servants bring\nThe lad, that thou might'st have a sight of him.\nAnd we made answer, if the lad should leave\nHis father, it would bring him to his grave:\nAnd thou didst then protest it was in vain\nFor us without him to come here again.\nThen towards home thy servants went their way,\nAnd told our father what my lord did say.\nAnd in a while, when all our corn was spent,\nThy servant, ev'n our father, would have sent\nTo buy more food; to whom thy servant said,\nWe cannot go except thou send the lad.\nBecause the man did solemnly declare,\nUnless we brought him we should not come there.\nAnd then thy servant, ev'n our father, said,\nYe know that by my wife two sons I had,\nAnd one of them went forth and came no more,\nWhich made me think some beast did him devour.\nAnd if I now should also condescend\nTo let this go, and mischief should attend,\nYou will with sorrow bring me to my end.\nWhen to my father I shall come therefore,\nAnd he shall see that I do not restore\nThe lad again, he certainly will die,\n(Since in his life my father's life doth lie)\nAnd we shall bring him to his grave thereby.\nFor I became a surety for the lad\nUnto my father, unto whom I said,\nIf I do not in safety him deliver,\nThen let me bear the blame to thee for ever.\nI humbly pray thee, therefore, to accept\nMe in his stead, and let me here be kept\nMy lord's bond-slave, and let the lad go free:\nFor how can I, thy servant, bear to see\nThe evil that shall on my father come,\nIf that the lad return not safely home.\n\nCHAP. XLV.\n\nThen Joseph, who by no means now could hide\nHis brotherly affection longer, cry'd,\nPut all men forth; and he was left alone\nWhen to his brethren he himself made known.\nThen Joseph weeping lifted up his voice\nSo loud, that Pharaoh's servants heard the noise.\nAnd to his brethren did himself discover,\nAnd said, Lo! I am Joseph your own brother;\nAnd doth my father live? Whereat amaz'd,\nThey could not speak, but at each other gaz'd.\nThen Joseph said, Come near, I pray, behold,\nI am your brother Joseph whom ye sold\nTo Egypt, be not grieved now therefore,\nNor vex yourselves, for God sent me before\nTo save life; for these two years there hath been\nA famine, and five more to come, wherein\nSeed time nor harvest shall at all be seen.\nThe Lord, I say, hath sent me to provide\nA place, and strangely save your lives beside.\nSo now ye sent me not, but it was rather\nThe Lord, and he hath made me as a father\nUnto the king, lord of his household, and\nA ruler over all this spacious land.\nUnto my father, therefore, go your way,\nAnd tell him, Thus doth thy son Joseph say:\nThe Lord hath rais'd me to a high degree\nIn Egypt, tarry not, but come to me,\nAnd thou shalt dwell in Goshen and be nigh me,\nAnd with provision there will I supply thee;\nBoth thou and thine, flocks, herds, and all thou hast,\n(For yet these five years will the famine last)\nLest otherwise, provision being scant,\nThou and thy family may come to want.\nBehold, both you and Benjamin my brother\nDo see that it is I and not another.\nGo tell my father this amazing story,\nAnd bring him hither to behold my glory.\nThen falling on his youngest brother's neck,\nAnd he on his, they o'er each other wept.\nAnd to the rest he did likewise, wherefore\nThey now were more familiar than before.\nAnd now whilst they discoursed, the report\nOf their arrival came to Pharaoh's court,\nAnd he was pleas'd thereat, wherefore he said\nTo Joseph, let thy brethren straightway lade\nTheir beasts with corn, and thus unto them say,\nUnto your native country haste away,\nAnd fetch your father, and your households, and\nI'll feed you with the good things of the land;\nAnd since you are commanded by the king,\nTake wagons with you hence wherein to bring\nYour wives, your little ones, and come down hither,\nYour father, you and yours altogether;\nAnd never heed to bring your household stuff,\nFor here in Egypt you shall have enough.\nThen did the Isr'elites accordingly:\nAnd Joseph ordering them a large supply\nOf necessaries for their journey, sent\nWagons according to the king's intent.\nAnd to each man he gave a suit of clothes,\nBut on his brother Benjamin bestows\nFive suits, and as a token of his love,\nA sum of money over and above.\nAnd thus he sent ev'n for his father's use,\nOf the best things that Egypt did produce,\nTen asses load, and ten she asses load\nOf bread and meat, to spend upon the road.\nThen sending them away, he said, I pray\nSee that you do not fall out by the way.\nAnd leaving Egypt with their num'rous train,\nUnto their father they returned again:\nTo whom, as soon as e'er they did arrive,\nThey said, Our brother Joseph's yet alive,\nAnd lord of all the land, which sore dismay'd\nHim, for he scarce believed what they said.\nThen they of all that pass'd gave him relation.\nAnd shewed the wagons for a confirmation\nWhich being manifest before his eyes,\nHe rais'd himself, and said, It doth suffice;\nJoseph my son is yet alive, and I\nWill go to see him once before I die.\n\nCHAP. XLVI.\n\nThen Isr'el setting forward on his way\nWith all his household, came to Beersheba;\nAnd offer'd sacrifice there to implore\nThe God his father Isaac did adore.\nAnd in the visions of the night God spake\nTo him, and said, Fear not to undertake\nThis journey into Egypt, for I am\nThe God of thy forefathers, Abraham\nAnd Isaac; to the land of Egypt I\nWill go with thee, and there will multiply\nThy offspring, and of thee will surely make\nA mighty nation, and will bring thee back;\nAnd thy son Joseph there thine eyes shall close.\nAfter which vision he from thence arose,\nAnd in the wagons which King Pharaoh sent,\nHe and his family to Egypt went:\nHis sons, their wives and children, and the rest\nOf their concerns, whereof they were possest\nWhen they in Canaan dwelt, and they were then\nNo more in number but threescore and ten.\nAnd when to Egypt Israel drew near\nHe sent before him Judah, to prepare\nHis way to Goshen, which when Joseph heard,\nImmediately his chariot he prepar'd;\nAnd unto Goshen he directly went,\nAnd to his father did himself present:\nAnd being over-joy'd fell on his neck,\nAnd for a good while thereupon he wept.\nThen Jacob said, Since thou yet liv'st, and I\nHave seen thy face once more, now let me die.\nAnd Joseph said, My brethren I will go\nUnto King Pharaoh, and will let him know\nThat you, and all my father's house are come;\nAnd that your occupation when at home,\nHath been in feeding cattle altogether,\nAnd that you've brought your flocks and herds all hither.\nNow therefore when you come before the king,\nAnd he should ask you what your trade hath been,\nSay thus: Thy servants from our youth till now\nHave dealt in cattle, we and our fathers too,\nThat he may let you dwell in Goshen, for\nTh' Egyptians do a shepherd's life abhor.\n\nCHAP. XLVII.\n\nThen to King Pharaoh Joseph went and said,\nMy father and his sons, with all they had\nIn their own country, are come down to me,\nAnd in the land of Goshen now they be.\nFive of his brethren also with him went,\nWhom he unto King Pharaoh did present,\nAnd Pharaoh asked them about their trade,\nAnd they unto the king reply'd and said:\nWe and our fathers while we were at home\nWere shepherds all, and now behold, we come\nWith all our flocks, to get some pasture here,\nFor in our land the famine is severe.\nWe therefore pray thee to appoint a portion\nUnto thy servants in the land of Goshen.\nAnd Pharaoh said to Joseph, I empow'r thee\nTo use thy pleasure, Goshen is before thee;\nSettle thy father and thy brethren there,\nAnd if among them active men there are,\nCommit my cattle to their special care.\nAnd Joseph brought his aged father in\nBefore the king, and Jacob blessed him.\nAnd Pharaoh asking him about his age,\nHe said, The years of my life's pilgrimage\nAre but an hundred thirty, very few\nAnd evil, nor have I attain'd unto\nThe years of my forefathers longer age,\nWhich they pass'd thro' in this their pilgrimage.\nAnd Jacob bless'd the king again, and then\nOut of his presence he return'd again.\nAnd Joseph plac'd his father and relations\nIn Egypt, and appointed them possessions\nIn the best of the land, ev'n in the land\nOf Rameses, according to the king's command:\nAnd there he nourished them with fit supplies\nOf bread, according to their families.\nAnd now the people having spent their store,\nAnd famine still increasing more and more,\nEgypt and Canaan too, for want of bread,\nWere sore distress'd and almost famished.\nAnd Joseph took the money they did bring\nTo buy their corn, and kept it for the king.\nWherefore the people came to represent\nTheir case to him, both corn and coin being spent.\nAnd Joseph said, If money be grown scant,\nBring me your cattle and ye shall not want.\nAnd they brought horses, asses, and their flocks\nAnd herds of cattle, ev'n all their stocks,\nAnd gave to Joseph in exchange for bread,\nFor which the people he for that year fed:\nAnd when that year was past, the second year\nThey came again, and said, We can't forbear\nTo let thee know our want, my lord doth know\nThou hast our money and our cattle too,\nAnd there is nothing left (so hard's our fate)\nBut only each man's person and estate:\nIf thou wilt give us bread, into thy hands\nWill we resign our persons and our lands:\nAnd be the servants of the king for ever.\nFrom death therefore our hungry souls deliver,\nAnd take some pity on our wretched state,\nLest we die, and the land be desolate.\nAnd the Egyptians sold each man his field,\nBecause the famine over them prevail'd;\nAnd all their lands became the king's possession,\nAnd Joseph placed them at his own discretion.\nBut the land of the priests he purchased not,\nFor Pharaoh had assigned to them their lot:\nAnd they received their food from Pharaoh's hands,\nWherefore they had no need to sell their lands.\nAnd Joseph said unto them, Now behold,\nYou and your lands are unto Pharaoh sold:\nLo! here is seed to sow in each man's field,\nAnd when the land its ripe increase shall yield,\nA fifth part shall belong unto the crown,\nAnd the other four parts shall be your own,\nFor seed to sow your lands, and for supplies\nOf food convenient for your families.\nAnd they said; Thou hast sav'd our lives, my lord,\nThy gracious favour unto us afford,\nAnd we will do according to thy word.\nAnd Joseph made it a decree, to stand\nEv'n to this day throughout th' Egyptian land;\nThat Pharaoh should have a fifth part, except\nThe priests' lands, which unto themselves they kept.\nAnd in the land of Egypt ev'n in Goshen,\nDid Isr'el dwell, and therein had possession;\nAnd grew and multiply'd exceeding fast.\nAnd Jacob liv'd till seventeen years were past:\nSo that the sum of Jacob's age appears\nTo be an hundred forty-seven years.\nAnd when the time approach'd that he must die,\nHe called Joseph, unto whom he said, If I\nHave now found favour in thy sight, I pray,\nSwear thou unto me that thou wilt not lay\nMy bones in Egypt, for I fain would lie\nAmong my ancestors when e'er I die,\nAnd not be bury'd here; therefore fulfil\nThis my desire; and he reply'd, I will:\nAnd he said, Swear unto me, which he did:\nThen Jacob bow'd himself upon his bed.\n\nCHAP. XLVIII.\n\nAnd now when Joseph heard his father lay\nEven at the point of death he hastes away\nTo visit him, and took along with him\nHis son Manasseh, and's son Ephraim.\nWhereof when Jacob heard he strength'ned\nHimself, and rose and sat upon the bed:\nAnd thus to Joseph said, Lo! God appeared\nTo me at Luz in Canaan, and declared,\nThat he would bless, and make me a great nation,\nAnd give my seed that land for a possession:\nAnd Jacob said, Behold, these sons of thine\nAs Reuben and as Simeon shall be mine;\nAnd all the rest that shall be born to thee\nHereafter, shall be thine, and they shall be\nCall'd by the name of their own family.\nBehold thy mother died upon the way,\nWhen I from Padan came, near Ephratah,\nThe which is in the land of Canaan, where,\nTo wit, in Bethlem, did I bury her.\nAnd Jacob seeing Joseph's sons were there,\nHe asked of him who the children were.\nAnd Joseph said, My father, lo! these be\nThe sons, God in this place hath given me.\nThen Jacob said, I pray thee bring them nigh\nTo me, and I will bless them e'er I die.\n(Now Jacob's eyes, by reason of age, were dim)\nAnd Joseph brought his sons near unto him,\nAnd Jacob kissed and embraced them:\nAnd said, I never thought to see thy face,\nAnd lo! the Lord hath shewn me of thy race.\nAnd Joseph from between his knees brought forth\nHis sons, and bow'd himself even to the earth:\nAnd in his right hand held up Ephraim,\nTowards his father's left hand guiding him\nAnd in his left hand to his father's right,\nHe held his son Manasseh opposite.\nAnd Isra'l stretching our his right hand, laid\nIt on the youngest, namely Ephraim's head:\nAnd laid his left hand wittingly upon\nManasseh's head, although the eldest son.\nAnd Jacob blessed Joseph, saying, The God\nOf heaven, in whose paths my fathers trod,\nWho all my life hath nourish'd me, even he\nWho from all evil hath redeemed me,\nBless both the lads, and let them bear my name,\nAnd the name of my fathers Abraham\nAnd Isaac, and let them multiply\nIn the midst of the earth exceedingly.\nAnd Joseph seeing his father's right hand laid\nOn Ephraim's head, he was displeas'd, and said,\nNot so, my father, lay this hand upon\nManasseh's head, for he's the eldest son:\nAnd therewithal attempted to have laid\nHis father's right hand on Manasseh's head\nBut he refus'd and said, I know't my son,\nI know't full well, he also shall become\nA people, and be mighty: But indeed\nHis younger brother shall him far exceed,\nAnd many nations shall come from his seed.\nThus Jacob blessed them, and said, In thee\nShall Isra'l bless, and say, God make thee be\nLike Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus did he\nPrefer the youngest to the first degree.\nAnd Isra'l said to Joseph, Lo! I die,\nBut God shall visit you, and certainly\nShall bring you back unto your father's land.\nAnd thou shalt have a portion from my hand,\nAbove thy brethren, which with sword and bow\nI took from th' Amorite, my deadly foe.\n\nCHAP. XLIX.\n\nAnd Jacob called all his sons together,\nAnd said, Ye sons of Jacob come you hither:\nAnd hearken what your aged father says,\nWho tells you what shall be in the last days.\nReuben my first born, of my strength the flow'rs,\nThe excellency of dignity and power:\nUnstable as water, be for ever vile,\nBecause thou did thy father's bed defile.\nSimeon and Levi 're brethren. Instruments\nOf cruelty lodged in their tents.\nCome not, my soul, their secret councils nigh,\nMy honour, with them have no unity:\nFor in their wrath they caused a man to fall,\nAnd in their self-will digged down a wall.\nCurs'd be their anger, fierce, yea cursed be\nTheir wrath, for it was full of cruelty.\nIn Jacob therefore let their seed be spread,\nAnd every where in Israel scattered.\nJudah shall have his brethren's praise, and they\nShall bow before him; he his foes shall slay.\nJudah's a lion's whelp return'd from prey,\nHe stoop'd, he couch'd, and as a lion lay;\nAs an old lion, who shall dare molest,\nOr rouse him up, when he lies down to rest.\nThe sceptre shall from Judah never start,\nNor a lawgiver from his feet depart;\nUntil the blessed Shiloh come, to whom\nThe scatter'd people shall from all parts come:\nBinding his foal unto the choicest vine,\nHe wash'd his garments, all of them in wine:\nHis eyes shall with the blood of th' grapes look red,\nAnd milky whiteness shall his teeth o'erspread.\nLo! Zabulon shall dwell upon the sea,\nAnd heaven for the ship's security,\nAnd unto Zidon shall his border be.\nAnd Issachar is a strong ass between\nTwo burdens crouching, who when he had seen\nThat rest was pleasant, and the land was good,\nHis servile neck unto the yoke he bow'd.\nDan as a judge shall over Isra'l sway,\nHe shall be as a serpent in the way,\nTo bite the horse, and cast the rider down.\nO God! I have look'd for thy salvation.\nGad by a troop shall be o'ercome, but he\nShall at the last obtain the victory.\nThe bread of Ashur shall be fat indeed,\nAnd royal dainties shall from his proceed.\nLike to a hind let loose is Naphtali,\nHe speaketh all his words acceptably.\nJoseph's a fruitful bough, whose branches tall\nGrow by a well, and over-top the wall:\nBy reason of hatred which the archers bore,\nThey shot at him and griev'd him very sore,\nBut Joseph's bow in its full strength abode\nAnd by the arm of Jacob's mighty God,\nHe was indu'd with strength, from whence alone\nIs Isra'l's shepherd, and chief corner-stone:\nEv'n by my father's God, who shall assist\nThee, by th' Almighty God shalt thou be blest,\nWith blessings from above, and from below,\nWith blessings of the breast, and womb also.\nThy father's blessings have prevail'd beyond\nMy ancestors. Unto the utmost bound\nOf the perpetual hills, yea let them rest\nOn Joseph's head, and let him be possest\nOf all, who was divided from the rest.\nYoung Benjamin shall wolf-like take his prey,\nAnd part by night what he hath took by day.\nAll these are the ten tribes of Israel,\nAnd thus their father did their fate foretell:\nAnd blessed every one of them apart,\nAccording to their personal desert.\nMoreover he gave them a charge and said,\nLo! I shall die, but let my bones be laid\nAmong my ancestors in Canaan, where\nOf Ephron, Abraham bought a sepulchre,\nTogether with a field, to be a place\nOf burial, for him and all his race.\n(There Abraham and Sarah lie, and there\nThey Isaac and Rebecca did inter,\nAnd there when Leah died I buried her.)\nThe field was purchas'd of the sons of Heth.\nThus having said, resigning up his breath\nTo him that gave 't, his feet into the bed\nHe drew, and so was number'd to the dead.\n\nCHAP. L.\n\nAnd Joseph fell upon his father's face,\nAnd did with tears his lifeless lips embrace:\nAnd sends for his physicians and advises\nThem to embalm his father's corpse with spices.\nAnd they did so, and forty days did pass.\n(For so the manner of embalming was)\nAnd the Egyptians mourned for the space\nOf three score and ten days, which being expired\nHe spake to Pharaoh's servants and desired,\nThat they would please to speak in Pharaoh's ear,\nAnd tell him that my father made me swear,\nThat I should bury him in Canaan, where\nHe hath provided his own sepulchre.\nI therefore pray thee that I may obtain\nThy leave, and I will soon return again.\nAnd Pharaoh said, Since thou hast sworn, fulfil\nThy oath, according to thy father's will.\nAnd Joseph went up to accompany\nHis father's corpse with great solemnity.\nAnd with him went up Pharaoh's servants, and\nThe prime nobility of all the land,\nAnd Joseph's household, and his brethren all,\nOnly their flocks, and herds, and children small\nWere left behind. Moreover there went up\nChariots and horsemen, ev'n a mighty troop.\nAnd they came up to Atad's threshing floor\nBeyond the river Jordan, where full sore\nThey mourned for him till seven days were past,\nSo long their mourning in that place did last.\nWhich when the Canaanites beheld they said,\nSurely some eminent Egyptian's dead.\nWherefore they call'd it Abel-mizraim.[12]\nThus did his sons as he commanded them.\nFor to the land of Canaan they convey'd\nHim, and in Machpelah near Mamre, laid\nHis body in the cave which Ephron sold\nTo Abraham, for him and his to hold.\nAnd thus when Joseph fully had perform'd\nHis father's will, to Egypt he return'd,\nTogether with his brethren, and with all\nThem that came with him to the funeral.\nNow Joseph's brethren being well aware\nThat they were fatherless, began to fear\nThat he would hate them, and requite them all\nThe evil they had treated him withal.\nWherefore to him they sent a messenger\nAnd said, Behold our father did declare\nBefore he died, that we should come and say,\nForgive thy brethren's trespasses, I pray;\nAnd their misdeeds, for they have been unkind.\nAnd now we humbly pray thee be inclin'd\nTo pardon our offences, and the rather\nFor that we serve the God e'en of thy father.\nAnd Joseph wept when they thus spake, and they\nCame nearer, and before him prostrate lay,\nAnd said, We are thy servants all this day.\nAnd Joseph bad them not to be afraid,\nFor in the place of God am I he said:\nFor though you meant me ill, God meant it good,\nAnd sent me hither to provide you food.\nNow therefore trouble not yourselves, for I\nWill nourish you, and all your family.\nAfter this manner did he satisfy,\nAnd treat them with extreme civility.\nAnd Joseph and his father's house remain'd\nIn Egypt, and he liv'd till he attain'd\nAn hundred and ten years, and liv'd to see\nOf Ephraim's children to the third degree.\nAnd Macher's children of Manasseh's tribe\nWere also born some time before he died.\nThen Joseph said, My brethren, lo! I die,\nBut God will visit you undoubtedly;\nAnd to that land again whereof he spake\nUnto our ancestors, will bring you back.\nAnd Joseph also made his brethren swear,\nThat they would not inter his body there.\nAnd thus he ended his life's pilgrimage,\nBeing an hundred and ten years of age;\nAnd was embalm'd, and in a coffin laid,\nIn Egypt, till he could be thence convey'd.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES\n\nCHAP. I.\n\nUnto the twelve tribes scattered abroad,\nJames, an apostle of the living God,\nAnd of the Lord Christ Jesus, salutation.\nMy brethren, when you fall into temptation\nOf divers kinds, rejoice, as men that know\nFrom trial of your faith doth patience flow.\nBut let your patience have its full effect,\nThat you may be entire, without defect.\nIf any of you lack wisdom, let him cry\nTo God, and he will give it lib'rally,\nAnd not upbraid. But let him ask in faith,\nNot wavering, for he that wavereth,\nUnto a wave o' th' sea I will compare,\nDriv'n with the wind and tossed here and there.\nFor let not such a man himself deceive,\nTo think that he shall from the Lord receive.\nA double-minded man most surely lacketh\nStability in all he undertaketh.\nLet ev'ry brother of a low degree\nRejoice in that he is advanc'd, but he\nThat's rich in being made low, for he shall pass\nAway, as doth the flow'r of the grass.\nFor as the grass, soon as the sun doth rise,\nIs scorch'd by reason of the heat, and dies;\nIts flow'r fades, and it retains no more\nThe beauteous comeliness it had before,\nSo fades the rich man, maugre all his store.\nThe man is blest that doth endure temptation\nFor when he's try'd, the crown of God's salvation,\nThe which the Lord hath promised to give\nTo them that love him, that man shall receive.\nLet no man be possest with a persuasion,\nTo say, when he falls under a temptation,\nThat God's the cause; for with no evil can\nGod be tempted, nor tempts he any man.\nBut every man is tempted when he's drawn\nAway, and by his lusts prevail'd upon;\nThen when lust hath conceiv'd, it ushereth\nIn sin, and sin when finished brings death.\nErr not, my brethren, whom I dearly love,\nEach good and perfect gift is from above,\nDown from th' original of lights descending,\nWith whom's no change, nor shadow thereto tending,\nAccording to his own good pleasure, he\nBegat us with the word of truth, that we\nShould as the first fruits of his creatures be.\nWherefore, beloved brethren, I entreat\nYou to be swift to hear, and slow to speak,\nAnd slow to wrath, for wrath cannot incline\nThe sons of men to righteousness divine.\nWherefore avoiding ev'ry filthiness,\nAnd superfluity of naughtiness:\nReceive with meekness the engrafted word,\nWhich can salvation to your souls afford.\nBut be ye doers of the word each one,\nAnd not deceive yourselves to hear alone;\nFor he that hears the word and doth it not,\nIs like unto a man that hath forgot\nWhat kind of man he was, tho' in a glass\nHe just before beheld his nat'ral face.\nBut whoso minds the law of liberty\nIn its perfection, and continually\nAbides therein, forgets not what he's heard,\nBut doth the work and therein hath reward.\nIf any man among you seem to be\nReligious, he deceives himself if he\nDoth not his tongue as with a bit restrain;\nAnd all that man's religion is but vain.\nReligion, pure and undefil'd, which is\nAcceptable before the Lord, is this:\nTo visit widows and the fatherless,\nIn time of their affliction or distress;\nAnd so to regulate his conversation,\nAs to be spotless in his generation.\n\nCHAP. II.\n\nFaith of the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ,\nDoth with respect of persons not consist;\nFor if, my brethren, when there shall come in\nTo your assembly one with a gold ring,\nIn goodly clothes, and there shall also be\nAnother man that's meanly cloth'd, and ye\nShall have respect to him in rich attire,\nAnd say unto him, come thou, sit up higher;\nAnd bid the poor man stand or sit below,\nAre ye not partial then, and plainly show,\nThat you do judge amiss in what you do?\nHearken, my brethren, hath not God elected\nThe poor, who by this world have been rejected;\nYet rich in faith, and of that kingdom heirs,\nWhich God will give his foll'wers to be theirs?\nBut you, my brethren, do the poor despise.\nDo not the rich men o'er you tyrannise;\nAnd hale ye to their courts; that worthy name\nBy which you're call'd do not they blaspheme?\nThen if ye do the royal law fulfil,\nTo love thy neighbour as thyself, 'tis well,\nAccording to the scripture; but if ye\nShall have respect to persons, ye shall be\nGuilty of sin, and by the law condemn'd,\nAs such who have its righteousness contemn'd.\nFor he that shall but in one point offend,\nBreaks the whole law, whate'er he may pretend.\nFor he that doth forbid adultery,\nForbids likewise all acts of cruelty.\nNow tho' thou be not an adulterer,\nYet if thou kill, thou shalt thy judgment bear.\nSo speak and do as those men that shall be\nJudg'd by the perfect law of liberty:\nFor he shall judgment without mercy know;\nThat to his neighbour doth no mercy show;\nAnd mercy triumphs against judgment too.\nBrethren what profit is't if a man saith\nThat he hath faith, and hath not works; can faith\nSave him? If any of the brotherhood\nBe destitute of clothes or daily food,\nAnd one of you shall say, Depart in peace,\nBe warned or be ye fill'd ne'ertheless.\nYe do not furnish them with what they need,\nWat boots it? Thus faith without works is dead.\nYea may a man say, thou dost faith profess,\nAnd I good works, to me thy faith express\nWithout thy works, and I will plainly show\nMy faith unto thee by the works I do.\nThou dost believe there is one God, 'tis true,\nThe devils do believe and tremble too.\nBut wilt thou know, vain man, that faith is dead,\nWhich with good works is not accompany'd.\nWas not our father Abraham justify'd\nBy works, and by the same his faith was try'd;\nWhen he his Isaac to the altar brought;\nSeest thou how with his works his faith then wrought?\nAnd with his works he perfected his faith?\nAnd so the scripture was fulfill'd, which saith,\nAbraham believed God, and 'twas imputed\nFor righteousness, and he God's friend reputed.\nThus may you see, that by works ev'ry one\nIs justify'd, and not by faith alone.\nThus was the harlot Rahab justify'd\nBy works, when she the messengers did hide,\nAnd by another way their feet did guide.\nFor as the body's dead without the spirit,\nSo aith without works never can inherit.\n\nCHAP. III.\n\nAffect not, brethren, superiority,\nAs knowing that we shall receive thereby\nThe greater condemnation in the end:\nFor we in many things do all offend.\nWho doth not with his tongue offend, he can\nGuide his whole body, he's a perfect man.\nBehold, in horses' mouths we bridles put,\nTo rule and turn their bodies quite about.\nBehold likewise the ships, which tho' they be\nOf mighty bulk, and thro' the raging sea\nAre driv'n by the strength of winds, yet they\nBy a small helm the pilot's will obey.\nEv'n so the tongue of man, which tho' it be\nBut a small member, in a high degree\nIt boasts of things. Behold, we may remark\nHow great a matter's kindled by a spark.\nThe tongue's a fire, a world of ill, which plac'd\nAmong the members, often has disgrac'd\nAll the whole body, firing the whole frame\nOf nature, and is kindl'd by hell flame.\nAll kind of beasts and birds that can be nam'd,\nSerpents and fishes, are and have been tam'd\nBy mankind; but the tongue can no man tame,\nA stubborn evil full of deadly bane.\nWe therewith God the Father bless, and we\nTherewith curse men made like the Deity:\nBlessing and cursing from the same mouth flow,\nThese things, my brethren, ought not to be so.\nIs any fountain of so strange a nature,\nAt once to send forth sweet and bitter water?\nCan olives, brethren, on a fig-tree grow,\nOr figs on vines? no more can water flow\nFrom the same fountain sweet and bitter too.\nHe that's endu'd with wisdom and discretion\nAmongst you, let that may by the profession\nOf meekness, wisely give a demonstration,\nOf all his works, from a good conversation.\nBut if your hearts are full of bitterness\nAnd strife, boast not, nor do the truth profess.\nThis wisdom is not from above descending,\nBut earthly, sensual, and to evil tending:\nFor where there's strife and envying there's confusion\nAnd ev'ry evil work in the conclusion.\nBut the true wisdom that is from above,\nIs, in the first place, pure, then full of love,\nThen gentle and entreated easily,\nNext merciful, without partiality,\nFull of good fruits, without hypocrisy.\nAnd what is more, the fruits of righteousness\nIs sown in peace, of them that do make peace.\n\nCHAP. IV.\n\nFrom whence come wars and fights, come they not hence,\nEv'n from th' inordinate concupiscence\nThat in your members prompts to variance?\nYou lust and have not, kill and desire to have;\nBut ne'ertheless obtain not what you crave.\nWith war and fighting ye contend, yet have not\nThe things which you desire, because you crave not;\nYe crave but don't receive, the reason's just,\nYe crave amiss to spend it on your lust.\nYou that live in adultery, know not ye\nThe friendship of the world is enmity\nWith God? He is God's enemy therefore\nThat doth the friendship of the world adore.\nDo ye think that th' scripture saith in vain,\nThe spirit that lusts to hate, doth in you reign?\nBut he bestows more grace, wherefore he says,\nGod scorns the proud, but doth the humble raise.\nUnto the Lord therefore submissive be,\nResist the devil and he'll from you flee.\nDraw nigh to God, and he'll to you draw nigh.\nMake clean your hands you sinners, purify\nYour hearts you double-minded, weep and mourn,\nAnd be afflicted, let your laughter turn\nTo sorrow, and your joy to sadness: stoop\nBefore the Lord, and he will lift you up.\nMy brethren, speak not evil of each other;\nHe that doth judge and speak ill of his brother,\nDoth judge and speak ill of the law; therefore\nIf thou dost judge the law, thou art no more\nA doer of the same, but dost assume\nThe judgment-seat, and art thyself become\nA judge thereof. There is but one law-giver,\nThat's able to destroy and to deliver;\nWho then art thou that dost condemn thy neighbour?\nGo to now, you that say, to such a place\nTo-morrow will we go, and for the space\nOf one whole year, or so, will there remain,\nAnd buy and sell, and get great store of gain:\nWhereas ye know not what a day may do.\nFor what's the life of man? Ev'n like unto\nA vapour, which, tho' for a while it may\nAppear, it quickly vanisheth away.\nSo that ye ought to say, If God permit\nUs life and health, we will accomplish it.\nBut now ye glory in your confidence,\nSuch glorying is of evil consequence.\nHe therefore that doth know, and doth not act\nThe thing that's good, doth guilt thereby contract.\n\nCHAP. V.[13]\n\nGo to now, O ye rich men, howl and cry,\nBecause of your approaching misery:\nYour riches are corrupted, and the moths\nHave ent'red, and have eaten up your clothes.\nYour gold and silver's canker'd, and the rust\nThereof, shall be an evidence that's just\nAgainst you, and like fire your flesh devour:\nAgainst the last days ye have heap'd up store.\nThe hire of them that reaped down your field,\nThe which by you is wrongfully withheld.\nCries, and the voice thereof hath reach'd the ears\nEv'n of the God of sabbath, and he hears.\nYour lives in pleasure ye on earth have led,\nAnd as in days of slaughter nourished\nYour wanton hearts, and have condemn'd and slain\nThe just, and he doth not resist again.\nBe patient therefore, brethren, ev'n unto\nThe coming of the Lord: behold, ev'n so\nThe husbandman expecteth patiently\nThe precious increase of the earth to see,\nWith patience waiting till he doth obtain\nThe showers of early and of latter rain.\nSo be ye patient, fixing stedfastly\nYour hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.\nGrieve not each other, brethren, lest ye bear\nThe condemnation;[14] lo! the judge stands near.\nThe prophets, brethren, who all heretofore\nIn the name of the Lord their witness bore,\nTake for examples in their sufferings\nAnd patience: they that endure such things,\nYe know are counted blest. Have ye not read\nOf Job, how patiently he suffered?\nHave ye not seen in him what was God's end;\nHow he doth pity and great love extend?\nMy brethren, but above all things forbear,\nBy heav'n or earth, or otherwise to swear;\nBut let your yea be yea, your nay be nay,\nLest ye become reprovable I say.\nLet him sing psalms that's merry; he that's griev'd,\nLet him by prayer seek to be reliev'd.\nIf any of you by sickness be distress'd,\nLet him the elders of the church request\nThat they would come and pray for him a while;\nAnointing him in the Lord's name with oil;\nSo shall the pray'r that is of faith restore\nThe sick, and God shall raise him as before.\nAnd all th' offences which he hath committed\nShall be forgiv'n, and he shall be acquitted.\nConfess your faults each one unto his brother,\nAnd put up supplications for each other,\nThat so you may be heal'd; the fervency\nOf just men's prayers prevails effectually.\nElias was a man as frail as we are,\nAnd he was earnest with the Lord in pray'r,\nThat there might be no rain, and for the space\nOf three years and six months no rain there was:\nAnd afterward, when he again made suit,\nThe heav'n gave rain, the earth brought forth her fruit.\nIf any one shall from the truth desert,\nAnd one, my brethren, shall that man convert;\nLet him be sure, that he that doth recall\nThe poor backsliding sinner from his fall,\nShall save a soul from death, and certainly\nShall hide a multitude of sins thereby.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Grace Abounding, No. 3.\n\n2. George Herbert, in that admirable poem called 'The Temple,'\nintroduces his reader tot he church porch thus:--\n\n\n'Thou, whose sweet youth and early hopes enhance\nThy rate and price, and mark thee for a treasure;\nHearken unto a verser, who may chance\nRhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure.\nA verse may find him, who a sermon flies,\nAnd turn delight into a sacrifice.'\n\n\n3. 'An husband,' c. i. 12.\n\n4. 'Set abroach,' in a posture to run out, or yield the liquor\ncontained.--Ed.\n\n5. 'An ephah,' a measure containing three pecks and three\npints.--Calmet.\n\n6. Similar to Christian's exclamation, when calling to Faithful\nto stop and bear him company. See Pilgrim's Progress, Part 1st.\n\n7. These lines, and those on the next page, 'The eye's the light\no' th' body,' remind one of Bunyan's style in his Apology for\nthe Pilgrim's Progress,--\n\n'Dost thou love picking meat? Or would'st thou see A man i' th'\nclouds, and hear him speak to thee?'--Ed.\n\n8. A cover, a booth, bower, or hut made of the boughs of trees.--Ed.\n\n9. 'He owes,' a contraction for 'he owneth.'--Ed.\n\n10. The word translated 'divine,' means to eye subtly, to search, to\ntry. Verse 5 may be rendered, 'And he will search deeply for it';\nand in verse 15, 'Know ye not that a man like me would search deeply,'\nalluding to the certainty of detection, but not by divination.--Ed.\n\n11. 'So naught,' so corrupt, bad, or worthless.--Ed.\n\n12. The mourning of Egypt.--Ed.\n\n13. By a typographical error, in the original edition, it is\nmisprinted CHAP. XLVI.\n\n14. How admirably does Bunyan enlarge upon this in his 'Peaceable\nprinciples yet true.'\n\n***\n\nAn Exposition on the FIRST TEN CHAPTERS OF GENESIS, And Part of\nthe Eleventh\n\nAn unfinished commentary on the Bible, found among the author's\npapers after his death, in his own handwriting; and published in\n1691, by Charles Doe, in a folio volume of the works of John Bunyan.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nBeing in company with an enlightened society of Protestant dissenters\nof the Baptist denomination, I observed to a doctor of divinity,\nwho was advancing towards his seventieth year, that my time had\nbeen delightfully engaged with John Bunyan's commentary on Genesis.\n\"What,\" said the D.D., with some appearance of incredulity, \"Bunyan\na commentator--upon Genesis!! Impossible! Well, I never heard of\nthat work of the good Bunyan before. Why, where is it to be found?\"\nYes, it is true that he has commented on that portion of sacred\nscripture, containing the cosmogony of creation--the fall of man--the\nfirst murder--the deluge--and other facts which have puzzled the\nmost learned men of every age; and he has proved to be more learned\nthan all others in his spiritual perceptions. He graduated at a\nhigher university--a university unshackled by human laws, conventional\nfeelings, and preconceived opinions. His intense study of the\nBible, guided by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, enabled him to\nthrow a new and beautiful light upon objects which are otherwise\nobscure. Oh! that young ministers, while attaining valuable\nbook learning, may see the necessity of taking a high degree in,\nand of never forgetting this Bible university! Reader, is it not\nsurprizing, that such a treatise should have remained comparatively\nhidden for more than one hundred and fifty years. It has been\nreprinted in many editions of Bunyan's works: but in all, except\nthe first, with the omission of the scripture references; and with\nerrors of so serious a character as if it was not intended to be\nread. Even in printing the text of Genesis 7:7 Noah's three sons\ndo not enter the ark! although in 8:16 they are commanded to go\nforth out of the ark. It is now presented to the public exactly\nas the author left it, with the addition of notes, which it is\nhoped will illustrate and not encumber the text.\n\nThis exposition is evidently the result of long and earnest study\nof the holy scriptures. It is the history of the creation and of\nthe flood explained and spiritualized, and had it been originally\npublished in that form and under a proper title, it would most probably\nhave become a very popular work. The author's qualifications for\nwriting this commentary were exclusively limited to his knowledge\nof holy writ. To book learning he makes no pretensions. He tells\nus that in his youth \"God put it into my parents hearts to put me\nto school, to learn to read and write as other poor men's children;\nthough, to my shame, I confess, I did soon lose that little I\nlearnt even almost utterly.\" In after life, his time was occupied\nin obtaining a livelihood by labour. When enduring severe mental\nconflicts, and while he maintained his family by the work of\nhis hands, he was an acceptable pastor, and extensively useful\nin itinerant labours of love in the villages round Bedford. His\nhumility, when he had used three common Latin words, prompted him\nto say in the margin, \"The Latine I borrow.\" And this unlettered\nmechanic, when he might have improved himself in book wisdom, was\nshut up within the walls of a prison for nearly thirteen years,\nfor obeying God, only solaced with his Bible and Fox's Book of\nMartyrs. Yet he made discoveries relative to the creation, which\nhave been very recently again published by a learned philosopher,\nwho surprised and puzzled the world with his vestiges of creation.\nOmitting the fanciful theories of the vestige philosopher, his\ntwo great facts, proved by geological discoveries, are--\n\nI. That when the world was created and set in motion, it was upon\nprinciples by which it is impelled on to perfection--a state of\nirresistible progress in improvement. This is the theory of Moses:\nand Bunyan's exposition is, that all was finished, even to the\ncreation of all the souls which were to animate the human race,\nand then God rested from his work.\n\nII. The second geological discovery is that the world was far\nadvanced towards perfection producing all that was needful for\nhuman life, before man was created. Upon this subject, Bunyan's\nwords are--\"God shews his respect to this excellent creature, in\nthat he first provideth for him before he giveth him his being.\nHe bringeth him not to an empty house, but to one well furnished\nwith all kind of necessaries, having beautified the heaven and the\nearth with glory, and all sorts of nourishment for his pleasure\nand sustenance.\" But the most pious penetration is exhibited in\nthe spiritualizing of the creation and of the flood--every step\nproduces some type of that new creation, or regeneration, without\nwhich no soul can be fitted for heaven. The dim twilight before the\nnatural sun was made, is typical of the state of those who believed\nbefore Christ, the Sun of righteousness, arose and was manifested.\nThe fixed stars are emblems of the church, whose members all\nshine, but with different degrees of lustre--sometimes eclipsed,\nand at others mistaken for transient meteors. The whales and lions\nare figures of great persecutors. But the most singular idea of all\nis, that the moral degradation of human nature before the flood,\nwas occasioned by hypocrisy and persecution for conscience sake,\narising from governors interfering with matters of faith and\nworship; in fact, that a STATE CHURCH occasioned the deluge--and\nsince that time has been the fruitful source of the miseries and\nwretchedness that has afflicted mankind. His prediction of the\noutpouring of the Spirit in the conversion of sinners, when the\nchurch shall be no longer enthralled and persecuted by the state,\nis remarkable. \"O thou church of God in England, which art now\nupon the waves of affliction and temptation, when thou comest out\nof the furnace, if thou come out at the bidding of God, there shall\ncome out with thee, the fowl, the beast, and abundance of creeping\nthings. O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned\nthe captivity of my people.\" May this prediction soon be verified,\nand the temporal government no longer vex and torment the church\nby interfering with spiritual things.\n\nIt is remarkable that of the vast number of pious and enlightened\nmechanics who adorn this country and feed its prosperity, so few\nread the extraordinary writings of John Bunyan, a brother mechanic;\nfor with the exception of the Pilgrim's Progress and Holy War,\nthey are comparatively little known. His simple but illustrative\ncommentary--his book of Antichrist--his solemn and striking treatise\non the resurrection and final judgment--in fact, all his works,\nare peculiarly calculated to inform the minds of the millions--to\nreform bad habits, and, under the divine blessing, to purify the\nsoul with that heavenly wisdom which has in it the promise of the\nlife that now is as well as of that which is to come. It is also\na fact which ought to be generally known, that those preachers who\nhave edited Bunyan's works and have drunk into his spirit, have\nbeen most eminently blessed in their ministry; Wilson, Whitefield,\nand Ryland, can never be forgotten. If the thousands of godly\npreachers who are scattered over our comparatively happy island\nwere to take Bunyan's mode of expounding scripture as their\npattern, it would increase their usefulness, and consequently\ntheir happiness, in the great work of proclaiming and enforcing\nthe doctrines of the gospel.\n\nGEO OFFOR.\n\nAN EXPOSITION ON THE FIRST TEN CHAPTERS OF GENESIS, AND PART OF\nTHE ELEVENTH\n\nIn the first edition of this commentary, a series of numbers from\n1 to 294 were placed in the margin, the use of which the editor\ncould not discover; probably the work was written on as many scraps\nof paper, thus numbered to direct the printer. They are omitted,\nlest, among divisions and subdivisions, they should puzzle the\nreader.\n\nCHAPTER II. Of God.\n\nGod is a Spirit (John 4:24), eternal (Deu 33:27), infinite (Rom\n1:17-20), incomprehensible (Job 11:7), perfect, and unspeakably\nglorious in his being, attributes, and works (Gen 17:51; Isa 6:3;\nExo 33:20). \"The eternal God.\" \"Do not I fill heaven and earth?\nsaith the Lord\" (Jer 23:24). \"Neither is there any creature that\nis not manifest in his sight\" (Heb 4:13; Pro 15:11).\n\nIn his attributes of wisdom, power, justice, holiness, mercy, &c.,\nhe is also inconceivably perfect and infinite, not to be comprehended\nby things in earth, or things in heaven; known in the perfection\nof his being only to himself. The seraphims cannot behold him,\nbut through a veil; no man can see him in his perfection and live.\n\nHis attributes, though apart laid down in the word of God, that\nwe, being weak, might the better conceive of his eternal power\nand godhead; yet in him they are without division; one glorious\nand eternal being. Again, though sometimes this, as of wisdom, or\nthat, as of justice and mercy, is most manifest in his works and\nwonders before men; yet every such work is begun and completed by\nthe joint concurrence of all his attributes. No act of justice is\nwithout his will, power, and wisdom; no act of mercy is against\nhis justice, holiness and purity. Besides, no man must conceive\nof God, as if he consisted of these attributes, as our body doth\nof its members, one standing here, another there, for the completing\npersonal subsistence. For though by the word we may distinguish,\nyet may we not divide them, or presume to appoint them their\nplaces in the Godhead. Wisdom is in his justice, holiness is in\nhis power, justice is in his mercy, holiness is in his love, power\nis in his goodness (1 John 1:9, Num 14:17,18).\n\nWherefore, he is in all his attributes almighty, all-wise, holy and\npowerful. Glory is in his wisdom, glory is in his holiness, glory\nis in his mercy, justice, and strength; and \"God is love\" (1 John\n4:16).[1]\n\nII. Of the Persons or Subsistances in the Godhead.\n\nThe Godhead is but one, yet in the Godhead there are three. \"There\nare three that can bear record in heaven\" (1 John 5:7-9). These\nthree are called \"the Father, the Son [Word], and the Holy Spirit\";\neach of which is really, naturally and eternally God: yet there\nis but one God. But again, because the Father is of himself, the\nSon by the Father, and the Spirit from them both, therefore to\neach, the scripture not only applieth, and that truly, the whole\nnature of the Deity, but again distinguisheth the Father from\nthe Son, and the Spirit from them both; calling the Father HE, by\nhimself; the Son HE, by himself; the Spirit HE, by himself. Yea,\nthe Three of themselves, in their manifesting to the church what\nshe should believe concerning this matter, hath thus expressed\nthe thing: \"Let us make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness\" (Gen\n1:26). Again, \"The man is become as one of US\" (Gen 3:22). Again,\n\"Let US go down, and there confound their language\" (Gen 11:6,7).\nAnd again, \"Whom shall I send, and who will go for US?\" (Isa 6:8).\nTo these general expressions might be added, That Adam heard the\nvoice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden: Genesis\n3:8. Which voice John will have, to be one of the Three, calling\nthat which Moses here saith is the voice, the word of God: \"In the\nbeginning,\" saith he, \"was the word\": the voice which Adam heard\nwalking in the midst of the garden. This word, saith John, \"was\nwith God,\" this \"word was God. The same was in the beginning with\nGod\" (John 1:1,2). Marvellous language! Once asserting the unity\nof essence, but twice insinuating a distinction of substances\ntherein. \"The word was with God, the word was God, the same was\nin the beginning with God.\" Then follows, \"All things were made\nby him,\" the word, the second of the three.\n\nNow the godly in former ages have called these three, thus in the\nGodhead, Persons or Subsistances; the which, though I condemn not,\nyet choose rather to abide by scripture phrase, knowing, though\nthe other may be good and sound, yet the adversary must needs more\nshamelessly spurn and reject, when he doth it against the evident\ntext.\n\nTo proceed the, First, There are Three. Second, These three are\ndistinct.\n\nFirst, By this word Three, is intimated the Father, the Word, and\nthe Holy Ghost, and they are said to be three, 1. Because those\nappellations that are given them in scripture, demonstrate them so\nto be, to wit, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 2. Because their acts\none towards another discover them so to be.\n\nSecondly, These three are distinct. 1. So distinct as to be more\nthan one, only: There are three. 2. So distinct as to subsist\nwithout depending. The Father is true God, the Son is true God,\nthe Spirit is true God. Yet the Father is one, the Son is one,\nthe Spirit is one: The Father is one of himself, the Son is one\nby the Father, the Spirit is one from them both. Yet the Father is\nnot above the Son, nor the Spirit inferior to either: The Father\nis God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God.\n\nAmong the three then there is not superiority. 1. Not as to time;\nthe Father is from everlasting, so is the Son, so is the Spirit.\n2. Not as to nature, the Son being of the substance of the Father,\nand the Spirit of the substance of them both. 3. The fulness of\nthe Godhead is in the Father, is in the Son, and is in the Holy\nGhost.\n\nThe Godhead then, though it can admit of a Trinity, yet it admitteth\nnot of inferiority in that Trinity: if otherwise, then less or more\nmust be there, and so either plurality of gods, or something that\nis not God: so then, Father, Son and Spirit are in the Godhead,\nyet but one God; each of these is God over all, yet no Trinity of\nGods, but one God in the Trinity.\n\nExplication.--The Godhead then is common to the three, but the\nthree themselves abide distinct in that Godhead: Distinct, I say,\nas Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. This is manifest further by\nthese several positions.\n\nFirst, Father and Son are relatives, and must needs therefore have\ntheir relation as such: A Father begetteth, a Son is begotten.\n\nProof.--\"Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who\nhath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in\na garment? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou\ncanst tell?\" (Pro 30:4).\n\n\"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,\" &c.\n(John 3:16).\n\n\"The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world\" (1 John\n4:14).\n\nSecondly, The Father then cannot be that Son he begat, nor the Son\nthat Father that begat him, but must be distinct as such.\n\nProof.--\"I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that\nsent me beareth witness of me\" (John 8:17,18).\n\n\"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world\"; again,\n\"I leave the world, and go to the Father\" (John 16:28).\n\n\"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto\nthe Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour\nthe Father\" (John 5:22,23).\n\nThirdly, The Father must have worship as a Father, and the Son as\na Son.\n\nProof.--They that worship the Father must worship him \"in spirit\nand in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him\" (John\n4:23,24).\n\nAnd of the Son he saith, and \"when he bringeth in the first begotten\ninto the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship\nhim\" (Heb 1:6).\n\nFourthly, The Father and Son have really these distinct, but\nheavenly, relative properties, that discover them, as such, to be\ntwo as well as one.\n\nProof.--\"The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things\"\n(John 5:20).\n\n\"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,\nthat I might take it again\" (John 10:17). The Father sent the Son;\nthe Father commanded the Son; the Son prayed to the Father, and\ndid always the things that pleased him.\n\nThe absurdities that flow from the denial of this are divers, some\nof which hereunder follow.\n\n1. Absurdity.--It maketh void all those scriptures that do affirm\nthe doctrine; some of which you have before.\n\n2. Absurdity.--If in the Godhead there be but one, not three, then\nthe Father, Son, or the Spirit, must needs be that one, if any one\nonly: so then the other two are nothing. Again, If the reality of\na being be neither in the Father, Son, nor Spirit, as such, but\nin the eternal deity, without consideration of Father, Son, and\nSpirit as three; then neither of the three are anything but notions\nin us, or manifestations of the Godhead; or nominal distinctions;\nso related by the word; but if so, then when the Father sent the\nSon, and the Father and Son the Spirit, one notion sent another,\none manifestation sent another. This being granted, this unavoidably\nfollows, there was no Father to beget a Son, no Son to be sent to\nsave us, no Holy Ghost to be sent to comfort us, and to guide us\ninto all the truth of the Father and Son, &c. The most amounts but\nto this, a notion sent a notion, a distinction sent a distinction,\nor one manifestation sent another. Of this error these are the\nconsequences, we are only to believe in notions and distinctions,\nwhen we believe in the Father and the Son; and so shall have no\nother heaven and glory, than notions and nominal distinctions can\nfurnish us withal.\n\n3. Absurdity.--If Father and Son, &c., be no otherwise three, than\nas notions, names, or nominal distinctions; then to worship these\ndistinctly, or together, as such, is to commit most gross and\nhorrible idolatry: For albeit we are commanded to fear that great\nand dreadful name, The Lord our God; yet to worship a Father, a\nSon, and Holy Spirit in the Godhead, as three, as really three as\none, is by this doctrine to imagine falsely of God, and so to break\nthe second commandment: but to worship God under the consideration\nof Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, and to believe them as really\nthree as one when I worship, being the sum and substance of the\ndoctrine of the scriptures of God, there is really substantially\nthree in the eternal Godhead.\n\nBut to help thee a little in thy study on this deep.\n\n1. Thou must take heed when thou readest, there is in the Godhead,\nFather, and Son, &c., that thou do not imagine about them according\nto thine own carnal and foolish fancy; for no man can apprehend\nthis doctrine but in the light of the word and Spirit of God. \"No\nman knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the\nFather, save the Son; and he to whom the Son will reveal him\" (Matt\n11:27). If therefore thou be destitute of the Spirit of God, thou\ncanst not apprehend the truth of this mystery as it is in itself,\nbut will either by thy darkness be driven to a denial thereof; or\nif thou own it, thou wilt (that thy acknowledgment notwithstanding)\nfalsely imagine about it.\n\n2. If thou feel thy thoughts begin to wrestle about this truth,\nand to struggle concerning this one against another; take heed\nof admitting of such a question, How can this thing be? For here\nis no room for reason to make it out, here is only room to believe\nit is a truth. You find not one of the prophets propounding an\nargument to prove it; but asserting it, they let it lie, for faith\nto take it up and embrace it.\n\n\"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the\ncommunion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen\" (2 Cor 13:14).\n\nIII. Of the Creation of the World (Gen 1).\n\nThe Apostle saith, That \"to us there is but one God, the Father,\nof whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ,\nby whom are all things, and we by him\" (1 Cor 8:6). \"God that\nmade the world\" (Acts 17:24). \"All things were made by him; and\nwithout him was not any thing made that was made\" (John 1:3). This\nworld therefore had a beginning, and was created by the God of\nheaven. Which work, because it is wonderful, and discovereth much\nof the greatness, of the wisdom and power of the eternal Godhead,\nit behoveth such poor mortals as we to behold these works of the\nmighty God, that thereby we may see how great he is, and be made\nto cry out, What is man! [2] (Psa 8:3,4)\n\nNow in the creation of the world we may consider several things;\nas, What was the order of God in this work? And, whether there\nwas a secret or mystery in this work containing the truth of some\nhigher thing? For the first of these:\n\nOf the Order of God in Making the World.\n\n[THE HEAVEN.]\n\nAlthough God be indeed omnipotent, and not only can, but doth\ndo whatsoever he will; and though to do his works he needeth not\nlength of time; yet it pleased him best, in the creation of the\nworld (though it could, had it pleased him, have done all by one\nonly word) to proceed by degrees from one thing to another, to\nthe completing of six days' work in the making thereof.\n\nAnd forasmuch as this work went on by degrees, now this thing,\nand then another, it may not be amiss, if in our discourse on\nthis wonderful work, we begin where God began; and if we can, go\nwondering after him who hath thus wrought.\n\n1. The first thing that God made was time; I say, it was time: All\nthe plain in which he would build this beautiful world; he made\nnothing before, but in the beginning: \"In the beginning God created\nthe heaven and the earth\" (Gen 1:1). In the beginning of time.\n\"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all\nthat in them is\" (Exo 20:11). Therefore the first day must first\nhave a beginning to be. Whatsoever was before time, was eternal;\nbut nothing but God himself is eternal, therefore no creature was\nbefore time. Time, therefore, which was indeed the beginning, was\nthe first of the creatures of God.\n\n2. I think, the second of creatures that the Lord created, were\nthe holy angels of God, they being called the morning stars, as\ncreated and shining in the morning of the world; and therefore\nthey are said to be by, when the corner-stone of the universe was\nlaid; that is, when he \"laid the foundations\" of the world: Then\n\"the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted\nfor joy\" (Job 5:4-7).\n\n3. I think the third thing that the Lord created, was these large\nand copious heavens; for they are mentioned with respect to their\nbeing before the earth, or any visible creature. \"In the beginning\nGod created the heavens\" (Gen 1:1), &c. Neither do I think that\nthe heavens were made of that confused chaos that afterwards we\nread of. It is said, he stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and\nwith his hand he hath spanned the heavens (Psa 104:2; Isa 40:22;\n48:13).; intimating, that they were not taken out of that formless\nheap, but were immediately formed by his power. Besides, the\nHoly Ghost, treating of the creating of heaven and earth, he only\nsaith, The earth was void, and without form; but no such thing of\nthe heavens.\n\n[THE EARTH.]\n\n4. The fourth thing that God created, it was (in mine opinion) that\nchaos, or first matter, with which he in the six days framed this\nearth, with its appurtenances; for the visible things that are\nhere below, seem to me to be otherwise put into being and order,\nthan time, the angels, and the heavens, they being created in\ntheir own simple essence by themselves: But the things that are\nvisibly here below, whatever their essence and nature be, they\nwere formed of that first deformed chaos. \"In the beginning God\ncreated the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form\nand void\" (Gen 1:1,2). He saith not so of the heavens; they, as\nI said, were at first stretched forth as a curtain; indeed they\nwere afterwards garnished with the beauty which we now behold;\nbut otherwise they had, at their first instant of being, that form\nwhich now they have. This seems clear by the antithesis which the\nHoly Ghost put between them, God created the heaven and the earth,\nbut \"the earth was without form and void\" (Gen 1:2). The earth\nwas without form, &c., without order; things were together on a\nconfused heap; the waters were not divided from the earth, neither\ndid those things appear which are now upon the face of the earth;\nas man, and beast, fish, fowls, trees, and herbs; all these did\nafterwards shew themselves, as the word of God gave them being, by\ncommanding their appearance, in what form, order, place and time\nhe in himself had before determined; but all, I say, took their\nmatter and substance of that first chaos, which he in the first\nday of the world had commanded to appear, and had given being\nto: And therefore 'tis said, God said, Let the earth bring forth\ngrass, herbs, trees, &c., (v 12) and that the waters brought forth\nthe fish, and fowl, yea, even to the mighty whales (vv 21,22).\nAlso the earth brought forth cattle, and creeping things (v 24).\nAnd that God made man of the dust of the ground (3:19). All these\nthings therefore were made of, or caused by his word distinctly\nto appear, and be after its kind, of that first matter which he\nhad before created by his word. Observe therefore, That the matter\nof all earthly things was made at the same instant, but their\nforming, &c., was according to the day in which God gave them\ntheir being, in their own order and kind. And hence it is said,\nthat after that first matter was created, and found without form\nand void, that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;\nthat is to work, and cause those things to appear in their own\nessence and form, which, as to matter and substance, was before\ncreated: Wherefore it follows, And God said, Let there be light;\nand God divided the light from the darkness, &c. Now he set to\nputting in frame that which before lay in disorder and confusion:\nAnd this was a great part of the six days' work; I say, a great\npart, but not all; for (as I said) before that time, the angels,\nand the heavens were made; yea, after the beginning of the morning\nof the first day. I am of the belief, that other things also, that\nwere formed after, were not made of that first chaos, as the sun,\nthe moon, the stars, the light, the souls of men, and possibly\nthe air, &c. The sun, and moon, and stars, are said to be made\nthe fourth day, yet not of the body of heaven itself, much less,\nin my opinion, of any earthly matter: God made them, and set them\nin the firmament of heaven (vv 16,17). So the light that was made\nbefore, it seems to be a thing created after the heavens and the\nearth were created: Created, I say, as a thing that wanted a being\nbefore, any otherwise, than in the decree of God: and God said,\nLet there be light; Let it have a being (v 3). And so, though\nthe body of man was made of the substance of earth, yet as to his\nsoul, it is said, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of\nlife, and man became a living soul (2:7).\n\nWhether there was a secret or mystery in this work, containing the\ntruth of some higher thing.\n\nThough God in very deed, by his eternal power, created heaven and\nearth of things that do not appear, we that are Christians believe:\nyet in this his wonderful work, neither his will or understanding\ndid here terminate, or make a stop; but being infinite in wisdom,\nhe made them, that both as to matter and manner, they might present\nunto us, as in a mystery, some higher and more excellent thing;\nin this wisdom he made them all. And hence it is that other things\nare also called a creation: As, 1. The essential conversion of a\nsinner (2 Cor 5:17). 2. The recovery of the church from a degenerate\nstate (Rev 21:5).\n\nAnd therefore, as Moses begins with the creation of the world, so\nJohn begins with the gospel of salvation (Gen 1:1; John 1:1). There\nis also besides many excellent things in the manner and order of the\ncreation of the world, held forth to those that have understanding:\nSome of which I may touch upon by way of observation. But to begin\nwith the first:\n\nThe first appearance of this earthy part of the world, is recorded\nto be but a formless and void heap or chaos; and such is man before\na new creation: formless, I mean, as to the order of the Testament\nof Christ, and void of the holy order thereof: And hence Jeremiah,\nwhen he would set forth the condition of a wicked people, he doth\nit under this metaphor: \"I beheld [saith he] the earth, and, lo,\nit was without form and void\" (Jer 4:23). Indeed, the world would\nmake this a type of Christ; to wit, a man of no form or comeliness\n(Isa 53:2). But 'tis only true of themselves; they are without a\nNew Testament impression upon them; they are void of the sovereign\ngrace of God. So then the power of God gave the world a being, but\nby his word he set it in form and beauty; even as by his power he\ngives a being to man, but by his word he giveth him New Testament\nframing and glory (Eph 2:10-13). This is still followed by that\nwhich follows:\n\nAnd darkness was upon the face of the deep (v 2).\n\nThe Deep here, might be a type of the heart of man before conversion;\nand so Solomon seems to intimate. Now as the darkness of this world\ndid cover the face of this first chaos; so spiritual darkness the\nheart of the sons of men: and hence they are said to be darkened,\nto be in darkness, yea, to be very darkness itself.\n\n\"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.\"\n\nA blessed emblem of the word of God in the matter of regeneration;\nfor as the first chaos remained without form, and void, until the\nSpirit of God moved to work upon it, and by working, to put this\nworld into frame and order; so man, as he comes into the world,\nabides a confused lump, an unclean thing; a creature without New\nTestament order, until by the Spirit of the Lord he is transformed\ninto the image of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:15).\n\n\"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face.\"\n\nSolomon compares the heart to a man's face; because as in the face\nmay be discerned whether there is anger or otherwise; so by the\ninclinations of the heart are discovered the truth of the condition of\nthe man, as to his state either for heaven or hell. And besides,\nas the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; so in\nthe work of our conversion, the Spirit of God beginneth with the\nheart of the sons of men; because the heart is the main fort (Acts\n2:37). Now if the main fort be not taken, the adversary is still\ncapable of making continual resistance. Therefore God first\nconquers the heart; therefore the Spirit of God moveth upon the\nface of our heart, when he cometh to convert us from Satan to God.\n\n\"And God said, Let there be light.\"\n\nThis is the first thing with which God began the order of the\ncreation; to wit, light, \"Let there be light\": From which many\nprofitable notes may be gathered, as to the order of God in the\nsalvation of the soul. As,\n\n1. When the Holy Ghost worketh upon us, and in us, in order to\na new creation; he first toucheth our understanding, that great\npeace of the heart, with his spiritual illumination (Matt 4:16).\nHis first word, in order to our conversion, is, Let there be light:\nlight, to see their state by nature; light, to see the fruits and\neffects of sin; light, to see the truth and worth of the merits\nof Jesus Christ; light, to see the truth and faithfulness of God,\nin keeping promise and covenant with them that embrace salvation\nupon the blessed terms of the gospel of peace (Heb 10:32). Now\nthat this word, Let there be light, was a semblance of the first\nwork of the Holy Ghost upon the heart, compare it with that\nof Paul to the Corinthians; \"For God, who commanded the light to\nshine out of darkness,\" that is, at the beginning of the world,\n\"hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of\nthe glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ\" (2 Cor 4:6).\n\n2. \"And God said, Let there be light.\" As here, the light of this\nworld; so in conversion, the light of the New Testament of Christ,\nit comes by the word of God. No word, no light: therefore the\napostle saith, He \"hath brought life and immortality to light\nthrough the gospel\" (2 Tim 1:10). And therefore Paul saith again,\nThat salvation is manifest through preaching, through the expounding\nor opening of the word of faith.\n\n3. \"And God said, Let there be light; and there was light\": He\nspake the word, and it was done; all that darkness that before\ndid cover the face of the deep, could not now hinder the being of\nlight. So neither can all the blindness and ignorance that is in\nthe heart of man, hinder the light of the knowledge of the glory\nof God in the face of Jesus Christ (Rev 3:7). When it pleaseth\nGod to reveal, it is revealed; when he openeth, none can shut: He\nsaid, Let there be light, and there was light.\n\nAnd God saw that the light was good. Truly the light is good (saith\nSolomon) and a pleasant thing it is for the eye to behold the sun.\nIt was good, because it was God's creature; and so in the work of\ngrace that is wrought in our hearts, that light of the new covenant,\nit is good, because it is God's work, the work of his good pleasure\n(2 Thess 1:11); that good work which he hath not only begun, but\npromised to fulfil until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6).\n\nGod saw that the light was good. The darkness that before did cover\nthe face of the waters, was not a creature of God, but a privation,\nor that which was caused by reason that light was not as yet in\nthe world: so sin, that darkness that might be felt, is not the\nworkmanship of God in the soul, but that which is the work of the\ndevil; and that taketh occasion to be, by reason that the true\nlight, as yet, doth not shine in the soul.\n\n\"And God divided the light from the darkness.\" As Paul saith, What\ncommunion hath light with darkness? they cannot agree to dwell\ntogether (2 Cor 6:14). We see the night still flies before the day,\nand dareth not come upon us again, but as the light diminisheth\nand conveyeth itself away. So it is in the new creation; before\nthe light of the glorious gospel of Christ appears, there is night,\nall night, in the soul (Eph 5:8): but when that indeed doth shine\nin the soul, then for night there is day in the soul: \"Ye were\ndarkness [saith Paul] but now are ye light in the Lord\" (v 9): And,\n\"The darkness is past [saith John] and the true light now shineth\"\n(1 John 2:8).\n\n\"And God divided the light from the darkness.\"\n\nGod took part with the light, and preserved it from the darkness.\nBy these words, it seems that darkness and light began the quarrel,\nbefore that bloody bout of Cain and Abel (Gal 5:17). The light and\nthe darkness struggled together, and nothing could divide or part\nthem but God. Darkness is at implacable enmity with light in the\ncreation of the world; and so it is in that rare work of regeneration,\nthe flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the\nflesh; as Peter saith, Fleshly lusts, they war against the soul.\nThis every Christian feels, and also that which I mentioned before,\nnamely, That before he be capable of opposing antichrist, with\nAbel, in the world, he findeth a struggling in his own soul between\nthe light and the darkness that is there.\n\n\"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.\"\n\nGod doth not only distinguish by separating, but also by certain\ncharacters; that things which are distinguished and separate, may\nto us be the better known; he did so here in the work of creating\nthe world, and he doth so also in the great concern of man's\neternal happiness. The place of felicity is called heaven: The\nplace of torment is called hell: that which leads to hell is called\nsin, transgression, iniquity, and wickedness; that which leads to\nheaven, righteousness, holiness, goodness and uprightness: even as\nin these types God called the light day, of which the godly are\nthe children (1 Thess 5:5); but the darkness he called night, of\nwhich all ungodly men are the inhabiters and children also. Thus\nafter the Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the waters;\nafter God had commanded the light to shine, and had divided between\nthe light and the darkness, and had characterized them by their\nproper names, he concludes the first day's work, \"And the evening\nand the morning were the first day.\" In which conclusion there is\nwrapped up a blessed gospel-mystery; for God, by concluding the\nfirst day here, doth shew us how we ought to determine that one\nis made indeed a Christian: Even then when the Spirit of God hath\nmoved upon the face of the heart, when he hath commanded that light\nshould be there, when he divideth between, or setteth the light\nat variance with the darkness; and when the soul doth receive the\ncharacters of both, to observe them, and carry it to each according\nto the mouth of God.\n\n\"And God saith, Let there be a firmament\" (v 6).\n\nThis firmament he calleth heaven (v 8). Now this firmament, or\nheaven, was to make a separation, or to divide between the waters\nand the waters (v 7); To separate, I say, the waters from the\nwaters; the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters\nwhich were above the firmament. Now by waters is signified in\nthe scriptures many things, as afflictions, worldly people (Psa\n69:1,2), and particularly the saints (Rev 19:6); but in this place\nis figured forth, all the people in the world, but so as consisting\nof two parts, the children of God, and the children of the wicked\none: They under the heaven, figure out the world, or ungodly:\nthey above the firmament, the elect and chosen of God. And hence\nin scripture the one is called heaven, and the other is called\nearth, to signify the separation and difference that there is\nbetween the one and the other.\n\n\"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters--from the\nwaters.\"\n\nIndeed the world think that this separation comes, or is made,\nthrough the captiousness of the preacher: But in truth it is the\nhandy work of God; And God made the firmament, and God divided,\n&c. \"I,\" saith he, \"will put enmity between thee and the woman,\nand between thy seed and her seed\" (Gen 3:15). The good seed are\nthe children of the kingdom of God, but the bad are the children\nof the wicked one (Matt 13:38).\n\n\"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under\nthe firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament:\nand it was so\" (v 7).\n\nWhatsoever the Lord doth, it abideth for ever (Eccl 3:14). And again,\nWhat he hath made crooked, who can make straight? (Eccl 1:15). He\nsaid it in the beginning, and behold how it hath continued! Yea,\nthough there hath been endeavours on Satan's part, to mingle his\nchildren with the seed of men; yet it hath not been possible they\nshould ever cleave one to another, \"even as iron is not mixed\nwith clay\" (Dan 2:43). Yea, let me add further, What laws have\nbeen made, what blood hath been shed, what cruelty hath been used,\nand what flatteries and lies invented, and all to make these two\nwaters and people one? And yet all hath failed, and fallen short\nof producing the desired effect; for the Lord hath made a firmament,\neven heaven itself hath divided between them.\n\n\"And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the\nmorning were the second day\" (v 8).\n\nAfter the waters were divided from the waters, God called the cause\nof dividing, heaven; and so concluded the second day's work. And\nindeed it was a very great work, as in the antitype we feel it to\nthis very day. Dividing work is difficult work, and he that can,\naccording to God, completely end and finish it, he need do no more\nthat day of his life.\n\n\"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together\nunto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so\" (v\n9).\n\nAlthough in the second day's work, the waters above the firmament,\nand those that be under, are the two peoples, or great families\nof the world (Pro 8:31); yet because God would shew us by things\non earth, the flourishing state of those that are his (Hosea 10:12;\nJoel 2:21-23; Psa 91:1; Heb 6:7), therefore he here doth express\nhis mind by another kind of representation of things (Jer 4:3,4):\n\"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together\nunto one place; and let the dry land appear.\" The waters here\nsignifying the world; but the fruitful earth, the thrifty church\nof God. That the fruitful earth is a figure of the thriving church\nof God in this world, is evident from many scriptures, (and there\nwas nothing but thriftiness till the curse came). And hence it is\nsaid of the church, That she should break the clods of the ground;\nthat she should sow righteousness, and reap it; that she should not\nsow among thorns; that if this be done, the heart is circumcised,\nand spiritual fruit shall flow forth, and grow abundantly: And\nhence again it is that the officers and eminent ones in the church,\nare called vines, trees, and other fruitful plants. And hence it\nis said again, When the Lord reigneth, let the earth (that is,\nthe church) rejoice. That earth which bringeth forth fruit meet\nfor him by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. In\nall which places, and many more that might be named, the earth is\nmade a figure of the church of God; and so I count it here in this\nplace.\n\n\"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into\none place.\"\n\nLet them be together: It is not thus of all waters, but of the sea,\nwhich is still here a type of the world. Let them be so together,\nthat the earth may appear; that the church may be rid of their\nrage and tumult, and then she will be fruitful, as it follows in\nthis first book of Genesis. The church is then in a flourishing\nstate, when the world is farthest off from her, and when the\nroaring of their waves are far away. Now therefore let all the\nwicked men be far from thence (Ezra 6:6): The Lord gather these\nwaters, which in another place are called the doleful creatures,\nand birds of prey; Let these, O Lord, be gathered together to\ntheir own places, and be settled in the land of Shinar upon their\nown base (Zech 5:11): Then the wilderness and the solitary places\nshall be glad for them; that is, for that they are departed thence,\nthe desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose (Isa 34 and 35).\n\n\"And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of\nthe waters called he seas: and God saw that it was good\" (v 10).\n\nGod saw, that to separate the waters from the earth was good: And\nso it is, for then have the churches rest. Then doth this earth\nbring forth her fruit, as in the 11th and 12th verses may here be\nseen.\n\n\"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven\"\n(v 14).\n\nThe wisdom of God, is there to make use of figures and shadows,\neven where most fit things, the things under consideration, may be\nmost fitly demonstrated. The dividing the waters from the waters,\nmost fitly doth show the work of God in choosing and refusing; by\ndividing the waters from the earth, doth show how fruitful God's\nearth, the church is, when persecutors are made to be far from\nthence.\n\nWherefore he speaketh not of garnishing of his church until he\ncomes to this fourth day's work: by his Spirit he hath garnished\nthe heavens, that most fitly showing the glory of the church.\n\nLet there be lights; to wit, the sun, the moon, and the stars.\n\nThe sun is in this place a type of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness:\nThe moon is a type of the church, in her uncertain condition in\nthis world: The stars are types of the several saints and officers\nin this church. And hence it is that the sun is said not only to\nrule, but it, with the moon and stars, to be set for signs, and\nfor seasons, and for days, and for years, &c. (Rev 1:20). But if\nwe take the heaven for the church, then how is she beautified,\nwhen the Son of God is placed in the midst of her! (Rev 1:12,13).\nAnd how plainly is her condition made out, even by the changing,\nincreasing, and diminishing of the moon! And how excellent is that\ncongregation of men, that for light and glory are figured by the\nstars! (Matt 28:20).\n\nFrom this day's work much might be observed.\n\nFirst, That forasmuch as the sun was not made before the fourth\nday, it is evident there was light in the world before the sun was\ncreated; for in the first day God said, Let there be light, and\nthere was light. This may also teach us thus much, That before\nChrist came in person, there was spiritual light in the saints\nof God. And again, That as the sun was not made before the fourth\nday of the creation, so Christ should not be born before the\nfourth mystical day of the world; for it is evident, that Christ,\nthe true light of the world, was not born till about four thousand\nyears after the world was made. Second, As to the moon, there are\nfour things attending her, which fitly may hold forth the state\nof the church. (1.) In that she changeth from an old to a new, we\nmay conceive, that God by making her so, did it to show he would\none day make a change of his church, from a Jewish to a Gentile\ncongregation. (2.) In that she increaseth, she showeth the\nflourishing state of the church. (3.) In her diminishing, the\ndiminishing state of the church. (4.) The moon is also sometimes\nmade to look as red as blood, to show how dreadful and bloody the\nsuffering of the church is at some certain times.\n\nThird, By the stars, we understand two things. (1.) How innumerable\nthe saints, those spiritual stars shall be (Heb 11:12). (2.) How\nthey shall differ each from other in glory (1 Cor 15:41).\n\n\"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven,\nto divide the day from the night.\"\n\nFor though before the light was divided from the darkness, yet the\nday and night was not so kept within their bounds, as now by these\nlights they were: probably signifying, that nothing should be so\nclearly distinguished and made appear, as by the sun light of the\ngospel of Christ: for by that it is that \"the shadows flee away\"\n(Song 2:17). The light of the sun gathers the day to its hours, both\nlonger and shorter, and forceth also the night to keep within his\nbounds.\n\n\"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day,\nand the lesser light to rule the night\" (v 16).\n\nSignifying, That Christ should be the light and governor of his\nchurch, which are the children of the day; but the church, a light\nto the children of the night, that by them they might learn the\nmysteries of the kingdom. Saith Christ to his own, \"Ye are the light\nof the world\": And again, \"Let your light so shine,--that men may\nsee,\" &c., for though they that only walk in the night, cannot see\nto walk by the sun, yet by the moon they may. Thus the heaven is\na type of the church, the moon a type of her uncertain state in\nthis world; the stars are types of her immovable converts; and\ntheir glory, of the differing degrees of theirs, both here, and\nin the other world. Much more might be said, but I pass this.\n\n\"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving\ncreature that hath life\" (v 20).\n\nThe sea, as I said, is a figure of the world; wherefore the creatures\nthat are in it, of the men of the world (Zech 13:8; Isa 60:5). This\nsea bringeth forth small and great beasts, even as the world doth\nyield both small and great persecutors, who like the fishes of prey,\neat up and devour what they can of those fish that are of another\ncondition. Now also out of the world that mystical sea, as fishers\ndo out of the natural; both Christ and his servants catch mystical\nfish, even fish as of the great sea.\n\nIn the sea God created great whales, he made them to play therein.\n\nWhich whales in the sea are types of the devils in the world:\nTherefore as the devil is called, the prince of this world; so the\nwhale is called, king over all the children of pride (Job 41:33,34).\n\n\"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after\nhis kind\" (v 24).\n\nOf the beginning of this sixth day's work that may be said which\nis said of the fishes, and the rest of the sea; for as there is\nvariety of fish in the one, so of beasts and cattle in the other,\nwho also make a prey of their fellows, as the fishes do; a most apt\nrepresentation of the nature and actions of bloody and deceitful\nmen: Hence persecutors are called bulls, bears, lions, wolves,\ntigers, dragons, dogs, foxes, leopards, and the like.[3]\n\n\"And God said, Let us make man\" (v 26).\n\nI observe, that in the creation of the world, God goeth gradually\non, from things less, to things more abundantly glorious; I mean,\nas to the creation of this earth; and the things that thereto\nappertain. First he bringeth forth a confused chaos, then he\ncommands matter to appear distinct, then the earth bringeth forth\ntrees, and herbs, and grass; after that beasts; and the sea, fowls;\nand last of all, Let us make man. Now passing by the doctrine\nof the trinity, because spoken to before, I come to make some\nobservation upon this wonderful piece of the workmanship of God.\n\n\"Let us make man.\" Man in whom is also included the woman, was\nmade the last of the creatures. From whence we may gather,\n\nGod's respect to this excellent creature, in that he first provideth\nfor him, before he giveth him his being: He bringeth him not to an\nempty house, but to one well furnished with all kind of necessaries,\nhaving beautified the heaven and the earth with glory, and all\nsorts of nourishment, for his pleasure and sustenance.[4]\n\n\"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.\"\n\nAn image, or the likeness of any thing, is not the thing of which\nit is a figure; so here, Adam is an image, or made in the likeness\nof God. Now as Adam is the image of God, it must either respect\nhim, as he consisteth of the soul, as a part; or as he consists\nof a body and soul together: If as he is made a reasonable soul,\nthen he is an excellent image of the eternal Godhead, the attributes\nof the one being shadowed out by the qualities and passions of\nthe other; for as there is in the Godhead, power, knowledge, love,\nand righteousness; so a likeness of these is in the soul of man,\nespecially of man before he had sinned: And as there is passions\nof pity, compassion, affections, and bowels in man; so there are\nthese in a far more infinite way in God.\n\nAgain, If this image respect the whole man, then Adam was a figure\nof God, as incarnate; or of God, as he was to be made afterwards\nman. And hence it is, that as Adam is called the image of God\n(Rom 5:14); so also is Christ himself called and reckoned as the\nanswering antitype of such an image.\n\nBut again, Though Adam be here called the image or similitude\nof God; yet but so as that he was the shadow of a more excellent\nimage. Adam was a type of Christ, who only is \"the express image\"\nof his Father's person, and the likeness of his excellent glory\n(Heb 1:3). For those things that were in Adam, were but of a humane,\nbut of a created substance; but those that were in Christ, of the\nsame divine and eternal excellency with the Father.\n\nIs Christ then the image of the Father, simply, as considered of\nthe same divine and eternal excellency with him? Certainly, No:\nfor an image is doubtless inferior to that of which it is a figure.\nUnderstand then, that Christ is the image of the Father's glory,\nas born of the Virgin Mary, yet so, as being very God also: Not\nthat his Godhead in itself was a shadow or image, but by the acts\nand doing of that man, every act being infinitely perfect by virtue\nof his Godhead, the Father's perfections were made manifest to\nflesh. An image is to be looked upon, and by being looked upon,\nanother thing is seen; so by the person and doings of the Lord\nJesus, they that indeed could see him as he was, discovered the\nperfection and glory of the Father.--\"Philip, He that hath seen\nme hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the\nFather?\" (John 14:9). Neither the Father nor the Son can by us at\nall be seen, as they are simply and entirely in their own essence.\nTherefore the person of the Father must be seen by us, through\nthe Son, as consisting of God and man; the Godhead, by working\neffectually in the manhood, shewing clearly there through the\ninfinite perfection and glory of the Father: \"The word was made\nflesh, and--[then] we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only\nbegotten of the Father, [He being in his personal excellencies,\ninfinitely and perfectly, what is recorded of his Father,] full\nof grace and truth\" (John 1:14). So again, he \"is the image of\nthe invisible God\" (Col 1:15). The Godhead is indeed invisible;\nhow then is Christ the image of it? Not by being invisible also;\nfor so is he as much hid as the Father; but being clothed with\nflesh, that the works of the Son might by us be seen, he thereby\npresenteth to us, as in a figure, the eternal excellency of the\nFather. And hence as he is called \"an image,\" he is also called\n\"the first-born\" of every creature (Col 1:18). His being a creature,\nrespecting his manhood, and his birth, and his rising again from\nthe dead. Therefore a little after, he is called, \"the first-born\nfrom the dead\" (v 19): And in another place, \"the first-begotten\nof the dead\" (Rev 1:5): And \"the first-fruits of them that slept\"\n(1 Cor 15:20). So then, though Adam was the image of God, yet\nGod's image but as a mere creature: But Christ though a creature\nas touching his manhood; yet being also God, as the Father, he\nshewed forth expressly, in capital characters, by all his works\nand doings in the world, the beauty and glory of the Father: \"The\nlight of the knowledge of the glory of God,\" is given \"in the face\nof Jesus Christ\" (2 Cor 4:6). Where by face, we must understand\nthat which is visible, that being open when all else is covered,\nand that by which most principally we are discovered to others,\nand known. Now as to the case in hand, this face must signify to\nus the personal virtues and doings of Christ, by which the glory\nof the Father is exposed; the glory of his justice, by Christ's\nexactness of life; the glory of his love, by Christ's compassion\nto sinners, &c.\n\nVer. 26. \"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our\nlikeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and\nover the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the\nearth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.\"\n\nAs Adam was a type of Christ, as the image and glory of God; so by\nthese words he further showeth, that he was a type of his sovereign\npower; for to him be dominion and power everlasting (Heb 2:8,9),\n\"to whom be praise and dominion for ever\" (1 Peter 4:11; Jude 25).\nNow by the fish of the sea, the beasts of the earth, the fowls of\nthe air, and every creeping thing, we may understand all creatures,\nvisible and invisible, whether they be men, angels, or devils; in\nheaven, earth, or under the earth: also all thrones, authorities\nand powers, whether in heaven, in earth, or hell: Christ is made\nhead over all; He hath also a name above every name, \"not only in\nthis world, but in that which is to come\" (Eph 1:25).\n\nVer. 28. \"And God blessed them; and God said unto them, [that is,\nto the man and his wife] Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish\nthe earth, and subdue it,\" &c.\n\nThis in the type doth show, in the antitype, how fruitful Christ\nand his church shall be; and how he at last shall, all over the\nearth, have a seed to replenish and subdue it by the power of the\nimmortal seed of the word of God: how his name shall be reverenced\nfrom one end of the earth to the other: how the kingdoms of the\nearth shall ALL at last become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of\nhis Christ.\n\n\"And subdue it.\" God did put that majesty and dread upon Adam, at\nhis creation, that all the beasts of the field submitted themselves\nunto him. As God also said to Noah, \"The fear of you and the dread\nof you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl\nof the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the\nfishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered\" (Gen 9:2).\n\n\"And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed,\nwhich is upon the face of all the earth; and every tree, in the\nwhich is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be\nfor meat\" (Gen 1:29).\n\nThese herbs and trees are types of the wholesome word of the gospel,\non which both Christ, his church, and unconverted sinners, ought\nto feed and be refreshed; and without which thee is no subsisting\neither of one or the other: \"He causeth the grass to grow for the\ncattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth\nfood out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man,\nand oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth\nman's heart\" (Psa 104:14,15).\n\n\"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was\nvery good\" (v 31).\n\nAll things have their natural goodness by creation. Things are not\ngood, because they have a being only, but because God gave them\nsuch a being. Neither did God make them, because he saw they would\nattract a goodness to themselves; but he made them in such kind,\nas to bring forth that goodness he before determined they should.\n\"And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.\"\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nVer. 3. \"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because\nthat in it he had rested from all his work which God created and\nmade.\"\n\nThe seventh day did signify two things:\n\nFirst, Christ Jesus, who is as well the rest of the justice of God,\nas a rest for sinful man.\n\nSecondly, It was also a type of that glorious rest that saints\nshall have when the six days of this world are fully ended.\n\nFor the first, the apostle makes the sabbath a shadow of Jesus\nChrist, \"a shadow of things to come; but the body [or substance] is\nof Christ\" (Col 2:17). And hence it is that he is so often said to\nbe \"a rest\" to the Gentiles, a glorious rest, and that he promiseth\nrest to such as cast their burthen upon him (Matt 11:29).\n\nThe second also the apostle asserteth in that fourth chapter to\nthe Hebrews, \"There remaineth therefore a rest,\" or the keeping of\na sabbath, \"to the people of God\" (v 9 read also vv 4-11). Which\nsabbath, as I conceive, will be the seventh thousand of years, which\nare to follow immediately after the world hath stood six thousand\nfirst: for as God was six days in the works of creation, and rested\nthe seventh; so in six thousand years he will perfect his works\nand providences that concern this world. As also he will finish\nthe toil and travel of his saints, with the burthen of the beasts,\nand the curse of the ground; and bring all into rest for a thousand\nyears. A day with the Lord, is as a thousand years: wherefore\nthis blessed and desirable time is also called \"a day,\" \"a great\nday,\" \"that great and notable day of the Lord\" (Acts 2:20), which\nshall end in the eternal judgment of the world. God hath held\nforth this by several other shadows, as the sabbath of weeks, the\nsabbath of years, and the great jubilee, which is to be the year\nafter forty-nine years are expired (Lev 25:1-13). Of all which,\nmore in their place, if God permit.\n\nVer. 4. \"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth\nwhen they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth\nand the heavens.\"\n\nMoses seems by these words, \"In the day,\" to insist principally\nupon them in their first and primitive state, before there was\nsin or curse in the world; for in the day that they were created,\nthere was a far more glorious lustre and beauty than now can be\nseen; the heaven, for sin, is, as it were, turned into brass; and\nthe rain into powder and dust, in comparison of what it was as it\ncame from the fingers of God. The earth hath also from that time\na curse upon it; yea, the whole creation, by sin, is even \"made\nsubject to vanity,\" is in travail, and groans under the burthen\nthat sin hath brought upon it (Rom 8:19-23).\n\nVer. 5. \"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth,\nand every herb of the field before it grew.\"\n\nThus it was in the first creation; they therefore became neither\nherbs nor trees, by the course of nature, but by the creation of\nGod. And even so it is in the new creation, men spring not up by\nnature to be saints: No, not in the church of God, but first they\nare created in Christ Jesus, and made meet to be partakers of the\nbenefit, and then planted in the church of God; \"planted,\" I say,\nas plants before prepared. Indeed hypocrites, and formal professors,\nmay spring up in the church, by virtue of her forms, and outward\nservices, as thorns and thistles spring up in the earth, by virtue\nof her moisture and heartiness. But these are but the fruits of\nthe curse, and are determined to be burned at last in the fire:\n\"Every plant [saith Christ] which my heavenly Father hath not\nplanted, shall be rooted up\" (Matt 15:13; Heb 6:8).[5]\n\n\"For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth.\" This\nis the reason that they came not up by nature first, but were\nfirst created, then planted, then made to grow. So the reason why\nmen by nature grow not in the church, is, because the Lord doth not\ncause it to rain upon them, they still abiding and doing according\nto the course of this world; but he plants them in his house by\nthe mighty power of his word and Spirit, by which they are created\nsaints, and then they afterwards grow in grace, and in the knowledge\nof our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. \"And there was not a man to\ntill the ground.\" It seems by this there was a kind of necessity\nwhy God should make man, yea, a multitude of men; for otherwise he\nhad made what before he made in vain; that is, his end in making\nso glorious a creature as this world, which was to shew forth his\nglory by, had been void, and without effect; for although it was\nglorious, as it came out of the hand of God; yet it was not of\npower so to preserve itself, but would, without men to look after\nand dress it, be turned into a wilderness.\n\nThus it is with the world of men, if there was not the second\nAdam to plough them and sow them, they could none of them become\nsaints; No, not the elect themselves; because the means are\ndetermined, as well as the end.\n\nBy this we may likewise see what a woeful condition that people is\nin, that have no ministers of the word of the gospel: \"My people\nperish, [are destroyed] for lack of knowledge\" (Hosea 4:6): And\nagain, \"Where there is no vision, the people perish\" (Pro 29:18).\nPray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out\nhis ploughers to plough, and his labourers into his harvest.\n\nVer. 6. \"But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the\nwhole face of the ground.\"\n\nAlthough as yet there was no ploughman nor rain, yet a mist arose\nfrom the earth; so where there is not the word of the gospel, there\nis yet sufficiency of light, to teach men how to govern themselves\nin civil and natural society. But this is only \"a mist,\" men cannot\ngospelly grow by this; therefore, as in the next verse, of necessity\nman must be formed.\n\nBut again, I have sometimes thought by this mist, might be held\nforth that nourishment men had by the doctrine of faith, before\nthe gospel was divulged by Moses, the prophets, or Christ, &c.\nfor before these, that nourishment the church received, was but\nslender and short, even as short as the nourishing of the mist is\nto sober and moderate showers of rain; to which both the law and\nthe gospel is compared.\n\nAgain, I have also sometimes thought, that by this mist might be\ntypified those excellent proverbs and holy sayings of the men of\nold, before there was a written word; for it cannot be but the\ngodly did contain in proverbs, and certain sayings, the doctrine\nof salvation hereafter, and of good living here [see Romans 2:14];\nof which we have a touch in Genesis, but more at large by that\nblessed book of Job; which book, in my opinion, is a holy collection\nof those proverbs and sayings of the ancients, occasioned by the\ntemptation of that good man. But whatever this mist did signify (in\nother men's judgment) certain it is, it was for present necessity,\ntill a man should be made to till the ground, and the fruits\nthereof watered with \"the bottles of heaven\": Which, so far as I\nsee yet, most aptly presents us with some of all these.\n\nVer. 7. \"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,\"\n&c. In the creation of man, God began with his outside; but in the\nwork of regeneration, he first begins within, at the heart. He made\nhim; that is, his body, of the dust of the ground; but he abides\na lifeless lump, till the Lord puts forth a second act. \"And [he]\nbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a\nliving soul.\" Now he lives, now he acts: so it is in the kingdom of\nChrist, no man can be a living soul in that kingdom by his first\ncreation, he must have life \"breathed\" into him, life and spirit\nfrom Jesus Christ (John 20:22).\n\nNow therefore is Adam a type, yet but an earthly one, of things\nmore high and heavenly; \"And as we have borne the image of the\nearthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly\" (1 Cor 15:49).\n\nVer. 8. \"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and\nthere he put the man whom he had formed.\"\n\n\"And the Lord God planted a garden.\" Thus the Holy Ghost speaks\nclearer and clearer; for now he presents the church to us under the\nsimilitude of a garden, which is taken out of the wide and open\nfield, and inclosed; \"A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse\";\na garden inclosed, \"a spring shut up, a fountain sealed\" (Cant\n4:12); and there he put the man whom he had formed. An excellent\ntype of the presence of Christ with his church (Rev 1:12,13).\n\nVer. 9. \"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every\ntree that is pleasant to the sight,\" &c.\n\nThese trees, and their pleasurableness, do shew us the beauty of\nthe truly godly, whom the Lord hath beautified with salvation. And\nhence it is said, the glory of Lebanon, of Sharon, and of Carmel,\nis given to the church: that is, she is more beautified with gifts\nand graces than can by types and shadows be expressed. \"The tree\nof life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge\nof good and evil.\"\n\nThis \"tree of life,\" was another type of Christ, as the bread and\nhealing medicine of the church, that stands \"in the midst of the\nparadise of God\" (Rev 2:7; 22:2).\n\nThe tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was a type of the law,\nor covenant of works, as the sequel of the story clearly manifesteth;\nfor had not Adam eaten thereof, he had enjoyed for ever his first\nblessedness. As Moses saith, \"It shall be our righteousness, if\nwe observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God,\nas he hath commanded us\" (Deu 6:25). But both Adam and we have\ntouched, that is, broken the boughs and fruit of this tree, and\ntherefore now for ever, by the law, no man can stand just before\nGod (Gal 2:16).\n\nVer. 10. \"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and\nfrom thence it was parted, and became into four heads.\"\n\nThis river while it abided in Eden, in the garden, it was the\nriver of God; that is, serviceable to the trees and fruit of the\ngarden, and was herein a type of those watering ministers that\nwater the plants of the Lord. But observe, when it had passed the\ngarden, had gotten without the bound of the garden, from thence\nit was parted, and became into four heads; from thence it was\ntransformed, or turned into another manner of thing: it now became\ninto four heads; a type of the four great monarchies of the world,\nof which Babylon, though the first in order of being, yet the last\nin a gospel or mysterious sense. The fourth is the river Euphrates,\nthat which was the face of the kingdom of Babel of old. Hence\nnote, That how eminent and serviceable soever men are while they\nabide in the garden of Eden, THE CHURCH; yet when they come out\nfrom thence, they evilly seek the great things of the world: one\nis for compassing the whole land of Havilah, where is gold; another\nis for compassing this, a third that, and a fourth another thing,\naccording as you see these four heads did. Observe again, That\nwhile men abide in the church of God, there is not by them a\nseeking after the monarchies of this world; but when they depart\nfrom thence, then they seek and strive to be heads; as that cursed\nmonster the pope, forsaking the garden of God, became in a manner\nthe prince of all the earth: Of whom Tyrus mentioned by Ezekiel,\nwas a very lively type, \"Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of\nGod; every precious-stone, [that is, doctrine,] was thy covering;\nas the sardius, topaz, diamond,\" &c., \"till iniquity was found\nin thee\" (Eze 28:13-18); till thou leftest thy station, and place\nappointed of God, and then thou wast cast as profane out of the\nmountain of God, yea, though a covering cherub. See it again in\nCain, who while he continued in the church, he was a busy sacrificer,\nas busy as Abel his brother; but when he left off to fear the\nLord, and had bloodily butchered his holy brother, then he seeks\nto be a head, or monarch; then he goeth and buildeth a city to\npreserve his name and posterity for ever (Gen 4:17).\n\nVer. 15. \"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the\ngarden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.\"\n\nIn this also Adam was a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, as pastor\nand chief bishop of his church. \"I the Lord, [saith Christ,] do\nkeep it; I will water it every moment, I will keep it night and\nday\" (Isa 27:3).\n\n\"And the Lord God took the man.\" No man taketh this honour upon\nhim, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. Blessed is he also\nthat can say as the prophet Amos; \"And the Lord took me [said he]\nas I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy\nunto my people Israel\" (Amos 7:15).\n\n\"To dress it and to keep it.\" He that is not dressed, is not kept:\nThat is a sad judgment, That which dieth, let it die; That which\nis diseased, let it not be dressed, let it die of that disease. By\ndressing therefore I understand, pruning, manuring and the like,\nwhich the dresser of the vineyard was commanded to do, without\nwhich all is overrun with briers and nettles, and is fit for\nnothing but cursing, and to be burned (Luke 13:6-9; Pro 24:30-34;\nHeb 6:7,8).\n\n\"And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the\ngarden thou mayest freely eat\" (v 16).\n\nIt is God's word that giveth us power to eat, to drink, and do other\nour works, and without the word we may do nothing. The command\ngave Adam leave: \"Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be\nrefused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified\nby the word of God [by the command of the word, and by receiving\nof it according to the limits thereof,] and prayer\" (1 Tim 4:4,5).\n\nVer. 17. \"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou\nshalt not eat of it.\" I said before, What God's word prohibits, we\nmust take care to shun.\n\nThis \"tree of knowledge,\" as I said before, was a type of the covenant\nof works, the which had not Adam touched, (for by touching it he\nbroke that covenant,) he then had lived ever, but touching it he\ndies (Gen 3:3).\n\nAdam going into the garden under these conditions and penalties,\nwas therein a type of the humiliation of Christ; who at his coming\ninto the world, was made under the law, under its command and\npenalty, even as other men, but without sin (Gal 4:4,5).\n\n\"For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.\"\n\n\"For in the day.\" Adam lived to God no longer than while he kept\nhimself from eating forbidden fruit; in that very day he died;\nfirst a spiritual death in his soul; his body also was then made\ncapable of mortality, and all diseases, which two great impediments\nin time brought him down to dust again.\n\nVer. 18. \"And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be\nalone; I will make him an help meet for him.\"\n\nBy these words, Adam's state, even in innocency, seems to crave\nfor help; wherefore it is manifest that that state is short of that\nwe attain by the resurrection from the dead; yea, for as much as\nhis need required earthly help, it is apparent his condition was\nnot heavenly; \"The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second\nman is the Lord from heaven\" (1 Cor 15:47). Adam in his first\nestate was not spiritual: \"That was not first which is spiritual,\nbut that which is natural; and afterwards that which is spiritual\"\n(v 46). Wherefore those that think it enough to attain to the state\nof Adam in innocency, think it sufficient to be mere naturalists;\nthink themselves well, without being made spiritual: yea, let\nme add, they think it safe standing by a covenant of works; they\nthink themselves happy, though not concerned in a covenant of\ngrace; they think they know enough, though ignorant of a mediator,\nand count they have no need of the intercession of Christ.[6]\n\nAdam stood by a covenant of works: Adam's kingdom was an earthly\nparadise; Adam's excellency was, that he had not need of a Saviour;\nand Adam's knowledge was ignorance of Jesus Christ: Adam in his\ngreatest glory, wanted earthly comforts; Adam in his innocency,\nwas a mere natural man.\n\nVer. 19. \"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast\nof the field, and every fowl of the air.\"\n\nThis proveth further what I said at first, That in the first chaos\nwas contained all that was made upon the earth.\n\n\"And brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them: and\nwhatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name\nthereof.\"\n\nIn this Adam was a lively type of the Lord Christ's sovereign and\nglorious power over all flesh: \"Thou hast given him power over all\nflesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast\ngiven him\" (John 17:2).\n\n\"And brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.\"\n\nSo Christ nameth the world; whom he will he calleth saints; and\nwhom he will he calleth the world, \"ungodly,\" \"serpents,\" \"vipers,\"\nand the like. \"I pray for them, I pray not for the world\" (John\n17:9).\n\n\"And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name\nthereof.\" Even as Christ passes sentence, so shall their judgment\nbe.\n\nVer. 20. \"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of\nthe air, and to every beast of the field.\" So Christ judgeth of\nangels, devils, and men.\n\n\"But for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him.\" All\nthe glory of this world, had not Adam had a wife, could not have\ncompleted this man's blessedness; he would yet have been wanting:\nso all the glory of heaven, considering Christ as mediator, could\nnot, without his church, have made him up complete. The church,\nI say, \"which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in\nall.\"\n\nVer. 21, 22. \"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon\nAdam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the\nflesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken\nfrom man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.\"\n\nIn these words we find an help provided for Adam; also whence it\ncame. The help was a wife; she came out of his side; she was taken\nthence while Adam slept. A blessed figure of a further mystery.\nAdam's wife was a type of the church of Christ; for that she was\ntaken out of his side, it signifies we are flesh of Christ's flesh,\nand bone of Christ's bone (Eph 5:30). And in that she was taken\nthence while Adam slept, it signifies, the church is Christ's, by\nvirtue of his death and blood: \"Feed the church of God, which he\nhath purchased with is own blood\" (Acts 20:28).\n\n\"And he brought her to the man.\" That is, And God brought her to\nthe man. By which he clearly intimates, That as the church is the\nworkmanship of God, and the purchase of the blood of Christ; so\nyet she cannot come to Christ, unless brought to him of God: \"No\nman can come to me [saith Christ] except the Father which hath\nsent me, draw him\" (John 6:44).\n\nVer. 23. \"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh\nof my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out\nof Man.\"\n\nIn that Adam doth thus acknowledge his wife to be bone and flesh\nof his substance, it shews us, that Christ will acknowledge those\nthat are his: \"He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I\nwill declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church\nwill I sing praise unto thee\" (Heb 2:11,12).\n\nAnd observe it, He said, \"She is bone of my bone,\" &c. before that\nGod, that brought her to him; intimating, that Christ both owns\nus now at his Father's right hand, and will not be ashamed of us,\neven in the day of judgment (Matt 10:33; Luke 12:8).\n\nVer. 24. \"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,\nand shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.\"\n\nThis ought to be truly performed in our married estate in this\nworld. But here endeth not the mystery.\n\n\"Therefore shall a man leave his father.\" Thus did Christ when he\ncame into the world to save sinners: He came forth from the Father;\n\"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world\" (John\n16:28).\n\n\"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother.\" The Jewish\nchurch may, in a mystical sense, be called the mother of Christ;\nfor she was indeed God's wife, and of her came his Son Jesus Christ:\nyet his mother he left and forsook, to be joined to his Gentile\nspouse, which is now his only wife.\n\nVer. 25. \"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were\nnot ashamed.\"\n\nNo sin, no shame: Let men stand where God hath set them, and there\nis no cause of shame, though they be exposed in outward appearance\nto never so much contempt.\n\n\"And they were both naked.\" Apparel is the fruits of sin; wherefore\nlet such as pride themselves therein, remember, that they cover one\nshame with another. But let them that are truly godly have their\napparel modest and sober, and with shamefacedness put them on,\nremembering always the first cause of our covering our nakedness,\nwas the sin and shame of our first parents (1 Peter 3:3).\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nVer. 1. \"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the\nfield which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,\nYea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?\"\n\nIn these words we have an entrance of the first great spiritual\nconflict that was fought between the devil and flesh; and it is\nworth the observing, how the enemy attempted, engaged, and overcame\nthe world (2 Cor 11:3).\n\n1. He tempts by means; he appeareth not in his own shape and hue,\nbut assumeth the body of one of the creatures, the body of the\nserpent, and so begins the combat. And from hence it is, that in\nafter ages he is spoken of under the name of that creature, \"the\ndragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan\" (Rev 20:2);\nbecause, as the Holy Ghost would have us beware of the devil, so\nof the means and engines which he useth; for where one is overcome\nby his own fearful appearance, ten thousand are overcome by the\nmeans and engines that he useth.\n\n2. \"The serpent was more subtil.\" The devil, in his attempts after\nour destruction, maketh use of the most suitable means. The serpent\nwas more subtil, therefore the cunning of the devil was least of\nall discerned. Had he made use of some of the most foolish of the\ncreatures, Adam had luckily started back, for he knew the nature\nof all the creatures, and gave them names accordingly; wherefore\nthe serpent, Adam knew, was subtil, therefore Satan useth him,\nthereby to catch this goodly creature. Hereby the devil least\nappeared; and least appearing, the temptation soonest took the\ntinder.[7]\n\n\"Now the serpent was more subtil.\" More subtil. Hence the devil\nis called, \"the serpent with heads,\" [with great cunning;] \"the\ncrooked serpent,\" [with knotty objections;] \"the piercing serpent,\"\n[for he often wounds;] and his ways are called \"devices,\" \"temptations,\"\n\"delusions,\" \"wiles,\" \"power,\" and \"the gates of hell\"; because\nof their mighty prevalency. This is he that undertook our first\nparents.\n\nBut how did he undertake them?\n\nHe labours to make them question the simplicity of the word of\nGod, bearing Adam's wife in hand, that there must needs be some\nmeaning that palliates the text; Hath God said ye shall not eat of\nthe tree? Which interrogatory suggested them with a strong doubt\nthat this word would not appear a truth, if you compare it with\nthe 4th verse.\n\nHence learn, that so long as we retain the simplicity of the word,\nwe have Satan at the end of the staff; for unless we give way to\na doubt about that, about the truth and simplicity of it, he gets\nno ground upon us. And hence the apostle says, He feared lest by\nsome means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so\nour minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ\n(2 Cor 11:3); that is, lest our minds should be drawn off from the\nsimplicity of the word of the gospel by some devilish and delusive\narguments; For mark, Satan doth not first of all deny, but makes a\ndoubt upon the word, whether it is to be taken in this or another\nsense; and so first corrupting the mind with a doubt about the\nsimplicity of the true sense, he after brings them to a denial\nthereof; \"Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the\ngarden?\"\n\nVer. 2. \"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the\nfruit of the trees of the garden.\"\n\n\"And the woman said.\" Indeed, the question was put to her, but the\ncommand was not so immediately delivered to her: \"The Lord God\ncommanded the man\" (2:16). This therefore I reckon a great fault\nin the woman, an usurpation, to undertake so mighty an adversary,\nwhen she was not the principal that was concerned therein; nay,\nwhen her husband who was more able than she, was at hand, to whom\nalso the law was given as chief. But for this act, I think it is,\nthat they are now commanded silence, and also commanded to learn\nof their husbands (1 Cor 14:34,35): A command that is necessary\nenough for that simple and weak sex:[8] Though they see it was\nby them that sin came into the world, yet how hardly are some of\nthem to this day dissuaded from attempting unwarrantably to meddle\nwith potent enemies, about the great and weighty matters that\nconcern eternity (1 Tim 2:11-15).\n\nHence note, That often they who are least able, will first adventure\nto put in their head to defend that, from whence they return with\nshame.\n\n\"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of\nthe trees of the garden.\"\n\nThis was her prologue to her defence, but that also for which she\nhad no warrant. In time of temptation, it is our wisdom and duty\nto keep close to the word, that prohibits and forbids the sin;\nand not to reason with Satan, of how far our outward and worldly\nprivileges go, especially of those privileges that border upon the\ntemptation, as she here did: We may eat of all but one. By this\nshe goeth to the outside of her liberty, and sets herself upon the\nbrink of the danger. Christ might have told the tempter, when he\nassaulted him, That he could have made stones bread; and that he\ncould have descended from the pinnacle of the temple, as afterwards\nhe did (Matt 4:3-7; Luke 4); but that would have admitted of other\nquestions. Wherefore he chooseth to lay aside such needless and\nunwarrantable reasonings, and resisteth him with a direct word of\nGod, most pertinent to quash the tempter, and also to preserve\nhimself in the way. To go to the outside of privileges, especially\nwhen tempted of the devil, is often, if not always very dangerous\nand hazardous.\n\nBy these words therefore, in mine opinion, she spoke at this time\ntoo much in favour of the flesh; and made way for what after came\nupon her, We may eat of all but one.\n\nVer. 3. \"But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of\nthe garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall\nye touch it, lest ye die.\"\n\nNow, too late, she urgeth that which should have been her only stay\nand weapon; to wit, the express word of God; That she should, if\nshe would have disputed with the tempter, have urged at the first\nthat only, and have thought of nothing else. Thus did the Lord\nhimself: but she looking first into those worthy privileges which\nGod had given her, and dilating delightfully of them before the\ndevil, she lost the dread of the command from off her heart, and\nretained now but the notion of it: which Satan perceiving, and\ntaking heart therefrom to make his best advantage, he now adds to\nhis former forged doubt, a plain and flat denial, \"Ye shall not\nsurely die.\"\n\nVer. 4. \"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely\ndie.\"\n\nWhen people dally with the devil, and sit too near their outward\nadvantages; when they are tempted to break the command of God, it\nis usual for them, even by setting their hearts upon things that\nin themselves are honest and lawful, to fall into temptation: To\nsee a piece of ground, to prove a yoke of oxen, to marry a wife, are\ndoubtless lawful things; but upon the borders of these privileges\nlay the temptation of the devil; therefore by the love of these,\nwhich yet were lawful in themselves, the devil hardened the heart,\nand so at last made way for, and perfectly produced in them, flatly\nto deny, as then, to embrace the words of God's salvation (Matt\n22:5; Luke 14:16-20). The like befel our first mother; wherefore\nthough at last she freely objected the word; yet because before\nshe had so much reasoned to the pleasing of the flesh, she lost\nthe dread and savour of the command, and having nought but notion\nleft, she found not wherewith to rebuke so plain a lie of the devil,\nbut hearkened to his further reasoning.\n\n\"Ye shall not surely die.\" Not surely; in the word there is some\nslight meaning, of which you need not be so afraid. And besides,\n\nVer. 5. \"God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your\neyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and\nevil.\"\n\nIn these words two privileges are asserted: one, That their eyes\nshould be opened; the other, That they should be as gods, knowing\ngood and evil. The first is very desirable, and was not at all\nabridged by them; the second, as to their knowing good and evil,\nwas absolutely forbidden; because they could not attain to the\nknowledge of that which was evil, but by transgressing, or by\neating of that forbidden tree.\n\nHence observe, That it is usual with the devil, in his tempting\nof poor creatures, to put a good and bad together, that by shew\nof the good, the tempted might be drawn to do that which in truth\nis evil. Thus he served Saul; he spared the best of the herd and\nflock, under pretence of sacrificing to God, and so transgressed\nthe plain command (1 Sam 15:20-22). But this the apostle saw was\ndangerous, and therefore censureth such, as in a state of condemnation\n(Rom 3:8). Thus he served Adam; he put the desirableness of\nsight, and a plain transgression of God's law together, that by\nthe loveliness of the one, they might the easier be brought to\ndo the other. O poor Eve! Do we wonder at thy folly! Doubtless we\nhad done as bad with half the argument of thy temptation.\n\n\"Ye shall be as gods.\" In these words he attempts to beget in them\na desire to be greater than God had made them (1 Tim 3:6). He knew\nthis was a likely way, for by this means he fell himself; for being\npuffed up with pride, they left their own estate, or habitation,\nand so became devils, and were tumbled down to hell, where they are\n\"reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment\nof the great day\" (Jude 6).\n\n\"Ye shall be as gods.\" When souls have begun to hearken to the\ntempter, that hearkening hath made way for, and given way to so\nmuch darkness of mind, and hardness of heart, that now they can\nlisten to anything: as to hear God charged with folly, \"Ye shall\nnot surely die\"; as to hear him made the author of ignorance, and\nthat he delights to have it so, by seeking by a command to prohibit\nthem from knowing what they could; for God doth know, that in the\nday ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and therefore\nhe forbids to touch it.\n\n\"Ye shall be as gods.\" Here is also a pretence of holiness, which\nhe knew they were prone unto; \"Ye shall be as gods,\" as knowing\nand perfect as God. Oh! Thousands are, even to this day, by such\ntemptations overcome! Thus he wraps his temptations up in such\nkind of words and suggestions as will carry it either way. But mark\nhis holiness, or the way that he prescribes for holiness; it is,\nif not point blank against, yet without and besides the word, not\nby doing what God commands, and abhorring what he forbids, but by\nfollowing the delusion of the devil, and their own roving fancies;\nas Eve here does.\n\nVer. 6. \"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,\nand that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to\nmake one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,\" &c.\n\nThis verse presents us with the use that Eve made of the reasonings\nof the serpent; and that was, to take them into consideration; not\nby the word of God, but as her flesh and blood did sense them:\nA way very dangerous and devouring to the soul, from which Paul\nfled, as from the devil himself: \"Immediately I conferred not with\nflesh and blood\" (Gal 1:16). Wherefore, pausing upon them, they\nentangled her as with a threefold cord. 1. \"The lust of the flesh\";\nshe saw it was good for food. 2. \"The lust of the eye\"; she saw\nit was pleasant to the eye. 3. \"The pride of life\"; a tree to be\ndesired, to make one wise (1 John 2:16). Being taken, I say, with\nthese three snares of the adversary, which are not of the Father,\nbut of the world, and the devil the prince thereof, forthwith she\nfalls before him: \"And when the woman saw\" this, \"she took of the\nfruit thereof, and did eat.\"\n\n\"And when the woman saw.\" This seeing, as I said, is to be\nunderstood of her considering what Satan presented to her, and of\nher sensing or tasting of his doctrine; not by the word, which\nought to be the touch stone of all, but by and according to her\nown natural reason without it. Now this makes her forget that\nvery command that but now she had urged against the tempter: This\nmakes her also to consent to that very reason, as an inducement\nto transgress; which, because it was the nature of the tree, was\nby God suggested as a reason why they should forbear; it was the\ntree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore they should not\ntouch it; it was the tree, that would by touching it, make them\nknow good and evil; therefore she toucheth, and also eateth thereof.\nSee therefore what specious pretences the devil, and those that\nare under the power of temptation, will have to transgress the\ncommand of God. That which God makes a reason of the prohibition,\neven that the devil will make a reason of their transgression.\n\nGod commands to self-denial, but the world makes that a reason of\ntheir standing off from the very grace of God in the gospel. God\nalso commands, That we be sober, chaste, humble, just, and the\nlike; but the devil, and carnal hearts, make these very things the\nargument that keeps sinners from the word of salvation. Or rather\ntake it thus; God forbids wickedness, because it is delightful to\nthe flesh, and draws the heart from God, but therefore carnal men\nlove wickedness and sin: Therefore they go on in sin, and \"therefore\nthey say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge\nof thy ways\" (Job 21:14; 22:15-17).\n\nShe \"did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did\neat.\"\n\nThe great design of the devil, as he supposed, was now accomplished;\nfor he had both in the snare, both the man and his wife, and in\nthem, the whole world that should be after. And indeed the chief\ndesign of Satan was at the head at first, only he made the weakest\nthe conveyance for his mischief. Hence note again, That Satan by\ntempting one, may chiefly intend the destruction of another. By\ntempting the wife, he may aim at the destruction of the husband;\nby tempting the father, he may design the destruction of the\nchildren; and by tempting the king, he may design the ruin of the\nsubjects. Even as in the case of David: \"Satan stood up against\nIsrael, and provoked David to number the people.\" He had a mind\nto destroy seventy thousand, therefore he tempted David to sin (1\nChron 21:1).\n\nShe gave also to her husband, and he did eat. Sin seldom or never\nterminates in one person; but the pernicious example of one, doth\nanimate and embolden another; or thus, the beholding of evil in\nanother, doth often allure a stander-by. Adam was the looker-on, he\nwas not in the action as from the serpent: \"Adam was not deceived,\"\nthat is, by having to do with the devil, \"but the woman, the woman\nbeing deceived, was in the transgression\" (1 Tim 2:14). This should\nexhort all men that they take heed of so much as beholding evil\ndone by others, lest also they should be allured. When Israel\nwent into Canaan, God did command them not so much as to ask, How\nthose nations served their gods? lest by so doing, Satan should\nget an advantage of their minds, to incline them to do the like\n(Deu 12:30). Evil acts, as well as evil words, will eat as doth\na canker. This then is the reason of that evil-favouredness that\nyou see attending some men's lives and professions; they have been\ncorrupted, as Adam was, either by evil words or bad examples, even\ntill the very face of their lives and professions are disfigured\nas with the pox or canker (2 Tim 2:17).\n\nThus have we led you through that woeful tragedy that was acted\nbetween the woman and the serpent; and have also shewed, how it\nhappened that the serpent went away as victor.\n\n1. The woman admitted of a doubt about the truth of the word that\nforbad her to eat; for unbelief was the first sin that entered the\nworld.\n\n2. She preferred the privileges of the flesh, before the argument\nto self-denial; by which means her heart became hardened, and grew\nsenseless of the dread and terror of the words of God.\n\n3. She took Satan's arguments into consideration, and sensed,[9]\nor tasted them; not by the word of God, but her own natural, or\nrather sore-deluded fancy.\n\n4. She had a mind to gratify the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of\nthe eyes, and the pride of life.\n\nNow to speak of the evil consequences that followed this sinful\nact: That is not in the wisdom of mortal man to do; partly, because\nwe know but in part even the evil and destructive nature of sin;\nand partly, because much of the evil that will follow this action,\nis yet to be committed by persons unborn. Yet enough might be said\nto astonish the heavens, and to make them horribly afraid (Jer\n2:12). 1. By this act of these two, the whole world became guilty\nof condemnation and eternal judgment (Rom 5). 2. By this came all\nthe blindness, atheism, ignorance of God, enmity and malice against\nhim, pride, covetousness, adultery, idolatry, and implacableness,\n&c., that is found in all the world. By this, I say, came all the\nwars, blood, treachery, tyranny, persecution, with all manner of\nrapine and outrage that is found among the sons of men. 3. Besides,\nall the plagues, judgments, and evils that befal us in this world,\nwith those everlasting burnings that will swallow up millions for\never and ever; all and every whit of these came into the world as\nthe portion of mankind, for that first transgression of our first\nparents.\n\nVer. 7. \"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that\nthey were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made\nthemselves aprons.\"\n\nThat their eyes might be opened, was one branch of the temptation,\nand one of the reasons that prevailed with the woman to forsake the\nword of God: But she little thought of seeing after this manner,\nor such things as now she was made to behold. She expected some\nsweet and pleasant sight, that might tickle and delight her deluded\nfancy; but behold, sin and the wrath of God appears, to the shaking\nof their hearts! And thus, even to this very day, doth the devil\ndelude the world: His temptations are gilded with some sweet and\nfine pretences; either they shall be wiser, richer, more in favour,\nlive merrier, fare better, or something; and that they shall see\nit, if they will but obey the devil: Which the fools easily are,\nby these and such like things, allured to do. But behold, when\ntheir eyes are opened, instead of seeing what the devil falsely\ntold them, they see themselves involved in sin, made guilty of\nthe breach of God's command, and subject to the wrath of God.[10]\n\n\"And they knew that they were naked.\" Not only naked of outward\nclothing, but even destitute of righteousness; they had lost their\ninnocency, their uprightness, and sinless vail, and had made\nthemselves polluted creatures, both in their hearts and in their\nflesh; this is nakedness indeed; such a kind of nakedness as Aaron\nmade Israel naked with, when he set up his idol calf for them to\nworship: \"For Aaron had made them naked unto their shame\" (Exo\n32:25). Naked before the justice of the law.\n\n\"And they knew that they were naked.\" And they knew it: Why, did\nthey not know it before? The text says, They were naked, and were\nnot ashamed. O! they stood not naked before God! they stood not\nwithout righteousness, or uprightness before him, and therefore\nwere not ashamed, but now they knew they were naked as to that.\n\n\"And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.\"\nA fit resemblance of what is the inclination of awakened men,\nwho are yet but natural! They neither think of Christ, or of the\nmercy of God in him for pardon, but presently they betake themselves\nto their own fig-leaves, to their own inventions, or to the\nrighteousness of the law, and look for healing from means which\nGod did never provide for cure. \"When Ephraim saw his sickness, and\nJudah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian\" (Hosea\n5:13). Not to God, and sent to King Jarib, not to Christ, yet\ncould they not heal him, nor cure him of his wound.\n\n\"And made themselves aprons.\" Not coats, as God did afterwards. A\ncarnal man thinks himself sufficiently clothed with righteousness,\nif the nakedness which he sees, can be but covered from his own\nsight: As if God also did see that and only that which they have\na sight of by the light of nature; and as if because fig-leaves\nwould hide their nakedness from their sight, that therefore they\nwould hide it from the sight of God. But alas! No man, without\nthe help of another, can bring all his nakedness to the sight of\nhis own eye; much is undiscovered to him, that may yet lie open\nand bare to a stander-by: So it is with the men that stand without\nChrist before God, at best they see but some of their nakedness,\nto wit, their most gross and worst faults, and therefore they seek\nto cover them; which when they have hid from their own sight, they\nthink them hid also from the sight of God. Thus did Adam, he saw\nhis own most shameful parts, and therefore them he covered: They\nmade themselves aprons, or things to gird about them, not to cover\nthem all over withal. No man by all his own doings can hide all\nhis own nakedness from the sight of the justice of God, and yet,\nbut in vain, as busy as Adam to do it.\n\n\"And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.\"\nFig-leaves! A poor apron, but it was the best they could get.\nBut was that a sufficient shelter against either thorn or thistle?\nOr was it possible but that after a while these fig-leaves should\nhave become rotten, and turned to dung? So will it be with all\nman's own righteousness which is of the law; Paul saw it so, and\ntherefore counted it but loss and dung, that he might win Christ,\nand be found in him (Phil 3:7,8).\n\nVer. 8. \"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the\ngarden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves\nfrom the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden.\"\n\n\"And they heard the voice of the Lord God.\" This voice was not to\nbe understood according, as if it was the effect of a word; as\nwhen we speak, the sound remains with a noise for some time after;\nbut by voice here, we are to understand the Lord Christ himself;\nwherefore this voice is said to walk, not to sound only: \"They\nheard the voice of the Lord God walking.\" This voice John calls the\nword, the word that was with the Father before he made the world,\nand that at this very time was heard to walk in the garden of Adam:\nTherefore John also saith, this voice was in the beginning; that\nis, in the garden with Adam, at the beginning of his conversion,\nas well as of the beginning of the world (John 1:1).\n\n\"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in\nthe cool of the day.\" The gospel of it is, in the season of grace;\nfor by the cool of the day, he here means, in the patience,\ngentleness, goodness and mercy of the gospel; and it is opposed to\nthe heat, fire, and severity of the law.\n\n\"And Adam and his wife hid themselves.\" Hence observe, That a\nman's own righteousness will not fortify his conscience from fear\nand terror, when God begins to come near to him to judgment. Why\ndid Adam hide himself, but because, as he said, he was naked? But\nhow could he be naked, when before he had made himself an apron?\nO! the approach of God consumed and burnt off his apron! Though\nhis apron would keep him from the sight of a bird, yet it would\nnot from the eye of the incorruptible God.\n\nLet therefore all self-righteous men beware, for however they at\npresent please themselves with the worthiness of their glorious\nfig-leaves; yet when God shall come to deal with them for sin,\nassuredly they will find themselves naked.[11]\n\n\"And they hid themselves.\" A man in a natural state, cannot abide\nthe presence of God; yea, though a righteous man. Adam, though\nadorned with his fig-leaves, flies.\n\nObserve again, That a self-righteous man, a man of the law, takes\ngrace and mercy for his greatest enemy. This is apparent from the\ncarriage of the Pharisees to Jesus Christ, who because they were\nwedded to the works of their own righteousness, therefore they hated,\npersecuted, condemned, and crucified the Saviour of the world. As\nhere in the text, though the voice of the Lord God walked in the\ngarden in the cool of the day, in the time of grace and love, yet\nhow Adam with his fig-leaves flies before him.\n\n\"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the\nLord God.\" These latter words are spoken, not to persuade us that\nmen can hide themselves from God, but that Adam, and those that\nare his by nature, will seek to do it, because they do not know him\naright. These words therefore further shew us what a bitter thing\nsin is to the soul; it is only for hiding work, sometimes under\nits fig-leaves, sometimes among the trees of the garden. O what\na shaking, starting, timorous evil conscience, is a sinful and\nguilty conscience! especially when 'tis but a little awakened, it\ncould run its head into every hole, first by one fancy, then by\nanother; for the power and goodness of a man's own righteousness,\ncannot withstand or answer the demands of the justice of God, and\nhis holy law.\n\n\"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the\nLord God, among the trees of the garden.\" If you take the trees\nin a mystical sense as sometimes they may be taken (Eze 31:8-11);\nthen take them here to signify, or to be a type of the saints\nof God, and then the gospel of it is, That carnal men, when they\nare indeed awakened, and roused out of their foolish fig-leaf\nrighteousness; then they would be glad of some shelter with them\nthat are saved and justified freely by grace, as they in the\nGospel of Matthew; \"Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone\nout\" (Matt 25:8). And again, The man without the wedding garment\nhad crowded himself among the wedding guests: Had hid themselves\namong the trees of the garden (Matt 22:11).\n\nVer. 9. \"And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him,\nWhere art thou?\"\n\nAdam having eaten of the forbidden tree, doth now fleet his\nstation, is gone to another than where God left him. Wherefore, if\nGod will find Adam, he must now look him where he had hid himself.\nAnd indeed so he does with \"Adam, where art thou?\"\n\n\"And the Lord God called,\" &c. Here begins the conversion of Adam,\nfrom his sinful state, to God again. But mark, it begins not at\nAdam's calling upon God, but at God calling upon him: \"And the\nLord God called unto Adam.\" Wherefore, by these words, we are to\nunderstand the beginning of Adam's conversion. And indeed, grace\nhath gone the same way with the elect, from that time to this day.\nThus he dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he called them from\ntheir native country, the country of their kindred. And hence it\nis, that, especially in the New Testament, the saints are said\nto be the Called; \"Called of God,\" and \"Called of Jesus Christ.\"\nAnd hence again it is that Calling is by Paul made the first\ndemonstration of election, and that saints are admonished to prove\ntheir election by their calling; for as Adam was in a lost, miserable\nand perishing condition, until God called him out of those holes\ninto which sin had driven him: so we do lie where sin and the\ndevil hath laid us, until by the word of God we are called to the\nfellowship of his Son Jesus Christ.\n\nBy these words therefore we have the beginning of the discovery\nof effectual calling or conversion; \"And the Lord God called\": In\nwhich call observe three things,\n\n1. God called so that Adam heard him. And so it is in the conversion\nof the New Testament saints, as Paul says, \"If ye have heard him,\nand have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus\" (Eph 4:21).\nThat therefore is one discovery of effectual calling, the sinner\nis made to HEAR him, even to hear him distinctly, singling out the\nvery person, calling, \"Adam, Where art thou?\" \"Saul, Saul, why\npersecutest thou me?\" I have called thee by thy name, thou art\nmine. As he also said to Moses, \"I know thee by name, and thou\nhast also found grace in my sight\" (Exo 33:12).\n\n2. God called so, as to fasten sin upon his conscience, and as to\nforce a confession from him of his naked and shameful state.\n\n3. God called so, as to make him tremble under, and be afraid of\nthe judgment of God.\n\n\"And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art\nthou?\" Indeed, Where art thou must of necessity be forcibly urged\nto every man on whose soul God doth work effectual conversion;\nfor until the person is awakened, as to the state and condition\nhe is in, he will not desire, nay, will not endure to be turned\nto God; but when in truth they are made to see what condition sin\nhath brought them to, namely, that it hath laid them under the\npower of sin, the tyranny of the devil, the strength of death,\nand the curse of God by his holy law; then is mercy sweet.\n\n\"Where art thou?\" God knew where he was, but foolish Adam thought\notherwise; he thought to hide himself from the presence of the\nLord, but the Lord found him out. Indeed, deluded sinners think\nthat they can hide themselves and sins from God. \"How doth God\nknow,\" say they, \"Can he judge through the thick cloud?\" (Job 22:13).\nBut such shall know he sees them; they shall know it, either to\ntheir correction, or to their condemnation. \"Though they dig into\nhell,\" saith God, \"thence shall mine hand take them; though they\nclimb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they\nhide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them\nout thence,\" &c. (Amos 9:2,3).[12] \"Can any hide himself in secret\nplaces that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill\nheaven and earth? saith the Lord\" (Jer 23:24).\n\nVer. 10. \"And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was\nafraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.\"\n\nThis then was the cause of his flying, he heard the voice of God:\nA wicked and evil conscience saith, every thing is to it as the\nmessenger of death and destruction; for, as was said before, \"the\nvoice of the Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the day,\" in\nthe time of grace and mercy. But it mattereth not whether he came\nwith grace or vengeance; guilt was in Adam's heart, therefore he\ncould not endure the presence of God: He \"that doeth evil hateth\nthe light\" (John 3:20). And again, \"The wicked flee when no man\npursueth\" (Pro 28:1). Cain thought all that met him, would seek\nhis blood and life.\n\n\"I heard thy voice.\" Something by the word of God was spoken,\nthat shook the heart of this poor creature; something of justice\nand holiness, even before they fell into this communication: for\nobserve it, Adam went forthwith from the tree of knowledge of good\nand evil a convinced man, first to his fig-leaves, but they would\nnot do; therefore he seeks to be hid among the trees. And observe\nagain, That the insufficiency of fig-leaves were discovered by\nthis voice of the Lord God, that at this time walked in the garden:\n\"I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was\nnaked; and I hid myself.\" So then, there was a first and second\nvoice which Adam heard; the first he ran away from, \"I heard thy\nvoice, and hid myself.\" The second was this, wherein they commune\neach with other. The first therefore was the word of justice,\nseverity, and of the vengeance of God; like that in the 19th of\nExodus, from the pronouncing of which, a trembling, and almost\ndeath, did seize six hundred thousand persons.\n\n\"I heard thy voice in the garden.\" It is a word from without that\ndoth it. While Adam listened to his own heart, he thought fig-leaves\na sufficient remedy, but the voice that walked in the garden shook\nhim out of all such fancies: \"I heard thy voice in the garden, and\nI was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.\"\n\nVer. 11. \"And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou\neaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest\nnot eat?\"\n\n\"Who told thee?\" This, as I said before, supposeth a third person,\na preacher, and that was the Son of God; the voice of the Lord\nGod that walked in the garden.\n\n\"Hast thou eaten of the tree?\" That is, If thou hast been shewed\nthy nakedness, thou hast indeed sinned; for the voice of the Lord\nGod will not charge guilt, but where and when a law hath been\ntransgressed. God therefore, by these words, driveth Adam to the\npoint, either to confess or deny the truth of the case. If he\nconfess, then he concludes himself under judgment; if he deny, then\nhe addeth to his sin: Therefore he neither denieth nor confesseth,\nbut so as he may lessen and extenuate his sin.\n\nVer. 12. \"And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with\nme, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.\"\n\nHe had endeavoured with fig-leaves to hide his transgressions\nbefore, but that being found too scanty and short, he now trieth\nwhat he can do with arguments. Indeed he acknowledgeth that he\ndid eat of the tree of which he was forbidden; but mark where he\nlayeth the reason: Not in any infection which was centred in him\nby reason of his listening to the discourse which was between the\nwoman and the serpent; but because God had given him a woman to\nbe with him: \"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave\nme of the tree.\" The woman was given for an help, not an hindrance;\nbut Satan often maketh that to become our snare, which God hath\ngiven us as a blessing. Adam therefore here mixeth truth with\nfalsehood. It is true, he was beguiled by the woman; but she was\nnot intended of God, as he would insinuate, to the end she might\nbe a trap unto him. Here therefore Adam sought to lessen and\npalliate his offence, as man by nature is prone to do; for if God\nwill needs charge them with the guilt of sin for the breach of\nthe law, they will lay the fault upon anything, even upon God's\nordinance, as Adam here doth, rather than they will honestly fall\nunder the guilt, and so the judgment of the law for guilt. It is a\nrare thing, and it argueth great knowledge of God, and also hope\nin his mercy, when men shall heartily acknowledge their iniquities,\nas is evident in the case of David: \"Wash me thoroughly from\nmine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my\ntransgressions: and my sin is ever before me\" (Psa 51:2,3). But\nhis knowledge is not at first in young converts; therefore when\nGod begins to awaken, they begin, as sleepy men, to creep further\nunder their carnal covering; which yet is too short to hide them,\nand too narrow to cover their shame (Isa 28:20).\n\n\"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the\ntree.\" Although, as I said, this sinner seeks to hide, or at least\nto lessen his sin, by laying the cause upon the woman, the gift\nof God; yet it argueth that his heart was now filled with shame\nand confusion of face, for that he had broken God's command; for\nindeed it is the nature of guilt, however men may in appearance\nruffle under it, and set the best leg before, for their vindication;\nyet inwardly to make them blush and fail before their accuser.\nIndeed their inward shame is the cause of their excuse; even as\nAaron, when he had made the golden calf, could not for shame of\nheart confess in plainness of speech the truth of the fact to his\nbrother Moses, but faulteringly: They gave me their gold, saith\nhe, and \"I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf\"\n(Exo 32:24). \"And there came out this calf\"; a pitiful fumbling\nspeech: The Holy Ghost saith, Aaron had made them naked; \"had\nmade them naked unto their shame,\" for he, as also Adam, should,\nbeing chief and lord in their place, have stoutly resisted the\nfolly and sin which was to them propounded; and not as persons of\na womanish spirit, have listened to wicked proposals.[13]\n\nVer. 13. \"And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that\nthou hast done?\" &c.,\n\nForasmuch as Adam did acknowledge his sin, though with much weakness\nand infirmity, God accepts thereof; and now applieth himself to\nthe woman, whom Satan had used as his engine to undo the world.\n\nHence observe, That when God sets to search out sin, he will\nfollow it from the seduced to the seducer, even till he comes to\nthe rise and first author thereof, as in the following words may\nmore clearly appear. Not that he excuseth or acquitteth the seduced,\nbecause the seducer was the first cause, as some do vainly imagine;\nbut to lay all under guilt who are concerned therein: the woman\nwas concerned as a principal, therefore he taketh her to examination.\n\n\"And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast\ndone?\" What is this? God seems to speak as if he were astonished\nat the inundation of evil which the woman by her sin had overflowed\nthe world withal: \"What is this that thou hast done!\" Thou hast\nundone thyself, thou hast undone thy husband, thou hast undone all\nthe world; yea, thou hast brought a curse upon the whole creation,\nwith an overplus of evils, plagues, and distresses.\n\n\"What is this that thou hast done!\" Thou hast defiled thy body and\nsoul, thou hast disabled the whole world from serving God; yea,\nmoreover, thou hast let in the devil at the door of thy heart, and\nhast also made him the prince of the world. \"What is this that thou\nhast done!\" Ah! little, little do sinners know what they have done,\nwhen they have transgressed the law of the Lord. I say, they little\nknow what death, what plagues, what curse, yea, what hell they, by\nso doing, have prepared for themselves.\n\n\"What is this that thou hast done!\" God therefore, by these words,\nwould fasten upon the woman's heart a deep sense of the evil of her\ndoings. And indeed, for the soul to be brought into a deep sense\nof its sin, to cry out before God, Ah! what have I done! it is with\nthem the first step towards conversion: \"Acknowledge thy iniquity\n[saith God] that thou hast transgressed against me\" (Jer 3:13).\nAnd again, \"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to\nforgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness\"\n(1 John 1:9). The want of this is the cause of that obdurate and\nlasting hardness that continueth to possess so many thousands\nof sinners, they cry not out before God, What have I done? but\nfoolishly they rush into, and continue in sin, \"till their iniquity\nbe found to be hateful,\" yea, their persons, because of their sin.\n\n\"What is this that thou hast done?\" By this interrogatory the Lord\nalso implieth an admonition to the woman, to plead for herself,\nas he also did to her husband. He also makes way for the working\nof his bowels towards her, which (as will be shewn anon) he\nflatly denies to the serpent, the devil: I say he made way for\nthe woman to plead for, or bemoan herself; an evident token that\nhe was unwilling to cast her away for her sin: \"I have surely\nheard Ephraim bemoaning himself;--I will surely have mercy upon\nhim, saith the Lord\" (Jer 31:18-20). Again, by these words, he\nmade way for the working or yearning of his own bowels over her;\nfor when we begin to cry out of our miscarriages, and to bewail\nand bemoan our condition because of sin, forthwith the bowels of\nGod begin to sound, and to move towards his distressed creature,\nas by the place before alleged appears. \"I have surely heard\nEphraim bemoaning himself;--therefore my bowels are troubled for\nhim: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.\" See also\nthe 11th and 14th chapters of Hosea.\n\n\"And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat.\" A\npoor excuse, but an heart affecting one; for many times want of wit\nand cunning to defend ourselves, doth affect and turn the heart\nof a stander-by to pity us. And thus, as I think, it was with\nthe woman; she had to do with one that was too cunning for her,\nwith one that snapt her by his subtilty or wiles; which also the\nwoman most simply confesses, even to the provoking of God to take\nvengeance for her.\n\nVer. 14. \"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou\nhast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every\nbeast of the field.\"\n\nThe serpent was the author of the evil; therefore the thunder\nrolls till it comes over him, the hot burning thunder-bolt falls\nupon him.\n\nThe Lord, you see, doth not with the serpent as with the man\nand his wife; to wit, minister occasion to commune with him, but\ndirectly pronounceth him cursed above all, \"above every beast of the\nfield.\" This sheweth us, that as concerning the angels that fell,\nwith them God is at eternal enmity, reserving them in everlasting\nchains under darkness. Cursed art thou: By these words, I say,\nthey are prevented of a plea for ever, and also excluded a share\nin the fruits of the Messiah which should afterwards be born into\nthe world (Heb 2:2).\n\n\"Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou.\" \"Because thou hast\ndone this\": Not as though he was blessed before; for had he not\nbefore been wicked, he had not attempted so wicked a design. The\nmeaning then is, That either by this deed the devil did aggravate\nhis misery, and make himself the faster to hang in the everlasting\nchains under darkness; or else by this he is manifested to us to\nbe indeed a cursed creature.\n\nFurther, \"Because thou hast done this,\" may also signify how great\ncomplacency and content God took in Adam and his wife while they\ncontinued without transgression; But how much against his mind and\nworkmanship this wicked work was. 1. Against his mind; for sin so\nsets itself against the nature of God, that, if possible, it would\nannihilate and turn him into nothing, it being in its nature point\nblank against him. 2. It is against his workmanship; for had not\nthe power of the Messias stept in, all had again been brought to\nconfusion, and worse than nothing: as Christ himself expresses it:\n\"The earth, and all the inhabitants thereof, are dissolved: I bear\nup the pillars of it\" (Psa 75:3). And again, \"He upholdeth all\nthings by the word of his power\" (Heb 1:3).\n\nBesides, this being done, man, notwithstanding the grace of God,\nand the merits of Jesus Christ, doth yet live a miserable life in\nthis world; for albeit that Christ hath most certainly secured\nthe elect and chosen of God from perishing by what Satan hath\ndone; yet the very elect themselves are, by reason of the first\ntransgression, so infested and annoyed with inward filth, and so\nassaulted still by the devil, and his vassals the proper children\nof hell, that they groan unutterably under their burthen; yea,\nall creatures, \"the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain\ntogether until now\" (Rom 8:22). And that most principally upon the\nvery account of this first sin of Adam; it must needs be therefore,\nthis being so high an affront to the divine majesty, and so\ndirectly destructive to the work of his hands; and the aim of the\ndevil most principally also at the most excellent of his creation\n(for man was created in God's own image) that he should hereat\nbe so highly offended, had they not sinned at all before, to bind\nthem over for this very fact to the pains of the eternal judgment\nof God.\n\nVer. 15. \"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and\nbetween thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou\nshalt bruise his heel.\"\n\nThe woman may, in this place, be taken either really or figuratively;\nif really and naturally, then the threatening is also true, as\nto the very natures of the creatures here under consideration,\nto wit, the serpent and the woman, and so all that come of human\nrace; for we find that so great an antipathy is between all such\ndeadly beasts, as serpents and human creatures, that they abiding\nin their own natures, it is not possible they should ever be\nreconciled: \"I will put enmity\": I will put it. This enmity then\nwas not infused in creation, but afterwards; and that as a punishment\nfor the abuse of the subtlety of the serpent; for before the fall,\nand before the serpent was assumed by the fallen angels, they were,\nbeing God's creatures, \"good,\" as the rest in their kind; neither\nwas there any jarring or violence put between them; but after the\nserpent was become the devil's vizor, then was an enmity begot\nbetween them.\n\n\"I will put enmity between thee and the serpent.\" If by woman,\nwe here understand the church, (but then we must understand the\ndevil, not the natural serpent simply,) then also the threatening\nis most true; for between the church of God, and the devil, from\nthe beginning of the world, hath been maintained most mighty wars\nand conflicts, to which there is not a like in all the blood shed\non the earth. Yea, here there cannot be a reconciliation, (the\nenmity is still maintained by God): The reason is, because their\nnatural dispositions and inclinations, together with their ends and\npurposes, are most repugnant each to other, even full as much as\ngood and evil, righteousness and sin, God's glory, and an endeavour\nafter his utter extirpation.\n\nIndeed, Satan hath tried many ways to be at amity with the church;\nnot because he loves her holiness, but because he hates her welfare,\n(wherefore such amity must only be dissembled,) and that he might\nbring about his enterprise, he sometimes hath allured with the\ndainty delicates of this world, the lusts of the flesh, of the eyes,\nand the pride of life: This being fruitless, he hath attempted to\nentangle and bewitch her with his glorious appearance, as an angel\nof light; and to that end hath made his ministers as the ministers\nof righteousness, preaching up righteousness, and contending for\na divine and holy worship (2 Cor 11:12-15): but this failing also,\nhe hath taken in hand at length to fright her into friendship\nwith him, by stirring up the hellish rage of tyrants to threaten\nand molest her; by finding out strange inventions to torment and\nafflict her children; by making many bloody examples of her own\nbowels, before her eyes, if by that means he might at last obtain\nhis purpose: But behold! all hath been in vain, there can be no\nreconciliation. And why, but because God himself maintains the\nenmity?\n\nAnd this is the reason why the endeavours of all the princes and\npotentates of the earth, that have through ignorance or malice\nmanaged his design against the church, have fallen to the ground,\nand been of none effect.\n\nGod hath maintained the enmity: doubtless the mighty wonder, that\ntheir laws cannot be obeyed;[14] I mean their laws and statutes,\nwhich by the suggestion of the prince of this world they have made\nagainst the church: But if they understood but this one sentence,\nthey might a little perceive the reason. God hath put enmity\nbetween the devil and the woman; between that old serpent called,\nThe Devil and Satan, and the holy, and beloved, and espoused wife\nof Christ.\n\n\"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed\nand her seed.\" The seeds here are the children of both, but that\nof the woman, especially Christ (Gal 3:16). \"God sent forth his\nSon made of a woman\" (Gal 4:4). Whether you take it literally or\nfiguratively; for in a mystery the church is the mother of Jesus\nChrist, though naturally, or according to His flesh, He was born of\nthe virgin Mary, and proceeded from her womb: But take it either\nway, the enmity hath been maintained, and most mightily did shew\nitself against the whole kingdom of the devil, and death, and\nhell; by the undertaking, engaging, and war which the Son of God\ndid maintain against them, from his conception, to his death and\nexaltation to the right hand of the Father, as is prophesied of,\nand promised in the text, \"It shall bruise thy head.\"\n\n\"It shall bruise thy head.\" By head, we are to understand the\nwhole power, subtilty, and destroying nature of the devil; for as\nin the head of the serpent lieth his power, subtilty, and poisonous\nnature; so in sin, death, hell, and the wisdom of the flesh, lieth\nthe very strength of the devil himself. Take away sin then, and\ndeath is not hurtful: \"The sting of death is sin\": And take away\nthe condemning power of the law, and sin doth cease to be charged,\nor to have any more hurt in it, so as to destroy the soul: \"The\nstrength of sin is the law\" (1 Cor 15:56). Wherefore, the seed,\nJesus Christ, in his bruising the head of the serpent, must take\naway sin, abolish death, and conquer the power of the grave. But\nhow must this be done? Why, he must remove the curse, which makes\nsin intolerable, and death destructive. But how must he take away\nthe curse? Why, by taking upon Him \"flesh,\" as we (John 1:14); by\nbeing made \"under the law,\" as we (Gal 4:4); by being made \"to be\nsin for us\" (2 Cor 5:21), and by being \"made a curse for us\" (Gal\n3:10-13). He standing therefore in our room, under the law and\nthe justice of God, did both bear, and overcome the curse, and so\ndid bruise the power of the devil.\n\n\"It shall bruise thy head.\" To bruise is more than to break;\nhe shall quash thy head to death; so he also quashed the heel of\nChrist; which would, had not his eternal power and Godhead sustained,\nhave caused that he had perished for ever.\n\n\"And thou shalt bruise his heel.\" By these words, a necessity was\nlaid upon Jesus Christ to assume our flesh, to engage the devil\ntherein; and also because of the curse that was due to us for sin,\nthat he might indeed deliver us therefore; even for awhile to fall\nbefore this curse, and to die that death that the curse inflicteth:\n\"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a\ncurse for us.\" Thus therefore did Satan, that is, by the fruits\nand effects of sin, bruise, or kill, the flesh of Christ: But he\nbeing God, as the Father, it was not possible he should be overcome.\nTherefore his head remaineth untouched. A man's life lieth not\nin his heel, but in his head and heart; but the Godhead being the\nhead and heart of the manhood, it was not possible Satan should\nmeddle with that; he only could bruise his heel; which yet by the\npower of the Godhead of this eternal Son of the Father, was raised\nup again from the dead: \"He was delivered for our offences, and\nwas raised again for our justification\" (Rom 4:25).\n\nIn these words therefore the Lord God gave Adam a promise, That\nnotwithstanding Satan had so far brought his design to pass, as to\ncause them by falling from the command, to lay themselves open to\nthe justice and wrath of God; yet his enterprise by grace, should\nbe made of none effect. As if the Lord had said, \"Adam, thou seest\nhow the devil hath overcome thee; how he, by thy consenting to his\ntemptation, hath made thee a subject of death and hell: but though\nhe hath by this means made thee a spectacle of misery, even an\nheir of death and damnation: yet I am God, and thy sins have been\nagainst me. Now because I have grace and mercy, I will therefore\ndesign thy recovery. But how shall I bring it to pass? Why I will\ngive my Son out of my bosom, who shall in your room, and in your\nnature encounter this adversary, and overcome him. But how? Why,\nby fulfilling my law, and by answering the penalties thereof.\nHe shall bring in a righteousness which shall be \"everlasting,\"\nby which I will justify you from sin, and the curse of God due\nthereto: But this work will make him smart, he must be made \"a man\nof sorrows,\" for upon him will I lay your iniquities (Isa 53:6);\nSatan shall bruise his heel.\"\n\nVer. 16. \"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy\nsorrow and thy conception; in sorrow[15] shalt thou bring forth\nchildren; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule\nover thee.\"\n\n\"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow,\" &c. This is true, whether\nyou respect the woman according to the letter of the text, or as\nshe was a figure of the church; for in both senses their sorrows\nfor sin are great, and multiplied upon them: The whole heap of the\nfemale sex know the first,[16] the church only knows the second.\n\n\"In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.\" The more fruitful,\nthe more afflicted is the church in this world; because the rage\nof hell, and the enmity of the world, are by her righteousness\nset on fire so much the more.\n\nBut again: Forasmuch as the promise is made before this judgment\nof God for sin is threatened, we must count these afflictions not\nas coming from the hand of God in a way of vengeance, for want of\nsatisfaction for the breach of the law; but to shew and keep us in\nmind of his holiness, that henceforth we should not, as at first\nthrough ignorance, so now from notions of grace and mercy, presume\nto continue in sin.\n\nI might add, That by these words it is manifest, that a promise of\nmercy and forgiveness of sin, and great afflictions and rebukes\nfor the same, may and shall attend the same soul: \"I will greatly\nmultiply thy sorrow,\" comes after the promise of grace.\n\n\"And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over\nthee.\" Doubtless the woman was, in her first creation, made in\nsubordination to her husband, and ought to have been under obedience\nto him: Wherefore, still that had remained a duty, had they never\ntransgressed the commandment of God; but observe, the duty is\nhere again not only enjoined, and imposed, but that as the fruit\nof the woman's sin; wherefore, that duty that before she might do\nas her natural right by creation, she must now do as the fruits\nof her disobedience to God. Women therefore, whenever they would\nperk it and lord it over their husbands, ought to remember, that\nboth by creation and transgression they are made to be in subjection\nto their own husbands. This conclusion makes Paul himself: \"Let\n[saith he] the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I\nsuffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,\nbut to be in silence; for Adam was first formed, then Eve; and\nAdam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the\ntransgression\" (1 Tim 2:11-14).\n\nVer. 17. \"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened\nunto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I\ncommanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the\nground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days\nof thy life.\"\n\nGod having laid his censure upon the woman, he now proceedeth and\ncometh to her husband, and also layeth his judgment on him: The\njudgment is, \"Cursed is the ground for thy sake,\" and in sorrow\nthou shalt eat thereof. The causes of this judgment are, First,\nFor that \"he hearkened to his wife\": And also, \"For that he had\neaten of the tree.\"\n\n\"Because thou hast hearkened to thy wife.\" Why? Because therein\nhe left his station and headship, the condition which God had\nappointed him, and gave way to his wife to assume it, contrary to\nthe order of creation, of her relation, and of her sex; for God\nhad made Adam lord and chief, who ought to have taught his wife,\nand not to have become her scholar.\n\nHence note, That the man that suffereth his wife to take his place,\nhath already transgressed the order of God.[17]\n\n\"Because thou hast hearkened to the voice,\" &c. Wicked women, such\nas Eve was now, if hearkened unto, are \"the snares of death\" to\ntheir husbands; for, because they are weaker built, and because the\ndevil doth easier fasten with them than with men, therefore they\nare more prone to vanity and all mis-orders in the matters of God,\nthan they; [the men] and so, if hearkened unto, more dangerous\nupon many accounts: \"Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these\nthings? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was\nbeloved of his God, nevertheless even him did outlandish [wicked]\nwomen cause to sin\" (Neh 13:26). \"But there was none like unto\nAhab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of\nthe Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up\" (1 Kings 21:25).\n\nHence note further, That if it be thus dangerous for a man to\nhearken to a wicked wife, how dangerous is it for any to hearken\nunto wicked whores, who will seldom yield up themselves to the lusts\nof beastly men, but on condition they will answer their ungodly\npurposes! What mischief by these things hath come upon souls,\ncountries and kingdoms, will here be too tedious to relate.\n\n\"Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast\neaten of the tree.\" That is, From the hand of thy wife; for it was\nshe that gave him to eat: \"Therefore,\" &c. Although the scripture\ndoth lay a great blot upon women, and cautioneth man to beware of\nthese fantastical and unstable spirits, yet it limiteth man in his\ncensure: She is only then to be rejected and rebuked, when she doth\nthings unworthy her place and calling. Such a thing may happen, as\nthat the woman, not the man, may be in the right, (I mean, when\nboth are godly,) but ordinarily it is otherwise (Gen 21:12).\nTherefore the conclusion is, Let God's word judge between the man\nand his wife, as it ought to have done between Adam and his, and\nneither of both will do amiss; but contrariwise, they will walk\nin all the commandments of God without fault (Luke 1:6).\n\n\"Therefore cursed be the ground for thy sake.\" Behold what arguments\nare thrust into every corner, thereby to make man remember his\nsin; for all the toil of man, all the barrenness of the ground,\nand all the fruitlessness after all; What is it but the fruits of\nsin? Let not us then find fault with the weed, with the hotness,\ncoldness, or barrenness of the soil; but by seeing these things,\nremember our sin, Cursed be the ground \"for thy sake\"; for this God\nmakes our \"heaven as iron,\" and our \"earth as brass\" (Exo 26:19).\n\"The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from\nheaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed\" (Deu\n28:20-24).\n\n\"In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.\" He then\nis much deceived, who thinks to fill his body with the delicates\nof this world, and not therewith to drink the cruel venom of asps:\nYea, \"He shall suck the poison of asps, the viper's tongue shall\nslay him\" (Job 20:16). The reason is, because he that shall give\nup himself to the lusts and pleasures of this life, he contracts\nguilt, because he hath sinned; which guilt will curdle all his\npleasures, and make the sweetest of them deadly as poison.\n\n\"In sorrow shalt thou eat.\" Even thou that hast received the promise\nof forgiveness: How then can they do it with pleasure, who eat,\nand forget the Lord? (Pro 30:9; 31:5).\n\nAgain, Let not the sorrows, crosses, and afflictions, that attend\nthe godly in the things of this life, weaken their faith in the\npromise of grace, and forgiveness of sins; for such things may\nbefal the dearest Christian.\n\nVer. 18. \"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;\nand thou shalt eat the herb of the field.\"\n\nThis shews us (as I also hinted before), That the thorns and thistles\nof the ground, are but as the excrements thereof; and the fruits\nof sin, and the curse for sin. This world, as it dropt from the\nfingers of God, was far more glorious than it is now: Now it is\nloaden with a burden of corruption, thorns, thistles, and other\nannoyances, which Adam knew none of in the days of his innocency.\nNone therefore ever saw this world, as it was in its first creation,\nbut only Adam and his wife; neither shall any ever see it, until\nthe manifestation of the children of God: that is, until the\nredemption or resurrection of the saints: but then it shall be\ndelivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty\nof the children of God.\n\n\"And thou shalt eat the herb of the field.\" These words are for\nhis comfort, under all the sorrow sin should bring upon him; \"Thou\nshalt eat the herb\": The herb was a type of the gosepl-comforts\nwhich the destroying angels were forbidden to smite (Rev 7:3). Of\nthese medicinal and healing herbs therefore Adam and his seed are\nadmitted to eat, that their soul may be replenished in the midst\nof their sorrow.\n\nVer. 19. \"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou\nreturn unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust\nthou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.\"\n\n\"In the sweat of thy face.\" This is true, whether literally or\nallegorically understood: For as touching the things that pertain\nto this life, as they become not ours without toil and labour; so\nthe spiritual comforts of the kingdom of heaven are not obtained\nwithout travail and sweat: \"Labour [saith Christ] for the bread\nand meat which endureth to everlasting life\" (John 6:27).\n\n\"In the sweat of thy face.\" Those that make conscience of walking\nin the commandments of God, they shall be blessed with the bread of\nlife, when others shall be hunger-bit. That may also be mystically\napplied, \"On all hills that shall be digged with the mattock,\nthere shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns; but\nit shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading\nof lesser cattle\" (Isa 7:25). The meaning is, Where people are\ndiligent according to the word of God, especially in spiritual and\nheavenly things, they shall be fat and flourishing, though sorrow\nbe mixed therewith: \"When men are cast down: then thou shalt say,\nthere is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person\" (Job\n22:29).\n\n\"Till thou return to the ground.\" A Christian should not leave off\nsweating labour so long as he is above the ground; even until he\nreturneth thither, he ought to be diligent in the way and worship\nof God. Jacob, when sick, would worship God, though so weak as\nnot able to do it, without leaning upon the top of his staff: A\nblessed example for the diligent, and reproof for those that are\nslothful (Heb 11:21).\n\n\"For out of it wast thou taken.\" That is, out of the ground. Behold\nhow the Lord doth mix his doctrine! Now he tells him of his sin,\nthen he promiseth to give him a Saviour, then again he shews him\nthe fruits of his sin, and immediately after the comforts of the\npromise; yet again, he would have him remember that he is but a\nmortal creature, not to live here for ever; neither made of silver\nnor gold, but even of a clod of dust: \"For dust thou art.\" Observe\ntherefore, that in the midst of all our enjoyments, God would have\nus consider our frame, that we may know how frail we are.\n\n\"For out of it was thou taken.\" It is hard for us to believe it,\nthough we daily see it is the way even of all the earth, to return\nthither again: \"For dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.\"\n\nWhether this was spoken to Adam, as a judgment, or a mercy, or\nboth, is not hard to determine, (this first premised, that Adam\nhad received the promise;) for as it was the fruit of sin, so a\njudgment and a token of God's displeasure; \"for the wages of sin\nis death\" (Rom 6:23). But as it is made by the wisdom of God, a\nprevention of further wickedness, and a conveyance through faith\nin Christ, to a more perfect enjoyment of God in the heavens; so\nit is a mercy and blessing of God (Isa 57:1,2); For thus \"to die\nis gain.\" Wherefore thus we may praise the dead, that are already\ndead, more than the living, which are yet alive (Eccl 4:2). This\nmade Paul desire to depart; for he knew that through death was\nthe way to have more perfect sight of, and more close and higher\ncommunion with the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit in the\nheavens (2 Cor 5:6). I have a desire to depart, and be with Christ,\nwhich is far better (Phil 1:21-23). Thus therefore those things\nthat in their own nature are the proper fruits and wages of sin,\nmay yet through the wisdom of God be turned about for our good\n(Jer 24:5); but let not this embolden to sin, but rather minister\noccasion to us to magnify the wisdom of God (Rom 8:28).\n\nVer. 20. \"And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the\nmother of all living.\"\n\nBy this act Adam returneth to his first station and authority\nin which God had placed him, from which he fell when he became a\nscholar to his wife; for to name the creatures, was in Adam a note\nof sovereignty and power: This he attained to, as an effect of his\nreceiving the promise; for before the promise is received, man\ncannot serve God in his station, because as he wanteth the power\nof will, so also a good understanding; but when he hath received\nthe promise, he hath also received the Holy Ghost, which giveth to\nthe godly to know and do his duty in his station: \"The spiritual\"\nman discerneth, and so \"judgeth all things\"; but he is not discerned\nnor judged of any (1 Cor 2:15).\n\nAnd he called his wife's name Eve, or Hevah: Because she gave\nlife to, or was the first mother of all mankind. This then admits\nof two positions. First, That the world was created when Adam\nwas created. And, Secondly, That there were none of the sons of\nmen in the world before Adam, as some have not only vainly, but\nirreligiously and blasphemously suggested. \"Eve is the mother of\nall living\": Not a man therefore that is the son of man, but had\nhis being since the woman was made.\n\nVer. 21. \"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make\ncoats of skins, and clothed them.\"\n\nBy this action the Lord God did preach to Adam, and to his wife,\nthe meaning of that promise that you read of in verse 15. Namely,\nThat by the means of Jesus Christ, God himself would provide\na sufficient clothing for those that accept of his grace by the\ngospel: The coats here, being a type of that blessed and durable\nrighteousness.\n\n\"The Lord God made the coats.\" Not Adam now, because now he is\nreceived into a covenant of grace with God: Indeed before he entered\ninto this covenant, he made his own clothing, such as it was, but\nthat could not cover his nakedness; but now the Lord will make\nthem: And \"unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make\ncoats\": \"Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord\" (Isa 54:17).\nOf me, that is, of my providing, of my performing. And this is\nthe name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS\"\n(Jer 23:6).\n\n\"He made them coats, and clothed them.\" As the righteousness by\nwhich a sinner stands just in the sight of God from the curse, is\na righteousness of God's providing; so also it is of his putting\non. No man can put on the righteousness of Christ, otherwise\nthan by God's imputation: if God reckon it ours then it is ours\nindeed; but if he refuseth to shew that mercy, who can impute that\nrighteousness to me? Blessed are they to whom the Lord imputeth\nrighteousness (Rom 4). Cursed then must they needs be to whom God\nhath not imputed the righteousness of his Son. \"The Lord clothed\nthem,\" according to that of Paul, \"Christ is made unto us of God\nwisdom and righteousness,\" &c. (1 Cor 1:30). And of that God who\nhath made him thus to us, even of him are we in Christ Jesus.\n\nDid the Lord God make coats of skins. The coats were made of the\nskins of beasts, of the skins of the slain, which were slain either\nfor food only, or for sacrifice also: This being so, the effects\nof that promise mentioned before were by this action the more\nclearly expounded unto Adam; to wit, That Christ, \"in the fulness\nof time,\" should be born of a woman clothed with flesh; and as so\nconsidered, should be made a curse, and so die that cursed death\nwhich by sin we had brought upon ourselves; the effects and fruits\nof which should to us be durable clothing; that is, \"Everlasting\nrighteousness\" (Dan 9:24). Ver. 22, 23. \"And the Lord God said,\nBehold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and\nnow, [therefore] lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the\ntree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God\nsent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from\nwhence he was taken.\"\n\n\"Behold the man is become as one of us.\" These words respect the\ntemptation of the devil; the argument that prevailed with Adam;\nand the fruits of their consenting: And therefore I understand them\nas spoken ironically, or in derision to Adam. As if God had said,\n\"Now Adam, you see what a god you are become: The serpent told you\n\"you should be as gods,\" as one that was infinite in wisdom. But\nbehold, your godhead is horrible wickedness, even pollution of body\nand soul by sin. A thing you little thought of when you pleased\nyourself with the thought of that high attainment; and now if\nyou be not prevented, you will proceed from evil to evil; for\nnotwithstanding I have made promise of sending a Saviour, you will,\nthrough the pollution of your mind, forget and set at nought my\npromise; and seek life and salvation by that tree of life which\nwas never intended for the justification of sinners; therefore I\nwill turn you out of the garden, \"to till the ground whence thou\nwast taken.\"\"\n\n1. Hence observe, That it often falls out, after the promised\nblessing is come, that God yet maketh us to possess our former\nsins, not that the guilt thereof might be charged to condemnation,\nbut that remembering of them, we might blush before God, and be\nthe more effectually driven to a continual embracing of the mercy\npromised.\n\n2. Observe again, That as God would have us to remember our former\nsins, so he would not that we should feed upon ought but the very\nmercy promised. We must not rest in shadowish sacraments, as the\ntypical tree of life, but must remember it is our duty to live by\nfaith in the promised seed.\n\n3. Observe also, That even our outward and temporal employments,\nif they be lawful and honest, are so ordered of God, as that we\nmay gather some heavenly mystery from them: \"To till the ground\nfrom whence he was taken\": Mysteriously intimating two things to\nAdam. (1.) That seeing he was of the earth, he stood in as much\nneed to be ordered and dressed by God, in order to his future\nhappiness, as the ground, in order to its thrift and fruitfulness.\n(2.) Again, Seeing he was taken from the ground, he is neither\nGod, nor angel, but a poor earthen vessel, such as God can easily\nknock in pieces, and cause to return to the ground again. These\nthings therefore Adam was to learn from his calling, that he might\nneither think too highly of himself, nor forget to live by faith,\nand depending on the Lord God, to be blessed of him.\n\nVer. 24. \"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the\ngarden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every\nway, to keep the way of the tree of life.\"\n\n\"So he drove out the man.\" Adam was loth to forsake this garden of\nEden, because there was the tree of life. The promise will hardly\nsatisfy, where faith is weak and low. Had this man with great\nfaith received and retained the gospel preached before, he would\nnot have so hankered after a shadow; but the conscience being\nawakened, and faith low and weak there, because faith wants the\nflower or bloom of assurance, the ceremonial or moral law doth\nwith ease engender bondage.\n\n\"And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and\na flaming sword.\" This shows the truth of what I said before; to\nwit, That Adam was loth to forsake the garden, loth to forsake\nhis doing of something; but God sets a shaking sword against him,\na sword to keep that way, or to prevent that Adam should have life\nby eating of the tree of life.\n\nObserve, This tree of life, though lawful for Adam to feed on before\nhe had transgressed, yet now is wholly forbidden him; intimating,\nthat that which would have nourished him before he brake the law,\nwill now avail him nothing as to life before the justice of God:\nthe tree of life might have maintained his life before he sinned;\nbut having done that, he hath no ways now but to live by faith in\nthe promise; which that he might effectually do, God takes from\nhim the use of all other things, he driveth him out of the garden,\nand sets to keep him from the tree of life, \"Cherubims, and a\nflaming sword.\"\n\n\"And he placed at the east of the garden Cherubims, and a flaming\nsword.\" These cherubims are one sort of the angels of God, at this\ntime made ministers of justice, shaking the flaming sword of God's\nseverity against Adam for sin, threatening to cut him off thereby,\nif he ever return by the way that he went.\n\nWe read also, that the law was delivered to Israel from Sinai, by\nthe hand and disposition of angels (Acts 7); the gospel, only by\nthe Son himself (Heb 1:2).\n\nTo keep the way. Hence the apostle implicitly concludes it a way,\nthat is, to death and damnation; by opposing another against it,\neven the new and living one; a new, not this the old; a living\none, not this the dead one (Heb 10). For, for that the cherubims\nare here placed with a flaming, shaking sword, to keep the tree\nof life, it is evident that death is threatened to him that shall\nat any time attempt to come at, or that seeks for life that way.\n\n\"A flaming sword, turning every way to keep,\" &c. This still shews\nus, that man, though he hath already received the promise, is yet\nexceeding prone to seek life by another way than free grace by\nJesus Christ; to wit, either by the law he hath broken, or by the\nlaw and Christ together; and so though not directly, yet \"as it\nwere by the works of the law\" (Rom 9:32). But all is to no purpose,\nthey are every way prevented. For, forsake the simplicity of the\npromise in the gospel, and thou shalt meet with the stroke of\nthe justice of God; for that flaming sword of his vengeance, it\nturneth every way, and therefore will in every way lay wrath upon\nthee, if thou seek life by ought but Christ.\n\nCHAPTER IV. Ver. 1. \"And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived,\nand bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.\"\n\nNow we are come to the generation of mankind. \"Adam knew his wife\":\nA modest expression; and it should teach us, in all such matters\nwhere things are discoursed of, that are either the fruits of\nsin, or the proper effects of man's natural infirmities, there to\nendeavour the use of such expressions, as neither to provide to\nlust, nor infect us with evil and uncivil communication. \"Adam\nknew his wife\"; Jacob, Samson, David, and others, are said to go\nin unto them. So as to our natural infirmities of the stool, the\nscripture expression is, \"When thou goest abroad to ease thyself,\nthou shalt turn again and cover that which cometh from thee\":\nModest and bashful expressions, and such as become the godly,\nbeing those that are furthest off of occasioning evil, and nearest\nto an intimation, that such infirmities bespeak us infirm and\nimperfect creatures.\n\n\"And she conceived and bare Cain.\" The first sprout of a disobedient\ncouple, a man in shape, but a devil in conditions. This is he that\nis called elsewhere, The child \"of that wicked one\" (1 John 3:12).\n\n\"And she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.\" If Eve by these\nwords did only ascribe the blessing of children to be the gift of\nGod, then she spake like a godly woman; but if she supposed that\nthis man Cain was indeed the seed promised, then it shows, that\nshe in this was also deceived, and was therein a figure of all\nsuch as make false and strange delusions, signs of the mercy of\nGod towards them: The man she thought she had got from the Lord\nas a mercy, and to be a Saviour, he proved a man of the devil, a\ncurse, and to be a destroyer.\n\nVer. 2. \"And she again bare his brother Abel, And Abel was a keeper\nof sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.\"\n\nObserve here, That the good child is not the first-born, but Abel,\n[a breath] (1 Cor 1:27,28). God often doth as Jacob did, even\ncross hands, in bestowing blessings, giving that which is best to\nhim that is least esteemed: For Cain was the man in Eve's esteem;\nshe thought, when she had him, she had got an inheritance; but as\nfor Abel, he was little worth; by his name they showed how little\nthey set by him. It is so with the sincere to this day; they\nbear not the name of glory with the world: Cain with them is the\nprofitable son; Abel is of no credit with them, neither see they\nform or comeliness in him; he is the melancholy, or lowering child,\nwhose countenance spoileth the mirth of the world: \"The heart of\nthe wise is in the house of mournings; but the heart of fools is\nin the house of mirth\" (Eccl 7:4).\n\n\"And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the\nground.\" By this it seems yet further, that Cain was the man in\nfavour, even him that should, by his Father's intentions, have been\nheir, and have enjoyed the inheritance: He was nurtured up in his\nfather's employment, but Abel was set in the lower rank.\n\nIt was also thus with Isaac and Jacob, Ishmael and Esau, being the\neldest, and those that by intention were to be heirs.\n\nNow in the inheritance lay, of old, a great blessing: so that Esau in\nlosing his father's inheritance, lost also the blessing of grace,\nand moreover the kingdom of heaven (Heb 12:16,17). Wherefore Cain\nhad by this the better of Abel, even as the Jews by their privileges\nhad the better of the Gentiles (Rom 3:1,2). But mark it, the blessing\nof grace is not led by outward order, but by electing love: Where\nthe person then is under the blessing of election, be he the first\nor the second son, the highest or lowest in the family, or whether\nhe be more or less loved of his friends, 'tis he that with Abel\nhath the everlasting blessing.\n\nVer. 3. \"And, in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought\nof the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.\"\n\nMark here, That the devil can suffer his children, in outward\nforms of worship, to be godly and righteous men: Cain, a limb of\nthe devil, and yet the first in order that presents himself and\nhis service to God.\n\nCain brought of the fruit of the ground, as of wheat, oil, honey,\nor the like; which things were also clean and good. Hence it is\nintimated, that his offering was excellent; and I conceive, not at\nall, as to the matter itself, inferior to that of Abel's; for in\nthat it is said that Abel's was more excellent, it is not with\nrespect to the excellency of the matter or things with which they\nsacrificed, but with respect to Abel's faith, which gave glory\nand acceptableness to his offering with God, \"By faith he offered\nunto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain\" (Heb 11:4).\n\n\"And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of\nthe fat thereof\" &c.\n\nAbel, last in appearance, but in truth the first in grace; as\nit also is at this day: Who do so flutter it out as our ruffling\nformal worshippers? Alas! the good, the sincere and humble, they\nseem to be least and last; but the conclusion of the tragedy will\nmake manifest that the first is last, and the last first; for the\nmany are but called, the few are chosen.\n\n\"And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering.\" Herein\nare the true footsteps of grace discovered; to wit, the person must\nbe the first in favour with God, the person first, the performance\nafterwards.\n\n\"And the Lord had respect to Abel.\" But how can God respect a\nman, before he respect his offering? A man's gift (saith Solomon)\nmakes way for him: It should seem therefore that there lies no such\nstress in the order of words, but that it might as well be read,\n\"The Lord had respect to Abel, because he respected his offering.\"\n\nAnsw. Not so: For though it be true among men, that the gift makes\nway for the acceptance of the person, yet in the order of grace it\nis after another manner; for if the person be not first accepted,\nthe offering must be abominable; for it is not a good work that\nmakes a good man, but a good man makes a good work. The fruit\ndoth not make a good tree, but \"a good tree bringeth forth good\nfruit.\" Make (saith Christ) the tree good, and his fruit good; or\nthe tree evil, and his fruit evil: Do men gather grapes of thorns,\nor figs of thistles? Had Abel been a thorn, he had not brought forth\ngrapes; had he been a thistle, he had not brought forth figs. So\nthen, Abel's person must be first accepted, and after that his\nworks.\n\nObject. But God accepteth no man while he remains a sinner, but\nall men are sinners before they do good works, how then could the\nperson of Abel be accepted first?\n\nAnsw. Abel was JUST before he did offer sacrifice. Just, I say, in\nthe sight of God. This God witnessed by testifying of his gift: \"By\nfaith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,\nby which he obtained witness that he was righteous\": That is, God\nby accepting of the gift of Abel, did testify that Abel was a\nrighteous man; for we know God \"heareth not sinners\": \"The prayers\nof the wicked are an abomination unto God.\" But Abel was accepted,\ntherefore he was righteous first.\n\nHence observe, That a man must be righteous before he can do any\ngood work.\n\nQuest. Righteous! \"With what righteousness?\"\n\nAnsw. With the righteousness of faith. And therefore it is said,\nthat Abel had faith before he offered sacrifice. \"By faith he\noffered\" (Heb 11:4). Where faith is made to precede or go before\nthe work which by faith he offered unto God.\n\nQuest. But are not good works the righteousness of faith?\n\nAnsw. They are the fruits of faith: As here in the case of Abel;\nhis faith produced an offering; but before he gave his offering,\nhis faith had made him righteous; for faith respects a promise of\ngrace, not a work of mine: Now the promise of grace, being this,\nthat the seed of the woman, which is Christ, should destroy\nthe power of the devil; by this Abel saw that it was Christ that\nshould abolish sin and death by himself, and bring in \"everlasting\nrighteousness\" for sinners. Thus believing, he had accepted of\nChrist for righteousness, which because he had done, God in truth\nproclaims him righteous, by accepting of his person and performances\nwhen offered.\n\nAbel then presented his person and offering, as shrouding both, by\nfaith, under the righteousness of Christ, which lay wrapped up in\nthe promise; but Cain stands upon his own legs, and so presents\nhis offering. Abel therefore is accepted, both his person and his\noffering, while Cain remains accursed.\n\nVer. 5. \"But unto Cain, and to his offering, he [the Lord] had not\nrespect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.\"\n\nMark: As first Abel's person is accepted, and then his offering;\nso first Cain's person is rejected, and afterwards his offering:\nFor God seeth not sin in his own institutions, unless they be\ndefiled by them that worship him; and that they needs must, when\npersons by[18] themselves offer sacrifice to God, because then\nthey want the righteousness of faith.\n\nThis then made the difference betwixt Abel and his brother; Abel\nhad faith, but Cain had none. Abel's faith covered him with Jesus\nChrist, therefore he stood righteous in his person before God: This\nbeing so, his offering was accepted, because it was the offering\nof one that was righteous.\n\n\"But unto Cain, and to his offering, the Lord had not respect.\"\nHence note, That a Christless man is a wicked man, let him be never\nso full of actions that be righteous; for righteous actions make\nnot a righteous man, the man himself must first be righteous.[19]\n\nWherefore, though Cain was the eldest, and first in the worship;\nyet Abel was the wisest, and the most acceptable therein.\n\n\"And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.\" From these\nwords it may be gathered, that Cain had some evident token from the\nobservation of God's carriage towards both himself and brother;\nthat his brother was smiled upon, but he rejected: He was wroth:\nwroth with God, and wroth with his brother. And indeed, before\nthe world hate us, they must needs hate Jesus Christ: \"It hated\nme [saith he] before it hated you\" (John 15:18). He was wroth:\nand why? Wroth because his sacrifice was not accepted of God: And\nyet the fault was not in the Lord, but Cain: He came not before\nthe Lord, as already made righteous with the righteousness of\nChrist, which indeed had been doing well, but as a cursed wicked\nwretch, he thought that by his own good works he must be just\nbefore the Lord.\n\nThe difference therefore that was between these worshippers,\nit lay not in that they worshipped divers gods, but in that they\nworshipped the same God after a diverse manner: The one in faith,\nthe other without; the one as righteous, the other as wicked.\n\nAnd even thus it is between us and our adversaries: We worship not\ndivers gods, but the same God in a diverse manner: We according\nto faith; and they according to their OWN INVENTIONS.[20]\n\n\"And Cain was wroth.\" This further shows us the force of the law,\nand the end of those that would be just by the same; namely, That\nin conclusion they will quarrel with God; for when the soul in its\nbest performances, and acts of righteousness, shall yet be rejected\nand cast off by God, it will fret and wrangle, and in its spirit\nlet fly against God. For thus it judgeth, That God is austere and\nexacting; it hath done what it could to please him, and he is not\npleased therewith. This again offendeth God, and makes his justice\ncurse and condemn the soul. Condemn it, I say, for imagining that\nthe righteousness of a poor, sinful, wretched creature, should be\nsufficient to appease eternal justice for sin. Thus the law worketh\nwrath, because it always bindeth our transgression to us, and still\nreckoneth us sinners, and accursed, when we have done our utmost\nto answer and fulfil it (Rom 4:15).\n\n\"And his countenance fell.\" However, an hypocrite, while God\nforbeareth to smite him, may triumph and joy in his goodness; yet\nwhen God shall pronounce his judgment according as he approve of\nhis act, he needs must lower and fall in his countenance; for his\nperson and gift are rejected, and he still counted a sinner.\n\nVer. 6. \"And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why\nis thy countenance fallen?\"\n\nThese words are applied to Cain, for a further conviction of his\nstate to be miserable. \"Why art thou wroth?\" Is it because I have\nnot accepted thy offering? This is without ground, thy person is\nyet an abomination to me: Must I be made by thy gift, which is\npolluted, for and by thy person, to justify thee as righteous? Thou\nhast not yet done well. Wherefore, Cain had no cause to be wroth;\nFor God rejected only that which was sinful, as was both his person,\nand gift for the sake thereof: Neither had he grounds to lift up\nhis looks on high, when he came to offer his sacrifice; because he\ncame not as a man in a justify'd state. But \"there is a generation\nthat are pure in their ow eyes, and yet is not washed from their\nfilthiness. There is a generation,--O how lofty are their eyes!\nand their eyelids are lifted up\" (Pro 30:12,13). Such an one, or\nthe father of these, was Cain; he counted himself clean, and yet\nwas not washed; he lifted up his looks on high, before he was\nchanged from his iniquity.\n\nVer. 7. \"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if\nthou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall\nbe his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.\" \"If thou do well.\"\nWhy, is not worshipping of God, well-doing? It may, and may not,\neven as the person that worships is found. If he be found righteous\nat his coming to worship, and if he worship according to rule,\nthen he does well, then he is accepted of God; but if he be not\nfound righteous before, be you sure he cannot do well, let the\nmatter with which he worshippeth be wrong or right. \"Who can bring\na clean thing out of an unclean?\" (John 14:4). Let Cain be clean,\nand his offering will be clean, because brought to God in a vessel\nthat is clean; but if Cain be unclean, all the holy things he\ntoucheth, or layeth up in his skirt, it is made unclean by the\nuncleanness of his person: \"And so is this nation before me, saith\nthe Lord; and so is every work of their hands, and that which they\noffer there is unclean\" (Haggai 2:11-14).[21]\n\nMen therefore ought to distinguish between doing and well-doing,\neven in the worship of God. All that worship do not do well, though\nthe matter of worship be good in itself. Cain's offering you find\nnot blamed, as if it had been of a superstitious complexion; but\nhe came not aright to worship. Why? he came not as one made righteous\nbefore. Wherefore, as I have already touched, the difference\nthat lay between the gifts of Abel and Cain, was not in the gifts\nthemselves, but the qualifications of the persons. Abel's faith,\nand Cain's works, made God approve and reject the offering: \"by\nfaith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain\":\nFor, as I said, Faith in Christ, as promised to come, made him\nrighteous, because thereby he obtained \"the righteousness of God\";\nfor so was Christ in himself, and so to be to him that by faith\nreceived and accepted of him: This, I say, Abel did; wherefore now\nhe is righteous or just before God. This being so, his offering is\nfound to be an offering of Abel the just, and is here said to obtain\nwitness even of God, that he was righteous, because he accepted\nhis gift.\n\nWherefore, he that does well must first be good: \"He that doeth\nrighteousness is [must first be] righteous\" (1 John 3:7). He\nis righteous first; he is righteous even as Christ is righteous,\nbecause Christ himself is the righteousness of such a person.\nAnd so on the contrary; the reason why some men's good deeds are\naccursed of God, it is because in truth, and according to the law,\nthe Lord finds sin in them; which sins he cannot pardon, because\nhe finds them not in Christ. Thus they being evil for want of\nthe righteousness of the Son of God, they worship God as sinners,\naccording to that of the apostle, Because they are not good,\ntherefore they do not good, no, not one of them (Rom 3:10-12).\n\nThe way therefore to do well, it is first to receive the mercy of\nGod in Christ; which act of thine will be more pleasing to the\nDivine Majesty, than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices: \"I\nwill have mercy [saith God] I will have mercy, and not sacrifice\"\n(Matt 9:13; 12:7). This Cain did not understand, therefore he goes\nto God in his sins, and without faith in the mercy of God through\nChrist, he offereth his sacrifice. Wherefore because his sacrifice\ncould not take away his sin, therefore it still abode upon him.\n\nBut \"if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.\" This reasoning\ntherefore was much to Cain's condition; he would be wroth, because\nGod did not accept his offering, and yet he did not well: Now, if\nhe had done well, God, by receiving of his brother's sacrifice,\nshows, he would have accepted him; for this is evident, they were\nboth alike by nature; their offerings also were in themselves one\nas holy as the other: How then comes it to pass that both were\nnot accepted, they both offered to God? Why, Abel only sacrificed\nwell, because he first by faith in Christ was righteous: This\nbecause Cain wanted, \"sin abideth at his door.\"\n\n\"And to thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.\"\nThat is if sin abideth at thy door still, to thee shall be his\ndesire; he shall love, pity, pray for thee, and endeavour thy\nconversions; but thou shalt be lord over him, and shalt put thy\nyoke upon his neck. This was Jacob's portion also; for after Esau\nhad got head, he broke Jacob's yoke from off his neck, and reigned\nby nineteen or twenty dukes and princes, before there was any king\nin Israel (Gen 27:40).\n\nIt is the lot of Cain's brood, to be lords and rulers first, while\nAbel and his generation have their necks under persecution; yet\nwhile they lord it, and thus tyrannically afflict and persecute,\nour very desire is towards them, wishing their salvation: While\nthey curse, we bless; and while they persecute, we pray.\n\nVer. 8. \"And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to\npass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel\nhis brother, and slew him.\"\n\nWhen Cain saw that by God's judgment Abel was the better worshipper,\nand that himself must by no means be admitted for well-doing, his\nheart began to be more obdurate and hard, and to grow into that\nheight of desperateness, as to endeavour the extirpating of all\ntrue religion out of the world; which it seems he did, by killing\nhis brother, mightily accomplish, until the days of Enos; for\n\"then began men [again] to call upon the name of the Lord\" (v 26).\n\nHence see the spite of the children of hell against God: They have\nslain thy prophets, and digged down thine altars (1 Kings 19:10).\nIf they may have their wills, God must be content with their\nreligion, or none; other they will not endure should have show\nwithin their reach, but with Cain, will rather kill their brother;\nor with the Pharisees, kill their Lord; and with the evil kings\nof old, will rather kill their sons and subjects. That the truth,\nI say, may fall to the ground, and their own inventions stand\nfor acceptable sacrifices, they will not only envy, but endeavour\nto invalidate all the true worship and worshippers of God in the\nworld; the which if they cannot without blood accomplish, they\nwill slay and kill till their cruelty hath destroyed many ten\nthousands, even as Cain, who slew his brother Abel.[22]\n\nAnd Cain talked with his brother. He had not a law whereby to\narraign him, but malice enough, and a tongue to set all on fire, of\nwhich no doubt, by the goodly replies of his brother, was easily\nblown up into choler and madness, the end of which was the blood\nof his brother.\n\n\"And Cain talked with Abel,\" &c. To wit, about the goodness and\ntruth of his religion. For that the New Testament seems to import,\nhe slew him \"because his works were righteous\" (1 John 3:12); which\nAbel, no doubt, had justified before his brother, even then when\nhe most set himself to oppose him. Besides this, the connection\nof the relation importeth, he talked with him, he slew him; he\ntalked with him and slew him, purely upon a religious account,\nbecause his works were righteous.\n\nHence note, That when wicked men have the head in the world,\nprofessors had need be resolved to hazard the worst, before they\ndo enter debate with ungodly men about the things that pertain to\nthe kingdom of God. For behold here, words did not end in words,\nbut from words came blows, and from blows blood. The counsel\ntherefore is, \"That you sit down first, and count up the cost,\"\nbefore ye talk with Cain of religion (Luke 14:27-33). \"They make a\nman an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth\nin the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought\" (Isa\n29:21).\n\n\"And Cain talked with Abel his brother.\" With Abel his only brother,\nwho also was a third part of the world. But tyrants matter nothing,\nneither nearness of kin, nor how much they destroy: \"The brother\nshall betray the brother to death,\" &c.\n\n\"And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose\nup against Abel his brother, and slew him.\" When they were in the\nfield, from home, out of the sight, and far from the help of his\nfather: Subtle persecutors love not to bite, till they can make\ntheir teeth to meet; for which they observe their time and place.\nJoseph was also hated of his brethren, but they durst not meddle\ntill they found him in the field (Gen 37:15). Here it is also that\nthe holy virgin falleth: He found her in the field,--and there\nwas none to save her (Deut 22:27).\n\nHence observe again, That be the danger never so imminent, and the\nadvantage of the adversary never so great, the sincere professor\nof the truth stands his ground against wind and weather. Bloody\nCain daunted not holy Abel; no, though now he have his advantage of\nhim (Dan 3:16-18). He rose up against Abel his brother, and slew\nhim. \"And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil,\"\n&c. (1 John 3:12). It is therefore hence to be observed, That it\nis a sign of an evil way, be it covered with the name of the worship\nof God, when it cannot stand without the shedding of innocent\nblood. \"Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil.\"\nHad his works been good, they had been accepted of God: He had\nalso had the joy thereof in his conscience, as doubtless Abel\nhad; which joy and peace would have produced love and pity to his\nbrother, as it was with his brother towards him; but his works\nbeing evil, they minister to him no heavenly joy, neither do they\nbeget in him love to his brother; but contrariwise, his heart fill\nhis eye with evil also; which again provoketh (while it beholdeth\nthe godly carriage of Abel) the heart to more desperate resolutions,\neven to set upon him with all his might, and to cut him off from\nthe earth. Thus the goodness of God's people provoketh to envy the\nwicked heart of the hypocrite. As it was betwixt Saul and David;\nfor after Saul had seen that God had rejected him for his wickedness,\nthe more he hated the goodness of David: \"And Saul saw and knew\nthat the Lord was with David\" (1 Sam 18:8-15). \"And Saul was yet the\nmore afraid of David; and Saul became David's enemy continually\"\n(v 29).\n\nVer. 9. \"And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?\nAnd he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?\"\n\nCain thought it had been no more but to kill his brother, and his\nintentions and desires must needs be accomplished, and that himself\nshould then be the only man. \"Come, let us kill him, and the\ninheritance shall be ours\" (Mark 12:7). But stay, Abel was beloved\nof his God, who had also justified his offering, and accepted it\nas a service more excellent than his brother's. So then, because\nthe quarrel arose between them upon this very account, therefore\nAbel's God doth reckon himself as engaged (seeing he is not) to\ntake up his servant's cause himself.\n\n\"And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?\" A\nquestion not grounded on uncertainty, but proposed as a beginning\nof further reasoning; and also to make way to this wicked wretch,\nto discover the desperate wickedness of his bloody heart the more.\nFor questions that stand at first afar off, do draw out more of the\nheart of another: and also do minister more occasion for matter,\nthan if they had been placed more near to the matter.\n\n\"Where is Abel?\" God missed the acceptable sacrifices of Abel; Abel\nwas dead, and his sacrifices ceased, which had wont to be savoury\nin the nostrils of God; Cain could not supply them; his sacrifices\nwere deficient, they were not of faith. Hence note, that if tyrants\nshould have their will, even to the destroying of all the remnant\nof God, their sacrifices and worship would be yet before God as\nabominable as they were before.\n\n\"And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel?\" O dreadful question!\nThe beginning of Cain's hell, for now God entereth into judgment\nwith him. Wherefore, however this wretch endeavoured at first to\nstifle and choke his conscience, yet this was to him the arrow\nof death: Abel crieth, but his brother would not hear him while\nalive, and now being dead God hears the cry of his blood. \"When he\nmaketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth\nnot the cry of the humble\" (Psa 9:12). Blood that is shed for the\nsake of God's word, shall not be forgotten or disregarded of God:\n\"Precious in his sight is the death of his saints\" (Psa 116:15).\n\"And precious shall their blood be in his sight\" (Psa 72:14).\n\n\"Where is Abel thy brother?\" This word, thy brother, must not be\nleft out, because it doth greatly aggravate his wickedness. He slew\n\"his brother\"; which horrid act the very law and bond of nature\nforbiddeth. But when a man is given up of God, it is neither this\nnor another relation that will bind his hands, or make him keep\nwithin the bound of any law. Judas will seek his master's, and\nAbsalom his father's blood. \"Where is Abel thy brother?\"\n\n\"And he said, I know not.\" He knew full well what he had done, and\nthat by his hands his brother's blood was fallen to the ground,\nbut now being called into question for the same, he endeavoureth\nto plead ignorance before God. \"I know not.\" When men have once\nbegun to sin, they know not where they shall end; he slew his\nbrother, and endeavours to cover his fact with a lie. David also\nlittle thought his act of adultery would have led him to have\nspilt the blood of Uriah, and afterwards to have covered all with\ndissembling lips and a lying tongue (2 Sam 11).\n\n\"I know not: am I my brother's keeper?\"\n\nThis is the way of all ungodly men, they will not abide that guilt\nshould be fastened. Sin they love, and the lusts and delights\nthereof, but to count for it they cannot abide; they will put it\noff with excuses, or denials: Even like Saul, who though he had\nspared the cattle and Agag contrary to the command of God, yet\nwould needs bear Samuel down, that he had kept, yea \"performed the\ncommandment of the Lord\" (1 Sam 15:13,20). But they are denials to\nno boot, and excuses that will not profit, that are made to hide\nthe sin of the soul from the sight and judgment of God. Lies and\nfalsehood will here do nothing.\n\nVer. 10. \"And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy\nbrother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.\"\n\nPoor Cain, thy feeble shifts help thee nothing, thy excuses are\ndrowned by the cries of the blood which thou hast shed.\n\n\"What hast thou done?\" the blood of thy brother cries. Beware\npersecutors, you think that when you have slain the godly, you are\nthen rid of them; but you are far wide, their blood which you have\nshed, cries in the ears of God against you. O the cries of blood\nare strong cries, they are cries that reach to heaven; yea they\nare cries that have a continual voice, and that never cease to\nmake a noise, until they have procured vengeance form the hands\nof the Lord of sabbath (Job 16:18): And therefore this is the word\nof the Lord against all those that are for the practice of Cain:\n\"As I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood\nand blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, [that\nis, hated to shed it,] even blood shall pursue thee\" (Eze 35:6).\n\n\"The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me.\" The apostle\nmakes this voice of the blood of Abel, a type of the voice of the\njustice of the law, and so extends it further than merely to the\nact of murder; intimating that he sheds blood, that breaks any of\nthe commands of God, (and indeed so he doth, \"he layeth wait of\nhis own blood, and privily lurketh for his own life\" (Prov 1:18)).\nWherefore the apostle compareth the blood of Abel and the blood\nof Christ together; but so as by the rule of contraries, making\nbetwixt them a contrary voice, even as there is between a broken\ncommand and a promise of grace, the one calling for vengeance and\ndamnation; the other calling for forgiveness and salvation; \"the\nblood of sprinkling it speaketh better things than the blood of\nAbel\" (Heb 12:24); that is, it calls to God to forgive the sinner;\nbut Abel's blood, of the breach of the law, that cries damn them,\ndamn them. Christ also sets his own blood in opposition to the\nblood of all that was shed before him; concluding that the proper\nvoice of all the blood of the godly, is to call for vengeance\non the persecutors, even from the blood of Abel to the blood of\nZecharias, that was slain between the altar and the temple (Matt\n23:35). And let me here take leave to propound my private thoughts:\nnamely, that the Zecharias that here is mentioned, might not be\nhe that we find in the book of Chronicles (2 Chron 24:21); but\none of that name that lived in the days of Christ, possibly John\nBaptist's father, or some other holy man. My reasons for this\nconjecture, are, 1. Because the murderers are convict by Christ\nhimself: Zecharias, whom ye slew between the altar and the temple.\n2. Because Christ makes a stop at the blood of Zecharias, not\nat the blood of John the Baptist: wherefore, if the person here\nmentioned were not murdered after, but before John the Baptist,\nthen Christ seems to excuse them for killing his servant John;\nfor the judgment stops at the including of the guilt of the blood\nof Zecharias. 3. I think such a thing, because the voice of all\nholy blood that hath been shed before the law by the adversary,\nexcepting only the blood of Jesus, must needs be included here;\nthe proper voice of his, only being to plead for mercy to the\nmurderers. However, the voice of blood is a very killing voice, and\nwill one day speak with such thunder and terror in the consciences\nof all the brood of Cain, that their pain and burthen will be for\never insupportable.\n\nVer. 11. \"And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened\nher mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.\"\n\nHere begins the sentence of God against this bloody man; a sentence\nfearful and terrible, for it containeth a removing of him from\nall the privileges of grace and mercy, and a binding of him over\nto the punishment and pains of the damned.\n\n\"And now art thou cursed from the earth.\" Peace on earth, is one\nbranch of those blessed tidings that were brought into the world,\nat the coming of the Messias (Luke 2:14). Again, before Christ\nwas come in the flesh, it is said, He rejoiced \"in the habitable\npart of his earth\" (Pro 8:30). Wherefore, by the earth in this\nplace, I understand the state that the men are in, to whom, by the\nmind of God, the gospel and grace of God is to be tendered. Now,\nwhether it respect that state of man by nature, or the state of\nthose that are saints, from both these privileges Cain is separate,\nas are all whom the Lord hath utterly rejected. Not but that yet\nthey may live long in the world, but God hath cut them off from\nthe earth, and all the gospel privileges therein, and set them in\nthe condition of devils; so that as to grace and mercy they are\nseparate therefrom, and stand as men, though alive, bound over to\neternal judgment. And as to their lives, it matters not how long\nthey live, there is \"no sacrifice for their sins, but a certain\nfearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which\nshall devour the adversaries\" (Heb 10:26,27). So that I say, as\nthe devils be bound in hell, so such lie bound in earth; bound I\nsay in the chains of darkness, and their own obstinate heart, over\nto the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of\nGod. Cain therefore by these words is denied the blessing of future\nmeans of grace, and stands bound over to answer for his brother's\nblood, which the ground had received form his cruel hand.\n\nVer. 12. \"When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth\nyield to thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou\nbe in the earth.\"\n\nThis is a branch, or the fruits of this wilful murder. Indeed, sins\ncarry in them not only a curse with respect to eternity, but are\nalso the cause of all the miseries of this life. \"God turneth--a\nfruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that\ndwell therein\" (Psa 107:34).\n\n\"When thou tillest the ground.\" Sin committed doth not always\nexclude the sinner from an enjoyment of God's mercies, but yet if\nunrepented of, bringeth a curse upon them. \"I will curse, [saith\nGod,] your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye\ndo not lay it to heart\" (Mal 2:2). This also is the reason that the\ntable of some is made their snare, their trap, a stumbling-block\nand a recompence unto them (Rom 11:9); men ought not therefore to\njudge of the goodness of their state, by their enjoyment of God's\ncreatures, but rather should tremble while they enjoy them, lest\nfor sin they should become accursed to them, as were the enjoyments\nof this wicked man.\n\n\"A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.\" The meaning\nis, thou shalt not have rest in the world, but shalt be continually\npossessed with a guilty conscience, which shall make thy condition\nrestless, and void of comfort. For the man that indeed is linked\nin the chains of guilt and damnation, as Cain here was; he cannot\nrest, but (as we say) fudge up and down from place to place,\nbecause his burthen is insupportable. As David said, \"Let their\neyes be darkened that they see not, and make their loins continually\nto shake\" (Psa 69:23). A continual shaking and restlessness doth\ntherefore possess such persons as are given up of God, and swallowed\nup of guilt.\n\n\"A fugitive and vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.\" Some men\ncertainly know, even while they are in this world, their state\nto be most miserable, and damnable, as Cain, Saul and Judas did;\nwhich knowledge, as I have hinted, puts them besides the very\ncourse of other carnal men; who while they behold them at quiet\nunder their enjoyments, these cannot but wonder, fear, and be\namazed with the deep cogitations which will abide upon them, of\ntheir certain misery and everlasting perdition.\n\nVer. 13. \"And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater\nthan I can bear.\" Or as the margin hath it, \"Mine iniquity is\ngreater than that it may be forgiven.\" And both readings are true:\nfor however some men please themselves in lessening sin, and the\npunishment thereof, yet a burdened conscience judgeth otherwise.\nAnd if Cain failed in either, it was in that he counted his sin (if\nhe did so) beyond the reach of God's mercy. But again, when men\npersecute the worship and people of God, as Cain did his blessed\nand religious brother, even of spite, and because he envied the\ngoodness of his brother's work; I question whether it be lawful for\na minister to urge to such the promise of grace and forgiveness;\nand also whether it be the mind of God such persons should hope\ntherein. He that sins the sin unto death, is not to be prayed for\n(1 John 5:16), but contrariwise he is to be taken from God's altar\nthat he may die (Exo 21:14). This was Cain's case, and now he\nknew it; therefore as one excluded of God from his mercy and all\nthe means thereof, he breaks out with roaring under the intolerable\nburden of the judgment of God upon him, concluding his punishment at\npresent \"greater than he could bear,\" and that yet his sin should\nremain unpardonable for ever: As saith our Lord Jesus Christ, He\nhath neither forgiveness here nor in the world to come (Matt 12:32).\n\nVer. 14. \"Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face\nof the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; And I shall be a\nfugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass,\nthat every one that findeth me shall slay me.\"\n\nBy these words is confirmed what was said before, to wit, to be\ncursed from the earth, was to be separate from the privileges of\nthe gospel. For Cain was not now to die, neither was he driven\ninto any den or cave; yet driven out from the face of the earth,\nthat is, as I have said, he was excluded from a share in those\nspecial mercies that by the gospel were still offered by grace\nto the others that inhabited the world: The mercies, I say, that\nare offered by the gospel, as namely, The mercy of eternal life:\nFor as to the blessings of this world, he had yet a notable\nshare thereof. Besides, he groaneth under this judgment, as an\ninsupportable curse: \"Thou hast driven me out this day from the\nface of the earth.\" And indeed, if we take it according as I have\nlaid it down, it is a curse that would break the whole world to\npieces; for he that is denied a share in the grace that is now\noffered, must needs be denied a portion in God's kingdom. And\nthis Cain saw; wherefore he adds in the process of his complaint,\n\"And from thy face shall I be hid\": \"I shall never come into thy\nkingdom, I shall never see thy face in heaven.\" This is therefore\nthe highest of all complaints; namely, for a man from a certain\nconviction that his condition must without fail be damnable, to\ncondole and bemoan his forlorn condition.\n\n\"Thou hast driven me out.\" O! when God shall bind one over for\nhis sin, to eternal judgment, who then can release him? This was\nCain's state, God had bound him over. The blood of his brother was\nto rest upon him and not to be purged with sacrifice for ever.\n\n\"Thou hast driven me out THIS DAY.\" He knew by the sentence that\nfell from heaven upon him, even from that very day that he was\nmade a companion of, and an associate with devils. This day, or\nfor this day's work, I am made an inhabitant of the pit with the\ndevil and his angels. Hence note, That God doth sometimes smite\nthe reprobate so apparently, that himself from that day may make\na certain judgment of the certainty of his damnation. Thus did\nBalaam: \"I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not\nnigh\" (Num 24:17). Where by now, he respects the time of grace;\nand by nigh, the time or day of judgment: As who should say, \"I,\nfor my sorceries, and wicked divinations, am excluded a portion in\nthe day of grace, and therefore shall not see the Saviour NOW: I\nam also rejected, as to a portion in the blessed world to come:\nand therefore when he judgeth, I shall not see him NIGH: Nigh, as\na friend, as a saviour to my soul.\" I doubt this is the condition\nof many now alive, who for their perfidiousness and treachery to\nChrist, and his church, have already received, even \"in themselves,\nthat recompence of their error which was meet\" (Rom 1:27).\n\nIshmael also, in the day he laughed at Isaac (Gen 21:9), and Esau\nin the day he sold his birthright (Gen 27; 28), might have gathered,\nthe one from God's concurring with the judgment of Sarah, the\nother, from his father's adhering to his brother; his adhering, I\nsay, in a prophetic spirit (Gal 4:29); that from thenceforth they\nboth were excluded grace and glory, as the apostle by the Holy\nGhost afterwards doth (Heb 12:16,17).\n\n\"And from thy face shall I be hid.\" By face here, we are to\nunderstand God's favour, and blessed presence, which is enjoyed by\nthe saints both here, and in the world to come (Psa 4:6,7; 16:11).\nBoth which this wicked man, for the murdering of his brother, and\nhis envy to the truth, now knew himself excluded from.\n\n\"From thy face shall I be HID.\" The pit of hell, to which the\ndamned go, besides the torment that they meet with there, is such\na region of darkness, and at such a distance from the heavens, and\nthe glorious comfortable presence of God, that those that shall be\nfound the proper subjects of it, shall for ever be estranged from\none glimpse of him: besides, sin shall bind all their faces in\nsecret, and so confound them with horror, shame, and guilt that\nthey shall not be able from thenceforth for ever, so much as once\nto think of God with comfort.\n\n\"From thy FACE.\" As it were all the glory of heaven, it lieth in\nbeholding the face of God: A thing the ungodly little think of;\nyet the men that have received in themselves already the sentence\nof eternal damnation, they know it after a wonderful rate; and\nthe thoughts of the loss of his face and presence, doth, do what\nthey can, as much torment them, as the thoughts of all the misery\nthey are like to meet withal besides.\n\n\"And a fugitive and a vagabond shall I be on the earth.\" Even from\nthe present frame of his spirit, Now, having received the sentence,\nhe knew, the judgment past being unrevokable, how it would be with\nhim all his life long; that he should spend his days in trouble\nand guilt, rolling under the justice of God, being always a terror\nand burthen to himself, to the day he was to be cut off from the\nearth, that he might go to the place appointed for him.\n\n\"And it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall\nslay me.\" Guilt is a strange thing, it makes a man think that\nevery one that sees him, hath knowledge of his iniquity. It also\nbringeth such a faintness into the heart (Lev 26:36), that the\nsound of a shaken leaf doth chase such persons: and above all\nthings, the cries of blood are most fearful in the conscience; the\ncries of the blood of the poor innocents, which the seed of Cain\nhath shed on the face of the earth (Jer 2:34; 19:4). Thus far of\nCain's complaint.\n\nVer. 15. \"And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth\nCain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the Lord\nset a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.\"\n\nBy these words, the judgment is confirmed, which Cain, in the verse\nbefore, so mournfully pronounced against his own soul. As if the\nLord had said, \"Cain, thy judgment is as thou hast said, I have\ndriven thee out this day from a share in my special favour; and when\nthy life is ended, thou shalt be hid from my face, and a blessed\npresence for ever; and seeing it is thus, therefore I will not\nsuffer that thou die before thy time: Alas, thy glass will be quickly\nrun! Besides, thy days, while thou art here, will sufficiently\nbe filled with vexation and distress; for thou shalt always carry\nin thy conscience the cries of innocent blood, and the fear of\nthe wrath of God: I have said it, and will perform it: I am not\na man, that I should repent: So that thus shall thy judgment be:\nTherefore he that killeth Cain, I will take vengeance on him.\"\n\nHence note, That none need to add to the sorrows of the persecutors.\nThey above all men are prepared unto wrath. Let them alone (saith\nChrist) they will quickly fall into the ditch. Besides, God hath\ntaken the revengement of the blood of his servants into his own\nhand, and will execute his wrath himself. Therefore he saith to his\nsaints (as in this case), \"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,\nbut rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is\nmine, I will repay, saith the Lord\" (Rom 12:19). And the reason\nis, because the quarrel is in special between the prosecutor and\nGod himself. For we are not hated because we are men, nor because we\nare men of evil and debauched lives; but because we are religious;\nbecause we stand to maintain the truth of God. Therefore no man must\nhere intercept, but must leave the enemy in the hand of that God\nhe hath slighted and condemned. This made Moses that he meddled\nnot with Corah and his company, but left them to that new thing\nwhich the Lord himself would do unto them, because they had\ncondemned the ordinance of God (Num 16:25-35). This made David\nalso that he meddled not with Saul, but left him to the vengeance\nof God, though he had opportunity to have destroyed him (1 Sam\n24 and 26:10-12). Let us learn therefore to be quiet and patient\nunder the hand of wicked and blood-thirsty men. Let us fall before\nthem like holy Abel; it is and will be grief enough to them,\nthat when we are dead, our blood will cry from the ground against\nthem.[23]\n\n\"Therefore he that killeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken,\" &c. He\nnow that shall, after this admonition, plead for religious blood\nwith the sword, vengeance shall be taken on him, because he giveth\nnot place to the wrath of God, but intercepts with his own, which\n\"worketh not the righteousness of God\" (James 1:19,20). Say therefore\nwith David, when you are vexed with the persecutor, Mine hand\nshall not be upon him; but \"as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall\nsmite him; or, his day shall come to die; or, he shall descend in\nbattle, and perish.\"\n\n\"Vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold.\" It would not be hard\nto shew how little they have prevailed, who have taken upon them\nto take vengeance for the blood of saints, on them that have been\nthe spillers of it. But my business here is brevity, therefore I\nshall not launch into that deep, only shall say to such as shall\nattempt it hereafter, \"Put up thy sword into his place; for all they\nthat take the sword shall perish with the sword\"! (Matt 26:52).\nAnd \"here is the patience and faith of the saints\" (Rev 13:10).\nLet Cain and God alone, and do you mind faith and patience; suffer\nwith Abel, until your righteous blood be spilt: even the work of\npersecutors, is, for the present, punishment enough; the fruits\nthereof being the provoking God to jealousy, a denying of them the\nknowledge of the way of life, and a binding of them over to the\npains and punishment of hell.\n\n\"And the Lord set a mark upon Cain.\" What the opinion of others is\nabout this mark, I know not; to me it seems like those in Timothy,\nwho had \"their conscience seared with a hot iron\" (1 Tim 4:2).\nWhich words are an allusion to the way of the magistrates in their\ndealing with rogues and felons; who that they may be known to\nall, are either in the hand, shoulder, or cheek branded with a hot\niron. So Cain was marked of God for a reprobate, for one that had\nmurdered a righteous man, even of envy to the goodness of his\nwork: But the mark (as it was on those in Timothy) was not on any\noutward or visible part of his body, but (as there the apostle\nexpresseth it) even upon his very conscience; his conscience then\nhad received the fire-mark of the wrath and displeasure of God,\nwhich, as a burning iron doth to the flesh, had left such deep\nimpression therein, that it abode as a scar or brand upon him, in\ntoken that good would for ever after hold him for a fugitive rogue\nor vagabond.\n\n\"And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should\nkill him.\" For though the mark was branded with burning upon his\nconscience, and so inward and invisible; yet the effects of this\nhot iron might be visible, and seen of all: the effects, I say,\nwhich were, or might be, his restlessness in every place, his\ndejectedness, the sudden and fearful pangs and agonies of his\nmind, which might break out into dolorous and amazing complaints;\nbesides, his timorous carriage before all he met, lest they should\nkill him; gave all to understand, that God had with a vengeance\nbranded him. And indeed this was such a mark as was amazing to\nall that beheld him, and did ten times more make them afraid of\nspilling blood, than if any visible mark had been set upon him;\nof for by his trouble and distress of mind, they saw, what was\nthe guilt of blood: and by his continual fear and trembling under\nthe judgment of God, what it was to be in fear of, nay, to have\nthe first fruits of everlasting damnation. Thus therefore God\nreserved Cain to the judgment which he had appointed for him.\n\nVer. 16. \"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and\ndwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.\"\n\nThe right carriage of a reprobate, and the infallible fruits of\nfinal desperation. For a man that hath received in his mind the\nstroke of the judgment of God, and that is denied all means of\nsaving and sanctifying grace, (as the great transgressors are,)\nthe presence of God is to such most dreadful; whether we understand\nthe knowledge of him as he is in himself, or as he discovereth\nhimself in his church; for the thought of his being, and eternal\nmajesty, keeps the wound open, and makes terror and guilt revive.\nTo such it would be the best of news, to hear that the Godhead\ndoth cease to be, or that themselves were high above him. But that\nthey are in the hand of the living God, this is the dreadful and\nfearful thought.\n\n\"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.\" These words may\nbe taken many ways.\n\n1. That he separated himself from the church (the place of God's\npresence) (2 Cor 6:16) which then consisted of his father and\nmother, and of those other children they had. And this appears by\nthe text, \"He went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in\nthe land of Nod.\"\n\n2. A man goes out from the presence of God, when he withdraws his\nthoughts from holy meditations, and employeth the strength of his\nmind about the things of this life (Job 21:14-18). And thus he\nalso did; he went into the land of Nod, and there fell to building\na city, and to recreate himself with the pleasures of the flesh\nwhat he might.\n\n3. A man goes out from the presence of God, when he throweth up\nthe worship and way of God; and this he did in departing from the\nchurch (2 Chron 19:1-3).\n\n4. Besides, his going out from the presence of the Lord, implieth,\nthat he hardened his heart against him, that he set his spirit\nagainst him; that he said to God, Depart from me (Heb 3:12); that\nhe grew an implacable enemy to him, and to every appearance of\ngood in the world (Job 15:12,13).\n\n\"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.\" These words may\nalso respect his being thrust out from God, as one anathematized,\naccursed, or cut off, in effect the same with excommunication.\nBut be it so, the act was extraordinary, being administered by God\nhimself; even as he served Corah and his company, though in kind\nthere was a difference, the one, even Cain, being yet permitted to\nlive for a while in the world; the other being sent down quick into\nhell; but both, for their villany against the worship and people\nof God, stand bound over to answer it at the eternal judgment.\n\nVer. 17. \"And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch:\nand he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the\nname of his son, Enoch.\"\n\nCain's wife was his sister, or near kinswoman; for she sprang of\nthe same loins with himself; because his mother was \"the mother\nof all living\" (Gen 3:20).\n\nThis wife bare him a son; for whose sake, as it seems, he built\nthe city. Hence note, That men who are shut out of heaven, will\nyet use some means to be honourable on earth. Cain being accursed\nof God, yet builds him a city; the renown of which act, that it\nmight not be forgotten, he calleth it after the name of his son.\nMuch like this was that carnal act of blasted Absalom; because\nhe had no child, he would erect a pillar, which must forsooth be\ncalled Absalom's place, after the name of Absalom, to keep his\nname in remembrance upon earth (2 Sam 18:18).\n\n\"And he builded a city,\" &c. Note, That it is the design of Satan,\nand the deceitful heart of man, to labour to quiet a guilty\nconscience, not by faith in the blood of Christ, but by over much\nbusiness in the things of this world.\n\n\"And called the name of the city, after the name of his son,\nEnoch.\" Although Cain had a mind to keep up his name with fame in\nthe world, yet he would not venture to dedicate the city to his\nown name; that would have been too gross; and perhaps others would\nhave called it, The CITY OF THE MURDERER; but he calleth it after\nthe name of his son, his son Enoch; whom he pretended was a man\nboth taught, and dedicate, as it seems his name imports. Hence\nnote again, That men who themselves are accursed of God, will yet\nput as fair glosses on their actions, as their hypocritical hearts\ncan invent. Who must this city be dedicated to, but to him whom\nCain had dedicated and taught. I will not say that in truth he\ngave him to God, for that his reprobate heart would not suffer;\nbut being given up of God, yet retaining, with Saul, considerations\nof honour: therefore, as is the custom of ungodly hypocrites, he\nwould put the best show on his ungodly actions.\n\nThus Saul, when he had received the sentence of the Lord against\nhim; yet, Turn again with me (saith he to Samuel) \"yet honour me\nnow before--the people, and before Israel\" (1 Sam 15:30). So the\nmoney wherewith the high priests and scribes had bought the life,\nand obtained the death of Christ; with that they make some shew of\ngodliness, in buying with it a piece of ground to bury strangers\nin (Matt 27:3-7).\n\nVer. 18. \"And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael:\nand Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.\"\n\nThese are the offspring of Cain; the English of whose names, if the\nnature and disposition of the persons were according, they might\nwell be called, with abhorrence, the brood of wicked Cain, even\nthe generation whom the Lord had cursed, notwithstanding Enoch was\ntheir father. Enoch begat Irad, a wild ass; Irad begat Mehujael,\none presumptuous above measure, his name signifies, one teaching\nGod. But \"who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord?\" (Isa 40:13). Or\n\"Shall any teach God knowledge?\" (Job 21:22). The son of this man\nwas Methusael, asking death, the true fruit of all such presumptuous\nones, \"his confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and\nit shall bring him to the king of terrors\" (Job 18:14). His son\nwas Lamech, one poor or smitten: The first, that, as we read, did\nbreak the order of God in the matter of marriage.\n\nVer. 19. \"And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one\nwas Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.\"\n\nThis man was the first that brake the first institution of God\nconcerning marriage. \"He took unto him two wives.\" The New Testament\nsays, Let every man have his own wife. And so said the law in its\nfirst institution: therefore plurality of wives first came into\npractice by the seed of cursed Cain, and for a time was suffered\nin the world through the hardness of man's heart.\n\nVer. 20, 21. \"And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as\ndwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his brother's name\nwas Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and\norgan.\"\n\nJabal signifies bringing, or budding; Jubal, bringing or fading. So\nthen in these two sons might be shewed unto us the world, as it is\nin its utmost glory: that is, it brings buds, it brings fading:\ntoday in the field, tomorrow in the oven: \"All flesh is grass,\nand all the goodliness thereof, is as the flower of the field.\nThe grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the\nLord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass\" (Isa 40:6-8).\n\nAnd observe in these, the last was the musical one. Indeed, the\nspirit of the world, after things have budded, is so far off from\nremembering that they again must fade; that then it begins its\nRequiem; then it saith to itself, Eat, drink, and be merry; then\nit is for handling the harp and organ (Luke 12:16-20).\n\nVer. 22. \"And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of\nevery artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-Cain\nwas Naamah.\"\n\nTubal-Cain, a worldly possession; and Naamah, one that by her name\nshould be beautiful. Lamech his fruit then was, a budding, fading,\nworldly possession, with a little deceitful, vain beauty, for\n\"favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth\nthe Lord, she shall be praised\" (Pro 31:30). Ver. 23. \"And Lamech\nsaid unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives\nof Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my\nwounding, and a young man to my hurt.\"\n\nHe that sticks not to exceed in one point, will not fear to transgress\nin another. He had hardened his heart, by breaking the modest and\norderly bounds of marriage, and so fitted himself to shed blood,\nor do any other wickedness.\n\n\"Hearken to me, ye wives.\" Lustful men break their minds to their\nfleshly companions, sometimes, sooner than to wiser counsellors.\nEven as Ahab, in the business of the vineyard of Naboth, breaks\nhis mind to that ungodly Jezebel his wife.\n\n\"I have slain a man to my wounding.\" Who, or what man this murdered\nperson was, therein the word is silent: yet this Lamech being the\nson of a bloody murderer, it is possible he was some godly man,\none of Adam's other children, or of his grandchildren, the son of\nSeth: for these sons of Cain, and namely this in special, as it\nseems, took not heed to the mark wherewith God branded Cain; but\nlike Belshazzar, he hardened his heart, though he knew it, and\nwould turn murderer also (Dan 5:18-22).\n\n\"I have slain a man to my wounding.\" The guilt of blood who can\nbear? or who can help himself thereby? It is a wounding thing, it\nis a hurtful thing, he that sheds man's blood wrongfully, cannot\nestablish himself thereby (Matt 22:6,7). The Jews thought to have\npreserved themselves and country by killing Jesus Christ; but this\nso provoked the justice of God, that for this thing's sake he sent\nthe Gentiles upon them to burn up their city; who when they were\ncome, if stories be true, slew of them eleven hundred thousand;\nand those of them that were taken alive, were sold to who would\nbuy them, Thirty a penny. \"Ye shed blood [says God] and shall ye\npossess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination,\nand ye defile every one his neighbour's wife: and shall ye possess\nthe land?\" (Eze 33:25,26).\n\nVer. 24. \"If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy\nand sevenfold.\"\n\nThough wicked men may be willingly ignorant of that part of the\njudgments of God, that are to premonish them, that they do not that\nwicked thing for which the judgment was executed; yet if there be\nanything like favour mixed with the judgment, of that they will\ntake notice, to encourage themselves to evil: even as this ungodly\nperson, he would not be stopped from blood by the judgment of God\nupon Cain; but rather, as it seems, because the judgment was not\nspeedily executed, his heart was fully set in him to do evil (Eccl\n8:11). Much like that of the Jews, who because Jehoiakim had slain\nUriah the prophet, and yet God spared the land; therefore make\nthat an argument to prevail with Zedekiah to kill Jeremiah also\n(Jer 26:20-23).\n\n\"If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and\nsevenfold.\" Give wicked men leave to judge of themselves, and they\nwill pass a sentence favourable enough. Though Lamech had not pity\nwhen he spilt blood; yea, though the judgment of God upon Cain\ncould not hold his murderous hands: yet now he is guilty, let him\nbut make a law in the case, and woe be to him that killeth Lamech:\nVengeance shall be taken of him seventyfold and seven. Joab could\nwith pitiless hands spill the blood of men more righteous than\nhimself, not regarding what became of their souls: but when his\nblood was by vengeance required for the same, then he would take\nsanctuary at the horns of the altar (1 Kings 2:28). But judgment\nis not wholly left to me, the Lord is judge himself; before whom\nboth Cain and Lamech, and all their successors, shall be arraigned,\nand receive just doom, and that never to be reversed.\n\nVer. 25. \"And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and\ncalled his name Seth: for God, said she, hath appointed me another\nseed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.\"\n\nNow we have done, for a while, with Cain, and are come again to\nthe church of God. Cain had slain Abel, and by that means, for a\nwhile, had greatly suppressed the flourishing of religion; in which\ntime his own brood began to be mighty upon earth; so increasing,\nas if religion was put to an end for ever. But behold their\ndisappointment! \"Adam knew his wife again,\" (for Adam's family was\nthen the true church of God;) or take Adam for a type of Christ,\nand his wife for a type of the church, and then this observation\nfolloweth; namely, That so long as Christ and the church hath to\ndo with one another, it is in vain for Cain to think of suppressing\nreligion.\n\n\"Adam knew his wife again.\" If Eve had now been barren, or Adam\nhad died without farther issue, then Cain might have carried the\nday; but behold another seed! a seed to stand in Abel's place:\ntherefore she called his name Seth; that is, Set or Put, as namely, in\nthe room of Abel, to stand up for, and to defend the truth against\nall the army and power of Cain. As Paul also saith of himself,\n\"I am set, [or put,] for the defence of the gospel\" (Phil 1:17).\nThis man therefore, so far as can be gathered, was the first that\nput check to the outrage of Cain and his company. But mark some\nobservations about him.\n\n1. He was set in the stead or place of Abel; not an inch behind\nhim, but even at the place where his blood was spilt. So that he\nthat will revive lost religion, must avow it as God's Abels have\ndone before him: every talker cannot do this. The blood that was\nshed before his face, must not put check to his godly stomach; yea,\nhe must say to religion, as Ruth said once to her mother, \"Where\nthou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried\" (Ruth 1:17).\nThis is the way to revive and to maintain the ways of God, in\ndespite of bloody Cain.[24]\n\n2. This Seth that was set to put check to Cain, did not do it\nof his own brain, but the hand of God was principal in the work.\n\"God,\" said she, \"hath appointed me another seed to be set in the\nplace of Abel.\" And indeed it is otherwise in vain, when religion\nis once suppressed, to think it should ever revive again. Alas!\nwhere is the man, if he want God's Spirit, that will care for the\nflourishing state of religion? and that in truth will make the Lord\nhis delight: \"This is Zion, whom no man seeketh [for, or seeketh]\nafter\" (Jer 30:17). All men here say, \"See to thine own house,\nDavid\" (1 Kings 12:16). But when Seth comes, then the ground is\nmade good again; then a living saint is found to stand and maintain\nthat truth which but now his brother bled for. When James was\nkilled, Peter stands up, &c. (Acts 12:1-3). And therefore Seth\nis said to be another seed, a man of another spirit: One who was\nprincipled with a spirit beyond and above the spirit of the world.\n\"Another seed,\" one that was spirited for God's word, and God's\nworship, and that would maintain his brother's cause.\n\n3. Observe, That when Seth maintains his brother's lot, you hear\nno more of the brood of Cain. And indeed, the way to weary out\nGod's enemies, it is to maintain and make good the front against\nthem: \"Resist the devil, and he will fly\" (James 4:7). Now if\nthe Captain, their king Apollion, be made to yield, how can his\nfollowers stand their ground? \"The dragon,--the devil, Satan,--he\nwas cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him\"\n(Rev 12:9). But how? It was by fighting: \"Michael and his angels\nfought against the dragon;--and overcame him by the blood of the\nLamb, and by the word of their testimony, and by not loving of\ntheir lives unto the death\" (Rev 12:7,8,12).\n\n4. Let this, in the last place, serve for persecutors, That when\nyou have cast down many ten thousands, and also the truth to the\nground; there is yet a Seth, another seed behind, that God hath\nappointed to stand in the stead of his brethren, by whom you will\ncertainly be put to flight, and made to cease from oppressing the\ntruth.\n\nVer. 26. \"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he\ncalled his name Enos: Then began men to call upon the name of the\nLord.\"\n\nThe Holy Ghost, in recording the birth of Enos, goeth out of his\nordinary style, in that he doubleth the mentioning of his father,\nwith respect to the birth of this son. And indeed it is worth the\nobserving; for it staggereth the faith of some, to think that the\nman that makes good the ground of a murdered brother, should not\nleave issue behind him: But \"to Seth, to him was born a son.\" Our\nfaithfulness to the truth, shall be no hindrance to the flourishing\nstate of our offspring, take them either for the fleshly or spiritual\nseed of God's servants, but sons, (especially in the latter sense,\nif we truly stand by the word of God) shall surely be born unto\nus.\n\n\"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his\nname Enos.\" Enos, a man; not a devil, like Cain, but a man; or, a\nman that was miserable in this world, for the sake and cause of\nGod;[25] for it seems, as was his father, so was he, even both\ngiven up to maintain God's truth; which cannot be done but with\ngreat hazard, so long as Cain or his offspring remain. His father\ntherefore, by his very name, did offer him up to bear all hardships\nfor the name and cause of God: \"Behold I send you forth [saith\nChrist] as lambs in the midst of wolves.\" In effect, he called\ntheir name Enos, men to be acquainted with grief and miseries:\nBut mark, \"Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.\"\n\n\"Then,\" when Seth maintained Abel's ground, and when Enos endured\nall miseries for the same: For indeed this makes spectators believe\nthat religion is more than a fictitious notion: The hardships,\nmiseries, and blood of the saints, will make men, otherwise heedless,\nconsider and ponder their cause aright.\n\n\"Then began.\" For, as I also before have hinted, the outrage of\nbloody Cain did put, for a time, a stop to the flourishing state\nof God's worship; which in all probability was not so little as\nhalf a hundred years, even till Seth, and the son of Seth, stood\nup to maintain the same; but \"then, THEN men began [more men than\nSeth and Enos] to call upon the name of the Lord.\"\n\nNote again, That all true religion beginneth with fervent prayer:\nOr thus, That when men begin to be servants to God, they begin it\nwith calling upon him. Thus did Saul, \"Behold he prayeth\" (Acts\n9): And, \"Lord have mercy upon me,\" is the first of the groans of\na sanctified heart.\n\nThe margin hath it, \"They began to call themselves by the name of\nthe Lord.\" As God saith in another place, \"My name is called on\nthem.\" The disciples were called Christians, (nay, the saints are\ncalled the anointed ones, and the church is called Christ) (1 Cor\n12:12). But note, That fervent prayer ends in faith and confidence\nin God. They called themselves by the name; they counted themselves\nnot from a vain and groundless opinion, but through the faith they\nhad in the mercy of God, The saints and holy people of God.\n\nThey began to publish themselves, in contradistinction to the\noffspring of Cain, the holy people of God. Wherefore, a separation\nfrom the wicked began betimes; the one going by the name of \"the\nsons of God\"; the other, \"by the sons and daughters of men\" (6:1,2):\n\"Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.\"\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nVer. 1. \"This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day\nthat God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.\" The\nHoly Ghost having thus largely treated of Cain and his offspring,\nand of the head made against him by Seth and Enos, and of the\ngood success that followed, he now comes to treat of the church in\nparticular, and of the flourishing state of the same.\n\n\"This is the book.\" The Holy Ghost cuts off the genealogy of Cain,\naccounting him none of the race of the church, although before he\nwas within the pale thereof. John observing this, calls him, \"a\nchild of that wicked one\" (1 John 3:12), as our Lord also accounted\nJudas. Wherefore, he here begins his book again, that this wicked\nrace might be quite excluded. \"Let them be blotted out of the book\nof the living, and not be written with the righteous\" (Psa 69:28).\n\n\"In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made\nhe him.\" Although by this new beginning the Holy Ghost excludeth\nCain, yet he fetcheth the genealogy of the church from the day that\nman was created; intimating that God, in the very act of creation,\nhad a special intention to plant him a church in the world; and\ntherefore, even before sin was in the world, the image of God was\nupon man, as a token of his special respect, and of the great\ndelight that he intended to take in that creature above all that\nhe had made (Pro 8:30,31).\n\nVer. 2. \"Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and\ncalled their name Adam, in the day when they were created.\"\n\nWhen Adam was created, the Lord created two in one: So when Christ,\nthe head of the church, was chosen, the church was also chosen in\nhim.\n\n\"And blessed them.\" With the blessing of generation: A type of the\nblessing of regeneration that was to be by Christ in the church,\naccording to that which is written, \"So shall thy seed be\" (Eph\n1:4).\n\n\"And called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.\"\nSo that in the man the woman is included: \"Neither is the man\nwithout the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord\"\n(1 Cor 11:11). For the Holy Ghost, in the work of the new creation,\nof which this creation was a type, counteth not by male and female,\nbut \"ye are all one in Christ Jesus\" (Gal 3:28). Wherefore, women\nare not to be excluded out of the means of salvation; nay, they\nhave, if they believe, a special right to all the promises of grace\nthat God hath made to his saints in all ages: Yea, \"she shall be\nsaved in childbearing, [though she bear children,] if she continue\nin faith, and charity, and holiness with sobriety\" (1 Tim 2:15).\n\nVer. 3. \"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a\nson in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.\"\n\nHere also by the book of Chronicles, the Holy Ghost carrieth away\nthe genealogy, because Abel had no children, saying Adam, Seth,\n&c. (1 Chron 1:1).\n\n\"An hundred and thirty years.\" Behold the rage of hell! For until\nSeth stood in Abel's place, religion was greatly hindered, and that\nwas after the world had stood an hundred and thirty years. Indeed,\nAbel, while he had his breath, did hold it up in the world; but\nCain, who was of that wicked one, smote him and religion both to\nthe ground.\n\n\"And begat a son in his own likeness. Who can bring a clean thing\nout of an unclean? not one\" (Job 14:4). If the father be polluted\nwith the inward filth of sin, the son must needs be like him:\n\"I was shapen in iniquity; [said David] and in sin did my mother\nconceive me\" (Psa 51:5). Seth then was no better than we by nature,\nbut came into the world in the blood of his mother's filth: \"What\nis man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman,\nthat he should be righteous?\" (Job 15:14).\n\nThis therefore should teach us not to count of our election, and\nof our effectual calling but by the word of God. Seth by nature\nwas a sinful man, and yet the chosen servant of God; the first\nthat took up God's quarrel after the death of blessed Abel.\n\nThis should also help us to hold up the bucklers against the kingdom\nof the devil and hell. Seth was subject to like infirmities with\nus, and yet he got ground of the children of iniquity. I know a\nsense of our own infirmities is apt to weaken our hand in so mighty\nan undertaking, but it should not: Although we be like old Adam\nby nature, yet God is able to make us stand.\n\nVer. 4. \"And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were\neight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nAdam therefore, as a type of Christ, reigned in the church almost\na thousand years. The world therefore beginning thus, doth shew\nus how it will end; namely, by the reign of the second Adam, as\nit began with the reign of the first.\n\nThese long-lived men therefore shew us the glory that the church\nshall have in the latter day, even in the seventh thousand years\nof the world, that sabbath when Christ shall set up his kingdom on\nearth, according to that which is written, \"They lived and reigned\nwith Christ a thousand years\" (Rev 20:1-4). They:--Who? The church\nof God, according also as it was with Adam. Therefore they are\nsaid by John to be holy, as well as blessed: \"Blessed and holy is\nhe that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second\ndeath hath no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of\nChrist, and shall reign with him a thousand years\" (v 6). In all\nwhich time the wicked in the world shall forbear to persecute, as\ndid also the brood of wicked Cain in the days of Adam, Seth, &c.\nHence therefore we find in the first place the dragon chained for\nthese thousand years.\n\nVer. 5. \"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and\nthirty years: and he died.\"\n\nAdam therefore lived to see the translation of Enoch: In whose\ntranslation a conquest was got over all the enemies of his soul\nand body: So Christ shall reign in and among his saints till all\nhis enemies be destroyed. \"The last enemy that shall be destroyed\nis death\" (1 Cor 15:26); which shall be swallowed up when the\nmembers of that glorious head have put on incorruption, and their\n\"mortal shall have put on immortality.\" Adam's reigning therefore\nuntil Enoch's translation, looks like a prophecy of the perfection\nof Christ's kingdom: For he shall reign till he hath \"delivered\nup the kingdom to God, even the Father\" (v 24): As Adam, till his\nEnoch was translated and took up to God.\n\nVer. 6. \"And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos.\"\n\nSeth therefore stood by the truth of God, a long time, without\nmuch help or encouragement from man; which was a great trial to\nhis spirit, and proof of the truth of his faith, and tended much\nto the perfection of his patience. Somewhat like this was that of\nPaul, who had no man stood with him when he stood before Nero.\n\nSeth was set in the stead of Abel, to keep the gap against the\nchildren of hell; which, by the grace of God, he faithfully did,\neven till Enos was sent to his aid and assistance.\n\nSeth therefore was the forlorn hope of the church in those days.\nSo set of God to put check to the enemy, until the church was\nincreased, and more able to defend herself from the outrage.\n\nThis therefore should teach the saints of God, especially those\nthat are sent before, against the offspring of Cain, to stand their\nground, and not to shrink like Saul, till God shall send others\nto take part with them (1 Sam 10:8; 13:8-14).\n\nThus David stood, as it were, by himself, against the wicked that\nwas in his day; which made him cry, \"Who will rise up for me against\nthe evil doers,\" or who will stand up for me against the workers\nof iniquity? (Psa 94:16).\n\nVer. 7. \"And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven\nyears, and begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nHence also we may gather great encouragement who are set in the\nfront of the army of the Lamb, against the army and regiment of\nCain. Seth, saith the Spirit, was set in the stead of Abel, there\nas forlorn, to defend religion: Must he not now be swallowed up?\nWill the blood-hounds let him escape? Behold, therefore his life\nmust be accounted a wonder! As was also that of Paul (1 Cor 6:9).\nBut for Seth to stand eight hundred years against such a murderous\ncrew, and yet to have his breath in his nostrils! Our times are in\nthy hands, and thou, Lord, \"holdeth our soul in life\" (Psa 66:9).\n\n\"And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and\nhe died\" (v 8).\n\nHis life was therefore eighteen years shorter than that of Adam;\nhe lived fifty-five years after Enoch, and died six hundred and\nfourteen years before the flood.\n\nVer. 9. \"And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan.\" Cainan\nsignifieth a buyer, or owner. Let it be with respect to religion,\nand then the sense may be, that he had this privilege in religion\nby the hazard of his father and grandfather's life; they bought\nit for him, and made him the owner of it: As Paul saith, He gave\nnot place to the false Apostles, \"that the truth of the gospel\nmight continue with the Galatians\" (2:5). As Jotham also said to\nShechem, \"My Father fought for you, and adventured his life far,\nand delivered you out of the hand of Midian\" (Jude 9:17). Namely,\nthat they might still be owners of the inheritance that the Lord\nhad given them. This shews us then, that the fruit of a constant\nstanding to the word of God, is, That the generations yet unborn\nshall be made the possessors and owners of it.\n\nVer. 10. \"And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and\nfifteen years, and begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nHe lived then to see his son enjoy the fruits of his own constancy\nto the truth, so long a time as eight hundred years, &c. as we hope\nGod's people now may do. 'Tis true, they now do own the truth with\nhazard, and do hold it up by enduring much misery, according to\nthe rage of wicked men; but, I say, 'tis hoped others will reap\nthe fruits of our travails, and that some of us shall live to see\nit, as Enos lived to see his Cainan possess religion eight hundred\nyears.[26]\n\nVer. 11. \"And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five\nyears: and he died.\"\n\nHe lived then one hundred fifty-three years after Enoch, and died\nfive hundred and sixteen years before the flood.\n\nVer. 12. \"And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel.\"\n\nMahalaleel, signifieth praising God. Wherefore he was born in\nsettled times, wherein religion met with little or no molestation. It\nbegan to be as hereditary in the days of blessed Cainan; wherefore\nit was requisite that the very next that should possess the truth,\nshould spend their days in praising God (Rev 11:15). And thus it\nwill be at the downfall of Antichrist: \"After this [saith John] I\nheard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying Allelujah;\nSalvation, and glory, and honour, and power unto the Lord our\nGod...And a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God,\nall ye his servants; and ye that fear him, both small and great\"\n(Rev 19:1-6).\n\n\"The whole earth [saith the Prophet] is at rest and is quiet, they\nbreak forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, [O\nthou brood of the blood-thirsty Cain,] and the cedars of Lebanon,\nsaying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us\"\n(Isa 14:7,8).\n\nVer. 13. \"And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred\nand forty years, and begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nGod gave him a long possession and enjoyment of the fruits of his\nfather's labours. They sowed (as Christ said) and he was entered\ninto their labours: They sowed in tears, and he reaped in joy.\nMahalaleel, or praise our God, was the language of those times.\n\nVer. 14. \"And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten\nyears: and he died.\"\n\nHe lived then two hundred and forty-eight years after Enoch, and\ndied four hundred twenty-one years before the flood.\n\nVer. 15. \"And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat\nJared.\"\n\nJared signifies ruling, and sheweth us what is the holy fruits of\npeace and thanksgiving in the church; to wit, government according\nto the testament of Christ (Acts 9:31). It is hard to have all\nthings according to rule, in the day of the church's affliction;\nbecause of the weakness and fearfulness of some; and because possibly\nthose who have most skill in that matter, may for a time be laid\nup in chains: but now when the church hath rest and quietness,\nthen as she praiseth God, so she conceiveth and bringeth forth\ngovernors, and good government and rule among her members. David,\na man of blood, could not build that house to the Lord, which\npeaceable Solomon, that man of rest, afterwards did (1 Chron\n28:3,6). When armies are engaged, and hot in battle, 'tis harder\nto keep them in rank and file, than when they have rest, and time\nfor discipline. Jared therefore is the fruits of thanksgiving, as\nthanksgiving is the fruits of peace and possession.\n\nVer. 16. \"And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred\nand thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nHe lived not only to give thanks unto God, but to shew to all that\nhe gave thanks in truth, by submitting his neck the rest of the\nhundred of years that he lived, to the holy law and word of God.\n\nA good rule to prove people by; for all that pretend to give thanks\nfor liberty, put not their neck under the yoke, but rather use\ntheir liberty as an occasion for the flesh, than by love to serve\nand advantage one another in the things of the kingdom of Christ\n(Gal 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16). But as \"the bramble said to the [rest\nof the] trees,\" so saith Christ to such feigned thanksgivers, \"If\nin truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust\nin my shadow\" (Judg 9:15). Submit to my law, and be governed by\nmy testament. Let your thanksgiving bring forth Jared, and walk\nwith God in the days of Jared.\n\nVer. 17. \"And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety\nand five years: and he died.\" He lived then three hundred and three\nyears after Enoch, and died three hundred and sixty-six years\nbefore the flood.\n\nVer. 18. \"And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he\nbegat Enoch.\"\n\nEnoch, is taught, or dedicate: The true effect of rule or government,\nbe it good or bad: in Cain's posterity it was bad; \"for an evil\ntree cannot bring forth good fruit.\" By Enoch here, we are to\nunderstand, one taught in, and dedicated unto, God. This Enoch\ntherefore was a son that would hear the rules, and submit to the\ngovernment of his father Jared. \"As an ear-ring of gold, and an\nornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear\"\n(Pro 25:12).\n\nVer. 19. \"And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years,\nand begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nHe lived therefore to see the fruit of his good rule and government\nin the church, even to see his teachable and dedicated son caught\nup to God, and to his throne. A good encouragement to all rulers\nin the house of God, and also to all godly parents to teach and\nrule in the fear of God; for that is the way to part with church\nmembers, and children with comfort; yea, that is the way, if we\nshall out-live them, to send them to heaven, and to God before\nus.\n\nVer. 20. \"And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and\ntwo years: and he died.\"\n\nHe lived then three hundred thirty-five years after Enoch, and died\ntwo hundred thirty-four before the flood.\n\nVer. 21. \"And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah.\"\n\nMethuselah signifieth, Spoiling his death: this therefore is the\ntrue fruits of one that is truly taught in, and dedicate to the\nservice of God, as Enoch was; by this means he spoileth his death:\nwherefore he adds, \"And Enoch walked with God.\" Walking with God,\nspoileth death, or overcomes it, or it shall be prevented, he shall\nnot be hurt therewith: As Christ saith, \"If a man keep my saying,\nhe shall never taste death\" (John 8:52).\n\nVer. 22. \"And Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah\nthree hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.\"\n\nThese words [after he begat Methuselah] may have respect either\nto his beginning to walk with God, or to the number of the years\nthat he lived after the birth of Methuselah, or both.\n\nIf it respect the fist, then it sheweth that the only encouragement\nthat a sinner hath to walk with God, it is to see Methuselah,\nor his death spoiled: for when a man seeth death, and all evils,\nconquered and overcome, then his soul is encouraged in holiness\n(1 Cor 15:55-58). No encouragement to walking with God like this:\n\"Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah.\" As Paul saith,\n\"Now being made free from sin,--[which indeed is the sting of\ndeath] ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting\nlife\" (Rom 6:22).\n\nIf it respect the second, then it shews us the invincible nature\nof true faith, (for by faith Enoch walked with God:) I say, it\nsheweth us the invincible nature of true faith, in that it would\nhold up a man in close communion with God for the space of three\nhundred years.\n\n\"He walked with God three hundred years.\" How will the conversation\nof Enoch rise up in judgment with this generation, that walk not\nwith God at all! Or if they do, do it so by fits, as if walking\nwith God was but a work by the by.\n\n\"He walked with God and begat sons and daughters.\" And kept house,\nand lived with his wife, according to knowledge. This shews then,\nthat it is sin, not our lawful and honest employment, that hindreth\none's walking with God.\n\nVer. 23, 24. \"And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and\nsixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: And he was not;\nfor God took him\" (vv 23,24).\n\nThe New Testament saith, \"By faith Enoch was translated that he\nshould not see death; and was not found, because God had translated\nhim: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he\npleased God.\"\n\n\"And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and five\nyears.\" Enoch therefore lived here but a while; he was too good to\nlive long in this world, the world was not worthy of him; neither\nwould he be spared so long out of heaven, \"for God took him.\" The\nend of walking with God or the path-way thereof, it leads men to\nheaven, to the enjoyment of the glory of God. Thus also it was\nwith blessed Elijah, he followed God from place to place, till at\nlength he was caught up into heaven (2 Kings 2:1-11).\n\nA word or two more of Enoch. Jude observes, That he was the\nseventh from Adam: Closely intimating (as I conceive) that by him\nGod prefigured the resurrection and end of the world: And intimated,\nThat in the seventh great day of the world this resurrection should\nbe, each generation from Adam being a type of a thousand years:\nSo that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was a type of the seventh\nthousand, in which the Lord will reign with his church a thousand\nyears.\n\nThere are two things in Enoch that incline me to this opinion. First,\nhe crieth out, \"Behold the Lord comes!\" and then is translated\nthat he should not see death. The right posture and end of those\nthat shall live at the day of God Almighty; and that shall, like\nEnoch, be found \"walking with God,\" when the Lord shall come from\nheaven (Jude 14,15).\n\nVer. 25. \"And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years,\nand begat Lamech.\"\n\nLamech signifieth poor, or smitten; wherefore I doubt that the\napostacy that you read of in the next chapter, began either in the\ndays of, or by, this man: he being, as it seems, more dry and void\nof grace than those that went before him; poor, or smitten.\n\nHence note, That faith and godliness, though often it goeth from the\nfather to the son, as from Seth to Enos, and from him to Cainan,\nyet it is not tied here, but runs according to electing love, as\nalso do the fruits thereof.\n\nVer. 26, 27. \"And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven\nhundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters. And\nall the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years,\nand he died.\"\n\nMethuselah, the spoiling of death, is the longest liver in the\nworld; yet he died in the year that the flood was upon the earth;\nnot by the flood, but by the course of nature, as also did Lamech\nhis son, for the wicked reprobate only was swept away by that,\naccording to the apostle Peter. Ver. 28, 29. \"And Lamech lived an\nhundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his\nname Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work\nand toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath\ncursed.\"\n\n\"And he called his name Noah.\" Noah signifieth rest; his name\nwas therefore according to his work, for he was a preacher of\nrighteousness, which giveth rest to all that embraceth it. Besides,\nit was he that prepared the ark, the place of rest to the church\nof God.\n\n\"This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our\nhands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.\"\n\nThese words seem to carry in them, repentance for the apostacy that\nbefore was mentioned. \"This same shall comfort us,\" by restoring\nthe church to her former rest, and by delivering us from the \"toil\nof our hands\"; for sin once admitted of in the church, is not\nwithout much toil extirpated, and driven forth of the same; yea\nsometimes it getteth such footing and root, that it cannot again\nbe purged and destroyed, but by breaking the very being of the\nchurch where it is. Thus it was as to the case in hand, and is\nsignified also by pulling down the house in which the leprosy was\n(Lev 14:43-45). Yea Ephesus itself was almost thus far infected,\nhad not a threatening prevented (Rev 2:1-3).\n\n\"Because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.\" The Lord did\ncurse it for the sin of Adam: He also renewed the curse to Cain,\nbecause he was guilty of the blood of his brother. I incline also\nto think, that the curse here mentioned, is the first, reiterated\nfor the grievous apostacy of this congregation; according to that\nwhich is written, \"If ye walk contrary unto me,\" \"I will punish\nyou seven times more\": \"I will bring seven times more plagues upon\nyou, according to your sins\" (Lev 26:18-21).\n\nVer. 30. \"And Lamech lived after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety\nand five years, and begat sons and daughters.\" Wherefore Lamech\nheard the preaching of Noah, who was the only minister of God in\nthose days, to recover the church to repentance from their apostacy,\nwhich also he did in some good measure effect, while he condemned,\nthe world for their unbelief (Heb 11:7).\n\nVer. 31. \"And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy\nand seven years: and he died.\" He died five years before the flood.\nMethuselah therefore was the longest liver of those godly that fell\non the other side the flood, for he died not before the very year\nthe flood came, not by the water, but before. The righteous is\ntaken away from the evil to come; though, as the prophet saith,\nno man of the wicked laid it to heart.\n\nVer. 31. \"And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem,\nHam, and Japhet.\"\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nVer. 1. \"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the\nface of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.\"\n\nMoses now leaveth the genealogy for a while, and searcheth into the\nstate and condition of the church now after so long a time as its\nstanding upwards of, or above, a thousand years: where he presently\nfindeth two things. 1. The church declined. 2. And God provoked.\nWherefore he maketh inquiry into the nature of the church's sin;\nwhich he relateth in this following chapter.\n\n\"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply.\" The men here\nI understand to be the children of Cain, the church and synagogue\nof Satan, because they are mentioned by way of antithesis to the\nchurch and sons of God.\n\n\"And daughters were born unto them.\" A snare that was often used\nin the hand of the devil, to intangle withal the church of God;\nyea, and doth so usually speed, that it hath often been counted\nby him as infallible; so that this is the doctrine of his prophet\nBalaam, and it prevailed, when all the engines of hell beside were\nprevented. \"The people began to commit whoredom with the daughters\nof Moab\" (Num 25:1,2). It may be this child of hell, in this his\nadvice to Balak looked back to the daughters of Cain, and calling\nto remembrance how of old they intangled the church, advertised\nhim to put the same into practice again (Rev 2:14).\n\nVer. 2. \"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they\nwere fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.\"\n\nThis was the way then of the sons of Cain, to let their fair\ndaughters be shewed to the sons of God (Pro 22:14). For it seems\nall other their wiles and devices were not able to bring the church\nand the world together, and to make them live as in one communion.\nThese to the church were such, whose hearts were snares and nets,\nand whose hands were bands to intangle and hold them from observing\nthe laws and judgments of God (Eccl 7:26).\n\n\"And they took them wives.\" First their eye saw them, and then\ntheir heart lusted after them. Thus the devil deceived the woman,\nand by this means perished cursed Achan. \"And Achan answered\nJoshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, and thus\nand thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish\ngarment,\" &c., \"then I coveted them\" (Josh 7:20,21).\n\nNote therefore, that it is not good to behold with the eye that\nwhich God hath forbid us to touch with our hand. \"I made a covenant\nwith mine eyes,\" saith Job (Job 30:1). And again, if at unawares\na thing was cast before him, the beholding of which was of an\nintangling nature, he forthwith would hold back his heart as with\na bridle, lest the design of hell should be effected upon him (v\n7).\n\nCrush sin then in the conception, lest it bring forth death in thy\nsoul.\n\nVer. 3. \"And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with\nman, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred\nand twenty years.\"\n\nBy these words is aggravated the sin of the church, that she would\nattempt to close with, and hold a sinful communion, against the\ndissuasions of the Spirit of God.\n\n\"My Spirit shall not always strive.\" To wit, my Spirit in Noah, for\nhe was the only preacher of righteousness to the church in those\nbacksliding times.\n\nBy this then, I find, that the doctrine of Noah, was, To declare\nagainst a sinful communion, or to command the church, in the\nname of God, that she still maintain a separation from the cursed\nchildren of Cain: As he said to the prophet Jeremiah, If thou\nseparate the precious from the vile, \"thou shalt be as my mouth\"\n(15:19).\n\nNoah therefore had a hard task, when he preached this doctrine\namong them: for this above all is hard to be borne, for by this he\ncondemned the world.\n\nThe first great quarrel therefore that God had with his church,\nit was for their holding unwarrantable communion with others. The\nchurch should always \"dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the\nnations\" (Num 23:9). The church is \"a chosen generation, a royal\npriesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people\" (1 Peter 2:9).\nTherefore the work of the church of God, is not to fall in with\nany sinful fellowship, or receive into their communion the ungodly\nworld, but to shew forth the praises and virtues of him who hath\ncalled them out from among such communicants into his marvellous\nlight.\n\n\"My Spirit shall not always strive.\" Hence note, that the people\nthat shall continue to grieve the Spirit of God, and to resist the\ndoctrine of Noah, they are appointed for heavy judgments. \"Come\nout of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and\nthat ye receive not of her plagues\" (Rev 18:4). This because those\n(finally impenitent) in Noah's time refused to do, therefore the\nwrath of God overtook them, and swept them off the face of the\nearth.\n\n\"Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.\" Noah therefore\nbegan his preaching about the four hundred and fourscore year of\nhis life, which continuing the space of sixscore more, it reached\nto the day that the flood came.\n\nIn which time doubtless his faith was sufficiently tried, both by\nthe hard censures of the hypocrites of the church, and the open\nprofane of the world, against whom he daily pronounced the judgments\nof God for maintaining their forbidden communion (Gen 3:15).\n\n\"Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.\" God also would\nyet have patience with these people, if peradventure they would\nrepent that his hand might not be upon them.\n\nVer. 4. \"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also\nafter that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of\nmen, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men,\nwhich were of old, men of renown.\"\n\n\"There were giants in the earth in those days.\" These words seem to\nbe spoken, to shew us the hazards that Noah ran, while he preached\nthe truth of God: He incurred the displeasure of the giants, which\ndoubtless made all men tremble, and kept the whole world in awe.\nBut Noah must engage the giants, he must not fear the face of a\ngiant. This way God took also with Moses, and with his people of\nIsrael, they must go to possess the land of the giants, a people\nhigh and tall as the cedars, a people of whom went that proverb,\n\"Who can stand before the children of Anak?\" (Deu 9:2). They must\nnot be afraid of Og the king of Bashan, though his head be as high\nas the ridge of a house, and his bedstead a bedstead of iron (Deu\n3:11).\n\nThis should teach us then not to fear the faces of men: no, not\nthe faces of the mighty; not to fear them, I say, in the matters\nof God, though they should run upon us like a giant.\n\nThese giants I suppose were the children of Cain, because mentioned\nas another sort than those that were the fruit of their forbidden\nand ungodly communion: For he adds, \"And also after that,\" or\nbesides them, \"when the sons of God came in unto the daughters\nof men, and they bare children to them, the same, [or they also]\nbecame mighty men which were of old, men of renown.\"\n\nThen Noah found giants every where: Giants in the world, and giants\nin this confused communion. And thus it is at this day; we do not\nonly meet with giants abroad, among the most ungodly and uncircumcised\nin heart, but even among those that seem to be of the religious,\namong them we also meet with giants; men mighty to oppose the\ntruth, and very profound to make slaughter: But mark the advice of\nthe Lord, \"Fear not their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord\nof hosts himself, [who is stronger than all the giants that are\nupon the face of the earth] and let him be your fear, and let him\nbe your dread\" (Isa 8:12,13).\n\n\"And when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and\nthey bare children to them, the same became mighty men\"; much\nlike to the giants. The fruit therefore of ungodly communion is\nmonstrous, and of a very strange complexion. They are like unto\nthem that worshipped the Lord, and served their own gods also (2\nKings 17:24,41); or like to those of the church, of whom Nehemiah\nspeaks, that had mixed themselves with the children of Ashdod,\nAmmon and Moab, whose children were a monstrous brood, that spake\nhalf the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the Jews' language\n(Neh 13:23,24).\n\nBy both these sorts of giants was faithful Noah despised, and his\nwork for God condemned. In David's time also Goliath defied Israel,\nand so did his brethren also (1 Sam 17:10). Giants, the sons of\nthe giant; but David and his servants must engage them, and fight\nthem, though they were giants (1 Chron 20:4-8).\n\n\"Mighty men which were of old.\" Persecution therefore, or the\nappearance of the giants against the servants of God, is no new\nbusiness; not a thing of yesterday, but of old, even when Noah did\nminister for God in the world. \"There were giants in the earth in\nthose days,\" to oppose him.\n\n\"Men of renown.\" Not for faith and holiness, but for some other\nhigh achievements, may be, mighty to fight, and to shed man's\nblood; or to find out arts, and the nature of things; both which\ndid render them famous, and men to be noted in their place. Such\nkind of men might be Corah, Dathan, and their company also; yet\nthey opposed Moses and Aaron, yea, God, his way and worship, and\nperished after an unheard of manner (Num 16:1,2). As also did the\nopposers of righteous Noah, in the day of the flood.\n\nVer. 5. \"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the\nearth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was\nonly evil continually.\" The margin saith, \"not only the imagination,\nbut also the purposes and desires.\"\n\nThese words are to be understood, as still respecting the apostacy\nthat we read of in the first and second verses, and are (in my\nthoughts) to be taken as the effect of their degeneracy. For though\nit be true, that the best of men, in their most holy and godly\nbehaviour, have wicked and sinful hearts; yet so long as they walk\nsincerely according to the rules prescribed of God, there is no\nsuch character upon them; especially as it stands related to the\nwords that immediately follow; to wit, \"that it repented the Lord\nthat he made them.\"\n\nThese evil and wicked purposes then were in special the fruit of\ntheir apostacy: for indeed, when men are once fallen from God,\nthey then, as the judgment of God upon them, are given up to all\nunrighteousness. Again, apostatizing persons are counted abhorrers\nof God (Zech 11:8). Yet persons in this condition will seek their\nown justification, turning things upside down, traversing their\nways like the dromedaries; bearing us still in hand, that they\nstand not guilty of sin, but that what they do is allowable, or\nwinked at of God. Besides, they say their hearts are still upright\nwith God, and that they have not forsaken the simplicity of his\nway, of a wicked and ungodly design, with an hundred more the\nlike pretences; all which are condemned of God, and held by him\nas abominable and vile (Jer 2:31-37).\n\nAnd God saw, &c. They covered their shame from men, like the adulterous\nwoman in the Proverbs, and would speak with oily mouths, thereby\nto cozen the world (Pro 30:20); but God knew their hearts, and\nhad revealed their sin to his servant Noah; he therefore in the\nSpirit of God, as one alone, cried out against their wickedness.\n\nHence learn to judge of apostates, not by their words, nor pretences,\nnor ungodly coverings, whereby they may seek to hide themselves\nfrom the stroke of a convincing argument, but judge them by the\nwords of God; for however they think of themselves, or would be\naccounted of others, God sees their wickedness is great.\n\n\"And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only\nevil continually.\" If they think they have not sinned; if they think\nthey promote religion; if they think to find out a medium to make\npeace between the seed of the woman, and the wicked seed of Cain;\nall is alike ungodly, they have forsaken the right way, they have\ndissembled the known truth, they have rejected the word of the\nLord: And what wisdom or goodness is in them?\n\nVer. 6. \"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the\nearth, and it grieved him at his heart.\"\n\nRepentance is in us a change of the mind; but in God, a change of\nhis dispensations; for otherwise he repenteth not, neither can he;\nbecause it standeth not with the perfection of his nature: In him\n\"is no variableness, neither shadow of turning\" (James 1:17).\n\nWherefore, it is man, not God, that turns. When men therefore\nreject the mercy and ways of God, they cast themselves under his\nwrath and displeasure; which because it is executed according to\nthe nature of his justice, and the severity of his law, they miss\nof the mercy promised before (Num 23:19). Which that we may know,\nthose shall one day feel that shall continue in final impenitency.\nTherefore, God speaking to their capacity, he tells them, he hath\nrepented of doing them good. \"The Lord repented that he had made\nSaul king\" (1 Sam 15:35). And yet this repentance was only a\nchange of the dispensation, which Saul by his wickedness had put\nhimself under; otherwise the strength, the eternity of Israel,\n\"will not lie nor repent\" (v 29).\n\nThe sum is therefore, that men had now by their wickedness put\nthemselves under the justice and law of God; which justice by\nreason of its perfection, could not endure they should abide on\nthe earth any longer; and therefore now, as a just reward of their\ndeed, they must be swept from the face thereof.\n\n\"And it grieved him at his heart.\" This is spoken to show, that\nhe did not feign, but was simple and sincere in his promise of\nremission and forgiveness of sins, had they kept close to his word,\naccording as he had commanded. Wherefore God's heart went not with\nthem in their backsliding, but left them, and was offended with\nthem.\n\nVer. 7. \"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created,\nfrom the face of the earth, both man, and beast, [or from man to\nbeast,] and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it\nrepenteth me that I have made them.\"\n\nThis may be either understood as a threatening, or a determination:\nif as a threatening then it admitted of time for repentance; but\nif it was spoken as a determination, then they had stood out the\nday of grace, and had laid themselves under unavoidable judgment.\nIf it respected the first, then it was in order to the ministry\nof Noah, or in order to the effecting the ends of its sending;\nwhich were either to soften or harden, or bring to repentance, or\nto leave them utterly and altogether inexcusable. But if it respected\nthe second, as it might, then it was pronounced as an effect of\nGod's displeasure, for their abuse of his patience, his minister,\nand word. As it also was with Israel of old; \"They mocked the\nmessengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets,\nuntil the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there\nwas no remedy\" (2 Chron 36:16).\n\n\"And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created.\" This\nword created, is added, on purpose to show that the world is under\nthe power of his hand; for who can destroy, but he that can create?\nOr who can save alive, when the maker of the world is set against\nthem? \"There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy\"\n(James 4:12). And again, \"Fear him which is able to destroy both\nsoul and body in hell\" (Matt 10:28). In both which places power\nto destroy is insinuated from his power and Godhead: As he saith\nin another place, \"All souls are mine;--the soul that sinneth, it\nshall die\" (Eze 18:4).\n\n\"Both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls,\" &c.\nThus it was at first the sin of a man brought a curse and judgment\nupon other the creatures whom God had made: As Paul says, \"The\nwhole creation groaneth\" (Rom 8:22).\n\nBut again, This threatening upon the beasts, the fowls, and creeping\nthing, might arise from a double consideration: First, To show,\nthat when God intends the destruction of man, he will also destroy\nthe means of his preservation (Josh 6:20). Or, secondly, To shew,\nthat when he is determined to execute his judgments, he will cut\noff all that stands in his way (2 Chron 35:21). He could not destroy\nthe earth without a flood, and preserve the beast, &c., alive;\ntherefore he destroys them also.\n\n\"For it repenteth me that I have made them.\" This seems to fall\nunder the first consideration, to wit, That God repented that he\nmade the beasts and fowls; because now they were used to sustain\nhis implacable enemies.\n\nVer. 8. \"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.\"\n\nThis word GRACE, must in special be observed; for grace is it which\ndelivereth from all deserved judgments and destruction.\n\nNoah, by nature was no better than other men: therefore the reason\nwhy he perished not with others, it was because he \"found grace in\nthe eyes of the Lord.\" Ye are saved by grace (Eph 2:8). And thus\nwas Noah, as is evident, because he was saved by faith (Heb 11:7).\nFor faith respecteth not works, but grace: Ye are saved by grace\nthrough faith. As Paul says again, \"Therefore it is of faith that\nit might be by grace,\" &c. (Rom 4:16). We must therefore, in our\ndeliverance from all the judgments of God, sing grace, grace, unto\nit.\n\nVer. 9. \"These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man,\nand perfect in his generations; and Noah walked with God.\"\n\nThe Holy Ghost here makes a short digression from his progress, in\nhis relation of the wickedness of the world; and yet not impertinently;\nfor seeing Noah was the man that escaped the judgment, his escape\nmust be for some reason; which was, because God was gracious to\nhim, and because God had justified him. Besides Noah being now\nmade righteous, faithfully walketh with God.\n\n\"He was just and perfect in his generations.\" But why it is said,\nGenerations? It might be, because he was faithful to God and man,\nhaving the armour of righteousness on the right hand, and on the\nleft. It is said in Isaiah, That Christ \"made his grave with the\nwicked, and with the rich in his death\" (53:9). To import, That\nthey only have benefit by him to eternal life, that die by his\nexample, as well as live by his blood; for in his death was both\nmerit and example; and they are like to miss in the first, that\nare not concerned in the second (Phil 8:16).\n\n\"Perfect in his generations.\" In his carriage, doctrines and life,\nbefore both God and man. And thus ought every preacher to be; he\nought to do in the sight of God, what he commands to men; by this\nmeans he saveth both himself, and them that hear him (1 Tim 4:16).\n\nBesides, Noah was a man, as well as a saint, and in either sense\nhad a generation: to both of which grace made him faithful; and he\nthat shall not serve his generation as a man, will hardly serve\nhis generation as a Christian. But Noah was perfect in both, he\nwas \"perfect in his generations.\"\n\n\"And Noah walked with God.\" This shews he was sincere in his work;\nfor a hypocrite may, as to outward shew, do as the saint of God:\nbut he doth it with respect to men, not God, and therefore he is\na hypocrite. To walk with God then, is not only to do the duty\ncommanded, but to do it as God requireth it; that is, to do it with\nfaith, and son-like fear, as in God's sight, \"with singleness of\nheart.\"\n\nVer. 10. \"And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.\"\n\nThese are the offspring of Noah, and by these was the earth\nreplenished after the flood, as will be further seen hereafter.\n\nVer. 11. \"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was\nfilled with violence.\"\n\nHe has now returned to the matter in hand before; to wit, the\ncauses of the flood.\n\n\"The earth also was corrupt.\" By earth, he may here mean, those\nthat are without the church: and if so, then by corrupt here, we\nmust understand, wicked after a most high manner; for albeit the\nworld and generation of Cain be always sinners before God, yet\nthe Lord cutteth not off the world in general, nor a nation in\nparticular, but because of the commission of eminent outrage and\nwickedness. Thus it was with those of Sodom, a little before the\nLord with fire devoured them. \"The men of Sodom [saith the text]\nwere wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly\" (Gen 13:13).\n\nAgain: As by corrupt, we may understand, corrupt by way of eminency;\nso again, they were corrupt incurably. This is evident, because\nthey were not brought off from sin by the ministry of Noah, the\nonly appointed means of their conversion.\n\nHence note, That when men are sinners exceedingly, and when the means\nof grace appointed of God for their recovery, prove ineffectual,\nthen they are near some signal judgment (2 Chron 36). Thus\nback-sliding Jerusalem, because she was wicked with an high hand\n(Eze 24:13,14), and could not be cured by the ministry of the\nprophets, therefore her sons must go forth of her into captivity,\nand the city burned to the ground with fire (Jer 15:1-3).\n\n\"And the earth was filled with violence.\" First, they had violated\nthe law of God, in making and maintaining ungodly and wicked\ncommunion; according to that of the prophet, \"Her priests have\nviolated my law, and have profaned mine holy things.\" But how?\n\"They have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither\nhave they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean\"\n(Eze 22:26).\n\nThey also perverted judgment between a man and his neighbour:\nadhering to their own party, in disaffection to the religious. This\nis supposed, because of the exceeding latitude of the expression,\n\"The earth was filled with violence\"; that is, all manner of\nviolence, outrage and cruelty was committed by this sort of people.\nThis takes in that saying of Solomon, the oppression of the poor,\nespecially God's poor, is included, in a \"violent perverting of\njudgment and justice\" (Eccl 5:8).\n\nThey also shewed violence to the lives of good men, as may be\ngathered by the act of Lamech, one of the sons of Cain. In a word,\n\"The earth was filled with violence\"; violence of every kind; lust\nand wickedness was outrageous, there was a world of ungodliness\namong these ungodly men.\n\nVer. 12. \"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was\ncorrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.\"\n\nBy these words therefore is confirmed the sense of the former\nverse, \"The earth was corrupt\"; for God saw it was so: \"The earth\nwas full of violence,\" for they had corrupted God's way.\n\n\"And God looked upon the earth.\" This shews us, That the Lord doth\nnot with haste, or in a rash inconsiderate way, pour his judgments\nupon the world; but that with judgment and knowledge, the wickedness\nfirst being certain, and of merit deserving the same. This is\nseen in his way of dealing with Sodom. \"And the Lord said, Because\nthe cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is\nvery grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done\naltogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and\nif not, I will know\" (Gen 18:21).\n\n\"And, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way\nupon the earth.\" It proved, as that of Sodom did, according to the\ncry thereof; for \"all flesh had corrupted his way.\" God's WAY,\nby violating his law, and perverting of judgment, as was hinted\nbefore. All flesh had corrupted it, therefore the evil needed not to\nbe long in searching out: As God saith by the prophet Jeremiah, \"I\nhave not found it by diligent search, but upon all these\" (2:34).\nHere upon the whole earth, none exempted but righteous Noah.\n\nVer. 13. \"And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come\nbefore me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and,\nbehold, I will destroy them with the earth.\"\n\n\"And God said unto Noah,\" or told Noah his purpose: The same way\nhe went with Abraham: \"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which\nI do?\" (Gen 18:17). \"Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he\nrevealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets\" (Amos 3:7).\n\n\"The end of all flesh is come.\" The time or expiration of the world\nis at hand. God speaks before he smites. Thus he did also by the\nprophet Ezekiel, saying, \"An end\" is come, \"the end is come\": And\nagain, \"An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee;\nbehold, it is come\" (7:1-6).\n\n\"The end of all flesh is come before me.\" Sin and wickedness doth\nnot put an end to the ungodly before their own face, yet it brings\ntheir end before the face of God. It is said of these very people,\n\"they knew not\" of their destruction, \"until\" the day \"the flood\ncame, and took them all away\" (Matt 24:37-39). Indeed, the nature\nof sin is to blind the mind, that the person concerned may neither\nsee mercy nor judgment; but God sees their end: \"The end of all\nflesh is come before me.\"\n\n\"The end of all flesh.\" By these words, the souls are left to, and\nreserved for another judgment: Wherefore, though here we find the\nflesh consumed; yet Peter saith, their spirits are still in prison,\neven the souls that Christ once preached to in the days, and by the\nministry of Noah: Even the souls \"which sometime were disobedient\nwhen once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,\nwhile the ark was a preparing,\" &c. (1 Peter 3:19,20).\n\nVer. 14. \"Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make\nin the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.\"\n\nThis is the fruits of the grace of God: He said before, That Noah\n\"found grace in the eyes of the Lord\": Which grace appoints to him\nthe means of his preservation.\n\n\"Make THEE an ark.\" He saith not, Make one; or, Make one for me:\nBut, Make one; make one for thee: \"Make THEE an ark of gopher\nwood.\"\n\nNoah therefore, from this word THEE, did gather, That God did intend\nto preserve him from the judgment which he had appointed in this\nhis work: Therein lay his own profit and comfort; not a thought\nwhich he had, not a blow that he struck, about the preparing the\nark, but he preached, as to others their ruin, to himself, his\nsafeguard and deliverance: He \"prepared an ark, to the saving of\nhis house\" (Heb 11:7).\n\nThis therefore must needs administer much peace and content to his\nmind, while he preached to others their overthrow. As the prophet\nsaith, \"The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect\nof righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people\nshall dwell in a peaceable habitation\" (Isa 32:17,18). Thus did\nNoah when he dwelt in the ark, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet\nresting-places.\n\n\"Make thee an ark.\" The ark was a figure of several things. 1. Of\nChrist, in whom the church is preserved from the wrath of God. 2.\nIt was a figure of the works of the faith of the godly: \"By faith\nhe prepared an ark\"; by which the followers of Christ are preserved\nfrom the rage and tyranny of the world (for the rage of the water\nwas a type of that, as I shall shew you hereafter). So then Noah,\nby preparing an ark, or by being bid so to do of God, was thereby\nadmonished, First, To live by the faith of Christ, of whom the\nark was a type: and hence it is said, that in preparing the ark,\nhe \"became heir of the righteousness which is by faith\"; because\nhe understood the mind of God therein, and throughout his figure\nacted faith upon Christ. But, Secondly, His faith was not to be idle,\nand therefore he was bid to work. This begat in him an obediential\nfear of doing ought which God had forbidden: \"By faith Noah, being\nwarned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared\nan ark, to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the\nworld, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith\"\n(Heb 11:7).\n\n\"Rooms [nests] shalt thou make in the ark.\" To wit, for himself,\nand the beasts, and birds of the field, &c. Implying, that in the\nLord Jesus there is room for Jews and Gentiles. Yea, forasmuch as\nthese rooms were prepared for beasts of every sort, and for fowls of\nevery wing: it informs us, that for all sorts, ranks and qualities\nof men, there is preservation in Jesus Christ: \"Compel them to\ncome in\"; drive them (in a gospel sense as Noah did the beasts of\nold into the ark), that my house may be full, \"and yet there is\nroom\" [27] (Luke 14:22,23).\n\n\"And thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.\" This was\nto secure all from the flood, or to keep them that were in the ark\nfrom perishing in the waters.\n\nVer. 15. \"And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: the\nlength of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it\nfifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.\"\n\nA vessel fit to swim upon the waters.\n\n\"And this is the fashion,\" &c. God's ordinances must be according\nto God's order and appointment, not according to our fancies, \"This\nis the fashion,\" to wit, according to what is after expressed.\n\nBy these words therefore Noah was limited and bound up, as to a\ndirection from which he must not vary; according to that of the\nangel to the prophet, \"Son of man [saith he] behold with thine\neyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that\nI shall shew thee: for to the intent that I might shew them unto\nthee, art thou brought hither\" (Eze 40:4). As the Lord said also\nto his servant Moses, \"In all things that I have said unto you, be\ncircumspect\" (Exo 23:13). And so again, about making the tabernacle\nin the wilderness, which the apostle also takes special notice\nof, saying, \"See, saith he, that thou make all things according\nto the pattern shewed to thee in the mount\" (Heb 8:5).\n\nHence note, That God's command must be the rule whereby we order\nall our actions, especially when we pretend to worship that is\ndivine and religious. If our works, orders, and observances, have\nnot this inscription upon them, \"This is the fashion,\" or \"This is\naccording to the pattern,\" such works and orders will profit us\nnothing: neither have we any promise when all is done, it wanting\nthe order of God, that we should escape those judgments which those\nshall assuredly escape, that have their eye in their work to the\n\"pattern\" revealed in the word.[28]\n\nVer. 16. \"A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt\nthou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in\nthe side thereof: with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou\nmake it.\"\n\nI told you before, That the ark was a type of Christ, and also of\nthe works of the faith of the godly. And now he seems to bring in\nmore, and to make it a type of the church of Christ: as indeed the\nprophet also does, when he calls the church, one afflicted, and\ntossed with tempests; and compareth her troublers to the waters of\nNoah, saying, \"This is as the waters of Noah\" (Isa 54:9).\n\nNow as the ark was a type of the church, so according to the\ndescription of this verse she hath three most excellent things\nattending her. 1. Light. 2. A door. 3. Stories of a lower and higher\nrank.\n\n1. She hath a window for light, and that when she was to be tossed\nupon the waters. Hence note, That the church of Christ wanteth not\nlight, no, not in the worst of times. This light is the Word and\nSpirit of God which Christ hath given to them that obey him (John\n17).\n\n2. She hath a door. This door was a type of Christ; so was also\nthe door of the tabernacle. And hence it is that you read, That\nMoses, when he went to talk with God, would stand to talk in the\ndoor of the tabernacle; also that the cloudy pillar stood at the\ndoor (Exo 33:9,10). \"I [saith Christ] am the door\": Again, \"I am\nthe door of the sheep\" (John 10). By this door then, entered all\nthat went into the ark, as by Christ all must enter that enter\naright into the church.\n\n3. She had stories in her, of first, second, and third degree: To\nshew that also in the church of Christ there are some higher than\nsome, both as to persons and states: 1. apostles; 2. evangelists;\n3. pastors and teachers. And again, there are in the church degrees\nof states, as also there are in heaven.\n\nVer. 17. \"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon\nthe earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from\nunder heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.\"\n\nThis is the reason of the former commandment, of making an ark:\nBut some time was yet to intervene: the flood was hereafter to\noverflow the world: wherefore, from this it is that those words are\ninserted, of things not seen as yet: And that the ark was a work,\nor the fruit of Noah's faith: \"by faith Noah, being warned of God\nof things not seen as yet,\" &c. (Heb 11).\n\n\"And, behold, I, even I,\" &c. These words excuse Noah of treason\nor rebellion, forasmuch as his preparation for himself, and his\nwarning and threatening the whole world with death and judgment\nfor their transgression, was solely grounded upon the word of God:\nGod bid him prepare, God said he would punish the world for their\niniquity.\n\nHence note, That a man is not to be counted an offender, how\ncontrary soever he lieth, either in doctrine or practice, to men,\n&c. if both have the command of God, and are surely grounded upon\nthe words of his mouth. This made Jeremiah, though he preached,\nThat the city of Jerusalem should be burnt with fire, the king and\npeople should go into captivity; yet stand upon his own vindication\nbefore his enemies, and plead his innocency against them that\npersecuted him (Jer 26:10-15). Daniel also, though he did openly\nbreak the king's decree, and refused to stoop to his idolatrous and\ndevilish demand; yet purged himself of both treason and sedition,\nand justifies his act as innocent and harmless, even in the sight\nof God. \"My God [saith he] hath sent his angel, and hath shut the\nlions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him\ninnocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I\ndone no hurt\" (Dan 6:22).\n\nFurther, Paul also, although by his doctrine he did cry down the\nceremonies of the Jews, and the idolatry of the heathen emperor,\nyet he quits himself of blame from either side: \"Neither against\nthe law of the Jews, [saith he], neither against the temple, nor\nyet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all\" (Acts 25:8).\nThe reason is, because the words of God, how severely soever they\nthreaten sinners, and how sharply soever (the preacher keeping\nwithin the bowels of the word) this doctrine be urged on the world,\nif it destroy, it destroyeth but sin and impenitent sinners, even\nas the waters of Noah must do.\n\nThis then affords us another note worth remarking, to wit, That what\nGod hath said in his word, how offensive soever it be to ungodly\nmen, THAT we that are Christians ought to observe: whether it\ndirect us to declare against others' enormities, or to provide\nfor ourselves against the judgment to come.\n\n\"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood,\" &c. Hence note again,\nLet us preach and practise well, and let God alone the execute his\njudgments. It is said of Samuel, That not one of his words did fall\nto the ground (1 Sam 3:19). He preached, and God, according to his\nblessing or cursing, did either spare and forgive, or execute his\njudgments.\n\n\"And, behold, I, even I.\" Note again, That when sinners have with\nthe utmost contempt slighted and despised the judgment threatened,\nyet forasmuch as the execution thereof is in the hand of an omnipotent\nmajesty, it must fall with violence upon the head of the wicked.\n\"I, even I,\" therefore, were words of a strong encouragement to\nNoah, and the godly with him; but black, and like claps of thunder\nto the pestilent unbelieving world: as the prophet says, \"He is\nstrong that executes his word\": And again, \"Not one of his judgments\nfail.\"\n\n\"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood.\" The flood was a type\nof three things.\n\n1. A type of the enemies of the church (Isa 54:9-14).\n\n2. A type of the water baptism under the new testament (1 Peter\n3:20,21).\n\n3. A type of the last and general overthrow of the world by fire\nand brimstone (2 Peter 3:6,7).\n\nBut here, as it simply respecteth the cause, which (as is afore\nrelated) was the sin that before you read of; so it precisely was\na type of the last of these, and to that end put an end to the\nworld that then was. The world that then was, being overflowed\nwith water, perished, to signify, That the heavens and the earth\nwhich are now, are reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment,\nand perdition of ungodly men.\n\n\"I bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh,\nwherein is the breath of life from under heaven: and every thing\nthat is in the earth shall die.\" By these latter words, as the\ncause, so the extension of this curse is expressed; and that under\na threefold denotation.\n\n1. Every thing that is in the earth.\n\n2. All flesh wherein is the breath of life.\n\n3. Every thing that is under heaven. So then, this deluge was\nuniversal, and extended itself not only to those parts of the\nworld where Noah and that generation lived, which we find repeated\nbefore, but even over the face of all the earth; and it took hold\nof the life of every living thing that was either on all the\nearth, or in the air, excepting only those in the ark, as will\nthe general judgment do: \"And Noah only remained alive, and they\nthat were with him in the ark\" (Gen 7:23).\n\nVer. 18. \"But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt\ncome into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons'\nwives with thee.\"\n\n\"But with thee,\" &c. This concerns what was said before concerning\nthe universality of the flood: As he also said above, \"But Noah\nfound grace in the eyes of the LORD.\" This Peter also notes, He\n\"saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing\nin the flood upon the world of the ungodly\" (1 Peter 2:5).\n\n\"With thee will I establish my covenant.\" My covenant of mercy,\nor my promise to save thee when I drown the whole world for their\niniquity: And therefore he adds, \"And thou shalt come into the\nark.\"\n\n\"I will establish.\" Making and establishing of promises are not\nalways the same: He made his promise to Abraham, he seconded it\nwith an oath unto Isaac, and he confirmed, or established it to\nJacob; for by him he multiplied the seed of Abraham as the stars\nof heaven for multitude (Psa 105:8-10).\n\n\"With thee will I establish.\" Or, unto thee will I perform my\npromise, \"Thou shalt come into the ark.\"\n\nHence note again, That we ought to look upon signal and great\ndeliverances from sore and imminent dangers, to be confirmations\nof the promise or covenant of God. Or thus, When God finds means\nof deliverance, and instateth our souls in a special share of\nthat means, this we should take as a sign, That with us God hath\nconfirmed, or established, his covenant (Luke 1:68-78).\n\n\"Thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.\"\nBecause in that family did now reside the whole of the visibility\nof the church upon the earth; all the rest were lost, as Peter\nalso intimates, when he calleth Noah the eighth person, or one,\nand the chief of the eight that made up the visible church, or\nthat maintained the purity of the worship of God upon the face of\nthe whole earth: As he explains it a little after: \"For thee have\nI seen righteous before me in this generation\" (7:1).\n\nVer. 19. \"And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort\nshalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they\nshall be male and female.\"\n\nBy these words, Noah should seem to be, in this action, a figure\nor semblance of Christ; who before the Lord shall rain fire and\nbrimstone from heaven, shall gather into his ark, the church, of\nall kindreds, and tongues, and people, and nations (Luke 13:29;\n14:21). Even as Noah was to gather of all, of everything, of all\nflesh, of every sort, with him into the ark.\n\n\"Two of every sort.\" This two, in special, respecteth the unclean\n(7:2), which were a type of the Gentiles, and so further confirms\nthe point.\n\nThey shall be male and female. He would not make a full end, he\nwould in judgment remember mercy (Acts 10:11,12,17,28).\n\nVer. 20. \"Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their\nkind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind: two of\nevery sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.\"\n\n\"Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind.\" This,\nstill respecting the antitype, may shew us also, how that God,\nfor proof of the prophecy of the spreading of the gospel, doth\nnot only tell us, that the Gentiles were gathered into his ark,\nbut as here the beasts and birds, according to their kind, are\nspecified: so the Gentiles are also denominated according to their\nseveral countries, Galatians, Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians,\nThessalonians, Bereans, &c., these, after their country and nation,\nwere gathered unto Jesus to be preserved from the flood of wrath\nthat at last shall fall from God who dwells in heaven, to the\nburning up of the sinner and ungodly.\n\n\"Two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.\" If\nthe emphasis lieth in Come, as I am apt to think, and as the eighth\nverse of the next chapter fairly allows me to judge; then we must\nobserve still, That Noah was not only first in the ark, as our\nLord and Christ is the first from the dead; but that the cattle,\nthe fowls, and the creeping things, did come to him into the\nark, by a special instinct from heaven of the fruits of a divine\nelection.[29] Noah therefore, as a man, did not make choice which\nof every kind; but he went first into the ark, and then of clean\nbeasts by sevens, and of unclean beasts by twos, went in unto Noah\ninto the ark, as the Lord commanded Noah.\n\nAnd thus it is in the antitype: \"Unto thee shall all flesh come,\"\nsaith the prophet (Psa 65:2). And again, \"To him shall the gathering\nof the people be\" (Gen 49:10). But how? Why, by an instinct from\nheaven, the fruit of a divine election: \"All that the Father giveth\nme shall come to me; but no man can come to me [saith Christ]\nexcept the Father which hath sent me draw him\" (John 6:37,44).\nThe beasts therefore which came into the ark, were neither chosen\nby men, neither came they in by any instinct of nature which was\ncommon to them all, but as being by a divine hand singled out\nand guided thither, so they entered in: the rest were left to the\nfury of the flood. Like to this also is the antitype, sinners come\nnot to Jesus by any work or choice of flesh and blood, nor yet by\nany instinct of nature that is common to all the world; but they\ncome, as being by a divine hand singled out from others; and as\nguided of the Father, so they come to Christ into the ark: The\nrest are left to the fury of the wrath of God, which, in the day\nof judgment, shall swallow them up for ever.\n\n\"They shall come unto thee to keep them alive.\" Indeed, they lived\nnot for their own sakes, they being not better than them that\nperished; but \"they shall come unto thee to save them\": for, for\nthe sake of Noah they were preserved, when many millions were\ndrowned in the waters. Bring this also to the antitype, and you find\nthem look like one another: for the reason why some are saved from\nthe wrath to come, it is not for that they are better in themselves,\nfor both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin: But it is Christ that\nsaveth by his righteousness, as Noah saved the beasts and fowls,\n&c. Let us therefore, as the beasts did, go to Jesus Christ, that\nhe may keep us alive from perishing in the day of judgment.\n\nVer. 21. \"And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and\nthou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee,\nand for them.\"\n\nThis therefore was for the preservation of the life of those that\nwere in the ark; by which action there is, as in the former, inclosed\na gospel-mystery.\n\n\"Take thou unto thee of all food.\" This food was not to be at the\nwill and dispose of unruly beasts; but Noah was, as the lord of all\nthat was in the ark, to take it into his own custody: and therefore\nhe doubleth the command, \"Take it unto thee\"; Gather it unto thee;\nto wit, to dispose of after thy discretion and faithfulness. In\nthis therefore he was a type of Christ, whom God hath set as Lord\nand King in the church, and \"to feed his flock as a shepherd\"; for\nthe \"bread of God\" is in the hand of Christ, for him to communicate\nunto his spouses, saints, and children; as Joseph did to Egypt,\naccording to the power committed to him, and trust reposed in\nhim. And hence it is said, as concerning the bread that endureth\nto everlasting life, \"the Son of man shall give it you; for Him\nhath God the Father sealed,\" or appointed thereunto (John 6:27):\nand therefore, that he giveth, we receive, and no more of the\nbread of God: That thou givest them, they gather: thou openest\nthine hand, they are filled with good (Psa 104:28).\n\n\"Take unto thee all food.\" That is, to be eaten by man and beast;\nthe fowl also, and the creeping thing. This still followed, and\nbrought in to the gospel, it shews us, that, even then, when the\nchurch is driven up into a hole, and tossed upon the waves of the\nrage and fury of the world, as the ark was upon the face of the\nwaters, that even then her Noah hath all food for her, or food of\nall sorts for her support and refreshment: \"Bread shall be given\nhim; his waters shall be sure\" (Isa 33:16).\n\n\"Take unto thee.\" How blessedly was this answered, when the Lion\nof the tribe of Judah took the book out of the hand of him that\nsat upon the throne (Rev 5:7); for in the book is contained the\nwords of everlasting life; and the words of God are the food of\nhis church, which this Noah hath received to nourish them withal:\nMan \"liveth not by bread only,\" but by every word that proceedeth\nout of the mouth of the Lord, doth man live (Matt 4:4; Deu 8:3).\n\n\"And it shall be for food for thee, and for them.\" That is, each\naccording to their kind. The same is true also under our present\nconsideration; Christ is the shepherd, we are the sheep, yet He\nfeedeth with us in the ark: \"I will come in to him, and will sup\nwith him, and he with me\" (Rev 3:20). Again, here Christ transcends\nthis action of Noah; for he was to have his food of his own, but\nChrist feedeth on the same with us, even on the words of God: Yet\nherein again we differ; he feedeth as a Lord, we as servants; he as\na Saviour, we as the saved; but in general, respecting the words\nof God, we feed all but of one dish, but at one table; the bread\ntherefore that he hath provided, gathered and taken to him, it was\nfood for him, as well as for us.\n\nVer. 22. \"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him,\nso did he.\"\n\nThese words therefore present us with a description of the sincerity\nand simplicity of the faith of Noah; who received the word at the\nmouth of God; not to hear only, but to do and live in the same.\n\n\"Thus did Noah.\" As it is also said of his servant Moses, \"As the\nLord commanded Moses, so did he\": As the Lord commanded Moses,\nso did he, Yea, to shew us how pleasant a thing the Holy Ghost\naccounteth this holy obedience of faith, he is not weary with\nrepeating, and repeating again not less than eight times in one\nchapter, the punctuality of Moses's conformity with the word of\nGod, in this manner, \"Thus did Moses\"; \"according to all that the\nLord commanded Moses, so did he\" (Exo 40:16,19,21,23,25,27,29,32).\n\n\"Thus did Noah,\" This note therefore is, as it were, a character\nor mark by which the Lord's people are known from the world: They\nhave special regard to the word. \"All his saints are in thy hand:\nthey sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words\"\n(Deu 33:3). As Christ said, \"I have given them thy words and they\nhave received them\" (John 17:5,6): Yea, \"and they have kept thy\nword.\"\n\n\"Thus did Noah.\" Let this then be the discriminating character of\nthe saints from the men of this world. It was so in the days of\nNoah, when all the world went a whoring from their God, and said,\n\"We desire not the knowledge of thy ways\" (Job 21:14). Then Noah\nkept the words of God. \"Thus did Noah; according to all that God\ncommanded him, so did he.\" CHAPTER VII.\n\nVer. 1. \"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house\ninto the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this\ngeneration.\"\n\nThe ark being now prepared, and the day of God's patience come\nto an end, he now is resolved to execute his threatening upon the\nworld of ungodly men; but withal, in the first place, to secure\nhis saints, and them that have feared his name. In this therefore\nwe have a semblance of the last judgment, and how God will dispose\nof his friends and enemies.\n\n\"Come thou into the ark.\" God, I say, will take care of, and\nsafely provide for us that have feared him, when he most eminently\nentereth into judgment with the world: As he also saith by Isaiah\nthe prophet, \"Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and\nshut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little\nmoment, until the indignation be over-past\" (26:20). He shall send\nforth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall\ngather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of\nheaven to another.\n\n\"Come thou and all thy house.\" Not an hoof must be left behind;\nGod will not lose the very dust of his people: Of all that thou\nhast given me have I lost nothing, but will raise it up at the\nlast day (John 6:39). God therefore was careful not only of Noah,\nbut of all that were in his house; because they were all of his\nvisible church, they must therefore be preserved from the rage\nand fury of the deluge. \"Gather my saints together unto me; [saith\nhe] those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice\" (Psa\n50:5).\n\n\"For thee have I seen righteous before me.\" This is not to be\nunderstood as the meritorious cause, but as the characteristical\nnote that distinguisheth them that are gods, from others that are\nsubjects of his wrath and displeasure: wherefore, those that at\nthis time perished, bear the badge of ungodliness, as that which\nmade them obnoxious to this overflowing judgment: As also we have\nit in the book of Job, \"Hast thou [saith Eliphaz] marked the old\nway which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of\ntime, whose foundation was overflown with a flood\" (Job 22:15,16).\n\nRighteousness therefore, is the distinguishing character whereby\nthe good are known from the bad. Thus it was in Ezekiel's time:\n\"Set a mark [saith God] upon the foreheads of the men that sigh\nand that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst\nof the city\" (Eze 9:4). Which mark was to distinguish them from\nthose that were profane, and that for their wickedness were to be\ndestroyed by the ministers of God's justice.\n\n\"For thee have I seen righteous before me.\" These words, before\nme, are inserted on purpose to shew us, that Noah was no feigned\nworshipper, but one who did all things in the sight of God.\nIndeed, there are two things which are of absolute necessity for\nthe obtaining of this approbation of God. 1. All things must be\ndone as to manner according to the word. 2. All things must be\ndone as to the matter of them also according to the word. Both\nwhich were found in Noah's performances; and therefore he is said\nto be perfect in his generations, and that he walked with God.\nThus it was also with Zacharias and Elizabeth, \"they were both\nrighteous before God\"; that is, sincere and unfeigned in their\nobedience (Luke 1:6).\n\n\"Righteous before me in this generation.\" By this we see, righteousness,\nor the truth of God's worship in the world, was now come to a low\nebb; the devil, and the children of Cain, had bewitched the church\nof God, and brought the professors thereof so off from the truth\nof his way, that had they got Noah also, the church had been quite\nextinct, and gone: wherefore, it now was time for God to work, and\nto cherish what was left, even by sending a besom of destruction\nupon all the face of the earth, to sweep away all the workers of\niniquity.\n\nVer. 2, 3. \"Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens,\nthe male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two,\nthe male and his female.--Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the\nmale and his female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the\nearth.\"\n\nSomething hath been said to this already; only this I will add\nfurther, That by this commandment of God, both Noah, and all that\nwere with him, were pre-admonished to look to their hearts; that\nthey continued unfeigned before him. For if God would save unclean\nbeasts, and fowls, from the present and terrible destruction; why\nalso might not some of them, though they partook of this temporal\ndeliverance, be still reputed as unclean in his sight? As indeed\nit came to pass; for a cursed Ham was there. Wherefore, read\nnot lightly the commands of God, there may be both doctrine and\nexhortation; both item,[30] as well as an obligation to a duty\ncontaind therein. Circumcision was a duty incumbent as to the\nletter of the commandment; but there was also doctrine in it, as to\na more high and spiritual teaching than the letter simply imported.\n\nNote then from hence, That when you read that unclean beasts\nand unclean birds, may be in the ark of Noah: That unclean men,\nand unclean women, may be in the church of God: \"One of you is a\ndevil,\" was an admonition to all the rest: Let this also of the\nbeasts unclean be an admonition to you.\n\nVer. 4. \"For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the\nearth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that\nI have made, will I destroy, [or, blot out] from off the face of\nthe earth.\"\n\nNow the judgment is at the door; it is time to make haste, and\npack into the ark. God doth not love to have his people have much\nvacancy from employment while they are in this world. Idle times\nare dangerous; David found it so in the business of Uriah's wife.\nWherefore Noah having finished the ark, he hath another work to do,\neven to get himself, with his family and household, fitly settled\nin the vessel that was to save him from the deluge, and that at\nhis peril in seven days' time.\n\n\"For yet seven days, and I will bring a flood.\" Note again, That it\nhath been the way of God, even when he doth execute the severest\njudgments, to tell it in the ears of some of his saints sometime\nbefore he doth execute the same: Yea, it seems to me, that it will\nbe so even in the great day of God Almighty; for I read, that before\nthe bridegroom came, thee was a cry made, \"Behold the bridegroom\ncometh!\" (Matt 25:6). Which cry doth not seem to me, to be the\nordinary cry of the ministers of the gospel, but a cry that was\neffected by some sudden and marvellous awakening, the product of\nsome new and extraordinary revelation. That also seems to look\nlike some fore-word to the church, \"Then shall appear the sign of\nthe Son of man in heaven\" (Matt 24:30): Some strange and unusual\nrevelation of that notable day to be near, which in other ages was\nnot made known to the world; upon which sign he presently appears.\nNow whether this sign will be the appearing of the angels first;\nor whether the opening of the heavens, or the voice of the arch-angel,\nand the trump of God, or what, I shall not here presume to determine;\nbut a fore-word there is like to be, yet so immediately followed\nwith the personal presence of Christ, that they who had not grace\nbefore, shall not have time nor means to get it then: And while\nthey went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready\nwent in with him, and the door was shut (Matt 25).\n\n\"And I will cause it to rain forty days and forty nights.\" This\nlength of time doth fore-pronounce the completing of the judgment:\nAs who should say, I will cause it to rain until I have blotted\nout all the creatures, both of men, beasts, and fowls: and so the\nafter-words import; \"And every living substance that I have made,\nwill I destroy from off the face of the earth.\"\n\nVer. 5. \"And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded\nhim.\"\n\nThis note, as already I have said, doth denote him to be a righteous\nman; one that might with honour to his God, escape the judgment\nnow to be executed: wherefore, the reiterating of this character is\nmuch for the vindicating of God's justice, and for the justification\nof his overthrowing the world of ungodly sinners.\n\nBut again, these words seem to respect in special, what Noah did\nin the last seven days, in order to the commandment laid before\nhim in the three first verses of this chapter; and so they signify\nhis faithfulness to the word, and his observance of the law of his\nGod, even to the day that the rain began to fall upon the earth.\nAnd therefore they preach unto us, not only that he began well,\nbut that he continued in godly and unfeigned perseverance; which\nwhen perfected, is the most effectual proof, that what before\nhe did, he did with uprightness of heart, and therefore now must\nescape the judgment. As it is said in the gospel of Matthew, \"He\nthat shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved\" (Matt\n24:13). Ver. 6. \"And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood\nof waters was upon the earth.\"\n\nFour hundred and fourscore of which the world had leisure to study\nthe prophecy that God gave of him by the mouth of his father Lamech\n(Gen 5:29); the other hundred and twenty he spent in a more open\ntestifying, both by word, and his preparing the ark, that God\nwould one day overtake them with judgment; yet to the day that\nthe flood came, the world was ignorant thereof (Matt 24:38,39).\n(Astonishing is the fruits of sin:) So it came to pass, that in\nthe six hundredth year of Noah's life, which was the one thousand\nsix hundred fifty sixth year of the world's age, the flood of\nwaters were upon the earth, to the utter destruction of all that\nwas found upon the face thereof, Noah only being left alive, and\nthey that were with him in the ark.\n\nVer. 7. \"And Noah went in, and his sons,[31] and his wife, and his\nsons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the\nflood.\"\n\nThey had hardly done their work in the world, by that it began to\nrain, by that the first drops of the judgment appeared. They went\ninto the ark, says the text, because of the waters of the flood.\nThis should teach Christians diligence, lest they be called for\nby God's dispensations, either of death or judgment, before they\nhave served completely their generations, by the will of God. Noah\nhad done it, but it seems he had but done it; his work was ended\njust as the judgment came: \"Be ye also ready; for in such an hour\nas ye think not the Son of man cometh\" (Matt 24:44).\n\nVer. 8, 9. \"Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and\nof fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there\nwent in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the\nfemale, as God had commanded Noah.\"\n\nBy these words it seems (as I also touched before) that the beasts,\nand fowls, both clean and unclean, did come in to Noah into the\nark; not by Noah's choice, nor by any instinct that was common to\nall, but by an instinct from above, which so had determined the life\nand death of these creatures, even to a very sparrow; for not one\nof them doth fall to the ground without the providence of our\nheavenly Father.\n\n\"They went in unto Noah.\" And let no man deride, for that I say,\nBy an instinct from above; for God hath not only wrought wonders\nin men, but even in the beasts, and fowls of the air; to the\nmaking of them act both above and against their own nature. How\ndid Baalam's ass speak! (Num 22:28-30). And the cows that drew\nthe ark, have it right to the place which God had appointed, not\nregarding their sucking calves! (1 Sam 6:10-14). Yea, how did\nthose ravenous creatures, the ravens, bring the prophet bread and\nflesh twice a day, but by immediate instinct from heaven? (1 Kings\n17:6). Even by the same did these go in to Noah, into the ark.\n\nVer. 10. \"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of\nthe flood were upon the earth.\"\n\nJust as the Lord had denounced before: Look therefore, what God\nhath said, shall assuredly come to pass, whether it be believed,\nor counted an idle tale. The confirmation therefore of what God\nhath spoken, depended not upon the credence of man, because it\ncame not by the will of man: \"He hath said it, and shall he not\nmake it good?\" It will therefore assuredly come to pass, whatever\nGod hath spoken, be it to save his Noahs, or be it to drown his\nenemies; and the reason is, Because to do otherwise, is inconsistent\nwith his nature. He is faithful, holy and true, and cannot deny\nhimself, that is, the word which he hath spoken.\n\nVer. 11. \"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second\nmonth, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all\nthe fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows [or\nflood-gates] of heaven were opened.\"\n\nAs to the month, and the day of the month I have but little to say:\nthough doubtless, had not there been something worthy of knowing\ntherein, it would not so punctually have been left upon record;\nfor I dare not say this scribe wrote this in vain, or that it was\nneedless thus to punctilio it; a mystery is in it, but my darkness\nsees it not; I must speak according to the proportion of faith.\n\n\"The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.\"\nBy these words, it seems that it did not only rain from heaven,\nbut also the springs and fountains were opened; which together\nwith the great rain of his strength, did overflow the world the\nsooner.\n\nThis great deep, in mine opinion, was also a type of the bottomless\npit, that mouth and gulf of hell, which at the day of judgment\nshall gape upon the world of ungodly men, to swallow them up from\nthe face of the earth, and to carry them away from the face and\npresence of God.\n\n\"And the windows [or flood-gates] of heaven were opened.\" That\nis, that the water might descend without measure or order, even in\nits own natural force, with violence upon the head of the wicked.\nIt came as water out of his buckets upon them, judgment without\nmercy (Num 24:7).\n\nThis opening of the flood-gates of heaven, was a type of the way\nthat shall be made for the justice of God upon ungodly men, when\nChrist hath laid aside his mediatorship; for he indeed is the sluice\nthat stoppeth this justice of God from its dealing according to\nits infinite power and severity with men. He stands, like Moses,\nand, as it were, holdeth the hands of God. Oh! but when he shall\nbe taken away! When he shall have finished his mediatory work: then\nwill the flood-gates of heaven be opened, and then will the justice\nand holiness of God deal with men without stint or diminution,\neven till it hath filled the vessels of wrath with vengeance till\nthey run over. \"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of\nthe living God.\"\n\nVer. 12. \"And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty\nnights.\"\n\nThat is, It rained so long without stop or sting (v 4).\n\nVer. 13. \"In the self same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and\nJapheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives\nof his sons with them, into the ark.\"\n\nThis therefore more fully approveth of what I said before; to\nwit, That they had hardly done their work in the world, by that\nit began to rain; but so soon as they had done, the flood was upon\nthe earth. Much like this is that of Lot; it was not to rain fire\nand brimstone upon Sodom, till he was got to Zoar: But when Lot\nwas entered, but just entered, \"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom,\nand upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven\"\n(Gen 19:21-24).\n\nHence note, That the reason why God doth forbear to destroy the\nworld for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, it is for\nthe sake of the elect; because his work upon them is not fully\nperfected. \"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise\" (2 Peter\n3:9); no, nor as concerning his threatening neither,--but is\nlong-suffering to us-ward who are the elect; not willing that any\nof us should perish: But when Christ, head and members, are complete\nin all things, let the world look for patience and forbearance no\nlonger; for in that self same day the trump of God will sound, and\nthe Lord descend with a shout from heaven, to execute his anger\nwith fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire. Behold, he is now\n\"ready to judge the quick and the dead!\" (1 Peter 4:5) \"ready to be\nrevealed in the last time!\" (1 Peter 1:5). The judge also stands at\nthe door (James 5:9); it is but opening therefore, and his hand is\nupon you, which most assuredly he will do when his body is full\nand complete.\n\nObserve again, that providence sometimes so ordereth it, that as\ntouching the command of the Lord, necessity is as it were the great\nwheel that brings men into the performances of them, as here the\nflood drove them into the ark; as he said above, they went in\nbecause of the waters of the flood: So concerning the ordinance\nof unleavened bread, the first institution of that law, was as it\nwere accompanied with an unavoidable necessity, it was unleavened,\nsaith the text, \"because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could\nnot tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual\"\n(Exo 12:39).\n\nIt will be thus also at the day of judgment: Israel will be sufficiently\nwary of this world, they will even as it were unexpressibly groan\nto be taken up from hence; wherefore the Lord will come, as making\nuse of the weariness and groaning of his people, and will take\nthem up into his chambers of rest, and will wipe away all tears\nfrom their eyes, as here Noah and his sons, &c. did enter into\nthe ark.\n\nVer. 14. \"They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle\nafter their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the\nearth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of\nevery sort\" or wing.\n\nWithout doubt this careful repetition is not without a cause, and\nhave also in the bowels of it some comfortable doctrine for the\nchurch of God; every beast, all cattle, every creeping thing that\ncreepeth; every fowl and bird of every wing.\n\nFist this sheweth, that God hath respect to the fulfilling of his\nword in the midst of all his zeal and anger against sin (Gen 19).\nHe doth not as we, being angry, run headlong upon the offenders,\nbut if there be but three in a kingdom, or one in four cities, he\nwill have respect to them (Eze 14:19,20).\n\nSecondly, It sheweth that, how inconsiderable soever the persons\nare, that are within the compass, and care of the love and mercy\nof God, that inconsiderableness shall not be a let to their safety\nand preservation: Yea, though they are but as these creeping things,\nthat creep upon the earth, or as the saying is, but as a flea, a\ndead dog, or a grasshopper, or one of the least of the grains of\nwheat, not one of them, nay, not a hair of the head of them shall\nfall to the ground and perish.\n\nVer. 15, 16. \"And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two\nof all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went\nin, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded\nhim: and the Lord shut him in.\"\n\nThe Holy Ghost in this relation is wonderfully punctual and exact:\nevery beast, all cattle, every creeping thing, every fowl, and every\nbird, after their kind went in; and saith he again, they that went\nin, went in two and two; as if there had been an intelligence among\nthese irrational creatures, that the flood was shortly to be upon\nthe earth. Indeed, many among the sensitives have strange instincts,\nas appendixes to their nature, by which they do, and leave to do,\nto the astonishment of them that have reason: But that any instinct\nin nature should put them upon afore providing of shelter from\nthe flood, by going into the ark, (a place to secure them, rather\nthan to save them, had not the occasion and command of God been\notherwise) it cannot be once with reason imagined. Wherefore, as\ntheir going into the ark, so their going in two by two, and that\ntoo male and female, plainly declares that their motion was ordered\nand governed by heaven, themselves being utterly ignorant thereof.\n\n\"And they that went in went in male and female of all flesh, [both\nman and beast] and the Lord shut him in,\" that is Noah; and those\nthat were with him.\n\nThese latter words are of great importance, and do shew us the\ndistinguishing grace of God, for by his thus shutting the door of the\nark, he not only confirmed his mercy to Noah, but also discovered\nthe bounds and limits thereof. As who should say, Now Noah you\nhave your full tale, just thus many I will save from the flood: and\nwith that he shut the door leaving all other, both man and beast,\n&c. to the fury of the waters. God therefore by this act hath shewed\nhow it will go in the day of judgment with men. Those that (like\nthose beasts, and birds, and creeping things) shall come to Christ,\ninto his ark, before it rain fire and brimstone from heaven, those\nwill God shut up in the ark, and they shall live in that day; but\nthose that shall then be found in the world strangers to Jesus\nChrist, those will God shut out: \"They that were ready went in with\nhim to the marriage: and the door was shut\" (Matt 25:10).\n\nAnd observe, it is not said, that Noah shut the door, but the Lord\nshut him in: If God shuts in or out, who can alter it? I shut, and\nno man openeth (Rev 3:7). Doubtless before the flood had carried\noff the ark, others besides would with gladness have had there a\nlodging room, though no better than a dog-kennel; but now it was\ntoo late, the Lord had shut the door. Besides, had there been now\nin the heart of Noah, bowels or compassion to those without the\nark, or had he had desire to have received them to him, all had\nbeen worth nothing, the Lord had shut him in. This signifying,\nthat at the day of judgment, neither the bowels of Jesus Christ,\nneither the misery that damned men shall be in, will anything at\nall avail with God to save one sinner more, \"the door is shut.\"\n\nWhere you read therefore both in Matthew and Luke of the shutting\nof the door, understand that by such expressions Christ alludeth\nto the door in Noah's ark, which door was open while Noah and his\nattendants were entering into the ark, but they being got in, the\nLord shut the door. Then they that stood without and knocked, did\nweep, and knock, and ask too late. As Christ saith, \"When once\nthe master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,\nand ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,\nLord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I\nknow you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have\neaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our\nstreets, [as Noah did of old]. But he shall say, I tell you, I know\nyou not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.\nThere shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see\nAbraham, and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom\nof God, and you yourselves thrust out\" (Luke 13:25-28).\n\nVer. 17. \"And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the\nwaters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above\nthe earth.\"\n\nWhile the ark rested, and abode in his place, no doubt but the\nears of Noah were filled with doleful cries from the wretched and\nmiserable people, whom God had shut without the ark, one while\ncrying, another while knocking, according to what but now was\nrelated; which for ought I know might be many of the forty days,\nbut when the waters much increased, and lift up the ark above the\nearth, this miserable company were soon shaken off.[32]\n\nIt will be thus also in the day of judgment; at the beginning of\nthat day the ears of the godly will sufficiently be filled with\nthe cries and tears of the damned and miserable world; but when\nthe ark shall be taken up, that is, when the godly shall ascend\ninto the clouds, and so go hence with Jesus, they will soon lose\nthis company, and be out of the hearing of their lamentable dolours.\n\n\"And the waters increased.\" God's judgments have no ears to receive\nthe cries, nor heart to pity the miseries of the damned. They cry,\nit rains; they increase their cries, and the Lord does increase his\njudgment. \"And it came to pass, that as he cried, and they would\nnot hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of\nhosts\" (Zech 7:13).\n\nAgain, As the waters were a type of the wrath of God that in the\nday of judgment shall fall upon ungodly men: So they were also a\ntype of those afflictions and persecutions that attend the church;\nfor that very water that did drown the ungodly, that did also\ntoss and tumble the ark about; wherefore by the increase of the\nwaters, we may also understand, how mighty and numerous sometimes\nthe afflictions and afflictors of the godly be: As David said,\n\"Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? many are they that\nrise up against me\" (Psa 3:1).\n\n\"And the waters increased, and bare up the ark.\" The higher the\nrage and tyranny of this world goeth against the church of God,\nthe higher is the ark lifted up towards heaven, the most proud\nwave lifts it highest: The church is also by persecution more\npurged and purified from earthly and carnal delights; therefore\nit is added, \"the waters bare up the ark, and it was lift up above\nthe earth.\"\n\nVer. 18. \"And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly\nupon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.\"[33]\n\nThese words are still to be considered under the former double\nconsideration, to wit, both, as they present us with God's wrath\nat the last judgment, and as they present us with a sign of the\nrage and malice of ungodly men.\n\n\"And the waters prevailed\"; that is, over all ungodly sinners;\nthough they were mighty, and stout, and cared for none, yet the\nwaters prevailed against them, as the fire and brimstone will do\nover all the world at the day and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\nWherefore, well may it be said to all impenitent sinners, \"Can thy\nheart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall\ndeal with thee\" (Eze 22:14), saith the Lord God? Oh they cannot,\nthe waters of the wrath of God will prevail against, and increase\nupon them, until they have utterly swallowed them up.\n\n\"And the waters prevailed.\" Take it now as a type of the nature\nof persecution, and then it sheweth, that as the waters here did\nswallow up all but the ark, so when persecution is mighty in the\nworld, it prevaileth to swallow up all but the church; for none\nelse can aright withstand or oppose their wickedness. It is said,\nwhen the beast had power to work, \"the whole world wondered after\nthe beast\" (Rev 13:3), and all men who were not sealed, and that\nhad not the mark of God in their foreheads, fell in with the\nworship of the beast; as it is said, \"And all that dwell upon the\nearth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book\nof life of the Lamb\" &c. (v 8), So then it might well be said,\n\"The waters prevailed and increased.\"\n\n\"And the ark went upon the face of the waters.\" It is said that\nin the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the\nwaters, and here that the ark went upon the face of them. Indeed\nthe Spirit of God moveth, and the church, as God, walketh in\nstrange and unthought of stations. It is said, that God hath \"a\nway in the whirlwind, and in the storm\" (Nahum 1:3). So he hath\nupon the very face of the persecution of the day, but none but\nthe church can follow him here; it is the ark that can follow him\nupon the face of the waters. Deep things are seen by them that are\nupon the waters: \"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do\nbusiness in great waters; They see the works of the Lord, and his\nwonders in the deep\" (Psa 107:23,24). Indeed it oft falls out,\nthat the church seeth more of God in affliction, than when she is\nat rest and ease; when she is tumbled to and fro in the waters,\nthen she sees the works of God, and his wonders in the deep.\n\nAnd this makes persecution so pleasant a thing, this makes the ark\ngo upon the face of the waters, she seeth more in this her state,\nthan in all the treasures of Egypt (Heb 11:24,25).\n\nVer. 19. \"And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and\nall the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.\"\n\nThis second repetition of the prevailing of the waters, doth also\ncall for a second consideration.\n\n1. It shews us, that all hope that any ungodly man might have at\nthe beginning of the flood to escape the rage thereof, was now\nswallowed up in death. Indeed it is natural to the creatures, when\nfloods and inundations are upon the earth, to repair to the high\nplaces, as they only that are left for preservation of life; where\nlife may be also continued if the waters do not overflow them: but\nwhen it comes to pass as here we read, that all the hills under\nthe heavens are covered: then life takes its farewell, and is gone\nfrom the world, as was the effect of the waters of Noah.\n\nThe hills therefore were types of the hope of the hypocrite, upon\nwhich they clamber till their heads do touch the clouds, thinking\nthereby to escape the judgment of God; but \"though they hide\nthemselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out\nthence,\" saith God (Amos 9:2,3). The flood of his wrath will come\nthither, even over the tops of all the hills. So that safety is\nonly in the ark with Noah, in the church with Christ, all other\nplaces must be drowned with the flood.\n\n2. We may also understand by this verse, how God in a time\nof persecution will cut off the carnal confidence of his people.\nWe are apt to place our hope somewhere else than in God, when\npersecution ariseth because of the word. We hope that such a man,\nor that such outward means may prevent our being swept away with\nthis flood. But because this confidence is not after God, but\ntendeth to weaken our stedfast dependence on him; therefore this\nflood shall cover all our hills, not one shall be found for us under\nthe whole heaven (Jer 2:36,37). When the king of Babylon came up\nagainst Jerusalem to war, then Israel, instead of trusting in\nGod, put their confidence in the king of Egypt, but he also was\nswallowed up by this flood, that Israel might be ashamed of such\nconfidence; and this at last they confessed. \"As for us, [said\nthey,] our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching,\nwe have watched for a nation that could not save us\" (Lam 4:17).\n\nIt was requisite therefore that the hills should be covered, that\nNoah might not have confidence in them; but surely this dispensation\nof God was an heart-shaking providence to Noah, and they that were\nwith him; for here indeed was his faith tried, there was no hill\nleft in all the world; now were his carnal helpers gone, there\nwas none shut up or left: Now therefore, if they could rejoice,\nit must be only in the power of God. As David said, \"Shall I lift\nup mine yes to the hills? whence should my help come?\" So the\nmargin: \"My help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth\"\n(Psa 121:1,2).\n\nVer. 20. \"Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the\nmountains were covered.\" The height of Goliath was but six cubits\nand a span (1 Sam 17:4), neither was Og's bedstead any more than\nnine (Deu 3:11). Wherefore this flood prevailed far the highest of\nthose mighty ones: even fifteen cubits above the highest mountains.\n\nVer. 21, 22, 23. \"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,\nboth of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping\nthing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose\nnostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land,\ndied. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the\nface of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things,\nand the fowls of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth,\nand Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the\nark.\"\n\nIn these words you have the effects of the flood, which was punctually\naccording to the judgment threatened. But observe, I pray you,\nhow the Holy Ghost, by repeating, doth amplify the matter. \"All\nflesh,\" \"All in whose nostrils was the breath of life\"; \"All that\nwas in the dry land,\" \"every living substance,\" \"every man\"; and\nthey were destroyed from off the earth: By which manner of language\ndoubtless there is insinuated a threatening to them who should\nafterward live ungodly. And indeed the Holy Ghost affirmeth, that\nthese judgments, with that of Sodom, are but examples set forth\nbefore our eyes, to shew us that such sins, such punishment. \"Making\nthem an ensample, saith Peter, unto those that after should live\nungodly\" (2 Peter 2:6). Nay, Jude saith, they are \"set forth\"\nin their overthrow, for that very purpose (v 7). Wherefore this\ncareful repeating of this judgment of God, doth carry threatening\nin it, assuredly foreshewing the doom and downfall of those that\nshall continue to tread their steps.\n\nYea, mind how Peter hath it: For if God \"spared not the old\nworld,\" &c. (2 Peter 2:5). Secretly intimating, that those that\nthen lived, being the first of his workmanship, and far surpassing\nin magnificence, if he would have spared, he would have spared\nthem; but seeing he so dreadfully swept them away, let no man be\nso bold to presume that wickedness shall now deliver him that is\ngiven to it.\n\n\"And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the\nark.\" Noah was that man of God that had set himself against a world\nof ungodly men. The man that had hazarded life and limb for the\nword of God committed to him; he \"only remained alive,\" &c. Hence\nnote, That he was the man that outlived the world, that would for\nGod venture life against all the world. Wherefore the saying in\nthe gospel is true, He that will lose his life for my sake, shall\nsave it unto life eternal. Thus did Noah, and passed the end,\nand went over the bounds, that God had appointed for every living\nthing. Behold! he was a man in both worlds, yea, the world then to\ncome was given him for a possession.\n\n\"And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.\"\nAbout the same time the scorpions mentioned of John, had power to\nhurt the earth (Rev 9:10). Wherefore, the thus prevailing of the\nwater, might be a type of our persecution now in the New Testament\ndays. All which time doubtless Noah was sufficiently tried, while\nthe waves of the water had no pity for him.\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nVer. 1. \"And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all\nthe cattle that was with him in the ark; and God made a wind to\npass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.\"\n\nMoses having thus related the judgment of the waters, as they\nrespected the drowning of the world, and so typed forth the last\njudgment: he now returneth to speak of them more largely, as they\nwere a type of the persecution and afflictions of the church, and\nso sheweth how God delivered Noah from the merciless violence of\nthe waves thereof.\n\n\"And God remembered Noah.\" This word remembered is usual in scripture;\nboth when God is about to deliver his people out of affliction,\nand to grant them the petition which they ask of him. It is said,\n\"God remembered Abraham; and sent Lot out of Sodom\" (Gen 19:29);\nthat he remembered Rachel, and hearkened to her (30:22); that he\nalso remembered his covenant with Abraham, when he went to bring\nIsrael out of their bondage (Exo 2:24).\n\nHence note, that Noah was not both in an afflicted and a praying\ncondition; afflicted with the dread of the waters, and prayed for\ntheir asswaging. It is a question accompanied with astonishment,\nHow the ark being of no bigger an hull or bulk should contain so\nmany creatures, with sustenance for them? And verily, I think that\nNoah himself was put to it, to believe and wait for so long a time.\nBut God remembered him, and also the beasts, and every living\nthing that was with him, and began to put an end to these mighty\nafflictions, by causing the waters to asswage.\n\n\"And God made a wind to pass over the earth.\" The waters being\nhere a type of persecutors and persecution: this wind was a type\nof the breath of the Lord's mouth, by which he is said to slay\nthe wicked. \"He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,\nand with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked\" (Isa\n11:4). It was a wind also that blew away the locusts of Egypt (Exo\n10:19), which locusts were a type of our graceless clergy, that\nhave covered the ground of our land.[34] Again the kingdom of\nBabel was to be destroyed by a destroying wind, which the Lord\nwould send against her (Jer 51:1,2), which Paul expounds to be\nby the breath of the Lord's mouth, and by the brightness of his\ncoming. This wind therefore, as I said, was a type of the breathing\nof the Spirit of the Lord, by which means these tumultuous waves\nshall be laid over, and God's ark in a while made to rest upon the\ntop of his mountain (2 Sam 22:19). For by the breath of the Lord\nthe earth is lightened, and by this lightning coals are kindled;\n\"yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out\nlightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters\nwere seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy\nrebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils\" (Psa\n18:14,15). \"And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the\nwaters asswaged.\" That is, in New Testament language, the afflictors\nand afflictions of the church did cease and decay, and came to\nnought.\n\n\"And the waters asswaged\": To wit, by the blowing of this wind,\nwherefore, as this wind did assault the waters, so it did refresh\nthe spirit of this servant of God, because by it the affliction\nwas driven away. Thus then by the wind of the Lord were these dry\nbones refreshed, and made to stand upon their feet (Eze 37:9,10).\n\n\"And God made a wind to pass over.\" And God made it; when God\nblows, the enemies of his truth shall pass away like waters that\nfail.\n\nVer. 2. \"The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven\nwere stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.\"\n\nBy these words we see, that when the church of God is afflicted,\nboth heaven and hell have their hand therein, but so as from\na differing consideration, and to a diverse end. From heaven it\ncomes, that we may remember we have sinned, and that we may be\nmade white, and tried (Dan 11:35); but from hell, from the great\ndeep, that we might sin the more, and that we might despair, and\nbe damned (Job 1:11; 2:5).\n\n\"And the fountains of the great deep.\" When God begins to slack\nand abate the afflictions of his church, he rebukes, as it were\nfirst, the powers of hell; for should he take off his own hand,\nwhile they have leave to do what they list, the church for this\nwould be worse not better: But first he rebuketh them: \"The Lord\nrebuke thee, O Satan,\" that's the first; and then he clothes them\n\"with change of raiment\" (Zech 3:1-5): The fountains of the great\ndeep were stopped, and then the bottles of heaven (Gen 15:14).\n\n\"And the rain from heaven was restrained,\" or held back, or made\nto cease. Afflictions are governed by God, both as to time, number,\nnature and measure. \"In measure when it shooteth forth, thou wilt\ndebate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east\nwind\" (Isa 27:8). Our times therefore, and our conditions in those\ntimes, are in the hand of God; yea, and so are our souls and\nbodies, to be kept and preserved from the evil, while the rod of\nGod is upon us (Jer 15:1-3).\n\nVer. 3. \"And the waters returned from off the earth continually:\nand after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were\nabated.\"\n\nThe verse before doth treat of the original, the fountains of the\ndeep, and the windows of heaven, that they were shut, or stopped;\nwhich being done, the effect beginneth to cease. Hence note, that\ncase and release from persecution and affliction cometh not by\nchance, or by the good moods, or gentle dispositions of men, but\nthe Lord doth hold them back from sin, the Lord restraineth them.\nIt is said \"the Lord stirred up the adversaries of Solomon\" (1 Kings\n11:14,23). Again, when the Syrians fought against Jehoshaphat, \"the\nLord helped him, and God moved them to depart from him\" (2 Chron\n18:31). The Lord sent the flood, and the Lord took it away.\n\n\"And the waters returned from off the earth continually.\" When God\nceaseth to be angry, the hearts and dispositions of the adversaries\nshall be palliated, and made more flexible. It is said, when the\nafflictions of Israel were ended in Egypt, the hearts of the people\nwere turned to pity them; yea, he caused them \"to be pitied of\nall those that carried them captives\" (Psa 106:46).\n\nWhen you see therefore, that the hearts of kings and governors\nbegin to be moderated toward the church of God, then acknowledge\nthat this is the hand of God. \"I,\" saith he, \"will cause the\nenemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil, and in the time\nof affliction\" (Jer 15:11). For by waters here are typed out the\ngreat and mighty of the world, by the flowing of them, their rage;\nand by their ebbing and returning their stillness and moderation.\n\"And the waters returned.\" That is, to the sea (Gen 1:9,10). \"He\ngathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up\nthe depth in store houses\" (Psa 33:7).\n\nBy \"gathering up,\" the persecutors may be understood, his gathering\nthem to their graves, as he did Herod, who stood in the way of\nChrist (Matt 2:19,20). And as he did those in Ezekiel, who hindered\nthe promotion of truth, and the exaltation of the gospel (31:14).\n\n\"And after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were\nabated.\" These words then imply, that for so long time, Noah, and\nthe church with him, were to exercise patience. They also show us,\nThat when the waters are up, they do not suddenly fall: They were\nup four hundred years, from Abraham to Moses (Gen 15:13). They\nwere up threescore and ten years in the days of the captivity of\nBabylon (Jer 25:12; Zech 1:12). They were up ten mystical days in\nthe persecution that was in the days of Antipas (Rev 2:10). And are\nto be up forty and two months, in the reign, and under the tyranny\nof antichrist (13:5). But they will abate; the house of Saul will\ngrow weaker; yea, they shall be gathered to their sea, and shall\nbe laid in the pit; yea, they shall not be on the earth, when God\nshall set glory in the land of the living (Eze 26:19-21).\n\nVer. 4. \"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth\nday of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.\"\n\nThese instances therefore were a type of Christ, the munition of\nrocks (Isa 33:16), who is elsewhere called, the mountain of the\nLord's house (Micah 4:1); the rock upon which he will build his\nchurch, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt\n16:18). For after the ark had felt the ground, or had got settlement\nupon the tops of these mountains; however, the waters that came\nfrom the great deep, did notwithstanding, for some time, shake,\nand make it stir, yet off from these mountains they could not get\nit with all their rage and fury. It rested there; these gates of\nhell could not prevail. But mark, it did rest on these mountains\nalmost a quarter of a year, before any ground appeared to Noah.\nA right figure of saving faith; for that maketh not outward\nobservation a ground and foundation for faith, but Christ the\nrock, who as to sense and feeling is at first quite out of sight.\nHence the hope of the godly is compared to the anchor of a ship,\nwhich resteth on, or taketh hold of the rock that is now invisible\nunder the water, at the bottom of the sea (Heb 6:19).\n\nThis then should learn us to stay on the Lord Jesus, and there to\nrest when the waters have drowned all the world, and when all the\nmountains and hills for help are as if they were cast into the\nmidst of the sea.\n\nThat is an excellent saying of the prophet, \"God is our refuge and\nstrength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we\nfear, though the earth be removed, [as now it seemed] and though\nthe mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the\nwaters thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake\nwith the swelling thereof. Selah\" (Psa 46:1-3).\n\nVer. 5. \"And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month:\nin the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops\nof the mountains seen.\"\n\nIn the third verse we read, that after an hundred and fifty days\"\nflood, the waters returned; that is, began to return, from off the\nearth: Which beginning of their return, was, because that God had\nmercifully remembered the prayer and affliction of Noah. Again, in\nthis verse we read, that from the day that the ark did rest upon\nthe mountains of Ararat, the waters decreased continually. Now the\nresting of the ark on the mountain, was a figure of our trusting\non Christ. Hence it follows, that the tumults and raging of the\nmystical waters, are made to decrease by the power of faith: \"This\nis the victory, even our faith\" (1 John 5:4). As it is also said\nof Moses, \"By faith they passed through the Red sea\" (Heb 11:29).\nBut above all take that as most pertinent, \"Through faith they\nsubdued kingdoms,--stopped the mouths of lions,--and turned to\nflight the armies of aliens\" (Heb 11:33,34). Here you see faith\nmade the waters decrease; it took away the heat and rage of the\nadversary.\n\n\"And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month,\n[another period of time,] and in the first day of the tenth month\nwere the tops of the mountains seen.\" These mountains were before\nthe flood, a type of the hope of the hypocrites, and therefore\nthen were swallowed up, fifteen cubits under the waters. But now,\nmethinks, they should be a figure to the church of some visible\nground of deliverance from the flood; for almost three months the\nark did rest on the invisible mountains of Ararat. But now are the\ntops of the mountains seen: A further sign that the waters were\nabated; and a ground, that at length they would be quite dried up.\nLet these mountains then be types of the high and mighty, which\nGod is used to stir up to deliver his church from the heat and rage\nof tyranny and persecution, as they are often termed and called in\nscripture, the mountains of Israel, for this very end. So then,\nfrom our thus considering the mountains, Two things we are taught\nthereby.\n\n1. That when the great ones of this world begin to discover\nthemselves to the church, by way of encouragement, it is a sign\nthat the waters are now decreasing. Or thus: When God lets us see\nthe tops of the mountains, then we may certainly conclude, that\nthe rage of the waters abate.\n\nDoubtless when God made promise of raising up Josias to Israel,\nin Canaan (1 Kings 13:1-3); and of raising up for them Cyrus, in\nBabylon (Isa 45; Eze 1:1-3). The thus appearing of the tops of\nthese mountains, was comfort to the church in her day of affliction.\n\n2. This should teach us while we are in affliction, to look this way\nand that, if it may be that the tops of the mountains may be seen\nby us (1 Sam 11:1-3). For though it be too much below a Christian\nto place his confidence in men, yet when God shall raise up Josias\nor a Cyrus, we may take encouragement at this working of God.\nTherefore is that in the Psalms read both ways, shall I look to the\nmountains? \"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence\ncometh my help. Yet so, as that he would also conclude his help\ndid come from the Lord\" (Psa 121:1,2). So then, we must take heed\nthat we look not to the mountains [alone]. Again, it is our wisdom\n\"to look to the mountains\": only look not to them but when God\ndiscovers them. Look unto them if God discovereth them; yet then\nbut so as means of God's appointing. But again, God doth not let\nus see the hills for our help, before we have first of all seen\nthem drowned. Look not to them therefore while the water is at\nthe rising; but if they begin to cease their raging, if they begin\nto fall, and with that the tops of the mountains be seen, you may\nlook upon them with comfort, they are tokens of God's deliverance.\n\nVer. 6. \"And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah\nopened the window of the ark which he had made.\"\n\nThese forty days seem to commence from the discovery of the tops\nof the mountains. Wherefore he did not presently go out of the\nark, but stayed there above fourteen days still, signifying unto\nus, that we must not be therefore delivered so soon as the tops of\nthe mountains are seen, but may yet be assaulted with the waters\nof the flood, days, and weeks, and months, &c.\n\nWhen Moses was sent to deliver Israel, they came not presently out\nof Egypt; neither seemed their burthens ever the light to sense or\nfeeling, though faith indeed did see the end (Exo 5:15-23). Again,\nWhen he had brought them forth of Egypt, they came not in a day,\nor a month, to Canaan; but, saith the Holy Ghost, He brought them\nout, (or, forth of affliction) after that he had showed wonders\nand signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the\nwilderness forty years.\n\nLet us therefore take heed of a feverish spirit, while we behold\n\"the tops of the mountains\"; possibly, for all they are visible\ntokens to us of deliverance, themselves may be yet much under\nwater. We see what work Moses, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson had\nto deliver Israel, even after more than their tops were seen. Be\ncontent to stay yet forty days. David stayed, after he was anointed,\ntill years and times went over him, before he could deliver Israel\nfrom the tyranny of its opposers.\n\n\"At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark.\" This\nopening of the window also, was a type, that now he was preparing\nto take possession of the world. It also might be a type of the\nopening the law and testimony, that light might by that come into\nthe church; for we find not that this window had any other use,\nbut to be a conveyance of light into the ark, and as a passage for\nthe raven and the dove, as may be further showed after. Now much\nlike this, is that of John: \"The temple of God was opened in heaven,\nand there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament\" (Rev\n11:19). And again, \"I looked, and, behold, the temple of the\ntabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.\" And then, as\nthe raven, and the dove came out of the window of the ark; so \"the\nangels,\" that is, the Lord's executioners, \"came out of the temple\"\nthat was opened in heaven (Rev 15:5,6).\n\nHence note, That though men may be borne with, if they lie in their\nholes in the height of the tempest; but to do it when the tops of\nthe mountains were seen, if they then shall forbear to open their\nwindow, they are worthy of blame indeed. When the lepers saw the\nAssyrians were fled, and that liberty from heaven was granted to\nSamaria, then they feared to conceal the thing any further; They\nfeared, I say, that if they went not to the city to declare it,\nsome judgment of God would befall them (2 Kings 7:9).\n\nVer. 7, 8. \"And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and\nfro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he\nsent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from\noff the face of the ground.\"\n\nBehold, the raven and dove are now sent out at the window of the\nark, as the angels are said to come out of the temple, when it was\nopened in heaven. This raven therefore, and the dove, were figures\nand types of those angels (Rev 15:5,6).\n\nBut to speak to them both apart. The raven went forth, but returned\nnot again to the ark. This is intimated by these words, \"She went\nto and fro, until the waters were abated, and dried up.\" This is\nfurther evident by that antithesis that the word doth put between\nthe practice of the raven and the dove. The raven went forth, and\nwent to and fro till the waters were dried up. But mark it, \"But\nthe dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned\nunto him into the ark\" (v 9). The raven then did find rest elsewhere,\nthe raven then returned not to him into the ark.\n\nBut what did the raven then do? Why, certainly she made a banquet\nof the carcasses of the giants that were drowned by the flood; it\nfed upon the flesh of the men that had sinned against the Lord.\n\nThe raven therefore was a type of those messengers that God sends\nout of his temple against Antichrist; that is, for \"eating the flesh\nof kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men,\nand the flesh of horses.\" He was, I say, a type of those professors\nthat God saith he hath a great sacrifice to sacrifice unto, a\nsort of professors in his church; as the raven was one that had\nhis being in the ark: These are they which Ezekiel mentions, that\nwere to eat flesh, and drink blood; to eat the fat till they be\nfilled, and to drink blood till they be drunken (39:17-20). These\nalso are the guests that Zephaniah mentions, and saith, God hath\nbidden to the same feast also (1:7-14).\n\nAnd let no man be offended that I say these birds are in the church:\nFor one effect of the sixth vial, was that battle of the great day\nof God Almighty (Rev 16:16). Further, The angel that proclaims this\nfeast, calls to those that are God's guests, by the name of, \"the\nfowls that fly in the midst of heaven\": That they should \"come and\ngather together to the supper of the great God: That they may eat\nthe flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of\nmighty men,\" &c. (Rev 19:17,18). Besides, this supper is the effect\nof the going forth of the King of kings against the Antichristian\nwhore, whose going forth was at the opening of heaven, as the\ngoing forth of the raven was at the opening of the window of the\nark (v 11-16).\n\nNote therefore, That God, in the overthrow of the kingdom of\nAntichrist, and at the asswaging of the rage of her tumultuous\nwaves, will send forth his birds amongst her fat ones, to partake\nof the banquet that he hath appointed; who when they shall be\ntolerated by that angel that standeth in the sun, will come down\nto their feast with such greediness, that neither king nor captain\nshall keep them from their prey: They will eat flesh, and fat,\ntill they be full, and drink the blood till they be drunk.\n\n\"Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were\nabated.\" This dove was a type of another sort of professors in the\nchurch, that are of a more gentle nature (Matt 10:16); for all\nthe saints are not for such work as the raven; they are not all\nfor feeding upon the carcasses, the kingdoms and estates of the\nAntichristian party, but are for spending their time, and for\nbending their spirits to a more spiritual and retired work; even\nas the dove is said to be harmless, and to mourn for communion\nwith her companion (Isa 38:14), and that is content if she hath\nher nest in the sides of the rock, Christ (Jer 48:28). Wherefore\nhe adds,\n\nVer. 9. \"But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and\nshe returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the\nface of the whole earth,\" &c.\n\nThe dove could not live as the raven; the raven being content, so\nlong as she found the carcasses; but the dove found no rest till\nshe returned again to Noah.\n\nThe raven therefore, though he was in the ark, was not a type of\nthe most spiritual Christian; nay rather, I think, of the worldly\nprofessor, who gets into the church in the time of her affliction,\nas Ziba did into the army of David, in the day of his trouble; not\nfor love to the grace of David, but that, if time should serve, he\nmight be made the Lord of his master's inheritance (2 Sam 16:1-4).\nBut David was content to let him go with him, and that too as\nunder such a consideration: as Christ also lets these ravens to\nherd with his innocent doves; because he hath flesh to give them,\nwhich the doves care not for eating.[35]\n\n\"But the dove found no rest.\" It seems the raven did, as it\nis also with some professors, who when they by their profession\nhave advanced themselves to some worldly honour, they have ease\nand rest, though, like the raven, they have it by going out of\nthe church.\n\n\"But the dove found no rest.\" Though all the enemies of God lay\ntumbling in the sea, this could not satisfy a gracious soul: divide\nher from the ark, and she finds no rest, she is not at ease till\nshe be with Noah. \"And she returned unto him into the ark;--and\nhe put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him\ninto the ark\" (v 9).\n\nNoah here was a type of Christ, who took the dove unto him:\nAnd it shows us, That Christ hath a bosom open for the cries and\ncomplaints of his people; for the dove returned a-weary with the\ntidings of this, that the waters still raged. A fit figure of those\nof the saints that are groaning and weary under the oppression\nand cruelty of the enemy.\n\nHence note, That though thou hast no other tidings to Christ but\nsighs and groans, and weariness, because of the rage of the waters;\nyet he will not despise thee; yea, he invites thee, as weary, to\ncome (Matt 11:28-30).\n\nVer. 10. \"And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent\nforth the dove out of the ark.\"\n\nThis staying shows us, That he exercised patience, waiting God's\nleisure till the flood should be taken away. This grace therefore\nhad yet seven day's work to do, before he obtained any further\ntestimony that the waters were decreasing. O this staying work is\nhard work! Alas! sometimes patience is accompanied with so much\nheat and feverishness, that every hour seems seven until the end\nof the trial, and the blessing promised be possessed by the waiting\nsoul. It may be Noah might not be altogether herein a stranger: I\nam sure the Psalmist was not, in that he often under affliction,\ncries, But how long, O Lord! for ever! (Psa 6:3; 79:5; 13:1; 74:1;\n89:46). Make haste! O Lord, how long! (90:13; 94:3).\n\n\"And again he sent forth the dove.\" The first time he sent her,\nshe brought no good news, but came panting and weary home; yet he\nsends her a second time.\n\nThis should teach us, not to make conclusions too suddenly about\nGod's dispensation, saying it must be now or never; for it may be\nthe seven days are not out. The men of David said, This is the\nday that the Lord will give thee the kingdom of Israel: But David\nperceived otherwise, and therefore adds yet to his temperance,\npatience (1 Sam 24:1-4; 26:8-10). Not sullenly saying like that\nwicked king, Why should I wait on the Lord any longer? (2 Kings\n6:32). But comforts himself with the truth of the promise, saying,\nHis time shall come to die, &c. He that believeth, maketh not\nhaste, but waiteth patiently, for the perfecting God's work in\nGod's time. That is excellent in the song: \"I charge you [saith the\nchurch] that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please\"\n(Cant 8:4). Noah was much for this, wherefore he stayed yet other\nseven days.\n\n\"And again he sent forth the dove.\" Elias did much like this, when\nhis servant, at the first sending, brought him no tidings of rain,\nhe gave him his errand again, saying, Go again: go seven times\n(1 Kings 18:43-45). As Noah here did with the dove, and again he\nsent her. Seeming delays are no hindrance to faith; they ought to\ntry it, and put it into exercise: As here it was with this good\nman about the waters of the flood; he fainted not, but believed\nto see the goodness of the Lord. That in the prophet is notable\nas to this, \"The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the\nend it shall speak, and not lie: thought it tarry, wait for it;\nbecause it will surely come, it will not tarry\" (Hab 2:3).\n\nVer. 11. \"And the dove came in to him in the evening; and lo! in\nher mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the\nwaters were abated from off the earth.\"\n\n\"And the dove came in to him in the evening.\" Wherefore his\npatience was tried this day also. All the day he heard nothing of\nhis dove. Surely she could not keep the wing all the day. Is she\ndrowned I tro? Is she lost? O, no! She comes at last, though she\nstayed long. Samuel also stayed long before he came to Saul; but\nSaul could not wait as Noah did, therefore he had not the benefit\nof the mercy promised.\n\n\"The dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was\nan olive-leaf,\" &c. Now he is recompensed for the exercise of\npatience: As also was Abraham when God gave him Isaac; for after\nhe had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.\n\n\"And lo, an olive-leaf.\" A sign that God was going through with\nhis work of diminishing the waters: A sign, I say, and a good\nexperience of the continued love of God to his servant; according\nto that of Paul, \"patience worketh experience\"; that is, it at\nlast obtaineth the blessing promised, and so settleth the soul in\na fresh experience of the love and faithfulness of God.\n\nAnd lo! This word Lo, it is, as it were an appeal to all readers\nto judge, whether God to Noah was faithful or no. So then, this\nwas not written for his sake only, but for us also that believe\nin God, that we might now exercise patience, as Noah; and obtain\nthe tokens of God's goodness, as he; for lo the dove, at last,\nthough 'twas night first, came to Noah into the ark, \"and lo in\nher mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the\nwaters were abated.\"\n\n\"An olive-leaf plucked off.\" These words, an olive-leaf plucked\noff, do intimate, that Noah was now inquisitive and searching how\nthe dove obtained the leaf; that is, whether she found it as dead,\nand upon the waters; or whether she plucked it off some tree: But\nhe found by the greenness and freshness of the slip, that she\nplucked it off from the olive. Wherefore, he had good ground now\nto be comforted; for if this leaf was plucked off from a tree, then\nthe waters could not be deep; especially, because as the story\ntells us, the olive used also to stand in the bottoms, or valleys.\n\nThis should teach us, That not over highly we conclude messages or\ntokens, to be signs of God's mercy. There are lying visions, and\nthey are causes of banishment; they we should beware of, or else\nwe are not only at present deceived, but our faith is in danger\nof the rocks; for not a few have cast up all, because the truth\nof some seeming vision hath failed. Mark how David handleth the\nmessenger that brought him tidings of the death of Saul: says he,\nHow dost thou know that Saul is dead? What proof canst thou make\nof the truth of this story? (1 Sam 1:1-10). So should we say of\nall those visions or messengers that come to persuade us, that\neither inward or outward deliverance is for us at the door. Prove\nthese stories; look if they be not dead and lifeless fancies; see\nif you can find that they were plucked off from the tree that is\ngreen.\n\nVer. 12. \"And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the\ndove; which returned not again unto him any more.\"\n\nWe read before of forty days' patience, and after that of seven\ndays' patience; and that after the waters began to return from off\nthe earth, and here again of seven days more. Whence not, That the\nbest of God's people, in the times of trials, find their patience\ntoo short-winded to hold out the whole length of a trial, unless\nthe time be, as it were, cut in pieces. The prophet when he was to\nlay siege against Jerusalem, he must rest the one side, by turning\nhim upon the other (Eze 4:2-6). It was with holy Job exceeding\nhard, when he might not have time to swallow his spittle, when he\nmight not a little sit down and rest him. And if you observe him,\nhe doth not desire an absolute deliverance as yet, but only time\nto take wind and breathe awhile; and then, if God will, to engage\nin the combat again:[36] \"How long [saith he] wilt thou not depart\nfrom me.\" Depart: what quite? O! No, saith he, I beg not that\nabsolutely, but only so long as till a man might \"swallow down\nhis spittle\" (Job 7:19). This the church in Ezra's time took as\nan exceeding favour. \"And now [say they] for a little space, grace\nhath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to\nescape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may\nlighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage\"\n(Ezra 9:8).\n\n\"And he stayed yet other seven days.\" Note again, That it is not\nGod's way with his people to shew them all their troubles at once;\nbut first he shews them a part; first forty days, after that seven\nother days, and yet again seven days more; that, they coming upon\nthem by piecemeal, they may the better be able to travel through\nthem. While Israel was in affliction in Egypt, they knew not the\ntrial that would meet them at the Red Sea. Again, When they had\ngone through that, they little thought that yet \"for forty years\nthey must be tempted and proved in the wilderness.\"\n\nAnd thus it was with this blessed Noah; he thought that by the\nfirst seven days his trials might be ended. But behold, there is\nyet seven days more behind: \"and he stayed yet other seven days.\"\n\nFurther: There may also be by these words thus much insinuated,\nThat these periods of time might be also of Noah's prefixing: and\nif so, then note, That the people of God in these days are not\nthe first that have been under mistake, as to the timing of their\nafflictions. Noah counted it would end many days before it ended\nindeed, even seven days, and seven days, and seven days to that;\nfor he sent forth his dove about the beginning of the first month,\nin which month also were his two seven days' trials. Again, after\nthat he had stayed two seven days more, to wit, to the end of that\nfirst month. Again, he stayed almost four sevens more; for he came\nnot out of the ark till the twenty-seventh day of the second month.\n\nHence therefore let Christians beware that they set not times for\nGod, lest all men see their folly. \"It is not for you to know the\ntimes or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power\"\n(Acts 1:7). Yea, I say again, take heed lest that for thy setting\nof God a seven days' time, he set not thee so many as seven times\nseven.\n\n\"And he sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him\nany more.\" This is the third time that the dove was sent to see\nhow the waters were abated on the face of the earth. The first\ntime she, by her restlessness, bespake the waters to be high and\nmighty. The second time, by her olive-leaf, she notifieth that the\nwaters were low and ebbing. But this third time, she seems to be\nweary or her service, she returned not again to him any more; yet\nin her so absenting herself, she gives confirmation to Noah, that\nthe waters were even in a manner quite gone. If he will take this\nfor a proof let him, if not, let him hang in suspense with himself.\nHence note, that God will not be always testifying, by renewing of\nhis tokens, to that about which we have had sufficient conviction\nbefore; for in so doing he should gratify and humour our unbelief.\nNoah had received already two sufficient testimonies that the waters\nwere decreasing. First by his seeing the tops of the mountains, and\nthen by the olive-leaf; but notwithstanding these two testimonies,\nhis unbelief in part remains; but God will not humour such\na groundless mistrust, by giving him any further token, than the\nvery absenting of the dove. Much like this was that of Samson's\nfather; the angel once had told his wife, that she should have\na son that should deliver Israel; well, Manoah heard of this, he\nalso desired that he might see that man that had told his wife this\nhappy news. Now God thus far condescends, as to send the angel a\nsecond time; but then, this being now a sufficient antidote against\ntheir unbelief, the angel after the next departing, was not seen\nagain of them at all. But saith the word, The angel of the Lord\ndid no more appear to Manoah, and to his wife: So that now they\nmust live by faith, or not at all (Judg 13:3,9,21).\n\nGod's dealing with his people with respect to their spiritual\ncondition, is much like this. The Holy Ghost doth not use to confirm\nus by new revelations of grace and justification, so often as by\nour fond doubts or mistrust we call for and desire the same. But\nhaving confirmed in us the testimony of Christ, it may be twice\nor thrice, (for the testimony of two men are true) he then expects\nwe should live by faith. And observe it, if we have after such\ntestimony joyful communion with God, it is either by retreating to\nformer experience, or by arguing according to faith; that because\nGod hath done thus before, he therefore hath given me interest in\nsuch and such promises and mercies besides.\n\nI speak now of the first seals of the love of God to the soul,\nafter we have been sufficiently tossed upon the waves of unbelief,\nas Noah was by the waters of the flood: such seals are few, the\nLord gave them to Solomon twice (1 Kings 11:9). And also twice to\nhis servant Paul (Acts 22:6,18). 'Tis enough that they have seen\n\"the tops of the mountains,\" and have had brought to them the\nolive-leaf. Let them now believe this confirmation of mercy is\nsufficient, and if they will not believe now, they shall not be\nestablished.\n\nVer. 13. \"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year,\nin the first month, the fist day of the month, the waters were\ndried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the\nark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.\"\n\n\"And it came to pass.\" That is, by the working of God, that the\nwaters were dried up. This came to pass in God's time, to wit, in\n\"the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first\nday of the month\"; not in the times of Noah's prefixing. God's\ntime is THE time, the best time, because it is the time appointed\nby him for the proof and trial of our graces, and that in which\nso much, and so much of the rage of the enemy, and of the power\nof God's mercy, may the better be discovered unto us; \"I the Lord\nwill hasten it in HIS time\" (Isa 60:22), not before, though we\nwere the signet upon his right hand (Jer 22:24).\n\nNoah the only man with God in that generation, could not be restored\nbefore the time; no more could Israel from the thraldom of Egypt\n(Exo 13:4). Yea, the Son of God himself must here give place and\nbe content. And when Satan had ended all the temptation, when he\n\"had ended all,--then he departed from him for a season\" (Luke\n4:13).\n\n\"And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked.\" The failing\nagain of his expected comforter, caused him to be up and doing;\nprobably he had not as yet uncovered the ark, that is, to look\nround about him had the dove by returning pleased his humour; but\nshe failing him, he stirs up himself, Thus it should also be with\nthe Christian now: doth he dove forbear to come to thee with\na leaf in her bill as before, let not this make thee sullen and\nmistrustful, but uncover the ark, and look, and by looking thou\nshalt see a further testimony of what thou receivedst by the first\nmanifestations: \"He looked, and behold the earth was dry.\" Paul\ntells us, that by looking we have a testimony like, or as that,\nwhich at first was given us by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18).\n\"And behold the face of the earth was dry.\"\n\nVer. 14. \"And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day\nof the month, was the earth dried.\"\n\nThis prospect was like the rain that we read of in another place,\nthat confirmed God's inheritance when it was weary: It was a\ncomfortable sight to Noah to see that the face of the earth was\ndry; and now he could wait upon God with less trial and strain to\nhis patience the remaining days, which were fifty and four, to\nwit, from the first of the first, to the twenty-seventh of the\nsecond month, than he could one of the sevens that he met with\nbefore. Indeed the path is narrowest just at entrance as also our\nnature is then the most untoward; but after we are in, the walk\nseems to be wider and easy; the flesh is also then more mortified\nand conformable. The walk is but a cubit wide at the door, but\ninward ten times as broad (Eze 42:4,11).\n\n\"And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the\nmonth, was the earth dried.\" So that from the first day it began\nto rain, which was the seventeenth day of the second month in\nthe year before, unto this day, was Noah in the ark; it was just\na year and ten days. That was the time then that God had appointed\nto try his servant Noah, by the waters of the flood: in which time\nhe was so effectually crucified to the things of the world, that\nhe was as if he was never more to enjoy the same. Wherefore Peter\nmaking mention of this estate of his, he tells us, it was even\nlike unto our baptism; wherein we profess ourselves dead to the\nworld, and alive to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21).\n\nIn the first verse of this chapter, we read that God remembered\nNoah; but till now we read not, that the face of the earth was\ndried. Hence note that our being under the rage of the enemy, doth\nnot argue that we are therefore forgotten of God, \"he remembereth\nus in our low estate,\" even when tossed to and fro by the waters\nof a flood of temptations.\n\nVer. 15, 16. \"And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark,\nthou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.\"\n\nNow we are come to the end of the trial, and so to the time of\nNoah's deliverance, and behold as he went in, so he came out: He\nwent into the ark at the commandment of the Lord. \"And the Lord\nsaid unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark\" (Gen\n7:1). And here again, \"And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth\nof the ark.\" Hence note, that notwithstanding the earth was dry\nabout fifty-four days before, yet Noah waited for the word of God\nfor his commission to bring him forth of the ark. Providence seemed\nto smile before, in that the earth was dry, to which had but Noah\nadded reason, he must have concluded, the time is come for me to\ngo forth of the ark. But Noah knew, that as well the providences\nof God, as the waters of the flood might be to try his dependence\non the word of the Lord: wherefore, though he saw this, yet because\nhe had no answer of God, he will not take the opportunity.\n\nIt is dangerous, or at least very difficult, to make the most\nsmiling providence of God our rule to act by: Had David done it,\nhe had killed Saul before the time, But David respected the word\nof God (2 Sam 24:17-20). Elisha also would not suffer the king\nto make that improvement of the providence of God, which reason\nshould be put in execution, when he rebuked the king's desire\nthat he had to have killed the Syrians, and commanded that bread\nshould be set before them, that they might eat, and go home again\nto their master (2 Kings 6:19-23). Hear the word of the Lord,\nye that tremble at his word. \"At the commandment of the Lord the\nchildren of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord\nthey pitched.--At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their\ntents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed; they\nkept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord, by\nthe hand of Moses\" (Num 9:18-23).\n\n\"Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy\nsons' wives with thee.\"\n\nWhen God delivereth, he delivereth completely. Thus Israel also\nwent out of Egypt, they, their wives, their children, with their\nflocks and herds, not an hoof was left behind (Exo 10:24-26). When\nDavid's time was come to possess the kingdom, he brought along\nwith him those six hundred men that had been his companions in his\nsuffering state, every man with his household. But I say, he went\nup to possess it, not simply by the voice of providence, though\nSaul was dead, but \"David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go\nup into any of the cities of Judah?\" Nay, a general answer, even\nfrom God, would not satisfy this holy man. \"The Lord said,--Go,\nbut David replied, Whither shall I go? and he said unto Hebron\"\n(1 Sam 2:1). Oh! it is safe to regard the word of the Lord; this\nmakes us all come safe to land. When men wrest themselves from under\nthe hand of God, taking such opportunities for their deliverance,\nwhich are laid before them only for trial of obedience to the\nword: they may, it is probable, have a seeming success; the end\nwill be as with Zedekiah king of Judah, affliction with addition.\nThe Jews that were left in the land of Israel, from the hand of\nthe king of Babylon, would flee to the land of Egypt (Jer 41:17),\nthat they might have quietness there, but they went without the\nword of God, and therefore their rest brought them to their ruin\n(42; 43).\n\nNoah therefore chose the safest way, even to stay in the ark, till\nGod's word came. As it is also said of Joseph, \"The word of the\nLord tried him\"; till the word of the Lord came to deliver him,\nand then he had deliverance indeed (Psa 105:19), as Noah also and\nDavid had safe deliverance for himself and relations.\n\nVer. 17. \"Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with\nthee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every\ncreeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed\nabundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the\nearth.\"\n\nNoah was not only to have in this deliverance, respect to himself\nand family, but to the good of all the world. Men's spirits are too\nnarrow for the mind of God, when their chief end, or their only\ndesign in their enjoying this or the other mercy, is for the sake\nof their ownselves only. It cannot be according to God, that such\ndesires should be encouraged: \"none of us liveth unto himself,\"\nwhy then should we desire life only for ourselves.\n\nThe church cries thus, \"God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and\ncause his face to shine upon us.\" Why? \"That thy way may be known\nupon earth, thy saving health among all nations\" (Psa 67:1,2).\n\nSo David, \"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold\nme with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;\nand sinners shall be converted unto thee\" (Psa 51:12,13). So then,\nwe must not desire to come out of trials and afflictions alone, or\nby ourselves, but that in our deliverance the salvation of many\nmay be concerned. It is said, when Israel went up out of Egypt,\nthere went up with them \"a mixed multitude,\" to wit, of Egyptians,\nand other nations: This going out of captivity was right, they\ncarried out with them the fowls, the beasts, and the creeping\nthings; to wit, the heathens of other lands, and so added increase\nto the church of God (Exo 12:37,38). In Esther's time also, when\nthe Jews came from under the snare of Haman, they brought with them\nto God many of the people of the provinces. \"Many of the people\nof the land became Jews\" (Esth 8:17).\n\nThese words therefore, \"bring forth with thee every living thing,\"\n&c. are not lightly to be passed over; for they shew us, that we\nought in our deliverance to have special respect to the deliverance\nof others. And if our deliverance be with the word and liking of\nGod, it must needs have this effect. \"When I shall bring again\ntheir captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the\ncaptivity of Samaria, and her daughters, then will I bring again\nthe captivity of thy captives in the midst of them\" (Eze 17:53).\n\nAnd indeed there is reason for this, for in every affliction and\npersecution, the devil's design is to impair Christ's kingdom:\nwherefore no marvel, that God designeth in our deliverance, the\nimpairing and lessening the kingdom of sin and Satan. Wherefore,\nO thou church of God in England, which art now upon the waves of\naffliction, and temptation, when thou comest out of the furnace,\nif thou come out at the bidding of God, there shall come out\nwith thee the fowl, the beast, and abundance of creeping things.\n\"O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the\ncaptivity of my people\" (Hosea 6:11).\n\n\"That they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and\nmultiply upon the earth.\"\n\nThis was God's end in preserving the creatures from the flood, that\nagain the earth might be replenished therewith. The same end he\nhath in his suffering of the persecutors, and all manner of adversity\nto take away but \"a part,\" some (Amos 7:4). Some of them they shall\nkill and crucify, leaving a remnant alive in the world, namely,\nthat they might breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful,\nand multiply upon the earth. As he saith by the prophet Isaiah,\n\"He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall\nblossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit\" (Isa\n27:6). And this after their deliverance from persecution: According\nas he saith again, \"The remnant that is escaped of the house of\nJudah, shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: For\nout of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant\" that is yet to replenish\nthe earth with converts (37:32). As Luke observes, that when the\nchurches in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had rest, they \"walking in\nthe fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were\nmultiplied\" (Acts 9:31).\n\nVer. 18. \"And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his\nsons' wives with him.\" Obedience is better than sacrifice. Noah is\nat the beck of God, what he bid him do, that does he; and indeed\nthis is in truth to worship God, yea, this is to know and worship\nGod. It is said of Abraham, when he went at God's command to offer\nup Isaac, that he counted it going to worship the Lord (Gen 22:5).\nAnd God saith of Hezekiah, that he did \"judgment and justice,\"\njudging the cause of the poor and needy; and then adds, Is not\nthis \"to know me, saith the Lord?\" (Jer 22:15,16). I bring these\nto shew, that obedience to the word of God, is the true character\nof God's people in all ages; and this very text, as also such\nothers before, is on purpose recorded by the Holy Ghost, to shew\nyou, that Noah was obedient in all things; yea, I may add, these\ncommands were to discover the proof of him, whether he would\nbe obedient in all things; and this was also his way with New\nTestament churches (2 Cor 2:9). The sincerity of love, and of the\nuprightness of the heart, is greatly discovered by the commandments\nof God. \"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,\" saith\nChrist, \"he it is that loveth me\" &c. (John 14:21).\n\nVer. 19. \"Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and\nwhatsoever creepeth upon the earth after their kinds, went forth\nout of the ark.\"\n\nThese words are yet a further expression of the sincerity of Noah's\nobedience, for that he at the command of God, did carefully search\nand seek out every little creeping thing that God had brought to\nhim into the ark. Obedience in little things do ofttimes prove us\nmost; for we through the pride of our hearts are apt to look over\nlittle things, because though commanded, they are but little (Jer\n23:38). O, but Noah was of another spirit, he carefully looked\nafter little things, even after every thing, \"whatsoever creepeth\nupon the earth\"; and not only so, but sought diligently that they\nmight go out in order, to wit, male and female, according to their\nkind. Sometimes God would have men exact to a word, sometimes\nexact to a tache, or pin, or loop (Exo 36:12,13); sometimes to a\nstep (Eze 40:3,4,37). Be careful then in little things, but yet\nleave not the other undone (Matt 23:23).\n\nIndeed the command of God is great; if HE therefore commands us\nto worship him, though but with a bird, we must not count such\nordinances insignificant, or below a human creature (Lev 14:52).\n\nVer. 20. \"And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD, and took of every\nclean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings\non the altar.\"\n\nThis is the fist work that we read Noah did, when he came forth of\nthe ark; and it shews us, that at this time he had a deep sense\nof the distinguishing mercy of God. And indeed he had sufficient\ncause to wonder, for the whole world was drowned, save only himself,\nand they that were with him in the ark.\n\nBut I say, this was the first work, to wit, \"to worship God.\" Hence\nnote, That a sense of mercy, of distinguishing mercy, naturally\nengageth the heart to worship. It is said of Moses, when the name\nof the Lord was proclaimed before him, as \"merciful and gracious,\n--and abundant in goodness and truth,--and that he pardoned iniquity,\ntransgression and sin\"; that he \"made haste, and bowed his head\ntoward the earth, and worshipped\" (Exo 34:8).\n\n\"And Noah builded an altar.\" Although this altar be the first that\nwe read of, yet forasmuch as there was before a blessed church,\nand also an open profession of godliness, together with offering\nsacrifice, in all probability this was not the first altar that\nwas builded unto the Lord. Besides, we read not of any immediate\nrevelation, from which Noah had light and instruction to build it.\nThe text only saith, he built an altar unto the Lord; which may be\naptly expounded, according as he was wont in the other world.\n\nThis altar was a type of Christ, as capacitated to bear the sin of\nthe world (for the altar was it, upon which the sacrifices were\nburnt;) wherefore it, in mine opinion, in special respected his\nGodhead, by the power of which he offered himself, that is, his\nflesh. Again it is said, \"The altar sanctifieth the gift\" (Matt\n23:19). So did the Godhead the humanity of Christ, through which\n\"eternal Spirit, he offered himself without spot to God\" (Heb\n9:14). By this altar then this blessed man preached to his family\nthe Godhead and eternity of Christ.\n\n\"And took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl.\" These\nbeasts and fowls were types of the flesh of the Son of God, as Paul\nin the ninth and tenth chapters to the Hebrews affirms; wherefore\nby this act he also preached to his family the incarnation of the\nLord Christ, how that \"in the fulness of time\" he should in our\nflesh offer himself a sacrifice for us; for as all the ordinances\nof the New Testament ministration preach to us, That Christ is\ncome; so all the ordinances of worship under the Old Testament\npreached to them that were under it, Christ, as yet TO come.\n\n\"Of every clean beast and of every clean fowl.\" This was to shew,\nThat when Christ did come, he should not take hold of the Jew, and\nexclude the Gentile; but that in his flesh he should present unto\nGod EVERY clean beast, and EVERY clean fowl; that is, all the\nelect, both of Jew and Gentile (Acts 10:11-16).\n\nAnd it was requisite that this by Noah should be preached, because\nthe whole world was yet in his family; from whence, at the\nmultiplication of men, if through their rebellion and idolatry they\nlost not this doctrine, they might to all their offspring preach\nthe Lord Jesus.\n\nWherefore, the doctrine of the gospel, had the world been faithful,\nmight have been to this day retained amongst them that now are the\nmost barbarous people.[37]\n\nVer. 21. \"And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; [a savour of rest;]\nand the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground\nany more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is\nevil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every\nliving thing, as I have done.\"\n\nThese words more fully shew, that this sacrifice of Noah was a\ntype of the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ, he being said\nto be that blessed sacrifice that is as perfume in the nostrils\nof God: \"He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to\nGod for a sweet-smelling savour\" (Eph 5:2). Besides, this offering\nof Noah was a burnt-offering to God; which burning signified, the\ncurse of God, which Christ was made in his death for us. Wherefore,\nthe burnt offerings were all along a type of him; as by reading\nthe epistle to the Hebrews you may see: \"It is the burnt-offering,\n[saith God,] because of the burning upon the altar all night unto\nthe morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it\"\n(Lev 6:9). Which was a type of the fire of the law, and the guilt\nof sin, that Christ, when he offered himself, should undergo for\nthe sins of man.\n\n\"And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.\" This signifies the content\nand satisfaction that for the sin of the world, God should have by\nthe offering upon of his Son for us upon the cross: Wherefore, he\nis said to be now \"in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,\nnot imputing their trespasses unto them\" (2 Cor 5:19).\n\nNow it is observable, That Noah was a man of faith long before\nthis. Hence note two things.\n\n1. That men, even of eminent faith have yet need of a continual\nremembrance of the death and sufferings of Christ; yea, and that\nin the most plain and easiest manner to understand.\n\n2. They have need also, notwithstanding they have faith before, to\npresent themselves before God, through Jesus Christ our Lord: For\nas our persons are not accepted, but in and through him, no more\nare our performances; yea, though they be spiritual services or\nsacrifices; it is the blood that maketh the atonement, as well\nfor work as persons (Lev 17:11; Heb 9:21). As he saith in another\nplace, I will accept you with your sweet savour, but not without it\n(1 Peter 2:5; Eze 20:41). As he also said to his church in Egypt,\n\"When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall\nnot be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt\"\n(Exo 12:13).\n\n\"And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse,\" &c. By\nheart here, we may understand two things.\n\n1. That God was altogether unfeigned in this promise. He spake\nit from his very heart: which we use to count the most sincere\nexpressing of our mind: According to that of the prophet, \"Yea, I\nwill rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in\nthis land assuredly--[in truth, in stability,] with my whole heart,\nand with my whole soul\" (Jer 32:41). Mark, I will rejoice to do\nit, I will do it assuredly, I will do it in truth, even \"with my\nwhole heart, and with my whole soul.\"\n\n2. By his saying, \"In his heart,\" we may understand the secrecy of\nhis purpose; for this doctrine, Of not cursing again, it is hid\nfrom all but those to whom it is revealed by the Spirit of God.\nFor this purpose, in the heart of God, is one of the depths,\nor of the deep things of God, which the spirit of a man cannot\nunderstand. \"Who hath known the mind of the Lord?\" None of all the\nsons of men, but those that have the Holy Ghost: Therefore Paul\napplieth that to himself and fellows, as that which is peculiar\nto them to know, \"We have the mind of Christ\" (1 Cor 2:16). It is\nsaid, that after Christ had by his parables preached his gospel to\nthe world, he in private \"expounded all things to his disciples\"\n(Mark 4:34).\n\nHence note, That they that will hear God speak this, they must be\nnear his very heart. They that are in his heart, may hear it: but\nto them that are without, in parables. This secret, in revelation\nof the gospel, is also expressed in other terms: as, That the\nLord spake \"in mine ears\" (Isa 5:9), and \"it was revealed in mine\nears\" (Isa 22:14). And again, \"Hear now this word that I speak in\nthine ears\" (Jer 28:7).\n\n\"I will not again curse the ground any more.\" These words are also\nunder Moses' veil; for in them is contained the sin of the world,\nand damnation thereof. He said, when he was to bring the flood,\nthat the \"earth was corrupt,\" and that he would \"destroy the earth\"\n(6:11,13); but his great meaning, was, of the sinners that dwelt\ntherein; as the effect of that flood declared. So he saith again,\nhe will not bring any more a flood to destroy the earth; and that\nthe bow in the cloud should be a sign of peace between him and\nthe earth: By all which is meant in special, the men that dwell\non the earth (Psa 114:7; Deu 32:1; Jer 6:19; 22:29); and they are\ncalled, the Ground, and the Earth, because they came from thence.\nSo then, there is, as it were, the foundation of all spiritual\nblessedness couched under these words, \"I will not curse the\nground, I will not destroy man.\" And that this must needs be the\nmeaning thereof, consider, that this promise ariseth from the\nsweet savour that he smelt before in the burnt-offering; which was\na figure of Christ, who was \"made a curse for us\" (Gal 3:13), to\ndeliver us from the curse of the law; that we might through him\nobtain the blessing of forgiveness of sins; to which the curse\nstands directly opposite.\n\n\"I will not again curse the ground for man's sake; for the imagination\nof man's heart is evil from his youth.\" The imagination of man's\nheart was the ground of this dreadful curse; and the effect\nof this curse, was, to lay them up in chains in hell: Wherefore\nPeter saith, These men are \"now in prison.\" The curse therefore,\nin its most eminent extension, reached the souls of those ungodly\nones that were swept away with the flood. But it seems a strange\nargument, or reason rendered of God, why again he would not curse\nthe ground, if it was because of the evil imagination of man's\nheart, this being the only argument that prevailed with him to send\nthe flood. The meaning therefore is rather this, That because of\nthe satisfaction that Christ hath given to God for sin, therefore\nhe said in his heart, he would \"not again curse the ground,\" for\nthe evil imagination of man; that is, he would not do it, for\nwant of a sacrifice that had in it a sufficient propitiation (John\n3:18,19).\n\nHence note, That the great cause now of man's condemnation, is not\nbecause of his inherent pollution, but because he accepteth not,\nwith Noah, of the satisfaction made by Christ; for to all them that\nhave so accepted thereof, there is now no curse nor condemnation\n(Rom 8:1), though still the imagination of their heart be evil. \"If\nany man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the\nrighteous\" (1 John 2:1).\n\n\"For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.\" These\nwords seem to insinuate the cause of these evil imaginations; and\nthat is, from the corruption of their youth. Now how soon their\nyouth was corrupted, David shows by these words, \"I was shapen in\niniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me\" (Psa 51:5). Ezekiel\nalso shows, we were polluted in the day that we were born (Eze\n16:1-8). Further, God to Moses strongly affirms it, in that he\ncommands, That for the firstborn, in whom the rest were included,\nan offering should be offered, by that they were a month old (Exo\n13:13; 34:20). God seems therefore, by this word, to look back to\nthe transgression of our first parents, by whom sin came into our\nnatures; and by so doing he not only intimateth, yea, promiseth\na pardon to personal miscarriages; but assureth us, That neither\nthem, nor yet our inward pollutions, shall destroy us, because of\nthe rest that he found before in Christ (Rom 5).\n\n\"Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have\ndone.\" The creatures therefore also have some kind of benefit by\nthe death and blood of Christ; that is, so as to live, and have a\nbeing; for infinite justice is so perfectly just, as that without\na sacrifice it could not have suffered the world to stand, after\nsin was in the world, but must have destroyed, for the sake of\nsin, the world which he had made.\n\nFor although it be foully absurd to say that beasts and fowls are\ndefiled with sin, as man; yet doubtless they received detriment\nthereby. \"The creature was made subject to vanity, by reason of him\nwho hath subjected the same,\" &c. That is, by Adam's sin. Which\nvanity they also show by divers of their practise; as both in\ntheir enmity to man, and one to another, with which they were not\ncreated; this came by the sin of man. Now that man lives, yea, that\nbeasts live, it is because of the offering up of Christ: Wherefore\nit is said in that of the Colossians, The gospel is \"preached to\nevery creature\"; in every creature under heaven; to wit, in that\nthey live and have a being (1:23).\n\n\"Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have\ndone.\" These words, as I have done, doth not exempt the creature\nfrom every judgment of God, but from this, or such as this; for we\nknow, that other judgments do befall ungodly men now; and if they\ncontinue in final impenitence, they shall partake of far greater\njudgments than to be drowned by the waters of a flood. \"The wicked\nis reserved unto judgment\" (Job 21:30). Yea, the heavens and the\nearth that now are, are \"reserved unto fire,--and perdition of\nungodly men\" (2 Peter 3:7).\n\nVer. 22. \"While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and\ncold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not\ncease.\" \"While the earth remaineth.\" These words may have respect\nboth to the words before, and to them that follow after. If they\nrespect the words before, then they are as limits to that large\npromise, of not destroying the world again: not but that the day\nwill come, as I said, in which another general judgment, and that\ntoo far more dreadful than this of water, will overflow the world,\nand every living thing shall again be cut off from the face\nof all the earth: as now by rain of water, then by rain of fire\nand brimstone: Which day and sore judgment, God showed unto men,\nwhen he burned Sodom and Gomorrah with \"fire and brimstone from\nheaven.\" But,\n\n\"While the earth remaineth,\" this shall not be. But in the end, then\nindeed both it and \"the works that are therein, shall [as Peter\nsaith] be burned up\" (2 Peter 3:10). But so long as it remaineth,\nthat is, until it be overtaken with this second, and that too the\nbeginning of eternal judgment, no universal judgment shall overrun\nthe earth: For albeit that since that flood, the earth hath been\nsmitten with many a curse; yet it hath been but here and there, not\nin every place at once. Famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences,\nhave been in divers places, but yet at the same time hath there\nbeen seed time and harvest also (Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11).\n\n\"Seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter,\nand day and night, shall not cease.\" These words were some of the\nfirst, with that of \"the bow in the cloud,\" that prevailed with me\nto believe that the scriptures were the word of God.\n\nFor my reason tells me, they are, and have continued a true\nprophecy, from the day that they were related; otherwise the world\ncould not have subsisted; for take away seed time and harvest,\ncold and heat, &c., and an end is put to the[38] beginning of the\nuniverse.\n\nBesides, if these words be taken in a spiritual sense, they have also\nstood true from that very day; otherwise the church had ceased to\nhave a being long before this: For take away seed time and harvest\nfrom the church, with cold and heat, and day and night, and those\nordinances of heaven are taken from her, which were ordained for\nher begetting and continuation. This head might with much largeness\nbe insisted on; but to pass it, and to come to the next chapter.\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nVer. 1. \"And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said unto them,\nBe fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.\"\n\nNoah having thus waded through these great temptations, and being\nmade also to partake of the mercy of God, in preserving and saving\nhim from the evil thereof, and being brought to partake of the\nbeginning of a new world, while the ungodly that were before the\nflood were perished for their iniquity: he receiveth now from the\nmouth of the Lord, before whom he walked before the flood, laws\nand ordinances, as rules by which he should still govern his\nlife before him. But mark, Before he receiveth these rules and\ncommandments, he receiveth blessing from God; blessing, I say, as\nthat which should yet fore-fit him to do his will.\n\n\"And God blessed Noah.\" Blessed him with spiritual and special\ngrace; for without that, no man can walk, with God's acceptance\nbefore him. He blessed him with grace suitable to the work he was\nnow to begin; to wit, for the replenishing and governing the new\nworld God had brought him to: so that Noah did not without precedent\nqualifications take this work upon him. God also gave Caleb and\nJoshua another spirit, and then they followed him fully. That of\nDavid is for this remarkable, \"Who am I, [said he] and what is my\npeople, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this\nsort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given\nthee.\" \"O Lord our God, saith he, all this store that we have\nprepared to build thee an house for thine holy name, cometh of\nthine hand, and is all thine own\" (1 Chron 29:10-16). So is faith,\nlove, strength, wisdom, sincerity, and all other good things\nwherewith and by which we walk with God, worship him, and do his\nwill: all which is comprised in these words, \"I will give them an\nheart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people,\nand I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their\nwhole heart\" (Jer 24:7). \"A new heart also will I give them\" (Eze\n36:25-29). And again, \"I will put my fear in their hearts, that\nthey shall not depart from me\" (Jer 32:37-40).\n\n\"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful,\nand multiply, and replenish the earth.\" After he had blessed him,\nthen he tells him what they should do; namely, \"Be fruitful, and\nmultiply.\" This he spake with respect to the seed that he and his\nsons should beget, therewith to people the world; which was now\nthe remaining part of his work, and he had three arguments to\nencourage him thereto. First, He was delivered from the wicked and\nsinners of the old world: 2. He was made the heir of a new world;\nand 3. Was to leave it as an heritage to his children.\n\nThis therefore should teach us, who are brought into the kingdom\nof Christ, that new world that hath taken its beginning in the word\nof the gospel, not to be idle, but to be fruitful, and to labour\nto fill the world with a spiritual seed to God: for as Noah, so\nare we made heirs of this blessed kingdom; and shall also, as that\ngood man, leaven, when we sleep in Jesus, this spiritual seed to\npossess the kingdom after us.\n\nVer. 2. \"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon\nevery beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all\nthat moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into\nyour hand are they delivered.\" These words seem to be a promise\nof what shall be a consequence of their putting into practice what\nwas commanded in the verse before; namely, of their being fruitful,\nand of their \"multiplying in the earth.\" Hence note, That the\nfaithful observation of God's word, puts majesty, and dread, and\nterror upon them that do it: Therefore it is said, that when the\nchurch is \"fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, she is terrible\nas an army with banners\" (Cant 6:4,10). The presence of godly\nSamuel made the elders of Bethlehem tremble; yea, when Elisha was\nsought for by the king of Syria, he durst not engage him, but with\nchariots and horses, and an heavy host (2 Kings 6:13,14). Godliness\nis a wonderful thing, it commandeth reverence, and the stooping\nof the spirits, even of the world of ungodly ones (Acts 5:13).\n\n\"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast.\"\nThis is true in the letter; for because there is upon man, as man,\nmore of the image and similitude of God, than there is upon other\ncreatures; therefore the beasts, and all the creatures, are made\nto stoop and fall before them; yea, though in themselves they are\nmighty and fierce. Every kind [or, nature] of birds, and of serpents,\nand things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind\n(James 3:7).\n\nBut to allegorize the word, for by the word, ungodly men are\nbeasts; then, as I said before, godliness puts such a majesty and\ndread upon the professors of it, that their enemies are afraid of\nthem; yea, even then when they rage against them, and lay heavy\nafflictions upon them. It is marvellous to see in what fear the\nungodly are, even of godly men, and godliness; in that they stir\nup the mighty, make edicts against them; yea, and raise up armies,\nand what else can be imagined, to suppress them; while the persons\nthus opposed, if you consider them as to their state and capacity\nin this world; they are most inconsiderable; but as a dead dog,\nor a flea (1 Sam 24:14). O but they are clothed with godliness!\nThe image and presence of God is upon them! This makes the beasts\nof this world afraid. One of you shall chase a thousand.\n\n\"Into your hands are they delivered.\" That is, the beasts, birds,\nand fish of the sea (as David saith) to be for the service of\nman. But again, This is also true in a higher nature; for taking\nthese beasts, &c. for men, even they are delivered into the hand\nof the church, by whose doctrine, power and faith, they are smitten\nwith severest judgments (2 Cor 2:15,16). Laying all that reject\nthem even in the depth of death, and smiting them \"with all plagues\nas often as they will\" (Rev 11:6). The world is therefore in our\nhand, and disposed of by our doctrine, by our faith and prayers,\nalthough they think far otherwise, and shall one day feel their\njudgments are according.\n\nVer. 3. \"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even\nas the green herb have I given you all things.\"\n\nFrom these words some would insinuate, that before the flood men\nlived only upon herbs, not eating flesh; as here they have authority\ngranted to do: but, in mine opinion, such should be mistaken, for\nthis reason, if there were no other: because they offered sacrifice\nbefore; sacrifices, I say, as types and representatives to the church,\nof the death and sufferings of Christ. Now, of such sacrifices the\nofferers used to eat, as is clear by the lamb of the passover, and\nmany other offerings: so that these words seem to be but a renewing\nof their former privileges, not a granting new liberty to the\nworld.\n\n\"Every moving thing.\" This must be taken with this restriction,\nThat is wholesome and good for food: for by the law of nature,\nnothing of that is forbidden to man, though for some significations\nmany such creatures were forbidden us to use for a time (Deu 14).\n\n\"Even as the green herb.\" For which they expressly had liberty\ngranted them, in the first chapter of this book (v 29). And this\nliberty might afresh be here repeated, from some scruple that might\narise in Noah, &c. He remembering that the world before might, for\nthe abuse of the creatures of God, as well as for the abuse of his\nworship, be drowned with the flood; for sometimes the abuse of\nthat which is lawful to one, may be a snare, abuse and stumbling\nto another (1 Cor 7:1; 8).\n\nVer. 4. \"But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof\nshall ye not eat.\"\n\nThis law seems to be ceremonial, although given long before Moses\nwas; as also some sacrifices and circumcision were (John 7:22).\nWherefore we must seek for the reason of this prohibition. \"Whatsoever\nman [saith God] there be of the house of Israel,--that eateth any\nmanner of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that\neateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.\" Why?\n\"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it\nto you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it\nis the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I\nsaid unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood\"\n(Lev 17:10-12). Again, As here the prohibition is only concerning\nblood; so in another place, the word is as well against our eating\nthe fat; \"It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations,\nthroughout all your dwellings, that ye neither eat fat nor blood.\"\nAnd the reason rendered, is, For \"all the fat is the LORD'S\" (Lev\n3:16,17).\n\nSo then the meaning, the spiritual meaning, seems to be this, That\nforasmuch as the blood is the life, and that which maketh the\natonement; and the fat, the glory, and the Lord's; therefore they\nboth were to be offered to the Lord. That is, we ought always to offer\nthe merit of our salvation to God, by a continual acknowledgment,\nthat it was through the blood of Christ; and we ought always to give\nhim the glory thereof, and this is the fat of all our performances\n(Isa 25:6). Now this is so blessed a thing, and calleth for that\ngrace, that every professor hath not, every one cannot ascribe\nto the blood of the Lamb, the whole of his reconciliation to God;\nnor offer up the fat, the glory, which is God's, to the Lord for\nso great a benefit: this is the benefit of a peculiar people, even\nof \"the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, [or they that are\njustified, or just thereby; (For so Zadok signifies)] that kept the\ncharge of my sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray\nfrom me; they shall come near to me, to minister unto me, and\nthey shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood,\nsaith the Lord God\" (Eze 44:15).\n\nWherefore, for men to ascribe to their own works the merit of their\nsalvation, or to take the glory thereof to themselves; it is as\neating the blood and the fat themselves, and they shall be cut\noff from the people of God.\n\nVer. 5. \"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the\nhand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at\nthe hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man.\"\n\nThese words are spoken to the church, which then resided in this\nfamily: Not but that God will avenge the blood that is wrongfully\nshed, though the person murdered be most carnal and irreligious.\n\"A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person, shall flee\nto the pit; let no man stay him\" (Pro 28:17).\n\nBut I say, these words respect the church in a more special and\neminent way. \"Surely [saith God] your blood of your lives will I\nrequire.\" Thus also David insinuates the thing: \"when he maketh\nthe inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: [the saints and\ngodly in special,] he forgetteth not the cry of the humble,\" the\nafflicted (Psa 9:12).\n\n\"At the hand of every beast will I require it.\" The beasts are here\nalso to be taken for men, to whom they are frequently likened in\nscripture; and that because they have cast off human affections;\nand, like savage creatures, make a prey of those that are better\nthan themselves. Ignorance therefore or brutishness, O thou wicked\nman! will not excuse thee in the day of judgment; all the injuries\nthat thou doest to the people of God, shall for certain be required\nof thee.\n\n\"At the hand of man will I require it.\" By man here, we may\nunderstand, such as have greater placed and shew of reason wherewith\nthey manage their cruelty, than those that are as the natural beast:\nfor all persecutors are not brutish alike; some are in words as\nsmooth as oil; others can shew a semblance of reason of state,\nwhy they should see \"the righteous for silver, and the poor for a\npair of shoes\" (Amos 2:6). These act, to carnal reason, like men,\nas Saul against David, for the safety of his kingdom; but these\nmust give an account of their cruelty, for blood is in their hands.\n\n\"At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.\"\nThis word brother may reach to all the apostatized hypocrites that\nforsake or betray the godly, for brother shall betray the brother\nto death (Matt 10:21). Such are spoken of in Isaiah, \"Your brethren\nthat hated you, [saith God,] and that cast you out for my name's\nsake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your\njoy, and they shall be ashamed\" (Isa 65:5). So that let them be\nas vile as the brute, or as reasonable in appearance as men, or\nas near in relation as a brother; neither their ignorance, nor\ntheir reason, nor their relation to the saints, shall secure them\nfrom the stroke of the judgment of God. Ver. 6. \"Whoso sheddeth\nman's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of\nGod made he man.\"\n\nIn these words we have both a threatening and a command; and the\nsame words carry both: \"By man shall his blood be shed,\" there is\nthe threatening; \"By man shall his blood be shed,\" there is the\ncommand. For as they threaten, so they instruct us, that he is\nworthy of the loss of his own blood, that doth wickedly shed the\nblood of another (Matt 26:52; Rev 13:10). Blood for blood, equal\nmeasure: As he also saith elsewhere, An eye for an eye, a tooth\nfor a tooth (Exo 21:24), wound for wound, burning for burning (Lev\n24:20; Deu 19:21).\n\n\"For in the image of God made he man.\" This seems as the reason\nof this equal law; because no man can slay his neighbour, but he\nstriketh at the image of God. It is counted a heinous crime for\na man to run his sword at the picture of a king, how much more to\nshed the blood of the image of God? \"He that mocketh, or oppresseth,\nthe poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoureth him, hath\nmercy on the poor\" (Pro 14:31; 17:5). And if so, how much more do\nthey reproach, yea, despise and abhor their Maker, that slay and\nmurder his image! But most of all those do prove themselves the\nenemies of God, that make the holiness, the goodness, the religion\nand sobriety that is found in the people of God, the object of their\nwrath and hellish cruelty. Hence murder is, in the New Testament,\nimputed to that man that hated holy and godly man: \"He that hateth\nhis brother, is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath\neternal life abiding in him\" (1 John 3:15).\n\nVer. 7l. \"And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth\nabundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.\" Thus he doubleth\nthe blessing and command, of multiplying and increasing the church\nin the earth, for that is the delight of God, and of Christ.\n\nVer. 8, 9. \"And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him,\nsaying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with\nyour seed after you.\"\n\nGod having thus blessed them, and given them laws and judgments\nto walk by, for the further confirmation of their hope in God, he\npropoundeth to them the immutability of his mind, by the establishing\nof his covenant with them; for a covenant is that, which not only\nconcludeth the matter concerned between the persons themselves;\nbut it provideth remedy against after temptations, and fears, and\nmistrusts, as to the faithful performance of that which is spoken\nof. As Laban said to Jacob, \"Now therefore [said he] come thou,\nlet us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness\nbetween me and thee\" (Gen 31:44). Thus also the apostle insinuates;\nwhere making mention of the promise and oath of God, he saith, this\npromise and oath are both immutable, that \"we might have a strong\nconsolation, [or always ground for great rejoicing] who have fled\nfor refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us\" (Heb 6:18).\n\nThis covenant therefore, it was for the encouragement of Noah and\nhis sons, that they might walk before God without fear. Yea, it\nwas to maintain their hope in his promise of forgiveness, though\nthey should find their after-performances mixed with infirmities;\nfor so he had told them before, namely, \"That he would not again\ndestroy the earth for man's sake, albeit the imagination of man's\nheart be evil from his youth. I will establish my covenant with\nyou, and with your seed after you.\"\n\nVer. 10. \"And with every living creature that is with you: of the\nfowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you;\nfrom all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.\"\nThese words respect the whole creation (see chapter 8); for all\nthe things in the world, devils only excepted, have a benefit\nby this covenant of God. And hence it is, that not man only, but\n\"every thing that hath breath,\" is commanded to \"praise the Lord\"\n(Psa 150:6): But observe it; as for the sin of man, they before\nwere destroyed by the flood; so now by reason of the mercy of\nGod to man, they are spared, and partake of mercy also. This is\nintimated by these words: \"Every creature that is with you; every\nbeast of the earth with you.\"\n\nVer. 11. \"And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall\nall flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither\nshall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.\"\n\nThis is the sum of the covenant, as it respecteth the letter, and\nthe type, and the whole creation in general. But yet as to the\nspirit and gospel of it, the Holy Ghost must needs have a further\nreach, an intention of more glorious things, as may further be\nshewed anon.\n\n\"And I will establish my covenant with you.\" For you that are men,\nand especially the members of the church, have the most peculiar\nshare therein.\n\n\"Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of\na flood.\" For because of my covenant which I establish with you,\nI will spare them also, and give them the taste of my mercy and\ngoodness.\n\n\"Neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.\"\nThis covenant therefore, is not of that nature as the covenant\nwas which was made with Adam, to wit, a covenant of works, as the\nonly conditions of life; for by that was the ground, for man's\nsin, accursed, accursed, and accursed again. But now the Lord goeth\nanother way, the way of grace, and forgiveness of sins: Wherefore\nnow, not the curse, but the mercy of God, comes in on the back and\nneck of sin, still sparing and forgiving man, the great transgressor,\nand the beast, &c. and the earth, for the sake of him.\n\nVer. 12, 13. \"And God said, This is the token of the covenant which\nI make between me and you and every living creature that is with\nyou, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and\nit shall be for a token of a covenant between me and all the earth.\"\n\nSo then, the way to find out the covenant, what that is, it is to\nsee if we can find out this token of it; to wit, the BOW, of which\nthe rainbow is but a type. I find then by the scriptures, where\nthis BOW is mystically spoken of, that the Lord Jesus Christ\nhimself is encompassed with the bow. The first is this:\n\n\"And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness\nof a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the\nlikeness of the throne was the likeness, as the appearance of\na man above upon it. And I saw, as the colour of amber, as the\nappearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of\nhis loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even\ndownward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had\nbrightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the\ncloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness\nround about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory\nof the LORD\" (Eze 1:26-28), the man, the Lord's Christ, &c.\n\nThe second scripture is this. \"I was in the Spirit: and, behold a\nthrone was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat\nwas to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was\na rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald\"\n(Rev 4:2,3). In these two texts there is mention of the rainbow,\nthat was, not to be the covenant, but the token or sign thereof.\nNow then the covenant itself must needs be the man that was set\nin the midst of the bow upon the throne; for so he saith by the\nprophet, \"I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will\nhold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant\nof the people\" (Isa 42:6). The covenant therefore is Jesus Christ\nthe Saviour, whom the bow in the clouds was a sign or a token of.\nSo then the sum of the text is this, That God, for the sake of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, will not again all the days of the earth,\nbring an universal judgment upon the creature, as in the days of\nNoah, and of the old world he did; for Christ by the worth of his\nblood and righteousness hath pacified the justice of the law for\nsin. So then the whole universe standeth not upon a bottom of its\nown, but by the word and power of Christ (Heb 1:2,3). \"The earth\n[said he] and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear\nup the pillars of it\" (Psa 75:3).\n\nQuest. But how must Christ be reckoned of God, when he maketh him\nthe poize against all the sin of the world.\n\nThe prophet tells us thus: He shall be the covenant of the people,\nor he shall be accounted the conditions and worth of the world; He\nshall be the covenant, or works, or righteousness of the people;\nfor, He as the high-priest under the law, is set for the people\nto Godward; that is, he standeth always in the presence of God,\nas the complete obedience of the people. So then, so long as the\nLord Christ bears up his mediatorship, God in justice will neither\ndestroy the world, nor the things that are therein.\n\nIn this covenant therefore, the justice as well as the mercy of God\nis displayed in its perfection, inasmuch as without the perfection\nof the mediator Christ, the world could not be saved from judgment.\n\nVer. 14. \"And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the\nearth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.\"\n\nBy these words the Lord looks back to the flood that before had\ndrowned the earth; for in these clouds there was no bow, no token\nof Christ, or of the mercy of God. But now, saith God, I will do\nfar otherwise; from henceforth when I bring a cloud, and there\nbe showers of rain on the earth, these clouds shall not be as the\nother. But \"my bow shall be therein.\"\n\nThe cloud then that here is spoken of, must be understood of the\njudgment of God for sin, like those before, and at the overthrow of\nthe world; only with this difference, they were clouds, judgments\nwithout mercy, but these judgments mixed therewith; and often the\nclouds are thus to be understood. Job when he curseth his day,\nsaith, \"Let a cloud dwell upon it\" (3:5). So the judgments of God\nupon Zion, are called the covering of a cloud (Lam 2:1). So in Joel\nalso, to the darkness of clouds, are the judgments of the church\ncompared (2:2); yea, that pillar that went before the children of\nIsrael, it being a judgment to the people of Egypt, goes under this\nepithet, as a term most fit to express this judgment by, \"it was\na cloud and darkness to them\" (Exo 14:20).\n\nAnd now to the cloud in hand, the cloud in which is the bow, the\ncloud of rain, although by the mercy and grace of God it is so\ngreat a blessing as it is, yet it sometimes becomes a judgment,\nit comes for correction, as a rod to afflict the inhabitants of\nthe world withal (Job 37:13). Thus it was in the days of Ezra,\nand very often both before and since (10:12-14).\n\n\"The bow shall be seen in the cloud.\" This is the mercy of God to\nthe world, and that by which it hath been hitherto preserved; \"The\nbow shall be seen in the cloud.\" You know I told you of the bow\nbefore, that it was a sign or token of the covenant of God with\nthe world, and that the covenant itself was Christ, as given of\nGod unto us, with all his good conditions, merit, and worth. So\nthen, in that, God \"set this bow in the cloud,\" and especially\nin the clouds that he sends for judgment, he would have the world\nremember, that there comes no judgment as yet on the world, but\nit is mixed with, or poized by the mercy of God in Christ.\n\n\"The bow shall be seen in the cloud.\" This may respect God, or the\nworld, that is, the seeing of the bow in the cloud; if it respect\nGod, then it tells us he in judgment will remember mercy; if it\nrespect the world, then it admonisheth us not to despond, or sink\nin despair under the greatest judgment of God, for the bow, the\ntoken of his covenant, is seen in the judgments that he executeth.\n\nWhen the vision of the ruin of Jerusalem was revealed to the prophet\nEzekiel, he saw that yet Christ sat under the bow (1:28).\n\nWhen antichrist was to come against the saints of God, the commission\ncame from Christ, as he sat \"under the bow\" (Rev 4:3). This John\ndid see and relate, of which we should take special notice: for\nby this token God would have us to know that these clouds, though\nthey come for correction, yet not to destroy the church. My bow\nshall be seen in the cloud.\n\nVer. 15. \"And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and\nyou, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall\nno more become a flood to destroy all flesh.\"\n\n\"And I will remember my covenant.\" Much like this is that of the\nLord to Israel, when they are under all, or any of those forty\njudgments mentioned (Lev 26). If they shall confess their iniquity,\n[saith he,] and the iniquity of their fathers, &c., \"Then will I\nremember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac,\nand also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will\nremember the land\" (Lev 26:40-42). His usual way in other sayings\nis, to begin with Abraham, but here he ends with him; and the reason\nis, because there, as it were, the great promise of the Messiah\nto that people began, \"Saying, in thy seed shall all nations be\nblessed.\"\n\n\"And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you.\" We\nread not here of any compact or agreement between Noah and God\nAlmighty; wherefore such conditions and compacts could not be\nthe terms between him and us. What then? why that covenant that\nhe calls his, which is his gift to us, \"I will give thee for a\ncovenant,\" this is the covenant which is between God and us: \"There\nis one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ\nJesus.\" This then is the reason why all the waters, why all the\njudgments of God, and why all the sins that have provoked those\njudgments, cannot become a flood to destroy all flesh.\n\nVer. 16. \"And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon\nit, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and\nevery living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.\"\n\n\"And the bow shall be in the cloud.\" this is a kind of a repetition;\nfor this he had told us before, saying, \"I do set my bow in the\ncloud,\" and \"the bow shall be seen in the cloud\": which repetition\nis very needful, for it is hard for us to believe that Christ\nand grace are wrapped up in the judgments of God (1 Peter 1:12).\nWherefore it had need be attested twice and thrice. \"To write the\nsame things to you,\" saith Paul, \"to me indeed is not grievous,\nbut for you it is safe\"(Phil 3:1).\n\n\"And I will look upon.\" A familiar expression, and suited to our\ncapacity, and spoken to prevent a further ground of mistrust; much\nlike to that of God, when he was to send the plague upon Egypt:\n\n\"The blood, saith God, [of the Lamb,] shall be to you for a token\nupon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood I will pass\nover you, and the plague shall not be upon you, to destroy you,\nwhen I smite the land of Egypt\" (Exo 12:13).\n\n\"And I will look upon it that I may remember.\" Not that God is\nforgetful, \"He is ever mindful of his covenant.\" But such expressions\nare used to shew and persuade us that the whole heart and delight\nof God is in it. \"That I may remember the everlasting covenant.\"\nThis word covenant is also the sixth repetition thereof; my\ncovenant, the covenant, a covenant, and the everlasting covenant.\nO how fain would God beat it into the heads of the world, that he\nhath for men a covenant of grace.\n\n\"The everlasting covenant.\" Because the parties on both sides are\nfaithful, perfect, and true; the Father being the one, and the Son\nof his love the other; for this covenant, as I said before, is\nnot a compact and agreement betwixt God and the world, but his\nSon, as his gift to men, is set for them to Godward (Zech 9:11).\nSo that what conditions there are, they are perfectly found in\nChrist, by whose blood the covenant is sealed and established,\nand indeed becomes everlasting, hence it is called \"the blood of\nthe everlasting covenant\" (Heb 13:20). And again, the New Testament\nis said to be in this blood. Besides, the promises are all in\nChrist, I mean the promises of this covenant; in him they are yea,\nand in him amen, to the glory of God the Father: now they being\nall in him, and yea and amen no where else, the covenant itself\nmust needs be of pure grace and mercy, and the bow in the cloud,\nnot qualifications in us, [but] the proper token of this covenant.\n\nVer. 17. \"And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant,\nwhich I have established between me and all flesh that is upon\nthe earth.\"\n\nBehold a repetition of all things that were essential either to the\ncovenant itself, or to our faith therein, the making of the covenant,\nthe looking on the covenant, and the token of the covenant; how\noften are they mentioned, that we might be more fully convinced of\nthe unchangeable nature of it. As Joseph said unto Pharaoh, \"For\nthat the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the\nthing is established by God\" (Gen 41:32).\n\n\"And God said unto Noah.\" Where God loveth, he delighteth to apply\nhimself to such, in a more than general way; he singleth out the\nperson, Noah, Abraham, and the like. \"I know thee by name,\" saith\nhe to Moses, and \"thou hast found grace in my sight.\"\n\n\"This is the token of the covenant.\" It still wants beating into\npeople's heads, where they should look for the covenant itself,\nto wit, the throne which the rainbow compasseth round about; for\nthat is the token of the presence of the Messias, and thither\nwe are to look for salvation from all plagues, and from all the\njudgments that are due to sin: The Lord for Christ's sake forgave\nyou, this is the token of the covenant.\n\n\"Of the covenant which I have established.\"\n\nThis word \"I,\" as also hinted before, doth intimate that this covenant\nis the covenant of grace and mercy, for a covenant of works cannot\nbe established; that is, settled between God and men, before\nboth parties have either by sureties, or performance ratified and\nconfirmed the same. Indeed it may be so established, as that God\nwill appoint no other; but to be so established, as to give us the\nfruits thereof, that must be the effects of his being well pleased\nwith the conditions of those concerned in the making thereof. But\nthat is not the world, but the Son of God, and therefore it is called\nhis covenant, and he \"as given to us of God,\" is so reckoned our\ncondition and worth (Zech 9:11).\n\n\"Which I have established.\" To wit, upon better promises than\nduties purely commanded, or than the obedience of all the angels\nin heaven. I have established it in the truth and faithfulness, in\nthe merit and worth of the blood of my Son, of whom the rainbow\nthat you see in the cloud is a token.\n\nVer. 18. \"And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were\nShem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.\"\n\nBy these words Moses is returned again to the history of Noah.\n\"And the sons of Noah that went forth of the ark.\" If these words,\n\"that went forth of the ark,\" bear the emphasis of this part of the\nverse, then it may seem that Noah had more children than these;\nbut they were not accounted of; for they being ungodly, as the rest\nof the world, they perished with them in their ungodliness. These\nonly went in, and came out of the ark with him;[39] to wit,\n\n\"Shem, and Ham, and Japheth.\" The names thus placed are not according\nto their birth; for Japheth was the elder, Ham the younger, and\nShem the middlemost of the two.\n\nShem therefore takes the place, because of his eminency in godliness\n(9:24); also, because from him went the line up to Christ (10:2).\nFor which cause also the family of the sons of Judah, though he\nwas but the fourth son of Israel, was reckoned before the family\nof Reuben, Jacob's first born; or before the rest of the sons of\nhis brethren (1 Chron 2:3). Sometimes persons take their place in\ngenealogy, from the fore-sight of the mightiness of their offspring.\nThus was Ephraim placed before Manasseh; for \"truly [said Jacob]\nhis younger brother shall be greater than he\" (Gen 43:17-20). And\nhe set Ephraim before Manasseh.\n\nHam is the next in order; not for the sake of his birthright, or\nbecause he was much, if anything, now for godliness; but for that\nhe was the next to be eminent in his offspring, for opposing and\nfighting against the same.\n\nShem and Ham therefore the two heads, or chief, from whence sprang\ngood and evil men, by way of eminency. \"Ham is the father of\nCanaan,\" or of the Canaanites, the people of God's curse, whom the\nsons of Shem who afterwards sprang from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,\nwere to cut off from the earth, for their most high abominations.\n\nJapheth comes in, in the first place, as one that at present was\nleast concerned either in the mercy or displeasure of God; being\nneither, in his offspring, to be devoutly religious, nor yet\nincorrigibly wicked, though afterwards he was to be persuaded to\ndwell in the tents of Shem.\n\nVer. 19. \"These are the three sons of Noah; and of them was the\nwhole earth overspread.\"\n\nThus though Noah's beginning was small, his latter end did greatly\nincrease.\n\nVer. 20, 21. \"And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted\na vineyard:--And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he\nwas uncovered within his tent.\"\n\nThis is the blot in this good man's scutcheon; and a strange blot\nit is, that such an one as Noah should be thus overtaken with\nevil! One would have thought that Moses should now have began\nwith a relation of some eminent virtues, and honourable actions\nof Noah, since now he was saved from the death that overtook\nthe whole world, and was delivered, both he and his children, to\npossess the whole earth himself. Indeed, he stepped from the earth\nto the altar; as Israel of old did sing on the shore of the red\nSea: But, as they, he soon forgat; he rendered evil to God for\ngood.[40]\n\nNeither is Noah alone in this matter: Lot also being delivered from\nthat fire from heaven that burnt up Sodom and Gomorrah, falls soon\nafter into lewdness with the children of his body, and begetteth\nhis own two daughters with child (Gen 19:30-36).\n\nGideon also, after he was delivered out of the hands of his enemies,\ntook that very gold which God had given him, as the spoil of them\nthat hated him, and made himself idols therewith (Judg 8:24-27).\nWhat shall I say of David? and of Solomon also, who after he had\nbeen twenty years at work for the service of the true God, both in\nbuilding and preparing for his worship, and in writing of Proverbs\nby divine inspiration; did, after this, make temples for idols;\nyea, almost for the gods of all countries? Yea, he did it when\nhe was old, when he should have been preparing for his grave, and\nfor eternity. \"It came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his\nwives turned away his heart after other gods:--For Solomon went\nafter Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians; and after Milcom,\nthe abomination of the Ammonites.--He did also build an high place\nfor Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before\nJerusalem; and for Molech, the abomination of the children of\nAmmon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt\nincense and sacrificed unto their gods\" (1 Kings 11:4-8).\n\nAll these sins were sins against mercies; yea, and doubtless against\ncovenants, and the most solemn resolutions to the contrary. For\nwho can imagine, but that when Noah was tossed with the flood,\nand Lot within the scent and smell of the fire and brimstone that\nburnt down Sodom, with his sons, and his daughters; and Gideon,\nwhen so fiercely engaged with so great an enemy, and delivered by\nso strange a hand; should in the most solemn manner both promise and\nvow to God. But behold! now they in truth are delivered and saved,\nthey recompense all with sin. Lord, what is man! \"How--abominable\nand filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water\" (Job 15:16).\nLet these things learn us to cease from man, \"whose breath is in\nhis nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?\" (Isa 2:22).\nIndeed, it is a vain thing to build our faith upon the most godly\nman in the world, because he is subject to err; yea, far better\nthan He, was so.\n\nIf Noah, and Lot, and Gideon, and David, and Solomon, who wanted\nnot matter from arguments, and that of the strongest kind; as\narguments that are drawn from mercy and goodness be, to engage to\nholiness, and the fear of God; yet after all, did so foully fall,\nas we see: let us admire grace, that any stand; let the strongest\nfear, lest he fearfully fall; and let no man but Jesus Christ himself\nbe the absolute platform and pattern of faith and holiness. As the\nprophet saith, \"Let us cease from man.\" But to return:\n\n\"And Noah began to be an husbandman.\" This trade he took up for\nwant of better employment; or rather, in mine opinion, from some\nliberty he took to himself, to be remiss in his care and work, as\na preacher. For seeing the church was now at rest, and having the\nworld before them, they still retaining outward sobriety, poor\nNoah, good man, now might think with himself, \"I need not now be\nso diligent, watchful and painful in my ministry as formerly; the\nchurch is but small, without opposition, and also well settled in\nthe truth; I may now take to myself a little time to tamper with\nworldly things.\" So he makes an essay upon husbandry. \"He began\nto be an husbandman.\" Ha, Noah! it was better with thee when thou\nwast better employed! Yea, it was better with thee, when a world\nof ungodly men set themselves against thee! Yea, when every day\nthy life was in danger to be destroyed by the giants, against whom\nthou wast a preacher above a hundred years! For then thou didst\nwalk with God; Then thou wast better than all the world; but now\nthou art in the relapse!\n\nHence note, That though the days of affliction, of temptation and\ndistress, are harsh to flesh and blood; yet they are not half so\ndangerous as are the days of peace and liberty. Wherefore Moses\npre-admonished Israel, That when they had received the land of\nCanaan, and had herds, and silver and gold in abundance, that then\ntheir heart be not lifted up to forget the Lord their God. Jesurun\nkicked when he was fat. O! When provender pricks[41] us, we are\napt to be as the horse or mule, that is without understanding (Deu\n8:10-15).\n\n\"He planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken.\"\nAlthough in the course of godliness, many men have but a speculative\nknowledge of things; yet it is not so in the ways of this world\nand sin, the practical part of these things are lived in by all\nthe world. They are sinners indeed, \"He drank of the wine.\"\n\n\"He drank of the wine, and was drunken.\" The Holy Ghost, when it\nhath to do with sin, it loveth to give it its own name: drunkenness\nmust be drunkenness, murder must be murder, and adultery must bear\nits own name. Nay, it is neither the goodness of the man, nor his\nbeing in favour with God, that will cause him to lessen or mince\nhis sin. Noah was drunken; Lot lay with his daughters; David killed\nUriah; Peter cursed and swore in the garden, and also dissembled\nat Antioch. But this is not recorded, to the intent that the name\nof these godly should rot or stink: but to shew, that the best\nmen are nothing without grace; and, \"that he that standeth, should\nnot be high minded, but fear.\" Yea, they are also recorded, for the\nsupport of the tempted, who when they are fallen, are oft raised\nup by considering the infirmities of others. \"Whatsoever things\nwere written aforetime were written for our learning, that we\nthrough patience, and comfort of the scriptures might have hope\"\n(Rom 15:4).\n\n\"And he was uncovered within his tent.\" That is, he lay like a\ndrunken man, that regarded not who saw his shame. Hence note, how\nbeastly a sin drunkenness is; it bereaveth a man of consideration,\nand civil behaviour; it makes him as brutish and shameless as a\nbeast; yea, it discovereth his nakedness to all that behold.\n\n\"And he was uncovered.\" That is, lay naked, Behold ye now, that\na little of the fruit of the vine, lays gravity, grey hairs, and\na man that for hundreds of years was a lover of faith, holiness,\ngoodness, sobriety, and all righteousness; shamelessly, as the\nobject to the eye of the wicked, with his nakedness in his tent.\n\n\"He was uncovered within his tent.\" The best place of retirement\nhe had, but it could not hide him from the eye of the ungodly; it\nis not therefore thy secret chamber, nor thy lurking in holes,\nthat will hide thee from the eye of the reproacher: nothing can\ndo this but righteousness, goodness, sobriety and faithfulness to\nGod; this will hide thee; these are the garments, which, if they\nbe on thee, will keep thee, that the shame of thy nakedness do\nnot appear (Rev 16:15).\n\nVer. 22. \"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his\nfather, and told his two brethren without.\"\n\nHam was the unsanctified one, the father of the children of the\ncurse of God. He saw the nakedness of his father, and he blazed\nabroad the matter. Hence note, That the wicked and ungodly man,\nis he that doth watch for the infirmities of the godly: as David\nsays, They watched for my halting. Indeed, they know not else how\nto justify their own ungodliness; but this, instead of excusing\nthem of their wickedness, doth but justify the word against them;\nfor by this they prove themselves graceless, and men that watch\nfor iniquity. \"Let them not say in their hears [said David] Ah!\nso would we have it\" (Psa 35:25). Ammon said, \"Aha! against the\nsanctuary when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel\nwhen it was desolate, and against the house of Judah when it went\ninto captivity\" (Eze 25:3). The enmity that is in the hearts of\nungodly men, will not suffer them to do otherwise; when they see\nevil befall the saint, they rejoice and skip for joy (Eze 26:2;\n36:2).\n\n\"He saw the nakedness of his father.\" Hence note, That saints can\nrarely slip, but the eyes of the Canaanites will see them. This\nshould make us walk in the world with jealous eyes, with eyes that\nlook round about, not only to what we are and do, but also, how\nwhat we do is[42] resented in the world (Gen 13:7). Abraham was\ngood at this, and so was Isaac and Jacob (34:30); for they tendered\nmore the honour and glory of God, than they minded their own\nconcerns.\n\n\"He saw the nakedness of his father.\" Who was the nearest and dearest\nrelation he had in the world; yet neither relation nor kin, nor\nall the good that his father had done him, could keep his polluted\nlips from declaring his father's follies, but out they must go;\nthe sin of his own defiled heart must take place of the fifth\ncommandment, and must rather solace itself in rejoicing in his\nfather's iniquity, than in covering his father's nakedness. Wicked\nmen regard not kindred; and no marvel, for they love not godliness.\nHe that loveth not God, loveth not his brother, or father: nay,\nhe \"wrongeth his own soul\" (Pro 8:36).\n\n\"And told his two brethren without.\" He told them, that is, mockingly,\nreflecting not only upon Noah but also upon his brethren; to all\nof whom himself was far inferior, both as to grace and humanity.\n\nVer. 23. \"And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon\nboth their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness\nof their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not\ntheir father's nakedness.\"\n\nShem and Japheth did it: This is recorded for the renown of these,\nas the action of Ham is for his perpetual infamy.\n\nThey \"took a garment, and went backward, and covered their father,\nand saw not his nakedness.\" Love will attempt to do that with\ndifficulty, that it cannot accomplish otherwise. I think it might\nbe from this action, that the wise man gathereth his proverb from.\n\"Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins\" (Pro 10:12).\nIndeed, Ham would fain have made variance between his father and\nhis brethren, by presenting the folly of the one, to the shame and\nprovocation of the other. But Shem, and his brother Japheth, they\ntook the course to prevent it; they covered their father's nakedness.\n\nVer. 24. \"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger\nson had done unto him.\"\n\nBy these words more is implied than expressed; for this awaking of\nNoah, not only informeth us of natural awaking from sleep, but of\nhis spiritual awaking from his sin. He awoke from his wine. As\n\"Ely said to Hannah, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy\nwine from thee\" (1 Sam 1:14). By which words he exhorteth to\nrepentance. It is said of Nabal, That his wine went from him, as\nmany men's sins forsake them, because they are decayed, and want\nstrength and opportunity to perform them. Now this may be done,\nwhere the heart remaineth yet unsanctified: but Noah awoke from\nhis wine, put it away, or, repented him of the evil of his doing.\n\"A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the\nwicked shall fall into mischief\" (Pro 24:16). Wherefore they have\ncause to say to all the Hams in the world, \"Rejoice not against\nme, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise\" (Micah 7:8); but\nyour fall, is a fall into mischief.\n\n\"He knew what his younger son had done unto him.\" Whether this was\nby revelation from heaven, or through the information of Japheth\nand Shem, I determine not; but so it was, that the good man had\nunderstanding thereof: which might be requisite upon a double\naccount; not only that he might now be ashamed thereof; but take\nnotice, that he had caused the enemies of God to reproach; for\nthis sinks deep into a good man's heart, and afflicteth him so\nmuch the more.\n\nVer. 25. \"And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants\nshall he be unto his brethren.\"\n\nBy these words one would think that Canaan, the grand-child of\nNoah, was the first that discovered his nakedness; but of this I\nam uncertain: I rather think that Noah, in a spirit of prophecy,\ndetermined the destruction of Ham's posterity, from the prodigiousness\nof his wicked action, and of his name, which signifieth indignation,\nor heat; for names of old were ofttimes given according to the\nnature and destiny of the persons concerned. \"Is not he rightly\ncalled Jacob?\" (Gen 27:36). And again, \"As his name is, so is he\"\n(1 Sam 25:25). Besides, by this act did Ham declare himself void\nof the grace of God; for he that rejoiceth in iniquity, or that\nmaketh a mock, as being secretly pleased with or at the infirmities\nof the godly, he is declared already, by the Spirit of God, to be\nnothing (1 Cor 13).\n\n\"A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.\" This was\naccomplished when Israel took the land of Canaan, and made the\noffspring of this same Ham, even so many as escaped the edge of\nthe sword, to be captives and bondsmen, and tributers unto them.\n\nHence note, that the censures of good men are dreadful, and not\nlightly to be passed over, whether they prophesy of evil or good;\nbecause they speak in judgment, and according to the tenor of the\nword of God.\n\nVer. 26. \"And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan\nshall be his servant.\"\n\nShem seems by this to be the first in that action of love to his\nfather: and that Japheth did help through his persuasion; for Shem\nis blessed in a special manner, and Canaan is made his servant.\n\nHence note, That forwardness in things that are good, is a blessed\nsign that the Lord is our God: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. It\nis said of Hananiah, That \"he was a faithful man, and feared God\nabove many\" (Neh 7:2). Now such men are provocations to good, as\nI doubt not but Shem's was to Japheth: As Paul saith of some, \"Your\nzeal hath provoked very many\" (2 Cor 9:2).\n\nVer. 27. \"God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the\ntents of Shem.\"\n\nIn the margin, it is \"God shall persuade\": And it looks like\na confirmation of what I said before, and is a prophecy of that\nrequital of love that God should one day give his posterity, for his\nkindness to Noah his father. As if Noah had said, \"Well, Japheth,\nthou wast soon persuaded by Shem to shew kindness to me thy father,\nand the Lord shall hereafter persuade thy posterity to trust in\nthe God of Shem.\"\n\n\"God shall enlarge.\" This may respect liberty of soul, or how great\nthe church of the Gentiles should be; for Japheth was the father\nof the Gentiles (Gen 10:5).\n\nIf it respect the fist, then it shows that sin is as fetters and\nchains that holds souls in captivity and thraldom. And hence, when\nChrist doth come in the gospel, it is \"to preach deliverance to\nthe captives,--and to set at liberty them that are bruised\" (Luke\n4:18).\n\n\"God shall persuade.\" That is, God shall enlarge him by persuasion;\nfor the gospel knows no other compulsion, but to force by\nargumentation. Them therefore that God brings into the tents,\nor churches of Christ, they by the gospel are enlarged form the\nbondage and thraldom of the devil, and persuaded also to embrace\nhis grace to salvation.\n\nVer. 28. \"And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty\nyears.\"\n\nHe lived therefore to see Abraham fifty and eight years old: He\nlived also to see the foundation of Babel laid; nay, the top stone\nthereof: and also the confusion of tongues. He lived to see of the\nfruit of his loins, mighty kings and princes. But in all this time\nhe lived not to do one work that the Holy Ghost thought worthy to\nrecord for the savour of his name, or the edification and benefit\nof his church, save only, That he died at nine hundred and fifty\nyears; so great a breach did this drunkenness make upon his spirit.\n\nVer. 29. \"So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty\nyears: and he died.\"\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nVer. 1. \"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem,\nHam, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.\"\n\nHaving thus passed over the flood, with what Noah and his sons\ndid after; we now come to the second plantation of the world, to\nwit, by the three sons of Noah; for by these three was the world\nreplenished after the flood. Shem was the father of the Jews;\nHam the father of the Canaanites; and Japheth, the father of the\nGentiles. So then, of Shem came the then present visible church;\nof Ham the opposers and enemies of it; but of Japheth came those\nthat should be received into the church afterwards; as also\nabundance of the haters of the Lord.\n\nVer. 2. \"The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and\nJavan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.\"\n\nGomer, a consumer; Magog, covering, or melting; Madai, measuring,\nor judging; Javan, making sad; Tubal, born, brought, or worldly;\nMeshech, prolonging; Tiras, a destroyer; these are the English of\ntheir names.\n\nGomer, and Magog, and Meshech, and Tubal, are the great persecutors of\nthe church in the latter days (Eze 38:2). They shall be persecuted\nthen by consumers, melters, and men of this world (Rev 20:8).\nMadai, and Javan, (as some say,) were the fathers of the Medes and\nGreeks. These therefore did sometimes help, and not always hinder\nthe church.\n\nVer. 3, 4. \"And the sons of Gomer; Askenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.\nAnd the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.\"\n\nRiphath, medicine, or release; Elishah, the Lamb of God; Dodanim,\nbeloved. Either these names were given them by way of prophecy;\nimplying, that of their seed should arise many Gentile churches;\nor to show us, that when men, as their fathers, have left or lost\nthe power of godliness, yet something of the notion they may yet\nretain (Isa 60:9).\n\nVer. 5. \"By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their\nlands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their\nnations.\"\n\nBut this must be understood to be after the building of, and\nconfusion at Babel; for before they had all but one tongue; and\nbesides, they kept all together (11:1,2).\n\nVer. 6. \"And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and\nCanaan.\"\n\nCush, black. Of Ham and Mizraim came the Ethiopians, or blackamoor\n(Psa 105:23): The land of Ham was the country about Egypt; wherefore\nIsrael was first afflicted by them.\n\nVer. 7. \"And the sons of Cush; Seba and Havilah, and Sabtah, and\nRaamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and Dedan.\"\n\nSeba and Sheba, sometimes look well upon the church; but when they\ndid not, God gave them for her ransom (Psa 72:10; Isa 43:3).\n\nVer. 8. \"And Cush begat Nimrod: [or the rebellious one;] he began\nto be a mighty one in the earth.\"\n\nThe begetting of Nimrod, is accounted a thing that is over and\nabove, and is laid by the Holy Ghost as a blot upon Cush for ever;\nfor when men would vilify, they used to say, Thou art the son of\nthe rebellious, the son of a murderer. So again, He that begetteth\nSolomon's fool, (or, wicked one) he begetteth him to his own shame\n(Prov 17:21).\n\n\"Cush begat Nimrod.\" So then, the curse came betimes upon the sons\nof Ham; for he was the father of Cush. For the curse, as it were,\nbegins in rebellion, and a rebellious one was Nimrod, both by name\nand nature.\n\n\"He began to be a mighty one in the earth.\" I am apt to think he\nwas the first that in this new world sought after absolute monarchy.\n\n\"He began to be a mighty one in the earth,\" (or, among the children\nof men). I suppose him to be a giant; not only in person, but\nin disposition; and so, through the pride of his countenance, did\nscorn that others, or any, should be his equal; nay, could not be\ncontent, till all made obeisance to him. He therefore would needs\nbe the author and master of what religion he pleased; and would\nalso subject the rest of his brethren thereto, by what ways his\nlusts thought best. Wherefore here began a fresh persecution.\nTHAT sin therefore which the other world was drowned for was again\nrevived by this cursed man, even to lord it over the sons of God,\nand to enforce idolatry and superstition upon them; and hence he\nis called \"the mighty hunter.\"\n\nVer. 9. \"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is\nsaid, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.\"\n\nHe was a mighty hunter. That is, a persecutor: Wherefore Saul's\npersecuting of David is compared to hunting (1 Sam 26:20): and so\nis the persecution of others (Lam 4:18). They hunt every man his\nbrother with a net (Micah 7:2): and it may well be compared thereto;\nof the dog or lion that hunteth, is void of bowels and pity; and\nif they can but satisfy their doggish and lionish nature, they care\nneither for innocence, nor goodness, nor life of that they pursue\n(1 Sam 24:11). The life, the blood, the extirpation of the contrary\nparty, is the end of their course of hunting (Eze 13:18,22).[43]\n\n\"He was a mighty hunter.\" As it is said of Jabin, \"He mightily\noppressed Israel twenty years\"; that is, he did it exceedingly;\nhe went beyond others; he was more cruel and barbarous; he was\na mighty hunter. Wherefore the children of blessed Shem, by this\nmonster, had sore affliction (Judg 4:2,3). Noah therefore lived\nto see Nimrod, the mighty one, make havock of the children of his\nbowels, to his no little grief and compunction of spirit.\n\n\"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD\"; or, in the presence of\nthe Lord; or, in defiance to him. This shows, That the hand of\nGod was stretched forth against his work; as also it was against\nJeroboam's, by that man of God that from Judah went down to prophesy\nagainst him; but he abode obdurate and hard; he regarded not the\nLord, nor the operation of his hands (1 Kings 13:1-3). As he also\nsaith in another place of the cursed brood of Antichrist, \"When\nthey fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded\" (Joel 2:8).\nLet them do things never so much against the plain text, they feel\nnot the wounds of conscience; but this is a sore judgment, and that\nunder which this hunter was; and therefore the presence and hand\nof God would not break him off, nor hinder his hunting of souls.\nBut even before the face of the keeper of the godly, would Nimrod,\nthe rebel, hunt for their precious life to destroy it.\n\nWherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter, before\nthe Lord. These words, as it seems, was the proverb that went of\nhim among the godly in after generations; for he had so left his\nmarks in the sides of the church, that she could not quickly forget\nhim. Wherefore, when at any time there arose another that showed\ncruelty to the ways of God, he was presently compared to Nimrod,\nthat \"hunted before the Lord.\" Nimrod therefore was rebellious\nto a proverb: And as it is said of Ahab, so might it be said\nof him, \"There was none like\" Nimrod, \"which did sell himself to\nwork wickedness in the sight of, [or, before] the LORD\" (1 Kings\n21:25).[44]\n\nVer. 10. \"And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech,\nand Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.\"\n\nBy these words, as I suppose, are those in the chapter that followeth\nexpounded: Where it says, \"Let us build us a city, and a tower\";\nfor this work was chiefly the invention of Nimrod, who, with his\nwicked council, contrived this work; and as one that had made\nhimself head of the people, he enjoined them to set to the work.\n\n\"And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.\" Babel therefore was\nthe first great seat of oppressors after the flood; whose situation\nwas in the land of Shinar, in that land which is now called Babylon.\nBy this we may also gather, by whom our mystical Babel was builded;\nto wit, by those that rebelled (as Nimrod) from the simplicity\nof the gospel of Christ; for the builders, especially the chief,\nhave a semblance one of another. It was even such as came of the\nseed of the godly, as these did of blessed Noah; who, in time,\napostatizing from the word, and desiring mastership over their\nbrethren; they, as lords, fomented their own conceptions, and then\nenjoined the people to build. As Rehoboam forsook the counsel\nof the ancients, that stood before his father Solomon; so these\nhave forsaken the counsel of the old men, the apostles that stood\nbefore Jesus Christ; and hearkening to the counsel of a younger\nsort of wanters of their grace and wisdom, they imagine and build\na Babel.[45]\n\nVer. 11, 12. \"Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh,\nand the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineveh, and\nCalah: The same is a great city.\"\n\nNimrod having began to exalt himself; others, that were big\nwith desires of ostentation, did soon follow his example, making\nthemselves captains and heads of the people, and built them strong\nholds for the supportation of their glory. But they did it, as I\nsaid, by Nimrod's example; wherefore it is said they went \"out of\nthat land.\" Just thus it was at the beginning of mystical Babel:\nFirst the tyranny began at Babel itself, where the usurper was\nseen to sit in his glory, before whose face the world did tremble.\nNow other inferior persons, inferior, I say, in power, but not\nin pride, having desire to be lords, as Nimrod himself, they will\nalso go build them cities; by which means Nimrod's invention could\nnot be kept at Rome, but hath spread itself in many and mighty\nkingdoms.[46]\n\n\"Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh,\" &c.\nAsshur seems to be the second son of Shem (v 22). A fit resemblance\nof those persons that have come from mystical Babel, to build\ntheir Ninevehs, and Rehoboths, and Calnehs, in all lands. Still\nthey have pretended religion. That they had their orders from the\napostolical see. That they were the true sons of Shem, or disciples\nof Christ. But the seeing Christian should remember, that some of\nthe children of Shem were in Babel with rebellious Nimrod. That\ninstead of learning humility of their father, through the pride\nand rebellion of their own vain-glorious fancies, they learned\nwickedness and rebellion of cursed and prodigious Nimrod.\n\nHence note, that what cities, that is, churches soever have been\nbuilded by persons that have come from Romish Babel, those builders\nand cities are to be suspected for such as had their founder and\nfoundation from Babel itself. Wherefore let Israel say, \"Asshur\nshall not save us\" (Hosea 14:3), for he shall not save himself\n(Num 24:24); but as the star of Jacob ariseth, he shall fade and\nperish for ever. So perish all the builders and building that hath\nhad its pattern from mystical Babel, unless a miracle of grace\nprevents.\n\nIt was Asshur that carried away the ten tribes (Ezra 4:2); it is\nAsshur that joineth with the enemies of the church (Psa 83:8); it\nis Asshur that with others upholds the great mart of the nations\n(Eze 27:23). Wherefore Asshur and all his company, must at last\ngo down into their pit (Eze 32:22).\n\nSo then, let Augustine the monk, come from Rome into England,\nand let him build his Nineveh here; let others go also into other\ncountries, and build their Resens and Calahs there; these are all\nbut brats of Babel, and their end shall be, That they perish for\never. John saw it, and the cities, that is, the churches of the\nnations, or the national churches, fell; and great Babylon, their\ninventor and founder, \"came into remembrance before God, to give\nunto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath\" (Rev\n16:19).\n\nVer. 13, 14. \"And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim,\nand Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim, [out of whom came\nPhilistim,] and Caphtorim.\"\n\nLudim, as I suppose, may be the same with Lubim that came up with\nthe Egyptians and Ethiopians against Israel (2 Chron 12:3; 16:8),\nof whose cruelty Nahum complains; where he saith, They also helped\nNineveh against the children of God (3:9). The rest of them were\nof the same disposition, especially the Philistine that came of\nCasluhim; for they, both in Saul and David's days, were implacable\nagainst the church and people of God; they were a giantish people,\nand trusted in their strength, and seldom overcome but when Israel\nwent against them in the name of the Lord their God.\n\nVer. 15-18. \"And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth, and\nthe Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite,\nand the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite,\nand the Hamathite: And afterward were the families of the Canaanites\nspread abroad.\"\n\nThese are the children of Canaan, the son of Ham, the accursed\nof the Lord. These did chiefly possess the land of Canaan before\nIsrael went out of Egypt: they were a mighty giantish people, yet\nIsrael must fight with them, notwithstanding they were, in comparison\nto these, but as the grasshopper.\n\nVer. 19. \"And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as\nthou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and\nGomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.\"\n\nThey bordered therefore upon the Philistines on the one side (Gen\n26:15,18,19); for Gerar and Gaza belonged to them, and they touched\nupon Sodom and Gomorrah, &c. on the other (Judg 16:1,21). They\nwere placed therefore, by the judgment of God, between these two\nwicked and sinful people, that they might, as a punishment for\ntheir former sins, be infected with the sight and infection of\ntheir ungodly and monstrous abominations. They that \"turn aside\nunto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the\nworkers of iniquity\" (Psa 125:5).\n\nVer. 20. \"These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after\ntheir tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.\"\n\nHam had a mighty offspring; but the judgment of God was, That they\nshould be wicked men, idolaters, persecutors, sinners with a high\nhand; such as God was resolved to number to the sword, both in\nthis world, and that to come; I mean, for the generality of them.\n\nVer. 21. \"Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber,\nthe brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.\"\n\nThe manner of style which the Holy Ghost here useth in his preamble\nto the genealogy of Shem, is worthy to be taken notice of; as that\nhe is called, \"the father of all the children of Eber,\" and \"the\nbrother of Japheth.\"\n\nBy his being called, \"the father of all the children of Eber,\" we\nmay suppose, that from Eber to Abraham, (by whom the reckoning of\nthe genealogy was cut off from Eber, and entailed to the name of\nAbraham,) all the children of Eber were, as it were, the disciples\nof Shem, for he lived awhile after Abraham. His doctrine therefore\nthey might profess, though possibly with some mixture of those\ninventions that came in among men afterwards; which I think were\nat the greatest about Abraham's time. Besides, he shews by this,\nthat the other children of Shem, as Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram,\nwith Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash, went away with Nimrod, and the rest\nof that company, into idolatry, tyranny and other profaneness; so\nthat only the line from Shem to Eber, and from thence to Abraham,\n&c. were the visible church in those days.\n\n\"The brother of Japheth.\" So he was of Ham, but because Ham was\ncut off for his wickedness to his father, therefore both Shem and\nJapheth did hold him in abomination, and would not own that relation\nthat before was between them, especially in things pertaining to\nthe kingdom of God, and of Christ: Wherefore the Holy Ghost also,\nin reckoning up the kindred of Shem, excludeth Ham the younger\nbrother, and stops after he had mentioned Japheth: \"The brother\nof Japheth the elder.\"\n\n\"Unto him were children born,\" unto Shem also. Unto him were\nchildren born: The Holy Ghost doth secretly here, as he did before\nin the generation of Seth, insinuate a wonder. For considering the\ngodliness of Shem, and the ungodliness of Ham, and the multitude\nof his tyrannical brood, it is a wonder that there should such a\nthing as the offspring of Shem be found upon the face of the earth.\nFor I am apt to think that Shem, with his posterity, did testify\nagainst the actions of Nimrod; as also against the children of\nHam, in their wickedness and rebellion against the way of God; as\nmay be hinted after. Wherefore he, with his seed, were in jeopardy,\namong that tumultuous generation. Yet God preserved him and his\nseed upon the face of the earth. For let the number and wickedness\nof men be never so great in the world, there must be also a church,\nby whose actions the ways of the wicked must be condemned.\n\nVer. 22. \"The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad,\nand Lud, and Aram.\"\n\nThese children were born unto Shem: The book of Chronicles mentions\nfour more, as Uz, and Hul, and Gether, Meshech, or Mash; but these\nwere the natural sons of Aram, Shem being only their father's\nfather.\n\nElam and Asshur, as also Lud and Aram, notwithstanding they were\nthe sons of Shem, struck off, as I think, with Nimrod, and left\ntheir father, for the glory of Babel; yea, they had a province\nthere in the days of Daniel (8:2). Wherefore great judgments are\nthreatened against Elam; as, That Elam shall drink the cup of God's\nfury: That their bow shall be broken: That God would bring upon\nhim the four winds (Jer 49:36). And, That there should be no nation\nwhither the captives of Elam should not come: Yet God would save\nthem in the latter days (v 39).\n\nAs for Lud although through the wickedness of his heart he forsook\nhis father Shem, and so the true religion; yet a promise is made\nof his conversion, when God calls home the children of Japheth,\nand persuadeth them to dwell in the tents of Shem. \"I will set\na sign among them [saith God,] and I will send those that escape\nof them, unto the nations to Tarshish, Pul and Lud,--to Tubal and\nJavan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame\" (Isa\n66:19). Yea, thus it shall be, although they were once the soldiers\nof the adversaries of the church, and bare the shield and helmet\nagainst her (Eze 27:10). Of Asshur I have spoken before. Aram became\nalso an heathen, and dwelt among the mountains of the east: Out\nof him came Balaam the soothsayer that Balak sent for, to curse\nthe children of Israel (Num 23:7).\n\nIn Arphaxad, though he was not the eldest, remained the line that\nwent from Abraham to David; and from him to Jesus Christ (Luke\n3:36).\n\nVer. 23. \"And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and\nMash.\"\n\nUz went also off from Shem, but yet good men came from his loins;\nfor Job himself was of that land (Job 1:1). Yet the wrath of God\nwas threatened to go forth against them, because they had a hand\nin the persecution of the children of Israel, &c. (Jer 25:20; Lam\n4:21).\n\nVer. 24, 25. \"And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber. And\nunto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in\nhis days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.\"\n\nThis Eber was a very godly man, the next after Shem that vigorously\nstood up to maintain religion. Two things are entailed upon him to\nhis everlasting honour: First, The children of God, even Abraham\nhimself, was not ashamed to own himself one of this man's disciples,\nor followers; and hence he is called Abraham the Hebrew, or Ebrew\n(Gen 14:13). Joseph also will have it go there: I was stolen (said\nhe) out of the land of the Hebrews (Gen 40:15). Nay, the Lord God\nhimself, to show how he honoured this man's faith and life, doth\nstyle himself the God of his fathers, to wit, the God of the\nHebrews, the Lord God of the Hebrews (Exo 3:18; 7:16; 9:1,13).\nSecondly, This was the man that kept that language with which Adam\nwas created, and that in which God spake to the fathers of old,\nfrom being corrupted and confounded by the confusion of Babel;\nand therefore it is for ever called his, the Hebrew tongue (John\n5:2; 19:13,20), the tongue in which Christ spake from heaven to\nand by Saul (Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14). This man therefore, was\na stiff opposer of Nimrod; neither had he a hand in the building\nof Babel; for all that had, had their language confounded by that\nstrange judgment of God.\n\n\"And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,\n[or Division,] for in his days was the earth divided; and his\nbrother's name was Joktan.\" This division, in mine opinion, was\nnot only that division that was made by the confusion of tongues,\nbut a division also that was made among men by the blessed doctrine\nof God, which most eminently rested in the bosom of Shem and\nEber, neither of which had their hands in the monstrous work.[47]\nWherefore, as Eber by abstaining kept entire the holy language; so\nShem, to shew that he was clear from this sin also, is by the Holy\nGhost called, \"The father of all the children of Eber.\" Implying,\nthat Eber and Shem did mightily labour to preserve a seed from\nthe tyranny and pollution of Nimrod and Babel; and by that means\nmade a division in the earth; unto whom because the rebels would\nnot adhere, therefore did God the Lord smite them with confusion\nof tongues, and scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.\n\nVer. 26. \"And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth,\nand Jerah.\"\n\nHere again he hath left the holy line, which is from Eber to\nAbraham, and makes a stop upon Joktan's genealogy, and so comes\ndown to the building of Babel.\n\nVer. 27-30. \"These therefore begat Joktan\": He also begat \"Hadoram,\nand Uzal, and Diklah, and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba; and Ophir,\nand Havilah, and Johab: All these were the sons of Joktan.--And\ntheir dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goes, unto Sephar a mount\nof the east.\"\n\nVer. 31. \"These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after\ntheir tongues, in their lands, after their nations.\"\n\nMoses, as I said, by this relation, respecteth, and handleth chiefly\nthose, or them persons, who were at first the planters of the world\nafter the flood; leaving the church, or a relation of that, and\nits seed, to be discoursed after the building of Babel, unto the\ntenth verse of the next chapter. Hence methinks one might gather,\nthat these above mentioned, whose genealogies are handled at\nlarge, as the families of Japheth, of Ham, and Joktan are, were\nboth, in their persons and offsprings engaged (some few only\nexcepted, who might adhere to Noah, Shem, and Eber) in that foul\nwork, the building of Babel. Now that which inclineth me thus to\nthink, it is because immediately after their thus being reckoned\nby Moses, even before he taketh up the genealogy of Shem, he\nbringeth in the building thereof; the which he not only mentioneth,\nbut also enlargeth upon; yea, and also telleth of the cause of\nthe stopping of that work, before he returneth to the church, and\nthe line that went from Shem to Abraham.\n\nVer. 32. \"These are the families of the sons of Noah after their\ngenerations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided\nin the earth after the flood.\"\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nVer. 1. \"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one\nspeech.\"\n\nMoses having thus briefly passed through the genealogies of\nJapheth, Ham, and Joktan; in the next place he cometh to shew us\ntheir works which they had by this time engaged to do; and that\nwas, to build a Babel, whose tower might reach to heaven. Now,\nin order to this their work, or rather to his relation thereof,\nhe maketh a short fore-speech, which consisteth of two branches.\nThe first is, That now they had all one language or lip.[48] The\nother was, That they yet had kept themselves together, either\nresting or walking, as an army compact. An excellent resemblance\nof the state of the church, before she imagined to build her\na Babel. For till then, however one might outstrip another in\nknowledge and love; yet so far as they obtained, their language\nor lip was but one. Having but one heart, and one soul, they with\none mouth did glorify God, even the Father.\n\n\"And the whole earth was of one language.\" By these words therefore,\nwe may conceive the reason why so great a judgment as that great\nwickedness, Babel, should be contrived, and endeavoured to be\naccomplished. The multitude was one. Not but that it is a blessed\nthing for the church to be one: as Christ saith, \"My beloved is\nbut one\" (John 17:11). But here was an oneness, not only in the\nchurch, but in her mixing with the world. The whole earth, among\nwhich, as I suppose, is included Noah, Shem, and others; who\nbeing overtopt by Nimrod, the mighty hunter, might company with\nhim until he began to build Babel. Therefore it is said in the\nnext verse, that they companied together from the east, to the\nland of Shinar.\n\nHence note, That the first and primitive churches were safe and\nsecure, so long as they kept entire by themselves; but when once\nthey admitted of a mixture, great Babel, as a judgment of God, was\nadmitted to come into their mind.\n\nVer. 2. \"And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that\nthey found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.\"\n\nBy these words, we gather, that the first rest of Noah, and so\nthe inhabiting of his posterity, was still eastward from Babylon,\ntowards the sun rising.\n\nBut to gospelise: They journeyed from the east: and so consequently\nthey turned their backs upon the rising of the sun. So did also\nthe primitive church, in the day when she began to decline from\nher first and purest state. Indeed, so long as she kept close to\nthe doctrine and discipline of the gospel, according to the word\nand commandment of the Lord Jesus, then she kept her face still\ntowards the sun rising: According to the type in Ezekiel, who saith\nof the second and mystical temple, Her fore front, or face, did\nstand towards the east (47:1). Also he saith, when he saw the glory\nof God, how it came unto this temple, it came from the way of the\neast (43:2). Their journeying therefore from the east, was, their\nturning their backs upon the sun. And to us, in gospel times, it\nholdeth forth such a mystery as this: That their journey was thus\nrecorded, to show they were now apostatized; for assuredly they\nhad turned their back upon the glorious Sun of Righteousness, as\nupon that which shineth in the firmament of heaven.\n\n\"They found a plain in the land of Shinar.\" Shinar is the land of\nBabylon (Dan 1:2; Zech 5:11), as those scriptures in the margin\ndeclare.\n\n\"They found a plain.\" Or, place of fatness and plenty, as usually\nthe plains are; and are, upon that account, great content to our\nflesh: This made Lot separate from Abraham, and choose to dwell with\nthe sinners of Sodom; why, the country was a plain, and therefore\nfat and plentiful, even like the garden of the Lord, and the land\nof Egypt. Here therefore they made a stop; here they dwelt and\ncontinued together. A right resemblance of the degenerators'\ncourse in the days of general apostacy from the true apostolical\ndoctrine, to the church of our Romish Babel. So long as the church\nendured hardship, and affliction, she was greatly preserved from\nrevolts and backslidings; but after she had turned her face from\nthe sun, and had found the plain of Shinar; that is, the fleshly\ncontents that the pleasures, and profits, and honours of this world\nafford; she forgetting the word and order of God, was content,\nwith Lot, to pitch towards Sodom; or, with the travellers in the\ntext, to dwell in the land of Babel.\n\nVer. 3. \"And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick,\nand burn them thoroughly [and burn them to a burning]. And they\nhad brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.\"\n\nNow they being filled with ease and plenty, they begin to lift\nup the horn, and to consult one with another what they were best\nto do: Whereupon, after some time of debate, they came to this\nconclusion, That they would go build a Babel.\n\n\"And they said one to another, Go to.\" This manner of phrase is\noften used in scripture; and is some times, as also here, used to\nshow, That the thing intended, must come to pass, what opinion or\ncontradiction to the contrary soever there be. It argueth that a\njudgment is made in the case, and proceedings shall be accordingly.\nThus it is also to be taken in Judges 7:3; Ecclesiastes 2:1; Isaiah\n5:5; James 5:1, &c. Wherefore it shows, that these men had cast\noff the fear of God, and, like Israel in the days of the prophet\nJeremiah, they resolved to follow their own imagination, let God\nor his judgments speak never so loud to the contrary. And so indeed\nhe says of them at verse the sixth: \"And this they begin to do:\n[saith God] and now nothing will be restrained from them.\"\n\nThis is all Mr. Bunyan hath writ of this EXPOSITION, as we perceive\nby the blank paper following the manuscript.[49]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1]Although no mortal mind can by searching find out the Almighty to\nperfection, yet Bunyan's views of the Divine Being is an approach\nto perfection. It is worthy the pen of the most profound Christian\nphilosopher.--Ed.\n\n[2]The more extensive our inquiries are into the wonders of\ncreation, the more deeply will our souls be humbled. The answer to\nthe inquiry, \"What is man?\" can then, and only then, be made in\nthe language of Isaiah, \"Nothing--vanity--a drop of a bucket--the\nsmall dust of the balance,\" 40:15.--Ed.\n\n[3]How sad, but true, is this type of many governments, especially\nof the olden times; the strong devour the weak--strong in person or\nby subtilty, or by combination. Should this earth ever be blessed\nwith a Christian government, the governors will exclusively seek\nthe welfare and happiness of the governed.--Ed.\n\n[4]This is one of those beautiful discoveries which modern geology\nfully confirms. The earth is created, matured, prepared and fitted\nfor him, before man is created. That modern popular work, \"The\nVestiges of Creation,\" elucidates the same fact from the phenomena\nof nature: but the philosopher who wrote that curious book little\nthought that these sublime truths were published more than a century\nand a half ago, by an unlettered mechanic, whose sole source of\nknowledge was his being deeply learned in the holy oracles. They\ndiscover in a few words that which defies centuries of philosophic\nresearches of the most learned men. A wondrous book is God's\nBook!--Ed.\n\n[5]In what pointed language are these solemn warnings put. Reader,\nin the sight of god, let the heart-searching inquiry of the\napostle's be yours; Lord, is it I?\n\n[6]Bunyan beautifully illustrates this view of divine truth\nin his controversy with Edward Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester. See\n\"The Defence of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in Jesus\nChrist.\"--Ed.\n\n[7]Christian, you are specially cautioned to \"beware of the\nflatterer.\" The Pilgrim's Christian and Hopeful forgot the caution,\nand \"a man black of flesh but covered with a very light robe,\ncaught them in his net, and they were chastised sore.\"--Ed.\n\n[8]Much allowance must be made for the state of female education in\nBunyan's days. Every effort was made to keep women in subordination--a\nmere drudging, stocking mending help meet for man. Now we feel\nthat the more highly she is cultivated, the more valuable help she\nbecomes, and that in intellect she is on a perfect equality with\nman.--Ed.\n\n[9] \"And sensed.\" Not now used as a verb. The meaning is, that Eve,\ninstead of instantly rejecting the temptation, because contrary\nto God's command, she reasoned upon it, and sought counsel of her\ncarnal senses.--Ed.\n\n[10]This passage would have done honour to Bishop Taylor, or any\none of our best English writers. How blessed are we, if our eyes\nhave been thus painfully opened to see and feel the awful state\ninto which sin plunges us.--Ed.\n\n[11]How solemn are these awful facts, and how impressively does\nBunyan fix them on our hears. As Adam and Eve attempted to hide\ntheir guilt and themselves by fig-leaves and bushes, so does man\nnow endeavour to screen his guilt from the omniscient eye of God\nby refuges of lies, which, like the miserable fig-leaf apron, will\nbe burnt up by the presence of God. Oh, sinner! seek shelter in\nthe robe of the Redeemer's righteousness; the presence of your God\nwill add to its lustre, and make it shine brighter and brighter.--Ed.\n\n[12]The remaining words of this alarming verse are very striking,\n\"Though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence\nwill I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.\" Oh, sinner!\nwhither can you flee from the punishment of sin, but to the Saviour's\nbosom? Leave your sins and fly to him; that almighty eternal refuge\nis open night and day.--Ed.\n\n[13]How art thou fallen, oh Adam! thus to lay the blame of thy\nsin upon God,--\"the woman whom thou gavest me,\" she tempted me.\nWell does Bunyan term these defences--pitiful fumbling speeches,\nfaulteringly made. How would the glorified spirits of Adam and Aaron\nembrace him, when he entered heaven, for such honest dealing.--Ed.\n\n[14]A decided Christian cannot obey human laws affecting divine\nworship. All such are of Antichrist; \"Ye cannot obey God and\nmammon.\" God requires an undivided allegiance.--Ed.\n\n[15]Genevan or Puritan version.\n\n[16]Many are the anxieties, sorrows, and pains, that females undergo,\nfrom which man is comparatively exempt. How tenderly then ought\nthey to be cherished.--Ed.\n\n[17]Most married men find this to be an exceedingly difficult\nduty. There are few Eves but whose dominant passion is to rule a\nhusband. Perhaps the only way to govern a wife is to lead her to\nthink that she rules, while in fact she is ruled. One of the late\nAbraham Booth's maxims to young ministers, was, If you would rule\nin your church, so act as to allow them to think that they rule\nyou.--Ed.\n\n[18] \"By themselves.\" This does not mean without human company, but\n\"without divine aid,\" without the sanction and presence of God.--Ed.\n\n[19]There is no error more universal, nor more fatal, than that which\nBunyan here, as well as in other of his treatises, so admirably\nelucidates and explodes. No sooner does a poor sinner feel the\nnecessity of flying from the wrath to come, than Satan suggests\nthat some good works must be pleaded, instead of casting the soul,\nburthened with sin, upon the compassion of the Lord, and pleading\nfor unconditional mercy. Good works must flow from, but cannot be\nany cause of grace.--Ed.\n\n[20]Adversaries to Christ and his church, although professing to\nbe Christians; worshipping according to \"the traditions of men,\"\nand putting the saints into wretched prisons, and to a frightful\ndeath. An awful state of self-delusion; how Cain-like!--Ed.\n\n[21]If it be asked, Why take your unregenerate children, and invite\nthe ungodly, to the place of worship? Our answer is, THERE the Lord\nis pleased to meet with sinners--convince, convert, and purify\nthem--giving them a good hope that their persons and services are\naccepted.--Ed.\n\n[22]How awfully is this illustrated by acts of uniformity. If it\nbe lawful to pass such acts, it must be requisite and a duty to\nenforce them. It was this that filled Europe with tears, and the\nsaints with anguish, especially in Piedmont, France, and England.\nMercifully, the tyrant Antichrist's power is curtailed.--Ed.\n\n[23]How solemn are these injunctions, and how opposed to the violent\nconduct of mankind. A most appalling murder has been committed;--a\nvirtuous and pious young man is brutally murdered by his\nonly brother:--what is the divine judgment? If any man kill him,\nvengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold: set a mark upon\nhim--drive him from the abodes of man--shut him up in a cage like\na wild beast--but shed not his blood.--Ed.\n\n[24]When Bunyan was in prison, under sentence to be hung, all his\nthoughts were, not how to escape, but, how so to suffer as to\nglorify God; \"I thought with myself if I should make a scrabbling\nshift to clamber up the ladder, yet I should either with quaking\nor other symptoms of faintings, give occasion to the enemy to\nreproach the way of God and his people for their timorousness.\nThis, therefore, lay with great trouble upon me, for, methought, I\nwas ashamed to die with a pale face and tottering knees for such\na cause as this.\"--Grace Abounding, No. 334.--Ed.\n\n[25]Bunyan has taken the meaning of all these Scripture names from\nthe first table to the Genevan or Puritan version, vulgarly called\n\"The Breeches Bible,\" as invaluable translation.--Ed.\n\n[26]Bunyan, after suffering much, and witnessing the cruel havoc\nmade with the church of God in his time, fell asleep in peace on the\neve of the glorious revolution;--while many of his cotemporaries\ndid, he did not \"live to see it.\" He died August 31, 1688--as\nJames the Second fled and lost his crown on the 11th of December\nfollowing.--Ed.\n\n[27] \"And yet there is room.\" As in Christ, the ark of his church,\nso it was in Noah's ark. The best calculations, allowing eighteen\ninches to a cubit, show that the ark was capable of receiving many\nmore than this selection from all the animals now known, together\nwith their requisite provender. Dr. Hunter estimated the tonnage\nat 42,413 tons measurement.--Ed.\n\n[28]How astonishing is the fact, that man dares to introduce\nhis miserable inventions to deform the scriptural simplicity\nof divine worship; as if HE who make all things perfect, had,\nin this important institution, forgotten to direct the use of\nliturgies--organs--vestments--pomps and ceremonies. When will man,\nwith child-like simplicity, follow gospel rules?--Ed.\n\n[29]How mysterious are God's ways: some animals of every kind are\nsaved, and all the rest destroyed. So throughout every age some\nanimals have been treated with kindness, and others of the same\nspecies cruelly maltreated. Can those who stumble at the doctrine\nof election, account for this difference. Reason must submit with\nreverence to the voice of Christ; \"What I do, thou knowest not\nNOW; but thou shalt know hereafter.\"--Ed.\n\n[30] \"Item,\" a new article added; a caution or warning.--Ed.\n\n[31]Every edition, but the first, has left out Noah's sons!! from\nthe ark, while they all put in his sons' wives.--Ed.\n\n[32]They perish in sight of a place of security which they cannot\nreach; they perish with the bitter remorse of having despised and\nrejected the means of escape, like the rich man in hell, whose\ntorment was grievously augmented by the sight of Lazarus, afar\noff, in the bosom of Abraham.--Ed.\n\n[33]Calmet says, \"Apres que l'Arche eut fait le tour du monde\npendant l'espace de six mois.\"--Supplement to Dictionary. He gives\nno authority for this improbable notion.--Ed.\n\n[34] \"A graceless clergy\"!! So numerous as to cover the ground of\nour land!! How awful a fact--taking the name of God on polluted\nlips, and professing to teach what they do not comprehend. Men in\na state of rebellion against heaven, calling upon others to submit\nto God's gospel. Solemn hypocrites, fearful will be your end.--Ed.\n\n[35]This should prompt every professing Christian to self-examination--Am\nI of the raven class, or that of the dove? May my heart, while\ntrembling at the thought that there are ravens in the church,\nappeal to the heart-searching God, \"Lord, is it I?\"--Ed.\n\n[36]This may have suggested an idea to Bunyan in writing the second\npart of his Pilgrim. In the battle between Great Heart and Giant\nMaul the sophist, after an hour's hard fighting, \"they sat down\nto rest them, but Mr. Great Heart betook him to prayer. When they\nhad rested them, and taken breath, they both fell to it again.\"--Ed.\n\n[37]Instead of progressing to the meridian sunshine of Christianity,\nthey have retrograded to a darker gloom than the twilight of Judaism.\nStill, some vestiges of knowledge remain--some idea of a future\nstate, and of sacrifice for sin. Christian, how blessed art thou!\nHow ought your light to shine among men, to the glory of your\nheavenly Father!--Ed.\n\n[38] \"The beginning,\" the foundation; that which is essential to the\nexistence, as, \"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.\"\nTake away the fear of the Lord, and this heavenly wisdom ceaseth\nto exist.--Ed.\n\n[39]That absurd jumble, called \"The Koran,\" mentions a fourth son\nof Noah, named Kinan, who refused to enter the ark with his family,\npreferring to trust them on the top of a mountain, where they all\nperished. See the chapter entitled \"Hod.\"--Ed.\n\n[40]Faithful is the record of Holy Writ. No excuse is offered for\nthe sin of this great patriarch. Grapes eaten from the vine, or\nafter having been dried, are nutritious, like grain from the ear\nof corn; pressed out and fermented, they lose that nutriment--acquire a\nfiery force--mount to the brain--lead reason captive--and triumphs\nover decency: the most enlightened man becomes the savage.--Ed.\n\n[41]To prick--to incite--to spur--to dress oneself for show; thus it\nwas commonly used in Bunyan's time, but in this sense has become\nobsolete.--Ed.\n\n[42]To resent--to consider as an injury or affront--to take ill.--Ed.\n\n[43]How dreadfully was this exemplified in the cruelties perpetrated\non the dissenters in the valleys of Piedmont, and on the English\ndissenters in the reign of Mary, of Elizabeth, and of the Stuarts.--Ed.\n\n[44] \"The hunting tribes of air and earth, Respect the brethren of\ntheir birth; The eagle pounces on the lamb; The wolf devours the\nfleecy dam; Even tiger fell, and sullen bear, Their likeness and\ntheir lineage spare. Man only mars this household plan, And turns\nthe fierce pursuit on man; Since Nimrod, Cush's mighty son, At\nfirst the bloody game begun.\" Scott's Rokeby\n\n[45]Great allowances might be made for Bunyan's severe language\nwith respect to state interference in matters of faith and worship,\nbecause he so cruelly suffered by it in his own person. But had he\nescaped persecution, the same awful reflections are just and true.\nIf a Christian monarchy robs, imprisons, and murders dissenters,\nsurely a Mohammedan state may do the same to all those who refuse\nto curse Christ and bless Mahomet. Bunyan appears to consider\nthat the great wickedness of man which caused the flood arose from\nthe state interfering with faith and worship. This is certainly a\nfruitful source of those dreadful crimes, hypocrisy and persecution,\nbut whether it was the cause of that awful event, the flood, or\nof that splendid absurdity, the tower of Babel, the reader must\njudge for himself.--Ed.\n\n[46]First Rome, then the Greek and Russian church; then Henry the\nVIII and the church over which that lascivious monster was the\nsupreme head; then the Lutheran church of Germany and Holland; and\nthen...How admirably true is the genealogy of Antichrist as drawn\nout by Bunyan.--Ed.\n\n[47] \"That monstrous work,\" the attempting to build the tower of\nBabel.--Ed.\n\n[48] \"Language or lip.\" A lip, is also used for speech. In the\nfigurative language, \"of one lip,\" means that they all spoke one\nlanguage; so in Job 11:2, literally, \"a man of lips,\" is translated\n\"a man full of talk.\"--Ed.\n\n[49]That Bunyan intended to have continued this commentary there can\nbe no doubt, not only from the abrupt termination of his labours,\nand the blank paper following the manuscript, but from an observation\nhe makes on the sabbath--the sabbath of years, the jubilee, &c.,\n\"of all which, more in their place, IF GOD PERMIT.\" See Genesis\n2:3.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nA HOLY LIFE THE BEAUTY OF CHRISTIANITY: or, AN EXHORTATION TO\nCHRISTIANS TO BE HOLY. BY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\nHoliness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.'--[Psalm 93:5]\n\nLondon, by B. W., for Benj. Alsop, at the Angel and Bible, in the\nPoultrey. 1684.\n\n\nTHE EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThis is the most searching treatise that has ever fallen under\nour notice. It is an invaluable guide to those sincere Christians,\nwho, under a sense of the infinite importance of the salvation of\nan immortal soul, and of the deceitfulness of their hearts, sigh\nand cry, \"O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest\nthe reins (most secret thoughts) and the heart.' \"Try MY reins and\nmy heart.' for it is deceitful above all things, and desperately\nwicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the\nreins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according\nto the fruit of his doings.' He, in whose heart the Holy Spirit\nhas raised the solemn inquiry, What must I do to be saved?' flies\nfrom his own estimate of himself, with distrust and fear, and\nappeals to an infallible and unerring scrutiny. Search me, O God,\nand know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there\nbe any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'\nReader, are you desirous of having your hopes of pardon, and of\nheaven, weighed in the unerring balances of the sanctuary; while\nyou are yet in a state of probation? Meditate and ponder over\nthis faithful little work. If accompanied by the Divine blessing,\nit will test your faith and practice in the crucible and by the\nfire of God's word. It is intended to turn your spirit inside\nout--to lay bare every insidious enemy that may have crept in and\nlie lurking in the walls of Mansoul. It exhibits sin in all its\nhideous deformity, stript of its masquerade and disguises; so that\nit appears, what it really is, the great enemy to human happiness.\nIt is calculated to stir up our pure minds to incessant vigilance,\nlest we should wander upon tempting, but forbidden paths; and be\ncaught by Giant Despair, to become the object of his cruelty in\nDoubting Castle.\n\nThis work was first published in 1684, in a pocket volume,\ncomprising nine sheets duodecimo; but became so rare, as to have\nescaped the researches of Wilson, Whitefield, and other editors\nof the collected works of Mr. Bunyan,--until about the year 1780,\nwhen it was first re-published in an edition of his works, with\nnotes, by Mason and Ryland. The evident object of this treatise\nwas to aid Christian efforts, under the Divine blessing, in\nstemming the torrent of iniquity, which, like an awful flood, was\noverspreading this country. The moral and religious restraints,\nwhich the government under the Commonwealth had imposed, were\ndissolved by the accession of a debauched prince to the throne of\nEngland; a prince who was bribed, to injure or destroy the best\ninterests of the country, by the voluptuous court of France. He\nhad taken refuge there from the storm; and had been defiled and\ncorrupted beyond ordinary conception. The king and his court were\nsurrounded by pimps, panders, courtesans, and flatterers. The\nexample of the court spread throughout the country--religion became\na jest and laughing-stock; and those who were not to be cajoled\nout of their soul's eternal happiness--whose vital godliness\npreserved them in the midst of such evil examples and allurements,\nwere persecuted with unrelenting rigour. The virtuous Lord\nWilliam Russel, and the illustrious Sydney, fell by the hands of\nthe executioner: John Hampden was fined forty thousand pounds.\nThe hand of God was stretched out. An awful pestilence carried\noff nearly seventy thousand of the inhabitants of London. In the\nfollowing year, that rich and glorious city, with the cathedral--the\nchurches--public buildings-and warehouses, replenished with\nmerchandise--were reduced to ashes. The Dutch fleet sailed up the\nThames and threatened destruction to our navy, and even to the\ngovernment,--filling the court and country with terror. Still\nprofligacy reigned in the court and country--a fearful persecution\nraged against all who refused to attend the church service. Thousands\nperished in prison, and multitudes were condemned to expatriate\nthemselves. The timid and irresolute abandoned the faith,--desolation\nspread over the church of God. At this time, at imminent risk, John\nBunyan not only fearlessly preached, but published his faithful\nAdvice to Sufferers;' which was immediately followed by this\nimportant work, calling upon every one who named the name of\nChrist, 'at all hazards, to depart from iniquity.' They were words\nin season,' and were good,' like apples of gold in pictures of\nsilver.' (Prov. 25:11)\n\nThe contrast in public manners must have been painfully felt by\none, who had seen and enjoyed the general appearances, and doubtless\nmany real proofs of piety, which prevailed under the protectorate\nof Cromwell. He was now called to witness the effects of open\nand avowed wickedness among governors and nobles, by which the\nfountains of iniquity were opened up, and a flood of immorality let\nloose upon all classes; demoralizing the nation, and distressing\nthe church. It must have been difficult to form any thing like\nan accurate estimate of the number of those who abandoned their\nChristian profession. The immoral conduct of one bad man is more\nconspicuous than the unobtrusive holiness of ninety-nine good men;\nmore especially, when a professor becomes profane. Thus Bunyan\nargues, 'One black sheep is quickly espied among five hundred\nwhite ones, and one mangey one will soon infect many. One also,\namong the saints, that is not clean, is a blemish to the rest,\nand as Solomon says, 'One sinner destroyeth much good.' p. 527. It\nis more congenial to our fallen nature to notice, and be grieved\nwith, evil conduct, than it is to rejoice over that excellence\nwhich may cast the observer into the shade; besides the jaundiced\nfear that good works may arise from improper motives. These principles\nequally applied to the state of society under the Presbyterian\ngovernment: but when the restoration to the old system took place,\nso vast a change passed over society, like a pestilence, 'that sin,\nthrough custom, became no sin. The superfluity of naughtiness,'\nsays Bunyan, 'is at this day become no sin with many.' p. 509.\n'There are a good many professors now in England that have nothing\nto distinguish them from the worst of men,' but their praying,\nreading, hearing of sermons, baptism, church fellowship, and\nbreaking of bread. Separate them but from these, and every where\nelse they are as black as others, even in their whole life and\nconversation.' p. 508. 'It is marvellous to me to see sin so high\namidst the swarms of professors that are found in every corner\nof this land.' If the conduct of many professors were so vile, as\nthere can be no doubt but that it was, how gross must have been\nthat of the openly profane? It accounts for the wicked wit and\nraillery of Hudibras, when so many professors threw off the mask\nand gloried in their hypocrisy--Butler shut his eyes to the cruel\nsufferings of thousands who perished in jails, the martyrs to the\nsincerity of their faith and conduct. The falling away was indeed\ngreat; and Bunyan, with all earnestness, warns his readers that,\n'To depart from iniquity is to shun those examples, those beastly\nexamples to drunkenness--to whoredom--to swearing--to lying--to\nstealing--to sabbath-breaking--to pride--to covetousness--to\ndeceit--to hypocrisy, that in every corner of the country present\nthemselves to men.' p. 517. 'O the fruits of repentance thick sown\nby preachers, come up but thinly! Where are they found? Confession\nof sin, shame for sin, amendment of life, restitution for cozening,\ncheating, defrauding, beguiling thy neighbour,--where shall these\nfruits of repentance be found? Repentance is the bitter pill,\nwithout the sound working of which, base and sinful humour rest\nunstirred, unpurged, undriven out of the soul.' p. 519.\n\n'I would not be austere,' said Bunyan, 'but were wearing of gold,\nputting on of apparel, dressing up houses, decking of children,\nlearning of compliments, boldness in women, lechery in men, wanton\nbehaviour, lascivious words, and tempting carriages, signs of\nrepentance; then I must say, the fruits of repentance swarm in our\nland.' 'The tables of God's book are turned upside down. Love,\nto their doctrine, is gone out of the country.' 'Love is gone, and\nnow coveting, pinching, griping, and such things, are in fashion;\nnow iniquity abounds instead of grace, in many that name the name\nof Christ.' p. 529, 520. 'Alas! alas! there is a company of half\npriests in the world; they dare not teach the people the whole\ncounsel of God, because they would condemn themselves, and their\nmanner of living in the world: where is that minister now to\nbe found, that dare say to his people, walk as you have me for\nan example, or that dare say, what you see and hear to be in me,\ndo, and the God of peace shall be with you.' p. 520. Such was the\ngeneral character of the parish priests, after the black Bartholomew\nAct had driven the pious and godly ministers from the parish\nchurches. It is almost a miracle that Bunyan escaped persecution\nfor his plain dealing. We cannot wonder, that under such teachers,\n'Christians learned to be proud one of another, to be covetous,\nto be treacherous, and false, to be cowardly in God's matters, to\nbe remiss and negligent in christian duties, one of another.' p.\n525. A scandal was thus brought upon religion. 'Upon this I write\nwith a sigh; for never more than now. There is no place where the\nprofessors of religion are, that is free from offence and scandal.\nIniquity is so entailed to religion, and baseness of life to the\nnaming the name of Christ, that 'All places are full of vomit and\nfilthiness.' 'Ah! Lord God, this is a lamentation, that a sore\ndisease is got into the church of God.' p. 529. It was a period\nwhen a more awful plague raged as to morals and religion, than\nthat which, about the same time, had ravaged London with temporal\ndeath--the plague of hypocrisy--of naming the name of Christ, and\nstill living in sin. 'Hypocrisies are of that nature, that they\nspread themselves over the mind as the leprosy does over the body.\nIt gets in the pulpit, in conference, in closets, in communion of\nsaints, in faith, in love, in repentance, in zeal, in humility,\nin alms, in the prison, and in all duties, and makes the whole a\nloathsome stink in the nostrils of God.' p. 538 These licentious\ntimes, in which we live, are full of iniquity.' p. 539. 'They change\none bad way for another, hopping, as the squirrel, from bough to\nbough, but not willing to forsake the tree,--from drunkards to be\ncovetous, and from that to pride and lasciviousness--this is a grand\ndeceit, common, and almost a disease epidemical among professors.'\np. 532. 'The sins of our day are conspicuous and open as Sodom's\nwere; pride and covetousness, loathing of the gospel, and contemning\nholiness, have covered the face of the nation.' p. 534. The infection\nhad spread into the households of professors. 'Bless me, saith a\nservant, are those the religious people! Are these the servants\nof God, where iniquity is made so much of, and is so highly\nentertained! And now is his heart filled with prejudice against\nall religion, or else he turns hypocrite like his master and\nhis mistress, wearing, as they, a cloak of religion to cover all\nabroad, while all naked and shameful at home.' p. 536. 'He looked\nfor a house full of virtue, and behold nothing but spider-webs;\nfair and plausible abroad, but like the sow in the mire at home.'\nThe immoral taint infected the young. '0! it is horrible to\nbehold how irreverently, how easily, and malapertly, children,\nyea, professing children, at this day, carry it to their parents;\nsnapping and checking, curbing and rebuking of them, as if they\nhad received a dispensation from God to dishonour and disobey\nparents.' p. 535. 'This day, a sea and deluge of iniquity has\ndrowned those that have a form of godliness. Now immorality shall,\nwith professors, be in fashion, be pleaded for, be loved and more\nesteemed than holiness; even those that have a form of godliness,\nhate the life and power thereof, yea, they despise them that are\ngood.' p. 543.\n\nThis melancholy picture of vice and profligacy was drawn by one\nwhose love of truth rendered him incapable of deceit or of\nexaggeration. It was published at the time, and was unanswered,\nbecause unanswerable. It was not painted from imagination by an\nascetic; but from life by an enlightened observer--not by the poor\npreaching mechanic when incarcerated in a jail for his godliness;\nbut when his painful sufferings were past--when his Pilgrim,\nproduced by the folly of persecutors, had rendered him famous through\nEurope--when his extraordinary pulpit talents were matured and\nextensively known, so that thousands crowded to hear him preach--when\nhis labours were sought in London and in the country--when his\nopportunities of observation had become extended far beyond most of\nhis fellow-ministers. The tale is as true as it is full of painful\ninterest. The causes of all this vice are perfectly apparent.\nWhenever a government abuses its powers by interfering with divine\nworship--by preferring one sect above all others; whether it be\nPresbyterian, Independent, or Episcopalian--such a requiring the\nthings that are God's to be rendered unto Caesar, must be the\nprolific source of persecution, hypocrisy, and consequent immorality\nand profaneness. The impure process of immorality as checked by\nthe rival labours of all the sects to promote vital godliness.\nCan we wonder that such a state of society was not long permitted\nto exist? In three troublous years from the publication of this\nbook, the licentious monarch was swept away by death, not without\nsuspicion of violence, and his besotted popish successor fled to\ndie in exile. An enlightened monarch was placed upon the vacant\nthrone, and persecution was deprived of its tiger claws and teeth\nby the act of toleration.\n\nHowever interesting to the christian historian, and humbling to\nhuman pride, the facts may be which are here disclosed; it was\nnot the author's intention thus to entertain his readers. No; this\ninvaluable tract has an object in view of far greater importance. It\nis an earnest, affectionate, but pungent appeal to all professors\nof every age, and nation, and sect, to the end of time. The\nadmonition of the text is to you, my reader, and to me; whether\nwe be rich or poor, ministers or ministered unto, it comes home\nequally to every heart, from the mightiest potentate through\nevery grade of society to the poorest peasant. May the sound ever\nreverberate in our ears and be engraven upon our hearts, 'Let\nevery one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'\n\nThe analysis of this book exhibits--How solemn a thing it is to name\nthe name of Christ, as the author and finisher of our faith--God\nmanifest in the flesh, to bear the curse for us, and to work out\nour everlasting salvation. The hosts of heaven rejoice over the\npenitent sinner ransomed from the pit of wrath. Is it possible for\nthe soul that has escaped eternal burnings--that has experienced\nthe bitterness and exceeding sinfulness of sin--that has felt the\nmisery of transgression--that has been brought up out of that deep\nand horrible pit--to backslide and plunge again into misery, with\nhis eyes open to see the smoke of their torments ascending up\nbefore him? Is it possible that he should heedlessly enter the\nvortex, and be again drawn into wretchedness? Yes; it is alas too\ntrue. Well may the Lord, by his prophet, use these striking words,\n'Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid,\nbe ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed\ntwo evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,\nand hewed out broken cisterns, that can hold no water.' (Jer.\n2:12,13)\n\nThe extreme folly of such conduct would render the fact almost\nincredible, did we not too frequently witness it in others, and\nfeel it in our own hearts. This volume places these facts plainly\nbefore us, and affectionately exhorts us to be watchful, and\ndiligently to inquire into the causes of such evil, and the remedies\nwhich ought to be applied. It shews us the great varieties that\nare found in the tempers and qualities of God's children, in words\ncalculated to make an indelible impression.\n\n'But in this great house of God there will not only be golden and\nsilver Christians, but wooden and earthly ones. And if any man\npurge himself from these [earthly ones], from their companies and\nvices, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, and meet for\nthe masters use, and prepared for every good work.' p. 518 Bunyan\nearnestly cautions his readers to constant watchfulness, 'for sin\nis one of the most quick and brisk things that are.' p. 515. And\njealousy over ourselves, lest our hearts should deceive us. 'The\nyoung man in the gospel that cried to Christ to shew him the way\nto life, had some love to his salvation; but it was not a love that\nwas strong as death, cruel as the grave, and hotter than coals of\njuniper.' (Song 8:6) It cost nothing--no self denial, no sacrifice.\n'Such will love as long as mouth and tongue can wag' will pray and\nhear sermons, but will not cut off a darling lust; such deceive\ntheir own souls. Some are allured but not changed: 'There is some\nkind of musicalness in the word; when well handled and fingered\nby a skilful preacher,' it has a momentary influence; 'they hear\nthy words, but do them not.' (Eze. 33:30) Above all things, beware\nof hypocrisy, for when it once enters, it spreads over the soul,\nas the leprosy does over the body. p. 521. 'He is the same man,\nthough he has got a new mouth. p. 532. 'Many that shew like saints\nabroad, yet act the part of devils when they are at home. Wicked\nprofessors are practical atheists. 'The dirty life of a professor\nlays stumbling blocks in the way of the blind.' p. 545. 'A professor\nthat hath not forsaken his iniquity, is like one that comes out\nof the pest-house, among the whole, with his plaguey sores running\nupon him. This is the man that hath the breath of a dragon;\nhe poisons the air round about him. This is the man that slays\nhis children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself. They are the\ndevil's most stinking tail, with which he casts many a professor\ninto carnal delights, with their filthy conversations.' p. 530.\n'Oh! the millstone that God will shortly hang about your necks, when\nthe time is come that you must be drowned in the sea and deluge\nof God's wrath.' p. 530. Rather than thus rush upon Jehovah's\nfiercest anger, 'Tell the world, if you will not depart from\niniquity, that Christ and you are parted, and that you have left\nhim to be embraced by them to whom iniquity is an abomination.'\np. 530. Thus faithfully and affectionately did Bunyan deal with\nhis hearers and readers. And he takes an occasion, now in his\nmaturer years, to confirm the sentiments which he had formerly\npublished in his 'Differences in Judgment about Water Baptism\nno Bar to Communion.' 'It is strange to see at this day how,\nnotwithstanding, all the threatenings of God, men are wedded to\ntheir own opinions, beyond what the law of grace and love will\nadmit. Here is a Presbyterian, here an Independent, here a Baptist,\nso joined each man to his own opinion, that they cannot have that\ncommunion one with another, as by the testament of the Lord Jesus\nthey are commanded and enjoined.' 'To help thee in this, keep thine\neye much upon thine own base self, be clothed with humility, and\nprefer thy brother before thyself; and know that Christianity\nlieth not in small matters, neither before God nor understanding\nmen.' I have often said in my heart, what is the reason that some\nof the brethren should be so shy of holding communion with those,\nevery whit as good, if not better than themselves? Is it because\nthey think themselves unworthy of their holy fellowship? No,\nverily; it is because they exalt themselves.' p.538. He goes on to\ndeclare that the difficulties which sin and Satan place in the way\nof the Christian pilgrim ought never to be concealed. Salvation is\nto be worked out with fear and trembling. It is only by divine\naid, by dependence upon our heavenly Father, that it can be\naccomplished. 'To depart from iniquity to the utmost degree of\nrequirement, is a copy too fair for mortal flesh exactly to imitate,\nwhile we are in this world. But with good paper, good ink, and\na good pen, a skilful and willing man may go far.' p. 546, 547.\nMr. Ryland's note on the Christian's trials is, 'when the love of\nsin is subdued in the conscience, then peace will flow in like a\nriver, God will be glorified, Christ exalted; and the happy soul,\nunder the teachings and influence of the all-wise, omnipotent\nSpirit, will experience sweet peace and joy in believing.' Millions\nof pilgrims have entered the celestial city, having fought their\nway to glory; and then, while singing the conqueror's song, all\ntheir troubles by the way must have appeared as sufferings but\nfor a moment, which worked out for them an eternal and exceeding\nweight of glory, And then how blessed the song to him that hath\nloved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made\nus kings and priests unto our God. To him be glory and dominion\nfor ever and ever. Amen.--Geo. Offor.\n\n\nAN INTRODUCTION TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE\n\nWhen I write of justification before God from the dreadful curse\nof the law; then I must speak of nothing but grace, Christ, the\npromise, and faith. But when I speak of our justification before\nmen then I must join to these good works. For grace, Christ, and\nfaith, are things invisible, and so not to be seen by another,\notherwise than through a life that becomes so blessed a gospel as\nhas declared unto us the remission of our sins for the sake of\nJesus Christ. He then that would have forgiveness of sins, and so be\ndelivered from the curse of God, must believe in the righteousness\nand blood of Christ: but he that would shew to his neighbours\nthat he hath truly received this mercy of God, must do it by good\nworks; for all things else to them is but talk: as for example,\na tree is known to be what it is, to wit, whether of this or that\nkind, by its fruit. A tree it is, without fruit, but as long as\nit so abideth, there is ministered occasion to doubt what manner\nof tree it is.\n\nA professor is a professor, though he hath no good works; but\nthat, as such, he is truly godly, he is foolish that so concludeth.\n(Matt. 7:17,18; James 2:18) Not that works makes a man good; for\nthe fruit maketh not a good tree, it is the principle, to wit,\nFaith, that makes a man good, and his works that shew him to be\nso. (Matt. 7:16; Luke 6:44)\n\nWhat then? why all professors that have not good works flowing\nfrom their faith are naught; are bramble bushes; are 'nigh unto\ncursing, whose end is to be burned.' (Heb. 6:8) For professors by\ntheir fruitlessness declare that they are not of the planting of\nGod, nor the wheat, 'but tares and children of the wicked one.'\n(Matt. 13:37, 38)\n\nNot that faith needeth good works as an help to justification\nbefore God. For in this matter faith will be ignorant of all good\nworks, except those done by the person of Christ. Here, then, the\ngood man 'worketh not, but believeth.' (Rom. 4:5). For he is not\nnow to carry to God, but to receive at his hand the matter of his\njustification by faith; nor is the matter of his justification\nbefore God ought else but the good deeds of another man, to wit,\nChrist Jesus.\n\nBut is there, therefore, no need at all of good works, because a\nman is justified before God without them? or can that be called\na justifying faith, that has not for its fruit good works? (Job\n22:3; James 2:20, 26) Verily good works are necessary, though God\nneed them not; nor is that faith, as to justification with God,\nworth a rush, that abideth alone, or without them.\n\nThere is, therefore, a twofold faith of Christ in the world, and\nas to the notion of justifying righteousness, they both concur and\nagree, but as to the manner of application, there they vastly differ.\nThe one, to wit, the non-saving faith, standeth in speculation\nand naked knowledge of Christ, and so abideth idle: but the other\ntruly seeth and receives him, and so becometh fruitful. (John\n1:12; Heb. 11:13; Rom. 10:16) And hence the true justifying faith\nis said to receive, to embrace, to obey the Son of God, as tendered\nin the gospel: by which expression is shewed both the nature of\njustifying faith, in its actings in point of justification, and\nalso the cause of its being full of good works in the world. A\ngift is not made mine by my seeing of it, or because I know the\nnature of the thing so given; but then it is mine if I receive and\nembrace it, yea, and as to the point in hand, if I yield myself\nup to stand and fall by it. Now, he that shall not only see, but\nreceive, not only know, but embrace the Son of God, to be justified\nby him, cannot but bring forth good works, because Christ who is\nnow received and embraced by faith, leavens and seasons the spirit\nof this sinner, through his faith, to the making of him capable so\nto be [justified].(Acts 15:9; Gen. 18:19; Heb. 11:11) Faith made\nSarah receive strength to conceive seed, and we are sanctified\nthrough faith, which is in Christ. For faith hath joined Christ and\nthe soul together, and being so joined, the soul is one spirit\nwith him; not essentially, but in agreement and oneness of\ndesign. Besides, when Christ is truly received and embraced to\nthe justifying of the sinner, in that man's heart he dwells by\nhis word and Spirit, through the same faith also. Now Christ by\nhis Spirit and word must needs season the soul he thus dwells in:\nso then the soul being seasoned, it seasoneth the body; and body\nand soul, the life and conversation.\n\nWe know it is not the seeing, but taking of a potion, that maketh\nit work as it should, nor is the blood of Christ a purge to this\nor that conscience, except received by faith. (Heb. 9:14)\n\nShall that then be counted right believing in Christ unto\njustification, that amounts to no more than to an idle speculation,\nor naked knowledge of him? shall that knowledge of him, I say,\nbe counted such, as only causes the soul to behold, but moveth it\nnot to good works? No, verily. For the true beholding of Jesus to\njustification and life, changes from glory to glory. (2 Cor. 3:18)\n\nNor can that man that hath so believed, as that by his faith he\nhath received and embraced Christ for life before God, be destitute\nof good works: for, as I said, the word and Spirit comes also by\nthis faith, and dwells in the heart and conscience. Now, shall\na soul where the word and Spirit of Christ dwells, be a soul\nwithout good works? Yea, shall a soul that has received the love,\nthe mercy, the kindness, grace and salvation of God through the\nsorrows, tears, groans, cross, and cruel death of Christ, be yet\na fruitless tree! God forbid. This faith is as the salt which the\nprophet cast into the spring of bitter water, it makes the soul\ngood and serviceable for ever. (2 Kings 2:19-22) If the receiving\nof a temporal gift naturally tends to the making of us to move our\ncap and knee, and binds us to be the servant of the giver, shall\nwe think that faith will leave him who by it has received Christ,\nto be as unconcerned as a stock or stone, or that its utmost\nexcellency is to provoke the soul to a lip-labour, and to give\nChrist a few fair words for his pains and grace, and so wrap up\nthe business? No, no; 'the love of Christ constraineth us' thus\nto judge that it is but reasonable, since he gave his all for us,\nthat we should give our some for him. (2 Cor. 5:14,15)\n\nLet no man, then, deceive himself, as he may and will if he takes\nnot heed with true notions, but examine himself concerning his\nfaith, to wit; Whether he hath any? and if some, Whether of that\nkind that will turn to account in the day when God shall judge\nthe world.\n\nI told you before that there is a twofold faith, and now I will\ntell you that there are two sorts of good works; and a man may\nbe shrewdly guessed at with reference to his faith, even by the\nworks that he chooseth to be conversant in.\n\nThere are works that cost nothing, and works that are chargeable.\nAnd observe it, the unsound faith will choose to itself the most\neasy works it can find. For example, there is reading, praying,\nhearing of sermons, baptism, breaking of bread, church fellowship,\npreaching, and the like; and there is mortification of lusts,\ncharity, simplicity, open-heartedness, with a liberal hand to the\npoor, and their like also. Now the unsound faith picks and chooses,\nand takes and leaves, but the true faith does not so.\n\nThere are a great many professors now in England that have nothing\nto distinguish them from the worst of men, but their praying,\nreading, hearing of sermons, baptism, church-fellowship, and breaking\nof bread. Separate them but from these, and everywhere else they\nare as black as others, even in their whole life and conversation.\nThus they have chosen to them the most easy things to do them, but\nlove not to be conscionably found in the practice of the other;\na certain sign their faith is nought, and that these things, even\nthe things they are conversant in, are things attended to of them,\nnot for the ends for which God has appointed them, but to beguile\nand undo themselves withal.\n\nPraying, hearing, reading; for what are these things ordained,\nbut that we might by the godly use of them attain to more of the\nknowledge of God, and be strengthened by his grace to serve him\nbetter according to his moral law? Baptism, fellowship, and the\nLord's supper, are ordained for these ends also. But there is a\nvast difference between using of these things, and a using of them\nfor these ends. A man may pray, yea pray for such things, had he\nthem, as would make him better in morals, without desire to be\nbetter in morals, or love to the things he prays for. A man may\nread and hear, not to learn to do, though to know; yea he may be\ndead to doing moral goodness, and yet be great for reading and\nhearing all his days. The people then among all professors that\nare zealous of good works are the peculiar ones to Christ. (Titus\n2:14) What has a man done that is baptized, if he pursues not\nthe ends for which that appointment was ordained. The like I say\nof fellowship, of breaking of bread, etc.. For all these things\nwe should use to support our faith, to mortify the flesh, and\nstrengthen us to walk in newness of life by the rule of the moral\nlaw. Nor can that man be esteemed holy whose life is tainted with\nimmoralities, let him be what he can in all things else. I am\nof that man's mind as to practical righteousness, who said to\nChrist upon this very question, 'Well, master, thou hast said the\ntruth;--for to love the Lord our God with all the heart, and with\nall the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the\nstrength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all\nwhole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.' (Mark 12:28-33) To love\nmy neighbour as myself, to do as I would be done unto, this is\nthe law and the prophets. And he that is altogether a stranger to\nthese things, how dwelleth the love of God in him; or how will he\nmanifest to another that his faith will save him?\n\nSatan is afraid that men should hear of justification by Christ,\nlest they should embrace it. But yet, if he can prevail with them\nto keep fingers off, though they do hear and look on, and practise\nlesser things, he can the better bear it; yea, he will labour\nto make such professors bold to conclude they shall by that kind\nof faith enjoy him, though by that they cannot embrace him, nor\nlay hold of him. For he knows that how far soever a man engages\nin a profession of Christ with a faith that looks on, but cannot\nreceive nor embrace him, that faith will leave him to nothing but\nmistaken and disappointments at last.\n\nThe gospel comes to some in word only, and the faith of such stands\nbut in a verbal sound; but the apostle was resolved not to know\nor take notice of such a faith. (1 Thess. 1:4, 5) 'For the kingdom\nof God, saith he, 'is not in word, but in power.' (1 Cor. 1:18-20)'\nHe whose faith stands only in a saying, I believe, has his works\nin bare words also, and as virtual is the one as the other, and\nboth insignificant enough. 'If a brother or sister be naked, and\ndestitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in\npeace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not\nthose things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?\nEven so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone.' (James\n2:15-17) This faith, therefore, Satan can allow, because it is\nsomewhat of kin to his own. (vs. 10)\n\nBesides, what greater contempt can be cast upon Christ than by\nsuch wordy professors is cast upon him? These are the men that by\npractice say, the gospel is but an empty sound. Yet, the more they\nprofess, the louder they proclaim it thus to be, to his disgrace,\nwhile they, not withstanding their profession of faith, hold and\nmaintain their league with the devil and sin. The Son of God was\nmanifest that he might destroy the works of the devil, but these\nmen profess his faith and keep these works alive in the world.\n(1 John 3) Shall these pass for such as believe to the saving of\nthe soul? For a man to be content with this kind of faith, and to\nlook to go to salvation by it, what to God is a greater provocation?\n\nThe devil laugheth here, for he knows he has not lost his vassal\nby such a faith as this, but that rather he hath made use of the\ngospel, that glorious word of life, to secure his captive, through,\nhis presumption of the right faith, the faster in his shackles.\n\nIt is marvellous to me to see sin so high amidst the swarms of\nprofessors that are found in every corner of this land. Nor can\nany other reason be given for it, but because the gospel has lost\nits wonted virtue, or because professors want faith therein. But\ndo you think it is because of the first? no, the word of our God\nshall stand in its strength for ever; the faith of such therefore\nis not right; they have for shields of gold, made themselves\nshields of brass; or instead of the primitive faith, which was\nof the operation of God, they have got to themselves a faith that\nstands by the power, and in the wisdom of man. (2 Chron. 12:9, 10;\nCol. 2:12; 1 Cor. 2:4, 5) And, to say no more to this, for what\nis God so angry with this land, but for the sin of the professors\nthat dwell therein, while they have polluted his name with their\ngifts, and with their idols? God, I say, has been provoked most\nbitterly by us, while we have profaned his name, making use of\nhis name, his word, and ordinances, to serve ourselves, '0 Lord,\nwhat wilt thou do to this land.' We are every one looking for\nsomething; even for something that carrieth terror and dread in\nthe sound of its wings as it comes, though we know not the form\nnor visage thereof.[1] One cries out, another has his hands upon\nhis loins, and a third is made mad with the sight of his eyes, and\nwith what his ears do hear. And as their faith hath served them\nabout justification, so it now serves them about repentance and\nreformation: it can do nothing here neither; for though, as was\nsaid, men cry out, and are with their hands upon their loins for\nfear; yet, where is the church, the house, the man that stands in\nthe gap for the land, to turn away this wrath by repentance, and\namendment of life? Behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place,\nand will come down and tread upon the places of the earth, and\nthe mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be\ncleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured\ndown a steep place. But what is the cause of all this?--For the\ntransgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house\nof Israel. (Micah 1:5)\n\nIt is that that is observed by them that can make observation,\nthat all that God has done to us already has been ineffectual as\nto cause that humility and reformation, by which his judgments\nmust be turned away. Repentance is rare this day, and yet without\ndoubt, that without which, things will grow worse and worse. As\nfor them that hope that God will save his people, though but from\ntemporal judgments, whether they repent and reform, or do otherwise,\nI must leave them and their opinions together: this I have found,\nthat sometimes the repentance, even of the godly, has come too\nlate to divert such judgments. And, how some of the godly should\nbe so indulged as to be saved from punishment without repentance,\nwhen the true and unfeigned repentance of others will not deliver\nthem, leaves me, I confess, in a wilderness! But that which is most\nof all to be lamented is, that sin, through custom, is become no\nsin. The superfluity of naughtiness is at this day become no sin\nwith many. Surely this was the case with Israel, else how could\nthey say when the prophets so bitterly denounced God's judgments\nagainst them, 'Because we are innocent, surely his anger shall\nturn from us.' (Jer. 2:35) When custom or bad example has taken\naway the conscience of sin, it is a sign that [that] soul is in\na dangerous lethargy; and yet this is the condition of the most\nthat profess amongst us this day. But to leave this and to proceed.\n\nAs there is a twofold faith, two sorts of good works, and the like,\nso there is also a twofold love to Christ; the one standing, or\nstopping, in some passions of the mind and affections; the other\nis that which breaks through all difficulties to the holy commandment\nto do it. Of both these there is mention made in the scripture;\nand though all true love begins at the heart, yet that love is\nbut little set by that breaks not through to practice. How many\nare there in the world that seem to have the first, but how few\nshew the second. The young man in the gospel, (Mark 10:17) did\nby his running, kneeling, crying, inquiring, and entreating of\nChrist, to shew him the way to life, shew that he had inward love\nto Christ and his own salvation; but yet it was not a love that\nwas 'strong as death,' 'cruel as the grave,' and hotter than the\ncoals of juniper. (Song 8:6) It was a love that stopped in mind\nand affection, but could not break out into practice. This kind\nof love, if it be let alone, and not pressed to proceed till it\ncomes into a labouring practising of the commandment, will love\nas long as you will, to wit, as long as mouth and tongue can wag;\nbut yet you shall not, by all your skill drive this love farther\nthan the mouth; 'for with their mouth they shew much love, but\ntheir heart goeth after their covetousness.' (Ezek. 33:31)\n\nNor may this love be counted for that of the right kind, because\nit is in the heart, for the heart knows how to dissemble about\nlove, as much as about other matters. This is feigned love, or\nlove that pretends to dear affections for Christ, but can bestow\nno cost upon him. Of this kind of love the world is full at this\nday, especially the professors of this age; but as I said, of\nthis the Lord Jesus makes little or no account, for that it hath\nin it an essential defectiveness. Thus, therefore, Christ and his\nservants describe the love that is true and of the right kind,\nand that with reference to himself and church.\n\nFirst, with reference to himself. 'If a man love me,' saith he,\n'he will keep my words.' (John 14:23) And again, 'He that hath\nmy commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.' And,\n'He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.' 'And the word\nwhich ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.' Behold\nyou now where Christ placeth a sign of love, it is not in word\nnor in tongue, not in great and seemingly affectionate gestures,\nbut in a practical walking in the law of the Lord. Hence such,\nand such only, are called the undefiled in the way. You know who\nsays, 'I am the way.' 'Blessed,' saith David, 'are the undefiled\nin the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.' (Ps. 119:1)\n\nBut here again the hypocrite will give us the slip by betaking\nhimself to exterior matters, as to his 'mint and anise and cummin.'\n(Matt. 23:23) Still neglecting the more weighty matters of the\nlaw, to wit, judgment, mercy, faith; or else to the significative\nordinances, still neglecting to do to all men as he would\nthey should do to him. But let such know that God never ordained\nsignificative ordinances, such as baptism, the Lord's supper, or\nthe like, for the sake of water, or of bread and wine; nor yet\nbecause he takes any delight that we are dipped in water, or eat\nthat bread; but they were ordained to minister to us by the aptness\nof the elements, through our sincere partaking of them, further\nknowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and of\nour death and resurrection by him to newness of life. Wherefore,\nhe that eateth and believeth not, and he that is baptized, and\nis not dead to sin, and walketh not in newness of life, neither\nkeepeth these ordinances nor pleaseth God. Now to be dead to sin,\nis to be dead to those things forbidden in the moral law. For sin\nis the transgression of that, and it availeth not to vaunt that\nI am a saint and under this or that significative ordinance, if\nI live in' the transgression of the law.'(1 John 3:4) For I am\nconvicted of the law as a transgressor, and so concluded to be one\nthat loveth not Christ, though I make a noise of my obedience to\nChrist, and of my partaking of his significative ordinances. The\nJews of old made a great noise with their significative ordinances,\nwhile they lived in the breach of the moral law, but their practice\nof significative ordinances could not save them from the judgment\nand displeasure of their God. They could frequent the temple, keep\ntheir feasts, slay their sacrifices, and be mighty apt about all\ntheir significative things. But they loved idols, and lived in the\nbreach of the second table of the law: wherefore God cast them out\nof his presence: hark what the prophet saith of them, (Amos 4:4)\n'Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression;\nand bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after\nthree years: and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,\nand proclaim and publish the free-will offerings: for this liketh\nyou, 0 ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.' Thus, as I\nsaid, the hypocrite gives us the slip; for when he heareth that\nlove is in the keeping of the commandments of God, then he betakes\nhim to the more external parts of worship, and neglecteth the more\nweighty matters to the provoking of the God of Israel.\n\nSecond, As love to God is shewed by keeping of his commandments;\nso love to my neighbour, is the keeping of the commandments of\nGod likewise. 'By this we know that we love the children of God,\nwhen we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love\nof God,'--in us, both to God and man, 'that we keep his commandments:\nand his commandments are not grievous.' (1 John 5:2, 3) He that\nkeepeth not God's commandments, loves neither God nor men.\n\nThus then we must learn to love one another. He that keepeth God's\ncommandment, doth to his brother what is right, for that is God's\ncommandment. He that keeps God's commandment, doth to his brother\neven as he would be done unto himself, for that is God's commandment.\nHe that keeps God's commandment, shutteth not up his bowels of\ncompassion from him, for the contrary is his commandment. Further,\nhe that keepeth God's commandment sheweth his brother what he must\ndo to honour the Christ that he professeth, aright: therefore, he\nthat keeps the commandment, loves his brother. Yea, the keeping\nof the commandment is loving the brethren.\n\nBut if all love, which we pretend to have one to another, were\ntried by this one text, how much of that that we call so, would\nbe found to be nothing less? Preposterous are our spirits in all\nthings, nor can they be guided right, but by the word and Spirit\nof God; the which, the good Lord grant unto us plentifully, that\nwe may do that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus\nChrist our Lord. Yea, and that there may, by them, be wrought\nsound repentance in us for all that hath been done by us amiss,\nlest he give 'Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to the robbers;' for\nthat they have sinned against him by not walking in his ways, and\nby not being obedient to his law. (Isa. 42:24)\n\nLet me add, lest God doth not only punish us in the sight, and by\nthe hand of the wicked; but embolden them to say, it was God that\nset them on; yea, lest they make those sins of ours, which we\nhave not repented of, not only their bye-word against us to after\ngenerations, but the argument, one to another, of their justification\nfor all the evil that they shall be suffered to do unto us: saying,\nwhen men shall ask them, 'Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto\nthis land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?' (Deut.\n29:24; 1 Kings 9:8; Jer. 22:8) 'Even because they have forsaken\nthe covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, and walked not in\nhis ways.'\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\n\nA HOLY LIFE THE BEAUTY OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n'AND, LET EVERY ONE THAT NAMETH THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM\nINIQUITY,--2 TIM. 2:19\n\nTIMOTHY, unto whom this epistle was writ, was an evangelist, that\nis, inferior to apostles and extra-ordinary prophets, and above\nordinary pastors and teachers. (2 Tim. 4:5; Eph. 4:11) And he\nwith the rest of those under his circumstances was to go with the\napostles hither and thither, to be disposed of by them as they saw\nneed, for the further edification of those who by the apostolical\nministry were converted to the faith: and hence it is, that Titus\nwas left at Crete, and that this Timothy was left at Ephesus. (1\nTim. 1:3) For they were to do a work for Christ in the world,\nwhich the apostles were to begin, and leave upon their hands to\nfinish. Now when the apostles departed from places, and had left\nthese evangelists in their stead, usually there did arise some\nbad spirits among those people, where these were left for the\nfurtherance of the faith. This is manifest by both the epistles\nto Timothy, and also by that to Titus: wherefore Paul, upon whom\nthese two evangelists waited for the fulfilling of their ministry,\nwriteth unto them while they abode where he left them, concerning\nthose turbulent spirits which they met with, and to teach them how\nyet further they ought to behave themselves in the house of God,\nwhich is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground\nof truth. And to this purpose he gives them, severally, divers\ninstructions, as the judicious reader may easily understand, by\nwhich he encourageth them to the prosecution of that service which\nfor Christ they had to do for those people where he had left them,\nand also instructeth them how to carry it towards their disturbers,\nwhich last he doth, not only doctrinally, but also by shewing\nthem, by his example and practice, what he would have them do.\n\nThis done, he laboureth to comfort Timothy with the remembrance\nof the steadfastness of God's eternal decree of election, because\ngrounded on his foreknowledge; saying, though Hymeneus and Philetus\nhave erred from the faith, and, by their fall, have overthrown the\nfaith of some, 'Yet the foundation of God standeth sure, having\nthis seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.' Now lest this\nlast hint should still encourage some to be remiss and carnally\nsecure, and foolish, as I suppose this doctrine abused, had\nencouraged them to be before; therefore the apostle immediately\nconjoineth to it this exhortation; 'And, let every one that nameth;\nthe name of Christ depart from iniquity.' Two truths strangely,\nbut necessarily joined together, because so apt to be severed by\nthe children of men; for many, under the pretence of their being\nelected, neglect to pursue holiness; and many of them again that\npretend to be for holiness, quite exclude the doctrine and motives\nthat election gives thereto. Wherefore the apostle, that he might\nset men's notions as to these things right, he joins these two\ntogether, signifying thereby, that as electing love doth instate\na man in the blessing of eternal life; so holiness is the path\nthereto; and, that he that refuseth to depart from iniquity shall\nbe dammed; notwithstanding he may think himself secured from hell\nby the act of God's electing love. For election designeth men not\nonly to eternal glory, but to holiness of life, a means, thereto.\n(Eph. 1:4, 5) And the manner of this connection of truth is the\nmore to be noted by us, because the apostle seems to conjoin[2]\nthem, in an holy heat of spirit, saying, 'The foundation of God\nstandeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are\nhis.' And, 'let every one that shall but so much as name the name\nof Christ, depart from iniquity;' or, as who should say, God will\nbe revenged upon them for all, or, notwithstanding, they appropriate\nunto themselves the benefits of election.\n\nIn the text we have, FIRST, An exhortation. SECOND, The extension\nof that exhortation. The exhortation is, That men depart from\niniquity. The extension of it is, to them, all of them, every\none of them that name the name of Christ. 'And let every one that\nnameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity.'\n\n\n[FIRST, THE EXHORTATION--THAT MEN DEPART FROM INIQUITY]\n\nIn the exhortation there are several things to be taken notice of,\nbecause insinuated by the apostle. The first is, that iniquity is\na very dangerous and hurtful thing, as to the souls of sinners in\ngeneral; so to them that name the name of Christ.\n\nFirst, Iniquity is a very dangerous and hurtful thing to men in\ngeneral; for it is that which did captivate the world at the\nbeginning, and that made it a bond-slave to the devil. It has also\ndone great hurt to mankind ever since. To instance a few things:\n\n1. It is that which hath stupefied and besotted the powers of\nmen's souls, and made them even next to a beast and brute in all\nmatters supernatural heavenly. (2 Peter 2:12) For as the beast\nminds nothing but his lusts and his belly, by nature, so man minds\nnothing but things earthly, sensual, and devilish, by reason of\niniquity.\n\n2. It has blinded and darkened the powers of the soul, so that\nit can neither see where it is, nor which is the way out of this\nbesotted condition. (Eph. 4:18)\n\n3. It has hardened the heart against God, and against all admonition\nand counsel in the things of the gospel of Christ. (Rom. 2:5)\n\n4. It has alienated the will, the mind, and affections, from the\nchoice of the things that should save it, and wrought them over\nto an hearty delight in those things that naturally tend to drown\nit in perdition and destruction. (Col. 1:21)\n\n5. It has made man odious in God's eyes, it has provoked the\njustice of God against him, and made him obnoxious to hell-fire.\n(Ezek. 16:5)\n\n6. Yea, it so holds him, so binds him, so reserves him to this,\nthat not he himself, nor yet all the angels of heaven, can deliver\nhim from this deplorable condition. (Prov. 5:22)\n\n7. To say nothing of their pleasure and delight that it makes him\ntake in that way to hell in which he walketh. (Isa. 66:3; Prov.\n7:22, 23) Never went fat ox so gamesomely to the shambles, nor\nfool so merrily to the correction of the stocks, nor silly bird\nso wantonly to the hidden net, as iniquity makes men go down her\nsteps to the pit of hell and damnation. O it is amazing, it is\nastonishing to consider what hurt sin hath done to man, and into\nhow many dangers it has brought him; but let these few hints at\nthis time suffice as to this. I will now speak a word to the other\nparticular, namely,\n\nSecond, That as iniquity is dangerous and hurtful to the souls of\nmen in general, so it is to them that name the name of Christ. As\nto the so and so naming of him, to that I shall speak by and by,\nbut at this time take it thus: That religiously name his name.\nAnd I say iniquity is hurtful to them.\n\n1. It plucks many a one of them from Christ and the religious\nprofession of him. I have even seen, that men who have devoutly and\nreligiously professed Jesus Christ, have been prevailed withal,\nby iniquity, to cast him and the profession of his name quite\noff, and to turn their backs upon him. 'Israel,' saith the prophet,\n'hath cast off the thing that is good.' (Hosea 8:3) But why? 'Of\ntheir silver and their gold have they made them idols.' The sin of\nidolatry threw their hearts from God; their love to that iniquity\nmade them turn their backs upon him. Wherefore God complains,\nthat of forwardness to their iniquity, and through the prevalence\nthereof, they had cast him behind their back. (Ezek. 23:35)\n\n2. As it plucks many a professor from Christ, so it keeps many a\none from an effectual closing with him. How many are there that\nreligiously profess and make mention of the name of Christ, that\nyet of love to, and by the interest that iniquity hath in their\naffections, never close with him unto salvation, but are like\nto them, of whom you read in Paul to Timothy, that they are ever\nlearning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2\nTim. 3:1-7)\n\n3. And concerning those that have indeed come to him, and that\nhave effectually closed with him, and that name his name to good\npurpose; yet how hath iniquity hurt and abused many of them. (1.)\nIt has prevailed with God to hide his face from them, a thing more\nbitter than death. (2.) It has prevailed with God to chastise, and\nto afflict them sorely, a thing in which he taketh no pleasure.\n(Lam 3:33) (3.) It has provoked God to give them over to the hand\nof the enemy, and to deliver them to the tormentors. (Jer. 12:7;\nMatt. 18:34) (4.) It hath brought them to question their interest\nin Christ, and whether they ever had grace in their souls. (Psa.\n31:22) (5.) And for those that have yet believed they were in his\nfavour, this iniquity hath driven them to fear that God would cast\nthem away, and take all his good things from them. (Psa. 51)\n\nYea, he that would know the hurt that iniquity hath done to them\nthat name the name of Christ, let him consider the cries, the sighs,\nthe tears, the bemoanings, the bewailings, the lamentations, the\nsorrows, the confessions, the repentings and griefs wherewith they\nhave been attended, while they have complained that they have been\nput in the stocks, laid in the dungeon, had their bones broken,\nsuffered the terrors of God, been distressed almost to distraction,\nand have been fed with gravel, gall, wormwood, and with the water\nof astonishment, for days, yea, years together. (Job 13:27; Psa.\n6:6; Psa. 31:9, 10; Psa. 38:8; Psa. 60:3; Psa. 88; Psa. 116:3;\nJer. 8:14; Jer. 23:15; Jer. 31:18; Lam. 3:4, 16; Ezek. 4:16; 2\nCor. 12:21) By all which, and many more which might be mentioned,\nit appears that iniquity is a dangerous and hurtful thing.\n\n\n[SECOND, THE EXTENSION OF THE EXHORTATION--TO EVERY ONE THAT NAMETH\nTHE NAME OF CHRIST.]\n\nBut I proceed, and come in the next place to the extension of the\nexhortation, namely, that it reacheth to all those that name the\nname of Christ. 'And let every one that nameth the name of Christ\ndepart from iniquity.'\n\nTo handle this a little, and to shew you what the apostle here\nmeans by naming of the name of Christ: he meaneth not an irreligious\nnaming of that worthy name, nor those that name it irreligiously.\nThis is evident, because he passeth by their manner of naming of\nit without the least reproof, the which he would not have done had\nthe fault been in their manner of naming of the name of Christ.\nNow I say, if he intendeth not those that name the name of Christ\nirreligiously, then, though the exhortation, 'let every one,' seems\nto extend itself to all, and all manner of persons, that any ways\nname the name of Christ, yet it is limited by this, to wit, that\nrightly, religiously, or according to the way of the professors\nof Christ, name his worthy name. And it must needs be so taken,\nand that for these reasons:\n\nFirst, For that, as I said before, the apostle taketh no notice of\ntheir manner of naming of his name, so as to reprove any indecency\nor unseemliness in their naming of him; wherefore he alloweth of\nthe manner of their naming of him.\n\nSecondly, because the apostle's design in this exhortation was,\nand is, that the naming of the name of Christ might be accompanied\nwith such a life of holiness as might put an additional lustre\nupon that name whenever named in a religious way; but this cannot\nbe applied to every manner of naming the name of our Lord Jesus\nChrist. For if a man shall name the name of Christ unduly, or\nirreligiously, though he shall never so much therewithal depart\nfrom iniquity, and be circumspect to the utmost in all civility\nand morality, yet he answers not the apostle's end, which he seeks\nby this his exhortation. For,\n\n1. Suppose a man should name the name of Christ vainly, idly, in\nvain mirth, wantonness, false or vain swearing, or the like, and\nshall back this, his manner of naming the name of Christ, with\nall manner of justness and uprightness of life, would this answer\nthe apostle's end in this his exhortation? Verily no; for this\nmanner of naming the name is worthy reprehension; 'Thou shalt\nnot take my name in vain,' or vainly make use thereof: and moral\ngoodness attending the so-naming of the name of Christ will do\nmore hurt than good. (Ex. 20)\n\n2. There is a reproachful and scandalous naming of the name of\nChrist, such as the Jews and Pharisees did accustom themselves\nunto, as to call him Jesus, the deceiver; and Christ, in a way\nof scorn and contempt. Nor were these men quite destitute of that\nwhich put a lustre upon their opinions; for, said the Lord Christ\nhimself unto them, 'Ye indeed appear beautiful outward.' (Matt.\n23:27)\n\n3. There is such a naming of the name of Christ as to make it\na cloak for false and dangerous errors: that men, by the use of\nthat name, and the putting of it upon such errors and delusions,\nmay put off their errors to others the better. 'Many shall come\nin my name, to wit, with their delusions, presenting them, in my\nname, to the world, and shall put them off, in my name, to the\ndestruction of the soul. (Matt. 24:5) Now, can any imagine that\nthe apostle should extend his exhortation to such, that they,\nthus continuing to name the name of Christ, should depart from\niniquity. To what end should such be comprehended in this of\nexhortation of his? to no purpose at all: for the more an erroneous\nperson, or a deceiver of souls, shall back his errors with a\nlife that is morally good, the more mischievous, dangerous, and\ndamnable is that man and his delusions; wherefore such a one is\nnot concerned in this exhortation.\n\n4. There is a naming of the name of Christ magically, and after\nthe manner of exorcism, or, conjuration; as we read in the Acts of\nthe apostles. vagabond Jews, the exorcists, there say, 'We adjure\nyou by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.' (Acts 19:13-15) Thus they\ncalled over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord\nJesus. But what if these should clothe this, their devilish art,\nand devilish way, of using or naming of the name of the Lord\nJesus, with departing from iniquity, so as to commend their whole\nlife to by-standers, for such: as is morally good: what advantage\nwould Christ, or Paul, or the gospel, get thereby? verily none at\nall; but rather damage and reproach, as will soon appear to any\nman's reason, if it be considered that goodness of life, joined\nto badness of principles is like the devil clothed in white, or\nSatan transformed into an angel of light. And Paul was grieved\nin his spirit, when the wench that had a spirit of divination did\nacknowledge him to be the servant of the most high God, for he\nknew it would nothing further, or help forward, the Lord's design,\nbut be rather an hinderance thereto. For when witches and devils\ncome once to commend, or make use of the name of Christ, Christ\nand Paul like it not; therefore Paul's exhortation, which here\nare presented with by the text, is not extended to any of the four\nsorts aforenamed, but,\n\nThird, To those upon whom his name is called, they should depart\nfrom iniquity. I say those whom God has so far dignified, as to\nput the name of Christ upon them. (Acts 15:17) And I will add, that\napply that name to themselves. And the reason is, because God is\nnow concerned. (ch. 11:26) God has changed thy name from Pagan to\nChristian, and thou choosest to call thyself by that name, saying,\n'I belong to Christ.' Now thou must depart from iniquity, for that\nnotice is taken of thee, both by heaven and earth, that thou art\nbecome a disciple, and 'let every one that' so 'nameth the name\nof Christ,' or that nameth it, being himself by God and himself\nput under such circumstances as these, 'depart from iniquity.' (1\nPeter 4:16)\n\nFourthly, It is spoken to those that name the name of Christ\neither in the public or private worship of God, being themselves\nprofessed worshippers of him; and the reason is, for that the\nordinances, as well as the name of God, is holy, and 'he will be\nsanctified in them that come nigh him.' (Lev. 10:3) He therefore\nthat approacheth the presence of Christ in prayer, or any other\ndivine appointment, must take heed of regarding 'iniquity in\nhis heart.' (Psa. 66:18) Else the Lord will stop his ears to his\nprayers, and will shut his eyes, and not take notice of such kind\nof worship or worshippers.\n\nFifthly, Those that the apostle in this place exhorts to depart\nfrom iniquity are such as have taken unto themselves the boldness\nto say, that they are in him, abide in him, and consequently are\nmade partakers of the benefits that are in him. 'He that saith he\nabideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked.'\n(1 John 2:6) And the reason is, because Christ is a fruitful root,\nand a free conveyer of sap into the branches; hence it is written,\nthat 'the trees of the Lord are full of sap.' (Psa. 104:16) So then,\nhe that nameth the name of Christ by way of applying to himself\nhis benefits, and as counting that he is found of God in him, and\nso abideth, ought himself to walk even as he walked, that he may\ngive proof of what he saith to be true, by bearing forth before\nmen that similitude of righteousness that is in his root and stem:\nfor such as the stock or tree is, such let the branches be, but\nthat cannot be known but by the fruit: 'ye shall know them by\ntheir fruit.' (Matt. 7:16) So then, he that thus shall name the\nname of Christ, let him depart from iniquity: yea, let every such\nman do so.\n\nSixthly, This exhortation is spoken to them that name Christ as\ntheir Sovereign Lord and King: let them 'depart from iniquity.'\n'The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our\nKing; he will save us.' (Isa. 33:22) [These] are great words; and\nas they cannot be spoken by every one, so they ought not to be\nspoken lightly by them that can. Nor may he that claims so high a\nprivilege be but obedient, submissive, apt to learn, conscientiously\nto put in practice what he hath learnt of his Judge, his Lawgiver,\nand his King. Lest when some shall hear him say that Christ, by\nname, is his Lawgiver and his King, and shall yet observe him to\ndo things evil, and to walk in ways that are not good, they shall\nthink evil, and speak so of his King; saying, Learnt you this of\nChrist your King? or doth your King countenance you in ways that\nare so bad? or, do you by thus and thus doing submit to the laws\nof your king? yea, your King, his name and gospel shall bear the\nburden of the evil, together with the shame thereof, if thou that\nnamest the name of Christ shalt not depart from iniquity.\n\nLastly, Whatever man he be that by his naming of the name of Christ\nshall intimate that he hath any reverence of love to, or delight\nin that Christ, whose name he nameth, that man should depart from\niniquity, not only for the reasons that are above mentioned, but\nfor those that may be named afterwards.\n\nBut having thus far opened the word, and shewed who and what manner\nof man the apostle had in his eye, in this his exhortation, I\nshall come, in the next place, to make some observations upon the\ntext. As,\n\n\n[OBSERVATION FIRST.]\n\nThat it is incident to men to name the name of Christ religiously,\nthat is, rightly as to words and nations, and not to 'depart from\niniquity.' This was the occasion of this exhortation, for Paul saw\nthat there were some that did so; to wit, that named the name of\nChrist well, as to words, but did not depart from iniquity. Some\nsuch he also I found among them at Corinth, which made him say,\n'Awake to righteousness, and sin not.' (1 Cor. 15:34) He found\nsuch at Ephesus, and cries out to them most earnestly, saying,\n'Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.' (Eph. 5:14)\nFor albeit they were professors of Christ, yet they lived too much\nlike those that were dead in trespasses and sins, This he also\nfound among the Hebrews, wherefore he saith to them, 'Let us lay\naside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and\nlet us run with patience the race that is set before us.' (Heb.\n12:1) These professors are easily beset with sin, yea, it did hang\nupon them as weights to hinder them from making of that profession\nof Christ, whose name they named, as beautiful as did become both\nhim and them.\n\nIn my discourse upon this subject, I must endeavour to shew you\ntwo things. FIRST, What Paul means when he saith, 'depart from\niniquity.' SECONDLY, Why some, that as to words, rightly name the\nname of Christ, do not 'depart from iniquity.'\n\nThe first of those doth need some explanation, because in some\nsense even the best of saints cannot depart from sin, or iniquity.\n\n1. Because as to the being of it, it is seated and rooted in their\nflesh, and hath its dwelling there. Yea, it hath, and so will\nhave an abiding there, so long as man is on this side that state\nof perfection, which is not to be enjoyed while we are in the\nflesh: 'for in me, that is, in my flesh,' sin dwells, (Rom. 7:18)\nnor doth any thing else but sin dwell there: 'for in me, that is,\nin my flesh, said Paul, 'dwelleth no good thing:' therefore the\napostle must not be understood as if he intended to insinuate that\nthere was a possibility that the nature and being of sin could be\nplucked up by the roots, and so cast clean away from us, as to\nthe very nature thereof. No, that will abide with us, for it hath\nits dwelling in us.\n\n2. And as they cannot depart from the nature, of it as such, that\nis, as they cannot be rid of the being of sin, so neither can they\ndepart from the motions and stirrings of sin, no more than they\ncan stir from the motions or stirrings of their natural senses,\nor of their natural reason: the motions of sin, which Paul also\ncalls the lusts thereof, will be where the nature and being of\nsin is, because it is not dead; for that which liveth, what manner\nof life soever it hath, will have motion according to the manner\nof life which it hath; and sin being one of the most quick and\nbrisk things that are, it will also have its motions and lusts\naccordingly. Hence Paul says, it lusts, and will lust, where it is\nand dwells; though the very Spirit of God and the utmost diligence\nof a Christian be also there to oppose it. (Rom. 6:12; Gal. 5:17)\n\n3. Again, as the being and motions of sin will be with us, so also\nwill it in its endeavours. It will endeavour to overcome us, and\nto make us captives to itself and to Satan; and these endeavours\nwill be with us. (Eph. 6:11, 12; 2 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 12:4) Nor can\nwe so depart from iniquity, as to be utterly rid of all sense and\nfeeling of what endeavours there are in sin and iniquity to be\nmaster and lord, and reign. Sin will endeavour to defile the mind,\nto defile the conscience, to defile the life and conversation;\nand this endeavour, as endeavour, we cannot depart from; that is,\ncause that it should not be in our flesh; for there it will be,\nsince sin in its being is there.\n\n4. As the being, motions, and endeavours of sin will still abide\nin our flesh, so consequently will its polluting fumes be upon us;\nnor doth the apostle mean, when he bids us depart from iniquity,\nthat we should think that we can so be, or so do, in this life,\nas that our being or doing should not smell of the strong scent\nof sin. 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.'(\nJob 14:4) 'We are all as an unclean thing, and' therefore 'all\nour righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' (Isa. 64:6) The scent,\nthe smell, the rank and odious stink of sins abide upon, yea, and\nwill abide upon us, when most spiritual here, and upon our most\nspiritual actions too, until they be taken away by Christ. Thus\nfar, therefore, we cannot be concerned in the exhortation. For\nshould Paul exhort us to depart from the being, motion, endeavour,\nand polluting fumes and scent of sin--I mean so to depart from\nthem, as that there shall no such thing have place, or motion,\nor striving, or scent in, or upon us--he would exhort us to that\nwhich is altogether impossible for us to perform, yea, to perform\nthrough that working of the Spirit of God, which is to be with\nus and in us here. Yea, he must exhort us to that which be could\nnot perform himself. But such exhortations did not stand with the\nwisdom of an apostle. Wherefore there is a certain meaning in this\nexhortation, from the which if we swerve, we shall both wrong the\napostle and ourselves.\n\nFIRST--Let us inquire then what Paul should mean, where he bids\nthem 'that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' And for\nour better understanding of him, we must consider that there is\nan iniquity that is inherent in us, and an iniquity that is apart,\nand at a distance from us. Now if he means, as certainly he doth,\nthat they that name the name of Christ should depart from that\nsin and iniquity that is in themselves; then, though he cannot\nmean that we should separate that from our persons, for that is\nimpossible, yet he would have us,\n\nFirst, Take off and withdraw our MINDS and AFFECTIONS therefrom.\nAnd he tells us that they that are Christ's do so. 'And they that\nare Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and\nlusts.' (Gal. 5:24) Sinful lusts and sinful motions our minds and\naffections should depart from them. There are the affections and\nlusts of sin; and there are the affections and lusts, or desires\nof the soul; and again, there are the affections and lusts of the\nnew man in saints. Now this is that that the apostle would have,\nto wit, that the affections and passions of our souls should not\nchoose but depart from the affections and lusts of our old man,\nand should be renewed and made willing to be led by the Holy\nGhost from them. 'This I say,' says he, 'Walk in the Spirit, and\nye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.' (ver. 16)\n\nWherefore, when he saith, depart from iniquity, if he means from\nour own inherent iniquity, then he must mean thus, take your mind\nand your affections off, carry your minds away from them, set\nyour minds and affections upon other objects, and let your minds\nand affections be yielded up to the conduct of the word and Spirit\nof God, 'Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye\nshould obey it in the lusts thereof.' (Rom. 6:12) Now a man, in\nmind and affections, may depart from that which yet will not depart\nfrom him; yea, a man in mind may depart from that which yet will\ndwell in him as long as he lives.\n\nFor instance, there are many diseases that cleave to men, from\nwhich, in their minds, they willingly depart. Yea, their greatest\ndisquietment is, that so bad a distemper will abide by them,\nand might they but have their desire accomplished, they would be\nas far therefrom as the ends of the earth are asunder, and while\nthey are found to continue together, the mind departs therefrom,\nand is gone either to God or to physicians for help and deliverance\nfrom it.\n\nAnd thus it is with the saint, and should be with every one that\nby way of profession nameth the name of Christ, he should depart\nfrom his indwelling sin, with his mind. 'With his mind he should\nserve the law of God.' (Rom. 7:25) And this is an excellent thing\nto do, and can be done by none but such as are possessed with\nan excellent spirit. Ah! to find a man that really departs from\nhimself, and that draweth the affections of the soul, from the\naffections and lusts of his flesh is rare thing. (Ezek. 11:19-21)\nThe heart of the most of professors goeth after their detestable\nlusts, and after their inward abominations. But such shall of\nthe flesh reap corruption,' notwithstanding they name the name of\nChrist. (Gal. 6:8)\n\nSin is sweet to him that is nothing but flesh, or that can savour\nnothing but what is of the flesh. (Job 20:12) Nor can it be that\nbe that is such should depart from himself, his sweet self. (Rom.\n8:5-8) No, they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the\nflesh; wherefore they that are in the flesh, though they profess\nreligion and name the name of Christ, cannot please God; for\nsuch, instead of walking in and after the Spirit, have put the\nstumbling-block of their iniquity before their faces, to hinder\ntheir departing therefrom. (Ezek. 14:7, 8) nor will all their\ninquiring of God, nor their seeking and praying to him, keep them\nfrom stumbling and falling, and splitting themselves in sunder\nupon the rocks and ruins that are provided for them, as a reward\nof the evil of their doings. (Job 14:16) Yea, they shall\nsuck the poison of asps, and the viper's tongue shall slay them,\nnotwithstanding all their profession.\n\nQuestion. But some may say, how shall I know that I do depart from\nthe iniquity of my flesh, from the iniquity that is in me.\n\nAnswer. I shall answer this question briefly thus:\n\n(1.) How is iniquity in thine eye, when severed from the guilt\nand punishment that attends it? Is it as separate from these,\nbeauteous, or ill-favoured? I ask thee how it looks, and how thou\nlikest it, suppose there were no guilt or punishment to attend\nthy love to, or commission of it? For if in its own nature it be\ndesirable to thy mind, and only therefore shunned for fear of the\npunishment that attends the commission of it, without doubt thou\nart none of them that do depart from it; all that thou dost is,\nthou shunnest the sin, not of abhorrence of the sin, but for fear\nof the punishment that attends it. Like the thief that yet refuseth\nto take away his neighbour's horse, not of hatred of theft, but\nfor fear of the gallows.\n\n(2.) How dost thou like thyself, as considered possessed with a\nbody of sin, and as feeling and finding that sin worketh in thy\nmembers? doth this yield thee inward pleasedness of mind, and a\nkind of secret sweetness, or bow? for to be sure, where a sanctified\nmind is, there is nothing more; odious in itself, nor that makes\na man so in his own eyes, as doth this sight, the sight of sin in\nhim, of the working of lust in him. (Job 42:6; Ezek. 16:63; Rom.\n6:12) It is this that makes the good man ashamed, that makes him\nblush, and that makes him abhor himself.\n\n(3.) How look thy duties in thine eyes, I mean thy duties which\nthou doest in the service of God? I say, how look the best of\nthese, the most warm and spiritual of these, since not one of them\ncan be performed, but they do catch the stain of sin, as coming\nfrom thee? or art thou through the ignorance that is in thee as\n[one] unacquainted with these things?\n\n(4.) Why wouldst thou go to heaven? Is it because thou wouldst be\nsaved from hell, or because thou wouldst be freed from sin? I say,\nwouldst thou go to heaven, because it is a place that is holy, or\nbecause it is a place remote from the pains of hell? I ask again,\nwherein dost thou think the blessedness of heaven consists? is\nit in the holiness that is there, or in the freedom that is there\nfrom hell? There is not a man alive but would go to heaven, that\nhe may be saved from hell: but how many would go thither that they\nmight be saved from the pleasures of sin, from the inward pleasure\nof sin; of that I will be silent, though surely they are those\nthat are out of love with sin, and that do depart from iniquity.\n\nVerily, my brethren, it is a great thing to depart from iniquity;\nit is a great thing to have my will, my mind, and my affections\ndeparting from it. But,\n\nSecond, As they that depart from iniquity withdraw their minds and\naffections from the lusts and motions of it, so they depart also\nfrom the OCCASIONS of it; there are occasions by which sin worketh\nto bring forth the fruits thereof, and some seek those occasions.\n(Rom. 14:13; 1 Tim. 5:4; Ex. 23:7; Prov. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:16) But\nhe that hath set himself to depart from sin in himself, will not\nseek occasions from abroad to do it. Such a man as will keep far\nfrom an evil matter will not company with a person that pollutes\nand defiles, nor will he come near the door of the adulteress's\nhouse; he will shun profane and vain babbling, for fear of the\nungodliness that attends it; he will walk with wise men that he may\nbe wise, knowing that 'a companion of fools shall be destroyed.'\n(Prov. 13:20)\n\nNow there are occasions given and occasions taken to sin against\nthe Lord Jesus; but he that departeth from iniquity departeth from\nthem both. He is not for giving any occasion to others to sin; he\nhad rather wrong himself and put up with injuries done, than give\noccasion to others to do iniquity; and as he is for giving none,\nso neither is he for taking any: he is for partaking of no man's\nsins, but for keeping of himself pure. (1 Tim. 5:22)\n\nThird, To depart from iniquity, is to depart from it in those\nEXAMPLES that are set before us thereto: occasions and examples\nare sometimes the same, but there may be occasions to sin where\nthere are no examples thereto, and therefore in that they differ.\nAnd to depart from iniquity is to shun and depart from those\nexamples, those beastly examples, that in every corner of the\ncountry present themselves to men.\n\nExamples to drunkenness; examples to whoredom; examples to\nswearing, to lying, to stealing, to sabbath-breaking, to pride,\nto covetousness, to deceit, to hypocrisy, and to what not, are\nnow-a-days common among men, and he that is to seek in this matter,\nand that know not how to be expertly base, may have patterns and\nexamples thereto in every hole. But to depart from iniquity is\nto depart from sinful examples, to shut the eyes at them, to turn\nthe back upon them, and to cry out to heaven for grace to be kept\nin the path of life. And, 'Let every one that nameth the name of\nChrist depart from iniquity.'\n\nFourth, To depart from iniquity is to depart from the ENTICINGS\nof iniquity. There is that in iniquity that is of an enticing\nnature. Its pleasures, profits, honours, delights, and sweetnesses\nare enticing, and he that hankers after these is not departed nor\ndeparting from iniquity. A man must be weaned from these things,\nand must find some things somewhere else that are better than\nthese, else he cannot depart from iniquity.\n\nQuestion. But some may say, I go from it and it follows me; I\nreject it and it returns upon me; I have said it nay, a thousand\ntimes, and yet it offereth itself and its deceits to me again,\nwhat would you have me do?\n\nAnswer. I would answer thus; Departing from iniquity is not a\nwork of an hour, or a day, or a week, or a month, or a year; but\nit is a work that will last thee thy lifetime, and there is the\ngreatness and difficulty of it: were it to be done presently, or\nwere the work to be quickly over, how many are there that would\nbe found to have departed from iniquity; but for that it is a work\nof continuance, and not worth anything, unless men hold out to the\nend, therefore it is that so few are found actors or overcomers\ntherein. Departing from iniquity, with many, is but like the\nfalling out of two neighbours, they hate one another for a while,\nand then renew their old friendship again.\n\nBut again, since to depart from iniquity is a work of time--of all\nthy time, no wonder if it dogs thee, and offereth to return upon\nthee again and again; for THAT is mischievous, and seeks nothing\nless than thy ruin: wherefore thou must, in the first place, take\nit for granted that thus it will be and so cry the harder to God\nfor the continuing of his presence and grace upon thee in this\nblessed work, that as thou hast begun to call upon the name of\nthe Lord Jesus, and begun to depart from iniquity, so thou mayest\nhave strength to do it to the last gasp of thy life.\n\nAnd further, for that departing from iniquity is a kind of a\nwarfare with it, for iniquity will hang in thy flesh what it can,\nand will not be easily kept under; therefore no marvel if thou\nfind it wearisome work, and that the thing that thou wouldest be\nrid of, is so unwilling to let thee depart from it.\n\nAnd since the work is so weighty, and that it makes thee to go\ngroaning on, I will for thy help give thee here a few things to\nconsider of: and [remember],\n\n1. Remember that God sees thee, and has his eyes open upon thee,\neven then when sin and temptation is lying at thee to give it some\nentertainment. This was that that made Joseph depart from it, when\nsolicited to embrace it by a very powerful argument. (Gen. 34:6-7)\n\n2. Remember that God's wrath burns against it, and that he will\nsurely be revenged on it, and on all that give it entertainment.\nThis made Job afraid to countenance it, and put him upon departing\nfrom it; 'For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by\nreason of his highness I could not endure.' (Job 31:23)\n\n3. Remember the mischiefs that it has done to those that have\nembraced it, and what distress it has brought upon others. This\nmade the whole congregation of Israel tremble to think that any\nof their brethren should give countenance to it. (Josh. 22:16-18)\n\n4. Remember what Christ hath suffered by it, that he might deliver\nus from the power of it. This made Paul so heartily to depart from\nit, and wish all Christians to do so as well as he. (2 Cor. 5:14)\n\n5. Remember that those that are now in hell-fire went thither\nfor that they loved iniquity, and would not depart from it. (Psa.\n9:17; 11:6)\n\n6. Remember that a profession is not worth a pin, if they that\nmake it do not depart from iniquity. (James 2:16, 17)\n\n7. Remember that thy death-bed will be very uneasy to thee, if\nthy conscience at that day shall be clogged with the guilt of thy\niniquity. (Hosea 7:13, 14)\n\n8. Remember that at the judgment-day Christ will say to those,\nDepart from me, that have not here departed from their sin and\niniquity. (Luke 13:27; Matt. 25:41)\n\nLastly, Remember well, and think much upon what a blessed reward\nthe Son of God will give unto them at that day that have joined\nto their profession of faith in him a holy and blessed conversation.\n\nHaving thus briefly showed you these things, I shall come in the\nnext place,\n\nSECOND, To show you, why some, that as to words rightly name the\nname of Christ, do not depart from iniquity. That it is incident\nto men to name the name of Christ religiously, and not to depart\nfrom iniquity, I have proved already, and now I must show you why\nit is so, and the reasons are of three sorts:\n\nFirst, Some profess him, yet have not saving faith in him, nor\nyet received grace from him. That some profess him that have not\nfaith in him, nor received grace from him, I will make appear\nfirst; and then that they do not depart from iniquity, shall be\nshown afterwards.\n\nThat the first is true consider, Christ says to his disciples,\n'There are some of you that believe not.' And again, 'For Jesus\nknew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who\nshould betray him.' (John 4:64) Now if they believe not, they have\nnone of his grace in them; for faith is the first and head grace,\nthe beginning and leading grace; he, therefore, that is destitute\nof that is empty of all the rest. Besides, other scriptures also\nconfirm this truth. James calls I some of the professors of Christ\nthat were in his day vain or empty men. (James 2:20) That is, men\nvoid of grace. And the apostle suggesteth in the very words below\nthe text, that as in God's house there are golden and silver saints,\nso there are also earthy and wooden ones. For 'in a great house'\nas God's is, 'are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also\nof wood and of earth, and some to honour, and some to dishonour.'\n(2 Tim 2:20) That is, some for heaven and some for hell. (Rom 9:\n20-23)\n\nNow they are these wooden and earthy professors that he aimeth\nat in the text; to wit, that they should depart from iniquity, or\nelse their profession would do them no good, and these also that\nhe despaireth of in the next words, saying, But in this great\nhouse of God there will not only be golden and silver Christians,\nbut wooden and earthly ones: And if any man purge himself from\nthese, from these men's companies, and from these men's vices, he\nshall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's\nuse, and prepared to every good work. From all which it is\ngathered that there are some that name the name of Christ in a\nway of profession, that have neither faith nor grace in them, and\nso, consequently, that do not depart from iniquity. For,\n\nThese want that principle, that holy and blessed principle, that\nshould induce them thereunto; to wit, the great and principal\ngraces of the Spirit, and they are four.\n\n1. As I have said, they want FAITH, that heart-purifying grace,\nfor the heart is purified by faith. (Acts 15:9) I have showed you\nalready that departing from iniquity must be with the mind and\naffections, or with the heart. But how can that be, where the\nheart is not sanctified and made holy? For, an unsanctified mind\ncannot depart from iniquity, no more than the Ethiopian can change\nhis skin. (Jer. 13:3) But nothing can purify the heart but faith.\nTherefore nothing can make a professor depart from iniquity where\nfaith is wanting. So then, when men professedly name the name of\nChrist without having holy faith in him, they still abide by their\niniquity; they depart not from their iniquity, but rather make\nof their profession a cloak for their iniquity, for their malice,\nand for their covetousness, and the like. (1 Thess 2:15; 1 Peter\n2:16) It is not profession, but faith, that bringeth God and the\nsoul together; and as long as God and the soul are at a distance,\nwhatever profession is made, there is not a departing, not\nan heart-departing from iniquity. Wherefore to these professors\nJames writeth thus, 'Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh\nto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts,\nye double-minded.' (James 4:8) Men, far from God, cannot think\nreverently of him, nor so speak and profess him, as standeth with\nthe nature of gospel religion; wherefore God saith, draw near\nhither, that is by faith; and again, 'let them come near, then\nlet them speak,' then let them profess. (Isa 41:1) Without faith\na man cannot please God, because he cannot without it stand before\nhim in the spotless righteousness of Christ, nor yet depart from\niniquity, and live a holy life. (Heb 11:6)\n\nThere are three things in faith, that directly tend to make a man\ndepart from iniquity. (l.) It apprehendeth the truth of the being\nand greatness of God, and so it aweth the spirit of a man. (2.) It\napprehendeth the love of this God in Christ, and so it conquereth\nand overcometh the spirit of a man. (3.) It apprehendeth the\nsweetness and blessedness of the nature of the Godhead, and thence\npersuadeth the soul to desire here, communion with him, that it\nmay be holy, and the enjoyment of him, when this world is ended,\nthat it may be happy in, and by him, for ever.\n\nBut without faith these things cannot be apprehended, and therefore\nthose that want it, whatever; their profession is, they will not\ndepart from iniquity.\n\n2. [They want REPENTANCE.] Repentance is another of the great\nand principal graces which the Holy Ghost worketh in the heart.\nWherefore, without this also there can be no departing from iniquity.\nIt is in vain to expect it of any man, let his profession be never\nso stately and great, if he is a stranger to sound repentance. How\nmany are there in our day, since the gospel is grown so common,\nthat catch up a notion of good things and from that notion make\na profession of the name of Christ, get into churches, and obtain\nthe title of a brother, a saint, a member of a gospel congregation,\nthat have clean escaped repentance. I say, they have catched up\na notion of good things, and have through that adventured to name\nthe name of Christ, quite forgetting to take repentance with them.\nRepentance should be, and is one of the first steps into the true\ngospel profession. (Mark 1:15; Prov 3:7; 16:6) But some know nothing\nof it, until they come to the end of all, and their repentance\nwill do them no good. Repentance is not but where the true fear\nof God is; yea, the fear of God is one ground of repentance.\nRepentance is the scouring grace, it is that which purges. Repentance\nis, as I may call it, that bitter pill without the taking, and\nsound working of which, base and sinful humours will rest unstirred,\nunpurged, undriven out of the soul. Can repentance be where godly\nsorrow is not? or can repentance be where the fruits of repentance\nare not? O the fruits of repentance, thick sown by preachers, but\nit comes up but thinly! (Mark 1:4,5; Rom 6:21; Jer 7:3,5) Where\nshall the fruits of repentance be found? Confession of sin is one\nfruit of repentance; shame for sin is another fruit of repentance;\namendment of life is another fruit of repentance; restitution\nfor couzening, cheating, defrauding, beguiling thy neighbour, is\nanother fruit of repentance. (Luke 19:5-8) Yea, if you would see\nthe fruits of repentance as described by the Holy Ghost, and put\ntogether for the further conviction and shame of the impenitent\nprofessor, look into the second epistle to the Corinthians, 12:9-11.\n\nBut this is a day that was never read of, a day wherein conversion\nis frequent without repentance; such a conversion as it is, and\ntherefore doth the church of God now swarm with them that religiously\nname the name of Christ, and yet depart not from iniquity. Alas!\nall houses, all tables, all shops, have hanging up in them the\nsign of the want of repentance. (Eccl 7:27,28) To say nothing of\nthe talk, of the beds and the backs of most that profess, by which\nof these is it that one of a thousand for men; and for women,\none of ten thousand, do show that they have repentance? No marvel\nthen that the name of Christ is so frequently mentioned there,\nwhere iniquity dwells, yea, reigns, and that with the consent of\nthe mind.\n\nI would not be austere, but were wearing of gold, putting on of\napparel, dressing up houses, decking of children, learning of\ncompliments, boldness in women, lechery in men, wanton behaviour,\nlascivious words, and tempting carriages, signs of repentance;\nthen I must say, the fruits of repentance swarm in our land; but\nif these be none of the fruits of repentance then, O, the multitude\nof professors, that religiously name the name of Christ, and do\nnot depart from iniquity.[3] But,\n\n3. [They want LOVE.] Love is another of those great and principal\ngraces which the Holy Ghost worketh in the heart; wherefore let\nprofession be never so high, yet if love be wanting there, to be\nsure such professors 'depart not from iniquity,' (1 Cor 13) Hence\nall profession, and subjecting to profession, are counted nothing,\nwhere love is not. Love is counted a most infallible sign that a\nman is in a state of salvation. 'He that loveth dwells in God, is\nborn of God, and knoweth him.' (1 John 4:7,16,21) Love divideth\nitself, to God, and to my neighbour. Love to God is, that we\nkeep his sayings, his commandments, his laws. 'If a man love me,'\nsaith Christ, 'he will keep my words;--and he that loveth me not,\nkeepeth not my sayings.' (John 14:23,24) For this is the love of\nGod, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not\ngrievous.' (1 John 5:3) So then, that professor that hath not love,\ncannot depart from iniquity. (l.) Where no love is, men cannot\nbe tender of the name of God, they are not afflicted because men\nkeep not God's law. (Psa 119:136; 1 Col 13:5) (2.) Where no love\nis, men cannot deny themselves of that which otherwise they might\nlawfully do, lest the weak should fall, and the world be destroyed.\n(Rom 14:15) (3.) Where love to God is, there is hatred against\niniquity; 'ye that love the Lord, hate evil.' (Psa. 97:10)\n\nA man cannot love God that loves not holiness; he loves not holiness\nthat loves not God's word; he loves not God's word that doth not\ndo it. It is a common thing to find men partial in God's law,\nsetting much by small things, and neglecting the weightier matters,\npaying tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and neglecting the\nweightier matters. These turn the tables of God's book upside\ndown; making little laws of great ones; and great ones of little\nones; counting half an hour's bodily service better than a moral\nlife. Love! love is gone out of the country; love to the doctrine\nof the first table, love to the doctrine of the second table. O\nhow many professors, in God's eyes, are accounted of no more than\nsounding brass, for want of this ornament, love! (1 Cor 13)\n\nTo speak nothing of the first table, where is he that hath his\nlove manifested by the second? where are they that feed the hungry\nand clothe the naked, and send portions to them, for whom nothing\nis prepared? Where is Paul that would not eat meat while the world\nstandeth, lest he made his brother offend? (1 Cor 8:13) Where is\nDorcas, with her garments she used to make for the widow, and for\nthe fatherless? (Acts 9:36-39) Yea, where is that rich man that,\nto his power, durst say as Job does? as recorded in Job 30:25;\n31:13,32. Love! love is gone, and now coveting, pinching, griping,\nand such things are in fashion: now iniquity abounds, instead of\ngrace, in many that name the name, of Christ. They want love, and\ntherefore cannot depart from iniquity.[4]\n\n4. [They want HOPE.] Hope is another of those great and principal\ngraces, which the Holy Ghost worketh in the heart, and without\nwhich, let a man be never so high in profession, and so open in\nnaming the name of Christ, he cannot depart from iniquity. As was\nsaid before of faith, so we say now of hope. 'And every man that\nhath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.' (1\nJohn 3:3) Here is that excellent office, or rather effect of hope\nmade manifest, it purifieth, it cleanseth a man; it makes him make\nthe Lord Jesus his example, as well as his Saviour. He purifieth\nhimself even as he is pure; to wit, in soul, in body, in spirit,\nin life and conversation. Hope of life, eternal by Christ, makes\na man purify himself in obeying the truth through the Spirit.\nHope to be with Christ hereafter, will make me strive to believe\nhim here. Hope of being with angels then, will make a man strive\nto live like an angel here. Alas! alas! there is a company of\nhalf-priests in the world, and they cannot, they dare not teach\nthe people the whole counsel of God, because in so doing they\nwill condemn themselves and their manner of living in the world;\nwhere is that minister now to be found that dare say to his people,\nLook on me, and walk as you have me for an example? or that dare\nsay, What you see and hear to be in me, do, 'and the God of peace\nshall be with you ?' (Phil 3:17; 4:9) These men had hope and hope\npurified them to an example, till they became patterns to others.\nIs not this now far off from some professors in the world? Are\nthey purified, are they clean that name the name of Christ? are\nthey weaned from that milk, and drawn from the breasts? No, nor\ntheir profession is not attended with grace; they name the name\nof Christ; well, but they do not depart from iniquity. Let a man\nbelieve a lie, and according to the reality of his belief, such\nwill his obedience be; let a man hope for that for which he hath\nno ground to hope, yet his hope will work with him according to\nthe power thereof; and yet we have a generation of men that profess\nthe blessed gospel, which yieldeth the most substantial ground for\nfaith and hope; yea, we have a company of men that will be naming\nthe name of Christ, which is the sweetest, the most taking, and\ndesirable name that is named among the sons of men, and for all\nthat, this gospel, this worthy name, nor yet their naming of it,\ndoth make them depart from iniquity. But what's the reason? why,\nthey have taken up a profession, but want the grace of Christ; the\nfaith, the repentance, the love and hope of the gospel. No marvel\nthen, if they abide among the wooden sort of professors: no marvel\nthen, though the iniquity of their heels still follows them, and\nthat it droppeth from them wherever they go. But so much for the\nfirst reason, why men do name the name of Christ and yet do not\ndepart from iniquity.\n\nSecond, The second reason, why some that name the name of Christ,\ndepart not from iniquity, is, for that, though they rest not in\nbare notions, as those forementioned, yet they take up as they,\nshort of the saving grace of God. There are bare notions, there\nare common workings, and there is a work that is saving, and that\nwill do the soul good to eternity.\n\n1. There are bare notions, and they that have them are such unto\nwhom the gospel comes IN WORD ONLY. (1 Thess 1:5; 1 Cor 4:19,20)\nSuch whose religion stands in word only, and is not attended with\na power suitable; that is, there goeth not along with the word, a\npower sufficient to subdue, and work over the heart to a cordial\nand gracious close with that word that comes to them. Yet such is\nthe noise and sound of the word, that they are willing to become\nprofessors thereof; there is some kind of musicalness in it,\nespecially when well handled and fingered by a skilful preacher.\nAnd lo, saith God unto such preachers, when their auditory is made\nup of such kind of hearers, 'And lo, thou art unto them as a very\nlovely song,' or as one that sings a song of loves, 'of one that\nhath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for\nthey hear thy words but they do them not.' (Eze. 33:30-32)\n\n2. But then, besides these, there is another sort, and they go\nfurther than these. For to them the word came, not in word only,\nbut also in POWER: though not in that or in such a power as is\nsufficient absolutely against all attempts whatsoever to bring the\nsoul to glory. Of these we read in several places; to wit, that\nthey have tasted of the powers of the world to come; but not so\nas to bring them safe to glory. Yet thus far they go. (1.) They\nattain light or illumination, to see much of their state by nature\nwith. (Heb 6:4) (2.) This light standeth not in bare speculation,\nbut lets fall upon the conscience convincing arguments to the\nbowing and humbling of the spirit. (1 Kings 21:27-29) (3.) They\nsubmit to these convictions, and reform, and may for a time not only\ncome out from them that live in error, but escape the pollutions\nof the world, by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\n(2 Peter 2:18-20; Gal 3:4; 4:20) (4.) Yea, so powerful will this\ndispensation be, that it will prevail with them to do and suffer\nmany things for the vindication of the truth of that gospel which\nthey profess. For the word will be sweet unto them. Christ, the\ngift of God, will be relished by them. (Heb 6:4,5) The powers of\nthe world to come will be in them. Some workings of the Holy Ghost\nwill be in them. And joy, which is as oil to the wheels, will be\nwith their souls. (Luke 8:13)\n\nThus, I say, it is with some professors, who yet cannot be said\nto depart from iniquity, that is, for all ado, because the things\nthat now are upon them, abide with them but awhile. 'For awhile\nthey believe: they rejoice in the light for a season.' (Luke\n8:13, John 5:35, 2 Peter 2:21) So they clean escape from them,\nwho live in error for a little, or awhile; and after that return\nto their old course, and are again entangled with their iniquities\nand overcome. This is called, 'A turning with the dog to his own\nvomit again, and with the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in\nthe mire.' And some of these are set forth by this and such like\nsayings, 'When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh\nthrough dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. Then he saith,\nI will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he\nis come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth\nhe, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than\nhimself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of\nthat man is worse than the first.' (Matt 12:44,45)\n\nNow the causes of this declension, returning, or falling away\nagain into iniquity, are many.\n\nFirst [Cause of falling away.] One is for that this work, this\nwork of power that they have been made partakers of, has not\nbeen thorough enough upon all the powers of their souls. Their\nunderstandings, their judgments and consciences have been dealt\nwith, but the power of God has not been upon their wills and\nminds, and affections, rightly to subdue them to the grace of the\ngospel. (Psa. 110:3) Indeed there seems to be subjection of the\nwill, and an overruling of the mind, and affections also, else\nthey could not for a time lay aside their iniquity, come off from\nthe pollutions of the world, and for a season rejoice in the world\nand be pleased with the light thereof. But we may consider, that\nthis may be, not for that a sound work of God hath passed upon these\npowers of the soul, but that rather this was by reason of those\nreflex acts, that the understanding now enlightened, the judgment\nnow informed, and the conscience now convinced, had upon these\nother powers of the soul. And I the rather think it so, because\nwillingness, mindfulness of, and affection for, this gospel, lasted\nno longer than the light shined in their understandings, or than\nthe things were relished by their judgment and conscience. So that\nwhen the light of their candle went out, and when the taste of\nthis sugar-plum was out of their mouth, their wills and affections,\nnot being possessed with the fear of God, they returned again to\ntheir course, and went away as before with iniquity.\n\nNor do I by anything here discoursed, lay blame or fault at the\ndoor of God. For,\n\n1. He is a free agent to do what he pleaseth, and may, if he please,\nrefuse to give anything, or if he gives something, why may he not\ngive what he pleases also? He may give special grace to one, and\nthat which is not so to another: he may open Balaam's eyes, (Num.\n24:3) and open Lydia'a heart; (Acts 16:14) he may give some but\na taste, and cause some to eat abundantly. (Heb. 6; Songs 5:1)\nHe may suffer some to fall away, and keep others, by his power,\nthrough faith unto salvation.\n\n2. Besides, God's withdrawing, to wit, of those common workings,\nif they were withdrawn without, a cause given--which yet I\nquestion--yet why may they not be withdrawn from these, as well\nas from his own peculiar ones. He knows but little, that doth\nnot know that God ofttimes hides his face from his own, and also\nwithdraws from them the light and great influences of the Holy\nGhost: and turns them over, at least in their own apprehensions,\nto the ungodly, and to fallen angels for their chastisement, or\ntrial; or instruction, &c.\n\n3. And why may not God, since these rebels had such working with\nthem, as that their minds, by their understanding, their will and\naffections; by their judgment and consciences were somewhat taken\nand allured, cause a withdrawing of these for trial, and to see\nif they would cry after him to return.\n\nBut we will let these things pass, and call you again to remembrance\nof what is in hand: we are now shewing that there be them that\nname the name of Christ, 'that yet depart not from iniquity,' and\nin shewing the cause of their not so doing, one was for that the\ngospel came to them in word only; and the other was, for that\nthough it came to others in power, yet not in power, or in that\npower, that effectually keepeth some to salvation. Upon this\nsecond reason I now am, and am shewing how it comes to pass that\nthey that are under the power of the things that we have afore\ndiscoursed, should notwithstanding that, return to their vomit\nagain. One cause of this declension, or going back to iniquity,\nI have just now touched upon, and we have some more behind.\n\nSecond [Cause of falling away.] Therefore such persons upon the\nwithdrawing of those influences that at present are mighty upon\nthem, do forthwith; forget, both what they had, and what work it\nmade upon them. Straightway they forget what manner of men they\nwere. It is said of Israel, they sang his praises, they soon forgot\nhis word. So these they forget.\n\n1. They forget what light and what conviction they had.\n\n2. They forget what sorrow for sin they had.\n\n3. They forget what tastes of Christ and his word they had.\n\n4. They forget what joy and comfort they had.\n\n5. They forget how fair for heaven they were.\n\n6. And they forget how cleansed once they were.\n\n'They have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins.'\n(2 Peter 1:9) Now forgetfulness makes things that are past as\nnothing; and if so, then it can lay no obligations upon the mind,\nto engage it to the delight of them, and to the enjoying of them,\nno not in the thoughts of them, as if they were remembered by us.\nForgetfulness is a very dangerous thing: it makes preaching vain,\nprofession vain, faith vain, and all to no purpose. (1 Cor. 15:1,\n2) Such profession is but a dream, and the professors but as\ndreamers: all vanishes in the morning. This made Paul so caution\nthe Corinthians, that they forgot not the preaching; and the author\nto the Hebrews, so earnestly calls them, in their back-sliding,\nback to the remembrance of former days, and to the recollecting\nof what it was that then had made them so willingly endure their\ngreat fight of affliction. (Heb. 10:32, 33)\n\nForgetfulness, I say, makes things nothing; it makes us as if\nthings had never been; and so takes away from the soul one great\nmeans of stay, support, and encouragement; when choice David was\ndejected, the remembrance of the hill Hermon was his stay; when\nhe was to go out against Goliah, the remembrance of the lion and\nthe bear was his support: so when those that have had the power\nof the things of God upon them, can think of this; when they are\nwithdrawn, it will, even the thinking of it, have some kind of\noperation upon the soul. And therefore you shall find, that the\nrecovering of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of\nformer things. 'Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,\nand repent, and do the first works.' (Rev. 2:5)\n\nIt is marvellous to see how some men are captivated with this\nforgetfulness. Those that sometimes have prayed, cried, groaned,\nand sighed, for eternal life; those that sometimes thought no\npains too much, no way too far, no hazards too great to run, for\neternal life; those who sometimes were captivated with the word,\nand with the comforts and joy thereof, and that, had it been\npossible, could have pulled out their eyes, and have given them to\na gospel minister, so dear and sweet were the good tidings which\nthey brought to such. (Gen. 4:14, 15) I say it is marvellous to\nsee how such men are captivated with the forgetfulness of this.\nThey are as if they never had been those men; they are as if they\nhad never had such things; or, as if they never had thought about\nthem. Yea, they are strange, and carry it strangely to all those\nthat still are under the power of that word, and of that mighty\nband by which sometimes themselves were guided.\n\nShould one say to some, Art not thou the man that I once saw crying\nunder a sermon, that I once, heard cry out, What must I do to\nbe saved? and, that some time ago I heard speak well of the holy\nword of God? how askew will they look upon one; or if they will\nacknowledge that such things were with them once, they do it more\nlike images and rejected ghosts, than men. They look as if they\nwere blasted, withered, cast out, and dried to powder, and now\nfit for nothing but to be cast into the fire, and burned. (John\n15:6) The godliness from which they are departed, and the iniquity\nunto which again they have joined themselves, has so altered, so\nmetamorphosed and changed their heart, and mind, and ways. This\ntherefore as the second thing which shews why some that have been\nunder something of the power of things,[5] are again with iniquity\nentangled and overcome.\n\nThird [Cause of falling away.] Another thing that makes these\nenlightened ones, that they continue not to depart from iniquity,\nis the persecution that always attends the word: for persecution\nalways attends the word, that of the tongue, or that of the sword.\nNow these men that were once enlightened, though they cannot\nremember what they were themselves, yet Satan helps them to think\nthat their neighbours remember what they were: and having now\nlost the savour, the sense of what they once had, and sinned away\nthat Spirit that brought it to them, they grow weak; yea are above\nall men the most unable to stand up, to abide the shock and trial,\nthat for their profession is coming upon them. Wherefore, by and\nby they are offended; to wit, with their own profession, and call\nthemselves an hundred fools, for being so heedless, so witless, and\nunwary, to mind God's holy things in such a time and day. (Matt.\n4:16, 17; Luke 8:13) Then they bethink with themselves, how to\nmake an honourable retreat, which they suppose they usually do,\nby finding fault, first with their own unadvisedness, and of the\nover-persuasiveness of others; they also now begin to say farewell\nconscience, yea, God and heaven and all, and join in confederacy\nwith the world again. Thus are they in fear, where no fear is;\nand the sound of a shaken leaf doth chase them. And there are four\nthings that are the cause of this.\n\n1. For that not withstanding the former power that attended the\nword to their hearts, their hearts did still abide as hard as\na rock, there was no true and sound breaking, nor softening in\nthat; wherefore there the word wanted depth of earth, as our Lord\nis pleased to call it; and anon when the sun was up, that which\nremained was presently scorched, and so withered away.\n\n2. Notwithstanding what they had sometimes enjoyed, yet the grace\nof the fear of God was wanting in them. (Eccl. 7:16-18) So wanting\nthat, what should hinder but that they should return to go as\nthey came, and leave Christ, the gospel, and the people of God to\nshift as well as they can for themselves.\n\n3. All that they enjoyed did not estrange their hearts from their\nlusts, though when they were in the power of things, they were\ndeader to them than formerly; I say than formerly. (Psa. 78:30,\n36, 37) And it is even with such, as with them, who are for a time\ntaken off from what yet they love, by some new employ in which\nthey are engaged. Saul went out to look for David to kill him,\nbut when he came at Naioth, in Ramah, the Spirit of God came upon\nhim, and he prophesied. (1 Sam. 19:18, 24) But this lasted but\nfor a while. Saul soon returned to his old envy against the holy\nman again.\n\n4. It comes upon them even of judgment and wrath, for since they\nso soon give way to sin, and forget, God suffereth them to fall\ninto the fear of men, and to force their hearts to comply with bad\nthings,--even as Judas and Demas did,--till they are swallowed up\nof that gulph, into which the ungodly descend. 'As for such as\nturn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth\nwith the workers of iniquity.' (Psa. 125:5)\n\nWhen once God is angry with a people, he can deal with them, he\ncan give them up to those lusts in judgment, that they will not\nbe separated from by mercy. Yea, he can make a way for his anger\nto overtake them that have made a way, by the deceits of their\nhearts, to go a-whoring from under him.\n\nAnd these are the causes why those that were once enlightened, and\nhave tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to\ncome, return with the dog to his own vomit again; and so, though\nthey have or do name the name of Christ, yet depart not from\niniquity.\n\nThird, A third reason, why they that name the name of Christ do not\ndepart from iniquity, may be, because GRACE IS WEAK and CORRUPTION\nSTRONG. I speak now of them that are truly gracious; for as those\nthat never had nothing but notion, did never at all depart from\niniquity: and as those that never had saving grace, though common\nworkings were with them, do but a little depart from iniquity; so\nthose that yet have the grace of God in them, in truth, do not,\nas they should, depart from iniquity; wherefore the exhortation is\nas much to them as it is to any body else; 'and let them that name\nthe name of Christ,' with gracious lips, 'depart from iniquity.'\nFor though there is a great difference betwixt these and the two\nsorts that I mentioned before,--these having the true principles of\nholiness in them, but the other nothing thereof,--yet they, even\nthey, also have need of this exhortation; for they do not, as\nthey should, 'depart from iniquity.' Their graces, as I said, are\nweak, and that is the reason thereof.\n\nThat these do not depart from iniquity, as they should, is clear.\n\n1. For that their highest acts of holiness are tainted therewith,\nand made imperfect thereby. (Isa. 64:6; Psa. 143:2; Heb. 12:15;\nMatt. 6:23) This is manifest, because they still are afraid to\nshew themselves before God in their own works, and because they\nbetake them for acceptation with God, to the priestly office of\nChrist, and pray by him, 'forgive us our trespasses.'\n\n2. This is clear also, because we are, while in this world, nowhere\nby the word said to have attained to the mark and point of absolute\nperfection; but are bid to grow, to follow on, to press forward,\nand to perfect holiness in the fear of God. (2 Peter 3:18; Heb.\n6:12; Phil. 3:12-14; 2 Cor. 7:1) Yea, the best of us all, even\nthe apostles and prophets, have not only made it manifest by their\nimperfections, that as yet they have not departed from iniquity as\nthey should; but they have confessed, and denied not, that they\nwere yet in the pursuit of righteousness, and had not already\nattained.\n\n3. This is clear also, for that the righteousness, by the which the\nbest of saints are justified in the sight of God, is a righteousness\nof another, not their own; the righteousness of another man, for\nthat there is not any upon earth that doth good and sins not.\nAnd what need we pray, 'forgive us our trespasses,' approach God\nin the perfections of another, and be bid 'to perfect holiness,'\nif we had already attained, or were already perfect, or were so\ndeparted from iniquity as we should.\n\n4. Alas, the complaints of God concerning this matter, doth\nsufficiently testify the truth of what I say. When God came to his\npeople in Egypt, and bid them forsake the idols of Egypt, they did\nnot. But they rebelled against me, says he, and would not hearken\nunto me; they did not, every man, cast away the abominations of\nhis eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Well, he\nsaved them out of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness,\nand said to them there, Obey my laws, and my commandments; but\nthe house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness, they\nwalked not in my statutes, they despised my judgments. Well, then\nhe had them from the wilderness to Canaan, and then said to them,\nKeep my laws. (Eze. 20) But when he had brought them into the\nland, then they also polluted themselves, and sinned, against him\nas before. Again, when God brought them out of captivity, both\nthey, and every thing that they did, was unclean. (Hag. 2:14)\n\nTo be short, what says Paul in the seventh to the Romans? what\nsays James in the third chapter of his epistle? (ch. 3:2) And what\nsays John in his first epistle, and first chapter? (1 John 1:9)\nDo they not all confess, though themselves were apostles, and so\nfor grace and gifts beyond any that breathe in this world, that\nsin and iniquity was yet with them; and so consequently, that\nthere was not as yet that departing by them therefrom, as there\nshould. And the reason, as I have said, is, because grace is weak,\nweak in the beat and most strong of the saints of God. Hence the\ngreatest saints use to complain, when much assaulted with corruptions,\nor attended with very hard service for God, of their weakness and\ninsufficiency, as to a completeness of doing the will of God.\n\n(1.) Moses, when God did but bid him nourish and succour Israel in\nthe wilderness, and carry them in his bosom, as the nursing-father\nbeareth the sucking child, was stricken with such fear of\nmiscarrying, through the weakness of his graces and the power of\nhis corruptions, that he cried to God, saying, 'I am not able to\nbear all this people alone, because it too heavy for me. And if\nthou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand,--and\nlet me not see my wretchedness.' (Num. 11:14, 15)\n\n(2.) Job, when he was, for a proof of his integrity, to be exercised\na while with some of the judgments of God, cries out, in a sense\nof his weakness to bear them, and to go through as he should, 'Is\nmy strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?' And\nagain, 'Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over\nme? Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? And wilt thou pursue\nthe dry stubble?' (Job 6:12; 8:12; 13:25)\n\n(3.) So Daniel, when he was but to stand and talk with the angel,\nhow weak did he find himself; 'There remained,' saith he, 'no\nstrength in me;' and, '0 my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are\nturned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the\nservant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord? for as for me,\nstraightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there\nbreath left in me.' (Dan. 10) Some may say, but this is natural\nweakness. But I ask, how came nature to be so weak, but through\nsin? the remains whereof abiding still upon the best of saints,\nmake them, not withstanding their graces, incapable to do any\nthing as they should.\n\n(4.) Paul, a man of men, who had so much grace, revelation of\ngrace and communion with Christ, that sometimes he knew not whether\nhe was in or out of the body, and yet you find him making bitter\ncomplaint of the weakness of his grace, and of the power of his\ncorruptions. 'I am carnal,' saith he, and what I hate that do\nI. 'How to perform that which is good I find not;' 'when I would\ndo good evil is present with me.' 'But I see another law in my\nmembers, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into\ncaptivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.' '0 wretched\nman that I am,' &c. What complaints, what confessions, what bewailing\nof weakness is here? And what need was there of any of this, if\nPaul could, as he would, have departed from iniquity? (Rom. 8)\n\nI have instanced in these four men, because as to failings and\nmiscarriages they are as free--by what the holy record saith--as\nany four of whose lives you shall read in all the Bible; but you\nsee that they were too weak to do good and depart from iniquity\nas they would.\n\nGrace may be said to be weak, either when a lower or less degree\nthereof is compared with a higher and greater degree of the same;\nor it may be said to be weak when, in what degree of it you will,\nit shall be engaged by, or engage itself against sin, &c.\n\nThere are degrees of grace in the world, some have less, and some\nbigger measures thereof, and according to the measure of grace\nreceived, so is a Christian capable of action. He that has little,\nacts but weakly; he that has much, acts more strongly; and he\nof the saints that has most, acteth best of all: but yet none of\nthese three can act so as they should and would, and, consequently,\nso depart from iniquity as is their duty. Witness those four that\nI mentioned but now, for they are among the first-rate of saints,\nyet you see what they did, and hear what they said.\n\nSin is a mighty tyrant; it is also installed in our flesh, and\nhas moreover that in it which suiteth with whatever is sensual in\nus. The flesh relisheth it well, though the spirit of the Christian\nis against it.\n\nSin is an active beast, and will not admit that the soul should\nattempt to put forth itself in any good thing, without opposition\nand contradiction. 'When I should do good evil is present with\nme.'[6]\n\nSin is of a polluting and defiling nature, and what grace soever\nit toucheth it staineth, and in staining makes it weaker, than\nwere it not so defiled it would be. Besides, not a grace, nor an\nact of grace in the soul can escape untouched.\n\nUnbelief stands ready to annoy faith in the grace, as well as in\nthe act of faith.\n\nHardness of heart will not let love so affectionately and\nsympathisingly act as it should.\n\nSense and reason being polluted will not let hope be so steadfastly\nfixed upon unseen things as it should.\n\nPride will not let us be so humble as we ought, nor self so self\ndenying. Passion often interrupts our patience, and angry motions\nour meekness. By these, and more that might be named, it appears\nthat sin is in us, opposeth our graces, and letteth[7] them from\nacting as they should; and because this sin has part of ourself\nin its possession, therefore though our more noble part be utterly\nagainst it, yet we depart not from it as we should.\n\nGod chargeth Moses with rash and unadvised words, and so he doth\nJob also: Daniel did wear the name of an idol god, and Paul freely\nconfesseth himself unfirm. (Num. 20:12; Psa. 106:32; Job 38:2;\nJob 42:6; Dan. 4:8; Rom. 7:24)\n\nNor may what hath now been said be applied to those that are weak\nin faith, and so in every other grace; for the strongest grace\nwhen acted as well as we can, cannot cause that we depart from\niniquity as we should. (l.) Because the strongest grace cannot\nact without opposition. (2.) Because we that are the actors are\nlame, infirm, and made weak by sin that dwells in us. (3.) Because\ngrace and a state of grace is not that wherein the perfection\ndesigned for us doth lie, for that is in another world. (a.) This\nis a place to act faith in. (b.) This is a place to labour and\ntravel in. (c.) This is a place to fight and wrestle in. (d.) This\nis a place to be tried in.\n\nAnd therefore this is no place of perfection, and consequently no\nplace where God's people can depart from iniquity as they should.\nNow there is a twofold way of departing from iniquity. I. One is\nwhen the mind is set against it, and withdrawn from the love and\nliking of it. II. The other is when the practice of it is shunned\nby the whole man.\n\nI. The first of these ways, the saints, though they truly do depart\nfrom iniquity, yet depart not from it as they should. (1.) Their\nunderstanding sees not the utmost baseness that is in it. (2.) Their\njudgment is not informed about the vileness of it to perfection.\n(3.) The conscience has not yet been convinced of all the evil that\nis in it. Then, (a.) How should the soul abhor it as it should?\n(b.) How should the desires depart from it with that fervency as\nthey should? (c.) And the will and affections so turn away from\nit as they should?\n\nII. Second, As to the shunning of the acts of sin, there we also\ncome wonderful short.\n\nWe shun not the sins of others as we should. This is made appear,\n(1.) For that we shun not the company of base men as we should.\n(2.) Nor shun or refuse to imitate them in their evil, as we should.\nHow easily are good men persuaded to comply with bad men's ways.\nYea, Jehoshaphat himself said to Ahab, that base one: Behold, 'I\nam as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.'\n(1 Kings 22:4) Joseph could learn in Pharaoh's court, to 'swear\nby Pharaoh's life.' (Gen. 42:15, 16) Peter also, when dissembling,\nwas in fashion among the people, could learn to dissemble likewise.\n(Gal. 2:11-14)\n\nWe shun not our own sins or the sine of our own company as we\nshould. Christians learn to be proud one of another, to be covetous\none of another, to be treacherous and false one of another,\nto be cowardly in God's matters one of another, to be remiss and\nnegligent in christian duties one of another.\n\nBesides, if I should go about to shew here, how Christians will\nhide iniquity, as David. (2 Sam. 12:12) How they will excuse it,\nas did Aaron. (Ex. 32:22-24) How they will plead for it, as did\nthe men of the city of Joash for Baal. (Jud. 6:29-31) and the like,\nI might soon make it abundantly appear, that Christians do not\ndepart from iniquity as they should; and therefore the exhortation\nstands; good, and of use to the best of saints on earth, that\nthey and every of them 'should depart from iniquity.' Yea, the\nobservation also that they do not do it as they should, doth still\nstand good against us.\n\nWherefore, as it is true in those that have nothing but notion,\nand that it is true in those that are wrought upon, but not\neffectually, so it is true upon those that are truly gracious;\nobservation proves it, fears of damnation prove it, the outcry\nof the world proves it, and the confession of the best men proves\nit.\n\n\n[OBSERVATION SECOND.]\n\nI come now to another observation with which I will present you,\nand that is this, namely, that every one that in way of profession and\nreligion names the name of Christ, 'SHOULD DEPART from iniquity.'\nI say, that every one that in a way of profession and religion,\n'nameth the name of Christ, should depart from iniquity.' This\ntruth needs more practice than proof. For I think there are none\nthat have either scripture or reason by them, but will freely\nconsent to this.\n\nNor is there any thing ambiguous in the observation, that we need\nnow to stand upon the explaining of. For,\n\nWhat iniquity is, who knows not?\n\nThat it cleaves to the best, who knows not?\n\nThat it is disgraceful to profession, who knows not? and therefore\nthat it ought to be departed from, who knows not?\n\nBut because the motives in particular may not be so much considered\nas they ought, and because it is Satan's design to tempt us to\nbe unholy, and to keep iniquity and the professing man together;\ntherefore I will in this place spend some arguments upon you that\nprofess, and in a way of profession do name the name of Christ,\nthat you depart from iniquity; to wit, both in the inward thought\nand in the outward practice of it. And those arguments shall\nbe of four sorts, some respecting Christ, some his Father, some\nourselves, and some the world.\n\n\nFirst, [Arguments that respect CHRIST.]\n\nFirst, The Christ, whom you profess, whose name you name, and\nwhose disciples you pretend to be, is holy. 'Be ye holy, for I\nam holy,' (1 Peter 1:16) This is natural to our discourse; for if\nChrist be holy, and if we profess him, and in professing of him,\ndeclare that we are his disciples, we ought therefore to depart\nfrom iniquity, that we may shew the truth of our profession to\nthe world.\n\nSecond, They that thus name the name of Christ should depart from\niniquity, because this Christ, whose name we name, is loving. Those\nthat have a loving master, a master that is continually extending\nhis love unto his servants, should be forward in doing of his\nwill, that thereby they may shew their sense, and acceptation of\nthe love of their master. Why, this is his will, 'that we depart\nfrom iniquity, that we throw sin away; that we fly every appearance\nof evil.' (1 Thess. 5:22; Heb. 7:26)\n\nThird, They that thus name the name of Christ should depart from\niniquity, because of the honour and reputation of their Lord. It\nis a disparagement to Christ, that any of his servants, and that\nany that name his name, should yet abide by, and continue with,\niniquity. 'A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master:\nif then I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a Master,\nwhere is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts, unto you, O priests,\nthat despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy\nname?' (Mal. 1:6)\n\nFourth, They that name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity,\nbecause of his name, that his name may not be evil spoken of by\nmen; for our holiness puts a lustre and a beauty upon the name\nof Christ, and our not departing from iniquity draws a cloud upon\nit. Wherefore we ought to depart from iniquity, that the name of\nthe Lord Jesus may be glorified, and not reproached through us.\n\nFifth, They that name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity,\nbecause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That the gospel of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, which they profess, may not be evil spoken\nof by our neighbours. The gospel is called holy, therefore let them\nbe holy that profess it. (2 Peter 2:21) The which they can by no\nmeans be, if they depart not from iniquity. Men cannot serve the\ndesigns of the gospel, and their own worldly and fleshly designs.\nBut they that profess the name of Christ, they should be tender\nof his gospel, that they keep that in good esteem and reputation\nin the world. The which they can by no means do, unless they depart\nfrom iniquity.\n\nSixth, They that name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity,\nbecause the very profession of that name is holy. The profession\nis an holy profession. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the\nLord; the vessels, that is, the profession, for by that is as it\nwere carried about the name and gospel of Jesus Christ. We must\ntherefore lay aside all iniquity, and superfluity of naughtiness,\nand do as persons professing godliness, as professing a profession,\nthat Christ is the priest of, yea the high-priest of 1 Thess.\n2:30; Heb. 3:3. It is a reproach to any man to be but a bungler\nat his profession, to be but a sloven in his profession. And\nit is the honour of a man to be excellent in the managing of his\nprofession. Christians should be excellent in the management of\ntheir profession, and should make that which is good in itself,\ngood to the church and to the world, by a sweet and cleanly managing\nof it.\n\nSeventh, They that profess the name of Christ, or that name it\nreligiously, should to their utmost depart from iniquity, because of\nthe church of Christ which is holy. He that religiously professeth\nthe name of Christ, has put himself into the church of Christ,\nthough not into a particular one, yet into the universal one. Now\nthat is holy. What agreement then hath the temple of God with idols?\nAy, or any pillar, or post, or pin, or member of that temple. (2\nCor. 6:16) One black sheep is quickly espied among five hundred\nwhite ones, and one mangey one will soon affect many. One also\namong the saints, that is not clean, is a blemish to the rest,\nand, as Solomon says, 'one sinner destroyeth much good.' (Eccl.\n9:18)\n\nEighth, They that profess the name of Christ, or that name that\nname religiously, should depart from iniquity, because of the\nordinances of Christ, for they are holy. (Ex. 30:17-31) Men of\nold before they went in to meddle with holy things, were to wash\ntheir hands and their feet in a vessel prepared for that purpose.\nNow since they that name that name religiously do also meddle with\nChrist's appointments, they must also wash and be clean; cleanse\nyour hands ye sinners, if you mean to meddle with Christ in his\nappointment; wash lest God cut you off for your not departing from\niniquity.\n\nNinth, They that name the name of Christ religiously should depart\nfrom iniquity, because of Christ's observers. There are many that\nkeep their eye upon Christ, and that watch for an opportunity to\nspeak against him, even through the sides of those that profess\nhim. 'Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again\nof many in Israel; and for a sign that shall be spoken against.'\n(Luke 2:34) Some take occasion to speak against him, because of\nthe meanness of his person; here some again speak against him,\nbecause of the plainness of his doctrine; also some speak against\nhim, because of the meanness of his followers; and some speak\nagainst him, because of the evil deeds of some that profess him.\nBut if he that gives just occasion of offence to the least of the\nsaints had better be drowned in the sea with a mill-stone about\nhis neck; what think you shall his judgment be, who, through his\nmingling of his profession of Christ's name with a wicked life\nshall tempt or provoke men to speak against Christ?\n\n\nSECOND, I come now to those arguments that respect GOD THE FATHER.\n\nFirst, Then, they that profess the name of Christ should depart\nfrom iniquity; because of God the Father, because God the Father\nhas made Christ to be to us what he is; to wit, the Apostle and\nhigh-priest of our profession. 'He that honoureth not the Son,\nhonoureth not the Father which hath sent him.' (1 Cor. 1:30;\nJohn 5:23; 15:8) Nor can the Father be honoured by us, but by our\ndeparting from iniquity. All our talk and profession of Christ,\nadds no glory to his Father, who has made him our King, and\nPriest, and Prophet, if it be not joined to an holy conversation.\nWherefore, if you profess the name of Christ, and would hold the\nword in hand, that you have believed in him, depart from iniquity,\nfor the Father's sake that hath sent him.\n\nSecond, As it is the Father which hath made Christ to us what he\nis; so it is the Father who hath called us to partake of Christ\nand all his benefits. 'Wherefore we must depart from iniquity\nthat profess the name of Christ, that we may glorify him for his\ncall.' (1 Cor. 1:9; Heb. 3:1) He has called us to the fellowship\nof his Son Jesus Christ; that is, to partake of all that good\nthat is in him, as Mediator, and to be done by him for those that\ntrust in him. Nor had we ever come out of a cursed and condemned\ncondition, to Christ, for life and blessedness, but by the call\nof the Father; 'For it is not of works, but of him that calleth.'\n(Rom. 9:11) Now since he has called us to this privilege--even\nus whom he has called--and left others in their sins to perish by\nhis judgments, it is meet we should depart from iniquity. (Heb.\n3:1; 2 Peter 1:2, 3) Especially since the call by which he called\nus is heavenly, and holy, and because he has not only called us\nto glory, but to virtue.\n\nThird, We that religiously name the name of Christ, should depart\nfrom iniquity, because God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ\nhas commanded us to do. Wherefore gird up the loins of your minds,\nbe sober, and hope to the ene for the grace that is to be brought\nunto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children,\nnot fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your\nignorance; but as he that has called you is holy, so be ye holy\nin all manner of conversation: because it is written, 'Be ye holy,\nas I am holy.'\n\nFourth, They that religiously name the name of Christ should depart\nfrom iniquity, that they may answer the end for which they are\ncalled to profess his name. The Father has, therefore, called them\nto profess his name, that they might be trees of righteousness, the\nplanting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Dost thou then\nprofess the name of Christ: bring forth those fruits that become\nthat holy profession, that you may be called 'trees of righteousness,'\nand that God may be glorified for and by your professed subjection\nto the gospel of his Son. (Isa. 61:3)\n\nFifth, They that name--as afore--the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,\nshould depart from iniquity, that they may shew to the world\nthe nature and power of those graces, which God the Father has\nbestowed upon them that do religiously name the name of Christ.\nAnd the rather, because he that religiously nameth that name,\ndeclareth even by his so naming of him, that he has received grace\nof the Father, to enable him so to do. Now he cannot declare this\nby deeds, unless he depart from iniquity; and his declaring of it\nby words alone, signifies little to God or man. (Titus 1:16)\n\nSixth, We therefore that religiously name the name of Christ, should\nalso depart from iniquity, because the Spirit of the Father will\nelse be grieved. (Eph. 4:30) The countenancing of iniquity, the not\ndeparting therefrom, will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which\nyou 'are sealed to the day of redemption;' and that is a sin of\na higher nature that men commonly are aware of. He that grieveth\nthe Spirit of God shall smart for it here, or in hell, or both.\nAnd that Spirit that sometimes did illuminate, teach, and instruct\nthem, can keep silence, can cause darkness, can withdraw itself,\nand suffer the soul to sin more and more; and this last is the\nvery judgment of judgments. He that grieves the Spirit, quenches\nit; and he that quenches it, vexes it; add he that vexes it,\nsets it against himself, and tempts it to hasten destruction upon\nhimself. (1 Thess. 5:19) Wherefore take heed, professors, I say\ntake heed, you that religiously name the name of Christ, that you\nmeddle not with iniquity, that you tempt not the Spirit of the Lord\nto do such things against you, whose beginnings are dreadful, and\nwhose end in working of judgments is unsearchable. (Isa. 63:10;\nActs 5:9) A man knows not whither he is going, nor where he shall\nstop, that is but entering into temptation; nor whether he shall\never turn back, or go out at the gap that is right before him. He\nthat has begun to grieve the Holy Ghost, may be suffered to go on\nuntil he has sinned that sin which is called the sin against the\nHoly Ghost. And if God shall once give thee up to that, then thou\nart in the iron cage, out of which there is neither deliverance\nnor redemption. Let every one, therefore, that nameth the name of\nChrist, depart from iniquity, upon this second consideration.\n\n\nTHIRD, In the next place, I come now to those arguments that do\nrespect THYSELF.\n\nFirst, Those that religiously name the name of Christ should,\nmust, depart from iniquity, because else our profession of him is\nbut a lie. 'If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk\nin darkness, we lie.' (I John 1:6) 'And walk in darkness;' that\nis, and walk in iniquity, and depart not from a life that is\naccording to the course of this world. 'He that saith, I know him,\nand heepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not\nin him.' (ch. 2:4) The truth that he professes to know, and that\nhe saith he hath experience of, is not in him. Every man that\nnameth the name of Christ is not therefore a man of God, nor is\nthe word in every man's mouth, truth, though he makes profession\nof that worthy name. (1 Kings 17:24) It is then truth in him,\nand to others with reference to him, when his mouth and his life\nshall agree. (Rev. 2:2, 9; 3:9) Men may say they are apostles,\nand be liars: they may say they are Jews, that is, Christians, and\nlie, and be liars, and lie in so saying. Now this is the highest\nkind of lying, and certainly must therefore work the saddest sort\nof effects. Thus man's best things are lies. His very saying, I\nknow him, I have fellowship with him, I am a Jew, a Christian, is\na lie. His life giveth his mouth the lie: and all knowing men are\nsure he lies. 1. He lies unto God: he speaks lies in the presence,\nand to the very face of God. Now this is a daring thing: I know\ntheir lies, saith he; and shall he not recompense for this? See\nActs 5:4; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15. and take heed. I speak to you that\nreligiously name the name of Christ, and yet do not depart from\niniquity. 2. He lies unto men; every knowing man; every man that\nis able to judge of the tree by the fruit, knows that that man\nis a liar, and that his whole profession as to himself is a lie,\nif he doth not depart from iniquity. Thus Paul called the slow\nbellies,[8] the unsound professors among the Cretians, liars.\nThey were so in his eyes, for that their profession of the name\nof Christ was not seconded with such a life as became a people\nprofessing godliness. (Titus 1:12-16) They did not depart from\niniquity. But again, 3. Such a man is a liar to his own soul.\nWhatever such an one promiseth to himself, his soul will find it\na lie. There be many in the world that profess the name of Christ,\nand consequently promise their soul the enjoyment of that good,\nthat indeed is wrapt up in him, but they will certainly be mistaken\nhereabout, and with the greatest terror will find it so, when they\nshall hear that direful sentence, 'Depart from me, all ye workers\nof iniquity.' (Luke 8:27) Christ is resolved that the loose-lived\nprofessor shall not stand in the judgment, nor any such sinners\nin the congregation of the righteous. They have lied to God, to\nmen, and to themselves; but Jesus then will not lie unto them: he\nwill plainly tell them that he hath not known them, and that they\nshall not abide in his presence. But,\n\nSecond, Those that religiously name the name of Christ should\ndepart from iniquity, else, as they are liars in their profession,\nso they are self deceivers. I told you but now such lie to themselves,\nand so consequently they deceive themselves. 'But be ye doers of\nthe word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves.' (John\n1:22) It is a sad thing for a man, in and about eternal things,\nto prove a deceiver of others; but for a man to deceive himself,\nhis ownself of eternal life, this is saddest of all; yet there\nis in man a propenseness so to do. Hence the apostle says, be not\ndeceived, and let no man deceive himself. And again, verse 26,\n'If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his\ntongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.'\nThese words, 'but deceiveth his own heart,' I have much mused about:\nfor they seem to me to be spoken to show how bold and prodigiously\ndesperate some men are, who yet religiously name the name of Christ:\ndesperate, I say, at self deceiving. He deceiveth his own heart;\nhe otherwise persuadeth it, than of its ownself it would go:\nordinarily men are said to be deceived by their hearts, but here\nis a man that is said to deceive his own heart, flattering it off\nfrom the scent and dread of those convictions, that by the Word,\nsometimes it hath been under: persuading of it that there needs\nno such strictness of life be added to a profession of faith in\nChrist, as by the gospel is called for: or that since Christ has\ndied for us, and rose again, and since salvation is alone in him,\nwe need not be so concerned, or be so strict to matter how we\nlive. This man is a self deceiver; he deceives his own heart. Self\ndeceiving, and that about spiritual and eternal things, especially\nwhen men do it willingly, is one of the most unnatural, unreasonable,\nand unaccountable actions in the world. 1. It is one of the most\nunnatural actions; for here a man seeks his own ruin, and privily\nlurks for his own life. (Prov. 1:18) We all cry out against him\nthat murders his children, his wife, or his own body, and condemn\nhim to be one of those that has forgot the rules and love of\nnature. But behold the man under consideration is engaged in such\ndesigns as will terminate in his own destruction: he deceiveth\nhis own soul. 2. This is also the most unreasonable act; there\ncan no cause, nor crumb of cause that has the least spark or dram\nof reason, or of anything that looks like reason, be shown why a\nman should deceive himself, and bereave his soul of eternal life.\nTherefore, 3. Such men are usually passed over with astonishment\nand silence. 'Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this! and be horribly\nafraid, for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken\nme the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,\nbroken cisterns, that can hold no water.' (Jer. 2:11-13)\n\nBut, above all this, as to this head, is the most amazing place,\nwhere it is said, that the self deceiver makes his self deceiving his\nsport: 'Sporting themselves with their own deceivings.' (2 Peter\n2:13) These are a people far gone, to be sure, that are arrived\nto such a height of negligence, carelessness, wantonness, and\ndesperateness of spirit, as to take pleasure in, and make a sport\nof, that which will assuredly deceive them for ever. But this\nis the fruit of professing of Christ, and of not departing from\niniquity. The wisdom and judgment of God is such, as to give such\nover to the sporting of themselves in their own deceivings.\n\n\nFOURTH. [Those arguments that respect THE WORLD.]\n\nFirst, Those that religiously name the name of Christ should depart\nfrom iniquity, because of the scandal that will else assuredly\ncome upon religion, and the things of religion, through them.\nUpon this head I may begin to write with a sigh, for never more\nof this kind than now! There is no place, where the professors\nof religion are, that is clean and free from offence and scandal.\nIniquity is so entailed to religion, and baseness of life to the\nnaming of the name of Christ, that one may say of the professors\nof this age, as it was said of them of old, 'All tables are full\nof vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.' (Isa.\n28:8) Where are they even amongst those that strive for the rule,\nthat mind it at all, when it pinches upon their lusts, their\npride, avarice, and wantonness? Are not, now-a-days, the bulk of\nprofessors like those that 'strain at a gnat and swallow a camel?'\n(Matt. 23:24) Yea, do not professors teach the wicked ones to be\nwicked? (Jer. 2:33) Ah! Lord God, this is a lamentation, and will\nbe for a lamentation. What a sore disease is now got into the\nchurch of God, that the generality of professors should walk with\nscandal!\n\nNo fashion, no vanity, no profuseness, and yet no niggardliness,\nbut is found among professors. They pinch the poor, and nip from\nthem their due, to maintain their own pride and vanity. I shall\nnot need to instance particulars; for from the rich to the poor,\nfrom the pastor to the people, from the master to his man, and\nfrom the mistress to her maiden, all are guilty of scandal, and\nof reproaching, by their lives, the name of the Lord; for they\nprofess, and name that worthy name of Christ, but are not as they\nshould be, departed from iniquity.\n\n1. Hence the name of God is polluted and reproached, even till\nGod is weary and cries out, 'Pollute ye my name no more with your\ngifts and with your idols.' (Eze. 20:39) O do not pollute my name,\nsays God; rather leave off profession, and go every one to his\nwickedness. Tell the world, if you will not depart from iniquity,\nthat Christ and you are parted, and that you have left him, to\nbe embraced by them to whom iniquity is an abomination. It would\nfar better secure the name of God from scandal and reproach, than\nfor you to name the name of Christ, and yet not to depart from\niniquity. Then, though you sin, as now you do, the poor world would\nnot cry out, Ay, this is your religion! Then they would not have\noccasion to vilify religion because of you, since you tell them\nthat Christ and you are parted. But,\n\n2. If you will not leave off to name the name of Christ, nor yet\ndepart from iniquity, you also scandal the sincere professors\nof religion, and that is a grievous thing. There are a people in\nthe world that have made it their business, ever since they knew\nChrist, to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and\nspirit, and that desire to perfect holiness in the fear of God;\nand you scandalous professors mixing yourselves with them, 'make\ntheir gold look dim.' (Lam. 4:1) You are spots and blemishes to\nthem; Jude 12, you are an evil mixing itself with their good, and\na scandal to their holy profession. (2 Peter 2:13) You are they\nthat make the heart of the righteous sad, whom God would not have,\nsad; you are they that offend his little ones. Oh! the millstone\nthat God will shortly hang about your necks, when the time is come\nthat you must be drowned in the sea and deluge of God's wrath.\n\n3. If you will not leave off to name the name of Christ, nor yet\ndepart from iniquity, you continue to extend your scandal also\nto the word and doctrine of God. They that name the name of Jesus\nreligiously, should so carry it in the world, that they might\nadorn the doctrine of God their Saviour; but thou that professest\nand yet departest not from iniquity, thou causest the name and\ndoctrine which thou professest to be blasphemed and reproached by\nthe men of this world; and that is a sad thing, a thing that will\nbring so heavy a load upon thee, when God shall open thine eyes,\nand he will open them either here or in hell-fire, that thou wilt\nrepent it with great bitterness of soul. (1 Tim. 6:1) The Lord smite\nthee to the making of thee sensible to thy shame and conversion,\nif it be his blessed will. Amen! But,\n\n4. If thou wilt not leave off to name the name of Christ, nor yet\ndepart from iniquity, thou wilt bring reproach, scorn, and contempt\nupon thyself. For 'sin is a reproach to any people.' (Prov.\n14:34). (1.) These are they that God will hold in great contempt\nand scorn. (Isa. 1) (2.) These are they that his people shall\nhave in great contempt. 'Therefore,' saith he, 'have I also made\nyou contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye\nhave not kept my ways,' but have lifted up the face against my\nlaw.[9] (Mal. 2:9; Jer. 25:9, 18) 3. Such shall also be contemned\nand had in derision of the men of this world. They shall be\na hissing, a bye-word, a taunt, and a reproach among all people.\n'For them that honour me,' saith God, 'I will honour, and they\nthat despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (1 Sam. 2:30) I remember\nthat Philpot used to tell the Papists that they danced with their\nbuttocks uncovered, in a net,[10] because of the evil of their\nways; (Isa. 20:4) and the Lord bids professors have a care, 'that\nthe shame of thy nakedness do not appear,' or lest they walk\nnaked, and their shame be discovered. For those professors that\ndepart not from iniquity, however they think of themselves, their\nnakedness is seen of others: and if it be a shame to the modest\nto have their nakedness seen of others, what bold and brazen brows\nhave they who are not ashamed to show their nakedness, yea, the\nvery shame of it, to all that dwell about them? And yet thus doth\nevery one that religiously names the name of Christ, and yet doth\nnot depart from iniquity.\n\nSecond, Those that religiously name the name of Christ, and do\nnot depart from iniquity, they are the cause of the perishing of\nmany. 'Woe,' saith Christ, 'unto the world because of offences,'\n(Matt. 18:7). And again, 'Woe to that man by whom the offence\ncometh!' These are they that cause many to stumble at sin, and\nfall into hell. Hark, you that are such, what God says to you: 'Ye\nhave caused many to stumble at the law,' and at religion. (Mal.\n2:8) Men that are for taking of occasion you give it them; men\nthat would enter into the kingdom, you puzzle and confound them\nwith your iniquity, while you name the name of Christ, and do not\ndepart therefrom. One sinner destroyeth much good; these are the\nmen that encourage the vile to be yet more vile; these be the\nmen that quench weak desires in others; and these be the men that\ntempt the ignorant to harden themselves against their own salvation.\nA professor that hath not forsaken his iniquity, is like one that\ncomes out of the pest-house, among the whole, with his plague\nsores running upon him. This is the man that hath the breath of a\ndragon, he poisons the air round about him. This is the man that\nlays his children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself. What shall\nI say? A man that nameth the name of Christ, and that departeth\nnot from iniquity, to whom may he be compared? The Pharisees, for\nthat they professed religion, but walked not answerable thereto,\nunto what doth Christ compare them but to serpents and vipers?\nWhat does he call them but hypocrites, whited walls, painted\nsepulchres, fools, and blind? and tells them that they made men more\nthe children of hell than they were before. (Matt. 23) Wherefore\nsuch an one cannot go out of the world by himself: for as he gave\noccasion of scandal when he was in the world, so is he the cause\nof the damnation of many. 'The fruit of the righteous is a tree\nof life.' (Prov. 11:30) But what is the fruit of the wicked, of\nthe professors that are wicked? why, not to perish alone in their\niniquity. (Job 22:20) These, as the dragon, draw many of the stars\nof heaven, and cast them to the earth with their most stinking\ntail. (Rev. 12:4) Cast many a professor into earthly and carnal\ndelights, with their most filthy conversations.\n\nThe apostle did use to weep when he spake of these professors,\nsuch offence he knew they were and would be in the world. (Acts\n20:30; Phil 3:18, 19) These are the chief of the engines of Satan,\nwith these he worketh wonders. One Baalam, one Jeroboam, one Ahab;\nO how many fish bring such to Satan's net! These are the tares that\nhe strives to sow among the wheat, for he knows they are mischief\nto it. 'Wherefore, let every one that nameth the name of Christ\ndepart from iniquity.'\n\nFifth, Those that religiously name the name of Christ, and do not\ndepart from iniquity, how will they die; and how will they look\nthat man in the face, unto the profession of whose name they have\nentailed an unrighteous conversation? Or do they think that he\ndoth not know what they have done, or that they may take him off\nwith a few cries and wringing of hands, when he is on the throne\nto do judgment against transgressors? Oh! it had been better they\nhad not known, had not professed; yea, better they had never been\nborn; for as Christ said of Judas, so may it be said of these,\nit had been good for that man if he had never been born; and as\nChrist says it had been good, so Peter says it had been better. (Mark\n14:21; 2 Peter 2:20, 21) Good they had not been born, and better\nthey had not known and made profession of the name of Christ.\n\nBut perhaps some may ask me,\n\n\nWHAT INIQUITY THEY MUST DEPART FROM THAT RELIGIOUSLY NAME THE NAME\nOF CHRIST?\n\nFirst, I answer first, in general, those that religiously profess\nthe name of Christ, must depart from ALL iniquity. They should\nlay aside every weight; they should fly 'all appearance of evil.'\n(Heb 12:2; 1 Thess. 5:22) Many there be that are willing to part\nwith some sins, some pleasures, some unjust profits, if they may\nbe saved; but this selling of all, parting with all, forsaking of\nall, is a very hard chapter.\n\nAnd yet the Lord Jesus lays it there, saying so likewise,\n'whosoever he be of you,' of any of you that professeth my name,\n'that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.'\n(Luke 14:33) Christ by this text requireth more of them that are\nhis than to forsake all iniquity. Wherefore, to be sure, every\nsin is included. No less than universal obedience will prove a\nman sincere. A divided heart is a faulty one. (Hosea 10:2) He that\nforsaketh not every sin is partial in the law, nor can he have\nrespect to all God's commandments. (Job 20:13; John 14:21-24)\nThere can be no true love to Christ where there are reserves; he\nthat will hide any one sin in his bosom, or that will keep it,\nas the phrase is, under his tongue, is a secret enemy to Jesus\nChrist. He loveth not Christ that keepeth not his sayings. To halt\nbetween two is nought, and no man can serve two masters. Christ\nis a master, and sin is a master; yea, and masters are they so\nopposite, that he that at all shall cleave to the one shall by the\nother be counted his enemy. If sin at all be countenanced, Christ\ncounts himself despised. What man would count himself beloved\nof his wife that knows she hath a bosom for another? 'Thou shalt\nnot be for another man' saith he, 'so will I be for thee.' (Hosea\n3:3) Would the king count him a loyal subject who would hide in\nhis house, nourish in his bed, and feed at his table, one that\nimplacably hateth and seeketh to murder his majesty? Why, sin is\nsuch an enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, as kings command\nthat traitors be delivered up to justice, so Christ commands\nthat we depart from iniquity. 'Take away all iniquity,' is a good\nprayer, and to 'resist unto blood, striving against sin,' is a\ngood warfare, and he that brings 'every thought to the obedience\nof Christ' gets a brave victory. (Hosea 14:2; Heb. 12:4; 2 Cor.\n10:5) Grace leaveneth the whole soul, and so consequently all the\nparts thereof. Now where the whole is leavened, the taste must\nneeds be the same throughout. Grace leaves no power, faculty, or\npassion of the soul unsanctified, wherefore there is no corner in\na sanctified soul where sin may hide his head, to find rest and\nabode without control. Consequently, he that has a harbour for\nthis or that sin, and that can find a hiding-place and an abode\nfor it in his heart, is no Christian man. Let them then that\nchristianly name the name of Christ, make it manifest that they\ndo not do it feignedly, by departing from iniquity. But,\n\nSecond, And more particularly, they that name the name of Christ,\nas above, let them depart from their CONSTITUTION-SIN, or, if you\nwill, the sin that their temper most inclines them to. Every man\nis not alike inclined to the same sin, but some to one and some\nto another. Now let the man that professes the name of Christ\nreligiously, consider with himself, unto what sin or vanity am\nI most inclined; Is it pride? Is it covetousness? Is it fleshly\nlusts? And let him labour, by all means, to leave off and depart\nfrom that. This is that which David called his own iniquity, and\nsaith, 'I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from\nmine iniquity.' (Psa. 18:23) Rightly are these two put together,\nfor it is not possible that he should be an upright man that indulgeth\nor countenanceth his constitution-sin; but on the contrary, he\nthat keeps himself from that will be upright as to all the rest;\nand the reason is, because if a man has that grace, as to trample\nupon and mortify his darling, his bosom, his only sin, he will\nmore easily and more heartily abhor and fly the rest.\n\nAnd, indeed, if a man will depart from iniquity, he must depart\nfrom his darling sin first; for as long as that is entertained,\nthe others, at least those that are most suiting with that darling,\nwill always be haunting of him. There is a man that, has such and\nsuch haunt his house, and spend his substance, and would be rid\nof them, but cannot; but now, let him rid himself of that, for\nthe sake of which they haunt his house, and then he shall with\ncase be rid of them. Thus it is with sin. There is a man that is\nplagued with many sins, perhaps because he embraceth one: well,\nlet him turn that one out of doors, and that is the way to be rid\nof the rest. Keep thee from thy darling, thy bosom, thy constitution-sin.\n\nMotives to prevail with thee to fall in with this exhortation,\nare several.\n\n1. There can no great change appear in thee, make what profession\nof Christ thou wilt, unless thou cast away thy bosom sin. A man's\nconstitution-sin is, as I may call it, his visible sin; it is that\nby which his neighbours know him and describe him, whether it be\npride, covetousness, lightness, or the like. Now if these abide\nwith thee, though thou shouldest be much reformed in thy notions,\nand in other parts of thy life, yet say thy neighbours, he is the\nsame man still; his faith has not saved him from his darling; he\nwas proud afore, and is proud still; was covetous afore, and is\ncovetous still; was light and wanton afore, and is so still. He\nis the same man, though he has got a new mouth. But now, if thy\nconstitution-sin be parted with, if thy darling be cast away, thy\nconversion is apparent, it is seen of all, for the casting away of\nthat is death to the rest, and ordinarily makes a change throughout.\n\n2. So long as thy constitution-sin remains, as winked at by thee,\nso long thou art an hypocrite before God, let thy profession be\nwhat it will; also, when conscience shall awake and be commanded\nto speak to thee plainly what thou art, it will tell thee so, to\nthy no little vexation and perplexity.\n\n3. Besides, do what thou canst, so long as thou remainest thus thou\nwilt be of a scandalous life. No honour is brought to religion by\nsuch. But,\n\nAgain, As they that name the name of Christ 'should depart from\ntheir constitution-sin, so they should depart from the sins\nof other men's tempers also. Much harm among professors is done\nby each others' sins. There is a man that has clean escaped from\nthose who live in error, has shaken off the carnal world and the\nmen thereof, and is come among professors; but, behold, there also\nhe meeteth with wicked men, with men that have not departed from\niniquity; and there he is entangled. This is a sad thing, and yet\nso it is. I doubt there are some in the world, I mean professors,\nthat will curse the day that ever they were acquainted with some\nprofessors. There are professors that are defilers, professors\nthat are 'wicked men,' professors of whom a wicked man may learn\nto sin. (Jer. 5:26; 2:33) Take heed of these, lest, having fled\nfrom thine own sins, thou shouldest be taken with the sins of\nothers. 'Be not partakers of other men's sins,' is the counsel\nand caution that Paul giveth to Timothy, if he would keep himself\npure. (1 Tim. 5:22)\n\n4. Dost thou profess the name of Christ, and dost thou pretend\nto be a man departing from iniquity? Then take heed thou dost not\ndeceive thyself, by changing one bad way of sinning for another\nbad way of sinning. This was a trick that Israel played of old; for\nwhen God's prophets followed them hard with demands of repentance\nand reformation, then they would 'gad about to change their ways.'\n(Jer. 2:36) But, behold, they would not change a bad way for a\ngood, but one bad way for another, hopping, as the squirrel, from\nbough to bough, but not willing to forsake the tree. Hence they\nwere said to return, but not to the Most High. Take heed, I say,\nof this. Many leave off to be drunkards, and fall in with covetousness.\nMany fall off from covetousness to pride and lasciviousness: take\nheed of this. (Hosea 7:16) This is a grand deceit, and a common one\ntoo, a deceit of a long standing, and almost a disease epidemical\namong professors.\n\nMany times men change their darling sins, as some change their\nwives and servants: that which would serve for such an one this\nyear may not serve to be so for the year ensuing. Hypocrisy would\ndo awhile ago, but now debauchery. Profaneness would do when\nprofaneness was in fashion, but now a deceitful profession. Take\nheed, professor, that thou dost not throw away thy old darling\nsin for a new one. Men's tempers alter. Youth is for pride and\nwantonness; middle age for cunning and craft; old age for the world\nand covetousness. Take heed, therefore, of deceit in this thing.\n\n5. Dost thou profess the name of Christ, and dost thou pretend\nto be a man departing from iniquity? take heed, lest thy departing\nfrom iniquity should be but for a time. Some do depart from\niniquity, as persons in wrangling fits depart from one another;\nto wit, for a time, but when the quarrel is over, by means of some\nintercessor, they are reconciled again. O! Satan is the intercessor\nbetween the soul and sin, and though the breach between these two\nmay seem to be irreconcilable; yea, though the soul hath sworn\nit will never give countenance to so vile a thing as sin is more;\nyet he can tell how to make up this difference, and to fetch them\nback to their vomit again, who, one would have thought, had quite\nescaped his sins, and been gone. (2 Peter 2:18-22) Take heed,\ntherefore, O professor. For there is danger of this, and the height\nof danger lies in it; and I think that Satan, to do this thing,\nmakes use of those sins again, to begin this rejoinder, which he\nfindeth most suitable to the temper and constitution of the sinner.\nThese are, as I may call them, the master sins; they suit, they\njump with the temper of the soul. These, as the little end of the\nwedge, enter with ease, and so make way for those that come after,\nwith which Satan knows he can rend the soul in pieces. Wherefore,\n\n6. To help this, take heed of parleying with thy sins again, when\nonce thou hast departed from them: sin has a smooth tongue; if\nthou hearken to its enchanting language, ten thousand to one but\nthou art entangled. See the saying of the wise man, 'with her\nmuch fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of\nher lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an\nox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the\nstocks.' (Prov. 7:21, 22) He heard her charm, and by hearing is\nnoosed, and led away to her house, which is the way to hell, 'going\ndown to the chambers of death.'(ver. 27) Take heed, therefore,\nof listening to the charms wherewith sin enchanteth the soul. In\nthis, be like the deaf adder, stop thine ear, plug it up to sin,\nand let it only be open to hear the words of God.\n\nThird, Let them that name the name of Christ depart from the iniquity\nof THE TIMES. There are sins that may be called the iniquity of\nthe day. It was thus in Noah's day, it was thus in Lot's day, and\nit was thus in Christ's day--I mean, in the days of his flesh:\nand it is a famous thing for professors to keep themselves from\nthe iniquities of the times. Here lay Noah's excellency, here lay\nLot's excellency, and here will lie thy excellency, if thou keep\nthyself from the iniquity of this day. Keep or 'save yourselves\nfrom this untoward generation,' is seasonable counsel, (Acts\n2:40) but taken of but few; the sin of the time, or day, being as\na strong current or stream that drives all before it. Hence Noah\nand Lot were found, as it were, alone, in the practice of this\nexcellent piece of righteousness in their generation. Hence it is\nsaid of Noah, that he 'was a just man, and perfect in his generations.'\n(Gen. 6:9) And again, the Lord said unto Noah, 'Come thou and all\nthy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me,\nin this generation.' The meaning is, he kept himself clear of the\nsin of his day, or of the generation among which he lived. (Gen.\n7:1)\n\nThe same I say of Lot, he kept himself from the sin of Sodom; and\nhence Peter cries him up for such a righteous man. 'Just Lot,'\nsaith he, 'that righteous man,' whose righteous soul was vexed\nwith the filthy conversation of the wicked. Mark, 'a just man,'\n'a righteous man,' 'his righteous soul,' &c. But how obtained\nhe this character? Why, he abhorred the sin of his time, he fell\nnot in with the sin of the people, but was afflicted and vexed\nthereabout; yea, it was to him a daily burden. 'For that righteous\nman dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous\nsoul from day to day, with their unlawful deeds. So David, 'I\nbeheld,' saith he, 'the transgressors, and was grieved, because\nthey kept not thy word.' (Psa. 119:158) The sin of the times is to\nGod the worst of sins; and to fall in with the sin of the times is\ncounted as the highest of transgressions. Consequently, to keep\nfrom them, though a man should, through infirmity, be guilty of\nothers, yet he is accounted upright. And hence it is, I think, that\nDavid was called a man after God's own heart; to wit, because he\nserved his own generation by the will of God; or, as the margent\nreads, after he had, in his own age, served the will of God.\n(Acts 13) By the sin of the times, Satan, as it were, set up his\nstandard in defiance to God; seeking then to cause his name, in\na signal way, to be dishonoured, and that by the professors of\nthat age. And hence it is that the Lord doth manifest such wrath\nagainst his people that are guilty of the common sin of their\nday, and that he shews such special favour to them that abstain\ntherefrom. Was there no more, think you, but Noah, in his generation,\nthat feared God? Yes, several, no doubt; but he was the man that\nkept clear of the sin of his day, therefore he and his family\nmust be partakers of God's deliverance; the other must die before,\nand not be permitted to the mercy of the ark, nor to see the new\nworld with Noah. Unbelief was the sin of the day when Israel was\ngoing from Egypt to Canaan; therefore all that were guilty of that\ntransgression must be denied to go in to see that good land, yea,\nthough it were Moses himself. 'And the Lord spake unto Moses and\nAaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of\nthe children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation\ninto the land which I have given them.' (Num. 20:12)\n\nThe sin of the day is an high transgression; from the which, because\nCaleb and Joshua, kept then selves, God kept them from all the\nblasting plagues that overtook all the rest, and gave them the land\nwhich he had promised to their fathers. 'But my servant Caleb,\nbecause he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me\nfully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his\nseed shall possess it.' (Num. 14:24) Idolatry was the sin of the\nday just before Israel were carried captive into Babylon. Now\nthose of the priests that went astray then, even they say, God\nshall bear their iniquity. 'But the priests, the Levites, the sons\nof Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children\nof Israel went astray from me, they shall come near unto me, to\nminister unto me; and they shall stand before me, to offer unto me\nthe fat and the blood, saith the Lord God. They shall enter into\nmy sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister\nunto me, and they shall keep my charge.' (Ezek. 44:15, 16)\n\nGreat complaints have we now among professors, of deadness in\nduties, barrenness of the ministry, and of the withdrawing of God\nfrom his people; but I can tell you a cause of all this, namely,\nthe sin of the day is got into the church of God, and has defiled\nthat holy place. This is the ground and cause of all these things;\nnor is it like to be otherwise, till the cause shall be removed.\nIf any should ask me what are the sins of our day, I would say\nthey are conspicuous, they are open, they are declared as Sodom's\nwere. (Isa. 3:9) They that have embraced them, are not ashamed of\nthem; yea, they have got the boldness to plead for them, and to\ncount them their enemies that seek to reform them. All tables are\nfull of vomit and filthiness. And for pride and covetousness, for\nloathing of the gospel, and contemning holiness, as these have\ncovered the face of the nation, as they have infected most of them\nthat now name the name of Christ.\n\nAnd I say again, when you find out a professor that is not horribly\ntainted with some of these things, I exclude not the ministers\nnor their families, let him be as a beacon upon a hill, or as an\nensign in our land. But says one, Would you have us singular? and\nsays another, Would you have us make ourselves ridiculous? and\nsays a third, Such and such, more godly-wise than we, do so. But\nI answer, if God has made you singular, and called you to grace,\nthat is singular; and bid you walk in ways that are singular,\nand diverse from the ways of all others. Yea, if to depart from\niniquity will make you ridiculous, if to be holy in all manner\nof conversation will make you ridiculous, then be contented to be\ncounted so. As for the godly-wise you speak of, let them manifest\nthemselves to be such by departing from iniquity. I am sure that\ntheir being tainted with sins of the day, will not prove them\ngodly-wise. 'Behold, I have taught you,' said Moses, 'statute and\njudgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me; that ye should\ndo so in the land whither you go to possess it. Keep therefore,\nand do them, for this is your wisdom, and your understanding in\nthe sight of the nations, which shall hear of all these statutes,\nand say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding\npeople.' Here then is wisdom, and this is that that manifesteth a\npeople to be, understanding, and godly-wise, even the keeping of\nthe commandments of God. And why follow the apish fashions of the\nworld? Hath the God of wisdom set them on foot among us? or is\nit because the devil and wicked men, the inventors of these vain\ntoys, have outwitted the law of God? 'what nation is there so\ngreat, who hath God so nigh unto them' as his people have, and as\nhe 'is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation\nis there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous,\nas all this law,' said Moses, which I set before you this day?'\n(Deut. 4:5-8) This then is that which declareth us to be godly-wise,\nwhen we keep our soul diligently to the holy words of God; and\nfit not only our tongues and lips, but also our lives thereto.\n\nFourth, But again, let them that name the name of Christ depart\nfrom the iniquity, that is, as I may call it, from FAMILY INIQUITY.\nThere is a house iniquity; an iniquity that loves not to walk\nabroad, but to harbour within doors. This the holy man David was\naware of, therefore he said that he would behave himself 'wisely,\nin a perfect way;' yea, saith he, 'I will walk within my house\nwith a perfect heart.' (Psa. 101:2)\n\nNow this house iniquity standeth in these things. (l.) In domestic\nbroils and quarrels. (2.) In domestic chamberings and wantonness.\n(3.) In domestic misorders of children and servants.\n\n1. For house broils and quarrels, it is an iniquity to be departed\nfrom, whether it be betwixt husband and wife, or otherwise. This,\nas I said, is an iniquity that loves not to walk abroad, but yet\nit is an horrible plague within doors. And, many that shew like\nsaints abroad, yet act the part of devils when they are at home,\nby giving way to this house iniquity; by cherishing of this house\niniquity. This iniquity meeteth the man and his wife at the very\nthreshold of the door, and will not suffer them to enter, no not\nwith one foot into the house in peace, but how far this is from\nwalking together as heirs of the grace of life, is easy to be\ndetermined. Men should carry it in love to their wives, as Christ\ndoth to his church; and wives should carry it to their husbands,\nas the church ought to carry it to her Saviour. (Eph. 5:21-28;\n1 Peter 3:7) And until each relation be managed with respect to\nthese things, this house iniquity will be cherished there. O! God\nsees within doors as well as without, and will judge too for the\niniquity of the house as well as for that more open.\n\n2. As house iniquity standeth in domestic broils and contentions;\nso it also standeth in chamberings and wantonness. (Rom. 13:13)\nWherefore the apostle putteth them both together, saying, 'not\nin chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.' This\nchambering and wantonness is of a more general extent, being\nentertained by all, insomuch, that sometimes from the head to\nthe foot all are horribly guilty. But, 'it is a shame to speak of\nthose things that are done of some in secret;' for 'through the\nlusts of their own hearts, they dishonour their own bodies between\nthemselves,' 'working that which is unseemly,' (Eph. 5:12; Rom.\n1:24, 27) to their ignominy and contempt, if not with their fellows\net with God, who sees them, for the darkness hideth not from him.'\n(Psa. 139:12) It was for this kind of iniquity with other, that\nGod told Eli that he would 'judge his house for ever.' (1 Sam.\n3:13) also the words that follow are to be trembled at, that say,\n'The iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice\nnor offering for ever.' (ver. 14) Such an evil thing is house\niniquity in the eyes of the God that is above.\n\n3. As domestic iniquity standeth in these, so also in the\ndisorders of children and servants. Children's unlawful carriages\nto their parents is a great house iniquity; yea, and a common one\ntoo. (2 Tim. 3:2, 3) Disobedience to parents is one of the sins\nof the last days. O! it is horrible to behold how irreverently,\nhow irrespectively, how saucily and malapertly, children, yea,\nprofessing children, at this day, carry it to their parents;\nsnapping, and checking, curbing and rebuking of them, as if they\nhad never received their beings by them, or had never been beholden\nto them for bringing of them up; yea, as if the relation was lost,\nor as if they had received a dispensation from God to dishonour\nand disobey parents.\n\nI will add, that this sin reigns in little and great, for not only\nthe small and young, but men, are disobedient to their parent; and\nindeed, this is the sin with a shame, that men shall be disobedient\nto parents; the sin of the last times, that men shall be 'disobedient\nto parents,' and 'without natural affection.' Where now-a-days\nshall we see children that are come to men and women's estate,\ncarry it as by the word they are bound, to their aged and worn-out\nparents? I say, where is the honour they should put upon them?\nwho speaks to their aged parents with that due regard to that\nrelation, to their age, to their worn-out condition, as becomes\nthem? Is it not common now-a-days, for parents to be brought into\nbondage and servitude by their children? For parents to be under,\nand children above; for parents to be debased, and children\nto lord it over them. Nor doth this sin go alone in the families\nwhere it is; no, those men are lovers of their ownselves; covetous,\nboasters, proud, blasphemous, that are disobedient to their parents.\nThis is that the prophet means, when he saith, 'The child shall\nbehave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against\nthe honourable.' (Isa. 3:5) This is a common sin, and a crying\nsin, and to their shame be it spoken that are guilty; a sin that\nmakes men vile to a high degree, and yet it is the sin of professors.\nBut behold how the apostle brands them; he saith, such have but\n'a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,' and bids\nthe godly shut them out of their fellowship. (1 Tim. 3:5) This sin\nalso is, I fear, grown to such a height in some, as to make them\nweary of their parents, and of doing their duty to them. Yea,\nI wish that some are not 'murderers of fathers and mothers,' by\ntheir thoughts, while they secretly long after, and desire their\ndeath, that the inheritance may be theirs, and that they may be\ndelivered from obedience to their parents.(1 Tim. 1:9) This is a\nsin in the house, in the family, a sin that is kept in hugger-mugger,\nclose; but God sees it, and hath declared his dislike against it,\nby an implicit threatening, to cut them off that are guilty of it.\n(Eph. 5:1-5) Let them then that name the name of Christ, depart\nfrom this iniquity.\n\nDisorders of servants is also an house iniquity, and to be departed\nfrom by the godly. 'He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within\nmy, house;' said David; and 'he that telleth lies shall not tarry\nin my sight.' (Psa. 101:7) One of the rarities in Solomon's house,\nand which the queen of Sheba was so taken with, was the goodly\norder of his servants. (2 Chron. 9:4)\n\nSome of the disorders of servants are to be imputed to the governors\nof families, and some to the servants themselves. Those that are\nto be imputed to the governors of families, are such as these:\n(1.) When the servant learns his vileness of his master, or of\nher mistress. (2.) When servants are countenanced by the master\nagainst the mistress; or by the mistress against the master; or\nwhen in opposition to either, they shall be made equals in things.\n(3.) When the extravagancies of servants are not discountenanced\nand rebuked by their superiors, and the contrary taught them by\nword and life.\n\nThose to be imputed to the servants themselves are: (1.) Their\nwant of reverence to their superiors. (2.) Their backbiting and\nslandering of them. (3.) Their unfaithfulness in serving of them.\n(4.) Their murmuring at their lawful commands, &c.\n\nFrom all these domestic iniquities, let every one depart that\nreligiously nameth the name of Christ. And before I leave this\nhead, let me, to enforce my exhortation, urge upon you a few\nconsiderations to work with you yet further to depart from these\nhouse iniquities.\n\nConsider 1. A man's house, and his carriage there, doth more bespeak\nthe nature and temper of his mind, than all public profession.\nIf I were to judge of a man for my life, I would not judge of\nhim by his open profession, but by his domestic behaviours. Open\nprofession is like a man's best cloak, the which is worn by him\nwhen he walketh abroad, and with many is made but little use of\nat home. But now what a man is at home, that he is indeed. There\nis abroad, my behaviour to my friends, and customers, my outward\nhonesty in dealing and avoiding gross sins. There is at home, my\nhouse, my closet, my heart; and my house, my closet, shew most\nwhat I am: though not to the world, yet to my family, and to\nangels. And a good report from those most near, and most capable\nof advantage to judge, is like to be truer than to have it only\nfrom that which is gotten by my observers abroad. The outside of\nthe platter and cup may look well, when within they may be full\nof excess. (Matt. 23:25-28) The outward shew and profession may\nbe tolerable, when within doors may be bad enough. I and my house\n'will serve the Lord,' is the character of a godly man. (Josh.\n24:15)\n\nConsider 2. As the best judgment is made upon a man from his house,\nso that man is like to have the approbation of God for good, that\nis faithful in all his house. 'I know Abraham,' says God, 'that he\nwill command his children, and his household after him, and they\nshall keep the way of the Lord.' (Gen. 18:15) To make religion\nand the power of godliness the chief of my designs at home, among\nthose among whom God by a special hand has placed me, is that which\nis pleasing to God, and that obtaineth a good report of him. But\nto pass these, and to come to other things.\n\nConsider 3. A master of a family, and mistress of the same, are\nthose that are entrusted of God with those under their tuition\nand care, to be brought up for him, be they children or servants.\nThis is plain from the text last mentioned; wherefore here is\na charge committed to thee of God. Look to it, and consider with\nthyself, whether thou hast done such duty and service for God in\nthis matter, as, setting common frailties aside, thou canst with\ngood conscience lift up thy face unto God; the which to be sure\nthou canst by no means do, if iniquity, to the utmost, be not\nbanished out of thy house.\n\nConsider 4. And will it not be a sad complaint that thy servant\nshall take up against thee, before the Judge at the last day, that\nhe learnt the way to destruction in thy house, who art a professor.\nServants, though themselves be carnal, expect, when they come\ninto the house of professors, that there they shall see religion\nin its spangling colours; but behold, when he enters thy door, he\nfinds sin and wickedness there. There is pride instead of humility,\nand height and raillery[11] instead of meekness and holiness of\nmind. He looked for a house full of virtue, and behold nothing\nbut spider-webs; fair and plausible abroad, but like the sow in\nthe mire at home. Bless me, saith such a servant, are these the\nreligious people! Are these the servants of God, where iniquity\nis made so much of, and is so highly entertained! And now is his\nheart filled with prejudice against all religion, or else he turns\nhypocrite like his master and his mistress, wearing, as they, a\ncloak of religion to cover all abroad, while all naked and shameful\nat home. But perhaps thy heart is so hard, and thy mind so united\nto the pleasing of thy vile affections, that thou wilt say, 'What\ncare I for my servant? I took him to do my work, not to train him\nup in religion. Well, suppose the soul of thy servant be thus little\nworth in thine eyes; yet what wilt thou say for thy children, who\nbehold all thy ways, and are as capable of drinking up the poison\nof thy footsteps, as the swine is of drinking up swill: I say,\nwhat wilt thou do for them? Children will learn to be naught of\nparents, of professing parents soonest of all. They will be tempted\nto think all that they do is right. I say, what wilt thou say to\nthis? Or art thou like the ostrich whom God hath deprived of wisdom,\nand has hardened her heart against her young? (Job 39:13-17) Will\nit please thee when thou shalt see that thou hast brought forth\nchildren to the murderer? or when thou shalt hear them cry, I\nlearnt to go on in the paths of sin by the carriages of professing\nparents.[12] (Heb. 9:13) If it was counted of old a sad thing for\na man to bring forth children to the sword, as Ephraim did, what\nwill it be for a man to bring up children for hell and damnation?\nBut,\n\nFifth, Let those that name the name of Christ depart from the\niniquity of THEIR CLOSET. This may be called part of the iniquity\nof the house; but because it is not public, but as a retired part,\ntherefore I put it here by itself. There are many closets sins\nthat professors may be guilty of, and from which they have need\nto depart. As,\n\n1. There is the pride of a library, that is, the study or closet,\nand I doubt this sin and iniquity to this day is with many great\nprofessors, and in my judgment it is thus manifested. (l.) When\nmen secretly please themselves to think it is known what a stock\nof books they have, or when they take more pleasure in the number\nof, than the matter contained in, their books. (2.) When they\nbuy books rather to make up a number than to learn to be good and\ngodly men thereby. (3.) When, though they own their books to be\ngood and godly, yet they will not conform thereto.\n\nThis is an iniquity now on foot in this land, and ought to be\ndeparted from. It is better to have no books, and depart from\niniquity, than to have a thousand, and not to be bettered in my\nsoul thereby.\n\n2. There is an iniquity that attends the closet, which I may call\nby the name of vacancy. When men have a closet to talk of, not to\npray in; a closet to look upon, not to bow before God in: a closet\nto lay up gold in, but not to mourn in for the sins of my life;\na closet that could it speak, would say, My owner is seldom here\nupon his knees before the God of heaven; seldom here humbling\nhimself for the iniquity of his heart, or to thank God for the\nmercies of his life.\n\n3. Then also a man is guilty of closet-iniquity, when though he\ndoth not utterly live in the neglect of duty, he formally, carnally,\nand without reverence, and godly fear, performs it. Also, when he\nasketh God for that which he cannot abide should be given him, or\nwhen he prayeth for that in his closet, that he cannot abide in\nhis house, nor in his life.\n\n4. Then also a man is guilty of closet-iniquity, when he desireth\nthat the sound of the devotion he doth there, may be heard by them\nwithout in the house, the street, or of those that dwell by; for\na closet is only for the man and God to do things in secretly.\n(Matt. 6:6)\n\nThese things let the professor beware of, lest he add to his\niniquity, sin, until he and it comes to be loathsome. The closet\nis by God appointed for men to wait upon him in, and to do it\nwithout hypocrisy; to wait there for his mind and his will, and\nalso for grace to perform it. And how can a man that went last\ntime out of his closet to be naught, have the face to come thither\nagain? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear\nmy prayer; and if so, then he will not meet me in my closet; and\nif so, then I shall quickly be weary thereof, being left to myself,\nand the vanity of my mind.\n\nIt is a great thing to be a closet Christian, and to hold it; he\nmust be a close Christian, that will be a closet Christian. When\nI say a closet Christian, I mean one that is so in the hidden part,\nand that also walks with God. Many there be that profess Christ\nwho do oftener, in London[13] frequent the coffee-house than\ntheir closet; and that sooner in a morning run to make bargains\nthan to pray unto God, and begin the day with him. But for thee,\nwho professest the name of Christ, do thou depart from all these\nthings; do thou make conscience of reading and practising; do thou\nfollow after righteousness; do thou make conscience of beginning\nthe day with God; for he that begins it not with him will hardly\nend it with him; he that runs from God in the morning will hardly\nfind him at the close of the day; nor will he that begins with\nthe world and the vanities thereof, in the first place, be very\ncapable of walking with God all the day after. It is he that\nfinds God in his closet that will carry the savour of him into\nhis house, his shop, and his more open conversation. When Moses\nhad been with God in the mount his face shone, he brought of that\nglory into the camp. (Exo. 34)\n\nSixth, I add again, let those that name the name of Christ depart\nfrom the iniquity THAT CLEAVETH TO OPINIONS. This is a sad age\nfor that; let opinions in themselves be never so good, never so\nnecessary, never so innocent, yet there are spirits in the world\nthat will entail iniquity to them, and will make the vanity so\ninseparable with the opinion, that it is almost impossible with\nsome to take in the opinion and leave out the iniquity, that by\nthe craft and subtility of Satan is joined thereto. Nor is this\na thing new, and of yesterday; it has been thus almost in all\nages of the church of God, and that not only in things small and\nindifferent, but in things fundamental and most substantial. I\nneed instance in none other for proof thereof, but the doctrine\nof faith and holiness. If faith be preached as that which is\nabsolutely necessary to justification, then faith fantastical, and\nlooseness and remissness in life, with some, are joined therewith.\nIf holiness of life be preached as necessary to salvation, then\n(they say that) faith is undervalued, and set below its place, and\nworks as to justification, with God set up and made co-partners\nwith Christ's merits in the remission of sins. Thus iniquity\njoineth itself with the great and most substantial truths of the\ngospel, and it is hard to receive any good opinion whatever, but\niniquity will join itself thereto. (Eph. 5:12, 13) Wicked spirits\ndo not only tempt men to transgress the moral law, but do present\nthemselves in heavenly things, working there, and labouring in them,\nto wrest the judgment, and turn the understanding and conscience\nawry in those high and most important things. Wherefore, I say,\nwe must be the more watchful and careful lest we be abused in our\nnotions and best principles, by the iniquities that join themselves\nthereto.\n\nIt is strange to see at this day how, not withstanding all the\nthreatenings of God, men are wedded to their own opinions, beyond\nwhat the law of grace and love will admit. Here is a Presbyter,\nhere is an Independent, and a Baptist, so joined each man to his own\nopinion, that they cannot have that communion one with another,\nas by the testament of the Lord Jesus they are commanded and\nenjoined. What is the cause? Is the truth? No? God is the author\nof no confusion in the church of God. (1 Cor. 14:33) It is, then,\nbecause every man, makes too much of his own opinion, abounds too\nmuch in his own sense, and takes not care to separate his opinion\nfrom the iniquity that cleaveth thereto. That this confusion is\nin the church of Christ, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas,\nand I of Christ, is too manifest. But what unbecoming language\nis this for the children of the same father, members of the same\nbody, and heirs of the same glory, to be accustomed to? Whether\nis it pride, or hypocrisy, or ignorance, or self, or the devil,\nor the jesuit, or all these jointly working with the church, that\nmakes and maintains these names of distinction? This distinction\nand want of love, this contempt of one another, those base and\nundervaluing thoughts of brethren, will be better seen, to the\nshame and confusion of some, in the judgment.\n\nIn the meantime, I advise thee with whom I am at this time concerned,\nto take heed of this mixture, this sinful mixture of truth and\niniquity together; and to help thee in this thing, keep thine eye\nmuch upon thine own base self, labour also to be sensible of the\nimperfections that cleave to thy best performances, be clothed\nwith humility, and prefer thy brother before thyself; and know that\nChristianity lieth not in small matters, neither before God, nor\nunderstanding men. And it would be well if those that so stickle\nby their private and unscriptural notions, which only is iniquity\ncleaving to truth,--I say, it would be well if such were more\nsound in faith and morals, and if by their lives they gave better\nconviction to the world that the truth and grace of Christ is in\nthem.\n\nSometimes so much iniquity is mixed with good opinions, that it\nprevails, not only to hurt men in this world, but to drown them\nin misery everlasting. It was good that the Jews did own and allow\nthe ceremonies of the law, but since the iniquity that joined itself\nthereto did prevail with them to make those ceremonies copartners\nwith Christ in those matters that pertained to Christ alone,\ntherefore they perished in them. The Galatians also, with many of\nthe Corinthians, had like to have been overthrown by these things.\nTake heed, therefore, of that iniquity that seeketh to steal with\nthe truth into thy heart, thy judgment, and understanding.\n\nNor doth one iniquity come without another; they are linked\ntogether, and come by companies, and therefore usually they that\nare superstitious in one thing, are corrupted in several other.\nThe more a man stands upon his points[14] to justify himself and\nto condemn his holy brethren, the more danger he is in of being\novercome of diverse evils. And it is the wisdom of God to let\nit be so, that flesh might not glory in his presence. 'His soul,\nwhich is lifted up,' (Hab. 2:4) to wit, with his good doings,\nwith his order and methods in religion, 'his soul is not upright\nin him.' I have often said in my heart, What is the reason that\nsome of the brethren should be so shy of holding communion with\nthose every whit us good, if not better than themselves? Is it\nbecause they think themselves unworthy of their holy fellowship?\nNo, verily; it is because they exalt themselves, they are leavened\nwith some iniquity that hath mixed itself with some good opinions\nthat they hold, and therefore it is that they say to others,\n'Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou.'\n(Isa. 65:5) But what is the sentence of God concerning those? Why,\nthese are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.\nWherefore, as I said before, so I say now again, take heed of the\niniquity that cleaveth to good opinions; the which thou wilt in\nnowise be able to shun unless thou be clothed with humility.[15]\nBut,\n\nSeventh, Let them that name the name of Christ depart from HYPOCRISIES.\nThis exhortation is as the first, general; for hypocrisies are\nof that nature, that they spread themselves as the leprosy of the\nbody, all over; not the faculties of the soul only, but all the\nduties of a man. So that here is a great iniquity to be parted\nfrom, an over-spreading iniquity. This sin will get into all thy\nprofession, into every whit of it, and will make the whole of it\na loathsome stink in the nostrils of God. Hypocrisy will be in\nthe pulpit, in conference, in closets, in communion of saints,\nin faith, in love, in repentance, in zeal, in humility, in alms,\nin the prison, and in all duties. (Ezek. 8:12; Mal. 2:2; Matt.\n6:2; 8:20, 21; 23:15; Luke 12:1, 2; 20:19, 20; 1 Cor. 13:3; 2\nCor. 6:6; Col. 2:23; 2 Tim. 1:5) So that here is, for the keeping\nof thy soul upright and sincere, more than ordinary diligence to\nbe used. Hypocrisy is one of the most abominable of iniquities.\nIt is a sin that dares it with God. It is a sin that saith God\nis ignorant, or that he delighteth in iniquity. It is a sin that\nflattereth, that dissembleth, that offereth to hold God, as it were,\nfair in hand, about that which is neither purposed nor intended.\nIt is also a sin that puts a man upon studying and contriving to\nbeguile and deceive his neighbour as to the bent and intent of\nthe heart, and also as to the cause and end of actions. It is a\nsin that persuadeth a man to make a show of civility, morality,\nor Christian religion, as a cloak, a pretence, a guise to deceive\nwithal. It will make a man preach for a place and praise, rather\nthan to glorify God and save souls; it will put a man upon talking,\nthat he may be commended; it will make a man, when he is at prayer\nin his closet, strive to be heard without doors; it will make a\nman ask for that he desireth not, and show zeal in duties, when\nhis heart is as cold, as senseless, and as much without savour\nas a clod; it will make a man pray to be seen and heard of men,\nrather than to be heard of God; it will make a man strive to weep\nwhen he repenteth not, and to pretend much friendship when he doth\nnot love; it will make a man pretend to experience and sanctification\nwhen he has none, and to faith and sincerity when he knows not\nwhat they are. There is opposed to this sin simplicity, innocency,\nand godly sincerity, without which three graces thou wilt be a\nhypocrite, let thy notions, thy knowledge, thy profession, and\ncommendations from others, be what they will.\n\nHelps against this sin there are many, some of which I shall now\npresent thee with. (Psa. 16:2; 21:2; Luke 16:15). 1. Believe that\nGod's eye is always upon thy heart, to observe all the ways, all\nthe turnings and windings of it. 2. Believe that he observeth all\nthy ways and marks thy actions. 'The ways of man are before the\neyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.' (Prov. 5:21)\n3. Believe that there is a day of judgment a-coming, and that\nthen all things shall be revealed and discovered as they are. 'For\nthere is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid\nthat shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in\ndarkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken\nin the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops.'\n(Luke 22:2,3) 4. Believe that a hypocrite, with the cunning and\nshrouds for his hypocrisy, can go unseen no further than the grave,\nnor can he longer flatter himself with thoughts of life. For 'the\ntriumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite\nbut for a moment. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,\nand his head reach unto the clouds; yet he shall perish for ever,\nlike his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is\nhe? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, he\nshall be chased away as a vision of the night.' (Job 20:5-8) 5.\nBelieve that God will not spare a hypocrite in the judgment, no,\nnor punish him neither with ordinary damnation; but as they have\nhere sinned in a way by themselves, so there they shall receive\ngreater damnation. (Luke 20:47)\n\nOf all sins, the sin of hypocrisy bespeaks a man most in love with\nsome lust, because he dissembleth both with God and man to keep\nit.\n\nFor a conclusion upon this sevenfold answer to the question above\npropounded, let me advise those that are tender of the name of\nChrist, to have regard to these things.\n\nAdvice First, as well acquainted with the Word, and with the general\nrules of holiness; to wit, with the moral law; the want of this\nis a cause of much unholiness of conversation. These licentious\nand evil times wherein we live are full of iniquity; nor can we,\nthough we never so much love God, do our duty, as we are enjoined,\nif we do not know it. The law is cast behind the back of many, when\nit should be carried in the hand and heart, that we might do it,\nto the end [that] the gospel which we profess might be glorified\nin the world. Let then the law be with thee to love it, and do it\nin the spirit of the gospel, that thou be not unfruitful in thy\nlife. Let the law, I say, be with thee, not as it comes from\nMoses, but from Christ; for though thou art set free from the law\nas a covenant of life, yet thou still art under the law to Christ;\nand it is to be received by thee as out of his hand, to be a rule\nfor thy conversation in the world. (1 Cor. 9:18) What then thou\nart about to do, do it or leave it undone, as thou shalt find it\napproved or forbidden by the law. And when ought shall come into\nthy mind to be done, and thou art at a stand, and at a loss about\nthe lawfulness or unlawfulness thereof, then betake thyself to\nthe law of thy God, which is in thy hand, and ask if this thing\nbe good or to be avoided. If this were practised by professors,\nthere would not be so much iniquity found in their beds, their\nhouses, their shops, and their conversations, as there is.\n\nAdvice Second, As thou must be careful to find out the lawfulness\nor unlawfulness of a thing before thou puttest forth thy hand\nthereto, so thou must also consider again whether that which is\nlawful is expedient. A thing may be lawful in itself, and may yet\nbe unlawful to thee; to wit, if there be an inconveniency, or an\ninexpediency attending the doing of it. 'All things are lawful\nunto me,' says the apostle, 'but all things are not expedient;\nall things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.' (1 Cor.\n6:12; 10:23) This then thou must consider, and this also thou must\npractise.\n\nBut this is a hard lesson, and impossible to be done, except thou\nart addicted to self-denial; for this text, and so the practice\nof what is contained therein, has respect chiefly to another, to\nwit, to thy neighbour, and his advantage and edification; and it\nsupposeth, yea, enjoineth thee, if thou wilt depart from iniquity,\nto forbear also some things that are lawful, and consequently\nprofitable to thee, for the sake of, and of love to, thy neighbour.\nBut how little of this is found among men? Where is the man that\nwill forbear some lawful things, for fear of hurting the weak\nthereby? Alas! how many are there that this day profess, that\nwill not forbear palpable wickedness; no, though the salvation of\ntheir own souls are endangered thereby; and how then should these\nforbear things that are lawful, even of godly tenderness to the\nweakness of their neighbour?\n\nThus much have I thought good to speak in answer to this question,\nWhat iniquity should we depart from that religiously name the name\nof Christ? And now we will make some use of what hath been spoken.\n\nUSE FIRST. And the first shall be a use of examination. Art thou\na professor? Dost thou religiously name the name of Christ? If\nso, I ask, dost thou, according to the exhortation here, 'Depart\nfrom iniqnity?' I say, examine thyself about this matter, and be\nthou faithful in this work, for the deceit in this will fall upon\nthine own pate. Deceive thyself thou mayest, but beguile God thou\nshalt not. 'Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever\na man soweth, that shall he also reap.' (Gal. 6:7) Wherefore\nlet no man deceive himself, either in professing while he lives\nviciously, or in examining whether his profession of this name, and\nhis life, and conversation, do answer one another. What departing\nfrom iniquity is, I have already showed in the former part of this\nbook; wherefore I shall not here handle that point farther, only\npress upon thee the necessity of this exhortation, and the danger\nof the not doing of it faithfully. The necessity of it is urged,\n\nFirst, From the deceitfulness of man's heart which will flatter\nhim with promises of peace and life, both now and hereafter, though\nhe live in iniquity while he professeth the name of Christ. For\nthere are that say in their hearts, or that have their hearts say\nunto them, 'I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination\nof mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.' (Deut. 29:19) And\nwhat will become of them that so do, you may see by that which\nfolloweth in the text. The heart therefore is not to be trusted,\nfor it will promise a man peace in the way of death and damnation.\nI doubt not but many are under this fearful judgment to this day.\nWhat means else their quietness of mind, their peace and boasts\nof heaven and glory, though every step they take, as to life and\nconversation, is an apparent step to hell and damnation, 'The\nheart is deceitful.' (Jer. 17:9) and, 'He that trusteth in his\nown heart is a fool.' (Prov. 28:26) These sayings were not written\nwithout a cause. Let as many, therefore, as would examine themselves\nabout this matter, have a jealous eye over their own heart, and\ntake heed of being beguiled thereby; let them mix hearty prayer\nwith this matter unto God, that he will help them to be faithful\nto themselves in this so great a matter; yea, let them compare\ntheir lives with the holy commandment, and judge by that rather\nthan by the fleshly fondness that men naturally are apt to have\nfor, and of, their own actions; for by the verdict of the Word\nthou must stand and fall, both now, at death, and in the day of\njudgment. Take heed, therefore, of thy heart, thy carnal heart,\nwhen thou goest into thy life, to make a search for iniquity.\nTake the Word with thee, and by the Word do thou examine thyself.\n(John 12:48)\n\nSecond, It is urged from the cunning of Satan. Wouldest thou\nexamine thyself faithfully as to this thing, then take heed of\nthe flatteries of the devil: can he help it, thou shalt never find\nout the iniquity of thy heels. He will labour to blind thy mind,\nto harden thy heart, to put such virtuous names upon thy foulest\nvices, that thou shalt never, unless thou stoppest thine ear to\nhim, after a godly sort, truly examine and try thy ways, according\nas thou art commanded. (Lam. 3:40; 2 Cor. 13:5) Wherefore take\nheed of him, for he will be ready at thy side when thou goest\nabout this work. Now for thy help in this matter, set God, the\nholy God, the all-seeing God, the sin--revenging God, before thine\neyes; 'for our God is a consuming fire.' (Heb. 12:29) And believe\nthat he hath pitched his eyes upon thy heart; also that 'he pondereth\nall thy goings,' and that thy judgment, as to thy faithfulness,\nor unfaithfulness, in this work, must proceed out of the mouth of\nGod. (Prov. 5:21; 21:2) This will be thy help in this thing, that\nis, if thou usest it faithfully; also this will be thy hindrance,\nif thou shalt neglect it, and suffer thyself to be abused by the\ndevil.\n\nThird, It is urged from the dangerousness of the latter days.\nWouldst thou examine thyself, then make not the lives of others\nany rule to thee in this matter. It is prophesied long ago, by\nChrist and by Paul, concerning the latter times, 'that iniquity\nshall abound, and be very high among professors.' (Matt. 24:12; 2\nTim. 3:1-8) Therefore it will be a rare thing to find an exemplary\nlife among professors. Wherefore cease from man, and learn of the\nWord, try thyself by the Word, receive conviction from the Word;\nand to take off thyself from taking of encouragement from others,\nset the judgment before thine eyes, and that account that God will\ndemand of thee then; and know that it will be but a poor excuse\nof thee to say, Lord, such a one doth so, did so, would do so:\nand they professed, &c. Whether thou wilt hear me or not, I know\nnot, yet this I know, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for\nthyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' (Prov.\n9:12)\n\nLet me then, to press this use further upon thee, show thee in\na few particulars the danger of not doing of it, that is, of not\ndeparting from iniquity, since thou professest.\n\nDanger 1. The iniquity that cleaveth to men that profess, if they\ncast it not away, but countenance it, will a11 prove nettles and\nbriars to them; and I will assure thee, yea, thou knowest, that\nnettles and thorns will sting and scratch but ill-favouredly. 'I\nwent,' saith Solomon, 'by the field of the slothful, and by the\nvineyard of the man void of understanding. And lo, it was all\ngrown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof,\nand the stone wall thereof was broken down.' (Prov. 24:30, 31)\n\nSuppose a man were, after work all day, to be turned into a bed of\nnettles at night: or after a man had been about such a business,\nshould be rewarded with chastisements of briars and thorns: this\nwould for work be but little help, relief, or comfort to him; why\nthis is the reward of a wicked man, of a wicked professor from\nGod; nettles and thorns are to cover over the face of his vineyard,\nhis field, his profession, and that at the last of all; for this\ncovering over the face of his vineyard, with nettles and thorns,\nis to show what fruit the slovenly, slothful, careless professor,\nwill reap out; of his profession, when reaping time shall come.\n\nNor can he whose vineyard, whose profession is covered over with\nthese nettles and thorns of iniquity, escape being afflicted with\nthem in his conscience: for look as they cover the face of his\nvineyard through his sloth now, so will they cover the face of his\nconscience, in the day of judgment. For profession and conscience\ncannot be separated long; if a man then shall make profession without\nconscience of God's honour in his conversation, his profession\nand conscience will meet in the day of his visitation. Nor will\nhe, whose condition this shall be, be able to ward off the guilt\nand sting of a slothful and bad conversation, from covering the\nface of his conscience, by retaining in his profession the name\nof Jesus Christ: for naming and professing of the name of Christ\nwill, instead of salving such a conscience, put venom, sting, and\nkeenness into those nettles and thorns, that then shall be spread\nover the face of such consciences. This will be worse than was\nthat cold wet cloth that Hazael took and spread over the face of\nBenhadad, that he died. (2 Kings 8:15) This will sting worse, tear\nworse, torment worse, kill worse. Therefore look to it!\n\nDanger 2. Nor may men shift this danger by their own neglect of\ninquiring into the truth of their separation from iniquity, for\nthat God himself will search them. I search the reins and the\nheart, saith he, 'to give unto every one of you according to your\nworks.' (Rev. 2:23)\n\nThere are many that wear the name of Christ for a cloak, and so\nmake their advantages by their iniquity; but Christ, at death\nand judgment, will rend this cloak from off such shoulders, then\nshall they walk naked, yea, the shame of their nakedness shall\nthen appear. Now since no man can escape the search of God, and\nso, not his judgment; it will be thy wisdom to search thine own\nways, and to prevent judgment by judging of thyself.\n\nDanger 3. Christ will deny those to be his that do not depart\nfrom iniquity, though they shall name his name among the rest of\nhis people. 'Depart from me,' saith he, 'all you that departed\nnot from iniquity.' (Luke 13:25-27) Yea, they that shall name his\nname religiously, and not depart from iniquity, are denied by him\nall along. 1. He alloweth them not now to call him Lord. 'And why\ncall ye me Lord, Lord,' saith he, 'and do not, the things which I\nsay?' (Luke 6:46) He cannot abide to be reputed the Lord of those\nthat presume to profess his name, and do not depart from iniquity.\n(Ezek. 20:39) The reason is, for that such do but profane his\nname, and stave others off from falling in love with him and his\nways. Hence he says again 'Behold, I have sworn by my great name,\nsaith the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth\nof any man of Judah.' (Jer. 44:26; Rom. 2:24) 2. He regardeth not\ntheir prayers. 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not\nhear' my prayer. (Psa. 66:18) And if so, then whatever thou hast\nat the hand of God, thou hast it, not in mercy, but in judgment,\nand to work out farther thine everlasting misery. 3. He will not\nregard their soul, but at the last day will cast it from him, as\na thing abhorred by him. As is evidently seen by that thirteenth\nof Luke, but now noted above.\n\nWherefore, from these few hints, thou, whoever thou art, mayest\nwell perceive what a horrible thing it is to make a profession\nof the name of Christ, and not to depart from iniquity. Therefore\nlet me exhort thee again to examine thyself, if thou hast, and\ndost--since thou professest that name--depart from iniquity.\n\nAnd here I would distinguish, for there is two parts in iniquity,\nto wit, the guilt and filth. As for the guilt that is contracted\nby iniquity, I persuade myself, no man who knows it, needs to\nbe bid to desire to depart from that; nay, I do believe that the\nworst devil in hell would depart from his guilt, if he could,\nand might: but this is it, to wit, to depart from the sweet, the\npleasure, and profit of iniquity. There are that call evil good,\niniquity good, and that of professors too: this is that to be\ndeparted from, and these are they that are exhorted to forsake\nit upon the pains and penalties before threatened. Therefore, as\nI said, let such look to it, that they examine themselves if they\ndepart from iniquity.\n\nAnd come, now thou art going about this work, let me help thee\nin this matter. I. Ask thy heart, What evil dost thou see in sin?\nII. How sick art thou of sin? III. What means dust thou use to\nmortify thy sins? IV. How much hast thou been grieved to see others\nbreak God's law, and to find temptations in thyself to do it?\n\nI. For the first, There is a soul-polluting evil in iniquity.\nThere is a God-provoking evil in iniquity.\n\nThere is a soul-damning evil in iniquity. And until thou comest\nexperimentally to know these things, thou wilt have neither list,\nnor will, to depart from iniquity.\n\nII. For the second. I mean not sick with guilt, for so the damned\nin hell are sick, but I mean sick of the filth, and polluting\nnature of it. Thus was Moses sick of sin, thus Jabez was sick of\nsin, and thus was Paul sick of sin. (Num. 11:14, 15; 1 Chron. 4:9,\n10; Rom. 7:14; 2 Cor. 5:1-3; Phil. 3:10-14)\n\nIII. For the third. You know that those that are sensible of a\nsickness, will look out after the means to be recovered; there is\na means also for this disease, and dost thou know what that means\nis, and hast thou indeed a desire to it? yea, couldest thou be\nwilling even now to partake of the means that would help thee to\nthat means, that can cure thee of this disease? there are no means\ncan cure a man that is sick of sin, but glory; and the means to\ncome by that is Christ, and to go out of this world by the faith\nof him. There is no grace can cure this disease; yes, grace doth\nrather increase it; for the more grace any man has, the more is he\nsick of sin; the greater an offence is iniquity to him. So then,\nthere is nothing can cure this disease, but glory: but immortal\nglory. And dost thou desire this medicine? and doth God testify\nthat thy desire is true, not feigned? (2 Cor. 5:4) I know that\nthere are many things that do make some even wish to die: but the\nquestion is not whether thou dost wish to die: for death can cure\nmany diseases: but is this that that moveth thee to desire to\ndepart: to wit, that thou mightest be rid, quite rid, and stripped\nof a body of death, because nothing on this side the grave\ncan rid thee and strip thee of it. And is hope, that this day is\napproaching, a reviving cordial to thee? and doth the hope of this\nstrike arrows into the heart of thy lusts, and draw off thy mind\nand affections yet farther from iniquity.\n\nIV. To the fourth. How much hast thou been grieved to see others\nbreak God's law, and to find temptations in thyself to do it? 'I\nbeheld the transgressors, and was grieved,' said David, 'because\nmen kept not thy word.' (Psa. 119:158) The same also had Paul,\nbecause of that body of sin and death which was in him. Professor,\nI beseech thee be thou serious about this thing because it will\nbe found, when God comes to judge, that those that profess Christ,\nand yet abide with their iniquity, are but wooden, earthy professors,\nand none of the silver or golden ones: and so, consequently, such\nas shall be vessels, not to honour, but to dishonour; not to glory,\nbut to shame.\n\nUSE SECOND. My next shall be a use of terror. Has God commanded\nby the mouth of his holy apostles and prophets, that those that\nname the name of Christ should depart from iniquity: then what\nwill become of those that rebel against his Word. Where the word\nof a king is, there is power; and if the wrath of a king be as\nthe roaring of a lion, what is, and what will be the wrath of God,\nwhen with violence it falls upon the head of the wicked?\n\nSirs, I beseech you consider this, namely, that the man that\nprofesseth the name of Christ, and yet liveth a wicked life, is\nthe greatest enemy that God has in the world, and, consequently,\none that God, in a way most eminent, will set his face against.\nHence he threateneth such so hotly, saying, 'And the destruction\nof the transgressors and of the sinner shall be together,' and\nthat 'they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.' (Isa. 1:28;\n33:14) But what sinners are these? why, the sinners in Zion, the\nhypocrites in the church. So again the Lord shall 'purge out from\namong you the rebels, and them that transgress against him.' (Ezek.\n20:38) 'All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which\nsay, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.' (Amos 9:10) For\nthough such do think that by professing of the name of Christ,\nthey shall prevent their going down to hell, yet they shall go\ndown thither, with those that have lived openly wicked and profane:\nEgypt, and Judah, the circumcised with them that are not, for it\nis not a profession of faith that can save them. (Jer. 9:26) 'Whom\ndost thou pass in beauty,' saith God? wherein art thou bettered by\nthe profession, than the wicked? 'go down, and be thou laid with\nthe uncircumcised.' (Ezek. 32:19)\n\nThis in general; but more particularly, the wrath of God manifesteth\nitself against such kind of professors. In that the gospel and\nmeans of salvation shall not be effectual for their salvation, but\nthat it shall work rather quite contrary effects. It shall bring\nforth, as I said, quite contrary effects. (2 Cor. 2:15, 16) As,\n\nFirst, The preaching of the Word shall be to such the savour of\ndeath unto death, and that is a fearful thing.\n\nSecond, Yea Christ Jesus himself shall be so far off from being\na savour unto them, that he shall be a snare, a trap and a gin to\ncatch them by the heel withal; that they may go and fall backward,\nand be broken, and snared, and taken.' (Isa. 8:14, 15; 28:13)\n\nThird, The Lord also will choose out such delusions, or such as will\nbest suit with the workings of their flesh, as will effectually bring\nthem down, with the bullocks and with the bulls to the slaughter:\nyea, he will lead such forth with the workers of iniquity. (Isa.\n66:3, 4; Psa. 125:5)\n\nFourth, Such, above all, lie open to the sin against the Holy Ghost,\nthat unpardonable sin, that must never be forgiven. For alas, it\nis not the poor ignorant world, but the enlightened professor that\ncommitteth the sin that shall never be forgiven.\n\nI say, it is one enlightened, one that has tasted the good word\nof God, and something of the powers of the world to come. (Heb.\n6:4; 1 John 5:16) It is one that was counted a brother, that was\nwith us in our profession: it is such an one that is in danger\nof committing of that most black and bloody sin. But yet all and\nevery one of those that are such are not in danger of this; but\nthose among these that take pleasure in unrighteousness, and that\nrather than they will lose that pleasure, will commit it presumptuously.\nPresumptuously, that is, against light, against convictions, against\nwarnings, against mercies. Or thus, a presumptuous sin is such\nan one as is committed in the face of the command, in a desperate\nventuring to run the hazard, or in a presuming upon the mercy of\nGod, through Christ, to be saved not withstanding: this is a leading\nsin to that which is unpardonable, and will be found with such\nprofessors; that do hanker after iniquity. I say, it is designed\nby the devil, and suffered by the just judgment of God, to catch\nand overthrow the loose and carnal gospellers. And hence it is\nthat David cries unto God, that he would hold him back from these\nsort of sins. 'Cleanse thou me from secret faults,' says he. And\nthen adds, 'Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;\nlet them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and\nI shall be innocent from the great transgression.' (Psa. 19:12,\n13)\n\nIf there were any dread of God, or of his word, in the hearts of\nthe men of this generation, the consideration of this one test is\nenough to shake them in pieces: I speak of those that name the name\nof Christ, but do not depart from iniquity. But the word of God\nmust be fulfilled; in the last days iniquity must abound; wherefore\nthese days will be perilous and dangerous to professors. 'In the\nlast days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of\ntheir ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient\nto parents, unthankful, unholy.' (2 Tim. 3:1, 2; Matt. 24:12)\nI do the oftener harp upon this test at this time, because it is\na prediction of what shall be in the latter days, to wit, what\na sea and deluge of iniquity shall in the latter days overspread\nand drown those that then shall have a form of godliness, and of\nreligion. So that this day is more dangerous than were the days\nthat have been before us. Now iniquity, even immorality, shall\nwith professors be in fashion, be pleaded for, be loved and more\nesteemed than holiness itself. Now godliness and self denial shall\nbe little set by; even those very men that have a form of godliness\nhate the life and power thereof; yea, they shall despise them that\nare good. Now therefore ministers must not think that what they\nsay of the doctrine of self denial among professors, will be\nmuch, if at all regarded. I say, regarded, so as to be loved and\nput in practice by them that name the name of Christ. For the strong\nhold that iniquity shall have of their affections will cause that\nbut little effectualness to this end will be found to attend the\npreaching of the Word unto them.\n\nBut what will these kind of men do, when God that is just, God\nthat is holy, and God that is strong to execute his word, shall\ncall them to an account for these things?\n\nNow some may say, But what shall we do to depart from iniquity?\nI answer,\n\n1. Labour to see the odiousness and unprofitableness thereof, which\nthou mayest do by the true knowledge of the excellent nature of\nthe holiness of God. For until thou seest a beauty in holiness,\nthou canst not see odiousness in sin and iniquity. Danger thou\nmayest see in sin before, but odiousness thou canst not.\n\n2. Be much in the consideration of the power, justice, and\nfaithfulness of God to revenge himself on the workers of iniquity.\n\n3. Be much in the consideration of the greatness and worth of thy\nsoul.\n\n4. Be often asking of thyself what true profit did I ever get by\nthe commission of any sin.\n\n5. Bring thy last day often to thy bedside.\n\n6. Be often thinking of the cries and roarings of the damned in\nhell.\n\n7. Be often considering the lastingness of the torments of hell.\n\n8. Be often thinking what would those that are now in hell give\nthat they might live their lives over again.\n\n9. Consider often of the frailty of thy life, and that there is\nno repentance to be found in the grave, whither thou goest.\n\n10. Consider that hell is a doleful place, and that the devils\nare but uncomfortable companions.\n\n11. Again, consider together with those how the patience of God\nhas been abused by thee; yea, how all his attributes have been\ndespised by thee, who art a professor, that does not depart from\niniquity.\n\n13. Moreover, I would ask with what face thou canst look the Lord\nJesus in the face, whose name thou hast profaned by thine iniquity?\n\n13. Also, how thou wilt look on those that are truly godly, whose\nhearts thou has grieved, while they have beheld the dirt and dung\nthat hath cloven to thee and to thy profession.\n\n14. But especially consider with thyself how thou wilt bear,\ntogether with thine own, the guilt, of the damnation of others.\nFor as I have often said, a professor, if he perishes, seldom\nperishes alone, but casteth others down to hell with himself. The\nreason is, because others, both weak professors and carnal men,\nare spectators and observers of his ways; yea, and will presume\nalso to follow him especially in evil courses, concluding that he\nis right. We read that the tail of the dragon, or that the dragon\nby his tail, did draw and cast down abundance of the stars of\nheaven to the earth. (Rev. 12:4; Isa. 9:14, 15) The tail! 'The\nprophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.' The prophet that\nspeaketh lies, either by opinion or practice, he is the tail, the\ndragons's tail, the serpentine tail of the devil. (Isa. 9:14, 15)\nAnd so in his order, every professor that by his iniquity draweth\nboth himself and others to hell, he is the tail. The tail, says\nthe Holy Ghost, draws them down; draws down even the stars of\nheaven; but whither doth he draw them? The answer is, from heaven,\nthe throne of God, to earth, the seat of the dragon; for he is\nthe god of this world. The professor then that is dishonourable\nin his profession, he is the tail. 'The ancient and honourable, he\nis the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.'\nNor can Satan work such exploits by any, as he can by unrighteous\nprofessors. These he useth in his hand, as the giant useth his\nclub; he, as it were, drives all before him with it. It is said\nof Behemoth, that 'he moveth his tail like a cedar.' (Job 40:7)\nBehemoth is a type of the devil, but behold how he handleth his\ntail, even as if a man should swing about a cedar. (Rev. 9:10,\n19) This is spoken to shew the hurtfulness of the tail, as it is\nalso said in another place. Better no professor than a wicked\nprofessor. Better open profane than a hypocritical namer of the\nname of Christ; and less hurt shall such an one do to his own\nsoul, to the poor ignorant world, to the name of Christ, and to\nthe church of God.\n\nLet professors, therefore, take heed to themselves, that they\njoin to their naming of the name of Christ an holy and godly\nconversation; for away they must go else with the workers of\niniquity to the pit, with more guilt, and bigger load, and more\ntorment by far than others, But,\n\nUSE THIRD. My next word shall be to those that desire to be true,\nsincere professors of the name of Christ.\n\nFirst, Do you bless God, for that he has put not only his name\ninto your lips, but grace into your hearts, that thereby that\nprofession which thou makest of him may be seasoned with that\nsalt. 'Every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt.' (Mark 9:49)\nNow naming of the name of Christ is a sacrifice, and a sacrifice\nacceptable, when the salt of the covenant of thy God is not\nlacking, but mixed therewith. (Heb. 13:15; Lev. 2:13) Therefore\nI say, since God has put his name into thy mouth to profess the\nsame, and grace into thy heart to season that profession with\nsuch carriage, such behaviour, such life, and such conversation\nas doth become the same, thou hast great cause to thank God. A man\ninto whose mouth God has put the name of Christ to profess it, is\nas a man that is to act his part upon a stage in the market place;\nif he doth it well, he brings praise both to his master and himself;\nbut if he doth it ill, both are brought into contempt. No greater\npraise can by man be brought to God, than by joining to the\nprofession of the name of Christ a fruitful life and conversation.\n'Herein,' saith Christ, 'is my Father glorified, that ye bear\nmuch fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.' (John 15:8) Fruitful\nlives God expecteth of all that profess the name of Christ. And\nlet every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.\nBless God, therefore, if he hath kept thee from blotting and\nblemishing of thy profession; if thy conversation has not been\nstained with the blots and evils of the times. What thou feelest,\nfightest with, and groanest under, by reason of the working\nof thine inward corruptions, with that I meddle not; nor is thy\nconversation the worse for that, if thou keepest them from breaking\nout. Thou also shalt be counted holy unto God, through Christ, if\nthou be of an upright conversation; though plagued every day with\nthe working of thine own corruption.\n\nAd God's grace is the salt of saints, so saints are the salt of\nGod. The one is the salt of God in the heart, and the other is the\nsalt of God in the world. 'Ye are the salt of the earth:' (Matt.\n5:13) that is the salt of God in the earth. For the earth would\nbe wholly corrupt, and would altogether stink, if professors were\nnot in it. But now if the professor, which is the salt, shall indeed\nlose his savour, and hath nothing in his conversation to season\nthat part of the earth, in which God has placed him, wherewith\nshall it be seasoned? The place where he dwells, as well as his\nprofession, will both stink odiously in the nostrils of the Lord,\nand so both come to ruin and desolation.\n\nIndeed, as I have shewed, the professor will come to the worst of\nit; for that God doth deny further to give him salt. 'If the salt\nhave lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?' (Luke 14:34)\nWherewith shall the salt be salted? with nothing. Therefore it\nis thenceforth good for nothing. No, not for the dunghill, but to\nbe cast out, and trodden under foot of men. 'He that hath ears to\nhear let him hear.'\n\nHow much, therefore, is the tender-hearted, and he that laboureth\nto beautify his profession with a gospel conversation, bound to\nbless God for the salt of his grace, by the which his heart is\nseasoned, and from his heart, his conversation.\n\nSecond, As such Christians should bless God, so let them watch,\nlet them still watch, let them still watch and pray, watch against\nSatan, and pray yet for more grace, that they may yet more and\nmore beautify their profession of the worthy name of Christ with\na suitable conversation. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his\ngarment; that is, his conversation clean, nor is there anything,\nsave the overthrowing of our faith, that Satan seeketh more to\ndestroy. He knows holiness in them that rightly, as to doctrine,\nname the name of Christ, is a maul and destruction to his kingdom,\nan allurement to the ignorant, and a cutting off those occasions\nto stumble, that by the dirty life of a professor is laid in the\nway of the blind. (Lev. 19:14) He knows that holiness of lives,\nwhen they shine in those that profess the name of Christ, doth\ncut off his lies that he seeketh to make the world believe, and\nslanders that he seeketh to fasten upon the professors of the\ngospel. Wherefore, as you have begun to glorify God in your body\nand in your spirit, which are God's; so I beseech you do it more\nand more.\n\nThird, To this end, shun those professors that are loose of life\nand conversation: 'From such withdraw thyself,' saith Paul, and\nfollow 'righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call\non the Lord out of a pure heart.' (1 Tim. 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:22) If a\nman, if a good man takes not good heed to himself, he shall soon\nbring his soul into a snare. Loose professors are defilers and\ncorrupters; a man shall get nothing but a blot by having company\nwith them. (Isa. 1:4) Besides, as a man shall get a blot by having\nmuch to do with such; so let him beware that his heart learn none\nof their ways. Let thy company be the excellent in the earth even\nthose that are excellent for knowledge and conversation. 'He that\nwalketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools\nshall be destroyed.'\n\nBe content to be counted singular, for so thou shalt, if thou\nshalt follow after righteousness, &., in good earnest; for holiness\nis a rare thing now in the world. I told thee before that it is\nforetold by the Word, that in the last days perilous times shall\ncome, and that men shall walk after their own lusts; yea, professors,\nto their destruction. Nor will it be easy to keep thyself therefrom.\nBut even as when the pestilence is come into a place, it infecteth\nand casteth down the healthful; so the iniquity of the last times\nwill infest and pollute the godly. I mean the generality of them.\nWere but our times duly compared with those that went before,\nwe should see that which now we are ignorant of. Did we but look\nback to the Puritans, but especially to those that, but a little\nbefore them, suffered for the word of God, in the Marian days, we\nshould see another life than is now among men, another manner of\nconversation than now is among professors. But, I say, predictions\nand prophecies must be fulfilled; and since the Word says plainly,\nthat 'in the last days there shall come scoffers, walking after\ntheir own lusts,' (2 Peter 3:17) and since the Christians shall\nbe endangered thereby, let us look to it, that we acquit ourselves\nlike men, seeing we know these things before; 'lest we, being led\naway with the error of the wicked, fall from our own steadfastness.'\n\nSingularity in godliness, if it be in godliness, no man should\nbe ashamed of. For that is no more than to be more godly, than\nto walk more humbly with God than others; and, for my part, I had\nrather be a pattern and example of piety. I had rather that my\nlife should be instructing to the saints, and condemning to the\nworld, with Noah and Lot, than to hazard myself among the multitude\nof the drossy.\n\nI know that many professors will fall short of eternal life, and\nmy judgment tells me, that they will be of the slovenly sort of\nprofessors that so do. And for my part, I had rather run with the\nforemost and win the prize, than come behind, and lose that, and\nmy labour, and all. 'If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he\nnot crowned, except he strive lawfully.' And when men have said\nall they can, they are the truly redeemed 'that are zealous of\ngood works.' (1 Cor. 9:24; 2 Tim. 2:4, 5; Titus 2:14)\n\nNot that works do save us, but faith, which layeth hold on Christ's\nrighteousness for justification, sanctifies the heart, and makes\nmen desirous to live in this world, to the glory of that Christ\nwho died in this world to save us from death.\n\nFor my part I doubt of the faith of many, and fear that it will\nprove no better at the day of God than will the faith of devils.\nFor that it standeth in bare speculation, and is without life and\nsoul to that which is good. Where is the man that walketh with\nhis cross upon his shoulder? Where is the man that is zealous of\nmoral holiness? Indeed, for those things that have nothing of the\ncross of the purse, or of the cross of the belly, or of the cross\nof the back, or of the cross of the vanity of household affairs;\nfor those things, I find we have many, and those, very busy\nsticklers; but otherwise, the cross, self denial, charity, purity\nin life and conversation, is almost quite out of doors among\nprofessors. But, man of God, do thou be singular as to these and\nas to their conversation. 'Be not ye therefore partakers with them,'\n(Eph. 5:7), in any of their ways, but keep thy soul diligently;\nfor if damage happeneth to thee, thou alone must bear it.\n\nBut he that will depart from iniquity must be well fortified\nwith faith, and patience, and the love of God; for iniquity has\nits beauty spots and its advantages attending on it; hence it is\ncompared to a woman, for it allureth greatly. (Zech. 5:7) Wherefore,\nI say, he that will depart therefrom had need have faith, that\nbeing it which will help him to see beyond it, and that will shew\nhim more in things that are invisible, that can be found in sin,\nwere it ten thousand times more entangling than it is. (2 Cor.\n4:18) He has need of patience also to hold out in this work of\ndeparting from iniquity. For, indeed, to depart from that, is to\ndraw my mind off from that, which will follow me with continual\nsolicitations. Samson withstood his Delilah for a while, but she\ngot the mastery of him at the last; why so? Because he wanted\npatience, he grew angry and was vexed, and could withstand her\nsolicitation no longer. (Judges 16:15-17) Many there be also, that\ncan well enough be contented to shut sin out of doors for a while;\nbut because sin has much fair speech, therefore it overcomes at\nlast. (Prov. 7:21) For sin and iniquity will not be easily said\nnay; it is like her of whom you read--she has a whore's forehead,\nand refuses to be ashamed. (Jer. 3:3) Wherefore, departing from\niniquity is a work for length, as long as life shall last. A work\ndid I say? It is a war; a continual combat; wherefore he that will\nadventure to set upon this work must needs be armed with faith\nand patience, a daily exercise he will find himself put upon by\nthe continual attempts of iniquity to be putting forth itself.\n(Matt. 24:13; Rev. 3:10) This is called an enduring to the end, a\ncontinuing in the word of Christ and also a keeping of the word of\nhis patience. But what man in the world can do this whose heart\nis not seasoned with the love of God and the love of Christ?\nTherefore, he that will exercise himself in this work must be\noften considering of the love of God to him in Christ; for the\nmore sense, or apprehension, a man shall have of that, the more\neasy and pleasant will this work be to him: yea, though the doing\nthereof should cost him his heart's blood. 'Thy loving-kindness is\nbefore mine eyes,' says David, 'and I have walked in thy truth.'\n(Psa. 26:3) Nothing like the sense, sight, or belief of that, to\nthe man of God, to make him depart from iniquity.\n\nBut what shall I do, I cannot depart therefrom as I should?\n\nKeep thine eye upon all thy shortnesses, or upon all thy failures,\nfor that that is profitable for thee. 1. The sight of this will\nmake thee base in thine own eyes. 2. It will give thee occasion\nto see the need and excellency of repentance. 3. It will put\nthee upon prayer to God for help and pardon. 4. It will make thee\nweary of this world. 5. It will make grace to persevere the more\ndesirable in thine eyes.\n\nAlso, it will help thee in the things which follow:--l. It will\nmake thee see the need of Christ's righteousness. 2. It will make\nthee see the need of Christ's intercession. 3. It will make thee\nsee thy need of Christ's advocateship. 4. It will make thee see the\nriches of God's patience. 5. And it will make heaven and eternal\nlife the sweeter to thee when thou comest there.\n\nBut to the question. Get more grace, for the more grace thou hast\nthe further is thine heart set off of iniquity, the more, also, set\nagainst it, and the better able to depart from it when it cometh\nto thee, tempteth thee, and entreats thee for entertainment. Now\nthe way to have more grace is to have more knowledge of Christ,\nand to pray more fervently in his name; also, to subject thy soul\nand thy lusts, with all thy power, to the authority of that grace\nthou hast, and to judge and condemn thyself most heartily before\nGod, for every secret inclination that thou findest in thy flesh\nto sinward.\n\nThe improvement of what thou hast is that, as I may say, by which\nGod judges how thou wouldest use, if thou had it, more; and according\nto that so shalt thou have, or not have, a farther measure. He that\nis faithful in that which is least is faithful, and will be so,\nalso in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is, and will\nbe, unjust also in much. I know Christ speaks here about the\nunrighteous mammon, but the same may be applied also unto the\nthing in hand. (Luke 16:10-12)\n\nAnd if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's,\nwho will commit unto you that which is your own? That is a remarkable\nplace to this purpose in the Revelation--'Behold,' saith he, 'I\nhave set before thee an open door,' that thou mayest have what thou\nwilt, as was also said to the improving woman of Canaan, 'and no\nman can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept\nmy word, and hast not denied my name.' (Rev. 3:8; Matt. 15:28)\n\nA good improvement of what we have of the grace of God at present\npleases God, and engages him to give us more; but an ill improvement\nof what we at present have will not do so. 'To him that hath,'\nthat hath an heart to improve what he hath, to him shall be given;\nbut to him that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which\nhe hath.' (Matt. 25:24-30) Well, weigh the place and you shall find\nit so.\n\nI know that to depart from iniquity so as is required, that is,\nto the utmost degree of the requirement, no man can, for it is\na copy too fair for mortal flesh exactly to imitate while we are\nin this world. But with good paper, good ink, and a good pen,\na skilful and willing man may go far. And it is well for thee if\nthy complaint be sincere, to wit, that thou art troubled that thou\ncanst not forsake iniquity as thou shouldest; for God accepteth of\nthy design and desire, and it is counted by him as thy kindness.\n(Prov. 19:22) But if thy complaint in this matter be true, thou\nwilt not rest nor content thyself in thy complaints, but wilt,\nas he that is truly hungry or greatly burdened useth all lawful\nmeans to satisfy his hunger and to ease himself of his burden,\nuse all thy skill and power to mortify and keep them under, by\nthe word of God. Nor can it otherwise be but that such a man must\nbe a growing man. 'Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth\nit, that it may bring forth more fruit' (John 15:2) Such a man\nshall not be a stumbling in religion, nor a scandal to it, in\nhis calling; but shall, according to God's ordinary way with his\npeople, be a fruitful and flourishing bough.\n\nAnd I would to God this were the sickness of all them that profess\nin this nation; for then should we soon have a new leaf turned over\nin most corners of this nation; then would graciousness of heart,\nand life, and conversation be more prized, more sought after,\nand better improved and practised than it is; yea, then would the\nthroats of ungodly men be better stopt, and their mouths faster\nshut up, as to their reproaching of religion, than they are.\nA Christian man must be the object of the envy of the world; but\nit is better, if the will of God be so, that we be reproached\nfor well-doing than for evil. (1 Peter 2:3) If we be reproached\nfor evil-doing, it is our shame; but if for well-doing, it is our\nglory. If we be reproached for our sins, God cannot vindicate\nus; but if we be reproached for a virtuous life, God himself is\nconcerned, will espouse our quarrel, and, in his good time, will\nshew our foes our righteousness, and put them to shame and silence.\nBriefly, a godly life annexed to faith in Christ is so necessary,\nthat a man that professes the name of Christ is worse than a beast\nwithout it.\n\nBut thou wilt say unto me, Why do men profess the name of Christ\nthat love not to depart from iniquity? I answer, there are\nmany reasons for it. 1. The preaching of the gospel, and so the\npublication of the name of Christ, is musical and very taking to\nthe children of men. A Saviour! a Redeemer! a loving, sin-pardoning\nJesus! what better words can come from man? what better melody\ncan be heard? 'Son of man,' said God to the prophet, 'Lo, thou\nart unto them as a very lovely song'; or, as a song of loves, 'of\none that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument.'\n(Ezek. 33:32) The gospel is a most melodious note and sweet tune to\nany that are not prepossessed with slander, reproach, and enmity\nagainst the professors of it. Now, its melodious notes being\nso sweet, no marvel if it entangle some even of them that yet\nwill not depart from iniquity to take up and profess so lovely a\nprofession. But,\n\n2. There are a generation of men that are and have been frightened\nwith the law, and terrified with fears of perishing for their sins,\nbut yet have not grace to leave them. Now, when the sound of the\ngospel shall reach such men's ears, because there is by that made\npublic the willingness of Christ to die for sin, and of God to\nforgive them for his sake; therefore they presently receive and\nprofess those notions as the only ones that can rid them from their\nfrights and terrors, falsely resting themselves content with that\nfaith thereof which standeth in naked knowledge; yea, liking of\nthat faith best that will stand with their pride, covetousness,\nand lechery, never desiring to hear of practical holiness, because\nit will disturb them; wherefore they usually cast dirt at such,\ncalling them legal preachers.\n\n3. Here also is a design of Satan set on foot; for these carnal\ngospellers are his tares, the children of the wicked one; those\nthat he hath sowed among the wheat of purpose, if possible, that\nthat might be rooted up by beholding and learning to be vile and\nfilthy of them. (Matt. 13:36-43)\n\n4. Another cause hereof is this, the hypocrites that begin to\nprofess find as bad as themselves already in a profession of this\nworthy name; and, think they, these do so and so, and, therefore,\nso will I.\n\n5. This comes to pass, also, through the righteous judgment of\nGod, who, through the anger that he has conceived against some\nmen for their sins, will lift them up to heaven before he casts\nthem down to hell, that their fall may be the greater and their\npunishment the more intolerable. (Matt. 11:20-24) I have now done\nwhen I have read to you my text over again--'And, let every one\nthat nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n1. How clearly is here portrayed the wretched state of this country\ntowards the close of the reign of Charles II. It is the natural\neloquence of one whose very thoughts were governed by scriptural\nexpressions. The martyrdoms of Essex, of Russel, and of Sydney--the\nuncertainty of the life of a debauched monarch, with the gloomy\nprospect of a popish successor, filled the country with dismal\nforebodings.--ED.\n\n2. This is a solemn truth, which ought ever to be recollected when\nstudying the mysteries of electing love. Election is as much to\na holy life as it is to eternal glory.-ED.\n\n3. How much is it to be feared that some towering professors,\nupon impartial self-examination, will find upon themselves some\nof these black spots; all of which are utterly inconsistent with\nthat humility which is the proper and only becoming garb of a\nChristian.--Ryland--ED.\n\n4. Selfishness is the great enemy to happiness. A heart steeled\nagainst all, naturally brings upon itself the hostility of all.\nLove to the Redeemer, for emancipation from that great curse, is\nthe only antidote to selfishness.--ED.\n\n5. 'Power of things;' the influence of convictions and hopes named\nin the six divisions on the preceding page.--ED.\n\n6. Plato says that some men are impotent by reason of sin; but\nChristianity alone develops the awful fact, that sin has poisoned\nour nature, and that its effects are felt in the holiest of saints.\nThe reference to the experience of Paul in Romans 8 is conclusive\nof the fact.--ED.\n\n7. 'Letteth;' hindereth or obstructeth: now obsolete.--ED.\n\n8. 'Slow bellies;' gluttons, drunkards, slothful, idle, eating\nthe bread of others without working.--ED.\n\n9. Margin.\n\n10. Fox 1st edit., p. 1432.\n\n11. 'Raillery;' jesting, merriment.\n\n12. A Christian parent has peculiar and solemn duties to perform,\nin addition to those of every other class of Christians. This ought\nto lead him perpetually to seek wisdom from his heavenly Father;\nand in such close communion he becomes as peculiarly blessed as\nhe is burthened.--ED.\n\n13. Bunyan was in the habit of visiting London, the seat of\ngovernment, and doubtless saw a sad change in the conduct of many\nprofessors, under a profligate monarch, to what it had been under\nthe pious protector.--ED\n\n14. 'His points;' an heraldic term, expressive of the exact position\nof the various bearing on the shield--a scrupulous or superstitious\nniceness as to points of doctrine.--ED.\n\n15. These are faithful words, giving offence to bigots of every\nsect. The church of England excluded all from her communion except\nconformists--Independents held no fellowship with Baptists, nor\nBaptists with Independents. Happily, Christians are coming to\ntheir senses. The Test Act is repealed--nor dare we now call that\nunclean which God has cleansed.--ED.\n\n***\n\nCHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR\n\nBeing the fruits of true Christianity:\n\nTeaching husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants, etc.,\nhow to walk so as to please God.\n\nWith a word of direction to all backsliders.\n\n\nAdvertisement by the Editor\n\nThis valuable practical treatise, was first published as a pocket\nvolume about the year 1674, soon after the author's final release\nfrom his long and dangerous imprisonment. It is evident from the\nconcluding paragraph that he considered his liberty and even his\nlife to be still in a very uncertain state; not from the infirmities\nof age, for he was then in the prime of life; but from the tyranny\nof the government, and probably from the effects of his long\nincarceration in a damp, unhealthy jail. It is the best and most\nscriptural guide that has ever appeared to aid us in the performance\nof relative duties: written with originality of thought and that\npeculiar and pious earnestness which so distinguishes all his works.\n\nNo one can read this book, without finding in it his own portrait\ntruly and correctly drawn to the life. Many have been the hearers\nof the word in its public ministration, who have been astonished\nthat a faithful minister has not only opened their outward conduct,\nbut the inward recesses of their heartsand have inquired with\nwonder, 'Where could he get such a knowledge of my heart?' The usages\nand feelings of every part of the human family the rich and poor\noutward professors or openly profane God fearers or God defiersare\ndisplayed in the following pages as accurately as if the author had\nbeen present in every family upon earth, and had not only witnessed\nthe conduct of the happy and of the miserable in every grade; but\nhe goes within and unvails that mystery of iniquity the human heart,\nits secret springs, feelings, and machinations. What mysterious\npower could this uneducated man have possessed, thus to dive\ninto the most subtle of all secret repositories, the human heart!\nCould he have left his body at times and his invisible spirit\nhave entered all chambers, as was said of an ancient philosopher,\n1 still time would have been too short even to have transiently\nsurveyed outward conduct; and then he could not have entered into\nthe thoughts of others. Reader, the fountain of all hidden things\nwas open to him. Shut up for many years in prison, with the key\nin his possession which unlocks all the mysteries of earth, and\nheaven, and hellhe diligently used his time and all was revealed\nto him. He makes the source of his knowledge no secret, but invites\nyou to search, as he did, this storehouse of things new and old.\nIt was the Bible which unfolded to him all the great events of time\nand of eternity all the secret springs of states, and families, and\nindividuals wonderous book! It made an uneducated artizan wiser than\nall the philosophers who have been contented with Plato, Aristotle,\nPliny, Plutarch, and the most renowned of human writers. Not only\nis the real state of human nature revealed with unerring truth, as\nsuffering under a cruel malady, strangely diverse in its operations,\nbut all tending to the downward, dark, dreary road to misery temporal\nand eternal: but it also displays the antidote; an infallible remedy\nagainst all the subtilties of this tortuous disease. Reader, this\ntreasure is in our hands. How great is the responsibility. How\nblessed are those who with earnest prayer for divine illumination\nread ponder and relying upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, understand\nand instantly obey the sacred precepts which its pages unfold.\nWeigh well their nature and tendency, as Bunyan opens them in\nthis invaluable treatise. They lead step by step from darkness to\nlight. It may be a tempestuous passage in the dim twilight, as it\nwas with him but it is safe and leads to the fountain of happiness\nthe source of blessedness the presence and smiles of God and the\nbeing conformed to his image. In proportion as we are thus transformed\nin our minds, we shall be able to fulfil all our duties and behavior\nas becometh Christians. We dare not seek to avoid these duties\nbecause they are full of anxieties. Blessed are those who know and\nfeel the ties of church fellowship or the nearer union of husband\nand wife, that type of the mystical union of Christ and his church.\nHappy are those who piously discharge parental and filial duties,\nthat figure of the relationship which the Almighty, in infinite\ncondescension, owns between him and his fallen but renewed creatures.\nVows of celibacy disturb all the order and harmonies of creation,\nand are fleshly, sensual, devilish. The unmarried are strangers\nto those delightful or painful sensibilities which drive the soul\nto continual converse with God, either in heart-felt praises or\nfor divine assistance to glorify him in the discharge of domestic\nduties. They who vow celibacy, fly in the face of the infinitely\nwise eternal, who said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He\nsets up his puny antagonism to omnipotence. It is true, that in\nthe prospect of the desolations which were foretold by the Saviour\nand were about to be poured out upon Jerusalem, 'for the present\ndistress,' 'the short time' Paul advised, not commanded, a temporary\ndeviation from the order of naturelike an eclipse of the sun or\nmoonfor a 'short time' which no one could wish to be prolonged.\nWe are bound, in the expectation of the divine approbation, not to\nshrink from duties, but to seek wisdom to fulfil them; and in this\nlittle work we have a scriptural guide to which we shall do well\nto take heed. It is a peculiarly solemn legacythe author's ardent\ndesire is thus expressed; 'Before I die [as the greatest of all the\nduties he had to perform] let me provoke you to faith and holiness.'\nBe it our duty and privilege to examine our conduct faithfully by\nthose portions of holy writ, with which this treatise is beautifully\nadorned. It was written in the prospect of sufferings and death,\nand yet how serene was his soul. No cloud, no doubts or fears are\nseen; his legacy to us as well as to those who survived him is,\n'Love one another when I am deceased.' My labours of love to you\nare limited to this world. 'Though there I shall rest from my\nlabours, and be in paradise, as through grace, I comfortably believe;\nyet it is not there but here I must do you good.' Consider what\nhe has advanced, and the scriptures by which every sentence is\nconfirmed, and may his concluding and fervent prayer be answered to\nour souls: 'The Lord give us understanding in all things. Farewell.'\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\n\nThe Epistle to the Reader\n\nCourteous Reader,\n\nHaving formerly writ some small matter touching the doctrine\nof faith, as justification by grace through the faith of Christ's\nblood, &c., I do here, as the second to that doctrine, present thee\nwith a few lines touching good works, that I might, as at first\nI showed thee the good and glory of the one, so now show thee the\nbeauty and excellency of the other: for though we are justified\nfreely by grace through Christ before God (Rom 3:24, &c.); yet we\nare justified before men by our works (James 2:18): nay, a life of\nholiness flowing from faith in us that are saved by grace, it doth\njustify that grace before the world, that justifies us before God\n(2 Cor 6:1,3; 9:12,13; 1 Peter 2:11,12).\n\nI have not here only in general treated of this doctrine of good\nworks, but particularly, after some discourse about works flowing\nfrom faith, and what makes it truly and gospelly good, I discourse\nof them as we stand under our several relations in this world among\nmen.\n\nAs, The duty of the master of a family: Of the husband to his wife;\nand of hers to him: Of the duty of parents to their children; and\nof children to their parents: Of masters also to their servants; and\nof the servant again to his master: with a brief touch upon good\nneighbourhood; and a discovery of covetousness, pride, and uncleanness,\nwhich are great obstructions to a truly gospel conversation.\n\nI know there are many that have treated of good works in large and\nlearned discourses; but I doubt all have not so gospelized their\ndiscourses as becomes them, and as the doctrine of the grace of God\ncalleth for. However, I thought it my duty to add this discourse\nto all that are past; and that for these reasons.\n\n1. To take away those aspersions that the adversaries cast upon\nour doctrineas also in the days of Paulthat because we preach\njustification without works of the law; therefore they pretend we\nplead for looseness of life: 'whose damnation is just' (Rom 3:8).\n\n2. Because, though there be much discourse about works in general, yet\na particular discourse of them, as before is touched, is too much\nneglected; and by this means every one too much left at uncertainties\n(as from them) of their several works under their particular\nrelations; which I think is one reason of that disorder in families\nand places where God's people live; to their shame, and the dishonour\nof God.\n\n3. Because these few books that do particularly treat thus of\ngood works, are, I think, now so scarce, or so big, that but few\nhave them, and few buy them, if they may be had, especially our\nnew converts, for whose sakes principally this short discourse is\nintended; and indeed, this is one reason of my brevity, that the\nprice might neither be burdensome, nor the reading long and tedious.\nMultitude of words drown the memory; and an exhortation in few words\nmay yet be so full, that the reader may find that in one side of a\nsheet, which some are forced to hunt for in a whole book. The Lord\nteach us this wisdom.\n\n4. I have written this book, to show that I bear a fellow-testimony\nand witness, with all that know God, of the operation that grace\nhath, and will have, in the heart that hath savingly received it.\n\nLastly, I have thus written, because it is amiable and pleasant to\nGod, when Christians keep their rank, relation, and station, doing\nall as becometh their quality and calling. When Christians stand\nevery one in their places, and do the work of their relations, 2\nthen they are like the flowers in the garden, that stand and grow\nwhere the gardener hath planted them, and then they shall both\nhonour the garden in which they are planted, and the gardener that\nhath so disposed of them. From the hyssop in the wall, to the cedar\nin Lebanon, their fruit is their glory. 3 And seeing the stock into\nwhich we are planted, is the fruitfullest stock, the sap conveyed\nthereout the fruitfullest sap, and the dresser of our souls the\nwisest husbandman, (John 15:1) how contrary to nature, to example,\nand expectation, should we be, if we should not be rich in good\nworks!\n\nWherefore take heed of being painted fire, wherein is no warmth;\nand painted flowers, which retain no smell; and of being painted\ntrees, whereon is no fruit. 'Whoso boasteth himself of a false\ngift, is like clouds and wind without rain' (Prov 25:14). Farewell.\n\nThe Lord be with thy spirit, that thou mayest profit for time to\ncome.\n\nJ. BUNYAN.\nChristian Behavior\n\n'THAT BEING JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE, WE SHOULD BE MADE HEIRS ACCORDING\nTO THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE. THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND THESE\nTHINGS I WILL THAT THOU AFFIRM CONSTANTLY, THAT THEY WHICH HAVE\nBELIEVED IN GOD MIGHT BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS. THESE\nTHINGS ARE GOOD AND PROFITABLE UNTO MEN.'TITUS 3:7,8.\n\nI shall not at this time discourse of every particular at large\nincluded in these words; but shall briefly fall upon those things\nthat I judge most necessary for the people of God. Neither shall I\nneed to make any great preamble to the words for their explication;\nthey themselves being plain, and without that ambiguity that\ncalleth for such a thing; the general scope being this, THAT THEY\nWHICH HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS.\n\nBut yet, to prosecute what I intend, with what clearness I may, I\nshall in a word or two make way for what is to be the main of this\nbook. 'This is a faithful saying.' This; Which? Why, that which\ngoeth before, namely, 'That being justified by his grace, we should\nbe made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a\nfaithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly.'\n\nWhy so?\n\nWhy, 'That they which have believed in God, might be careful to\nmaintain good works.' The meaning is, that the way to provoke others\nto good works, is constantlyin the evidence and demonstration of\nthe spiritto show them the certainty of their [these believers]\nbeing by grace made heirs of eternal life.\n\nFrom this scripture, therefore, I do gather these things observable.\n\nFIRST, That good works do flow from faith. Yea,\n\nSECOND, That every one that believeth should be careful that their\nworks be good.\n\nTHIRD, That every believer should not only be careful that their\nworks be good, and for the present do them, but should also be\ncareful to maintain them; that is, they should carefully study to\nkeep in a constant course of good works.\n\nFOURTH, and lastly, That the best way to provoke both ourselves\nand others to this work, it is to be often affirming to others the\ndoctrine of justification by grace, and to believe it ourselves:\n'This is a faithful saying, and these things I will,' saith Paul,\n'that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God\nmight be careful to maintain good works.'\n\nFIRST. I begin with the first. That good works do flow from faith.\nThis is evident divers ways.\n\nFirst, From the impossibility of their flowing from any other thing;\nthey must either flow from faith, or not at all: 'For whatsoever\nis not of faith, is sin' (Rom 14:23). And again, 'Without faith\nit is impossible to please him' (Heb 11:6). Every man by nature,\nbefore faith, is an evil and a corrupt tree; and a corrupt tree\ncannot bring forth good fruit: 'Do men gather grapes of thorns,\nor figs of thistles?' (Matt 7:16,17). Now a man is made good by\nfaith, and by that bringeth forth the fruits that are acceptable\nto God (Heb 11:4; Col 1:4-6).\n\nWherefore sinners, before faith, are compared to the wilderness, whose\nfruits are briars and thorns; and whose hearts are the habitation\nof dragons; that is, of devils 4 (Isa 35:6,7; Heb 6:7,8).\n\nAnd hence again it is, that they are said to be Godless, Christless,\nSpiritless, faithless, hopeless; without the covenant of grace,\nwithout strength; enemies in their minds by wicked works, and\npossessed by the spirit of wickedness, as a castle by a conqueror\n(Eph 2:12; Jude 19; 2 Thess 3:2; Col 1:21; Luke 11:21).\n\nNow, these things being thus, it is impossible that all the men\nunder heaven, that are unconverted, should be able to bring forth\none work rightly good; even as impossible, as for all the briars and\nthorns under heaven to bring forth one cluster of grapes, or one\nbunch of figs; for indeed they want the qualification. A thorn\nbringeth not forth figs, because it wanteth the nature of the\nfig-tree; and so doth the bramble the nature of the vine. Good\nworks must come from a good heart. Now, this the unbeliever wanteth,\nbecause he wanteth faith; for it is that which purifieth the heart\n(Luke 6:45; Acts 15:9). Good works must come from love to the Lord\nJesus; but this the unbeliever wanteth also, because he wanteth\nfaith: For faith 'worketh by love,' and by that means doth good\n(Gal 5:6).\n\nAnd hence again it is, that though the carnal man doth never so\nmuch which he calleth good, yet it is rejected, slighted, and turned\nas dirt in his face again; his prayers are abominable (Prov 15:8),\nhis ploughing is sin (Prov 21:4), and all his righteousness as\nmenstruous rags (Isa 64:6).\n\nThus you see that without faith there are no good works.\n\nNow then, to show you that they flow from faith: and that, For\nthat FAITH is a principle of life, by which a Christian lives (Gal\n2:19,20), a principle of motion, by which it walks towards heaven\nin the way of holiness (Rom 4:12; 2 Cor 5:7). It is also a principle\nof strength, by which the soul opposeth its lust, the devil, and\nthis world, and overcomes them. 'This is the victory, even our\nfaith' (1 John 5:4,5) Faith, in the heart of a Christian, is like\nthe salt that was thrown into the corrupt fountain, that made the\nnaughty waters good, and the barren land fruitful (2 Kings 2:19-22).\nFaith, when it is wrought in the heart, is like leaven hid in the\nmeal, (Matt 13:33) or like perfume that lighteth upon stinking\nleather, turning the smell of the leather into the savour of the\nperfume; faith being then planted in the heart, and having its\nnatural inclination to holiness. Hence it is that there followeth\nan alteration of the life and conversation, and so bringeth forth\nfruit accordingly. 'A good man out of the good treasure of his heart\nbringeth forth that which is good' (Luke 6:45). Which treasure, I\nsay, is this faith (James 2:5; 1 Peter 1:7). And therefore it is\nthat faith is called 'the faith according to godliness,' (Titus\n1:1) and the 'most holy faith' (Jude 20).\n\nSecond, Good works must needs flow from faith, or no way; because\nthat alone carrieth in it an argument sufficiently prevalent to\nwin upon our natures, to make them comply with holiness.\n\nFaith showeth us that God loveth us, that he forgiveth us our sins,\nthat he accounteth us for his children, having freely justified us\nthrough the blood of his Son (Rom 3:24,25; 4; Heb 11:13; 1 Peter\n1:8).\n\nFaith receiveth the promise, embraceth it, and comforteth the soul\nunspeakably with it. Faith is so great an artist in arguing and\nreasoning with the soul, that it will bring over the hardest heart\nthat it hath to deal with. It will bring to my remembrance at once,\nboth my vileness against God, and his goodness towards me; it will\nshow me, that though I deserve not to breathe in the air, yet that\nGod will have me an heir of glory.\n\nNow, there is no argument greater than this. This will make a man\nrun through ten thousand difficulties, to answer God, though he\nnever can, for the grace he hath bestowed on him.\n\nFurther, FAITH will show me how distinguishingly this love of God\nhath set itself upon me; it will show me, that though Esau was\nJacob's brother, yet he loved Jacob (Mal 1:2). That though there\nwere thousands more besides me that were as good as me, yet I must\nbe the man that must be chosen.\n\nNow this, I say, is a marvellous argument, and unspeakably prevaileth\nwith the sinner, as saith the apostle: 'For the love of Christ\nconstraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all,\nthen were all dead: And that he died for all; that they which live,'\nthat is, by faith, 'should not henceforth live unto themselves,\nbut unto him which died for them, and rose again' (2 Cor 5:14,15).\n'Love,' saith the wise man, 'is strong as death; Many waters cannot\nquench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give\nall the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned'\n(Song 8:6,7). Oh! when the broken, dying, condemned soul, can but\nsee, by faith, the love of a tender-hearted Saviour, and also see\nwhat he underwent to deliver it from under that death, guilt, and\nhell, that now it feels and fears; which also it knoweth it hath\nmost justly and highly deserved; 'Then bless the Lord, O my soul'\n(Psa 103:1,2,3); and 'What shall I render unto the Lord for all\nhis benefits?' (Psa 116:1-14).\n\nThus is faith a prevailing argument to the sinner, whereby he is\nfetched off from what he was, and constrained to bend and yield to\nwhat before he neither would nor could (1 Cor 2:14; Rom 8:7).\n\nAnd hence it is, that gospel obedience is called 'the obedience of\nfaith,' as well as obedience to the faith (Rom 16:26). For it must\nbe by the faith of Christ in my heart, that I submit to the word\nof faith in the Bible, otherwise all is to no profit: as saith the\napostle, 'The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed\nwith faith in them that heard it' (Heb 4:2). For faith alone can\nsee the reality of what the gospel saith; and so I say, argue over\nthe heart to the embracing of it.\n\nThird, Faith is such a grace, as will represent to the soul\nall things in their proper colours. It doth not, as doth unbelief\nand ignorance, show us all things out of order; putting darkness\nfor light, and bitter for sweet; but will set every thing in its\nproper place before our eyes; God and Christ shall be with it, the\nchiefest good, the most lovely and amiable; a heavenly life shall\nbe of greater esteem, and more desirable, than all the treasures\nof Egypt! Righteousness and sanctification will be the thing after\nwhich it will most vehemently press; because it seeth not only\ndeath and damnation as the fruits of sin, but sin also in itself,\ndistinct from the punishment belonging to it, a detestable, horrible,\nand odious thing (Heb 11:25-27; Phil 3:7-12; Rom 12:9).\n\nBy faith we see that this world hath no abiding in it for us, nor\nno satisfaction if it were otherwise (Prov 3:35; Heb 11:15,16;\n13:14; 1 Cor 7:9-31). And hence it is, that the people of God have\ngroaned to be gone from hence, into a state that is both sinless and\ntemptationless. And hence it is again that they have run through\nso many trials, afflictions, and adversities, even because of\nthat love to holiness of life that faith being in their hearts did\nprompt them to, by showing them the worth and durableness of that\nwhich was good, and the irksomeness and evil of all things else (2\nCor 5:1-8; Heb 11:33-39).\n\nFourth, Faith layeth hold of that which is able to help the soul\nto bring forth good works: it layeth hold of, and engageth the\nstrength of Christ, and by that overcometh that which oppresseth;\n'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me' (Phil\n4:13).\n\nIn a word, a life of holiness and godliness in this world, doth so\ninseparably follow a principle of faith, that it is both monstrous\nand ridiculous to suppose the contrary. What, shall not he that\nhath life have motion! (Gal 2:20). He that hath by faith received\nthe spirit of holiness, shall not he be holy? (Gal 3:2). and he\nthat is called to glory and virtue, shall not he add to his faith\nvirtue? (2 Peter 1:4,5). We are by faith made good trees, and shall\nnot we bring forth good fruit? (Luke 6:43). They that believe are\ncreated in Christ Jesus unto good works; and God hath, before the\nworld was, ordained that we should walk in them; and shall both our\nsecond creation, and God's foreordination be made frustrate? (Eph\n1:4; 2:10). Besides, the children of faith are the children of\nlight, and of the day (1 Thess 5:5). Lights upon a hill, and candles\non a candlestick, and shall not they shine? They are the salt of\nthe earth, shall not they be seasoning? (Matt 5:13-16).\n\nThe believer is the alone man, by whom God showeth to the world\nthe power of his grace, the operation of his people's faith, &c.\nThe unbelievers read indeed of the power of grace; of the faith,\nhope, love, joy, peace, and sanctification of the heart of the\nChristian; but they feel nothing of that sin-killing operation that\nis in these things; these are to them as a story of Rome or Spain.\nWherefore to show them in others, what they find not in themselves,\nGod worketh faith, hope, love, &c., in a generation that shall\nserve him; and by them they shall see what they cannot find in\nthemselves; and by this means they shall be convinced, that though\nsin, and the pleasures of this life, be sweet to them, yet there\nis a people otherwise minded; even such a people, that do indeed\nsee the glory of that which others read of, and from that sight\ntake pleasure in those things which they are most averse unto. To\nthis, I say, are Christians called; herein is God glorified; hereby\nare sinners convinced; and by this the world condemned (1 Thess\n4:7; 1 Peter 2:12; 3:1; Heb 11:7).\n\nObject. But if faith doth so naturally cause good works, what\nthen is the reason that God's people find it so hard a matter to\nbe fruitful in good works?\n\nAnswer\n\n1. God's people are fruitful in good works according to the proportion\nof their faith; if they be slender in good works, it is because\nthey are weak in faith. Little faith is like small candles, or weak\nfire, which though they shine and have heat; yet but dim shining\nand small heat, when compared with bigger candles and greater fire.\nThe reason why Sardis had some in it whose works were not perfect\nbefore God, it was, because they did not hold fast by faith the\nword that they had formerly heard and received (Rev 3:1-3).\n\n2. There may be a great mistake in our judging of our own fruitfulness.\nThe soul that indeed is candid and right at heart, is taught by\ngrace to judge itself, though fruitful, yet barren upon two accounts.\n(1.) When it compareth its life to the mercy bestowed upon it: for\nwhen a soul doth indeed consider the greatness and riches of the\nmercy bestowed upon it, then it must needs cry out, 'O wretched\nman that I am,' (Rom 7:24) for it seeth itself wonderfully to fall\nshort of a conversation becoming one who hath received so great a\nbenefit. (2.) It may also judge itself barren, because it falleth\nso far short of that it would attain unto, 'it cannot do the thing\nthat it would' (Gal 5:17).\n\n3. The heart of a Christian is naturally very barren; upon which,\nthough the seed of grace, that is the fruitfullest of all seeds,\nbe sown, yet the heart is naturally subject to bring forth weeds\n(Mat 15:19). Now, to have a good crop from such ground, doth\nargue the fruitfulness of the seed. Wherefore I conclude upon these\nthree things, (1.) That the seed of faith is a very fruitful seed,\nin that it will be fruitful in so barren a soil. (2.) That faith\nis not beholden to the heart, but the heart to it, for all its\nfruitfulness. (3.) That therefore the way to be a more fruitful\nChristian, it is to be stronger in believing.\n\nSECOND\n\nNow for the second thing, to wit, That every one that believeth\nshould be careful that their works be good. This followeth from\nwhat went just before; to wit, That the heart of a Christian is a\nheart subject to bring forth weeds.\n\nThere is flesh as well as spirit in the best of saints: and as the\nspirit of grace will be always putting forth something that is good,\nso the flesh will be putting forth continually that which is evil.\n'For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against\nthe flesh' (Gal 5:17).\n\nNow this considered, is the cause why you find so often in the\nScriptures so many items and cautions to the Christians to look\nto their lives and conversations. As, 'Keep thy heart with all\ndiligence' (Prov 4:23). 'Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit\nyou like men, be strong' (1 Cor 16:13). 'Be not deceived; God is\nnot mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\nFor he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;\nbut he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life\neverlasting' (Gal 6:7,8).\n\nAll works are not good that seem to be so. It is one thing for a\nman's ways to be right in his own eye, and another for them to be\nright in God's. Often 'that which is highly esteemed among men is\nabomination in the sight of God' (Prov 30:12; Luke 16:15).\n\nSeeing corruption is not yet out of our natures, there is a proneness\nin us to build [even] upon the right foundation, wood, hay, and\nstubble, instead of gold and silver, and precious stones (1 Cor\n3:11-15). How was both David the king, Nathan the prophet, and\nUzza the priest, deceived, touching good works! (1 Chron 17:1-4;\n13:9-11). Peter also, in both his defending his Master in the\ngarden, and in dissuading of him from his sufferings, though both\nout of love and affection to his Master, was deceived touching good\nworks. (Matt 16:22,23; John 18:10,11). Many have miscarried both\nas to doctrine, worship, and the prosecution of each.\n\nFirst, For doctrine. Christ tells the Jews, that they taught for\nthe doctrines of God the doctrines and traditions of men (Matt\n15:9; Mark 7:7). As also, saith the apostle, They teach 'things\nthey ought not, for filthy lucre's sake' (Titus 1:11).\n\nSecond, Also touching worsphip, we find how frequently men\nhave mistaken, both for time, place, and matter, with which they\nworshipped.\n\n1. For time. It hath been that which man hath devised, not which\nGod hath commanded (1 Kings 12:32). They 'change the ordinance,'\nsaith Isaiah, 24:5. They change God's 'judgments into wickedness,'\nsaith Ezekiel 5:6.\n\n2. For place. When they should have worshipped at Jerusalem, they\nworshipped at Bethel, at Gilgal and Dan, in gardens, under poplars\nand elms. (1 Kings 12:26-30; Hosea 4:13-15; Isa 65:2-5).\n\n3. For the matter with which they worshipped. Instead of bringing\naccording to the commandment, they brought the lame, the torn, and\nthe sick; they would sanctify themselves in gardens, with swine's\nflesh and mice, when they should have done it at Jerusalem, with\nbullocks and lambs (Isa 66:17).\n\nThird, Again, touching men's prosecuting their zeal for their worship,\n&c., that they do think right; how hot hath it been, though with\nno reason at all? Nebuchadnezzar will have his fiery furnace, and\nDarius his lions' den for Nonconformists (Dan 3:6; 6:7, &c.) Again,\nthey have persecuted men even to strange cities; have laid traps\nand snares in every corner, to entrap and to entangle their words;\nand if they could at any time but kill the persons that dissented\nfrom them, they would think they did God good service (Acts 26:11;\nLuke 11:53,54; John 19:1,2). But what need we look so far from\nhome, were it not that I would seal my sayings with truth. We need\nlook no farther to affirm this position, than to the Papists and\ntheir companions. How many have they in all ages hanged, burned,\nstarved, drowned, racked, dismembered, and murdered, both openly\nand in secret? and all under a pretence of God, his worship, and\ngood works. 5 Thus you see how wise men and fools, saints and\nsinners, Christians and heathens, have erred in the business of\ngood works; wherefore every one should be careful to see that their\nworks BE good.\n\nNow, then, to prevent, if God will, miscarriage in this matter, I\nshall propound unto you what it is for a work to be rightly good.\nFirst, A good work must have the word for its authority. Second,\nIt must, as afore was said, flow from faith. Third, It must be both\nrightly timed and rightly placed. Fourth, It must be done willingly,\ncheerfully, &c.\n\nFirst, It must have the word for its authority. Zeal without\nknowledge is like a mettled horse without eyes, or like a sword in\na madman's hand; and there is no knowledge where there is not the\nword: for if they reject the word of the Lord, and act not by that,\n'what wisdom is in them?' saith the prophet (Jer 8:9; Isa 8:20).\nWherefore see thou have the word for what thou dost.\n\nSecond, As there must be the word for the authorising of what thou\ndost, so there must be faith, from which it must flow, as I showed\nyou before: 'for whatsoever is not of faith is sin;' and 'without\nfaith it is impossible to please God.' Now, I say, without the\nword there is no faith, (Rom 10:17), as without faith there is no\ngood, let men's pretences be what they will.\n\nThird, As it must have these two aforenamed, so also it must have,\n1. Right time; and, 2. Right place.\n\n1. It must be rightly timed. Every work is not to be done at the\nsame time; every time not being convenient for such a work; There\nis a time for all things, and every thing is beautiful in its time\n(Eccl 3:11). There is a time to pray, a time to hear, a time to\nread, a time to confer, a time to meditate, a time to do, and a\ntime to suffer. Now, to be hearing when we should be preaching and\ndoing, that is, yielding active obedience to that under which we\nought to suffer, is not good. Christ was very wary, that both his\ndoings and sufferings were rightly timed (John 2:3,4; 13:1,2). And\nherein we ought to follow his steps. To be at plough in the field,\nwhen I should be hearing the word, is not good; and to be talking\nabroad, when I should be instructing my family at home, is as bad:\n'Whoso keepeth the commandment, shall feel no evil thing: 'and\na wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment' (Eccl 8:5).\nGood things mistimed, are fruitless, unprofitable, and vain.\n\n2. As things must have their right time, so they must be rightly\nplaced; for the misplacing of any work is as bad as the mistiming\nof it. When I say, things, if good, must be rightly placed, I mean,\nwe should not give to any work more than the word of God alloweth\nit, neither should we give it less. Mint, anise, and cummin, are\nnot so weighty matters as faith and the love of God; as in (Matt\n23:23). For a pastor to be exercising the office of a deacon,\ninstead of the office of a pastor, it is misplacing of works (Acts\n6:2). For Martha to be making outward provision for Christ, when\nshe should have sat at his feet to hear his word, was the misplacing\na work; and for her sister to have done it at her requestthough\nthe thing in itself was goodhad been her sin also (Luke 10:39-42).\nNow, to prevent the misplacing of good works,\n\n(1.) They misplace them that set them in the room of Christ (Rom\n10: 1-3).\n\n(2.) They also misplace them that make them copartners with him (Rom\n9:31,32; Acts 15:1). This is setting up our post by God's posts,\nand man's righteousness by the righteousness of Christ (Eze 43:7,8).\nThese are said to be teachers of the law, not knowing what they\nsay, nor whereof they affirm (1 Tim 1:7).\n\n(3.) They also misplace works, who ascribe to a work of less moment\nthat honour that belongeth to a work more noble. And such are (a)\nThose who count the ceremonial part of an ordinance as good as\nthe doctrine and signification of it. 6 (b) Such who account the\ndictates and impulses of a mere natural conscience, as good, as high,\nand divine, as the leadings and movings of the Spirit of Christ.\n(c) Those also who count it enough to do something of what God\nhath commanded, and that something, possibly the least, instead\nof all, and the things more necessary and weighty. (d) They also\nmuch misplace them, who count things indifferent as high as those\nthat are absolutely necessary in the worship of God. (e) But\nthe grosser, who place men's traditions above them. (f) And they\ngreatest of all, who put bitter for sweet, and darkness for light.\nAll these things we must shun and avoid, as things absolutely\nobstructive to good works.\n\nWherefore touching good works; obedience is better than sacrifice;\nthat is, to do things according to the word of God, is better\nthan to do them according to my fancy and conceit (1 Sam 15:22).\n'Wherefore, let all things be done decently and in order' (1 Cor\n14:40).\n\nFourth, Again, as good works should be ordered and qualified, as\nbefore is touched, so they should be done from the heart, willingly,\ncheerfully, with simplicity and charity, according to what a man\nhath (1 John 5:3; 2 Cor 9:7; Rom 12:8; Col 3:12; 1 Cor 10:24; 2\nCor 8:12).\n\nFarther, there are three things that a man should have in his eye\nin every work he doth. 1. The honour of God (1 Cor 6:20). 2. The\nedification of his neighbour (1 Cor 14:26). 3. The expediency or\ninexpediency of what I am to do (1 Cor 6:12). And always observe\nit, that the honour of God is wrapped up in the edification of thy\nneighbour; and the edification of thy neighbour in the expediency\nof what thou dost.\n\nAgain, if thou wouldst walk to the edification of thy neighbour,\nand so to God's honour, in the midst of thy observers, beware,\n\n1st. That thou in thy words and carriages dost so demean thyself,\nthat Christ in his precious benefits may be with clearness spoken\nforth by thee; and take heed, that thou dost not enter into doubtful\npoints with them that are weak (Rom 15:1). But deal chiefly,\nlovingly, and wisely, with their consciences about those matters\nthat tend to their establishment in the faith of their justification,\nand deliverance from death and hell. 'Comfort the feeble-minded,'\nconfirm the weak (1 Thess 5:14).\n\n2ndly. If thou be stronger than thy brother, take heed that thou do\nnot that before him, that may offend his weak conscience; I mean,\nthings that in themselves may be lawful. All that is lawful is not\nexpedient; all that is lawful edifieth not (1 Cor 6:12). Wherefore\nhere is thy wisdom and love, that thou in some things deny thyself\nfor thy brother's sake. 'I will eat no flesh while the world\nstandeth,' saith Paul, 'lest I make my brother to offend' (1 Cor\n8:13). Wherefore have this faith to thyself before God (Rom 14:22).\nBut if thou walk otherwise, know, thou walkest not charitably, and\nso not to edification, and so not to Christ's honour, but dost sin\nagainst Christ, and wound thy weak brother, for whom Christ died\n(Rom 14:15; 1 Cor 8:12). But I say, all this while keep thy eye\nupon the word; take heed of going contrary to that under any pretence\nwhatever; for without the word, there is nothing to God's glory,\nnor thy brother's edification. Wherefore, walk 'wisely in a perfect\nway' (Psa 101:2, 3).\n\nHaving thus, in few words, showed you what are works rightly good,\nI beseech you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you put\nyourselves into a conscientious performance of them, that you may,\nwhile you live here, be vessels of honour, and fit for the master's\nuse, and prepared to every good work (1 Tim 6:18). Study to approve\nthings that are excellent, 'that you may be sincere, and without\noffence, until the day of Christ' (Phil 1:10). Covet communion with\nGod: 'covet earnestly the best gifts' (1 Cor 12:31). Ah! we that\nare redeemed from among men (Rev 14:4), and that rejoice in the\nhope of the glory of God (Rom 5:2), we that look, I say, for the\nblessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our\nSaviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13), 'what manner of persons ought\nwe to be in all holy conversation and godliness' (2 Peter 3:11).\n\nTo conclude, for your farther edification, take a plain rehearsal\nof your several general duties and works, to which God engageth you\nin his word, according to your places, callings, and relations in\nthis world;\n\nDUTIES OF THE MASTER OF A FAMILY.\n\nIf thou have under thee a family, then thou art to consider the\nseveral relations thou standest under; and art to know, that thou\nin each of them hast a work to do for God, and that he expecteth\nthy faithful deportment under every one of them. As, in general;\n\nDUTY TO THE FAMILY IN GENERAL.\n\nHe that is the master of a family, he hath, as under that relation, a\nwork to do for God; to wit, the right governing of his own family.\nAnd his work is twofold. First, Touching the spiritual state\nthereof. Second, Touching the outward state thereof.\n\nFirst, As touching the spiritual state of his family; he ought to\nbe very diligent and circumspect, doing his utmost endeavour both\nto increase faith where it is begun, and to begin it where it is\nnot. Wherefore, to this end, he ought diligently and frequently to\nlay before his household such things of God, out of his word, as\nare suitable for each particular. And let no man question his rule\nin the word of God for such a practice; for if the thing itself\nwere but of good report, and a thing tending to civil honesty, it\nis within the compass and bounds even of nature itself, and ought\nto be done; much more things of a higher nature; besides, the apostle\nexhorts us to 'Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are\njust, pure, lovely, and of good report, to think of them,' that is,\nto be mindful to do them (Phil 4:8). But to be conversant in this\ngodly exercise in our family, is very worthy of praise, and doth\nmuch become all Christians. This is one of the things for which\nGod so highly commended his servant Abraham, and that with which\nhis heart was so much affected. I know Abraham, saith God, 'I\nknow him' to be a good man in very deed, for 'he will command his\nchildren, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way\nof the Lord' (Gen 18:19). This was a thing also which good Joshua\ndesigned should be his practice as long as he had a breathing time\nin this world. 'As for me,' saith he, I 'and my household, we will\nserve the Lord' (Josh 24:15).\n\nFurther, we find also in the New Testament, that they are looked\nupon as Christians of an inferior rank that have not a due regard\nto this duty; yea, so inferior as not fit to be chosen to any office\nin the church of God. A [bishop or] pastor must be one that ruleth\nwell his own house, having his children in subjection with all\ngravity; For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall\nhe take care of the church of God? 'The deacon' also, saith he,\nmust 'be the husband of one wife, ruling their children, and their\nown house well' (1 Tim 3). Mark a little, the apostle seems to lay\ndown thus much, that a man that governs his family well, hath one\nqualification belonging to a pastor or deacon in the house of God,\nfor he that knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he\ntake care of the church of God? which thing considered, it giveth\nus light into the work of the master of a family, touching the\ngoverning of his house.\n\n1. A pastor must be sound and uncorrupt in his doctrine; and indeed\nso must the master of a family (Titus 1:9; Eph 6:4).\n\n2. A pastor should be apt to teach, to reprove, and to exhort; and\nso should the master of a family (1 Tim 3:2; Deut 6:7).\n\n3. A pastor must himself be exemplary in faith and holiness; and\nso also should the master of a family (1 Tim 3:2-4; 4:12). 'I,'\nsaith David, 'will behave myself in a perfect way; I will walk in,'\nor before, 'my house with a perfect heart' (Psa 101:2).\n\n4. The pastor is for getting the church together; and when they\nare so come together, then to pray among them, and to preach unto\nthem. This is also commendable in Christian masters of families.\n\nObject.\n\nBut my family is ungodly and unruly, touching all that is good.\nWhat shall I do?\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. Though this be true, yet thou must rule them, and not they thee!\nThou are set over them of God, and thou art to use the authority\nwhich God hath given thee, both to rebuke their vice, and to show\nthem the evil of their rebelling against the Lord. This did Eli,\nthough not enough; and thus did David (1 Sam 2:24, 25; 1 Chron\n28:9). Also, thou must tell them how sad thy state was when thou\nwast in their condition, and so labour to recover them out of the\nsnare of the devil (Mark 5:19).\n\n2. Thou oughtest also to labour to draw them forth to God's public\nworship, if peradventure God may convert their souls. Saith Jacob\nto his household, and to all that were about him, 'Let us arise\nand go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who\nanswered me in the day of my distress' (Gen 35:3). Hannah would\ncarry Samuel to Shiloh, that he might abide with God for ever\n(1 Sam 1:22). Indeed a soul rightly touched, will labour to draw,\nnot only their families, but a whole city after Jesus Christ (John\n4:28-30).\n\n3. If they are obstinate, and will not go forth with thee, then do\nthou get godly and sound men to thy house, and there let the word\nof God be preached, when thou hast, as Cornelius, gathered thy\nfamily and friends together (Acts 10). You know that the jailor,\nLydia, Crispus, Gaius, Stephanus, and others, had not only themselves,\nbut their families, made gracious by the word preached, and that\nsome of them, if not all, by the word preached in their houses\n(Acts 16:14-34; 18:7, 8; 1 Cor 1:16). And this, for ought I know,\nmight be one reason among many, why the apostles taught in their\nday, not only publicly, but from house to house; I say, that they\nmight, if possible, bring in those in some family, which yet remained\nunconverted, and in their sins (Acts 10:24; 20:20, 21). For some,\nyou know how usual it was in the day of Christ, to invite him to\ntheir houses, if they had any afflicted, that either would not or\ncould not come unto him (Luke 7:2, 3; 8:41). If this be the way\nwith those that have outward diseases in their families, how much\nmore then, where there are souls that have need of Christ, to save\nthem from death and eternal damnation!\n\n4. Take heed that thou do not neglect family duties among them\nthyself; as, reading the word and prayer; if thou hast one in thy\nfamily that is gracious, take encouragement; nay, if thou art alone,\nyet know that thou hast both liberty to go to God through Christ,\nand also art at that time in a capacity of having the universal\nchurch join with thee for the whole number of those that shall be\nsaved.\n\n5. Take heed that thou suffer not any ungodly, profane, or heretical\nbooks, or discourse in thy house. 'Evil communications corrupt good\nmanners' (1 Cor 15:33). I mean such profane or heretical books,\n&c., as either tend to provoke to looseness of life, or such as do\noppose the fundamentals of the gospel. I know that Christians must\nbe allowed their liberty as to things indifferent; but for those\nthings that strike either at faith or holiness, they ought to\nbe abandoned by all Christians, and especially by the pastors of\nchurches, and masters of families; which practice was figured out\nby Jacob's commanding his house, and all that was with him, to put\naway the strange gods from among them, and to change their garments\n(Gen 35:2). All those in the Acts set a good example for this, who\ntook their curious books and burned them before all men, though\nthey were worth fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:18, 19).\nThe neglect of this fourth particular hath occasioned ruin in many\nfamilies, both among children and servants. It is easier for vain\ntalkers, and their deceivable works, to subvert whole households,\nthan many are aware of (Titus 1:10, 11). Thus much touching the\nspiritual state of thy household. And now to its outward.\n\nSecond, Touching the outward state of thy family, thou art to\nconsider these three things.\n\n1. That it lieth upon thee to care for them that they have\na convenient livelihood. 'If any man provide not for his own, and\nspecially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith,\nand is worse than an infidel' (1 Tim 5:8). But mark, when the Word\nsaith, thou art to provide for thy house, it giveth thee no license\nto distracting carefulness; neither doth it allow thee to strive\nto grasp the world in thy heart, or coffers, nor to take care for\nyears or days to come, but so to provide for them, that they may\nhave food and raiment; and if either they or thou be not content\nwith that, you launch out beyond the rule of God (1 Tim 6:8; Matt\n6:34). This is to labour, that you may have wherewith 'to maintain\ngood works for necessary uses' (Titus 3:14). And never object,\nthat unless you reach farther, it will never do; for that is but\nunbelief. The word saith, 'That God feedeth ravens, careth for\nsparrows, and clotheth the grass;' in which three, to feed, clothe,\nand care for, is as much as heart can wish (Luke 12:6-28).\n\n2. Therefore though thou shouldest provide for thy family; yet let\nall thy labour be mixed with moderation; 'Let your moderation be\nknown unto all men' (Phil 4:5). Take heed of driving so hard after\nthis world, as to hinder thyself and family from those duties\ntowards God, which thou art by grace obliged to; as private prayer,\nreading the scriptures, and Christian conference. It is a base thing\nfor men so to spend themselves and families after this world, as\nthat they disengage their heart to God's worship. Christians, 'The\ntime is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as\nthough they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not;\nand they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that\nuse this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world\npasseth away' (1 Cor 7:29-31). Many Christians live and do in this\nworld, as if religion were but a by-business, and this world the\none thing necessary; when indeed all the things of this world are\nbut things by the by; and religion only the one thing needful (Luke\n10:40-42).\n\n3. If thou wouldst be such a master of a family as becomes thee,\nthou must see that there be that Christian harmony among those under\nthee, as becomes that house where one ruleth that feareth God.\n\n(1.) Thou must look that thy children and servants be under subjection\nto the word of God; for though it is of God only to rule the heart,\nyet he expecteth that thou shouldest rule their outward man; which\nif thou dost not, he may in a short time cut off all they stock,\n[even every male] (1 Sam 3:11-14). See therefore that thou keep\nthem temperate in all things, in apparel, in language, that they\nbe not gluttons, nor drunkards; not suffering either thy children\nvainly to domineer over thy servants, nor they again to carry\nthemselves foolishly towards each other.\n\n(2.) Learn to distinguish between that injury that in thy family\nis done to thee, and that which is done to God; and though thou\noughtest to be very zealous for the Lord, and to bear nothing that\nis open transgression to him; yet here will be thy wisdom, to pass\nby personal injuries, and to bury them in oblivion: 'Love covereth\na multitude of sins.' Be not then like those that will rage and\nstare like madmen, when they are injured; and yet either laugh,\nor at least not soberly rebuke, and warn, when God is dishonoured.\n'Rule thy own house well, having thy childrenwith others in thy\nfamilyin subjection, with all gravity' (1 Tim 3:4). Solomon was so\nexcellent sometimes this way, that he made the eyes of his beholders\nto dazzle (2 Chron 9:3, 4). 7 But to break off from this general,\nand to come to particulars.\n\n[DUTY IN RELATION TO THE WIFE.]\n\nHast thou a wife? Thou must consider how thou oughtest to behave\nthyself under that relation: and to do this aright, thou must\nconsider the condition of thy wife, whether she be one that indeed\nbelieveth or not. First, If she believeth, then,\n\n1. Thou art engaged to bless God for her: 'For her price is far\nabove rubies, and she is the gift of God unto thee, and is for\nthy adorning and glory' (Prov 12:4; 31:10; 1 Cor 11:7). 'Favour is\ndeceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord,\nshe shall be praised' (Prov 31:30).\n\n2. Thou oughtest to love her, under a double consideration: (1.)\nAs she is thy flesh and thy bone: 'For no man ever yet hated his\nown flesh' (Eph 5:29). (2.) As she is together with thee an heir\nof the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). This, I say, should engage thee\nto love her with Christian love; to love her, as believing you both\nare dearly beloved of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and as those\nthat must be together with him in eternal happiness. 3. Thou\noughtest so to carry thyself to and before her, as doth Christ to\nand before his church; as saith the apostle: So ought men to love\ntheir wives, 'even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself\nfor it' (Eph 5:25). When husbands behave themselves like husbands\nindeed, then will they be not only husbands, but such an ordinance\nof God to the wife, as will preach to her the carriage of Christ\nto his spouse. There is a sweet scent wrapped up in the relations\nof husbands and wives, that believe (Eph 4:32); the wife, I say,\nsignifying the church, and the husband the head and saviour thereof,\n'For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the\nhead of the church' (Eph 5:23). and he is the Saviour of the body.\n\nThis is one of God's chief ends in instituting marriage, that Christ\nand his church, under a figure, might be wherever there is a couple\nthat believe through grace. Wherefore that husband that carrieth\nit undiscreetly towards his wife, he doth not only behave himself\ncontrary to the rule, but also maketh his wife lose the benefit of\nsuch an ordinance, and crosseth the mystery of his relation.\n\nTherefore, I say, 'So ought men to love their wives as their own\nbodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever\nyet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even\nas the Lord the church:' (Eph 5: 8, 29). Christ laid out his life\nfor his church, covereth her infirmities, communicates to her his\nwisdom, protecteth her, and helpeth her in her employments in this\nworld; and so ought men to do for their wives. Solomon and Pharaoh's\ndaughter had the art of thus doing, as you may see in the book\nof Canticles. Wherefore bear with their weaknesses, help their\ninfirmities, and honour them as the weaker vessels, and as being\nof a frailer constitution (1 Peter 3:7).\n\nIn a word, be such a husband to thy believing wife, that she may\nsay, God hath not only given me a husband, but such a husband as\npreacheth to me every day the carriage of Christ to his church.\n\nSecond, If thy wife be unbelieving or carnal, then thou hast also\na duty lying before thee, which thou art engaged to perform under\na double engagement: 1. For that she lieth liable every moment to\neternal damnation. 2. That she is thy wife that is in this evil\ncase.\n\nOh! how little sense of the worth of souls is there in the heart\nof some husbands; as is manifest by their unchristian carriage to\nand before their wives! Now, to qualify thee for a carriage suitable,\n\n1. Labour seriously after a sense of her miserable state, that thy\nbowels may yearn towards her soul.\n\n2. Beware that she take no occasion from any unseemly carriage of\nthine, to proceed in evil. And here thou hast need to double thy\ndiligence, for she lieth in thy bosom, and therefore is capable of\nespying the least miscarriage in thee.\n\n3. If she behave herself unseemly and unruly, as she is subject to\ndo, being Christless and graceless, then labour thou to overcome\nher evil with thy goodness, her forwardness with thy patience and\nmeekness. It is a shame for thee, who hast another principle, to\ndo as she.\n\n4. Take fit opportunities to convince her. Observe her disposition,\nand when she is most likely to bear, then speak to her very heart.\n\n5. When thou speakest, speak to purpose. It is no matter for many\nwords, provided they be pertinent. Job in a few words answers his\nwife, and takes her off from her foolish talking: 'Thou speakest,'\nsaith he, 'as one of the foolish women. What? shall we receive good\nat the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' (Job 2:10).\n\n6. Let all be done without rancour, or the least appearance\nof anger: 'In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves,\nifperadventure they may recover themselves out of the snare of the\ndevil, who are taken captive by him at his will' (2 Tim 2:25, 26).\n'And how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife' (1\nCor 7:16).\n\nDUTY OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN If thou are a parent, a father, or a\nmother, then thou art to consider thy calling under this relation.\n\nThy children have souls, and they must be begotten of God as well\nas of thee, or they perish. And know also, that unless thou be very\ncircumspect in thy behavior to and before them, they may perish\nthrough thee: the thoughts of which should provoke thee, both to\ninstruct, and also to correct them.\n\nFirst, To instruct them as the scripture saith, and to 'bring\nthem up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord'; and to do this\ndiligently, 'when thou sittest in thine housewhen thou liest down,\nand when thou risest up' (Eph 6:4; Deu 6:7).\n\nNow to do this to purpose:\n\n1. Do it in terms and words easy to be understood: affect not high\nexpressions, they will drown your children. Thus God spake to his\nchildren (Hosea 12:10), and Paul to his (1 Cor 3:2).\n\n2. Take heed of filling their heads with whimsies, and unprofitable\nnotions, for this will sooner learn them to be malapert and proud,\nthan sober and humble. Open therefore to them the state of man\nby nature; discourse with them of sin, of death, and hell; of a\ncrucified Saviour, and the promise of life through faith: 'Train\nup a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will\nnot depart from it' (Prov 22:6).\n\n3. There must be much gentleness and patience in all thy instructions,\n'lest they be discouraged' (Col. 3:21). And,\n\n4. Labour to convince them by a conversation answerable, that the\nthings of which thou instructest them are not fables, but realities;\nyea, and realities so far above what can be here enjoyed, that all\nthings, were they a thousand times better than they are, are not\nworthy to be compared with the glory and worthiness of these things.8\n\nIsaac was so holy before his children, that when Jacob remembered\nGod, he remembered that he was 'the Fear of his father Isaac' (Gen\n31:53). Ah! when children can think of their parents, and bless\nGod for that instruction and good they have received from them,\nthis is not only profitable for children, but honourable, and\ncomfortable to parents: 'The father of the righteous shall greatly\nrejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him'\n(Prov 23:24, 25). Second, The duty of correction.\n\n1. See if fair words will win them from evil. This is God's way\nwith his children (Jer 25:4, 5).\n\n2. Let those words you speak to them in your reproof, be both\nsober, few, and pertinent, adding always some suitable sentence of\nthe scripture therewith; as, if they lie, then such as (Rev 21:8,\n27). If they refuse to hear the word, such as (2 Chron 25:14-16).\n\n3. Look to them, that they be not companions with those that are\nrude and ungodly; showing with soberness a continual dislike of\ntheir naughtiness; often crying out to them, as God did of old unto\nhis, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate' (Jer 44:4).\n\n4. Let all this be mixed with such love, pity, and compunction\nof spirit, that if possible they may be convinced you dislike not\ntheir persons, but their sins. This is God's way (Psa 99:8).\n\n5. Be often endeavouring to fasten on their consciences the day\nof their death, and judgment to come. Thus also God deals with his\n(Deu 32:29).\n\n6. If thou art driven to the rod, then strike advisedly in cool\nblood, and soberly show them, (1.) their fault; (2.) how much it is\nagainst thy heart thus to deal with them; (3.) and that what thou\ndost, thou dost in conscience to God, and love to their souls; (4.)\nand tell them, that if fair means would have done, none of this\nseverity should have been. This, I have proved it, will be a means\nto afflict their hearts as well as their bodies; and it being the\nway that God deals with his, it is the most likely to accomplish\nits end.\n\n7. Follow all this with prayer to God for them, and leave the issue\nto him: 'Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod\nof correction shall drive it far from him' (Prov 22:15).\n\nLastly, Observe these cautions,\n\n1. Take heed that the misdeeds for which thou correctest thy children\nbe not learned them by thee. Many children learn that wickedness\nof their parents for which they beat and chastise them.\n\n2. Take heed thou smile not upon them, to encourage them in small\nfaults, lest that thy carriage to them be an encouragement to them\nto commit greater.\n\n3. Take heed thou use not unsavoury and unseemly words in thy\nchastising of them, as railing, miscalling, and the like: this is\ndevilish.\n\n4. Take heed thou do not use them to many chiding words and\nthreatenings, mixed with lightness and laughter; this will harden.\nSpeak not much, nor often, but pertinent to them with all gravity. 9\n\nDUTIES OF MASTERS TO SERVANTS. Masters also have a work to do as\nthey stand related to their servants. And,\n\nFirst, If possibly they can, to get them that fear God: 'He that\nworketh deceit,' saith David, 'shall not dwell within my house; he\nthat telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight' (Psa 101:7).\n\nSecond, But if none at the present but unbelievers can be got to\ndo thy labour, then,\n\n1. Know that it is thy duty so to behave thyself to thy servant,\nthat thy service may not only be for thy good, but for the good of\nthy servant, and that both in body and soul. Wherefore deal with\nhim, as to admonition, as with thy children; given him the same\nbread of God thou givest to them; and who knows, but that if thou\nwith spiritual delicates bringest up thy servant, but he may become\nthy spiritual son in the end (Prov 29:21).\n\n2. Take heed thou do not turn thy servants into slaves, by overcharging\nthem in thy work, through thy greediness. To make men serve with\nrigour, is more like to Israel's enemies than Christian masters\n(Exo 1:14). 10\n\n3. Take heed thou carry not thyself to thy servant as he of whom\nit is said, 'He is such a man of Belial, that his servants could\nnot speak to him.' (1 Sam 25:14-17).\n\nAnd the apostle bids you forbear to threaten them, because you also\nhave a Master in heaven (Eph 6:9). As who should say, Your servants\ncannot be guilty of so many miscarriages against you, as you are\nguilty of against Christ. Wherefore do with, and to your servants,\nas you would have your master do with you.\n\n4. Take heed that thou neither circumvent him at his coming in to\nthy service, nor at his going out. Servants, at their going into\nservice, may be beguiled two ways.\n\n(1.) By their masters lying unto them, saying, their work is so\nsmall and so easy, when it is indeed, if not too burdensome, yet\nfar beyond what at first was said of it. This is beguiling of them.\n\n(2.) The other way is, when masters greedily seek to wire-draw their\nservants to such wages as indeed is too little and inconsiderable\nfor such work and labour. Both these the apostle opposeth, where\nhe saith, 'Masters give unto your servants that which is just,'\njust labour, and just wages, 'knowing that ye also have a master\nin heaven' (Col 4:1).\n\nAs servants may be circumvented at their coming into their labour,\nso also they may be at their going out: which is done by masters\nthat either change their wages, like heathenish Laban, (Gen 31:7).\nor by keeping it back, like those against whom God will be a swift\nwitness (Mal 3:5).\n\n5. Take heed that thou make not a gain of thy place, because thou\nart gracious, or livest conveniently for the means of grace. 11\n\nServants that are truly godly they care not how cheap they serve\ntheir masters, provided they may get into godly families, or where\nthey may be convenient for the word. But now, if a master or mistress\nshould take this opportunity to make a prey of their servants, this\nis abominable, this is making a gain of godliness, and merchandise\nof the things of God, and of the soul of thy brother (1 Tim 6:5).\n\nI have heard some poor servants say, That in some carnal families\nthey have had more liberty to God's things, and more fairness of\ndealing, than among professors. But this stinketh. And as Jacob\nsaid concerning the cruelty of his two sons, so may I say of such\nmasters, they make religion stink before the inhabitants of the\nland (Gen 34:30).\n\nIn a word, learn of the Lord Jesus to carry yourselves well to\nyour servants, that your servants also may learn something of the\nkindness of Christ by your deportment to them. Servants are goers\nas well as comers; take heed that thou give them no occasion to\nscandal the gospel when they are gone, for what they observed thee\nunrighteously to do when they were with thee. Then masters carry\nit rightly toward their servants, when they labour both in word\nand life to convince them that the things of God are the one thing\nnecessary. That which servants are commanded to do, touching their\nfear, their singleness of heart, their doing what they do as to\nthe Lord, and not to men; the master is commanded to do the same\nthings unto them. (Eph 6:6-9).\n\nTHE DUTY OF WIVES. But passing the master of the family, I shall\nspeak a word or two to those that are under him.\n\nAnd, first, to the wife: The wife is bound by the law to her husband,\nso long as her husband liveth (Rom 7:2). Wherefore she also hath\nher work and place in the family, as well as the rest.\n\nNow there are these things considerable in the carriage of a wife\ntoward her husband, which she ought conscientiously to observe.\n\nFirst, That she look upon him as her head and lord. 'The head of\nthe woman is the man' (1 Cor 11:3). And so Sarah called Abraham\nlord (1 Peter 3:6).\n\nSecond, She should therefore be subject to him, as is fit in the\nLord. The apostle saith, 'That the wife should submit herself to\nher husband, as to the Lord' 12 (1 Peter 3:1; Col 3:18; Eph 5:22).\nI told you before, that if the husband doth walk towards his wife\nas becomes him, he will therein be such an ordinance of God to\nher, besides the relation of a husband, that shall preach to her\nthe carriage of Christ to his church. And now I say also, that the\nwife, if she walk with her husband as becomes her, she shall preach\nthe obedience of the church to her husband. 'Therefore as the church\nis subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands\nin everything' (Eph 5:24). Now for thy performing of this work,\nthou must first shun these evils.\n\n1. The evil of a wandering and a gossiping spirit; this is evil\nin the church, and is evil also in a wife, who is the figure of a\nchurch. Christ loveth to have his spouse keep at home; that is, to\nbe with him in the faith and practice of his things, not ranging\nand meddling with the things of Satan; no more should wives be given\nto wander and gossip abroad. You know that Proverbs 7:11 saith,\n'She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house.' Wives\nshould be about their own husbands' business at home; as the\napostle saith, Let them 'be discreet, chaste, keepers at home,\ngood, obedient to their own husbands.' And why? Because otherwise\n'the word of God will be blasphemed' (Titus 2:5).\n\n2. Take heed of an idle, talking, or brangling tongue. This also is\nodious, either in maids or wives, to be like parrots, not bridling\ntheir tongue; whereas the wife should know, as I said before,\nthat her husband is her lord, and is over her, as Christ is over\nthe church. Do you think it is seemly for the church to parrot it\nagainst her husband? Is she not to be silent before him, and to\nlook to his laws, rather than her own fictions? Why so, saith the\napostle, ought the wife to carry it towards her husband? 'Let the\nwoman,' saith Paul, 'learn in silence with all subjection. But I\nsuffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,\nbut to be in silence' (1 Tim 2:11, 12). It is an unseemly thing\nto see a woman so much as once in all her lifetime to offer to\novertop her husband; she ought in everything to be in subjection\nto him, and to do all she doth, as having her warrant, licence, and\nauthority from him. And indeed here is her glory, even to be under\nhim, as the church is under Christ: Now 'she openeth her mouth with\nwisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness' (Prov 31:26).\n\n3. Take heed of affecting immodest apparel, or a wanton gait; this\nwill be evil both abroad and at home; abroad, it will not only give\nill example, but also tend to tempt to lust and lasciviousness;\nand at home it will give an offence to a godly husband, and be\ncankering to ungodly children, &c. Wherefore, as saith the apostle,\nLet women's apparel be modest, as becometh women professing\ngodliness, with good works, 'not with broidered hair, or gold, or\npearls, or costly array' (1 Tim 2:9, 10). And as it is said again,\n'Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting\nthe hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel:\nBut let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not\ncorruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is\nin the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old\ntime the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves,\nbeing in subjection unto their own husbands' (1 Peter 3:3-5).\n\nBut yet, do not think that by the subjection I have here mentioned,\nthat I do intend women should be their husbands' slaves. Women are\ntheir husbands' yokefellows, their flesh and their bones; and he\nis not a man that hateth his own flesh, or that is bitter against\nit (Eph 5:29). Wherefore, let every man 'love his wife even\nas himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband' (Eph\n5:33). The wife is master next her husband, and is to rule all in\nhis absence; 13 yea, in his presence she is to guide the house,\nto bring up the children, provided she so do it, as the adversary\nhave no occasion to speak reproachfully (1 Tim 5:10, 13). 'Who can\nfind a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. A gracious\nwoman retaineth honour:' and guideth her affairs with discretion\n(Prov 31:10; 11:16; 12:4).\n\nObject.\n\nBut my husband is an unbeliever; what shall I do?\n\nAnswer.\n\nIf so, then what I have said before lieth upon thee with an engagement\nso much the stronger. For, 1. Thy husband being in this condition,\nhe will be watchful to take thy slips and infirmities, to throw them\nas dirt in the face of God and thy Saviour. 2. He will be apt to\nmake the worst of every one of thy words, carriages, and gestures.\n3. And all this doth tend to the possessing his heart with more\nhardness, prejudice, and opposition to his own salvation; wherefore,\nas Peter saith, 'ye wives, be in subjection to your husbands;\nthat, if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be\nwon by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste\nconversation, coupled with fear' (1 Peter 3:1, 2). Thy husband's\nsalvation or damnation lieth much in thy deportment and behaviour\nbefore him; wherefore, if there be in thee any fear of God, or\nlove to thy husband, seek, by a carriage full of meekness, modesty,\nand holiness, and a humble behaviour before him, to win him to the\nlove of his own salvation; and by thus doing, how 'knowest thou,\nO wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?' (1 Cor 7:16).\n\nObject.\n\nBut my husband is not only an unbeliever, but one very froward,\npeevish, and testy, yea, so froward, &c., that I know not how to\nspeak to him, or behave myself before him.\n\nAnswer.\n\nIndeed there are some wives in great slavery by reason of their\nungodly husbands; and as such should be pitied, and prayed for;\nso they should be so much the more watchful and circumspect in all\ntheir ways.\n\n1. Therefore be thou very faithful to him in all the things of this\nlife.\n\n2. Bear with patience his unruly and unconverted behaviour; thou\nart alive, he is dead; thou art principled with grace, he with\nsin. Now, then, seeing grace is stronger than sin, and virtue than\nvice; be not overcome with his vileness, but overcome that with thy\nvirtues (Rom 12:21). It is a shame for those that are gracious to\nbe as lavishing in their words, &c., as those that are graceless:\nThey that are 'slow to wrath are of great understanding; but they\nthat are hasty of spirit, exalteth folly' (Prov 14:29).\n\n3. Thy wisdom, therefore, if at any time thou hast a desire to speak\nto thy husband for his conviction, concerning anything, either good\nor evil, it is to observe convenient times and seasons: There is\n'a time to keep silence, and a time to speak' (Eccl 3:7). Now for\nthe right timing thy intentions,\n\n(1.) Consider his disposition; and take him when he is farthest off\nof those filthy passions that are thy afflictions. Abigail would\nnot speak a word to her churlish husband till his wine was gone\nfrom him, and he in a sober temper (1 Sam 25:36, 37). The want of\nthis observation is the cause why so much is spoken, and so little\neffected. 14\n\n(2.) Take him at those times when he hath his heart taken with\nthee, and when he showeth tokens of love and delight in thee. Thus\ndid Esther with the king her husband, and prevailed (Ester 5:3, 6;\n7:1, 2).\n\n(3.) Observe when convictions seize his conscience, and then follow\nthem with sound and grave sayings of the Scriptures. Somewhat like\nto this dealt Manoah's wife with her husband (Judg 13:22, 23). Yet\nthen,\n\n(a) Let thy words be few.\n\n(b) And none of them savouring of a lording it over him; but speak\nthou still as to thy head and lord, by way of entreaty and beseeching.\n\n(c) And that in such a spirit of sympathy, and bowels of affection\nafter his good, that the manner of thy speech and behaviour in\nspeaking may be to him an argument that thou speakest in love, as\nbeing sensible of his misery, and inflamed in thy soul with desire\nafter his conversion.\n\n(d) And follow thy words and behaviour with prayers to God for his\nsoul.\n\n(e) Still keeping thyself in a holy, chaste, and modest behaviour\nbefore him.\n\nObject.\n\nBut my husband is a sot, a fool, and one that hath not wit enough\nto follow his outward employment in the world.\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. Though all this be true, yet thou must know he is thy head, thy\nlord, and thy husband.\n\n2. Therefore thou must take heed of desiring to usurp authority over\nhim. He was not made for thee; that is, for thee to have dominion\nover him, but to be thy husband, and to rule over thee (1 Tim 2:12;\n1 Cor 11:3, 8).\n\n3. Wherefore, though in truth thou mayest have more discretion than\nhe, yet thou oughtest to know that thou, with all that is thine,\nis to be used as under thy husband; even 'every thing' (Eph 5:24).\nTake heed therefore, that what thou dost goes not in thy name, but\nhis; not to thy exaltation, but his; carrying all things so, by thy\ndexterity and prudence, that not one of thy husband's weaknesses\nbe discovered to others by thee: 'A virtuous woman is a crown to\nher husband: but she that maketh ashamed, is as rottenness in his\nbones.' For then, as the wise man sayeth, 'she will do him good\nand not evil, all the days of her life' (Prov 12:4; 31:12).\n\n4. Therefore act, and do still, as being under the power and\nauthority of thy husband.\n\nNow touching thy carriage to thy children and servants. Thou art\na parent, and a mistress, and so thou oughtest to demean thyself.\nAnd besides, seeing the believing woman is a figure of the church,\nshe ought, as the church, to nourish and instruct her children,\nand servants, as the church, that she may answer in that particular\nalso; and truly, the wife being always at home, she hath great\nadvantage that way; wherefore do it, and the Lord prosper your\nproceeding.\n\nDUTIES OF CHILDREN TO PARENTS.\n\nThere lieth also a duty upon children to their parents, which\nthey are bound both by the law of God and nature conscientiously\nto observe: 'Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is\nright.' And again, 'Children, obey your parents in all things; for\nthis is well pleasing unto the Lord' (Eph 6:1; Col 3:20).\n\nThere are these general things in which children should show forth\nthat honour that is due to their parents from them.\n\nFirst, They should always count them better than themselves. I\nobserve a vile spirit among some children, and that is, they are\napt to look over their parents, and to have slighting and scornful\nthoughts of them. This is worse than heathenish; such an one hath\ngot just the heart of a dog or a beast, that will bite those that\nbegot them, and her that brought them forth.\n\nObject.\n\nBut my father, &c., is now poor, and I am rich, and it will be a\ndisparagement, or at least a hinderance to me, to show that respect\nto him as otherwise I might.\n\nAnswer.\n\nI tell thee thou arguest like an atheist and a beast, and standest\nin this full flat against the Son of God (Mark 7:9-13). Must a\ngift, and a little of the glory of the butterfly, make thee that\nthou shalt not do for, and honour to, thy father and mother? 'A wise\nson maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother'\n(Prov 15:20). Though thy parents be never so low, and thou thyself\nnever so high, yet he is thy father, and she thy mother, and they\nmust be in thy eye in great esteem: 'The eye that mocketh at his\nfather, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley\nshall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it' (Prov 30:17).\n\nSecond, Thou oughtest to show thy honour to thy parents, by a\nwillingness to help them with such necessaries and accommodations\nwhich they need. 'If anyhave children or nephews, let them learn to\nshow piety 15 at home, and to requite their parents:' saith Paul,\n'for that is good and acceptable before God' (1 Tim 5:4). And this\nrule Joseph observed to his poor father, though he himself was next\nthe king in Egypt (Gen 47:12; 41:39-44).\n\nBut mark, let them 'requite their parents.' There are three things\nfor which, as long as thou livest, thou wilt be a debtor to thy\nparents.\n\n1. For thy being in this world. They are they from whom, immediately\nunder God, thou didst receive it.\n\n2. For their care to preserve thee when thou wast helpless, and\ncouldst neither care for, nor regard thyself.\n\n3. For the pains they have taken with thee to bring thee up. Until\nthou hast children of thy own, thou wilt not be sensible of the\npains, watchings, fears, sorrow, and affliction, that they have\ngone under to bring thee up; and when thou knowest it, thou wilt\nnot easily yield that thou has recompensed them for thy favour to\nthee. How often have they sustained [thee in] thy hunger, clothed\nthy nakedness? What care have they taken that thou mightest have\nwherewith to live and do well when they were dead and gone? They\npossibly have spared it from their own belly and back for thee, and\nhave also impoverished themselves, that thou mightest live like a\nman. 16 All these things ought duly, and like a man, to be considered\nby thee; and care ought to be taken on thy part to requite them.\nThe Scripture saith so, reason saith so, and there be none but dogs\nand beasts that deny it. It is the duty of parents to lay up for\ntheir children; and the duty of children to requite their parents.\n\nThird, Therefore show, by all humble and son-like carriage, that\nthou dost to this day, with thy heart, remember the love of thy\nparents. Thus much for obedience to parents in general.\n\nAgain, if thy parents be godly, and thou wicked, as thou art, if\nthou hast not a second work or birth from God upon thee, then thou\nart to consider, that thou art more strongly engaged to respect and\nhonour thy parents, not now only as a father in the flesh, but as\ngodly parents; thy father and mother are now made of God thy teachers\nand instructors in the way of righteousness. Wherefore, to allude\nto that of Solomon, 'My son, keep thy father's commandment, and\nforsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thine\nheart, and tie them about thy neck' (Prov 6:20, 21).\n\nNow, to provoke thee hereto, consider,\n\n1. That this hath been the practice always of those that are and\nhave been obedient children; yea, of Christ himself to Joseph and\nMary, though he himself was God blessed for ever (Luke 2:51).\n\n2. Thou hast also the severe judgments of God upon those that have\nbeen disobedient, to awe thee. As, (1.) Ishmael, for but mocking\nat one good carriage of his father and mother, was both thrust out\nof his father's inheritance and the kingdom of heaven, and that\nwith God's approbation (Gen 21:9-14; Gal 4:30). (2.) Hophni and\nPhinehas, for refusing the good counsel of their father, provoked\nthe great God to be their enemy: 'They hearkened not unto the voice\nof their father, because the Lord would slay them' (1 Sam 2:23-25).\n(3.) Absalom was hanged, as I may say, by God himself, for rebelling\nagainst his father (2 Sam 18:9).\n\nBesides, little dost thou know how heart-aching a consideration it\nis to thy parents, when they do but suppose thou mayest be damned!\nHow many prayers, sighs, and tears, are there wrung from their\nhearts upon this account? Every miscarriage of thine goeth to their\nheart, for fear God should take an occasion thereat to shut thee\nup in hardness for ever. How did Abraham groan for Ishmael? 'O,'\nsaith he, to God, 'that Ishmael might live before thee!' (Gen\n17:18). How was Isaac and Rebecca grieved for the miscarriage of\nEsau? (Gen 26:34, 35). And how bitterly did David mourn for his\nson, who died in his wickedness? (2 Sam 18:32, 33).\n\nLastly, And can any imagine, but that all these carriages of thy\ngodly parents, will be to thee the increase of thy torments in\nhell, if thou die in thy sins notwithstanding?\n\nAgain, if thy parents, and thou also, be godly, how happy a thing\nis this? How shouldest thou rejoice, that the same faith should\ndwell both in thy parents and thee? Thy conversion, possibly, is\nthe fruits of thy parents' groans and prayers for thy soul; and\nthey cannot choose but rejoice; do thou rejoice with them. It is\ntrue, in the salvation of a natural son, which is mentioned in the\nparable: 'This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and\nis found. And they began to be merry' (Luke 15:24). Let therefore\nthe consideration of this, that thy parents have grace, as well as\nthee, engage thy heart so much the more to honour, reverence, and\nobey them.\n\nThou art better able now to consider the pains and care that thy\nfriends have been at, both for thy body and soul; wherefore strive\nto requite them. Thou hast strength to answer in some measure the\ncommand: wherefore do not neglect it. It is a double sin in a gracious\nson not to remember the commandment, yea, the first commandment\nwith promise (Eph 6:1, 2). Take heed of giving thy sweet parents\none snappish word, or one unseemly carriage. Love them because they\nare thy parents, because they are godly, and because thou must be\nin glory with them.\n\nAgain, if thou be godly, and thy parents wicked, as often it sadly\nfalls out; then,\n\n1. Let thy bowels yearn towards them; it is thy parents that are\ngoing to hell!\n\n2. As I said before to the wife, touching her unbelieving husband,\nso now I say to thee, Take heed of a parroting tongue: speak to\nthem wisely, meekly, and humbly; do for them faithfully without\nrepining; and bear, with all child-like modesty, their reproaches,\ntheir railing, and evil speaking. Watch fit opportunities to lay\ntheir condition before them. O! how happy a thing would it be,\nif God should use a child to beget his father to the faith! Then\nindeed might the father say, With the fruit of my own bowels hath\nGod converted my soul. The Lord, if it be his will, convert our\npoor parents, that they, with us, may be the children of God. 17\n\nCONCERNING SERVANTS.\n\nServants also, they have a work to do for God, in their place and\nstation among men.\n\nThe apostles assert masters under a threefold consideration. First,\nThe believing master. Second, The unbelieving master. Third, The\nfroward master.\n\nFor all which, servants are furnished with counsel and advice in\nthe word, for the demeaning of themselves, under each of them.\n\nBut before I speak in particular to any of these, I will in general\nshow you the duty of servants.\n\n1. Thou art to look upon thyself as thou art; that is, as a servant,\nnot a child, nor a wife; thou art inferior to these; wherefore\ncount thyself under them, and be content with that station. 'For\nthree things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot\nbear.' One is 'a servant when he reigneth' (Prov 30:21, 22). It is\nout of thy place, either to talk or do, as one that reigneth.\n\n2. Consider, that thou being a servant, what is under thy hand is\nnot thy own but thy master's. Now, because it is not thy own thou\noughtest not to dispose of it; but because it is thy master's,\nthou oughtest to be faithful. Thus it was with Joseph (Gen 39:8,\n9). But if thou do otherwise, know that thou shalt receive of God\nfor the wrong that thou dost; and there is with God 'no respect of\npersons' (Col 3:25). Wherefore,\n\n3. Touching thy work and employment, thou art to do it as unto the\nLord, and not for man; and, indeed, then servants do their business\nas becomes them, when they do all in obedience to the Lord, as knowing\nthat the place in which they now are, it is the place where Christ\nhath put them, and in which he expecteth they should be faithful.\n'Servants,' saith Paul, 'be obedient to them that are your\nmaster's,--with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart\nas unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the\nservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart' (Eph 6:5,\n6).\n\nObserve a little the word of God to servants. 1. Servants must\nbe obedient; yet, 2. Not with that obedience that will serve man\nonly. Servants must have their eye on the Lord, in the work they do\nfor their masters. 3. That their work in this service is the will\nand ordinance of God. From which I conclude, that thy work in\nthy place and station, as thou art a servant, is as really God's\nordinance, and as acceptable to him, in its kind, as is preaching,\nor any other work, for God; and that thou art as sure to receive a\nreward for thy labour, as he that hangs or is burnt for the gospel.\n\nWherefore, saith the apostle to servants, 'Whatsoever ye do, do\nit heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the\nLord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve\nthe Lord Christ' (Col 3:23, 24). And now touching the three sorts\nof masters mentioned before.\n\nFirst, For the believing master; saith Paul, 'They that have believing\nmasters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but\nrather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, and\npartakers, with the servants, 'of the' heavenly 'benefit' (1 Tim\n6:2). Servants, if they have not a care of their hearts, will be\nso much in the consideration of the relation that is betwixt their\nmasters and they, as brethren, that they will forget the relation\nthat is between them as masters and servants. Now, though they\nought to remember the one, yet let them take heed of forgetting\nthe other. Know thy place, as a servant, while thou considerest that\nthy master and thee are brethren, and do thy work for him faithfully,\nhumbly, and with meekness, because he is a master faithful and\nbeloved, and partaker of the heavenly benefit. 'If any man teach\notherwise,' saith the apostle Paul, 'and consent not to wholesome\nwords, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine\nwhich is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but\ndoting about questions, and strifes of words; whereof cometh envy,\nstrife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of\ncorrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is\ngodliness: from such withdraw thyself' (1 Tim 6:3-5).\n\nSecond, For the unbelieving masters, for of them Paul speaks in the\nfirst verse of the 6th of Timothy, 'Let as many servants,' saith\nhe, 'as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all\nhonour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.'\nServants living with unbelieving masters, are greatly engaged to\nbe both watchful, faithful, and trusty. Engaged, I say, 1. From\nthe consideration of the condition of their master; for he being\nunbelieving, will have an evil eye upon thee, and upon thy doings,\nand so much the more because thou professest. As in the case of\nSaul and David (1 Sam 18:8, 9 &c). 2. Thou art engaged because of\nthe profession thou makest of the word of God; for by thy profession\nthou dost lay both God and his word before thy master, and he\nhath no other wit but to blaspheme them, if thou behave thyself\nunworthily. Wherefore Paul bids Titus 'exhort servants to be obedient\nto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not\nanswering again;' not giving parroting answers, or such as are cross\nor provoking, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that\nthey may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things'\n(Titus 2:9, 10). That servant, who in an unbeliever's family doth\nhis work before God, as God's ordinance, he shall adorn the doctrine\nof God, if not save his master by so doing; but if he doth otherwise,\nhe shall both stumble the unbeliever, dishonour God, offend the\nfaithful, and bring guilt upon his own soul.\n\nThird, For the froward master, though I distinguish him from the\nunbeliever, yet it is not because he may not be such, but because\nevery unbeliever doth not properly go under that name. Now with\nthis froward and peevish fellow, thou art to serve as faithfully\nfor the time thou standest bound, as with the most pleasant and\nrational master in the world: 'Servants,' saith Peter, 'be subject\nto your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but\nalso to the froward' (1 Peter 2:18). And if thy peevish master will\nstill be froward, either out of spite to thy religion, or because\nhe is without reason concerning thy labour thou to the utmost of\nthy power labouring faithfully God then reckoneth thee a sufferer\nfor well-doing, as truly as if thou wert called upon the stage\nof this world before men, for the matters of thy faith. Wherefore\nPeter adds this encouragement to servants, to the exhortation he\ngave them before: 'This is thank worthy,' saith he, 'if a man for\nconscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what\nglory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take\nit patiently? But if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take\nit patiently, this is acceptable with God' (1 Peter 2:19, 20).\nWherefore be comforted concerning thy condition, with considering\nthat God looks upon thee, as on Jacob in the family of Laban; and\nwill right all thy wrongs, and recompense thee for thy faithful,\nwise, and godly behaviour, before, and in the service of thy froward\nmaster. Wherefore, be patient, I say, and abound in faithfulness\nin thy place and calling, till God make a way for thy escape from\nthis place; and when thou mayest be made free, use it rather (1\nCor 7:21).\n\nDUTIES OF NEIGHBOURS EACH TO OTHER.\n\nHaving thus in few words showed you what is duty under your several\nrelations, I shall now at last speak, in a word or two, touching\ngood neighbourhood, and then draw towards a conclusion. Touching\nneighbourhood, there are these things to be considered and practised,\nif thou wilt be found in the practical part of good neighbourhood.\n\nFirst, Thou must be of a good and sound conversation in thy own\nfamily, place, and station, showing to all, the power that the\ngospel and the things of another world hath in thy heart, 'That ye\nmay be blameless, and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,\nin the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine\nas lights in the world' (Phil 2:15, 16).\n\nSecond, As persons must be of good behavior at home, that will be\ngood neighbours, so they must be full of courtesy and charity to them\nthat have need about them (Luke 10:36, 37). Right good neighbourhood\nis for men readily to communicate, as of their spirituals, so of\ntheir temporalities, as food, raiment, and help to those that have\nneed; to be giving to the poor as thou seest them go by thee, or\nto inquire after their condition, and according to thy capacity to\nsend unto them (Job 31:15-17, &c).\n\nThird, Thou must be always humble and meek among them, as also grave\nand gracious; not light and frothy, but by thy words and carriage\nministering 'grace to the hearers' (Eph 4:29). Thus also Job honoured\nGod among his neighbours (Job 29:6-12).\n\nFourth, Thy wisdom will be, rightly to discountenance sin, and to\nreprove thy neighbour for the same (Lev 19:17), denying thyself in\nsome things, for the preventing an injury to thy neighbour, that\nthou mayest please him for his edification (Rom 15:2).\n\nFifth, If thou wouldest be a good neighbour, take heed of thy tongue\nupon two accounts.\n\n1. That thou with it give no offensive language to thy neighbour,\nto the provoking of him to anger. Bear much, put up wrongs, and\nsay little: 'It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but\nevery fool will be meddling' (Prov 20: 3). And again, 'He loveth\ntransgression that loveth strife' (Prov 17:19).\n\n2. And as thou shouldest take heed that thou be not the original\nof contention and anger, so also take heed that thou be not\nan instrument to beget it between parties, by tale-bearing and\na gossiping spirit: 'He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife\nbelonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. As\ncoals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious\nman to kindle strife' (Prov 26:17-21). I do observe two things very\nodious in many professors; the one is a head-strong and stiff-necked\nspirit, that will have its own way; and the other is, a great deal\nof tattling and talk about religion, and but a very little, if\nanything, of those Christian deeds that carry in them the cross of\na Christian in the doing thereof, and profit to my neighbour.\n\n(1.) When I say a head-strong and stiff-necked spirit, I mean,\nthey are for pleasing themselves and their own fancies, in things\nof no weight, though their so doing be as the very slaughter-knife\nto the weak conscience of a brother or neighbour. Now this is\nbase. A Christian, in all such things as intrench not the matters\nof faith and worship, should be full of self-denial, and seek to\nplease others rather than themselves; 'Give none offence--to the\nJews, nor to the 18 Greeks, nor to the church of God:--not seeking\nmine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved'\n(1 Cor 10:32, 33).\n\n(2.) And the second is as bad, to wit, when professors are great\nprattlers and talkers, and disputers, but do little of anything\nthat bespeaketh love to the poor, or self-denial in outward things.\nSome people think religion is made up of words; a very wide mistake!\nWords without deeds is but a half-faced religion: 'Pure religion,\nand undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the\nfatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself\nunspotted from the world' (James 1:27). Again, 'If a brother or\nsister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say\nunto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' which are very\nfine words, yet if you 'give them not those things that are needful\nto the body, what doth it profit?' (James 2:15, 16).\n\n[Sins which interfere with the duties of Christian Brotherhood and\nCivil Neighbourhood.]\n\nNow then, before I go any farther, I will here take an occasion to\ntouch a little upon those sins that are so rife in many professors\nin this day: and they are, covetousness, pride, and uncleanness.\nI would speak a word to them in this place, the rather because\nthey are they which spoil both Christian brotherhood, and civil\nneighbourhood, in too great a measure.\n\nOF COVETOUSNESS.\n\nFirst, For Covetousness.\n\n1. Covetousness; it is all one with desire; he that desires, covets,\nwhether the thing he desires be evil or good. Wherefore that which\nis called coveting, in Exodus 20:17, is called desire, in Deuteronomy\n5:21. As the apostle also saith, 'I had not known lust, except the\nlaw had said, Thou shalt not covet' (Rom 7:7). That is, I had not\nknown lust to be a sin, unless the law had forbid it. Wherefore,\nthough lawful desires are good (1 Cor 12:31), and to be commended,\nyet covetousness, as commonly understood, is to be fled from, and\nabhorred, as of the devil.\n\n2. Covetousness, or evil desire, it is the first mover, and giveth\nto every sin its call, as I may say, both to move and act; as was\nsaid before, the apostle had not known sin, except the law had\nsaid, Thou shalt not desire or covet; for where there is no desire\nto sin, there appears no sin.\n\n3. Therefore covetousness carrieth in it every sinwe speak of sins\nagainst the second tableeven as a serpent carrieth her young ones\nin her belly. This the scripture affirms, where it saith, 'Thou\nshalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his\nmaid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy\nneighbour's' (Exo 20:17). Covetousness will meddle with anything.\n\nNow, there are in my mind at present these eight notes of\ncovetousness, which hinder good works, and a Christian coversation\namong men, wherever they are harboured.\n\n(1.) When men, to whom God hath given a comfortable livelihood,\nare yet not content therewith. This is against the apostle, where\nhe saith, 'Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be\ncontent with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never\nleave thee, nor forsake thee' (Heb 13:5).\n\n(2.) It is covetousness in the seller, that puts him to say of his\ntraffic, it is better than it is, that he may heighten the price of\nit; and covetousness in the buyer, that prompts him to say worse\nof a thing than he thinks in his conscience it is, and that for\nan abatement of a reasonable price. This is that which the apostle\nforbids under the name of defraud, 1 Corinthians 6:8, and that\nwhich Solomon condemns (Prov 20:14).\n\n(3.) It is through covetousness that men think much of that which\ngoeth beside their own mouth, though possibly it goeth to those\nthat have more need than themselves, and also that better deserve\nit than they.\n\n(4.) It argueth covetousness, when men will deprive themselves,\nand those under them, of the privileges of the gospel, for more of\nthis world; and is condemned by Christ (Luke 14:18-20).\n\n(5.) It argueth covetousness, when men that have it, can go by,\nor hear of the poor, and shut up their bowels and compassions from\nthem (1 John 3:17).\n\n(6.) Also when men are convinced it is their duty to communicate to\nsuch and such that have need, yet they defer it, and if not quite\nforget it, yet linger away the time, as being loth to distribute\nto the necessities of those in want. This is forbidden by the Holy\nGhost: 'Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is\nin the power of thine hand to do it.' Now, it is due from thee to\nthe poor, by the commandment of God, if they want, and thou hast\nit; 'Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and tomorrow\nI will give; when thou hast it by thee' (Prov 3:27, 28).\n\n(7.) It argueth a greedy mind also, when, after men have cast in\ntheir minds what to give, they then from that will be pinching and\nclipping, and taking away; whereas the Holy Ghost saith, 'Every\nman according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not\ngrudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver' (2\nCor 9:7).\n\n(8.) And lastly, It argueth a filthy greedy heart also, when a\nman, after he hath done any good, then in his heart to repent, and\nsecretly wish that he had not so done, or at least, that he had\nnot done so much: this is to be weary of well-doing; (I speak now\nof communicating,) and carrieth in it two evils, First, It spoileth\nthe work done. And, secondly, It, if entertained, spoileth the heart\nfor doing any more so. 'The vile person shall be no more called\nliberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful,' for 'the liberal\ndeviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand'\n(Isa 32:5, 8). Now then, to dissuade all from this poisonous sin,\nobserve, that above all sins in the New Testament, this is called\nidolatry (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5). And therefore God's people should be\nso far from being taken with it, that they should be much afraid of\nthe naming of it one among another, lest it should, as adulterous\nthoughts, infect the heart, by the talking of it (Eph 5:3).\n\nQuest.\n\nBut why is covetousness called idolatry?\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. Because it engageth the very heart of man in it, to mind earthly\nthings; it gets our love, which should be set on God; and sets it\nupon poor empty creatures; it puts our affections out of heaven,\nwhere they should be, and sets them on earth, where they should\nnot be (Eze 33:31; Phil 3:18, 19; Col 3:1-3). Thus it changeth the\nobject on which the heart should be set, and setteth it on that on\nwhich it should not. It makes a man forsake God, 'the fountain of\nliving waters,' and causeth him to hew to himself 'cisterns, broken\ncisterns, that can hold no water' (Jer 2:11-13). For,\n\n2. It rejecteth the care, government, and providence of God towards\nus, and causeth us to make of our care and industry a god, to whom,\ninstead of God, we fly continually, both for the keeping what we\nhave and for getting more. This was Israel's idolatry of old, and\nthe original of all her idolatrous practices. 'For their mother\nhath played the harlot,' that is, committed idolatry: 'she that\nconceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after\nmy lovers, that gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax,\nmine oil and my drink' (Hosea 2:5).\n\n3. It disalloweth of God's way of disposing his creatures, and\nwould have them ordered and disposed of otherwise than his heavenly\nwisdom seemeth meet; and hence ariseth all discontents about God's\ndealing with us. Covetousness never yet said, It is the Lord, let\nhim do what he pleaseth; but is ever objecting, like a god, against\neverything that goeth against it; and it is that which, like\na god, draweth away the heart and soul from the true God, and his\nSon Jesus Christ: 'And he went away sorrowful; for he had great\npossessions' (Matt 19:16-22). Now then, that which engageth the\nheart, that rejecteth the providence of God, and that is for ordering\nand disposing of things contrary to God, and for breaking with God\nupon these terms, is idolatry; and all these do covetousness. 'The\nwicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous,\nwhom the Lord abhorreth' (Psa 10:3). Now the way to remedy this\ndisease is, to learn the lesson which Paul had got by heart; to\nwit, 'In whatsoever state you are, therewith to be content' (Phil\n4:11).\n\nOF PRIDE.\n\nSecond, I come, in the second place, to speak a word of pride, and\nloftiness of heart and life.\n\n1. Pride, in general, it is that which causeth a man to think of\nman and his things, above what is written (1 Cor 4:6).\n\n2. It hath its seat in the heart among these enormities, fornications,\nadulteries, lasciviousness, murders, deceit, &c. (Mark 7:21-23)\nand showeth itself in these following particulars.\n\n(1.) When you slight this or that person, though gracious; that\nis, look over them, and shun them for their poverty in this world,\nand choose rather to have converse with others, that possibly\nare less gracious, because of their greatness in this world. This\nthe apostle James writes against, James 2:1-3, under the name of\npartiality; 'for indeed the fruits of a puffed-up heart is to deal\nin this manner with Christians' (1 Cor 4:6, 7). Now this branch of\npride floweth from ignorance of the vanity of the creature, and of\nthe worth of a gracious heart; wherefore get more of the knowledge\nof these two, and this sprig will be nipped in the head, and you\nwill learn to condescend to men of low degree (Rom 12:16).\n\n(2.) It argues pride of heart, when men will not deny themselves in\nthings that they may, for the good and profit of their neighbours.\nAnd it argueth now, that pride has got so much up into self-love\nand self-pleasing, that they little care who they grieve or offend,\nso they may have their way (Oba 12-15).\n\n(3.) It argueth pride of heart, when sober reproofs for sin, and\nunbeseeming carriages, will not down with thee, but that rather\nthou snuffest, and givest way to thy spirit to be peevish, and to\nretain prejudice against those that thus reprove thee. Saith the\nprophet, 'Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath\nspoken.' That is, hear the reproofs of God for your sins, and break\nthem off by repentance; 'but if ye will not hear it, my soul shall\nweep in secret for your pride,' &c. (Jer 13:15-17). So also in\nHosea, 'They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God:\nfor the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have\nnot know the Lord. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face'\n&c. (Hosea 5:4, 5). This argueth great senselessness of God, and\na heart greatly out of frame.\n\n(4.) It argueth pride also, when a reproof or admonition will not\ndown as well from the poorest saint, as from the greatest doctor;\nand it argueth a glory in men, 1 Corinthians 3:21, and that they\nwould, that their faith should stand in their wisdom, and not 'in\nthe power of God;' that is, of naked truth 1 Corinthians 2:5.\n\n(5.) It argueth pride of heart, when a man that hath this or that\nin his heart to do, in reference to God, but yet will slight a sober\nasking counsel and direction of God in this matter: 'The wicked,\nthrough the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God,'\nsaith David (Psa 10:4).\n\n(6.) It argueth pride of heart, when persons are tickled with\nthoughts of their own praise, that secretly lust after it; that\nthink of themselves and others above what is written; which those\ndo who do not acknowledge that man in his best estate is altogether\nvanity: but such kind of people have forgot the exhortation, 'Be\nnot high-minded, but fear:' (Rom 11:20). And also, That there is\na knowledge that puffeth up, and edifieth neither themselves nor\nothers (1 Cor 8:1, 2). Wherefore, to such the apostle saith, Be\n'not desirous of vain-glory,' but in lowliness of mind 'let each\nesteem others better than themselves' (Phil 2:3; Gal 5:26).\n\nPride also there is in outward carriage, behaviour, and gesture,\nwhich is odious for Christians to be tainted with; and this pride\nis discovered by mincing words, a made carriage, and an affecting\nthe toys and baubles that Satan, and every lightheaded fool bringeth\ninto the world. As God speaketh of the daughters of Zion, 'they\nwalk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, mincing as they\ngo, and making a tinkling with their feet' (Isa 3:16). A very\nunhandsome carriage for a people that profess godliness, and that\nuse to come before God to confess their sins, and to bemoan themselves\nfor what they have done. How can a sense of thy own baseness, of\nthe vileness of thy heart, and of the holiness of God, stand with\nsuch a carriage? Dost thou see the vileness of thy heart, the\nfruit of sin? And art thou afflicted with that disagreement that\nis between God and thy heart, that layest the reins on the neck of\nthy lusts, and lettest them run whither they will? Be not deceived,\npride ariseth from ignorance of these things (1 Tim 6:3, 4). A sense\nof my vileness, of what I have deserved, and of what continually\nin my heart opposeth God, cannot stand with a foolish, light, and\nwanton carriage: thou wilt then see there is other things to mind\nthan to imitate the butterfly. Alas, all these kind of things are\nbut a painting the devil, and a setting a carnal gloss upon a castle\nof his; thou art but making gay the spider: is thy heart ever the\nsounder for thy fine gait, they mincing words, and thy lofty looks?\nNay, doth not this argue, that thy heart is a rotten, cankered,\nand besotted heart? Oh! that God would but let thee see a little\nof thy own inside, as thou hast others to behold thy outside: thou\npainted sepulchre, thou whited wall, will these things be found\nvirtues in the day of God? Or, is this the way that thou takest to\nmortify sin? 'An high look, and a proud heart, the plowing of the\nwicked, is sin' (Prov 21:4). Pride is the ringleader of the seven\nabominations that the wise man nameth, Proverbs 6:16, 17, and is\nthat above all that causeth to fall into the condemnation of the\ndevil (1 Tim 3:6).\n\nOF ADULTERY OR UNCLEANNESS.\n\nNow I come in the last place to touch a word or two of adultery,\nand then to draw towards a conclusion. Adultery, it hath its place\nin the heart, among the rest of those filthinesses I mentioned\nbefore (Mark 7:21, 22) of which sin I observe two things.\n\n1. That almost in every place where the apostle layeth down a\ncatalogue of wickednesses, he layeth down adultery, fornication,\nand uncleanness in the front; as that in Mark 7:21, Romans 1:29,\n1 Corinthians 6: 9, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 5:3, 1 Thessalonians\n4:3-5, Hebrews 12:16, James 2:11, 1 Peter 2:11, and 2 Peter 2:10.\nFrom this I gather that the sin of uncleanness is a very predominant\nand master sin, easy to overtake the sinner, as being one of the\nfirst that is ready to offer itself on all occasions to break the\nlaw of God.\n\n2. I observe that this sin is committed unawares to many, even so\nsoon as a man hath but looked upon a woman: 'I say unto you,' saith\nChrist, 'that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust,' or desire,\n'after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart'\n(Matt 5:28). This sin of uncleanness, I say, is a very taking sin;\nit is natural above all sins to mankind; as it is most natural,\nso it wants not tempting occasions, having objects for to look on\nin every corner: wherefore there is need of a double and treble\nwatchfulness in the soul against it. It is better here to make a\ncovenant with our eyes, like Job (Job 31:1) than to let them wander\nto God's dishonour, and our own discomfort.\n\nThere are these three things which discover a man or woman too much\ninclining to the uncleanness of their own hearts.\n\n(1.) The first is a wanton eye, or an eye that doth secretly\naffect itself with such objects as are tickling of the heart with\nthe thoughts of immodesty and uncleanness. Isaiah calls this a\nwanton eye: and Peter an eye full of adultery, that cannot cease\nfrom sin (2 Peter 2:14; Isa 3:16). This is that also which Christ\ncalleth an evil eye, and John the lust of the flesh, and of the\neyes, and doth defile those who are not very watchful over their\nown hearts (Mark 7:22; 1 John 2:16). This wanton eye is that which\nthe most holy saints should take heed of, because it is apt to seize\nupon them also. When Paul bids Timothy beseech the young women to\nwalk as becomes the gospel, he bids him do it with all purity (1 Tim\n5:1, 2). As, who should say, Take heed that while thou instructest\nthem to holiness, thou thyself be not corrupted with the lust of\nthy eye. O how many souls, in the day of God, will curse the day\nthat ever they gave way to a wanton eye!\n\n(2.) The second thing that discovereth one much inclining to the\nlusts of uncleanness, it is wanton and immodest talk; such as that\nbrazen-faced whore in the 7th of the Proverbs had, or such as they\nin Peter, who allured 'through the lusts of the flesh, through\nmuch wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live\nin error' (2 Peter 2:18). 'Out of the abundance of the heart the\nmouth speaketh,' wherefore if we be saints, let us take heed, as\nof our eye, so of our tongue, and let not the lust of uncleanness,\nor of adultery, be once named among us, 'named among us as becometh\nsaints' (Eph 5:3). Mark, 'Let it not be once named.' This implies,\nthat the lusts of uncleanness are devilishly taking, they will\nboth take the heart with eyes and tongue: 'Let it not be once named\namong you,' &c.\n\n(3.) Another thing that bespeaks a man or woman inclining to\nwantonness and uncleanness, it is an adorning themselves in light\nand wanton apparel. The attire of an harlot is too frequently in\nour day the attire of professors; a vile thing, and argueth much\nwantonness and vileness of affections. If those that give way to\na wanton eye, wanton words, and immodest apparel, be not whores,\n&c., in their hearts, I know not what to say. Doth a wanton eye\nargue shamefacedness? Doth wanton talk argue chastity? And doth\nimmodest apparel, with stretched-out necks, naked breasts, a made\nspeech, and mincing gaits, &c., argue mortification of lusts? If\nany say, that these things may argue pride as well as carnal lusts;\nwell, but why are they proud? Is it not to trick up the body? And\nwhy do they with pride trick up the body, if it be not to provoke\nboth themselves and others to lusts? God knoweth their hearts\nwithout their outsides: and we know their hearts by their outsides.\n\nMy friends, I am here treating of good works, and persuading you to\nfly those things that are hindrances to them: wherefore bear with\nmy plainness when I speak against sin. I would strike it through\nwith every word, because else it will strike us through with many\nsorrows (1 Tim 6:9, 10). I do not treat of good works as if the\ndoing of them would save us, for we are justified by his grace,\naccording to the hope of eternal life; yet our sins and evil works\nwill lay us obnoxious to the judgments both of God and man. He\nthat walketh not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel,\nis like to have his peace assaulted often, both by the devil, the\nlaw, death, and hell; yea, and is like to have God hide his face\nfrom him also, for the iniquity of his covetousness (Isa 57:17).\n\nHow can he that carrieth himself basely in the sight of men, think\nhe yet well behaveth himself in the sight of God? And if so dim\na light as is in man can justly count thee as a transgressor, how\nshall thy sins be hid from him whose 'eye-lids try the children of\nmen?' (Psa 11:4).\n\nIt is true, faith without works justifies us before God (Rom 3:28;\n4:5): yet that faith that is alone, will be found to leave us\nsinners in the sight both of God and man (James 2:18). And though\nthou addest nothing to that which saveth thee by what thou canst\ndo, yet thy righteousness may profit the son of man; as also saith\nthe text: but if thou shalt be so careless as to say, What care I\nfor being righteous to profit others? I tell thee, that the love\nof God is not in thee (Job 35:8; 1 John 3:17; 1 Cor 13:1-3). Walk\ntherefore in God's ways, and do them, for this is your wisdom and\nyour understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear\nof all these statutes, and say, 'This great nation is a wise and\nunderstanding people' (Deu 4:6).\n\nTHIRD. Observe. Every believer should not only take heed that his\nworks be good, and so for the present do them, but should carefully\nstudy to maintain them; that is, to keep in a continual exercise\nof them.\n\nIt is an easier matter to begin to do good, than it is to continue\ntherein; and the reason is, there is not so much of a Christian's\ncross in the beginning of a work, as there is in a continual,\nhearty, conscientious practice thereof. Therefore Christians have\nneed, as to be pressed to do good, so to continue the work. Man, by\nnature, is rather a hearer than a doer, Athenian like, continually\nlistening after some new thing; seeing many things, but observing\nnothing (Acts 17:20; Isa 42:20). It is observable, that after\nChrist had divided his hearers into four parts, he condemned three\nof them for fruitless hearers (Luke 8:5-8). O it is hard continuing\nbelieving, continuing loving, continuing resisting all that opposeth;\nwe are subject to be weary of well-doing (Gal 6:9). To pluck out\nright eyes, to cut off right hands and feet, is no pleasant thing\nto flesh and blood; and yet none but these shall have the promise\nof life; because none but these will be found to have the effectual\nwork of God's grace in their souls (Matt 18:8, 9): 'If ye continue\nin my word, then are you my disciples' INDEED (Matt 24:13; John\n8:31). And hence it is, that you find so many IFS in the Scripture\nabout men's happiness; as, 'if children, then heirs;' and 'if\nye continue in the faith;' and 'if we hold the beginning of our\nconfidence steadfast unto the end' (Rom 8:17; Col 1:23; Heb 3:14).\nNot that their continuing in the way of God is the cause of the\nwork being right; but the work being right causeth the continuance\ntherein. As John saith in another place, 'They went out from us,\nbut they were not of us; for if they had been of us, [saith he]\nthey would, no doubt, have continued with us' (1 John 2:19). But\nI say, where the work of God indeed is savingly begun, even there\nis flesh, corruption, and the body of death to oppose it. Therefore\nshould Christians take heed, and look that against these opposites\nthey maintain a continual course of good works among men.\n\nBesides, as there is that in our own bowels that opposeth goodness,\nso there is the tempter, the wicked one, both to animate these lusts,\nand to join with them in every assault against every appearance\nof God in our souls. And hence it is, that he is called the devil,\nthe enemy, the destroyer, and him that seeks continually to devour\nus (1 Peter 5:8), I need say no more but this. He that will walk\nlike a Christian indeed, as he shall find it is requisite that he\ncontinue in good works, so his continuing therein will be opposed;\nif therefore he will continue therein, he must make it his business\nto study how to oppose those that oppose such a life, that he may\ncontinue therein.\n\nFOURTH. Now then to help in this, here fitly comes in the last\nobservation, to wit, That the best way both to provoke ourselves\nand others to good works, it is to be often affirming to others the\ndoctrine of justification by grace, and to believe it ourselves.\n'This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou\naffirm constantly, that they which have believed in God, might be\ncareful to maintain good works' (Titus 3:8).\n\nI told you before, that good works must flow from faith: and now I\ntell you, that the best way to be fruitful in them, is to be much\nin the exercise of the doctrine of justification by grace; and they\nboth agree; for as faith animates to good works, so the doctrine of\ngrace animates faith. Wherefore, the way to be rich in good works,\nit is to be rich in faith; and the way to be rich in faith is to\nbe conscientiously affirming the doctrine of grace to others, and\nbelieving it ourselves.\n\nFirst, To be constantly affirming it to others. Thus Paul tells\nTimothy, that if he put the brethren in mind of the truths of the\ngospel, he himself should not only be a good minister of Christ, but\nshould be nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine\n(1 Tim 4:6). It is the ordinance of God, that Christians should\nbe often asserting the things of God each to others; and that by\ntheir so doing they should edify one another (Heb 10:24, 25;1 Thess\n5:11).\n\nThe doctrine of the gospel is like the dew and the small rain that\ndistilleth upon the tender grass, wherewith it doth flourish, and\nis kept green (Deu 32:2). Christians are like the several flowers\nin a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which\nbeing shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other's\nroots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers\nof one another. For Christians to commune savourly of God's matters\none with another, it is as if they opened to each other's nostrils\nboxes of perfume.19 Saith Paul to the church at Rome, 'I long to\nsee you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end\nye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together\nwith you, by the mutual faith both of you and me' (Rom 1:11, 12).\nChristians should be often affirming the doctrine of grace, and\njustification by it, one to another.\n\nSecond, As they should be thus doing, so they should live in the\npower of it themselves; they should by faith suck and drink in\nthis doctrine, as the good ground receiveth the rain; which being\ndone, forthwith there is proclaimed good works. Paul to the Colossians\nsaith thus, 'We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in\nChrist Jesus, and love to all the saints; for the hope which is\nlaid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of\nthe truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it is in all\nthe world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you.' But\nhow long ago? Why, 'since the day ye heard it, [saith he,] and knew\nthe grace of God in truth' (Col 1:3-6).\n\nApples and flowers are not made by the gardener; but are an effect\nof the planting and watering. Plant in the sinner good doctrine,\nand let it be watered with the word of grace; and as the effect\nof that, there is the fruits of holiness, and the end everlasting\nlife (Rom 6:22).\n\nGood doctrine is the doctrine of the gospel, which showeth to men,\nthat God clotheth them with the righteousness of his Son freely,\nand maketh him with all his benefits over to them; by which free\ngift the sinner is made righteous before God; and because he is\nso, therefore there is infused a principle of grace into the heart,\nwhereby it is both quickened, and bringing forth fruit (Rom 3:21-26;\n1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21; John 1:16).\n\nNow then, seeing good works do flow from faith, and seeing faith\nis nourished by an affirming of the doctrine of the gospel, &c.,\ntake here these few considerations from the doctrine of the gospel,\nfor the support of thy faith, that thou mayest be indeed fruitful\nand rich in good works.\n\nConsider 1. The whole Bible was given for this very end, that thou\nshouldest both believe this doctrine, and live in the comfort and\nsweetness of it: 'For whatsoever things were written aforetime were\nwritten for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of\nthe Scriptures might have hope' (Rom 15:4; John 20:31).\n\nConsider 2. That therefore every promise in the Bible is thine, to\nstrengthen, quicken, and encourage thy heart in believing.\n\nConsider 3. That there is nothing that thou dost, can so please God\nas believing; 'The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in\nthose that hope in his mercy' (Psa 147:11). They please him, because\nthey embrace his righteousness, &c.\n\nConsider 4. That all the withdrawings of God from thee, are not\nfor the weakening, but for the trial of thy faith; and also, that\nwhatever he suffers Satan, or thy own heart to do, it is not to\nweaken faith (Job 23:8-10; 1 Peter 1:7).\n\nConsider 5. That believing is that which will keep in thy view the\nthings of heaven and glory; and that at which the devil will be\ndiscouraged, sin weakened, and thy heart quickened and sweetened\n(Heb 11:27; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9; Eph 6:16; Rom 15:13).\n\nConsider lastly, By believing, the lover of God is kept with warmth\nupon the heart, and that this will provoke thee continually to bless\nGod for Christ, for grace, for faith, hope, and all these things,\neither in God, or thee, that doth accompany salvation (2 Cor 2:14;\nPsa 103:1-3).\n\nThird, The doctrine of the forgiveness of sins received by faith,\nwill make notable work in the heart of a sinner, to bring forth\ngood works. But, Forasmuch as there is a body of death and sin\nin every one that hath the grace of God in this world; and because\nthis body of death will be ever opposing that which is good, as\nthe apostle saith (Rom 7:21), therefore take these few particulars\nfurther, for the suppressing that which will hinder a fruitful\nlife.\n\n1. Keep a continual watch over the wretchedness of thy own heart,\nnot to be discouraged at the sight of thy vileness, but to prevent\nits wickedness; for that will labour either to hinder thee from\ndoing good works, or else will hinder thee in the doing thereof;\nfor evil is present with thee for both these purposes. Take heed\nthen, that thou do not listen to that at any time, but deny, though\nwith much struggling, the workings of sin to the contrary.\n\n2. Let this be continually before thy heart, that God's eye is\nupon thee, and seeth every secret turning of thy heart, either to\nor from him: 'All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him\nwith whom we have to do' (Heb 4:13).\n\n3. If thou deny to do that good which thou oughtest, with what thy\nGod hath given thee; then consider, that though he love thy soul,\nyet he can chastise; First, Thy inward man with such troubles,\nthat thy life shall be restless and comfortless. Secondly, And can\nalso so blow upon thy outward man, that all thou gettest shall be\nput in a bag with holes (Psa 89:31-33; Hag 1:6). And set the case\nhe should licence but one thief among thy substance, or one spark\nof fire among thy barns, how quickly might that be spent ill, and\nagainst thy will, which thou shouldest have spent to God's glory,\nand with thy will; and I tell thee further, that if thou want a heart\nto do good when thou hast about thee, thou mayest want comfort in\nsuch things thyself from others, when thine is taken from thee.\nSee Jude 1:6, 7.\n\n4. Consider, that a life full of good works is the only way, on\nthy part, to answer the mercy of God extended to thee; God hath\nhad mercy on thee, and hath saved thee from all thy distresses; God\nhath not stuck to give thee his Son, his Spirit, and the kingdom\nof heaven. Saith Paul, 'I beseech you therefore by the mercies of\nGod, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable\nunto God, which is your reasonable service' (Rom 12:1; Matt 18:32,\n33).\n\n5. Consider, that this is the way to convince all men, that the power\nof God's things hath taken hold of thy heart I speak to them that\nhold the head 20and say what thou wilt, if thy faith be not accompanied\nwith a holy life, thou shalt be judged a withered branch, a wording\nprofessor, salt without savour, and as lifeless as a sounding brass,\nand a tinkling cymbal (John 15; Matt 13:1 Cor 13:1, 2). For, say\nthey, show us your faith by your works, for we cannot see your\nhearts (James 2:18). But I say on the contrary, if thou walk as\nbecomes thee who art saved by grace, then thou wilt witness in\nevery man's conscience, that thou art a good tree; now thou leavest\nguilt on the heart of the wicked (1 Sam 24:16, 17). Now thou takest\noff occasion from them that desire occasion; and now thou art clear\nfrom the blood of all men (2 Cor 11:12; Acts 20:26, 31-35). This\nis the man also that provoketh others to good works. The ear that\nheareth such a man shall bless him; and the eye that seeth him\nshall bear witness to him. 'Surely,' saith David, 'he shall not be\nmoved for ever: The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance'\n(Heb 10:24; Job 29:11; Psa 112: 6).\n\n6. Again, The heart that is fullest of good works, hath in it\nat least room for Satan's temptations. And this is the meaning of\nPeter, where he saith, 'Be sober, be vigilant;' that is, be busying\nthyself in faith and holiness, 'because, your adversary the devil,\nas a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour' (1\nPeter 5:8). 'He that walketh uprightly, walketh safely; and they\nthat add to faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge,\ntemperance; to temperance, brotherly kindness; and to these charity;\nand that abounds therein, he shall neither be barren nor unfruitful;\nhe shall never fall; but so an entrance shall be ministered to him\nabundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour\nJesus Christ' (2 Peter 1:5-10; Prov 10:9).\n\n7. The man who is fullest of good works, he is fittest to live and\nfittest to die: 'I am now,' at any time, 'ready to be offered,'\nsaith fruitful Paul (2 Tim 4:6). Whereas he that is barren, he is\nneither fit to live, nor fit to die: to die, he himself is convinced\nhe is not fit, and to live God himself saith he is not fit; 'cut\nhim down, why doth he cumber the ground?' (Luke 8:7).\n\nLastly, Consider, to provoke thee to good works, thou shalt have\nof God when thou comest to glory, a reward for everything thou dost\nfor him on earth. Little do the people of God consider, how richly\nGod will reward, what from a right principle and to a right end,\nis done for him here; not a bit of bread to the poor, not a draught\nof water to the meanest of them that belong to Christ, or the loss\nof a hair of your head, shall in that day go without its reward\n(Luke 14:13, 14; Matt 10:42).\n\n'For our light affliction,' and so all other pieces of self-denial,\n'which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and\neternal weight of glory' (2 Cor 4:17). I tell thee, Christian, be\nbut rich in good works, and thou shalt have more than salvation;\nthy salvation thou hast freely by grace through Christ, without\nworks (Eph 2:8-10), but now being justified and saved, and as the\nfruits hereof, renewed by the Holy Ghost; after this, I say, thou\nshalt be rewarded for every work that proved good; 'For God is not\nunrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have\nshowed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints,\nand do minister' (Heb 6:10; 1 Cor 3:14). Moses counted the reward\nthat he was to have, for a short suffering with the people of\nGod, of greater worth than the treasures of Egypt, the smiles of\nthe king, or the honour of his kingdom (Heb 11:25-27). In a word,\nlet the disappointments that do, and shall most surely befall the\nfruitless professors, provoke thee to look with all diligence to\nthy standing. For,\n\n1. Such a one is but deceived and disappointed touching the work of\ngrace he supposeth to be in his heart; he thinks he is a Christian,\nand hath grace, as faith, hope, and the like, in his soul, yet\nno fruits of these things manifest themselves in him; indeed his\ntongue is tipt with a talk and tattle of religion. Poor man, poor\nempty man! Faith without works is dead; thy hope shall be as the\ngiving up of the ghost; thy gifts with which thy soul is possessed,\nare but such as are common to reprobates; thou art therefore\ndisappointed; God reputes thee still but wicked, though thou comest\nand goest to the place of the Holy (James 2:19, 20; Job 11:20; 1\nCor 13:1-3).\n\n2. Therefore all thy joy and comfort must needs fall short of saving\ncomfort, and so leave thee in the suds notwithstanding; thy joy is\nthe joy of the Pharisees (John 5:35), and thy gladness as that of\nHerod (Mark 6:20), and the longest time it can last, it is but a\nScripture-moment (Job 20:5). Alas! in all thy gladness and content\nwith thy religion, thou art but like the boy that plays with brass\ninstead of gold; and with counters instead of that which will go\nfor current coin. Thus, 'if a man think himself to be something when\nhe is nothing, he deceiveth [or disappoints] himself' (Gal 6:3).\n\n3. This is not all, but look thou certainly for an eternal disappointment\nin the day of God; for it must be; thy lamp will out at the first\nsound the trump of God shall make in thine ears; thou canst not\nhold up at the appearance of the Son of God in his glory; his very\nlooks will be to thy profession as a strong wind is to a blinking\ncandle, and thou shalt be left only to smoke.\n\nOh the alteration that will befal a foolish virgin! She thought she\nwas happy, and that she should have received happiness with those\nthat were right at the heart; but behold the contrary, her lamp is\ngoing out, she is now to seek for saving grace, when the time of\ngrace is over? Her heaven she thought of, is proved a hell, and\nher god is proved a devil. God hath cast her out of his presence,\nand claps the door upon her. She pleads her profession, and the\nlike, and she hath for her answer repulses from heaven. 'So are\nthe paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall\nperish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a\nspider's web. He shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand;\nhe shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure' (Matt 25:1-10; Luke\n8:25, 26; Job 8:13-15).\n\nTake heed therefore; thy soul, heaven, and eternity, lies at stake;\nyea, they turn either to thee or from thee upon the hinge of thy\nfaith; if it be right, all is thine: if wrong, then all is lost,\nhowever thy hopes and expectations are to the contrary: 'For in Jesus\nChrist neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision;\nbut faith which worketh by love. Let no man deceive you with vain\nwords: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the\nchildren of unbelief. 21 For the earth which drinketh in the rain\nthat cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by\nwhom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which\nbeareth thorns and briars is REJECTED, and is nigh unto cursing,\nwhose end is to be burned' (Gal 5:6; Eph 5:3-6; Heb 6:7, 8).\n\nObject. But what shall I do, who am so cold, slothful, and\nheartless, that I cannot find any heart to do any work for God in\nthis world? Indeed time was when his dew rested all night upon my\nbranches, and when I could with desire, with earnest desire, be\ndoing and working for God; but, alas! now it is otherwise.\n\nAnswer.\n\nIf this be true, thy case is sad, thou art to be pitied; the Lord\npity thee. And for thy recovery out of this condition, I would give\nthee no other counsel than was given to Ephesus when she had lost\nher first love.\n\n1. 'Remember,' saith Christ, 'from whence thou art fallen, and\nrepent, and do the first works,' &c. (Rev 2:5).\n\nMark: Thy first work is to enter into a serious considering, and\nremembrance from whence thou art fallen. Remember that thou hast\nleft thy God, the stay of thy soul, and him without whom there\nis no stay, comfort, or strength, for thee either to do or suffer\nanything in this world: 'Without me,' saith he, 'ye can do nothing'\n(John 15:5). A sad condition; the remembrance of this, for certain,\nis the first step to the recovering a backsliding heart; for the\nright remembrance of this doth bring to mind what loss that soul\nhath sustained that is in this condition, how it hath lost its\nformer visits, smiles, and consolations of God. When thy conscience\nwas suppled with the blood of thy Saviour; when every step thou\ntookest was, as it were, in honey and butter; and when thy heart\ncould meditate terror with comfort (Job 29:2-6; Isa 33:14-19).\nInstead of which, thou feelest darkness, hardness of heart, and\nthe thoughts of God are terrible to thee (Psa 77:3). Now God never\nvisits thee; or if he doth, it is but as a wayfaring man, that\ntarrieth but for a night (Jer 14:8, 9).\n\nThis also brings to mind how the case is altered with thee, touching\nthy confidence in God for thy future happiness, how uncertain thou\nnow art of thy hopes for heaven, how much this life doth hang in\ndoubt before thee (Deu 28:65, 66).\n\n2. 'Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent.'\nThese are words well put together; for a solid considering of what\nI have lost in my declining, will provoke in my heart a sorrow, and\ngodly heaviness, whereby I shall be forced to bemoan my condition,\nand say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for then was\nit better with me than now' (Hos 2:7). And believe it, the reason\nof God's standing off from giving the comfortable communion with\nhimself, it is that thou mightest first see the difference between\nsticking close to God, and forsaking of him; and next, that thou\nmightest indeed acknowledge thy offence, and seek his face (Hos\n5:15). He taketh no pleasure in thy forlorn condition; he had rather\nthou shouldest have him in thy bosom, only he will have it in his\nown way. 'He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and\nperverted that which was right, and it profited me not; [then] he\nwill deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall\nsee the light' (Job 33:27, 28).\n\n3. 'Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the\nfirst works.'\n\nAs there should be a remembering and a repenting so there should\nbe a hearty doing our first works; a believing as before, a laying\nhold of the things of heaven and glory, as at the first; for now\nis God returned to thee, as before (Zech 1:16). And though thou\nmayest, through the loss of thy locks, with Samson, be weak at the\nfirst, yet, in short time, thy hair will grow again; that is, thy\nformer experience will in short space be as long, large, and strong,\nas in the former times. Indeed at the first thou wilt find all the\nwheels of thy soul rusty, and all the strings of thine heart out\nof tune; as also when thou first beginnest to stir, the dust and\nfilth of thy heart will, like smoke, trouble thee from that clear\nbeholding the grace of thy God, and his love to thy soul; but yet\nwait, and go on, and though thou findest thyself as unable to do\nanything as thou formerly couldest; yet I say, up, and be doing,\nand the Lord will be with thee; for he hath not despised the day\nof thy small things (1 Chron 22:16; Zech 4:10).\n\nI know thou wilt be afflicted with a thousand temptations to drive\nthee to despair, that thy faith may be faint, &c. But against all\nthem set thou the word of God, the promise of grace, the blood of\nChrist, and the examples of God's goodness to the great backsliders\nthat are for thy encouragement recorded in the scriptures of truth;\nand remember, that turning to God after backsliding, is the greatest\npiece of service thou canst do for him, and the greatest honour\nthou canst bring to the blood of Christ; and know farther, that\nGod, to show his willing reception of so unworthy a creature, saith,\nthere shall be joy in heaven at thy conversion to him again (Luke\n15:7, 10).\n\nTO CONCLUDE.\n\nIf thou yet, notwithstanding what hath been said, dost remain a\nbackslider:\n\n1. Then remember that thou must die; and remember also, that when\nthe terrors of God, of death, and a backslidden heart, meet together,\nthere will be sad work in that soul; this is the man that hangeth\ntilting over the mouth of hell, while death is cutting the thread\nof his life.\n\n2. Remember, that though God doth sometimes, yea, often, receive\nbacksliders, yet it is not always so. Some draw back into perdition;\nfor, because they have flung up God, and would none of him, he in\njustice flings up them and their souls for ever (Prov 1:24-28).\n\nI have observed, that sometimes God, as it were in revenge for\ninjury done him, doth snatch away souls in the very nick of their\nbacksliding, as he served Lot's wife, when he turned her into\na pillar of salt, even while she was looking over her shoulder to\nSodom (Gen 19:26). An example that every backslider should remember\nwith astonishment (Luke 17:32).\n\nThus have I, in few words, written to you, before I die, a word to\nprovoke you to faith and holiness, because I desire that you may\nhave the life that is laid up for all them that believe in the\nLord Jesus, and love one another, when I am deceased. Though there\nI shall rest from my labours, and be in paradise, as through grace\nI comfortably believe, yet it is not there, but here, I must do\nyou good. Wherefore, I not knowing the shortness of my life, nor\nthe hindrance that hereafter I may have of serving my God and you,\nI have taken this opportunity to present these few lines unto you\nfor your edification.\n\nConsider what hath been said; and the Lord give you understanding\nin all things. Farewell.\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n1 Hermotimus of Lucian. During one of these wanderings his wife\nthought him dead, and his body was burnt. Whether the poor soul,\nthus suddenly ejected, obtained another habitation is not narrated.\n\n2 'Of their relations,' related or belonging to themselves. Ed.\n\n3 Also where the gardener hath set them, there they stand, and\nquarrel not one with another. Pilgrim, part 2. Interpreter's House,\nvol. 3. 186; see also vol. 2. 570. Ed.\n\n4 'Where the great red dragon Satan had his seat.'Dr. Gill's\nCommentary. See also Revelation 12 Ed.\n\n5 This manly, bold, and upright statement of truth, was published\nin 1674, only two years afer the author's deliverance from twelve\nyears and a half's incarceration in a damp, miserable jail, for\nnonconformity! None but those whose close communion with God inspires\nthem with the confessor's courage, can understand the spirit which\ndictated such language. Had all dissenters used such faithful words,\nthe church would long ago have been emancipated from persecution\nin this country. Ed.\n\n6 This is a very extensive and awful delusion. To mistake the\n'outward and visible sign' for the 'inward and spiritual grace' is\na very general and fatal error. Of it's sad effects all religious\nparties have warned their members. It has done infinite mischief\nto the souls of men. Ed.\n\n7 The queen of Sheba was as much or more delighted with the order,\nharmony, and happiness of Solomon's household than she was with\nall his splendour and magnificence. It is to this Bunyan refers in\nthis quotation. Ed.\n\n8 'Though the words of the wise--are as nails fastened by the master\nof assemblies (Eccl. 12:11) yet sure their examples are the hammer\nto drive them in to take the deeper hold. A father that whipt his\nson for swearing, and swore himself while he whipt him, did more\nharm by his example than good by his correction.'Fuller's Holy\nState, p. 11. Ed.\n\n9 How exceedingly admirable are all these scriptural directions,\nwarnings, and cautions. Happy are those parents and their children\nwhere such wisdom is manifested in that painful duty of administering\ncounsel and correction. Ed. 10 One of the Saxon laws was, that\nif a serf or villain work on Sunday by his lord's command, he shall\nbe a free man. Spelman's Concilia, An. 692. Ed.\n\n11 The rust of money in the rich man's purse, unjustly detained\nfrom the labourer, will poison and infect his whole estate. Fuller's\nHoly State, p. 16. Ed.\n\n12 The apostle Peter, in his solemn injunctions to married persons,\ncommences with the wife. Fuller observes upon this, 'And sure it\nwas fitting that women should first have their lesson given them,\nbecause it is harder to be learned, and therefore they need have\nthe more time to con it.' Holy State, p. 1. Ed.\n\n13 'In her husband's absence she is wife and deputy husband, which\nmakes her double the files of her diligence. At his return he finds\nall things so well, that he wonders to see himself at home when he\nwas abroad.'Fuller's Holy State, p. 2. Ed.\n\n14 'She never crosseth her husband in the spring-tide of his anger,\nbut stays till it be ebbing water.'Fuller's Maxims. Ed.\n\n15 Bunyan's words are 'to show pity,' probably taken from the\nword 'goodness' in the margin of the Bible; but lest it might be a\ntypographical error, the usual rendering is given in this quotation.\nEd.\n\n16 'What is the child but a piece of the parents wrapped up in another skin.'Flavel.\n    On seeing a Mother with her Infant asleep in her Arms.\n    'Thine is the morn of life,\n    All laughing, unconscious of the evening with her anxious cares,\n    Thy mother filled with the purest happiness and bliss\n    Which an indulgent Heaven bestows upon a lower world,\n    Watches and protects her dearest life, now sleeping in her arms.'\n        German Poem. Ed.\n\n17 Bunyan's silence, in all his writings, concerning the state of\nhis parents as to godliness, may lead us to fear that this fervent\nejaculation had often been poured forth by his own soul on behalf\nof his father and mother. All that we know of them is, that they\nwere poor, but gave their children the best education their means\nafforded; as to their piety he is silent. Ed.\n\n18 'To the Greeks.' Bunyan in this follows the Puritan translation.\nThe word 'Greeks' is in the margin of the authorized Bible. Ed.\n\n19 This is a most beautiful passage, unequalled by any ancient or\nmodern author. Such a view of church fellowship does honour to the\nhead and heart of the prince of allegorists. It is worthy to be\nprinted in letters of gold, and presented to every candidate for\nchurch fellowship among all Christian societies of every denomination.\nSee p. 550, and note. Ed.\n\n20 To 'hold the head' is to make a very prominent profession of\nreligion. Ed.\n\n21 'Of unbelief' see margin of the Bible. Ed.\n\n***\n\nA CAUTION TO STIR UP TO WATCH AGAINST SIN\n\nBY J. BUNYAN\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis faithful and affectionate appeal to conscience, was originally\npublished on a half-sheet of copy paper, and being only printed\non one side of the leaf was called a broadside; probably intended\nto hang up in the house, or to be pasted inside the cover of the\nfamily bible.\n\nCharles Doe gives the date 1685; but a copy of this rare sheet,\nclean and perfect as when first printed, was lately discovered\nin the Stowe Library, among a great number of single-sheet poems,\nsongs, and proclamations; a memorandum on it, in the writing of\nNarcissus Luttrel, shews that he bought it for one penny, on the\n8th of April, 1684. By the liberal permission of Mr. Pickering,\nof Piccadilly, the present owner of that extraordinary collection,\nI have been able accurately to correct the very numerous alterations\nand errors which abound in all the later editions.\n\nReader, whoever thou art, but especially the young, this unassuming\npoem is most worthy of being committed to memory. It is a striking\ndetection of the devil's sophistry. Strive, as you value your\npeace and happiness, to escape the depths of moral degradation\nand misery, by avoiding the FIRST overtures of sin.--GEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nCAUTION TO STIR UP TO WATCH AGAINST SIN\n\nThe first eight lines one did commend to me,\nThe rest I thought good to commend to thee:\nReader, in reading be thou rul'd by me,\nWith rhimes nor lines, but truths, affected be.[1]\n8 April 1684\n\nI.\nSin will at first, just like a beggar, crave\nOne penny or one half-penny to have;\nAnd if you grant its first suit, 'twill aspire,\nFrom pence to pounds, and so will still mount higher\nTo the whole soul: but if it makes its moan,\nThen say, here is not for you, get you gone.\nFor if you give it entrance at the door,\nIt will come in, and may go out no more.\n\nII.\nSin, rather than 'twill out of action be,\nWill pray to stay, though but a while with thee;\nOne night, one hour, one moment, will it cry,\nEmbrace me in thy bosom, else I die:\nTime to repent [saith it] I will allow,\nAnd help, if to repent thou know'st not how.\nBut if you give it entrance at the door,\nIt will come in, and may go out no more.\n\nIII.\nIf begging doth not do, sin promise will\nRewards to those that shall its lusts fulfill:\nPenny in hand, yea pounds 'twill offer thee,\nIf at its beck and motion thou wilt be.\n'Twill seem heaven to out-bid, and all to gain\nThy love, and win thee it to entertain.\nBut give it not admittance at thy door,\nLest it comes in, and so goes out no more.\n\nIV.\nIf begging and promising will not do,\n'Twill by its wiles attempt to flatter you.\nI'm harmless, mean no ill, be not so shy\nWill ev'ry soul-destroying motion cry.\n'Twill hide its sting, 'twill change its native hue,\nVile 'twill not, but a beauty seem to you.\nBut if you give it entrance at the door,\nIts sting will in, and may come out no more.\n\nV.\nRather than fail, sin will itself divide,\nBid thee do this, and lay the rest aside.\nTake little ones ('twill say) throw great ones by,\n(As if for little sins men should not die.)\nYea SIN with SIN a quarrel will maintain,\nOn purpose that thou by it might'st be slain.\nBeware the cheat then, keep it out of door,\nIt would come in, and would go out no more.\n\nVI.\nSin, if you will believe it, will accuse,\nWhat is not hurtful and itself excuse:\n'Twill make a vice of virtue, and 'twill say\nGood is destructive, doth men's souls betray;\n'Twill make a law, where God has made man free,\nAnd break those laws by which men bounded be.\nLook to thyself then, keep it out of door,\nThee 'twould entangle, and enlarge thy score.\n\nVII.\nSIN is that beastly thing that will defile\nSoul, body, name, and fame in little while;\n'Twill make him, who some time God's image was,\nLook like the devil, love, and plead his cause;\nLike to the plague, poison, or leprosy\nDefile 'twill, and infect contagiously.\nWherefore beware, against it shut the door;\nIf not, it will defile thee more and more.\n\nVIII.\nSIN, once possessed of the heart, will play\nThe tyrant, force its vassal to obey:\n'Twill make thee thine own happiness oppose\nAnd offer open violence to those\nThat love thee best; yea make thee to defy\nThe law and counsel of the deity.\nBeware then, keep this tyrant out of door,\nLest thou be his, and so thy own no more.\n\nIX.\nSIN harden can the heart against its God,\nMake it abuse his grace, despise his rod,\n'Twill make one run upon the very pikes,\nJudgments foreseen bring such to no dislikes\nOf sinful hazards; no, they venture shall\nFor one base lust, their soul, and heav'n and all.\nTake heed then, hold it, crush it at the door,\nIt comes to rob thee, and to make thee poor.\n\nX.\nSIN is a prison, hath its bolts and chains,\nBrings into bondage who it entertains;\nHangs shackles on them, bends them to its will,\nHolds them, as Samson grinded at the mill,\n'Twill blind them, make them deaf; yea, 'twill them gag,\nAnd ride them as the devil rides his hag.\nWherefore look to it, keep it out of door,\nIf once its slave, thou may'st be free no more.\n\nXI.\nThough SIN at first its rage dissemble may,\n'Twill soon upon thee as a lion prey;\n'Twill roar, 'twill rend, 'twill tear, 'twill kill out-\nright,\nIts living death will gnaw thee day and night:\nThy pleasures now to paws and teeth it turns,\nIn thee its tickling lusts, like brimstone burns.\nWherefore beware, and keep it out of door,\nLest it should on thee as a lion roar.\n\nXII.\nSIN will accuse, will stare thee in the face,\nWill for its witnesses quote time and place\nWhere thou committedst it; and so appeal\nTo conscience, who thy facts will not conceal;\nBut on thee as a judge such sentence pass,\nAs will to thy sweet bits prove bitter sauce.\nWherefore beware, against it shut thy door,\nRepent what's past, believe and sin no more.\n\nXIII.\nSIN is the worm of hell, the lasting fire,\nHell would soon lose its heat, could SIN expire;\nBetter sinless, in hell, than to be where\nHeav'n is, and to be found a sinner there.\nOne sinless, with infernals might do well,\nBut SIN would make a very heav'n a hell.\nLook to thyself then, to keep it out of door,\nLest it gets in, and never leaves thee more.\n\nXIV.\nNo match hast sin save God in all the world,\nMen, angels it has from their stations hurl'd:\nHolds them in chains, as captives, in despite\nOf all that here below is called Might.\nRelease, help, freedom from it none can give,\nBut he by whom we also breathe and live.\nWatch therefore, keep this giant out of door\nLest if once in, thou get him out no more.\n\nXV.\nFools make a mock at SIN, will not believe,\nIt carries such a dagger in its sleeve;\nHow can it be (say they) that such a thing,\nSo full of sweet, should ever wear a sting:\nThey know not that it is the very SPELL\nOf SIN, to make men laugh themselves to hell.\nLook to thyself then, deal with SIN no more,\nLest he that saves, against thee shuts the door.\n\nXVI.\nNow let the God that is above,\nThat hath for sinners so much love;\nThese lines so help thee to improve,\nThat towards him thy heart may move.\nKeep thee from enemies external,\nHelp thee to fight with those internal:\nDeliver thee from them infernal,\nAnd bring thee safe to life eternal.--AMEN.\n\nLondon: Printed for N. Ponder at the Peacock in the\nPoultrey.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n1. This same sentiment is well expressed in Bunyan's verses at\nthe conclusion of the Pilgrim, part First.\n\n\n'Nor let my figure or similitude\nPut thee into a laughter or a feud;\nLeave this to boys and fools, but as for thee,\nDo thou the substance of my matter see.'\n\n\n***\n\nA DISCOURSE OF THE BUILDING, NATURE, EXCELLENCY, AND GOVERNMENT\nOF THE HOUSE OF GOD; WITH COUNSELS AND DIRECTIONS TO THE INHABITANTS\nTHEREOF.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD.\n\n'Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place\nwhere thine honour dwelleth.'--Psalm 26:8\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nBeautiful in its simplicity is this treatise on the Church of\nChrist, by John Bunyan. He opens, with profound knowledge and\neminent skill, all those portions of sacred writ which illustrate the\nnature, excellency, and government of the house of God, with the\npersonal and relative duties of its inhabitants. It was originally\npublished in a pocket volume of sixty-three pages, by G. Larkin,\n1688, and is now for the first time reprinted. We are deeply\nindebted to the unknown owner of this rare volume, and to Mr.\nCreasy, bookseller, Sleaford, through whom the copy was borrowed\nto enrich this edition.\n\nWhat is the church? is a question upon which all the subtilty of\njesuitic schoolmen and casuists has been exhausted, to mystify\nand mislead the honest inquirer in every age. The Jews, Papists,\nGreeks, English, have each claimed the divine favour as being\nexclusively limited to their respective sects. Apostolic descent\nhas been considered to depend upon human ceremonies, instead\nof its consisting in a similarity of mind and conduct to that of\nthe apostles, through the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit\nupon the heart. Judging from this latter mode, we conclude that\nBunyan the brazier was very nearly related to, and descended from,\nPaul the tentmaker, and the other apostles. But we form a very\ndifferent judgment as to the descent of Bonner and other persecuting\nbishops.\n\nA visible church of Christ is a congregation of the faithful, who\nhaving personally and individually given themselves to the Saviour,\nunite together to promote each other's spiritual happiness. Such\nwere the churches to whom the epistles in the New Testament were\naddressed. The instructions given to this spiritual community, in\nthe following treatise, are drawn solely from the sacred volume,\nand are full of peace and righteousness--tending purely to its\nhappiness and prosperity. If these directions were strictly and\nconstantly followed, our churches, notwithstanding the liability\nof the members to err, would each present 'a little heaven below.'\n\nThe officers in these communities are--I. Bishops, or preaching\nelders, to dispense the word and ordinances; a plurality in every\nchurch, to supply the services of such as suffered under affliction\nof body, or were imprisoned for conscience-sake. II. Ruling elders,\nto assist the preachers--to admit the serious inquirer, or shut\nout the profane backslider, and to re-admit the penitent--to watch\nover the members, that they be diligent in their worldly callings,\nthat there be no drones or idlers--to heal offences--to feed the\nchurch with admonitions, and to visit and comfort the sick. III.\nDeacons, to manage the temporal affairs--provide for the Lord's\ntable and for that of the bishops and elders--and to distribute\nthe alms to the infirm and needy. IV. Female deacons, to nurse the\nsick, and direct their attention to that home where there shall\nbe no more sorrow; and generally to aid the deacons and elders.\n\nThe duty of the private members is to walk humbly with God, and\nto be devoted to each other's happiness. In all these particulars\nDr. John Cotton of New England, in his 'True Constitution of a\nVisible Church,'[1] fully concurs with Bunyan, as does also Dr.\nJohn Owen, in his 'Nature of a Gospel Church,' excepting that he is\nsilent as to female deacons. Let every church be thus affectionately\nand scripturally governed, and in their works of faith and labours\nof love they will become terrible to the enemy 'as an army with\nbanners' (Cant 6:4).\n\nAt the present day, great laxity of discipline has crept in. Some\noffices have been discontinued, others altered, and it becomes\nus most solemnly to judge ourselves by the unerring word of the\nliving God, whether we have deviated from the order recorded by\nthe Holy Ghost, and if so, to repent and return to the scriptural\nmodel.--GEO. OFFOR\n\n\n\n\nA DISCOURSE OF THE BUILDING, &c., OF THE HOUSE OF GOD.\n\nI.\n\nBY WHOM THIS HOUSE IS BUILT.\n\nThe builder's God, materials his Elect;\nHis Son's the rock on which it is erect;\nThe Scripture is his rule, plummet, or line,\nWhich gives proportion to this house divine,\nHis working-tools his ordinances are,\nBy them he doth his stones and timber square,\nAffections knit in love, the couplings are;\nGood doctrine like to mortar doth cement\nThe whole together, schism to prevent:\nHis compass, his decree; his hand's the Spirit\nBy which he frames, what he means to inherit,\nA holy temple, which shall far excel\nThat very place, where now the angels dwell.\n\nCall this a temple or a house of prayer,\nA palace, oracle, or spouse most fair;\nOr what you will: God's love is here displayed,\nAnd here his treasure safely up is laid;\nFor his own darling none can find a place,\nWhere he, as here, is wont to show his face.\n\nWhat though some slight it, it a cottage call,\nGive't the reproachful name of beggar's hall;\nYea, what though to some it an eyesore is,\nWhat though they count it base, and at it hiss,\nCall it an alms-house, builded for the poor;\nYet kings of old have begged at the door.\n\n\nII.\n\nOF THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH.\n\nLo her foundations laid with sapphires are;\nHer goodly windows made of agates fair,\nHer gates are carbuncles, or pearls; nor one\nOf all her borders but's a precious stone;\nNone common, nor o' th' baser sort are here,\nNor rough, but squar'd and polish'd everywhere;\nHer beams are cedars, fir her rafters be,\nHer terraces are of the algum-tree;\nThe thorn or crab-tree here are not of us;\nWho thinks them here utensils, puts abuse\nUpon the place, yea, on the builder too;\nWould they be thus controll'd in what they do?\nWith carved-work of lily, and palm-tree,\nWith cherubims and chains adorned be\nThe doors, the walls, and pillars of this place;\nForbidden beasts here must not show their face.\nWith grace like gold, as with fine painting, he\nWill have this house within enriched be;\nFig-leaves nor rags, must here keep out no cold,\nThis builder covers all with cloth of gold,\nOf needle-work prick'd more than once or twice\n(The oft'ner prick'd, still of the higher price)\nWrought by his SON, put on her by his merit,\nApplied by faith, revealed by the Spirit.\n\n\nIII.\n\nOF THE CONVENIENCES OF THIS HOUSE.\n\nWithin these walls the builder did devise\nThat there the householders might sacrifice;\nHere is an altar, and a laver too,\nAnd priests abundance, temple work to do;\nNor want they living offerings, nor yet fire,\nNor holy garments; what divine desire\nCommands, it has bestowed on this place;\nHere be the censors, here's the throne of grace;\nNone of the householders need go elsewhere,\nTo offer incense, or good news to hear.\n\nA throne for judgment he did here erect,\nVirtue to cherish, folly to detect;\nStatutes and laws, unto this house he gave,\nTo teach who to condemn, and who to save:\nBy things thus wholesome taught is every brother\nTo fear his God, and to love one another.\n\nAnd now for pleasure, solace, recreation,\nHere's such as helpeth forward man's salvation.\nEqual to these none can be found elsewhere,\nAll else turn to profuseness, sin, and care.\nSo situate it is, so roomy, fair,\nSo warm, so blessed, with such wholesome air,\nThat 'tis enticing: whoso wishes well\nTo his soul's health, should covet here to dwell.\nHere's necessaries, and what will delight\nThe godly ear, the palate, with the sight\nOf each degree and sex; here's everything\nTo please a beggar, and delight a king.\nChambers and galleries, he did invent,\nBoth for a prospect and a retirement.\nFor such as unto music do incline,\nHere are both harps and psalteries divine:\nHer cellars and banqueting-house have been,\nIn former days, a palace for a queen.\nO house! what title to thee can be given,\nSo fit as that which men do give to heaven!\n\n\nIV.\n\nOF THE STRENGTH AND DEFENCE OF THIS HOUSE.\n\nThis house, you may be sure, will always stand;\nShe's builded on a rock, not on the sand;\nStorms, rain, yea floods have oft upon her beat,\nYet stands she, here's a proof she is no cheat;\nFear not therefore in her for to abide,\nShe keeps her ground, come weather, wind or tide.\nHer corner-stone has many times been try'd,\nBut never could the scorn, or rage, or pride,\nOf all her foes, by what force they could make,\nDestroy her battlements, or ground-work shake.\nHere's God the Lord encamping round about\nHis dwelling place; nor ought we once to doubt\nBut that he as a watchman succour will\nThose that do dwell upon his holy hill.\nA wall of fire about her I will be,\nAnd glory in the midst of her, and she\nShall be the place where I my name record;\nHere I will come and bless you, saith the Lord.\n\nThe holy watchers at her gates do stand,\nWith their destroying weapons in their hand,\nThose to defend, that in this house do dwell,\nFrom all her enemies in earth and hell;\nSafety! where is it, if it is not here?\nGod dwelleth in her, doth for her appear,\nTo help her early, and her foes confound,\nAnd unto her will make his grace abound;\nSafety is here, and also that advance,[2]\nWill make a beggar sing, a cripple dance.\n\n\nV.\n\nTHE DELICATENESS OF THE SITUATION OF THIS HOUSE.\n\nAs her foundation and her beauty's much;\nConveniences, and her defences such\nAs none can parallel, so doth the field\nAbout her richest, rarest dainties yield.\nMoriah, where Isaac was offered,\nWhere David from his sin was ransomed;\nWhere Solomon the temple did erect,\nCompar'd with this is worthy no respect.\nUnder the very threshold of this place\nArise those goodly springs of lasting grace,\nWhose crystal streams minister like to those\nThat here of love to her, make their repose.\nSweet is her aid, (as one may well infer)\n'Cause 'tis the breathings of the comforter.\nThe pomegranates at all her gates do grow,\nMandrakes and vines, with other dainties mo;[3]\nHer gardens yield the chief, the richest spice,\nSurpassing them of Adam's paradise:\nHere be sweet ointments, and the best of gums;\nHere runs the milk, here drops the honey-combs.\nHere are perfumes most pleasant to the sense,\nHere grows the goodly trees of frankincense;\nHer arbours, walks, fountains, and pleasant springs,\nDelightful formerly have been to kings.\n\nSuch mountains round about this house do stand\nAs one from thence may see the holy land.\nHer fields are fertile, do abound with corn;\nThe lilies fair, her vallies do adorn.\nThe birds that do come hither every spring,\nFor birds, they are the very best that sing.\nHer friends, her neighbours too, do call her blest;\nAngels do here go by, turn in and rest.\nThe road to paradise lies by her gate,\nHere pilgrims do themselves accommodate\nWith bed and board, and do such stories tell\nAs do for truth and profit all excel.\nNor doth the porter here say any nay,\nThat hither would turn in, that there would stay.\nThis house is rent-free; here the man may dwell\nThat loves his landlord, rules his passions well.\n\n\nVI.\n\nTHE WAY OF RECEIVING THOSE THAT WOULD HERE INHABIT.\n\nAnd wouldst thou know the customs of this place,\nHow men are here admitted to this grace;\nAnd consequently whether thou mayst be\nMade one of this most blest fraternity?\nCome hither then, unto me lend an ear;\nAnd what is doubtful to thee, I will clear.\n\n1. This place, as mercy's arms, stands ope to those\nThat their own happiness us'd to oppose;\nThose under hedges, high-way men, or they\nThat would not God, nor yet good men obey;\nThose that among the bushes us'd to browse,\nOr under hedges us'd themselves to louze.\nThe vilest men, of sinners who are chief,\nA fornicator, liar, or a thief,\nMay turn in hither, here take up and dwell\nWith those who ransom'd are from death and hell.\n\n2. This place, as hospitals, will entertain,\nThose which the lofty of this world disdain:\nThe poor, the lame, the maimed, halt and blind,\nThe leprous, and possessed too, may find\nFree welcome here, as also such relief\nAs ease them will of trouble, pain and grief.\n\n3. This place, as David's heart, with free consent\nOpens to th' distressed, and the discontent;\nWho is in debt, that has not wherewithal\nTo quit his scores, may here be free from thrall:\nThat man that fears the bailiff, or the jail,\nMay find one here that will become his bail.\n\n4. Art thou bound over to the great assize,\nFor heark'ning to the devil and his lies;\nArt thou afraid thereat to shew thy head,\nFor fear thou then be sent unto the dead?\nThou may'st come hither, here is room and place,\nFor such as willingly would live by grace.\n\n5. This place, as father's house in former days,\nIs a receptacle for runaways;[4]\nHe that, like to the ox,[5] backslidden is,\nForfeited hath for sin his share of bliss;\nMay yet come hither, here is room and rest;\nOf old such have come hither and been blest.\nHad this been false, O woe had been to David!\nNor Peter had, nor Magdalen, been saved.\nNor Jonah, nor Manasseh, nor the rest;\nNo runaway from God could been blest\nWith kind reception at his hands; return\nWould here come too late, if nought but burn\nHad been the lot of the backsliding man:\nBut we are told there's no rebellion can\nPrevent, or hinder him from being saved,\nThat mercy heartily of God hath crav'd.\nShe that went from her God to play the whore,\nReturning may be as she was before:\nHe that refuses to his God to turn,\nThat is resolved in hell fire to burn;\nIf he bethinks himself, and turns again,\nMay find them here that will him entertain.\n\n6. But bring thou with thee a certificate,\nTo show thou seest thyself most desolate;\nWrit by the master, with repentance seal'd,\nTo shew also that here thou would'st be heal'd,\nBy those fair leaves of that most blessed tree,\nBy which alone poor sinners healed be;\nAnd that thou dost abhor thee for thy ways.\nAnd wouldst in holiness spend all thy days;\nAnd here be entertained; or thou wilt find\nTo entertain thee here are none inclin'd.[6]\n\n\nVII.\n\nOF THE GOVERNORS OF THIS HOUSE.\n\nThe governors that here in office are,\nSuch be as service do with love and care;\nNot swerving from the rule, nor yet intrude\nUpon each other's work, nor are they rude\nIn managing their own: but to their trust\nThey labour to be honest, faithful, just.\n1. The chief is he who is the Lord of all,\nThe Saviour; some him physician call.\nHe's cloth'd in shining raiment to the ground,\nA golden girdle doth begirt him round;\nHis head and hairs are white as any snow,\nHis eyes are like a flame of fire also;\nHis feet are like fine brass, as if they burn'd\nWithin a furnace, or to fire were turn'd;\nHis voice doth like to many waters sound;\nIn his right hand, seven glittering stars are found.\nOut of his mouth goes a two-edged sword,\nSharper than any ('tis his holy word)\n\nAnd for his countenance, 'tis as the sun\nWhich shineth in its strength, till day is done.\nHis name is call'd holy, The WORD OF GOD;\nThe wine-press of his father's wrath he trod;\nAt all the power of sin he doth deride,\nThe keys of hell and death hang at his side.\nThis is our governor, this is the chief,\nFrom this physician comes our soul's relief.\nHe is the tree of life and hidden manna;\n'Tis he to whom the children sing hosanna.\nThe white stone he doth give with a new name;\nIn heaven and earth he is of worthy fame.\nThis man hath death destroy'd and slain the devil,\nAnd doth secure all his from damning evil.\nHe is the prince of life, the prince of peace;\nHe doth us from the bonds of death release.\nHis work is properly his own; nor may,\nIn what he doth, another say him nay.\n\n'Tis he who pays our hospitalian scores,\nHe's here to search, supple, and bind up sores;\nHe is our plaster-maker, he applies\nThem to our wounds, he wipes our wetted eyes.\n'Tis he that gives us cups of consolation,\n'Tis he renews the hopes of our salvation.\nHe'll take our parts, oft times to us unknown,\nAnd make as if our failings were his own;\nHe'll plead with God his name and doings too,\nAnd save us will, from those would us undo.\n\nHis name is as an ointment poured forth;\n'Tis sweet from east to west, from south to north.\nHe's white and ruddy; yea of all the chief;\nHis golden head is rich beyond belief.\nHis eyes are like the doves which waters wet,\nWell wash'd with milk, and also fitly set,\nHis cheeks as beds of spices, and sweet flowers.\nHe us'd to water with those crystal showers,\nWhich often flowed from his cloudy eyes;\nBetter by far than what comes from the skies.\nHis lips like lilies, drop sweet-smelling myrrh,\nScenting as do those of the comforter.\nHis hands are as gold rings set with the beryls;\nBy them we are delivered out of perils;\nHis legs like marble, stand in boots of gold,\nHis countenance is ex'lent to behold.\nHis mouth, it is of all a mouth most sweet,\nO kiss me then, Lord, every time we meet!\nThy sugar'd lips, Lord, let them sweeten mine,\nWith the most blessed scent of things divine.\n\n2. This is one Governor; and next in place,\nOne call'd the Ghost, in Honour and in Grace\nNo whit inferior to him; and HE\nWill also in this house our helper be,\nHe 'twas who did at first brood the creation;\nAnd he's the cause of man's regeneration.\n'Tis he by whom the heavens were garnished,\nWith all their host they then abroad did spread\n(Like spangles, pearls, diamonds or richest gems)\nFar richer than the fairest diadems.\n'Twas he who with his cloven tongues of fire\nMade all those wise ones of the world admire,\nWho heard his breathing in unlearned men.\nO blessed ruler! now the same as then!\nHis work our mind is to illuminate\nWith things divine, and to accommodate\nUs with those graces, which will us adorn,\nAnd make us look like men indeed new-born.\nFor our inheritance he makes us meet;\nHe makes us also in this world discreet.\nPrudent and wise in what we take in hand,\nTo do and suffer at our Lord's command.\n'Tis he that leads us to the tomb and cross,\nWhere Jesus crucified and buried was;\nHe shews us also, that he did revive,\nAnd doth assure us that he is alive;\nAnd doth improve the merit of his blood,\nAt grace's throne for our eternal good.\nDark riddles he doth here to us unfold,\nYea, makes us things invisible behold.\nHe sheds abroad God's love in every heart,\nWhere he doth dwell, yea to them doth impart,\nSuch tokens of a future happiness,\nThat's past the tongue of angels to express.\n'Tis he which helpeth us, that to perform,\nWhether becalm'd, or whether in a storm,\nWhich God commands: without him we do nought\nThat's good, either in deed, or word, or thought.\n\n'Tis he that doth with jewels us bedeck,\n'Tis he puts chains of gold about our neck;\n'Tis he that doth us with fine linen gird,\nThat maketh us ofttimes live as a bird.\nThat cureth us of all our doubts and fears,\nPuts bracelets on our hands, rings on our ears;\nHe sanctifies our persons, he perfumes\nOur spirits also; he our lust consumes;\nOur stinking breath he sweetens, so that we\nTo God and all good men sweet-scented be;\nHe sets God's mark upon us, and doth seal\nUs unto life, and life to us reveal.\n\n\nVIII.\n\nUNDER OFFICERS.\n\n3. Another sort of officers here are,\nBut such as must not with these first compare;\nThey're under-officers, but serviceable,\nNot only here to rule, but wait at table.\nThose clothed are with linen, fine and white,\nThey glitter as the stars of darksome night.\nThey have Saint Peter's keys, and Aaron's rod;\nThey ope and shut, they bind and loose for God.\nThe chief of these are watchmen, they have power\nTo mount on high and to ascend the tower\nOf this brave fabric, and from thence to see\nWho keeps their ground, and who the stragglers be.\nThese have their trumpet, when they do it sound\nThe mountains echo, yea it shakes the ground.\nWith it they also sound out an alarm,\nWhen they perceive the least mischief or harm\nIs coming, so they do this house secure\nThere from, or else prepare it to endure\nMost manfully the cross, and so attain\nThe crown which for the victor doth remain.\n\nThis officer is call'd a steward too,\n'Cause with his master's cash he has to do,\nAnd has authority it to disburse\nTo those that want, or for that treasure thirst.\nThe distributor of the word of grace\nHe is, and at his mouth, when he's in place,\nThey seek the law, he also bids them do it;\nHe shews them sin, and learns them to eschew it.\nBy this example too he shews them how\nTo keep their garments clean, their knees to bow\nBefore the king, when he comes into place;\nAnd when they do him supplicate for grace.\n\nAnother bade this officer doth wear,\nIs that of overseer; because the care\nOf the whole house is with him, he's to see\nThey nothing want, nor yet abused be\nBy false intruders, doctrines, or (perchance)\nBy the misplacing of an ordinance.[7]\nThese also are to see they wander not\nFrom place or duty, lest they get a blot\nTo their profession, or bring some disease\nUpon the whole, or get a trick to lease,\nOr lie unto their God, by doing what\nBy sacred statutes he commanded not.\nCall them your cooks, they're skill'd in dressing food\nTo nourish weak, and strong, and cleanse the blood:\nThey've milk for babes, strong meat for men of age;\nFood fit for who are simple, who are sage,\nWhen the great pot goes on, as oft it doth,\nThey put not coloquintida[8] in broth,\nAs do those younglings, fondlings of their skill,\nWho make not what's so apt to cure as kill.\n\nThey are your sub-physicians, and know\nWhat sickness you are incident unto;\nLet them but feel your pulse, and they will tell\nYou quickly whether you are sick or well.\nHave you the staggers? They can help you there;\nOr if the falling-sickness, or do fear\nA lethargy, a fever, or the gout,\nGod blessing of their skill, you need not doubt\nA cure, for long experience has made\nThese officers the masters of their trade.[9]\nTheir physic works by purge and vomit too,\nFear not, nor full nor fasting but 'twill do,\nHave but a care, and see you catch no cold,\nAnd with their physic then you may be bold.\n\nYou may them Prophets call, for they can tell\nOf things to come, yea, here they do excel.\nThey prophesy of man's future event,\nWhether to weal or woe his mind is bent,\nYea, so expert are they in their predictions,\nTheir arguments so full are of convictions,\nThat none who hear them, but are forced to say,\nWoe unto them who wander from the way.\nArt bound for hell against all wind and weather?\nOr art thou one a going backward thither?\nOr dost thou wink, because thou would'st not see?\nOr dost thou sideling go, and would'st not be\nSuspected? Yet these prophets can thee tell,\nWhich way thou art a going down to hell.\nFor him that would eternal life attain,\nYet will not part with all, that life to gain,\nBut keepeth some thing close, he should forsake,\nOr slips the time, in which he should awake;\nOr saith he lets go all, yet keepeth some\nOf what will make him lose the world to come.\nThese prophets can tell such a man his state,\nAnd what at last will surely be his fate.\nIf thou art one who tradeth in both ways,\nGod's now, the devil's then; or if delays\nThou mak'st of coming to thy God for life;\nOr if thy light, and lusts are at a strife\nAbout who should be master of thy soul,\nAnd lovest one, the other dost control;\nThese prophets tell thee can, which way thou bendest,\nOn which thou frown'st, to which a hand thou lendest.\nArt one of those whose fears do go beyond\nTheir faith? when thou should'st hope, dost thou despond?\nDost keep thine eye upon what thou hast done,\nAnd yet hast licence to look on the sun?\nDost thou so covet more, as not to be\nAffected with the grace bestowed on thee?\nArt like to him, that needs must step a mile\nAt every stride, or think it not worth while\nTo follow Christ? These prophets they can tell\nTo cure this thy disease, and make thee well.\n\nThis officer is also call'd a guide,\nNor should the people but keep by his side;\nOr tread his steps in all the paths they walk,\nBy his example they should do and talk.\nHe is to be to them instead of eyes,\nHe must before them go in any wise;\nAnd he must lead them by the water side,\nThis is the work of this our Faithful Guide.\nSince snares, and traps, and gins are for us set,\nSince here's a hole, and there is spread a net,\nO let no body at my muse deride,\nNo man can travel here without a guide.\nHere's tempting apples, here are baited hooks,\nWith turning, twisting, cramping, tangling crooks\nClose by the way; woe then to them betide,\nThat dare to venture here without a guide.\nHere haunt the fairies with their chanting voice;\nFiends like to angels, to bewitch our choices;\nBaits for the flesh lie here on every side:\nWho dares set here one foot without a guide\nMaster delusion dwelleth by our walks,\nWho with confusion, sings and prays and talks;\nHe says the straight path's his, and ours the wide:\nWhat then can we do here without a guide\nLet God then give our leaders always eyes;\nYea, let him make them holy, bold, and wise;\nAnd help us fast by them for to abide,\nAnd suffer not the blind to be our guide.[10]\n\n4. Here are of rulers, yet another sort,\nSuch as direct our manners to comport\nWith our professed faith, that we to view,\nMay let beholders know that we are new.\nThese are our conversations to inspect,\nAnd us in our employments to direct,\nThat we in faith and love do every thing,\nThat reacheth from the peasant to the king.\nThat there may be no scandal in our ways,\nNor yet in our profession all our days.\nThese should after our busy-bodies look,\nTale-bearers also, they have undertook\nTo keep in order, also they must see\nNone that can work among us idle be;\nJars, discords, frauds, with grievances and wrongs,\nThese they're to regulate; to them belongs\nThe judgment of all matters of this kind,\nAnd happy is the house thus disciplined.\n\n5. Another sort of officers we have,\nDeacons we call them 'cause their work's to save\nAnd distribute those crumbs of charity\nUnto the poor, for their subsistency,\nThat contributed is for their relief,\nWhich of their bus'ness is indeed the chief.\nThese must be grave, not of a double tongue,\nNot given to wine, not apt to do a wrong\nUnto the poor, through love to lucre. (Just\nIn this their office, faithful to their trust)\nThe wife must answer here as face doth face;\nThe husband's fitness to his work and place,\nThat ground of scandal or of jealousy\nObstructs not proof that he most zealously\nPerforms his office well, for then shall he\nBe bold in faith, and get a good degree\nOf credit with the church; yea what is more,\nHe shall possess the blessings of the poor.\nHis wisdom teach him will, to find out who\nIs poor of idleness, and who comes to\nA low estate by sickness, age, or 'cause\nThe want of limbs, or sight, or work it was\nThat brought them to it; or such destiny\nAs sometimes maketh low, who once were high.\nThey must remember too, that some there are\nWho halt before they're lame, while others care\nNot to make known their want, they'll rather die,\nThan charge the churches with their poverty.\nThis done, they must bestow as they see cause;\nMaking the word the rule, and want the laws\nBy which they act, and then they need not pause.\nThe table of the Lord, he also must\nProvide for, 'tis his duty and his trust.\nThe teacher too should have his table spread\nBy him; thus should his house be clad and fed;\nThus he serves tables with the church's stock,\nAnd so becomes a blessing to the flock.[11]\n\nI read of widows also that should be\nEmployed here for further decency;\nI dare not say they are in office, though\nA service here they are appointed to:\nThey must be very aged, trusty, meek,\nSuch who have done much good, that do not seek\nThemselves; they must be humble, pitiful,\nOr they will make their service void and null.\nThese are to teach the younger women what\nIs proper to their sex and state, what not:\nTo be discreet, keepers at home, and chaste;\nTo love their husbands, to be good; shamefac'd:\nChildren to bear, to love them, and to fly\nWhat to the gospel would be infamy.\nI think those to the sick should look also,\nA work unfit for younger ones to do.\nWherefore he saith, The younger ones refuse;\nPerhaps because their weakness would abuse\nThem, and subject them unto great disgrace,\nWhen such a one as Amnon is in place.\nAnd since the good old woman this must do\n'Tis fit she should be fed and clothed too,\nOut of the deacon's purse, let it so be;\nAnd let this be her service constantly.[12]\n\n\nIX.\n\nTHE ORDER AND MANNER OF THE GOVERNMENT HERE.\n\nAs I have shew'd you who in office are,\nSo I will tell you how, and with what care\nThose here intrusted with the government,\nKeep to the statutes made to that intent.\nBy rules divine this house is governed;\nNot sanguinary ones, nor taught nor fed\nBy human precepts: for the scripture saith,\nThe word's our ghostly food; food for our faith.\nNor are all forced to the same degree\nIn things divine, tho' all exhorted be\nTo the most absolute proficiency\nThat law or duty can to them descry.\n\nAlas! here's children, here are great with young;\nHere are the sick and weak, as well as strong.\nHere are the cedar, shrub, and bruised reed;\nYea, here are such who wounded are, and bleed.\nAs here are some who in their grammar be,\nSo here are others in their A, B, C.\nSome apt to teach, and others hard to learn;\nSome see far off, others can scarce discern\nThat which is set before them in the glass;\nOthers forgetful are, and so let pass,\nOr slip out of their mind what they did hear\nBut now; so great our differences appear\nWherefore our Jacob's must have special care\nThey drive their flocks, but as their flocks can bear;\nFor if they be o'erdriven, presently\nThey will be sick, or cast their young, or die.\nThe laws therefore are more and less of force,\nAccording as they bring us to the source,\nOr head, or fountain, or are more remote\nTo what at first we should ourselves devote.\nBe we then wise in handling of the laws,\nNot making a confused noise like daws\nIn chambers, yea let us seek to excel,\nTo each man's profit; this is ruling well.\nWith fundamentals then let us begin,\nFor they strike at the very root of sin.\nSo the foundation being strongly laid,\nLet us go on, as the wise builder said,\nFor I don't mean, we should at all disdain\nThose that are less, we always should maintain\nThat due respect to either which is meet;\nThis is the way to sit at Jesus' feet.\n\nRepent I must, or I am cast away;\nBelieve I must, or nothing I obey:\nLove God I must, or nothing I can do,\nThat's worth so much as loosing of my shoe.\nIf I do not, bear after Christ, my cross;\nIf love to holiness is at a loss;\nIf I my lusts seek not to mortify;\nIf to myself, my flesh, I do not die;\nWhat law, should I observe't, can do me good?\nIn little duties life hath never stood.\n\nOne reads, he prays, he catechises too;\nBut doth he nothing else, what doth he do?\nI read to know my duty, I do pray\nTo God to help me do it day by day;\nIf this be not my end in what I do,\nI am a sot, an hypocrite also.\nI am baptiz'd, what then? unless I die\nTo sin, I cover folly with a lie.\nAt the Lord's table, I do eat; what though?\nThere some have eat their own damnation too.\n\nI will suppose, I hear, I sing, I pray,\nAnd that I am baptiz'd without delay,\nI will suppose I do much knowledge get,\nAnd will also suppose that I am fit\nTo be a preacher, yet nought profits me\nIf to the first, poor I a stranger be:\nThey are more weighty therefore; in compare\nThese unto them, but mint and anise are.\n\nNot that I would the least of duty slight,\nBecause the least command, of divine right,\nRequires that I myself subject thereto;\nWillful resisters do themselves undo.\nBut let's keep order, let the first be first;\nRepent, believe, and love; and then I trust\nI have that right, which is divine, to all\nThat is enjoined; be they great or small.\nOnly I must as cautionary speak,\nIn one word more, a little to the weak;\nThou must not suffer men so to enclose\nThee in their judgments, as to discompose\nThee in that faith and peace thou hast with him;\nThis would be like the losing of a limb;\nOr like to him who thinks he doth not well,\nUnless he lose the kernel for the shell.\nThou art no captive, but a child and free;\nThou wast not made for laws, but laws for thee;\nAnd thou must use them as thy light will bear it;\nThey that say otherwise, do rend and tear it,\nMore like to wicked tyrants, who are cruel,\nAnd add unto a little fire, more fuel.\nBut those who are true shepherds of the sheep,\nTo quench such burnings would most gladly weep.\nBut I am yet but upon generals;\nParticulars our legislator calls\nFor at our hands, and that in order to\nConsummate what we have begun to do.\n\n1. My brother I must love, in very deed.\nI'm taught of God to do it: let me heed\nThis divine duty, and perform it well,\nWho loves his brother, God in him doth dwell;\nThe argument which on me this imposes,\nSmells like to ointment, or the sweetest roses.\nShall God love, shall he keep his faith to me?\nAnd shall not I? shall I unfaithful be?\nShall God love me a sinner? and shall I\nNot love a saint? Yea, shall my Jesus die\nTo reconcile me to my God? and shall\nI hate his child, nor hear his wants that call\nFor my little assisting of him? fie\nOn such a spirit, on such cruelty;\nFie on the thought that would me alienate,\nOr tempt me my worst enemy to hate.[13]\n\n2. He that dwells here, must also be a sharer\nIn others' griefs; must be a burden-bearer\nAmong his brethren, or he cannot do\nThat which the blessed gospel calls him to.\nIn order hereunto, humility\nMust be put on, it is our livery,\nWe must be clothed with it, if we will\nThe law obey, our master's mind fulfil.\nIf this be so, then what should they do here,\nWho in their antic pranks of pride appear?\nLet lofty men among you bear no sway,\nThe Lord beholds the proud man far away.\nIt is not fit that he inhabit there\nWhere humbleness of mind should have the chair.\nCan pride be where a soul for mercy craves?\nShall pride be found among redeemed slaves?\nShall he who mercy from the gallows brought,\nLook high, or strut, or entertain a thought\nThat tends to tempt him to forget that fate,\nTo which for sin he destin'd was of late,\nAnd could not then at all delivered be,\nBut by another's death and misery?\nPride is the unbecoming'st thing of all:\nBesides, 'tis the forerunner of a fall.\nHe that is proud, soon in the dirt will lie,\nBut honour followeth humility.\nLet each then count his brother as his better,\nLet each esteem himself another's debtor.\nChrist bids us learn of him, humble to be,\nProfession's beauty is humility.\n\n3. Forgive, is here another statute law;\nTo be revenged is not worth a straw,\nHe that forgives shall also be forgiven,\nWho doth not so, must lose his part in heaven;\nNor must thou weary of this duty be\n'Cause God's not weary of forgiving thee.\n\nThou livest by forgiveness; should a stop\nBe put thereto one moment, thou wouldst drop\nInto the mouth of hell. Then let this move\nThee thy dear brother to forgive in love.\n\nAnd we are bid in our forgivenesses\nTo do as God doth in forgiving his.\nIf any have a quarrel against any,\n(As quarrels we have oft against a many)\nWhy then, as God, for Christ's sake, pardons you,\nFor Christ's sake, pardon thou thy brother too.\nWe say, What freely comes, doth freely go;\nThen let all our forgivenesses be so.\nI'm sure God heartily forgiveth thee,\nMy loving brother, prithee forgive me;\nBut then in thy forgiveness be upright;\nDo't with thine heart, or thou'rt an hypocrite.\n\n4. As we forgive, so we must watch and pray;\nFor enemies we have, that night and day,\nShould we not watch, would soon our graces spoil,\nShould we not pray, would our poor souls defile.\nWithout a watch, resist a foe who can?\nWho prays not, is not like to play the man?\nComplaint that he is overcome, he may;\nBut who would win the field, must watch and pray.\nWho watches, should know who and who's together:\nKnow we not friends from foes, how know we whether\nOf them to fight, or which to entertain?\nSome have instead of foes, familiars slain.\nSometimes a lust will get into the place,\nOr work, or office, of some worthy grace;\nTill it has brought our souls to great decay.\nUnless we diligently watch and pray,\nOur pride will our humility precede:\nBy th' nose, our unbelief our faith will lead.\nSelf-love will be where self-denial should;\nAnd passion heat, what patience sometime cool'd.\nAnd thus it will be with us night and day,\nUnless we diligently watch and pray.\n\nBesides what these domestics do, there are\nAbroad such foes as wait us to ensnare;\nYea, they against us stand in battle-'ray,\nAnd will us spoil, unless we watch and pray.\nThere is the world with all its vanities,\nThere is the devil with a thousand lies;\nThere are false brethren with their fair collusions,\nAlso false doctrines with their strong delusions;\nThese will us take, yea carry us away\nFrom what is good, unless we watch and pray.\nLong life to many, is a fearful snare;\nOf sudden death we also need beware;\nThe smiles and frowns of men, temptations be;\nAnd there's a bait in all we hear and see.\nLet them who can, to any shew a way,\nHow they should live, that cannot watch and pray.\n\nNor is't enough to keep all well within,\nNor yet to keep all out that would be sin,\nIf entertained; I must myself concern\nWith my dear brother, as I do discern\nHim tempted, or a wand'ring from the way;\nElse as I should, I do not watch and pray.\nPray then, and watch, be thou no drowsy sleeper,\nGrudge, nor refuse, to be thy brother's keeper,\nSeest thou thy brother's graces at an ebb?\nIs his heel taken in the spider's web?\nPray for thy brother; if that will not do,\nTo him, and warn him of the present woe\nThat is upon him; if he shall thee hear\nThou wilt a saviour unto him appear.[14]\n\n5. Sincerity, to that we are enjoined,\nFor I do in our blessed law-book find,\nThat duties, how well done soe'er they seem,\nWith our great God, are but of small esteem\nIf not sincerely done; then have a care\nFor hypocrites are hateful everywhere.\nThings we may do, yea, and may let men see\nUs do them too, design but honestly;\nVain-gloriously let us not seek for praise,\nVain-glory's nothing worth in gospel days.\nSincerity seeks not an open place,\nTo do, tho' it does all with open face;\nIt loves no guises, nor disfigurations.\n'Tis plain, 'tis simple, hates equivocations.\nSincerity's that grace by which we poise,\nAnd keep our duties even: nor but toys\nAre all we do, if no sincerity\nAttend our works, lift it up ne'er so high.\nSincerity makes heav'n upon us smile,\nLo, here's a man in whom there is no guile!\nNathaniel, an Israelite indeed!'\nWith duties he sincerely doth proceed;\nUnder the fig-tree heav'n saw him at prayer,\nThere is but few do their devotions there.\nSincerity! Grace is thereto entailed,\nThe man that was sincere, God never fail'd.\nOne tear that falleth from sincerity,\nIs worth ten thousand from hypocrisy.\n\n6. Meekness is also here imposed by law,\nA froward spirit is not worth a straw.\nA froward spirit is a bane to rest,\nThey find it so, who lodge it in their breast.\nA froward spirit suits with self-denial,\nWith taking up the cross, and ev'ry trial,\nAs cats and dogs, together by the ears;\nAs scornful men do suit with frumps[15] and jeers.\nMeek as a lamb, mute as a fish, is brave,\nWhen anger boils, and passions vent do crave.\nThe meek, God will in paths of judgment guide;\nGood shall the meek eat, and be satisfied;\nThe Lord will lift the meek to highest station;\nWill beautify the meek with his salvation.\nThe meek are blest, the earth they shall inherit:\nThe meek is better than the proud in spirit.\nMeekness will make you quiet, hardy, strong,\nTo bear a burden, and to put up wrong.\nMeekness, though divers troubles you are in,\nWill bridle passion, be a curb to sin.\nThus God sets forth the meek before our eyes;\nA meek and quiet spirit God doth prize.\n\n7. Temp'rance also, is on this house imposed,\nAnd whoso has it not, is greatly nosed[16]\nBy standers by, for greedy, lustful men:\nNor can all we can say, excuse us, when\nIntemp'rance any where to them shall be\nApparent; though we other vices flee.\nTemperance, the mother is of moderation,\nThe beauty also of our conversation.\nTemperance will our affections moderate,\nAnd keep us from being inordinate\nIn our embraces, or in our salutes\nOf what we have, also in our pursuits\nOf more, and in a sedate settlement\nOf mind, will make's in all states be content.\nNor want we here an argument to prove\nThat who, inordinate is, in his love\nOf worldly things, doth better things defy,\nAnd slight salvation for the butterfly.\n\nWhat argument can any man produce,\nWhy we should be intemperate in the use\nOf any worldly good? Do we not see\nThat all these things from us a fleeting be?\nWhat can we hold? What can we keep from flying\nFrom us? Is not each thing we have a dying?\nMy house, my wife, my child, they all grow old,\nNor am I e'er the younger for my gold;\nHere's none abiding, all things fade away,\nPoor I at best am but a clod of clay.\n\nIf that be true, man doth not live by bread,\nHe that has nothing else, must needs be dead;\nTake bread for what can in this world be found,\nYet all that therein is, is but a sound,\nAn empty sound, there is no life at all,\nIt cannot save a sparrow from her fall.\nLet us then use this world as we are bid,\nAnd as in olden times, the godly did.\nWho buy, should be as if they did possess\nNone of their purchase, or themselves did bless\nIn what they have; and he that doth rejoice\nIn what he hath, should rather out of choice,\nWithdraw his mind from what he hath below,\nAnd set his heart on whither he must go.\nFor those that weep under their heavy crosses,\nOr that are broken with the sense of losses,\nLet them remember, all things here are fading,\nAnd as to nature, of a self-degrading\nAnd wasting temper; yea, both we and they\nShall waste, and waste, until we waste away.\nLet temperance then, with moderation be\nAs bounds to our affections, when we see,\nOr feel, or taste, or any ways enjoy\nThings pleasing to the flesh, lest we destroy\nOurselves therewith, or bring ourselves thereby\nTo surfeits, guilt, or Satan's slavery.\n\n8. Patience, another duty, as we find\nIn holy writ, is on this house enjoined;\nHer state, while here, is such, that she must have\nThis grace abounding in her, or a slave\nShe'll quickly be unto their lusts and will,\nThat seek the mind of Satan to fulfil.\nHe who must bear all wrongs without resistance,\nAnd that with gladness too, must have assistance\nContinually from patience, thereunto,\nOr he will find such work too hard to do.\nWho meets with taunts, with mocks, with flouts and squibs,\nWith raileries, reproaches, checks, and snibs;\nYea, he who for well-doing is abused,\nRobb'd, spoiled, and goal'd, and ev'ry way misused;\nHas he not patience soon will be offended,\nYea his profession too will soon be ended.\nA Christian for religion must not fight,\nBut put up wrongs, though he be in the right;\nHe must be merciful, loving, and meek,\nWhen they smite one, must turn the other cheek.\nHe must not render railing for reviling\nNor murmur when he sees himself a spoiling,\nWhen they shall curse, he must be sure to bless,\nAnd thus with patience must his soul possess.\nI doubt our frampered[17] Christians will not down\nWith what I say, yet I dare pawn my gown,\nDo but compare my notes with sacred story,\nAnd you will find patience the way to glory.\nPatience under the cross, a duty is,\nWhoso possess it, belongs to bliss;\nIf it is present work accomplisheth;\nIf it holds out, and still abideth with\nThe Truth; then may we look for that reward,\nPromised at the coming of the Lord.\n\n9. To entertain good men let's not forget\nSome by so doing have had benefit;\nYea for to recompense this act of theirs,\nAngels have lodged with them unawares.\nYea to encourage such a work as this,\nThe Lord himself makes it a note of his,\nWhen hungry or when thirsty I have been,\nOr when a stranger, you did take me in.\nStrangers should not to strangers but be kind\nSpecially if conferring notes, they find\nThemselves, though strangers here, one brotherhood,\nAnd heirs, joint heirs, of everlasting good;\nThese should as mother's sons, when they do meet\nIn a strange country, one another greet\nWith welcome; come in, brother, how dost do?\nWhither art wand'ring? Prithee let me know\nThy state? Dost want or meat, or drink, or cloth?\nArt weary? Let me wash thy feet, I'm loth\nThou shouldst depart, abide with me all night;\nPursue thy journey with the morning light.\n\n\nX.\n\nTHE WAY OF REDUCING WHAT'S AMISS, INTO ORDER HERE.\n\nAlthough this house thus honourable is,\nYet 'tis not sinless, many things amiss\nDo happen here, wherefore them to redress,\nWe must keep to our rules of righteousness;\nNor must we think it strange, if sin shall be\nWhere virtue is; don't all men plainly see\nThat in the holy temple there was dust,\nThat to our very gold, there cleaveth rust?\nIn Abraham's family was a derider\nI' th' palace of a king will be the spider.\nWho saith, we have no sin, doth also say\nWe have no need at all to watch and pray;\nTo live by faith, the flesh to mortify,\nOr of more of the spirit to sanctify\nOur nature. All this wholly needless is\nWith him, who as to this, has nought amiss.\nBut we confess, 'cause we would not be liars,\nThat we still feel the motions and desires\nOf sin within us, and should fall away,\nDid not Christ intercede and for us pray.\nWe therefore do conclude that sin is here,\nBut that it may not to our shame appear,\nWe have our rules, thereby with it to deal,\nAnd plaisters too, our deadly wounds to heal.\nAnd seeing idleness gives great occasions\nTo th' flesh, to make its rude and bold invasions\nUpon good orders, 'tis ordained we see,\nThat none dwell here, but such as workers be:\nSo plain's the law for this, and so complete,\nIt bids who will not work, forbear to eat;\nLet then each one be diligent to do\nWhat grace or nature doth oblige them to.\nWho have no need to work for meat or clothes,\nShould work for those that want. Not that the sloth\nOf idleness should be encouraged,\nBut that those, poor indeed, be clad and fed.\nDorcas did thus, and 'tis to sacred story\nCommitted for her praise and lasting glory.\n\nThis house then is no nurse to idleness;\nFig-trees are here to keep, and vines to dress;\nHere's work for all; yea, work that must be done;\nYet work, like that, to playing in the sun;\nThe toil's a pleasure, and the labour sweet,\nLike that of David's dancing in the street;\nThe work is short, the wages are for ever,\nThe work like me, the wages like the giver\n\nNo drone must hide himself under those eaves;\nWho sows not, will in harvest reap no sheaves.\nThe slothful man himself, may plainly see,\nThat honey's gotten by the working bee.\nBut here's no work for life, that's freely given;\nMeat, drink, and cloths, and life, we have from heav'n;\nWork's here enjoined, 'cause it is a pleasure,\nVice to suppress, and augment heavenly treasure\nMoreover, 'tis to shew, if men profess\nThe faith, and yet abide in idleness,\nTheir faith is vain, no man can ever prove\nHe's right, but by the faith that works by love.\nIf this good counsel is by thee rejected;\nIf work and labour is by thee neglected;\nIf thou, like David, lollest on thy bed;\nOr art like to a horse, pamper'd and fed\nWith what will fire thy lusts, and so lay snares\nFor thine own soul, when thou shalt be i' th' wars:\nThen take what follows, sin must be detected,\nAnd thou without repentance quite rejected.\n\nThis is the house of God, his dwelling-place,\n'Tis here that we behold his lovely face;\nBut if it should polluted be with sin,\nAnd so abide, he quickly will begin\nTo leave it desolate, and then woe to it,\nSin and his absence quickly will undo it.\n\nAnd since sin is, of things the worst of all,\nAnd watcheth like a serpent on a wall,\nOr flyeth like an eagle in the air,\nOr runs as desperate ships, void of all care,\nOr, (as great Solomon hath wisely said)\nIs as the way of wantons with a maid,\nWho tick, and toy, and with a tempting giggle\nProvoke to lust, and by degrees, so wriggle\nThem into their affections, that they go\nThe way to death, so do themselves undo:\nAs it is said, this mischief to prevent,\nLet all men watch, yea, and be diligent\nObservers of its motions, and then fly,\nThis is the way to live, and not to die.\nHe that would never fall, must never slip,\nWho would obey the call, must fear the whip.\nGod would also that every stander by\nThat in the grass doth see the adder lie,\nShould cry as he did, death is in the pot,\nThat many by its poison perish not.\nBut if that beastly thing shall hold its hold,\nAnd make the man possessed basely bold\nIn pleading for it, or shall it deny,\nOr it shall seek to cover with a lie;\nThen take more aid, and make a fresh assault\nAt it again, diminish not the fault,\nBut charge it home. If yet he will not fear,\nBut still unto his wickedness adhere,\nThen tell the house thereof. But if he still\nPersist in his abomination will,\nThen fly him, 'cause he is a leprous man,\nCount him with heathens and the publican.\nBut if he falls before thee at the first,\nThen be thou to him faithful, loving, just.\nForgive his sin, tell it not to a brother,\nLest thou thyself be served so by another.\n\nIf he falls not, but in the second charge,\nSpread not his wickedness abroad at large.\nBut, if thou think his sorrow to be sound,\nForgive his sin, and hide it under ground.\nIf he shall stand the first and second shot;\nIf he before the church, repenteth not,\nDeal with him as the matter shall require,\nLet not the house for him be set on fire.\nIf after all, he shall repent and turn\nTo God, and you, you must not let him burn\nFor ever under sense of sin and shame,\nYou must his sin forgive in Christ his name.\n\nConfirm your love to him in Christ, you must,\nBy all such ways as honest are, and just.\nShy be not of him, carry't not aloof,\nBut rather give him of your love such proof,\nThat he may gather thence, ye do believe\nTo mercy Christ again doth him receive.\n\nTwo things, monish you, as to this, I would;\nThe first, to shew the church wherein she should\nIn all her actions so herself behave,\nAs to convince the fault, she would save\nHis soul; and that 'tis for this very thing,\nShe doth him unto open judgment bring.\nThen would I shew the person they reject,\nWhat will, without repentance, be th' effect\nOf this tremendous censure, so conclude;\nLeaving my judgment to the multitude\nOf those who sober and judicious be,\nBegging of each of them a prayer for me.\n\n1. This house, in order to this work, must be\nAffected with the sin and misery,\nOf this poor creature, yea, must mourn and weep,\nTo think such tares, in your neglect, or sleep,\nShould spring up here, nor must they once invent\nTo think, till he's cast out, you're innocent.\n\n2. Thus leaven, the whole lump has leavened;\nIsrael was guilty of what Achan did;\nAnd so must stand, until they purged are,\nTill Achan doth, for sin, his burden bear.\nThe reason is, Achan a member was\nOf that great body, and by nature's laws,\nThe hand, foot, eye, tongue, ear, or one of these,\nMay taint the whole with Achan's foul disease.\nThe church must too be sensible of this,\nSome lep'rous stones make all the house amiss:\nAnd as the stones must thence removed be,\nIn order to the house's sanctity,\nSo it must purged be (in any wise)\nBefore 'tis counted clean (by sacrifice).\n\n3. Next have a care, lest sin, which you should purge\nBecomes not unto you a farther scourge,\nThe which it will, if such shall judges be,\nWhich from its spots and freckles are not free;\nPluck thou the beam first out of thine own eye,\nElse the condemned will thee vilify\nAnd say, let not the pot the kettle judge;\nIf otherwise, it will beget a grudge,\nA great one 'twixt the church and him that sinned,\nNor by such means, can ever such be winned\nTo a renew'd embrace of holiness;\nMore like be tempted further to transgress.\n\n4. Again, let those that loud against it cry,\nSee they don't entertain it inwardly;\nSin, like to pitch, will to the fingers cleave,\nLook to it then, let none himself deceive;\n'Tis catching; make resistances afresh,\nAbhor the garment spotted by the flesh.\nSome at the dimness of the candle puff,\nWho yet can daub their fingers with the snuff.\n\n5. Beware, likewise, lest rancour should appear\nAgainst the person, do in all things fear:\nBewail the man, while you abhor his sin;\nPity his soul; the flesh you still are in;\nThyself consider thou may'st tempted be,\nHast thou no pity, who will pity thee?\n\n6. See that the ground be good on which you go:\nSin, but not virtue show dislike unto.\nTake heed of hypocritical intentions,\nAnd quarrel not at various apprehensions\nAbout some smaller matter, lest it breed\nNeedless debates, and lest that filthy seed\nContention, should o'errun your holy ground,\nAnd lest not love, but nettles there are found.\n\n7. You must likewise allow each man his grains,\nFor that none perfect are, sin yet remains,\nAnd human frailties do attend the best;\nTo bear and forbear here, will tend to rest.\nVain jangling, jars, and strifes will there abound,\nWhere moles are mountains made, or fault is found,\nWith every little, trivial, petty thing;\nThis spirit snib, or 'twill much mischief bring\nInto this house, and 'tis for want of love,\n'Tis entertain'd: it is not of the dove.\n\n8. For those that have private opinions too\nWe must make room, or shall the church undo:\nProvided they be such as don't impair\nFaith, holiness, nor with good conscience jar:\nProvided also those that hold them shall\nSuch faith hold to themselves, and not let fall\nTheir fruitless notions in their brother's way,\nDo this, and faith and love will not decay.\n\n9. We must also in these our dealings shew\nWe put a difference 'twixt those sins that do\nClash with the light of nature, and what we\nPerceive against the faith of Christ to be.\nThose against nature, nature will detect;\nThose against faith, faith from them must direct\nThe judgment, conscience, understanding too,\nOr there will be no cure, whate'er you do.\nWhen men are caught in immoralities,\nNature will start, the conscience will arise\nTo judgment; and if impudence doth recoil,\nYet guilt, and self-condemnings will embroil\nThe wretch concerned, in such unquietness\nOr shame, as will induce him to confess\nHis fault, and pardon crave of God and man,\nSuch men with ease therefore we conquer can.\n\nBut 'tis not thus with such as swerve in faith\nWith them, who, as our wise Apostle saith,\nEntangled are at unawares, with those\nCunning to trap, to snare, and to impose\nBy falsifyings, their prevarications:\nNo, these are slyly taken from their stations,\nUnknown to nature; yea, in judgment they\nThink they have well done to forsake the way.\nTheir understanding, and their judgment too\nDoth like, or well approve of what they do.\nThese are, poor souls, beyond their art and skill,\nTa'en captive by the devil, at his will,\nHere therefore you must patience exercise,\nAnd suffer long, ye must not tyrannize\nIt over such, but must all meekness shew;\nStill dropping of good doctrine as the dew,\nAgainst their error; so its churlishness\nYou conquer will, and may their fault redress.\n\nThe reason why we must not exercise\nThat roughness here, as where conviction lies\nIn nature, is because those thus ensnared\nWant nature's light and help to be repair'd.\nA spirit hath them taken, they are gone,\nDelusions supernat'ral they're on\nThe wing of; They are out o' th' reach of man\nNothing but God, and gospel reach them can.\nNow since we cannot give these people eyes,\nNor regulate their judgment, wherein lies,\nOur work with them, if not, as has been said,\nIn exercising patience. While display'd\nThe holy word before their faces is,\nBy which alone they must see what's amiss\nWith their poor souls, and so convert again,\nTo him with whom salvation doth remain.\n\nObj. But they are turbulent, they would confound\nThe truth, and all in their perdition drown'd.\n\nAns. If turbulent and mischievous they are,\nImposing their opinions without care\nWho they offend, or do destroy thereby.\nThen must the church deal with them presently,\nLest tainted be the whole with their delusion,\nAnd brought into disorder and confusion.\n\n\nXI.\n\nTHE PRESENT CONDITION OF THOSE THUS DEALT WITH.\n\nThe man that worthily rejected is,\nAnd cast out of this house, his part in bliss\nIs lost for ever, turns he not again,\nTrue faith and holiness to entertain.\nNor is it boot, for who are thus cast out,\nThemselves to flatter, or to go about\nTo shift the censure; nothing here will do,\nExcept a new conversion thou come to.\nHe that is bound on earth, is bound in heaven,\nNor is his loosing, but the sin forgiven;\nRepentance too, forgiveness must precede,\nOr thou must still abide among the dead.\n\n\nXII.\n\nAN EXPOSTULATION WITH SUCH TO RETURN.\n\nO shame! Is't not a shame for men to be\nFor sin, spu'd out from good society!\nFor man enlightened to be so base!\nTo turn his back upon the God of grace!\nFor one who for his sins has mourn'd and cry'd,\nTo slight him, who for sin hath bled and died!\nWhat fool would sell his part in paradise,\nThat has a soul, and that of such a price?\nWhat parallel can suit with such so well,\nAs those, for sin cast down from heaven to hell!\nBut let me tell thee, here is aggravation;\nThe angels, though they did fall from their station\nHad not the caution thou hast had; they fell;\nThis thou hast seen, and seeing, didst rebel.\nOne would a thought, the noise of this their fall,\nA warning; yea, a warning, and a call,\nShould unto thee have been, to have a care\nOf falling too: O how then didst thou dare,\nSince God did not spare them, thus to presume\nTo tempt him in his wrath, thee to consume.\nNor did the angels from a Jesus fall,\nRedeemed they were not, from a state of thrall;\nBut thou! as one redeem'd, and that by blood,\nRedemption hast despised; and the mud\nOr mire of thine own filth again embracest:\nA dying bleeding Jesus thou disgracest!\nWhat wilt thou do? see's not how thou hast trod\nUnder thy foot, the very Son of God?\nO fearful hand of God! And fearful will\nThy doom be, when his wrath thy soul shall kill.\n\nYea, with a signal these must hear their sin,\nThis dirty sow from mire has washed been,\nYet there did wallow, after wash'd she was;\nSo to procure a lust, obtain'd this loss.\nO shame! is't not a shame for man to be,\nSo much averse to his felicity,\nThat none can make him leave to play the fool,\nTill to the devil he be put to school,\nTo learn his own salvation to prize?\nO fool! must now the devil make thee wise?\nO sot! that will in wickedness remain,\nUnless the devil drives thee back again.\n\nHast quite forgot how thou wast wont to pray,\nAnd cry out for forgiveness night and day?\nOr dost thou count they were but painted fears\nWhich from thine eyes did squeeze so many tears?\nRemember man, thy prayers and tears will cry\nThee down to hell, for thine apostacy.\nWho will not have what he has prayed for,\nMust die the death, his prayer shall him abhor.\nHast thou forgotten that most solemn vow\nThou mad'st to God, when thou didst crave he bow\nHis ear unto thee would, and give thee grace,\nAnd would thee also in his arms embrace?\nThat vow, I say, whereby thou then didst bind\nThyself to him, that now thy roving mind\nRecoil against him should, and fling away\nFrom him, and his commandments disobey.\nWhat has he done? wherein has he offended?\nThou actest now, as if thou wast intended\nTo prove him guilty of unrighteousness,\nOf breach of promise, or that from distress\nHe could, or would not save thee, or that thou\nHast found a better good than he; but how\nThou wilt come off, or how thou wilt excuse\nThyself, 'cause thou art gone, and did refuse\nTo wait upon him that consider well;\nThou art as yet alive, on this side hell.\nIs't not a shame, a stinking shame to be\nCast forth God's vineyard as a barren tree?\nTo be thrown o'er the pales, and there to lie,\nOr be pick'd up by th' next that passeth by?\n\nWell, thou hast turn'd away, return again;\nBethink thyself, thy foot from sin refrain;\nHark! thou art call'd upon, stop not thine ear:\nReturn, backsliding children, come, draw near\nUnto your God; repent, and he will heal\nYour base backslidings, to you will reveal\nThat grace and peace which with him doth remain,\nFor them that turn away, and turn again.\n\nTake with thee words, come to the throne of grace\nThere supplicate thy God, and seek his face;\nLike to the prodigal, confess thy sin,\nTell him where, and how vicious thou hast been.\nSuppose he shall against thee shut the door,\nKnock thou the louder, and cry out the more;\nWhat if he makes thee there to stand a while?\nOr makes as if he would not reconcile\nTo thee again? Yet take thee no denial,\nCount all such carriages but as a trial\nWhether thou art in earnest in thy suit,\nAs one truly forlorn and destitute;\nBut hide thou nought of all that thou hast done,\nOpen thy bosom, make confession\nOf all thy wickedness, tell every whit;\nHast thou a secret sin? don't cover it;\nConfess, thyself judge, if thou wouldst not die;\nWho doth himself judge, God doth justify.\n\nTo sin, and stand in't, is the highest evil;\nThis makes a man most like unto the devil;\nThis bids defiance unto God and grace;\nThis man resists him spitteth in his face,\nScorns at his justice, mocketh at his power,\nTempts him, provokes him, grieves him every hour:\nWhen he ariseth, he will recompense\nThis sturdy rebel for his impenitence:\nBe not incorrigible then, come back again,\nThere's hope, beg mercy while life doth remain.\n\nObj. But I fear I am lost and cast away,\nSentence is past, and who reverse it may?\n\nAns. The sentence past, admitteth or reprieve;\nYea, of a pardon, canst thou but believe.\nTURN AGAIN SINNER, NEVER MAKE A DOUBT,\nCOME, THE LORD JESUS WILL NOT CAST THEE OUT.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. 4to, London, 1642. In the editor's library.\n\n2. 'That advance,' preferment, or progress towards perfection.--Ed.\n\n3. 'Mo,' a usual contraction for more in former times, now\nobsolete.--Ed.\n\n4. Probably referring to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke\n15.--Ed.\n\n5. This may refer to the Levitical law, Exodus 21:28-36. The ox\nthat had gored any one to death, 'shall be surely stoned' without\npossibility of escape, but the backslider or manslayer, although\nhe lie equally under the sentence of death, yet may escape to the\ncity of refuge.--Ed.\n\n6. These stanzas afford an excellent illustration to the meaning\nof Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian, before the\ncross, receives the roll or certificate--loses it for a season in\nthe arbour on the hill Difficulty, when loitering and sleeping on\nhis way to the Interpreter's house, but regains it by repentance\nand prayers, and eventually, having crossed the river, gives it\nin at the gate of the Celestial City, and is admitted.--Ed.\n\n7. Bunyan considered that baptism is to follow belief, and that\nchristening a child was a misplacing the ordinance. So also with\nhe Lord's Supper--that it was to be a public showing forth the\ndeath of the Saviour, and if administered in private, or with any\nother view, it was misplaced.--Ed.\n\n8. It is a rare thing for Bunyan to use a foreign word; but all\npious persons in his time were familiar with, and generally used,\nthe Puritan or Genevan Bible, vulgarly called the Breeches Bible,\nan extremely valuable book; in the marginal notes of which, on this\npassage is the following explanation, '\"wilde gourdes,\" which the\napoticaries call coloquintida, and is most vehement and dangerous\nin purging.'--Ed.\n\n9. The university or college in which Bunyan so highly graduated,\nis the only one where ministers can be instructed in this spiritual\nphysic. It is Christ's college or school, neither at Oxford\nor Cambridge, but in the Bible. There, and there only, under the\nteaching of the Holy Spirit, can the Christian bishop or under\nshepherd receive instruction in the precious remedies against\nSatan's devices, or in specifics to cure spiritual maladies.--Ed.\n\n10. 'He had in his pocket A MAP of all ways leading to or from the\ncelestial city; wherefore he struck a light, for he never went\nwithout his tinder box, and took a view of his book or map; which\nbid him be careful, in that place, to turn to the right hand way.\nAnd had he not here been careful to look in his map, they had, in\nall probability, been smothered in the mud; for just before them,\nand that in the cleanest way, was a pit, and none knows how deep,\nfull of nothing but mud, there made on purpose to destroy pilgrims\nin. Then thought I with myself, who that goeth on pilgrimage, but\nwould have one of these maps about him, that he may look when he\nis at a stand which is the way he must take.'--Pilgrim's Progress,\nPart Second.\n\n11. These hints to deacons are invaluable. They must have been\nthe result of long intimacy and enlightened watchfulness over the\nconduct of the poor. To distinguish between the noisy beggar and\nthe unobtrusive sufferer--to administer relief in just proportions,\n'the word the rule, and want the law,' in spite of all that influence\nwhich is constantly brought to bear upon those who distribute any\ncommon charity fund. It requires much of the fear of God in the\nheart, and a solemn sense of responsibility at the great day.\nThe terms, 'crumbs of charity,' are beautifully expressive of the\ngeneral poverty of Christian churches.--Ed.\n\n12. Bunyan's idea of this scriptural order of female deacons is\nvery striking, and worthy the solemn consideration of all Christian\nchurches. They are to be chosen from such as are 'widows indeed,\nwho trust in God, and continue in supplications and prayers night\nand day,' 1 Timothy 5:5. They are to devote themselves to the\nsick--to be patterns of good works--and, if needful, to be fed and\nclothed at the expense of the church, verse 16. If to this were\nadded to examine and educate the children, they might be most\neminently useful.--Ed.\n\n13. These instructions are like 'apples of gold in pictures of\nsilver.' Thrice happy are those churches whose members act\nin conformity with these scriptural rules. But is there a member\nwho dares to violate them? Poor wretched creature, the Lord have\nmercy on thee.--Ed.\n\n14. Happy is that Christian, who, in obedience to his Lord's\ncommand, is so humble as to seek out the brother who has offended\nhim; 'Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone,' is\nthe divine command. Is it not at the peril of our souls wilfully\nto violate this self-humiliating but imperative law?--Ed.\n\n15. To 'frump,' to mock or browbeat.--Ed.\n\n16. 'Greatly nosed,' taken by the nose, ridiculed.--Ed.\n\n17. 'Frampered' or frampold, peevish, crossgrained, rugged; now\nobsolete.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nJOHN BUNYAN ON THE TERMS OF COMMUNION AND FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS\nAT THE TABLE OF THE LORD;\n\nCOMPRISING\n\nI. HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH, AND REASON OF HIS PRACTICE;\nII. DIFFERENCES ABOUT WATER BAPTISM NO BAR TO COMMUNION; AND III.\nPEACEABLE PRINCIPLES AND TRUE[1]\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nReader, these are extraordinary productions that will well repay\nan attentive perusal. It is the confession of faith of a Christian\nwho had suffered nearly twelve years' imprisonment, under persecution\nfor conscience sake. Shut up with his Bible, you have here the\nresult of a prayerful study of those holy oracles. It produced a\ndifference in practice from his fellow Christians of ALL denominations,\nthe reasons for which are added to this confession; with a defence\nof his principles and practice, proving them to be peaceable\nand true. In all this an unlettered man displays the acumen of a\nthoroughly educated polemical theologian. The author was driven\nto these publications to defend himself from the slanders which\nwere showered down upon him, by all parties, for nearly eighteen\nyears, and by the attempts which were made to take away his members,\ninjure the peace of his congregation, and alienate him from the\nchurch to which he was tenderly attached. His first inquiry is,\nWho are to be admitted to the Lord's table; and his reply is,\nThose whom God has received: they have become his children, and\nare entitled to sit at their Father's table: such only as have\nexamined themselves, and by their conduct lead the church to hope\nthat they have passed from death unto life. The practice of those\nwho admit ungodly persons because they have submitted to some\noutward ceremonies, he severely condemns. The mixture of the church\nand the world he deems to be spiritual adultery, the prolific\nsource of sin, and one of the causes of the deluge. The Lord's\ntable is scripturally fenced around: 'Be ye not unequally yoked\ntogether with unbelievers'; 'what communion hath light with darkness;\nChrist with Belial; the temple of God with idols? be ye separate,\ntouch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.' 'Receive ye\none another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God, not\nto doubtful disputations.' 'Withdraw from them that walk disorderly,\nworking not; but busy bodies; unless with quietness they work and\neat their own bread. If any are proud, doting about questions and\nstrifes of words, evil surmisings, perverse disputings, supposing\nthat gain is godliness; from such withdraw.' Bunyan rests all upon\nthe word,--the characters are described who are to be excluded\nfrom the Lord's table; but in no instance is it upon record that\nany one was excluded because he had not been baptized in water.\nAnd who will dare to make any addition to holy writ?\n\nThe practice of making the mode in which water baptism was\nadministered a term of communion, existed among the Independents\nlong before Bunyan's time. Crosby, in his History of the Baptists,\nmakes some long extracts from a book entitled, 'The sin and\ndanger of admitting Anabaptists to continue in the congregational\nchurches, and the inconsistency of such a practice with\nthe principles of both.' In America, Cotton and the Independents\nseverely persecuted their Baptist brethren, even to deportation.\nAs the Baptists increased in numbers, they refused to admit any\nto the Lord's table, even to occasional communion, who had not\nbeen baptized in water upon a profession of faith: in fact, the\ndifference between those who consider baptism to be a relative\nduty to be performed by parents in having their infants sprinkled,\nand those who deem it a personal duty to be immersed in water,\nas a public putting on of Christ, is so great, as to require the\nutmost powers of charity to preserve peace. Thus it was in the\nprimitive churches, where great differences prevailed even as to\nthe duty of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles; the keeping of\ndays probably extending to the Jewish sabbath, and to the abstaining\nfrom certain meats, with other ordinances of the Jewish law.\n\nBunyan saw all the difficulties of this question: he was satisfied\nthat baptism is a personal duty, in respect to which every individual\nmust be satisfied in his own mind, and over which no church had\nany control; and that the only inquiry as to the fitness of a\ncandidate for church fellowship should be, whether the regenerating\npowers of the Holy Ghost had baptized the spirit of the proposed\nmember into newness of life. This is the only livery by which a\nChristian can be known. Bunyan very justly condemns the idea of\nwater baptism being either the Christian's livery or his marriage\nto the Saviour.\n\nWe do well, in our examinations into this subject, to note\ncarefully the various applications of the word baptize, and not\nalways attach the use of water to the term. There is a being\nbaptized in a cloud, and in the sea, to protect God's Israel from\ntheir deadly foes; a baptism in sufferings; a baptism in water\nunto repentance; a baptism in fire, or the Holy Ghost; a baptism\ninto the doctrine of the Trinity (Matt 28:19). Bunyan had no doubt\nupon this subject; he deemed water baptism an important personal\nduty; and that a death to sin, and resurrection to newness of\nlife--a different tint, or dye, given to the character--was best\nfigured by immersion in water: still he left it to every individual\nto be satisfied in his own mind as to this outward sign of the\ninvisible grace. 'Strange,' he says, 'take two Christians equal\non all points but this; nay, let one go far beyond the other for\ngrace and holiness; yet this circumstance of water shall drown and\nsweep away all his excellencies; not counting him worthy of that\nreception that with hand and heart shall be given to a novice in\nreligion, because he consents to water.'\n\nFor these catholic principles he was most roughly handled. Deune,\nin a pamphlet in the Editor's possession, called him a devil; and\nlikened him to Timri, who slew his master. The most learned of\nthe Baptist ministers entered upon the controversy. They invited\nhim to a grand religious tournament, where he would have stood\none against a legion. A great meeting was appointed, in London,\nfor a public disputation--as was common among the puritans--and\nin which the poor country mechanic was to be overwhelmed with\nscholastic learning and violence; but Bunyan wisely avoided a\ncollision which could have answered no valuable purpose, and which\nbid fair to excite angry feelings. He had appealed to the press\nas the calmest and best mode of controversy; and to that mode of\nappeal he adhered. Three learned men undertook the cause against\nBunyan: these were, D'Anvers, W. Kiffin, and T. Paul. When these\nlettered, able, and distinguished disputants published their\njoint answer, it contained much scurrilous abuse. Their brother,\nBunyan, was in prison, and they visited him with gall and wormwood.\nHe closes his reply with these remarkable words, 'Thine to serve\nthee, Christians, so long as I can look out at those eyes that\nhave had so much dirt thrown at them by many.'\n\nThe late Mr. Robert Hall, in his controversy upon this subject\nwith Mr. Kinghorn, in which--having demolished Kinghorn's castle\nin a few pages--he, in order to make a book, amused the public\nby kicking the ruins about, thus adverts to these treatises: 'The\nmost virulent reproaches were cast upon the admirable Bunyan,\nduring his own time, for presuming to break the yoke; and whoever\nimpartially examines the spirit of Mr. Booth's Apology, will\nperceive that its venerable author regards him, together with his\nsuccessors, much in the light of rebels and insurgents, or, to\nuse the mildest terms, as contumacious despisers of legitimate\nauthority.'[2]\n\nWe cannot have a more decided proof of Bunyan's great powers, and\nof his being much in advance of his times, than by the opinions\nof which he was the Christian pioneer having spread so extensively\nthrough the Baptist denomination. In this his predictions were\nfully verified. It is surprising that pious dissenters should ever\nhave made uniformity in outward ceremonies of more importance than\ninward holiness, as a term of communion. Such sentiments naturally\nattach to state churches; and ought to be found only with those\nbodies which exist merely for political purposes, and for it\nare rewarded with earthly power, pomp, and wealth. I close these\nobservations by quoting the words of Bunyan's learned antagonists,\npublished within a few years of this controversy, and during his\nlifetime. his sentiments appear to have had a hallowed effect even\nupon their minds, and produced an apology for their conduct. It\nis in the appendix to the Baptist confession of faith, republished\nin 1677: 'We would not be misconstrued, as if the discharge of\nour consciences did any way disoblige or alienate our affections\nor conversations from any others that fear the Lord: earnestly\ndesiring to approve ourselves to be such as follow after peace with\nholiness. We continue our practice, not out of obstinacy, but we\ndo therein according to the best of our understandings, in that\nmethod which we take to be most agreeable to the scriptures. The\nchristening of infants, we find by church history, to have been a\nvery ancient practice; still we leave every one to give an account\nof himself to God. And if in any case debates between Christians\nare not plainly determinable by the scriptures, we leave it to the\nsecond coming of Christ.' In 1689, the year after Bunyan's death,\nthis appendix was omitted from the Baptist confession of faith.\n\nMay the time soon arrive when water shall not quench love, but\nwhen all the churches militant shall form one army, with one\nobject,--that of extending the Redeemer's kingdom.--GEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\nA CONFESSION OF MY FAITH, AND A REASON OF MY PRACTICE; OR, WITH\nWHO, AND WHO NOT, I CAN HOLD CHURCH FELLOWSHIP, OR THE COMMUNION\nOF SAINTS.\n\nSHEWING, BY DIVERSE ARGUMENTS, THAT THOUGH I DARE NOT COMMUNICATE\nWITH THE OPENLY PROFANE, YET I CAN WITH THOSE VISIBLE SAINTS THAT\nDIFFER ABOUT WATER-BAPTISM. WHEREIN IS ALSO DISCOURSED, WHETHER\nTHAT BE THE ENTERING ORDINANCE INTO FELLOWSHIP, OR NO.\n\n'I believed, therefore have I spoken.'--Psalm 116:10\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nSir,\n\nI marvel not that both you and others do think my long imprisonment\nstrange, (or rather strangely of me for the sake of that) for\nverily I should also have done it myself, had not the Holy Ghost\nlong since forbidden me (1 Peter 4:12; 1 John 3:13). Nay, verily,\nthat notwithstanding, had the adversary but fastened the supposition\nof guilt upon me, my long trials might by this time have put\nit beyond dispute; for I have not hitherto been so sordid, as\nto stand to a doctrine right or wrong; much less when so weighty\nan argument as above eleven years' imprisonment, is continually\ndogging of me to weigh and pause, and pause again, the grounds and\nfoundation of those principles, for which I thus have suffered;[3]\nbut having not only at my trial asserted them, but also since, even\nall this tedious tract of time, in cool blood, a thousand times,\nby the word of God, examined them, and found them good; I cannot,\nI dare not now revolt or deny the same, on pain of eternal damnation.\n\nAnd that my principles and practice may be open to the view and\njudgment of all men, though they stand and fall to none but the\nword of God alone, I have in this small treatise presented to this\ngeneration, 'A Confession of my Faith, and a Reason of my Practice\nin the Worship of God'; by which, although it be brief, candid\nChristians may, I hope, without a violation to faith or love,\njudge [that] I may have the root of the matter found in me.\n\nNeither have I in this relation abusively presented my reader,\nwith other doctrines or practices, than what I held, professed, and\npreached when apprehended, and cast in prison. Nor did I then or\nnow retain a doctrine besides, or which is not thereon grounded.\nThe subject I should have preached upon, even then when the\nconstable came, was, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' From\nwhence I intended to shew, the absolute need of faith in Jesus\nChrist; and that it was also a thing of the highest concern for\nmen to inquire into, and to ask their own hearts whether they had\nit or no.\n\nFaith and holiness are my professed principles, with an endeavour,\nso far as in me lieth, to be at peace with all men. What shall I\nsay, let mine enemies themselves be judges, if anything in these\nfollowing doctrines, or if ought that any man hath heard me preach,\ndoth [savour], or hath according to the true intent of my words,\nsavoured either of heresy or rebellion. I say again, let they\nthemselves be judges, if ought they find in my writing or preaching,\ndoth render me worthy of almost twelve years' imprisonment, or\none that deserveth to be hanged, or banished for ever, according\nto their tremendous sentence. Indeed my principles are such, as\nlead me to a denial to communicate in the things of the kingdom\nof Christ, with the ungodly and openly profane; neither can I in\nor by the superstitious inventions of this world, consent that my\nsoul should be governed in any of my approaches to God, because\ncommanded to the contrary, and commended for so refusing. Wherefore\nexcepting this one thing, for which I ought not to be rebuked;\nI shall, I trust, in despite of slander and falsehood, discover\nmyself at all times a peaceable and an obedient subject. But\nif nothing will do, unless I make of my conscience a continual\nbutchery, and slaughter-shop, unless putting out my own eyes, I\ncommit me to the blind to lead me, as I doubt is desired by some,\nI have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet\nto suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the\nmoss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my\nfaith and principles. 'Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which\ncometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters\nthat come from another place be forsaken?' (Jer 18:14). 'Hath\na nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?' (Jer 2:11).\n'For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and\nwe will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever'\n(Micah 4:5).\n\nTouching my practice as to communion with visible saints, although\nnot baptized with water; I say it is my present judgment so to\ndo, and am willing to render a farther reason thereof, shall I\nsee the leading hand of God thereto.\n\nThine in bonds for the gospel,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\n\nA CONFESSION OF MY FAITH, AND A REASON OF MY PRACTICE, ETC.\n\n'Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a\nreason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having\na good conscience; that whereas they speak evil of you, as\nof evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good\nconversation in Christ.'--1 Peter 3:15, 16.\n\n1. I believe, that there is but one only true God, and there is\nnone other but he. 'To us there is but one God, the Father, of\nwhom are all things' (1 Cor 8:6). 'And this is life eternal, that\nthey might know thee the only true God' &c. (John 17:3, see also\nMark 12:32; Acts 17:24).\n\n2. I believe, that this God is almighty, eternal, invisible,\nincomprehensible, &c. 'I am the Almighty God; walk before me,\nand be thou perfect' (Gen 17:1). 'The eternal God is thy refuge'\n(Deut 33:27). 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,\nthe only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever' (1 Tim\n1:17, see also Job 11:7; Rom 11:33).\n\n3. I believe, that this God is unspeakably perfect in all his\nattributes of power, wisdom, justice, truth, holiness, mercy, love,\n&c. his power is said to be eternal (Rom 1:20), his understanding\nand wisdom infinite (Psa 147:5); he is called the just Lord in\nopposition to all things (Zeph 3:5). He is said to be truth itself\nand the God thereof (2 Thess 2:10; Deut 32:4). There is none holy\nas the Lord. 'God is love.' 'Canst thou by searching find out God?\ncanst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?' (Job 11:7).\n\n4. I believe, that in the Godhead, there are three persons or\nsubsistances. 'There are three that bear record in heaven: the\nFather, the Word, and the Holy Ghost' (1 John 5:7, see also Gen\n1:26, 3:22, 11:7; Isa 6:8).\n\n5. I believe, that these three are in nature, essence, and eternity,\nequally one. 'These three are one' (1 John 5:7).\n\n6. I believe, [that] there is 'a world to come' (Heb 2:5, 6:5).\n\n7. I believe, that there shall be 'a resurrection of the dead, both\nof the just and unjust' (Acts 24:15). 'Many of them that sleep in\nthe dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and\nsome to shame and everlasting contempt' (Dan 12:2). 'Marvel not\nat this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the\ngraves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have\ndone good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done\nevil, unto the resurrection of damnation' (John 5:28).\n\n8. I believe, that they that 'shall be accounted worthy to obtain\nthat world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor\nare given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they\nare equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being\nthe children of the resurrection' (Luke 20:34-36, see also John\n10:27-29; Rev 7:16, 20:6).\n\n9. I believe, that those that die impenitent, shall be tormented\nwith the devil and his angels, and shall be cast with them into\n'the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone' (Rev 21:8). 'Where\ntheir worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched' (Mark 9:43,48,\nsee also Matt 25:41,46; John 5:29).\n\n10. I believe, that because God is naturally holy and just, even,\nas he is good and merciful; therefore, all having sinned, none can\nbe saved, without the means of a redeemer. 'Then he is gracious\nunto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I\nhave found a ransom' (Job 33:24). 'We have redemption through his\nblood, even the forgiveness of sins' (Col 1:14). For which 'without\nshedding of blood, is no remission' (Heb 9:22).\n\n11. I believe that Jesus Christ our Lord himself is the redeemer.\n'They remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their\nredeemer' (Psa 78:35). 'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not\nredeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your\nvain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but\nwith the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish,\nand without spot' (1 Peter 1:18,19).\n\n12. I believe, that the great reason why the Lord, the second person\nin the Godhead, did clothe himself with our flesh and blood, was\nthat he might be capable of obtaining the redemption, that before\nthe world, was intended for us. 'Forasmuch then as the children\nare partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took\npart of the same; [mark] that through death he might destroy him\nthat had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them\nwho through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to\nbondage' (Heb 2:14,15). 'When the fulness of time was come, God\nsent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem\nthem that were under the law' (Gal 4:4,5). 'Wherefore it behoved\nhim in all things to be made like unto his brethren, and that he\nmight be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining\nto God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in\nthat he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour\nthem that are tempted' (Heb 2:17,18). 'Christ hath redeemed us\nfrom the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it\nis written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the\nblessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through [faith in]\nJesus Christ' (Gal 3:13,14).\n\n13. I believe, that the time when he clothed himself with our flesh,\nwas in the days of the reign of Caesar Augustus; then, I say, and\nnot till then, was the Word 'made flesh,' or clothed with our nature\n(John 1:14; 1 Tim 3:16). 'And it came to pass in those days, that\nthere went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world\nshould be taxed. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the\ncity of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is\ncalled Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of\nDavid:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with\nchild. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were\naccomplished that she should be delivered' (Luke 2:1,4-6). This\nchild was he of whom godly Simeon was told by the Holy Ghost,\nwhen he said, That he should not see death until he had seen the\nLord's Christ (vv 25-27).\n\n14. I believe, therefore, that this very child, as afore is\ntestified, is both God and man; the Christ of the living God. 'And\nshe brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling\nclothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for\nthem in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds--keeping\nwatch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord\ncame upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them:\nand they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not:\nfor, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall\nbe to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of\nDavid a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a\nsign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes\nlying in a manger' (Luke 2:7-12). Again, 'But while he thought\non these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto\nhim;--saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto\nthee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the\nHoly Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call\nhis name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now\nall this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of\nthe Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with\nchild, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name\nEmmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us' (Matt 1:21,22).\n\n15. I believe, therefore, that the righteousness, and redemption,\nby which we that believe, stand just before God, as saved from\nthe curse of the law, is the righteousness, and redemption, that\nconsists in the personal acts and performances of this child\nJesus; this God-man the Lord's Christ: it consisteth, I say, in\nhis personal fulfilling the law for us, to the utmost requirement\nof the justice of God. 'Think not [saith he] that I am come to\ndestroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but\nto fulfil' (Matt 5:17). By which means he became 'the end of the\nlaw for righteousness to every one that believeth' (Rom 10:4).\n'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the\nflesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,\nand for sin, condemned sin in the flesh' (Rom 8:3). So finishing\ntransgressions, and making an end of sins, and making reconciliation\nfor iniquity, He brought in everlasting righteousness (1 John 3:8;\n2 Tim 1:9; Heb 10:5-10; Dan 9:24).\n\n16. I believe, that for the completing of this work, he was always\nsinless (Heb 4:15); did always the things that pleased God's\njustice (John 8:29), that every one of his acts, both of doing\nand suffering, and rising again from the dead, was really and\ninfinitely perfect, being done by him as God-man (Heb 7:26-28):\nwherefore his acts before he died, are called, 'the righteousness\nof God' (Rom 3:21,22), his blood, 'the blood of God' (Acts 20:28),\nand 'hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his\nlife for us' (1 John 3:16). The Godhead which gave virtue to all\nthe acts of the human nature, was then in perfect union with it,\nwhen he hanged upon the cross for our sins (Acts 10:36; John 20:28;\nRom 1:4).\n\n17. I believe then, that the righteousness that saveth the sinner\nfrom the wrath to come, is properly and personally Christ's, and\nours but as we have union with him; God by grace imputing it to us.\n'Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency\nof the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered\nthe loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win\nChrist, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,\nwhich is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,\nthe righteousness which is of God by faith' (Phil 3:8,9). 'But\nof him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,\nand righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption' (1 Cor\n1:30). 'For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;\nthat we might be made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Cor 5:21)\n['IN the LORD have I righteousness and strength' (Isa 45:24).]\n\n18. I believe, that God, as the reward of Christ's undertakings\nfor us, hath exalted him to his own right-hand, as our mediator,\nand given him a name above every name; and hath made him Lord of\nall, and judge of quick and dead: and all this that we who believe\nmight take courage to believe, and hope in God (Eph 1:17-22). 'And\nbeing found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself--unto death,\neven the death of the cross, [where he died for our sins]. Wherefore\nGod also hath highly exalted him; and given him a name--above every\nname: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things\nheaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that\nevery tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory\nof God the Father' (Phil 2:8-11). 'And he commanded us to preach\nunto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained\nof God to be the Judge of quick and dead' (Acts 10:42, 17:31).\n'Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,\nbut was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe\nin God that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that\nyour faith and hope might be in God' (1 Peter 1:19-21).\n\n19. I believe, that being at the right hand of God in heaven,\nhe doth there effectually exercise the offices of his excellent\npriesthood, and mediatorship, presenting himself continually before\nGod, in the righteousness which is accomplished for us, when he\nwas in the world. For by the efficacy of his blood, he not only\nwent into the holy place, but being there, and having by it obtained\neternal redemption for us; now, as receiving the worth and merit\nthereof from the Father; doth bestow upon us grace, repentance,\nfaith, and the remission of sins: yea he also received for us, the\nHoly Ghost to be sent unto us, to ascertain[4] us of our adoption\nand glory: 'For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest'\n(Heb 8:4). 'Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is\npassed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our\nprofession' (Heb 4:14). 'For there is one God, and one mediator\nbetween God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5). For 'by his\nown blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained\neternal redemption for us.--For Christ is not entered into the\nholy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but\ninto heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us'\n(Heb 9:12,24). 'Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,\nand having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,\nhe hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear' (Acts 2:23,\n5:31).[5]\n\n20. I believe, that being there, he shall so continue till the\nrestitution of all things, and then he shall come again in glory,\nand shall sit in judgment upon all flesh. And I believe, that\naccording to his sentence so shall their judgment be. 'Repent ye\ntherefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,\nwhen the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the\nLord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto\nyou: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution\nof all things,--spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since\nthe world began' (Acts 3:19-21). For 'this same Jesus, which is\ntaken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye\nhave seen him go into heave' (Acts 1:11). 'For the Lord himself\nshall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the\narchangel, and with the trump of God'; &c. (1 Thess 4:16). 'When\nthe Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels\nwith him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And\nbefore him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate\nthem one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the\ngoats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats\non the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,\nCome, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for\nyou from the foundation of the world. Then shall he say also unto\nthem on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting\nfire, prepared for the devil and his angels: And these shall\ngo away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life\neternal' (Matt 25:31-33,41,46). For 'the day of the Lord will come\nas a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away\nwith a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,\nthe earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.\nSeeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner\nof persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,\nlooking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein\nthe heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements\nshall melt with fervent heat' (2 Peter 3:10-12).\n\n21. I believe that when he comes, his saints shall have a reward\nof grace, for all their work and labour of love which they showed\nto his name in the world. 'And every man shall receive his own\nreward, according to his own labour' (1 Cor 3:8). 'And then shall\nevery man have praise of God' (4:5). 'And behold, I come quickly;\nand my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work\nshall be' (Rev 22:12). 'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye\nstedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,\nforasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the\nLord' (1 Cor 15:58). 'Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive\nthe reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ' (Col\n3:24).\n\nHow Christ is made ours; or by what means this or that man, hath\nthat benefit by him, as to stand just before God now, and in the\nday of judgment.\n\nOf Justification.\n\n1. I believe, we being sinful creatures in ourselves, that no\ngood thing done by us, can procure of God the imputation of the\nrighteousness of Jesus Christ. But that the imputation thereof\nis an act of grace, a free gift without our deserving. 'Being\njustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in\nChrist Jesus' (Rom 3:24, 5:17). 'Who hath saved us, and called us\nwith an holy calling, not according to our works, but according\nto his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus'\n(2 Tim 1:9).\n\n2. I believe also, That the power of imputing righteousness\nresideth only in God by Christ: 1. Sin being the transgression\nof the law. 2. The soul that hath sinned being his creature, and\nthe righteousness also his, and his only. 'Even as David also\ndescribeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth\nrighteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose\niniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is\nthe man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Rom 4:6-8). Hence\ntherefore it is said again, That men 'shall abundantly utter the\nmemory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness'\n(Psa 145:7). 'For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I\nwill have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have\ncompassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him\nthat runneth, but of God that showeth mercy' (Rom 9:15,16).\n\n3. I believe, that the offer of this righteousness, as tendered\nin the gospel, is to be received by faith; we still in the very\nact of receiving it, judging ourselves sinners in ourselves. 'Oh\nwretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath? I thank God through Jesus Christ' (Rom 7:24,25). 'Believe\non the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts 16:31).\nThe gospel is preached in all nations for the obedience of faith.\n'Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that\nis in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation,\n[a sacrifice to appease the displeasure of God] through faith in\nhis blood. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins\nthat are past through the forbearance of God; to declare I say,\nat this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the\njustifier of him which believeth on Jesus' (Rom 3:24-26). 'Be it\nknown unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man\nis preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that\nbelieve are justified from all things, from which ye could not be\njustified by the law of Moses' (Acts 13:38,39).\n\n4. I believe, that this faith, as it respecteth the imputation of\nthis righteousness, for justification before God, doth put forth\nitself in such acts, as purely respect the offer of a gift. It\nreceiveth, accepteth of, embraceth, or trusteth to it. 'As many\nas received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God,\neven to them that believe on his name' (John 1:12). 'This is a\nfaithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus\ncame into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief' (1 Tim\n1:15; Heb 11:13). 'In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard\nthe word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: In whom also\nafter that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of\npromise' (Eph 1:13). I believe therefore, that as to my justification\nfrom the curse of the law, I am, as I stand in myself, ungodly,\nto receive, accept of, embrace, and trust to the righteousness,\nthat is already provided by, and wrapt up in the personal doings\nand sufferings of Christ; it being faith in that, and that only,\nthat can justify a sinner in the sight of God.[6]\n\n5. I believe, that the faith that so doth, is not to be found with\nany but those, in whom the Spirit of God by mighty power doth work\nit: all others being fearful and incredulous, dare not venture\ntheir souls and eternity upon it. And hence it is called the faith\nthat is wrought by the exceeding great and mighty power of God;\nthe faith of the operation of God. And hence it is that others are\nsaid to be fearful, and so unbelieving. These with other ungodly\nsinners must have their part in the lake of fire (Eph 1:18,19;\nCol 2:12; Eph 2:8; Phil 1:19; Rev 21:8).\n\n6. I believe, that this faith is effectually wrought in none, but\nthose which before the world were appointed unto glory. 'And as\nmany as were ordained unto eternal life believed' (Acts 13:48).\n'That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels\nof mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory' (Rom 9:23). 'We\ngive thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in\nour prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and\nlabour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in\nthe sight of God;--knowing, brethren beloved, your election of\nGod' (1 Thess 1:2-4). But of the rest he saith, 'ye believe not\nbecause ye are not of my sheep, as I said' (John 10:26), which latter\nwords relate to the 16th verse, which respecteth the election of\nGod.\n\n'Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,\nHe hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they\nshould not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,\nand I should heal them' (John 12:39,40).\n\nOf Election.\n\n1. I believe that election is free and permanent, being founded\nin grace, and the unchangeable will of God. 'Even so then at this\npresent time also there is a remnant according to the election\nof grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise\ngrace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more\nof grace: otherwise work is no more work' (Rom 11:5,6). 'Nevertheless\nthe foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord\nknoweth them that are his' (2 Tim 2:19). 'In whom also we have\nobtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the\npurpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his\nown will' (Eph 1:11).\n\n2. I believe, that this decree, choice or election, was before\nthe foundation of the world; and so before the elect themselves,\nhad being in themselves: For 'God who quickeneth the dead, and\ncalleth those things which be not as though they were' (Rom 4:17),\nstays not for the being of things, to determine his eternal purpose\nby; but having all things present to him, in his wisdom, he made\nhis choice before the world was (Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9).\n\n3. I believe, that the decree of election is so far off from\nmaking works in us foreseen, the ground or cause of the choice:\nthat it containeth in the bowels of it, not only the persons, but\nthe graces that accompany their salvation. And hence it is, that\nit is said; we are predestinated 'to be conformed to the image of\nhis Son' (Rom 8:29); not because we are, but 'that we SHOULD be\nholy and without blame before him in love' (Eph 1:4). 'For we are\nhis workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which\nGod hath before ordained that we should walk in them' (Eph 2:10).\nHe blessed us according as he chose us in Christ. And hence it\nis again that the salvation and calling of which we are now made\npartakers, is no other than what was given us in Christ Jesus\nbefore the world began; according to his eternal purpose which he\npurposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph 3:8-11; 2 Tim 1:9; Rom 8:29).\n\n4. I believe that Christ Jesus is he in whom the elect are always\nconsidered, and that without him there is neither election,\ngrace, nor salvation. 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption\nof children, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good\npleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace:\nwherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have\nredemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according\nto the riches of his grace.--That in the dispensation of the\nfulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in\nChrist, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth, even\nin him' (Eph 1:5-7,10). 'Neither is there salvation in any other:\nfor there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby\nwe must be saved' (Acts 4:12).\n\n5. I believe, that there is not any impediment attending the election\nof God, that can hinder their conversion, and eternal salvation.\n'Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom\nhe called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them\nhe also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God\nbe for us, who can be against us?--Who shall lay any thing to the\ncharge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that\ncondemneth?' &c. (Rom 8:30-35). 'What then? Israel hath not obtained\nthat which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it,\nand the rest were blinded' (Rom 11:7). 'For Israel hath not been\nforsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts: though their\nland was filled with sin, against the holy one of Israel' (Jer\n51:5). When Ananias made intercession against Saul, saying, 'Lord, I\nhave heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy\nsaints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief\npriests to bind all that call on thy name.' What said God unto\nhim? 'Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my\nname before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel'\n(Acts 9:12,15).\n\n6. I believe that no man can know his election, but by his calling.\nThe vessels of mercy, which God afore prepared unto glory, do thus\nclaim a share therein: 'Even us, [say they,] whom he hath called,\nnot of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also\nin Hosea; I will call them my people, which were not my people,\nand her beloved, which was not beloved' (Rom 9:24,25).\n\n7. I believe therefore, that election doth not forestal or prevent\nthe means which are of God appointed to bring us to Christ, to\ngrace and glory; but rather putteth a necessity upon the use and\neffect thereof; because they are chosen to be brought to heaven\nthat way: that is, by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the\nend of effectual calling. 'Wherefore the rather, brethren, give\ndiligence to make your calling and election sure' (2 Peter 1:10;\n2 Thess 2:13; 1 Peter 1:12).\n\nOf Calling.\n\nI believe, that to effectual calling, the Holy Ghost must accompany\nthe word of the gospel, and that with mighty power: I mean that\ncalling, which of God is made to be the fruit of electing love.\n'Knowing,' saith Paul to the Thessalonians, 'brethren beloved, your\nelection of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only,\nbut also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,'\n&c. (1 Thess 1:4,5). Otherwise men will not, cannot, hear and\nturn. Samuel was called four times, before he knew the voice of\nhim that spake from heaven (1 Sam 3:-610). It is said of them in\nHosea, That as the prophets called them so they went from them;\nand instead of turning to them, 'sacrificed to Baalim, and burned\nincense to graven images' (Hosea 11:2). The reason is, because men\nby nature are not only dead in sins, but enemies in their minds\nby reason of wicked works: the call then is, 'Awake thou that\nsleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee\nlight' (Eph 5:14). Understand, therefore, that effectual calling\nis like that word of Christ that raised Lazarus from the dead;\na word attended with an arm that was omnipotent. 'Lazarus, come\nforth' (John 11:43). It was a word to the dead; but not only so:\nit was a word for the dead; a word that raised him from the dead;\na word that outwent all opposition; and that brought him forth\nof the grave, though bound hand and foot therein (Gal 1:15). And\nhence it is, that calling is sometimes expressed by quickening\n(Eph 2:1,2), awakening, illuminating, or bringing them forth of\ndarkness to light, that amazeth and astonisheth them (Heb 10:32;\nActs 9:6). For as it is a strange thing for a man that lay long\ndead, or never saw the light with his eyes, to be raised out of\nthe grave, or to be made to see that which he could not so much\nas once think of before, so it is with effectual calling. Hence it\nis that Paul, when called, stood 'trembling and was astonished':\nand that Peter saith, 'he hath called us out of darkness into his\nmarvellous light' (1 Peter 2:9; Eph 4:24; Acts 9:6). In effectual\ncalling the voice of God is heard, and the gates of heaven are\nopened:[7] when God called Abraham, he appeared to him in glory.\nThat of Ananias to Saul is experienced but by few. 'The God of\nour fathers hath chosen thee, [saith he,] that thou shouldest know\nhis will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of\nhis mouth' (Acts 22:14). True, Saul's call was out of the ordinary\nway, but yet as to the matter, and truth of the work, it was no\nother than all the chosen have, viz.\n\n(1.) An effectual awakening about the evil of sin; and especially\nof unbelief (John 16:9). And therefore when the Lord God called\nAdam, he also made unto him an effectual discovery of sin; insomuch\nthat he stript him of all his righteousness (Gen 3). Thus he also\nserved the gaoler (Acts 16:29,30). Yea it is such an awakening, as\nby it, he sees he was without Christ, without hope, and a stranger\nto the commonwealth of Israel, 'and without God in the world' (Eph\n2:12). Oh the dread and amazement that the guilt of sin brings\nwith it, when it is revealed by the God of heaven; and like to\nit is the sight of mercy, when it pleaseth God, who calleth us by\nhis grace, to reveal his Son in us.\n\n(2.) In effectual calling there is great awakenings about the world\nto come, and the glory of unseen things; the resurrection of the\ndead, and eternal judgment; the salvation that God hath prepared\nfor them that love him; with the blessedness that will attend us,\nand be upon us, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, are great\nthings in the soul that is under the awakening calls of God. And\nhence we are said to be called to glory (1 Thess 2:12). 'To the\nobtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess 2:14).\n\n(3.) In effectual calling there is also a sanctifying virtue;\nand hence we are said to be called with an holy calling (1 Thess\n4:7), with an 'heavenly calling' (Heb 3:1). Called to glory\nand virtue. 'But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,\nan holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the\npraises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous\nlight' (1 Peter 2:9). Yea, effectual calling hath annexed to it,\nas its inseparable companion, the promise of thorough sanctification.\n'Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it' (1 Thess\n5:24).\n\nOf Faith.\n\nI believe, that effectual calling doth therefore produce, 1.\nFAITH; and therefore it is said, that 'faith cometh by hearing'\n(Rom 10:17); by hearing the word that calleth us 'unto the grace\nof Christ' (Gal 1:6). For by the word that calleth us, is Jesus\nChrist held forth to us; and offered to be our righteousness; and\ntherefore the apostle saith again, that God hath called us 'unto\nthe fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ' (1 Cor 1:9); that is, to\nbe made partakers of the riches of grace, and the righteousness that\nis in him. 2. It produceth hope. It giveth a ground to hope; and\ntherefore hope is said to be the hope of our calling (Eph 1:18).\nAnd again, 'Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling'\n(Eph 4:4). Now the godly wise know, whoso misseth of effectual\ncalling, misseth of eternal life; because God justifieth none\nbut them whom he calleth; and glorifies none but those whom he\njustifies: and therefore it is that Peter said before, 'Make your\ncalling, and [so] your election sure': make it sure, that is, prove\nyour calling right, by the word of God. For whoso staggereth at\nthe certainty of his calling, cannot comfortably hope for a share\nin eternal life. 'Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which\nthou hast caused me to hope. My soul fainteth for thy salvation,\nbut I hope in thy word' (Psa 119:49,81). 3. It produceth repentance;\nfor when a man hath heaven and hell before his eyes (as he will have\nif he be under the power of effectual calling) or when a man hath\na revelation of the mercy and justice of God, with an heart-drawing\ninvitation to lay hold on the tender forgiveness of sins; and\nbeing made also to behold the goodly beauty of holiness; it must\nneeds be, that repentance appears, and puts forth itself, unto\nself-revenging acts, for all its wickedness which in the days of\nignorance it delighted in. And hence is that saying, 'I came not\nto call the righteous, but sinners to repentance' (Mark 2:17). For\nthe effecting of which, the preaching of the word of the kingdom,\nis most proper: 'Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'\n(Matt 4:17).\n\nOf Repentance.\n\nRepentance is a turning the heart to God in Christ: a turning of\nit from sin, and the devil, and darkness; to the goodness, and\ngrace, and holiness that is in him. Wherefore, they that of old\nare said to repent, are said to loath and abhor themselves, for\nall their abominations. 'I abhor myself,' [said Job,] 'and repent\nin dust and ashes' (Job 42:6, see also Eze 6:9, 20:43, 36:31,\n42:6, 16:63).\n\nGodly repentance doth not only affect the soul with the loathsome\nnature of sin that is past; but filleth the heart with godly\nhatred of sins that yet may come. When Moses feared that through\nhis being overburthened with the care of the children of Israel,\nsome unruly or sinful passions might show themselves in him, what\nsaith he? 'Kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found\nfavour in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness' (Num\n11:15). See also how that which Paul calleth godly repentance,\nwrought in the upright Corinthians, 'Behold,' [saith he,] this self\nsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness\nit wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what\nindignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what\nzeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves\nto be clear in this matter (2 Cor 7:11).\n\nOf Love.\n\nIt [effectual calling] produceth also love: wherefore Paul, when\nhe had put the church in remembrance that they were called of\nGod, adds, That concerning brotherly love, they had no need that\nhe should write unto them (1 Thess 4:9). As who should say, If\nGod be so kind to us, to forgive us our sins, to save our souls,\nand to give us the kingdom of heaven; let these be motives beyond\nall other to provoke us to love again. Farther, if we that are thus\nbeloved of God, are made members of one man's body, all partakers\nof his grace, clothed all, with his glorious righteousness, and\nare together appointed to be the children of the next world; why\nshould we not love one another? 'Beloved, if God so loved us, we\nought also to love one another' (1 John 4:11). And truly so we\nshall, if the true grace of God be upon us; because we also see\nthem to be the called of Jesus. Travellers, that are of the same\ncountry, love and take pleasure one in another, when they meet\nin a strange land.[8] Why, we sojourn here in a strange country,\nwith them that are heirs together with us of the promised kingdom\nand glory (Heb 11:9). Now, as I said, this holy love worketh by\nlove: mark, love in God and Christ when discovered, constraineth\nus to love [one another] (2 Cor 5:14).\n\nThe name, therefore, and word, and truth of God in Christ, together\nwith the sincerity of grace, of faith, and holiness in us, are\nthe delightful objects of this love (Psa 119:47,127,132,159, 5:11,\n69:36, 101:6). For it embraceth with delight and complacency, but\nas it discerneth the image of God, and of Christ in the soul, his\npresence in the ministry, and a suitableness in our worship to\nthe word and mind of Christ (Psa 26:8, 27:4, 84:1-4; 1 Thess 5:13;\nPhil 1:3-7; Eph 4:32).\n\nLove also hath a blessed faculty, and heavenly, in bearing and\nsuffering afflictions, putting up wrongs, overlooking the infirmities\nof the brethren, and in serving in all Christian offices the\nnecessities of the saints. 'Charity suffereth long and is kind;\ncharity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed\nup, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not\neasily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but\nrejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things,\nhopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth' (1\nCor 13:4-8, also 1 Peter 4:8; Gal 5:13). In a word, it designeth\na holy conversation in this world; that God, and Christ, and the\nword of Christ, 'may be glorified thereby' (2 Cor 11:10-12; 1\nPeter 1:12, 3:16).\n\nOf the Scriptures.\n\nTouching which word of God I thus believe and confess, 1. That\nall the holy scriptures are the words of God. 'All scripture is\ngiven by inspiration of God' (2 Tim 3:16). For the prophecy [of\nthe scripture] came not in old time by the will of man: but holy\nmen of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter\n1:21). 2. I believe that the holy scriptures, of themselves, without\nthe addition of human inventions, are able to make the man of God\nperfect in all things; and 'thoroughly to furnish him unto all good\nworks.' They are able 'to make thee wise unto salvation, through\nfaith which is in Christ Jesus' (2 Tim 3:15). And to instruct thee\nin all other things, that either respect the worship of God, or\nthy walking before all men (2 Tim 3:17; 2 Peter 1:19-21). 3. I\nbelieve the great end why God committed the scriptures to writing\nwas; that we might be instructed to Christ, taught how to believe\n(1 John 5:13), [and be] encouraged to patience and hope, for the\ngrace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus\nChrist (John 20:31; Rom 15:4). Also that we might understand what\nis sin, and how to avoid the commission thereof. 'Concerning the\nworks of men [said David] by the word of thy lips, I have kept me\nfrom the paths of the destroyer' (Psa 17:4). 'Through thy precepts\nI get understanding: therefore I hate every false way' (Psa 119:104).\n'Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against\nthee' (Psa 119:11). 4. I believe that they cannot be broken, but\nwill certainly be fulfilled in all the prophecies, threatenings,\nand promises, either to the salvation or damnation of men. They\nare like that flying roll, that will go over all the earth to cut\noff and curse (Ze 5:2-4). In them is contained also the blessing,\nthey preach to us also the way of salvation (Gal 3:8). 'Beware,\ntherefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the\nprophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:[9] for I\nwork a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe,\nthough a man declare it unto you' (Acts 13:40,41, see also John\n10:35, 12:37-41, 3:17-19). 5. I believe that Jesus Christ, by the\nword of the scriptures, will judge all men at the day of doom;\nfor that is the book of the law of the Lord, according to Paul's\ngospel (John 12:44-50; Rom 2:16). 6. I believe, that this God\n'made the world and all things [that are] therein' (Acts 17:24),\nfor 'in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all\nthat in them is' (Exo 20:11). Also, that after the time of the\nmaking thereof, he disposed of it to the children of men, with a\nreserve thereof for the children of God, that should in all ages\nbe born thereunto. 'When the Most High divided to the nations their\ninheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds\nof the people according to the number of the children of Israel'\n(Deut 32:8), for as he 'made of one blood all nations of men for\nto dwell on all the face of the earth, [so he] hath determined\nthe times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation'\n(Acts 17:26).\n\nOf Magistracy.\n\nI believe, that magistracy is God's ordinance, which he hath\nappointed for the government of the whole world; and that it is a\njudgment of God, to be without those ministers of God, which he\nhath ordained to put wickedness to shame (Ju 18:7). 'Whosoever\ntherefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:\nand they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For\nrulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou\nnot then be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou\nshalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to\nthee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for\nhe beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a\nrevenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye\nmust needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience\nsake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's\nministers, attending continually upon this very thing' (Rom 13:2-6).\nMany are the mercies we receive, by a well qualified magistrate,\nand if any shall at any time be otherwise inclined, let us shew\nour Christianity in a patient suffering, for well doing, what it\nshall please God to inflict by them.[10]\n\n\n\nA REASON OF MY PRACTICE IN WORSHIP.\n\nHaving thus made confession of my faith, I now come to shew you my\npractice in worship, with the reasons thereof. The which I shall\nhave occasion to touch, under two distinct heads.\n\nI. With whom I dare not hold communion.\n\nII. With whom I dare.\n\nOnly, first, note, that by the word communion, I mean fellowship\nin the things of the kingdom of Christ, or that which is commonly\ncalled church communion, the communion of saints. For in civil\naffairs, and in things of this world that are honest, I am not\naltogether tied up from the fornicators thereof (1 Cor 5:9,10);\nwherefore in my following discourse understand me in the first\nsense:--Now, then,\n\nFIRST, I dare not have communion with them that profess not faith\nand holiness; or that are not visible saints by calling: but note,\nthat by this assertion, I meddle not with the elect; but as he\nis a visible saint by calling; neither do I exclude the secret\nhypocrite, if he be hid from me by visible saintship. Wherefore I\ndare not have communion with men from a single supposition, that\nthey may be elect, neither dare I exclude the other from a single\nsupposing that he may be a secret hypocrite. I meddle not here with\nthese things; I only exclude him that is not a visible saint. Now\nhe that is visibly or openly profane, cannot be then a visible\nsaint; for he that is a visible saint must profess faith, and\nrepentance, and consequently holiness of life: and with none else\ndare I communicate.\n\nFirst, Because God himself hath so strictly put the difference,\nboth by word and deed; for from the beginning, he did not only\nput a difference between the seed of the woman and the children\nof the wicked (Gen 3:15), only the instinct of grace and change of\nthe mind is his own, but did cast out from his presence the father\nof all the ungodly, even cursed Cain, when he shewed himself openly\nprofane, and banished him to go into the land of the runnagate,\nor vagabond, where from God's face, and so the privileges of the\ncommunion of saints, he was ever after hid (Gen 4:8-16).\n\nBesides, when after this, through the policy of Satan, the children\nof Cain, and the seed of Seth, did commix themselves in worship,\nand by that means had corrupted the way of God: what followed, but\nfirst, God judged it wickedness, raised up Noah to preach against\nit, and after that, because they would not be reclaimed, he brought\nthe flood upon the whole world of these ungodly; and saved only\nNoah alive, and his because he had kept himself righteous (Gen\n6:1-13)[11]. Here I could enlarge abundantly, and add many more\ninstances of a like nature, but I am here only for a touch upon\nthings.\n\nSecond, Because it is so often commanded in the scriptures, That\nall the congregation should be holy. 'I am the Lord your God: ye\nshall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I\nam holy' (Lev 11:44). 'Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God\nam holy' (19:2). 'Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy:\nfor I am the Lord your God' (20:7; 1 Peter 1:15,16). Besides, 1.\nThe gates of the temple were to be shut against all other. 'Open\nye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth\nmay enter in' (Isa 26:2). 'This gate of the Lord, into which the\nrighteous shall enter' (Psa 118:20). 'Thus saith the Lord God:\nNo stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh,\nshall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the\nchildren of Israel' (Eze 44:9). 2. Because the things of worship\nare holy; 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord' (Isa\n52:11). 3. Because all the limits and bounds of communion are holy.\n'This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain, the\nwhole limit thereof--shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law\nof the house' (Eze 43:12)[12].\n\nThird, I dare not have communion with them; because the example\nof New Testament churches before us, have been a community of\nvisible saints. Paul, to the Romans, writes thus: 'To all that be\nin Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints' (1:7). And to the\nrest of the churches thus: 'Unto the church of God which is at\nCorinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus; called to\nbe saints' (1 Cor 1:2). 'To the saints which are at Ephesus, and\nto the faithful in Christ Jesus' (Eph 1:1). 'To all the saints\nwhich are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons' (Phil 1:1).\n'To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse'\n(Col 1:2). 'To the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God\nthe Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. (1 Thess 1:1).Thus\nyou see under what denomination those persons went of old, who\nwere counted worthy to be members of a visible church of Christ.\nBesides, the members of such churches go under such characters as\nthese.\n\n(1.) 'The called of Christ Jesus' (Rom 1:6). (2.) Men that have\ndrank into the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 12:13). (3.) Persons\nin whom was God the Father (Eph 4:6). (4.) They were all made\npartakers of the joy of the gospel (Phil 1:7). (5.) Persons that\nwere circumcised inwardly (Col 2:11). (6.) Persons that turned\nfrom idols to serve the living and true God (1 Thess 1:9). (7.)\nThose that were the body of Christ, and members in particular,\nthat is, those that were visibly such; because they made profession\nof faith, of holiness, of repentance, of love to Christ, and of\nself-denial, at their receiving into fellowship.\n\nFourth, I dare not hold communion with the open profane.\n\n(1.) Because it is promised to the church, that she shall dwell\nby herself; that is, as she is a church, and spiritual; Lo, the\npeople shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the\nnations (Num 23:9). (2.) Because this is their privilege. 'But\nye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,\na peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him\nwho hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light'\n(1 Peter 2:9,10). (3.) Because this is the fruit of the death of\nChrist, 'who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from\nall iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous\nof good works' (Titus 2:14). (4.) Because this is the commandment:\n'Save yourselves from this untoward generation' (Acts 2:40). (5.)\nBecause with such it is not possible we should have true and spiritual\ncommunion. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:\nfor what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and\nwhat communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath\nChrist with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an\ninfidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?\nfor ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will\ndwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they\nshall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye\nseparate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I\nwill receive you, and will be a Father unto you,--saith the Lord\nAlmighty (2 Cor 6:14-18).\n\nFifth, I dare not hold communion with the open profane. Because\n\n(1.) This would be ploughing with an ox, and an ass together\n(Deut 22:10): heavenly persons suit best for communion in heavenly\nmatters. (2.) It subjecteth not the nature of our discipline,\nwhich is not forced, but free,[13] in a professed subjection to\nthe will and commandment of Christ: others being excluded by God's\nown prohibition (Lev 1:3; Rom 6:17; 2 Cor 8:12, 9:7,13, 8:5).\nPaul also, when he exhorteth Timothy to follow after righteousness,\nfaith, charity, peace, &c., (which are the bowels of church\ncommunion,) he saith, do it 'with them that call on the Lord, out\nof a pure heart' (2 Tim 2:22).\n\nSixth, In a word, to hold communion with the open profane, is most\npernicious and destructive. (1.) 'Twas the wicked multitude that\nfell a lusting, and that tempted Christ in the desert (Num 11:4).\n(2.) It was the profane heathen, of whom Israel learned to worship\nidols. They 'were mingled among the heathen, and learned their\nworks. And served their idols; which were a snare unto them' (Psa\n106:35,36). (3.) It is the mingled people that God hath threatened\nto plague with those deadly punishments of his, with which he hath\nthreatened to punish Babylon itself; saying, When a sword is upon\nher liars, her mighty, her chariots, and treasures; a sword also\nshall be upon the mingled people that are in the midst of her.\n\nAnd no marvel: for, (1.) Mixed communion polluteth the ordinances\nof God. Say to the rebels, saith the Lord God, 'Let it suffice\nyou of all your abominations, in that ye have brought into my\nsanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in\nflesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when\nye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken\nmy covenant, because of all your abominations' (Eze 44:6,7). (2.)\nIt violateth he law. 'Her priests have violated my law, and have\nprofaned mine holy things: [how] They have put no difference\nbetween the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference\nbetween the unclean and the clean' (Eze 20:26). (3.) It profaneth\nthe holiness of God. 'Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an\nabomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah\nhath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath\nmarried the daughter of a strange god' (Mal 2:11). (4.) It defileth\nthe truly gracious. 'Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth\nthe whole lump?' (1 Cor 5:6). Look diligently therefore, 'lest\nany root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many\nbe defiled' (Heb 12:15).\n\nLastly, To conclude, it provoketh God to punish with severe\njudgments: And therefore heed well. (1.) As I said before, The\ndrowning of the whole world was occasioned by the sons of God\ncommixing themselves with the daughters of men; and the corruption\nof worship that followed thereupon (Gen 6, 7). (2.) He sent a\nplague upon the children of Israel, for joining themselves unto\nthe people of Moab; and for following their abominations in worship\n(Num 25:1-5; Josh 22:17): and let no man think, that now I have\naltered the state of the question: for it is all one with the\nchurch to communicate with the profane; and to sacrifice and offer\ntheir gifts to the devil (Deut 32:16-19; Psa 106:36-40)[14]: the\nreason is, because such have by their sin forsaken the protection\nof heaven, and are given up to their own heart-lusts; and left to\nbe overcome of the wicked, to whom they have joined themselves\n(Deut 12, 7:1-6). join not yourselves, said God, to the wicked,\nneither in religion nor marriages; 'For they will turn away thy\nson from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will\nthe anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee\nsuddenly' (Deut 7:5). 'Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these\nthings? yet among many nations was there no king like him who was\nbeloved of his God' (Neh 13:26). Hear how Paul handleth the point;\n'But I say, that the things which the Gentiles [or openly profane]\nsacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would\nnot that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink\nthe cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: Ye cannot be partakers\nof the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke\nthe Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?' (1 Cor 10:20-22).\nI conclude, that therefore it is an evil, and a dangerous thing\nto hold church communion with the openly profane and ungodly. It\npolluteth his ordinances: it violateth his law: it profaneth his\nholiness: it defileth his people; and provoketh the Lord to severe\nand terrible judgments.\n\nObject. But we can prove in all ages [that] there have been the\nopen profane in the church of God.\n\nAns. In many ages indeed it hath been so: but mark, they appeared\nnot such, when first they were received unto communion (Exo 12:48),\nneither were they with God's liking, as such, to be retained among\nthem, but in order to their admonition, repentance and amendment\nof life: of which, if they failed, God presently threatened the\nchurch; and either cut them off from the church, as he did the\nidolators, fornicators, murmurers, tempters, sabbath breakers; with\nKorah, Dathan, Achan, and others (2 Cor 6; 1 Cor 5; Exo 32:25;\nNum 25:1-9, 21:5,6, 14:37, 16, 15:32-36; Josh 7; 2 Kings 17; Eze\n22, 23) or else cut off them with the church and all, as he served\nthe ten tribes at one time, and the two tribes at another. 'My\nGod will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him:\nand they shall be wanderers among the nations' (Hosea 9:17). I\nmight here greatly enlarge, but I intend brevity; yet let me tell\nyou, that when Nehemiah understood by the book of the law of the\nLord, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the\ncongregation of God: 'They separated from Israel all the mixed\nmultitude' (Neh 13:1-3). Many have pleaded for the profane, that\nthey should abide in the church of God; but such hath not considered,\nthat God's wrath at all times hath with great indignation been\nshewed against such offenders and their conceits. Indeed they like\nnot for to plead for them under that notion, but rather as Korah,\nand his company: 'All the congregation are holy every one of them'\n(Num 16:3). But it maketh no matter by what name they are called;\nif by their deeds they shew themselves openly wicked: for names and\nnotions sanctify not the heart and nature; they make not virtues\nof vice, neither can it save such advocates from the heavy curse\nboth of God and men (Prov 17:15, 24:24). 'The righteous men, they\nshall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the\nmanner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses,\nand blood is in their hands' (Eze 23:45).\n\nSECOND, Thus have I shewed you with whom I dare not have communion:\nand now to shew you with whom I dare. But in order thereto, I\ndesire you\n\nFirst, To take notice; That touching shadowish, or figurative\nordinances; I believe that Christ hath ordained but two in his\nchurch, viz., Water baptism and the supper of the Lord: both which\nare of excellent use to the church in this world; they being to\nus representations of the death and resurrection of Christ; and\nare, as God shall make them, helps to our faith therein. But I\ncount them not the fundamentals of our Christianity, nor grounds\nor rule to communion with saints: servants they are, and our\nmystical ministers, to teach and instruct us in the most weighty\nmatters of the kingdom of God: I therefore here declare my reverent\nesteem of them; yet dare not remove them, as some do, from the\nplace and end, where by God they are set and appointed; nor ascribe\nunto them more than they were ordered to have in their first and\nprimitive institution. It is possible to commit idolatry even with\nGod's own appointments: but I pass this, and come to the thing\npropounded.\n\nSecond, then, I dare have communion, church communion, with those\nthat are visible saints by calling: with those that, by the word\nof the gospel, have been brought over to faith and holiness: and\nit maketh no matter to me, what their life was heretofore, if they\nnow be 'washed,' if they be 'sanctified,' if they be 'justified in\nthe name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor\n6:11). Now in order to the discovery of this faith and holiness,\nand so to fellowship in church communion: I hold it requisite\nthat a faithful relation be made thereof by the party thus to be\nreceived; yea, if need be, by witnesses also, for the satisfaction\nof the church, that she may receive in faith and judgment, such\nas best shall suit her holy profession (Acts 9:26-28; 1 Cor 16:10;\n2 Cor 8:23). Observe it; these texts do respect extraordinary\nofficers; and yet see, that in order to their reception by the\nchurch, there was made to them a faithful relation of the faith\nand holiness of those very persons; for no man may intrude himself\nupon, or thrust himself upon, or thrust himself into a church of\nChrist; without the church have first the knowledge and liking of\nthe person to be received: if otherwise, there is a door opened\nfor all the heretics in the world; yea, for devils also if they\nappear in human shapes. But Paul shows you the manner of receiving,\nby pleading (after some disgrace thrown upon him by the false\napostles) for his own admission of his companions: 'Receive us,\n[saith he,] we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man; we\nhave defrauded no man' (2 Cor 7:2). And so concerning Timothy: 'If\nTimotheus come, [saith he,] see that he may be with you without\nfear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do' (1 Cor\n16:10). Also, when Paul supposed that Titus might be suspected by\nsome; see how he pleads for him: If 'any do enquire of Titus, he\nis my partner and fellow-helper concerning you: or our brethren\nbe enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the\nglory of Christ' (2 Cor 8:23). Phebe also, when she was to be\nreceived by the church at Rome; see how he speaketh in her behalf:\n'I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the\nchurch which is sat Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord,\nas becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business\nshe hath need of you; for she hath been a succourer of many, and\nof myself also' (Rom 16:1,2). Yea, when the apostles and brethren\nsent their epistles from Jerusalem to Antioch; under what characters\ndo those go, that were the messengers to them? 'It seemed good\nunto [the Holy Ghost and to] us,--to send chosen men unto you with\nour beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives\nfor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. (Acts 15:25-27). Now\nthough the occasions upon which these commendations were written\nwere not simply, or only, in order to church relation, but also\nfor other causes; yet because the persons concerned were of the\nchurches to be received as faithful, and such who would partake\nof church privileges with them, they have, therefore, their faith\nand faithfulness related to the churches, as those that were\nparticularly embodied there. Besides Timothy and Titus being\nextraordinary officers, stood as members and officers in every\nchurch where they were received. Likewise Barnabas and Saul, Judas\nand Silas, abode as members and officers where they were sent.\nIt was requisite, therefore, that the letters of recommendation\nshould be in substance the same with that relation that ought to\nbe made to the church, by or for the person that is to be embodied\nthere. But to return, I DARE HAVE COMMUNION, CHURCH COMMUNION,\nWITH THOSE THAT ARE VISIBLE SAINTS BY CALLING.\n\nQuest. But by what rule would you receive them into fellowship\nwith yourselves?\n\nAns. Even by a discovery of their faith and holiness, and their\ndeclaration of willingness to subject themselves to the laws and\ngovernment of Christ in his church.\n\nQuest. But do you not count that by water baptism, and not otherwise,\nthat being the initiating and entering ordinance; they ought to\nbe received into fellowship?\n\nAns. No; But tarry, and take my sense with my word. For herein\nlies the mistake, To think that because in time past baptism was\nadministered upon conversion, that therefore it is the initiating\nand entering ordinance into church communion: when by the word no\nsuch thing is testified of it. Besides, that it is not so will be\nmanifest, if we consider the nature and power of such an ordinance.\n\nThat ordinance then, that is, the initiating or entering ordinance\n[as before] doth give to them that partake thereof a right to,\nand a being of, membership with that particular church by which\nit is administered. I say, a right to, and a being of, membership,\nwithout the addition of another church act. This is evident by the\nlaw of circumcision, which was the initiating law of old; for by\nthe administration of that very ordinance, the partaker thereof\nwas forthwith a member of that congregation, without the addition\nof another church act (Gen 17). This is declared in its first\ninstitution, and therefore it is called the token of the covenant.\nThe token or sign of righteousness, of Abraham's faith, and of the\nvisible membership of those that joined themselves to the church\nwith him; the very inlet into church communion that gave a being\nof membership among them. And thus Moses himself expounds it;\n'every man's servant, that is bought for money, when thou hast\ncircumcised him, then shall eat' of the passover (Exo 12:44), without\nthe addition of another church act, to empower him thereunto; his\ncircumcision hath already given him a being there, and so a right\nto, and privilege in church relation: 'A foreigner and an hired\nservant shall not eat thereof, [because not circumcised]. And when\na stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to\nthe LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come\nnear and keep it; [For then he is one of the church] and he shall\nbe as one born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat\nthereof' (Exo 12:48). Neither could any other thing, according to\nthe law of circumcision, give the devoutest person that breathed\na being of membership with them. 'He that is born in thy house,\nand he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised:--and\nthe uncircumcised man child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not\ncircumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people' (Gen\n17:13,14). Note then, that that which is the initiating ordinance\nadmitteth none into church communion but these that first partake\nthereof. The angel sought to kill Moses himself, for attempting\nto make his child a member without it (Exo 4:24-26). Note again,\nthat as it admitteth of none to membership without it; so as I\nsaid, the very act of circumcising them, without the addition of\nanother church act, gave them a being of membership with that\nvery church, by whom they were circumcised. But none of this can\nbe said of baptism. First, there is none debarred or threatened\nto be cut off from the church, if they be not first baptized.\nSecondly, Neither doth it give to the person baptized a being\nof membership with this or that church, by whose members he hath\nbeen baptized. John gathered no particular church, yet was he the\nfirst and great baptizer with water; he preached Christ to come,\nand baptized with the baptism of repentance, and left his disciples\nto be gathered by him (Acts 19:3-5). 'And unto him shall the\ngathering of the people be' (Gen 49:10). Besides, after Christ's\nascension, Philip baptized the eunuch, but made him by that no\nmember of any particular church,. We only read, that Philip was\ncaught away from him, and that the eunuch saw him no more, but\nwent on his way rejoicing to his master and country of Ethiopia\n(Acts 8:35-40). Neither was Cornelius made a member of the church\nat Jerusalem, by his being baptized at Peter's command at Cesarea\n(Acts 10, 11). Neither were they that were converted at Antioch,\nby them that were scattered from the church at Jerusalem, by their\nbaptism, if they were baptized [in water] at all, joined to the\nchurch at Jerusalem (Acts 11:19). No, they were after gathered and\nembodied among themselves by other church acts (Acts 16). What\nshall I say? into what particular church was Lydia baptized by\nPaul, or those first converts at Philippi? Yea even in the second\nof the Acts, baptizing and adding to the church appear to be acts\ndistinct: but if baptism were the initiating ordinance, then was\nhe that was baptized made a member; made a member of a particular\nchurch, by the very act of water baptism. Neither ought any by God's\nordinance to have baptized any, but with respect to the admitting\nthem by that act to a being of membership in this particular church.\nFor if it be the initiating ordinance, it entereth them into the\nchurch: What church? Into a visible church. Now there is no church\nvisible but that which is particular; the universal being utterly\ninvisible, and known to none but God. The person then that is\nbaptized stands by that a member of no church at all, neither of\nthe visible, nor yet of the invisible. A visible saint he is, but\nnot made so by baptism; for he must be a visible saint before,\nelse he ought not to be baptized (Acts 8:37, 9:17, 16:33).\n\nTake it again; Baptism [in water] makes thee no member of the\nchurch, neither particular nor universal: neither doth it make\nthee a visible saint: It therefore gives thee neither right to\nnor being of membership at all.\n\nQuest. But why then were they baptized?\n\nAns. That their own faith by that figure might be strengthened in\nthe death and resurrection of Christ. And that themselves might\nsee, that they have professed themselves dead, and buried, and\nrisen with him to newness of life (Col 2:12; Rom 6:4). It did not\nseal to the church that they were so (their satisfaction as to\nthat arose from better arguments) but taught the party himself\nthat he ought so to be. Farther, it confirmed to his own conscience\nthe forgiveness of sins, if by unfeigned faith he laid hold upon\nJesus Christ (Gal 3:26; 1 Cor 15:29; Acts 2:38, 22:16; 1 Peter\n3:21). Now then, if baptism be not the initiating ordinance, we\nmust seek for entering some other way, by some other appointment\nof Christ, unless we will say that without rule, without order,\nand without an appointment of Christ, we may enter into his visible\nkingdom. The church under the law had its initiating and entering\nordinance: it must not therefore be, unless we should think that\nMoses was more punctual and exact than Christ, but that also our\nLord hath his entering appointment. Now that which by Christ is\nmade the door of entrance into the church, by that we may doubtless\nenter; and seeing baptism is not that ordinance, we ought not to\nseek to enter thereby, but may with good conscience enter without\nit.\n\nQuest. But by what rule then would you gather persons into church\ncommunion?\n\nAns. Even by that rule by which they are discovered to the church\nto be visible saints; and willing to be gathered into their body\nand fellowship. By that word of God therefore, by which their\nfaith, experience and conversation, being examined, is found good;\nby that the church should receive them into fellowship with them.\nMark; not as they practice things that are circumstantial, but as\ntheir faith is commended by a word of faith, and their conversation\nby a moral precept. Wherefore that is observable, that after Paul\nhad declared himself sound of faith, he falls down to the body\nof the law: 'Receive us, [saith he,] we have wronged no man, we\nhave corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.' He saith not, I\nam baptized, but I have wronged no man, &c. (2 Cor 7:2, see also\n5:18-21). And if churches after the confession of faith made more\nuse of the ten commandments, to judge of the fitness of persons\nby; they might not exceed by this seeming strictness, Christian\ntenderness towards them they receive to communion.\n\nI will say therefore, that by the word of faith, and of good\nworks, moral duties gospelized, we ought to judge of the fitness\nof members by, by which we ought also to receive them to fellowship:\nFor he that in these things proveth sound, he hath the antitype\nof circumcision, which was before the entering ordinance. 'For he\nis not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,\nwhich is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one\ninwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,--whose\npraise is not of men, but of God' (Rom 2:28,29: Phil 3:1-4). Now\na confession of this by word and life, makes this inward circumcision\nvisible; when you know him therefore to be thus circumcised, you\nought to admit him to the Lord's passover: he, if any, hath a share\nnot only in church communion, but a visible right to the kingdom\nof heaven. Again, 'For the kingdom of God, [or our service to\nChrist] is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy\nin the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ,\nis acceptable to God, and approved of men' (Rom 14:17,18; Deut\n28:47). By which word Righteousness, he meaneth as James doth, the\nroyal law, the perfect law, which is the moral precept evangelized,\nor delivered to us by the hand of Christ (John 2:8.9). The law was\ngiven twice on Sinai: the last time it was given with a proclamation\nof grace and mercy of God, and of the pardon of sins going before\n(Exo 19, 34:1-10). The second giving is here intended; for so\nit cometh after faith, which first receiveth the proclamation of\nforgiveness; hence we are said to do this righteousness in the joy\nand peace of the Holy Ghost. Now he that in these things serveth\nChrist, is accepted of God, and approved of men. For who is he\nthat can justly find fault with him, that fulfilleth the royal\nlaw from a principle of faith and love. 'If ye fulfil the royal\nlaw according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as\nthyself, ye do well'; ye are approved of men. Again, he that hath\nloved another hath fulfilled the law, for love is the fulfilling\nof the law. He then that serveth Christ according to the royal law,\nfrom faith and love going before, he is a fit person for church\ncommunion; God accepteth him, men approve him. Now that the royal\nlaw is the moral precept, read the place (John 2:8-12). It is also\ncalled the law of liberty, because the bondage is taken away by\nforgiveness going before; and this is it by which we are judged,\nas is said, meet or unmeet for church communion, &c.\n\nTherefore I say, the rule by which we receive church-members,\nit is the word of the faith of Christ, and of the moral precept\nevangelized, as I said before, I am 'under the law to Christ,'\nsaith Paul (1 Cor 9:21). So when he forbiddeth us communion with\nmen, they be such as are destitute of the faith of Christ, and\nlive in the transgression of a moral precept: 'I have written unto\nyou, [saith he,] not to keep company, if any man that is called a\nbrother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer,\nor a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat'\n(1 Cor 5:11). He saith not, if any man be not baptized [in water],\nhave not hands laid on him, or join with the unbaptized, these are\nfictious, scriptureless notions. 'For this, Thou shalt not commit\nadultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt\nnot bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; And if there be any\nother commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying,\nnamely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh\nno ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the\nlaw' (Rom 13:9,10). The word of faith, and the moral precept,\nis that which Paul enjoins the Galatians and Philippians, still\navoiding outward circumstances: hence therefore when he had to the\nGalatians treated of faith, he falls point blank upon moral duties.\n'For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor\nuncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according\nto this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of\nGod' (Gal 6:15,16). As many as walk according to this rule: What\nrule? The rule by which men are proved new creatures: The word\nof faith, and the moral precept. Wherefore Paul exhorteth the\nEphesians not to walk, 'as other Gentiles, in the vanity of their\nmind'; seeing they had received Christ, and had 'heard him, and\nhad been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.' That they would\nput off the old man; what is that? Why, 'the former conversation,'\nwhich is 'corrupt according to the deceitful lusts'; lying,\nanger, sin, giving place to the devil, corrupt communication, all\nbitterness, wrath, clamour, evil-speaking, with all malice. And\nthat they would 'put on the new man.' What is that? That which is\n'created in righteousness and true holiness'; a being 'renewed\nin the spirit' of their mind, and a putting away all these things\n(Eph 4). 'For in Christ Jesus'; these words are put in, on purpose\nto shew us the nature of New Testament administrations, and how\nthey differ from the old. In Moses an outward conformity to an\noutward and carnal ordinance, was sufficient to give (they subjecting\nthemselves thereto) a being of membership with the Jews; but in\nChrist Jesus it is not so; of Abraham's flesh was the national\nJewish congregation; but it is Abraham's faith that makes New\nTestament churches: They that are of faith, are the children of\nfaithful Abraham. They that are of faith, the same are the children\nof Abraham (Gal 3:7-9). So then the seed being now spiritual,\nthe rule must needs be spiritual also, viz. The word of faith\nand holiness. This is the gospel concision knife, sharper than\nany two-edged sword; and that by which New Testament saints are\ncircumcised in heart, ears, and lips. 'For in Christ Jesus,' [is]\nno outward and circumstantial thing, but the new creature; none\nare subjects of the visible kingdom of Christ but visible saints\nby calling: now that which manifesteth a person to be a visible\nsaint, must be conformity to the word of faith and holiness. 'And\nthey that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections\nand lusts' (Gal 5:24). Hearken how delightfully Paul handleth the\npoint: The new creatures are the Israel of God. The new creature\nhath a rule by himself to walk by; and as many as walk according\nto this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel\nof God. Paul to the Philippians commandeth as much; where treating\nof his own practice in the doctrine of faith and holiness, requireth\nthem to walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing. I desire\nto be found in Christ, saith he, I reach forward toward the things\nthat are before; my conversation is in heaven, and flatly opposite\nto them whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame, and\nwho mind earthly things. Brethren, saith he, 'be followers together\nof me, and mark them which walk so' (Phil 3:17). Mark them; for\nwhat? For persons that are to be received into fellowship, and the\nchoicest communion of saints. And indeed this is the safest way to\njudge of the meetness of persons by: for take away the confession\nof faith and holiness; and what can distinguish a Christian from\na Turk? He that indeed receiveth faith, and that squareth his life\nby the royal, perfect, moral precept; and that walketh therein,\nin the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost, no man can reject him; he\ncannot be a man if he object against him; not a man in Christ;\nnot a man in understanding. 'The law is not made for a righteous\nman'; neither to debar him the communion of saints if he desire\nit, nor to cast him out if he were in. 'But for the lawless\nand disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and\nprofane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for\nmanslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves\nwith mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,\nand if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;\naccording to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was\ncommitted to my trust' (1 Tim 1:9-11). Paul also, when he would\nleave an everlasting conviction upon the Ephesians, concerning his\nfaith and holiness, treating first of the sufficiency of Christ's\nblood, and the grace of God to save us; he adds, 'I have coveted\nno man's silver, or gold, or apparel,' he bringeth them to the\nmoral precept, to prove the sincerity of his good conversation\nby (Acts 20:33). And when men have juggled what they can, and\nmade never such a prattle about religion; yet if their greatest\nexcellency, as to the visibility of their saintship, lieth in an\noutward conformity to an outward circumstance in religion, their\nprofession is not worth two mites. 'Let us walk honestly, as in\nthe day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and\nwantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord\nJesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the\nlusts thereof' (Rom 13:13,14). And it is observable, that after\nthe apostle had in the 9th and 10th verses of this chapter told\nus, that the moral precept is the rule of a good conversation,\nand exhorted us to make no provision for the flesh; he adds, these\nthings provided, we may receive any that believe in Christ Jesus\nunto communion with us; how weak soever and dark in circumstantials;\nand chiefly designs the proof thereof in the remaining part of\nhis epistle. For he that is of sound faith, and of conversation\nhonest in the world; no man, however he may fail in circumstantials,\nmay lightly reproach or vilify him. And indeed such persons are\nthe honour of Christian congregations. Indeed he is prejudiced,\nfor want of light in these things about which he is dark, as\nof baptism, or the like; but seeing that is not the initiating\nordinance, or the visible character of a saint; yea, seeing it\nmaketh no breach in a good and holy life: nor intrencheth upon\nany man's right but his own; and seeing his faith may be effectual\nwithout it, and his life approved by the worst of his enemies;\nwhy should his friends, while he keeps the law, dishonour God by\nbreaking of the same? 'Speak not evil one of another, brethren.\nHe that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother,\nspeaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: But if thou judge\nthe law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge' (James 4:11).\nHe that is judged, must needs fail somewhere in the apprehension\nof him that judgeth him, else why is he judged. But he must fail\nin substance, for then he is worthy to be judged (1 Cor 5:12).\nHis failure is then in a circumstance, for which he ought not to\nbe judged.\n\nObject. But notwithstanding all that you have said, water baptism\nought to go before the church-membership; shew me one in all the\nNew Testament, that was received into fellowship without it.\n\nAns. 1. That water baptism hath formerly gone first is granted:\nbut that it ought of necessity so to do, I never saw proof. 2.\nNone ever received it without light going before, unless they did\nplay the hypocrite: and besides no marvel though in the primitive\ntimes it was so generally practised first, for the unconverted\nthemselves know, it belonged to the disciples of Jesus Christ\n(John 1:24-27). Yet that all that were received into fellowship\nwere even then baptized first, would strain a weak man's wit to\nprove it, if arguments were closely made upon these three texts of\nholy scripture (1 Cor 1:14-16; Gal 3:27; Rom 6:3). But I pass them,\nand say, If you can shew me the Christian, that in the primitive\ntimes remained dark about it, I will shew you the Christian that\nwas received without it. But should I grant more than can be\nproved, viz. That baptism was the initiating ordinance; and that\nit once did, as circumcision of old, give a being of membership\nto the partakers; yea set the case that men were forbidden then\nto enter into fellowship without it: yet the case may so be, that\nthese things notwithstanding, men might be received into fellowship\nwithout it. All these things intailed to circumcision; that was the\ninitiating ordinance; that gave being of membership; that was it\nwithout which it was positively commanded none should be received\ninto fellowship (Josh 5). Yet for all this more than six hundred\nthousand were received into the church without it, yea received,\nand also retained there, and that by Moses and Joshua, even those\nto whom the land was promised, when the uncircumcised were cut\noff. But why then were they not circumcised? Doubtless there was\na reason; either they wanted time, or opportunity, or instruments,\nor something. But they could not render a bigger reason than this,\nI have no light therein: which is the cause at this day that many\na faithful man denieth to take up the ordinance of baptism: but\nI say whatever the hindrance was, it mattereth not; our brethren\nhave a manifest one, an invincible one, one that all the men on\nearth, nor angels in heaven can remove: For it is God that createth\nlight; and for them to do it without light would but prove them\nunfaithful to themselves, and make them sinners against God; 'For\nwhatsoever is not of faith is sin' (Rom 14:23). If therefore Moses\nand Joshua thought fit to communicate with six hundred thousand\nuncircumcised persons; when by the law not one such ought to\nhave been received among them; why may not I have communion, the\nclosest communion with visible saints as afore described, although\nthey want light in, and so cannot submit to that, which of God\nwas never made the wall of division betwixt us. I shall therefore\nhold communion with such.\n\nFirst, Because the true visible saint hath already [been] subjected\nto that which is better; even to the righteousness of God, which\nis by faith of Jesus Christ; by which he stands just before God;\nhe also hath made the most exact and strict rule under heaven,\nthat whereby he squares his life before men. He hath like precious\nfaith with the best of saints, and a conversation according to\nlight received, becoming the gospel of Christ. He is therefore\nto be received, received I say, not by THY light, not for that in\ncircumstances he jumpeth with thy opinion; but according to his own\nfaith which he ought to keep to himself before God. 'Conscience,\nI say, not thine own, but of the other; for why is my liberty\njudged of another man's conscience' (1 Cor 10:29). Some indeed\ndo object, that what the apostles wrote, they wrote to gathered\nchurches, and so to such as were baptized. And therefore the\narguments that are in the epistles about things circumstantial,\nrespect not the case in hand. But I will tell such, that as to the\nfirst part of their objection, they are utterly under a mistake.\nThe first to the Corinthians, the epistle of James, both them of\nPeter, and the first epistle of John, were expressly written to\nall the godly, as well as particular churches. Again; if water\nbaptism, as the circumstances with which the churches were pestered\nof old, trouble their peace, wound the consciences of the godly,\ndismember and break their fellowship; it is, although an ordinance,\nfor the present to be prudently shunned; for the edification of\nthe church, as I shall shew anon, is to be preferred before it.\n\nSecond, and observe it; 'One Spirit,--one hope,--one Lord, one\nfaith, one baptism [not of water, for by one Spirit are we all\nbaptized into one body] one God and Father of all, who is above all,\nand through all, and in you all' (Eph 4:1-6). This is a sufficient\nrule for us to hold communion by, and also to endeavour the\nmaintaining that communion, and to keep it in unity, within the\nbond of peace against all attempts whatsoever (1 Cor 12:16).\n\nThird, I am bold therefore to have communion with such (Heb\n6:1,2). Because they also have the doctrine of baptism: I say the\ndoctrine of them. For here you must note, I distinguish between\nthe doctrine and practice of water baptism; The doctrine being\nthat which by the outward sign is presented to us, or which by\nthe outward circumstance of the act is preached to the believer:\nviz. THE DEATH OF CHRIST; MY DEATH WITH CHRIST; also his resurrection\nfrom the dead, and mine with him to newness of life. This is the\ndoctrine which baptism preacheth, or that which by the outward\naction is signified to the believing receiver. Now I say, he that\nbelieveth in Jesus Christ hath richer and better than that [of\nbaptism in water], viz. is dead to sin, and that lives to God by\nhim, he hath the HEART, POWER and DOCTRINE of baptism: all then\nthat he wanteth, is but the sign, the shadow, or the outward\ncircumstances thereof. Nor yet is THAT despised but forborne for\nwant of light. The best of baptisms he hath; he is baptized by\nthat one Spirit; he hath the heart of water baptism, he wanteth\nonly the outward shew, which if he had would not prove him a truly\nvisible saint; it would not tell me he had grace in his heart. It\nis no characteristical note to another, of my sonship with God.\nIndeed it is a sign to the person baptized, and an help to his own\nfaith. He should know by that circumstance, that he hath received\nremission of sins; if his faith be as true, as his being baptized\nis felt by him. But if for want of light, he partake not of\nthat sign, his faith can see it in other things, exceeding great\nand precious promises. Yea, as I also have hinted already, if he\nappear not a brother before, he appeareth not a brother by that:\nAnd those that shall content themselves to make that the note of\nvisible church-membership; I doubt make things not much better,\nthe note of their sonship with God.\n\nFourth, I am bold to hold communion with visible saints as afore\n[described]; because God hath communion with them; whose examples\nin the case, we are straitly commanded to follow. 'Receive ye one\nanother as Christ also received us [saith Paul,] to the glory of\nGod' (Rom 15:1-7). Yea, though they be saints of opinions contrary\nto you; though it goeth against the mind of them that are strong.\n'We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the\nweak, and not to please ourselves' (Rom 15:1). What infirmities?\nThose that are natural are incident to all, they are infirmities\nthen that are sinful, that cause a man, for want of light, to err\nin circumstantials; And the reason upon which he grounds this\nadmonition is, that 'Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is\nwritten, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me.'\nYou say, to have communion with such weak brethren, reproacheth\nyour opinions, and practice. Grant it, your dulness and deadness,\nand imperfections also reproach the holiness of God; if you say\nno, for Christ hath borne our sins; the answer is still the same,\nTheir sins also are fallen upon Christ; he then that hath taken\naway thy sins from before the throne of God; hath taken away their\nshortness in conformity to an outward circumstance in religion. Both\nyour infirmities are fallen upon Christ; yea, if notwithstanding\nthy great sins, thou standest by Christ complete before the throne\nof God; why may not thy brother, notwithstanding his little ones,\nstand complete before thee in the church.\n\nVain man! think not by the straitness of thine order, in outward\nand bodily conformity, to outward and shadowish circumstances,\nthat thy peace is maintained with God, for peace with God is by\nfaith in the blood of his cross; who hath borne the reproaches of\nyou both. Wherefore he that hath communion with God for Christ's\nsake, is as good and as worthy of the communion of saints as\nthyself. He erreth in A CIRCUMSTANCE, thou errest in A SUBSTANCE;\nwho must bear these errors? Upon whom must these reproaches fall?\n(Phil 1:10). Some of the things of God that are excellent, have\nnot been approved by some of the saints: What then? must these\nfor this be cast out of the church? No, these reproaches by which\nthe wisdom of heaven is reproached have fallen upon me, saith\nChrist. But to return; GOD HATH RECEIVED HIM, Christ hath received\nhim, therefore do you receive him. There is more solidity in this\nargument, than if all the churches of God had received him. This\nreceiving then, because it is set as an example to the church, is\nsuch as must needs be visible to them; and is best described by\nthat word which discovereth the visible saint. Whoso, therefore,\nyou can by the word, judge a visible saint, one that walketh with\nGod; you may judge by the selfsame word that God hath received\nhim. Now him that God receiveth and holdeth communion with, him\nyou should receive and hold communion with. Will any say we cannot\nbelieve that God hath received any but such as are baptized [in\nwater]? I will not suppose a brother so stupefied; and therefore\nto that I will not answer.\n\nReceive him 'TO THE GLORY OF GOD.' To the glory of God, is put in\non purpose, to show what dishonour they bring to God, who despise\nto have communion with them; who yet they know have communion\nwith God. For how doth this man, or that church, glorify God, or\ncount the wisdom and holiness of heaven beyond them, when they\nrefuse communion with them, concerning whom, they are by the word\nconvinced, that they have communion with God. 'Now the God of\npatience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards\nanother according to Christ Jesus' (Rom 15:5). By this word\npatience, Paul insinuateth how many imperfections, the choicest\nChristians do mingle their best performances with. And by this\nof consolation, how readily God overlooks, passeth by them, and\ncomforteth you notwithstanding. Now that this mind should be in\nChristians one to another, is manifest; because Paul prays that\nit might be so. But this is an heavenly gift, and therefore must\nbe fetched from thence. But let the patience of God, and the\nwillingness of Christ, to bear the reproaches of the weak; and\nthe consolations that they have in God, notwithstanding, moderate\nyour passions, and put you upon prayer, to be minded like Jesus\nChrist.\n\nFifth, Because a failure in such a circumstance as water, doth\nnot unchristian us. This must needs be granted, not only from what\nwas said before; but for that thousands of thousands that could\nnot consent thereto as we have, more gloriously than we are like\nto do, acquitted themselves and their christianity before men, and\nare now with the innumerable company of angels and the spirits of\njust men made perfect. What is said of eating, or the contrary,\nmay as to this be said of water baptism. Neither if I be baptized,\nam I the better, neither if I be not, am I the worse: not the\nbetter before God: not the worse before men: still meaning as Paul\ndoth, provided I walk according to my light with God: otherwise\nit is false; for if a man that seeth it to be his duty shall\ndespisingly neglect it; or if he that hath no faith therein shall\nfoolishly take it up; both these are for this the worse, being\nconvicted in themselves for transgressors. He therefore that doth\nit according to his light, doth well, and he that doth it not, or\ndare not do it for want of light, doth not ill; for he approveth\nhis heart to be sincere with God; he dare not do any thing but by\nlight in the word. If therefore he be not by grace a partaker of\nlight, in that circumstance which thou professest; yet he is a\npartaker of that liberty and mercy by which thou standest. He hath\nliberty to call God father, as thou: and to believe he shall be\nsaved by Jesus: his faith, as thine, hath purified his heart: he\nis tender of the glory of God as thou art: and can claim by grace\nan interest in heaven; which thou must not do because of water:\nye are both then Christians before God and men without it: he\nthat can, let him preach to himself by that: he that cannot, let\nhim preach to himself by the promises; but yet let us rejoice in\nGod together: let us exalt his name together. Indeed the baptized\ncan thank God for that, for which another cannot; but may not he\nthat is unbaptized thank God for that which the baptized cannot?\nWouldest thou be content that I should judge thee, because thou\ncanst not for my light give thanks with me? why then should he\njudge me, for that I cannot give thanks with him for his? 'Let us\nnot therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather,\nthat no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in\nhis brother's way' (Rom 14:13). And seeing the things wherein we\nexceed each other, are such as neither make nor mar Christianity;\nlet us love one another and walk together by that glorious rule\nabove specified, leaving each other in all such circumstances\nto our own master, to our own faith. 'Who art thou that judgest\nanother man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.\nYea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand'\n(Rom 14:4).\n\nSixth, I am therefore for holding communion thus, because the\nedification of souls in the faith and holiness of the gospel, is\nof greater concernment than an agreement in outward things;[16]\nI say, it is of greater concernment with us, and of far more\nprofit to our brother; than our agreeing in, or contesting for the\nbusiness of water baptism (John 16:13; 1 Cor 14:26; 2 Cor 10:8,\n12:19; Eph 4:12; 2 Tim 3:17; 1 Cor 8:1, 13:1-4). That the edification\nof the soul, is of the greatest concern, is out of measure evident\nbecause heaven and eternal happiness are so immediately concerned\ntherein. Besides, this is that for which Christ died, for which\nthe Holy Ghost was given, yea for which the scriptures and the\ngifts of all the godly are given to the church; yea, and if gifts\nare not bent to this very work, the persons are said to be proud\nor uncharitable that have them; and stand but for cyphers or\nworse among the churches of God. Farther, edification is that that\ncherisheth all grace, and maketh the Christians quick and lively,\nand maketh sin lean and dwindling, and filleth the mouth with\nthanksgiving to God. But to contest with gracious men, with men\nthat walk with God; to shut such out of the churches; because they\nwill not sin against their souls, rendereth thee uncharitable (Rom\n14:15,20). Thou seekest to destroy the word of God; thou begettest\ncontentions, janglings, murmurings, and evil surmisings, thou\nministerest occasion for whisperings, backbitings, slanders and\nthe like, rather than godly edifying; contrary to the whole current\nof the scriptures and peace of all communities. Let us therefore\nleave off these contentions, 'and follow after the things that\nmake for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another' (Rom\n14:19). And know that the edification of the church of God dependeth\nnot upon, neither is tied to this or that circumstance. Especially\nwhen there are in the hearts of the godly, different persuasions\nabout it; then it becometh them in the wisdom of God, to take\nmore care for their peace and unity; than to widen or make large\ntheir uncomfortable differences.\n\nAlthough Aaron transgressed the law, because he ate not the\nsin-offering of the people; yet seeing he could not do it with\nsatisfaction to his own conscience, Moses was content that he left\nit undone (Lev 10:16-20). Joshua was so zealous against Eldad and\nMedad, for prophesying in the camp, without first going to the\nLord to the door of the tabernacle, as they were commanded, that\nhe desired Moses to forbid them (Num 11:27,28). But Moses calls\nhis zeal envy, and prays to God for more such prophets; knowing\nthat although they failed in a circumstance, they were right in\nthat which was better. The edification of the people in the camp\nwas that which pleased Moses.\n\nIn Hezekiah's time, though the people came to the passover in\nan undue manner, and 'did eat it otherwise than it was written';\nyet the wise king would not forbid them, but rather admitted it,\nknowing that their edification was of greater concern, than to\nhold them to a circumstance or two (2 Chron 30:13-27). Yea, God\nhimself did like the wisdom of the king, and healed, that is,\nforgave, the people at the prayer of Hezekiah. And observe it,\nnotwithstanding this disorder, as to circumstances, the feast was\nkept with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised\nthe Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord;\nyea, there was not the like joy in Jerusalem from the time of\nSolomon unto that same time. What shall we say, all things must\ngive place to the profit of the people of God. Yea, sometimes laws\nthemselves, for their outward preservation, much more for godly\nedifying. When Christ's disciples plucked the ears of corn on\nthe sabbath, no doubt for very hunger, and were rebuked by the\nPharisees for it, as for that which was unlawful; how did their\nLord succour them? By excusing them, and rebuking their adversaries.\n'Have ye not read,' said he, 'what David did when he was an hungered,\nand they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God,\nand did eat the shew bread, which was not lawful for him to eat,\nneither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?\nOr have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the\npriests in the temple profaned the sabbath, and are blameless?'\n(Matt 12:1-5). Why blameless? because they did it in order to the\nedification of the people. If laws and ordinances of old have been\nbroken, and the breach of them borne with, when yet the observance\nof outward things was more strictly commanded than now, when the\nprofit and edification of the people came in competition, how much\nmore may not we have communion, church communion, where no law is\ntransgressed thereby.\n\nSeventh, Therefore I am for holding communion thus, because love,\nwhich above all things we are commanded to put on, is of much more\nworth than to break about baptism; Love is also more discovered\nwhen it receiveth for the sake of Christ and grace, than when it\nrefuseth for want of water: and observe it, as I have also said\nbefore, this exhortation to love is grounded upon the putting\non of the new creature; which new creature hath swallowed up all\ndistinctions, that have before been common among the churches. As\nI am a Jew, you are a Greek; I am circumcised, you are not: I am\nfree, you are bound. Because Christ was all in all these, 'Put\non therefore,' saith he, 'as the elect of God, holy and beloved,\nbowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,\nlong-suffering,' that is, with reference to the infirmities of\nthe weak, 'forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if\nany man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you,\nso also do ye: and above all these things put on charity, which\nis the bond of perfectness' (Col 3:12-14). Which forbearing and\nforgiving respecteth not only private and personal injuries, but\nalso errors in judgment about inclinations and distinctions tending\nto divisions, and separating upon the grounds laid down in verse\n11 which how little soever they now seem to us, who are beyond\nthem, were strong, and of weight to them who in that day were\nentangled with them. Some saints then were not free to preach to\nany but the Jews: denying the word of life to the Gentiles, and\ncontending with them who preferred it to them: which was a greater\nerror than this of baptism (Acts 11:1-19). But what should we do\nwith such kind of saints? Why love them still, forgive them, bear\nwith them, and maintain church communion with them. Why? because\nthey are new creatures, because they are Christ's: for this swallows\nup all distinctions. Farther, because they are elect and beloved\nof God. Divisions and distinctions are of shorter date than election;\nlet not them therefore that are but momentary, and hatched in\ndarkness, break that bond that is from everlasting. It is love,\nnot baptism, that discovereth us to the world to be Christ's\ndisciples. It is love, that is the undoubted character of our\ninterest in, and sonship with God: I mean when we love as saints,\nand desire communion with others, because they have fellowship\none with another, in their fellowship with God the Father, and\nhis Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). And now though the truth and\nsincerity of our love to God, be then discovered when we keep his\ncommandments, in love to his name; yet we should remember again,\nthat the two head and chief commandments, are faith in Jesus, and\nlove to the brethren (1 John 3:23). So then he that pretendeth\nto love, and yet seeks not the profit of his brother in chief; he\nloveth, but they are his own opinions and froward notions (James\n4:11; Rom 14:21). 'Love is the fulfilling of the law'; but he\nfulfils it not who judgeth and setteth at nought his brother;\nthat stumbleth, offendeth, and maketh weak his brother; and all\nfor the sake of a circumstance, that to which he cannot consent,\nexcept he sin against his own soul, or Papist like, live by\nan implicit faith.[17] Love therefore is sometimes more seen and\nshowed, in forbearing to urge and press what we know, than in\npublishing and imposing. 'I could not,' (saith Paul, love would\nnot let me) 'speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,\neven as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not\nwith meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet\nnow are ye able' (1 Cor 3:1,2). The apostle considered not only\nthe knowledge that he had in the mysteries of Christ; but the\ntemper, the growth, and strength of the churches, and accordingly\nkept back, or communicated to them, what might be for their profit\n(Acts 20:18-20). So Christ, 'I have yet many things to say unto\nyou, but ye cannot bear them now' (John 16:12). It may be some\nwill count these old and threadbare texts; but such must know,\nthat the word of the Lord must stand for ever (Isa 40:8). And I\nshould dare to say to such, if the best of thy new shifts, be to\nslight, and abuse old scriptures; it shews thou art more fond of\nthy unwarrantable opinion, than swift to hear, and ready to yield\nto the authority that is infallible.\n\nBut to conclude this, when we attempt to force our brother beyond\nhis light, or to break his heart with grief; to thrust him beyond\nhis faith, or to bar him from his privilege: how can we say, I\nlove? What shall I say? To have fellowship one with another for\nthe sake of an outward circumstance, or to make that the door to\nfellowship which God hath not; yea to make that the including,\nexcluding charter; the bounds, bar, and rule of communion; when\nby the word of the everlasting testament there is no warrant for\nit; to speak charitably, if it be not for want of love, it is\nfor want of knowledge in the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ.\nStrange! take two Christians equal in all points but this, nay,\nlet one go beyond the other far, for grace and holiness; yet\nthis circumstance of water shall drown and sweep away all his\nexcellencies, not counting him worthy of that reception, that with\nhand and heart shall be given to a novice in religion, because he\nconsents to water.\n\nEighth. But for God's people to divide into parties, or to shut\neach other from church communion; though from greater points, and\nupon higher pretences, than this of water baptism; hath heretofore\nbeen counted carnal, and the actors herein babyish Christians.\nPaul and Apollos, Cephas and Christ, were doubtless higher things\nthan those about which we contend: yet when they made divisions for\nthem; how sharply are they rebuked? Are ye not CARNAL, CARNAL,\nCARNAL? For whereas there are among you, envyings, strife, divisions,\nor factions: 'are ye not carnal' (1 Cor 1:11,12, 3:1-4). While\none saith, I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not\ncarnal? See therefore from whence arise all they endeavours, zeal,\nand labour, to accomplish divisions among the godly: let Paul\nor Cephas, or Christ himself, be the burthen of thy song, yet the\nheart from whence they flow is carnal; and thy actions, discoveries\nof childishness. But, doubtless when these contentions were among\nthe Corinthians, and one man was vilified, that another might be\npromoted; a lift with a carnal brother, was thought great wisdom\nto widen the breach. But why should HE be rebuked, that said he\nwas for Christ? Because he was for him in opposition to his holy\napostles. Hence he saith, 'Is Christ divided,' or separate from\nhis servants? Note therefore that these divisions are deserted\nby the persons the divisions were made about; neither Paul, nor\nApollos, nor Cephas, nor Christ is here. Let the cry be never so\nloud, Christ, order, the rule, the command, or the like; carnality\nis but the bottom, and they are but babes that do it; their zeal\nis but a puff (1 Cor 4:6). And observe it, the great division at\nCorinth, was helped forward by water baptism: this the apostle intimates\nby, 'Were ye baptized in the name of Paul?' Ah, brethren! Carnal\nChristians with outward circumstances, will, if they be let alone,\nmake sad work in the churches of Christ, against the spiritual\ngrowth of the same. But 'I thank God,' saith Paul, 'that I baptized\nnone of you,' &c. Not but that it was then an ordinance of God,\nbut they abused it, in making parties thereby. 'I baptized none\nof you, but Crispus and Gaius,--and the household of Stephanus':\nmen of note among the brethren, men of good judgment, and reverenced\nby the rest; they can tell you I intended not to make a party to\nmyself thereby. 'Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.'\nBy this negligent relating, who were baptized by him; he showeth\nthat he made no such matter of baptism, as some in these days do;\nnay, that he made no matter at all thereof, with respect to church\ncommunion; for if he did not heed who himself had baptized; he much\nless heeded, who were baptized by others; but if baptism had been\nthe initiating, or entering ordinance, and so appointed of God;\nno doubt he had made more conscience thereof, than so lightly to\npass it over. 'For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach\nthe gospel.' The gospel then may be effectually preached, and\nyet baptism neither administered nor mentioned. The gospel being\ngood tidings to sinners, upon the account of free grace through\nChrist; but baptism with things of like nature, are duties enjoined\nsuch a people who received the gospel before. I speak not this,\nbecause I would teach men to break the least of the commandments\nof God; but to persuade my brethren of the baptized way, not to\nhold too much thereupon, not to make it an essential of the gospel\nof Christ, nor yet of communion of saints.\n\n'He sent me not to baptize': these words are spoken with holy\nindignation against them that abuse this ordinance of Christ. So\nwhen he speaketh of the ministers themselves, which also they had\nabused; in his speaking, he as it were trampleth upon them, as if\nthey were nothing at all. 'Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?'\n'He that planteth is not any thing, neither is he that watereth,\nbut God that giveth the increase' (1 Cor 3:5,7). Yet for all this,\nthe ministers and their ministry are a glorious appointment of\nGod in the world. Baptism also is a holy ordinance, but when Satan\nabuseth it, and wrencheth it out of its place; making that which\nwas ordained of God for the edification of believers, the only\nweapon to break in pieces the love, the unity, the concord of\nsaints; then What is baptism? then neither is baptism anything.\nAnd this is no new doctrine; for God by the mouth of his prophets\nof old, cried out against his own institutions, when abused by\nhis people: 'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices\nunto me,' saith the LORD: 'I am full of the burnt-offerings of\nrams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood\nof bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear\nbefore me, who hath required this at your hands, to tread my\ncourts? Bring no more vain oblations, incense is an abomination\nto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies,\nI cannot away with it; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.\nYour new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are\na trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them' (Isa 1:11-14). And\nyet all these were his own appointments. But why then did he thus\nabhor them? Because they retained the evil of their doings, and\nused them as they did other of his appointments, viz., 'For strife\nand debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness' (58:4):\nWherefore when that of God that is great, is overweighed by that\nwhich is small; it is the wisdom of them that see it, to put load\nto the other end of the scale; until the things thus abused, poise\nin their own place. But to pass this and proceed.\n\nNinth, If we shall reject visible saints by calling saints that\nhave communion with God, that have received the law at the hand of\nChrist, that are of an holy conversation among men; they desiring\nto have communion with us, as much as in us lieth, we take from\nthem their very privileges, and the blessings to which they were\nborn of God. For Paul saith not only to the gathered church at\nCorinth, but to all scattered saints that in every place call upon\nthe name of the Lord; That Jesus Christ is theirs, That Paul, and\nApollos, and the world, and life, and death, and all things are\ntheirs, because they are Christ's, and Christ is God's. But saith\nhe, let no man glory in men, such as Paul and Cephas, though these\nwere excellent: because this privilege comes to you upon another\nbottom, even by faith of Jesus Christ, 'Drink you all of this,' is\nentailed to faith, not baptism: nay, baptized persons may yet be\nexcluded this; when he that discerneth the Lord's body hath right\nand privilege to it (1 Cor 11:28,29). But to exclude Christians from\nchurch communion and to debar them their heaven-born privileges,\nfor the want of that which yet God never made a wall of division\nbetween us.\n\n(1.) This looks too like a spirit of persecution (Job 19:28). (2.)\nIt respecteth more a form, than the spirit and power of godliness\n(2 Tim 3:5). (3.) This is to make laws, where God hath made none,\nand to be wise above what is written, contrary to God's word, and\nour own principles. (4.) It is a directing of the Spirit of God.\n(5.) It bindeth all men's faith and light to mine opinion. (6.) It\ntaketh away the children's bread. (7.) It withholdeth from them\nthe increase of faith. (8.) It tendeth to harden the hearts of\nthe wicked. (9.) It tendeth to make wicked the hearts of weak\nChristians. (10.) It setteth open a door to all temptations. (11.)\nIt tempteth the devil to fall upon those that are alone, and have\nnone to help them. (12.) It is the nursery of all vain janglings,\nback-bitings, and strangeness among the Christians. (13.) It\noccasioneth the world to reproach us. (14.) It holdeth staggering\nconsciences, in doubt of the right way of the Lord. (15.) It giveth\noccasion to many to turn aside to most dangerous heresies. (16.)\nIt abuseth the holy scriptures; It wresteth God's ordinances out\nof their place. (17.) It is a prop to antichrist. (18.) Shall I\nadd, Is it not that which greatly prevailed to bring down these\njudgments, which at present we feel and groan under;[18] I will\ndare to say, it was[19] a cause thereof.\n\nTenth, and lastly, Bear with one word farther. What greater\ncontempt can be thrown upon the saints than for their brethren to\ncast them off, or to debar them church communion? Think you not\nthat the world may groundly say, Some great iniquity lies hid in\nthe skirts of your brethren; when in truth the transgression is\nyet your own? But I say, what can the church do more to the sinners\nor open profane? Civil commerce you will have with the worst, and\nwhat more have you with these? Perhaps you will say we can pray and\npreach with these; and hold them Christians, saints, and godly.\nWell, but let me ask you one word farther: Do you believe, that\nof very conscience they cannot consent, as you, to that of water\nbaptism? And that if they had light therein, they would as willingly\ndo it as you? Why then, as I have shewed you, our refusal to hold\ncommunion with them is without a ground from the word of God. But\ncan you commit your soul to their ministry, and join with them in\nprayer; and yet not count them meet for other gospel privileges?\nI wold know by what scripture you do it? Perhaps you will say, I\ncommit not my soul to their ministry, only hear them occasionally\nfor trial. If this be all the respect thou hast for them and their\nministry, thou mayest have as much for the worst that pisseth\nagainst the wall. But if thou canst hear them as God's ministers,\nand sit under their ministry as God's ordinance; then shew me where\nGod hath such a gospel ministry, as that the persons ministering\nmay not, though desiring it, be admitted with you to the closest\ncommunion of saints. But if thou sittest under their ministry for\nfleshly politic ends, thou hearest the word like an atheist, and\nart thyself, while thou judgest thy brother, in the practice of\nthe worst of men. But I say, where do you find this piece-meal\ncommunion with men that profess faith and holiness as you, and\nseparation from the world. If you object, that my principles lead\nme to have communion with all; I answer with all as afore described;\nif they will have communion with me.\n\nObject. Then you may have communion with the members of antichrist.\n\nAns. If there be a visible saint yet remaining in that church;\nlet him come to us, and we will have communion with him.\n\nQuest. What, though he yet stand a member of that sinful number,\nand profess himself one of them.\n\nAns. You suppose an impossibility; for it cannot be that, at the\nsame time, a man should visibly stand a member of two bodies\ndiametrically opposite one to another. Wherefore it must be supposed,\nthat he who professeth himself a member of a church of Christ,\nmust forthwith, nay before, forsake the antichristian one. The\nwhich if he refuseth to do, it is evident he doth not sincerely\ndesire to have fellowship with the saints.\n\n[Quest.] But he saith he cannot see that that company to which\nyou stand opposite, and conclude antichristian, is indeed the\nantichristian church.\n\n[Ans.] If so, he cannot desire to join with another, if he know\nthem to be professedly and directly opposite. I hold therefore\nto what I said at first; That if there be any saints in the\nantichristian church, my heart, and the door of our congregation\nis open to receive them, into closest fellowship with us.\n\nObject. But how if they yet retain some antichristian principles.\n\nAns. If they be such as eat out the bowels of a church, so soon as\nthey are detected he must either be kept out, while out, or cast\nout, if in: for it must be the prudence of every community to\npreserve its own unity with peace and truth: the which the churches\nof Christ may do; and yet as I have shewed already, receive such\npersons as differ upon the point of water baptism. For the doing\nor not doing of that neither maketh nor marreth the bowels or\nfoundation of church communion.\n\nObject. But this is receiving for opinion sake; as before you said\nof us.\n\nAns. No; we receive him for the sake of Christ, and grace, and\nfor our mutual edification in the faith; and that we respect\nnot opinions, I mean in lesser matters, 'tis evident; for things\nwherein we differ are no breach of communion among us; we let\nevery man have his own faith in such things to himself before God.\n\n\nI NOW COME TO A SHORT APPLICATION.\n\nI. Keep a strict separation, I pray you, from communion with the\nopen profane; and let not man use his liberty in church relation\nas an occasion to the flesh; but in love serve one another. 'Looking\ndiligently--lest any root of bitterness--[any poisonful herb (Deut\n29:18)] spring up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled' (Heb\n12:15). And let those that before were reasons for my separation,\nbe motives to you to maintain the like: and remember that when\nmen have said what they can for a sinful mixture in the worship\nof God; the arm of the Lord is made bare against it.\n\nII. In the midst of your zeal for the Lord, remember that the\nvisible saint is his; and is privileged in all those spiritual\nthings that you have in the word and live in the practice of, and\nthat he is to partake thereof, according to his light therein.\nQuarrel not with him about things that are circumstantial; but\nreceive him in the Lord, as becometh saints: if he will not have\ncommunion with you, the neglect is his, not yours. But saith\nthe open profane, why cannot we be reckoned saints also? We have\nbeen christened, we go to church, we take the communion.[20] Poor\npeople! This will not do; for so long as in life and conversation\nyou appear to be open profane, we cannot, unless we sin, receive\nyou into our fellowship: for by your ungodly lives you shew that\nyou know not Christ; and while you are such by the word, you are\nreputed but beasts: now then judge yourselves, if it be not a\nstrange community that consisteth of men and beasts: let beasts\nbe with the beasts, you know yourselves do so; you receive not\nyour horse nor your hog to your table, you put them in a room by\nthemselves. Besides I have shewed you before, that for many reasons\nwe cannot have communion with you.\n\n(1.) The church of God must be holy (Lev 11:44, 19:2, 20:7; 1\nPeter 1:15,16; Isa 26:2; Psa 118:20; Eze 43:12, 44:9; Isa 52:11).\n\n(2.) The example of the churches of Christ before, hath been a\ncommunity of visible saints (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2; Eph 1:1; Col\n1:2; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1-5). Poor carnal man, there are many\nother reasons urged in this little book, that shew why we cannot\nhave communion with thee: not that we refuse of pride or stoutness,\nor because we scorn you as men. No, we pity you, and pray to God\nfor you; and could, if you were converted, with joy receive you\nto fellowship with us: Did you never read in Daniel, That iron\nis not mixed with miry clay? (2:43). No more can the saints with\nyou, in the worship of God, and fellowship of the gospel, When\nthose you read of in the fourth of Ezra, attempted to join in temple\nwork with the children of the captivity; what said the children\nof Judah? 'Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto\nour God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God\nof Israel,' &c (Eze 4:3).\n\nI return now to those that are visible saints by calling, that\nstand at a distance one from another, upon the accounts before\nspecified: Brethren; CLOSE; CLOSE; be one, as the Father in Christ\nis one.\n\n1. This is the way to convince the world that you are Christ's,\nand the subjects of one Lord; whereas the contrary makes them\ndoubt it (John 13:34,35, 17:23). 2. This is the way to increase\nlove; that grace so much desired by some, and so little enjoyed\nby others (2 Cor 7:15). 3. This is the way to savour and taste\nthe Spirit of God in each other's experience; for which if you\nfind it in truth you cannot but bless, if you be saints, the name\nof our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:2-4). 4. This is the way to\nincrease knowledge, or to see more in the word of God: for that\nmay be known by two; that is not seen by one (Isa 52:8). 5. This\nis the way to remove secret jealousies and murmurings one against\nthe other: yea this is the way to prevent much sin, and greatly\nto frustrate that design of hell (Prov 6:16-19). 6. This is the\nway to bring them out of the world into fellowship that now stand\noff from our gospel privileges, for the sake of our vain janglings.\n7. This is the way to make antichrist shake, totter, and tremble\n(Isa 11:13,14). 8. This is the way to leave Babylon as an habitation\nfor devils only; and to make it a hold for foul spirits, and a\ncage only for every unclean and hateful bird. 9. This is the way\nto hasten the work of Christ's kingdom in the world; and to forward\nhis coming to the eternal judgment. 10. And this is the way to\nobtain much of that, WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, when\nyou stand before his face. [In the words of Paul] 'I beseech you,\nbrethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a\nletter unto you in a few words' (Heb 13:22).\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. It is much to be regretted that these books, in common withall\nMr. Bunyan's Works, were grossly corrupted in the text in all the\neditions published since 1737,--'poor peace indeed,' was changed\nto 'pure peace indeed'; 'here is Rome enough,' meaning popery\nenough, was altered to 'here is room enough'; 'Baptist,' was\nprinted 'Papist,' &c., &c.: all the typographical errors have now\nbeen carefully corrected by Bunyan's editions.\n\n2. Reply to Kinghorn. 1818, p. xii.\n\n3. King Charles the 2nd, about a year after this time, pardoned\nnear five hundred Quakers, who had been languishing in prison for\nnot attending the church service. Upon this Mr. Bunyan, and his\nfellow prisoners at Bedford, petitioned for liberty, and at a\ncourt of privy council at Whitehall, the 17th May, 1672, present,\nthe King and twenty-four of his councillors, the following minute\nwas made:--'Whereas, by order of the Board of the 8th instant,\nthe humble petition of John Penn, John Bunyan, John Dunn, Thomas\nHaynes, Simon Haynes, and George Parr, prisoners in the goale of\nBedford, convicted upon several statutes for not conforming to\nthe rights and ceremonyes of the church of England, and for being\nat unlawful meetings, was referred to the Sheriff of the county\nof Bedford, who was required to certify this Board whether the\nsaid persons were committed for the crimes in the said petition\nmentioned, AND FOR NO OTHER; which he having accordingly done,\nby his certificate dated the 11th instant. It was thereupon, this\nday, ordered by his Ma(tie) in council, That the said petition and\ncertificate be (and are herewith) sent to his Ma(tie's) Attorney\nGeneral, who is authorized, and required, to insert them into the\ngeneral pardon to be passed for the Quakers.' This fully confirms\nwhat Bunyan says as to the cause of his long and dangerous\nimprisonment. It was for being absent from the state church and\nworshipping God according to His will, as expressed in the Bible.\nSee Introduction to Pilgrim's Progress, Hansard Knollys edition.\n\n4. 'To ascertain us,' in the 17th century meant 'to make us\nconfident,' 'to assure us.' 'It ascertaining me that I am one of\nGod's children.'--Hammond. Ed.\n\n5. Eternal blessings on our Emmanuel, who faithfully performed\nHis promise of sending the Comforter to unlock the mysteries of\nthe kingdom of grace, and guide us into all truth: without His\npowerful aid we can neither know or perform any thing to a good\nor saving purpose.--Mason.\n\n6. The gracious soul believes in Christ for justification, from\na sense of utter inability to obtain justification by works. This\nis effected by the power of the Holy Spirit, the glorifier of\nJesus.--Mason.\n\n7. Effectual calling is evidenced by the soul's love to God, in\nhis dear Son; a superior delight in Him, as a reconciled Father,\ncleaving to Him, His ways, and people; and longing for the full\nfruition and final enjoyment of Him in glory.--Mason.\n\n8. How great is the delight of meeting in a foreign country, after\na long absence from home, with one who speaks your own language\nand sympathizes with your national feelings. How much more strong\nare those enjoyments arising from the communion of saints, while\ntravelling through an enemy's country, with difficult duties\nto perform,--animated by a kindred spirit, and seeking the same\neternal home.--Ed.\n\n9. The despising and disregarding the Holy Scriptures, rejecting\nJesus and the way of salvation by Him, especially after having\nattained to the knowledge and conviction of the truth of it by\nthe gospel, is the unpardonable sin, and renders men obdurate and\nimpenitent.--Mason.\n\n10. How strongly must have been the principle of humble submission\nto the will of God implanted and rooted in Bunyan's mind. He writes\nthis peaceful advice from his dungeon, after twelve years' cruel\nimprisonment for his love and obedience to the Saviour. It requires\na holy flame of Divine love to enable us to take the spoiling of\nour goods joyfully; but how much more strongly must this principle\npervade the heart to enable us to suffer the loss of liberty,\ndeprived of the society of a much loved wife and family, and in\ndaily fear of an ignominious death! We cannot sufficiently admire\nthe grace of God in the sufferer, nor abhor the tyranny under\nwhich he suffered.--Ed.\n\n11. This idea is found in other of Bunyan's Works. Certainly the\nmixture of saints and sinners in a national church established for\nworldly purposes, must engender hypocrisy and pride, intolerance\nand persecution. Such leaders in Satan's army were calculated\nmightily to assist, if they were not the original cause, of the\noverspreading of sin which called forth the flood to wash away.--Ed.\n\n12. Bishop Hall describes a Christian indeed as 'having white hands\nand a clean soul, fit to lodge God in; all the rooms whereof are\nset apart for his holiness.'--Ed.\n\n13. Submission to the disciples of a Christian church must be\nvoluntary, and not by the constraint of force or hypocrisy. In\nChrist's church ALL must be free, and not a mixture of free-men\nand the slaves of sin.--Ed.\n\n14. What faithfulness and plain dealing is here. If any church\ncommunicates with the profane it is offering sacrifice to the\ndevil.--Ed.\n\n15. One of the most touching scenes in the Pilgrim's Progress\nbeautifully illustrates this fact. When Christian led Hopeful\ninto Bye-path Meadow, so that they fell into the hands of Giant\nDespair, Hopeful says, 'I wold have spoke plainer, but that you\nare older than I.' That whole scene manifests the most delicate\nsensibility and christian feeling.--Ed.\n\n16. How strange that pious men should have been prone to punish\ntheir fellows for non-conformity in an outward sign. They themselves\nwere suffering inconceivable miseries under acts of uniformity in\nrites and ceremonies. How applicable to the framers of such acts\nof parliament are our Lord's words, 'Woe unto you, pharisees, who\nwhiten and garnish the outside of a sepulchre, while within it is\nfull of uncleanness, hypocrisy, and iniquity' (Matt 23).--Ed.\n\n17. 'An implicit faith'; faith in things without inquiry, or in\nthings not expressed.--Ed.\n\n18. 'These judgments we feel and groan under.' So frightful were\nthe persecutions of the dissenters by the church in 1670, that\nthe narrative says, 'The town [of Bedford] was so thin of people,\nand the shops shut down, that it seemed like a place visited with\nthe pest, where usually is written upon the door, \"Lord, have\nmercy upon us.\"' Had the dissenters been united, the church would\nnot have dared to exercise such barbarities--men and women in\njails--some hanged for not going to church--all their goods swept\naway, and their children perishing.--Ed.\n\n19. The printer had inserted 'the cause'; Bunyan's manuscript was\n'a cause.' See marginal note, in his Differences in Judgment.--Ed.\n\n20. This is a much more extensive evil than many would credit. I\nhave met with these very expressions not only among the poor but\nthe rich. It is an awful delusion.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nDIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT ABOUT WATER BAPTISM, NO BAR TO COMMUNION:\nOR, TO COMMUNICATE WITH SAINTS, AS SAINTS, PROVED LAWFUL.\n\nIN ANSWER TO A BOOK WRITTEN BY THE BAPTISTS, AND PUBLISHED BY MR.\nT. PAUL AND MR. W. KIFFIN, ENTITLED, 'SOME SERIOUS REFLECTIONS\nON THAT PART OF MR BUNYAN'S CONFESSION OF FAITH, TOUCHING CHURCH\nCOMMUNION WITH UNBAPTIZED BELIEVERS.'\n\nWHEREIN THEIR OBJECTIONS AND ARGUMENTS ARE ANSWERED, AND THE DOCTRINE\nOF COMMUNION STILL ASSERTED AND VINDICATED. HERE IS ALSO MR. HENRY\nJESSE'S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE, FULLY DECLARING THE DOCTRINE I HAVE\nASSERTED.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\n'Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man\nfull of talk be justified? should thy lies make men hold their\npeace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee an\nanswer [unashamed?]'--Job 11:2, 3\n\nLondon: Printed for John Wilkins, and are to be sold at his shop\nin Exchange Alley, next door to the Exchange Coffee House, over\nagainst the Royal Exchange, 1673.\n\n\n\nCourteous Reader,\n\nBe intreated to believe me, I had not set pen to paper about this\ncontroversy, had we been let alone at quiet in our Christian\ncommunion. But being assaulted for more than sixteen years, wherein\nthe brethren of the baptized way, as they had their opportunity,\nhave sought to break us in pieces, merely because we are not, in\ntheir way, all baptized first: I could not, I durst not, forbear\nto do a little, if it might be, to settle the brethren, and to\narm them against the attempts, which also of late they begin to\nrevive upon us. That I deny the ordinance of baptism, or that\nI have placed one piece of an argument against it, though they\nfeign it, is quite without colour of truth. All I say is, That the\nchurch of Christ hath not warrant to keep out of their communion\nthe Christian that is discovered to be a visible saint by the\nword, the Christian that walketh according to his light with God.\nI will not make reflections upon those unhandsome brands that my\nbrethren have laid upon me for this, as that I am a machivilian,\na man devilish, proud, insolent, presumptuous, and the like,\nneither will I say as they, The Lord rebuke thee; Words fitter\nto be spoken to the devil than a brother. But reader, read and\ncompare; lay aside prejudice and judge. What Mr. Kiffin hath done\nin the matter I forgive, and love him never the worse, but must\nstand by my principles because they are peaceable, godly, profitable,\nand such as tend to the edification of my brother, and as I believe\nwill be justified in the day of judgment.\n\nI have also here presented thee with the opinion of Mr. Henry Jesse,\nin the case, which providentially I met with as I was coming to\nLondon to put my papers to the press; and that it was his judgment\nis asserted to me, known many years since to some of the Baptists,\nto whom it was sent, but never yet answered; and will yet be\nattested if need shall require. Farewell.\n\nThine in all Christian service, according to my light and power,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nDIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT ABOUT WATER BAPTISM, NO BAR TO COMMUNION.\n\n\nSir,\n\nYour seemingly serious reflections upon that part of my plain-hearted\nconfession of faith, which rendereth a reason of my freedom\nto communicate with those of the saints and faithful who differ\nfrom me about water baptism; I have read and considered, and have\nweighed them so well as my rank and abilities will admit me to\ndo. But finding yours, if I mistake not, far short of a candid\nreplication, I thought [it] convenient, not only to tell you of those\nimpertinencies everywhere scattered up and down in your book; but\nalso, that in my simple opinion, your rigid and church-disquieting\nprinciples are not fit for any age and state of the church.\n\nBut before I enter the body of your book, give me leave a little\nto discourse you about your preamble to the same, wherein are two\nmiscarriages unworthy your pretended seriousness, because void of\nlove and humility. The first is, In that you closely disdain my\nperson because of my low descent among men, stigmatising me for a\nperson of THAT rank, that need not to be heeded or attended unto.[1]\n\nAns. What it is that gives a man reverence with you, I know not;\nbut for certain. He that despiseth the poor reproacheth his Maker;\nyet, 'a poor man is better than a liar.' To have gay clothing, or\ngold rings, or the persons that wear them in admiration; or to be\npartial in your judgment, or respects, for the sake, or upon the\naccount of, flesh and blood, doubtless convicteth you to be of\nthe law a transgressor, and not without partiality, &c., in the\nmidst of your seeming sanctity.\n\nAgain, you say, 'I had not meddled with the controversy at all, had\nI found any of parts that would divert themselves to take notice\nof YOU.'\n\nAns. What need you, before you have shewed one syllable of a\nreasonable argument in opposition to what I assert, thus trample\nmy person, my gifts, and grace, have I any, so disdainfully under\nyour feet? What kind of a YOU am I?[2] And why is MY rank so\nmean, that the most gracious and godly among you, may not duly\nand soberly consider of what I have said? Was it not the art of\nthe false apostles of old to say thus? To bespatter a man, that\nhis doctrine might be disregarded. 'Is not this the carpenter?'\nAnd, 'His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible'\n(1 Cor 10:10), did not use to be in the mouths of the saints; for\nthey knew that 'the wind bloweth where it listeth' (John 3:8).\nNeither is it high birth, worldly breeding, or wealth; but electing\nlove, grace, and the wisdom that comes from heaven, that those\nwho strive for strictness of order in the things and kingdom of\nChrist, should have in regard and esteem (James 3:17). Need I read\nyou a lecture? 'Hath not God chosen the foolish,--the weak,--the\nbase, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things\nthat are?' (1 Cor 1:27,28). Why then do you despise my rank, my\nstate, and quality in the world?\n\nAs for my confession of faith, which you also secretly despise.\nIf it be good and godly, why may it not be accepted? If I have\nspoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou\nme? If you, and the brethren of your way, did think it convenient\nto shew to the world what you held; if perhaps by that means you\nmight escape the person: why might not I, after above eleven years'\nendurance there, give the world a view of my faith and practice;\nif peradventure, wrong thoughts, and false judgments of me, might\nby that means be abated, and removed. But you suggest; I did it,\nbecause I was so willing to be known in the world by my SINGULAR\nfaith and practice.[3] How singular my faith and practice is, may\nbe better known to you hereafter: but that I did it for a popular\napplause and fame, as your words seem to bear, for they proceed\nfrom a taunting spirit, that will be known to you better in the\nday of God, when your evil surmises of your brother, and my designs\nin writing my book, will be published upon the house-tops (Luke\n12:1-4).\n\nAnd even now, before I go any further, I will give you a touch of\nthe reason of my publishing that part thereof which you so hotly\noppose. It was because of those continual assaults that the rigid\nbrethren of your way, made, not only upon this congregation, to\nrend it; but also upon many others about us. If peradventure they\nmight break us in pieces, and draw from us disciples after them.\nAssaults, I say, upon this congregation by times, for no less than\nthese sixteen or eighteen years. Yea, myself they have sent for,\nand endeavoured to persuade me to break communion with my brethren;\nalso with many others they have often tampered, if haply their\nseeds of division might take. Neither did they altogether fail of\ntheir purpose, for some they did rend and dismember from us; but\nnone but those, of whom now they begin to be ashamed. The judgment\nof God so following their design, that the persons which then\nthey prevailed upon, are now a stink, and reproach to religion.\nNeither were these spirits content with that discord they did sow\namong us, but they proceeded to seize upon others. But to pass\nthese. The wild, and unsound positions they have urged to maintain\ntheir practice, would be too large here to insert. Now, Sir, to\nsettle the brethren, the brethren of our community, and to prevent\nsuch disorders among others, was the cause of my publishing my\npapers: and considering my concern in the house of God, I could do\nno less than to give them warning, 'That every man might deliver\nhis soul.'\n\nYou proceed, saying, 'It is my liberty, as well as others into whose\nhands it falls, to weigh what you have said in truth's balance,\nand if it be found too light, to reject it whether you will or\nno.'\n\nAns. Do but grant me, without mocking of me, the liberty you desire\nto take, and God helping me, I desire no more [than] to shift for\nmyself among you. As to your saying, that I proudly and imperiously\ninsult, because I say they are 'babes and carnal, that attempt\nto break the peace and communion of churches, though upon better\npretences than water.' You must know I am still of that mind, and\nshall be, so long as I see the effects that follow, viz. The breach\nof love, taking off Christians from the more weighty things of\nGod; and to make them quarrel and have heart-burnings one against\nanother.\n\nWhere you are pleased to charge me with raging, for laying those\neighteen particular crimes to the charge of such who exclude\nChristians from church communion, and debar them their heaven-born\nprivileges, for the want of that, which yet God never made the\nwall of division between us. I say, when you can prove, That God\nhath made water baptism that wall, and that the stress of the after\neighteen charges lie wholly and only in that; then you may, time\nenough, call my language such as wanteth charity: but I question\nthough that was granted, whether your saying, I RAGE, will be\njustified in the day of judgment.\n\nMy great noise, as you call it, about an initiating ordinance,\nyou say, you shall take no notice of.\n\nAns. 1. Although you do not, I must: For if baptism be not that,\nbut another; and if visible saints may enter into fellowship by\nthat other, and are nowhere forbidden so to do, because they have\nnot light into water baptism: it is of weight to be considered by\nme; yea, and of others too who are unprejudiced. 2. How ignorant\nyou are of such as hold it the initiating ordinance I know not:\nnor how long you have been of that persuasion I know not. This I\nknow, that men of your own party, as serious, godly, and it may be,\nmore learned than yourself, have within less than this twelve-month\nurged it. Mr. D. in my hearing, did from Romans 6:1, 2 in the\nmeeting in Lothbury affirm it: also my much esteemed Mr. D. A.[4]\ndid twice in a conference with me assert it. 3. But whatever you\nsay, whether for, or against, 'tis no matter; for while you deny\nit be the entering ordinance, you account it the wall, bar, bolt,\nand door; even that which must separate between the righteous\nand the righteous; nay, you make want of light therein, a ground\nto exclude the most godly your communion, when every novice in\nreligion shall be received into your bosom, and be of esteem with\nyou because he hath, and from what ground God knows, submitted to\nwater baptism.\n\nI am glad that you conclude with me what is the initiating ordinance:\nbut withal, give me leave to correct, as I think, one extravagant\nexpression of yours. You say, 'It is CONSENT on all hands and\nNOTHING else, that makes them members of particular churches, and\nnot faith and baptism.' You might have stopped at, and nothing\nelse, you need not in particular have rejected faith: your first\nerror was bad enough: what, NOTHING else but consent? What, not so\nmuch as a respect to the matter or end? Why then are not all the\ncommunities of all the highwaymen in the land, truly constituted\nchurches of Christ; unless you can prove that they hold together,\nbut not by consent? What? consent and nothing else? But why do\nYOU throw out FAITH? why, I throw out baptism; which because you\ncannot as to the case in hand fetch in again, therefore out must\nfaith go too. Your action is much like that harlot's, that stood\nto be judged by Solomon, who because her own child was dead, would\nhave her neighbour's killed also (1 Kings 3:26). Faith, Sir, both\nin the profession and confession of it, is of immediate and also\nabsolute concern, even in the very act of the church's reception,\nof this or another member. Throw out faith, and there is no such\nthing as a Christian, neither visible nor invisible. You ought\nto receive no man, but upon a comfortable satisfaction to the\nchurch, that you are now receiving a believer. Faith, whether it\nbe savingly there or no, is the great argument with the church in\nreceiving any: we receive not men as men, but the man immediately\nunder that supposition; He hath faith, he is a Christian. Sir,\nconsent simply, without faith, makes no man a member of the church\nof God: because then would a church not cease to be a church,\nwhoever they received among them. Yea, by this assertion you have\njustified the church of Rome itself, to be to this day both good,\nand godly, unless you can prove that they did at first, and do\nnow receive their unbelieving members, without their own consent.\nThe church hath no such liberty to receive men without respect to\nfaith; yea, faith and holiness must be the essentials, or basis,\nupon, and for the sake of which you receive them: holiness, I say,\nyet not such as is circumstantial, but that which is such in the\nvery heart of it: pray you in your next therefore word it better,\nlest while you slight and trample upon me, you stand before all,\nblame-worthy yourself.\n\nThe scriptures you speak of, I did not in my first produce to\nshew persons unbaptized [in water] might hold communion with the\nchurch, though I am fully convinced they may, but to shew, that\nknowledge of those persons, of their faith and holiness in general,\nought first to be shewed to the church, before she can lawfully\nreceive them (Acts 9:26-31; 1 Cor 16:10; 2 Cor 8:23). As to\nmy answer to a question which you have of your's corrupted, and\nthen abused: I tell you again, That a discovery of the faith and\nholiness, and a declaration of the willingness of a person to subject\nhimself to the laws and government of Christ in his church, is a\nground sufficient to receive such a member.\n\nBut you descant; Is baptism one of the laws of Christ?\n\nAns. It is none of those laws, neither any part of them, that the\nchurch, as a church, should shew her obedience by. For albeit that\nbaptism be given by Christ our Lord to the church, yet not for\nthem to worship him by as a church. Shew me what church-ordinance\nit is; and when, or where the church, as a church, is to practise\nit, as one of those laws and appointments that he hath commanded\nhis church to shew to him her obedience by. Again, That submitting\nto water baptism, is a sign or note, that was ever required by\nany of the primitive churches, of him that would hold fellowship\nwith them; or that it infuseth such grace and holiness into those\nthat submit thereto, as to capacitate them for such a privilege;\nor that they did acknowledge it a sign thereof, I find not in all\nthe Bible.\n\nI find not, as I told you in my first, that baptism is a sign to\nany, but the person that is baptized (Col 2:12; Rom 6:1-4; 1 Cor\n15:29; Acts 2:38, 22:16). The church hath her satisfaction of the\nperson, from better proof (1 Peter 3:21).\n\nI told you also, That baptism makes thee no member of the church,\nneither doth it make thee a visible saint: It giveth thee therefore,\nneither right to, nor being of membership at all. Why, Sir, did you\nnot answer these things? but slip them with others, as if you were\nunconcerned; troubling your reader with such kind of insinuations,\nas must needs be unsavoury to godly ears. You make the moral law\nnone of Christ's but Moses'; not the son's but the servant's; and\ntell me, because I plead for faith and holiness, according to moral\nduties gospelized, (they are my words) whereby we ought to judge\nof the fitness of members; that therefore Moses is more beholden\nto me than Christ.\n\nSir, know you not yet, that a difference is to be put betwixt\nthose rules that discover the essentials of holiness, and those\nthat in themselves are not such; and that that of faith and the\nmoral law is the one, and baptism, &c. the other. Is not love to\nGod, abhorrence of idols, to forbear blaspheming, to honour our\nparents, to do no murder, to forbear theft, not to bear false\nwitness, nor covet, &c. are not (I say) these the precepts of the\nLord Jesus, because delivered by Moses? Or, are these such as may\nbetter be broken, than for want of light to forbear baptism with\nwater? Or, doth a man while he liveth in the neglect of these,\nand in the mean time bustle about those you call gospel commands,\nmost honour Christ, or best fit himself for fellowship with the\nsaints? Need I tell you, That the faith of Christ, with the ten\ncommandments, are as much now gospel commands as baptism; and\nought to be in as much, and far more respect with the holy ones\nthan that, or other the like.[5]\n\nYea, shall I tell you, That baptism will neither admit a man into\nfellowship, nor keep him there, if he be a transgressor of a moral\nprecept; and that a man who believeth in Jesus, and fulfilleth\nthe royal law, doth more glorify God, and honour religion in the\nworld, than he that keepeth, if there were so many, ten thousand\nfigurative laws. As to those commands that respect God's instituted\nworship in a church, as a church, I have told you that baptism is\nnone of them, and you have been driven to confess it. The church\nthen must first look to faith, then to good living according to the\nten commandments; after that she must respect those appointments\nof our Lord Jesus that respects her outward order and discipline,\nand then she walks as becomes her, sinning if she neglecteth\neither; sinning if she overvalueth either. But why did you not\nanswer those tests I produced for the strengthening of my argument\n(Rom 14:17,18; Deut 27:47; James 2:8-12; 1 Cor 9:21, 5:9-11; Gal\n6:15,16; Phil 3; 1 Tim 1:9-11; Acts 20:28-32; Rom 13:13; James 4:11;\n1 Cor 5:12). Deal fairly; Answer those texts, with the argument\nmade upon them; and when you have after a godly manner done that,\nyou may the more boldly condemn.\n\nYou tell me, that I say, 'None ever received baptism without light\ntherein.'\n\nWhat if I did? (as I did not) but you grant it: and now I will ask\nyou, and pray deal fairly in your answer. May a man be a visible\nsaint without light therein? May he have a good conscience without\nlight therein? And seeing that baptism is none of the worship that\nChrist instituted in his church for them to practice as a church,\nmust he be kept dark about all other things concerning the worship\nof God in his church, until he receive light therein?\n\nYou have answered already, 'That they ought to be ashamed, and\nto repent of that abomination [their sprinkling] BEFORE they come\nto have a sight of the pattern of the house of God, the goings\nin and the comings out thereof' (Eze 43:10,11). But, Sir, where\ndo you find that want of light in water baptism, or because a\nman hath been sprinkled, that he is to be kept dark in all other\ntemple-institutions, till he be ashamed and repent of that? Pray\nproduce the texts, for Ezekiel helps you nothing: he speaks only\nof the pattern of the house, the goings out, and comings in thereof.\nAs for the coming in, you have already confessed, That baptism is\nnot the entering ordinance. And as for the worship that Christ\nhath instituted in his church, as a church, I say, (and you also\nhave said it) baptism is none of the forms thereof, none of the\nordinances thereof, none of the laws thereof; for baptism is, as\nto the practice of it, that which is without the church, without\nthe house of God.[6] Then by your own text, if a man do repent\nhim of his christening in his childhood, he may be received into\nfellowship without submitting to baptism: but I will not strain\nyou too far.\n\nYou add, 'Is it a person's light that giveth being to a precept?'\n\nAns. Who said it? Yet it is his light and faith about it, that\ncan make him to do it acceptably.\n\nYou ask again, 'Suppose men plead want of light in other commands?'\n\nAns. If they be not such, the forbearance of which, discapacitates\nhim of membership, he may yet be received to fellowship.\n\n'But what if a man want light in the supper?'\n\nAns. There is more to be said in that case than in the other: for\nthat is a part of that worship which Christ hath instituted for\nhis church, to be conversant in as a church; presenting them as\nsuch, with their communion with their Head, and with one another\nas members of him. 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not\nthe communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break,\nis it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many\nare one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one\nbread' (1 Cor 10:16,17). Wherefore this being a duty incumbent\non the church, as a church; and on every member of that body as\nsuch, they are obliged in that case more closely to deal with the\nmembers, than in that wherein they are not so concerned; and with\nwhich as such, they have nothing to do. No man baptizeth by virtue\nof his office in the church; no man is baptized by virtue of his\nmembership there.\n\n'But what if a man want light in his duty to the poor?'\n\nAns. If he doth, God must give it him; I mean to know his duty\nas a church member. Now I will add, but what if he that can give\na shilling, giveth nothing? I suppose all that the church can do\nin that case, is but to warn, to exhort, and charge him, and to\nshew him his duty: and if he neglect, to shew him, that 'He which\nsoweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly' (2 Cor 9:6). But to\ncut a man off for this, as you forwardly urge, would argue that\nchurch, at least I think so, a little too bold with so high and\nweighty a censure. I plead not here for the churl, but seek to\nallay your heat: and should it be granted that such deserve as\nyou would have it, this makes no matter to the case in hand. Now\nwhereas you suggest, 'That moral evils are but sins against men,'\nyou are too much unadvised: the moral evil, as you call it,\nwhether you respect the breach of the first or second table, is\nfirst and immediately a sin against God; and more insufferable, yea\nand damnable, than for a man for want of light to forbear either\nbaptism or the Lord's Supper.\n\nBut say you, 'We have now found an advocate for sin against God,\nin the breach of one of HIS holy commands?'\n\nAns. As if none of the moral precepts were HIS. But, Sir, who have\nI pleaded for, in the denial of any one ordinance of God? Yea, or\nfor their neglect of it either? What I say, is but that men must\nhave light, that they may not do in darkness, or Papist-like, live\nby an implicit faith.\n\nBut I see you put no difference between an open breach of the\nlaw, and a forbearing that which to him is doubtful. But I will\nsuppose a case: There is a man wants light in baptism, yet by\nhis neighbour is pressed to it: he saith he seeth it not to be\nhis duty; the other saith, he sins if he doth it not: now seeing\n'whatsoever is not of faith is sin' (Rom 14:23); what should this\nman do? If you say, let him use the means: I say so too. But what,\nif when he hath used it, he still continueth dark about it; what\nwill you advise him now? If you bid him wait, do you not encourage\nhim to live in sin, as much as I do? Nay, and seeing you will\nnot let him for want of light in that, obey God in other his\ninstitutions; what is it but to say, Seeing you live for want\nof light in the neglect of baptism, we will make you, while you\ncontinue so, live, though quite against your light, in the breach\nof all the rest. And WHERE you are commanded thus, you may shew\nthe place when you find it.\n\nNow where you urge, that you are one of them that say, 'The epistles\nwere writ to particular churches, and so serve nothing at all for\nour kind of communion.' Urging further, 'That it will be difficult\nfor me to prove, that they were also directed to particular saints.'\n\nAns. I wish there were nothing harder, that were good for me to\ndo. But what should be the reason that our author, with others\nof his opinion, should stickle so hard to prove [that] all the\nepistles were wrote to particular churches? Why, because those\nmembers were, as they think, every one baptized; and so the epistles\nfrom which we fetch our arguments for the love and concord of\nsaints, to be only proper to themselves.[7] But if this be true,\nthere is virtue indeed, and more than ever I dreamed of, in partaking\nof water baptism: for if that shall take away the epistles, and\nconsequently the whole Bible, from all that are not baptized;\nthen are the other churches, and also particular saints, in a very\ndeplorable condition. For he asketh me very devoutly, 'Whether\nany unbaptized persons were concerned in these epistles?' But why\nwould they take from us the Holy Scriptures? Verily, that we might\nhave naught to justify our practice withal: for if the Scriptures\nbelong only to baptized believers, they then belong not to the\nrest; and in truth, if they could persuade us to yield them this\ngrant, we should but sorrily justify our practice. But I would ask\nthese men, 'If the word of God came out from them? Or if it came\nto them only?' (1 Cor 14:36). Or, whether Christ hath not given his\nwhole word to every one that believeth, whether they be baptized,\nor in, or out of church fellowship (James 17:14). Or, whether every\nsaint in some sort, hath not the keys of the kingdom of heaven,\nwhich are the Scriptures and their power? Would to God they\nhad learned more modesty, than thus to take from all others, and\nappropriate to themselves, and that for the sake of their observing\na circumstance in religion, so high, and glorious a privilege.\n\nBut we will come a little to proof: what church will this author\nfind in Rome, that time the epistle was sent to the brethren\nthere, besides that church that was in Aquila's house, although\nmany more saints were then in the city? (Rom 16:5). Yea, the\napostle in his salutation at the beginning, embraceth them only\nas brethren, without the least intimation of their being gathered\ninto fellowship: 'To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called\nto be saints: Grace to you,' &c. (1:7). To all there, to all\nin that city, beloved of God, and that are converted to the Lord\nJesus Christ. A church there was in Aquila's house, and that\nthere were many more saints besides, is, and that by the text, as\nmanifest. Besides, considering the rules that are given them in\nthe 14th and 15th chapters about their receiving one another, doth\nyet strongly suggest to me, that they were not yet in fellowship,\nbut as it were now about it, when Paul wrote his epistle to them.\n\nThe first epistle written to Corinth, was also wrote to all them\n'that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord'\n(1:2). But it will be hard work for our author to make it manifest,\nthat none in those days did call on the name of our Lord, but those\nthat were first baptized. The second epistle also, was not only\nwritten to the church at Corinth, but also to 'all the saints which\nwere in all Achaia' (2 Cor 1:1). To the Galatians and Thessalonians\nindeed, his salutation was only to the churches there: But the\nthree epistles before were as well to all other [saints]: As also\nthat to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, in which the\nfaithful and SAINTS in Christ Jesus were also every one comprehended.\nBesides, to what particular church was the epistle to the Hebrews\nwrote? Or the epistle of James? Both those of Peter, and the first\nof John? Nay, that of John was wrote to some at that time out of\nfellowship, 'that also may have fellowship with [us]' the church\n(1:1-4). So that these brethren must not have all the scriptures.\nWe have then a like privilege with all saints, to use the scriptures\nfor our godly edifying, and to defend ourselves thereby, from the\nassaults of those that would make spoil of us. But to pass this,\nand come to the next.\n\nYou object for that I said, 'If water baptism [as the circumstances\nwith which the church was pestered of old] trouble the peace, and\nwound the consciences of the godly, dismember and break their\nfellowships; it is, although an ordinance, for the present prudently\nto be shunned.' At this (as I said) you object, and say, 'Did I\never find baptism a pest or plague to churches? And did ever God\nsend an ordinance to be a pest and plague to his people?'\n\nI answer: I said not that God did send it for any such end at all;\nGod's ordinances are none of this in themselves: nor if used as,\nand for the end for which God sent them. But yet both baptism,\nand the supper of the Lord, have, by being wrested out of their\nplace, been a great affliction to the godly both in this and\nother ages. What say you to breaking of bread, which the devil, by\nabusing, made an engine in the hand of Papists, to burn, starve,\nhang and draw thousands? What say you to John of Leyden? What\nwork did he make by the abuse of the ordinance of water baptism?\nAnd I wish this age had not given cause, through the church-rending\nspirits that some are possessed with, to make complaint of this\nmatter; who have also had for their engine the baptism with water.\nYea, yourself, Sir, so far as I can perceive, could you get but\nthe opportunity; yourself (I say) under pretence of this innocent\nordinance, as you term it, would not stick to make inroads,\nand outroads too, in all the churches, that suit not your fancy,\nin the land. For you have already been bold to affirm, 'That all\nthose that have baptized infants, ought to be ashamed and repent,\nbefore they be showed the pattern of the house.' And what is this\nbut to threaten, that could you have your will of them, you would\nquickly take from them their present church privileges, and let\nthem see nothing thereof, till those qualifications, especially\nsubjection to water baptism, was found to attend each of them.\n\nAs to the persons you speak of, 'Who have rent churches in pieces,\nby making preaching by method, doctrine, reason and use, to be\nanti-christian': Or, because they could not have other ministrations\nperformed after their fancies 'the imprudence of such with yourselves,\nhath been heart-breaking to many a gracious soul; an high occasion\nof stumbling to the weak, and a reproach to the ways of the Lord.'\nThat it may be prudently shunned, I referred you then for proof,\nto what should be offered after: but at this you cry out, and so\npass it.\n\nAnd now, reader, although this author hath thus objected against\nsome passages in this my first argument for communion with persons\nunbaptized; yet the body of my argument he misseth and passeth over,\nas a thing not worth the answering; whether because he forgot, or\nbecause he was conscious to himself, that he knew not what to do\ntherewith, I will not now determine. 1. I effectually prove, 'That\nbaptism is not the initiating ordinance.' 2. I prove, 'That though\nit was, yet the case may so fall out, that members might be received\nwithout it.' 3. I prove, 'That baptism makes no man a visible\nsaint, nor giveth any right to church fellowship.' 4. I prove,\n'That faith, and a life becoming the law of the ten commandments,\nshould be the chief and most solid argument with true churches to\nreceive saints to fellowship.'[8] 5. I prove, 'That circumcision\nin the flesh, which was the entering ordinance of old, was a type\nof circumcision in the heart,' &c. These things, with others, our\nauthor letteth pass; although in the proof of them abideth the\nstrength of this first argument; to which I must entreat him in\nhis next, to cast his eye, and give fair answer; as also to the\nscriptures on which each are built, or he must suffer me to say,\nI am abused. Further, I make a question upon three scriptures,\nWhether all the saints, even in the primitive times, were baptized\nwith water? to which also he answereth nothing; whereas he ought\nto have done it, if he will take in hand to confute. The scriptures\nare 1 Corinthians 1:14-16; Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27. Yet were\nthey effectually answered, my argument is nothing weakened.\n\nYou come to my second argument, drawn from Ephesians 4:4-6. Upon\nwhich a little more now to enlarge, and then to take notice of\nyour objection. The apostle then in that fourth of the Ephesians,\nexhorteth the church there 'with all lowliness and meekness, with\nlong suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to\nkeep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace' (vv 2,3). This\ndone, he presents them with such arguments, as might fasten his\nexhortation to purpose upon them.\n\n1. The first is, because the body is ONE; There is 'one body';\ntherefore they should not divide. For if the church of Christ be\na body, there ought not to be a rent or schism among them (1 Cor\n12).\n\n2. His second argument is, There is 'one spirit,' or one quickening\nprinciple by which the body is made to live; for having asserted\nbefore that Christ hath indeed a body, it was meet that he showed\nalso, that this body hath life, and motion. Now that life, being\nnone other, than that nourishment, or spirit of life, from which\n'the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which\nevery joint supplieth, according to the effectual working of the\nmeasure in every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying\nof itself in love' (Eph 4:16). Now this spirit, being first, and\nchiefly, in the head, therefore none other but those that hold the\nhead can have this nourishment ministered to them: besides, this\nis the spirit that knits the body together, and makes it increase\nwith the increase of God (Col 2:19). This is 'the unity of the\nspirit' which he before exhorts them to keep.\n\n3. The third argument is, Because their hope is also but one. 'Even\nas ye are called [saith he] in one hope of your calling': as who\nshould say, My brethren, if you are called with one calling, if\nyour hope, both as to the grace of hope, and also the object, be\nbut one: if you hope for one heaven, and for one eternal life:\nthen maintain that unity of the spirit, and hope, while here, in\nlove, 'and the bond of peace' (Eph 4:3).\n\n4. The fourth argument is, There is 'one Lord,' or husband, or prince,\nto whom this church belongs: therefore if we have husbands, but\none, Lord and prince but one, let us not read into many parties,\nas if we had many husbands, lords, and princes, to govern us,\nas his wife, his house, and kingdom. 'Is Christ divided?' (1 Cor\n1:13).\n\n5. The fifth argument is, There is 'one faith,' by which we all\nstand justified by one Lord Jesus Christ; 'one faith' by which we\nescape the wrath of God; 'one faith' by which only they that have\nit are blessed; yea, seeing there is but 'one faith,' by which\nwe are all put into one way of salvation, let us hold together as\nsuch.\n\n6. The sixth argument is, There is 'one baptism.' Now we are come\nto the pinch, viz., Whether it be that of water, or no? which\nI must positively deny. (1.) Because water baptism hath nothing\nto do in a church, as a church; it neither bringeth us into the\nchurch, nor is any part of our worship when we come there; how then\ncan the peace and unity of the church depend upon water baptism?\nBesides, he saith expressly, It is the 'unity of the spirit,' not\nwater, that is here intended: and the arguments brought to enforce\nit, are such as wholly and immediately relate to the duty of the\nchurch, as a church. (2.) Further, That other text, that treateth\nof our being baptized into a body, saith expressly it is done by\nthe spirit: 'For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body'\n(1 Cor 12:13). Here is the church presented as under the notion\nof 'one body'; here is a baptism mentioned, by which they are\nbrought, or initiated into this body: Now that this is the baptism\nof water, is utterly against the words of the text; 'For by one\nspirit are we all baptized into one body.' Besides, if the baptism\nhere be of water, then is it the initiating ordinance; but the\ncontrary I have proved, and this author stands by my doctrine.\nSo then, the baptism here respecting the church as one body, and\nwater, having nothing to do to enter men into the church, nor to\ncommand them to practise it as a church, in order to their peace\nor communion, or respecting the worship of God as such: and (I say\nagain) the baptism in the sixth argument, being urged precisely\nfor no other purpose, but with respect to the church's peace as\na body; it must needs be THAT baptism, by virtue of which, they\nwere initiated, and joined together in one; and that baptism being\nonly that which the Spirit executeth; this therefore is that one\nbaptism.\n\n7. The other argument is also effectual; there is 'One God and\nFather of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you\nall' (Eph 4:6). If we are 'one body'; if to it there be but 'one\nspirit'; if we have but 'one hope, one faith,' and be all baptized\nby 'one spirit' into that 'one' body; and if we have but 'one\nLord, one God,' and he in every one of us; let us be also 'one':\nand let them that are thus qualified, both join together, and hold\nin one.\n\nBut our author against this, objecteth, That, 'now I employ my pen\nagainst every man; and give the lie to all expositors, for they\nhold this one baptism, to be none other than that of water.'[9]\n\nAns. What if I should also send you to answer those expositors\nthat expound certain scriptures for infant baptism, and that by\nthem brand us for anabaptists; must this drive you from your belief\nof the truth? EXPOSITORS I reverence, but must live by mine own\nfaith (Habb 2:4). God hath no where bound himself to them more\nthan to others, with respect to the revelation of his mind in his\nword. But it becomes not you to run thus to expositors, who are,\nas to your notions in many things, but of yesterday: 'to the law,\nand to the testimony' (Isa 8:20): for 'Out of the mouth of babes'\nthe Lord hath 'ordained strength' (Psa 8:2).\n\nBut you bid me tell you, 'What I mean by spirit baptism?'\n\nAns. Sir, you mistake me, I treat not here of our being baptized\nwith the Spirit, with respect to its coming from heaven into us;\nbut of that act of the spirit, when come, which baptizeth us into\na body or church. It is one thing to be baptized with the Spirit\nin the first sense; and another to be baptized by it in the sense\nI treat of: for the Spirit to come upon me, is one thing; and\nfor that when come, to implant, embody, or baptize me into the\nbody of Christ, is another. Your question therefore is grounded\non a mistake, both of my judgment, and the words of the apostle.\nWherefore thus I soon put an end to your objections. For the\nSpirit to come down upon me, is one thing; and for the Spirit to\nbaptize, or implant me into the church, is another: for to be\npossessed with the spirit, is one thing; and to be led by that\nspirit, is another. I conclude then; seeing the argument taken\nfrom that one baptism, respecteth church fellowship properly;\nand seeing water baptism meddleth not with it as such; it is the\nother, even that in 1 Corinthians 12:16 that is here intended,\nand no other.\n\nBut you add, 'If nothing but extraordinary gifts are called the\nbaptism of the Spirit in a strict sense; then that baptism (1 Cor\n12) must be water baptism, as well as that in the Ephesians.'\n\nHold: you make your conclusions before you have cause; first, prove\nthat in the Ephesians to be meant of water baptism, and that the\nbaptism in 1 Corinthians 12:16 is the baptism you would have it;\nand then conclude my argument void. That it is the baptism of the\nHoly Ghost according to the common notion, I say not; for you to\nassert it is the baptism of water, gives the lie to the text: but\nthat it is an act of the Holy Ghost, baptizing the saints into\na body, or church, you will hardly be able to make the contrary\nappear to be truth. 'But behold, while here you would have this\nto be baptism with water, how you contradict and condemn your own\nnotion: you say water baptism is not the entering ordinance; yet\nthe baptism here is such as baptizeth us into a body: wherefore\nbefore you say next time that this in 1 Corinthians 12:16 is meant\nof water baptism; affirm that water baptism is the initiating or\nentering ordinance, that your opinion and doctrine may hang better\ntogether.'\n\nWe come to my third argument; which is to prove, that it is lawful\nto hold church communion with the godly sincere believer, though\nhe hath not be baptized with water, because he hath the DOCTRINE\nof baptisms (Heb 6:2). Which doctrine I distinguish from the\npractice of it; the doctrine being that which by the outward sign\nis presented to us; or which by the outward circumstance of the\nact is preached to the believer, viz., the death of Christ, my\ndeath with Christ; also his resurrection from the dead, and mine\nwith him to newness of life. 'This our author calleth one of the\nstrangest paradoxes that he hath LIGHTLY observed.'\n\nAns. How light he is in his observation of things, I know not; this\nI am sure, the apostle makes mention of the doctrine of baptisms;\nnow that the doctrine of a man, or ordinance, is the signification\nof what is preached, is apparent to very sense. What is Christ's\ndoctrine, Paul's doctrine, scripture doctrine, but the truth couched\nunder the words that are spoken? so the doctrine of baptism, yea\nand the doctrine of the Lord's supper, are those truths or mysteries\nthat such ordinances preach unto us. And that the doctrine of\nbaptism, in this sense, is the great end for which that, and the\nLord's supper, was instituted, is apparent from all the scriptures:\nit is that which the apostle seeketh for in that eminent sixth\nof the Romans, 'Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized\ninto Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are\nburied with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was\nraised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we\nalso should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted\ntogether in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the\nlikeness of his resurrection' (3-5). What is here discoursed, but\nthe doctrine of or that which baptism teacheth; with an intimation;\nthat that was the chief, for the sake of which that shadow was\ninstituted; as also that they that have the doctrine, or that\nwhich is signified thereby, they only must reign with Christ.\n\nAgain, This is that which he seeketh for among the Corinthians;\n'If the dead rise not at all,' [saith he], 'why then were you\nbaptized for the dead?' (1 Cor 15:29). Why then were you baptized?\nWhat did baptism teach you? What doctrine did it preach to you?\nfurther, 'Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen\nwith him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised\nhim from the dead' (Col 2:12). What is here in chief asserted,\nbut the doctrine only which water baptism preacheth? with an\nintimation, that they, and they only, are the saved of the Lord,\nthat have heard, received, and that live in this doctrine.\n\nThe same may be said of the Lord's supper, it also hath its\ndoctrine. But against this our author objecteth, saying, 'That\nthis is called the doctrine of baptism, I am yet to learn.'\n\nAns. Your ignorance of the truth makes it not an error: but I pray\nyou, what is the doctrine of baptism, if not that which baptism\nteacheth, even that which is signified thereby? As that is the\ndoctrine of Christ, and the scriptures; which he and they teach\nas the mind of God.\n\nBut you say, 'I took the doctrine of baptism to be the command\nthat a believer should be baptized, for such ends as the gospel\nexpresseth.'\n\nAns. To assert that a figurative ordinance is of God, is one thing;\nbut the doctrinal signification of that ordinance is another. A\nman may preach the command, yet none of the doctrine which baptism\npreacheth. The doctrine lieth not in the command, but the mystery\ndiscovered to faith, by the act.\n\nYou object, 'If the resurrection be the doctrine of baptism, why\ndoth the apostle make that, and the doctrine of baptism, things\ndistinct, in Hebrews 6.'\n\nAns. The resurrection simply considered, is not the doctrine of\nbaptism, but Christ's, and mine by him. Besides, there is more in\nit than the mystery of this resurrection; there is my death first,\nand then my rising with him.\n\nBut you add, 'Under the law, all the sacrifices of that dispensation,\nwith their sabbaths, were types of that Christ, who was the substance\nof all those ceremonies. If any of them then that professed faith\nin the Messias to come, should upon scruples, or want of pretended\nlight, neglect the whole, or part of that typical worship; why\nmay not a man say of them, as this advocate of the practice under\ndebate, they had the richer and better sacrifice.'\n\nAns. First, that the brethren which refuse to be baptized, as\nyou and I would have them, refuse it for want of pretended light,\nbecomes you not to imagine, unless your boldness will lead you\nto judge, that all men want sincerity, that come not up to our\njudgment. Their conscience may be better than either yours or mine;\nyet God, for purposes best known to himself, may forbear to give\nthem conviction of their duty in this particular. But what, because\nthey are not baptized, have they not Jesus Christ? Or, must we\nnow be afraid to say that Christ is better than water baptism?[10]\nYea, God himself for the sake of this better thing, hath suffered\nin his church a suspension of some of his ordinances, yet owned\nthem for his truly constituted congregation. What say you to the\nchurch in the wilderness? I touched you with it in my first, but\nperceive you listed not to meddle therewith. That church received\nmembers, the way which was not prescribed by, but directly against\nthe revealed mind of God; yet stood a true church, their members\ntrue members; also that church in that state, was such before\nwhom, among whom, and to whom God continually made known himself\nto be their God, and owned them for his peculiar treasure.\n\nAnd now I am fallen upon it, let me a little enlarge: this church,\naccording to the then instituted worship of God, had circumcision\nfor their entering ordinance (Gen 17:13,14), without which it was\nunlawful to receive any into fellowship with them: yea, he that\nwithout it was received, was to be cut off, and cast out again.\nFurther, as to the passover, the uncircumcised were utterly\nforbidden to eat it (Exo 12:48). Now if our brethren had as\nexpress prohibition to justify their groundless opinion, as here\nis to exclude the uncircumcised from the communion of the church\nand the passover: I say, if they could find it written, 'No\nunbaptized person shall enter, no unbaptized person shall eat of\nthe supper'; what a noise would they make about it? But yet let\nthe reader observe, that although circumcision was the entering\nordinance, and our author saith baptism is not; yea, though this\nchurch was expressly forbidden to receive the uncircumcised, and\nwe have not a syllable now to forbid the unbaptized, yet this church\nreceived members without, and otherwise than by this entering\nordinance. They also admitted them to the passover; yea,\nentertained, retained, and held communion with them so long as\nforty years without it. I say again, That the number of this sort\nof communicants was not so few as six hundred thousand. Moreover,\nto these uncircumcised was the land of Canaan given, yea, a\npossession of part thereof before they were circumcised; but the\nold circumcised ones might not enter therein. I am the larger in\nthis, because our author hath overlooked my first mention thereof.\nAnd now I ask, What was the reason that God continued his presence\nwith this church notwithstanding this transgression? Was it not\nbecause they had that richer and better thing, 'the Lord Jesus\nChrist?' For they did all eat of that spiritual bread, and drink\nof that 'spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was\nChrist' (1 Cor 10:3,4). I confess I find them under rebukes and\njudgments in the wilderness, and that they were many times threatened\nto be destroyed; but yet I find not so much as one check for their\nreceiving of members uncircumcised. Further, in the New Testament,\nwhere we have a catalogue of their sins, and also of their punishment\nfor them; we find not a word about circumcision, nor the smallest\nintimation of the least rebuke for neglecting the entering ordinance\n(1 Cor 10:5-10). I will therefore say of them, as I have also\nsaid of my brethren, 'They had the richer and better thing.'\n\nBut you object, 'That this putteth the whole of God's instituted\nworship both under the law and gospel, to the highest uncertainties.'\n\nAns. This putteth our opposers out of their road, and quencheth the\nflame of their unwarrantable zeal. For if the entering ordinance,\nif the ordinance without which no man might be added to the church,\nwas laid aside for forty years; yea, if more than six hundred\nthousand did communicate with them without it: I say again, If\nthey did it, and held communion with God, that notwithstanding;\nyea, and had not, that we read of, all that time one small check\nfor so doing; why may not we now enter communion, hold communion,\nmaintain communion, church communion, without being judged,\nand condemned by you? because we cannot for want of light be all\nbaptized before; especially considering baptism makes no man a\nsaint, is not the entering ordinance, is no part of the worship\nof God enjoined the church as a church. To conclude, although we\nreceive members unbaptized [in after], we leave not God's instituted\nworship at uncertainties, especially what he hath commanded us\nas his church; we only profess our want of light in some things;\nbut see no word to warrant the forbearance of our duty in all,\nfor want of persuasion in one.\n\nYou object, 'I call baptism a circumstance, an outward-shew I\nNICKNAME it.'\n\nAns. Deep reproof! but why did you not shew me my evil in thus\ncalling it, when opposed to the substance, and the thing signified?\nIs it the substance, is it the thing signified? And why may not I\ngive it the name of a shew; when you call it a symbol, and compare\nit to a gentleman's livery?\n\nBut you say, I call it an outward shew.\n\nAns. Is it an inward one? What is it?\n\n'It is a command.'\n\nAns. But doth that install it in that place and dignity, that was\nnever intended for it?\n\nYou object further, 'They cannot have the doctrine of baptism that\nunderstand not our way of administering it.'\n\nThis is your mistake, both of the doctrine and thing itself. But\nif you will not SCORN to take notice of me, I advise you again\nto consider, That a man may find baptism to be commanded, may\nbe informed who ought to administer it; may also know the proper\nsubject; and that the manner of baptizing is dipping; and may desire\nto practise it because it is commanded, and yet know nothing of\nwhat water baptism preacheth; or of the mystery baptism sheweth\nto faith. But that the doctrine of baptism is not the practice of\nit, not the outward act, but the thing signified; and that every\nbeliever hath that, must argue you more than too bold to deny it.\n\nBut say you, 'Who taught you to divide betwixt Christ and his\nprecepts, that you word it at such a rate? That he that hath the\none,' &c.\n\nAns. To say nothing of faith, and the word; verily reason itself\nteacheth it. For if Christ be my righteousness, and not water; if\nChrist be my advocate, and not water; if there be that good and\nblessedness in Christ, that is not in water; then is Jesus Christ\nbetter than water; and also in these to be eternally divided from\nwater; unless we will make them co-saviours, co-advocates, and\nsuch as are equally good and profitable to men.\n\nBut say you, 'I thought that he that hath Christ, had an orderly\nright to all Christ's promises and precepts; and that the precepts\nof Christ, are part of the riches that a believer hath in and by\nChrist.'\n\nAns. A believer hath more in Christ than either promise or precept;\nbut all believers know not all things, that of God are given to\nthem by Christ. But must not they use, and enjoy what they know,\nbecause they know not all. Or must they neglect the weightier\nmatters, because they want mint, and anise, and cummin? Your\npretended orderly right is your fancy; there is not a syllable\nin the whole bible, that bids a Christian to forbear his duty in\nother things, because he wanteth, as you term it, the symbol, or\nwater baptism.\n\nBut say you, 'He that despiseth his birthright of ordinances, our\nchurch privileges, will be found to be a profane person, as Esau\nin God's account.'\n\nBaptism is not the privilege of a church as such. But what? are\nthey all Esau's indeed? Must we go to hell, and be damned, for\nwant of faith in water baptism? And take notice, I do not plead\nfor a despising of baptism, but a bearing with our brother, that\ncannot do it for want of light. The best of baptism he hath,\nviz. the signification thereof: he wanteth only the outward shew,\nwhich if he had, would not prove him a truly visible saint; it\nwould not tell me he had the grace of God in his heart; it is no\ncharacteristical note to another of my Sonship with God. But why\ndid you not answer these parts of my argument? Why did you only\ncavil at words? which if they had been left out, the argument yet\nstands good. 'He that is not baptized [in water], if yet a true\nbeliever, hath the DOCTRINE of baptism; yea, he ought to have it\nbefore he be convicted, it is his duty to be baptized, or else he\nplayeth the hypocrite. There is therefore no difference between\nthat believer that is, and he that is not yet baptized with water;\nbut only his going down into the water, there to perform an outward\nceremony, the substance of which he hath already; which yet he is\nnot commanded to do with respect to membership with the church;\nbut to obtain by that, further understanding of his privilege by\nChrist, which before he made profession of, and that as a visible\nbeliever.'[11]\n\nBut to come to my fourth argument, which you so tenderly touch\nas if it burnt your fingers: 'I am bold [say I] to have communion\nwith visible saints as before, because God hath communion with them,\nwhose example in the case we are strictly commanded to follow.'\n'Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory\nof God' (Rom 15:7). Yea, though they be saints, in opinion contrary\nto you, or I. 'We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities\nof the weak, and not to please ourselves' (Rom 15:1). Infirmities\nthat are sinful: for they that are natural are incident to all.\nInfirmities therefore they are, that for want of light, cause\na man to err in circumstantials: and the reason upon which Paul\ngroundeth this admonition is; 'For even Christ pleased not himself,\nbut, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee\nfell on me' (Rom 15:3).\n\nYou say to this, 'That it is Paul's direction to the church at\nRome how to receive their brethren church members.'\n\nI answer, 1. What? are not the poor saints now in this city? are\nnot they concerned in these instructions? or is not the church\nby these words at all directed how to carry it to those that were\nnot yet in fellowship? A bold assertion! but grounded upon nothing,\nbut that you would have it so. 2. But how will you prove that there\nwas a church, a rightly constituted church, at Rome, besides that\nin Aquila's house? (chap. 16). Neither doth this epistle, nor any\nother in the whole book of God affirm it. Besides, since Paul in\nthis last chapter saluteth the church, as in this man's house,\nbut the other, only as particular saints, it giveth further ground\nof conviction to you, that those others were not as yet imbodied\nin such a fellowship. 3. But suppose there was another church\nbesides; it doth not therefore follow, that the apostle exhorteth\nthem only to receive persons already in fellowship; but 'Him,'\neven every 'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to\ndoubtful disputations' (14:1). 4. Suppose again, the receiving\nhere exhorted to, be such as you would have it, yet the rule by\nwhich they are directed to do it, is that by which we perceive\nthat Christ hath received them. But Christ did not receive them by\n[water] baptism, but as given to him by the Father. Him, therefore,\nconcerning whom we are convinced, that he by the Father is given\nto Christ, 'Him should we receive.' 5. But what need I grant you,\nthat which cannot be proved? yet if you could prove it, it availeth\nnothing at all; because you may not, cannot, ought not to dare to\nlimit the exhortation to receiving of one another into each other's\naffections only; and not also receiving saints into communion.\n\nBut you object: 'To make God's receiving the rule of our receiving,\nin all cases will not hold.'\n\nAns. Keep to the thing, man: if it hold in the case in hand, it\nis enough, the which you have not denied. And that it holds thus,\nis plain, because commanded. But let the reader know, that your\nputting in that way of his receiving which is invisible to us;\nis but an unhandsome straddling over my argument, which treateth\nonly of a visible receiving; such as is manifest to the church.\nThis you knew, but sought by evading to turn the reader from\nconsidering the strength of this my argument. 'The receiving then\n[said I] because it is set as an example to the church, is such\nas must needs be visible unto them; and is best discovered by that\nword that describeth the visible saint. Whoso then you can judge\na visible saint, one that walketh with God, you may, nay ought to\njudge by the same word, that God hath received him. Now him that\nGod receiveth, him should you receive.' But will any object; they\ncannot believe that God receiveth the unbaptized saints; I will\nnot suppose you so much stupefied, and therefore shall make no\nanswer.\n\nBut you seem to be much offended, because I said, 'Vain man! Think\nnot by the straightness of thine order in outward, and bodily\nconformity to outward and shadowish circumstances, that thy peace\nis maintained with God?' But why so much offended at this? [It is\nsay you] 'Because you intend by this the brethren of the baptized\nway.'\n\nAns. If they be vain men, and set up their OWN order, how straight\nsoever they make it, they are worthy to be reproved; if 'they\nhave rejected the word of the Lord; what wisdom is in them?' (Jer\n8:9). And as you suggest the first, I affirm the second. But if\nyou would be justified in excluding those, with whom yet you see\nGod hath communion, because they yet see not a shadow with you;\nproduce the scripture for such order, that we may believe it is the\norder of God. But deal fairly, lest we shew your nakedness, and\nothers see your shame. You tell me of the order of the Colossians\n(2:5). But if you can prove that that church refused to hold\ncommunion with that saint whom they knew to be received by Christ,\nand held communion with him [Christ], or that none but those that\nare baptized [in water] are received by and hold communion with\nhim, then you justify your order. In the mean while the whole of\nmine argument stands firm against you; 'You must have communion\nwith visible saints, because God hath communion with them, whose\nexample in the case we are strictly commanded to follow.'\n\nBut you ask me, 'If outward and bodily conformity be become a\ncrime?'\n\nAns. I nowhere said it; but know that to glorify God with our\nbodies, respecteth chiefly far higher and more weighty things,\nthan that of water baptism; 'Whatsoever is not of faith is sin'\n(Rom 14:23); and to set up an ordinance, though an ordinance of\nGod, that by it the church may be pulled in pieces, or the truly\nvisible saints excluded communion with their brethren; I say again,\nto make water baptism a bar and division between saint and saint,\nevery whit otherwise gracious and holy alike: This is like fasting\n'for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness'\n(Isa 58:4); and is not to be found within the whole bible, but\nis wholly an order of your own devising. As to the peace you make\nan objection about you have granted me what I intended; and now I\nadd further, that for church peace to be founded in water baptism,\nor any other external rite, not having to do with the church, as\na church, is poor peace indeed: Church peace is founded in blood;\nand love to each other for Jesus' sake (Phil 2:1-4). Bearing with,\nand forbearing one another, in all things circumstantial, that\nconcern not church worship as such (Eph 4:31,32). And in my other\n[treatise] I have proved that baptism is not such, and therefore\nought not to be urged to make rents and divisions among brethren.\n\nBut you ask, 'Is my peace maintained in a way of disobedience?\nand conclude if it be, you fear it is false.'\n\nAns. If the first were true; you need not to doubt of the second;\nbut it may be thought he hath little to say in the controversy,\nwho is forced to stuff out his papers, with such needless prattles\nas these.\n\nMy fifth argument is, 'That a failure in such a circumstance as\nwater baptism, doth not unchristian us'; this you are compelled\nto grant. And I conclude with your words, persons ought to be\nChristians before visible Christians; such as any congregation in\nthe land may receive to communion with themselves, because God\nhath shewed us that he has received them. 'Receive him to the glory\nof God.' To the glory of God, is put in on purpose, to shew what\ndishonour they bring to him, who despise to have communion with\nsuch, whom they know do maintain communion with God. I say again,\nHow doth this man, or that church, glorify God, or count the wisdom\nand holiness of heaven beyond them, when they refuse communion\nwith them, concerning whom yet they are convinced, that they\nhave communion with God? But my argument you have not denied; nor\nmeddled with the conclusion at all; which is, 'That therefore,\neven because a failure here, doth not unchristian us, doth not\nmake us insincere'; and I add, doth not lay us open to any revealed\njudgment or displeasure of God (if it doth, shew where) therefore\nit should not, it ought not to make us obnoxious to the displeasure\nof the church of God.\n\nBut you say, 'I rank gospel precepts, with Old Testament abrogated\nceremonies.'\n\nAns. You should have given your reader my words, that he might\nhave judged from my own mouth: I said then, speaking before of\nChristianity itself, 'that thousands of thousands that could not\nconsent to water, as we, are now with the innumerable company of\nangels, and the spirits of just men made perfect.' What was said of\neating, or the contrary, may as to this be said of water baptism:\nneither if I be baptized, am I the better? neither if I be not,\nam I the worse? not the better before God, not the worse before\nmen: still meaning as Paul, provided I walk according to my light\nwith God; otherwise it is false. For if a man that seeth it to\nbe his duty, shall despisingly neglect it; or if he that hath not\nfaith about it, shall foolishly take it up: both these are for\nthis the worse; I mean, as to their own sense, being convicted in\nthemselves, as transgressors. He therefore that doth it according\nto his light, doth well; and he that doth it not, for want of light,\ndoth not ill; for he approveth his heart to be sincere with God,\neven by that his forbearance. And I tell you again, It is nowhere\nrecorded, that this man is under any revealed threatening of God,\nfor his not being baptized with water, he not having light therein,\nbut is admitted through his grace to as many promises as you. If\ntherefore he be not a partaker of that circumstance, yet he is of\nthat liberty, and mercy, by which you stand with God.\n\nBut that I practise instituted worship, upon the same account as\nPaul did circumcision, and shaving, is too bold for you to presume\nto imagine. What? because I will not suffer water to carry away\nthe epistles from the Christians; and because I will not let\nwater baptism be the rule, the door, the bolt, the bar, the wall\nof division between the righteous, and the righteous; must I\ntherefore be judged to be a man without conscience to the worship\nof Jesus Christ? The Lord deliver me from superstitious and\nidolatrous thoughts about any of the ordinances of Christ and of\nGod. But my fifth argument standeth against you untouched; you\nhave not denied, much less confuted the least syllable thereof.\n\nYou tell me my sixth argument is, Edification.\n\nAns. If it be, why is it not embraced? But my own words are these:\n'I am for holding communion thus. Because the edification of souls\nin the faith and holiness of the gospel, is of greater concern than\nan agreement in outward things; I say, it is of greater concern\nwith us, and of far more profit to our brother, than our agreeing\nin, or contesting for, water baptism' (John 16:13; 1 Cor 14:12;\n2 Cor 10:8, 12:19; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor 13:1,2; 8:1). Now why did you\nnot take this argument in pieces, and answer those scriptures, on\nwhich the strength thereof depends; but if to contest, and fall\nout about water baptism, be better than to edify the house of God,\nproduce the texts, that we may be informed.\n\nYou say, 'Edification is the end of all communion, but all things\nmust be done in order, orderly.'\n\nAns. When you have proved that there is no such thing as an orderly\nedifying of the church, without water baptism precede, then it\nwill be time enough to think you have said something.\n\nYou add, 'Edification as to church fellowship being a building up,\ndoth suppose the being of a church; but pray you shew us a church\nwithout baptism.'\n\nAns. See here the spirit of these men, who for the want of water\nbaptism, have at once unchurched all such congregations of God\nin the world; but against this I have, and do urge, That water\nbaptism giveth neither being, nor well-being to a church, neither\nis any part of that instituted worship of God, that the church, as\nsuch, should be found in the practice of. Therefore her edification\nas a church may, yea and ought to be attained unto without it.\n\nBut you say, 'Shew us a New Testament church without baptism.'\n\nAns. What say you to the church all along the Revelation quite\nthrough the reign of Antichrist? Was that a New Testament church,\nor no? Again, If baptism be without the church, as a church,\nif it hath nothing to do in the constituting of a church; if it\nbe not the door of entrance into the church, if it be no part of\nchurch-worship as such; then, although all the members of that\nchurch were baptized, yet the church is a church without water\nbaptism. But all the churches in the New Testament were such:\ntherefore, &c. Again, If baptism respect believers, as particular\npersons only; if it respects their own conscience only; if it\nmake a man no visible believer to me, then it hath nothing to do\nwith church-membership. Because, that which respects my own person\nonly, my own conscience only: that which is no character of my\nvisible saintship to the church, cannot be an argument unto them\nto receive me into fellowship with themselves. But this is true.\nTherefore, &c.\n\nYou proceed, 'If by edification, be meant the private increase\nof grace, in one another, in the use of private means, as private\nChristians in meeting together; how doth the principle you oppose\nhinder that? Endeavour to make men as holy as you can, that they\nmay be fitted for church-fellowship, when God shall shew them the\norderly way to it.'\n\nAns. What a many private things have we now brought out to public\nview? Private Christians, private means, and a private increase\nof grace. But, Sir, Are none but those of your way the public\nChristians? Or, ought none but them that are baptized to have the\npublic means of grace? Or, must their graces be increased by none\nbut private means? Was you awake now? Or, are you become so high\nin your own phantasies, that none have, or are to have but private\nmeans of grace? And, are there no public Christians, or public\nchristian meetings, but them of your way? I did not think that\nall but baptists, should only abide in holes.\n\nBut you find fault because I said, 'Edification is greater than\ncontesting about water baptism.'\n\nAns. If it be not, confute me; if it be, forbear to cavil: water\nbaptism, and all God's ordinances, are to be used to edification;\nnot to beget heats and contentions among the godly, wherefore\nedification is best.\n\nObject. 'I had thought that the preaching, and opening baptism,\nmight have been reckoned a part of our edification.'\n\nAns. The act of water baptism hath not place in church worship,\nneither in whole nor in part; wherefore pressing it upon the church\nis to no purpose at all.\n\nObject. 'Why may you not as well say, that edification is greater\nthan breaking of bread.'\n\nAns. So it is, else that should never have been instituted to\nedify withal; that which serveth, is not greater than he that is\nserved thereby. Baptism and the Lord's supper both, were made for\nus, not we for them; wherefore both were made for our edification,\nbut no one for our destruction. But again, The Lord's supper,\nnot baptism, is for the church, as a church; therefore as we will\nmaintain the church's edifying, that must be maintained in it; yea,\nsued oft, to shew the Lord's death till he come (1 Cor 11:22-26).\nBesides, because it is a great part of church worship, as such,\ntherefore it is pronounced blessed, the Lord did openly bless it\nbefore he gave it; yea and we ought to bless it also; 'The cup of\nblessing which we bless,' not to say more. Therefore your reasoning\nfrom the one to the other will not hold.\n\nObject. 'How comes contesting for water baptism to be so much\nagainst you?'\n\nAns. First, Because weak brethren cannot bear it; whom yet we are\ncommanded to receive, but not to doubtful disputation; doubtful\nto them, therefore for their sakes, I must forbear it (Rom 14:1).\nSecondly, Because I have not seen any good effect, but the contrary,\nwherever such hot spirits have gone before me: 'For where envying\nand strife is, there is confusion,' or tumults, 'and every evil\nwork' (James 3:16).[12] Thirdly, Because by the example of the\nLord, and Paul, we must consider the present state of the church,\nand not trouble them with what they cannot bear (John 16:13; 1\nCor 3:1-3). I conclude then, edification in the church is to be\npreferred above what the church, as a church, hath nothing to do\nwithal. 'All things, dearly beloved, are for our edifying' (1 Cor\n14:5, 12:26; 2 Cor 12:19; Eph 4:16; Rom 15:2; 1 Cor 14:3; 2 Cor\n10:8, 13:10; Rom 14:19). Before I wind up this argument, I present\nyou with several instances, shewing that the breach of [some of]\nGod's precepts have been borne with, when they come in competition\nwith edification. As first, That of Aaron, who let the offering for\nsin be burnt, that should have indeed been eaten (Lev 10:16-20).\nYet because he could not do it to his edification, Moses was\ncontent. But the law was thereby transgressed, 'The priest that\noffereth it for sin, shall eat it' (6:26).\n\nTo this you reply, 'That was not a constant, continued forbearing\nof God's worship, but a suspending of it for a season.'\n\nAns. We also suspend it but for a season; when persons can be\nbaptized to their edification, they have the liberty. But, This\nwas not a bare suspension, but a flat transgression of the law. 'Ye\nshould indeed have eaten it.' Yet Moses was content (Lev 10:16-20).\n\nBut say you, 'Perhaps it was suspended upon just and legal grounds,\nthough not expressed.'\n\nAns. The express rule was against it; 'Ye should indeed [said\nMoses] have eaten it in the holy place: as I commanded' (v 18). But\ngood Sir, are you now for unwritten verities? for legal grounds,\nthough not expressed? I will not drive you further, here is Rome\nenough. As for Eldad and Medad, it cannot be denied, but that their\nedifying of the people, was preferred before their conforming to\nevery circumstance (Num 11:16-26).\n\nYou add, 'That Paul for a seeming low thing did withstand Peter.'\n\nSir, If you make but a seeming low thing of dissembling, and teaching\nothers so to do, especially where the doctrine of justification\nis endangered, I cannot expect much good conscience from you (Gal\n2:11-13).\n\nAs for your answer to the case of Hezekiah, it is faulty in two\nrespects: 1. For that you make the passover a type of the Lord's\nsupper, when it was only a type of the body and blood of the Lord:\n'For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us' (1 Cor 5:7).\n2. In that you make it an example to you to admit persons unprepared\nto the Lord's supper.\n\nAns. May you indeed receive persons into the church unprepared\nfor the Lord's supper; yea, unprepared for that, with other solemn\nappointments? For so you word it. O what an engine have you made\nof water baptism. Thus, gentle reader, while this author teareth\nus in pieces for not making [water] baptism the orderly rule\nfor receiving the godly and conscientious into communion; he can\nreceive persons if baptized, though unprepared for the supper, and\nother solemn appointments? I would have thee consult the place,\nand see if it countenanceth such an act. That a man who pleadeth\nfor a water baptism above the peace and edification of the church,\nought to be received, although unprepared, into the church to the\nLord's supper, and other solemn appointments; especially considering\nthe nature of right church constitution, and the severity\nof God towards those that came unprepared to his table of old (1\nCor 11:28-30). A riddle indeed, That the Lord should, without a\nword, so severely command, that all which want light in baptism,\nbe excluded church privileges; and yet against his word, admit\nof persons unprepared, to the Lord's table, and other solemn\nappointments.\n\nBut good Sir, why so short-winded? why could not you make the same\nwork with the other scriptures, as you did with these? I must leave\nthem upon you unanswered; and standing by my argument conclude,\nThat if laws and ordinances of old have been broken, and the breach\nof them born with, when yet the observation of outward things was\nmore strictly commanded than now, if the profit and edification\nof the church come in competition; how much more, may not we have\ncommunion, church communion, when no law of God is transgressed\nthereby. And note, That all this while I plead not, as you, for\npersons unprepared, but godly, and such as walk with God.\n\nWe come now to my seventh argument, for communion with the godly,\nthough unbaptized persons; which you say is LOVE. My argument\nis this; 'Therefore I am for communion thus; because love, which\nabove all things we are commanded to put on, is of much more worth\nthan to break about baptism.' And let the reader note, That of\nthis argument you deny not so much as one syllable, but run to\nanother story; but I will follow you. I add further, That love is\nmore discovered when we receive for the sake of Christ, than when\nwe refuse his children for want of water: And tell you again, That\nthis exhortation to love is grounded not upon [water] baptism,\nbut the putting on of the new creature, which hath swallowed up\nall distinctions (Col 3:9-14). Yea, there are ten arguments in\nthis one, which you have not so much as touched; but thus object,\n\n'That man that makes affection the rule of his walking, rather\nthan judgment, it is no wonder if he go out of the way.'\n\nAns. Love to them, we are persuaded that God hath received, is\nlove that is guided by judgment; and to receive them that are\nsuch, because God hath bidden us (Rom 14), is judgment guided by\nrule. My argument therefore hath forestalled all your noise, and\nstandeth still on its legs against you. As to the duties of piety\nand charity, you boast of, sound not a trumpet, tell not your\nleft hand of it; we are talking now of communion of saints, church\ncommunion, and I plead, that to love, and hold together as such,\nis better than to break in pieces for want of water baptism. My\nreason is, because we are exhorted in all things to put on love;\nthe love of church communion: contrariwise you oppose, Above all\nthings put on water. For the best saint under heaven that hath\nnot that, with him you refuse communion. Thus you make baptism,\nthough no church ordinance, a bar to shut out the godly, and a\ntrap-door to let the unprepared into churches, to the Lord's\nsupper, and other solemn appointments.\n\nBut you object, 'Must our love to the unbaptized indulge them\nin an act of disobedience? Cannot we love their persons, parts,\ngraces, but we must love their sins?'\n\nAns. We plead not for indulging, 'But are there not with you,\neven with you, sins against the Lord your God?' (2 Chron 28:10).\nBut why can you indulge the baptists in many acts of disobedience?\nFor to come unprepared into the church, is an act of disobedience:\nTo come unprepared to the supper is an act of disobedience; and to\ncome so also to other solemn appointments, are acts of disobedience.\n\n'But for these things,' you say, 'you do not cast, nor keep any\nout of the church.'\n\nAns. But what acts of disobedience do we indulge them in?\n\n'In the sin of infant baptism.'\n\nAns. We indulge them not; but being commanded to bear with the\ninfirmities of each other, suffer it; it being indeed in our eyes\nsuch; but in theirs they say a duty, till God shall otherwise\npersuade them. If you be without infirmity, do you first throw a\nstone at them: They keep their faith in that to themselves, and\ntrouble not their brethren therewith: we believe that God hath\nreceived them; they do not want to us a proof of their sonship\nwith God; neither hath he made water a wall of division between\nus, and therefore we do receive them.\n\nObject. 'I take it to be the highest act of friendship to be\nfaithful to these professors, and to tell them they want this one\nthing in gospel order, which ought not to be left undone.'\n\nAns. If it be the highest piece of friendship, to preach water\nbaptism to unbaptized believers, the lowest act thereof must needs\nbe very low. But contrariwise, I count it so far off from being\nany act of friendship, to press baptism in our notion on those\nthat cannot bear it; that it is a great abuse of the peace of\nmy brother, the law of love, the law of Christ, or the society\nof the faithful. Love suffereth long, and is kind, is not easily\nprovoked: let us therefore follow after the things that make for\npeace, and things wherewith one may edify another: let every one\nof us please his neighbour, for his good to edification: Bear you\none another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ (1 Cor 13;\nRom 14:19, 15:2; Gal 6:2).\n\nBut say you, 'I doubt when this comes to be weighed in God's\nbalance, it will be found no less than flattery, for which you\nwill be reproved.'\n\nAns. It seems you do but doubt it, wherefore the principles from\nwhich you doubt it, of that methinks you should not be certain;\nbut this is of little weight to me; for he that will presume\nto appropriate the epistles to himself and fellows, for the sake\nof baptism, and that will condemn all the churches of Christ in\nthe land for want of baptism, and that will account his brother\nas profane Esau and rejected, as idolatrous Ephraim because he\nwanteth his way of water baptism; he acts out of his wonted way,\nof rigidness, when he doth but doubt, and not affirm his brother\nto be a flatterer. I leave therefore this your doubt to be resolved\nat the day of judgment, and in the mean time trample upon your harsh\nand unchristian surmises. As to our love to Christians in other\ncases, I hope we shall also endeavour to follow the law of the\nLord; but because it respects not the matter in hand, it concerns\nus not now to treat thereof.\n\nMy argument treateth of church communion; in the prosecution of\nwhich I prove. 1. That love is grounded upon the new creature (Col\n3:10-15). 2. Upon our fellowship with the Father and Son (1 John\n1:2,3). 3. That with respect to this, it is the fulfilling of the\nroyal law (James 4:11; Rom 14:21). 4. That it shews itself in acts\nof forbearing, rather than in publishing some truths: communicating\nonly what is profitable, forbearing to publish what cannot be born\n(1 Cor 3:1,2; Acts 20:18-20; John 3:16,17). 5. I shew further, That\nto have fellowship for, to make that the ground of, or to receive\none another chiefly upon the account of an outward circumstance;\nto make baptism the including and excluding charter: the bounds,\nbar, and rule of communion, when by the word of the everlasting\ntestament, there is no word for it, to speak charitably, if it\nbe not for want of love, it is for want of light in the mysteries\nof the kingdom of Christ. Strange! Take two Christians equal in\nall points but this; nay, let one go beyond the other in grace and\ngoodness, as far as a man is beyond a babe, yet water shall turn\nthe scale, shall open the door of communion to the less; and\ncommand the other to stand back: yet is no proof to the church of\nthis babe's faith and hope, hath nothing to do with his entering\ninto fellowship, is no part of the worship of the church.[13]\nThese things should have been answered, seeing you will take upon\nyou so roundly to condemn our practice.\n\nYou come now to my eighth argument; which you do not only render\nfalsely, but by so doing abuse your reader. I said not that the\nchurch at Corinth did shut each other out of communion; but, for\nGod's people to divide into parties, or to shut each other from\nchurch communion, though for greater points, and upon higher\npretences, than that of water baptism, hath heretofore been counted\ncarnal, and the actors therein babyish Christians: and then bring\nin the factions, that was in the church at Corinth. But what! May\nnot the evil of denying church communion now, if proved naught\nby a less crime in the church at Corinth, be counted carnal and\nbabyish; but the breach of communion must be charged upon them at\nCorinth also?\n\nThat my argument is good you grant, saying, 'The divisions of the\nchurch at Corinth were about the highest fundamental principles,\nfor which they are often called carnal'; yet you cavil at it. But\nif they were to be blamed for dividing, though for the highest\npoints; are not you much more for condemning your brethren to\nperpetual banishment from church communion, though sound in all\nthe great points of the gospel, and right in all church ordinances\nalso, because for want of light they fail only in the point of\nbaptism?\n\nAs to your quibble about Paul and Apollos, whether they, or\nothers, were the persons, though I am satisfied you are out, yet\nit weakeneth not my argument; for if they were blame worthy for\ndividing, though about the highest fundamental principles, as you\nsay, how ought you to blush for carrying it as you do to persons,\nperhaps, more godly than ourselves, because they jump not with\nyou in a circumstance? That the divisions at Corinth were helped\non by the abuse of baptism, to me is evident, from Paul's so oft\nsuggesting it: 'Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God\nthat I baptized none of you,--lest any should say, I had baptized\nin mine own name' (1:13-15).\n\nI do not say, that they who baptized them designed this, or that\nbaptism in itself effected it; nor yet, though our author feigns\nit, 'that they were most of them baptized by their factious\nleaders.' But that they had their factious leaders, is evident;\nand that these leaders made use of the names of Paul, Apollos,\nand Christ, is as evident; for by these names they were beguiled\nby the help of ABUSED baptism.\n\nBut say you, 'Wherein lies the force of this man's argument against\nbaptism as to its place, worth, and continuance?'\n\nI answer: I have no argument against its place, worth or continuance,\nalthough thus you seek to scandalize me. But this kind of sincerity\nof yours, will never make me one of your disciples. Have not I told\nyou even in this argument, 'That I speak not as I do, to persuade\nor teach men to break the least of God's commandments; but that\nmy brethren of the baptized way may not hold too much thereupon,\nmay not make it an essential of the gospel, nor yet of the communion\nof saints.' Yet he feigns that I urge two arguments against it.\nBut reader, thou mayest know I have no such reason in my book.\nBesides, I should be a fool indeed, were I against it, should I\nmake use of such weak arguments. My words then are these: 'I thank\nGod,' said Paul, 'that I baptized none of you but Crispus,' &c.\n'Not but that then it was an ordinance, but they abused it in making\nparties thereby, as they abused also Paul, and Cephas. Besides,\nsaid he, I know not whether I baptized any other. By this negligent\nrelating who were baptized by him, he sheweth that he made no\nsuch matter thereof, as some in these days do. Nay, that he made\nno matter at all thereof with respect to a church communion. For\nif he did not heed who himself had baptized, much less did he heed\nwho were baptized by others? But if baptism had been the initiating\nordinance, and I now add, essential to church communion; then no\ndoubt he had made more conscience of it, than thus lightly to pass\nit by.'\n\nI add further, where he saith, He 'was not sent to baptize'; that\nhe spake with an holy indignation against those that had abused\nthat ordinance. 'Baptism is an holy ordinance, but when Satan\nabuseth it, and wrencheth it out of its place, making that which\nis ordained of God, for the edification of believers, the only\nweapon to break in pieces the love, unity, and concord of the\nsaints; than as Paul said of himself and fellows (1 Cor 3:5-7).\nWhat is baptism? Neither is baptism any thing? This is no new\ndoctrine, for God by the mouth of the prophet of old, cried out\nagainst his own appointments, when abused by his own people (Isa\n1:11-15); because they used them \"for strife, and debate, and to\nsmite with the fist of wickedness\"' (58:4). But to forbear, to\ntake notice thus of these things, my argument stands firm against\nyou: 'For if they at Corinth were blame worthy for dividing,\nthough their divisions were, if you say true, about the highest\nfundamentals, you ought to be ashamed, thus to banish your brethren\nfrom the privileges of church communion for ever, for the want of\nso low a thing as water baptism.' I call it not low, with respect\nto God's appointment, though so, it is far from the highest place,\nbut in comparison of those fundamentals, about which you say, 'the\nCorinthians made their divisions.'\n\nYou come next to my ninth argument, and serve it as Hanun served\nDavid's servants (2 Sam 10:4), you have cut off one half of its\nbeard, and its garments to its buttocks, thinking to send it home\nwith shame. You state it thus: 'That by denying communion with\nunbaptized believers, you take from them their privileges to which\nthey are born.'\n\nAns. Have I such an argument, in all my little book? Are not my\nwords verbatim these? 'If we shall reject visible saints by\ncalling, saints that have communion with God; that have received\nthe law at the hand of Christ; that are of an holy conversation\namong men, they desiring to have communion with us; as much\nas in us lieth, we take from them their very privileges, and the\nblessings to which they were born of God.' This is mine argument:\nnow confute it.\n\nPaul saith, not only to the gathered church at Corinth, but to\nall scattered saints, that in every place call upon the name of\nthe Lord (1 Cor 1:2). That if Jesus Christ is theirs; that Paul\nand Apollos, and Cephas, and the world, and all things else was\ntheirs (3:22).\n\nBut you answer, 'We take from them nothing, but we keep them from\na disorderly practice of gospel ordinances, we offer them their\nprivileges, in the way of gospel order.'\n\nAns. Where have you one word of God, that forbiddeth a person, so\nqualified, as is signified in mine argument, the best communion\nof saints for want of water? There is not a syllable for this in\nall the book of God. So then, you in this your plausible defence,\ndo make your scriptureless light, which in very deed is darkness\n(Isa 8:20), the rule of your brother's faith; and how well you\nwill come off for this in the day of God, you might, were you not\nwedded to your wordless opinion, soon begin to conceive.\n\nI know your reply, 'New Testament saints are all baptized first.'\n\nAns. Suppose it granted: Were they baptized, that thereby they\nmight be qualified for their right to communion of saints, so\nthat, without their submitting to water, they were to be denied\nthe other? Further, suppose I should grant this groundless notion,\nWere not the Jews in Old Testament times to enter the church by\ncircumcision? (Gen 17; Exo 12). For that, though water is not,\nwas the very entering ordinance. Besides, as I said before, there\nwas a full forbidding of all that were not circumcised from entering\ninto fellowship, with a threatening to cut them off from the church\nif they entered in without it: yet more than six hundred thousand\nentered that church without it. But how now, if such an one as\nyou had then stood up and objected, Sir Moses, What is the reason\nthat you transgress the order of God, to receive members without\ncircumcision? Is not that the very entering ordinance? Are not you\ncommanded to keep out of the church all that are not circumcised?\nYea, and for all those that you thus received, are you not commanded\nto cast them out again, to cut them off from among this people\n(Gen 17:13,14; Exo 12:44-46). I say, Would not this man have had\na far better argument to have resisted Moses, than you, in your\nwordless notion, have to shut out men from the church, more holy\nthan many of ourselves? But do you think that Moses and Joshua,\nand all the elders of Israel, would have thanked this fellow, or\nhave concluded that he spake on God's behalf? Or, that they should\nthen, for the sake of a better than what you call order, have set\nto the work that you would be doing, even to break the church in\npieces for this?\n\nBut say you, 'If any will find or force another way into the sheep\nfold than by the footsteps of the flock, we have no such custom\nnor the churches of God.'\n\nAns. What was done of old I have shewed you, that Christ, not\nbaptism, is the way to the sheep fold, is apparent: and that the\nperson [who thus enters], in mine argument, is entitled to all\nthese, to wit, Christ, grace, and all the things of the kingdom\nof Christ in the church, is, upon the scriptures urged, as evident.\n\nBut you add, 'That according to mine old confidence, I affirm,\nThat drink ye all of this is entailed to faith, not baptism: a\nthing,' say you, 'soon said, but yet never proved.'\n\nAns. 1. That it is entailed to faith, must be confessed of all\nhands. 2. That it is the privilege of him that discerneth the Lord's\nbody, and that no man is to deny him it, is also by the text as\nevident, 'and so let him eat,' because he is worthy. Wherefore\nhe, and he only, that discerneth the Lord's body, he is the worthy\nreceiver, the worthy receiver in God's estimation; but that none\ndiscern the Lord's body but the baptized [in water], is both fond\nand ridiculous once to surmise.\n\nWherefore to exclude Christians, and to debar them their heaven-born\nprivileges, for want of that which yet God never made the wall of\ndivision betwixt us: This looks too like a spirit of persecution\n(Job 19:28), and carrieth in it those eighteen absurdities which\nyou have so hotly cried out against. And I do still add, 'Is\nit not that which greatly prevailed with God to bring down those\njudgments which at present we [the people of God] groan under,\nI will dare to say it was,[14] A cause thereof.' Yea, I will yet\nproceed; I fear, I strongly fear, that the rod of God is not yet\nto be taken from us; for what [is a] more provoking sin among\nChristians than to deny one another their rights and privileges,\nto which they are born of God? And then to father these their\ndoings upon God, when yet he hath not commanded it, neither in\nthe New Testament nor the Old.\n\nBut I may not lightly pass this by, for because I have gathered\neighteen absurdities from this abuse of God's ordinances, or from\nthe sin of binding the brethren to observe order, not founded on\nthe command of God; and I am sure you have none to shut out men as\ngood, as holy, and as sound in faith as ourselves, from communion.\nTherefore you call my conclusion devilish, top-full of ignorance\nand prejudice, and me, one of Machiavel's scholars, also proud,\npresumptuous, impeaching the judgment of God.\n\nAns. But what is there in my proposition, that men, considerate,\ncan be offended at? These are my words: 'But to exclude Christians\nfrom church communion, and to debar them their heaven-born\nprivileges, for the want of that which yet God never made a wall\nof division between us: this looks too like a spirit of persecution:\nthis respecteth more the form than the spirit and power of godliness,\n&c. Shall I add, Is it not that which greatly prevailed to bring\ndown those judgments which at present we feel and groan under?\nI will dare to say, it was a cause thereof.' A was in my copy,\ninstead whereof the printer put in the; for this, although I\nspeak only the truth, I will not beg of you belief; besides, the\nbookseller desired me, because of the printer's haste, to leave\nthe last sheet to be overlooked by him, which was the cause it\nwas not among the erratas. But I say, wherein is the proposition\noffensive? Is it not a wicked thing to make bars to communion,\nwhere God hath made none? Is it not a wickedness to make that a\nwall of division betwixt us which God never commanded to be so? If\nit be not, justify your practice; if it be, take shame. Besides,\nthe proposition is universal, why then should you be the chief\nintended? But you have in this done like to the lawyers of old,\nwho, when Christ reproved the pharisees of wickedness before them,\nsaid, 'Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also' (Luke 11:45).\n\nBut you feign, and would also that the world should believe, that\nthe eighteen absurdities which naturally flow from the proposition\nI make, to be the effects of baptism, saying to me, 'None but\nyourself could find an innocent truth big with so many monstrous\nabsurdities.'\n\nI answer: This is but speaking wickedly for God, or rather to\njustify your wordless practice. I say not that baptism hath any\nabsurdity in it, though your abusing it, hath them all, and many\nmore, while you make it, without warrant from the word, as the\nflaming sword, to keep the brotherhood out of communion, because\nthey, after your manner, cannot consent thereto. And let no man\nbe offended, for that I suggest that baptism may be abused to the\nbreeding such monstrous absurdities, for greater truths than that\nhave been as much abused. What say you to, 'This is my body?' To\ninstance no more, although I could instance many, are not they the\nwords of our Lord? Are not they part of the scriptures of truth?\nand yet behold, even with those words, the devil, by abusing\nthem, made an engine to let out the heart-blood of thousands.[15]\nBaptism also may be abused, and is, when more is laid upon it\nby us than is commanded by God. And that you do so, is manifest\nby what I have said already, and shall yet say to your fourteen\narguments.\n\nMy last argument, you say, is this: 'The world may wonder at your\ncarriage to these unbaptized persons, in keeping them out of\ncommunion?'\n\nAns. You will set up your own words, and then fight against them;\nbut my words are these: 'What greater contempt can be thrown upon\nthe saints, than for their brethren to cut them off from, or to\ndebar them church communion.' And now I add, Is not this to deliver\nthem to the devil (1 Cor 5), or to put them to shame before all\nthat see your acts? There is but one thing can hinder this, and\nthat is, by-standers see that these, your brethren, that you thus\nabuse, are as holy men as ourselves. Do you more to the openly\nprophane, yea, to all wizards and witches in the land?[16] For\nall you can do to them, I speak now as to church acts, is no other\nthan to debar them the communion of saints.\n\nAnd now I say again, the world may well wonder, when they see\nyou deny holy men of God that liberty of the communion of saints\nwhich you monopolise to yourselves: and though they do not understand\nthe grounds of profession, or communion, yet they can both see\nand say, these holy men of God, in all visible acts of holiness,\nare not one inch behind you. Yea, I will put it to yourselves, If\nthose many, yea, very many, who thus severely, but with how little\nground, is seen by men of God, you deny communion with; are not\nof as good, as holy, as unblameable in life, and as sound, if not\nsounder in the faith than many among ourselves: Here only they\nmake the stop, they cannot, without light, be driven into water\nbaptism, I mean after our notion of it: but what if they were, it\nwould be little sign to me, that they were sincere with God.\n\nTo conclude this; when you have proved that water baptism, which\nyou yourself have said is not a church ordinance, is essential\nto church communion, and that the church may, by the word of God,\nbolt, bar, and for ever shut out those, far better than ourselves,\nthat have not, according to our notion, been baptized with water;\nthen it will be time enough to talk of ground for so doing. In\nthe mean time I must take leave to tell you, 'There is not in all\nthe Bible one syllable for such a practice, wherefore your great\ncry about your order is wordless, and therefore faithless, and\nis a mere human invention.'\n\n\nI COME NOW TO YOUR FOURTEEN ARGUMENTS, AND SHALL IMPARTIALLY\nCONSIDER THEM.\n\nYour first argument to prove it lawful to reject the unbaptized\nsaint, is, 'Because the great commission of Christ (Matt 28),\nfrom which all persons have their authority for their ministry,\nif any authority at all, doth clearly direct the contrary. By that\ncommission ministers are first to disciple, and then to baptize\nthem so made disciples, and afterwards to teach them to observe\nall that Christ commanded them, as to other ordinances of worship.\nIf ministers have no other authority to teach them other parts of\ngospel worship, before they believe and are baptized, it may be\nstrongly supposed they are not to admit them to other ordinances\nbefore they have passed this first enjoined in the commission.'\n\nAns. 1. That the ministers are to disciple and baptize, is granted.\nBut that they are prohibited, by the commission (Matt 28), to\nteach the disciples other parts of gospel worship that have not\nlight in baptism, remains for you to prove. Shall I add, this\nposition is so absurd and void of truth, that none that have\never read the love of Christ, the nature of faith, the end of the\ngospel, or of the reason of instituted worship (which is edification)\nwith understanding, should so much as once imagine.\n\nBut where are they here forbidden to teach them other truths before\nthey be baptized? This text as fairly denieth to the unbaptized\nbeliever heaven and glory. Nay, our author, in the midst of all\nhis flutter about this 28th of Matthew, dare venture to gather\nno more therefrom, but that it may be strongly supposed. Behold\ntherefore, gentle reader, the ground on which these brethren lay\nthe stress of their separation from their fellows, is nothing else\nbut a supposition, without warrant, screwed out of this blessed\nword of God. Strongly supposed! but may it not be as strongly\nsupposed that the presence and blessing of the Lord Jesus, with\nhis ministers, is laid upon the same ground also? for thus he\nconcludes the text, 'And lo, I am with you alway even unto the\nend of the world.' But would, I say, any man from these words\nconclude, that Christ Jesus hath here promised his presence only\nto them that, after discipling, baptize those that are so made;\nand that they that do not baptize shall neither have his presence\nnor his blessing? I say again, should any so conclude hence, would\nnot all experience prove him void of truth? The words therefore\nmust be left, by you, as you found them, they favour not at all\nyour groundless supposition.\n\nTo conclude, these words have not laid baptism in the way to debar\nthe saint from fellowship of his brethren, no more than to hinder\nhis inheritance in life and glory. Mark reads it thus: 'He that\nbelieveth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth\nnot shall be damned' (Mark 16:16). Letting baptism, which he\nmentioned in the promise, fall, when he came at the threatening.\nGod also doth thus with respect to his worship in the church, he\ncommands all and every whit of his will to be done, but beareth\nwith our coming short in this, and that, and another duty. But\nlet's go on.\n\nYour second argument is, 'That the order of Christ's commission,\nas well as the matter therein contained to be observed, may easily\nbe concluded, from God's severity towards them that sought him not\naccording to due order (1 Chron 15:13). Was God so exact with his\npeople then, that all things to a pin must be according to the pattern\nin the mount (Heb 8:5, 9:11), whose worship then comparatively,\nto the gospel, was but after the law of a carnal commandment; and\ncan it be supposed he should be so indifferent now to leave men\nto their own liberty, to time and place his appointments, contrary\nto what he had given an express rule for in his word as before?\n(Eze 44:7,9,10). It was the priest's sin, formerly to bring the\nuncircumcised in heart and flesh into his house.'\n\nAns. That there is no such order in that commission as you feign,\nI have proved. As for your far-fetch'd instance (1 Chron 15),\nit is quite beside your purpose. The express word was, That the\npriest, not a cart, should bear the ark of God. Also they were\nnot to touch it, and yet Uzza did (Exo 25:14; 1 Chron 15:12-16;\nNum 4:15; 1 Chron 13). Now, if you can make that 28th of Matthew\nsay, Receive none that are not baptized first; or that Christ\nwould have them of his, that are not yet baptized, kept ignorant\nof all other truths that respect church communion; then you say\nsomething, else you do but raise a mist before the simple reader:\nbut whoso listeth may hang on your sleeve. As for the pins and\ntacks of the tabernacle, they were expressly commanded; and when\nyou have proved by the word of God, That you ought to shut saints\nout of your communion for want of baptism, then you may begin more\njustly to make your parallel. How fitly you have urged (Eze 44)\nto insinuate that unbaptized believers are like the uncircumcised\nin heart and flesh, I leave it to all gospel-novices to consider.\n\nYour third argument is, 'The practice of the first gospel-ministers,\nwith them that first trusted in Christ, discovers the truth of\nwhat I assert. Certainly they that lived at the spring-head, or\nfountain of truth, and had the law from Christ's own mouth, knew\nthe meaning of his commission better than we: but their constant\npractice in conformity to that commission, all along the Acts of\nthe Apostles, discovers that they never arrived to such a latitude\nas men plead for now-a-days. They that gladly received the word\nwere baptized, and they, yea they only, were received into the\nchurch.'\n\nAns. How well you have proved what you have asserted, is manifest\nby my answer to the two former arguments. I add, That the ministers\nand servants of Jesus Christ in the first churches, for that you\nare to prove, were commanded to forbear to preach other truths to\nthe unbaptized believers; or that they were to keep them out of\nthe church; or that the apostles, and first fathers, have given\nyou to understand by their example, that you ought to keep as\ngood out of churches as yourselves, hath not yet been shewed by\nthe authority of the word. The second of the Acts proveth not,\nThat the three thousand were necessitated to be baptized in order\nto their fellowship with the church, neither doth it say THEY, yea\nthey only, were received into the church. But suppose all this,\nas much was done at the first institution of circumcision, &c.,\nyet afterwards thousands were received without it.\n\nYour fourth argument is, 'None of the scripture saints ever attempted\nthis church privilege without baptism, if they did, let it be\nshewn. The eunuch first desired baptism before anything else; Paul\nwas first baptized before he did essay to join with the church.\nOur Lord Christ, the great example of the New Testament, entered\nnot upon his public ministry, much less any other gospel ordinance\nof worship, till he was baptized.'\n\nAns. That none of the scripture saints, if there be any unscripture\nones, so much as attempted this church-privilege first, remains\nfor you to prove. But suppose they were all baptized, because\nthey had light therein, what then? Doth this prove that baptism\nis essential to church communion? Or, that Christ commanded in\nthe 28th of Matthew, or gave his ministers by that, authority,\nnot to make known to believers other parts of gospel-worship, if\nthey shall want light in baptism? The eunuch, Paul, and our blessed\nLord Jesus, did none of them, by their baptism, set themselves to\nus examples how to enter into church communion; what church was\nthe eunuch baptized into, or made a member of; but where is it\nsaid, that the unbaptized believer, how excellent soever in faith\nand holiness, must, for want of water baptism, be shut out from the\ncommunion of saints, or be debarred the privilege of his Father's\nhouse? This you are to prove.\n\nYour fifth argument is, 'If Christ himself was made manifest to\nbe the SENT of God by baptism, as appears (Mark 1:9,10), then why\nmay not baptism, as the first fruits of faith, and the first step\nof gospel-obedience, as to instituted worship, be a manifesting\ndiscovering ordinance upon others who thus follow Christ's steps.'\n\nAns. That Jesus Christ was manifested as the SENT of God by baptism,\nor that baptism is the first fruit of faith and the first step to\ngospel-obedience, as to instituted worship, is both without proof\nand truth; the text saith not, he was manifest to be the 'sent'\nof God by baptism; nay it saith not, that by that he was manifest\nto others to be anything thereby: you have therefore but wronged\nthe text to prove your wordless practice by. Yea, John himself,\nthough he knew him before he was baptized, to be a man of God,\nfor, saith he, 'I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest\nthou to me' (Matt 3:14), and knew him after to be the 'sent' of\nGod; yet not in, or by, but after he was baptized, to wit, by the\ndescending of the Holy Ghost, after he was come out of the water,\nas he was in prayer, for the heavens were opened to John (John\n1:30-34), and he saw, and bare record, because he saw the Spirit\ndescend from heaven, and abide upon Jesus, after his baptism, as\nhe was in prayer (Matt 3:13-17; Luke 3:21,22). Thus we find him\nmade known before and after, but not at all by baptism, to be the\n'sent' of God.\n\nAnd that baptism is the fruit of faith, or that faith ought to be\ntied to take its first step in water baptism, in the instituted\nworship of God; this you must prove, it is not found expressed\nwithin the whole Bible. Faith acts according to its strength and\nas it sees, it is not tied or bound to any outward circumstance;\none believeth he may, and another believeth he may not, either do\nthis or that.\n\nYour sixth argument is, 'If baptism be in any sense any part of\nthe foundation of a church, as to order (Heb 6:1,2), it must\nhave place here or no where: why are those things called first\nprinciples, if not first to be believed and practised? Why are\nthey rendered by the learned the A, B, C, of a Christian, and\nthe beginning of Christianity, milk for babes, if it be no matter\nwhether baptism be practised or no? If it be said water baptism\nis not there intended, let them shew me how many baptisms there\nare besides water baptism? Can you build and leave out a stone in\nthe foundation? I intend not baptism a foundation any other ways\nbut in respect of order, and it is either intended for that or\nnothing.'\n\nAns. Baptism is in no sense the foundation of a church. I find\nno foundation of a church but Jesus Christ himself (Matt 16:18;\n1 Cor 3:11). Yea, the foundation mentioned (Heb 6:1,2) is nothing\nelse but this very Christ. For he is the foundation, not only of\nthe church, but of all that good that at any time is found in her.\nHe is the foundation OF our repentance, and OF our faith towards\nGod (vv 1,2). Further, baptisms are not here mentioned with\nrespect to the act in water, but of the doctrine; that is, the\nsignification thereof. 'The doctrine of baptisms.' And observe,\nneither faith, nor repentance, nor baptisms, are called here\nfoundations: Another thing, for a foundation, is here by the Holy\nGhost intended, even a foundation for them all: a foundation of\nfaith, of repentance, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the resurrection\nof the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this foundation is Jesus\nChrist himself, and these are the first principles, the milk, the\nA, B, C, and the beginning of Christian religion in the world.\nI dare not say, No matter whether water baptism be practised or\nno. But it is not a stone in the foundation of a church, no not\nrespecting order; it is not, to another, a sign of my sonship\nwith God; it is not the door into fellowship with the saints, it\nis no church ordinance, as you, yourself, have testified. So then\nas to church work, it hath no place at all therein.\n\nYour seventh argument is, 'If Paul knew the Galatians only upon\nthe account of charity, No other ways to be the sons of God by\nfaith; but by this part of their obedience, as he seems to import,\nthen the same way we judge of the truth of men's profession of\nfaith, when it shows itself by this selfsame obedience. Baptism\nbeing an obligation to all following duties' (Gal 3:26,27).\n\nAns. This your argument, being builded upon no more than a SEEMING\nimport, and having been above ten times overthrown already; I might\nleave still with you, till your seeming import is come to a real\none, and both to a greater persuasion upon your own conscience.\nBut verily Sir, you grossly abuse your reader; must imports, yea,\nmust seeming imports now stand for arguments, thereby to maintain\nyour confident separation from your brethren? Yea, must such things\nas these, be the basis on which you build those heavy censures and\ncondemnations you raise against your brethren, that cannot comply\nwith you, because you want the word? A seeming import. But are\nthese words of faith? or do the scriptures only help you to seeming\nimports, and me-hap-soes[17] for your practice? No, nor yet to them\nneither, for I dare boldly affirm it, and demand, if you can, to\nprove, that there is so much as a seeming import in all the word of\nGod, that countenanceth your shutting men, better than ourselves,\nfrom the things and privileges of our Father's house. That to the\nGalatians, saith not, that Paul knew them to be the sons of God\nby faith, no other way, but by THIS part of their obedience; but\nputs them upon concluding themselves the sons of God, if they\nwere baptized into the Lord Jesus, which could not, ordinarily,\nbe known but unto themselves alone; because, being thus baptized,\nrespecteth a special act of faith, which only God and him that\nhath, and acteth it, can be privy to. It is one thing for him\nthat administereth, to baptize in the name of Jesus, and another\nthing for him that is the subject, by that to be baptize INTO Jesus\nChrist: Baptizing into Christ, is rather the act of the faith of\nhim that is baptized, than his going into water and coming out\nagain. But that Paul knew this to be the state of the Galatians\nno other way, but by their external act of being baptized with\nwater, is both wild and unsound, and a miserable IMPORT indeed.\n\nYour eighth argument is, 'If being baptized into Christ, be a\nputting on of Christ, as Paul expressed, then they have not put on\nChrist, in that sense he means, that are not baptized; if this\nputting on of Christ, doth not respect the visibility of Christianity;\nassign something else as its signification; great men's servants\nare known by their master's liveries, so are gospel believers by\nthis livery of water baptism, that all that first trusted in Christ\nsubmitted unto; which is in itself as much an obligation to all\ngospel obedience, as circumcision was to keep the whole law.'\n\nAns. For a reply to the first part of this argument, go back to\nthe answer to the seventh. Now that none have put on Christ in\nPaul's sense; yea, in a saving, in the best sense; but them that\nhave, as you would have them, gone into water, will be hard for\nyou to prove, yea, is ungodly for you to assert. Your comparing\nwater baptism to a gentleman's livery, by which his name is known\nto be his, is fantastical. Go you but ten doors from where men have\nknowledge of you, and see how many of the world, or Christians,\nwill know you by this goodly livery, to be one that hath put on\nChrist. What! known by water baptism to be one that hath put on\nChrist, as a gentleman's man is known to be his master's servant,\nby the gay garment his master gave him. Away fond man, you do\nquite forget the text. 'By THIS shall all men know that ye are\nmy disciples, if ye have love one to another' (John 13:35). That\nbaptism is in itself obliging, to speak properly, it is false, for\nset it by itself, and it stands without the stamp of heaven upon\nit, and without its signification also: and how, as such, it\nshould be obliging, I see not. Where you insinuate, it comes in\nthe room of, and obligeth as circumcision: you say, you know not\nwhat (Acts 15:1,2). Circumcision was the initiating ordinance, but\nthis you have denied to baptism. Further, circumcision then bound\nmen to the whole obedience of the law, when urged by the false\napostles, and received by an erroneous conscience (Gal 5:1-4).\nWould you thus urge water baptism! would you have men to receive\nit with such consciences? Circumcision in the flesh, was a type of\ncircumcision in the heart, and not of water baptism (Rom 2:28,29;\nPhil 3:3).\n\nYour ninth argument is, 'If it were commendable in the Thessalonians,\nthat they followed the footsteps of the church of Judea (1 Thess\n2:14), who it appears followed this order of adding baptized\nbelievers unto the church; then they that have found out another\nway of making church members, are not by that rule praiseworthy,\nbut rather to be blamed; it was not what was since in corrupted\ntimes, but that which was from the beginning: the first churches\nwere the purest pattern.'\n\nAns. That the text saith there was a church of Judea, I find not\nin 1 Thessalonians 2:14. And that the Thessalonians are commended\nfor refusing to have communion with the unbaptized believers,\nfor that is our question, prove it by the word, and then you do\nsomething. Again, that the commendations (1 Thess 2:14) do chiefly,\nor at all, respect their being baptized: or, because they followed\nthe churches of God, which in Judea were in Christ Jesus, in the\nexample of water baptism is quite beside the word. The verse runs\nthus: 'For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God\nwhich in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like\nthings of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.'\nThis text then commends them, not for that they were baptized with\nwater, but, for that they stood their ground, although baptized\nwith suffering, like them in Judea, for the name of the Lord Jesus.\nFor suffering like things of their own countrymen, as they did of\nthe Jews. Will you not yet leave off to abuse the word of God, and\nforbear turning it out of its place, to maintain your unchristian\npractice of rejecting the people of God, and excluding them their\nblessed privileges. The unbaptized believer, instead of taking\nshame for entering into fellowship without it, will be ready, I\ndoubt, to put you to shame for bringing scriptures so much beside\nthe purpose, and for stretching them so miserably to uphold you\nin your fancies.\n\nYour tenth argument is, 'If so be, that any of the members at\nCorinth, Galatia, Colosse, Rome, or them that Peter wrote to,\nwere not baptized, then Paul's arguments for the resurrection to\nthem, or to press them to holiness from the ground (Rom 6; Col\n2; 1 Cor 15) was out of doors, and altogether needless, yea, it\nbespeaks his ignorance, and throweth contempt upon the Spirit's\nwisdom (Heb 6; 1 Peter 3:21) by which he wrote; if that must be\nasserted as a ground to provoke them to such an end, which had no\nbeing: and if all the members of all those churches were baptized,\nwhy should any plead for an exemption from baptism, for any church\nmember now?'\n\nAns. Suppose all, if all these churches were baptized, what then?\nthat answereth not our question. We ask where you find it written,\nthat those that are baptized, should keep men as holy, and as much\nbeloved of the Lord Jesus as themselves, out of church communion,\nfor want of light in water baptism. Why we plead for their admission,\nthough ye see not yet, that this is their duty, is because we\nare not forbidden, but commanded to receive them, because God and\nChrist hath done it (Rom 14, 15).\n\nYour eleventh argument is, 'If unbaptized persons must be received\ninto churches, only because they are believers, though they deny\nbaptism; then why may not others plead for the like privilege,\nthat are negligent in any other gospel ordinance of worship, from\nthe same ground of want of light, let it be what it will. So then\nas the consequence of this principle, churches may be made up of\nvisible sinners, instead of visible saints.'\n\nAns. 1. I plead not for believers simply because they are believers,\nbut for such believers of whom we are persuaded by the word, that\nGod hath received them. 2. There are some of the ordinances, that\nbe they neglected, the being of a church, as to her visible gospel\nconstitution, is taken quite away; but baptism is none of them,\nit being no church ordinance as such, nor any part of faith, nor\nof that holiness of heart, or life, that sheweth me to the church\nto be indeed a visible saint. The saint is a saint before, and\nmay walk with God, and be faithful with the saints, and to his\nown light also though he never be baptized. Therefore to plead for\nhis admission, makes no way at all for the admission of the open\nprophane, or to receive, as you profess you do, persons unprepared\nto the Lord's table, and other solemn appointments.\n\nYour twelfth argument is, 'Why should professors have more light\nin breaking of bread, than baptism? That this must be so urged for\ntheir excuse: Hath God been more sparing in making out his mind\nin the one, rather than the other? Is there more precepts or\nprecedents for the supper, than baptism? Hath God been so bountiful\nin making out himself about the supper, that few or none that own\nordinances scruple it? And must baptism be such a rock of offence\nto professors, that very few will enquire after it, or submit to\nit? Hath not man's wisdom interposed to darken this part of God's\ncounsel? By which professors seem willingly led, though against\nso many plain commands and examples, written as with a sun beam,\nthat he that runs may read? And must an advocate be entertained\nto plead for so gross a piece of ignorance, that the meanest babes\nof the first gospel times were never guilty of?'\n\nAns. Many words to little purpose. 1. Must God be called to an\naccount by you, why he giveth more light about the supper than\nbaptism? May he not shew to, or conceal from this, or another of\nhis servants, which of his truths he pleaseth. Some of the members\nof the church at Jerusalem had a greater truth than this kept\nfrom them, for ought I know, as long as they lived (Acts 11:19),\nyet God was not called in question about it. 2. Breaking of\nbread, not baptism, being a church ordinance, and that such also\nas must be often reiterated; yea, it being an ordinance so full of\nblessedness, as lively to present union and communion with Christ\nto all the members that worthily eat thereof: I say, the Lord's\nsupper being such, that while the members sit at that feast, they\nshew to each other the death and blood of the Lord, as they ought\nto do, till he comes (1 Cor 10:15-17, 11:25,26). The church as a\nchurch, is much more concerned in that, than in water baptism, both\nas to her faith and comfort; both as to her union and communion.\n3. Your supposition, that very few professors will seriously inquire\nafter water baptism, is too rude. What, must all the children of\nGod, that are not baptized for want of light, be still stigmatised\nwith want of serious inquiry after God's mind in it. 4. That I am an\nadvocate, entertained to plead for so gross a piece of ignorance,\nas want of light in baptism, is but like the rest of your jumbling.\nI plead for communion with men, godly and faithful, I plead that\nthey may be received, that God hath shewed us he hath received,\nand commanded we should receive them.\n\nYour thirteenth argument is, 'If obedience must discover the truth\nof a man's faith to others, why must baptism be shut out, as if\nit was no part of gospel obedience? Is there no precept for this\npractice, that it must be thus despised, as a matter of little\nuse? Or shall one of Christ's precious commands be blotted out of\na Christian's obedience, to make way for a church fellowship of\nman's devising.'\n\nAns. 1. This is but round, round, the same thing over and over.\nThat my obedience to water, is not a discovery of my faith to\nothers, is evident, from the body of the Bible, we find nothing\nthat affirms it. And I will now add, That if a man cannot shew\nhimself a Christian without water baptism; he shall never shew\neither saint or sinner, that he is a Christian by it. 2. Who [soever]\nthey are that despise it, I know not but that church membership\nmay be without it, (seeing even you yourself have concluded it\nis no church ordinance, nor the entering ordinance) standeth both\nwith scripture and reason, as mine arguments make manifest. So\nthat all your arguments prove no more but this, 'That you are so\nwedded to your wordless notions, that charity can have no place\nwith you.' Have you all this while so much as given me one small\npiece of a text to prove it unlawful for the church, to receive\nthose whom she, by the word, perceiveth the Lord God and her\nChrist hath received? No: and therefore you have said so much as\namounts to nothing.\n\nYour last argument is, 'If the baptism of John was so far honoured\nand dignified, that they that did submit to it, are said to justify\nGod; and those that did it not, are said to reject his counsel\nagainst themselves: so that their receiving, or rejecting the whole\ndoctrine of God, hath its denomination from this single practice.\nAnd is there not as much to be said of the baptism of Christ,\nunless you will say it is inferior to John's in worth and use.'\n\nAns. 1. That our denomination of believers, and of our receiving\nthe doctrine of the Lord Jesus, is not to be reckoned from our\nbaptism, is evident; because according to our notion of it, they\nonly that have before received the doctrine of the gospel, and\nso shew it us by their confession of faith, they only ought to\nbe baptized. This might serve for an answer for all: but, 2. The\nBaptism of John was 'the baptism of repentance, for the remission\nof sins' (Mark 1:4; Matt 3;6; Luke 3:3), of which water was but\nan outward signification. Now what is the baptism of repentance,\nbut an unfeigned acknowledgment that they were sinners, and so\nstood in need of a Saviour, Jesus Christ. This baptism, or baptism\nunder this notion, the Pharisees would not receive (Luke 7:29,30).\nFor they 'trusted in themselves that they were righteous,' that\nthey were 'not as other men,' that they had need of no repentance\n(Luke 18:9, 10:29, 15:7). Not but that they would have been baptized\nwith water, might that have been without an acknowledgment that\nthey were sinners (Matt 3:7); wherefore seeing the counsel of God\nrespected rather the remission of sins by Jesus Christ, than the\noutward act of water baptism, ye ought not, as you do, by this\nyour reasoning, to make it rather, at least in the revelation\nof it, to terminate in the outward act of being baptized, but in\nunfeigned and sound repentance, and the receiving of Jesus Christ\nby faith (Eph 1:7,8,11).\n\nFurther, A desire to submit to John's water baptism, or of being\nbaptized by him in water, did not demonstrate by that single act,\nthe receiving of the whole doctrine of God as you suggest. 'Why\ndid John reject the Pharisees that would have been baptized (Matt\n3:7), and Paul examine them that were?' (Acts 19:2,3). If your\ndoctrine be true, why did they not rather say, Oh! seeing you\ndesire to be baptized, seeing you have been baptized, you need not\nto be questioned any further; your submitting to John's water, to\nus is a sufficient testimony, even that single act, that you have\nreceived the whole doctrine of God. But I say, why did John call\nthem vipers? And Paul asked them, Whether they had yet 'received\nthe Holy Ghost?' Yea, it is evident, that a man may be desirous\nof water, that a man may be baptized, and neither own the doctrine\nof repentance, nor know on whom he should believe; evident, I say,\nand that by the same texts (Matt 3:7; Acts 19:2-4).\n\nYou have grounded therefore this your last argument, as also the\nrest, upon an utter mistake of things.\n\n\nI COME NOW TO YOUR Questions; WHICH ALTHOUGH THEY BE MIXED WITH\nGALL, I WILL WITH PATIENCE SEE IF I CAN TURN THEM INTO FOOD.\n\n[Quest. 1.] Your first question is, 'I ask your own heart, whether\npopularity and applause of variety of professors, be not in the\nbottom of what you have said; that hath been your snare to pervert\nthe right ways of the Lord, and to lead others into a path wherein\nwe can find none of the footsteps of the flock in the first ages?'\n\nAns. Setting aside a retaliation, like your question, I say, and\nGod knows I speak the truth, I have been tempted to do what I have\ndone, by a provocation of sixteen years long; tempted, I say, by\nthe brethren of your way: who, whenever they saw their opportunity,\nhave made it their business to seek to rend us in pieces; mine\nownself they have endeavoured to persuade to forsake the church;\nsome they have rent quite off from us, others they have attempted\nand attempted to divide and break off from us, but by the mercy\nof God, have been hitherto prevented. A more large account you\nmay have in my next, if you think good to demand it; but I thank\nGod that I have written what I have written.\n\nQuest. 2. 'Have you dealt brotherly, or like a Christian, to\nthrow so much dirt upon your brethren, in print, in the face of\nthe world, when you had an opportunity to converse with them of\nreputation amongst us, before printing, being allowed the liberty\nby them, at the same time for you to speak among them?'\n\nAns. I have thrown no dirt upon them, nor laid any thing to their\ncharge, if their practice be warrantable by the word; but you\nhave not been offended at the dirt yourselves have thrown at all\nthe godly in the land that are not of our persuasion, in counting\nthem unfit to be communicated with, or to be accompanied with in\nthe house of God. This dirt you never complained of, nor would,\nI doubt, to this day, might you be still let alone to throw it.\nAs to my book, it was printed before I spake with any of you, or\nknew whether I might be accepted of you. As to them of reputation\namong you, I know others not one tittle inferior to them, and have\nmy liberty to consult with who I like best.\n\nQuest. 3. 'Doth your carriage answer the law of love or civility,\nwhen the brethren used means to send for you for a conference,\nand their letter was received by you, that you should go out again\nfrom the city after knowledge of their desires, and not vouchsafe\na meeting with them, when the glory of God, and the vindication\nof so many churches is concerned.'\n\nAns. The reason why I came not amongst you, was partly because I\nconsulted mine own weakness, and counted not myself, being a dull\nheaded man, able to engage so many of the chief of you, as I was\nthen informed intended to meet me. I also feared, in personal\ndisputes, heats and bitter contentions might arise, a thing my\nspirit hath not pleasure in: I feared also, that both myself and\nwords would be misrepresented; and that not without cause, for\nif they that answer a book will alter, and screw arguments out of\ntheir place, and make my sentences stand in their own words, not\nmine, when I say my words are in a book to be seen, what would you\nhave done, had I in the least, either in matter or manner, though\nbut seemingly miscarried among you. As for the many churches which\nyou say are concerned, as also the glory of God, I doubt not to\nsay they are only your wordless opinions that are concerned; the\nglory of God is vindicated: We receive him that God hath received,\nand that 'to the glory of God' (Rom 15:7).\n\nQuest. 4. 'Is it not the spirit of Diotrephes of old, in you, who\nloved to have the pre-eminence, that you are so bold to keep out\nall the brethren, that are not of your mind in this matter, from\nhaving any entertainment in the churches or meetings to which you\nbelong, though you yourself have not been denied the like liberty,\namong them that are contrary minded to you? Is this the way of\nyour retaliation? Or are you afraid lest the truth should invade\nyour quarters?'\n\nAns. I can say, I would not have the spirit you talk of; what\nI have of it, God take it from me. But what was the spirit of\nDiotrephes? Why, not to receive the brethren into the church, and\nto forbid them that would (3 John 9,10). This do not I; I am for\ncommunion with saints, because they are saints: I shut none of the\nbrethren out of the churches, nor forbid them that would receive\nthem. I say again, shew me the man that is a visible believer, and\nthat walketh with God; and though he differ with me about baptism,\nthe doors of the church stand open for him, and all our heaven-born\nprivileges he shall be admitted to them. But how came Diotrephes so\nlately into our parts? Where was he in those days that our brethren\nof the baptized way, would neither receive into the church, nor\npray with men as good as themselves, because they were not baptized;\nbut would either, like Quakers, stand with their hats on their\nheads, or else withdraw till we had done.\n\nAs to our not suffering those you plead for to preach in our\nassemblies, the reason is, because we cannot yet prevail with\nthem, to repent of their church-rending principles. As to the\nretaliation, mind the hand of God, and remember Adonibezek (Judg\n1:7). Let the truth come into our quarters and welcome, but\nsowers of discord, because the Lord hates it (Prov 6:19), we also\nourselves will AVOID them (Rom 16:17,18).\n\nQuest. 5. 'Is there no contempt cast upon the brethren, who desired\nyour satisfaction, that at the same time, when you have opportunity\nto speak to them, instead of that, you committed the letters to\nothers, by way of reflection upon them?'\n\nAns. It is no contempt at all to consult men more wise and judicious\nthan him that wrote, or myself either. But why not consult\nwith others. Is wisdom to die with you? Or do you count all that\nyourselves have no hand in, done to your disparagement?\n\nQuest. 6. 'Did not your presumption prompt you to provoke them to\nprinting, in your letter to them, when they desired to be found in\nno such practice, lest the enemies of truth should take advantage\nby it?'\n\nAns. What provoked you to print, will be best known at the day of\njudgment, whether your fear of losing your wordless opinion, or\nmy plain answer to your letter: The words in my letter are, 'As\nfor my book never defer its answer till you speak with me, for I\nstrive not for mastery but truth.' Though you did not desire to\nwrite, yet with us there was continual labour to rend us to pieces,\nand to prevent that, was my first book written. And let who will\ntake advantage, so the truth of God, and the edification of my\nbrother be promoted.\n\nQuest. 7. 'Whether your principle and practice is not equally\nagainst others as well as us, viz. Episcopal, Presbyterians, and\nIndependents, who are also of our side, for our practice, though\nthey differ with us about the subject of baptism. Do you delight\nto have your hand against every man?'\n\nAns. I own water baptism to be God's ordinance, but I make no\nidol of it. Where you call now the Episcopal to side with you, and\nalso the Presbyterian, &c. you will not find them easily persuaded\nto conclude with you against me. They are against your manner of\ndipping, as well as the subject of water baptism; neither do you,\nfor all you flatter them, agree together in all but the subject.\nDo you allow their sprinkling? Do you allow their signing with\nthe cross? Why then have you so stoutly, an hundred times over,\ncondemned these things as antichristian. I am not against every\nman, though by your abusive language you would set every one\nagainst me; but am for union, concord, and communion with saints,\nas saints, and for that cause I wrote my book.\n\nTo conclude,--1. In all I have said, I put a difference between my\nbrethren of the baptized way; I know some are more moderate than\nsome. 2. When I plead for the unbaptized, I chiefly intend those\nthat are not so baptized as my brethren judge right, according\nto the first pattern. 3. If any shall count my papers worth the\nscribbling against, let him deal with my arguments, and things\nimmediately depending upon them, and not conclude that he hath\nconfuted a book, when he hath only quarrelled at words. 4. I have\ndone when I have told you, that I strive not for mastery, nor to\nshew myself singular; but, if it might be, for union and communion\namong the godly. And count me not as an enemy, because I tell you\nthe truth. 5. And now, dissenting brethren, I commend you to God,\nwho can pardon your sin, and give you more grace, and an inheritance\namong them that are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.\n\n\nHERE FOLLOWETH MR. HENRY JESSEY'S JUDGMENT UPON THE SAME ARGUMENT.\n\n'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye,' &c.--Romans 14:1\n\nWhereas some suppose the receiving there mentioned, was but receiving\ninto brotherly affection, such as were in church fellowship; but\nnot a receiving of such as were weak into the church. For answer\nunto which consider,\n\nThat in the texts are two things to be inquired into. First,\nWhat weakness of faith this is, that must not hinder receiving.\nSecondly, by whom, and to what, he that is weak in the faith is\nto be received?\n\nFirst, To the first, What weakness of faith this is that must not\nhinder receiving, whether was it weakness in the graces of faith,\nor in the doctrine of faith? It is conceived that the first is\nincluded, but the second principally intended.\n\n1. That some of the Lord's people are weak in the graces of faith,\nwill be confessed by all (Mark 9:24; Luke 24:25) and that the Lord\nwould have his lambs fed as well as his sheep, and his children\nas well as grown men, and that he hath given the right to gospel\nprivileges, not to degrees of grace, but to the truth; 'him\nthat is weak in the faith receive ye': or unto you, as some GOOD\ntranslations read it (Rom 14:1).[18]\n\n2. It is supposed, that this command of receiving him that is weak\nin the faith, doth principally intend, that is weak in the doctrine\nof faith, and that not so much in the doctrine of justification,\nas in gospel institutions, as doth appear by the second and sixth\nverses: which shew, that it was in matters of practice, wherein\nsome were weak, and at which others were offended; notwithstanding\nthe glorious Lord who bears all his Israel upon his heart receives\nthem (v 3) and commandeth, 'him that is weak in the faith receive\nye,' or unto you.\n\nSecond, Therefore, here we are to inquire of the receiving in the\ntext, By whom, and to what he that is weak in the faith, should\nbe received. In which inquiry there are two parts. 1. By whom. 2.\nTo what.\n\n1. To the first. The text makes answer, 'Him that is weak in the\nfaith receive ye,' or unto you; which must be the church at Rome,\nto whom the epistle was writ; as also to all 'beloved of God, called\nto be saints' (Rom 1:7). And as to them, so unto all churches and\nsaints, Beloved and called throughout the world.\n\nNote, That epistles are as well to direct how churches are to\ncarry things towards saints without, as to saints within; and also\ntoward all men so as to give no offence to Jew or Gentile, nor to\nthe church of God (1 Cor 10:32).\n\n2. The second part of the inquiry is, to what he that is weak in\nthe faith is to be received? whether only unto mutual affection,\nas some affirm, as if he were in church fellowship before, that\nwere weak in the faith? Or whether the text doth as well, if not\nrather intend, the receiving such as were, and are weak in the\nfaith, Not only unto mutual affection if in the church, but unto\nchurch fellowship also, if they were out. For clearing of which\nconsider, to whom the epistle was written (Rom 1:7). Not only\nto the church there, but unto all that were beloved of God, and\ncalled to be saints in all ages. And as at Rome it is like there\nthen were, and in other places now are, saints weak in the faith,\nboth in and out of church fellowship; and it is probable there\nthen were, and elsewhere now are, those that will cast such out\nof their mutual affection. And if they will cast such out of their\nmutual affection that are within, no doubt they will keep out of\ntheir church fellowship those that are without.\n\nArg. 1. Whereas the Lord's care extends to all his, and if it\nwere a good argument in the third verse, for them to receive those\nwithin, because God hath received them, it would be as good an\nargument to receive in those without, for God hath received them\nalso: unless it could be proved, that all that were and are weak\nin the faith, were and are in church fellowship, which is not\nlikely: for if they would cast such out of their affection that are\nwithin, they would upon the same account keep them out of church\nfellowship that were without: therefore as it is a duty to receive\nthose within unto mutual affection, so it is no less a duty, by\nthe text, to receive such weak ones as are without, into church\nfellowship.\n\nArg. 2. Is urged from the words themselves, which are, 'Receive\nhim that is weak in the faith'; wherein the Lord puts NO limitation\nin this text or in any other; and who is he then that can restrain\nit, unless he will limit the Holy One of Israel? And how would\nsuch an interpretation foolishly charge the Lord, as if he took\ncare ONLY of those within, but not like care of those without;\nwhereas he commandeth them to receive them, and useth this motive,\nhe had received them, and he receiveth those that are weak in the\nfaith, if without, as well as those within.\n\nFrom the example, to wit, That God had received them; whereas had\nhe been of the church, they would have been persuaded of that before\nthe motive was urged: for no true church of Christ's would take\nin, or keep in any, whom they judged the Lord had not received;\nbut those weak ones were such as they questioned whether the Lord\nhad received them, else the text had not been an answer sufficient\nfor their receiving them: There might have been objected, they\nhold up Jewish observations of meats and days, which by the death\nof Christ were abolished, and so did deny some of the effects of\nhis death; yet the Lord who was principally wronged could pass\nthis by, and commandeth others to receive them also. And if it\nbe a good argument to receive such as are weak in any thing, whom\nthe Lord hath received, then there can be no good argument to\nreject for any thing for which the Lord will not reject them: for\nelse the command in the first verse, and his example in the third\nverse were insufficient, without some other arguments unto the\nchurch, besides his command and example.\n\nSome object, 'Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us\nto the glory of God' (Rom 15:7). And from thence supposing they\nwere all in church fellowship before, whereas the text saith not\nso: for if you consider the eighth and ninth verses, you may see\nhe speaks unto Jews and Gentiles in general, that if the Jews had\nthe receiving, they should receive Gentiles; and if the Gentiles\nhad the receiving, they should receive Jews, for had they not been\non both sides commanded: the Jews might have said to the Gentiles,\nyou are commanded to receive us, but we are not commanded to receive\nyou; and if the weak had the receiving, they should receive the\nstrong; and if the strong had the receiving, they should not keep\nout the weak; and the text is reinforced with the example of the\nSon's receiving us unto the glory of God, that as he receiveth Jews\nand poor Gentiles, weak and strong, in church fellowship, or out\nof church fellowship; so should they to the glory of God. And as\nthe Lord Jesus received some, though they held some things more\nthan were commanded, and some things less than were commanded, and\nas those that were weak and in church fellowship, so those that\nwere weak and out of church fellowship; and that not only into\nmutual affection, but unto fellowship with himself; and so should\nthey, not only receive such as were weak within into mutual\naffection, but such as were without, both to mutual affection and\nto church fellowship: or else such weak ones as were without, had\nbeen excluded by the text. Oh! how is the heart of God the Father\nand the Son set upon this, to have his children in his house, and\nin one another's hearts as they are in his, and are borne upon the\nshoulders and breasts of his Son their high priest? and as if all\nthis will not do it, but the devil will divide them still, whose\nwork it properly is; But 'the God of peace' will come in shortly,\n'and bruise Satan under their feet,' as in Romans 16:20. And they\nwill agree to be in one house, when they are more of one heart; in\nthe mean time prays, as in chapter 15:5, 'Now the God of patience\nand consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another\naccording to Christ Jesus.'\n\nI shall endeavour the answering of some objections, and leave it\nunto consideration.\n\nObject. Some say this bearing or receiving, were but in things\nindifferent.\n\nAns. That eating, or forbearing upon a civil account, are things\nindifferent, is true: but not when done upon the account of\nworship, as keeping of days, and establishing Jewish observations\nabout meats, which by the death of Christ are taken away; and it\nis not fairly to be imagined the same church at Rome looked so\nupon them as indifferent; nor that the Lord doth; that it were\nall alike to him to hold up Jewish observations, or to keep days\nor no days, right days or wrong days, as indifferent things, which\nis a great mistake, and no less than to make God's grace little\nin receiving such. For if it were but in things wherein they had\nnot sinned, it were no great matter for the Lord to receive, and\nit would have been as good an argument or motive to the church, to\nsay the things were indifferent, as to say the Lord had received\nthem. Whereas the text is to set out the riches of grace to the\nvessels of mercy, as Romans 9:15. That as at first he did freely\nchoose and accept them; so when they fail and miscarry in many\nthings, yea about his worship also, although he be most injured\nthereby, yet he is first in passing it by, and persuading others\nto do the like. That as the good Samaritan did in the Old\nTestament,[19] so our good Samaritan doth in the New, when priest\nand Levite passed by, pastor and people pass by, yet he will\nnot, but pours in oil, and carries them to his inn, and calls for\nreceiving, and setting it upon his account.\n\nObject. That this bearing with, and receiving such as are weak in\nthe faith, must be limited to meats and days, and such like things\nthat had been old Jewish observations, but not unto the being\nignorant in, or doubting of any New Testament institution.\n\nAns. Where the Lord puts no limitation, men should be wary how\nthey do it, for they must have a command or example, before they\ncan limit this command; for although the Lord took this occasion\nfrom their difference about meats and days to give this command,\nyet the command is not limited there, no more than Matthew 12:1-8.\nThat when they made use of his good law rigorously in the letter,\nhe presently published an act of grace in the 7th verse, and\ntells them, Had they known what this meaneth, 'I will have mercy\nand not sacrifice,' they would not have condemned the guiltless;\nas also Matthew 9:13, 'Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will\nhave mercy and not sacrifice,' which is not to be limited unto what\nwas the present occasion of publishing the command, but observed\nas a general rule upon all occasions, wherein mercy and sacrifice\ncomes in competition, to shew the Lord will rather have a duty\nomitted that is due to him, than mercy to his creatures omitted\nby them. So in the text, when some would not receive such as were\nweak in the faith, as to matters of practice, the Lord was pleased\nto publish this act of grace: 'Him that is weak in the faith\nreceive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.' Now unless it be\nproved, that no saint can be weak in the faith in any thing but\nmeats and days, or in some Old Testament observations, and that\nhe ought not to be judged a saint that is weak in the faith as it\nrelates to gospel institutions, in matters of practice; you cannot\nlimit the text, and you must also prove his weakness SUCH, as\nthat the Lord will not receive him; else the command in the first\nverse, and the reason or motive in the third verse, will both be\nin force upon you; to wit, 'Him that is weak in the faith receive\nye,' or unto you,--'for God hath received him.'\n\nObject. But some may object from 1 Corinthians 12:13, 'For by one\nspirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or\nGentiles.' Some there are that affirm this to be meant of water\nbaptism, and that particular churches are formed thereby, and\nall persons are to be admitted and jointed unto such churches by\nwater baptism.\n\nAns. That the baptism intended in the text is the Spirit's baptism,\nand not water baptism; and that the body the text intends, is not\nprincipally the church of Corinth, but all believers, both Jews\nand Gentiles, being baptized into one mystical body, as Ephesians\n4:4, 'There is one body and one Spirit,' wherein there is set out\nthe uniter and the united; therefore in the third verse they are\nexhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The\nunited are all the faithful in one body; into whom? in the fifth\nverse, in one Lord Jesus Christ: by what? one faith, one baptism,\nwhich CANNOT be meant of water baptism; for water baptism doth\nnot unite all this body, for some of them never had water baptism,\nand are yet of this body, and by the Spirit gathered into one Lord\nJesus Christ (Eph 1:10), 'both which are in heaven and in earth,'\nJew and Gentile (Eph 2:16), 'that he might reconcile both unto\nGod in one body by the cross.' The instrument you have in verse\n18, 'by one spirit' (Eph 3:6). 'That the Gentiles should be\nfellow-heirs, and of the same body' (v 15). 'Of whom the whole\nfamily in heaven and earth is named.' And the reasons of their\nkeeping 'the unity of the Spirit,' in Ephesians 4:3 is laid down\nin verses 4, 5 being 'one body,' 'one Spirit,' having 'one hope,'\n'one Lord,' 'one faith,' 'one baptism,' whether they were Jews\nor Gentiles, such as were in heaven or in earth, which CANNOT be\nmeant of water baptism, for in that sense they had not all one\nbaptism, nor admitted and united thereby. So in 1 Corinthians 12:13,\n'For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we\nbe Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been\nall made to drink into one Spirit'; which cannot be meant of water\nbaptism, in regard all the body of Christ, Jews and Gentiles, bond\nand free, partook not thereof.\n\nObject. But Ephesians 4:5 saith, there is but 'one baptism'; and\nby what hath been said, if granted, water baptism will be excluded,\nor else there is more baptisms than one.\n\nAns. It followeth not that because the Spirit will have no\ncorrival, that therefore other things may not be in their places.\nThat because the Spirit of God taketh the pre-eminence, therefore\nother things may not be subservient (1 John 2:27). The apostle\ntells them, That the anointing which they have received of him,\nabideth in them; and you need not, saith he, 'that any man teach\nyou, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things.' By\nthis some may think John excludes the ministry; no such matter,\nthough the Holy Ghost had confirmed and instructed them so in the\ntruth of the gospel, as that they were furnished against seducers\nin verse 26 yet you see John goes on still teaching them in many\nthings: as also in Ephesians 4:11-13, 'He gave some, apostles;--some\nevangelists, and some pastors, and teachers; for the perfecting\nof the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of\nthe body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith,\nand of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto\nthe measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' So in the\nSpirit's baptism, though it have the pre-eminence, and appropriateth\nsome things, as peculiar to itself, it doth not thereby destroy\nthe use and end of water baptism, or any other ordinance in its\nplace: for water baptism is a means to increase grace, and in it,\nand by it sanctification is forwarded, and remission of sins more\ncleared and witnessed; yet the giving grace, and regenerating and\nrenewing, is the Holy Spirit's peculiar. Consider (Titus 3:5),\n'By the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost';\nBaptism being the outward sign of the inward graces wrought by\nthe Spirit, a representation or figure, as in 1 Peter 3:21, 'The\nlike figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us [not the\nputting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good\nconscience toward God,] by the resurrection of Jesus Christ';\nnot excluding water baptism; but shewing, That the spiritual part\nis chiefly to be looked at: though such as slight water baptism,\nas the Pharisees and lawyers did (Luke 7:30), reject the counsel\nof God against themselves, not being baptized. And such as would\nset water baptism in the Spirit's place, exalt a duty against the\ndeity and dignity of the Spirit, and to give the glory due unto\nhim, as God blessed for ever, unto a duty.\n\nBy which mistake of setting up water baptism in the Spirit's place,\nand assigning it a work, which was never appointed unto it; of\nforming the body of Christ, either in general, as in 1 Corinthians\n12:13; Ephesians 4:5 or as to particular churches of Christ, we\nmay see the fruit; that instead of being the means of uniting as\nthe Spirit doth; that it hath not only rent his seamless coat,\nbut divided his body which he hath purchased with his own blood,\nand opposed that great design of Father, Son, and Spirit, in uniting\npoor saints, thereby pulling in pieces what the Spirit hath put\ntogether. 'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye,--for God hath\nreceived him'; being such as the Spirit had baptized and admitted\nof the body of Christ, he would have his churches receive them\nalso: whose baptism is the ONLY baptism, and so is called the\nONE baptism. Therefore consider, whether such a practice, hath\na command or an example, that persons must be joined into church\nfellowship by water baptism; for John baptized many, yet he did\nnot baptize some into one church, and some into another, nor all\ninto one church, as the church of Rome doth. And into what church\ndid Philip baptize the eunuch, or the apostle the jailor and his\nhouse? And all the rest they baptized, were they not left free to\njoin themselves for their convenience and edification? All which\nI leave to consideration. I might have named some inconveniences,\nif not absurdities that would follow the assertion: as to father\nthe mistakes of the baptizers on the Spirit's act, who is not\nmistaken in any HE baptizeth; no false brethren creep in unawares\ninto the mystical body by him; and also, how this manner of forming\nchurches would suit a country, where many are converted, and\nwilling to be baptized; but there being no church to be baptized\ninto, how shall such a church state begin? The first must be\nbaptized into no church, and the rest into him as the church, or\nthe work stand still for want of a church.\n\nObject. 'But God is a God of order, and hath ordained order in\nall the churches of Christ; and for to receive one that holds the\nbaptism he had in his infancy, there is no command nor example\nfor, and by the same rule children will be brought in to be church\nmembers.'\n\nAns. That God is a God of order, and hath ordained orders in all\nthe churches of Christ is true; and that this is one of the orders\nto receive him that is weak in the faith, is as true. And though\nthere be no example or command, in so many words, receive such an\none that holds the baptism he had in his infancy, nor to reject\nsuch a one: but there is a command to receive him that is weak in\nthe faith, without limitation, and it is like this might not be\na doubt in those days, and so not spoken of in particular.\n\nBut the Lord provides a remedy for all times in the text, 'Him\nthat is weak in the faith receive ye'; for else receiving would\nnot be upon the account of saintship; but upon knowing, and doing\nall things according to rule and order, and that must be perfectly,\nelse for to deny any thing, or to affirm too much is disorderly,\nand would hinder receiving: but the Lord seals not so with his\npeople, but accounts 'LOVE the fulfilling of the law,' though\nthey be ignorant in many things both as to knowing and doing; and\nreceives them into communion and fellowship with himself, and\nwould have others do the same also. And if he would have so much\nbearing in the apostle's days, when they had infallible helps to\nexpound truths unto them, much more now, the church hath been so\nlong in the wilderness and in captivity, and not that his people\nshould be driven away in the dark day, though they are sick and\nweak (Eze 34:16,21). And that it should be supposed such tenderness\nwould bring in children in age to be church members, yea and\nwelcome, if any body could prove them in the faith, though never\nso weak; for the text is, 'Him that is weak in the faith, receive\nye': It is not He, and his wife and children, unless it can be\nproved they are IN THE FAITH.\n\nObject. 'By this, some ordinances may be lost or omitted, and is\nit to be supposed the Lord would suffer any of his ordinances to\nbe lost or omitted in the Old or New Testament, or the right use\nof them, and yet own such for true churches, and what reason can\nthere be for it.?'\n\nAns. The Lord hath suffered some ordinances to be omitted and lost\nin the Old Testament, and yet owned the church. Though circumcision\nwere omitted in the wilderness, yet he owned them to be his\nchurch (Acts 7:38); and many of the ordinances were lost in the\ncaptivity: see Ainsworth upon Exodus 28, 30 &c. which shewed what\nthe high-priest was to put on, and were not to be omitted upon\npain of death, as the Urim and Thummim, yet being lost, and several\nother ordinances, the ark, with the mercy-seat and cherubims, the\nfire from heaven, the majesty and divine presence, &c. yet, he\nowns the second temple, though short of the first, and filled it\nwith his glory, and honoured it with his Son, being a member and\na minister therein (Mal 3:1), 'The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly\ncome to his temple': So in the New Testament, since their wilderness\ncondition, and great and long captivity, there is some darkness\nand doubts, and want of light in the best of the Lord's people,\nin many of his ordinances, and that for several ages, and yet how\nhath the Lord owned them for his churches, wherein he is to have\nglory and praise 'throughout all ages' (Eph 3:21). And so should\nwe own them, unless we will condemn the generation of the just.\nIt must be confessed, That if exact practice be required, and\nclearness in gospel institutions before communion; who dare be\nso bold as to say his hands are clean, and that he hath done all\nthe Lord's commands, as to institutions in his worship? and must\nnot confess the change of times doth necessitate some variation,\nif not alteration, either in the matter or manner of things\naccording to primitive practice; yet owned for true churches, and\nreceived as visible saints, though ignorant either wholly, or in\ngreat measure, in laying on of hands, singing, washing of feet,\nand anointing with oil, in the gifts of the Spirit, which is the\nUrim and Thummim of the gospel. And it cannot be proved, that the\nchurches were so ignorant in the primitive times, nor yet that\nsuch were received into fellowship; yet now herein it is thought\nmeet their should be bearing, and why not in baptism, especially\nin such as own it for an ordinance, though in some things miss it,\nand do yet shew their love unto it, and unto the Lord, and unto\nhis law therein, that they could be willing to die for it rather\nthan to deny it; and to be baptized in their blood; which sheweth,\nthey hold it in conscience their duty, while they have further light\nfrom above, and are willing to hear and obey as far as they know,\nthough weak in the faith, as to clearness in gospel institutions:\nsurely the text is on their side, or else it will exclude all the\nformer, 'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye,--but not to\ndoubtful disputations' (Rom 14:5). Let every man be fully persuaded\nin his own mind, and such the Lord hath received.\n\nAs to the query, What reason is there, why the Lord should suffer\nany of his ordinances to be lost?\n\nAns. If there were no reason to be shewn, it should teach us\nsilence, for he doth nothing without the highest reason; and there\ndoth appear some reasons in the Old Testament, why those ordinances\nof Urim and Thummim, &c. were suffered to be lost in the captivity,\nthat they might long and look for the Lord Jesus, the priest,\nthat was to stand up with Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:63; Neh 7:65),\nwhich the Lord by this puts them upon the hoping for, and to be\nin the expectation of so great a mercy, which was the promise of\nthe Old Testament, and all the churches losses in the New Testament.\nBy all the dark night of ignorance she hath been in, and long\ncaptivity she hath been under, and in her wandering wilderness\nstate, wherein she hath rather been fed with manna from heaven,\nthan by men upon earth; and after all her crosses and losses, the\nLord lets light break in by degrees, and deliverance by little\nand little; and she is 'coming out of the wilderness leaning upon\nher beloved'; and the Lord hath given the valley of Achor for\na door of hope, that ere long she may receive the promise of the\ngospel richly, by the Spirit, to be poured upon us from on high (Isa\n32:15), and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful\nfield become a forest, and then the Lord will take away the covering\ncast over all people (Isa 25:7), and the vail that is spread\nover all nations (Isa 11:9); 'For the earth shall be full of the\nknowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (v 13). Then\n'Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.'\nThus will the God of peace bruise Satan under foot shortly; and one\nreason why the Lord may suffer all this darkness and differences\nthat have been, and yet are, is, that we might long and look for\nthis blessed promise of the gospel, the pourings out of the Spirit.\n\nObject. But many authors do judge, that the weak and strong were\nall in church fellowship before, and that the receiving (Rom 14:1)\nwas but into mutual affection.\n\nAns. It ought to be seriously weighed how any differ from so many\nworthy authors, is confessed; to whom the world is so much beholden\nfor their help in many things; but it would be of dangerous\nconsequence to take all for granted they say, and unlike the noble\nBereans (Acts 17:11). Though they had some infallible teachers,\nyet they took not their words or doctrine upon trust; and there\nmay be more ground to question expositors on this text, in regard\ntheir principles necessitate them to judge that the sense; for if\nit be in their judgments a duty to compel all to come in, and to\nreceive all, and their children, they must needs judge by that\ntext, they were all of the church, and in fellowship, before their\nscrupling meats and days, because that is an act of grown persons\nat years of discretion; and therefore the receiving is judged by\nthem to be only into mutual affection, for it is impossible for\nthem to hold their opinion, and judge otherwise of the text; for\nin baptism, they judge infants should be received into church\nfellowship; and then scrupling meats and days must needs be after\njoining. Their judgments might as well be taken, that it is a duty\nto baptize infants, as that they can judge of this text rightly,\nand hold their practice.\n\nObject. But no uncircumcised person was to eat the passover (Exo\n12). And doth not the Lord as well require the sign of baptism now,\nas of circumcision then? and is there not like reason for it?\n\nAns. The Lord, in the Old Testament, expressly commanded\nno uncircumcised person should eat the passover (Exo 12:48; Eze\n44:9), that no stranger, uncircumcised in heart, or uncircumcised\nin flesh, should enter into his sanctuary.[20] And had the Lord\ncommanded, that no unbaptized person should enter into his churches,\nit had been clear. And no doubt, Christ was as faithful as a son\nin all his house, as Moses was as a servant; and although there\nhad been little reason, if the Lord had commanded it so to be,\nyet in God's worship we must not make the likeness of any thing\nin our reason, but the will of God, the ground of duty; for upon\nsuch a foundation some would build the baptizing of infants,\nbecause it would be like unto circumcision, and so break the\nsecond commandment, in making the likeness of things of their own\ncontrivance, of force with institutions in the worship of God.\n\nThe most that I think can be said is, That we have no gospel\nexample for receiving without baptism, or rejecting any for want\nof it. Therefore it is desired, what hath been said, may be\nconsidered; lest while we look for an example, we do not overlook\na command upon a mistake, supposing that they were all in church\nfellowship before; whereas the text saith not so, but 'Him that\nis weak in the faith receive ye,' or unto you.\n\nWe may see also how the Lord proceeds under the law, though he\naccounts those things that were done contrary to his law, sinful,\nthough done ignorantly; yet never required the offender to offer\nsacrifice till he knew thereof (Lev 5:5 compared with vv 15,16).\nAnd that may be a man's own sin through his ignorance; that though\nit may be another's duty to endeavour to inform him in, yet not\nthereupon to keep him out of his Father's house; for surely the\nLord would not have any of his children kept out, without we have\na word for it. And though they scruple some meats in their Father's\nhouse, yet it may be dangerous for the stronger children to deny\nthem all the rest of the dainties therein, till the weak and sick\ncan eat strong meat; whereas Peter had meat for one, and milk for\nanother; and Peter must feed the poor lambs as well as the sheep;\nand if others will not do it, the great shepherd will come ere long\nand look up what hath been driven away (Eze 34:4,11; Isa 40:11).\nHe will feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs\ninto his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Who is there that reads these revilings of Bunyan for his poverty\nand mean descent, but must be struck with the unsearchable wisdom\nof the Almighty. The salvation of the church requires that 'GOD\nshould be manifest in the flesh.' Does he appear in his glory? Does\nhe honour riches, and power, and wisdom, by descending in one of\nthese classes? No; the poor, the despised in this world, claim\nkindred with him--'Is not this the carpenter's son?' 'Have any of\nthe rulers or pharisees believed on him?' Even with these examples\nbefore them, his Baptist ministerial brethren, who sat at his\nfeet when he came to London, and listened to his eloquence, now,\nin their hot dispute, revile and taunt him with his imprisonment--his\npoverty--his want of book learning. Refused the communion of some\neminent earthly saints, it drove him to closer communion with his\nGod, and the prison, became a Bethel--none other than the house\nof God, and the very gate of heaven; and in a holy, happy frame\nof soul, he breathes forgiveness: 'What Mr. Kiffin hath done in\nthe matter I forgive, and love him never the worse'!!--Ed.\n\n2. How do these verses cut down all the carnal pride of man. Who\nis THE BLESSED? not the rich, or powerful, or worldly wise, but\nthose that delight in the word of God.--Ed.\n\n3. Nearly all the Baptist churches of that day limited communion\nto them who had been baptized in water on a profession of their\nfaith. It is very different now; Bunyan's principles have spread,\nare spreading, and must soon become universal.--Ed.\n\n4. Mr. H. D'Anvers: 'A seventh end of baptism is, that the baptized\nperson may orderly thereby have an entrance into the visible church.\nNone were esteemed members, or did partake of its ordinances, before\nthey were baptized, being so God's hedge or boundary.'--Treatise\nof Baptism, p. 20, ed. 1674.\n\n5. A modern writer, in a critique on Bunyan, says that he did as\nmuch justice to grace as his Calvinism would allow him!! May all\nthe world be such Calvinists.--Ed.\n\n6. 'Without the church,' previous to having entered into the church,\na personal obedience to the divine command; having repented, then\nbe baptized: neither of these are duties to be performed by the\nchurch, as such, but individually.--Ed.\n\n7. 'To themselves,' to the particular churches only to which they\nwere written. Contrary to the word, 'All scripture is given--to\nbe profitable to the man of God' in every church (2 Tim 3:16).--Ed.\n\n8. To these ten commandments must be added that new command given\nby the Saviour, 'That ye love one another' (John 12:34); or rather\nthe evangelical sum of the whole law, 'Thou shalt love the Lord\nthy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.' This\nhappy state of mind can only be attained by the baptism of the\nHoly Ghost. How awful the thought that multitudes of professing\nChristians rely upon outward ceremonies, a fleshly carnal confidence\nin ordinances, while they are dead as to union with God and to\nspiritual communion with his saints. Reader, how is it with your\nown soul.--Ed.\n\n9. Bunyan's adversaries were wrong in stating that all the\nexpositors agreed in referring this 'one baptism' to be that in\nor with water. John Caime, 1662, refers to 1 Corinthians 12:13,\nas an illustration of Ephesians 4:5, 'One baptism,' 'by one SPIRIT\nare we all baptized.' The Assembly's Annotations, 1657, infers\nthat 'one' means 'once,' and refers to the Nicene creed, which\nsays, 'one baptism for the remission of sins'; this surely cannot\nmean that the application of water remits sins. Diodati, 1648, is\nsilent on this subject. Dr. Hammond, 1653, says, 'the same vow\nto be administered to all.' Very similar to this is the Dutch\nannotations of Theodore Haak.--Ed.\n\n10. Heaven forbid that we should be afraid or ashamed of saying\nthat Christ is better than water baptism. Christ is the heavenly\nmanna, the sweet, pleasant, nourishing food of the soul. Baptism\nis only once for life, but Christ is our essential food all through\nthe wilderness--every hour of life until we enter the gates of\nthe celestial and eternal city.--Ed.\n\n11. While we acknowledge the importance of water baptism, to which\nChrist submitted, yet we do well to consider that it was not\nintended as a means of purifying his infinite purity; no more does\nit purify the believer who follows his Redeemer in this ordinance.\nHe was as much a believer before as he is after the ceremony. He\nsubmits to it as an act of obedience to the divine command, in\nthe humble hope that his faith may be strengthened and his soul\nrefreshed.--Ed.\n\n12. 'The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God' (James\n1:20). The angry passions of man work evil. Such fiery zeal\nis contrary to the spirit of Christ. The ignorant must be won by\nmeekness to embrace the truth.--Ed.\n\n13. It becomes all prayerfully to follow divine commands in ALL\nTHINGS. Nothing is indifferent or non-essential that God hath\nordained for the believer. But if disciples differ about days, or\nmeats, or water, ought such differences to prevent their communion\nand fellowship more than differences in personal stature, or beauty,\nor in mental powers. Uniformity in anything but love to God and\nto each other is a fool's paradise, contrary to the experience of\nthe apostolic and all ages, and opposed to every law of nature.--Ed.\n\n14. This typographical error in 'The Reasons of my Practice' is\ncorrected in this edition for the first time.--Ed.\n\n15. The doctrine of the real presence, called transubstantiation,\nwas the test of adherence to the Romish church, which unless all\npersons pretended to believe they were sacrificed with brutal\nferocity.--Ed.\n\n16. In Bunyan's days, both the laws of the land, the judges, and\nthe commonalty, gave credence to the wicked gambols of wizards and\nwitches. Many a poor iniquitous old woman, from some mysterious\nhints of her power to tell fortunes, or to gratify the revengeful\nfeelings of her neighbours, was put to a cruel death. More\nenlightened times have dissipated this illusion, and driven these\nimaginary imps of darkness into benighted countries.--Ed.\n\n17. 'Me-hap-soes,' a contraction of 'it may so happen.'--Ed.\n\n18. Tyndale, and all the early English translations, rend it 'unto\nyou,' until the Elisabethan State Bible, called the Bishop's, in\n1568. Do not the words mean that Christians are to receive such as\nare weak in the faith into their hearts by love, without troubling\ntheir heads with perplexing disputes?--Ed.\n\n19. Under the Old Testament dispensation; the parable or history\nis recorded in Luke 10.--Ed.\n\n20. We cannot offer to God any acceptable sacrifice until spiritually\nbaptized. First joined to God by a living faith in the atoning\nsacrifice of Christ, and then bringing forth the fruits of this\ninternal and purifying baptism, we must give ourselves to his\nchurch in the bonds of the gospel.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nPEACEABLE PRINCIPLES AND TRUE: OR, A BRIEF ANSWER TO MR. D'ANVER'S\nAND MR. PAUL'S BOOKS AGAINST MY CONFESSION OF FAITH, AND DIFFERENCES\nIN JUDGMENT ABOUT BAPTISM NO BAR TO COMMUNION.\n\nWHEREIN THEIR SCRIPTURELESS NOTIONS ARE OVERTHROWN, AND MY PEACEABLE\nPRINCIPLES STILL MAINTAINED.\n\n'Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge\nuprightly, O ye sons of men?'--Psalm 58:1\n\nSIR,\n\nI have received and considered your short reply to my differences\nin judgment about water baptism no bar to communion; and observe,\nthat you touch not the argument at all: but rather labour what you\ncan, and beyond what you ought, to throw odiums upon your brother\nfor reproving you for your error, viz. 'That those believers that\nhave been baptized after confession of faith made by themselves,\nought and are in duty bound to exclude from their church fellowship,\nand communion at the table of the Lord, those of their holy brethren\nthat have not been so baptized.' This is your error. Error, I\ncall it, because it is not founded upon the word, but a mere human\ndevice; for although I do not deny, but acknowledge, that baptism\nis God's ordinance; yet I have denied, that baptism was ever\nordained of God to be a wall of division between the holy and the\nholy; the holy that are, and the holy that are not, so baptized\nwith water as we. You, on the contrary, both by doctrine and\npractice, assert that it is; and therefore do separate yourselves\nfrom all your brethren that in that matter differ from you;\naccounting them, notwithstanding their saving faith and holy\nlives, not fitly qualified for church communion, and all because\nthey have not been, as you, baptized. Further, you count their\ncommunion among themselves unlawful, and therefore unwarrantable;\nand have concluded, 'they are joined to idols, and that they ought\nnot to be shewed the pattern of the house of God, until they be\nashamed of their sprinkling in their infancy, and accept of and\nreceive baptism as you.' Yea, you count them as they stand, not\nthe churches of God; saying, 'We have no such custom, nor the\nchurches of God.' At this I have called for your proofs, the which\nyou have attempted to produce; but in conclusion have shewed none\nother, but 'That the primitive churches had those they received,\nbaptized before so received.'\n\nI have told you, that this, though it were granted, cometh not up\nto the question; for we ask not, 'whether they were so baptized?\nBut whether you find a word in the Bible that justifieth your\nconcluding that it is your duty to exclude those of your holy\nbrethren that have not been so baptized?' From this you cry out,\nthat I take up the arguments of them that plead for infant baptism:\nI answer, I take up no other argument but your own, viz. 'That\nthere being no precept, precedent, nor example in all the scripture,\nfor our excluding our holy brethren that differ in this point from\nus, therefore we ought not to dare to do it,' but contrariwise to\nreceive them;[1] because God hath given us sufficient proof that\nhimself hath received them, whose example in this case he hath\ncommanded us to follow (Rom 14:3,15). This might serve for an answer\nto your reply. But because, perhaps, should I thus conclude, some\nmight make an ill use of my brevity; I shall therefore briefly step\nafter you, and examine your short reply; at least, where shew of\nargument is.\n\nYour first five pages are spent to prove me either proud or a liar;\nfor inserting in the title-page of my 'Differences,' &c. that your\nbook was written by the Baptist, or brethren of your way.\n\nIn answer to which; whoso readeth your second, your fifth and\nsixth questions to me, may not perhaps be easily persuaded to the\ncontrary; but the two last in your reply, are omitted by you; whether\nfor verity's sake, or because you were conscious to yourself, that\nthe sight of them would overthrow your insinuations, I leave to\nthe sober to judge. But put the case I had failed herein, Doth\nthis warrant your unlawful practice?\n\nYou ask me next, 'How long is it since I was a Baptist?' and then\nadd, 'It is an ill bird that bewrays his own nest.'\n\nAns. I must tell you, avoiding your slovenly language, I know none\nto whom that title is so proper as to the disciples of John. And\nsince you would know by what name I would be distinguished from\nothers; I tell you, I would be, and hope I am, A CHRISTIAN; and\nchoose, if God should count me worthy, to be called a Christian,\na Believer, or other such name which is approved by the Holy Ghost\n(Acts 11:26). And as for those factious titles of Anabaptists,\nIndependents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude, that they\ncame neither from Jerusalem, nor Antioch, but rather from hell\nand Babylon; for they naturally tend to divisions, 'you may know\nthem by their fruits.'\n\nNext, you tell us of your goodly harmony in London; or of the\n'amicable christian correspondency betwixt those of divers\npersuasions there, until my turbulent and mutineering spirit got\nup.'\n\nAns. The cause of my writing, I told you, which you have neither\ndisapproved in whole, nor in part. And now I ask what kind of\nchristian correspondency you have with them? Is it such as relateth\nto church communion; or such only as you are commanded to have with\nevery brother that walketh disorderly, that they may be ashamed\nof their church communion, which you condemn? if so, your great\nflourish will add no praise to them; and why they should glory\nin a correspondency with them as Christians, who yet count them\nunder such deadly sin, which will not by any means, as they now\nstand, suffer you to admit them to their Father's table, to me is\nnot easy to believe.\n\nFarther, Your christian correspondency, as you call it, will not\nkeep you now and then, from fingering some of their members from\nthem; nor from teaching them that you so take away, to judge and\ncondemn them that are left behind: Now who boasteth in this besides\nyourself, I know not.\n\nTouching Mr. Jesse's judgment in the case in hand, you know it\ncondemneth your practice; and since in your first, you have called\nfor an author's testimony, I have presented you with one, whose\narguments you have not condemned.\n\nFor your insinuating my abusive and unworthy behaviour, as the cause\nof the brethren's attempting to break our Christian communion; it\nis not only false but ridiculous. False; for they have attempted to\nmake me also one of their disciples, and sent to me, and for me\nfor that purpose. Besides, it is ridiculous; surely their pretended\norder, and as they call it, our disorder, was the cause; or they\nmust render themselves very malicious, to seek the overthrow of a\nwhole congregation, for, if it had been so, the unworthy behaviour\nof one.\n\nNow, since you tell me 'That Mr. Kiffin hath no need of my forgiveness\nfor the wrong he hath done me in his epistle.'\n\nI ask, did he tell you so? But let it lie as it doth; I will at\nthis time turn his argument upon him, and desire his direct answer:\nThere being no precept, precedent or example for Mr. Kiffin to\nexclude his holy brethren from Christian communion that differ\nwith him about baptism, he ought not to do it; but there is neither\nprecept, precedent, nor example; therefore, &c.\n\nYou blame me for writing his name at length: but I know he is not\nashamed of his name: and for you, though at the remotest rate, to\ninsinuate it, must needs be damage to him.\n\nYour artificial squibbling[2] suggestions to the world about myself,\nimprisonment, and the like I freely bind unto me as an ornament\namong the rest of my reproaches, till the Lord shall wipe them\noff at his coming. But they are no argument that you have a word\nthat binds you to exclude the holy brethren communion.\n\nNow what if, as you suggest, the sober Dr. Owen, though he told\nme and others at first he would write an epistle to my book, yet\nwaved it afterwards; this is also to my advantage; because it was\nthrough the earnest solicitations of several of you that at that\ntime stopped his hand; And perhaps it was more for the glory of\nGod that truth should go naked into the world, than as seconded\nby so mighty an armour-bearer as he.\n\nYou tell me also, that some of the sober Independents have shewed\ndislike to my writing on this subject: What then? If I should also\nsay, as I can without lying, that several of the Baptists have\nwished yours burnt before it had come to light; is your book ever\nthe worse for that?\n\nYou tell us, you meddle not with Presbyterians, Independents, mixed\nCommunionists (a new name), but are for liberty for all according\nto their light.\n\nAns. I ask then, suppose an holy man of God, that differeth from\nyou, as those above-named do, in the manner of water baptism;\nI say, suppose such an one should desire communion with you, yet\nabiding by his own light, as to the thing in question, Would you\nreceive him to fellowship? If no, do you not dissemble?\n\nBut you add, 'If unbaptized believers do not walk with us, they\nmay walk with them with whom they are better agreed.'\n\nAns. Then it seems you do but flatter them. You are not, for all\nyou pretend to give them their liberty, agreed they should have it\nwith you. Thus do the Papists give the Protestants their liberty,\nbecause they can neither will nor choose.\n\nAgain, But do you not follow them with clamours and out-cries, that\ntheir communion, even amongst themselves, is unwarrantable? Now,\nhow then do you give them their liberty? Nay, do not even these\nthings declare that you would take it away if you could?\n\n'For the time that I have been a Baptist (say you ) I do not\nremember that ever I knew that one unbaptized person did so much\nas offer themselves to us for church fellowship.'\n\nAns. This is no proof of your love to your brethren; but rather\nan argument that your rigidness was from that day to this so\napparent, that those good souls despaired to make such attempts;\nwe know they have done it elsewhere, where they hoped to meet with\nencouragement.\n\nYou seem to retract your denial of baptism to be the initiating\nordinance. And indeed Mr. D'Anvers told me, that you must retract\nthat opinion, and that he had, or would speak to you to do it; yet\nby some it is still so acknowledged to be; and in particular, by\nyour great helper, Mr. Denne, who strives to maintain it by several\narguments; but your denial may be a sufficient confutation to him;\nso I leave you together to agree about it, and conclude you have\noverthrown him.\n\nBut it seems though you do not now own it to be the inlet into a\nparticular church; yet, as you tell us of your last, 'you never\ndenied that baptism doth not make a believer a member of the\nuniversal, orderly, church visible. And in this Mr. D'Anvers and\nyou agree.' 'Persons enter into the visible church thereby,' saith\nhe.\n\nAns. Universal, that is, the whole church: This word now comprehendeth\nall the parts of it, even from Adam to the very world's end,\nwhether in heaven or earth, &c. Now that [water] baptism makes\na man a member of this church, I do not yet believe, nor can you\nshew me why I should. 2. The universal, orderly church. What church\nthis should be, if by orderly you mean harmony or agreement in\nthe outward parts of worship, I do not understand neither.\n\nAnd yet thus you should mean, because you add the word visible to\nall at the last; 'The universal, orderly, visible church.' Now I\nwould yet learn of this brother where this church is; for if it\nbe visible, he can tell and also shew it. But, to be short, there\nis no such church: the universal church cannot be visible; a great\npart of that vast body being already in heaven, and a great part\nas yet, perhaps, unborn.\n\nBut if he should mean by universal, the whole of that part of\nthis church that is on earth, then neither is it 'visible' nor\n'orderly.' 1. Not visible; for the part remains always to the best\nman's eye utterly invisible. 2. This church is not orderly; that\nis, hath not harmony in its outward and visible parts of worship;\nsome parts opposing and contradicting the other most severely.\nYea, would it be uncharitable to believe that some of the members\nof this body could willingly die in opposing that which others of\nthe members hold to be a truth of Christ? As for instance at home;\ncould not some of those called Baptists die in opposing infant\nbaptism? And again, some of them that are for infant baptism die\nfor that as a truth? Here therefore is no order, but an evident\ncontradiction: and that too in such parts of worship, as both\ncount visible parts of worship indeed.\n\nSo then by 'universal, orderly, visible church,' this brother must\nmean those of the saints only that have been, or are baptized as\nwe; this is clear, because baptism, saith he, maketh a believer\na member of this church; his meaning then is, that there is an\nuniversal, orderly, visible church, and they alone are the Baptists;\nand that every one that is baptized is by that made a member of\nthe universal, orderly, visible church of Baptists, and that the\nwhole number of the rest of saints are utterly excluded.\n\nBut now if other men should do as this man, how many universal\nchurches should we have? An 'universal, orderly, visible church\nof Independents'; an 'universal, orderly, visible church of\nPresbyterians,' and the like. And who of them, if as much confused\nin their notions as this brother, might not, they judging by their\nown light, contend for their universal church, as he for his? But\nthey have more wit.\n\nBut suppose that this unheard of fictitious church were the only\ntrue universal church; yet whoever they baptize must be a visible\nsaint first, and if a visible saint, then a visible member of\nChrist; and if so, then a visible member of his body, which is the\nchurch, before they be baptized; now he which is a visible member\nof the church already, that which hath so made him, hath prevented\nall those claims that by any may be made or imputed to this or that\nordinance to make him so (Acts 8:37, 19:17, 16:33). His visibility\nis already; he is already a visible member of the body of Christ,\nand after that baptized. His baptism then neither makes him a\nmember nor a visible member of the body of Jesus Christ.\n\nYou go on, 'That I said it was consent that makes persons members\nof particular churches is true.'\n\nAns. But that it is consent and nothing else, consent without\nfaith, &c., is false. Your after-endeavour to heal your unsound\nsaying will do you no good: 'Faith gives being to, as well as\nprobation for membership.'\n\nWhat you say now of the epistles, that they were written to\nparticular saints, and those too out of churches as well as in, I\nalways believed: but in your first you were pleased to say, 'You\nwere one of them that objected against our proofs out of the epistles,\nbecause they were written to particular churches, [intending these\nbaptized] and that they were written to other saints, would be\nhard for me to prove': but you do well to give way to the truth.\n\nWhat I said about baptism's being a PEST, take my words as they\nlie, and I stand still thereto: 'Knowing that Satan can make any\nof God's ordinances a PEST and plague to his people, even baptism,\nthe Lord's table, and the holy scriptures; yea, the ministers also\nof Jesus Christ may be suffered to abuse them, and wrench them\nout of their place.' Wherefore I pray, if you write again, either\nconsent to, or deny this position, before you proceed in your\noutcry.\n\nBut I must still continue to tell you, though you love not to hear\nthereof, That supposing your opinion hath hold of your conscience,\nif you might have your will, you would make inroads and outroads\ntoo in all the churches that are not as you in the land. You reckon\nthat church privileges belong not to them who are not baptized as\nwe, saying, 'How can we take these privileges from them before they\nhave them, we keep them from a disorderly practice of ordinances,\nespecially among ourselves'; intimating you do what you can also\namong others: and he that shall judge those he walketh not with,\nor say, as you, that they, like Ephraim, are 'joined to an idol,\nand ought to repent and be ashamed of that idol before they be\nshewed the pattern of the house'; and then shall back all with\nthe citation of a text; doth it either in jest or in earnest; if\nin jest it is abominable; if in earnest his conscience is engaged;\nand being engaged, it putteth him upon doing what he can to\nextirpate the thing he counteth idolatrous and abominable, out of\nthe churches abroad, as well as that he stands in relation unto.\nThis being thus, it is reasonable to conclude, you want not an\nheart, but opportunity for your inroads and outroads among them.\n\nTouching those five things I mentioned in my second; you should\nnot have counted they were found no where, because not found under\nthat head which I mention: and now lest you should miss them again,\nI will present you with them here.\n\n1. 'Baptism is not the initiating ordinance. 2. That though it was,\nthe case may so fall out, that members might be received without\nit. 3. That baptism makes no man a visible saint. 4. That faith,\nand a life becoming the ten commandments, should be the chief and\nmost solid argument with churches to receive to fellowship. 5.\nThat circumcision in the flesh was a type of circumcision in the\nheart, and not of water baptism.' To these you should have given\nfair answers, then you had done like a workman.\n\nNow we are come where you labour to insinuate, 'that a transgression\nagainst a positive precept, respecting instituted worship, hath\nbeen punished with the utmost severity that God hath executed\nagainst men, on record, on this side hell.'\n\nAns. Mr. D'Anvers says, 'That to transgress a positive precept\nrespecting worship, is a breach of the first and second commandments.'\nIf so, then it is for the breach of them, that these severe rebukes\nbefall the sons of men. 2. But you instance the case of Adam his\neating the forbidden fruit; yet to no great purpose. Adam's first\ntransgression was, that he violated the law that was written\nin his heart; in that he hearkened to the tempting voice of his\nwife; and after, because he did eat of the tree: he was bad then\nbefore he did eat of the tree; which badness was infused over his\nwhole nature; and then he bare this evil fruit of eating things\nthat God hath forbidden (Gen 3). Either make the tree good, and\nhis fruit good; or the tree bad, and his fruit bad (Matt 7:17;\nLuke 6:43,44). Men must be bad, ere they do evil; and good, ere\nthey do good. Again, which was the greatest judgment, to be defiled\nand depraved, or to be put out of paradise, do you in your next\ndetermine.\n\nBut as to the matter in hand, What positive precept do they\ntransgress that will not reject him that God bids us receive, if\nhe want light in baptism?\n\nAs for my calling for scripture to prove it lawful thus to exclude\nthem; blame me for it no more; verily I still must do it; and had\nyou but one to give, I had had it long before this. But you wonder\nI should ask for a scripture to prove a negative.\n\nAns. 1. Are you at that door, my brother? If a drunkard, a swearer,\nor whoremonger should desire communion with you, and upon your\nrefusal, demand your grounds; would you think his demands such\nyou ought not to answer? would you not readily give him by SCORES?\nSo, doubtless would you deal with us, but that in this you are\nwithout the lids[3] of the Bible. 2. But again, you have acted as\nthose that must produce a positive rule. 'You count it your duty,\na part of your obedience to God, to keep those out of church\nfellowship that are not baptized as you.' I then demand what precept\nbids you do this? where are you commanded to do it?\n\nYou object, That in Ephesians 4:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 is not\nmeant of Spirit baptism: but Mr. Jesse says it is not, cannot be\nthe baptism with water: and you have not at all refuted him. And\nnow for the church in the wilderness; 'You thought, as you say, I\nwould have answered myself in the thing'; but as yet I have not,\nneither have you. But let us see what you urge for an answer.\n\nI. Say you, 'Though God dispensed with their obedience to circumcision\nin that time (Gen 17; Exo 12) it follows not that you or I should\ndispense with the ordinance of water baptism now.'\n\nAns. God commanded it, and made it the initiating ordinance to\nchurch communion. But Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua, and the\nelders of Israel, dispensed with it for forty years; therefore the\ndispensing with it was ministerial, and that with God's allowance,\nas you affirm. Now if they might dispense with circumcision, though\nthe initiating ordinance; why may not we receive God's holy ones\ninto fellowship, since we are not forbidden it, but commanded;\nyea, why should we make water baptism, which God never ordained\nto that end, a bar to shut out and let in to church communion?\n\nII. You ask, 'Was circumcision dispensed with for want of light,\nit being plainly commanded?'\n\nAns. Whatever was the cause, want of light is as great a cause: and\nthat it must necessarily follow, they must needs see it, because\ncommanded, favours too much of a tang of free will, or of the\nsufficiency of our understanding, and intrencheth too hard on the\nglory of the Holy Ghost; whose work it is 'to bring all things to\nour remembrance, whatsoever Christ hath said to us' (John 14:26).\n\nIII. You ask, 'Cannot you give yourself a reason, that their moving,\ntravelling state made them incapable, and that God was merciful?\nCan the same reason, or anything like it, for refusing baptism,\nbe given now?'\n\nAns. I cannot give myself this reason, nor can you by it give me\nany satisfaction. Because their travelling state could not hinder; if\nyou consider that they might, and doubtless did lie still in one\nplace years together. 1. They were forty years going from Egypt\nto Canaan: and they had but forty-two journies thither. 2. They\nat times went several of these journies in one and the same year.\nThey went, as I take it, eleven of them by the end of the third\nmonth after they came out of the land of Egypt. Compare Exodus\n19:1 with Numbers 33:15. 3. Again, in the fortieth year, we find\nthem in Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and was buried. Now that was\nthe year they went into Canaan; and in that year they had nine\njournies more, or ten, by that they got over Jordan (Num 33:38),\n&c. Here then were twenty journies in less than one year and an\nhalf. Divide then the rest of the time to the rest of the journies,\nand they had above thirty-eight years to go their two and twenty\njournies in. And how this should be such a traveling moving\nstate, as that it should hinder their keeping this ordinance in\nits season, to wit, to circumcise their children the eighth day;\nespecially considering to circumcise them in their childhood, as\nthey were born, might be with more security, than to let them live\nwhile they were men, I see not.\n\nIf you should think that their wars in the wilderness might hinder\nthem; I answer, They had, for ought I can discern, ten times as\nmuch fighting in the land of Canaan, where they were circumcised,\nas in the wilderness where they were not. And if carnal or outward\nsafety had been the argument, doubtless they would not have\ncircumcised themselves in the sight, as it were, of one and thirty\nkings (Josh 5, 12). I say, they would not have circumcised their\nsix hundred thousand warriors, and have laid them open to the\nattempts and dangers of their enemies. No such thing, therefore,\nas you are pleased to suggest, was the cause of their not being\nas yet circumcised.\n\nVI. 'An extraordinary instance to be brought into a standing rule,\nare no parallels': That is the sum of your fourth.\n\nAns. The rule was ordinary; which was circumcision; the laying\naside of this rule became as ordinary, so long a time as forty\nyears, and in the whole church also. But this is a poor shift, to\nhave nothing to say, but that the case was extraordinary, when it\nwas not.\n\nBut you ask, 'Might they do so when they came into Canaan?'\n\nAns. No, no. No more shall we do as we do now 'when that which is\nperfect is come.'\n\nYou add, 'Because the church in the wilderness (Rev 12) could not\ncome by ordinances, &c. therefore when they may be come at, we\nneed not practise them.'\n\nAns. No body told you so. But are you out of that wilderness\nmentioned? (Rev 12). Is Antichrist down and dead to ought but\nyour faith? Or are we only out of that Egyptian darkness, that in\nbaptism have got the start of our brethren? For shame be silent:\nyourselves are yet under so great a cloud, as to imagine to\nyourselves a Rule of Practice not found in the Bible; that is, to\ncount it a sin to receive your holy brethren, though not forbidden\nbut commanded to do it (Rom 14, 15).\n\nYour great flourish against my fourth argument, I leave to them\nthat can judge of the weight of your words; as also what you say\nof the fifth or sixth.\n\nFor the instance I give you of Aaron, David, and Hezekiah, who did\nthings not commanded, and that about holy matters, and yet were\nheld excusable; you, nor yet your abettors for you, can by any\nmeans overthrow. Aaron transgressed the commandment (Lev 6:26,\n10:18); David did what was not lawful; and they in Hezekiah's\ntime, 'did eat the passover otherwise than it was written' (2\nChron 30:18). But here I perceive the shoe pincheth; which makes\nyou glad of Mr. Denne's evasion for help At this also Mr. D'Anvers\ncries out, but yet to no purpose, charging me with asserting,\nthat ignorance absolves from sin of omission and commission. But,\nSirs, fairly take from me the texts, with others that I can urge;\nand then begin to accuse. You have healed your suggestion of\nunwritten verities poorly. But any shift to shift off the force of\ntruth. After the same manner also you have helped your asserting,\n'that you neither keep out, nor cast out from the church, if\nbaptized, such as come unprepared to the supper, and other solemn\nappointments.' Let us leave yours and mine to the pondering of\nwiser men.\n\nMy seventh argument, as I said, you have not so much as touched;\nnor the ten in that one, but only derided at the ten. But we will\nshow them to the reader. 1. Love, which above all other things we\nare commanded to put on, is much more worth, than to break about\nbaptism (Col 3:14). 2. Love is more discovered, when we receive\nfor the sake of Christ and grace, than when we refuse for want of\nwater. 3. The church at Colosse was charged to receive and forbear\nthe saints, because they were new creatures. 4. Some saints were\nin the church at Jerusalem, that opposed the preaching of salvation\nto the Gentiles; and yet retained their membership. 5. Divisions\nand distinctions among saints are of later date than election,\nand the signs of that; and therefore should give place. 6. It is\nlove, not baptism, that discovereth us to the world to be Christ's\ndisciples (John 13:35). 7. It is love that is the undoubted\ncharacter of our interest in, and fellowship with, Christ (Rom\n12:10, 16:10). 8. Fellowship with Christ is sufficient to invite\nto, and the new creature the great rule of our fellowship with,\nChrist (1 John 1:2). 9. Love is the fulfilling of the law, wherefore\nhe that hath it is accepted with God, and ought to be approved\nof men; but he fulfils it not, who judgeth and setteth at nought\nhis brother (Gal 6:16; Phil 3:16; Rom 14; James 4:11). 10. Love\nis sometimes more seen, and showed in forbearing to urge and press\nwhat we know, than in publishing and imposing (John 16:12; 1 Cor\n3:1,2). 11. When we attempt to force our brother beyond his light,\nor to break his heart with grief, to trust him beyond his faith,\nor bar him from his privileges, how can we say I love? 12. To\nmake that the door to communion which God hath not; to make that\nthe including, excluding charter, the bar, bounds, and rule of\ncommunion, is for want of love. Here are two into the bargain.\n\nIf any of these, Sir, please you not in this dress; give me a\nword; and I shall, as well as my wit will serve, give you them in\na syllogistical mode.\n\nNow that you say (practically) for some speak with their feet\n(their walking (Prov 6:13)) that water is above love; and all other\nthings are evident; because have they all but water, you refuse\nthem for want of that; yea, and will be so hardy, though without\nGod's word, to refuse communion with them.\n\nIn our discourse about the carnality that was the cause of the\ndivisions that were at Corinth, you ask, Who must the charge of\ncarnality fall upon, them that defend, or them that oppose the\ntruth?\n\nAns. Perhaps on both; but be sure upon them that oppose, wherefore\nlook you to yourselves, 'who without any command of God to warrant\nyou, exclude your brother from communion; your brother whom God\nhath commanded you to receive.'\n\nMy ninth argument, you make yourself merry with in the beginning:\nbut why do you by and by so cut and hack, and cast it as it were\nin the fire. Those seventeen absurdities you can by no means avoid.\nFor if you have not, as indeed you have not, though you mock me\nfor speaking a word in Latin, one word of God that commands you\nto shut out your brethren for want of water baptism, from your\ncommunion; I say, if you have not one word of God to make this\na duty to you, then unavoidably, 1. You do it by a spirit of\npersecution. 2. With more respect to a form, than the spirit and\npower of godliness. 3. This also, makes laws, where God makes none;\nand is to be wise above what is written. 4. It is a directing the\nSpirit of the Lord. 5. And bindeth all men's consciences to our\nlight and opinion. 6. It taketh away the children's bread. 7. And\nwithholdeth from them the increase of faith. 8. It tendeth to make\nwicked the hearts of weak Christians. 9. It tendeth to harden the\nhearts of the wicked. 10. It setteth open a door to all temptations.\n11. It tempteth the devil to fall upon them that are alone. 12. It\nis the nursery of all vain janglings. 13. It occasioneth the world\nto reproach us. 14. It holdeth staggering consciences in doubt,\nof the right ways of the Lord. 15. It abuseth the holy scriptures.\n16. It is a prop to Antichrist. 17. And giveth occasion to many\nto turn aside to most dangerous errors.\n\nAnd though the last is so abhorred by you, that you cannot contain\nyourselves when you read it: yet do I affirm, as I did in my first\n'That to exclude Christians from church communion, and to debar\nthem their heaven-born privileges, for the want of that which God\nnever yet made a wall of division between us; did, and doth, and\nwill prevail with God to send those judgments we have, or may\nhereafter feel.' Like me yet as you will.\n\nI come next to what you have said in justification of your fourteen\narguments. 'Such as they were,' say you, 'I am willing to stand\nby them: What I have offered, I have offered modestly: according\nto the utmost light I had into those scriptures upon which\nthey are bottomed; having not arrived unto such a peremptory way\nof dictatorship, as what I render must be taken for laws binding\nto others in faith and practice; and therefore express myself by\nsuppositions, strong presumptions, and fair seeming conclusions\nfrom the premises.'\n\nAns. Your arguments, as you truly say, are builded upon, or drawn\nfrom suppositions and presumptions; and all because you want for\nyour help the words of the holy scripture. And let the reader\nnote. For as I have often called for the word, but as yet could\nnever get it, because you have it not, neither in precept, precedent,\nnor example, therefore come you forth with your seeming imports\nand presumptions.\n\nThe judicious reader will see in this last, that not only here, but\nin other places, what poor shifts you are driven to, to keep your\npen going. But, Sir, since you are not peremptory in your proof;\nhow came you to be so absolute in your practice? For notwithstanding\nall your seeming modesty, you will neither grant these communion\nwith you; nor allow their communion among themselves, that turn\naside from your 'seeming imports'; and that go not with you in\nyour strong presumptions. You must not; you dare not; lest you\ncountenance their idolatry; and nourish them up in sin; they live\nin the breach of gospel-order; and Ephraim-like are joined to\nan idol. And as for your love, it amounts to this, you thus deal\nwith them, and withdraw from them, and all because of some strong\npresumptions and suppositions.\n\nBut you tell me, 'I use the arguments of the paedo-baptist, to\nwit, But where are infants forbidden to be baptized?'\n\nBut I ingenuously tell you, I know not what paedo means: and how\nthen should I know his arguments. 1. I take no man's argument\nbut Mr. K.'s, I must not name him farther, I say I take no man's\nargument but his now, viz. 'That there being no precept, precedent\nor example, for you to shut your holy brethren out of church\ncommunion; therefore you should not do it.' That you have no\ncommand to do it, is clear, and you must of necessity grant it.\nNow where there is no precept for a foundation; it is not what\nyou by all your reasonings can suggest; can deliver you from the\nguilt of adding to his word. Are you commanded to reject them; If\nyea, where is it? If nay, for shame be silent.\n\n'Let us say what we will,' say you, 'for our own practice; unless\nwe bring positive scriptures that yours is forbidden, though\nnowhere written; you will be as a man in a rage without it; and\nwould have it thought you go away with the garland.'\n\nAns. 1. I am not in a rage, but contend with you earnestly for\nthe truth. And say what you will or can, though with much more\nsquibbing frumps[4] and taunts than hitherto you have mixed our\nwriting with, Scripture, scripture, we cry still. And it is a bad\nsign that your cause is naught; when you snap and snarl because\nI call for scripture. 2. Had you a scripture for this practice,\nthat you ought to shut your brethren out of communion for want\nof water baptism I had done; but you are left of the word of God,\nand confess it! 3. And as you have not a text that justifies your\nown; so neither that condemns our holy and Christian communion.\nWe are commanded also to receive him that is weak in the faith,\nfor God hath received him. I read not of garlands, but those in\nthe Acts; take you them. And I say moreover, that honest and holy\nMr. Jesse hath justified our practice, and you have not condemned\nhis arguments. They therefore stand all upon their feet against\nyou.\n\nI leave your 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 arguments under my answers where\nthey are suppressed. In your seventh you again complain, for that\nI touch your 'seeming imports'; saying, 'I do not use to say as\nJohn Bunyan, this I say, and I dare to say. I please myself by\ncommending my apprehensions soberly, and submissively to others\nmuch above me.'\n\nAns. 1. Seeming imports are a base and unworthy foundation for\na practice in religion; and therefore I speak against them. 2.\nWhere you say, you submit your apprehensions soberly to those much\nabove you; it is false; unless you conclude none are above you,\nbut those of your own opinion. Have you soberly, and submissively\ncommended your apprehensions to those congregations in London,\nthat are not of your persuasion in the case in hand? and have\nyou consented to stand by their opinion? Have you commended your\napprehensions soberly and submissively to those you call Independents\nand Presbyters? And are you willing to stand by their judgment in\nthe case? Do you not reserve to yourself the liberty of judging\nwhat they say? and of choosing what you judge is right, whether\nthey conclude with you or no? If so; why do you so much dissemble\nwith all the world, in print; to pretend you submit to others'\njudgment, and yet abide to condemn their judgments? you have but\none help: perhaps you think they are not above you; and by that\nproviso secure yourself; but it will not do.\n\nFor the offence you take at any comment upon your calling baptism,\n'a livery': and for your calling it 'the Spirit's metaphorical\ndescription of baptism': both phrases are boldness, without the\nword. Neither do I find it called a listing ordinance, nor the\nsolemnization of the marriage betwixt Christ and a believer. But\nperhaps you had this from Mr. D'Anvers, who pleaseth himself with\nthis kind of wording it: and says moreover in justification of\nyou, 'That persons entered into the visible church thereby [by\nbaptism, which is untrue, though Mr. Baxter also saith it] are\nby consent admitted into particular congregations, where they may\nclaim their privileges due to baptized believers, being orderly\nput into the body, and put on Christ by their baptismal vow and\ncovenant: for by that public declaration of consent, is the\nmarriage and solemn contract made betwixt Christ and a believer\nin baptism. And, saith he, if it be preposterous and wicked for\na man and woman to cohabit together, and to enjoy the privileges\nof a married state without the passing of that public solemnity:\nSo it is NO less disorderly upon a spiritual account, for any to\nclaim the privileges of a church, or be admitted to the same, till\nthe passing of this solemnity by them.'\n\nAns. But these words are very black. First, Here he hath not only\nimplicitly forbidden Jesus Christ to hold communion with the saints\nthat are not yet his by [water] baptism; but is bold to charge\nhim with being as preposterous and wicked if he do, as a man that\nliveth with a woman in the privileges of a married state, without\npassing that public solemnity. Secondly, He here also chargeth\nhim as guilty of the same wickedness, that shall but dare to claim\nchurch communion without it; yea, and the whole church too, if\nthey shall admit such members to their fellowship.\n\nAnd now since cleaving to Christ by vow and covenant, will not do\nwithout baptism, after personal confession of faith; what a state\nare all those poor saints of Jesus in, that have avowed themselves\nto be his a thousand times without THIS baptism? Yea, and what\na case is Jesus Christ in too, by your argument, to hold that\ncommunion with them, that belongeth only unto them that are married\nto him by this solemnity! Brother, God give him repentance. I wot\nthat through ignorance and a preposterous zeal he said it: unsay\nit again with tears, and by a public renunciation of so wicked\nand horrible words; but I thus sparingly pass you by.[5]\n\nI shall not trouble the world any farther with an answer to the\nrest of your books: The books are public to the world: let men read\nand judge. And had it not been for your endeavouring to stigmatize\nme with reproach and scandal, a thing that doth not become you,\nI needed not have given you two lines in answer.\n\nAnd now, my angry brother, if you shall write again, pray keep to\nthe question, namely, 'What precept, precedent, or example have you\nin God's word to exclude your holy brethren from church communion\nfor want of water baptism.' Mr. Denne's great measure, please\nyourself with it, and when you shall make his arguments your own,\nand tell me so, you perhaps may have an answer, but considering\nhim, and comparing his notions with his conversation, I count it\nwill be better for him to be better in morals, before he be worthy\nof an answer.\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nReader, when Moses sought to set the brethren that strove against\neach other, at one, he that did the wrong thrust him away,\nas unwilling to be hindered in his ungodly attempts; but Moses\ncontinuing to make peace betwixt them, the same person attempted\nto charge him with a murderous and bloody design, saying, 'Wilt\nthou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?' (Exo 2:14) a\nthing too commonly thrown upon those that seek peace, and ensue\nit (Acts 7:24-29). 'My soul,' saith David, 'hath long dwelt with\nhim that hateth peace. I am for peace, [said he] but when I speak,\nthey are for war' (Psa 120:6,7). One would think that even nature\nitself should count peace and concord a thing of greatest worth\namong saints, especially since they, above all men, know themselves;\nfor he that best knoweth himself is best able to pity and bear\nwith another (Heb 5:2); yet even amongst these, such will arise,\nas will make divisions among their brethren, and seek 'to draw\naway disciples after them' (Acts 20:30), crying still that they,\neven they are in the right, and all that hold not with them in\nthe wrong, and to be withdrawn from (Rom 16:17). But when every\nHE, hath said all that he can, it is one of the things which the\nLord hateth, to sow 'discord among brethren' (Prov 6:19).[6]\n\nYet many years' experience we have had of these mischievous\nattempts, as also have others in other places, as may be instanced\nif occasion requireth it, and that especially by those of the rigid\nway of our brethren, the Baptists so called, whose principles will\nneither allow them to admit to communion, the saint that different\nfrom them about baptism, nor consent they should communicate\nin a church-state among themselves: but take occasion still ever\nas they can, both to reproach their church-state, and to finger\nfrom amongst them who they can to themselves. These things being\ngrievous to those concerned, as we are, though perhaps those at\nquiet are too little concerned in the matter, therefore when I\ncould no longer forbear, I thought good to present to public view\nthe warrantableness of our holy communion, and the unreasonableness\nof their seeking to break us to pieces. At this Mr. William\nK[iffin], Mr. Thomas Paul, and Mr. Henry D'Anvers, and Mr. Denne,\nfell with might and main upon me; some comparing me to the devil,\nothers to a bedlam, others to a sot, and the like, for my seeking\npeace and truth among the godly. Nay, further, they began to cry out\nmurder, as if I intended nothing less than to accuse them to the\nmagistrate, and to render them incapable of a share in the commonwealth,\nwhen I only struck at their heart-breaking, church-rending principles\nand practice; in their excluding their holy brethren's communion\nfrom them, and their condemning of it [eve] among themselves. They\nalso follow me with slanders and reproaches, counting, it seems,\nsuch things arguments to defend themselves.\n\nBut I in the meantime call for proof, scripture proof, to convince\nme it is a duty to refuse communion with those of the saints that\ndiffer from them about baptism: at this Mr. P[aul] takes offence,\ncalling my demanding of proof for their rejecting the unbaptized\nbeliever, how excellent soever in faith and holiness, a clamorous\ncalling for proof, with high and swelling words, which he counteth\nnot worthy of answer; but I know the reason, he by this demand is\nshut out of the Bible, as himself also suggesteth: wherefore when\ncoming to assault me with arguments, he can do it but by seeming\nimports, suppositions, and strong presumptions, and tells you\nfarther in his reply, 'That this is the utmost of his light in\nthe scriptures urged for his practice'; of which light thou mayest\neasily judge, good reader, that hast but the common understanding\nof the mind of God, concerning brotherly love. Strange! that the\nscripture that everywhere commandeth and presseth to love, to\nforbearance, and bearing the burden of our brother; should yet\nimply, or implicitly import that we should shut them out of our\nFather's house; or that those scriptures that command us to receive\nthe weak, should yet command us to shut out the strong! Thinkest\nthou, reader, that the scripture hath two faces, and speaketh with\ntwo mouths? yet it must do so, by these men's doctrine. It saith\nexpressly, 'Receive one another, as Christ also received us to\nthe glory of God' (Rom 15:7). But these men say, it is not duty,\nit is preposterous, and idolatrous; concluding that to receive\nthis brother, is not a custom of them, not yet of the churches\nof God: consequently telling thee, that those that receive such a\nbrother are not (let them talk while they will) any of the churches\nof God: see their charity, their candour and love, in the midst\nof their great pretensions of love.\n\nBut be thou assured, christian reader, that for these their\nuncharitable words and actions, they have not footing in the word\nof God, neither can they heal themselves with suggesting their\namicable correspondence to the world. Church communion I plead\nfor, church communion they deny them, yet church communion is\nscripture communion, and we read of none other among the saints.\nTrue, we are commanded to withdraw 'from every brother that\nwalketh disorderly,--that he may be ashamed, yet not to count him\nas an enemy, but to admonish him as a brother' (2 Thess 3:6,14,15).\nIf this be that they intend, for I know not of another communion,\nthat we ought to have with those, to whom we deny church communion;\nthen what ground of rejoicing those have that are thus respected\nby their brethren, I leave it to themselves to consider of.\n\nIn the meanwhile, I affirm, 'that baptism with water, is neither\na bar nor bolt to communion of saints, nor a door nor inlet to\ncommunion of saints.' The same which is the argument of my books;\nand as some of the moderate among themselves have affirmed, that\nneither Mr. K., Mr. P. nor Mr. D'Anvers, have made invalid, though\nsufficiently they have made their assault.\n\nFor Mr. Denne, I suppose they count him none of themselves, though\nboth he, and Mr. Lamb, like to like, are brought for authors and\nabetters of their practice, and to refel my peaceable principle.\nFor Mr. Denne, if either of the three will make his arguments\ntheir own, they may see what their servant can do: but I shall\nnot bestow paper and ink upon him, nor yet upon Mr. Lamb; the one\nalready, having given his profession the lie, and for the other\nperhaps they that know his life, will see little of conscience in\nthe whole of his religion, and conclude him not worth the taking\nnotice of. Besides Mr. P. hath also concluded against Mr. Denne,\nThat baptism is not the initiating ordinance, and that his utmost\nstrength for the justification of his own practise is, 'suppositions,\nimports, and strong presumptions,' things that they laugh at,\ndespise and deride, when brought by their brethren to prove infant\nbaptism.\n\nRailing for railing, I will not render, though one of these opposers,\nMr. Dan. by name, did tell me, that Mr. Paul's reply when it came\nout, would sufficiently provoke me to so beastly a work: but what\nis the reason of his so writing, if not the peevishness of his\nown spirit, or the want of better matter.\n\nThis I thank God for, that some of the brethren of this way, are\nof late more moderate than formerly, and that those that retain\ntheir former sourness still, are left by their brethren, to the\nvinegar of their own spirits, their brethren ingeniously confessing,\nthat could these of their company bear it, they have liberty in\ntheir own souls to communicate with saints as saints, though they\ndiffer about water baptism.\n\nWell, God banish bitterness out of the churches, and pardon them\nthat are the maintainers of schisms and divisions among the godly.\n'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell\ntogether in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head,\nthat ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down\nto the skirts of his garments; [farther it is] As the dew of Hermon,\nthat descended upon the mountains of Zion: [Mark] for there the\nLORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore' (Psa 133).\n\nI was advised by some, who considered the wise man's proverb, not to\nlet Mr. Paul pass with all his bitter invectives, but I consider\nthat the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God; therefore\nI shall leave him to the censure and rebuke of the sober, where\nI doubt not but his unsavoury ways with me will be seasonably\nbrought to his remembrance. Farewell.\n\nI am thine to serve thee, Christian, so long as I can look out at\nthose eyes, that have had so much dirt thrown at them by many.\n\nJ. BUNYAN\n\n\n\nOF THE LOVE OF CHRIST\n\nThe love of Christ, poor I may touch upon:\nBut 'tis unsearchable. Oh! there is none\nIts large dimensions can comprehend,\nShould they dilate thereon, world without end.\nWhen we had sinned, in his zeal he sware,\nThat he upon his back our sins would bear.\nAnd since unto sin is entailed death,\nHe vowed, for our sins he'd lose his breath.\nHe did not only say, vow, or resolve,\nBut to astonishment did so involve\nHimself in man's distress and misery,\nAs for, and with him, both to live and die.\nTo his eternal fame in sacred story,\nWe find that he did lay aside his glory,\nStept from the throne of highest dignity;\nBecame poor man, did in a manger lie;\nYea was beholden upon his, for bread;\nHad of his own not where to lay his head:\nThough rich, he did, for us, become thus poor,\nThat he might make us rich for evermore.\nNor was this but the least of what he did;\nBut the outside of what he suffered.\nGod made his blessed Son under the law;\nUnder the curse, which, like the lion's paw,\nDid rend and tear his soul, for mankind's sin,\nMore than if we for it in hell had been.\nHis cries, his tears, and bloody agony,\nThe nature of his death doth testify.\nNor did he of constraint himself thus give\nFor sin, to death, that man might with him live.\nHe did do what he did most willingly,\nHe sung, and gave God thanks, that he must die.\nBut do kings use to die for captive slaves?\nYet we were such, when Jesus died to save us.\nYea, when he made himself a sacrifice,\nIt was that he might save his enemies.\nAnd, though he was provoked to retract\nHis blest resolves, for such, so good an act,\nBy the abusive carriages of those,\nThat did both him, his love, and grace oppose:\nYet he, as unconcerned with such things\nGoes on, determines to make captives kinds\nYea, many of his murderers he takes\nInto his favour, and them princes makes.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. A tender conscience, jealous of grieving or offending the\nHoly Spirit, is of an inestimable value. If in our conscientious\nconclusions we offend others, we must leave to them an equal right\nto their own conclusions without harsh judgment.--Ed.\n\n2. 'Squibbling,' feeble, ill-natured ridicule; now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n3. 'Without the lids of the Bible,' not within it; a popular Puritan\nsaying.--Ed.\n\n4. 'Frump,' to mock, flout, scoff. 'You must learn to mock; to\nfrump your own father on occason.' Ironically used in Ruggle's\nIgnoramus.--Ed.\n\n5. Mr. D'Anvers, in a postscript to his History of Baptism, the first\nedition, 1673, thus violently attacks his brother Bunyan:--'Having\nread his book, I took myself concerned to give some short return\nto it, leaving his \"manifold absurdities,\" \"contradictions,\"\n\"unbrotherly tauntings and reflections,\" \"contemptions,\" \"traducings\nthe wisdom of Christ, and his holy appointments,\" to be called to\naccount by that band that hath so well begun to reckon with him.'\nHe was in prison, and his brother thus visits him with gall and\nwormwood instead of consoling cordials. He goes on to confound\nwater baptism with that of the Spirit, and charges Bunyan with\n'ignorance and folly--dangerous and destructive to religion itself,'\n'contradicting the authority of Christ,' calls him 'egregiously\nignorant,' 'self-condemning.' All this uncharitable vituperation\nwas because Mr. Bunyan would hold communion with all those who\nhad been baptized into, and put on, Christ. The passage quoted is\ncorrect, except that 'married estate' should be 'marriage state.'\nSo satisfied was D'Anvers with the just and Christian correction\ngiven him for so egregious a blunder, that if he did not repent\nwith tears, he took special care to leave out all this absurd\nreference to the marriage ceremony performed in water from his\nsecond edition.--Ed.\n\n6. Strife and contention--evil speaking of surmisings among\nprofessors, are tokens of a carnal mind, injurious to spiritual\npeace, and abominable to God. The envious, discontented, and\nmalicious, are the devil's working tools. If such die unsubdued\nby divine grace, they plunge themselves into the bottomless pit.\nTrue wisdom avid strife and contention, is moderate in doubtful\nopinions, patient and cautious in judging others.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nA CASE OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED; VIZ.,\n\nWHETHER, WHERE A CHURCH OF CHRIST IS SITUATE, IT IS THE DUTY OF\nTHE WOMEN OF THAT CONGREGATION, ORDINARILY, AND BY APPOINTMENT,\nTO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THEIR BRETHREN, AND SO TO ASSEMBLE\nTOGETHER, TO PERFORM SOME PARTS OF DIVINE WORSHIP, AS PRAYER,\nETC., WITHOUT THEIR MEN?\n\nAND THE ARGUMENTS MADE USE OF FOR THAT PRACTICE, EXAMINED.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\nEDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThis exceedingly rare tract was first published in 1683, and was\nnot reprinted, either separately, or in any edition of Bunyan's\nworks. The public are indebted to the owner of a copy in perfect\npreservation, who kindly lent it, with a painful prohibition that\nhe is to remain unknown; but with full allowance to any one who\nwishes to collate it with this new edition, by applying to the\neditor.\n\nAt the time this case was drawn and submitted to Mr. Bunyan for his\nopinion, he was one of the most popular preachers in the kingdom,\nand universally esteemed in all the churches of Christ, for his\nprofound knowledge of the sacred Scriptures. This may account for\nsuch a case being sent to him, in preference to those illustrious\ndivines, who for learning and talent have been unrivalled in any\nage.\n\nThe Reformation had progressed through state impediments so\nslowly, that the masses of the people were involved in the grossest\ndarkness. So Mr. Keach complained--\"The church is but newly come\nout of the wilderness of popish darkness; and not so fully neither\nas to be as clear as the sun; as in due time she shall.\"[1]The\nera of the commonwealth let loose a flood of religious light and\nliberty: those who had just emerged from the darkness of Popery,\nand those who had received, implicitly, and without investigation,\ntheir religion from the formal services of the Liturgy, were now\nalarmed with the thunder of faithful exhortations, personally\nand prayerfully to examine the sacred Scriptures, upon pain of\neverlasting death. A light so new, and so marvellous, dazzled and\nperplexed those who rushed into it, without earnest prayer for\ndivine guidance. They were like men who had been born and brought\nup in a dark, a deep, a noisome mine, when, suddenly emerging into\nlight, are overpowered by its splendour. Long and sharp was the\ncontroversy whether singing ought to be used in public worship;\nwhether the seventh day of the week or the first was to be\nconsecrated; whether ministers were to be paid for their services;\nand in this case, to define the privileges and duties of women as\nhelpers in the gospel; and it is surprising that this question is\nalmost as new now as it was then. It is thus stated--\"Whether it\nis the duty of the women of the churches of Christ to separate\nthemselves from their brethren, and, as so separate, to perform\ndivine worship by themselves.\"\n\nIt appears that some females in Bedford were in the habit of thus\nmeeting, under the advice of a Mr. K. They held prayer meetings\nfor special purposes, at the imminent risk of imprisonment; but\nwhether, in these meetings, they exhorted, or preached to each\nother, does not appear. John Bunyan was applied to for advice,\nwhich he plainly gives. He was a stern advocate for scriptural\nauthority in all things pertaining to divine worship; and one\nwho, in regarding the invaluable virtues of women, most admired\nretiring modesty as the loveliest adornment of the female character.\nThe terms he uses, and the spirit in which he writes, intimate\nplainly that his own wife, who was remarkable for her devotion to\nGod and her affectionate attachment to her husband, was also the\nmost obedient of her sex.\n\nIn this tract we find no unmeaning gallant fribbling, but the\nsolemn language of one who had death and judgment before his face.\nHe conducts the inquiry with great care, as becomes a subject of\nsuch universal interest: and the great majority of Christians remain\nto this day his disciples. The Society of Friends is an exception,\nas to females being admitted to the ministry; while the Wesleyan\nMethodists have gained a most beneficial influence, by embracing,\nto the full extent, Bunyan's notions of rendering available the\ntender zeal, in comparatively private labours, of their pious\nfemales, in spreading the hallowed influences of Christianity.\n\nThe Society of Friends stands upon high ground in justifying its\npractice in allowing females to minister in holy things. J. J. Gurney\nsays--\"Friends believe it right, freely and equally to allow the\nministry of both sexes.\" His reason is--\"That all true ministry is\nunder the immediate spirit of the influence of Christ: therefore we\nare bound to make way for the exercise of the gift of all persons\nthat the Spirit may direct into this service. We dare not say to\nthe modest and pious female, 'Thou shalt not declare the word of\nthe Lord,' when we believe that an infinitely higher authority\nhas issued a directly opposite injunction.\"[2]\n\nThe difference arises as to the more public work of the ministry\nin proclaiming or preaching the kingdom of Christ to the world.\nIn the ordinary ministry, by teaching the young--by a godly\nconversation--by visiting and praying with the sick and afflicted--by\nencouraging the inquirers and directing their way to the kingdom\nof heaven,--in these important duties there appears to be neither\nmale nor female in Christ Jesus--all are equal.\n\nJohn Bunyan would have united to a great degree with John Gurney\nin these sentiments. But as our Lord appointed no female evangelists,\nor apostles, or missionaries; and as the Holy Ghost has directed,\nthat all bishops or elders should be married MEN, it would appear\na strange innovation to place a female in the pastoral office.\nBunyan believed that God usually commissions men and not women\nto this important work. J. J. Gurney fully admits that women \"are\nforbidden to usurp authority over the man,\" and therefore no active\npart is assigned to them in public assemblies for the settlement\nof the affairs of the church. [3] The women's meetings were\nestablished for the purpose of exercising a wholesome care over\ntheir own sex. [4] \"That faithful women should be helps to the\nmen in the service of truth, as they are outwardly in civil and\ntemporal things.\" [5] And to this who can refuse his hearty AMEN.\n\nThere is too much sectarian spirit in all our controversies.\nReader, in considering this subject, endeavour to forget for the\ntime those opinions in which you have been trained. Examine the\nquestion by the Word alone, and may the Holy Spirit inscribe upon\nyour hearts that divine record, which is to be found only in the\nChristian system: \"There is neither male nor female: for ye are all\none in Christ Jesus\" (Gal 3:28). G. OFFOR. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY\nTO THOSE GODLY WOMEN CONCERNED IN THE FOLLOWING TREATISE.\n\nHONOURED SISTERS,\n\n'Tis far from me to despise you, or to do anything to your reproach.\nI know you are beloved of God for the sake of Christ, and that\nyou stand fixed for ever by faith upon the same foundation with\nUS. I also know that the Lord doth put no difference betwixt male\nand female, as to the communications of his saving graces, but\nhath often made many of your sex eminent for piety; yea, there hath\nbeen of you, I speak now of ordinary Christians, that for holiness\nof life have outgone many of the brethren: Nor can their virtuous\nlives but be renown and glory to YOU, and conviction to those of\nUS that have come behind you in faith and holiness. The love of\nwomen in spirituals, as well as naturals, ofttimes outgoes that\nof men.\n\nWhen Christ was upon earth, we read not that any man did to, and\nfor him, as did the woman that was a sinner, Joanna, Susanna, and\nmany others (Luke 7:36-38, 8:1-3). And as they have shewed themselves\neminent for piety, so for Christian valour and fortitude of mind,\nwhen called of God to bear witness to, and for his name in the\nworld: as all histories of that nature doth sufficiently testify.\nThey were WOMEN, as I take it as well as men, that were tortured,\nand that would not accept of deliverance, that they might obtain\na better resurrection (Heb 11:35). Wherefore I honour and praise\nyour eminency in virtue; and desire to be provoked by the exceeding\npiety of any of you, in all holy conversation and godliness.\n\nAnd although, as you will find, I have not without a cause, made\na question of the lawfulness of your assembling together, by\nyourselves, to perform, without your men, solemn worship to God: yet\nI dare not make you yourselves the authors of your own miscarriage\nin this. I do therefore rather impute it to our leaders, who whether\nof a fond respect to some seeming abilities they think is in you\nfor this, or from a persuasion that you have been better than\nthemselves in other things; or whether from a preposterous zeal,\nthey have put you upon a work so much too heavy for you: I shall\nnot at this time concern myself to inquire into. But this is\ncertain, at least it is so in my apprehension, that in this matter\nyou are tempted by them to take too much upon you.\n\nI am not insensible but that for my thus writing, though I thereby\nhave designed your honour and good order; I am like enough to run\nthe gauntlet among you, and to partake most smartly of the scourge\nof the tongues of some, and to be soundly brow-beaten for it by\nothers: specially by our author, who will find himself immediately\nconcerned, for that I have blamed him for what he hath irregularly\ndone, both with the Word, to you, and me. I look also to be\nsufficiently scandalized, and counted a man not for prayer, and\nmeetings for prayer, and the like; but I will labour to bear them\nwith patience, and seek their good that shall be tempted to abuse\nme.\n\nI had not, indeed I had not, spoke a word to this question in this\nmanner, had not Mr. K. sent his paper abroad, and amongst us, for\nthe encouraging this practice with us, in opposition to our peace.\nI do not say he designed our breach, but his arguments tended\nthereto; and had not our people been of a wise and quiet temper,\nhis paper might have set us into a flame. But thanks be to God,\nwe are at quiet, and walk in love, notwithstanding the LIFTS that\nhave been to make us do otherwise. There are also the mouths of\nsome opened against me for this, who lie at wait for occasions,\nand shew that they are glad to take them before they are given\nby me: to whom I now shew by this ensuing discourse, that I had\na reason to do what I did.\n\nI commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able\nto build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are\nsanctified by faith in Jesus Christ: to whom be honour and glory\nfor ever. And remain, your faithful friend and brother to pray\nfor you, to love you in the gospel, and to do you what Christian\nservice I can,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\nThe Women's Prayer Meeting A CASE OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED, &c.\n\nThe occasion of my meddling in this manner with this controversy,\nis this. After I had, for reasons best known to myself, by searching\nfound, that those called the women's meetings wanted for their\nsupport, a bottom in the word: I called them in our fellowship\ninto question. Now having so done, my reasons for so doing, as\nwas but reason, were demanded; and I gave them, to the causing of\nthat practice with us to cease. So subject to the word were our\nwomen, and so willing to let go what by that could not be proved\na duty for them to be found in the practice of. But when I had so\ndone, by what means I know not, Mr. K., hearing of my proceeding\nin this matter, though I think he knew little of question or\nanswer, sets pen to paper, and draws up four arguments for the\njustification of these meetings. The which, when done, were sent\ndown into our parts; not to me, but to some of his own persuasion,\nwho kept them, or sent them, or lent them whither they thought\ngood: And so about two years after, with this note immediately\nfollowing, they were conveyed to my hand.\n\n\nBro: Bunyan, This enclosed, was sent to me from godly women,\nwhose custom for a long time hath been to meet together to pray:\nwho hearing of your contrary opinion, sent this. It came from Mr.\nK., who would desire to know what objections you have against it:\nand he is ready to give his further advice. Pray be pleased to\ngive your answer in writing, for Mr. K. expects it.\n\nYour friends in the Lord, S. B. S. F. Pray be pleased to leave\nyour answer with S. F. [6]in Bedford.\n\n\nNow having received the papers, and considering the contents thereof:\nI was at first at a question with myself, whether the thing was\nfeigned, or true; and to that purpose, writ to these women again:\nbut calling to mind, that I had heard something of this before,\nI concluded there was ground to believe, as I do, [that it was\ntrue, and not feigned:] And so resolved to answer his demand and\nexpectation. But to say nothing more as to this, I will next\npresent you with the arguments he sent, and then with my manner\nof handling of them. Mr. K.'s Arguments for Female Prayer Meetings.\n\nHe begins with this question, Whether women fearing God may meet\nto pray together, and whether it be lawful for them so to do? Which\ndone, he falls to a wonderment, saying, It seems very strange to\nme, that any who profess the fear of God, can make any question\ntouching the lawfulness thereof: The rule for praying being so\ngeneral to all, and there being so many instances for the practice\nthereof, upon several occasions in the word of God, for their\nencouragement therein.\n\nHe next presents us with his arguments, which are in number four,\nbut in verity not one, to prove that thing for the which he urgeth\nthem: as I hope to make appear by that I have done.\n\n\nFirst, saith he, If women may praise God together for mercies\nreceived for the church of God, or for themselves? then they may\npray together: The proof whereof is plain (Exo 15:20,21). If it be\nobjected the case was extraordinary, and that Miriam was a prophetess;\nTo which I answer, That the danger of ruin and destruction, and\nour deliverance from it, if the Lord grant it, cannot be looked\nat but as extraordinary. The designs of ruin to the church, and\nservants of God, being as great as at that time when God delivered\nhis people from the hand of Pharaoh. [7] And will call for praises,\nif the Lord please to send it, as then. And whereas it is further\nobjected, that Miriam was an extraordinary person. To which I answer,\nThat the duty itself of praising God for the mercy, was incumbent\nupon all, in as much as they were partakers of the mercy. And the\nsame spirit of Christ that was in her, is also in all his servants:\ngiven for the same end, both to pray for mercies we stand in need\nof, and to praise God for [them].\n\nSecond, If women have in imminent danger to themselves and the\nchurch of God, prayed jointly together for deliverance, and God\nhath answered and approved of the same: then may women jointly\npray together. The instance we have is famous (Esth 4:16). We there\nsee she and her maidens did pray and fast together, and the Lord\ngave a gracious answer and deliverance.\n\nThird, If God hath in gospel times promised the pouring out of\nhis Spirit to women, to that very end that they may pray together\napart from men; then it is not only their liberty, but duty to\nmeet and pray together. But God hath promised his Spirit to that\nend (Zech 12:10-13). Which Scripture is plain is a promise of\ngospel times. And it is to be noted that the text doth not in the\nsingular number, say He shall pray apart, and his wife apart; but\nTHEY shall pray apart, and THEIR wives apart. And (Mal 3:16) God\ntakes notice of all them that speak often together, and call upon\nhis name.\n\nFourth, If God hath so approved of women's meeting together to pray\nin gospel times, as then, and at that time to take an advantage\nto make known to them his mind and will concerning Jesus Christ:\nthen it is lawful for women to pray together. But God hath so\napproved of their meeting to pray together (Acts 16:13). By which\ntext it appeareth it was a frequent practice for women to meet\nand pray together.\n\n\nThese are Mr. K.'s arguments; the conclusion of his paper follows.\nAnd besides all these particular instances, says he, what means\nthose general rules to build up one another in our most holy faith,\nand pray in the Holy Ghost (Jude 20). But it extends to all that\nbelieve, both men and women; unless any will say women are not to\nbe built up in their most holy faith. Therefore let not any hinder\nyou from a duty so incumbent upon you in a special manner, in such\na day as this is. Cannot many women that have used this practice,\nby experience, say, they have met with the Lord in it, and have\nfound many blessed returns of prayer from God, both to themselves and\nthe church, wherein God hath owned them? Therefore what God hath\nborne witness to, and approved of, let no man deter you from. Pray\nturn to the Scriptures quoted, which I hope will give you full\nsatisfaction. Mr. Bunyan's Answer.\n\nThese are his arguments, and this his conclusion, in which I cannot\nbut say, there is not only boldness, but flattery. Boldness, in\nfathering of his misunderstanding upon the authority of the word\nof God: and flattery, in soothing up persons in a way of their\nown, by making of them the judges in their own cause: the which\nI hope to make farther appear anon.\n\nFor since his women in their letter told me that Mr. K. expects\nmy answer, I count myself called to shew the unsoundness of his\nopinion. Indeed he would, as they insinuate, confine me to answer\nby writing. But his papers have been I know not where, and how to\nput check to his extravagancies, that also, I know not, but by\nscattering mine [answer] abroad. And as I will not be confined to\nan answer in writing: so neither to his methods of argumentation.\nWhat scholar he is, I know not; for my part, I am not ashamed to\nconfess, that I neither know the mode nor figure of a syllogism,\nnor scarce which is major or minor. Methinks I perceive but little\nsense, and far less truth in his arguments: also I hold that he\nhas stretched and strained the holy Word out of place, to make\nit, if it might have been, to shore up his fond conceits. I shall\ntherefore, first take these texts from the errors to which he hath\njoined them, and then fall to picking the bones of his syllogisms.\n[8]\n\nBut as I shall not confine myself to his mode and way of arguing,\nso neither shall I take notice of his question upon which he stateth\nthe matter in controversy. But shall propound the same question\nhere, which, for the substance of it, was handled among us, when\nthe thing itself was in doubt among us, namely,\n\nWhether, where a church of Christ is situate, it is the duty of\nthe women of that congregation, ordinarily, and by appointment,\nto separate themselves from their brethren, and so to assemble\ntogether, to perform some parts of divine worship, as prayer, &c.\nwithout their men?\n\nThis was our question, this we debated, and this Mr. K. might have\nsent for, and have spoken to, since he will needs be a confuter.\nAnd, courteous reader, since I have here presented thee with the\nquestion, I will also present thee with the method which I took\nwhen I handled it among my brethren.\n\nFirst, I opened the terms of the question.\n\nSecond, Then shewed what assemblies they were that used to perform\ndivine worship to God.\n\nThird, And so shewed whose prayers in such worship was used, or\nby Paul and others desired.\n\n\nFirst, By church of Christ, I mean, one gathered or constituted\nby, and walking after the rule of the Word of God. By situate, I\nmean, where such church shall happen to be, in whole, or in the\nparts thereof. By separating, I mean, their meetings together by\nappointment of their own, and as so met, to attempt to perform\ndivine worship [by] prayer without their men.\n\nSecond, To shew what manner of assemblies they were that used to\nperform divine worship to God of old. Now I find that there have\nbeen three sorts of assemblies, in which divine worship has been\nperformed.\n\n1. It has been performed in mixed assemblies; in assemblies made\nup of saints and sinners. I say divine worship has been performed\nin such assemblies, for, that there, the saints have been edified,\nsinners convinced and converted, and made to confess their sins,\nto the glory of God. Of these assemblies we read (Matt 5:1, 13:1,\n23:1; Mark 4:1, 2:1, 6:2, 10:1; Luke 5:1, 8, 12:1, 13:1, 15:1,\n20:1; 1 Cor 14:23). And in many other scriptures.\n\n2. I also find that the church, by herself, or as distinct from the\nworld, have met together to perform it by themselves (Mark 4:34;\nActs 2:1-4, 13:1,2; 15:4, 20:7; John 20:19-26).\n\n3. I find also that assemblies for divine worship have been made\nup of the elders, and principal brethren of the church, none of\nthe rest of the congregation being present (Matt 10:1; Luke 9:1;\nActs 1:3, 2:17,18; Gal 2:1,2) with several other scriptures beside.\nBut in all the Scripture, I find not that the women of the churches\nof Christ, did use to separate themselves from their brethren, and\nas so separate, perform worship together among themselves, or in\nthat their congregation: or that they made, by allowance of the\nWord, appointment so to do. Thus far therefore this must stand\nfor a human invention, and Mr. K. for the promoter thereof.\n\nThird, This done, in the third place, I come to shew you whose\nprayers, or by whose mouth prayer in such assemblies, as are above\nproved lawful, used to be made, or by Paul or others were desired.\n\n1. Whose prayers were used, or who was the mouth? and I find them\ncalled the prayers of the church in general, or of the principal\nmen thereof in particular (Judg 2:4,5, 20:8,26; Joel 1:14, 2:15-17;\nActs 12:5, 13:1-3).\n\n2. Also when Paul, or others, desired that prayers should be made\nof others for them. They either desired the prayers of the church\nin general, or of the brethren in particular (but never desireth,\nor biddeth a woman's meeting, that prayers might there be made\nfor them). (1.) He desireth the prayers of the church in general\n(Col 4:2; Phil 1:19, 4:6; 1 Thess 5:17; Heb 13:18). (2.) Or if\nhe desireth prayers of certain persons, he only calls upon the men\nand brethren in particular; but never upon a woman by name nor sex\nto do it (1 Thess 5:25; 2 Thess 3:1; Rom 15:30; 1 Tim 2:8). Nor\nwas, as I said, the apostle alone in this thing. Christ speaks a\nparable to this end, that MEN ought always to pray (Luke 18:1).\nJames saith, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous MAN (5:16).\nMoses sent the young men to sacrifice (Exo 24:5). And the people\nin the time of Zacharias, sent their MEN to pray before the Lord\n(Zech 7:2). I do not believe that by any of these the prayers of\nwomen are despised, but by these we are taught, who, as the mouth\nin assemblies to pray, is commended unto us.\n\nOne word more, The women in the time of Jeremiah the prophet,\nwhen they had made their cakes to the queen of heaven, (though the\nthing which they did was as right in their own eyes, as if they\nhad done true worship indeed) and was questioned by the prophet\nfor what they had done, could not justify what they had done as\nto the act, but by pleading, They did it not \"without their men\"\n(Jer 44:17-19).\n\nThus having premised these few things, I shall now come more\ndirectly to discourse of the question itself, TO WIT, Whether,\nwhere a church of Christ is situate, it is the duty of the women\nof that congregation, ordinarily, and by appointment, to separate\nthemselves from their brethren, and as so separate, to assemble\ntogether to perform divine worship, [by] prayer, without their men?\n\nThis was our question, and this I will now give a negative answer\nunto. For I find not in Christ's testament any command so to do;\nno nor yet example: and where there is none of these, it cannot be\na duty upon them; no, nor yet liberty, but presumption to attempt\nit.\n\nThe command, says Mr. K., is general to all. But I answer, yet\nlimited, and confined to order and manner of performance. Women\nmay, yea ought to pray; what then? Is it their duty to help to\ncarry on prayer in public assemblies with men, as they? Are they\nto be the audible mouth there, before all, to God? No verily, and\nyet the command is general to all to pray. Women of the respective\nchurches of Christ, have no command to separate themselves from the\nmen of their congregations, to perform prayer in their own company\nwithout them, and yet the command is general to all to pray. We\nmust therefore distinguish of [between] persons and performances,\nthough we may not exclude either. The manner also, and order in which\nsuch and such duties must be done, Mr. K. knows is as essential,\nin some cases, as the very matter of worship. But we will come\nto my reasons for my dissenting from Mr. K. in this. After which\nI will consider his arguments, and the scriptures that he would\nunder-prop them with. As for my reasons for my dissenting from\nhim, they are these:--\n\nFirst, To appoint meetings for divine worship, either in the whole\nchurch or in the parts of it, is an act of power: which power,\nresideth in the elders in particular, or in the church in general.\nBut never in the women as considered by themselves. Mr. K. indeed\ndoth insinuate that this power also resided in them; for he saith,\nGod hath in gospel times promised the Spirit to women to that\nvery end, that they may pray together, apart from men. Now if the\nSpirit is given them to THIS very end, that they may do it apart\nfrom men, then they have a power residing in themselves to call\ntheir own sex together to do it. And what brave doings will such\na conclusion make, even the blind himself will perceive. But further\nof this anon; meanwhile we will attend [to] our own assertion.\nNamely, \"that to call the church, or parts thereof together, to\nperform divine worship to God, is an ACT of POWER, which power\nresideth in the church in general, or in the elders in particular.\"\nWe will treat of the last first.\n\n1. For the eldership, Moses and Aaron of old were they, with the\npriests, that were to call the church together to perform divine\nworship to God, and that both as to the whole, or as to the parts\nof it (Num 10:7,8; Deut 4:14, 31:11,12; Exo 4:29, 12:21, 17:5).\nAlso, in after times, they were the elders and chief of the church,\nthat did it (Josh 24:1; Ezra 10:5-9; Acts 14:27, 15:3). Or,\n\n2, if their calling together to perform divine worship, was not\nby the elders alone: yet it was by the power that resided in the\nchurch for that thing, who jointly ordered the same (Judg 20:8,18:\nEzra 3:1; Zeph 2:1-3; Acts 12:12; 1 Cor 5:4, 11:20). All these are\nplain cases. But never, as I ever did read of in the Bible, did\nwomen, ordinary believing ones, assume this power of the elders,\nor of the church, to themselves.\n\nIf it be asked, Who did appoint that meeting made mention of in\nActs 12:12?\n\nI answer, It was appointed by the power of the church, who, for\nher own conveniency, if she cannot come all into one place at once\nto perform the duty, as it is not likely four or five thousand\nshould, in times of persecution, which was their case, [they] may\nmeet some here, some there, for their edification and comfort.\nCompare verse 5 with 12 and 17. Nor do I question the lawfulness\nof this or that part of the church's assembling together for\nprayer: though the elders, and greatest part of the brethren, be\nabsent. If, first, such MEN that call such assemblies are countenanced\nby the elders, or church, to do it (1 Tim 2:8; 2 Tim 2:22). But\nthat the sisters of this or that church, may call their own sex\ntogether to perform such worship by themselves to God (for this\nis the thing in debate) I find no warrant for.\n\nSecond, Because this kind of worship, when done in and by a company,\nis MINISTERIAL to that company, as well as petitionary to God.\nThat is, they that, as the mouth in assemblies pray to God, teach\nthat assembly, as well as beg mercies of him. And I find not\nthat women may assemble to do thus. That such prayer is a kind of\nministering in the word to standers by, consider well 1 Corinthians\n14:15-19. Wherefore let them keep silence in the church, and in\nthe parts thereof, when assembled to worship God.\n\nIn all public worship by prayer, teaching is set on foot, two\nways: 1. By propounding to that assembly the things that must, by\nagreement, be prayed for. 2. And by proving them to suit with the\nwill of God, that prayer may be made in faith (1 John 5:14).\n\n1. For all such prayer must be made for the things agreed upon\nfirst; and consequently for things that by the word are proved\ngood, and suitable for the seasons, persons, or things, for or\nabout which such prayers are made. For they that have meetings\nfor prayer, without this, pray at random, and not by rule.\n\n\"If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they\nshall ask [according to God's will] it shall be done for them,\"\nsaith Christ, \"of my Father which is in heaven\" (Matt 18:19). Now,\nI say, if things prayed for in assemblies must first be jointly\nagreed upon, then must such things, by some one, or more of that\nassembly, be first propounded, expounded, and proved to be good\nby the word. Good for such persons, seasons, or things, for which\nsuch prayer is made. And, besides, the gifts required to do this,\nif this is not teaching I am out. And yet this must first be done\nto instruct all present, to help their faith, and to quicken their\nspirits to, and in that worship. That they may as one man have\ntheir eyes unto the Lord (Zech 9:1). But that this power is given\nto women, to ordinary believing ones that are in the highest\naccount in churches, I do not believe. I do not believe they\nshould minister to God in prayer before the whole church, for then\nI should be a Ranter or a Quaker; nor do I believe they should do\nit in their own womanish assembly, for the reason urged before.\nAnd I will add, if brethren not heretofore called by the church\nto open scriptures, or to speak in the church to God in prayer,\n[9] are not at first to be admitted to do this, but before the\nelders or principal brethren, that they may hear and judge (1 Cor\n14:26-29). How can it be thought to be meet or lawful for women,\nof whom it must be supposed, that they have received no such gifts,\nthat they should use this power? I say, how can it be imagined\nthat the women should be bound of God to do this in such sort as\ndoth utterly exclude the elders and all the men in the congregation\nfrom a possibility of understanding and of judging of what they\ndo? And yet this is the doctrine of Mr. K.; for he saith, \"That\nthe Spirit of God is promised to women to this very end, that they\nmay pray together, apart from men.\" But God is not the author of\nthis confusion in the churches.\n\n2. But secondly, As teaching by prayer in assemblies, is thus set\non foot; so every one also that shall in such meetings be the mouth\nof the whole, to God, ministereth so, doctrine to that assembly,\nas well as presenteth petitions to God. Else how can that assembly\nsay AMEN at their prayer or giving of thanks? For to say AMEN is\nan effect of conviction, or of edification received of the stander\nby, from him that now is so ministering in that assembly before\nGod (1 Cor 14:15-17). Yea, I believe that they that pray in\nassemblies, or that shall give thanks for mercies received there,\nought to labour to speak, not only with fervency of words, but\nwith such soundness of doctrine while they mention, urge, or plead\nthe promise with God, that that whole assembly may be enlightened,\ntaught, taken, and carried away in their spirits, on the wing\nof that prayer, and of faith, to God, whose face they are come\nto seek, and whose grace they are gathered together to beg. Now\nthis is called praying and praising, to the teaching and edifying\nof others, as by the scripture afore named is made appear (1 Cor\n14:14-19). But by what word of God the sisters of the respective\nchurches may set up this way of teaching of one another in their\nassemblies, I am ignorant of.\n\nThird, The Holy Ghost doth particularly insist upon the inability\nof women, as to their well managing of the worship now under\nconsideration, and therefore it ought not to be presumed upon\nby them. They are forbidden to teach, yea to speak in the church\nof God. And why forbidden, but because of their inability. They\ncannot orderly manage that worship to God, that in assemblies is\nto be performed before him; I speak now of our ordinary believing\nones, and I know none extraordinary among the churches. They\nare not builded to manage such worship, \"they are not the image\nand glory of God, as the men are\" (1 Cor 11:7). They are placed\nbeneath, and are called the glory of the man. Wherefore they are\nweak, and not permitted to perform public worship to God. When our\nfirst mother, who was not attended with those weaknesses, either\nsinful or natural, as our women now are, stept out of her place\nbut to speak a good word for worship, you see how she was baffled,\nand befooled therein; she utterly failed in the performance, though\nshe briskly attempted the thing. Yea she so failed thereabout, that\nat one clap she overthrew, not only, as to that, the reputation\nof women for ever, but her soul, her husband, and the whole world\nbesides (Gen 3:1-7). The fallen angel knew what he did when he\nmade his assault upon the woman. His subtilty told him that the\nwomen was the weaker vessel. He knew also that the man was made\nthe head in worship, and the keeper of the garden of God. The Lord\nGod took the man, said unto the man, commanded the man, and made\nhim keeper of the garden (Gen 2:15-17). Wherefore the management\nof worship belonged to him. This, the serpent, as I said, was\naware of. And therefore he comes to the woman, says to the woman,\nand deals with the woman about it, and so overcomes the world.\nWherefore it is from this consideration that Paul tells Timothy\nthat he permitted not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority\nover the man, but to be in silence. But to call the church or parts\nthereof together, to perform solemn worship, and in such a call\nto exclude or shut out the men, is an usurping of that authority\nover them to a high degree. And he renders the reason of this\nhis prohibition thus, \"For Adam was first formed, then Eve, [and\ntherefore had the headship in worship]. And Adam was not deceived,\nbut the woman being deceived, was in the transgression\" (1 Tim\n2:13,14). But again, it should seem, methinks, if women must needs\nbe managers of worship in assemblies, they should do it, as Eve,\nbefore Adam, in presence of the men: But that I think none will\nallow, though that would be the way best to correct miscarriages;\nhow then should it be thought convenient for them to do it alone.\nIf children are not thought fit to help to guide the ship with\nthe mariners, shall they be trusted so much as with a boat at sea\nalone. The thing in hand is a parallel case.\n\nFourth, If the weightiness of this worship be, as indeed it is, so\ngreat, that the strongest and best able to perform it do usually\ncome off with blushing, and with repentance for their shortness,\nas to the well performance thereof; though they engage therein by\ngood and lawful authority; what will they do who are much weaker\nhere, and when, as Eve, they set to it in a way of usurping of\nauthority, and of their own head and will. To offer strange fire\nwith incense, which was a type of prayer, you know what it cost\nNadab and Abihu, though men, and the sons of Aaron. [Yet] Mr. K.\ncries the sisters, the women, the women's meetings, and the like,\nand how they have prevailed with heaven. Poor man, I am sorry for\nhis weakness, and that he should show that himself is so nunnish[10]\nin such a day as this.\n\nBut to return, as all worship in assemblies ought to be performed\nwith the most exact order and solemnity; so this of prayer with\nthat, if possible, that is more than all the rest; and therefore\nthis makes it more heavy still. When men preach they have to do\nwith men, but when they pray in assemblies they have to do both with\nmen and with God at once. And I say, if it be so great a matter to\nspeak to men before God; how great a matter is it to speak to men\nand God at once; to God by way of petition, and to men by way of\ninstruction. But I am persuaded if those most fond of the women's\nmeetings for prayer were to petition the king for their lives,\nthey would not set women to be their advocates to him; specially\nif the king should declare beforehand by law, that he permitted\nnot a woman in an open auditory to speak before him.\n\nThere are also many temptations that attend the duty of praying in\nassemblies, especially those that are immediately employed therein.\nThese temptations, they awake, are aware of, are forced to wrestle\nwith, and greatly to groan under. Wherefore we put not the weak\nupon this service; not the weak, though they be men; not they in\nthe presence of the strong. How then should the weakest of all\nbe put upon it, and that when together by themselves. Men, though\nstrong, and though acting by lawful authority in this, are not able,\nbut with unutterable groans, to do it: how then shall all those\nthat attempt it without that authority, perform it as acceptable\nworship to God? This work, therefore, is as much too heavy for\nour women now, as that about which Eve engaged in at first, was\ntoo heavy for her. But,\n\nFifth, If this worship may be managed by the sisterhood of the\nchurches, being congregated together in the absence of their men:\nof what signification is it that man is made head of the woman as\nwell in worship as in nature? (1 Cor 11:3,7). Yea more, why are\nthe elders of the churches called watchmen, overseers, guides,\nteachers, rulers, and the like? If this kind of worship may be\nperformed, without their conduct and government? (Eze 3:17, 33:7;\nActs 20:28; Eph 4:11; Psa 28:72; Heb 13:17).\n\n1. Why is man made the head of the woman in worship, in the\nworship now under debate, in that worship that is to be performed\nin assemblies? And why are the women commanded silence there, if\nthey may congregate by themselves, and set up and manage worship\nthere? Worship was ordained before the woman was made, wherefore\nthe word of God at the first did not immediately come to her,\nbut to him that was first formed, and made the head in worship\n(Gen 2:16-18; 1 Cor 14:35,36). And hence it is that women are so\nstrictly tied up to this headship; that if they will learn, they\nmust ask their husbands at home (v 35), not appoint meetings of\ntheir own sex to teach one another. \"But what must they do that have\nunbelieving ones? and what must they do that have none?\" Answer,\nLet them attend upon those ordinances that God has appointed for\nthe building up and perfecting of the body of Christ (Eph 4:11-13),\nand learn as the angels do (Eph 3:10; 1 Peer 1:12).\n\n2. But I say, if they must do as Mr. K. says, they are in duty\nbound, to wit, meet by themselves apart from their men, and as so\nmet, perform this most solemn worship to God: how shall the elders\nand overseers, the watchmen, rulers, and guides in worship, perform\ntheir duty to God, and to the church of God, in this, since from\nthis kind of worship they are quite excluded, and utterly shut\nout of doors: unless it be said, that to watch, to oversee, and to\nguide, in the matter and manner of performance of this worship in\nassemblies, is no part of the watchman or overseer's work; or in\ntheir lawful absence, the work of the principal men of the church.\nNor will the faithful and dutiful overseer leave worship, no, not\nin the best part of the congregation assembled to worship, to be\nperformed by every weak brother, though I believe it might with more\nwarrant be left to them, than to the strongest among our ordinary\nones of the other sex.\n\nAlso our elders and watchmen covet, if we have unbelievers to\nbehold, that our worship be performed by the most able. How then\nshall it be thought that they should be so silly, to turn a company\nof weak women loose to be abused by the fallen angels? Can it\nbe thought that their congregation, since they have it without a\ncommand, shall fare better among those envious spirits than those\nthat are lawfully called shall fare before the world? Watchman,\nwatchman, see to thy duty, look well to the manner of worship that\nis to be performed according to thy commission. Trust not Eve, as\nAdam did, with worship, and with its defence. Look that all things\nbe done in worship as becomes thee--a head, both in nature and by\noffice--and leave not so solemn a part of worship as prayer, in\ncompany, is, and ought to be accounted to be done; thou canst by\nno means tell how. Watch in and over all such worship thyself. Be\ndiligent to know the state of thy flocks, whether they be flocks\nof men, or women; and look well to thy herds, and thou shalt\nhave milk enough, not only for men and babes, but also for the\nmaintenance and life of thy maidens. So that they need not go with\ntheir pitchers to seek water there where their God has not sent\nthem (Prov 27:23-27). Besides the shepherds' tents is provision\nsufficient for them (Cant 1:8). But, for a conclusion of this, I\nwill ask this man, If he doth not, by pleading for these women's\nmeetings, declare, that the women, without their men, are better\nable by themselves to maintain divine worship, than the men are\nwithout their elders? forasmuch as he himself will not allow that\nthe men should always perform worship without his oversight and\ninspection, and yet will plead for the women to have such worship\nin their congregation, among themselves, excluding for ever the\nmen therefrom. For, saith he, the Spirit is promised to be given to\nthem to that very end, that they may meet together to pray apart\nwithout their men.\n\n\nAnd now for Mr. K.'s arguments, which, as I said, are in number\nfour.\n\n\n1. We will take the scriptures from them; and,\n\n2. Then pick the bones of their carcasses.\n\n\nYet in my taking of the scriptures from his arguments, I will do\nit in a way that is most to his advantage, making of each of them\nas formidable an objection as I can against myself.\n\nObjection.\n\nMiriam took a timbrel in her hand, and went out, and all the\nwomen went out after her, praising God with timbrels and dances\nfor their deliverances. Therefore the women of the churches of\nChrist may appoint meetings of their own, as separate from their\nbrethren, and then and there perform divine worship, [by] prayer,\nin that, their congregation, without their men (Exo 15:20,21).\nAnswer\n\n1. Miriam was a prophetess: and, I suppose, that none of our women\nwill pretend to be such. And though Mr. K. labours to get over\nthis, by saying that the work of praising was incumbent upon all:\nyet by his leave, judgment, and discretion, and a spirit of conduct\nsuitable to the duty, as we read of, was found among the women in\nnone but she. Why is it else said, Miriam led them forth; Miriam\nthe prophetess did it. Another, by Mr. K.'s argument, might have\ndone it as well. Thus degrades he the prophetess, that he may get\nfavour with the ordinary women, and prompt them on to a work that\nhe has a superstitious affection for.\n\n2. But his assertion is of no weight. The women were not left in\nthat extraordinary service to the spirit of ordinary believers.\nNor can I count it but crooked dealing to bring in extraordinary\npersons, in their extraordinary acts, to prove it lawful for\nordinary persons to do that which is not commanded them.\n\n3. But though Miriam did go forth, or come out with the women,\nyet not from the men, into some remote place in the wilderness to\nworship by themselves. She rather went or came out, and the women\nfollowed her from the place by the sea, where now they were,\nafter Moses, to sing as her sex became her; for she, though an\nextraordinary woman, might not make herself an equal with Moses\nand Aaron, therefore she came behind in worship, yet with the\nbody of the people, as it is said, \"So Moses brought Israel from\nthe Red Sea\" (Exo 15:22). Women, though prophetesses, must wear\nsome badge or other of inferiority to those that are prophets\nindeed (1 Cor 11:3-9). And I choose to understand that Miriam did\nthis. (1.) Because the text last mentioned says so. (2.) Because\nMiriam, and all the women, did sing with the words of the men,\nverse 1 compared with 21. (3.) For that they did sing them after\nthe men, as taking them from their mouth. For, saith the text,\nMiriam answered them, and so handed it down to them of her sex,\nsaying, \"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously\"\n(vv 1,21). (4.) For that she commanded the women that they should\nsing the same song: hence it is called the song of Moses, not of\nMiriam (Rev 15:3). (5.) From all which I conclude, that Miriam did\nnot draw the women away into some such place where neither Moses,\nnor Aaron, nor the elders of Israel could see, behold, and observe\ntheir manner of worship. But that she, as her modesty became her,\ndid lead them out from that place where they were, to sing, and\nto dance, and to praise God, after the men. (6.) This scripture\ntherefore favoureth not this man's opinion, to wit, \"That it is the\nduty of the women of the churches of Christ to separate themselves\nfrom their brethren, and as so separate, to perform divine worship\nby themselves.\"\n\nObjection.\n\nEsther, the queen, performed, with her maidens, this duty of\nprayer, without their men: therefore the women of gospel churches\nmay separate themselves from their brethren, and perform it among\nthemselves (Esth 4:16).\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. Esther was in the house of the king's chamberlain, and could not\nat this time come to her brethren; No, not to her uncle, Mordecai,\nto consult how to prevent an approaching judgment. Yea, Mordecai\nand she were fain to speak one to another by Hatach, whom the king\nhad appointed to attend upon the queen (vv 5-9). So she could by no\nmeans, at that time, have communion with the church. No marvel,\ntherefore, if she fasted with her maidens alone: for so she\nmust now do, or not do it at all. But I will here ask this, our\nargumentator, whether Esther did count it a burden or a privilege\nthus now to be separated form her brethren, and so forced to\nperform this work as she did? If a privilege, let him prove it.\nIf a burden, he has little cause to make use of it to urge that,\nher practice then, for a ground to women that are at liberty, to\nseparate from their brethren to perform such worship by themselves\nin their company, without their men.\n\n2. We do not read that she desired that any of the women that were\nat liberty should come from the men to be with her; whence we may\ngather, that she preferred their liberty to worship with men, far\nbeyond a woman's meeting. She counted that too many, by herself\nand her maidens, were in such bondage already.\n\n3. Neither did she attempt to take that unavoidable work upon\nherself, but as begging of the men that she might, by their faith\nand prayers, be borne up therein; clearly concluding that she\ndid count such work too hard for women to perform by themselves,\nwithout the help of men (vv 15,16).\n\n4. Besides this woman's meeting, as Mr. K. would have it, was made\nup of none but the queen and her household maids, and with but few\nof them; nor will we complain of our honest women when the case\nis so that they cannot go out to the church to do this, if they\npray with their maids at home.\n\n5. But what if Esther did pray with her maids in her closet,\nbecause she could not come out to her brethren. Is it fair to make\nthe necessity of a woman in bondage a law to women at liberty? This\nargument, therefore, is erroneous, and must not have this text to\nshow it up; we therefore take it away from his words and proceed\nto a sight of his next.\n\nObjection.\n\nBut it is said by the prophet Zecharias, that the Spirit is promised\nto be given, in New Testament times, to women, that they may pray\ntogether apart from men (Zech 12:11-13).\n\nAnswer. The text says nothing so, but is greatly abused by this\nman. Indeed, it says their wives shall mourn apart, but it saith\nnot, they shall do so together. Yea, that they shall separate\nthemselves by the dictate of God, from their brethren, to do so,\nis that which this text knows nothing of. Sometimes many may be\ntogether, apart from others; but why Mr. K., to serve his purpose,\nshould rack and strain this text to justify his woman's meeting,\nI see no reason at all. My reason against him is, for that the\nlook here upon him whom we have pierced, which is to be the cause\nof this mourning, is to be by an immediate revelation of the Holy\nGhost, who doth not use to tell before hand when he will so come\ndown upon us. But such a meeting as Mr. K. intends must be the\nproduct of consultation and time. \"I will pour,\" saith God, \"upon\nthe house of David--the spirit of grace and of supplications: and\nthen they shall look\"; that is, when that spirit so worketh with\nthem as to enable them so to do. Now, I say, I would know, since\nthis mourning is to be the effect of this look, and so before one\nis aware (Cant 6:12), whether Mr. K. can prove that these women\nwere to have an item beforehand, when they should have this look.\nBut as it would be ridiculous thus to conclude, so as ridiculous\nis it to think to prove his women's meetings from hence.\n\nNor doth the conclusion that he hath made hereupon prove more but\nthat he is ignorant of the work of the Spirit in this matter, or\nthat his fondness for the women's meetings hath made him forget\nhis own experience. For how can one that never had but one such\nlook upon Jesus Christ, draw such a conclusion from hence. And\nthat all those women should have this look at the same time, even\nall the women of the house of David and of the inhabitants of\nJerusalem, that they might, all of them, by the direction of the\nHoly Ghost, separate themselves from their men to hold a woman's\nmeeting or meetings by themselves for this, is more fictitious than\none would imagine a man should dream. If he says that the women\nhave a promise to have this look when they please, or that they\nare sure to have it because it is entailed to THEIR meeting, for\nthis seems to come nearest his conclusion: yet what unavoidable\ninconveniences will flow therefrom, I leave to any to judge. But\nI take this mourning to be according as another of the prophets\nsays, \"They shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys,\nall of them mourning, every one for his iniquity\" (Eze 7:16). All\nthose souls, therefore, that shall be counted worthy to have this\nlook shall mourn apart, or by themselves, when they have it. For\nthough a man cannot appoint to himself when he will repent of\nhis sins, or when the Holy Ghost will work, yet he shall repent\nindeed; he shall do it, I say, when HE doth so work, not staying\ntill another can do so too. And since our own iniquity will then\nmake us best consider our own case, mourning apart, or every one\nfor their own iniquity, is most naturally proper thereto. And this\nis the mourning that shall be in the house of David, Jerusalem,\nthe church, both with men and women, at all times when the Holy\nGhost shall help us to look upon him whom we have pierced. Pray\nGod give Mr. K. and myself more of these looks upon a crucified\nChrist, for then we shall understand this and other such like\nscriptures otherwise than to draw such incoherent inferences from\nthem as he doth.\n\nObjection.\n\n\"Women were wont in gospel times to meet together to pray. Therefore\nthe women in gospel churches may separate themselves from their\nbrethren to perform divine worship by themselves without their\nmen\" (Acts 16:13). This is another of his scriptures, brought to\nuphold this fancy: But,\n\nAnswer\n\n1. It is not said that the women of churches met together alone\nto pray. But that Paul went down to a river-side where prayer was\nwont to be made, and spake unto the women that resorted thither.\nIt looks therefore most agreeable to the word, to think that there\nthe law was read by the Jewish priests to the proselyted women\nof that city, and that prayer, as was their custom in all such\nservice, was intermixed therewith. But this is but conjectural.\nAnd yet, for all that, it is better grounded, and hath more reason\non its side, than hath any of this man's arguments for the opinion\nof his women's meetings. But,\n\n2. There was there at that time no gospel church of Christ, nor\nbefore that any gospel ministry, consequently no church obedience.\nShould it then be granted, that there were none but women at that\nmeeting, and that their custom was to meet at that river-side to\npray, it doth not therefore follow, that their practice was to be\na pattern, a rule, a law to women in churches, to separate from\ntheir brethren, to perform divine worship, in their own woman's\ncongregation without their men.\n\n3. There was there no gospel believer. Lydia herself, before Paul\ncame thither, had her heart shut up against the faith of Jesus\nChrist; and how a company of strangers to gospel faith, should in\nthat their doing, be a pattern to the women in churches, a pattern\nof Christian worship, I do not understand.\n\n4. If Paul's call to Philippi had been by the vision of a woman,\nor woman's meeting: what an argument would this man have drawn\nfrom thence to have justified his women's meetings? But since\nit was by a man, he hath lost an argument thereby. Though he,\nnotwithstanding, doth adventure to say, that God so approved of\nthat meeting, as then, and at that time, to take advantage to make\nknown his mind and will to them concerning Jesus Christ.\n\n5. And now I am in, since Mr. K. will needs have this scripture\nto justify such a practice, I wonder that he so lightly overlooked\nPaul's going to that meeting, for thither he went to be sure (Acts\n16:13-16). Yea how fairly, to his thinking, might he have pleaded,\nthat Paul by this act of his, was a great lover, countenancer and\ncommender of those he calls the women's meetings. Paul went to the\nwomen's meeting at Philippi, therefore it is lawful for the women\nof gospel churches to separate from their brethren, and to congregate\nby themselves for the performance of some parts of divine worship.\nI say how easily might he have said this, and then have popt in\nthose two verses above quoted, and so have killed the old one?\n[11]For the word lies liable to be abused by the ignorance of\nmen, and it had been better than it is, if this had been the first\ntime that this man had served it so, for the justification of his\nrigid principles; but when men, out of a fond conceit of their own\nabilities, or of prejudice to them that contradict their errors,\nare tempted to shew their folly, they will not want an opportunity\nfrom false glosses put upon the text, to do it.\n\n6. But Paul went to that company to preach Christ's gospel to\nthem, not for that they merited his coming, but of the grace of\nGod, as also did Peter and John, when at the hour of prayer they\nwent up into the temple, and Paul into the synagogue at Antioch\n(Acts 3:1-3, 13:14-16). But as fairly might this man have urged,\nthat the healing of the lame man that lay at that time at the\ngate of the temple, and the conversion of them by Paul at Antioch,\nwas by the procurement of the prayers of the sisters and by their\nreading of the law in that synagogue at Antioch, as to argue as\nhe has done, that God was so well pleased, or so well approved\nof that woman's meeting as he feigns it at Philippi, as to send,\n&c. to them his minister.\n\n7. But again, that this woman's meeting should be so deserving,\nand that while they were without the faith of Christ, as to procure\na gospel minister to be sent unto them, that Christ might to them\nbe made known, and yet that so few of them should be converted\nto the faith, seems a greater paradox to me. For we read not that\none of the women then, or of them of the town, that did use to go\nto that meeting (for Lydia was of Thyatira), was ever converted\nto Christ; brethren we read of several, but we hear not of any one\nmore of those women (v 40). But Lydia worshipped God, therefore\nher practice might prevail. Although it is said she worshipped\nGod, yet she was but a proselyte, as those Acts 13 were, and\nknew no more of Christ than the eunuch did (Acts 8). But hold,\nshe had faith, will that make all practice acceptable; yea, law\nand commandment to others, and the work of those that have none,\nmeritorious? But we must touch upon these things anon.\n\nObjection.\n\n\"But (saith Mr. K.) Malachi 3:16 doth countenance these meetings.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\nNot at all; though Mr. K. has pleased to change a term in the text,\nto make it speak his mind; for he has put out thought, and put in\ncall; but all will not do his work; for when he has done what he\ncan, it will be difficult to make that scripture say, It is the\nduty of women in gospel churches to separate from their brethren,\nto perform divine worship among themselves.\n\n\nObjection.\n\n\"But Jude 20 doth justify these meetings, except,\" saith he, \"any\nwill say, women are not to be built up in their most holy faith.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\nHow fain would the man lay hold on something, only he wants divine\nhelp, that is, the word of God, to bottom his things upon. But\ndoth the apostle here at all treat of the women and their meetings,\nor are they only the beloved; and to be built up, &c. speaks he\nnot there to the church, which consisteth of men and women? and\nare not men the more noble part in all the churches of Christ?\nBut can women no other way be built up in their most holy faith,\nbut by meetings of their own without their men? But, Building up\nYOURSELVES, I suppose is the thing he holds by. But cannot the\nchurch, and every woman in it, build up themselves without their\nwoman's meetings? wherefore have they the word, their closet, and\nthe grace of meditation, but to build up themselves withal? He\nsaith not, \"Build up one another,\" but if he had, it might well\nhave been done without a woman's meeting. But anything to save a\ndrowning man. This text then is written to the church of Christ,\nby which it is exhorted to faith and prayer; but it speaks not a\nword of a woman's meeting, and therefore it is fooling with the\nword to suggest it. I cannot therefore, while I see this impertinent\ndealing, but think our argumentator dotes, or takes upon him to\nbe a head of those he thinks to rule over. The woman's letter to\nme also seems to import the same, when they say, \"Mr. K. would\ndesire to know what objections you have against it (his arguments),\nand he is ready to give his further advice.\"\n\n\nThus having taken from his arguments those holy words of God which\nhe has abused, to make them stand; I come next to the arguments\nthemselves, and intend to pick their bones for the crows.\n\n1stly,\n\nHe saith, \"That the same spirit that was in Miriam, is also in\nall God's servants for the same end, both to pray for mercies we\nstand in need of, and to praise God for mercies received.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. But the question is, whether Miriam did, as she led out the\nwomen to dance, act only as an ordinary saint. And if you evade\nthis, you choose the tongue of the crafty, and use the words of\ndeceit; for she managed that work as she was \"Miriam the prophetess\";\nand in your next, pray tell your women so.\n\n2. But as Miriam the prophetess, she did not lead the women from\ntheir men, to worship in some place remote by themselves, as we\nhave shewed before.\n\n2dly, He saith, \"That God hath promised to pour out his Spirit\nin gospel times to that very end, that women might pray together\napart from men.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. Not mentioning again what was said before: I add, if by men,\nhe means the brethren, the prophet will not be his voucher, for he\nneither saith nor intimates such a thing.\n\n2. And how far short this saying is, of making of God and his holy\nprophet, the author of schism in worship, and an encouragement\nunto schism therein, it is best in time that he looks to it. For\nif they may withdraw to do thus at one time, they may withdraw to\ndo thus at another. And if the Spirit is given to them to this very\nend, that they may go by themselves from the church, to perform\nthis divine worship at one time, they may, for what bounds this\nman has set them, go by themselves to do thus always. But, as I\nsaid, the whole of this proposition being false, the error is still\nthe greater.\n\n3dly,\n\n\"God,\" saith he, \"hath so well approved of women meeting together\nto pray in gospel times, as then, and at that time, to take occasion\nto make known his mind and will to them concerning Jesus Christ\"\n(Acts 16:13).\n\nAnswer.\n\nLet the reader consider what was said before, and now it follows;\nif this assertion be true, then the popish doctrine of merit is\ngood, yea the worst sort of it, which is, works done before faith.\nFor that we read of none of these women save Lydia feared or\nworshipped God; and yet saith he, God so approved of that meeting\nas then, and at that time, to send them his gospel, which is one\nof the richest blessings; nor will it help to lay Cornelius, now\nin my way, for the deservings here were, for ought we read, of\nwomen that feared not God. Here Lydia only bare that character;\nit is said SHE worshipped God, but she was not all the women.\nBut Mr. K. saith thus of them all. I know also there was faith in\nsome in Messias to come, though when he came, they knew not his\nperson; but this is not the case neither; these women, who held\nup as he feigned, this meeting, were not as we read of, of this\npeople.\n\n4thly,\n\nHe said, \"That Esther and her maids fasted and prayed, and the\nLord gave a gracious return, or answer and deliverance.\" That is,\nto the church, that then was under the rage of Haman.\n\nAnswer.\n\nLet the reader remember what was said before, and now I ask this\nman,\n\n1. Whether Mordecai and the good men then did not pray and fast\nas well as she? And if so, Whether they might not obtain at least,\nsome little of the mercy, as well as those women? If so,\n\n2. Whether Mr. K., in applying the deliverance of this people to\nthe prayer of the queen and her maids, for he lays it only there,\nbe not deceitfully arguing, and do not tend to puff up that sex,\nto their hurt and damage! Yea whether it doth not tend to make\nthem unruly and headstrong? But if they be more gently inclined\nto obedience, no thanks to Mr. K.\n\n3. And if I should ask Mr. K. who gave him authority to attribute\nthus the deliverance of this people, to who and what prayers he\nplease, I suppose it would not be easy for him to answer. The text\nsaith not that the prayers of these women procured the blessing.\nBut Mr. K. hath here a woman's meeting to vindicate, and therefore\nit is that he is thus out in his mind. Prayers were heard and the\nchurch was delivered. And I doubt not but that these good women\nhad hand and heart in the work. But should all be admitted that\nMr. K. hath said as to this also, yet this scripture, as hath\nalready been proved, will not justify his woman's meeting.\n\n5thly,\n\n\"He makes his appeal to the women, if they have not obtained, by\ntheir prayers in these their meetings, many blessed returns of\nprayer from God, both to themselves and the church of God.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\nI count this no whit better than the very worst of his paper, for\nbesides the silliness of his appeal, by which he makes these good\nwomen to be judges in their own cause, his words have a direct\ntendency in them to puff them up to their destruction. I have wondered\nsometimes, to see when something extraordinary hath happened to\nthe church of God for good, that a few women meeting together to\npray, should be possessed with a conceit, that they fetched the\nbenefit down from heaven, when perhaps ten thousand men in the\nland prayed for the mercy as hard as they. Yea I have observed,\nthat though the things bestowed, were not so much as thought of\nby them, yet they have been apt to conclude that their meeting\ntogether has done it. But poor women, you are to be pitied; your\ntempter is to bear the blame, to wit, this man and his fellows.\n\nI come now to some objections that may yet be thought on: and will\nspeak a word to them.\n\nObjection.\n\nIt is said, \"Where two or three are gathered together in my name,\nthere am I in the midst of them\" (matt 18:20).\n\nAnswer.\n\nTo gather together in Christ's name, is to gather together by his\nauthority; That is, by his law and commandment (Acts 4:17,18,30,\n5:28,40; Col 3:17). But we have no law of Christ, nor commandment,\nthat the women of this or that church, should separate themselves\nfrom their brethren, to maintain meetings among themselves, for the\nperforming of divine worship: and therefore such meetings cannot\nbe in his name; that is, by his authority, law, and commandment;\nand so ought not to be at all.\n\nObjection.\n\n\"But women may, if sent for by them of their own sex, come to see\nthem when they are sick, and when so come together, pray in that\nassembly before they part.\"\n\nAnswer.\n\nThe law of Christ is, \"Is any sick among you? let him [and the\nwoman is included in the man] call for the elders of the church;\nand let them pray over him,\" &c. And to this injunction there is a\nthreefold promise made. (1.) \"And the prayer of faith shall save\nthe sick.\" (2.) \"And the Lord shall raise him up.\" (3.) \"And if he\nhave committed sins, they shall be forgiven him\" (John 5:14,15).\nAnd considering, that this advice is seconded with so much grace:\nI think it best in all such cases, as in all other, to make the\nword of God our rule.\n\nObjection.\n\n\"But women have sometimes cases, which modesty will not admit\nshould be made known to men, what must they do then?\"\n\nAnswer.\n\nTheir husbands and they are one flesh, and are no more to be\naccounted two. Let them tell their grief to them. Thus Rachel asked\nchildren of her husband, and went not to a nest of women to make\nher complaint to them (Gen 30:1). Or let them betake themselves to\ntheir closets, with Rebecca (Gen 25:20-23). Or if they be in the\nassembly of the saints, let them pray in their hearts, with Hannah.\nAnd if their petition be lawful, I doubt not but they may be heard\n(1 Sam 1:13).\n\nOur author, perhaps, will say, I have not spoken to his question;\nwhich was, \"Whether women, fearing God, may meet to pray together?\nAnd whether it be lawful for them so to do?\"\n\nBut I answer, I have: with respect to all such godly women as are\nin the churches of the saints (1 Cor 14:33-35 compared with vv\n15-17). And when he has told us, that his question respected only\nthose out of churches, then will I confess that I did mistake him.\nYet he will get nothing thereby, forasmuch as his question, to be\nsure, intends those in special. Also his arguments are for the\njustifying of that their practice. Now the reason why I waved the\nform of his question, was, because it was both scanty and lean of\nwords, as to the matter of the controversy in hand: also I thought\nit best to make it more ample, and distinct, for the edification\nof our reader. And if after all, Mr. K. is not pleased at what\nI have done, let him take up the question, and answer it better.\nThe man perhaps may fly to the case of utter necessity, and so\nbring forth another question, to wit, whether, if the men of a\nchurch should all die, be murdered, or cast into prison: the women\nof that church may not meet together to pray? And whether it be\nnot lawful for them so to do? But when he produceth a necessity\nfor the putting of such a question, and then shall put it to me;\nI will, as God shall help me, give him an answer thereto.\n\nBut, may some say, Our women in this do not what they do of their\nown heads, they are allowed to do what they do by the church.\n\nI answer, No church allowance is a foundation sufficient to justify\nthat which is neither commanded nor allowed by the word. Besides,\nwho knows not, that have their eyes in their heads, what already\nhas, and what further may, come into the churches, at such a gap\nas this. And now to give the reader a cautionary conclusion.\n\nCaution 1.\n\nTake heed of letting the name, or good show of a thing, beget in\nthy heart a religious reverence of that thing; but look to the word\nfor thy bottom,[12] for it is the word that authorizeth, whatever\nmay be done with warrant in worship to God; without the word\nthings are of human invention, of what splendour or beauty soever\nthey may appear to be. Without doubt the Friars and Nuns, and\ntheir religious orders, were of a good intent at first, as also\ncompulsive vows of chastity, single life, and the like. But they\nwere all without the word, and therefore, as their bottom wanted\ndivine authority, so the practice wanted sanctity by the Holy\nGhost. The word prayer is, of itself, in appearance so holy, that\nhe forthwith seems to be a devil that forbids it. And yet we find\nthat prayers have been out of joint, and disorderly used; and\ntherefore may by one, without incurring the danger of damnation,\nbe called into question; and if found without order by him, he may\nlabour to set them in joint again (Matt 6:5-8, 23:14; James 4:3).\n\nI am not of the number of them that say, \"What profit should we\nhave if we pray unto God?\" (Job 21:15). But finding no good footing\nin the word for that kind of service we have treated about above,\nand knowing that error and human inventions in religion will not\noffer themselves, but with wiped lips, and a countenance as demure\nas may be, and also being persuaded that this opinion of Mr.\nK. is vagrant, yea a mere alien as to the scriptures, I being an\nofficer, have apprehended it, and put it in the stocks, and there\nwill keep it, till I see by what authority it has leave to pass\nand repass as it lists, among the godly in this land.\n\nCaution 2.\n\nYet by all that I have said, I never meant to intimate in the least,\nbut that believing women are saints as well as men: and members\nof the body of Christ. And I will add, that as they, and we,\nare united to Christ, and made members of his mystical body, the\nfulness of him that fills all in all, so there is no superiority,\nas I know of, but we are all one in Christ. For, the man is not\nwithout the woman, nor \"the woman without the man, in the Lord,\"\n(1 Cor 11:11) nor are we counted \"as male or female\" in him (Gal\n3:28; Eph 1:23). Only we must observe that this is spoken of that\nchurch which is his true mystical body, and not of every particular\ncongregation of professing Christians. The churches of Christ here\nand there are also called his body. But no church here, though\nnever so famous, must be taken for that of which mention was made\nafore. [13]As Christ then has a body mystical, which is called\nhis members, his flesh, and his bones (Eph 5:30), so he has a body\npolitic, congregations modelled by the skill that his ministers have\nin his word, for the bearing up of his name, and the preserving of\nhis glory in the world against Antichrist. In this church, order\nand discipline, for the nourishing up of the true mystical body\nof Christ, has been placed from the foundation of the world.\nWherefore in this, laws, and statutes, and government, is to be\nlooked after, and given heed unto, for the edification of that\nwhich is to arrive at last to a perfect man: to the measure of\nthe stature of the fulness of Christ (1 Cor 12:27-30; Eph 4:11-13).\n\nNow, where there is order and government by laws and statutes,\nthere must, of necessity, be also a distinction of sex, degrees,\nand age. Yea, offices and officers must also be there, for our\nfurtherance and joy of faith. From which government and rule our\nordinary women are excluded by Paul; nor should it, since it is\ndone by the wisdom of God, be any offence unto them.\n\nIn this church there are ofttimes many hypocrites, and formal\nprofessors, and heresies, \"That they which are approved may be made\nmanifest\" (1 Cor 11:19). These therefore being there, and being\nsuffered to act as they many times do, provoke the truly godly\nto contend with them by the word; for that these hypocrites, and\nformal professors, naturally incline to a denial of the power of\ngodliness, and to set up forms of their own in the stead thereof\n(Mar 7:6-9; 2 Tim 3:5).\n\nAnd this is done for the sake and for the good of those that are the\ntrue members of the body of Christ, and that are to arrive at his\nhaven of rest: from whom those others at last shall be purged, and\nwith them, all their things that offend. \"Then shall the righteous\nshine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath\nears to hear let him hear\" (Matt 13:43).\n\nThis church, that thus consisteth of all righteous, that are so in\nGod's account: they are to have a house in heaven, and to be for\nGod's habitation there. Who, then, shall be governed by their head\nwithout those officers and laws that are necessary here. And both\nat last shall be subject to him, that sometime did put all things\nunder Christ, that God may be all in all (John 14:1-3; Eph 2:21;\n1 Cor 15:23-27). Wherefore, my beloved sisters, this inferiority\nof yours will last but a little while. When the day of God's salvation\nis come, to wit, when our Lord shall descend from heaven, with a\nshout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, these\ndistinctions of sexes shall be laid aside, and every pot shall be\nfilled to the brim. For with a notwithstanding you shall be saved,\nand be gathered up to that state of felicity if you continue in\nfaith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety (1 Tim 2:15).\n\nCaution 3.\n\nI doubt not at all of the lawfulness of women's praying, and that,\nboth in private and public: only when they pray publicly, they\nshould not separate from, but join with the church in that work.\nThey should also not be the mouth of the assembly, but in heart,\ndesires, groans, and tears, they should go along with the men. In\ntheir closets they are at liberty to speak unto their God, who can\nbear with, and pity them with us; and pardon all our weakness for\nthe sake of Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd here I will take an occasion to say, there may be a twofold\nmiscarriage in prayer, one in doctrine, the other in the frame\nof the heart. All are too much subject to the last, women [more\neasily] to the first. And for this cause it is, at least so I think,\nthat women are not permitted to teach, nor speak in assemblies, for\ndivine worship, but to be and to learn in silence (1 Cor 14:33-35,\n15:33). For he that faileth as to the frame of his spirit, hurteth\nonly himself: but he that faileth in doctrine corrupteth them that\nstand by. Let the women be alone with Rebecca in the closet; or,\nif in company, let her, with Hannah, speak to herself and to God;\nand not doubt, but if she be humble, and keep within compass, she\nshall be a sharer with her brethren in the mercy.\n\nCaution 4.\n\nNor are women, by what I have said, debarred from any work or\nemploy, unto which they are enjoined by the word. They have often\nbeen called forth to be God's witnesses, and have borne famous\ntestimony for him against the sons of the sorceress and the\nwhore.[14] I remember many of them with comfort, even of these\neminent daughters of Sarah, whose daughters you also are, so long\nas you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement (1 Peter\n3:1-6). What by the word of God, you are called unto, what by the\nword is enjoined you do; and the Lord be with you.\n\nBut this of the women's meetings; since, indeed, there is nothing\nfor its countenance in the word, and since the calling together\nof assemblies for worship is an act of power, and belongeth to\nthe church, elders, or chief men of the same: let me intreat you\nto be content, to be under subjection and obedience, as also saith\nthe law. We hold that it is God's word that we are to look to, as\nto all things pertaining to worship, because it is the word that\nauthorizeth and sanctifieth what we do.\n\nCaution 5.\n\nWOMEN! They are an ornament in the church of God on earth, as the\nANGELS are in the church in heaven. Betwixt whom also there is\nsome comparison, for they cover their faces in acts of worship\n(Isa 6:2; 1 Cor 11:10). But as the angels in heaven are not Christ,\nand so not admitted to the mercy-seat to speak to God, so neither\nare women on earth, [but] the man; who is to worship with open\nface before him, and to be the mouth in prayer for the rest. As the\nangels then cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, with faces covered in heaven:\nSo let the women, cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, with their faces covered\non earth: Yea, thus they should do, because of the angels. \"For\nthis cause ought the woman to have power,\" that is a covering, \"on\nher head, because of the angels\" (1 Cor 11:10). Not only because\nthe angels are present, but because women and angels, as to their\nworship, in their respective places, have a semblance. For the\nangels are inferior to the great man Christ, who is in heaven;\nand the woman is inferior to the man, that truly worships God in\nthe church on earth.\n\nMethinks, holy and beloved sisters, you should be content to wear\nthis power, or badge of your inferiority, since the cause thereof\narose at first from yourselves. It was the woman that at first\nthe serpent made use of, and by whom he then overthrew the world:\nwherefore the women, to the world's end, must wear tokens of her\nunderlingship in all matters of worship. To say nothing of that\nwhich she cannot shake off, to wit, her pains and sorrows in\nchild-bearing, which God has riveted to her nature, there is her\nsilence, and shame, and a covering for her face, in token of it,\nwhich she ought to be exercised with, whenever the church comes\ntogether to worship (Gen 3:16; 1 Tim 2:15; 1 Cor 11:13; 1 Tim 2:9).\n\nDo you think that God gave the woman her hair, that she might deck\nherself, and set off her fleshly beauty therewith? It was given\nher to cover her face with, in token of shame and silence, for that\nby the woman sin came into the world (1 Tim 2:9). And perhaps the\nreason why the angels cover their faces when they cry, Holy, Holy,\nHoly, in heaven, is to shew that they still bear in mind, with a\nkind of abhorrence, the remembrance of their fellows falling from\nthence. Modesty, and shame-facedness, becomes women at all times,\nespecially in times of public worship, and the more of this is\nmixed with their grace and personage, the more beautiful they are\nboth to God and men. But why must the women have shame-facedness,\nsince they live honestly as the men? I answer, In remembrance of\nthe fall of Eve, and to that the apostle applies it. For a woman,\nnecessity has no law, to shave her head, and to look with open\nface in worship, as if she could be a leader there, is so far from\ndoing that which becomes her, that it declares her to have forgot\nwhat God would have her for ever with shame remember.\n\nCaution 6.\n\nIn what I have said about the women's meetings, I have not at all\nconcerned myself about those women, that have been extraordinary\nones, such as Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, or the rest, as the\ndaughters of Philip the evangelist, Priscilla, the women that\nPaul said laboured with him in the gospel, or such like; for they\nmight teach, prophecy, and had power to call the people together\nso to do. Though this I must say concerning them, they ought to,\nand did, notwithstanding so high a calling, still bear about with\nthem the badge of their inferiority to them that were prophets\nindeed. And hence it is said, under pain of being guilty of disorder,\nthat if they prayed in the church, or prophesied there, with their\nhead uncovered, they then dishonoured their head (1 Cor 11:5).\n\nThe prophetesses were below the prophets, and their covering for\ntheir heads was to be worn in token thereof, and perhaps it was\nfor want of regard to this order, that when Miriam began to perk it\n[15] before Moses, that God covered her face with a leprous-scab\n(Num 12:10). Hence these women, when prophets were present, did\nuse to lie still as to acts of power, and leave that to be put\nforth by them that were higher than they. And even Miriam herself,\nthough she was one indeed, yet she came always behind, not only in\nname but worship, unless when she was in her own disorders (Num\n12:1).\n\nAnd it is worth your farther noting, that when God tells Israel\nthat they should take heed in the plague of leprosy, that they\ndiligently observed to do what the priest and Levites taught them,\nthat he conjoins with that exhortation, that they should \"remember\nwhat God did unto Miriam by the way\" (Deut 24:8,9). Intimating surely\nthat they should not give heed to women, that would be perking\nup in matters of worshipping God. Much less should we invest them\nwith power to call congregations of their own, there to perform\nworship without their men.\n\nYet, will I say, notwithstanding all this, that if any of these high\nwomen had, but we never read that they did, separate themselves, and\nothers of their own sex with them, apart to worship by themselves:\nor if they had given out commandment so to do, and had joined God's\nname to that commandment, I should have freely consented that our\nwomen should do so too, when led out, and conducted in worship,\nby so extraordinary a one. Yea more, If any of these high women\nhad given it out for law, that the women of the churches in New\nTestament times, ought to separate themselves from their men, and\nas so separate, perform divine worship among themselves: I should\nhave subscribed thereto. But finding nothing like this in the\nword of God, for the sanctifying of such a practice: and seeing\nso many scriptures wrested out of their place to justify so fond\na conceit: and all this done by a man of conceit, and of one that,\nas his sisters say, expects my answer: I found myself engaged to\nsay something for the suppressing of this his opinion.\n\nBut to return to the good women in the churches, and to make up\nmy discourse with them.\n\nFirst, These meetings of yours, honourable women, wherein you\nattempt to perform divine worship by yourselves, without your\nmen, not having the authority of the word to sanctify them, will\nbe found will-worship, in the day when you, as to that, shall\nbe measured with that golden reed, the law of God. And \"who hath\nrequired this at your hand?\" may put you to your shifts for an\nanswer, notwithstanding all Mr. K. has said to uphold you (Isa\n1:12; Rev 11:1).\n\nSecondly, These meetings of yours need not be; there are elders\nor brethren in all churches, to call to, and manage this worship\nof God, in the world: if you abide in your subjection and worship\nas you are commanded.\n\nThirdly, These meetings of yours, instead of being an ornament\nto the church in which you are, are a shame and blemish to those\nchurches. For they manifest the unruliness of such women, or that\nthe church wants skill to govern them (1 Cor 14:23). Have you not\n\"in your flock a male?\" (Mal 1:14).\n\nFourthly, Suppose your meetings in some cases were lawful, yet\nsince by the brethren they may be managed better, you and your\nmeetings ought to give place. That the church together, and the\nbrethren, as the mouth to God, are capable of managing this solemn\nworship best: consider--1. The gifts for all such service are most\nto be found in the elders and leading men in the church: and not\nin the women thereof. 2. The spirit for conduct and government in\nthat worship, is not in the women, but in the men. 3. The men are\nadmitted in such worship, to stand with open face before God, a\ntoken of much admittance to liberty and boldness with God, a thing\ndenied to the women (1 Cor 11:4,5). 4. For that when meetings\nfor prayers are commanded, the men, to be the mouth to God, are\nmentioned, but not in ordinary women, in all the Scriptures. Where\nthe women and children, and them that suck the breasts are called,\nwith the bride and bridegroom, and the whole land, to mourn: yet\nthe ministers, and elders, and chiefest of the brethren, are they,\nand they only, that are bid to say, \"Spare thy people, O Lord! and\ngive not thine heritage to reproach\" (Joel 1:13,14, 2:15-17). 5.\nThe word for encouragement to pray believingly in assemblies is\ngiven to men. And it is the word that makes, and that sanctifies\nan ordinance of God: men, therefore, in all assemblies for worship,\nshould be they that should manage it, and let others join in their\nplaces.\n\nObjection.\n\nBut the women is included in the man, for the same word signifies\nboth.\n\nAnswer.\n\n1. If the woman is included here, let her not exclude the man. But\nthe man is [by them] excluded: The man is excluded by this woman's\nmeeting from worship; from worship, though he be the head in\nworship over the women, and by God's ordinance appointed to manage\nit, and this is an excluding of the worst complexion (1 Cor 11:3).\n\n2. Though the woman is included, when the man sometimes is named,\nyet the man is not excluded, when himself as chief is named. But\nto cut him off from being the chief in all assemblies for worship,\nis to exclude him, and that when he for that in chief is named.\n\n3. The woman is included when the man is named, yet but in her\nplace, and if she worships in assemblies, her part is to hold her\ntongue, to learn in silence; and if she speaks, she must do it, I\nmean as to worship, in her heart to God.\n\n4. Nor, do I think, that any woman that is holy and humble, will\ntake offence at what I have said; for I have not in anything sought\nto degrade them, or to take from them what either nature or grace,\nor an appointment of God hath invested them with: but have laboured\nto keep them in their place. And doubtless to abide where God has\nput us, is that which not only highly concerns us, but that, which\nbecomes us best. Sisters, I have said what I have said to set you\nright, and to prevent your attempting to do things in such sort\nunto which you are not appointed. Remember what God did to Miriam,\nand be afraid.\n\n\nBe as often in your closets as you will; the oftener there the\nbetter. This is your duty, this is your privilege: this place is\nsanctified to you for service by the holy Word of God. Here you\nmay be, and not make ordinances interfere, and not presume upon\nthe power of your superiors, and not thrust out your brethren, nor\nput them behind your backs in worship.\n\nBe also as often as possibly you can, in worship, when the church,\nor parts thereof, are assembled for that end, according to God's\nappointment. And when you are there, join with heart and soul with\nyour brethren in all holy petitions to God. Let the men in prayer\nbe the mouth to God, and the women list after with groans and\ndesires. Let the men stand with open face in this worship, for that\nthey are the image and glory of God, and let the women be clothed\nin modest apparel, with shame-facedness, in token of the remembrance\nof what has been touched afore.\n\nWhen women keep their places, and men manage their worshipping of\nGod as they should, we shall have better days for the church of\nGod, in the world (Jer 29:10-14). Women are not to be blamed for\nthat they are forward to pray to God, only let them know their\nbounds; and I wish that idleness in men be not the cause of their\nputting their good women upon this work. Surely they that can\nscarce tie their shoes, and their garters, before they arrive\nat the tavern, or get to the coffee-house door in a morning, can\nscarce spare time to be a while in their closets with God. Morning\ncloset-prayers are now, by most London professors, thrown away;\nand what kind of ones they make at night, God doth know, and their\nconscience, when awake, will know; however I have cause, as to\nthis, to look at home: And God mend me and all his servants about\nit, and wherein we else are out.\n\nI have done, after I have said, that there are some other things,\nconcerning women, touching which, when I have an opportunity, I may\nalso give my judgment. But at present, I intreat that these lines\nbe taken in good part, for I seek edification, not contention.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] \"Breach Repaired,\" a defence of singing in public worship, then\nnewly and partially introduced. 1700, p. 2.\n\n[2] Distinguishing Practices of Friends, p. 280-1.\n\n[3] P. 495.\n\n[4] P. 509.\n\n[5] Sketch of Friends' Discipline, p. 35.\n\n[6] Probably a female branch of the family of John or Samuel Fenn,\nhatters at Bedford, who, in 1670, were cruelly persecuted for\nsuffering a meeting for religious worship to take place in the\nhouse of John Fenn. Not only all their stock of hats, materials,\nand tools, but the whole of their household furniture was seized\nand carried off to satisfy ruinous fines. One John Bardolf was\nalso cruelly persecuted for Christ's sake at the same time.--Vide\nNarrative of Arbitrary Proceedings at Bedford, 4to, 1670, in the\neditor's possession.\n\n[7] In times of such severe trial and suffering to our pilgrim\nforefathers, they knew the value of prayer; and at the risk of\nproperty, liberty, and even life, held frequent meetings to implore\ntheir God and Father to mitigate their sufferings, and to have\nmercy upon their cruel persecutors. Not only working tools and\nstock, but commonly all the furniture, was taken from the Christians,\nwhile their ministers and members, both men and women, were\nimprisoned in miserable jails. One of these, Mr. Robert Kalder,\ndying, was buried in the churchyard; but those furious bigots\ndug up his naked body, and dragged it to the gates of his former\nresidence, leaving it there, a frightful spectacle to his widow\nand family. They had meetings for prayer; and how does it become\ntheir descendants in the faith to have days of thanksgiving and\nnights of praise?--See Broadmead Records and Crosby's History of\nBaptists, vol. ii., p. 240.--Ed.\n\n[8] \"Syllogism,\" a form of reasoning, consisting of three propositions,\nhaving this property; that the conclusion necessarily follows from\nthe two premises: so that if the first and second be granted, the\nconclusion must be granted in like manner. No wonder that Bunyan\nneither understood nor was awed by this hard word. Armed with holy\nWrit, he goes to work \"to pick the bones of the syllogism.\"--Ed.\n\n[9] Much stress was, and is now, laid in many churches upon the\nnecessity of all persons, before praying or preaching in public,\nbeing guided by the opinion of the church. The taking advice in\nso important a step must be proper; but any pledge to abide by\nit, contrary to the conscientious conviction of the individual,\nwould be a violation of the duty of private judgment. If in their\nministrations they were false or foolish, the church must exercise\ndiscipline; but if they became useful, surely no objection could\nbe urged as to the validity of their call to the ministry, because\nthe church had not been first consulted or had advised them not to\nproceed. The desire--the ability, by sound views of divine truth,\nand a happy way of illustrating and enforcing them--with the\nopportunity of so doing, is the divine call to this holy work.--Ed.\n\n[10] \"So nunnish,\" a singular mode of expression, alluding to the\nnuns being separated from the world, and shut up by themselves.\nThey were not permitted to exercise the priestly office. Father\nconfessors and chaplains were appointed for these duties.--Ed.\n\n[11] To have said that the spirit of divination, which was cast out,\nwas so far killed by virtue of a female prayer meeting, would have\nbeen as true as to have said, that these meetings were limited to\nfemales only.--Ed.\n\n[12] \"Bottom,\" or foundation.\n\n[13] A dangerous error, originating in the sectarian pride of\nAntichrist, prevails to a very great extent. It is that some one\nvisible church, or set of united churches, is the mystical body\nof Christ, and entitled to be called THECHURCHEvery congregation\nof pious men and women, united together in the faith, is a church\nof Christ. But THE church comprises all the saints of God who ever\nlived--live now, or will live on the earth; until their number is\ncompleted, and this creation shall give place to the new heavens\nand the new earth. Every church is as distinct as it is equal; whether\nit meet at Corinth, Rome, or Ephesus, at London or Edinburgh. Be\nit Episcopalian, Independent, Presbyterian, Baptist, or a church\nof the Society of Friends; each is entitled, according to the New\nTestament, to equal honour and privilege.--Ed.\n\n[14] The usual appellations of Popery.--Ed.\n\n[15] \"To perk it,\" to hold up her head with affected superiority\nor spiritual pride.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nINSTRUCTION FOR THE IGNORANT:\n\nBEING A SALVE TO CURE THAT GREAT WANT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH SO MUCH\nREIGNS BOTH IN YOUNG AND OLD.\n\nPREPARED AND PRESENTED TO THEM IN A PLAIN AND EASY DIALOGUE, FITTED\nTO THE CAPACITY OF THE WEAKEST.\n\n'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'--Hosea 4:6\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis little catechism is upon a plan perfectly new and unique.\nIt was first published as a pocket volume in 1675, and has been\nrepublished in every collection of the author's works; and recently\nin a separate tract. The earliest edition that has been discovered\nbears the date of 1691; from which our copy has been prepared for\nthe press. This is the first book of this class that was composed\nupon the broad basis of Christianity, perfectly free from sectarian\nbias or peculiarity. It is an exhibition of scriptural truths,\nbefore which error falls without the trouble of pulling it down.\nIt is in the world, like the ark of God in the temple of Dagon. It\nis alike admirably calculated to convey the most important truths\nto the inmates of a palace or of a workhouse,--to the young or\nto the aged,--to the ignorant Roman Catholic, or to the equally\nignorant Protestant. Its broad catholicity is its distinguishing\nexcellence. In the separate communions included within the general\nchurch of Christ are various, and in many respects, inestimable\ncompendiums of Christian truth, arranged for the catechetical\ninstruction of the young and ignorant; but it cannot be denied\nthat these, one and all, exhibit some marks of sectarian feeling\nand dogmatic teaching in the details that relate to the special\nviews which each communion takes of certain scriptural doctrines.\nThe reason why this should be the case is very obvious: there\nwould be no differences of opinion amongst Christians except\nfrom conviction that these differences are essential, and such\nconviction naturally leads to these points of disagreement being\n(may we not say?) rather too obtrusively enforced as part and\nportion of a saving belief. All Bunyan's efforts were to awaken\nsinners to a sense of their degradation, misery, and danger, and\nto direct them to the only refuge from the wrath to come--the hope\nset before them in the gospel; and then leaving the pious convert\nto the guidance of his Bible in forming his connections in the\npilgrimage of life. Bunyan is solemnly in earnest; his desire is,\nthat poor sinners should be relieved from ignorance, darkness,\nand destruction, and be introduced into the glorious liberty of\nthe sons of God. May his impressive injunction be indelibly fixed\nupon our souls, 'To read, ponder over, and receive the wholesome\nmedicine as we shall answer in the day of the terrible judgment.'--GEO.\nOFFOR.\n\nTO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN AND ABOUT BEDFORD, WALKING IN THE\nFAITH AND FELLOWSHIP OF THE GOSPEL, YOUR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER AND\nCOMPANION IN THE KINGDOM AND PATIENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, WISHETH\nALL GRACE AND MERCY BY JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.\n\nHoly and beloved,\n\nAlthough I have designed this little treatise for public and common\nbenefit, yet considering that I am to you a debtor not only in\ncommon charity; but by reason of special bonds which the Lord hath\nlaid upon me to you-ward, I could do no less, being driven from\nyou in presence, not affection, but first present you with this\nlittle book; not for that you are wanting in the things contained\nherein, but to put you again in remembrance of first things, and\nto give you occasion to present something to your carnal relations,\nthat may be, if God will, for their awakening and conversion:\naccept it therefore as a token of my christian remembrance of you.\n\nNext I present it to all those unconverted, old and young, who\nhave been at any time under my preaching, and yet remain in their\nsins:[1] and I entreat them also that they receive it as a token\nof my love to their immortal souls; yea, I charge them as they\nwill answer it in the day of terrible judgment, that they read,\nponder over, and receive this wholesome medicine prepared for\nthem. Now the God of blessing bless it to the awakening of many\nsinners, and the salvation of their souls by faith in Jesus Christ.\nAmen.\n\nYours, to serve you by my ministry, when I can,[2] to your edification\nand consolation,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\n\nINSTRUCTION FOR THE IGNORANT\n\nQuest. How many gods are there?--Answ. To the Christians there is\nbut one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we of him (1\nCor 8:6).\n\nQ. Why is not the God of the Christians the God of them that are\nno Christians?--A. He is their maker and preserver; but they have\nnot chosen him to be their God (Acts 17:24; Psa 36:6; Ju 10:14).\n\nQ. Are there then other gods besides the God of the Christians?--A.\nThere is none other true God but HE; but because they want the\ngrace of Christians, therefore they choose not him, but such gods\nas will suit with and countenance their lusts (John 8:44).\n\nQ. What gods are they that countenance the lusts of wicked men?--A.\nThe devil, who is the god of this world; the belly, that god of\ngluttons, drunkards, and riotous persons; and idle pleasures and\nvanities, which are, for the most part, the gods of the youth\n(Job 8:4; 2 Cor 4:4; Phil 3:19; Exo 32:6; 1 Cor 10:7; 2 Tim 2:2;\n1 John 5:21).\n\nQ. Who is a Christian?--A. One that is born again, a new creature;\none that sits at Jesus' feet to hear his word; one that hath his\nheart purified and sanctified by faith,[3] which is in Christ\n(John 3:3,5,7; Acts 11:24, 15:9, 26:18; 2 Cor 5:17).\n\nQ. How do you distinguish the God of the Christians from the gods\nof other people?--A. He is a Spirit (John 4:24).\n\nQ. Is there no other spirit but the true God?--A. Yes, there are\nmany spirits (1 John 4:1).\n\nQ. What spirits are they?--A. The good angels are spirits; the bad\nangels are spirits; and the souls of men are spirits (Heb 1:7,14;\n1 Kings 22:21,22; Rev 16:13,14; Acts 7:59; Heb 12:23).\n\nQ. How then is the true God distinguished from other spirits?--A.\nThus: No Spirit is eternal but HE, no Spirit is almighty but HE,\nno Spirit is incomprehensible and unsearchable but HE: HE is also\nmost merciful, most just, most holy (Deut 33:27; Gen 17:1; Psa\n145:3; Micah 7:18; Job 34:17; 1 Sam 2:2).\n\nQ. Is this God, being a Spirit, to be known?--A. Yes, and that by\nhis works of creation, by his providences, by the judgments that\nhe executeth, and by his word.\n\nQ. Do you understand him by the works of creation?--A. 'The heavens\ndeclare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work'\n(Psa 19:1). 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of\nthe world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that\nare made, even his eternal power and Godhead' (Rom 1:20).\n\nQ. Do his works of providence also declare him?--A. They must\nneeds do it, since through his providence the whole creation is\nkept in such harmony as it is, and that in despite of sin and\ndevils; also, if you consider that from an angel to a sparrow,\nnothing falls to the ground without the providence of our heavenly\nFather (Matt 10:29).\n\nQ. Is he known by his judgments?--A. 'The Lord is known by the\njudgments which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of\nhis own hands' (Psa 9:16).\n\nQ. Is he known by his word?--A. Yes, most clearly: for by that he\nrevealeth his attributes, his decrees, his promises, his way of\nworship, and how he is to be pleased by us.\n\nQ. Of what did God make the world?--A. 'Things which are seen were\nnot made of things which do appear' (Heb 11:3).\n\nQ. How long was he in making the world?--A. 'In six days the Lord\nmade heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is' (Exo\n20:11). 'And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had\nmade' (Gen 2:2).\n\nQ. Of what did God make man?--A. 'The LORD God formed man of the\ndust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of\nlife; and man became a living soul' (Gen 2:7).\n\nQ. Why doth it say, God breathed into him the breath of life; is\nman's soul of the very nature of the Godhead?--A. This doth not\nteach that the soul is of the nature of the Godhead, but sheweth\nthat it is not of the same matter as his body, which is dust (Gen\n18:27).\n\nQ. Is not the soul then of the nature of the Godhead?--A. No, for\nGod cannot sin, but the soul doth; God cannot be destroyed in\nhell, but the souls of the impenitent shall (Eze 18:4; Matt 10:28).\n\nQ. How did God make man in the day of his first creation?--A. God\nmade man upright (Eccl 7:29). 'In the image of God created he him'\n(Gen 1:27).\n\nQ. Did God, when he made man, leave him without a rule to walk\nby?--A. No: he gave him a law in his nature, and imposed upon him\na positive precept, but he offered violence to them, and brake\nthem both (Gen 3:3,6).\n\nQ. What was the due desert of that transgression?--A. Spiritual death\nin the day he did it, temporal death afterwards, and everlasting\ndeath last of all (Gen 2:17, 3:19; Matt 25:46).\n\nQ. What is it to be spiritually dead?--A. To be alienate from God,\nand to live without him in the world, through the ignorance that\nis in man, and through the power of their sins (Eph 4:18,19).\n\nQ. Wherein doth this alienation from God appear?--A. In the love\nthey have to their sins, in their being loth to come to him, in\ntheir pleading idle excuses for their sins, and in their ignorance\nof the excellent mysteries of his blessed gospel (Eph 2:2,3,11,12,\n4:18,19; Rom 1:28).\n\nQ. What is temporal death?--A. To have body and soul separated\nasunder, the body returning to the dust as it was, and the spirit\nto God that gave it (Gen 3:19; Eccl 12:7).\n\nQ. What is everlasting death?--A. For body and soul to be separate\nfor ever from God, and to be cast into hell fire (Luke 13:27; Mark\n9:43).\n\nQ. Do men go body and soul to hell so soon as they die?--A. The\nbody abideth in the grave till the sound of the last trump; but\nthe soul, if the man dies wicked, goes presently from the face of\nGod into hell, as into a prison, there to be kept till the day of\njudgment (1 Cor 15:52; Isa 24:22; Luke 12:20).\n\nQ. Do we come into the world as upright as did our first parent?--A.\nNo: he came into the world sinless, being made so of God Almighty,\nbut we came into the world sinners, being made so by his pollution.[4]\n\nQ. How doth it appear that we came into the world polluted?--A.\nWe are the fruit of an unclean thing, are defiled in our very\nconception, and are by nature the children of wrath (Job 14:4;\nPsa 51:5; Eph 2:3).\n\nQ. Can you make further proof of this?--A. Yes, it is said, That\nby one man came sin, death, judgment, and condemnation upon all\nmen (Rom 5:12-19).\n\nQ. Do we then come sinners into the world?--A. Yes, we are\ntransgressors from the womb, and go astray as soon as we are born,\nspeaking lies (Isa 48:8; Psa 58:3).\n\nQ. But as Adam fell with us in him, so did he not by faith rise\nwith us in him? for he had no seed until he had the promise.--A. He\nfell as a public person,[5] but believed the promise as a single\nperson. Adam's faith saved not the world, though Adam's sin\noverthrew it.\n\nQ. But do not some hold that we are sinners only by imitation?--A.\nYes, being themselves deceived. But God's word saith, we are\nchildren of wrath by nature, that is, by birth and generation.\n\nQ. Can you bring further proof of this?--A. Yes: in that day that\nwe were born, we were polluted in our own blood, and cast out to\nthe loathing of our persons. Again, the children of old that were\ndedicated unto the Lord, a sacrifice was offered for them at a\nmonth old, which was before they were sinners by imitation (Eze\n16:4-9; Num 18:14-16).\n\nQ. Can you make this appear by experience?--A. Yes: the first\nthings that bloom and put forth themselves in children, shew their\nignorance of God, their disobedience to parents, and their innate\nenmity to holiness of life; their inclinations naturally run\nto vanity. Besides little children die, but that they could not,\nwere they not of God counted sinners; for death is the wages of\nsin (Rom 6:23).\n\nQ. What is sin?--A. It is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).\n\nQ. A transgression of what law?--A. Of the law of our nature, and\nof the law of the ten commandments as written in the holy scriptures\n(Rom 2:12-15; Exo 20).\n\nQ. When doth one sin against the law of nature?--A. When you do\nanything that your conscience tells you is a transgression against\nGod or man (Rom 2:14,15).\n\nQ. When do we sin against the law as written in the ten commandments?--A.\nWhen you do anything that they forbid, although you be ignorant\nof it (Psa 19:12).\n\nQ. How many ways are there to sin against this law?--A. Three: by\nsinful thoughts, by sinful words, and also by sinful actions (Rom\n7:7, 2:6; Matt 5:28, 12:37).\n\nQ. What if we sin but against one of the ten commandments?--A.\nWhosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,\nhe is guilty of all; 'For he that said, Do not commit adultery,\nsaid also, Do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou\nkill, thou art become a transgressor of the law' (James 2:10,11).\n\nQ. Where will God punish sinners for their sins?--A. Both in this\nword and in that which is to come (Gen 3:24, 4:10-12; Job 21:30).\n\nQ. How are men punished in this world for sin?--A. Many ways, as\nwith sickness, losses, crosses, disappointments and the like:\nsometimes also God giveth them up to their own heart's lusts, to\nblindness of mind also, and hardness of heart; yea, and sometimes\nto strong delusions that they might believe lies, and be damned\n(Lev 26:15,26; Amos 4:7,10; Rom 1:24,28; Exo 4:21, 9:12-14; Zeph\n1:17; Rom 11:7,8; 2 Thess 2:11,12).\n\nQ. How are sinners punished in the world to come?--A. With a worm\nthat never dies, and with a fire that never shall be quenched\n(Mark 9:44).\n\nQ. Whither do sinners go to receive this punishment?--A. 'The\nwicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget\nGod' (Psa 9:17).\n\nQ. What is hell?--A. It is a place and a state most fearful (Luke\n13:28, 16:28; Acts 1:25).\n\nQ. Why do you call it a place?--A. Because in hell shall all the\ndamned be confined as in a prison, in their chains of darkness\nfor ever (Luke 12:5,58, 16:26; Jude 6).\n\nQ. What [kind of] place is hell?--A. It is a dark bottomless\nburning lake of fire, large enough to hold all that perish (Matt\n22:13; Rev 20:1,15; Isa 30:35; Prov 27:20).\n\nQ. What do you mean when you say it is a fearful state?--A. I\nmean, that it is the lot of those that are cast in thither to be\ntormented in most fearful manner, to wit, with wrath and fiery\nindignation (Rom 2:9; Heb 10:26,27).\n\nQ. In what parts shall they be thus fearfully tormented?--A. In\nbody and soul: for hell-fire shall kindle upon both beyond what\nnow can be thought (Matt 10:28; Luke 16:24; James 5:3).[6]\n\nQ. How long shall they be in this condition?--A. 'These shall go\naway into everlasting punishment' (Matt 25:46). 'And the smoke\nof their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no\nrest day nor night' (Rev 14:11). For they 'shall be punished with\neverlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from\nthe glory of his power' (2 Thess 1:9).\n\nQ. But why might not the ungodly be punished with this punishment\nin this world, that we might have seen it and believe?--A. If the\nungodly should with punishment have been rewarded in this world,\nit would in all probability have overthrown the whole order that\nGod hath settled here among men. For who could have endured here\nto have seen the flames of fire, to have heard the groans, and to\nhave seen the tears, perhaps, of damned relations, as parents or\nchildren? Therefore as Tophet of old was without the city, and as\nthe gallows and gibbets are built without the towns;[7] so Christ\nhath ordered that they who are to be punished with this kind of\ntorment, shall be taken away: 'Take him away,' saith he (out of\nthis world) 'and cast him into outer darkness,' and let him have\nhis punishment there 'there shall be weeping and gnashing of\nteeth' (Matt 22:13). Besides, faith is not to be wrought by looking\ninto hell, and seeing the damned tormented before our eyes, but\nby 'hearing the word of God' (Rom 10:17). For he that shall not\nbelieve Moses and the prophets, will not be persuaded should one\ncome from the dead, yea should one come to them in flames to\npersuade them (Luke 16:27-31).\n\nQ. Are there degrees of torments in hell?--A. Yes, for God will\nreward every one according to their works. 'Wo unto the wicked,\nit shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be\ngiven him' (Isa 3:11).\n\nQ. Who are like to be most punished there, men or children?--A.\nThe punishment in hell comes not upon sinners according to age,\nbut sin; so that whether they be men or children, the greater sin,\nthe greater punishment; 'For there is no respect of persons with\nGod' (Rom 2:11).[8]\n\nQ. How do you distinguish between great sins and little ones?--A.\nBy their nature, and by the circumstances that attend them.\n\nQ. What do you mean by their nature?--A. I mean when they are very\ngross in themselves (2 Chron 33:2; Eze 16:42).\n\nQ. What kind of sins are the greatest?--A. Adultery, fornication,\nmurder, theft, swearing, lying, covetousness, witchcraft, sedition,\nheresies, or any the like (1 Cor 6:9,10; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5,6;\nGal 5:19-21; Rev 21:8).\n\nQ. What do you mean by circumstances that attend sin?--A. I mean\nlight, knowledge, the preaching of the Word, godly acquaintance,\ntimely caution, &c.\n\nQ. Will these make an alteration in the sin?--A. These things\nattending sinners, will make little sins great, yea greater than\ngreater sins that are committed in grossest ignorance.\n\nQ. How do you prove that?--A. Sodom and Gomorrah wallowed in all\nor most of those gross transgressions above mentioned: yea, they\nwere said to be sinners exceedingly, they lived in such sins as\nmay not be spoken of without blushing, and yet God swears that\nIsrael, his church, had done worse than they (Eze 16:48), and the\nLord Jesus also seconds it in that threatening of his, 'I say unto\nyou, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the\nday of judgment than for thee' (Matt 11:24; Luke 10:12).\n\nQ. And was this the reason, namely, because they had such circumstances\nattending them as Sodom had not?--A. Yes, as will plainly appear,\nif you read the three chapters above mentioned.\n\nQ. When do I sin against light and knowledge?--A. When you sin\nagainst convictions of conscience, when you sin against a known law\nof God, when you sin against counsels, and dissuasion of friends,\nthen you sin against light and knowledge (Rom 1:32).\n\nQ. When do I sin against preaching of the word?--A. When you refuse\nto hear God's ministers, or hearing them, refuse to follow their\nwholesome doctrine (2 Chron 36:16; Jer 25:4-7, 35:15).\n\nQ. When else do I sin against preaching of the Word?--A. When you\nmock, or despise, or reproach the ministers; also when you raise\nlies and scandals of them, or receive such lies or scandals\nraised;[9] you then also sin against the preaching of the Word,\nwhen you persecute them that preach it, or are secretly glad to\nsee them so used (2 Chron 30:1,10; Rom 3:8; Jer 20:10; 1 Thess\n2:15,16).\n\nQ. How will godly acquaintance greaten my sin?--A. When you sin\nagainst their counsels, warnings, or persuasions to the contrary;\nalso when their lives and conversations are a reproof to you, and\nyet against all you will sin. Thus sinned Ishmael, Esau, Eli's\nsons, Absalom and Judas, they had good company, good counsels, and\na good life set before them by their godly acquaintance, but they\nsinned against all, and their judgment was the greater. Ishmael\nwas cast away (Gen 21:10), Esau hated (Gal 4:30), Eli's sons died\nsuddenly (Mal 1:2; 1 Sam 2:25,34, 4:11), Absalom and Judas were\nboth strangely hanged (2 Sam 18; Matt 27).\n\nQ. Are sins thus heightened, distinguished from others by any\nspecial name?--A. Yes; they are called rebellion, and are compared\nto the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam 15:23), they are called willful\nsins (Heb 10:26), they are called briars and thorns, and they\nthat bring them forth are 'nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be\nburned' (6:7,8).\n\nQ. Are there any other things that can make little sins great\nones?--A. Yes; as when you sin against the judgments of God.\nAs for example, you see the judgments of God come upon some for\ntheir transgressions, and you go on in their iniquities; as also\nwhen you sin against the patience, long-suffering, and forbearance\nof God, this will make little sins great ones (Dan 5:21-24; Rom\n2:4,5).\n\nQ. Did ever God punish little children for sin against him?--A.\nYes; when the flood came, he drowned all the little children that\nwere in the old world: he also burned up all the little children\nwhich were in Sodom; and because upon a time the little children\nat Bethel mocked the prophet as he was a going to worship God,\nGod let loose two she-bears upon them, which tore forty and two\nof them to pieces (2 Kings 2:23,24).\n\nQ. Alas! what shall we little children do?[10]--A. Either go on\nin your sins, or remember now your Creator in the days of your\nyouth, before the evil days come (Eccl 12:1).\n\nQ. Why do you mock us, to bid us go on in our sins? you had need\npray for us that God would save us.--A. I do not mock you, but\nas the wise man doth; and besides, I pray for you and wish your\nsalvation.\n\nQ. How doth the wise man mock us?--A. Thus; 'Rejoice, O young\nman, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of\nthy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight\nof thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will\nbring thee into judgment' (Eccl 11:9).\n\nQ. What a kind of mocking is this?--A. Such an one as is mixed with\nthe greatest seriousness; as if he should say, Ay, do, sinners,\ngo on in your sins if you dare; do, live in your vanities, but\nGod will have a time to judge you for them.\n\nQ. Is not this just as when my father bids me be naught if I will:\nbut if I be naught he will beat me for it?--A. Yes; or like that\nsaying of Joshua, 'If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,\nchoose you this day whom ye will serve'; serve your sins at your\nperil (Josh 24:15).\n\nQ. Is it not best then for me to serve God?--A. Yes; for they that\nserve the devil must be where he is, and they that serve God and\nChrist, must be where they are (John 12:26; Matt 25:41).\n\nQ. But when had I best begin to serve God?--A. Just now: 'Remember\nNOW thy Creator,' NOW thou hast the gospel before thee, NOW thy\nheart is tender and will be soonest broken.\n\nQ. But if I follow my play and sports a little longer, may I not\ncome time enough?--A. I cannot promise thee that, for there be\nlittle graves in the churchyard; and who can tell but that thy\nyoung life is short; or if thou dost live, perhaps thy day of grace\nmay be as short as was Ishmael's of old: read also Proverbs 1:24-26.\n\nQ. But if I stay a little longer before I turn, I may have more\nwit to serve God than now I have, may I not?--A. If thou stayest\nlonger, thou wilt have more sin, and perhaps less wit: for the\nbigger sinner, the bigger fool (Prov 1:22).\n\nQ. If I serve God sometimes, and my sin sometimes, how then?--A.\n'No man can serve two masters.' Thou canst not serve God and thy\nsins (Matt 6:24). God saith, 'My Son, give me thine heart' (Prov\n23:26). Also thy soul and body are his; but the double-minded man\nis forbidden to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord\n(1 Cor 6:20; James 1:7,8).\n\nQ. Do you find many such little children as I am, serve God?--A.\nNot many; yet some I do, Samuel served him being a child (1 Sam\n3:1). When Josiah was young he began to seek after the God of his\nfather David (2 Chron 34:3). And how kindly did our Lord Jesus\ntake it, to see the little children run tripping before him, and\ncrying, Hosannah to the Son of David? (Matt 21:15,16).\n\nQ. Then I am not like to have many companions if I thus young\nbegin to serve God, am I?--A. 'Strait is the gate, and narrow is\nthe way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it'\n(Matt 7:14). Yet some companions thou wilt have. David counted\nhimself a companion of all them that love God's testimonies (Psa\n119:63). All the godly, though grey-headed, will be thy companions;\nyea, and thou shalt have either one or more of the angels of God\nin heaven to attend on, and minister for thee (Matt 18:10).\n\nQ. But I am like to be slighted, and despised by other little children,\nif I begin already to serve God, am I not?--A. If children be so\nrude as to mock the prophets and ministers of God, no marvel if\nthey also mock thee; but it is a poor heaven that is not worth\nenduring worse things than to be mocked for the seeking and\nobtaining of (2 Kings 2:23,24).\n\nQ. But how should I serve God? I do not know how to worship him.--A.\nThe true worshippers, worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24;\nPhil 3:3).\n\nQ. What is meant by worshipping him in the spirit?--A. To worship\nhim in God's Spirit and in mine own; that is, to worship him,\nbeing wrought over in my very heart by the good Spirit of God, to\nan hearty compliance with his will (Rom 1:9, 6:17; Psa 101:1-3).\n\nQ. What is it to worship him in truth?--A. To do all that we do\nin his worship according to his word, for his word is truth, and\nto do it without dissimulation (Heb 8:5; John 17:17; Psa 26:6,\n108:19,20). You may take the whole thus, Then do you worship God\naright, when in heart and life you walk according to his word.\n\nQ. How must I do to worship him with my spirit and heart?--A. Thou\nmust first get the good knowledge of him. 'And thou, Solomon my\nson,' said David,' know thou the God of thy father, and serve him\nwith a perfect heart' (1 Chron 28:9). Mind you, he first bids know\nhim, and then serve him with a perfect heart.\n\nQ. Is it easy to get a true knowledge of God?--A. No; Thou must\ncry after knowledge, and lift up thy voice for understanding.\n'If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid\ntreasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and\nfind the knowledge of God' (Prov 2:4,5).\n\nQ. How comes it to be so difficult a thing to attain the true\nknowledge of God?--A. By reason of the pride and ignorance that\nis in us, as also by reason of our wicked ways (Psa 10:4; Eph\n4:18,19; Titus 1:16).\n\nQ. But do not every one profess that they know God?--A. Yes; but\ntheir supposed knowledge of him varieth as much as do their faces\nor complexions, some thinking he is this, and some that.\n\nQ. Will you shew me a little how they vary in their thoughts about\nhim?--A. Yes; Some count him a kind of an heartless God, that\nwill neither do evil nor good (Zeph 1:12). Some count him a kind\nof an ignorant and blind God, that can neither know nor see through\nthe clouds (Job 22:13). Some again count him an inconsiderable\nGod, not worth the enjoying, if it must not be but with the loss\nof this world, and their lusts (Job 21:9-15). Moreover, some think\nhim to be altogether such an one as themselves, one that hath as\nlittle hatred to sin as themselves, and as little love to holiness\nas themselves (Psa 50:21).\n\nQ. Are there any more false opinions of God?--A. Yes; There are\nthree other false opinions of God. 1. Some think he is all mercy\nand no justice, and that therefore they may live as they list (Rom\n3:8). 2. Others think he is all justice and no mercy, and that\ntherefore they had as good go on in their sins and be damned, as\nturn and be never the better (Jer 2:25). 3. Others think he is both\njustice and mercy, but yet think also, that his justice is such\nas they can pacify with their own good works, and save themselves\nwith their own right hand (Job 40:14); contrary to these scriptures\n(Habb 1:13; Isa 45:21).\n\nQ. How then shall I know when I have the true knowledge of God?--A.\nWhen thy knowledge of him and the holy Scriptures agree.\n\nQ. The Scriptures! Do not all false opinions of him flow from\nthe Scriptures?--A. No, in no wise; it is true, men father their\nerrors upon the Scriptures, when indeed they flow from the ignorance\nof their hearts (Eph 4:18).\n\nQ. But how if I do not understand the holy Bible, must I then go\nwithout the true knowledge of God?--A. His name is manifested by\nhis Word: the Scriptures are they that testify of him (John 17:6-8,\n5:39). And they are able to make the man of God perfect in all\nthings, and wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (2\nTim 3:15,16).\n\nQ. But what must one that knoweth not God do, to get the knowledge\nof God?--A. Let him apply his heart unto the Scriptures (Prov\n22:17, 23:12). 'As unto a light that shineth in a dark place,'\neven this world, 'until the day dawn, and the day star arise in\nhis heart' (2 Peter 1:19,20).\n\nQ. But how shall I know when I have found by the Scriptures the\ntrue knowledge of God?--A. When thou hast also found the true\nknowledge of thyself (Isa 6:5; Job 42:5).\n\nQ. What is it for me to know myself?--A. Then thou knowest thyself,\nwhen thou art in thine own eyes, a loathsome, polluted, wretched,\nmiserable sinner; and that not anything done by thee, can pacify\nGod unto thee (Job 42:5; Eze 20:43,44; Rom 7:24).[11]\n\n\nOf Confession of Sin.\n\nQ. You have shewed me, if I will indeed worship God, I must first\nknow him aright, now then to the question in hand, pray how must\nI worship him?--A. In confessing unto him (Neh 9:1-3).\n\nQ. What must I confess?--A. Thou must confess thy transgressions\nunto the Lord (Psa 32:5).\n\nQ. Was this the way of the godly of old?--A. Yes; Nehemiah confessed\nhis sins (Neh 1:6). David confessed his sins (Psa 32:5). Daniel\nconfessed his sins (Dan 9:4). And they that were baptized by John\nin Jordan confessed their sins (Matt 3:6).\n\nQ. What sins must I confess to God?--A. All sins whatsoever: for\n'He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth\nand forsaketh them shall have mercy' (Prov 28:13; 1 John 1:9).\n\nQ. But how if I do neither know nor remember all my sins?--A. Thou\nmust then search and try thy ways by the holy Word of God (Lam\n3:40; Psa 77:6).\n\nQ. But how if I do not make this search after my sins?--A. If thou\ndost not, God will; if thou dost not search them out and confess\nthem, God will search them out and charge them upon thee, and tear\nthee in pieces for them (Psa 50:21,22).\n\nQ. Where must I begin to confess my sins?--A. Where God beginneth\nto shew thee them. Observe, then, where God beginneth with conviction\nfor sin, and there begin thou with confession of it. Thus David\nbegan to confess, thus Daniel began to confess (2 Sam 12:7-14;\nDan 9:3-9).\n\nQ. What must I do when God hath shewed me any sin, to make right\nconfession thereof?--A. Thou must follow that conviction until it\nshall bring thee to the original and fountain of that sin, which\nis thine own heart (1 Kings 8:38; Psa 55:5).\n\nQ. Is my heart then the fountain and original of sin?--A. Yes;\n'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,\nadulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,\ndeceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.\nAll these evil things come from within, and defile the man' (Mark\n7:21,23).\n\nQ. When a man sees this, what will he think of himself?--A. Then\nhe will not only think but conclude, that he is an unclean\nthing, that his heart has deceived him, that it is most desperate\nand wicked, that it may not be trusted by any means, that every\nimagination and thought of his heart, naturally, is only evil,\nand that continually (Isa 64:6; Prov 28:26; Isa 44:20; Gen 6:5).\n\nQ. You have given me a very bad character of the heart, but how\nshall I know that it is so bad as you count it?--A. Both by the\ntext and by experience.\n\nQ. What do you mean by experience?--A. Keep thine eyes upon thy\nheart, and also upon God's word, and thou shalt see with thine own\neyes, the desperate wickedness that is in thine heart, for thou\nmust know sin by the law, that bidding, thee do one thing, and\nthy heart inclining to another (Rom 7:7-10).\n\nQ. May I thus then know my heart?--A. Yes, that is something of\nit, especially the carnality of thy mind, 'Because the carnal mind\nis enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God,\nneither indeed can be' (Rom 8:7).\n\nQ. Can you particularize some few things wherein the wickedness\nof the heart of man shews itself?--A. Yes; by its secret hankering\nafter sin, although the Word forbids it; by its deferring of\nrepentance; by its being weary of holy duties; by its aptness to\nforget God, by its studying to lessen and hide sin; by its feigning\nitself to be better than it is; by being glad when it can sin\nwithout being seen of men; by its hardening itself against the\nthreatenings and judgments of God; by its desperate inclinings\nto unbelief, atheism, and the like (Prov 1:24-26; Isa 43:22; Mal\n1:12,13; Ju 3:7; Jer 2:32; Psa 106:21; Hosea 2:13; Prov 30:20;\nJer 2:25; Rom 1:32, 2:5; Zeph 1:11-13).[12]\n\nQ. Is there any thing else to be done in order to a right confession\nof sin?--A. Yes: Let this conviction sink down into thy heart,\nthat God sees much more wickedness in thee than thou canst see in\nthyself. 'If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart,\nand knoweth all things' (1 John 3:20); besides, he hath set thy\nsecret sins in the light of his countenance (Psa 90:8).\n\nQ. Is there any thing else that must go to a right confession of\nsin?--A. Yes; In thy confessions thou must greaten and aggravate\nthy sin by all just circumstances.\n\nQ. How must I do that?--A. By considering against how much light\nand mercy thou hast sinned, against how much patience and forbearance\nthou hast sinned; also against what warnings and judgments thou\nhast sinned; and against how many of thine own vows, promises and\nengagements, thou hast sinned: these things heighten and aggravate\nsin (Ezra 9:10-14).\n\nQ. But what need I confess my sins to God, seeing he knows them\nalready?--A. Confession of sin is necessary, for many reasons.\n\nQ. Will you show me some of those reasons?--A. Yes; One is, by a\nsincere and hearty confession of sin thou acknowledgest God to be\nthy Sovereign Lord, and that he hath right to impose his law upon\nthee (Exo 20).\n\nQ. Can you show me another reason?--A. Yes; By confessing thy sin,\nthou subscribest to his righteous judgments that are pronounced\nagainst it (Psa 51:3,4).\n\nQ. Can you show me another reason?--A. Yes; By confessing of sin,\nthou showest how little thou deservest the least mercy from God.\n\nQ. Have you yet another reason why I should confess my sins?--A.\nYes; By so doing thou showest whether thy heart loves it, or hates\nit. He that heartily confesseth his sin, is like him who having\na thief or a traitor in his house, brings him out to condign\npunishment; but he that forbears to confess, is like him who\nhideth a thief or traitor against the laws and peace of our Lord\nthe King.\n\nQ. Give me one more reason why I should confess my sins to God?--A.\nHe that confesseth his sin, casteth himself at the feet of God's\nmercy, utterly condemns and casts away his own righteousness,\nconcludeth there is no way to stand just and acquit before God,\nbut by and through the righteousness of another; whether God is\nresolved to bring thee, if ever he saves thy soul (Psa 51:1-3; 1\nJohn 1:9; Phil 3:6-8).\n\nQ. What frame of heart should I be in when I confess my sins?--A.\nDo it HEARTILY, and to the best of thy power thoroughly. For to\nfeign, in this work, is abominable; to do it by the halves, is\nwickedness; to do it without sense of sin cannot be acceptable.\nAnd to confess it with the mouth, and to love it with the heart,\nis a lying unto God, and a provocation of the eyes of his glory.\n\nQ. What do you mean by feigning and dissembling in this work?--A.\nWhen men confess it, yet know not what it is; or if they think\nthey know it, do not conclude it so bad as it is; or when men ask\npardon of God, but do not see their need of pardon; this man must\nneeds dissemble.\n\nQ. What do you mean by doing it by the halves?--A. When men confess\nsome, but not all that they are convinced of; or if they confess\nall, yet labour in their confession to lessen it (Prov 28:13; Job\n31:33). Or when in their confession they turn not from all sin to\nGod, but from one sin to another (James 3:12). They turned, 'but\nnot to the most High,' none of them did exalt him (Hosea 7:16).\n\nQ. What is it to confess sin without the sense of sins?--A. To do\nit through custom, or tradition, when there is no guilt upon the\nconscience, now this cannot be acceptable.\n\nQ. What is it to confess it with the mouth and to love it with\nthe heart?--A. When men condemn it with their mouth, but refuse\nto let it go (Job 20:12,13; Jer 8:5); when 'with their mouth they\nshow much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness'\n(Eze 33:31).\n\nQ. But I asked you what frame of heart I should be in, in my\nconfessions?--A. I have showed you how you should not be. Well,\nI will show you now what frame of heart becomes you in your\nconfessions of sin. Labour by all means for a sense of the evil\nthat is in sin.\n\nQ. What evil is there in sin?--A. No man with tongue can express\nwhat may by the heart be felt of the evil of sin;[13] but this\nknow, it dishonoureth God (Rom 2:23). It provoketh him to wrath\n(Eph 5:5,6). It damneth the soul (2 Thess 2:12).\n\nQ. What else would you advise me to in this great work?--A. When\nwe confess sin, tears, shame, and brokenness of heart becomes us\n(Jer 50:4; Isa 22:12; Psa 51:17; Jer 31:19).\n\nQ. What else becomes me in my confessions of sin?--A. Great\ndetestation of sin, with unfeigned sighs and groans, that express\nthou dost it heartily (Job 42:6; Eze 9:4; Jer 31:9).\n\nQ. Is here all?--A. No; Tremble at the word of God; tremble at\nevery judgment, lest it overtake thee; tremble at every promise,\nlest thou shouldest miss thereof: for, saith God, 'To this man\nwill I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,\nand trembleth at my word' (Isa 66:2; Heb 4:1,2).\n\nQ. What if I cannot thus confess my sins?--A. Bewail the hardness\nof thy heart, keep close to the best preachers, remember that\nthou hangest over hell, by the weak thread of an uncertain life.\nAnd know, God counts it a great evil, not to be ashamed of, not\nto blush at sin (Isa 63:17; Jer 6:15, 8:12).\n\nQ. Are there no thanks to be rendered to God in confessions?--A.\nO Yes. Thank him that he hath let thee see thy sins, thank him\nthat he hath given thee time to acknowledge thy sins; thou mightest\nnow have been confessing in hell: thank him also that he hath so\nfar condescended as to hear the self-bemoaning sinner, and that\nhe hath promised, SURELY to have mercy upon such (Jer 31:18-20).\n\n\nOf Faith in Christ.\n\nQ. I am glad that you have instructed me into this part of the\nworship of God, I pray tell me also how else I should worship\nhim?--A. Thou must believe his word.\n\nQ. Is that worshipping of God?--A. Yes; 'After the way which they\ncall heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all\nthings which are written in the law and in the prophets,' &c.\n(Acts 24:14).\n\nQ. Why should believing be counted a part of God's worship?--A.\nBecause without faith it is impossible to please him (Heb 11:6).\n\nQ. Why not possible to please him without believing?--A. Because\nin all true worship, a man 'must believe that God is, and that he\nis a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' Besides, he that\nworships God, must also of necessity believe his word, else he\ncannot worship with that reverence and fear that becomes him, but\nwill do it in a superstitious profane manner: 'For whatsoever is\nnot of faith is sin' (Rom 14:23).\n\nQ. But do not all believe as you have said?--A. 'That which is\nborn of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit\nis Spirit' (John 3:6). And again 'the children of the flesh, these\nare not the children of God: but the children of the promise are\ncounted for the seed' (Rom 9:8).\n\nQ. What do you mean by that?--A. Thou must be born twice before\nthou canst truly believe once (John 3:3,5).\n\nQ. How do you prove that?--A. Because believing is a christian\nact, and none are true Christians but those that are born again.\nBut I mean by believing, believing unto salvation.\n\nQ. Can you prove this?--A. Yes. They that believe in the name of\nChrist are such which are born 'not of blood, nor of the will of\nthe flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God' (John 1:13).\n\nQ. What is believing?--A. It is such an act of a gracious soul,\nas layeth hold on God's mercy through Christ (Acts 15:11).\n\nQ. Why do you call it an act of a gracious soul?--A. Because their\nminds are disposed that way, by 'the power of the Holy Ghost' (Rom\n15:13).\n\nQ. If such a poor sinner as I am would be saved from the wrath\nto come, how must I believe?--A. Thy first question should be on\nwhom must I believe? (John 9:35,36).\n\nQ. On whom then must I believe?--A. On the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts\n16:31).\n\nQ. Who is Jesus Christ that I might believe in him?--A. He is the\nonly begotten Son of God (John 3:16).\n\nQ. Why must I believe on him?--A. Because he is the Saviour of\nthe world (2 Peter 1:1; 1 John 4:14).\n\nQ. How is he the Saviour of the world?--A. By the Father's designation\nand sending: 'For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn\nthe world, but that the world through him might be saved' (John\n3:17).\n\nQ. How did he come into the world?--A. In man's flesh, in which\nflesh he fulfilled the law, died for our sins, conquered the devil\nand death, and obtained eternal redemption for us (Gal 4:4; Rom\n10:4, 8:3; Heb 2:14,15, 6:20).\n\nQ. But is there no other way to be saved but by believing in Jesus\nChrist?--A. 'There is none other name under heaven, given among\nmen, whereby we must be saved' (Acts 4:12); and therefore 'he that\nbelieveth not, shall be damned' (Mark 16:16; John 3:18,36).\n\nQ. What is believing on Jesus Christ?--A. It is a receiving of\nhim with what is in him, as the gift of God to thee a sinner (John\n1:12).\n\nQ. What is in Jesus Christ to encourage me to receive him?--A.\nInfinite righteousness to justify thee, and the Spirit without\nmeasure to sanctify thee (Isa 45:24,25; Dan 9:24; Phil 3:7-9; John\n3:34).\n\nQ. Is this made mine if I receive Christ?--A. Yes; If thou receive\nhim as God offereth him to thee (John 3:16).\n\nQ. How doth God offer him to me?--A. Even as a rich man freely\noffereth an alms to a beggar, and so must thou receive him (John\n6:32-35).\n\nQ. Hath he indeed made amends for sin? and would he indeed have me\naccept of what he hath done?--A. That he hath made amends for sin\nit is evident, because God, for Christ's sake, forgiveth thee. And\nit is as evident that he would have thee accept thereof, because\nhe offereth it to thee, and hath sworn to give thee the utmost\nbenefit, to wit, eternal life, if thou dost receive it; yea, and\nhath threatened thee with eternal damnation, if, after all this,\nthou shalt neglect so great salvation (Eph 4:32; Rom 3:24; Matt\n28:18-20; Acts 13:32-39; Heb 6:17,18, 2:3; Mark 16:16).\n\nQ. But how must I be qualified before I shall dare to believe in\nChrist?--A. Come sensible of thy sins, and of the wrath of God\ndue unto them, for thus thou art bid to come (Matt 11:28).\n\nQ. Did ever any come thus to Christ?--A. David came thus (Psa\n51:1-3); Paul and the jailor came thus (Acts 9:6, 16:30); also\nChrist's murderers came thus (Acts 2:37).\n\nQ. But doth it not seem most reasonable that we should first mend\nand be good?--A. The 'whole have no need of the physician, but\nthey that are sick'; Christ came 'not to call the righteous, but\nsinners to repentance' (Mark 2:17).\n\nQ. But is it not the best way, if one can, to mend first?--A. This\nis just as if a sick man should say, Is it not best for me to be\nwell before I go to the physician; or as if a wounded man should\nsay, When I am cured I will lay on the plaster.[14]\n\nQ. But when a poor creature sees its vileness, it is afraid to\ncome to Christ, is it not?--A. Yes; but without ground, for he\nhath said, 'Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong,\nfear not': and 'to this man will I look, even to him that is poor\nand of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word' (Isa 35:4,\n66:2).\n\nQ. What encouragement can be given us thus to come?--A. The prodigal\ncame thus, and his father received him, and fell upon his neck\nand kissed him (Luke 15). Thus he received the Colossians, and\nconsequently all that are saved (Col 2:13).\n\nQ. Will you give me one more encouragement?--A. The promises are\nso worded, that they that are scarlet sinners, crimson sinners,\nblasphemous sinners, have encouragement to come to him with hopes of\nlife (Isa 1:18; Mark 3:28; John 6:37; Luke 24:42,43; Acts 13:26).\n\nQ. Shall every one that believeth be saved?--A. If they believe\nas the Scriptures have said, if the Scriptures be fulfilled in\ntheir believing (John 7:38; James 2:23).\n\nQ. What do you mean by that?--A. When faith, which a man saith\nhe hath, proveth itself to be of the right kind by its acts and\noperations in the mind of a poor sinner (James 2:19-23).\n\nQ. Why, are there many kinds of faith?--A. Yes. There is a faith\nthat will stand with a heart as hard as a rock; a short-winded\nfaith, which dureth for a while, and in time of temptation such\nfall away (Luke 8:13).\n\nQ. Is there any other kind of faith?--A. Yes. There is a faith that\nhath no more life in it than hath the body of a dead man (James\n2:26).\n\nQ. Is there yet another of these unprofitable faiths?--A. Yes. There\nis a faith that is of ourselves, and not of the special grace of\nGod (Eph 2:8).\n\nQ. Tell me if there be yet another?--A. There is a faith that\nstandeth 'in the wisdom of men,' and not 'in the power of God' (1\nCor 2:5).\n\nQ. Is here all?--A. No. There is a faith that seems to be holy,\nbut it will not do, because it is not the most holy faith (2 Peter\n2:9; Jude 20).\n\nQ. Alas! if there be so many kinds of faith that will not profit\nto salvation, how easy is it for me to be deceived?--A. It is easy\nindeed, and therefore the Holy Ghost doth in this thing so often\ncaution us, 'Be not deceived' (1 Cor 6:9). 'Let no man deceive\nyou' (Eph 5:6), and 'If a man think himself to be something when\nhe is nothing, he deceiveth himself' (Gal 6:3).\n\nQ. But is there no way to distinguish the right faith from that\nwhich is wrong?--A. Yes; and that by the manner of its coming and\noperation.\n\nQ. What do you mean by the manner of its coming?--A. Nay, you must\nmake two questions of this one; that is, what is it for faith to\ncome, and in what manner doth it come?\n\nQ. Well then, what is it for faith to come?--A. This word, faith\ncomes, supposeth thou wert once without it; it also supposeth that\nthou didst not fetch it whence it was; it also supposeth it hath\na way of coming (Gal 3:23-25).\n\nQ. That I was once without it, you intimated before, but must I\ntake it without proof for granted?--A. I will give you a proof or\ntwo: 'God hath concluded them all in unbelief' (Rom 11:32). And\nagain it is said, 'faith cometh' (Rom 10:17). And again, the Holy\nGhost insinuateth our estate to be dreadful 'before faith came'\n(Gal 3:23).\n\nQ. Why, how is it with men, before faith comes?--A. Without faith,\nor before faith comes, it is impossible to please God, for whether\ntheir actions be civil or religious, they sin in all they do. The\nsacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, and the ploughing of\nthe wicked is sin (Prov 21:4,27).\n\nQ. Is not this a very sad condition?--A. Yes; but this is not all,\nfor their present unbelief bindeth them over to wrath, by shutting\nthem up to the law; it also draweth them away from God, and will\ndrown them in everlasting damnation, if the grace of God prevent\nnot (Gal 3:23; Heb 3:17,18; John 3:36).\n\nQ. What if a man saw himself in this condition?--A. There are many\nsee themselves in this condition.\n\nQ. How came they to see it?--A. By the preaching and hearing the\nWord of God (John 16:8,9).\n\nQ. And what do such think of themselves?--A. They do not only\nthink, but know that in this condition they are 'without Christ,\nwithout hope, and without God in the world' (Eph 2:12).\n\nQ. Are not they happy that see not themselves in this condition?--A.\nYes. If they have seen themselves delivered therefrom by a work\nof faith in their souls, else not.\n\nQ. How do you mean?--A. I mean if they have seen themselves delivered\nfrom this state, by being by the Word and Spirit of God implanted\ninto the faith of Christ (Rom 11:17-19).\n\nQ. Are not they happy that are never troubled with this sad sight\nof their condition?--A. They are just so happy as is that man\nwho lieth fast asleep in his house while it is on fire about his\nears. Can a man be happy, that is ignorant that he is without God\nand Christ, and hope? Can a man be happy that is ignorant that\nhe is hanging over hell by the poor weak thread of an uncertain\nlife? For this is the state of such an one.[15]\n\nQ. But may not faith come to a man without he see himself to be\nfirst in this condition?--A. It is God's ordinary way to convince\nmen of this their sad condition before he revealeth to them the\nrighteousness of faith, or work faith in them to lay hold of that\nrighteousness (John 16:9-11; Gal 3:23-25).\n\nQ. How then do you conclude of them that never saw themselves\nshut up by unbelief under sin and the curse of God?--A. I will not\njudge them for the future, God may convert them before they die;\nbut at present their state is miserable: for because they are\nshut up and held prisoners by the law, by their lusts, and by the\ndevil, and unbelief; therefore they cannot so much as with their\nhearts desire that God would have mercy upon them, and bring them\nout of their snares and chains.\n\nQ. Then do you count it better for a man to see his condition by\nnature than to be ignorant thereof?--A. Better a thousand times\nto see it in this world than to see it in hell fire, for he must\nsee it there or here: now if he sees it here, this is the place\nof prayer; here is the preaching of the word, which is God's\nordinance, to beget faith. Besides, here God applieth promises\nof mercy to the desolate, and Christ also hath protested that he\nthat cometh to him he 'will in no wise cast out' (John 6:37).\n\nQ. I am convinced that I was once without faith, and also that I\ncannot fetch it, but pray tell me the way of its coming?--A. 'Faith\ncometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Rom 10:17).\n\nQ. How by hearing?--A. God mixeth it with the Word when he absolutely\nintendeth the salvation of the sinner (Heb 4:2; Acts 13:48).\n\nQ. And how do men hear when faith is mixed with the Word?--A. They\nhear the Word, 'not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the\nWord of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe'\n(1 Thess 2:13).\n\nQ. Pray tell me now the manner of its coming?--A. It comes through\ndifficulty, it comes gradually.\n\nQ. What are the difficulties which oppose it at its coming?--A.\nSense of unworthiness, guilt of conscience, natural reason,\nunbelief, and arguments forged in hell, and thence suggested by\nthe devil into the heart against it (Luke 5:8; Mark 9:24; Isa 6:5;\nRom 4:18-21).\n\nQ. How doth faith come gradually?--A. Perhaps at first it is but\nlike a grain of mustard-seed, small, and weak (Matt 17:20).\n\nQ. Will you explain it further?--A. Faith, at first, perhaps may\nhave its excellency lie in view only, that is, in seeing where\njustification and salvation is; after that it may step a degree\nhigher, and be able to say, it may be, or who can tell but I may\nobtain this salvation? again, it may perhaps go yet a step higher\nand arrive to some short and transient assurance (Heb 11:13; Joel\n2:13,14; Zeph 2:3; Psa 30:7).[16]\n\nQ. But doth faith come only by hearing?--A. It is usually begotten\nby the word preached, but after it is begotten, it is increased\nseveral ways. It is increased by prayer (Luke 17:5; Mark 9:24). It\nis increased by christian conference (Rom 1:12). It is increased\nby reading (Rom 16:25,26). It is increased by meditation (1 Tim\n4:12-16). It is increased by the remembrance of former experiences\n(Matt 16:8,9).\n\nQ. What do these things teach us?--A. They teach us, that the men\nof this world are very ignorant of, and as much without desire\nafter faith: they neither hear, nor pray, confer, nor read, nor\nmeditate for the sake of faith.\n\nQ. But you said even now, that this faith was distinguished from\nthat which profiteth not to salvation, as by the manner of its\ncoming, so by its operation: pray what is its operation?--A. It\ncauseth the soul to see in the light thereof, that there is no\nrighteousness in this world that can save the sinner (Isa 64:6).\n\nQ. How doth it give the soul this sight?--A. By giving him to\nunderstand the law, and his own inability to fulfil it (Gal 2:16).\n\nQ. And doth it always shew the soul where justifying righteousness\nis?--A. Yes. It shews that justifying righteousness is only to be\nfound in the Lord Jesus Christ, in what he hath done and suffered\nin the flesh (Isa 45:24,25; Phil 3:3-9).\n\nQ. How doth faith find this righteousness in Christ?--A. By the\nword, which is therefore called the word of faith, because faith,\nby that, findeth sufficient righteousness in him (Rom 10:6-9).\n\nQ. How else doth it operate in the soul?--A. It applieth this\nrighteousness to the sinner, and also helps him to embrace it (Rom\n3:21,22; 1 Cor 1:30; Gal 2:20).\n\nQ. How else doth it operate?--A. By this application of Christ,\nthe soul is quickened to life, spiritualized and made heavenly. For\nright faith quickeneth to spiritual life, purifies and sanctifies\nthe heart; and worketh up the man that hath it, into the image of\nJesus Christ (Col 2:12,13; Acts 15:9, 26:18; 2 Cor 3:18).\n\nQ. How else doth it operate?--A. It giveth the soul peace with\nGod through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1).\n\nQ. Surely Christ is of great esteem with them that have this\nfaith in him, is he not?--A. Yes, Yes. Unto them therefore which\nbelieve he is precious, precious in his person, precious in his\nundertakings, precious in his Word (1 Peter 2:7, 1:18,19; 2 Peter\n1:3,4).\n\nQ. Can these people then, that have this faith, endure to have\nthis Christ spoken against?--A. O! No! This is a sword in their\nbones, and a burden that they cannot bear (Psa 42:10; Zeph 3:19).[17]\n\nQ. Doth it not go near them when they see his ways and people\ndiscountenanced?--A. Yes; and they also choose rather to be despised\nand persecuted with them, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for\na season (Heb 11:24,25).\n\nQ. Do they not pray much for his second coming?--A. Yes, yes;\nthey would fain see him on this side the clouds of heaven, their\n'conversation is in heaven, from whence also they look for the\nSaviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil 3:20).\n\nQ. And do they live in this world as if he were to come presently?--A.\nYes; for his coming will be glorious and dreadful, full of mercy\nand judgment. 'The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the\nnight; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,\nand the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and\nthe works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that\nall these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought\nwe to be in all holy conversation and godliness' (2 Peter 3:10,11).\n\n\nOf Prayer.\n\nQ. Well, I am glad that you have shewed me that I must worship\nGod by confession of sin, and faith in Jesus Christ: Is there any\nother thing a part of the true worship of God?--A. Yes, several;\nI will mention only two more at this time.\n\nQ. What are they?--A. Prayer and self-denial.\n\nQ. Is prayer then a part of the worship of God?--A. Yes; a great\npart of it.\n\nQ. How do you prove that?--A. 'O come let us worship and bow down:\nlet us kneel before the Lord our maker' (Psa 95:6).\n\nQ. Is there another scripture proves it?--A. Yes; 'Then came she\nand worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me' (Matt 15:25).\n\nQ. What is prayer?--A. A sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring\nout of the soul to God in the name of Christ for what God hath\npromised (Prov 15:8; Jer 31:18,19; Psa 42:2-5; John 14:13,14; 1\nJohn 5:14).\n\nQ. Doth not every body pray?--A. No; 'The wicked, through the\npride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in\nall his thoughts' (Psa 10:4).\n\nQ. What will become of them that do not pray?--A. They do not\nworship God, and he will destroy them; 'Pour out thy fury [said\nthe prophet] upon the heathen,--and upon the families that call\nnot on thy name' (Jer 10:25; Psa 79:6).\n\nQ. But seeing God knoweth what we want, why doth he not give us\nwhat we need, without praying?--A. His counsel and wisdom leadeth\nhim otherwise. 'Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be\nenquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them' (Eze 36:37).\n\nQ. Why will God have us pray?--A. Because he would be acknowledged\nby thee, that he is above thee, and therefore would have thee come\nto him as the mean come to the mighty. Thus Abraham came unto him\n(Gen 18:27,30).\n\nQ. Is there another reason why I should pray?--A. Yes. For by prayer\nthou acknowledgest, that help is not in thine own power (2 Chron\n20:6,12).\n\nQ. What reason else have you why I should pray?--A. By prayer thou\nconfessest that help is only in him (Psa 62:1).\n\nQ. What other reason have you?--A. By prayer thou confessest thou\ncanst not live without his grace and mercy (Matt 14:30; Heb 4:16).\n\nQ. Are all that pray heard of the Lord?--A. No; 'They looked,'\nthat is prayed, 'but there was none to save; even unto the Lord,\nbut he answered them not' (2 Sam 22:42).\n\nQ. To what doth God compare the prayers which he refuseth to\nanswer?--A. He compareth them to the howling of a dog (Hosea 7:14).\n\nQ. Who be they whose prayers God will not answer?--A. Theirs, who\nthink to be heard for their much speaking, and vain repetition\n(Matt 6:7).\n\nQ. Is there any other whose prayer God refuseth?--A. Yes; There\nare that ask and have not, because what they ask, they would spend\nupon their lusts (James 4:3).\n\nQ. Is there any other whose prayer God refuseth?--A. Yes; 'If I\nregard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me' (Psa\n66:18).[18]\n\nQ. Is the regarding of sin in our heart such a deadly hinderance\nto prayer?--A. 'Son of man,' saith God, 'these men have set up\ntheir idols in their heart, and have put the stumblingblock of\ntheir iniquity before their face; should I be enquired of at all\nby them? I will set my face against that man, and will make him\na sign and a proverb. And I will cut him off from the midst of my\npeople' (Eze 14:3,8).\n\nQ. Whose prayers be they that God will hear?--A. The prayers of\nthe poor and needy (Psa 34:6; Isa 41:17).\n\nQ. What do you mean by the poor?--A. Such as have poverty in spirit\n(Matt 5:3).\n\nQ. Who are they that are poor in spirit?--A. They that are sensible\nof the want and necessity of all those things of God, that prepare\na man to the kingdom of heaven.\n\nQ. What things are they?--A. Faith, hope, love, joy, peace, a new\nheart, the Holy Ghost, sanctification. See James 2:5; 2 Thessalonians\n2:16; Ezekiel 36:26,27.\n\nQ. What do you mean by the needy?--A. Those whose souls long and\ncannot be satisfied without the enjoyment of these blessed things\n(Psa 63:1, 119:20).\n\nQ. Will God hear the prayers of such?--A. Yes; 'For he satisfieth\nthe longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness' (Psa\n107:9).\n\nQ. How shall I know that I am one of those to whom God will give\nthese things?--A. If thou seest a beauty in them beyond the beauty\nof all other things (Psa 110:3).\n\nQ. How else shall I know [that] he heareth me?--A. If thou desirest\nthem for their beauty's sake (Psa 90:14,17).\n\nQ. How else should I know I shall have them?--A. When thy groanings\nafter them are beyond expression (Rom 8:26).[19]\n\nQ. How else should I know, and so be encouraged to pray?--A.\nWhen thou followest hard after God in all his ordinances for the\nobtaining of them (Isa 4:1,3, 64:5).\n\nQ. How else should I know?--A. When thou makest good use of that\nlittle thou hast already (Rev 3:8).\n\nQ. Are here all the good signs that my prayers shall be heard?--A.\nNo; there is one more without which thou shalt never obtain.\n\nQ. Pray what is that?--A. Thou must plead with God, the name and\nmerits of Jesus Christ, for whose sake only God giveth thee\nthese things. If we ask any thing in his name, he heareth us, and\nwhatsoever you ask the Father in my name, saith Christ I will do\nit (John 14:13,14).\n\nQ. Doth God always answer presently?--A. Sometimes he doth, and\nsometimes he doth not (Isa 30:19; Dan 10:12).\n\nQ. Is not God's deferring, a sign of his anger?--A. Sometimes it\nis not, and sometimes it is.\n\nQ. When is it no sign of his anger?--A. When we have not wickedly\ndeparted from him by our sins (Luke 18:7).\n\nQ. When is it a sign of his anger?--A. When we have backslidden,\nwhen we have not repented some former miscarriages (Hosea 5:14,15).\n\nQ. Why doth God defer to hear their prayers that hath not wickedly\ndeparted from him?--A. He loves to hear their voice, to try their\nfaith, to see their importunity, and to observe how they can\nwrestle with him for a blessing (Cant 2:14; Matt 15:22-28; Luke\n11:5-8; Gen 32:25-28).\n\nQ. But is not deferring to answer prayer a great discouragement to\npraying?--A. Though it is, because of our unbelief, yet it ought\nnot, because God is faithful. Therefore 'men ought always to pray,\nand not to faint' (Luke 18:1-8).[20]\n\n\nOf Self-Denial.\n\nQ. I am glad you have thus far granted my request: but you told\nme that there was another part of God's worship; pray repeat that\nagain?--A. It is self-denial.\n\nQ. Now I remember it well; pray how do you prove that self-denial\nis called a part of God's worship?--A. It is said of Abraham,\nthat when he went to offer up his son Isaac upon the altar for a\nburnt-offering, which was to him a very great part of self-denial,\nthat he counted that act of his worshipping God.\n\nQ. Will you be pleased to read the text?--A. Yes; 'And Abraham\nsaid unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and\nthe lad will go yonder and worship,' &c. This now was when he was\na-going to slay Isaac (Gen 22:5).\n\nQ. What is self-denial?--A. It is for a man to forsake his ALL,\nfor the sake of Jesus Christ.\n\nQ. Will you prove this by a scripture or two?--A. Yes; 'Whosoever\nhe be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my\ndisciple' (Luke 14:33).\n\nQ. Indeed this is a full place, can you give me one more?--A. Yes;\n'What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea,\ndoubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of\nthe knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered\nthe loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may\nwin Christ,' &c. (Phil 3:7,8).\n\nQ. These two are indeed a sufficient answer to my question; but pray\nwill you now give me some particular instances of the self-denial\nof them that have heretofore been the followers of Christ?--A.\nYes; Abel denied himself to the losing of his blood (Gen 4:8).\nAbraham denied himself to the losing of his country and his\nfather's house (Gen 12:1-4). Moses denied himself of a crown and\na kingdom, and of ease and tranquility (Heb 11:24-27). Joseph\ndenied himself of fleshly lusts (Gen 39:7-9).\n\nQ. But these men each of them denied themselves but of some things,\ndid they?--A. You see Abel lost all, his blood and all; Abraham\nlost his country to the hazard of his life (Gen 12:13). So did\nMoses in leaving the crown and kingdom (Heb 11:27). And Joseph in\ndenying his mistress (Gen 39:10-15).\n\nQ. Will you discourse a little particularly of self-denial?--A.\nWith all my heart.\n\nQ. First then, pray in what spirit must this self-denial be\nperformed?--A. It must be done in the spirit of faith, of love,\nand of a sound mind. Otherwise, if a man should sell all that he\nhath and give to the poor, and his body to be burnt besides, it\nwould profit him nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3).\n\nQ. Who are like to miscarry here?--A. They whose ends in self-denial\nare not according to the proposals of the gospel.\n\nQ. Who are they?--A. They that suffer through strife and vain-glory;\nor thus, they who seek in their sufferings the praise of men more\nthan the glory of Christ, and profit of their neighbour.\n\nQ. Who else are like to miscarry here?--A. They that have designs\nlike Ziba to ingratiate themselves by their pretended self-denial\ninto the affections of the godly, and to enrich themselves by this\nmeans (2 Sam 16:1-4).\n\nQ. Are there any other like to miscarry here?--A. Yes. They that\nby denying themselves think with the Pharisee, to make themselves\nstand more righteous in God's eyes than others (Luke 18:11,12).\n\nQ. Who else are in danger of miscarrying here?--A. They who have\nfainted in their works, they whose self-denial hath at last been\novercome by self-love (Gal 3:4, 6:9).\n\nQ. Shall I propound a few more questions?--A. If you please.\n\nQ. What then if a man promiseth to deny himself hereafter and not\nnow, is not this one step to this kind of worship?--A. No, by no\nmeans; for the reason why this man refuseth to deny himself now,\nis because his heart at present sticks closer to his lusts and\nthe world, than to God and Christ.[21]\n\nQ. Can you give me a Scripture instance to make this out?--A.\nYes; Esau never intended for ever to part with the blessing, he\nintended to have it hereafter; but God counted his not choosing\nof it at present, a despising of it, and a preferring of his lusts\nbefore it: and therefore when he would, God would not, but reject\nboth him and his tears (Gen 25:30-34; Heb 12:14-16).\n\nQ. How and if a man shall say thus, I am willing to deny myself\nin many things, though he cannot deny himself in all, is not this\none step in this part of this worship of God?--A. No, in no wise;\nfor this man doth, just like Saul, he will slay a part, and will\nkeep a part alive; the kingdom must be taken from him also (1 Sam\n15).\n\nQ. How if a man he willing to lose all but his life?--A. He that\n'will save his life shall lose it,' but he that 'will lose his\nlife for my sake,' saith Christ, 'shall keep it unto life eternal'\n(Matt 16:25; John 12:25).\n\nQ. How if a man has been willing to lose all that he hath, but\nis not now, will not God accept of his willingness in time past,\nthough he be otherwise now?--A. No; for the true disciple must\ndeny himself daily, take up his cross daily, and go after Jesus\nChrist (Luke 9:23).\n\nQ. But how if a man carrieth it well outwardly, so that he doth\nnot dishonour the gospel before men, may not this be counted\nself-denial?--A. No, if he be not right at heart; for though man\nlooketh on the outward appearance, God looketh at the heart (1\nSam 16:7).\n\nQ. But if I be afraid my heart may deceive me in this great work,\nif hard things come upon me hereafter, is there no way to find\nout whether it will deceive me then or no?--A. I will give you a\nfew answers to this question, and will shew you first whose heart\nis like to deceive him in this work.\n\nQ. Will you befriend me so much?--A. Yes. 1. He that makes not\ndaily conscience of self-denial, is very unlike to abide a disciple\nfor times to come, if difficult. Judas did not deny himself daily,\nand therefore fell when the temptation came (John 12:6).\n\nQ. Will you give me another sign?--A. Yes. He that indulgeth any\none secret lust under a profession, is not like to deny himself\nin all things for Christ.\n\nQ. Who are they that indulge their lusts?--A. They that make\nprovision for them, either in apparel, or diet, or otherwise (Rom\n13:12-14; Isa 3:6-24; Amos 6:3-6).\n\nQ. Who else do so?--A. They that excuse their sins, and keep them\ndisguised that they may not be reprehended, as Saul did, &c. (1\nSam 15:18-22).\n\nQ. Who else are they that indulge their lusts?--A. They that heap\nup to themselves such teachers as favour their lusts (2 Tim 4:3,4;\nIsa 30:10).\n\nQ. Who else do indulge their sins?--A. They that choose rather to\nwalk by the imperfect lives of professors than by the holy Word of\nGod: or thus, they that make the miscarriages of some good men an\nencouragement unto themselves to forbear to be exact in self-denial,\nthese eat up the sins of God's people as men eat bread (Hosea\n4:7-9).\n\nQ. Will you now shew me who are like to do this part of God's\nworship acceptably?--A. Yes; he whose heart is set against sin as\nsin, is like to deny himself acceptably (Rom 7:13,14).\n\nQ. Who else?--A. He that hath the sense and savour of forgiveness\nof sins upon his heart (2 Cor 5:14).\n\nQ. Who else is like to deny himself well?--A. He that hath his\naffections set upon things above, where Christ sitteth at the\nright hand of God (Col 3:1-5).\n\nQ. Who else is like to deny himself well for Christ?--A. He that\nseeth a greater treasure in self-denial, than in self-seeking (2\nCor 12:9-11; Heb 11:24-26).\n\nQ. Are there none other signs of one that is like to do this part\nof God's worship acceptably?--A. Yes; he that takes up his cross\ndaily, and makes Christ's doctrine his example (Luke 6:47,48; John\n12:25,26).\n\nQ. But how do you discover a man to be such a one?--A. He keepeth\nthis heart with all diligence, he had rather die than sin; ill\ncarriages of professors break his heart, nothing is so dear to\nhim as the glory of Christ (Prov 4:23; Num 11:15; Phil 3:18; Acts\n20:24).[22]\n\nQ. Pray, can yo give me some motive to self-denial?--A. Yes; the\nLord Jesus denied himself for thee; what sayest thou to that?\n\nQ. Wherein did Christ deny himself for me?--A. He left his heaven\nfor thee, he denied for thy sake to have so much of this world\nas hath a fox or a bird, and he spilt his most precious blood for\nthee (John 6:38; Luke 9:58; 2 Cor 8:9; Rev 1:5).\n\nQ. Can you give another motive to self-denial?--A. Yes; 'What shall\nit profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his\nown soul?' (Mark 8:36).\n\nQ. But why doth God require self-denial of them that will be\nsaved?--A. God doth not require self-denial as the means to obtain\nsalvation, but hath laid it down as a proof of the truth of a\nman's affections to God and Christ.\n\nQ. How is self-denial a proof of the truth of a man's affections\nto God?--A. In that for the sake of his service, he leaveth all\nhis enjoyments in this world. Thus he proved Abraham's affections\n(Gen 22:12). Thus he proved Peter's affections (Matt 4:18-22)\nand thus he proved their affection that you read of in the gospel\n(Luke 9:57-73).\n\nQ. What reason else can you produce why God requireth self-denial?--A.\nSelf-denial is one of the distinguishing characters by which true\nChristians are manifested from the feigned ones: for those that\nare feigned, flatter God with their mouths, but their hearts seek\nthemselves; but the sincere, for the love that he hath to Christ,\nforsaketh all that he hath for his sake (Psa 78:36,37; Eze\n33:31,32).[23]\n\nQ. Is there yet another reason why God requireth self-denial of\nthem that profess his name?--A. Yes; because by self-denial the\npower and goodness of the truths of God are made manifest to the\nincredulous world. For they cannot see but by the self-denial\nof God's people, that there is such power, glory, goodness, and\ndesirableness in God's truth as indeed there is (Dan 3:16,28; Phil\n1:12,13).\n\nQ. Have you another reason why God requireth self-denial?--A. Yes;\nbecause self-denial prepareth a man, though not for the pardon\nof his sin, yet for that far more exceeding and eternal weight\nof glory, that is laid up only for them that deny all that they\nhave for the Lord Jesus, his name, and cause in this world (2 Cor\n4:8-10,17; 2 Thess 1:5,6).\n\nQ. Before you conclude, will you give me a few instances of the\nseverity of God's hand upon some professors, that have not denied\nthemselves when called thereto by him?--A. Yes, willingly; Lot's\nwife for but looking behind her towards Sodom, when God called\nher from it, was stricken from heaven, and turned into a pillar\nof salt; therefore remember Lot's wife (Gen 19:17,26; Luke 17:31,32).\n\nQ. Can you give me another instance?--A. Yes; Esau for not denying\nhimself of one morsel of meat was denied a share in the blessing,\nand could never obtain it after, though he sought it carefully\nwith tears (Gen 25:32-34; Heb 12:16,17).\n\nQ. Have you at hand another instance?--A. Yes; Judas for not denying\nhimself, lost Christ, his soul, and heaven: and is continued the\ngreat object of God's wrath among all damned souls (John 12:5,6;\nLuke 22:3-6; Matt 26:14-16; Acts 1:25).\n\nQ. Will you give me one more instance, and so conclude?--A. Yes;\nAnanias and Sapphira his wife, did for the want of self-denial,\npull upon themselves such wrath of God, that he slew them, while\nthey stood in the midst before the apostles (Acts 5:1-11).\n\n\nThe Conclusion.\n\nBefore I wind up this discourse, I would lay down these few things\nfor you to consider of, and meditate upon.\n\nI. Consider, that seeing every one by nature are accounted sinners;\nit is no matter whether thy actual sins be little or great, few\nor many, thy sinful nature hath already lain thee under the curse\nof the law.\n\nII. Consider, That therefore thou hast already ground for humiliation,\nsins to repent of, wrath to fly from, or a soul to be damned.\n\nIII. Consider, That time stays not for thee, and also that as\ntime goes, sin increaseth; so that at last the end of thy time,\nand the completing of thy sin, are like to come upon thee in one\nmoment.\n\nIV. Bring thy last day often to thy bedside, and ask thy heart,\nif this morning thou wast to die, if thou be ready to die or no.\n\nV. Know it is a sad thing to lie a dying, and to be afraid to\ndie; to lie a dying and not to know whither thou art going; to lie\na dying, and not to know whether good angels or bad must conduct\nthee out of this miserable world.\n\nVI. Be often remembering what a blessed thing it is to be saved,\nto go to heaven, to be made like angels, and to dwell with God\nand Christ to all eternity.\n\nVII. Consider how sweet the thought of salvation will be to thee\nwhen thou seest thyself in heaven, whilst others are roaring in\nhell.[24]\n\nThe Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. How awful the thought that persons should sit under so faithful\nand searching a ministry, and still remain in their sins. Is it\nso to the present day under a faithful ministry? then, Oh my soul,\nhow is it with thee?--Ed.\n\n2. A painful recollection of his long and cruel imprisonment for\nconscience sake led Bunyan to feel the value of liberty. Still he\nforcibly appeals to his reader on the necessity of private judgment\nin divine things. His twelve years' converse with God and his\nword in prison had confirmed his principles; while divine love\nhad swallowed up the fear of man.--Ed.\n\n3. Faith is the only principle that, by the power of the Holy Ghost,\ncan purify the heart. It leads the soul into holy communion with\na pure and holy God, and thus cleanses the heart.--Ed.\n\n4. All mankind, as born into the world, show, as soon as the mental\npowers open, aversion to God, to his purity, his law, his gospel;\nthe doctrines of grace and the work of the Spirit upon the heart.\nA solemn proof of the universal taint given by original sin.--Ed.\n\n5. By the word 'public' is to be understood a federal head, or the\nrepresentative of all his posterity. Adam's faith can only save\nhis own soul; his sin taints all his seed.--Ed.\n\n6. A state of hostility to God plunges the soul into mental darkness,\nrage, horror, anguish, despair, and endless and unutterable\nmisery and woe. How ought we to love the Lord Jesus for his GREAT\nsalvation!--Ed.\n\n7. It is a very modern custom to have the place of execution within\na city--formerly they were always without--their position being\nstill noted by the name 'Gallow Knowe,' the knoll or mound of the\ngallows; 'Gallowgate,' the gate or way leading to the gallows;\nand so on. Happily for the well-being of society, these exhibitions\nare less frequent than they formerly were.\n\n8. 'That servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not\nhimself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with\nmany stripes' (Luke 12:47)--Ed.\n\n9. Which is the greatest sinner; he who invents scandal, or he who\nencourages the inventor to retail it? If there were no receivers,\nthere would be no thieves.--Ed.\n\n10. The terms in which this question is put, shows that the little\nchildren here intended were capable of repentance and faith. That\nBunyan believed, as Toplady did, the salvation of all that die in\ninfancy by the atonement of Christ, there can be no doubt. 'In my\nremarks on Dr. Rowell, I testified my firm belief that the souls\nof all departed infants are with God in glory.' See the Introduction\nto Toplady's Historic Proof.--Ed.\n\n11. The knowledge of ourselves as vile and abominable, hopeless\nand helpless, is an essential step towards our recovery. The next\nstep that leads to heaven, and lands us there, is to 'know the\nonly true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,' as revealed in\nthe word of truth. 'This is eternal life.'--Ed.\n\n12. The unrenewed heart is the sink of sin, the fountain of pollution.\n'Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,\nfornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these defile a\nman.' Create in us a clean heart, O God!--Ed.\n\n13. No poor soul was more severely visited with these feelings\nthan Bunyan. 'Now I beheld the condition of the dog and toad; and\ncounted the state of every thing that God had made far better than\nthis state of mine.'--Grace Abounding, No. 104.--Ed.\n\n14. How pointed and forcible is this illustration of the absurdity\nof neglecting the Physician of souls, when the malady of sin is\nfelt. The more desperate our disease, the faster we should fly to\nChrist for cure.--Ed.\n\n15. The awful condition of the unconverted consists in their being\nin a state of separation from God, insensible of that dismal state,\nutterly unable to extricate themselves out of it, and loathsome\nto God while they continue in it. Reader, do you recollect when\nthis was your state; if not, what hope is there that you have\npassed from death unto life?--Ed.\n\n16. The operation of faith is by steps. 'To open their eyes,' 'to\nturn them from darkness to light,' 'from power of Satan to God,'\n'forgiveness of sins,' 'the heavenly inheritance' (Acts 26:18).--Ed.\n\n17. Under a fear lest he had spoken against Christ, Bunyan thus\nexpresses his misery; 'I fell into a very deep pause about the\nmost fearful state my sin had brought me to; and, lifting up my\nhead, I saw as if the sun did grudge to give me light, and as if\nthe very stones in the street, and tiles upon the houses, did bend\nthemselves against me.'--Grace Abounding, No. 186.--Ed.\n\n18. 'The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord;\nbut the prayer of the upright is his delight. He loveth him that\nfolloweth after righteousness' (Prov 15:8,9). That our prayers\nmay be heard, the heart should be right with God, and our souls\nat peace with him through the Son of his love.--Mason.--Ed.\n\n19. These are parts of a Christian's experience, admirably\nillustrated in that extraordinary book by Bunyan, 'Grace Abounding\nto the Chief of Sinners.'--Ed.\n\n20. All-prevailing prayers must be offered up through the mediation of\nChrist, in obedience to God's command, with an eye to his glory,\nand for what is agreeable to his will and heavenly wisdom to grant.\n'Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting' (1 Tim 2:8).\nGod's service must be in faith, love, and purity of heart.--Ryland.--Ed.\n\n21. How debased is the human heart, to delay one moment in giving\nup its poor all for Christ. In him dwells the fulness of the Godhead;\nhe has unsearchable riches of wisdom and knowledge to bestow;\nall-sufficient grace and strength, to enable us to do and suffer\nhis will; and everlasting glory at the close of our pilgrimage.--Ed.\n\n22. No tongue can utter, or heart conceive, the unspeakable reward\nwhich an unwearied, unfainting diligence in well-doing, attends\nthe humble believer; it begins in this world, and is consummated\nin endless glory.--Ed.\n\n23. Christian, you are not your own, you are bought with a price\nfar above all the treasures of the earth. You must not do as you\nplease, but study to do the will of your heavenly Father. The\nman who is bent upon doing his own will, renounces the name of\nChristian. REBEL against God is inscribed upon all who do not his\nwill.--Ed.\n\n24. How blessed is the hope of the Christian; full of life, power,\nand much assurance. The salvation by Christ is infinitely precious;\nit redeems the souls from all possible misery, and introduces\nit to the favour, love, and protection of almighty God, who will\nsave it from the ruins of time, till possessed of the riches of\neternity.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nSEASONABLE COUNSEL: OR, ADVICE TO SUFFERERS.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\nLondon: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the\nPoultry, 1684.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nTHIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in\n1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's\nworks, 2 vols. folio, 1767.\n\nNo man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers\nfor righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is\nexclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail,\nunder the iron hand of persecution, for nearly thirteen years, in\nthe constant fear of being hanged as a malefactor, for refusing\nconformity to the national liturgy, he well knew what sufferings\nwere, and equally well did he know the sources of consolation.\nIt was wisely ordered by Divine Providence, that before the king\npardoned him, he had a legal return under the hand and seal of the\nsheriff of Bedfordshire, certifying the reasons of this frightful\nimprisonment. This is entered in the minutes of the Privy Council\non the 8th and 15th of May, 1672; and it proves that he was thus\ncruelly punished for \"being at conventicles for nonconformity\" and\nfor no other cause. In this \"Advice\" we find his opinion on the\norigin of persecution--the instruments--the motives--its cruelty--with\ncautions, counsels, and support to the persecuted. He considers\npersecution a strange anomaly,--\"The reason is that Christianity\nis a harmless thing--that be it never so openly professed it hurts\nno man.\" Simple-hearted, honest John, thou dreamest. What wouldest\nthou have thought of a system by which all would have been taught\nto tag their laces and mend their own pots and kettles? What would\nhave become of thy trade as a brazier? Christianity teaches all\nmankind not to trust in those empirics who profess to cure souls\nfor Peter's pence, tithes, mortuaries, and profits; but to go by\nthemselves to the Great Physician, and he will pour in his wine\nand oil, his infallible remedies for a sin-sick soul, without\nmoney and without price. To Bunyan this was not only harmless to\nothers, but the most boundless mercy that God could bestow upon\nman. What could be more destructive to the hierarchy of popes,\ncardinals, and papal nuncios of the Latin, with the patriarchs,\narchimandrites, and papas of the Greek churches? A system by which\nall their services are dispensed with, and priestly and prelatic\npride is leveled with the dust. Can we wonder that those who\npreached the holy, humbling, self-denying doctrines of the cross,\nwere persecuted to the death? Bunyan's opinion is, that Satan\nis the author of persecution, by which he intended to root out\nChristianity. The whirlwind and the tempest drives away those who\nare not rooted and grounded in the faith, some of whom may have\nstood like stately cedars until the trying time of trial came.\nBut the humble Christian in such a season takes deeper root--a\nstronger grasp. Faith, his anchor, is sure and steadfast; it enters\neternity and heaven, where Satan can find no entrance to disturb\nits hold. In persecution, men are but the devil's tools, and little\nthink that they are doing his drudgery.\n\nThe man of God declares the truth in plain terms, \"No one is a\nChristian except he is born of God by the anointing of the Holy\nOne.\" Carnal men cannot endure this; and then \"the game begins,\"\nhow such troublesome fellows may be put out of the way, and their\nfamilies be robbed of their possessions to enrich the persecutors.\n\"The holy places, vestures, gestures--the shows and outward greatness\nof false religion, are in danger.\" Their sumptuous ceremonies,\nglorious ornaments, new-fashioned carriages,1 \"will fall before\nthe simplicity and majesty of truth.\" The Christian falls out with\nsin at home, and then with sinful ceremonies in divine worship.\nWith him all that is not prescribed in the word of God is forbidden.\nSentiments like these are a blow at the root of superstition with\nall its fraudful emoluments. Hence the storms of persecution which\nfall on the faithful followers of Christ. Antichrist declares the\nexcellency of human inventions to supply what he considers defects\nin God's system.\n\nSuch is the mad folly of the human heart! Dust and ashes find fault\nwith a system which is the perfection of wisdom, mercy, and love.\nAnd such their infatuation, that \"none must be suffered to live and\nbreathe that refuseth conformity thereto.\" Mr. Bunyan's cautions\nand counsels are full of peace--\"submission to the powers that\nbe.\" Pray for the persecutor--return good for his evil. He is in\nthe hand of God, who will soon level him with the dust, and call\nhis soul to solemn judgment. Although the sufferer's cause is good,\ndo not run yourself into trouble--Christ withdrew himself--Paul\nescaped by being lowered down the city wall in a basket. If they\npersecute you in one city, flee to another. \"A minister can quickly\npack up and carry his religion with him, and offer what he knows\nof his God to another people.\" God is the support of his persecuted\nones. \"His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of\nothers; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars\nto fall; his infatuating of the counsels of men, and his making\nof the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his\npeople, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering\nthe uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying\nopen the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders\nin the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and storm.\" \"Alas!\nwe have need of these bitter pills at which we so much winch and\nshuck. The physician has us in hand. May God by these try and\njudge us as he judges his saints, that we may not be condemned\nwith the world.\" Such were the feelings of John Bunyan after his\nlong sufferings; they are the fruits of a sanctified mind. Reader,\ngreat are our mercies--the arm of the persecutor is paralysed by\nthe extension of the knowledge of Christ. Still we have to pass\nthrough taunts and revilings, and sometimes the loss of goods; but\nwe are saved from those awful trials through which our pilgrim\nforefathers passed. May our mercies be sanctified, and may grace\nbe bestowed upon us in rich abundance, to enable us to pity and\nforgive those sects who, in a bye-gone age, were the tools of\nSatan, and whose habitations were full of cruelty.--GEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\nTO THE CHRISTIAN READER. BELOVED, I thought it convenient, since\nmany at this day are exposed to sufferings, to give my advice\ntouching that to thee. Namely, that thou wouldest take heed to\nthyself, and keep thy soul diligently, and not suffer thyself to\nbe entangled in those snares that God hath suffered to be laid in\nthe world for some. Beware of \"men\" in the counsel of Christ \"for\nthey will deliver you up\" (Matt 10:17). Keep thou therefore within\nthe bounds of uprightness and integrity towards both God and man:\nfor that will fortify, that will preserve thee, if not from, yet\nunder the rage of men, in a comfortable and quiet frame of heart.\nWherefore do that, and that only, that will justify thy innocency,\nand that will help thee, not with forced speech, but with good\nconscience, when oppressed, to make thy appeals to God, and to\nthe consciences of all men.\n\nThis is the advice that, I thank God, I have taken myself: for I\nfind that there is nothing, next to God and his grace by Christ,\nthat can stand one in such stead, as will a good and harmless\nconscience.2\n\nI hope I can say that God has made me a Christian: and a Christian\nmust be a harmless man, and to that end, must embrace nothing but\nharmless principles. A Christian's business, as a Christian, is\nto believe in Jesus Christ, and in God the Father by him; and to\nseek the good of all about him, according as his place, state and\ncapacity in this world will admit, not meddling with other men's\nmatters, but ever following that which is good. A Christian is\na child of the kingdom of God, and that kingdom, take it as it\nbegins in grace, or as it is perfected in glory, is not of this\nworld but of that which is to come: and though men of old, as some\nmay now, be afraid of that kingdom: yet that kingdom will hurt\nno man, neither with its principles, nor by itself. To instance\nsomewhat, Faith in Christ: what harm can that do? A life regulated\nby a moral law, what hurt is in that? Rejoicing in spirit for the\nhope of the life to come by Christ, who will that harm? Nor is the\ninstituted worship of our Lord of any evil tendency, Christianity\nteaches us also to do our enemies good, to \"Bless them that hate\nus, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute\nus,\" and what evil can be in that? This is the sum of the Christian\nreligion, as by the word may be plainly made appear: wherefore I\ncounsel thee to keep close to these things, and touch with nothing\nthat jostleth therewith.\n\nNor do thou marvel, thou living thus, if some should be so foolish\nas to seek thy hurt, and to afflict thee, because thy works are\ngood (1 John 3:12,13). For there is need that thou shouldest at\nsometimes be in manifold temptations, thy good and innocent life\nnotwithstanding (1 Peter 1:6). For, to omit other things, there\nare some of the graces of God that are in thee, that as to some\nof their acts, cannot shew themselves, nor their excellency, nor\ntheir power, nor what they can do: but as thou art in a suffering\nstate. Faith and patience, in persecution, has that to do, that\nto shew, and that to perform, that cannot be done, shewed, nor\nperformed any where else but there. There is also a patience of\nhope; a rejoicing in hope, when we are in tribulation, that is,\nover and above that which we have when we are at ease and quiet.\nThat also that all graces can endure, and triumph over, shall not\nbe known, but when, and as we are in a state of affliction. Now\nthese acts of our graces are of that worth and esteem with God,\nalso he so much delighteth in them: that occasion through his\nrighteous judgment, must be ministered for them to shew their\nbeauty, and what bravery 3 there is in them.\n\nIt is also to be considered that those acts of our graces, that\ncannot be put forth, or shew themselves in their splendour, but\nwhen we Christianly suffer, will yield such fruit to those whose\ntrials call them to exercise, that will, in the day of God, abound\nto their comfort, and tend to their perfection in glory (1 Peter\n1:7; 2 Cor 4:17).\n\nWhy then should we think that our innocent lives will exempt us\nfrom sufferings, or that troubles shall do us such harm? For verily\nit is for our present and future good that our God doth send them\nupon us. I count therefore, that such things are necessary for the\nhealth of our souls, as bodily4 pains and labour are for [the\nhealth of] the body. People that live high, and in idleness,\nbring diseases upon the body: and they that live in all fullness\nof gospel-ordinances, and are not exercised with trials, grow\ngross, are diseased and full of bad humours in their souls. And\nthough this may to some seem strange: yet our day has given us\nsuch an experimental proof of the truth thereof, as has not been\nknown for some ages past.\n\nAlas! we have need of those bitter pills, at which we so winch and\nshuck:5 and it will be well if at last we be purged as we should\nthereby. I am sure we are but little the better as yet, though\nthe physician has had us so long in hand. Some bad humours may\npossibly ere long be driven out: but at present the disease is so\nhigh, that it makes some professors fear more a consumption will\nbe made in their purses by these doses, than they desire to be\nmade better in their souls thereby. I see that I still have need\nof these trials; and if God will by these judge me as he judges\nhis saints, that I may not be condemned with the world, I will\ncry, Grace, grace for ever. The consideration also that we have\ndeserved these things, much6 silences me as to what may yet happen\nunto me. I say, to think that we have deserved them of God, though\nagainst men we have done nothing, makes me lay my hand upon my\nmouth, and causes me to hold my tongue. Shall we deserve correction?\nAnd be angry because we have it! Or shall it come to save us? and\nshall we be offended with the hand that brings it! Our sickness\nis so great that our enemies take notice of it; let them know too\nthat we also take our purges patiently. We are willing to pay for\nthose potions that are given us for the health of our body, how\nsick soever they make us: and if God will have us pay too for\nthat which is to better our souls, why should we grudge thereat?\nThose that bring us these medicines have little enough for their\npains: for my part, I profess, I would not for a great deal, be\nbound, for their wages, to do their work. True, physicians are for\nthe most part chargeable, and the niggards are too loth to part\nwith their money to them: but when necessity says they must either\ntake physic, or die: of two evils they desire to choose the least.\nWhy, affliction is better than sin, and if God sends the one to\ncleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content\nto pay the messenger.\n\nAnd thou that art so loth to pay for thy sinning, and for the means\nthat puts thee upon that exercise of thy graces, as will be for\nthy good hereafter: take heed of tempting of God lest he doubleth\nthis potion unto thee. The child, by eating of raw fruit, stands\nin need of physic, but the child of a childish humour refuseth to\ntake the potion, what follows but a doubling of the affliction,\nto wit, frowns, chides, and further threatenings and a forcing\nof the bitter pills upon him. But let me, to persuade thee to lie\ndown and take thy potion, tell thee, it is of absolute necessity,\nto wit, for thy spiritual and internal health. For, First, Is\nit better that thou receive judgment in this world, or that thou\nstay for it to be condemned with the ungodly in the next? Second,\nIs it better that thou shouldest, as to some acts of thy graces,\nbe foreign, and a stranger, and consequently that thou shouldest\nlose that far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory that is\nprepared as the reward thereof? or that thou shouldest receive it\nat the hand of God, when the day shall come that every man shall\nhave praise of him for their doings? Third, And I say again,\nsince chastisements are a sign of sonship, a token of love: and\nthe contrary a sign of bastardy, and a token of hatred (Heb 12:6-8;\nHosea 4:14). Is it not better that we bear those tokens and marks\nin our flesh that bespeak us to belong to Christ, than those that\ndeclare us to be none of his? For my part, God help me to choose\nrather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy\nthe pleasures of sin for a season: and God of his mercy prepare\nme for his will. I am not for running myself into sufferings, but\nif godliness will expose me to them, the Lord God make me more\ngodly still: for I believe there is a world to come. But, Christian\nreader, I would not detain thee from a sight of those sheets in\nthy hand: only let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended\neither with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee.\nNot with God, for he doth nothing without a cause, nor with men,\nfor they are the hand of God: and will they, nill they; 7 they are\nthe servants of God to thee for good (Psa 17:14; Jer 24:5). Take\ntherefore what comes to thee from God by them, thankfully. If the\nmessenger that brings it is glad that it is in his power to do thee\nhurt, and to afflict thee; if he skips for joy at thy calamity:\nbe sorry for him; pity him, and pray to thy Father for him: he\nis ignorant and understandeth not the judgment of thy God, yea he\nsheweth by this his behavior, that though he, as God's ordinance,\nserveth thee by afflicting of thee: yet means he nothing less than\nto destroy thee: by the which also he prognosticates before thee\nthat he is working out his own damnation by doing of thee good.\nLay therefore the woeful state of such to heart, and render him\nthat which is good for his evil; and love for his hatred to thee;\nthen shalt thou shew that thou art acted by a spirit of holiness,\nand art like thy heavenly Father. And be it so, that thy pity\nand prayers can do such an one no good, yet they must light some\nwhere, or return again, as ships come loaden from the Indies, full\nof blessings into thine own bosom.\n\nAnd besides all this, is there nothing in dark providences, for\nthe sake of the sight and observation of which, such a day may be\nrendered lovely, when it is upon us? Is there nothing of God, of\nhis wisdom and power and goodness to be seen in thunder, and\nlightning, in hailstones? in storms? and darkness and tempests?\nWhy then is it said, he \"hath his way in the whirlwind and in the\nstorm\" (Nahum 1:3). And why have God's servants of old made such\nnotes, and observed from them such excellent and wonderful things.\nThere is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen\nin another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of\nothers; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars\nto fall; his infatuating of the counsels of men, and his making\nof the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his\npeople, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering\nthe uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying\nopen the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders\nin the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and storm. These\ndays! these days are the days that do most aptly give an occasion\nto Christians, of any, to take the exactest measures and scantlings\nof ourselves. We are apt to overshoot, in days that are calm, and\nto think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be,\nwhen the trying day is upon us. The mouth of Gaal and the boasts\nof Peter were great and high before the trial came, but when that\ncame, they found themselves to fall far short of the courage they\nthought they had (Judg 9:38). We also, before the temptation comes,\nthink we can walk upon the sea, but when the winds blow, we feel\nourselves begin to sink. Hence such a time is rightly said to be a\ntime to try us, or to find out what we are, and is there no good\nin this? Is it not this that rightly rectifies our judgment about\nourselves, that makes us to know ourselves, that tends to cut off\nthose superfluous sprigs of pride and self-conceitedness, wherewith\nwe are subject to be overcome? Is not such a day, the day that\nbends us, humbleth us, and that makes us bow before God, for our\nfaults committed in our prosperity? and yet doth it yield no good\nunto us? we cold not live without such turnings of the hand of\nGod upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our\nseasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will\ngrow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there.\nThe Lord bless all seasons to his people, and help them rightly\nto behave themselves, under all the times that go over them.\nFarewell. I am thine to serve thee in the gospel, JOHN BUNYAN.\n\nADVICE TO SUFFERERS.\n\n\"WHEREFORE LET THEM THAT SUFFER ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD,\nCOMMIT THE KEEPING OF THEIR SOULS TO HIM IN WELL DOING, AS UNTO\nA FAITHFUL CREATOR\"--1 PETER 4:19.\n\nThis epistle was written to saints in affliction, specially those of\nthe circumcision, for whom this Peter was an apostle. And it was\nwritten to them to counsel, and comfort them in their affliction.\nTo counsel them as to the cause, for which they were in afflictions,\nand as to the right management of themselves, and their cause,\nunder their affliction. To comfort them also both with respect\nto their present help from God, and also with reference to the\nreward that (they faithfully continuing to the end) should of\nGod be bestowed upon them: all which we shall have occasion, more\ndistinctly, to handle in this following discourse. The text is a\nconclusion, drawn from the counsel and comfort which the apostle\nhad afore given them in their suffering state. As who should say,\nmy brethren, as you are now afflicted, so sufferings are needful\nfor you, and therefore profitable and advantageous: wherefore be\ncontent to bear them. And that you may indeed bear them with such\nChristian contentedness, and patience as becomes you; commit the\nkeeping of your souls to your God as unto a faithful Creator. \"Let\nthem that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping\nof their souls to him [in well doing,] as unto a faithful Creator.\"\n\nIn this conclusion, therefore, we have three things very fit for\nsufferers to concern themselves with. FIRST, A direction to a duty\nof absolute necessity. SECOND, A description of the persons, who\nare unto this, so necessary a duty, directed. THIRD, An insinuation\nof the good effect that will certainly follow to those that after\na due manner shall take this blessed advice.\n\nThe duty so absolutely necessary is, that sufferers \"commit\nthe keeping of their souls to God.\" The sufferers here intended,\nare those \"that suffer according to the will of God.\" The good\ninsinuated, that will be the effect of our true doing of this, is,\nwe shall find God \"a faithful Creator.\" [FIRST--THE DUTY TO WHICH\nSUFFERERS ARE DIRECTED.] We will first begin with the duty, that\nsufferers are here directed to, namely, the committing of their\nsouls to God. \"Let them--commit the keeping of their souls to him,\nin well doing.\"\n\nAnd I find two things in it that first call for explaining before\nI proceed. 1. What we must here understand by \"the soul.\" 2. What\nby \"committing\" the soul to God.\n\n1. For the first: \"The soul,\" here, is to be taken for that most\nexcellent part of man, that dwelleth in the body; that immortal,\nspiritual substance, that is, and will be capable of life, and\nmotion, of sense and reason; yea, that will abide a rational being,\nwhen the body is returned to the dust as it was. This is that great\nthing, that our Lord Jesus intends, when he bids his disciples in\na day of trial, fear him that can destroy both body and soul in\nhell (Luke 12:5). That great thing, I say, that he there cautions\nthem to take care of. According to Peter here, \"Let them commit\nthe keeping of their soul to him in well doing.\"\n\n2. Now to \"commit\" this soul to God, is to carry it to him, to\nlift it to him, upon my bended knees, and to pray him for the Lord\nJesus Christ's sake, to take it into his holy care, and to let it\nbe under his keeping. Also, that he will please to deliver it from\nall those snares that are laid for it, betwixt this and the next\nworld, and that he will see that it be forthcoming, safe and sound,\nat the great and terrible judgment, notwithstanding so many have\nengaged themselves against it. Thus David committed his soul to\nGod, when he said \"Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down:\ndeliver my soul, O Lord, from the wicked, which is thy sword\" (Psa\n17:13). And again, \"Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord,\nmake hast to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together\nthat seek after my soul to destroy it\" (Psa 40:13,14).\n\nThus, I have shewed you what the soul is, and what it is to commit\nthe soul to God. This then is the duty that the apostle here\nexhorteth the sufferers to, namely, to carry their soul to God,\nand leave it with him while they engage for his name in the world.\nNow from the apostle's exhortation to this great duty, I will draw\nthese following conclusions.\n\nConclusion First, That when persecution is raised against a people,\nthere is a design laid for the ruin of those people's souls. This,\nI say, doth naturally follow from the exhortation. Why else, need\nthey to commit the keeping of their souls to God. For by this\nword, \"Unto God to keep them,\" is suggested; there is that would\ndestroy them, and that therefore persecution is raised against\nthem. I am not so uncharitable, as to think, that persecuting\nmen design this. 8But I verily believe that the devil doth design\nthis, when he stirs them up to so sorry a work. In times of trial,\nsays Peter, \"your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring\nlion, seeking whom he may devour\" (1 Peter 5:8).\n\nAlas! men in their acts of this nature, have designs that are\nlower, and of a more inferior rank. Some of them look no higher\nthan revenge upon the carcass; than the spoiling of their neighbour\nof his estate, liberty, or life; than the greatening of themselves\nin this world, by the ruins of those that they have power to spoil.\nTheir \"possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and\nthey that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich\" (Zech\n11:5).\n\nAy! But Satan will not be put off thus: it is not a bag of money,\nor the punishing of the carcass of such a people, that will please\nor satisfy him. It is the soul that he aims at; the ruin of the\nprecious soul that he hath bent himself to bring to pass. It is this\ntherefore that Peter here hath his heart concerned with. As, who\nshould say, My brethren, are you troubled and persecuted for your\nfaith? look to it, the hand of Satan is in this thing, and whatever\nmen drive at by doing as they do, the devil designs no less than\nthe damnation of your souls. Ware hawk, saith the falconer, when\nthe dogs are coming near her: especially if she be too much minding\nof her belly, and too forgetful of what the nature of the dog is.\nBeware Christian, take heed Christian; the devil is desirous to\nhave thee. And who could better give this exhortation than could\nPeter himself. Who for not taking heed as to this very thing, had\nlike by the devil to have been swallowed up alive: as is manifest\nto them that heedfully read, and consider how far he was gone,\nwhen that persecution was raised against his Master (Luke 22).\nWhen a tyrant goes to dispossess a neighbouring prince of what is\nlawfully his own: the men that he employeth at arms to overcome,\nand get the land, they fight for half-crowns, and the like, and\nare content with their wages: But the tyrant is for the kingdom,\nnothing will serve him but the kingdom.9 This is the case: Men\nwhen they persecute, are for the stuff, but the devil is for the\nsoul, nor will any thing less than that satisfy him. Let him then\nthat is a sufferer \"commit the keeping of his soul to God:\" lest\nstuff, and soul, and all be lost at once.\n\nConclusion Second, A second conclusion that followeth upon these\nwords, is this: That sufferers, if they have not a care, may be\ntoo negligent as to the securing of their souls with God, even\nwhen persecution is upon them. For these words, as they are an\ninstruction, so they are an awakening instruction; they call as to\npeople in danger; as to people, not so aware of the danger; or as\nunto a people that forget, too much, that their souls, and the ruin\nof them, are sought after by Satan, when trouble attends them for\nthe gospel sake. As, who should say, when troubles are upon you\nfor the gospel's sake, then take heed that you forget not to commit\nyour souls to the keeping of God. We are naturally apt with that\ngood man Gideon, to be threshing out our wheat, that we may hide\nit from the Midianites (Judg 6:11). But we are not so naturally apt\nto be busying ourselves to secure our souls with God. The reason\nis, for that we are more flesh than spirit, and because the voice\nof the world makes a bigger sound in our carnal mind, than the word\nof God doth. Wherefore Peter, here, calls upon us as upon men of\nforgetful minds, saying, Let them that suffer according to the\nwill of God, have a care of their souls, and take heed, that the\nfears of the loss of a little of this world, do not make them\nforget the fear of the losing of their souls. That sufferers are\nsubject to this, may appear by the stir and bustle that at such\na time they make to lock all up safe that the hand of man can\nreach,10 while they are cold, chill, remiss, and too indifferent\nabout the committing of their soul to God to keep it. This is seen\nalso, in that many, in a time of trouble for their profession,\nwill study more to deceive themselves by a change of notions, by\nlabouring to persuade their consciences to admit them to walk more\nat large, by hearkening to opinions that please and gratify the\nflesh, by adhering to bad examples, and taking evil counsels, than\nthey will to make straight steps for their feet: and to commit\nthe keeping of their souls to God. What shall I say, have there\nnot been many, that so long as peace has lasted, have been great\nswaggerers for religion, who yet so soon as the sun has waxed\nwarm, have flagged, have been discontented, offended, and turned\naway from him that speaketh from heaven? All which is because men\nare naturally apt to be more concerned for their goods, carnal\npeace, and a temporal life, than they are about securing of their\nsouls with God. Wherefore I say, these words are spoken to awaken\nus to the consideration of soul-concerns, and how that should be\nsafely lodged under the care, protection, and mercy of God, by\nour committing of it to him, for that purpose, by Jesus Christ\nour Lord.\n\nConclusion Third, Another conclusion that followeth upon this\nexhortation, is this: That persecution doth, sometimes, so hotly\nfollow God's people, as to leave them nothing but a soul to care\nfor. They have had no house, no land, no money, no goods, no life,\nno liberty, left them to care for. ALL IS GONE BUT THE SOUL.\nGoods have been confiscated, liberty has been in irons, the life\ncondemned, the neck in a halter, or the body in the fire. So then\nall, to such, has been gone, and they have had nothing left them\nto care for, but their soul. \"Let them commit the keeping of their\nsoul to God.\" This conclusion, I say, doth naturally flow from\nthe words. For that the apostle here doth make mention only of\nthe soul, as of that which is left, as of that which yet remains\nto the sufferer of all that ever he had. Thus they served Christ;\nthey left him nothing but his soul to care for. Thus they served\nStephen; they left him nothing but his soul to care for, and they\nboth cared for that, \"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,\"\nsaid Jesus (Luke 23:46). And, \"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,\"\nsaid Stephen (Acts 7:59). As for all other things, they were gone.\nThey parted the very clothes of Christ among themselves before his\nface, even while he did hang pouring out his life before them,\nupon the tree. \"They parted my garments among them,\" said he,\n\"and upon my vesture did they cast lots\" (Matt 27:35; Mark 15:24;\nJohn 19:24). This also has oftentimes been the condition of later\nChristians, all has been gone, they have been stripped of all,\nnothing has been left them but \"soul\" to care for. Job said that he\nhad escaped with the skin of his teeth; and that is but a little:\nbut he doth not escape with so much, that loses all that he has,\nlife and all, we now except the soul. But,\n\nConclusion Fourth, Another thing that followeth from the words is\nthis; namely, That when the devil and wicked men have done what\nthey could, in their persecuting of the godly; they have yet had\ntheir souls at their own dispose. 11 They have not been able to\nrob them of their souls, they are not able to hurt their souls.\nThe soul is not in their power to touch, without the leave of God,\nand of him whose soul it is. \"And fear not them,\" saith Christ,\n\"which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul\" (Matt\n10:28). This, I say, lies clear also in the text; for the exhortation\nsupposes, that whatever the sufferers, there made mention of, had\nlost, they had yet their souls at their own dispose. Let them that\nsuffer, even to the loss of goods, liberty, or life, \"commit the\nkeeping of their souls to God.\" As, who should say, though the\nenemy hath reached them to their all, and stripped them of their\nall, yet I know, that their soul is not among that all: For their\nsoul is yet free from them, at liberty, and may be disposed of,\neven as the sufferer will. Wherefore, let him commit the keeping\nof his soul to God, lest he also through his negligence or\ncarelessness be also spoiled of that. The sufferer, therefore,\nhath his soul at his own dispose, he may give that away to God\nAlmighty, in spite of all that the devil and the world can do. He\nmay, indeed, see men parting his land, his household stuff, yea,\nhis very raiment among themselves, but they cannot so dispose of\nhis soul.12 They \"have no more that they can do\" (Luke 12:4).\n\nConclusion Fifth, Another conclusion that followeth from these\nwords is this, That a man, when he is a sufferer, is not able to\nsecure his own soul from the hand of hell by any other means, but\nby the committing of the keeping thereof to God. Do you suffer?\nAre you in affliction for your profession? Then keep not your\nsoul in your own hand, for fear of losing that with the rest. For\nno man \"can keep alive his own soul\" (Psa 22:29). No, not in the\ngreatest calm; no, not when the lion is asleep: how then should\nhe do it at such a time, when the horrible blast of the terrible\nones shall beat against his wall. The consideration of this was\nthat that made holy Paul, who was a man upon whom persecution\ncontinually attended, commit his soul to God (Acts 20:22-24; 2 Tim\n1:12). God, as I shall shew you by and by, is he, and he alone\nthat is able to keep the soul, and deliver it from danger. Man\nis naturally a self-deceiver, and therefore is not to be trusted,\nany farther than as the watchful eye of God is over him. But as\nto his soul, he is not to be trusted with that at all, that must\nbe wholly committed to God, left altogether with him; laid at\nhis feet, and he also must take the charge thereof, or else it is\ngone, will be lost, and will perish for ever and ever. Wherefore\nit is a dangerous thing for a man that is a sufferer, to be a senseless\nman, as to the danger that his soul is in, and a prayerless man,\nas to the committing of the keeping of it to God. For he that\nis such, has yet his soul, and the keeping thereof, in his own\ndeceitful hand. And so has he also that stays himself upon his\nfriends, upon his knowledge, the promise of men, or the mercy of\nhis enemies, or that has set in his mind a bound to himself, how\nfar he will venture for religion, and where he will stop. This\nis the man that makes not God his trust, and that therefore will\nsurely fall in the day of his temptation. Satan, who now hunteth\nfor the precious soul to destroy it, has power, as well as policy,\nbeyond what man can think. He has power to blind, harden, and to\nmake insensible, the heart. He also can make truth in the eyes of\nthe suffering man, a poor, little, and insignificant thing. Judas\nhad not committed the keeping of his soul to God, but abode in\nhimself, and was left in his tabernacle: and you by and by see\nwhat a worthy price he set upon himself, his Christ, and heaven,\nand all. All to him was not now worth thirty pieces of silver.\n\nAnd as he can make truth in thy esteem to be little, so he can make\nsufferings great, and ten times more terrible, than he that hath\ncommitted the keeping of his soul to God shall ever find them.\nA jail shall look as black as hell, and the loss of a few stools\nand chairs, as bad as the loss of so many bags of gold. 13 Death\nfor the Saviour of the world, shall seem to be a thing both\nunreasonable and intolerable. Such will choose to run the hazard\nof the loss of a thousand souls, in the way of the world, rather\nthan the loss of one poor, sorry, transitory life for the holy\nWord of God. But the reason, as I said, is, they have not committed\nthe keeping of their soul to God. For he that indeed has committed\nthe keeping of his soul to that great one, has shaken his hands of\nall things here. Has bid adieu to the world, to friends, and life:\nand waiteth upon God in a way of close keeping to his truth, and\nwalking in his ways, having counted the cost, and been persuaded\nto take what cup God shall suffer the world to give him for so\ndoing.\n\nConclusion Sixth, Another conclusion that followeth from these\nwords, is, That God is very willing to take the charge and care\nof the soul (that is committed unto him) of them that suffer for\nhis sake in the world. If this were not true, the exhortation\nwould not answer the end. What is intended by, \"Let him commit the\nkeeping of his soul to God,\" but that the sufferer should indeed\nleave that great care with him; but if God be not willing to\nbe concerned with such a charge, what bottom14 is there for the\nexhortation? But the exhortation has this for its bottom, therefore\nGod is willing to take the charge and care of the soul of him\nthat suffereth for his name in this world. \"The Lord redeemeth the\nsoul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall\nbe desolate\" (Psa 34:22; 1 Sam 25:28,29). None, not one that\ncommitteth his soul to God's keeping in a way of well doing, but\nshall find him willing to be concerned therewith. Ay, this, saith\nthe sufferer, if I could believe this, it would rid me of all my\nfears. But I find myself engaged for God, for I have made a profession\nof his name, and cannot arrive to this belief that God is willing\nto take the charge and care of my soul. Wherefore I fear, that if\ntrials come so high, as that life, as well as estate, must go, that\nboth life, and estate, and soul, and all will be lost at once.\n\nWell, honest heart, these are thy fears, but let them fly away, and\nconsider the text again, \"Let them that suffer according to the\nwill of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him,--as unto\na faithful Creator.\" These are God's words, Christ's words, and\nthe invitation of the Holy Ghost. When, therefore, thou readest\nthem, be persuaded that thou hearest the Father, and the Son, and\nthe Holy Ghost, all of them jointly and severally speaking to thee\nand saying, Poor sinner, thou art engaged for God in the world,\nthou art suffering for his Word: leave thy soul with him as with\none that is more willing to save it, than thou art willing he\nshould: act faith, trust God, believe his Word, and go on in thy\nway of witness-bearing for him, and thou shalt find all well, and\naccording to the desire of thy heart at last. True, Satan will\nmake it his business to tempt thee to doubt of this, that thy way\nbe made yet more hard and difficult to thee. For he knows that\nunbelief is a soul-perplexing sin, and makes that which would\notherwise be light, pleasant, and easy, unutterably heavy and\nburdensome to the sufferer. Yea, this he doth in hope to make\nthee at last, to cast away thy profession, thy cause, thy faith,\nthy conscience, thy soul, and all. But hear what the Holy Ghost\nsaith again: \"He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save\nthe souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and\nviolence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight\" (Psa\n72:13,14). These words also are spoken for the comfort of sufferers,\nver. 12. \"For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor\nalso, and him that hath no helper.\" Wherefore, let them that are\nGod's sufferers, pluck up a good heart; let them not be afraid to\ntrust God with their souls, and with their eternal concerns. Let\nthem cast all their care upon God, for he careth for them (1 Peter\n5:7).\n\nBut I am in the dark.\n\nI answer, never stick at that. It is most bravely done, to trust\nGod with my soul in the dark, and to resolve to serve God for\nnothing, rather than give out. Not to see, and yet to believe, and\nto be a follower of the Lamb, and yet to be at uncertainty, what\nwe shall have at last, argues love, fear, faith, and an honest\nmind, and gives the greatest sign of one that hath true sincerity\nin his soul. It was this that made Job and Peter so famous, and\nthe want of it that took away much of the glory of the faith of\nThomas (Job 1:8-10,21; Matt 19:27; John 20:29). Wherefore believe,\nverily, that God is ready, willing, yea, that he looks for, and\nexpects that thou who art a sufferer shouldest commit the keeping\nof thy soul to him, as unto a faithful Creator.\n\nConclusion Seventh. Another conclusion that followeth from these\nwords is this, namely, That God is able, as well as willing, to\nsecure the souls of his suffering saints, and to save them from\nthe evil of all their trials, be they never so many, divers, or\nterrible. \"Let him commit the keeping of his soul to God,\" but to\nwhat boot, if he be not able to keep it in his hand, and from the\npower of him that seeks the soul to destroy it? But \"my Father\nwhich gave them me,\" saith Christ, \"is greater than all; and no\nman is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand\" (John 10:29).\nSo then there can be no sorrow, affliction, or misery invented,\nby which the devil may so strongly prevail, as thereby to pluck\nthe soul out of the hand of him who has received it, to keep it\nfrom falling, and perishing thereby. The text therefore supposeth\na sufficiency of power in God to support, and a sufficiency of\ncomfort and goodness to embolden the soul to endure for him: let\nSatan break out, and his instruments too, to the greatest degree\nof their rage and cruelty.\n\n1. There is in God a sufficiency of power to keep them that have\nlaid their soul at his foot to be preserved. And hence he is called\nthe soul-keeper, the soul-preserver, (Prov 24:12) \"The Lord is thy\nkeeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall\nnot smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall\npreserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul\" (Psa\n121:5-7). \"The sun shall not smite thee\": that is, persecution\nshall not dry and wither thee away to nothing (Matt 13:6,21). But\nthat notwithstanding, thou shalt be kept and preserved, carried\nthrough and delivered from all evil. Let him therefore commit the\nkeeping of his soul to him, if he is in a suffering condition,\nthat would have it secured and found safe and sound at last. For,\n\n(1.) Then thine own natural weakness, and timorousness shall not\novercome thee.--For it shall not be too hard for God. God can\nmake the most soft spirited man as hard as an adamant, harder than\nflint, yea harder than the northern steel. \"Shall iron break the\nnorthern iron and the steel?\" (Jer 15:12). The sword of him is\n[used] in vain that lays at a Christian, when he is in the way of\nhis duty to God: if God has taken to him the charge and care of\nhis soul, he can shoe him with brass, and make his hoofs of iron\n(Deut 33:25). \"He can strengthen the spoiled against the strong,\nso that the spoiled shall come against the fortress\" (Amos 5:8;\nEze 13:9).\n\nHe can turn thee into another man, and make thee that which thou\nnever wast. Timorous Peter, fearful Peter, he could make as bold\nas a lion. He that at one time was afraid of a sorry girl, he could\nmake at another to stand boldly before the council (Matt 26; Acts\n4:13). There is nothing too hard for God. He can say to them that\nare of a fearful heart, \"Be strong, fear not\" (Isa 35:4). He can\nsay, Let the weak say I am strong; by such a word, by which he\ncreated the world (Zech 12:8).\n\n(2.) Thine own natural darkness and ignorance shall not cause thee\nto fall; thy want of wit he can supply.--He can say to the fools,\nbe wise; not only by way of correction, but also by way of\ninstruction too. He \"hath chosen the foolish things of the world\nto confound the wise;--yea, things which are despised,--and things\nwhich are not, hath God chosen to bring to nought things that are\"\n(1 Cor 1:27,28). Wisdom and might are his: and when, and where\nhe will work, none can at all withstand him. He can give thee the\nSpirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of his Son (Eph\n1:17). Yea, to do this, is that which he challengeth, as that\nwhich is peculiar to himself. \"Who hath put wisdom in the inward\nparts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?\" (Job 38:36).\nAnd that he will do this that he hath promised, yea, promised to\ndo it to that degree, as to make his, that shall be thus concerned\nfor him, to top, and overtop all men that shall them oppose. I, saith\nhe, \"will give you a mouth and wisdom, that all your adversaries\nshall not be able to gainsay nor resist\" (Luke 21:15).\n\n(3.) Thine own doubts and mistrusts about what he will do, and about\nwhither thou shalt go, when thou for him hast suffered awhile, he\ncan resolve, yea, dissolve, crush, and bring to nothing.--He can\nmake fear flee far away: and place heavenly confidence in its room.\nHe can bring invisible and eternal things to the eye of thy soul,\nand make thee see that in those things in which thine enemies shall\nsee nothing, that thou shalt count worth the loss of ten thousand\nlives to enjoy. He can pull such things out of his bosom, and\ncan put such things into thy mouth; yea, can make thee choose to\nbe gone, though through the flames, than to stay here and die in\nsilken sheets. Yea, he can himself come near and bring his heaven\nand glory to thee. The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon\nthem that are but reproached for the name of Christ (1 Peter 4:14).\nAnd what the Spirit of glory is, and what is his resting upon his\nsufferers, is quite beyond the knowledge of the world, and is but\nlittle felt by saints at peace. They be they that are engaged,\nand that are under the lash of Christ; they are they, I say, that\nhave it and that understand something of it.\n\nWhen Moses went up the first time into the mount to God, the people\nreproached him for staying with him so long, saying, \"As for this\nMoses,--we wot not what is become of him\" (Exo 32:1). Well, the\nnext time he went up thither, and came down, the Spirit of glory\nwas upon him; his face shone, though he wist it not, to his honour,\nand their amazement (Exo 34:29-35). Also while Stephen stood before\nthe council to be accused, by suborned men, \"All that sat in the\ncouncil, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been\nthe face of an angel\" (Acts 6:15). Those that honour God, he will\nhonour, yea, will put some of his glory upon them, but they shall\nbe honoured. There is none can tell what God can do. He can make\nthose things that in themselves are most fearful and terrible\nto behold, the most pleasant, delightful, and desirable things.\nHe can make a jail more beautiful than a palace; restraint, more\nsweet by far than liberty. And \"the reproach of Christ greater\nriches than the treasures in Egypt\" (Heb 11:26). It is said of\nChrist, That \"for the joy that was set before him, he endured the\ncross, despising the shame\" (Heb 12:2). But,\n\n2. As there is in God a sufficiency of power to uphold, so there\nis in him also a sufficiency of comfort and goodness to embolden\nus: I mean communicative comfort and goodness. Variety of, and\nthe terribleness that attends afflictions, call, not only for the\nbeholding of things, but also a laying hold of them by faith and\nfeeling; now this also is with God to the making of HIS to sing in\nthe night. Paul and Silas sang in prison, the apostles went away\nfrom the council rejoicing, when they had shamefully beaten them for\ntheir preaching in the temple (Acts 5). But whence came this but\nfrom an inward feeling by faith of the love of God, and of Christ,\nwhich passeth knowledge? Hence he says to those under afflictions,\n\"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer\" (Rev 2:10).\nThere are things to be suffered, as well as places to suffer in;\nand there are things to be let into the soul for its emboldening,\nas well as things to be showed to it (Rom 5:5).\n\nNow the things to be suffered are many, some of which are thus counted\nup: \"They were tortured,--had cruel mockings and scourgings;--they\nwere stoned, were sawn asunder, were slain with the sword,--were\ntempted;--they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins,\nbeing destitute, afflicted, tormented\" (Heb 11:35-37). These are\nsome of the things that good men of old have suffered for their\nprofession of the name of Jesus Christ. All which they were enabled\nby him to bear, to bear with patience; to bear with rejoicing;\n\"knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better, and an\nenduring substance\" (Heb 10:32-34). And it is upon this account\nthat Paul doth call to mind the most dreadful of his afflictions,\nwhich he suffered for the gospel sake with rejoicing; and that he\ntells us that he was most glad, when he was in such infirmities.\nYea, it is upon this account that he boasteth, and vaunteth it\nover death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present,\nthings to come, height, depth, and every other creature: for he\nknew that there was enough in that love of God, which was set on\nhim through Christ, to preserve him, and to carry him through all\n(2 Cor 12:9,10; Rom 8:37-39). That God has done thus, a thousand\ninstances might be given; and that God will still do thus, for\nthat we have his faithful promise (Isa 43:2; 1 Cor 10:13).\n\nTo the adversaries of the church these things have also sometimes\nbeen shewed, to their amazement and confusion. God shewed to the\nking of Babylon that he was with the three children in the fiery\nfurnace (Dan 3:24). God shewed to the king of Babylon again, that\nhe would be where HIS were, though in the lion's den (6:24).\n\nAlso, in later days, whoso reads Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments, will\nalso find several things to confirm this for truth. God has power\nover all plagues, and therefore can either heighten, or moderate\nand lessen them at pleasure. He has power over fire, and can take\naway the intolerable heat thereof. This those in the Marian days\ncould also testify, namely, Hauks and Bainham, and others, who\ncould shout for joy, and clap their hands in the very flames for\njoy. God has power over hunger, and can moderate it, and cause\nthat one meal's meat shall go as far as forty were wont to do.\nThis is witness in Elias, when he went for his life to the mount\nof God, being fled from the face of Jezebel (1 Kings 19:8). And\nwhat a good night's lodging had Jacob when he fled from the face\nof his brother Esau: when the earth was his couch, the stone15\nhis pillow, the heavens his canopy, and the shades of the night\nhis curtains16 (Gen 27:12-16).\n\nI can do all things, said Paul, through Christ strengthening\nme. And again, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in\nnecessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. But\nhow can that be, since no affliction for the present seems joyous?\nI answer, though they be not so in themselves, yet Christ, by\nhis presence, can make them so: for then his power rests upon us.\nWhen I am weak, saith he, then I am strong; then Christ doth in\nme mighty things: for my strength, saith Christ, is made perfect\nin weakness; in affliction, for the gospel sake.\n\nFor when my people are afflicted and suffer great distress for\nme, then they have my comforting, supporting, emboldening, and\nupholding presence to relieve them: an instance of which you have\nin the three children and in Daniel, made mention of before. But\nwhat, think you, did these servants of the God of Jacob feel, feel\nin their souls, of his power and comforting presence when they,\nfor his name, were suffering of the rage of their enemies,--while,\nalso, one, like the Son of God, was walking in the fire with the\nthree; and while Daniel sat and saw that the hands of the angels\nwere made muzzles for the lions' mouths.\n\nI say, was it not worth being in the furnace and in the den to see\nsuch things as these? O! the grace of God, and his Spirit and power\nthat is with them that suffer for him, if their hearts be upright\nwith him; if they are willing to be faithful to him; if they have\nlearned to say, here am I, whenever he calls them, and whatever\nhe calls them to. \"Wherefore,\" when Peter saith, \"let them that\nsuffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their\nsouls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.\" He concludes,\nthat how outrageous, furious, merciless, or cruel soever the enemy\nis, yet there, with him, they shall find help and succour, relief\nand comfort; for God is able to make such as do so, stand.\n\nConclusion Eighth. We will now come to touch upon that which may\nmore immediately be called the reason of this exhortation; for,\nalthough all these things that have been mentioned before may, or\nmight be called reasons of the point, yet there are those, in my\njudgment, that may be called reasons, which are yet behind. As,\n\n1. Because, when a man has, by faith and prayer, committed the\nkeeping of his soul to God, he has the advantage of that liberty\nof soul to do and suffer for God that he cannot otherwise have. He\nthat has committed his soul to God to keep is rid of that care,\nand is delivered from the fear of its perishing for ever. When\nthe Jews went to stone Stephen they laid their clothes down at\na distance from the place, at a young man's feet, whose name was\nSaul, that they might not be a cumber or a trouble to them, as to\ntheir intended work. So we, when we go about to drive sin out of\nthe world, in a way of suffering for God's truth against it,17 we\nshould lay down our souls at the feet of God to care for, that we\nmay not be cumbered with the care of them ourselves; also, that\nour care of God's truth may not be weakened by such sudden and\nstrong doubts as will cause us faintingly to say, But what will\nbecome of my soul? When Paul had told his son Timothy that he had\nbeen before that lion Nero, and that he was at present delivered\nout of his mouth, he adds, And the Lord shall deliver me from\nevery evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom.\nHe shall and will. Here is a man at liberty, here are no cumbersome\nfears. But how came the apostle by this confidence of his well-being\nand of his share in another world? Why, \"he had committed the\nkeeping of his soul to God,\" compare 2 Timothy 1:12 with 4:18. For\nto commit the keeping of the soul to God, if it be done in faith\nand prayer, it leaves, or rather brings this holy boldness and\nconfidence into the soul.\n\nSuppose a man in the country were necessitated to go to London,\nand had a great charge of money to pay in there; suppose, also,\nthat the way thither was become exceeding dangerous because of the\nhighwaymen that continually abide therein,--what now must this\nman do to go on his journey cheerfully? Why, let him pay in his\nmoney to such an one in the country as will be sure to return it\nfor him at London safely. Why, this is the case, thou art bound for\nheaven, but the way thither is dangerous. It is beset everywhere\nwith evil angels, who would rob thee of thy soul, What now? Why,\nif thou wouldest go cheerfully on in thy dangerous journey, commit\nthy treasure, thy soul, to God to keep; and then thou mayest say,\nwith comfort, Well, that care is over: for whatever I meet with in\nmy way thither, my soul is safe enough: the thieves, if they meet\nme, can not come at that; I know to whom I have committed my soul,\nand I am persuaded that he will keep that to my joy and everlasting\ncomfort against the great day.18\n\nThis, therefore, is one reason why we should, that suffer for\nChrist, commit the keeping of our souls to God; because a doubt\nabout the well-being of that will be a clog, a burden, and an\naffliction to our spirit: yea, the greatest of afflictions, whilst\nwe are taking up our cross and bearing it after Christ. The joy of\nthe Lord is our strength, and the fear of perishing is that which\nwill be weakening to us in the way.\n\n2. We should commit the keeping of our souls to God, because the\nfinal conclusion that merciless men do sometimes make with the\nservants of God is all on a sudden. They give no warning before\nthey strike. We shall not need here to call you to mind about the\nmassacres that were in Ireland, Paris, Piedmont, and other places,\nwhere the godly, in the night before they were well awake, had,\nsome of them, their heart blood running on the ground. The savage\nmonsters crying out, Kill, kill, from one end of a street or a\nplace to the other. This was sudden; and he that had not committed\nhis soul to God to keep it was surely very hard put to it now;\nbut he that had done so was ready for such sudden work. Sometimes,\nindeed, the axe, and halter, or the faggot is shewed first; but\nsometimes, again, it is without that warning. Up, said Saul to Doeg,\nthe Edomite, and slay the priests of the Lord (1 Sam 22:11,18,19).\nHere was sudden work: fall on, said Saul, and Doeg fell upon them,\n\"and slew on that day four score and five persons that did wear a\nlinen ephod.\" \"Nob, also, the city of the priests, smote he with\nthe edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings,\"\n&c. Here was but a word and a blow. Thinkest thou not, who readest\nthese lines, that all of these who had before committed their soul\nto God to keep were the fittest folk to die?\n\n\"And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his\nhead to be brought\" (Mark 6:27). The story is concerning Herod\nand John the Baptist: Herod's dancing girl had begged John the\nBaptist's head, and nothing but his head must serve her turn;\nwell, girl, thou shalt have it. Have it? Ay, but it will be long\nfirst. No; thou shalt have it now, just now, immediately. \"And\nimmediately he sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be\nbrought.\"\n\nHere is sudden work for sufferers; here is no intimation beforehand.\nThe executioner comes to John; now, whether he was at dinner, or\nasleep, or whatever he was about, the bloody man bolts in upon\nhim, and the first word he salutes him with is, Sir, strip, lay\ndown your neck, for I am come to take away your head. But hold,\nstay; wherefore? pray, let me commit my soul to God. No, I must not\nstay; I am in haste: slap, says his sword, and off falls the good\nman's head. This is sudden work; work that stays for no man; work\nthat must be done by and by; immediately, or it is not worth a\nrush. I will, said she, that thou give me, by and by, in a charger,\nthe head of John the Baptist. Yea, she came in haste, and hastily\nthe commandment went forth, and immediately his head was brought.\n\n3. Unless a man commits the keeping of his soul to God, it is a\nquestion whether he can hold out and stand his ground, and wrestle\nwith all temptations. \"This is the victory,--even our faith\"; and\n\"who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth?\" And\nwhat encouragement has a man to suffer for Christ, whose heart\ncannot believe, and whose soul he cannot commit to God to keep\nit? And our Lord Jesus intimates as much when he saith, \"Be thou\nfaithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.\" Wherefore\nsaith he thus? but to encourage those that suffer for his truth\nin the world, to commit the keeping of their souls to him, and\nto believe that he hath taken the charge and care of them. Paul's\nwisdom was, that he was ready to die before his enemies were ready\nto kill him. \"I am now ready,\" saith he, \"to be offered and the\ntime of my departure is at hand\" (2 Tim 4:6).\n\nThis is, therefore, a thing of high concern; to wit, the committing\nof the soul to God to keep it. It is, I say, of concern to do it\nnow, just now, quickly, whether thou art yet engaged or no; for\nit is a good preparatory to, as well as profitable in, a time of\npersecution: consider it, I say. The apostle Paul saith that he\nand his companions were bold in their God, to profess and stand\nto the word of God (1 Thess 2:2). But how could that be if they\nhad the salvation of their souls to seek, and that to be sure\nthey would have had, had they not committed the keeping of their\nsouls to him in well-doing?\n\nQuest. But what is committing of the soul to God?\n\nAnsw. I have, in general, briefly spoken to that already, and now,\nfor thy further help, we will a little enlarge. Wherefore,\n\n(1.) To commit is to deliver up to custody to be kept. Hence\nprisoners, when sent to the jail, are said to be committed thither.\nThus Paul, \"haling men and women, committing them to prison\"\n(Acts 8:3). And thus Joseph's master committed all his prisoners\nto him, to his custody, to be kept there according to the law (Gen\n39:22).\n\n(2.) To commit, is not only to deliver up to custody, but to give\nin charge; that that which is committed be kept safe, and not suffered\nto be lost (Luke 16:11). Thus Paul was committed to prison, the\njailor being charged to keep him safely (Acts 16:23).\n\n(3.) To commit, is to leave the whole disposal, sometimes, of that\nwhich is committed to those to whom such thing is committed. Thus\nwere the shields of the temple committed to the guard (1 Kings\n14:27) And Jeremiah to the hands of Gedaliah (Jer 39:14).\n\nAnd thus thou must commit thy soul to God and to his care and\nkeeping. It must be delivered up to his care and put under his\ncustody. Thou mayest also, though I would speak modestly, give\nhim a charge to take the care of it. \"Concerning my sons [and\nconcerning my daughters] and concerning the work of my hands, command\nye me\" (Isa 45:11). Thou must also leave all the concerns of thy\nsoul and of thy being an inheritor of the next world wholly to\nthe care of God. He that doth this in the way that God has bid him\nis safe, though the sky should fall. \"The poor committeth himself\nunto thee, thou art the helper of the fatherless\" (Psa 10:14).\n\nAnd for encouragement to do this, the Lord has bidden us, the\nLord has commanded us, the Lord expecteth that we should thus do.\nYea, thou art also bidden to commit thy way unto him (Psa 37:5).\nThy work unto him (Prov 16:3). Thy cause unto him (Job 5:8). Thy\nsoul to him, and he will take care of all. And if we do this, as\nwe should, God will not only take care of us and of our souls in\nthe general, but that our work and ways be so ordered that we may\nnot fail in either. \"I have trusted,\" said David, \"in the Lord,\ntherefore I shall not slide\" (Psa 26:1).\n\nBefore I leave this, I will speak something of the way in which\nthis commitment of the soul to God must be; and that is, \"in a way\nof well-doing.\" Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him\n\"in well-doing\"; or, in a way of well-doing. That is, therefore,\nthe course that a godly man should be found in, at, in, and after\nhe hath committed his soul to God to keep. And, as the apostle\nsays in another place, this is but a \"reasonable service\" (Rom\n12:1). For if God be so gracious as to take care of my soul at my\nrequest, why should not I also be so gracious as to be found in\na way of well-doing at his bidding? Take care, master, of me for\nmeat and wages, and I will take care, master, that thy work shall\nbe faithfully done. This is honest, and thus should Christians\nsay to God: and he that heartily, in this, shall mean as he saith,\nshall find that God's ways shall be strength unto him.\n\nA Christian is not to commit his soul unto God to keep, and so to\ngrow remiss, carnal, negligent, cold, and worldly; concluding as\nif he had now bound God to save him, but sets himself at liberty\nwhether he will longer serve him in trying and troublesome times\nor no. He must commit the keeping of his soul to him \"in well-doing.\"\nHe may not now relinquish God's cause, play the apostate, cast\noff the cross, and look for heaven notwithstanding. He that doth\nthus will find himself mistaken, and be made to know at last that\nGod takes the care of no such souls. \"If any man draws back,\" saith\nhe, \"my soul shall have no pleasure in him.\" Wherefore, he that\ncommitteth the keeping of his soul to God must do it in that way\nwhich God has prescribed to him, which is in a way of well-doing.\nAlas! alas! there is never such a word in it; it must be done in\na way of \"well-doing.\" You must think of this that would commit\nyour souls to God in suffering and troublesome times. You must do\nit in well-doing.\n\n\"In well-doing,\" that is, in persevering in ways of godliness,\nboth with respect to morals and also instituted worship. Thou,\ntherefore, that wouldest have God take care of thy soul, as thou\nbelievest, so thou must do well; that is, do good to the poor, to\nthy neighbour, to all men, especially to the household of faith.\nBenjamin must have a Benjamin's mess; and all others, as thou art\ncapable, must feel and find the fruit of thy godliness. Thou must\nthus serve the Lord with much humility of mind, though through\nmany difficulties and much temptation.\n\nThou must also keep close to gospel worship, public and private;\ndoing of those things that thou hast warrant for from the word,\nand leaving of that or those things for others that will stick\nto them--that have no stamp of God upon them. Thou must be found\ndoing of all with all thy heart, and if thou sufferest for so\ndoing, thou must bear it patiently. For what Peter saith to the\nwomen he spake to, may be applied to all believers, \"whose daughters\nye are,\" saith he, meaning Sarah's, \"as long as ye do well, and\nare not afraid with any amazement\" (1 Peter 3:6).\n\nSo then, the man that has committed his soul to God to keep has\nnot at all disengaged himself from his duty, or took himself off\nfrom a perseverance in that good work that, under a suffering\ncondition, he was bound to do before. No; his very committing of\nhis soul to God to keep it has laid an engagement upon him to abide\nto God in that calling wherein he is called of God. To commit my\nsoul to God, supposes my sensibleness of hazard and danger; but\nthere is none [no danger] among men when the offence of the cross\nis ceased. To commit my soul to God to keep, concludes my resolution\nto go on in that good way of God that is so dangerous to my soul,\nif God taketh not the charge and care thereof. For he that saith\nin his heart, I will now commit my soul to God, if he knows what\nhe says, says thus: I am for holding on in a way of bearing of\nmy cross after Christ, though I come to the same end for so doing\nas he came to before me. This is committing the soul to him in\nwell-doing. Look to yourselves, therefore, whoever you are that\ntalk of leaving your souls with God, but do live loose, idle,\nprofane, and wicked lives. God will not take care of such men's\nsouls; they commit them not unto him as they should. They do but\nflatter him with their lips and lie unto him with their tongue,\nand think to deceive the Lord; but to no purpose. \"He that soweth\nto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.\" It is he that\nsows to the Spirit that shall \"reap life everlasting\" (Gal 6:7,8).\n\n[SECOND--A DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSONS WHO ARE DIRECTED TO COMMIT\nTHE KEEPING OF THEIR SOULS TO GOD.]\n\nI shall now come to the second thing contained in the text, namely,\nto give you a more distinct description of the men that are thus\nbid to commit the keeping of their souls to God. And they are thus\ndescribed: they that \"suffer according to the will of God.\" \"Let\nthem that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping\nof their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.\"\n\nTwo things are here to be inquired into. FIRST, What the apostle\nhere means by the will of God. SECOND, What suffering according\nto the will of God is.\n\nFIRST, For the will of God, it is divers ways taken in the scriptures;\nas, sometimes, for electing, justifying, sanctifying acts of God;\nsometimes for faith, good life, and sometimes for suffering for\nhis name (Rom 9; Eph 1:11; John 7:17; 1 John 3:23; 1 Thess 4:3;\nMatt 7:21). But, by will of God here we must, First, Understand\nHIS LAW AND TESTAMENT. Second, HIS ORDER AND DESIGNMENT.\n\n[THE WILL OF GOD MEANS HIS LAW AND TESTAMENT.]\n\nFirst, By his will I understand his law and testament. This\nis called the revealed will of God, or that by which he has made\nhimself, and how he will be worshiped, known unto the children\nof men. Now, I, understanding these words thus, must, before I go\nfurther, make this distinction, to wit, that there is a difference\nto be put betwixt them that suffer for the breach and those that\nsuffer for keeping of this law and testament; for though both of\nthem may suffer by the will of God, yet they are not both concerned\nin this text. A malefactor that suffereth for his evil deeds the\ndue punishment thereof, suffereth, as other texts declare, according\nto the will of God. But, I say, this text doth not concern itself\nwith them; for both this text and this epistle is writ for the\ncounsel and comfort of those that suffer for keeping the law and\ntestament of God; that suffer for well-doing (1 Peter 3:13,14,17;\n4:13,14).\n\nThe man then that is concerned in this advice is he that suffereth\nfrom the hands of men for keeping of the word of God; and this is\nhe that has licence, leave, yea, a command to commit the keeping\nof his soul to God in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. We\nwill a little enlarge upon this.\n\n[What it is to suffer according to the will of God, or his law and\ntestament.]\n\nHe that keepeth the word of God is such an one that has regard to\nboth the matter and manner thereof. The matter is the truth, the\ndoctrine contained therein; the manner is that comely, godly,\nhumble, faithful way of doing it which becomes a man that has to\ndo with the law and testament of God; and both these are contained\nin the text. For, first, here is the will of God to be done; and\nthen, secondly, to be done according to his will. \"Let them that\nsuffer according to his will\": which words, I say, take in both\nmatter and manner of doing. So then, the man that here we have\nto do with, and to discourse of, is a man that, in the sense now\ngiven, suffereth. That which makes a martyr, is suffering for the\nword of God after a right manner; and that is, when he suffereth,\nnot only for righteousness, but for righteousness' sake; not only\nfor truth, but of love to truth; not only for God's word, but\naccording to it, to wit, in that holy, humble, meek manner as the\nword of God requireth. A man may give his body to be burned for\nGod's truth, and yet be none of God's martyrs (1 Cor 13:1-3). Yea,\na man may suffer with a great deal of patience, and yet be none\nof God's martyrs (1 Peter 2:20). The one, because he wanteth that\ngrace that should poise his heart, and make him right in the manner\nof doing; the other, because he wanteth that word of the Holy One\nthat alone can make his cause good, as to matter. It is, therefore,\nmatter and manner that makes the martyr; and it is this man that\nis intended in the text which is aforesaid described. So then,\nthey that suffer for the law and testament of God in that holy\nand humble manner that the Word requires, they are they that, by\nthis Word of God, are commanded to commit the keeping of their\nsouls to God.\n\nFrom this consideration, two things present themselves to our\nsight. 1. That a man may be a Christian, and suffer, and yet not\nsuffer, in the sense last given, according to the will of God. 2.\nThere have been, and may yet be a people in the world that have,\nand may suffer in the sense of the apostle here, according to the\nwill of God.\n\n[1. A Christian may suffer, but not in the sense of the apostle,\naccording to the will of God.]\n\nA few words to the first of these, namely, that a man may be\na Christian, and suffer, and yet not suffer, in the sense of the\napostle in the text, \"according to the will of God.\" He may be\na Christian and yet not suffer as a Christian. He may want the\nmatter, or, he may want the manner, of suffering as a Christian.\n\nThis is evident from what this apostle suggests in several places\nof this epistle. For,\n\nSaith he, \"If ye be buffeted for your faults\" (1 Peter 2:20). This\nsupposeth that a Christian may so be; for he speaketh here to the\nsame people, unto whom he speaketh in the text, though he putteth\nthem not under the same circumstance, as suffering for well-doing.\nIf ye be buffeted for your faults, for what God's word calls\nfaults, what thank have you from God, or good men, though you take\nit patiently?\n\nSo again, \"For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer\nfor well-doing, than for evil-doing\" (1 Peter 3:17). Here it is\nplainly supposed that a Christian man may suffer for evil-doing, yea,\nthat the will of God may be, that he should suffer for evil-doing.\nFor God, if Christians do not well, will vindicate himself by\npunishing of them for their doing ill. Yea, and will not count\nthem worthy, though they be his own, to be put among the number\nof those that suffer for doing well.\n\nAgain, \"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or\nas an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters\" (1 Peter\n4:15). These are cautions to Christians to persuade them to take\nheed to themselves, their tongues and their actions, that all\nbe kept within the bounds of the Word. For it would be a foolish\nthing to say, that these are cautions to persuade to take heed of\nthat, into which it is not possible one should fall. It is possible\nfor Christians to suffer for evil-doing, and therefore let Christians\nbeware; it is possible for Christians to be brought to public\njustice for their faults, and therefore let Christians beware. It\nis possible for Christians to suffer justly by the hand of the\nmagistrate, and therefore let Christians beware. This also is\ninsinuated in the text itself, and therefore let Christians beware.\n\nThe causes of this are many, some of which I shall now briefly\ntouch upon.\n\n(1.) Sin is in the best of men: and as long as it is so, without\ngreat watchfulness, and humble walking with God, we may be exposed\nto shame and suffering for it. What sin is it that a child of God\nis not liable to commit, excepting that which is the sin unpardonable?\nNor have we a promise of being kept from any other sin, but on\ncondition that we do watch and pray (Matt 26:41).\n\n(2.) It is possible for a Christian to have an erroneous conscience\nin some things, yea, in such things as, if God by his grace prevents\nnot, may bring us to public justice and shame. Abishai, though a\ngood man, would have killed the king, and that of conscience to\nGod, and love to his master (1 Sam 26:7,8). And had David delivered\nhim up to Saul for his attempt, he had in all likelihood died as\na traitor. Peter drew his sword, and would have fought therewith,\na thing for which he was blamed of his Master, and bid with a\nthreatening, to put it up again (Matt 26:52). Besides, oppression\nmakes a wise man mad; and when a man is mad what evils will he not\ndo? Further, The devil, who is the great enemy of the Christians,\ncan send forth such spirits into the world as shall not only disturb\nmen, but nations, kings, and kingdoms, in raising divisions,\ndistractions and rebellions. And can so manage matters that\nthe looser sort of Christians19 may be also dipped and concerned\ntherein. In Absalom's conspiracy against his father, there were\ntwo hundred men called out of Jerusalem to follow him, \"and they\nwent in their simplicity, not knowing any thing\" (2 Sam 15:11). I\nthank God I know of no such men, nor thing: but my judgment tells\nme, that if Christians may be drawn into fornication, adultery,\nmurder, theft, blasphemy or the like, as they may; why should it\nbe thought impossible for them to be drawn in here. Wherefore I\nsay again, watch and pray, fear God, reverence his Word, approve\nof his appointments, that you may be delivered from every evil\nwork and way. I said afore that the will of God may be, that a\nChristian should suffer as an evil-doer; but then it is because\nhe keepeth not within the bounds of that, which is also called\nthe will of God. The will of God is, that sin should be punished,\nthough committed by the Christians; punished according to the\nquality of transgressions: and therefore it is that he hath ordained\nmagistrates. Magistrates, to punish sin, though it be the sin of\nChristians. They are the ministers of God, revengers, to execute\nwrath, the wrath of God upon them that do evil (Rom 13). Wherefore,\nthough the Christian as a Christian is the only man at liberty,\nas called thereunto of God; yet his liberty is limited to things\nthat are good: he is not licensed thereby to indulge the flesh.\nHoliness and liberty are joined together, yea our call to liberty,\nis a call to holiness.20 Seek, and you shall find, that a quiet\nand peaceable life, in our respective places, under the government,\nis that which we should pray for, to wit, that we may without\nmolestation, if it were \"the will of God,\" spend our days in all\ngodliness and honesty among our neighbours. See 1 Timothy 2:1-8;\n1 Peter 2:13-17.\n\n[First. Caution to Christians as Christians.]--I would improve\nthis a little, and first, to Christians as Christians: beware the\ncautions, that are here presented to you, be not neglected by\nyou. The evils are burning hot, as hot as a red hot iron. It is\nthe greatest blemish that can be to a Christian, to suffer as an\nevil-doer. To say nothing of the reproach that such do bring to\nthe name of Christ, their Lord; to his law, their rule; and to\nthe Christian profession, which should be their glory: the guilt\nand shame that evil actions will load the conscience with at such\na time, can hardly be stood under. The man that suffereth as an\nevil-doer, and yet weareth the name of a Christian, what stumbling\nblocks doth he lay in the way of the ignorant in a kingdom? The\ndevil told them before, that a Christian was a mischievous man; and\nto suffer for evil-doing, confirms them in that belief. Consider\nalso the difficulties that surely such must meet with in the last\nminutes of their life. For can it be imagined but that such an one\nmust have combats and conflicts at the last, who carry in their\nconsciences the guilt and condemnation that is due to their deeds,\nto the place which magistrates have appointed for them to receive\nthe reward of their works at. Such an one bereaves not only his\nown soul of peace, and his name of credit, but himself of life,\nhis friends of all cause of rejoicing, and casteth reproach upon\nreligion, as he is stepping out of the world. What shall I say,\nChristians as Christians have other things to do than to concern\nthemselves in evil things, or to meddle in other men's matters.\nLet us mind our own business, and leave the magistrate to his\nwork, office and calling among men also.\n\nI speak now to them that are not by the king called to that employ.\nA Christian as such has enough to do at home, in his heart, in\nhis house, in his shop, and the like. But if thou must needs be\nmeddling, consider what place, office, calling or relation, God\nhas put thee in, and busy thyself by the rule of the Word to a\nconscientious performance of that. Nor shalt thou want dignity,\nthough thou art but a private Christian. Every Christian man is\nmade a king by Christ (Rev 5:10). But then, his dominion as such,\ndoth reach no further than to himself. He has not dominion over\nanother's faith (2 Cor 1:24). His office is to govern, and bridle,\nand keep under, himself; to watch over himself, and to bring his\nbody into subjection to the will of God. The weapons that he has\nfor this purpose are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through\nGod. Let him govern then, if he will be a governor, his whole man\nby the Word. Let him bring down, if he must be bringing down, his\nown high imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself\nagainst the knowledge of God. If he must be a warrior, let him\nlevy war against his own unruly passions, and let him fight against\nthose lusts that war against his soul21 (2 Cor 10:3-5; Gal 5:17;\nJames 3:3-8; 1 Peter 2:11).\n\nI say therefore, if thou wilt needs be a ruler, thou hast a tongue,\nrule that; lusts, rule them; affections, govern them; yea, thou hast\nexcellent graces, manage them, cherish, strengthen and replenish\nthem according to the mind of that great one who has bestowed such\npower to rule, upon thee. Mortify therefore your members which are\nupon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,\nevil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Col 3:5).\nNor do I think that murmuring, shrinking, wincing, complaining,\nand the like, when men, governors, lay a yoke upon our necks,\nflow from any thing else, but love to our flesh, and distrust of\nthe faithfulness of God to manage men, things, and actions for\nhis church. The powers that be are ordered as well as ordained of\nGod. They are also always in God's hand, as his rod or staff for\nthe good and benefit of his people. Wherefore we ought with all\nmeekness and humbleness of mind to accept of what our God by them\nshall please to lay upon us (1 Peter 5:6). By what I now say, I do\nnot forbid groaning and crying to God under affliction. I speak\nagainst striving to deliver ourselves from the affliction. And\nsince men are, as I said, the rod, staff or sword in God's hand,\nwe should apply ourselves unto him in faith in a way of prayer,\nintercession, supplication and giving of thanks for governors. For\nsince they are sent of God, they must needs come with some good in\ntheir hand for us, also our prayers may make them more profitable\nto us. And this we ought to do without wrath and doubting; for\nthis is that which is good, and acceptable unto God (1 Tim 2).\n\nBesides, it is a sign that we forget ourselves when we complain for\nthe punishment of our sins. If we look into ourselves, and ways,\nwe shall see cause of more heavy stripes than yet God by men has\nlaid upon us. What sin has yet been suppressed by all that has\nhappened to us: if pride, covetousness, looseness, treacherous\ndealing, schisms, and other things, redressed by all the affliction\nthat we have had? Yea, do we not grow worse and worse? Wherefore\nthen should we complain? Where is repentance, reformation, and\namendment of life amongst us? Why, then, do we shrink and winch.\nFor my part, I have ofttimes stood amazed both at the mercy of\nGod, and the favour of the Prince towards us; and can give thanks\nto God for both: and do make it my prayer to God for the king, and\nthat God will help me with meekness and patience to bear whatever\nshall befall me for my professed subjection to Christ, by men.\n\nWe are bid, as I said afore, to give thanks to God for all men,\nfor kings, and for all that are in authority. Because, as I said,\nthere is no man with whom we have to do, we doing as we should,\nbut he bringeth some good thing to us, or doth some good thing for\nus. We will now descend from them that are supreme in authority,\nand will come to inferior men: and suppose some of them to act\nbeyond measure, cruelly. What? Can no good thing come to us out\nof this? Do not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh,\ntend to awaken Christians to faith and prayer, to a sight of the\nemptiness of this world, and the fadingness of the best it yields?\nDoth not God by these things ofttimes call our sins to remembrance,\nand provoke us to amendment of life? how then can we be offended\nat things by which we reap so much good, and at things that God\nmakes so profitable for us? Doth not God, ofttimes, even take\noccasions by the hardest of things that come upon us, to visit our\nsouls with the comforts of his Spirit, to lead us into the glory\nof his word, and to cause us to savour that love that he has had\nfor us, even from before the world began, till now. A nest of bees\nand honey did Samson find, even in the belly of that lion that\nroared upon him. And is all this no good? or can we be without\nsuch holy appointments of God? Let these things be considered by\nus, and let us learn like Christians to kiss the rod, and love\nit.\n\nI have thought, again, my brethren, since it is required of us\nthat we give thanks to God for all these men, it follows that we\ndo with quietness submit ourselves under what God shall do to us\nby them. For it seems a paradox to me, to give thanks to God for\nthem, that yet I am not willing should abide in that place that\nGod has set them in for me. I will then love them, bless them,\npray for them, and do them good. I speak now of the men that hurt\nme as was hinted afore. And I will do thus, because it is good\nso to do, because they do me good by hurting of me, because I\nam called to inherit a blessing, and because I would be like my\nheavenly Father. \"Therefore if mine enemy hunger, let me feed him;\nif he thirst, let me give him drink\" 22 (Matt 5:43-48; 1 Peter 3:9;\nRom 12:17-20). (1.) We must see good in that, in which other men\ncan see none. (2.) We must pass by those injuries that other men\nwould revenge. (3.) We must shew we have grace, and that we are\nmade to bear what other men are not acquainted with. (4.) Many of\nour graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death\nof other men's souls.\n\nWhere can the excellency of our patience, of our meekness, of our\nlong-suffering, of our love, and of our faith appear, if it be\nnot under trials, and in those things that run cross to our flesh?\nThe devil, they say, is good when he is pleased. But Christ and\nhis saints, when displeased.23\n\nLet us therefore covet to imitate Christ and the scripture saints.\nLet us shew out of a good conversation, our works with meekness\nof wisdom. Let us take heed of admitting the least thought in our\nminds of evil, against God, the king, or them that are under him\nin employ, because, the cup, the king, all men, and things are\nin the hand of God (Psa 75:8; Prov 8:15; 21:1; Lam 3:37). And he\ncan make them better to us, than if they were as our flesh desireth\nthey should.\n\nI have often thought that the best Christians are found in the\nworst of times: and I have thought again, that one reason why we\nare no better, is because God purges us no more (John 15). I know\nthese things are against the grain of the flesh, but they are not\nagainst the graces of the Spirit. Noah and Lot, who so holy as\nthey, in the day of their affliction? Noah and Lot, who so idle\nas they in the day of their prosperity? I might have put in David\ntoo, who, while he was afflicted, had ways of serving God that were\nspecial; but when he was more enlarged, he had ways that were not\nso good. Wherefore the first ways of David are the ways that God\nhas commended: but the rest of his ways, such as had not pre-eminence\n(2 Chron 17:3).\n\nWe have need of all, and of more than all that has yet befallen\nus: and are to thank God, since his word and patience have done no\nmore good to us, that he hath appointed men to make us better.24\nWherefore for a conclusion, as we are to receive with meekness the\nengrafted word of God, so also we are with patience to bear what\nGod, by man, shall lay upon us. O that saying of God to them of old,\n\"Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for\nthe multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased,\nI have done these things unto thee\" (Jer 30:15). We have need\nto consider of, and to sit still and be quiet, and reverence the\nordinance of God: I mean affliction. And until we can in truth\nget hither in our spirits, I neither look to find very right\nChristianity amongst us, nor much of God among professors. When I\nthink of Mordecai, and Daniel, yea, and of David too, and of the\nbehaviour of them all with respect to the powers that they were\nunder, I cannot but think that a sweet, meek, quiet, loving, godly\nsubmission unto men for the Lord's sake, is an excellent token of\nthe grace of God in us. But,\n\n[Second Caution to Weak Christians.]--As I cannot but condemn\nthe actions of such Christians as have been touched before, so I\nwould caution weak Christians not to be offended with true religion\nfor the miscarriages of their fellows. There are two things that\nare very apt to be an occasion of offence to the weak: one is,\nwhen the cross attends religion; the other is, when others that\nprofess religion do suffer for evil-doing. To both these I would\nsay this:--\n\n1. Though the cross, indeed, is grievous to the flesh, yet we\nshould with grace bear up under it, and not be offended at it.\n\n2. And as to the second, though we should and ought to be offended\nwith such miscarriage; yet not with religion, because of such\nmiscarriage. Some, indeed, when they see these things, take offence\nagainst religion itself; yea, perhaps, are glad of the occasion,\nand so fall out with Jesus Christ, saying to him, because of the\nevils that attend his ways, as the ten tribes said to Rehoboam, the\nson of Solomon the king, \"What portion have we in David? neither\nhave we inheritance in the son of Jesse; to your tents, O Israel:\nnow see to thine own house, David,\" (1 Kings 12:16); and so go\nquite away from him, and cleave no more unto him, to his people,\nor to his ways: but this is bad. Shun, therefore, the evil ways\nof Christians, but cleave to the way that is Christian: cast away\nthat bad spirit that thou seest in any, but hold fast to thy Head\nand Lord. Whither canst thou go? the Lord Jesus has the words\nof eternal life (John 6:68). Whither wilt thou go? there is\nnot salvation in any other (Acts 4:12). Take heed, therefore, of\npicking a quarrel with Jesus Christ, and with his ways, because\nof the evil-doings of some of his followers. Judas sold him, Peter\ndenied him, and many of his disciples went back and did walk no\nmore with him; but neither himself nor his ways were the worse\nfor that. Beware, therefore, that thou truly distinguish between\nthe good ways of Jesus Christ and the evil ways of them that\nprofess him; and take not an occasion to throw away thy own soul\ndown the throat of hell, because others have vilely cast away\ntheir lives by transgressing of the law of God. Nay, let other\nmen's faults make thee more wary; let other men's falls make thee\nlook better to thy goings: shun the rock that he that went before\nthee did split his ship against; and cry to God to lead thee in\na path that is plain and good, because of thy observers.\n\nFurther, Let not opposite Christians rejoice when they see that\nevil hath taken their brother by the heel. Hate the garment, the\nthing that is bad, and by which the name, and fame, and life of\nthy brother is so vilely cast away, thou shouldest; and take good\nheed lest it also touch thee, but yet thou shouldest pity thy\nbrother, mourn for his hard hap, and grieve that a thing so much\nunbecoming Christianity should be suffered to show the least part\nof itself among any of those that profess the gospel.\n\nDirections for the shunning of suffering for evil-doing, are they\nthat come next to hand.\n\nDirection 1. Therefore, wouldest thou not suffer as an evil-doer,\nthen take heed of committing of evil. Evil courses bring to evil\nends; shun all appearance of evil, and ever follow that which is\ngood. And if ye be followers of that which is good, who will harm\nyou (1 Peter 3:13)? Or if there should be such enemies to goodness\nin the world as to cause thee for that to suffer, thou needest\nnot be ashamed of thy suffering for well-doing, nor can there be\na good man, but he will dare to own and stand by thee in it. Yea,\nthy sufferings for that will make thee happy, so that thou canst\nby no means be a loser thereby.\n\nDirection 2. Wouldest thou not suffer for evil-doing, then take heed\nof the occasions of evil. Take heed of tempting company. Beware\nof men, for they will deliver thee up. There have been men in\nthe world that have sought to make themselves out of the ruins of\nother men. This did Judas, and some of the Pharisees (Matt 10:17;\nLuke 20:19,20). Take heed to thy mouth: \"A fool's mouth calleth\nfor strokes,--and his lips are the snare of his soul\" (Prov 18:7).\nTake heed of indulging, and hearkening to the ease of the flesh,\nand of carnal reasonings, for that will put thee upon wicked\nthings.\n\nDirection 3. Wouldest thou not suffer as an evil-doer, then take\nheed of hearing of any thing spoken that is not according to sound\ndoctrine: thou must withdraw thyself from such in whom thou perceivest\nnot the words of knowledge. Let not talk against governors, against\npowers, against men in authority be admitted; keep thee far from\nan evil matter. My son, says Solomon, fear thou the Lord, and the\nKing, and meddle not with those that are given to change.\n\nDirection 4. Wouldest thou not suffer as an evil-doer, addict not\nthyself to play with evil, 25 to joke and jest, and mock at men\nin place and power. Gaal mocked at Abimelech, and said, Who is\nAbimelech that we should serve him? But he paid for his disdainful\nlanguage at last (Judg 9). I have heard of an innkeeper here in\nEngland, whose sign was the crown, and he was a merry man. Now he\nhad a boy, of whom he used to say, when he was jovial among his\nguests, This boy is heir to the crown, or this boy shall be heir\nto the crown; and if I mistake not the story, for these words he\nlost his life.26 It is bad jesting with great things, with things\nthat are God's ordinance, as kings and governors are. Yea, let them\nrather have that fear, that honour, that reverence, that worship,\nthat is due to their place, their office, and dignity. How Paul\ngave honour and respect unto those that were but deputy-kings and\nheathen magistrates, will greatly appear, if you do but read his\ntrials before them in the book called, The Acts of the Apostles.\nAnd what a charge both he and Peter have left behind them to the\nchurches to do so too, may be found to conviction, if we read\ntheir epistles.\n\nDirection 5. Wouldest thou not suffer for evil-doing, then take\nheed of being offended with magistrates, because by their state\nacts they may cross thy inclinations. It is given to them to bear\nthe sword, and a command is to thee, if thy heart cannot acquiesce\nwith all things with meekness and patience, to suffer. Discontent\nin the mind sometimes puts discontent into the mouth; and discontent\nin the mouth doth sometimes also put a halter about the neck. For\nas a man, by speaking a word in jest may for that be hanged in\nearnest; so he that speaks in discontent may die for it in sober\nsadness. Adonijah's discontent put him upon doing that which cost\nhim his life (1 Kings 2:13,23). Great peace have they that love\nthy law, and nothing shall offend them; for they are subjected to\nthe will and foot of God.\n\nDirection 6. But, above all, get thy conscience possessed yet more\nwith this, that the magistrate is God's ordinance, and is ordered\nof God as such: that he is the minister of God to thee for good,\nand that it is thy duty to fear him, and pray for him, to give\nthanks to God for him, and to be subject to him as both Paul and\nPeter admonish us; and that not only for wrath, but for conscience\nsake (Rom 13:5). For all other arguments come short of binding\nthe soul, where this argument is wanting; until we believe that\nof God we are bound thereto. I speak not these things, as knowing\nany that are disaffected to the government; for I love to be\nalone, if not with godly men, in things that are convenient. But\nbecause I appear thus in public, and know not into whose hands\nthese lines may come, therefore thus I write. I speak it also to\nshow my loyalty to the king, and my love to my fellow-subjects;\nand my desire that all Christians should walk in ways of peach\nand truth.\n\n[2. That Christians may, and have, suffered according to the will\nof God.]\n\nI come now to the second thing propounded to be spoken to, as to\nsuffering, which is this.--That there have been, and yet may be,\na people in the world that have, and may, suffer in the sense of\nthe apostle here, according to the will of God, or for righteousness'\nsake.\n\nThat there have been such a people in the world, I think nobody\nwill deny, because many of the prophets, Christ, and his apostles,\nthus suffered. Besides, since the Scriptures were written, all\nnations can witness to this, whose histories tell at large of\nthe patience and goodness of the sufferers, and of the cruelty of\nthose that did destroy them. And that the thing will yet happen,\nor come to pass again, both Scripture and reason affirm.\n\nFirst, Scripture. The text tells us, That God hath put enmity\nbetwixt the woman and her seed, and the serpent and his seed (Gen\n3:15). This enmity put, is so fixed that none can remove it so,\nbut that it still will remain in the world. These two seeds have\nalways had, and will have, that which is essentially opposite\nto one another, and they are \"the spirit of truth and the spirit\nof error\" (1 John 4:6), sin and righteousness (3:7,8), light and\ndarkness (1 Thess 5:5). Hence \"an unjust man is an abomination\nto the just; and he that is upright in the way is abomination to\nthe wicked\" (Prov 29:27). So that unless you could sanctify and\nregenerate all men, or cause that no more wicked men should any\nwhere be in power for ever, you cannot prevent but that sometimes\nstill there must be sufferers for righteousness' sake. \"Yea, and\nall that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution\"\n(2 Tim 3:12).\n\nSecond, To prove this by reason is easy. The devil is not yet shut\nup in the bottomless pit--Antichrist is yet alive. The government\nin all kingdoms is not yet managed with such light, and goodness\nof mind, as to let the saints serve God, as he has said, whatever\nit is in some. And until then there will be in some places, though\nfor my part I cannot predict where, a people that will yet suffer\nfor well-doing, or for righteousness' sake.\n\nIn order to a right handling of this matter, I shall divide this\nhead into these two parts--A. Show you what it is to suffer for\nwell-doing, or for righteousness. B. Show you what it is to suffer\nfor righteousness' sake. I put this distinction, because I find\nthat it is one thing to suffer for righteousness, and another to\nsuffer for righteousness' sake.\n\n[A. What it is to suffer for righteousness.]\n\nTo begin with the first, namely, to show you what it is to suffer\nfor righteousness. Now that may be done either passively or actively.\n\n1. Passively, as when any suffer for righteousness without their own\nwill, or consent thereto. Thus, the little children at Bethlehem\nsuffered by the hands of bloody Herod, when they died for, or\nin the room and stead of, Jesus Christ (Matt 2:16). Every one of\nthose children died for righteousness, if Christ is righteousness;\nfor they died upon his account, as being supposed to be he himself.\nThus also the children of Israel's little ones, that were murdered\nwith their parents, or otherwise, because of the religion of them\nthat begat and bare them, died for righteousness. The same may\nbe said concerning those of them that suffered in the land of the\nChaldeans upon the same account. I might here also bring in those\npoor infants that in Ireland, Piedmont, Paris, and other places,\nhave had their throats cut, and their brains dashed out against\nthe walls, for none other cause but for the religion of their\nfathers. Many, many have suffered for righteousness after this\nmanner. Their will, nor consent, has been in the suffering, yet\nthey have suffered for religion, for righteousness. And as this\nhath been, so it may be again; for if men may yet suffer for\nrighteousness, even so, for ought I know, even in this sense, may\ntheir children also.\n\nNow, although this is not the chief matter of my text, yet a few\nwords here may do no harm. The children that thus suffer, though\ntheir own will and consent be not in what they undergo, may yet,\nfor all that, be accepted as an offering unto the Lord. Their\ncause is good; it is for religion and righteousness. Their hearts\ndo not recoil against the cause for which they suffer; and although\nthey are children, God can deal with them as with John the Baptist,\ncause them in a moment to leap for joy of Christ; or else can save\nthem by his grace, as he saveth other his elect infants, and thus\ncomprehend them, though they cannot apprehend him; yea, why may\nthey not only be saved, but in some sense be called martyrs of\nJesus Christ, and those that have suffered for God's cause in the\nworld? God comforted Rachel concerning her children that Herod\nmurdered in the stead, and upon the account of Christ.27\n\nHe bids her refrain herself from tears, by this promise, that her\nchildren should come again from the land of the enemy, from death.\nAnd again, said he, Thy children shall come again to their own\nborder; which I think, if it be meant in a gospel sense, must be\nto the heavenly inheritance. Compare Jeremiah 31:15-17 with Matthew\n2:18.28\n\nAnd methinks this should be mentioned, not only for her and their\nsakes, but to comfort all those that either have had, or yet may\nhave, their children thus suffer for righteousness. None of these\nthings, as shall be further showed anon, happen without the determinate\ncounsel of God. He has ordered the sufferings of little children\nas well as that of persons more in years. And it is easy to think\nthat God can as well foresee which of his elect shall suffer by\nviolent hands in their infancy, as which of them shall then die\na natural death. He has saints small in age as well as in esteem\nor otherwise and sometimes the least member of the body suffereth\nviolence, as well as the head or other chief parts. And although\nI desire not to see these days again, yet methinks it will please\nme to see those little ones that thus have already suffered for\nJesus, to stand in their white robes with the elders of their\npeople, before the throne, to sing unto the Lamb.\n\n2. Actively. But to pass this, and to come to that which is more\ndirectly intended to be spoken to, namely, to show you who doth\nactively suffer for righteousness. And,\n\n(1.) It is he that chooseth by his own will and consent to suffer\nfor it. All suffering that can be called active suffering, must\nbe by the consent of the will; and that is done when a man shall\nhave sin and suffering set before him, and shall choose suffering\nrather than sin. He chose \"rather to suffer affliction with the\npeople of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season\"\n(Heb 11:25). And again, They did not accept of deliverance, that\nis, of base and unworthy terms, \"that they might obtain a better\nresurrection\" (verse 35).\n\nIndeed, no man can force a Christian to suffer as a Christian,\nwithout his own consent. All Christians are sufferers of will and\nconsent. Hence it is said, they must take up their cross, by which\ntaking up, an act of their will is intended (Matt 10:38; 16:24).\nSo again, \"Take my yoke upon you,\" which also intends an act of\nthe will (11:29). This, therefore, is the first thing that I would\npresent you with. Not that an act of the will is enough to declare\na man a sufferer for righteousness, it standing alone; for a man,\nthrough the strength of delusion, and the power of an erroneous\nconscience, may be willing to suffer for the grossest opinions\nin the world. But I bring it to show that actual suffering for\nrighteousness must also be by the consent of the will--the mind\nof the man must be in it.\n\n(2.) He that suffereth for righteousness thus, must also have a\ngood cause. A good cause is that which is essential to suffering\nfor righteousness. A good cause, what is that? Why, verily, it is\nthe truth of God, either in the whole of it, as contained in the\nScriptures of truth, or in the parts of it, as set before me to\nbelieve, or do, by any part of that holy Word. This may be called\nthe matter for which one suffereth; or, as it is called in another\nplace, \"the word of righteousness\" (Heb 5:13). It may also be\ncalled the form of sound doctrine, or the like. Because without\nthis Word, the matter and nature of God's truths cannot be known.\nPilate's question, \"What is truth?\" will still abide a question,\nto those that have not, or regard not the Word, the rule of\nrighteousness (John 18:38). See then that thy cause be good, thou\nthat wouldest know what it is to suffer for righteousness; step\nnot an hair's breadth without the bounds of the Word of truth;\nalso take heed of misunderstanding, or of wringing out of its\nplace, any thing that is there. Let the words of the upright stand\nupright, warp them not, to the end they may comply in show with\nany crooked notion. And to prevent this, take these three words\nas a guide, in this matter to thee. They show men their sins, and\nhow to close with a Saviour; they enjoin men to be holy and humble;\nthey command men to submit themselves to authority. And whatever\nis cross to these, comes from ignorance of, or from wresting, the\nrule of righteousness out of its place.\n\nBut more particularly, the word of righteousness--thy cause,\nwithin the bounds of which thou must keep, if thou wilt suffer for\nrighteousness, is to be divided into two parts. (1.) It containeth\na revelation of moral righteousness. (2.) It containeth a revelation\nof evangelical righteousness. As for moral righteousness, men\nseldom suffer; only, for that. Because that is the righteousness\nof the world, and that, simply as such, that sets itself up in\nevery man's conscience, and has a testimony for itself, even in\nthe light of nature. Besides, there is nothing that maketh head\nagainst that; but that which every man is ashamed, by words to\nplead for, and that is immorality. And this is that which Peter\nintends when he saith, \"And if ye be followers of that which is\ngood, who will harm you?\" (1 Peter 3:13). If ye be followers of\nmoral goodness. But if it should so happen, for the case is rare,\nthat any man should make you sufferers because you love God, and\ndo good to your neighbour, happy are ye. Though I do not think\nthat the apostle's conclusion terminates there. But more of these\nthings anon.\n\nFor let a man be a good neighbour in morals; let him feed the hungry,\nclothe the naked, give freely out of his purse to the poor, and\ndo that which he would another should do to him; and stop there,\nand not meddle with the name of Christ, and he shall have but few\nenemies in the world. For it is not the law, but Christ, that is\nthe stumbling-block, and the rock of offence to men (Isa 8:14,15;\nRom 9:31-33).\n\nWherefore, there is in God's Word a revelation of another\nrighteousness--a righteousness which is not so visible to, yea,\nand that suiteth not so with, the reason of man as that moral\nrighteousness doth. Wherefore this righteousness makes men righteous\nin principle, and practise so, as is foreign to natural men. Hence\nit is said to be foolishness to them (1 Cor 2:14). And again,\n\"Its praise is not of men\" (Rom 2:29). This righteousness is also\nrevealed in the Scriptures, but the blind cannot see it. It is\nthe work of the Holy Ghost in the heart, and is therefore called\nthe fruits of the Spirit; and the grace, which in the head and\nfullness of it, is only to be found in Christ (John 1:16; Col\n1:19; 1 Tim 1:14). This righteousness being planted in the heart,\nleads a man out by the Word of God, to seek for another righteousness,\nas invisible to, and foreign from, the natural man, as this. And\nthat righteousness is that which properly is the righteousness of\nJesus Christ--a righteousness that standeth in his obedience to\nhis Father's law, as he was considered a common or public person--a\nrighteousness which he brought into the world, not for himself,\nas considered in a private capacity, but for those that shall by\nfaith venture themselves upon him, to obtain by him life eternal\n(Rom 5:19; Phil 3:7-10).\n\nAgain, This closing by faith, with this righteousness thus found\nin Christ, and being taken therewith, leads me yet to another\nrighteousness, which is instituted worship, appointed by Christ,\nfor all his followers to be conversant in; this worship is grounded\non positive precepts, and so on words of righteousness, called\nChrist's words, Christ's sayings, &c.\n\nNow, upon this bottom begins the difference betwixt the men of God\nand the world. For, first, by this inward principle of righteousness\nwe come to see, and say, that men by nature are not Christians, what\nprivileges soever they may account themselves partakers thereof.\nBut whosoever is a Christian, of God's making so, is begotten and\nborn of God, and made a new creature by the anointing received\nfrom the Holy One (James 1:18; John 3:3,5; 2 Cor 5:17,18; 1:21;\n1 John 2:20,24,27). Now, this these carnal men cannot endure to\nhear of; because it quite excludes them, as such, from a share\nin the kingdom of heaven. To this, again, the Christian stands\nand backs what he says by the Word of God. Then the game begins,\nand the men of the world are thoughtful how they may remove such\ntroublesome fellows out of the way. But because the Christians\nlove their neighbours, and will not let them thus easily die in\ntheir sins, therefore they contend with them, both by reasonings,\nwritings, sermons, and books of gospel divinity; and stand to what\nthey say. The world, again, are angry with these sayings, sermons,\nand books, for that by them they are concluded to be persons that\nare without repentance, and the hope of eternal life. Here again,\nthe carnal world judges that these people are proud, self-willed,\npragmatical, contentious, self-conceited, and so unsufferable people.\nThe Christian yet goes on and stands to what he has asserted. Then\nthe poor world at their last shift begins to turn, and overturn\nthe gospel-man's sayings; perverting, forcing, stretching, and\ndismembering of them; and so making of them speak what was never\nthought, much less intended by the believer.\n\nThus they served our Lord; for, not being able to down with29 his\ndoctrine, they began to pervert his words, and to make, as also\nthey said afterwards of Luther's, some offensive, some erroneous,\nsome treasonable, and that both against God and Caesar, and so they\nhanged him up, hoping there to put an end to things. But this is\nbut the beginning of things; for the Christian man, by the word\nof the gospel, goes further with his censure. For he also findeth\nfault with all that this man, by the ability of nature, can do\nfor the freeing himself from the law of sin and death. He condemns\nhim by the Word, because he is in a state of nature, and he\ncondemneth also whatever, while in that state, he doth, as that\nwhich by no means can please God (Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6). This now\nputs him more out; this is a taking of his gods away from him.\nThis is to strip him of his raiment, such as it is, and to turn\nhim naked into the presence of God. This, I say, puts him out and\nout. These wild-brained fellows, quote he, are never content, they\nfind fault with us as to our state; they find fault with us as to\nour works, our best works. They blame us because we are sinners,\nand they find fault with us, though we mend; they say, by nature\nwe are no Christians, and that our best doings will not make\nus such. What would they have us do? Thus, therefore, they renew\ntheir quarrel; but the Christian man cannot help it, unless he\nwould see them go to hell, and saying nothing. For the Word of God\ndoth as assuredly condemn man's righteousness, as it doth condemn\nman's sin; it condemneth not man's righteousness among men, for\nthere it is good and profitable (Job 35:6-8), but with God, to\nsave the soul, it is no better than filthy rags (Isa 64:6). Nor\nwill this Christian man suffer these carnal ones to delude themselves\nwith a change of terms; for the devil, who is the great manager\nof carnal men in things that concern their souls, and in the plea\nthat they make for themselves, will help them to tricks and shifts\nto evade the power of the Word of God. Teaching them to call\nthe beauties of nature grace, and the acts of natural powers the\nexercise of the graces of the Spirit, he will embolden them also\nto call man's righteousness the righteousness of Christ, and that\nby which a sinner may be justified in the sight of God from the\nlaw. These tricks the Christian sees, and being faithful to God's\ntruth, and desiring the salvation of his neighbour, he laboureth\nto discover the fallacy of, and to propound better terms for this\npoor creature to embrace, and venture his soul upon; which terms\nare warranted by the New Testament, a stranger to which the natural\nman is. But, I say, the things which the Christian presseth, being\nso foreign to nature, and lying so cross to man's best things, are\npresently judged by the natural man to be fables or foolishness\n(1 Cor 2:14). Wherefore here again, he takes another occasion to\nmaintain his strife, and contention against the righteous man;\nraising of slanders upon him, and laying things to his charge that\nhe understandeth not; charging also his doctrine with many grievous\nthings. Namely, that he holdeth that man was made to be damned;\nthat man's righteousness is no better than sin; that a man had as\ngood to do ill as well; that we may believe, and do what we list;\nthat holiness pleaseth not God; and that sinning is the way to cause\ngrace to abound. Besides, say they, he condemneth good motions,\nand all good beginnings of heart to God-ward; he casteth away that\ngood we have, and would have us depend upon a justice to save us\nby, that we can by no means approve of. And thus the quarrel is\nmade yet wider between the men of the world and Christian man.\nBut there is not a stop put here.\n\nFor it is possible for the carnal man to be beaten out of all his\narguments for himself and his own things, by the power and force\nof the Word; and to be made to consent to what the Christian has\nsaid as to the notion of the truth. I must not speak this of all.\nBut yet the breach doth still abide; for that yet there appears\nto be no more with the man, but only the notion of things. For\nthough the notion of things are those that of God are made the\nmeans of conveying of grace into the heart, yet grace is not always\nwith the notion of things; the Word ofttimes standeth in man's\nunderstanding alone, and remaineth there, as not being accompanied\nwith such grace as can make it the power of God to salvation. Now,\nwhen it is thus with the soul, the danger is as great as ever,\nbecause there is a presumption now begotten in the heart that\nthe man is in a saved condition,--a presumption, I say, instead\nof faith, which puffeth up, instead of enabling the soul after a\ngodly manner to depend upon God for mercy through Christ. This is\ncalled the word of them that are puffed up; the word only, because\nnot accompanied with saving grace (1 Cor 4:19; 8:1; 1 Thess 1:5).\n\nThis the Christian also sees, and says it is too weak to conduct\nthe soul to glory. And this, indeed, he says, because he would not\nthat his neighbour should come short home. But neither can this be\nborne; but here again, the natural man with his notion of things\nis offended; and takes pet against his friend, because he tells\nhim the truth, and would that he so should digest the truth, that\nit may prove unto him eternal life. Wherefore he now begins to\nfall out again, for as yet the enmity is not removed; he therefore\ncounts him an unmerciful man, one that condemneth all to hell but\nhimself; and as to his singularity in things, those he counteth\nfor dreams, for enthusiasms, for allegorical whimsies, vain\nrevelations, and the effects of an erroneous judgment. For the\nLord has put such darkness betwixt Egypt and Israel, as will not\nsuffer them to come together. But this is not all.\n\nFor it is possible for these carnal men to be so much delighted\nin the notion of things, as to addict themselves to some kind\nof worship of Christ, whose notions of truth have by them been\nreceived. And because their love is yet but carnal, and because\nthe flesh is swelling, and is pleased with pomp and sumptuousness,\ntherefore, to show how great an esteem such have for Christ, whom\nthey are now about to worship, they will first count his testament,\nthough good, a thing defective, and not of fullness sufficient\nto give, in all particular things, direction how they should, to\ntheir own content, perform their glorious doctrine. For here and\nthere, and in another place, cry they, there is something wanting.\nHere, say they, is nothing said of those places, vestures, gestures,\nshows, and outward greatness that we think seemly to be found in\nand with those that worship Jesus. Here wants sumptuous ceremonies,\nglorious ornaments, new fashioned carriages, 30 all which are\nnecessary to adorn worship withal.\n\nBut now here again, the truly godly, as he comes to see the evil of\nthings, maketh his objections, and findeth fault, and counts them\nunprofitable and vain (Isa 29; Matt 15; Mark 7). But they again,\nseeing the things they have made are the very excellencies of human\ninvention, and things added as a supplement to make up what, and\nwherein, as they think, that man that was faithful over his own\nhouse as a son was defective. They are resolved to stand upon\ntheir points, and not to budge an inch from the things that are so\nlaudable, so necessary, so convenient, and so comely; the things\nthat have been judged good, by so many wise, learned, pious, holy,\nreverend, and good men. Nay, if this were all, the godly would\nmake a good shift; but their zeal is so great for what they have\ninvented, and their spirits so hot to make others couch and bend\nthereto, that none must be suffered to their power to live and\nbreathe, that refuseth to conform thereto.31 This has been proved\ntoo true, both in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and other places;\nand upon this account it is that persecution has been kept alive\nso many hundred years in some places against the church of God.\n\nFrom what has been said as to these things, this I collect as the\nsum--First, That man by nature is in a state of wrath and condemnation\n(Eph 2:1-4; John 3:18). Secondly, That the natural man, by all\nhis natural abilities, is not able to recover himself from this\nhis condemned condition (John 6:44; Eph 1:19,20). Thirdly, That\na man may have right notions of gospel things, that hath no grace\nin his heart (1 Cor 13:2,3). Fourthly, That to add human inventions\nto Christ's institutions, and to make them of the same force and\nnecessity, of the same authority and efficacy, is nought; and not\nto be subjected to (Isa 29:13; Matt 15:8,9; Mark 7:6,7).\n\nSo then, he that saith these things, saith true; for the Scriptures\nsay the same. This, then, is a good cause to suffer for, if men\nwill that I shall suffer for saying so; because it is that which\nis founded upon the Word of God; and the Word is the ground and\nfoundation of all true doctrine. Let him, then, that believeth\nwhat is here discoursed, and that liveth soberly and peaceably in\nthis belief among his neighbours, stand by what he hath received,\nand rejoice that he hath found the truth. And if any shall afflict\nor trouble him for holding of these things, they afflict or trouble\nhim for holding to good things; and he suffereth at their hands\nbecause his cause is good.\n\nAnd such an one may with boldness, as to this, make his appeal to\nthe Bible, which is the foundation of his principles, and to God\nthe author of that foundation, if what he holds is not good. He\nmay say, \"Lord, I have said, that man by nature is in a state of\ncondemnation, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I have\nasserted that man, by all his natural abilities, is not able to\nrecover himself from this his condemned state, and they make me\nsuffer for that. Lord, I have said that a natural man may have\nright notions of the gospel, and yet be without the saving grace\nthereof, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I cannot consent\nthat human inventions and doctrines of men should be joined with thy\ninstitution as matters of worship, and imposed upon my conscience\nas such, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I own the government,\npray for my superiors, live quietly among my neighbours, give to\nall their dues, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, relieve the\nafflicted, and show myself, by my faith and life, to be a true\nChristian man, and yet my neighbours will not let me alone. True,\nI cannot comply with all that some men would have me comply with;\nno more did Daniel, no more did Paul; and yet Daniel said, that he\nhad to the king done no hurt (Dan 6:22), and Paul said, 'neither\nagainst the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet\nagainst Caesar, have I offended anything at all'\" (Acts 25:8).\n\nFor he that keeps within the compass of God's Word, hurts no man,\ngives just offence to no man, though he complieth not with all that\nare modes and ways of worship in the world. Nor can this appeal\nbe judged injurious, if it be not attended with intercessions\nagainst them that hate us. But we will pass this, and come to a\nsecond thing.\n\n(3.) As he that suffereth for righteousness must have a good cause,\nso he that suffereth for righteousness must have a good call.\n\nA man, though his cause be good, ought not by undue ways to run\nhimself into suffering for it; nature teaches the contrary, and so\ndoth the law of God. Suffering for a truth ought to be cautiously\ntook in hand, and as warily performed. I know that there are some\nmen that are more concerned here than some; the preacher of the\nWord is by God's command made the more obnoxious man, for he must\ncome off with a woe, if he preaches not the gospel (1 Cor 9:16).\nHe, therefore, I say, doth and ought more to expose himself than\nother Christians are called to do. Yet it behoveth him also to\nbeware, because that Christ has said to him, \"Behold, I send you\nforth as sheep, or lambs, in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore\nwise as serpents, and harmless as doves\" (Matt 10:16; Luke 10:3).\nA man is not bound by the law of his Lord, to put himself into\nthe mouth of his enemy. Christ withdrew himself; Paul escaped the\ngovernor's hands, by being let down in a basket over the wall of\nthe city (2 Cor 11:32,33). And Christ hath said, If they persecute\nyou in one city, flee ye to another. If they will not let me\npreach here, I will take up my Bible, and be gone. Perhaps this is\nbecause I must preach in some other place. A minister can quickly\npack up, and carry his religion with him, and offer what he\nknows of his God to another people32 (Acts 13:44-47). Nor should\na minister strive, I think, with the magistrate for place, or time.\nBut let him hearken to hear what God shall say by such opposition.\nPerhaps the magistrate must drive thee out of this place, because\nthe soul is in another place that is to be converted, or helped\nby thy sermon today. We must also in all things, show ourselves\nto be such as by our profession we would that men should believe\nwe are, to wit, meek, gentle, not strivers, but take our Lord and\nour brethren the prophets for our examples.\n\nBut I will not here presume to give instructions to ministers; but\nwill speak a few words in the general about what I think may be a\nsufficient call to a man to suffer for righteousness.\n\nFirst, Every Christian man is bound by God's Word to hold to, or\nstand by his profession, his profession of faith, and to join to\nthat profession an holy godly life; because the Apostle and High\npriest of his profession is no less a one than Christ Jesus (Heb\n3:1; 10:23). This by Christ himself is expressed thus, Let your\nlight so shine (Matt 5:16). No man lighteth a candle to put it\nunder a bushel. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights\nburning (Luke 12:35). And Paul bids the Philippians hold forth\nthe word of life (Phil 2:16).\n\nAnd more particularly, by all this, this is intended, that we\nshould hide our faith in Christ from no man, but should rather make\na discover of it by a life that will do so; for our profession,\nthus managed, is the badge, and the Lord's livery, by which we\nare distinguished from other men.33 So then, if, while I profess\nthe truth of Christ, and so walk as to make my profession of it\nmore apparent, I be made a sufferer for it, my call is good, and\nI may be bold in God and in my profession. This, Peter intends\nwhen he saith, \"But and if ye suffer for righteousness\" sake, happy\nare ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;\nbut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to\ngive an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope\nthat is in you, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:14,15). Here,\nthen, is a call not to meddle with the other, but to mind our own\nbusiness; to walk in our Christian profession, and to adorn it\nwith all good works; and if any man will meddle with me, and ask\nme a reason of the hope that I have, to give it him with meekness\nand fear, whatever follows thereupon. This, Peter should have done\nhimself there, where he denies his Master thrice.\n\nThe reason is, for that Christianity is so harmless a thing, that,\nbe it never so openly professed, it hurts no man. I believe that\nChrist will save me; what hurt is this to my neighbour? I love\nChrist because he will save me; what hurt is this to any? I will\nfor this worship Christ as he has bid me; what hurt is this to\nanybody? I will also tell my neighbours what a loving one my Christ\nis, and that he is willing to be good to them as he has been good\nto me; and what hurt is this to the governor of a kingdom? But and\nif any man will afflict me for this, my cause is good, and also\nmy call to stand full godly to my profession.\n\nSecondly, There is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness, even\nfrom the voice of necessity. That is, either when, by my silence,\nthe truth must fall to the ground; or when, by my shrinking, the\nsouls of other men are in danger. This, I say, is a call to suffer\neven by the voice of necessity. The case may be when God's ways\nmay be trodden under foot; yea, his Word, and ways, and name, and\npeople, and all. Thus Goliath did do, for several days together\n(1 Sam 17), and vaunted in his doing; and there was not a man,\nno, not in Israel, that durst answer him a word. And now was the\nspirit of David stirred in him, and he would put his life in his\nhand, and give this man an answer; and he saw there was reason\nfor it--necessity gave him a call. Is there not a cause, saith\nhe, lies bleeding upon the ground, and no man of heart or spirit\nto put a check to the bold blasphemer? I will go fight with him;\nI will put my life in my hand; if I die, I die.\n\nConsider also what Daniel did when the law was gone out to forbid,\nfor thirty days, petitioning any god or man, save the king only.\nAt that time, also, not a man of Israel peeped (Dan 6:7). Now\nnecessity walks about the streets, crying, Who is on the Lord's\nside? Who, &c. And Daniel answers, I am, by opening of his window,\nand praying, as at other times, three times a day, with his face\ntowards Jerusalem (verse 10). He heard this voice of necessity,\nand put his life in his hand, and complied with it, to the hazard\nof being torn in pieces by the lions.\n\nMuch like this was that of the three children; for when that golden\nimage was set up, and worship commanded to be done unto it, not\none, that we read of, durst stand upright when the time was come\nthat bowing was the sign of worship. Only the three children would\nnot bow: it was necessary that some should show that there was a\nGod in heaven, and that divine worship was due alone to him (Dan\n3:10-12). But they run the hazard of being turned to ashes, in\na burning fiery furnace, for so doing. But necessity has a loud\nvoice, and shrill in the ears of a tender conscience: this voice\nwill awake jealousy and kindle a burning fire within, for the\nname, and cause, and way, and people, of the God of heaven.\n\nThirdly, There is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness by\nthe voice of providence. That is, when, by providence, I am cast\nfor my profession into the hands of the enemies of God and his\ntruth; then I am called to suffer for it what God shall please to\nlet them lay upon me. Only, for the making of my way more clear\nin this matter, I will deliver what I have to say, with a caution\nor two. 1. Thou must take heed that thy call be good to this or\nthat place, at which, by providence, thou art delivered up. 2.\nThou must also take heed that, when thou art there, thou busiest\nthyself in nothing but that that good is. 3. Thou must also take\nheed that thou stay there no longer than while thou mayest do\ngood or receive good there. 4. Thus far a man is in the way of\nhis duty, and therefore may conclude that the providence of God,\nunder which now he is, is such as has mercy and salvation in the\nbowels of it, whatsoever is by it, at the present, brought upon\nhim.\n\nChrist Jesus, our Lord, though his death was determined, and of\nabsolute necessity, and that chiefly for which he came into the\nworld, chose rather to be taken in the way of his duty than in any\nother way or anywhere else. Wherefore, when the hour was come,\nhe takes with him some of his disciples, and goeth into a garden,\na solitary place, to pray; which done, he sets his disciples to\nwatch, and falleth himself to prayer. So he prays once; he prays\ntwice; he prays thrice: and he giveth also good doctrine to his\ndisciples. And now, behold, while he was here, in the way of his\nduty, busying himself in prayer to God, and in giving of good\ninstruction to his followers, upon him comes Judas and a multitude with\nswords and staves, and weapons, to take him; to which providence\nhe, in all meekness, submits, for he knew that by it he had a call\nto suffer (Matt 26:36-47).\n\nIn this way, also, the apostles were called to suffer, even while\nthey were in the way of their duty. Yea, God bid them go into the\ntemple to preach, and there delivered them into the hands of their\nenemies (Acts 4:1-3; 5:20-26).\n\nBe we in the way of our duty, in the place and about the work\nunto which we are called of God, whether that work be religious\nor civil, we may, without fear, leave the issue of things to God,\nwho only doth wonderful things. And he who lets not a sparrow fall\nto the ground without his providence, will not suffer a hair of\nour head to perish but by his order (Luke 12:6,7). And since he\nhas engaged us in his work, as he has if he has called us to it,\nwe may expect that he will manage, and also bear us out therein;\neither so as by giving of us a good deliverance by way of restoration\nto our former liberty and service for him, or so as to carry us\nwell out of this world to them that, under the altar, are crying,\nHow long, holy and true: nor shall we, when we come there, repent\nthat we suffered for him here. Oh! how little do saints, in a\nsuffering condition, think of the robes, the crowns, the harps,\nand the Son that shall be given to them; and that they shall have\nwhen they come upon mount Zion (Rev 6:11; 14:1-7).\n\nFourthly, There is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness by\nan immediate and powerful impulse of the Spirit of God upon the\nheart. This, I say, is sometimes, and but sometimes; for this is\nnot God's ordinary way, nor are many of his servants called after\nthis manner to suffer for righteousness. Moses was called thus\nto suffer when he went so often unto Pharaoh with the message of\nGod in his mouth. And \"he endured, as seeing him who is invisible\"\n(Heb 11:25-27).\n\nPaul was called thus to suffer, and he obeyed, and went, and\nperformed that work, according to the will of God. This kind of\ncall Paul calls a binding, or a being bound in the Spirit, because\nthe Holy Ghost had laid such a command upon him to do so, that\nhe could not, by any means, get from under the power of it. \"And\nnow, behold,\" saith he, \"I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem,\nnot knowing the things that shall befal me there\" (Acts 20:22).\nFor he that is under this call has, as I said, bonds laid upon\nhis spirit, which carry him to the place where his testimony is\nto be borne for God; nor shall he, if he willingly submits and\ngoes, as Paul did, but have an extraordinary presence of God with\nhim, as he. And see what a presence he had; for after the second\nassault was given him by the enemy, even \"the night following, the\nLord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou\nhast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness\nalso at Rome\" (Acts 23:11). Thus God meeteth his people in their\nservice for him, when he calls them aloud to do great service for\nhim. The power of such a call as this, I say, is great, and men\nof ordinary spirits must needs give place thereto, and leave a man\nthus bound to the God that thus has bound him. All the help such\ncan afford him is to follow him with our prayers, not to judge him\nor grieve him, or lay stumbling-blocks before him. No; they must\nnot weep nor mourn for him, so as to make him sorrowful (Acts\n21:12-14).\n\nHis friends may suggest unto him what is like to attend his\npresent errand, as Agabus did by the Spirit to Paul when he took\nhis girdle and bound himself therewith, to show him how his enemies\nshould serve him whither he went. \"Thus said the Holy Ghost,\" said\nhe, \"so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this\ngirdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles\" (Acts\n21). But if this call be indeed upon a man, all sorrow is turned\ninto joy before him; for he is ready, not only to be bound, but\nalso to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts\n21:13).\n\nInstances, also, of later times might be given of a call extraordinary\nto suffer for righteousness. For many, in the first three hundred\nyears' persecution, when nobody knew what they were, would boldly\ncome up to the face of their enemies and tell what they were,\nand suffer for what they professed, the death. I remember, also,\nthe woman who, when her friends were gone before to suffer, how\nshe came running and panting after, for fear she should not come\nthither time enough to suffer for Jesus Christ. But I will give\nyou an instance of later times, even in the beginning of Queen\nElizabeth's reign, of an Hertfordshire man that went as far as\nRome to bear his testimony for God against the wickedness of that\nplace. This man, when he was arrived there, and had told them\nwherefore he was come, they took and condemned him to death,\nto wit, to be burned for an heretic. Now he was to ride from the\nprison to the place of execution upon an ass, with his face to\nthe beast's tail, and was to be stripped from the shoulders to\nthe waist, that he might be tormented all the way he went with\nburning torches continually thrust to his sides; but he, nothing\nat all afraid, spake in his exhortation to the people to fly from\ntheir sin and idolatry; he would also catch hold of the torches\nand put them to his sides, to show how little he esteemed the\nworst that they could do. Also, when he was come to the place of\nexecution, he suffered there such cruelty, with so unconcerned a\nmind, and with such burning zeal for God's truth, testified against\nthem while he could speak; that, all amazed, his enemies cried,\nhe could not have suffered as he did but by the help of the devil.\nHis name I have now forgot, but you will find it, with the story\nat large, in the third volume of Acts and Monuments, at the 1022\npage. 34 But we will pass this, and come to our second particular,\nnamely,\n\n[B. What it is to suffer for righteousness' sake.]\n\nTo show when it may be said a man doth not only suffer for\nrighteousness, but also for righteousness' sake.\n\nTo suffer for righteousness' sake must be either with the intention\nof the persecutor or else of the persecuted. The persecutor,\nwhatever the person's suffering is, if he afflicteth this person\nfor a supposed good that he thinketh he hath or professeth, he\nmake him suffer for righteousness' sake. So that, in this sense,\na man that hath no grace may not only suffer for righteousness,\nbut also for righteousness' sake. But this I intend not, because\nthe text is not concerned with it.\n\nThe thing, therefore, now intended to be spoken to, is this,\nnamely, when a man may be said to suffer what he suffereth upon a\nreligious account, of love to, or for the sake of, that good that\nhe finds in the truths of God, or because his heart is joined and\nespoused to the good of the truths that he professeth; not that\nthere is any thing in any truth of God that is not good; but a\nman may profess truth, not for the sake of the goodness that is\nin it, but upon a remote account. Judas professed truth, not of\nlove to the truth, but of love to the bag, and to the money that\nwas put therein. Men may profess for a wife, for a trade, for\nfriendship, or because profession is at such a time or in such\na place, in fashion. I wish that there were no cause to say this.\nNow there is not any of these that profess the truth for the truth's\nsake, that profess the truth of love to it; nor shall they, should\nthey suffer as professors, never so long, never so much, never\nso grievously, be counted of God among them that suffer for\nrighteousness' sake; that is, of unfeigned love to righteousness.\nWherefore, that I may show you who may be said to suffer for\nrighteousness' sake, I will propound and speak to several things.\n\n1. Then, he that suffereth in the apostle's sense, for well-doing,\nor for righteousness' sake, sets his face against nothing but sin.\nHe resisteth unto blood, striving against sin. Sin is the object\nof his indignation, because it is an enemy to God, and to his\nrighteous cause in the world (Heb 12:3,4). Sin, I say, is that\nwhich such a man singleth out as his opposite, as his antagonist,\nand that against which his heart is set. It is a rare thing to\nsuffer aright, and to have my spirit, in my suffering, bent only\nagainst God's enemy--sin; sin in doctrine, sin in worship, sin\nin life, sin in conversation. Now then, he that suffereth for\nrighteousness' sake has singled out sin to pursue it to death, long\nbefore he comes to the cross. It is sin, alas, and his hatred to\nit that have brought him into this condition. He fell out with sin\nat home, in his own house, in his own heart, before he fell out\nwith sin in the world, or with sin in public worship. For he that\ncan let sin go free and uncontrolled at home within, let him suffer\nwhile he will, he shall not suffer for righteousness' sake. And\nthe reason is, because a righteous soul, as the phrase is, 2 Peter\n2:8, has the greatest antipathy against that sin that is most ready\nto defile it, and that is, as David calls it, one's own iniquity,\nor the sin that dwelleth in one's own flesh. I have kept me, says\nhe, from mine iniquity, from mine own sin. People that are afraid\nof fire are concerned most with that that burneth in their own\nchimney; they have the most watchful eye against that that is like\nto burn down their own house first.\n\nHe also that suffereth for righteousness' sake, doth it also because\nhe would not that sin should cleave to the worship of God; and,\nindeed, this is mostly the cause of the sufferings of the godly.\nThey will not have to do with that worship that hath sinful\ntraditions commixed with God's appointments, because they know\nthat God is jealous of his worship; and has given a strict charge\nthat all things be done according to the pattern showed to us in\nthe mount. He knows also that God will not be with that worship,\nand those worshippers, that have not regard to worship by the\nrule of the testament of Christ. He is also against the sin that\nis apt to cleave to himself while he standeth in the presence of\nGod. I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine\naltar, O Lord. This man also chooses to be in the practical parts\nof worship, if possible, for he knows that to have to do about\nholy things sincerely is the way to be at the remotest distance\nfrom sin. He chooses also to be with those holy ones that are\nof the same mind with him against sin; for he knows that two are\nbetter than one, and that a threefold cord is not easily broken.\nWherefore look to yourselves, you that do, or may be called to\nsuffer for religion: if you bend not yourselves against sin, if to\nbe revenged of sin be not the cause of your suffering, you cannot\nbe said to suffer for righteousness' sake. Take heed, therefore,\nthat something else be not an inducement to thee to suffer. A\nman may suffer to save what he has: there is credit also and an\napplause; there is shame to conform; there is carnal stoutness of\nspirit; there is hatred of persecutors and scorn to submit; there\nis fear of contempt and of the reproach of the people, &c. These\nmay be motives and arguments to a suffering state, and may really\nbe the ground of a man's being in the jail; though he cries out\nin the meanwhile of popery, of superstition, and idolatry, and of\nthe errors that attend the common modes of the religions of the\nworld. I charge no man as though I knew any such thing by any; but\nI suggest these things as things that are possible, and mention\nthem because I would have sufferers have a care of themselves;\nand watch and pray, because no man can be upright here that is not\nholy, that cannot pray, and watch, and deny himself for the love\nthat he has to righteousness. I said it before, and will say\nit again, it is a rare thing to be set in downrightness of heart\nagainst sin.\n\n2. Is it for the sake of righteousness that thou sufferest? Then\nit is because thou wouldest have righteousness promoted, set up,\nand established in the world; also thou art afflicted at those\nadvantages that iniquity gets upon men, upon things, and against\nthyself. \"I beheld,\" said David, \"the transgressors, and was\ngrieved; because men kept not thy word\" (Psa 119:158). And again,\nThese are they that mourn for the abominations that are done among\nmen (Eze 9:4). There is a great deal of talk about religion, a\ngreat deal of pleading for religion, namely, as to the formalities\nof this and the other way.35 But to choose to be religious, that\nI might be possessed with holiness, and to choose that religion\nthat is most apt to possess me with it, if I suffer for this, I\nsuffer for righteousness' sake. Wherefore say thus to thy soul,\nthou that art like to suffer for righteousness, How is it with\nthe most inward parts of my soul? What is there? What designs,\ndesires, and reachings out are there? Why do I pray? Why do I read?\nWhy do I hear? Why do I haunt and frequent places and ordinances\nappointed for worship? Is it because I love holiness? would promote\nrighteousness, because I love to see godliness show itself in\nothers, and because I would feel more of the power of it in myself?\nIf so, and if thou sufferest for thy profession, thou sufferest,\nnot only for righteousness, but also for righteousness' sake. Dost\nthou thus practise, because thou wouldest be taught to do outward\nacts of righteousness, and because thou wouldest provoke others to\ndo so too? Dost thou show to others how thou lovest righteousness,\nby taking opportunities to do righteousness? How is it, dost thou\nshow most mercy to thy dog, 36 or to thine enemy, to thy swine,\nor to the poor? Whose naked body hast thou clothed? Whose hungry\nbelly hast thou fed? Hast thou taken delight in being defrauded and\nbeguiled? Hast thou willingly sat down by the loss with quietness,\nand been as if thou hadst not known, when thou hast been wronged,\ndefamed, abused, and all because thou wast not willing that\nblack-mouthed men should vilify and reproach religion upon thy\naccount (1 Cor 6:7)?\n\nHe that loveth righteousness will do thus, yea, and do it as unto\nGod, and of tenderness to the Word of God which he professeth. And\nhe that thinks to make seeing men believe, that when he suffereth,\nhe suffereth for righteousness' sake, and yet is void in his life\nof moral goodness, and that has no heart to suffer and bear, and\nput up, and pass by injuries in his conversation among his enemies\nat home, is deceived.\n\nThere are some Scriptures that are as if they were out of date\namong some professors, specially such as call for actual holiness\nand acts of self-denial for God; but it will be found, at the\nday of judgment, that they only are the peculiar people that are\n\"zealous of good works\" (Titus 2:14). God help us, it is hard now\nto persuade professors to come up to negative holiness, that is,\nto leave undone that which is bad; and yet this of itself comes\nfar short of ones being found in practical goodness.\n\nBut this is the man that suffereth, when he suffereth for righteousness'\nsake, that makes it his business, by all lawful means, according\nto the capacity that God has put him in, to promote, set up, and\nestablish righteousness in the world; I say this is the man that\nsuffereth for righteousness' sake, that suffereth for so doing; and\nI am sure that a life that is moral, when joined to the profession\nof the faith of the things that are of the Spirit of God, is\nabsolutely necessary to the promoting of righteousness in the world.\nHence Peter tells them that suffer for righteousness' sake, that\nthey must have \"a good conscience\"--a good conscience towards God,\ntowards men, towards friends, towards enemies (1 Peter 3:14-16;\nActs 24:16; 23:1). They must have a good conscience in all\nthings, being willing, ready, desirous to live honestly, godly,\nand righteously in this world, or else they cannot, though they may\nsuffer for the best doctrine under heaven, suffer for righteousness'\nsake (Heb 13:18). Wherefore,\n\n3. Is it for righteousness' sake that thou sufferest? then thy\ndesign is the ruin of sin. This depends upon what was said before;\nfor he that strives against sin, that seeks to promote righteousness,\nhe designs the ruin of sin. \"Be not,\" said Paul to the suffering\nRomans, \"overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good\" (Rom 12:21).\nTo overcome evil with good is a hard task. To rail it down, to cry\nit down, to pray kings, and parliaments, and men in authority to\nput it down, this is easier than to use my endeavour to overcome\nit with good, with doing of good, as I said before.37 And sin must\nbe overcome with good at home, before thy good can get forth of\ndoors38 to overcome evil abroad.\n\nAbraham overcame evil with good, when he quieted the discontent of\nLot and his herdsmen, with allowing of them to feed their cattle\nin the best of what God had given him (Gen 13:7,8).\n\nDavid overcame evil with good, when he saved the life of his\nbloody enemy that was fallen into his hand; also when he grieved\nthat any hurt should come to them that sought nothing so much as\nhis destruction. \"They rewarded me,\" saith he, \"evil for good, to\nthe spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my\nclothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, I behaved\nmyself as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down\nheavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.\" This is to overcome\nevil with good (Psa 35:12-14).\n\nJob saith concerning his enemy, that he did not rejoice when evil\nfound him; \"neither have I,\" said he, \"suffered my mouth to sin by\nwishing a curse to his soul.\" He means he did the quite contrary,\nand so overcame evil with good (Job 31:29,30).\n\nElisha overcame evil with good, when he received the men that came\nfor his life, and had them where he might feast, and comfort them,\nand sent them home in peace to their master (2 Kings 6:19-23).\n\nThe New Testament also is full of this, both in exhortations and\nexamples, In exhortations where it is said, resist not evil, that\nis, with evil, but overcome evil with good (Prov 24:29). \"But\nwhosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other\nalso.--And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him\ntwain. Give to him that asketh thee; and from him that would borrow\nof thee, turn not thou away.--Love your enemies, bless them that\ncurse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which\ndespitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children\nof your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise\non the evil, and on the good--on the just, and on the unjust\"\n(Matt 5:39-45). \"Bless them that persecute you: bless and curse\nnot\" (Rom 12:14). \"Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for\nrailing, but contrariwise, blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto\ncalled, that ye should inherit a blessing\" (1 Peter 3:9; Rom 12:14).\nThis is righteousness--these are righteous courses. And as these\nare preceptively propounded, so they were as practically followed\nby them that were eminently godly in the primitive church.\n\n\"We are fools for Christ's sake,\" said Paul, \"we are despised, we\nare hungry, thirsty, naked, and buffeted.--Being reviled, we bless;\nbeing persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are\nmade as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all\nthings unto this day\" (1 Cor 4:10-13). This is overcoming of evil\nwith good, and he that has chosen to himself that religion that\nteaches these things, and that loves that religion because it so\nteacheth him; if he suffereth for it, he suffereth for righteousness'\nsake.\n\n4. He that suffereth for righteousness' sake, will carry righteousness\nwhithersoever he goes. Neither the enemy, nor thy sufferings,\nshall be able to take righteousness from thee. Righteousness must\nbe thy chamber mate, thy bed companion, thy walking mate: it is\nthat without which thou wilt be so uncouth, as if thou couldest\nnot live (Psa 26: 25:21).\n\nPaul in his sufferings would have righteousness with him, for it\nmust be as it were his armour-bearer; yea, his very armour itself\n(2 Cor 6:7). It is an excellent saying of Job, \"I put on righteousness,\nand it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was\neyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; I was a father to\nthe poor,\" &c. (Job 29:11-16). \"Princes,\" said David also, \"did\nsit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy\nstatues\" (Psa 119:23). A man that loves righteousness doth as\nAbraham did with his Sarah, carry it every where with him, though\nhe goes, because of that, in danger of his life. Righteousness!\nIt is the only intimate that a Christian has. It is that by which\nhe takes his measures, that with which he consults, with respect\nto what he doth, or is to do, in the world. \"Thy testimonies,\"\nsaid David also, \"are my delight, and my counsellors.\" The men of\nmy counsel, in the margin (Psa 119:24).\n\nDavid! He was the man of affliction; the suffering man in his day;\nbut in all places where he came, he had righteousness, the law and\ngodly practice with him. It was his counsellor, as he was a man,\na saint, a king. I dare say, for the man that suffers righteousness\nto be rent away from him by the violence and rage of men, and\nthat casts it away, as David did Saul's armour, that he may secure\nhimself; he has no great love for righteousness, nor to the cross\nfor righteousness' sake. \"My righteousness I hold fast,\" said Job,\n\"and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long\nas I live\" (Job 27:6). What? part with righteousness! A righteous\nLord! A righteous Word! A righteous profession! A righteous life!\nto sleep in a whole skin: the Lord forbid it me, and all that he\nhas counted worthy to be called by his name. Let us carry it with\nus from the bed to the cross, and then it shall carry us from\nthence to the crown. Let it be our companion to prison and death,\nthen shall we show that we are lovers of righteousness, and that\nwe choose to suffer for righteousness' sake.\n\n5. Dost thou suffer for righteousness' sake? why then,\nthy righteousness is not diminished, but rather increased by thy\nsufferings. Righteousness thriveth best in affliction, the more\nafflicted, the more holy man; the more persecuted, the more shining\nman (Acts 6:15). The prison is the furnace, thy graces are the silver\nand the gold; wherefore, as the silver and the gold are refined\nby the fire, and so made more to show their native brightness, so\nthe Christian that hath, and that loveth righteousness, and that\nsuffereth for its sake, is by his sufferings refined and made\nmore righteous, and made more Christian, more godly (Zech 13:9).\nSome, indeed, when they come there, prove lead, iron, tin, and\nat the best, but the dross of silver; and so are fit for nothing,\nbut there to be left and consumed, and to bear the badge, if ever\nthey come from thence, of reprobate silver from the mouth and\nsentence of their neighbours (Eze 22:18-22; Jer 6:28-30). But when\nI, says Job, am tried, \"I shall come forth as gold\" (Job 23:10).\n\nWhen Saul had cast one javelin at David, it made him walk wisely\nin all his ways. But when he added to his first fury, plots to take\naway his life, then David behaved himself yet more wisely (1 Sam\n18:10-30). The hotter the rage and fury of men are against righteous\nways, the more those that love righteousness grow therein. For\nthey are concerned for it, not to hide it, but to make it spangle;\nnot to extinguish it, but to greaten it, and to show the excellency\nof it in all its features, and in all its comely proportion. Now\nsuch an one will make straight steps for his feet, \"let that which\nis lame be turned out of the way\" (Heb 12:13). Now he shows to\nall men what faith is, by charity, by self-denial, by meekness,\nby gentleness, by long-suffering, by patience, by love to enemies,\nand by doing good to them that hate us; now he walketh upon his\nhigh places. Yea, will not now admit that so slovenly a conversation\nshould come within his doors, as did use to haunt his house in\nformer times. Now it is Christmas,39 now it is suffering time, now\nwe must keep holy day every day. The reason is, for that a man,\nwhen he suffereth for Christ, is set upon a hill, upon a stage,\nas in a theatre, to play a part for God in the world. And you\nknow when men are to play their parts upon a stage, they count\nthemselves, if possible, more bound to circumspection; and that\nfor the credit of their master, the credit of their art, and the\ncredit of themselves. For then the eyes of every body are fixed,\nthey gape and stare upon them (Psa 22:17). And a trip here is as\nbad as a fall in another place. Also now God himself looks on. Yea,\nhe laugheth, as being pleased to see a good behaviour attending\nthe trial of the innocent.\n\n(1.) He that suffereth for righteousness' sake suffereth for his\ngoodness, and he is now to labour by works and ways to convince\nthe world that he suffereth as such an one. (2.) He that suffereth\nfor righteousness' sake has many that are weak to strengthen by his\nsweet carriages under the cross, wherefore he had need to exceed\nin virtue. (3.) He also is by well-doing to put to silence the\nignorance of foolish men, he had need be curious and circumspect\nin all his actions. (4.) He is to come in, and to be a judge,\nand to condemn, by his faith and patience in his sufferings, the\nworld, with his Lord and fellows, at the appearing of Jesus Christ;\nhe had need be holy himself. This, therefore, is the fit sign of\nsuffering for righteousness' sake (1 Cor 6:1-5; Heb 11:7; 2 Thess\n1:5,6; 1 Peter 4:3-5).\n\n6. He that suffereth, not only for righteousness, but also for\nrighteousness' sake, will not exchange his cause, though for it\nin a jail, for all the ease and pleasure in the world. They that\nsuffered for righteousness' sake of old, were tempted before they\nwere sawn asunder (Heb 11). Tempted, that is, allured, to come out\nof their present sufferings, and leave their faith and profession\nin irons behind them. Tempted with promises of promotion, of ease,\nof friendship, of favour with men. As the Devil said to Christ,\nso persecutors of old did use to make great promises to sufferers,\nif they would fall down and worship. But his is alone as if they\nshould say, Butcher, make away with your righteousness,40 and a\ngood conscience, and you shall find the friendship of the world.\nFor there is no way to kill a man's righteousness but by his own\nconsent. This, Job's wife knew full well, hence she tempted him\nto lay violent hands upon his own integrity (Job 2:9).\n\nThe Devil, nor men of the world can kill thy righteousness or love\nto it, but by thy own hand; or separate that and thee asunder,\nwithout thine own act. Nor will he that doth indeed suffer for the\nsake of it, or of love he bears thereto, be tempted to exchange\nit for the goods of all the world. It is a sad sight to see a man\nthat has been suffering for righteousness, restored to his former\nestate, while the righteousness for which he suffered, remains under\nlocks and irons, and is exposed to the scorn, contempt, reproach\nof the world, and trodden under the foot of men.41 \"It is better,\"\nsaid Paul, \"for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying\nvoid.\" And it had been a hundred times better for that man, if he\nhad never known the way of righteousness, than after he has known\nit, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto him.\n\n\nThe striving is, in persecution, for righteousness; to wit, whether\nit shall be set up, or pulled down. The sufferer, he is for setting\nup, and the persecutors are for pulling down. Thus they strive\nfor the mastery. Now, if a man stands by his righteousness, and\nholds fast his good profession, then is righteousness set up;\nnor can it, so long, be pulled down. Hence, so long a man is said\nto overcome; and overcome he doth, though he be killed for his\nprofession. But if he starts back, gives place, submits, recants,\nor denieth any longer to own that good thing that he professed,\nand exposed himself to suffering for; then he betrays his cause,\nhis profession, his conscience, his righteousness, his soul, and\nall; for he has delivered up his profession to be murdered before\nhis face: A righteous man falling down before the wicked, is as a\ntroubled fountain, and a corrupt spring (Prov 25:26). But this, I\nhope, will not he do that loveth righteousness, and that suffereth\nfor righteousness' sake. I do not say but that a man may slip here,\nwith Peter, Origen, Hierom, Cranmer, Baynham, Ormis,42 and other\ngood folk; but be he one of the right kind, a lover of righteousness\nindeed, he will return, and take revenge upon himself in a godly\nway, for so ungodly a fact.\n\n7. He that suffereth not only for righteousness, but also for\nrighteousness sake, is not so wedded to his own notions as to slight\nor overlook the good that is in his neighbour. But righteousness\nhe loves wherever he finds it, though it be in him that smiteth\nhim (Psa 141:5). Yea, he will own and acknowledge it for the only\nthing that is of beauty and glory in the world. With the excellent\nin the earth is all such a man's delight. Wherefore I put a difference\nbetwixt suffering for an opinion and suffering for righteousness;\nas I put a difference between suffering for righteousness and\nsuffering for righteousness' sake.\n\nIf righteousness, if the stamp of God, if divine authority, is\nnot found upon that thing which I hold, let men never suffer for\nit under the notion of righteousness. If sin, if superstition,\nif idolatry, if derogation from the wisdom of Christ, and the\nauthority and perfection of his Word, be not found in, nor joined\nto that thing that I disown in worship, let me never open my mouth\nagainst it. I had rather fall in with, and be an associate of a\nrighteous man that has no true grace, than with a professor that\nhas no righteousness. It is said of the young man, though he went\naway from Christ, that he looked upon him and loved him (Mark\n10:17-22). But it is not said that ever he loved Judas. I know\nthat the righteousness for which a good man suffereth, is not\nthen embraced of the world, for that at such a time it is under\na cloud. But yet there is righteousness also in the world, and\nwherever I see it, it is of a high esteem with me. David acknowledged\nsome of his enemies to be more righteous than he acknowledged\nsome of his servants to be (2 Sam 4:9-11; 3:31-35). It is a brave\nthing to have righteousness, as righteousness, to be the top-piece\nin mine affections. The reason why Christ was anointed with the oil\nof gladness above his fellows, was, because he loved righteousness,\nand hated iniquity more than they (Heb. 1:9). Love to righteousness\nflows from golden graces, and is that, and that only, that can\nmake a man capable of suffering, in our sense, for righteousness'\nsake.\n\n8. He that suffereth not only for righteousness, but also for\nrighteousness' sake, will take care that his sufferings be so\nmanaged with graciousness of words and actions, that it may live\nwhen he is dead; yea, and it will please him too, if righteousness\nflourishes, though by his loss. Hence it is that Paul said, he\nrejoiced in his suffering, Colossians 1:24; namely, because others\ngot good thereby. And that he said, \"Yea, and if I be offered upon\nthe sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with\nyou all\" (Phil 2:17). But why rejoice in this? Why, because though\nhis sufferings were to the distressing of his flesh, yet they\nwere to the refreshing, comfort, and stability of others. This\nwas it also that made him jostle with the false brethren among\nthe churches; to wit, \"that the truth of the gospel might continue\nwith them\" (Gal 2:5).\n\nWhen a man shall run the hazard of the ruin of what he has, and is,\nfor righteousness, for the good and benefit of the church of God;\nthat man, he managing himself by the rule, if he suffers for so\ndoing, suffers not only for righteousness, but also for righteousness'\nsake. \"I endure all things,\" said Paul, \"for the elect's sake,\nthat they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus\nwith eternal glory\" (2 Tim 2:10). Here was love, you will say, to\npersons; and I will say also, to things; to all the righteousnesses\nof God that are revealed in the world, that all the elect might\nenjoy them to their eternal comfort and glory, by Christ Jesus.\nFor \"whether we be afflicted,\" says he, \"it is for your consolation\nand salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same\nsufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it\nis for your consolation and salvation\" (2 Cor 1:6).\n\nThe end of a man and his design, if that be to promote righteousness,\nhe using lawful means to accomplish it, is greatly accepted of\nGod by Christ; and it is a sign he is a lover of righteousness;\nand that if he suffereth for so doing, he suffereth not for\nwell-doing, only as to matter of fact, but also for his love to\nthe good thing done, and for its sake.\n\nI have now done with that first head that was to be spoken to,\nas touching the law and testament; which we have said was to be\nunderstood of the will of God spoken of in the text: \"Let them\nthat suffer according to the will of God,\" that is, according to\nhis law and testament. Now we have showed what it is to suffer\naccording to that; we come to another thing, namely:--\n\n[THE WILL OF GOD MEANS HIS ORDER AND DESIGNMENT.]\n\nSecond, That by the will of God, we also understand his order\nand designment. For the will of God is active, to dispose of his\npeople, as well as preceptive, to show unto us our duty. He then\nthat suffers for righteousness' sake, as he suffers for that which\nis good as to the matter of it, and as he suffers for that which\nis good, after that manner as becomes that truth for which he\nsuffereth; so he that thus suffereth, suffereth by the order and\ndesignment of God. That, then, is the next thing that is to be\nspoken to, namely:--\n\nGod is the great orderer of the battle that is managed in the world\nagainst antichrist. Hence that battle is called, \"The battle of\nthat great day of God Almighty\" (Rev 16:14). It is not what enemies\nwill, nor what they are resolved upon, but what God will, and what\nGod appoints; that shall be done. This doctrine Christ teacheth\nwhen he saith, \"Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and\nnot one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs\nof your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more\nvalue than many sparrows\" (Luke 12:6,7). He speaks in the verses\nbefore of killing, and bids them that they should not be afraid\nfor that. \"Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after\nthat have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom\nye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power\nto cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.\" Then he leads\nthem to the consideration of this, that the will of God governs,\nand disposes of his [people] to suffering; as well as declares to\nthem for what, and how they should suffer, saying, \"Are not five\nsparrows sold for two farthings,\" &c.\n\nAlso in Isaiah 8:9,10 and in Isaiah 2:12,13, you have in sum the\nsame thing inserted again. But we will not stay upon proof, but\nwill proceed to demonstration hereof.\n\nPharaoh said he would, ay, that he would, but he could not touch\nso much as a thread or a rag of Israel, because the will of God\nwas in that thing contrary to him. Saul said that he would have\nDavid, and to that end would search for him among the thousands of\nJudah; but David was designed for another purpose, and therefore\nSaul must go without him (1 Sam 23:25) Rabshakeh said that he was\ncome from Assyria to Jerusalem to make \"Judah eat their own dung,\nand drink their own piss\" (Isa 36:12). But God said he should not\nshoot an arrow there. And it came to pass as God had said (Isa\n37:33; 2 Kings 18; 2 Chron 28). Jeremiah and Baruch's enemies would\nhave killed them, but they could not, for God hid them. How many\ntimes had the Jews a mind to have destroyed Jesus Christ; but they\ncould not touch a hair of his head until his hour was come.\n\nThose also that bound themselves in a curse, that they would\nneither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul, were forced to\nbe foresworn, for the will of God was not that Paul should die as\nyet (Acts 23:12). This therefore should be well considered of God's\nchurch, in the cloudy and dark day. \"All his saints are in thy\nhand\" (Deut 33:3). It is not the way of God to let the enemies of\nGod's church do what they will; no, the Devil himself can devour\nbut \"whom he may\" (1 Peter 5:8). And as no enemy can bring suffering\nupon a man when the will of God is otherwise, so no man can save\nhimself out of their hands when God will deliver him up for his\nglory. It remaineth, then, that we be not much afraid of men, nor\nyet be foolishly bold; but that we wait upon our God in the way\nof righteousness, and the use of those means which his providence\noffereth to us for our safety; and that we conclude that our whole\ndispose, as to liberty or suffering, lieth in the will of God,\nand that we shall, or shall not suffer, even as it pleaseth him.\nFor,\n\nFirst, God has appointed WHO shall suffer. Suffering comes not\nby chance, or by the will of man, but by the will and appointment\nof God. \"Let no man,\" said Paul, \"be moved by these afflictions;\nfor yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto\" (1 Thess\n3:3). We are apt to forget God when affliction comes, and to think\nit a strange thing that those that fear God should suffer indeed\n(1 Peter 4:12). But we should not, for we suffer by the will and\nappointment of God. Hence they under the altar were bid to rest\nfor a while, even until their fellow-servants also, and their\nbrethren that should be killed--mark that--\"should be killed, as\nthey were, should be fulfilled\" (Rev 6:11). Wherefore, suffering\nfor righteousness and for righteousness' sake, is by the will of\nGod. God has appointed who shall suffer. That is the first.\n\nSecond, As God has appointed who shall suffer, so he has appointed\nWHEN they shall suffer for his truth in the world. Sufferings\nfor such and such a man are timed, as to when he shall be tried\nfor his faith. Hence, when Paul was afraid, at Corinth, that the\nheathens would fall about his ears, the Lord spake to him by night\nin a vision, saying, \"Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy\npeace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt\nthee\" (Acts 18:9,10). His time of suffering was not yet come there.\nIt is also said concerning Jesus Christ, that even then when \"they\nsought to take him, no man laid hands on him, because his hour\nwas not yet come\" (John 7:30). The times, then, and the seasons,\neven for the sufferings of the people of God, are not in the hands\nof their enemies, but in the hand of God; as David said, \"My times\nare in thy hand.\" By the will of God, then, it is that such shall\nsuffer at, but not until, that time. But,\n\nThird, As God has appointed who and when, so he has appointed WHERE\nthis, that, or the other good man shall suffer. Moses and Elias,\nwhen they appeared on the holy mount, told Jesus of the sufferings\nwhich he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place\nassigned for Christ to suffer at; also, there must the whole\nof his sufferings be accomplished (Luke 9:30,31). The saints are\nsprinkled by the hand of God here and there, as salt is sprinkled\nupon meat to keep it from stinking. And as they are thus sprinkled,\nthat they may season the earth; so, accordingly, where they must\nsuffer is also appointed for the better confirming of the truth.\nChrist said, it could not be that a prophet should \"perish out of\nJerusalem\" (Luke 13:33). But why could it not be that they should\nperish other where? Were there no enemies but in Jerusalem? Were\nthere no good men but at Jerusalem? No, no; that was not the reason.\nThe reason was, for that God had appointed that they should suffer\nthere. So then, who, when, and where, is at the will of God, and\nthey, accordingly, are ordered by that will.\n\nFourth, As God has appointed who, when, and where, so he has also\nappointed WHAT KIND of sufferings this or that saint shall undergo,\nat this place and at such a time. God said that he would show Paul\nbeforehand how great things he should suffer for his sake (Acts\n9:16). And it is said that Christ did signify to Peter beforehand\n\"by what death he should glorify God\" (John 21:19). When Herod\nhad beheaded John the Baptist, and when the Jews had crucified\nChrist, it is said that they had but fulfilled what was \"written\nof them\" (Mark 9:13; Acts 13:29). Our sufferings, as to the nature\nof them, are all writ down in God's book; and though the writing\nseem as unknown characters to us, yet God understands them very\nwell. Some of them they shall kill and crucify, and some of them\nthey shall scourge in their synagogue, \"and persecute them from\ncity to city\" (Matt 23:34). Shall God, think you, say, some of them\nthey shall serve thus, and some of them they shall do so to; and\nyet not allot which some to this, and which to that, and which to\nthe other trial?\n\nDoubtless our sufferings fall by the will of God unto us, as they\nfell of old upon the people of Jerusalem. It was appointed by God\nwho of them should die of hunger, who with sword, who should go\ninto captivity, and who should be eaten up of beasts (Jer 15:2,3).\nSo is the case here, namely, as God has appointed who, when, where,\nand the like, so he has, also, what manner of sufferings this or\nthat good man shall undergo for his name. Let it then be concluded,\nthat hitherto it appears, that the sufferings of saints are ordered\nand disposed by the will of God. But,\n\nFifth, As all this is determined by the will of God, so it is also\nappointed FOR WHAT TRUTH this or that saint shall suffer this or\nthat kind of affliction. Every saint has his course, his work,\nand his testimony, as is allotted him of God (Mark 13:34). John\nhad a course, a testimony to fulfil for God (Acts 13:25), and so\nhad holy Paul (2 Tim 4:6,7), and so has every saint: also, he that\nis to suffer has his truth appointed him to suffer for. Christ\nhad a truth peculiar to himself to bear witness to in a way of\nsuffering (Mark 14:61,62). John had a truth peculiar to himself\nto bear witness to in a way of suffering (Mark 6:17,18). Stephen\nhad also a truth, divers from them both, to which he bare a holy\ntestimony, and for which he bravely died (Acts 7:51-53).\n\nIf you read the book of Acts and Monuments, you may see a goodly\nvariety as to this; and yet in all a curious harmony. Some are\nthere said to suffer for the Godhead, some for the manhood, some\nfor the ordinances of Christ, and some laid down their lives\nfor the brethren. And thus far we see that he that suffers for\nrighteousness' sake, suffers, in this sense, according to the will\nof God.\n\nSixth, As it is appointed who, when, where, what kind, and for what\ntruth, by the will of God, this and that saint should suffer; so\nalso it is appointed BY WHOSE HAND this or that man shall suffer\nfor this or that truth. It was appointed that Moses and Israel\nshould suffer by the hand of Pharaoh. And for this very purpose,\nsaid God, have I raised thee up, that is, to be a persecutor,\nand to reap the fruits thereof (Exo 9:16). It was also determined\nthat Christ should suffer by the hand of Herod and Pontius Pilate;\n\"For of a truth,\" said they, \"against thy holy child Jesus--both\nHerod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of\nIsrael, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and\nthy counsel determined before to be done\" (Acts 4:27).\n\nThese are great instances, from which we may gather how all these\nthings are ordered from thence down hitherto. For if a sparrow\nfalls not to the ground without God, she shall not be killed\nwithout God; not by he knows not who. And if a Christian man is\nbetter than many sparrows, it follows, that God concerns himself\nmore with, for, and about him than with, for, or about many sparrows.\nIt follows, therefore, in right reason, that as the person who is\nappointed to be the sufferer, so the persons who are appointed to\nbe the rod and sword thereby to afflict withal. Thus far, therefore,\nthe will of God is it that ordereth and disposeth of us and of\nour sufferings.\n\nSeventh, As all these pass through the hand of God, and come not\nto us but by his will, so HOW as also LONG is really determined\nas any of them all. It is not in man, but God, to set the time\nhow long the rod of the wicked shall rest upon the lot of the\nrighteous. Abraham must be informed of this. \"Abraham,\" says God,\n\"know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that\nis not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them\nfour hundred years\" (Gen 15:13). So the thraldom of Israel in Babylon\nwas not only in the general appointed, but the time prefixed, how\nlong (Jer 25:11,12; 29:10). The time of the beast's reign and of\nthe witnesses walking in sackcloth are punctually fixed, and that\nbeyond which they cannot go (Rev 11, 12, 13).\n\nI know these are generals, and respect the church in the bulk of\nit, and not particular persons. But, as was hinted afore, we must\nargue from the greater to the lesser, that is, from four hundred\nyears to ten days, from ten days to three, and so from the church\nin general to each particular member, and to the time and nature\nof their sufferings (Rev 2:10; Hosea 6:2; Acts 23:11).\n\nAnd thus, in a word or two, I have finished the first two parts\nof the text, and showed you what there is in Peter's counsel and\nadvice; and showed you also, to whom his advice is given: in which\nlast, as you see, I have showed you both what the will of God is,\nand what to suffer according to it. And particularly, I have, in\na few words, handled this last, to show you that our sufferings\nare ordered and disposed by him, that you might always, when you\ncome into trouble for his name, not stagger nor be at a loss, but\nbe stayed, composed, and settled in your minds, and say, \"The will\nof the Lord be done\" (Acts 21:14). I will also say unto you this\nby the way, that the will of God doth greatly work, even to order\nand dispose of the spirits of Christians, in order to willingness,\ndisposedness, readiness, and resignation of ourselves to the mind\nof God. For with respect to this were those words last recited\nspoken. Paul saw that he had a call to go up to Jerusalem, there\nto bear his testimony for Christ and his gospel; but those unto\nwhom he made know his purpose entreated him, with much earnestness,\nnot to go up thither, for that, as they believed, it would endanger\nhis life. But he answereth, What, mean ye to weep, and to break\nmy heart? for I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die\nat Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would\nnot be persuaded, says Luke, we ceased, saying, \"The will of the\nLord be done.\" From what has been thus discoursed, many things will\nfollow; as,\n\n1. That the rod, as well as the child, is God's; persecutors, as\nwell as the persecuted, are his, and he has his own designs upon\nboth. He has raised them up, and he has ordered them for himself,\nand for that work that he has for them to do. Hence Habakkuk,\nspeaking of the church's enemies, saith, \"Thou hast ordained them\nfor judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for\ncorrection\" (Hab 1:12). And, therefore, they are in other places\ncalled the rod of God's anger; his staff (Isa 10:5), his hand;\nhis sword (Psa 17:13,14).\n\nIndeed, to be thus disposed of, is a sad lot; the lot is not fallen\nto them in pleasant places, they have not the goodly heritage;\nbut the judgments of God are a great deep. The thing formed may\nnot say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? To be\nappointed, to be ordained, to be established to be a persecutor,\nand a troubler of God's church--O tremendous judgment! O amazing\nanger!\n\nThree things the people of God should learn from hence.\n\n(1.) Learn to pity and bewail the condition of the enemy; I know\nthou canst not alter the counsel of God; appointed they are,\nestablished they are for their work, and do it they must and shall.\nBut yet it becomes them that see their state, and that their day\nis coming, to pity and bewail their condition, yea, and to pray\nfor them too; for who knows whether it is determined that they\nshould remain implacable to the end, as Herod; or whether they\nmay through grace obtain repentance of their doings, with Saul.\nAnd I say again, if thy prayer should have a casting hand in the\nconversion of any of them, it would be sweet to thy thoughts when\nthe scene is over.\n\n(2.) Never grudge them their present advantages. \"Fret not thyself\nbecause of evil men, neither be thou envious at the workers of\niniquity\" (Prov 24:19). Fret not, though they spoil thy resting-place.\nIt is God that has bidden them do it, to try thy faith and patience\nthereby. Wish them no ill with what they get of thine; it is their\nwages for their work, and it will appear to them ere long that\nthey have earned it dearly. Their time is to rejoice but as in a\nmoment, in what thus is gotten by them; and then they, not repenting,\nare to perish for ever, like their own dung (Job 20:5-7). Poor man,\nthou that hast thy time to be afflicted by them, that thy golden\ngraces may shine the more, thou art in the fire, and they blow\nthe bellows. But wouldest thou change places with them? Wouldest\nthou sit upon their place of ease? Dost thou desire to be with\nthem (Prov 24:1)? O rest thyself contented; in thy patience possess\nthy soul, and pity and bewail them in the condition in which they\nare.\n\n(3.) Bless God that thy lot did fall on the other side, namely, to\nbe one that should know the truth, profess it, suffer for it, and\nhave grace to bear thee up thereunder, to God's glory, and thy\neternal comfort. This honour have not all his saints; all are not\ncounted worthy thus to suffer shame for his name. Do this, I say,\nthough they get all, and leave thee nothing but the shirt on thy\nback, the skin on thy bones, or an hole in the ground to be put\nin (Heb 11:23-26).\n\n2. Labour to be patient under this mighty hand of God, and be not\nhasty to say, When will the rod be laid aside? mind thou thy duty,\nwhich is to let patience have its perfect work. And bear the\nindignation of the Lord, because thou hast sinned against him,\nuntil he please to awake, to arise, and to execute judgment for\nthee (Micah 7:9). But to pass this. Are things thus ordered?\nthen this should teach us that there is a cause. The rod is not\ngathered without a cause; the rod is fore-determined, because the\nsin of God's people is foreseen, and ofttimes the nature of the\nsin, and the anger of the Father, is seen in the fashion of the\nrod. The rod of my anger, saith God. A bitter and hasty nation\nmust be brought against Jerusalem; an enemy fierce and cruel must\nbe brought against the land of Israel. Their sins called for such\na rod, for their iniquities were grievous (Hab 1:6).\n\nThis should teach us with all earnestness to be sorry for our sins,\nand to do what we can to prevent these things, by falling upon\nour face in a way of prayer before God. If we would shorten such\ndays, when they come upon us, let us be lovers of righteousness,\nand get more of the righteousness of faith, and of compliance\nwith the whole will of God into our hearts. Then I say, the days\nshall be shortened, or we fare as well, because the more harmless\nand innocent we are, and suffer, the greater will our wages, our\nreward, and glory be, when pay-day shall come; and what if we wait\na little for that?\n\nThese things are sent to better God's people, and to make them\nwhite, to refine them as silver, and to purge them as gold, and\nto cause that they that bear some fruit, may bring forth more: we\nare afflicted, that we may grow (John 15:2). It is also the will\nof God, that they that go to heaven should go thither hardly or\nwith difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved. That is,\nthey shall, but yet with great difficulty, that it may be the\nsweeter. Now that which makes the way to heaven so strait, so\nnarrow, so hard, is the rod, the sword, the persecutor, that lies\nin the way, that marks where our haunt is, that mars our path,\ndigs a pit, and that sets a net, a snare for us in the way (1 Sam\n23:22; Job 30:12-14; Psa 9:15; 31:4; 35:7; 119:110; 140:5; 142:3).\n\nThis, I say, is that which puts us to it, but it is to try, as I\nsaid, our graces, and to make heaven the sweeter to us. To come\nfrighted and hard pursued thither, will make the safety there the\nmore with exceeding gladness to be embraced. And I say, get thy\nheart yet more possessed with the power of godliness; that the love\nof righteousness may be yet more with thee. For this blessedness,\nthis happiness, he shall be sure of, that suffereth for righteousness'\nsake.\n\n3. Since the rod is God's as well as the child, let us not look\nupon our troubles as if they came from, and were managed only by\nhell. It is true, a persecutor has a black mark upon him, but yet\nthe Scriptures say that all the ways of the persecutor are God's\n(Dan 5:23). Wherefore as we should, so again we should not,\nbe afraid of men: we should be afraid of them, because they will\nhurt us; but we should not be afraid of them, as if they were let\nloose to do to us, and with us, what they will. God's bridle is\nupon them, God's hook is in their nose: yea, and God has determined\nthe bounds of their rage, and if he lets them drive his church into\nthe sea of troubles, it shall be but up to the neck, and so far\nit may go, and not be drowned (2 Kings 19:28; Isa 37:29; 8:7,8).\nI say the Lord has hold of them, and orders them; nor do they\nat any time come out against his people but by his licence and\ncommission how far to go, and where to stop. And now for two or\nthree objections:--\n\n1. Object. But may we not fly in a time of persecution? Your\npressing upon us, that persecution is ordered and managed by God,\nmakes us afraid to fly.\n\nAnsw. First, having regard to what was said afore about a call to\nsuffer; thou mayest do in this even as it is in thy heart. If it is\nin thy heart to fly, fly: if it be in thy heart to stand, stand.\nAny thing but a denial of the truth. He that flies, has warrant\nto do so; he that stands, has warrant to do so. Yea, the same man\nmay both fly and stand, as the call and working of God with his\nheart may be. Moses fled (Exo 2:15), Moses stood (Heb 11:27).\nDavid fled (1 Sam 19:12), David stood (24:8). Jeremiah fled (Jer\n37:11,12), Jeremiah stood (38:17). Christ withdrew himself (Luke\n9:10), Christ stood (John 18:1-8). Paul fled (2 Cor 11:33), Paul\nstood (Acts 20:22,23).\n\nThere are therefore few rules in this case. The man himself is\nbest able to judge concerning his present strength, and what weight\nthis or that argument has upon his heart to stand or fly. I should\nbe loath to impose upon any man in these things; only, if thou\nfliest, take two or three cautions with thee:--\n\n(1.) Do not fly out of a slavish fear, but rather because flying is\nan ordinance of God, opening a door for the escape of some, which\ndoor is opened by God's providence, and the escape countenanced\nby God's Word (Matt 10:23).\n\n(2.) When thou art fled, do as much good as thou canst in all\nquarters where thou comest, for therefore the door was opened to\nthee, and thou bid to make thy escape (Acts 8:1-5).\n\n(3.) Do not think thyself secure when thou art fled; it was\nprovidence that opened the door, and the Word that did bid thee\nescape: but whither, and wherefore, that thou knowest not yet.\nUriah the prophet fled into Egypt, because there dwelt men that\nwere to take him, that he might be brought again to Jerusalem to\ndie there (Jer 26:21).\n\n(4.) Shouldest thou fly from where thou art, and be taken in another\nplace; the most that can be made of it--thy taking the opportunity\nto fly, as was propounded at first--can be but this, thou wast\nwilling to commit thyself to God in the way of his providence, as\nother good men have done, and thy being now apprehended has made\nthy call clear to suffer here or there, the which before thou wert\nin the dark about.\n\n(5.) If, therefore, when thou hast fled, thou art taken, be not\noffended at God or man: not at God, for thou art his servant, thy\nlife and thy all are his; not at man, for he is but God's rod, and\nis ordained, in this, to do thee good. Hast thou escaped? Laugh.\nArt thou taken? Laugh. I mean, be pleased which way soever things\nshall go, for that the scales are still in God's hand.\n\n(6.) But fly not, in flying, from religion; fly not, in flying,\nfor the sake of a trade; fly not, in flying, that thou mayest have\nease for the flesh: this is wicked, and will yield neither peace\nnor profit to thy soul; neither now, nor at death, nor at the day\nof judgment.\n\n2. Object. But if I fly, some will blame me: what must I do now?\n\nAnsw. And so many others if thou standest; fly not, therefore, as\nwas said afore, out of a slavish fear; stand not, of a bravado.\nDo what thou dost in the fear of God, guiding thyself by his Word\nand providence; and as for this or that man's judgment, refer thy\ncase to the judgment of God.\n\n3. Object. But if I be taken and suffer, my cause is like to be\nclothed with scandals, slanders, reproaches, and all manner of\nfalse, and evil speakings; what must I do?\n\nAnsw. Saul charged David with rebellion (1 Sam 22:8,13). Amos was\ncharged with conspiring against the king (Amos 7:10). Daniel was\ncharged with despising the king; and so also were the three children\n(Dan 6:13; 3:12). Jesus Christ himself was accused of perverting\nthe nation, of forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and of saying\nthat himself was Christ a king (Luke 23:2). These things therefore\nhave been. But,\n\n(1.) Canst thou, after a due examination of thyself, say that\nas to these things thou art innocent and clear? I say, will thy\nconscience justify thee here? Hast thou made it thy business to\ngive unto God the things that are God's, and unto Caesar the things\nthat are his, according as God has commanded? If so, matter not\nwhat men shall say, nor with what lies and reproaches they slander\nthee, but for these things count thyself happy. Blessed are ye,\nwhen men shall revile you--and shall say all manner of evil against\nyou falsely (lying) for my sake (saith Christ). Rejoice, and be\nexceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted\nthey the prophets which were before you (Matt 5:11,12). Comfort\nthyself therefore in the innocency of thy soul, and say, I am\ncounted a rebel, and yet am loyal; I am counted a deceiver, and\nyet am true (1 Sam 24:8-12, 2 Cor 6:8). Also refer thy cause to the\nday of judgment; for if thou canst rejoice at the thoughts that\nthou shalt be cleared of all slanders and evil speakings then,\nthat will bear up thy heart as to what thou mayest suffer now.\nThe answer of a good conscience will carry a man through hell to\nheaven. Count these slanders part of thy sufferings, and those\nfor which God will give thee a reward, because thou art innocent,\nand for that they are laid upon thee for thy profession's sake.\nBut if thou be guilty, look to thyself; I am no comforter of such.\n\n[THIRD, THE GOOD EFFECT OF COMMITTING THE SOUL TO GOD'S KEEPING.]\n\nI come now to speak to the third and last part of the text, namely,\nof the good effect that will certainly follow to those that, after\na due manner, shall take the advice afore given. \"Let them that\nsuffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their\nsouls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.\"\n\nTwo things from the last clause of the text lie yet before us. And\nthey are they by which will be shown what good effect will follow\nto those that suffer according to the will of God, and that commit\ntheir souls to his keeping. 1. Such will find him to themselves a\nCreator. 2. They will find him a faithful Creator. \"Let them commit\nthe keeping of their souls to him, as unto a faithful Creator.\"\n\nIn this phrase, a Faithful Creator, behold the wisdom of the Holy\nGhost, how fitly and to the purpose he speaketh. King is a great\ntitle, and God is sometimes called a King; but he is not set forth\nby this title here, but by the title of a Creator; for it is not\nalways in the power of a king to succour and relieve his subjects,\nthat are suffering for his crown and dignity. Father is a sweet\ntitle--a title that carrieth in it an intimation of a great deal\nof bowels and compassion, and God is often set forth also by this\ntitle in the holy Scriptures. But so he is not here, but rather\nas a Creator. For a father, a compassionate father, cannot always\nhelp, succour, or relieve his children, though he knows they are\nunder affliction! Oh! but a Creator can. Wherefore, I say, he is\nset forth here under the title of Creator.\n\nFIRST, A Creator! nothing can die under a Creator's hands. A Creator\ncan sustain all. A Creator can, as a Creator, do what he pleases.\n\"The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the\nearth, fainteth not, neither is weary\" (Isa 40:28).\n\nThe cause of God, for which his people suffer, had been dead and\nburied a thousand years ago, had it not been in the hand of a\nCreator. The people that have stood by his cause had been out of\nboth as to persons, name, and remembrance, had they not been in\nthe hand of a Creator. Who could have hoped, when Israel was going\nin, even into the mouth of the Red Sea, that ever his cause, or\nthat people, should have revived again. A huge host of the Egyptians\nwere behind them, and nothing but death before and on every hand\nof them; but they lived, they flourished, they outlived their\nenemies, for they were in the hand of a Creator.\n\nWho could have hoped that Israel should have returned again from\nthe land, from the hand, and from under the tyranny of the king\nof Babylon? They could not deliver themselves from going thither,\nthey could not preserve themselves from being diminished when they\ncame there, their power was gone, they were in captivity, their\ndistance from home was far, their enemies possessed their land,\ntheir city of defence was ruined, and their houses burned down\nto the ground; and yet they came home again: there is nothing\nimpossible to a Creator.\n\nWho could have thought that the three children could have lived in\na fiery furnace? that Daniel could have been safe among the lions?\nthat Jonah could have come home to his country, when he was in\nthe whale's belly? or that our Lord should have risen again from\nthe dead? But what is impossible to a Creator?\n\nThis, therefore, is a rare consideration for those to let their\nhearts be acquainted with that suffer according to the will of\nGod, and that have committed the keeping of their souls to him in\nwell-doing. They have a Creator to maintain and uphold their cause,\na Creator to oppose its opposers. And hence it is said, all that\nburden themselves with Jerusalem \"shall be cut in pieces, though\nall the people of the earth be gathered together against it\" (Zech\n12:3).\n\nSECOND, A Creator! A Creator can not only support a dying cause,\nbut also fainting spirits. For as he fainteth not, nor is weary,\nso \"he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might\nhe increaseth strength\" (Isa 40:29). He is the God of the spirits\nof all flesh, and has the life of the spirit of his people in his\nown hand. Spirits have their being from him; he is the Father of\nspirits. Spirits are made strong by him, nor can any crush that\nspirit that God the Creator will uphold.\n\nIs it not a thing amazing to see one poor inconsiderable man, in\na spirit of faith and patience, overcome all the threatenings,\ncruelties, afflictions, and sorrows, that a whole world can lay upon\nhim? None can quail43 him, none can crush him, none can bend down\nhis spirit. None can make him to forsake what he has received of\nGod--a commandment to hold fast. His holy, harmless, and profitable\nnotions, because they are spiced with grace, yield to him more\ncomfort, joy, and peace, and do kindle in his soul so goodly\na fire of love to, and zeal for God, that all the waters of the\nworld shall never be able to quench.\n\nAy, say some, that is because his is headstrong, obstinate, and one\nthat will hear no reason. No, say I, but it is because his spirit\nis in the hand, under the conduct and preservation, of a Creator.\nA Creator can make spirits, uphold spirits, and make one spirit\nstronger to stand, than are all the spirits of the world to cast\ndown. To stand, I say, in a way of patient enduring in well-doing,\nagainst all that hell can do to suppress.\n\nTHIRD, A Creator! A Creator can bring down the spirits that oppose,\nand make them weak and unstable as water. The Lord, the everlasting\nGod, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, nor is\nweary; there is no searching of his understanding. He gives power\nto the faint, and to those that have no might, he increaseth\nstrength; now mark, even the young shall faint and be weary, and\nthe young men shall utterly fall. A Creator can dash the spirits\nof the enemies with fear. God can put them in fear, and make them\nknow that they are men and not God, and that their horses are flesh\nand not spirit. When the enemy came to take Jesus Christ, their\nspirits fainted, their hearts died in them; they went backwards,\nand fell to the ground. They had hard work to strengthen their\nspirits to a sufficiency of boldness and courage, though they\nbrought halberts, and staves, and swords, and weapons with them,\nto take a naked44 man (John 18:3-7).\n\nAnd although this is that which is not so visible to the world\nas some other things are, yet I believe that God treads down the\nspirits of men in a day when they afflict his people, oftener than\nwe are aware of, or than they are willing to confess. How was the\nhostile spirit of Esau trod down of God, when he came out to meet\nhis poor naked brother, with no less than four hundred armed men?\nHe fainted before his brother, and instead of killing, kissed him\n(Gen 33:4). How was the bloody spirit of Saul trod down, when David\nmet him at the mouth of the cave, and also at the hill Hachilah\n(1 Sam 24; 26)? God is a Creator, and as a Creator, is a spirit\nmaker, a spirit reviver, a spirit destroyer; he can destroy body\nand soul in hell (Luke 12:5).\n\nFOURTH, A Creator! As a Creator, he is over all arts, inventions,\nand crafts of men that are set on work to destroy God's people,\nwhether they be soldiers, excellent orators, or any other whatsoever;\nwe will single out one--the smith, that roaring fellow, who with\nhis coals and his bellows makes a continual noise. \"I have created\nthe smith,\" said God, \"that bloweth the coals in the fire, and\nthat bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created\nthe waster to destroy\" (Isa 54:16). The smith, what is he? I\nanswer, an idol maker, a promoter of false worship, and one that\nmakes instruments of cruelty, therewith to help to suppress the\ntrue [worship] (Isa 41:7; 44:12; 46:6).\n\n\"I have created the smith,\" saith God, \"that bloweth the coals in\nthe fire.\" The idol inventor, the idol maker, the supporter of\nidol worship, he is my creature, saith God, to teach that he has\npower to reach him, and to command his sword to approach him at\nhis pleasure, notwithstanding his roaring with his bellows, and\nhis coals in the fire. So then, he cannot do what he will in the\nfire, nor with his idol when he has made it; the instrument, also\nthat he makes for the defence of his idol, and for the suppressing\nof God's true worship, shall not do the thing for the which it\nis designed by him. And so the very next verse saith: \"No weapon\nthat is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that\nshall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is\nthe heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness\nis of me, saith the Lord\" (Isa 54:17). And the text saith moreover,\nI have created the waster to destroy. The waster, what is that?\nWhy, the smith makes an idol, and God has made the rust; the\nsmith makes a sword, and God has made the rust. The rust eats them\nup, the moth shall eat them up, the fire shall devour them. \"The\nwicked,\" saith the Psalmist, \"have drawn out the sword, and have\nbent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such\nas be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their\nown heart, and their bows shall be broken\" (Psa 37:14,15).\n\nAll this can God do, because he is a Creator, and none but God can\ndo it. Wherefore by this peculiar title of Creator, the apostle\nprepareth support for suffering saints, and also shows what\na good conclusion is like to be made with them that suffer for\nrighteousness' sake, according to his will; and that commit the\nkeeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful\nCreator.\n\nFIFTH, A Creator! A Creator can make such provision for a suffering\npeople, in all respects, as shall answer all their wants. Have\nthey lost their peace with the world? Have they no more peace\nwith this world? Why, a Creator can make, create peace, can create\npeace, peace; peace with God, and peace with his conscience; and\nthat is better than all the peace that can be found elsewhere in\nthe world (Isa 57:19). Have they lost a good frame of heart? Do\nthey want a right frame of spirit? Why, though this is to be had\nno where in the world, yet a Creator can help them to it (Psa\n51:10). Have they lost their spiritual defence? Do they lie too\nopen to their spiritual foes? Why, this a Creator can help. \"And\nthe Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and\nupon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining\nof a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a\ndefence.\" (Isa 4:5)\n\nThis is the work of the Spirit; for though the Spirit itself be\nuncreated, yet all the holy works of it in the heart are verily\nworks of creation. Our new man is a creation; our graces are a\ncreation; our joys and comforts are a creation45 (2 Cor 5:17,18;\nEph 4:24; Isa 65:17-19). Now a creation none can destroy but a\nCreator; wherefore here is comfort. But again, God hath created\nus in Christ Jesus; that is another thing. The sun is created in\nthe heavens; the stars are created in the heavens; the moon is\ncreated in the heavens. Who can reach them, touch them, destroy\nthem, but the Creator? Why, this is the case of the saint; because\nhe has to do with a Creator, he is fastened to Christ; yea, is in\nhim by an act of creation (Eph 2:10), so that unless Christ and\nthe creation of the Holy Ghost can be destroyed, he is safe that\nis suffering according to the will of God, and that hath committed\nthe keeping of his soul to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful\nCreator. And this I would have you consider moreover; the man\nthat suffereth according to the will of God, committeth not such\na soul to this Creator as dwells in carnal men--a naked soul, a\ngraceless soul, a soul that has nothing in it but sin; but he commits\na converted soul, a regenerate soul, a soul adorned, beautified,\nand sanctified, with the jewels, and bracelets, earrings, and\nperfumes of the blessed Spirit of grace. And I say again, this\nis the work of a Creator, and a Creator can maintain it in its\ngallantry,\n\nFOOTNOTE? \"Gallantry\"; splendour of appearance, grandeur,\nnobleness.--Ed.\n\nand he will do so, but he will put forth acts of creating power\nfor it every day.\n\nSIXTH, A Creator! He that can create can turn and alter any thing,\nto what himself would have it. He that made \"the seven stars and\nOrion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning\" (Amos\n5:8), he can \"make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry\nland springs of water\" (Isa 41:18). Our most afflicted and desolate\nconditions, he can make as a little haven unto us; he can make us\nsing in the wilderness, and can give us our vineyards from thence\n(Hosea 2:14,15). He can make Paul sing in the stocks, and good\nRowland Taylor dance as he goeth to the burning stake. Jails, and\nmocks, and scourgings, and flouts and imprisonments, and hunger,\nand nakedness, and peril, and sword, and dens, and caves, and\nrocks, and mountains, God can so sweeten with the honey of his\nWord, and make so famous for situation by the glory of his presence,\nand so rich and fruitful by the communications of the Holy Ghost,\nand so easy by the spreading of his feathers over us, that we\nshall not be able to say, that in all the world a more commodious\nplace, or comfortable condition, can be found. Some have know this,\nand have been rather ready to covet to be here, than to shun and\nfly from it, as a most unsavoury condition. 46\n\nAll these things, I say, God doth as a Creator. He hath created\nantipathies, and he can make antipathies close, and have favour\none for another. The lion and the calf, the wolf and the lamb, the\nlittle boy and the cockatrice's den he can reconcile, and make\nto be at agreement. So, sufferings and the saint; the prison and\nthe saint; losses, crosses, and afflictions, and the saint: he can\nmake to lie down sweetly together.\n\nSEVENTH, A Creator! A Creator can make up all that thou hast\nor shalt lose for the sake of thy profession by the hands of the\nchildren of men, be they friends, relations, a world, life, or\nwhat you can conceive of.\n\n1. Hast thou lost thy friend for the sake of thy profession? Is\nthe whole world set against thee for thy love to God, to Christ,\nhis cause, and righteousness? Why, a Creator can make up all.\nHere, therefore, is the advantage that he hath that suffereth for\nrighteousness' sake. Jonathan, the very son of bloody Saul, when\nDavid had lost the help of all his own relations, he must fall in\nwith him, stick to him, and love him as he loved his own soul (1\nSam 18:1-3). Obadiah, Ahab's steward, when the saints were driven\neven under ground by the rage of Jezebel the queen, he is appointed\nof God to feed them in caves and holes of the earth (1 Kings 18:13).\nYea, the very raven complied with the will of a Creator to bring\nthe prophet bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh\nat night (17:6). When Jeremiah the prophet was rejected of all,\nyea, the church that then was, could not help him; he was cast\ninto the dungeon, and sunk to a great depth there in the mire.\nGod the Creator, who ruleth the spirits of all men, stirred up\nthe heart of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian both to petition for his\nliberty, and to put him out of the dungeon by the help of thirty\nmen (Jer 38:7-13). These now, as Christ says, were both fathers,\nmothers, brothers, sisters, and as a loving wife or child (Matt\n19:29).\n\n2. Hast thou, for the sake of thy faith and profession thereof,\nlost thy part in the world? Why, a Creator can make thee houses\nas he did for the midwives of Egypt (Exo 1:20,21), and can build\nthee a sure house as he did for David his servant, who ventured all\nfor the love that they had to the fear of God and his way (2 Sam\n7). David was thrust out of Saul's house, and driven from his own,\nand God opened the heart of Achisch the king of Gath to receive\nhim, and to give him Ziklag. David, when under the tyranny of\nSaul, knew not what to do with his father and his mother, who were\npersecuted for his sake, but a Creator inclined the heart of the\nking of Moab to receive them to house and harbour (1 Sam 27:5;\n22:3,4).\n\n3. Is thy life at stake--is that like to go for thy profession,\nfor thy harmless profession of the gospel? Why, God the Creator\nis Lord of life, and to God the Lord belong the issues from death.\nSo then, he can, if he will, hold thy breath in thy nostrils, in\nspite of all the world; or if he shall suffer them to take away this\nfor his glory, he can give thee another ten times as good for thy\ncomfort. \"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth\nhis life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal\" (John\n12:25).\n\n4. Is thy body to be disfigured, dismembered, starved, hanged, or\nburned for the faith and profession of the gospel? Why, a Creator\ncan either prevent it, or, suffering it, can restore it the very\nsame to thee again, with great and manifold advantage. He that\nmade thee to be now what thou art, can make thee to be what thou\nnever yet wast. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, further\nthan only by general words (1 John 3:2; Phil 3:21).\n\nEIGHTH, A Creator! Peter sets him before us here as a Creator,\nbecause he would have us live upon him as such; as well as upon\nhis grace, love, and mercy. In Job's day this was bewailed, that\nnone or but a few said, \"Where is God my maker, who giveth songs\nin the night?\" (Job 35:10).\n\nCreator, as was hinted before, is one of God's peculiar titles.\nIt is not given to him above five or six times in all the Book\nof God; and usually, when given him, it is either to show his\ngreatness, or else to convince us that of duty we ought to depend\nupon him; and not to faint, if he be on our side, for or under\nany adversity, according as we are bidden in the text: \"Let them\nthat suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of\ntheir souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful creator.\"\nShall God display his glory before us under the character and\ntitle of a Creator, and shall we yet fear man? Shall he do this\nto us when we are under a suffering condition, and that on purpose\nthat we might commit our souls to him in well-doing, and be quiet,\nand shall we take no notice of this? \"Who art thou, that thou\nshouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man\nwhich shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker,\nthat hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations\nof the earth?\" &c. (Isa 51:12,13).\n\nHad God concealed himself, as to his being a Creator, yet since\nhe presenteth himself unto us by his Word under so many excellent\ntitles as are given to no other God besides, methinks it should\nmake us bold in our God; but when, for our relief, he shall add\nto all other that he verily is a Creator, this should make us rest\nin hope indeed.\n\nEvery nation will have confidence for their own gods, though but\ngods that are made with hands--though but the work of the smith\nand carpenter; and shall not we trust in the name of the Lord our\nGod, who is not only a God, but a Creator and former of all things\n(Micah 4:5), consequently, the only living and true God, and one\nthat alone can sustain us? We therefore are to be greatly blamed\nif we overlook the ground, such ground of support and comfort as\npresenteth itself unto us under the title of a Creator; but then\nmost of all, if, when we have heard, believed, and known that our\nGod is such, we shall yet be afraid of a man that shall die, and\nforget the Lord our maker. We, I say, have heard, seen, known,\nand believed, that our God is the Creator. The heavens declare\nhis glory, and the firmament showeth his handy-work, and thus he\nhas showed unto us \"his eternal power and Godhead\" (Rom 1:20).\n\nBehold, then, thou fearful worm, Jacob, the heavens, the sun, the\nmoon, the stars; behold the earth, the sea, the air, the fire, and\nvapours. Behold, all living things, from leviathan and behemoth\nto the least that creepeth in the earth and waters. Yea, behold\nthyself, thy soul, thy body, thy fashion, thy building, and consider;\nthy God hath made even all these things, and hath given to thee\nthis being; yea, and all this also he made of that which doth\nnot appear (Heb 11:1-3). This is that which thou art called to\nthe consideration of by Peter, in the text; when he letteth fall\nfrom his apostolical meditation that thy God is the Creator, and\ncommandeth that thou, in thy suffering for him according to his\nwill, shouldest commit the keeping of thy soul to him as unto a\nfaithful Creator.\n\nHe that has the art thus to do, and that can do it in his straits,\nshall never be trodden down. His God, his faith; his faith, his\nGod, are able to make him stand. For such a man will thus conclude,\nthat since the Creator of all is with him, what but creatures are\nthere to be against him? So, then, what is the axe, that it should\nboast itself against him that heweth therewith? or the saw, that\nit should magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the\nrod should shake itself against him that lifteth it up; or as if\nthe staff should lift up itself as if it were not wood (Isa 10:15).\nRead also Isaiah 40:12-31, and then speak, if God as Creator is\nnot a sure confidence to all the ends of the earth that trust in,\nand wait upon him. As Creator, he hath formed and upholdeth all\nthings; yea, his hands have formed the crooked serpent, wherefore\nhe also is at his bay (Job 26:13). And thou hast made the dragon\nin the sea; and therefore it follows that he can cut and wound him\n(Isa 51:9), and give him for meat to the fowls, and to the beasts\ninheriting the wilderness (Psa 74:13,14), if he will seek to\nswallow up and destroy the church and people of God (Eze 29:3,4).\n\nNINTH, A Creator is God! the God unto whom they that suffer according\nto his will are to commit the keeping of their souls--the Creator.\nAnd doth he take charge of them as a Creator? Then this should\nteach us to be far off from being dismayed, as the heathens are,\nat his tokens; for our God, the Lord, is the true God, the living\nGod, the King of eternity (Jer 10:1,2,10). We should tremblingly\nglory and rejoice when we see him in the world, though upon those\nthat are the most terrible of his dispensations. God the Creator\nwill sometimes mount himself and ride through the earth in such\nmajesty and glory, that he will make all to stand in the tent\ndoors to behold him. O how he rode in his chariots of salvation\nwhen he went to save his people out of the land of Egypt! How he\nshook the nations! Then \"his glory covered the heavens, and the\nearth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light;\nhe had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of\nhis power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went\nforth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld,\nand drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were\nscattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.\"\nThen said the prophet, \"I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction:\nand the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord\ndispleased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers?\nwas thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine\nhorses and thy chariots of salvation?\" (Hab 3:3-8).\n\nSo David: \"The earth shook and trembled,\" said he; \"the foundations\nalso of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.\nThere went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his\nmouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens\nalso, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode\nupon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the\nwind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about\nhim were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness\nthat was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals\nof fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest\ngave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out\nhis arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and\ndiscomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the\nfoundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord,\nat the blast of the breath of thy nostrils\" (Psa 18:7-15).\n\nThese are glorious things, though shaking dispensations. God is\nworthy to be seen in his dispensations as well as in his Word,\nthough the nations tremble at his presence. \"Oh that thou wouldest\nrend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down,\" saith the prophet,\n\"that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!\" (Isa 64:1).\nWe know God, and he is our God, our own God; of whom or of what\nshould we be afraid? (Psa 46). When God roars out of Zion, and\nutters his voice from Jerusalem, when the heavens and the earth do\nshake, the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength\nof the children of Israel (Joel 3:16).\n\nEvery man stayeth up, or letteth his spirit fail, according to\nwhat he knoweth concerning the nature of a thing. He that knows\nthe sea, knows the waves will toss themselves: he that knows a\nlion, will not much wonder to see his paw, or to hear the voice\nof his roaring. And shall we that know our God be stricken with\na panic fear, when he cometh out of his holy place to punish the\ninhabitants of the earth for their iniquity? We should stand like\nthose that are next to angels, and tell the blind world who it\nis that is thus mounted upon his steed, and that hath the clouds\nfor the dust of his feet, and that thus rideth upon the wings of\nthe wind: we should say unto them, \"This God is our God for ever\nand ever, and he shall be our guide even unto death.\"\n\nOur God! the Creator! He can turn men to destruction, and say,\nReturn, ye children of men. When our God shows himself, it is\nworth the while to see the sight, though it costs us all that we\nhave to behold it. Some men will bless and admire every rascally\njuggler that can but make again that which they only seem to mar,\nor do something that seems to outgo reason; yea, though they make\nthunderings and noise in the place where they are, as though the\ndevil himself were there. Shall saints, then, like slaves, be afraid\nof their God, the Creator; of their own God, when he rendeth the\nheavens, and comes down? When God comes into the world to do great\nthings, he must come like himself--like him that is a Creator:\nwherefore the heavens and the earth must move at his presence, to\nsignify that they acknowledge him as such, and pay him that homage\nthat is due to him as their God and great Creator.\n\nWe that are Christians have been trained up by his Son in his\nschool this many a day, and have been told what a God our Father\nis, what an arm he has, and with what a voice he can thunder; how\nhe can deck himself with majesty and excellency, and array himself\nwith beauty and glory; how he can cast abroad the rage of his wrath,\nand behold every one that is proud, and abase him (Job 40:9-11).\nHave we not talked of what he did at the Red Sea, and in the land\nof Ham many years ago, and have we forgot him now? Have we not\nvaunted and boasted of our God both in church, pulpit, and books;\nand spake to the praise of them that, instead of stones, attempted\nto drive antichrist out of the world with their lives and their\nblood; and are we afraid of our God? He was God, a Creator, then;\nand is he not God now? and will he not be as good to us as to them\nthat have gone before us? or would we limit him to appear in such\nways as only smile upon our flesh; and have him stay, and not show\nhimself in his heart-shaking dispensations until we are dead and\ngone? What if we must go now to heaven, and what if he is thus\ncome down to fetch us to himself? If we have been wise as serpents,\nand innocent as doves--if we can say, Neither against the law of\nthe Jews, neither against the temple, nor against Caesar, have we\noffended anything at all, of what should we be afraid? Let heaven\nand earth come together, I dare say they will not hurt us. Our\nLord Jesus, when dilating upon some of the great and necessary works\nof our Creator, puts check beforehand to all uncomely fears; to\nsuch fears as become not the faith and profession of a Christian.\n\"Brother,\" saith he, \"shall deliver up the brother to death, and\nthe father the child: and the children shall rise up against their\nparents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated\nof all men for my name's sake.\" What follows? (verse 28), \"Fear\nthem not\"; and again, in verse 31, \"Fear ye not\" (Matt 10:21,22).\n\nSo again (Matt 24): \"Nation shall rise against nation--there shall\nbe famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, &c. They shall deliver you\nup to be afflicted, and shall kill you.--Many shall be offended,\nand shall betray one another.--And many false prophets shall\narise, and deceive many.\" And yet for all this we are bid not\nto be afraid, for all these things, with all other are ordered,\nlimited, enlarged and straitened, bounded and butted by the will,\nand hand, and power of that God unto whom Peter bids us commit\nthe keeping of our souls, as unto a faithful Creator (verse 7-11;\nMark 13:5-9). To wait for God in the way of his judgments doth\nwell become a Christian.\n\nTo believe he loves us when he shows himself terrible to us, is\nalso very much becoming of us. Wherefore has he given us grace?\nIs it that we should live by sense? Wherefore has he sometimes\nvisited us? Is it that our hearts might be estranged from him, and\nthat we still should love the world? And I say again, wherefore\nhas he so plainly told us of his greatness, and of what he can\ndo? Is it not that we might be still when the world is disturbed;\nand that we might hope for good things to come out of such providences\nthat, to sense, look as if themselves would eat up and devour all?\n\nLet us wait upon God, walk with God, believe in God, and commit\nourselves, our soul, our body, to God, to be kept. Yea, let us be\ncontent to be at the disposal of God, and rejoice to see him act\naccording to all his wondrous works. For this is a posture highly\nbecoming them that say of God he is their Father, and that have\ncommitted the keeping of their souls to him as unto a Creator.\nA comely thing it is for the soul that feareth God, to love and\nreverence him in all his appearances. We should be like the spaniel\ndog, even lie at the foot of our God, as he at the foot of his\nmaster; yea, and should be glad, could we but see his face, though\nhe treads us down with his feet.\n\nAy, says one son, so I could, if I thought this high God would\nregard me, and take notice of my laying of my soul at his foot,\nwhile I suffer for his Word and truth in the world. Why, do but\nsee now how the Holy Ghost, for our help, doth hedge up that way\nin at which unbelief would come, that there might, as to this,\nbe no room left for doubting. For as he calleth the God unto whom\nwe are bid to commit the keeping of our soul, a Creator, so he\nsaith that he is A CREATOR THAT IS FAITHFUL. \"Let them commit the\nkeeping of their souls unto him in well-doing, as unto a faithful\nCreator\"--a Creator that will concern himself with the soul committed\nto his trust, and that will be faithful to it, according to all\nthat he has promised.\n\nThis, therefore, of God's faithfulness being added to his might and\npower, is in itself a ground of great support to those that have\nin a way of well-doing committed themselves, their souls, to him\nto keep. A Creator; what is it that a Creator cannot do? A faithful\nCreator; what is it that one that is faithful will not do, that\nis, when he is engaged? And now he is engaged, because thou hast\ncommitted thy soul to him to keep, and because he has bid thee\ndo so. Let them commit the keeping of their soul to him, as unto\na faithful Creator. I have sometimes seen an unfaithful man engaged,\nwhen a thing has been committed to him to keep. A man that is a\nthief, a cheater, a defrauder, will yet be faithful to him that\nwill commit a charge to him to keep. And the reason is, because,\nthough he can steal, cheat, defraud, without being taken notice\nof; yet he must be seen and known, if he be false in that which\nis committed to him to keep. I know the comparison is odious, yet\nsuch have been made by a holier mouth than mine, and as the case\nmay be, they may be aptest of all to illustrate that which a man\nis about to explain. Hark what the unjust judge saith, says the\nLord Jesus Christ (Luke 18).\n\nTo commit thy soul to God is to trust him with it; to commit thy\nsoul to God is to engage him to look to it. And if he should not\nbe faithful now, he will not be so in any case. For himself has\nbidden thee do it; he has also promised to keep it, as has been\nalready showed in the former part of this discourse. Besides, he is\nhere said to be faithful--to be a faithful Creator. He challenges\nthis of faithfulness to himself alone: \"Yea, let God be true, but\nevery man a liar\" (Rom 3:4). This, therefore, doth still help to\nencourage them that would be faithful to him, to commit the keeping\nof our soul to him. A faithful man will encourage one much; how\nmuch more should the faithfulness of God encourage us?\n\nHere, therefore, we have a closing word indeed; a word to wrap\nup the text with that is as full of good as the sun is of light.\nWhat can be fitter spoken? What can be added? What now is wanting\nto the help of him that has committed his soul to God to keep it\nwhile he is suffering according to his will in the world? He is\nengaged, as I said, by that act; thou hast committed thy soul to\nhim to keep; he is engaged by his own Word; he has bidden thee\ncommit thy soul to him to keep. He is engaged by his declaring\nof himself to be faithful; for that has encouraged thee to commit\nthy soul to him to keep. Besides, he has promised to do it; he\nhas sworn to do it.\n\n\"For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by\nno greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will\nbless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he\nhad patiently endured, (as thou must do,) he obtained the promise.\nFor men verily swear by the great: and an oath for confirmation is\nto them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly\nto shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,\nconfirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it\nwas impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,\nwho have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before\nus: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and\nsteadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither\nthe forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High-priest\nfor ever after the order of Melchisedec\" (Heb 6:13-20).\n\nThus you see what ground we have who suffer according to the will\nof God, and that have committed the keeping of our souls to him in\nwell-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. Here, therefore, I might\nmake a stop and conclude as to this advice; but now we are in, we\nwill proceed a little further, and will fall upon three or four\nmore particulars.\n\nFirst, then, He will be faithful to us in this: He will keep us from\nthose allurements of the world that a suffering saint is subject\nto. They that suffer have other kinds of temptations upon this\naccount than other Christians have. The liberty of others, while\nthey are in bonds, is a temptation to them. The peace of others,\nwhile they are in trouble, is a temptation to them. The enjoyments\nof others, while their houses are empty and their goods taken\naway, while their own water is sold unto them, and while they are\nbuying their own wood, is a great temptation to them (Lam 5:4).\nAnd this temptation, were it not that we have to do with a God\nthat is faithful, would assuredly be a great snare unto them. But\n\"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted,\" as to\nthis, \"above that ye are able\" (1 Cor 10:13).\n\nNay, a suffering man has not only these things lying before him\nas a temptation, but perhaps the wife of the bosom lies at him,\nsaying, O do not cast thyself away; if thou takest this course,\nwhat shall I do? Thou has said thou lovest me; now make it manifest\nby granting this my small request. Do not still remain in thine\nintegrity. Next to this come the children, all which are like to\ncome to poverty, to beggary, to be undone for want of wherewithal\nto feed, and clothe, and provide for them for time to come. Now\nalso come kindred, and relations, and acquaintance; some chide,\nsome cry, some argue, some threaten, some promise, some flatter,\nand some do all, to befool him for so unadvised an act as to cast\naway himself, and to bring his wife and children to beggary for\nsuch a thing as religion. These are sore temptations.47\n\nNext to those come the terrors of men, the gripes of the laws,\nthe shadow of death, and no man can tell what. All which are\nsufficient to pull a man from the gates of life, were he there, if\nthe faithful Creator stands not to him. \"But God is faithful, who\nwill not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will\nwith the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to\nbear it.\"--\"But God is faithful.\" It saith not, that thou art: but\n\"God is faithful\"--to his Son, to whom he has given thee; to his\npromise, the which he has given thee; to his cause, to which he\nhas called thee; and to thy soul, the which thou hast committed\nto his trust, and the which he also has taken the charge of, as he\nis a faithful Creator.\n\n\"And will not suffer thee to be tempted.\" How, not tempted? No;\nnot above what thou art able. He that tempts thee doth not at all\nconsider thy strength, so as to stop when he sees thou art weak;\nhe would have thee overthrown, for therefore it is that he tempteth\nthee. But God will not suffer that, because he is faithful, and\nbecause thou hast committed the keeping of thy soul unto him in\nwell-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. \"Not tempted above that\nye are able.\" He saith not, above that ye are well able. Indeed,\nthy strength shall be proportioned to the temptation, but thou\nmayest have none over and above to spare; thou shalt not have a\nbigger load than God will give thee shoulders to bear. Christ did\nbear his burden, but it made him cry out, and sweat as it were\ngreat drops of blood, to carry it. Bear thy burden thou shalt,\nand not be destroyed by it; but perhaps thou mayest sometimes roar\nunder it by reason of the disquietness of thy heart. \"But he will\nwith the temptation make a way of escape.\" \"With the temptation,\"\nnot without it; thou must be tempted, and must escape too. \"With\nthe temptation.\" As sure as Satan is licensed, so sure he is\nlimited; and when Satan has ended all the temptation, he shall\ndepart from thee (Luke 4:13). \"He will with the temptation\"--by\nsuch a managing of it as shall beak its own neck. God can admit\nSatan to tempt, and make the Christian wise to manage the temptation\nfor his own escape.\n\n\"Make a way.\" It may be thou seest no way of escape. It may be there\nis no way--no way in all the world, to escape. Well; but God can\nmake a way. When Israel was hemmed in at the Red Sea, there was as\nthen no way--no way in all the world, to escape. O! but God made\na way, and a pathway too, and that through the mighty waters (Exo\n15:8,16; Psa 106:9; 78:13). He will make a way with the temptation,\nor \"will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be\nable to bear it.\" These are the words of the Holy Ghost, who is\nGod; and they are spoken, yea, committed to record for this very\npurpose, that those that are under affliction might commit the\nkeeping of their soul to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful\nCreator. That is the first.\n\nSecond, He will also be faithful to us as to this: He will give us\na competent measure of wisdom, that in our suffering condition we\nmay in all things be made able to manage our state with discretion.\nWe are perhaps weak of natural abilities, parts of utterance, or\nthe like; and our adversaries are learned, eloquent, and ripe of\nparts. Thou hast the disadvantage on thy side, and they have what\nthe world can afford to encourage them; thou art weak of spirit,\nthey are bold and strong. The great and the mighty are with thy\nenemies, but on thy side there is no comforter (Eccl 4:1).\n\nWhy now here is, as to this, and to what else can it be objected,\nthe faithfulness of God engaged. First, in a general promise; I will\nnot fail thee, nor forsake thee (Heb 13:5,6). Secondly, we have\nan invitation to come to this faithful God for wisdom to assist\nand help. For after he had said, \"My brethren, count it all joy\nwhen ye fall into divers temptations--and let patience have her\nperfect work\"; he adds, \"If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of\nGod, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it\nshall be given him\" (James 1:2-5). Here is more than an invitation,\nhere is a promise--it shall be given him; and all to show us what a\nfaithful Creator we have committed our souls unto. Doth any lack\nwisdom to know how to carry it in a time of trial: let them ask it\nof God--of the God that is wisdom itself; let him ask it of God,\nthe liberal giver, who giveth to all men all that they have, and\nupbraideth not for their unworthiness. Nor doth the Holy Ghost\nstop here, but enlarges himself in a more particular way to those\nthat suffer according to the text, saying, \"But when they deliver\nyou up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall\nbe given you in that same hour what ye shall speak\" (Matt 10:19).\nI have often been amazed in my mind at this text, for how could\nJesus Christ have said such a word if he had not been able to\nperform it? This text, therefore, declares him to be God. It is\nalso a proof of faithfulness to those that suffer for him.\n\nFor it is as if he should say, Try me and trust me; if I stand not\nby you in a day of distress, never believe me more;--you, suffering\naccording to the will of God, and committing your souls to him in\nwell-doing; \"I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your\nadversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist,\" for so he has\nit in Luke 21:15. Here is no consideration of what capacity the\npeople might be of, that were to be persecuted; but what matters\nwhat they are? if fools, it is no matter; if wise, it helpeth\nnothing. A mouth and wisdom is to be given; that of itself shall\ndo. And this is according to that other scripture mentioned afore,\nwhere it saith, \"No weapon that is formed against thee shall\nprosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment\nthou shalt condemn\" (Isa 54:17). Although it may happen in this,\nas in the former temptation, the devil and his agents may give the\nsaints, in their pleading for the truth, their bellies full both\nof cross answers, equivocations, sophistications, wrong glosses\nand erroneous interpretations; but truth shall prevail, shall turn\nthe scale, and bear away the victory.\n\nThird, He will also be faithful to us in this: we shall not want\nspiritual support to help us to bear up under our particular parts\nof suffering. I do not say that thou shalt be comforted all the\nwhile; but I say he will be to thee so faithful as to comfort thee\nunder those thodes,48 gusts, blasts, or battering storms that beat\nagainst thy wall (Isa 32:2).\n\nLook then what present degrees or aggravating appearances are in\nthy afflictions; to such a degree shalt thou at times be supported.\nFor as surely as ever the Spirit of God moved Samson at times in\nthe camp of Dan, when he lay against the Philistines; so will the\nSpirit of God move in and upon thee to comfort and to strengthen\nthee, whilst thou sufferest for his name in the world. As our\nafflictions abound for Christ, so shall our consolations abound by\nhim (2 Cor 1:5). I have observed that God lays this, that he useth\nto comfort his people in a time of sufferings, as an aggravation\nof sin upon them that did use to shuck49 and shrink under sufferings.\n\"I,\" saith he, \"even I, am he that comforteth you; who art thou\nthat thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die\" (Isa 51:12)?\n\n\"God,\" says the wise man, \"hath set the one over against the other,\"\nthe day of adversity and the day of prosperity, \"to the end that\nman should find nothing after him\" to complain of (Eccl 7:14).\nFor as certainly as there is a time to mourn, so certainly there\nis a time to rejoice: set, I say, for them that suffer for God's\ncause according to God's will (Eccl 3:4).\n\nThere are several degrees of suffering for righteousness; there\nis the scourge of the tongue, the ruin of an estate, the loss of\nliberty, a jail, a gibbet, a stake, a dagger. Now, answerable to\nthese are the comforts of the Holy Ghost prepared, like to like,\npart proportioned to part, only the consolations are said to abound\n(2 Cor 1).\n\nBut the lighter the sufferings are, the more difficult it is to\njudge of the comforts of the Spirit of God, for it is common for\na man to be comfortable under sufferings when he suffereth but\nlittle, and knows also that his enemy can touch his flesh, his\nestate, or the like, but little: I say, it is common for such a\nman to be comfortable in his sufferings, from the consideration\nthat his enemies can touch him no further. And this may be the\njoy of the flesh--the result of reason, and may be very much, if\nnot altogether, without a mixture of the joy of the Holy Ghost\ntherewith. The more deep, therefore, and the more dreadful the\nsufferings are, the more clearly are seen the comforts of the\nSpirit, when a man has comfort where the flesh is dead, stirreth\nnot, and can do nothing. When a man can be comfortable at the loss\nof all--when he is under the sentence of death, or at the place\nof execution--when a man's cause, a man's conscience, the promise,\nand the Holy Ghost, have all one comfortable voice, and do all,\ntogether with their trumpets, make one sound in the soul; then\nthe comforts are good, of the right kinds, of God and his Spirit.\n\nI told you before that there are several degrees of sufferings;\nwherefore it is not to be expected that he that suffers but little\nshould partake of the comforts that are prepared for them that\nsuffer much. He that has only the scourge of the tongue, knows not\nwhat are the comforts that are prepared for him that meets with\nthe scourge of the whip. And how should a man know what manner\nof comforts the Holy Ghost doth use to give at the jail and the\ngibbet, when himself, for righteousness, never was there?\n\nBut whether this or the other Christian knows it, God has his\nconsolations for his suffering people; and those, too, such as\nare proportioned to the nature or degree of their sufferings; the\nwhich shall assuredly be made appear to them that shall after a\ngodly manner stick to his truth, and trust him with their souls.\nJoseph was cast into prison; but God was with him. John was\nbanished into the isle called Patmos, for the Word of God; but what\nrevelations of God had he there! even such as he was a stranger\nto all his life before: this, therefore, is to be well heeded. For\nit is a demonstration of the faithfulness of God to those that,\nsuffering according to his will, do commit the keeping of their\nsouls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.\n\nFourth, He will also be faithful to us in this: He will not let the\nsharpness, nor keenness, nor venom of the arrows of the enemies\nof his people, reach so far as to destroy both body and soul at\nonce; but he will preserve them, when what can be done is done,\nto his eternal kingdom and glory, is a marvellous thing; but it\nmust be so, because God has called them to it. Therefore, after\nPeter had told them that the devil their adversary sought to devour\nthem, and had bidden them resist him, steadfast in the faith,\nhe saith, \"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his\neternal [kingdom and] glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have\nsuffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle\nyou\" (1 Peter 5:10). The truth is, persecution of the godly was,\nof God, never intended for their destruction, but for their glory,\nand to make them shine the more when they are beyond this valley\nof the shadow of death. Indeed, we ofttimes, when we are persecuted,\ndo feel the terrors of our adversaries in our minds. But it is not\nbecause they can shoot them thither, nor because they of themselves\nhave power to reach so far, but we, like fools, by our ignorance\nand unbelief, do admit them thither.\n\nNo suffering, nor inflicter of suffering, can reach the peace of\nthe sufferer without his own consent. This is provision of God's\nmaking; yea, and if through our folly their terror is admitted\nto touch us, yet since we are not our own, but are bought with a\nprice, we are not so at our own dispose, but that God will have\nthe butting and bounding of their rage, as also a power to uphold\nand support our spirits. When I said my foot slipped, thy mercy,\nO Lord, help me up. And the reason why, by God's ordinance, the\nspirit is not to be touched in suffering, is, because that is it\nthat is to sustain the infirmity of the sufferer; therefore God\nwill have the spirit of his servants kept sound, and in good health\n(Prov 18:14; Isa 57:16). The room, therefore, and the ground that\nthe enemy has to play upon, is the body and outward substance\nof the people of God, but the spirit is reserved, for the reason\nhinted before, and also that it might be capable of maintaining\nof communion with God. And how else could they obey that command\nthat bids them rejoice in tribulation, and glorify God in the\nfires? as it is (Rom 12; Isa 24:15).\n\nBut, I say, if they have not power to touch, much less to destroy\nbody and soul for ever. The body is God's, and he gives that to\nthem to destroy; the spirit is God's, and he keeps that to himself,\nto show that he has both power to do with us what he pleases, and\nthat he will recover our body also out of their hand; for if the\nspirit lives, so must the body, when men have done what they can\ntherewith. This is the argument of our Lord Jesus Christ himself\n(Luke 20:37,38). Therefore the faithfulness of God not only is,\nbut also will be seen, by them that dare trust him, till the next\nworld, to his glory and their eternal comfort.\n\nWe will now conclude with a short word by way of USE. You see how\nI have opened the text, and what hath naturally followed thereupon;\nfrom the whole of which may be gathered:--\n\nUse First, That the people of God are a suffering people--a people\nsubject to trouble for their faith and profession. The reason is,\nbesides what hath been said already, because the power of truth\nis in their hearts, and shows itself in their lives--a thing which\nthe devil and the world can by no means abide. He that is born\nafter the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit (Gal\n4:29). For they cannot agree in religion; the godly are so devout\nand the other are so profane, that they cannot do. Not but that\nGod's people, as they are commanded, are willing to let them\nalone; but the other they cannot bear that they should serve God\nas they have said (Matt 15:14), and hence ariseth persecution.\nThe world also would have the religion of the godly to be counted\nfalse--a thing that the others can by no means endure, but will\nstand by and maintain, yet in all peaceable manner, their own ways\nbefore them, whatever it costs.\n\nThe Christian and the carnal professor are like those two harlots\nthat you read of in the book of Kings, who strove for the living\nchild, whose it should be, whose contest could not be decided\nuntil it came to the sword of the king (1 Kings 3). O, but when\nthe sword was drawn, under a show as if the living child must now\nbe cut in two, then the true mother was known from the false; for\nher bowels yearned upon her son (verse 26,27). The world, what\nshow soever they have for religion, and however they urge it, that\nthe truth is with them, have no yearning of bowels for it. Let it\nbe neither mine nor thine, said she, but divide it; but the woman\nwhose the living child was, had not a heart to say so. Religion\nmay lie and die in a ditch for all those that are given to their\nsins; nor doth their zeal appear, except when they are gripping\nof the godly for his faith towards God. Bowels, yearning of bowels\nover God's condemned religion, is only found in the souls of those\nwho own God has made it.\n\nUse Second, Is it so? Are God's people a suffering people? Then this\nshould inform them that will be religious, to prepare themselves\nfor what is like to attend them for their religion. To prepare,\nI say, not with carnal weapons, but with the graces of the Spirit\nof God; that will help them with meekness and patience to endure.\nSit down then, I say, and count up the cost, before for religion\nthou engagest too far; lest thou take upon thee to meddle with\nthat which thou wilt not know what to do with in the end (Prov\n25:8; Luke 14:25-30).\n\nMany there be that are faulty here; they have taken upon them to\nprofess, not considering what they have taken in hand may cost\nthem. Wherefore, when troubles come indeed, then they start and\ncry. This they like not, because they looked not for it; and if\nthis be the way to heaven, let who will go on in it for them. Thus\nthey take offence, and leave Christ's cause and people to shift\nfor themselves in the world (Matt 13:20,21).\n\nUse Third, But let God's people think never the worse of religion,\nbecause of the coarse entertainment it meeteth with in the world.\nIt is better to choose God and affliction than the world, and sin,\nand carnal peace. It is necessary that we should suffer, because\nthat we have sinned. And if God will have us suffer a little while\nhere for his Word, instead of suffering for our sins in hell,\nlet us be content, and count it a mercy with thankfulness. \"The\nwicked is reserved to the day of destruction: they shall be brought\nforth to the day of wrath\" (Job 21:30). How kindly, therefore,\ndoth God deal with us, when he chooses to afflict us but for a\nlittle, that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy upon us\n(Isa 54:7,8). And \"it is better, if the will of God be so, that\nye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing\" (1 Peter 3:17).\n\nUse Fourth, Look not, therefore, upon the sufferings of God's people\nfor their religion, to be tokens of God's great anger. It is, to\nbe sure, as our heavenly Father orders it, rather a token of his\nlove; for suffering for the gospel, and for the sincere profession\nof it, is indeed a dignity put upon us--a dignity that all men are\nnot counted worthy of. Count it, therefore, a favour that God has\nbestowed upon thee his truth, and graces to enable thee to profess\nit, though thou be made to suffer for it (Acts 5:41). Thou mightest\nhave been a sufferer for thy sins in hell, but thou art not; but\ncontrariwise art, perhaps, suffering for conscience to God; this\nis a dignity. For that thou dost thus by virtue of a heavenly gift,\non the behalf of Christ, for the gospel's sake, and according to\nthe will of God. This is a dignity that a persecutor shall not be\ncounted worthy of, until he first convert to Christ (Phil 1:29).\n\nUse Fifth, Take thy affliction with meekness and patience, though\nthou endurest grief wrongfully. \"For this is thankworthy, if a man\nfor conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully\" (1\nPeter 2:19). Lay thy hand, then, upon thy mouth, and speak not a\nword of ill against him that doth thee wrong; leave thy cause and\nthy enemy to God; yea, rather pray that his sin may not be laid to\nhis charge; wherefore, as I said before, now show thyself a good\nman, by loving, pitying, praying for, and by doing good, as thou\nart commanded, to them that despitefully use thee (Matt 5:44). I\nknow thy flesh will be apt to huff, and to be angry, and to wish,\nwould thou mightest revenge thyself. But this is base, carnal,\nsensual, devilish; cast, therefore, such thoughts from thee, as\nthoughts that are not fit for a Christian's breast, and betake\nthee to those weapons that are not carnal. For the artillery of a\nChristian is the Word, faith, and prayer; and in our patience we\nmust possess our souls (2 Cor 10:5; Luke 21:16-19).\n\nUse Sixth, Be much in the consideration of the all-sufficiency of\nthy Father, whose cause thou hast espoused, whose Word thou hast\nchosen for thy heritage, and whose paths thou delightest to walk\nin. I say, be much in considering how all the world is sustained\nby him, and that all life and breath is in his hand, to continue\nor diminish as he pleases. Think with thyself also how able he is\nto rescue thee from all affliction, or to uphold thee in it with\na quiet mind. Go to him continually, as to a fountain of life that\nis open for the supply of the needy. Remember also, if he comes\nnot at thy call, and comforteth thee not so soon as thou desirest,\nit is not of want of love or compassion to thy soul, but to try\nthy graces, and to show to the fallen angels that thou wilt serve\nGod for nought, rather than give out. Also, if it seemeth to thee,\nas if God took no care of thee to help thee, but that he hath\nrather turned thee over to the ungodly; count this also as a sign\nthat he delights to see thee hold fast his name, though thou art\nlaid under the greatest of disadvantages. \"If the scourge slay\nsuddenly, [that is more than it hath done to thee,] he will laugh\nat the trial of the innocent\" (Job 9:23).\n\nIt is a great delight to our God to see his people hold fast\ntheir integrity, and not to deny his name, when under such cloudy\ndispensations and discouraging circumstances. And considerations\nthat thy thus doing is pleasing in his sight through Christ, will\nbe a support unto thee. God sees thee, though thou canst not now\nsee him, and he observeth now thy way, though darkness is round\nabout him; and when he hath tried thee, thou shalt come forth like\ngold.\n\nUse Seventh, Take heed of setting of thyself a bound and period\nto thy sufferings, unless that period be the grave. Say not to thy\nafflicters, Hitherto, and no further, and here shall your proud\nwaves be stayed. I say, take heed of doing thus, for fear God should\nlet them go beyond thee. For a man is not prepared to suffer,\nfurther than he thinketh the enemy may be permitted to go. Hence\nChrist sets their bounds at the loss of life, and no nearer. So\nthen, so far as they go beyond thee, so far they will find thee\nunprovided, and so not fortified for a reception of their onset\nwith that Christian gallantry which becomes thee. Observe Paul;\nhe died daily, he was always delivered unto death, he despaired\nof life; and this is the way to be prepared for any calamity. When\na man thinks he has only to prepare for an assault by footmen,\nhow shall he contend with horses? Or if he looks no further than\nto horses, what will he do at the swellings of Jordan (Jer 12:5)?\nWherefore, set thine enemies no bounds: say not, They shall not\npursue me to the death; have the sentence of death in thyself. For\nthough they may but tick and toy with thee at first, their sword\nmay reach thy heart-blood at last. The cat at play with the mouse\nis sometimes a fit emblem of the way of the wicked with the children\nof God. Wherefore, as I said, be always dying; die daily: he that\nis not only ready to be bound, but to die, is fit to encounter\nany amazement.\n\nUse Eighth, If thine enemies would, or do, put thee under a cloud,\nif they wrap thee up in a bear's skin, and then set the dogs\nupon thee, marvel not at the matter; this was Joseph's, David's,\nChrist's, Stephen's portion, only be thou innocent; say nothing,\ndo nothing that should render thee faulty; yea, say and do always\nthat that should render thee a good neighbour, a good Christian,\nand a faithful subject. This is the way to help thee to make with\nboldness thy appeals to God; this is the way to embolden thy face\nagainst the faces of thine enemies; this is the way to keep thy\nconscience quiet and peaceable within thee; and this is the way\nto provoke God to appear for thy rescue, or to revenge thy blood\nwhen thou art gone. And do this because it is thy duty--we must\nfear God and honour the king--and because this is the way to make\nthe rock of thy enemies hard: few men have that boldness as to\nsay, This I do against you, because you profess Christ. When they\npersecuted the Lord himself, they said to him, \"For a good work\nwe stone thee not\" (John 10:33). Religion that is pure is a hot\nthing, and it usually burns the fingers of those that fight against\nit; wherefore it is not common for men to oppose religion under its\nown naked complexion: wherefore the Jews sought to fasten other\nmatters upon Christ to kill him for them; though the great spite\nthey had against him was for his doctrine and miracles. It was for\nenvy to that that they set themselves against him, and that made\nthem invent to charge him with rebellion and treason (Matt 27:18;\nLuke 23:2).\n\nUse Ninth, Wherefore it becomes all godly men to study to be quiet,\nto mind their own business, and as much as in them lies, to be\nat peace with all men; to owe no man any thing but love. Pray,\ntherefore, for all that are in authority; pray for the peace of\nthe country in which thou dwellest; keep company with holy, and\nquiet, and peaceable men. Seek by all good ways the promotion of\ngodliness, put up injuries, be good to the poor, do good against\nevil, be patient towards all men; for \"these things are good and\nprofitable unto men\" (Titus 3:8).\n\nBe not inclining to injure men behind their backs, speak evil of\nno man, reproach not the governor nor his actions, as he is set\nover thee; all his ways are God's, either for thy help or the trial\nof thy graces. Wherefore he needs thy prayers, not thy revilings;\nthy peaceable deportment, and not a troublesome life. I know that\nnone of these things can save thee from being devoured by the\nmouth of the sons of Belial (1 Kings 21:12,13). Only, what I say\nis duty, is profitable, is commendable, is necessary; and that\nwhich will, when the devil has done his worst, render thee lovely\nto thy friends, terrible to thine enemies, serviceable in thy\nplace as a Christian, and will crown the remembrance of thy name,\nto them that survive thee, with a blessing; \"The memory of the\njust is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot\" (Prov 10:7).\n\nUse Tenth, I will conclude, then, with a word to those professors,\nif there be any such, that are of an unquiet and troublesome\nspirit. Friends, I may say to you, as our Lord said once to his\ndisciples, \"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.\" To wish\nthe destruction of your enemies doth not become you. If ye be born\nto, and are called, that you may inherit a blessing, pray be free\nof your blessing: \"Bless, and curse not.\" If you believe that the\nGod whom you serve is supreme governor, and is also wise enough\nto manage affairs in the world for his church, pray keep fingers\noff, and refrain from doing evil. If the counsel of Gamaliel was\ngood when given to the enemies of God's people, why not fit to be\ngiven to Christians themselves? Therefore refrain from these men,\nand let them alone. If the work that these men do is that which\nGod will promote and set up for ever, then you cannot disannul\nit; if not, God has appointed the time of its fall.\n\nA Christian! and of a troublesome spirit; for-shame, forbear; show,\nout of a good conversation, thy works, with meekness of wisdom;\nand here let me present thee with three or four things.\n\n1. Consider, That though Cain was a very murderer, yet God forbade\nany man's meddling with him, under a penalty of revenging his so\ndoing upon his own head sevenfold. \"And the Lord said unto him,\nTherefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on\nhim sevenfold\" (Gen 4:15). But why not meddle with Cain, since he\nwas a murderer? The reason is, because he persecuted his brother\nfor righteousness' sake, and so espoused a quarrel against God;\nfor he that persecutes another for righteousness' sake sets himself\nagainst God, fights against God, and seeks to overthrow him. Now,\nsuch an one the Christian must let alone and stand off from, that\nGod may have his full blow at him in his time.50 Wherefore he saith\nto his saints, and to all that are forward to revenge themselves,\nGive place, stand back, let me come, leave such an one to be\nhandled by me. \"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather\ngive place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I\nwill repay, saith the Lord\" (Rom 12:19). Wherefore the Lord set\na mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should slay him. You must\nnot, indeed, you must not avenge yourselves of your enemies. Yea,\nthough it was lawful once so to do, it is not lawful now. Ye have\nheard that it hath been said to them of old time, Thou shalt love\nthy neighbour and hate thine enemy; but I say, said our Lord, Love\nthem, bless them, do good to them, and pray for them that hate\nyou (Matt 5:43,44).\n\n2. Consider, Revenge is of the flesh,--I mean this our revenge of\nourselves; and it proceeds from anger, wrath, impatience under\nthe cross, unwillingness to suffer, from too much love to carnal\nease, to estates, to enjoyments, to relations, and the like. It\nalso flows from a fearful, cowardly spirit; there is nothing of\ngreatness in it, except it be greatness of untowardness. I know\nthere may, for all this, be pretences to justice, to righteousness,\nto the liberty of the gospel, the suppressing of wickedness, and\nthe promoting of holiness; but these can be but pretences, or, at\nbest, but the fruits of a preposterous zeal. For since, as has\nbeen often said in this treatise, the Lord hath forbidden us to do\nso, it cannot be imagined that he should yet animate any to such\na thing by the Holy Ghost and the effects of the graces thereof.\nLet them, then, if any such be, that are thus minded, be counted\nthe narrow-spirited, carnal, fleshly, angry, waspish-spirited\nprofessors--the professors that know more of the Jewish than of\nthe Christian religion, and that love rather to countenance the\nmotions, passions, and gross motions of and angry mind, that with\nmeekness to comply with the will of a heavenly Father. Thou art\nbid to be like unto him, and also thou art showed wherein (Matt\n5:45-48).\n\nThere is a man hates God, blasphemes his name, despises his being;\nyea, says there is no God. And yet the God that he carrieth it thus\ntowards doth give him his breakfast, dinner, and supper; clothes\nhim well, and when night comes, has him to bed, gives him good rest,\nblesses his field, his corn, his cattle, his children, and raises\nhim to high estate. 51 Yea, and this our God doth not only once\nor twice, but until these transgressors become old; his patience\nis thus extended, years after years, that we might learn of him\nto do well.\n\n3. Consider, A professor! and unquiet and troublesome, discontented,\nand seeking to be revenged of thy persecutors; where is, or what\nkind of grace hast thou got? I dare say, they, even these in which\nthou thus actest, are none of the graces of the Spirit. The fruits\nof the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,\ngoodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no\nlaw; but wrath, strife, seditions, traitors, and inventors of evil\nthings are reckoned with the worst of sins, and sinners, and are\nplainly called the works of the flesh (Rom 1:29-31; 2 Tim 3:3,4;\nGal 5:19-21).\n\nBut I say, where is thy love to thine enemy? where is thy joy under\nthe cross? where is thy peace when thine anger has put thee upon\nbeing unquiet? Where is thy long-suffering? for, as thou actest,\nnot ought but thy waspishness can be seen. Where, also, is thy\nsweet, meek, and gentle spirit? and is goodness seen in thy seeking\nthe life or the damage of thy enemy? Away, away; thy graces, if thou\nhast any, are by these, thy passions, so jostled up into corners,\nand so pent for want of room and liberty to show themselves, that,\nby the Word of God, thou canst not be known to be of the right\nkind, what a noise soever thou makest.\n\nA Christian, when he sees trouble coming upon him, should not fly\nin the face of the instrument that brings it, but in the face of\nthe cause of its coming. Now the cause is thyself, thy base self,\nthy sinful self, and thy unworthy carriages towards God under all\nthe mercy, patience, and long-suffering that God has bestowed upon\nthee, and exercised towards thee. Here thou mayest quarrel and be\nrevenged, and spare not, so thou take vengeance in a right way,\nand then thou wilt do so when thou takest it by godly sorrow (2\nCor 7:10,11).\n\nA Christian, then, should bewail his own doings, his own unworthy\ndoings, by which he has provoked God to bring a cloud upon him,\nand to cover him with it in anger. A Christian should say, This\nis my wickedness, when a persecutor touches him; yea, he should\nsay it, and then shut up his mouth, and bear the indignation of the\nLord, because he has sinned against him. \"Thy way and thy doings\nhave procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness,\nbecause it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart\" (Jer\n4:18).\n\n4. Consider, What conviction of thy goodness can the actions that\nflow from such a spirit give unto observers? None at all; yea,\na spirit of unquietness under sufferings, and that seeketh to be\nrevenged of those that do, for thy faith and the profession thereof,\npersecute thee, is so far off of giving conviction to beholders\nthat thou art right, that it plainly tells them that thou art\nwrong. Even Julian the apostate, when he had cast away whatever\nhe could of Christ, had this remaining with him--that a Christian\nought to take with patience what affliction fell upon him for his\nMaster's sake; and would hit them in the teeth with an unbecoming\nbehavior, that complained or that sought redress of them that had\nabused them for their faith and godly profession. What will men\nsay if you shrink and winch, and take your sufferings unquietly,\nbut that if you yourselves were uppermost, you would persecute\nalso? Much more have they ground to say so, when you will fight\nlying on your backs. Be quiet, then, and if thine enemy strike\nthee on one check, turn to him the other; and if he also revile\nand curse thee, down upon thy knees and pray for him. This is the\nway to convince thy observers that thou art a godly man. Father,\nforgive them, for they know not what they do, was one of those\nthings that convinced the centurion that Jesus was a righteous\nman; for he stood by the cross to watch and see how Jesus carried\nit in these his sufferings, as well as to see execution done (Matt\n27:54; Luke 23:34-47).\n\n5. Consider, A professor, unquiet and turbulent under sufferings,\nand seeking his own revenge, cannot be a victor over what he\nshould, nor a keeper of God's commandments.\n\n(1.) How can he be a victor over himself that is led up and down by\nthe nose by his own passions? There is no man a Christian victor\nbut he that conquers himself, but he that beats down and keeps\nunder this body, his lusts, his passions, in the first place.\nIs he that is led away with divers lusts a victor? Is he that is\na servant to corruption a victor? And if he that is captivated\nby his anger, wrath, passion, discontent, prejudice, &c., be not\nled away by them, I am under a mistake. So then, to quarrel with\nsuperiors, or with any that are troublesome to thee for thy faith\nand thy profession, bespeaks thee over-mastered and captive, rather\nthan a master and a conqueror.\n\n(2.) The same may be said upon the second head. He keepeth not the\ncommandments of God; for those teach him other things, as I have\nalso showed. The great gospel commands terminate in self-denial;\nbut if self-revenge is self-denial, I am besides the Book. Christ,\nin the book of the Revelation, sets him that keeps the commandments\nof God a great way off from him that taketh and smiteth with the\nsword: \"He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the\nsword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints\" (Rev\n13:10). That is, in that they forbear to do thus, and quietly\nsuffer under those that thus take it and afflict the godly with\nit. Again, \"Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that\nkeep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus\" (14:12). A\npatient continuing in well-doing; and if suffering for righteousness\nbe well-doing, then a patient continuing in that, as in other\nthings, is the way to keep God's commandments (Rom 2:7).\n\nSo that, I say, he keepeth not God's commandments that is angry\nwith his enemies, and that seeks to be revenged of him that doth\nhim ill. You know the subject I am upon. \"The wrath of man worketh\nnot the righteousness of God\" (James 1:20). Wherefore, professors,\nbeware, and take heed to your spirits, and see that you let not\nout yourselves under your sufferings in such extravagancies of\nspirit against your enemies as is no way seemly nor convenient.\n\n6. Consider, Men that are unquiet and discontented, and that seek\nrevenge upon them that persecute them for their profession, do, by\nso doing, also put themselves upon the brink of those ruins that\nothers are further from. These men are like the fly that cannot\nlet the candle alone until she hath burned herself in the flame.\nMagistrates and men in power have fortified themselves from being\nattacked with turbulent and unruly spirits by many and wholesome\nlaws. And, indeed, should they not do so, one or other, perhaps,\nwould be quickly tempted to seek to disturb them in the due exercise\nof their authority. Now the angry man, he is the fly that must\nbe tripping and running himself upon the point of these laws; his\nangry spirit puts him upon quarrelling with his superiors, and his\nquarrelling brings him, by words spoke in heat, within the reach\nof the net, and that, with the help of a few more, brings his neck\nto the halter. Nor is this, whatever men think, but by the just\njudgment of God. \"Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power,\nresisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive\nto themselves damnation\" (Rom 13:2; Esth 2:21-23). Wherefore, let\nthe angry man take heed; let the discontented man take heed. He\nthat has a profession, and has not grace to know, in this matter,\nto manage it, is like to bring his profession to shame. Wherefore,\nI say, let such take heed; and the graces afore mentioned, and the\ndue exercise of them, are they and that which can keep us out of\nall such dangers.\n\n7. Consider, And what comfort can such a man have who has, by his\ndiscontent and unruly carriages, brought himself, in this manner,\nto his end; he has brought himself to shame, his profession to\nshame, his friends to shame, and his name to contempt and scorn.\nBad men rejoice at his fall; good men cannot own him, weak men\nstumble at him; besides, his cause will not bear him out; his heart\nwill be clogged with guilt; innocency and boldness will take wings\nand fly from him. Though he talketh of religion upon the stage52\nor ladder, that will blush to hear its name mentioned by them\nthat suffer for evil-doing. Wherefore, my brethren, my friends,\nmy enemies, and all men, what religion, profession, or opinion\nsoever you hold, fear God, honour the king, and do that duty\nto both which is required of you by the Word and law of Christ,\nand then, to say no more, you shall not suffer by the power for\nevil-doing.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 Not equipages to ride, but dainty formalities.--Ed.\n\n2 \"A good and harmless conscience\"; not as the procuring cause of\nconfidence in God's tender care of us, but as the strong evidence\nof our election and regeneration.--Ed.\n\n3 \"Bravery\"; magnificence or excellence. \"Like a stately ship, with\nall her bravery on, and tackle trim, sails filled,\" &c.--Samson\nAgonistes.--Ed.\n\n4 \"Bodily pains\"; bodily industry or painstaking.--Ed.\n\n5 \"Winch\"; to wince or kick with impatience. \"Shuck\"; to shrug up\nthe shoulders, expressive of dislike or aversion.--Ed.\n\n6 \"Much\"; in a great degree.\n\n7 \"Will they, nill they\"; nillan, a Saxon word, meaning \"not will\"\nor contrary to the will--whether with or against their will. \"Need\nhath no law; will I, or nill I, it must be done.\"--Damon and\nPathias, 1571.\n\n\"If now to man and wife to will and nill The self-same thing, a note\nof concord be, I know no couple better can agree.\"--Ben Johnson.--Ed.\n\n8 How little do persecutors imagine that they are mere tools for\nthe devil to work with, whether they are harassing Christians by\ntaking their goods, or are hunting down their liberties or lives.\nAll works together for good to the Christian, but for unutterable\nwoe to the persecutor. God give them repentance.--Ed.\n\n9 Wicked men sell themselves to do the devil's work. How degrading\nto the dignity of man! Enlisting under a foreign prince to destroy\ntheir own nation, and in so doing to destroy themselves. For an\naccount of the atrocities and horrors of this war, read the history\nof the Waldenses.--Ed.\n\n10 This frequently happened. In Bedford, Nic. Hawkins attended a\nmeeting, and was fined two pounds; but when the harpies went to\ntake away his goods, finding that \"they had been removed beforehand,\nand his house visited with the small pox, the officers declined\nentering.\"--Persecution in Bedford, 1670, p. 6.--Ed.\n\n11 \"Dispose\"; power, disposal. \"All that is mine, I leave at thy\ndispose.\"--Shakespeare.--Ed.\n\n12 In Ireland, whole provinces were desolated, both by Protestants\nand Papists, with a ferocity scarcely credible. In England, the\nstate awfully tormented its pious Christian subjects, to whom\ntheir Lord's words must have been peculiarly consoling: \"Fear not\nthem which kill the body.\" Did they suffer? How holy were their\nenjoyments!--Ed.\n\n13 An awful instance occurred soon after the publication of this\n\"Advice.\" John Child, a Baptist minister, one of Bunyan's friends,\nto escape persecution, conformed, and became terrified with awful\ncompunction of conscience. His cries were fearful: \"I shall go to\nhell\"; \"I am broken in judgment\"; \"I am as it were in a flame.\"\nIn a fit of desperation he destroyed himself on the 15th October,\n1684.--Ed.\n\n14 \"What bottom\"; what ground or foundation.--Ed.\n\n15 This identical stone is said to be in the chair on which our\nmonarchs are crowned in Westminster Abbey.--Ed.\n\n16 In so unbounded, eternal and magnificent a mansion, well might\nhe exclaim, \"This is none other but the house of God, and this is\nthe gate of heaven.\" Where God meets us with his special presence,\nwe ought to meet him with the most humble reverence; remembering\nhis justice and holiness, and our own meanness and vileness.--Ed.\n\n17 The only way of driving sin out of the world is to make known\nthe Saviour. Reader, can you solve Mr. Bunyan's riddle? When fierce\npersecution rages--when the saints are tormented with burning,\nhanging, and imprisonment--then, like Stephen, to fix our eyes\nupon Jesus, and the gates of heaven open to receive us, submitting\nwith patience to the will of God. This is the way to drive out\nsin.--Ed.\n\n18 How indescribably blessed is the Christian. It is true that he\nhas to perform his pilgrimage through an enemy's country, beset\nwith snares, pit-falls, and temptations; but in all his buffetings\nand storms of sorrow, his soul is safe; God is a wall of fire\nround about it, and the glory in the midst of it. He will guide\nus by his counsel, and then receive us to his glory.--Ed.\n\n19 \"Looser sort of Christians\"; among Christians there are gradations\nof character. Some are fixed upon the Saviour, and can say, \"For\nme to live is Christ.\" Such decision ensures safety and happiness;\nwhile the looser sort are subject to many sorrows and continual\ndanger. May we press on towards the mark. \"Lord, I believe, help\nthou my unbelief.\"--Ed.\n\n20 This truth ought to be imprinted on every heart. As the absence\nof darkness is light, so liberty from the thraldom of sin, and\nfrom the slavery of Satan, essentially induces holiness of life.\nThus holiness and liberty are joined together.--Ed.\n\n21 The whole of this beautiful passage is worthy our careful study\nand prayerful obedience. Are we ambitious to govern: be it our\nhonour to rule our own spirits and tongues. Are we for war? let\nit be levied upon our unruly passions. This is laudable ambition.\nThis is honourable war, producing the peace and happiness of man.\nThis is real glory to God and man, the very opposite to those\nhorrors of desolation which gives joy among the devils of hell--the\nburning cities, the garments rolled in blood, the shrieks of the\nwounded, and the sickening miseries of the widows and orphans of\nthe slain.--Ed.\n\n22 If this was our conduct, how soon should we get rid of our enemies:\n\"for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.\" Who\nwould risk such punishment a second time?--Ed.\n\n23 This old proverb is a very striking illustration of the words\nof Paul: \"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.\"--Ed.\n\n24 The saint must be \"made meet for the inheritance.\" If he neglects\nthe means given in the Word, his Father, in mercy, \"will chasten\nhim with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of\nmen\" (2 Sam 7:14).--Ed.\n\n25 \"But if you give sin entrance at the door, It's sting will in,\nand may come out not more.\" Bunyan's Caution.\n\n26 An equally cruel scene took place in the presence of Stow,\nthe historian, in the reign of Elizabeth. The bailiff of Romford\ncoming to London, was asked by the curate of Aldgate the news: he\nreplied, \"Many men be up in Essex,\" [Qu. not in bed?]. For this\nhe was hung the next morning in front of Mr. Stow's house. How\ngrateful ought we to be that such sanguinary laws have fled, with\nthe dark mists of error and cruelty, before the spreading light\nof the gospel.--Ed.\n\n27 They shed their blood for Him who afterwards shed his blood for\nthem. These were the infantry of the noble army of martyrs. If\nthese infants were thus baptized with blood, though their own,\ninto the church triumphant, it could be said that what they got\nin heaven abundantly compensated for what they lost on earth.--Henry.\n\n28 Nearly all Protestants agree as to the salvation of infants\ndying in their infancy--Toplady and the Calvinists on the ground\nof their being in the covenant of grace; others because they had\nnot personally transgressed; supposing that the sufferings and\ndeath of the body is the penalty of original sin. Holy Scripture\nappears to settle this question very satisfactorily, by requiring\nchildlike docility as a preparation for the Spirit's working. The\nlanguage of the Saviour is, \"Suffer little children to come unto\nme, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God\" (Luke\n18:16). \"Such\" as die in infancy--\"such\" adults as, with childlike\nsimplicity, search the Scriptures, and fly for refuge to the\nSaviour. \"It is NOT the will of your Father which is in heaven\nthat one of these little ones should perish\" (Matt 18:14). \"It\nwere better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck,\nand be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these\nlittle ones\" (Luke 17:2).--Ed.\n\n29 \"To down with\"; to receive, to swallow. \"Probably it will hardly\ndown with any body at first hearing.\"--Locke.--Ed.\n\n30 \"New-fashioned carriages\"; not equipages to ride in, but dainty\nformalities. \"Nor in my carriage a feigned niceness shown.\"--Dryden.\n\"Trades in the carriage of a holy saint.\"--Shakespeare.--Ed.\n\n31 Bunyan, when sent to prison, was thus threatened: \"If you do\nnot go to church, or transport yourself, you must stretch by the\nneck for it.\" This led to those painful reflections: \"If I should\nmake a scrabbling shift to clamber up the ladder, yet I should,\neither with quaking or other symptoms of faintings, give occasion\nto the enemy to reproach the way of God and his people for their\ntimorousness.\"--Grace Abounding, No. 334.--Ed.\n\n32 This is a truly Bunyanish mode of expression--clear, comprehensive,\nquaint; but so striking as to make an indelible impression.--Ed.\n\n33 A life of faith and holiness is the Christian's badge and\nlivery. No particular costume, that may conceal a carnal heart--not\na baptismal profession, that may be made by a hypocrite; but it\nis \"the hidden man of the heart,\" evidenced by a \"meek and quiet\nspirit--in all holy conversations and godliness.\" This is the\nChristian's badge and livery, by which he becomes \"a living epistle,\nknown and read of all men.\"--Ed.\n\n34 These awful cruelties were practised upon Richard Atkins, in\nJuly, 1581. He went to Rome to reprove the people of idolatry.\nIn St. Peter's Church, he knocked the chalice out of the priest's\nhand, and spilt the wine; he then endeavoured to seize the\nhost, but was prevented. For these mad pranks he suffered savage\ntorments.--Fox, edit. 1631, vol. 3, p. 1022.--Ed.\n\n35 Every Christian must be decided in his own conscience as to the\nformalities of religion; but he who prefers talking of forms and\nceremonies to communion in the substance, is in a melancholy\nstate.--Ed.\n\n36 What a severe reproach it is to human nature, to see a lovely\nchild in rags and shoeless, running the streets, exposed to\nthe pitiless weather, while a splendid equipage passes, in which\na lady holds up her lapdog at the window to give it an airing!!\nIs not this a greater crime than sends many a poor wretch to the\ntreadmill?--Ed.\n\n37 Revenge naturally rises in the mind of man under a sense of\ninjury. To return good for evil is one of the effects of the new\nbirth. But while this is done, it is also our duty to petition\nkings and parliaments to remove evils.--Ed.\n\n38 \"Forth of doors\"; out of doors, public.--Ed.\n\n39 \"Now it is Christmas\"; instead of keeping one day in the year\nto commemorate the nativity of Christ in excessive feasting, every\nday must be kept holy, in the recollection both of the birth and\ndeath of the Saviour. All eyes are upon the young convert, watching\nfor his halting; therefore, let every day be holy.--Ed.\n\n40 A striking expression. If a man's righteousness be killed, it\nmust be by his own will. He must be the butcher to kill himself.--Ed.\n\n41 It is indeed sad to see professors, for the sake of paltry pelf,\nor to escape from persecution, denying the Lord Jesus. It subjects\nreligion to scorn and contempt, and doubles the sorrows and\nsufferings of real Christians. Bunyan expresses himself here in\na most admirable manner.--Ed.\n\n42 Bunyan's familiarity with these illustrious men was obtained\nby reading Fox's Acts and Monuments, when in prison.--Ed.\n\n43 \"Quail\"; to overpower. Well might the abettors of Antichrist\nwonder at the Christian's support under the most cruel tortures.\nWhile \"looking unto Jesus\" and the bright visions of eternal glory,\nlike Stephen, he can pray of his enemies, and tranquilly fall\nasleep while undergoing the most frightful sufferings.--Ed.\n\n44 \"A naked man\"; unarmed, or defenceless. \"Had I but serv'd my\nGod with half the zeal I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age\nHave left me naked to mine enemies.\" Shakespeare's Wolsey.--Ed.\n\n45 How impossible is it for a natural man to understand this new\ncreation--a new heart, a new birth. How different is regeneration\nto water-baptism. How awful the delusion to be mistaken in this,\nthe foundation of all hope of a blessed immortality. \"Create in\nme a clean heart, O God!\" How consoling the fact: \"Now a creation\nnone can destroy but a Creator!\" and \"changes not, therefore we\nare not consumed.\"--Ed.\n\n\n46 \"O happie he who doth possesse\nChrist for his fellow-prisoner, who doth gladde\nWith heavenly sunbeames jails that are most sad.\"\nWritten on the prison walls of the Tower of London by William\nPrynne.--Ed.\n\n\n47 \"Sore temptations\" poor Bunyan found them. When dragged from his\nhome to prison, he speaks of his poor blind daughter in language\nof impassioned solicitude: \"Poor child, thought I, what sorrow\nart thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou must be\nbeaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand\ncalamities, though I cannot now endure the wind shall blow upon\nthee! Oh! the hardships I thought my blind one might go under\nwould break my heart to pieces.\"--\"The parting with my wife and\npoor children hath oft been to me in this place as the pulling my\nflesh from my bones.\"--Grace Abounding, 327, 328.--Ed.\n\n48 \"Thodes\"; whirlwinds. This word does not occur in any English\ndictionary or glossary. It gave me much trouble, and a walk of\nseven miles, to discover its meaning. It is the Saxon for noise,\nwhirlwind, turbulence. This provincial word was probably derived\nfrom some Saxon tribe that settled in Bedfordshire.--Ed.\n\n49 \"To shuck\"; to shake violently--from which is the noun, \"a\npea-shuck,\" the shell from which peas have been shaken.--Ed.\n\n50 How correct, but how dismal a picture is here drawn of the\npersecutor! God has wise and holy ends in protecting and prolonging\nthe lives even of very wicked men. \"Slay them not, lest my people\nforget; scatter them by thy power.\" Compare Ecclessiastes 8:10.\nPity the persecutor--pray for him; but if he repent not, stand\noff; \"God will have his full blow at him in his time,\" and crush\nhim down into misery and despair.--Ed.\n\n51 Like a multitude of passages in Bunyan's writings, this passage\nis exceedingly striking. It illustrates our Lord's words in Matthew\n5:44,45: \"Love your enemies--that ye may be the children of your\nFather which is in heaven.\"--Ed.\n\n52 \"Stage\"; upon which many a Nonconformist stood with his head in\nthe pillory. \"Ladder\" to the gallows, upon which victims suffered\ndeath by hanging.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nAN EXHORTATION TO PEACE AND UNITY\n\n\n\n[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR]\n\nThis treatise was first published in 1688, after Bunyan's death,\nat the end of the second edition of the Barren Fig Tree, with a\nblack border round the title. It was continued in the third edition\n1692, but was subsequently omitted, although the Barren Fig Tree\nwas printed for the same publisher. It has been printed in every\nedition of Bunyan's Works. Respect for the judgment of others leads\nme to allow it a place in the first complete edition, although\nI have serious doubts whether it was written by him, for these\nreasons:--\n\n1. It appears to have been totally unknown to his personal friends,\nCharles Doe and others, who very carefully gathered up, not only\nall his published works, but his manuscripts also. An interesting\nlist of these was given in the 'Struggler,' 1691. Nor is it found\nin any publisher's list of Bunyan's Works.\n\n2. The style is not that of Bunyan, nor is it even Bunyanish. It\nhas none of those striking remarks that render all his treatises\nso deeply interesting.\n\n3. The author introduces scraps of Latin references to 'Machiavel,'\nto the 'learned Stillingfleet,' and to ancient heathen writers.\nThe frequent recurrence of the words, 'as a certain learned man\nobserves,' is very foreign to Bunyan's manner of confirming his\nsentiments. 'Thus saith the Lord,' is the seal of his testimony.\n\n4. Misapplication of Scripture (Acts 9:31) as if the 'rest' was from\ninternal dissensions, when in fact it was from external persecution.\n\n5. The terms 'infallible,' 'excommunication,' and 'reason,' are\nused in a way not at all Bunyanish.\n\n6. How would his spirit have been grieved at a sentence which occurs:\n'Would a heathen god refuse to answer such prayers in which the\nsupplicants were not agreed; and shall we think the true God will\nanswer them?' Do stocks or stones answer prayers?\n\n7. Bunyan's peculiar practice of admitting all the Lord's children\nto the Lord's table; all such as he hoped were spiritually baptized,\nwithout reference to water-baptism, is here directly opposed. The\nauthor refers to 1 Corinthians 12:13 on which text he says--'I need\nnot go about to confute that notion that some of late have had of\nthis text, viz., that the baptism here spoken of is the baptism of\nthe Spirit, because you have not owned and declared that notion\nas your judgment, but on the contrary.' The fact is, that Bunyan\nis one of those here noticed as 'some of late,' and his church did\nhold that judgment. His comment on this text is, 'not of water,\nfor by one SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body.'--Reason of\nmy Practice. And in his 'Differences about Water-Baptism no Bar\nto Communion,' he thus argues upon that text, 'Here is a baptism\nmentioned by which they are initiated into one body; now that this\nis the baptism of water is utterly against the words of the text;\nfor by one SPIRIT we are all baptized into one body.'--'It is the\nunity of the Spirit, not water, that is intended.' Bunyan was the\ngreat champion for the practice of receiving all to church-communion\nwhom God had received in Christ, without respect to water-baptism;\nand had he changed his sentiments upon a subject which occasioned\nhim so much hostility, even from his Baptist brethren, it would\nhave been heralded forth as a triumph.\n\nIn 1684, four years prior to his death, he republished these sentiments\nin the first edition of 'A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity';\nhis words are--'Men are wedded to their opinions more than the\nlaw of grace and love will permit. Here is a Presbyter, here an\nIndependent, a Baptist, so joined each man to his own opinions,\nthat they cannot have that communion one with another, as by the\ntestament of the Lord Jesus they are commanded and enjoined.'\nBunyan, there can be no doubt, lived and died in the conviction,\nthat differences were permitted among Christians to stimulate them\nto search the Scriptures, and to exercise the grace of forbearance,\nas was the case in the primitive churches, in their disputes about\nmeats and days, and even as to whether the Gentiles were to be\nvisited with the gospel.\n\n8. Bunyan is ever pressing the duty of private judgment in all the\naffairs of religion; not to be scared with the taunts of 'schism,'\n'division-makers,' 'new separatists,' 'wiser than your teachers,'\nand similar arrows, drawn from Satan's quiver, which occur in this\nexhortation.\n\nJudging from the style--the reference to the laying on of hands--the\nLatin quotations, and those from learned men, it appears somewhat\nlike the pen of D'Anvers, who answered Bunyan upon the question--Whether\nwater-baptism is a scriptural term of communion? It is, however,\nnow faithfully reprinted, that our readers may form their own\njudgment.\n\nHackney, New-Year's Day, 1850 GEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\n\n\nAn Exhortationto Peace and Unity\n\n\n'Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of\npeace.'--Ephesians 4:3\n\nBeloved, religion is the great bond of human society, and it were\nwell if itself were kept within the bond of unity; and that it may\nso be, let us, according to the text, use our utmost endeavours\n'to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'\n\nThese words contain a counsel and a caution: the counsel is, 'That\nwe endeavour the unity of the Spirit'; the caution is, 'That we do\nit in the bond of peace': as if he should say, I would have you\nlive in unity; but yet I would have you to be careful that you do\nnot purchase unity with the breach of charity. Let us, therefore,\nbe cautioned that we do not so press after unity in practice and\nopinion, as to break the bond of peace and affection.\n\nIn the handling of these words, I shall observe this method:--First,\nI shall open the sense of the text. Second, I shall show wherein this\nunity and peace consists. Third, I shall show you the fruits and\nbenefits of it, together with nine inconveniencies and mischiefs\nthat attend those churches where unity and peace is wanting.\nFourth, and lastly, I shall give you twelve directions and motives\nfor the obtaining of it.\n\nFirst, As touching the sense of the text; when we are counselled to\nkeep the unity of the Spirit, we are not to understand the Spirit\nof God as personally so considered; because the Spirit of God, in\nthat sense, is not capable of being divided; and so there would\nbe no need for us to endeavour to keep the unity of it.\n\nBy the unity of the Spirit, then, we are to understand that unity of\nmind which the Spirit of God calls for, and requires Christians to\nendeavour after; hence it is that we are exhorted by 'one spirit,\nwith one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel' (Phil\n1:27).\n\nBut farther, the apostle in these words alludes to the state and\ncomposition of a natural body; and doth thereby inform us that the\nmystical body of Christ holds an analogy with the natural body of\na man. As,\n\n1. In the natural body there must be a spirit to animate it; for\n'the body without the spirit is dead' (James 2:26). So it is in\nthe mystical body of Christ; the apostle no sooner tells us of\nthat one body, but he minds us of that 'one spirit' (Eph 4:4).\n\n2. The body hath 'joints and bands' to unite all the parts; so hath\nthe mystical body of Christ (Col 2:19). This is that bond of peace\nmentioned in the text, as also in Ephesians 4:16, where 'the whole\nbody' is said to be 'fitly joined together, and compacted by that\nwhich every joint supplieth.'\n\n3. The natural body receives counsel and nourishment from the head;\nso doth the mystical body of Christ. He is their counsellor, and\nhim they must hear; he is their head, and him they must hold:\nhence it is that the apostle complaineth (Col 2:19), of some that\ndid 'not hold the head, from which all the body by joints and\nbands hath nourishment.'\n\n4. The natural body cannot well subsist, if either the spirit be\nwounded or the joints broken or dislocated; the body cannot bear a\nwounded or broken spirit; 'A broken spirit drieth the bones' (Prov\n17:22), and 'a wounded spirit who can bear?' (Prov 18:14). And on\nthe other hand, how often has the disjointing of the body, and the\nbreakings thereof, occasioned the expiration of the spirit? In like\nmanner it fares with the mystical body of Christ: how do divided\nspirits break the bonds of peace, which are the joints of this\nbody! And how doth the breakings of the body and church of Christ\nwound the spirit of Christians, and oftentimes occasion the spirit\nand life of Christianity to languish, if not to expire! How needful\nis it, then, that we endeavour 'the unity of the spirit in the\nbond of peace?'\n\nSecond, I now come to show you wherein this unity and peace consists,\nand this I shall demonstrate in five particulars.\n\n1. This unity and peace may consist in the ignorance of many truths,\nand in the holding of some errors; or else this duty of peace and\nunity could not be practicable by any on this side perfection. But\nwe must now endeavour the unity of the Spirit, 'till we all come\nin the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God'\n(Eph 4:13). Because now, as the apostle saith, 'we know in part,\nand we prophesy in part,' and 'now we see through a glass, darkly'\n(1 Cor 13:12). And as this is true in general, so we may find it\ntrue if we descend to particular instances: the disciples seemed\nto be ignorant of that great truth which they had often, and in\nmuch plainness, been taught by their Master once and again, viz.,\nthat his kingdom was not of this world, and that in the world they\nshould suffer and be persecuted, yet in Acts 1:6 we read, that they\nasked of him if he would 'at this time restore again the kingdom\nto Israel?' thereby discovering that Christ's kingdom, as they\nthought, should consist in his temporal jurisdiction over Israel,\nwhich they expected should now commence and take place amongst\nthem. Again, our Lord tells them that he had many things to say,\nand these were many important truths which they could not now bear\n(John 16:12). And that these were important truths appears by the\n10th and 11th verses, where he is discoursing of righteousness\nand judgment; and then adds, that he had yet many things to say\nwhich they could not bear; and thereupon promises the Comforter\nto lead them into ALL TRUTH; which implies that they were yet\nignorant of many truths, and consequently held divers errors; and\nyet for all this he prays for, and presses them to their great\nduty of peace and unity (John 14:27; 17:21). To this may be added\nthat of Hebrews 5:11, where the author saith, He had many things\nto say of the priestly office of Christ, which, by reason of their\ndulness, they were not capable to receive; as also that in Acts\n10, where Peter seems to be ignorant of that truth, viz., that the\ngospel was to be preached to all nations; and contrary hereunto,\nhe erred in thinking it unlawful to preach amongst the Gentiles.\nI shall add two texts more; one is Acts 19:2, where we read, That\nthose disciples which had been discipled and baptized by John,\nwere yet ignorant of the Holy Ghost, and knew not, as the text\ntells us, 'whether there be any Holy Ghost,' or no; though John\ndid teach constantly, that he that should come after him, should\nbaptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. From hence we may easily and\nplainly infer, that Christians may be ignorant of many truths, by\nreason of weak and dull capacities, and other such like impediments,\neven while those truths are with much plainness delivered to\nthem. Again, we read (Heb 5:13) of some that were 'unskillful in\nthe word of righteousness,' who nevertheless are called babes in\nChrist, and with whom unity and peace is to be inviolably kept\nand maintained.\n\n2. As this unity and peace may consist in the ignorance of many\ntruths, and in the holding some errors, so it must consist with,\nand it cannot consist without, the believing and practising those\nthings which are necessary to salvation and church communion; and\nthey are, (1.) Believing that Christ the Son of God died for the\nsins of men. (2.) That whoever believeth ought to be baptized.\n(3.) The third thing essential to this communion is a holy and a\nblameless conversation.\n\n(1.) That believing that the Son of God died for the sins of men\nis necessary to salvation, I prove by these texts, which tell us\nthat he that doth not believe shall be damned (Mark 16:16; John\n3:18; 2 Thess 2:12; Rom 10:10).\n\nThat it is also necessary to church-communion, appears from Matthew\n16:16-18. Peter having confessed that Christ was the Son of the\nliving God, Christ thereupon assures Peter, that upon this rock,\nviz., this profession of faith, or this Christ which Peter had\nconfessed, he would build his church, and the gates of hell should\nnot prevail against it. And (1 Cor 3:11), the apostle having told\nthe Corinthians they were God's building, presently adds, that\nthey could not be built upon any foundation but upon that which\nwas laid, which was Jesus Christ. All which proves, that Christian\nsociety is founded upon the profession of Christ; and not only\nScripture, but the laws of right reason, dictate this, that some\nrules and orders must be observed for the founding all society,\nwhich must be consented to by all that will be of it. Hence it comes\nto pass, that to own Christ as the Lord and head of Christians,\nis essential to the founding Christian society.\n\n(2.) The Scriptures have declared that this faith gives the\nprofessors of it a right to baptism, as in the case of the eunuch\n(Acts 8), when he demanded why he might not be baptized? Philip\nanswereth, that if he believed with all his heart, he might; the\neunuch thereupon confessing Christ, was baptized.\n\nNow, that baptism is essential to church-communion, I prove\nfrom 1 Corinthians 12, where we shall find the apostle labouring\nto prevent an evil use that might be made of spiritual gifts, as\nthereby to be puffed up; and to think that such as wanted them,\nwere not of the body, or to be esteemed members; he thereupon\nresolves, that whoever did confess Christ, and own him for his\nhead, did it by the Spirit (v 3), though they might not have such\na visible manifestation of it as others had; and therefore they\nought to be owned as members, as appears (v 23). And not only because\nthey have called him Lord by the Spirit, but because they have,\nby the guidance and direction of the same Spirit, been baptized\n(v 13): 'For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,'\n&c. I need not go about to confute that notion that some of late\nhave had of this text, viz., that the baptism here spoken of is\nthe baptism of the Spirit, because you have not owned and declared\nthat notion as your judgment; but on the contrary, all of you that\nI have ever conversed with, have declared it to be understood of\nbaptism with water, by the direction of the Spirit. If so, then\nit follows, that men and women are declared members of Christ's\nbody by baptism, and cannot be by Scripture reputed and esteemed\nso without it; which farther appears from Romans 6:5, where men,\nby baptism, are said to be planted into 'the likeness of his death.'\nAnd (Col 2:12), we are said to be 'buried with him by baptism.'\nAll which, together with the consent of all Christians, (some few\nin these late times excepted,) do prove that baptism is necessary\nto the initiating persons into the church of Christ.\n\n(3.) Holiness of life is essential to church-communion, because it\nseems to be the reason why Christ founded a church in the world,\nviz., that men might thereby be watched over and kept from falling;\nand that if any be overtaken with a fault, he that is spiritual\nmight restore him.\n\nThat by this means men and women might be preserved, without\nblame, to the coming of Christ; and 'the grace of God teacheth us\nto deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and\nuprightly in this present evil world' (Titus 2:11,12). 'And let\nevery one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity' (2\nTim 2:19). And James tells us, speaking of the Christian religion,\nthat 'pure religion, and undefiled, before God--is to visit the\nfatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself\nunspotted from the world' (James 1:27). From all which, together\nwith many more texts that might be produced, it appears that an\nunholy and profane life is inconsistent with Christian religion\nand society, and that holiness is essential to salvation and\nchurch-communion; so that these three things--faith, baptism, and\na holy life, as I said before, all churches must agree and unite\nin, as those things which, when wanting, will destroy their\nbeing. And let not any think, that when I say believing the Son\nof God died for the sins of men is essential to salvation and\nchurch-communion, that I hereby would exclude all other articles\nof the Christian creed as not necessary, as the belief of the\nresurrection of the dead and eternal judgment, &c.; which, for want\nof time, I omit to speak particularly to, and the rather because\nI understand this great article, of believing the Son of God died\nfor the sins of men, is comprehensive of all others, and is that\nfrom whence all other articles may easily be inferred.\n\nAnd here I would not be mistaken, as though I held there were\nnothing else for Christians to practise, when I say this is all\nthat is requisite to church-communion; for I very well know that\nChrist requires many other things of us after we are members of\nhis body, which, if we knowingly or maliciously refuse, may be the\ncause, not only of excommunication, but damnation. But yet these\nare such things as relate to the wellbeing, and not to the being,\nof churches; as laying on of hands, in the primitive times, upon\nbelievers, by which they did receive the gifts of the Spirit--this,\nI say, was for the increase and edifying of the body, and not\nthat thereby they might become of the body of Christ, for that\nthey were before. And do not think that I believe laying on of\nhands was no apostolical institution, because I say men are not\nthereby made members of Christ's body, or because I say that it\nis not essential to church-communion. Why should I be thought to\nbe against a fire in the chimney, because I say it must not be in\nthe thatch of the house? Consider, then, how pernicious a thing\nit is to make every doctrine, though true, the bound of communion;\nthis is that which destroys unity; and, by this rule, all men must\nbe perfect before they can be in peace. For do we not see daily,\nthat as soon as men come to a clearer understanding of the mind\nof God, to say the best of what they hold, that presently all men\nare excommunicable, if not damnable, that do not agree with them.\nDo not some believe and see that to be pride and covetousness,\nwhich others do not, because, it may be, they have more narrowly\nand diligently searched into their duty of these things than others\nhave? What then? must all men that have not so large acquaintance\nof their duty herein be excommunicated? Indeed, it were to be\nwished that more moderation in apparel and secular concernments\nwere found among churches; but God forbid, that if they should\ncome short herein, that we should say, as one lately said, that\nhe could not communicate with such a people, because they were\nproud and superfluous in their apparel.\n\nLet me appeal to such, and demand of them, if there was not a\ntime, since they believed and were baptized, wherein they did not\nbelieve laying on of hands a duty; and did they not then believe,\nand do they not still believe, they were members of the body of\nChrist? And was not there a time when you did not so well understand\nthe nature and extent of pride and covetousness as now you do?\nAnd did you not then believe, and do you not still believe, that\nyou were true members of Christ, though less perfect? Why, then,\nshould you not judge of those that differ from you herein, as you\njudged of yourselves when you were as they now are? How needful,\nthen, is it for Christians to distinguish, if ever they would be\nat peace and unity, between those truths which are essential to\nchurch-communion, and those that are not!\n\n3. Unity and peace consists in our making one shoulder to practise\nand put in execution the things we do know. 'Nevertheless, whereto\nwe have--attained, let us walk by the same rule, and mind the same\nthing' (Phil 3:16). How sad is it to see our zeal consume us, and\nour precious time, in things doubtful and disputable, while we are\nnot concerned nor affected with the practice of those indisputable\nthings we all agree in! We all know charity to be the great\ncommand, and yet how few agree to practise it! We all know they\nthat labour in the Word and doctrine are worthy of double honour;\nand that God hath ordained, that they which preach the gospel should\nlive of the gospel; these duties, however others have cavilled\nat them, I know you agree in them, and are persuaded of your duty\nherein; but where is your zeal to practise? O how well would it\nbe with churches if they were but half as zealous for the great,\nand plain, and indisputable things, and the more chargeable and\ncostly things of religion, as they are for things doubtful or less\nnecessary, or for things that are no charge to them, and cost them\nnothing but the breath of contention, though that may be too great\na price for the small things they purchase with it.\n\nBut further: Do we not all agree, that men that preach the gospel\nshould do it like workmen that need not be ashamed? and yet how\nlittle is this considered by many preachers, who never consider,\nbefore they speak, of what they say, or whereof they affirm! How\nfew give themselves to study that they may be approved! How few\nmeditate, and give themselves to these things, that their profiting\nmay appear to all!\n\nFor the Lord's sake, let us unite to practise those things we know;\nand if we would have more talents, let us all agree to improve\nthose we have.\n\nSee the spirit that was among the primitive professors, that knowing\nand believing how much it concerned them, in the propagating of\nChristianity, to show forth love to one another, that so all might\nknow them to be Christ's disciples, rather than there should be\nany complainings among them, they sold all they had. Oh how zealous\nwere these to practise, and, with one shoulder, to do that that\nwas upon their hearts for God! I might further add, how often have\nwe agreed in our judgment? and hath it not been upon our hearts,\nthat this and the other thing is good to be done to enlighten the\ndark world, and to repair the breaches of churches, and to raise\nup those churches that now lie agasping, and among whom the soul\nof religion is expiring? But what do we more than talk of them?\nDo not most decline these things when they either call for their\npurses or their persons to help in this and such like works as\nthese? Let us then, in what we know, unite, that we may put it in\npractice, remembering that, if we know these things, we shall be\nhappy if we do them.\n\n4. This unity and peace consists in our joining and agreeing to pray\nfor, and to press after, those truths we do not know. The disciples\nin the primitive times were conscious of their imperfections,\nand, therefore, they, with one accord, continued in prayer and\nsupplications. If we were more in the sense of our own ignorances\nand imperfections, we should carry it better towards those that\ndiffer from us; then we should abound more in the spirit of meekness\nand forbearance, that thereby we might bring others, or be brought\nby others, to the knowledge of the truth; this would make us go\nto God, and say with Elihu, That which we know not, teach thou us\n(Job 34:32). Brethren, did we but all agree that we were erring\nin many things, we should soon agree to go to God, and pray for\nmore wisdom and revelation of his mind and will concerning us.\n\nBut here is our misery, that we no sooner receive any thing for\ntruth, but we presently ascend the chair of infallibility with it,\nas though in this we could not err; hence it is we are impatient\nof contradiction, and become uncharitable to those that are not\nof the same mind; but now a consciousness that we may mistake,\nor that if my brother err in one thing I may err in another--this\nwill unite us in affection, and engage us to press after perfection,\naccording to that of the apostle, 'Brethren, I count not myself\nto have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those\nthings which are behind, and reaching forth to those things\nwhich are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the\nhigh calling of God in Christ Jesus,' 'and if in any thing ye\nbe otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you' (Phil\n3:13-15). O then, that we could but unite and agree to go to God\nfor one another, in confidence that he will teach us; and that if\nany one of us want wisdom, as who of us does not, we might agree\nto ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth no\nman. Let us, like those people spoken of in Isaiah 2, say one to\nanother, Come, let us go to the Lord, for 'he will teach us of\nhis ways, and we will walk in his paths.'\n\n5. This unity and peace mainly consists in unity of love and affection;\nthis is the great and indispensable duty of all Christians; by\nthis they are declared Christ's disciples; and hence it is that\nlove is called the great commandment, the old commandment, and\nthe new commandment--that which was commanded in the beginning,\nand will remain to the end; yea, and after the end. 'Charity never\nfaileth: but--whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether\nthere be knowledge, it shall vanish away' (1 Cor 13:8). 'And now\nabideth faith, hope, charity--but the greatest of these is charity'\n(v 13). 'Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond\nof perfectness' (Col 3:14). Because charity is 'the end of the\ncommandment' (1 Tim 1:5). Charity is therefore called the royal\nlaw; and though it had a superintendency over other laws, and,\ndoubtless, is a law to which other laws must give place when they\ncome in competition with it. 'Above all things, [therefore,] have\nfervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the\nmultitude of sins' (1 Peter 4:8). Let us, therefore, live in unity\nand peace, and the God of love and peace will be with us.\n\nThat you may so do, let me remember you, in the words of a learned\nman, that the unity of the church is a unity of love and affection,\nand not a bare uniformity of practice and opinion.\n\nThird, Having shown you wherein this unity consists, I now come to\nthe third general thing propounded, and that is, to show you the\nfruits and benefits of unity and peace; together with the mischiefs\nand inconveniences that attend those churches where unity and peace\nare wanting.\n\n1. Unity and peace is a duty well-pleasing to God, who is styled\nthe author of peace, and not of confusion, in all the churches.\nGod's Spirit rejoiceth in the unity of our spirits; but, on the\nother hand, where strife and divisions are, there the Spirit of\nGod is grieved. Hence is it that the apostle no sooner calls upon\nthe Ephesians not to grieve the Spirit of God, but he presently\nsubjoins us a remedy against that evil: that they put away bitterness\nand evil speaking, 'and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,\nforgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven\nyou' (Eph 4:32).\n\n2. As unity and peace is pleasing to God, and rejoiceth his Spirit,\nso it rejoiceth the hearts and spirits of God's people--unity and\npeace brings heaven down upon earth among us. Hence it is that\nthe apostle tells us (Rom 14:17) that 'the kingdom of God is not\nmeat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy\nGhost.' Where unity and peace is, there is heaven upon earth; by\nthis we taste the first fruits of that blessed estate we shall one\nday live in the fruition of, when we shall come 'to the general\nassembly and church of the first-born,' whose names are written\nin heaven, 'and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of\njust men made perfect' (Heb 12:23).\n\nThis outward peace of the church, as a learned man observes,\ndistils into peace of conscience, and turns writings and readings\nof controversy into treatises of mortification and devotion.\n\nAnd the psalmist tells us, that it is not only good, but pleasant\n'for brethren to dwell together in unity' (Psa 133), but where\nunity and peace is wanting, there are storms and troubles; 'where\nenvy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work' (James\n3:16). It is the outward peace of the church that increaseth our\ninward joy, and the peace of God's house gives us occasion to eat\nour meat with gladness in our houses (Acts 2:46).\n\n3. The unity and peace of the church makes communion of saints\ndesirable. What is it that embitters church-communion, and makes it\nburdensome, but divisions? Have you not heard many complain that\nthey are weary of church-communion, because of church contention?\nbut now, where unity and peace is, there Christians long for\ncommunion.\n\nDavid saith that he was glad when they said unto him, 'Let us go\ninto the house of the Lord' (Psa 122:1). Why was this, but because,\nas the third verse tells us, Jerusalem was a city compact together,\nwhere the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, to give thanks\nto his name. And David, speaking of the man that was once his\nfriend, doth thereby let us know the benefit of peace and unity\n(Psa 55:14): 'We,' saith he, 'took sweet counsel together, and\nwalked unto the house of God in company.' Where unity is strongest,\ncommunion is sweetest and most desirable. You see, then, that peace\nand union fill the people of God with desires after communion; but,\non the other hand, hear how David complains (Psa 120:5), 'Woe is\nme that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!'\nThe psalmist here is thought to allude to a sort of men that dwelt\nin the deserts of Arabia, that got their livings by contention;\nand, therefore, he adds (v 6), that his soul had long dwelt with\nthem that hated peace: this was that which made him long for\nthe courts of God, and esteem one day in his house better than\na thousand. This made his soul even faint for the house of God,\nbecause of the peace of it; 'Blessed are they,' saith he, 'that\ndwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee' (Psa 84:4).\nThere is a certain note of concord, as appears (Acts 2) where we\nread of primitive Christians, meeting with one accord, praising\nGod.\n\n4. Where unity and peace is, there many mischiefs and inconveniences\nare prevented which attend those people where peace and unity\nare wanting; and of those many that might be mentioned, I shall\nbriefly insist upon these nine:--\n\n(1.) Where unity and peace are wanting, there is much precious\ntime spent to no purpose. How many days are spent, and how many\nfruitless journeys made to no profit, where the people are not in\npeace! How often have many redeemed time, even in seed-time and\nharvest, when they could scarce afford it to go to church, and by\nreason of their divisions, come home worse than they went, repenting\nthey have spent so much precious time to so little benefit! How sad\nis it to see men spend their precious time, in which they should\nwork out their salvation, by labouring, as in the fire, to prove\nan uncertain and doubtful proposition, and to trifle away their\ntime, in which they should make their calling and election sure,\nto make sure of an opinion which, when they have done all, they are\nnot infallibly sure whether it be true or no; because all things\nnecessary to salvation and church-communion are plainly laid down\nin Scripture, in which we may be infallibly sure of the truth of\nthem; but for other things that we have no plain texts for, but\nthe truth of them depends upon our interpretations, here we must\nbe cautioned that we do not spend much time in imposing those\nupon others, or venting those among others, unless we can assume\ninfallibility--otherwise, we spend time upon uncertainty; and whoever\ncasts their eyes abroad, and doth open their ears to intelligence,\nshall both see, and, to their sorrow, hear that many churches spend\nmost of their time in jangling and contending about those things\nwhich are neither essential to salvation or church-communion,\nand that which is worse, about such doubtful questions which they\nare never able to give an infallible solution of; but now, where\nunity and peace is, there our time is spent in praising God, and\nin those great questions--what we should do to be saved? and how\nwe may be more holy and more humble towards God, and more charitable\nand more serviceable to one another?\n\n(2.) Where unity and peace is wanting, there is evil surmising and\nevil speaking, to the damage and disgrace, if not to the ruining\nof one another (Gal 5:14,15): 'The whole law is fulfilled in one\nword, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; but if ye bite\nand devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of\nanother.' No sooner the bond of charity is broken, which is as a\nwall about Christians, but soon they begin to make havoc and spoil\nof one another; then there is raising evil reports, and taking\nup evil reports against each other. Hence it is that whispering\nand backbiting proceeds, and going from house to house to blazon\nthe faults and infirmities of others: hence it is that we watch\nfor the haltings of one another, and do inwardly rejoice at the\nmiscarriages of others, saying in our hearts, Ah, ah, so we would\nhave it; but now, where unity and peace is, there is charity; and\nwhere charity is, there we are willing to hide the faults, and\ncover the nakedness of our brethren. 'Charity thinketh no evil'\n(1 Cor 13:5), and, therefore, it cannot surmise, neither will it\nspeak evil.\n\n(3.) Where unity and peace is wanting, there can be no great matters\nenterprised; we cannot do much for God nor much for one another.\nWhen the devil would hinder the bringing to pass of good in\nnations and churches, he divides their councils; and, as one well\nobserves, he divides their heads, that he may divide their hands;\nwhen Jacob had prophesied of the cruelty of Simeon and Levi, who\nwere brethren, he threatens them with the consequent of it (Gen\n49:7): 'I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.' The\ndevil is not to learn that maxim he hath taught the Machiavellians\nof the world, divide et impera--divide and rule; it is a united\nforce that is formidable: hence the spouse, in the Canticles,\nis said to be 'but one,' 'and the only one of her mother' (Cant\n6:9). Hereupon it is said of her (v 10) that she is 'terrible as\nan army with banners.' What can a divided army do, or a disordered\narmy, that have lost their banners, or, for fear or shame, thrown\nthem away? In like manner, what can Christians do for Christ, and\nthe enlarging his dominions in the world, in bringing men from\ndarkness to light, while themselves are divided and disordered?\nPeace is, to Christians, as great rivers are to some cities, which,\nbesides other benefits and commodities, are natural fortifications,\nby reason whereof those places are made impregnable; but when, by\nthe subtilty of an adversary or the folly of the citizens, these\nwaters come to be divided into little petty rivulets, how soon are\nthey assailed and taken! Thus it fares with churches; when once\nthe devil, or their own folly divides them, they will be so far\nfrom resisting of him, that they will be soon subjected by him.\n\nPeace is to churches as walls to cities; nay, unity hath defended\ncities that had no walls. It was once demanded of Agesilaus why\nLacedemon had no walls; he answers, pointing back to the city,\nthat the concord of the citizens was the strength of the city. In\nlike manner, Christians are strong when united; then they are more\ncapable to resist temptation, and to succour such as are tempted.\nWhen unity and peace is among the churches, then are they like a\nwalled town; and when peace is the church's walls, salvation will\nbe her bulwarks.\n\nPlutarch tells us of one Silurus that had eighty sons, whom he\ncalls to him as he lay upon his death-bed, and gave them a sheaf\nof arrows; thereby to signify, that if they lived in unity they\nmight do much; but, if they divided, they would come to nothing.\nIf Christians were all of one piece--if they were all but one\nlump, or but one sheaf or bundle, how great are the things they\nmight do for Christ and his people in the world, whereas, otherwise,\nthey can do little but dishonour him, and offend his.\n\nIt is reported of the leviathan, that his strength is in his scales\n(Job 41:15-17): 'His scales are his pride, shut up together, as\nwith a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come\nbetween them. They are joined one to another, they stick together,\nthat they cannot be sundered.' If the church of God were united\nlike the scales of leviathan, it would not be every brain-sick\nnotion, nor angry speculation, that would cause their separation.\n\nSolomon saith, Two are better than one, because if one fail, the\nother may raise him; then surely twenty are better than two, and\nan hundred are better than twenty, for the same reason--because\nthey are more capable to help one another. If ever Christians would\ndo any thing to raise up the fallen tabernacles of Jacob, and to\nstrengthen the weak, and comfort the feeble, and to fetch back\nthose that have gone astray, it must be by unity.\n\nWe read of the men of Babel (Gen 11:6), 'The Lord said, Behold the\npeople is one--And now nothing will be restrained from them which\nthey have imagined to do.'\n\nWe learn, by reason, what great things may be done in worldly\nachievements where unity is. And shall not reason, assisted with\nthe motives of religion, teach us that unity among Christians may\nenable them to enterprise greater things for Christ? Would not this\nmake Satan fall from heaven like lightning? For as unity built\nliteral Babel, it is unity that must pull down mystical Babel.\nAnd, on the other hand, where divisions are, there is confusion;\nby this means, a Babel hath been built in every age. It hath\nbeen observed by a learned man, and I wish I could not say truly\nobserved, that there is most of Babel and confusion among those\nthat cry out most against it.\n\nWould we have a hand to destroy Babylon, let us have a heart to\nunite one among another.\n\nOur English histories tell us, that after Austin the monk had been\nsome time in England, that he heard of some of the remains of the\nBritish Christians, which he convened to a place, which Cambden, in\nhis Britannia, calls Austin's Oak. Here they met to consult about\nmatters of religion; but such was their division, by reason of\nAustin's imposing spirit, that our stories tell us that synod was\nonly famous for this, that they only met, and did nothing. This\nis the mischief of divisions, they hinder the doing of much good;\nand if Christians that are divided be ever famous for any thing,\nit will be that they have often met together, and talked of this\nand the other thing, but they did nothing.\n\n(4.) Where unity and peace is wanting, there the weak are wounded,\nand the wicked are hardened. Unity may well be compared to precious\noil (Psa 133:2). It is the nature of oil to heal that which is\nwounded, and to soften that which is hard. Those men that have\nhardened themselves against God and his people, when they shall\nbehold unity and peace among them, will say, God is in them indeed;\nand, on the other hand, are they not ready to say, when they see\nyou divided, that the devil is in you, that you cannot agree?\n\n(5.) Divisions, and want of peace, keep those out of the church\nthat would come in; and cause many to go out that are in.\n\n'The divisions of Christians (as a learned man observes) are a\nscandal to the Jews, an opprobrium to the Gentiles, and an inlet\nto atheism and infidelity.' Insomuch that our controversies about\nreligion, especially as they have been of late managed, have made\nreligion itself become a controversy. O, then, how good and pleasant\na thing is it for brethren to dwell together in unity! The peace\nand unity that was among the primitive Christians drew others to\nthem. What hinders the conversion of the Jews, but the divisions\nof Christians? Must I be a Christian, says the Jew? What Christian\nmust I be; of what sect must I be of? The Jews, as one observes,\nglossing upon that text in Isaiah 11:6, where it is prophesied,\nthat the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and that there\nshall be none left to hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain;\nthey interpreting these sayings to signify the concord and peace\nthat shall be among the people that shall own the Messiah, do\nfrom hence conclude that the Messiah is not yet come, because of\nthe contentions and divisions that are among those that profess\nhim; and the apostle saith (1 Cor 14:23), that if an unbeliever\nshould see their disorders, he would say they were mad; but where\nunity and peace is, there the churches are multiplied. We read\n(Acts 9;31) that when the churches had rest, they multiplied; and\n(Acts 2:46,47) when the church was serving God 'with one accord,'\nthe Lord added to them 'daily such as should be saved.'\n\nIt is unity brings men into the church, and divisions keep them out.\nIt is reported of an Indian, passing by the house of a Christian,\nand hearing them contending, being desired to turn in, he refused,\nsaying Habamach dwells there--meaning that the devil dwelt there;\nbut where unity and peace is, there God is; and he that dwells in\nlove, dwells in God. The apostle tells the Corinthians, that if\nthey walked orderly, even the unbeliever would hereby be enforced\nto come and worship, and say, God was in them indeed; and we read\n(Zech 8:23) of a time when ten men shall take hold of a Jew, and\nsay, 'We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with\nyou.'\n\nAnd hence it is that Christ prays (John 17:21) that his disciples\nmight be one, as the Father and he were one, that the world might\nbelieve the Father sent him. As if he should say, you may preach\nme as long as you will, and to little purpose, if you are not at\npeace and unity among yourselves. Such was the unity of Christians\nin former days, that the intelligent heathen would say of them,\nthat though they had many bodies, yet they had but one soul. And\nwe read the same of them (Acts 4:32) that 'the multitude of them\nthat believed were of one heart and of one soul.'\n\nAnd as the learned Stillingfleet observes, in his Irenicum,--'The\nunity and peace that was then among Christians, made religion amiable\nin the judgment of impartial heathens. Christians were then known\nby the benignity and sweetness of their dispositions, by the candour\nand ingenuity of their spirits, by their mutual love, forbearance,\nand condescension to one another: but either this is not the\npractice of Christianity,' viz., a duty that Christians are now\nbound to observe, 'or else it is not calculated for our meridian,\nwhere the spirits of men are of too high an elevation for it; for\nif pride and uncharitableness, if divisions and strifes, if wrath\nand envy, if animosities and contentions, were but the marks of\ntrue Christians, Diogenes need never light his lamp at noon to\nfind out such among us; but if a spirit of meekness, gentleness,\nand condescension; if a stooping to the weaknesses and infirmities\nof one another; if pursuit after peace, when it flies from us, be\nthe indispensable duties and characteristical notes of Christians,\nit may possibly prove a difficult inquest to find out such among\nthe crowds of those that shelter themselves under that glorious\nname.'\n\nIt is the unity and peace of churches that brings others to them,\nand makes Christianity amiable. What is prophesied of the church\nof the Jews, may in this case be applied to the Gentile church\n(Isa 66:12) that when once God extends peace to her like a river,\nthe Gentiles shall come in like a flowing stream; then, and not\ntill then, the glory of the Lord shall arise upon his churches,\nand his glory shall be seen among them; then shall their hearts\nfear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the nations shall\nbe converted to them.\n\n(6.) As want of unity and peace keeps those out of the church that\nwould come in, so it hinders the growth of those that are in. Jars\nand divisions, wranglings and prejudices, eat out the growth, if\nnot the life, of religion. These are those waters of Marah that\nembitter our spirits, and quench the Spirit of God. Unity and peace\nis said to be like the dew of Hermon, and as a dew that descended\nupon Zion, where the Lord commanded his blessing (Psa 133:3).\n\nDivisions run religion into briers and thorns, contentions and\nparties. Divisions are to churches like wars in countries. Where\nwar is, the ground lieth waste and untilled; none takes care of\nit. It is love that edifieth, but division pulleth down. Divisions\nare, as the northeast wind to the fruits, which causeth them to\ndwindle away to nothing; but when the storms are over, every thing\nbegins to grow. When men are divided, they seldom speak the truth\nin love; and then, no marvel they grow not up to him in all things,\nwhich is the head.\n\nIt is a sad presage of an approaching famine, as one well observes,\nnot of bread nor water, but of hearing the Word of God; when the\nthin ears of corn devour the plump full ones; when the lean kine\ndevour the fat ones; when our controversies about doubtful things,\nand things of less moment, eat up our zeal for the more indisputable\nand practical things in religion; which may give us cause to fear\nthat this will be the character by which our age will be known to\nposterity, that it was the age that talked of religion most and\nloved it least.\n\nLook upon those churches where peace is, and there you shall\nfind prosperity. When the churches had rest, they were not only\nmultiplied, but, walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comforts\nof the Holy Ghost, they were edified; it is when the whole body\nis knit together, as with joints and bands, that they increase\nwith the increase of God.\n\nWe are at a stand sometimes why there is so little growth among\nchurches; why men have been so long in learning, and are yet so\nfar from attaining the knowledge of the truth. Some have given one\nreason, and some another; some say pride is the cause, and others\nsay covetousness is the cause; I wish I could say these were no\ncauses. But I observe that when God entered his controversy with his\npeople of old, he mainly insisted upon some one sin, as idolatry,\nand shedding innocent blood, &c., as comprehensive of the rest;\nnot but that they were guilty of other sins, but those that were\nthe most capital are particularly insisted on; in like manner, whoever\nwould but take a review of churches that live in contentions and\ndivisions, may easily find that breach of unity and charity is\ntheir capital sin, and the occasion of all other sins. No marvel,\nthen, that the Scripture saith the whole law is fulfilled in love;\nand if so, then, where love is wanting, it must needs follow the\nwhole law is broken. It is where love grows cold that sin abounds;\nand therefore the want of unity and peace is the cause of that\nleanness and barrenness that is among us: it is true in spirituals\nas well as temporals, that peace brings plenty.\n\n(7.) Where unity and peace is wanting, our prayers are hindered.\nThe promise is, that what we shall agree to ask shall be given us\nof our heavenly Father. No marvel we pray and pray, and yet are\nnot answered; it is because we are not agreed what to have.\n\nIt is reported that the people in Lacedemonia, coming to make\nsupplications to their idol-god, some of them asked for rain, and\nothers of them asked for fair weather; the oracle returns them\nthis answer, That they should go first and agree among themselves.\nWould a heathen god refuse to answer such prayers in which the\nsupplicants were not agreed; and shall we think the true God will\nanswer them?\n\nWe see, then, that divisions hinder our prayers, and lay a prohibition\non our sacrifice. 'If thou bring thy gift to the altar,' saith\nChrist, 'and there remeberest that thy brother hath ought against\nthee; leave there thy gift--and go--and first be reconciled to thy\nbrother, and then come and offer it' (Matt 5:24). So that want of\nunity and charity hinders even our particular prayers and devotions.\n\nThis hindered the prayers and fastings of the people of old from\nfinding acceptance (Isa 58:3); the people ask the reason wherefore\nthey fasted, and God did not see, nor take notice of them. He gives\nthis reason, because they fasted for strife and debate, and hid\ntheir face from their own flesh. Again (Isa 59), the Lord saith,\nHis hand was not shortened, that he could not save; nor his\near heavy, that he could not hear: but their sins had separated\nbetween their God and them. And among those many sins they stood\nchargeable with, this was none of the least, viz., that the way\nof peace they had not known. You see where peace was wanting,\nprayers were hindered, both under the Old and New Testament.\n\nThe sacrifice of the people in Isaiah 65, that said, Stand farther\noff, I am holier than thou, was as smoke in the nostrils of the\nLord. On the other hand, we read how acceptable those prayers were\nthat were made 'with one accord' (Acts 4:24, compared with verse\n31). They prayed with one accord, and they were all of one heart\nand of one soul. And see the benefit of it; 'they were all filled\nwith the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word with boldness': which\nwas the very thing they prayed for, as appears (v 29). And the\napostle exhorts the husband to dwell with his wife, that their\nprayers might not be hindered (1 Peter 3:7). We see, then, want\nof unity and peace, either in families or churches, is a hindrance\nof prayers.\n\n(8.) It is a dishonour and disparagement to Christ that his family\nshould be divided. When an army falls into mutiny and division, it\nreflects disparagement on him that hath the conduct of it. In like\nmanner, the divisions of families are a dishonour to the heads and\nthose that govern them. And if so, then how greatly do we dishonour\nour Lord and Governor, who gave his body to be broken, to keep\nhis church from breaking, who prayed for their peace and unity,\nand left peace at his departing from them for a legacy, even a\npeace which the world could not bestow upon them.\n\n(9.) Where there is peace and unity, there is a sympathy with each\nother; that which is the want of one will be the want of all,--Who\nis afflicted, saith the apostle, and I burn not?[1] we should then\nremember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which\nsuffer adversity, as being ourselves also of the body (Heb 13:3).\nBut where the body is broken, or men are not reckoned or esteemed\nof the body, no marvel we are so little affected with such as are\nafflicted. Where divisions are, that which is the joy of the one\nis the grief of another; but where unity, and peace, and charity\nabounds, there we shall find Christians in mourning with them that\nmourn, and rejoicing with them that rejoice; then they will not\nenvy the prosperity of others, nor secretly rejoice at the miseries\nor miscarriages of any.\n\nFourth, Last of all, I now come to give you twelve directions and\nmotives for the obtaining peace and unity.\n\nIf ever we would live in peace and unity, we must pray for it. We\nare required to seek peace: of whom, then, can we seek it with\nexpectation to find it, but of him who is a God of peace, and\nhath promised to bless his people with peace? It is God that hath\npromised to give his people one heart, and one way; yet for all\nthese things he will be sought unto. O then let us seek peace, and\npray for peace, because God shall prosper them that love it.\n\nThe peace of churches is that which the apostle prays for in all\nhis epistles; in which his desire is, that grace and peace may be\nmultiplied and increased among them.\n\n1. They that would endeavour the peace of the churches, must be\ncareful who they commit the care and oversight of the churches to;\nas, first, over and besides those qualifications that should be in\nall Christians, they that rule the church of God should be men of\ncounsel and understanding; where there is an ignorant ministry,\nthere is commonly an ignorant people,--according as it was of old,\nLike priest, like people.\n\nHow sad is it to see the church of God committed to the care of\nsuch that pretend to be teachers of others, that understand not what\nthey say, or whereof they affirm. No marvel the peace of churches\nis broken, when their watchmen want skill to preserve their unity,\nwhich of all other things is as the church's walls; when they are\ndivided, no wonder they crumble to atoms, if there is no skilful\nphysician to heal them. It is sad when there is no balm in Gilead,\nand when there is no physician there. Hence it is, that the wounds\nof churches become incurable, like the wounds of God's people of\nold; either not healed at all, or else slightly healed, and to no\npurpose. May it not be said of many churches at this day, as God\nsaid of the church of Israel, that he sought for a man among them\nthat should stand in the gap, and make up the breach, but he found\nnone?\n\nRemember what was said of old (Mal 2:7), The priest's lips should\npreserve knowledge; and the people 'should seek the law at his\nmouth.' But when this is wanting, the people will be stumbling and\ndeparting from God and one another; therefore God complains (Hosea\n4:6) that his people were 'destroyed for want of knowledge'; that\nis, for want of knowing guides; for if the light that is in them\nthat teach be darkness, how great is that darkness; and if the\nblind lead the blind, no marvel both fall into the ditch.\n\nHow many are there that take upon them to teach others, that\nhad need be taught in the beginning of religion; that instead\nof multiplying knowledge, multiply words without knowledge; and\ninstead of making known God's counsel, darken counsel by words\nwithout knowledge? The apostle speaks of some that did more than\ndarken counsel, for they wrested the counsel of God (2 Peter\n3:16). In Paul's epistles, saith he, are 'some things hard to be\nunderstood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as\nthey do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction.'\nSome things in the Scripture are hard to be known, and they are\nmade harder by such unlearned teachers as utter their own notions\nby words without knowledge.\n\nNone are more bold and adventurous to take upon them to expound\nthe dark mysteries and sayings of the prophets and revelations, and\nthe 9th of the Romans,--which, I believe, contains some of those\nmany things which, in Paul's epistles, Peter saith were 'hard\nto be understood.' I say, none are more forward to dig in these\nmines than those that can hardly give a sound reason for the\nfirst principles of religion; and such as are ignorant of many\nmore weighty things that are easily to be seen in the face and\nsuperficies of the Scripture; nothing will serve these but swimming\nin the deeps, when they have not yet learned to wade through the\nshallows of the Scriptures. Like the Gnostics of old, who thought\nthey knew all things, though they knew nothing as they ought to\nknow. And as those Gnostics did of old, so do such teachers of late\nbreak the unity and peace of churches. How needful, then, is it,\nthat if we desire the peace of churches, that we choose out men\nof knowledge, who may be able to keep them from being shattered\nand scattered with every wind of doctrine; and who may be able to\nconvince and stop the mouths of gainsayers!\n\n2. You must not only choose men of counsel; but if you would design\nthe unity and peace of the churches, you must choose men of courage\nto govern them; for as there must be wisdom to bear with some, so\nthere must be courage to correct others; as some must be instructed\nmeekly, so others must be rebuked sharply, that they may be sound\nin the faith; there must be wisdom to rebuke some with long-suffering,\nand there must be courage to suppress and stop the mouths of others.\nThe apostle tells Titus of some 'whose mouths must be stopped,'\nor else they would 'subvert whole houses' (Titus 1:11). Where\nthis courage hath been wanting, not only whole houses, but whole\nchurches have been subverted. And Paul tells the Galatians, that\nwhen he saw some endeavour to bring the churches into bondage,\nthat he did not give place to them, 'no, not for an hour,' &c.\n(Gal 2:5). If this course had been taken by the rulers of churches,\ntheir peace had not been so often invaded by unruly and vain\ntalkers.\n\nIn choosing men to rule, if you would endeavour to keep the unity\nof the spirit and the bond of peace thereby, be careful you choose\nmen of peaceable dispositions. That which hath much annoyed the\npeace of churches, hath been the froward and perverse spirits\nof the rulers thereof. Solomon therefore adviseth, that 'with a\nfurious man we should not go, lest we learn his ways, and get a\nsnare to our souls' (Prov 22:24,25). And with the froward we learn\nfrowardness. How do some men's words eat like a canker; who instead\nof lifting up their voices like a trumpet, to sound a parley for\npeace, have rather sounded an alarm to war and contention. If ever\nwe would live in peace, let us reverence the feet of them that\nbring the glad tidings of it.\n\nO how have some men made it their business to preach contentions,\nand upon their entertainment of every novel opinion, to preach\nseparation! How hath God's Word been stretched and torn, to furnish\nthese men with arguments to tear churches! Have not our ears heard\nthose texts that saith, 'Come out from among them, and be separate,'\n&c.; and, 'Withdraw from every brother that walks disorderly?' I\nsay, have we not heard these texts, that were written to prevent\ndisorder, brought to countenance the greatest disorder that ever\nwas in the church of God, even schism and division? whereas one\nof these exhortations was written to the church of Corinth, to\nseparate themselves from the idol's temple, and the idol's table,\nin which many of them lived in the participation of, notwithstanding\ntheir profession of the true God, as appears 2 Corinthians 6:16,\n17, compared with 1 Corinthians 8:7, and 1 Corinthians 10:14, 20,\n22 recites: and not for some few or more members, who shall make\nthemselves both judges and parties, to make separation, when and\nas often was they please, from the whole congregation and church\nof God where they stood related; for by the same rule, and upon\nthe same ground, may others start some new question among these new\nseparatists, and become their own judges of the communicableness\nof them, and thereupon make another separation from these, till\nat last two be not left to walk together. And for that other text\nmentioned (2 Thess 3:6) where Paul exhorts the church of Thessalonica\nto withdraw themselves from every brother that walks disorderly,\nI cannot but wonder that any should bring this to justify their\nseparation, or withdrawing from the communion of a true, though a\ndisorderly, church. For,\n\n(1.) Consider that this was not writ for a few members to withdraw\nfrom the church, but for the church to withdraw from disorderly\nmembers.\n\n(2.) Consider that if any offended members, upon pretence of\nerror, either in doctrine or practice, should by this text become\njudges, as well as parties, of the grounds and lawfulness of\ntheir separation, then it will follow, that half a score notorious\nheretics, or scandalous livers, when they have walked so as they\nforesee the church are ready to deal with them, and withdraw from\nthem, shall anticipate the church, and pretend somewhat against\nthem, of which themselves must be judges, and so withdraw from the\nchurch, pretending either heresy or disorder; and so condemn the\nchurch, to prevent the disgrace of being condemned by the church.\nHow needful, then, is it that men of peaceable dispositions, and\nnot of froward and factious and dividing spirits, be chosen to\nrule the church of God, for fear lest the whole church be leavened\nand soured by them.\n\n4. As there must be care used in choosing men to rule the church\nof God, so there must be a consideration had that there are many\nthings darkly laid down in Scripture; this will temper our spirits,\nand make us live in peace and unity the more firmly in things in\nwhich we agree; this will help us to bear one another's burden, and\nso fulfil the law of Christ, inasmuch as all things necessary to\nsalvation and church-communion are plainly laid down in Scripture.\nAnd where things are more darkly laid down, we should consider\nthat God intended hereby to stir up our diligence, that thereby\nwe might increase our knowledge, and not our divisions; for it may\nbe said of all discoveries of truth we have made in the Scriptures,\nas it is said of the globe of the earth, that though men have\nmade great searches, and thereupon great discoveries, yet there\nis still a terra incognita--an unknown land; so there is in the\nScriptures; for after men have travelled over them, one age after\nanother, yet still there is, as it were, a terra incognita, an\nunknown tract to put us upon farther search and inquiry, and to\nkeep us from censuring and falling out with those who have not yet\nmade the same discoveries; that so we may say with the Psalmist,\nwhen we reflect upon our short apprehensions of the mind of God,\nthat we have seen an end of all perfections, but God's commands are\nexceeding broad; and as one observes, speaking of the Scriptures,\nthat there is a path in them leading to the mind of God, which lieth\na great distance from the thoughts and apprehensions of men. And\non the other hand, in many other places, God sits, as it were, on\nthe superficies and the face of the letter, where he that runs may\ndiscern him speaking plainly, and no parable at all. How should the\nconsideration of this induce us to a peaceable deportment towards\nthose that differ.\n\n5. If we would endeavour peace and unity, we must consider how God\nhath tempered the body, that so the comely parts should not separate\nfrom the uncomely, as having no need of them (1 Cor 12:22-25).\nThere is in Christ's body and house some members and vessels less\nhonourable (2 Tim 2:20); and therefore we should not, as some\nnow-a-days do, pour the more abundant disgrace, instead of putting\nthe more abundant honour, upon them. Did we but consider this,\nwe should be covering the weakness and hiding the miscarriages of\none another, because we are all members one of another, and the\nmost useless member in his place is useful.\n\n6. If we would live in peace, let us remember our relations to\nGod--as children to a father, and to each other as brethren. Will\nnot the thoughts that we have one Father quiet us, and the thoughts\nthat we are brethren unite us? It was this that made Abraham\npropose terms of peace to Lot (Gen 13): 'Let there be no strife,'\nsaith he, 'between us, for we are brethren.' And we read of Moses,\nin Acts 7:26, using this argument to reconcile those that strove\ntogether, and to set them at one again: 'Sirs,' saith he, 'ye are\nbrethren; why do ye wrong one to another?' A deep sense of this\nrelation, that we are brethren, would keep us from dividing.\n\n7. If we would preserve peace, let us mind the gifts, and graces,\nand virtues that are in each other; let these be more in our eye\nthan their failings and imperfections. When the apostle exhorted\nthe Philippians to peace, as a means hereunto, that so the peace\nof God might rule in their hearts, he tells them (4:8), that if\nthere were any virtue, or any praise, they should think of these\nthings. While we are always talking and blazoning the faults of\none another, and spreading their infirmities, no marvel we are so\nlittle in peace and charity; for as charity covereth a multitude\nof sins, so malice covereth a multitude of virtues, and makes us\ndeal by one another as the heathen persecutors dealt with Christians,\nviz., put them in bears' skins, that they might the more readily\nbecome a prey to those dogs that were designed to devour them.\n\n8. If we would keep unity and peace, let us lay aside provoking\nand dividing language, and forgive those that use them. Remember\nthat old saying, Evil words corrupt good manners. When men think to\ncarry all afore them, with speaking uncharitably and disgracefully\nof their brethren or their opinions, may not such be answered as\nJob answered his unfriendly visitants (Job 6:25), 'How forcible\nare right words! But what doth your arguing reprove?' How healing\nare words fitly spoken! A word in season, how good is it! If we\nwould seek peace, let us clothe all our treaties for peace with\nacceptable words; and where one word may better accommodate than\nanother, let that be used to express persons or things by, and let\nus not, as some do, call the different practices of our brethren\nwill-worship, and their different opinions doctrines of devils,\nand the doctrine of Balaam, who taught fornication, &c., unless\nwe can plainly, and in expressness of terms, prove it so; such\nlanguage as this hath strangely divided our spirits, and hardened\nour hearts one towards another.\n\n9. If we would live in peace, let us make the best constructions of\none another's words and actions. Charity judgeth the best, and it\nthinks no evil; if words and actions may be construed to a good sense,\nlet us never put a bad construction upon them. How much hath the\npeace of Christians been broken by an uncharitable interpretation\nof words and actions? As some lay to the charge of others that\nwhich they never said, so, by straining men's words, others lay\nto their charge that they never thought.\n\n10. Be willing to hear and learn, and obey those that God by his\nprovidence hath set over you; this is a great means to preserve\nthe unity and peace of churches. But when men, yea, and sometimes\nwomen, shall usurp authority, and think themselves wiser than\ntheir teachers, no wonder if these people run into contentions and\nparties, when any shall say they are not free to hear those whom\nthe church thinks fit to speak to them. This is the first step to\nschism, and is usually attended, if not timely prevented, with a\nsinful separation.\n\n11. If you would keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of\npeace, be mindful that the God whom you serve is a God of peace,\nand your Saviour is a Prince of peace, and that his ways are ways\nof pleasantness, and all his paths are peace; and that Christ was\nsent into the world to give light to them that sit in darkness and\nin the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace.\n\n12. Consider the oneness of spirit that is among the enemies of\nreligion; though they differ about other things, yet to persecute\nreligion, and extirpate religion out of the earth, here they will\nagree: the devils in the air, and the devils in the earth, all the\ndevils in hell, and in the world, make one at this turn. Shall the\ndevil's kingdom be united, and shall Christ's be divided? Shall\nthe devils make one shoulder to drive on the design of damning\nmen, and shall not Christians unite to carry on the great design\nof saving of them? Shall the Papists agree and unite to carry on\ntheir interest, notwithstanding the multitudes of orders, degrees,\nand differences, that are among them, and shall not those that\ncall themselves reformed churches unite to carry on the common\ninterest of Christ in the world, notwithstanding some petty and\ndisputable differences that are among them? Quarrels about religion,\nas one observes, were sins not named among the Gentiles. What a\nshame is it, then, for Christians to abound in them, especially\nconsidering the nature of the Christian religion, and what large\nprovisions the author of it hath made to keep the professors of it\nin peace; insomuch, as one well observes, it is next to a miracle\nthat ever any, especially the professors of it, should fall out\nabout it.\n\n13. Consider and remember that the Judge stands at the door; let\nthis moderate our spirits, that the Lord is at hand. What a sad\naccount will they have to make when he comes, that shall be found\nto smite their fellow-servants, and to make the way to his kingdom\nmore narrow than ever he made it? Let me close all in the words of\nthat great apostle (2 Cor 13:11): 'Finally, brethren, farewell. Be\nperfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and\nthe God of love and peace shall be with you.'\n\nPOSTSCRIPT.\n\nReader, I thought good to advertise thee that I have delivered this\nto thy hand in the same order and method in which it was preached,\nand almost in the same words, without any diminishings or considerable\nenlargings, unless it be in the thirteen last particulars, upon\nsome of which I have made some enlargements, which I could not\nthen do for want of time; but the substance of every one of them\nwas then laid down in the same particular order as here thou hast\nthem: and now I have done, I make no other account, to use the\nwords of a moderate man upon the like occasion, but it will fall\nout with me, as doth commonly with him that parts a fray, both\nparties may perhaps drive at me for wishing them no worse than\npeace. My ambition of the public tranquility of the church of\nGod, I hope, will carry me through these hazards. Let both beat\nme, so their quarrels may cease; I shall rejoice in those blows\nand scars I shall take for the church's safety.\n\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] 'Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn\nnot?'--Ed.\n\n***\n\nMR. BUNYAN'S LAST SERMON:\n\nPreached August 19TH, 1688\n\n\n\n[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR]\n\nThis sermon, although very short, is peculiarly interesting: how it\nwas preserved we are not told; but it bears strong marks of having\nbeen published from notes taken by one of the hearers. There is\nno proof that any memorandum or notes of this sermon was found in\nthe autograph of the preacher.\n\nIn the list of Bunyan's works published by Chas. Doe, at the end of\nthe 'Heavenly Footman,' March 1690, it stands No. 44. He professes\nto give the title-page, word for word, as it was first printed,\nIt is, 'Mr. John Bunyan's last sermon, at London, preached at Mr.\nGamman's meeting-house, near Whitechapel, August 19th, 1688, upon\nJohn 1:13: showing a resemblance between a natural and a spiritual\nbirth; and how every man and woman may try themselves, and know\nwhether they are born again or not.' Published 1689, in about one\nsheet in 12mo. From this it appears to have been preached only two\ndays before his fatal illness, and twelve days before his decease,\nwhich took place August 31st, 1688. The disease which terminated\nhis invaluable life, was brought on by a journey to Reading on\nhorseback, undertaken with the benevolent design of reconciling\nan offended father to his son. Having accomplished his object, he\nrode to London; on his way home, through a heavy rain, the effects\nof which appeared soon after this, his last sermon was preached.\nHe bore, with most exemplary patience and resignation, the fever\nwhich invaded his body; and, at a distance from his wife and\nfamily, in the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, at Snow Hill,\nhis pilgrimage was ended, and he fell asleep in perfect peace, to\nawake amidst the harmonies and glory of the celestial city.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nMr. Bunyan's Last Sermon\n\n\n'Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor\nof the will of man, but of God.'--John 1:13\n\nThe words have a dependance on what goes before, and therefore\nI must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You\nhave it thus: 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not;\nbut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the\nsons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were\nborn, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh--but of God.'\n\nIn the words before, you have two things. First, Some of his own\nrejecting him, when he offered himself to them. Second, Others of\nhis own receiving him, and making him welcome; those that reject\nhim, he also passes by; but those that receive him, he gives them\npower to become the sons of God.\n\nNow, lest any one should look upon it as good luck or fortune, says\nhe, they 'were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,\nnor of the will of man, but of God.' They that did not receive\nhim, they were only born of flesh and blood; but those that receive\nhim, they have God to their Father; they receive the doctrine of\nChrist with a vehement desire.\n\n[TO EXPLAIN THE TEXT.]\n\nFIRST, I will show you what he means by blood. They that believe\nare born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance--they are born of\nGod, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood,\nthat is, not by generation, not born to the kingdom of heaven by\nthe flesh, not because I am the son of a godly man or woman--that\nis meant by blood (Acts 17:26); He 'hath made of one blood\nall nations.' But when he says here, 'not of blood,' he rejects\nall carnal privileges they did boast of: they boasted they were\nAbraham's seed; no, no says he, it is not of blood; think not to\nsay you have Abraham to your father; you must be born of God, if\nyou go to the kingdom of heaven.\n\nSECOND, 'Nor of the will of the flesh.' What must we understand\nby that?\n\nIt is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man, to\nall manner of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh: that\nmust not be understood here; men are not made the children of God\nby fulfilling their lustful desires. It must be understood here\nin the best sense: there is not only in carnal men a will to be\nvile, but there is in them a will to be saved also; a will to go\nto heaven also. But this it will not do; it will not privilege\na man in the things of the kingdom of God: natural desires after\nthe things of another world, they are not an argument to prove a\nman shall go to heaven whenever he dies. I am not a free-willer,\nI do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires,\nsome time or other, to be saved; he will read some time or other,\nor, it may be, pray, but this will not do: 'It is not of him that\nwilleth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.'\nThere is willing and running, and yet to no purpose (Rom 9:16).\nIsrael, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not\nobtained it (v 30). Here, I do not understand, as if the apostle\nhad denied a virtuous course of life to be the way to heaven;\nbut that a man without grace, though he have natural gifts, yet\nhe shall not obtain privilege to go to heaven, and be the son of\nGod. Though a man without grace may have a will to be saved, yet\nhe cannot have that will God's way. Nature, it cannot know any\nthing but the things of nature--the things of God knows no man\nbut by the Spirit of God; unless the Spirit of God be in you, it\nwill leave you on this side the gates of heaven. 'Not of blood, nor\nof the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' It\nmay be, some may have a will, a desire that Ishmael may be saved;\nknow this, it will not save thy child. If it was our will, I would\nhave you all go to heaven. How many are there in the world that\npray for their children, and cry for them, and are ready to die\n[for them]? and this will not do. God's will is the rule of all;\nit is only through Jesus Christ: 'which were born, not of flesh,\nnor of the will of man, but of God.'\n\nNow I come to the doctrine.\n\nMen that believe in Jesus Christ, to the effectual receiving\nof Jesus Christ, they are born to it. He does not say they shall\nbe born to it, but they are born to it--born of God unto God and\nthe things of God, before he receives God to eternal salvation.\n'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'\nNow, unless he be born of God, he cannot see it: suppose the kingdom\nof God be what it will, he cannot see it before he be begotten\nof God. Suppose it be the gospel, he cannot see it before he be\nbrought into a state of regeneration. Believing is the consequence\nof the new birth; 'not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of\nGod.'\n\nFirst, I will give you a clear description of it under one similitude\nor two. A child, before it be born into the world, is in the dark\ndungeon of its mother's womb: so a child of God, before he be born\nagain, is in the dark dungeon of sin, sees nothing of the kingdom\nof God; therefore it is called a new birth: the same soul has love\none way in its carnal condition, another way when it is born again.\n\nSecond, As it is compared to a birth, resembling a child in his\nmother's womb, so it is compared to a man being raised out of the\ngrave; and to be born again, is to be raised out of the grave\nof sin; 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and\nChrist shall give thee light.' To be raised from the grave of sin\nis to be begotten and born (Rev 1:5); there is a famous instance\nof Christ; He is 'the first begotten of the dead'; he is the\nfirst-born from the dead, unto which our regeneration alludeth;\nthat is, if you be born again by seeking those things that are\nabove, then there is a similitude betwixt Christ's resurrection\nand the new birth; which was born, which was restored out of this\ndark world, and translated out of the kingdom of this dark world,\ninto the kingdom of his dear Son, and made us live a new life--this\nis to be born again: and he that is delivered from the mother's\nwomb, it is the help of the mother; so he that is born of God, it\nis by the Spirit of God. I must give you a few consequences of a\nnew birth.\n\n(1.) First of all, A child, you know, is incident to cry as soon\nas it comes into the world; for if there be no noise, they say it\nis dead. You that are born of God, and Christians, if you be not\ncriers, there is no spiritual life in you--if you be born of God,\nyou are crying ones; as soon as he has raised you out of the dark\ndungeon of sin, you cannot but cry to God, What must I do to be\nsaved? As soon as ever God had touched the jailer, he cries out,\n'Men and brethren, what must I do to be saved?' Oh! how many prayerless\nprofessors is there in London that never pray! Coffee-houses will\nnot let you pray, trades will not let you pray, looking-glasses\nwill not let you pray; but if you was born of God, you would.\n\n(2.) It is not only natural for a child to cry, but it must crave\nthe breast; it cannot live without the breast--therefore Peter\nmakes it the true trial of a new-born babe: the new-born babe\ndesires the sincere milk of the Word, that he may grow thereby:\nif you be born of God, make it manifest by desiring the breast\nof God. Do you long for the milk of the promises? A man lives one\nway when he is in the world, another way when he is brought unto\nJesus Christ (Isa 66). They shall suck and be satisfied; if you\nbe born again, there is no satisfaction till you get the milk of\nGod's Word into your souls (Isa 66:11). To 'suck and be satisfied\nwith the breasts of her consolation.' Oh! what is a promise to\na carnal man? A whore-house, it may be, is more sweet to him; but\nif you be born again, you cannot live without the milk of God's\nWord. What is a woman's breast to a horse? But what is it to a\nchild? there is its comfort night and day, there is its succour\nnight and day. O how loath are they it should be taken from them:\nminding heavenly things, says a carnal man, is but vanity; but to\na child of God, there is his comfort.\n\n(3.) A child that is newly born, if it have not other comforts\nto keep it warm than it had in its mother's womb, it dies; it\nmust have something got for its succour: so Christ had swaddling\nclothes prepared for him; so those that are born again, they must\nhave some promise of Christ to keep them alive; those that are in\na carnal state, they warm themselves with other things; but those\nthat are born again, they cannot live without some promise of\nChrist to keep them alive; as he did to the poor infant in Ezekiel\n16:8: I covered thee with embroidered gold: and when women are\nwith child, what fine things will they prepare for their child!\nOh, but what fine things has Christ prepared to wrap all in that\nare born again! Oh what wrappings of gold has Christ prepared for\nall that are born again! Women will dress their children, that\nevery one may see them how fine they are; so he in Ezekiel 16:11:\n'I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thine\nhands, and a chain on thy neck; and I put a jewel on thy forehead,\nand ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.'\nAnd, says he in verse 13, 'Thou didst prosper into a kingdom.'\nThis is to set out nothing in the world but the righteousness of\nChrist and the graces of the Spirit, without which a new-born babe\ncannot live, unless they have the golden righteousness of Christ.\n\n(4.) A child, when it is in its mother's lap, the mother takes great\ndelight to have that which will be for its comfort; so it is with\nGod's children, they shall be kept on his knee (Isa 66:11): 'They\nshall suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations';\nverse 13: 'As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort\nyou.' There is a similitude in these things that nobody knows of,\nbut those that are born again.\n\n(5.) There is usually some similitude betwixt the father and the\nchild. It may be the child looks like its father; so those that\nare born again, they have a new similitude--they have the image of\nJesus Christ (Gal 4). Every one that is born of God has something\nof the features of heaven upon him. Men love those children that\nare likest them most usually; so does God his children, therefore\nthey are called the children of God; but others do not look like\nhim, therefore they are called Sodomites. Christ describes children\nof the devil by their features--the children of the devil, his\nworks they will do; all works of unrighteousness, they are the\ndevil's works: if you are earthly, you have borne the image of\nthe earthly; if heavenly, you have borne the image of the heavenly.\n\n(6.) When a man has a child, he trains him up to his own liking--they\nhave learned the custom of their father's house; so are those that\nare born of God--they have learned the custom of the true church\nof God; there they learn to cry 'My Father' and 'My God'; they\nare brought up in God's house, they learn the method and form of\nGod's house, for regulating their lives in this world.\n\n(7.) Children, it is natural for them to depend upon their father\nfor what they want; if they want a pair of shoes, they go and\ntell him; if they want bread, they go and tell him; so should\nthe children of God do. Do you want spiritual bread? go tell God\nof it. Do you want strength of grace? ask it of God. Do you want\nstrength against Satan's temptations? go and tell God of it. When\nthe devil tempts you, run home and tell your heavenly Father--go,\npour out your complaints to God; this is natural to children; if\nany wrong them, they go and tell their father; so do those that\nare born of God, when they meet with temptations, go and tell God\nof them.\n\n[THE APPLICATION.]\n\nThe first use is this, To make a strict inquiry whether you be\nborn of God or not; examine by those things I laid down before,\nof a child of nature and a child of grace. Are you brought out\nof the dark dungeon of this world into Christ? Have you learned\nto cry, 'My Father?' (Jer 3:4). 'And I said, Thou shalt call me,\nMy Father.' All God's children are criers--cannot you be quiet\nwithout you have a bellyful of the milk of God's Word? cannot you\nbe satisfied without you have peace with God? Pray you, consider\nit, and be serious with yourselves; if you have not these marks,\nyou will fall short of the kingdom of God--you shall never have\nan interest there; 'there' is no intruding. They will say, 'Lord,\nLord, open to us; and he will say, I know you not.' No child of\nGod, no heavenly inheritance. We sometimes give something to those\nthat are not our children, but [we do] not [give them] our lands.\nO do not flatter yourselves with a portion among the sons, unless\nyou live like sons. When we see a king's son play with a beggar,\nthis is unbecoming; so if you be the king's children, live like the\nking's children; if you be risen with Christ, set your affections\non things above, and not on things below; when you come together,\ntalk of what your Father promised you; you should all love your\nFather's will, and be content and pleased with the exercises\nyou meet with in the world. If you are the children of God, live\ntogether lovingly; if the world quarrel with you, it is no matter;\nbut it is sad if you quarrel together; if this be amongst you, it\nis a sign of ill-breeding; it is not according to the rules you\nhave in the Word of God. Dost thou see a soul that has the image\nof God in him? Love him, love him; say, This man and I must go to\nheaven one day; serve one another, do good for one another; and\nif any wrong you, pray to God to right you, and love the brotherhood.\n\nLastly, If you be the children of God, learn that lesson--Gird\nup the loins of your mind, as obedient children, not fashioning\nyourselves according to your former conversation; but be ye holy\nin all manner of conversation. Consider that the holy God is\nyour Father, and let this oblige you to live like the children of\nGod, that you may look your Father in the face, with comfort,\nanother day.\n\n\n** End of Volume 2 **\n\n\nTHE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN\n\nWITH AN\n\nINTRODUCTION TO EACH TREATISE, NOTES,\n\nAND A\n\nSKETCH OF HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND CONTEMPORARIES.\n\nVOLUME THIRD.\n\nALLEGORICAL, FIGURATIVE, AND SYMBOLICAL.\n\nEDITED BY\n\nGEORGE OFFOR, ESQ.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS;\n\nIN THE\n\nSIMILITUDE OF A DREAM.\n\nPART I.\n\nAs I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on\na certain place, where was a den;[1] and I laid me down in that\nplace to sleep: and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed,\nand, behold, \"I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain\nplace, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and\na great burden upon his back,\" (Isa. 64:6; Luke 14:33; Psa. 38:4;\nHab. 2:2; Acts 16:31). I looked, and saw him open the book,[2]\nand read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not\nbeing able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry,\nsaying, \"What shall I do?\" (Acts 2:37).[3]\n\nIn this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as\nlong as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive\nhis distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his\ntrouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his\nwife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: \"O my dear\nwife,\" said he, \"and you, the children of my bowels, I, your dear\nfriend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard\nupon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our city\nwill be burned with fire from Heaven; in which fearful overthrow,\nboth myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall\nmiserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way\nof escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered.\" At this, his\nrelations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what\nhe had said to them was true, but because they thought that some\nfrenzy distemper had got into his head;[4] therefore, it drawing\ntowards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his\nbrains, with all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as\ntroublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he\nspent it in sighs and tears. So when the morning was come, they\nwould know how he did; he told them, worse and worse; he also set\nto talking to them again, but they began to be hardened. They also\nthought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages\nto him. Sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide,\nand sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began\nto retire himself to his chamber to pray for, and pity them, and\nalso to condole his own misery. He would also walk solitarily in\nthe fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus\nfor some days he spent his time.[5]\n\nNow I saw upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he\nwas, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed\nin his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before,\ncrying, \"What shall I do to be saved?\" (Acts 16:30, 31).\n\nI saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would\nrun; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell\nwhich way to go.[6] I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist\ncoming to him, who asked, \"Where fore dost thou cry?\"\n\nHe answered, Sir, I perceive, by the book in my hand, that I am\ncondemned to die, and after that to come to judgment, (Heb. 9:27);\nand I find that I am not willing (Job 16:21, 22) to do the first,\nnor able (Eze. 22:14) to do the second.\n\nThen said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life\nis attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear\nthat this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the\ngrave; and I shall fall into Tophet (Isa. 30:33). And, Sir, if\nI be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to\njudgment, and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these\nthings make me cry.\n\nThen said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou\nstill? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave\nhim a parchment roll, and there was written within, \"Fly from the\nwrath to come\" (Matt. 3:7).\n\nThe man therefore, read it, and looking upon Evangelist very\ncarefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing\nwith his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicket\ngate? (Matt. 7:13). The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you\nsee yonder shining light? (Psa. 119:105; 2 Peter 1:19). He said,\nI think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye,\nand go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate; at which,\nwhen thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.[7]\nSo I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not\nran far from his own door, but his wife and children perceiving\nit, began to cry after him to return (Luke 14:26); but the man put\nhis fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, Life! life! Eternal\nlife! So he looked not behind him (Gen. 19:17), but fled towards\nthe middle of the plain.[8]\n\nThe neighbours also came out to see him run, and as he ran, some\nmocked, others threatened, and some cried after him to return;\nand among those that did so, there were two that were resolved\nto fetch him back by force (Jer. 20:10). The name of the one was\nObstinate, and the name of the other Pliable.[9] Now by this time,\nthe man was got a good distance from them; but, however, they were\nresolved to pursue him; which they did, and in a little time they\novertook him. Then said the man, Neighbours, wherefore are ye come?\nThey said, To persuade you to go back with us. But he said, That\ncan by no means be. You dwell, said he, in the City of Destruction,\nthe place also where I was born; I see it to be so; and dying\nthere, sooner or later, you will sink lower than the grave, into\na place that burns with fire and brimstone. Be content, good\nneighbours, and go along with me.\n\nWhat, said Obstinate, and leave our friends and our comforts behind\nus?[10]\n\nYes, said Christian, for that was his name, because that all \"which\nyou shall forsake\" (2 Cor. 4:18), is not worthy to be compared with\na little of that which I am seeking to enjoy; and if you will go\nalong with me, and hold it, you shall fare as I myself, for there,\nwhere I go, is enough and to spare (Luke 15:17). Come away, and\nprove my words.\n\nOBST. What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world\nto find them?\n\nCHR. I seek an \"inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that\nfadeth not away\" (1 Peter 1:4), and it is laid up in Heaven (Heb.\n11:16), and safe there, to be bestowed, at the time appointed, on\nthem that diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my book.\n\nOBST. Tush, said Obstinate, away with your book; will you go back\nwith us, or no?\n\nCHR. No, not I, saith the other; because I have laid my hand to\nthe plough (Luke 9:62).\n\nOBST. Come, then, neighbour Pliable, let us turn again, and go home\nwithout him; there is a company of these crazed-headed coxcombs,\nthat when they take a fancy by the end, are wiser in their own\neyes than seven men that can render a reason (Prov. 26:16).\n\nPLI. Then said Pliable, Do not revile; if what the good Christian\nsays is true, the things he looks after are better than ours; my\nheart inclines to go with my neighbour.\n\nOBST. What! more fools still? Be ruled by me, and go back; who\nknows whither such a brain-sick fellow will lead you? Go back, go\nback, and be wise.\n\nCHR. Nay, but do thou come with thy neighbour Pliable: there are\nsuch things to be had which I spoke of, and many more glories\nbesides; if you believe not me, read here in this book, and for\nthe truth of what is expressed therein, behold, all is confirmed\nby the blood of Him that made it (Heb. 13:20, 21; 9:17-21).\n\nPLI. Well, neighbour Obstinate, saith Pliable, I begin to come to\na point; I intend to go along with this good man, and to cast in\nmy lot with him. But, my good companion, do you know the way to\nthis desired place?\n\nCHR. I am directed by a man whose name is Evangelist, to speed\nme to a little gate that is before us, where we shall receive\ninstructions about the way.\n\nPLI. Come then, good neighbour, let us be going. Then they went\nboth together.\n\nOBST. And I will go back to my place, said Obstinate; I will be\nno companion of such misled fantastical fellows.\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that when Obstinate was gone back, Christian\nand Pliable went talking over the plain; and thus they began their\ndiscourse.\n\nCHR. Come, neighbour Pliable, how do you do? I am glad you are\npersuaded to go along with me; had even Obstinate himself but\nfelt what I have felt, of the powers and terrors of what is yet\nunseen, he would not thus lightly have given us the back.\n\nPLI. Come, neighbour Christian, since there is none but us two here,\ntell me now further, what the things are, and how to be enjoyed,\nwhither we are going.\n\nCHR. I can better conceive of them with my mind, than speak of\nthem with my tongue; but yet since you are desirous to know, I\nwill read of them in my book.\n\nPLI. And do you think that the words of your book are certainly\ntrue?\n\nCHR. Yes, verily, for it was made by Him that cannot lie (Titus\n1:2).\n\nPLI. Well said. What things are they?\n\nCHR. There is an endless kingdom to be inhabited, and everlasting\nlife to be given us, that we may inhabit that kingdom forever\n(Isa. 45:17; John 10:27-29).\n\nPLI. Well said. And what else?\n\nCHR. There are crowns of glory to be given us, and garments that\nwill make us shine like the sun in the firmament of Heaven! (2\nTim. 4:8; Rev. 3:4; Matt. 13:43).\n\nPLI. This is very pleasant. And what else?\n\nCHR. There shall be no more crying, nor sorrow; for He that is\nowner of the place will wipe all tears from our eyes (Isa. 25:8;\nRev. 7:17, 17; 21:4).\n\nPLI. And what company shall we have there?\n\nCHR. There we shall be with seraphims, and Cherubims, creatures\nthat will dazzle your eyes to look on them. There, also, you shall\nmeet with thousands and ten thousands that have gone before us to\nthat Place; none of them are hurtful, but loving and holy, everyone\nwalking in the sight of God, and standing in His presence with\nacceptance forever; in a word, there we shall see the elders with\ntheir golden crowns; there we shall see the holy virgins with their\ngolden harps; there we shall see men, that by the world were cut\nin pieces, burnt in flames, eaten of beasts, drowned in the seas,\nfor the love that they bare to the Lord of the Place; all well,\nand clothed with immortality as with a garment[11] (Isa. 6:2; 1\nThess. 4:16, 17; Rev. 7:17; 4:4; 14:1-5; John 12:25; 2 Cor. 5:2-5).\n\nPLI. The hearing of this is enough to ravish one's heart; but are\nthese things to be enjoyed? How shall we get to be sharers thereof?\n\nCHR. The Lord, the Governor of the country, hath recorded, that\nin this book, the substance of which is, if we be truly willing\nto have it, He will bestow it upon us freely (Isa. 55:1, 2, 12;\nJohn 7:37; 6:37; Psa. 21:6; 22:17).\n\nPLI. Well, my good companion, glad am I to hear of these things;\ncome on, let us mend our pace.[12]\n\nCHR. I cannot go so fast as I would, by reason of this burden\nthat is on my back.\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that, just as they had ended this talk, they\ndrew near to a very miry slough that was in the midst of the plain; and\nthey, being heedless, did both fall suddenly into the bog. The name of\nthe slough was Despond.[13] Here, therefore, they wallowed for a time,\nbeing grievously bedaubed with the dirt; and Christian, because of the\nburden that was on his back, began to sink in the mire.\n\nPLI. Then said Pliable, Ah! neighbour Christian, where are you\nnow?\n\nCHR. Truly, said Christian, I do not know.\n\nPLI. At that Pliable began to be offended, and angrily said to\nhis fellow, Is this the happiness you have told me all this while\nof? If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may\nwe expect betwixt this and our journey's end? May I get out again\nwith my life, you shall possess the brave country alone for me.\nAnd with that he gave a desperate struggle or two, and got out\nof the mire on that side of the slough which was next to his own\nhouse: so away he went, and Christian saw him no more. Wherefore\nChristian was left to tumble in the Slough of Despond alone; but\nstill he endeavoured to struggle to that side of the slough that\nwas still further from his own house, and next to the wicket-gate;\nthe which he did, but could not get out, because of the burden\nthat was upon his back.[14] But I beheld in my dream, that a man\ncame to him, whose name was Help, and asked him what he did there?\n\nCHR. Sir, said Christian, I was bid go this way by a man called\nEvangelist, who directed me also to yonder gate, that I might\nescape the wrath to come. And as I was going thither, I fell in\nhere.\n\nHELP. But why did not you look for the steps?\n\nCHR. Fear followed me so hard, that I fled the next way, and fell\nin.[15]\n\nHELP. Then said he, Give me thy hand; so he gave him his hand,\nand he drew him out, and set him upon sound ground, and bid him\ngo on his way (Psa. 40:2).\n\nThen I stepped to him that plucked him out, and said, Sir, wherefore\n(since over this place is the way from the City of Destruction,\nto yonder gate) is it that this plat is not mended, that poor\ntravelers might go thither with more security? And he said unto\nme, This miry slough is such a place as cannot be mended. It is\nthe descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for\nsin, doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough\nof Despond: for still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost\ncondition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and\ndiscouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and\nsettle in this place. And this is the reason of the badness of\nthis ground.\n\nIt is not the pleasure of the King that this place should remain\nso bad (Isa. 35:3, 4); his labourers, also, have, by the directions\nof his Majesty's surveyors, been, for above these 1,600 years,\nemployed about this patch of ground, if, perhaps, it might have\nbeen mended; yea, and to my knowledge, said he, here have been\nswallowed up at least 20,000 cart-loads; yea, millions of wholesome\ninstructions, that have, at all seasons, been brought from all\nplaces of the King's dominions, and they that can tell, say, they\nare the best materials to make good ground of the place, if so be\nit might have been mended; but it is the Slough of Despond still;\nand so will be when they have done what they can.[16]\n\nTrue, there are, by the direction of the Lawgiver, certain good\nand substantial steps, placed even through the very midst of this\nslough; but at such time as this place doth much spew out its\nfilth, as it doth against change of weather, these steps are hardly\nseen; or if they be, men, through the dizziness of their heads,\nstep besides, and then they are bemired to purpose, notwithstanding\nthe steps be there; but the ground is good, when they are once\ngot in at the gate[17] (1 Sam. 12:23).\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that, by this time, Pliable was got home\nto his house again; so that his neighbours came to visit him; and\nsome of them called him wise man for coming back, and some called\nhim fool for hazarding himself with Christian; others, again, did\nmock at his cowardliness, saying, \"Surely, since you began to\nventure, I would not have been so base to have given out for a few\ndifficulties.\" So Pliable sat sneaking among them. But, at last,\nhe got more confidence, and then they all turned their tales,\nand began to deride poor Christian behind his back. And thus much\nconcerning Pliable.\n\nNow as Christian was walking solitarily by himself,[18] he espied\none afar off come crossing over the field to meet him; and their\nhap was to meet just as they were crossing the way of each other.\nThe gentleman's name that met him was Mr. Worldly-wiseman; he\ndwelt in the town of Carnal Policy, a very great town, and also\nhard by from whence Christian came. This man, then, meeting with\nChristian, and having some inkling[19] of him, for Christian's\nsetting forth from the City of Destruction was much noised abroad,\nnot only in the town where he dwelt, but, also, it began to be the\ntown-talk in some other places. Master Worldly-wiseman, therefore,\nhaving some guess of him, by beholding his laborious going, by\nobserving his sighs and groans, and the like, began thus to enter\ninto some talk with Christian.\n\nWORLD. How now, good fellow, whither away after this burdened\nmanner?\n\nCHR. A burdened manner, indeed, as ever, I think, poor creature\nhad! And whereas you ask me, Whither away? I tell you, Sir, I am\ngoing to yonder wicket-gate before me; for there, as I am informed,\nI shall be put into a way to be rid of my heavy burden.\n\nWORLD. Hast thou a wife and children?\n\nCHR. Yes; but I am so laden with this burden, that I cannot take\nthat pleasure in them as formerly; methinks I am as if I had none\n(1 Cor. 7:29).\n\nWORLD. Wilt thou hearken unto me if I give thee counsel?\n\nCHR. If it be good, I will; for I stand in need of good counsel.\n\nWORLD. I would advise thee, then, that thou with all speed get\nthyself rid of thy burden: for thou wilt never be settled in thy\nmind till then; nor canst thou enjoy the benefits of the blessing\nwhich God hath bestowed upon thee till then.\n\nCHR. That is that which I seek for, even to be rid of this heavy\nburden; but get it off myself, I cannot; nor is there any man\nin our country that can take it off my shoulders; therefore am I\ngoing this way, as I told you, that I may be rid of my burden.\n\nWORLD. Who bid you go this way to be rid of thy burden?\n\nCHR. A man that appeared to me to be a very great and honourable\nperson; his name, as I remember, is Evangelist.\n\nWORLD. I beshrew him for his counsel! there is not a more dangerous\nand trouble some way in the world than is that unto which he hath\ndirected thee; and that thou shalt find, if thou wilt be ruled by\nhis counsel. Thou hast met with something, as I perceive already;\nfor I see the dirt of the Slough of Despond is upon thee; but that\nslough is the beginning of the sorrows that do attend those that\ngo on in that way. Hear me, I am older than thou; thou art like to\nmeet with, on the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness,\nhunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and,\nin a word, death, and what not! These things are certainly true,\nhaving been confirmed by many testimonies. And why should a man\nso carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger?\n\nCHR. Why, Sir, this burden upon my back is more terrible to me\nthan are all these things which you have mentioned; nay, methinks\nI care not what I meet with in the way, if so be I can also meet\nwith deliverance from my burden.\n\nWORLD. How camest thou by the burden at first?\n\nCHR. By reading this book in my hand.\n\nWORLD. I thought so; and it is happened unto thee as to other\nweak men, who, meddling with things too high for them, do suddenly\nfall into thy distractions; which distractions do not only unman\nmen, as thine, I perceive, has done thee, but they run them upon\ndesperate ventures, to obtain they know not what.\n\nCHR. I know what I would obtain; it is ease for my heavy burden.\n\nWORLD. But why wilt thou seek for ease this way, seeing so many\ndangers attend it? especially since, hadst thou but patience to\nhear me, I could direct thee to the obtaining of what thou desirest,\nwithout the dangers that thou in this way wilt run thyself into;\nyea, and the remedy is at hand. Besides, I will add, that, instead\nof those dangers, thou shalt meet with much safety, friendship,\nand content. [20]\n\nCHR. Pray, Sir, open this secret to me.\n\nWORLD. Why, in yonder village-the village is named Morality-there\ndwells a gentleman whose name is Legality, a very judicious man,\nand a man of a very good name, that has skill to help men off\nwith such burdens as thine are from their shoulders: yea, to my\nknowledge, he hath done a great deal of good this way; aye, and\nbesides, he hath skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in\ntheir wits with their burdens.[21] To him, as I said, thou mayest\ngo, and be helped presently. His house is not quite a mile from\nthis place, and if he should not be at home himself, be hath a\npretty young man to his son, whose name is Civility, that can do\nit (to speak on) as well as the old gentleman himself; there, I\nsay, thou mayest be eased of thy burden; and if thou art not minded\nto go back to thy former habitation, as, indeed, I would not wish\nthee, thou mayest send for thy wife and children to thee to this\nvillage, where there are houses now stand empty, one of which thou\nmayest have at reasonable rates; provision is there also cheap and\ngood; and that which will make thy life the more happy is, to be\nsure, there thou shalt live by honest neighbours, in credit and\ngood fashion.\n\nNow was Christian somewhat at a stand; but presently he concluded,\nif this be true, which this gentleman hath said, my wisest course\nis to take his advice; and with that he thus further spoke.\n\nCHR. Sir, which is my way to this honest man's house?\n\nWORLD. Do you see yonder hill?\n\nCHR. Yes, very well.\n\nWORLD. By that hill you must go, and the first house you come at\nis his.\n\nSo Christian turned out of his way, to go to Mr. Legality's house\nfor help; but, behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it\nseemed so high, and also that side of it that was next the wayside,\ndid hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further,\nlest the hill should fall on his head; wherefore there he stood\nstill, and wotted[22] not what to do. Also his burden now seemed\nheavier to him, than while he was in his way. There came also\nflashes of fire out of the hill, that made Christian afraid that\nhe should be burned (Exo. 19:16, 18). Here, therefore, he sweat\nand did quake for fear (Heb. 12:21). And now he began to be sorry\nthat he had taken Mr. Worldly-wiseman's counsel. And with that he\nsaw Evangelist coming to meet him; at the sight also of whom he\nbegan to blush for shame. So Evangelist drew nearer and nearer;\nand coming up to him, he looked upon him with a severe and dreadful\ncountenance, and thus began to reason with Christian.\n\nEVAN. What dost thou here, Christian? said he: at which words\nChristian knew not what to answer; wherefore at present he stood\nspeechless before him. Then said Evangelist further, Art not\nthou the man that I found crying without the walls of the City of\nDestruction?\n\nCHR. Yes, dear Sir, I am the man.\n\nEVAN. Did not I direct thee the way to the little wicket-gate?\n\nCHR. Yes, dear Sir, said Christian.\n\nEVAN. How is it, then, that thou art so quickly turned aside? for\nthou art now out of the way.\n\nCHR. I met with a gentleman so soon as I had got over the Slough\nof Despond, who persuaded me that I might, in the village before\nme, find a man that could take off my burden.\n\nEVAN. What was he?\n\nCHR. He looked like a gentleman,[23] and talked much to me, and\ngot me at last to yield; so I came hither: but when I beheld this\nhill, and how it hangs over the way, I suddenly made a stand, lest\nit should fall on my head.\n\nEVAN. What said that gentleman to you?\n\nCHR. Why, he asked me whither I was going? And I told him.\n\nEVAN. And what said he then?\n\nCHR. He asked me if I had a family? And I told him. But, said I,\nI am so loaden with the burden that is on my back, that I cannot\ntake pleasure in them as formerly.\n\nEVAN. And what said he then?\n\nCHR. He bid me with speed get rid of my burden; and I told him\nit was ease that I sought. And, said I, I am therefore going to\nyonder gate, to receive further direction how I may get to the\nplace of deliverance. So he said that he would show me a better\nway, and short, not so attended with difficulties as the way,\nSir, that you set me in; which way, said he, will direct you to a\ngentleman's house that hath skill to take off these burdens: so I\nbelieved him,[24] and turned out of that way into this, if haply I\nmight be soon eased of my burden. But when I came to this place,\nand beheld things as they are, I stopped for fear (as I said) of\ndanger: but I now know not what to do.\n\nEVAN. Then, said Evangelist, stand still a little, that I may show\nthee the words of God. So he stood trembling. Then said Evangelist,\n\"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped\nnot who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we\nescape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven\" (Heb.\n12:25). He said, moreover, \"Now the just shall live by faith:\nbut if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him\"\n(Heb. 10:38). He also did thus apply them: Thou art the man that\nart running into this misery; thou hast begun to reject the counsel\nof the Most High, and to draw back thy foot from the way of peace,\neven almost to the hazarding of thy perdition!\n\nThen Christian fell down at his foot as dead, crying, \"Woe is me,\nfor I am undone!\" At the sight of which, Evangelist caught him by\nthe right hand, saying, \"All manner of sin and blasphemies shall\nbe forgiven unto men\" (Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:28); \"Be not faithless,\nbut believing\" (John 20:27). Then did Christian again a little\nrevive, and stood up trembling, as at first, before Evangelist.[25]\n\nThen Evangelist proceeded, saying, Give more earnest heed to the\nthings that I shall tell thee of. I will now show thee who it was\nthat deluded thee, and who it was also to whom he sent thee.-The\nman that met thee is one Worldly-wiseman, and rightly is he so called;\npartly, because he savoureth only the doctrine of this world (1\nJohn 4:5), (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to\nchurch); and partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for\nit saveth him best from the cross (Gal. 6:12). And because he is\nof this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to prevent my ways,\nthough right. Now there are three things in this man's counsel,\nthat thou must utterly abhor.\n\n1. His turning thee out of the way. 2. His labouring to render\nthe cross odious to thee. And, 3. His setting thy feet in that\nway that leadeth unto the administration of death.\n\nFirst, Thou must abhor his turning thee out of the way; yea, and\nthine own consenting thereto: because this is to reject the counsel\nof God for the sake of the counsel of a Worldly-wiseman. The Lord\nsays, \"Strive to enter in at the strait gate\" (Luke 13:24), the\ngate to which I send thee; for \"strait is the gate which leadeth\nunto life, and few there be that find it\" (Matt. 7:14). From this\nlittle wicket-gate, and from the way thereto, hath this wicked\nman turned thee, to the bringing of thee almost to destruction;\nhate, therefore, his turning thee out of the way, and abhor thyself\nfor hearkening to him.\n\nSecondly, Thou must abhor his labouring to render the cross\nodious unto thee; for thou art to prefer it \"before the treasures\nin Egypt\" (Heb. 11:25, 26). Besides, the King of glory hath told\nthee, that he that \"will save his life shall lose it\" (Mark 8:35;\nJohn 12:25; Matt. 10:39). And, \"He that comes after Him, and hate\nnot his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,\nand sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple\"\n(Luke 14:26). I say, therefore, for man to labour to persuade\nthee, that that shall be thy death, without which, THE TRUTH hath\nsaid, thou canst not have eternal life; this doctrine thou must\nabhor.\n\nThirdly, Thou must hate his setting of thy feet in the way that\nleadeth to the ministration of death. And for this thou must\nconsider to whom he sent thee, and also how unable that person\nwas to deliver thee from thy burden.\n\nHe to whom thou wast sent for ease, being by name Legality, is\nthe son of the bond woman which now is, and is in bondage with her\nchildren (Gal. 4:21-27); and is, in a mystery, this mount Sinai,\nwhich thou hast feared will fall on thy head. Now, if she, with\nher children, are in bondage, how canst thou expect by them to be\nmade free? This Legality, therefore, is not able to set thee free\nfrom thy burden. No man was as yet ever rid of his burden by him;\nno, nor ever is like to be: ye cannot be justified by the works\nof the law; for by the deeds of the law no man living can be rid\nof his burden: therefore, Mr. Worldly-wiseman is an alien, and Mr.\nLegality is a cheat; and for his son Civility, notwithstanding\nhis simpering looks, he is but a hypocrite, and cannot help thee.\nBelieve me, there is nothing in all this noise, that thou hast\nheard of these sottish men, but a design to beguile thee of thy\nsalvation, by turning thee from the way in which I had set thee.\nAfter this, Evangelist called aloud to the heavens for confirmation\nof what he had said: and with that there came words and fire out\nof the mountain under which poor Christian stood, that made the\nhair of his flesh stand up. The words were thus pronounced: \"As\nmany as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it\nis written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things\nwhich are written in the book of the law to do them[26]\" (Gal.\n3:10).\n\nNow Christian looked for nothing but death, and began to cry\nout lamentably; even cursing the time in which he met with\nMr. Worldly-wiseman; still calling himself a thousand fools for\nhearkening to his counsel: he also was greatly ashamed to think\nthat this gentleman's arguments, flowing only from the flesh,\nshould have the prevalency with him as to cause him to forsake the\nright way. This done, he applied himself again to Evangelist, in\nwords and sense as follows:-\n\nCHR. Sir, what think you? Is there hope? May I now go back, and\ngo up to the wicket-gate? Shall I not be abandoned for this, and\nsent back from thence ashamed? I am sorry I have hearkened to this\nman's counsel. But may my sin be forgiven?\n\nEVAN. Then said Evangelist to him, Thy sin is very great, for by\nit thou hast committed two evils; thou hast forsaken the way that\nis good, to tread in forbidden paths; yet will the man at the gate\nreceive thee, for he has good-will for men; only, said he, take\nheed that thou turn not aside again, \"lest thou perish from the\nway, when His wrath is kindled but a little\" (Psa. 2:12). Then\ndid Christian address himself to go back; and Evangelist, after\nhe had kissed him, gave him one smile, and bid him God-speed. So\nhe went on with haste, neither spake he to any man by the way;\nnor, if any asked him, would he vouchsafe them an answer. He went\nlike one that was all the while treading on forbidden ground, and\ncould by no means think himself safe, till again he was got into\nthe way which he left, to follow Mr. Worldly-wiseman's counsel.\nSo, in process of time, Christian got up to the gate. Now, over\nthe gate there was written, \"Knock, and it shall be opened unto\nyou\" (Matt. 7:8).\n\nHe knocked, therefore, more than once or twice, saying--\"May I now\nenter here? Will He within Open to sorry me, though I have been\nAn undeserving rebel? Then shall I Not fail to sing His lasting\npraise on high.\"\n\nAt last there came a grave person to the gate, named Good-will, who\nasked who was there? and whence he came? and what he would have?[27]\n\nCHR. Here is a poor burdened sinner. I come from the City of\nDestruction, but am going to Mount Zion, that I may be delivered\nfrom the wrath to come. I would, therefore, Sir, since I am informed\nthat by this gate is the way thither, know if you are willing to\nlet me in!\n\nGOOD-WILL. I am willing with all my heart, said he; and with that\nhe opened the gate.[28]\n\nSo when Christian was stepping in, the other gave him a pull.\nThen said Christian, What means that? The other told him. A little\ndistance from this gate, there is erected a strong castle, of which\nBeelzebub is the captain; from thence, both he and them that are\nwith him shoot arrows at those that come up to this gate, if haply\nthey may die before they can enter in.[29]\n\nThen said Christian, I rejoice and tremble. So when he was got\nin, the man of the gate asked him who directed him thither?\n\nCHR. Evangelist bid me come hither, and knock (as I did); and he\nsaid that you, Sir, would tell me what I must do.\n\nGOOD-WILL. An open door is set before thee, and no man can shut\nit.\n\nCHR. Now I begin to reap the benefits of my hazards.\n\nGOOD-WILL. But how is it that you came alone? CHR. Because none\nof my neighbours saw their danger, as I saw mine.\n\nGOOD-WILL. Did any of them know of your coming?\n\nCHR. Yes; my wife and children saw me at the first, and called\nafter me to turn again; also, some of my neighbours stood crying\nand calling after me to return; but I put my fingers in my ears,\nand so came on my way.\n\nGOOD-WILL. But did none of them follow you, to persuade you to go\nback?\n\nCHR. Yes, both Obstinate and Pliable; but when they saw that they\ncould not prevail, Obstinate went railing back, but Pliable came\nwith me a little way.\n\nGOOD-WILL. But why did he not come through?\n\nCHR. We, indeed, came both together, until we came at the Slough\nof Despond, into the which we also suddenly fell. And then was my\nneighbour, Pliable, discouraged, and would not adventure further.\nWherefore getting out again on that side next to his own house,\nhe told me I should possess the brave country alone for him; so\nhe went his way, and I came mine-he after Obstinate, and I to this\ngate.\n\nGOOD-WILL. Then said Good-will, Alas, poor man! is the celestial\nglory of so small esteem with him, that he counteth it not worth\nrunning the hazards of a few difficulties to obtain it?\n\nCHR. Truly, said Christian, I have said the truth of Pliable,\nand if I should also say all the truth of myself, it will appear\nthere is no betterment[30] betwixt him and myself. It is true, he\nwent back to his own house, but I also turned aside to go in the\nway of death, being persuaded thereto by the carnal arguments[31]\nof one Mr. Worldly-wiseman.\n\nGOOD-WILL. Oh! did he light upon you? What! he would have had you\na sought for ease at the hands of Mr. Legality. They are, both of\nthem, a very cheat. But did you take his counsel?\n\nCHR. Yes, as far as I durst; I went to find out Mr. Legality,\nuntil I thought that the mountain that stands by his house would\nhave fallen upon my head; wherefore, there I was forced to stop.\n\nGOOD-WILL. That mountain has been the death of many, and will be\nthe death of many more; it is well you escaped being by it dashed\nin pieces.\n\nCHR. Why, truly, I do not know what had become of me there, had\nnot Evangelist happily met me again, as I was musing in the midst\nof my dumps; but it was God's mercy that he came to me again, for\nelse I had never come hither. But now I am come, such a one as I\nam, more fit, indeed, for death, by that mountain, than thus to\nstand talking with my Lord; but, O! what a favour is this to me,\nthat yet I am admitted entrance here!\n\nGOOD-WILL. We make no objections against any, notwithstanding\nall that they have done before they come hither. They are \"in no\nwise cast out\" (John 6:37); and therefore, good Christian, come a\nlittle way with me, and I will teach thee about the way thou must\ngo. Look before thee; dost thou see this narrow way? THAT is the\nway thou must go; it was cast up by the patriarchs, prophets,\nChrist, and His Apostles; and it is as straight as a rule can make\nit. This is the way thou must go.[32]\n\nCHR. But, said Christian, are there no turnings nor windings, by\nwhich a stranger may lose his way?\n\nGOOD-WILL. Yes, there are many ways butt down upon this, and they\nare crooked and wide. But thus thou mayest distinguish the right\nfrom the wrong, the right only being straight and narrow (Matt.\n7:14).\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that Christian asked him further if he\ncould not help him off with his burden that was upon his back;\nfor as yet he had not got rid thereof, nor could he by any means\nget it off without help.\n\nHe told him, as to thy burden, be content to bear it, until thou\ncomest to the place of deliverance; for there it will fall from\nthy back of itself.\n\nThen Christian began to gird up his loins, and to address himself\nto his journey. So the other told him, That by that he was gone\nsome distance from the gate, he would come at the house of the\nInterpreter; at whose door he should knock, and he would show him\nexcellent things. Then Christian took his leave of his friend,\nand he again bid him God-speed.\n\nThen he went on till he came at the house of the Interpreter,[33]\nwhere he knocked over and over; at last one came to the door, and\nasked who was there.\n\nCHR. Sir, here is a traveler, who was bid by an acquaintance of\nthe good man of this house to call here for my profit; I would\ntherefore speak with the master of the house. So he called for the\nmaster of the house, who, after a little time, came to Christian,\nand asked him what he would have.\n\nCHR. Sir, said Christian, I am a man that am come from the City\nof Destruction, and am going to the Mount Zion; and I was told by\nthe man that stands at the gate, at the head of this way, that if\nI called here, you would show me excellent things, such as would\nbe a help to me in my journey.[34]\n\nINTER. Then said the Interpreter, Come in; I will show thee that\nwhich will be profitable to thee. So He commanded His man to light\nthe candle,[35] and bid Christian follow Him: so He had him into\na private room, and bid His man open a door; the which when he\nhad done, Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hang\nup against the wall; and this was the fashion of it. It had eyes\nlifted up to Heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of\ntruth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back.\nIt stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang\nover its head.[36]\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, What meaneth this?\n\nINTER. The man whose picture this is, is one of a thousand; he\ncan beget children (1 Cor. 4:15), travail in birth with children\n(Gal. 4;19), and nurse them himself when they are born. And whereas\nthou seest him with his eves lift up to Heaven, the best of books\nin his hand, and the law of truth writ on his lips, it is to show\nthee, that his work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners;\neven as also thou seest him stand as if he pleaded with men; and\nwhereas thou seest the world as cast behind him, and that a crown\nhangs over his head, that is to show thee that slighting and\ndespising the things that are present, for the love that he hath\nto his Master's service, he is sure in the world that comes next\nto have glory for his reward. Now, said the Interpreter, I have\nshowed thee this picture first, because the man whose picture\nthis is, is the only man whom the Lord of the place whither thou\nart going, hath authorized to be thy guide in all difficult places\nthou mayest meet with in the way; wherefore, take good heed to\nwhat I have showed thee, and bear well in thy mind what thou hast\nseen, lest in thy journey thou meet with some that pretend to\nlead thee right, but their way goes down to death.\n\nThen He took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlour\nthat was full of dust, because never swept; the which, after He\nhad reviewed a little while, the Interpreter called for a man to\nsweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly\nto fly about, that Christian had almost therewith been choked.\nThen said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, Bring hither\nthe water, and sprinkle the room; the which, when she had done,\nit was swept and cleansed with pleasure.\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, What means this?\n\nINTER. The Interpreter answered, This parlour is the heart of a\nman that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the Gospel;\nthe dust is his original sin and inward corruptions, that have\ndefiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first, is the Law;\nbut she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the Gospel.\nNow, whereas thou sawest, that so soon as the first began to\nsweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not\nbe cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith; this is\nto show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its\nworking) from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase it\nin the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for it doth\nnot give power to subdue[37] (Rom. 7:6; 1 Cor. 15:56; Rom. 5:20).\n\nAgain, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water,\nupon which it was cleansed with pleasure; this is to show thee,\nthat when the Gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences\nthereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel\nlay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished\nand subdued, and the soul made clean, through the faith of it,\nand consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit (John 15:3;\nEph. 5:26; Acts 15:9; Rom. 16:25, 26; John 15:13).\n\nI saw, moreover, in my dream, that the Interpreter took him by\nthe hand, and had him into a little room, where sat two little\nchildren, each one in his chair. The name of the elder was Passion,\nand the name of the other Patience. Passion seemed to be much\ndiscontented; but Patience was very quiet. Then Christian asked,\nWhat is the reason of the discontent of Passion? The Interpreter\nanswered, The Governor of them would have him stay for his best\nthings till the beginning of the next year; but he will have all\nnow; but patience is willing to wait.\n\nThen I saw that one came to Passion, and brought him a bag of\ntreasure, and poured it down at his feet, the which he took up\nand rejoiced therein, and withal laughed Patience to scorn. But I\nbeheld but a while, and he had lavished all away, and had nothing\nleft him but rags.\n\nCHR. Then said Christian to the Interpreter, Expound this matter\nmore fully to me.\n\nINTER. So He said, These two lads are figures: Passion, of the men\nof this world; and Patience, of the men of that which is to come;\nfor, as here thou seest, Passion will have all now this year, that\nis to say, in this world; so are the men of this world: they must\nhave all their good things now, they cannot stay till next year,\nthat is, until the next world, for their portion of good. That\nproverb, \"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,\" is of\nmore authority with them than are all the Divine testimonies of\nthe good of the world to come. But as thou sawest that he had\nquickly lavished all away, and had presently left him nothing but\nrags; so will it be with all such men at the end of this world.[38]\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best\nwisdom, and that upon many accounts. First, Because he stays for\nthe best things. Second, And also because he will have the glory\nof his, when the other has nothing but rags.\n\nINTER. Nay, you may add another, to wit, the glory of the next\nworld will never wear out; but these are suddenly gone. Therefore\nPassion had not so much reason to laugh at Patience, because he had\nhis good things first, as Patience will have to laugh at Passion,\nbecause he had his best things last; for first must give place to\nlast, because last must have his time to come; but last gives place\nto nothing; for there is not another to succeed. He, therefore,\nthat hath his portion first, must needs have a time to spend it;\nbut he that hath his portion last, must have it lastingly; therefore\nit is said of Dives, \"Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good\nthings, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted,\nand thou art tormented\" (Luke 16:25).\n\nCHR. Then I perceive it is not best to covet things that are now,\nbut to wait for things to come.\n\nINTER. You say the truth: \"For the things which are seen are\ntemporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal\" (2 Cor.\n4:18). But though this be so, yet since things present, and our\nfleshly appetite, are such near neighbours one to another; and\nagain, because things to come, and carnal sense, are such strangers\none to another; therefore it is that the first of these so suddenly\nfall into amity, and that distance is so continued between the\nsecond. Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian\nby the hand, and led him into a place where was a fire burning\nagainst a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water\nupon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.\n\nThen said Christian, What means this?\n\nThe Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is\nwrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish\nand put it out, is the Devil; but in that thou seest the fire\nnotwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the\nreason of that. So he had him about to the backside of the wall,\nwhere be saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which\nHe did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire.[39]\n\nThen said Christian, What means this?\n\nThe Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually, with the\noil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart:\nby the means of which, notwithstanding what the devil can do, the\nsouls of His people prove gracious still (2 Cor. 12:9). And in\nthat thou sawest that the man stood behind the wall to maintain\nthe fire, that is to teach thee that it is hard for the tempted\nto see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul.\n\nI saw also, that the Interpreter took him again by the hand, and\nled him into a pleasant place, where was builded a stately palace,\nbeautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was greatly\ndelighted; he saw also, upon the top thereof, certain persons\nwalking, who were clothed all in gold.\n\nThen said Christian, May we go in thither?\n\nThen the Interpreter took him, and led him up towards the door of\nthe palace; and behold, at the door stood a great company of men,\nas desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at a\nlittle distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and\nhis inkhorn before him, to take the name of him that should enter\ntherein; he saw also, that in the doorway stood many men in armour\nto keep it, being resolved to do the men that would enter what\nhurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in amaze.\nAt last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men,\nChristian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the\nman that sat there to write, saying, \"Set down my name, Sir\":[40]\nthe which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put\nan helmet upon his head, and rush toward the door upon the armed\nmen, who laid upon him with deadly force: but the man, not at all\ndiscouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after\nhe had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to\nkeep him out, he cut his way through them all (Acts 14:22), and\npressed forward into the palace, at which there was a pleasant\nvoice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked\nupon the top of the palace, saying--\"Come in, come in; Eternal\nglory thou shalt win.\"\n\nSo he went in, and was clothed with such garments as they. Then\nChristian smiled and said, I think verily I know the meaning of\nthis.[41]\n\nNow, said Christian, let me go hence. Nay, stay, said the Interpreter,\ntill I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt\ngo on thy way. So He took him by the hand again, and led him into\na very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage.\n\nNow the man, to look on, seemed very sad; he sat with his eyes\nlooking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he\nsighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, What\nmeans this? At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.\n\nThen Said Christian to the man, What art thou? The man answered,\nI am what I was not once.\n\nCHR. What wast thou once?\n\nMAN. The man said, I was once a fair and flourishing professor,\nboth in mine own eyes, and also in the eyes of others; I once was,\nas I thought, fair for the Celestial City, and had then even joy\nat the thoughts that I should get thither (Luke 8:13).\n\nCHR. Well, but what art thou now?\n\nMAN. I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this\niron cage. I cannot get out. O now I cannot!\n\nCHR. But how camest thou in this condition?\n\nMAN. I left off to watch and be sober; I laid the reins upon the\nneck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the Word, and\nthe goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I\ntempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to\nanger, and He has left me; I have so hardened my heart, that I\ncannot repent.\n\nThen said Christian to the Interpreter, But is there no hope\nfor such a man as this? Ask him, said the Interpreter. Nay, said\nChristian, pray Sir, do you.\n\nINTER. Then said the Interpreter, Is there no hope, but you must\nbe kept in the iron cage of despair?\n\nMAN. No, none at all.\n\nINTER. Why, the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful.\n\nMAN. I have crucified Him to myself afresh (Heb. 4:6); I have\ndespised His person (Luke 19:14); I have despised His righteousness;\nI have \"counted His blood an unholy thing\"; I have \"done despite\nto the Spirit of grace\" (Heb. 10:28, 29). Therefore I have shut\nmyself out of all the promises, and there now remains to me nothing\nbut threatenings, dreadful threatenings, fearful threatenings of\ncertain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as\nan adversary.[42]\n\nINTER. For what did you bring yourself into this condition?\n\nMAN. For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the\nenjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but\nnow every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a\nburning worm.\n\nINTER. But canst thou not now repent and turn?\n\nMAN. God hath denied me repentance. His Word gives me no encouragement\nto believe; yea, Himself hath shut me up in this iron cage; nor\ncan all the men in the world let me out. O eternity! eternity! how\nshall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity!\n\nINTER. Then said the Interpreter to Christian, Let this man's misery\nbe remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee.[43]\n\nCHR. Well, said Christian, this is fearful! God help me to watch\nand be sober, and to pray that I may shun the cause of this man's\nmisery![44] Sir, is it not time for me to go on my way now?[45]\n\nINTER. Tarry till I shall show thee one thing more, and then thou\nshalt go on thy way.\n\nSo He took Christian by the hand again, and led him into a chamber,\nwhere there was one rising out of bed; and as he put on his\nraiment, he shook and trembled. Then said Christian, Why doth this\nman thus tremble? The Interpreter then bid him tell to Christian\nthe reason of his so doing. So he began and said, This night, as\nI was in my sleep, I dreamed, and behold the heavens grew exceeding\nblack; also it thundered and lightened in most fearful wise, that\nit put me into an agony; so I looked up in my dream, and saw the\nclouds rack[46] at an unusual rate, upon which I heard a great\nsound of a trumpet, and saw also a man sit upon a cloud, attended\nwith the thousands of Heaven; they were all in flaming fire: also\nthe heavens were in a burning flame. I heard then a voice saying,\n\"Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment\"; and with that the rocks\nrent, the graves opened, and the dead that were therein came\nforth. Some of them were exceeding glad, and looked upward; and\nsome sought to hide themselves under the mountains (1 Cor. 15:52;\n1 Thess. 4:16; Jude 14; John 5:28, 29; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8; Rev.\n20:11-14; Isa. 26:21; Micah 7:16, 17; Psa. 95:1-3; Dan. 7:10). Then\nI saw the man that sat upon the cloud open the book, and bid the\nworld draw near. Yet there was, by reason of a fierce flame which\nissued out and came from before him, a convenient distance betwixt\nhim and them, as betwixt the judge and the prisoners at the bar\n(Mal. 3:2, 3; Dan. 7:9, 10). I heard it also proclaimed to them\nthat attended on the man that sat on the cloud, \"Gather together\nthe tares, the chaff, and stubble, and cast them into the burning\nlake\" (Matt. 3:12; 13:30; Mal. 4:1). And with that, the bottomless\npit opened, just whereabouts I stood; out of the mouth of which\nthere came, in an abundant manner, smoke and coals of fire, with\nhideous noises. It was also said to the same persons, \"Gather\nMy wheat into the garner\" (Luke 3:17). And with that I saw many\ncatched up and carried away into the clouds, but I was left behind\n(1 Thess. 4:16, 17). I also sought to hide myself, but I could\nnot, for the man that sat upon the cloud still kept his eye upon\nme: my sins also came into my mind; and my conscience did accuse me\non every side (Rom. 2:14, 15). Upon this I awaked from my sleep.\n\nCHR. But what was it that made you so afraid of this sight?\n\nMAN. Why, I thought that the day of judgment was come, and that I\nwas not ready for it: but this frighted me most, that the angels\ngathered up several, and left me behind; also the pit of hell\nopened her mouth just where I stood. My conscience, too, afflicted\nme; and, as I thought, the Judge had always his eye upon me,\nshowing indignation in his countenance.[47]\n\nThen said the Interpreter to Christian, Hast thou considered all\nthese things?\n\nCHR. Yes, and they put me in hope and fear.[48]\n\nINTER. Well, keep all things so in thy mind that they may be as\na goad in thy sides, to prick thee forward in the way thou must\ngo. Then Christian began to gird up his loins, and to address\nhimself to his journey. Then said the Interpreter, The Comforter\nbe always with thee, good Christian, to guide thee in the way that\nleads to the City. So Christian went on his way, saying--\"Here I\nhave seen things rare and profitable; Things pleasant, dreadful,\nthings to make me stable In what I have begun to take in hand;\nThen let me think on them, and understand Wherefore they showed\nme were, and let me be Thankful, O good Interpreter, to thee.\"\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was\nto go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was\ncalled Salvation (Isa. 26:1). Up this way, therefore, did burdened\nChristian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the\nload on his back.[49]\n\nHe ran thus till be came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon\nthat place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom,\na sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came\nup with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and\nfell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to\ndo, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in,\nand I saw it no more.\n\nThen was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry\nheart, \"He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His\ndeath.\" Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was\nvery surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus\nease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again,\neven till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down\nhis checks (Zech. 12:10).[50] Now, as he stood looking and weeping,\nbehold three Shining Ones came to him and saluted him with \"Peace\nbe to thee.\" So the first said to him, \"Thy sins be forgiven thee\"\n(Mark 2:15): the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him\n\"with change of raiment\" (Zech. 3:4); the third also set a mark\nin his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which\nhe bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at\nthe Celestial Gate (Eph. 1:13).[51] So they went their way. Then\nChristian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing--Thus\nfar I did come laden with my sin; Nor could aught ease the grief\nthat I was in Till I came hither: What a place is this! Must here\nbe the beginning of my bliss? Must here the burden fall from off\nmy back Must here the strings that bound it to me crack? Blest\ncross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be The man that there was\nput to shame for me![52]\n\nI saw then in my dream, that he went on thus, even until he came\nat a bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men\nfast asleep, with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one\nwas Simple, another Sloth, and the third Presumption.\n\nChristian then seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if\nperadventure he might awake them, and cried, You are like them\nthat sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead Sea is under you-a\ngulf that hath no bottom (Prov. 23:34). Awake, therefore, and come\naway; be willing also, and I will help you off with your irons.\nHe also told them, If he that \"goeth about like a roaring lion\"\ncomes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth (1 Peter\n5:8). With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this\nsort: Simple said, \"I see no danger\"; Sloth said, \"Yet a little\nmore sleep\"; and Presumption said, \"Every fat[53] must stand upon\nits own bottom; what is the answer else that I should give thee?\"\nAnd so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his\nway.\n\nYet was he troubled to think that men in that danger should so\nlittle esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help\nthem, both by awakening of them, counseling of them, and proffering\nto help them off with their irons.[54] And as he was troubled\nthereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall, on the\nleft hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The\nname of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other Hypocrisy.\nSo, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with them\ninto discourse.\n\nCHR. Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither go you?\n\nFORM. and HYP. We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are\ngoing for praise to Mount Sion.\n\nCHR. Why came you not in at the gate, which standeth at the beginning\nof the way? Know you not that it is written, that he that cometh\nnot in by the door, \"but climbeth up some other way, the same is\na thief and a robber?\" (John 10:1).\n\nFORM. and HYP. They said, That to go to the gate for entrance\nwas, by all their countrymen, counted too far about; and that,\ntherefore, their usual way was to make a short cut of it, and to\nclimb over the wall, as they had done.\n\nCHR. But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of\nthe city whither we are bound, thus to violate His revealed will?\n\nFORM. and HYP. They told him, that, as for that, he needed not to\ntrouble his head thereabout; for what they did, they had custom\nfor; and could produce, if need were, testimony that would witness\nit for more than a thousand years.\n\nCHR. But, said Christian, will your practice stand a trial at law?\n\nFORM. and HYP. They told him, That custom, it being of so long a\nstanding as above a thousand years, would, doubtless, now be admitted\nas a thing legal by any impartial judge; and beside, said they,\nif we get into the way, what's matter which way we get in? if we\nare in, we are in; thou art but in the way, who, as we perceive,\ncame in at the gate; and we, are also in the way, that came tumbling\nover the wall; wherein, now, is thy condition better than ours?\n\nCHR. I walk by the rule of my Master; you walk by the rude working\nof your fancies. You are counted thieves already, by the Lord of\nthe way; therefore, I doubt you will not be found true men at the\nend of the way. You come in by yourselves, without His direction;\nand shall go out by yourselves, without His mercy.[55]\n\nTo this they made him but little answer; only they bid him look\nto himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way,\nwithout much conference one with another; save that these two men\ntold Christian, that as to laws and ordinances, they doubted not\nbut they should as conscientiously do them as he; therefore, said\nthey, we see not wherein thou differest from us, but by the coat\nthat is on thy back, which was, as we trow[56] given thee by some\nof thy neighbours, to hide the shame of thy nakedness.\n\nCHR. By laws and ordinances you will not be saved, since you came\nnot in by the door (Gal. 1:16). And as for this coat that is on\nmy back, it was given me by the Lord of the place whither I go;\nand that, as you say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as\na token of His kindness to me; for I had nothing but rags before.\nAnd, besides, thus I comfort myself as I go: Surely, think I, when\nI come to the gate of the city, the Lord thereof will know me for\ngood, since I have His coat on my back-a coat that He gave me in\nthe day that He stripped me of my rags. I have, moreover, a mark\nin my forehead, of which, perhaps, you have taken no notice, which\none of my Lord's most intimate associates fixed there in the day\nthat my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you, moreover,\nthat I had then given me a roll, sealed, to comfort me by reading,\nas I go on the way; I was also bid to give it in at the Celestial\nGate, in token of my certain going in after it; all which things,\nI doubt, you want, and want them because you came not in at the\ngate.\n\nTo these things they gave him no answer; only they looked upon\neach other, and laughed.[57] Then I saw that they went on all,\nsave that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with\nhimself, and that sometimes sighingly and sometimes comfortably;[58]\nalso he would be often reading in the roll that one of the Shining\nOnes gave him, by which he was refreshed.\n\nI beheld, then, that they all went on till they came to the foot\nof the Hill Difficulty; at the bottom of which was a spring. There\nwere also in the same place two other ways besides that which\ncame straight from the gate; one turned to the left hand, and the\nother to the right, at the bottom of the hill; but the narrow way\nlay right up the hill, and the name of the going up the side of\nthe hill is called Difficulty. Christian now went to the spring,\nand drank thereof, to refresh himself (Isa. 49:10), and then began\nto go up the hill, saying-\n\n\"The hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The difficulty will not\nme offend; For I perceive the way to life lies here. Come, pluck\nup heart, let's neither faint nor fear; Better, though difficult,\nthe right way to go, Than wrong, though easy, where the end is\nWoe.\"\n\nThe other two also came to the foot of the hill; but when they saw\nthat the hill was steep and high, and that there were two other\nways to go; and supposing also that these two ways might meet\nagain, with that up which Christian went, on the other side of\nthe hill; therefore they were resolved to go in those ways. Now\nthe name of one of those ways was Danger, and the name of the\nother Destruction. So the one took the way which is called Danger,\nwhich led him into a great wood, and the other took directly up\nthe way to Destruction, which led him into a wide field, full of\ndark mountains, where he stumbled and fell, and rose no more.[59]\n\nI looked, then, after Christian, to see him go up the hill, where\nI perceived he fell from running to going, and from going to\nclambering upon his hands and his knees, because of the steepness\nof the place. Now, about the midway to the top of the hill was a\npleasant arbour, made by the Lord of the hill for the refreshing\nof weary travelers; thither, therefore, Christian got, where also\nhe sat down to rest him. Then he pulled his roll out of his bosom,\nand read therein to his comfort; he also now began afresh to take\na review of the coat or garment that was given him as he stood\nby the cross. Thus pleasing himself awhile, he at last fell into\na slumber, and thence into a fast sleep,[60] which detained him\nin that place until it was almost night; and in his sleep his roll\nfell out of his hand.[61] Now, as he was sleeping, there came one\nto him, and awaked him, saying, \"Go to the ant, thou sluggard;\nconsider her ways, and be wise\" (Prov. 6:6). And with that\nChristian suddenly started up, and sped him on his way, and went\napace, till be came to the top of the hill.\n\nNow, when he was got up to the top of the hill, there came two\nmen running to meet him amain; the name of the one was Timorous,\nand of the other Mistrust; to whom Christian said, Sirs, what's\nthe matter? You run the wrong way. Timorous answered, that they\nwere going to the City of Zion, and had got up that difficult\nplace; but, said he, the further we go, the more danger we meet\nwith; wherefore we turned, and are going back again.[62]\n\nYes, said Mistrust, for just before us lie a couple of lions in\nthe way, whether sleeping or waking we know not, and we could not\nthink, if we came within reach, but they would presently pull us\nin pieces.\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, You make me afraid, but whither shall I\nfly to be safe? If I go back to mine own country, that is prepared\nfor fire and brimstone, and I shall certainly perish there. If I\ncan get to the Celestial City, I am sure to be in safety there.\nI must venture. To go back is nothing but death; to go forward\nis fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it. I will yet\ngo forward.[63] So Mistrust and Timorous ran down the hill, and\nChristian went on his way. But, thinking again of what he heard\nfrom the men, be felt in his bosom for his roll, that he might\nread therein, and be comforted; but he felt, and found it not.\nThen was Christian in great distress, and knew not what to do; for\nhe wanted that which used to relieve him, and that which should\nhave been his pass into the Celestial City. Here, therefore, he\nbegan to be much perplexed, and knew not what to do.[64] At last,\nhe bethought himself, that he had slept in the arbour that is on\nthe side of the hill; and, falling down upon his knees, he asked\nGod's forgiveness for that his foolish act, and then went back to\nlook for his roll. But all the way he went back, who can sufficiently\nset forth the sorrow of Christian's heart! Sometimes he sighed,\nsometimes he wept, and oftentimes he chid himself for being so\nfoolish to fall asleep in that place, which was erected only for\na little refreshment for his weariness. Thus therefore he went\nback, carefully looking on this side, and on that, all the way\nas he went, if happily he might find his roll, that had been his\ncomfort so many times in his journey. He went thus, till he came\nagain within sight of the arbour where he sat and slept; but that\nsight renewed his sorrow the more, by bringing again, even afresh,\nhis evil of sleeping into his mind (Rev. 2:5; 1 Thess. 5:7, 8).\nThus, therefore, he now went on bewailing his sinful sleep, saying,\n\"O wretched man that I am!\" that I should sleep in the day time!\nthat I should sleep in the midst of difficulty! that I should\nso indulge the flesh, as to use that rest for ease to my flesh,\nwhich the Lord of the hill hath erected only for the relief of\nthe spirits of pilgrims![65]\n\nHow many steps have I took in vain! Thus it happened to Israel,\nfor their sin; they were sent back again by the way of the Red\nSea; and I am made to tread those steps with sorrow, which I might\nhave trod with delight, had it not been for this sinful sleep. How\nfar might I have been on my way by this time! I am made to tread\nthose steps thrice over, which I needed not to have trod but once;\nyea, now also I am like to be benighted, for the day is almost\nspent. O that I had not slept!\n\nNow by this time be was come to the arbour again, where for a\nwhile he sat down and wept; but at last, as Christian would have\nit, looking sorrowfully down under the settle, there he espied\nhis roll; the which he, with trembling and haste, catched up, and\nput it into his bosom. But who can tell how joyful this man was\nwhen he had gotten his roll again! for this roll was the assurance\nof his life and acceptance at the desired haven. Therefore he\nlaid it up in his bosom, gave thanks to God for directing his eye\nto the place where it lay, and with joy and tears betook himself\nagain to his journey. But O how nimbly now did he go up the rest\nof the hill! Yet, before be got up, the sun went down upon Christian;\nand this made him again recall the vanity of his sleeping to his\nremembrance; and thus he again began to condole with himself.\nO thou sinful sleep! how, for thy sake am I like to be benighted\nin my journey! I must walk without the sun; darkness must cover\nthe path of my feet; and I must hear the noise of the doleful\ncreatures, because of my sinful sleep (1 Thess. 5:6, 7). Now also\nhe remembered the story that Mistrust and Timorous told him of,\nhow they were frighted with the sight of the lions. Then said\nChristian to himself again, These beasts range in the night for\ntheir prey; and if they should meet with me in the dark, how should\nI shift them? How should I escape being by them torn in pieces?\nThus he went on his way. But while he was thus bewailing his\nunhappy miscarriage, he lift up his eyes, and behold there was a\nvery stately palace before him, the name of which was Beautiful;\nand it stood just by the highway side.[66]\n\nSo I saw in my dream, that he made haste and went forward, that if\npossible he might get lodging there. Now before he had gone far,\nbe entered into a very narrow passage, which was about a furlong\noff of the porter's lodge; and looking very narrowly before him\nas he went, he espied two lions in the way.[67] Now, thought he,\nI see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were driven back by.\n(The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains). Then he was\nafraid, and thought also himself to go back after them, for he\nthought nothing but death was before him. But the porter at the\nlodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made\na halt as if he would go back, cried unto him, saying, Is thy\nstrength so small? (Mark 13:34-37). Fear not the lions, for they\nare chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is,\nand for discovery of those that have none. Keep in the midst of\nthe path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.\n\nThen I saw that he went on, trembling for fear of the lions, but\ntaking good heed to the directions of the porter; he heard them\nroar, but they did him no harm. Then he clapped his hands, and\nwent on till he came and stood before the gate, where the porter\nwas. Then said Christian to the porter, Sir, what house is this?\nand may I lodge here tonight? The porter answered, This house was\nbuilt by the Lord of the hill, and He built it for the relief and\nsecurity of pilgrims. The porter also asked whence he was, and\nwhither he was going.\n\nCHR. I am come from the City of Destruction, and am going to Mount\nZion; but because the sun is now set, I desire, if I may, to lodge\nhere tonight.\n\nPOR. What is your name?\n\nCHR. My name is now Christian, but my name at the first was\nGraceless; I came of the race of Japheth, whom God will persuade\nto dwell in the tents of Shem (Gen. 9:27).\n\nPOR. But how doth it happen that you come so late? The sun is set.\n\nCHR. I had been here sooner, but that, \"wretched man that I am!\"\nI slept in the arbour that stands on the hill side; nay, I had,\nnotwithstanding that, been here much sooner, but that, in my sleep,\nI lost my evidence, and came without it to the brow of the hill;\nand then feeling for it, and finding it not, I was forced, with\nsorrow of heart, to go back to the place where I slept my sleep,\nwhere I found it, and now I am come.\n\nPOR. Well, I will call out one of the virgins of this place, who\nwill, if she likes your talk, bring you in to the rest of the\nfamily, according to the rules of the house. So Watchful, the\nporter, rang a bell, at the sound of which came out at the door\nof the house, a grave and beautiful damsel, named Discretion, and\nasked why she was called.\n\nThe porter answered, This man is in a journey from the City of\nDestruction to Mount Zion, but being weary and benighted, he asked\nme if he might lodge here tonight; so I told him I would call for\nthee, who, after discourse had with him, mayest do as seemeth thee\ngood, even according to the law of the house.\n\nThen she asked him whence he was, and whither he was going; and\nhe told her. She asked him also how he got into the way; and he\ntold her. Then she asked him what he had seen and met with in the\nway; and he told her. And last she asked his name; so he said, It\nis Christian, and I have so much the more a desire to lodge here\ntonight, because, by what I perceive, this place was built by the\nLord of the hill, for the relief and security of pilgrims. So she\nsmiled, but the water stood in her eyes; and after a little pause,\nshe said, I will call forth two or three more of the family. So\nshe ran to the door, and called out Prudence, Piety, and Charity,\nwho, after a little more discourse with him, had him into the family;\nand many of them meeting him at the threshold of the house, said,\n\"Come in, thou blessed of the Lord\"; this house was built by the\nLord of the hill, on purpose to entertain such pilgrims in.[68]\nThen he bowed his head, and followed them into the house. So when\nhe was come in and sat down, they gave him something to drink,\nand consented together, that until supper was ready, some of them\nshould have some particular discourse with Christian, for the best\nimprovement of time; and they appointed Piety, and Prudence, and\nCharity to discourse with him; and thus they began:\n\nPIETY. Come, good Christian, since we have been so loving to you,\nto receive you into our house this night, let us, if perhaps we\nmay better ourselves thereby, talk with you of all things that\nhave happened to you in your pilgrimage.\n\nCHR. With a very good will, and I am glad that you are so well\ndisposed.\n\nPIETY. What moved you at first to betake yourself to a pilgrim's\nlife?\n\nCHR. I was driven out of my native country, by a dreadful sound\nthat was in mine ears; to wit, that unavoidable destruction did\nattend me, if I abode in that country place where I was.\n\nPIETY. But how did it happen that you came out of your country\nthis way?\n\nCHR. It was as God would have it; for when I was under the fears\nof destruction, I did not know whither to go; but by chance there\ncame a man, even to me, as I was trembling and weeping, whose name\nis Evangelist, and he directed me to the wicket-gate, which else\nI should never have found, and so set me into the way that hath\nled me directly to this house.\n\nPIETY. But did you not come by the house of the Interpreter?\n\nCHR. Yes, and did see such things there, the remembrance of which\nwill stick by me as long as I live; especially three things, to\nwit, how Christ, in despite of Satan, maintains His work of grace\nin the heart; how the man had sinned himself quite out of hopes of\nGod's mercy; and also the dream of him that thought in his sleep\nthe day of judgment was come.\n\nPIETY. Why, did you hear him tell his dream?\n\nCHR. Yes, and a dreadful one it was. I thought it made my heart\nache as he was telling of it; but yet I am glad I heard it.\n\nPIETY. Was that all that you saw at the house of the Interpreter?\n\nCHR. No; he took me and had me where he showed me a stately palace,\nand how the people were clad in gold that were in it; and how\nthere came a venturous man and cut his way through the armed men\nthat stood in the door to keep him out; and how he was bid to come\nin, and win eternal glory. Methought those things did ravish my\nheart! I would have staid at that good man's house a twelvemonth,\nbut that I knew I had further to go.\n\nPIETY. And what saw you else in the way?\n\nCHR. Saw! why, I went but a little further, and I saw one, as\nI thought in my mind, hang bleeding upon the tree; and the very\nsight of Him made my burden fall off my back (for I groaned under\na very heavy burden), but then it fell down from off me. It was\na strange thing to me, for I never saw such a thing before; yea,\nand while I stood looking up, for then I could not forbear looking,\nthree Shining Ones came to me. One of them testified that my sins\nwere forgiven me; another stripped me of my rags, and gave me this\nbroidered coat which you see; and the third set the mark which you\nsee in my forehead, and gave me this sealed roll. (And with that\nhe plucked it out of his bosom).\n\nPIETY. But you saw more than this, did you not?\n\nCHR. The things that I have told you were the best, yet some\nother matters I saw, as, namely, I saw three men, Simple, Sloth,\nand Presumption, lie asleep a little out of the way, as I came,\nwith irons upon their heels; but do you think I could awake them?\nI also saw Formality and Hypocrisy come tumbling over the wall, to\ngo, as they pretended, to Zion, but they were quickly lost, even\nas I myself did tell them; but they would not believe. But above\nall, I found it hard work to get up this hill, and as hard to come\nby the lions' mouths; and truly if it had not been for the good\nman, the porter that stands at the gate, I do not know but that\nafter all I might have gone back again; but now, I thank God I am\nhere, and I thank you for receiving of me.\n\nThen Prudence thought good to ask him a few questions, and desired\nhis answer to them.\n\nPRUD. Do you not think sometimes of the country from whence you\ncame?\n\nCHR. Yes, but with much shame and detestation: \"truly if I had been\nmindful of that country from whence I came out, I might have had\nopportunity to have returned; but now I desire a better country,\nthat is, an heavenly\" (Heb. 11:15, 16).\n\nPRUD. Do you not yet bear away with you some of the things that\nthen you were conversant withal?\n\nCHR. Yes, but greatly against my will; especially my inward and\ncarnal cogitations, with which all my countrymen, as well as\nmyself, were delighted; but now all those things are my grief; and\nmight I but choose mine own things, I would choose never to think\nof those things more; but when I would be doing of that which is\nbest, that which is worst is with me (Rom. 7).\n\nPRUD. Do you not find sometimes, as if those things were vanquished,\nwhich at other times are your perplexity?\n\nCHR. Yes, but that is but seldom; but they are to me golden hours,\nin which such things happen to me.[69]\n\nPRUD. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances, at\ntimes, as if they were vanquished?\n\nCHR. Yes; when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it;\nand when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; also\nwhen I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do\nit; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that\nwill do it.[70]\n\nPRUD. And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount\nZion?\n\nCHR. Why, there I hope to see Him alive that did hang dead on the\ncross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this\nday are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there is no\ndeath; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best\n(Isa. 25:8; Rev. 21:4). For, to tell you truth, I love Him, because\nI was by Him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward\nsickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the\ncompany that shall continually cry, \"Holy, holy, holy.\"\n\nThen said Charity to Christian, Have you a family? Are you a\nmarried man?\n\nCHR. I have a wife and four small children.[71]\n\nCHAR. And why did you not bring them along with you?\n\nCHR. Then Christian wept, and said, O how willingly would I have\ndone it! but they were all of them utterly averse to my going on\npilgrimage.\n\nCHAR. But you should have talked to them, and have endeavoured to\nhave shown them the danger of being behind.\n\nCHR. So I did; and told them also what God had shown to me of the\ndestruction of our city; \"but I seemed to them as one that mocked,\"\nand they believed me not (Gen. 19:14).\n\nCHAR. And did you pray to God that He would bless your counsel to\nthem?\n\nCHR. Yes, and that with much affection; for you must think that\nmy wife and poor children were very dear unto me.\n\nCHAR. But did you tell them of your own sorrow, and fear of\ndestruction? for I suppose that destruction was visible enough to\nyou.\n\nCHR. Yes, over, and over, and over. They might also see my fears\nin my countenance, in my tears, and also in my trembling under\nthe apprehension of the judgment that did hang over our heads;\nbut all was not sufficient to prevail with them to come with me.\n\nCHAR. But what could they say for themselves, why they came not?\n\nCHR. Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world, and my children\nwere given to the foolish delights of youth; so what by one thing,\nand what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone.\n\nCHAR. But did you not, with your vain life, damp all that you by\nwords used by way of persuasion to bring them away with you?[72]\n\nCHR. Indeed, I cannot commend my life; for I am conscious to\nmyself of many failings therein; I know also, that a man by his\nconversation may soon overthrow, what by argument or persuasion\nhe doth labour to fasten upon others for their good. Yet this I\ncan say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly\naction, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage.[73] Yea, for\nthis very thing, they would tell me I was too precise, and that\nI denied myself of things, for their sakes, in which they saw\nno evil. Nay, I think I may say, that if what they saw in me did\nhinder them, it was my great tenderness in sinning against God,\nor of doing any wrong to my neighbour.\n\nCHAR. Indeed Cain hated his brother, \"because his own works were\nevil, and his brother's righteous\" (1 John 3:12); and if thy wife\nand children have been offended with thee for this, they thereby\nshow themselves to be implacable to good, and \"thou hast delivered\nthy soul from their blood\" (Ezek. 3:19).\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that thus they sat talking together until\nsupper was ready.[74] So when they had made ready, they sat down\nto meat. Now the table was furnished \"with fat things, and with\nwine that was well refined\": and all their talk at the table was\nabout the Lord of the hill; as, namely, about what He had done, and\nwherefore He did what He did, and why He had builded that house.\nAnd by what they said, I perceived that He had been a great warrior,\nand had fought with and slain \"him that had the power of death,\"\nbut not without great danger to Himself, which made me love Him\nthe more[75] (Heb. 2:14, 15).\n\nFor, as they said, and as I believe (said Christian), He did it\nwith the loss of much blood; but that which put glory of grace into\nall He did, was, that He did it out of pure love to His country.\nAnd besides, there were some of them of the household that said\nthey had been and spoke with Him since He did die on the cross;\nand they have attested that they had it from His own lips, that\nHe is such a lover of poor pilgrims, that the like is not to be\nfound from the east to the west.\n\nThey, moreover, gave an instance of what they affirmed, and that\nwas, He had stripped Himself of His glory, that He might do this\nfor the poor; and that they heard Him say and affirm, \"that He\nwould not dwell in the mountain of Zion alone.\" They said, moreover,\nthat He had made many pilgrims princes, though by nature they were\nbeggars born, and their original had been the dunghill (1 Sam.\n2:8; Psa. 113:7).\n\nThus they discoursed together till late at night; and after they\nhad committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook\nthemselves to rest: the Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber,\nwhose window opened toward the sun-rising; the name of the chamber\nwas Peace;[76] where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke\nand sang[77]-\n\nWhere am I now? Is this the love and care Of Jesus for the men\nthat pilgrims are? Thus to provide! that I should be forgiven!\nAnd dwell already the next door to Heaven!\n\nSo, in the morning, they all got up; and after some more discourse,\nthey told him that he should not depart till they had shown him\nthe rarities of that place. And first, they had him into the study,\nwhere they showed him records of the greatest antiquity; in which,\nas I remember my dream, they showed him first the pedigree of the\nLord of the hill, that He was the Son of the Ancient of Days, and\ncame by that eternal generation. Here also was more fully recorded\nthe acts that He had done, and the names of many hundreds that\nHe had taken into His service; and how He had placed them in such\nhabitations, that could neither by length of days, nor decays of\nnature, be dissolved.\n\nThen they read to him some of the worthy acts that some of His\nservants had done: as, how they had \"subdued kingdoms, wrought\nrighteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,\nquenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out\nof weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and turned\nto flight the armies of the aliens\" (Heb. 11:33, 34).\n\nThey then read again in another part of the records of the house,\nwhere it was showed how willing their Lord was to receive into His\nfavour any, even any, though they in time past had offered great\naffronts to His person and proceedings. Here also were several\nother histories of many other famous things, of all which Christian\nhad a view; as of things both ancient and modern; together with\nprophecies and predictions of things that have their certain\naccomplishment, both to the dread and amazement of enemies, and\nthe comfort and solace of pilgrims.\n\nThe next day they took him and had him into the armoury, where they\nshowed him all manner of furniture, which their Lord had provided\nfor pilgrims, as sword, shield, helmet, breastplate, all-prayer,\nand shoes that would not wear out.[78] And there was here enough\nof this to harness out as many men, for the service of their Lord,\nas there be stars in the Heaven for multitude.[79]\n\nThey also showed him some of the engines with which some of his\nservants had done wonderful things. They showed him Moses' rod;\nthe hammer and nail with which Jael slew Sisera; the pitchers,\ntrumpets, and lamps too, with which Gibeon put to flight the armies\nof Midian. Then they showed him the ox's goad wherewith Shamgar\nslew 600 men. They showed him, also, the jaw-bone with which Samson\ndid such mighty feats. They showed him, moreover, the sling and\nstone with which David slew Goliath of Gath; and the sword, also,\nwith which their Lord will kill the Man of Sin, in the day that\nhe shall rise up to the prey. They showed him, besides, many\nexcellent things, with which Christian was much delighted. This\ndone, they went to their rest again.[80]\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that, on the morrow, he got up to go\nforward; but they desired him to stay till the next day also;\nand then, said they, we will, if the day be clear, show you the\nDelectable Mountains,[81] which, they said, would yet further add\nto his comfort, because they were nearer the desired haven than\nthe place where at present he was; so he consented and staid. When\nthe morning was up, they had him to the top of the house, and bid\nhim look south; so he did; and, behold, at a great distance, he\nsaw a most pleasant mountainous country, beautified with woods,\nvineyards, fruits of all sorts, flowers also, with springs and\nfountains, very delectable to behold (Isa. 33:16, 17). Then he\nasked the name of the country. They said it was Immanuel's Land;\nand it is as common, said they, as this hill is, to and for all\nthe pilgrims. And when thou comest there, from thence, said they,\nthou mayest see to the gate of the Celestial City, as the shepherds\nthat live there will make appear.\n\nNow, he bethought himself of setting forward, and they were willing\nhe should, But first, said they, let us go again into the armoury.\nSo they did; and when they came there, they harnessed him from\nhead to foot with what was of proof, lest, perhaps, he should meet\nwith assaults in the way. He being, therefore, thus accoutred,\nwalketh out with his friends to the gate, and there he asked the\nporter if he saw any pilgrims pass by. Then the porter answered,\nYes.\n\nCHR. Pray, did you know him? said he.\n\nPOR. I asked his name, and he told me it was Faithful.\n\nCHR. O, said Christian, I know him; he is my townsman, my near\nneighbour; he comes from the place where I was born. How far do\nyou think he may be before?\n\nPOR. He is got by this time below the hill.\n\nCHR. Well, said Christian, good Porter, the Lord be with thee,\nand add to all thy blessings much increase, for the kindness that\nthou hast showed to me.\n\nThen he began to go forward; but Discretion, Piety, Charity, and\nPrudence, would accompany him down to the foot of the hill. So\nthey went on together, reiterating their former discourses, till\nthey came to go down the hill. Then, said Christian, as it was\ndifficult coming up, so, so far as I can see, it is dangerous\ngoing down. Yes, said Prudence, so it is, for it is a hard matter\nfor a man to go down into the Valley of Humiliation, as thou art\nnow, and to catch no slip by the way; therefore, said they, are\nwe come out to accompany thee down the hill. So he began to go\ndown, but very warily; yet he caught a slip or two.[82] Then I\nsaw in my dream that these good companions, when Christian was\ngone to the bottom of the hill, gave him a loaf of bread, a bottle\nof wine, and a cluster of raisins; and then he went on his way.\n\nBut now, in this Valley of Humiliation, poor Christian was hard\nput to it; for he had gone but a little way, before he espied a\nfoul fiend coming over the field to meet him; his name is Apollyon.\nThen did Christian begin to be afraid, and to cast in his mind\nwhether to go back or to stand his ground. But he considered again\nthat he had no armour for his back; and, therefore, thought that\nto turn the back to him might give him the greater advantage, with\nease to pierce him with his darts.[83] Therefore he resolved to\nventure and stand his ground; for, thought he, had I no more in\nmine eye than the saving of my life, it would be the best way to\nstand.\n\nSo he went on, and Apollyon met him. Now the monster was hideous\nto behold; he was clothed with scales, like a fish (and they are\nhis pride), he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out\nof his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth\nof a lion.[84] When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with\na disdainful countenance, and thus began to question with him.\n\nAPOL. Whence come you? and whither are you bound?\n\nCHR. I am come from the City of Destruction, which is the place\nof all evil, and am going to the City of Zion.\n\nAPOL. By this I perceive thou art one of my subjects, for all\nthat country is mine, and I am the prince and god of it. How is\nit, then, that thou hast run away from thy king? Were it not that\nI hope thou mayest do me more service, I would strike thee now,\nat one blow, to the ground.\n\nCHR. I was born, indeed, in your dominions, but your service was\nhard, and your wages such as a man could not live on, \"for the\nwages of sin is death\" (Rom. 6:23); therefore, when I was come\nto years, I did as other considerate persons do, look out, if,\nperhaps, I might mend myself.\n\nAPOL. There is no prince that will thus lightly lose his subjects,[85]\nneither will I as yet lose thee; but since thou complainest of thy\nservice and wages, be content to go back; what our country will\nafford, I do here promise to give thee.\n\nCHR. But I have let myself to another, even to the King of princes;\nand how can I, with fairness, go back with thee?\n\nAPOL. Thou hast done in this according to the proverb, \"Changed a\nbad for a worse\"; but it is ordinary for those that have professed\nthemselves His servants, after a while to give Him the slip, and\nreturn again to me. Do thou so too, and all shall be well.\n\nCHR. I have given Him my faith, and sworn my allegiance to Him;\nhow, then, can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor?\n\nAPOL. Thou didst the same to me, and yet I am willing to pass by\nall, if now thou wilt yet turn again and go back.\n\nCHR. What I promised thee was in my nonage;[86] and, besides, I\ncount the Prince under whose banner now I stand is able to absolve\nme; yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with\nthee; and besides, O thou destroying Apollyon! to speak truth,\nI like His service, His wages, His servants, His government, His\ncompany, and country, better than thine; and, therefore, leave off\nto persuade me further; I am His servant, and I will follow Him.\n\nAPOL. Consider again, when thou art in cool blood, what thou art\nlike to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that,\nfor the most part, His servants come to an ill end, because they\nare transgressors against me and my ways. How many of them have\nbeen put to shameful deaths! and, besides, thou countest His service\nbetter than mine, whereas He never came yet from the place where\nHe is to deliver any that served Him out of their hands; but as\nfor me, how many times, as all the world very well knows, have I\ndelivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully\nserved me, from Him and His, though taken by them; and so I will\ndeliver thee.\n\nCHR. His forbearing at present to deliver them is on purpose to\ntry their love, whether they will cleave to Him to the end; and\nas for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious\nin their account; for, for present deliverance, they do not much\nexpect it, for they stay for their glory, and then they shall have\nit, when their Prince comes in His and the glory of the angels.\n\nAPOL. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to Him;\nand how dost thou think to receive wages of Him?\n\nCHR. Wherein, O Apollyon! have I been unfaithful to Him?\n\nAPOL. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost\nchoked in the Gulf of Despond; thou didst attempt wrong ways to\nbe rid of thy burden, whereas against thou shouldest have stayed\ntill thy Prince had taken it off; thou didst sinfully sleep, and\nlose thy choice thing; thou wast, also, almost persuaded to go back,\nat the sight of the lions; and when thou talkest of thy journey,\nand of what thou hast heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirous\nof vain-glory in all that thou sayest or doest.[87]\n\nCHR. All this is true, and much more which thou has left out;\nbut the Prince, whom I serve and honour, is merciful, and ready\nto forgive; but, besides, these infirmities possessed me in thy\ncountry, for there I sucked them in; and I have groaned under\nthem, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince.[88]\n\nAPOL. Then Apollyon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am\nan enemy to this Prince; I hate His person, His laws, and people;\nI am come out on purpose to withstand thee.\n\nCHR. Apollyon, beware what you do; for I am in the king's highway,\nthe way of holiness; therefore take heed to yourself.\n\nAPOL. Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the\nway, and said, I am void of fear in this matter: prepare thyself\nto die; for I swear by my infernal den, that thou shalt go no\nfurther; here will I spill thy soul.\n\nAnd with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast;[89] but\nChristian had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and\nso prevented the danger of that.\n\nThen did Christian draw; for he saw it was time to bestir him: and\nApollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail; by\nthe which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid\nit, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot. This\nmade Christian give a little back; Apollyon, therefore, followed\nhis work amain, and Christian again took courage, and resisted\nas manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half\na day, even till Christian was almost quite spent; for you must\nknow, that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow\nweaker and weaker.\n\nThen Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close\nto Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall;\nand with that, Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said\nApollyon, I am sure of thee now.[90] And with that he had almost\npressed him to death; so that Christian began to despair of life:\nbut as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last\nblow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly\nstretched out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying,\n\"Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise\"\n(Micah. 7:8); and with that gave him a deadly thrust, which made\nhim give back, as one that had received his mortal wound. Christian\nperceiving that, made at him again, saying, \"Nay, in all these\nthings we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us\"\n(Rom. 8:37). And with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's\nwings, and sped him away, that Christian for a season[91] saw him\nno more[92] (James 4:7).\n\nIn this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as\nI did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time\nof the fight-he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what\nsighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never saw him all\nthe while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he\nhad wounded Apollyon with his two-edged sword; then, indeed, he\ndid smile, and look upward; but it was the most dreadful sight\nthat ever I saw.[93]\n\nSo when the battle was over, Christian said, \"I will here give\nthanks to Him that delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, to\nHim that did help me against Apollyon.\" And so he did, saying-\n\nGreat Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend, Design'd my ruin;\ntherefore to this end He sent him harness'd out; and he with rage,\nThat hellish was, did fiercely me engage. But blessed Michael helped\nme, and I, By dint of sword, did quickly make him fly. Therefore\nto him let me give lasting praise, And thank and bless his holy\nname always.\n\nThen there came to him a hand, with some of the leaves of the tree\nof life, the which Christian took, and applied to the wounds that\nhe had received in the battle, and was healed immediately.[94]\nHe also sat down in that place to eat bread, and to drink of the\nbottle that was given him a little before; so being refreshed,\nhe addressed himself to his journey, with his sword drawn in his\nhand; for he said, I know not but some other enemy may be at hand.\nBut he met with no other affront from Apollyon quite through this\nvalley.\n\nNow, at the end of this valley, was another, The Valley of the\nShadow of Death. and Christian must needs go through it, because\nthe way to the Celestial City lay through the midst of it. Now\nthis valley is a very solitary place. The prophet Jeremiah thus\ndescribes it: \"A wilderness, a land of deserts, and of pits, a\nland of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man\"\n(but a Christian) \"passed through, and where no man dwelt\" (Jer.\n2:6).\n\nNow here Christian was worse put to it than in his fight with\nApollyon; as by the sequel you shall see.[95]\n\nI saw then in my dream, that when Christian was got to the borders\nof the Shadow of Death, there met him two men, children of them\nthat brought up an evil report of the good land (Num. 13), making\nhaste to go back; to whom Christian spake as follows-\n\nCHR. Whither are you going?\n\nMEN. They said, Back! back! and we would have you to do so too,\nif either life or peace is prized by you.\n\nCHR. Why? what's the matter? said Christian.\n\nMEN. Matter! said they; we were going that way as you are going,\nand went as far as we durst; and indeed we were almost past coming\nback; for had we gone a little further, we had not been here to\nbring the news to thee.\n\nCHR. But what have you met with? said Christian.\n\nMEN. Why, we were almost in the Valley of the Shadow of Death; but\nthat, by good hap, we looked before us, and saw the danger before\nwe came to it (Psa. 44:19; 107:10).\n\nCHR. But what have you seen? said Christian.\n\nMEN. Seen! Why, the valley itself, which is as dark as pitch; we\nalso saw there the hobgoblins, satyrs, and dragons of the pit; we\nheard also in that Valley a continual howling and yelling, as of\na people under unutterable misery, who there sat bound in affliction\nand irons; and over that Valley hangs the discouraging clouds of\nconfusion. Death also doth always spread his wings over it. In a\nword, it is every whit dreadful, being utterly without order (Job\n3:5; 10:26).\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, I perceive not yet, by what you have\nsaid, but that this is my way to the desired haven[96] (Jer. 2:6).\n\nMEN. Be it thy way; we will not choose it for ours. So they parted,\nand Christian went on his way, but still with his sword drawn in\nhis hand; for fear lest he should be assaulted.\n\nI saw then in my dream so far as this valley reached, there was\non the right hand a very deep ditch: that ditch is it into which\nthe blind have led the blind in all ages, and have both there\nmiserably perished[97] (Psa. 69:14, 15). Again, behold, on the\nleft hand, there was a very dangerous quag, into which, if even\na good man falls, he can find no bottom for his foot to stand on.\nInto that quag king David once did fall, and had no doubt therein\nbeen smothered, had not HE that is able plucked him out.\n\nThe pathway was here also exceeding narrow, and therefore good\nChristian was the more put to it; for when he sought, in the dark,\nto shun the ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip over into\nthe mire on the other; also when he sought to escape the mire,\nwithout great carefulness he would be ready to fall into the ditch.\nThus he went on, and I heard him here sigh bitterly; for besides\nthe dangers mentioned above, the pathway was here so dark, that\nofttimes, when he lift up his foot to set forward, he knew not\nwhere, or upon what he should set it next.\n\nAbout the midst of this valley, I perceived the mouth of hell to\nbe, and it stood also hard by the way-side. Now, thought Christian,\nwhat shall I do? And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come\nout in such abundance, with sparks and hideous noises (things that\ncared not for Christian's sword, as did Apollyon before), that\nhe was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another\nweapon, called All-prayer (Eph. 4:18). So he cried in my hearing,\n\"O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul!\" (Psa. 116:4). Thus\nhe went on a great while, yet still the flames would be reaching\ntowards him.[98] Also be heard doleful voices, and rushings to and\nfro, so that sometimes he thought he should be torn in pieces, or\ntrodden down like mire in the streets. This frightful sight was\nseen, and these dreadful noises were heard by him for several miles\ntogether. And, coming to a place, where be thought he heard a\ncompany of fiends coming forward to meet him, he stopped and began\nto muse what he had best to do. Sometimes he had half a thought\nto go back; then again he thought he might be half way through\nthe valley; he remembered also how be had already vanquished many\na danger, and that the danger of going back might be much more\nthan for to go forward; so he resolved to go on. Yet the fiends\nseemed to come nearer and nearer; but when they were come even\nalmost at him, he cried out with a most vehement voice, \"I will\nwalk in the strength of the Lord God\"; so they gave back, and came\nno further.\n\nOne thing I would not let slip; I took notice that now poor\nChristian was so confounded, that he did not know his own voice;\nand thus I perceived it. Just when he was come over against the\nmouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him,\nand stept up softly to him, and, whisperingly, suggested many\ngrievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded\nfrom his own mind. This put Christian more to it than anything\nthat he met with before; even to think that he should now blaspheme\nHim that he loved so much before; yet, if he could have helped it,\nhe would not have done it; but he had not the discretion either\nto stop his ears, or to know from whence these blasphemies came.[99]\n\nWhen Christian had traveled in this disconsolate condition some\nconsiderable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man, as\ngoing before him, saying, \"Though I walk through the valley of\nthe shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me\"\n(Psa. 23:4).[100]\n\nThen he was glad, and that for these reasons:\n\nFirst, Because he gathered from thence, that some who feared God,\nwere in this valley as well as himself.\n\nSecondly, For that he perceived God was with them, though in that\ndark and dismal state; and why not, thought he, with me? though,\nby reason of the impediment that attends this place, I cannot\nperceive it (Job. 9:11).\n\nThirdly, For that he hoped, could he overtake them, to have company\nby and by. So he went on, and called to him that was before; but\nhe knew not what to answer; for that he also thought himself to be\nalone. And by and by the day broke; then said Christian, He hath\nturned \"the shadow of death into the morning\" (Amos 5:8).[101]\n\nNow morning being come, he looked back, not out of desire to\nreturn, but to see, by the light of the day, what hazards he had\ngone through in the dark. So he saw more perfectly the ditch that\nwas on the one hand, and the quag that was on the other; also\nhow narrow the way was which led betwixt them both; also now he\nsaw the hobgoblins, and satyrs, and dragons of the pit, but all\nafar off (for after break of day, they came not nigh); yet they\nwere discovered to him, according to that which is written, \"He\ndiscovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light\nthe shadow of death\" (Job 12:22).\n\nNow was Christian much affected with his deliverance from all the\ndangers of his solitary way; which dangers, though he feared them\nmore before, yet he saw them more clearly now, because the light\nof the day made them conspicuous to him. And about this time the\nsun was rising, and this was another mercy to Christian; for you\nmust note, that though the first part of the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death was dangerous, yet this second part which he was yet to\ngo, was, if possible, far more dangerous:[102] for from the place\nwhere he now stood, even to the end of the valley, the way was\nall along set so full of snares, traps, gins, and nets here, and\nso full of pits, pitfalls, deep holes, and shelvings down there,\nthat had it now been dark, as it were when he came the first part\nof the way, had he had a thousand souls, they had in reason been\ncast away;[103] but, as I said, just now the sun was rising. Then\nsaid he, \"His candle shineth upon my head, and by His light I walk\nthrough darkness\" (Job 29:3).\n\nIn this light, therefore, he came to the end of the valley. Now I\nsaw in my dream, that at the end of this valley lay blood, bones,\nashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of pilgrims that had gone\nthis way formerly; and while I was musing what should be the\nreason, I espied a little before me a cave, where two giants, POPE\nand PAGAN, dwelt in old time; by whose power and tyranny the men\nwhose bones, blood, ashes, &c., lay there, were cruelly put to\ndeath.[104] But by this place Christian went without much danger,\nwhereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that PAGAN\nhas been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet\nalive, he is, by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes\nthat he met with in his younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in\nhis joints, that he can now do little more than sit in his cave's\nmouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails\nbecause he cannot come at them.[105]\n\nSo I saw that Christian went on his way; yet, at the sight of the\nOld Man that sat in the mouth of the cave, he could not tell what\nto think, especially because he spake to him, though he could not\ngo after him; saying, \"You will never mend, till more of you be\nburned.\" But he held his peace, and set a good face on it, and so\nwent by and catched no hurt.[106] Then sang Christian,\n\nO world of wonders! (I can say no less) That I should be preserv'd\nin that distress That I have met with here! O blessed be That\nhand that from it hath deliver'd me! Dangers in darkness, devils,\nhell, and sin, Did compass me, while I this vale was in: Yea,\nsnares and pits, and traps, and nets, did lie My path about, that\nworthless, silly I Might have been catch'd, entangled, and cast\ndown; But since I live, let JESUS wear the crown.\n\nNow, as Christian went on his way, he came to a little ascent,\nwhich was cast up on purpose, that pilgrims might see before them.\nUp there, therefore, Christian went; and looking forward, he saw\nFaithful before him, upon his journey. Then said Christian aloud,\n\"Ho! ho! Soho! stay, and I will be your companion.\"[107] At that,\nFaithful looked behind him; to whom Christian cried again, \"Stay,\nstay, till I come up to you.\" But Faithful answered, \"No, I am\nupon my life, and the avenger of blood is behind me.\"\n\nAt this, Christian was somewhat moved, and putting to all his strength,\nhe quickly takes got up with Faithful, and did also overrun him;\nso the last was first. Then did Christian vain-gloriously smile,\nbecause he had gotten the start of his brother;[108] but not\ntaking good heed to his feet, he suddenly stumbled and fell, and\ncould not rise again, until Faithful came up to help him.\n\nThen I saw in my dream, they went very lovingly on together, and\nhad sweet discourse of all things that had happened to them in\ntheir pilgrimage; and thus Christian began.\n\nCHR. My honoured and well-beloved brother, Faithful, I am glad that\nI have overtaken you; and that God has so tempered our spirits,\nthat we can walk as companions in this so pleasant a path.\n\nFAITH. I had thought, dear friend, to have had your company quite\nfrom our town; but you did get the start of me, wherefore I was\nforced to come thus much of the way alone.\n\nCHR. How long did you stay in the City of Destruction, before you\nset out after me on your pilgrimage\n\nFAITH. Till I could stay no longer; for there was great talk\npresently after you were gone out, that our city would, in short\ntime, with fire from Heaven, be burned down to the ground.\n\nCHR. What! did your neighbours talk so?\n\nFAITH. Yes, it was for a while in everybody's mouth.\n\nCHR. What! and did no more of them but you come out to escape the\ndanger?\n\nFAITH. Though there were, as I said, a great talk thereabout, yet\nI do not think they did firmly believe it. For in the heat of the\ndiscourse, I heard some of them deridingly speak of you, and of\nyour desperate journey (for so they called this your pilgrimage),\nbut I did believe, and do still, that the end of our city will be\nwith fire and brimstone from above; and therefore I have made my\nescape.\n\nCHR. Did you hear no talk of neighbour Pliable?\n\nFAITH. Yes, Christian, I heard that he followed you till he came\nat the Slough of Despond, where, as some said, he fell in; but he\nwould not be known to have so done; but I am sure he was soundly\nbedabbled with that kind of dirt.\n\nCHR. And what said the neighbours to him?\n\nFAITH. He hath, since his going back, been had greatly in derision,\nand that among all sorts of people; some do mock and despise him;\nand scarce will any set him on work. He is now seven times worse\nthan if he had never gone out of the City.[109]\n\nCHR. But why should they be so set against him, since they also\ndespise the way that he forsook?\n\nFAITH. O! they say, Hang him, he is a turn-coat; he was not true\nto his profession. I think God has stirred up even his enemies\nto hiss at him, and make him a proverb, because he hath forsaken\nthe way (Jer. 29:18, 19).\n\nCHR. Had you no talk with him before you came out?\n\nFAITH. I met him once in the streets, but be leered away on the\nother side, as one ashamed of what he had done; so I spake not to\nhim.\n\nCHR. Well, at my first setting out, I had hopes of that man; but\nnow I fear he will perish in the overthrow of the city; For it is\nhappened to him according to the true proverb, \"The dog is turned\nto his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her\nwallowing in the mire\" (2 Peter 2:22).\n\nFAITH. These are my fears of him too; but who can hinder that\nwhich will be?\n\nCHR. Well, neighbour Faithful, said Christian, let us leave him,\nand talk of things that more immediately concern ourselves. Tell\nme now, what you have met with in the way as you came; for I know\nyou have met with some things, or else it may be writ for a wonder.\n\nFAITH. I escaped the Slough that I perceived you fell into, and\ngot up to the gate without that danger; only I met with one whose\nname was Wanton, who had like to have done me a mischief.\n\nCHR. It was well you escaped her net; Joseph was hard put to it by\nher, and he escaped her as you did; but it had like to have cost\nhim his life (Gen. 39:11-13). But what did she do to you?\n\nFAITH. You cannot think, but that you know something, what a\nflattering tongue she had; she lay at me hard to turn aside with\nher, promising me all manner of content.\n\nCHR. Nay, she did not promise you the content of a good conscience.\n\nFAITH. You know what I mean; all carnal and fleshly content.\n\nCHR. Thank God you have escaped her; \"the abhorred of the Lord\nshall fall into her ditch\" (Pro. 22:14).\n\nFAITH. Nay, I know not whether I did wholly escape her or no.\n\nCHR. Why, I trow[110] you did not consent to her desires?\n\nFAITH. No, not to defile myself; for I remembered an old writing\nthat I had seen, which said, \"Her steps take hold on hell\" (Prov.\n5:5). So I shut mine eyes, because I would not be bewitched with\nher looks (Job 31:1). Then she railed on me, and I went my way.[111]\n\nCHR. Did you meet with no other assault as you came?\n\nFAITH. When I came to the foot of the hill called Difficulty,\nI met with a very aged man, who asked me what I was, and whither\nbound. I told him that I am a pilgrim, going to the Celestial\nCity. Then said the old man, Thou lookest like an honest fellow;\nwilt thou be content to dwell with me for the wages that I shall\ngive thee? Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt. He said\nhis name was Adam the First, and that he dwelt in the town of\nDeceit (Eph. 4:22). I asked him then, what was his work, and what\nthe wages that he would give. He told me, that his work was many\ndelights; and his wages, that I should be his heir at last.\nI further asked him, what house he kept, and what other servants\nhe had. So he told me, that his house was maintained with all the\ndainties in the world; and that his servants were those of his\nown begetting. Then I asked if he had any children. He said that\nhe had but three daughters; the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the\nEyes, and the Pride of Life, and that I should marry them all[112]\nif I would (1 John 2:16). Then I asked how long time he would\nhave me live with him? And he told me, As long as he lived himself.\n\nCHR. Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to, at\nlast?\n\nFAITH. Why, at first, I found myself somewhat inclinable to go\nwith the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in\nhis forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, \"Put off\nthe old man with his deeds.\"\n\nCHR. And how then?\n\nFAITH. Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said,\nand however he flattered, when he got me home to his house, he\nwould sell me for a slave.[113] So I bid him forbear to talk, for\nI would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me,\nand told me, that he would send such a one after me, that should\nmake my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him;\nbut just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of\nmy flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought\nhe had pulled part of me after himself. This made me cry, \"O\nwretched man!\" (Rom. 7:24). So I went on my way up the hill.\n\nNow when I had got about half way up, I looked behind, and saw one\ncoming after me, swift as the wind; so he overtook me just about\nthe place where the settle stands.\n\nCHR. Just there, said Christian, did I sit down to rest me; but\nbeing overcome with sleep, I there lost this roll out of my bosom\n\nFAITH. But, good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man overtook\nme, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked me, and laid\nme for dead.[114] But when I was a little come to myself again, I\nasked him wherefore he served me so. He said, because of my secret\ninclining to Adam the First: and with that he struck me another\ndeadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward; so I lay\nat his foot as dead as before. So, when I came to myself again,\nI cried him mercy; but he said, I know not how to show mercy; and\nwith that knocked me down again.[115] He had doubtless made an\nend of me, but that One came by, and bid him forbear.\n\nCHR. Who was that that bid him forbear.\n\nFAITH. I did not know Him at first, but as He went by, I perceived\nthe holes in His hands, and in His side; then I concluded that He\nwas our Lord. So I went up the hill.\n\nCHR. That man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth none, neither\nknoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress his law.\n\nFAITH. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he has\nmet with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely at\nhome, and that told me he would burn my house over my head, if I\nstayed there.\n\nCHR. But did you not see the house that stood there on the top of\nthe hill, on the side of which Moses met you?\n\nFAITH. Yes, and the lions too, before I came at it; but for the\nlions, I think they were asleep; for it was about noon; and because\nI had so much of the day before me, I passed by the porter, and\ncame down the hill.\n\nCHR. He told me indeed, that he saw you go by, but I wish you\nhad called at the house, for they would have showed you so many\nrarities, that you would scarce have forgot them to the day of\nyour death. But pray tell me, Did you meet nobody in the Valley\nof Humility?\n\nFAITH. Yes, I met with one Discontent, who would willingly have\npersuaded me to go back again with him; his reason was, for that\nthe valley was altogether without honour. He told me, moreover,\nthat there to go was the way to disobey all my friends, as Pride,\nArrogancy, Self-conceit, Worldly-glory, with others, who, he knew,\nas he said, would be very much offended, if I made such a fool of\nmyself as to wade through this valley.\n\nCHR. Well, and how did you answer him?\n\nFAITH. I told him that although all these that he named might\nclaim kindred of me, and that rightly, for indeed they were my\nrelations according to the flesh, yet since I became a pilgrim,\nthey have disowned me, as I also have rejected them; and therefore\nthey were to me now no more than if they had never been of my\nlineage.\n\nI told him, moreover, that as to this valley he had quite misrepresented\nthe thing; \"for before honour is humility; and a haughty spirit\nbefore a fall.\" Therefore, said I, I had rather go through this\nvalley to the honour that was so accounted by the wisest, than\nchoose that which he esteemed most worthy our affections.\n\nCHR. Met you with nothing else in that valley?\n\nFAITH. Yes, I met with Shame; but of all the men that I met with\nin my pilgrimage, he, I think, bears the wrong name. The others\nwould be said nay, after a little argumentation, and somewhat\nelse; but this bold-faced Shame would never have done.[116]\n\nCHR. Why, what did he say to you?\n\nFAITH. What! why, he objected against religion itself; he said it\nwas a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind religion;\nhe said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that\nfor a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to tie up himself\nfrom that hectoring liberty, that the brave spirits of the times\naccustom themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times.\nHe objected also, that but few of the mighty, rich, or wise, were\never of my opinion (1 Cor. 1:26; 3:18; Phil. 3:7, 8); nor any of\nthem neither (John 7:48), before they were persuaded to be fools,\nand to be of a voluntary fondness, to venture the loss of all, for\nnobody knows what. He moreover objected the base and low estate\nand condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims, of the\ntimes in which they lived; also their ignorance, and want of\nunderstanding in all natural science. Yea, he did hold me to\nit at that rate also, about a great many more things than here I\nrelate; as, that it was a shame to sit whining and mourning under\na sermon, and a shame to come sighing and groaning home; that it\nwas a shame to ask my neighbour forgiveness for petty faults, or\nto make restitution where I have taken from any. He said also,\nthat religion made a man grow strange to the great, because of a\nfew vices, which he called by finer names; and made him own and\nrespect the base, because of the same religious fraternity. And\nis not this, said he, a shame?[117]\n\nCHR. And what did you say to him?\n\nFAITH. Say! I could not tell what to say at the first. Yea, he\nput me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this Shame\nfetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But, at last, I\nbegan to consider, that \"that which is highly esteemed among men,\nis had in abomination with God\" (Luke 16:15). And I thought again,\nthis Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what\nGod, or the Word of God is. And I thought, moreover, that at the\nday of doom, we shall not be doomed to death or life, according\nto the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the wisdom\nand law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God says is\nbest, indeed is best, though all the men in the world are against\nit. Seeing, then, that God prefers His religion; seeing God prefers\na tender conscience; seeing they that make themselves fools for the\nkingdom of Heaven are wisest; and that the poor man that loveth\nChrist is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates\nHim; Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my salvation. Shall I\nentertain thee against my sovereign Lord? How then shall I look\nHim in the face at His coming? Should I now be ashamed of His ways\nand servants, how can I expect the blessing? (Mark 8:38). But,\nindeed, this Shame was a bold villain; I could scarce shake him\nout of my company; yea, he would be haunting of me, and continually\nwhispering me in the ear, with some one or other of the infirmities\nthat attend religion; but at last I told him it was but in vain\nto attempt further in this business; for those things that he\ndisdained, in those did I see most glory; and so at last I got\npast this importunate one. And when I had shaken him off, then I\nbegan to sing-\n\nThe trials that those men do meet withal, That are obedient to the\nheavenly call, Are manifold, and suited to the flesh, And come,\nand come, and come again afresh; That now, or sometime else, we\nby them may Be taken, overcome, and cast away. O let the pilgrims,\nlet the pilgrims, then, Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men.\n\nCHR. I am glad, my brother, that thou didst withstand this villain\nso bravely; for of all, as thou sayest, I think he has the wrong\nname; for he is so bold as to follow us in the streets, and to\nattempt to put us to shame before all men; that is, to make us\nashamed of that which is good; but if he were not himself audacious,\nhe would never attempt to do as he does. But let us still resist\nhim; for notwithstanding all his bravadoes, he promoteth the fool,\nand none else. \"The wise shall inherit glory,\" said Solomon, \"but\nshame shall be the promotion of fools\" (Prov. 3:35).\n\nFAITH. I think we must cry to Him for help against Shame, who\nwould have us to be valiant for the truth upon the earth.\n\nCHR. You say true; but did you meet nobody else in that valley?\n\nFAITH. No, not I, for I had sunshine all the rest of the way through\nthat, and also through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.[118]\n\nCHR. It was well for you. I am sure it fared far otherwise with\nme; I had for a long season, as soon almost as I entered into that\nvalley, a dreadful combat with that foul fiend Apollyon; yea, I\nthought verily he would have killed me, especially when he got me\ndown and crushed me under him, as if he would have crushed me to\npieces; for as he threw me, my sword flew out of my hand; nay, he\ntold me he was sure of me; but I cried to God, and He heard me,\nand delivered me out of all my troubles. Then I entered into the\nValley of the Shadow of Death, and had no light for almost half\nthe way through it.[119] I thought I should have been killed there,\nover and over; but at last day broke, and the sun rose, and I went\nthrough that which was behind with far more ease and quiet.\n\nMoreover, I saw in my dream, that as they went on, Faithful, as he\nchanced to look on one side, saw a man whose name is Talkative,[120]\nwalking at a distance besides them; for in this place, there was\nroom enough for them all to walk. He was a tall man, and something\nmore comely at a distance than at hand. To this man Faithful\naddressed himself in this manner.\n\nFAITH. Friend, whither away? Are you going to the heavenly country?\n\nTALK. I am going to the same place.\n\nFAITH. That is well; then I hope we may have your good company.\n\nTALK. With a very good will, will I be your companion.\n\nFAITH. Come on, then, and let us go together, and let us spend\nour time in discoursing of things that are profitable.\n\nTALK. To talk of things that are good, to me is very acceptable,\nwith you, or with any other; and I am glad that I have met with\nthose that incline to so good a work; for, to speak the truth,\nthere are but few that care thus to spend their time (as they are\nin their travels), but choose much rather to be speaking of things\nto no profit; and this hath been a trouble to me.\n\nFAITH. That is indeed a thing to be lamented; for what things so\nworthy of the use of the tongue and mouth of men on earth, as are\nthe things of the God of Heaven?\n\nTALK. I like you wonderful well, for your sayings are full of\nconviction; and I will add, what thing is so pleasant, and what\nso profitable, as to talk of the things of God? What things so\npleasant (that is, if a man hath any delight in things that are\nwonderful)? For instance, if a man doth delight to talk of the\nhistory or the mystery of things; or if a man doth love to talk of\nmiracles, wonders, or signs, where shall he find things recorded\nso delightful, and so sweetly penned, as in the Holy Scripture?\n\nFAITH. That is true; but to be profited by such things in our talk\nshould be that which we design.\n\nTALK. That is it that I said; for to talk of such things is most\nprofitable; for by so doing, a man may get knowledge of many\nthings; as of the vanity of earthly things, and the benefit of\nthings above. Thus, in general, but more particularly, by this,\na man may learn the necessity of the new birth; the insufficiency\nof our works; the need of Christ's righteousness, &c. Besides, by\nthis a man may learn, by talk, what it is to repent, to believe,\nto pray, to suffer, or the like; by this also a man may learn what\nare the great promises and consolations of the Gospel, to his own\ncomfort. Further, by this a man may learn to refute false opinions,\nto vindicate the truth, and also to instruct the ignorant.[121]\n\nFAITH. All this is true, and glad am I to hear these things from\nyou.\n\nTALK. Alas! the want of this is the cause why so few understand\nthe need of faith, and the necessity of a work of grace in their\nsoul, in order to eternal life; but ignorantly live in the works\nof the law, by which a man can by no means obtain the kingdom of\nHeaven.\n\nFAITH. But, by your leave, heavenly knowledge of these is the\ngift of God; no man attaineth to them by human industry, or only\nby the talk of them.\n\nTALK. All this I know very well. For a man can receive nothing,\nexcept it be given him from Heaven; all is of grace, not of works. I\ncould give you a hundred scriptures for the confirmation of this.\n\nFAITH. Well, then, said Faithful, what is that one thing that we\nshall at this time found our discourse upon?\n\nTALK. What you will. I will talk of things heavenly, or things\nearthly; things moral, or things evangelical; things sacred, or\nthings profane; things past, or things to come; things foreign, or\nthings at home; things more essential, or things circumstantial;\nprovided that all be done to our profit.\n\nFAITH. Now did Faithful begin to wonder; and stepping to Christian\n(for he walked all this while by himself), he said to him (but\nsoftly), What a brave companion have we got! Surely this man will\nmake a very excellent pilgrim.\n\nCHR. At this Christian modestly smiled, and said, This man, with\nwhom you are so taken, will beguile, with that tongue of his, 20\nof them that know him not.\n\nFAITH. Do you know him, then?\n\nCHR. Know him! Yes, better than he knows himself.\n\nFAITH. Pray, what is he?\n\nCHR. His name is Talkative; he dwelleth in our town; I wonder that\nyou should be a stranger to him, only I consider that our town is\nlarge.\n\nFAITH. Whose son is he? And whereabout does he dwell?\n\nCHR. He is the son of one Say-well; he dwelt in Prating Row; and\nhe is known of all that are acquainted with him, by the name of\nTalkative in Prating Row; and notwithstanding his fine tongue, he\nis but a sorry fellow.[122]\n\nFAITH. Well, he seems to be a very pretty man.\n\nCHR. That is, to them who have not thorough acquaintance with him;\nfor he is best abroad; near home, he is ugly enough. Your saying\nthat he is a pretty man, brings to my mind what I have observed in\nthe work of the painter, whose pictures show best at a distance,\nbut, very near, more unpleasing.\n\nFAITH. But I am ready to think you do but jest, because you smiled.\n\nCHR. God forbid that I should jest (although I smiled) in this\nmatter, or that I should accuse any falsely! I will give you\na further discovery of him. This man is for any company, and for\nany talk; as he talketh now with you, so will he talk when he\nis on the ale-bench; and the more drink he hath in his crown, the\nmore of these things he hath in his mouth; religion hath no place\nin his heart, or house, or conversation; all he hath, lieth in\nhis tongue, and his religion is to make a noise therewith. FAITH.\nSay you so! then am I in this man greatly deceived.[123]\n\nCHR. Deceived! you may be sure of it; remember the proverb, \"They\nsay, and do not\" (Matt. 23:3). But the \"kingdom of God is not\nin word, but in power\" (1 Cor. 4:20). He talketh of prayer, of\nrepentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only\nto talk of them. I have been in his family, and have observed\nhim both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the\ntruth. His house is as empty of religion, as the white of an egg\nis of savour. There is there, neither prayer, nor sign of repentance\nfor sin; yea, the brute in his kind serves God far better than\nhe. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion, to all\nthat know him; it can hardly have a good word in all that end of\nthe town where he dwells, through him (Rom. 2:24, 25). Thus say the\ncommon people that know him, A saint abroad, and a devil at home.\nHis poor family finds it so, he is such a churl, such a railer\nat, and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know\nhow to do for, or speak to him. Men that have any dealings with\nhim, say, it is better to deal with a Turk than with him; for fairer\ndealing they shall have at their hands. This Talkative (if it be\npossible) will go beyond them, defraud, beguile, and over-reach\nthem. Besides, he brings up his sons to follow his steps; and\nif he findeth in any of them a foolish timorousness (for so he\ncalls the first appearance of a tender conscience), he calls them\nfools, and blockheads, and by no means will employ them in much,\nor speak to their commendations before others. For my part, I\nam of opinion, that he has, by his wicked life, caused many to\nstumble and fall; and will be, if God prevent not, the ruin of\nmany more.[124]\n\nFAITH. Well, my brother, I am bound to believe you; not only\nbecause you say you know him, but also because, like a Christian,\nyou make your reports of men. For I cannot think that you speak\nthese things of ill-will, but because it is even so as you say.\n\nCHR. Had I known him no more than you, I might perhaps have thought\nof him as, at the first, you did; yea, had he received this report\nat their hands only that are enemies to religion, I should have\nthought it had been a slander-a lot that often falls from bad\nmen's mouths upon good men's names and professions; but all these\nthings, yea, and a great many more as bad, of my own knowledge,\nI can prove him guilty of. Besides, good men are ashamed of him;\nthey can neither call him brother, nor friend; the very naming\nof him among them makes them blush, if they know him.\n\nFAITH. Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and\nhereafter I shall better observe this distinction.\n\nCHR. They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the\nsoul and the body; for as the body without the soul is but\na dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass\nalso. The soul of religion is the practical part: \"Pure religion\nand undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the\nfatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself\nunspotted from the world\" (James 1:27; see ver. 22-26). This\nTalkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will\nmake a good Christian, and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing\nis but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to\nprove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and let us assure\nourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according\nto their fruits (Matt. 13:25). It will not be said then, Did you\nbelieve? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall\nthey be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest;\nand you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that\nanything can be accepted that is not of faith, but I speak this\nto show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be\nat that day.\n\nFAITH. This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth\nthe beast that is clean (Lev. 11; Deut. 14). He is such a one that\nparteth the hoof and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof\nonly, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but\nyet is unclean, because be parteth not the hoof. And this truly\nresembleth Talkative, he cheweth the cud, he seeketh knowledge, he\ncheweth upon the word; but he divideth not the hoof, he parteth\nnot with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the\nfoot of a dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.[125]\n\nCHR. You have spoken, for aught I know, the true Gospel sense of\nthose texts. And I will add another thing: Paul calleth some men,\nyea, and those great talkers too, \"sounding brass, and tinkling\ncymbals,\" that is, as he expounds them in another place, \"things\nwithout life, giving sound\" (1 Cor. 13:1-3; 14:7). Things without\nlife, that is, without the true faith and grace of the Gospel;\nand consequently, things that shall never be placed in the kingdom\nof Heaven among those that are the children of life; though their\nsound, by their talk, be as if it were the tongue or voice of an\nangel.\n\nFAITH. Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but I am\nas sick of it now. What shall we do to be rid of him?\n\nCHR. Take my advice, and do as I bid you, and you shall find that\nhe will soon be sick of your company too, except God shall touch\nhis heart, and turn it.\n\nFAITH. What would you have me to do?\n\nCHR. Why, go to him, and enter into some serious discourse about\nthe power of religion; and ask him plainly (when he has approved\nof it, for that he will) whether this thing be set up in his heart,\nhouse, or conversation?[126]\n\nFAITH. Then Faithful stepped forward again, and said to Talkative,\nCome, what cheer? How is it now?\n\nTALK. Thank you, well. I thought we should have had a great deal\nof talk by this time.\n\nFAITH. Well, if you will, we will fall to it now; and since you\nleft it with me to state the question, let it be this: How doth\nthe saving grace of God discover itself, when it is in the heart\nof man?\n\nTALK. I perceive then, that our talk must be about the power of\nthings. Well, it is a very good question, and I shall be willing\nto answer you. And take my answer in brief, thus: First, Where\nthe grace of work of God is in the heart, it causeth there a great\noutcry against sin. Secondly-\n\nFAITH. Nay, hold, let us consider of one at once. I think you\nshould rather say, It shows itself by inclining the soul to abhor\nits sin.\n\nTALK. Why, what difference is there between crying out against,\nand abhorring of sin?\n\nFAITH. O! a great deal. A man may cry out against sin of policy,\nbut he cannot abhor it, but by virtue of a godly antipathy against\nit. I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet\ncan abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation.\nJoseph's mistress cried out with a loud voice, as if she had been\nvery holy; but she would willingly, notwithstanding that, have\ncommitted uncleanness with him (Gen. 39:15). Some cry out against\nsin, even as the mother cries out against her child in her lap,\nwhen she calleth it slut and naughty girl, and then falls to\nhugging and kissing it.[127]\n\nTALK. You lie at the catch, I perceive.[128]\n\nFAITH. No, not I; I am only for setting things right. But what is\nthe second thing whereby you would prove a discovery of a work of\ngrace in the heart?\n\nTALK. Great knowledge of Gospel mysteries.\n\nFAITH. This sign should have been first; but first or last, it\nis also false; for knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in\nthe mysteries of the Gospel, and yet no work of grace in the soul\n(1 Cor. 13). Yea, if a man have all knowledge, he may yet be\nnothing, and so consequently be no child of God. When Christ said,\n\"Do you know all these things?\" and the disciples had answered,\nYes; He addeth, \"Blessed are ye if ye do them.\" He doth not lay\nthe blessing in the knowing of them, but in the doing of them.\nFor there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: \"He\nthat knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not.\" A man may know\nlike an angel, and yet be no Christian, therefore your sign of\nit is not true. Indeed, to know is a thing that pleaseth talkers\nand boasters; but to do is that which pleaseth God. Not that the\nheart can be good without knowledge; for without that the heart\nis naught. There is, therefore, knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge\nthat resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge\nthat is accompanied with the grace of faith and love; which puts\na man upon doing even the will of God from the heart: the first\nof these will serve the talker; but without the other the true\nChristian is not content. \"Give me understanding, and I shall keep\nThy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart\" (Psa. 119:34).\n\nTALK. You lie at the catch again; this is not for edification.[129]\n\nFAITH. Well, if you please, propound another sign how this work\nof grace discovereth itself where it is.\n\nTALK. Not I, for I see we shall not agree.\n\nFAITH. Well, if you will not, will you give me leave to do it?\n\nTALK. You may use your liberty.\n\nFAITH. A work of grace in the soul discovereth itself, either to\nhim that hath it, or to standers by.\n\nTo him that hath it thus: It gives him conviction of sin, especially\nof the defilement of his nature and the sin of unbelief (for the\nsake of which he is sure to be damned, if he findeth not mercy at\nGod's hand, by faith in Jesus Christ) (John 16:8; Rom. 7:24; John\n16:9; Mark 16:16). This sight and sense of things worketh in him\nsorrow and shame for sin; he findeth, moreover, revealed in Him the\nSaviour of the world, and the absolute necessity of closing with\nHim for life, at the which he findeth hungerings and thirstings\nafter Him; to which hungerings, &c., the promise is made (Psa.\n38:18; Jer. 31:19; Gal. 2:16; Acts 4:12; Matt. 5:6; Rev. 21:60).\nNow, according to the strength or weakness of his faith in his\nSaviour, so is his joy and peace, so is his love to holiness, so\nare his desires to know Him more, and also to serve Him in this\nworld. But though I say it discovereth itself thus unto him, yet\nit is but seldom that he is able to conclude that this is a work\nof grace; because his corruptions now, and his abused reason, make\nhis mind to misjudge in this matter; therefore, in him that hath\nthis work, there is required a very sound judgment before he can,\nwith steadiness, conclude that this is a work of grace.\n\nTo others, it is thus discovered:\n\n1. By an experimental confession of his faith in Christ (Rom.\n10:10; Phil. 1:27; Matt. 5:19).\n\n2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of\nholiness; heart-holiness, family-holiness (if he hath a family),\nand by conversation-holiness in the world; which, in the general,\nteacheth him, inwardly, to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in\nsecret; to suppress it in his family, and to promote holiness in\nthe world; not by talk only, as a hypocrite or talkative person\nmay do, but by a practical subjection, in faith and love, to\nthe power of the Word (John 14:15; Psa. 1:23; Job 42:5, 6; Ezek.\n20:43). And now, Sir, as to this brief description of the work of\ngrace, and also the discovery of it, if you have aught to object,\nobject; if not, then give me leave to propound to you a second\nquestion.\n\nTALK. Nay, my part is not now to object, but to hear; let me,\ntherefore, have your second question.\n\nFAITH. It is this: Do you experience this first part of this\ndescription of it? and doth your life and conversation testify the\nsame? or standeth your religion in word or in tongue, and not in\ndeed and truth? Pray, if you incline to answer me in this, say\nno more than you know the God above will say Amen to; and, also,\nnothing but what your conscience can justify you in; \"for, not he\nthat commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.\"\nBesides, to say, I am thus, and thus, when my conversation, and\nall my neighbours, tell me I lie, is great wickedness.[130]\n\nTALK. Then Talkative at first began to blush; but, recovering\nhimself, thus he replied: You come now to experience, to conscience,\nand God; and to appeal to Him for justification of what is spoken.\nThis kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am I disposed to\ngive an answer to such questions, because I count not myself bound\nthereto, unless you take upon you to be a catechiser, and, though\nyou should so do, yet I may refuse to make you my judge. But, I\npray, will you tell me why you ask me such questions?[131]\n\nFAITH. Because I saw you forward to talk, and because I knew not\nthat you had aught else but notion. Besides, to tell you all the\ntruth, I have heard of you, that you are a man whose religion lies\nin talk, and that your conversation gives this your mouth-profession\nthe lie. They say, you are a spot among Christians; and that\nreligion fareth the worse for your ungodly conversation; that some\nalready have stumbled at your wicked ways, and that more are in\ndanger of being destroyed thereby; your religion, and an ale-house,\nand covetousness, and uncleanness, and swearing, and lying, and\nvain company keeping, &c., will stand together. The proverb is\ntrue of you which is said of a whore, to wit, that she is a shame\nto all women; so are you a shame to all professors.[132]\n\nTALK. Since you are ready to take up reports, and to judge so\nrashly as you do, I cannot but conclude you are some peevish or\nmelancholy man, not fit to be discoursed with; and so adieu.[133]\n\nCHR. Then came up Christian, and said to his brother, I told you\nhow it would happen; your words and his lusts could not agree;\nhe had rather leave your company than reform his life. But he is\ngone, as I said; let him go, the loss is no man's but his own;\nhe has saved us the trouble of going from him; for he continuing\n(as I suppose he will do) as he is, he would have been but a blot\nin our company; besides, the apostle says, \"From such withdraw\nthyself.\"\n\nFAITH. But I am glad we had this little discourse with him; it\nmay happen that he will think of it again; however, I have dealt\nplainly with him, and so am clear of his blood, if he perisheth.\n\nCHR. You did well to talk so plainly to him as you did; there is\nbut little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days, and that\nmakes religion to stink so in the nostrils of many, as it doth;\nfor they are these talkative fools whose religion is only in word,\nand are debauched and vain in their conversation, that (being\nso much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the\nworld, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that\nall men would deal with such as you have done; then should they\neither be made more conformable to religion, or the company of\nsaints would be too hot for them. Then did Faithful say,\n\nHow Talkative at first lifts up his plumes! How bravely doth he\nspeak! How he presumes To drive down all before him! But so soon\nAs Faithful talks of heart-work, like the moon That's past the\nfull, into the wane he goes. And so will all, but he that HEART-WORK\nknows.\n\nThus they went on talking of what they had seen by the way, and\nso made that way easy which would, otherwise, no doubt, have been\ntedious to them; for now they went through a wilderness.\n\nNow, when they were got almost quite out of this wilderness,\nFaithful chanced to cast his eye back, and espied one coming after\nthem, and he knew him. Oh! said Faithful to his brother, Who comes\nyonder? Then Christian looked, and said, It is my good friend\nEvangelist. Aye, and my good friend too, said Faithful, for it\nwas he that set me the way to the gate. Now was Evangelist come\nup unto them, and thus saluted them:\n\nEVAN. Peace be with you, dearly beloved; and peace be to your\nhelpers. CHR. Welcome, welcome, my good Evangelist; the sight of\nthy countenance brings to my remembrance thy ancient kindness and\nunwearied labouring for my eternal good.\n\nFAITH. And a thousand times welcome, said good Faithful. Thy company,\nO sweet Evangelist, how desirable it is to us poor pilgrims![134]\n\nEVAN. Then said Evangelist, How hath it fared with you, my friends,\nsince the time of our last parting? What have you met with, and\nhow have you behaved yourselves?\n\nThen Christian and Faithful told him of all things that had happened\nto them in the way; and how and with what difficulty, they had\narrived to that place.[135]\n\nEVAN. Right glad am I, said Evangelist, not that you have met with\ntrials, but that you have been victors; and for that you have,\nnotwithstanding many weaknesses, continued in the way to this very\nday.\n\nI say, right glad am I of this thing, and that for mine own sake\nand yours. I have sowed, and you have reaped; and the day is\ncoming, when both he that sowed and they that reaped shall rejoice\ntogether; that is, if you hold out; \"for in due season ye shall\nreap, if ye faint not\" (John 4:36; Gal. 6:9). The crown is before\nyou, and it is an incorruptible one; \"so run, that you may obtain\"\nit (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Some there be that set out for this crown,\nand, after they have gone far for it, another comes in, and takes\nit from them; hold fast, therefore, that you have, let no man take\nyour crown (Rev. 3:11).[136] You are not yet out of the gun-shot\nof the devil; you have not resisted unto blood, striving against\nsin; let the kingdom be always before you, and believe steadfastly\nconcerning things that are invisible. Let nothing that is on this\nside the other world get within you; and, above all, look well to\nyour own hearts, and to the lusts thereof, \"for they are deceitful\nabove all things, and desperately wicked\"; set your faces like a\nflint; you have all power in Heaven and earth on your side.\n\nCHR. Then Christian thanked him for his exhortation; but told him,\nwithal, that they would have him speak further to them for their\nhelp the rest of the way, and the rather, for that they well knew\nthat he was a prophet, and could tell them of things that might\nhappen unto them, and also how they might resist and overcome them.\nTo which request Faithful also consented. So Evangelist began as\nfolloweth:\n\nEVAN. My sons, you have heard in the words of the truth of the Gospel\nthat you must, through many tribulations, enter into the kingdom\nof Heaven. And again, that in every city bonds and afflictions\nabide in you; and therefore you cannot expect that you should go\nlong on your pilgrimage without them, in some sort or other. You\nhave found something of the truth of these testimonies upon you\nalready, and more will immediately follow; for now, as you see,\nyou are almost out of this wilderness, and therefore you will soon\ncome into a town that you will by and by see before you; and in\nthat town you will be hardly beset with enemies, who will strain\nhard but they will kill you; and be you sure that one or both of\nyou must seal the testimony which you hold, with blood; but be you\nfaithful unto death, and the King will give you a crown of life.\nHe that shall die there, although his death will be unnatural,\nand his pain perhaps great, he will yet have the better of his\nfellow; not only because he will be arrived at the Celestial City\nsoonest, but because he will escape many miseries that the other\nwill meet with in the rest of his journey. But when you are come\nto the town, and shall find fulfilled what I have here related,\nthen remember your friend and quit yourselves like men, and commit\nthe keeping of your souls to your God in well-doing, as unto a\nfaithful Creator.[137]\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness,\nthey presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town\nis Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity\nFair: it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity\nFair, because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity;\nand also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither,\nis vanity. As is the saying of the wise, \"All that cometh is\nvanity\" (Eccl. 1; 2:11, 17; 11:8; Isa. 40:17).\n\nThis fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient\nstanding; I will show you the original of it.\n\nAlmost 5,000 years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the\nCelestial City as these two honest persons are: and Beelzebub,\nApollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the\npath that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through\nthis town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair\nwherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last\nall the year long: therefore at this fair are all such merchandise\nsold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments,\ntitles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of\nall sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters,\nservants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls,\nprecious stones, and what not.[138] And, moreover, at this fair\nthere is at all times, to be seen juggling, cheats, games, plays,\nfools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.\n\nHere are to be seen too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders,\nadulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red colour.[139]\n\nAnd as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows\nand streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares\nare vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, rows,\nstreets (viz. countries and kingdoms), where the wares of this\nfair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French\nRow, the Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where\nseveral sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in other fairs,\nsome one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so the ware\nof Rome and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair;\nonly our English nation, with some others, have taken a dislike\nthereat.[140]\n\nNow, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through\nthis town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go to\nthe City, and yet not go through this town, must needs \"go out\nof the world\" (1 Cor. 5:10). The Prince of princes Himself, when\nhere, went through this town to His own country, and that upon\na fair day too; yea, and as I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief\nlord of this fair, that invited Him to buy of his vanities; yea,\nwould have made Him lord of the fair, would He but have done him\nreverence as He went through the town (Matt. 4:8; Luke 4:5-7). Yea,\nbecause He was such a person of honour, Beelzebub had Him from\nstreet to street, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world\nin a little time, that he might, if possible, allure the Blessed\nOne to cheapen and buy some of his vanities; but He had no mind to\nthe merchandise, and therefore left the town, without laying out\nso much as one farthing upon these vanities. This fair, therefore,\nis an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair. Now\nthese Pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair.[141]\nWell, so they did; but, behold, even as they entered into the\nfair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself\nas it were in a hubbub about them; and that for several reasons;\nfor-\n\nFirst, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as\nwas diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The\npeople, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them:\nsome said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they\nare outlandish men[142] (1 Cor. 2:7, 8).\n\nSecondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did\nlikewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said;\nthey naturally spoke the language of Canaan, but they that kept\nthe fair were the men of this world; so that, from one end of the\nfair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.\n\nThirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers\nwas, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they\ncared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon\nthem to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry,\n\"Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,\"[143] and look upwards,\nsignifying that their trade and traffic was in Heaven (Psa. 119:37;\nPhil. 3:19, 20).\n\nOne chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say\nunto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely upon him,\nanswered, \"We buy the truth\" (Psa. 23:23).[144] At that there\nwas an occasion taken to despise the men the more: some mocking,\nsome taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon\nothers to smite them. At last things came to a hubbub, and great\nstir in the fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was\nword presently brought to the great one of the fair, who quickly\ncame down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take these\nmen into examination, about whom the fair was almost overturned.\nSo the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon\nthem, asked them whence they came, whither they went, and what\nthey did there in such an unusual garb? The men told them, that\nthey were pilgrims and strangers in the world, and that they were\ngoing to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb.\n9:13-16); and that they had given no occasion to the men of the\ntown, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them, and to\nlet them in their journey, except it was, for that, when one asked\nthem what they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But\nthey that were appointed to examine them did not believe them to\nbe any other than bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put\nall things into a confusion in the fair. Therefore they took them\nand beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and then put them\ninto the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men\nof the fair. There, therefore, they lay for some time, and were\nmade the objects of any man's sport, or malice, or revenge, the\ngreat one of the fair laughing still at all that befell them. But\nthe men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but\ncontrariwise, blessing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness\nfor injuries done, some men in the fair that were more observing,\nand less prejudiced than the rest, began to check and blame the\nbaser sort for their continual abuses done by them to the men; they,\ntherefore, in angry manner, let fly at them again, counting them\nas bad as the men in the cage, and telling them that they seemed\nconfederates, and should be made partakers of their misfortunes.[145]\nThe other replied, that for aught they could see, the men were\nquiet, and sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there\nwere many that traded in their fair, that were more worthy to be\nput into the cage, yea, and pillory too, than were the men that\nthey had abused. Thus, after divers words had passed on both\nsides, the men behaving themselves all the while very wisely and\nsoberly before them, they fell to some blows among themselves,\nand did harm one to another. Then were these two poor men brought\nbefore their examiners again, and there charged as being guilty\nof the late hubbub that had been in the fair. So they beat them\npitifully, and hanged irons upon them, and led them in chains up\nand down the fair, for an example and a terror to others, lest any\nshould speak in their behalf, or join themselves unto them.[146]\nBut Christian and Faithful behaved themselves yet more wisely, and\nreceived the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them, with so\nmuch meekness and patience, that it won to their side, though but\nfew in comparison of the rest, several of the men in the fair.\nThis put the other party yet into greater rage, insomuch that they\nconcluded the death of these two men. Wherefore they threatened,\nthat the cage nor irons should serve their turn, but that they\nshould die, for the abuse they had done, and for deluding the men\nof the fair.\n\nThen were they remanded to the cage again, until further order\nshould be taken with them. So they put them in, and made their\nfeet fast in the stocks.\n\nHere, therefore, they called again to mind what they had heard\nfrom their faithful friend Evangelist, and were the more confirmed\nin their way and sufferings, by what he told them would happen\nto them.[147] They also now comforted each other, that whose lot\nit was to suffer, even he should have the best of it; therefore\neach man secretly wished that he might have that preferment: but\ncommitting themselves to the all-wise disposal of Him that ruleth\nall things, with much content they abode in the condition in which\nthey were, until they should be otherwise disposed of.[148]\n\nThen a convenient time being appointed, they brought them forth\nto their trial, in order to their condemnation. When the time was\ncome, they were brought before their enemies and arraigned. The\nJudge's name was Lord Hate-good. Their indictment was one and the\nsame in substance, though somewhat varying in form, the contents\nwhereof were this-\n\n\"That they were enemies to, and disturbers of their trade; that\nthey had made commotions and divisions in the town, and had won\na party to their own most dangerous opinions, in contempt of the\nlaw of their prince.\"[149]\n\nThen Faithful began to answer, that he had only set himself against\nthat which had set itself against Him that is higher than the\nhighest. And, said he, as for disturbance, I make none, being\nmyself a man of peace; the parties that were won to us, were won\nby beholding our truth and innocence, and they are only turned from\nthe worse to the better. And as to the king you talk of, since be\nis Beelzebub, the enemy of our Lord, I defy him and all his angels.\n\nThen proclamation was made, that they that had aught to say for\ntheir lord the king against the prisoner at the bar, should\nforthwith appear and give in their evidence. So there came in\nthree witnesses, to wit, Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. They\nwere then asked if they knew the prisoner at the bar; and what\nthey had to say for their lord the king against him.\n\nThen stood forth Envy, and said to this effect, My Lord, I have\nknown this man a long time, and will attest upon my oath before\nthis honourable bench, that he is-\n\nJUDGE. Hold. Give him his oath. (So they sware him). Then he said-\n\nENVY. My Lord, this man, notwithstanding his plausible name, is\none of the vilest men in our country. He neither regardeth prince\nnor people, law nor custom; but doth all that he can to possess\nall men with certain of his disloyal notions,[150] which he in the\ngeneral calls principles of faith and holiness. And, in particular,\nI heard him once myself affirm, that Christianity and the customs\nof our town of Vanity, were diametrically opposite, and could not\nbe reconciled. By which saying, my Lord, he doth at once not only\ncondemn all our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them.\n\nJUDGE. Then did the Judge say to him, Hast thou any more to say?\n\nENVY. My Lord, I could say much more, only I would not be tedious\nto the court. Yet, if need be, when the other gentlemen have given\nin their evidence, rather than anything shall be wanting that will\ndespatch him, I will enlarge my testimony against him. So he was\nbid stand by.\n\nThen they called Superstition, and bid him look upon the prisoner.\nThey also asked, what he could say for their lord the king against\nhim. Then they sware him; so he began.\n\nSUPER. My Lord, I have no great acquaintance with this man, nor do\nI desire to have further knowledge of him; however, this I know,\nthat he is a very pestilent fellow, from some discourse that,\nthe other day, I had with him in this town; for then talking with\nhim, I heard him say, that our religion was naught, and such by\nwhich a man could by no means please God. Which sayings of his,\nmy Lord, your Lordship very well knows, what necessarily thence\nwill follow, to wit, that we do still worship in vain, are yet\nin our sins, and finally shall be damned; and this is that which\nI have to say.[151]\n\nThen was Pickthank sworn, and bid say what he knew, in behalf of\ntheir lord the king, against the prisoner at the bar.\n\nPICK. My Lord, and you gentlemen all, This fellow I have known of\na long time, and have heard him speak things that ought not to be\nspoke; for he hath railed on our noble prince Beelzebub, and hath\nspoken contemptibly of his honourable friends, whose names are\nthe Lord Old Man, the Lord Carnal Delight, the Lord Luxurious,\nthe Lord Desire of Vain Glory, my old Lord Lechery, Sir Having\nGreedy, with all the rest of our nobility; and he hath said,\nmoreover, That if all men were of his mind, if possible, there is\nnot one of these noblemen should have any longer a being in this\ntown. Besides, he hath not been afraid to rail on you, my Lord,\nwho are now appointed to be his judge, calling you an ungodly\nvillain, with many other such like vilifying terms, with which he\nhath bespattered most of the gentry of our town.[152]\n\nWhen this Pickthank had told his tale, the Judge directed his\nspeech to the prisoner at the bar, saying, Thou runagate, heretic,\nand traitor, hast thou heard what these honest gentlemen have\nwitnessed against thee?\n\nFAITH. May I speak a few words in my own defence?\n\nJUDGE. Sirrah! Sirrah! thou deservest to live no longer, but to\nbe slain immediately upon the place; yet, that all men may see\nour gentleness towards thee, let us hear what thou, vile runagate,\nhast to say.\n\nFAITH. 1. I say, then, in answer to what Mr. Envy hath spoken,\nI never said aught but this, That what rule, or laws, or custom,\nor people, were flat against the Word of God, are diametrically\nopposite to Christianity. If I have said amiss in this, convince\nme of my error, and I am ready here before you to make my recantation.\n\n2. As to the second, to wit, Mr. Superstition, and his charge\nagainst me, I said only this, That in the worship of God there is\nrequired a Divine faith; but there can be no Divine faith without\na Divine revelation of the will of God. Therefore, whatever is\nthrust into the worship of God that is not agreeable to Divine\nrevelation, cannot be done but by a human faith, which faith will\nnot be profitable to eternal life.\n\n3. As to what Mr. Pickthank hath said, I say (avoiding terms, as\nthat I am said to rail, and the like), that the prince of this\ntown, with all the rabblement, his attendants, by this gentleman\nnamed, are more fit for a being in hell, than in this town and\ncountry: and so, the Lord have mercy upon me![153]\n\nThen the Judge called to the jury (who all this while stood by,\nto hear and observe);[154] Gentlemen of the jury, you see this\nman about whom so great an uproar hath been made in this town.\nYou have also heard what these worthy gentlemen have witnessed\nagainst him. Also you have heard his reply and confession. It\nlieth now in your breasts to hang him, or save his life; but yet\nI think meet to instruct you into our law.\n\nThere was an Act made in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant\nto our prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should\nmultiply, and grow too strong for him, their males should be\nthrown into the river (Exo. 1). There was also an Act made in the\ndays of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, another of his servants, that\nwhosoever would not fall down and worship his golden image, should\nbe thrown into a fiery furnace (Dan. 3). There was also an Act made\nin the days of Darius, that whoso, for some time, called upon any\nGod but him, should be cast into the lions' den (Dan. 6). Now the\nsubstance of these laws this rebel has broken, not only in thought\n(which is not to be borne) but also in word and deed; which must\ntherefore needs be intolerable.\n\nFor that of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition, to\nprevent mischief, no crime being yet apparent; but here is a crime\napparent. For the second and third, you see he disputeth against\nour religion; and for the treason he hath confessed, he deserveth\nto die the death.\n\nThen went the jury out, whose names were, Mr. Blind-man, Mr.\nNo-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady,\nMr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light,\nand Mr. Implacable; who every one gave in his private verdict\nagainst him among themselves, and afterwards unanimously concluded\nto bring him in guilty before the Judge. And first, among themselves,\nMr. Blind-man, the foreman, said, I see clearly that this man is\na heretic.[155] Then said Mr. No-good, Away with such a fellow\nfrom the earth. Ay, said Mr. Malice, for I hate the very looks of\nhim. Then said Mr. Love-lust, I could never endure him. Nor I,\nsaid Mr. Live-loose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang\nhim, hang him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. High-mind.\nMy heart riseth against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said\nMr. Liar. Hanging is too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us\ndespatch him out of the way, said Mr. Hate-light. Then said Mr.\nImplacable, Might I have all the world given me, I could not\nbe reconciled to him; therefore, let us forthwith bring him in\nguilty of death.[156] And so they did; therefore he was presently\ncondemned, to be had from the place where he was, to the place\nfrom whence he came, and there to be put to the most cruel death\nthat could be invented.[157]\n\nThey, therefore, brought him out, to do with him according to their\nlaw; and, first, they scourged him, then they buffeted him, then\nthey lanced his flesh with knives; after that, they stoned him\nwith stones, then pricked him with their swords; and, last of all,\nthey burned him to ashes at the stake. Thus came Faithful to his\nend.[158]\n\nNow I saw that there stood behind the multitude, a chariot and\na couple of horses, waiting for Faithful, who (so soon as his\nadversaries had despatched him) was taken up into it, and straightway\nwas carried up through the clouds, with sound of trumpet, the\nnearest way to the Celestial Gate.[159] But as for Christian, he\nhad some respite, and was remanded back to prison. So he there\nremained for a space; but He that overrules all things, having\nthe power of their rage in His own hand, so wrought it about, that\nChristian for that time escaped them, and went his way;[160] and\nas he went, he sang, saying-\n\nWell, Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest Unto thy Lord; with\nwhom thou shalt be blest, When faithless ones, with all their\nvain delights, Are crying out under their hellish plights, Sing,\nFaithful, sing, and let thy name survive; For, though they kill'd\nthee, thou art yet alive.\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that Christian went not forth alone, for\nthere was one whose name was Hopeful (being made so by the beholding\nof Christian and Faithful in their words and behaviour, in their\nsufferings at the Fair), who joined himself unto him, and, entering\ninto a brotherly covenant, told him that he would be his companion.\nThus, one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another\nrises out of his ashes, to be a companion with Christian in his\npilgrimage.[161] This Hopeful also told Christian, that there were\nmany more of the men in the Fair, that would take their time and\nfollow after.\n\nSo I saw that quickly after they were got out of the Fair, they\novertook one that was going before them, whose name was By-ends;\nso they said to him, What countryman, Sir? and how far go you this\nway? He told them, that he came from the town of Fair-speech, and\nhe was going to the Celestial City, but told them not his name.\n\nFrom Fair-speech! said Christian. Is there any good that lives\nthere? (Prov. 26:25).\n\nBY-ENDS. Yes, said By-ends, I hope.\n\nCHR. Pray, Sir, What may I call you? Said Christian.\n\nBY-ENDS. I am a stranger to you, and you to me: if you be going this\nway, I shall be glad of your company; if not, I must be content.\n\nCHR. This town of Fair-speech, said Christian, I have heard of;\nand, as I remember, they say it is a wealthy place.\n\nBY-ENDS. Yes, I will assure you that it is; and I have very many\nrich kindred there.\n\nCHR. Pray, who are your kindred there? if a man may be so bold.\n\nBY-ENDS. Almost the whole town; and in particular, my Lord\nTurn-about, my Lord Time-server, my Lord Fair-speech (from whose\nancestors that town first took its name), also Mr. Smooth-man,\nMr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Any-thing; and the parson of our parish,\nMr. Two-tongues, was my mother's own brother, by father's side;\nand to tell you the truth, I am become a gentleman of good quality,\nyet my great-grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and\nrowing another, and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.\n\nCHR. Are you a married man?\n\nBY-ENDS. Yes, and my wife is a very virtuous woman, the daughter\nof a virtuous woman; she was my Lady Feigning's daughter, therefore\nshe came of a very honourable family, and is arrived to such\na pitch of breeding, that she knows how to carry it to all, even\nto prince and peasant. It is true we somewhat differ in religion\nfrom those of the stricter sort, yet but in two small points;\nfirst, we never strive against wind and tide; secondly, we are\nalways most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers; we\nlove much to walk with him in the street, if the sun shines, and\nthe people applaud him.[162]\n\nThen Christian stepped a little aside to his fellow Hopeful, saying,\nIt runs in my mind that this is one By-ends of Fair-speech; and if\nit be he, we have as very a knave in our company, as dwelleth in\nall these parts. Then said Hopeful, Ask him; methinks he should\nnot be ashamed of his name. So Christian came up with him again,\nand said, Sir, you talk as if you knew something more than all the\nworld doth;[163] and if I take not my mark amiss, I deem I have\nhalf a guess of you: Is not your name Mr. By-ends, of Fair-speech?\n\nBY-ENDS. This is not my name, but indeed it is a nickname that is\ngiven me by some that cannot abide me; and I must be content to\nbear it as a reproach, as other good men have borne theirs before\nme.\n\nCHR. But did you never give an occasion to men to call you by this\nname?\n\nBY-ENDS. Never, never! The worst that ever I did to give them an\noccasion to give me this name was, that I had always the luck to\njump in my judgment with the present way of the times, whatever it\nwas, and my chance was to get thereby; but if things are thus cast\nupon me, let me count them a blessing; but let not the malicious\nload me therefore with reproach.\n\nCHR. I thought, indeed, that you were the man that I heard of;\nand to tell you what I think, I fear this name belongs to you more\nproperly than you are willing we should think it doth.\n\nBY-ENDS. Well, if you will thus imagine, I cannot help it; you\nshall find me a fair company-keeper, if you will still admit me\nyour associate.\n\nCHR. If you will go with us, you must go against wind and tide;[164]\nthe which, I perceive, is against your opinion; you must also own\nreligion in his rags, as well as when in his silver slippers; and\nstand by him, too, when bound in irons, as well as when he walketh\nthe streets with applause.\n\nBY-ENDS. You must not impose, nor lord it over my faith; leave me\nto my liberty, and let me go with you.\n\nCHR. Not a step further, unless you will do in what I propound,\nas we.\n\nThen said By-ends, I shall never desert my old principles, since\nthey are harmless and profitable. If I may not go with you, I must\ndo as I did before you overtook me, even go by myself, until some\novertake me that will be glad of my company.[165]\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that Christian and Hopeful forsook him,\nand kept their distance before him; but one of them looking back,\nsaw three men following Mr. By-ends, and behold, as they came up\nwith him, he made them a very low conge; and they also gave him a\ncompliment. The men's names were Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr. Money-love,\nand Mr. Save-all;[166] men that Mr. By-ends had formerly been\nacquainted with; for in their minority they were schoolfellows,\nand were taught by one Mr. Gripeman, a schoolmaster in Love-gain,\nwhich is a market town in the county of Coveting, in the north. This\nschoolmaster taught them the art of getting, either by violence,\ncozenage, flattery, lying, or by putting on a guise of religion;\nand these four gentlemen had attained much of the art of their\nmaster, so that they could each of them have kept such a school\nthemselves.\n\nWell, when they had, as I said, thus saluted each other, Mr.\nMoney-love said to Mr. By-ends, Who are they upon the road before\nus? (for Christian and Hopeful were yet within view). BY-ENDS.\nThey are a couple of far countrymen, that, after their mode, are\ngoing on pilgrimage.\n\nMONEY-LOVE. Alas! Why did they not stay, that we might have had\ntheir good company? for they, and we, and you, Sir, I hope, are\nall going on a pilgrimage.\n\nBY-ENDS. We are so, indeed; but the men before us are so rigid,\nand love so much their own notions,[167] and do also so lightly\nesteem the opinions of others, that let a man be never so godly,\nyet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite\nout of their company.\n\nSAVE-ALL. That is had, but we read of some that are righteous\novermuch;[168] and such men's rigidness prevails with them to\njudge and condemn all but themselves. But, I pray, what, and how\nmany, were the things wherein you differed?[169]\n\nBY-ENDS. Why, they, after their headstrong manner, conclude that\nit is duty to rush on their journey all weathers; and I am for\nwaiting for wind and tide. They are for hazarding all for God at\na clap; and I am for taking all advantages to secure my life and\nestate. They are for holding their notions, though all other men\nare against them; but I am for religion in what, and so far as the\ntimes, and my safety, will bear it. They are for religion when in\nrags and contempt; but I am for him when he walks in his golden\nslippers, in the sunshine, and with applause.[170]\n\nMR. HOLD-THE-WORLD. Aye, and hold you there still, good Mr. By-ends;\nfor, for my part, I can count him but a fool, that, having the\nliberty to keep what he has, shall be so unwise as to lose it.\nLet us be wise as serpents; it is best to make hay when the sun\nshines; you see how the bee lieth still all winter, and bestirs her\nonly when she can have profit with pleasure. God sends sometimes\nrain, and sometimes sunshine; if they be such fools to go through\nthe first, yet let us be content to take fair weather along with\nus. For my part, I like that religion best, that will stand with\nthe security of God's good blessings unto us; for who can imagine,\nthat is ruled by his reason, since God has bestowed upon us the\ngood things of this life, but that He would have us keep them\nfor His sake? Abraham and Solomon grew rich in religion. And Job\nsays, that a good man shall lay up gold as dust. But he must not\nbe such as the men before us, if they be as you have described\nthem.\n\nMR. SAVE-ALL. I think that we are all agreed in this matter, and\ntherefore there needs no more words about it.[171]\n\nMR. MONEY-LOVE. No, there needs no more words about this matter\nindeed; for he that believes neither Scripture nor reason (and\nyou see we have both on our side), neither knows his own liberty,\nnor seeks his own safety.[172]\n\nMR. BY-ENDS. My brethren, we are, as you see, going all on pilgrimage;\nand for our better diversion from things that are bad, give me\nleave to propound unto you this question: Suppose a man, a minister,\nor a tradesman, &c., should have an advantage lie before him,\nto get the good blessings of this life, yet so as that he can by\nno means come by them except, in appearance at least, he becomes\nextraordinary zealous in some points of religion that he meddled\nnot with before; may he not use this means to attain his end, and\nyet be a right honest man?\n\nMR. MONEY-LOVE. I see the bottom of your question; and, with these\ngentlemen's good leave, I will endeavour to shape you an answer.\nAnd first to speak to your question as it concerns a minister\nhimself: Suppose a minister, a worthy man, possessed but of a\nvery small benefice, and has in his eye a greater, more fat, and\nplump by far; he has also now an opportunity of getting of it, yet\nso as by being more studious, by preaching more frequently, and\nzealously, and, because the temper of the people requires it, by\naltering of some of his principles; for my part, I see no reason\nbut a man may do this (provided he has a call), aye, and more a\ngreat deal besides, and yet be an honest man. For why-\n\n1. His desire of a greater benefice is lawful (this cannot be\ncontradicted), since it is set before him by Providence; so then,\nhe may get it, if he can, making no question for conscience sake.\n\n2. Besides, his desire after that benefice makes him more studious,\na more zealous preacher, &c., and so makes him a better man; yea,\nmakes him better improve his parts, which is according to the mind\nof God.\n\n3. Now, as for his complying with the temper of his people, by\ndissenting, to serve them, some of his principles, this argueth-(l).\nThat he is of a self-denying temper. (2). Of a sweet and winning\ndeportment. And so (3). More fit for the ministerial function.\n\n4. I conclude then, that a minister that changes a small for a\ngreat, should not, for so doing, be judged as covetous; but rather,\nsince he is improved in his parts and industry thereby, be counted\nas one that pursues his call, and the opportunity put into his\nhand to do good.[173]\n\nAnd now to the second part of the question, which concerns the\ntradesman you mentioned. Suppose such an one to have but a poor\nemploy in the world, but by becoming religious, he may mend his\nmarket, perhaps get a rich wife, or more, and far better customers\nto his shop; for my part, I see no reason but that this may be\nlawfully done. For why-\n\n1. To become religious is a virtue, by what means soever a man\nbecomes so.\n\n2. Nor is it unlawful to get a rich wife, or more custom to my\nshop.\n\n3. Besides, the man that gets these by becoming religious, gets\nthat which is good, of them that are good, by becoming good himself;\nso then here is a good wife, and good customers, and good gain,\nand all these by becoming religious, which is good; therefore,\nto become religious to get all these, is a good and profitable\ndesign.[174]\n\nThis answer, thus made by this Mr. Money-love to Mr. By-end's\nquestion, was highly applauded by them all; wherefore they concluded,\nupon the whole, that it was most wholesome and advantageous. And\nbecause, as they thought, no man was able to contradict it, and\nbecause Christian and Hopeful were yet within call, they jointly\nagreed to assault them with the question as soon as they overtook\nthem; and the rather because they had opposed Mr. By-ends before.\nSo they called after them, and they stopped, and stood still till\nthey came up to them; but they concluded, as they went, that not\nMr. By-ends, but old Mr. Hold-the-world, should propound the question\nto them, because, as they supposed, their answer to him would be\nwithout the remainder of that heat that was kindled betwixt Mr.\nBy-ends and them, at their parting a little before.\n\nSo they came up to each other, and after a short salutation, Mr.\nHold-the-world propounded the question to Christian and his fellow,\nand bid them to answer it if they could.\n\nCHR. then said Christian, Even a babe in religion may answer 10,000\nsuch questions. For if it be unlawful to follow Christ for loaves\n(as it is in the sixth of John), how much more abominable is it\nto make of him and religion a stalking-horse, to get and enjoy the\nworld![175] Nor do we find any other than heathens, hypocrites,\ndevils, and witches, that are of this opinion.[176]\n\n1. Heathens; for when Hamor and Shechem had a mind to the daughter\nand cattle of Jacob, and saw that there was no ways for them\nto come at them, but by becoming circumcised; they say to their\ncompanions, if every male of us be circumcised, as they are\ncircumcised, shall not their cattle, and their substance, and\nevery beast of theirs, be ours? Their daughter and their cattle\nwere that which they sought to obtain, and their religion the\nstalking-horse they made use of to come at them. Read the whole\nstory (Gen. 34:20-23).\n\n2. The hypocritical Pharisees were also of this religion; long\nprayers were their pretence; but to get widows' houses was their\nintent; and greater damnation was from God their judgment (Luke\n20:46, 47).\n\n3. Judas the devil was also of this religion; he was religious\nfor the bag, that he might be possessed of what was therein; but\nhe was lost, cast away, and the very son of perdition.\n\n4. Simon the witch was of this religion too; for he would have\nhad the Holy Ghost, that he might have got money therewith; and\nhis sentence from Peter's mouth was according (Acts 8:19-20).\n\n5. Neither will it out of my mind, but that that man that takes\nup religion for the world, will throw away religion for the world;\nfor so surely as Judas designed the world in becoming religious,\nso surely did he also sell religion and his Master for the same.\nTo answer the question therefore affirmatively, as I perceive you\nhave done; and to accept of, as authentic, such answer, is both\nheathenish, hypocritical, and devilish; and your reward will be\naccording to your works.[177] Then they stood staring one upon\nanother, but had not wherewith to answer Christian. Hopeful also\napproved of the soundness of Christian's answer; so there was a\ngreat silence among them. Mr. By-ends and his company also staggered\nand kept behind, that Christian and Hopeful might outgo them. Then\nsaid Christian to his fellow, If these men cannot stand before\nthe sentence of men, what will they do with the sentence of God?\nAnd if they are mute when dealt with by vessels of clay, what will\nthey do when they shall be rebuked by the flames of a devouring\nfire?[178]\n\nThen Christian and Hopeful outwent them again, and went till they\ncame at a delicate plain, called Ease, where they went with much\ncontent; but that plain was but narrow, so they were quickly got\nover it. Now at the further side of that plain, was a little Hill\ncalled Lucre, and in that hill a silver mine, which some of them\nthat had formerly gone that way, because of the rarity of it, had\nturned aside to see; but going too near the brink of the pit, the\nground being deceitful under them, broke, and they were slain;\nsome also had been maimed there, and could not, to their dying\nday, be their own men again.\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that a little off the road, over against\nthe silver mine, stood Demas (gentleman-like) to call to passengers\nto come and see; who said to Christian and his fellow, Ho! turn\naside hither, and I will show you a thing.[179]\n\nCHR. What thing so deserving as to turn us out of the way to see\nit?\n\nDEMAS. Here is a silver mine, and some digging in it for treasure.\nIf you will come, with a little pains you may richly provide for\nyourselves.\n\nHOPE. Then said Hopeful, Let us go see.[180]\n\nCHR. Not I, said Christian, I have heard of this place before now;\nand how many have there been slain; and besides that, treasure\nis a snare to those that seek it; for it hindereth them in their\npilgrimage. Then Christian called to Demas, saying, Is not the\nplace dangerous? Hath it not hindered many in their pilgrimage?\n(Hosea 14:8).\n\nDEMAS. Not very dangerous, except to those that are careless (but\nwithal, he blushed as he spake).\n\nCHR. Then said Christian to Hopeful, Let us not stir a step, but\nstill keep on our way.\n\nHOPE. I will warrant you, when By-ends comes up, if he hath the\nsame invitation as we, he will turn in thither to see.\n\nCHR. No doubt thereof, for his principles lead him that way, and\na hundred to one but he dies there.\n\nDEMAS. Then Demas called again, saying, But will you not come over\nand see?\n\nCHR. Then Christian roundly answered, saying, Demas, thou art an\nenemy to the right ways of the Lord of this way, and hast been\nalready condemned for thine own turning aside, by one of his\nMajesty's judges (2 Tim. 4:10); and why seekest thou to bring us\ninto the like condemnation? Besides, if we at all turn aside, our\nLord the King will certainly hear thereof, and will there put us\nto shame, where we would stand with boldness before Him. Demas\ncried again, That he also was one of their fraternity; and that if\nthey would tarry a little, he also himself would walk with them.\n\nCHR. Then said Christian, What is thy name? Is it not the same by\nthe which I have called thee?\n\nDEMAS. Yes, my name is Demas; I am the son of Abraham.\n\nCHR. I know you; Gehazi was your great-grandfather, and Judas\nyour father; and you have trod in their steps (2 Kings 5:20; Matt.\n26:14, 15; 27:1-5). It is but a devilish prank that thou usest;\nthy father was hanged for a traitor, and thou deservest no better\nreward. Assure thyself, that when we come to the King, we will do\nHim word of this thy behaviour. Thus they went their way.\n\nBy this time By-ends and his companions were come again within\nsight, and they, at the first beck, went over to Demas. Now,\nwhether they fell into the pit by looking over the brink thereof,\nor whether they went down to dig, or whether they were smothered\nin the bottom by the damps that commonly arise, of these things\nI am not certain; but this I observed, that they never were seen\nagain in the way.[181] Then sang Christian-\n\nBy-ends and silver Demas both agree; One calls, the other runs,\nthat he may be A sharer in his lucre; so these do Take up in this\nworld, and no further go.\n\nNow I saw that, just on the other side of this plain, the Pilgrims\ncame to a place where stood an old monument, hard by the highway\nstrange side; at the sight of which they were both concerned,\nbecause of the strangeness of the form thereof; for it seemed to\nthem as if it had been a woman transformed into the shape of a\npillar; here therefore they stood looking, and looking upon it, but\ncould not for a time tell what they should make thereof. At last\nHopeful espied written above the head thereof, a writing in an\nunusual hand; but he being no scholar, called to Christian (for he\nwas learned) to see if he could pick out the meaning; so he came,\nand after a little laying of letters together, he found the same\nto be this, \"Remember Lot's wife.\" So he read it to his fellow;\nafter which they both concluded that that was the pillar of\nsalt into which Lot's wife was turned, for her looking back with\na covetous heart, when she was going from Sodom for safety[182]\n(Gen. 19:260); which sudden and amazing sight gave them occasion\nof this discourse.\n\nCHR. Ah, my brother! this is a seasonable sight; it came opportunely\nto us after the invitation which Demas gave us to come over to\nview the Hill Lucre; and had we gone over, as he desired us, and\nas thou wast inclining to do, my brother, we had, for aught I\nknow, been made ourselves like this woman, a spectacle for those\nthat shall come after to behold.\n\nHOPE. I am sorry that I was so foolish, and am made to wonder\nthat I am not now as Lot's wife; for wherein was the difference\nbetwixt her sin and mine? She only looked back; and I had a desire\nto go see. Let grace be adored, and let me be ashamed, that ever\nsuch a thing should be in mine heart.\n\nCHR. Let us take notice of what we see here, for our help for time\nto come. This woman escaped one judgment, for she fell not by the\ndestruction of Sodom; yet she was destroyed by another, as we see\nshe is turned into a pillar of salt.\n\nHOPE. True, and she may be to us both caution and example;\ncaution, that we should shun her sin; or a sign of what judgment\nwill overtake such as shall not be prevented by this caution; so\nKorah, Dathan, and Abiram, with the 250 men that perished in their\nsin, did also become a sign or example to others to beware (Num.\n26:9, 10). But above all, I muse at one thing, to wit, how Demas\nand his fellows can stand so confidently yonder to look for that\ntreasure, which this woman, but for looking behind her, after (for\nwe read not that she stepped one foot out of the way) was turned\ninto a pillar of salt; especially since the judgment which overtook\nher did make her an example, within sight of where they are; for\nthey cannot choose but see her, did they but lift up their eyes.\n\nCHR. It is a thing to be wondered at, and it argueth that their\nhearts are grown desperate in the case; and I cannot tell who\nto compare them to so fitly, as to them that pick pockets in the\npresence of the judge, or that will out purses under the gallows.[183]\nIt is said of the men of Sodom, that they were sinners exceedingly,\nbecause they were sinners before the Lord, that is, in His eyesight,\nand notwithstanding the kindnesses that He had showed them (Gen.\n13:13), for the land of Sodom was now like the garden of Eden\nheretofore (Gen. 13:10). This, therefore, provoked Him the more to\njealousy, and made their plague as hot as the fire of the Lord out\nof Heaven could make it. And it is most rationally to be concluded,\nthat such, even such as these are, that shall sin in the sight, yea,\nand that too in despite of such examples that are set continually\nbefore them, to caution them to the contrary, must be partakers\nof severest judgments.\n\nHOPE. Doubtless thou hast said the truth; but what a mercy is\nit, that neither thou, but especially I, am not made myself this\nexample! This ministereth occasion to us to thank God, to fear\nbefore Him, and always to remember Lot's wife.[184]\n\nI saw, then, that they went on their way to a pleasant river; which\nDavid the king called \"the river of God,\" but John \"the river of\nthe water of life\"[185] (Psa. 65:9; Rev. 22; Ezek. 47). Now their\nway lay just upon the bank of the river; here, therefore, Christian\nand his companion walked with great delight; they drank also\nof the water of the river, which was pleasant, and enlivening to\ntheir weary spirits:[186] besides, on the banks of this river, on\neither side, were green trees, that bore all manner of fruit; and\nthe leaves of the trees were good for medicine; with the fruit\nof these trees they were also much delighted; and the leaves they\neat to prevent surfeits, and other diseases that are incident\nto those that heat their blood by travels. On either side of the\nriver was also a meadow, curiously beautified with lilies, and\nit was green all the year long. In this meadow they lay down, and\nslept; for here they might lie down safely. When they awoke, they\ngathered again of the fruit of the trees, and drank again of the\nwater of the river, and then lay down again to sleep (Psa. 23:2;\nIsa. 14:30). Thus they did several days and nights.[187] Then they\nsang-\n\nBehold ye how these crystal streams do glide, To comfort pilgrims\nby the highway side; The meadows green, besides their fragrant\nsmell, Yield dainties for them: and he that can tell What pleasant\nfruit, yea, leaves, these trees do yield, Will soon sell all, that\nhe may buy this field.\n\nSo when they were disposed to go on (for they were not, as yet,\nat their journey's end), they ate and drank, and departed.[188]\n\nNow, I beheld in my dream, that they had not journeyed far, but\nthe river and the way for a time parted; at which they were not a\nlittle sorry; yet they durst not go out of the way. Now the way\nfrom the river was rough, and their feet tender, by reason of\ntheir travels; \"so the souls of the pilgrims were much discouraged\nbecause of the way\" (Num. 21:4). Wherefore, still as they went\non, they wished for better way.[189] Now, a little before them,\nthere was on the left hand of the road a meadow, and a stile to\ngo over into it; and that meadow is called By-path Meadow. Then\nsaid Christian to his fellow, If this meadow lieth along by our\nway-side, let us go over into it.[190] Then he went to the stile\nto see, and behold, a path lay along by the way, on the other side\nof the fence. It is according to my wish, said Christian. Here is\nthe easiest going; come, good Hopeful, and let us go over.\n\nHOPE. But how if this path should lead us out of the way?[191]\n\nCHR. That is not like, said the other. Look, doth it not go along\nby the way-side? So Hopeful, being persuaded by his fellow, went\nafter him over the stile. When they were gone over, and were got\ninto the path, they found it very easy for their feet; and withal,\nthey, looking before them, espied a man walking as they did (and\nhis name was Vain-confidence); so they called after him, and asked\nhim whither that way led. He said, to the Celestial Gate.[192]\nLook, said Christian, did not I tell you so? By this you may see\nwe are right. So they followed, and he went before them. But,\nbehold, the night came on, and it grew very dark; so that they\nthat were behind, lost the sight of him that went before.\n\nHe, therefore, that went before[193] (Vain-confidence by name),\nnot seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit (Isa. 9:16),\nwhich was on purpose there made, by the Prince of those grounds,\nto catch vain-glorious fools withal, and was dashed in pieces with\nhis fall.[194]\n\nNow Christian and his fellow heard him fall. So they called to\nknow the matter, but there was none to answer; only they heard a\ngroaning. Then said Hopeful, Where are we now? Then was his fellow\nsilent, as mistrusting that he had led him out of the way; and now\nit began to rain, and thunder, and lighten[195] in a very dreadful\nmanner; and the water rose amain.[196]\n\nThen Hopeful groaned in himself, saying, O that I had kept on my\nway!\n\nCHR. Who could have thought that this path should have led us out\nof the way?\n\nHOPE. I was afraid on it at the very first, and therefore gave\nyou that gentle caution. I would have spoke plainer, but that you\nare older than I.[197]\n\nCHR. Good brother, be not offended; I am sorry I have brought\nthee out of the way, and that I have put thee into such imminent\ndanger; pray, my brother, forgive me; I did not do it of an evil\nintent.[198]\n\nHOPE. Be comforted, my brother, for I forgive thee; and believe\ntoo that this shall be for our good.\n\nCHR. I am glad I have with me a merciful brother; but we must not\nstand thus: let us try to go back again.\n\nHOPE. But, good brother, let me go before.\n\nCHR. No, if you please, let me go first, that if there be any\ndanger, I may be first therein, because by my means we are both\ngone out of the way.\n\nHOPE. No, said Hopeful, you shall not go first; for your mind\nbeing troubled may lead you out of the way again. Then, for their\nencouragement, they heard the voice of one saying, \"Set thine heart\ntoward the highway, even the way which thou wentest; turn again\"\n(Jer. 31:21). But by this time the waters were greatly risen, by\nreason of which the way of going back was very dangerous. (Then\nI thought that it is easier going out of the way when we are in,\nthan going in when we are out). Yet they adventured to go back,\nbut it was so dark, and the flood was so high, that in their going\nback they had like to have been drowned nine or 10 times.[199]\n\nNeither could they, with all the skill they had, get again to\nthe stile that night. Wherefore, at last, lighting under a little\nshelter, they sat down there until the day-break; but, being weary,\nthey fell asleep. Now there was, not far from the place where they\nlay, a castle, called Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant\nDespair;[200] and it was in his grounds they now were sleeping:\nwherefore he, getting up in the morning early, and walking up and\ndown in his fields, caught Christian and Hopeful asleep in his\ngrounds. Then, with a grim and surly voice, he bid them awake;\nand asked them whence they were, and what they did in his grounds.\nThey told him they were pilgrims, and that they had lost their\nway. Then said the Giant, You have this night trespassed on me,\nby trampling in, and lying on my grounds, and therefore you must\ngo along with me. So they were forced to go, because he was stronger\nthan they.[201] They also had but little to say, for they knew\nthemselves in a fault. The Giant therefore drove them before him,\nand put them into his castle, into a very dark dungeon, nasty and\nstinking to the spirits of these two men (Psa. 88:18). Here then\nthey lay from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, without one\nbit of bread, or drop of drink, or light, or any to ask how they\ndid; they were therefore here in evil case, and were far from\nfriends and acquaintance. Now in this place Christian had double\nsorrow,[202] because it was through his unadvised counsel that\nthey were brought into this distress.[203]\n\nNow, Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence.[204]\nSo, when he was gone to bed, he told his wife what he had done; to\nwit, that he had taken a couple of prisoners, and cast them into\nhis dungeon, for trespassing on his grounds. Then he asked her\nalso what he had best to do further to them. So she asked him\nwhat they were, whence they came, and whither they were bound; and\nhe told her. Then she counselled him, that when he arose in the\nmorning he should beat them without any mercy. So, when he arose,\nhe getteth him a grievous crab-tree cudgel, and goes down into\nthe dungeon to them, and there first falls to rating of them as if\nthey were dogs, although they never gave him a word of distaste.\nThen he falls upon them, and beats them fearfully, in such sort,\nthat they were not able to help themselves, or to turn them upon\nthe floor. This done, he withdraws and leaves them, there to condole\ntheir misery, and to mourn under their distress. So all that day\nthey spent the time in nothing but sighs and bitter lamentations.\nThe next night, she, talking with her husband about them further,\nand understanding that they were yet alive, did advise him to\ncounsel them to make away themselves. So when morning was come,\nhe goes to them in a surly manner as before, and perceiving them\nto be very sore with the stripes that he had given them the day\nbefore, he told them, that since they were never like to come out\nof that place, their only way would be forthwith to make an end\nof themselves, either with knife, halter, or poison, for why, said\nhe, should you choose life, seeing it is attended with so much\nbitterness?[205] But they desired him to let them go. With that\nhe looked ugly upon them, and, rushing to them, had doubtless made\nan end of them himself, but that he fell into one of his fits (for\nhe sometimes, in sunshiny weather, fell into fits),[206] and lost\nfor a time the use of his hand; wherefore he withdrew, and left\nthem as before, to consider what to do. Then did the prisoners\nconsult between themselves, whether it was best to take his counsel\nor no; and thus they began to discourse:\n\nCHR. Brother, said Christian, what shall we do? The life that we\nnow live is miserable. For my part, I know not whether is best,\nto live thus, or to die out of hand. \"My soul chooseth strangling\nrather than life,\" and the grave is more easy for me than this\ndungeon (Job 7:15). Shall we be ruled by the Giant?[207]\n\nHOPE. Indeed, our present condition is dreadful, and death would\nbe far more welcome to me than thus for ever to abide; but yet,\nlet us consider, the Lord of the country to which we are going hath\nsaid, Thou shalt do no murder: no, not to another man's person;\nmuch more, then, are we forbidden to take his counsel to kill\nourselves. Besides, he that kills another, can but commit murder\nupon his body; but for one to kill himself, is to kill body and\nsoul at once. And, moreover, my brother, thou talkest of ease in\nthe grave; but hast thou forgotten the hell, whither for certain\nthe murderers go? For \"no murderer hath eternal life,\" &c.[208]\nAnd let us consider, again, that all the law is not in the hand\nof Giant Despair. Others, so far as I can understand, have been\ntaken by him, as well as we; and yet have escaped out of his hand.\nWho knows, but that God that made the world may cause that Giant\nDespair may die? or that, at some time or other, he may forget to\nlock us in? or that he may, in a short time, have another of his\nfits before us, and may lose the use of his limbs? and if ever that\nshould come to pass again, for my part, I am resolved to pluck up\nthe heart of a man, and to try my utmost to get from under his\nhand. I was a fool that I did not try to do it before; but, however,\nmy brother, let us be patient, and endure a while. The time may\ncome that may give us a happy release; but let us not be our own\nmurderers. With these words, Hopeful at present did moderate the\nmind of his brother; so they continued together (in the dark) that\nday, in their sad and doleful condition.[209]\n\nWell, towards evening, the Giant goes down into the dungeon again,\nto see if his prisoners had taken his counsel; but when he came\nthere, he found them alive; and truly, alive was all; for now,\nwhat for want of bread and water, and by reason of the wounds\nthey received when he beat them, they could do little but breathe.\nBut, I say, he found them alive; at which he fell into a grievous\nrage, and told them, that seeing they had disobeyed his counsel,\nit should be worse with them than if they had never been born.\n\nAt this they trembled greatly,[210] and I think that Christian\nfell into a swoon;[211] but, coming a little to himself again,\nthey renewed their discourse about the Giant's counsel, and whether\nyet they had best to take it or no. Now Christian again seemed to\nbe for doing it,[212] but Hopeful made his second reply as followeth-\n\nHOPE. My brother, said he, rememberest thou not how valiant thou\nhast been heretofore? Apollyon could not crush thee, nor could\nall that thou didst hear, or see, or feel, in the Valley of the\nShadow of Death. What hardship, terror, and amazement hast thou\nalready gone through! And art thou now nothing but fear! Thou seest\nthat I am in the dungeon with thee, a far weaker man by nature\nthan thou art; also, this Giant has wounded me as well as thee,\nand hath also cut off the bread and water from my mouth; and with\nthee I mourn without the light. But let us exercise a little more\npatience; remember how thou playedst the man at Vanity Fair, and\nwast neither afraid of the chain, nor cage, nor yet of bloody\ndeath. Wherefore let us (at least to avoid the shame, that becomes\nnot a Christian to be found in) bear up with patience as well as\nwe can.[213]\n\nNow, night being come again, and the Giant and his wife being in\nbed, she asked him concerning the prisoners, and if they had taken\nhis counsel. To which he replied, They are sturdy rogues, they\nchoose rather to bear all hardship, than to make away themselves.\nThen said she, Take them into the castle-yard tomorrow, and show them\nthe bones and skulls of those that thou hast already despatched,\nand make them believe, ere a week comes to an end, thou also\nwilt tear them in pieces, as thou hast done their fellows before\nthem.[214]\n\nSo when the morning was come, the Giant goes to them again, and\ntakes them into the castle-yard, and shows them, as his wife had\nbidden him. These, said he, were pilgrims as you are, once, and\nthey trespassed in my grounds, as you have done; and when I thought\nfit, I tore them in pieces, and so, within 10 days, I will do you.\nGo, get you down to your den again; and with that, he beat them\nall the way thither. They lay, therefore, all day on Saturday\nin a lamentable case, as before.[215] Now, when night was come,\nand when Mrs. Diffidence and her husband, the Giant, were got to\nbed, they began to renew their discourse of their prisoners; and\nwithal the old Giant wondered, that he could neither by his blows\nnor his counsel bring them to an end. And with that his wife\nreplied, I fear, Said she, that they live in hope that some will\ncome to relieve them, or that they have picklocks about them, by\nthe means of which they hope to escape. And sayest thou so, my\ndear? said the Giant; I will, therefore, search them in the morning.\n\nWell, on Saturday, about midnight, they began to pray, and continued\nin prayer till almost break of day.[216]\n\nNow, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half-amazed,\nbrake out in this passionate speech: What a fool, quoth he, am\nI, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at\nliberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I\nam persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful,\nThat is good news, good brother; pluck it out of thy bosom, and\ntry.[217]\n\nThen Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at\nthe dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the key) gave back,\nand the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both\ncame out. Then he went to the outward door that leads into the\ncastle-yard, and, with his key, opened that door also. After, he\nwent to the iron gate, for that must be opened too; but that lock\nwent damnable hard,[218] yet the key did open it. Then they thrust\nopen the gate to make their escape with speed, but that gate, as\nit opened, made such a creaking, that it waked Giant Despair, who,\nhastily rising to pursue his prisoners, felt his limbs to fail,\nfor his fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after\nthem.[219] Then they went on, and came to the King's highway, and\nso were safe, because they were out of his jurisdiction.[220]\n\nNow, when they were gone over the stile, they began to contrive\nwith themselves what they should do at that stile, to prevent\nthose that should come after, from falling into the hands of Giant\nDespair.[221] So they consented to erect there a pillar, and to\nengrave upon the side thereof this sentence-\"Over this stile is\nthe way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who\ndespiseth the King of the Celestial Country, and seeks to destroy\nHis holy pilgrims.\" Many, therefore, that followed after, read\nwhat was written, and escaped the danger. This done, they sang\nas follows-\n\nOut of the way we went, and then we found What 'twas to tread upon\nforbidden ground; And let them that come after have a care, Lest\nheedlessness makes them, as we, to fare. Lest they for trespassing\nhis prisoners are, Whose castle's Doubting, and whose name's\nDespair.\n\nThey went then till they came to the Delectable Mountains, which\nmountains belong to the Lord of that hill of which we have spoken\nbefore; so they went up to the mountains, to behold the gardens\nand orchards, the vineyards and fountains of water; where\nalso they drank and washed themselves, and did freely eat of the\nvineyards.[222] Now there were on the tops of these mountains,\nshepherds feeding their flocks, and they stood by the highway\nside. The Pilgrims therefore went to them, and leaning upon their\nstaves (as is common with weary pilgrims, when they stand to talk\nwith any by the way), they asked, Whose Delectable Mountains are\nthese? And whose be the sheep that feed upon them?\n\nSHEP. These mountains are Immanuel's Land, and they are within\nsight of His city; and the sheep also are His, and He laid down\nHis life for them (John 10:11).\n\nCHR. Is this the way to the Celestial City?\n\nSHEP. You are just in your way.\n\nCHR. How far is it thither? SHEP. Too far for any but those that\nshall get thither indeed.\n\nCHR. Is the way safe or dangerous?\n\nSHEP. Safe for those for whom it is to be safe; but the transgressors\nshall fall therein[223] (Hosea 14:9).\n\nCHR. Is there, in this place, any relief for pilgrims that are\nweary and faint in the way?\n\nSHEP. The Lord of these mountains hath given us a charge not to\nbe \"forgetful to entertain strangers\" (Heb. 13:2); therefore the\ngood of the place is before you.\n\nI saw also in my dream, that when the Shepherds perceived that\nthey were wayfaring men, they also put questions to them, to which\nthey made answer as in other places; as, Whence came you? And, How\ngot you into the way? And, By what means have you so persevered\ntherein? For but few of them that begin to come hither, do show\ntheir face on these mountains. But when the Shepherds heard their\nanswers, being pleased therewith, they looked very lovingly upon\nthem, and said, Welcome to the Delectable Mountains.[224]\n\nThe Shepherds, I say, whose names were Knowledge, Experience, Watchful,\nand Sincere, took them by the hand, and had them to their tents,\nand made them partake of that which was ready at present.[225]\nThey said, moreover, We would that ye should stay here a while,\nto be acquainted with us; and yet more to solace yourselves with\nthe good of these Delectable Mountains. They then told them that\nthey were content to stay; so they went to their rest that night,\nbecause it was very late.\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that in the morning the Shepherds called\nup Christian and Hopeful to walk with them upon the mountains: so\nthey went forth with them, and walked a while, having a pleasant\nprospect on every side. Then said the Shepherds one to another,\nShall we show these Pilgrims some wonders? So when they had concluded\nto do it, they had them first to the top of a hill Error, which\nwas very steep on the furthest side, and bid them look down to\nthe bottom. So Christian and Hopeful looked down, and saw at the\nbottom several men dashed all to pieces by a fall that they had\nfrom the top. Then said Christian, What meaneth this? The Shepherds\nanswered, Have you not heard of them that were made to err, by\nhearkening to Hymeneus and Philetus, as concerning the faith of the\nresurrection of the body? (2 Tim. 2:17, 18). They answered, Yes.\nThen said the Shepherds, Those that you see lie dashed in pieces\nat the bottom of this mountain are they; and they have continued\nto this day unburied, as you see, for an example to others to\ntake heed how they clamber too high, or how they come too near\nthe brink of this mountain.[226]\n\nThen I saw that they had them to the top of another mountain,\nand the name of that is Caution, and bid them look afar off;[227]\nwhich, when they did, they perceived, as they thought, several\nmen walking up and down among the tombs that were there; and they\nperceived that the men were blind, because they stumbled sometimes\nupon the tombs, and because they could not get out from among\nthem.[228] Then said Christian, What means this?\n\nThe Shepherds then answered, Did you not see a little below these\nmountains a stile that led into a meadow, on the left hand of\nthis way? They answered, Yes. Then said the Shepherds, From that\nstile there goes a path that leads directly to Doubting Castle,\nwhich is kept by Giant Despair, and these, pointing to them among\nthe tombs, came once on pilgrimage as you do now, even till they\ncame to that same stile; and because the right way was rough in\nthat place, they chose to go out of it into that meadow, and there\nwere taken by Giant Despair, and cast into Doubting Castle: where,\nafter they had been a while kept in the dungeon, he at last did put\nout their eyes, and led them among those tombs, where he has left\nthem to wander to this very day, that the saying of the wise man\nmight be fulfilled, \"He that wandereth out of the way of understanding,\nshall remain in the congregation of the dead\" (Prov. 21:16).[229]\nThen Christian and Hopeful looked upon one another, with tears\ngushing out, but yet said nothing to the Shepherds.[230]\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that the Shepherds had them to another\nplace, in a bottom, where was a door in the side of a hill, and they\nopened the door, and bid them look in. They looked in, therefore,\nand saw that within it was very dark and smoky; they also thought\nthat they heard there a rumbling noise as of fire, and a cry of\nsome tormented, and that they smelt the scent of brimstone. Then\nsaid Christian, What means this? The Shepherds told them, This\nis a byway to hell, a way that hypocrites go in at; namely, such\nas sell their birthright, with Esau; such as sell their master,\nwith Judas; such as blaspheme the Gospel, with Alexander; and that\nlie and dissemble, with Ananias and Sapphira his wife.[231] Then\nsaid Hopeful to the Shepherds, I perceive that these had on them,\neven every one, a show of pilgrimage, as we have now; had they\nnot?\n\nSHEP. Yes, and held it a long time too.\n\nHOPE. How far might they go on in pilgrimage in their day, since\nthey notwithstanding were thus miserably cast away?\n\nSHEP. Some further, and some not so far, as these mountains.[232]\n\nThen said the Pilgrims one to another, We had need to cry to the\nStrong for strength.\n\nSHEP. Aye, and you will have need to use it, when you have it,\ntoo.\n\nBy this time the Pilgrims had a desire to go forward, and the\nShepherds a desire they should; so they walked together towards\nthe end of the mountains. Then said the Shepherds one to another,\nLet us here show to the Pilgrims the gates of the Celestial City,\nif they have skill to look through our perspective glass.[233]\nThe Pilgrims then loving accepted the motion; so they had them to\nthe top of a high hill, called Clear, and gave them their glass\nto look.\n\nThen they essayed to look, but the remembrance of that last thing\nthat the Shepherds had showed them, made their hands shake; by\nmeans of which impediment, they could not look steadily through\nthe glass; yet they thought they saw something like the gate, and\nalso some of the glory of the place.[234] Then they went away,\nand sang this song-\n\nThus, by the Shepherds, secrets are reveal'd, Which from all other\nmen are kept conceal'd Come to the Shepherds, then, if you would\nsee Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be.[235]\n\nWhen they were about to depart, one of the Shepherds gave them a\nnote of the way. Another of them bid them beware of the Flatterer.\nThe third bid them take heed that they sleep not upon the Enchanted\nGround. And the fourth bid them God speed. So I awoke from my\ndream.[236]\n\nAnd I slept, and dreamed again, and saw the same two Pilgrims going\ndown the mountains along the highway towards the city. Now, a\nlittle below these mountains, on the left hand, lieth the country\nof Conceit;[237] from which country there comes into the way in\nwhich the Pilgrims walked, a little crooked lane. Here, therefore,\nthey met with a very brisk lad, that came out of that country; and\nhis name was Ignorance. So Christian asked him from what parts he\ncame, and whither he was going.\n\nIGNOR. Sir, I was born in the country that lieth off there, a\nlittle on the left hand, and I am going to the Celestial City.\n\nCHR. But how do you think to get in at the gate? for you may find\nsome difficulty there.\n\nIGNOR. As other good people do, said he.\n\nCHR. But what have you to show at that gate, that may cause that\nthe gate should be opened to you?\n\nIGNOR. I know my Lord's will, and I have been a good liver; I pay\nevery man his own; I pray, fast, pay tithes, and give alms, and\nhave left my country for whither I am going.[238]\n\nCHR. But thou camest not in at the wicket-gate that is at the\nhead of this way; thou camest in hither through that same crooked\nlane, and therefore, I fear, however thou mayest think of thyself,\nwhen the reckoning day shall come, thou wilt have laid to thy charge\nthat thou art a thief and a robber, instead of getting admittance\ninto the city.\n\nIGNOR. Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me, I know you not; be\ncontent to follow the religion of your country, and I will follow\nthe religion of mine. I hope all will be well. And as for the\ngate that you talk of, all the world knows that that is a great\nway off of our country. I cannot think that any man in all our\nparts doth so much as know the way to it, nor need they matter\nwhether they do or no, since we have, as you see, a fine pleasant\ngreen lane, that comes down from our country, the next way into\nthe way.\n\nWhen Christian saw that the man was \"wise in his own conceit,\"\nhe said to Hopeful, whisperingly, \"There is more hope of a fool\nthan of him\" (Prov. 26:12). And said, moreover, \"When he that is\na fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith\nto everyone that he is a fool\" (Eccl. 10:3). What, shall we talk\nfurther with him, or out-go him at present, and so leave him to\nthink of what he hath heard already, and then stop again for him\nafterwards, and see if by degrees we can do any good to him? Then\nsaid Hopeful-\n\nLet Ignorance a little while now muse On what is said, and let him\nnot refuse Good counsel to embrace, lest he remain Still ignorant\nof what's the chiefest gain. God saith, those that no understanding\nhave, Although He made them, them He will not save.\n\nHOPE. He further added, It is not good, I think, to say all to him\nat once; let us pass him by, if you will, and talk to him anon,\neven as he is able to bear it.[239]\n\nSo they both went on, and Ignorance he came after. Now when they\nhad passed him a little way, they entered into a very dark lane,\nwhere they met a man whom seven devils had bound with seven strong\ncords, and were carrying of him back to the door that they saw\non the side of the hill[240] (Matt. 12:45; Prov. 5:22). Now good\nChristian began to tremble, and so did Hopeful his companion; yet\nas the devils led away the man, Christian looked to see if he knew\nhim; and he thought it might be one Turn-away, that dwelt in the\ntown of Apostasy. But he did not perfectly see his face, for he\ndid hang his head like a thief that is found.[241] But being once\npast, Hopeful looked after him, and espied on his back a paper with\nthis inscription, \"Wanton professor, and damnable apostate.\"[242]\nThen said Christian to his fellow, Now I call to remembrance, that\nwhich was told me of a thing that happened to a good man hereabout.\nThe name of the man was Little-faith, but a good man, and he dwelt\nin the town of Sincere. The thing was this: At the entering in at\nthis passage, there comes down from Broad-way Gate, a lane called\nDead Man's Lane;[243] so called because of the murders that are\ncommonly done there; and this Little-faith going on pilgrimage,\nas we do now, chanced to sit down there, and slept. Now there\nhappened, at that time, to come down the lane from Broad-way Gate,\nthree sturdy rogues, and their names were Faint-heart, Mistrust,\nand Guilt (three brothers), and they espying Little-faith, where\nhe was, came galloping up with speed. Now the good man was just\nawake from his sleep, and was getting up to go on his journey.\nSo they came up all to him, and with threatening language bid him\nstand. At this, Little-faith looked as white as a cloud, and had\nneither power to fight nor fly. Then said Faint-heart, Deliver thy\npurse. But he making no haste to do it (for he was loath to lose\nhis money), Mistrust ran up to him, and thrusting his hand into\nhis pocket, pulled out thence a bag of silver. Then he cried out,\nThieves! Thieves! With that, Guilt, with a great club that was\nin his hand, struck Little-faith on the head, and with that blow\nfelled him flat to the ground; where be lay bleeding as one that\nwould bleed to death.[244] All this while the thieves stood by. But,\nat last, they hearing that some were upon the road, and fearing\nlest it should be one Great-grace, that dwells in the city of\ngood-confidence, they betook themselves to their heels, and left\nthis good man to shift for himself. Now, after a while, Little-faith\ncame to himself, and getting up, made shift to scrabble on his\nway.[245] This was the story.\n\nHOPE. But did they take from him all that ever he had?\n\nCHR. No; the place where his jewels were they never ransacked, so\nthose he kept still. But, as I was told, the good man was much\nafflicted for his loss, for the thieves got most of his spending-money.\nThat which they got not (as I said) were jewels,[246] also he had\na little odd money left, but scarce enough to bring him to his\njourney's end (1 Peter 4:18); nay, if I were not misinformed,\nhe was forced to beg as be went, to keep himself alive; for his\njewels he might not sell. But beg, and do what he could, he went\n(as we say) with many a hungry belly the most part of the rest of\nthe way.[247]\n\nHOPE. But is it not a wonder they got not from him his certificate,\nby which he was to receive his admittance at the Celestial Gate?\n\nCHR. It is a wonder; but they got not that, though they missed it\nnot through any good cunning of his; for he, being dismayed with\ntheir coming upon him, had neither power nor skill to hide anything;\nso it was more by good Providence than by his endeavour, that they\nmissed of that good thing.[248]\n\nHOPE. But it must needs be a comfort to him, that they got not\nthis jewel from him.[249]\n\nCHR. It might have been great comfort to him, had he used it as\nhe should; but they that told me the story said, that he made but\nlittle use of it all the rest of the way, and that because of the\ndismay that he had in the taking away his money; indeed, he forgot\nit a great part of the rest of his journey; and besides, when\nat any time it came into his mind, and he began to be comforted\ntherewith, then would fresh thoughts of his loss come again upon\nhim, and those thoughts would swallow up all (1 Peter 1:9).\n\nHOPE. Alas! poor man. This could not but be a great grief to him.\n\nCHR. Grief! aye, a grief indeed. Would it not have been so to any\nof us, had we been used as he, to be robbed, and wounded too, and\nthat in a strange place, as he was? It is a wonder he did not die\nwith grief, poor heart! I was told that he scattered almost all\nthe rest of the way with nothing but doleful and bitter complaints;\ntelling also to all that overtook him, or that he overtook in the\nway as he went, where he was robbed, and how; who they were that\ndid it, and what he lost; how he was wounded, and that he hardly\nescaped with his life.[250]\n\nHOPE. But it is a wonder that his necessity did not put him upon\nselling or pawning some of his jewels,[251] that he might have\nwherewith to relieve himself in his journey.\n\nCHR. Thou talkest like one upon whose head is the shell to this\nvery day; for what should he pawn them, or to whom should he sell\nthem? In all that country where he was robbed, his jewels were\nnot accounted of; nor did he want that relief which could from\nthence be administered to him. Besides, had his jewels been missing\nat the gate of the Celestial City, he had (and that he knew well\nenough) been excluded from an inheritance there; and that would\nhave been worse to him than the appearance and villany of 10,000\nthieves.\n\nHOPE. Why art thou so tart, my brother? Esau sold his birthright, and\nthat for a mess of pottage, and that birthright was his greatest\njewel; and if he, why might not Little-faith do so too? (Heb.\n12:16).\n\nCHR. Esau did sell his birthright indeed, and so do many besides,\nand by so doing exclude themselves from the chief blessing, as\nalso that caitiff did; but you must put a difference betwixt Esau\nand Little-faith, and also betwixt their estates. Esau's birthright\nwas typical, but Little-faith's jewels were not so; Esau's belly\nwas his god, but Little-faith's belly was not so; Esau's want lay\nin his fleshly appetite, Little-faith's did not so. Besides, Esau\ncould see no further than to the fulfilling of his lusts; \"Behold\nI am at the point to die (said he), and what profit shall this\nbirthright do me?\" (Gen. 25:32). But Little-faith, though it was\nhis lot to have but a little faith, was by his little faith kept\nfrom such extravagances, and made to see and prize his jewels\nmore than to sell them, as Esau did his birthright. You read not\nanywhere that Esau had faith, no, not so much as a little; therefore\nno marvel if, where the flesh only bears sway (as it will in that\nman where no faith is to resist), if he sells his birthright, and\nhis soul and all, and that to the devil of hell; for it is with\nsuch, as it is with the ass, who in her occasions cannot be turned\naway (Jer. 2:24). When their minds are set upon their lusts, they\nwill have them whatever they cost. But Little-faith was of another\ntemper, his mind was on things divine; his livelihood was upon\nthings that were spiritual, and from above; therefore, to what\nend should he that is of such a temper sell his jewels (had there\nbeen any that would have bought them) to fill his mind with empty\nthings? Will a man give a penny to fill his belly with hay; or can\nyou persuade the turtle-dove to live upon carrion like the crow?\nThough faithless ones can, for carnal lusts, pawn, or mortgage,\nor sell what they have, and themselves outright to boot; yet they\nthat have faith, saving faith, though but a little of it, cannot\ndo so. Here, therefore, my brother, is thy mistake.\n\nHOPE. I acknowledge it; but yet your severe reflection had almost\nmade me angry.[252]\n\nCHR. Why, I did but compare thee to some of the birds that are\nof the brisker sort, who will run to and fro in untrodden paths,\nwith the shell upon their heads; but pass by that, and consider\nthe matter under debate, and all shall be well betwixt thee and\nme.\n\nHOPE. But, Christian, these three fellows, I am persuaded in\nmy heart, are but a company of cowards;[253] would they have run\nelse, think you, as they did, at the noise of one that was coming\non the road? Why did not Little-faith pluck up a greater heart? He\nmight, methinks, Have stood one brush with them, and have yielded\nwhen there had been no remedy.\n\nCHR. That they are cowards, many have said, but few have found it\nso in the time of trial. As for a great heart, Littlefaith had\nnone; and I perceive by thee, my brother, hadst thou been the\nman concerned, thou art but for a brush, and then to yield. And,\nverily, since this is the height of thy stomach, now they are at\na distance from us, should they appear to thee as they did to him,\nthey might put thee to second thoughts.\n\nBut, consider again, they are but journeymen thieves, they serve\nunder the king of the bottomless pit, who, if need be, will come\nin to their aid himself, and his voice is as the roaring of a\nlion (Psa. 7:2; 1 Peter 5:8). I myself have been engaged as this\nLittle-faith was, and I found it a terrible thing. These three\nvillains set upon me, and I beginning, like a Christian, to resist,\nthey gave but a call, and in came their master. I would, as the\nsaying is, have given my life for a penny; but that, as God would\nhave it, I was clothed with armour of proof. Aye, and yet, though\nI was so harnessed, I found it hard work to quit myself like a\nman. No man can tell what in that combat attends us, but he that\nhath been in the battle himself.[254]\n\nHOPE. Well, but they ran, you see, when they did but suppose that\none Great-grace was in the way.[255]\n\nCHR. True, they have often fled, both they and their master, when\nGreat-grace hath but appeared; and no marvel; for he is the King's\nChampion. But, I trow,[256] you will put some difference betwixt\nLittle-faith and the King's Champion. All the King's subjects\nare not His champions, nor can they, when tried, do such feats of\nwar as he. Is it meet to think that a little child should handle\nGoliath as David did? Or that there should be the strength of\nan ox in a wren? Some are strong, some are weak; some have great\nfaith, some have little. This man was one of the weak, and therefore\nhe went to the wall.\n\nHOPE. I would it had been Great-grace for their sakes.\n\nCHR. If it had been, he might have had his hands full; for I must\ntell you, that though Great-grace is excellent good at his weapons,\nand has, and can, so long as be keeps them at sword's point, do well\nenough with them; yet, if they get within him, even Faint-heart,\nMistrust, or the other, it shall go hard but they will throw up\nhis heels. And when a man is down, you know, what can he do?\n\nWhoso looks well upon Great-grace's face, shall see those scars\nand cuts there, that shall easily give demonstration of what I\nsay. Yea, once I heard that he should say (and that when he was\nin the combat), \"We despaired even of life.\"[257] How did these\nsturdy rogues and their fellows make David groan, mourn, and roar?\nYea, Heman and Hezekiah, too, though champions in their day,\nwere forced to bestir them, when by these assaulted; and yet,\nnotwithstanding, they had their coats soundly brushed by them.\nPeter, upon a time, would go try what he could do; but though some\ndo say of him that he is the prince of the apostles, they handled\nhim so, that they made him at last afraid of a sorry girl.\n\nBesides, their king is at their whistle. He is never out of hearing;\nand if at any time they be put to the worst, he, if possible, comes\nin to help them; and of him it is said, \"The sword of him that\nlayeth at him cannot hold; the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon:\nhe esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow\ncannot make him flee; sling stones are turned with him into\nstubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking\nof a spear\" (Job. 12:26-29). What can a man do in this case? It\nis true, if a man could, at every turn, have Job's horse, and had\nskill and courage to ride him, he might do notable things; \"for\nhis neck is clothed with thunder, he will not be afraid of the\ngrasshopper; the glory of his nostrils is terrible; he paweth in\nthe valley, and rejoiceth in his strength, he goeth on to meet\nthe armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted, neither\nturneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him,\nthe glittering spear, and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with\nfierceness and rage, neither believeth he that it is the sound of\nthe trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth\nthe battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting\"\n(Job 34:19-25).\n\nBut for such footmen as thee and I are, let us never desire to\nmeet with an enemy, nor vaunt as if we could do better, when we\nhear of others that they have been toiled, nor be tickled at the\nthoughts of our own manhood; for such commonly come by the worst\nwhen tried.[258] Witness Peter, of whom I made mention before. He\nwould swagger, aye, he would; he would, as his vain mind prompted\nhim to say, do better, and stand more for his Master than all men;\nbut who so foiled, and run down by these villains, as he?[259]\n\nWhen, therefore, we hear that such robberies are done on the King's\nhighway, two things become us to do:\n\n1. To go out harnessed, and to be sure to take a shield with\nus; for it was for want of that, that he that laid so lustily at\nLeviathan could not make him yield; for, indeed, if that be wanting,\nhe fears us not at all. Therefore, he that had skill hath said,\n\"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able\nto quench all the fiery darts of the wicked\" (Eph. 6:16).\n\n2. It is good, also, that we desire of the King a convoy,[260] yea,\nthat he will go with us Himself. This made David rejoice when in\nthe Valley of the Shadow of Death; and Moses was rather for dying\nwhere he stood, than to go one step without his God (Exo. 33:15).\nO my brother, if He will but go along with us, what need we\nbe afraid of ten thousands that shall set themselves against us?\n(Psa. 3:5-8; 27:1-3). But, without Him, the proud helpers \"fall\nunder the slain\" (Isa. 10:4).\n\nI, for my part, have been in the fray before now; and though,\nthrough the goodness of Him that is best, I am, as you see, alive;\nyet I cannot boast of my manhood: Glad shall I be, if I meet with\nno more such brunts; though, I fear, we are not got beyond all\ndanger.[261] However, since the lion and the bear have not as\nyet devoured me, I hope God will also deliver us from the next\nuncircumcised Philistine. Then sang Christian-\n\nPoor Little-faith! Hast been among the thieves? Wast robb'd?\nRemember this, whoso believes, And gets more faith, shall then a\nvictor be Over ten thousand, else scarce over three.\n\nSo they went on, and Ignorance followed. They went then till they\ncame at a place where they saw a way put itself into their way,\nand seemed withal to lie as straight as the way which they should\ngo; and here they knew not which of the two to take, for both\nseemed straight before them; therefore, here they stood still to\nconsider. And as they were thinking about the way, behold a man,\nblack of flesh, but covered with a very light robe, came to them,\nand asked them why they stood there.[262] They answered, they were\ngoing to the Celestial City, but knew not which of these ways\nto take. Follow me, said the man, it is thither that I am going.\nSo they followed him in the way that but now came into the road,\nwhich by degrees turned, and turned them so from the city that they\ndesired to go to, that, in little time, their faces were turned\naway from it; yet they followed him. But by and by, before they\nwere aware, he led them both within the compass of a net, in which\nthey were both so entangled, that they knew not what to do; and\nwith that the white robe fell off the black man's back. Then they\nsaw where they were. Wherefore, there they lay crying some time,\nfor they could not get themselves out.[263]\n\nCHR. Then said Christian to his fellow, Now do I see myself in an\nerror. Did not the Shepherds bid us beware of the flatterers? As\nis the saying of the wise man, so we have found it this day, \"A\nman that flattereth his neighbour, spreadeth a net for his feet\"\n(Prov. 29:5).\n\nHOPE. They also gave us a note of directions about the way, for\nour more sure finding thereof; but therein we have also forgotten\nto read, and have not kept ourselves from the paths of the destroyer.\nHere David was wiser than we; for, saith he, \"Concerning the works\nof men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of\nthe destroyer\" (Psa. 16:4). Thus they lay bewailing themselves in\nthe net. At last they espied a Shining One coming towards them,\nwith a whip of small cord in his hand. When he was come to the\nplace where they were, he asked them whence they came, and what\nthey did there. They told him that they were poor pilgrims going\nto Zion, but were led out of their way by a black man, clothed in\nwhite, who bid us, said they, follow him, for he was going thither\ntoo. Then said he with the whip, It is Flatterer, a false apostle,\nthat hath transformed himself into an angel of light (Prov. 29:5;\nDan. 11:32; 2 Cor. 11:13, 14). So he rent the net, and let the men\nout. Then said he to them, Follow me, that I may set you in your\nway again. So he led them back to the way which they had left to\nfollow the Flatterer. Then he asked them, saying, Where did you lie\nthe last night? They said, With the Shepherds, upon the Delectable\nMountains. He asked them then, if they had not of those Shepherds\na note of direction for the way. They answered, Yes. But did you,\nsaid he, when you were at a stand, pluck out and read your note?\nThey answered, No. He asked them, Why? They said, they forgot. He\nasked, moreover, if the Shepherds did not bid them beware of the\nFlatterer. They answered, Yes, but we did not imagine, said they,\nthat this fine-spoken man had been he[264] (Rom. 16:18).\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that he commanded them to lie down; which,\nwhen they did, he chastised them sore, to teach them the good way\nwherein they should walk, (Deut. 25:2); and as he chastised them,\nhe said, \"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous,\ntherefore, and repent\" (Rev. 3:19; 2 Chron. 6:26, 27). This done,\nhe bid them go on their way, and take good heed to the other\ndirections of the Shepherds. So they thanked him for all his\nkindness, and went softly along the right way, singing-\n\nCome hither, you that walk along the way; See how the pilgrims\nfare that go astray! They catched are in an entangling net, 'Cause\nthey good counsel lightly did forget: 'Tis true, they rescued were,\nbut yet you see, They're scourg'd to boot. Let this your caution\nbe.\n\nNow, after a while, they perceived, afar off, one coming softly\nand alone, all along the highway to meet them. Then said Christian\nto his fellow, Yonder is a man with his back toward Zion, and he\nis coming to meet us.\n\nHOPE. I see him, let us take heed to ourselves now, lest he should\nprove a flatterer also. So he drew nearer and nearer, and at last\ncame up unto them. His name was Atheist, and he asked them whither\nthey were going.\n\nCHR. We are going to the Mount Zion.\n\nThen Atheist fell into a very great laughter.\n\nCHR. What is the meaning of your laughter?\n\nATHEIST. I laugh to see what ignorant persons you are, to take\nupon you so tedious a journey, and yet are like to have nothing\nbut your travel for your pains.\n\nCHR. Why, man, do you think we shall not be received?\n\nATHEIST. Received! There is no such place as you dream of in all\nthis world.[265]\n\nCHR. But there is in the world to come.\n\nATHEIST. When I was at home in mine own country, I heard as you\nnow affirm, and from that hearing went out to see, and have been\nseeking this city this 20 years; but find no more of it than I\ndid the first day I set out (Jer. 22:12; Eccl. 10:15).\n\nCHR. We have both heard and believe that there is such a place to\nbe found.\n\nATHEIST. Had not I, when at home, believed, I had not come thus\nfar to seek; but finding none (and yet I should, had there been\nsuch a place to be found, for I have gone to seek it further than\nyou), I am going back again, and will seek to refresh myself with\nthe things that I then cast away, for hopes of that which, I now\nsee, is not.[266]\n\nCHR. Then said Christian to Hopeful his fellow, Is it true which\nthis man hath said?\n\nHOPE. Take heed, he is one of the flatterers; remember what it hath\ncost us once already for our hearkening to such kind of fellows.\nWhat! no Mount Zion? Did we not see, from the Delectable Mountains,\nthe gate of the city?[267] Also, are we not now to walk by faith?\nLet us go on, said Hopeful, lest the man with the whip overtake\nus again[268] (2 Cor. 5:7).\n\nYou should have taught me that lesson, which I will round[269] you\nin the ears withal: \"Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that\ncauseth to err from the words of knowledge\" (Prov. 19:17). I say,\nmy brother, cease to hear him, and let us \"believe to the saving\nof the soul\" (Heb. 10:39).\n\nCHR. My brother, I did not put the question to thee, for that I\ndoubted of the truth of our belief myself, but to prove thee, and\nto fetch from thee a fruit of the honesty of thy heart. As for\nthis man, I know that he is blinded by the god of this world. Let\nthee and I go on, knowing that we have belief of the truth, \"and\nno lie is of the truth\" (1 John 2:21).\n\nHOPE. Now do I rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So they turned\naway from the man; and he, laughing at them, went his way.\n\nI saw then in my dream, that they went till they came into a\ncertain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy,\nif he came a stranger into it. And here Hopeful began to be very\ndull and heavy of sleep; wherefore he said unto Christian, I do\nnow begin to grow so drowsy that I can scarcely hold up mine eyes;\nlet us lie down here, and take one nap.[270]\n\nCHR. By no means, said the other; lest, sleeping, we never awake\nmore.\n\nHOPE. Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the labouring man; we\nmay be refreshed if we take a nap.[271]\n\nCHR. Do you not remember that one of the Shepherds bid us beware\nof the Enchanted Ground?[272] He meant by that, that we should\nbeware of sleeping; \"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others,\nbut let us watch and be sober\"[273] (1 Thess. 5:6).\n\nHOPE. I acknowledge myself in a fault; and had I been here alone,\nI had by sleeping run the danger of death. I see it is true that\nthe wise man saith, \"Two are better than one.\" Hitherto hath thy\ncompany been my mercy, and thou shalt have a good reward for thy\nlabour. (Eccl. 4:9). CHR. Now then, said Christian, to prevent\ndrowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse.\n\nHOPE. With all my heart, said the other.\n\nCHR. Where shall we begin?\n\nHOPE. Where God began with us. But do you begin, if you please.\n\nCHR. I will sing you first this song-\n\nWhen saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither, And hear how\nthese two pilgrims talk together: Yea, let them learn of them, in\nany wise, Thus to keep ope their drowsy slumb'ring eyes. Saints'\nfellowship, if it be manag'd well, Keeps them awake, and that in\nspite of hell.\n\nCHR. Then Christian began, and said, I will ask you a question.\nHow came you to think at first of so doing as you do now?\n\nHOPE. Do you mean, how came I at first to look after the good of\nmy soul?\n\nCHR. Yes, that is my meaning.\n\nHOPE. I continued a great while in the delight of those things\nwhich were seen and sold at our fair; things which, I believe now,\nwould have, had I continued in them still, drowned me in perdition\nand destruction.\n\nCHR. What things were they?\n\nHOPE. All the treasures and riches of the world. Also I delighted\nmuch in rioting, revelling, drinking, swearing, lying, uncleanness,\nSabbath-breaking, and what not, that tended to destroy the soul.\nBut I found at last, by hearing and considering of things that are\nDivine, which indeed I heard of you, as also of beloved Faithful,\nthat was put to death for his faith and good living in Vanity Fair,\nthat \"the end of these things is death\" (Rev. 6:21-23). And that\nfor these things' sake, \"cometh the wrath of God upon the children\nof disobedience\" (Eph. 5:6).\n\nCHR. And did you presently fall under the power of this conviction?\n\nHOPE. No, I was not willing presently to know the evil of sin,\nnor the damnation that follows upon the commission of it; but\nendeavoured, when my mind at first began to be shaken with the\nWord, to shut mine eyes against the light thereof.\n\nCHR. But what was the cause of your carrying of it thus to the\nfirst workings of God's blessed Spirit upon you?\n\nHOPE. The causes were, 1. I was ignorant that this was the work\nof God upon me. I never thought that by awakenings for sin, God\nat first begins the conversion of a sinner. 2. Sin was yet very\nsweet to my flesh, and I was loath to leave it. 3. I could not tell\nhow to part with mine old companions, their presence and actions\nwere so desirable unto me. 4. The hours in which convictions were\nupon me, were such troublesome and such heart-affrighting hours,\nthat I could not bear, no not so much as the remembrance of them\nupon my heart.[274]\n\nCHR. Then, as it seems, sometimes you got rid of your trouble?\n\nHOPE. Yes, verily, but it would come into my mind again, and then\nI should be as bad, nay, worse than I was before.\n\nCHR. Why, what was it that brought your sins to mind again?\n\nHOPE. Many things; as,\n\n1. If I did but meet a good man in the streets; or,\n\n2. If I have heard any read in the Bible; or,\n\n3. If mine head did begin to ache; or,\n\n4. If I were told that some of my neighbours were sick; or,\n\n5. If I heard the bell toll for some that were dead; or,\n\n6. If I thought of dying myself; or,\n\n7. If I heard that sudden death happened to others;\n\n8. But especially, when I thought of myself, that I must quickly\ncome to judgment.\n\nCHR. And could you at any time, with ease, get off the guilt of\nsin,[275] when, by any of these ways, it came upon you?\n\nHOPE. No, not I, for then they got faster hold of my conscience;\nand then, if I did but think of going back to sin (though my mind\nwas turned against it), it would be double torment to me.\n\nCHR. And how did you do then?\n\nHOPE. I thought I must endeavour to mend my life; for else, thought\nI, I am sure to be damned.\n\nCHR. And did you endeavour to mend? HOPE. Yes; and fled from not\nonly my sins, but sinful company too; and betook me to religious\nduties, as prayer, reading, weeping for sin, speaking truth to\nmy neighbours, &c. These things did I, with many others, too much\nhere to relate.\n\nCHR. And did you think yourself well then?\n\nHOPE. Yes, for a while; but, at the last, my trouble came tumbling\nupon me again, and that over the neck of all my reformations.\n\nCHR. How came that about, since you were now reformed?\n\nHOPE. There were several things brought it upon me, especially\nsuch sayings as these: \"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags\"\n(Isa. 64:6). \"By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified\"\n(Gal. 2:16). \"When ye shall have done all those things, say, We\nare unprofitable\" (Luke 17:10); with many more such like. From\nwhence I began to reason with myself thus: If ALL my righteousnesses\nare filthy rags; if, by the deeds of the law, NO man can be\njustified; and if, when we have done ALL, we are yet unprofitable,\nthen it is but a folly to think of Heaven by the law. I further\nthought thus: If a man runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's\ndebt, and after that shall pay for all that he shall fetch; yet,\nif this old debt stands still in the book uncrossed, for that the\nshopkeeper may sue him, and cast him into prison till he shall\npay the debt.\n\nCHR. Well, and how did you apply this to yourself?\n\nHOPE. Why, I thought thus with myself: I have, by my sins, run\na great way into God's book, and that my now reforming will not\npay off that score; therefore I should think still, under all my\npresent amendments, But how shall I be freed from that damnation\nthat I have brought myself in danger of, by my former transgressions?\n\nCHR. A very good application; but, pray, go on.\n\nHOPE. Another thing that hath troubled me, even since my late\namendments, is, that if I look narrowly into the best of what I\ndo now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of\nthat I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that notwithstanding\nmy former fond conceits of myself and duties, I have committed\nsin enough in one duty to send me to hell,[276] though my former\nlife had been faultless.[277]\n\nCHR. And what did you do then?\n\nHOPE. Do! I could not tell what to do, until I brake my mind to\nFaithful, for he and I were well acquainted. And he told me, that\nunless I could obtain the righteousness of a man that never had\nsinned, neither mine own, nor all the righteousness of the world,\ncould save me.\n\nCHR. And did you think he spake true?\n\nHOPE. Had he told me so when I was pleased and satisfied with\nmine own amendment, I had called him fool for his pains; but now,\nsince I see mine own infirmity, and the sin that cleaves to my\nbest performance, I have been forced to be of his opinion.\n\nCHR. But did you think, when at first he suggested it to you,\nthat there was such a man to be found, of whom it might justly be\nsaid, that He never committed sin?\n\nHOPE. I must confess the words at first sounded strangely, but\nafter a little more talk and company with him, I had full conviction\nabout it.\n\nCHR. And did you ask him what man this was, and how you must be\njustified by Him?\n\nHOPE. Yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus, that dwelleth on\nthe right hand of the Most High. And thus, said he, you must be\njustified by Him, even by trusting to what He hath done by Himself\nin the days of His flesh, and suffered when He did hang on the\ntree. I asked him further, how that man's righteousness could be\nof that efficacy to justify another before God? And he told me He\nwas the mighty God, and did what He did, and died the death also,\nnot for Himself, but for me; to whom His doings, and the worthiness\nof them, should be imputed, if I believed on Him (Heb. 10; Rom.\n4; Col. 1; 1 Peter 1).\n\nCHR. And what did you do then?\n\nHOPE. I made my objections against my believing, for that I thought\nHe was not willing to save me.\n\nCHR. And what said Faithful to you then?\n\nHOPE. He bid me go to Him and see. Then I said it was presumption;\nbut he said, No, for I was invited to come (Matt. 11:28). Then he\ngave me a book of Jesus, His inditing, to encourage me the more\nfreely to come; and he said, concerning that book, that every\njot and tittle thereof stood firmer than Heaven and earth (Matt.\n24:35). Then I asked him, What I must do when I came; and he told\nme, I must entreat upon my knees, with all my heart and soul, the\nFather to reveal Him to me (Psa. 95:6; Dan. 6:10; Jer. 29:12, 13).\nThen I asked him further, how I must make my supplication to Him?\nAnd he said, Go, and thou shalt find Him upon a mercy-seat, where\nHe sits all the year long, to give pardon and forgiveness to them\nthat come. I told him that I knew not what to say when I came.\nAnd he bid me say to this effect, God be merciful to me a sinner,\nand make me to know and believe in Jesus Christ; for I see, that\nif His righteousness had not been, or I have not faith in that\nrighteousness, I am utterly cast away.[278] Lord, I have heard\nthat Thou art a merciful God, and hast ordained that Thy Son Jesus\nChrist should be the Saviour of the world; and moreover, that thou\nart willing to bestow Him upon such a poor sinner as I am (and I\nam a sinner indeed), Lord, take therefore this opportunity, and\nmagnify Thy grace in the salvation of my soul, through Thy Son\nJesus Christ. Amen. (Exo. 25:22; Lev. 16:2; Num. 7:89; Heb. 4:16).\n\nCHR. And did you do as you were bidden?\n\nHOPE. Yes; over, and over, and over.\n\nCHR. And did the Father reveal His Son to you?\n\nHOPE. Not at the first, nor second, nor third, nor fourth, nor\nfifth; no, nor at the sixth time neither.\n\nCHR. What did you do then?\n\nHOPE. What! why I could not tell what to do.\n\nCHR. Had you not thoughts of leaving off praying?\n\nHOPE. Yes, a hundred times twice told.\n\nCHR. And what was the reason you did not?\n\nHOPE. I believed that that was true which had been told me, to\nwit, that without the righteousness of this Christ, all the world\ncould not save me; and therefore, thought I with myself, if I leave\noff I die, and I can but die at the throne of grace. And withal,\nthis came into my mind, \"Though it tarry, wait for it; because it\nwill surely come, it will not tarry\" (Hab. 2:3). So I continued\npraying until the Father showed me His Son.[279]\n\nCHR. And how was He revealed unto you?\n\nHOPE. I did not see Him with my bodily eyes, but with the eyes of\nmy understanding (Eph. 1:18, 19); and thus it was: One day I was\nvery sad, I think sadder than at any one time in my life, and this\nsadness was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness\nof my sins. And as I was then looking for nothing but hell, and\nthe everlasting damnation of my soul, suddenly, as I thought,\nI saw the Lord Jesus look down from Heaven upon me, and saying,\n\"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved\" (Acts\n16:31).\n\nBut I replied, Lord, I am a great, a very great sinner. And He\nanswered, \"My grace is sufficient for thee\"[280] (2 Cor. 12:9).\nThen I said, But, Lord, what is believing? And then I saw from\nthat saying, \"He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that\nbelieveth on Me shall never thirst\"; that believing and coming\nwas all one; and that he that came, that is, ran out in his heart\nand affections after salvation by Christ, he indeed believed in\nChrist (John 6:35). Then the water stood in mine eyes, and I asked\nfurther, But, Lord, may such a great sinner as I am, be indeed\naccepted of Thee, and be saved by Thee? And I heard him say, \"And\nhim that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out\" (John 6:37).\nThen I said, But how, Lord, must I consider of Thee in my coming\nto Thee, that my faith may be placed aright upon Thee? Then He\nsaid, \"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners\" (1 Tim.\n1:15). \"He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one\nthat believeth\" (Rom. 10:4). \"He died for our sins, and rose again\nfor our justification\" (Rom. 4:25). \"He loved us, and washed us\nfrom our sins in His own blood\" (Rev. 1:5). \"He is mediator betwixt\nGod and us\" (1 Tim. 2:5). \"He ever liveth to make intercession\nfor us\" (Heb. 7:25). From all which I gathered, that I must look\nfor righteousness in His person, and for satisfaction for my sins\nby His blood; that what He did in obedience to His Father's law,\nand in submitting to the penalty thereof, was not for Himself, but\nfor him that will accept it for his salvation, and be thankful.\nAnd now was my heart full of joy, mine eyes full of tears, and\nmine affections running over with love to the name, people, and\nways of Jesus Christ.[281]\n\nCHR. This was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed; but tell\nme particularly what effect this had upon your spirit.[282]\n\nHOPE. It made me see that all the world, notwithstanding all the\nrighteousness thereof, is in a state of condemnation. It made me\nsee that God the Father, though He be just, can justly justify the\ncoming sinner. It made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my\nformer life, and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance;\nfor there never came thought into my heart before now, that showed\nme so the beauty of Jesus Christ. It made me love a holy life,\nand long to do something for the honour and glory of the name of\nthe Lord Jesus; yea, I thought that had I now a thousand gallons\nof blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord\nJesus.[283]\n\nI saw then in my dream that Hopeful looked back and saw Ignorance,\nwhom they had left behind, coming after. Look, said he to Christian,\nhow far yonder youngster loitereth behind.\n\nCHR. Aye, aye, I see him; he careth not for our company.\n\nHOPE. But I trow it would not have hurt him, had he kept pace with\nus hitherto.\n\nCHR. That is true; but I warrant you he thinketh otherwise.\n\nHOPE. That I think he doth; but, however, let us tarry for him.\nSo they did.\n\nThen Christian said to him, Come away, man, why do you stay so\nbehind?\n\nIGNOR. I take my pleasure in walking alone, even more a great deal\nthan in company, unless I like it the better.[284]\n\nThen said Christian to Hopeful (but softly), Did I not tell you\nhe cared not for our company? But, however, said he, come up, and\nlet us talk away the time in this solitary place. Then, directing\nhis speech to Ignorance, he said, Come, how do you? How stands it\nbetween God and your soul now?\n\nIGNOR. I hope well; for I am always full of good motions, that\ncome into my mind, to comfort me as I walk (Prov. 28:26).\n\nCHR. What good motions? pray, tell us.\n\nIGNOR. Why, I think of God and Heaven.\n\nCHR. So do the devils and damned souls.\n\nIGNOR. But I think of them, and desire them.[285]\n\nCHR. So do many that are never like to come there. \"The soul of\nthe sluggard desireth, and hath nothing\" (Prov. 13:4).\n\nIGNOR. But I think of them, and leave all for them.\n\nCHR. That I doubt; for leaving all is a hard matter; yea, a harder\nmatter than many are aware of. But why, or by what, art thou\npersuaded that thou hast left all for God and Heaven?\n\nIGNOR. My heart tells me so.\n\nCHR. The wise man says, \"He that trusts his own heart is a fool\"[286]\n(Prov. 28:26).\n\nIGNOR. This is spoken of an evil heart, but mine is a good one.\n\nCHR. But how dost thou prove that?\n\nIGNOR. It comforts me in hopes of Heaven.\n\nCHR. That may be through its deceitfulness; for a man's heart may\nminister comfort to him in the hopes of that thing, for which he\nyet has no ground to hope.\n\nIGNOR. But my heart and life agree together, and therefore my hope\nis well grounded.\n\nCHR. Who told thee that thy heart and life agree together?\n\nIGNOR. My heart tells me so.\n\nCHR. Ask my fellow if I be a thief! Thy heart tells thee so! Except\nthe Word of God beareth witness in this matter, other testimony\nis of no value.\n\nIGNOR. But is it not a good heart that hath good thoughts? and is\nnot that a good life that is according to God's commandments?\n\nCHR. Yea, that is a good heart that hath good thoughts, and that\nis a good life that is according to God's commandments; but it is\none thing, indeed, to have these, and another thing only to think\nso.\n\nIGNOR. Pray, what count you good thoughts, and a life according\nto God's commandments?\n\nCHR. There are good thoughts of divers kinds; some respecting\nourselves, some God, some Christ, and some other thing.\n\nIGNOR. What be good thoughts respecting ourselves?\n\nCHR. Such as agree with the Word of God.\n\nIGNOR. When do our thoughts of ourselves agree with the Word of\nGod?\n\nCHR. When we pass the same judgment upon ourselves which the Word\npasses. To explain myself-the Word of God saith of persons in a\nnatural condition, \"There is none righteous, there is none that\ndoeth good\" (Rom. 3). It saith also, that \"every imagination of\nthe heart of man is only evil, and that continually\" (Gen. 6:5).\nAnd again, \"The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth\"\n(Gen. 8:21). Now then, when we think thus of ourselves, having\nsense thereof then are our thoughts good ones, because according\nto the Word of God.\n\nIGNOR. I will never believe that my heart is thus bad.\n\nCHR. Therefore thou never hadst one good thought concerning thyself\nin thy life. But let me go on. As the Word passeth a judgment\nupon our heart, so it passeth a judgment upon our ways; and when\nour thoughts of our hearts and ways agree with the judgment which\nthe Word giveth of both, then are both good, because agreeing\nthereto.\n\nIGNOR. Make out your meaning.\n\nCHR. Why, the Word of God saith that man's ways are crooked ways;\nnot good, but perverse (Psa. 125; Prov. 2:15). It saith they are\nnaturally out of the good way, that they have not known it (Rom.\n3). Now, when a man thus thinketh of his ways; I say, when he\ndoth sensibly, and with heart humiliation, thus think, then hath\nhe good thoughts of his own ways, because his thoughts now agree\nwith the judgment of the Word of God.[287]\n\nIGNOR. What are good thoughts concerning God?\n\nCHR. Even as I have said concerning ourselves, when our thoughts\nof God do agree with what the Word saith of Him; and that is, when\nwe think of His being and attributes as the Word hath taught, of\nwhich I cannot now discourse at large; but to speak of Him with\nreference to us: Then we have right thoughts of God, when we think\nthat He knows us better than we know ourselves, and can see sin\nin us when and where we can see none in ourselves; when we think\nHe knows our inmost thoughts, and that our heart, with all its\ndepths, is always open unto His eyes; also, when we think that all\nour righteousness stinks in His nostrils, and that, therefore, He\ncannot abide to see us stand before Him in any confidence, even\nin all our best performances.\n\nIGNOR. Do you think that I am such a fool as to think God can see\nno further than I? or, that I would come to God in the best of my\nperformances?\n\nCHR. Why, how dost thou think in this matter?\n\nIGNOR. Why, to be short, I think I must believe in Christ for\njustification.\n\nCHR. How! think thou must believe in Christ, when thou seest\nnot thy need of Him! Thou neither seest thy original nor actual\ninfirmities; but hast such an opinion of thyself, and of what\nthou dost, as plainly renders thee to be one that did never see\na necessity of Christ's personal righteousness to justify thee\nbefore God.[288] How, then, dost thou say, I believe in Christ?\n\nIGNOR. I believe well enough for all that.\n\nCHR. How dost thou believe?\n\nIGNOR. I believe that Christ died for sinners; and that I shall\nbe justified before God from the curse, through His gracious\nacceptance of my obedience to His law. Or thus, Christ makes my\nduties, that are religious, acceptable to His Father, by virtue\nof His merits; and so shall I be justified.[289]\n\nCHR. Let me give an answer to this confession of thy faith.\n\n1. Thou believest with a fantastical faith; for this faith is\nnowhere described in the Word.\n\n2. Thou believest with a false faith; because it taketh justification\nfrom the personal righteousness of Christ, and applies it to thy\nown.[290]\n\n3. This faith maketh not Christ a justifier of thy person, but\nof thy actions; and of thy person for thy actions' sake, which is\nfalse.[291]\n\n4. Therefore, this faith is deceitful, even such as will leave\nthee under wrath, in the day of God Almighty; for true justifying\nfaith puts the soul, as sensible of its lost condition by the\nlaw, upon flying for refuge unto Christ's righteousness, which\nrighteousness of His is not an act of grace, by which He maketh, for\njustification, thy obedience accepted with God; but His personal\nobedience to the law, in doing and suffering for us what that\nrequired at our hands; this righteousness, I say, true faith\naccepteth; under the skirt of which, the soul being shrouded, and\nby it presented as spotless before God, it is accepted, and acquit\nfrom condemnation.[292]\n\nIGNOR. What! would you have us trust to what Christ, in His own\nperson, has done without us? This conceit would loosen the reins\nof our lust, and tolerate us to live as we list; for what matter\nhow we live, if we may be justified by Christ's personal righteousness\nfrom all, when we believe it?\n\nCHR. Ignorance is thy name, and as thy name is, so art thou; even\nthis thy answer demonstrateth what I say. Ignorant thou art of\nwhat justifying righteousness is, and as ignorant how to secure\nthy soul, through the faith of it, from the heavy wrath of God.\nYea, thou also art ignorant of the true effects of saving faith\nin this righteousness of Christ, which is, to bow and win over\nthe heart to God in Christ, to love His name, His Word, ways, and\npeople, and not as thou ignorantly imaginest.\n\nHOPE. Ask him if ever he had Christ revealed to him from Heaven.[293]\n\nIGNOR. What! you are a man for revelations! I believe that what\nboth you, and all the rest of you, say about that matter, is but\nthe fruit of distracted brains.\n\nHOPE. Why, man! Christ is so hid in God from the natural apprehensions\nof the flesh, that He cannot by any man be savingly known, unless\nGod the Father reveals Him to them.[294]\n\nIGNOR. That is your faith, but not mine; yet mine, I doubt not,\nis as good as yours, though I have not in my head so many whimsies\nas you.\n\nCHR. Give me leave to put in a word. You ought not so slightly to\nspeak of this matter; for this I will boldly affirm, even as my\ngood companion hath done, that no man can know Jesus Christ but by\nthe revelation of the Father (Matt. 11:27); yea, and faith too,\nby which the soul layeth hold upon Christ, if it be right, must be\nwrought by the exceeding greatness of His mighty power; the working\nof which faith, I perceive, poor Ignorance, thou art ignorant\nof (1 Cor. 12:3; Eph 1:18, 19). Be awakened then, see thine own\nwretchedness, and fly to the Lord Jesus; and by His righteousness,\nwhich is the righteousness of God, for He Himself is God, thou\nshalt be delivered from condemnation.[295]\n\nIGNOR. You go so fast, I cannot keep pace with you. Do you go on\nbefore; I must stay a while behind.[296]\n\nThen they said-\n\nWell, Ignorance, wilt thou yet foolish be, To slight good counsel,\nten times given thee? And if thou yet refuse it, thou shalt know,\nEre long, the evil of thy doing so. Remember, man, in time, stoop,\ndo not fear; Good counsel taken well, saves: therefore hear. But\nif thou yet shalt slight it, thou wilt be The loser (Ignorance)\nI'll warrant thee.\n\nThen Christian addressed thus himself to his fellow-\n\nCHR. Well, come, my good Hopeful, I perceive that thou and I must\nwalk by ourselves again.\n\nSo I saw in my dream that they went on apace before, and Ignorance\nhe came bobbling after. Then said Christian to his companion, It\npities me much for this poor man, it will certainly go ill with\nhim at last.\n\nHOPE. Alas! there are abundance in our town in his condition,\nwhole families, yea, whole streets, and that of pilgrims too; and\nif there be so many in our parts, how many, think you, must there\nbe in the place where he was born?\n\nCHR. Indeed the Word saith, \"He hath blinded their eyes, lest they\nshould see,\" &c. But now we are by ourselves, what do you think\nof such men? Have they at no time, think you, convictions of sin,\nand so consequently fears that their state is dangerous?\n\nHOPE. Nay, do you answer that question yourself, for you are the\nelder man.\n\nCHR. Then I say, sometimes (as I think) they may; but they being\nnaturally ignorant, understand not that such convictions tend to\ntheir good; and therefore they do desperately seek to stifle them,\nand presumptuously continue to flatter themselves in the way of\ntheir own hearts.\n\nHOPE. I do believe, as you say, that fear tends much to men's\ngood, and to make them right, at their beginning to go on pilgrimage.\n\nCHR. Without all doubt it doth, if it be right; for so says the\nWord, \"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom\"[297] (Prov.\n1:7; 9:10; Psa. 111:10; Job. 28:28).\n\nHOPE. How will you describe right fear?\n\nCHR. True or right fear is discovered by three things-\n\n1. By its rise; it is caused by saving convictions for sin.\n\n2. It driveth the soul to lay fast hold of Christ for salvation.\n\n3. It begetteth and continueth in the soul a great reverence of\nGod, his Word, and ways, keeping it tender, and making it afraid\nto turn from them, to the right hand or to the left, to anything,\nthat may dishonour God, break its peace, grieve the Spirit, or\ncause the enemy to speak reproachfully.[298]\n\nHOPE. Well said; I believe you have said the truth. Are we now\nalmost got past the Enchanted Ground?\n\nCHR. Why, art thou weary of this discourse?\n\nHOPE. No, verily, but that I would know where we are.\n\nCHR. We have not now above two miles further to go thereon. But\nlet us return to our matter. Now the ignorant know not that such\nconvictions as tend to put them in fear are for their good, and\ntherefore they seek to stifle them.\n\nHOPE. How do they seek to stifle them?\n\nCHR. 1. They think that those fears are wrought by the devil\n(though indeed they are wrought of God); and, thinking so, they\nresist them as things that directly tend to their overthrow. 2.\nThey also think that these fears tend to the spoiling of their\nfaith, when, alas for them, poor men that they are, they have none\nat all! and therefore they harden their hearts against them. 3.\nThey presume they ought not to fear; and therefore, in despite of\nthem, wax presumptuously confident. 4. They see that those fears\ntend to take away from them their pitiful old self-holiness,[299]\nand therefore they resist them with all their might.\n\nHOPE. I know something of this myself; for, before I knew myself,\nit was so with me.[300]\n\nCHR. Well, we will leave, at this time, our neighbour Ignorance\nby himself, and fall upon another profitable question.\n\nHOPE. With all my heart, but you shall still begin.\n\nCHR. Well then, did you not know, about 10 years ago, one Temporary\nin your parts, who was a forward man in religion then?[301]\n\nHOPE. Know him! yes, he dwelt in Graceless, a town about two miles\noff of Honesty, and he dwelt next door to one Turnback.\n\nCHR. Right, he dwelt under the same roof with him. Well, that man\nwas much awakened once; I believe that then he had some sight of\nhis sins, and of the wages that were due thereto.\n\nHOPE. I am of your mind, for, my house not being above three miles\nfrom him, he would ofttimes come to me, and that with many tears.\nTruly I pitied the man, and was not altogether without hope of\nhim; but one may see, it is not every one that cries, Lord, Lord.\n\nCHR. He told me once that he was resolved to go on pilgrimage,\nas we do now; but all of a sudden he grew acquainted with one\nSave-self, and then he became a stranger to me.\n\nHOPE. Now, since we are talking about him, let us a little inquire\ninto the reason of the sudden backsliding of him and such others.\n\nCHR. It may be very profitable, but do you begin.\n\nHOPE. Well then, there are in my judgment four reasons for it-\n\n1. Though the consciences of such men are awakened, yet their\nminds are not changed; therefore, when the power of guilt weareth\naway, that which provoked them to be religious ceaseth, wherefore\nthey naturally turn to their own course again, even as we see the\ndog that is sick of what he has eaten, so long as his sickness\nprevails, he vomits and casts up all; not that he doth this\nof a free mind (if we may say a dog has a mind), but because it\ntroubleth his stomach; but now, when his sickness is over, and so\nhis stomach eased, his desire being not at all alienate from his\nvomit, he turns him about and licks up all, and so it is true which\nis written, \"The dog is turned to his own vomit again\" (2 Peter\n2:22).[302] Thus I say, being hot for Heaven, by virtue only of\nthe sense and fear of the torments of hell, as their sense of hell,\nand the fears of damnation, chills and cools, so their desires for\nHeaven and salvation cool also. So then it comes to pass, that\nwhen their guilt and fear is gone, their desires for Heaven and\nhappiness die, and they return to their course again.[303]\n\n2. Another reason is, they have slavish fears that do overmaster\nthem; I speak now of the fears that they have of men, for \"the\nfear of man bringeth a snare\" (Prov. 29:25). So then, though they\nseem to be hot for Heaven, so long as the flames of hell are about\ntheir ears, yet, when that terror is a little over, they betake\nthemselves to second thoughts; namely, that it is good to be\nwise, and not to run (for they know not what) the hazard of losing\nall, or, at least, of bringing themselves into unavoidable and\nunnecessary troubles, and so they fall in with the world again.\n\n3. The shame that attends religion lies also as a block in their\nway; they are proud and haughty, and religion in their eye is low\nand contemptible; therefore, when they have lost their sense of\nhell and wrath to come, they return again to their former course.\n\n4. Guilt, and to meditate terror, are grievous to them. They like\nnot to see their misery before they come into it; though perhaps\nthe sight of it first, if they loved that sight, might make them\nfly whither the righteous fly and are safe. But because they do,\nas I hinted before, even shun the thoughts of guilt and terror,\ntherefore, when once they are rid of their awakenings about the\nterrors and wrath of God, they harden their hearts gladly, and\nchoose such ways as will harden them more and more.\n\nCHR. You are pretty near the business, for the bottom of all is,\nfor want of a change in their mind and will. And therefore they\nare but like the felon that standeth before the judge, he quakes\nand trembles, and seems to repent most heartily, but the bottom\nof all is the fear of the halter; not that he hath any detestation\nof the offence, as is evident, because, let but this man have his\nliberty, and he will be a thief, and so a rogue still, whereas,\nif his mind were changed, he would be otherwise.\n\nHOPE. Now, I have showed you the reasons of their going back, do\nyou show me the manner thereof.[304]\n\nCHR. So I will, willingly.\n\n1. They draw off their thoughts, all that they may, from the\nremembrance of God, death, and judgment to come.\n\n2. Then they cast off by degrees private duties, as closet prayer,\ncurbing their lusts, watching, sorrow for sin, and the like.\n\n3. Then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians.\n\n4. After that, they grow cold to public duty, as hearing, reading,\ngodly conference, and the like.\n\n5. Then they begin to pick holes, as we say, in the coats of some\nof the godly; and that devilishly, that they may have a seeming\ncolour to throw religion (for the sake of some infirmity they have\nespied in them) behind their backs.\n\n6. Then they begin to adhere to, and associate themselves with,\ncarnal, loose, and wanton men.\n\n7. Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret;\nand glad are they if they can see such things in any that are\ncounted honest, that they may the more boldly do it through their\nexample.\n\n8. After this, they begin to play with little sins openly.\n\n9. And then, being hardened, they show themselves as they are.\nThus, being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a\nmiracle of grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their\nown deceivings.[305]\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that by this time the Pilgrims were got\nover the Enchanted Ground, and entering into the country of Beulah,\nwhose air was very sweet and pleasant, the way lying directly through\nit, they solaced themselves there for a season (Isa. 62:4). Yea,\nhere they heard continually the singing of birds, and saw every\nday the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of the\nturtle in the land (Song. 2:10-12). In this country the sun shineth\nnight and day; wherefore this was beyond the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death, and also out of the reach of Giant Despair, neither\ncould they from this place so much as see Doubting Castle.[306]\nHere they were within sight of the city they were going to, also\nhere met them some of the inhabitants thereof; for in this land\nthe Shining Ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders\nof Heaven. In this land also the contract between the bride and the\nbridegroom was renewed; yea, here, \"As the bridegroom rejoiceth\nover the bride, so did their God rejoice over them\" (Isa. 62:5).\nHere they had no want of corn and wine; for in this place they met\nwith abundance of what they had sought for in all their pilgrimage\n(v. 8). Here they heard voices from out of the city, loud voices,\nsaying, \"Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation\ncometh! Behold, His reward is with Him!\" (v. 11). Here all the\ninhabitants of the country called them, \"The holy people, The\nredeemed of the Lord, Sought out,\" &c. (v. 12).\n\nNow, as they walked in this land, they had more rejoicing than in\nparts more remote from the kingdom to which they were bound; and\ndrawing near to the city, they had yet a more perfect view thereof.\nIt was builded of pearls and precious stones, also the street\nthereof was paved with gold; so that by reason of the natural\nglory of the city, and the reflection of the sunbeams upon it,\nChristian with desire fell sick. Hopeful also had a fit or two\nof the same disease.[307] Wherefore, here they lay by it a while,\ncrying out, because of their pangs, \"If ye find my Beloved, tell\nHim that I am sick of love[308]\" (Song. 5:8).\n\nBut being a little strengthened, and better able to bear their\nsickness, they walked on their way, and came yet nearer and nearer,\nwhere were orchards, vineyards, and gardens, and their gates opened\ninto the highway. Now, as they came up to these places, behold,\nthe gardener stood in the way, to whom the Pilgrims said, Whose\ngoodly vineyards and gardens are these? He answered, They are the\nKing's, and are planted here for His own delight, and also for the\nsolace of pilgrims. So the gardener had them into the vineyards,\nand bid them refresh themselves with the dainties (Deut. 23:24).\nHe also showed them there the King's walks, and the arbours, where\nHe delighted to be; and here they tarried and slept.[309]\n\nNow I beheld in my dream, that they talked more in their sleep at\nthis time than ever they did in all their journey; and being in\na muse thereabout, the gardener said even to me, Wherefore musest\nthou at the matter? It is the nature of the fruit of the grapes\nof these vineyards to go down so sweetly, as to cause the lips of\nthem that are asleep to speak.[310]\n\nSo I saw that when they awoke, they addressed themselves to go up\nto the city. But, as I said, the reflection of the sun upon the\ncity (for \"the city was pure gold),\" (Rev. 21:18), was so extremely\nglorious, that they could not, as yet, with open face behold it,\nbut through an instrument made for that purpose (2 Cor. 3:18). So\nI saw, that as they went on, there met them two men, in raiment\nthat shone like gold; also their faces shone as the light.[311]\n\nThese men asked the Pilgrims whence they came; and they told them.\nThey also asked them where they had lodged, what difficulties and\ndangers, what comforts and pleasures they had met in the way; and\nthey told them. Then said the men that met them, You have but two\ndifficulties more to meet with, and then you are in the city.[312]\n\nChristian then, and his companion, asked the men to go along\nwith them; so they told them they would. But, said they, you must\nobtain it by your own faith. So I saw in my dream that they went\non together, until they came in sight of the gate.\n\nNow, I further saw, that betwixt them and the gate was a river,\nbut there was no bridge to go over; the river was very deep. At the\nsight, therefore, of this river, the Pilgrims were much stunned:\nbut the men that went with them said, You must go through, or you\ncannot come at the gate.[313]\n\nThe Pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to\nthe gate; to which they answered, Yes; but there hath not any,\nsave two, to wit, Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that\npath, since the foundation of the world, nor shall, until the\nlast trumpet shall sound (1 Cor. 15:51, 52). The Pilgrims then,\nespecially Christian, began to despond in their minds, and looked\nthis way and that, but no way could be found by them, by which\nthey might escape the river.[314] Then they asked the men if the\nwaters were all of a depth. They said, No; yet they could not\nhelp them in that case; for, said they, you shall find it deeper\nor shallower, as you believe in the King of the place.\n\nThey then addressed themselves to the water; and entering, Christian\nbegan to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said,\nI sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head, all his waves\ngo over me! Selah.[315]\n\nThen said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the\nbottom, and it is good. Then, said Christian, Ah! my friend, \"the\nsorrows of death have compassed me about\"; I shall not see the\nland that flows with milk and honey; and with that a great darkness\nand horror fell upon Christian, so that he could not see before\nhim. Also here he in great measure lost his senses, so that he\ncould neither remember, nor orderly talk of any of those sweet\nrefreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage.\nBut all the words that he spake still tended to discover that he\nhad horror of mind, and heart fears that he should die in that\nriver, and never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here also, as they\nthat stood by perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts\nof the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began\nto be a pilgrim. It was also observed that he was troubled with\napparitions of hobgoblins and evil spirits; for ever and anon he\nwould intimate so much by words.[316] Hopeful, therefore, here had\nmuch ado to keep his brother's head above water; yea, sometimes\nhe would be quite gone down, and then, ere awhile, he would rise\nup again half dead. Hopeful also would endeavour to comfort him,\nsaying, Brother, I see the gate, and men standing by to receive\nus; but Christian would answer, It is you, it is you they wait\nfor; you have been Hopeful ever since I knew you.[317] And so\nhave you, said he to Christian. Ah, brother! said he, surely if I\nwere right He would now arise to help me; but for my sins He hath\nbrought me into the snare, and hath left me. Then said Hopeful,\nMy brother, you have quite forgot the text, where it is said of\nthe wicked, \"There are no bands in their death; but their strength\nis firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they\nplagued like other men\" (Psa. 73:4, 5). These troubles and distresses\nthat you go through in these waters are no sign that God hath\nforsaken you; but are sent to try you, whether you will call to\nmind that which heretofore you have received of His goodness, and\nlive upon Him in your distresses.[318]\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that Christian was as in a muse a while.\nTo whom also Hopeful added this word, Be of good cheer, Jesus\nChrist maketh thee whole;[319] and with that Christian brake out\nwith a loud voice, O! I see Him again, and He tells me, \"When thou\npassest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the\nrivers, they shall not overflow thee\" (Isa. 43:2). Then they both\ntook courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone,\nuntil they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found\nground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river\nwas but shallow. Thus they got over.[320] Now, upon the bank of\nthe river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again,\nwho there waited for them; wherefore, being come out of the river,\nthey saluted them, saying, We are ministering spirits, sent forth\nto minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation. Thus they\nwent along towards the gate.[321] Now you must note that the city\nstood upon a mighty hill, but the Pilgrims went up that hill with\nease, because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms;\nalso, they had left their mortal garments behind them in the\nriver, for though they went in with them, they came out without\nthem. They, therefore, went up here with much agility and speed,\nthough the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher\nthan the clouds.[322] They, therefore, went up through the regions\nof the air, sweetly talking as they went, being comforted, because\nthey safely got over the river, and had such glorious companions\nto attend them.[323]\n\nThe talk they had with the Shining Ones was about the glory of\nthe place; who told them that the beauty and glory of it was\ninexpressible. There, said they, is the \"Mount Zion, the heavenly\nJerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of\njust men made perfect\" (Heb. 12:22-24). You are going now, said\nthey, to the paradise of God, wherein you shall see the tree of\nlife, and eat of the never-fading fruits thereof; and when you\ncome there, you shall have white robes given you, and your walk\nand talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of\neternity (Rev. 2:7; 3:4; 22:5). There you shall not see again\nsuch things as you saw when you were in the lower region upon the\nearth, to wit, sorrow, sickness, affliction, and death, \"for the\nformer things are passed away.\" You are now going to Abraham, to\nIsaac, and Jacob, and to the prophets-men that God hath taken away\nfrom the evil to come, and that are now resting upon their beds,\neach one walking in his righteousness[324] (Isa. 57:1, 2; 65:17).\nThe men then asked, What must we do in the holy place? To whom\nit was answered, You must there receive the comforts of all your\ntoil, and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you\nhave sown, even the fruit of all your prayers, and tears, and\nsufferings for the King by the way (Gal. 6:7). In that place you\nmust wear crowns of gold, and enjoy the perpetual sight and vision\nof the Holy One, for \"there you shall see Him as He is\" (1 John\n3:2). There also you shall serve Him continually with praise,\nwith shouting and thanksgiving, whom you desired to serve in the\nworld, though with much difficulty, because of the infirmity of\nyour flesh. There your eyes shall be delighted with seeing, and\nyour ears with hearing the pleasant voice of the Mighty One. There\nyou shall enjoy your friends again, that are gone thither before\nyou; and there you shall with joy receive, even every one that\nfollows into the holy place after you. There also shall you be\nclothed with glory and majesty, and put into an equipage fit to\nride out with the King of glory. When He shall come with sound of\ntrumpet in the clouds, as upon the wings of the wind, you shall\ncome with Him; and when He shall sit upon the throne of judgment,\nyou shall sit by Him; yea, and when He shall pass sentence upon\nall the workers of iniquity, let them be angels or men, you also\nshall have a voice in that judgment, because they were His and your\nenemies (1 Thess. 4:13-17; Jude 14; Dan. 7:9, 10; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3).\nAlso when He shall again return to the city, you shall go too,\nwith sound of trumpet, and be ever with Him.\n\nNow, while they were thus drawing towards the gate, behold a company\nof the heavenly host came out to meet them; to whom it was said,\nby the other two Shining Ones, These are the men that have loved\nour Lord when they were in the world, and that have left all for\nHis holy name; and He hath sent us to fetch them, and we have\nbrought them thus far on their desired journey, that they may go\nin and look their Redeemer in the face with joy. Then the heavenly\nhost gave a great shout, saying, \"Blessed are they which are\ncalled unto the marriage supper of the Lamb\" (Rev. 19:9). There\ncame out also at this time to meet them, several of the King's\ntrumpeters, clothed in white and shining raiment, who, with melodious\nnoises, and loud, made even the heavens to echo with their sound.\nThese trumpeters saluted Christian and his fellow with 10,000\nwelcomes from the world; and this they did with shouting, and\nsound of trumpet.\n\nThis done, they compassed them round on every side; some went\nbefore, some behind, and some on the right hand, some on the left\n(as it were to guard them through the upper regions), continually\nsounding as they went, with melodious noise, in notes on high;\nso that the very sight was to them that could behold it, as if\nHeaven itself was come down to meet them.[325] Thus, therefore,\nthey walked on together; and as they walked, ever and anon these\ntrumpeters, even with joyful sound, would, by mixing their music\nwith looks and gestures, still signify to Christian and his brother,\nhow welcome they were into their company, and with what gladness\nthey came to meet them; and now were these two men, as it were,\nin Heaven, before they came at it, being swallowed up with the\nsight of angels, and with hearing of their melodious notes. Here\nalso they had the city itself in view, and they thought they heard\nall the bells therein to ring, to welcome them thereto. But above\nall, the warm and joyful thoughts that they had about their own\ndwelling there, with such company, and that forever and ever. O\nby what tongue or pen can their glorious joy be expressed![326]\nAnd thus they came up to the gate.\n\nNow, when they were come up to the gate, there was written over\nit in letters of gold, \"Blessed are they that do His commandments,\nthat they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in\nthrough the gates into the city\" (Rev. 22:14).\n\nThen I saw in my dream, that the Shining Men bid them call at the\ngate; the which, when they did, some looked from above over the\ngate, to wit, Enoch, Moses, and Elijah, &c., to whom it was said,\nThese pilgrims are come from the City of Destruction, for the love\nthat they bear to the King of this place; and then the pilgrims\ngave in unto them each man his certificate,[327] which they had\nreceived in the beginning; those, therefore, were carried into\nthe King, who, when He had read them, said, Where are the men?\nTo whom it was answered, They are standing without the gate. The\nKing then commanded to open the gate, \"That the righteous nation,\"\nsaid He, \"which keepeth the truth, may enter in\"[328] (Isa. 26:2).\n\nNow I saw in my dream that these two men went in at the gate; and\nlo, as they entered, they were transfigured, and they had raiment\nput on that shone like gold. There were also that met them with\nharps and crowns, and gave them to them-the harps to praise withal,\nand the crowns in token of honour. Then I heard in my dream that\nall the bells in the city rang again for joy, and that it was said\nunto them, \"ENTER YE INTO THE JOY OF YOUR LORD.\"[329] I also heard\nthe men themselves, that they sang with a loud voice, saying,\n\"BLESSING, AND HONOUR, AND GLORY, AND POWER, BE UNTO HIM THAT SITTETH\nUPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB, FOREVER AND EVER\" (Rev. 5:13).\n\nNow just as the gates were opened to let in the men, I looked in\nafter them, and, behold, the City shone like the sun; the streets\nalso were paved with gold, and in them walked many men, with\ncrowns on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps to\nsing praises withal. There were also of them that had wings, and\nthey answered one another without intermission, saying, \"Holy,\nholy, holy, is the Lord\" (Rev. 4:8). And after that, they shut up\nthe gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them.\n\nNow while I was gazing upon all these things, I turned my head to\nlook back, and saw Ignorance come up to the river side; but he\nsoon got over, and that without half that difficulty which the\nother two men met with.[330] For it happened that there was then\nin that place, one Vain-hope,[331] a ferryman, that with his boat\nhelped him over; so he, as the other I saw, did ascend the hill,\nto come up to the gate, only he came alone; neither did any man\nmeet him with the least encouragement. When he was come up to\nthe gate, he looked up to the writing that was above, and then\nbegan to knock, supposing that entrance should have been quickly\nadministered to him; but he was asked by the men that looked over\nthe top of the gate, Whence came you? and what would you have? He\nanswered, I have eat and drank in the presence of the King, and He\nhas taught in our streets. Then they asked him for his certificate,\nthat they might go in and show it to the King; so he fumbled in\nhis bosom for one, and found none. Then said they, Have you none?\nBut the man answered never a word. So they told the King, but He\nwould not come down to see him, but commanded the two Shining Ones\nthat conducted Christian and Hopeful to the City, to go out and\ntake Ignorance, and bind him hand and foot, and have him away.\nThen they took him up, and carried him through the air, to the door\nthat I saw in the side of the hill, and put him in there. Then I\nsaw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of Heaven,\nas well as from the City of Destruction![332] So I awoke, and\nbehold it was a dream.\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nNow, READER, I have told my dream to thee; See if thou canst\ninterpret it to me, Or to thyself, or neighbour; but take heed Of\nmisinterpreting; for that, instead Of doing good, will but thyself\nabuse: By misinterpreting, evil ensues.\n\nTake heed also, that thou be not extreme, In playing with the\noutside of my dream: Nor let my figure or similitude Put thee\ninto a laughter or a feud. Leave this for boys and fools; but as\nfor thee, Do thou the substance of my matter see.\n\nPut by the curtains, look within my veil, Turn up my metaphors,\nand do not fail; There, if thou seekest them, such things to find,\nAs will be helpful to an honest mind.\n\nWhat of my dross thou findest there, be bold To throw away, but\nyet preserve the gold; What if my gold be wrapped up in ore?--None\nthrows away the apple for the core. But if thou shalt cast all\naway as vain, I know not but 'twill make me dream again.\n\nTHE END OF THE FIRST PART.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The jail. Mr. Bunyan wrote this precious book in Bedford\njail, where he was imprisoned 12 years for preaching the Gospel.\nHis bonds were those of the Gospel; and, like Peter, he could\nsleep soundly in prison. Blessed be God for even the toleration\nand religious privileges we now enjoy in consequence of it.\nOur author, thus prevented from preaching, turned his thoughts\nto writing; and, during his confinement, composed \"The Pilgrim's\nProgress,\" and many other useful works. Thus the Lord causes \"the\nwrath of man to praise Him.\" The servants of Christ, when restrained\nby wicked laws from publishing the word of life from the pulpit,\nhave become more abundantly useful by their writings-(G. Burder).\n\n[2] You will observe what honour, from his Pilgrim's first setting\nout, Bunyan puts upon the Word of God. He would give to no inferior\ninstrumentality, not even to one of God's providences, the business\nof awakening his Pilgrim to a sense of his danger; but he places\nhim before us reading his book, awakened by the Word. And he\nmakes the first efficacious motive in the mind of this Pilgrim a\nsalutary fear of the terrors of that Word, a sense of the wrath\nto come, beneath the burden of sin upon his soul-(Cheever, Lect.\n6). The alarms of such an awakened soul are very different from the\nterrors of superstitious ignorance, which, arising from fright\nor danger, are easily quitted, with the silly mummeries of\npriestcraft-(Andronicus).\n\n[3] \"What shall I do?\" This is his first exclamation. He has not\nas yet advanced so far as to say, What shall I do to be saved?-(Cheever,\nLect. 6).\n\n[4] Sometimes I have been so loaden with my sins, that I could not\ntell where to rest, nor what to do; yea, at such times, I thought\nit would have taken away my senses-(Bunyan's Law and Grace). [5]\nSee the picture of a true penitent; a deep sense of danger, and\nsolemn concern for his immortal soul, and for his wife and children;\nclothed with rags; his face turned from his house; studying the\nBible with intense interest; a great burden on his back; praying;\n\"the remembrance of his sins is grievous, and the burden of them\nis intolerable.\" Reader, have you felt this?-(Dr. Dodd).\n\n[6] Reader! be persuaded to pause a moment, and ask yourself the\nquestion-What is my case? Did I ever feel a deep concern about my\nsoul? Did I ever see my danger as a sinner? Did I ever exclaim, in\nthe agony of my spirit, \"What must I do to be saved?\" Be assured\nthat real godliness begins in feeling the burden of sin-(G. Border).\n\n[7] The advice is to fly at once to Christ, and that he will then\nbe told what to do. He is not told to get rid of his burden first,\nby reforming his life, and then to apply for further instruction\nto the Saviour-(J. B.).\n\n[8] When a sinner begins to fly from destruction, carnal relations\nwill strive to prevent him; but the sinner who is in earnest for\nsalvation will be deaf to invitations to go back. The more he is\nsolicited by them, the faster he will fly from them-(Mason).\n\n[9] The names of these two neighbours are admirably characteristic,\nnot confined to any age or place, but always accompany the young\nconvert to godliness, as the shadow does the substance. Christian\nis firm, decided, bold, and sanguine. Obstinate is profane, scornful,\nself-sufficient, and contemns God's Word. Pliable is yielding, and\neasily induced to engage in things of which he understands neither\nthe nature nor the consequences-(Thomas Scott).\n\n[10] Objection. If I would run as you would have me, then I must\nrun from all my friends, for none of them are running that way.\nAnsw. And if thou dost, thou wilt run into the bosom of Christ,\nand of God. And what harm will that do thee? Objec. But if I ran\nthis way, I must run from all my sins. Answ. That's true indeed;\nyet if thou dost not, thou wilt run into hell-fire. Objec. But I\nshall be mocked of all my neighbours. Answ. But if thou lose the\nbenefit of Heaven, God will mock at thy calamity. Objec. But,\nsurely, I may begin this, time enough a year or two hence. Answ.\nHast thou any lease of thy life? Did ever God tell thee thou shalt\nlive half a year or two months longer? Art thou a wise man to let\nthy immortal soul hang over hell by a thread of uncertain time,\nwhich may soon be cut asunder by death?-(Bunyan's Preface to the\nHeavenly Footman).\n\n[11] It is interesting to compare this account of Heaven with\nthat which Bunyan gave in the Preface to his \"Sighs from Hell,\"\npublished 20 years before-\"O sinner, sinner, there are better\nthings than hell to be had, and at a cheaper rate by the thousandth\npart than that. O there is no comparison; there is Heaven, there\nis God, there is Christ, there is communion with an innumerable\ncompany of saints and angels\"-(ED). [12] Here you have another\nvolume of meaning in a single touch of the pencil. Pliable is\none of those who is willing, or think they are willing, to have\nHeaven, but without any sense of sin, or of the labour and self-denial\nnecessary to enter Heaven. But now his heart is momentarily fired\nwith Christian's ravishing descriptions, and as he seems to have\nnothing to trouble his conscience, and no difficulties to overcome,\nthe pace of an honest, thorough inquirer, the movement of a soul\nsensible of its distresses and its sins, and desiring comfort\nonly in the way of healing and of holiness, seems much too slow\nfor him. He is for entering Heaven at once, going much faster\nthan poor Christian can keep up with him. Then, said Christian,\nI cannot go so fast as I would, by reason of this burden that is\non my back--(Cheever). [13] Satan casts the professor into the\nmire, to the reproach of religion, the shame of their brethren,\nthe derision of the world, and the dishonour of God. He holds our\nhands while the world buffets us. He puts bears' skins upon us,\nand then sets the dogs at us. He bedaubeth us with his own foam,\nand then tempts us to believe that that bedaubing comes from\nourselves-(Good News to the Vilest of Men, vol. 1, P. 69). [14]\nGuilt is not so much a wind and a tempest, as a load and burden.\nThe devil, and sin, and the curse of the law, and death, are\ngotten upon the shoulders of this poor man, and are treading of\nhim down, that he may sink into, and be swallowed up of, his miry\nplace (Job 41:30)-(Bunyan's Saints' Know ledge of Christ's Love,\nvol. 2, p. 6).\n\n[15] In this Slough of Despond there were good and firm steps, sound\npromises to stand upon, a causeway, indeed, better than adamant,\nclear across the treacherous quagmires; but mark you, fear followed\nChristian so hard, that he fled the nearest way, and fell in, not\nstopping to look for the steps, or not thinking of them. Now this\nis often just the operation of fear; it sets the threatenings\nagainst the promises, when it ought simply to direct the soul\nfrom the threatenings to the promises. It is the object of the\nthreatenings to make the promises shine, and to make the soul\nlay hold upon them, and that is the purpose and the tendency of\na salutary fear of the Divine wrath on account of sin, to make\nthe believer flee directly to the promises, and advance on them\nto Christ-(Cheever). [16] Signifying that there is nothing but\ndespondency and despair in the fallen nature of sinful man: the\nbest that we can do, leaves us in the Slough of Despond, as to\nany hope in ourselves-(Mason).\n\n[17] That is, the Lord Jesus Christ. We never find good ground,\nnor safe sounding, nor comfortable walking, till we enter into\npossession of Christ by faith, and till our feet are set upon\nChrist, who is the Rock of ages-(Mason).\n\n[18] And now you may think, perhaps, that Christian having got out\nof the Slough of Despond, and fairly on his way, it is all well\nwith him; but not so, for now he comes into a peril that is far\ngreater than the last-a peril through which we suppose that every\nsoul that ever goes on pilgrimage passes, and a peril in which\nmultitudes that get safely across the Slough of Despond, perish\nforever-(Cheever).\n\n[19] \"Some inkling\"; some intimation, hint, or slight knowledge:\nobsolete-(ED).\n\n[20] There is great beauty in this dialogue, arising from the exact\nregard to character preserved throughout. Indeed, this forms one\nof our author's peculiar excellencies; as it is a very difficult\nattainment, and always manifests a superiority of genius-(Scott).\n\n[21] Mr. Worldly-wiseman prefers morality to Christ the strait\ngate. This is the exact reasoning of the flesh. Carnal reason\never opposes spiritual truth. The notion of justification by our\nown obedience to God's Law ever works in us, contrary to the way\nof justification by the obedience of Christ. Self-righteousness\nis as contrary to the faith of Christ as indulging the lusts of\nthe flesh. The former is the white devil of pride, the latter the\nblack devil of rebellion and disobedience. See the awful consequences\nof listening to the reasonings of the flesh-(Mason).\n\n[22] And \"wotted\": and knew. From the Saxon witen, to know; see\nImperial Dictionary-(ED).\n\n[23]Beware of taking men by their looks. They may look as gentle\nas lambs, while the poison of asps is under their tongue; whereby\nthey infect many souls with pernicious errors and pestilent heresies,\nturning them from Christ and the hope of full justification and\neternal life through Him ONLY, to look to, and rely upon, their\nown works, in whole, or in part, for salvation-(Mason).\n\n[24] As the belief of the truth lies at the fountain of the hope\nof eternal life, and is the cause of anyone becoming a pilgrim;\nso the belief of a lie is the cause of anyone's turning out of the\nway which leads to glory-(Mason). [25] See the glory of Gospel grace\nto sinners. See the amazing love of Christ in dying for sinners.\nO remember the price, which obtained the pardon of our sins, at\nnothing less than His most precious blood! Believe His wonderful\nlove. Rejoice in His glorious salvation. Live in the love of Him,\nin the hatred of your sins, and in humbleness of mind before\nHim-(Mason).\n\n[26] Legality is as great an enemy to the cross of Christ as\nlicentiousness; for it keeps the soul from coming to, believing\nin, and trusting wholly in the blood of Christ for pardon, and the\nrighteousness of Christ for justification! so that it keeps the soul\nin bondage, and swells the mind with pride, while licentiousness\nbrings a scandal on the cross--(Mason). [27] The straitness of\nthis gate is not to be understood carnally, but mystically. This\ngate is wide enough for all the truly sincere lovers of Jesus\nChrist, but so strait that it will keep all others out. The gate\nof Eden was wide enough for Adam and his wife to go out at, yet\nit was too strait for them to go in at. Why? They had sinned; and\nthe cherubim and the flaming sword made it too strait for them.\nThe gates of the temple were six cubits wide, yet they were so\nstrait that none who were unclean might enter them-(Bunyan's Strait\nGate, vol. 1, p. 367).\n\n[28] Here behold the love of Jesus, in freely and heartily receiving\nevery poor sinner who comes unto Him; no matter how vile they have\nbeen, nor what sins they have committed, He loves them freely and\nreceives them graciously; for He has nothing but GOOD-WILL to them.\nHence, the heavenly host sang at his birth, \"Good-will towards\nmen\" (Luke 2:14)-(Mason).\n\n[29] As sinners become more decided in applying to Christ, and\nassiduous in the means of grace, Satan, if permitted, will be more\nvehement in his endeavours to discourage them, that, if possible,\nhe may induce them to desist, and so come short of the prize-(Scott).\nA whole Heaven and eternal life is wrapped up in this little\nword-\"Strive to enter in\"; this calls for the mind and heart.\nMany professors make their striving to stand rather in an outcry\nof words, than in a hearty labour against the lusts and love of\nthe world. But this kind of striving is but a beating the air,\nand will come to nothing at last-(Bunyan's Strait Gate, vol. 1,\np. 866). Coming souls will have opposition from Satan. He casts\nhis fiery darts at them; wanderings in prayer, enticements to old\nsins, and even blasphemous thoughts, assail the trembling penitent,\nwhen striving to enter into the strait gate, to drive him from\n\"the way and the life\"-(ED).\n\n[30] \"No betterment\" is an admirable expression of the Christian's\nhumility-he set out in company, but reached the gate alone; still\nit is not unto me, but unto Thy name be all the glory-(ED).\n\n[31] \"Carnal arguments\" is altered to \"carnal agreement,\" in\nseveral of Mr. Bunyan's editions: see third to the ninth-(ED).\n\n[32] Christian, when admitted at the strait gate, is directed\nin the narrow way; not in the broad fashionable religion. In the\nbroad road, every man may choose a path suited to his inclinations,\nshift about to avoid difficulties, or accommodate himself\nto circumstances; and he may be sure of company agreeable to his\ntaste. But Christians must follow one another in the narrow way\non the same track, facing enemies, and bearing hardships, without\nattempting to evade them; nor is any indulgence given to different\ntastes, habits, or propensities-(Scott).\n\n[33] With gnat propriety Bunyan places the house of the Interpreter\nbeyond the strait gate; for the knowledge of Divine things, that\nprecedes conversion to God by faith in Christ, is very scanty,\ncompared with the diligent Christian's subsequent attainments-(Scott).\n\n[34] It would be difficult to find 12 consecutive pages in the\nEnglish language, that contain such volumes of meaning, in such\nbeautiful and instructive lessons, with such heavenly imagery,\nin so pure and sweet a style, and with so thrilling an appeal to\nthe best affections of the heart, as these pages descriptive of\nChristian's sojourning in the house of the Interpreter. This good\nman of the house, the Interpreter, we are, without doubt, to take\nas the representative of the Holy Spirit, with His enlightening and\nsanctifying influences on the heart-(Cheever). The order in which\nthese heavenly lessons are taught, is worthy of our admiration-(ED).\n\n[35] As in creation, so in conversion, God's command is, \"Let there\nbe light\"; it comes by the Word; no Bible, no light. God divided\nthe light from the darkness; a blessed mystery to prove the\nChristian indeed-light in his mind at variance with his native\ndarkness-(Bunyan, on Genesis).\n\n[36] The FIRST object presented by the Holy Spirit to the mind\nof a young believer, is the choice of his minister; not to be\nsubmissive to human orders, but to choose for himself. The leading\nfeatures are, that he be grave, devotional, a lover of his Bible,\none who rejects error and preaches the truth; uninfluenced by\npaltry pelf or worldly honours; pleading patiently to win souls;\nseeking only his Master's approbation; souls, and not money, for\nhis hire; an immortal crown for his reward. With the laws of men\nand friendship to mislead us, how essential is the guidance of\nthe Holy Spirit in this important choice!-(ED). And whose portrait\nis Bunyan describing here? We think he had only Mr. Gifford in\nhis eye as a faithful minister of Christ; but Bunyan too had been\nthe pleader with men, and over his own head the crown of gold was\nshining, and while he wrote these words, you may be sure that his\nspirit thrilled within him as he said, And I too am a minister of\nJesus Christ-(Cheever).\n\n[37]Christian well knew this in his own deep experience; for the\nburden of sin was on him still, and sorely did he feel it while\nthe Interpreter was making this explanation; and had it not been\nfor his remembrance of the warning of the man at the gate, he would\ncertainly have besought the Interpreter to take off his burden.\nThe law could not take it off; he had tried that; and grace had\nnot yet removed it; so he was forced to be quiet, and to wait\npatiently. But when the damsel came and sprinkled the floor, and\nlaid the dust, and then the parlour was swept so easily, there\nwere the sweet influences of the Gospel imaged; there was Divine\ngrace distilling as the dew; there was the gentle voice of Christ\nhushing the storm; there were the corruptions of the heart, which\nthe law had but roused into action, yielding under the power of\nChrist; and there was the soul made clean, and fit for the King\nof glory to inhabit. Indeed, this was a most instructive emblem.\nO that my heart might be thus cleansed, thought Christian, and\nthen I verily believe I could bear my burden with great ease to\nthe end of my pilgrimage; but I have had enough of that fierce\nsweeper, the Law. The Lord deliver me from his besom!-(Cheever).\n\n[38] This was a vivid and striking emblem, and one which, in its\ngeneral meaning, a child could understand. Passion stands for the\nmen of this world, Patience of that which is to come; Passion for\nthose who will have all their good things now, Patience for those\nwho are willing, with self-denial, to wait for something better;\nPassion for those who are absorbed in temporal trifles, Patience\nfor those whose hearts are fixed upon eternal realities; Passion\nthe things which are seen, and the impatient eagerness with which\nthey are followed, Patience the things which are unseen, and the\nfaith, humility, and deadness to the world exercised in order to\nenjoy them. It is a good commentary upon Psalm 73-(Cheever).\n\n[39] This instructive vision springs from the author's painful,\nbut blessed experience. The flame of love in a Christian's heart\nis like the fire of despair in Satan's spirit-unquenchable. Before\nBunyan had been behind the wall, the tempter suggested to him-\"You\nare very hot for mercy, but I will cool you, though I be seven\nyears in chilling your heart, I can do it at last; I will have you\ncold before long\"-(Grace Abounding, No. 110). He is the father of\nlies. Thus he said to Christian in the fight, \"Here will I spill\nthy soul\"; instead of which, Apollyon was put to flight. We cannot\nfail with such a prop, That bears the earth's huge pillars up.\nSatan's water can never be so powerful to quench, as Christ's oil\nand grace are to keep the fire burning. Sinner, believe this, and\nlove, praise, and rejoice in thy Lord. He loves with an everlasting\nlove; He saves with an everlasting salvation; without His perpetual\naid, we should perish; Christ is the Alpha and Omega of our safety;\nbut how mysterious is the Saint's perseverance until we have seen\nthe secret supply!-(ED).\n\n[40] For a man to fight his way through infernal enemies, is in\nevery age a fearful battle; but in addition to this, to enter his\nname as a nonconformist in Bunyan's time, demanded intrepidity of\nno ordinary degree; their enemies were the throne, the laws, and\nthe bishops, armed with malignity against these followers of Jesus\nChrist. But there were noble spirits, \"of very stout countenance,\" that\nby the sword of the Spirit cut their way through all opposition.\nBunyan was one of these worthies-(Ivimey). [41] Verily thou didst,\nnoble Christian! And who is there that does not know the meaning\nof it, and what heart so cold as not to be ravished by it! Yea,\nwe should think that this passage alone might set any man out on\nthis pilgrimage, might bring many a careless traveler up to the\ngate of this glorious palace to say, Set down my name, Sir! How\nfull of instruction is this passage! It set Christian's own heart\non fire to run forward on his journey, although the battle was\nbefore him-(Cheever).\n\n[42] All these deeply interesting pictures are intended for every\nage and every clime. This iron cage of despair has ever shut up\nits victims. Many have supposed that it had a special reference\nto one John Child, who, under the fear of persecution, abandoned\nhis profession, and, in frightful desperation, miserably perished\nby his own hand. See Introduction, page 73; see also the sickness\nand death of Mr. Badman's brother-(ED).\n\n[43] Bunyan intended not to represent this man as actually beyond\nthe reach of mercy, but to show the dreadful consequences of\ndeparting from God, and of being abandoned of Him to the misery\nof unbelief and despair-(Cheever).\n\n[44] \"An everlasting caution\"-\"God help me to watch.\" The battle\nwith Apollyon, the dread valley, the trying scene at Vanity Fair,\nthe exhilarating victory over By-ends and Demas, dissipated the\npainful scene of the iron cage; and want of prayerful caution led\nChristian into the dominion of Despair, and he became for a season\nthe victim shut up in this frightful cage. Reader, may we be ever\nfound \"looking unto Jesus,\" then shall we be kept from Doubting\nCastle and the iron cage-(ED).\n\n[45] \"In the midst of these heavenly instructions, why in such\nhaste to go?\" Alas! the burden of sin upon his back pressed him\non to seek deliverance-(ED).\n\n[46] \"Rack.\" Driven violently by the wind-(ED).\n\n[47] We go about the world in the day time, and are absorbed in\nearthly schemes; the world is as bright as a rainbow, and it bears\nfor us no marks or predictions of the judgment, or of our sins;\nand conscience is retired, as it were, within a far inner circle\nof the soul. But when it comes night, and the pall of sleep is\ndrawn over the senses, then conscience comes out solemnly, and\nwalks about in the silent chambers of the soul, and makes her\nsurvey and her comments, and sometimes sits down and sternly reads\nthe record of a life that the waking man would never look into,\nand the catalogue of crimes that are gathering for the judgment.\nImagination walks tremblingly behind her, and they pass through\nthe open gate of the Scriptures into the eternal world-for thither\nall things in man's being naturally and irresistibly tend-and\nthere, imagination draws the judgment, the soul is presented at\nthe bar of God, and the eye of the Judge is on it, and a hand of\nfire writes, \"Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting!\"\nOur dreams sometimes reveal our character, our sins, our destinies,\nmore clearly than our waking thoughts; for by day the energies\nof our being are turned into artificial channels, by night our\nthoughts follow the bent that is most natural to them; and as man\nis both an immortal and a sinful being, the consequences both of\nhis immortality and his sinfulness will sometimes be made to stand\nout in overpowering light, when the busy pursuits of day are not\nable to turn the soul from wandering towards eternity-(Cheever).\nBunyan profited much by dreams and visions. \"Even in my childhood\nthe Lord did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and\ndid terrify me with dreadful visions.\" That is a striking vision\nof church fellowship in the Grace Abounding, (Nos. 53-56); and\nan awful dream is narrated in the Greatness of the Soul-\"Once I\ndreamed that I saw two persons, whom I knew, in hell; and methought\nI saw a continual dropping from Heaven, as of great drops of fire\nlighting upon them, to their sore distress\" (vol. 1, p. 148)-(ED).\n\n[48] Our safety consists in a due proportion of hope and fear.\nWhen devoid of hope, we resemble a ship without an anchor; when\nunrestrained by fear, we are like the same vessel under full\nsail without ballast. True comfort is the effect of watchfulness,\ndiligence, and circumspection. What lessons could possibly have\nbeen selected of greater importance or more suited to establish the\nnew convert, than these are which our author has most ingeniously\nand agreeably inculcated, under the emblem of the Interpreter's\ncuriosities?-(Scott).\n\n[49] This is an important lesson, that a person may be in Christ and\nyet have a deep sense of the burden of sin upon the soul-(Cheever).\nSo also Bunyan-\"Every height is a difficulty to him that is loaden;\nwith a burden, how shall we attain the Heaven of heavens?\"-(Knowledge\nof Christ's Love).\n\n[50] This efficacious sight of the cross is thus narrated in\nGrace Abounding, (No. 115)-\"Traveling in the country, and musing\non the wickedness and blasphemy of my heart, that scripture came\nin my mind-\"Having made peace through the blood of His cross\" (Col.\n1:20). I saw that day again and again, that God and my soul were\nfriends by His blood; yea, that the justice of God and my soul\ncould embrace and kiss each other. This was a good day to me; I\nhope I shall not forget it.\" He was glad and lightsome, and had\na merry heart; he was before inspired with hope, but now he is a\nhappy believer-(ED).\n\n[51] None but those who have felt such bliss, can imagine the joy\nwith which this heavenly visitation fills the soul. The Father\nreceives the poor penitent with, \"Thy sins be forgiven thee.\" The\nSon clothes him with a spotless righteousness. \"The prodigal when\nhe returned to his father was clothed with rags; but the best\nrobe is brought out, also the gold ring and the shoes; yea, they\nare put upon him to his rejoicing\" (Come and Welcome, vol. 1, p.\n265). The Holy Spirit gives him a certificate; thus described by\nBunyan in the House of God--\"But bring with thee a certificate, To\nshow thou seest thyself most desolate; Writ by the Master, with\nrepentance seal'd; To show also, that here thou would'st be healed\nBy those fair leaves of that most blessed tree By which alone poor\nsinners healed be: And that thou dost abhor thee for thy ways, And\nwould'st in holiness spend all thy days; And here be entertained;\nor thou wilt find To entertain thee here are none inclined!\"\n(Vol. 2, p. 680). Such a certificate, written upon the heart by\nthe Holy Spirit, may be lost for a season, as in the arbour on\nthe hill, but cannot be stolen even by Faith-heart, Mistrust, and\nGuilt. For the mark in his forehead, see 2 Corinthians 3:2, 3;\n\"not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, known and\nread of all men\"-(ED).\n\n[52] He that has come to Christ, has cast his burden upon Him.\nBy faith he hath seen himself released thereof; but he that is\nbut coming, hath it yet, as to sense and feeling, upon his own\nshoulders-(Come and Welcome, vol. 1, p. 264).\n\n[53] \"Fat\"; a vessel in which things are put to be soaked, or to\nferment; a vat-(ED).\n\n[54] No sooner has Christian \"received Christ\" than he at once\npreaches to the sleeping sinners the great salvation. He stays not\nfor human calls or ordination, but attempts to awaken them to a\nsense of their danger, and presently exhorts with authority the\nformalist and hypocrite. So it was in the personal experience\nof Bunyan; after which, when his brethren discovered his talent,\nthey invited him to preach openly and constantly. Dare anyone find\nfault with that conduct, which proved so extensively useful?-(ED).\n\n[55] The formalist has only the shell of religion; he is hot for\nforms because it is all that he has to contend for. The hypocrite\nis for God and Baal too; he can throw stones with both hands. He\ncarries fire in one hand, and water in the other-(Strait Gate,\nvol. 1, p. 389). These men range from sect to sect, like wandering\nstars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. They\nare barren trees; and the axe, whetted by sin and the law, will\nmake deep gashes. Death sends Guilt, his first-born, to bring\nthem to the King of terrors-(Barren Fig-tree).\n\n[56] \"We trow\"; we believe or imagine: from the Saxon. See Imperial\nDictionary-(ED).\n\n[57] These men occupied the seat of the scorner; they had always\nbeen well dressed. His coat might do for such a ragamuffin as he\nhad been, but they needed no garment but their own righteousness-the\nforms of their church. The mark, or certificate of the new birth,\nwas an object of scorn to them. Probably they pitied him as a\nharmless mystic, weak in mind and illiterate. Alas! how soon was\ntheir laughter turned into mourning. Fear and calamity overwhelmed\nthem. They trusted in themselves, and there was none to deliver-(ED).\n\n[58] The Christian can hold no communion with a mere formal\nprofessor. The Christian loves to be speaking of the Lord's grace\nand goodness, of his conflicts and consolations, of the Lord's\ndealings with his soul, and of the blessed confidence which he is\nenabled to place in Him-(J. B.).\n\n[59] Such is the fate of those who keep their sins with their\nprofession, and will not encounter difficulty in cutting them off.\n\"Not all their pretences of seeking after and praying to God will\nkeep them from falling and splitting themselves in sunder\"-(A Holy\nLife the Beauty of Christianity). There are heights that build\nthemselves up in us, and exalt themselves to keep the knowledge\nof God from our hearts. They oppose and contradict our spiritual\nunderstanding of God and His Christ. These are the dark mountains\nat which we should certainly stumble and fall, but for one who can\nleap and skip over them to our aid-(Saints' Knowledge of Christ's\nLove, vol. 2, p. 8).\n\n[60] Pleased with the gifts of grace, rather than with the gracious\ngiver, pride secretly creeps in; and we fall first into a sinful\nself-complacence, and then into indolence and security. This is\nintended by his falling fast asleep-(Dr. Dodd).\n\n[61] Sinful sloth deprives the Christian of his comforts. What\nhe intended only for a moment's nap, like a man asleep during\nsermon-time in church, became a deep sleep, and his roll fell out\nof his hand; and yet he ran well while there was nothing special\nto alarm him. Religious privileges should refresh and not puff\nup-(Cheever).\n\n[62] But why go back again? That is the next way to hell. Never go\nover hedge and ditch to hell. They that miss life perish, because\nthey will not let go their sins, or have no saving faith-(Bunyan's\nStrait Gate, vol. 1, p. 388).\n\n[63] To go forward is attended with the fear of death, but eternal\nlife is beyond. I must venture. My hill was further: so I slung\naway, Yet heard a cry Just as I went, \"None goes that way And\nlives.\" If that be all, said I, After so foul a journey, death is\nfair And but a chair.--(G. Herbert's Temple-The Pilgrimage)\n\n[64] He is perplexed for his roll; this is right. If we suffer\nspiritual loss, and are easy and unconcerned about it, it is a\nsad sign that we indulge carnal security and vain confidences-(Mason).\n\n[65] The backslider is attended with fears and doubts such a he\nfelt not before, built on the vileness of his backsliding; more\ndreadful scriptures look him in the face, with their dreadful\nphysiognomy. His new sins all turn talking devils, threatening\ndevils, roaring devils, within him. Besides, he doubts the truth\nof his first conversion, and thus adds lead to his heels in\nreturning to God by Christ. He can tell strange stories, and yet\nsuch as are very true. No man can tell what is to be seen and\nfelt in the whale's belly but Jonah-(Bunyan's Christ a Complete\nSaviour, vol. 1, p. 224).\n\n[66] \"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is\nMount Zion; God is known in her palaces for a refuge.\" Those who\nenter must joyfully submit to the laws and ordinances of this\nhouse-(Andronicus).\n\n[67] The two lions, civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny,\nterrified many young converts, when desirous of joining a Christian\nchurch, here represented by the Beautiful Palace. In the reign of\nthe Tudors they committed sad havoc. In Bunyan's time, they were\nchained, so that few suffered martyrdom, although many were ruined,\nimprisoned, and perished in dungeons. When Faithful passed they\nwere asleep. It was a short cessation from persecution. In the\nSecond Part, Great-heart slew Giant Bloody-man, who backed the\nlions; probably referring to the wretched death of that monster,\nJudge Jefferies. And in the experience of Mr. Fearing, it is clear\nthat the Hill Difficulty and the lions were intended to represent\ntemporal and bodily troubles, and not spiritual difficulties-\"When\nwe came at the Hill Difficulty, he made no stick at that, nor did\nhe much fear the lions; for you must know that his trouble was not\nabout such things as these; his fear was about his acceptance at\nlast\"-(ED).\n\n[68] Christian, after feeling the burden of sin, entering by Christ\nthe gate, taught by the Holy Spirit lessons of high concern in\nthe Bible or House of the Interpreter; after losing his burden by\nfaith in his crucified Saviour, his sins pardoned, clothed with\nhis Lord's righteousness, marked by a godly profession, he becomes\nfit for church-fellowship; is invited by Bishop Gifford, the porter;\nand, with the consent of the inmates, he enters the house called\nBeautiful. Mark, reader, not as essential to salvation; it is by\nthe side of the road, not across it; all that was essential had\ntaken place before. Faithful did not enter. Here is no compulsion\neither to enter or pay: that would have converted it into the\nhouse of arrogance or persecution. It is upon the Hill Difficulty,\nrequiring personal, willing efforts to scramble up; and holy\nzeal and courage to bear the taunts of the world and the growling\nfrowns of the lions. Here he has new lessons to learn of Discretion,\nPiety, Prudence, and Charity, to bear with his fellow-members,\nand they with him; and here he is armed for his journey. Many are\nthe blessed enjoyments of church-fellowship. \"Esther was had to the\nhouse of the women to be purified, and so came to the king. God\nalso hath appointed that those who come into His royal presence\nshould first go to the house of the women, the church.\" (See\nBunyan's Greatness of the Soul, vol. 1, p. 145). Every soul must\nbe fitted for the royal presence, usually in church fellowship:\nbut these lovely maidens sometimes wait on and instruct those\nwho never enter the house Beautiful; who belong to the church\nuniversal, but not to any local body of Christians. John directs\nhis Revelations to the seven churches in Asia; Paul, his epistles to\nthe churches in Galatia, or to the church at Corinth-all distinct\nbodies of Christians; James to the 12 tribes; and Peter to the\nstrangers, and \"to them that have obtained like precious faith,\"\nof all churches-(ED).\n\n[69] The true Christian's inmost feelings will best explain these\nanswers, which no exposition can elucidate to those who are\nunacquainted with the conflict to which they refer, the golden\nhours, fleeting and precious, are earnests of the everlasting holy\nfelicity of Heaven-(Scott). [70] The only true mode of vanquishing\ncarnal thoughts is looking at Christ crucified, or dwelling upon\nHis dying love, the robe of righteousness which clothes his naked\nsoul, his roll or evidence of his interest, and the glory and happiness\nof Heaven! Happy souls who THUS oppose their corruptions!-(Dr.\nDodd).\n\n[71]This was the fact as it regards Bunyan when he was writing\nthe \"Pilgrim.\" He had a wife, two sons, and two daughters. This\nconversation was first published in the second edition, 1678;\nand if he referred to his own family, it was to his second wife,\na most worthy and heroic woman; but she and some of his children\nwere fellow-pilgrims with him. His eldest son was a preacher 11\nyears before the Second Part of the \"Pilgrim\" was published-(ED).\n\n[72] O soul! consider this deeply. It is the life of a Christian\nthat carries more conviction and persuasion than his words-(Mason).\n\n[73] Those that religiously name the name of Christ, and do not\ndepart from iniquity, cause the perishing of many. A professor\nthat hath not forsaken his iniquity is like one that comes out of\na pest-house to his home, with all his plague-sores running. He\nhath the breath of a dragon, and poisons the air round about him.\nThis is the man that slays his children, his kinsmen, his friends,\nand himself. O! the millstone that God will shortly hang about\nyour necks, when you must be drowned in the sea and deluge of\nGod's wrath-(Bunyan's Holy Life, vol. 2, p. 530).\n\n[74] How beautiful must that church be where Watchful is the\nporter; where Discretion admits the members; where Prudence takes\nthe oversight; where Piety conducts the worship; and where Charity\nendears the members one to another! They partake of the Lord's\nSupper, a feast of fat things, with wine well refined-(J.B.).\n\n[75] Ah! theirs was converse such as it behooves Man to maintain,\nand such as God approves--Christ and His character their only\nscope, Their subject, and their object, and their hope. O days of\nHeaven, and nights of equal praise! Serene and peaceful as those\nheavenly days When souls drawn upwards in communion sweet, Enjoy\nthe stillness of some close retreat, Discourse, as if releas'd\nand safe at home, Of dangers past, and wonders yet to come-(Cowper).\n\n[76] When Christiana and her party arrived at this house Beautiful,\nshe requested that they might repose in the same chamber, called\nPeace, which was granted. The author, in his marginal note, explains\nthe nature of this resting-place by the words, \"Christ's bosom is\nfor all pilgrims\"-(ED).\n\n[77] How suddenly that straight and glittering shaft Shot 'thwart\nthe earth! In crown of living fire Up comes the day! As if they,\nconscious, quaff'd The sunny flood, hill, forest, city, spire,\nLaugh in the wakening light. Go, vain Desire! The dusky lights\nhave gone; go thou thy way! And pining Discontent, like them expire!\nBe called my chamber Peace, when ends the day, And let me, with\nthe dawn, like Pilgrim, sing and pray. Great is the Lord our God,\nAnd let His praise be great: He makes His churches His abode,\nHis most delightful seat-(Dr. Watts).\n\n[78] Should you see a man that did not go from door to door, but\nhe must be clad in a coat of mail, and have a helmet of brass\nupon his head, and for his life-guard not so few as a thousand\nmen to wait on him, would you not say, Surely this man has store\nof enemies at hand? If Solomon used to have about his bed no less\nthan threescore of the most valiant of Israel, holding swords, and\nbeing expert in war, what guard and safeguard doth God's people\nneed, who are, night and day, roared on by the unmerciful fallen\nangels? Why, they lie in wait for poor Israel in every hole, and\nhe is forever in danger of being either stabbed or destroyed-(Bunyan's\nIsrael's Hope, vol. 1, p. 602).\n\n[79] Christ himself is the Christian's armoury. When he puts on\nChrist, he is then completely armed from head to foot. Are his\nloins girt about with truth? Christ is the truth. Has he on the\nbreastplate of righteousness? Christ is our righteousness. Are\nhis feet shod with the Gospel of peace? Christ is our peace. Does\nhe take the shield of faith, and helmet of salvation? Christ is\nthat shield, and all our salvation. Does he take the sword of the\nSpirit, which is the Word of God? Christ is the Word of God. Thus\nhe puts on the Lord Jesus Christ; by his Spirit fights the fight\nof faith; and, in spite of men, of devils, and of his own evil\nheart, lays hold of eternal life. Thus Christ is all in all-(J.\nB.).\n\n[80] The church in the wilderness, even her porch, is full of\npillars-apostles, prophets, and martyrs of Jesus. There are hung\nup also the shields that the old warriors used, and on the walls\nare painted the brave achievements they have done. There, also, are\nsuch encouragements that one would think that none who came thither\nwould ever attempt to go back. Yet some forsake the place-(Bunyan's\nHouse of Lebanon).\n\n[81] The Delectable Mountains, as seen at a distance, represent\nthose distinct views of the privileges and consolations, attainable\nin this life, with which believers are sometimes favoured. This\nis the pre-eminent advantage of Christian communion, and can only\nbe enjoyed at some special seasons, when the Sun of Righteousness\nshines upon the soul-(Scott).\n\n[82] Thus it is, after a pilgrim has been favoured with any special\nand peculiar blessings, there is danger of his being puffed up\nby them, and exalted on account of them; so was even holy Paul;\ntherefore, the messenger of Satan was permitted to buffet him (2\nCor. 3:7)-(Mason). We are not told here what these slips were; but\nwhen Christian narrates the battle to Hopeful, he lets us into the\nsecret-\"These three villains,\" Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt,\n\"set upon me, and I beginning, like a Christian, to resist, they\ngave but a call, and in came their master. I would, as the saying\nis, have given my life for a penny, but that, as God would have\nit, I was clothed with armour of proof.\" In the Second Part,\nGreat-heart attributed the sore combat with Apollyon to have\narisen from \"the fruit of those slips that he got in going down\nthe hill.\" Great enjoyments need the most prayerful watchfulness\nin going down from them, lest those three villains cause us to\nslip. Christian's heavenly enjoyment in the communion of saints\nwas followed by his humbling adventures in the valley-a needful\nproof of Divine love to his soul. \"Whom the Lord loveth He\nchasteneth\"-(ED). \"A broken heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.\"\nHas He given it to thee, my reader? Then He has given thee a cabinet\nto hold His grace in. True, it is painful now, it is sorrowful,\nit bleeds, it sighs, it sobs, well, very well; all this is because\nHe has a mind that thou mayest rejoice in Heaven-(Bunyan's Acceptable\nSacrifice).\n\n[83] \"No armour for his back\"; to desist is inevitable ruin. He\nsees no safety except in facing his enemy. Fear itself creates\nadditional courage, and induces him to stand his ground-(Drayton).\n\n[84] The description of Apollyon is terrible. This dreadful imagery\nis collected from various parts of Scripture, where the attributes\nof the most terrible animals are given him; the attributes\nof leviathan, the dragon, the lion, and the bear; to denote his\nstrength, his pride, his rage, his courage, and his cruelty-(Andronicus).\n\n[85] In our days, when emigration is so encouraged by the state,\nit may be difficult for some youthful readers to understand this\nargument of Apollyon's. In Bunyan's time, every subject was deemed\nto be Crown property, and no one dared depart the realm without a\nlicense. Thus, when Cromwell and his heroes had hired ships, and\nwere ready to start for America, Charles II providentially detained\nthem, to work out the great Revolution-(ED).\n\n[86] Promises or vows, whether made by us or by others on our\nbehalf, before we possessed powers of reason or reflection, cannot\nbe binding. The confirmation or rejection of all vows made by or\nfor us in our nonage, should, on arriving at years of discretion,\nbe our deliberate choice, for we must recollect that no personal\ndedication can be acceptable to God unless it is the result of\nsolemn inquiry-(ED).\n\n[87] Mark the subtlety of this gradation in temptation. The profits\nof the world and pleasures of sin are held out as allurements.\nThe apostasy of others suggested. The difficulties, dangers, and\nsufferings of the Lord's people, are contrasted with the prosperity\nof sinners. The recollections of our sins and backslidings, under a\nprofession of religion. The supposition that all our profession is\nfounded in pride and vain-glory. All backed by our own consciences;\nas if Apollyon straddled quite across the way, and stopped us from\ngoing on-(Andronicus).\n\n[88] This dialogue is given, in different words, in the Jerusalem\nSinner Saved, Volume 1, pages 79, 80. Satan is loath to part with\na great sinner. What, my true servant, quoth he, my old servant,\nwilt thou forsake me now? Having so often sold thyself to me to\nwork wickedness, wilt thou forsake me now? Thou horrible wretch,\ndost not know that thou hast sinned thyself beyond the reach\nof grace, and dost thou think to find mercy now? Art not thou\na murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch, a sinner of the greatest\nsize, and dost thou look for mercy now? Dost thou think that\nChrist will foul His fingers with thee? It is enough to make angels\nblush, saith Satan, to see so vile a one knock at Heaven's gates\nfor mercy, and wilt thou be so abominably bold to do it? Thus\nSatan dealt with me, says the great sinner, when at first I came\nto Jesus Christ. And what did you reply? saith the tempted. Why,\nI granted the whole charge to be true, says the other. And what,\ndid you despair, or how? No, saith he, I said, I am Magdalene, I\nam Zaccheus, I am the thief, I am the harlot, I am the publican,\nI am the prodigal, and one of Christ's murderers-yea, worse than\nany of these; and yet God was so far off from rejecting of me, as\nI found afterwards, that there was music and dancing in His house\nfor me, and for joy that I was come home unto Him. When Satan\ncharged Luther with a long list of crimes, he replied, This is all\ntrue; but write another line at the bottom, \"The blood of Jesus\nChrist His Son cleanseth us from all sin\"-(ED).\n\n[89] The devil is that great and dogged leviathan, that \"spreadeth\nsharp pointed things upon the mire\" (Job 40:30). For be the\nspreading nature of our corruptions never so broad, he will find\nsharp pointed things enough to stick in the mire of them for our\naffliction; they are called fiery darts, and he has abundance\nof them with which he can and will sorely prick and wound our\nspirits-(Bunyan on Christ's Love, vol. 2, p. 65).\n\n[90] When infidel thoughts prevail, so that doubts of the truth\nof Scripture take hold of the mind, the sword of the Spirit flies\nout of the hand. Unarmed before a ferocious enemy, it was an awful\nmoment; but God revives his faith in the Divine Word, he recovers\nhis sword, and gives his enemy a deadly plunge-I shall rise-(Drayton).\n\n[91] \"For a season,\" is only found in the first edition. These\nwords may have been omitted, in Bunyan's subsequent editions, by\na typographical error, or have been struck out by him. My impression\nis, that they were left out by the printer in error; because, in\nthe Second Part, when the pilgrims pass the spot and talk of the\nbattle, we are told that \"when Apollyon was beat, he made his\nretreat to the next valley.\" And there poor Christian was awfully\nbeset with him again-(ED).\n\n[92] You will find, from the perusal of Bunyan's own spiritual\nlife, that he has here brought together, in the assault of Apollyon\nupon Christian, many of the most grievous temptations with which\nhis own soul was beset, as also, in Christian's answers against\nthem, the very method of defence which he himself was taught by\nDivine grace in the midst of the conflict. It is here condensed\ninto a narrow and vivid scene, but it extended over years of\nBunyan's life; and the wisdom that is in it, and the points of\nexperience illustrated, were the fruit of many months of painfulness,\ndanger, and desperate struggle with the adversary, which he had\nto go through-(Cheever).\n\n[93] The literal history of this terrific conflict may be found in\nBunyan's experience recorded in Grace Abounding, (Nos. 131-173),\nwhen he recovered his sword, and put his enemy to flight. He\ndescribes his agonies in the combat as if he were being racked\nupon the wheel, and states that it lasted for about a year. Floods\nof blasphemies were poured in upon him, but he was saved from\nutter despair, because they were loathsome to him. Dr. Cheever\neloquently says, \"What made the fight a thousand times worse for\npoor Christian was, that many of these hellish darts were tipped,\nby Apollyon's malignant ingenuity, with sentences from Scripture\";\nso that Christian thought the Bible was against him. One of these\nfiery darts penetrated his soul with the awful words, \"no place\nfor repentance\"; and another with, \"hath never forgiveness.\" The\nrecovery of his sword was by a heavenly suggestion that He BEGIN\ndid not \"refuse him that speaketh\"; new vigour was communicated.\n\"When I fall, I SHALL arise,\" was a home-thrust at Satan; who left\nhim, richly to enjoy the consolations of the Gospel after this\ndreadful battle-(ED).\n\n[94] By \"leaves\" here (Rev. 22: 2), we are to understand the\nblessed and precious promises, consolations, and encouragements,\nthat, by virtue of Christ, we find everywhere growing on the new\ncovenant, which will be handed freely to the wounded conscience that\nis tossed on the reckless waves of doubt and unbelief. Christ's\nleaves are better than Adam's aprons. He sent His Word, and healed\nthem-(Bunyan's Holy City).\n\n[95] However terrible these conflicts are, they are what every\nChristian pilgrim has to encounter that is determined to win\nHeaven. Sin and death, reprobates and demons, are against him.\nThe Almighty, all good angels and men, are for him. Eternal life\nis the reward. Be not discouraged, young Christian! \"If God be for\nus, who can be against us?\" We shall come off more than conquerors,\nthrough him that hath loved us. Equal to our day so shall be our\nstrength. The enemies had a special check from our Lord, while Mr.\nFearing passed through. \"Though death and hell obstruct the way\nThe meanest saint shall win the day\"-(ED).\n\n[96] \"Desired Heaven,\" in some of Bunyan's editions-(ED).\n\n[97] The ditch on the right hand is error in principle, into which\nthe blind, as to spiritual truth, fall. The ditch on the left hand\nmeans outward sin and wickedness, which many fall into. Both are\nalike dangerous to pilgrims: but the Lord \"will keep the feet\nof his saints\" (1 Sam. 2:9)-(Mason). Dr. Dodd considers that by\nthe deep ditch is intended \"presumptuous hopes,\" and the no less\ndangerous quag to be \"despairing fears\"-(ED).\n\n[98] The sight of an immortal soul in peril of its eternal interests,\nbeset with enemies, engaged in a desperate conflict, with hell\nopening her mouth before, and fiends and temptations pressing\nafter, is a sublime and awful spectacle. Man cannot aid him; all\nhis help is in God only-(Cheever).\n\n[99] And as for the secrets of Satan, such as are suggestions\nto question the being of God, the truth of His Word, and to be\nannoyed with devilish blasphemies, none are more acquainted with\nthese than the biggest sinners at their conversion; wherefore\nthus also they are prepared to be helps in the church to relieve\nand comfort others-(Jerusalem Sinner Saved, vol. 1, p. 80). See also\na very interesting debate upon this subject in Come and Welcome\nto Jesus Christ, volume 1, page 250. O, no one knows the terrors\nof these days but myself-(Grace Abounding, Nos. 100-102). Satan\nand his angels trouble his head with their stinking breath. How\nmany strange, hideous, and amazing blasphemies have some, that\nare coming to Christ, had injected upon their spirits against\nHim-(Christ a Complete Saviour, vol. 1, p. 209). He brought me up\nalso out of a horrible pit; a pit of noise of devils, and of my\nheart answering them with distrust and fear-(Saint's Knowledge of\nChrist's Love).\n\n[100] The experience of other saints is very encouraging; for the\nsoul finds that others have gone before him in dreadful, dark,\nand dreary paths-(Mason).\n\n[101] To walk in darkness, and not be distressed for it, argues\nstupidity of the soul. To have the light of God's countenance\nshine upon us, and not to rejoice and be thankful for it, is\nimpossible-(Mason).\n\n[102] I would not be too confident, but I apprehend that by this\nsecond part of the valley we are taught that believers are not\nmost in danger when under the deepest distress; that the snares\nand devices of the enemy are so many and various, through the\nseveral stages of our pilgrimage, as to baffle all description;\nand that all the emblems of these valleys could not represent the\nthousandth part of them. Were it not that the Lord guides His people\nby the light of His Word and Spirit, they never could possibly\nescape them-(Scott).\n\n[103] The wicked spirits have made and laid for us snares, pits,\nholes, and what not, if peradventure by something we may be\ndestroyed. Yea, and we should most certainly be so, were it not\nfor the Rock that is higher than they-(Bunyan's Saints' Knowledge\nof Christ's Love, vol. 2, p. 8).\n\n[104] Alas, my dear country! I would to God it could not be said\nto thee, since the departure of paganism and popery, \"The blood of\nthe poor innocents is found in thy skirts, not by a secret search,\nbut upon thy kings, princes, priests, and prophets\" (Jer. 2:34,\n26). Let us draw a veil over the infamy of PROTESTANT PERSECUTION,\nand bless Jehovah, who has broken the arrow and the bow-(Andronicus).\nIt may be questioned whether popery may not yet so far recover\nits vigour as to make one more alarming struggle against vital\nChristianity, before that Man of Sin be finally destroyed. Our\nauthor, however, has described no other persecution than what\nProtestants, in his time, carried on against one another with very\ngreat alacrity-(Scott).\n\n[105] The quaint and pithy point of this passage stamps it as one\nof Bunyan's most felicitous descriptions. We who live in a later\nage may, indeed, suspect that he has somewhat antedated the death\nof Pagan, and the impotence of Pope; but his picture of their\ncave and its memorials, his delineation of the survivor of this\nfearful pair, rank among those master-touches which have won such\nlasting honour for his genius-(Bernard Barton).\n\n[106] Christian having passed the gloomy whirlwind of temptation\nto despair, now walks in the light of the Sun of Righteousness,\nthrough the second part of the valley. There he encounters the\npersecution of the state church. Act after act of Parliament had\nbeen passed-full of atrocious penalties, imprisonments, transportation,\nand hanging-to deter poor pilgrims from the way to Zion. \"The way\nwas full of snares, traps, gins, nets, pitfalls, and deep holes.\"\nHad the darkness of mental anguish been added to these dangers,\nhe must have perished. The butcheries of Jefferies strewed the way\nwith blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of pilgrims. Pope\nreared his ugly head, and growled out, \"More of you must be burned.\"\nThe desolating tyranny of the church was curbed by the King's\nturning papist, which paved the way for the glorious Revolution\nof 1688. It appears from the Grace Abounding, that to the time of\nBunyan's imprisonment for preaching the Gospel, he was involved\nfrequently in deeply-distressing spiritual darkness; but, from his\nentering the prison, be walked in the light of God's countenance\nto his dying day-(ED).\n\n[107] We are now to be introduced to a new pilgrim, and Christian\nis no more to go on his way alone. The sweet Christian communion\ndepicted in this book forms one of the most delightful features\nin it, and Faithful and Hopeful are both of them portraits that\nstand out in as firm relief as that of Christian himself. Faithful\nis the Martyr Pilgrim, who goes in a chariot of fire to Heaven,\nand leaves Christian alone; Hopeful springs, as it were, out of\nFaithful's ashes, and supplies his place all along the remainder\nof the pilgrimage. The communion between these loving Christians,\ntheir sympathy and share in each other's distresses, their mutual\ncounsels and encouragements, temptations and dangers, experience\nand discipline, their united joys and sorrows, and their very\npassing of the river of death together, form the sweetest of all\nexamples of the true fellowship of saints, united to the same\nSaviour, made to drink into the same Spirit, baptized with the same\nsufferings, partakers of the same consolations, crowned with the\nsame crown of life, entering together upon glory everlasting-(Cheever).\nThe author has displayed great skill in introducing a companion\nto his Pilgrim in this place. Thus far the personal adventures of\nChristian had been of the most extraordinary kind, and sufficient of\nthemselves to exercise the reader's sympathies for him; but these\nfeelings would have languished from weariness, however intensely\nthe sequel might have been wrought, had attention been claimed\nfor a solitary wanderer to the end of the journey. Here then the\nhistory, which had probably reached its climax in the preceding\nscenes, revives, by taking a new form, and exciting a fresh interest,\nrather doubled than divided, though two have thenceforward to\nshare it instead of one. Besides, the individual experience of one\nman, however varied, would not have been sufficient to exemplify\nall the most useful lessons of the Gospel, unless the trials of many\npersons, of different age, sex, and disposition, were interwoven.\nThe instance at hand will illustrate this point-(Montgomery).\n\n[108] Ah, what a smile was that! How much sin was there in it,\ninstead of humble spiritual gratitude, and joy. Now see how\nhe that exalteth himself shall be abased, and how surely, along\nwith spiritual pride, comes carelessness, false security, and a\ngrievous fall-(Cheever). The very person's hand we need to help\nus, whom we thought we had exceeded-(Mason). When a consciousness\nof superiority to other Christians leads to vain glory, a fall\nwill be the consequence; but while it excites compassion, it also\ncements Christian friendship-(Ivimey).\n\n[109] Mr. Anything became a brisk man in the broil; but both\nsides were against him, because he was true to none. He had, for\nhis malapertness, one of his legs broken, and he that did it wished\nit had been his neck-(Holy War).\n\n[110] \"I trow,\" I believe or imagine (Imp. Dict.)-(ED).\n\n[111] If the experience of Christian is an exhibition of Bunyan's\nown feelings, the temptations of Madam Wanton are very properly\nlaid in the way of Faithful, and not of Christian. She would have\nhad no chance with the man who admired the wisdom of God in making\nhim shy of women, who rarely carried it pleasantly towards a woman,\nand who abhorred the common salutation of women-(Grace Abounding,\nNo. 316)-ED.\n\n[112] \"All\" is omitted from every edition by Bunyan, except the\nfirst; probably a typographical error.\n\n[113] An awful slavery! \"None that go unto her return again,\nneither take they hold of the paths of life\" (Prov. 2:19)--(ED).\n\n[114] That sinner who never had a threatening fiery visit from\nMoses, is yet asleep in his sins, under the curse and wrath of\nthe law of God-(C.C.V.G.).\n\n[115] As the law giveth no strength, nor life to keep it, so it\naccepteth none of them that are under it. Sin and Die, is forever\nits language. There is no middle way in the law. It hath not\nears to hear, nor heart to pity, its penitent ones--(Bunyan on\nJustification, vol. 1, p. 316).\n\n[116] The delineation of this character is a masterly grouping\ntogether of the arguments used by men of this world against\nreligion, in ridicule and contempt of it. Faithful's account of\nhim, and of his arguments, is a piece of vigorous satire, full of\ntruth and life-(Cheever).\n\n[117] Nothing can be a stronger proof that we have lost the image\nof God, than shame concerning the things of God. This shame, joined\nto the fear of man, is a very powerful enemy to God's truths,\nChrist's glory, and our soul's comfort. Better at once get out\nof our pain, by declaring boldly for Christ and His cause, than\nstand shivering on the brink of profession, ever dreading the loss\nof our good name and reputation: for Christ says (awful words):\n\"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, in this\nadulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of\nman be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father\" (Mark\n8:38). It is one thing to be attacked by shame, and another to be\nconquered by it-(Mason).\n\n[118] Christian in a great measure escaped the peculiar temptations\nthat assaulted Faithful, yet he sympathized with him; nor did\nthe latter deem the gloomy experiences of his brother visionary\nor imaginative, though he had been exempted from them. One man,\nfrom a complication of causes, is exposed to temptations of which\nanother is ignorant; and in this case he needs much sympathy,\nwhich he seldom meets with; while they, who are severe on him are\nliable to be baffled in another way, which, for want of coincidence\nin habit, temperature, and situation, he is equally prone to\ndisregard. Thus Christians are often led reciprocally to censure,\nsuspect, or dislike each other, on those very grounds which would\nrender them useful and encouraging counselors and companions!-(Scott).\n\n[119] Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's Progress, places the Valley of\nthe Shadow of Death, not where we should expect it, at the end of\nChristian's pilgrimage, but about the middle of it. Those who have\nstudied the history of Bunyan and his times will hardly wonder at\nthis. It was then safer to commit felony than to become a Dissenter.\nIndeed, a felon was far surer of a fair trial than any Dissenting\nminister, after the restoration of Charles II. This Bunyan found.\nSimply and solely for preaching, he was condemned by Keeling to\nimprisonment. That was to be followed by banishment if he did not\nconform, and, in the event of his return from banishment without\nlicense from the King, the judge added, \"You must stretch by the\nneck for it; I tell you plainly.\" Christian endured, in the first\nportion of this dismal valley, great darkness and distress of mind\nabout his soul's safety for eternity; and, in the latter part of\nthe valley, the dread of an ignominious, and cruel, and sudden\nexecution in the midst of his days-a fear more appalling than the\nprospect of a natural death. This he was enabled to bear, because\nhe then enjoyed the light, the presence, and the approbation of\nhis God-(ED).\n\n[120] The character now introduced under a most expressive name,\nis an admirable portrait, drawn by a masterly hand, from some\nstriking original, but exactly resembling numbers in every age\nand place, where the truths of the Gospel are generally known.\nSuch men are more conspicuous than humble believers, but their\nprofession will not endure a strict investigation-(Scott). Reader,\nbe careful not to judge harshly, or despise a real believer, who\nis blessed with fluency of utterance on Divine subjects-(ED).\n\n[121] As an outward profession, without a holy life, is no evidence\nof religion, neither are excellent gifts any proof that the persons\nwho possess them are partakers of grace: so it is an awful fact,\nthat some have edified the church by their gifts, who have themselves\nbeen destitute of the spirit of life-(Ivimey). I concluded, a\nlittle grace, a little love, a little of the true fear of God, is\nbetter than all gifts-(Grace Abounding).\n\n[122] The Pharisee goes on boldly, fears nothing, but trusteth\nin himself that his state is good; he hath his mouth full of many\nfine things, whereby he strokes himself over the head, and calls\nhimself one of God's white boys, that, like the Prodigal's brother,\nnever transgressed-(Pharisee and Publican, vol. 2, p. 215).\n\n[123] Talkative seems to have been introduced on purpose that the\nauthor might have a fair opportunity of stating his sentiments\nconcerning the practical nature of evangelical religion, to which\nnumbers in his day were too inattentive; so that this admired\nallegory has fully established the important distinction between\na dead and a living faith, on which the whole controversy\ndepends-(Scott). \"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of\nangels, and have not charity, I am as sounding brass or a tinkling\ncymbal\" (1 Cor. 13:1). Just thus it is with him who has gifts,\nbut wants grace. Shall I be proud, because I am sounding brass? Is\nit so much to be a fiddle? Hath not the least creature that hath\nlife, more of God in it than these?-(Grace Abounding, No. 297-300).\nSome professors are pretty busy and ripe, able to hold you in a\nvery large discourse of the glorious Gospel; but, if you ask them\nconcerning heart work, and its sweet influences and virtues on\ntheir souls and consciences, they may answer, I find by preaching\nthat I am turned from my sins in a good measure, and have learned\n[in tongue] to plead for the Gospel. This is not far enough to\nprove them under the covenant of grace-(Law and Grace, vol. 1, p.\n515).\n\n[124] Read this, and tremble, ye whose profession lies only on\nyour tongue, but who never knew the love and grace of Christ in\nyour souls. O how do you trifle with the grace of God, with precious\nChrist, and with the holy Word of truth! O what an awful account\nhave you to give hereafter to a holy, heart-searching God! Ye\ntrue pilgrims of Jesus, read this, and give glory to your Lord,\nfor saving you from resting in barren notions, and taking up with\ntalking of truths; and that he has given you to know the truth\nin its power, to embrace it in your heart, and to live and walk\nunder its constraining, sanctifying influences. Who made you to\ndiffer?-(Mason).\n\n[125] This spiritual application of the law of Moses is found in\nthe narrative of Bunyan's experience in the Grace Abounding, (No.\n71): \"I was also made, about this time, to see something concerning\nthe beasts that Moses counted clean and unclean. I thought those\nbeasts were types of men: the clean, types of them that were the\npeople of God; but the unclean, types of such as were the children\nof the wicked one. Now, I read, that the clean beasts chewed the\ncud; that is, thought I, they show us we must feed upon the Word\nof God; they also parted the hoof, I thought that signified we\nmust part, if we would be saved with the ways of ungodly men.\"\n\n[126] True faith will ever show itself by its fruits; real conversion,\nby the life and conversation. Be not deceived; God is not to be\nmocked with the tongue, if the heart is not right towards Him in\nlove and obedience-(Mason).\n\n[127] This distinction between speaking against sin, and feeling\na hatred to it, is so vastly important, that it forms the only\ninfallible test to distinguish between those who are \"quickened\"\nby the Spirit of God, and those who \"have a name to live and are\ndead.\" It is a very awful statement, but, it is to be feared,\nstrictly correct, that ministers may declaim against sin in the\npulpit, who yet indulge it in the parlour. There may be much head\nknowledge, where there is no heart religion-(Ivimey).\n\n[128] Christian faithfulness detects mere talkatives, and they\ncomplain, \"in so saying thou condemnest us also\"; they will bear\nno longer, but seek refuge under more comfortable preachers, or\nin more candid company, and represent those faithful monitors as\ncensorious, peevish, and melancholy men-lying at the catch-(Scott).\n\n[129] In the Jerusalem Sinner Saved, Bunyan explains his meaning\nof \"lying at the catch\" in these solemn words, referring to those\nwho abide in sin, and yet expect to be saved by grace: \"Of this\nsort are they that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with\niniquity; that judge for reward, and teach for hire, and divine\nfor money, and lean upon the Lord (Micah 3:10, 11). This is doing\nthings with a high hand against the Lord our God, and a taking Him,\nas it were, at the catch! This is, as we say among men, to seek\nto put a trick upon God, as if He had not sufficiently fortified\nhis proposals of grace by his Holy Word, against all such kind of\nfools as these\"-(Vol. 1, p. 93).\n\n[130] Blessed faithful dealing! O that it were more practised\nin the world, and in the church! How then would vain talkers be\ndetected in the one, and driven out of the other-(Mason).\n\n[131] Heart searching, soul examining, and close questioning of\nthe conduct of life, will not do with talkative professors. Ring\na peal on the doctrines of grace, and many will chime in with you;\nbut speak closely how grace operates upon the heart, and influences\nthe life to follow Christ in self-denying obedience, they cannot\nbear it; they are offended with you, and will turn away from you,\nand call you legal-(Mason).\n\n[132] I observe that, as there are trees wholly noble, so there\nare also their semblance; not right, but ignoble. There is the\ngrape, and the wild grape; the rose, and the canker rose; the\napple and the crab. Now, fruit from these wild trees, however it\nmay please children to play with, yet the prudent count it of no\nvalue. There are also in the world a generation of professors that\nbring forth nothing but wild olive berries; saints only before\nmen, devils and vipers at home; saints in word, but sinners in\nheart and life. Well, saith God, this profession is but a cloak:\nI will loose the reins of this man, and give him up to his own\nvile affections. \"I will answer him by Myself\" (Ezek. 14:7). Thou\nart too hard for the church: she knows not how to deal with thee.\nWell, I will deal with that man Myself-(Bunyan's Barren Fig-tree).\n\n[133] Where the heart is rotten, it will ward off conviction,\nturn from a faithful reprover, condemn him, and justify itself.\nFaithful dealing will not do for unfaithful souls. Mind not that,\nbut be faithful to the truth-(Mason).\n\n[134] How they rejoiced again to meet Evangelist, and listen\nto his encouraging and animating exhortations; of which, as they\nwere now near the great town of Vanity Fair, they would stand in\nspecial need. Indeed, it was to forewarn them of what they were\nto meet with there, and to exhort them, amidst all persecutions,\nto quit themselves like men, that Evangelist now came to them.\nHis voice, so solemn and deep, yet so inspiring and animating,\nsounded like the tones of a trumpet on the eve of battle-(Cheever).\n\n[135] The pilgrims are now about to enter upon a new era-to leave\ntheir privacy in the wilderness, and commence a more public\nscene-perhaps alluding to Bunyan's being publicly set apart to\nthe work of the ministry. It was in the discharge of these public\nduties that he was visited with such severe persecution. This\ninterview with Evangelist reminds one of the setting apart of\nDissenting ministers. It is usual, on these occasions, for the\nChristians entering on such important duties, to give a short\naccount of what \"had happened in the way,\" and their reasons for\nhoping that they were called by God to the work. They receive the\nadvice of their ministering elder, and the pastor prays for their\npeace and prosperity. Evangelist's address would make a good outline\nof an ordination sermon. Bunyan's account of his being thus set\napart in 1656 (with seven other members of the same church) is\nnarrated in Grace Abounding, Nos. 266-270. The second address of\nEvangelist peculiarly relates to the miseries endured by Nonconformist\nministers in the reign of Charles II-(ED).\n\n[136] Shall the world venture their soul's ruin for a poor corruptible\ncrown; and shall not we venture the loss of a few trifles for an\neternal crown? Shall they venture the loss of eternal life for\ncommunion with base, drunken, covetous wretches; and shall we not\nlabour as hard, run as fast, nay, a hundred times more diligently,\nfor such glorious and eternal friends as God to love, Christ\nto redeem, the Holy Spirit to comfort, and saints and angels in\nHeaven for company? Shall it be said at the last day, that the\nwicked made more haste to hell than you to Heaven? O let it not\nbe so, but run with all might and main! They that will have Heaven\nmust run for it, because the devil will follow them. There is\nnever a poor soul that is gone to it, but he is after that soul.\nAnd I assure them the devil is nimble; he is light of foot, and\ncan run apace. He hath overtaken many, tripped up their heels,\nand given them an everlasting fall--(Heavenly Footman).\n\n[137] Bunyan illustrates the care of Christ for his afflicted ones\nwith striking simplicity. \"I love to play the child with children.\nI have met with a child that had a sore finger, so that it was\nuseless. Then have I said, Shall we cut off this finger, and buy\nmy child a better, a brave golden finger? At this he started, and\nfelt indignation against me. Now, if a child has such tenderness\nfor a useless member, how much more tender is the Son of God to\nhis afflicted members?\"-(Saint's Privilege, vol. 1, p. 674). The\ntext here quoted forms the foundation of Bunyan's admirable Advice\nto Sufferers, in which he delightfully dwells upon the topics\nwhich Evangelist addresses to the Pilgrims, when on the verge of\nbitter persecution-(ED).\n\n[138] Vanity Fair is the City of Destruction in its gala dress,\nin its most seductive and sensual allurements. It is this world in\nminiature, with its various temptations. Hitherto we have observed\nthe pilgrims by themselves, in loneliness, in obscurity, in the\nhidden life and experience of the people of God. The allegory\nthus far has been that of the soul, amidst its spiritual enemies,\ntoiling towards Heaven; now there comes a scene more open, tangible,\nexternal; the allurements of the world are to be presented, with\nthe manner in which the true pilgrim conducts himself amidst\nthem. It was necessary that Bunyan should show his pilgrimage in\nits external as well as its secret spiritual conflicts; it was\nnecessary that he should draw the contrast between the pursuits\nand deportment of the children of this world and the children\nof light; that he should show how a true pilgrim appears, and is\nlikely to be regarded, who, amidst the world's vanities, lives\nabove the world, is dead to it, and walks through it as a stranger\nand a pilgrim towards Heaven-(Cheever).\n\n[139] A just description of this wicked world. How many, though\nthey profess to be pilgrims, have never yet set one foot out of\nthis fair; but live in it all the year round! They \"walk according\nto the course of this world\" (Eph. 2:2); for \"the god of this\nworld hath blinded their minds\" (1 Cor. 4:4). But all those for\nwhose sins Jesus hath died \"He delivers from this present evil\nworld\" (Gal. 1:4). You cannot be a pilgrim, if you are not delivered\nfrom this world and its vanities; for if you love the world, if\nit has your supreme affections, the love of God is not in you, (1\nJohn 2:15); you have not one grain of precious faith in precious\nJesus-(Mason).\n\n[140] Mr. James, who, in 1815, published the \"Pilgrim\" in verse,\nconjectures that Bunyan's description of the Fair arose from\nhis having been at Sturbridge Fair, near Cambridge. It was thus\ndescribed in 1786-\"The shops or booths are built in rows like\nstreets, having each its name; as Garlick Row, Bookseller's Row,\nCook Row, &c. Here are all sorts of traders, who sell by wholesale\nor retail; as goldsmith's toymen, braziers, turners, milliners,\nhaberdashers, hatters, mercers, drapers, pewterers, china warehouses,\nand in a word, most trades that can be found in London. Here are\nalso taverns, coffee-houses, and eating-houses, in great plenty.\nThe chief diversions are puppets, rope-dancing, and music booths.\nTo this Fair, people from Bedfordshire and the adjoining counties\nstill resort. Similar kinds of fairs are now kept at Frankfort and\nLeipzig. These mercantile fairs were very injurious to morals;\nbut not to the extent of debauchery and villany, which reign in\nour present annual fairs, near the metropolis and large cities.\"\nSee an account of this fair in Hone's Year Book, page 1538-(ED).\nOur author evidently designed to exhibit in his allegory the grand\noutlines of the difficulties, temptations, and sufferings, to\nwhich believers are exposed in this evil world; which, in a work\nof this nature, must be related as if they came upon them one\nafter another in regular succession; though in actual experience\nseveral may meet together, many may molest the same person again\nand again, and some harass him in every stage of his journey. We\nshould, therefore, singly consider the instruction conveyed by\nevery allegorical incident, without measuring our experience, or\ncalculating our progress, by comparing them with circumstances\nwhich might be reversed or altered with almost endless variety.\nIn general, Vanity Fair represents the wretched state of things\nin those populous places especially, where true religion is\nneglected and persecuted; and, indeed, \"in the whole world lying\nin wickedness,\" as distinguished from the church of \"redeemed\nsinners\"-(Scott).\n\n[141] Christ will not allow his followers to bury their talent in\nthe earth, or to put their light under a bushel; they are not to\ngo out of the world, or to retire into cloisters, monasteries,\nor deserts; but they MUST all go through this fair. Thus our Lord\nendured all the temptations and sufferings of this evil world,\nwithout being impeded or entangled by them, or stepping in the\nleast aside to avoid them; and he was exposed to greater enmity\nand contempt than any of His followers-(Scott).\n\n[142] The world will seek to keep you out of Heaven with mocks,\nflouts, taunts, threatenings, jails, gibbets, halters, burnings,\nand deaths. There ever was enmity between the seed of the serpent\nand the seed of the woman, and no endeavours can reconcile them.\nThe world says, They will never come over to us; and we again say,\nBy God's grace we will not go over to them.\n\n[143] Holy Hunt of Hitchin, as he was called, a friend of Bunyan's,\npassing the market-place where mountebanks were performing, one\ncried after him, \"Look there, Mr. Hunt!\" Turning his head another\nway, he replied, \"Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity\"-(Ivimey).\n\n[144] An odd reply. What do they mean? That they are neither\nafraid nor ashamed to own what was the one subject of their souls'\npursuit-the truth. Understand hereby, that the whole world, which\nlieth in wickedness, is deceived by a lie, and is under the delusion\nof the father of lies. In opposition to this, all believers in\nChrist are said to be of the truth (1 John 3:19). They know and\nbelieve that capital truth with which God spake from Heaven, \"This\nis My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased\" (Matt. 3:17). This\ntruth-that Jesus is the Son of God, and our only Saviour-lies at the\nfoundation of all their hope; and to get more and more acquainted\nwith Him, is the grand object of their pursuits. For this the\nworld hates them; and Satan, who is an enemy to this truth, stirs\nup the world against them. \"For,\" says our Lord, \"they are not of\nthe world, even as I am not of the world\" (John 17:16)-(Mason).\n\n[145] In 1670, the town porters of Bedford being commanded to\nassist in a brutal attack upon the Nonconformists, ran away,\nsaying, \"They would be hanged, drawn, and quartered, before they\nwould assist in that work\"; for which cause the justices committed\ntwo of them (which they could take) to the jail. The shops were\nshut up, so that it seemed like a place visited with the pest,\nwhere usually is written upon the door, \"Lord, have mercy upon\nus!\"-(Narrative of Proceedings against Nonconformists, p. 5. 4to,\n1670).\n\n[146] This is a true representation of what took place in England\nin Bunyan's time. It was a disgrace to our nation, that Englishmen,\nurged on by a fanatic church, treated two young and interesting\nwomen with a barbarity that would make savages (so called) blush.\nIt was at Carlisle that two female pilgrims, Dorothy Waugh and\nAnn Robinson, were dragged through the streets, with each an iron\ninstrument of torture, called a bridle, upon their heads; and were\ntreated with gross indecency-(ED).\n\n[147] The great object of the Gospel is to fit man for his active\nduties in this world, and prepare him for heavenly enjoyments in\nthe world to come. Not like those lazy creeping things that shut\nthemselves up in nunneries or monasteries to avoid the temptations\nand troubles, the resistance or hearing of which glorifies God.\nChristians are to be as lights-not hid under a bushel but seen of\nall men. The prayer of their Lord was and is, not that they should\nbe taken out of the world, but kept from its evil contaminations-(ED).\n\n[148] In Bunyan's account of his imprisonment, he closes it with\nthese words-\"Thus have I, in short, declared the manner and occasion\nof my being in prison; where I lie waiting the good will of God\nto do with me as He pleaseth; knowing that not one hair of my head\ncan fall to the ground without the will of my Father which is in\nHeaven. Let the rage and malice of men be ever so great, they can\ndo no more, nor go any further, than God permits them. When they\nhave done their worst, 'we know that all things work together for\ngood to them that love God'\" (Rom. 8:28).\n\n[149] The description of the process against the pilgrims, is\nframed in such a manner as emphatically to expose the secret reasons\nwhich influence men thus to persecute their innocent neighbours.\nThe very names employed declare the several corrupt principles of\nthe heart from whence this atrocious conduct results-(Scott).\n\n[150] This is one of Satan's lies, much used by his emissaries,\nto the present day. A Christian fears God, and honours the king;\nhe renders unto civil government that which belongs to civil and\ntemporal things, but he dares not render unto Caesar the things\nthat belong to God; and for thus righteously doing he is called\ndisloyal-(ED).\n\n[151] Superstition, or false devotion, is a most bitter enemy to\nChrist's truth and his followers. This fellow's evidence is very\ntrue; for as the lawyer said of Christ's doctrine, \"Master, thus\nsaying, thou reproachest us also\" (Luke 11:45). So false worshippers,\nwho rest in forms, and rites, and shadows, are stung to the quick\nat those who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus,\nand have no confidence in the flesh; such a conduct pours the\nutmost contempt upon all the will-worship, and doctrines, and\nsuperstition of carnal men-(Mason). With such, traditions, human\ninventions, forms, and externals, appear venerable and sacred; and\nthey are mistaken with pertinaceous ignorance for the substance\nof religion. What is pompous and burdensome appears to such men\nmeritorious; and the excitement of mere natural passions, as at a\ntragedy, is falsely deemed a needful help to true devotion. Their\nzeal hardens their hearts, and causes bitter rage, enmity, and\ncalumny, against the pious Christians-(Scott).\n\n[152] As soon as the poor sinner says, \"O Lord our God, other lords\nbeside Thee have had dominion over us: but by Thee only will we\nmake mention of Thy name\" (Isa. 26:13), your officious Pickthanks\nare always ready to bear testimony against him; and a blessed\ntestimony this is; it is well worth living to gain, and dying in\nthe cause of. If we are real disciples of Christ, we shall, as\nHe did, testify of the world that the works thereof are evil, and\nthe world will hate us for His sake (John 7:7)-(Mason). Pickthank\nhas no real principle, but puts on zeal for any party that will\npromote his interests; he inwardly despises both the superstitious\nand the spiritual worshipper-(Scott).\n\n[153] This is the Christian's plea and glory. While he knows \"the\ntender mercies of the wicked are cruel\" (Prov. 12:10), yet he\nalso knows that the \"merciful kindness of the Lord is great, and\nthe truth of the Lord endureth forever\" (Psa. 118:2)-(Mason).\n\n[154] A more just and keen satirical description of such legal\niniquities can scarcely be imagined, than that contained in this\npassage. The statutes and precedents adduced, with a humourous\nreference to the style in which charges are commonly given to\njuries, show what patterns persecutors choose to copy, and whose\nkingdom they labour to uphold. Nor can any impartial man deny\nthat the inference is fair, which our author meant the reader to\ndeduce, namely, that nominal Protestants, enacting laws requiring\nconformity to their own creeds and forms, and inflicting punishments\non such as peaceably dissent from them, are actually involved in\nthe guilt of these heathen persecutors--(Scott).\n\n[155] These words, and this trial, were quoted (January 25, 1848)\nby the Attorney-General, at Westminster Hall, in answer to the\nmanner in which Dr. Hampden was then charged with heresy by the\nPuseyites-(ED).\n\n[156] If the Lord were to leave us in the hands of men, we should\nstill find that their tender mercies are cruel. Such a jury as\ntried Faithful might be found in every county of Britain-(Burder).\nTo this may be added, that the witnesses are still living-(ED).\n\n[157] Nothing can be more masterly than the satire contained in\nthis trial. The judge, the witnesses, and the jury, are portraits\nsketched to the life, and finished, every one of them, in quick,\nconcise, and graphic touches; the ready testimony of Envy is\nespecially characteristic. Rather than anything should be wanting\nthat might be necessary to despatch the prisoner, he would enlarge\nhis testimony against him to any requisite degree. The language\nand deportment of the judge are a copy to the life of some of\nthe infamous judges under King Charles, especially Jefferies. You\nmay find, in the trial of the noble patriot Algernon Sidney, the\nabusive language of the judge against Faithful almost word for\nword. The charge to the jury, with the Acts and laws on which the\ncondemnation of the prisoner was founded, wax full of ingenuity\nand meaning-(Cheever).\n\n[158] Bunyan gives a good portrait of Faithful in his Howe of\nLebanon, referring to the character of Pomporius Algerius, mentioned\nin Fox's Book of Martyrs. \"Was not this man, think you, a giant?\ndid he not behave himself valiantly? was not his mind elevated a\nthousand degrees beyond sense, carnal reason, fleshly love, and\nthe desires of embracing temporal things? This man had got that\nby the end that pleased Him; neither could all the flatteries,\npromises, threats, reproaches, make him once listen to, or inquire\nafter, what the world, or the glory of it could afford. His mind\nwas captivated with delights invisible. He coveted to show his\nlove to his Lord, by laying down his life for His sake. He longed\nto be where there shall be no more pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing,\nnor tears, nor troubles. He was a man of a thousand!\" Speaking\nof the pillars in that house at Lebanon, he says, \"These men had\nthe faces of lions, they have triumphed in the flames.\"\n\n[159] This is a most exquisitely beautiful sketch; it is drawn to\nthe life from many an era of pilgrimage in this world; there are\nin it the materials of glory, that constituted spirits of such noble\ngreatness as are catalogued in the eleventh of Hebrews-traits of\ncruel mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonments-(Cheever).\n\n[160] Political interests engage ungodly princes to promote\ntoleration, and chain up the demon of persecution. The cruelties\nthey exercise disgust the people, and they are disheartened by\nthe ill success of their efforts to extirpate the hated sect-(Scott).\n\n[161] I have often recorded it with thankfulness, that though in\nthe dreary day of my pilgrimage, the Lord hath taken away a dear\nand faithful Christian friend, yet he has always raised up another.\nA very great blessing this, for which Christians can never be\nthankful enough-(Mason).\n\n[162] Is not this too much the case with professors of this day?\nThe Spirit of truth says, \"All that will live godly in Christ\nJesus shall suffer persecution\" (2 Tim. 3:12). But how many act\nas if they had found the art of making the Spirit of truth a liar!\nfor they can so trim and shape their conduct, as they vainly think\nto follow Christ, and yet to keep in with the world, which is at\nenmity against Him-a most fatal and soul-deceiving error-(Mason).\n\n[163] What is this something that By-ends knew more than all the\nworld? How to unite Heaven and hell-how to serve God and Mammon-how\nto be a Christian and a hypocrite at the same time. O the depth of\nthe depravity of the human heart; alas! how many similar characters\nnow exist, with two tongues in one mouth, looking one way and\nrowing another-(ED).\n\n[164] Fear not, therefore, in her for to abide, She keeps her ground,\ncome weather, wind, or tide.--(Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2, p.\n579). If we will follow Christ, He tells us that we must take up\nour cross. The wind sets always on my face; and the foaming rage\nof the sea of this world, and the proud and lofty waves thereof\ndo continually beat upon the sides of the bark, or ship, that\nmyself, my cause, and my followers are in-(Bunyan's Greatness of\nthe Soul, vol. 1, p. 107).\n\n[165] Mind how warily these pilgrims acted to this deceitful\nprofessor. They did not too rashly take up an ill opinion against\nhim; but when they had full proof of what he was, they did not hesitate\none moment, but dealt faithfully with him, and conscientiously\nwithdrew from him-(Mason). In a letter written in 1661, from Exeter\njail, by Mr. Abraham Chear, a Baptist minister of Plymouth, who\nsuffered greatly for nonconformity, and at length died in a state\nof banishment, there is this remark, \"We have many brought in here\ndaily, who go out again almost as soon, for a week in a prison\ntries a professor more than a month in a church\"-(Ivimey).\n\n[166] It might have been supposed that the persons here introduced\nwere settled inhabitants of the town of Vanity, or the City\nof Destruction; but, indeed, they professed themselves pilgrims,\nand desired, during the \"sunshine,\" to associate with pilgrims,\nprovided they would allow them to hold the world, love money,\nand save all, whatever became of faith and holiness, of honesty,\npiety, truth, and charity?-(Scott).\n\n[167] Pretended friends come with such expostulations as these:\nWhy, dear Sir, will you give such offence? How much would it be\nfor your comfort and interest in the world if you would but be a\nlittle more complying, and give way in some particular points and\nphrases. O what a syren's song! May the Lord enable every faithful\nservant to reply, \"Get thee behind me, Satan\"-(J. B.).\n\n[168] These words of Solomon are thus wickedly misapplied by many\nto the present day. Ecclesiastes 7:16, 17 probably refers to the\nadministration of justice which should be tempered with mercy, but\nnot with laxity; or it may refer to the foolish opinions expressed\nupon the characters of Pharisee and publican, exalting the one\nor decrying the other overmuch. It cannot be meant to censure\nthe utmost efforts after true righteousness, nor to sanction the\nslightest degree of wickedness-(ED).\n\n[169]Woe unto them who wander from the way. Art bound for hell,\nagainst all wind and weather? Or art thou one agoing backward\nthither? Or dost thou wink, because thou would'st not see? Or dost\nthou sideling go, and would'st not be Suspected Yet these prophets\ncan thee tell, Which way thou art agoing down to hell.--(Acts\n7:20-22. Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2, p. 582).\n\n[170] Notwithstanding By-ends could be reserved with faithful\npilgrims, yet he can speak out boldly to those of his own spirit\nsad character. O the treacherous deceivings of the desperate\nwickedness of the human heart! Who can know it? No one but the\nheart-searching God-(Mason).\n\n[171] Some men's hearts are narrow upwards, and wide downwards:\nnarrow as for God, but wide for the world. They gape for the one,\nbut shut themselves up against the other. The heart of a wicked\nman is widest downward; but it is not so with the righteous man.\nHis desires, like the temple Ezekiel saw in the vision, are still\nwidest upwards, and spread towards Heaven. A full purse, with a\nlean soul, is a great curse. Many, while lean in their estates,\nhad fat souls; but the fattening of their estates has made their\nsouls as lean as a rake as to good-(Bunyan's Righteous Man's\nDesires, vol. 1, p. 745).\n\n[172] This dialogue is not in the least more absurd and selfish\nthan the discourse of many who now attend on the preaching of the\nGospel. If worldly lucre be the honey, they imitate the bee, and\nonly attend to religion when they can gain by it; they determine\nto keep what they have at any rate, and to get more, if it can be\ndone without open scandal-(Scott).\n\n[173] There is a fund of satirical humour in the supposed case\nhere very gravely stated; and if the author, in his accurate\nobservations on mankind, selected his example from among the\nmercenaries that are the scandal of the Established Church, her\nmost faithful friends will not greatly resent this conduct of\na dissenter-(Scott). Dr. Paley would have done well to have read\nthis chapter in Bunyan before composing some of the chapters in\nhis Moral Philosophy, and his Sermon on the Utility of Distinctions\nin the Ministry-(Cheever).\n\n[174] Here is worldly wisdom, infernal logic, and the sophistry of\nSatan. We hear this language daily, from money-loving professors,\nwho are destitute of the power of faith. But in opposition to all\nthis, the Holy Ghost testifies, \"The love of money is the root of\nall evil\" (1 Tim. 6:10), and a covetous man is an idolater (Col.\n3:5). Hear this, and tremble, ye avaricious professors. Remember,\nye followers of the Lamb, ye are called to \"let your conversation\nbe without covetousness\" (Heb, 13:5); your Lord testifies, \"Ye\ncannot serve God and Mammon\" (Luke 16:13)--(Mason).\n\n[175] How doth this commend itself to those who make merchandise\nof souls. What swarms of such locusts are there in this day!-(J.B.).\n\n[176] If thou art one who tradeth in both ways: God's now, the\ndevil's then; or if delays Thou mak'st of coming to thy God for\nlife; Or if thy light and lusts are at a strife About who should\nbe master of thy soul, And lovest one, the other dost control;\nThese prophets tell thee can which way thou bendest, On which thou\nfrown'st, to which a hand thou lendest.--(Titus 1:16. See vol. 2,\np. 582).\n\n[177] Bunyan, in his Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity, thus\naddresses such characters: \"This is the man that hath the breath\nof a dragon; he poisons the air round about him. This is the man\nthat slays his children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself-he\nthat offends God's little ones. O the millstone that God will\nshortly hang about your neck, when the time is come that you must\nbe drowned in the sea and deluge of God's wrath!\"-(See vol. 2, p.\n539). The answer of Christian, though somewhat rough, is so conclusive\nas to fortify every honest mind against all the arguments which\nthe whole tribe of time-serving professors ever did, or ever can\nadduce, in support of their ingenious schemes and insidious efforts\nto reconcile religion with covetousness and the love of the world,\nor to render it subservient to their secular interests-(Scott).\n\n[178] Here see the blessedness of being mighty in the Scripture,\nand the need of that exhortation, \"Let the Word of Christ dwell\nin you richly\" (Col. 3:16). For the Word of God is quick and\npowerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword; it pierces through\nall the subtle devices of Satan, and the cunning craftiness\nof carnal professors; and divideth asunder the carnal reasonings\nof the flesh, and the spiritual wisdom which cometh from above.\n\nTeach me, my God and King,\nIn all things THEE to see,\nAnd what I do in any thing\nTo do it as for THEE--(Mason).\n\n[179] The Hill Lucre stands somewhat out of the way, but temptingly\nnear. They that will profit by the mine must turn aside for it (Prov.\n28:20, 22). Sir J. Mandeville, in his Travels, says, that in the\nVale Perilous is plenty of gold and silver, and many Christian\nmen go in for the treasure, but few come out again, for this are\nstrangled of the devil. But good Christian men, that are stable\nin the faith, enter without peril-(ED).\n\n[180] Eve expected some sweet and pleasant sight, that would tickle\nand delight her deluded fancy; but, behold sin, and the wrath of\nGod, appear to the shaking of her heart; and thus, even to this\nday, doth the devil delude the world. His temptations are gilded\nwith sweet and fine pretences, that men shall be wiser, richer,\nmore in favour, live merrier, fare better, or something; and by\nsuch like things the fools are easily allured. But when their eyes\nare opened, instead of seeing what the devil falsely told them,\nthey see themselves involved in wrath-(Bunyan on Genesis, vol. 2.\np. 431).\n\n[181] Here you see the end of double-minded men, who vainly attempt\nto temper the love of money with the love of Christ. They go on\nwith their art for a season, but the end makes it manifest what\nthey were. Take David's advice, \"Fret not thyself because of\nevil-doers\" (Psa. 37:1) \"Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,\nwhen the glory of his house is increased\" (Psa. 49:16). But go\nthou into the sanctuary of thy God, read His Word, and understand\nthe end of these men-(Mason). Often, as the motley reflexes of my\nexperience move in long processions of manifold groups before me,\nthe distinguished and world-honoured company of Christian mammonists\nappear to the eye of my imagination as a drove of camels heavily\nladen, yet all at full speed; and each in the confident expectation\nof passing through the eye of the needle, without stop or halt,\nboth beasts and baggage-(Coleridge).\n\n[182] I have sometimes wondered at Lot. His wife looked behind\nher, and died immediately; but he would not so much as look behind\nhim to see her. We do not read that he did so much as once look\nwhere she was, or what was become of her. His heart was set upon\nhis journey; and well it might. There were the mountains before\nhim, and the fire and brimstone behind him. His life lay at stake;\nand had he looked behind him he had lost it. Do thou so run, and\n\"remember Lot's wife\"-(Bunyan's Heavenly Footman).\n\n[183] In former times, the purse was carried hanging to a girdle\nround the waist, and great dexterity was requisite to cut and carry\nit away without the knowledge of the owner. Public executions for\ntheft had so little effect in repressing crime, that thefts were\ncommitted in sight of, or even under the gallows-(ED).\n\n[184] Alas! poor pilgrims, like Peter, you soon forgot the judgment,\nalthough your sight of Lot's wife had so affected your spirits.\nHow soon yon went into By-path Meadow! \"wherefore, let him that\nthinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall\" (1 Cor. 10:12)-(ED).\n\n[185] By this river, which is called \"a pure river of water of\nlife, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and\nof the Lamb\" (Rev. 22:1), we may understand clear and comfortable\nviews of God's everlasting love and electing grace. They could see\nin it God's glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ, and view\ntheir own faces in it, to their inexpressible joy. This is the river\n\"the streams whereof make glad the city of God\" (Psa. 46:4). The\nstream which flow from this river of electing love, are vocation\nto Christ, justification by Christ, sanctification in Christ,\nperseverance through Christ, glorification with Christ, and all\njoy and peace in believing on Christ. All this these pilgrims now\nenjoyed, and all this every fellow-citizen of the saints is called\nto enjoy in his pilgrimage to Zion. God hath chosen us in Christ,\nand blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. O how happy,\npeaceful, and joyful are pilgrims, when the Spirit takes of the\nthings of Christ, shows them to us, and blesses us with a sense\nof interest in all the love of God, and finished salvation of\nJesus!-(Mason).\n\n[186] Blessed state indeed, but of short duration! Too often these\ndesirable consolations of the Spirit render the Christian careless\nand unwatchful-(Burder).\n\n[187] A scene to soothe and calm a mind fretted and harassed with\nthe cares and turmoils of this every-day world; a sunny vista\ninto the future, welcome in a weary hour to the worn spirit, which\nlongs, as for the wings of the dove, that it may flee away, and\nbe at rest; a glimpse of Sabbath quietness on earth, given as a\npledge and foretaste of the more glorious and eternal Sabbath of\nHeaven-(Bernard Barton).\n\n[188] Now had I an evidence, as I thought, of my salvation from\nHeaven, with many golden seals thereon, all hanging in my sight.\nNow could I remember the manifestations of grace with comfort;\nand longed that the last day were come, that I might forever be\ninflamed with the sight, and joy, and communion with Him, whose\nsoul was made an offering for my sins. Before this I lay trembling\nat the mouth of hell; now I had got so far therefrom that I could\nscarce discern it. O, thought I, that I were fourscore years old,\nthat I might die quickly, and my soul be gone to rest--(Grace\nAbounding, No. 128).\n\n[189] They should have said, It is true this way is not so pleasant\nas the meadow, but it is the Lord's way, and the best, doubtless,\nfor us to travel in. A man speedily enters into temptation when\nhe becomes discontented with God's allotments; then Satan presents\nallurements, and from wishing for a better way, the soul goes into\na worse. The discontented wish is father to a sinful will; I wish\nfor a better is followed by, I will have a better, and so the\nsoul goes astray-(Cheever).\n\n[190] The transition into the by-path is easy, for it lies close\nto the right way; only you must get over a stile, that is, you must\nquit Christ's imputed righteousness, and trust in your own inherent\nrighteousness; and then you are in By-path Meadow directly-(Mason).\n\n[191] The best caution I can give to others, or take myself, is, not\nto be guided in matters of faith by men, but to make the Scriptures\nour only rule-to look to God for the teaching of His blessed\nSpirit, that He may keep our feet from the ways of death-(J.B.).\n\n[192] \"There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end\nthereof are the ways of death\" (Prov. 14:12). Vain confidence is\nthis very way. O how easy do professors get into it! yea, real\npilgrims are prone also to take up with it, owing to that legality,\npride, and self-righteousness, which work in their fallen mature.\nSee the end of it, and tremble; for it leads to darkness, and\nends in death. Lord, humble our proud hearts, and empty us of\nself-righteousness, pride, and vain confidence-(Mason).\n\n[193] So, sometimes, real pilgrims take counsel and example of\nstrangers, of worldly men, and of presumptuous careless persons.\nVain confidence is a sad guide anywhere, but especially when one\nhas wandered out of the way--(Cheever).\n\n[194] If thou be prying into God's secret decrees, or entertain\nquestions about nice curiosities, thou mayest stumble and fall\nto thine eternal ruin. Take heed of that lofty spirit, that,\ndevil-like, cannot be content with its own station--(Heavenly\nFootman).\n\n[195] The thunder and lightning plainly show that this by-path leads\nto Sinai, not to Zion. One step over the stile, by giving way to\na self-righteous spirit, and you enter the territories of despair-(J.\nB.).\n\n[196] How varied is the experience of a Christian! he had just\nbefore overcome Demas, and conquered By-ends and his companions;\nis warned by Lot's wife, and now elated with the strength of his\nprinciples; boldness takes the place of caution; he ventures upon\nan easier path, and is involved in misery-(ED).\n\n[197] When Bunyan pleaded, so energetically, for the communion of\nsaints, irrespective of water-baptism, one of his arguments was,\n\"The strongest may sometimes be out of the way.\" \"Receive ye one\nanother as Christ also received us\"-(Vol. 2, p. 610).\n\n[198] Here see, that as Christians are made helpful, so also,\nthrough prevailing corruptions, they are liable to prove hurtful\nto each other. But observe how grace works: it humbles, it makes\nthe soul confess and be sorry for its misfortunes. Here is no\nreviling one another; but a tender sympathy and feeling concern\nfor each other. O the mighty power of that grace and truth which\ncame by Jesus Christ! How does it cement souls in the fellowship\nof love!--(Mason).\n\n[199] How easy it is to trace the path that led the pilgrims astray!\nTo avoid the roughness of the way, they entered the by-path, that\nby measures of carnal policy they might avoid afflictions. Guided\nby Vain-confidence, they were led from the road, and when this\nVain-confidence was destroyed, they were involved in distress and\ndanger-(Ivimey).\n\n[200] The personification of Despair is one of the most instructive\nand beautiful portions of Bunyan's allegory. It appeals either to\nevery man's experience, or to every man's sense of what may come\nupon him, on account of sin. It is at once, in some respects, the\nvery gloomiest and very brightest part of the \"Pilgrim's Progress\";\nfor it shows at once to what a depth of misery sin may plunge the\nChristian, and also to what a depth the mercy of God in Christ\nmay reach. The colouring of the picture is extremely vivid, the\nremembrance of it can never pass from the mind; and, as in a gallery\nof beautiful paintings, there may often be one that so strongly\nreminds you of your own experience, or that in itself is so\nremarkably beautiful as to keep you dwelling upon it with unabated\ninterest; so it is with this delineation of Giant Despair, among\nthe many admirable sketches of Bunyan's piety and genius. It is\nso full of deep life and meaning that you cannot exhaust it, and\nit is of such exquisite propriety and beauty that you are never\ntired with examining it-(Cheever).\n\n[201] Sooner or later Doubting Castle will be the prison, and\nGiant Despair the keeper of all those who turn aside from Christ\nand His righteousness, to trust in any wise in themselves, and to\ntheir righteousness. \"Our God is a jealous God,\" ever jealous of\nHis own glory, and of the honour of His beloved Son-(Mason). So\nunder the old cut, illustrating the Pilgrims in Doubting Castle,\nare these lines--\"The pilgrims now, to gratify the flesh, Will seek\nits ease; but O! how they afresh Do thereby plunge themselves new\ngriefs into! Who seek to please the flesh, themselves undo.\"\n\n[202] Blessed sorrow! how many are there who never tasted the bread\nof Heaven, nor the water of life from the wells of salvation; who\nare strangers to the communion of saints, but do not feel themselves\nto be \"in evil case,\" nor have wept under a sense of their wretched\nstate-(ED).\n\n[203] What! such highly-favoured Christians in Doubting Castle?\nAfter having traveled so far in the way of salvation, seen so many\nglorious things in the way, experienced so much of the grace and\nlove of their Lord, and having so often proved His faithfulness?\nIs not this strange? No; it is common-the strongest Christians\nare liable to err and get out of the way, and then to be beset\nwith very great and distressing doubts-(Mason). Despair, like\na tremendous giant, will at last seize on the souls of all\nunbelievers; and when Christians conclude, from some misconduct,\nthat they belong to that company, they are exposed to be taken captive\nby him. They do not, indeed, fall and perish with Vain-confidence;\nbut for a season they find it impossible to rise superior to\nprevailing gloomy doubts bordering on despair, or to obtain the\nleast comfortable hope of deliverance, or encouragement to use\nthe proper means of seeking it-(Scott).\n\n[204] The wife of Despair is Diffidence, or a distrust of God's\nfaithfulness, and a want of confidence in His mercy. When a\nChristian follows such counsels, gloom and horror of mind will be\nproduced, and life become a burden--(Ivimey).\n\n[205] Bunyan, in one of his delightful treatises of comfort against\ndespair, introduces the following striking colloquy-\"Says Satan,\nDost thou not know that thou art one of the vilest in all the pack\nof professors? Yes, says the soul, I do. Says Satan, Dost thou\nnot know that thou hast horribly sinned? Yes, says the soul, I\ndo. Well, saith Satan, now will I come upon thee with my appeals.\nArt thou not a graceless wretch? Yes. Hast thou an heart to be\nsorry for this wickedness? No, not as I should. And albeit, saith\nSatan, thou prayest sometimes, yet is not thy heart possessed with\na belief that God will not regard thee? Yes, says the sinner. Why,\nthen, despair, and go hang thyself, saith the devil. And now we\nare at the end of the thing designed and driven at by Satan. But\nwhat shall I now do, saith the sinner? I answer, take up the words\nof the text against him, \"That ye may be able to comprehend the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love\nof Christ, which passeth knowledge-(Saints' Knowledge of Christ's\nLove, vol. 2, p. 37).\n\n[206] Giant Despair, it seems, has fits in sunshiny weather;\nthat is, a gleam of hope, from Christ the Sun of righteousness,\nsometimes darted into their minds-(Burder).\n\n[207] Satan and his angels will not be wanting to help forward\nthe calamity of the man, who, in coming to Christ, is beat out\nof breath, out of heart, out of courage, by wind that blows him\nbackward. They will not be wanting to throw up his heels in their\ndirty places, nor to trouble his head with the fumes of their\nfoul breath. And now it is hard coming to God; Satan has the art\nof making the most of every sin; he can make every hair on the head\nas big as a cedar. But, soul, Christ can save unto the uttermost!\ncome, man, come. He can do exceeding abundantly above all we can\nask or think!-(Bunyan's Complete Saviour, vol. 1, p. 209). Poor\nChristian! What! tempted to destroy thyself? Lord, what is man!\nBut see, despairing souls, mark the truth of that word, \"There hath\nno temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is\nfaithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are\nable; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape,\nthat ye may be able to bear it\" (1 Cor. 10:13)-(Mason).\n\n[208] Bunyan had an acute sense of the exceeding sinfulness of\nsin, and no saint had suffered more severely from despair. One of\nhis great objects, in most of his works, is to arm poor pilgrims\nagainst desponding fears. Thus, in his first treatise on Gospel\nTruths-\"He (the devil) will be sure to present to thy conscience\nthe most sad sentences of the Scripture; yea, and set them home\nwith such cunning arguments, that if it be possible he will make\nthee despair, and make away thyself as did Judas\"-(Vol. 2, p.132).\nSin, when seen in its colours, and when appearing in its monstrous\nshape and hue, frighteth all mortals out of their wits, away from\nGod, and, if He stops them not, also out of the world. This is\nmanifest by Cain, Judas, Saul, and others. They fly from before\nGod, one to one fruit of despair, and one to another-(Pharisee\nand Publican, vol. 2, p. 260).\n\n[209] An admirable chain of reasoning, pointing out the evils of\ndespair, is to be found in the Jerusalem Sinner Saved (vol. 1,\npp. 91, 92), under the head Fifthly. \"It will make a man his own\ntormentor, and flounce and fling like a wild bull in a net (Isa.\n51:20). Despair! it drives a man to the study of his own ruin, and\nbrings him at last to be his own executioner\" (2 Sam. 17:3-5)-(ED).\n\n[210] Alas, how chang'd! Expressive of his mind, His eyes are sunk,\narms folded, head reclin'd; Those awful syllables, hell, death, and\nsin, Though whisper'd, plainly tell what works within.--(Cowper's\nHope).\n\n\"A wounded spirit who can bear?\"\n\n[211] To bring the state of Christian's mind before us, read the\nlamentations of the Psalmist, when he was a prisoner in Doubting\nCastle, under Giant Despair, in Psalm 88; and Bunyan's experience,\nas narrated in No. 163 of Grace Abounding. Despair swallowed him\nup, and that passage fell like a hot thunderbolt upon his conscience,\n\"He was rejected, for he found no place for repentance\"-(Ivimey).\n\n[212] Dr. Donne, the celebrated Dean of St. Paul's, had recently\npublished a thesis, to prove that suicide, under some circumstances,\nwas justifiable. Hopeful answers all his arguments, and proves\nit to be the foulest of murders. Bunyan, in his treatise on\nJustification, volume 1, page 314, thus notices the jailer's intent\nto commit suicide, when the doors of the prison in which Paul was\nconfined were thrown open-\"Even now, while the earthquake shook\nthe prison, he had murder in his heart-murder, I say, and that\nof a high nature, even to have killed his own body and soul at\nonce\"-(ED).\n\n[213] Here is the blessing of a hopeful companion; here is excellent\ncounsel. Let vain professors say what they may against looking\nback to past experiences, it is most certainly good and right so\nto do; not to encourage present sloth and presumption, but to excite\nfresh confidence of hope in the Lord. We have David's example, and\nPaul's word to encourage us to this, \"The Lord that delivered me\nout of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he\nwill deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine\" (1 Sam. 17:37);\nand says Paul, \"We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that\nwe should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the\ndead\" (2 Cor. 1:9)-(Mason).\n\n[214] It is a curious picture which Bunyan has drawn of the\nintercourse between the giant and his wife Diffidence. They form\na very loving couple in their way; and the giant takes no new step\nin the treatment of the pilgrims without consulting Mrs. Diffidence\nover night, so that the curtain lectures to which we listen\nare very curious. But Mrs. Diffidence ought rather to have been\ncalled Dame Desperation, or Desperate Resolution; for she seems,\nif anything, the more stubborn genius of the two-(Cheever). By\nthese conversations between Diffidence and Despair, after they\nhad retired to bed, Bunyan perhaps designed to intimate that, as\nmelancholy persons seldom get rest at night, the gloominess of\nthe season contributes to the distress of their minds. So Asaph\ncomplains: \"My sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul\nrefused to be comforted\" (Psa. 67:2)-(Ivimey).\n\n[215] How would the awful lesson of the man in the iron cage, at\nthe Interpreter's house, now recur to poor Christian's mind: \"I\ncannot get out, O now I cannot! I left off to watch, and am shut\nup in this iron cage, nor can all the men in the world let me out.\"\nChristian's answer to the despairing pilgrim now soon broke upon\nhis memory: \"The Son of the Blessed is very pitiful\"-(ED).\n\n[216] What! Pray in the custody of Giant Despair, in the midst of\nDoubting Castle, and when their own folly brought them there too?\nYes; mind this, ye pilgrims, ye are exhorted, \"I will that men\npray everywhere, without doubting\" (1 Tim. 2:8). We can be in no\nplace but God can hear, nor in any circumstance but God is able\nto deliver us from. And be assured, that when the spirit of prayer\ncomes, deliverance is nigh at hand-(Mason). Perhaps the author\nselected Saturday at midnight for the precise time when the prisoners\nbegan to pray, in order to intimate that the preparation for the\nLord's day, which serious persons are reminded to make for its\nsacred services, are often the happy means of recovering those\nthat have fallen into sin and despondency-(Scott).\n\n[217] All at once, by a new revelation, which none but the Saviour\ncould make, Christian finds the promises. Christ had been watching\nover his erring disciples-He kept back the hand of Despair from\ndestroying them-He binds up the broken heart, and healeth all\ntheir wounds-(Cheever). As a key enters all the intricate wards\nof a lock, and throws back its bolts, so the precious promises of\nGod in his Word, if turned by the strong hand of faith, will open\nall the doors which unbelief and despair have shut upon us-(Burder).\n\n[218] Bunyan was a plain-spoken man, and feared not to offend\ndelicate ears when truth required honest dealing. In his treatise\non the Law and Grace, he says: \"And therefore, my brethren, seeing\nGod, our Father, hath sent us, damnable traitors, a pardon from\nHeaven, even all the promises of the Gospel, and hath also sealed\nto the certainty of it with the heart-blood of His dear Son, let\nus not be daunted\"-(Vol. 1, p. 562).\n\n[219] Precious promise! The promises of God in Christ are the life\nof faith, and the quickeners of prayer. O how oft do we neglect\nGod's great and precious promises in Christ Jesus, while doubts\nand despair keep us prisoners! So it was with these pilgrims; they\nwere kept under hard bondage of soul for four days. Hence see what\nit is to grieve the Spirit of God: for He only is the Comforter:\nand if He withdraws His influences, who or what can comfort us?\nThough precious promises are revealed in the Word, yet we can get\nno comfort from them but by the grace of the Spirit-(Mason).\n\n[220] It was Sabbath morning. The sun was breaking over the hills,\nand fell upon their pale, haggard countenances, it was to them a\nnew creation; they breathed the fresh, reviving air, and brushed,\nwith hasty steps, the dew from the untrodden grass, and fled\nthe nearest way to the stile, over which they had wandered. They\nhad learned a lesson by suffering, which nothing else could have\ntaught them, and which would remain with them to the day of their\ndeath--(Cheever). The experience of these \"three or four\" dreadful\ndays is specially recorded in Grace Abounding, (Nos. 261-263). The\nkey which opened the doors in Doubting Castle was these words,\napplied with power to his soul, \"I must go to Jesus,\" in connection\nwith Hebrews 12:22-24. Of the first night of his deliverance\nhe says, \"I could scarcely lie in my bed for joy and peace, and\ntriumph through Christ\"-(ED).\n\n[221] They fell to devising what soldiers, and how many, Diabolus\nshould go against Mansoul with, to take it; and after some debate,\nit was concluded that none were more fit for that expedition than\nan army of terrible DOUBTERS. They therefore concluded to send\nagainst Mansoul an army of sturdy doubters. Diabolus was to beat\nup his drum for 20 or 30,000 men in the Land of Doubting, which\nland lieth upon the confines of a place called Hell-gate Hill.\nCaptain Rage was over the election doubters; his were the red\ncolours; his standard-bearer was Mr. Destructive; and the great\nred dragon he had for his scutcheon. Captain Fury was over the\nvocation doubters; his standard-bearer was darkness; his colours\nwere pale; and his scutcheon the fiery flying serpent. Captain\nDamnation was over the grace doubters; his were the red colours;\nMr. No-life bore them; his scutcheon was the Black Den, &c.-(Holy\nWar).\n\n[222] When offending Christians are brought to deep repentance,\nrenewed exercises of lively faith, and willing obedience in those\nself-denying duties which they had declined, the Lord \"restores to\nthem the joy of His salvation,\" and their former comforts become\nmore abundant and permanent. The Delectable Mountains seem intended\nto represent those calm seasons of peace and comfort-(Scott).\n\n[223] O how many professors grow weary of the way, fall short, and\nfail of coming to the end! Though the way be too far, too strait,\nand too narrow for many who set out, and never hold out to the\nend; yet all who are begotten by the Word of grace, and born of\nthe Spirit of truth, shall persevere to the end, being kept by\nthe mighty power of God, through faith, unto eternal salvation (1\nPeter 1:5)-(Mason).\n\n[224] There is in this laconic description of the homely dreamer\na richness of beauty which no efforts of the artist can adequately\nportray; and in the concise dialogue of the speakers, a simple\nsublimity of eloquence which any commentary could only weaken.\nWhile our feelings are excited by this description, we cannot\nbut remember that \"eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have\nentered into the heart of man: the things which God hath prepared\nfor them that love Him\"-(Bernard Barton).\n\n[225] Precious names! What is a pilgrim without knowledge? What\nis head-knowledge without heart-experience? And watchfulness and\nsincerity ought to attend us every step. When these graces are in\nus and abound, they make delectable mountains indeed-(Mason).\n\n[226] Fine-spun speculations and curious reasonings lead men from\nsimple truth and implicit faith into many dangerous and destructive\nerrors-(Mason).\n\n[227] It is well for us to be much on this mount. We have constant\nneed of caution. Take heed and beware, says our Lord. Paul takes\nthe Corinthians up to this Mount Caution, and shows them what\nawful things have happened to professors of old; and he leaves\nthis solemn word for us, \"Wherefore, let him that thinketh he\nstandeth, take heed lest he fall\" (1 Cor. 10:12)-(Mason).\n\n[228] O the unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors,\nthat are effected by a thorough application of guilt, yielding\nto desperation! This is the man that hath his dwelling among the\ntombs with the dead, that is always crying out, and cutting himself\nwith stones (Mark 5:3). But all in vain; desperation will not\ncomfort him, the old covenant will not save him-(Grace Abounding,\nNo. 185).\n\n[229] Some retain the name of Christ, and the notion of Him as a\nSaviour; but cast Him off in the very things wherein the essential\nparts of His sacrifice, merits, and priesthood consist. In this\nlies the mystery of their iniquity. They dare not altogether deny\nthat Christ doth save His people, as a Priest; but then their\nart is to confound His offices, until they jostle out of doors\nthe merit of His blood and the perfection of His justifying\nrighteousness. Such draw away the people from the cross (put out\ntheir eyes), and lead them among the infidels-(Bunyan's Israel's\nHope, vol. 1, p. 615).\n\n[230] Probably to guard pilgrims against the Popish doctrine of\nauricular confession-(ED).\n\n[231] Those seem to shun the common broad road; but having only the\nmark of religion, while their hearts are not right with God, are\nas effectually ruined as the most profligate and open offenders-(Burder).\n\n[232] Thus we read of some who were once enlightened, and had\ntasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the world\nto come (Heb. 6:6). It is hard to say how far or how long a person\nmay carry on a profession, and yet fall away, and come short of\nthe kingdom at last. This should excite to diligence, humility, and\ncircumspection, ever looking to Jesus to keep us from falling-(Mason).\n\n[233] It reflects the highest credit on the diffidence of Bunyan's\ngenius-a genius as rich in its inventions, and as aspiring in\nits imaginative flights, as ever poet could possess or lay claim\nto-that, after such an exordium, he should have made no effort\nminutely to describe what was in its own splendour of glory\nindescribable. How beautifully, without exciting any disappointment\nin a reader of taste, feeling, and judgment, does he, by a few\nartless words, render most impressive and sublime, what more elaborate\ndescription could only have made confused and unsatisfactory.\nNothing can be more admirable than this brief and indistinct report\nof the perspective glass, it cannot offend the most fastidious taste,\nyet leaves scope for the exercise of the most ardent and aspiring\nimagination-(Bernard Barton). [234] Such mountains round about this\nhouse do stand. As one from thence may see the Holy Land.--(Bunyan's\nHouse of God, vol. 2, p. 579).\n\n[235] After going through the conflict with Apollyon, the Valley\nof the Shadow of Death, the scenes in Vanity Fair, and the dread\nexperience of the pilgrims in Giant Despair's Castle, it is well\nto note what a gallery of solemn REALITIES is here, what a system\nof Divine truth, commending itself to all men's consciences. It\nis not so much the richness of imagination, nor the tenderness\nof feeling here exhibited, nor the sweetness and beauty of the\nimagery, with which this book is filled, as it is the presence\nof these REALITIES that constitutes the secret of its unbounded\npower over the soul. Walk up and down in this rich and solemn\ngallery. How simple are its ornaments! How grave, yet beautiful,\nits architecture! Amidst all this deep, serene beauty to the\nimagination, by how much deeper a tone do these pictures speak to\nthe inner spiritual being of the soul! When you have admired the\nvisible beauty of the paintings, turn again to seek their meaning\nin that light from eternity by which the artist painted them, and\nby which he would have all men examine their lessons, and receive\nand feel the full power of their colouring. In this light, the\nwalls of this gallery seem moving with celestial figures speaking\nto the soul. They are acting the drama of a life which, by most\nmen, is only dreamed of; but the drama is the reality, and it is\nthe spectators only who are walking in a vain show-(Cheever).\n\n[236] This is the first break in the dream, and, doubtless, had\nan important meaning. Perhaps the pilgrimage may be divided into\nfour parts: 1. The convert flying from the wrath to come; instructed\nat the Interpreter's house; relieved of his burden at the cross;\nascends the Hill Difficulty; overcomes his timidity; and, 2.\nEnters a church at the House Beautiful; and, as a private member,\ncontinues his journey, until, 3. He meets Evangelist, near Vanity\nFair, and is found fit to become an itinerant preacher; in which\ncalling he suffers persecution, and obtains that fitness which\nenables him, 4. On the Delectable Mountains, to enter upon the\nresponsible duties of a ministering elder or pastor of a church,\nand is ordained by Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere.\nIs this commencement of his public labours the important point\nwhen the author \"awoke from his dream\"?-(ED).\n\n[237] This country we are all born in; all are ignoramuses by\nnature. Some live long in the country of Conceit, and many end\ntheir days in it. Are you come out of it? So was Ignorance; but\nhe breathed his native air. So long as a sinner thinks he can do\nanything towards making himself righteous before God, his name is\nIgnorance; he is full of self-conceit, and destitute of the faith\nof Christ-(Mason).\n\n[238] Now, is it not very common to hear professors talk at this\nrate? Yes, and many who make a very high profession too; their\nhopes are plainly grounded upon what they are in themselves,\nand how they differ from their former selves and other sinners,\ninstead of what Christ is to us and what we are in Christ. But the\nprofession of such is begun with an ignorant, whole, self-righteous\nheart; it is continued in pride, self-seeking, and self-exalting,\nand ends in awful disappointment. For such are called by our Lord\nthieves and robbers; they rob Him of the glory of His grace and\nthe gift of His imputed righteousness-(Mason).\n\n[239] It is best not to converse much at once with persons of\nthis character, but, after a few warnings, to leave them to\ntheir reflections; for their self-conceit is often cherished by\naltercations, in which they deem themselves very expert, however\ndisgusting their discourse may prove to others-(Scott).\n\n[240] An awful scene was beheld by the pilgrims. A professor, named\nTurn-away, bound with seven cords, was led by devils to the by-way\nto hell. Let everyone inquire, Who is this wanton professor?-He\nwho discovers a trifling, worldly, wanton spirit, dreads not\nthe appearance of evil, complies with the fashions of the carnal\nworld, and associates with the enemies of our Lord; and, in time,\nbecomes a damnable apostate. Lord, keep us from such a beginning\nand such an end!-(Burder).\n\n[241] The \"very dark lane\" in which \"Turn-away\" was met by the\npilgrims, represents the total darkness of the minds of such\nwicked professors; for \"if the light that is in them be darkness,\nhow great is that darkness!\" When their characters are made\nmanifest, they are ashamed to look their former pious friends in\nthe face. \"The wicked shall be holden with the cords of his sins\"\n(Prov. 5:22)-(Ivimey).\n\n[242] O beware of a light trifling spirit and a wanton behaviour.\nIt is often the forerunner of apostasy from God. It makes one tremble\nto hear those who profess to follow Christ in the regeneration,\ncrying, What harm is there in this game and the other diversion?\nThe warmth of love is gone, and they are become cold, dead, and\ncarnal. O how many instances of these abound!-(Mason).\n\n[243] In times of persecution, loose professors are driven down\nDead Man's Lane to Broad-way Gate; thus Satan murders the souls\nof men, by threatening to kill their bodies. Believers that are\nweak in faith are betrayed into sinful compliances; they sleep\nwhen they ought to watch, they conceal or deny their profession,\nand thus contract guilt; Faint-heart assaults them, Mistrust\nplunders them, and Guilt beats them down-(Scott).\n\n[244] The fly in the spider's net is the emblem of the soul in\nsuch a condition. If the soul struggleth, Satan laboureth to hold\nit down. If it make a noise, he bites it with blasphemous mouth;\ninsomuch that it must needs die at last in the net, if the Lord\nJesus help not. Believing is sure sweating work. Only strong\nfaith can make Satan flee. O the toil of a gracious heart in this\ncombat, if faith be weak! The man can get no higher than his knees,\ntill an arm from Heaven help him up-(Bunyan's Holy City).\n\n[245] When Bunyan was imprisoned, his sentence was-To be transported,\nif he did not conform in three months; and then, if found as a\nNonconformist, in this country, he should be hung. Determined at\nall hazards not to be a traitor to his God, he anticipated being\nhung; and was anxious, in such a cause, to meet death with firmness.\nWhen his fears prevailed, he dreaded lest he should make but a\nscrabbling shift to clamber up the ladder-(See Grace Abounding,\nNo. 334).\n\n[246] Where there is a faint heart in God's cause, and mistrust\nof God's truths, there will be guilt in the conscience, and but\nlittle faith. These rogues will prevail over, and rob such souls\nof the comforts of God's love and of Christ's salvation. By his\njewels, we may understand those radical graces of the Spirit-faith,\nhope, and love. By his spending-money, the sealing and earnest of\nthe Spirit in his heart (2 Cor. 1:22). Of this Divine assurance,\nand the sense of the peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, he was robbed;\nso that, though he still went on in the ways of the Lord, yet he\ndragged on but heavily and uncomfortably-(Mason).\n\n[247] Bunyan throws great light upon this subject in his Christ\na Complete Saviour, (vol. 1, p. 215)-\"We are saved by Christ;\nbrought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherwise made\nacceptable to God, but by the person and excellencies of Christ.\nTherefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets and the\npearls that thou shalt be adorned with, as a reward of service\ndone to God in this world, for them thou must thank Christ, and,\nbefore all, confess that He was the meritorious cause thereof.\"\n\n[248] What was this good thing? His precious faith, whose author,\nfinisher, and object is precious Jesus. And where he gives this\nprecious gift of faith, though it be but little, even as a grain\nof mustard-seed, not all the powers of earth and hell can rob the\nheart of it. Christ prayed for His disciple that his faith should\nnot fail, or be totally lost; therefore, though Peter lost his\ncomforts for a season, yet not his faith totally, not his soul\neternally; for, says Jesus, of all his dear flock, yea, of those\nof little faith too, None shall pluck them out of My hand. There\nis one blessed security, not in ourselves, but in our Lord-(Mason).\n\n[249] Hope, love, humility, meekness, patience, longsuffering,\ncompassion, and mercy, are gracious dispositions wrought in the\nheart by the Holy Ghost. These are the believer's jewels; and it\nis his duty to keep them clean, that their beauty and lustre may\nbe apparent-(Andronicus).\n\n[250] Little-faith cannot come all the way without crying. So\nlong as its holy boldness lasts, so long it can come with peace,\nbut it will go the rest of the way with crying-(Bunyan's Come and\nWelcome, vol. 1, p. 288).\n\n[251] Bunyan shows the difference between \"his spending-money,\" or\nthat treasure which the Christian carries in his earthen vessel,\nand his jewels, in Grace Abounding (No. 232)-\"It was glorious to\nme to see His [Christ's] exaltation. Now I could look from myself\nto Him, and should reckon that all those graces of God that\nnow were green in me, were yet but like those cracked groats and\nfourpence-halfpennies, (Irish sixpences, which, in the dearth of\nsilver coin in England, were made current at fourpence-halfpenny-ED),\nthat rich men carry in their purses, when their GOLD is in their\ntrunks at home. Oh! I saw that my gold was in my trunk at home,\nin Christ my Lord and Saviour. Now, Christ was all; all my wisdom,\nall my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption.\"\n\n[252] Hopeful was not the first pilgrim who has been \"almost made\nangry\" while holding a friendly debate upon that highly-important\nsubject, the doctrine of the saints' final perseverance. Pilgrims\nought to debate upon those subjects without being angry-(ED).\n\n[253] Hopeful here expresses himself as if he had read Bunyan on\nChrist's Love-\"But to fear man is to forget God. He taketh part\nwith them that fear HIM; so that we may boldly say, \"The Lord is\nmy helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me\" (Heb.\n13:6). Would it not be amazing to see a man encompassed with\nchariots, and horses, and weapons of defence, yet afraid of being\nsparrow-blasted, or overrun by a grasshopper?\"-(Vol. 2, p. 13).\n\n[254] Who can stand in the evil day of temptation, when beset with\nFaint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, backed by the power of their\nmaster, Satan? No one, unless armed with the whole armour of God;\nand even then, the power of such infernal foes makes it a hard\nfight to the Christian. But this is our glory, the Lord shall\nfight for us, and we shall hold our peace. We shall be silent as\nto ascribing any glory to ourselves, knowing our very enemies are\npart of ourselves, and that we are more than conquerors over all\nthese (only) through HIM who loved us (Rom. 8:37)-(Mason).\n\n[255] \"One Great-grace\"; a believer, or minister, who having\nhonourably stood his ground, endeavours to restore the fallen. The\nremembrance of such, helps to drive away despondency, and inspires\nthe trembling penitent with hope of mercy-(Scott).\n\n[256] \"I trow\"; I imagine or believe: nearly obsolete-(ED).\n\n[257] Now here you see what is meant by Great-grace, who is so\noften mentioned in this book, and by whom so many valiant things\nwere done. We read, \"With great power the apostles gave witness\nof the resurrection of Jesus.\" Why was it? Because \"great grace\nwas upon them all\" (Acts 4:33). So you see all is of grace, from\nfirst to last, in salvation. If we do great things for Christ,\nyet, not unto us, but unto the great grace of our Lord, be all\nthe glory-(Mason).\n\n[258] If we saw our own weakness, we should never court dangers,\nnor run in the way of temptation; yet, if our temptations be ever\nso sharp and strong, and our dangers ever so great, if the Lord\nis our strength, we need not fear-(J. B.).\n\n[259] From this sweet and edifying conversation, learn not to\nthink more highly of yourself than you ought to think; but to\nthink soberly, according to the measure of faith which God hath\ndealt to you (Rom. 12:3). Now, it is of the very essence of faith\nto lead us out of all self-confidence and vain vaunting. For we\nknow not how soon Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt may spring up\nin us, and rob us of our comforts, and spoil our joys-(Mason).\n\n[260] Instead of saying, \"Though all men deny thee, yet will not\nI,\" it behooves us to use all means of grace diligently, and to\nbe instant in prayer, that the Lord Himself may protect us by His\npower, and animate us by His presence, and then only shall we be\nenabled to overcome both the fear of man and the temptations of\nthe devil-(Scott).\n\n[261] But how contrary to this is the walk and conduct of some who\nprofess to be pilgrims, and yet can willfully and deliberately go\nupon the devil's ground, and indulge themselves in carnal pleasures\nand sinful diversions! Such evidently declare in plain language,\nthat they desire not the presence of God, but that He should\ndepart from them; but a day will come which will bring on terrible\nreflections of mind for such things-(Mason).\n\n[262] Mr. Ivimey's opinion is, that this \"way which put itself\ninto their way,\" and the flatterer, relates to Antinomianism. Of\nthis I can form no accurate judgment, never having met with an\nAntinomian, or one who professed to be against the law of God. I\nhave met with those who consider that believers are bound to prefer\nthe law of God as revealed by Jesus Christ, in Matthew 22:37-40,\nto be their rule of life, instead of limiting themselves to the\nlaw of God as given by Moses, in Exodus 20; but it has been for\nthis reason, that the law proclaimed by Christ unites in it the\nlaw given by Moses, and ALL the law and the prophets. This law,\nas given by Christ, is in a few words of beautiful simplicity,\nwhich can neither be misunderstood nor be forgotten. Mason says,\n\"It is plain the author means the way of self-righteousness,\" into\nwhich the flatterer enticed the pilgrims, out of the Scripture\nhighway to Heaven, in the righteousness of Christ. When ministers\ndiffer, private Christians must think for themselves. My judgment\ngoes with Mr. Mason-(ED). This way, which seemed as straight\nas the right way, and in entering on which there was no stile to\nbe passed, must denote some very plausible and gradual deviation\nfrom the simplicity of the Gospel, in doctrine or practice. If,\nin such a case, instead of a personal prayerful searching the\nScripture, we rely upon the opinion of our friends, and listen\nto the flatterer, we shall certainly be misled-(Scott).\n\n[263] Luther was wont to caution against the white devil as much\nas the black one; for Satan transforms himself into an angel of\nlight, and his ministers as ministers of righteousness (2 Cor.\n11:14, 15). And how do they deceive souls? By flattery. Leading\npoor sinners into a fine notion of some righteous character they\nhave in themselves, what great advances they have made, and what\nhigh attainments they have arrived to, even to be perfect in\nthemselves, to be free from sin, and full of nothing but love.\nThese are black men clothed in white-(Mason).\n\n[264] By this shining one understand the loving Lord the Holy\nGhost, the leader and guide of Christ's people. When they err and\nstray from Jesus the way, and are drawn from Him as the truth,\nthe Spirit comes with His rod of convic-tion and chastisement, to\nwhip souls for their self-righteous pride and folly, back to Christ,\nto trust wholly in Him, to rely only on Him, and to walk in sweet\nfellowship with Him. So he acted by the Galatian church, which was\nflattered into a notion of self-righteousness, and self-justification.\nSo David, when he found himself nearly lost, cries out, \"He\nrestoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for\nHis name's sake\" (Psa. 23:3)-(Mason). The devil, in his attempts\nafter our destruction, maketh use of the most suitable means. The\nserpent, Adam knew, was subtle, therefore Satan useth him, thereby\nto catch this goodly creature, man. Hereby the devil least appeared\n[this fine-spoken man], and least appearing, the temptation soonest\ntook the tinder-(Bunyan on Genesis, vol. 2, p. 428).\n\n[265] The backsliding of a Christian comes through the overmuch\npersuading of Satan and lust; that the man was mistaken, and that\nthere was no such horror in the things from which he fled; nor\nso much good in the things to which he hosted. Turn again, fool,\nsays the devil. I wonder what frenzy it was that drove thee to\nthy heels, and that made thee leave so much good behind thee as\nother men find in the lusts of the flesh and the good of the world.\nAs for the law, and death, and the day of judgment, they are but\nmere scarecrows, set up by politic heads, to keep the ignorant in\nsubjection. Well, he goes back, fool as he is, conscience sleeps,\nand flesh is sweet; but, behold, he again sees his own nakedness-he\nsees the law whetting his axe-the world is a bubble. He also smells\nthe brimstone which begins to burn within him. Oh! saith he, I am\ndeluded! \"Have mercy upon me, O God!\"-(Christ a Complete Saviour,\nvol. 1, p. 223).\n\n[266] A wicked man, though he may hector it at times with his\nproud heart, as though he feared neither God nor hell; yet again,\nat times, his soul is even drowned with terrors. If one knew the\nwicked, when they are under warm convic-tions, then the bed shakes\non which they be; then the proud tongue doth falter in their mouth,\nand their knees knock one against another. Then their conscience\nstares, and roars, and tears, and arraigns them. O! none can\nimagine what fearful plights a wicked man is in at times!-(Bunyan's\nDesires of the Righteous, vol. 1, p. 746).\n\n[267] On the Delectable Mountains, the pilgrims had a sight of the\nCelestial City. No matter if it were but a glimpse; still they saw\nit, they really saw it, and the remembrance of that sight never\nleft them. There it was in glory! Their hands trembled, their eyes\nwere dim with tears, but still that vision was not to be mistaken.\nThere, through the rifted clouds, for a moment, the gates of pearl\nwere shining, the jasper walls, the endless domes, the jeweled\nbattlements! The splendour of the city seemed to pour, like a\nriver of light, down upon the spot where they were standing--(Cheever).\n\n[268] See how we are surrounded with different enemies! No sooner\nhave they escaped the self-righteous flatterer, but they meet with\nthe openly profane and licentious mocker-aye, and he set out, and\nwent far too; yea, further than they. But, behold, he has turned\nhis back upon all; and though he had been 20 years a seeker, yet\nnow he proves, that he has neither faith nor hope, but ridicules\nall as delusion. Awful to think of! O what a special mercy to be\nkept believing and persevering, and not regarding the ridicule of\napostates!-(Mason).\n\n[269] \"To round\"; to be open, sincere, candid. \"Maister Bland\nanswered flatly and roundly\"-(Fox's Book of Martyrs).\n\n[270] Upon the declaration for liberty of conscience, the church\nfor a season was free from persecution. It was like enchanted ground;\nand some, who had been watchful in the storm, became careless and\nsleepy in this short deceitful calm-(ED).\n\n[271] Ah, these short naps for pilgrims! The sleep of death, in\nthe enchanted air of this world, usually begins with one of these\nshort naps-(Cheever).\n\n[272] The Enchanted Ground may represent worldly prosperity;\nagreeable dispensations succeeding long-continued difficulties.\nThis powerfully tends to produce a lethargic frame of mind; the\nman attends to religious duties more from habit, than from delight\nin the service of God. No situation requires so much watchfulness.\nOther experiences resemble storms, which keep a man awake; this\nis a treacherous calm, which lulls him to sleep-(Scott).\n\n[273] O Christian, beware of sleeping on this enchanted ground!\nWhen all things go easy, smooth, and well, we are prone to grow\ndrowsy in soul. How many are the calls in the Word against spiritual\nslumber! and yet how many professors, through the enchanting\nair of this world, are fallen into the deep sleep of formality!\nBe warned by them to cry to thy Lord to keep thee awake to\nrighteousness, and vigorous in the ways of thy Lord-(Mason).\n\n[274] Here you see, as our Lord says, \"It is the Spirit who\nquickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing\" (John 6:63). Our carnal\nnature is so far from profiting in the work of conversion to\nChrist, that it is at enmity against Him, and opposes the Spirit's\nwork in showing us our want of Him, and bringing us to Him. Man's\nnature and God's grace are two direct opposites. Nature opposes,\nbut grace subdues nature, and brings it to submission and subjection.\nAre we truly convinced of sin, and converted to Christ? This is\na certain and sure evidence of it-we shall say from our hearts,\nNot unto us, nor unto any yieldings and compliances of our nature,\nfree-will, and power, but unto Thy name, O Lord, be all the glory.\nFor it is by Thy free, sovereign, efficacious grace, we are what\nwe are. Hence, see the ignorance, folly, and pride of those who\nexalt free-will, and nature's power, &c. Verily they do not know\nthemselves, even as they are known-(Mason).\n\n[275] Not the evil of sin in the sight of God, but the remorse\nand fear of wrath, with which the convinced sinner is oppressed,\nand from which he, at times, seeks relief by means which exceedingly\nincrease his actual guilt. Nothing but a free pardon, by faith\nin the atoning sacrifice of Christ, can take away guilt; but the\nuneasiness of a man's conscience may be for a time removed by\nvarious expedients-(Scott).\n\n[276] In modern editions, this has been altered to \"sin enough in\none day.\" But in any period of time, selecting that duty in the\ndischarge of which we have felt the most pure, there has been\na mixture of sin. \"For there is not a day, nor a duty; not a day\nthat thou livest, nor a duty that thou dost, but will need that\nmercy should come after to take away thy iniquity\"-(Bunyan's\nSaints' Privilege, vol. 1, p. 679). These are solemn and humbling\nreflections-(ED).\n\n[277] Thus, you see, in conversion, the Lord does not act upon\nus as though we were mere machines. No, we have understanding; He\nenlightens it. Then we come to a sound mind; we think right, and\nreason justly. We have wills; what the understanding judges best,\nthe will approves, and then the affections follow after; and thus\nwe choose Christ for our Saviour, and glory only in His righteousness\nand salvation. When the heavenly light of truth makes manifest\nwhat we are, and the danger we are in, then we rationally flee\nfrom the wrath to come, to Christ the refuge set before us-(Mason).\n\n[278] Pray mind this. The grand object of a sensible sinner is\nrighteousness. He has it not in himself; this he knows. Where\nis it to be found? In Christ only. This is a revealed truth; and\nwithout faith in this, every sinner must be lost. Consider, it\nis at the peril of your soul that you reject the righteousness of\nChrist; and do not believe that God imputeth it without works for\nthe justification of the ungodly. O ye stout-hearted, self-righteous\nsinners, ye who are far from righteousness, know this and\ntremble!-(Mason).\n\n[279] The true nature of faith is to believe and rest upon the Word\nof truth, and wait for the promised comfort. That faith which is\nthe gift of God leads the soul to wait upon and cry to God, and\nnot to rest till it has some blessed testimony from God of interest\nin the love and favour of God in Christ Jesus. But O how many\nprofessors rest short of this!-(Mason).\n\n[280] As I thought my case most sad and fearful, these words did\nwith great power suddenly break in upon me, \"My grace is sufficient\nfor thee,\" three times together. O! methought every word was\na mighty word for me; as My, and grace, and sufficient, and for\nthee; they were then, and sometimes are still, far bigger than\nothers be-(Grace Abounding, No. 206).\n\n[281] The Lord's dealings with his children are various, but all\nlead to the same end; some are shaken with terror, while others\nare more gently drawn, as with cords of love. In these things\nbelievers should not make their experiences standards one for\nanother; still there is a similarity in their being brought to the\nsame point of rejecting both sinful and righteous self, and believing\non the Lord Jesus Christ as their complete salvation-(Andronicus).\n\n[282] Christ did not appear to Hopeful's senses, but to his\nunderstanding; and the words spoken are no other than texts of\nScripture taken in their genuine meaning-not informing him, as by\na new revelation, that his sins were pardoned, but encouraging him\nto apply for this mercy, and all other blessings of salvation-(Scott).\n\n[283] Since the dear hour that brought me to Thy foot, And cut up\nall my follies by the root, I never trusted in an arm but Thine,\nNor hoped, but in Thy righteousness Divine. My prayers and alms,\nimperfect and defiled, Were but the feeble efforts of a child.\nHowe'er perform'd, it was their brightest part That they proceeded\nfrom a grateful heart. Cleans'd in Thine own all-purifying blood,\nForgive their evil, and accept their good. I cast them at Thy\nfeet--my only plea Is what it was, DEPENDENCE UPON THEE!--(Cowper).\n\n[284] Not governed by the Word of God, but by his own will, his\ngrounds of confidence for salvation unfitted him for Christian\nfellowship, unless he happened to fall in with a man who had\nimbibed his own notions-(ED).\n\n[285] The desire of Heaven-when its nature is not understood,\nthe proper means of obtaining it are neglected, other objects\nare preferred to it-is no proof that a man will be saved. The\nexpression, \"The desire of grace is grace,\" is very fallacious. But\nto hunger and thirst for God, and His righteousness, His favour,\nimage, and service, as the supreme good, so that no other object\ncan satisfy the heart, is grace indeed, and shall be completed in\nglory-(Scott).\n\n[286] Real Christians are often put to a stand, while they find\nand feel the workings of all corruptions and sins in their nature;\nand when they hear others talk so highly of themselves, how full\ntheir hearts are of love to God, and of good motions, without any\ncomplainings of their hearts. But all this is from the ignorance\nof their own hearts; and pride and self-righteousness harden them\nagainst feeling its desperate wickedness-(Mason).\n\n[287] I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my\nrighteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness\nworse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,\nand today, and forever (Heb. 13:8)-(Grace Abounding, No. 229).\n\n[288] Here we see how naturally the notion of man's righteousness\nblinds his eyes to, and keeps his heart from believing, that\nChrist's personal righteousness alone justifies a sinner in the\nsight of God; and yet such talk bravely of believing, but their\nfaith is only fancy. They do not believe unto righteousness; but\nimagine they have now, or shall get, a righteousness of their own,\nsome how or other. Awful delusion!-(Mason).\n\n[289] Here is the very essence of that delusion which works by a\nlie, and so much prevails, and keeps up an unscriptural hope in\nthe hearts of so many professors. Do, reader, study this point\nwell; for here seems to be a show of scriptural truth, while the\nrankest poison lies concealed in it. For it is utterly subversive\nof, and contrary to, the faith and hope of the Gospel-(Mason).\n\n[290] The way of being justified by faith for which Ignorance\npleads may well be called \"fanatical,\" as well as \"false\"; for it\nis nowhere laid down in Scripture; and it not only changes the\nway of acceptance, but it takes away the rule and standard of\nrighteousness, and substitutes a vague notion, called sincerity, in\nits place, which never was, nor can be, defined with precision-(Scott).\n\n[291] Justification before God comes, not by imitating Christ as\nexemplary in morals, but through faith in His precious blood. To\nfeed on Jesus is by respecting Him as made of God a curse for our\nsin. I have been pleased with observing, that none of the signs\nand wonders in Egypt could deliver the children of Israel thence,\nuntil the lamb was slain--(Bunyan on Justification, vol. 2, p.\n330).\n\n[292] Under these four heads, we have a most excellent detection\nof a presumptive and most dangerous error which now greatly prevails,\nas well as a scriptural view of the nature of true faith, and the\nobject it flies on wholly and solely for justification before God,\nand acceptance with God. Reader, for thy soul's sake, look to thy\nfoundation. See that thou build upon nothing in self, but all upon\nthat sure foundation which God hath laid, even his beloved Son,\nand his perfect righteousness-(Mason).\n\n[293] This, by all natural men, is deemed the very height of\nenthusiasm; but a spiritual man knows its blessedness, and rejoices\nin its comfort. It is a close question. What may we understand by\nit? Doubtless, what Paul means when he says, \"It pleased God to\nreveal His Son in me,\" (Gal. 1:15, 16): that is, he had such an\ninternal, spiritual, experimental sight, and knowledge of Christ,\nand of salvation by Him, that his heart embraced Him, his soul\ncleaved to Him, his spirit rejoiced in Him; his whole man was\nswallowed up with the love of Him, so that he cried out in the joy\nof his soul, This is my Beloved and my Friend-my Saviour, my God,\nand my Salvation. He is the chief of ten thousand, and altogether\nlovely. We know nothing of Christ savingly, comfortably, and\nexperimentally, till He is pleased thus to reveal Himself to us\n(Matt. 11:27). This spiritual revelation of Christ to the heart\nis a blessing and comfort agreeable to, and consequent upon,\nbelieving on Christ, as revealed outwardly in the Word. Therefore,\nevery believer should wait, and look, and long, and pray for it.\nBeware you do not despise it; if you do, you will betray your\nignorance of spiritual things, as Ignorance did-(Mason).\n\n[294] Many of these revelations appear in the Grace Abounding, as\n\"that scripture fastened on my heart\" (No. 201); \"that sentence\ndarted in upon me\" (No. 204); \"these words did with great power\nbreak in upon me\" (No. 206); \"suddenly this sentence fell upon my\nsoul\" (No. 229); and many others-(ED).\n\n[295] That sinner is not thoroughly awakened, who does not see\nhis need of Christ's righteousness to be imputed to him. Nor is\nhe quickened, who has not fled to Christ as \"the end of the law\nfor righteousness to every one that believeth\" (Rom. 10:4)-(Mason).\n\n[296] Ignorant professors cannot keep pace with spiritual pilgrims,\nnor can they relish the doctrine of making Christ all in all, in\nthe matter of justification and salvation, and making the sinner\nnothing at all, as having no hand in the work, nor getting any\nglory to himself by what he is able to do of himself. Free grace\nand free will; Christ's imputed righteousness, and the notion of\nman's personal righteousness, cannot accord-(Mason).\n\n[297] Take heed of hardening thy heart at any time, against\nconvictions or judgments. I bid you before to beware of a hard\nheart; now I bid you beware of hardening your soft heart. The fear\nof the Lord is the pulse of the soul. Pulses that beat best are\nthe best signs of life; but the worst show that life is present.\nIntermitting pulses are dangerous. David and Peter had an intermitting\npulse, in reference to this fear-(Bunyan on the Fear of God,\nvol. 1, pp. 487, 489). [298] Mark well Christian's definition of\n\"fear.\" It is one of those precious passages in which our author\ngives us the subject matter of a whole treatise in a few short and\nplain sentences. Treasure it up in your heart, and often ponder\nit there. It will prove, through the blessing of the Spirit, a\nspecial means of enlivening, when spiritual langour, in consequence\nof worldly ease, is creeping upon your soul-(Andronicus).\n\n[299] \"Pitiful old self-holiness.\" Mind this phrase. Far was it\nfrom the heart of good Mr. Bunyan to decry personal holiness. It\nis nothing but self-holiness, or the holiness of the old man of\nsin; for true holiness springs from the belief of the truth, and\nlove to the truth. All besides this only tends to self-confidence,\nand self-applause-(Mason).\n\n[300] It is good to call to mind one's own ignorance, when in our\nnatural estate, to excite humility of heart, and thankfulness to\nGod, who made us to differ, and to excite pity towards those who are\nwalking in nature's pride, self-righteousness, and self-confidence-(Mason).\n\n[301] \"Temporary\"; one who is doctrinally acquainted with the\nGospel, but a stranger to its sanctifying power. The reasons and\nmanner of such men's declensions and apostasy are very justly and\nemphatically stated-(Scott).\n\n[302] In Hoffman's poetical version of the \"Pilgrim,\" this sentence\nis, \"And nature will return, like Pope, to pork\"; alluding to one\nof the Popes, who used daily to have a dish of pork; but, being\nsick, his physicians forbade it, when the Pope, in a rage, cried\nout, \"Give me my pork, in spite of God\"-(ED).\n\n[303] A true description of the state of some professors. Here\nsee the reason why so many saints, as they are called, fall away.\nFrom hence, some take occasion to deny the scriptural, soul-comforting\ndoctrine, of the certain perseverance of God's saints unto eternal\nglory. So they display the pride of their own hearts, their ignorance\nof God's Word, while they make God's promises of no effect, and\nthe Gospel of his grace, only much ado about nothing-(Mason).\n\n[304] Three young fellows, Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human-wisdom, and\nMr. Man's-invention, proffered their services to Shaddai. The\ncaptains told them not to be rash; but, at their entreaty, they\nwere listed into Boanerges' company, and away they went to the\nwar. Being in the rear, they were taken prisoners. Then Diabolus\nasked them if they were willing to serve against Shaddai. They\ntold him, that as they did not so much live by religion as by the\nfates of fortune, they would serve him. So he made two of them\nsergeants; but he made Mr. Man's-invention his ancient-bearer\n[standard-bearer]-(Bunyan's Holy War).\n\n[305] See how gradually, step by step, apostates go back. It begins\nin the unbelief of the heart, and ends in open sins in the life.\nWhy is the love of this world so forbidden? Why is covetousness\ncalled idolatry? Because, whatever draws away the heart from God,\nand prevents enjoying close fellowship with him, naturally tends\nto apostasy from him. Look well to your hearts and affections.\n\"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues\nof life\" (Prov. 4:23). If you neglect to watch, you will be sure to\nsmart under the sense of sin on earth, or its curse in hell. \"See\nthen that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming\nthe time, because the days are evil\" (Eph. 5:15, 16)-(Mason).\n\n[306] O what a blessed state! what a glorious frame of soul is\nthis! Job speaks of it as the candle of the Lord shining upon his\nhead (29:3). The church, in a rapture, cries out, \"Sing, O heavens;\nand be joyful, O earth; break forth into singing, O mountains:\nfor the Lord hath comforted His people\" (Isa. 49:13). Paul calls\nthis, \"The fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ\" (Rom.\n15:29). O rest not short of enjoying the full blaze of Gospel\npeace and spiritual joy-(Mason). During the last days of that\neminent man of God, Dr. Payson, he once said, \"When I formerly read\nBunyan's description of the Land of Beulah, where the sun shines\nand the birds sing day and night, I used to doubt whether there\nwas such a place; but now my own experience has convinced me of\nit, and it infinitely transcends all my previous conceptions.\" The\nbest possible commentary on the glowing descriptions in Bunyan is\nto be found in that very remarkable letter dictated by Dr. Payson\nto his sister, a few weeks before his death-\"Were I to adopt the\nfigurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the\nLand Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant.\nThe Celestial City is full in my view. Its glories have been upon\nme, its breezes fan me, its odours are wafted to me, its sounds\nstrike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart.\nNothing separates me from it but the River of Death, which now\nappears but as an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single\nstep, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness\nhas been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and\nbrighter as He approached, and now He fills the whole hemisphere,\npouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float, like an\ninsect in the beams of the sun; exulting, yet almost trembling,\nwhile I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering, with\nunutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a\nsinful worm\"-(Cheever). [307] In the immediate view of heavenly\nfelicity, Paul \"desired to depart hence, and be with Christ, as\nfar better\" than life. David \"fainted for God's salvation.\" In\nthe lively exercise of holy affections, the believer grows weary\nof this sinful world, longs to have his faith changed for sight,\nhis hope swallowed up in enjoyment, and his love perfected--(Scott).\n\n[308] No other language than that of Bunyan himself, perused in\nthe pages of his own sweet book, could be successful in portraying\nthis beauty and glory; for now he seems to feel that all the\ndangers of the pilgrimage are almost over, and he gives up himself\nwithout restraint so entirely to the sea of bliss that surrounds\nhim, and to the gales of Heaven that are wafting him on, and to\nthe sounds of melody that float in the whole air around him, that\nnothing in the English language can be compared with this whole\nclosing part of the \"Pilgrim's Progress,\" for its entrancing\nsplendour, yet serene and simple loveliness. The colouring is that\nof Heaven in the soul; and Bunyan has poured his own Heaven-entranced\nsoul into it. With all its depth and power, there is nothing\nexaggerated, and it is made up of the simplest and most scriptural\nmaterials and images. We seem to stand in a flood of light, poured\non as from the open gates of paradise. It falls on every leaf and\nshrub by the way-side; it is reflected from the crystal streams\nthat, between grassy banks, wind amidst groves of fruit-trees\ninto vineyards and flower-gardens. These fields of Beulah are just\nbelow the gate of Heaven; and with the light of Heaven there come\nfloating down the melodies of Heaven, so that here there is almost\nan open revelation of the things which God hath prepared for them\nthat love Him--(Cheever).\n\n[309] This is the place, this is the state, Of all that fear the\nLord; Which men nor angels may relate With tongue, or pen, or word.\nNo night is here for to eclipse Its spangling rays so bright; Nor\ndoubt, nor fear, to shut the lips Of those within this light.\n\nThe strings of music here are timed For heavenly harmony, And every\nspirit here perfumed With perfect sanctity. Here run the crystal\nstreams of life, Quite thorow all our veins; And here by love we\ndo unite With glory's golden chains.--(Bunyan's One Thing Needful).\n\n[310] Mr. Flavel, being on a journey, set himself to improve the\ntime by meditation; when his mind grew intent, till at length he\nhad such ravishing tastes of heavenly joys, and such full assurance\nof his interest therein, that he utterly lost the sight and sense\nof this world and all its concerns, so that for hours he knew not\nwhere he was. At last, perceiving himself faint, he alighted from\nhis horse and sat down at a spring, where he refreshed himself,\nearnestly desiring, if it were the will of God, that he might there\nleave the world. His spirit reviving, he finished his journey in\nthe same delightful frame; and all that night passed without a\nwink of sleep, the joy of the Lord still overflowing him, so that\nhe seemed an inhabitant of the other world-(Pneumatologia, 4to,\n2d edit. p. 210).\n\n[311] Who are these ministering spirits, that the author calls\n\"men\"? Are they the glorified inhabitants of the Celestial City?\nMoses and Elias appeared at the transfiguration; so the spirit who\nspake with John (Rev. 20:10), was his fellow-servant. Are these\n\"spirits of just men made perfect\"-the angel-ministering spirits\nwhich are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of\nsalvation? (Heb. 1:14; 12:22, 23)-(ED).\n\n[312] What are these two difficulties? Are they not death without,\nand unbelief within? It is through the latter that the former is\nall-distressing to us. O for a strong, world-conquering, sin-subduing,\ndeath-overcoming faith, in life and death! Jesus, Master, speak\nthe word, unbelief shall flee, our faith shall not fail, and our\nhope shall be steady-(Mason).\n\n[313] Well, now the pilgrims must meet with, and encounter, their\nlast enemy, death. When he stares them in the face, their fears\narise. Through the river they must go. What have they to look at?\nWhat they are in themselves, or what they have done and been? No.\nOnly the same Jesus who conquered death for us, and can overcome\nthe fear of death in us-(Mason).\n\n[314] But tim'rous mortals start and shrink To cross this narrow\nsea; They linger, shivering on the brink, And fear to launch\naway-(Watts). Evodias could not join in the petition of the\nLiturgy-\"From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us.\" He had his\nwish; and expired suddenly on a Lord's-day morning, while thousands\nwere assembling to hear him preach-(Andronicus).\n\n[315] Bunyan died in perfect peace, though it is probable that he\nexpected darkness in the trying hour. Thus he says, in his treatise\non Paul's Departure, \"Aye, this will make thee cry, though thou\nbe as good as David. Wherefore learn by his sorrows to serve thy\ngeneration, by the will of God, before falling asleep. God can\npardon thy sins, and yet make them a bitter thing and a burden at\ndeath. It is easy to HIM to pardon, and yet break all thy bones;\nor show Himself in such dreadful majesty, that Heaven and earth\nshall tremble at His presence. Let the thoughts of this prevail\nwith thee to manage thy time and work in wisdom, while thou art\nwell\" (Vol. 1, p. 730)-(ED).\n\n[316] Satan is suffered to be very busy with God's people in their\nlast moments, but he too, like death, is a conquered enemy by our\nJesus; therefore, amidst all his attacks, they are safe. He cannot\ndestroy them whom Jesus hath redeemed, for He is faithful to them,\nand almighty to save-(Mason).\n\n[317] Hopeful, agreeably to his name, was not only preserved from\nterror, but enabled to encourage his trembling companion telling\nhim the welcome news that \"he felt the bottom, and it was good.\"\nBlessed experience! If Christ is our foundation, we have nothing\nto fear, even in the swellings of Jordan, for death itself cannot\nseparate us from the love of Christ-(Burder).\n\n[318] When you visit a sick or death bed, be sure that you take\nGod's Word with you, in your heart and in your mouth. It is from\nthat only that you may expect a blessing upon, and to the soul of,\nthe sick or the dying; for it is by the Word of God faith came at\nthe first; it is by that, faith is strengthened at the last; and\nJesus is the sum and substance of the Scriptures-(Mason).\n\n[319] Jesus Christ, He is indeed the Alpha and Omega, the first\nand the last, the beginning of our hope, and the end of our\nconfidence. We begin and end the Christian pilgrimage with Him;\nand all our temptations and trials speak loudly, and fully confirm\nto us that truth of our Lord, \"Without Me ye can do nothing\" (John\n15:5)-(Mason).\n\n[320] The temporary distresses of dying believers often arise\nfrom bodily disease, which interrupt the free exercise of their\nintellectual powers. Of this Satan will be sure to take advantage,\nas far as he is permitted, and will suggest gloomy imaginations,\nnot only to distress them, but to dishearten others by their example.\nGenerally they who, for a time, have been most distressed, have\nat length died most triumphantly-(Scott).\n\n[321] I cannot trust myself to read the account of Christian going\nup to the Celestial Gate, after his passage though the River of\nDeath-(Arnold).\n\n[322] Bunyan, in his Saint's Knowledge of Christ's Love, describes the\nfeelings of the pilgrim, while clothed with mortality, looking up\nto the heights of Heaven. Christ could mount up-Elijah had a chariot\nof fire-Enoch was taken by God. But I, poor I, how shall I get\nthither? How often are considering thoughts wanting in professors! The\nquestion is happily solved in Christian and Hopeful's experience;\nthey left all their mortal garments and burdens behind them in the\nriver, and their free spirits for the first time felt the sweets\nof liberty in their perfection-(ED).\n\n[323] I know that all who go to paradise, are conducted thither\nby these holy ones; but yet, for all that, such as die under the\ncloud, for unchristian walking with God, may meet with darkness\non that day, and go heavily hence. But as for those who have been\nfaithful to their God, they shall see before them, or from earth\nsee glory-(Bunyan's Paul's Departure, vol. 1, p. 741).\n\n[324] Ah, Christian! None can conceive or describe what it is\nto live in a state separate from a body of sin and death. Surely\nin some happy, highly-favoured moments, we have had a glimpse, a\nforetaste of this, and could realize it by faith. O for more and\nmore of this, till we possess and enjoy it in all its fullness!\nIf Jesus be so sweet to faith below, who can tell what He is in\nfull fruition above? This we must die to know-(Mason).\n\n[325] Bunyan has, with great beauty and probability, brought in the\nministry of angels, and regions of the air, to be passed through\nin their company, rising, and still rising, higher and higher,\nbefore they come to that mighty mount on which He has placed the\ngates of the Celestial City. The angels receive His pilgrims as\nthey come up from the River of Death, and form for them a bright,\nglittering, seraphic, loving convoy, whose conversation prepares\nthem gradually for that exceeding and eternal weight of glory\nwhich is to be theirs as they enter in at the gate. Bunyan has\nthus, in this blissful passage from the river to the gate, done\nwhat no other devout writer, or dreamer, or speculator, that we\nare aware of, has ever done; he has filled what perhaps in most\nminds is a mere blank, a vacancy, or at most a bewilderment and\nmist of glory, with definite and beatific images, with natural\nthoughts, and with the sympathizing communion of gentle spirits,\nwho form, as it were, an outer porch and perspective of glory,\nthrough which the soul passes into uncreated light. Bunyan has\nthrown a bridge, as it were, for the imagination, over the deep,\nsudden, open space of an untried spiritual existence; where it\nfinds, ready to receive the soul that leaves the body, ministering\nspirits, sent forth to minister unto them who are to be heirs of\nsalvation-(Cheever).\n\n[326] Glory beyond all glory ever seen By waking sense, or by the\ndreaming soul! The appearance, instantaneously disclosed, Was of\na mighty City-boldly say A wilderness of building, sinking far, And\nself-withdrawn into a wondrous depth, Far sinking into splendour\nwithout end! Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster\ndomes and silver spires, And blazing terrace upon terrace, high\nUplifted: here, serene pavilions bright, In avenues disposed;\nthere, towers begirt With battlements, that on their restless\nfronts Bore stars-illumination of all gems!--(Wordsworth).\n\n[327]A certificate, To show thou seest thyself most desolate; Writ\nby the Master, with repentance seal'd. To show also that here [by\nChrist] thou would'st be healed. And that thou dost abhor thee\nfor thy ways, And would'st in holiness spend all thy days.--(Bunyan's\nHouse of God, vol. 2, p. 580).\n\n[328] Blessed indeed is that man who, while encumbered with a\nsinful body, can truly say, \"I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth\nin me.\" In Him all the commandments are obeyed-all my sins washed\naway by His blood-and my soul clothed with righteousness and\nimmortality. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: they enter\nthe Celestial City. This is the righteous nation, which keepeth the\ntruth. O my reader, would you be one of the glorified inhabitants\nof that city whose builder and maker is God? Then must you live\nthe life of faith; so run that ye may obtain; ever be found looking\nunto Jesus-(ED). \"Prepare me, Lord, for Thy right hand, Then come\nthe joyful day; Come death, and some celestial hand, And fetch my\nsoul away.\"\n\n[329] O what acclamations of joy will there be, when all the\nchildren of God meet together, without the fear of being disturbed\nby Antichrist! How will the heavens echo of joy, when the Bride,\nthe Lamb's wife, shall come to dwell with her Husband! If you would\nbe better satisfied what the beatific vision means, my request\nis, that you would live holily, and thus go and see. Christ is\nthe desire of all nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the\nFather. What solace, then, must that soul be filled with, which\nhath the possession of Christ to all eternity?-(Bunyan's Dying\nSayings, vol.1, pp. 64, 65).\n\n[330] When a formal visit from a minister, a few general questions,\nand a prayer, with or without the sacrament, calm the mind of\na dying person, whose life has been unsuitable to the Christian\nprofession; no doubt, could we penetrate the veil, we should see\nhim wafted across the river in the boat of Vain-hope, and meeting\nwith the awful doom that is here described. From such fatal\ndelusions, good Lord, deliver us!-(Scott).\n\n[331] Vain-hope ever dwells in the bosom of fools, and is ever\nready to assist Ignorance. He wanted him at the last, and he found\nhim. He had been his companion through life, and will not forsake\nhim in the hour of death. You see Ignorance had no pangs in his\ndeath, no fears, doubts, and sorrows, no terror from the enemy,\nbut all was serene and happy. Vain-hope was his ferryman; and he,\nas the good folks say, died like a lamb. Ah, but did such lambs\nsee what was to follow, when Vain-hope had wafted them over the\nriver, they would roar like lions!-(Mason).\n\n[332] This is a most awful conclusion. Consider it deeply. Weigh\nit attentively, so as to get good satisfaction from the Word to\nthese important questions-Am I in Christ, the way, the only way,\nto the kingdom, or not? Do I see that all other ways, whether of\nsin or self-righteousness, lead to hell? Does Christ dwell in my\nheart by faith? Am I a new creature in Him? Do I renounce my own\nrighteousness, as well as abhor my sins? Do I look alone to Christ\nfor righteousness, and depend only on Him for holiness? Is He the\nonly hope of my soul, and the only confidence of my heart? And\ndo I desire to be found in Him; knowing by the Word, and feeling\nby the teaching of His Spirit, that I am totally lost in myself?\nThus, is Christ formed in me, the only hope of glory? Do I study\nto please Him, as well as hope to enjoy Him? Is fellowship with\nGod the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, so prized by me, as to\nseek it, and to esteem it above all things? If so, though I may find\nall things in nature, in the world, and from Satan, continually\nopposing this, yet I am in Christ the way, and He is in me the truth\nand the life-(Mason). How far may such an one go? This important\nquestion is very solemnly argued in Bunyan's Law and Grace. He may\nbe received into church-fellowship-and, like the foolish virgins,\nbe clear from outward pollution-have gone forth from the rudiments\nand traditions of men-and had their lamps, but still lost their\nprecious souls. They may bear office in the church, as Judas carried\nthe bag, and as Demas! They may become preachers and ministers of\nthe Gospel, with rare gifts, and a fluent tongue, like an angel,\nto speak of the hidden mysteries; but may die under the curse.\nThey may have the gifts of the Spirit and prophecy, and be but\na Balaam. They may stand thus until Christ come and reveal them.\nThey may, with confidence, say, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and\ndrank in Thy presence, and taught in Thy name, and in Thy name\nhave cast out devils? and yet, poor creatures, be shut out!-(ED).\n\n***\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS\n\nFROM\n\nTHIS WORLD TO THAT WHICH IS TO COME.\n\nTHE SECOND PART.\n\nDELIVERED UNDER THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREAM.\n\nWHEREIN IS SET FORTH THE MANNER OF THE SETTING OUT OF CHRISTIAN'S\nWIFE AND CHILDREN, THEIR DANGEROUS JOURNEY, AND SAFE ARRIVAL AT\nTHE DESIRED COUNTRY.\n\nBy JOHN BUNYAN.\n\n'I have used similitudes.'--Hosea 12:10.\n\nLondon: Printed for Nathaniel Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry,\nnear the Church, 1684.\n\nTHE AUTHOR'S WAY OF SENDING FORTH HIS SECOND PART OF THE PILGRIM.\n\n\nGo now, my little book, to every place,\nWhere my first Pilgrim has but shown his face,\nCall at their door. If any say, Who's there?\nThen answer thou, CHRISTIANA is here.\nIf they bid thee come in, then enter thou,\nWith all thy boys; and then, as thou know'st how,\nTell who they are, also from whence they came;\nPerhaps they know them by their looks, or name.\nBut if they should not, ask them yet again\nIf formerly they did not entertain\nOne CHRISTIAN, a Pilgrim? If they say\nThey did; and were delighted in his way:\nThen let them know, that those related were\nUnto him; yea, his wife and children are.\n\nTell them, that they have left their house and home,\nAre turned Pilgrims, seek a world to come;\nThat they have met with hardships in the way,\nThat they do meet with troubles night and day;\nThat they have trod on serpents, fought with devils,\nHave also overcome a many evils.\nYea, tell them also of the next, who have\nOf love to pilgrimage, been stout and brave\nDefenders of that way, and how they still\nRefuse this world, to do their Father's will.\n\nGo, tell them also of those dainty things,\nThat pilgrimage unto the Pilgrim brings.\nLet them acquainted be, too, how they are\nBeloved of their King, under His care:\nWhat goodly mansions for them He provides,\nTho' they meet with rough winds, and swelling tides,\nHow brave a calm they will enjoy at last,\nWho to their Lord, and by His ways hold fast.\n\nPerhaps with heart and hand they will embrace\nThee, as they did my firstling, and will grace\nThee, and thy fellows, with such cheer and fare,\nAs show will they of Pilgrims lovers are.\n\nOBJECTION 1.\nBut how, if they will not believe of me\nThat I am truly thine; cause some there be\nThat counterfeit the Pilgrim and his name,\nSeek, by disguise, to seem the very same;\nAnd by that means have wrought themselves into\nThe hands and houses of I know not who?\n\nANSWER.\n'Tis true, some have of late, to counterfeit\nMy Pilgrim, to their own my title set;[1]\nYea others, half my name and title too\nHave stitched to their book, to make them do;\nBut yet they, by their features, do declare\nThemselves not mine to be, whose e'er they are.\n\nIf such thou meet'st with, then thine only way\nBefore them all, is, to say out thy say,\nIn thine own native language, which no man\nNow useth, nor with ease dissemble can.\nIf, after all, they still of you shall doubt,\nThinking that you, like gipsies, go about\n\n\nIn naughty wise, the country to defile,\nOr that you seek good people to beguile\nWith things unwarrantable; send for me,\nAnd I will testify you PILGRIMS be.\nYea, I will testify that only you\nMy Pilgrims are; and that alone will do.\n\nOBJECTION 2\nBut yet, perhaps, I may inquire for him,\nOf those that wish him damned, life and limb.\nWhat shall I do, when I at such a door\nFor Pilgrims ask, and they shall rage the more?[2]\n\nANSWER.\nFright not thyself, my book, for such bugbears\nAre nothing else but ground for groundless fears.\nMy Pilgrim's book has travell'd sea and land,\nYet could I never come to understand\nThat it was slighted, or turn'd out of door\nBy any kingdom, were they rich or poor.\n\nIn France and Flanders, where men kill each other,\nMy Pilgrim is esteem'd a friend, a brother.\nIn Holland too, 'tis said, as I am told,\nMy Pilgrim is with some worth more than gold.\n\nHighlanders and wild Irish can agree\nMy Pilgrim should familiar with them be.\n'Tis in New England under such advance,\nReceives there so much loving countenance,\nAs to be trimm'd, new cloth'd, and deck'd with gems\nThat it may show its features and its limbs,\nYet more; so comely doth my Pilgrim walk,\nThat of him thousands daily sing and talk.[3]\n\nIf you draw nearer home, it will appear,\nMy Pilgrim knows no ground of shame or fear;\nCity and country will him entertain\nWith, Welcome Pilgrim; yea, they can't refrain\nFrom smiling, if my Pilgrim be but by,\nOr shows his head in any company.\n\nBrave gallants do my Pilgrim hug and love,\nEsteem it much, yea, value it above\nThings of a greater bulk: yea, with delight,\nSay, My lark's leg is better than a kite.\n\nYoung ladies, and young gentlewomen too,\nDo no small kindness to my Pilgrim show.\nTheir cabinets, their bosoms, and their hearts,\nMy Pilgrim has, 'cause he to them imparts\nHis pretty riddles in such wholesome strains,\nAs yields them profit double to their pains\nOf reading; yea, I think, I may be bold\nTo say, some prize him far above their gold.\n\nThe very children that do walk the street,\nIf they do but my holy Pilgrim meet,\nSalute him well, will wish him well, and say,\nHe is the only stripling of the day.\n\nThey that have never seen him, yet admire\nWhat they have heard of him, and much desire\nTo have his company, and hear him tell\nThose pilgrim stories which he knows so well.\n\nYea, some who did not love him at the first,\nBut called him fool and noddy, say they must,\nNow they have seen and heard him, him commend\nAnd to those whom they love, they do him send.[4]\n\nWherefore, my Second Part, thou need'st not be\nAfraid to show thy head; none can hurt thee,\nThat wish but well to him that went before,\n'Cause thou com'st after with a second store\nOf things as good, as rich, as profitable,\nFor young, for old, for stagg'ring, and for stable.\n\nOBJECTION 3.\nBut some there he that say, He laughs too loud\nAnd some do say, His head is in a cloud.\nSome say, His words and stories are so dark,\nThey know not how, by them, to find his mark.\n\nANSWER.\nOne may, I think, say, Both his laughs and cries,\nMay well be guess'd at by his wat'ry eyes.\nSome things are of that nature, as to make\nOne's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.\nWhen Jacob saw his Rachel with the sheep,\nHe did at the same time both kiss and weep.\n\nWhereas some say, A cloud is in his head,\nThat doth but show how wisdom's covered\nWith its own mantles, and to stir the mind\nTo a search after what it fain would find.\nThings that seem to be hid in words obscure,\nDo but the godly mind the more allure\nTo study what those sayings should contain,\nThat speak to us in such a cloudy strain.\n\nI also know a dark similitude\nWill on the fancy more itself intrude,\nAnd will stick faster in the heart and head,\nThan things from similes not borrowed.\nWherefore, my book, let no discouragement\nHinder thy travels. Behold, thou art sent\nTo friends, not foes; to friends that will give place\nTo thee, thy Pilgrims, and thy words embrace.\n\nBesides, what my first Pilgrim left conceal'd\nThou, my brave second Pilgrim, hast reveal'd;\nWhat CHRISTIAN left lock'd up, and went his way,\nSweet CHRISTIANA opens with her key.[5]\n\nOBJECTION 4.\nBut some love not the method of your first;\nRomance they count it, throw't away as dust,\nIf I should meet with such, what should I say?\nMust I slight them as they slight me, or nay?\n\nANSWER.\nMy CHRISTIANA, if with such thou meet,\nBy all means, in all loving-wise, them greet;\nRender them not reviling for revile;\nBut if they frown, I prithee on them smile;\nPerhaps 'tis nature, or some ill report,\nHas made them thus despise, or thus retort.\n\nSome love no cheese, some love no fish, and some\nLove not their friends, nor their own house or home;\nSome start at pig, slight chicken, love not fowl,\nMore than they love a cuckoo, or an owl;\nLeave such, my CHRISTIANA, to their choice,\nAnd seek those who to find thee will rejoice;\nBy no means strive, but in humble-wise,\nPresent thee to them in thy Pilgrim's guise.\n\nGo, then, my little book, and show to all\nThat entertain, and bid thee welcome shall,\nWhat thou shalt keep close, shut up from the rest,\nAnd wish what thou shalt show them may be blest\nTo them for good, may make them choose to be\nPilgrims better by far than thee or me.\n\nGo, then, I say, tell all men who thou art;\nSay, I am CHRISTIANA, and my part\nIs now, with my four sons, to tell you what\nIt is for men to take a Pilgrims lot.\n\nGo also, tell them who and what they be,\nThat now do go on pilgrimage with thee;\nSay, Here's my neighbour, Mercy, she is one\nThat has long time with me a Pilgrim gone.\nCome, see her in her virgin race, and learn\n'Twixt idle ones and Pilgrims to discern.\nYea, let young damsels learn of her to prize\nThe world which is to come, in any wise.\nWhen little tripping maidens follow God,\nAnd leave old doting sinners to His rod;\n'Tis like those days wherein the young ones cried,\nHosanna! to whom old ones did deride.\n\nNext, tell them of old Honest, who you found\nWith his white hairs, treading the Pilgrim's ground.\nYea, tell them how plain-hearted this man was,\nHow after his good Lord he bare his cross.\nPerhaps with some gray head this may prevail\nWith Christ to fall in love, and sin bewail.\n\nTell them also, how Master Fearing went\nOn pilgrimage, and how the time he spent\nIn solitariness, with fears and cries;\nAnd how, at last, he won the joyful prize.\nHe was a good man, though much down in spirit,\nHe is a good man, and doth life inherit.\n\nTell them of Master Feeble-mind also,\nWho, not before, but still behind would go.\nShow them also, how he had like been slain,\nAnd how one Great-heart did his life regain.\nThis man was true of heart, though weak in grace,\nOne might true godliness read in his face.\n\nThen tell them of Master Ready-to-halt,\nA man with crutches, but much without fault;\nTell them how Master Feeble-mind and he\nDid love, and in opinions much agree.\nAnd let all know, though weakness was their chance,\nYet sometimes one could sing, the other dance.\n\nForget not Master Valiant-for-the-truth,\nThat man of courage, though a very youth.\nTell everyone his spirit was so stout,\nNo man could ever make him face about;\nAnd how Great-heart and he could not forbear,\nBut put down Doubting Castle, slay Despair.\n\nOverlook not Master Despondency,\nNor Much-afraid, his daughter, though they lie\nUnder such mantles, as may make them look\n(With some) as if their God had them forsook.\nThey softly went, but sure, and at the end,\nFound that the Lord of Pilgrims was their friend.\nWhen thou hast told the world of all these things,\nThen turn about, my book, and touch these strings,\nWhich, if but touch'd, will such music make,\nThey'll make a cripple dance, a giant quake.\n\nThese riddles that lie couch'd within thy breast,\nFreely propound, expound; and for the rest\nOf thy mysterious lines, let them remain\nFor those whose nimble fancies shall them gain.\n\nNow may this little book a blessing be\nTo those who love this little book and me;\nAnd may its buyer have no cause to say,\nHis money is but lost or thrown away;\nYea, may this Second Pilgrim yield that fruit,\nAs may with each good Pilgrim's fancy suit;\nAnd may it persuade some that go astray,\nTo turn their feet and heart to the right way,\nIs the hearty prayer of\n The Author,\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS;\n\nIN THE SIMILITUDE OF A DREAM.\n\n\nTHE SECOND PART.\n\nCOURTEOUS COMPANIONS,\n\nSOME time since, to tell you my dream that I had of Christian the\nPilgrim, and of his dangerous journey towards the Celestial Country,\nwas pleasant to me, and profitable to you. I told you then, also,\nwhat I saw concerning his wife and children, and how unwilling they\nwere to go with him on pilgrimage, insomuch that he was forced to\ngo on his progress without them; for he durst not run the danger\nof that destruction which he feared would come by staying with\nthem in the City of Destruction. Wherefore, as I then showed you,\nhe left them and departed.[6]\n\nNow it hath so happened, through the multiplicity of business, that\nI have been much hindered and kept back from my wonted travels\ninto those parts whence he went, and so could not, till now, obtain\nan opportunity to make further inquiry after whom he left behind,\nthat I might give you an account of them.[7] But having had some\nconcerns that way of late, I went down again thitherward. Now,\nhaving taken up my lodgings in a wood, about a mile off the place,\nas I slept, I dreamed again.[8]\n\nAnd as I was in my dream, behold, an aged gentleman came by where\nI lay; and because he was to go some part of the way that I was\ntravelling, methought I got up and went with him. So as we walked,\nand as travelers usually do, I was as if we fell into discourse,\nand our talk happened to be about Christian and his travels; for\nthus I began with the old man:\n\nSir, said I, what town is that there below, that lieth on the left\nhand of our way?\n\nThen said Mr. Sagacity (for that was his name), It is the City of\nDestruction, a populous place, but possessed with a very ill-conditioned\nand idle sort of people.\n\nI thought that was that city, quoth I; I went once myself through\nthat town, and, therefore, know that this report you give of it is\ntrue.\n\nSAG. Too true; I wish I could speak truth in speaking better of\nthem that dwell therein.\n\nWell, Sir, quoth I, then I perceive you to be a well-meaning man;\nand so one that takes pleasure to hear and tell of that which is\ngood. Pray, did you never hear what happened to a man some time ago\nin this town, whose name was Christian, that went on pilgrimage\nup towards the higher regions?\n\nSAG. Hear of him! Aye, and I also heard of the molestations, troubles,\nwars, captivities, cries, groans, frights, and fears that he met\nwith and had in his journey; besides, I must tell you, all our\ncountry rings of him. There are but few houses that have heard of\nhim and his doings but have sought after and got the records of\nhis pilgrimage; yea, I think I may say that that his hazardous\njourney, has got a many well-wishers to his ways; for though,\nwhen he was here, he was fool in every man's mouth, yet, now he\nis gone, he is highly commended of all. For, it is said, he lives\nbravely where he is; yea, many of them that are resolved never to\nrun his hazards, yet have their mouths water at his gains.[9]\n\nThey may, quoth I, well think, if they think anything that is true,\nthat he liveth well where he is; for he now lives at and in the\nFountain of Life, and has what he has without labour and sorrow,\nfor there is no grief mixed therewith. [But, pray, what talk have\nthe people about him?][10]\n\nSAG. Talk! the people talk strangely about him; some say that he\nnow walks in white (Rev. 3:4; 6:11); that he has a chain of gold\nabout his neck; that he has a crown of gold, beset with pearls,\nupon his head. Others say that the Shining Ones, that sometimes\nshowed themselves to him in his journey, are become his companions,\nand that he is as familiar with them in the place where he is as\nhere one neighbour is with another. Besides, it is confidently\naffirmed concerning him, that the King of the place where he is\nhas bestowed upon him already a very rich and pleasant dwelling\nat court (Zech. 3:7); and that he every day eateth (Luke 14:15),\nand drinketh, and walketh, and talketh with Him; and receiveth of\nthe smiles and favours of Him that is Judge of all there. Moreover,\nit is expected of some, that his Prince, the Lord of that country,\nwill shortly come into these parts, and will know the reason, if\nthey can give any, why his neighbours set so little by him, and\nhad him so much in derision, when they perceived that he would\nbe a pilgrim (Jude 14, 15). For, they say, that now he is so in\nthe affections of his Prince, and that his Sovereign is so much\nconcerned with the indignities that were cast upon Christian, when\nhe became a pilgrim, that He will look upon all as if done unto\nHimself;[11] and no marvel, for it was for the love that he had\nto his Prince that he ventured as he did[12] (Luke 10:16).\n\nI dare say, quoth I, I am glad on it; I am glad for the poor man's\nsake, for that he now has rest from his labour (Rev. 14:13); and\nfor that he now reapeth the benefit of his tears with joy (Psa.\n126:5, 6); and for that he has got beyond the gunshot of his\nenemies, and is out of the reach of them that hate him. I also am\nglad, for that a rumour of these things is noised abroad in this\ncountry; who can tell but that it may work some good effect on\nsome that are left behind? But, pray Sir, while it is fresh in my\nmind, do you hear anything of his wife and children? Poor hearts!\nI wonder in my mind what they do.[13]\n\nSAG. Who! Christiana and her sons? They are like to do as well as\ndid Christian himself; for though they all played the fool at the\nfirst, and would by no means be persuaded by either the tears or\nentreaties of Christian, yet second thoughts have wrought wonderfully\nwith them; so they have packed up, and are also gone after him.[14]\n\nBetter and better, quoth I. But what! wife and children, and all?\nSAG. It is true; I can give you an account of the matter, for I\nwas upon the spot at the instant, and was thoroughly acquainted\nwith the whole affair.\n\nThen, said I, a man, it seems, may report it for a truth? SAG.\nYou need not fear to affirm it; I mean that they are all gone on\npilgrimage, both the good woman and her four boys. And being (we\nare, as I perceive) going some considerable way together, I will\ngive you an account of the whole of the matter.\n\nThis Christiana (for that was her name from the day that she, with\nher children, betook themselves to a pilgrim's life), after her\nhusband was gone over the river, and she could hear of him no\nmore, her thoughts began to work in her mind. First, for that she\nhad lost her husband, and for that the loving bond of that relation\nwas utterly broken betwixt them. For you know, said he to me,\nnature can do no less but entertain the living with many a heavy\ncogitation in the remembrance of the loss of loving relations. This,\ntherefore, of her husband did cost her many a tear. But this was\nnot all; for Christiana did also begin to consider with herself,\nwhether her unbecoming behaviour towards her husband was not one\ncause that she saw him no more; and that in such sort he was taken\naway from her. And upon this, came into her mind, by swarms, all\nher unkind, unnatural, and ungodly carriages to her dear friend;\nwhich also clogged her conscience, and did load her with guilt.\nShe was, moreover, much broken with calling to remembrance the\nrestless groans, brinish tears, and self-bemoanings of her husband,\nand how she did harden her heart against all his entreaties, and\nloving persuasions, of her and her sons, to go with him; yea, there\nwas not anything that Christian either said to her or did before\nher all the while that his burden did hang on his back, but it\nreturned upon her like a flash of lightning, and rent the caul of\nher heart in sunder. Specially that bitter outcry of his, 'What\nshall I do to be saved?' did ring in her ears most dolefully.[15]\n\nThen said she to her children, Sons, we are all undone. I have sinned\naway your father, and he is gone; he would have had us with him,\nbut I would not go myself. I also have hindered you of life.[16]\nWith that the boys fell all into tears, and cried out to go after\ntheir father. O! said Christiana, that it had been but our lot to\ngo with him, then had it fared well with us, beyond what it is like\nto do now; for though I formerly foolishly imagined, concerning\nthe troubles of your father, that they proceeded of a foolish fancy\nthat he had, or for that he was overrun with melancholy humours;\nyet now it will not out of my mind but that they sprang from\nanother cause, to wit, for that the Light of light was given him\n(James 1:23-25); by the help of which, as I perceive, he has escaped\nthe snares of death.[17] Then they all wept again, and cried out,\nO woe worth the day![18]\n\nThe next night Christiana had a dream; and, behold, she saw as if\na broad parchment was opened before her, in which were recorded\nthe sum of her ways (Luke 18:13); and the times, as she thought,\nlooked very black upon her. Then she cried out aloud in her sleep,\n'Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner!'[19] and the little children\nheard her.\n\nAfter this, she thought she saw two very ill-favoured ones standing\nby her bedside, and saying, What shall we do with this woman? for\nshe cries out for mercy waking and sleeping; if she be suffered to\ngo on as she begins, we shall lose her as we have lost her husband.\nWherefore we must, by one way or other, seek to take her off from\nthe thoughts of what shall be hereafter, else all the world cannot\nhelp it but she will become a pilgrim.\n\nNow she awoke in a great sweat, also a trembling was upon her;\nbut after a while she fell to sleeping again. And then she thought\nshe saw Christian her husband in a place of bliss, among many\nimmortals, with a harp in his hand, standing and playing upon it\nbefore One that sat on a throne, with a rainbow about His head.\nShe saw also as if he bowed his head, with his face to the paved\nwork that was under the Prince's feet, saying, I heartily thank my\nLord and King, for bringing of me into this place. Then shouted\na company of them that stood round about, and harped with their\nharps; but no man living could tell what they said, but Christian\nand his companions.[20]\n\nNext morning, when she was up, had prayed to God, and talked with\nher children a while, one knocked hard at the door, to whom she\nspake out, saying, If thou comest in God's name, come in. So he\nsaid, Amen, and opened the door, and saluted her with 'Peace be\nto this house.' The which, when he had done, he said, Christiana,\nknowest thou wherefore I am come? Then she blushed and trembled,\nalso her heart began to wax warm with desires to know whence\nhe came, and what was his errand to her. So he said unto her, My\nname is Secret;[21] I dwell with those that are high. It is talked\nof, where I dwell, as if thou hadst a desire to go thither; also,\nthere is a report, that thou art aware of the evil thou hast formerly\ndone to thy husband, in hardening of thy heart against his way,\nand in keeping of these thy babes in their ignorance.\n\nChristiana, the Merciful One has sent me to tell thee, that He is\na God ready to forgive, and that He taketh delight to multiply to\npardon offences. He also would have thee know, that He inviteth\nthee to come into His presence, to His table, and that He will feed\nthee with the fat of His house, and with the heritage of Jacob thy\nfather.\n\nThere is Christian thy husband (that was), with legions more, his\ncompanions, ever beholding that face that doth minister life to\nbeholders; and they will all be glad when they shall hear the sound\nof thy feet step over thy Father's threshold.\n\nChristiana at this was greatly abashed in herself, and bowing her\nhead to the ground, this Visitor proceeded, and said, Christiana,\nhere is also a letter for thee, which I have brought from thy\nhusband's King. So she took it and opened it, but it smelt after\nthe manner of the best perfume (Song. 1:3); also it was written\nin letters of gold. The contents of the letter was, That the King\nwould have her do as did Christian her husband; for that was the\nway to come to His city, and to dwell in His presence with joy\nforever. At this the good woman was quite overcome; so she cried\nout to her visitor, Sir, will you carry me and my children with\nyou, that we also may go and worship this King?\n\nThen said the visitor, Christiana, the bitter is before the sweet.\nThou must through troubles, as did he that went before thee, enter\nthis Celestial City. Wherefore I advise thee to do as did Christian\nthy husband. Go to the wicket-gate yonder, over the plain, for\nthat stands in the head of the way up which thou must go, and I\nwish thee all good speed. Also I advise that thou put this letter\nin thy bosom; that thou read therein to thyself, and to thy children,\nuntil you have got it by rote of heart,[22] for it is one of the\nsongs that thou must sing while thou art in this house of thy\npilgrimage (Psa. 119:54); also this thou must deliver in at the\nfurther gate.[23] Now I saw in my dream, that this old gentleman,\nas he told me this story, did himself seem to be greatly affected\ntherewith. He, moreover, proceeded and said, So Christiana called\nher sons together, and began thus to address herself unto them:\nMy sons, I have, as you may perceive, been of late under much\nexercise in my soul, about the death of your father; not for that\nI doubt at all of his happiness, for I am satisfied now that he\nis well. I have been also much affected with the thoughts of mine\nown state and yours, which I verily believe is by nature miserable.\nMy carriages, also, to your father in his distress, is a great\nload to my conscience; for I hardened both my own heart and yours\nagainst him, and refused to go with him on pilgrimage.[24]\n\nThe thoughts of these things would now kill me outright, but that\nfor a dream which I had last night, and but for the encouragement\nthat this stranger has given me this morning. Come, my children,\nlet us pack up and begone to the gate that leads to the Celestial\nCountry, that we may see your father, and be with him and his\ncompanions in peace, according to the laws of that land.\n\nThen did her children burst out into tears for joy, that the heart\nof their mother was so inclined.[25] So their visitor bade them\nfarewell; and they began to prepare to set out for their journey.\n\nBut while they were thus about to be gone, two of the women, that\nwere Christiana's neighbours, came up to her house, and knocked at\nher door. To whom she said as before, If you come in God's name,\ncome in. At this the women were stunned; for this kind of language\nthey used not to hear, or to perceive to drop from the lips of\nChristiana.[26] Yet they came in; but, behold, they found the good\nwoman a-preparing to be gone from her house.\n\nSo they began and said, Neighbour, pray what is your meaning by\nthis?\n\nChristiana answered and said to the eldest of them, whose name was\nMrs. Timorous, I am preparing for a journey. (This Timorous was\ndaughter to him that met Christian upon the Hill Difficulty, and\nwould have had him go back for fear of the lions).\n\nTim. For what journey, I pray you?\n\nCHRIST. Even to go after my good husband. And with that she fell\na-weeping.\n\nTim. I hope not so, good neighbour; pray, for your poor children's\nsakes, do not so unwomanly cast away yourself.\n\nCHRIST. Nay, my children shall go with me, not one of them is\nwilling to stay behind.[27]\n\nTim. I wonder, in my very heart, what, or who has brought you into\nthis mind.\n\nCHRIST. Oh! neighbour, knew you but as much as I do, I doubt not\nbut that you would go with me.\n\nTim. Prithee, what new knowledge hast thou got, that so worketh\noff thy mind from thy friends, and that tempteth thee to go, nobody\nknows where?\n\nCHRIST. Then Christiana replied, I have been sorely afflicted\nsince my husband's departure from me; but especially since he went\nover the river. But that which troubleth me most, is my churlish\ncarriages to him, when he was under his distress. Besides, I am\nnow as he was then; nothing will serve me but going on pilgrimage.\nI was a-dreaming last night that I saw him. O that my soul was\nwith him! He dwelleth in the presence of the King of the country;\nhe sits and eats with Him at His table; he is become a companion\nof immortals (1 Cor. 5:1-5), and has a house now given him to\ndwell in, to which the best palaces on earth, if compared, seem\nto me to be but as a dunghill. The Prince of the place has also\nsent for me, with promise of entertainment if I shall come to Him;\nHis messenger was here even now, and has brought me a letter, which\ninvites me to come. And with that she plucked out her letter,[28]\nand read it, and said to them, What now will ye say to this?\n\nTim. O the madness that has possessed thee and thy husband, to\nrun yourselves upon such difficulties! You have heard, I am sure,\nwhat your husband did meet with, even, in a manner, at the first\nstep that he took on his way, as our neighbour Obstinate can yet\ntestify, for he went along with him; yea, and Pliable too, until\nthey, like wise men, were afraid to go any further. We also heard,\nover and above, how he met with the lions, Apollyon, the Shadow of\nDeath, and many other things. Nor is the danger that he met with\nat Vanity Fair to be forgotten by thee; for if he, though a man,\nwas so hard put to it, what canst thou, being but a poor woman,\ndo? Consider also, that these four sweet babes are thy children,\nthy flesh and thy bones. Wherefore, though thou shouldest be so\nrash as to cast away thyself; yet, for the sake of the fruit of\nthy body, keep thou at home.[29]\n\nBut Christiana said unto her, Tempt me not, my neighbour. I have\nnow a price put into my hand to get gain, and I should he a fool\nof the greatest size, if I should have no heart to strike in with\nthe opportunity.[30] And for that you tell me of all these troubles\nthat I am like to meet with in the way, they are so far off from\nbeing to me a discouragement, that they show I am in the right.\n'The bitter must come before the sweet,' and that also will make\nthe sweet the sweeter. Wherefore, since you came not to my house\nin God's name, as I said, I pray you to be gone, and not to disquiet\nme farther.[31]\n\nThen Timorous also reviled her, and said to her fellow, Come,\nneighbour Mercy, let us leave her in her own hands, since she\nscorns our counsel and company. But Mercy was at a stand, and could\nnot so readily comply with her neighbour, and that for a twofold\nreason. First, her bowels yearned over Christiana. So she said\nwithin herself, If my neighbour will needs be gone, I will go\na little way with her and help her. Secondly, her bowels yearned\nover her own soul, for what Christiana had said had taken some\nhold upon her mind.[32] Wherefore she said within herself again,\nI will yet have more talk with this Christiana, and if I find\ntruth and life in what she shall say, myself with my heart shall\nalso go with her. Wherefore Mercy began thus to reply to her\nneighbour Timorous.\n\nMERCY. Neighbour, I did, indeed, come with you to see Christiana\nthis morning; and since she is, as you see, a-taking of her last\nfarewell of her country, I think to walk, this sun-shine morning,\na little way with her, to help her on the way. But she told her\nnot of the second reason, but kept that to herself.\n\nTIM. Well, I see you have a mind to go a-fooling too, but take\nheed in time, and be wise. While we are out of danger, we are out;\nbut when we are in, we are in. So Mrs. Timorous returned to her\nhouse, and Christiana betook herself to her journey.[33] But when\nTimorous was got home to her house, she sends for some of her\nneighbours, to wit, Mrs. Bat's-eyes, Mrs. Inconsiderate, Mrs.\nLight-mind, and Mrs. Know-nothing. So when they were come to her\nhouse, she falls to telling of the story of Christiana, and of her\nintended journey. And thus she began her tale.[34]\n\nTIM. Neighbours, having had little to do this morning, I went to\ngive Christiana a visit; and when I came at the door, I knocked,\nas you know it is our custom. And she answered, If you come in\nGod's name, come in. So in I went, thinking all was well. But when\nI came in, I found her preparing herself to depart the town, she,\nand also her children. So I asked her what was her meaning by\nthat. And she told me, in short, that she was now of a mind to go\non pilgrimage, as did her husband. She told me also a dream that\nshe had, and how the King of the country where her husband was,\nhad sent her an inviting letter to come thither.\n\nThen said Mrs. Know-nothing, what! do you think she will go?\n\nTIM. Aye, go she will, whatever come on't; and methinks I know it\nby this; for that which was my great argument to persuade her to\nstay at home (to wit, the troubles she was like to meet with in\nthe way) is one great argument with her to put her forward on her\njourney. For she told me in so many words, 'The bitter goes before\nthe sweet.' Yea, and forasmuch as it so doth, it makes the sweet\nthe sweeter.\n\nMRS. BAT'S-EYES. O, this blind and foolish woman! said she; will\nshe not take warning by her husband's afflictions? For my part, I\nsee, if he were here again, he would rest him content in a whole\nskin, and never run so many hazards for nothing.\n\nMRS. INCONSIDERATE also replied, saying, Away with such fantastical\nfools from the town! A good riddance, for my part, I say, of\nher. Should she stay where she dwells, and retain this her mind,\nwho could live quietly by her? for she will either be dumpish or\nunneighbourly, or talk of such matters as no wise body can abide;\nwherefore, for my part, I shall never be sorry for her departure.\nLet her go, and let better come in her room. It was never a good\nworld since these whimsical fools dwelt in it.[35]\n\nThen Mrs. Light-mind added as followeth--Come, put this kind of\ntalk away. I was yesterday at Madam Wanton's, where we were as\nmerry as the maids. For who do you think should be there, but I\nand Mrs. Love-the-flesh, and three or four more, with Mr. Lechery,\nMrs. Filth, and some others. So there we had music, and dancing,\nand what else was meet to fill up the pleasure. And, I dare say,\nmy lady herself is an admirably well-bred gentlewoman, and Mr.\nLechery is as pretty a fellow.\n\nBy this time, Christiana was got on her way, and Mercy went along\nwith her. So as they went, her children being there also, Christiana\nbegan to discourse. And, Mercy, said Christiana, I take this as an\nunexpected favour, that thou shouldst set foot out of doors with\nme, to accompany me a little in my way.\n\nMERCY. Then said young Mercy (for she was but young), If I thought\nit would be to purpose to go with you, I would never go near the\ntown any more.\n\nCHRIST. Well, Mercy, said Christiana, cast in thy lot with me;\nI well know what will be the end of our pilgrimage. My husband\nis where he would not but be for all the gold in the Spanish\nmines. Nor shalt thou be rejected, though thou goest but upon my\ninvitation.[36] The King who hath sent for me and my children is\none that delighteth in mercy. Besides, if thou wilt, I will hire\nthee, and thou shalt go along with me as my servant; yet we will\nhave all things in common betwixt thee and me; only, go along with\nme.[37]\n\nMERCY. But how shall I be ascertained that I also shall be\nentertained? Had I this hope but from one that can tell, I would\nmake no stick at all, but would go, being helped by him that can\nhelp, though the way was never so tedious.[38]\n\nCHRIST. Well, loving Mercy, I will tell thee what thou shalt do.\nGo with me to the wicket-gate, and there I will further inquire\nfor thee; and if there thou shalt not meet with encouragement, I\nwill be content that thou shalt return to thy place. I also will\npay thee for thy kindness which thou showest to me and my children,\nin thy accompanying us in our way, as thou dost.\n\nMERCY. Then will I go thither, and will take what shall follow;\nand the Lord grant that my lot may there fall, even as the King of\nHeaven shall have His heart upon me.[39]\n\nChristiana then was glad at her heart, not only that she had a\ncompanion, but also that she had prevailed with this poor maid to\nfall in love with her own salvation. So they went on together, and\nMercy began to weep. Then said Christiana, Wherefore weepeth my\nSister so?\n\nMERCY. Alas! said she, who can but lament, that shall but rightly\nconsider, what a state and condition my poor relations[40] are in\nthat yet remain in our sinful town? and that which makes my grief\nthe more heavy is, because they have no instructor, nor any to\ntell them what is to come.\n\nCHRIST. Bowels becometh pilgrims; and thou dost for thy friends as\nmy good Christian did for me when he left me; he mourned for that\nI would not heed nor regard him; but his Lord and ours did gather\nup after his tears and put them into His bottle; and now both I and\nthou, and these my sweet babes, are reaping the fruit and benefit\nof them. I hope, Mercy, these tears of thine will not be lost;\nfor the truth hath said, that 'They that sow in tears shall reap\nin joy' in singing. And 'he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing\nprecious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing\nhis sheaves with him' (Psa. 126:5, 6).\n\n\nThen said Mercy--\nLet the Most Blessed be my guide,\nIf't be His blessed will;\nUnto His gate, into His fold,\nUp to His holy hill.\nAnd let Him never suffer me\nTo swerve or turn aside\nFrom His free grace, and holy ways,\nWhate'er shall me betide.\n\nAnd let Him gather them of mine,\nThat I have left behind;\nLord, make them pray they may be Thine,\nWith all their heart and mind.[41]\n\n\nNow my old friend proceeded, and said: But when Christiana came\nup to the Slough of Despond, she began to be at a stand; for, said\nshe, this is the place in which my dear husband had like to have\nbeen smothered with mud. She perceived, also, that notwithstanding\nthe command of the King to make this place for pilgrims good, yet\nit was rather worse than formerly. So I asked if that were true.\nYes, said the old gentleman, too true; for that many there be\nthat pretend to be the King's labourers, and that say they are\nfor mending the King's highway, that bring dirt and dung instead\nof stones, and so mar instead of mending.[42] Here Christiana,\ntherefore, with her boys, did make a stand; but, said Mercy, Come,\nlet us venture, only let us be wary. Then they looked well to the\nsteps, and made a shift to get staggeringly over.[43] Yet, Christiana\nhad like to have been in, and that not once nor twice. Now they\nhad no sooner got over, but they thought they heard words that\nsaid unto them, 'Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be\na performance of those things which were told her from the Lord'\n(Luke 1:45).\n\nThen they went on again; and said Mercy to Christiana, Had I as\ngood ground to hope for a loving reception at the wicket-gate as\nyou, I think no Slough of Despond would discourage me. Well, said\nthe other, you know your sore,[44] and I know mine; and, good friend,\nwe shall all have enough evil before we come at our journey's end.\n\nFor can it be imagined, that the people that design to attain such\nexcellent glories as we do, and that are so envied that happiness\nas we are; but that we shall meet with what fears and scares, with\nwhat troubles and afflictions they can possibly assault us with,\nthat hate us?\n\nAnd now Mr. Sagacity left me to dream out my dream by myself.\nWherefore, methought I saw Christiana and Mercy, and the boys, go\nall of them up to the gate; to which, when they were come, they\nbetook themselves to a short debate about how they must manage\ntheir calling at the gate, and what should be said to Him that did\nopen to them. So it was concluded, since Christiana was the eldest,\nthat she should knock for entrance, and that she should speak to\nHim that did open, for the rest. So Christiana began to knock;\nand, as her poor husband did, she knocked, and knocked again. But,\ninstead of any that answered, they all thought that they heard\nas if a dog came barking upon them; a dog, and a great one too,\nand this made the women and children afraid: nor durst they, for\na while, to knock any more, for fear the mastiff should fly upon\nthem. Now, therefore, they were greatly tumbled up and down in\ntheir minds, and knew not what to do: knock they durst not, for\nfear of the dog; go back they durst not, for fear the Keeper of\nthat gate should espy them as they so went, and should be offended\nwith them; at last they thought of knocking again, and knocked\nmore vehemently than they did at the first. Then said the Keeper\nof the gate, Who is there? So the dog left off to bark, and He\nopened unto them.[45] Then Christiana made low obeisance, and said,\nLet not our Lord be offended with his handmaidens, for that we\nhave knocked at His princely gate. Then said the Keeper, Whence\ncome ye, and what is that you would have?\n\nChristiana answered, We are come from whence Christian did come,\nand upon the same errand as he; to wit, to be, if it shall please\nYou, graciously admitted by this gate into the way that leads to\nthe Celestial City. And I answer, my Lord, in the next place, that\nI am Christiana, once the wife of Christian, that now is gotten\nabove.[46]\n\nWith that the Keeper of the gate did marvel, saying, What! is she\nbecome now a pilgrim that, but a while ago, abhorred that life\nThen she bowed her head, and said, Yes, and so are these my sweet\nbabes also.\n\nThen He took her by the hand, and let her in, and said also, 'Suffer\nthe little children to come unto Me'; and with that He shut up the\ngate. This done, He called to a trumpeter that was above, over the\ngate, to entertain Christiana with shouting and sound of trumpet\nfor joy. So he obeyed, and sounded, and filled the air with his\nmelodious notes (Luke 15:7).\n\nNow all this while poor Mercy did stand without, trembling and\ncrying, for fear that she was rejected. But when Christiana had\ngotten admittance for herself and her boys, then she began to make\nintercession for Mercy.\n\nCHRIST. And she said, My Lord, I have a companion of mine that\nstands yet without, that is come hither upon the same account as\nmyself; one that is much dejected in her mind, for that she comes,\nas she thinks, without sending for; whereas I was sent to by my\nhusband's King to come.\n\nNow Mercy began to be very impatient, for each minute was as long to\nher as an hour; wherefore she prevented Christiana from a fuller\ninterceding for her, by knocking at the gate herself. And she\nknocked then so loud, that she made Christiana to start. Then said\nthe Keeper of the gate, Who is there? and said Christiana, It is\nmy friend.\n\nSo He opened the gate and looked out, but Mercy was fallen down\nwithout, in a swoon, for she fainted, and was afraid that no gate\nwould he opened to her.\n\nThen He took her by the hand, and said, Damsel, I bid thee arise.\nO Sir, said she, I am faint; there is scarce life left in me. But\nHe answered, That one once said, 'When my soul fainted within\nme, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into\nThine holy temple' (Jonah 2:7). Fear not, but stand upon thy feet,\nand tell Me wherefore thou art come.[47]\n\nMERCY. I am come for that unto which I was never invited, as my\nfriend Christiana was. Hers was from the King, and mine was but\nfrom her. Wherefore I fear I presume.[48]\n\nKEEP. Did she desire thee to come with her to this place?\n\nMERCY. Yes; and, as my Lord sees, I am come. And, if there is any\ngrace or forgiveness of sins to spare, I beseech that I, thy poor\nhandmaid, may be partaker thereof.\n\nThen He took her again by the hand, and led her gently in, and\nsaid, I pray for all them that believe on Me, by what means soever\nthey come unto Me. Then said He to those that stood by, Fetch\nsomething, and give it Mercy to smell on, thereby to stay her\nfainting. So they fetched her a bundle of myrrh; and a while after,\nshe was revived.[49]\n\nAnd now was Christiana and her boys, and Mercy, received of the\nLord at the head of the way, and spoke kindly unto by Him. Then\nsaid they yet further unto Him, We are sorry for our sins, and beg\nof our Lord His pardon, and further information what we must do.\nI grant pardon, said He, by word and deed: by word, in the promise\nof forgiveness; by deed, in the way I obtained it. Take the first\nfrom My lips with a kiss, (Song. 1:2); and the other as it shall\nbe revealed.[50] (John 20:20).\n\nNow, I saw in my dream, that He spake many good words unto them,\nwhereby they were greatly gladded. He also had them up to the top\nof the gate, and showed them by what deed they were saved; and\ntold them withal, That that sight they would have again, as they\nwent along in the way, to their comfort.\n\nSo He left them a while in a summer parlour below, where they entered\ninto talk by themselves; and thus Christiana began: O Lord! how\nglad am I that we are got in hither.\n\nMERCY. So you well may; but I of all have cause to leap for joy.\n\nCHRIST. I thought one time, as I stood at the gate (because I had\nknocked, and none did answer), that all our labour had been lost,\nespecially when that ugly cur made such a heavy barking against\nus.[51]\n\nMERCY. But my worse fear was after I saw that you was taken into\nHis favour, and that I was left behind. Now, thought I, it is\nfulfilled which is written, 'Two women shall he grinding together,\nthe one shall be taken and the other left'[52] (Matt. 24:41). I\nhad much ado to forbear crying out, Undone! undone![53]\n\nAnd afraid I was to knock any more; but when I looked up to what\nwas written over the gate, I took courage.[54] I also thought that\nI must either knock again, or die; so I knocked, but I cannot tell\nhow, for my spirit now struggled betwixt life and death.\n\nCHRIST. Can you not tell how you knocked? I am sure your knocks\nwere so earnest that the very sound of them made me start; I\nthought I never heard such knocking in all my life; I thought you\nwould have come in by violent hands, or have taken the kingdom by\nstorm (Matt. 11:12).\n\nMERCY. Alas! to be in my case, who that so was could but have done\nso? You saw that the door was shut upon me, and that there was a\nmost cruel dog thereabout. Who, I say, that was so faint-hearted\nas I, that would not have knocked with all their might? But, pray,\nwhat said my Lord to my rudeness? Was He not angry with me?\n\nCHRIST. When He heard your lumbering noise, He gave a wonderful\ninnocent smile; I believe what you did pleased Him well enough,\nfor He showed no sign to the contrary. But I marvel in my heart,\nwhy He keeps such a dog; had I known that before,[55] I fear I\nshould not have had heart enough to have ventured myself in this\nmanner. But now we are in, we are in; and I am glad with all my\nheart.[56]\n\nMERCY. I will ask, if you please, next time He comes down, why He\nkeeps such a filthy cur in His yard; I hope He will not take it\namiss,\n\nAye, do, said the children, and persuade Him to hang him; for we\nare afraid he will bite us when we go hence.\n\nSo at last He came down to them again, and Mercy fell to the ground\non her face before Him, and worshipped, and said, Let my Lord\naccept of the sacrifice of praise which I now offer unto Him with\nthe calves of my lips.\n\nSo He said unto her, 'Peace be to thee, stand up.' But she continued\nupon her face, and said, 'Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead\nwith Thee: yet let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments' (Jer. 12:1).\nWherefore dost Thou keep so cruel a dog in Thy yard, at the sight\nof which, such women and children as we, are ready to fly from\nThy gate for fear?\n\nHe answered and said, That dog has another owner, he also is kept\nclose in another man's ground, only My pilgrims hear his barking;\nhe belongs to the castle which you see there at a distance, but can\ncome up to the walls of this place. He has frighted many an honest\npilgrim from worse to better, by the great voice of his roaring.\nIndeed, he that owneth him doth not keep him of any goodwill to Me\nor Mine, but with intent to keep the pilgrims from coming to Me,\nand that they may be afraid to knock at this gate for entrance.\nSometimes also he has broken out, and has worried some that I\nloved; but I take all at present patiently. I also give My pilgrims\ntimely help, so they are not delivered up to his power, to do to\nthem what his doggish nature would prompt him to. But what! my\npurchased one, I trow, hadst thou known never so much beforehand,\nthou wouldst not have been afraid of a dog.\n\nThe beggars that go from door to door will, rather than they will\nlose a supposed alms, run the hazard of the bawling, barking, and\nbiting, too, of a dog; and shall a dog--a dog in another man's\nyard, a dog whose barking I turn to the profit of pilgrims--keep\nany from coming to Me? I deliver them from the lions, their darling\nfrom the power of the dog.[57]\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, I confess my ignorance; I spake what I\nunderstood not; I acknowledge that Thou dost all things well.\n\nCHRIST. Then Christiana began to talk of their journey, and to\ninquire after the way. So He fed them, and washed their feet, and\nset them in the way of His steps, according as He had dealt with\nher husband before. So I saw in my dream, that they walked on in\ntheir way, and had the weather very comfortable to them.\n\n\nThen Christiana began to sing, saying--\nBlessed be the day that I began\nA pilgrim for to be;\nAnd blessed also be that man\nThat thereto moved me.\n'Tis true, 'twas long ere I began\nTo seek to live forever:\nBut now I run fast as I can;\n'Tis better late then never.\n\nOur tears to joy, our fears to faith,\nAre turned, as we see,\nThat our beginning, as one saith,\nShows what our end will be.\n\n\nNow there was, on the other side of the wall that fenced in the\nway up which Christiana and her companions were to go, a garden,\nand that garden belonged to him whose was that barking dog of whom\nmention was made before. And some of the fruit-trees that grew in\nthat garden shot their branches over the wall; and being mellow,\nthey that found them did gather them up, and oft eat of them to\ntheir hurt. So Christiana's boys, as boys are apt to do, being\npleased with the trees, and with the fruit that did hang thereon,\ndid plash[58] them, and began to eat. Their mother did also chide\nthem for so doing, but still the boys went on.[59]\n\nWell, said she, my sons, you transgress, for that fruit is none\nof ours; but she did not know that they did belong to the enemy;\nI will warrant you, if she had, she would have been ready to die\nfor fear. But that passed, and they went on their way. Now, by\nthat they were gone about two bow-shots from the place that let\nthem into the way, they espied two very ill-favoured ones coming\ndown apace to meet them.[60] With that, Christiana and Mercy, her\nfriend, covered themselves with their veils, and so kept on their\njourney; the children also went on before; so that at last they\nmet together. Then they that came down to meet them, came just up\nto the women, as if they would embrace them; but Christiana said,\nStand back, or go peaceably by, as you should. Yet these two, as\nmen that are deaf, regarded not Christiana's words, but began to\nlay hands upon them. At that Christiana, waxing very wroth, spurned\nat them with her feet. Mercy also, as well as she could, did what\nshe could to shift them. Christiana again said to them, Stand back,\nand begone; for we have no money to lose, being pilgrims, as you\nsee, and such, too, as live upon the charity of our friends.\n\nILL-FAVOURED. Then said one of the two of the men, We make no\nassault upon you for money, but are come out to tell you, that if\nyou will but grant one small request, which we shall ask, we will\nmake women of you forever.\n\nCHRIST. Now Christiana, imagining what they should mean, made\nanswer again, We will neither bear, nor regard, nor yield to what\nyou shall ask. We are in haste, cannot stay; our business is a\nbusiness of life and death. So, again, she and her companions made\na fresh essay to go past them; but they letted them in their way.\n\nILL-FAV. And they said, We intend no hurt to your lives; it is\nanother thing we would have.\n\nCHRIST. Ah, quoth Christiana, you would have us body and soul, for\nI know it is for that you are come; but we will die rather upon\nthe spot, than suffer ourselves to be brought into such snares as\nshall hazard our well-being hereafter. And with that they both\nshrieked out, and cried, Murder! murder! and so put themselves under\nthose laws that are provided for the protection of women (Deut.\n22:23-27). But the men still made their approach upon them, with\ndesign to prevail against them. They, therefore, cried out again.[61]\n\nNow, they being, as I said, not far from the gate in at which\nthey came, their voice was heard from where they were, thither;\nwherefore some of the house came out, and knowing that it was\nChristiana's tongue, they made haste to her relief. But by that\nthey were got within sight of them, the women were in a very great\nscuffle, the children also stood crying by. Then did he that came\nin for their relief call out to the ruffians, saying, What is that\nthing that you do? Would you make my Lord's people to transgress?\nHe also attempted to take them, but they did make their escape\nover the wall, into the garden of the man to whom the great dog\nbelonged; so the dog became their protector. This Reliever then came\nup to the women, and asked them how they did. So they answered,\nWe thank thy Prince, pretty well; only we have been somewhat\naffrighted; we thank thee also, for that thou camest in to our\nhelp, for otherwise we had been overcome.\n\nRELIEVER. So after a few more words, this Reliever said as\nfolloweth: I marveled much when you were entertained at the gate\nabove, being, [as] ye knew, that ye were but weak women, that you\npetitioned not the Lord there for a conductor; then might you have\navoided these troubles and dangers, for He would have granted you\none.[62]\n\nCHRIST. Alas! said Christiana, we were so with our present blessing,\nthat dangers to come were forgotten by us; besides, who could have\nthought, that so near the King's palace, there should have lurked\nsuch naughty ones? Indeed, it had been well for us, had we asked\nour Lord for one; but, since our Lord knew it would be for our\nprofit, I wonder He sent not one along with us![63]\n\nREL. It is not always necessary to grant things not asked for, lest,\nby so doing, they become of little esteem; but when the want of a\nthing is felt, it then comes under, in the eyes of him that feels\nit, that estimate that properly is its due, and so, consequently,\nwill be thereafter used. Had my Lord granted you a conductor, you\nwould not neither so have bewailed that oversight of yours, in\nnot asking for one, as now you have occasion to do. So all things\nwork for good, and tend to make you more wary.\n\nCHRIST. Shall we go back again to my Lord, and confess our folly,\nand ask one?\n\nREL. Your confession of your folly I will present Him with. To go\nback again you need not; for in all places where you shall come,\nyou will find no want at all; for in every of my Lord's lodgings,\nwhich He has prepared for the reception of His pilgrims, there is\nsufficient to furnish them against all attempts whatsoever. But,\nas I said, 'He will be inquired of by them, to do it for them'\n(Ezek. 36:37). And it is a poor thing that is not worth asking\nfor. When he had thus said, he went back to his place, and the\nPilgrims went on their way.\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, What a sudden blank is here! I made\naccount we had now been past all danger, and that we should never\nsee sorrow more.[64]\n\nCHRIST. Thy innocency, my sister, said Christiana to Mercy, may\nexcuse thee much; but as for me, my fault is so much the greater,\nfor that I saw this dancer before I came out of the doors, and yet\ndid not provide for it where provision might have been had. I am\ntherefore much to be blamed.[65]\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, How knew you this before you came from\nhome? Pray open to me this riddle.\n\nCHRIST. Why, I will tell you. Before I set foot out of doors, one\nnight, as I lay in my bed, I had a dream about this; for, methought I\nsaw two men, as like these as ever the world they could look, stand\nat my bed's feet, plotting how they might prevent my salvation. I\nwill tell you their very words. They said (it was when I was in my\ntroubles), What shall we do with this woman? for she cries out,\nwaking and sleeping, for forgiveness. If she be suffered to go on\nas she begins, we shall lose her, as we have lost her husband.\nThis, you know, might have made me take heed, and have provided\nwhen provision might have been had.\n\nMERCY. Well, said Mercy, as by this neglect we have an occasion\nministered unto us, to behold our own imperfections; so our Lord\nhas taken occasion thereby, to make manifest the riches of His\ngrace; for He, as we see, has followed us with unasked kindness,\nand has delivered us from their hands that were stronger than we,\nof His mere good pleasure.[66]\n\nThus, now when they had talked away a little more time, they drew\nnigh to a house which stood in the way, which house was built for\nthe relief of pilgrims; as you will find more fully related in the\nFirst Part of these Records of the Pilgrim's Progress. So they drew\non towards the house (the House of the Interpreter), and when they\ncame to the door, they heard a great talk in the house. They then\ngave ear, and heard, as they thought, Christiana mentioned by name.\nFor you must know that there went along, even before her, a talk\nof her and her children's going on pilgrimage. And this thing was\nthe more pleasing to them, because they had heard that she was\nChristian's wife, that woman who was sometime ago so unwilling to\nhear of going on pilgrimage. Thus, therefore, they stood still,\nand heard the good people within commending her, who, they little\nthought, stood at the door. At last Christiana knocked, as she had\ndone at the gate before. Now, when she had knocked, there came to\nthe door a young damsel, named Innocent, and opened the door and\nlooked, and behold two women were there.\n\nDAMSEL. Then said the damsel to them, With whom would you speak\nin this place?\n\nCHRIST. Christiana answered, We understand that this is a privileged\nplace for those that are become pilgrims, and we now at this door\nare such; wherefore we pray that we may be partakers of that for\nwhich we at this time are come; for the day, as thou seest, is\nvery far spent, and we are loath tonight to go any further.\n\nDAMSEL. Pray, what may I call your name, that I may tell it to my\nLord within?\n\nCHRIST. My name is Christiana; I was the wife of that pilgrim, that\nsome years ago did travel this way, and these be his four children.\nThis maiden also is my companion, and is going on pilgrimage too.\n\nINNOCENT. Then ran Innocent in (for that was her name) and said to\nthose within, Can you think who is at the door? There is Christiana\nand her children, and her companion, all waiting for entertainment\nhere. Then they leaped for joy, and went and told their Master.\nSo He came to the door, and looking upon her, He said, Art thou\nthat Christiana whom Christian, the good man, left behind him,\nwhen he betook himself to a pilgrim's life?\n\nCHRIST. I am that woman that was so hard-hearted, as to slight\nmy husband's troubles, and that left him to go on in his journey\nalone, and these are his four children; but now I also am come,\nfor I am convinced that no way is right but this.\n\nINTER. Then is fulfilled that which also is written of the man that\nsaid to his son, 'Go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and\nsaid, I will not: but afterward he repented and went' (Matt. 21:29).\n\nCHRIST. Then said Christiana, So be it, Amen. God make it a true\nsaying upon me, and grant that I may be found at the last of Him\nin peace, without spot, and blameless!\n\nINTER. But why standest thou thus at the door? Come in, thou\ndaughter of Abraham. We were talking of thee but now, for tidings\nhave come to us before, how thou art become a pilgrim. Come,\nchildren, come in; come, maiden, come in. So He had them all into\nthe house.[67]\n\nSo, when they were within, they were bidden sit down and rest them;\nthe which when they had done, those that attended upon the Pilgrims\nin the house, came into the room to see them. And one smiled, and\nanother smiled, and they all smiled, for joy that Christiana was\nbecome a pilgrim. They also looked upon the boys. They stroked\nthem over the faces with the hand, in token of their kind reception\nof them. They also carried it lovingly to Mercy, and bid them all\nwelcome into their Master's house.[68]\n\nAfter a while, because supper was not ready, the Interpreter took\nthem into his significant rooms, and showed them what Christian,\nChristiana's husband, had seen some time before. Here, therefore,\nthey saw the man in the cage, the man and his dream, the man that\ncut his way through his enemies, and the picture of the biggest of\nthem all, together with the rest of those things that were then so\nprofitable to Christian.\n\nThis done, and after these things had been somewhat digested by\nChristiana and her company, the Interpreter takes them apart again,\nand has them first into a room where was a man that could look no\nway but downwards, with a muck-rake in his hand. There stood also\none over His head with a celestial crown in His hand, and proffered\nhim that crown for his muck-rake; but the man did neither look\nup, nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks,\nand dust of the floor.[69]\n\nThen said Christiana, I persuade myself that I know somewhat the\nmeaning of this; for this is a figure of a man of this world, is\nit not, good Sir?\n\nINTER. Thou hast said the right, said He, and his muck-rake doth\nshow his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed\nto rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to\nwhat He says that calls to him from above with the celestial crown\nin His hand, it is to show that Heaven is but as a fable to some,\nand that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now,\nwhereas, it was also showed thee, that the man could look no way\nbut downwards, it is to let thee know that earthly things, when\nthey are with power upon men's minds, quite carry their hearts\naway from God.[70]\n\nCHRIST. Then said Christiana, O deliver me from this muck-rake![71]\n\nINTER. That prayer, Said the Interpreter, has lain by till it is\nalmost rusty. 'Give me not riches,' is scarce the prayer of one\nof ten thousand (Prov. 30:8). Straws, and sticks, and dust, with\nmost, are the great things now looked after.[72] With that Mercy\nand Christiana wept, and said, It is, alas! too true.[73]\n\nWhen the Interpreter had shown them this, He has them into the very\nbest room in the house; a very brave room it was. So He bid them\nlook round about, and see if they could find anything profitable\nthere. Then they looked round and round; for there was nothing\nthere to be seen but a very great spider on the wall: and that\nthey overlooked.\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, Sir, I see nothing; but Christiana held\nher peace.\n\nINTER. But, said the Interpreter, look again, and she therefore\nlooked again, and said, Here is not anything but an ugly spider,\nwho hangs by her hands upon the wall. Then said He, Is there but\none spider in all this spacious room? Then the water stood in\nChristiana's eyes, for she was a woman quick of apprehension; and\nshe said, Yea, Lord, there is here more than one. Yea, and spiders\nwhose venom is far more destructive than that which is in her. The\nInterpreter then looked pleasantly upon her, and said, Thou hast\nsaid the truth. This made Mercy blush, and the boys to cover their\nfaces, for they all began now to understand the riddle.[74]\n\nThen said the Interpreter again, 'The spider taketh hold with their\nhands (as you see), and is in kings' palaces' (Prov. 30:28). And\nwherefore is this recorded, but to show you, that how full of the\nvenom of sin soever you be, yet you may, by the hand of faith, lay\nhold of, and dwell in the best room that belongs to the King's\nhouse above![75]\n\nCHRIST. I thought, said Christiana, of something of this; but\nI could not imagine it all. I thought that we were like spiders,\nand that we looked like ugly creatures, in what fine room soever\nwe were; but that by this spider, this venomous and ill-favoured\ncreature, we were to learn how to act faith, that came not into\nmy mind. And yet she has taken hold with her hands, as I see, and\ndwells in the best room in the house. God has made nothing in vain.\n\nThen they seemed all to be glad; but the water stood in their\neyes; yet they looked one upon another, and also bowed before the\nInterpreter.\n\nHe had them then into another room, where was a hen and chickens,\nand bid them observe a while. So one of the chickens went to the\ntrough to drink, and every time she drank, she lift up her head,\nand her eyes towards Heaven. See, said He, what this little chick\ndoth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come,\nby receiving them with looking up. Yet again, said He, observe\nand look; so they gave heed, and perceived that the hen did walk\nin a fourfold method towards her chickens. 1. She had a common\ncall, and that she hath all day long. 2. She had a special call,\nand that she had but sometimes. 3. She had a brooding note. And\n4. She had an outcry (Matt. 23:37).\n\nNow, said He, compare this hen to your King, and these chickens\nto His obedient ones.[76] For, answerable to her, Himself has His\nmethods, which He walketh in towards His people; by His common call,\nHe gives nothing; by His special call, He always has something to\ngive; He has also a brooding voice, for them that are under His\nwing; and He has an outcry, to give the alarm when He seeth the\nenemy come.[77] I chose, My darlings, to lead you into the room\nwhere such things are, because you are women, and they are easy\nfor you.[78]\n\nCHRIST. And Sir, said Christiana, pray let us see some more. So\nHe had them into the slaughter-house, where was a butcher killing\nof a sheep; and behold the sheep was quiet, and took her death\npatiently. Then said the Interpreter, You must learn of this sheep\nto suffer, and to put up wrongs without murmurings and complaints.\nBehold how quietly she taketh her death, and without objecting,\nshe suffereth her skin to be pulled over her ears. Your King doth\ncall you His sheep.\n\nAfter this He led them into His garden, where was great variety of\nflowers; and he said, Do you see all these? So Christiana Said, Yes.\nThen said He again, Behold the flowers are diverse in stature, in\nquality, and colour, and smell, and virtue; and some are better than\nsome; also where the gardener hath set them, there they stand, and\nquarrel not with one another.[79]\n\nAgain, He had them into His field, which He had sowed with wheat\nand corn; but when they beheld, the tops of all were cut off, only\nthe straw remained; He said again, This ground was dunged, and\nploughed, and sowed; but what shall we do with the crop? Then\nsaid Christiana, Burn some, and make muck of the rest. Then Said\nthe Interpreter again, Fruit, you see, is that thing you look\nfor,[80] and for want of that you condemn it to the fire, and to\nbe trodden under foot of men: beware that in this you condemn not\nyourselves.[81]\n\nThen, as they were coming in from abroad, they espied a little\nrobin with a great spider in his mouth; so the Interpreter said,\nLook here. So they looked, and Mercy wondered; but Christiana\nsaid, What a disparagement is it to such a little pretty bird as\nthe robin-redbreast is, he being also a bird above many, that loveth\nto maintain a kind of socialbleness with man; I had thought they\nhad lived upon crumbs of bread, or upon other such harmless matter;\nI like him worse than I did.\n\nThe Interpreter then replied, This robin is an emblem, very apt\nto set forth some professors by; for to sight, they are, as this\nrobin, pretty of note, colour, and carriage. They seem also to\nhave a very great love for professors that are sincere; and above\nall other, to desire to sociate with them, and to be in their\ncompany, as if they could live upon the good man's crumbs. They\npretend also, that therefore it is that they frequent the house\nof the godly, and the appointments of the Lord; but, when they are\nby themselves, as the robin, they can catch and gobble up spiders,\nthey can change their diet, drink iniquity, and swallow down\nsin like water.[82] So, when they were come again into the house,\nbecause supper as yet was not ready, Christiana again desired that\nthe Interpreter would either show or tell of some other things that\nare profitable. Then the Interpreter began, and said, The fatter\nthe sow is, the more she desires the mire; the fatter the ox is,\nthe more gamesomely he goes to the slaughter; and the more healthy\nthe lusty man is, the more prone he is unto evil.\n\nThere is a desire in women to go neat and fine, and it is a comely\nthing to be adorned with that that in God's sight is of great price.\nIt is easier watching a night or two, than to sit up a whole year\ntogether. So it is easier for one to begin to profess well, than\nto hold out as he should to the end.\n\nEvery shipmaster, when in a storm, will willingly cast that overboard\nthat is of the smallest value in the vessel; but who will throw\nthe best out first? None but he that feareth not God. One leak\nwill sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner. He that\nforgets his friend, is ungrateful unto him; but he that forgets\nhis Saviour, is unmerciful to himself.\n\nHe that lives in sin, and looks for happiness hereafter, is like\nhim that soweth cockle, and thinks to fill his barn with wheat or\nbarley. If a man would live well, let him fetch his last day to\nhim, and make it always his company keeper.\n\nWhispering, and change of thoughts, prove that sin is in the world.\nIf the world, which God sets light by, is counted a thing of that\nworth with men; what is Heaven, which God commendeth?\n\nIf the life that is attended with so many troubles, is so loath to\nbe let go by us, what is the life above?\n\nEverybody will cry up the goodness of men; but who is there that\nis, as he should, affected with the goodness of God?\n\nWe seldom sit down to meat, but we eat and leave; so there is in\nJesus Christ more merit and righteousness than the whole world has\nneed of.[83]\n\nWhen the Interpreter had done, He takes them out into His garden\nagain, and had them to a tree, whose inside was all rotten and gone,\nand yet it grew and had leaves. Then said Mercy, What means this?\nThis tree, said He, whose outside is fair, and whose inside\nis rotten, it is to which many may be compared, that are in the\ngarden of God; who with their mouths speak high in behalf of God,\nbut indeed will do nothing for Him; whose leaves are fair, but\ntheir heart good for nothing but to be tinder for the devil's\ntinder box.[84] Now supper was ready, the table spread, and all\nthings set on the board; so they sat down and did eat, when one\nhad given thanks. And the Interpreter did usually entertain those\nthat lodged with Him, with music at meals; so the minstrels played.\nThere was also one that did sing, and a very fine voice he had.\nHis song was this:\n\n\nThe Lord is only my support,\nAnd he that doth me feed;\nHow can I then want anything\nWhereof I stand in need?\n\n\nWhen the song and music was ended,[85] the Interpreter asked\nChristiana what it was that at first did move her to betake herself\nto a Pilgrim's life. Christiana answered, First, the loss of my\nhusband came into my mind, at which I was heartily grieved; but\nall that was but natural affection. Then, after that, came the\ntroubles and pilgrimage of my husband into my mind, and also how\nlike a churl I had carried it to him as to that. So guilt took\nhold of my mind, and would have drawn me into the pond; but that\nopportunely I had a dream of the well-being of my husband, and a\nletter sent me by the King of that country where my husband dwells,\nto come to Him. The dream and the letter together so wrought upon\nmy mind, that they forced me to this way.\n\nINTER. But met you with no opposition before you set out of doors?\n\nCHRIST. Yes, a neighbour of mine, one Mrs. Timorous (she was akin\nto him that would have persuaded my husband to go back, for fear\nof the lions). She all to befooled me for, as she called it, my\nintended desperate adventure; she also urged what she could to\ndishearten me to it; the hardship and troubles that my husband met\nwith in the way, but all this I got over pretty well.[86] But a\ndream that I had of two ill-looked ones, that I thought did plot\nhow to make me miscarry in my journey, that hath troubled me much;\nyea, it still runs in my mind, and makes me afraid of everyone\nthat I meet, lest they should meet me to do me a mischief, and to\nturn me out of the way. Yea, I may tell my Lord, though I would\nnot have everybody know it, that between this and the gate by\nwhich we got into the way, we were both so sorely assaulted that\nwe were made to cry out, Murder! and the two them made this assault\nupon us were like the two that I saw in my dream.\n\nThen said the Interpreter, thy beginning is good, thy latter end\nshall greatly increase. So He addressed Himself to Mercy, and said\nunto her, And what moved thee to come hither, sweet heart?\n\nThen Mercy blushed and trembled, and for a while continued silent.\n\nINTER. Then, said He, be not afraid, only believe, and speak thy\nmind.\n\nMERCY. So she began, and said, Truly, Sir, my want of experience\nis that which makes me covet to be in silence, and that also\nthat fills me with fears of coming short at last. I cannot tell of\nvisions and dreams as my friend Christiana can; nor know I what\nit is to mourn for my refusing of the counsel of those that were\ngood relations.[87]\n\nINTER. What was it then, dear heart, that hath prevailed with thee\nto do as thou hast done?\n\nMERCY. Why, when our friend here was packing up to be gone from\nour town, I and another went accidentally to see her; so we knocked\nat the door and went in. When we were within, and seeing what she\nwas doing, we asked what was her meaning. She said, she was sent\nfor to go to her husband; and then she up and told us how she had\nseen him in a dream, dwelling in a curious place, among immortals,\nwearing a crown, playing upon a harp, eating and drinking at\nhis Prince's table, and singing praises to Him for bringing him\nthither, &c. Now, methought, while she was telling these things\nunto us, my heart burned within me; and I said in my heart, If\nthis be true, I will leave my father and my mother, and the land\nof my nativity, and will, if I may, go along with Christiana. So\nI asked her further of the truth of these things, and if she would\nlet me go with her; for I saw now that there was no dwelling, but\nwith the danger of ruin, any longer in our town. But yet I came\naway with a heavy heart, not for that I was unwilling to come\naway, but for that so many of my relations were left behind. And\nI am come, with all the desire of my heart, and will go, if I may,\nwith Christiana, unto her husband, and his King.[88]\n\nINTER. Thy setting out is good, for thou hast given credit to the\ntruth.[89] Thou art a Ruth, who did, for the love she bare to Naomi,\nand to the Lord her God, leave father and mother, and the land of\nher nativity, to come out, and go with a people that she knew not\nheretofore. 'The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be\ngiven thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art\ncome to trust' (Ruth 2:12).\n\nNow supper was ended, and preparation was made for bed; the women\nwere laid singly alone, and the boys by themselves. Now when Mercy\nwas in bed, she could not sleep for joy, for that now her doubts\nof missing at last, were removed further from her than ever they\nwere before. So she lay blessing and praising God, who had had\nsuch favour for her.\n\nIn the morning they rose with the sun, and prepared themselves for\ntheir departure; but the Interpreter would have them tarry awhile,\nfor, said He, you must orderly go from hence. Then, said He to the\ndamsel that first opened unto them, Take them and have them into\nthe garden to the bath, and there wash them, and make them clean\nfrom the soil which they have gathered by travelling. Then Innocent\nthe damsel took them, and had them into the garden, and brought\nthem to the bath; so she told them that there they must wash and\nbe clean, for so her Master would have the women to do that called\nat His house, as they were going on pilgrimage. They then went in\nand washed, yea, they and the boys and all; and they came out of\nthat bath, not only sweet and clean, but also much enlivened and\nstrengthened in their joints.[90] So when they came in, they looked\nfairer a deal than when they went out to the washing.[91]\n\nWhen they were returned out of the garden from the bath, the\nInterpreter took them, and looked upon them, and said unto them,\nFair as the moon. Then he called for the seal, wherewith they used\nto be sealed that were washed in His bath. So the seal was brought,\nand He set His mark upon them, that they might be known in the\nplaces whither they were yet to go. Now the seal was the contents\nand sum of the passover which the children of Israel did eat when\nthey came out from the land of Egypt, and the mark was set between\ntheir eyes.[92] This seal greatly added to their beauty, for it\nwas an ornament to their faces. It also added to their gravity, and\nmade their countenances more like them of angels[93] (Exo. 13:8-10).\n\nThen said the Interpreter again to the damsel that waited upon\nthese women, Go into the vestry and fetch out garments for these\npeople; so she went and fetched out white raiment, and laid down\nbefore Him; so He commanded them to put it on. 'It was fine linen,\nwhite and clean.' When the women were thus adorned, they seemed\nto be a terror one to the other; for that they could not see that\nglory each one on herself, which they could see in each other. Now,\ntherefore, they began to esteem each other better than themselves.\n'For you are fairer than I am,' said one; and 'you are more comely\nthan I am,' said another.[94] The children also stood amazed to\nsee into what fashion they were brought.[95]\n\nThe Interpreter then called for a man-servant of His, one Great-heart,\nand bid him take sword, and helmet, and shield; and take these My\ndaughters, said He, and conduct them to the house called Beautiful,\nat which place they will rest next.[96] So he took his weapons\nand went before them; and the Interpreter said, God speed. Those\nalso that belonged to the family, sent them away with many a good\nwish. So they went on their way and sang--\n\n\nThis place has been our second stage;\nHere we have heard and seen\nThose good things that, from age to age,\nTo others hid have been.\n\nThe dunghill-racer, spider, hen,\nThe chicken, too, to me\nHath taught a lesson; let me then\nConformed to it be.\n\nThe butcher, garden, and the field,\nThe robin and his bait,\nAlso the rotten tree doth yield\nMe argument of weight;\n\nTo move me for to watch and pray,\nTo strive to be sincere;\nTo take my cross up day by day,\nAnd serve the Lord with fear.\n\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that they went on, and Great-heart went\nbefore them: so they went and came to the place where Christian's\nburden fell off his back, and tumbled into a sepulchre. Here then\nthey made a pause; and here also they blessed God. Now, said\nChristiana, it comes to my mind, what was said to us at the gate,\nto wit, that we should have pardon by word and deed; by word, that\nis, by the promise; by deed, to wit, in the way it was obtained.\nWhat the promise is, of that I know something; but what it is\nto have pardon by deed, or in the way that it was obtained, Mr.\nGreat-heart, I suppose you know; wherefore, if you please, let us\nhear you discourse thereof.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Pardon by the deed done, is pardon obtained by someone,\nfor another that hath need thereof: not by the person pardoned,\nbut in the way, saith another, in which I have obtained it. So\nthen, to speak to the question more [at] large, the pardon that you\nand Mercy, and these boys have attained, was obtained by another,\nto wit, by Him that let you in at the gate; and He hath obtained\nit in this double way. He has performed righteousness to cover\nyou, and spilt blood to wash you in.[97]\n\nCHRIST. But if He parts with His righteousness to us, what will\nHe have for Himself?\n\nGREAT-HEART. He has more righteousness than you have need of, or\nthan He needeth Himself.\n\nCHRIST. Pray make that appear.\n\nGREAT-HEART. With all my heart; but first I must premise, that He\nof whom we are now about to speak is one that has not His fellow.\nHe has two natures in one Person, plain to be distinguished,\nimpossible to be divided. Unto each of these natures a righteousness\nbelongeth, and each righteousness is essential to that nature;\nso that one may as easily cause the nature to be extinct, as to\nseparate its justice or righteousness from it. Of these righteousnesses,\ntherefore, we are not made partakers, so as that they, or any of\nthem, should be put upon us, that we might be made just, and live\nthereby. Besides these, there is a righteousness which this Person\nhas, as these two natures are joined in one: and this is not the\nrighteousness of the Godhead, as distinguished from the manhood;\nnor the righteousness of the manhood, as distinguished from\nthe Godhead; but a righteousness which standeth in the union of\nboth natures, and may properly be called, the righteousness that\nis essential to His being prepared of God to the capacity of the\nmediatory office, which He was to be intrusted with. If He parts with\nHis first righteousness, He parts with His Godhead; if He parts\nwith His second righteousness, He parts with the purity of His\nmanhood; if He parts with this third, He parts with that perfection\nthat capacitates Him to the office of mediation. He has, therefore,\nanother righteousness, which standeth in performance, or obedience,\nto a revealed will; and that is it that He puts upon sinners, and\nthat by which their sins are covered. Wherefore He saith, 'As by\none man's disobedience, many were made sinners; so by the obedience\nof one, shall many be made righteous'[98] (Rom. 5:19).\n\nCHRIST. But are the other righteousnesses of no use to us?\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes; for though they are essential to His natures and\noffice and so cannot be communicated unto another, yet it is by\nvirtue of them, that the righteousness that justifies, is, for\nthat purpose, efficacious. The righteousness of His Godhead gives\nvirtue to His obedience; the righteousness of His manhood giveth\ncapability to His obedience to justify; and the righteousness that\nstandeth in the union of these two natures to His office, giveth\nauthority to that righteousness to do the work for which it is\nordained.\n\nSo then, here is a righteousness that Christ, as God, has no need of,\nfor He is God without it; here is a righteousness that Christ, as\nman, has no need of to make Him so, for He is perfect man without\nit; again, here is a righteousness that Christ, as God-man, has\nno need of, for He is perfectly so without it. Here, then, is\na righteousness that Christ, as God, as man, as God-man, has no\nneed of, with reference to Himself, and therefore He can spare\nit; a justifying righteousness, that He for Himself wanteth not,\nand therefore He giveth it away; hence it is called 'the gift of\nrighteousness' (Rom. 5:17). This righteousness, since Christ Jesus\nthe Lord has made Himself under the law, must be given away; for\nthe law doth not only bind him that is under it 'to do justly,'\nbut to use charity. Wherefore he must, he ought, by the law, if\nhe hath two coats, to give one to him that hath none. Now, our\nLord, indeed, hath two coats, one for Himself, and one to spare;\nwherefore He freely bestows one upon those that have none. And\nthus, Christiana, and Mercy, and the rest of you that are here,\ndoth your pardon come by deed, or by the work of another man.\nYour Lord Christ is He that has worked, and has given away what\nhe wrought for, to the next poor beggar He meets.[99]\n\nBut, again, in order to pardon by deed, there must something be\npaid to God as a price, as well as something prepared to cover us\nwithal. Sin has delivered us up to the just curse of a righteous law;\nnow, from this curse we must be justified by way of redemption, a\nprice being paid for the harms we have done (Rom. 4:24); and this\nis by the blood of your Lord, who came and stood in your place and\nstead, and died your death for your transgressions (Gal. 3:13).\nThus has He ransomed you from your transgressions by blood, and\ncovered your polluted and deformed souls with righteousness. For\nthe sake of which, God passeth by you, and will not hurt you, when\nHe comes to judge the world.\n\nCHRIST. This is brave. Now, I see there was something to be learned\nby our being pardoned by word and deed. Good Mercy, let us labour\nto keep this in mind; and my children, do you remember it also.\nBut, Sir, was not this it that made my good Christian's burden\nfall from off his shoulder, and that made him give three leaps\nfor joy?[100]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes, it was the belief of this, that cut those\nstrings, that could not be cut by other means; and it was to give\nhim a proof of the virtue of this, that he was suffered to carry\nhis burden to the Cross.\n\nCHRIST. I thought so; for though my heart was lightful and joyous\nbefore, yet it is ten times more lightsome and joyous now. And I\nam persuaded by what I have felt, though I have felt but little as\nyet, that if the most burdened man in the world was here, and did\nsee and believe as I now do, it would make his heart the more merry\nand blithe.[101]\n\nGREAT-HEART. There is not only comfort, and the ease of a burden\nbrought to us, by the sight and consideration of these, but an\nendeared affection begot in us by it; for who can, if he doth but\nonce think that pardon comes not only by promise, but thus, but be\naffected with the way and means of his redemption, and so, with\nthe Man that hath wrought it for him?\n\nCHRIST. True; methinks it makes my heart bleed to think that He\nshould bleed for me. O Thou loving One! O Thou blessed One! Thou\ndeservest to have me; Thou hast bought me; Thou deservest to have\nme all; Thou hast paid for me ten thousand times more than I am\nworth! No marvel that this made the water stand in my husband's\neyes, and that it made him trudge so nimbly on; I am persuaded he\nwished me with him; but, vile wretch that I was, I let him come\nall alone. O Mercy, that thy father and mother were here; yea,\nand Mrs. Timorous also; nay, I wish now with all my heart, that\nhere was Madam Wanton too. Surely, surely their hearts would be\naffected; nor could the fear of the one, nor the powerful lusts\nof the other, prevail with them to go home again, and to refuse\nto become good pilgrims.[102]\n\nGREAT-HEART. You speak now in the warmth of your affections. Will\nit, think you, be always thus with you? Besides, this is not\ncommunicated to everyone that did see your Jesus bleed. There\nwere that stood by, and that saw the blood run from His heart to\nthe ground, and yet were so far off this, that, instead of lamenting,\nthey laughed at Him; and, instead of becoming His disciples,\ndid harden their hearts against Him. So that all that you have,\nmy daughters, you have by a peculiar impression made by a Divine\ncontemplating upon what I have spoken to you. Remember that it\nwas told you, that the hen, by her common call, gives no meat to\nher chickens. This you have, therefore, by a special grace.[103]\n\nNow, I saw still in my dream, that they went on until they were\ncome to the place that Simple, and Sloth, and Presumption,[104] lay\nand slept in, when Christian went by on pilgrimage; and, behold,\nthey were hanged up in irons a little way off on the other side.[105]\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy to him that was their guide and conductor,\nWhat are those three men? and for what are they hanged there?\n\nGREAT-HEART. These three men were men of very bad qualities. They\nhad no mind to be pilgrims themselves, and whosoever they could\nthey hindered. They were for sloth and folly themselves, and whoever\nthey could persuade with, they made so too; and, withal, taught\nthem to presume that they should do well at last. They were asleep\nwhen Christian went by; and now you go by, they are hanged.[106]\n\nMERCY. But could they persuade any to be of their opinion?\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes; they turned several out of the way. There was\nSlow-pace that they persuaded to do as they. They also prevailed\nwith one Short-wind, with one No-heart, with one Linger-after-lust,\nand with one Sleepy-head, and with a young woman, her name was\nDull, to turn out of the way, and become as they. Besides, they\nbrought up an ill report of your Lord, persuading others that He\nwas a taskmaster. They also brought up an evil report of the good\nland, saying it was not half so good as some pretend it was. They\nalso began to vilify His servants, and to count the very best of\nthem meddlesome, troublesome, busybodies. Further, they could call\nthe bread of God husks; the comforts of His children, fancies;\nthe travel and labour of pilgrims, things to no purpose.[107]\n\nCHRIST. Nay, said Christiana, if they were such, they shall never\nbe bewailed by me. They have but what they deserve; and I think it\nis well that they hang so near the highway, that others may see\nand take warning. But had it not been well if their crimes had\nbeen engraven on some plate of iron or brass, and left here, even\nwhere they did their mischiefs, for a caution to other bad men?\n\nGREAT-HEART. So it is, as you well may perceive, if you will go a\nlittle to the wall.\n\nMERCY. No, no; let them hang, and their names rot, and their crimes\nlive forever against them. I think it a high favour that they were\nhanged before we came hither; who knows else what they might have\ndone to such poor women as we are? Then she turned it into a song,\nsaying--\n\n\nNow then, you three, hang there, and be a sign\nTo all that shall against the truth combine.\nAnd let him that comes after fear this end,\nIf unto pilgrims he is not a friend.\nAnd thou, my soul, of all such men beware,\nThat unto holiness opposers are.\n\n\nThus they went on, till they came at the foot of the Hill\nDifficulty,[108] where, again, their good friend, Mr. Great-heart,\ntook an occasion to tell them of what happened there when Christian\nhimself went by. So he had them first to the spring. Lo, said\nhe, this is the spring that Christian drank of, before he went up\nthis hill; and then it was clear and good, but now it is dirty with\nthe feet of some that are not desirous that pilgrims here should\nquench their thirst (Ezek. 34:18). Thereat Mercy said, And why so\nenvious, trow? But, said their guide, it will do, if taken up, and\nput into a vessel that is sweet and good; for then the dirt will\nsink to the bottom, and the water come out by itself more clear.[109]\nThus, therefore, Christiana and her companions were compelled to\ndo. They took it up, and put it into an earthen pot, and so let\nit stand till the dirt was gone to the bottom, and then they drank\nthereof.[110] Next, he showed them the two by-ways that were at the\nfoot of the hill, where Formality and Hypocrisy lost themselves.\nAnd, said he, these are dangerous paths. Two were here cast away\nwhen Christian came by. And although, as you see, these ways are\nsince stopped up with chains, posts, and a ditch, yet there are\nthat will choose to adventure here, rather than take the pains to\ngo up this hill.[111]\n\nCHRIST. 'The way of transgressors is hard' (Prov. 13:15). It is a\nwonder that they can get into those ways without danger of breaking\ntheir necks.\n\nGREAT-HEART. They will venture. Yea, if at any time any of the\nKing's servants do happen to see them, and do call unto them, and\ntell them that they are in the wrong ways, and do bid them beware\nthe danger, then they will railingly return them answer, and say,\n'As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of\nthe Lord, we will not hearken unto thee; but we will certainly\ndo whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth,' &c. (Jer.\n44:16, 17). Nay, if you look a little further, you shall see that\nthese ways are made cautionary enough, not only by these posts,\nand ditch, and chain; but also by being hedged up, yet they will\nchoose to go there.[112]\n\nCHRIST. They are idle; they love not to take pains; uphill way is\nunpleasant to them. So it is fulfilled unto them as it is written,\n'The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns' (Prov.\n15:19). Yea, they will rather choose to walk upon a snare, than\nto go up this hill, and the rest of this way to the city.\n\nThen they set forward, and began to go up the hill, and up the\nhill they went; but before they got to the top, Christiana began\nto pant; and said, I dare say, this is a breathing hill. No marvel\nif they that love their ease more than their souls, choose to\nthemselves a smoother way.[113] Then said Mercy, I must sit down;\nalso the least of the children began to cry. Come, come, said\nGreat-heart, sit not down here, for a little above is the Prince's\narbour. Then took he the little boy by the hand, and led him up\nthereto.\n\nWhen they were come to the arbour, they were very willing to sit\ndown, for they were all in a pelting heat. Then said Mercy, How\nsweet is rest to them that labour[114] (Matt. 11:28). And how good\nis the Prince of pilgrims, to provide such resting-places for them!\nOf this arbour I have heard much; but I never saw it before. But\nhere let us beware of sleeping; for, as I have heard, for that it\ncost poor Christian dear.\n\nThen said Mr. Great-heart to the little ones, Come, my pretty\nboys, how do you do? What think you now of going on pilgrimage?\nSir, said the least, I was almost beat out of heart? but I thank\nyou for lending me a hand at my need.[115] And I remember now what\nmy mother hath told me, namely, that the way to Heaven is as up\na ladder, and the way to hell is as down a hill. But I had rather\ngo up the ladder to life, than down the hill to death.[116]\n\nThen said Mercy, But the proverb is, To go down the hill is easy.\nBut James said (for that was his name), The day is coming, when,\nin my opinion, going down hill will be the hardest of all. 'Tis\na good boy, said his Master, thou hast given her a right answer.\nThen Mercy smiled; but the little boy did blush.[117]\n\nCHRIST. Come, said Christiana, will you eat a bit, a little to\nsweeten your mouths, while you sit here to rest your legs? For I\nhave here a piece of pomegranate, which Mr. Interpreter put in my\nhand, just when I came out of His doors. He gave me also a piece\nof a honeycomb, and a little bottle of spirits. I thought He gave\nyou something, said Mercy, because He called you aside. Yes; so\nHe did, said the other. But, said Christiana, it shall still be,\nas I said it should, when at first we came from home, thou shalt\nbe a sharer in all the good that I have, because thou so willingly\ndidst become my companion. Then she gave to them, and they did eat,\nboth Mercy and the boys. And, said Christiana to Mr. Great-heart,\nSir, will you do as we? But he answered, You are going on pilgrimage,\nand presently I shall return. Much good may what you have do to\nyou. At home I eat the same every day. Now, when they had eaten\nand drank, and had chatted a little longer, their guide said to\nthem. The day wears away, if you think good, let us prepare to\nbe going. So they got up to go, and the little boys went before.\nBut Christiana forgot to take her bottle of spirits with her; so\nshe sent her little boy back to fetch it. Then said Mercy, I think\nthis is a losing place. Here Christian lost his roll; and here\nChristiana left her bottle behind her. Sir, what is the cause of\nthis? So their guide made answer, and said, The cause is sleep or\nforgetfulness. Some sleep when they should keep awake; and some\nforget when they should remember; and this is the very cause why,\noften at the resting-places, some pilgrims, in some things, come\noff losers. Pilgrims should watch, and remember what they have\nalready received under their greatest enjoyments; but for want\nof doing so, ofttimes their rejoicing ends in tears, and their\nsunshine in a cloud.[118] Witness the story of Christian at this\nplace.[119]\n\nWhen they were come to the place where Mistrust and Timorous met\nChristian to persuade him to go back for fear of the lions, they\nperceived as it were a stage, and before it, towards the road, a\nbroad plate, with a copy of verses written thereon, and underneath,\nthe reason of raising up of that stage in that place, rendered.\nThe verses were these--\n\n\nLet him who sees this stage take heed\nUnto his heart and tongue;\nLest if he do not, here he speed,\nAs some have long agone.\n\n\nThe words underneath the verses were, 'This stage, was built\nto punish such upon, who through Timorousness or Mistrust, shall\nbe afraid to go further on pilgrimage; also, on this stage, both\nMistrust and Timorous were burned through the tongue with a hot\niron, for endeavouring to hinder Christian in his journey.'[120]\nThen said Mercy, This is much like to the saying of the Beloved,\n'What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou\nfalse tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper'\n(Psa. 120:3-4).\n\nSo they went on, till they came within sight of the lions. Now Mr.\nGreat-heart was a strong man, So he was not afraid of a lion; but\nyet when they were come up to the place where the lions were, the\nboys that went before were glad when to cringe behind, for they\nwere afraid of the lions; so they stepped back, and went behind.\nAt this their guide smiled, and said, How now, my boys, do you\nlove to go before, when no danger doth approach, and love to come\nbehind so soon as the lions appear?\n\nNow, as they went up, Mr. Great-heart drew his sword, with intent\nto make a way for the Pilgrims, in spite of the lions. Then there\nappeared one, that it seems, had taken upon him to back the lions;\nand he said to the Pilgrims' guide, What is the cause of your coming\nhither? Now the name of that man was Grim, or Bloody-man, because\nof his slaying of Pilgrims, and he was of the race of the giants.[121]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said the Pilgrims' guide, These women and children\nare going on pilgrimage; and this is the way they must go, and go\nit they shall, in spite of thee and the lions.[122]\n\nGRIM. This is not their way, neither shall they go therein. I am come\nforth to withstand them, and to that end will back the lions.[123]\n\nNow, to say truth, by reason of the fierceness of the lions, and of\nthe grim carriage of him that did back them, this way had of late\nlain much unoccupied, and was almost all grown over with grass.\n\nCHRIST. Then said Christiana, Though the highways have been\nunoccupied heretofore, and though the travelers have been made in\ntime past to walk through by-paths, it must not be so now I am\nrisen. Now 'I am risen a mother in Israel' (Judg. 5:6, 7).\n\nGRIM. Then he swore by the lions, but it should; and therefore bid\nthem turn aside, for they should not have passage there.\n\nGREAT-HEART. But their guide made first his approach unto Grim,\nand laid so heavily at him with his sword, that he forced him to\na retreat.[124]\n\nGRIM. Then said he that attempted to back the lions, Will you slay\nme upon mine own ground?\n\nGREAT-HEART. It is the King's highway that we are in, and in His\nway it is that thou hast placed thy lions; but these women and\nthese children, though weak, shall hold on their way in spite\nof thy lions. And with that he gave him again a downright blow,\nand brought him upon his knees. With this blow he also broke his\nhelmet, and with the next he cut off an arm. Then did the giant roar\nso hideously, that his voice frighted the women, and yet they were\nglad to see him lie sprawling upon the ground. Now the lions were\nchained, and so of themselves could do nothing.[125] Wherefore,\nwhen old Grim, that intended to back them, was dead, Mr. Great-heart\nsaid to the Pilgrims, Come now, and follow me, and no hurt shall\nhappen to you from the lions. They therefore went on, but the women\ntrembled as they passed by them; the boys also looked as if they\nwould die, but they all got by without further hurt.[126] Now then\nthey were within sight of the Porter's Lodge, and they soon came\nup unto it; but they made the more haste after this to go thither,\nbecause it is dangerous travelling there in the night. So when\nthey were come to the gate, the guide knocked, and the Porter\ncried, Who is there? But as soon as the guide had said, It is I,\nhe knew his voice, and came down (for the guide had oft before\nthat, come thither, as a conductor of pilgrims). When he was come\ndown, he opened the gate, and seeing the guide standing just before\nit (for he saw not the women, for they were behind him), he said\nunto him, How now, Mr. Great-heart, what is your business here so\nlate tonight? I have brought, said he, some pilgrims hither, where,\nby my Lord's commandment, they must lodge; I had been here some\ntime ago, had I not been opposed by the giant that did use to back\nthe lions; but I, after a long and tedious combat with him, have\ncut him off, and have brought the Pilgrims hither in safety.[127]\n\nPORTER. Will you not go in, and stay till morning?\n\nGREAT-HEART. No, I will return to my Lord tonight.\n\nCHRIST. Oh, Sir, I know not how to be willing you should leave us\nin our pilgrimage, you have been so faithful and so loving to us,\nyou have fought so stoutly for us, you have been so hearty in\ncounseling of us, that I shall never forget your favour towards\nus.\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, O that we might have thy company to our\njourney's end! How can such poor women as we hold out in a way so\nfull of troubles as this way is, without a friend and defender?\n\nJAMES. Then said James, the youngest of the boys, Pray, Sir, be\npersuaded to go with us, and help us, because we are so weak, and\nthe way so dangerous as it is.[128]\n\nGREAT-HEART. I am at my Lord's commandment; if He shall allot me\nto be your guide quite through, I will willingly wait upon you.\nBut here you failed at first; for, when He bid me come thus far\nwith you, then you should have begged me of Him to have gone quite\nthrough with you, and He would have granted your request. However,\nat present, I must withdraw; and so, good Christiana, Mercy, and\nmy brave children, Adieu.\n\nThen the Porter, Mr. Watchful, asked Christiana of her country, and\nof her kindred; and she said, I came from the City of Destruction;\nI am a widow woman, and my husband is dead; his name was Christian,\nthe Pilgrim. How! said the Porter, was he your husband? Yes, said\nshe, and these are his children; and this, pointing to Mercy, is\none of my townswomen. Then the Porter rang his bell, as at such\ntimes he is wont, and there came to the door one of the damsels,\nwhose name was Humble-mind; and to her the Porter said, Go tell it\nwithin, that Christiana, the wife of Christian, and her children,\nare come hither on pilgrimage. She went in, therefore, and told\nit. But O what noise for gladness was there within, when the damsel\ndid but drop that word out of her mouth! So they came with haste\nto the Porter, for Christiana stood still at the door. Then some\nof the most grave said unto her, Come in, Christiana, come in,\nthou wife of that good man; come in, thou blessed woman; come in,\nwith all that are with thee. So she went in, and they followed\nher that were her children and her companions. Now when they were\ngone in, they were had into a very large room, where they were\nbidden to sit down; so they sat down, and the chief of the house\nwas called to see and welcome the guests. Then they came in, and\nunderstanding who they were, did salute each other with a kiss,\nand said, Welcome, ye vessels of the grace of God; welcome to us\nyour friends.[129]\n\nNow, because it was somewhat late, and because the Pilgrims were\nweary with their journey, and also made faint with the sight of\nthe fight, and of the terrible lions, therefore they desired, as\nsoon as might be, to prepare to go to rest. Nay, said those of the\nfamily, refresh yourselves first with a morsel of meat; for they\nhad prepared for them a lamb, with the accustomed sauce belonging\nthereto[130] (Exo. 12:21, 28; John 1:29); for the Porter had heard\nbefore of their coming, and had told it to them within. So when\nthey had supped, and ended their prayer with a psalm, they desired\nthey might go to rest. But let us, said Christiana, if we may be so\nbold as to choose, be in that chamber[131] that was my husband's\nwhen he was here; so they had them up thither, and they lay all in\na room. When they were at rest, Christiana and Mercy entered into\ndiscourse about things that were convenient.\n\nCHRIST. Little did I think once, that when my husband went on\npilgrimage, I should ever have followed.\n\nMERCY. And you as little thought of lying in his bed, and in his\nchamber to rest, as you do now.\n\nCHRIST. And much less did I ever think of seeing his face with\ncomfort, and of worshipping the Lord the King with him; and yet\nnow I believe I shall.\n\nMERCY. Hark! Don't you hear a noise?\n\nCHRIST. Yes; it is, as I believe, a noise of music, for joy that\nwe are here.[132]\n\nMERCY. Wonderful! music in the house, music in the heart, and music\nalso in Heaven, for joy that we are here![133] Thus they talked a\nwhile, and then betook themselves to sleep. So, in the morning,\nwhen they were awake, Christiana said to Mercy:\n\nCHRIST. What was the matter that you did laugh in your sleep\ntonight? I suppose you were in a dream.\n\nMERCY. So I was, and a sweet dream it was; but are you sure I\nlaughed?\n\nCHRIST. Yes; you laughed heartily; but, prithee, Mercy, tell me\nthy dream.\n\nMERCY. I was a-dreamed that I sat all alone in a solitary place,\nand was bemoaning of the hardness of my heart. Now, I had not sat\nthere long, but methought many were gathered about me, to see\nme, and to hear what it was that I said. So they hearkened, and I\nwent on bemoaning the hardness of my heart. At this, some of them\nlaughed at me, some called me fool, and some began to thrust me\nabout. With that, methought I looked up, and saw one coming with\nwings towards me. So he came directly to me, and said, Mercy, what\naileth thee? Now, when he had heard me make my complaint, he said\n'Peace be to thee.' He also wiped mine eyes with his handkerchief,\nand clad me in silver and gold. He put a chain about my neck, and\near-rings in mine ears, and a beautiful crown upon my head (Ezek.\n16:8-12). Then he took me by the hand, and said, Mercy, come after\nme. So he went up, and I followed, till we came at a golden gate.\nThen he knocked; and when they within had opened, the man went\nin, and I followed him up to a throne, upon which one sat, and\nHe said to me, Welcome, daughter. The place looked bright and\ntwinkling, like the stars, or rather like the sun; and I thought\nthat I saw your husband there. So I awoke from my dream.[134] But\ndid I laugh?\n\nCHRIST. Laugh! aye, and well you might, to see yourself so well.\nFor you must give me leave to tell you, that I believe it was\na good dream; and that, as you have begun to find the first part\ntrue, so you shall find the second at last. 'God speaketh once,\nyea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of\nthe night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon\nthe bed'[135] (Job 28:14, 15). We need not, when a-bed, lie awake\nto talk with God. He can visit us while we sleep, and cause us\nthen to hear His voice. Our heart ofttimes wakes when we sleep;\nand God can speak to that, either by words, by proverbs, by signs\nand similitudes, as well as if one was awake.[136]\n\nMERCY. Well, I am glad of my dream; for I hope, ere long, to see\nit fulfilled, to the making me laugh again.[137]\n\nCHRIST. I think it is now high time to rise, and to know what we\nmust do.\n\nMERCY. Pray, if they invite us to stay awhile, let us willingly\naccept of the proffer. I am the willinger to stay awhile here, to\ngrow better acquainted with these maids. Methinks Prudence, Piety,\nand Charity have very comely and sober countenances.[138]\n\nCHRIST. We shall see what they will do. So when they were up and\nready, they came down, and they asked one another of their rest,\nand if it were comfortable, or not.\n\nMERCY. Very good, said Mercy; it was one of the best night's lodging\nthat ever I had in my life.\n\nThen said Prudence and Piety, If you will be persuaded to stay here\nawhile, you shall have what the house will afford.\n\nCHAR. Aye, and that with a very good will, said Charity. So they\nconsented and staid there about a month, or above, and became very\nprofitable one to another. And because Prudence would see how\nChristiana had brought up her children, she asked leave of her to\ncatechise them. So she gave her free consent.[139] Then she began\nat the youngest, whose name was James.\n\nPRUDENCE. And she said, Come, James, canst thou tell me who made\nthee?\n\nJAMES. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.\n\nPRUD. Good boy. And canst thou tell me who saves thee?\n\nJAMES. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.\n\nPRUD. Good boy still. But how doth God the Father save thee?\n\nJAMES. By his grace.\n\nPRUD. How doth God the Son save thee?\n\nJAMES. By His righteousness, death, and blood, and life.\n\nPRUD. And how doth God the Holy Ghost save thee?\n\nJAMES. By His illumination, by His renovation, and by His\npreservation.[140]\n\nThen said Prudence to Christiana, You are to be commended for\nthus bringing up your children. I suppose I need not ask the rest\nthese questions, since the youngest of them can answer them so\nwell. I will therefore now apply myself to the next youngest.\n\nPRUD. Then she said, Come, Joseph (for his name was Joseph), will\nyou let me catechise you?\n\nJOSEPH. With all my heart.\n\nPRUD. What is man?\n\nJOSEPH. A reasonable creature, so made by God, as my brother said.\n\nPRUD. What is supposed by this word 'saved'?\n\nJOSEPH. That man, by sin, has brought himself into a state of\ncaptivity and misery.\n\nPRUD. What is supposed by his being saved by the Trinity?\n\nJOSEPH. That sin is so great and mighty a tyrant, that none can\npull us out of its clutches, but God; and that God is so good and\nloving to man, as to pull him indeed out of this miserable state.\n\nPRUD. What is God's design in saving, of poor men?\n\nJOSEPH. The glorifying of His name, of His grace, and justice,\n&c., and the everlasting happiness of His creature.\n\nPRUD. Who are they that must be saved?\n\nJOSEPH. Those that accept of His salvation.[141]\n\nPRUD. Good boy, Joseph; thy mother has taught thee well, and thou\nhast hearkened to what she hath said unto thee. Then said Prudence\nto Samuel, who was the eldest but one,\n\nPRUD. Come, Samuel, are you willing that I should catechise you\nalso?\n\nSAMUEL. Yes, forsooth, if you please.\n\nPRUD. What is Heaven?\n\nSAM. A place and state most blessed, because God dwelleth there.\n\nPRUD. What is hell?\n\nSAM. A place and state most woeful, because it is the dwelling-place\nof sin, the devil, and death.\n\nPRUD. Why wouldest thou go to Heaven?\n\nSAM. That I may see God, and serve Him without weariness; that I\nmay see Christ, and love Him everlastingly; that I may have that\nfullness of the Holy Spirit in me that I can by no means here enjoy.\n\nPRUD. A very good boy also, and one that has learned well. Then\nshe addressed herself to the eldest, whose name was Matthew; and\nshe said to him, Come, Matthew, shall I also catechise you?\n\nMATTHEW. With a very good will.\n\nPRUD. I ask, then, if there were ever anything that had a being\nantecedent to, or before God?\n\nMATT. No; for God is eternal; nor is there anything excepting\nHimself, that had a being until the beginning of the first day.\n'For in six days the Lord made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all\nthat in them is.'\n\nPRUD. What do you think of the Bible?\n\nMATT. It is the holy Word of God.\n\nPRUD. Is there nothing written therein but what you understand?\n\nMATT. Yes. A great deal.\n\nPRUD. What do you do when you meet with such places therein that\nyou do not understand?\n\nMATT. I think God is wiser than I. I pray also that He will please\nto let me know all therein that He knows will be for my good.[142]\n\nPRUD. How believe you, as touching the resurrection of the dead?\n\nMATT. I believe they shall rise, the same that was buried; the\nsame in nature, though not in corruption. And I believe this upon\na double account: First, because God has promised it secondly,\nbecause He is able to perform it.[143]\n\nThen said Prudence to the boys, You must still hearken to your\nmother, for she can learn you more. You must also diligently give\near to what good talk you shall hear from others; for, for your\nsakes do they speak good things. Observe, also, and that with\ncarefulness, what the heavens and the earth do teach you; but\nespecially be much in the meditation of that Book that was the cause\nof your father's becoming a pilgrim. I, for my part, my children,\nwill teach you what I can while you are here, and shall be glad\nif you will ask me questions that tend to godly edifying. Now,\nby that these Pilgrims had been at this place a week, Mercy had\na visitor that pretended some goodwill unto her, and his name was\nMr. Brisk, a man of some breeding, and that pretended to religion;\nbut a man that stuck very close to the world. So he came once or\ntwice, or more, to Mercy, and offered love unto her. Now Mercy was\nof a fair countenance, and therefore the more alluring. Her mind\nalso was, to be always busying of herself in doing; for when she\nhad nothing to do for herself, she would be making of hose and\ngarments for others, and would bestow them upon them that had\nneed.[144] And Mr. Brisk, not knowing where or how she disposed\nof what she made, seemed to be greatly taken, for that he found\nher never idle. I will warrant her a good housewife, quoth he to\nhimself.[145]\n\nMercy then revealed the business to the maidens that were of the\nhouse, and inquired of them concerning him, for they did know him\nbetter than she.[146] So they told her, that he was a very busy\nyoung man, and one that pretended to religion; but was, as they\nfeared, a stranger to the power of that which was good. Nay then,\nsaid Mercy, I will look no more on him; for I purpose never to\nhave a clog to my soul.[147]\n\nPrudence then replied that there needed no great matter of\ndiscouragement to be given to him, her continuing so as she had\nbegun to do for the poor, would quickly cool his courage. So the\nnext time he comes, he finds her at her old work, a-making of\nthings for the poor. Then said he, What! always at it? Yes, said\nshe, either for myself or for others. And what canst thou earn a\nday? quoth he. I do these things, said she, 'that I may he rich in\ngood works, laying up in store a good foundation against the time\nto come, that I may lay hold on eternal life' (1 Tim. 6:17-19).\nWhy, prithee, what dost thou with them? said he. Clothe the naked,\nsaid she. With that his countenance fell. So he forbore to come\nat her again; and when he was asked the reason why, he said, that\nMercy was a pretty lass, but troubled with ill conditions.[148]\nWhen he had left her, Prudence said, Did I not tell thee, that Mr.\nBrisk would soon forsake thee? yea, he will raise up an ill report\nof thee; for, notwithstanding his pretence to religion, and his\nseeming love to Mercy, yet Mercy and he are of tempers so different,\nthat I believe they will never come together.\n\nMERCY. I might have had husbands afore now, though I spake not of\nit to any; but they were such as did not like my conditions, though\nnever did any of them find fault with my person. So they and I\ncould not agree.\n\nPRUD. Mercy in our days is little set by, any further than as\nto its name; the practice, which is set forth by thy conditions,\nthere are but few that can abide.\n\nMERCY. Well, said Mercy, if nobody will have me, I will die a maid,\nor my conditions shall be to me as a husband. For I cannot change\nmy nature; and to have one that lies cross to me in this, that I\npurpose never to admit of as long as I live. I had a sister named\nBountiful, that was married to one of these churls; but he and she\ncould never agree; but because my sister was resolved to do as she\nhad begun, that is, to show kindness to the poor, therefore her\nhusband first cried her down at the cross, and then turned her out\nof his doors.[149]\n\nPRUD. And yet he was a professor, I warrant you.\n\nMERCY. Yes, such a one as he was, and of such as he, the world is\nnow full; but I am for none of them all.\n\nNow Matthew, the eldest son of Christiana, fell sick, and his\nsickness was sore upon him, for he was much pained in his bowels,\nso that he was with it, at times, pulled as it were both ends\ntogether.[150] There dwelt also not far from thence, one Mr. Skill,\nan ancient and well approved physician. So Christiana desired it,\nand they sent for him, and he came. When he was entered the room,\nand had a little observed the boy, he concluded that he was sick\nof the gripes. Then he said to his mother, What diet has Matthew\nof late fed upon? Diet, said Christiana, nothing but that which\nis wholesome. The physician answered, This boy has been tampering\nwith something that lies in his maw undigested, and that will not\naway without means. And I tell you, he must he purged, or else he\nwill die.\n\nSAM. Then said Samuel, Mother, mother, what was that which my\nbrother did gather up and eat, so soon as we were come from the\ngate that is at the head of this way? You know that there was an\norchard on the left hand, on the other side of the wall, and some\nof the trees hung over the wall, and my brother did plash and did\neat.\n\nCHRIST. True, my child, said Christiana, he did take thereof, and\ndid eat; naughty boy as he was, I did chide him, and yet he would\neat thereof.[151]\n\nSKILL. I knew he had eaten something that was not wholesome food;\nand that food, to wit, that fruit, is even the most hurtful of all.\nIt is the fruit of Beelzebub's orchard. I do marvel that none did\nwarn you of it; many have died thereof.\n\nCHRIST. Then Christiana began to cry; and she said, O naughty boy!\nand O careless mother! What shall I do for my son![152]\n\nSKILL. Come, do not be too much dejected; the boy may do well\nagain, but he must purge and vomit.\n\nCHRIST. Pray, Sir, try the utmost of your skill with him, whatever\nit costs.\n\nSKILL. Nay, I hope I shall be reasonable. So he made him a purge,\nbut it was too weak; it was said, it was made of the blood of a\ngoat, the ashes of a heifer, and with some of the juice of hyssop,\n&c. (Heb. 10:1-4). When Mr. Skill had seen that that purge was\ntoo weak, he made him one to the purpose; it was made excarne\net sanguine Christi [153] (John 6:54-57; Heb. 9:14). (You know\nphysicians give strange medicines to their patients). And it was\nmade up into pills, with a promise or two, and a proportionable\nquantity of salt (Mark 9:49). Now he was to take them three at a\ntime fasting, in half a quarter of a pint of the tears of repentance.\nWhen this potion was prepared, and brought to the boy, he was\nloath to take it, though torn with the gripes, as if he should be\npulled in pieces. Come, come, said the physician, you must take\nit. It goes against my stomach, said the boy (Zech. 12:10). I must\nhave you take it, said his mother. I shall vomit it up again, said\nthe boy. Pray, Sir, said Christiana to Mr. Skill, how does it\ntaste? It has no ill taste, said the doctor; and with that she\ntouched one of the pills with the tip of her tongue. Oh, Matthew,\nsaid she, this potion is sweeter than honey. If thou lovest thy\nmother, if thou lovest thy brothers, if thou lovest Mercy, if thou\nlovest thy life, take it. So with much ado, after a short prayer\nfor the blessing of God upon it, he took it, and it wrought kindly\nwith him. It caused him to purge, it caused him to sleep, and rest\nquietly; it put him into a fine heat and breathing sweat, and did\nquite rid him of his gripes.[154] So in little time he got up,\nand walked about with a staff, and would go from room to room,\nand talk with Prudence, Piety, and Charity, of his distemper, and\nhow he was healed.[155]\n\nSo when the boy was healed, Christiana asked Mr. Skill, saying, Sir,\nwhat will content you for your pains and care to, and of my child?\nAnd he said, You must pay the Master of the College of Physicians,\naccording to rules made in that case and provided (Heb. 13:11-16).\n\nCHRIST. But, Sir, said she, what is this pill good for else?\n\nSKILL. It is an universal pill; it is good against all the diseases\nthat Pilgrims are incident to; and when it is well prepared, it\nwill keep good, time out of mind.\n\nCHRIST. Pray, Sir, make me up twelve boxes of them; for if I can\nget these, I will never take other physic.[156]\n\nSKILL. These pills are good to prevent diseases, as well as to\ncure when one is sick. Yea, I dare say it, and stand to it, that\nif a man will but use this physic as he should, it will make him\nlive forever (John 6:50). But, good Christiana, thou must give\nthese pills no other way but as I have prescribed; for, if you\ndo, they will do no good.[157] So he gave unto Christiana physic\nfor herself, and her boys, and for Mercy; and bid Matthew take\nheed how he eat any more green plums, and kissed them, and went\nhis way.\n\nIt was told you before, that Prudence bid the boys, that if at any\ntime they would, they should ask her some questions that might be\nprofitable, and she would say something to them.\n\nMATT. Then Matthew, who had been sick, asked her, Why, for the\nmost part, physic should he bitter to our palates.\n\nPRUD. To show how unwelcome the Word of God, and the effects\nthereof, are to a carnal heart.\n\nMATT. Why does physic, if it does good, purge, and cause that we\nvomit?\n\nPRUD. To show that the Word, when it works effectually, cleanseth\nthe heart and mind. For look, what the one doth to the body, the\nother doth to the soul.[158]\n\nMATT. What should we learn by seeing the flame of our fire go\nupwards? and by seeing the beams and sweet influences of the sun\nstrike downwards?\n\nPRUD. By the going up of the fire we are taught to ascend to\nHeaven, by fervent and hot desires. And by the sun's sending his\nheat, beams, and sweet influences downwards, we are taught that the\nSaviour of the world, though high, reacheth down with His grace\nand love to us below.\n\nMATT. Where have the clouds their water?\n\nPRUD. Out of the sea.\n\nMATT. What may we learn from that?\n\nPRUD. That ministers should fetch their doctrine from God.\n\nMATT. Why do they empty themselves upon the earth?\n\nPRUD. To show that ministers should give out what they know of God\nto the world.\n\nMATT. Why is the rainbow caused by the sun?\n\nPRUD. To show that the covenant of God's grace is confirmed to us\nin Christ.\n\nMATT. Why do the springs come from the sea to us, through the\nearth?\n\nPRUD. To show that the grace of God comes to us through the body\nof Christ.\n\nMATT. Why do some of the springs rise out of the tops of high\nhills?\n\nPRUD. To show that the spirit of grace shall spring up in some that\nare great and mighty, as well as in many that are poor and low.\n\nMATT. Why doth the fire fasten upon the candlewick?\n\nPRUD. To show, that unless grace doth kindle upon the heart there\nwill be no true light of life in us.\n\nMATT. Why is the wick and tallow, and all, spent to maintain the\nlight of the candle?\n\nPRUD. To show that body and soul, and all, should be at the service\nof, and spend themselves to maintain, in good condition, that\ngrace of God that is in us.\n\nMATT. Why doth the pelican pierce her own breast with her bill?\n\nPRUD. To nourish her young ones with her blood, and thereby to\nshow that Christ the blessed so loveth His young, His people, as\nto save them from death by His blood.\n\nMATT. What may one learn by hearing the cock crow?\n\nPRUD. Learn to remember Peter's sin, and Peter's repentance. The\ncock's crowing shows also that day is coming on; let then the\ncrowing of the cock put thee in mind of that last and terrible day\nof judgment.[159]\n\nNow, about this time their month was out; wherefore they signified\nto those of the house that it was convenient for them to up and be\ngoing. Then said Joseph to his mother, It is convenient that you\nforget not to send to the house of Mr. Interpreter, to pray him to\ngrant that Mr. Great-heart should be sent unto us, that he may be\nour conductor the rest of our way. Good boy, said she, I had almost\nforgot. So she drew up a petition,[160] and prayed Mr. Watchful,\nthe Porter, to send it by some fit man, to her good friend Mr.\nInterpreter; who, when it was come, and He had seen the contents\nof the petition, said to the messenger, Go tell them that I will\nsend him.\n\nWhen the family where Christiana was, saw that they had a purpose\nto go forward, they called the whole house together, to give thanks\nto their King for sending of them such profitable guests as these.\nWhich done, they said to Christiana, And shall we not show thee\nsomething, according as our custom is to do to pilgrims, on which\nthou mayest meditate when thou art upon the way? So they took\nChristiana, her children, and Mercy, into the closet, and showed\nthem one of the apples that Eve did eat of, and that she also did\ngive to her husband, and that for the eating, of which they both\nwere turned out of Paradise; and asked her what she thought that\nwas? Then Christiana said, It is food or poison, I know not\nwhich.[161] So they opened the matter to her, and she held up her\nhands and wondered[162] (Gen. 3:6; Rom. 7:24).\n\nThen they had her to a place, and showed her Jacob's ladder. Now at\nthat time there were some angels ascending upon it. So Christiana\nlooked, and looked, to see the angels go up; and so did the rest\nof the company. Then they were going into another place, to show\nthem something else; but James said to his mother, Pray, bid\nthem stay here a little longer, for this is a curious sight.[163]\nSo they turned again, and stood feeding their eyes with this so\npleasant a prospect (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51). After this, they had\nthem into a place where did hang up a golden anchor, so they bid\nChristiana take it down; for, said they, you shall have it with you,\nfor it is of absolute necessity that you should, that you may lay\nhold of that within the veil, and stand steadfast, in case you should\nmeet with turbulent weather; so they were glad thereof[164] (Heb.\n6:19). Then they took them, and had them to the mount upon which\nAbraham our father had offered up Isaac his son, and showed them\nthe altar, the wood, the fire, and the knife, for they remain to\nbe seen to this very day (Gen. 22:9). When they had seen it, they\nheld up their hands and blessed themselves, and said, O what a man\nfor love to his Master, and for denial to himself, was Abraham!\nAfter they had showed them all these things, Prudence took them into\nthe dining-room, where stood a pair of excellent virginals;[165]\nso she played upon them, and turned what she had showed them into\nthis excellent song, saying--\n\n\nEve's apple we have showed you,\nOf that be you aware;\nYou have seen Jacob's ladder, too,\nUpon which angels are.\nAn anchor you received have;\nBut let not these suffice,\nUntil, with Abr'am, you have gave\nYour best a sacrifice.\n\n\nNow, about this time, one knocked at the door; so the Porter opened,\nand behold Mr. Great-heart was there; but when he was come in,\nwhat joy was there! For it came now fresh again into their minds,\nhow but a while ago he had slain old Grim Bloody-man the giant,\nand had delivered them from the lions.\n\nThen said Mr. Great-heart to Christiana, and to Mercy, My Lord\nhath sent each of you a bottle of wine, and also some parched corn,\ntogether with a couple of pomegranates; He has also sent the boys\nsome figs and raisins, to refresh you in your way.[166]\n\nThen they addressed themselves to their journey; and Prudence and\nPiety went along with them. When they came at the gate, Christiana\nasked the Porter if any of late went by? He said, No; only one\nsome time since, who also told me, that of late there had been a\ngreat robbery committed on the King's highway, as you go; but, he\nsaid, the thieves are taken, and will shortly he tried for their\nlives.[167] Then Christiana and Mercy were afraid; but Matthew\nsaid, Mother, fear nothing, as long as Mr. Great-heart is to go\nwith us, and to be our conductor.\n\nThen said Christiana to the Porter, Sir, I am much obliged to you\nfor all the kindnesses that you have showed me since I came hither;\nand also for that you have been so loving and kind to my children;\nI know not how to gratify your kindness. Wherefore, pray, as a\ntoken of my respects to you, accept of this small mite; so she put\na gold angel in his hand, and he made her a low obeisance, and\nsaid, Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head want no\nointment.[168] Let Mercy live, and not die, and let not her works\nbe few. And to the boys he said, Do you fly youthful lusts, and\nfollow after godliness with them that are grave and wise; so shall\nyou put gladness into your mother's heart, and obtain praise of\nall that are sober-minded. So they thanked the Porter, and departed.\n\nNow I saw in my dream, that they went forward until they were come\nto the brow of the hill, where Piety, bethinking herself, cried\nout, Alas! I have forgot what I intended to bestow upon Christiana\nand her companions; I will go back and fetch it. So she ran and\nfetched it. While she was gone, Christiana thought she heard in a\ngrove, a little way off, on the right hand, a most curious melodious\nnote, with words much like these--\n\n\nThrough all my life Thy favour is\nSo frankly show'd to me,\nThat in Thy house for evermore\nMy dwelling-place shall be.\n\n\nAnd, listening still, she thought she heard another answer it,\nsaying--\n\n\nFor why? The Lord our God is good,\nHis mercy is forever sure;\nHis truth at all times firmly stood,\nAnd shall from age to age endure.\n\n\nSo Christiana asked Prudence what it was that made those curious\nnotes? They are, said she, our country birds; they sing these notes\nbut seldom, except it be at the spring, when the flowers appear, and\nthe sun shines warm, and then you may hear them all day long[169]\n(Song 2:11, 12). I often, said she, go out to hear them; we also\nofttimes keep them tame in our house. They are very fine company for\nus when we are melancholy; also they make the woods, and groves,\nand solitary places, places desirous to be in.[170]\n\nBy this time Piety was come again; so she said to Christiana,\nLook here, I have brought thee a scheme of all those things that\nthou hast seen at our house, upon which thou mayest look when\nthou findest thyself forgetful, and call those things again to\nremembrance for thy edification and comfort.[171]\n\nNow they began to go down the hill into the Valley of Humiliation.\nIt was a steep hill, and the way was slippery; but they were very\ncareful, so they got down pretty well. When they were down in the\nValley,[172] Piety said to Christiana, This is the place where\nChristian your husband met with the foul fiend Apollyon, and where\nthey had that dreadful fight that they had; I know you cannot but\nhave heard thereof, But be of good courage, as long as you have\nhere Mr. Great-heart to be your guide and conductor, we hope you\nwill fare the better. So when these two had committed the Pilgrims\nunto the conduct of their guide, he went forward, and they went\nafter.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said Mr. Great-heart, We need not to be so afraid\nof this Valley, for here is nothing to hurt us, unless we procure\nit to ourselves. It is true, Christian did here meet with Apollyon,\nwith whom he also had a sore combat; but that fray was the fruit\nof those slips that he got in his going down the hill; for they\nthat get slips there, must look for combats here. And hence it is,\nthat this Valley has got so hard a name. For the common people,\nwhen they hear that some frightful thing has befallen such a one\nin such a place, are of an opinion, that that place is haunted\nwith some foul fiend, or evil spirit; when, alas! it is for the\nfruit of their doing, that such things do befall them there.\n\nThis Valley of Humiliation is of itself as fruitful a place, as\nany the crow flies over; Christian was and I am persuaded, if we\ncould hit upon it, we might find somewhere hereabouts, something\nthat might give us an account why Christian was so hardly beset\nin this place.\n\nThen James said to his mother, Lo, yonder stands a pillar, and it\nlooks as if something was written thereon; let us go and see what\nit is. So they went, and found there written, 'Let Christian's\nslips, before he came hither, and the battles that he met with\nin this place, be a warning to those that come after.' Lo, said\ntheir guide, did not I tell you, that there was something hereabouts,\nthat would give intimation of the reason why Christian was so hard\nbeset in this place? Then, turning himself to Christiana, he said,\nNo disparagement to Christian, more than to many others, whose hap\nand lot his was; for it is easier going up, than down this hill,\nand that can he said but of few hills in all these parts of the\nworld. But we will leave the good man, he is at rest, he also had\na brave victory over his enemy; let Him grant that dwelleth above,\nthat we fare no worse, when we come to be tried, than he.\n\nBut we will come again to this Valley of Humiliation. It is the\nbest and most useful brave piece of ground in all those parts. It\nis fat ground, and, as you see, consisteth much in meadows; and\nif a man were to come here in the summer-time, as we do now, if\nhe knew not anything before, thereof, and if he also delighted\nhimself in the sight of his eyes, he might see that that would\nbe delightful to him. Behold how green this Valley is, also\nhow beautified with lilies[173] (Song. 2:1). I have also known\nmany labouring men that have got good estates in this Valley of\nHumiliation 'for God resisteth the proud, but gives grace unto\nthe humble,' (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), for indeed it is a very\nfruitful soil, and doth bring forth by handfuls.[174] Some also\nhave wished, that the next way to their Father's house were here,\nthat they might be troubled no more with either hills or mountains\nto go over; but the way is the way, and there is an end.[175]\n\nNow, as they were going along and talking, they espied a boy\nfeeding his father's sheep. The boy was in very mean clothes, but\nof a very fresh and well-favoured countenance; and as he sat by\nhimself, he sang. Hark, said Mr. Great-heart, to what the shepherd's\nboy saith. So they hearkened, and he said--\n\n\nHe that is down needs fear no fall;\nHe that is low, no pride;\nHe that is humble, ever shall\nHave God to be his guide.(Phil. 4:12, 13)\nI am content with what I have,\nLittle be it, or much;\nAnd, Lord, contentment still I crave,\nBecause Thou savest such.\nFullness to such a burden is,\nThat go on pilgrimage;\nHere little, and hereafter bliss,\nIs best from age to age.[176](Heb. 13:5)\n\n\nThen said the guide, Do you hear him? I will dare to say,\nthat this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of that herb\ncalled heart's-ease in his bosom, than he that is clad in silk and\nvelvet;[177] but we will proceed in our discourse.\n\nIn this Valley our Lord formerly had His country house; He loved\nmuch to be here; He loved also to walk these meadows, for He found\nthe air was pleasant.[178] Besides, here a man shall be free from\nthe noise, and from the hurryings of this life. All states are full\nof noise and confusion, only the Valley of Humiliation is that empty\nand solitary place. Here a man shall not be so let and hindered in\nhis contemplation, as in other places he is apt to be. This is a\nValley that nobody walks in, but those that love a pilgrim's life.\nAnd though Christian had the hard hap to meet here with Apollyon,\nand to enter with him a brisk encounter, yet I must tell you, that\nin former times men have met with angels here, have found pearls\nhere, and have in this place found the words of life[179] (Hosea\n12:4, 5).\n\nDid I say, our Lord had here in former days his country-house, and\nthat He loved here to walk? I will add, in this place, and to the\npeople that live, and trace these grounds, He has left a yearly\nrevenue, to be faithfully paid them at certain seasons, for their\nmaintenance by the way, and for their further encouragement to go\non in their pilgrimage (Matt. 11:29).\n\nSAMUEL.[180] Now, as they went on, Samuel said to Mr. Great-heart;\nSir, I perceive that in this Valley my father and Apollyon had\ntheir battle; but whereabout was the fight? for I perceive this\nValley is large.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Your father had that battle with Apollyon, at a place\nyonder, before us, in a narrow passage, just beyond Forgetful\nGreen.[181] And indeed, that place is the most dangerous place in\nall these parts. For if at any time the pilgrims meet with any\nbrunt, it is when they forget what favours they have received,\nand how unworthy they are of them.[182] This is the place also,\nwhere others have been hard put to it; but more of the place when\nwe are come to it; for I persuade myself, that to this day there\nremains either some sign of the battle, or some monument to testify\nthat such a battle there was fought.\n\nMERCY. Then said Mercy, I think I am as well in this Valley, as I\nhave been anywhere else in all our journey; the place, methinks,\nsuits with my spirit. I love to be in such places where there is\nno rattling with coaches, nor rumbling with wheels; methinks, here\none may, without much molestation, be thinking what he is, whence\nhe came, what he has done, and to what the King has called him;\nhere one may think, and break at heart, and melt in one's spirit,\nuntil one's eyes become like 'the fish-pools of Heshbon' (Song.\n7:4). They that go rightly through this Valley of Baca, make it\na well, the rain that God sends down from Heaven upon them that\nare here, also filleth the pools (Psa. 84:6, 7). This Valley is\nthat from whence also the King will give to His their vineyards\n(Hosea 2:15); and they that go through it, shall sing, as Christian\ndid, for all he met with Apollyon.\n\nGREAT-HEART. It is true, said their guide, I have gone through\nthis Valley many a time, and never was better than when here. I\nhave also been a conductor to several pilgrims, and they have\nconfessed the same. 'To this man will I look (saith the King), even\nto him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My\nWord'[183] (Isa. 66:2).\n\nNow they were come to the place where the afore-mentioned battle\nwas fought. Then said the guide to Christiana, her children, and\nMercy, This is the place, on this ground Christian stood, and up\nthere came Apollyon against him. And look, did not I tell you?\nhere is some of your husband's blood upon these stones to this\nday; behold, also, how here and there are yet to be seen upon the\nplace, some of the shivers of Apollyon's broken darts; see also,\nhow they did beat the ground with their feet as they fought, to\nmake good their places against each other; how also, with their\nby-blows, they did split the very stones in pieces. Verily,\nChristian did here play the man, and showed himself as stout,\nas could, had he been there, even Hercules himself.[184] When\nApollyon was beat, he made his retreat to the next Valley, that\nis called, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, unto which we shall\ncome anon.[185]\n\nLo, yonder also stands a monument, on which is engraven this\nbattle, and Christian's victory, to his fame throughout all ages.\nSo, because it stood just on the wayside before them, they stepped\nto it, and read the writing, which word for word was this--\n\n\nHard by, here was a battle fought,\nMost strange, and yet most true;[186]\nChristian and Apollyon sought\nEach other to subdue.\nThe man so bravely play'd the man,\nHe made the fiend to fly;\nOf which a monument I stand,\nThe same to testify.\n\n\nWhen they had passed by this place, they came upon the borders of\nthe Shadow of Death; and this Valley was longer than the other; a\nplace, also, most strangely haunted with evil things, as many are\nable to testify;[187] but these women and children went the better\nthrough it, because they had daylight, and because Mr. Great-heart\nwas their conductor.\n\nWhen they were entered upon this Valley, they thought that they heard\na groaning, as of dead men, a very great groaning. They thought,\nalso, they did hear words of lamentation spoken, as of some in\nextreme torment. These things made the boys to quake, the women\nalso looked pale and wan; but their guide bid them be of good\ncomfort.\n\nSo they went on a little further, and they thought that they felt\nthe ground begin to shake under them, as if some hollow place was\nthere; they heard also a kind of a hissing, as of serpents, but\nnothing as yet appeared. Then said the boys, Are we not yet at the\nend of this doleful place? But the guide also bid them be of good\ncourage, and look well to their feet, lest haply, said he, you be\ntaken in some snare.[188]\n\nNow James began to be sick, but I think the cause thereof was fear;\nso his mother gave him some of that glass of spirits that she had\ngiven her at the Interpreter's house, and three of the pills that\nMr. Skill had prepared, and the boy began to revive. Thus they\nwent on, till they came to about the middle of the Valley, and\nthen Christiana said, Methinks I see something yonder upon the\nroad before us, a thing of such a shape such as I have not seen.\nThen said Joseph, Mother, what is it? An ugly thing, child; an\nugly thing, said she. But, mother, what is it like? said he. It\nis like I cannot tell what, said she. And now it was but a little\nway off; then said she, It is nigh.\n\nWell, well, said Mr. Great-heart, Let them that are most afraid,\nkeep close to me. So the fiend came on, and the conductor met it;\nbut when it was just come to him, it vanished to all their sights.\nThen remembered they what had been said some time ago, 'Resist the\ndevil, and he will flee from you' (James 4:7).\n\nThey went therefore on, as being a little refreshed; but they\nhad not gone far, before Mercy, looking behind her, saw, as she\nthought, something most like a lion, and it came a great padding\npace after; and it had a hollow voice of roaring; and at every\nroar that it gave, it made all the Valley echo, and their hearts\nto ache, save the heart of him that was their guide. So it came up;\nand Mr. Great-heart went behind, and put the Pilgrims all before\nhim. The lion also came on apace, and Mr. Great-heart addressed\nhimself to give him battle. But when he saw that it was determined\nthat resistance should be made, he also drew back, and came no\nfurther[189] (1 Peter 5:8, 9).\n\nThen they went on again, and their conductor did go before them,\ntill they came at a place where was cast up a pit the whole breadth\nof the way; and, before they could be prepared to go over that,\na great mist and darkness fell upon them, so that they could not\nsee. Then said the Pilgrims, Alas! now what shall we do? But their\nguide made answer, Fear not, stand still, and see what an end will\nbe put to this also. So they staid there, because their path was\nmarred. They then also thought that they did hear more apparently\nthe noise and rushing of the enemies; the fire, also, and the\nsmoke of the pit, was much easier to be discerned.[190] Then said\nChristiana to Mercy, Now I see what my poor husband went through;\nI have heard much of this place, but I never was here before now.\nPoor man, he went here all alone in the night; he had night almost\nquite through the way; also, these fiends were busy about him,\nas if they would have torn him in pieces. Many have spoke of it,\nbut none can tell what the Valley of the Shadow of Death should\nmean, until they come in it themselves. 'The heart knows its own\nbitterness; and a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy.' To be\nhere is a fearful thing.\n\nGREAT-HEART. This is like doing business in great waters, or like\ngoing down into the deep; this is like being in the heart of the\nsea, and like going down to the bottoms of the mountains; now it\nseems as if the earth, with its bars, were about us forever. But\nlet them that walk in darkness, and have no light, trust in the\nname of the Lord, and stay upon their God[191] (Isa. 1:10). For my\npart, as I have told you already, I have gone often through this\nValley, and have been much harder put to it than now I am, and\nyet you see I am alive. I would not boast, for that I am not mine\nown saviour; but I trust we shall have a good deliverance. Come,\nlet us pray for light to Him that can lighten our darkness, and\nthat can rebuke not only these, but all the Satans in hell.\n\nSo they cried and prayed, and God sent light and deliverance, for\nthere was now no let in their way; no not there, where but now they\nwere stopped with a pit. Yet they were not got through the Valley;\nso they went on still, and behold great stinks and loathsome smells,\nto the great annoyance of them.[192] Then said Mercy to Christiana,\nThere is not such pleasant being here, as at the gate, or at the\nInterpreter's, or at the house where we lay last.\n\nO but, said one of the boys, it is not so bad to go through here,\nas it is to abide here always; and for aught I know, one reason\nwhy we must go this way to the house prepared for us, is, that\nour home might be made the sweeter to us.[193]\n\nWell said, Samuel, quoth the guide, thou hast now spoke like\na man. Why, if ever I get out here again said the boy, I think I\nshall prize light and good way better than ever I did in all my\nlife. Then said the guide, We shall he out by and by.[194]\n\nSo on they went, and Joseph said, Cannot we see to the end of this\nValley as yet? Then said the guide, Look to your feet, for you shall\npresently be among the snares. So they looked to their feet, and\nwent on; but they were troubled much with the snares. Now, when\nthey were come among the snares, they espied a man cast into the\nditch on the left hand, with his flesh all rent and torn. Then said\nthe guide, That is one Heedless, that was agoing this way; he has\nlain there a great while.[195] There was one Take-heed with him,\nwhen he was taken and slain; but he escaped their hands. You\ncannot imagine how many are killed hereabout, and yet men are so\nfoolishly venturous, as to set out lightly on pilgrimage, and to\ncome without a guide.[196] Poor Christian! it was a wonder that he\nhere escaped; but he was beloved of his God: also, he had a good\nheart of his own,[197] or else he could never have done it. Now they\ndrew towards the end of the way; and just there where Christian\nhad seen the cave when he went by, out thence came forth Maul, a\ngiant. This Maul did use to spoil young pilgrims with sophistry;\nand he called Great-heart by his name, and said unto him, How many\ntimes have you been forbidden to do these things? Then said Mr.\nGreat-heart, What things? What things? quoth the giant; you know\nwhat things; but I will put an end to your trade. But pray, said\nMr. Great-heart, before we fall to it, let us understand wherefore\nwe must fight. Now the women and children stood trembling, and knew\nnot what to do. Quoth the giant, You rob the country, and rob it\nwith the worst of thefts.[198] These are but generals, said Mr.\nGreat-heart; come to particulars, man. Then said the giant, Thou\npractisest the craft of a kidnapper; thou gatherest up women\nand children, and carriest them into a strange country, to the\nweakening of my master's kingdom. But now Great-heart replied,\nI am a servant of the God of Heaven; my business is to persuade\nsinners to repentance; I am commanded to do my endeavour to turn\nmen, women, and children, 'from darkness to light, and from the\npower of Satan unto God': and if this be indeed the ground of thy\nquarrel, let us fall to it as soon as thou wilt.\n\nThen the giant came up, and Mr. Great-heart went to meet him; and\nas he went, he drew his sword, but the giant had a club. So without\nmore ado, they fell to it, and at the first blow the giant struck\nMr. Great-heart down upon one of his knees; with that the women\nand children cried out; so Mr. Great-heart recovering himself, laid\nabout him in full lusty manner, and gave the giant a wound in his\narm; thus he fought for the space of an hour, to that height of\nheat, that the breath came out of the giant's nostrils, as the\nheat doth out of a boiling caldron.\n\nThen they sat down to rest them, but Mr. Great-heart betook him to\nprayer; also the women and children did nothing but sigh and cry\nall the time that the battle did last.[199]\n\nWhen they had rested them, and taken breath, they both fell to it\nagain,[200] and Mr. Great-heart with a full blow, fetched the giant\ndown to the ground. Nay, hold, and let me recover, quoth he; so Mr.\nGreat-heart fairly let him get up. So to it they went again, and\nthe giant missed but little of all-to-breaking Mr. Great-heart's\nskull with his club.\n\nMr. Great-heart seeing that, runs to him in the full heat of his\nspirit, and pierceth him under the fifth rib; with that the giant\nbegan to faint, and could hold up his club no longer. Then Mr.\nGreat-heart seconded his blow, and smote the head of the giant\nfrom his shoulders. Then the women and children rejoiced, and Mr.\nGreat-heart also praised God, for the deliverance He had wrought.[201]\nWhen this was done, they among them erected a pillar, and fastened\nthe giant's head thereon, and wrote underneath in letters, that\npassengers might read--\n\n\nHe that did wear this head, was one\nThat pilgrims did misuse;\nHe stopp'd their way, he spared none,\nBut did them all abuse;\nUntil that I, Great-heart, arose,\nThe pilgrim's guide to be;\nUntil that I did him oppose,\nThat was their enemy.\n\n\nNow I saw, that they went to the ascent that was a little way off,\ncast up to be a prospect for pilgrims (that was the place from\nwhence Christian had the first sight of Faithful his brother);\nwherefore here they sat down, and rested; they also here did eat\nand drink, and make merry, for that they had gotten deliverance\nfrom this so dangerous an enemy.[202] As they sat thus, and did\neat, Christiana asked the guide if he had caught no hurt in the\nbattle. Then said Mr. Great-heart, No, save a little on my flesh;\nyet that also shall be so far from being to my detriment, that it\nis at present a proof of my love to my Master and you, and shall\nbe a means, by grace, to increase my reward at last[203] (2 Cor.\n4).\n\nCHRIST. But were you not afraid, good Sir, when you saw him come\nout with his club?[204]\n\nGREAT-HEART. It is my duty, said he, to distrust my own ability,\nthat I may have reliance on Him that is stronger than all.\n\nCHRIST. But what did you think when he fetched you down to the\nground at the first blow?\n\nGREAT-HEART. Why, I thought, quoth he, that so my Master Himself\nwas served, and yet He it was that conquered at the last.\n\nMATT. When you all have thought what you please, I think God has\nbeen wonderful good unto us, both in bringing us out of this Valley,\nand in delivering us out of the hand of this enemy; for my part,\nI see no reason, why we should distrust our God any more, since\nHe has now, and in such a place as this, given us such testimony\nof His love as this.\n\nThen they got up and went forward. Now a little before them stood\nan oak; and under it, when they came to it, they found an old pilgrim\nfast asleep; they knew that he was a pilgrim by his clothes, and\nhis staff, and his girdle.\n\nSo the guide, Mr. Great-heart, awaked him, and the old gentleman,\nas he lift up his eyes, cried out, What's the matter? Who are you?\nand what is your business here?[205]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Come, man, be not so hot, here is none but friends;\nyet the old man gets up, and stands upon his guard, and will know\nof them what they were. Then said the guide, My name is Great-heart;\nI am the guide of these Pilgrims, which are going to the Celestial\nCountry.\n\nHONEST. Then said Mr. Honest, I cry you mercy; I feared that you\nhad been of the company of those that sometime ago did rob Little-faith\nof his money; but now I look better about me, I perceive you are\nhonester people.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Why, what would, or could you have done, to have\nhelped yourself, if we indeed had been of that company. HON. Done!\nwhy I would have fought as long as breath had been in me; and had\nI so done, I am sure you could never have given me the worst on\nit; for a Christian can never be overcome, unless he should yield\nof himself.[206]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Well said, father Honest, quoth the guide; for by\nthis I know thou art a cock of the right kind, for thou hast said\nthe truth.\n\nHON. And by this, also, I know that thou knowest what true pilgrimage\nis; for all others do think that we are the soonest overcome of\nany.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Well, now we are so happily met, pray let me crave\nyour name, and the name of the place you came from.\n\nHON. My name I cannot; but I came from the town of Stupidity; it\nlieth about four degrees beyond the City of Destruction.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Oh! are you that countryman, then? I deem I have\nhalf a guess of you; your name is Old Honesty, is it not? So the\nold gentleman blushed, and said, Not Honesty, in the abstract,[207]\nbut Honest is my name; and I wish that my nature shall agree to\nwhat I am called.\n\nHON. But, Sir, said the old gentleman, how could you guess that I\nam such a man, since I came from such a place?\n\nGREAT-HEART. I had heard of you before, by my Master; for He knows\nall things that are done on the earth; but I have often wondered\nthat any should come from your place, for your town is worse than\nis the City of Destruction itself.\n\nHON. Yes, we lie more off from the sun, and so are more cold and\nsenseless; but was a man in a mountain of ice, yet if the Sun of\nRighteousness will arise upon him, his frozen heart shall feel a\nthaw; and thus it hath been with me.[208]\n\nGREAT-HEART. I believe it, father Honest, I believe it; for I know\nthe thing is true.\n\nThen the old gentleman saluted all the Pilgrims with a holy kiss\nof charity; and asked them of their names, and how they had fared\nsince they set out on their pilgrimage.[209]\n\nCHRIST. Then said Christiana, My name, I suppose you have heard of;\ngood Christian was my husband, and these four were his children.\nBut can you think how the old gentleman was taken, when she told\nhim who she was! He skipped, he smiled, and blessed them with a\nthousand good wishes, saying:\n\nHON. I have heard much of your husband, and of his travels and wars,\nwhich he underwent in his days. Be it spoken to your comfort, the\nname of your husband rings over all these parts of the world: his\nfaith, his courage, his enduring, and his sincerity under all, has\nmade his name famous. Then he turned him to the boys, and asked\nthem of their names, which they told him. And then said he unto\nthem: Matthew, be thou like Matthew the publican, not in vice,\nbut in virtue (Matt. 10:3). Samuel, said he, be thou like Samuel\nthe Prophet, a man of faith and prayer (Psa. 99:6). Joseph, said\nhe, be thou like Joseph in Potiphar's house, chaste, and one that\nflees from temptation (Gen. 39). And James, be thou like James\nthe Just, and like James the brother of our Lord (Acts 1:13, 14).\nThen they told him of Mercy, and how she had left her town and her\nkindred to come along with Christiana and with her sons. At that\nthe old honest man said, Mercy is thy name; by Mercy shalt thou be\nsustained, and carried through all those difficulties that shall\nassault thee in thy way, till thou shalt come thither, where thou\nshalt look the Fountain of Mercy in the face with comfort. All\nthis while the guide, Mr. Great-heart, was very much pleased, and\nsmiled upon his companion.\n\nNow, as they walked along together, the guide asked the old gentleman,\nif he did not know one Mr. Fearing, that came on pilgrimage out\nof his parts?\n\nHON. Yes, very well, said he. He was a man that had the root of\nthe matter in him; but he was one of the most troublesome pilgrims\nthat ever I met with in all my days.[210]\n\nGREAT-HEART. I perceive you knew him; for you have given a very\nright character of him.\n\nHON. Knew him! I was a great companion of his; I was with him most\nan end; when he first began to think of what would come upon us\nhereafter, I was with him.\n\nGREAT-HEART. I was his guide from my Master's house to the gates\nof the Celestial City.\n\nHON. Then you knew him to be a troublesome one.\n\nGREAT-HEART. I did so, but I could very well bear it; for men of\nmy calling are oftentimes intrusted with the conduct of such as he\nwas.\n\nHON. Well then, pray let us hear a little of him, and how he managed\nhimself under your conduct.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Why, he was always afraid that he should come short\nof whither he had a desire to go. Everything frightened him that\nhe heard anybody speak of, that had but the least appearance of\nopposition in it. I hear that he lay roaring at the Slough of Despond\nfor about a month together; nor durst he, for all he saw several\ngo over before him, venture, though they, many of them, offered\nto lend him their hand. He would not go back again neither.[211]\nThe Celestial City, he said, he should die if he came not to it;\nand yet was dejected at every difficulty, and stumbled at every\nstraw that anybody cast in his way. Well, after he had lain at the\nSlough of Despond a great while, as I have told you, one sunshine\nmorning, I do not know how, he ventured, and so got over; but\nwhen he was over, he would scarce believe it. He had, I think, a\nSlough of Despond in his mind; a slough that he carried everywhere\nwith him, or else he could never have been as he was. So he came\nup to the gate, you know what I mean, that stands at the head of\nthis way; and there also he stood a good while, before he would\nadventure to knock. When the gate was opened, he would give back,\nand give place to others, and say that he was not worthy. For,\nfor all he got before some to the gate, yet many of them went in\nbefore him. There the poor man would stand, shaking and shrinking.\nI dare say, it would have pitied one's heart to have seen him; nor\nwould he go back again. At last, he took the hammer that hanged\non the gate in his hand, and gave a small rap or two; then One\nopened to him, but he shrank back as before. He that opened stepped\nout after him, and said, Thou trembling one, what wantest thou?\nWith that he fell down to the ground. He that spoke to him wondered\nto see him so faint. So he said to him, Peace be to thee; up, for\nI have set open the door to thee. Come in, for thou art blessed.\nWith that he got up, and went in trembling; and when he was in, he\nwas ashamed to show his face. Well, after he had been entertained\nthere a while, as you know how the manner is, he was bid go on\nhis way, and also told the way he should take. So he came till\nhe came to our house. But as he behaved himself at the gate, so\nhe did His behaviour at my Master the Interpreter's door. He lay\nthereabout in the cold a good while, before he would adventure to\ncall; yet he would not go back, and the nights were long and cold\nthen. Nay, he had a note of necessity in his bosom to my Master,\nto receive him and grant him the comfort of His house, and also\nto allow him a stout and valiant conductor, because he was himself\nso chicken-hearted a man; and yet, for all that, he was afraid to\ncall at the door. So he lay up and down thereabouts, till, poor\nman! he was almost starved. Yea, so great was his dejection, that\nthough he saw several others, for knocking, get in, yet he was\nafraid to venture. At last, I think, I looked out of the window,\nand perceiving a man to be up and down about the door, I went out\nto him, and asked what he was; but, poor man! the water stood in\nhis eyes; so I perceived what he wanted. I went, therefore, in and\ntold it in the house, and we showed the thing to our Lord. So He\nsent me out again, to entreat him to come in; but, I dare say, I\nhad hard work to do it. At last he came in; and I will say that\nfor my Lord, He carried it wonderfully lovingly to him. There were\nbut a few good bits at the table, but some of it was laid upon his\ntrencher. Then he presented the note, and my Lord looked thereon,\nand said his desire should he granted. So, when he had been there\na good while, he seemed to get some heart, and to be a little more\ncomfortable; for my Master, you must know, is one of very tender\nbowels, especially to them that are afraid; wherefore He carried\nit so towards him, as might tend most to his encouragement. Well,\nwhen he had had a sight of the things of the place, and was ready to\ntake his journey to go to the city, my Lord, as He did to Christian\nbefore, gave him a bottle of spirits, and some comfortable things\nto eat. Thus we set forward, and I went before him; but the man\nwas but of few words, only he would sigh aloud.\n\nWhen we were come to where the three fellows were hanged, he said\nthat he doubted that that would be his end also. Only he seemed\nglad when he saw the Cross and the Sepulchre. There, I confess,\nhe desired to stay a little to look, and he seemed, for a while\nafter, to be a little cheery. When we came at the Hill Difficulty,\nhe made no stick at that, nor did he much fear the lions; for you\nmust know that his trouble was not about such things as those;\nhis fear was about his acceptance at last.[212]\n\nI got him in at the House Beautiful, I think, before he was willing.\nAlso, when he was in, I brought him acquainted with the damsels\nthat were of the place; but he was ashamed to make himself much\nfor company. He desired much to be alone, yet he always loved good\ntalk, and often would get behind the screen to hear it. He also\nloved much to see ancient things, and to be pondering them in\nhis mind. He told me afterwards that he loved to be in those two\nhouses from which he came last, to wit, at the gate, and that of\nthe Interpreter, but that he durst not be so bold to ask.\n\nWhen we went also from the House Beautiful, he went down the hill,\ninto the Valley of Humiliation, he went down as well as ever I\nsaw man in my life; for he cared not how mean he was, so he might\nhe happy at last. Yea, I think, there was a kind of a sympathy\nbetwixt that valley and him; for I never saw him better in all his\npilgrimage than when he was in that valley.[213]\n\nHere he would lie down, embrace the ground, and kiss the very\nflowers that grew in this valley (Lam. 3:27-29). He would now be\nup every morning by break of day, tracing and walking to and fro\nin this valley.\n\nBut when he was come to the entrance of the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death, I thought I should have lost my man; not for that he\nhad any inclination to go back; that he always abhorred; but he\nwas ready to die for fear. Oh! the hobgoblins will have me! the\nhobgoblins will have me! cried he; and I could not beat him out on\nit. He made such a noise, and such an outcry here, that, had they\nbut heard him, it was enough to encourage them to come and fall\nupon us.[214]\n\nBut this I took very great notice of, that this valley was as quiet\nwhile he went through it, as ever I knew it before or since. I\nsuppose these enemies here had now a special check from our Lord,\nand a command not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over it.\n\nIt would he too tedious to tell you of all. We will, therefore,\nonly mention a passage or two more. When he was come at Vanity\nFair, I thought he would have fought with all at the men at the\nfair. I feared there we should both have been knocked on the head,\nso hot was he against their fooleries.[215] Upon the Enchanted\nGround, he was also very wakeful. But when he was come at the\nriver, where was no bridge, there again he was in a heavy case.\nNow, now, he said, he should be drowned forever, and so never see\nthat Face with comfort that he had come so many miles to behold.\n\nAnd here, also, I took notice of what was very remarkable; the\nwater of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw it in\nall my life. So he went over at last, not much above wet-shod.[216]\nWhen he was going up to the gate, I began to take his leave of\nhim, and to wish him a good reception above. So he said, I shall,\nI shall. Then parted we asunder, and I saw him no more.\n\nHON. Then, it seems, he was well at last.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes, yes; I never had doubt about him; he was a man\nof a choice spirit, only he was always kept very low, and that made\nhis life so burdensome to himself, and so troublesome to others\n(Psa. 88). He was, above many, tender of sin. He was so afraid\nof doing injuries to others, that he often would deny himself of\nthat which was lawful, because he would not offend (Rom. 14:21;\n1 Cor. 8:13).\n\nHON. But what should be the reason that such a good man should be\nall his days so much in the dark?[217]\n\nGREAT-HEART. There are two sorts of reasons for it: One is, the\nwise God will have it so; some must pipe, and some must weep (Matt.\n11:16-18). Now Mr. Fearing was one that played upon this bass; he\nand his fellows sound the sackbut, whose notes are more doleful\nthan the notes of other music are; though, indeed, some say the\nbass is the ground of music. And, for my part, I care not at all\nfor that profession that begins not in heaviness of mind. The\nfirst string that the musician usually touches is the bass, when\nhe intends to put all in tune. God also plays upon this string\nfirst, when he sets the soul in tune for Himself. Only here was\nthe imperfection of Mr. Fearing, he could play upon no other music\nbut this, till towards his latter end.[218]\n\nI make bold to talk thus metaphorically, for the ripening of the\nwits of young readers; and because, in the book of the Revelations,\nthe saved are compared to a company of musicians that play upon\ntheir trumpets and harps, and sing their songs before the throne\n(Rev. 8:2; 14:2, 3).\n\nHON. He was a very zealous man, as one may see by what relation you\nhave given of him; difficulties, lions, or Vanity Fair, he feared\nnot at all. It was only sin, death, and hell that was to him\na terror, because he had some doubts about his interest in that\ncelestial country.[219]\n\nGREAT-HEART. You say right. Those were the things that were his\ntroublers, and they, as you have well observed, arose from the\nweakness of his mind thereabout, not from weakness of spirit as\nto the practical part of a pilgrim's life. I dare believe that,\nas the proverb is, 'he could have bit a firebrand, had it stood\nin his way'; but the things with which he was oppressed, no man\never yet could shake off with ease.\n\nCHRIST. Then said Christiana, This relation of Mr. Fearing has\ndone me good. I thought nobody had been like me; but I see there\nwas some semblance betwixt this good man and I; only we differed\nin two things: His troubles were so great, they break out; but mine\nI kept within. His, also, lay so hard upon him, they made him that\nhe could not knock at the houses provided for entertainment; but\nmy trouble was always such as made me knock the louder.\n\nMERCY. If I might also speak my heart, I must say, that something\nof him has also dwelt in me; for I have ever been more afraid of\nthe lake, and the loss of a place in Paradise, than I have been of\nthe loss of other things. O, thought I, may I have the happiness\nto have a habitation there, it is enough, though I part with all\nthe world to win it!\n\nMATT. Then said Matthew, Fear was one thing that made me think that\nI was far from having that within me that accompanies salvation;\nbut if it were so with such a good man as he, why may it not also\ngo well with me?\n\nJAMES. No fears, no grace, said James. Though there is not always\ngrace where thereis the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is\nno grace where there is no fear of God.[220]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Well said, James, thou hast hit the mark; for the\nfear of God is the beginning of wisdom; and, to be sure, they that\nlack the beginning, have neither middle nor end. But we will here\nconclude our discourse of Mr. Fearing, after we have sent after\nhim this farewell.\n\n\nWell, Master Fearing, thou didst fear\nThy God, and wast afraid\nOf doing anything, while here,\nThat would have thee betray'd.\nAnd didst thou fear the lake and pit?\nWould others did so too!\nFor, as for them that want thy wit,\nThey do themselves undo.[221]\n\n\nNow I saw, that they still went on in their talk; for after Mr.\nGreat-heart had made an end with Mr. Fearing, Mr. Honest began to\ntell them of another, but his name was Mr. Self-will. He pretended\nhimself to be a pilgrim, said Mr. Honest; but I persuade myself he\nnever came in at the gate that stands at the head of the way.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Had you ever any talk with him about it?\n\nHON. Yes, more than once or twice; but he would always be like\nhimself, self-willed. He neither cared for man, nor argument, nor\nyet example; what his mind prompted him to, that he would do, and\nnothing else could he be got to.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Pray, what principles did he hold? for I suppose you\ncan tell.\n\nHON. He held, that a man might follow the vices as well as the\nvirtues of the pilgrims; and that if he did both, he should be\ncertainly saved.\n\nGREAT-HEART. How! if he had said, It is possible for the heart to\nbe guilty of the vices, as well as to partake of the virtues of\npilgrims, he could not much have been blamed; for indeed we are\nexempted from no vice absolutely, but on condition that we watch\nand strive.[222] But this, I perceive, is not the thing; but if I\nunderstand you right, your meaning is, that he was of that opinion,\nthat it was allowable so to be.\n\nHON. Aye, aye, so I mean; and so he believed and practised.\n\nGREAT-HEART. But what ground had he for his so saying?\n\nHON. Why, he said he had the Scripture for his warrant.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Prithee, Mr. Honest, present us with a few particulars.\n\nHON. So I will. He said, To have to do with other men's wives, had\nbeen practised by David, God's beloved; and therefore he could do\nit. He said, To have more women than one, was a thing that Solomon\npractised; and therefore he could do it. He said, That Sarah and\nthe godly midwives of Egypt lied, and so did saved Rahab; and\ntherefore he could do it. He said, That the disciples went at\nthe bidding of their Master, and took away the owner's ass; and\ntherefore he could do so too. He said, That Jacob got the inheritance\nof his father in a way of guile and dissimulation; and therefore\nhe could do so too.[223]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Highly base! indeed. And you are sure he was of this\nopinion?\n\nHON. I have heard him plead for it, bring Scripture for it, bring\nargument for it, &c.\n\nGREAT-HEART. An opinion that is not fit to be with any allowance\nin the world.\n\nHON. You must understand me rightly. He did not say that any man\nmight do this; but that those that had the virtues of those that\ndid such things, might also do the same.\n\nGREAT-HEART. But what more false than such a conclusion? for this\nis as much as to say, that because good men heretofore have sinned\nof infirmity, therefore he had allowance to do it of a presumptuous\nmind; or if, because a child by the blast of the wind, or for that\nit stumbled at a stone, fell down, and defiled itself in mire,\ntherefore he might willfully lie down and wallow like a boar therein.\nWho could have thought that anyone could so far have been blinded\nby the power of lust? But what is written must be true: They\n'stumble at the Word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were\nappointed' (1 Peter 2:8).\n\nHis supposing that such may have the godly men's virtues, who\naddict themselves to their vices, is also a delusion as strong as\nthe other. It is just as if the dog should say, I have, or may\nhave, the qualities of the child, because I lick up its stinking\nexcrements. To eat up the sin of God's people, is no sign of one\nthat is possessed with their virtues (Hosea 4:8). Nor can I believe,\nthat one that is of this opinion, can at present have faith or\nlove in him. But I know you have made strong objections against\nhim; prithee, what can he say for himself?[224]\n\nHON. Why, he says, To do this by way of opinion, seems abundance\nmore honest, than to do it, and yet hold contrary to it in opinion.\n\nGREAT-HEART. A very wicked answer; for though to let loose the\nbridle to lusts, while our opinions are against such things, is\nbad; yet, to sin, and plead a toleration so to do, is worse. The\none stumbles beholders accidentally, the other pleads them into\nthe snare.\n\nHON. There are many of this man's mind, that have not this man's\nmouth; and that makes going on pilgrimage of so little esteem as\nit is.\n\nGREAT-HEART. You have said the truth, and it is to be lamented;\nbut he that feareth the King of Paradise, shall come out of them\nall.\n\nCHRIST. There are strange opinions in the world; I know one that\nsaid, It was time enough to repent when they come to die.[225]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Such are not over wise. That man would have been loath,\nmight he have had a week to run twenty miles in for his life, to\nhave deferred that journey to the last hour of that week.\n\nHON. You say right; and yet the generality of them, that count\nthemselves pilgrims, do indeed do thus. I am, as you see, an old\nman, and have been a traveler in this road many a day; and I have\ntaken notice of many things.[226]\n\nI have seen some that have set out as if they would drive all the\nworld afore them, who yet have, in few days, died as they in the\nwilderness, and so never got sight of the promised land. I have\nseen some that have promised nothing, at first setting out to be\npilgrims, and that one would have thought could not have lived a\nday, that have yet proved very good pilgrims.\n\nI have seen some who have run hastily forward, that again have,\nafter a little time, run as fast just back again.\n\nI have seen some who have spoken very well of a pilgrim's life at\nfirst, that, after a while, have spoken as much against it. I have\nheard some, when they first set out for Paradise, say positively\nthere is such a place; who when they have been almost there, have\ncome back again, and said there is none.\n\nI have heard some vaunt what they would do, in case they should\nhe opposed, that have, even at a false alarm, fled faith, the\npilgrim's way, and all.[227]\n\nNow, as they were thus in their way, there came one running to\nmeet them, and said, Gentlemen, and you of the weaker sort, if you\nlove life, shift for yourselves, for the robbers are before you.[228]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said Mr. Great-heart, They be the three that\nset upon Little-faith heretofore. Well, said he, we are ready for\nthem; so they went on their way. Now, they looked at every turning,\nwhen they should have met with the villains; but whether they\nheard of Mr. Great-heart, or whether they had some other game,\nthey came not up to the Pilgrims.\n\nChristiana then wished for an inn for herself and her children,\nbecause they were weary.[229] Then said Mr. Honest, There is one\na little before us, where a very honourable disciple, one Gaius,\ndwells (Rom. 16:23). So they all concluded to turn in thither, and\nthe rather, because the old gentleman gave him so good a report.\nSo when they came to the door, they went in, not knocking, for\nfolks use not to knock at the door of an inn. Then they called for\nthe master of the house, and he came to them. So they asked if they\nmight lie there that night.\n\nGAIUS. Yes, gentlemen, if ye be true men, for my house is for none\nbut pilgrims. Then was Christiana, Mercy, and the boys, the more\nglad, for that the Inn-keeper was a lover of pilgrims. So they\ncalled for rooms, and he showed them one for Christiana and her\nchildren, and Mercy, and another for Mr. Great-heart and the old\ngentleman.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said Mr. Great-heart, Good Gaius, what hast thou\nfor supper? for these pilgrims have come far today, and are weary.\n\nGAIUS. It is late, said Gaius, so we cannot conveniently go out to\nseek food; but such as we have, you shall be welcome to, if that\nwill content.[230]\n\nGREAT-HEART. We will be content with what thou hast in the house;\nforasmuch as I have proved thee, thou art never destitute of that\nwhich is convenient.\n\nThen he went down and spake to the cook, whose name was\nTaste-that-which-is-good, to get ready supper for so many pilgrims.\nThis done, he comes up again, saying, Come, my good friends, you\nare welcome to me, and I am glad that I have a house to entertain\nyou; and while supper is making ready, if you please, let us\nentertain one another with some good discourse. So they all said,\nContent.\n\nGAIUS. Then said Gaius, Whose wife is this aged matron? and whose\ndaughter is this young damsel.\n\nGREAT-HEART. The woman is the wife of one Christian, a Pilgrim\nof former times; and these are his four children. The maid is one\nof her acquaintance; one that she hath persuaded to come with her\non pilgrimage. The boys take all after their father, and covet to\ntread in his steps; yea, if they do but see any place where the\nold Pilgrim hath lain, or any print of his foot, it ministereth\njoy to their hearts, and they covet to lie or tread in the same.\n\nGAIUS. Then said Gaius, Is this Christian's wife? and are these\nChristian's children? I knew your husband's father, yea, also his\nfather's father. Many have been good of this stock; their ancestors\ndwelt first at Antioch (Acts 11:26). Christian's progenitors (I\nsuppose you have heard your husband talk of them) were very worthy\nmen. They have, above any that I know, showed themselves men of\ngreat virtue and courage, for the Lord of the Pilgrims, His ways,\nand them that loved Him. I have heard of many of your husband's\nrelations, that have stood all trials for the sake of the truth.\nStephen, that was one of the first of the family from whence your\nhusband sprang, was knocked on the head with stones (Acts 7:59,\n60). James, another of this generation, was slain with the edge\nof the sword (Acts 12:2). To say nothing of Paul and Peter, men\nanciently of the family from whence your husband came, there was\nIgnatius, who was cast to the lions;[231] Romanus, whose flesh\nwas cut by pieces from his bones, and Polycarp, that played the\nman in the fire. There was he that was hanged up in a basket in\nthe sun, for the wasps to eat; and he who they put into a sack, and\ncast him into the sea to be drowned. It would be utterly impossible\nto count up all of that family that have suffered injuries and\ndeath, for the love of a pilgrim's life. Nor can I but be glad, to\nsee that thy husband has left behind him four such boys as these.\nI hope they will bear up their father's name, and tread in their\nfather's steps, and come to their father's end.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Indeed, Sir, they are likely lads; they seem to choose\nheartily their father's ways.\n\nGAIUS. That is it that I said; wherefore Christian's family is like\nstill to spread abroad upon the face of the ground, and yet to be\nnumerous upon the face of the earth; wherefore, let Christiana look\nout some damsels for her sons, to whom they may be betrothed, &c.,\nthat the name of their father and the house of his progenitors may\nnever be forgotten in the world.[232]\n\nHON. It is pity this family should fall and be extinct.\n\nGAIUS. Fall it cannot, but be diminished it may; but let Christiana\ntake my advice, and that is the way to uphold it.\n\nAnd, Christiana, said this Innkeeper, I am glad to see thee and\nthy friend Mercy together here, a lovely couple. And may I advise,\ntake Mercy into a nearer relation to thee; if she will, let her be\ngiven to Matthew, thy eldest son; it is the way to preserve you a\nposterity in the earth. So this match was concluded, and in process\nof time they were married; but more of that hereafter.\n\nGaius also proceeded, and said, I will now speak on the behalf of\nwomen, to take away their reproach. For as death and the curse came\ninto the world by a woman, (Gen. 3), so also did life and health:\n'God sent forth His Son made of a woman' (Gal. 4:4). Yea, to show\nhow much those that came after, did abhor the act of the mother,\nthis sex, in the Old Testament, coveted children, if happily this\nor that woman might be the mother of the Saviour of the world.\n\nI will say again, that when the Saviour was come, women rejoiced\nin Him before either man or angel (Luke 2). I read not, that ever\nany man did give unto Christ so much as one groat; but the women\nfollowed Him, and ministered to Him of their substance (Luke 8:2,\n3). It was a woman that washed His feet with tears, and a woman\nthat anointed His body to the burial (Luke 7:37, 50; John 11:2;\n12:3). They were women that wept, when He was going to the Cross,\nand women that followed Him from the Cross, and that sat by His\nsepulchre, when he was buried (Luke 23:27; Matt. 27:55, 56, 61).\nThey were women that were first with Him at His resurrection-morn;\nand women that brought tidings first to His disciples, that He\nwas risen from the dead (Luke 24:22, 23). Women, therefore, are\nhighly favoured, and show by these things that they are sharers\nwith us in the grace of life.\n\nNow the cook sent up to signify that supper was almost ready, and\nsent one to lay the cloth, the trenchers, and to set the salt and\nbread in order.\n\nThen said Matthew, The sight of this cloth, and of this fore-runner\nof the supper, begetteth in me a greater appetite to my food than\nI had before.\n\nGAIUS. So let all ministering doctrines to thee, in this life,\nbeget in thee a greater desire to sit at the supper of the great\nKing in His kingdom; for all preaching, books, and ordinances\nhere, are but as the laying of the trenchers, and as setting of\nsalt upon the board, when compared with the feast that our Lord\nwill make for us when we come to His house.\n\nSo supper came up;[233] and first, a heave-shoulder, and a wave-breast\n(Lev. 7:32-34; 10:14, 15), were set on the table before them, to\nshow that they must begin their meal with prayer and praise to\nGod (Psa. 25:1; Heb. 13:15). The heave-shoulder, David lifted his\nheart up to God with; and with the wave-breast, where his heart\nlay, with that he used to lean upon his harp when he played. These\ntwo dishes were very fresh and good, and they all eat heartily well\nthereof.\n\nThe next they brought up, was a bottle of wine, red as blood (Deut.\n32:14). So Gaius said to them, Drink freely; this is the juice of\nthe true vine, that makes glad the heart of God and man (Judg.\n9:13; John 15:1). So they drank and were merry.\n\nThe next was a dish of milk well crumbed; but Gaius said, Let the\nboys have that, that they may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:1, 2). Then\nthey brought up in course a dish of butter and honey. Then said\nGaius, Eat freely of this; for this is good to cheer up, and\nstrengthen your judgments and understandings. This was our Lord's\ndish when He was a child: 'Butter and honey shall He eat, that He\nmay know to refuse the evil, and choose the good' (Isa. 7:15).\n\nThen they brought them up a dish of apples, and they were very\ngood tasted fruit. Then said Matthew, May we eat apples, since\nthey were such, by, and with which, the serpent beguiled our first\nmother?\n\nThen said Gaius-\n\n\nApples were they with which we were beguil'd\nYet sin, not apples, hath our souls defil'd.\nApples forbid, if eat, corrupt the blood;\nTo eat such, when commanded, does us good.\nDrink of His flagons, then, thou church, His dove,\nAnd eat His apples, who are sick of love.\n\n\nThen said Matthew, I made the scruple, because I awhile since was\nsick with eating of fruit.\n\nGAIUS. Forbidden fruit will make you sick but not what our Lord\nhas tolerated.\n\nWhile they were thus talking, they were presented with another\ndish, and it was a dish of nuts (Song. 6:11). Then said some at the\ntable, Nuts spoil tender teeth, especially the teeth of children;\nwhich when Gaius heard, he said--\n\n\nHard texts are nuts (I will not call them cheaters),\nWhose shells do keep their kernels from the eaters.\nOpe then the shells, and you shall have the meat;\nThey here are brought for you to crack and eat.\n\n\nThen were they very merry, and sat at the table a long time, talking\nof many things. Then said the old gentleman, My good landlord,\nwhile we are cracking your nuts, if you please, do you open this\nriddle:[234]\n\n\nA man there was though some did count him mad,\nThe more he cast away, the more he had.\n\n\nThen they all gave good heed, wondering what good Gaius would say;\nso he sat still awhile, and then thus replied--\n\n\nHe that bestows his goods upon the poor,\nShall have as much again, and ten times more.\n\n\nThen said Joseph, I dare say, Sir, I did not think you could have\nfound it out.\n\nOh! said Gaius, I have been trained up in this way a great while;\nnothing teaches like experience; I have learned of my Lord to be\nkind; and have found by experience, that I have gained thereby.\n'There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that\nwithholdeth more than is meet; but it tendeth to poverty' (Prov.\n11:24). 'There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there\nis that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches'[235] (Prov.\n13:7). Then Samuel whispered to Christiana, his mother, and said,\nMother, this is a very good man's house, let us stay here a good\nwhile, and let my brother Matthew be married here to Mercy, before\nwe go any further.[236]\n\nThe which Gaius the host overhearing, said, With a very good will,\nmy child.\n\nSo they staid there more than a month, and Mercy was given to\nMatthew to wife.\n\nWhile they staid here, Mercy, as her custom was, would be making\ncoats and garments to give to the poor, by which she brought up a\nvery good report upon the Pilgrims.[237]\n\nBut to return again to our story. After supper the lads desired a\nbed; for that they were weary with travelling: then Gaius called\nto show them their chamber; but said Mercy, I will have them to\nbed. So she had them to bed, and they slept well; but the rest\nsat up all night; for Gaius and they were such suitable company,\nthat they could not tell how to part. Then after much talk of their\nLord, themselves, and their journey, old Mr. Honest, he that put\nforth the riddle to Gaius, began to nod. Then said Great-heart,\nWhat, Sir, you begin to be drowsy; come, rub up; now here is a\nriddle for you. Then said Mr. Honest, Let us hear it. Then said\nMr. Great-heart,\n\n\nHe that will kill, must first be overcome,\nWho live abroad would, first must die at home.\n\n\nHa! said Mr. Honest, it is a hard one, hard to expound, and harder\nto practise. But come, landlord, said he, I will, if you please,\nleave my part to you; do you expound it, and I will hear what you\nsay. No, said Gaius, it was put to you, and it is expected that\nyou should answer it. Then said the old gentleman,\n\n\nHe first by grace must conquer'd be,\nThat sin would mortify;\nAnd who, that lives, would convince me,\nUnto himself must die.[238]\n\n\nIt is right, said Gaius; good doctrine and experience teaches\nthis. For, first, until grace displays itself, and overcomes the\nsoul with its glory, it is altogether without heart to oppose sin;\nbesides if sin is Satan's cords, by which the soul lies bound, how\nshould it make resistance, before it is loosed from that infirmity?\n\nSecondly, nor will any, that knows either reason or grace, believe\nthat such a man can be a living monument of grace that is a slave\nto his own corruptions.\n\nAnd now it comes in my mind, I will tell you a story worth the\nhearing. There were two men that went on pilgrimage; the one began\nwhen he was young, the other when he was old. The young man had\nstrong corruptions to grapple with; the old man's were decayed\nwith the decays of nature. The young man trod his steps as even\nas did the old one, and was every way as light as he. Who now,\nor which of them, had their graces shining clearest, since both\nseemed to be alike\n\nHON. The young man's, doubtless. For that which heads it against\nthe greatest opposition, gives best demonstration that it is\nstrongest; especially when it also holdeth pace with that that\nmeets not with half so much; as, to be sure, old age does not.[239]\nBesides, I have observed that old men have blessed themselves with\nthis mistake, namely, taking the decays of nature for a gracious\nconquest over corruptions, and so have been apt to beguile\nthemselves. Indeed, old men that are gracious, are best able to\ngive advice to them that are young, because they have seen most\nof the emptiness of things. But yet, for an old and a young [man]\nto set out both together, the young one has the advantage of the\nfairest discovery of a work of grace within him, though the old\nman's corruptions are naturally the weakest.\n\nThus they sat talking till break of day. Now, when the family was\nup, Christiana bid her son James that he should read a chapter; so\nhe read the fifty-third of Isaiah. When he had done, Mr. Honest\nasked, why it was said that the Saviour is said to come 'out of a\ndry ground'; and also, that 'He had no form or comeliness in him?'\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said Mr. Great-heart, To the first, I answer,\nBecause the church of the Jews, of which Christ came, had then\nlost almost all the sap and spirit of religion. To the second, I\nsay, The words are spoken in the person of the unbelievers, who,\nbecause they want that eye that can see into our Prince's heart,\ntherefore they judge of Him by the meanness of His outside. Just\nlike those that know not that precious stones are covered over with\na homely crust; who, when they have found one, because they know\nnot what they have found, cast it again away, as men do a common\nstone.\n\nWell, said Gaius, now you are here, and since, as I know, Mr.\nGreat-heart is good at his weapons, if you please, after we have\nrefreshed ourselves, we will walk into the fields, to see if we can\ndo any good.[240] About a mile from hence, there is one Slay-good,\na giant that does much annoy the King's highway in these parts;\nand I know whereabout his haunt is. He is master of a number of\nthieves; it would be well if we could clear these parts of him. So\nthey consented, and went, Mr. Great-heart with his sword, helmet,\nand shield, and the rest with spears and staves.[241] When they\ncame to the place where he was, they found him with one Feeble-mind\nin his hands, whom his servants had brought unto him, having taken\nhim in the way. Now the giant was rifling him, with a purpose, after\nthat, to pick his bones, for he was of the nature of flesh-eaters.\n\nWell, so soon as he saw Mr. Great-heart and his friends at the\nmouth of his cave, with their weapons, he demanded what they wanted.\n\nGREAT-HEART. We want thee; for we are come to revenge the quarrel\nof the many that thou hast slain of the pilgrims, when thou hast\ndragged them out of the King's highway; wherefore, come out of\nthy cave. So he armed himself and came out; and to a battle they\nwent, and fought for above an hour, and then stood still to take\nwind.\n\nSLAY. Then said the giant, Why are you here on my ground?\n\nGREAT-HEART. To revenge the blood of pilgrims, as I also told thee\nbefore. So they went to it again, and the giant made Mr. Great-heart\ngive back; but he came up again, and, in the greatness of his mind,\nhe let fly with such stoutness at the giant's head and sides, that\nhe made him let his weapon fall out of his hand; so he smote him,\nand slew him, and cut off his head, and brought it away to the\ninn. He also took Feeble-mind, the pilgrim, and brought him with\nhim to his lodgings. When they were come home, they showed his\nhead to the family, and then set it up, as they had done others\nbefore, for a terror to those that shall attempt to do as he\nhereafter.[242]\n\nThen they asked Mr. Feeble-mind how he fell into his hands?\n\nFEEBLE-MIND. Then said the poor man, I am a sickly man, as you\nsee; and, because death did usually once a day knock at my door,\nI thought I should never be well at home; so I betook myself to a\npilgrim's life, and have traveled hither from the town of Uncertain,\nwhere I and my father were born. I am a man of no strength at all\nof body, nor yet of mind; but would, if I could, though I can but\ncrawl, spend my life in the pilgrim's way.[243] When I came at\nthe gate that is at the head of the way, the Lord of that place\ndid entertain me freely; neither objected He against my weakly\nlooks, nor against my feeble mind; but gave me such things that\nwere necessary for my journey, and bid me hope to the end. When\nI came to the house of the Interpreter, I received much kindness\nthere; and because the Hill Difficulty was judged too hard for\nme, I was carried up that by one of His servants. Indeed, I have\nfound much relief from pilgrims, though none were willing to go so\nsoftly as I am forced to do; yet still, as they came on, they bid\nme be of good cheer, and said that it was the will of their Lord\nthat comfort should be given to the feeble-minded, and so went\non their own pace (1 Thess. 5:14). When I was come up to Assault\nLane, then this giant met with me, and bid me prepare for an\nencounter; but, alas! feeble one that I was, I had more need of\na cordial. So he came up and took me. I conceited he should not\nkill me. Also, when he had got me into his den, since I went not\nwith him willingly, I believed I should come out alive again;\nfor I have heard, that not any pilgrim that is taken captive by\nviolent hands, if he keeps heart-whole towards his Master, is, by\nthe laws of Providence, to die by the hand of the enemy. Robbed\nI looked to be, and robbed to be sure I am; but I am, as you see,\nescaped with life; for the which I thank my King as author, and\nyou as the means. Other brunts I also look for; but this I have\nresolved on, to wit, to run when I can, to go when I cannot run,\nand to creep when I cannot go. As to the main, I thank Him that\nloves me, I am fixed. My way is before me, my mind is beyond the\nriver that has no bridge, though I am, as you see, but of a feeble\nmind.[244]\n\nHON. Then said old Mr. Honest, Have you not, some time ago, been\nacquainted with one Mr. Fearing, a pilgrim.\n\nFEEBLE. Acquainted with him! Yes; he came from the town of\nStupidity, which lieth four degrees to the northward of the City\nof Destruction, and as many off of where I was born; yet we were\nwell acquainted, for, indeed, he was my uncle, my father's brother.\nHe and I have been much of a temper. He was a little shorter than\nI, but yet we were much of a complexion.\n\nHON. I perceive you know him; and I am apt to believe also, that\nyou were related one to another; for you have his whitely look, a\ncast like his with your eye, and your speech is much alike.\n\nFEEBLE. Most have said so that have known us both; and besides,\nwhat I have read in him, I have, for the most part, found in myself.\n\nGAIUS. Come, Sir, said good Gaius, be of good cheer, you are welcome\nto me, and to my house, and what thou hast a mind to, call for\nfreely; and what thou wouldest have my servants do for thee, they\nwill do it with a ready mind.\n\nThen said Mr. Feeble-mind, This is unexpected favour, and as the\nsun shining out of a very dark cloud. Did Giant Slay-good intend\nme this favour when he stopped me, and resolved to let me go no\nfurther? Did he intend, that after he had rifled my pockets, I\nshould go to Gaius, mine host? Yet so it is.[245]\n\nNow, just as Mr. Feeble-mind and Gaius were thus in talk, there\ncomes one running, and called at the door, and told that, about a\nmile and a half off, there was one Mr. Not-right, a pilgrim, struck\ndead upon the place where he was with a thunder-bolt.[246]\n\nFEEBLE. Alas! said Mr. Feeble-mind, is he slain? He overtook me some\ndays before I came so far as hither, and would be my company-keeper.\nHe also was with me when Slay-good, the giant, took me; but he\nwas nimble of his heels, and escaped. But, it seems, he escaped\nto die, and I was took to live.[247]\n\n\nWhat, one would think, doth seek to slay outright,\nOfttimes delivers from the saddest plight.\nThat very providence, whose face is death,\nDoth ofttimes to the lowly life bequeath.\nI taken was, he did escape and flee;\nHands cross'd gives death to him, and life to me.\n\n\nNow, about this time, Matthew and Mercy were married. Also Gaius\ngave his daughter Phoebe to James, Matthew's brother, to wife;\nafter which time they yet staid above ten days at Gaius' house,\nspending their time, and the seasons, like as pilgrims used to\ndo.[248]\n\nWhen they were to depart, Gaius made them a feast, and they did eat\nand drink, and were merry. Now the hour was come that they must\nbe gone; wherefore, Mr. Great-heart called for a reckoning; but\nGaius told him, that at his house it was not the custom for pilgrims\nto pay for their entertainment. He boarded them by the year, but\nlooked for his pay from the good Samaritan, who had promised him,\nat his return, whatsoever charge he was at with them, faithfully\nto repay him (Luke 10:34, 35). Then said Mr. Great-heart to him,\n\nGREAT-HEART. 'Beloved, thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost\nto the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of\nthy charity before the church; whom if thou (yet) bring forward\non their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well' (3 John\n5, 6). Then Gaius took his leave of them all, and of his children,\nand particularly of Mr. Feeble-mind. He also gave him something\nto drink by the way.\n\nNow Mr. Feeble-mind, when they were going out of the door, made as\nif he intended to linger; the which when Mr. Great-heart espied,\nhe said, Come, Mr. Feeble-Mind, pray do you go along with us, I\nwill be your conductor, and you shall fare as the rest.\n\nFEEBLE. Alas! I want a suitable companion; you are all lusty and\nstrong; but I, as you see, am weak; I choose, therefore, rather\nto come behind, lest, by reason of my many infirmities, I should\nbe both a burden to myself and to you. I am, as I said, a man of\na weak and feeble mind, and shall be offended and made weak at\nthat which others can bear. I shall like no laughing; I shall like\nno gay attire; I shall like no unprofitable questions. Nay, I\nam so weak a man, as to be offended with that which others have\nliberty to do. I do not yet know all the truth; I am a very ignorant\nChristian man; sometimes, if I hear some rejoice in the Lord, it\ntroubles me, because I can not do so too. It is with me, as it\nis with a weak man among the strong, or as with a sick man among\nthe healthy, or as a lamp despised ('He that is ready to slip with\nhis feet, is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at\nease' Job 12:5), so that I know not what to do.[249]\n\nGREAT-HEART. But, brother, said. Mr. Great-heart, I have it in\ncommission to 'comfort the feeble-minded,' and to 'support the\nweak' (1 Thess. 5:14). You must needs go along with us; we will\nwait for you; we will lend you our help (Rom. 14:1); we will deny\nourselves of some things, both opinionative and practical, for\nyour sake (1 Cor. 8), we will not enter into doubtful disputations\nbefore you; we will be made all things to you, rather than you\nshall be left behind[250] (1 Cor. 9:22).\n\nNow all this while they were at Gaius' door; and behold, as they\nwere thus in the heat of their discourse, Mr. Ready-to-halt came\nby, with his crutches [promises] in his hand (Psa. 38:17); and he\nalso was going on pilgrimage.\n\nFEEBLE. Then said Mr. Feeble-mind to him, Man, How camest thou\nhither? I was but just now complaining, that I had not a suitable\ncompanion, but thou art according to my wish. Welcome, welcome,\ngood Mr. Ready-to-halt, I hope thee and I may be some help.\n\nREADY-TO-HALT. I shall be glad of thy company, said the other; and\ngood Mr. Feeble-mind, rather than we will part, since we are thus\nhappily met, I will lend thee one of my crutches.[251]\n\nFEEBLE. Nay, said he, though I thank thee for thy goodwill, I\nam not inclined to halt before I am lame. Howbeit, I think, when\noccasion is, it may help me against a dog.[252]\n\nREADY. If either myself or my crutches can do thee a pleasure, we\nare both at thy command, good Mr. Feeble-mind.\n\nThus therefore they went on; Mr. Great-heart and Mr. Honest went\nbefore, Christiana and her children went next, and Mr. Feeble-mind\nand Mr. Ready-to-halt, came behind with his crutches.[253] Then\nsaid Mr. Honest,\n\nHON. Pray, Sir, now we are upon the road, tell us some profitable\nthings of some that have gone on pilgrimage before us.\n\nGREAT-HEART. With a good will. I suppose you have heard how Christian\nof old did meet with Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation; and\nalso what hard work he had, to go through the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death. Also I think you cannot but have heard how Faithful\nwas put to it with Madam Wanton, with Adam the first, with one\nDiscontent, and Shame, four as deceitful villains as a man can\nmeet with upon the road.\n\nHON. Yes, I have heard of all this; but indeed, good Faithful was\nhardest put to it with Shame; he was an unwearied one.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Aye; for, as the Pilgrim well said, he of all men had\nthe wrong name.\n\nHON. But pray, Sir, where was it that Christian and Faithful met\nTalkative? That same was also a notable one.\n\nGREAT-HEART. He was a confident fool, yet many follow his ways.\n\nHON. He had like to have beguiled Faithful.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Aye, but Christian put him into a way quickly to\nfind him out. Thus they went on till they came at the place where\nEvangelist met with Christian and Faithful, and prophesied to them\nof what should befall them at Vanity Fair.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said their guide, Hereabouts did Christian and\nFaithful meet with Evangelist, who prophesied to them of what\ntroubles they should meet with at Vanity Fair.\n\nHON. Say you so? I dare say it was a hard chapter that then he did\nread unto them.[254]\n\nGREAT-HEART. It was so; but he gave them encouragement withal. But\nwhat do we talk of them? they were a couple of lion-like men; they\nhad set their faces like flint. Don't you remember how undaunted\nthey were when they stood before the judge?\n\nHON. Well, Faithful bravely suffered.\n\nGREAT-HEART. So he did, and as brave things came on it; for Hopeful\nand some others, as the story relates it, were converted by his\ndeath.\n\nHON. Well, but pray go on; for you are well acquainted with things.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Above all that Christian met with after he had passed\nthrough Vanity Fair, one By-ends was the arch one.\n\nHON. By-ends! What was he?\n\nGREAT-HEART. A very arch fellow; a downright hypocrite. One that\nwould be religious which way ever the world went; but so cunning,\nthat he would be sure neither to lose nor suffer for it. He had\nhis mode of religion for every fresh occasion; and his wife was as\ngood at it as he. He would turn and change from opinion to opinion;\nyea, and plead for so doing too. But, so far as I could learn,\nhe came to an ill end with his by-ends; nor did I ever hear that\nany of his children were ever of any esteem with any that truly\nfeared God.\n\nNow, by this time, they were come within sight of the town of\nVanity, where Vanity Fair is kept. So, when they saw that they were\nso near the town, they consulted with one another, how they should\npass through the town; and some said one thing, and some another.\nAt last Mr. Great-heart said, I have, as you may understand, often\nbeen a conductor of pilgrims through this town; now I am acquainted\nwith one Mr. Mnason, a Cyprusian by nation, an old disciple, at\nwhose house we may lodge (Acts 21:16). If you think good, said\nhe, we will turn in there.[255]\n\nContent, said old Honest; Content, said Christiana; Content, said\nMr. Feeble-mind; and so they said all. Now, you must think, it was\neven-tide by that they got to the outside of the town; but Mr.\nGreat-heart knew the way to the old man's house. So thither they\ncame; and he called at the door, and the old man within knew his\ntongue so soon as ever he heard it; so he opened, and they all\ncame in. Then said Mnason their host, How far have ye come today?\nSo they said, From the house of Gaius our friend. I promise you,\nsaid he, you have gone a good stitch, you may well be a weary;\nsit down. So they sat down.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said their guide, Come, what cheer, Sirs? I dare\nsay you are welcome to my friend.\n\nMNASON. I also, said Mr. Mnason, do bid you welcome, and, whatever\nyou want, do but say, and we will do what we can to get it for\nyou.\n\nHON. Our great want, a while since, was harbour and good company,\nand now I hope we have both.\n\nMNASON. For harbour, you see what it is; but for good company,\nthat will appear in the trial.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Well, said Mr. Great-heart, will you have the Pilgrims\nup into their lodging?\n\nMNASON. I will, said Mr. Mnason. So he had them to their respective\nplaces; and also showed them a very fair dining-room, where they\nmight be, and sup together, until time was come to go to rest.\n\nNow, when they were set in their places, and were a little cheery\nafter their journey, Mr. Honest asked his landlord, if there were\nany store of good people in the town?\n\nMNASON. We have a few, for indeed they are but a few, when compared\nwith them on the other side.\n\nHON. But how shall we do to see some of them? for the sight\nof good men to them that are going on pilgrimage, is like to the\nappearing of the moon and the stars to them that are sailing upon\nthe seas.[256]\n\nThen Mr. Mnason stamped with his foot, and his daughter Grace\ncame up; so he said unto her, Grace, go you, tell my friends, Mr.\nContrite, Mr. Holy-man, Mr. Love-saint, Mr. Dare-not-lie, and Mr.\nPenitent; that I have a friend or two at my house that have a mind\nthis evening to see them.\n\nSo Grace went to call them, and they came; and, after salutation\nmade, they sat down together at the table.\n\nThen said Mr. Mnason, their landlord, My neighbours, I have, as you\nsee, a company of strangers come to my house; they are Pilgrims;\nthey come from afar, and are going to mount Zion. But who, quoth\nhe, do you think this is? pointing with his finger to Christiana;\nit is Christiana, the wife of Christian, that famous Pilgrim,\nwho, with Faithful his brother, were so shamefully handled in our\ntown. At that they stood amazed, saying, We little thought to see\nChristiana, when Grace came to call us; wherefore this is a very\ncomfortable surprise. Then they asked her of her welfare, and if\nthese young men were her husband's sons? And when she had told\nthem they were, they said, The King whom you love and serve, make\nyou as your father, and bring you where he is in peace!\n\nHON. Then Mr. Honest (when they were all sat down) asked Mr.\nContrite, and the rest, in what posture their town was at present?\n\nCONTRITE. You may be sure we are full of hurry in fair-time. It\nis hard keeping our hearts and spirits in any good order, when we\nare in a cumbered condition. He that lives in such a place as this\nis, and that has to do with such as we have, has need of an item,\nto caution him to take heed, every moment of the day.\n\nHON. But how are your neighbours for quietness?\n\nCONTRITE. They are much more moderate now than formerly. You know\nhow Christian and Faithful were used at our town; but of late,\nI say, they have been far more moderate. I think the blood of\nFaithful lieth with load upon them till now; for since they burned\nhim, they have been ashamed to burn any more. In those days we\nwere afraid to walk the streets, but now we can show our heads.\nThen the name of a professor was odious; now, especially in some\nparts of our town (for you know our town is large), religion is\ncounted honourable.[257]\n\nThen said Mr. Contrite to them, Pray how fareth it with you in\nyour pilgrimage? How stands the country affected towards you?\n\nHON. It happens to us as it happeneth to wayfaring men; sometimes\nour way is clean, sometimes foul, sometimes up hill, sometimes\ndown hill; we are seldom at a certainty; the wind is not always\non our backs, nor is everyone a friend that we meet with in the\nway. We have met with some notable rubs already; and what are yet\nbehind, we know not; but for the most part, we find it true, that\nhas been talked of, of old, A good man must suffer trouble.\n\nCONTRITE. You talk of rubs; what rubs have you met withal?\n\nHON. Nay, ask Mr. Great-heart, our guide, for he can give the best\naccount of that.\n\nGREAT-HEART. We have been beset three or four times already.\nFirst, Christiana and her children were beset with two ruffians,\nthat they feared would a took away their lives. We were beset with\nGiant Bloody-man, Giant Maul, and Giant Slay-good. Indeed we did\nrather beset the last, than were beset of him. And thus it was:\nAfter we had been some time at the house of 'Gaius, mine host, and\nof the whole church' (Rom. 16:23), we were minded upon a time to\ntake our weapons with us, and so go see if we could light upon any\nof those that were enemies to pilgrims (for we heard that there\nwas a notable one thereabouts). Now Gaius knew his haunt better\nthan I, because he dwelt thereabout; so we looked, and looked,\ntill at last we discerned the mouth of his cave; then we were\nglad, and plucked up our spirits. So we approached up to his den,\nand lo, when we came there, he had dragged, by mere force, into\nhis net, this poor man, Mr. Feeble-mind, and was about to bring\nhim to his end. But when he saw us, supposing, as we thought, he\nhad had another prey, he left the poor man in his hole, and came\nout. So we fell to it full sore, and he lustily laid about him;\nbut in conclusion, he was brought down to the ground, and his\nhead cut off, and set up by the way-side, for a terror to such as\nshould after practise such ungodliness. That I tell you the truth,\nhere is the man himself to affirm it, who was as a lamb taken out\nof the mouth of the lion.\n\nFEEBLE-MIND. Then said Mr. Feeble-mind, I found this true, to my\ncost, and comfort; to my cost, when he threatened to pick my bones\nevery moment; and to my comfort, when I saw Mr. Great-heart and\nhis friends with their weapons, approach so near for my deliverance.\n\nHOLY-MAN. Then said Mr. Holy-man, There are two things that they\nhave need to be possessed with, that go on pilgrimage; courage,\nand an unspotted life. If they have not courage, they can never\nhold on their way; and if their lives be loose, they will make the\nvery name of a Pilgrim stink.\n\nLOVE-SAINT. Then said Mr. Love-saint, I hope this caution is not\nneedful amongst you. But truly, there are many that go upon the\nroad, that rather declare themselves strangers to pilgrimage, than\nstrangers and pilgrims in the earth.\n\nDARE-NOT-LIE. Then said Mr. Dare-not-lie, It is true, they neither\nhave the pilgrim's need, nor the pilgrim's courage; they go not\nuprightly, but all awry with their feet; one shoe goes inward,\nanother outward, and their hosen out behind; there a rag, and there\na rent, to the disparagement of their Lord.\n\nPENITENT. These things, said Mr. Penitent, they ought to be troubled\nfor; nor are the pilgrims like to have that grace put upon them\nand their pilgrim's progress, as they desire, until the way is\ncleared of such spots and blemishes.\n\nThus they sat talking and spending the time, until supper was set\nupon the table; unto which they went and refreshed their weary\nbodies; so they went to rest. Now they stayed in this fair a great\nwhile, at the house of this Mr. Mnason, who, in process of time,\ngave his daughter Grace unto Samuel, Christiana's son, to wife,\nand his daughter Martha to Joseph.\n\nThe time, as I said, that they lay here, was long (for it was not\nnow as in former times). Wherefore the Pilgrims grew acquainted\nwith many of the good people of the town, and did them what service\nthey could. Mercy, as she was wont, laboured much for the poor;\nwherefore their bellies and backs blessed her, and she was there an\nornament to her profession.[258] And, to say the truth for Grace,\nPhoebe, and Martha, they were all of a very good nature, and did\nmuch good in their place. They were also all of them very fruitful;\nso that Christian's name, as was said before, was like to live in\nthe world.\n\nWhile they lay here, there came a monster out of the woods, and\nslew many of the people of the town. It would also carry away their\nchildren, and teach them to suck its whelps.[259] Now, no man in\nthe town durst so much as face this monster; but all men fled when\nthey heard of the noise of his coming.\n\nThe monster was like unto no one beast upon the earth; its body was\nlike a dragon, and it had seven heads and ten horns (Rev. 17:3).\nIt made great havoc of children, and yet it was governed by a\nwoman.[260] This monster propounded conditions to men, and such\nmen as loved their lives more than their souls, accepted of those\nconditions. So they came under.[261]\n\nNow this Mr. Great-heart, together with these that came to visit\nthe pilgrims at Mr. Mnason's house, entered into a covenant to go\nand engage this beast, if perhaps they might deliver the people\nof this town from the paws and mouth of this so devouring a serpent.\n\nThen did Mr. Great-heart, Mr. Contrite, Mr. Holy-man, Mr. Dare-not-lie,\nand Mr. Penitent, with their weapons go forth to meet him. Now\nthe monster, at first, was very rampant, and looked upon these\nenemies with great disdain; but they so belaboured him, being\nsturdy men at arms, that they made him make a retreat; so they\ncame home to Mr. Mnason's house again.\n\nThe monster, you must know, had his certain seasons to come out\nin, and to make his attempts upon the children of the people of the\ntown; also these seasons did these valiant worthies watch him in,\nand did still continually assault him; insomuch, that in process\nof time he became not only wounded, but lame; also he has not made\nthat havoc of the townsmen's children, as formerly he has done.\nAnd it is verily believed by some, that this beast will die of his\nwounds.[262]\n\nThis, therefore, made Mr. Great-heart and his fellows of great fame\nin this town; so that many of the people that wanted their taste\nof things, yet had a reverend esteem and respect for them.[263]\nUpon this account therefore it was, that these pilgrims got not\nmuch hurt here. True, there were some of the baser sort, that\ncould see no more than a mole, nor understand more than a beast;\nthese had no reverence for these men, nor took they notice of\ntheir valour or adventures.[264]\n\nWell, the time grew on that the Pilgrims must go on their way,\nwherefore they prepared for their journey. They sent for their\nfriends; they conferred with them; they had some time set apart,\ntherein to commit each other to the protection of their Prince.\nThere were again, that brought them of such things as they had,\nthat were fit for the weak and the strong, for the women and the\nmen, and so laded them with such things as were necessary (Acts\n28:10).\n\nThen they set forward on their way; and their friends accompanying\nthem so far as was convenient, they again committed each other to\nthe protection of their King, and parted. They, therefore, that\nwere of the Pilgrims' company went on, and Mr. Great-heart went\nbefore them. Now the women and children being weakly, they were\nforced to go as they could bear; by this means Mr. Ready-to-halt\nand Mr. Feeble-mind had more to sympathize with their condition.\n\nWhen they were gone from the townsmen, and when their friends had\nbid them farewell; they quickly came to the place where Faithful\nwas put to death; there therefore they made a stand, and thanked\nHim that had enabled him to bear his cross so well; and the rather\nbecause they now found that they had a benefit by such a manly\nsuffering as his was.[265]\n\nThey went on, therefore, after this, a good way further, talking\nof Christian and Faithful; and how Hopeful joined himself to\nChristian after that Faithful was dead.\n\nNow they were come up with the Hill Lucre, where the silver mine\nwas, which took Demas off from his pilgrimage, and into which, as\nsome think, By-ends fell and perished; wherefore they considered\nthat. But when they were come to the old monument that stood over\nagainst the Hill Lucre, to wit, to the pillar of salt that stood\nalso within view of Sodom and its stinking lake; they marveled,\nas did Christian before, that men of that knowledge and ripeness\nof wit, as they were, should be so blinded as to turn aside here.\nOnly they considered again, that nature is not affected with the\nharms that others have met with, especially if that thing upon\nwhich they look, has an attracting virtue upon the foolish eye.\n\nI saw now that they went on, till they came at the river that was\non this side of the Delectable Mountains. To the river where the\nfine trees grow on both sides; and whose leaves, if taken inwardly,\nare good against surfeits, where the meadows are green all the\nyear long, and where they might lie down safely (Psa. 23).\n\nBy this river side, in the meadow, there were cotes and folds for\nsheep, a house built for the nourishing and bringing up of those\nlambs, the babes of those women that go on pilgrimage (Heb. 5:2).\nAlso there was here one that was intrusted with them, who could\nhave compassion, and that could gather these lambs with His arm,\nand carry them in His bosom, and that could gently lead those\nthat were with young (Isa. 40:11). Now to the care of THIS MAN,\nChristiana admonished her four daughters to commit their little ones,\nthat by these waters they might be housed, harboured, succoured,\nand nourished, and that none of them might be lacking in time to\ncome.[266] This Man, if any of them go astray, or be lost, He will\nbring them again; He will also bind up that which was broken, and\nwill strengthen them that are sick (Ezek. 34:11-16). Here they\nwill never want meat, and drink, and clothing; here they will be\nkept from thieves and robbers; for this Man will die before one\nof those committed to His trust shall be lost (Jer. 23:4).\n\nBesides, here they shall be sure to have good nurture and admonition,\nand shall be taught to walk in right paths, and that you know is\na favour of no small account. Also here, as you see, are delicate\nwaters, pleasant meadows, dainty flowers, variety of trees, and\nsuch as bear wholesome fruit; fruit not like that that Matthew ate\nof, that fell over the wall out of Beelzebub's garden; but fruit\nthat procureth health where there is none, and that continueth and\nincreaseth it where it is.[267]\n\nSo they were content to commit their little ones to Him; and that\nwhich was also an encouragement to them so to do, was, for that\nall this was to be at the charge of the King, and so was as an\nhospital for young children and orphans.\n\nNow they went on; and when they were come to By-path Meadow, to\nthe stile over which Christian went with his fellow Hopeful, when\nthey were taken by Giant Despair, and put into Doubting Castle;\nthey sat down and consulted what was best to be done; to wit, now\nthey were so strong, and had got such a man as Mr. Great-heart\nfor their conductor, whether they had not best to make an attempt\nupon the Giant, demolish his castle, and, if there were any pilgrims\nin it, to set them at liberty, before they went any further. So\none said one thing, and another said the contrary. One questioned\nif it were lawful to go upon unconsecrated ground; another said\nthey might, provided their end was good; but Mr. Great-heart said,\nThough that assertion offered last cannot be universally true,\nyet I have a commandment to resist sin, to overcome evil, to fight\nthe good fight of faith; and, I pray, with whom should I fight\nthis good fight, if not with Giant Despair? I will, therefore,\nattempt the taking away of his life, and the demolishing of Doubting\nCastle. Then said he, Who will go with me? Then said old Honest,\nI will. And so will we too, said Christiana's four sons, Matthew,\nSamuel, James, and Joseph; for they were young men and strong (1\nJohn 3:13, 14). So they left the women in the road, and with them\nMr. Feeble-mind and Mr. Ready-to-halt with his crutches, to be\ntheir guard, until they came back; for in that place though Giant\nDespair dwelt so near, they keeping in the road, a little child\nmight lead them (Isa. 11:6). So Mr. Great-heart, old Honest, and\nthe four young men, went to go up to Doubting Castle, to look for\nGiant Despair. When they came at the Castle-gate, they knocked\nfor entrance with an unusual noise. At that the old Giant comes\nto the gate, and Diffidence, his wife, follows. Then said he, Who,\nand what is he that is so hardy, as after this manner to molest\nthe Giant Despair?\n\nMr. Great-heart replied, It is I, Great-heart, one of the King of\nthe Celestial Country's conductors of pilgrims to their place;\nand I demand of thee that thou open thy gates for my entrance.\nPrepare thyself also to fight, for I am come to take away thy\nhead, and to demolish Doubting Castle.\n\nNow Giant Despair, because he was a giant, thought no man could\novercome him; and, again, thought he, since heretofore I have\nmade a conquest of angels, shall Great-heart make me afraid! So he\nharnessed himself, and went out. He had a cap of steel upon his\nhead, a breast-plate of fire girded to him, and he came out in iron\nshoes with a great club in his hand. Then these six men made up to\nhim, and beset him behind and before. Also when Diffidence, the\ngiantess, came up to help him, old Mr. Honest cut her down at\none blow. Then they fought for their lives, and Giant Despair was\nbrought down to the ground, but was very loath to die. He struggled\nhard, and had, as they say, as many lives as a cat; but Great-heart\nwas his death, for he left him not till he had severed his head\nfrom his shoulders.[268]\n\nThen they fell to demolishing Doubting Castle, that you know might\nwith ease be done, since Giant Despair was dead. They were seven\ndays in destroying of that; and in it of pilgrims they found one\nMr. Despondency, almost starved to death, and one Much-afraid, his\ndaughter; these two they saved alive. But it would have made you\na-wondered to have seen the dead bodies that lay here and there\nin the castle-yard, and how full of dead men's bones the dungeon\nwas.\n\nWhen Mr. Great-heart and his companions had performed this\nexploit, they took Mr. Despondency, and his daughter Much-afraid,\ninto their protection; for they were honest people, though they\nwere prisoners in Doubting Castle, to that tyrant Giant Despair.\nThey, therefore, I say, took with them the head of the Giant,\nfor his body they had buried under a heap of stones, and down to\nthe road and to their companions they came, and showed them what\nthey had done. Now when Feeble-mind and Ready-to-halt saw that it\nwas the head of Giant Despair indeed, they were very jocund and\nmerry.[269] Now Christiana, if need was, could play upon the viol,\nand her daughter Mercy upon the lute; so, since they were so merry\ndisposed, she played them a lesson, and Ready-to-halt would dance.\nSo he took Despondency's daughter, named Much-afraid, by the hand,\nand to dancing they went in the road. True, he could not dance\nwithout one crutch in his hand; but, I promise you, he footed\nit well. Also the girl was to be commended, for she answered the\nmusic handsomely.\n\nAs for Mr. Despondency, the music was not much to him; he was for\nfeeding rather than dancing, for that he was almost starved. So\nChristiana gave him some of her bottle of spirits, for present\nrelief, and then prepared him something to eat; and, in little\ntime, the old gentleman came to himself, and began to be finely\nrevived.\n\nNow I saw in my dream, when all these things were finished, Mr.\nGreat-heart took the head of Giant Despair, and set it upon a pole\nby the highway side, right over against the pillar that Christian\nerected for a caution to pilgrims that came after, to take heed of\nentering into his grounds.[270]\n\n\nThough Doubting Castle be demolish'd,\nAnd the Giant Despair hath lost his head,\nSin can rebuild the Castle, make't remain,\nAnd make Despair the Giant live again.\n\n\nThen he writ under it, upon a marble stone these verses following:\n\n\nThis the head of him, whose name only\nIn former times did pilgrims terrify.\nHis Castle's down; and Diffidence, his wife,\nBrave Master Great-heart has bereft of life.\nDespondency, his daughter Much-afraid,\nGreat-heart for them also the man has play'd;\nWho hereof doubts, if he'll but cast his eye\nUp hither, may his scruples satisfy.\nThis head also, when doubting cripples dance,\nDoth show from fears they have deliverance.\n\n\nWhen these men had thus bravely showed themselves against Doubting\nCastle, and had slain Giant Despair, they went forward; and went\non till they came to the Delectable Mountains, where Christian\nand Hopeful refreshed themselves with the varieties of the place.\nThey also acquainted themselves with the shepherds there, who\nwelcomed them, as they had done Christian before, unto the Delectable\nMountains.\n\nNow the Shepherds, seeing, so great a train follow Mr. Great-heart,\nfor with him they were well acquainted, they said unto him, Good\nSir, you have got a goodly company here. Pray, where did you find\nall these?\n\nThen Mr. Great-heart replied:\n\n\nFirst, here is Christiana and her train,\nHer sons, and her sons' wives, who like the wain,[271]\nKeep by the pole, and do by compass steer,\nFrom sin to grace, else they had not been here;\nNext, here's old Honest come on pilgrimage,\nReady-to-halt, too, who, I dare engage,\nTrue-hearted is, and so is Feeble-mind,\nWho willing was not to be left behind;\nDespondency, good man, is coming after,\nAnd so also is Much-afraid his daughter.\nMay we have entertainment here, or must\nWe further go? Let's know whereon to trust.\n\n\nThen said the Shepherds, This is a comfortable company. You are\nwelcome to us, for we have [comfort] for the feeble as for the\nstrong. Our Prince has an eye to what is done to the least of these;\ntherefore infirmity must not be a block to our entertainment (Matt.\n25:40). So they had them to the palace door, and then said unto\nthem, Come in, Mr. Feeble-mind; Come in, Mr. Ready-to-halt; come\nin, Mr. Despondency, and Mrs. Much-afraid, his daughter.[272]\nThese, Mr. Great-heart, said the Shepherds to the guide, we call\nin by name, for that they are most subject to draw back; but as\nfor you, and the rest that are strong, we leave you to your wonted\nliberty. Then said Mr. Great-heart, This day I see that grace doth\nshine in your faces, and that you are my Lord's Shepherds indeed;\nfor that you have not pushed these diseased neither with side nor\nshoulder, but have rather strewed their way into the palace with\nflowers, as you should[273] (Ezek. 34:21). So the feeble and weak\nwent in, and Mr. Great-heart and the rest did follow. When they\nwere also set down, the Shepherds said to those of the weaker\nsort, What is it that you would have? for, said they, all things\nmust be managed here to the supporting of the weak, as well as\nthe warning of the unruly.\n\nSo they made them a feast of things easy of digestion, and that\nwere pleasant to the palate, and nourishing; the which, when they\nhad received, they went to their rest, each one respectively unto\nhis proper place. When morning was come, because the mountains\nwere high, and the day clear, and because it was the custom of the\nShepherds to show to the Pilgrims, before their departure, some\nrarities;[274] therefore, after they were ready, and had refreshed\nthemselves, the Shepherds took them out into the fields, and\nshowed them first what they had showed to Christian before. Then\nthey had them to some new places. The first was to Mount Marvel,\nwhere looked, and beheld a man at a distance, that tumbled the\nhills about with words. Then they asked the Shepherds what that\nshould mean? So they told them, that that man was a son of one\nGreat-grace, of whom you read in the First Part of the Records of\nthe Pilgrim's Progress. And he is set there to teach pilgrims how\nto believe down, or to tumble out of their way, what difficulties\nthey shall meet with, by faith[275] (Mark 11:23, 24). Then said\nMr. Great-heart, I know him. He is a man above many.\n\nThen they had them to another place, called Mount Innocent; and\nthere they saw a man clothed all in white, and two men, Prejudice\nand Ill-will, continually casting dirt upon him. Now, behold, the\ndirt, whatsoever they cast at him, would in little time fall off\nagain, and his garments would look as clear as if no dirt had been\ncast thereat.[276]\n\nThen said the Pilgrims, What means this? The Shepherds answered,\nThis man is named Godly-man, and this garment is to show the innocency\nof his life. Now, those that throw dirt at him, are such as hate\nhis well-doing; but, as you see the dirt will not stick upon his\nclothes, so it shall be with him that liveth truly innocently in\nthe world. Whoever they be that would make such men dirty, they\nlabour all in vain; for God, by that a little time is spent, will\ncause that their innocence shall break forth as the light, and\ntheir righteousness as the noon-day.\n\nThen they took them, and had them to Mount Charity, where they\nshowed them a man that had a bundle of cloth lying before him, out\nof which he cut coats and garments for the poor that stood about\nhim; yet his bundle or roll of cloth was never the less. Then said\nthey, What should this be? This is, said the Shepherds, to show\nyou, that he that has a heart to give of his labour to the poor,\nshall never want wherewithal. He that watereth shall be watered\nhimself. And the cake that the widow gave to the Prophet did not\ncause that she had ever the less in her barrel.\n\nThey had them also to a place where they saw one Fool, and one\nWant-wit, washing of an Ethiopian, with intention to make him\nwhite; but the more they washed him the blacker he was. They then\nasked the Shepherds what that should mean. So they told them,\nsaying, Thus shall it be with the vile person. All means used to\nget such a one a good name shall, in conclusion, tend but to make\nhim more abominable. Thus it was with the Pharisees, and so shall\nit be with all hypocrites.[277]\n\nThen said Mercy, the wife of Matthew, to Christiana, her mother,\nMother, I would, if it might be, see the hole in the hill, or that\ncommonly called the by-way to hell. So her mother brake her mind\nto the Shepherds. Then they went to the door. It was in the side of\na hill, and they opened it, and bid Mercy hearken awhile. So she\nhearkened, and heard one saying, Cursed be my father, for holding\nof my feet back from the way of peace and life; and another said,\nO that I had been torn in pieces, before I had, to save my life,\nlost my soul! and another said, If I were to live again, how would\nI deny myself, rather than come to this place! Then there was as\nif the very earth had groaned and quaked under the feet of this\nyoung woman for fear. So she looked white, and came trembling\naway, saying, Blessed be he and she that are delivered from this\nplace.[278] Now when the Shepherds had shown them all these things,\nthen they had them back to the palace, and entertained them with\nwhat the house would afford. But Mercy being a young and breeding\nwoman, longed for something that she saw there, but was ashamed\nto ask. Her mother-in-law then asked her what she ailed; for she\nlooked as one not well. Then said Mercy, There is a looking-glass\nhangs up in the dining-room, off which I cannot take my mind: if,\ntherefore, I have it not, I think I shall miscarry. Then said her\nmother, I will mention thy wants to the Shepherds, and they will\nnot deny it thee. But she said, I am ashamed that these men should\nknow that I longed. Nay, my daughter, said she, it is no shame but\na virtue, to long for such a thing as that. So Mercy said, Then,\nmother, if you please, ask the Shepherds if they are willing to\nsell it.\n\nNow the glass was one of a thousand. It would present a man, one\nway, with his own features exactly (James 1:23); and, turn it but\nanother way, and it would show one the very face and similitude of\nthe Prince of Pilgrims Himself (1 Cor. 13:12). Yea, I have talked\nwith them that can tell, and they have said, that they have seen\nthe very crown of thorns upon His head, by looking in that glass;\nthey have therein also seen the holes in His hands, in His feet,\nand His side (2 Cor. 3:18). Yea, such an excellency is there in\nthat glass, that it will show Him, to one where they have a mind\nto see Him; whether living or dead; whether in earth or Heaven;\nwhether in a state of humiliation, or in His exaltation; whether\ncoming to suffer, or coming to reign.[279]\n\nChristiana, therefore, went to the Shepherds apart[280]--now\nthe names of the Shepherds are Knowledge, Experience, Watchful,\nand Sincere--and said unto them, There is one of my daughters, a\nbreeding woman, that I think doth long for something that she hath\nseen in this house; and she thinks she shall miscarry, if she shall\nby you be denied.\n\nEXPERIENCE. Call her, call her; she shall assuredly have what we\ncan help her to. So they called her, and said to her, Mercy, what\nis that thing thou wouldst have? Then she blushed, and said, The\ngreat glass that hangs up in the dining-room. So Sincere ran and\nfetched it, and, with a joyful consent, it was given her. Then she\nbowed her head, and gave thanks, and said, By this I know that I\nhave obtained favour in your eyes.\n\nThey also gave to the other young women such things as they\ndesired, and to their husbands great commendations, for that they\nhad joined with Mr. Great-heart, to the slaying of Giant Despair,\nand the demolishing of Doubting Castle.\n\nAbout Christiana's neck, the Shepherds put a bracelet, and so they\ndid about the necks of her four daughters; also they put earrings\nin their ears, and jewels on their foreheads.[281]\n\nWhen they were minded to go hence, they let them go in peace, but\ngave not to them those certain cautions which before were given to\nChristian and his companion. The reason was, for that these had\nGreat-heart to be their guide, who was one that was well acquainted\nwith things, and so could give them their cautions more seasonably;\nto wit, even then when the danger was nigh the approaching.\n\nWhat cautions Christian and his companion had received of the\nShepherds, they had also lost, by that the time was come that they\nhad need to put them in practice. Wherefore, here was the advantage\nthat this company had over the other.\n\n\nFrom hence they went on singing, and they said,\nBehold, how fitly are the stages set\nFor their relief that pilgrims are become!\nAnd how they us receive without one let,\nThat makes the other life our mark and home!\n\nWhat novelties they have to us they give,\nThat we, though Pilgrims, joyful lives may live;\nThey do upon us, too, such things bestow,\nThat show we Pilgrims are, where'er we go.\n\n\nWhen they were gone from the Shepherds, they quickly came to the\nplace where Christian met with one Turn-away, that dwelt in the\ntown of Apostasy. Wherefore of him Mr. Great-heart, their guide,\ndid now put them in mind, saying, This is the place where Christian\nmet with one Turn-away, who carried with him the character of\nhis rebellion at his back. And this I have to say concerning this\nman; he would hearken to no counsel, but once falling, persuasion\ncould not stop him.\n\nWhen he came to the place where the Cross and the Sepulchre were,\nhe did meet with one that did bid him look there, but he gnashed\nwith his teeth, and stamped, and said, he was resolved to go back\nto his own town. Before he came to the gate, he met with Evangelist,\nwho offered to lay hands on him, to turn him into the way again.\nBut this Turn-away resisted him, and having done much despite\nunto him, he got away over the wall, and so escaped his hand (Heb.\n10:26-29).\n\nThen they went on; and just at the place where Little-faith formerly\nwas robbed, there stood a man with his sword drawn, and his face\nall bloody. Then said Mr. Great-heart, What art thou? The man made\nanswer, saying, I am one whose name is Valiant-for-truth. I am a\npilgrim, and am going to the Celestial City. Now, as I was in my\nway, there were three men did beset me, and propounded unto me\nthese three things: 1. Whether I would become one of them. 2. Or\ngo back from whence I came. 3. Or die upon the place.[282] To\nthe first, I answered, I had been a true man a long season, and\ntherefore it could not be expected that I now should cast in my\nlot with thieves (Prov. 1:10-14). Then they demanded what I would\nsay to the second. So I told them that the place from whence I\ncame, had I not found incommodity there, I had not forsaken it at\nall; but finding it altogether unsuitable to me, and very unprofitable\nfor me, I forsook it for this way. Then they asked me what I said\nto the third. And I told them, My life cost more dear far, than\nthat I should lightly give it away. Besides, you have nothing to\ndo thus to put things to my choice; wherefore, at your peril be it,\nif you meddle. Then these three, to wit, Wild-head, Inconsiderate,\nand Pragmatic, drew upon me, and I also drew upon them.\n\nSo we fell to it, one against three, for the space of above three\nhours. They have left upon me, as you see, some of the marks of\ntheir valour, and have also carried away with them some of mine.\nThey are but just now gone. I suppose they might, as the saying\nis, heard your horse dash, and so they betook them to flight.\n\nGREAT-HEART. But here was great odds, three against one.\n\nVALIANT. It is true; but little or more are nothing to him that\nhas the truth on his side. 'Though an host should encamp against\nme,' said one, 'my heart shall not fear; though war should rise\nagainst me, in this will I be confident' (Psa. 27:3). Besides,\nsaith he, I have read in some records, that one man has fought\nan army. And how many did Samson slay with the jaw-bone of an\nass?[283] (Judg. 15:15, 16).\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said the guide, Why did you not cry out, that\nsome might have come in for your succour?\n\nVALIANT. So I did, to my King, who, I knew, could hear, and afford\ninvisible help, and that was sufficient for me.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then said Great-heart to Mr. Valiant-for-truth, Thou\nhast worthily behaved thyself. Let me see thy sword. So he showed\nit him. When he had taken it in his hand, and looked thereon a\nwhile, he said, Ha! it is a right Jerusalem blade (Isa. 2:3).\n\nVALIANT. It is so. Let a man have one of these blades, with a hand\nto wield it and skill to use it, and he may venture upon an angel\nwith it. He need not fear its holding, if he can but tell how to\nlay on. Its edges will never blunt. It will cut flesh and bones,\nand soul and spirit, and all (Eph. 6:12-17; Heb. 4:12).\n\nGREAT-HEART. But you fought a great while; I wonder you was not\nweary.\n\nVALIANT. I fought till my sword did cleave to my hand; and when\nthey were joined together, as if a sword grew out of my arm, and\nwhen the blood ran through my fingers, then I fought with most\ncourage[284] (2 Sam. 23:10).\n\nGREAT-HEART. Thou hast done well. Thou hast 'resisted unto blood,\nstriving against sin.' Thou shalt abide by us, come in and go out\nwith us, for we are thy companions.\n\nThen they took him, and washed his wounds, and gave him of what\nthey had to refresh him; and so they went on together. Now, as\nthey went on, because Mr. Great-heart was delighted in him, for\nhe loved one greatly that he found to be a man of his hands, and\nbecause there were with his company them that were feeble and weak,\ntherefore he questioned with him about many things; as, first,\nwhat countryman he was?[285]\n\nVALIANT. I am of Dark-land; for there I was born, and there my\nfather and mother are still.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Dark-land, said the guide; doth not that lie up on\nthe same coast with the City of Destruction?\n\nVALIANT. Yes, it doth. Now, that which caused me to come on\npilgrimage was this; we had one Mr. Tell-true came into our parts,\nand he told it about what Christian had done, that went from the\nCity of Destruction; namely, how he had forsaken his wife and\nchildren, and had betaken himself to a pilgrim's life. It was also\nconfidently reported, how he had killed a serpent that did come out\nto resist him in his journey, and how he got through to whither he\nintended. It was also told, what welcome he had at all his Lord's\nlodgings, especially when he came to the gates of the Celestial City;\nfor there, said the man, he was received with sound of trumpet,\nby a company of Shining Ones. He told it also, how all the bells\nin the city did ring for joy at his reception, and what golden\ngarments he was clothed with, with many other things that now I\nshall forbear to relate. In a word, that man so told the story of\nChristian and his travels, that my heart fell into a burning haste\nto be gone after him; nor could father or mother stay me! So I got\nfrom them, and am come thus far on my way.\n\nGREAT-HEART. You came in at the gate, did you not?\n\nVALIANT. Yes, yes; for the same man also told us that all would\nbe nothing, if we did not begin to enter this way at the gate.[286]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Look you, said the guide to Christiana, the pilgrimage\nof your husband, and what he has gotten thereby, is spread abroad\nfar and near.\n\nVALIANT. Why, is this Christian's wife?\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes, that it is; and these are also her four sons.\n\nVALIANT. What! and going on pilgrimage too?\n\nGREAT-HEART. Yes, verily; they are following after.\n\nVALIANT. It glads me at heart. Good man! how joyful will he be when\nhe shall see them that would not go with him, yet to enter after\nhim in at the gates into the City!\n\nGREAT-HEART. Without doubt it will be a comfort to him; for, next\nto the joy of seeing himself there, it will be a joy to meet there\nhis wife and children.\n\nVALIANT. But, now you are upon that, pray let me hear your opinion\nabout it. Some make a question, Whether we shall know one another\nwhen we are there.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Do they think they shall know themselves then, or\nthat they shall rejoice to see themselves in that bliss? and if\nthey think they shall know and do these, why not know others, and\nrejoice in their welfare also?[287]\n\nAgain, since relations are our second self, though that state will\nbe dissolved there; yet why may it not be rationally concluded,\nthat we shall be more glad to see them there, than to see they\nare wanting?\n\nVALIANT. Well, I perceive whereabouts you are as to this. Have you\nany more things to ask me about my beginning to come on pilgrimage?[288]\n\nGREAT-HEART, Yes. Was your father and mother willing that you\nshould become a pilgrim?\n\nVALIANT. O no! They used all means imaginable to persuade me to\nstay at home.\n\nGREAT-HEART, What could they say against it?\n\nVALIANT. They said it was an idle life; and if I myself were\nnot inclined to sloth and laziness, I would never countenance a\npilgrim's condition.[289]\n\nGREAT-HEART. And what did they say else?\n\nVALIANT. Why, they told me that it was a dangerous way; yea, the\nmost dangerous way in the world, said they, is that which the\npilgrims go.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Did they show wherein this way is so dangerous?\n\nVALIANT. Yes; and that in many particulars.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Name some of them.\n\nVALIANT. They told me of the Slough of Despond, where Christian\nwas well nigh smothered. They told me that there were archers\nstanding ready in Beelzebub Castle, to shoot them that should\nknock at the wicket-gate for entrance. They told me also of the\nwood, and dark mountains; of the Hill Difficulty; of the lions; and\nalso of the three giants, Bloody-man, Maul, and Slay-good. They\nsaid, moreover, that there was a foul fiend haunted the Valley of\nHumiliation, and that Christian was by him almost bereft of life.\nBesides, said they, you must go over the Valley of the Shadow\nof Death, where the hobgoblins are; where the light is darkness;\nwhere the way is full of snares, pits, traps, and gins. They told\nme also of Giant Despair, of Doubting Castle, and of the ruin that\nthe Pilgrims met with there. Further they said I must go over the\nEnchanted Ground: which was dangerous. And that, after all this, I\nshould find a river, over which I should find no bridge, and that\nthat river did be betwixt me and the Celestial Country.\n\nGREAT-HEART. And was this all?\n\nVALIANT. No. They also told me that this way was full of deceivers,[290]\nand of persons that laid in wait there to turn good men out of\nthe path.\n\nGREAT-HEART. But how did they make that out?\n\nVALIANT. They told me that Mr. Worldly-wiseman did there lie in\nwait to deceive. They also said, that there was Formality and\nHypocrisy continually on the road. They said also that By-ends,\nTalkative, or Demas would go near to gather me up; that the Flatterer\nwould catch me in his net; or that, with green-headed Ignorance,\nI would presume to go on to the gate, from whence he always was\nsent back to the hole that was in the side of the hill, and made\nto go the by-way to hell.\n\nGREAT-HEART. I promise you this was enough to discourage; but did\nthey make an end here?\n\nVALIANT. No; stay. They told me also of many that had tried that\nway of old, and that had gone a great way therein, to see if they\ncould find something of the glory there, that so many had so much\ntalked of from time to time; and how they came back again, and\nbefooled themselves for setting a foot out of doors in that path,\nto the satisfaction of all the country. And they named several\nthat did so; as Obstinate and Pliable, Mistrust and Timorous,\nTurn-away and old Atheist, with several more, who, they said, had\nsome of them, gone far to see if they could find; but not one of\nthem found so much advantage by going as amounted to the weight\nof a feather.[291]\n\nGREAT-HEART. Said they anything more to discourage you?\n\nVALIANT. Yes. They told me of one Mr. Fearing who was a pilgrim;\nand how he found this way so solitary, that he never had comfortable\nhour therein. Also that Mr. Despondency had like to have been\nstarved therein; yea, and also, which I had almost forgot, that\nChristian himself, about whom there has been such a noise, after\nall his ventures for a celestial crown, was certainly drowned in\nthe Black River, and never went foot further, however it was\nsmothered up.[292]\n\nGREAT-HEART. And did none of these things discourage you?\n\nVALIANT. No; they seemed but as so many nothings to me.\n\nGREAT-HEART. How came that about?\n\nVALIANT. Why, I still believed what Mr. Tell-true had said, and\nthat carried me beyond them all.\n\nGREAT-HEART. Then this was your victory, even your faith.\n\nVALIANT. It was so. I believed, by the grace of God, and therefore\ncame out, got into the way, fought all that set themselves against\nme, and, by believing, am come to this place.[293]\n\n\nWho would true valour see,\nLet him come hither;\nOne here will constant be,\nCome wind, come weather.\nThere's no discouragement\nShall make him once relent,\nHis first avow'd intent\nTo be a pilgrim.\n\nWho so beset him round\nWith dismal stories,\nDo but themselves confound.\nHis strength the more is;\nNo lion can him fright,\nHe'll with a giant fight;\nBut he will have a right\nTo be a pilgrim.\n\nHobgoblin nor foul fiend\nCan daunt his spirit;\nHe knows he at the end\nShall life inherit.\nThen fancies fly away,\nHe'll fear not what men say;\nHe'll labour night and day\nTo be a pilgrim.\n\n\nBy this time they were got to the Enchanted Ground,[294] where the\nair naturally tended to make one drowsy; and that place was all\ngrown over with briars and thorns, excepting here and there, where\nwas an Enchanted Arbour, upon which if a man sits, or in which, if\na man sleeps, it is a question, say some, whether ever he shall\nrise or wake again in this world.[295] Over this forest, therefore,\nthey went, both one and the other, and Mr. Great-heart went before,\nfor that he was the guide; and Mr. Valiant-for-truth, he came\nbehind, being there a guard, for fear, lest peradventure some\nfiend, or dragon, or giant, or thief, should fall upon their rear,\nand so do mischief. They went on here, each man with his sword\ndrawn in his hand, for they knew it was a dangerous place. Also\nthey cheered up one another as well as they could; Feeble-mind,\nMr. Great-heart commanded, should come up after him, and Mr.\nDespondency was under the eye of Mr. Valiant.[296]\n\nNow they had not gone far, but a great mist and darkness fell upon\nthem all, so that they could scarce, for a great while, see the one\nthe other; wherefore they were forced, for some time, to feel for\none another by words; for they walked not by sight.\n\nBut anyone must think that here was but sorry going for the best\nof them all; but how much worse for the women and children, who\nboth of feet and heart, were but tender. Yet so it was, that through\nthe encouraging words of he that led in the front, and of him that\nbrought them up behind, they made a pretty good shift to wag along.\n\nThe way also was here very wearisome, through dirt and slabbiness.\nNor was there on all this ground so much as one inn, or victualling\nhouse, therein to refresh the feebler sort. Here, therefore, was\ngrunting, and puffing, and sighing. While one tumbleth over a bush,\nanother sticks fast in the dirt; and the children, some of them,\nlost their shoes in the mire. While one cries out, I am down; and\nanother, Ho! where are you? and a third, The bushes have got such\nfast hold on me, I think I cannot get away from them.\n\nThen they came at an arbour, warm, and promising much refreshing\nto the Pilgrims; for it was finely wrought above the head, beautified\nwith greens, furnished with benches and settles.[297] It also had\nin it a soft couch, whereon the weary might lean. This, you must\nthink, all things considered, was tempting; for the Pilgrims\nalready began to be foiled with the badness of the way; but there\nwas not one of them that made so much as a motion to stop there.\nYea, for aught I could perceive, they continually gave so good\nheed to the advice of their guide, and he did so faithfully tell\nthem of dangers, and of the nature of dangers, when they were at\nthem, that usually, when they were nearest to them, they did most\npluck up their spirits, and hearten one another to deny the flesh.\nThis arbour was called The Slothful's Friend, on purpose to allure,\nif it might be, some of the pilgrims there to take up their rest\nwhen weary.\n\nI saw then in my dream, that they went on in this their solitary\nground, till they came to a place at which a man is apt to lose\nhis way.[298] Now, though when it was light, their guide could\nwell enough tell how to miss those ways that led wrong, yet in the\ndark he was put to a stand; but he had in his pocket a map of all\nways leading to, or from the Celestial City; wherefore he struck\na light, for he never goes also without his tinder-box, and takes\na view of his book or map, which bids him be careful, in that\nplace, to turn to the right-hand way. And had he not here been\ncareful to look in his map, they had all, in probability, been\nsmothered in the mud; for, just a little before them, and that at\nthe end of the cleanest way too, was a pit, none knows how deep,\nfull of nothing but mud, there made on purpose to destroy the\nPilgrims in.[299]\n\nThen thought I with myself, who that goeth on pilgrimage, but would\nhave one of these maps about him, that he may look when he is at\na stand, which is the way he must take.[300]\n\nThey went on, then, in this Enchanted Ground, till they came to\nwhere there was another arbour, and it was built by the highway-side.\nAnd in that arbour there lay two men, whose names were Heedless\nand Too-bold.[301] These two went thus far on pilgrimage; but here,\nbeing wearied with their journey, they sat down to rest themselves,\nand so fell fast asleep. When the Pilgrims saw them, they stood\nstill, and shook their heads; for they knew that the sleepers were\nin a pitiful case. Then they consulted what to do, whether to go\non and leave them in their sleep, or to step to them, and try to\nawake them. So they concluded to go to them, and awake them; that\nis, if they could; but with this caution, namely, to take heed\nthat themselves did not sit down nor embrace the offered benefit\nof that arbour.\n\nSo they went in, and spake to the men, and called each by his\nname,[302] for the guide, it seems, did know them; but there was\nno voice nor answer. Then the guide did shake them, and do what\nhe could to disturb them. Then said one of them, I will pay you\nwhen I take my money. At which the guide shook his head. I will\nfight so long as I can hold my sword in my hand, said the other.\nAt that one of the children laughed.\n\nThen said Christiana, What is the meaning of this? The guide said,\nThey talk in their sleep. If you strike them, beat them, or whatever\nelse you do to them, they will answer you after this fashion; or,\nas one of them said in old time, when the waves of the sea did\nbeat upon him, and he slept as one upon the mast of a ship, 'When\nshall I awake? I will seek it yet again' (Prov. 23:34, 35). You\nknow, when men talk in their sleep, they say anything, but their\nwords are not governed either by faith or reason. There is an\nincoherency in their words now, as there was before, betwixt their\ngoing on pilgrimage, and sitting down here.[303] This, then, is\nthe mischief of it, when heedless ones go on pilgrimage, it is\ntwenty to one but they are served thus; for this Enchanted Ground\nis one of the last refuges that the enemy to pilgrims has. Wherefore\nit is, as you see, placed almost at the end of the way, and so\nit standeth against us with the more advantage. For when, thinks\nthe enemy, will these fools be so desirous to sit down, as when\nthey are weary? and when so like to be weary, as when almost at\ntheir journey's end? Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted\nGround is placed so nigh to the Land Beulah, and so near the end\nof their race.[304] Wherefore, let pilgrims look to themselves,\nlest it happen to them as it has done to these, that, as you see,\nare fallen asleep, and none can wake them.[305]\n\nThen the Pilgrims desired, with trembling, to go forward; only they\nprayed their guide to strike a light, that they might go the rest\nof their way by the help of the light, of a lantern.[306] So he\nstruck a light, and they went by the help of that through the rest\nof this way, though the darkness was very great (2 Peter 1:19).\n\nBut the children began to be sorely weary; and they cried out unto\nHim that loveth pilgrims, to make their way more comfortable. So\nby that they had gone a little further, a wind arose, that drove\naway the fog; so the air became more clear.\n\nYet they were not off, by much, of the Enchanted Ground, only now\nthey could see one another better, and the way wherein they should\nwalk.\n\nNow, when they were almost at the end of this ground, they perceived\nthat, a little before them, was a solemn noise of one that was\nmuch concerned. So they went on and looked before them; and behold,\nthey saw, as they thought, a man upon his knees, with hands and\neyes lift up, and speaking, as they thought, earnestly to One that\nwas above.[307] They drew nigh, but could not tell what he said.\nSo they went softly till he had done. When he had done, he got up,\nand began to run towards the Celestial City. Then Mr. Great-heart\ncalled after him, saying, Soho! friend, let us have your company,\nif you go, as I suppose you do, to the Celestial City. So the man\nstopped, and they came up to him. But so soon as Mr. Honest saw\nhim, he said, I know this man. Then said Mr. Valiant-for-truth,\nPrithee, who is it? It is one, said he, who comes from whereabouts I\ndwelt. His name is Stand-fast; he is certainly a right good pilgrim.\n\nSo they came up one to another; and presently Stand-fast said to\nold Honest, Ho, father Honest, are you there? Aye, said he, that I\nam, as sure as you are there. Right glad am I, said Mr. Stand-fast,\nthat I have found you on this road. And as glad am I, said the\nother, that I espied you upon your knees. Then Mr. Stand-fast\nblushed, and said, But why, did you see me? Yes, that I did, quoth\nthe other, and with my heart was glad at the sight. Why, what did\nyou think? said Stand-fast. Think! said old Honest, what should I\nthink? I thought we had an honest man upon the road, and therefore\nshould have his company by and by. If you thought not amiss [said\nStand-fast], how happy am I; but if I be not as I should, I alone\nmust bear it. That is true, said the other; but your fear doth\nfurther confirm me, that things are right betwixt the Prince of\nPilgrims and your soul; for, saith he, 'Blessed is the man that\nfeareth always.'\n\nVALIANT. Well, but brother, I pray thee tell us what was it that\nwas the cause of thy being upon thy knees even now? Was it for\nthat some special mercies laid obligations upon thee, or how?\n\nSTAND-FAST. Why, we are, as you see, upon the Enchanted Ground;\nand as I was coming along, I was musing with myself of what a\ndangerous road the road in this place was, and how many that had\ncome even thus far on pilgrimage had here been stopped, and been\ndestroyed. I thought also of the manner of the death with which\nthis place destroyeth men. Those that die here, die of no violent\ndistemper. The death which such die is not grievous to them; for\nhe that goeth away in a sleep, begins that journey with desire\nand pleasure; yea, such acquiesce in the will of that disease.\n\nHON. Then Mr. Honest, interrupting of him, said, Did you see the\ntwo men asleep in the arbour?\n\nSTAND-FAST. Aye, aye, I saw Heedless and Too-bold there; and, for\naught I know, there they will lie till they rot (Prov. 10:7). But\nlet me go on in my tale. As I was thus musing, as I said, there\nwas one, in very pleasant attire, but old, who presented herself\nunto me, and offered me three things; to wit, her body, her purse,\nand her bed. Now, the truth is, I was both a-weary and sleepy;\nI am also as poor as an owlet,[308] and that, perhaps, the witch\nknew. Well, I repulsed her once and twice, but she put by my\nrepulses, and smiled. Then I began to be angry; but she mattered\nthat nothing at all. Then she made offers again, and said, If I\nwould be ruled by her, she would make me great and happy; for, said\nshe, I am the mistress of the world, and men are made happy by me.\nThen I asked her name, and she told me it was Madam Bubble.[309]\nThis set me further from her; but she still followed me with\nenticements. Then I betook me as you saw, to my knees; and with\nhands lift up, and cries, I prayed to Him that had said He would\nhelp.[310] So, just as you came up, the gentlewoman went her way.\nThen I continued to give thanks for this my great deliverance; for\nI verily believe she intended no good, but rather sought to make\nstop of me in my journey.[311]\n\nHON. Without doubt her designs were bad. But stay, now you talk\nof her, methinks I either have seen her, or have read some story\nof her.\n\nSTAND-FAST. Perhaps you have done both.\n\nHON. Madam Bubble! is she not a tall, comely dame, something of\na swarthy complexion?\n\nSTAND-FAST. Right, you hit it, she is just such a one.\n\nHON. Doth she not speak very smoothly, and give you a smile at the\nend of a sentence?\n\nSTAND-FAST. You fall right upon it again, for these are her very\nactions.\n\nHON. Doth she not wear a great purse by her side; and is not her\nhand often in it, fingering her money, as if that was her heart's\ndelight?\n\nSTAND-FAST. It is just so; had she stood by all this while, you\ncould not more amply have set her forth before me, nor have better\ndescribed her features.\n\nHON. Then he that drew her picture was a good limner, and he that\nwrote of her said true.[312]\n\nGREAT-HEART. This woman is a witch, and it is by virtue of her\nsorceries that this ground is enchanted. Whoever doth lay their\nhead down in her lap, had as good lay it down upon that block\nover which the axe doth hang; and whoever lay their eyes upon her\nbeauty, are counted the enemies of God (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).\nThis is she that maintaineth in their splendour all those that are\nthe enemies of pilgrims. Yea, this is she that hath bought off\nmany a man from a pilgrim's life. She is a great gossipper; she\nis always, both she and her daughters, at one pilgrim's heels or\nanother, now commending, and then preferring the excellencies of\nthis life. She is a bold and impudent slut; she will talk with\nany man. She always laugheth poor pilgrims to scorn; but highly\ncommends the rich. If there be one cunning to get money in a\nplace, she will speak well of him from house to house; she loveth\nbanqueting and feasting mainly well; she is always at one full\ntable or another. She has given it out in some places, that she\nis a goddess, and therefore some do worship her. She has her times\nand open places of cheating; and she will say and avow it, that\nnone can show a good comparable to hers. She promiseth to dwell\nwith children's children, if they will but love and make much of\nher. She will cast out of her purse gold like dust, in some places,\nand to some persons. She loves to be sought after, spoken well of,\nand to lie in the bosoms of men. She is never weary of commending\nher commodities, and she loves them most that think best of her.\nShe will promise to some crowns and kingdoms, if they will but\ntake her advice; yet many hath she brought to the halter, and ten\nthousand times more to hell.\n\nSTAND-FAST. O, said Stand-fast, what a mercy is it that I did\nresist! for whither might she have drawn me!\n\nGREAT-HEART. Whither! nay, none but God knows whither. But, in\ngeneral, to be sure, she would have drawn thee into 'many foolish\nand hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition'--(1\nTim. 6:9).\n\nIt was she that set Absalom against his father, and Jeroboam against\nhis master. It was she that persuaded Judas to sell his Lord, and\nthat prevailed with Demas to forsake the godly pilgrims' life;\nnone can tell of the mischief that she doth. She makes variance\nbetwixt rulers and subjects, betwixt parents and children, betwixt\nneighbour and neighbour, betwixt a man and his wife, betwixt a man\nand himself, betwixt the flesh and the heart.\n\nWherefore, good Master Stand-fast, be as your name is, and 'when\nyou have done all, Stand.'[313]\n\nAt this discourse there was, among the Pilgrims, a mixture of joy\nand trembling; but at length they brake out, and sang--\n\n\nWhat danger is the pilgrim in!\nHow many are his foes!\nHow many ways there are to sin\nNo living mortal knows.\nSome of the ditch shy are, yet can\nLie tumbling in the mire;\nSome, though they shun the frying-pan,\nDo leap into the fire.\n\n\nAfter this, I beheld until they were come unto the Land of Beulah,\nwhere the sun shineth night and day.[314] Here, because they were\nweary, they betook themselves a while to rest; and, because this\ncountry was common for pilgrims, and because the orchards and\nvineyards that were here belonged to the King of the Celestial\ncountry, therefore they were licensed to make bold with any of His\nthings. But a little while soon refreshed them here; for the bells\ndid so ring, and the trumpets continually sound so melodiously,\nthat they could not sleep; and yet they received as much refreshing,\nas if they had slept their sleep ever so soundly. Here also all\nthe noise of them that walked in the streets, was, More pilgrims\nare come to town. And another would answer, saying, And so many\nwent over the water, and were let in at the golden gates today.\nThey would cry again, There is now a legion of Shining Ones just\ncome to town, by which we know that there are more pilgrims upon\nthe road; for here they come to wait for them, and to comfort\nthem after all their sorrow. Then the Pilgrims got up, and walked\nto and fro; but how were their ears now filled with heavenly\nnoises, and their eyes delighted with celestial visions! In this\nland they heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, smelled nothing,\ntasted nothing, that was offensive to their stomach or mind; only\nwhen they tasted of the water of the river over which they were\nto go, they thought that tasted a little bitterish to the palate,\nbut it proved sweeter when it was down.\n\nIn this place there was a record kept of the names of them that had\nbeen pilgrims of old, and a history of all the famous acts that\nthey had done. It was here also much discoursed how the river to\nsome had had its flowings, and what ebbings it has had while others\nhave gone over. It has been in a manner dry for some, while it\nhas overflowed its banks for others.\n\nIn this place the children of the town would go into the King's\ngardens, and gather nosegays for the Pilgrims, and bring them to them\nwith much affection. Here also grew camphire, with spikenard, and\nsaffron, calamus, and cinnamon, with all its trees of frankincense,\nmyrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices. With these the Pilgrims'\nchambers were perfumed, while they staid here; and with these were\ntheir bodies anointed, to prepare them to go over the river when\nthe time appointed was come.\n\nNow, while they lay here, and waited for the good hour, there was\na noise in the town, that there was a post come from the Celestial\nCity, with matter of great importance to one Christiana, the wife\nof Christian the Pilgrim. So inquiry was made for her, and the\nhouse was found out where she was; so the post presented her with\na letter; the contents whereof were, 'Hail, good woman! I bring\nthee tidings that the Master calleth for thee, and expecteth that\nthou shouldest stand in His presence, in clothes of immortality,\nwithin these ten days.'\n\nWhen he had read this letter to her, he gave her therewith a sure\ntoken that he was a true messenger, and was come to bid her make\nhaste to be gone. The token was, an arrow with a point sharpened\nwith love, let easily into her heart, which by degrees wrought\nso effectually with her, that at the time appointed she must be\ngone.[315]\n\nWhen Christiana saw that her time was come, and that she was the\nfirst of this company that was to go over, she called for Mr.\nGreat-heart her guide, and told him how matters were. So he told\nher he was heartily glad of the news, and could have been glad\nhad the post come for him. Then she bid that he should give advice\nhow all things should be prepared for her journey. So he told\nher, saying, thus and thus it must be; and we that survive will\naccompany you to the river side.\n\nThen she called for her children, and gave them her blessing, and\ntold them, that she yet read with comfort the mark that was set\nin their foreheads, and was glad to see them with her there, and\nthat they had kept their garments so white. Lastly, she bequeathed\nto the poor that little she had, and commanded her sons and her\ndaughters to be ready against the messenger should come for them.\nWhen she had spoken these words to her guide and to her children,\nshe called for Mr. Valiant-for-truth, and said unto him, Sir, you\nhave in all places showed yourself truehearted; 'be faithful unto\ndeath,' and my King will give you 'a crown of life.' I would also\nentreat you to have an eye to my children; and if at any time\nyou see them faint, speak comfortably to them. For my daughters,\nmy sons' wives, they have been faithful, and a fulfilling of the\npromise upon them will be their end. But she gave Mr. Stand-fast\na ring. Then she called for old Mr. Honest, and said of him, 'Behold\nan Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' Then said he, I wish\nyou a fair day, when you set out for Mount Zion, and shall be glad\nto see that you go over the river dry-shod. But she answered, Come\nwet, come dry, I long to be gone; for, however the weather is in\nmy journey, I shall have time enough when I come there to sit down\nand rest me, and dry me.\n\nThen came in that good man Mr. Ready-to-halt, to see her. So she\nsaid to him, Thy travel hither has been with difficulty; but that\nwill make thy rest the sweeter. But watch and be ready; for at an\nhour when you think not, the messenger may come. After him came\nin Mr. Despondency, and his daughter Much-afraid, to whom she said,\nYou ought with thankfulness, forever to remember your deliverance\nfrom the hands of Giant Despair, and out of Doubting Castle. The\neffect of that mercy is, that you are brought with safety hither.\nBe ye watchful, and cast away fear; 'be sober and hope to the\nend.'\n\nThen she said to Mr. Feeble-mind, Thou wast delivered from the\nmouth of Giant Slay-good, that thou mightest live in the light of\nthe living forever, and see thy King with comfort; only I advise\nthee to repent thee of thine aptness to fear and doubt of His\ngoodness, before He sends for thee; lest thou shouldest, when He\ncomes, be forced to stand before Him, for that fault, with blushing.\nNow the day drew on, that Christiana must be gone. So the road was\nfull of people to see her take her journey. But, behold, all the\nbanks beyond the river were full of horses and chariots, which\nwere come down from above to accompany her to the city gate. So\nshe came forth, and entered the river, with a beckon of farewell\nto those that followed her to the river side. The last words that\nshe was heard to say here, were, I come, Lord, to be with Thee,\nand bless Thee.[316]\n\nSo her children and friends returned to their place, for that those\nthat waited for Christiana had carried her out of their sight.\nSo she went and called, and entered in at the gate with all the\nceremonies of joy that her husband Christian had done before her.\n\nAt her departure her children wept. But Mr. Great-heart and Mr.\nValiant played upon the well-tuned cymbal and harp for joy. So all\ndeparted to their respective places.[317]\n\nIn process of time there came a post to the town again, and his\nbusiness was with Mr. Ready-to-halt. So he inquired him out, and\nsaid to him, I am come to thee in the name of Him whom thou hast\nloved and followed, though upon crutches; and my message is to\ntell thee, that He expects thee at His table to sup with Him, in\nHis kingdom, the next day after Easter; wherefore prepare thyself\nfor this journey.[318]\n\nThen he also gave him a token that he was a true messenger, saying,\nI have broken thy golden bowl, and loosed thy silver cord (Eccl.\n12:6).\n\nAfter this, Mr. Ready-to-halt called for his fellow-pilgrims, and\ntold them, saying, I am sent for, and God shall surely visit you\nalso. So he desired Mr. Valiant to make his will; and because\nhe had nothing to bequeath to them that should survive him, but\nhis crutches, and his good wishes, therefore thus he said, These\ncrutches I bequeath to my son that shall tread in my steps, with\na hundred warm wishes that he may prove better than I have done.\nThen he thanked Mr. Great-heart for his conduct and kindness, and\nso addressed himself to his journey. When he came at the brink of\nthe river, he said, Now I shall have no more need of these crutches,\nsince yonder are chariots and horses for me to ride on. The last\nwords he was heard to say was, Welcome life![319] So he went his\nway.\n\nAfter this, Mr. Feeble-mind had tidings brought him, that the post\nsounded his horn at his chamber door. Then he came in, and told\nhim, saying, I am come to tell thee, that thy Master hath need of\nthee; and that, in very little time, thou must behold His face in\nbrightness. And take this as a token of the truth of my message,\n'Those that look out of the windows shall be darkened'[320] (Eccl.\n12:3).\n\nThen Mr. Feeble-mind called for his friends, and told them what\nerrand had been brought unto him, and what token he had received\nof the truth of the message. Then he said, Since I have nothing\nto bequeath to any, to what purpose should I make a will As for\nmy feeble mind, that I will leave behind me, for that I have no\nneed of that in the place whither I go. Nor is it worth bestowing\nupon the poorest pilgrim; wherefore, when I am gone, I desire that\nyou, Mr. Valiant, would bury it in a dunghill. This done, and the\nday being come in which he was to depart, he entered the river as\nthe rest. His last words were, Hold out, faith and patience. So\nhe went over to the other side.\n\nWhen days had many of them passed away, Mr. Despondency was sent\nfor; for a post was come, and brought this message to him: Trembling\nman, these are to summon thee to be ready with thy King by the\nnext Lord's Day, to shout for joy for thy deliverance from all\nthy doubtings.\n\nAnd, said the messenger, that my message is true, take this for\na proof; so he gave him the grasshopper to be a burden unto him\n(Eccl. 12:5). Now, Mr. Despondency's daughter, whose name was\nMuch-afraid, said, when she heard what was done, that she would go\nwith her, father. Then Mr. Despondency said to his friends, Myself\nand my daughter, you know what we have been, and how troublesomely we\nhave behaved ourselves in every company. My will and my daughter's\nis, that our desponds and slavish fears be by no man ever received,\nfrom the day of our departure, forever; for I know that after my\ndeath they will offer themselves to others.[321] For, to be plain\nwith you, they are ghosts the which we entertained when we first\nbegan to be pilgrims, and could never shake them off after; and\nthey will walk about and seek entertainment of the pilgrims; but,\nfor our sakes, shut ye the doors upon them.[322]\n\nWhen the time was come for them to depart, they went to the brink\nof the river. The last words of Mr. Despondency were, Farewell\nnight, welcome day. His daughter went through the river singing,\nbut none could understand what she said.[323]\n\nThen it came to pass, a while after, that there was a post in the\ntown that inquired for Mr. Honest. So he came to his house where\nhe was, and delivered to his hand these lines: Thou art commanded\nto be ready against this day sevennight, to present thyself before\nthy Lord, at His Father's house. And for a token that my message\nis true, 'All thy daughters of music shall he brought low' (Eccl.\n12:4). Then Mr. Honest called for his friends, and said unto them,\nI die, but shall make no will. As for my honesty, it shall go with\nme; let him that comes after be told of this. When the day that\nhe was to be gone was come, he addressed himself to go over the\nriver. Now the river at that time overflowed the banks in some places;\nbut Mr. Honest in his lifetime had spoken to one Good-conscience\nto meet him there, the which he also did, and lent him his hand,\nand so helped him over. The last words of Mr. Honest were, Grace\nreigns. So he left the world.\n\nAfter this, it was noised abroad, that Mr. Valiant-for-truth was\ntaken with a summons, by the same post as the other; and had this\nfor a token that the summons was true, 'That his pitcher was broken\nat the fountain' (Eccl. 12:6). When he understood it, he called\nfor his friends, and told them of it. Then, said he, I am going\nto my Father's; and though with great difficulty I am got hither,\nyet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to\narrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me\nin my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it.\nMy marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me, that\nI have fought His battles, who now will be my Rewarder. When the\nday that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the\nriver-side, into which as he went, he said, 'Death, where is thy\nsting?' And as he went down deeper, he said, 'Grave, where is thy\nvictory?' So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him\non the other side.[324]\n\nThen there came forth a summons for Mr. Stand-fast--this Mr. Stand-fast\nwas he that the rest of the Pilgrims found upon his knees in the\nEnchanted Ground--for the post brought it him open in his hands.\nThe contents whereof were, that he must prepare for a change of\nlife, for his Master was not willing that he should be so far from\nHim any longer. At this Mr. Stand-fast was put into a muse. Nay,\nsaid the messenger, you need not doubt of the truth of my message,\nfor here is a token of the truth thereof: 'Thy wheel is broken at\nthe cistern' (Eccl. 12:6). Then he called unto him Mr. Great-heart,\nwho was their guide, and said unto him, Sir, although it was not\nmy hap to be much in your good company in the days of my pilgrimage;\nyet, since the time I knew you, you have been profitable to me.\nWhen I came from home, I left behind me a wife and five small\nchildren; let me entreat you, at your return (for I know that you\nwill go, and return to your Master's house, in hopes that you may\nyet be a conductor to more of the holy pilgrims), that you send\nto my family, and let them be acquainted with all that hath, or\nshall happen unto me. Tell them, moreover, of my happy arrival to\nthis place, and of the present [and] late blessed condition that\nI am in. Tell them also of Christian, and Christiana his wife, and\nhow she and her children came after her husband. Tell them also\nof what a happy end she made, and whither she is gone. I have a\nlittle or nothing to send to my family, except it be prayers and\ntears for them; of which it will suffice if thou acquaint them, if\nperadventure they may prevail.\n\nWhen Mr. Stand-fast had thus set things in order, and the time being\ncome for him to haste him away, he also went down to the river.\nNow there was a great calm at that time in the river; wherefore\nMr. Stand-fast, when he was about half-way in, stood a while and\ntalked to his companions that had waited upon him thither; and he\nsaid, This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of\nit also have often frightened me. Now, methinks, I stand easy, my\nfoot is fixed upon that upon which the feet of the priests that\nbare the ark of the covenant stood, while Israel went over this\nJordan (Josh. 3:17). The waters, indeed, are to the palate bitter,\nand to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to,\nand of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie\nas a glowing coal at my heart.\n\nI see myself now at the end of my journey, my toilsome days\nare ended. I am going now to see that Head that was crowned with\nthorns, and that Face that was spit upon for me.[325]\n\nI have formerly lived by hearsay and faith; but now I go where\nI shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I\ndelight myself.\n\nI have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen\nthe print of His shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my\nfoot too.\n\nHis name has been to me as a civet-box; yea, sweeter than all\nperfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet; and His countenance\nI have more desired than they that have most desired the light\nof the sun. His Word I did use to gather for my food, and for\nantidotes against my faintings. 'He has held me, and hath kept me\nfrom mine iniquities; yea, my steps hath He strengthened in His\nway.'[326]\n\nNow, while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed, his\nstrong man bowed under him; and after he had said, Take me, for I\ncome unto Thee, he ceased to be seen of them.\n\nBut glorious it was to see how the open region was filled with\nhorses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and\nplayers on stringed instruments, to welcome the Pilgrims as they\nwent up, and followed one another in at the beautiful gate of the\ncity.[327]\n\nAs for Christian's children, the four boys that Christiana brought\nwith her, with their wives and children, I did not stay where I was\ntill they were gone over. Also, since I came away, I heard one say\nthat they were yet alive, and so would be for the increase of the\nCHURCH in that place where they were, for a time.[328]\n\nShall it be my lot to go that way again, I may give those that desire\nit an account of what I here am silent about.[329] Meantime, I bid\nmy reader ADIEU.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1] In 1683, the year before Bunyan published his Second Part, a\nlittle volume was printed under the same title, by some anonymous\nauthor; for a description of it, see the Introduction (p. 57)--(ED).\n\n[2] While the carnal heart is in a state of such bitter enmity\nagainst the Gospel, it requires wisdom to introduce the subject\nof religion; still we have a duty to perform, even if the truth\nshould prove a savour of death unto death. We must live the Gospel\nin the sight of such, and not be daunted from inviting them to\nbecome pilgrims to the Celestial City--(ED).\n\n[3] I went over the Tract House in New York, and was delighted to\nsee there six steam-presses. During the last year, they printed\n17,000 copies of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'--(American Scenes,\nby Eben. Davies, London, 1849, p. 299).\n\n[4] This poem was written within six years of the first publication of\nthe First Part. In that short period it had become so wonderfully\npopular as to have been extensively circulated in the languages which\nthe author names, and to have had a large circulation in America.\nAfter another four years, namely in 1688, upwards of 100,00 copies\nhad been issued in English; and to the present time it has been\nsteadily increasing in popularity, so that, after 170 years have\nelapsed, it is more popular than ever. This is a fact without\nparallel in the annals of literature--(ED).\n\n[5] After the author had heard the criticisms of friends and\nfoes upon the First Part, he adopts this second narrative to be\na key explaining many things which appeared dark in Christian's\njourney--(ED).\n\n[6] This address prepares the reader for a greater variety of\nexperience and adventures than he meets with in the First Part; all\nof which are different: and the behaviour of the several pilgrims,\nunder their various calamities, are beautifully described. Their\nconflicts and their consolations being manifold, convince us that\nthe exercises of every experienced soul are for the most part\ndissimilar, notwithstanding, if they proceed from the operation\nof the Spirit, they have the same happy tendency--(Mason). The\nSecond Part is peculiarly adapted to direct and encourage female\nChristians and young persons; and it is hoped will be a blessing to\nsuch--(Burder). Perhaps the Second Part of this pilgrimage comes\nnearer to the ordinary experience of the great multitude of Christians\nthan the First Part; and this may have been Bunyan's intention.\nThe First Part shows, as in Christian, Faithful, and Hopeful,\nthe great examples and strong lights of this pilgrimage; it is as\nif Paul and Luther were passing over the scene. The Second Part\nshows a variety of pilgrims, whose stature and experience are more\non a level with our own. The First Part is more severe, sublime,\ninspiring; the Second Part is more soothing and comforting. The\nFirst Part has deep and awful shadows mingled with its light,\nterribly instructive, and like warnings from hell and the grave.\nThe Second Part is more continually and uninterruptedly cheerful,\nfull of good nature and pleasantry, and showing the pilgrimage in\nlights and shades that are common to weaker Christians--(Cheever).\n\n[7] The First Part had been published six years, during which time\nMr. Bunyan had been so fully occupied by his pastoral labours and\nfrequent preaching in different parts of England, that he had not\nbeen able to accomplish his design of publishing A FEMALE PILGRIM'S\nPROGRESS. He was without exception the most popular preacher of\nhis day--(Ivimey).\n\n[8] The First Part was written in Bedford jail; this is 'about a\nmile off the place,' at the village of Elstow, where Mr. Bunyan\nresided, and where his house is still standing--a very humble\ncottage, and an object of curiosity, as is also the very ancient\nchurch and tower. The tower answers to the description of the\n'steeple-house' in which Mr. Bunyan was engaged in ringing the\nbells. 'The main beam that lay overthwart the steeple from side\nto side,' and under which he stood lest 'one of the bells should\nfall and kill him,' presents exactly that appearance---(Ivimey).\n\n[9] This is quite natural, and very common. The men of this world\nwill canonize those for saints, when dead, whom they stigmatized\nwith the vilest names when living. Besides many others I could\nmention, this I have peculiarly remarked in respect to that man of\nGod, that faithful minister of Christ, the late Rev. Mr. Whitefield.\nScarce anyone went through more public reproach than he did; yet\nhow often have I been amazed to hear persons who held him, his\ncharacter and conduct, in the vilest contempt when living, who,\nnow he is dead, speak in the most respectful manner of him! O let\nus leave our characters to Him who died for our sins, and to whom\nwe can commit our souls--(Mason). 'The memory of the just is\nblessed.' All men's minds water at a pilgrim's gains, while they\nare resolved never to run a pilgrim's hazards. O let me die his\ndeath! all nature cries: Then live his life--all nature falters\nthere.\n\n[10] These words were introduced after the author's decease. Not\nbeing able to discover by what authority they were added, I have\nput them within brackets--(ED).\n\n[11] What a thunderbolt is this! Reader, have you ever spoken\nharshly to, or persecuted, a child of God--a poor penitent sinner?\nHear the Word of the Judge of all the earth--'Inasmuch as ye have\ndone it to the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto\nMe.'--(ED). Read this and tremble, ye who speak evil of those\nthings which ye know not--(J. B.).\n\n[12] Mark this well. No matter what profession we make, if the love\nof Christ be not its foundation, all is nothing without this love.\nIt is this love in the heart that, like oil in the lamp, keeps the\nprofession of Christ burning bright. The more this love is felt,\nthe more ardent the fire of zeal burns, and the more steadily we\nshall follow on to know the Lord; and never leave off nor give\nover, till we see and enjoy the Lord in His kingdom--(Mason).\n\n[13] It is not improbable that Mr. Bunyan had an eye to his own\nwife and four children, and that these were the leading characters\nin this religious drama; and also that the history of Christians\nof his acquaintance furnished the other personages--(Ivimey). The\nEditor differs in this opinion, believing that all the experience\nnarrated in the 'Pilgrim's Progress' is drawn from the Sacred\nScriptures, and which fits it for every age of the church, to\nthe final consummation of all things. Others have agreed with Mr.\nIvimey. Reader, you must form your own opinion--(ED).\n\n[14] Though moral suasion, and all the affectionate arguments from\na tender husband, or an affectionate parent, may prove ineffectual\nfor the present; yet, when the Lord works by His mighty power,\nthen only they prove effectual to saving purposes. Then let us\nnot neglect our duty, but be earnest in it, and leave the event\nto sovereign grace--(Mason).\n\n[15] Those who cruelly and unkindly treat their godly relations and\nfriends on account of their religion, must come to feel it in the\nbitterness of their spirit, and groan in the sorrow of their soul,\nif ever the Lord grants them repentance unto life--(Mason).\n\n[16]Happy is that death which brings the believer to Heaven, and\nthe surviving relatives to Christ; which opens the gate of glory\nto one, and the door of conversion to the other--(Barder).\n\n[17]Is it any marvel, that a quickened enlightened sinner should be\njudged by those around him, who are yet dead in their sins, to Be\nfull of whims and melancholy? No! it is very natural for them to\nthink us fools and mad; but we know that they really are so--(Mason).\n\n[18] One of God's ends in instituting marriage is, that, under\na figure, Christ and His church should be set forth. There is a\nsweet scent wrapped up in that relation. Be such a husband to thy\nbelieving wife, that she may say, God hath given to me a husband\nthat preacheth Christ's carriage to the church every day.--If thy\nwife be unbelieving, thou hast a duty to perform under a double\nobligation; for she is liable every moment to eternal ruin. O how\nlittle sense of the worth of souls is there in the hearts of some\nhusbands! This is manifest by their unchristian carriage to and\nbefore their wives.--Wives also should be discreet, chaste, keepers\nat home, good, obedient to their own husbands. Why? Because,\notherwise, the Word of God will he blasphemed (Titus 2:5). Take\nheed of an idling, talking, wrangling tongue. It is odious in maids\nor wives to be like parrots, not bridling the tongue. It is unseemly\nto see a woman, as much as once in her lifetime, to offer to over-top\nher husband. I do not intend that women should he slaves by this\nsubjection: 'Let every man love his wife as himself and the wife\nsee that she reverence her husband' (Eph. 5:33). Abigail would\nnot speak a word to her churlish husband until he was in a sober\ntemper, and his wine gone out of him--(Bunyan's Christian Behaviour,\nvol. 2, pp. 558-561).\n\n[19] This is the first cry of an awakened sinner--mercy for the\nlost and miserable; and no sooner are the sinner's eyes opened\nto see his ruined, desperate state, and to cry for mercy, but the\ngod of this world, who hitherto had blinded the eyes, and kept the\nheart securely by presumption, now opposes the sinner's progress\nto a Throne of Grace, to a God of mercy, and to the Saviour of\nthe lost. Satan does not easily part with his prey. But Jesus, the\nstrong man, armed with almighty power and everlasting love, will\nconquer and cast him out. That is the sinner's mercy, or none\ncould ever be saved--(Mason).\n\n[20] The mind, during sleep, is often occupied with those subjects\nthat have most deeply engaged the waking thoughts; and it sometimes\npleases God to make use of ideas thus suggested, to influence\nthe conduct by exciting fears or hopes. But if we attempt to draw\nconclusions on doctrines, or to discover hidden things by them,\nit becomes a dangerous species of enthusiasm--(Scott). There\nis no just reason to doubt that God still employs dreams for the\nconversion of sinners. 'In a dream, in a vision of the night, when\ndeep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then\nHe openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction' (Job\n33:15, 16)--(Ivimey). Dreams are sometimes of use to warn and\nencourage a Christian, and seem to be really 'from God'; but great\ncaution is necessary, lest they mislead us, as they do weak and\nenthusiastic persons. They must never Be depended on as the ground\nof hope, or the test of our state; nothing must be put in the place\nof the Word of God--(Burder).\n\n[21] 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Psa.\n111:10); and 'the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him'\n(Psa. 25:14). The Spirit, the Comforter, never convinces the soul\nof sin, but He also revives and comforts the heart with glad\ntidings of free and full pardon of sin, through the blood of\nthe Lamb--(Mason). Probably the name of this visitor was derived\nfrom what was said by the heavenly visitor to Manoah (Judg.\n13:18)--(Ivimey). The silent influences of the Holy Spirit are here\npersonified. The intimations of Secret represent the teachings of\nthe Holy Spirit, by which the sinner understands the real meaning of\nthe Sacred Scriptures as to the way of salvation--(Scott, abridged).\n\n[22] 'Rote of heart'; 'rote' is to commit to memory, so as to be able\nto repeat fluently, as a wheel runs round, but without attaching\nany idea or sense to the words; 'rote of heart' is to do this with\na full understanding of the meaning--(ED).\n\n[23] As the Spirit testifies of Christ, so He leads the soul to\nChrist, that He may be the sinner's only hope, righteousness, and\nstrength.\n\n\nThus He glorifies Christ--(Mason).\nBut bring thou with thee a certificate,\nTo show thou seest thyself most desolate;\nWrit by the Master, with repentance seal'd.\n--(House of God, vol. 2, p. 580).\n\n\n[24] Blessed penitence! Christian's children, when he set out in\nhis pilgrimage, had been liable to Mr. Bunyan's severe remarks in\nhis valuable book on Christian Behaviour--'I observe a vile spirit\namongst some children, who overlook, or have slighting or scornful\nthoughts of their parents. Such an one hath got just the heart\nof a dog or a beast, that will bite those that begot them. But my\nfather is poor, and I am rich, and it will he a hindrance to me\nto respect him. I tell thee, thou arguest like an atheist and a\nbeast, and standest full flat against the Son of God (Mark 7:9-13).\nMust a little of the glory of the butterfly make thee not honour\nthy father and mother? Little dost thou know how many prayers,\nsighs, and tears have been wrung from their hearts on thine\naccount.'--(Vol. 2, pp. 562, 563)--(ED).\n\n[25] The awakening of a sinner may be effected by very different\nmeans. Lydia's heart was opened through attending to Paul's ministry;\nthe jailer's, through the alarm produced in his mind by the fear\nof disgrace and punishment. Christian was brought to a sense of his\nlost condition by reading the Scriptures; Christiana, by reflecting,\nafter the death of her husband, upon her unkind treatment of him\non account of his religion, the thought of which 'rent the caul\nof her heart in sunder'; and the four boys, by the conversation\nof their mother with them about their departed father, and about\nher having neglected their souls. Religion is a personal concern,\nand begins with repentance and sorrow for sin. Children are\nnot saved by the faith of their parents, but must be individually\nbrought to feel their own sinfulness, and to confess their own\nguilt and danger; nor will a mother's prayers save her children,\nunless they heartily unite with her in them--(Ivimey).\n\n[26] Reader, stop and examine. Did ever any of your carnal\nacquaintance take knowledge of a difference of your language and\nconduct? [Does it stun them?] Or do they still like and approve of\nyou as well as ever? What reason, then, have you to think yourself a\npilgrim? If the heart be ever so little acquainted with the Lord,\nthe tongue will discover it, and the carnal and profane will ridicule\nand despise you for it--(Mason).\n\n[27] 'Is willing to stay behind.' Mr. Bunyan has strongly intimated,\nin this account, that children, very young persons, may be the\nsubjects of renewing grace, and may experience the power of the\nGospel upon their hearts, producing that faith that is of the\noperation of God, and works meet for repentance. This fact is\nabundantly confirmed by many living instances of very young persons\nknowing the grace of God in truth, and adorning the doctrine of\nGod our Saviour--(Ivimey).\n\n[28] This was a love-letter, full of the love of Jesus, and the\nprecious invitations of His loving heart to sinners to come unto\nHim as recorded in his blessed Word. Happy sinners, whose eyes\nare opened to read it! But this the world calls madness--(Mason).\n\n[29] The observations of the unconverted, when they perceive the\nconscience of a poor sinner alarmed for fear of the wrath to come,\nare admirably put in Bunyan's Come and Welcome, (vol. 1, p. 278):\n'They attribute the change to melancholy--to sitting alone--to\novermuch reading--to going to too many sermons--to too much studying\nand musing on what they hear. They conclude that it is for want of\nmerry company--for want of physic; and they advise them to leave\noff reading, going to sermons, the company of sober people, and\nto be merry, to go a-gossiping. But, poor ignorant sinner, let\nme deal with thee. It seems that thou hast turned counsellor for\nSatan. Thou judgest foolishly. Thou art like Elymas the sorcerer,\nthat sought to turn the deputy from the faith, to pervert the right\nways of the Lord. Take heed, lest some heavy judgment overtake\nthee.' Pilgrim, beware of the solemn warnings of God in Deuteronomy\n13:6, and Hebrews 10:38--(ED).\n\n[30] Bunyan probably alludes to Proverbs 17:16: 'Wherefore is\nthere a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath\nno heart to it?'--(Ivimey).\n\n[31] It is well to be bold in the name of the Lord, and blunt with\nthose who seek to turn us away from following on to know the Lord;\nfor nothing less than life and salvation, or death and damnation,\nwill be the issue of it--(Mason).\n\n[32] The very things which excite the rage and scorn of some\npersons, penetrate the hearts of others. Thus the Lord waked one\nto differ from another, by preparing the heart to receive the good\nseed of Divine truth. Yet everyone willingly chooses the way he\ntakes, without constraint or hindrance, except his own prevailing\ndispositions--(Scott).\n\n[33] Here we see our Lord's Word verified, 'The one shall be taken,\nand the other left' (Matt. 24:41). Mercy is called, and Timorous\nleft. All, to appearance, seems chance and accident; but sovereign\ngrace overrules all things. 'All things are of God, who hath\nreconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ' (2 Cor. 5:18)--(Mason).\n\n[34] This tale, by the names, arguments, and discourse introduced\ninto it, shows what kind of persons despise and revile all those\nthat fear God, and seek the salvation of their souls. Profligates,\nwho never studied religion, pass sentence upon the most difficult\ncontroversies without hesitation. Such persons call for our\ncompassion and prayers even more than our detestation--(Scott).\n\n[35] O how do such carnal wretches sport with their own damnation,\nwhile they despise the precious truths of God, and ridicule His\nbeloved, chosen, and called people! But as it was in the beginning,\nhe who was born after the flesh persecuted Him who was born after\nthe Spirit, so it is now, and will be as long as the seed of the\nwoman and the seed of the serpent are upon the earth--(Mason). Such\ncharacters are portrayed by the apostle, in his solemn riddle (1\nTim. 5:6)--(Ivimey).\n\n[36] The singular dispensations of Providence, and the strong\nimpressions made by the Word of God upon some minds, seem to amount\nto a special invitation; while others are gradually and gently\nbrought to embrace the Gospel, and these are sometimes discouraged\nlest they have never been truly awakened. They should recollect\nthat the Lord delighteth in mercy; that Christ will in no wise cast\nout any that come to Him; and that they who trust in the mercy of\nGod, solely through the redemption of His Son, shall assuredly be\nsaved--(Scott).\n\n[37] Such is the true spirit of real pilgrims, that do not love to\neat their precious morsel alone. They wish others to know Christ,\nand to become followers of Him with themselves--(Mason).\n\n[38] Though Christiana clearly knew her calling of God, yet Mercy\ndid not; therefore she is in doubt about it. Just so it is with\nmany at their first setting out. Hence they are ready to say--and\nI have met with many who have said--that they could even wish to\nhave had the most violent convictions of sin, and to have been,\nas it were, shook over the mouth of hell, that they might have\na greater certainty of their being called of God. But this is\nspeaking unadvisedly. Better to take the apostle's advice--'Give\nall diligence to make your calling sure.'--(Mason).\n\n[39] Here is a precious discovery of a heart divinely instructed.\nMind, here is no looking to anything Mercy was in herself, nor to\nanything she could do for herself, for hope. But all is resolved\ninto this--even THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF THE KING OF HEAVEN.\nReader, can you be content with this? Can you cast all, and rest\nall, upon the love of Christ? Then bless His loving name for giving\nyou a pilgrim's heart--(Mason). Mercy clearly discovered a work\nof grace on her heart. She was anxious about her acceptance at\nlast; she began to pray; she threw herself on the mere mercy of\nChrist's heart; and proved 'the bowels of a pilgrim,' by lamenting\nthe sad condition of her carnal relations--(Burder).\n\n[40] This truth is exemplified in the Holy War--'Now Mr. Desires,\nwhen he saw that he must go on this errand, besought that Mr. Wet-eyes\nshould go with him to petition the Prince. This Mr. Wet-eyes was a\npoor man, a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak well\nto a petition. Then Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face to the ground,\nand said, O my Lord, I see dirt in my own tears, and filthiness\nat the bottom of my prayers; but, I pray Thee, mercifully pass by\nthe sin of Mansoul.'--(ED).\n\n[41] Perhaps the most delightful portion of the Second Dream of\nBunyan is its sweet representation of the female character. There\nnever were two more attractive beings drawn than Christiana and\nMercy; as different from each other as Christian and Hopeful, and\nyet equally pleasing in their natural traits of character, and\nunder the influence of Divine grace, each of them reflecting the\nlight of Heaven in an original and lovely variety. His own conception\nof what constitutes a bright example of beauty and consistency of\ncharacter in a Christian woman, Bunyan has here given us, as well\nas in his First Dream, the model of steadfast excellence in a\nChristian man. The delineation, in both Christiana and Mercy, is\neminently beautiful. We have, in these characters, his own ideal\nof the domestic virtues, and his own conception of a well-ordered\nChristian family's domestic happiness. Wherever he may have formed\nhis notions of female loveliness and excellence, he has, in the\ncombination of them in the Second Part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,'\npresented two characters of such winning modesty and grace, such\nconfiding truth and frankness, such simplicity and artlessness,\nsuch cheerfulness and pleasantness, such native good sense and\nChristian discretion, such sincerity, gentleness, and tenderness,\nthat nothing could be more delightful. The matronly virtues of\nChristiana, and the maidenly qualities of Mercy, are alike pleasing\nand appropriate. There is a mixture of timidity and frankness in\nMercy, which is as sweet in itself as it is artlessly and unconsciously\ndrawn; and in Christiana we discover the very characteristics\nthat can make the most lovely feminine counterpart, suitable to\nthe stern and lofty qualities of her husband--(Cheever).\n\n[42] Instead of being what they profess, the King's labourers, Paul\ncalls them soul-troublers (Gal. 5:10). For instead of preaching a\nfree, full, and finished salvation, bestowed as a free gift, by rich\ngrace, upon poor sinners who can do nothing to entitle themselves\nto it; behold, these wretched daubers set forth salvation to sale\nupon certain terms and conditions which sinners are to perform and\nfulfil. Thus they distress the upright and sincere, and deceive\nthe self-righteous and unwary, into pride and delusion. Thus they\nmar, instead of mend, the way; and bring dirt and dung, instead\nof stones, to make the way sound and safe for pilgrims--(Mason).\n\n[43] 'Looked well to the steps'; that is, 'the promises,' as Bunyan\nexplains in the margin of Part First. 'Struggling to be rid of our\nburden, it only sinks us deeper in the mire, if we do not rest by\nfaith upon the promises, and so come indeed to Christ. Precious\npromises they are, and so free and full of forgiveness and eternal\nlife, that certainly the moment a dying soul feels its guilt and\nmisery, that soul may lay hold upon them, and find Christ in them;\nand were it not for unbelief, there need be no Slough of Despond for the\nsoul to struggle, and plunge, in its mire of depravity.'--(Cheever)--(ED).\n\n[44] All the varieties in the experience of those who are walking\nin the same path can never he enumerated; some of their sores are\nnot only unreasonable but unaccountable, through the weakness of\nthe human mind, the abiding effects of peculiar impressions, the\nremains of unbelief, and the artifices of Satan--(Scott).\n\n[45] No sooner does a poor sinner open his lips in prayer to Jesus,\nbut the devil will bark at him, and by all means try to terrify and\ndiscourage him. Do you find this? What is our remedy? 'Resist the\ndevil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will\ndraw nigh to you' (James 4:7, 8)--(Mason). When the fear of God\npossesses the heart, such disturbances cannot long prevent earnest\ncries for mercy, but will eventually render them more fervent and\nimportunate than ever--(Scott).\n\n[46] Think much of them that have gone before; how safe they are\nin the bosom of Jesus. Would they be here again for a thousand\nworlds? Sometimes when my base heart hath been inclining to\nthis world, and to loiter in my journey towards Heaven, the very\nconsideration of the glorious saints and angels--what they enjoy,\nwhat low thoughts they have of the things of this world, how they\nwould befool me if they did but know that my heart was drawing\nback--this hath made me rush forward, and disdain those beggarly\nthings; and say to my soul, Come, soul, let us not be weary; let\nus see what Heaven is; let us venture all for it. Reader, what\nsayest thou to this? Art thou resolved to follow me? Nay, resolve\nto get before me if thou canst--(Heavenly Footman).\n\n[47] Being made to understand what great sinners the Lord hath had\nmercy upon, and how large His promises were still to sinners, this\nmade me, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to cleave to\nHim, to hang upon Him, and yet to cry, though as yet there were\nno answer. The Lord help all His poor, tempted, afflicted people\nto do the like--(Bunyan).\n\n[48] Mercy's case is not singular. Many have set out just as she\ndid, and have been discouraged by the same reason as she was.\nShe, as many have been, was encouraged to set out in the ways of\nthe Lord by her neighbour and friend. Hence she, as many others\nalso have thought, there was no cause to conclude that she was\neffectually called by the Lord, but it was only the effect of moral\npersuasion, and therefore doubted and fainted, lest she should not\nmeet with acceptance. But her very doubts, fears, and distress,\nproved the earnestness of her heart, and the desire of her soul,\nafter the Saviour; and also that His attracting love and gracious\npower had a hand in the work. Well therefore might Bunyan call\nupon his readers to mark her gracious reception by Christ. Mark\nthis, ye poor, doubting, fearing, trembling souls, who are halting\nevery step, and fearing you have not set out aright, hear what\nChrist's angel said, and be not discouraged: 'Fear not ye, for I\nknow that ye seek Jesus!'--(Matt. 28:5)--(Mason).\n\n[49] The prisoners taken in the Holy War were affected like Mercy.\n'Why did you not cry to Me before, said the Prince, yet I will\nanswer you so as will be for My glory. At this Mr. Wet-eyes gave\na great sigh, and death seemed to sit on their eye-brows; they\ncovered their faces, and threw themselves down before Him. Then\nthe Prince bid them stand upon their feet, and said, I have power\nto forgive, and I do forgive. Moreover, He stripped the prisoners\nof their mourning-weeds, and gave them beauty for ashes.'--(ED).\n\n[50] Pardon by word seems to denote the general discovery of free\nsalvation by Jesus Christ to all that believe, which is sealed by\ntransient comforts and lively affections. Pardon by deed may relate\nto the manner in which the blessing was purchased by the Saviour;\nand when this is clearly understood, the believer attains to stable\npeace and hope--(Scott).\n\n[51] The devil often barks most at us, and brings his heaviest\naccusations against us, when mercy, peace, comfort, and salvation\nare nearest to us.\n\n\n'Press on, nor fear to win the day,\nThough earth and hell obstruct the way'--(Mason).\n\n\n[52] Many hellish darts are tipped by Apollyon's malignant ingenuity\nwith sentences of Scripture, made to flame just like the fiery\ndarts of the wicked one; so that the Scriptures appear to stand\nagainst the trembling Christian--(ED).\n\n[53] Here is genuine humility; no replying against God--no calling\nin question His sovereign right to receive or to reject. No; all\nthat this poor humble heart thought was, now is fulfilled what is\nwritten, 'One shall be taken and the other left.' If so, what had\nshe to say? No impeachment of the Lord's dealings, but only, I am\nundone. But yet, on seeing what was written over the gate, 'Knock,\nand it shall be opened,' from that, and not from any sight\nof worthiness in herself, but lost as she felt herself, she was\nencouraged to knock again, or to cry and pray more vehemently\nthan ever. Here is a blessed example of deep humility, and of holy\nboldness, excited by the Divine Word. Go thou, ruined sinner, and\ndo likewise--(Mason).\n\n[54] The express words of such invitations, exhortations, and\npromises, WRITTEN in the Bible, are more efficacious to encourage\nthose who are ready to give up their hopes, than all the consolatory\ntopics that can possibly he substituted in their place--(Scott).\n\n[55] When a mariner enters upon a voyage, or a soldier on\na campaign, they know not what hardships they may encounter, nor\nwhether their lives may be sacrificed without attaining their\nobject; but whatever hardships the Christian has to encounter,\nhe will come off more than conqueror--he will reach the desired\nhaven in safety--through Him that loved us. Fear not--'Though\ndeath and hell obstruct the way, The meanest saint shall win the\nday.'--(ED).\n\n[56] Strive to enter in; a whole Heaven and eternal life is wrapped\nup in this little word IN. Strive; this calls for the mind and\nheart. Many professors make their striving to stand rather in an\noutcry of words, than in a hearty labour against the lusts and\nlove of the world, and their own corruptions. But this kind of\nstriving is but a beating the air, and will come to nothing at\nlast--(Bunyan's Strait Gate, vol. 1, p. 869).\n\n[57] Thus the dog of hell may be of service, not only in keeping\nthe sheep close together, but in making them keep close to their\nShepherd--(J. B.).\n\n[58] 'Plash' was, in later editions, altered to 'Pluck.' To plash,\nis to cut hedges or trees. The boys did plash, or had a cut at\nthe trees, to knock the fruit off--(ED).\n\n[59] What is this garden but the world? What is the fruit they here\nfound? 'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride\nof life' (1 John 2:16). Of this the boys ate. The mother chides\nthem for taking that which did not belong to them, but she did\nnot know that it grew in the devil's garden. Mark the consequence\nof their eating this fruit hereafter--(Mason). The terrifying\nsuggestions of Satan [the dog's barking] give believers much\npresent uneasiness, yet they often do them great good, and seldom\neventually hurt them; but the allurements of those worldly objects\nwhich he throws in their way are far more dangerous and pernicious.\nMany of these are very attractive to young persons; but all\nparents who love the souls of their children should employ all\ntheir influence and authority to restrain them from those vain\npleasures which 'war against the soul,' and are most dangerous\nwhen least suspected. This fruit may be found in the pilgrim's\npath, but it grows in Beelzebub's garden, and should be shunned as\npoison. Many diversions and pursuits, both in high and low life,\nare of this nature, though often pleaded for as innocent, by some\npersons who ought to know better--(Scott).\n\n[60] What are these ill-favoured ones? Such as you will be sure to\nmeet with in your pilgrimage; some vile lusts, or cursed corruptions,\nwhich are suited to your carnal nature. These will attack you, and\nstrive to prevail against you. Mind how these pilgrims acted, and\nfollow their example. If one was to fix names to these ill-favoured\nones, they might he called Unbelief and Licentiousness, which aim\nto rob Christ's virgins of their chastity to Him--(Mason).\n\n[61] Here we see that the most violent temptation to the greatest\nevil is not sin, if resisted and not complied with. Our Lord\nHimself was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin.\nTherefore, ye followers of Him, do not be dejected and cut down,\nthough you should be exercised with temptations to the blackest\ncrimes, and the most heinous sins. You cannot be assaulted with\nworse than your Lord was. He was tempted, but He resisted Satan,\nand overcame all, in our nature. Cry to Him; He is the Reliever\nwho will come in the hour of distress--(Mason).\n\n[62] 'Ye have not, because ye ask not.' (James 4:2).\n\n[63] It is well to be taken with present blessings, to be joyful\nin them, and thankful for them; but it is wrong to forget our\ndangers, and grow secure--(Mason).\n\n[64] When the soul is happy in the love of God, it is ready to\nconclude that dangers are past, that doubts and fears are entirely\nremoved; but as long as we are in this world, we shall find the\nexpediency of our Lord's exhortation--'Watch and pray.'--(J. B.).\n[65] Here is a display of a truly Christian spirit, in that open\nand ingenuous confession of her fault, taking all the blame upon\nherself, and excusing Mercy. This is not natural to us, but the\ngrace of Christ humbles the heart, and silences the tongue to\nself-justifying pleas. O for more of this precious grace!--(Mason).\n\n[66] Mark those phrases--'the riches of His grace,' and 'His mere\ngood pleasure.' You cannot entertain too exalted ideas of these,\nnor speak too highly of them. Pilgrims should be known by their\nlanguage as well as their walk. Those who talk highly of their own\nperfection, speak little, if at all, of the riches of God's grace,\nand the good pleasure of His will. Beware of the infection of\npride and self-righteous leaven--(Mason).\n\n[67] The Holy Spirit, the Interpreter, who was promised by the Lord\nJesus to be sent in His name, guides believers into all truth. 'And\nthey shall be all taught of God' (John 6:45). Humble confession,\nand serious consecration of heart, are sacrifices acceptable,\nwell-pleasing to God; and such simple-hearted pilgrims are received\nby the church with a hearty welcome. 'The Spirit and the bride\nsay, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come' (Rev. 22:17)--(ED).\n\n[68] Here is joy indeed, which strangers to the love of Christ\nintermeddle not with. Surely, this is the joy of Heaven; and if thou\nhast this joy, thou hast the love that reigns in Heaven. Glory to\nJesus, I think I can truly say, I have this blessed evidence in my\nheart, that I know somewhat of this joy arising from seeing poor\nlost sinners converted to Jesus, so as to love Him and follow Him.\nO for a spread and increase of this spirit among Christians of all\ndenominations!--(Mason).\n\n[69]The emblematical instruction at the Interpreter's house, in\nthe former part, was so important and comprehensive, that we are\nastonished at the striking additions here adduced. The first emblem\nis very plain; and so apposite, that it is wonderful any person\nshould read it without lifting up a prayer to the Lord, and saying,\n'O deliver me from this muck-rake!'--(Scott, altered by ED). Awful\nthought! Straws, and sticks, and dust, Preferred to Christ and\nsalvation! 'If angels weep, it is at such a sight!'--(Burder).\n\n[70] Our Lord said, 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be\nalso.' To be carnally-minded is death, but to be spiritually-minded\nis life and peace. If our treasure is in Heaven, we need not envy\nthose griping muck-worms who are cursed in their basket and in\ntheir store--(J. B.).\n\n\n[71]--The vulture of insatiate minds\nStill wants, and wanting seeks, and seeking finds\nNew fuel to increase her rav'nous fire.\nThe grave is sooner cloy'd than men's desire.\n--(Quarles' Emblems).\n\n\n[72] A full purse and a lean soul, is a sign of a great curse. O\nit is a sad grant, when the desire is only to make the belly big,\nthe estate big, the name big; when even by this bigness the soul\npines, is made to dwindle, to grow lean, and to look like an anatomy!\nLike a man in a dropsy, they desire this world, as he doth drink,\ntill they desire themselves quite down to hell--(Bunyan's Desire\nof the Righteous, vol. 1, p. 767).\n\n[73] Reader, didst thou never shed a tear for thy base and disingenuous\nconduct towards thy Lord, in preferring the sticks and straws of\nthis world to the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the salvation\nof thy immortal soul? O this is natural to us all! and though\nmade wise unto salvation, yet this folly cleaves to our old nature\nstill. Let the thought humble us, and make us weep before the\nLord--(Mason).\n\n[74] They knew the venom of sin which was in their fallen nature.\nThis made them cover their faces with shame, and sink into deep\nhumility of heart. Every true interpreter of God's Word--yea, the\nblessed Interpreter of God's heart, Jesus--will look pleasantly\nupon such who confess the truth; while He beholds the proud,\nself-righteous sinner afar off--(Mason).\n\n[75] Faith apprehends, and then the soul dwells in the best room\nindeed, even in the very heart of God in Christ. The Lord increase\nour faith in this precious truth, that we may the more love and\nglorify the God of grace and truth! O let not our venom of sin\ndeject us, while there is the blood of Christ to cleanse us! O for\na stronger love to Christ, and greater hatred of sin! Both spring\nfrom believing--(Mason). The emblem of the spider is illustrated\nin Bunyan's invaluable treatise on the Resurrection and Eternal\nJudgment--'The spider will be a witness against man, for she layeth\nhold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. It is man only that\nwill not lay hold on the kingdom of Heaven, as the spider doth bid\nhim (Prov. 30:28).'--(Vol. 2, p. 111)--(ED).\n\n\n--Call me not ugly thing;\nGod' wisdom hath unto the pismire given,\nAnd spiders may teach men the way to Heaven.\n                             (Bunyan's Emblems).\n\n\n[76] It is very humbling to human pride to be compared to chickens,\nas dependants on the fostering care of the hen, or as children\nrelying upon a parent. In Bunyan's Last Sermon, are some striking\nallusions to the Christian's dependence upon his heavenly Father--'It\nis natural for a child, if he wants shoes, to tell his father; if\nhe wants bread, they go and tell him. So should the children of God\ndo for spiritual bread--strength of grace--to resist Satan. When\nthe devil tempts you, run home and tell your heavenly Father--pour\nout your complaints to God; this is natural to children. If any\nwrong them, they tell their father; so do those that are born\nof God, when they meet with temptations, they go and tell God of\nthem--(Vol. 2, p. 757)--(ED).\n\n[77] Common call, the invitations; brooding voice, the promises;\noutcry, the warnings of the Gospel--(Ivimey).\n\n[78] Observations and experience justify this excellent simile.\nGod's common call is to all His creatures who live within the sound\nof His Gospel. His special call is when He bestows the grace,\npeace, and pardon of the Gospel of Christ upon His people. The\nbrooding note is when He gathers them under His wings, warms their\nhearts with the comforts of His love, nourishes their souls with\nclose fellowship with Himself, and refreshes their spirits with\nthe overflowings of joy in the Holy Ghost. 'In the shadow of Thy\nwings will I rejoice,' says David (Psa. 63:7). 'I sat down under\nHis shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my\ntaste' (Song. 2:3). O for more of these precious brooding notes,\nto be gathered under the wing of Immanuel! But be our frames and\nexperiences what they may, still we are ever in danger; for our\nenemies surround us on every side, and our worst are within us.\nTherefore our Lord has an outcry; He gives the alarm, calls us,\nand warns us of danger. Why? That we should flee. O pilgrims,\nwhen dangers are near, run unto Him! For 'the name of the Lord is\na strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe' (Prov.\n18:10)--(Mason).\n\n[79] The church is a garden enclosed, Christ is the Gardener, His\npeople are called God's husbandry. The difference in the plants and\nflowers shows the different effects of grace upon the heart--(J.\nB.). When Christians stand everyone in his place, and do their own\nwork, then they are like the flowers in the garden, that stand and\ngrow where the Gardener hath planted them; and then they shall\nboth honour the garden in which they are planted, and the Gardener\nthat hath so disposed of them. From the hyssop in the wall, to the\ncedar in Lebanon, their fruit is their glory. Christians are like\nthe several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the\ndew of Heaven; which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall\ntheir dew at each others' roots, whereby they are jointly nourished,\nand become nourishers of one another. For Christians to commune\nsavourly of God's matters one with another, it is as if they\nopened to each others' nostrils boxes of perfume. Saith Paul to\nthe church at Rome, 'I long to see you, that I may impart unto\nyou some spiritual gift, to the end ye may he established; that\nis, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith\nboth of you and me' (Rom. 1:11, 12)--(Bunyan's Christian Behaviour,\nvol. 2, pp. 550, 570). I have observed, that as there are herbs\nand flowers in our gardens, so there are their counterfeits in\nthe field; only they are distinguished from the other by the name\nof wild ones. There is faith and wild faith; and wild faith is\npresumption. I call it wild faith, because God never placed it in\nHis garden--His church; it is only to be found in the field--the\nworld--(Bunyan's Good News, vol. 1, p. 93). We ought not to be\ncontented with a situation among the noxious weeds of the desert;\nbut if we be planted among the ornamental and fragrant flowers of\nthe Lord's garden, we are honoured indeed. We should watch against\nenvy and ambition, contempt of our brethren and contention. We\nought to be satisfied in our places, doing 'nothing through strife\nor vain glory, or with murmurings and disputings'; but endeavour,\nin the meekness of wisdom, to diffuse a heavenly fragrance around\nus, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things--(Scott).\n\n[80] The husbandman is not repaid by the straw or chaff. So the\nsufferings of Christ, the preaching, promises, and ordinances\nof the Gospel, were not intended to bring men to profess certain\ndoctrines, or observe certain forms; but to render men fruitful in\ngood works, by the influences of the Spirit of Christ. All profession\nwill terminate in everlasting misery, which is not productive of\nthis good fruit. 'True religion and undefiled' consists not in\nforms, creeds, and ceremonies, but is 'to visit and comfort the\nwidows and the fatherless'--(Scott).\n\n[81] This is a necessary caution. Paul says, 'Thou art inexcusable,\nO man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest\nanother, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the\nsame things.' James has laid down an excellent rule of conduct--O\nthat it were more attended to!--'So speak ye, and so do, as they\nthat shall he judged by the law of liberty.' How inconsistent for a\npardoned malefactor to insult even those who are under condemnation!\nIf any man seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue\nfrom commending himself and condemning others, this man's religion\nis vain. He that judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law,\nand judgeth the law--(J. B.).\n\n[82] A very striking emblem this, and most pertinently applied; and\nif your soul is sincere, it will cause a holy fear, create a godly\njealousy, put you upon self-examining, and make you sigh out in\nsome such words as David, 'Search me, O God, and know my heart;\ntry me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way\nin me, and lead me in the way everlasting' (Psa. 139:23, 24). O\nwhat will it avail in a dying hour, or in the judgment day, that\nwe have worn the mark of profession, and seemed to man, what\nwe were not in heart and reality of life before God! From all\nself-deceiving, good Lord, deliver us! for we are naturally prone\nto it--(Mason).\n\n[83] This observation is grounded on the good old distinction,\nthat the merit of Christ's obedience unto death is sufficient all\nwho by faith apply for an interest in it. Nothing but pride, the\ncarnal mind, and enmity to God and religion, influence men to\nneglect so great salvation; and when the regenerating power of\nthe Holy Spirit accompanies the Word, sinners are made willing\nto accept the proffered mercy, and encouraged by the invitations\nwhich before they sinfully slighted--(Scott).\n\n[84] That is my very character, says many a doubting, broken hearted\nsinner. Well, thank God, says many a self-confident, whole-hearted\nPharisee, it is far from being mine. We can only say this, he\nthat knows most of his own superlatively deceitful and desperately\nwicked heart, suspects himself most, and exercises most godly\njealousy over himself; while persons, who see least of themselves,\nare most self-confident and daring. Even Judas could as boldly\nask, 'Master, is it I' who shall betray Thee? as any of the rest\nof His disciples--(Mason).\n\n[85] Mr. Ivimey supposes this to be intended by Mr. Bunyan to show\nhis approbation of the practice of singing in public worship. It\nwas then a custom which had been recently introduced, and was a\nsubject of strong controversy. Soon after Bunyan's death, Benjamin\nKeach vindicated the practice, by proving that singing is an\nordinance of Jesus Christ, in answer to Marlowe's Discourse against\nSinging. It must not be forgotten, that our pilgrim forefathers\ngenerally met in secret, and that singing would have exposed them\nto imminent peril of their lives. Now we have no such fear; we\ncan unite heart and voice in the language of Dr. Watts--\n\n\n'Lord, how delightful 'tis to see\nA whole assembly worship Thee!\nAt once they sing.'\n\n\nThat is, when singing men or women do not prevent the godly from\nuniting in this delightful part of Divine worship by introducing\nnew tunes, to sing to the praise and glory of themselves. Let such\nas are guilty of this solemnly ask the question, Was the late Mr.\nHuntingdon right in estimating their piety at less than twopence\nper dozen?--(ED).\n\n[86] Ah, Mrs. Timorous, how many professed pilgrims hast thou\nbefooled and turned back! How often does she attack and affright\nmany real pilgrims! I am sure she has often made my poor heart\nache with her ghastly looks and terrifying speeches. O may we ever\nsay to her, in our Lord's words, 'Get thee behind me, Satan; thou\nsavourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men'\n(Matt. 16:23)--(Mason).\n\n[87] A very simple and artless confession. The Lord works very\ndifferently upon His elect; but always to the same end, namely,\nto make us prize Christ, His salvation and His ways, and to abhor\nourselves, the paths of sin, and to cast off all self-righteous\nhopes. If this is effected in thy heart, reader, it is no matter\nwhether thou canst tell of visions and dreams, or talk high of\nexperiences. Where the soul is rooted and grounded in the knowledge\nof Christ, and love to His ways, though there may be many fears,\nyet this is an indubitable proof of a real and sincere pilgrim--(Mason).\n\n[88] They who are acquainted with the manner in which persons are\nreceived into Congregational churches, by relating a verbal account\nof their experience, will recognize in this narrative a resemblance\nto that practice. Christiana, a grave matron, appears to have felt\nno difficulty in complying with the requisition; but Mercy, young\nand inexperienced, blushed and trembled, and for awhile continued\nsilent. Their profession being approved, the readiness of the\nchurch to receive them is expressed by the warmest wishes for\ntheir spiritual prosperity--(Ivimey).\n\n[89] 'Thou hast given credit to the truth'; what is this but\nfaith--the faith of the operation of God? But some may ask, What!\nis justifying, saving faith, nothing more than a belief of the\ntruth? If so, the very devils believe; yea, more, they tremble\nalso. True; but mind how Mercy's faith wrought by her works. She\nfled for refuge to the hope set before her in the Gospel. She fled\nfrom sin, from the City of Destruction, to Christ for salvation.\nThough she had not the joy of faith, yet she followed on to know\nthe Lord, walking in His ways, and hoping for comfort from the Lord\nin His due time. O! if thou hast a grain of this precious faith\nin thy heart, bless Jesus for it, and go on thy way rejoicing--(Mason).\n\n[90] Mr. Ivimey considers that this bath in the garden refers to\nthe baptism of the pilgrims by immersion, after having related\ntheir experience, as a publicly putting on of Christ. 'And now\nwhy tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,\ncalling on the name of the Lord' (Acts 22:16). Innocent says that\n'her Master would have them do'; and they went out into the garden\nto the bath, and were much enlivened by it. Bunyan left it to the\nconvert to act for himself as to water-baptism; all that he required,\nas a prerequisite to church-communion, was the new birth, or the\nbaptism of the Holy Spirit. He calls this the 'bath of sanctification';\nno Christian considers water-baptism a source of sanctification;\nit is only the outward sign. It must be left to the reader's candid\njudgment to decide whether baptism, upon a profession of faith,\nis here intended by that that the Master would have them do--(ED).\n\n[91] There is no travelling on pilgrimage without gathering soil.\nThere are no pilgrims but daily need to have recourse to this bath\nof sanctification--the blood of Jesus, which cleanses from all\nsin (1 John 1:7). Christ is the fountain opened for sin and for\nuncleanness (Zech. 13:1). Christ is the soul's only bath. As all\nbaths are for the purification of the body, such is this bath to\nour soul. But unless a bath be used, this cannot be effected; so,\nunless we have recourse to Christ, we cannot enjoy the purification\nof the soul; but the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, convinces us\nof sin, shows us our fresh-contracted spots and defilements, and\nleads us to the blood of the Lamb. O how does this enliven and\nstrengthen our souls, by filling our conscience with joy and peace\nin believing!--(Mason).\n\n[92] Baptism and the Lord's Supper I receive and own as signs\nof the covenant of grace; the former as a sign of our engrafting\ninto Christ, and the latter to show forth His death, as an emblem\nor type of the benefits purchased thereby to His church and\npeople--(Philip Henry, altered by ED).\n\n[93] This means the sealing of the Spirit, whereby they were sealed\nunto the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). O this is blessed sealing!\nNone know the comfort and joy of it but those who have experienced\nit. It confirms our faith, establishes our hope, and inflames\nour affections to God the Father for His everlasting love, to God\nthe Son for His everlasting atonement and righteousness, and to\nGod the Spirit for His enlightening mercy, regenerating grace,\nquickening, sanctifying, testifying, and assuring influences,\nwhereby we know that we are the children of God; for 'the Spirit\nitself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of\nGod' (Rom. 8:16). All the comfort of our souls lies in keeping this\nseal clear in our view. Therefore grieve not the Holy Spirit--(Mason).\n\n[94] They who have put on this raiment are clothed with humility;\nthey readily perceive the excellence of other believers, but can\nonly discern their own in the glass of God's Word. At the same\ntime, they become very observant of their own defects, and severe\nin condemning them, but proportionally candid to their brethren;\nand thus they learn the hard lesson of esteeming others better\nthan themselves--(Scott).\n\n[95] This is always the case when souls are clothed in the robe of\nChrist's righteousness. They are little, low, and mean in their own\neyes, and they esteem each other better than themselves; whereas\nthey who at all look to, or depend upon, their own righteousness\nfor their clothing and justification before God, always look down\nwith an air of supercilious contempt upon others who they think\nare not so righteous as themselves. Lord, hide self-righteous pride\nfrom my heart, and sink me into the depth of humility, that I may\never glory in Thee, in whom I am perfectly righteous!--(Mason).\nSee also Romans 6:1-5, and Galatians 3:27--(Ivimey).\n\n[96] The conductor, named Great-heart, is a Gospel minister under\nthe direction of the Holy Spirit; courageous, armed with the sword\nof the Spirit, enjoying the hope of salvation, and defended by the\nshield of faith--(Barder).\n\n[97] This is the comfort, joy, and glorying of a pilgrim's heart.\nHath Jesus performed righteousness to cover us, and spilled blood\nto wash us? Have we the faith of this? O how ought we to love\nHim, rejoice in Him, and study to glorify Him in every step of\nour pilgrimage!--(Mason).\n\n[98] Here Bunyan gives a very clear and distinct account of that\nrighteousness of Christ, as Mediator, which He wrought out by His\nperfect obedience to the law of God for all His seed. And by this\nrighteousness, and no other, are they fully justified from all\ncondemnation in the sight of God. Reader, study this point deeply,\nso as to be established in it. It is the essence of the Gospel, enters\ninto the life and joy of faith, brings relief to the conscience,\nand influence to the love of the Lord our Righteousness; and so\nbrings forth the fruits of righteousness which are by Him to the\npraise and glory of God, and administers Divine consolation in\nthe hour of death--(Mason).\n\n[99] Is there righteousness in Christ? That is mine, the believer\nmay say. Did He bleed for sins? It was for mine. Hath He overcome\nthe law, the devil, and hell? The victory is mine. And I do count\nthis a most glorious life?--Sometimes (I bless the Lord) my soul\nhath this life not only imputed to me, but the glory of it upon my\nspirit. Upon a time, when I was under many condemnings of heart,\nand fearing I should miss glory, methought I felt such a secret\nmotion as this--Thy righteousness is in Heaven. The splendour and\nshining of the Spirit of grace upon my soul, gave me to see clearly\nthat my righteousness, by which I should be justified, was the Son\nof God Himself representing me before the mercy-seat in His own\nPerson; so that I saw clearly, that day and night, wherever I was,\nand whatever I was doing, there was my righteousness, just before\nthe eyes of the Divine glory, and continually at the right hand of\nGod. At another time, whilst musing, being afraid to die, these\nwords came upon my soul, 'Being justified freely by His grace,\nthrough the redemption which is in Christ.' This stayed my heart.\nAnd thus is the sinner made alive from the dead, by being justified\nthrough the righteousness of Christ, which is unto all and upon\nall them that believe--(Bunyan's Law and Grace).\n\n[100] Sometimes I have been so loaden with my sins, that I could not\ntell where to rest, nor what to do; yea, at such times, I thought\nit would have taken away my senses; yet, at that time, God through\ngrace hath all on a sudden so effectually applied the blood that\nwas spilt at Mount Calvary out of the side of Jesus, unto my\npoor, wounded, guilty conscience, that presently I have found such\na sweet, solid, sober, heart-comforting peace, that I have been\nin a strait to think that I should love and honour Him no more.\nSometimes my sins have appeared as big as all the sins of all the\nmen in the nation--(reader, these things be not fancies, for I have\nsmarted for this experience); but yet the least stream of the\nheart-blood Jesus hath vanished all away, and I have been delivered up\ninto sweet and heavenly peace and joy in the Holy Ghost--(Bunyan's\nLaw and Grace, vol. 1, p. 549).\n\n[101] While the soul lives upon the sweet impressions which are\nmade by the application of the promises, it may be said to live\nupon frames and feelings; for as its comforts abate, so will its\nconfidence. The heart can never be established in grace, till the\nunderstanding is enlightened to discern what it is to have pardon\nby the deed done--(J. B.).\n\n[102] O brave Christiana! See what it is to have one's heart\ninflamed with a sense of the love of Christ. Christiana thinks\neveryone would naturally be affected as she was, if they were\npresent; but she forgets that which she sees and feels is of\nspecial, peculiar, distinguishing grace--(Mason). Shall I have my\nsins and lose my soul? Would not Heaven be better to me than my\nsins?--the company of God, Christ, saints, and angels, than the\ncompany of Cain, Judas, Balaam, with the devils, in the furnace\nof fire? Canst thou now that readest, or hearest these lines, turn\nthy back, and go on in thy sins?--(Bunyan's Law and Grace, vol.\n1, p. 575). Reader, thus would Christiana plead with ungodly\nrelatives and friends; and if thou art in such a case, wilt thou\nnot listen to such a plea?--(ED).\n\n[103] Mind how tenderly Great-heart deals with warm-hearted\nChristiana. He does not attempt to throw cold water upon the fire\nof her affections, but gently insinuates, 1. The peculiar frame\nof the mind she speaks from; 2. Suggests that she must not always\nexpect to be in such raptures; and, 3. Reminds her that her\nindulgences were of a peculiar nature, not common to all, but\nbestowed upon the faithful in Christ only; and that, therefore,\namidst all her joyful feelings, she should know to whom she\nwas indebted for them, and give all the glory to the God of all\ngrace--(Mason).\n\n[104] Simple, contented in gross ignorance; Sloth, an indolence\nwhich smothers all conviction; Presumption, carnal security, which\nhardens against reproof--(Andronicus). These are the great opposers\nof vital religion. The end of these things is death--(Barder).\n\n[105] It was a custom, to a late period, to hang up murderers\nin irons, until the body dropped to pieces; that such terrible\nexamples might deter others from the like crimes; hence, under\nthe old wood-cut illustrating this passage, is written--\n\n\n'Behold here how the slothful are a sign,\nHung up, because holy ways they did decline.'\n--(ED).\n\n\n[106] God, as it were, gibbets some professors, and causes their\nnames and characters to be publicly exhibited, as a terror to\nothers, and as a warning to His own people--(Mason). The dreadful\nfalls and awful deaths of some professors are to put others upon\ntheir guard against superficial, slothful, and presumptuous hopes.\nThe real occasion of turning aside lies in the concealed lusts of\nthe heart--(Scott).\n\n[107] Let us consider the characters of these three professors: 1.\nHere is a Simple, a foolish credulous professor, ever learning,\nbut never coming to the knowledge of the truth, so as to believe\nit, love it, and be established on it; hence liable to be carried\naway by every wind of doctrine. 2. Sloth, a quiet, easy professor,\nwho never disturbs anyone by his diligence in the Word of God,\nnor his zeal for the truths and glory of God. 3. Presumption, one\nwho expects salvation in the end, without the means prescribed by\nGod for attaining it. O beware of these three sorts of professors,\nfor they turn many aside!--(Mason).\n\n[108] What is meant by the Hill Difficulty? Christiana has set out\nfrom Destruction, been received and encouraged at the wicket-gate,\nand directed on her journey. The path is comparatively easy, until\nshe is about to put on a public profession, by joining a church. This\nis situated upon the summit of this hill of difficult ascent. Is it\nintended to represent that prayerful, watchful, personal investigation\ninto Divine truth, which ought to precede church-fellowship? Nothing\nis more difficult to flesh and blood than to be compelled, upon\npain of endless ruin, to think for ourselves on matters of religion.\nThe formalist and hypocrite follow the persuasions of man, and\ntake an easier path, and are lost. The fear of man causes some to\nabandon the ascent. Dr. Cheever has, in his Hill Difficulty, very\nhappily described the energy that is needful to enable the pilgrim\nto make the ascent. He forcibly proves the utter impossibility of\nmaking the ascent by ceremonial observances, or while encumbered\nwith worldly cares or pride in trinkets of gold and costly array.\nHe reminds us of the solemn advice of Peter, 'be ye built up a\nspiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice\nacceptable to God by Jesus Christ.' Every weight must be set aside,\nand salvation must be worked out with fear and trembling--(ED).\n\n[109] The river of life is pure and clear as crystal. Is the doctrine\noffered to thee so? Or is it muddy, and mixed with the doctrines\nof men? Look, man, and see, if the foot of the worshippers of Baal\nbe not there, and the water fouled thereby. What water is fouled\nis not the water of life, or at least not in its clearness.\nWherefore, if thou findest it not right, go up higher towards the\nspring-head, for nearer the spring the more pure and clear is the\nwater--(Bunyan's Water of Life).\n\n[110] This represents to us that some preachers, as the Prophet says,\nfoul the water with their feet (Ezek. 24:18); that is, though they\npreach somewhat about Christ, and salvation by Him, yet they so clog,\nmire, and pollute the stream of free grace, with pre-requisites,\nterms, and conditions, that the poor thirsty soul cannot drink\nthe water, nor allay his thirst with it; but is forced to let it\nstand, till these gross dregs sink to the bottom. Yea, we ought\nto beware of drinking such filthy dregs; for they will certainly\nswell us up with the company of pride of our free will, human\nmerit, and self-righteousness, which oppose the glory of Jesus,\nand comfort of our souls--(Mason).\n\n[111] Although the cautious of Holy Writ are plain as posts and\nchains, and the warnings as a ditch, and the solemn threatenings\nof the New Testament against pharisaic formalism and hypocrisy\nare like a hedge, to prevent pilgrims wandering into paths that\nend in eternal misery, yet there are many who break through all\nthese merciful restraints, and rush upon destruction--(ED).\n\n[112] Examine, which do you like better, self-soothing or soul-searching\ndoctrine? Formalists and hypocrites love the former, and hate the\nlatter. But the sincere and upright are discovered by desiring to\nhave their hearts searched to the quick, and their ways tried to\nthe utmost; and, therefore, with David will cry, 'Search me, O\nGod, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if\nthere be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting'\n(Psa. 129:23, 24)--(Mason).\n\n[113] Heart-work is hard work; it is hard work to be stripped; it\nis hard work to deny self, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.\nIt is hard work to fight the fight of faith; it is hard work\nagainst hope to believe in hope. A formalist and hypocrite will\ngo, in outward things, as far as the real Christian; but touch\nhim on the inward work, and he will start aside--(J. B.).\n\n[114] He who is a stranger to the hard work of self-denial, and how\ndifficult it is to the flesh, knows not what this Hill Difficulty\nmeans; for the nearer to the arbour of Jesus' rest, the more\ndifficulties in the way, but the sweeter it is when attained--(Mason).\n\n[115] Regard not in thy pilgrimage how difficult the passage is,\nbut whither it tends; not how delicate the journey is, but where\nit ends. If it be easy, suspect it; if hard, endure it. He that\ncannot excuse a bad way, accuseth his own sloth; and he that sticks\nin a bad passage, can never attain a good journey's end--(Quarles'\nEnchiridion).\n\n[116] There were stairs in the temple, and but one pair, and these\nwinding. He that went up must turn with the stairs. This is a type\nof a twofold repentance; that by which we turn from nature to\ngrace, and that by which we turn from the imperfections of a state\nof grace to glory. But this turning and turning still, displeases\nsome much. They say it makes them giddy; but I say, Nothing like\nthis to make a man steady. A straight stair is like the ladder\nthat leads to the gallows. They are turning stairs that lead to\nthe heavenly mansion. Stay not at their foot; but go up them, and\nup them, and up them, till you come to Heaven--(Bunyan's Solomon's\nTemple).\n\n[117] When we are praised, a conscious blush should pervade us, well\nknowing how much we have to be ashamed of. But some have got such\nvain confidence in their own righteousness, merits, and perfection,\nthat they have hereby got what the Scriptures call a whore's\nforehead, and refuse to be ashamed (Jer. 3:3). O cry to the Lord\ncontinually against spiritual pride, and for an humble heart,\nknowing thyself to be a poor sinner!--(Mason).\n\n[118] Eve looking first into those worthy privileges which God had\ngiven her, and dilating delightfully of them before the devil,\nshe lost the dread of the command from off her heart, which Satan\nperceiving, now added to his former forged doubt a plain and flat\ndenial--'Ye shall not surely die.' When people dally with the\ndevil, and sit too near their outward advantages, they fall into\ntemptation--(Bunyan on Genesis, vol. 2, p. 429).\n\n[119] Reader, mind this well, remember it often, and it will do thee\ngood. I am a witness against myself, of how much I have lost by\nindulging the flesh, and how much I have suffered by forgetfulness.\nBut O what a gracious Lord do we serve! this is no excuse for\nour folly, but an aggravation of our faults; and ought to sink us\nlower in shame, and to excite us to greater care, diligence, and\nwatchfulness; else we shall surely smart for our folly, if not in\nhell, yet in our consciences--(Mason).\n\n[120] This may refer to the awful end of one of Bunyan's early\nfriends, who became a notorious apostate--one John Child, whose\nsufferings were published with those of Spira. Child was so afraid\nof persecution, as to give up his profession; and then, overwhelmed by\ndespair, he committed suicide. Or to such an one as the professor,\nin the Marian days, who recanted to save burning, but who was\nburnt to death by his house catching fire--(Ivimey).\n\n[121] It is not very easy to determine the precise idea of the author\nin each of the giants who assault the Pilgrims, and are slain by\nthe conductor and his assistants. Some have supposed that unbelief\nis here meant, but Grim or Bloody-man seem not to be opposite\nnames for this inward foe; nor can it be conceived, that unbelief\nshould more violently assault those who are under the care of\na valiant conductor, than it had done the solitary pilgrims. I\napprehend, therefore, that this giant was intended for the emblem\nof certain active men who busied themselves in framing and executing\npersecuting statutes, which was done at the time when this was\nwritten, more violently than it had been before. Thus the temptation\nto fear man, which at all times assaults the believer when required\nto make an open profession of his faith, was exceedingly increased;\nand as heavy fines and severe penalties, in accession to reproach\nand contempt, deterred men from joining themselves in communion\nwith dissenting churches, that way was almost unoccupied, and the\ntravelers went through bypaths, according to the author's sentiments\non the subject. But the preaching of the Gospel, by which the\nministers of Christ wielded the sword of the Spirit, overcame\nthis enemy; for the example and exhortations of such courageous\ncombatants animated even weak believers to overcome their fears,\nand to act according to their consciences, leaving the event to\nGod. This seems to have been the author's meaning; and perhaps\nhe also intended to encourage his brethren boldly to persevere in\nresisting such persecuting statutes, confidently expecting that\nthey should prevail for the repeal of them; by which, as by the\ndeath of the giant, the pilgrims might be freed from additional\nterror, in acting consistently with their avowed principles--(Scott).\n\n[122] This reminds us of the words of Mr. Godly-fear to Diabolus,\nwhen Captain Credence sent a petition to Immanuel for mercy--'We\nare resolved to resist thee as long as a captain, a man, a sling,\nor a stone shall be found in Mansoul to throw at thee. Then said\nthe Lord Mayor to Diabolus, O thou devouring tyrant, be it known\nto thee, we shall hearken to none of thy words!'--(Bunyan's Holy\nWar). Happy are the Godly-fears and Great-hearts who use such\ndecided language to the enemy of souls--(ED).\n\n[123] Sincere and earnest Christiana, at this time, had a proverbial\nexpression--'It is better that the body should die to this world\nby the lions without, than that body and soul should die eternally\nby our lusts within.'--(ED).\n\n[124] O pilgrims, when dangers beset you, and fears arise in you,\nhear what the Lord speaks to you; and in the belief of his truth,\nquit yourselves manfully: 'Fight the good fight of faith,' ever\nremembering that 'you are more than conquerors through Christ who\nhath loved you!' Faith will exalt the love and power of Christ\nabove the fear of every enemy--(Mason).\n\n[125] O pilgrim, it is sweet to reflect that every lion-like foe\nis under the control of thy God, and cannot come one link of the\nchain nearer to thee than thy Lord will permit! Therefore, when\nfears and terrors beset thee, think of thy Lord's love to thee,\nHis power engages to preserve thee, and His promises to comfort\nthee. For 'the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him'\n(Psa. 145:18)--(Mason).\n\n[126] From the deeply interesting narrative of the experience of\nMr. Fearing, it is plain that the lions and their backer, Giant\nGrim or Bloody-man, relates entirely to temporal troubles; most\nlikely to those infamous penal statutes under which Dissenters so\nseverely suffered. The uniting in church-fellowship was not only\nattended with the ordinary difficulties, but with danger from\nthe lions--church and state; especially when backed by ferocious\njudges, such as Jefferies and others. Spiritual enemies--sin, death,\nand hell--were the only terrors under which Mr. Fearing suffered;\ntemporal persecutions--'difficulties, lions, or Vanity Fair--he\nfeared not at all.' The battle probably refers to the flimsy\nsophistry used in defence of persecution, as opposed to the Word\nof God, the sword of the Spirit, by which our Puritan heroes\ndestroyed these anti-Christian arguments--(ED). Now that the lions\nare removed, may we not fear that hypocrites will thrust themselves\ninto our churches? It is easy, cheap, and almost fashionable, to\nbe religious: this should promote solemn investigation--(Andronicus).\n\n[127] How mindful is our Lord of us! How gracious is He to us! What\nblessed provision doth He make for us! If pilgrims are attacked\nby Giant Grim, and terrified with the sight of lions, they may be\nsure that it is only a prelude to some sweet enjoyment of their\nLord's love, and that they are near to some asylum, some sanctuary\nof rest, peace, and comfort. Some bitter generally precedes the\nsweet, and makes the sweet the sweeter--(Mason).\n\n[128] O it is hard work to part with Great-heart! How many blessings\ndo we lose for want of asking! Great-heart is at the command of\nour Lord. O for more power to cry incessantly to the Lord for the\npresence of Great-heart, that we may go on more cheerfully and\nmore joyfully in the ways of the Lord!--(Mason).\n\n[129] Here is a blessed mark of being vessels of the grace of God,\nwhen we delight in the sight of, salute, and welcome others in the\nway to Zion, and mutually have our hearts and affections drawn out\nto each other in love. O how sweet is the fellowship of pilgrims\nbelow! What must it be above? Infinitely above conception--(Mason).\n\n[130] Reader, can you feed upon Christ by faith? Is the Lamb the\nnourishment of thy soul, and the portion of thy heart? Canst thou\nsay, from blessed experience, 'His flesh is meat indeed, and His\nblood is drink indeed?' Is it thy delight to think of Him, hear\nof Him, speak of Him, abide in Him, and live upon Him? O bless\nHim and praise Him for His distinguishing mercy, this spiritual\nappetite! It is peculiar to His beloved ones only--(Mason).\n\n[131] Pray mind the above note, 'Christ's bosom is for all\npilgrims.' [This is the room in which they all lay, and its name\nis Peace--ED]. It is there the weary find rest, and the burdened\nsoul ease. O for more reclinings of soul upon the precious bosom\nof our Lord! We can be truly happy nowhere else--(Mason).\n\n[132] Immanuel also made a feast for them. He feasted them with food\nthat grew not in the fields of Mansoul, nor in the whole kingdom\nof the Universe. It came from the Father's court. There was music\nalso all the while at the table, and man did eat angels' food. I\nmust not forget to tell you, that the musicians were the masters\nof the songs sung at the court of Shaddai--(Bunyan's Holy War).\n\n[133] O what precious harmony is this! How joyful to be the subjects\nof it, and to join in it! The free, sovereign grace of God is the\ndelightful theme, and glory to God in the highest the universal\nchorus. It is the wonder and joy of sinners on earth, and of angels\nin Heaven--(Mason).\n\n[134] Our author intimates that God sometimes communicates spiritual\nknowledge and heavenly joy by 'dreams and visions of the night.'\nThe Holy One 'worketh all things after the counsel of His own\nwill,' and employs what means He pleases to bring into captivity\nevery thought to the obedience of Christ. The effect produced by\ndreams must be brought to this test. It is a good maxim, that what\nleads to God, must have come from God--(Ivimey).\n\n[135] If Mercy were sweetly surprised with this dream, we are sure\nthat nothing but the surprise of mercy can overcome the hardened\nsinner's heart, who, expecting the stroke of justice, instead of\nthe executioner with a death-warrant, finds a messenger of peace,\nwith a pardon free and full, revealing the grace, mercy, and\nlove of God, through the redemption which there is in the love of\nGod--(J. B.).\n\n[136] O how blessed are they who are watching and waiting continually\nto hear the small, still voice of the Spirit, speaking rest and\npeace to their souls by the blood of the Lamb! O how condescending\nis our Lord, thus to visit us, and converse with us in the way to\nhis kingdom!--(Mason). And how blessed is church fellowship when\nthe members are governed by these heavenly principles, watchfulness,\nhumility of mind, prudence, piety, and charity--(ED).\n\n[137] The assurance that the dream should he accomplished, is\ngrounded on the effects produced upon Mercy's heart; there is no\ndanger of delusion, when so scriptural an encouragement is inferred\neven from a dream--(Scott).\n\n[138] Can we wonder that the pilgrims longed to spend some time with\nsuch lovely companions? Reader, how is your inclination? Add to\nthese 'Simplicity, Innocence, and Godly-sincerity; without which\nthree graces thou wilt be a hypocrite, let thy notions, thy\nknowledge, thy profession, and commendations from others, be what\nthey will.'--(Holy Life, vol. 2, p. 539). Christian, in choosing\nthy companions, specially cleave to these six virgins, for they not\nonly have very comely and sober countenances, but Christ dwells\nwith them--(ED).\n\n[139] When Christiana was admitted into the church, care was taken\nto inquire into the religious knowledge of her children. This is\nan important branch of ministerial and parental duty. The answers\ngiven by the children do their mother honour, and prove that\nshe had not laboured in vain. Let every pious parent imitate her\nexample, and hope for her success--(Burder).\n\n[140] This is a very sensible mode of catechising the boys according\nto their ages and acquirements, with questions, exciting their\nattention to subjects of the gravest importance. Compare this with\nthe custom of asking a child its name, and requiring it to narrate\ncircumstances which took place in the time of unconscious babyhood;\ninstead of impressing upon it the existence of God and the solemn\nrealities of eternity. The Assembly's, Dr. Watts', and especially\nBunyan's catechisms, are admirably adapted to assist a parent in\nthese important and responsible exercises--(ED).\n\n[141] The young pupil is not here taught to answer, 'all the\nelect,' but practically 'those that accept of His salvation.'\nThis is perfectly consistent with the other, while it instructs\nand encourages the learner without perplexing him. It is absurd to\nteach the hardest lessons to the youngest scholars in the school\nof Christ--(Scott).\n\n[142] Though this is answered with the simplicity of a child; yet\nit is, and ever will be, the language of every father in Christ.\nHappy those whose spirits are cast into this humble, evangelical\nmold! O that this Spirit may accompany us in all our researches,\nin all our ways, and through all our days!--(Mason). Our inability\nto discover the meaning of these passages should teach us humility,\nand submission to the decisions of our infallible Instructor--(Scott).\n\n[143] Here is the foundation of faith, and the triumph of hope,\nGod's faithfulness to His promise, and His power to perform.\nHaving these to look to, what should stagger our faith, or deject\nour hope? We may, we ought to smile at all carnal objections, and\ntrample upon all corrupt reasonings--(Mason).\n\n[144] This is an important lesson to young females, how they may\nprofitably employ their time, adorn the Gospel, and be useful. It\nis much better to imitate Dorcas, in making garments for the poor,\nthan to waste time and money in frivolous amusements, or needless\ndecorations; or in more elegant and fashionable accomplishments--(Scott).\n\n[145] The character of Mr. Brisk is portrayed to the life in Bunyan's\nEmblems--\n\n\n'Candles that do blink within the socket,\nAnd saints whose eyes are always in their pocket,\nAre much alike: such candles make us fumble;\nAnd at such saints, good men and bad do stumble.'\n\n\n[146] The character of Mercy is lovely throughout the pilgrimage;\nbut in the important choice of a partner for life, she manifests\ngreat prudence and shrewdness; she asks the advice of those who\nknew Mr. Brisk, and whose names proved how capable they were to\ngive it. And she acted upon their knowledge of his character. And\nwhen she discovered the utter selfishness of his disposition, she\nthankfully bid him, Good bye, sweet heart; and parts for life--(ED).\n\n[147] Most blessed resolution! Ah, pilgrims, if ye were more wary,\nlest, by your choice and conduct, ye brought clogs to your souls,\nhow many troubles would ye escape, and how much more happy would\nyou be in your pilgrimage! It is for want of this wisdom and\nconduct, that many bring evil upon themselves--(Mason).\n\n[148] How easily are the best of characters traduced, and false\nconstructions put upon the best of actions! Reader, is this your\nlot also? Mind your duty. Look to your Lord. Persevere in His\nworks and ways; and leave your character with Him, to whom you can\ntrust your soul. 'For if God be for us, who shall be against us?\nwhat shall harm us, if we be followers of that which is good?'--(Mason).\n\n[149] Crying at the cross, and turning a wife out of doors, refers\nto a vulgar error, which had its influence to a late period in\nBedfordshire. It was a speedy mode of divorce, similar to that\npractised in London, by leading a wife by a halter to Smithfield,\nand selling her. The crying at the market cross that a man would\nnot be answerable for the debts that might be incurred by his\nwife, was the mode of advertising, which was supposed to absolve\na husband from maintaining his wife; a notion now fully exploded--(ED).\n\n[150] See the effects of sin. It will pinch and gripe the conscience,\nand make the heart of a gracious soul sick--(Mason). Matthew, in\nbeing admitted a member of the church, represented by the house\nBeautiful and its happy family, had to relate his experience, and\nthis brought to his recollection plashing the trees, and eating\nthe enemy's fruit, of which his brother also reminds them--(ED).\n\n[151] How often do we suffer by neglecting the cautions of a pious\nparent or friend. 'In time of temptation it is our duty to keep\nclose to the Word, then we have Satan at the end of the staff.\nWhen Eve was tempted, she went to the outside of her liberty, and\nsat herself on the brink of danger, when she said, we may eat of\nall but one.'--(Bunyan on Genesis, vol. 2, p. 429). Christiana\nhad chided the boys: 'You transgress, for that fruit is none of\nours.' Still the boys went on, and now Matthew feels the bitterness\nof repentance--(ED).\n\n[152] Although the mother did warn and chide her son, yet she did\nnot use her authority to prevent his taking the fruit which belonged\nto another. She takes the fault home, falls under the sense of it,\nand is grieved for it. A tender conscience is a blessed sign of\na gracious heart. Ye parents, who know the love of Christ, watch\nover your children; see to it, lest you smart for your sins, in\nnot warning and preventing them, that 'the fear of the Lord is to\ndepart from all evil'; yea, to abstain from the very appearance\nof it--(Mason, altered by ED).\n\n[153] Mr. Bunyan's great modesty and humility are truly admirable;\nhe quotes Latin, but is careful to tell us, 'The Latin I borrow'\n[in his notes]. The English is, 'Of the flesh and of the blood\nof Christ.' This is the only portion for sin-sick souls. Feeding\nupon Christ's flesh and blood by faith, keeps us from sinning,\nand when sick of sin, these, and nothing but these, can heal and\nrestore us. Yet there is in our nature an unaccountable reluctance\nto receive these, through the unbelief which works in us. So\nMatthew found it--(Mason).\n\n[154] See the blessed effects of receiving Christ, when under the\nsense of sin, and distressed for sin. O what a precious Saviour\nis Jesus! What efficacy is there in His flesh and blood, to purge\nthe conscience from guilt! Lord, what a mercy is it, that though\nwe sin, yet Thou art abundant to pardon, yea, multipliest Thy\npardons; yea, and also giveth poor, pained, broken-hearted sinners\nto know and feel Thy pardoning love!--(Mason).\n\n[155] How correctly are the effects of an indulgence in sinful lusts\ndescribed. Sin and sorrow are inseparable. The burdened conscience\nof a backslider can be relieved in no other way, than that in\nwhich it was first 'purged from dead works,' by exercising faith\nin the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus as the only sacrifice for\nsin, 'If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,\nrestore such an one in the spirit of meekness' (Gal. 6:1). 'Flee\nyouthful lusts,' and be upon your guard against the fruit of\nBeelzebub's orchard--(Ivimey).\n\n[156] The relation of Matthew's sickness, and the method of his\ncure, may be justly esteemed among the finest passages of this\nwork. He ate the fruit of Beelzebub's orchard, sin, the disease of\nthe soul, threatening eternal death. It is an unspeakable mercy\nto be exceedingly pained with it. Such need the physician, and\nthe remedy is at hand.\n\n\nNothing but Thy blood, O Jesus!\nCan relieve us from our smart;\nNothing else from guilt release us\nNothing else can melt the heart--(Hart).\nIt is the universal medicine; blessed are those that will never take\nany other physic--(Burder).\n\n\n[157] This advice should be carefully noted. Numbers abuse the\ndoctrine of free salvation by the merits and redemption of Christ,\nand presume on forgiveness, when they are destitute of genuine\nrepentance, and give no evidence of sanctification. But this most\nefficacious medicine in that case will do no good; or rather, the\nperverse abuse of it will increase their guilt, and tend to harden\ntheir hearts in sin--(Scott).\n\n[158] Bunyan's bill of his Master's water of life--'As men, in their\nbills, do give an account of the persons cured, and the diseases\nremoved, so could I give you account of numberless numbers that\nhave not only been made to live, but to live forever, by drinking\nthis pure water of life. No disease comes amiss to it. It cures\nblindness, deafness, dumbness, deadness. This right holy water (all\nother is counterfeit) will drive away evil spirits. It will make you\nhave a white soul, and that is better than a white skin.'--(Bunyan's\nWater of Life). Whoever offers to purify the heart, and heal a wounded\nconscience, by any other means, is a deceiver and a soul-destroyer--(ED).\n\n[159] This conversation is adapted for the meditation of a restored\nbackslider. Evangelical truth prescribes the most powerful antidotes\nto presumption and despair--'My little children, these things\nwrite I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have\nan Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous' (1 John\n2:1)--(Ivimey).\n\n[160] Having experienced the great advantage of a pious minister or\nelder, they were naturally desirous of having such comfort through\ntheir pilgrimage. The petition may refer to the custom, among\ndissenting churches, of letters of dismission given to members\nwhen they move to a distant locality--(ED).\n\n[161] How much is contained in that answer of Christiana as to\nthe origin of evil--'It is food or poison, I know not which!' To\nbelievers, it will be their elevation to a degree of bliss that\nthey would never have otherwise enjoyed; to the faithless, it will\nbe poison of the deadliest kind. Here is no attempt to explain the\norigin of evil in our world; a subject far beyond all our powers\nof investigation--(ED).\n\n[162] It is not enough that the Holy Spirit convince us of sin at\nour first setting out on pilgrimage, and makes us sensible of our\nwant of Christ; but He also keeps up a sight and sense of the evil\nof sin in its original nature, as well as actual transgressions.\nThis often makes us wonder at sin, at ourselves, and at the love\nof Christ in becoming a sacrifice for our sins. And this also humbles\nus, makes us hate sin the more; and makes Christ, His atonement,\nand righteousness, more and more precious in our eyes, and\ninestimable in our hearts--(Mason).\n\n[163] The ministration of angels is an animating theme to believers,\nand is well adapted to promote their confidence in the care and\nprotection of God. 'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent\nforth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?' (Heb.\n1:14)--(Ivimey).\n\n[164] This is the anchor of hope. This keeps the soul safe, and\nsteady to Jesus, who is the alone object of our hopes. Hope springs\nfrom faith. It is an expectation of the fulfillment of those things\nthat are promised in the Word of truth, by the God of all grace.\nFaith receives them, trusts in them, relies upon them; and hope\nwaits for the full accomplishment and enjoyment of them--(Mason).\n\n[165] Bunyan loved harmony--he had a soul for music. But whether\nhe intended by this to sanction the introduction of instrumental\nmusic into public worship, is not clear. 'The late Abraham Booth and\nAndrew Fuller were extremely averse to it; others are as desirous\nof it. Music has a great effect on the nervous system, and of\nall instruments the organ is the most impressive. The Christian's\ninquiry is, whether sensations so produced assist the soul in\nholding communion with the Father of spirits, or whether, under our\nspiritual dispensation, the Holy Ghost makes use of such means to\npromote intercourse between our spirits and the unseen hierarchies\nof Heaven--(ED).\n\n[166] O how reviving and refreshing are those love-tokens from our\nLord! Great-heart never comes empty-handed. He always inspires\nwith courage and confidence. Let us look more into, and heartily\nbelieve the Word of truth and grace; and cry more to our precious\nImmanuel, and we shall have more of Great-heart's company. It is\nbut sad travelling without him--(Mason).\n\n[167] What this great robbery was, whether spiritual or temporal,\nis left to the reader to imagine. The sufferings of the Dissenters\nwere awfully severe at this time. Had it been a year later, we\nmight have guessed it to have referred to the sufferings of that\npious, excellent woman, Elizabeth Gaunt, who was burnt, October 23,\n1685. She was a Baptist, and cruelly martyred. Penn, the Quaker,\nsaw her die. 'She laid the straw about her for burning her speedily,\nand behaved herself in such a manner that all the spectators melted\nin tears.'--(ED).\n\n[168] Mr. Ivimey is of opinion that by this Bunyan sanctioned\na hireling ministry, but it appears more to refer to the common\ncustom of rewarding servants to whom you have given trouble. He\nadduces Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18; and 1 Corinthians 9:11-14. It\nis a subject of considerable difficulty; but how is it that no\nminister ever thinks of referring to the plainest passage upon this\nsubject in the New Testament? It is Acts 20:17-38, especially verses\n33-35. The angel was a gold coin, in value half a sovereign--(ED).\n\n\n[169] Such mountains round about this house do stand\nAs one from thence may see the Holy Land (Psa. 125:2).\nHer fields are fertile, do abound with corn;\nThe lilies fair her valleys do adorn (Song. 2:1).\nThe birds that do come hither every spring,\nFor birds, they are the very best that sing (Song. 2:11, 12).\nHer friends, her neighbours too, do call her blest (Psa. 48:2);\nAngels do here go by, turn in, and rest (Heb. 13:2).\nThe road to paradise lies by her gate (Gen. 28:17),\nHere pilgrims do themselves accommodate\nWith bed and board; and do such stories tell,\nAs do for truth and profit all excel.\nNor doth the porter here say any nay,\nThat hither would turn in, that here would stay.\nThis house is rent free; here the man may dwell\nThat loves his landlord, rules his passions well.\n--(Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2 p. 579).\n\n[170] It is sweet melody when we can sing with grace in the heart.\nThe joy arising from God's free grace and pardoning love, is greater\nthan the joy of harvest, or of one who rejoices when he divides\nthe spoil--(J. B.). Those joyful notes spring from a sense of\nnearness to the Lord, and a firm confidence in His Divine truth and\neverlasting mercy. O when the Sun of Righteousness shines warmly\non the soul, it makes the pilgrims sing most sweetly! These\nsongs approach very nearly to the heavenly music in the realm of\nglory--(Mason).\n\n[171] Forgetfulness makes things nothings. It makes us as if things\nhad never been; and so takes away from the soul one great means\nof stay, support, and encouragement. When David was dejected, the\nremembrance of the hill Hermon was his stay. When he was to go\nout against Goliath, the remembrance of the lion and the bear was\nhis support. The recovery of a backslider usually begins at the\nremembrance of former things--(Bunyan's Holy Life, vol. 2, p. 507).\n\n[172] After being thus highly favoured with sensible comforts, in\nthe views of faith, the comforts of hope, and the joy of love, the\nnext step these pilgrims are to take is down the Hill Difficulty,\ninto the Valley of Humiliation. What doth this place signify? A deep\nand abiding sight and sense of our ruined state, lost condition,\nand desperate circumstances, as fallen sinners. This is absolutely\nnecessary, lest we should think more highly of ourselves than we\nought to think. For the Lord oft favours us with manifestations\nof His love, and the comforts of His Spirit; but, through the\ncorruption of our nature, we are prone to be exalted in ourselves,\nand, as it were, intoxicated by them. Hence we are exhorted 'to\nthink soberly' (Rom. 12:3). This the Valley of Humiliation causes\nus to do--(Mason).\n\n[173] Thus beautifully does our author describe the grace of\nhumility. O that every reader may know its excellence by happy\nexperience!--(Burder).\n\n[174] These are the rare times; above all, when I can go to God\nas the Publican, sensible of His glorius majesty, sensible of my\nmisery, and bear up and affectionately cry, 'God be merciful to\nme a sinner.' For my part, I find it one of the hardest things I\ncan put my soul upon, when warmly sesnsible that I am a sinner,\nto come to God for a share in mercy and grace; I cannot but with\na thousand tears say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'--(Bunyan's\nPharisee and Publican, vol. 2, p. 261).\n\n[175] Though this Valley of Humiliation, or a clear sight and\nabiding sense of the sinfulness of our nature, and the wickedness\nof our hearts, may be very terrifying to pilgrims, after they have\nbeen favoured with peace and joy, and comforted by the views of\nfaith and hope, yet it is a very safe place; and though, at first\nentering into it, and seeing more of themselves than was ever\nbefore showed them, they may fear and tremble, yet, after some\ncontinuing here, they are more reconciled and contented; for here\nthey find the visits of their Lord, and in the depths of their\nhumility, they behold the heights of His love and the depths of His\nmercy, and cry out in joy, Where sin aboundeth, grace superabounds.\nThough sin abounds in me, the grace of Jesus superabounds towards\nme. Though I am emptied of all, yet I have an inexhaustible fullness\nin Jesus, to supply me with all I want and all I hope--(Mason).\n\n[176] The humble man is contented; if his estate be low, his heart\nis lower still. He that is little in his own eyes, will not be\nmuch troubled at being little in the eyes of others--(Watson).\nThose circumstances that will not disturb a humble man's sleep,\nwill break a proud man's heart--(Matthew Henry). They that get slips\nin going down the hill, or would hide his descent by deception, or\nrepine at it, must look for combats when in the valley--(Ivimey).\n\n[177] Perhaps the shepherd's boy may refer to the obscure but quiet\nstation of some pastors over small congregations, who live almost\nunknown to their brethren, but are, in a measure, useful and very\ncomfortable--(Scott).\n\n[178] Our Lord chose retirement, poverty, and an obscure station;\nremote from bustle, and favourable to devotion; so that His\nappearance in a public character, and in crowded scenes, for the\ngood of mankind and the glory of the Father, was a part of His\nself-denial, in which 'He pleased not Himself.' Some are banished\ninto this valley, but the poor in spirit love to walk in it; and\nthough some believers here struggle with distressing temptations,\nothers, in passing through it, enjoy much communion with God--(Scott).\n\n[179] Ever remember the words of our Lord, 'It is enough for the\ndisciple that he be as his master.' If your Lord made it his chief\ndelight to be in this Valley of Humiliation, learn from His example\nto prize this valley. Though you may meet with an Apollyon or a\ndestroyer here, yet you are safe in the arms and under the power\nof your all-conquering Lord: 'For though the Lord is high, yet\nhath He respect unto the lowly.' Therefore you may add with David,\n'Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thou\nshalt stretch forth Thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies,\nand Thy right hand shall save me' (Psa. 138:7). Such are the\nconfidence, the reasoning, and the pleading of humble souls in the\npower of faith, which leads them quite out of themselves to their\nLord--(Mason).\n\n[180] In the first edition this name is printed 'Simon'; it was\ncorrected to Samuel in Bunyan's later editions--(ED).\n\n[181] It is marvellous to see how some men are led captive by\nforgetfulness. Those that sometime thought no pains too much, no\nway too far, no hazards too great to run for eternal life, become\nas if they had never thought of such things. Should one say to\nsome--Art not thou that man I saw crying out under a sermon, 'What\nshall I do to be saved?' that I heard speak well of the holy Word\nof God? how askew they will look upon one. Or if they acknowledge\nthat such things were with them once, they do it more like dejected\nghosts than as men--(Bunyan's Holy Life, vol. 2, p. 507).\n\n[182] O pilgrims, attend to this! Pride and ingratitude go hand in\nhand. Study, ever study the favours of your Lord; how freely they\nare bestowed upon you, and how utterly unworthy you are of the\nleast of them. Beware of Forgetful Green. Many, after going some\nway on pilgrimage, get into this Green, and continue here; and talk\nof their own faithfulness to grace received, the merit of their\nworks, and a second justification by their works, &c. Hence it is\nplain that they are fallen asleep on this Forgetful Green, and talk\nincoherently, as men do in their sleep; for they forget that they\nare still sinners--poor, needy, wretched sinners; and that they want\nthe blood of Christ to cleanse them, the righteousness of Christ\nto justify them, and the Spirit of Christ to keep them humble,\nand to enable them to live by faith upon the fullness of Christ\nto sanctify them, as much as they did when they first set out as\npilgrims. O it is a most blessed thing to be kept mindful of what\nwe are, and of the Lord's free grace and unmerited goodness to\nus!--(Mason).\n\n[183] 'Trembles at God's Word,' so as not to dare pick and choose\nwhich doctrines he will receive, and which reject. Would you act\nthus by God's holy commandments? Would you choose one and reject\nanother? Are they not all of equal authority? And are not all His\nholy doctrines also stamped with the same Divine sanction? Where\nthere is true faith in them, it will make a man tremble to act\nthus by God's Word!--(Mason).\n\n[184] We ought to study the records of the temptations, conflicts,\nfaith, patience, and victories of believers; mark their wounds, by\nwhat misconduct they were occasioned, that we may watch and pray\nlest we fall in like manner. Learn how they repelled the assaults\nof the tempter, that we may learn to resist him steadfast in the\nfaith. Their triumphs should animate us to keep on the whole armour\nof God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day--(Scott).\n\n[185] If Satan be driven back from one attack, prepare for another.\nBless God for your armour. Never put it off--(Mason).\n\n[186] If this monument refers to the experience of Bunyan, as\nexhibited in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, it is\nwell called, 'Most strange, and yet most true.'--(ED).\n\n[187] This valley represents the inward distress, conflict, and\nalarm, arising from darkness and insensibility of mind. It varies\naccording to the constitution, animal spirits, health, education,\nand strength of mind of different persons--(Scott).\n\n[188] None know the distress, anguish, and fear that haunt pilgrims\nin this valley, but those who have been in it. The hissings,\nrevilings, and injections of that old serpent, with all his infernal\nmalice, seem to be let loose upon pilgrims in this valley. Asaph\nseems to be walking in this valley when he says, 'As for me, my feet\nwere almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped' (Psa. 73:2)--(Mason).\n\n[189] Satan is often must dreadful at a distance, and, courageously\nresisted, will not advance nearer. This advice is ever needful, 'Be\nsober; be vigilant.' These pilgrims kept up their watch. Satan did\ncome upon them unawares; still they heard his approach; they were\nprepared for his attack; lo, Satan drew back--(Mason).\n\n[190] Miserable, uncomfortable walking, with a pit before us, mid\ndarkness around, yea, within us, and hell seeming to move from beneath\nto meet us who have been left to the darkness of our nature, the\nterrors of a fiery law, the sense of guilt, and the fear of hell! O\nwhat an unspeakable mercy, in such a distressing season, to have\nan Almighty Saviour to look to and call upon for safety and\nsalvation! 'For He will hear our cry and save us' (Psa. 145:19)--(Mason).\n\n[191] This text has been a sheet anchor to my soul under darkness\nand distress. I doubt not but it has been so to many others. O\nthere is an amazing depth of grace and a wonderful height of mercy\nin it. Bless God for it. Study it deeply--(Mason).\n\n[192]What must the pure and holy Jesus have suffered when He tasted\ndeath in all its bitterness? His soul was in an agony. Hell was\nlet loose upon Him. This is your hour, said He, and the power of\ndarkness, when He cried out, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou\nforsaken Me?' It seemed as if the pains of hell had got hold of\nHim. O what justice and judgment! what love and mercy! what power\nand might were here displayed! And all this for us, and for our\nsalvation. What shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits?--(J.\nB.).\n\n[193] Precious thought; under the worst and most distressing\ncircumstances think of this. Their continuance is short. The\nappointment, love. Their end shall be crowned with glory. Our dark\nand distressing nights make us prize our light and joyful days the\nmore--(Mason).\n\n[194] The tremendous horrors of the Valley of the Shadow of Death,\nfiguratively represents the gloomy frame of mind in which fears\nrise high, and temptations greatly abound, more especially when\nthey are augmented by bodily disease. Few Christians are wholly\nexempted from such distressing seasons, but all are not distressed\nalike--(Burder). Bunyan's experience, recorded in his Grace\nAbounding, shows that he was, when under conviction, very familiar\nwith these horrors--(ED).\n\n[195] Heedless professors, be warned. The doctrines of grace were\nnever intended to lull any asleep in carnal security. If they do\nso by you, it is a sure sign that what should have been for your\nhealth proves an occasion of your falling--(Mason). O the miserable\nend of them that obey not the Gospel--punished with everlasting\ndestruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His\npower--(J. B.).\n\n\n[196] Prayer prevailed, and they were delivered.\nBy glimm'ring hopes, and gloomy fears,\nWe trace the sacred road;\nThrough dismal deeps, and dang'rous snares,\nWe make our way to God--(Burder).\n\n\n[197] By a good heart is here meant, that Christian was endued\nwith boldness and courage from above; as the Psalmist says, 'Wait\non the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine\nheart.'--(J. B.).\n\n[198] Satan's master argument is, Thou art a horrible sinner, a\nhypocrite, one that has a profane heart, and one that is an utter\nstranger to a work of grace. I say this is his Maul, his club, his\nmaster-piece. He doth with this as some do by their most enchanting\nsongs, sings them everywhere. I believe there are but few saints\nin the world that have not had this temptation sounding in their\nears. But were they but aware, Satan by all this does but drive\nthem to the gap, out at which they should go, and so escape his\nroaring. Saith he, Thou art a great sinner, a horrible sinner, a\nprofane-hearted wretch, one that cannot be matched for a vile one\nin the country. The tempted may say, Aye, Satan, so I am, a sinner of\nthe biggest size, and, therefore, have most need of Jesus Christ;\nyea, because I am such a wretch Jesus calls me first. I am he,\nwherefore stand back, Satan, make a lane; my right is first to come\nto Jesus Christ. This, now, would be like for like; this would foil\nthe devil: this would make him say, I must not deal with this man\nthus; for then I put a sword into his hand to cut off my head--(Good\nNews for the Vilest of Men, vol. 1, p 96).\n\n[199] The greatest heart cannot understand without prayer, nor\nconquer without the almighty power of God. The belief of this will\nexcite prayer--(Mason).\n\n[200] The severity of Job's sufferings probably suggested to the\nauthor, the idea of taking rest during the conflict. 'How long wilt\nthou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my\nspittle?' (Job 7:19). Here is no timidly mincing the matter with\nsophistry or infidelity; but a manful, prayerful, fighting it\nout--(ED).\n\n[201] Mr. Ivimey considers, that in Giant Maul is characterised that\nerroneous but common notion, that the church of Christ consists\nexclusively of some one state religion, to dissent from which is to\ncause schism, and to rend the seamless coat of Christ. Maul dwelt\nin the place where Pagan and Pope had resided; the club being the\ntemporal power to compel uniformity. If so, the declaration for\nliberty of conscience slew the giant, and the Act of toleration\nprevented his resurrection. Alas, how little do such Anti-Christians\nknow of that spiritual kingdom which extends over all the temporal\nkingdoms of the earth, and which constitutes Christ the King\nof kings--(ED). Carnal reasoning upon the equity of the Divine\nproceedings have mauled many a Christian--robbed him of his\ncomfort, and spoiled his simplicity. As soon as we turn aside to\nvain janglings and doubtful disputations, we get upon the devil's\nground. As Great-heart was knocked down with this giant's club,\nso many a faithful minister has been confounded with the subtle\narguments of a cunning disputer. The way to overcome this giant is\nto keep close to Scripture, and pray for the teaching of the Holy\nSpirit--(J.B.). Though Maul was baffled, disabled, and apparently\nslain; it will appear that he has left a posterity on earth to\nrevile, injure, and oppose the spiritual worshippers of God in\nevery generation--(Scott).\n\n[202] Well may Giant Maul, with his sophistry, be called a dangerous\nenemy. Many of this tribe are mentioned in the Holy War, as Lord\nCavil, the Lord Brisk, the Lord Pragmatic, the Lord Murmur, and\none Clip-promise, a notorious villain. These lords felt the edge of\nLord Will-be-will's sword, for which his Prince Immanuel honoured\nhim. Clip-promise was set in the pillory, whipped, and hanged. One\nclipper-of-promise does great abuse to Mansoul in a little time.\nBunyan's judgment was, that 'all those of his name and life should\nbe served even as he!'--(ED).\n\n[203] Light afflictions, but for a moment, and which work out for\nus an eternal weight of glory--'a little hurt on my flesh.' If\nthis refers to Bunyan's twelve years' imprisonment under the maul\nof sophistry, how must his natural temper have been subdued by\nhumility!--(ED).\n\n[204] This club we may suppose to mean human power, under\nwhich many godly ministers, in the seventeenth century, suffered\ngreatly. Blessed be God, we have nothing of this to fear in our\nday; therefore, the more shame for such professors who desert\nChrist when they have nothing to fear but the breath of reproach,\na nickname, or a by-word of contempt--(Mason).\n\n[205] The experienced Christian will be afraid of new acquaintance;\nin his most unwatchful seasons he is fully convinced that no enemy\ncan hurt him, unless he is induced to yield to temptation, and\ncommit sin--(Scott).\n\n[206] The character of Honesty is beautifully drawn by a masterly\nhand. The aged pilgrim, worn out with fatigue, can say without\nfear, 'I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained\nme.' He blushed when his name was mentioned, and proved to be a\nmost valuable acquisition to the Pilgrim party--(ED).\n\n[207] By honesty, in the abstract, he means to distinguish between\nhis earnest desire to be honest, and a perfect character. Every\nChristian is the subject of honesty or justice, uprightness\nand sincerity; yet when we come to describe these virtues in the\nabstract, or what they really are in their strict purity and utmost\nperfection, where is the Christian but must wear the conscientious\nblush, as Honesty did, under a sense of his imperfections--(Mason).\n\n[208] This is the confession of an honest heart. It is never afraid\nof ascribing too much to the sovereignty of grace; nor of giving\nall the glory to the Sun of Righteousness, for shining upon, and\nmelting down its hard frozen soul--(Mason).\n\n[209] If the kiss of charity be given, great care should be taken\nthat it is a 'holy' kiss. 'Some have urged the holy kiss, but then\nI have asked why they made baulks; why they did salute the most\nhandsome, and let the ill-favoured go. This has been unseemly in\nmy sight.'--(Grace Abounding, No. 315). However such a custom may\nhave been innocent in the oriental scenes of apostolic labours,\nit has been very properly discontinued in later ages, unless it be\nas in the case of old Honest, or the unexpected meeting of very\nold friends and relatives--(ED).\n\n[210] The character and narrative of Fearing is drawn and arranged\nwith great judgment, and in a very affecting manner. Little-faith,\nmentioned in the First Part, was faint-hearted and distrustful;\nand thus he contracted guilt, and lost his comfort; but Fearing\ndreaded sin and coming short of Heaven, more than all that flesh\ncould do unto him. He was alarmed more at the fear of being\novercome by temptation, than from a reluctance to undergo derision\nor persecution. The peculiarity of this description of Christians\nmust be traced back to constitution, habit, first impressions,\ndisproportionate and partial views of truth, and improper\ninstructions; these, concurring with weakness of faith, and the\ncommon infirmities of human nature, give a cast to their experience\nand character, which renders them uncomfortable to themselves,\nand troublesome to others. Yet no competent judges doubt that they\nhave the root of the matter in them; and none are more entitled\nto the patient, sympathizing, and tender attention of ministers\nand Christians--(Scott).\n\n[211] We cannot but admire the variety of experiences introduced\ninto the Pilgrim's Progress. Many have died remarkably happy in the\nLord, who, till very near their last moments have been in bondage\nthrough the fear of death. We may be sure of this, that wherever\nthe Lord has begun a work, He will carry it on to the great decisive\nday. The proof of this is 'he would not go back!' 'If ye continue\nin My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed.'--(J.B.).\n\n[212] See all through this character, what a conflict there was\nbetween fear, and the influence of grace. Though it may not be\nthe most comfortable, yet the end of Mr. Fearing was very joyful.\nO what a godly jealousy displayed itself all through his life!\nBetter this, than strong, vain-glorious confidence. The Valley of\nHumiliation suits well with fearing hearts--(Mason).\n\n[213] When persons are naturally fearful and low-spirited, it will\nbe found, notwithstanding the courage and comfort they sometimes\nare favoured with, that the constitutional bias of their tempers\nand dispositions will discover itself, more or less, all through\ntheir pilgrimage. Thus there is a kind of sympathy between Fearing\nand the Valley of Humiliation, which seems congenial to him--(J.B.).\n\n[214] O what a time of need is the day of death, when I am to pack\nup all, to be gone from hence; now a man grows near the borders of\neternity; he sees into the skirts of the next world. Now death is\ndeath, and the grave the grave indeed. Has he laid up grace for this\nday, while cold death strokes his hand over his face, and over his\nheart, and is turning his blood into jelly; while strong death is\nloosing his silver cord, and breaking his golden bowl?--(Bunyan's\nSaints' Privilege, vol. 1, p. 678). Can a great-hearted saint wonder\nthat Mr. Fearing was at his wit's end?--(ED).\n\n[215] Here is a glorious display of a fearing heart. Full of courage\nagainst evil, and fired with zeal for God's glory--(Mason).\n\n[216] O how gracious is our Lord! as thy day is, O Pilgrim, so\nshall thy strength be. Even the river of death, though there can\nbe no bridge to go over, yet faith makes one; and the Lord of faith\nmakes the waters low, to suit the state of His beloved ones--(Mason).\n\n[217] We know the least appearance of a sin better by its native\nhue, than we know a grace of the Spirit. Sin is sooner felt in\nits bitterness upon a sanctified soul than is the grace of God.\nSin is dreadful and murderous in the sight of a sanctified soul.\nGrace lies deep in the hidden part, but sin floats above in the\nflesh, and is easier seen. Grace as to quantity, seems less than\nsin. What is leaven, or a grain of mustard seed, to the bulky lump\nof a body of death? It is a rare thing for some Christians to see\ntheir graces, but a thing very common for such to see their sins,\nto the shaking of their souls--(Bunyan's Desire of the Righteous,\nvol. 1, p. 755).\n\n[218] This is an every-day character in the church, delicately and\naccurately drawn, a man, as Mr. Ivimey says, that 'carried the\nSlough of Despond in his mind everywhere with him,' not from the\ndifficulties of the way, nor the frowns of the world, but from\ndoubts lest sin, death, and hell, should prevail over them. They\nwalk safely, however sorrowfully; and seldom give the enemy an\noccasion to rejoice--(ED).\n\n[219] Here is a very striking lesson for professors. Talk not of\nyour great knowledge, rich experience, comfortable frames, and\njoyful feelings; all are vain and delusive, if the Gospel has not\na holy influence upon your practice. On the other hand, be not\ndejected if you are not favoured with these; for if a holy fear\nof God, and a godly jealousy over yourselves, possess your heart,\nverily you are a partaker of the grace of Christ--(Mason).\n\n[220] Hatred to sin can only arise from the love of God. In vain\ndo men think of deterring others from sin, or driving them to duty\nby low terrors, or low requirements. The strong man armed will\nkeep his palace, till a stronger than he cometh and taketh from\nhim the armour wherein he trusted. But herein they err, not knowing\nthe Scriptures, which set forth love as the constraining motive\nto true obedience--(J.B.).\n\n[221] Christians who resemble Fearing, are greatly retarded in their\nprogress by discouraging apprehensions; they are apt to spend too\nmuch time in unavailing complaints; yet they cannot think of giving\nup their feeble hopes, or of returning to their forsaken worldly\npursuits and pleasures. They are indeed helped forward, through\nthe mercy of God, in a very extraordinary manner; yet they still\nremain exposed to alarms and discouragements, in every stage of\ntheir pilgrimage. They are afraid even of relying on Christ for\nsalvation, because they have not distinct views of His love, and\nthe methods of His grace; and imagine some other qualification to\nbe necessary besides the willingness to seek, knock, and ask for\nthe promised blessings, with a real desire of obtaining them.\nThey imagine, that there has been something in their past life,\nor that there is some peculiarity in their present habits, and way\nof applying to Christ, which may exclude them from the benefit: so\nthat they pray with diffidence; and, being consciously unworthy,\ncan hardly believe that the Lord will grant their requests. They\nare also prone to overlook the most decisive evidences of their\nreconciliation to God; and to persevere in arguing with perverse\ningenuity against their own manifest happiness. The same mixture of\nhumility and unbelief renders persons of this description backward\nin associating with their brethren, and in frequenting those\ncompanies in which they might obtain further instruction; for\nthey are afraid of being considered as believers, or even serious\ninquirers; so that affectionate and earnest persuasion is requisite\nto prevail with them to join in those religious exercises, by which\nChristians especially receive the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Yet\nthis arises not from disinclination, but diffidence; and though\nthey are often peculiarly favoured with seasons of great comfort,\nto counterbalance their dejections, yet they never hear or read of\nthose who 'have drawn back to perdition,' but they are terrified\nwith the idea that they shall shortly resemble them; so that every\nwarning given against hypocrisy or self-deception seems to point\nthem out by name, and every new discovery of any fault or mistake\nin their views, temper, or conduct, seems to decide their doom.\nAt the same time, they are often remarkably melted into humble,\nadmiring gratitude, by contemplating the love and sufferings of\nChrist, and seem to delight in hearing of that subject above all\nothers. They do not peculiarly fear difficulties, self-denial,\nreproaches, or persecution, which deter numbers from making an\nopen profession of religion; and yet they are more backward in\nthis respect than others, because they deem themselves unworthy\nto be admitted to such privileges and into such society, or else\nare apprehensive of being finally separated from them or becoming\na disgrace to religion--(Scott).\n\n[222] This is a solid, scriptural definition; pray mind it. Here\nconditions may safely be admitted; and happy is the Christian who\nkeeps closest to these conditions, in order to enjoy peace of\nconscience, and joy of heart in Christ--(Mason).\n\n[223] That heart, which is under the teaching and influence of the\ngrace of God, will detect such horrid notions, and cry out against\nthem. God forbid that ever I should listen one moment to such\ndiabolical sentiments! for they are hatched in hell, and propagated\non earth, by the father of lies--(Mason).\n\n[224] It is a horrible and blasphemous perversion of Scripture, to\ntake encouragement in sin, from those sad examples of it in the\nsaints, which are held up, in terrorem, as so many beacons by\nwhich we may avoid the same. To talk, and especially to act like\nSelf-will affords the fullest proof that a man never came in at\nthe gate. The Lord change every such perverse will, and preserve\nthe church from principles and practices so diabolical--(Burder).\nWhat shall we say to these things? Lord, keep me!--(J.B.).\n\n[225] It may be seriously inquired as to whether in all Satan's\ntemptations, any one is so fatal to immortal souls as the idea of\na death-bed repentance. Have not prayers against sudden death a\ntendency to interfere with or obstruct that daily walk with God,\nwhich alone can fit us to meet the king of terrors? When heart\nand strength fail; when the body is writhing in agony, or lying\nan insensible lump of mortality; is that the time to make peace\nwith God? Such persons must he infatuated with strange notions\nof the Divine Being. No, my reader, life is the time to serve\nthe Lord, the time to insure the great reward. Sudden death is a\nrelease from much pain and anxiety. It is the most merciful gate\nby which we can enter upon immortality--(ED).\n\n[226] Pray attentively mind, and deeply consider the six following\nobservations; they are just; they are daily confirmed to us in the\ndifferent conduct of professors. Study, and pray to improve them\nto your soul's profit--(Mason).\n\n[227] Adam hid himself because he was naked. But how could he be\nnaked, when before he had made himself an apron? O! the approach\nof God consumed and burnt off his apron! His apron would not keep\nhim from the eye of the incorruptible God. When God deals with such\nmen for sin, assuredly they will find themselves naked--(Bunyan on\nGenesis, vol. 2, p. 432). If the wicked flee when no man pursueth,\nhow can they stand when God lets loose death and eternity upon\ntheir guilty souls?--(ED).\n\n[228] Thou art bound to Heaven, but the way thither is dangerous.\nIt is beset everywhere with evil angels, who would rob thee of thy\nsoul. If thou wouldest go on cheerfully in thy dangerous journey,\ncommit thy treasure--thy soul, to God, to keep; and then thou\nmayest say with comfort, Well, that care is over; my soul is safe;\nthe thieves, if they meet me, cannot come at that; God will keep\nit to my joy and comfort at the great day--(Bunyan's Advice to\nSufferers, vol. 2, p. 701).\n\n[229] The spiritual refreshment, arising from experimental conversation,\nseems to be especially intended; but the name of Gaius suggests\nalso the importance of the Apostle's exhortation, 'Use hospitality\nwithout grudging.' This ought to be obeyed even to strangers,\nif they are certified to us as brethren in Christ--(Scott). Every\nChristian's house should, so far as ability is given, be an inn\nfor the refreshment of weary fellow-pilgrims--(ED).\n\n[230] This character is drawn from that of the well-beloved Gaius,\nin the third epistle of John. Although, in comparison with the\ngreat bulk of Christians, there are but few such in the church;\nyet in all ages, and in most churches, some hospitable Gaius is\nto be found. May their numbers be greatly increased--(ED).\n\n[231] Ignatius, a bishop or pastor of a church in Antioch, cruelly\nmartyred for the truth in the second century; not Ignatius Loyola,\nthe Jesuit. Mr. Bunyan obtained all this information from Foxe's\nBook of Martyrs, which was written before Satan had introduced the\nJesuits into the world--(ED).\n\n[232] 'Marriage is honourable in all' (Heb. 13:4). Notwithstanding\nall the cares of a family, while the married have many troubles, the\nsingle have few, if any, real enjoyments of life. The will of our\nheavenly Father is here enforced upon the pilgrims by Gaius--only\nlet pilgrims be united together, marry in the Lord, and we may expect\nhis blessing to fit us to do His will. Vows of celibacy are from\nbeneath, from the father of lies--contrary to the order of nature,\nand the expressed will of God. 'It is not good to be alone.'--(ED).\n\n[233] The different parts of social worship and Christian fellowship\nare here allegorically described. The heave-shoulder and wave-breast\ntypify the power and love of our great High Priest; that we should\ndevote to Him our whole heart, with fervent prayer, and grateful\npraise. The wine represents the exhilarating effects of the shedding\nof Christ's blood, and its application to us by living faith. The\nmilk is the simple instruction of the Scriptures. The butter and\nhoney are animating views of God and heavenly joy. The apples are\nthe promises and privileges of Christians (see Song. 2:3; Prov.\n25:11). And the nuts those difficult doctrines, which amply repay\nus the trouble of penetrating their meaning. Christians so employed\nhave far sweeter enjoyments than they ever had in the mirth,\ndiversions, and pleasures of the world--(Scott).\n\n[234] Bunyan takes advantage of the common past-time of solving\nriddles, to teach important truth in a way calculated to be impressed\non the memory. Thus, in the treatise on the Covenants of the Law\nand Grace, the second Adam was before the first, and also the\nsecond covenant before the first. This is a riddle--(Vol. 2, p.\n524)--(ED). Observe here, the feast of pilgrims was attended with\nmirth. Christians have the greatest reason to be merry; but then\nit ought to be spiritual mirth, which springs from spiritual views\nand spiritual conversation--(Mason).\n\n[235] When Christian intercourse is conducted with gravity and\ncheerfulness united, it is both pleasant and instructive. Speech\nshould be 'always with grace, seasoned with salt, that it may\nminister grace to the bearers,' and thus 'provoke one another unto\nlove, and to good works'; thus are the young encouraged to follow\nthat which is good--(Ivimey).\n\n[236] Here is a genuine discovery of a gracious heart; when it is\ndelighted with spiritual company and conversation, and longs for\nits continuance. Is it so with you?--(Mason).\n\n[237] If our love to sinners be only shown by seeking their spiritual\ngood, it will be considered as a bigoted desire to proselyte them\nto our sect; but uniform diligent endeavours to relieve their\ntemporal wants are intelligible to every man, and bring a good\nreport on the profession of the Gospel (Matt. 5:16)--(Scott).\n\n[238] O, this dying to self, to self-righteous pride, vain confidence,\nself-love, and self-complacency, is hard work to the old man; yea,\nit is both impracticable and impossible to him. It is only grace\nthat can conquer and subdue him; and where grace reigns, this\nwork is carried on day by day. And yet the old man of sin, and\nself-righteousness, still lives in us--(Mason).\n\n[239] Old age affords advantage in overcoming some propensities,\nyet habits of indulgence often counterbalance the decays of nature;\nand avarice, suspicion, and peevishness, with other evils, gather\nstrength as men advance in years. Some old men may imagine that\nthey have renounced sin, because they are no longer capable of\ncommitting the crimes in which they once lived--(Scott).\n\n[240] The refreshment of Divine consolations, and Christian\nfellowship, are intended to prepare us for vigorously maintaining\nthe good fight of faith; not only against the enemies of our own\nsouls, but also against the opposers of our most holy religion.\nWe are soldiers, and should unite together under the Captain of\nSalvation, to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints,\nby every method authorized by the Word of God; nor must we shrink\nfrom danger and contumely in so good a cause--(Scott).\n\n[241] It may he asked, how for it is right to expose ourselves to\ndanger and difficulties, since it is rashness, not courage, to\nexpose ourselves to unnecessary danger, or to give unnecessary\noffence. I would answer, It can never be improper to expose error,\nor oppose a prevailing vice, by which God's children are in danger\nof being beguiled--(J.B.).\n\n[242] Giant Slay-good represents a wicked, cruel man--a mere\ncannibal, invested with judicial authority--a selfish, malignant\npersecutor, who intimidated feeble-minded professors by fines and\nimprisonments, to the hazard of their souls. By the thieves, of\nwhom he was master, were perhaps intended the common informers,\nwho got their living by giving evidence against Nonconformists;\nsome cruel magistrates pursued them to death. The attack was by\nscriptural and rational arguments, which led to a great alteration\nin these accursed laws--(Ivimey and Scott).\n\n[243] All pilgrims are not alike vigorous, strong, and lively; some\nare weak, creep and crawl on, in the ways of the Lord. No matter,\nif there be but a pilgrim's heart, all shall be well at last; for\nOmnipotence itself is for us, and then we may boldly ask, 'Who shall\nbe against us?'--(Mason). Constitutional timidity and lowness of\nspirits, arising from a feeble frame, give a peculiar cast to the\nviews and nature of religious profession, which unfits for hard and\nperilous service. The difference between Feeble-mind and Fearing\nseems to be this--the former was more afraid of opposition, and the\nlatter more doubtful about the event, which perhaps may intimate,\nthat Slay-good rather represents persecutors than deceivers--(Scott).\n\n[244] What a sweet simple relation is here! Doth it not suit many\na feeble mind? Poor soul, weak as he was, yet his Lord provided\nagainst his danger. He sent some strong ones to his deliverance, and\nto slay his enemy. Mind his belief, even in his utmost extremity.\nLearn somewhat from this Feeble-mind--(Mason).\n\n[245] O how sweet to reflect, that the most gigantic enemies shall\nbe conquered, and their most malicious designs be overruled for\nour good; yea, what they intend for our ruin shall be made to work\nfor our health and prosperity--(Mason).\n\n[246] 'Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever\nwill lose his life for My sake shall find it' (Matt. 16:25)--(ED).\nHere is a contrast between a feeble believer and a specious\nhypocrite; the latter eludes persecutions by time-serving, yet\nperishes in his sins; the former suffers and trembles, yet hopes\nto be delivered and comforted. The frequency with which this is\nintroduced, and the variety of characters by which it is illustrated,\nshow us how important the author deemed such warnings--(Scott).\n\n[247] Events, which at first appear big with misery and misfortune,\nhave been found afterwards to have been as so many dark passages,\nto lead into brighter and more glorious displays of the Divine\npower, wisdom, and goodness--(J.B.).\n\n[248] 'Marriage is honourable in all'; nor will Christian females\nfind such a state any hindrance to their abounding in works of\ncharity and mercy. By fulfilling the duties of the married life,\nthey will cause the ways of God to be well spoken of. The desire\nof Paul was, 'That the younger women marry, be sober, love their\nhusbands, love their children, be discreet, chaste, keepers at\nhome, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God\nbe not blasphemed' (Titus 2:4, 5)--(Ivimey).\n\n[249] What an open, ingenuous confession is here! though feeble in\nmind, he was strong in wisdom and sound judgment--(Mason). Woe be\nto those who offend one of these little ones; no less dear to God\nthan the most eminent and distinguished saints--(J.B.).\n\n[250] O that this were more practised among Christians of different\nstandings, degrees, and judgments! If they who are strong were thus\nto bear with the weak, as they ought, how much more love, peace,\nand unanimity would prevail!--(Mason).\n\n[251] Excellent! See the nature of Christian love; even to be ready\nto spare to a brother, what we ourselves have occasion for. Love\nlooketh not at the things of our own, but to provide for the wants\nof others--(Mason).\n\n[252] The character of Feeble-mind seems to coincide, in some\nthings, with that of Fearing, and in others with the description\nof Little-faith. Constitutional timidity and lowness of spirits,\narising from a feeble frame, and frequent sickness, while they\nare frequently the means of exciting men to religion, give also a\npeculiar cast to their views and the nature of their profession--tend\nto hold them under perpetual discouragements, and unfit them for\nhard and perilous services. This seems implied in the name given\nto the native place of Feeble-mind; yet this is often connected\nwith evident sincerity, and remarkable perseverance in the ways\nof God--(Scott).\n\n[253] Here, very ingeniously, an associate is found for poor\nFeeble-mind; in one equally weak, lame, and limping in his religious\nsentiments, who, instead of forming his own sentiments from the\nWord of Truth, leant upon the sentiments and opinions of others.\nThe hesitation of Feeble-mind to accept one of his crutches, is\nhumourously conceived. He would, weak as he was, think for himself;\nthough he had no objection to quote the opinion of another Christian\nagainst an adversary--(Ivimey). 'As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man\nsharpeneth the countenance of his friend.' How great a comfort to\nfind a fellow-pilgrim whose experience agrees with our own, and\nwith whom we can take sweet counsel! Still all our dependence must\nbe on Ready-to-halt's crutches--'the promises.'--(ED).\n\n[254] The near prospect of persecution is formidable even to true\nbelievers, notwithstanding all the encouragements of God's Word.\nIt is useful to realize such scenes, that we may pray, without\nceasing, for wisdom, fortitude, patience, meekness, faith, and love\nsufficient for us, should matters come to the worst--(Scott).\n\n[255] How happy to find a family, in Vanity Fair, whose master will\nreceive and entertain pilgrims. Blessed be God for the present\nrevival of religion in our day, and for the many houses that are\nopen to friends of the Lamb--(Mason).\n\n[256] The inquiry of disciples, after suitable company, discovers\nthat they, with David, love the Lord's saints; and in the excellent\nof the earth is all their delight (Psa. 16:3). A genuine discovery\nthis of a gracious heart--(Mason).\n\n[257] Great, indeed, was the change in the town of Vanity, when\nChristiana and her party of pilgrims arrived, compared with the\nbut recent period when Faithful was martyred. The declaration\nof liberty of conscience had rendered the profession of vital\ngodliness more public, still there was persecution enough to make\nit comparatively pure. Dr. Cheever has indulged in a delightful\nreverie, in his lecture on Vanity Fair, by supposing, at some\nlength, how our glorious dreamer would now describe the face of\nsociety in our present Vanity Fair. After describing the consequences\nthat had arisen from religion having become FASHIONABLE, he hints\nat the retrograde movement towards Popery, known under the name\nof Puseyism. 'It happened, in process of time, that a part of the\npilgrims who remained in Vanity Fair, began to visit the cave of\nGiant Pope, and it became a sort of fashionable pilgrimage to\nthat cave. They brushed up the giant, and gave him medicines to\nalleviate the hurts from those bruises which he had received in his\nyouth; and, to make the place pleasanter, they carefully cleared\naway the remains of the bones and skulls of burned pilgrims, and\nplanted a large enclosure with flowers and evergreens.' 'The cage\nin which the Pilgrims were once confined was now never used; some\nsaid it was consecrated for church purposes, and put under the\ncathedral, in a deep cell, from which it might again be brought forth\nif occasion required it.' The Doctor's description of the present\nstate of Vanity Fair is very deeply interesting and amusing--(ED).\nWhen religion is counted honourable, we shall not want professors; but\ntrying times are sifting times. As the chaff flies before the wind,\nso will the formal professors before a storm of persecution--(J.B.).\n[258] Kindness to the poor increases and builds up the church. It\nconquers the prejudices of the worldly, secures their confidence,\nand brings them under the preaching of the Gospel. They rationally\nconclude that they cannot be bad people who do so much good--(Ivimey).\n\n[259] This monster is Antichrist. The devil is the head; the\nsynagogue of Satan is the body; the wicked spirit of iniquity is\nthe soul. The devil made use of the church [the clergy] to midwife\nthis monster into the world. He had plums in his dragon's mouth,\nand so came in by flatteries. He metamorphosed himself into\na beast, a man, or woman; and the inhabitants of the world loved\nthe woman dearly, became her sons, and took up helmet and shield\nto defend her. She arrayed herself in flesh-taking ornaments--gold,\nand precious stones, like an harlot. She made the kings drunken,\nand they gave her the blood of saints and martyrs until she was\ndrunken, and did revel and roar. But when her cup is drunk out, God\nwill call her to such a reckoning, that all her clothes, pearls,\nand jewels shall not be able to pay the shot. This beast is compared\nto the wild boar that comes out of the wood to devour the church\nof God (Psa. 80:13). The temporal sword will kill its body, but\nspirit can only be slain by spirit; the Lord the Spirit will slay\nits soul--(Bunyan on Antichrist, vol. 2, p. 47). Is not Antichrist\ncomposed of all the State religions in the world?--(ED).\n\n[260] For this woman's name and costume see Revelation 17:1-4. She\nhas just sent one of her illegitimate sons to England, under the\nimpudent assumption of Archbishop of Westminster--(ED).\n\n[261] And that you may be convinced of the truth of this, look back\nand compare Antichrist four hundred years ago, with Antichrist as\nhe now is, and you shall see what work the Lord Jesus has begun\nto make with him; kingdoms and countries He hath taken from her.\nTrue, the fogs of Antichrist, and the smoke that came with him\nout of the bottomless pit, has eclipsed the glorious light of the\nGospel; but you know, in eclipses, when they are recovering, all\nthe creatures upon the face of the earth cannot put a stop to that\ncourse, until the sun or the moon have recovered their glory. And\nthus it shall be now, the Lord is returning to visit this people\nwith His primitive lustre; he will not go back until the light\nof the sun shall be sevenfold--(Bunyan's Antichrist and his ruin,\nvol. 2, p. 48).\n\n[262] When nations have restored to the people the property of\nwhich they have been plundered, under the pretence of assisting to\nobtain the pardon of sin and the favour of God, the monster will\nsoon die; when neither rule, nor honour, nor pelf is to be gained\nby hypocrisy--(ED).\n\n[263] This may refer to that noble band of eminent men who, in\n1675, preached the morning exercises against Popery; among others\nwere Owen, Manton, Baxter, Doolittle, Jenkyn, Poole, and many\nothers. They were then, and ever will be, of great fame--(ED).\n\n[264] The plans of Charles II and James II, to re-establish Popery in\nEngland, were defeated by the union of the eminent Nonconformists\nwith some decided enemies to Rome in the Established Church; this\nbrought them into esteem and respect. Mr. Scott's note on this\npassage is--'The disinterested, and bold decided conduct of many\ndissenters, on this occasion, procured considerable favour both\nto them and their brethren, with the best friends of the nation;\nbut the prejudices of others prevented them from reaping all the\nadvantage from it that they ought to have done.'--(ED).\n\n[265] David Hume, in his History of England, admitted the invaluable\nservices of the Puritans, 'By whom the precious spark of liberty\nwas kindled and preserved, and to whom the English owe all the\nblessings of their excellent constitution.'--(ED).\n\n[266] This is a most encouraging view of the tender care of the\nSaviour, to the children of believers committed to His care, by\ngodly parents. Not by any ceremonial observance, but by constant\nfervent supplications to the Throne of Grace on their behalf, and\nby a consistent pious example to train them up in the way in which\nthey should go, that when they are old they should not depart from\nthe new and living way--(ED).\n\n[267] Here we frequently find our author speaking of our God and\nSaviour as Man; he excels in this. It is to be wished that authors\nand preachers wrote and spake of the manhood of Jesus, who was a\nperfect Man, like unto us in all things except sin. The view and\nconsideration of this is sweet to faith, and endears our Saviour\nto our hearts--(Mason).\n\n[268] What cannot Great-heart do? what feats not perform? what\nvictories not gain? Who can stand before Great-heart? Diffidence\nshall fall, and Giant Despair be slain by the power of Great-heart,\nwith 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God' (Eph. 6:17);\neven Despondency, though almost starved, shall be delivered, and\nhis daughter Much-afraid shall be rescued. O for more of Great-heart's\ncompany!--(Mason). The struggle with Despair may be dangerous, and\npainful, and long-continued, but it shall he finally successful.\n'I am persuaded,' saith the Apostle, 'that neither death, nor life,\nnor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,\nnor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,\nshall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in\nChrist Jesus our Lord.' Paul demolished the castle, and slew the\ngiant; but,\n\n\n'Sin can rebuild the castle, make't remain,\nAnd make Despair the Giant live again.'--ED.\n\n\n[269] How well does Mr. Bunyan describe the experience of the\nMuch-afraids, Ready-to-halts, and the Feeble-minds, in the Come\nand Welcome. 'Poor coming soul, thou art like the man that would\nride full gallop, whose horse will hardly trot! Now, the desire of\nhis mind is not to be judged of by the slow pace of the dull jade\nhe rides on, but by the hitching, and kicking, and spurring, as\nhe sits on his back. Thy flesh is like this dull jade; it will\nnot gallop after Christ, it will be backward, though thy soul\nand Heaven lie at stake. But be of good comfort, Christ judgeth\naccording to the sincerity of the heart.'--(Vol. 1, p. 252).\n\n[270] This is the work and aim of every faithful minister of Christ,\nto destroy Giant Despair, and demolish Doubting Castle, in the\nhearts of God's children. A more awful character is not in the\nworld, than the man who assumes the ministerial name and character,\nwithout understanding the nature of that ministry of reconciliation\nwhich is committed to everyone who is really called and sent of\nGod--(J.B.).\n\n[271]'The wain,' seven bright stars in the constellation of Ursa\nMajor, called by country people, the plough, or the wain, or Charles\nI's chariot--(ED).\n\n[272]Those ministers who exercise the greatest affection towards\nweak and upright Christians, are most according to the description\nof pastors, after God's own heart, given in the Scriptures of\ntruth--(Ivimey).\n\n[273] Bunyan was peculiarly tender with the weak; they are to\nbe received, but not to doubtful disputations. Thus, with regard\nto the great cause of separation among Christians, he says, 'If\nwater-baptism' (whether by sprinkling of infants, or immersing of\nadults) 'trouble their peace, wound the consciences of the godly,\nand dismember their fellowships, it is although an ordinance, for\nthe present to be prudently shunned, for the edification of the\nchurch.' 'Love is more discovered when we receive, for the sake of\nChrist, than when we refuse his children for want of water.'--(Bunyan\non Baptism, vol. 2, p. 608). When will such peaceful sentiments\nspread over the church?--(ED).\n\n[274] There are things taught by the Gospel, here called 'rarities,'\nwhich, though high and mysterious, will yet, when clearly stated,\nprove the means of exciting Christians to live by faith, and to\ncultivate whatsoever things are lovely and of good report--(Ivimey).\n\n[275] Strong faith, in the words of Christ, will 'believe down'\nmountains of afflictions, or tumble them out of the Christian's way.\nThough it will not perform miracles, it will remove difficulties\nresembling mountains--(Ivimey).\n\n[276] The history of Joseph, with that of Mr. Bunyan, and of\nthousands besides, proves, that charges against a godly, innocent\nman, arising from the prejudice, ill-will, and malice of his enemies,\nshall eventually turn out to his honour, and to their confusion.\n'Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and\nshall say all manner of evil against yon FALSELY, for My sake'\n(Matt. 5:11)--(ED).\n\n[277] This represents the folly of those who go about to reform the\nmanners, without aiming at the conversion of the heart. Nature, in\nits highest state of cultivation and improvement, is nature still.\nThat which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born\nof the Spirit is spirit--(J.B.).\n\n[278] O, damned souls will have thoughts that will clash with glory,\nclash with justice, clash with law, clash with itself, clash with\nhell, and with the everlastingness of misery; but the point, the\nedge, and the poison of all these thoughts will still be galling,\nand dropping their stings into the sore, grieved, wounded, fretted\nplace, which is the conscience, though not the conscience only;\nfor I may say of the souls in hell, that they, all over, are but\none wound, one sore--(Bunyan's Greatness of the Soul, vol. 1, p.\n119). Well might Mercy say, 'Blessed are they that are delivered\nfrom this place!'--(ED).\n\n[279] O what a blessed thing it is to long for the Word of God so\nas not to be satisfied without it, and to prize it above and beyond\nall other things! Love to the Word excites the soul to say with\nDavid, 'I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord' (Psa. 119:174).\nThis is a special mark of a gracious soul--(Mason). Every true\nbeliever longs to be more completely acquainted with the Scriptures\nfrom day to day, and to look into them continually--(Scott). Abraham\nCheer, who perished in prison for nonconformity in Bunyan's time,\npublished a little volume of Poems, in which he compares the Bible\nto a looking-glass, in these very appropriate lines--'If morn by\nmorn you in this glass will dress you, I have some hopes that God\nby it may bless you.'--(P. 37)--(ED).\n\n[280] This doubtless is meant to intimate, that in times of great\nanxiety, and in prospect of seasons of difficulty, Christians\ndesire above all things the special supports and consolations of\nthe Word of God--(Ivimey).\n\n[281] By this jewelry is probably intimated, that they gave them\nwritten testimonials of possessing the ornament of a meek and\nquiet spirit, that they might he recognized as Christian women by\nother churches--(Ivimey).\n\n[282] From the names given to these opposers, they appear to\nrepresent certain wild enthusiasts who intrude themselves in the\nway of professors, to perplex their minds, and persuade them that,\nunless they adopt their reveries or superstitions, they cannot\nbe saved. An ungovernable imagination, a mind incapable of sober\nreflection, and a dogmatizing spirit, characterize these enemies of\nthe truth; they assault religious persons with specious reasonings,\ncaviling objections, confident assertions, bitter reproaches, proud\nboastings, sarcastic censures, and rash judgments. They endeavour\nto draw them to their party, or drive them from attending to\nreligion at all. But the Word of God, used with fervent, persevering\nprayer, will silence such dangerous assailants, and confirm others\nalso--(Scott).\n\n[283] Truth will make a man valiant; and valour for truth will make\na pilgrim fight with wild-headed, inconsiderate, and pragmatic\nopposers. The blood he loses in such a battle is his honour, the\nscars he gets are his glory--(Mason). He does not attempt to hide\nhimself, or run from his and his Lord's enemies. O that pilgrims,\nespecially those that are young were better trained to this battle!\nIn Bunyan's time, there were comparatively few of these cavilers;\nnow their name is Legion--(ED).\n\n[284] In this battle, this striving for the truth, three considerations\nstrike the mind--(1). Reliance upon Divine aid, without which we\ncan do nothing. (2). A right Jerusalem weapon, forged in the fire\nof love, well tempered with Bible truths. Such a sword will make\neven the angel of the bottomless pit flee, its edge will never\nblunt, and it will cut through everything opposed to it. (3).\nDecision of character, perseverance to the utmost; no trimming or\nmeanly compounding for truth, but a determination, in the Lord's\nstrength, to come off more than conquerors. It is blessed fighting\nwhen hand and heart are engaged, and the sword grows united to\nboth--(ED).\n\n[285] The church of Christ has produced heroes of the first class\nin point of courage, which they have displayed in circumstances\nof great danger. Luther and Knox, and Latimer and Bunyan, were\nmen of this stamp, each of whom might, with great propriety, have\nbeen named Valiant-for-the-truth--(Ivimey).\n\n[286] The reason why so many professors set out, and go on for a\nseason, but fall away at last, is, because they do not enter into\nthe pilgrim's path by Christ, who is the gate. They do not see\nthemselves quite lost, ruined, hopeless, and wretched; their hearts\nare not broken for sin; therefore they do not begin by receiving\nChrist as the only Saviour of such miserable sinners. But they set\nout in nature's strength; and not receiving nor living upon Christ,\nthey fall away. This is the reason of this inquiry, Did you come\nin at the gate? A question we ought to put to ourselves, and be\nsatisfied about--(Mason).\n\n[287] Among many puzzling questions which agitate the Christian's\nmind, this is very generally a subject of inquiry. At the mount of\ntransfiguration, the Apostles knew the glorified spirits of Moses\nand Elias. The rich man and Lazarus and Abraham knew each other.\nThe most solemn inquiry is, to reconcile with the bliss of Heaven\nthe discovery that some dear relative has been shut out. Shall\nwe forget them? or will all our exquisite happiness centre in the\nglory of God? Bunyan has no doubt upon personal identity in Heaven--\n\n\n'Our friends that lived godly here\n Shall there be found again;\nThe wife, the child, and father dear,\nWith others of our train.\nThose God did use us to convert\nWe there with joy shall meet.\nAnd jointly shall, with all our heart,\nIn life each other greet.'\n--(One Thing Needful, ver. 69, 71)--(ED).\n\n\n[288] A sound Christian is not afraid to be examined, and sifted\nto the bottom, for he can give reason of the hope that is in him.\nHe knows why and wherefore he commenced his pilgrimage--(Mason).\n\n[289] This is a reproach cast upon religion in every age. Pharaoh\nsaid to Moses and the Israelites, 'Ye are idle, ye are idle.'\nMen by nature imagine, that time spent in reading the Bible and\nin prayer is wasted. It behooves all believers to avoid every\nappearance of evil; and, by exemplary diligence, frugality, and good\nmanagement, to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--(Scott).\n\n[290] Worldly people, in opposing the Gospel, descant upon the\nhypocrisy of religious persons; they pick up every vague report\nthat they hear to their disadvantage, and narrowly watch for the\nhalting of such as they are acquainted with; and then they form\ngeneral conclusions from a few distorted and uncertain stories.\nThus they endeavour to prove that there is no reality in religion.\nThis is a frivolous sophistry, often employed after all other\narguments have been silenced--(Scott).\n\n[291] If Judas the traitor, or Francis Spira the backslider, were\nalive, to whisper these men in the ear a little, and to tell them\nwhat it hath cost their souls for turning back, it would surely\nstick by them as long as they have a day to live in the world.\nAgrippa gave a fair step on a sudden; he stepped almost into the\nbosom of Christ in less than half an hour. 'Almost thou persuadest\nme to be a Christian.' It was but almost, and so he had as good\nbeen not at all. He stepped fair, but stepped short. He was hot\nwhilst he ran, but he was quickly out of breath. O this but ALMOST!\nI tell you, it lost his soul. What a doom they will have, who were\nalmost at Heaven's gate, but ran back again!--(Bunyan's Heavenly\nFootman).\n\n[292] How natural is it for carnal men to give an evil report of\nthe ways of the Lord; and to discourage those who are just setting\nout, by telling of the dangers and difficulties they shall meet\nwith! But here is not one word of the pleasures, comforts, and\njoys, that are experienced in the ways of the Lord. No, they feel\nthem not, they believe not one word about them; therefore they\ncannot speak of them--(Mason).\n\n[293] Here we see that valiant soldiers of Christ ascribe all\nto faith. They set out with faith, and they hold on and hold out\nby believing. Thus they give all the glory to Christ, who is the\nobject, author, and finisher of faith--(Mason).\n\n[294] Various are the enemies we meet with in our Christian warfare.\nThe world, with its enchantments, has a tendency to stupefy, and\nbring on a fatal lethargy. How many professors receive principles,\nby which they harden themselves in carnal pursuits and sensual\ngratifications; and others, still preserving a religious name and\ncharacter, are as dead in their souls, as devoted to the world as\nthese, though contending for legal principles, and high in their\nreligious pretensions!--(J.B.).\n\n[295] It behooves all who love their souls to shun that hurry of\nbusiness, and multiplicity of affairs and projects, into which many\nare betrayed by degrees, in order to supply increasing expenses,\nthat might be avoided by strict frugality; for they load the soul\nwith thick clay, are a heavy weight to the most upright, render\na man's way doubtful and joyless, and drown many in perdition--(Scott).\n\n[296] Old pilgrims, ye who have set out well, and gone on well for a\nlong season, consider ye are yet in the world, which is enchanted\nground. Know your danger of seeking rest here, or of sleeping in\nany of its enchanting arbours. Though the flesh may be weary, the\nspirit faint, and the arbours inviting, yet beware. Press on. Look\nto the Strong for strength; and to the Beloved for rest in His\nway--(Mason).\n\n\n[297] Mark how the ready hands of death prepare;\nHis bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart;\nHe aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart.\nThe wound is posting; O be wise, beware!\nWhat, has the voice of danger lost the art\nTo raise the spirit of neglected care?\nWell, sleep thy fill, and take thy soft reposes;\nBut know, withal, sweet tastes have sour closes;\nAnd he repents in thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.\n--(Quarles' Emblems, 1--7).\n\n\n[298] This inculcates the duty of constant attention to the precepts\nand counsels of Scripture, as well as reliance on its promises;\nand a habitual application to the Lord by prayer, to teach us the\ntrue meaning of His Word, that we may learn the way of peace and\nsafety in the most difficult and doubtful cases--(Scott).\n\n[299] The Word of God is compared to a map and a lantern; to these\nwe shall do well to take heed, as to light shining in a dark place.\nLet this be the pilgrim's guide, when the light of spiritual joy\nor sensible comfort is withdrawn--(Burder).\n\n\n[300]--To follow Christ.\nHE is to them instead of eyes,\nHE must before them go in any wise;\nAnd He must lead them by the water side,\nThis is the work of Him our faithful guide.\nSince snares, and traps, and gins are for us set,\nSince here's a hole, and there is spread a net,\nO let nobody at my muse deride,\nNo man can travel here without a guide.\n        --(Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2, p. 582.)\n\n\n[301] Ignorance and pride may long maintain a form of godliness,\nthough it be a weariness to them; but after a time they will be\ngradually drawn back into the world, retaining nothing of their\nreligion except certain distorted doctrinal notions--(Scott).\n\n[302] It is the duty, and will be the practice of pilgrims, to\nstrive to be instrumental to the good of others. But, at the same\ntime, it behooves them to take heed to themselves, and watch, lest\nthey catch harm from them and their conduct--(Mason).\n\n[303] What a sound sleep of infatuation hath this enchanting world\ncast many a professor into! They are proof against all warnings,\nand dead as to any means of arousing them. When this sleep of death\nseizes the soul, it destroys faith, infatuates reason, and causes\nmen to talk incoherently. They have lost the language of pilgrims.\nTheir state is awful; beware of it; pray against it. For 'if any\nman love the world, the love of the Father is not in him' (1 John\n2:15)--(Mason).\n\n[304] This view of the Enchanted Ground seems to vary from that\nwhich has been considered in the First Part. The circumstances of\nbelievers who are deeply engaged in business, and constrained to\nspend much of their time among worldly people, may here be\nparticularly intended. This may sometimes be unavoidable; but it is\nenchanted ground. Many professors, fascinated by the advantages and\nconnections thus presented to them, fall asleep, and wake no more;\nand others are entangled by those thorns and briers which 'choke the\nWord, and render it unfruitful.' The more soothing the scene the\ngreater the danger, and the more urgent need is there for\nwatchfulness and circumspection--(Scott).\n\n[305] This is a solemn period in the Christian's pilgrimage.\nIn the Heavenly Footman, Bunyan has given some admirable general\ndirections--'Because I would have you think of them, take all in\nshort in this little bit of paper--1. Get into the way. 2. Then\nstudy on it. 3. Then strip and lay aside everything that would\nhinder. 4. Beware of by-paths. 5. Do not gaze and stare much about\nthee; but be sure to ponder the path of thy feet. 6. Do not stop\nfor any that call after thee, whether it be the world, the flesh,\nor the devil; for all these will hinder thy journey if possible.\n7. Be not daunted with any discouragements thou meetest with as\nthou goest. 8. Take heed of stumbling at the Cross. And, 9. Cry\nhard to God for an enlightened heart and a willing mind, and God\ngive thee a prosperous journey. Yet, before I do quite take my\nleave of thee, a few motives. It may be they will be as good as a\npair of spurs, to prick on thy lumpish heart in this rich voyage.\nIf thou winnest, then Heaven, God, Christ, glory eternal is thine.\nIf thou lose, thou procurest eternal death.'--(ED).\n\n[306] The Word of God is the only light to direct our steps. He who\nneglects this is a fool. He who sets up and looks for any other\nlight to direct him is mad, and knows not what he does. As folly\nand madness beset him, danger and distress will come upon him.\nTrembling souls will attend closely to God's Word--(Mason).\n\n[307] He who fears always, will pray evermore. The fear of the\nheart will bring pilgrims on their knees. He who fears to be or go\nwrong, will pray to be set right. The Lord will direct the heart,\nand order the goings of all who cry to Him. Fear and prayer go\nhand in hand. Joy shall attend them--(Mason).\n\n[308] No more money than an owl loves light. 'The antiquarian,\nwho delights to solace himself in the benighted days of monkish\nowl-light, sometimes passes for a divine.'--(Warburton)--(ED).\n\n\n[309]                 My soul, what's lighter than a feather? Wind.\nThan wind? The fire. And what than fire? The mind.\nWhat's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought?\nThis bubble world. What than this bubble? Naught.\n                                        --(Quarles).\n[310]--Prayer's arrow drawn\nDown to the head by nervous penitence,\nOr meek humility's compliant strings,\nWings to the destin'd mark its certain way,\nAnd ne'er was shot in vain!\n--(Dodd's Epiphany, p. 32, 4to).\n\n\n[311] O pilgrims, beware of this Madam Bubble! Know and consider\nwell, that ye have a nature exactly suited to accept of her offers,\nand to fall in love with her promises. The riches, honours, and\npleasures of this world, what mortal can withstand? or who can\nforego them? No one but he who sees more charms in Jesus, more\nglory in His Cross, and more comfort in the enjoyment of His love\nand presence; and therefore, is continually looking and crying to\nHim, 'Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.'--(Mason). Many,\nindeed, are her fair promises and golden dreams. Many hath she\nbrought to the halter, and ten thousand times more to Hell. O for\nprecious faith, to overcome the world; and to pass through it, in\npursuit of a nobler portion, as strangers and pilgrims!--(Burder).\n\n[312] Is she not rightly named Bubble? Art thou convinced that\nshe is nothing more? Why then dost thou not break loose from her\nhold? I ask, Why has the world such hold of thee? Why dost thou\nlisten to her enchantments? For shame! Stir up thy strength, call\nforth thy powers! What! be convinced that the world is a bubble,\nand be led captive by her. Shake her off, you ought, you should,\nit is your duty. Let Mr. Stand-fast answer these questions. His\nearnest and solemn prayers plainly prove the sense he had of his own\nweakness and inability to extricate himself from her enchantments.\nThough some may appear to despise the dominion of sin, I am convinced\nthat it must be a Divine power to deliver me from it--(J.B.).\n\n[313] It was amidst this Enchanted Ground that good Mr. Stand-fast,\nwhom the Pilgrims there found upon his knees, was so hard beset and\nenticed by Madam Bubble; and indeed it is by her sorceries that\nthe ground itself is enchanted. Madam Bubble is the world, with\nits allurements and vanities; and whosoever, as Mr. Great-heart\nsaid, do lay their eyes upon her beauty are counted the enemies of\nGod; for God hath said that the friendship of the world is enmity\nagainst God; and he hath said furthermore, 'Love not the world,\nnor the things of the world; if any man love the world, the love\nof the Father is not in him.' So Mr. Stand-fast did well to betake\nhim to his knees, praying to Him that could help him. So if all\npilgrims, when worldly proposals and enticements allure them,\nand they feel the love of the world tempting them, and gaining\non them, would thus go to more earnest prayer, and be made more\nvigilant against temptations, Madam Bubble would not gain so many\nvictories--(Cheever).\n\n[314] The ensuing description represents the happy state of those\nthat live in places favoured with many lively Christians, united\nin heart and judgment; and where instances of triumphant deathbed\nscenes are often witnessed. Aged believers, in such circumstances,\nhave been remarkably delivered from fears and temptations, and\nanimated by the hopes and earnests of Heaven; so that, while death\nseemed bitter to nature, it became pleasant to the soul to think\nof the joy and glory that would immediately follow it--(Scott).\n\n\nO scenes surpassing fable, and yet true!\nScenes of accomplished bliss, which who can see,\nThough but in distant prospect, and not feel\nHis soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy?\nBright as a sun the sacred City shines;\nAll kingdoms and all princes of the earth\nFlock to that light, the glory of all lands\nFlows into her; unbounded is her joy,\nAnd endless her increase. Thy rams are there,\nNebaioth, and the flocks of Kellar there;\nThe looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind,\nAnd Saba's spicy groves pay tribute there.\nPraise is in all her gates; upon her walls,\nAnd in her streets, and in her spacious courts,\nIs heard Salvation!\n\n\n[315] These messengers are the diseases or decays by which the Lord\ntakes down the earthly tabernacle, when He sees good to receive\nthe souls of His people into His immediate presence. In plain\nlanguage, it was reported that Christiana was sick and near death,\nand she herself became sensible of her situation. 'The arrow sharpened\nby love' implies, that the time, manner, and circumstances of the\nbeliever's death, are appointed by Him 'who loved us, and gave\nHimself for us.' He, as it were, says to the dying saint, 'It is\nI, be not afraid.'--(Scott).\n\n[316] This is the faith and patience of this dying Christian\nheroine, who began her pilgrimage with trembling steps, maintained\nher journey with holy zeal, and thus finished her course with\njoy--(Ivimey).\n\n[317] O how blessed is the death of the righteous, who die in the\nLord! Even a wicked Balaam could wish for this. But it will be\ngranted to none but those who have lived in the Lord; whose souls\nhave been quickened by His Spirit to come unto Jesus, believe in\nHim, and glory of Him as their righteousness and salvation--(Mason).\n\n[318] Evident decays of natural powers as effectually convince the\nobserving person, as if a messenger had been sent to inform him.\nBut men in general cling to life, willfully overlook such tokens,\nand try to keep up to the last the vain hope of recovering; those\naround them, by a cruel compassion, soothe them in the delusion;\nso that numbers die of chronic diseases as suddenly as if they had\nbeen shot through the heart. Perhaps the author had some reference\nto those inexplicable presages of death which some persons evidently\nexperience--(Scott).\n\n[319] See the joyful end of one ready to halt at every step. Take\ncourage hence, ye lame, halting pilgrims--(Mason).\n\n[320] The tokens are taken from that well-known portion of\nScripture, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; in which the dealings of the Lord\nare represented as uniformly gentle to the feeble, trembling, humble\nbeliever; and the circumstances of their deaths comparatively\nencouraging and easy--(Scott).\n\n[321] In the Holy War, the doubters having been dispersed, three\nor four thrust themselves into Mansoul. Now, to whose house should\nthese Diabolic doubters go, but to that of Old Evil-questioning.\nSo he made them welcome. Well, said he, be of what shire yon\nwill, you have the very length of my foot, are one with my heart.\nSo they thanked him. I, said one, am an election-doubter; I,\nsaid another, am a vocation-doubter; then said the third, I am a\nsalvation-doubter; and the fourth said, I am a grace-doubter. I\nam persuaded you are down boys, and are one with my heart, said\nthe old gentleman--(ED).\n\n[322] Pilgrims, mind this. It is as much your duty to strive, in the\nstrength of the Lord, against unreasonable doubts and slavish fears,\nas against sin; nay, are they not, in their own nature, the worst of\nsins, as they spring from infidelity, and dishonour God's precious\ntruth, glorious grace, and everlasting salvation? Never, never,\nthen, cherish or give way to them, but resist, and shut the door of\nyour hearts against them--(Mason).\n\n[323] How various is the experience of Christians in the hour of\ndeath. Christian and Hopeful inquired 'if the waters were all of\na depth.' The answer was, 'You shall find it deeper or shallower,\nas you believe in the King of the place.' 'What ailed thee, O\nJordan, that thou wast driven back?' The answer is, 'At the presence\nof the Lord: at the presence of the God of Jacob.' In proportion\nas a Christian can say, 'for me to live is Christ,' in that\nproportion may he hope to find the water shallow, and feel support\nto his feet in the trying passage--(ED).\n\n[324] In the truth of Jesus is victory. He who is valiant for it\nshall share most of its comforts in life, and in death. O Lord,\nincrease our faith in the never-failing Word of truth and grace,\nfor Thy glory and our soul's triumph!--(Mason).\n\n[325] Such is the joy and blessedness of faith! How does it bring\nnear and realize the sight of Christ in glory! Do we indeed see\nChrist by the eye of faith? Is He the one, the chief object of\nour soul? Verily, then we shall count our days on earth toilsome\nones, and long for the full fruition of Him in glory. O it will\nbe our great glory to see that dear Man, whose blessed head was\ncrowned with thorns, and whose lovely face was spit upon, for us.\nO that we may be living every day upon Him and to Him, till we\nsee Him as He is!--(Mason).\n\n[326] This speech has been justly admired as one of the most\nstriking passages in the whole work; but it is so plain that it\nonly requires an attentive reader. It may, however, be worthy of\nour observation, that, in all the instances before us, the pilgrims\nare represented as resting their only dependence, at the closing\nscene, on the mercy of God, through the righteousness and atonement of\nHis Son; and yet recollecting their conscious integrity, boldness\nin professing and contending for the truth, love to the cause,\nexample, and words of Christ, obedience to His precepts, delight\nin His ways, preservation from their own iniquities, and consistent\nbehaviour, as evidences that their faith was living, and their\nhope warranted; and in this way the retrospect conduced to their\nencouragement. Moreover, they all concur in declaring that,\nwhile they left their infirmities behind them, they should take\ntheir graces along with them, and that their works would follow\nthem.'--(Scott).\n\n[327] O who is able to conceive the inexpressible, inconceivable\njoys of Heaven! How will the heavens echo with joy, when the bride,\nthe Lamb's wife, shall come to dwell with her husband forever!\nChrist, the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of\nthe Father; what solace then must the soul be filled with, that\nhath the possession of Him to all eternity! O what acclamations\nof joy will there be, when all the children of God shall meet\ntogether, without fear of being disturbed by the anti-Christian and\nCainish brood! If you would be better satisfied what the beatific\nvision means, my request is, that you would live holily, and go\nand see--(Bunyan's Dying Sayings, vol. 1, p. 65).\n\n[328] It was not without design that our excellent author tells us,\nthat the four boys, with their wives and children, were suffered\nto continue in life for a time, for the increase of the church in\nthe place where they dwelt. He doubtless intended to write a Third\nPart of his 'Pilgrims Progress,' founded upon this circumstance,\nwith a design, probably to show the influence of real religion\nand evangelical sentiments on persons in business and in domestic\nlife--(Ivimey).\n\n[329] The view of the peaceful and joyful death of the pilgrims,\ncannot but affect every reader; and many, perhaps, may be ready to\nsay, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end\nbe like his'; but, except they make it their principal concern to\nlive the life of the righteous, such a wish will be frustrated. If\nany man, therefore, doubt whether this allegory do indeed describe\nthe rise and progress of religion in the soul--the beginning,\ncontinuance, and termination of the godly man's course to Heaven,\nlet him diligently search the Scriptures, and fervently pray to\nGod, from whom alone 'cometh every good and perfect gift,' to enable\nhim to determine this question. But let such as own themselves to\nbe satisfied that it does, beware lest they rest in the pleasure\nof reading an ingenious work on the subject, or in the ability\nof developing many of the author's emblems. Let them beware lest\nthey be fascinated, as it were, into a persuasion that they actually\naccompany the pilgrims in the life of faith and walking with God,\nin the same measure as they keep pace with the author in discovering\nand approving the grand outlines of His plan. And let everyone\ncarefully examine his state, sentiments, experience, motives,\ntempers, affections, and conduct, by the various characters,\nincidents, and observations, that pass under his review--assured\nthat this is a matter of the greatest consequence. We ought not,\nindeed, to call any man master, or subscribe absolutely to all\nhis sentiments; yet the diligent practical student of Scripture\ncan scarcely doubt that the warnings, counsels, and instructions\nof this singular work agree with that sacred touchstone, or that\ncharacters and actions will at last be approved or condemned by the\nJudge of the world, in a great degree according to the sentence\npassed on them in this wise and faithful book. The Lord grant\nthat both the writer and readers of these observations 'may find\nmercy in that day,' and be addressed in these gracious words,\n'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for\nyou from the foundation of the world.'--(Scott).\n\n***\n\nTHE HOLY WAR,\n\nMADE BY SHADDAI UPON DIABOLUS, FOR THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS\nOF THE WORLD;\n\nOR, THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN OF MANSOUL.\n\nTHE AUTHOR OF 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.'\n\n'I have used similitudes.'--Hosea 12:10.\n\nLondon: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms in the Poultry;\nand Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nBunyan's account of the Holy War is indeed an extraordinary book,\nmanifesting a degree of genius, research, and spiritual knowledge,\nexceeding even that displayed in the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' To\nuse the words of Mr. J. Montgomery, 'It is a work of that master\nintelligence, which was privileged to arouse kindred spirits from\ntorpor and inactivity, to zeal, diligence, and success.'\n\nIt was first published in 1682, in a small octavo volume, and,\nlike the first edition of the Pilgrim, it was printed in a very\nsuperior manner to all the subsequent editions, to a recent period.\nThe portrait of the author, by White, which faced the title-page,\nis without doubt the best likeness that has ever appeared of our\ngreat allegorist.[1] In addition to this is a whole length figure\nof the author, with a representation of Heart-castle on his left\nbreast; the town of Mansoul, behind, being partly seen through\nhim; Emmanuel and his army on the heart side, and Diabolus with\nhis dragons on his right. From the publication of this popular\nbook in 1682, it has been constantly kept in print, so that it is\nimpossible to calculate the numbers that have been circulated. As\ntime rolls on, the 'Holy War,' allegorized by John Bunyan, becomes\nmore and more popular; nor can there be a doubt, but that so long\nas the internal conflict and spiritual warfare between the renewed\nsoul and its deadly enemies are maintained, this book will become\nincreasingly popular.\n\nThe 'Holy War,' although so very extraordinary an allegory, has not\nbeen translated into so many languages, nor has it been so much\nread in English, as the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' This would naturally\narise from the Pilgrimage being a more simple narrative. It is a\njourney full of the most striking scenery and incidents, which is\nread with the deepest interest by all classes, from the children\nin a work-house to the profoundest Christian philosopher. The facts\nwhich are intended to be impressed upon the mind by the force of\nthe allegory, are seen and appreciated by the Christian without\nrequiring much investigation; while the 'Holy War' is carried on\nunder an allegorical representation by no means so transparent.\nMan's soul is figured under the simile of a town, which having\nsurrendered to an insidious and mortal enemy, is besieged by its\nlawful Sovereign with all the 'pomp and circumstances' of war;\nthe arch-enemy is driven out, the town retaken, new-modelled, and\ngarrisoned by Emmanuel.\n\nTo the Christian, whose aim and end is peace, war presents a most\nforbidding aspect. He loves not to see the garments rolled in blood,\nnor to hear the dying groans of the wounded, nor the heart-rending\ncries of the bereaved, especially those of the widow and the orphan.\nSpoliation and robbery are not the pastimes of the child of God,\nnor is cruelty the element of his happiness or peace. To read of\nsuch scenes, produces painfully interesting sensations; but even\nthese are not so strong or intense as those delightful feelings which\npervade the mind while watching the poor pilgrim in his struggles\nto get through the Slough of Despond, his terror under the flames\nof Mount Sinai, his passing unhurt the darts from Beelzebub's\ncastle, and his finding refuge at the Wicket Gate. It is true, that\nthe most delicate Christian must become a stern warrior--the most\nsensitive ear must be alarmed with the sound of Diabolus' drum, and\nat times feel those inward groanings which cannot be uttered--pass\nthrough 'the fiery trial,' and 'endure hardness, as a good soldier\nof Jesus Christ'; while at other periods of his experience, flushed\nwith victory, he will cry out, 'Who shall separate us from the\nlove of Christ?' We must fight the good fight of faith, or we can\nnever lay hold on eternal life. We must be engaged in this holy\nwar, and FIGHT or PERISH. There is no neutrality, no excuse that\ncan be awaiting at the day of judgment. The servant of Christ is\ntherefore found trusting in the Captain of salvation, furnished\nwith the whole armour of God, with which his soul is clothed\nby the Holy Spirit--having the shield of faith, the helmet, the\nbreastplate, the two-edged sword. It was being thus mysteriously,\ninvulnerably armed, that gave the delicate, learned, pious Lady\nAnne Askew strength to triumph over her agonies, when the Papists\ndisjointed every bone and sinew of her body on the rack. Her\nspiritual armour enabled her with patience to bless God at the\nstake, when, for refusing to worship Antichrist, she was burned\nin Smithfield, and her soul ascended to heaven in a flaming fiery\nchariot. It is the same spiritual armour, the same Captain to\nguide, the same Spirit to sanctify, the same Father to bless us,\nby which alone we can become more than conquerors over our vigilant\nand powerful enemies. The Holy War is in this volume presented to\nus by an old, experienced, faithful warrior; it is an allegorical\nnarrative, written by a master hand, guided by deeply penetrating,\nsearching powers of mind. It is his own severe brunts with the\ngreat enemy, who is aided by his army of pomps, vanities, lusts,\nand allurements, many lurking within, disguised to appear like\nangels, while under their masquerade dress they are very devils.\nIt is written by one who possessed almost boundless resources of\nimagination. It is more profound, more deeply spiritual than the\npilgrimage from Destruction to the Celestial City; and to understand\nits hidden meaning, requires the close and mature application\nof the renewed mind. There are, alas! comparatively few that are\nblessed with spiritual discernment; and even of these, there are\nbut few inclined to mental investigation and research. These are\nreasons why it has not been so popular a book as the 'Pilgrim's\nProgress.' To aid those whose time for reading is limited, notes\nare given, by which obsolete words and customs are explained, and\nthe reader assisted to appreciate the beauties, and to understand\nthe meaning of this allegory. It is earnestly hoped that many\nwill richly enjoy the comforts, instructions, consolations, and\nstrength which the author ardently wished to convey to Zion's\nwarriors, by the study of this important subject.\n\nI have already, in my long Introduction to the 'Pilgrim's Progress,'\nnoticed the peculiar genius and originality which are conspicuous\nin all Bunyan's works, and which most resplendently appear in his\nallegorical writings. That genius became hallowed and sanctified\nby prison discipline, by an intense study of the Sacred Scriptures,\nand by his controversies with great men of various sects and\nparties. In the 'Holy War' Bunyan's peculiar genius shines forth\nin its most beauteous lustre; the whole is new, genuine, flowing\nforth from his own deep and rich experience. It is, in fact, the\nsame narrative that he had published under the title of 'Grace\nAbounding to the Chief of Sinners, or a brief and faithful relation\nof the exceeding mercy of God, in Christ, to his poor servant John\nBunyan.' This simple, heart-affecting narrative, is here related\nunder the allegorical representation of the 'Holy War.' In this,\nall the circumstances of his conviction of sin, and his conversion\nto God, are narrated with startling interest from the first\nalarm--his being roused from a state of death-like lethargy, his\nopposition to the grace of God, his refusals of the invitations of\nEmmanuel, and his being at length conquered to become a monument\nof divine mercy--a temple of the Holy Ghost. Then came his declension\nby carnal security, and his misery in that state, until he was\nfinally reconquered; and his heart is permanently occupied by\nEmmanuel. The 'Grace Abounding,' aided by the marginal notes of\nthe author to the 'Holy War,' forms a very valuable key to the\nmysteries of this allegory; without their aid some passages would\nbe found deeply mysterious, and hard to be understood. Nor can\nthis be considered extraordinary, when it is recollected that the\nwhole of the allegory is a revelation of scenes, feelings, hopes,\nfears, and enjoyments, which are unknown, unfelt, and invisible to\nall except to those whose minds are enlightened by Divine truth;\nand even of these, very few have had the deep and trying experience\nwith which the author was exercised.\n\nThat the 'Holy War' allegorically represents Bunyan's personal\nfeelings, is clearly declared by him in the poetical Introduction\nor Address to the Reader, prefixed to the book. He adverts to\nbooks of fiction, and solemnly declares--\n\n\n'I have somewhat else to do,\nThan with vain stories thus to trouble you,\nFor my part, I (myself) was in the town,\nBoth when 'twas set up, and when pulling down;\nI saw Diabolus in his possession,--\nYea, I was there when she own'd him for Lord.'\n\n\nA remarkable verse describes his state before conversion--\n\n\n'When Mansoul trampled upon things divine,\nAnd wallowed in filth as doth a swine;\nWhen she betook herself unto her arms,\nFought her Emmanuel, despis'd his charms,\nThen I was there, and did rejoice to see\nDiabolus and Mansoul so agree.'\n\n\nSome editor, imagining that Bunyan could never have so rejoiced,\nforgetting his own words in the fourth section of his 'Grace\nAbounding'--'It was my delight to be taken captive by the devil,\nat his will'--altered these words to--\n\n\n'Then I was there, and grieved for to see\nDiabolus and Mansoul so agree.'\n\n\nThis alteration, which perverts the author's meaning, appears\nin a London edition, 1752, and has been copied into many modern\neditions, even into those by Mason and Burder.[2]\n\nThe author having in the above lines described his unconverted\nstate, goes on to delineate his convictions in these words:--\n\n\n'What is here in view,\nOf mine own knowledge, I dare say is true.\nI saw the Prince's armed men come down,\nI saw the captains, heard the trumpets sound;\nYea, how they set themselves in battle-ray,\nI shall remember to my dying day.'\n\n\nThe whole of this address is descriptive of what the author saw,\nfelt, or heard--\n\n\n'What shall I say? I heard the people's cries,\nAnd saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes;\nI heard the groans, and saw the joy of many,\nTell you of all, I neither will, nor can I;\nBut by what here I say, you well may see\nThat Mansoul's matchless wars no fables be.'\n\n\nThe narrative of this eventful war is authenticated by his personal\nfeelings while under the chastising, correcting, hand of his heavenly\nFather; in his new birth and subsequent experience; in bringing\nhis soul from darkness to marvellous light, and from the wretched\nbondage of sin to the glorious liberty of the gospel. This address\nis closed with a very important notice, which all our readers\nshould keep constantly in mind--it is to attend to the author's\nkey to the allegory, and that is his marginal notes--\n\n\n'Nor do thou go to work without my key,\n(In mysteries men soon do lose their way),\nAnd also turn it right, if thou would'st know\nMy riddle, and would'st with my heifer plough,\nIt lies there in the window, fare thee well,\nMy next may be to ring thy passing-bell.'\n\n\nThe last line strongly reminds us of the author's difficulty to\nquit the gin and beer-drinking practice of bell-ringing, to which\nin his youth he was so much addicted. It is recorded in his 'Grace\nAbounding,' Nos. 33 and 34.[3]\n\nThe form and order of the narrative is exceedingly beautiful, and\ndeeply interesting to those who have been engaged in a similar\nwarfare. Passing over the short and vivid narration of the fall of\nman, our personal feelings are excited by witnessing the methods\nof grace, adapted by a covenant-keeping God and Father, to rescue\nhis people from their natural state of Diabolonian slavery. Many of\nthe incidents will bring, to the enlightened reader's recollection,\nthe solemn and powerful impressions under which he struggled, when\nopposing the invitations of Emmanuel. His holy joy, when a sense\nof pardoning love and mercy came over his soul; and his anxieties,\nwhen in conflict with doubts, and fears, and bloodmen.\n\nOur young readers must be cautioned not to give way to doubts\nand fears for their soul's safety, because they have never passed\nthrough the same feelings which fitted Bunyan for a sphere of\nextraordinary usefulness. God brings his lambs and sheep into the\nfold by such means as are agreeable to his infinite wisdom and\ngrace. Some surrender at the first summons; others hold out during\na long and distressing siege. 'God's ways are not our ways.' All\nour anxious inquiries should be, Is Emmanuel in Heart-castle? is\nhe 'formed in me the hope of glory?' do I live and believe in him\nwho has immutably decreed that 'whosoever'--be he rich or poor,\nlearned or unlearned--if he 'liveth and believeth in me, shall never\ndie?' It matters not, as to my salvation, whether the siege was\nlong or short. The vital question is, Has my heart been conquered;\ndo I love Emmanuel? If I do, it is because he first loved me, and\nhe changeth not. In proportion to the trouble that I gave to my\nConqueror, so should be my zealous, holy, happy obedience to his\ncommands. Much is expected from those to whom much as been forgiven.\nThe Conqueror, by his victory, fits us for those peculiar duties\nto which he intends to devote us in extending his kingdom. In\nthe history of this war, the reader's attention will be naturally\narrested by the fact that Mansoul, having voluntarily surrendered\nto the dominion of Satan, made no effort to relieve herself. No\nspiritual feelings lurked in the walls to disturb the reign of\nDiabolus; not even a prayer or a sigh breaks forth from her heart\nfor deliverance; she felt not her degradation nor her danger; she\nwas dead while she yet lived--dead in sin; and from this state\nwould have sunk, as thousands have, from spiritual and temporal\ndeath into eternal and irretrievable ruin. The first conception of\na scheme for her deliverance from such awful danger, arises in\nthe celestial court of her Creator; grace lays the foundation,\nand raises the top-stone. All the redeemed of God will unite in\none song, 'Not unto us, O Lord; not unto us, but unto thy name\ngive glory.' A covenant is made, ordered in all things and sure, to\nsave Mansoul; and from this emanates the vast, the costly design\nof her deliverance. To effect this great object, the Mosaic\ndispensation--the Law, with all its terrors, is sent, in fearful\narray, to conquer or destroy. This is allegorically represented\nunder the similitude of an army of forty thousand warriors, 'stout,\nrough-hewn men, fit to break the ice, and make their way by dint\nof sword.' They are under the command of four captains, each with\nhis ensign--Boanerges and Thunder, Conviction and Sorrow, Judgment\nand Terror, Execution and Justice. To resist this force, Diabolus\narms the town, hardens the conscience, and darkens the understanding.\nHe places at Eargate a guard of DEAF MEN, under old Mr. Prejudice,\nand plants over that important gate two great guns, Highmind and\nHeady. He arms Mansoul with the whole armour of Satan, which is\nvery graphically described. Summons after summons is unheeded.\nThe death of friends, sickness, and troubles, pass by apparently\nwithout any good result. They 'will not hearken to the voice\nof charmers, charming never so wisely.' At length, the town\nis assaulted, conscience becomes alarmed, but the will remains\nstubborn. The beleaguering of the town--planting the ensigns--throwing\nup batteries--the slings casting, with irresistible force, portions\nof the Word into the mind--the battering-rams beating upon the\ngates, especially Eargate--exciting alarm under the fear of the\njust and awful punishment due to sin--all are described with an\nextraordinary knowledge of military terms and tactics. The episode\nof the three volunteers who enlisted under Shaddai, into Captain\nBoanerges' company--Tradition, Human-wisdom, and Man's-invention--are\ninimitably beautiful. When they were aught in the rear, and taken\nprisoners--'as they did not live so much by religion as by the\nfates of fortune'--they offer their services to Diabolus, and are\njoined to Captain Anything's company. After a few sharp assaults,\nconvictions of sin alarm the conscience, and six of Diabolus' new\nAldermen are slain with one shot. Their names are well worthy an\nattentive consideration, showing what open vices are abandoned upon\nthe soul being first terrified with the fear of retribution--Swearing,\nWhoring, Fury, Stand-to-lies, Drunkenness, and Cheating.\n\nAlarms are continued by day and night, until it is said to Mansoul,\n'Upon all her pleasant things there was a blast, and burning instead\nof beauty; with shows of the shadow of death.' Thus was it with\nDavid--'My soul is cast down within me: deep calleth unto deep at\nthe noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are\ngone over me' (Psa 42:6,7).\n\nAll the assaults of Moses and the Law are ineffectual; the gates\nremain closed against her King and God. The thunders of Sinai and\nthe voice of the prophets may alarm, but cannot conquer Mansoul.\nThe thundering, terrifying captains appeal to the celestial court,\nand Emmanuel--God with us--condescends to fight the battle, and\nsecure the victory. The angelic hosts desire to look into these\nthings--they are the peers of the heavenly realm--the news 'flew\nlike lightning round about the court'--and the greatest peers\ndid covet to have commissions under Emmanuel. The captains that\naccompany him in this grand expedition are Faith, Hope, Charity,\nInnocence, and Patience. Mansoul is to be won by persuasion to\nreceive her Saviour. The cost of the enterprise is vast indeed;\nthe army is numerous as our thoughts, and who can number 'the\nmultitude of his thoughts?' The battering rams and slings, we are\ntold by the margin, mean the books of Sacred Scripture, sent to us\nby the influence of the Holy Ghost. Emmanuel is irresistible--Mansoul\nis taken--Diabolus is dragged out, stripped of his armour, and sent\nto the parched places in a salt land, 'seeking rest, but finding\nnone.'\n\nThe heart at first trembles lest punishment should be justly poured\nout upon her for treason, but it becomes the throne of its lawful\nKing; and instead of God's anger, his pardon and blessings are\nproclaimed, and Mansoul is filled with joy, happiness, and glory.\n\nReader, can you call to mind the peace and holy enjoyment which\ntook possession of your soul, when--having passed through the\nfears and hopes, the terrors and alarms, of the new birth--you sat\ndown, for the first time, at the table of the Lord, to celebrate\nthe wonders of his grace? Then you rejoiced in hope full of\nimmortality; then you could exclaim, 'O tidings! glad tidings! good\ntidings of good, and of great joy to my soul!' 'Then they leaped\nand skipped upon the walls for joy, and shouted, Let Emmanuel live\nfor ever!' And then you fondly thought that happiness was secure\nfor the rest of your pilgrimage, until your glorified spirit should\nenter into the celestial city.\n\nAlas! your enemies were not dead. They insidiously seized an\nunguarded moment. Remiss in watchfulness, and formal in prayer,\nCarnal-security invade the mind. Your ardent love is cooled--intercourse\nwith heaven is slight--and by slow degrees, and almost unperceived,\nEmmanuel leaves Heart-castle; and the prince of the power of the\nair promotes the treason, and foments rebellion, by the introduction\nof loose thoughts, under the name of harmless mirth. The news\nsoon reach Diabolus, and an infernal conference, or dialogue of\ndevils, is revealed by our author; who had watched the course and\ncauses of spiritual declension, and was not 'ignorant of Satan's\ndevices.'\n\nThe malignant craft and subtilty displayed in Satan's counsel, are\ndescribed in a manner far beyond an ordinary imagination. They\ndisplay the almost unbounded resources of genius and invention so\nrichly possessed by the prince of allegorists, John Bunyan. It\nreminds us of the dialogue between Lucifer and Beelzebub, in that\nrare work by Barnardine Ochine, a reformer, published in 1549,\ncalled, A Tragedy or Dialogue of the unjust usurped Primacy of\nthe Bishop of Rome.[4] In this is represented, in very popular\nlanguage, the designs of Lucifer to ruin Christianity by the\nestablishment of Popery. Lucifer thus addresses his diabolical\nconclave--'I have devised to make a certain new kingdom, replenished\nwith idolatry, superstition, ignorance, error, falsehoods, deceit,\ncompulsion, extortion, treason, contention, discord, tyranny, and\ncruelty; with spoiling, murder, ambition, filthiness, injuries,\nfactions, sects, wickedness, and mischief; in the which kingdom\nall kinds of abomination shall be committed. And notwithstanding\nthat it shall be heaped up with all kinds of wickedness, yet shall\nthe [professed] Christian men think it to be a spiritual kingdom,\nmost holy and most godly. The supreme head of this kingdom shall\nbe a man which is not only sinful, and an abominable robber and\nthief, but he shall be sin and abomination itself; and yet, for\nall that, shall be thought of Christian men a God in earth, and\nhis members, being most wicked, shall be called of men most holy.\nGod sent his Son into the world, who, for the salvation of mankind,\nhath humbled himself even to the death of the cross. I will send\nmy son into the world, who, for the destruction and condemnation\nof mankind, shall so advance himself that he shall take upon him\nto be made equal with God.' 'I will, by craft and diligence, shadow\nand cover superstition and idolatry with a fair face, and beauty\nof holy ceremonies, that men shall be made so drunken and so amazed\nwith this outward pomp and show, that they shall not be able to\ndiscern truth from falsehood, when they be drowned in the flood\nof idolatry and superstition.' 'I will cause them to be most cruel\ntyrants and butchers of Christ and his members, under a pretence\nof zeal to the house of God. They shall hide their uncleanness\nand filthy behaviour with an exceeding wide cloak of hypocrisy,\nand with glorious shining titles.' Thus this intrepid reformer\nopened up the origin, the development, the desolations, of Popery;\nand, with a similar knowledge of Satan's devices, the Nonconformist\nBunyan shows the means by which Diabolus urges the young Christian\ninto a backsliding state. 'Let our Diabolonian friends in Mansoul\ndraw it into sin, for there is nothing like sin to devour Mansoul;\nwhile we will send against it an army of twenty or thirty thousand\nsturdy terrible doubters. Sin renders Mansoul sick and faint, while\ndoubts are by it made fierce and strong.' At length Diabolus and\nhis army of doubts march from Hellgate Hill to Mansoul: the order\nin which they are placed, and the names of the officers, are very\ninstructive, as well as curious. Election-doubteres, under Captain\nRage--Vocation-doubters, commanded by Captain Fury--Grace-doubters,\nled by Captain Damnation--Faith-doubters, under Captain\nled by Captain Brimstone--Resurrection-doubters, by Captain\nTorment--Salvation-doubters, under Captain Noease--Glory-doubters,\ncommanded by Captain Sepulchre--Felicity-doubters, led by Captain\nPasthope. Incredulity was Lord-general, and Diabolus was King\nand Commander-in-chief. The roaring of the drum--their alarming\noutcries, Hell-fire! Hell-fire!--their furious assaults--the\nmultitude of doubts--and the perplexity of poor distracted Mansoul,\nare admirably and truly narrated. The town makes a sortie in the\nnight, but Diabolus and his legions, experienced in night work,\ndrive them back, and severely wound Captains Faith, Hope, and\nExperience. Again the gates are assaulted, and Diabolus and his\ndoubters gain an entrance, by the senses, into the town, but cannot\nforce the heart; and Mansoul is reduced to the greatest straits\nand sadness. In this extremity, prayers are incessantly offered up\nto Emmanuel; but, for a long time, they can obtain no satisfactory\nanswers. Both parties are on the alert; but Diabolus finds it\nimpossible, either by treachery or by storming with his legion\nof doubts, to gain possession of Heart-castle. Being worsted in\na general engagement, the doubters are slain, and are buried with\ntheir armour; yea, all that did but smell of a Diabolonian Doubter.\nThe arch-fiend now enters upon a new mode of assault--he sends for\na reinforcement, to try the effect of persecution; and obtains an\narmy of fifteen thousand Bloodmen, from the province of Loathgood. To\nthese were added ten thousand new Doubters, under their commander\nold Incredulity. These Bloodmen were 'rugged villains, and had\ndone feats heretofore'; 'they were mastiffs, and would fasten upon\nfather, mother, brother, yea, upon the Prince of princes. Among\ntheir officers is Captain Pope, whose colours were the stake, the\nflame, and the good man in it.' To these I would humbly suggest the\npropriety of adding one more--it is Captain State-religion, upon\nwhose standard should be represented the Nonconformist John Bunyan\nin a damp, dreary dungeon, writing his 'Pilgrim's Progress,' with\nhis poor blind child at his feet. O persecutor, whether you burn\nor imprison a Nonconformist, or harass him in Ecclesiastical\ncourts, or seize his goods to support forms or ceremonies which he\nbelieves to be Antichristian, your commander is old Incredulity--your\nking is Diabolus! The Bloodmen send a summons to Mansoul 'as hot as\na red hot iron,' threatening fire and sword, and utter destruction;\nbut the God who visited our pious author in prison, and cherished\nand comforted him in his twelve years' sufferings under persecution,\ncame to the relief of Mansoul. The Diabolonian army is routed--the\nDoubters are slain, excepting a few who escaped--the Bloodmen\nor persecutors were not to be slain, but to be taken alive. The\nprisoners are brought to trial, with all the forms and solemnities\nof law; and the narrative concludes with a most admirable charge\nfrom Emmanuel to keep Mansoul in a state of the most prayerful\nvigilance. Enemies still lurk within, to keep her humble; that she\nmay feel her dependence upon God, and be found much in communion\nwith him. 'Believe that my love,' says Emmanuel, 'is constant to\nthee. Watch, hold fast, till I come.'\n\nIn the whole detail of this war, very singular skill is manifested.\nA keen observer of all that passed before him, aided by a most\nretentive memory, and a fertile imagination, enabled our pilgrim\nforefather to gain much knowledge in a short time. He had been\nengaged, as a private soldier, in the Civil war; and was at the\nsiege of Leicester, when it was taken by Prince Rupert. This gave\nhim a knowledge of the meaning of trumpet or bugle sounds; so that,\nwhen the trumpeters made their best music, in the expectation of\nEmmanuel's speedy assistance to help Mansoul, Diabolus exclaims,\n'What do these madmen mean? they neither sound to boot and saddle,\nnor horse and away, nor a charge.'\n\nBunyan had been released from his tedious and cruel imprisonment\nfor conscience sake about ten years, when he published the 'Holy\nWar.' In this interval of time, although labouring incessantly to\nwin souls to Christ, being a very popular preacher, yet he must\nhave found time to gratify his incessant thirst for knowledge;\ngaining that he might communicate, and in imparting it, receiving\ninto his own mind a rich increase. This would doubtless lead him\nto read the best of our Puritan and Nonconformists' works, so that\nwe find him using the Latin words primum mobile, carefully noting\nin the margin that he meant 'the soul'; and from hence he must\nhave scraped acquaintance with Python, Cerberus, and the furies of\nmythology, whom he uses in this war, describing accurately their\nnames and qualities.\n\nAt first sight, it may seem strange that the armies, both within\nand without the city, should be so numerous, as it is but one man\nwho is the object of attack and defence--one human body, containing\none immortal Mansoul; but if the reader reflects that every soldier\nrepresents a thought, who can number them? At one time, by the\nsin-sickness, eleven thousand--men, women, and children--died in\nMansoul! this is interpreted by Bunyan to mean, that the men\nrepresented 'good thoughts'--the women, 'good conceptions'--and\nthe children, 'good desires.' The town is assaulted by thirty or\nforty thousand doubts, very curiously and methodically arranged.\n\nThe value of the marginal notes is very great, throwing immediate\nlight upon many difficult passages. Every reader should make free\nuse of the key which lieth in the window [the margin]. The value\nof this key is seen by a few quotations. Thus, when Diabolus beat\na charge against the town, my Lord Reason was wounded in the\nhead--the brave Lord Mayor, Mr. Understanding, in the eye--and\n'many also of the inferior sort were not only wounded, but slain\noutright.' The margin explains this as meaning 'Hopeful thoughts.'\nWhen the enemy broke into the town at Feelgate, during a night of\nterror, and got possession, it is described as being accompanied\nby all the horrors of war--by atrocities probably even greater\nthan those perpetrated by Rupert's cavaliers at Leicester. 'Young\nchildren were dashed in pieces, yea, those unborn were destroyed.'\n'The women were beastlike abused.' This is interpreted by two\nmarginal notes--'Good and tender thoughts,' 'Holy conceptions of\ngood.'\n\nThe storming of Leicester took place in the night, and furnished\nBunyan, who was an eyewitness, with a correct notion of raising\nthe standard, beleaguering the city, and forcing the gates, and a\nlively view of the desolations he describes. Awful as is his account\nof the sacking of Mansoul, with its murders and desolations, yet\nit may prove to be a good description of the conduct of Prince\nRupert and his cavaliers at the storming of Leicester. Strike out\nthe name of Diabolus, and insert Rupert, and put Leicester instead\nof Mansoul, and the account of the brutal conduct of the Royal\narmy will be found accurately described. Lord Clarendon, who wrote\nto gain the smiles of royalty, plainly tells us that, when Prince\nRupert and the King took Leicester, 'The conquerors pursued\ntheir advantage with the usual license of rapine and plunder, and\nmiserably sacked the whole town, without any distinction of persons\nand places. Churches and hospitals, as well as other houses, were\nmade a prey to the enraged and greedy soldier, to the exceeding\nregret of the King.' Clarendon goes on to account for the exceeding\nregret of Charles: it was because many of his faithful friends\nhad suffered, in the confusion of this murderous scene of rapine\nand plunder.\n\nIn the 'Holy War,' Bunyan has not been, nor can he ever be, charged\nwith copying from any author who preceded him. Erasmus, Gouge,\nand many other of our Reformers, Puritans, and Nonconformists,\ncommented upon the Christian's armour and weapons. Benjamin Keach,\nabout the time that the 'Holy War' appeared, published his War\nwith the Devil, or, the Young Man's Conflict with the Powers of\nDarkness. It is a series of admirable poetical dialogues on the\ncorruption and vanity of youth, the horrible nature of sin, and\ndeplorable condition of fallen man; with the rule of conscience\nand of true conversion. It has nothing allegorical in it, but is\nreplete with practical warnings and exhortations. No one had ever\nattempted, under the form of an allegory, to describe the internal\nconflict between the powers of darkness and of the mind in the\nrenewed man; the introduction of evil thoughts and suggestions,\ntheir unnatural union with the affections, and the offspring of\nsuch union, under the name of Diabolonians, who, when Mansoul is\nwatchful unto prayer, lurk in the walls; but when in a backsliding\nstate, are tolerated and encouraged openly to walk the streets.\nSome have supposed that there is a slight similarity between the\ndescription, given by John Chrysostom of the battle between the\nhosts of hell and mankind, and John Bunyan's 'Holy War.' It is\nnot at all probable that Bunyan was acquainted with Chrysostom on\nthe Priesthood, which was then locked up in the Greek language,\nbut has been since translated into English. Nor can we find any\nsimilarity between the work of the pious apostolically descended\ntinker, and the learned Greek father. Chrysostom's picture of the\nbattle is contained in a letter to Basil, urging him to become\na minister of the gospel. It is in words to this effect:--'Pent\nup in this body, like a dungeon, we cannot discern the invisible\npowers. Could you behold the black army of the devil and his mad\nconflict, you would witness a great and arduous battle, in which\nthere is no brass or steel,[5] no horses or wheeled chariots, no\nfire and arrows, but other instruments much more formidable. No\nbreastplates, or shields, or swords, or darts. The very sight of\nthis accursed host is alone sufficient to paralyze a soul which\nis not imbued with courage furnished by God, and with even greater\nforesight than valour. Could you calmly survey all this array\nand war, you would see, not torrents of blood or dead bodies, but\nfallen souls! You would see wounds so grievous, that human war,\nwith all its horrors, is mere child's play or idle pastime, in\ncomparison to the sight of so many souls struck down every day by\nSatan.' Thus this learned Greek father very eloquently represents\nthe great battle of Satan and his hosts, against all mankind. But\nfor a description of the internal conflict, Diabolus and his army\nof Doubters and Bloodmen arrayed against the powers of Mansoul,\nBunyan stands alone and most beautifully resplendent.\n\nIn this war there is no combination of souls to resist Satan, nor\ncan any human powers in any way assist us in the trying battle.\nHere, O my reader, you and I must stand alone far from the aid of\nour fellow-men. We must call upon all the resources of our minds,\nand while there is unity within, no resisting or treason--while the\nHoly Spirit strengthens and inclines the will, the understanding,\nthe conscience, the affections, and all our powers are united\nto resist Satan, God fights for us, and the heart is safe under\nthe gracious smiles of our Emmanuel. May we never forget that\nour spiritual life is totally dependent upon him, in whom, as to\nthe body, we live, and move, and have our being. But when doubts\nenfeeble us, and Bloodmen harass us, there is no help from man.\nNo pope, cardinal, archbishop, minister, or any human power can\naid us; ALL our hope is in God alone; every effort for deliverance\nmust be by fervent prayer and supplication, from the heart and\nconscience, directly to God. Our petitions must be framed by the\nHoly Ghost, and presented unto Shaddai, not by priest or prelate, but\nby our Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, the only intercessor and mediator.\n\nThe attentive reader of Bunyan's works will notice the difference\nbetween the trial of Faithful in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and\nthat of the prisoners brought to the bar as traitors in the 'Holy\nWar.' The judge and jury are particularly overbearing to Faithful,\nmuch more so than to the Diabolonians. Still there is one very\nstrong feature in which they all agree. The prisoners are all\nbrought to their trial, not that their guilt or innocence might\nbe proved, but in order to their condemnation and execution. All\nare brought up in chains, a custom which then was very prevalent,\nif not universal, but which is now only read of as a cruel practice\nof a bygone age.\n\nThere are a few riddles or questions arising out of this narrative,\nthe solving of which may afford instructive amusement to the\nreader. What is meant by the drum of Diabolus, which so terrified\nMansoul? Refer to Galatians 3:10; Hebrews 6:4-8; 1 John 5:16; Hebrews\n12:29. Why were the troops numbered at forty thousand, that came\nup to alarm and convince Mansoul of sin, or righteousness, and of\njudgment, while Emmanuel's army is not numbered? See Joshua 4:13;\nHebrews 12:22. When the Doubters are slain or driven from Mansoul,\nafter her conversion, they go straggling up and down the country\nenslaving the barbarous people (the margin informs us that the\nunbeliever never fights the Doubters). Why do they go by fives,\nnines, and seventeens? Do these odd numbers refer to the nine\ncompanies of Doubters, and eight of Bloodmen, who were under\nthe command of five fallen angels--Diabolus, Beelzebub, Lucifer,\nLegion, and Apollyon? Fearful odds against a poor fallen sinner,\nfive evil spirits, or nine classes of doubts, or these nine doubts\nunited to eight kinds of Bloodmen or persecutors.\n\nIn a work so highly allegorical, and founded upon a plain narrative\nof facts in the experience of the author, the editor deemed it\nneedful to add numerous notes. These contain all that appeared to\nbe explanatory or illustrative in other commentaries, with many that\nare original; obsolete terms and customs are explain; references\nare given to about fifty passages in the 'Grace Abounding,' that\nthe reader's attention may be constantly directed to the solemn\ntruths which are displayed under this delightful allegory. The\neditor has the consolation of hoping that the result of great labour\ncan do no injury. Those whose deep experience in the spiritual\nwarfare enables them to understand and enjoy the allegory, can\npass them by; while many of the poor but immortal souls engaged\nin this warfare, who are not deeply experienced, may receive aid\nand encouragement to persevere, until they shall exclaim, The\nbattle is fought, the victory is won, eternal praises to the great\nand gracious Emmanuel.\n\nReader, I must not detain you much longer from the pleasure of\nentering upon a narrative so deeply interesting to all who possess\nthe understanding heart--an allegory, believed by very many to be\nthe most beautiful and extraordinary that mere human genius ever\ncomposed in any language. O consider the worth of an immortal soul!\nGod sent his servants, Moses and the prophets, with their slings\nand battering-rams, their great and precious promises to the early\nprophets, who have faithfully handed them down to us; and then came\nEmmanuel and his heavenly army, and all this to conquer Mansoul!\nWithout the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The\nblood of bulls and of goats cannot wash out our stains. We must\nbe found in Christ as part of his mystical body, and thus in\nperfection obey the Divine law, and then, through the sin-atoning\noffering of Emmanuel, God's equal, eternal Son, a fountain is\nopened for sin and uncleanness, in which our souls, being purified,\nshall be clothed with the garment of salvation. Who can calculate\nthe worth of his immortal soul, that God himself should pay so\ncostly a price for its redemption! May the desire of every reader\nbe, O that my soul may be engaged in this holy war, my ears be\nalarmed by the infernal drum of Diabolus, that my Heart-castle\nmay receive the King of salvation, and Christ be found there the\nhope of glory. Then may we feel the stern necessity of incessant\nwatchfulness and prayer against carnal security, or any other\ncause of backsliding, with its consequent miseries.\n\nWell may the world wonder, how a poor travelling tinker could\ngain the extraordinary knowledge, which enabled him to become the\ngreatest allegorical writer that the world ever saw. The reason is\nobvious, he lived and moved and had his being in the atmosphere\nof God's revealed will. It was this that enabled him to take the\nwings of the morning, and fly not only to the uttermost parts of\nthe visible but of the invisible world; to enjoy scenes of light\nand glory, such as Gabriel contemplated when he came from heaven\nto Nazareth, and revealed to Mary her high destiny--that her Son\nshould be the promised Saviour, who should bear the government of\nthe universe upon his shoulders--whose name was Wonderful--Counsellor--the\nMighty God--the everlasting Father--the Prince of Peace--Emmanuel,\nGod with us.\n\nBunyan's industry and application must have been intense, he could\nnot by possibility for a single moment say, 'soul take thine ease,'\ninglorious, destructive ease. His hands had to labour for his\nbread, and to provide for a most exemplary wife and four children,\none of them blind. There was no hour of his life when he could have\nsaid to his soul, Let all thy noble powers be absorbed in eating,\ndrinking, being merry--mere animal gratifications. The Holy War,\nthe solemn results depending upon it, salvation or eternal ruin,\nthe strong desire to glorify Emmanuel, the necessity to labour\nfor his household--that blessed industry left him no opportunity\nfor weaving a web of unmeaning casuistic subtilties, in which\nto entangle and engulph his soul, like a Puseyite or a German\nRationalist. The thunders and lightnings of Sinai had burnt up\nall this wood, hay, and stubble, and with child-like simplicity he\ndepended upon the Holy Spirit, while drawing all his consolations\nand all his spiritual supplies from the sacred Scriptures.\n\nBunyan's narrative of the Holy War, from its commencement in the\nfall of man to that splendid address of Emmanuel with which it\nconcludes, has been the study of the Editor for more than forty\nyears, and he hopes that no future year of the residue of his life\nwill be spent without reading this solemn, soul-stirring, delightful\nnarrative.\n\nGEO. OFFOR. Hackney, April 1851\n\n\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\n'Tis strange to me, that they that love to tell\nThings done of old, yea, and that do excel\nTheir equals in historiology,\nSpeak not of Mansoul's wars, but let them lie\nDead, like old fables, or such worthless things,\nThat to the reader no advantage brings:\nWhen men, let them make what they will their own,\nTill they know this, are to themselves unknown.\nOf stories I well know there's divers sorts,\nSome foreign, some domestic; and reports\nAre thereof made, as fancy leads the writers;\nBy books a man may guess at the inditers.\nSome will again of that which never was,\nNor will be, feign, and that without a cause,\nSuch matter, raise such mountains, tell such things\nOf men, of laws, of countries, and of kings:\nAnd in their story seem to be so sage,\nAnd with such gravity clothe ev'ry page,\nThat though their frontispiece say all is vain,\nYet to their way disciples they obtain[6]\nBut, readers, I have somewhat else to do,\nThan with vain stories thus to trouble you;\nWhat here I say, some men do know so well,\nThey can with tears and joy the story tell.\nThe town of Mansoul is well known to many,\nNor are her troubles doubted of by any\nThat are acquainted with those histories\nThat Mansoul, and her wars, anatomize.\nThen lend thine ear to what I do relate\nTouching the town of Mansoul and her state,\nHow she was lost, took captive, made a slave;\nAnd how against him set, that should her save.\nYea, how by hostile ways, she did oppose\nHer Lord, and with his enemy did close.\nFor they are true; he that will them deny\nMust needs the best of records vilify.\nFor my part, I (myself) was in the town,\nBoth when 'twas set up, and when pulling down,\nI saw Diabolus in his possession,\nAnd Mansoul also under his oppression.\nYea, I was there when she own'd him for Lord,\nAnd to him did submit with one accord.\nWhen Mansoul trampled upon things Divine,\nAnd wallowed in filth as doth a swine;\nWhen she betook herself unto her arms,\nFought her Emmanuel, despis'd his charms,\nThen I was there, and did rejoice to see\nDiabolus and Mansoul so agree.[7]\nLet no men, then, count me a fable-maker,\nNor make my name or credit a partaker\nOf their derision; what is here in view,\nOf mine own knowledge, I dare say is true.\nI saw the prince's armed men come down,\nBy troops, by thousands, to besiege the town.\nI saw the captains, heard the trumpets sound,\nAnd how his forces cover'd all the ground.\nYea, how they set themselves in battle-ray,\nI shall remember to my dying day.\nI saw the colours waving in the wind,\nAnd they within to mischief how combin'd,\nTo ruin Mansoul, and to make away\nHer primum mobile[8] without delay.\nI saw the mounts cast up against the town,\nAnd how the slings were placed to beat it down.\nI heard the stones fly whizzing by mine ears,\nWhat longer kept in mind than got in fears,\nI heard them fall, and saw what work they made,\nAnd how old Mors did cover with his shade\nThe face of Mansoul; and I heard her cry,\nWoe worth the day, in dying I shall die!\nI saw the battering rams, and how they play'd,[9]\nTo beat ope Ear-gate, and I was afraid\nNot only Ear-gate, but the very town,\nWould by those battering rams be beaten down.\nI saw the fights, and heard the captains shout,\nAnd each in battle saw who faced about;\nI saw who wounded were, and who were slain;\nAnd who, when dead, would come to life again.\nI heard the cries of those that wounded were,\nWhile others fought like men bereft of fear,\nAnd while the cry, Kill, kill, was in mine ears,\nThe gutters ran, not so with blood as tears.\nIndeed, the captains did not always fight,\nBut then they would molest us day and night;\nTheir cry, Up, fall on, let us take the town,\nKept us from sleeping, or from lying down.\nI was there when the gates were broken ope,\nAnd saw how Mansoul then was stript of hope.[10]\nI saw the captains march into the town,\nHow there they fought, and did their foes cut down.\nI heard the prince bid Boanerges go\nUp to the castle, and there seize his foe,\nAnd saw him and his fellows bring him down\nIn chains of great contempt quite through the town.\nI saw Emmanuel when he possest\nHis town of Mansoul, and how greatly blest\nA town, his gallant town of Mansoul was,\nWhen she received his pardon, lived his laws!\nWhen the Diabolonians were caught,\nWhen tried, and when to execution brought,\nThen I was there; yea, I was standing by\nWhen Mansoul did the rebels crucify.\nI also saw Mansoul clad all in white,\nAnd heard her prince call her his heart's delight.\nI saw him put upon her chains of gold,\nAnd rings, and bracelets, goodly to behold.\nWhat shall I say?--I heard the people's cries,\nAnd saw the prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes.\nI heard the groans, and saw the joy of many:\nTell you of all, I neither will, nor can I.\nBut by what here I say, you well may see\nThat Mansoul's matchless wars no fables be.\nMansoul! the desire of both princes was,\nOne keep his gain would, t'other gain his loss;\nDiabolus would cry, The town is mine;\nEmmanuel would plead a right Divine\nUnto his Mansoul; then to blows they go,\nAnd Mansoul cries, These wars will me undo.\nMansoul! her wars seem'd endless in her eyes,\nShe's lost by one, becomes another's prize.\nAnd he again that lost her last would swear,\nHave her I will, or her in pieces tear.\nMansoul, it was the very seat of war,\nWherefore her troubles greater were by far,\nThan only where the noise of war is heard,\nOr where the shaking of a sword is fear'd,\nOr only where small skirmishes are fought,\nOr where the fancy fighteth with a thought.\nShe saw the swords of fighting men made red,\nAnd heard the cries of those with them wounded;\nMust not her frights then be much more by far,\nThan theirs that to such doings strangers are?\nOr theirs that hear the beating of a drum,\nBut not made fly for fear from house and home?\nMansoul not only heard the trumpet sound,\nBut saw her gallants gasping on the ground;\nWherefore, we must not think that she could rest\nWith them, whose greatest earnest is but jest:\nOr where the blust'ring threat'ning of great wars\nDo end in parleys, or in wording jars.\nMansoul, her mighty wars, they did portend\nHer weal or woe, and that world without end;\nWherefore she must be more concerned than they\nWhose fears begin and end the self-same day:\nOr where none other harm doth come to him\nThat is engaged, but loss of life or limb,[11]\nAs all must needs confess that now do dwell\nIn Universe, and can this story tell.\nCount me not then with them that to amaze\nThe people, set them on the stars to gaze,\nInsinuating with much confidence,\nThat each of them is now the residence[12]\nOf some brave creatures; yea, a world they will\nHave in each star, though it be past their skill\nTo make it manifest to any man,\nThat reason hath, or tell his fingers can.[13]\nBut I have too long held thee in the porch,\nAnd kept thee from the sunshine with a torch.\nWell, now go forward, step within the door,\nAnd there behold five hundred times much more\nOf all sorts of such inward rarities\nAs please the mind will, and will feed the eyes\nWith those, which if a Christian, thou wilt see\nNot small, but things of greatest moment be.\nNor do thou go to work without my key\n(In mysteries men soon do lose their way),\nAnd also turn it right if thou wouldst know\nMy riddle, and wouldst with my heifer plough.\nIt lies there in the window,[14] fare thee well,\nMy next may be to ring thy passing-bell.\n\nJO. BUNYAN\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA RELATION OF THE HOLY WAR\n\n[CHAPTER I.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--The original beauty and splendour of the town of\nMansoul, while under the dominion of Shaddai--Its noble castle\ndescribed--Its five gates--The perfection of its inhabitants--The\norigin of Diabolus--His pride and fall--Revenge meditated--A council\nof war held to deliberate on the best means of seducing the town\nof Mansoul--Diabolus marches to the town, and sits down before\nEye-gate--His oration--Captain Resistance slain--My Lord Innocence\nkilled--The town taken.]\n\nIn my travels, as I walked through many regions and countries, it\nwas my chance to happen into that famous continent of Universe;\na very large and spacious country it is. It lieth between the\ntwo poles, and just amidst the four points of the heavens. It is\na place well-watered, and richly adorned with hills and valleys,\nbravely situate; and for the most part (at least where I was) very\nfruitful, also well peopled, and a very sweet air.\n\nThe people are not all of one complexion, nor yet of one language,\nmode, or way of religion; but differ as much as, it is said, do\nthe planets themselves. Some are right, and some are wrong, even\nas it happeneth to be in lesser regions.\n\nIn this country, as I said, it was my lot to travel, and there\ntravel I did; and that so long, even till I learned much of their\nmother-tongue, together with the customs and manners of them among\nwhom I was. And to speak truth, I was much delighted to see and\nhear many things which I saw and heard among them. Yea, I had (to\nbe sure) even lived and died a native among them, so was I taken\nwith them and their doings, had not my Master sent for me home to\nhis house, there to do business for him, and to over-see business\ndone.[15]\n\nNow there is in this gallant country of Universe a fair and delicate\ntown, a corporation called Mansoul. A town for its building so\ncurious, for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so\nadvantageous--I mean with reference to its original--that I may say\nof it, as was said before of the continent in which it is placed,\nThere is not its equal under the whole heaven.[16]\n\nAs to the situation of this town, it lieth just between the two\nworlds; and the first founder and builder of it, so far as by the\nbest and most authentic records I can gather, was one Shaddai;\nand he built it for his own delight.[17] He made it the mirror\nand glory of all that he made, even the top-piece, beyond anything\nelse that he did in that country (Gen 1:26). Yea, so goodly a town\nwas Mansoul when first built, that it is said by some, the gods,\nat the setting up thereof, came down to see it, and sang for joy.\nAnd as he made it goodly to behold, so also mighty to have dominion\nover all the country round about. Yea, all were commanded to\nacknowledge Mansoul for their metropolitan, all was enjoined to\ndo homage to it. Aye, the town itself had positive commission and\npower from her King to demand service of all, and also to subdue\nany that anyways denied to do it.\n\nThere was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and\nstately palace. For strength, it might be called a castle; for\npleasantness, a paradise; for largeness, a place so copious as to\ncontain all the world (Eccl 3:11). This place the King Shaddai\nintended but for himself alone, and not another with him;[18] partly\nbecause of his own delights, and partly because he would not that\nthe terror of strangers should be upon the town. This place Shaddai\nmade also a garrison of, but committed the keeping of it only to\nthe men of the town.\n\nThe wall of the town was well built, yea, so fast and firm was it\nknit and compact together, that, had it not been for the townsmen\nthemselves, they could not have been shaken or broken for ever.\n\nFor here lay the excellent wisdom of him that built Mansoul, that\nthe walls could never be broken down, nor hurt, by the most mighty\nadverse potentate, unless the townsmen gave consent thereto.\n\nThis famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come,\nout at which to go, and these were made likewise answerable to the\nwalls, to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor\nforced but by the will and leave of those within. The names of the\ngates were these, Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and\nFeel-gate.[19]\n\nOther things there were that belonged to the town of Mansoul,\nwhich, if you adjoin to these, will yet give farther demonstration\nto all of the glory and strength of the place. It had always a\nsufficiency of provision within its walls; it had the best, most\nwholesome, and excellent law that then was extant in the world.\nThere was not a rascal, rogue, or traitorous person then within its\nwalls. They were all true men, and fast joined together; and this,\nyou know, is a great matter. And to all these, it had always--so\nlong as it had the goodness to keep true to Shaddai the king--his\ncountenance, his protection, and it was his delight, etc.\n\nWell, upon a time, there was one Diabolus,[20] a mighty giant,\nmade an assault upon this famous town of Mansoul, to take it, and\nmake it his own habitation. This giant was king of the blacks\nor negroes,[21] and a most raving prince he was. We will, if you\nplease, first discourse of the original of this Diabolus, and then\nof his taking of this famous town of Mansoul.\n\nThis Diabolus is indeed a great and mighty prince, and yet both\npoor and beggarly. As to his original, he was at first one of the\nservants of King Shaddai, made, and taken, and put by him into\nmost high and mighty place; yea, was put into such principalities\nas belonged to the best of his territories and dominions. This\nDiabolus was made son of the morning, and a brave place he had\nof it (Isa 14:12). It brought him much glory, and gave him much\nbrightness, an income that might have contented his Luciferian\nheart, had it not been insatiable, and enlarged as hell itself.\n\nWell, he seeing himself thus exalted to greatness and honour, and\nraging in his mind for higher state and degree, what doth he but\nbegins to think with himself how he might be set up as Lord over\nall, and have the sole power under Shaddai! Now that did the King\nreserve for his Son, yea, and had already bestowed it upon him.\nWherefore he first consults with himself what had best to be done,\nand then breaks his mind to some other of his companions, to the\nwhich they also agreed. So, in fine, they came to this issue,\nthat they should make an attempt upon the King's Son to destroy\nhim, that the inheritance might be theirs. Well, to be short, the\ntreason, as I said, was concluded, the time appointed, the word\ngiven, the rebels rendezvoused, and the assault attempted.[22]\nNow the King and his Son being ALL and always EYE, could not but\ndiscern all passages in his dominions; and he having always love\nfor his Son as for himself, could not, at what he saw, but be\ngreatly provoked and offended; wherefore, what does he, but takes\nthem in the very nick; and, first trip that they made towards\ntheir design, convicts them of the treason, horrid rebellion, and\nconspiracy that they had devised, and now attempted to put into\npractice; and casts them altogether out of all place of trust,\nbenefit, honour, and preferment. This done, he banishes them the\ncourt; turns them down into the horrible pits, as fast bound in\nchains, never more to expect the least favour from his hands, but\nto abide the judgment that he had appointed, and that for ever (2\nPeter 2:4; Jude 6).\n\nAnd yet, now, they being thus cast out of all place of trust,\nprofit, and honour, and also knowing that they had lost their\nprince's favour for ever, being banished his courts, and cast down\nto the horrible pits, you may be sure they would now add to their\nformer pride what malice and rage against Shaddai, and against his\nSon, they could. Wherefore, roving and ranging in much fury from\nplace to place, if perhaps they might find something that was the\nKing's, to revenge (by spoiling of that themselves) on him (1 Peter\n5:8); at last they happened into this spacious country of Universe,\nand steer their course towards the town of Mansoul; and considering\nthat that town was one of the chief works and delights of King\nShaddai, what do they but, after counsel taken, make an assault\nupon that! I say they knew that Mansoul belonged unto Shaddai; for\nthey were there when he built it, and beautified it for himself.[23]\nSo when they had found the place, they shouted horribly for joy,\nand roared on it as a lion upon the prey, saying, Now we have\nfound the prize, and how to be revenged on King Shaddai for what\nhe hath done to us. So they sat down, and called a council of war,\nand considered with themselves what ways and methods they had best\nto engage in, for the winning to themselves this famous town of\nMansoul; and these four things were then propounded to be considered\nof. First. Whether they had best all of them, to show themselves\nin this design to the town of Mansoul. Second. Whether they had\nbest to go and sit down against Mansoul, in their now ragged and\nbeggarly guise. Third. Whether they had best to show to Mansoul\ntheir intentions, and what design they came about, or whether to\nassault it with words and ways of deceit. Fourth. Whether they had\nnot best, to some of their companions, to give out private orders\nto take the advantage, if they see one or more of the principal\ntownsmen, to shoot them; if thereby they shall judge their cause\nand design will the better be promoted.\n\nFirst. It was answered to the first of these proposals in the\nnegative, to wit, that it would not be best that all should show\nthemselves before the town, because the appearance of many of\nthem might alarm and fright the town; whereas a few, or but one\nof them, was not so likely to do it. And to enforce this advice\nto take place, it was added further, that if Mansoul was frighted,\nor did take the alarm, it is impossible, said Diabolus--for he\nspake now--that we should take the town; for that none can enter\ninto it without its own consent.[24] Let therefore but few or but\none assault Mansoul, and in mine opinion, said Diabolus, let me\nbe he. Wherefore to this they all agreed, and then to the second\nproposal they came, namely,\n\nSecond. Whether they had best go and sit down before Mansoul in\ntheir now ragged and beggarly guise. To which it was answered also\nin the negative, By no means; and that because though the town of\nMansoul had been made to know and to have to do, before now, with\nthings that are invisible, they did never as yet see any of their\nfellow-creatures in so sad and rascal condition as they. And this\nwas the advice of that fierce Alecto.[25] Then said Apollyon, the\nadvice is pertinent, for even one of us appearing to them as we\nare now, must needs both beget and multiply such thoughts in them\nas will both put them into a consternation of spirit, and necessitate\nthem to put themselves upon their guard. And if so, said he, then,\nas my Lord Alecto said but now, it is in vain for us to think of\ntaking the town. Then said that mighty giant Beelzebub, the advice\nthat already is given is safe; for though the men of Mansoul have\nseen such things as we once were, yet hitherto they did never\nbehold such things as we now are. And it is best, in mine opinion,\nto come upon them in such a guise as is common to, and most familiar\namong them.[26] To this, when they had consented, the next thing\nto be considered was, in what shape, hue, or guise, Diabolus had\nbest to show himself, when he went about to make Mansoul his own.\nThen one said one thing, and another the contrary; at last Lucifer\nanswered, that in his opinion it was best that his lordship should\nassume the body of some of those creatures that they of the town\nhad dominion over. For, quoth he, these are not only familiar to\nthem, but being under them, they will never imagine that an attempt\nshould by them be made upon the town; and, to blind all, let him\nassume the body of one of these beasts that Mansoul deems to be\nwiser than any of the rest (Gen 3:1; Rev 20:1,2). This advice was\napplauded of all; so it was determined that the giant Diabolus\nshould assume the dragon, for that he was in those days as familiar\nwith the town of Mansoul as now is the bird with the boy. For\nnothing that was in its primitive state was at all amazing to\nthem.[27] Then they proceeded to the third thing, which was,\n\nThird. Whether they had best to show their intentions or the design\nof his coming to Mansoul, or no. This also was answered in the\nnegative, because of the weight that was in the former reasons, to\nwit, for that Mansoul were a strong people, a strong people in a\nstrong town, whose wall and gates were impregnable, to say nothing\nof their castle, nor can they by any means be won but by their own\nconsent. Besides, said Legion,[28] (for he gave answer to this),\na discovery of our intentions may make them send to their King\nfor aid, and if that be done, I know quickly what time of day it\nwill be with us. Therefore let us assault them in all pretended\nfairness, covering of our intentions with all manner of lies,\nflatteries, delusive words; feigning of things that never will be,\nand promising of that to them that they shall never find. This is\nthe way to win Mansoul, and to make them, of themselves, to open\ntheir gates to us; yea, and to desire us too, to come in to them.\n\nAnd the reason why I think that this project will do is, because\nthe people of Mansoul now are every one simple and innocent; all\nhonest and true; nor do they as yet know what it is to be assaulted\nwith fraud, guile, and hypocrisy. They are strangers to lying and\ndissembling lips; wherefore we cannot, if thus we be disguised, by\nthem at all be discerned; our lies shall go for true sayings, and\nour dissimulations for upright dealings. What we promise them,\nthey will in that believe us, especially if in all our lies and\nfeigned words we pretend great love to them, and that our design\nis only their advantage and honour. Now there was not one bit of\na reply against this; this went as current down as doth the water\ndown a steep descent; wherefore they go to consider of the last\nproposal, which was,\n\nFourth. Whether they had not best to give out orders to some of\ntheir company, to shoot some one or more of the principal of the\ntownsmen, if they judge that their cause may be promoted thereby.\n\nThis was carried in the affirmative, and the man that was designed\nby this stratagem to be destroyed was one Mr. Resistance, otherwise\ncalled Captain Resistance. And a great man in Mansoul this Captain\nResistance was; and a man that the giant Diabolus and his band\nmore feared than they feared the whole town of Mansoul besides.[29]\nNow who should be the actor to do the murder, that was the next,\nand they appointed one Tisiphone, a fury of the lake, to do it.\n\nThey thus having ended their council of war, rose up, and essayed\nto do as they had determined. They marched towards Mansoul, but\nall in a manner invisible, save one, only one; nor did he approach\nthe town in his own likeness, but under the shape and in the body\nof the dragon.[30]\n\nSo they drew up, and sat down before Ear-gate, for that was the\nplace of hearing for all without the town, as Eye-gate was the\nplace of perspection. So, as I said, he came up with his train\nto the gate, and laid his ambuscado for Captain Resistance within\nbow-shot of the town. This done, the giant ascended up close to\nthe gate, and called to the town of Mansoul for audience. Nor took\nhe any with him, but one All-pause,[31] who was his orator in all\ndifficult matters. Now, as I said, he being come up to the gate,\nas the manner of those times was, sounded his trumpet for audience. At\nwhich the chief of the town of Mansoul, such as my Lord Innocent,\nmy Lord Will-be-will,[32] my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder,[33] and\nCaptain Resistance came down to the wall to see who was there, and\nwhat was the matter. And my Lord Will-be-will, when he had looked\nover and saw who stood at the gate, demanded what he was, wherefore\nhe was come, and why he roused the town of Mansoul with so unusual\na sound.\n\nDiab. Diabolus then, as if he had been a lamb, began his oration,\nand said; Gentlemen of the famous town of Mansoul, I am, as you\nmay perceive, no far dweller from you, but near, and one that is\nbound by the King to do you my homage, and what service I can;\nwherefore, that I may be faithful to myself, and to you, I have\nsomewhat of concern to impart unto you. Wherefore grant me your\naudience, and hear me patiently. And, first, I will assure you,\nit is not myself, but you; not mine, but your advantage that I\nseek, by what I now do, as will full well be made manifest by that\nI have opened my mind unto you. For, gentlemen, I am, to tell you\nthe truth, come to show you how you may obtain great and ample\ndeliverance from a bondage that, unawares to yourselves, you are\ncaptivated and enslaved under. At this the town of Mansoul began\nto prick up its ears, and what is it, pray, what is it, thought\nthey; and he said, I have somewhat to say to you concerning your\nKing, concerning his law, and also touching yourselves. Touching\nyour King, I know he is great and potent, but yet all that he\nhath said to you is neither true, nor yet for your advantage. 1.\nIt is not true, for that wherewith he hath hitherto awed you shall\nnot come to pass, nor be fulfilled, though you do the thing that\nhe hath forbidden. But if there was danger, what a slavery is it\nto live always in fear of the greatest of punishments, for doing\nso small and trivial a thing as eating of a little fruit is? 2.\nTouching his laws, this I say further, they are both unreasonable,\nintricate, and intolerable. Unreasonable, as was hinted before, for\nthat the punishment is not proportioned to the offence. There is\ngreat difference and disproportion betwixt the life and an apple;\nyet the one must go for the other, by the law of your Shaddai.\nBut it is also intricate, in that he saith, first, you may eat of\nall; and yet after, forbids the eating of one. And then, in the\nlast place, it must needs be intolerable, forasmuch as that fruit\nwhich you are forbidden to eat of, if you are forbidden any, is\nthat, and that alone, which is able, by your eating, to minister\nto you a good as yet unknown by you. This is manifest by the very\nname of the tree; it is called the tree of knowledge of good and\nevil; and have you that knowledge as yet? No, no, nor can you\nconceive how good, how pleasant, and how much to be desired to make\none wise it is, so long as you stand by your King's commandment.\nWhy should you be holden in ignorance and blindness? Why should\nyou not be enlarged in knowledge and understanding? And now,\nah! ye inhabitants of the famous town of Mansoul, to speak more\nparticularly to yourselves, you are not a free people! You are\nkept both in bondage and slavery, and that by a grievous threat;\nno reason being annexed but, so I will have it, so it shall be.\nAnd is it not grievous to think on, that that very thing that you\nare forbidden to do, might you but do it, would yield you both\nwisdom and honour; for then your eyes will be opened, and you\nshall be as gods. Now, since this is thus, quoth he, can you be\nkept by any prince in more slavery, and in greater bondage, than\nyou are under this day? You are made underlings, and are wrapped\nup in inconveniences, as I have well made appear. For what bondage\ngreater than to be kept in blindness? Will not reason tell you that\nit is better to have eyes than to be without them; and so to be\nat liberty, to be better than to be shut up in a dark and stinking\ncave.\n\nAnd just now, while Diabolus was speaking these words to Mansoul,\nTisiphone shot at Captain Resistance, where he stood on the gate,\nand mortally wounded him in the head; so that he, to the amazement\nof the townsmen, and the encouragement of Diabolus, fell down dead\nquite over the wall.[34] Now, when Captain Resistance was dead,\nand he was the only man of war in the town, poor Mansoul was wholly\nleft naked of courage, nor had she now any heart to resist. But\nthis was as the devil would have it.[35] Then stood forth that\nHe,[36] Mr. Ill-pause, that Diabolus brought with him, who was\nhis orator,[37] and he addressed himself to speak to the town of\nMansoul: the tenour of whose speech here follows.\n\nILL-PAUSE. Gentlemen, quoth he, it is my master's happiness that\nhe has this day a quiet and teachable auditory,[38] and it is hoped\nby us that we shall prevail with you not to cast off good advice;\nmy master has a very great love for you, and although, as he very\nwell knows, that he runs the hazard of the anger of King Shaddai,\nyet love to you will make him do more than that.[39] Nor doth there\nneed that a word more should be spoken to confirm for truth what\nhe hath said; there is not a word but carries with it self-evidence\nin its bowels; the very name of the tree may put an end to all\ncontroversy in this matter. I therefore at this time shall only\nadd this advice to you, under, and by the leave of my Lord [and\nwith that he made Diabolus a very low conge]. Consider his words,\nlook on the tree, and the promising fruit thereof; remember also\nthat yet you know but little, and that this is the way to know\nmore; and if your reasons be not conquered to accept of such good\ncounsel, you are not the men that I took you to be. But when the\ntowns-folk saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was\npleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,\nthey did as old Ill-pause advised, they took and did eat thereof.\nNow this I should have told you before, that even then, when\nthis Ill-pause was making of his speech to the townsmen, my Lord\nInnocency--whether by a shot from the camp of the giant, or from\nsome sinking qualm that suddenly took him, or whether by the\nstinking breath of that treacherous villain old Ill-pause, for\nso I am most apt to think--sunk down in the place where he stood,\nnor could he be brought to life again.[40] Thus these two brave\nmen died; brave men I call them, for they were the beauty and\nglory of Mansoul, so long as they lived therein; nor did there now\nremain any more a noble spirit in Mansoul, they all fell down, and\nyielded obedience to Diabolus, and became his slaves and vassals,\nas you shall hear.[41]\n\nNow these being dead, what do the rest of the towns-folk, but as\nmen that had found a fool's paradise, they presently, as afore was\nhinted, fall to prove the truth of the giant's words; and first they\ndid as Ill-pause had taught them, they looked, they considered,\nthey were taken with the forbidden fruit, they took thereof, and did\neat; and having eaten, they became immediately drunken therewith;\nso they opened the gate, both Ear-gate and Eye-gate, and let in\nDiabolus with all his bands, quite forgetting their good Shaddai,\nhis law, and the judgment that he had annexed with solemn threatening\nto the breach thereof.[42]\n\n[CHAPTER II.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--Diabolus takes possession of the castle--The Lord\nMayor, Mr. Understanding, is deposed, and a wall built before his\nhouse, to darken it--Mr. Conscience, the Recorder, is put out of\noffice, and becomes very obnoxious both to Diabolus and to the\ninhabitants--My Lord Will-be-will, heartily espousing the cause\nof Diabolus, is made the principal governor of the town--The image\nof Shaddai defaced, and that of Diabolus set up in its stead--Mr.\nLustings is made Lord Mayor, and Mr. Forget-good, Recorder--New\nalderman appointed--Three forts built to defend the town against\nShaddai.]\n\nDiabolus having now obtained entrance in at the gates of the town,\nmarches up to the middle thereof, to make his conquest as sure as\nhe could, and finding by this time the affections of the people\nwarmly inclining to him, he, as thinking it was best striking while\nthe iron is hot, made this further deceivable speech unto them,\nsaying, Alas, my poor Mansoul! I have done thee indeed this\nservice, as to promote thee to honour, and to greaten thy liberty,\nbut alas! alas! poor Mansoul, thou wantest now one to defend thee,\nfor assure thyself that when Shaddai shall hear what is done, he\nwill come; for sorry will he be that thou hast broken his bonds,\nand cast his cords away from thee. What wilt thou do--wilt thou\nafter enlargement suffer thy privileges to be invaded and taken\naway? or what wilt resolve with thyself? Then they all with one\nconsent said to this bramble, Do thou reign over us. So he accepted\nthe motion, and became the king of the town of Mansoul. This being\ndone, the next thing was to give him possession of the castle, and\nso of the whole strength of the town. Wherefore into the castle\nhe goes--it was that which Shaddai built in Mansoul for his own\ndelight and pleasure--this now was become a den and hold for the\ngiant Diabolus.[43]\n\nNow having got possession of this stately palace or castle, what\ndoth he but make it a garrison for himself, and strengthens and\nfortifies it with all sorts of provision against the King Shaddai,\nor those that should endeavour the regaining of it to him and his\nobedience again.\n\nThis done, but not thinking himself yet secure enough, in the next\nplace, he bethinks himself of new-modelling the town; and so he\ndoes, setting up one, and putting down another at pleasure.[44]\nWherefore my Lord Mayor, whose name was my Lord Understanding, and\nMr. Recorder, whose name was Mr. Conscience, those he puts out of\nplace and power.\n\nAs for my Lord Mayor, though he was an understanding man, and\none too that had complied with the rest of the town of Mansoul in\nadmitting of the giant into the town, yet Diabolus thought not fit\nto let him abide in his former lustre and glory, because he was a\nseeing man. Wherefore he darkened it not only by taking from him\nhis office and power, but by building of a high and strong tower,\njust between the sun's reflections, and the windows of my Lord's\npalace (2 Cor 10:4,5); by which means his house and all, and the\nwhole of his habitation, was made as dark as darkness itself. And\nthus being alienated from the light, he became as one that was born\nblind (Eph 4:18,19). To this his house my Lord was confined as to\na prison; nor might he be upon his parole go farther than within\nhis own bounds. And now had he had a heart to do for Mansoul,\nwhat could he do for it or wherein could he be profitable to her?\nSo then, so long as Mansoul was under the power and government of\nDiabolus--and so long it was under him as it was obedient to him;\nwhich was even until by a war it was rescued out of his hands--so\nlong my Lord Mayor was rather an impediment in, than advantage to,\nthe famous town of Mansoul.\n\nAs for Mr. Recorder, before the town was taken he was a man\nwell read in the laws of his King, and also a man of courage and\nfaithfulness, to speak truth at every occasion; and he had a tongue\nas bravely hung as he had an head filled with judgment. Now this\nman, Diabolus could by no means abide, because, though he gave\nhis consent to his coming into the town, yet he could not, by all\nwiles, trials, stratagems, and devices that he could use, make him\nwholly his own. True, he was much degenerated from his former King,\nand also much pleased with many of the giant's laws and service;\nbut all this would not do, forasmuch as he was not wholly his. He\nwould now and then think upon Shaddai, and have dread of his law\nupon him, and then he would speak with a voice as great against\nDiabolus as when a lion roareth;[45] yea, and would also at certain\ntimes when his fits were upon him--for you must know that sometimes\nhe had terrible fits--[he would] make the whole town of Mansoul\nshake with his voice: and, therefore, the now king of Mansoul\ncould not abide him.[46]\n\nDiabolus therefore feared the Recorder more than any that was left\nalive in the town of Mansoul, because, as I said, his words did\nshake the whole town; they were like the rattling thunder, and also\nlike thunder-claps. Since therefore the giant could not make him\nwholly his own, what doth he do but studies all that he could to\ndebauch the old gentleman; and by debauchery to stupefy his mind,\nand more harden his heart in ways of vanity. And as he attempted,\nso he accomplished his design; he debauched the man, and by little\nand little so drew him into sin and wickedness, that at last he\nwas not only debauched as at first, and so by consequence defiled,\nbut was almost, at last, I say, past all conscience of sin. And\nthis was the furthest Diabolus could go. Wherefore he bethinks him\nof another project; and that was to persuade the men of the town\nthat Mr. Recorder was mad, and so not to be regarded: and for\nthis he urged his fits, and said, If he be himself, why doth he\nnot do thus always? but, quoth he, as all mad folks have their\nfits, and in them their raving language, so hath this old and\ndoating gentleman.\n\nThus, by one means or another, he quickly got Mansoul to slight,\nneglect, and despise whatever Mr. Recorder could say.[47] For\nbesides what already you have heard, Diabolus had a way to make\nthe old gentleman, when he was merry, unsay and deny what he in\nhis fits had affirmed; and, indeed, this was the next way to make\nhimself ridiculous, and to cause that no man should regard him.\nAlso, now he never spake freely for King Shaddai, but always by\nforce and constraint; besides, he would at one time be hot against\nthat at which at another he would hold his peace, so uneven was he\nnow in his doings. Sometimes he would be as if fast asleep, and\nagain sometimes as dead, even then when the whole town of Mansoul\nwas in her career after vanity, and in her dance after the giant's\npipe.\n\nWherefore, sometimes, when Mansoul did use to be frightened with\nthe thundering voice of the Recorder that was, and when they did\ntell Diabolus of it, he would answer that what the old gentleman\nsaid was neither of love to him nor pity to them, but of a foolish\nfondness that he had to be prating; and so would hush, still, and\nput all to quiet again. And that he might leave no argument unurged\nthat might tend to make them secure, he said, and said it often,\nO Mansoul! consider that notwithstanding the old gentleman's rage,\nand the rattle of his high and thundering words, you hear nothing\nof Shaddai himself, when, liar and deceiver that he was, every\noutcry of Mr. Recorder against the sin of Mansoul was the voice\nof God in him to them. But he goes on and says, You see that he\nvalues not the loss, nor rebellion of the town of Mansoul, nor\nwill he trouble himself with calling of his town to a reckoning\nfor their giving of themselves to me. He knows that though ye were\nhis, now you are lawfully mine; so, leaving us one to another, he\nnow hath shaken his hands of us.[48]\n\nMoreover, O Mansoul! quoth he, consider how I have served you,\neven to the uttermost of my power; and that with the best that I\nhave, could get, or procure for you in all the world: besides, I\ndare say, that the laws and customs that you now are under, and\nby which you do homage to me, do yield you more solace and content\nthan did the paradise that at first you possessed. Your liberty\nalso, as yourselves do very well know, has been greatly widened\nand enlarged by me; whereas I found you a pent-up people. I have\nnot laid any restraint upon you; you have no law, statute, or\njudgment of mine to frighten you; I call none of you to account\nfor your doings, except the madman (you know who I mean). I have\ngranted you to live, each man, like a prince, in his own, even with\nas little control from me as I myself have from you.\n\nAnd thus would Diabolus hush up, and quiet the town of Mansoul,\nwhen the Recorder, that was, did at times molest them; yea, and\nwith such cursed orations as these would set the whole town in a\nrage and fury against the old gentleman; yea, the rascal crew at\nsome times would be for destroying of him. They have often wished,\nin my hearing, that he had lived a thousand miles off from them:\nhis company, his words, yea, the sight of him, and especially\nwhen they remembered how in old times he did use to threaten and\ncondemn them,--for all he was now so debauched--did terrify and\nafflict them sore.[49]\n\nBut all wishes were vain; for I do not know how, unless by the\npower of Shaddai, and his wisdom, he was preserved in being amongst\nthem. Besides, his house was as strong as a castle, and stood hard\nto a stronghold of the town. Moreover, if at any time any of the\ncrew or rabble attempted to make him away, he could pull up the\nsluices, and let in such floods, as would drown all round about\nhim.\n\nBut to leave Mr. Recorder, and to come to my Lord Will-be-will,\nanother of the gentry of the famous town of Mansoul. This Will-be-will\nwas as high-born as any man in Mansoul, and was as much, if not\nmore, a freeholder than many of them were: besides, if I remember\nmy tale aright, he had some privileges peculiar to himself in the\nfamous town of Mansoul. Now, together with these, he was a man\nof great strength, resolution, and courage; nor in his occasion\ncould any turn him away. But I say, whether he was proud of his\nestate, privileges, strength, or what--but sure it was through\npride of something--he scorns now to be a slave in Mansoul; and\ntherefore resolves to bear office under Diabolus, that he might,\nsuch an one as he was, be a petty ruler and governor in Mansoul.[50]\nAnd, headstrong man that he was, thus he began betimes; for this\nman, when Diabolus did make his oration at Ear-gate, was one of\nthe first that was for consenting to his words, and for accepting\nof his counsel at wholesome, and that was for the opening of the\ngate, and for letting him into the town: wherefore Diabolus had\na kindness for him and therefore he designed for him a place; and\nperceiving the valour and stoutness of the man, he coveted to have\nhim for one of his great ones, to act and to do in matters of the\nhighest concern.[51]\n\nSo he sent for him, and talked with him of that secret matter that\nlay in his breast, but there needed not much persuasion in the\ncase; for as at first he was willing that Diabolus should be let\ninto the town, so now he was as willing to serve him there. When\nthe tyrant therefore perceived the willingness of my Lord to serve\nhim, and that his mind stood bending that way, he forthwith made\nhim the captain of the castle, governor of the wall, and keeper\nof the gates of Mansoul; yea, there was a clause in his commission\nthat nothing without him should be done in all the town of Mansoul.\nSo that now, next to Diabolus himself, who but my Lord Will-be-will\nin all the town of Mansoul; nor could anything now be done, but\nat his will and pleasure, throughout the town of Mansoul. He had\nalso one Mr. Mind[52] for his clerk, a man to speak on, every way\nlike his master; for he and his Lord were in principle one, and\nin practice not far asunder (Rom 8:7). And now was Mansoul brought\nunder to purpose, and made to fulfil the lusts of the will and of\nthe mind.\n\nBut it will not out of my thoughts, what a desperate one this\nWill-be-will was, when power was put into his hand. First, he flatly\ndenied that he owed any suit or service to his former prince and\nliege Lord. This done, in the next place he took an oath, and swore\nfidelity to his great master Diabolus, and then, being stated and\nsettled in his places, offices, advancements, and preferments, oh!\nyou cannot think, unless you had seen it, the strange work that\nthis workman made in the town of Mansoul!\n\nFirst, he maligned Mr. Recorder to death; he would neither endure\nto see him, nor to hear the words of his mouth; he would shut his\neyes when he saw him, and stop his ears when he heard him speak:\nalso, he could not endure that so much as a fragment of the law\nof Shaddai should be anywhere seen in the town. For example, his\nclerk, Mr. Mind, had some old, rent, and torn parchments of the\nlaw of good Shaddai in his house,[53] but when Will-be-will saw\nthem, he cast them behind his back (Neh 9:26). True, Mr. Recorder\nhad some of the laws in his study, but my Lord could by no means\ncome at them: he also thought, and said, that the windows of my\nold Lord Mayor's house were always too light for the profit of the\ntown of Mansoul. The light of a candle he could not endure. Now,\nnothing at all pleased Will-be-will but what pleased Diabolus his\nLord.\n\nThere was none like him to trumpet about the streets the brave\nnature, the wise conduct, and great glory of the King Diabolus. He\nwould range and rove throughout all the streets of Mansoul to cry\nup his illustrious Lord, and would make himself even as an abject,\namong the base and rascal crew, to cry up his valiant prince.\nAnd I say, when and wheresoever he found these vassals, he would\neven make himself as one of them. In all ill courses he would act\nwithout bidding, and do mischief without commandment.\n\nThe Lord Will-be-will also had a deputy under him, and his name\nwas Mr. Affection; one that was also greatly debauched in his\nprinciples, and answerable thereto in his life (Rom 1:25). He was\nwholly given to the flesh, and therefore they called him Vile-affection.\nNow there was he, and one Carnal-lust, the daughter of Mr. Mind\n(like to like, quoth the devil to the collier) that fell in love,\nand made a match, and were married; and, as I take it, they had\nseveral children, as Impudent, Blackmouth, and Hate-reproof; these\nthree were black boys. And besides these they had three daughters,\nas Scorn-truth, and Slightgod, and the name of the youngest was\nRevenge; these were all married in the town and also begot and\nyielded many bad brats, too many to be here inserted.[54] But to\npass by this.\n\nWhen the giant had thus engarrisoned himself in the town of Mansoul,\nand had put down and set up whom he thought good; he betakes\nhimself to defacing. Now there was in the market-place in Mansoul,\nand also upon the gates of the castle, an image of the blessed King\nShaddai; this image was so exactly engraven, and it was engraven\nin gold, that it did the most resemble Shaddai himself of anything\nthat then was extant in the world. This he basely commanded to be\ndefaced, and it was as basely done by the hand of Mr. No-truth.\nNow you must know, that as Diabolus had commanded, and that by the\nhand of Mr. No-truth, the image of Shaddai was defaced. He likewise\ngave order that the same Mr. No-truth should set up in its stead\nthe horrid and formidable image of Diabolus; to the great contempt\nof the former King, and debasing of his town of Mansoul.\n\nMoreover, Diabolus made havoc of all remains of the laws and\nstatutes of Shaddai that could be found in the town of Mansoul; to\nwit, such as contained either the doctrines of morals, with all\ncivil and natural documents. Also relative severities he sought\nto extinguish.[55] To be short, there was nothing of the remains\nof good in Mansoul which he and Will-be-will sought not to destroy;\nfor their design was to turn Mansoul into a brute, and to make it\nlike to the sensual sow, by the hand of Mr. No-truth.[56]\n\nWhen he had destroyed what law and good orders he could, then,\nfurther to effect his design--namely, to alienate Mansoul from\nShaddai, her king--he commands, and they set up his own vain edicts,\nstatutes, and commandments, in all places of resort or concourse\nin Mansoul; to wit, such as gave liberty to the lusts of the flesh,\nthe lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, which are not of\nShaddai, but of the world (1 John 2:16). He encouraged, countenanced,\nand promoted lasciviousness, and all ungodliness there. Yea, much\nmore did Diabolus to encourage wickedness in the town of Mansoul;\nhe promised them peace, content, joy, and bliss in doing his\ncommands, and that they should never be called to an account for\ntheir not doing the contrary. And let this serve to give a taste\nto them that love to hear tell of what is done beyond their\nknowledge, afar off in other countries.[57]\n\nNow Mansoul being wholly at his beck, and brought wholly to his\nbow, nothing was heard or seen therein but that which tended to\nset up him.\n\nBut now, he having disabled the Lord Mayor and Mr. Recorder from\nbearing of office in Mansoul, and seeing that the town, before\nhe came to it, was the most ancient of corporations in the world;\nand fearing, if he did not maintain greatness, that they at any\ntime should object that he had done them an injury, therefore, I\nsay, that they might see that he did not intend to lessen their\ngrandeur, or to take from them any of their advantageous things,\nhe did choose for them a Lord Mayor and a Recorder himself; and\nsuch as contented them at the heart, and such also as pleased him\nwondrous well.\n\nThe name of the Mayor that was of Diabolus' making was the Lord\nLustings; a man that had neither eyes nor ears; all that he did,\nwhether as a man or as an officer, he did it naturally, as doth the\nbeast.[58] And that which made him yet the more ignoble, though\nnot to Mansoul, yet to them that beheld and were grieved for its\nruins, was, that he never could savour good, but evil.\n\nThe Recorder was one whose name was Forget-good; and a very sorry\nfellow he was. He could remember nothing but mischief, and to\ndo it with delight. He was naturally prone to do things that were\nhurtful; even hurtful to the town of Mansoul, and to all the\ndwellers there. These two, therefore, by their power and practice,\nexample and smiles upon evil, did much more grammar,[59] and settle\nthe common people in hurtful ways. For who doth not perceive, but\nwhen those that sit aloft are vile, and corrupt themselves, they\ncorrupt the whole region and country where they are?[60]\n\nBesides these, Diabolus made several burgesses and aldermen in\nMansoul; such as out of whom the town, when it needed, might choose\nthem officers, governors, and magistrates. And these are the names\nof the chief of them, Mr. Incredulity, Mr. Haughty, Mr. Swearing,\nMr. Whoring, Mr. Hard-heart, Mr. Pitiless, Mr. Fury, Mr. No-truth,\nMr. Stand-to-lies, Mr. False-peace, Mr. Drunkenness, Mr. Cheating,\nMr. Atheism--thirteen in all. Mr. Incredulity is the eldest, and\nMr. Atheism the youngest, of the company.[61]\n\nThere was also an election of common councilmen, and others; as\nbailiffs, sergeants, constables, and others; but all of them like\nto those afore-named, being either fathers, brothers, cousins, or\nnephews to them; whose names, for brevity's sake, I omit to mention.\n\nWhen the giant had thus far proceeded in his work, in the next\nplace he betook him to build some strongholds in the town. And he\nbuilt three that seemed to be impregnable. The first he called the\nHold of Defiance, because it was made to command the whole town,\nand to keep it from the knowledge of its ancient King. The second\nhe called Midnight-hold, because it was built on purpose to keep\nMansoul from the true knowledge of itself. The third was called\nSweet-sin-hold, because by that he fortified Mansoul against all\ndesires of good. The first of these holds stood close by Eye-gate,\nthat as much might be light might be darkened there. The second was\nbuilt hard by the old castle, to the end that that might be made\nmore blind, if possible. And the third stood in the market-place.[62]\n\nHe that Diabolus made governor over the first of these, was one\nSpite-god, a most blasphemous wretch. He came with the whole rabble\nof them that came against Mansoul at first, and was himself one\nof themselves. He that was made the governor of Midnight-hold, was\none Love-no-light, he was also of them that came first against\nthe town. And he that was made the governor of the hold called\nSweet-sin-hold, was one whose name was Love-flesh; he was also\na very lewd fellow, but not of that country where the other are\nbound.[63] This fellow could find more sweetness when he stood\nsucking of a lust, than he did in all the paradise of God.\n\nAnd now Diabolus thought himself safe; he had taken Mansoul; he\nhad engarrisoned himself therein; he had put down the old officers,\nand had set up new ones; he had defaced the image of Shaddai, and\nhad set up his own; he had spoiled the old law-books, and had\npromoted his own vain lies; he had made him new magistrates, and\nset up new aldermen; he had built him new holds, and had manned\nthem for himself.[64] And all this he did to make himself secure,\nin case the good Shaddai, or his Son, should come to make an\nincursion upon him.\n\n[CHAPTER III.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--Information of the revolution carried to the court\nof King Shaddai--His great resentment of the rebellion--His\ngracious intention of restoring Mansoul--Some intimations of this\npublished--Care of Diabolus to suppress them--His artifices to\nsecure the town, and prevent its return to Shaddai.]\n\nNow you may well think, that long before this time word, by some\nor other, could not but be carried to the good King Shaddai, how\nhis Mansoul in the continent of Universe was lost; and that the\nrunagate giant Diabolus, once one of his Majesty's servants, had,\nin rebellion against the King, made sure thereof for himself; yea,\ntidings were carried and brought to the King thereof, and that to\na very circumstance.[65]\n\nAt first, how Diabolus came upon Mansoul--they being a simple\npeople, and innocent, with craft, subtlety, lies, and guile. Item,\nThat he had treacherously slain the right noble and valiant captain,\ntheir Captain Resistance, as he stood upon the gate, with the rest of\nthe townsmen. Item, How my brave Lord Innocent fell down dead--with\ngrief, some say, or with being poisoned with the stinking breath\nof one Ill-pause, as say others--at the hearing of his just Lord\nand rightful prince Shaddai so abused by the mouth of so filthy\na Diabolian as that varlet Ill-pause was. The messenger further\ntold, that after this Ill-pause had made a short oration to\nthe townsmen, in behalf of Diabolus, his master, the simple town\nbelieving that what was said was true, with one consent did open\nEar-gate, the chief gate of the corporation, and did let him, with\nhis crew into a possession of the famous town of Mansoul. He further\nshowed how Diabolus had served the Lord Mayor and Mr. Recorder,\nto wit, that he had put them from all place of power and trust.\nItem, He showed also that my Lord Will-be-will was turned a very\nrebel and renegade, and that so was one Mr. Mind, his clerk; and\nthat they two did range and revel it all the town over, and teach\nthe wicked ones their ways. He said, moreover, that this Will-be-will\nwas put into great trust; and, particularly, that Diabolus had\nput into Will-be-will's hand all the strong places in Mansoul; and\nthat Mr. Affection was made my Lord Will-be-will's deputy in his\nmost rebellious affairs. Yea, said the messenger, this monster,\nLord Will-be-will, has openly disavowed his King Shaddai, and hath\nhorribly given his faith and plighted his troth to Diabolus.[66]\n\n'Also,' said the messenger, 'besides all this, the new king, or\nrather rebellious tyrant, over the once famous, but now perishing,\ntown of Mansoul, has set up a Lord Mayor and a Recorder of his\nown. For Mayor, he has set up one Mr. Lustings, and for Recorder,\nMr. Forget-good; two of the vilest of all the town of Mansoul.'\nThis faithful messenger also proceeded, and told what a sort of\nnew burgesses Diabolus had made, also that he had builed several\nstrong forts, towers, and strongholds in Mansoul. He told too,\nthe which I had almost forgot, how Diabolus had put the town of\nMansoul into arms, the better to capacitate them on his behalf\nto make resistance against Shaddai their king, should he come to\nreduce them to their former obedience.\n\nNow this tidings-teller did not deliver his relation of things in\nprivate, but in open court, the King and his Son, high lords, chief\ncaptains, and nobles, being all there present to hear. But by that\nthey had heard the whole of the story, it would have amazed one to\nhave seen, had he been there to behold it, what sorrow and grief,\nand compunction of spirit, there was among all sorts, to think that\nfamous Mansoul was now taken; only the King, and his Son foresaw\nall this long before, yea, and sufficiently provided for the relief\nof Mansoul, though they told not everybody thereof. Yet, because\nthey also would have a share in condoling of the misery of Mansoul,\ntherefore they also did, and that at a rate of the highest degree,\nbewail the losing of Mansoul. The King said plainly, 'That it\ngrieved him at his heart,' and you may be sure that his Son was\nnot a whit behind him (Gen 6:5,6). Thus gave they conviction to\nall about them, that they had love and compassion for the famous\ntown of Mansoul. Well, when the King and his Son were retired into\nthe privy-chamber, there they again consulted about what they had\ndesigned before, to wit, that as Mansoul should in time be suffered\nto be lost, so as certainly it should be recovered again; recovered\nI say, in such a way as that both the King and his Son would get\nthemselves eternal fame and glory thereby. Wherefore after this\nconsult, the Son of Shaddai, a sweet and comely person, and one\nthat had always great affection for those that were in affliction,\nbut one that had mortal enmity in his heart against Diabolus,\nbecause he was designed for it, and because he sought his crown\nand dignity. This Son of Shaddai, I say, having stricken hands[67]\nwith his Father, and promised that he would be his servant to\nrecover his Mansoul again, stood by his resolution, nor would he\nrepent of the same(Isa 49:5; 1 Tim 1:15; Heb 13:14). The purport\nof which agreement was this: to wit, That at a certain time prefixed\nby both, the King's Son should take a journey into the country of\nUniverse; and there, in a way of justice and equity, by making of\namends for the follies of Mansoul, he should lay a foundation of\nher perfect deliverance from Diabolus, and from his tyranny.[68]\n\nMoreover, Emmanuel resolved to make, at a time convenient, a war\nupon the giant Diabolus, even while he was possessed of the town\nof Mansoul; and that he would fairly, by strength of hand, drive\nhim out of his hold, his nest, and take it to himself, to be his\nhabitation.\n\nThis now being resolved upon, order was given to the Lord Chief\nSecretary, to draw up a fair record of what was determined, and to\ncause that it should be published in all the corners of the kingdom\nof Universe. A short breviate[69] of the contents thereof you may,\nif you please, take here as follows:\n\n'Let all men know who are concerned, That the Son of Shaddai, the\ngreat King, is engaged, by covenant to his Father, to bring his\nMansoul to him again; yea, and to put Mansoul too, through the\npower of his matchless love, into a far better, and more happy\ncondition than it was in before it was taken by Diabolus.'[70]\n\nThese papers, therefore, were published in several places, to the\nno little molestation of the tyrant Diabolus, for now, thought\nhe, I shall be molested, and my habitation will be taken from me.\n\nBut when this matter, I mean this purpose of the King and his Son,\ndid at first take air at court, who can tell how the high lords,\nchief captains, and noble princes, that were there, were taken\nwith the business. First, they whispered it one to another, and\nafter that it began to ring out throughout the King's palace; all\nwondering at the glorious design that between the King and his Son\nwas on foot for the miserable town of Mansoul. Yea, the courtiers\ncould scarce do anything, either for the King or kingdom, but they\nwould mix with the doing thereof a noise of the love of the King\nand his Son, that they had for the town of Mansoul.\n\nNor could these lords, high captains, and princes be content\nto keep this news at court, yea, before the records thereof were\nperfected, themselves came down and told it in Universe. At last\nit came to the ears, as I said, of Diabolus, to his no little\ndiscontent. For you must think it would perplex him to hear of such\na design against him; well, but after a few casts in his mind, he\nconcluded upon these four things.\n\nFirst. That this news, this good tidings, if possible, should be\nkept from the ears of the town of Mansoul.[71] For, said he, if\nthey shall once come to the knowledge that Shaddai, their former\nKing, and Emmanuel, his Son, are contriving of good for the town\nof Mansoul; what can be expected by me, but that Mansoul will\nmake a revolt from under my hand and government, and return again\nto him.\n\nNow, to accomplish this his design, he renews his flattery with my\nLord Will-be-will, and also gives him strict charge and command,\nthat he should keep watch by day and by night at all the gates of\nthe town, especially Ear-gate and Eye-gate. For I hear of a design,\nquoth he, a design to make us all traitors, and that Mansoul must\nbe reduced to its first bondage again. I hope they are but flying\nstories, quoth he; however, let no such news by any means be let\ninto Mansoul, lest the people be dejected thereat; I think, my Lord,\nit can be no welcome news to you, I am sure it is none to me. And\nI think that at this time it should be all our wisdom and care\nto nip the head of all such rumours as shall tend to trouble our\npeople. Wherefore, I desire, my Lord, that you will in this matter\ndo as I say, let there be strong guards daily kept at every gate\nof the town. Stop also and examine from whence such come, that\nyou perceive do from far come hither to trade; nor let them by any\nmeans be admitted into Mansoul, unless you shall plainly perceive\nthat they are favourers of our excellent government. I command,\nmoreover, said Diabolus, that there be spies continually walking\nup and down the town of Mansoul, and let them have power to suppress,\nand destroy, any that they shall perceive to be plotting against\nus, or that shall prate of what by Shaddai and Emmanuel is intended.\n\nThis, therefore, was accordingly done; my Lord Will-be-will hearkened\nto his Lord and master, went willingly after the commandment, and,\nwith all the diligence he could, kept any that would from going\nout abroad, or that sought to bring this tidings to Mansoul, from\ncoming into the town.\n\nSecondly. This done, in the next place, Diabolus, that he might\nmake Mansoul as sure as he could, frames and imposes a new oath and\nhorrible covenant upon the townsfolk: to wit, 'That they should\nnever desert him, nor his government, nor yet betray him, nor\nseek to alter his laws; but that they should own, confess, stand\nby, and acknowledge him for their rightful king, in defiance to\nany that do, or hereafter shall, by any pretence, law, or title\nwhatever, lay claim to the town of Mansoul.' Thinking belike that\nShaddai had not power to absolve them from this covenant with\ndeath, and agreement with hell (Isa 28:15). Nor did the silly\nMansoul stick or boggle at all at this most monstrous engagement,\nbut, as if it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale, they\nswallowed it without any chewing. Were they troubled at it? Nay,\nthey rather bragged and boasted of their so brave fidelity to the\ntyrant, their pretended King, swearing that they would never be\nchangelings, nor forsake their old Lord for a new.[72]\n\nThus did Diabolus tie poor Mansoul fast; but jealousy, that never\nthinks itself strong enough, put him, in the next place, upon\nanother exploit, which was yet more, if possible, to debauch this\ntown of Mansoul. Wherefore he caused, by the hand of one Mr. Filth,\nan odious, nasty, lascivious piece of beastliness to be drawn up\nin writing,[73] and to be set upon the castle gates; whereby he\ngranted and gave license to all his true and trusty sons in Mansoul,\nto do whatsoever their lustful appetites prompted them to do, and\nthat no man was to let, hinder, or control them, upon pain of\nincurring the displeasure of their prince.\n\nNow this he did for these reasons:\n\n1. That the town of Mansoul might be yet made weaker and weaker,\nand so more unable, should tiding come that their redemption was\ndesigned, to believe, hope, or consent to the truth thereof. For\nreason says, the bigger the sinner, the less grounds of hopes of\nmercy.[74]\n\n2. The second reason was, If perhaps, Emmanuel, the Son of Shaddai\ntheir king, by seeing the horrible and profane doings of the\ntown of Mansoul, might repent, though entered into a covenant of\nredeeming them, of pursuing that covenant of their redemption;\nfor he knew that Shaddai was holy, and that his Son Emmanuel was\nholy; yea, he knew it by woeful experience; for, for his iniquity\nand sin was Diabolus cast from the highest orbs. Wherefore what\nmore rational than for him to conclude, that thus for sin it might\nfare with Mansoul. But fearing also lest this knot should break,\nhe bethinks himself of another, to wit:\n\n3. To endeavour to possess all hearts in the town of Mansoul that\nShaddai was raising of an army, to come to overthrow and utterly\nto destroy this town of Mansoul, and this he did to forestal any\ntidings that might come to their ears of their deliverance; for,\nthought he, if I first bruit[75] this, the tidings that shall\ncome after, will all be swallowed up of this; for what else will\nMansoul say, when they shall hear that they must be delivered,\nbut that the true meaning is, Shaddai intends to destroy them;\nwherefore, he summons the whole town into the market-place,\nand there, with deceitful tongue, thus he addresses himself unto\nthem:--\n\n'Gentlemen, and my very good friends, You are all, as you know, my\nlegal subjects, and men of the famous town of Mansoul; you know\nhow, from the first day that I have been with you until now, I have\nbehaved myself among you, and what liberty, and great privileges\nyou have enjoyed under my government, I hope to your honour, and\nmine, and also to your content and delight. Now, my famous Mansoul,\na noise of trouble there is abroad, of trouble to the town of\nMansoul, sorry I am thereof for your sakes. For I received but\nnow by the post from my Lord Lucifer--and he useth to have good\nintelligence--that your old King Shaddai is raising of an army to\ncome against you, to destroy you root and branch:[76] and this,\nO Mansoul, is now the cause that at this time I have called you\ntogether; namely, to advise what in this juncture is best to be\ndone; for my part, I am but one, and can with ease shift for myself,\ndid I list to seek my own ease, and to leave my Mansoul in all the\ndanger. But my heart is so firmly united to you, and so unwilling\nam I to leave you, that I am willing to stand and fall with you,\nto the utmost hazard that shall befall me.[77] What say you, O\nmy Mansoul? Will you now desert your old friend, or do you think\nof standing by me?' Then as one man, with one mouth, they cried\nout together, 'Let him die the death that will not.'\n\nThen said Diabolus again, 'It is in vain for us to hope for quarter,\nfor this King knows not how to show it: true, perhaps, he at his\nfirst sitting down before us will talk of, and pretend to, mercy,\nthat thereby, with the more ease, and less trouble, he may again\nmake himself the master of Mansoul. Whatever therefore he shall say,\nbelieve not one syllable or tittle of it, for all such language is\nbut to overcome us, and to make us, while we wallow in our blood,\nthe trophies of his merciless victory. My mind is, therefore, that\nwe resolve, to the last man, to resist him, and not to believe\nhim upon any terms; for in at that door will come our danger.[78]\nBut shall we be flattered out of our lives? I hope you know more\nof the rudiments of politics than to suffer yourselves so pitifully\nto be served.\n\n'But suppose he should, if he get us to yield, save some of our\nlives, or the lives of some of them that are underlings in Mansoul,\nwhat help will that be to you that are the chief of the town;\nespecially of you whom I have set up, and whose greatness has been\nprocured by you through your faithful sticking to me? And suppose\nagain, that he should give quarter to every one of you, be sure he\nwill bring you into that bondage under which you were captivated\nbefore, or a worse; and then what good will your lives do you?\nShall you with him live in pleasure as you do now? No, no, you\nmust be bound by laws that will pinch you, and be made to do that\nwhich at present is hateful to you; I am for you, if you are for\nme, and it is better to die valiantly, than to live like pitiful\nslaves.[79] But I say, the life of a slave will be counted a life\ntoo good for Mansoul now; blood, blood, nothing but blood is in\nevery blast of Shaddai's trumpet against poor Mansoul now.[80]\nPray, be concerned, I hear he is coming up; and stand to your\narms, that now while you have any leisure, I may learn you some\nfeats of war. Armour for you I have, and by me it is; yea, and it\nis sufficient for Mansoul from top to toe; nor can you be hurt by\nwhat his force can do, if you shall keep it well girt and fastened\nabout you. Come therefore to my castle, and welcome, and harness\nyourselves for the war. There is helmet, breastplate, sword, and\nshield, and what not, that will make you fight like men.\n\n1. 'My helmet, otherwise called an head-piece, is hope of doing\nwell at last, what lives soever you live. This is that which they\nhad, who said, that they should have peace though they walked\nin the wickedness of their heart, \"to add drunkenness to thirst\"\n(Deut 29:19). A piece of approved armour this is, and whoever has\nit and can hold it, so long no arrow, dart, sword, or shield can\nhurt him; this therefore, keep on, and thou wilt keep off many a\nblow, my Mansoul.[81]\n\n2. 'My breastplate is a breastplate of iron; I had it forged\nin mine own country, and all my soldiers are armed therewith; in\nplain language it is a hard heart, a heart as hard as iron, and\nas much past feeling as a stone; the which if you get, and keep,\nneither mercy shall win you, nor judgment fright you (Rev 9:9).\nThis, therefore, is a piece of armour most necessary for all to\nput on that hate Shaddai, and that would fight against him under\nmy banner.\n\n3. 'My sword is a tongue that is set on fire of hell (Psa 57:4),\nand that can bend itself to speak evil of Shaddai, his Son, his\nways, and people (Psa 64:3). Use this; it has been tried a thousand\ntimes twice told; whoever hath it, keeps it, and makes that use\nof it as I would have him, can never be conquered by mine enemy\n(James 3:3-5).\n\n4. 'My, shield is unbelief, or calling into question the truth\nof the Word, or all the sayings that speak of the judgment that\nShaddai has appointed for wicked men. Use this shield (Job 15:26).\nMany attempts he has made upon it, and sometimes, it is true, it\nhas been bruised (Psa 76:3). But they that have writ of the wars\nof Emmanuel against my servants, have testified that he could do\nno mighty work there because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5,6). Now,\nto handle this weapon of mine aright, it is not to believe things\nbecause they are true, of what sort or by whomsoever asserted. If\nhe speak of judgment, care not for it; if he speak of mercy, care\nnot for it; if he promise, if he swear that he would do to Mansoul,\nif it turn, no hurt but good, regard not what is said; question\nthe truth of all; for this is to wield the shield of unbelief\naright, and as my servants ought and do; and he that doth otherwise\nloves me not, nor do I count him but an enemy to me.[82]\n\n5. 'Another part or piece,' said Diabolus, 'of mine excellent armour\nis a dumb and prayerless spirit--a spirit that scorns to cry for\nmercy; wherefore be you, my Mansoul, sure that you make use of\nthis.[83] What! cry for quarter, never do that if you would be\nmine; I know you are stout men, and am sure that I have clad you\nwith that which is armour of proof; wherefore, to cry to Shaddai\nfor mercy, let that be far from you. Besides all this, I have a\nmaul, fire-brands, arrows and death, all good hand-weapons, and\nsuch as will do execution.'[84]\n\nAfter he had thus furnished his men with armour and arms, he\naddressed himself to them in such like words as these:--'Remember,'\nquoth he, 'that I am your rightful king, and that you have taken\nan oath, and entered into covenant to be true to me and my cause;\nI say, remember this, and show yourselves stout and valiant men\nof Mansoul. Remember also the kindness that I have always showed\nto you, and that without your petitions: I have granted to you\nexternal things, wherefore the privileges, grants, immunities,\nprofits and honours wherewith I endowed you, do call for at your\nhands returns of loyalty, my lion-like men of Mansoul; and when\nso fit a time to show it as when another shall seek to take my\ndominion over you, into their own hands? One word more, and I\nhave done, Can we but stand, and overcome this one shock or brunt,\nI doubt not but in little time all the world will be ours; and when\nthat day comes, my true hearts, I will make you kings, princes,\nand captains, and what brave days shall we have then?'[85]\n\nDiabolus having thus armed, and forearmed his servants and vassals\nin Mansoul, against their good and lawful King Shaddai; in the\nnext place, he doubleth his guards at the gates of the town, and he\ntakes himself to the castle, which was his stronghold. His vassals\nalso, to show their wills, and supposed, but ignoble, gallantry,\nexercise themselves in their arms every day, and teach one another\nfeats of war; they also defied their enemies, and sang up the\npraises of their tyrant; they threatened also what men they would\nbe, if ever things should rise so high as a war between Shaddai\nand their king.[86]\n\n[CHAPTER IV.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--Shaddai sends an army of forty thousand to reduce\nMansoul, under the direction of four captains, Boanerges, Conviction,\nJudgment, and Execution, who address the inhabitants with great\nenergy, but to little purpose--Diabolus, Incredulity, Ill-pause,\nand others, interfere to prevent submission--Prejudice defends\nEar-gate with a guard of sixty deaf men.]\n\nNow all this time, the good King, the King Shaddai was preparing\nto send an army to recover the town of Mansoul again, from under\nthe tyranny of their pretended king Diabolus. But he thought good,\nat first, not to send them by the hand and conduct of brave Emmanuel\nhis Son, but under the hand of some of his servants, to see first,\nby them, the temper of Mansoul; and whether by them they would be\nwon to the obedience of their King. The army consisted of above\nforty thousand, all true men; for they came from the King's own\ncourt, and were those of his own choosing.\n\nThey came up to Mansoul under the conduct of four stout generals,\neach man being a captain of ten thousand men, and these are their\nnames, and their signs. The name of the first was Boanerges; the\nname of the second was Captain Conviction; the name of the third was\nCaptain Judgment; and the name of the fourth was Captain Execution.\nThese were the captains that Shaddai sent to regain Mansoul.[87]\n\nThese four captains, as was said, the King thought fit, in the\nfirst place, to send to Mansoul, to make an attempt upon it; for\nindeed, generally in all his wars he did use to send these four\ncaptains in the van, for they were very stout and rough-hewn men,\nmen that were fit to break the ice, and to make their way by dint\nof sword, and their men were like themselves (Psa 60:4).[88]\n\nTo each of these captains the King gave a banner that it might be\ndisplayed, because of the goodness of his cause, and because of\nthe right that he had to Mansoul.\n\nFirst to Captain Boanerges, for he was the chief; to him, I say,\nwas given ten thousand men. His ensign was Mr. Thunder; he bare\nthe black colours, and his scutcheon was three burning thunderbolts\n(Mark 3:17). The second captain was Captain Conviction; to him was\nalso given ten thousand men. His ensign's name was Mr. Sorrow; he\ndid bear the pale colours, and his scutcheon was the book of the\nlaw wide open, from whence issued a flame of fire (Deut 33:2). The\nthird captain was Captain Judgment; to him was given ten thousand\nmen. His ensign's name was Mr. Terror; he bare the red colours,\nand his scutcheon was a burning fiery furnace (Matt 13:40,41).\nThe fourth captain was Captain Execution; to him was given ten\nthousand men. His ensign was Mr. Justice; he also bare the red\ncolours, and his scutcheon was a fruitless tree, with an axe lying\nat the root thereof (Matt 3:10).\n\nThese four captains, as I said, had every one of them under his\ncommand ten thousand men; all of good fidelity to the King, and\nstout at their military actions.[89]\n\nWell, the captains, and their forces, their men and under officers,\nbeing had upon a day by Shaddai into the field, and there called all\nover by their names, were then and there put into such harness[90]\nas became their degree, and that service that now they were going\nabout for their King.[91]\n\nNow, when the King had mustered his forces--for it is he that\nmustereth the host to the battle--he gave unto the captains their\nseveral commissions, with charge and commandment, in the audience\nof all the soldiers, that they should take heed faithfully and\ncourageously to do and execute the same. Their commissions were,\nfor the substance of them, the same in form; though as to name,\ntitle, place, and degree of the captains, there might be some, but\nvery small variation. And here let me give you an account of the\nmatter and sum contained in their commission.\n\nA commission from the great Shaddai, King of Mansoul, to his trusty\nand noble Captain Boanerges,[92] for his making war upon the town\nof Mansoul.\n\n'O thou Boanerges, one of my stout and thundering captains, over\none ten thousand of my valiant and faithful servants; go thou in\nmy name, with this thy force, to the miserable town of Mansoul;\nand when thou comest thither, offer them first conditions of peace\n(Matt 10:11; Luke 10:5), and command them, that casting off the\nyoke and tyranny of the wicked Diabolus, they return to me, their\nrightful Prince and Lord; command them, also, that they cleanse\nthemselves from all that is his in the town of Mansoul, and look\nto thyself that thou hast good satisfaction touching the truth of\ntheir obedience. Thus when thou hast commanded them, if they in\ntruth submit thereto, then do thou, to the uttermost of thy power,\nwhat in thee lies, to set up for me a garrison in the famous town\nof Mansoul; nor do thou hurt the least native that moveth or\nbreatheth therein, if they will submit themselves to me, but treat\nthou such as if they were thy friend or brother--for all such I\nlove, and they shall be dear unto me--and tell them that I will\ntake a time to come unto them, and to let them know that I am\nmerciful (1 Thess 2:7-10).\n\n'But if they shall--notwithstanding thy summons, and the production\nof thy authority--resist, stand out against thee, and rebel, then\ndo I command thee to make use of all thy cunning, power, might,\nand force, to bring them under by strength of hand. Farewell.'\n\nThus you see the sum of their commissions, for, as I said before,\nfor the substance of them they were the same that the rest of the\nnoble captains had.\n\nWherefore they having received each commander his authority, at\nthe hand of their King, the day being appointed, and the place of\ntheir rendezvous prefixed, each commander appeared in such gallantry\nas became his cause and calling. So, after a new entertainment from\nShaddai, with flying colours, they set forward to march towards\nthe famous town of Mansoul. Captain Boanerges led the van; Captain\nConviction and Captain Judgment made up the main body, and Captain\nExecution brought up the rear (Eph 2:13,17). They then having\na great way to go, for the town of Mansoul was far off from the\ncourt of Shaddai, they marched through the regions and countries\nof many people, not hurting or abusing any, but blessing wherever\nthey came. They also lived upon the King's cost in all the way\nthey went.[93]\n\nHaving travelled thus for many days,[94] at last they came within\nsight of Mansoul; the which, when they saw, the captains could for\ntheir hearts do no less than for a while bewail the condition of\nthe town, for they quickly saw how that it was prostrate to the\nwill of Diabolus, and to his ways and designs. Well, to be short,\nthe captains came up before the town, march up to Ear-gate, sit\ndown there, for that was the place of hearing. So, when they had\npitched their tents and entrenched themselves, they addressed\nthemselves to make their assault.\n\nNow the townsfolk at first, beholding so gallant a company, so\nbravely accoutred, and so excellently disciplined, having on their\nglittering armour, and displaying of their flying colours, could\nnot but come out of their houses and gaze. But the cunning fox,\nDiabolus, fearing that the people, after this sight, should on\na sudden summons, open the gates to the captains, came down with\nall haste from the castle, and made them retire into the body of the\ntown, who, when he had them there, made this lying and deceivable\nspeech unto them:--\n\n'Gentlemen,' quoth he, 'although you are my trusty and well-beloved\nfriends, yet I cannot but a little chide you for your late uncircumspect\naction, in going out to gaze on that great and mighty force that\nbut yesterday sat down before, and have now entrenched themselves,\nin order to the maintaining of a siege against, the famous town\nof Mansoul. Do you know who they are, whence they come, and what\nis their purpose in setting down before the town of Mansoul? They\nare they of whom I have told you long ago, that they would come\nto destroy this town, and against whom I have been at the cost to\narm you with cap-a-pie[95] for your body, besides great fortifications\nfor your mind. Wherefore, then, did you not rather, even at the\nfirst appearance of them, cry out, fire the beacons, and give the\nwhole town an alarm concerning them, that we might all have been\nin a posture of defence, and been ready to have received them with\nthe highest acts of defiance, then had you showed yourselves men\nto my liking; whereas, by what you have done, you have made me\nhalf-afraid; I say half-afraid, that when they and we shall come\nto push a pike, I shall find you want courage to stand it out any\nlonger. Wherefore have I commanded a watch, and that you should\ndouble your guards at the gates? Wherefore have I endeavoured to\nmake you as hard as iron, and your hearts as a piece of the nether\nmillstone? Was it, think you, that you might show yourselves\nwomen, and that you might go out like a company of innocents to\ngaze on your mortal foes? Fie, fie, put yourselves into a posture\nof defence, beat up the drum, gather together in warlike manner,\nthat our foes may know that, before they shall conquer this\ncorporation there are valiant men in the town of Mansoul.\n\n'I will leave off now to chide,[96] and will not further rebuke\nyou; but I charge you that henceforwards you let me see no more\nsuch actions. Let not henceforward a man of you, without order\nfirst obtained from me, so much as show his head over the wall of\nthe town of Mansoul. You have now heard me, do as I have commanded,\nand you shall cause me that I dwell securely with you, and that\nI take care as for myself, so for your safety and honour also.\nFarewell.'\n\nNow were the townsmen strangely altered; they were as men stricken\nwith a panic fear; they ran to and fro through the streets of the\ntown of Mansoul, crying out, 'Help, help! the men that turn the\nworld upside down are come hither also;' nor could any of them be\nquiet after, but still, as men bereft of wit, they cried out, 'The\ndestroyers of our peace and people are come.' This went down with\nDiabolus. 'Aye!' quoth he to himself, 'this I like well, now it\nis as I would have it; now you show your obedience to your prince,\nhold you but here, and then let them take the town if they can.'\n\nWell, before the King's forces had sat before Mansoul three days,\nCaptain Boanerges commanded his trumpeter to go down to Ear-gate,\nand there, in the name of the great Shaddai, to summon Mansoul to\ngive audience to the message that he, in his Master's name, was\nto them commanded to deliver. So the trumpeter, whose name was\nTake-heed-what-you-hear, went up, as he was commanded, to Ear-gate,\nand there sounded his trumpet for a hearing; but there was none\nthat appeared that gave answer or regard; for so had Diabolus\ncommanded. So the trumpeter returned to his captain, and told him\nwhat he had done, and also how he had sped. Whereat the captain\nwas grieved, but bid the trumpeter go to his tent.\n\nAgain Captain Boanerges sendeth his trumpeter to Ear-gate, to\nsound, as before, for a hearing. But they again kept close, came\nnot out, nor would they give him an answer, so observant were they\nof the command of Diabolus their king.[97]\n\nThen the captains, and other field-officers, called a council of\nwar,[98] to consider what further was to be done for the gaining\nof the town of Mansoul, and, after some close and thorough debate\nupon the contents of their commissions, they concluded yet to give\nto the town, by the hand of the fore-named trumpeter, another\nsummons to hear; but if that shall be refused, said they, and that\nthe town shall stand it out still, then they determined, and bid\nthe trumpeter tell them so, that they would endeavour, by what\nmeans they could, to compel them by force to the obedience of\ntheir King (Luke 14:23).\n\nSo Captain Boanerges commanded his trumpeter to go up to Ear-gate\nagain, and, in the name of the great King Shaddai, to give it a\nvery loud summons, to come down without delay to Ear-gate, there to\ngive audience to the King's most noble captains. So the trumpeter\nwent and did as he was commanded. He went up to Ear-gate and sounded\nhis trumpet, and gave a third summons to Mansoul; he said, moreover,\nthat if this they should still refuse to do, the captains of his\nPrince would with might come down upon them, and endeavour to\nreduce them to their obedience by force (Isa 58:1).\n\nThen stood up my Lord Will-be-will, who was the governor of the\ntown; this Will-be-will was that apostate of whom mention was made\nbefore, and the keeper of the gates of Mansoul. He, therefore,\nwith big and ruffling words, demanded of the trumpeter who he was,\nwhence he came, and what was the cause of his making so hideous\na noise at the gate, and speaking such insufferable words against\nthe town of Mansoul?\n\nThe trumpeter answered, 'I am servant to the most noble captain,\nCaptain Boanerges, general of the forces of the great King Shaddai,\nagainst whom both thyself, with the whole town of Mansoul, have\nrebelled, and lift up the heel; and my master, the captain, hath\na special message to this town, and to thee as a member thereof;\nthe which, if you of Mansoul shall peaceably hear, so;[99] and if\nnot, you must take what follows.'\n\nThen said the Lord Will-be-will, 'I will carry thy words to my\nLord, and will know what he will say.'[100] But the trumpeter soon\nreplied, saying. 'Our message is not to the giant Diabolus, but\nto the miserable town of Mansoul. Nor shall we at all regard what\nanswer by him is made, nor yet by any for him. We are sent to this\ntown to recover it from under his cruel tyranny, and to persuade\nit to submit, as in former times it did, to the most excellent\nKing Shaddai.'\n\nThen said the Lord Will-be-will, 'I will do your errand to the\ntown.' The trumpeter then replied, 'Sir, do not deceive us, lest in\nso doing, you deceive yourselves much more.' He added, moreover,\n'For we are resolved, if in peaceable manner you do not submit\nyourselves, then to make a war upon you, and to bring you under by\nforce. And of the truth of what I now say, this shall be a sign\nunto you: you shall see the black flag, with its hot-burning\nthunder-bolts, set upon the mount to-morrow, as a token of defiance\nagainst your prince, and of our resolutions to reduce you to your\nLord and rightful King.'\n\nSo the said Lord Will-be-will returned from off the wall, and the\ntrumpeter came into the camp. When the trumpeter was come into the\ncamp, the captains and officers of the mighty King Shaddai came\ntogether to know if he had obtained a hearing, and what was the\neffect of his errand. So the trumpeter told, saying, 'When I had\nsounded my trumpet,[101] and had called aloud to the town for a\nhearing, my Lord Will-be-will, the governor of the town, and he\nthat hath charge of the gates, came up, when he heard me sound,\nand looking over the wall, he asked me what I was, whence I came,\nand what was the cause of my making this noise? So I told him my\nerrand, and by whose authority I brought it. Then, said he, I will\ntell it to the governor and to Mansoul; and then I returned to my\nLords.'\n\nThen said the brave Boanerges, 'Let us yet for a while lie still\nin our trenches, and see what these rebels will do.' Now when\nthe time drew nigh that audience by Mansoul must be given to the\nbrave Boanerges and his companions, it was commanded that all the\nmen of war, throughout the whole camp of Shaddai, should as one\nman stand to their arms, and make themselves ready, if the town\nof Mansoul shall hear, to receive it forthwith to mercy, but if\nnot, to force a subjection. So the day being come, the trumpeters\nsounded, and that throughout the whole camp, that the men of war\nmight be in a readiness for that which then should be the work of\nthe day. But when they that were in the town of Mansoul heard the\nsound of the trumpets throughout the camp of Shaddai, and thinking\nno other but that it must be in order to storming the corporation,\nthey at first were put to great consternation of spirit; but after\nthey were a little settled again, they also made what preparation\nthey could for a war, if they did storm, else to secure themselves.\n\nWell, when the utmost time was come, Boanerges was resolved to\nhear their answer; wherefore he sent out his trumpeter again, to\nsummons Mansoul to a hearing of the message that they had brought\nfrom Shaddai. So he went and sounded, and the townsmen came up,\nbut made Ear-gate as sure as they could (Zech 7:11). Now when they\nwere come up to the top of the wall, Captain Boanerges desired to\nsee the Lord Mayor, but my Lord Incredulity was then Lord Mayor,\nfor he came in the room of my Lord Lustings. So Incredulity he\ncame up and showed himself over the wall; but when the Captain\nBoanerges had set his eyes upon him, he cried out aloud, 'This is\nnot he, where is my Lord Understanding, the ancient Lord Mayor of\nthe town of Mansoul? for to him I would deliver my message?'\n\nThen said the giant--for Diabolus was also come down--to the\ncaptain, 'Mr. Captain, you have by your boldness given to Mansoul,\nat least, four summonses to subject herself to your King, by\nwhose authority I know not, nor will I dispute that now; I ask,\ntherefore, what is the reason of all this ado, or what would you\nbe at, if you knew yourselves?'\n\nThen Captain Boanerges, whose was the black colours, and whose\nescutcheon was the three burning thunder-bolts, taking no notice of\nthe giant or of his speech, thus addressed himself to the town of\nMansoul: 'Be it known unto you, O unhappy and rebellious Mansoul,\nthat the most gracious King, the great King Shaddai, my Master,\nhath sent me unto you with commission,' aand so he showed to the\ntown his broad seal, 'to reduce you to his obedience. And he hath\ncommanded me, in case you yield upon my summons, to carry it to\nyou as if you were my friends, or brother; but he also hath bid,\nthat if after summons to submit, you still stand out and rebel,\nwe should endeavour to take you by force.'\n\nThen stood forth Captain Conviction and said--his was the pale\ncolours, and for an escutcheon, he had the book of the law wide open\n[from whence issued a flame of fire]--'Hear, O Mansoul! Thou, O\nMansoul, wast once famous for innocency, but now thou art degenerated\ninto lies and deceit (Rom 3:3,10-23, 16:17,18). Thou hast heard\nwhat my brother the Captain Boanerges hath said; and it is your\nwisdom, and will be your happiness, to stoop to, and accept of,\nconditions of peace and mercy when offered; especially when offered\nby one against whom thou hast rebelled, and one who is of power to\ntear thee in pieces, for so is Shaddai our King; nor, when he is\nangry, can anything stand before him (Psa 1:21,22). If you say you\nhave not sinned, nor acted rebellion against our King, the whole\nof your doings, since the day that you cast off his service--and\nthere was the beginning of your sin--will sufficiently testify\nagainst you. What else means your hearkening to the tyrant, and\nyour receiving him for your king? What means else your rejecting\nof the laws of Shaddai, and your obeying of Diabolus? Yea, what\nmeans this your taking up of arms against, and the shutting of\nyour gates upon us, the faithful servants of your King? Be ruled\nthen, and accept of my brother's invitation, and overstand not\nthe time of mercy, but agree with thine adversary quickly (Luke\n12:58,59). Ah, Mansoul, suffer not thyself to be kept from mercy,\nand to be run into a thousand miseries, by the flattering wiles\nof Diabolus. Perhaps that piece of deceit may attempt to make you\nbelieve that we seek our own profit in this our service;[102] but\nknow, it is obedience to our King, and love to your happiness,\nthat is the cause of this undertaking of ours.\n\n'Again, I say to thee, O Mansoul, consider if it be not amazing\ngrace that Shaddai should so humble himself as he doth. Now he, by\nus reasons with you, in a way of entreaty and sweet persuasions,\nthat you would subject yourselves to him. Has he that need of you,\nthat we are sure you have of him? No, no; but he is merciful, and\nwill not that Mansoul should die, but turn to him and live' (2 Cor\n5:18-21).\n\nThen stood forth Captain Judgment, whose was the red colours, and\nfor an escutcheon he had the burning fiery furnace, and he said,\n'O ye, the inhabitants of the town of Mansoul, that have lived so\nlong in rebellion and acts of treason against the King Shaddai;\nknow that we come not to-day to this place, in this manner, with\nour message of our own minds, or to revenge our own quarrel; it\nis the King, my Master, that hath sent us to reduce you to your\nobedience to him, the which if you refuse in a peaceable way to\nyield, we have commission to compel you thereto. And never think\nof yourselves, nor yet suffer the tyrant Diabolus to persuade you\nto think, that our King, by his power, is not able to bring you\ndown, and to lay you under his feet; for he is the former of all\nthings, and if he touches the mountains, they smoke. Nor will the\ngate of the King's clemency stand always open; for the day that\nshall burn like an oven is before him, yea, it hasteth greatly,\nit slumbereth not (Mal 4:1; 2 Peter 2:3).\n\n'O Mansoul! is it little in thine eyes that our King doth offer\nthee mercy, and that, after so many provocations? Yea, he still\nholdeth out his golden sceptre to thee, and will not yet suffer his\ngate to be shut against thee. Wilt thou provoke him to do it? If\nso, consider of what I say:--To thee it is opened no more for ever\n(Job 36:14). If thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment\nis before him; therefore trust thou in him. Yea, \"because there\nis wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke; then\na great ransom cannot deliver thee\" (v 18). Will he esteem thy\nriches? No; not gold, nor all the forces of strength. \"He hath\nprepared his throne for judgment\" (Psa 9:7). For \"he will come\nwith fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his\nanger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire\" (Isa 66:15).\nTherefore, O Mansoul, take heed, lest after thou hast fulfilled\nthe judgment of the wicked, justice and judgment should take hold\nof thee.'\n\nNow, while the Captain Judgment was making this oration to the town\nof Mansoul, it was observed by some that Diabolus trembled.[103]\nBut he proceeded in his parable, and said, 'O thou woful town of\nMansoul! wilt thou not yet set open thy gate to receive us, the\ndeputies of thy King, and those that would rejoice to see thee\nlive? \"Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the\ndays that he shall deal\" in judgment \"with thee?\" (Eze 22:14). I\nsay, canst thou endure to be forced to drink, as one would drink\nsweet wine, the sea of wrath that our King has prepared for Diabolus\nand his angels? Consider betimes, consider.'\n\nThen stood forth the fourth captain, the noble Captain Execution,\nand said: 'O town of Mansoul! once famous, but now like the\nfruitless bough; once the delight of the high ones, but now a den\nfor Diabolus: hearken also to me, and to the words that I shall\nspeak to thee in the name of the great Shaddai. Behold \"the axe\nis laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which\nbringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the\nfire\" (Matt 3:7-10).\n\n'Thou, O town of Mansoul! hath hitherto been this fruitless tree;\nthou bearest nought but thorns and briars. Thy evil fruit fore-bespeaks\nthee not to be a good tree. Thy \"grapes are grapes of gall, thy\nclusters are bitter\" (Deut 32:32). Thou hast rebelled against thy\nKing, and lo! we, the power and force of Shaddai, are the axe that\nis laid to thy roots. What sayest thou, wilt thou turn? I say again,\ntell me before the first blow is given, wilt thou turn? Our axe\nmust first be laid to thy root, before it be laid at thy root; it\nmust first be laid to thy root in a way of threatening, before it\nis laid at thy root by way of execution; and between these two is\nrequired thy repentance, and this is all the time that thou hast.\nWhat wilt thou do? wilt thou turn, or shall I smite? If I fetch\nmy blow, Mansoul, down you go; for I have commission to lay my axe\nat as well as to thy roots, nor will anything but yielding to our\nKing prevent doing of execution. What art thou fit for, O Mansoul,\nif mercy preventeth not, but to be hewn down, and cast into the\nfire and burned?\n\n'O Mansoul! patience and forbearance do not act for ever; a year\nor two, or three, they may; but if thou provoke by a three years'\nrebellion--and thou hast already done more than this--then what\nfollows but, cut it down? Nay, \"After that thou shalt cut it down\"\n(Luke 13:9). And dost thou think that these are but threatenings,\nor that our King has not power to execute his words? O Mansoul!\nthou wilt find that in the words of our King, when they are by\nsinners made little or light of, there is not only threatening,\nbut burning coals of fire. Thou hast been a cumber-ground[104]\nlong already, and wilt thou continue so still? Thy sin has brought\nthis army to thy walls, and shall it bring it in judgment to do\nexecution into thy town? Thou hast heard what the captains have\nsaid, but as yet thou shuttest thy gates; speak out, Mansoul, wilt\nthou do so still, or wilt thou accept of conditions of peace?'[105]\n\nThese brave speeches of these four noble captains the town\nof Mansoul refused to hear, yet a sound thereof did beat against\nEar-gate, though the force thereof could not break it open. In fine,\nthe town desired a time to prepare their answer to these demands.\nThe captains then told them, 'that if they would throw out to\nthem one Ill-pause, that was in the town, that they might reward\nhim according to his works, then they would give them time to\nconsider; but if they would not cast him to them over the wall\nof Mansoul, then they would give them none; for,' said they, 'we\nknow that so long as Ill-pause draws breath in Mansoul, all good\nconsideration will be confounded, and nothing but mischief will\ncome thereon.'\n\nThen Diabolus, who was there present, being loth to lose his Ill-pause,\nbecause he was his orator, (and yet be sure he had, could the\ncaptains have laid their fingers on him,) was resolved at this\ninstant to give them answer by himself; but then, changing his\nmind, he commanded the then Lord Mayor, the Lord Incredulity, to\ndo it, saying, 'My Lord, do you give these runagates an answer;\nand speak out, that Mansoul may hear, and understand you.'\n\nSo Incredulity, at Diabolus' command, began and said: 'Gentlemen,\nyou have here, as we do behold, to the disturbance of our prince,\nand the molestation of the town of Mansoul, camped against it: but\nfrom whence you come we will not know, and what you are we will\nnot believe. Indeed, you tell us in your terrible speech that you\nhave this authority from Shaddai; but by what right he commands\nyou to do it, of that we shall yet be ignorant. You have also, by\nthe authority aforesaid, summoned this town to desert her Lord;\nand for protection, to yield up herself to the great Shaddai, your\nKing; flatteringly telling her, that if she will do it, he will\npass by, and not charge her with her past offences. Further, you\nhave also, to the terror of the town of Mansoul, threatened, with\ngreat and sore destructions, to punish this corporation, if she\nconsents not to do as your wills would have her.\n\n'Now, captains, from whencesoever you come, and though your designs\nbe never so right, yet know ye, that neither my Lord Diabolus, nor\nI his servant Incredulity, nor yet our brave Mansoul, doth regard\neither your persons, message, or the King that you say hath sent\nyou: his power, his greatness, his vengeance, we fear not; nor\nwill we yield at all to your summons.\n\n'As for the war that you threaten to make upon us, we must therein\ndefend ourselves as well as we can; and know ye, that we are not\nwithout wherewithal to bid defiance to you. And, in short, for\nI will not be tedious,' I tell you that we take you to be some\nvagabond runagate crew, that, having shaken off all obedience\nto your King, have gotten together in tumultuous manner, and are\nranging from place to place to see if, through the flatteries you\nare skilled to make on the one side, and threats wherewith you\nthink to fright on the other, to make some silly town, city, or\ncountry, to desert their place and leave it to you; but Mansoul\nis none of them. To conclude, we dread you not, we fear you not,\nnor will we obey your summons: our gates we will shut upon you,\nour place we will keep you out of; nor will we long thus suffer\nyou to sit down before us. Our people must live in quiet; your\nappearance doth disturb them (Luke 11:21); wherefore arise with\nbag and baggage, and begone, or we will let fly from the walls\nagainst you.'[106]\n\nThis oration, made by old Incredulity, was seconded by desperate\nWill-be-will, in words to this effect: 'Gentlemen, we have heard\nyour demands, and the noise of your threats, and have heard the\nsound of your summons, but we fear not your force; we regard not\nyour threats, but will still abide as you found us. And we command\nyou, that in three days' time you cease to appear in these parts,\nor you shall know what it is once to dare offer to rouse the lion\nDiabolus, when asleep in his town of Mansoul.'\n\nThe Recorder, whose name was Forget-good, he also added as\nfolloweth: 'Gentlemen, my Lords, as you see, have, with mild and\ngentle words, answered your rough and angry speeches; they have,\nmoreover, in my hearing, given you leave quietly to depart as you\ncame. Wherefore, take their kindness, and begone. We might have\ncome out with force upon you, and have caused you to feel the dint\nof our swords; but as we love ease and quiet ourselves, so we love\nnot to hurt or molest others.'[107]\n\nThen did the town of Mansoul shout for joy; as if, by Diabolus and\nhis crew, some great advantage had been gotten of the captains. They\nalso rang the bells, and made merry, and danced upon the walls.\nDiabolus also returned to the castle, and the Lord Mayor and Recorder\nto their place; but the Lord Will-be-will took special care that\nthe gates should be secured with double guards, double bolts,\nand double locks and bars. And that Ear-gate especially might the\nbetter be looked to--for that was the gate in at which the King's\nforces sought most to enter--the Lord Will-be-will made one old\nMr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of\nthe ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty men, called\nDeafmen;[108] men advantageous for that service, forasmuch as they\nmattered no words of the captains, nor of their soldiers.[109]\n\n\n[CHAPTER V.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--The captains resolve to give them battle--The town\nresolutely resists, and the captains retire to winter quarters--Tradition,\nHuman-wisdom, and Man's invention enlist under Boanerges, but\nare taken prisoners, and carried to Diabolus; they are admitted\nsoldiers for him, under Captain Anything--Hostilities are renewed,\nand the town much molested--A famine and mutiny in Mansoul--The\ntown sounds a parley--Propositions made and rejected--Understanding\nand Conscience quarrel with Incredulity--A skirmish ensues, and\nmischief is done on both sides.]\n\nNow, when the captains saw the answer of the great ones, and that\nthey could not get a hearing from the old natives of the town, and\nthat Mansoul was resolved to give the King's army battle, they\nprepared themselves to receive them, and to try it out by the\npower of the arm. And first, they made their force more formidable\nagainst Ear-gate; for they knew that unless they could penetrate\nthat, no good could be done upon the town. This done, they put the\nrest of their men in their places; after which they gave out the\nword, which was, 'YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.'[110] Then they sounded\nthe trumpet; then they in the town made them answer, with shout\nagainst shout, charge against charge, and so the battle began.\nNow they in the town had planted upon the tower over Ear-gate,\ntwo great guns, the one called Highmind, and the other Heady. Unto\nthese two guns they trusted much; they were cast in the castle\nby Diabolus' founder, whose name was Mr. Puff-up; and mischievous\npieces they were.[111] But so vigilant and watchful, when the\ncaptains saw them, were they, that though sometimes their shot\nwould go by their ears with a whiz, yet they did them no harm.\nBy these two guns the towns-folk made no question but greatly to\nannoy the camp of Shaddai, and well enough to secure the gate,\nbut they had not much cause to boast of what execution they did,\nas by what follows will be gathered.\n\nThe famous Mansoul had also some other small pieces in it, of the\nwhich they made use against the camp of Shaddai.\n\nThey from the camp also did as stoutly, and with as much of that as\nmay in truth be called valour, let fly as fast at the town and at\nEar-gate: for they saw that unless they could break open Ear-gate,\nit would be but in vain to batter the wall. Now the King's captains\nhad brought with them several slings, and two or three battering-rams;\nwith their slings, therefore, they battered the houses and people\nof the town, and with their rams they sought to break Ear-gate\nopen.\n\nThe camp and the town had several skirmishes, and brisk encounters,\nwhile the captains, with their engines, made many brave attempts\nto break open, or beat down, the tower that was over Ear-gate,\nand at the said gate to make their entrance. But Mansoul stood it\nout so lustily, through the rage of Diabolus, the valour of the\nLord Will-be-will, and the conduct of old Incredulity, the Mayor,\nand Mr. Forget-good, the Recorder, that the charge and expense of\nthat summer's wars, on the King's side, seemed to be almost quite\nlost, and the advantage to return to Mansoul. But when the captains\nsaw how it was, they made a fair retreat, and entrenched themselves\nin their winter quarters. Now in this war, you must needs think\nthere was much loss on both sides, of which be pleased to accept\nof this brief account following:--[112]\n\nThe King's captains, when they marched from the court to come up\nagainst Mansoul to war, as they came crossing over the country,\nthey happened to light upon three young fellows that had a mind\nto go for soldiers; proper men they were, and men of courage and\nskill, to appearance. Their names were Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human-wisdom,\nand Mr. Man's-invention. So they came up to the captains, and\nproffered their services to Shaddai. The captains then told them\nof their design, and bid them not to be rash in their offers; but\nthe young men told them they had considered the thing before, and\nthat hearing they were upon their march for such a design, came\nhither on purpose to meet them, that they might be listed under\ntheir excellencies. Then Captain Boanerges, for that they were men\nof courage, listed them into his company, and so away they went\nto the war.\n\nNow when the war was begun, in one of the briskest skirmishes, so\nit was, that a company of the Lord Will-be-will's men sallied out\nat the sally-port, or postern of the town, and fell in upon the\nrear of Captain Boanerges' men, where these three fellows happened\nto be, so they took them prisoners, and away they carried them\ninto the town; where they had not lain long in durance, but it\nbegan to be noised about the streets of the town what three notable\nprisoners the Lord Will-be-will's men had taken, and brought in\nprisoners out of the camp of Shaddai. At length tidings thereof\nwere carried to Diabolus to the castle, to wit, what my Lord\nWill-be-will's men had done, and whom they had taken prisoners.\n\nThen Diabolus called for Will-be-will, to know the certainty of\nthis matter. So he asked him, and he told him; then did the giant\nsend for the prisoners, who, when they were come, demanded of them\nwho they were, whence they came, and what they did in the camp of\nShaddai; and they told him. Then he sent them to ward again. Not\nmany days after, he sent for them to him again, and then asked\nthem if they would be willing to serve him against their former\ncaptains. They then told him that they did not so much live by\nreligion, as by the fates of fortune; and that since his lordship\nwas willing to entertain them, they should be willing to serve\nhim. Now while things were thus in hand, there was one Captain\nAnything, a great doer in the town of Mansoul, and to this Captain\nAnything did Diabolus send these men, with a note under his hand\nto receive them into his company; the contents of which letter\nwere thus:--\n\n'Anything, my darling, the three men that are the bearers of this\nletter have a desire to serve me in the war, nor know I better to\nwhose conduct to commit them than to thine; receive them, therefore,\nin my name, as need shall require, make use of them against Shaddai\nand his men. Farewell.' So they came, and he received them; and\nhe made of two of them serjeants, but he made Mr. Man's-invention\nhis armour-bearer. But thus much for this, and now to return to\nthe camp.[113]\n\nThey of the camp did also some execution upon the town, for they\ndid beat down the roof of the Lord Mayor's house, and so laid him\nmore open than he was before. They had almost, with a sling, slain\nmy Lord Will-be-will outright; but he made a shift to recover\nagain. But they made a notable slaughter among the aldermen, for\nwith one only shot they cut off six of them; to wit, Mr. Swearing,\nMr. Whoring, Mr. Fury, Mr. Stand-to-lies, Mr. Drunkenness, and Mr.\nCheating.[114]\n\nThey also dismounted the two guns that stood upon the tower over\nEar-gate, and laid them flat in the dirt.[115] I told you before,\nthat the King's noble captains had drawn off to their winter\nquarters, and had there entrenched themselves and their carriages,\nso as with the best advantage to their King, and the greatest\nannoyance to the enemy, they might give seasonable and warm alarms\nto the town of Mansoul. And this design of them did so hit, that,\nI may say, they did almost what they would to the molestation of\nthe corporation.\n\nFor now could not Mansoul sleep securely as before, nor could\nthey now go to their debaucheries with that quietness as in times\npast. For they had from the camp of Shaddai such frequent, warm,\nand terrifying alarms; yea, alarms upon alarms, first at one gate,\nand then at another, and again at all the gates at once, that\nthey were broken as to former peace. Yea, they had their alarms\nso frequently, and that when the nights[116] were at longest, the\nweather coldest, and so consequently the season most unseasonable;\nthat that winter was to the town of Mansoul a winter by itself.\nSometimes the trumpets would sound, and sometimes the slings\nwould whirl the stones into the town. Sometimes ten thousand of\nthe King's soldiers would be running round the walls of Mansoul\nat midnight, shouting, and lifting up the voice for the battle.\nSometimes, again, some of them in the town would be wounded,\nand their cry and lamentable voice would be heard, to the great\nmolestation of the now languishing town of Mansoul. Yea, so distressed\nwith those that laid siege against them were they, that, I dare\nsay, Diabolus their king had, in these days, his rest much broken.\n\nIn these days, as I was informed, new thoughts, and thoughts that\nbegan to run counter one to another, began to possess the minds\nof the men of the town of Mansoul. Some would say, 'There is no\nliving thus'; others would then reply, 'This will be over shortly.'\nThen would a third stand up and answer, 'Let us turn to the King\nShaddai, and so put an end to these troubles.' And a fourth would\ncome in with a fear, saying, 'I doubt he will not receive us.'[117]\nThe old gentleman too, the Recorder, that was so before Diabolus\ntook Mansoul, he also began to talk aloud; and his words were now\nto the town of Mansoul as if they were great claps of thunder. No\nnoise now so terrible to Mansoul as was his, with the noise of the\nsoldiers, and shoutings of the captains.\n\nAlso, things began to grow scarce in Mansoul; now the things that\nher soul lusted after were departing from her. Upon all her pleasant\nthings there was a blast, and burning instead of beauty. Wrinkles\nnow, and some shows of the shadow of death, were upon the inhabitants\nof Mansoul.[118] And now, O how glad would Mansoul have been to\nhave enjoyed quietness and satisfaction of mind, though joined\nwith the meanest condition in the world![119]\n\nThe captains also, in the deep of this winter, did send, by the\nmouth of Boanerges' trumpeter, a summons to Mansoul to yield up\nherself to the King, the great King Shaddai. They said it once, and\ntwice, and thrice; not knowing but that at some times there might\nbe in Mansoul some willingness to surrender up themselves unto them,\nmight they but have the colour of an invitation to do it under.\nYea, so far as I could gather, the town had been surrendered up to\nthem before now, had it not been for the opposition of old Incredulity,\nand the fickleness of the thoughts of my Lord Will-be-will. Diabolus\nalso began to rave, wherefore Mansoul, as to yielding, was not\nyet all of one mind, therefore, they still lay distressed under\nthese perplexing fears.[120]\n\nI told you but now that they of the King's army had this winter\nsent three times to Mansoul, to submit herself.\n\nFirst. The first time the trumpeter went, he went with words of\npeace, telling of them, 'That the captains, the noble captains of\nShaddai, did pity and bewail the misery of the now perishing town\nof Mansoul; and were troubled to see them so much to stand in the\nway of their own deliverance.' He said, moreover, 'That the captains\nbid him tell them, that if now poor Mansoul would humble herself,\nand turn, her former rebellions and most notorious treasons should,\nby their merciful King, be forgiven them, yea, and forgotten too.'\nAnd having bid them 'beware that they stood not in their own way,\nthat they opposed not themselves, nor made themselves their own\nlosers,' he returned again into the camp.\n\nSecond. The second time the trumpeter went, he did treat them\na little more roughly. For after sound of trumpet, he told them,\n'That their continuing in their rebellion did but chafe and heat\nthe spirit of the captains, and that they were resolved to make a\nconquest of Mansoul, or to lay their bones before the town walls.'\n\nThird. He went again the third time, and dealt with them yet more\nroughly; telling of them, 'That now, since they had been so horribly\nprofane, he did not know--not certainly know--whether the captains\nwere inclining to mercy or judgment; only,' said he, 'they\ncommanded me to give you a summons to open the gates unto them.'\nSo he returned, and went into the camp.\n\nThese three summons, and especially the two last, did so distress\nthe town, that they presently called a consultation; the result of\nwhich was this, that my Lord Will-be-will should go up to Ear-gate,\nand there, with sound of trumpet, call to the captains of the camp\nfor a parley. Well, the Lord Will-be-will sounded upon the wall,\nso the captains came up in their harness,[121] with their ten\nthousands at their feet. The townsmen then told the captains that\nthey had heard and considered their summons, and would come to an\nagreement with them, and with their King Shaddai, upon such certain\nterms, articles, and propositions as, with and by the order of\ntheir prince, they to them were appointed to propound--to wit,\nthey would agree upon these grounds to be one people with them.\n\n1. 'If that those of their own company, as the now Lord Mayor and\ntheir Mr. Forget-good, with their brave Lord Will-be-will, might,\nunder Shaddai, be still the governors of the town, castle, and\ngates of Mansoul. 2. Provided that no man that now serveth under\ntheir great giant Diabolus, be by Shaddai cast out of house, harbour,\nor the freedom that he hath hitherto enjoyed in the famous town of\nMansoul. 3. That it shall be granted them, that they of the town\nof Mansoul shall enjoy certain of their rights and privileges--to\nwit, such as have formerly been granted them; and that they have\nlong lived in the enjoyment of, under the reign of their king\nDiabolus, that now is, and long has been, their only Lord, and\ngreat defender. 4. That no new law, officer, or executioner of\nlaw or office, shall have any power over them, without their own\nchoice and consent.\n\n'These be our propositions or conditions of peace; and upon these\nterms,' said they, 'we will submit to your King.'[122]\n\nBut when the captains had heard this weak and feeble offer of the\ntown of Mansoul, and their high and bold demands, they made to them\nagain, by their noble captain, the Captain Boanerges, this speech\nfollowing:--\n\n'O ye inhabitants of the town of Mansoul, when I heard your trumpet\nsound for a parley with us, I can truly say I was glad; but when\nyou said you were willing to submit yourselves to our King and\nLord, then I was yet more glad. But when, by your silly provisoes\nand foolish cavils, you laid the stumbling-block of your iniquity\nbefore your own faces, then my gladness turned into sorrows, and\nmy hopeful beginnings of your return into languishing, fainting\nfears.\n\n'I count that old Ill-pause, the ancient enemy of Mansoul, did\ndraw up those proposals that now you present us with as terms of\nan agreement, but they deserve not to be admitted to sound in the\near of any man that pretends to have service for Shaddai. We do,\ntherefore, jointly, and that with the highest disdain, refuse and\nreject such things as the greatest of iniquities (2 Tim 2:19).[123]\n\n'But, O Mansoul! If you will give yourselves into our hands, or\nrather into the hands of our King; and will trust him to make such\nterms with, and for you, as shall seem good in his eyes--and I dare\nsay they shall be such as you shall find to be most profitable to\nyou--then we will receive you, and be at peace with you. But if\nyou like not to trust yourselves in the arms of Shaddai our King,\nthen things are but where they were before, and we know also what\nwe have to do.'\n\nThen cried out old Incredulity, the Lord Mayor, and said, 'And\nwho, being out of the hands of their enemies, as ye see we are now,\nwill be so foolish as to put the staff out of their own hands, into\nthe hands of they know not who? I, for my part, will never yield\nto so unlimited a proposition. Do we know the manner and temper\nof their King? It is said by some, that he will be angry with his\nsubjects if but the breadth of an hair they chance to step out of\nthe way; and of others, that he requireth of them much more than\nthey can perform. Wherefore it seems, O Mansoul, to be thy wisdom,\nto take good heed what thou dost in this matter; for if you once\nyield, you give up yourselves to another, and so you are no more\nyour own! Wherefore to give up yourselves to an unlimited power,\nis the greatest folly in the world. For now you indeed may repent;\nbut can never justly complain. But do you indeed know, when you\nare his, which of you he will kill, and which of you he will save\nalive; or whether he will not cut off every one of us, and send\nout of his own country, another new people, and cause them to\ninhabit this town?'[124]\n\nThis speech of the Lord Mayor undid all, and threw flat to the\nground their hopes of an accord. Wherefore the captains returned\nto their trenches, to their tents, and to their men, as they were;\nand the Mayor to the castle, and to his King.\n\nNow Diabolus had waited for his return, for he had heard that they\nhad been at their points. So when he was come into the chamber\nof state, Diabolus saluted him with 'Welcome, my Lord, how went\nmatters betwixt you to-day?' So the Lord Incredulity, with a low\nconge,[125] told him the whole of the matter, saying, Thus and\nthus said the captains of Shaddai, and thus and thus said I. The\nwhich when it was told to Diabolus, he was very glad to hear it,\nand said, 'My Lord Mayor, my faithful Incredulity, I have proved\nthy fidelity above ten times already, but never yet found thee\nfalse. I do promise thee, if we rub over this brunt, to prefer\nthee to a place of honour, a place far better than to be Lord\nMayor of Mansoul. I will make thee my Universal Deputy, and thou\nshalt, next to me, have all nations under thy hand; yea, and thou\nshalt lay bands upon them that they may not resist thee, nor shall\nany of our vassals walk more at liberty, but those that shall be\ncontent to walk in thy fetters.'\n\nNow came the Lord Mayor out from Diabolus, as if he had obtained\na favour indeed; wherefore to his habitation he goes in great\nstate, and thinks to feed himself well enough with hopes, until\nthe time came that his greatness should be enlarged.\n\nBut now, though the Lord Mayor and Diabolus did thus well agree,\nyet this repulse to the brave captains put Mansoul into a mutiny.\nFor while old Incredulity went into the castle to congratulate his\nLord with what had passed, the old Lord Mayor that was so before\nDiabolus came to the town, to wit, my Lord Understanding, and the old\nRecorder, Mr. Conscience, getting intelligence of what had passed\nat Ear-gate, for you must know that they might not be suffered\nto be at that debate, lest they should then have mutinied for the\ncaptains. But, I say, they got intelligence what had passed there,\nand were much concerned therewith, wherefore, they, getting some\nof the town together, began to possess them with the reasonableness\nof the noble captains' demands, and with the bad consequences\nthat would follow upon the speech of old Incredulity, the Lord\nMayor--to wit, how little reverence he showed therein, either to\nthe captains, or to their King; also, how he implicitly charged\nthem with unfaithfulness, and treachery: for what less, quoth\nthey, could be made of his words, when he said he would not yield\nto their proposition, and added, moreover, a supposition that he\nwould destroy us when before he had sent us word that he would\nshow us mercy.[126] The multitude being now possessed with the\nconviction of the evil that old Incredulity had done, began to run\ntogether by companies in all places, and in every corner of the\nstreets of Mansoul; and first they began to mutter, then to talk\nopenly, and after that they run to and fro, and cried as they\nrun, 'O the brave captains of Shaddai! Would we were under the\ngovernment of the captains, and of Shaddai their King.'[127] When\nthe Lord Mayor had intelligence that Mansoul was in an uproar,\ndown he comes to appease the people, and thought to have quashed\ntheir heat with the bigness and the show of his countenance. But\nwhen they saw him, they came running upon him, and had doubtless\ndone him a mischief, had he not betaken himself to house. However,\nthey strongly assaulted the house where he was, to have pulled it\ndown about his ears; but the place was too strong, so they failed\nof that. So he taking some courage addressed himself, out at a\nwindow, to the people in this manner:--\n\n'Gentlemen, what is the reason that there is here such an uproar\nto-day?'\n\nUND. Then answered my Lord Understanding: 'It is even because that\nthou and thy master have carried it not rightly, and as you should,\nto the captains of Shaddai; for in three things you are faulty:--First,\nIn that you would not let Mr. Conscience and myself be at the\nhearing of your discourse. Secondly, In that you propounded such\nterms of peace, to the captains, that by no means could be granted,\nunless they had intended that their Shaddai should have been only\na titular prince, and that Mansoul should still have had power by\nlaw, to have lived in all lewdness and vanity before him, and so\nby consequence Diabolus should still here be king in power, and\nthe other only king in name. Thirdly, For that thou didst thyself,\nafter the captains had showed us upon what conditions they would\nhave received us to mercy, even undo all again with thy unsavoury,\nand unseasonable, and ungodly speech.'\n\nINCRED. When old Incredulity had heard this speech, he cried out,\n'Treason, treason: To your arms, to your arms, O ye, the trusty\nfriends of Diabolus in Mansoul.'[128]\n\nUND. 'Sir, you may put upon my words what meaning you please, but\nI am sure that the captains of such an high Lord as theirs is,\ndeserves a better treatment at your hands.'\n\nINCRED. Then said old Incredulity, 'This is but little better.\nBut, Sir,' quoth he, 'what I spake, I spake for my prince, for his\ngovernment, and the quieting of the people, whom by your unlawful\nactions you have this day set to mutiny against us.'\n\nCONS. Then replied the old Recorder, whose name was Mr. Conscience,\nand said, 'Sir, you ought not thus to retort upon what my Lord\nUnderstanding hath said. It is evident enough that he hath spoken\nthe truth, and that you are an enemy to Mansoul; be convinced,\nthen, of the evil of your saucy and malapert language, and of the\ngrief that you have put the captains to; yea, and of the damages\nthat you have done to Mansoul thereby. Had you accepted of the\nconditions, the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war had now\nceased about the town of Mansoul; but that dreadful sound abides,\nand your want of wisdom in your speech has been the cause of it.'\n\nINCRED. Then said old Incredulity: 'Sir, If I live I will do your\nerrand to Diabolus, and there you shall have an answer to your\nwords. Meanwhile we will seek the good of the town, and not ask\ncounsel of you.'\n\nUND. 'Sir, your prince and you are both foreigners to Mansoul, and\nnot the natives thereof. And who can tell but that when you have\nbrought us into greater straits, when you also shall see that\nyourselves can be safe by no other means than by flight, you may\nleave us and shift for yourselves, or set us on fire, and go away\nin the smoke, or by the light of our burning, and so leave us in\nour ruins.'\n\nINCRED. 'Sir, you forget that you are under a governor, and that\nyou ought to demean yourself like a subject,[129] and know ye,\nwhen my Lord the king shall hear of this day's work, he will give\nyou but little thanks for your labour.'\n\nNow while these gentlemen were thus in their chiding words, down\ncome, from the walls and gates of the town, the Lord Will-be-will,\nMr. Prejudice, old Ill-pause, and several of the new-made aldermen\nand burgesses, and they asked the reason of the hubbub and tumult.\nAnd with that every man began to tell his own tale, so that nothing\ncould be heard distinctly. Then was a silence commanded, and the\nold fox Incredulity began to speak. 'My Lord,' quoth he, 'here\nare a couple of peevish gentlemen, that have, as a fruit of their\nbad dispositions, and, as I fear, through the advice of one Mr.\nDiscontent, tumultuously gathered this company against me this\nday; and also attempted to run the town into acts of rebellion\nagainst our prince.'\n\nThen stood up all the Diabolonians that were present, and affirmed\nthese things to be true.\n\nNow when they that took part with my Lord Understanding, and with\nMr. Conscience, perceived that they were like to come to the worst,\nfor that force and power was on the other side, they came in for\ntheir help and relief. So a great company was on both sides.[130]\nThen they on Incredulity's side would have had the two old gentlemen\npresently away to prison; but they on the other side said they\nshould not. Then they began to cry up parties again; the Diabolonians\ncried up old Incredulity, Forget-good, the new aldermen, and their\ngreat one Diabolus; and the other party, they as fast cried up\nShaddai, the captains, his laws, their mercifulness, and applauded\ntheir conditions and ways. Thus the bickerment went awhile, at\nlast they passed from words to blows, and now there were knocks on\nboth sides. The good old gentleman, Mr. Conscience, was knocked down\ntwice by one of the Diabolonians, whose name was Mr. Benumbing.\nAnd my Lord Understanding had like to have been slain with an\nharquebus, but that he that shot wanted to take his aim aright. Nor\ndid the other side wholly escape, for there was one Mr. Rashhead,\na Diabolonian, that had his brains beaten out by Mr. Mind, the\nLord Will-be-will's servant; and it made me laugh to see how old\nMr. Prejudice was kicked and tumbled about in the dirt. For though\na while since he was made captain of a company of the Diabolonians,\nto the hurt and damage of the town; yet now they had got him under\ntheir feet; and I will assure you he had by some of the Lord\nUnderstanding's party his crown soundly cracked to boot. Mr.\nAnything also, he became a brisk man in the broil, but both sides\nwere against him, because he was true to none. Yet he had for his\nmalapertness one of his legs broken, and he that did it wished\nit had been his neck. Much harm more was done on both sides, but\nthis must not be forgotten, it was now a wonder to see my Lord\nWill-be-will so indifferent as he was; he did not seem to take\none side more than another, only it was perceived that he smiled\nto see how old Prejudice was tumbled up and down in the dirt.\nAlso when Captain Anything came halting up before him, he seemed\nto take but little notice of him.[131]\n\n[CHAPTER VI.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--Lord Understanding and Mr. Conscience imprisoned as\nauthors of the disturbance--A conference of the besieging officers,\nwho agree to petition Shaddai for further assistance--The petition\napproved at court--Emmanuel, the King's son, is appointed to conquer\nthe town--Marches with a great army and surrounds Mansoul, which\nis strongly fortified against him.]\n\nNow when the uproar was over, Diabolus sends for my Lord\nUnderstanding, and Mr. Conscience, and claps them both up in prison,\nas the ring-leaders and managers of this most heavy riotous rout\nin Mansoul. So now the town began to be quiet again, and the\nprisoners were used hardly; yea, he thought to have made them away,\nbut that the present juncture did not serve for that purpose, for\nthat war was in all their gates.[132] But let us return again to\nour story. The captains, when they were gone back from the gate,\nand were come into the camp again, called a council of war, to\nconsult what was further for them to do. Now some said, Let us go\nup presently and fall upon the town, but the greatest part thought\nrather better it would be to give them another summons to yield;\nand the reason why they thought this to be best was, because, that\nso far as could be perceived, the town of Mansoul now was more\ninclinable than heretofore. And if, said they, while some of them\nare in a way of inclination, we should by ruggedness give them\ndistaste, we may set them further from closing with our summons,\nthan we would be willing they should.[133]\n\nWherefore to this advice they agreed, and called a trumpeter, put\nwords into his mouth, set him his time, and bid him God speed.\nWell, many hours were not expired before the trumpeter addressed\nhimself to his journey. Wherefore, coming up to the wall of the\ntown, he steereth his course to Ear-gate, and there sounded, as he\nwas commanded. They, then, that were within came out to see what\nwas the matter, and the trumpeter made them this speech following:--\n\n'O hard-hearted, and deplorable town of Mansoul, how long wilt thou\nlove thy sinful, sinful simplicity, and ye fools delight in your\nscorning? As yet despise you the offers of peace, and deliverance?\nAs yet will ye refuse the golden offers of Shaddai, and trust to\nthe lies and falsehoods of Diabolus? Think you when Shaddai shall\nhave conquered you, that the remembrance of these your carriages\ntowards him, will yield you peace and comfort; or that, by ruffling\nlanguage, you can make him afraid as a grasshopper? Doth he entreat\nyou, for fear of you? Do you think that you are stronger than he?\nLook to the heavens, and behold, and consider the stars, how high\nare they? Can you stop the sun from running his course, and hinder\nthe moon from giving her light? Can you count the number of the\nstars, or stay the bottles of heaven? Can you call for the waters\nof the sea, and cause them to cover the face of the ground? Can\nyou behold every one that he is proud, and abase him, and bind\ntheir faces in secret?[134] Yet these are some of the works of\nour King, in whose name, this day, we come up unto you, that you\nmay be brought under his authority. In his name, therefore, I\nsummon you again, to yield up yourselves to his captains.'\n\nAt this summons the Mansoulians seemed to be at a stand, and knew\nnot what answer to make; wherefore Diabolus forthwith appeared,\nand took upon him to do it himself, and thus he begins, but turns\nhis speech to them of Mansoul:--\n\n'Gentlemen,' quoth he, 'and my faithful subjects, if it is true\nthat this summoner hath said concerning the greatness of their\nKing, by his terror you will always be kept in bondage, and so be\nmade to sneak. Yea, how can you now, though he is at a distance,\nendure to think of such a mighty one? And if not to think of him,\nwhile at a distance, how can you endure to be in his presence? I,\nyour prince, am familiar with you, and you may play with me as you\nwould with a grasshopper. Consider, therefore, what is for your\nprofit, and remember the immunities that I have granted you.\nFarther, if all be true that this man hath said, how comes it to\npass that the subjects of Shaddai are so enslaved in all places\nwhere they come? None in the universe so unhappy as they, none so\ntrampled upon as they.[135] Consider, my Mansoul. Would thou wert\nas loath to leave me as I am loath to leave thee! But consider,\nI say, the ball is yet at thy foot; liberty you have, if you know\nhow to use it; yea, a king you have too, if you can tell how to\nlove and obey him.'\n\nUpon this speech, the town of Mansoul did again harden their\nhearts yet more against the captains of Shaddai. The thoughts of\nhis greatness did quite quash them, and the thoughts of his holiness\nsunk them in despair.[136] Wherefore, after a short consultation,\nthey, of the Diabolonian party they were, sent back this word by\nthe trumpeter, 'That, for their parts, they were resolved to stick\nto their king; but never to yield to Shaddai.' So it was but in\nvain to give them any further summons, for they had rather die\nupon the place than yield. And now things seemed to be gone quite\nback, and Mansoul to be out of reach or call; yet the captains,\nwho knew what their Lord could do, would not yet be beat out of\nheart. They therefore sent them another summons, more sharp and\nsevere than the last; but the oftener they were sent to, to be\nreconciled to Shaddai, the further off they were. 'As they called\nthem, so they went from them': yea, 'though they called them to\nthe Most High' (Hosea 11:2,7).\n\nSo they ceased that way to deal with them any more, and inclined\nto think of another way. The captains, therefore, did gather\nthemselves together, to have free conference among themselves, to\nknow what was yet to be done to gain the town, and to deliver it\nfrom the tyranny of Diabolus. And one said after this manner, and\nanother after that. Then stood up the right noble, the Captain\nConviction, and said, 'My brethren, mine opinion is this:--\n\n'First. That we continually play our slings into the town, and keep\nit in a continual alarm, molesting of them day and night; by thus\ndoing we shall stop the growth of their rampant spirit. For a lion\nmay be tamed by continual molestation.[137]\n\n'Second. This done, I advise that, in the next place, we, with one\nconsent, draw up a petition to our Lord Shaddai; by which, after\nwe have showed our King the condition of Mansoul, and of affairs\nhere, and have begged his pardon for our no better success, we will\nearnestly implore his Majesty's help, and that he will please to\nsend us more force and power; and some gallant and well-spoken\ncommander to head them; that so his Majesty may not lose the benefit\nof these his good beginnings, but may complete his conquest upon\nthe town of Mansoul.'[138]\n\nTo this speech of the noble Captain Conviction, they, as one man,\nconsented; and agreed that a petition should forthwith be drawn up,\nand sent by a fit man, away to Shaddai with speed. The contents of\nthe petition were thus:--\n\n'Most gracious and glorious King, the Lord of the best world, and\nthe builder of the town of Mansoul: We have, dread Sovereign, at\nthy commandment, put our lives in jeopardy, and at thy bidding made\na war upon the famous town of Mansoul. When we went up against\nit, we did, according to our commission, first offer conditions\nof peace unto it. But they, great King, set light by our counsel,\nand would none of our reproof (Matt 22:5; Prov 1:25-30; Zech\n10:11,12). They were for shutting of their gates, and for keeping\nus out of the town. They also mounted their guns, they sallied out\nupon us, and have done us what damage they could; but we pursued\nthem, with alarm upon alarm, requiting of them with such retribution\nas was meet, and have done some execution upon the town. Diabolus,\nIncredulity, and Will-be-will are the great doers against us; now\nwe are in our winter quarters, but so as that we do yet with an\nhigh hand molest and distress the town. Once, as we think, had\nwe had but one substantial friend in the town, such as would but\nhave seconded the sound of our summons as they ought, the people\nmight have yielded themselves. But there were none but enemies there,\nnor any to speak in behalf of our Lord to the town; wherefore,\nthough we have done as we could, yet Mansoul abides in a state\nof rebellion against thee.[139] Now, King of kings, let it please\nthee to pardon the unsuccessfulness of thy servants, who have been\nno more advantageous in so desirable a work as the conquering of\nMansoul is; and send, Lord, as we now desire, more forces to Mansoul,\nthat it may be subdued; and a man to head them, that the town may\nboth love and fear. We do not thus speak because we are willing\nto relinquish the wars--for we are for laying of our bones against\nthe place--but that the town of Mansoul may be won for thy Majesty.\nWe also pray thy Majesty for expedition in this matter, that after\ntheir conquest, we may be at liberty to be sent about other thy\ngracious designs. Amen.'\n\nThe petition thus drawn up was sent away with haste to the King,\nby the hand of that good man, Mr. Love-to-Mansoul.\n\nWhen this petition was come to the palace of the King, who should\nit be delivered to but to the King's Son. So he took it and read\nit, and because the contents of it pleased him well, he mended,\nand also in some things, added to the petition himself. So after\nhe had made such amendments and additions as he thought convenient,\nwith his own hand, he carried it in to the King; to whom when he\nhad with obeisance delivered it, he put on authority, and spake to\nit himself.[140]\n\nNow the King, at the sight of the petition, was glad; but how much\nmore think you, when it was seconded by his Son? It pleased him\nalso to hear that his servants that camped against Mansoul were so\nhearty in the work, and so steadfast in their resolves, and that\nthey had already got some ground upon the famous town of Mansoul.\n\nWherefore the King called to him Emmanuel his Son, who said, Here\nam I, my Father. Then said the King, Thou knowest, as I do myself,\nthe condition of the town of Mansoul, and what we have purposed,\nand what thou hast done to redeem it. Come now, therefore, my Son,\nand prepare thyself for the war, for thou shalt go to my camp at\nMansoul. Thou shalt also there prosper, and prevail, and conquer\nthe town of Mansoul.\n\nThen said the King's Son, Thy law is within my heart. I delight\nto do thy will (Heb 10). This is the day that I have longed for,\nand the work that I have waited for all this while. Grant me,\ntherefore, what force thou shalt in thy wisdom think meet, and I\nwill go, and will deliver from Diabolus, and from his power, thy\nperishing town of Mansoul. My heart has been often pained within\nme for the miserable town of Mansoul; but now it is rejoiced, but\nnow it is glad. And with that he leaped over the mountains for\njoy, saying, I have not, in my heart, thought anything too dear\nfor Mansoul; the day of vengeance is in mine heart for thee,\nmy Mansoul; and glad am I that thou, my Father, hast made me the\nCaptain of their salvation (Heb 2:10). And I will now begin to\nplague all those that have been a plague to my town of Mansoul,\nand will deliver it from their hand.\n\nWhen the King's Son had said thus to his Father, it presently flew\nlike lightning round about at court; yea, it there became the only\ntalk what Emmanuel was to go to do for the famous town of Mansoul.\nBut you cannot think how the courtiers too were taken with this\ndesign of the Prince. Yea, so affected were they with this work,\nand with the justness of the war, that the highest Lord and greatest\npeer of the kingdom did covet to have commissions under Emmanuel,\nto go to help to recover again to Shaddai the miserable town of\nMansoul.[141]\n\nThen was it concluded that some should go and carry tidings to\nthe camp that Emmanuel was to come to recover Mansoul, and that\nhe would bring along with him so mighty, so impregnable a force,\nthat he could not be resisted. But oh, how ready were the high\nones at court to run like lackeys to carry these tidings to the\ncamp that was at Mansoul! Now when the captains perceived that\nthe King would send Emmanuel his Son, and that it also delighted\nthe Son to be sent on this errand by the great Shaddai, his Father,\nthey also, to show how they were pleased at the thoughts of his\ncoming, gave a shout that made the earth rend at the sound thereof.\nYea, the mountains did answer again by echo, and Diabolus himself\ndid totter and shake.\n\nFor you must know, that though the town of Mansoul itself was not\nmuch, if at all, concerned with the project--for, alas for them,\nthey were wofully besotted, for they chiefly regarded their pleasure\nand their lusts--yet Diabolus their governor was; for he had his\nspies continually abroad, who brought him intelligence of all\nthings, and they told him what was doing at court against him, and\nthat Emmanuel would shortly certainly come with a power to invade\nhim. Nor was there any man at court, nor peer of the kingdom, that\nDiabolus so feared as he feared this Prince. For if you remember,\nI showed you before that Diabolus had felt the weight of his hand\nalready. So that, since it was he that was to come, this made him\nthe more afraid. Well, you see how I have told you that the King's\nSon was engaged to come from the court to save Mansoul, and that\nhis Father had made him the Captain of the forces. The time,\ntherefore, of his setting forth being now expired, he addressed\nhimself for his march, and taketh with him, for his power, five\nnoble captains and their forces.[142]\n\nThe first was that famous captain, the noble Captain Credence.\nHis were the red colours, and Mr. Promise bore them, and for a\nscutcheon he had the holy lamb and golden shield. And he had ten\nthousand men at his feet (John 1:29; Eph 6:16).\n\nThe second was that famous captain, the Captain Good-hope. His\nwere the blue colours, his standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation,\nand for a scutcheon he had the three golden anchors.[143] And he\nhad ten thousand men at his feet (Heb 6:19).\n\nThe third captain was that valiant captain, the Captain Charity.\nHis standard-bearer was Mr. Pitiful, his were the green colours,\nand for his scutcheon he had three naked orphans embraced in the\nbosom. And he had ten thousand men at his feet (1 Cor 13).\n\nThe fourth was that gallant commander, the Captain Innocent. His\nstandard-bearer was Mr. Harmless, his were the white colours, and\nfor his scutcheon he had the three golden doves (Heb 10:16).\n\nThe fifth was the truly loyal and well-beloved captain, the Captain\nPatience. His standard-bearer was Mr. Suffer-long, his were the\nblack colours, and for a scutcheon he had three arrows through the\ngolden heart (Heb 6:12).\n\nThese were Emmanuel's captains, these their standard-bearers,\ntheir colours, and their scutcheons,[144] and these the men under\ntheir command. So, as was said, the brave Prince took his march\nto go to the town of Mansoul. Captain Credence led the van, and\nCaptain Patience brought up the rear. So the other three, with\ntheir men, made up the main body; the Prince himself riding in\nhis chariot at the head of them.[145]\n\nBut when they set out for their march, oh how the trumpets sounded,\ntheir armour glittered, and how the colours waved in the wind! The\nPrince's armour was all of gold, and it shone like the sun in the\nfirmament. The captains' armour was of proof, and was in appearance\nlike the glittering stars. There were also some from the court\nthat rode reformades,[146] for the love that they had to the King\nShaddai, and for the happy deliverance of the town of Mansoul.[147]\n\nEmmanuel also, when he had thus set forward to go to recover the\ntown of Mansoul, took with him, at the commandment of his Father,\nforty-four battering-rams, and twelve slings,[148] to whirl stones\nwithal. Every one of these was made of pure gold; and these they\ncarried with them in the heart and body of their army, all along\nas they went to Mansoul.\n\nSo they marched till they came within less than a league of the\ntown. And there they lay till the first four captains came thither,\nto acquaint him with matters. Then they took their journey to go\nto the town of Mansoul, and unto Mansoul they came. But when the\nold soldiers that were in the camp saw that they had new forces\nto join with, they again gave such a shout before the walls of\nthe town of Mansoul, that it put Diabolus into another fright. So\nthey sat down before the town, not now as the other four captains\ndid, to wit, against the gates of Mansoul only; but they environed\nit round on every side, and beset it behind and before; so that\nnow, let Mansoul look which way it will, it saw force and power\nlie in siege against it. Besides, there were mounts cast up against\nit.\n\nThe Mount Gracious was on the one side, and Mount Justice was on\nthe other; further, there were several small banks and advance-ground--as\nPlain-truth Hill, and No-sin Banks--where many of the slings were\nplaced against the town. Upon Mount Gracious were planted four,\nand upon Mount Justice were planted as many; and the rest were\nconveniently placed in several parts round about the town. Five\nof the best battering-rams--that is, of the biggest of them--were\nplaced upon Mount Hearken; a mount cast up hard by Ear-gate, with\nintent to break that open.[149]\n\nNow, when the men of the town saw the multitude of the soldiers\nthat were come up against the place, and the rams and slings, and\nthe mounts on which they were planted, together with the glittering\nof the armour and the waving of their colours, they were forced\nto shift and shift, and again to shift their thoughts, but they\nhardly changed for thoughts more stout, but rather for thoughts\nmore faint. For though before they thought themselves sufficiently\nguarded, yet now they began to think that no man knew what would\nbe their hap or lot.\n\nWhen the good Prince Emmanuel had thus beleaguered Mansoul; in\nthe first place he hangs out the white flag, which he caused to\nbe set up among the golden slings that were planted upon Mount\nGracious. And this he did for two reasons: 1. To give notice to\nMansoul that he could and would yet be gracious if they turned\nto him. 2. And that he might leave them the more without excuse,\nshould he destroy them, they continuing in their rebellion.\n\nSo the white flag, with the three golden doves on it, was hanged\nout for two days together, to give them time and space to consider.\nBut they, as was hinted before, as if they were unconcerned, made\nno reply to the favourable signal of the Prince. Then he commanded,\nand they set the red flag upon that mount called Mount Justice.\nIt was the red flag of Captain Judgment, whose scutcheon was the\nburning fiery furnace, and this also stood waving before them in\nthe wind for several days together. But look how they carried it\nunder the white flag when that was hanged out, so did they also\nwhen the red one was, and yet he took no advantage of them.\n\nThen he commanded again that his servants would hang out the\nblack flag of defiance against them, whose scutcheon was the three\nburning thunder-bolts. But as unconcerned was Mansoul at this as\nat those that went before. But when the Prince saw that neither\nmercy, nor judgment, nor execution of judgment, would or could come\nnear the heart of Mansoul, he was touched with much compunction,\nand said, 'Surely this strange carriage of the town of Mansoul\ndoth rather arise from ignorance of the manner and feats of war,\nthan from a secret defiance of us, and abhorrence of their own\nlives; or, if they know the manner of the war of their own, yet not\nthe rites and ceremonies of the wars in which we are concerned,\nwhen I make wars upon mine enemy Diabolus.'\n\nTherefore, he sent to the town of Mansoul, to let them know what\nhe meant by those signs and ceremonies of the flag, and also to\nknow of them which of the things they would choose, whether grace\nand mercy, or judgment and the execution of judgment. All this\nwhile they kept their gates shut with locks, bolts, and bars, as\nfast as they could; their guards, also, were doubled, and their\nwatch made as strong as they could. Diabolus also did pluck up\nwhat heart he could to encourage the town to make resistance.\n\nThe townsmen also made answer to the Prince's messenger, in\nsubstance, according to that which follows:--\n\n'Great Sir, as to what by your messenger you have signified to us,\nwhether we will accept of your mercy or fall by your justice, we\nare bound by the law and custom of this place, and can give you no\npositive answer. For it is against the law, government, and the\nprerogative royal of our king, to make either peace or war without\nhim. But this we will do, we will petition that our prince will\ncome down to the wall, and there give you such treatment as he\nshall think fit, and profitable for us.'\n\nWhen the good Prince Emmanuel heard this answer, and saw the\nslavery and bondage of the people, and how much content they were\nto abide in the chains of the tyrant Diabolus, it grieved him at\nthe heart. And, indeed, when at any time he perceived that any\nwere contented under the slavery of the giant, he would be affected\nwith it.\n\nBut to return again to our purpose. After the town had carried this\nnews to Diabolus, and had told him, moreover, that the Prince that\nlay in the leaguer[150] without the wall, waited upon them for an\nanswer, he refused, and huffed as well as he could, but in heart\nhe was afraid. Then, said he, I will go down to the gates myself,\nand give him such an answer as I think fit. So he went down to\nMouth-gate, and there addressed himself to speak to Emmanuel, but\nin such language as the town understood not, the contents whereof\nwere as follows:--\n\n'O thou great Emmanuel, Lord of all the world, I know thee that\nthou art the Son of the great Shaddai! Wherefore art thou come\nto torment me, and to cast me out of my possession? This town of\nMansoul, as thou very well knowest, is mine, and that by twofold\nright. 1. It is mine by right of conquest, I won it in the open\nfield. And shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful\ncaptive be delivered? 2. This town of Mansoul is mine also by\ntheir subjection. They have opened the gates of their town unto\nme, they have sworn fidelity to me, and have openly chosen me to\nbe their king. They have also given their castle into my hands;\nyea, they have put the whole strength of Mansoul under me.\n\nMoreover, this town of Mansoul hath disavowed thee; yea, they have\ncast thy law, thy name, thy image, and all that is thine, behind\ntheir back, and have accepted, and set up in their room, my law,\nmy name, mine image, and all that ever is mine. Ask else thy\ncaptains, and they will tell thee that Mansoul hath, in answer to\nall their summons, shown love and loyalty to me; but always disdain,\ndespite, contempt, and scorn to thee and thine. Now thou art the\nJust One and the Holy, and shouldest do no iniquity; depart then, I\npray thee, therefore, from me, and leave me to my just inheritance,\npeaceably.'\n\nThis oration was made in the language of Diabolus himself. For\nalthough he can, to every man, speak in their own language--else he\ncould not tempt them all as he does--yet he has a language proper\nto himself, and it is the language of the infernal cave, or black\npit.\n\nWherefore the town of Mansoul, poor hearts, understood him not, nor\ndid they see how he crouched and cringed, while he stood before\nEmmanuel their Prince. Yea, they all this while took him to be\none of that power and force that by no means could be resisted.\nWherefore, while he was thus entreating that he might yet have his\nresidence there, and that Emmanuel would not take it from him by\nforce, the inhabitants boasted even of his valour, saying, 'Who is\nable to make war with him?'\n\nWell, when this pretended king had made an end of what he would\nsay, Emmanuel, the golden Prince, stood up and spake, the contents\nof whose words follow:--\n\n'Thou deceiving one,' said he, 'I have in my Father's name, in\nmine own name, and on the behalf and for the good of this wretched\ntown of Mansoul, somewhat to say unto thee. Thou pretendest\na right, a lawful right, to the deplorable town of Mansoul, when\nit is most apparent to all my Father's court, that the entrance\nwhich thou hast obtained in at the gates of Mansoul was through\nthy lies and falsehood. Thou beliedst my Father, thou beliedst\nhis law, and so deceivedst the people of Mansoul. Thou pretendest\nthat the people have accepted thee for their king, their captain,\nand right liege-Lord, but that also was by the exercise of deceit\nand guile. Now, if lying wiliness, sinful craft, and all manner\nof horrible hypocrisy, will go in my Father's court for equity\nand right, in which court thou must be tried, then will I confess\nunto thee that thou hast made a lawful conquest. But alas, what\nthief, what tyrant, what devil is there that may not conquer\nafter this sort? But I can make it appear, O Diabolus, that thou,\nin all thy pretences to a conquest of Mansoul, hast nothing of\ntruth to say. Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou didst put\nthe lie upon my Father, and madest him, to Mansoul, the greatest\ndeluder in the world? And what sayest thou to thy perverting,\nknowingly, the right purport and intent of the law? Was it good\nalso that thou madest a prey of the innocency and simplicity of\nthe now miserable town of Mansoul? Yea, thou didst overcome Mansoul\nby promising to them happiness in their transgressions against my\nFather's law, when thou knewest, and couldest not but know, hadst\nthou consulted nothing but thine own experience, that that was the\nway to undo them. Thou hast also thyself--O thou master of enmity,\nof despite--defaced my Father's image in Mansoul, and set up thy\nown in its place, to the great contempt of my Father, the heightening\nof thy sin, and to the intolerable damage of the perishing town\nof Mansoul. Thou hast, moreover--as if all these were but little\nthings with thee--not only deluded and undone this place, but, by\nthy lies and fradulent carriage hast set them against their own\ndeliverance. How hast thou stirred them up against my Father's\ncaptains, and made them to fight against those that were sent of\nhim to deliver them from their bondage! All these things and very\nmany more thou hast done against thy light, and in contempt of\nmy Father and of his law; yea, and with design to bring under his\ndispleasure for ever the miserable town of Mansoul. I am therefore\ncome to avenge the wrong that thou hast done to my Father, and to\ndeal with thee for the blasphemies wherewith thou hast made poor\nMansoul blaspheme his name. Yea, upon thy head, thou prince of\nthe infernal cave, will I require it.\n\n'As for myself, O Diabolus, I am come against thee by lawful power,\nand to take, by strength of hand, this town of Mansoul out of thy\nburning fingers. For this town of Mansoul is mine, O Diabolus,\nand that by undoubted right, as all shall see that will diligently\nsearch the most ancient and most authentic records, and I will\nplead my title to it, to the confusion of thy face.\n\n'First. For the town of Mansoul, my Father built and did fashion it\nwith his hand. The palace also that is in the midst of that town,\nhe built it for his own delight. This town of Mansoul therefore is\nmy Father's, and that by the best of titles; and he that gainsays\nthe truth of this must lie against his soul.\n\n'Second. O thou master of the lie, this town of Mansoul is mine.\n\n'1. For that I am my Father's heir, his firstborn, and the only\ndelight of his heart. I am therefore come up against thee in mine\nown right, even to recover mine own inheritance out of thine hand\n(Heb 1:2; John 16:15).\n\n'2. But further, as I have a right and title to Mansoul, by being\nmy Father's heir, so I have also by my Father's donation. His it\nwas, and he gave it me (John 17); nor have I at any time offended\nmy Father, that he should take it from me and give it to thee.\nNor have I been forced by playing the bankrupt to sell, or set to\nsale to thee, my beloved town of Mansoul (Isa 1:1). Mansoul is my\ndesire, my delight, and the joy of my heart. But,\n\n'3. Mansoul is mine by right of purchase. I have bought it, O\nDiabolus, I have bought it to myself. Now, since it was my Father's\nand mine, as I was his heir; and since also I have made it mine\nby virtue of a great purchase, it followeth that, by all lawful\nright the town of Mansoul is mine, and that thou art an usurper, a\ntyrant, and traitor, in thy holding possession thereof. Now, the\ncause of my purchasing of it was this: Mansoul had trespassed\nagainst my Father; now my Father had said, that in the day that\nthey broke his law they should die. Now it is more possible for\nheaven and earth to pass away, than for my Father to break his\nword (Matt 5:18). Wherefore, when Mansoul had sinned indeed by\nhearkening to thy lie, I put in and became a surety to my Father,\nbody for body, and soul for soul, that I would make amends for\nMansoul's transgressions; and my Father did accept thereof. So\nwhen the time appointed was come, I gave body for body, soul for\nsoul, life for life, blood for blood, and so redeemed my beloved\nMansoul.\n\n'4. Nor did I do this to the halves; my Father's law and justice\nthat were both concerned in the threatening upon transgression,\nare both now satisfied, and very well content that Mansoul should\nbe delivered.\n\n'5. Nor am I come out this day against thee but by commandment of\nmy Father; it was he that said unto me, Go down and deliver Mansoul.\n\n'Wherefore, be it known unto thee, O thou fountain of deceit, and\nbe it also known to the foolish town of Mansoul, that I am not\ncome against thee this day without my Father.\n\n'And now,' said the golden-headed Prince, 'I have a word to the\ntown of Mansoul'; but so soon as mention was made that he had\na word to speak to the besotted town of Mansoul, the gates were\ndouble-guarded, and all men commanded not to give him audience, so\nhe proceeded, and said, 'O unhappy town of Mansoul, I cannot but\nbe touched with pity and compassion for thee. Thou hast accepted\nof Diabolus for thy king, and art become a nurse and minister of\nDiabolonians against thy Sovereign Lord. Thy gates thou hast opened\nto him, but hast shut them fast against me; thou hast given him\nan hearing, but hast stopped thine ears at my cry; he brought\nto thee thy destruction, and thou didst receive both him and it:\nI am come to thee bringing salvation, but thou regardest me not.\nBesides, thou hast, as with sacrilegious hands, taken thyself\nwith all that was mine in thee, and hast given all to my foe, and\nto the greatest enemy my Father has. You have bowed and subjected\nyourselves to him; you have vowed and sworn yourselves to be his.\nPoor Mansoul! what shall I do unto thee? Shall I save thee? shall\nI destroy thee? What shall I do unto thee? shall I fall upon thee\nand grind thee to powder, or make thee a monument of the richest\ngrace? What shall I do unto thee? Hearken, therefore, thou town of\nMansoul, hearken to my word, and thou shalt live. I am merciful,\nMansoul, and thou shalt find me so; shut me not out of thy gates\n(Cant 5:2).\n\n'O Mansoul, neither is my commission, nor inclination, at all to do\nthee hurt; why fliest thou so fast from thy friend, and stickest\nso close to thine enemy? Indeed, I would have thee, because it\nbecomes thee, to be sorry for thy sin; but do not despair of life,\nthis great force is not to hurt thee, but to deliver thee from\nthy bondage, and to reduce thee to thy obedience (Luke 9:56; John\n12:47).\n\n'My commission, indeed, is to make a war upon Diabolus thy king,\nand upon all Diabolonians with him; for he is the strong man armed\nthat keeps the house, and I will have him out; his spoils I must\ndivide,[151] his armour I must take from him, his hold I must cast\nhim out of, and must make it an habitation for myself. And this,\nO Mansoul, shall Diabolus know, when he shall be made to follow\nme in chains, and when Mansoul shall rejoice to see it so.\n\n'I could, would I now put forth my might, cause that forthwith he\nshould leave you and depart; but I have it in my heart so to deal\nwith him, as that the justice of the war that I shall make upon\nhim may be seen and acknowledged by all. He hath taken Mansoul\nby fraud, and keeps it by violence and deceit; and I will make\nhim bare and naked in the eyes of all observers. All my words are\ntrue, I am mighty to save, and will deliver my Mansoul out of his\nhand.'[152]\n\nThis speech was intended chiefly for Mansoul, but Mansoul would\nnot have the hearing of it. They shut up Ear-gate, they barricaded\nit up, they kept it locked and bolted; they set a guard thereat,\nand commanded that no Mansoulonian should go out to him, nor that\nany from the camp should be admitted into the town; all this they\ndid, so horribly had Diabolus enchanted them to do, and seek to\ndo for him, against their rightful Lord and Prince; wherefore no\nman, nor voice, nor sound of man that belonged to the glorious\nhost, was to come into the town.[153]\n\n[CHAPTER VII.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--Emmanuel prepares to make war upon Mansoul--Diabolus\nsends Mr. Loth-to-stoop with proposals for peace--These proposals\nbeing dishonourable to Emmanuel, are all rejected--Again Diabolus\nproposes to patch up a peace by reformation, offering to become\nEmmanuel's deputy in that business--This proposal also rejected--New\npreparations made for battle--Diabolus, expecting to be obliged to\nabandon the town, does much mischief--Ear-gate, violently assaulted\nby the battering-rams, at length gives way, and is broken to\npieces--Emmanuel's forces enter the town, and take possession of\nthe Recorder's house--Several mischievous Diabolonians are killed.]\n\nSo when Emmanuel saw that Mansoul was thus involved in sin, he\ncalls his army together, since now also his words were despised,\nand gave out a commandment throughout all his host to be ready\nagainst the time appointed. Now, forasmuch as there was no way\nlawfully to take the town of Mansoul, but to get in by the gates,\nand at Ear-gate as the chief, therefore he commanded his captains\nand commanders to bring their rams, their slings, and their men,\nand place them at Eye-gate and Ear-gate, in order to his taking\nthe town.\n\nWhen Emmanuel had put all things in readiness to give Diabolus battle,\nhe sent again to know of the town of Mansoul if in peaceable manner\nthey would yield themselves, or whether they were yet resolved\nto put him to try the utmost extremity. Then they together, with\nDiabolus their king, called a council of war, and resolved upon\ncertain propositions that should be offered to Emmanuel, if he\nwill accept thereof, so they agreed; and then the next was who\nshould be sent on this errand. Now there was in the town of Mansoul\nan old man, a Diabolonian, and his name was Mr. Loth-to-stoop, a\nstiff man in his way, and a great doer for Diabolus; him therefore\nthey sent, and put into his mouth what he should say.[154] So he\nwent, and came to the camp to Emmanuel; and when he was come, a\ntime was appointed to give him audience. So at the time he came,\nand after a Diabolonian ceremony or two, he thus began, and said,\n'Great Sir, that it may be known unto all men how good-natured a\nprince my master is, he hath sent me to tell your Lordship that\nhe is very willing, rather than to go to war, to deliver up into\nyour hands one-half of the town of Mansoul (Titus 1:16). I am therefore\nto know if your Mightiness will accept of this proposition.'[155]\n\nThen said Emmanuel, 'The whole is mine by gift and purchase,\nwherefore I will never lose one-half.'\n\nThen said Mr. Loth-to-stoop, 'Sir, my master hath said, that he\nwill be content that you shall be the nominal and titular Lord of\nall, if he may possess but a part' (Luke 13:25).\n\nThen Emmanuel answered, 'The whole is mine really; not in name\nand word only: wherefore I will be the sole Lord and possessor of\nall, or of none at all of Mansoul.'\n\nThen Mr. Loth-to-stoop said again, 'Sir, behold the condescension\nof my master! He says that he will be content, if he may but have\nassigned to him some place in Mansoul as a place to live privately\nin, and you shall be Lord of all the rest' (Acts 5:1-5).\n\nThen said the golden Prince, 'All that the Father giveth me, shall\ncome to me; and of all that he hath given me I will lose nothing,\nno, not a hoof, nor a hair. I will not therefore, grant him, no,\nnot the least corner of Mansoul to dwell in, I will have all to\nmyself.'\n\nThen Loth-to-stoop said again, 'But, sir, suppose that my Lord\nshould resign the whole town to you, only with this proviso,\nthat he sometimes, when he comes into this country, may, for old\nacquaintance' sake, be entertained as a way-faring man for two\ndays, or ten days or a month, or so; may not this small matter be\ngranted?'\n\nThen said Emmanuel, 'No: he came as a way-faring man to David, nor\ndid he stay long with him, and yet it had like to have cost David\nhis soul (2 Sam 12:1-5). I will not consent that he ever should\nhave any harbour more there.'\n\nThen said Mr. Loth-to-stoop, 'Sir, you seem to be very hard.\nSuppose my master should yield to all that your lordship hath said,\nprovided that his friends and kindred in Mansoul may have liberty\nto trade in the town, and to enjoy their present dwellings; may\nnot that be granted, sir?'\n\nThen said Emmanuel, 'No: that is contrary to my Father's will; for\nall, and all manner of Diabolonians that now are, or that at any\ntime shall be found in Mansoul, shall not only lose their lands and\nliberties, but also their lives' (Rom 6:13; Gal 5:24; Col 3:5).\n\nThen said Mr. Loth-to-stoop again, 'But, sir, may not my master, and\ngreat Lord, by letters, by passengers, by accidental opportunities,\nand the like, maintain, if he shall deliver up all unto thee, some\nkind of old friendship with Mansoul' (John 10:8).\n\nEmmanuel answered, 'No, by no means; forasmuch as any such fellowship,\nfriendship, intimacy, or acquaintance in what way, sort, or mode\nsoever maintained, will tend to the corrupting of Mansoul, the\nalienating of their affections from me, and the endangering of\ntheir peace with my Father.'\n\nMr. Loth-to-stoop yet added further; saying, 'But, great sir,\nsince my master hath many friends, and those that are dear to him\nin Mansoul, may he not, if he shall depart from them, even of his\nbounty and good-nature, bestow upon them, as he sees fit, some\ntokens of his love and kindness, that he had for them, to the end\nthat Mansoul, when he is gone, may look upon such tokens of kindness\nonce received from their old friend, and remember him who was\nonce their King, and the merry times that they sometimes enjoyed\none with another, while he and they lived in peace together.'\n\nThen said Emmanuel, 'No; for if Mansoul come to be mine, I shall\nnot admit of, nor consent that there should be the least scrap,\nshred, or dust of Diabolus left behind, as tokens or gifts bestowed\nupon any in Mansoul, thereby to call to remembrance the horrible\ncommunion that was betwixt them and him' (Rom 6:12-13).\n\n'Well sir,' said Mr. Loth-to-stoop, 'I have one thing more to\npropound, and then I am got to the end of my commission. Suppose\nthat when my master is gone from Mansoul, any that shall yet live\nin the town should have such business of high concerns to do, that\nif they be neglected the party shall be undone; and suppose, sir,\nthat nobody can help in that case so well as my master and Lord;\nmay not now my master be sent for upon so urgent an occasion as\nthis? Or if he may not be admitted into the town, may not he and\nthe person concerned meet in some of the villages near Mansoul, and\nthere lay their heads together, and there consult of matters?'[156]\n(2 Kings 1:3,6,7).\n\nThis was the last of those ensnaring propositions that Mr.\nLoth-to-stoop had to propound to Emmanuel on behalf of his master\nDiabolus; but Emmanuel would not grant it, for he said, 'There can\nbe no case, or thing, or matter, fall out in Mansoul, when thy\nmaster shall be gone, that may not be salved[157] by my Father;\nbesides, it will be a great disparagement to my Father's wisdom and\nskill to admit any from Mansoul to go out to Diabolus for advice,\nwhen they are bid before, in everything, by prayer and supplication,\nto let their requests be made known to my Father (1 Sam 28:15; 2\nKings 1:2-3). Further, this, should it be granted, would be to grant\nthat a door should be set open for Diabolus and the Diabolonians\nin Mansoul, to hatch, and plot, and bring to pass treasonable designs,\nto the grief of my Father and me, and to the utter destruction of\nMansoul.'[158]\n\nWhen Mr. Loth-to-stoop had heard this answer, he took his leave of\nEmmanuel and departed, saying, that he would do word to his master\nconcerning this whole affair. So he departed and came to Diabolus\nto Mansoul, and told him the whole of the matter, and how Emmanuel\nwould not admit, no, not by any means, that he, when he was once\ngone out, should for ever have anything more to do, either in,\nor with any that are of, the town of Mansoul. When Mansoul and\nDiabolus had heard this relation of things, they with one consent\nconcluded to use their best endeavour to keep Emmanuel out of\nMansoul, and sent old Ill-pause, of whom you have heard before,\nto tell the Prince and his captains so. So the old gentleman came\nup to the top of Ear-gate, and called to the camp for a hearing;\nwho, when they gave audience, he said, 'I have in commandment\nfrom my high Lord to bid you tell it to your Prince Emmanuel, that\nMansoul and their King are resolved to stand and fall together,\nand that it is in vain for your Prince to think of ever having\nof Mansoul in his hand, unless he can take it by force.' So some\nwent and told to Emmanuel what old Ill-pause, a Diabolonian in\nMansoul, had said. Then said the Prince, 'I must try the power\nof my sword, for I will not, for all the rebellions and repulses\nthat Mansoul has made against me, raise my siege and depart, but\nwill assuredly take my Mansoul, and deliver it from the hand of\nher enemy' (Eph 6:17). And with that he gave out a commandment\nthat Captain Boanerges, Captain Conviction, Captain Judgment,\nand Captain Execution, should forthwith march up to Ear-gate\nwith trumpets sounding, colours flying, and with shouting for the\nbattle. Also he would that Captain Credence should join himself\nwith them. Emmanuel, moreover, gave order that Captain Good-hope\nand Captain Charity should draw themselves up before Eye-gate.\nHe bid also that the rest of his Captains, and their men, should\nplace themselves for the best of their advantage against the\nenemy, round about the town, and all was done as he had commanded.\nThen he bid that the word should be given forth, and the word\nwas at that time 'EMMANUEL.' Then was an alarm sounded, and the\nbattering-rams were played, and the slings did whirl stones into\nthe town amain, and thus the battle began. Now Diabolus himself did\nmanage the townsmen in the war, and that at every gate; wherefore\ntheir resistance was the more forcible, hellish, and offensive\nto Emmanuel. Thus was the good Prince engaged and entertained by\nDiabolus and Mansoul for several days together. And a sight worth\nseeing it was, to behold how the captains of Shaddai behaved\nthemselves in this war.\n\nAnd first for Captain Boanerges, not to under-value the rest, he\nmade three most fierce assaults, one after another, upon Ear-gate,\nto the shaking of the posts thereof. Captain Conviction, he also\nmade up as fast with Boanerges as possibly he could, and both\ndiscerning that the gate began to yield, they commanded that the\nrams should still be played against it. Now Captain Conviction\ngoing up very near to the gate, was with great force driven back,\nand received three wounds in the mouth. And those that rode\nReformades, they went about to encourage the captains.\n\nFor the valour of the two captains made mention of before, the\nPrince sent for them to his pavilion, and commanded that a while\nthey should rest themselves, and that with somewhat they should\nbe refreshed. Care also was taken for Captain Conviction, that he\nshould be healed of his wounds. The Prince also gave to each of\nthem a chain of gold, and bid them yet be of good courage. Nor did\nCaptain Good-hope nor Captain Charity come behind in this most\ndesperate fight, for they so well did behave themselves at Eye-gate,\nthat they had almost broken it quite open.[159] These also had a\nreward from their Prince, as also had the rest of the captains,\nbecause they did valiantly round about the town.[160]\n\nIn this engagement several of the officers of Diabolus were slain,\nand some of the townsmen wounded. For the officers, there was one\nCaptain Boasting slain. This Boasting thought that nobody could\nhave shaken the posts of Ear-gate, nor have shaken the heart of\nDiabolus. Next to him there was one Captain Secure slain; this\nSecure used to say that the blind and lame in Mansoul were able to\nkeep the gates of the town against Emmanuel's army (2 Sam 5:6).\nThis Captain Secure did Captain Conviction cleave down the head\nwith a two-handed sword, when he received himself three wounds in\nhis mouth. Besides these, there was one Captain Bragman, a very\ndesperate fellow, and he was captain over a band of those that threw\nfire-brands, arrows, and death; he also received, by the hand of\nCaptain Good-hope at Eye-gate, a mortal wound in the breast.\n\nThere was, moreover, one Mr. Feeling, but he was no captain, but\na great stickler to encourage Mansoul to rebellion, he received a\nwound in the eye by the hand of one of Boanerges' soldiers, and\nhad by the captain himself been slain, but that he made a sudden\nretreat.\n\nBut I never saw Will-be-will so daunted in all my life: he was not\nable to do as he was wont; and some say that he also received a\nwound in the leg, and that some of the men in the Prince's army have\ncertainly seen him limp, as he afterwards walked on the wall.[161]\n\nI shall not give you a particular account of the names of the\nsoldiers that were slain in the town, for many were maimed and\nwounded, and slain; for when they saw that the posts of Ear-gate\ndid shake, and Eye-gate was well-nigh broken quite open; and also\nthat their captains were slain, this took away the hearts of many\nof the Diabolonians; they fell also by the force of the shot\nthat were sent by the golden slings into the midst of the town of\nMansoul.[162]\n\nOf the townsmen, there was one Love-no-good, he was a townsman,\nbut a Diabolonian, he also received his mortal wound in Mansoul,\nbut he died not very soon. Mr. Ill-pause also, who was the man that\ncame along with Diabolus when at first he attempted the taking of\nMansoul, he also received a grievous wound in the head, some say\nthat his brain-pan was cracked; this I have taken notice of, that\nhe was never after this able to do that mischief to Mansoul as\nhe had done in times past. Also old Prejudice and Mr. Anything\nfled.[163]\n\nNow when the battle was over, the Prince commanded that yet once\nmore the white flag should be set upon Mount Gracious, in sight\nof the town of Mansoul; to show that yet Emmanuel had grace for\nthe wretched town of Mansoul.\n\nWhen Diabolus saw the white flag hanging out again, and knowing\nthat it was not for him, but Mansoul, he cast in his mind to play\nanother prank, to wit, to see if Emmanuel would raise his siege\nand begone, upon promise of a reformation.[164] So he comes down\nto the gate one evening, a good while after the sun was gone down,\nand calls to speak with Emmanuel, who presently came down to the\ngate, and Diabolus saith unto him:\n\n'Forasmuch as thou makest it appear by thy white flag, that thou\nart wholly given to peace and quiet; I thought meet to acquaint\nthee that we are ready to accept thereof upon terms which thou\nmayest admit.\n\n'I know that thou art given to devotion, and that holiness pleaseth\nthee; yea, that thy great end in making a war upon Mansoul is that\nit may be an holy habitation. Well, draw off thy forces from the\ntown, and I will bend Mansoul to thy bow.\n\n'[Thus] I will lay down all acts of hostility against thee, and\nwill be willing to become thy deputy, and will, as I have formerly\nbeen against thee, now serve thee in the town of Mansoul. And more\nparticularly--1. I will persuade Mansoul to receive thee for their\nLord, and I know that they will do it the sooner when they shall\nunderstand that I am thy deputy. 2. I will show them wherein they\nhave erred, and that transgression stands in the way to life. 3.\nI will show them the holy law unto which they must conform, even\nthat which they have broken. 4. I will press upon them the necessity\nof a reformation according to thy law. 5. And, moreover, that\nnone of these things may fail, I myself, at my own proper cost and\ncharge, will set up and maintain a sufficient ministry, besides\nlectures, in Mansoul.[165] 6. Thou shalt receive, as a token of\nour subjection to thee continually, year by year, what thou shalt\nthink fit to lay and levy upon us, in token of our subjection to\nthee.'[166]\n\nThen said Emmanuel to him, 'O full of deceit, how movable are thy\nways! How often hast thou changed and rechanged, if so be thou\nmightest still keep possession of my Mansoul, though, as has been\nplainly declared before, I am the right heir thereof? Often hast\nthou made thy proposals already, nor is this last a whit better\nthan they. And failing to deceive when thou showedst thyself\nin thy black, thou hast now transformed thyself into an angel of\nlight, and wouldest, to deceive, be now as a minister of righteousness\n(2 Cor 11:14).\n\n'But know thou, O Diabolus, that nothing must be regarded that thou\ncanst propound, for nothing is done by thee but to deceive; thou\nneither hast conscience to God, nor love to the town of Mansoul;\nwhence then should these thy sayings arise, but from sinful craft\nand deceit? He that can of list and will propound what he pleases,\nand that wherewith he may destroy them that believe him, is to\nbe abandoned with all that he shall say. But if righteousness be\nsuch a beauty-spot in thine eyes now, how is it that wickedness\nwas so closely stuck to by thee before. But this is by the by. Thou\ntalkest now of a reformation in Mansoul, and that thou thyself,\nif I will please, will be at the head of that reformation, all the\nwhile knowing that the greatest proficiency that man can make in\nthe law, and the righteousness thereof, will amount to no more\nfor the taking away of the curse from Mansoul than just nothing\nat all; for a law being broken by Mansoul, that had before, upon\na supposition of the breach thereof, a curse pronounced against\nhim for it of God, can never, by his obeying of the law, deliver\nhimself therefrom. To say nothing of what a reformation is like to\nbe set up in Mansoul, when the devil is become corrector of vice.\nThou knowest that all that thou hast now said in this matter is\nnothing but guile and deceit; and is, as it was the first, so is it\nthe last card that thou hast to play. Many there be that do soon\ndiscern thee when thou showest them thy cloven foot; but in thy\nwhite, thy light, and in thy transformation thou art seen but of\na few. But thou shalt not do thus with my Mansoul, O Diabolus,\nfor I do still love my Mansoul.\n\n'Besides, I am not come to put Mansoul upon works to live\nthereby--should I do so, I should be like unto thee--but I am come\nthat by me, and by what I have and shall do for Mansoul, they may\nto my Father be reconciled, though by their sin they have provoked\nhim to anger, and though by the law they cannot obtain mercy.\n\n'Thou talkest of subjecting of this town to good, when none desireth\nit at thy hands. I am sent by my Father to possess it myself, and\nto guide it by the skilfulness of my hands into such a conformity\nto him as shall be pleasing in his sight. I will therefore possess\nit myself, I will dispossess and cast thee out: I will set up mine\nown standard in the midst of them: I will also govern them by new\nlaws, new officers, new motives, and new ways. Yea, I will pull\ndown this town, and build it again, and it shall be as though it had\nnot been, and it shall then be the glory of the whole universe.'[167]\n\nWhen Diabolus heard this, and perceived that he was discovered in\nall his deceits, he was confounded and utterly put to a nonplus--;\nbut having in himself the fountain of iniquity, rage and malice\nagainst both Shaddai and his Son, and the beloved town of Mansoul,\nwhat doth he but strengthen himself what he could, to give fresh\nbattle to the noble Prince Emmanuel? So then, now we must have\nanother fight before the town of Mansoul is taken. Come up then,\nto the mountains you that love to see military actions, and behold\nby both sides how the fatal blow is given: while one seeks to hold,\nand the other seeks to make himself master of the famous town of\nMansoul.\n\nDiabolus, therefore, having withdrawn himself from the wall to his\nforce that was in the heart of the town of Mansoul, Emmanuel also\nreturned to the camp; and both of them, after their divers ways,\nput themselves into a posture fit to bid battle one to another.\n\nDiabolus, as filled with despair of retaining in his hands the\nfamous town of Mansoul, resolved to do what mischief he could, if\nindeed, he could do any, to the army of the Prince, and to the\nfamous town of Mansoul; for, alas! it was not the happiness of the\nsilly town of Mansoul that was designed by Diabolus, but the utter\nruin and overthrow thereof; as now is enough in view. Wherefore\nhe commands his officers that they should then, when they see that\nthey could hold the town no longer, do it what harm and mischief\nthey could; rending and tearing of men, women, and children (Mark\n9:26-27). For, said he, we had better quite demolish the place,\nand leave it like a ruinous heap, than so leave it that it may be\nan habitation for Emmanuel.[168]\n\nEmmanuel again, knowing that the next battle would issue in his\nbeing made master of the place, gave out a royal commandment to\nall his officers, high captains, and men of war, to be sure to\nshow themselves men of war against Diabolus and all Diabolonians;\nbut favourable, merciful, and meek to all the old inhabitants of\nMansoul. Bend, therefore, said the noble Prince, the hottest front\nof the battle against Diabolus and his men.\n\nSo the day being come, the command was given, and the Prince's men\ndid bravely stand to their arms; and did, as before, bend their\nmain force against Ear-gate, and Eye-gate. The word then, 'Mansoul\nis won,' so they made their assault upon the town. Diabolus also,\nas fast as he could with the main of his power, made resistance\nfrom within, and his high lords and chief captains for a time\nfought very cruelly against the Prince's army.\n\nBut after three or four notable charges by the Prince, and his\nnoble captains, Ear-gate was broken open, and the bars and bolts\nwherewith it was used to be fast shut up against the Prince, were\nbroken into a thousand pieces. Then did the Prince's trumpets\nsound, the captains shout, the town shake, and Diabolus retreat to\nhis hold. Well, when the Prince's forces had broken open the gate,\nhimself came up and did set his throne in it; also he set his\nstandard thereby, upon a mount, that before by his men was cast\nup to place the mighty slings thereon.[169] The mount was called\nMount Hear-well; there, therefore, the Prince abode, to wit, hard\nby the going in at the gate. He commanded also that the golden\nslings should yet be played upon the town, especially against the\ncastle, because for shelter thither was Diabolus retreated. Now\nfrom Ear-gate the street was straight, even to the house of Mr.\nRecorder that so was before Diabolus took the town, and hard by\nhis house stood the castle, which Diabolus for a long time had\nmade his irksome den. The captains, therefore, did quickly clear\nthat street by the use of their slings, so that way was made up to\nthe heart of the town. Then did the Prince command that Captain\nBoanerges, Captain Conviction, and Captain Judgment should\nforthwith march up the town to the old gentleman's gate. Then did\nthe captains in the most warlike manner enter into the town of\nMansoul, and marching in with flying colours, they came up to the\nRecorder's house, and that was almost as strong as was the castle.\nBattering-rams they took also with them, to plant against the\ncastle-gates. When they were come to the house of Mr. Conscience,\nthey knocked and demanded entrance. Now, the old gentleman, not\nknowing as yet fully their design, kept his gates shut all the\ntime of this fight. Wherefore Boanerges demanded entrance at his\ngates, and no man making answer, he gave it one stroke with the\nhead of a ram, and this made the old gentleman shake, and his\nhouse to tremble and totter. Then came Mr. Recorder down to the\ngate, and, as he could, with quivering lips, he asked who was\nthere. Boanerges answered, We are the captains and commanders of\nthe great Shaddai, and of the blessed Emmanuel his Son, and we\ndemand possession of your house for the use of our noble Prince.\nAnd with that the battering-ram gave the gate another shake; this\nmade the old gentleman tremble the more, yet durst he not but open\nthe gate. Then the King's forces marched in, namely, the three\nbrave captains mentioned before. Now the Recorder's house was a\nplace of much convenience for Emmanuel, not only because it was\nnear to the castle, and strong, but also because it was large,\nand fronted the castle, the den where now Diabolus was: for he\nwas now afraid to come out of his hold. As for Mr. Recorder, the\ncaptains carried it very reservedly to him; as yet he knew nothing\nof the great designs of Emmanuel; so that he did not know what\njudgment to make, nor what would be the end of such thundering\nbeginnings. It was also presently noised in the town, how the\nRecorder's house was possessed, his rooms taken up, and his palace\nmade the seat of the war; and no sooner was it noised abroad, but\nthey took the alarm as warmly, and gave it out to others of his\nfriends, and you know as a snow-ball loses nothing by rolling, so\nin little time the whole town was possessed that they must expect\nnothing from the Prince but destruction; and the ground of the\nbusiness was this. The Recorder was afraid, the Recorder trembled,\nand the captains carried it strangely to the Recorder, so many came\nto see; but when they with their own eyes did behold the captains\nin the palace, and their battering-rams ever playing at the castle\ngates to beat them down, they were riveted in their fears, and it\nmade them as in amaze. And, as I said, the man of the house would\nincrease all this, for whoever came to him, or discoursed with\nhim, nothing would he talk of, tell them, or hear, but that death\nand destruction now attended Mansoul.[170]\n\n'For,' quoth the old gentleman, 'you are all of you sensible that\nwe all have been traitors to that once despised, but now famously\nvictorious and glorious Prince Emmanuel. For he now, as you see,\ndoth not only lie in close siege about us, but hath forced his\nentrance in at our gates; moreover, Diabolus flees before him, and\nhe hath, as you behold, made of my house a garrison against the\ncastle, where he is. I, for my part, have transgressed greatly, and he\nthat is clean it is well for him. But, I say, I have transgressed\ngreatly in keeping silence when I should have spoken, and in\nperverting of justice when I should have executed the same. True,\nI have suffered something at the hand of Diabolus, for taking part\nwith the laws of King Shaddai; but that, alas! what will that do?\nWill that make compensation for the rebellions and treasons that I\nhave done, and have suffered without gainsaying, to be committed\nin the town of Mansoul? Oh, I tremble to think what will be the\nend of this so dreadful and so ireful a beginning!'\n\nNow, while these brave captains were thus busy in the house of the\nold Recorder, Captain Execution was as busy in other parts of the\ntown, in securing the back streets, and the walls. He also hunted\nthe Lord Will-be-will sorely; he suffered him not to rest in any\ncorner. He pursued him so hard, that he drove his men from him, and\nmade him glad to thrust his head into a hole. Also, this mighty\nwarrior did cut three of the Lord Will-be-will's officers down\nto the ground; one was old Mr. Prejudice, he that had his crown\ncracked in the mutiny; this man was made by Lord Will-be-will keeper\nof Ear-gate, and fell by the hand of Captain Execution. There was\nalso one Mr. Backward-to-all-but-naught, and he also was one of\nLord Will-be-will's officers, and was the captain of the two guns\nthat once were mounted on the top of Ear-gate, he also was cut\ndown to the ground by the hands of Captain Execution. Besides\nthese two there was another, a third, and his name was Captain\nTreacherous, a vile man this was, but one that Will-be-will did\nput a great deal of confidence in; but him also did this Captain\nExecution cut down to the ground with the rest.[171]\n\nHe also made a very great slaughter among my Lord Will-be-will's\nsoldiers, killing many that were stout and sturdy, and wounding of\nmany that for Diabolus were nimble and active. But all these were\nDiabolonians; there was not a man, a native of Mansoul, hurt.[172]\n\nOther feats of war were also likewise performed by other of the\ncaptains, as at Eye-gate,[173] where Captain Good-hope and Captain\nCharity had a charge, was great execution done; for the Captain\nGood-hope, with his own hands, slew one Captain Blindfold, the\nkeeper of that gate; this Blindfold was captain of a thousand\nmen, and they were they that fought with mauls; he also pursued\nhis men, slew many, and wounded more, and made the rest hide their\nheads in corners.\n\nThere was also at that gate Mr. Ill-pause, of whom you have heard\nbefore; he was an old man, and had a beard that reached down to his\ngirdle: the same was he that was orator to Diabolus; he did much\nmischief in the town of Mansoul, and fell by the hand of Captain\nGood-hope.\n\nWhat shall I say, the Diabolonians in these days lay dead in every\ncorner, though too many yet were alive in Mansoul.[174]\n\n[CHAPTER VIII.]\n\n[CONTENTS:--The principal inhabitants hold a conference, and agree\nto petition the Prince for their lives--The castle gates broken\nopen--Emmanuel marches into Mansoul--Diabolus is made prisoner,\nand bound in chains--The inhabitants, greatly distressed, petition\nagain and again--At length a free pardon is obtained, and universal\njoy succeeds.]\n\nNow the old Recorder, and my Lord Understanding, with some others\nof the chief of the town, to wit, such as knew they must stand\nand fall with the famous town of Mansoul, came together upon a\nday, and after consultation had, did jointly agree to draw up a\npetition, and send it to Emmanuel, now while he sat in the gate of\nMansoul. So they drew up their petition to Emmanuel, the contents\nwhereof were this, That they, the old inhabitants of the now\ndeplorable town of Mansoul, confessed their sin, and were sorry\nthat they had offended his princely Majesty, and prayed that he\nwould spare their lives.[175]\n\nUpon this petition he gave no answer at all, and that did trouble\nthem yet so much the more. Now all this while the captains that\nwere in the Recorder's house were playing with the battering-rams\nat the gates of the castle, to beat them down. So after some\ntime, labour, and travail, the gate of the castle that was called\nImpregnable was beaten open, and broken into several splinters;\nand so a way made to go up to the hold in which Diabolus had hid\nhimself.[176] Then was tidings sent down to Ear-gate, for Emmanuel\nstill abode there, to let him know that a way was made in at the\ngates of the castle of Mansoul. But oh! how the trumpets at the\ntidings sounded throughout the Prince's camp, for that now the\nwar was so near an end, and Mansoul itself of being set free.[177]\n\nThen the Prince arose from the place where he was, and took with\nhim such of his men of war as were fittest for that expedition,\nand marched up the street of Mansoul to the old Recorder's house.\n\nNow the Prince himself was clad all in armour of gold, and so he\nmarched up the town with his standard borne before him; but he\nkept his countenance much reserved all the way as he went, so that\nthe people could not tell how to gather to themselves love or hatred\nby his looks. Now as he marched up the street, the townsfolk came\nout at every door to see, and could not but be taken with his\nperson, and the glory thereof, but wondered at the reservedness of\nhis countenance; for as yet he spake more to them by his actions\nand works, than he did by words or smiles. But also poor Mansoul,\nas in such cases all are apt to do, they interpreted the carriages\nof Emmanuel to them, as did Joseph's brethren his to them, even\nall the quite contrary way. For, thought they, if Emmanuel loved\nus, he would show it to us by word or carriage; but none of these\nhe doth, therefore Emmanuel hates us. Now if Emmanuel hates us,\nthen Mansoul shall be slain, then Mansoul shall become a dunghill.\nThey knew that they had transgressed his Father's law, and that\nagainst him they had been in with Diabolus his enemy. They also\nknew that the Prince Emmanuel knew all this; for they were convinced\nthat he was as an Angel of God, to know all things that are done\nin the earth. And this made them think that their condition was\nmiserable, and that the good Prince would make them desolate.\n\nAnd, thought they, what time so fit to do this in as now, when he\nhas the bridle of Mansoul in his hand. And this I took special\nnotice of, that the inhabitants, notwithstanding all this, could not;\nno, they could not, when they see him march through the town, but\ncringe, bow, bend, and were ready to lick the dust of his feet.\nThey also wished a thousand times over, that he would become their\nPrince and Captain, and would become their protection. They would\nalso one to another talk of the comeliness of his person, and how\nmuch for glory and valour he outstripped the great ones of the\nworld. But, poor hearts, as to themselves their thoughts would\nchance, and go upon all manner of extremes; yea, through the working\nof them backward and forward, Mansoul became as a ball tossed, and\nas a rolling thing before the whirlwind[178] (Isa 18:13, 23:18).\n\nNow when he was come to the castle gates, he commanded Diabolus\nto appear, and to surrender himself into his hands. But oh! how\nloath was the beast to appear! How he stuck at it! How he shrunk!\naye, how he cringed! Yet out he came to the Prince. Then Emmanuel\ncommanded, and they took Diabolus and bound him fast in chains,\nthe better to reserve him to the judgment that he had appointed for\nhim. But Diabolus stood up to entreat for himself, that Emmanuel\nwould not send him into the deep, but suffer him to depart out of\nMansoul in peace.\n\nWhen Emmanuel had taken him and bound him in chains, he led him\ninto the marketplace, and there, before Mansoul, stripped him of\nhis armour in which he boasted so much before. This now was one\nof the acts of triumph of Emmanuel over his enemy; and all the\nwhile that the giant was stripping, the trumpets of the golden\nPrince did sound amain; the captains also shouted, and the soldiers\ndid sing for joy. Then was Mansoul called upon to behold the\nbeginning of Emmanuel's triumph over him in whom they so much had\ntrusted, and of whom they so much had boasted in the days when he\nflattered them.\n\nThus having made Diabolus naked in the eyes of Mansoul, and before\nthe commanders of the Prince, in the next place he commands that\nDiabolus should be bound with chains to his chariot wheels. Then\nleaving some of his forces, to wit, Captain Boanerges, and Captain\nConviction, as a guard for the castle-gates, that resistance might\nbe made on his behalf, if any that heretofore followed Diabolus\nshould make an attempt to possess it, he did ride in triumph over\nhim quite through the town of Mansoul, and so out at, and before\nthe gate called Eye-gate, to the plain where his camp did lie (Eph\n4).\n\nBut you cannot think unless you had been there, as I was, what a\nshout there was in Emmanuel's camp when they saw the tyrant bound\nby the hand of their noble Prince, and tied to his chariot wheels!\nAnd they said, He hath led captivity captive; he hath spoiled\nprincipalities and powers; Diabolus is subjected to the power of\nhis sword, and made the object of all derision![179]\n\nThose also that rode Reformades, and that came down to see the\nbattle, they shouted with that greatness of voice, and sung with\nsuch melodious notes, that they caused them that dwell in the\nhighest orbs to open their windows, put out their heads, and look\ndown to see the cause of that glory (Luke 15:7-10).[180]\n\nThe townsmen also, so many of them as saw this sight, were as it\nwere, while they looked, betwixt the earth and the heavens. True,\nthey could not tell what would be the issue of things as to them,\nbut all things were done in such excellent methods; and I cannot\ntell how, but things in the management of them seemed to cast\na smile towards the town, so that their eyes, their heads, their\nhearts, and their minds, and all that they had, were taken and\nheld, while they observed Emmanuel's order.[181]\n\nSo when the brave Prince had finished this part of his triumph over\nDiabolus his foe, he turned him up in the midst of his contempt\nand shame, having given him a charge no more to be a possessor of\nMansoul. Then went he from Emmanuel, and out of the midst of his\ncamp to inherit the parched places in a salt land, seeking rest\nbut finding none (Matt 12:43).\n\nNow Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction were both of them men\nof very great majesty, their faces were like the faces of lions\n(1 Chron 12:8), and their words like the roaring of the sea; (Isa\n5:29-30) and they still quartered in Mr. Conscience's house, of\nwhom mention was made before. When therefore, the high and mighty\nPrince had thus far finished his triumph over Diabolus, the townsmen\nhad more leisure to view and to behold the actions of these noble\ncaptains. But the captains carried it with that terror and dread\nin all that they did, and you may be sure that they had private\ninstructions so to do, that they kept the town under continual\nheart-aching, and caused, in their apprehension, the well-being of\nMansoul for the future, to hang in doubt before them, so that, for\nsome considerable time, they neither knew what rest, or ease, or\npeace, or hope meant.[182]\n\nNor did the Prince himself, as yet, abide in the town of Mansoul,\nbut in his royal pavilion in the camp, and in the midst of his\nFather's forces. So at a time convenient, he sent special orders to\nCaptain Boanerges to summons Mansoul, the whole of the townsmen,\ninto the castle-yard, and then and there, before their faces, to\ntake my Lord Understanding, Mr. Conscience, and that notable one,\nthe Lord Will-be-will, and put them all three in ward, and that\nthey should set a strong guard upon them there, until his pleasure\nconcerning them were further known. The which orders, when the\ncaptains had put them in execution, made no small addition to the\nfears of the town of Mansoul; for now, to their thinking, were\ntheir former fears of the ruin of Mansoul confirmed. Now, what\ndeath they should die, and how long they should be in dying, was\nthat which most perplexed their heads and hearts. Yea, they were\nafraid that Emmanuel would command them all into the deep, the\nplace that the prince Diabolus was afraid of; for they knew that\nthey had deserved it. Also to die by the sword in the face of the\ntown, and in the open way of disgrace, from the hand of so good\nand so holy a prince, that, too, troubled them sore. The town was\nalso greatly troubled for the men that were committed to ward,\nfor that they were their stay and their guide, and for that they\nbelieved that if those men were cut off, their execution would\nbe but the beginning of the ruin of the town of Mansoul.[183]\nWherefore what do they, but together with the men in prison, draw\nup a petition to the Prince, and sent it to Emmanuel by the hand\nof Mr. Would-live. So he went and came to the Prince's quarters,\nand presented the petition; the sum of which was this:--\n\n'Great and wonderful Potentate, victor over Diabolus, and conqueror\nof the town of Mansoul, We, the miserable inhabitants of that\nmost woful corporation, do humbly beg that we may find favour in\nthy sight, and remember not against us former transgressions, nor\nyet the sins of the chief of our town, but spare us according to\nthe greatness of thy mercy, and let us not die, but live in thy\nsight; so shall we be willing to be thy servants, and if thou\nshalt think fit, to gather our meat under thy table.[184] Amen.'\n\nSo the petitioner went as was said with his petition to the Prince,\nand the Prince took it at his hand, but sent him away with silence.\nThis still afflicted the town of Mansoul, but yet considering that\nnow they must either petition, or die--for now they could not do\nanything else--therefore they consulted again, and sent another\npetition, and this petition was much after the form and method of\nthe former.\n\nBut when the petition was drawn up, by whom should they send it\nwas the next question; for they would not send this by him by whom\nthey sent the first, for they thought that the Prince had taken\nsome offence at the manner of his deportment before him; so they\nattempted to make Captain Conviction their messenger with it, but\nhe said that he neither durst, nor would petition Emmanuel for\ntraitors; nor be to the Prince an advocate for rebels. Yet withal,\nsaid he, our Prince is good, and you may adventure to send it by\nthe hand of one of your town, provided he went with a rope about\nhis head, and pleaded nothing but mercy.[185]\n\nWell, they made, through fear, their delays as long as they\ncould, and longer than delays were good; but fearing at last the\ndangerousness of them, they thought, but with many a fainting in\ntheir minds, to send their petition by Mr. Desires-awake; so they\nsent for Mr. Desires-awake. Now he dwelt in a very mean cottage in\nMansoul, and he came at his neighbour's request. So they told him\nwhat they had done, and what they would do concerning petitioning,\nand that they did desire of him that he would go therewith to the\nPrince.\n\nThen said Mr. Desires-awake, why should not I do the best I can to\nsave so famous a town as Mansoul from deserved destruction? They\ntherefore delivered the petition to him, and told him how he must\naddress himself to the Prince, and wished him ten thousand good\nspeeds. So he comes to the Prince's pavilion, as the first, and\nasked to speak with his Majesty; so word was carried to Emmanuel,\nand the Prince came out to the man. When Mr. Desires-awake saw the\nPrince, he fell flat with his face to the ground, and cried out,\noh that Mansoul might live before thee! and with that he presented\nthe petition. The which when the Prince had read, he turned away\nfor a while and wept, but, refraining himself, he turned again\nto the man, who all this while lay crying at his feet as at the\nfirst, and said to him, Go thy way to thy place, and I will consider\nof thy requests.\n\nNow you may think that they of Mansoul that had sent him, what with\nguilt, and what with fear, lest their petition should be rejected,\ncould not but look with many a long look, and that too with strange\nworkings of heart, to see what would become of their petition. At\nlast, they saw their messenger coming back; so when he was come,\nthey asked him how he fared, what Emmanuel said, and what was\nbecome of the petition. But he told them that he would be silent\ntill he came to the prison to my Lord Mayor, my Lord Will-be-will,\nand Mr. Recorder. So he went forwards towards the prison-house,\nwhere the men of Mansoul lay bound. But oh! what a multitude flocked\nafter to hear what the messenger said. So when he was come and had\nshown himself at the grate of the prison, my Lord Mayor himself\nlooked as white as a clout, the Recorder also did quake; but they\nasked and said, Come, good sir, what did the great Prince say to\nyou? Then said Mr. Desires-awake, when I came to my Lord's pavilion,\nI called, and he came forth; so I fell prostrate at his feet, and\ndelivered to him my petition, for the greatness of his person, and\nthe glory of his countenance would not suffer me to stand upon my\nlegs. Now as he received the petition, I cried, oh that Mansoul\nmight live before thee! So, when for a while he had looked thereon,\nhe turned him about, and said to his servant, Go thy way to thy\nplace again, and I will consider of thy requests. The messenger\nadded, moreover, and said, The Prince to whom you sent me is such\na one for beauty and glory, that whoso sees him must both love\nand fear him; I, for my part, can do no less; but I know not what\nwill be the end of these things.[186] At this answer they were\nall at a stand; both they in prison, and they that followed the\nmessenger thither to hear the news; nor knew they what or what\nmanner of interpretation to put upon what the Prince had said. Now,\nwhen the prison was cleared of the throng, the prisoners among\nthemselves began to comment upon Emmanuel's words. My Lord Mayor said\nthat the answer did not look with a rugged face; but Will-be-will\nsaid that it betokened evil; and the Recorder, that it was\na messenger of death. Now, they that were left, and that stood\nbehind, and so could not so well hear what the prisoners said,\nsome of them catched hold of one piece of a sentence, and some on\na bit of another; some took hold of what the messenger said, and\nsome of the prisoners' judgment thereon; so none had the right\nunderstanding of things; but you cannot imagine what work these\npeople made, and what a confusion there was in Mansoul now.[187]\n\nFor presently they that had heard what was said, flew about the\ntown; one crying one thing, and another the quite contrary, and\nboth were sure enough they told the truth, for they did hear, they\nsaid, with their ears what was said, and therefore could not be\ndeceived. One would say, We must all be killed; another would say,\nWe must all be saved; and a third would say that the Prince would\nnot be concerned with Mansoul; and a fourth that the prisoners\nmust be suddenly put to death. And as I said, every one stood to\nit that he told his tale the rightest, and that all others but he\nwere out. Wherefore Mansoul had now molestation upon molestation,\nnor could any man know on what to rest the sole of his foot; for\none would go by now, and as he went, if he heard his neighbour\ntell his tale, to be sure he would tell the quite contrary, and\nboth would stand in it that he told the truth. Nay, some of them\nhad got this story by the end, that the Prince did intend to put\nMansoul to the sword. And now it began to be dark; wherefore poor\nMansoul was in sad perplexity all that night until the morning.[188]\n\nBut, so far as I could gather, by the best information that I could\nget, all this hubbub came through the words that the Recorder said,\nwhen he told them that in his judgment the Prince's answer was a\nmessenger of death. It was this that fired the town, and that began\nthe fright in Mansoul, for Mansoul, in former times, did use to\ncount that Mr. Recorder was a seer, and that his sentence was equal\nto the best of oracles, and thus was Mansoul a terror to itself.\n\nAnd now did they begin to feel what was the effects of stubborn\nrebellion, and unlawful resistance against their Prince. I say\nthey now began to feel the effects thereof by guilt and fear, that\nnow had swallowed them up, and who more involved in the one, but\nthey who were most in the other; to wit, the chief of the town of\nMansoul.\n\nTo be brief, when the fame[189] of the fright was out of the town,\nand the prisoners had a little recovered themselves, they take to\nthemselves some heart, and think to petition the Prince for life\nagain. So they did draw up a third petition, the contents whereof\nwere this:--\n\n'Prince Emmanuel the Great, Lord of all worlds, and Master of\nmercy, We, thy poor, wretched, miserable, dying town of Mansoul,\ndo confess unto thy great and glorious Majesty that we have sinned\nagainst thy Father and thee, and are no more worthy to be called\nthy Mansoul, but rather to be cast into the pit. If thou wilt slay\nus, we have deserved it. If thou wilt condemn us to the deep, we\ncannot but say thou art righteous. We cannot complain, whatever\nthou dost, or however thou carriest it towards us. But oh! let\nmercy reign; and let it be extended to us! Oh let mercy take hold\nupon us, and free us from our transgressions, and we will sing of\nthy mercy and of thy judgment. Amen.'\n\nThis petition, when drawn up, was designed to be sent to the Prince\nas the first, but who should carry it, that was the question. Some\nsaid, Let him do it that went with the first; but others thought not\ngood to do that, and that because he sped no better. Now there was\nan old man in the town, and his name was Mr. Good-deed; a man that\nbare only the name, but had nothing of the nature of the thing.\nNow some were for sending of him, but the Recorder was by no means\nfor that, for, said he, we now stand in need of, and are pleading\nfor mercy, wherefore to send our petition by a man of this name\nwill seem to cross the petition itself. Should we make Mr. Good-deed\nour messenger when our petition cries for mercy?\n\n'Besides,' quoth the old gentleman, 'should the Prince now, as he\nreceives the petition, ask him and say, What is thy name? as nobody\nknows but he will, and he should say, Old Good-deed, what, think\nyou, would Emmanuel say but this, Aye! is old Good-deed yet alive\nin Mansoul? then let old Good-deed save you from your distresses?\nAnd if he says so, I am sure we are lost; nor can a thousand of\nold Good-deeds save Mansoul.'[190]\n\nAfter the Recorder had given in his reasons why old Good-deed should\nnot go with this petition to Emmanuel, the rest of the prisoners\nand chief of Mansoul opposed it also, and so old Good-deed was laid\naside, and they agreed to send Mr. Desires-awake again; so they\nsent for him, and desired him that he would a second time go with\ntheir petition to the Prince, and he readily told them he would.\nBut they bid him that in anywise he would take heed that in no\nword or carriage he gave offence to the Prince, for by doing so,\nfor ought we can tell, you may bring Mansoul into utter destruction,\nsaid they.\n\nNow Mr. Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go of this errand,\nbesought that they would grant that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with\nhim. Now this Mr. Wet-eyes was a near neighbour of Mr. Desires,\na poor man, a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak\nwell to a petition. So they granted that he should go with him.\nWherefore they address themselves to their business. Mr. Desires\nput a rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes went with hands wringing\ntogether.[191] Thus they went to the Prince's pavilion.\n\nNow when they went to petition this third time, they were\nnot without thoughts that by often coming they might be a burden\nto the Prince. Wherefore, when they were come to the door of his\npavilion, they first made their apology for themselves, and for\ntheir coming to trouble Emmanuel so often; and they said that they\ncame not hither to-day for that they delighted in being troublesome,\nor for that they delighted to hear themselves talk, but for that\nnecessity caused them to come to his Majesty: they could, they\nsaid, have no rest day nor night, because of their transgressions\nagainst Shaddai, and against Emmanuel, his Son. They also thought\nthat some misbehaviour of Mr. Desires-awake the last time, might\ngive distaste to his Highness, and so cause that he returned from\nso merciful a Prince empty, and without countenance. So when they\nhad made this apology, Mr. Desires-awake cast himself prostrate\nupon the ground as at the first, at the feet of the mighty Prince,\nsaying, Oh that Mansoul might live before thee! and so he delivered\nhis petition. The Prince then having read the petition, turned\naside awhile, as before, and, coming again to the place where\nthe petitioner lay on the ground, he demanded what his name was,\nand of what esteem in the account of Mansoul; for that he, above\nall the multitude in Mansoul, should be sent to him upon such an\nerrand. Then said the man to the Prince, 'Oh let not my Lord be\nangry; and why inquirest thou after the name of such a dead dog\nas I am? Pass by, I pray thee, and take no notice of who I am,\nbecause there is, as thou very well knowest, so great a disproportion\nbetween me and thee. Why the townsmen chose to send me on this\nerrand to my Lord, is best known to themselves, but it could not\nbe for that they thought that I had favour with my Lord. For my\npart, I am out of charity with myself; who then should be in love\nwith me? Yet live I would, and so would I that my townsmen should,\nand because both they and myself are guilty of great transgressions,\ntherefore they have sent me, and I am come in their names to beg\nof my Lord for mercy. Let it please thee therefore to incline to\nmercy, but ask not what thy servants are.'\n\nThen said the Prince, 'And what is he that is become thy companion\nin this so weighty a matter?' So Mr. Desires told Emmanuel that\nhe was a poor neighbour of his, and one of his most intimate\nassociates, and his name, said he, may it please your most excellent\nMajesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town of Mansoul. I know that there\nare many of that name that are naught, but I hope it will be no\noffence to my Lord that I have brought my poor neighbour with me.\n\nThen Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face to the ground, and made this\napology for his coming with his neighbour to his Lord:--\n\n'O my Lord,' quoth he, 'what I am I know not myself, nor whether\nmy name be feigned or true, especially when I begin to think what\nsome have said, namely, that this name was given me because Mr.\nRepentance was my father. Good men have bad children, and the\nsincere do oftentimes beget hypocrites. My mother also called me\nby this name from the cradle, but whether because of the moistness\nof my brain, or because of the softness of my heart, I cannot tell.\nI see dirt in mine own tears, and filthiness in the bottom of my\nprayers.[192] But I pray thee'--and all this while the gentleman\nwept--'that thou wouldest not remember against us our transgressions, nor\ntake offence at the unqualifiedness of thy servants, but mercifully\npass by the sin of Mansoul, and refrain from the glorifying of\nthy grace no longer.'[193]\n\nSo at his bidding they arose, and both stood trembling before him,\nand he spake to them to this purpose:--\n\n'The town of Mansoul hath grievously rebelled against my Father, in\nthat they have rejected him from being their King, and did choose\nto themselves for their captain a liar, a murderer, and a runagate\nslave. For this Diabolus, and your pretended prince, though once\nso highly accounted of by you, made rebellion against my Father\nand me, even in our palace and highest court there, thinking to\nbecome a prince and king. But being there timely discovered and\napprehended, and for his wickedness bound in chains, and separated\nto the pit with those who were his companions, he offered himself\nto you, and you have received him.\n\n'Now this is, and for a long time hath been an high affront to my\nFather, wherefore my Father sent to you a powerful army to reduce\nyou to your obedience. But you know how those men, their captains,\nand their counsels, were esteemed of you, and what they received\nat your hand. You rebelled against them, you shut your gates upon\nthem, you bid them battle, you fought them, and fought for Diabolus\nagainst them. So they sent to my Father for more power, and I with\nmy men are come to subdue you. But as you treated the servants,\nso you treated their Lord. You stood up in hostile manner against\nme, you shut up your gates against me, you turned the deaf ear\nto me, and resisted as long as you could; but now I have made\na conquest of you. Did you cry me mercy so long as you had hopes\nthat you might prevail against me?[194] But now I have taken the\ntown, you cry. But why did you not cry before, when the white\nflag of my mercy, the red flag of justice, and the black flag\nthat threatened execution, were set up to cite you to it? Now I\nhave conquered your Diabolus, you come to me for favour, but why\ndid you not help me against the mighty? Yet I will consider your\npetition, and will answer it so as will be for my glory.\n\n'Go, bid Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction bring the prisoners\nout to me into the camp to-morrow, and say you to Captain Judgment\nand Captain Execution, Stay you in the castle, and take good heed\nto yourselves that you keep all quiet in Mansoul until you hear\nfurther from me.' And with that he turned himself from them, and\nwent into his royal pavilion again.[195]\n\nSo the petitioners having received this answer from the Prince,\nreturned as at the first to go to their companions again. But they\nhad not gone far, but thoughts began to work in their minds that no\nmercy as yet was intended by the Prince to Mansoul; so they went\nto the place where the prisoners lay bound; but these workings of\nmind about what would become of Mansoul, had such strong power\nover them, that by that they were come unto them that sent them,\nthey were scarce able to deliver their message.\n\nBut they came at length to the gates of the town--now the townsmen\nwith earnestness were waiting for their return--where many met\nthem, to know what answer was made to the petition. Then they cried\nout to those that were sent, What news from the Prince? and what\nhath Emmanuel said? But they said that they must, as before, go\nup to the prison, and there deliver their message. So away they\nwent to the prison, with a multitude at their heels. Now, when\nthey were come to the grates of the prison, they told the first\npart of Emmanuel's speech to the prisoners; to wit, how he reflected\nupon their disloyalty to his Father and himself, and how they\nhad chose and closed with Diabolus, had fought for him, hearkened\nto him, and been ruled by him, but had despised him and his men.\nThis made the prisoners look pale; but the messengers proceeded,\nand said, He, the Prince, said, moreover, that yet he would consider\nyour petition, and give such answer thereto as would stand with his\nglory. And as these words were spoken, Mr. Wet-eyes gave a great\nsigh. At this they were all of them struck into their dumps, and\ncould not tell what to say. Fear also possessed them in a marvelous\nmanner; and death seemed to sit upon some of their eyebrows.[196]\nNow, there was in the company a notable sharp-witted fellow,\na mean man of estate, and his name was old Inquisitive. This man\nasked the petitioners if they had told out every whit of what\nEmmanuel said. And they answered, Verily, no. Then said Inquisitive,\nI thought so, indeed. Pray, what was it more that he said unto\nyou? Then they paused awhile; but at last they brought out all,\nsaying, The Prince did bid us bid Captain Boanerges and Captain\nConviction bring the prisoners down to him to-morrow; and that\nCaptain Judgment and Captain Execution should take charge of\nthe castle and town till they should hear further from him. They\nsaid also that when the Prince had commanded them thus to do, he\nimmediately turned his back upon them, and went into his royal\npavilion.\n\nBut O how this return, and specially this last clause of it, that\nthe prisoners must go out to the Prince into the camp, brake all\ntheir loins in pieces! Wherefore, with one voice, they set up a\ncry that reached up to the heavens.[197] This done, each of the\nthree prepared himself to die; and the Recorder [conscience] said\nunto them, This was the thing that I feared; for they concluded\nthat to-morrow, by that the sun went down, they should be tumbled\nout of the world. The whole town also counted of no other but\nthat, in their time and order, they must all drink of the same\ncup. Wherefore the town of Mansoul spent that night in mourning,\nand sackcloth, and ashes. The prisoners also, when the time was\ncome for them to go down before the Prince, dressed themselves in\nmourning attire, with ropes upon their heads.[198] The whole town\nof Mansoul also showed themselves upon the wall, all clad in mourning\nweeds, if, perhaps, the Prince, with the sight thereof, might be\nmoved with compassion. But O how the busy-bodies [vain thoughts]\nthat were in the town of Mansoul did now concern themselves! They\ndid run here and there through the streets of the town by companies,\ncrying out as they ran in tumultuous wise, one after one manner,\nand another the quite contrary, to the almost utter distraction\nof Mansoul.\n\nWell, the time is come that the prisoners must go down to the camp,\nand appear before the Prince. And thus was the manner of their\ngoing down. Captain Boanerges went with a guard before them, and\nCaptain Conviction came behind, and the prisoners went down bound in\nchains in the midst; so, I say, the prisoners went in the midst,\nand the guard went with flying colours behind and before, but the\nprisoners went with drooping spirits.\n\nOr, more particularly, thus:\n\nThe prisoners went down all in mourning; they put ropes upon\nthemselves; they went on smiting themselves on the breasts, but\ndurst not lift up their eyes to heaven. Thus they went out at the\ngate of Mansoul, till they came into the midst of the Prince's\narmy, the sight and glory of which did greatly heighten their\naffliction. Nor could they now longer forbear, but cry out aloud,\nO unhappy men! O wretched men of Mansoul! Their chains still mixing\ntheir dolorous notes with the cries of the prisoners, made noise\nmore lamentable.[199]\n\nSo, when they were come to the door of the Prince's pavilion, they\ncast themselves prostrate upon the place. Then one went in and\ntold his Lord that the prisoners were come down. The Prince then\nascended a throne of state, and sent for the prisoners in; who when\nthey came, did tremble before him, also they covered their faces\nwith shame. Now as they drew near to the place where he sat, they\nthrew themselves down before him. Then said the Prince to the\nCaptain Boanerges, Bid the prisoners stand upon their feet. Then\nthey stood trembling before him, and he said, Are you the men that\nheretofore were the servants of Shaddai? And they said, Yes, Lord,\nyes. Then said the Prince again, Are you the men that did suffer\nyourselves to be corrupted and defiled by that abominable one\nDiabolus? And they said, We did more than suffer it, Lord; for we\nchose it of our own mind. The Prince asked further, saying, Could\nyou have been content that your slavery should have continued under\nhis tyranny as long as you had lived? Then said the prisoners,\nYes, Lord, yes; for his ways were pleasing to our flesh, and we\nwere grown aliens to a better state. And did you, said he, when I\ncame up against this town of Mansoul, heartily wish that I might\nnot have the victory over you? Yes, Lord, yes, said they. Then\nsaid the Prince, And what punishment is it, think you, that you\ndeserve at my hand for these and other your high and mighty sins?\nAnd they said, Both death and the deep,[200] Lord; for we have\ndeserved no less. He asked again if they had aught to say for\nthemselves, why the sentence that they confessed that they had\ndeserved should not be passed upon them? And they said, We can say\nnothing, Lord; thou art just, for we have sinned. Then said the\nPrince, And for what are those ropes on your heads? The prisoners\nanswered, These ropes [sins] are to bind us withal to the place of\nexecution, if mercy be not pleasing in thy sight. So he further\nasked, if all the men in the town of Mansoul were in this confession\nas they? And they answered, All the natives [powers of the soul],\nLord; but for the Diabolonians [corruptions and lusts] that came\ninto our town when the tyrant got possession of us, we can say\nnothing for them.[201]\n\nThen the Prince commanded that a herald should be called, and that\nhe should, in the midst, and throughout the camp of Emmanuel,\nproclaim, and that with sound of trumpet, that the Prince, the\nSon of Shaddai, had, in his Father's name, and for his Father's\nglory, gotten a perfect conquest and victory over Mansoul, and\nthat the prisoners should follow him, and say, Amen. So this was\ndone as he had commanded. And presently the music that was in the\nupper region sounded melodiously. The captains that were in the\ncamp shouted, and the soldiers did sing songs of triumph to the\nPrince, the colours waved in the wind, and great joy was everywhere,\nonly it was wanting as yet in the hearts of the men of Mansoul.[202]\n\nThen the Prince called for the prisoners to come and to stand\nagain before him, and they came and stood trembling. And he said\nunto them, The sins, trespasses, iniquities, that you, with the\nwhole town of Mansoul, have from time to time committed against\nmy Father and me, I have power and commandment from my Father to\nforgive to the town of Mansoul; and do forgive you accordingly.\nAnd having so said, he gave them written in parchment, and sealed\nwith seven seals, a large and general pardon, commanding both my\nLord Mayor, my Lord Will-be-will, and Mr. Recorder, to proclaim,\nand cause it to be proclaimed to-morrow by that the sun is up,\nthroughout the whole town of Mansoul.\n\nMoreover, the Prince stripped the prisoners of their mourning weeds,\nand gave them 'beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and\nthe garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness' (Isa 61:3)\n\nThen he gave to each of the three, jewels of gold, and precious\nstones, and took away their ropes, and put chains of gold about\ntheir necks, and ear-rings in their ears. Now the prisoners, when\nthey did hear the gracious words of Prince Emmanuel, and had beheld\nall that was done unto them, fainted almost quite away; for the\ngrace, the benefit, the pardon, was sudden, glorious, and so big,\nthat they were not able, without staggering, to stand up under\nit.[203] Yea, my Lord Will-be-will swooned outright; but the Prince\nstepped to him, put his everlasting arms under him, embraced\nhim, kissed him, and bid him be of good cheer, for all should be\nperformed according to his word. He also did kiss, and embrace,\nand smile upon the other two that were Will-be-will's companions,\nsaying, Take these as further tokens of my love, favour, and\ncompassion to you; and I charge you, that you, Mr. Recorder, tell\nin the town of Mansoul what you have heard and seen.\n\nThen were their fetters broken to pieces before their faces, and\ncast into the air, and their steps[204] were enlarged under them.\nThen they fell down at the feet of the Prince, and kissed his\nfeet, and wetted them with tears; also they cried out with a mighty\nstrong voice, saying, 'Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this\nplace' (Eze 3:12). So they were bid rise up, and go to the town,\nand tell to Mansoul what the Prince had done. He commanded also\nthat one with a pipe and tabor should go and play before them all\nthe way into the town of Mansoul. Then was fulfilled what they never\nlooked for, and they were made to possess that which they never\ndreamed of.[205] The Prince also called for the noble Captain\nCredence, and commanded that he and some of his officers should\nmarch before the noble men of Mansoul with flying colours into\nthe town. He gave also unto Captain Credence a charge, that about\nthat time that the Recorder did read the general pardon in the town\nof Mansoul, that at that very time he should with flying colours\nmarch in at Eye-gate with his ten thousands at his feet, and that\nhe should so go until he came by the high street of the town,\nup to the castle gates, and that himself should take possession\nthereof against his Lord came thither. He commanded, moreover,\nthat he should bid Captain Judgment and Captain Execution to leave\nthe stronghold to him, and to withdraw from Mansoul, and to return\ninto the camp with speed unto the Prince.\n\nAnd now was the town of Mansoul also delivered from the terror of\nthe first four captains and their men.[206]\n\n[CHAPTER IX]\n\n[CONTENTS:--The liberated prisoners return to Mansoul, where they\nare received with great joy--The inhabitants request Emmanuel to\ntake up his residence among them--He consents--Makes a triumphal\nentry amid the shouts of the people--The town is new modeled, and\nthe image of Shaddai erected.]\n\nWell, I told you before how the prisoners were entertained by the\nnoble Prince Emmanuel, and how they behaved themselves before him,\nand how he sent them away to their home with pipe and tabor going\nbefore them. And now you must think that those of the town that\nhad all this while waited to hear of their death, could not but\nbe exercised with sadness of mind, and with thoughts that pricked\nlike thorns. Nor could their thoughts be kept to any one point; the\nwind blew with them all this while at great uncertainties, yea,\ntheir hearts were like a balance that had been disquieted with a\nshaking hand. But at last, as they with many a long look looked\nover the wall of Mansoul, they thought that they saw some returning\nto the town; and thought again, Who should they be too, who should\nthey be? At last they discerned that they were the prisoners;\nbut can you imagine how their hearts were surprised with wonder,\nespecially when they perceived also in what equipage and with what\nhonour they were sent home? They went down to the camp in black,\nbut they came back to the town in white; they went down to the\ncamp in ropes, they came back in chains of gold; they went down\nto the camp with their feet in fetters, but came back with their\nsteps enlarged under them; they went also to the camp looking\nfor death, but they came back thence with assurance of life; they\nwent down to the camp with heavy hearts, but came back again with\npipe and tabor playing before them. So, so soon as they were come\nto Eye-gate, the poor and tottering town of Mansoul adventured to\ngive a shout, and they gave such a shout as made the captains in\nthe Prince's army leap at the sound thereof.\n\nAlas for them, poor hearts! who could blame them, since their dead\nfriends were come to life again? for it was to them as life from\nthe dead, to see the ancients of the town of Mansoul shine in\nsuch splendour. They looked for nothing but the axe and the block;\nbut behold, joy and gladness, comfort and consolation, and such\nmelodious notes attending of them that was sufficient to make a\nsick man well. So when they came up, they saluted each other with\nWelcome! welcome! and blessed be he that has spared you (Isa\n33:24). They added also, We see it is well with you, but how must\nit go with the town of Mansoul? and, Will it go well with the town\nof Mansoul? said they. Then answered them the Recorder and my Lord\nMayor, Oh tidings! glad tidings! good tidings of good and of great\njoy to poor Mansoul! Then they gave another shout that made the\nearth to ring again. After this they inquired yet more particularly\nhow things went in the camp, and what message they had from Emmanuel\nto the town, So they told them all passages that had happened\nto them at the camp, and everything that the Prince did to them.\nThis made Mansoul wonder at the wisdom and grace of the Prince\nEmmanuel. Then they told them what they had received at his hands\nfor the whole town of Mansoul; and the Recorder delivered it in\nthese words--PARDON, PARDON, PARDON for Mansoul; and this shall\nMansoul know to-morrow. Then he commanded, and they went and\nsummoned Mansoul to meet together in the market-place to-morrow,\nthere to hear their general pardon read.\n\nBut who can think what a turn, what a change, what an alteration\nthis hint of things did make in the countenance of the town of\nMansoul! No man of Mansoul could sleep that night for joy;[207]\nin every house there was joy and music, singing and making merry,\ntelling and hearing of Mansoul's happiness, was then all that\nMansoul had to do; and this was the burden of all their song--Oh,\nmore of this at the rising of the sun! more of this to-morrow! Who\nthought yesterday, would one say, that this day would have been\nsuch a day to us? And who thought, that saw our prisoners go down\nin irons, that they would have returned in chains of gold! yea, they\nthat judged themselves as they went to be judged of their judge,\nwere by his mouth acquitted, not for that they were innocent, but\nof the Prince's mercy, and sent home with pipe and tabor. But is\nthis the common custom of princes? do they use to show such kind\nof favours to traitors? No! this is only peculiar to Shaddai, and\nunto Emmanuel. his Son.[208]\n\nNow morning drew on apace, wherefore the Lord Mayor, the Lord\nWill-be-will, and Mr. Recorder came down to the market-place at\nthe time that the Prince had appointed, where the townsfolk were\nwaiting for them; and when they came, they came in that attire and\nin that glory that the Prince had put them into the day before, and\nthe street was lightened with their glory. So the Mayor, Recorder,\nand my Lord Will-be-will drew down to Mouth-gate, which was at the\nlower end of the market-place, because that of old time was the\nplace where they used to read public matters. Thither therefore\nthey came in their robes, and their tabret went before them. Now\nthe eagerness of the people to know the full of the matter was\ngreat.\n\nThen the Recorder stood up upon his feet, and first beckoning with\nhis hand for a silence, he read out with loud voice the pardon.\nBut when he came to these words, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful\nand gracious, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin'(Exo 34:6);\nand to these, 'all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven,'\n&c. (Mark 3:28); they could not forbear but leap for joy. For this\nyou must know, that there was conjoined herewith every man's name\nin Mansoul; also the seals of the pardon made a brave show.[209]\n\nWhen the Recorder had made an end of reading the pardon, the townsmen\nran up upon the walls of the town, and leaped and skipped thereon\nfor joy; and bowed themselves seven times with their faces towards\nEmmanuel's pavilion, and shouted out aloud for joy, and said, Let\nEmmanuel live for ever! Then order was given to the young men in\nMansoul, that they should ring the bells for joy. So the bells\ndid ring, and the people sing, and the music go in every house in\nMansoul.[210]\n\nWhen the Prince had sent home the three prisoners of Mansoul with\njoy, and pipe, and tabor; he commanded his captains, with all the\nfield-officers and soldiers throughout his army, to be ready in\nthat morning that the Recorder should read the pardon in Mansoul,\nto do his further pleasure. So the morning, as I have showed, being\ncome, just as the Recorder had made an end of reading the pardon,\nEmmanuel commanded that all the trumpets in the camp should sound,\nthat the colours should be displayed, half of them upon Mount\nGracious, and half of them upon Mount Justice.[211] He commanded\nalso that all the captains should show themselves in all their\nharness, and that the soldiers should shout for joy. Nor was\nCaptain Credence, though in the castle, silent in such a day, but\nhe, from the top of the hold, showed himself with sound of trumpet\nto Mansoul, and to the Prince's camp.\n\nThus have I showed you the manner and way that Emmanuel took to\nrecover the town of Mansoul from under the hand and power of the\ntyrant Diabolus.\n\nNow when the Prince had completed these, the outward ceremonies of\nhis joy, he again commanded that his captains and soldiers should\nshow unto Mansoul some feats of war. So they presently addressed\nthemselves to this work. But oh, with what agility, nimbleness,\ndexterity, and bravery did these military men discover their skill\nin feats of war to the now gazing town of Mansoul!\n\nThey marched, they counter-marched, they opened to the right and\nleft, they divided and subdivided, they closed, they wheeled, made\ngood their front and rear with their right and left wings, and\ntwenty things more, with that aptness, and then were all as they\nwere again, that they took, yea, ravished the hearts that were\nin Mansoul to behold it. But add to this, the handling of their\narms, the managing of their weapons of war, were marvellous taking\nto Mansoul and me.[212]\n\nWhen this action was over, the whole town of Mansoul came out as\none man to the Prince in the camp to thank him, and praise him for\nhis abundant favour, and to beg that it would please his grace to\ncome unto Mansoul with his men, and there to take up their quarters\nfor ever. And this they did in most humble manner, bowing themselves\nseven times to the ground before him. Then said he, All peace be\nto you. So the town came nigh, and touched with the hand the top\nof his golden scepter, and they said, Oh that the Prince Emmanuel,\nwith his captains and men of war, would dwell in Mansoul for ever;\nand that his battering-rams and slings might be lodged in her for\nthe use and service of the Prince, and for the help and strength\nof Mansoul. 'For,' said they, 'we have room for thee, we have\nroom for thy men, we have also room for thy weapons of war, and a\nplace to make a magazine for thy carriages. Do it, Emmanuel, and\nthou shalt be King and Captain in Mansoul for ever. Yea govern\nthou also according to all the desire of thy soul, and make thou\ngovernors and princes under thee of thy captains and men of war, and\nwe will become thy servants, and thy laws shall be our direction.'\n\nThey added, moreover, and prayed his Majesty to consider thereof;\n'for,' said they, 'if now, after all this grace bestowed upon us\nthy miserable town of Mansoul, thou shouldest withdraw, thou and\nthy captains from us, the town of Mansoul will die.[213] Yea,' said\nthey, 'our blessed Emmanuel, if thou shouldest depart from us now\nthou hast done so much good for us, and showed so much mercy unto\nus; what will follow but that our joy will be as if it had not been,\nand our enemies will a second time come upon us with more rage\nthan at the first. Wherefore, we beseech thee, O thou the desire\nof our eyes, and the strength and life of our poor town, accept\nof this motion that now we have made unto our Lord, and come and\ndwell in the midst of us, and let us be thy people. Besides, Lord,\nwe do not know but that to this day many Diabolonians may be yet\nlurking in the town of Mansoul, and they will betray us when thou\nshalt leave us, into the hand of Diabolus again; and who knows\nwhat designs, plots, or contrivances have passed betwixt them about\nthese things already; loth we are to fall again into his horrible\nhands. Wherefore, let it please thee to accept of our palace for\nthy place of residence, and of the houses of the best men in our\ntown for the reception of thy soldiers, and their furniture.'[214]\n\nThen said the Prince, 'If I come to your town, will you suffer\nme further to prosecute that which is in mine heart against mine\nenemies and yours, yea, will you help me in such undertakings?'\n\nThey answered, 'We know not what we shall do; we did not think\nonce that we should have been such traitors to Shaddai as we have\nproved to be; what then shall we say to our Lord? Let him put no\ntrust in his saints, let the Prince dwell in our castle, and make\nof our town a garrison, let him set his noble captains, and his\nwarlike soldiers over us. Yea, let him conquer us with his love,\nand overcome us with his grace, and then surely shall he be but\nwith us, and help us, as he was, and did that morning that our\npardon was read unto us, we shall comply with this, our Lord, and\nwith his ways, and fall in with his word against the mighty.\n\n'One word more, and thy servants have done, and in this will\ntrouble our Lord no more. We know not the depth of the wisdom of\nthee our Prince. Who could have thought that had been ruled by his\nreason, that so much sweet as we do now enjoy should have come\nout of those bitter trials wherewith we were tried at the first?\nbut, Lord, let light go before, and let love come after; yea, take\nus by the hand, and lead us by thy counsels, and let this always\nabide upon us, that all things shall be for the best for thy\nservants, and come to our Mansoul, and do as it pleaseth thee. Or,\nLord, come to our Mansoul, do what thou wilt, so thou keepest us\nfrom sinning, and makest us serviceable to thy Majesty.'[215]\n\nThen said the Prince to the town of Mansoul again, 'Go, return to\nyour houses in peace, I will willingly in this comply with your\ndesires. I will remove my royal pavilion, I will draw up my forces\nbefore Eye-gate to-morrow, and so will march forwards into the\ntown of Mansoul. I will possess myself of your castle of Mansoul,\nand will set my soldiers over you; yea, I will yet do things in\nMansoul that cannot be paralleled in any nation, country or kingdom\nunder heaven.'\n\nThen did the men of Mansoul give a shout, and returned unto their\nhouses in peace; they also told to their kindred and friends the\ngood that Emmanuel had promised to Mansoul. And to-morrow, said\nthey, he will march into our town, and take up his dwelling, he\nand his men in Mansoul.\n\nThen went out the inhabitants of the town of Mansoul with haste to\nthe green trees, and to the meadows, to gather boughs and flowers,\ntherewith to strew the streets against their Prince, the Son\nof Shaddai, should come; they also made garlands, and other fine\nworks, to betoken how joyful they were, and should be to receive\ntheir Emmanuel into Mansoul; yea, they strewed the street quite from\nEye-gate to the castle-gate, the place where the Prince should be.\nThey also prepared for his coming what music the town of Mansoul\nwould afford, that they might play before him to the palace, his\nhabitation.\n\nSo, at the time appointed, he makes his approach to Mansoul, and the\ngates were set open for him, there also the ancients and elders of\nMansoul met him, to salute him with a thousand welcomes. Then he\narose and entered Mansoul, he and all his servants. The elders of\nMansoul did also go dancing before him till he came to the castle\ngates. And this was the manner of his going up thither. He was clad\nin his golden armour, he rode in his royal chariot, the trumpets\nsounded about him, the colours were displayed, his ten thousands\nwent up at his feet, and the elders of Mansoul danced before\nhim.[216] And now were the walls of the famous town of Mansoul\nfilled with the tramplings of the inhabitants thereof, who went up\nthither to view the approach of the blessed Prince, and his royal\narmy. Also the casements, windows, balconies, and tops of the houses\nwere all now filled with persons of all sorts to behold how their\ntown was to be filled with good. [217] Now when he was come so far\ninto the town as to the Recorder's house, he commanded that one\nshould go to Captain Credence, to know whether the castle of Mansoul\nwas prepared to entertain his Royal Presence, for the preparation of\nthat was left to that captain, and word was brought that it was\n(Acts 15:9).[218] Then was Captain Credence commanded also to come\nforth with his power to meet the Prince, the which was, as he had\ncommanded, done, and he conducted him into the castle (Eph 3:17).\nThis done, the Prince that night did lodge in the castle with his\nmighty captains and men of war, to the joy of the town of Mansoul.\nNow the next care of the townsfolk was how the captains and soldiers\nof the Prince's army should be quartered among them, and the care\nwas not how they should shut their hands of them, but how they\nshould fill their houses with them; for every man in Mansoul now had\nthat esteem of Emmanuel and his men, that nothing grieved them more\nthan because they were not enlarged enough, every one of them to\nreceive the whole army of the Prince, yea, they counted it their\nglory to be waiting upon them, and would in those days run at their\nbidding like lackeys. At last they came to this result:--1. That\nCaptain Innocency should quarter at Mr. Reason's. 2. That Captain\nPatience should quarter at Mr. Mind's. This Mr. Mind was formerly\nthe Lord Will-be-will's clerk, in time of the late rebellion. 3. It\nwas ordered that Captain Charity should quarter at Mr. Affection's\nhouse. 4. That Captain Good-hope should quarter at my Lord Mayor's.\nNow for the house of the Recorder, himself desired, because his\nhouse was next to the castle, and because from him it was ordered by\nthe Prince, that, if need be, the alarm should be given to Mansoul;\nit was, I say, desired by him that Captain Boanerges and Captain\nConviction should take up their quarters with him, even they and all\ntheir men. 5. As for Captain Judgment and Captain Execution, my Lord\nWill-be-will took them, and their men to him, because he was to rule\nunder the Prince for the good of the town of Mansoul now, as he had\nbefore, under the tyrant Diabolus for the hurt and damage thereof\n(Rom 6:19; Eph 3:17). 6. And throughout the rest of the town were\nquartered Emmanuel's forces, but Captain Credence with his men abode\nstill in the castle. So the Prince, his captains, and his soldiers\nwere lodged in the town of Mansoul.[219] Now the ancients and elders\nof the town of Mansoul thought that they never should have enough of\nthe Prince Emmanuel; his person, his actions, his words, and\nbehaviour, were so pleasing, so taking, so desirable to them.\nWherefore, they prayed him, that though the castle of Mansoul was\nhis place of residence, and they desired that he might dwell there\nfor ever, yet that he would often visit the streets, houses, and\npeople of Mansoul. For, said they, Dread Sovereign, thy presence,\nthy looks, thy smiles, thy words, are the life, and strength, and\nsinews of the town of Mansoul.[220] Besides this, they craved that\nthey might have, without difficulty or interruption, continual\naccess unto him, so for that very purpose he commanded that the\ngates should stand open, that they might there see the manner of his\ndoings, the fortifications of the place, and the royal mansion-house\nof the Prince. When he spake they all stopped their mouths and gave\naudience; and when he walked, it was their delight to imitate him in\nhis goings. Now upon a time Emmanuel made a feast for the town of\nMansoul, and upon the feasting-day the townsfolk were come to the\ncastle to partake of his banquet. And he feasted them with all\nmanner of outlandish food, food that grew not in the fields of\nMansoul, nor in all the whole Kingdom of Universe. It was food that\ncame from his Father's court, and so there was dish after dish set\nbefore them, and they were commanded freely to eat. But still when a\nfresh dish was set before them, they would whisperingly say to each\nother, What is it? (Exo 16:15) [221] For they wist not what to call\nit. They drank also of the water that was made wine; and were very\nmerry with him. There was music also all the while at the table, and\nman did eat angels' food, and had honey given him out of the rock.\nSo Mansoul did eat the food that was peculiar to the court, yea,\nthey had now thereof to the full (Psa 78:24,25). [222] I must not\nforget to tell you that as at this table there were musicians, so\nthey were not those of the country, nor yet of the town of Mansoul;\nbut they were the masters of the songs that were sung at the court\nof Shaddai.[223] Now after the feast was over, Emmanuel was for\nentertaining the town of Mansoul with some curious riddles of\nsecrets drawn up by his Father's secretary, by the skill and wisdom\nof Shaddai; the like to these there is not in any kingdom. These\nriddles were made upon the King Shaddai himself, and upon Emmanuel\nhis Son, and upon his wars and doings with Mansoul. Emmanuel also\nexpounded unto them some of those riddles himself, but oh how they\nwere lightened! They saw what they never saw, they could not have\nthought that such rarities could have been couched in so few and\nsuch ordinary words. I told you before whom these riddles did\nconcern; and as they were opened, the people did evidently see it\nwas so. Yea, they did gather that the things themselves were a kind\nof portraiture, and that of Emmanuel himself; for when they read in\nthe scheme where the riddles were writ, and looked in the face of\nthe Prince, things looked so like the one to the other that Mansoul\ncould not forbear but say, This is the Lamb, this is the Sacrifice,\nthis is the Rock, this is the Red Cow, this is the Door, and this is\nthe way; with a great many other things more.[224] And thus he\ndismissed the town of Mansoul. But can you imagine how the people of\nthe corporation were taken with this entertainment? Oh they were\ntransported with joy, they were drowned with wonderment, while they\nsaw and understood, and considered what their Emmanuel entertained\nthem withal, and what mysteries he opened to them; and when they\nwere at home in their houses, and in their most retired places, they\ncould not but sing of him, and of his actions. Yea, so taken were\nthe townsmen now with their Prince, that they would sing of him in\ntheir sleep. Now it was in the heart of the Prince Emmanuel to new\nmodel the town of Mansoul, and to put it into such a condition as\nmight be more pleasing to him, and that might best stand with the\nprofit and security of the now flourishing town of Mansoul. He\nprovided also against insurrections at home, and invasions from\nabroad; such love had he for the famous town of Mansoul. Wherefore\nhe first of all commanded that the great slings that were brought\nfrom his Father's court, when he came to the war of Mansoul, should\nbe mounted, some upon the battlements of the castle, some upon the\ntowers, for there were towers in the town of Mansoul, towers new\nbuilt by Emmanuel since he came thither.[225] There was also an\ninstrument invented by Emmanuel, that was to throw stones from the\ncastle of Mansoul, out at Mouth-gate; an instrument that could not\nbe resisted, nor that would miss of execution; wherefore for the\nwonderful exploits that it did when used, it went without a name,\nand it was committed to the care of, and to be managed by the brave\ncaptain, the Captain Credence, in case of war.[226] This done,\nEmmanuel called the Lord Will-be-will to him, and gave him in\ncommandment to take care of the gates, the wall, and towers in\nMansoul. Also the Prince gave him the militia into his hand; and a\nspecial charge to withstand all insurrections and tumults that might\nbe made in Mansoul, against the peace of our Lord the King, and the\npeace and tranquillity of the town of Mansoul. He also gave him in\ncommission, that if he found any of the Diabolonians lurking in any\ncorner in the famous town of Mansoul, he should forthwith apprehend\nthem, and stay them, or commit them to safe custody, that they may\nbe proceeded against according to law. Then he called unto him the\nLord Understanding, who was the old Lord Mayor, he that was put out\nof place when Diabolus took the town, and put him into his former\noffice again, and it became his place for his lifetime. He bid him\nalso that he should build him a palace near Eye-gate, and that he\nshould build it in fashion like a tower for defence. He bid him also\nthat he should read in the Revelation of Mysteries[227] all the days\nof his life, that he might know how to perform his office aright. He\nalso made Mr. Knowledge the Recorder; not of contempt to old Mr.\nConscience, who had been Recorder before; but for that it was in his\nprincely mind to confer upon Mr. Conscience another employ; of which\nhe told the old gentleman he should know more hereafter. Then he\ncommanded that the image of Diabolus should be taken down from the\nplace where it was set up, and that they should destroy it utterly,\nbeating of it into powder, and casting it unto the wind, without the\ntown-wall; and that the image of Shaddai his Father should be set up\nagain, with his own, upon the castle gates, and that it should be\nmore fairly drawn than ever; forasmuch as both his Father and\nhimself were come to Mansoul in more grace and mercy than heretofore\n(Rev 22:4). He would also that his name should be fairly engraven\nupon the front of the town, and that it should be done in the best\nof gold, for the honour of the town of Mansoul.[228]\n\n***\n\nTHE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN; OR, A DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN THAT GETS TO\nHEAVEN:\n\nTOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY; ALSO, SOME\nDIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN.\n\n'And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,\nthat he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither\nstay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be\nconsumed.'--Genesis 19:17.\n\nLondon: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch\nStreet, 1698.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nAbout forty years ago a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced\nmy pilgrimage, and who had joined me in communion with a Baptist\nchurch, about four years previously, came to my house one Monday\nmorning, greatly delighted with the sermon which our pastor had\npreached on the previous day, while I was engaged in superintending\nthe Sunday school. It had caused a very remarkable sensation, which,\nif properly followed up, bid fair to occasion an extraordinary\nrevival of religion in the neighbourhood. He, with the deacons,\nhad begged of our minister to fill up his outline, and prepare\nthe sermon for publication, to which he had consented. He wished\nto ascertain from me, as a publisher, the expense of printing\nfive thousand copies, being sure that the sale of it would be\nunprecedented, not only throughout the kingdom, but as far as\nthe English language was spoken. In about a week, the copy fairly\nwritten was left with me. The text was Hebrews 12:1, 'Let us run\nwith patience the race that is set before us.' After the introduction\nthat all men desire heaven, but all do not run for it--the word\nrun was explained as a flying, pressing, persevering. Then seven\nreasons, and nine directions, were followed by nine motives and\nnine uses. This, and the striking ideas and language of the sermon,\nbrought Bunyan to my recollection, and, on comparison, it proved\nto be the Heavenly Footman, with very slight alterations. Having\nthen very recently purchased a neat edition of the book, at a very\nlow price, my inquiry was, whether they would not prefer having\nthe book in its genuine state, especially as it was ready for\ndelivery. I need not add, that all thoughts of circulating the\nsermon was at once abandoned. In conversation with my excellent\npastor, who afterwards for many years bore the honour of a D.D.,\nhe acknowledge his obligation to me for detecting the plagiarism\nbefore the sermon was published, and explained to me that, when\nvery young, he had read Bunyan's Heavenly Footman with intense\ninterest, and made a full analysis of it, in the shape of notes,\nwhich, having committed to memory, he preached to a very delighted\nand deeply impressed congregation; that after a lapse of many\nyears, looking over the outlines of his early sermons, he was\nstruck with it, and believing it to be his own composition, had\nagain used it with such extraordinary success, as led his deacons\nand members to request him to print it. Doubtless Bunyan being\ndead has often similarly spoken--may his voice never be lost in\nsilence or be forgotten.\n\nThe title of 'Heavenly Footman' was probably suggested by the words\nof the prophet Jeremiah, 'If thou hast run with the footmen, and\nthey have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?\nAnd in the land of peace thou trustedst, then how wilt thou do\nin the swelling of Jordan?' (12:5), and 'Let us run with patience\nthe race that is set before us' (Heb 12:1). The word footman does\nnot refer to that class of servants who are badged and dressed in\nlivery to gratify the pride of their masters, nor to that description\nof foot-soldiers or infantry, whose business is designated by the\nblood-stained colour of their clothes. But it refers to those who\nare travelling on foot to a distant country, engaged on a pilgrimage\nfrom earth to heaven. It is worthy of remark, that the whole of\nthe children of God, of every age and clime, class and kindred,\nthe richest and the poorest, all are upon terms of perfect equality\nin running the race set before them. No wealth, nor grade, can\nprocure a horse to carry them, or a carriage to ride in; all must\nrun on foot. The only carriage for the foot-sore, weary pilgrim\nis the bosom of Christ; he carries the lambs in his bosom, and\nthere is room enough for all; the poorest labourer and the noblest\naristocrat meet there upon a level with each other; there is no\nfirst class for the rich, and parliamentary train for the poor.\nIt is all first class. In the varied adventures of Christian and\nhis associates, and of Christiana, her children, and her lovely\nfriend Mercy, they never ride. The little one is led by the hand\nup the steep and rough hill Difficulty, but his own feet carry him\nthroughout the wearisome road. The only carriage was the fiery\nchariot which carried the soul of the martyred Faithful to the\nCelestial City; there is no riding to heaven while in the body.\nWealth may procure many pleasures to clog the soul in its journey.\nIt may purchase indulgencies; it may incline some disciples to look\nat sinful imperfections through the wrong end of the telescope;\nit may purchase prayers--but devotional exercises, bought by gold,\nwill freeze the soul. It is the poor disciple that receives the\nfaithful admonitions of his equally poor fellow-saints. The rich\nhave more ceremony, while the labourer enjoys more richly, more\nfree from restraint, the warm outpourings of a devotional spirit.\nStill there is nothing to prevent the greatest nobleman or monarch\nfrom running to heaven in company with the disciples of our lowly\nMaster. If he refuses this road and this company, he must pursue\nhis downward course to destruction.\n\nThe order in which the allegorical works of Bunyan were written,\nvery naturally suggest itself from his own narratives, and from\nthe dates of their publication. It was thus, while suffering his\ntedious and dangerous imprisonment for Christ's sake, he was led\nto write an account of the dealings of God with his soul, which\nwork he published in 1666, under the title of Grace Abounding to\nthe Chief of Sinners. While engaged in writing this remarkable\nnarrative, the almost unbounded allegorical powers of his mind\nwere brought into exercise--\n\n\n'And thus it was: I writing of the way\nAnd race of saints, in this our gospel-day,\nFell suddenly into an allegory\nAbout their journey, and the way to glory.'\n\n\nHaving finished his Grace Abounding, he allowed his fertile imagination\nits full scope, and again wrote the result of his experience in\nthe form of an allegorical narrative, called the Pilgrim's Progress\nfrom this World to that which is to Come. At first the thoughts\npressed upon him as fast as he could write them, yet he says--\n\n\n'I did not think\nTo show to all the world my pen and ink\nIn such a mode.'\n\n\nAnd it was several years before he ventured to publish his beautiful\nallegory. He was released from prison in 1672, having been chosen\nin the previous year to be the pastor, or ministering elder of the\nchurch at Bedford. His time was then much occupied in re-organizing\nthe church, after years of tempest and fiery persecution. At length,\nhaving overcome his own and his friends' reluctance to publish so\nsolemn a work on the conversion of a sinner and his way to heaven,\nin the form of an allegory, the Pilgrim's Progress was printed in\n1678. The wonderful popularity of this book, and the great good\nit produced, led him again to turn his Grace Abounding into a\ndifferent form of narrative, in the more profound allegory of the\nHoly War; this was published in 1682, and in two years afterwards\nhe completed the Pilgrim by a delightful second part. His long\nincarceration, followed by sudden and great activity, probably\nbrought down his robust constitution; and as the end of his course\ndrew nigh, he was doubly diligent, for in 1688, before his death-day,\nwhich was in August, he published six important treatises, and\nhad prepared fourteen or fifteen others for the press. Among these\nwere his final and almost dying instructions to the pilgrim, under\nthe title of The Heavenly Footman, the man whom he describes in\nthe poetical apology to the Pilgrim's Progress, as he that\n\n\n'Runs and runs,\nTill he unto the gate of glory comes.'\n\n\nThis treatise sheds a lustre over the latter days of our immortal\nallegorist. It is evidently the production of a mind expanded and\nchastened with the rich experience of sanctified age. In it we\nare reminded of those important directions to heavenly footmen,\ncontained in his most admired books. Is there a Slough of Despond\nto be passed, and a hill Difficulty to be overcome? Here the footman\nis reminded of 'many a dirty step, many a high hill, a long and\ntedious journey through a vast howling wilderness'; but he is\nencouraged, 'the land of promise is at the end of the way.' Must\nthe man that would win eternal glory draw his sword, put on his\nhelmet, and fight his way into the temple--the heavenly footman\nmust press, crowd, and thrust through all that stand between heaven\nand his soul. Did Ignorance, who perished from the way, say to\nthe pilgrims, 'You go so fast, I must stay awhile behind?' He who\nruns to heaven is told that the heavy-heeled, lazy, wanton, and\nfoolish professor will not attain the prize. The wicket-gate,\nat the head of the way, is all-important; none can get to heaven\nunless they enter by Christ, the door and way, so the footman is\nreminded that it matters not how fast he runs, he can never attain\nthe prize, if he is in the wrong road. Did the pilgrims so severely\nsuffer from entering upon Byepath-meadow, and even after that\nbitter experience were they again misled into a bye path, by a\nblack man clothed in white raiment? Our footman is warned--Beware\nthen of bye and crooked paths that lead to death and damnation; the\nway to heaven is one, still there are many well-beaten bye paths\nthat butt or shoot down upon it, and which lead to destruction.\nTo prevent vain and foolish company from calling you out of the\npath, or from loitering in it, say, I am in haste, I am running\nfor a prize; if I win I am made, I win ALL; if I lose I lose all,\nand am undone. So it was with Faithful when even Christian, who\nsaw him before, cried Ho ho, so ho. Faithful answered, 'No, I\nam upon my life, the avenger of blood is behind me.' In the same\nway the pilgrims refused the invitations of Demas with his silver\nmine. No, says the heavenly footman, I am running for heaven, for\nmy soul, for God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation.\nDid the poor pilgrims go grunting, puffing, and sighing, one\ntumbleth over a bush, another sticks fast in the dirt, one cries\nout, I am down, and another, Ho! where are you? Pilgrim's Progress.\nSo the footman is told that he will 'meet with cross, pain, and\nwearisomeness to the flesh, with briars and quagmires, and other\nencumbrances,' through all which he must persevere. Did Formalist\nand Hypocrite turn off into bye ways at the foot of the hill\nDifficulty, and miserably perish? Did Mistrust and Timorous run\nback for fear of the persecuting lions, Church and State? So the\nman that runs for heaven is cautioned--'Some when they come at\nthe cross can go no further, but back again to their sins they\ngo, stumble and break their necks, or turn aside to the left or\nto the right, and perish.' Be not ready to halt, nor run hobbling\nand halting, but, like my Lord Will-be-will in the Holy War, when\nfighting against Diabolus, get thy will tipt with heavenly grace,\nand go full speed for heaven. These quotations tend to prove that\nthis invaluable treatise is a summary of the guide books which Bunyan\nhad before written. It was doubtless one of the last productions\nof his prolific pen.\n\nTwo passages in the Heavenly Footman appear to favour the idea,\nthat a period in life is, in some cases, fixed, beyond which there\nis no repentance; thus in a solemn warning against procrastination\nhe says, 'Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a\nweek longer or no? For the day of grace is past with some before\ntheir life is ended'; and 'sometimes sinners have not heaven gates\nopen to them so long as they suppose; and if they be once shut\nagainst a man, they are so heavy that all the men in the world,\nnor all the angels in heaven, can open them. Francis Spira can\ntell thee what it is to stay till the gate of mercy be quite shut.'\nIt becomes an interesting inquiry as to who Bunyan means by the\n'some' of whom he says, 'that the day of grace is past before\ntheir life is ended.' This cannot refer to those who, neglecting\nthe Saviour, are in a perishing condition. No minister felt a\nmore ardent desire to rouse them to a sense of their danger and\nto guard them against despair than John Bunyan. In his Jerusalem\nSinner Saved he thus argues 'Why despair? thou art yet in the\nland of the living.' 'It is a sin to begin to despair before one\nsets his foot over the threshold of hell gates.' 'What, despair\nof bread in a land that is full of corn? Despair of mercy when\nour God is full of mercy, thou scrupulous fool; despair when we\nhave a redeeming Christ alive. Let them despair that dwell where\nthere is no God, and that are confined to those chambers of death\nwhich can be reached by no redemption.' In Bunyan's Come and\nWelcome, he proves that it would be 'high blasphemy and damnable\nwickedness' to imagine that Christ would cast out any that come to\nGod by him. He cannot mean the backslider, for Bunyan was such.\nDavid also, to an awful extent, and Peter to the denial of his\nLord. No, he may mean those who, while neglecting the Saviour, are\novertaken by madness, or more probably to such as Judas, Spira, and\nothers who sell their Master, or renounce him. If a man abandons\nthe Saviour, there is no other name under heaven whereby he can\nbe saved; 'there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin'; he is a\ndespiser of God's way of salvation, and tramples under foot the\nSon of God. While such a career continues, fiery indignation must\nbe his wretched destiny. They who contemn the heavenly gift--the\nHoly Ghost--the word of God--the powers of the world to come--if\nthey persevere unto death in such sentiments, the day of grace\nis past. There have been some who, like Esau, having sold their\nbirthright, sought repentance even with tears, but found it not--they\nsought it not in God's appointed way. All hope depends upon such\nsinners coming unto Christ, humbled and broken-hearted. He is\nwilling, He is able to save even then to the uttermost, but they\nwill not. He has promised, and will perform his word, 'him that\ncometh to me I will in nowise cast out.' The volume of inspiration\nis crowned at its close with the same cheering encouragement, 'And\nthe Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst\ncome. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.'\nI cannot imagine that any man would have sung with greater pleasure\nthan Bunyan that hymn of Dr. Watts'--\n\n\n'Life is the time to serve the Lord,\nThe time to insure the great reward;\nAnd while the lamp holds out to burn,\nThe vilest sinner may return.'\n\n\nThey only who reject the counsel and mercy of God, shut heaven's\ngates against their own souls, and rush upon Jehovah's buckler\nlike Judas, or Spira, or like one of Bunyan's early friends, John\nChilds, who apostatized for fear of persecution, and perished by\nhis own hand. To such only the day of grace is past; they have set\nthemselves in the scorner's seat, from which they will be hurled\ninto unutterable wretchedness.\n\nBunyan well knew that idleness engenders poverty and crime, and\nis the parent of every evil; and he exhorts his runner to the\ngreatest diligence, not to 'fool away his soul' in slothfulness,\nwhich induces carelessness, until the sinner is remediless. Our\nfirst care is to get into the right way, and then so to run that\n'the devil, who is light of foot,' may not overtake and trip us\nup. Running to heaven does not prevent the true, the real enjoyment\nof earthly blessings, but sanctifies and heightens them. The great\nimpetus in our course is love to the prize--to Christ, to heaven;\n'having our affections set upon things above.' Looking unto Jesus.\nHis righteousness imputed unto us by the shedding of his blood,\nmarks all the road, and while we keep that in sight we cannot err.\nIn all earthly things we anticipate too much--but in the glories\nof heaven, our anticipations are feeble indeed, compared with\neternal realities. Could the saints in glory impart to us a sense\nof their indescribable happiness, with what activity and perseverance\nwe should run. The case of Lot, when flying from destruction, is\nput by Bunyan with peculiar force--he dared not to look back even\nto see what had become of his wife, lest death should overtake\nhis own soul. O, my reader, may we be stimulated so to run as to\nobtain that crown of glory which is imperishable, immortal, and\neternal.\n\nCharles Doe, one of Bunyan's personal friends, having purchased\nthe copyright of this work, kept it for some years, in hope\nof publishing it with other treatises, as a second folio volume,\nto complete his works; but failing in this object, he printed it\nseparately in 1698, and appended an interesting list of Bunyan's\nworks, with thirty cogent reasons why these invaluable labours\nshould be preserved and handed down, to bless succeeding ages.\n\nAn earnest desire to preserve, in their perfect integrity, all\nthe treatises as they were originally published, will induce me,\nat the end of the works, to reprint those interesting additions.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\nAN EPISTLE TO ALL THE SLOTHFUL AND CARELESS PEOPLE.\n\nFriends,\n\nSolomon saith, that 'The desire of the slothful killeth him'; and\nif so, what will slothfulness itself do to those that entertain\nit? (Prov 21:25). The proverb is, 'He that sleepeth in harvest is\na son that causeth shame' (Prov 10:5). And this I dare be bold to\nsay, no greater shame can befall a man, than to see that he hath\nfooled away his soul, and sinned away eternal life. And I am sure\nthis is the next way to do it; namely, to be slothful; slothful,\nI say, in the work of salvation. The vineyard of the slothful man,\nin reference to the things of this life, is not fuller of briars,\nnettles, and stinking weeds, than he that is slothful for heaven,\nhath his heart full of heart-choaking and soul-damning sin.\n\nSlothfulness hath these two evils: First, To neglect the time in\nwhich it should be getting of heaven; and by that means doth, in\nthe Second place, bring in untimely repentance. I will warrant you,\nthat he who shall lose his soul in this world through slothfulness,\nwill have no cause to be glad thereat when he comes to hell.\n\nSlothfulness is usually accompanied with carelessness, and\ncarelessness is for the most part begotten by senselessness; and\nsenselessness doth again put fresh strength into slothfulness,\nand by this means the soul is left remediless.\n\nSlothfulness shutteth out Christ; slothfulness shameth the soul\n(Cant 5:2-4; Prov 13:4).\n\nSlothfulness, it is condemned even by the feeblest of all the\ncreatures. 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and\nbe wise (Prov 6:6). The sluggard will not plow by reason of the\ncold' (20:4); that is, he will not break up the fallow ground\nof his heart, because there must be some pains taken by him that\nwill do it; 'therefore shall he beg in harvest,' that is, when\nthe saints of God shall have their glorious heaven and happiness\ngiven to them; but the sluggard shall 'have nothing,' that is, be\nnever the better for his crying for mercy, according to that in\nMatthew 25:10-12.\n\nIf you would know a sluggard in the things of heaven, compare him\nwith one that is slothful in the things of this world. As, 1. He\nthat is slothful is loth to set about the work he should follow:\nso is he that is slothful for heaven. 2. He that is slothful is\none that is willing to make delays: so is he that is slothful for\nheaven. 3. He that is a sluggard, any small matter that cometh\nin between, he will make it a sufficient excuse to keep him off\nfrom plying his work: so it is also with him that is slothful for\nheaven. 4. He that is slothful doth his work by the halves; and\nso it is with him that is slothful for heaven. He may almost, but\nhe shall never altogether obtain perfection of deliverance from\nhell; he may almost, but he shall never, without he mend, be\naltogether a saint. 5. They that are slothful, do usually lose the\nseason in which things are to be done: and thus it is also with\nthem that are slothful for heaven, they miss the season of grace.\nAnd therefore, 6. They that are slothful have seldom or never\ngood fruit: so also it will be with the soul-sluggard. 7. They that\nare slothful they are chid for the same: so also will Christ deal\nwith those that are not active for him. Thou wicked or slothful\nservant, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee; thou saidst\nI was thus, and thus, wherefore then gavest not thou my money to\nthe bank? &c. (Luke 19:22). Take the unprofitable servant, and\ncast him into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing\nof teeth (Matt 25:26-30).\n\nWHAT SHALL I SAY? Time runs; and will you be slothful? Much of your\nlives are past; and will you be slothful? Your souls are worth a\nthousand worlds; and will you be slothful? The day of death and\njudgment is at the door; and will you be slothful? The curse of\nGod hangs over your heads; and will you be slothful? Besides, the\ndevils are earnest, laborious, and seek by all means every day, by\nevery sin, to keep you out of heaven, and hinder you of salvation;\nand will you be slothful? Also your neighbours are diligent\nfor things that will perish; and will you be slothful for things\nthat will endure for ever? Would you be willing to be damned for\nslothfulness? Would you be willing the angels of God should neglect\nto fetch your souls away to heaven when you lie a-dying, and the\ndevils stand by ready to scramble for them?[1] Was Christ slothful\nin the work of your redemption? Are his ministers slothful in\ntendering this unto you? And, lastly, If all this will not move,\nI tell you God will not be slothful or negligent to damn you--whose\ndamnation now of a long time slumbereth not--nor the devils will\nnot neglect to fetch thee, nor hell neglect to shut its mouth upon\nthee.\n\nSluggard, art thou asleep still? art thou resolved to sleep the\nsleep of death? Wilt neither tidings from heaven or hell awake\nthee? Wilt thou say still, 'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,'\nand 'a little folding of the hands to sleep?' (Prov 6:10). Wilt\nthou yet turn thyself in thy sloth, as the door is turned upon\nthe hinges? O that I was one that was skilful in lamentation, and\nhad but a yearning heart towards thee, how would I pity thee! How\nwould I bemoan thee! O that I could with Jeremiah let my eyes run\ndown with rivers of water for thee! Poor soul, lost soul, dying\nsoul, what a hard heart have I that I cannot mourn for thee! If\nthou shouldst lose but a limb, a child, or a friend, it would not\nbe so much, but poor man it is THY SOUL; if it was to lie in hell\nbut for a day, but for a year, nay, ten thousand years, it would\n(in comparison) be nothing. But O it is for ever! O this cutting\nEVER! What a soul-amazing word will that be, which saith, 'Depart\nfrom me, ye cursed, into EVERLASTING fire'! &c.[2]\n\nObject. But if I should set in, and run as you would have me, then\nI must run from all my friends; for none of them are running that\nway.\n\nAnsw. And if thou dost, thou wilt run into the bosom of Christ\nand of God, and then what harm will that do thee?\n\nObject. But if I run this way, then I must run from all my sins.\n\nAnsw. That is true indeed; yet if thou dost not, thou wilt run\ninto hell-fire.\n\nObject. But if I run this way, then I shall be hated, and lose\nthe love of my friends and relations, and of those that I expect\nbenefit from, or have reliance on, and I shall be mocked of all\nmy neighbours.\n\nAnsw. And if thou dost not, thou art sure to lose the love and\nfavour of God and Christ, the benefit of heaven and glory, and be\nmocked of God for thy folly, 'I also will laugh at your calamity;\nI will mock when your fear cometh'; and if thou wouldst not be hated\nand mocked, then take heed thou by thy folly dost not procure the\ndispleasure and mockings of the great God; for his mocks and hatred\nwill be terrible, because they will fall upon thee in terrible\ntimes, even when tribulation and anguish taketh hold on thee;\nwhich will be when death and judgment comes, when all the men in\nthe earth, and all the angels in heaven, cannot help thee (Prov\n1:26-28).\n\nObject. But surely I may begin this time enough, a year or two\nhence, may I not?\n\nAnsw. 1. Hast thou any lease of thy life? Did ever God tell thee\nthou shalt live half a year, or two months longer? nay, it may\nbe thou mayst not live so long. And therefore, 2. Wilt thou be so\nsottish and unwise, as to venture thy soul upon a little uncertain\ntime? 3. Dost thou know whether the day of grace will last a week\nlonger or no? For the day of grace is past with some before their\nlife is ended: and if it should be so with thee, wouldst thou not\nsay, O that I had begun to run before the day of grace had been\npast, and the gates of heaven shut against me. But, 4. If thou\nshouldst see any of thy neighbours neglect the making sure of\neither house or land to themselves, if they had it proffered to\nthem, saying, Time enough hereafter, when the time is uncertain;\nand besides, they do not know whether ever it will be proffered to\nthem again, or no: I say, Wouldst thou not then call them fools?\nAnd if so, then dost thou think that thou art a wise man to let\nthy immortal soul hang over hell by a thread of uncertain time,\nwhich may soon be cut asunder by death?\n\nBut to speak plainly, all these are the words of a slothful spirit.\nArise man, be slothful no longer; set foot, and heart, and all\ninto the way of God, and run, the crown is at the end of the race;\nthere also standeth the loving fore-runner, even Jesus, who hath\nprepared heavenly provision to make thy soul welcome, and he will\ngive it thee with a willinger heart than ever thou canst desire it\nof him. O therefore do not delay the time any longer, but put into\npractice the words of the men of Dan to their brethren, after they\nhad seen the goodness of the land of Canaan: 'Arise,' say they,\n&c., 'for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good; and\nare ye still,' or do you forbear running? 'Be not slothful to go,\nand to enter to possess the land' (Judg 18:9). Farewell.\n\nI wish our souls may meet with comfort at the journey's end.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\n\nTHE HEAVENLY FOOTMAN\n\n'So run, that ye may obtain.'--1 Corinthians 9:24.\n\nHeaven and happiness is that which every one desireth, insomuch that\nwicked Balaam could say, 'Let me die the death of the righteous,\nand let my last end be like his' (Num 23:10). Yet for all this,\nthere are but very few that do obtain that ever-to-be-desired glory,\ninsomuch that many eminent professors drop short of a welcome from\nGod into his pleasant place.\n\nThe apostle, therefore, because he did desire the salvation of the\nsouls of the Corinthians, to whom he writes this epistle, layeth\nthem down in these words, such counsel, which if taken, would be\nfor their help and advantage. First, Not to be wicked, and sit\nstill, and wish for heaven; but TO RUN for it. Second, Not to\ncontent themselves with every kind of running; but, saith he, 'So\nRUN, that ye may obtain.' As if he should say, Some, because they\nwould not lose their souls, they begin to run betimes (Eccl 12:1),\nthey run apace, they run with patience (Heb 12:1), they run the\nright way (Matt 14:26). Do you so run? Some run from both father\nand mother, friends and companions, and thus, that they may have\nthe crown. Do you so run? Some run through temptations, afflictions,\ngood report, evil report, that they may win the pearl (1 Cor 4:13;\n2 Cor 6). Do you so run? 'So run that ye may obtain.'\n\nThese words, they are taken from men's running for a wager: a very\napt similitude to set before the eyes of the saints of the Lord.\n'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one\nreceiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.' That is, do not\nonly run, but be sure you win as well as run. 'So run, that ye\nmay obtain.'\n\nI shall not need to make any great ado in opening the words at\nthis time, but shall rather lay down one doctrine that I do find\nin them; and in prosecuting that, I shall show you, in some measure,\nthe scope of the words.\n\n[I. THE DOCTRINE OF THE TEXT.]\n\nThe doctrine is this: THEY THAT WILL HAVE HEAVEN, MUST RUN FOR\nIT; I say, they that will have heaven, they must run for it. I\nbeseech you to heed it well. 'Know ye not that they which run in\na race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run ye.' The prize\nis heaven, and if you will have it, you must run for it. You have\nanother scripture for this in the 12th of the Hebrews, the 1st,\n2d, and 3rd verses: 'Wherefore seeing we also,' saith the apostle,\n'are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us\nlay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset\nus, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.'\nAnd LET US RUN, saith he. Again, saith Paul, 'I therefore so run,\nnot as uncertainly, so fight I,' &c.\n\n[II. THE WORD RUN OPENED.]\n\nBut before I go any further, observe,\n\nFirst--FLYING--That this running is not an ordinary, or any sort\nof running, but it is to be understood of the swiftest sort of\nrunning; and therefore in the 6th of the Hebrews it is called 'a\nfleeing'; that 'we might have a strong consolation, who have fled\nfor refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' Mark, 'who\nhave fled.' It is taken from that 20th of Joshua, concerning\nthe man that was to flee to the city of refuge, when the avenger\nof blood was hard at his heels, to take vengeance on him for the\noffence he had committed; therefore it is a RUNNING or FLYING for\none's life. A running with all might and main, as we use to say.\nSo run!\n\nSecond--PRESSING--this running in another place is called a\npressing. 'I press toward the mark' (Phil 3:14); which signifieth,\nthat they that will have heaven, they must not stick at any\ndifficulties they meet with; but press, crowd, and thrust through\nall that may stand between heaven and their souls. So run!\n\nThird--CONTINUING--this running is called in another place, 'a\ncontinuing in the way of life. If ye continue in the faith grounded,\nand settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel'\nof Christ (Col 1:23). Not to run a little now and then, by fits\nand starts, or half-way, or almost thither; but to run for my life,\nto run through all difficulties, and to continue therein to the\nend of the race, which must be to the end of my life. 'So run,\nthat ye may obtain.'\n\n[III. SEVERAL REASONS FOR CLEARING THIS DOCTRINE.]\n\nAnd the reasons for this point are these,\n\nFirst. Because all or every one that runneth doth not obtain the\nprize; there be many that do run, yea, and run far too, who yet\nmiss of the crown that standeth at the end of the race. You know\nthat all that run in a race do not obtain the victory; they all\nrun, but one wins. And so it is here; it is not every one that\nrunneth, nor every one that seeketh, nor every one that striveth\nfor the mastery, that hath it (Luke 13). Though a man do strive\nfor the mastery, saith Paul, 'yet he is not crowned, except he\nstrive lawfully'; that is, unless he so run, and so strive, as to\nhave God's approbation (2 Tim 2:5). What, do you think that every\nheavy-heeled professor will have heaven? What, every lazy one; every\nwanton and foolish professor, that will be stopped by anything,\nkept back by anything, that scarce runneth so fast heaven-ward\nas a snail creepeth on the ground? Nay, there are some professors\ndo not go on so fast in the way of God as a snail doth go on the\nwall; and yet these think, that heaven and happiness is for them.\nBut stay, there are many more that run than there be that obtain;\ntherefore he that will have heaven must RUN for it.\n\nSecond, Because you know that though a man do run, yet if he do not\novercome, or win, as well as run, what will he be the better for\nhis running? He will get nothing. You know the man that runneth,\nhe doth do it that he may win the prize; but if he doth not obtain,\nhe doth lose his labour, spend his pains and time, and that to no\npurpose; I say, he getteth nothing. And ah! how many such runners\nwill there be found at the day of judgment! Even multitudes,\nmultitudes that have run, yea, run so far as to come to heaven\ngates, and not able to get any further, but there stand knocking,\nwhen it is too late, crying, Lord, Lord, when they have nothing\nbut rebukes for their pains. Depart from me, you come not here,\nyou come too late, you run too lazily; the door is shut.[3] 'When\nonce the master of the house is risen up,' saith Christ, 'and hath\nshut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at\nthe door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, I will say, I know ye\nnot, Depart,' &c. (Luke 13:25). O sad will the estate of those be\nthat run and miss; therefore, if you will have heaven, you must\nrun for it; and 'so run that ye may obtain.'\n\nThird, Because the way is long (I speak metaphorically), and there\nis many a dirty step, many a high hill, much work to do, a wicked\nheart, world, and devil, to overcome; I say, there are many steps to\nbe taken by those that intend to be saved, by running or walking,\nin the steps of that faith of our father Abraham. Out of Egypt\nthou must go through the Red Sea; thou must run a long and tedious\njourney, through the vast howling wilderness, before thou come to\nthe land of promise.\n\nFourth, They that will go to heaven they must run for it; because,\nas the way is long, so the time in which they are to get to the\nend of it is very uncertain; the time present is the only time;\nthou hast no more time allotted thee than that thou now enjoyest.\n'Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day\nmay bring forth' (Prov 27:1). Do not say, I have time enough to\nget to heaven seven years hence; for I tell thee, the bell may\ntoll for thee before seven days more be ended;[4] and when death\ncomes, away thou must go, whether thou art provided or not; and\ntherefore look to it; make no delays; it is not good dallying\nwith things of so great concernment as the salvation or damnation\nof thy soul. You know he that hath a great way to go in a little\ntime, and less by half than he thinks of, he had need RUN for it.\n\nFifth, They that will have heaven they must run for it; because the\ndevil, the law, sin, death, and hell, follow them. There is never\na poor soul that is going to heaven, but the devil, the law, sin,\ndeath, and hell, make after that soul. 'Your adversary, the devil,\nas a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour' (1\nPeter 5:8). And I will assure you, the devil is nimble, he can\nrun apace, he is light of foot, he hath overtaken many, he hath\nturned up their heels, and hath given them an everlasting fall.\nAlso the law, that can shoot a great way, have a care thou keep\nout of the reach of those great guns, the ten commandments. Hell\nalso hath a wide mouth; it can stretch itself further than you are\naware of. And as the angel said to Lot, Take heed, 'look not behind\nthee, neither tarry thou in all the plain,' that is, any where\nbetween this and heaven, 'lest thou be consumed' (Gen 19:17).[5]\nSo say I to thee, Take heed, tarry not, lest either the devil,\nhell, death, or the fearful curses of the law of God, do overtake\nthee, and throw thee down in the midst of thy sins, so as never to\nrise and recover again. If this were well considered, then thou,\nas well as I, wouldst say, They that will have heaven must run\nfor it.\n\nSixth, They that will go to heaven must run for it; because perchance\nthe gates of heaven may be shut shortly. Sometimes sinners have\nnot heaven-gates open to them so long as they suppose; and if\nthey be once shut against a man, they are so heavy, that all the\nmen in the world, nor all the angels in heaven, are not able to\nopen them. I shut, 'and no man openeth,' saith Christ. And how\nif thou shouldst come but one quarter of an hour too late? I tell\nthee, it will cost thee an eternity to bewail thy misery in. Francis\nSpira can tell thee what it is to stay till the gate of mercy be\nquite shut; or to run so lazily, that they be shut before thou\nget within them.[6] What, to be shut out! what, out of heaven!\nSinner, rather than lose it, run for it; yea, and 'so run that\nthou mayst obtain.'\n\nSeventh, Lastly, Because if thou lose, thou losest all, thou losest\nsoul, God, Christ, heaven, ease, peace, &c. Besides, thou layest\nthyself open to all the shame, contempt, and reproach, that either\nGod, Christ, saints, the world, sin, the devil, and all, can lay\nupon thee. As Christ saith of the foolish builder, so will I say\nof thee, if thou be such a one who runs and missest; I say, even\nall that go by will begin to mock at thee, saying, This man began\nto run well, but was not able to finish (Luke 14:28-30). But more\nof this anon.\n\nQuest. But how should a poor soul do to run? For this very thing\nis that which afflicteth me sore, as you say, to think that I may\nrun, and yet fall short. Methinks to fall short at last, O, it\nfears me greatly. Pray tell me, therefore, how I should run.\n\nAnsw. That thou mightest indeed be satisfied in this particular,\nconsider these following things.\n\n[IV. NINE DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN]\n\nThe First Direction. If thou wouldst so run as to obtain the kingdom\nof heaven, then be sure that thou get into the way that leadeth\nthither. For it is a vain thing to think that ever thou shalt have\nthe prize, though thou runnest never so fast, unless thou art in\nthe way that leads to it. Set the case, that there should be a man\nin London that was to run to York for a wager; now, though he run\nnever so swiftly, yet if he run full south, he might run himself\nquickly out of breath, and be never the nearer the prize, but\nrather the further off. Just so is it here; it is not simply the\nrunner, nor yet the hasty runner, that winneth the crown, unless\nhe be in the way that leadeth thereto.[7] I have observed, that\nlittle time which I have been a professor, that there is a great\nrunning to and fro, some this way, and some that way, yet it is\nto be feared most of them are out of the way, and then, though\nthey run as swift as the eagle can fly, they are benefitted nothing\nat all.\n\nHere is one runs a-quaking, another a-ranting; one again runs after\nthe Baptism, and another after the Independency. Here is one for\nfree-will, and another for Presbytery; and yet possibly most of\nall these sects run quite the wrong way, and yet every one is for\nhis life, his soul, either for heaven or hell.[8]\n\nIf thou now say, Which is the way? I tell thee it is CHRIST, THE\nSON OF MARY, THE SON OF GOD, Jesus saith, 'I am the way, and the\ntruth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me' (John\n14:6). So then thy business is, if thou wouldst have salvation,\nto see if Christ be thine, with all his benefits; whether he hath\ncovered thee with his righteousness, whether he hath showed thee\nthat thy sins are washed away with his heart-blood, whether thou\nart planted into him, and whether thou have faith in him, so as\nto make a life out of him, and to conform thee to him. That is,\nsuch faith as to conclude that thou art righteous, because Christ\nis thy righteousness, and so constrained to walk with him as the\njoy of thy heart, because he saveth thy soul. And for the Lord's\nsake take heed, and do not deceive thyself, and think thou art\nin the way upon too slight grounds; for if thou miss of the way,\nthou wilt miss of the prize; and if thou miss of that, I am sure\nthou wilt lose thy soul, even that soul which is worth more than\nthe whole world.\n\nBut I have treated more largely on this in my book of the two\ncovenants, and therefore shall pass it now; only I beseech thee\nto have a care of thy soul, and that thou mayest so do, take this\ncounsel: Mistrust thy own strength, and throw it away; down on\nthy knees in prayer to the Lord for the spirit of truth; search\nhis word for direction; fly seducers' company; keep company with\nthe soundest Christians, that have most experience of Christ; and\nbe sure thou have a care of Quakers, Ranters, Freewillers; also\ndo not have too much company with some Anabaptists, though I go\nunder that name myself. I tell thee this is such a serious matter,\nand I fear thou wilt so little regard it, that the thoughts of the\nworth of the thing, and of thy too light regarding of it, doth\neven make my heart ache whilst I am writing to thee. The Lord teach\nthee the way by his Spirit, and then I am sure thou wilt know it.\nSO RUN.\n\nOnly by the way, let me bid thee have a care of two things, and\nso I shall pass to the next thing.\n\nI. Have a care of relying on the outward obedience to any of God's\ncommands, or thinking thyself ever the better in the sight of God\nfor that. 2. Take heed of fetching peace for thy soul from any\ninherent righteousness; but if thou canst believe that as thou\nart a sinner, so thou art justified freely by the love of God,\nthrough the redemption that is in Christ; and that God for Christ's\nsake hath forgiven thee, not because he saw any thing done, or to\nbe done, in or by thee, to move him thereunto to do it; for that\nis the right way; the Lord put thee into it, and keep thee in it.\n\nThe Second Direction. As thou shouldst get into the way so thou\nshouldst also be much in studying and musing on the way. You\nknow men that would be expert in any thing, they are usually much\nin studying of that thing, and so likewise is it with those that\nquickly grow expert in any way. This therefore thou shouldst do;\nlet thy study be much exercised about Christ, which is the way;\nwhat he is, what he hath done, and why he is what he is, and why\nhe hath done what is done; as, why 'He took upon him the form of\na servant,' why he 'was made in the likeness of men' (Phil 2:7).\nWhy he cried; why he died; why he bear the sin of the world; why\nhe was made sin, and why he was made righteousness; why he is in\nheaven in the nature of man, and what he doth there? (2 Cor 5:21).\nBe much in musing and considering of these things; be thinking\nalso enough of those places which thou must not come near, but\nleave some on this hand, and some on that hand; as it is with those\nthat travel into other countries, they must leave such a gate on\nthis hand, and such a bush on that hand, and go by such a place,\nwhere standeth such a thing. Thus, therefore, thou must do: Avoid\nsuch things which are expressly forbidden in the Word of God.\n'Withdraw thy foot far from her, and come not nigh the door of her\nhouse, for her steps take hold on hell, going down to the chambers\nof death' (Prov 5, 7). And so of every thing that is not in the\nway, have a care of it, that thou go not by it; come not near it,\nhave nothing to do with it. SO RUN.\n\nThe Third Direction. Not only thus, but, in the next place, thou\nmust strip thyself of those things that may hang upon thee to the\nhindering of thee in the way to the kingdom of heaven, as covetousness,\npride, lust, or whatever else thy heart may be inclining unto,\nwhich may hinder thee in this heavenly race. Men that run for a\nwager, if they intend to win as well as run, they do not use to\nencumber themselves, or carry those things about them that may\nbe a hindrance to them in their running. 'Every man that striveth\nfor the mastery is temperate in all things' (1 Cor 9:25), that is,\nhe layeth aside every thing that would be any ways a disadvantage\nto him; as saith the apostle, 'Let us lay aside every weight, and\nthe sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience\nthe race that is set before us' (Heb 12:1). It is but a vain thing\nto talk of going to heaven, if thou let thy heart be encumbered\nwith those things that would hinder. Would you not say that such\na man would be in danger of losing, though he run, if he fill his\npockets with stones, hang heavy garments on his shoulders, and\ngreat lumpish shoes on his feet?[9] So it is here; thou talkest of\ngoing to heaven, and yet fillest thy pocket with stones, i.e.,\nfillest thy heart with this world, lettest that hang on thy\nshoulders, with its profits and pleasures. Alas, alas, thou art\nwidely mistaken! If thou intendest to win, thou must strip, thou\nmust lay aside every weight, thou must be temperate in all things.\nThou must SO RUN.\n\nThe Fourth Direction. Beware of by-paths; take heed thou dost not\nturn into those lanes which lead out of the way. There are crooked\npaths, paths in which men go astray, paths that lead to death and\ndamnation, but take heed of all those (Isa 59:8). Some of them\nare dangerous because of practice (Prov 7:25); some because of\nopinion, but mind them not; mind the path before thee, look right\nbefore thee, turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but\nlet thine eyes look right on, even right before thee (Prov 3:17).\n'Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.\nTurn not to the right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot far\nfrom evil' (Prov 4:26,27). This counsel being not so seriously taken\nas given, is the reason of that starting from opinion to opinion,\nreeling this way and that way, out of this lane into that lane,\nand so missing the way to the kingdom. Though the way to heaven\nbe but one, yet there are many crooked lanes and by-paths shoot\ndown upon it, as I may say. And again, notwithstanding the kingdom\nof heaven be the biggest city, yet usually those by-paths are most\nbeaten, most travellers go those ways; and therefore the way to\nheaven is hard to be found, and as hard to be kept in, by reason\nof these. Yet, nevertheless, it is in this case as it was with the\nharlot of Jericho; she had one scarlet thread tied in her window,\nby which her house was known (John 2:18). So it is here, the\nscarlet streams of Christ's blood run throughout the way to the\nkingdom of heaven;[10] therefore mind that, see if thou do find\nthe besprinkling of the blood of Christ in the way, and if thou\ndo, be of good cheer, thou art in the right way; but have a care\nthou beguile not thyself with a fancy, for then thou mayst light\ninto any lane or way; but that thou mayst not be mistaken, consider,\nthough it seem never so pleasant, yet if thou do not find that in\nthe very middle of the road there is writing with the heart-blood\nof Christ, that he came into the world to save sinners, and that\nwe are justified, though we are ungodly; shun that way; for this\nit is which the apostle meaneth when he saith, We have 'boldness\nto enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and\nliving way which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that\nis to say, his flesh' (Heb 10:19,20). How easy a matter is it in\nthis our day, for the devil to be too cunning for poor souls, by\ncalling his by-paths the way to the kingdom! If such an opinion\nor fancy be but cried up by one or more, this inscription being\nset upon it by the devil, 'This is the way of God,' how speedily,\ngreedily, and by heaps, do poor simple souls throw away themselves\nupon it; especially if it be daubed over with a few external acts\nof morality, if so good.[11] But this is because men do not know\npainted by-paths from the plain way to the kingdom of heaven. They\nhave not yet learned the true Christ, and what his righteousness\nis, neither have they a sense of their own insufficiency; but are\nbold, proud, presumptuous, self-conceited. And therefore.\n\nThe Fifth Direction. Do not thou be too much in looking too high\nin thy journey heavenwards. You know men that run in a race do\nnot use to stare and gaze this way and that, neither do they use\nto cast up their eyes too high, lest happily,[12] through their\ntoo too much gazing with their eyes after other things, they in\nthe meantime stumble and catch a fall. The very same case is this;\nif thou gaze and stare after every opinion and way that comes\ninto the world; also if thou be prying overmuch into God's secret\ndecrees, or let thy heart too much entertain questions about some\nnice foolish curiosities, thou mayst stumble and fall, as many\nhundreds in England have done, both in Ranting and Quakery, to\ntheir own eternal overthrow; without the marvellous operation of\nGod's grace be suddenly stretched forth to bring them back again.\nTake heed therefore, follow not that proud and lofty spirit, that,\ndevil-like, cannot be content with his own station. David was of\nan excellent spirit where he saith, 'Lord, my heart is not haughty,\nnor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters,\nor in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted\nmyself as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even\nas a weaned child' (Psa 131:1,2). Do thou SO RUN.\n\nThe Sixth Direction. Take heed that you have not an ear open to\nevery one that calleth after you as you are in your journey. Men\nthat run, you know, if any do call after them, saying, I would\nspeak with you, or go not too fast, and you shall have my company\nwith you, if they run for some great matter, they use to say, Alas,\nI cannot stay, I am in haste, pray talk not to me now; neither can\nI stay for you, I am running for a wager: if I win I am made, if\nI lose I am undone, and therefore hinder me not. Thus wise are\nmen when they run for corruptible things, and thus should thou\ndo, and thou hast more cause to do so than they, forasmuch as they\nrun but for things that last not, but thou for an incorruptible\nglory. I give thee notice of this betimes, knowing that thou shalt\nhave enough call after thee, even the devil, sin, this world, vain\ncompany, pleasures, profits, esteem among men, ease, pomp, pride,\ntogether with an innumerable company of such companions; one\ncrying, Stay for me; the other saying, Do not leave me behind; a\nthird saying, And take me along with you. What, will you go, saith\nthe devil, without your sins, pleasures, and profits? Are you so\nhasty? Can you not stay and take these along with you? Will you\nleave your friends and companions behind you? Can you not do as\nyour neighbours do, carry the world, sin, lust, pleasure, profit,\nesteem among men, along with you? Have a care thou do not let\nthine ear now be open to the tempting, enticing, alluring, and\nsoul-entangling flatteries of such sink-souls[13] as these are.\n'My son,' saith Solomon, 'if sinners entice thee, consent thou\nnot' (Prov 1:10).\n\nYou know what it cost the young man which Solomon speaks of in\nthe 7th of the Proverbs, that was enticed by a harlot, 'With her\nmuch fair speech she' won him, and 'caused him to yield, with the\nflattering of her lips she forced him,' till he went after her\n'as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the\nstocks'; even so far, 'till the dart struck through his liver, and\nknew not that it was for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore,'\nsaith he, 'O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth, let\nnot thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths,\nfor she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been\nslain by her,' that is, kept out of heaven by her, 'her house is\nthe way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.' Soul, take\nthis counsel and say, Satan, sin, lust, pleasure, profit, pride,\nfriends, companions, and everything else, let me alone, stand\noff, come not nigh me, for I am running for heaven, for my soul,\nfor God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation: if\nI win, I win all, and if I lose, I lose all; let me alone, for I\nwill not hear. SO RUN.\n\nThe Seventh Direction. In the next place, be not daunted though\nthou meetest with never so many discouragements in thy journey\nthither. That man that is resolved for heaven, if Satan cannot win\nhim by flatteries, he will endeavour to weaken him by discouragements;\nsaying, thou art a sinner, thou hast broke God's law, thou art\nnot elected, thou comest too late, the day of grace is past, God\ndoth not care for thee, thy heart is naught, thou art lazy, with\na hundred other discouraging suggestions. And thus it was with\nDavid, where he said, 'I had fainted, unless I had believed to see\nthe goodness of the Lord in the land of the living' (Psa 27:13,14).\nAs if he should say, the devil did so rage and my heart was so\nbase, that had I judged according to my own sense and feeling,\nI had been absolutely distracted; but I trusted to Christ in the\npromise, and looked that God would be as good as his promise, in\nhaving mercy upon me, an unworthy sinner; and this is that which\nencouraged me, and kept me from fainting. And thus must thou\ndo when Satan, or the law, or thy own conscience, do go about to\ndishearten thee, either by the greatness of thy sins, the wickedness\nof thy heart, the tediousness of the way, the loss of outward\nenjoyments, the hatred that thou wilt procure from the world, or\nthe like; then thou must encourage thyself with the freeness of\nthe promises, the tender-heartedness of Christ, the merits of his\nblood, the freeness of his invitations to come in, the greatness\nof the sin of others that have been pardoned, and that the same\nGod, through the same Christ, holdeth forth the same grace free\nas ever. If these be not thy meditations, thou wilt draw very\nheavily in the way to heaven, if thou do not give up all for lost,\nand so knock off from following any farther; therefore, I say, take\nheart in thy journey, and say to them that seek thy destruction,\n'Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall I shall arise,\nwhen I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me' (Micah\n7:8). SO RUN.\n\nThe Eighth Direction. Take heed of being offended at the cross that\nthou must go by, before thou come to heaven. You must understand,\nas I have already touched, that there is no man that goeth to heaven\nbut he must go by the cross. The cross is the standing way-mark\nby which all they that go to glory must pass by. 'We must through\nmuch tribulation enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22).\n'Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer\npersecution' (2 Tim 3:12). If thou art in the way to the kingdom,\nmy life for thine thou wilt come at the cross shortly--the Lord\ngrant thou dost not shrink at it, so as to turn thee back again.\n'If any man will come after me,' saith Christ, 'let him deny\nhimself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me' (Luke 9:23).\nThe cross it stands, and hath stood, from the beginning, as\na way-mark to the kingdom of heaven.[14] You know if one ask you\nthe way to such and such a place, you, for the better direction,\ndo not only say, this is the way, but then also say, you must go\nby such a gate, by such a style, such a bush, tree, bridge, or such\nlike. Why, so it is here; art thou inquiring the way to heaven?\nWhy, I tell thee, Christ is the way; into him thou must get, into\nhis righteousness, to be justified; and if thou art in him, thou\nwilt presently see the cross, thou must go close by it, thou must\ntouch it, nay, thou must take it up, or else thou wilt quickly\ngo out of the way that leads to heaven, and turn up some of those\ncrooked lanes that lead down to the chambers of death.\n\nHow thou mayest know the cross by these six things. 1. It\nis known in the doctrine of justification. 2. In the doctrine of\nmortification. 3. In the doctrine of perseverance. 4. In self-denial.\n5. Patience. 6. Communion with poor saints.\n\n1. In the doctrine of justification; there is a great deal of the\ncross in that: a man is forced to suffer the destruction of his\nown righteousness for the righteousness of another. This is no\neasy matter for a man to do; I assure to you it stretcheth every\nvein in his heart before he will be brought to yield to it. What,\nfor a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw away all his prayers,\ntears, alms, keeping of sabbaths, hearing, reading, with the rest,\nin the point of justification, and to count them accursed;[15]\nand to be willing, in the very midst of the sense of his sins,\nto throw himself wholly upon the righteousness and obedience of\nanother man, abhorring his own, counting it as deadly sin, as the\nopen breach of the law; I say, to do this in deed and in truth,\nis the biggest piece of the cross; and therefore Paul calleth this\nvery thing a suffering; where he saith, 'And I have SUFFERED the\nloss of all things,' which principally was his righteousness,\n'that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having,' but\nrejecting, 'mine own righteousness' (Phil 3:8,9). That is the\nfirst.\n\n2. In the doctrine of mortification is also much of the cross. Is\nit nothing for a man to lay hands on his vile opinions, on his\nvile sins, of his bosom sins, of his beloved, pleasant, darling\nsins, that stick as close to him, as the flesh sticketh to the\nbones? What, to lose all these brave things that my eyes behold,\nfor that which I never saw with my eyes? What, to lose my pride,\nmy covetousness, my vain company, sports, and pleasures, and the\nrest? I tell you this is no easy matter; if it were, what need\nall those prayers, sighs, watchings? What need we be so backward\nto it? Nay, do you not see, that some men, before they will set\nabout this work, they will even venture the loss of their souls,\nheaven, God, Christ, and all? What means else all those delays\nand put-offs, saying, Stay a little longer, I am loth to leave my\nsins while I am so young, and in health? Again, what is the reason\nelse, that others do it so by the halves, coldly and seldom,\nnotwithstanding they are convinced over and over; nay, and also\npromise to amend, and yet all's in vain? I will assure you, to\ncut off right hands, and to pluck out right eyes, is no pleasure\nto the flesh.\n\n3. The doctrine of perseverance is also cross to the flesh; which\nis not only to begin, but for to hold out, not only to bid fair,\nand to say, Would I had heaven, but so to know Christ, to put on\nChrist, and walk with Christ as to come to heaven. Indeed, it is\nno great matter to begin to look for heaven, to begin to seek the\nLord, to begin to shun sin. O but it is a very great matter to\ncontinue with God's approbation! 'My servant Caleb,' saith God,\nis a man of 'another spirit, he hath followed me,' followed me\nalways, he hath continually followed me, 'fully, he shall possess the\nland' (Num 14:24). Almost all the many thousands of the children\nof Israel in their generation, fell short of perseverance when\nthey walked from Egypt towards the land of Canaan. Indeed they\nwent to the work at first pretty willingly, but they were very\nshort-winded, they were quickly out of breath, and in their hearts\nthey turned back again into Egypt.\n\nIt is an easy matter for a man to run hard for a spurt, for a\nfurlong, for a mile or two; O, but to hold out for a hundred, for\na thousand, for ten thousand miles: that man that doth this, he\nmust look to meet with cross, pain, and wearisomeness to the flesh,\nespecially if as he goeth he meeteth with briars and quagmires,\nand other incumbrances, that make his journey so much the more\npainfuller.\n\nNay, do you not see with your eyes daily, that perseverance is a\nvery great part of the cross? why else do men so soon grow weary?\nI could point out a many, that after they have followed the ways\nof God about a twelvemonth, others it may be two, three, or four,\nsome more, and some less years, they have been beat out of wind,\nhave taken up their lodging and rest before they have got half-way\nto heaven, some in this, and some in that sin; and have secretly,\nnay, sometimes openly said, that the way is too strait, the race\ntoo long, the religion too holy, and cannot hold out, I can go no\nfarther.\n\n4, 5, 6. And so likewise of the other three, to wit, patience,\nself-denial, communion, and communication with and to the poor\nsaints. How hard are these things? It is an easy matter to deny\nanother man, but it is not so easy a matter to deny one's self;\nto deny myself out of love to God, to his gospel, to his saints,\nof this advantage, and of that gain; nay, of that which otherwise\nI might lawfully do, were it not for offending them. That scripture\nis but seldom read, and seldomer put in practice, which saith, 'I\nwill eat no flesh while the world standeth, if it make my brother\nto offend' (1 Cor 8:13). Again, 'We that are strong ought to bear\nthe infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves' (Rom\n15:1). But how froward, how hasty, how peevish, and self-resolved\nare the generality of professors at this day! Also, how little\nconsidering the poor, unless it be to say, Be thou warmed and\nfilled! But to give is a seldom work; also especially to give to\nany poor (Gal 6:10). I tell you all things are cross to flesh and\nblood; and that man that hath but a watchful eye over the flesh,\nand also some considerable measure of strength against it, he\nshall find his heart in these things like unto a starting horse,\nthat is rid without a curbing bridle, ready to start at everything\nthat is offensive to him; yea, and ready to run away too, do what\nthe rider can.\n\nIt is the cross which keepeth those that are kept from heaven. I\nam persuaded, were it not for the cross, where we have one professor,\nwe should have twenty; but this cross, that is it which spoileth\nall.\n\nSome men, as I said before, when they come at the cross they can\ngo no farther, but back again to their sins they must go. Others\nthey stumble at it, and break their necks; others again, when they\nsee the cross is approaching, they turn aside to the left hand,\nor to the right hand, and so think to get to heaven another way;\nbut they will be deceived. 'Yea, and all that will live godly in\nChrist Jesus SHALL,' mark, shall be sure to 'suffer persecution'\n(2 Tim 3:12). There are but few when they come at the cross, cry,\n'Welcome cross,' as some of the martyrs did to the stake they were\nburned at. Therefore, if thou meet with the cross in thy journey,\nin what manner soever it be, be not daunted, and say, Alas, what\nshall I do now! But rather take courage, knowing, that by the\ncross is the way to the kingdom. Can a man believe in Christ and\nnot be hated by the devil? Can he make a profession of this Christ,\nand that sweetly and convincingly, and the children of Satan hold\ntheir tongue? Can darkness agree with light? or the devil endure\nthat Christ Jesus should be honoured both by faith and a heavenly\nconversation, and let that soul alone at quiet? Did you never read,\nthat 'the dragon persecuteth the woman?' (Rev 12). And that Christ\nsaith, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation' (John 16:33).\n\nThe Ninth Direction. Beg of God that he would do these two things\nfor thee: First, Enlighten thine understanding. And, Second,\nInflame thy will. If these two be but effectually done, there is\nno fear but thou wilt go safe to heaven.\n\n[First, Enlighten thine understanding.] One of the great reasons\nwhy men and women do so little regard the other world, it is\nbecause they see so little of it.[16] And the reason why they see\nso little of it is because they have their understandings darkened.\nAnd therefore, saith Paul, do not you believers 'walk as do other\nGentiles, even in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding\ndarkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance,'\nor foolishness 'that is in them, because of the blindness of their\nheart' (Eph 4:17,18). Walk not as those, run not with them: alas,\npoor souls, they have their understandings darkened, their hearts\nblinded, and that is the reason they have such undervaluing thoughts\nof the Lord Jesus Christ, and the salvation of their souls. For\nwhen men do come to see the things of another world, what a God,\nwhat a Christ, what a heaven, and what an eternal glory there is\nto be enjoyed; also when they see that it is possible for them\nto have a share in it, I tell you it will make them run through\nthick and thin to enjoy it. Moses, having a sight of this, because\nhis understanding was enlightened, he feared not the wrath of the\nking, but chose 'rather to suffer affliction with the people of\nGod, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' He refused\nto be called the son of the king's daughter; accounting it wonderful\nriches to be counted worthy of so much as to suffer for Christ,\nwith the poor despised saints; and that was because he saw him\nwho was invisible, and 'had respect unto the recompence of the\nreward' (Heb 11:24-27). And this is that which the apostle usually\nprayeth for in his epistles for the saints, namely, 'That they\nmight know what is the hope of God's calling, and the riches of\nthe glory of his inheritance in the saints' (Eph 1:18). And that\nthey might 'be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love\nof Christ which passeth knowledge' (Eph 3:18,19). Pray therefore\nthat God would enlighten thy understanding: that will be very\ngreat help unto thee. It will make thee endure many a hard brunt\nfor Christ; as Paul saith, 'After ye were illuminated, ye endured\na great fight of afflictions. You took joyfully the spoiling of\nyour goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better\nand an enduring substance' (Heb 10:32-34). If there be never such\na rare jewel lie just in a man's way, yet if he sees it not, he\nwill rather trample upon it than stoop for it, and it is because\nhe sees it not. Why, so it is here, though heaven be worth never\nso much, and thou hast never so much need of it, yet if thou see\nit not, that is, have not thy understanding opened or enlightened\nto see it, thou wilt not regard at all: therefore cry to the Lord\nfor enlightening grace, and say, Lord, open my blind eyes: Lord,\ntake the vail off my dark heart, show me the things of the other\nworld, and let me see the sweetness, glory, and excellency of them\nfor Christ his sake. This is the first.\n\n[Second, Inflame thy will.] Cry to God that he would inflame thy\nwill also with the things of the other world. For when a man's\nwill is fully set to do such or such a thing, then it must be a\nvery hard matter that shall hinder that man from bringing about\nhis end. When Paul's will was set resolvedly to go up to Jerusalem,\nthough it was signified to him before what he should there suffer,\nhe was not daunted at all; nay, saith he, 'I am ready,' or willing,\n'not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name\nof the Lord Jesus' (Acts 21:13). His will was inflamed with love\nto Christ; and therefore all the persuasions that could be used\nwrought nothing at all. Your self-willed people nobody knows what\nto do with them; we used to say, He will have his own will, do\nall what you can. Indeed to have such a will for heaven, is an\nadmirable advantage to a man that undertaketh the race thither;\na man that is resolved, and hath his will fixed, saith he, I will\ndo my best to advantage myself; I will do my worst to hinder my\nenemies; I will not give out as long as I can stand; I will have\nit or I will lose my life; 'though he slay me yet will I trust\nin him' (Job 13:15). 'I will not let thee go except thou bless\nme' (Gen 32:26). I WILL, I WILL, I WILL, O this blessed inflamed\nwill for heaven! What is like it? If a man be willing, then any\nargument shall be matter of encouragement; but if unwilling, then\nany argument shall give discouragement; this is seen both in saints\nand sinners; in them that are the children of God, and also those\nthat are the children of the devil. As,\n\n1. The saints of old, they being willing and resolved for heaven,\nwhat could stop them? Could fire or faggot, sword or halter,\nstinking dungeons, whips, bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings,\nstoning, starving, nakedness, &c. (Heb 11). 'Nay, in all these\nthings they were more than conquerors, through him that loved\nthem' (Rom 8:37); who had also made them 'willing in the day of\nhis power.'\n\n2. See again, on the other side, the children of the devil,\nbecause they are not willing [to run to heaven], how many shifts\nand starting-holes they will have. I have married a wife, I have\na farm, I shall offend my landlord, I shall offend my master,\nI shall lose my trading, I shall lose my pride, my pleasures, I\nshall be mocked and scoffed, therefore I dare not come. I, saith\nanother, will stay till I am older, till my children are out of\nsight, till I am got a little aforehand in the world, till I have\ndone this and that, and the other business; but alas, the thing\nis, they are not willing; for were they but soundly willing, these,\nand a thousand such as these, would hold them no faster than the\ncords held Samson when he broke them like burned flax (Judg 15:14).\nI tell you the will is all: that is one of the chief things which\nturns the wheel either backwards or forwards; and God knoweth\nthat full well, and so likewise doth the devil; and therefore they\nboth endeavour very much to strengthen the will of their servants.\nGod, he is for making of his a willing people to serve him; and\nthe devil, he doth what he can to possess the will and affection\nof those that are his, with love to sin; and therefore when Christ\ncomes close to the matter, indeed, saith he, 'Ye will not come\nto me' (John 5:40). 'How often would I have gathered you as a hen\ndoth her chickens, and ye would not' (Luke 13:34). The devil had\npossessed their wills, and so long he was sure enough of them.\nO therefore cry hard to God to inflame thy will for heaven and\nChrist: thy will, I say, if that be rightly set for heaven, thou\nwilt not be beat off with discouragements; and this was the reason\nthat, when Jacob wrestled with the angel, though he lost a limb,\nas it were, and the hollow of his thigh was put out of joint, as\nhe wrestled with him, yet, saith he, 'I will not,' mark, 'I WILL\nNOT let thee go except thou bless me' (Gen 32:24-26). Get thy\nwill tipt with the heavenly grace, and resolution against all\ndiscouragements, and then thou goest full speed for heaven; but\nif thou falter in thy will, and be not found there, thou wilt\nrun hobbling and halting all the way thou runnest, and also to be\nsure thou wilt fall short at the last. The Lord give thee a will\nand courage!\n\nThus have I done with directing thee how to run to the kingdom;\nbe sure thou keep in memory what I have said unto thee, lest thou\nlose thy way. But because I would have thee think of them, take\nall in short in this little bit of paper.\n\n1. Get into the way. 2. Then study on it. 3. Then strip, and lay\naside everything that would hinder. 4. Beware of bye-paths. 5. Do\nnot gaze and stare too much about thee, and be sure to ponder the\npath of thy feet. 6. Do not stop for any that call after thee,\nwhether it be the world, the flesh, or the devil; for all these\nwill hinder thy journey, if possible. 7. Be not daunted with any\ndiscouragements thou meetest with as thou goest. 8. Take heed\nof stumbling at the cross. 9. Cry hard to God for an enlightened\nheart, and a willing mind, and God give thee a prosperous journey.\nYet before I do quite take my leave of thee, let me give thee a\nfew motives along with thee. It may be they will be as good as a\npair of spurs to prick on thy lumpish heart in this rich voyage.[17]\n\n[V. NINE MOTIVES TO URGE US ON IN THE WAY.]\n\nThe First Motive. Consider there is no way but this, thou must\neither win or lose. If thou winnest, then heaven, God, Christ,\nglory, ease, peace, life, yea, life eternal, is thine; thou must\nbe made equal to the angels in heaven; thou shalt sorrow no more,\nsigh no more, feel no more pain; thou shalt be out of the reach\nof sin, hell, death, the devil, the grave, and whatever else may\nendeavour thy hurt. But contrariwise, and if thou lose, then thy\nloss is heaven, glory, God, Christ, ease, peace, and whatever else\nwhich tendeth to make eternity comfortable to the saints; besides,\nthou procurest eternal death, sorrow, pain, blackness, and darkness,\nfellowship with devils, together with the everlasting damnation\nof thy own soul.\n\nThe Second Motive. Consider that this devil, this hell, death and\ndamnation, followeth after thee as hard as they can drive, and\nhave their commission so to do by the law, against which thou hast\nsinned; and therefore for the Lord's sake make haste.\n\nThe Third Motive. If they seize upon thee before thou get to the\ncity of Refuge, they will put an everlasting stop to thy journey.\nThis also cries, Run for it.\n\nThe Fourth Motive. Know also, that now heaven gates, the heart of\nChrist, with his arms, are wide open to receive thee. O methinks\nthat this consideration, that the devil followeth after to destroy,\nand that Christ standeth open-armed to receive, should make thee\nreach out and fly with all haste and speed! And therefore,\n\nThe Fifth Motive. Keep thine eye upon the prize; be sure that\nthy eyes be continually upon the profit thou art like to get. The\nreason why men are so apt to faint in their race for heaven, it\nlieth chiefly in either of these two things:\n\n1. They do not seriously consider the worth of the prize; or else\nif they do, they are afraid it is too good for them; but most lose\nheaven for want of considering the price and the worth of it. And\ntherefore, that thou mayst not do the like, keep thine eye much\nupon the excellency, the sweetness, the beauty, the comfort, the\npeace, that is to be had there by those that win the prize. This\nwas that which made the apostle run through anything; good report,\nevil report, persecution, affliction, hunger, nakedness, peril\nby sea, and peril by land, bonds and imprisonments. Also it made\nothers endure to be stoned, sawn asunder, to have their eyes bored\nout with augurs, their bodies broiled on gridirons, their tongues\ncut out of their mouths, boiled in cauldrons, thrown to the wild\nbeasts, burned at the stakes, whipped at posts, and a thousand\nother fearful torments, 'while they looked not at the things which\nare seen,' as the things of this world, 'but at the things which\nare not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the\nthings which are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor 4:18). O this word\n'eternal,' that was it that made them, that when they might have\nhad deliverance, they would not accept of it; for they knew in the\nworld to come they should have a better resurrection (Heb 11:35).\n\n2. And do not let the thoughts of the rareness of the place make\nthee say in thy heart, This is too good for me; for I tell thee,\nheaven is prepared for whosoever will accept of it, and they shall\nbe entertained with hearty good welcome. Consider, therefore,\nthat as bad as thou have got thither; thither went scrubbed,[18]\nbeggarly Lazarus, &c. Nay, it is prepared for the poor: 'Hearken,\nmy beloved brethren,' saith James, take notice of it, 'Hath not\nGod chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the\nkingdom?' (James 2:5). Therefore take heart and RUN, man. And,\n\nThe Sixth Motive. Think much of them that are gone before. First,\nHow really they got into the kingdom. Secondly, How safe they\nare in the arms of Jesus; would they be here again for a thousand\nworlds? Or if they were, would they be afraid that God would not\nmake them welcome? Thirdly, What would they judge of thee if they\nknew thy heart began to fail thee in thy journey, or thy sins began\nto allure thee, and to persuade thee to stop thy race? would they\nnot call thee a thousand fools? and say, O, that he did but see\nwhat we see, feel what we feel, and taste of the dainties that we\ntaste of! O, if he were here one quarter of an hour, to behold, to\nsee, to feel, to taste and enjoy but the thousandth part of what\nwe enjoy, what would he do? What would he suffer? What would he\nleave undone? Would he favour sin? Would he love this world below?\nWould he be afraid of friends, or shrink at the most fearful\nthreatenings that the greatest tyrants could invent to give him?\nNay, those who have had but a sight of these things by faith,\nwhen they have been as far off from them as heaven from earth, yet\nthey have been able to say with a comfortable and merry heart, as\nthe bird that sings in the spring, that this and more shall not\nkeep them from running to heaven. Sometimes, when my base heart\nhath been inclining to this world, and to loiter in my journey\ntowards heaven, the very consideration of the glorious saints\nand angels in heaven, what they enjoy, and what low thoughts they\nhave of the things of this world together, how they would befool\nme if they did but know that my heart was drawing back; [this]\nhath caused me to rush forward, to disdain these poor, low, empty,\nbeggarly things, and to say to my soul, Come, soul, let us not\nbe weary; let us see what this heaven is; let us even venture all\nfor it, and try if that will quit the cost. Surely Abraham, David,\nPaul, and the rest of the saints of God, were as wise as any are\nnow, and yet they lost all for this glorious kingdom. O! therefore,\nthrow away stinking lusts, follow after righteousness, love the\nLord Jesus, devote thyself unto his fear, I'll warrant thee he\nwill give thee a goodly recompense. Reader, what sayst thou to\nthis? Art [thou] resolved to follow me? Nay, resolve if thou canst\nto get before me. 'So run, that ye may obtain.'\n\nThe Seventh Motive. To encourage thee a little farther, set to the\nwork, and when thou hast run thyself down weary, then the Lord\nJesus will take thee up, and carry thee. Is not this enough to\nmake any poor soul begin his race? Thou, perhaps, criest, O but I\nam feeble, I am lame, &c.: well, but Christ hath a bosom; consider,\ntherefore, when thou hast run thyself down weary, he will put\nthee in his bosom: 'He shall gather the lambs with his arms, and\ncarry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with\nyoung' (Isa 40:11). This is the way that fathers take to encourage\ntheir children, saying: Run, sweet babe, while thou art weary,\nand then I will take thee up and carry thee. 'He will gather his\nlambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.' When they are\nweary they shall ride.[19] The Eighth Motive. Or else he will convey\nnew strength from heaven into thy soul, which will be as well--'The\nyouths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly\nfall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;\nthey shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not\nbe weary, they shall walk and not faint' (Isa 40:30,31). What\nshall I say besides what hath already been said? Thou shalt have\ngood and easy lodging, good and wholesome diet, the bosom of\nChrist to lie in, the joys of heaven to feed on. Shall I speak of\nthe satiety and of the duration of all these? Verily to describe\nthem to the height it is a work too hard for me to do.[20]\n\nThe Ninth Motive. Again methinks the very industry of the devil,\nand the industry of his servants, &c., should make you that have\na desire to heaven and happiness to run apace. Why, the devil, he\nwill lose no time, spare no pains, also neither will his servants,\nboth to seek the destruction of themselves and others: and shall\nnot we be as industrious for our own salvation? Shall the world\nventure the damnation of their souls for a poor corruptible crown;\nand shall not we venture the loss of a few trifles for an eternal\ncrown? Shall they venture the loss of eternal friends, as God to\nlove, Christ to redeem, the Holy Spirit to comfort, heaven for\nhabitation, saints and angels for company, and all this to get and\nhold communion with sin, and this world, and a few base, drunken,\nswearing, lying, covetous wretches, like themselves? And shall\nnot we labour as hard, run as fast, seek as diligently, nay, a\nhundred times more diligently, for the company of these glorious\neternal friends, though with the loss of such as these, nay, with\nthe loss of ten thousand times better than these poor, low, base,\ncontemptible things? Shall it be said at the last day, that wicked\nmen made more haste to hell than you did make to heaven?[21] That\nthey spent more hours, days, and that early and late, for hell,\nthan you spent for that which is ten thousand thousand of thousands\ntimes better? O let it not be so, but run with all might and main.\n\nThus you see I have here spoken something, though but little. Now\nI shall come to make some use and application of what hath been\nsaid, and so conclude.\n\n[VI. NINE USES OF THIS SUBJECT.]\n\nThe first use. You see here, that he that will go to heaven, he\nmust run for it; yea, and not only run, but so run, that is, as\nI have said, to run earnestly, to run continually, to strip off\nevery thing that would hinder in his race with the rest. Well\nthen, do you so run? And now let us examine a little.\n\n1. Art thou got into the right way? Art thou in Christ's\nrighteousness? Do not say yes in thy heart, when in truth there\nis no such matter. It is a dangerous thing, you know, for a man\nto think he is in the right way, when he is in the wrong. It is\nthe next way for him to lose his way, and not only so, but if he\nrun for heaven, as thou sayst thou dost, even to lose that too. O\nthis is the misery of most men, to persuade themselves that they\nrun right, when they never had one foot in the way! The Lord\ngive thee understanding here, or else thou art undone for ever.\nPrithee, soul, search when was it thou turned out of thy sins and\nrighteousness into the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I say, dost\nthou see thyself in him? and is he more precious to thee than the\nwhole world? Is thy mind always musing on him? Dost thou love\nto be talking of him--and also to be walking with him? Dost thou\ncount his company more precious than the whole world? Dost thou\ncount all things but poor, lifeless, empty, vain things, without\ncommunion with him? Doth his company sweeten all things--and his\nabsence embitter all things? Soul, I beseech thee, be serious, and\nlay it to heart, and do not take things of such weighty concernment\nas the salvation or damnation of thy soul, without good ground.\n\n2. Art thou unladen of the things of this world, as pride, pleasures,\nprofits, lusts, vanities? What! dost thou think to run fast enough\nwith the world, thy sins and lusts in thy heart? I tell thee,\nsoul, they that have laid all aside, every weight, every sin, and\nare got into the nimblest posture, they find work enough to run;\nso to run as to hold out. To run through all that opposition, all\nthese jostles, all these rubs, over all these stumbling-blocks,\nover all the snares from all these entanglements, that the devil,\nsin, the world, and their own hearts, lay before them; I tell\nthee, if thou art agoing heavenward, thou wilt find it no small\nor easy matter. Art thou therefore discharged and unladen of these\nthings? Never talk of going to heaven if thou art not. It is to be\nfeared thou wilt be found among the many that 'will seek to enter\nin, and shall not be able' (Luke 13:24).\n\nThe second use. If so, then, in the next place, what will become\nof them that are grown weary before they are got half way thither?\nWhy, man, it is he that holdeth out to the end that must be saved;\nit is he that overcometh that shall inherit all things; it is\nnot every one that begins. Agrippa gave a fair step for a sudden,\nhe steps almost into the bosom of Christ in less than half an\nhour. Thou, saith he to Paul, hast 'almost persuaded me to be a\nChristian' (Acts 26:26). Ah! but it was but almost; and so he had\nas good have been never a whit; he stept fair indeed, but yet he\nstept short; he was hot while he was at it, but he was quickly out\nof wind. O this but almost! I tell you, this but almost, it lost\nhis soul. Methinks I have seen sometimes how these poor wretches\nthat get but almost to heaven, how fearfully their almost, and their\nbut almost, will torment them in hell; when they shall cry out in\nthe bitterness of their souls, saying, I was almost a Christian.\nI was almost got into the kingdom, almost out of the hands of\nthe devil, almost out of my sins, almost from under the curse of\nGod; almost, and that was all; almost, but not altogether. O that\nI should be almost at heaven, and should not go quite through!\nFriend, it is a sad thing to sit down before we are in heaven,\nand to grow weary before we come to the place of rest; and if it\nshould be thy case, I am sure thou dost not so run as to obtain.\nBut again,\n\nThe third use. In the next place, What then will become of them\nthat some time since were running post-haste to heaven, insomuch\nthat they seemed to outstrip many, but now are running as fast\nback again? Do you think those will ever come thither? What, to\nrun back again, back again to sin, to the world, to the devil, back\nagain to the lusts of the flesh? O! 'It had been better for them\nnot to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have\nknown it, to turn,' to turn back again, 'from the holy commandment'\n(2 Peter 2:22). Those men shall not only be damned for sin, but\nfor professing to all the world that sin is better than Christ;\nfor the man that runs back again, he doth as good as say, 'I have\ntried Christ, and I have tried sin, and I do not find so much\nprofit in Christ as in sin.'[22] I say, this man declareth this,\neven by his running back again. O sad! what a doom they will have,\nwho were almost at heaven-gates, and then run back again. 'If any\ndraw back,' saith Christ [by his apostle], 'my soul shall have no\npleasure in him' (Heb 10:38). Again, 'No man having put his hand\nto the plough,' that is, set forward, in the ways of God, 'and\nlooking back,' turning back again, 'is fit for the kingdom of\nGod' (Luke 9:62). And if not fit for the kingdom of heaven, then\nfor certain he must needs be fit for the fire of hell. And therefore,\nsaith the apostle, those that 'bring forth' these apostatizing\nfruits, as 'briars and thorns, are rejected, and nigh unto cursing,\nwhose end is to be burned' (Heb 6:8). O there is never another\nChrist to save them by bleeding and dying for them! And if they\nshall not escape that neglect, then how shall they escape that\nreject and turn their back upon 'so great a salvation?' (Heb\n2:3). And if the righteous, that is, they that run for it, will\nfind work enough to get to heaven, 'then where will the ungodly'\nbacksliding 'sinner appear?' or if Judas the traitor, or Francis\nSpira the backslider, were but now alive in the world to whisper\nthese men in the ear a little, and tell them what it hath cost\ntheir souls for backsliding, surely it would stick by them and\nmake them afraid of running back again, so long as they had one\nday to live in this world.\n\nThe fourth use. So again, fourthly, how unlike to these men's\npassions[23] will those be that have all this while sat still,\nand have not so much as set one foot forward to the kingdom of\nheaven. Surely he that backslideth, and he that sitteth still in\nsin, they are both of one mind; the one he will not stir, because\nhe loveth his sins, and the things of this world; the other he\nruns back again, because he loveth his sins, and the things of\nthis world: is it not one and the same thing? They are all one\nhere, and shall not one and the same hell hold them hereafter!\nHe is an ungodly one that never looked after Christ, and he is an\nungodly one that did once look after him and then ran quite back\nagain; and therefore that word must certainly drop out of the\nmouth of Christ against them both, 'Depart from me, ye cursed,\ninto everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels'\n(Matt 25:41).\n\nThe fifth use. Again, here you may see, in the next place, that\nis, they that will have heaven must run for it; then this calls\naloud to those who began but a while since to run, I say, for\nthem to mend their pace if they intend to win; you know that they\nwhich come hindmost, had need run fastest. Friend, I tell thee,\nthere be those that have run ten years to thy one, nay, twenty\nto thy five, and yet if thou talk with them, sometimes they will\nsay they doubt they shall come late enough. How then will it be\nwith thee? Look to it therefore that thou delay no time, not an\nhour's time, but speedily part with all, with everything that is\nan hindrance to thee in thy journey, and run; yea, and so run that\nthou mayest obtain.\n\nThe sixth use. Again, sixthly, You that are old professors, take\nyou heed that the young striplings of Jesus, that began to strip\nbut the other day, do not outrun you, so as to have that scripture\nfulfilled on you, 'The first shall be last, and the last first';\nwhich will be a shame to you, and a credit for them. What, for a\nyoung soldier to be more courageous than he that hath been used\nto wars! To you that are hindmost, I say, strive to outrun them\nthat are before you; and you that are foremost, I say, hold your\nground, and keep before them in faith and love, if possible;\nfor indeed that is the right running, for one to strive to outrun\nanother; even for the hindmost to endeavour to overtake the\nforemost, and he that is before should be sure to lay out himself\nto keep his ground, even to the very utmost. But then,\n\nThe seventh use. Again, How basely do they behave themselves, how\nunlike are they to win, that think it enough to keep company with\nthe hindmost? There are some men that profess themselves such\nas run for heaven as well as any; yet if there be but any lazy,\nslothful, cold, half-hearted professors in the country, they will\nbe sure to take example by them; they think if they can but keep\npace with them they shall do fair; but these do not consider that\nthe hindmost lose the prize. You may know it, if you will, that\nit cost the foolish virgins dear for their coming too late--'They\nthat were ready went in with him, and the door was shut. Afterward,'\nmark, 'afterward came the other,' the foolish, 'virgins, saying,\nLord, Lord, open to us; but he answered, and said,' Depart, 'I know\nyou not' (Matt 25:10-12). Depart, lazy professors, cold professors,\nslothful professors. O! methinks the Word of God is so plain for\nthe overthrow of you lazy professors, that it is to be wondered\nmen do take no more notice of it. How was Lot's wife served for\nrunning lazily, and for giving but one look behind her, after the\nthings she left in Sodom? How was Esau served for staying too long\nbefore he came for the blessing? And how were they served that\nare mentioned in the 13th of Luke, 'for staying till the door was\nshut?' Also the foolish virgins; a heavy after-groan will they\ngive that have thus staid too long. It turned Lot's wife into a\npillar of salt (Gen 19:26). It made Esau weep with an exceeding\nloud and bitter cry (Heb 12:17). It made Judas hang himself: yea,\nand it will make thee curse the day in which thou wast born, if\nthou miss of the kingdom, as thou wilt certainly do, if this be\nthy course. But,\n\nThe eighth use. Again, How, and if thou by thy lazy running\nshouldst not only destroy thyself, but also thereby be the cause\nof the damnation of some others, for thou being a professor thou\nmust think that others will take notice of thee; and because thou\nart but a poor, cold, lazy runner, and one that seeks to drive\nthe world and pleasure along with thee: why, thereby others will\nthink of doing so too. Nay, say they, why may not we as well as\nhe? He is a professor, and yet he seeks for pleasures, riches,\nprofits; he loveth vain company, and he is proud, and he is so\nand so, and professeth that he is going for heaven; yea, and he\nsaith also he doth not fear but he shall have entertainment; let\nus therefore keep pace with him, we shall fare no worse than he.\nO how fearful a thing will it be, if that thou shalt be instrumental\nof the ruin of others by thy halting in the way of righteousness!\nLook to it, thou wilt have strength little enough to appear before\nGod, to give an account of the loss of thy own soul; thou needest\nnot have to give an account for others; why, thou didst stop them\nfrom entering in. How wilt thou answer that saying, You would\nnot enter in yourselves, and them that would you hinder; for that\nsaying will be eminently fulfilled on them that through their\nown idleness do keep themselves out of heaven, and by giving of\nothers the same example, hinder them also.\n\nThe ninth use. Therefore, now to speak a word to both of you, and\nso I shall conclude.\n\n1. I beseech you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that none\nof you do run so lazily in the way to heaven as to hinder either\nyourselves or others. I know that even he which runs laziest, if\nhe should see a man running for a temporal life, if he should so\nmuch neglect his own well-being in this world as to venture, when\nhe is a-running for his life, to pick up here and there a lock of\nwool that hangeth by the way-side, or to step now and then aside\nout of the way for to gather up a straw or two, or any rotten\nstick, I say, if he should do this when he is a-running for his\nlife, thou wouldst condemn him; and dost thou not condemn thyself\nthat dost the very same in effect, nay worse, that loiterest\nin thy race, notwithstanding thy soul, heaven, glory, and all is\nat stake. Have a care, have a care, poor wretched sinner, have a\ncare.\n\n2. If yet there shall be any that, notwithstanding this advice,\nwill still be flaggering and loitering in the way to the kingdom\nof glory, be thou so wise as not to take example by them. Learn\nof no man further than he followeth Christ. But look unto Jesus,\nwho is not only 'the author and finisher of faith,' but who did,\n'for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising\nthe shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God' (Heb\n12:2). I say, look to no man to learn of him no further than he\nfolloweth Christ. 'Be ye followers of me,' saith Paul, 'even as\nI also am of Christ' (1 Cor 11:1). Though he was an eminent man,\nyet his exhortation was, that none should follow him any further\nthan he followed Christ.\n\nVII. PROVOCATION. [TO RUN WITH THE FOREMOST.]\n\nNow that you may be provoked to run with the foremost, take notice\nof this. When Lot and his wife were running from cursed Sodom\nto the mountains, to save their lives, it is said that his wife\nlooked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt; and\nyet you see that neither her practice, nor the judgment of God\nthat fell upon her for the same, would cause Lot to look behind\nhim. I have sometimes wondered at Lot in this particular; his\nwife looked behind her, and died immediately, but let what would\nbecome of her, Lot would not so much as look behind him to see\nher. We do not read that he did so much as once look where she was,\nor what was become of her; his heart was indeed upon his journey,\nand well it might: there was the mountain before him, and the\nfire and brimstone behind him; his life lay at stake and he had\nlost it if he had but looked behind him. Do thou so run: and in\nthy race remember Lot's wife, and remember her doom; and remember\nfor what that doom did overtake her; and remember that God made\nher an example for all lazy runners, to the end of the world: and\ntake heed thou fall not after the same example. But, if this will\nnot provoke thee, consider thus,\n\n1. Thy soul is thy own soul, that is either to be saved or lost;\nthou shalt not lose my soul by thy laziness. It is thy own soul,\nthy own ease, thy own peace, thy own advantage, or disadvantage.\nIf it were my soul that thou art desired to be good unto, methinks\nreason should move thee somewhat to pity it. But alas, it is thy\nown, thy own soul. 'What shall it profit a man if he shall gain\nthe whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mark 8:36). God's people\nwish well to the souls of others, and wilt not thou wish well to\nthy own? And if this will not provoke thee, then think again,\n\n2. If thou lose thy soul, it is thou also that must bear the blame.\nIt made Cain stark mad to consider that he had not looked to his\nbrother Abel's soul. How much more will it perplex thee to think,\nthat thou hadst not a care of thy own? And if this will not provoke\nthee to bestir thyself, think again,\n\n3. That if thou wilt not run, the people of God are resolved to\ndeal with thee even as Lot dealt with his wife, that is, leave\nthee behind them. It may be thou hast a father, mother, brother,\n&c., going post-haste to heaven, wouldst thou be willing to be\nleft behind them? Surely no. Again,\n\n4. Will it not be a dishonour to thee to see the very boys and\ngirls in the country to have more wit than thyself? It may be the\nservants of some men, as the horsekeeper, ploughman, scullion,\n&c., are more looking after heaven than their masters. I am apt\nto think sometimes, that more servants than masters, that more\ntenants than landlords, will inherit the kingdom of heaven. But\nis not this a shame for them that are such? I am persuaded you\nscorn, that your servants should say that they are wiser than you\nin the things of this world; and yet I am bold to say, that many\nof them are wiser than you in the things of the world to come,\nwhich are of great concernment.\n\nVIII. A SHORT EXPOSTULATION.\n\nWell then, sinner, what sayest thou? Where is thy heart? Wilt thou\nrun? Art thou resolved to strip? Or art thou not? Think quickly,\nman, it is no dallying in this matter. Confer not with flesh and\nblood; look up to heaven, and see how thou likest it; also to\nhell--of which thou mayst understand something by my book, called,\nA few Sighs from Hell; or the Groans of a damned Soul; which I\nwish thee to read seriously over--and accordingly devote thyself.\nIf thou dost not know the way, inquire at the Word of God. If thou\nwantest company, cry for God's Spirit. If thou wantest encouragement,\nentertain the promises. But be sure thou begin by times; get into\nthe way; run apace and hold out to the end; and the Lord give thee\na prosperous journey. Farewell.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] It was the commonly received opinion that, at the moment\nof death, the angels and devils strove to carry away the soul.\nIf the dying man had received the consecrated wafer, the devils\nwere scared at it, and lost their victim. Hence the prayer--'From\nlightning, battle, murder, and sudden death, good Lord, deliver\nus'; a curious contrast to, 'Thy will be done'! Were they sinners\nabove all men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them?\n(Luke 13:4). O that men would rely upon the righteousness of Christ\nstimulating them to run for glory, as heavenly footmen, and not\nupon the nostrums of Antichrist!--Ed.\n\n[2] In a very beautifully ornamented Liturgy of the Church of\nEngland, prior to the Reformation, after the Salisbury use, printed\nin 1526 (in the Editor's library), is this direction--'These iii.\nprayers be wrytten in the chapel of the holy crosse in Rome, who\nthat deuoutly say them they shall obteyne ten hundred thousand\nyears of pardon for deadly sins graunted of oure holy father Jhon\nxxii pope of Rome.' The three prayers only occupy twenty-six short\nlines, and may be gravely repeated in two minutes. Such was and IS\nPopery!! But at the end of all this promised pardon for a million\nof years--what then? Will eternal torments commence?--Ed.\n\n[3] How awfully is this pictured to the soul in that solemn account\nof the day of death and judgment in Matthew 25; and how strikingly\napplied in the Pilgrim's Progress in the character of Ignorance.--Ed.\n\n\n[4] 'When the bell begins to toll,\nLord have mercy on the soul.'\n\n\nThe Papists imagine that there is an extraordinary power in the\nbell hallowed by baptism to drive away the spirits of darkness, so\nthat the departing soul may take its journey without molestation!!\nIt was also intended to rouse the faithful to pray for the\ndead person's soul. This, and other superstitious practices, were\nsuspended during the Protectorate in some parishes, if not generally,\nbut were revived at the Restoration, because the omission injured\nthe revenues of the church.--See Brand's Popular Antiquities.--Ed.\n\n[5] This quotation, probably made from memory, is a mixture of\nthe Genevan and the present version.--Ed.\n\n[6] Francis Spira, in 1548, being a lawyer in great repute in\nItaly, professed gospel principles, but afterwards relapsed into\nPopery, and became a victim of black despair. The man in the iron\ncage, at the Interpreter's house, probably referred to Spira. The\nnarrative of his fearful state is preceded by a poem:--\n\n\n'Here see a soul that's all despair, a man\nAll hell, a spirit all wounds. Who can\nA wounded spirit bear?\nReader, wouldst see what you may never feel,\nDespair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel?\nBehold this man, this furnace, in whose heart\nSin hath created hell. O! in each part\nWhat flames appear?\nHis thoughts all stings; words, swords;\nBrimstone his breath;\nHis eyes, flames; wishes, curses; life, a death,\nA thousand deaths live in him, he not dead--\nA breathing corpse in living scalding lead.'--Ed.\n\n\n[7] How plain and important is this direction. Saul the persecutor\nran fast, but the faster he ran in his murderous zeal the further\nhe ran from the prize. Let every staunch sectarian examine prayerfully\nhis way, especially if the sect he belongs to is patronized by\nprinces, popes, or potentates, and endowed with worldly honours.\nHe may be running from and not to heaven.--Ed.\n\n[8] He that trusts in the sect to which he belongs is assuredly\nin the wrong way, whether it be the Church of Rome or England,\nQuaking, Ranting, Baptists, or Independents. Trust in Christ must\nbe all in all. First be IN Christ, then run for heaven, looking\nunto Christ. Keep fellowship with those who are the purest, and\nrun fastest in the ordinances of the gospel which are revealed in\nthe Word. Follow no human authority nor craft, seek the influence\nof the Holy Spirit for yourself, that you may be led into all\ntruth, then you will so run as to obtain.--Ed.\n\n[9] How plain is this direction, and how does it commend itself to\nour common-sense; lumpish shoes, and pockets filled with stones,\nhow absurd for a man who is running a race!! Stop, my dear reader,\nhave you cast away all useless encumbrances, and all easily besetting\nsins? Is your heart full of mammon, or pride, or debauchery? if\nso, you have no particle of strength to run for heaven, but are\nrunning upon swift perdition.--Ed.\n\n[10] This is one of those beautiful ideas which so abound in all\nBunyan's works. Our way to the kingdom is consecrated by the cross\nof Christ, and may be known throughout by the sprinkling of his\nblood, his groans, his agonies. All the doctrines that put us in\nthe way are sanctified by the atonement; all the spurs to a diligent\nrunning in that way are powerful as motives, by our being bought\nwith that precious price, the death of Emmanuel. O! my soul,\nbe thou found looking unto Jesus, he is THE WAY, the only way to\nheaven.--Ed.\n\n[11] Strange infatuation, desperate pride, that man should reject\nthe humbling simplicity of Divine truth, and run so anxiously,\ngreedily, and in hosts, in the road to ruin, because priestcraft\ncalls it 'the way of God'; preferring the miserable sophistry of\nSatan and his emissaries to the plain directions of Holy Writ.\nO! reader, put not your trust in man, but, while God is ready to\ndirect you, rely solely on his Holy Word.--Ed.\n\n[12] 'Happily,' or haply, were formerly used to express the same\nmeaning.--Ed.\n\n[13] 'Sink-souls' is one of Bunyan's strong Saxonisms, full of\nmeaning, 'Sink' is that in which filth or foulness is deposited.\n\n\n'She poured forth out of her hellish sink,\nHer fruitful cursed spawn.'--Spencer.--Ed.\n\n\n[14] This is one of Bunyan's most deeply expressive directions to\nthe heaven-ward pilgrim; may it sink into our hearts. Christ is\nthe way, the cross is the standing way-mark throughout the road,\nnever out of sight. In embracing the humbling doctrines of grace,\nin sorrow for sin, in crucifying self, in bearing each other's\nburdens, in passing through the river that will absorb our\nmortality--from the new birth to our inheritance--the cross is\nthe way-mark.--Ed.\n\n[15] Our holiest, happiest duties, IF they interfere with a simple\nand exclusive reliance upon Christ for justification, must be\naccursed in our esteem; while, if they are fulfilled in a proper\nspirit of love to him, they become our most blessed privileges.\nReader, be jealous of your motives.--Ed.\n\n[16] This is very solemn warning. But is it asked how are we\nto see that that is invisible, or to imagine bliss that is past\nour understanding? The reply is, treasure up in your heart those\nglimpses of glory contained in the Word. Be daily in communion\nwith the world of spirits, and it may be your lot, with Paul, to\nhave so soul-ravishing a sense of eternal realities, as scarcely\nto know whether you are in the body or not.--Ed.\n\n[17] How characteristic of Bunyan is this sentence, 'the rich\nvoyage.' God environing us about with his presence in time, and\neternal felicity in the desired haven: 'the lumpish heart' at\ntimes apparently indifferent to the glorious harvest: 'a pair of\nspurs' to prick us on in the course. The word voyage (from via,\na way) was in Bunyan's time equally used for a journey by sea or\nland, it is now limited to travelling by sea.--Ed.\n\n[18] 'Scrubbed'; worthless, vile, insignificant in the sight of\nman, who judges from the outward, temporal condition; but, in the\ncase of Lazarus, precious in the sight of God.--Ed.\n\n[19] What an inexhaustible source of comfort is contained in\nthis passage. Blessed carriage, in which the poorest, weakest of\nChrist's flock shall ride. Millions of gold could not purchase the\nprivilege thus to ride in ease and safety, supported and guarded\nby Omnipotence, and guided by Omniscience.--Ed.\n\n[20] Summed up by the Psalmist, 'Happy is that people that is\nin such a case. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord' (Psa\n144:15).--Ed.\n\n[21] How severe and cutting, but how just, is this reflection\nupon many, that wicked men, for the gratification of destructive\npropensities, should evince greater zeal and perseverance to light\nup the fire of hell in their consciences, than some professing\nChristians do in following after peace and holiness, 'Go to the\nant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.'--Ed.\n\n[22] How awful a warning is this to the backslider. A wicked\nprofessor is a practical atheist and a contemptible hypocrite.\nBut the backslider is worse, he proclaims, in his downward course,\nthe awful blasphemy that 'sin is better than Christ'; 'hell is\npreferable to heaven.' O! that some poor bewildered backslider\nmay, by a Divine blessing upon the voice of Bunyan, be arrested\nin his mad career.--Ed.\n\n[23] 'Passions'; the old English term for sufferings. It is used\nin Acts 1 emphatically, to express the last sufferings of the\nSaviour; as also in what is called 'passion week.'--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE HOLY CITY; OR, THE NEW JERUSALEM:\n\nWHEREIN ITS GOODLY LIGHT, WALLS, GATES, ANGELS, AND THE MANNER\nOF THEIR STANDING, ARE EXPOUNDED: ALSO HER LENGTH AND BREADTH,\nTOGETHER WITH THE GOLDEN MEASURING-REED EXPLAINED: AND THE GLORY\nOF ALL UNFOLDED.\n\nAS ALSO THE NUMEROUSNESS OF ITS INHABITANTS; AND WHAT THE TREE AND\nWATER OF LIFE ARE, BY WHICH THEY ARE SUSTAINED.\n\n'Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.'-Psalm 87:3\n\n'And the name of the city from that day shall be, THE LORD IS\nTHERE.'-Ezekiel 48:35\n\nLondon: Printed in the year 1665\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nReader, it will require the utmost effort of your powers of faith\nin perfectly well authenticated history to believe an almost\nincredible fact, but which certainly took place in England, under\nthe reformed church in 1665. It is, however, true, that a number\nof eminently pious, loyal, sober, industrious citizens were immured,\nby the forms of law, within the walls of a small prison on Bedford\nBridge, over the river Ouse, for refusing to attend the parish\nchurch or join in the service prescribed by Acts of Parliament,\naccording to the Book of Common Prayer. The Ruler of the universe\ndeigned to approve their conduct, and to visit these prisoners\nwith his peculiar approbation. He made their prison a Bethel, the\nhouse of God, and the very gate of heaven-thus richly blessing their\nsouls for refusing to render unto man the things that are God's.\n\nOn the Lord's day they were in the habit of uniting in Divine worship.\nTheir prison chamber had received no prelatic consecration, but\nGod was in their midst to bless them. It happened one morning that\nit came to the turn of a poor itinerant tinker, of extraordinary\nability, to address his fellow-prisoners-he had neither written\nnor even prepared a sermon, and felt, for a time, at a loss for\na text or subject. At length, while turning over the sacred pages,\nhis eye was directed to the description of the Holy City-New\nJerusalem, which in the latter day will gloriously descend from\nheaven. His soul was enlarged and enlightened with the dazzling\nsplendour of that sacred city-his heart, which had felt 'empty,\nspiritless, and barren,' was baptized into his subject-'with a few\ngroans, he carried his meditations to the Lord Jesus for a blessing,\nwhich he did forthwith grant according to his grace, and then the\npreacher did set before his brethren the spiritual meat, and they\ndid all eat and were well refreshed. While distributing the truth,\nit did so increase in his hand, that of the fragments he gathered\nup a basket full, and furnished this heavenly treatise.' Such, in\nsubstance, is the author's interesting account of the circumstances\nunder which he wrote this book. He adds, with humility, that\nthe men of this world would laugh, in conceit, that one so low,\ncontemptible, and inconsiderable should busy himself with so hard\nand knotty a subject, but humbly hopes, that though but a babe in\nChrist, these truths were revealed to him. To the real followers\nof the lowly Jesus, the poor carpenter's son, 'who had not where\nto lay his head'-of whom the Jews said, 'How knoweth this man\nletters, having never learned?' (John 7:15)-despised by princes,\nprelates, scribes, and Pharisees-to such, the poverty, the\noccupation, and the want of book-learning of our author needs no\napology. It is all-sufficient to know that he was mighty in the\nScriptures, and deeply taught of the Holy Spirit. These are the\nonly sources of information relative to the New Jerusalem; and\nin this treatise the author has richly developed the treasures of\nthe Bible in reference to this solemn subject. To the same prison\ndiscipline to which we are indebted for the Pilgrim's Progress,\nwe owe this, and other of the labours of that eminent servant\nof Christ, John Bunyan. Little did the poor tyrants who sent him\nto jail think that, in such a place, he would have this blessed\nvision of the heavenly city, or that his severe sufferings would\nmaterially aid in destroying their wicked craft.\n\nThe subject is one of pure revelation. The philosopher-the\ntheologian-the philologist-the historian, and the antiquarian,\nare utterly unable to grapple with that which is here so admirably\nhandled by a poor unlettered prisoner for Christ, who, from the\ninexhaustible storehouse of God's Word, brings forth things new\nand old to comfort the pilgrim, whether in a prison or a palace,\nand to enliven his prospects on his way to this celestial city.\nThe New Jerusalem is a sublime object, and we are bound humbly to\nadore that majestic mercy which has condescended to give us such\na glimpse of the glory which, in its unbounded extent, passeth\nall the powers of our earth-bound souls to conceive.\n\nIt is a city whose builder and maker is God-perfect as his infinite\nwisdom-strong as his omnipotence-eternal as his existence. Who by\nsearching can find out the perfections of the Almighty-they can\nonly be traced by his revealed will, and with our poor powers, even\nthen but faintly. No man ever possessed a more intimate knowledge\nof the Bible, nor greater aptitude in quoting it than Bunyan: he\nmust have meditated in it day and night; and in this treatise his\nbiblical treasures are wisely used. He begins with the foundation\nof the walls, and shows that they are based upon the truths taught\nto the twelve tribes, and by the twelve apostles of the Lamb. All\nthese truths are perfectly handed down to us in holy Writ, alike\nimmutable and unalterable. Cursed are they that add to that book,\neither by tradition or by the imposition of creeds, rites, and\nceremonies, and not less cursed are they that take from it. These\nsolid foundations support walls and gates through which nothing\ncan enter that defileth. It is a pattern to the church on earth,\ninto which none should be admitted but saints, known from their\nconversation as living epistles. 'Not common stuff, not raked out\nof the dunghills and muck heaps of this world, and from among the\ntoys of antichrist, but spiritual, heavenly and glorious precious\nstones.' This city has but one street, showing the perfect unity\namong all its inhabitants, and it is only under the personal reign\nof Christ that uniformity can exist. The divisions among Christians\narise, as Bunyan justly concludes, from 'antichristian rubbish,\ndarkness, and trumpery.' The cause of all the confusion is the lust\nof man for domination over conscience, the government of which is\nthe sole prerogative of God, and this is strengthened by the hope\nof passing through time in idleness, luxury, and honour, under the\nfalse pretence of apostolic descent transmitted through ceremonies\nworse than childish. In our Lord's days there was union among his\ndisciples, as there must be under his personal reign in the New\nJerusalem. But in the times of the apostles the disciples were\ndivided-one was of Paul-another of Apollos, and others of Cephas.\nThe Holy Ghost issued laws to regulate the church in their disputes-not\nan act of uniformity, but an injunction to the exercise of mutual\nforbearance, 'Who art thou that judges another man's servant.'\n'Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind' (Rom 14:4,5).\n\nAfter viewing the spiritual unity of the inhabitants of this wonderful\ncity, we are introduced to its temple. How vast the edifice, to\ncontain the millions on millions of worshippers-every inhabitant\nbeing present in the general assembly and church of the first-born!\nUtterly beneath our notice are the most magnificent temples\nraised by human ingenuity and vanity, when compared with that of\nthe Holy City. Its foundation, the immutability of God-its extent,\nhis divine immensity-its walls, the omnipotence of Jehovah-its\ntreasury, the unsearchable riches of Christ-its worshippers,\nthe countless myriads of the nations of those that are saved-its\nduration, ETERNITY. It is the inheritance of the Son of God,\nJehovah Jesus, and is worthy of HIS inconceivable majesty. In all\nthe multitude not one hypocrite will be found-not one sleeping\nworshipper-no wandering thought-no fear of sin or of Satan and his\npersecuting agents-death itself will be dead and swallowed up in\nlife and immortality-all are pure-clothed in white robes-the palm\nof victory in their hands-singing the glorious anthems of heaven.\nO my soul! who are they that are thus unspeakably blessed? Shall I\nbe a citizen of that city? God has told us who they are-not those\nwho have been cherished by the state-clothed with honour, who\nhave eaten the bread of idleness. No. 'These are they which came\nout of great tribulation' (Rev 7:14). From all kindreds, nations,\nsects, and parties-they who obeyed God and not man in all matters\nof faith and holiness-those who submitted to the Saviour, and have\nwashed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.\nHow vile is that sectarian spirit which in cold blood consigns all\nbut its own sect to eternal misery. How strange the calculation\nof that Jewish Rabbi,[1] who, dooming to miserable and eternal\nslavery all but his own little party, gives to every Jew two\nthousand eight hundred souls to be tormented and tyrannically used\nas slaves. The bitter sectarian who thus judges that all not of\nhis own party shall be destroyed, will do well to listen to the\nvoice of truth, 'With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged.'\nAll these absurd and wicked feelings are fast wearing away before\nthe advancing spirit of Christianity. When the leaven of Divine\ntruth shall have spread over the whole earth, antichrist will\nfinally fall-then shall this New Jerusalem descend from heaven,\nand become the glory of the earth. How distant soever that period\nmay seem, it is irresistibly hastening on. Since Bunyan's days,\npersecution has hid its ugly head-North America, which was then a\nland of darkness, is now widely covered with gospel blessings-slavery\nis coming to an end-India, the islands of the Pacific, and the vast\nterritories of Australia, are yielding their increase. A few more\ncenturies of progression, increasing in its ratio as time draws\nto a close, will hasten on the coming of our Lord.\n\nThe growth in grace of every Christian goes on thus gradually. Bunyan\ndraws a beautiful picture of this from Ezekiel 47:3-12. It is so\nslow as scarcely to be perceptible, and one proof of its growth\nin our hearts is a doubt as to whether we are progressing at all.\nThe more the light of heaven breaks in upon us, the more clearly\nit displays our sinful follies. According to the prophet, the waters\nrise higher and higher, but so slowly as to elude observation,\nuntil we find that they have risen from the ancles to the knees,\nand at length they rise and leave no standing for the feet-the\nearth recedes with time, and the soul enters upon the ocean of\neternal grace and glory. The time is coming when we shall no longer\nworship in temples made with hands, neither in the mountains of\nSamaria, nor in the temples of Jerusalem, or Rome, or London. 'The\ncloud-capt towers-the gorgeous palaces-the solemn temples-yea, the\ngreat globe itself, shall dissolve, and, like the baseless fabric\nof a vision, leave not a wreck behind.' Or in language far more\nsolemn and striking, because they are the unerring words of truth,\n'The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements\nshall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that\nare therein, shall be burned up.' Then shall the Holy City-the New\nJerusalem-descend from heaven, and all the ransomed of the Lord\nshall find in it a glorious and everlasting habitation.\n\nBunyan published this Book in a very small 8vo of 294 pages. It was\nnever reprinted separately from his other works, and even in them\nit suffered from serious omissions and errors. It is now accurately\nprinted from his original edition. The copy in Dr. Williams'\nLibrary, Redcross Street, is remarkably fine and clean, a present,\nmost probably, in the first instance, from the author, having\nan inscription on the fly leaf, apparently in Bunyan's autograph,\n'This for my good and dearly beloved frend mistris Backcraft.'\nIt has a false title, bearing the imprint of 'London, Printed for\nFrancis Smith, at the Elephant and Castle without Temple Barr,\n1669.' The editor's copy, soiled and tattered, cost him twenty\nshillings, a striking proof of its rarity. This has the original\ntitle, with the real date, 1665, but without a printer's or publisher's\nname-from which it may be inferred that no one dared to patronize\nthe labours of the poor prisoner-a circumstance tending to make\nthe book more prized by the lovers of Christian liberty. The four\ndedications are singular, and truly Bunyanish.\n\nGEO OFFOR.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO FOUR SORTS OF READERS\n\nI. TO THE GODLY READER.\n\nFriend,-Though the men of this world, at the sight of this book,\nwill not only deride, but laugh in conceit, to consider that one\nso low, contemptible, and inconsiderable as I, should busy myself\nin such sort, as to meddle with the exposition of so hard and\nknotty a Scripture as here they find the subject matter of this\nlittle book; yet do thou remember that 'God hath chosen the foolish\nthings of the world to confound the wise, and things which are\nnot, to bring to nought things that are' (1 Cor 1:27,28). Consider\nalso, that even of old it hath been his pleasure to 'hide these\nthings from the wise and prudent, and to reveal them unto babes'\n(Matt 11:25, 21:15,16). I tell you that the operation of the Word\nand Spirit of God, without depending upon that idol,[2] so much\nadored, is sufficient of itself to search out 'all things, even\nthe deep things of God' (1 Cor 2:10).\n\nThe occasion of my first meddling with this matter was\nas followeth:-Upon a certain first-day, I being together with my\nbrethren in our prison chamber, they expected that, according to\nour custom, something should be spoken out of the Word for our\nmutual edification; but at that time I felt myself, it being my\nturn to speak, so empty, spiritless, and barren, that I thought\nI should not have been able to speak among them so much as five\nwords of truth with life and evidence; but at last it so fell out\nthat providentially I cast mine eye upon the eleventh verse of\nthe one and twentieth chapter of this prophecy; upon which, when\nI had considered a while, methought I perceived something of that\njasper in whose light you there find this holy city is said to come\nor descend; wherefore having got in my eye some dim glimmerings\nthereof, and finding also in my heart a desire to see farther\nthereinto, I with a few groans did carry my meditations to the\nLord Jesus for a blessing, which he did forthwith grant according\nto his grace; and helping me to set before my brethren, we did all\neat, and were well refreshed; and behold also, that while I was in\nthe distributing of it, it so increased in my hand, that of the\nfragments that we left, after we had well dined, I gathered up\nthis basketful. Methought the more I cast mine eye upon the whole\ndiscourse, the more I saw lie in it. Wherefore setting myself to\na more narrow search, through frequent prayer to God, what first\nwith doing, and then with undoing, and after that with doing again,\nI thus did finish it.\n\nBut yet, notwithstanding all my labour and travel in this matter,\nI do not, neither can I expect that every godly heart should in\nevery thing see the truth and excellency of what is here discoursed;\nneither would I have them imagine that I have so thoroughly viewed\nthis holy city, but that much more than I do here crush out is yet\nleft in the cluster. Alas! I shall only say thus, I have crushed\nout a little juice to sweeten their lips withal, not doubting but\nin a little time more large measures of the excellency of this\ncity, and of its sweetness and glory, will by others be opened\nand unfolded; yea, if not by the servants of the Lord Jesus, yet\nby the Lord himself, who will have this city builded and set in\nits own place.\n\nBut, I say, for this discourse, if any of the saints that read\nherein think they find nought at all but words, as many times it\nfalleth out even in their reading the Scriptures of God themselves,\nI beg, I say, of such, that they read charitably, judge modestly,\nand also that they would take heed of concluding that because they\nfor the present see nothing in this or that passage, that therefore\nthere is nothing in it: possibly from that which thou mayest cast\naway as an empty bone, others may pick both good and wholesome\nbits, yea, and also out of that suck much nourishing marrow. You\nfind by experience, that that very bit that will not down with one,\nmay yet not only down, but be healthful and nourishing to another.\nBabes are more for milk than strong meat, though meat will well\ndigest with those that are of riper years. Wherefore that which\nthy weakness will not suffer thee to feed on, leave; and go to\nthe milk and nourishment that in other places thou shalt find.\n\nII. TO THE LEARNED READER.\n\nMy second word is to my wise and learned reader.\n\nSir,-I suppose, in your reading of this discourse, you will be apt\nto blame me for two things: First, Because I have not so beautified\nmy matter with acuteness of language as you could wish or desire.\nSecondly, Because also I have not given you, either in the line\nor in the margent, a cloud of sentences from the learned fathers,\nthat have, according to their wisdom, possibly, handled these\nmatters long before me.\n\nTo the first I say, the matter indeed is excellent and high; but\nfor my part I am weak and low; it also deserveth a more full and\nprofound discourse than my small pats will help me to make upon\nthe matter. But yet seeing the Lord looketh not at the outward\nappearance, but on the heart, neither regardeth high-swelling\nwords of vanity, but pure and naked truth; and seeing also that a\nwidow's mite being all, even heart as well as substance, is counted\nmore, and better, than to cast in little out of much, and that\nlittle too perhaps the worst, I hope my little, being all, my\nfarthing, seeing I have no more, may be accepted and counted for\na great deal in the Lord's treasury. Besides, Sir, words easy to\nbe understood do often hit the mark, when high and learned ones\ndo only pierce the air. He also that speaks to the weakest, may\nmake the learned understand him; when he that striveth to be high,\nis not only for the most part understood but of a sort, but also\nmany times is neither understood by them nor by himself.\n\nSecondly, The reason why you find me empty of the language of the\nlearned, I mean their sentences and words which others use, is\nbecause I have them not, nor have not read them: had it not been\nfor the Bible, I had not only not thus done it, but not at all.\n\nLastly. I do find in most such a spirit of whoredom and idolatry\nconcerning the learning of this world, and wisdom of the flesh,\nand God's glory so much stained and diminished thereby; that had\nI all their aid and assistance at command, I durst not make use of\nought thereof, and that for fear lest that grace, and these gifts\nthat the Lord hath given me, should be attributed to their wits,\nrather than the light of the Word and Spirit of God: Wherefore 'I\nwill not take' of them 'from a thread even to a shoe-latchet,--lest\nthey should say, We have made Abram rich' (Gen 14:23).\n\nSir, What you find suiting with the Scriptures take, though it\nshould not suit with authors; but that which you find against the\nScriptures, slight, though it should be confirmed by multitudes of\nthem. Yea, further, where you find the Scriptures and your authors\njump,[3] yet believe it for the sake of Scripture's authority. I\nhonour the godly as Christians, but I prefer the Bible before them;\nand having that still with me, I count myself far better furnished\nthan if I had without it all the libraries of the two universities.\nBesides, I am for drinking water out of my own cistern;[4] what\nGod makes mine by the evidence of his Word and Spirit, that I\ndare make bold with. Wherefore seeing, though I am without their\nlearned lines, yet well furnished with the words of God, I mean\nthe Bible, I have contented myself with what I there have found,\nand having set it before your eyes,\n\n\nI pray read and take, Sir, what you like best;\nAnd that which you like not, leave for the rest.\n\n\nIII. TO THE CAPTIOUS READER.\n\nMy third word is to the captious and wrangling reader.\n\nFriend,-However thou camest by this book, I will assure thee thou\nwast least in my thoughts when I writ it; I tell thee, I intended\nthis book as little for thee as the goldsmith intendeth his jewels\nand rings for the snout of a sow. Wherefore put on reason, and\nlay aside thy frenzy; be sober, or lay by the book (Matt 7:6).\n\nIV. TO THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, &c.\n\nMy fourth word is to the lady of kingdoms, the well-favoured harlot,\nthe mistress of witchcrafts, and the abominations of the earth.\n\nMistress,-I suppose I have nothing here that will either please\nyour wanton eye or go down with your voluptuous palate. Here is\nbread indeed, as also milk and meat; but here is neither paint\nto adorn thy wrinkled face, nor crutch to uphold or undershore\nthy shaking, tottering, staggering kingdom of Rome; but rather a\ncertain presage of thy sudden and fearful final downfall, and of\nthe exaltation of that holy matron, whose chastity thou dost abhor,\nbecause by it she reproveth and condemneth thy lewd and stubborn\nlife. Wherefore, lady, smell thou mayest of this, but taste thou\nwilt not: I know that both thy wanton eye, with all thy mincing\nbrats that are intoxicated with thy cup and enchanted with thy\nfornications, will, at the sight of so homely and plain a dish as\nthis, cry, Foh! snuff, put the branch to the nose,[5] and say,\nContemptible! (Mal 1:12,13; Eze 8:17). 'But wisdom is justified of\nall her children' (Matt 11:19). 'The virgin the daughter of Zion\nhath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; Jerusalem hath\nshaken her head at thee' (Isa 37:22), yea, her God hath smitten\nhis hands at thy dishonest gain and freaks (Eze 22:7-11, &c.).\n'Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love\nher; rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her; that ye\nmay suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations,\nthat ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her\nglory' (Isa 66:10,11).\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Solomon Jarchi. See Allen's Modern Judaism, p. 275.\n\n2. By 'idol' is here meant human wisdom and school learning, which\nthe men of this world adore, and laugh in conceit at the attempt\nof one who did not possess it to expound the mysteries of the\nRevelations-forgetting that they can only be spiritually discerned.-Ed.\n\n3. Where the Bible and uninspired authors agree, believe the truth\nsimply for the Bible's sake. How properly jealous was Bunyan as\nto the supremacy of God's authority.-Ed.\n\n4. See Isaiah 36:16. The fountain of living waters, and not the\nbroken cisterns alluded to in Jeremiah 2:13.-Ed.\n\n5. Commentators differ as to the meaning of 'put the branch to the\nnose,' Ezekiel 8:17, but all agree it was some well known mode of\nexpressing contempt for God and his worship.-Ed.\n\n\n\nTHE HOLY CITY; OR, THE NEW JERUSALEM\n\nBy John Bunyan\n\nRevelation 21:10-27; 22:1-4 \"And he carried me away in the spirit\nto a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the\nholy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the\nglory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious,\neven like a jasper stone, clear as crystal: And had a wall great\nand high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels\nand names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes\nof the children of Israel. On the east three gates, on the north\nthree gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.\nAnd the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the\nnames of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with\nme had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof\nand the wall thereof. And the city lieth four-square, and the\nlength is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with\nthe reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and\nthe height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an\nhundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a\nman, that is of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was\nof jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And\nthe foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all\nmanner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the\nsecond, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;\nThe fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite;\nthe eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus;\nthe eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve\ngates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl;\nand the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent\nglass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty,\nand the Lamb, are the temple of it. And the city had no need of\nthe sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God\ndid lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations\nof them which are saved, shall walk in the light of it: and the\nkings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And\nthe gates of it shall not be shut at all day by day: for there\nshall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour\nof the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it\nany thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,\nor maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of\nlife. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as\ncrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In\nthe midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,\nwas there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,\nand yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were\nfor the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse:\nbut the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his\nservants shall serve him. And they shall see his face, and his\nname shall be in their foreheads.\"\n\n\nIn my dealing with this mystery, I shall not meddle where I see\nnothing, neither shall I hide from you that which at present I\nconceive to be wrapt up therein; only you must not from me look\nfor much enlargement, though I shall endeavour to speak as much\nin few words, as my understanding and capacity will enable me,\nthrough the help of Christ.\n\nIn this description of this holy city, you have these five general\nheads:\n\nFIRST, The vision of this city in general. SECOND, A discovery of\nits defence, entrances, and fashion, in particular. THIRD, A relation\nof the glory of each. FOURTH, A discovery of its inhabitants, their\nquality and numerousness. FIFTH, A relation of its maintenance,\nby which it continueth in life, ease, peace, tranquility, and\nsweetness for ever. To all which I shall speak something in their\nproper places, and shall open them before you.\n\nBut before I begin with any of them, I must speak a word or two\nconcerning John's qualification, whereby he was enabled to behold\nand take a view of this city; which qualification he relateth in\nthese words following:\n\nVerse 10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and\nhigh mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,\ndescending out of heaven from God.\n\nThe angel being to show this holy man this great and glorious\nvision, he first, by qualifying of him, puts him into a suitable\ncapacity to behold and take the view thereof; 'He carried me away\nin the spirit.' When he saith, He carried me away in the Spirit,\nhe means he was taken up into the Spirit, his soul was greatly\nspiritualized. Whence take notice, that an ordinary frame of spirit\nis not able to comprehend, nor yet to apprehend extraordinary\nthings. Much of the Spirit discerneth much of God's matters; but\nlittle of the Spirit discerneth but little of them: 'I could not\nspeak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto\nbabes in Christ; I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for\nhitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able'\n(1 Cor 3:2).\n\n'And he carried me away in the spirit,' &c. Thus it was with the\nsaints of old, when God had either special work for them to do,\nor great things for them to see. Ezekiel, when he had the vision\nof this city in the old law, in the captivity at Babylon, he must\nbe first forefitted with a competent measure of the Spirit (Eze\n40:2). John also, when he had the whole matter of this prophecy\nrevealed unto him, he must be in the Spirit; 'I was (saith he) in\nthe Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice,\nas of a trumpet' talking with me, &c (Rev 1:10,11). Whence note\nagain, that when God calls a man to this or that work for him,\nhe first fits him with a suitable spirit. Ezekiel saith, when God\nbid him stand upon his feet, that the Spirit entered into him, and\nset him upon his feet (Eze 2:1,2).\n\n'And he carried me away,' &c. Mark, And he carried me [away] &c.\nAs a man must have much of the Spirit that sees much of God, and\nhis goodly matters; so he must be also carried away with it; he\nmust by it be taken off from things carnal and earthly, and taken\nup into the glory of things that are spiritual and heavenly. The\nSpirit loveth to do what it doth in private; that man to whom God\nintendeth to reveal great things, he takes him aside from the lumber\nand cumber of this world, and carrieth him away in the solace and\ncontemplation of the things of another world; 'And when they were\nalone, he expounded all things to his disciples' (Mark 4:34).\nMark, and when they were ALONE; according to that of the prophet,\n'Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand\ndoctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the\nbreasts' (Isa 28:9). Whence observe also, he is the man that is\nlike to know most of God, that is oftenest in private with him\n(Luke 2:25-38). He that obeyeth when God saith, Come up hither,\nhe shall see the bride, the Lamb's wife. For 'through desire a\nman having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all\nwisdom' (Pro 18:1).\n\n'And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain.'\nThus having showed his frame, and inward disposition of spirit,\nhe now comes to tell us also of the place or stage on which he was\nset; to the end that now being fitted by illumination, he might\nnot be hindered of his vision by ought that might intercept. He\ncarried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. Thus\ndid God of old also; for when he showed to Moses the patterns of\nthe heavenly things, he must ascend to the Mount Sinai (Exo 19:3).\nHe must into the mount also, when he hath the view of the Holy\nLand, and of that goodly mountain Lebanon (Deu 32:49). Whence we may\nlearn that the things of God are far from man, as he is natural;\nand also that there are very great things between us and the\nsight of them: none can see them but such as are carried away in\nthe Spirit and set on high.\n\n'...To a great and high mountain.' This mountain therefore signifieth\nthe Lord Christ, on which the soul must be placed, as on a mighty\nhill, whereby he may be able his eyes being anointed with spiritual\neye salve, to see over the tops of those mighty corruptions,\ntemptations, and spiritual enemies, that like high and mighty towers\nare built by the wicked one, to keep the view of God's things from\nthe sight of our souls (2 Cor 10:5,6). Wherefore Christ is called\nthe Mountain of the Lord's house, or that on which the house of\nGod is placed; he is also called the Rock of ages, and the Rock\nthat is higher than we. 'The hill of God is' an high hill, as\nBashan; 'an high hill, as the hill of Bashan' (Psa 68:15). This\nis the hill from whence the prophet Ezekiel had the vision of this\ncity (Eze 40:2); 'And upon this rock [saith Christ] I will build\nmy church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it'\n(Matt 16:18).\n\n[FIRST. The Vision of the Holy City in General.]\n\n'And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain,\nand showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem.' Having thus\ntold us how, and with what he was qualified, he next makes relation\nof what he saw, which was that great city, the holy Jerusalem.\n\nJerusalem, in the language of the Scripture, is to be acknowledged\nfor the church and spouse of the Lord Jesus; and is to be considered\neither generally or more particularly. Now as she is to be taken\ngenerally, so she is to be understood as being 'the whole family\nin heaven and earth,' (Eph 3:15); and as she is thus looked upon,\nso she is not considered with respect to this or that state and\ncondition of the church here in the world, but simply as she is the\nchurch: therefore it is said, when at any time any are converted\nfrom Satan to God, that they 'are come unto Mount Zion, and unto\nthe city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to an\ninnumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church\nof the first-born which are written in heaven; to God the judge of\nall, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus,--and\nto the blood of sprinkling' (Heb 12:22,24).\n\nBut again, as Jerusalem is thus generally to be understood, so\nalso she is to be considered more particularly: 1. Either as she\nrelates to her first and purest state; or, 2. As she relates to\nher declined and captivated state; or, 3. With reference to her\nbeing recovered again from her apostatized and captivated condition.\nThus it was with Jerusalem in the letter; which threefold state of\nthis city shall be most exactly answered by our gospel Jerusalem,\nby our New Testament church. Her first state was in the days of\nChrist and his apostles, and answereth to Jerusalem in the days\nof Solomon; her second state is in the days of antichrist, and\nanswereth to the carrying away of the Jews from their city into\nBabylon; and her third state is this in the text, and answereth to\ntheir return from captivity, and rebuilding their city and walls\nagain: all which will be fully manifest in this discourse following.\n\n[This city is the gospel church returning out of antichristian\ncaptivity.]\n\nBesides, that this holy city that here you read of is the church,\nthe gospel church, returning out of her long and antichristian\ncaptivity; consider,\n\nFirst, She is here called a city, the very name that our primitive\nchurch went under (Eph 2:19); which name she loseth all the while\nof her apostatizing and captivity under antichrist; for observe,\nI say, all the while she is under the scourge of the dragon, beast,\nand the woman in scarlet, &c. (Rev 13), she goeth under the name\nof a woman, a woman in travail, a woman flying before the dragon,\na woman flying into the wilderness, there to continue in an afflicted\nand tempted condition, and to be glad of wilderness nourishment,\nuntil the time of her enemies were come to an end (Rev 12).\n\nNow the reason why she lost the title of city at her going into\ncaptivity is, because then she lost her situation and strength;\nshe followed others than Christ, wherefore he suffered her enemies\nto scale her walls, to break down her battlements; he suffered,\nas you see here, the great red dragon, and beast with seven heads\nand ten horns, to get into her vineyard, who made most fearful work\nboth with her and all her friends; her gates also were now either\nbroken down or shut up, so that none could, according to her laws\nand statutes, enter into her; her charter also, even the Bible\nitself, was most grossly abused and corrupted, yea, sometimes\nburned and destroyed almost utterly; wherefore the Spirit of God\ndoth take away from her the title of city, and leaveth her to be\ntermed a wandering woman, as aforesaid. 'The court which is without\nthe temple [saith the angel] leave out, and measure it not, for\nit is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread\nunder foot forty and two months' (Rev 11:2). 'The holy city shall\nthey tread under foot'; that is, all the city constitutions, her\nforts and strength, her laws and privileges for a long time, shall\nbe laid aside and slighted, shall become a hissing, a taunt, and\na byword among the nations. And truly thus it was in the letter,\nin the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon and his\nwicked instruments, by whose hands the city was broken up, the\nwalls pulled down, the gates burned, the houses rifled, the virgins\nravished, and the children laid dead in the top of every street\n(2 Chron 36:17-21; Jer 52; Lam 1; 2; 3; 4). Now was Zion become a\nploughed field, and Jerusalem turned to heaps; a place of briars\nand thorns, and of wasteness and desolation (Micah 3:12; Isa\n7:23,24).\n\nSecond, The phrase also that is joined with this of city doth much\nconcern the point; she is here called 'the new and holy city,'\nwhich words are explained by these, 'prepared as a bride and\nadorned for her husband.' The meaning is, that she is now got into\nher form, fashion, order, and privileges again; she is now ready,\nadorned, prepared, and put into her primitive state; mark, though\nshe was in her state of affliction called a woman, yet she was not\nthen either called a city or a woman adorned; but rather a woman\nrobbed and spoiled, rent and torn among the briars and thorns of\nthe wilderness (Isa 5:6; 42:22; 32:13,14). Wherefore this city is\nnothing else but the church returned out of captivity from under\nthe reign of antichrist, as is yet farther manifest, because,\n\nThird. We find no city to answer that which was built after the\nJews' return from captivity but this; for this, and only this, is\nthe city that you find in this prophecy that is nominated as the\nantitype of that second of the Jews; wherefore John hath no relation\nof her while towards the doom of antichrist, and no description of\nher in particular until antichrist is utterly overthrown; as all\nmay see that wisely read (Rev 17-20).\n\n[Why the church is called a city.]\n\n'And showed me that great city.' The Holy Ghost is pleased at\nthis time to give the church the name of a city, rather than any\nother name, rather than the name of spouse, woman, temple, and\nthe like-though he giveth us her under the name of a woman also,\nto help us to understand what he means; but, I say, the name of a\ncity is now the name in special, under which the church must go,\nand that for special reasons.\n\nFirst. To show us how great and numerous a people will then be in\nthe church; the church may be a woman, a temple, a spouse, when\nshe is but few, a handful, but two or three; but to be a city, and\nthat in her glory, it bespeaks great store of members, inhabitants,\nand citizens; especially when she goeth under the name of a great\ncity, as here she does. He 'showed me that great city.'\n\nSecond. She goeth rather under the name of a city, than temple or\nspouse, to show us also how plentifully the nations and kingdoms\nof men shall at that day traffic with her, and in her, for her\ngoodly merchandize of grace and life; to show us, I say, what\nwonderful custom the church of God at this day shall have among\nall sorts of people, for her heavenly treasures. It is said of Tyrus\nand Babylon, that their merchandize went unto all the world, and\nmen from all quarters under heaven came to trade and to deal with\nthem for their wares (Eze 27; Rev 18:2,3). Why thus it will be\nin the latter day with the church of God; the nations shall come\nfrom far, from Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan, and the isles\nafar off. They shall come, saith God, out of all nations upon horses\nand mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem.\n'And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another,\nand from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship\nbefore me, saith the Lord' (Isa 66:19-23). Alas, the church at that\nday when she is a woman only, or a temple either, may be without\nthat beauty, treasure, amiableness, and affecting glory that she\nwill be endowed with when she is a prosperous city. His marvellous\nkindness is seen 'in a strong city' (Psa 31:21). In cities, you\nknow, are the treasures, beauty, and glory of kingdoms; and it is\nthither men go that are desirous to solace themselves therewith.\n'Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined' (Psa\n50:2).\n\nThird. It is called a city, rather than a woman or temple, to show\nus how strongly and securely it will keep its inhabitants at that\nday. 'In that day shall this song be sung,--We have a strong city,\nsalvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks' (Isa 26:1). And\nverily if the cities of the Gentiles, and the strength of their\nbars, and gates, and walls did so shake the hearts, yea, the very\nfaith of the children of God themselves, how secure and safe will\nthe inhabitants of this city be, even the inhabitants of that city\nwhich God himself will build,' &c. (Deu 9:1,2; Num 13:28).\n\nFourth. But lastly, and more especially, the church is called here\na city, chiefly to show us that now she shall be undermost no\nlonger. Babylon reigned, and so shall Jerusalem at that day. 'And\nthou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of\nZion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion, the kingdom\nshall come to the daughter of Jerusalem' (Micah 4:8). Now shall\nshe, when she is built and complete, have a complete conquest and\nvictory over all her enemies; she shall reign over them; the law\nshall go forth of her that rules them, and the governors of all\nthe world at that day shall be Jerusalem men. 'And the captivity\nof this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the\nCanaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem\nwhich is in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south. And\nsaviours shall come up on mount Zion, to judge the mount of Esau,\nand the kingdom shall be the Lord's' (Obad 20,21).[1] 'For the law\nshall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.--And\nhe shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar\noff, and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and\ntheir spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword\nagainst nation, neither shall they learn war any more' (Micah\n4:1-3). There brake he 'the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As\nwe have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts,\nin the city of our God; God will establish it for ever' (Psa\n48:1-8). For observe it, Christ hath not only obtained the kingdom\nof heaven for those that are his, when this world is ended, but\nhath also, as a reward for his sufferings, the whole world given\ninto his hand; wherefore, as all the kings, and princes, and\npowers of this world have had their time to reign, and have glory\nin this world in the face of all, so Christ will have his time at\nthis day, to show who is 'the only Potentate--and Lord of lords'\n(1 Tim 6:15). At which day he will not only set up his kingdom in\nthe midst of their kingdoms, as he doth now, but will set it up\neven upon the top of their kingdoms; at which day there will not\nbe a nation in the world but must bend to Jerusalem or perish\n(Isa 60:12). For 'the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of\nthe kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people\nof the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting\nkingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him' (Dan 7:27).\n'And his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river\nto the ends of the earth' (Zech 9:10). O holiness, how shall it\nshine in kings and nations, when God doth this!\n\n[This city descends out of heaven from God.]\n\n'He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out\nof heaven from God.' In these words we are to inquire into three\nthings. First. What he here should mean by heaven. Second. What\nit is for this city to descend out of it. Third. And why she is\nsaid to descend out of it from God.\n\nFirst. For the word heaven, in Scripture it is variously to be\nunderstood, but generally either materially or metaphorically; now\nnot materially here, but metaphorically; and so is generally, if\nnot always, taken in this book.\n\nNow that it is not to be taken for the material heavens where Christ\nin person is, consider, that the descending of this city is not\nthe coming of glorified saints with their Lord; because that even\nafter the descending, yea and building of this city, there shall\nbe sinners converted to God; but at the coming of the Lord Jesus\nfrom heaven with his saints, the door shall be shut; that is, the\ndoor of grace, against all unbelievers (Luke 13:25; Matt 25:10).\n\nTherefore heaven here is to be taken metaphorically, for the church;\nwhich, as I said before, is frequently so taken in this prophecy,\nas also in many others of the holy scriptures (Rev 11:15;\n12:1-3,7,8,10,13; 13:6; 19:1,14; Jer 51:48; Matt 25:1, &c.).\nAnd observe it, though the church of Christ under the tyranny of\nantichrist, loseth the title of a standing city, yet in the worst\nof times she loseth not the title of heaven. She is heaven when\nthe great red dragon is in her, and heaven when the third part\nof her stars are cast unto the earth; she is heaven also when the\nbeast doth open his throat against her, to blaspheme her God, his\ntabernacle, and those that dwell in her.\n\nSecond. Now, then, to show you what we are to understand by this,\nthat she is said to descend out of heaven; for indeed to speak\nproperly, Jerusalem is always in the Scriptures set in the highest\nground, and men are said to descend, when they go down from her,\nbut to ascend, or go up when they are going thitherwards (Eze 3:1;\nNeh 12:1; Matt 20:17,18; Luke 19:28; 10:30). But yet though this\nbe true, there must also be something significant in this word\ndescending; wherefore when he saith, he saw this city to descend\nout of heaven, he would have us understand,\n\n1. That though the church under antichrist be never so low, yet out\nof her loins shall they come that yet shall be a reigning city\n(Heb 7:6,13,14). Generation is a descending from the loins of\nour friends; he therefore speaks of the generation of the church.\nWherefore the meaning is, That out of the church that is now in\ncaptivity, there shall come a complete city, so exact in all things,\naccording to the laws and liberties, privileges and riches of a\ncity, that she shall lie level with the great charter of heaven.\nThus it was in the type, the city after the captivity was builded,\neven by those that once were in captivity, especially by their seed\nand offspring (Isa 45); and thus it shall be in our New Testament\nNew Jerusalem; 'They that shall be of thee,' saith the prophet, that\nis, of the church of affliction, they 'shall build the old waste\nplaces; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;\nand thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer\nof paths to dwell in' (Isa 58:12); and again, they that sometimes\nhad ashes for gladness, and the spirit of heaviness instead of\nthe garment of praise, 'they shall build the old wastes, they shall\nraise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste\ncities, the desolations of many generations; for your shame ye\nshall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their\nportion,' &c. (Isa 61:3,4,7). Thus therefore by descending we may\nunderstand that the church's generation shall be this holy city,\nand shall build up themselves the tower of the flock (Micah 4:8).\n\n2. When he saith, This holy city descended out of heaven, he would\nhave us understand also what a blessing and happiness this city\nat her rebuilding will be to the whole world. Never were kind and\nseasonable showers more profitable to the tender new-mown grass\nthan will this city at this day be, to the inhabitants of the\nworld; they will come as a blessing from heaven upon them. As the\nprophet saith, 'The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many\npeople, as a dew from the Lord; as the showers upon the grass,\nthat tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men' (Micah\n5:7). O the grace, the light and glory that will strike with\nspangling beams from this city, as from a sun, into the farthest\nparts of the world! 'Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found\nin the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is\nin it: so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy\nthem all: I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah\nan inheritor of my' holy 'mountains: and mine elect shall inherit\nit, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon [where the\nsweet roses grew, (Cant 2:1)], shall be a fold for flocks, and the\nvalley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people\nthat have sought me' (Isa 65:8-10). 'In that day shall Israel\nbe the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the\nmidst of the land' (Isa 19:24). 'And it shall come to pass, that\nas ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house\nof Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear\nnot, but let your hands be strong' (Zech 8:13). 'As the dew of\nHermon that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the\nLord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore' (Psa 133:3).\n\nThird. And now for the third particular, namely, What it is to\ndescend out of heaven from God.\n\n1. To descend out of heaven, that is, out of the church in captivity,\n'from God,' is this: The church is the place in which God doth\nbeget all those that are the children of him; wherefore in that\nthey are said to descend out of heaven 'from God,' it is as if\nhe had said, the children of the church are heaven-born, begotten\nof God, and brought forth in the church of Christ. For 'Jerusalem\nwhich is above is the mother of us all' (Gal 4:26). 'The Lord shall\ncount when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there'\n(Psa 87:5,6).\n\n2. When he saith he saw this Jerusalem come out of heaven from God,\nhe means that those of the church in captivity that shall build\nthis city, they shall be a people peculiarly fitted and qualified\nfor this work of God. It was not all the children of Israel that\nhad their hand in building Jerusalem after the captivity of old;\n'their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord' (Neh\n3:5). Also there were many of Judah that were sworn to Tobiah, the\narch-opposer of the building of the city, because of some kindred\nand relation that then was between them and him (Neh 6:17-19). And\nas it was then, so we do expect it will be now; some will be even\nat the beginning of this work, in Babylon, at that time also some\nwill be cowardly and fearful, yea, and even men hired to hinder\nthe work (Neh 6:10-12). Wherefore I say, those of the church that\nat that day builded the city, they were men of a particular and\npeculiar spirit, which also will so be at the building of New\nJerusalem. They whose light breaks forth as the morning, they that\nare mighty for a spirit of prayer, they that take away the yoke,\nand speaking vanity, and that draw out their soul to the hungry;\nthey that the Lord shall guide continually, that shall have fat\nbones, and that shall be as a watered garden, whose waters fail\nnot, &c. (Isa 58:8-14). Of them shall they be that build the old\nwastes, and that raise up the foundations of many generations, &c.\nIt was thus in all ages, in every work of God, some of his people,\nsome of his saints in special in all ages, have been used to promote,\nand advance, and perfect the work of their generations.\n\n3. This city descends or comes out of heaven from God, that is,\nby his special working and bringing to pass; it was God that gave\nthem the pattern even when they were in Babylon; it was God that\nput it into their hearts while there, to pray for deliverance;\nit was God that put it into the hearts of the kings of the Medes\nand Persians to give them liberty to return and build; and it was\nGod that quailed the hearts of those that by opposing did endeavour\nto hinder the bringing the work to perfection; yea, it was God\nthat did indeed bring the work to perfection; wherefore she may\nwell be said to descend 'out of heaven from God': as he also saith\nhimself by the prophet, I will cause the captivity of Judah, and\nthe captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them as at\nthe first (Ezra 4:1-4; 7:27; Neh 2:8-18; 4:15; 6:15,16; Jer 33:7;\n32:44; Eze 36:33-37; 37:11-15; Amos 9:11).\n\nLastly, When he saith he saw her descend from God out of heaven,\nhe may refer to her glory, which at her declining departed from\nher, and ascended to God, as the sap returns into the root at the\nfall of the leaf; which glory doth again at her return descend,\nor come into the church, and branches of the same, as the sap doth\narise at the spring of the year, for indeed the church's beauty\nis from heaven, and it either goeth up thither from her, or else\ncomes from thence to her, according to the natures of both fall\nand spring (Cant 2).Thus you see what this heaven is, and what it\nis for this city to descend out of it; also what it is for this\ncity to descend out of it from God.\n\n[This city has the glory of God.]\n\nVer. 11. 'Having the glory of God.' These last words do put the\nwhole matter out of doubt, and do most clearly show unto us that\nthe descending of this city is the perfect return of the church\nout of captivity; the church, when she began at first to go into\ncaptivity, her glory began to depart from her; and now she is\nreturning again, she receiveth therewith her former glory, 'having\nthe glory of God.' Thus it was in the type, when Jerusalem went\ninto captivity under the King of Babylon, which was a figure of\nthe captivity of our New Testament church under Antichrist, it is\nsaid that then the glory of God departed from them, and went, by\ndegrees, first out of the temple to the threshold of the house,\nand from thence with the cherubims of glory, for that time, quite\naway from the city (Eze 10:4-18; 11:22,23 &c.).\n\nAgain, As the glory of God departed from this city at her going into\ncaptivity, so when she returned again, she had also then returned\nto her the glory of God; whereupon this very prophet that saw the\nglory of God go from her at her going into captivity, did see it,\nthe very same; and that according as it departed, so return at\nher deliverance. 'He brought me to the gate,' saith he-that is,\nwhen by a vision he saw all the frame and patterns of the city and\ntemple, in the state in which it was to be after the captivity.\n'He brought me to the gate--that looketh toward the east, and behold\nthe glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east'-the\nvery same way that it went when it was departed from the city (Eze\n11:23). 'His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth\nshined with is glory. It was according to the appearance of the\nvision which I saw, even according to the vision which I saw when\nI came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision\nthat I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face, and the\nglory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose\nprospect is toward the east; so the Spirit took me up, and brought\nme into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled\nthe house' (Eze 43:1-5).\n\nThus you see it was in the destruction and restoration of the Jews'\nJerusalem, by which God doth plainly show us how things will be\nin our gospel church; she was to decline and lose her glory, she\nwas to be trampled-as she was a city-for a long time under the\nfeet of the unconverted and wicked world. Again, she was after\nthis to be builded, and to be put into her former glory; at which\ntime she was to have her glory, her former glory, even the glory\nof God, returned to her again. 'He showed me,' saith John, 'that\ngreat city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from\nGod, having the glory of God.' As he saith by the prophet, 'I am\nreturned to Jerusalem with mercies, my house shall be built in it'\n(Zech 1:16). And again, 'I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell\nin the midst of Jerusalem' (Zech 8:3).\n\n'Having the glory of God.' There is the grace of God, and the glory\nof that grace; there is the power of God, and the glory of that\npower; and there is the majesty of God, and the glory of that\nmajesty (Eph 1:6; 2 Thess 1:9; Isa 2:19).\n\nIt is true God doth not leave his people in some sense, even in the\nworst of times, and in their most forlorn condition (John 14:18),\nas he showeth by his being with them in their sad state in Egypt\nand Babylon, and other of their states of calamity (Dan 3:25). As\nhe saith, 'Although I have cast them far off among the heathen,\nand although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will\nI be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall\ncome' (Eze 2:16). God is with his church, even in her greatest\nadversity, both to limit, bound, measure, and to point out to her\nquantity and quality, her beginning and duration of distress and\ntemptation (Isa 27:7-9; Rev 2:10). But yet I say the glory of\nGod, in the notion of Ezekiel and John, when they speak of the\nrestoration of this city, that is not always upon his people, though\nalways they are beloved and counted for his peculiar treasure. She\nmay then have his grace, but not at the same time the glory of\nhis grace; his power, but not the glory of his power; she may also\nhave his majesty, but not the glory thereof; God may be with his\nchurch, even then when the glory is departed from Israel.\n\nThe difference that is between her having his grace, power, and\nmajesty, and the glory of each, is manifest in these following\nparticulars;-grace, power, and majesty, when they are in the church\nin their own proper acts, only as we are considered saints before\nGod, so they're invisible, and that not only altogether to the\nworld, but often to the very children of God themselves; but now\nwhen the glory of these do rest upon the church, according to\nEzekiel and John; why then it will be visible and apparent to all\nbeholders. 'When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall APPEAR in\nhis glory' (Psa 102:16), as he saith also in another place, 'The\nLord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee'\n(Isa 60:1-2).\n\nNow, then, to speak a word or two, in particular to the glory of\nGod, that at this day will be found to settle upon this city.\n\nFirst. Therefore, at her returning, she shall not only have his\ngrace upon her, but the very glory of his grace shall be seen\nupon her; the glory of pardoning grace shall now shine in her own\nsoul, and grace in the glory of it shall appear in all her doings.\nNow shall both our inward and outward man be most famously adorned\nand beautified with salvation; the golden pipes that are on the\nhead of the golden candlestick, shall at this day convey, with\nall freeness, the golden oil thereout, into our golden hearts and\nlamps (Zech 4:2). Our wine shall be mixed with gall no longer, we\nshall now drink the pure blood of the grape; the glory of pardoning\nand forgiving mercy shall so show itself at this day in this city,\nand shall so visibly abide there in the eyes of all spectators,\nthat all shall be enflamed with it. 'For Zion's sake will I not\nhold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the\nrighteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation\nthereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy\nrighteousness, and all kings thy glory; and thou shalt be called by\na new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name' (Isa 62:1,2).\nAnd again, 'The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes\nof all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the\nsalvation of our God' (Isa 52:10; Psa 98:2). At that day, the\nprophet tells us, there shall be holiness upon the very horses'\nbridles, and that the pots in the Lord's house shall be like\nthe bowls before the altar, and every pot in Jerusalem shall be\nholiness unto the Lord (Zech 14:20,21). The meaning of all these\nplaces is, that in the day that the Lord doth turn his church and\npeople into the frame and fashion of a city, and when he shall\nbuild them up to answer the first state of the church, there will\nsuch grace and plenty of mercy be extended unto her, begetting\nsuch faith and holiness and grace in her soul, and all her actions,\nthat she shall convince all that are about her that she is the\ncity, the beloved city, the city that the Lord hath chosen; for\nafter that he had said before, he would return to Zion, and dwell\nin the midst of Jerusalem (Zech 8:3), he saith, moreover, that\nJerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of\nthe Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. 'And all the people of the\nearth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and\nthey shall be afraid of thee' (Deu 28:10).\n\nSecond. As the glory of the grace of God will, at this day, be\nwonderfully manifest in and over his city; so also at that day\nwill be seen the glory of his power. 'O my people,' saith God,\n'that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall\nsmite thee with a rock, and shall lift up his staff against thee,\nafter the manner of Egypt,' that is, shall persecute and afflict\nthee, as Pharaoh served thy friends of old; but be not afraid,\n'For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease,\nand mine anger in their destruction: and the Lord of hosts shall\nstir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian\nat the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he\nlift it up after the manner of Egypt' (Isa 7; 10:24-26). The sum\nis, God will, at the day of his rebuilding the New Jerusalem, so\nvisibly make bare his arm, and be so exalted before all by his\npower towards his people, that no people shall dare to oppose-or\nstand, if they do make the least attempt to hinder-the stability\nof this city. 'I will surely [gather, or] assemble, O Jacob, all\nof thee,' saith God: 'I will surely gather the remnant of Israel--as\nthe sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of the fold; they\nshall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker\nis come up before them, they have broken up [the antichristian\nsiege that hath been laid against them], they have passed through\nthe gate, and are gone out by it, and their king shall pass before\nthem, and the Lord on the head of them' (Micah 2:12,13). 'Like as\nthe lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude\nof shepherds are called forth against him, he will not be afraid\nof their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall\nthe Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the\nhill thereof' (Isa 31:4). 'The Lord shall go forth as a mighty\nman, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry,\nyea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies' (Isa 42:13). But\n'not by might, nor yet by power,' that is, the power and arm of\nflesh, but by the power of the Word and Spirit of God, which will\nprevail, and must prevail, to quash and overturn all opposition\n(Zech 12:8; Zeph 3:8; Joel 3:16; Zech 4:6).\n\nThird. [The glory of his majesty.] When God hath thus appeared in\nthe glory of his grace, and the glory of his power, to deliver\nhis chosen, then shall the implacable enemies of God shrink and\ncreep into holes like the locusts and frogs of the hedges, at the\nappearance of the glory of the majesty of God. Now the high ones,\nlofty ones, haughty ones, and the proud, shall see so evidently the\nhand of the Lord towards his servants, and his indignation towards\nhis enemies, that 'they shall go into the holes of the rocks,\nand into the caves of the earth,--and into the tops of the ragged\nrocks, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,\nwhen he ariseth to shake terribly the earth' (Isa 2:19,21).\n\nWhere the presence of the Lord doth so appear upon a people, that\nthose that are spectators perceive and understand it, it must need\nwork on those spectators one of these two things;-either first\na trembling and astonishment, and quailing of heart, as it doth\namong the implacable enemies (Josh 2:8-13), or else a buckling\nand bending of heart, and submission to his people and ways (Josh\n9:22-25). As saith the prophet, 'The sons also of them that\nafflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that\ndespised thee shall fall[2] down at the soles of thy feet; and they\nshall call thee The city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of\nIsrael' (Isa 60:14). As Moses said to the children of Israel, 'The\nLord your God shall lay the fear of you, and the dread of you,\nupon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto\nyou' (Deu 11:25).\n\nAt this day the footsteps of the Lord will be so apparent and\nvisible in all his actions and dispensations in and towards his\npeople, this holy city, that all shall see, as I have said, how\ngracious, loving, kind, and good the Lord is now towards his own\nchildren; such glory, I say, will be over them, and upon them,\nthat they all will shine before the world; and such tender bowels\nin God towards them, that no sooner can an adversary peep, or lift\nup his head against his servants, but his hand will be in the neck\nof them; so that in short time he will have brought his church\ninto that safety, and her neighbours into that fear and submission,\nthat they shall not again so much as dare to hold up a hand against\nher, no, not for a thousand years (Rev 20:3). 'Thus saith the Lord,\nBehold I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have\nmercy on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be builded on her\nown heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.\nAnd out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them\nthat make merry; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be\nfew; and I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small:\nTheir children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation\nshall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress\nthem' (Jer 30:18-20).\n\n[The light of this city.]\n\nHaving the glory of God. 'And her light was like unto a stone most\nprecious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.' Having thus\ntold us of her glory, even of 'the glory of God,' how it at this\nday will rest upon this city, he now comes to touch a second\nthing, to wit, 'her light,' and that in which she descends, and\nby which, as with the light of the sun, she seeth before her, and\nbehind her, and on every side. This therefore is another branch of\nher duty; she in her descending hath 'the glory of God,' and also\n'the light of a stone most precious.'\n\nEzekiel tells us, that in the vision which he saw when he came to\ndestroy the city-which vision was the very same that he saw again\nat the restoring of it-he saith, I say, that in this vision,\namong many other wonders, he saw a fire enfolding itself, and a\nbrightness about it, and that 'the fire also was bright, and that\nout of it went forth lightning'; that 'the likeness of the firmament\nupon the--living creatures, was as the colour of the terrible\ncrystal'; that the throne also, upon which was placed the likeness\nof a man, was like, or 'as the appearance of a sapphire-stone'\n(Eze 1:4,13,14,22,26). All which words, with the nature of their\nlight and colour, the Holy Ghost doth in the vision of John comprise,\nand placeth within the colour of the jasper and the crystal-stone.\nAnd indeed, though the vision of John and Ezekiel, touching the\nend of the matter, be but one and the same, yet they do very much\nvary and differ in terms and manner of language; Ezekiel tells\nus that the man that he saw come to measure the city and temple,\nhad in his hand 'a line of flax' (40:3), which line John calls a\ngolden reed; Ezekiel tells us that the river came out of, or 'from\nunder the threshold of the house' (47:1); but John saith it came\nout of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Ezekiel tells us that\non either side of this river grew ALL trees for food (v 12); John\ncalls these ALL trees but ONE tree, and tells us that it stood\non both sides of this river. The like might also be showed you in\nmany other particulars; as here you see they differ as touching the\nterms of the light and brightness that appears upon this city at\nher rebuilding, which the Holy Ghost represents to John under the\nlight and glory of the jasper and crystal-stone; for indeed the\nend of Ezekiel's vision was to show us, that as when the glory of\nGod departed from the city, it signified that he would take away\nfrom them the light of his Word, and their clearness of worship,\nsuffering them to mourn for the loss of the one, and to grope\nfor the want of the other; so at his return again he would give\nthem both their former light of truth, and also the clearness of\nspirit to understand it, which also John doth show us shall last\nfor ever.\n\n'...And her light was like unto a stone most precious...' This\nstone it is to represent unto us the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose\nlight and clearness this city comes out of Babylon; for, as he\nsaith, she hath the glory of God, that is, his visible hand of\ngrace, power, and majesty, to bring her forth; so she comes in the\nlight of this precious stone, which terms, I say, both the prophet\nIsaiah and the apostle Peter do apply to the Lord Jesus, and none\nelse; the one calling him 'a precious corner-stone,' the other\ncalling him the 'chief corner-stone, elect and precious' (Isa 28:16;\n1 Peter 2:6). Now then when he saith this city hath the light of\nthis stone to descend in, he means that she comes in the shining\nwisdom, knowledge, understanding, and influences of Christ, out of\nher afflicted and captivated state; and observe it, she is rather\nsaid to descend in the light of this stone, than in the light of\nGod, though both be true, because it is the man Christ, the stone\nwhich the builders rejected, 'in whom are hid all the treasures\nof wisdom and knowledge,' of whose fulness we do all receive, and\ngrace for grace; 'for it pleased the Father that in him should all\nfulness dwell' (Col 2:3; John 1:16; Col 1:19. See also Acts 2:33\nand Eph 4:10-13).\n\nThis showeth us, then, these two things-\n\nFirst. That the time of the return of the saints to build the\nruinous city is near, yea, very near, when the light of the Lord\nJesus begins to shine unto perfect day in her. God will not bring\nforth his people out of Babylon, especially those that are to be\nthe chief in the building of this city, without their own judgments.\n'They shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion'\n(Isa 52:8). As he saith also in another place, 'The light of the\nmoon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun\nshall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that\nthe Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and health the stroke\nof their wound' (Isa 30:26). 'And the eyes of them that see shall\nnot be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The\nheart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue\nof the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly' (Isa 32:3,4).\nThe Lord shall be now exalted, and be very high, for he will fill\nZion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and knowledge\nshall be the stability of thy times (Isa 33:5,6). When Israel went\nout of Egypt, they wanted much of this, they went out blindfolded,\nas it were, they went they knew not whither; wherefore they went\nnot in the glory of that which this city descendeth in; as Moses\nsaid, 'The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, nor eyes\nto see, nor ears to hear, unto this day' (Deu 29:4). But these\nshall see every step they take; they shall be like the beasts that\nhad eyes both before and behind: they shall see how far they are\ncome out of Antichrist, and shall see also how far yet they have\nto go, to the complete rebuilding and finishing of this city.\n\nSecond. This showeth us how sweet and pleasant the way of this church\nwill be at this day before them. Light, knowledge, and judgment\nin God's matters doth not only give men to see and behold all the\nthings with which they are concerned, but the things themselves\nbeing good, they do also by this means convey very great sweetness\nand pleasantness into the hearts of those that have the knowledge\nof them. Every step, I say, that now they take, it shall be as it\nwere in honey and butter. 'The ransomed of the Lord shall return,\nand come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy [see v 2] upon\ntheir heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and\nsighing shall flee away' (Isa 35:10). As he saith, 'Again I will\nbuild thee, and thou shalt be built; O virgin of Israel, thou shalt\nagain be adorned with tabrets, and shall go forth in the dances of\nthem that make merry.-For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness\nfor Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye,\npraise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.\nBehold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them\nfrom the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame,\nthe woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together;\na great company shall return thither' (Jer 31:4,7,8).\n\nBy these words, the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and\nher that travaileth, he would have us understand thus much-\n\n1. That the way of God shall, by the illuminating grace of Christ,\nbe made so pleasant, so sweet, and so beautiful in the souls of\nall at that day, that even the blindest shall not stumble therein,\nneither shall the lame refuse it for fear of hurt; yea, the blind,\nthe lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth shall,\nthough they be of all in most evil case to travel, and go the\njourney, yet, at this day, by reason of the glorious light and\nsweetness that now will possess them, even forget their impediments,\nand dance, as after musical tabrets.\n\n2. This city, upon the time of her rebuilding, shall have her blind\nmen see, her halt and lame made strong; she also that is with\nchild, and her that travaileth, shall jointly see the city-work\nthat at this day will be on foot, and put into form and order, yet\nbefore the end. 'Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict\nthee,' saith the Lord to his people, 'and I will save her that\nhalteth, and gather her that was driven out, and I will get them\npraise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.\nAt that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather\nyou, for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of\nthe earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith\nthe Lord' (Zeph 3:19,20).\n\n'And her light was like unto a stone most precious.' In that he\nsaith her light is like unto 'A STONE MOST PRECIOUS,' he showeth\nus how welcome, and with what eagerness of spirit this light will\nat this day be embraced by the Lord's people. 'Truly the light is\nsweet,' saith Solomon, 'and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes\nto behold the sun' (Eccl 11:7). And if so, then how beautiful,\ndesirable, and precious will that light be, that is not only heavenly,\nand from Christ, but that will be universal among all saints, to\nshow them the same thing, and to direct them to and in the same\nwork. The want of this hath, to this day, been one great reason\nof that crossness of judgment and persuasion that hath been found\namong the saints, and that hath caused that lingering and disputing\nabout the glorious state of the church in the latter days; some\nbeing for its excellency to consist chiefly in outward glory; and\nothers, swerving on the other side, conclude she shall not have\nany of this: some conceiving that this city will not be built\nuntil the Lord comes from heaven in person; others again concluding\nthat when he comes, then there shall be no longer tarrying here,\nbut that all shall forthwith, even all the godly, be taken up into\nheaven: with divers other opinions in these matters. And thus\nmany 'run to and fro,' but yet, God be thanked, knowledge does\nincrease, though the vision will be sealed, even to the time of\nthe end (Dan 12:4). But now, I say, at the time of the end, the\nSpirit shall be poured down upon us from on high (Isa 32:15);\nnow 'they also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding'\n(Isa 29;24); the city shall descend in the light of a stone most\nprecious. The sun will be risen upon the earth, when Lot goeth\nfrom Sodom unto Zoar (Gen 19:23).\n\nNow there shall be an oneness of judgment and understanding in the\nhearts of all saints; they shall be now no more two, but one in\nthe Lord's hand (Eze 37:19-21). Alas! the saints are yet but as\nan army routed, and are apt sometimes through fear, and sometimes\nthrough forgetfulness, to mistake the word of their captain-general,\nthe Son of God, and are also too prone to shoot and kill even their\nvery right-hand man; but at that day all such doing shall be laid\naside, for the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the\nearth as the waters cover the sea (Isa 11:9,13). Which knowledge\nshall then strike through the heart and liver of all swerving and\nunsound opinions in Christ's matters; for then shall every one of\nthe Christians call upon the name of the Lord, and that with one\npure lip or language, 'to serve him with one consent' (Zeph 3:9).\nIt is darkness, and not light, that keepeth God's people from knowing\none another, both in their faith and language; and it is darkness\nthat makes them stand at so great a distance both in judgment and\naffections, as in these and other days they have done. But then,\nsaith God, 'I will plant in the wilderness,' that is, in the church\nthat is now bewildered, 'the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle,\nand the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine,\nand the box tree together; that they may see and know, and consider\nand understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this,\nand the holy One of Israel hath created it' (Isa 41:19,20). And\nagain, 'The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree,\nand the pine tree, and the box together,' to beautify the house of\nmy glory, and to 'make the place of my feet glorious' (Isa 60:13).\n\nNever was fair weather after foul-nor warm weather after cold-nor\na sweet and beautiful spring after a heavy, and nipping, and\nterrible winter, so comfortable, sweet, desirable, and welcome\nto the poor birds and beasts of the field, as this day will be to\nthe church of God. Darkness! it was the plague of Egypt: it is\nan empty, forlorn, desolate, solitary, and discomforting state;\nwherefore light, even the illuminating grace of God, especially in\nthe measure that it shall be communicated unto us at this day, it\nmust needs be precious. In light there is warmth and pleasure; it\nis by the light of the sun that the whole universe appears unto us\ndistinctly, and it is by the heat thereof that everything groweth\nand flourisheth; all which will now be gloriously and spiritually\nanswered in this holy and new Jerusalem (2 Thess 2). O how clearly\nwill all the spiders, and dragons, and owls, and foul spirits of\nAntichrist at that day be discovered by the light hereof! (Rev\n18:1-4). Now also will all the pretty robins and little birds in\nthe Lord's field most sweetly send forth their pleasant notes, and\nall the flowers and herbs of his garden spring. Then will it be\nsaid to the church by her Husband and Saviour, 'Rise up, my love,\nmy fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past the rain\nis over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of\nthe singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard\nin our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the\nvines with the tender grape give a good smell' (Cant 2:10-13).\nYou know how pleasant this is, even to be fulfilled in the letter\nof it, not only to birds and beasts, but men; especially it is\npleasant to such men that have for several years been held in the\nchains of affliction. It must needs, therefore, be most pleasant\nand desirable to the afflicted church of Christ, who hath lain\nnow in the dungeon of Antichrist for above a thousand years. But,\nLord, how will this lady, when she gets her liberty, and when\nshe is returned to her own city, how will she then take pleasure\nin the warm and spangling beams of thy shining grace! and solace\nherself with thee in the garden, among the nuts and the pomegranates,\namong the lilies and flowers, and all the chief spices (Cant\n7:11-13).\n\n'Even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.' These words are the\nmetaphor by which the Holy Ghost is pleased to illustrate the\nwhole business. Indeed similitudes, if fitly spoke and applied, do\nmuch set off and out[3] any point that either in the doctrines of\nfaith or manners, is handled in the churches. Wherefore, because\nhe would illustrate, as well as affirm, the glory of this Jerusalem\nto the life, therefore he concludes his general description of this\ncity with these comparisons:-I saw, saith he, the holy city, the\nLamb's wife; I saw her in her spangles, and in all her adorning,\nbut verily she was most excellent. She was shining as the jasper,\nand as pure and clear as crystal. The jasper, it seems, is a\nvery beautiful and costly stone, inasmuch as that, above all the\nprecious stones, is made use of by the Holy Ghost to show us the\nglory and shining virtues of the Lord Jesus in this New Jerusalem;\nand yet, behold, the jasper is too short and slender to do the\nbusiness, there must another stone be added, even like a jasper\nstone, clear as crystal. Yea, saith the Lord Jesus, her checks are\nlike rows of jewels, and so are the joints of her thighs; even like\nthe jewels that are 'the work of the hands of a cunning workman'\n(Cant 1:9,10; 7:1).\n\nThe crystal is a stone so clear and spotless, that even her greatest\nadversaries, in the midst of all their rage, are not able justly\nto charge her with the least mote or spot imaginable; wherefore\nwhen he saith, that this city in her descending is even like the\njasper for light, and like the crystal for clearness; he would\nhave us further learn, that at the day of the descending of this\nJerusalem, she shall be every way so accomplished with innocency,\nsincerity, and clearness in all her actions, that none shall have\nfrom her, or her ways, any just occasion given unto them to slight,\ncontemn, or oppose her. For,\n\nFirst, As she descends, she meddleth not with any man's matters\nbut her own; she comes all along by the King's highway; that is,\nalone by the rules that her Lord hath prescribed for her in his\ntestament. The governors of this world need not at all to fear\na disturbance from her, or a diminishing of ought they have. She\nwill not meddle with their fields nor vineyards, neither will she\ndrink of the water of their wells: only let her go by the King's\nhighway, and she will not turn to the right hand or to the left,\nuntil she hath passed all their borders (Num 20:18,19: 21:22).\nIt is a false report then that the governors of the nations have\nreceived against the city, this New Jerusalem, if they believe,\nthat according to the tale that is told them, she is and hath been\nof old a rebellious city, and destructive to kings, and a diminisher\nof their revenues. I say, these things are lying words, and forged\neven in the heart of 'Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest\nof their companions' (Eze 4:7). For verily this city, in her\ndescending, is clear from such things, even as clear as crystal.\nShe is not for meddling with anything that is theirs, from a thread\neven to a shoe-latchet. Her glory is spiritual and heavenly, and\nshe is satisfied with what is her own.[4] It is true, the kings and\nnations of this world shall one day bring their glory and honour\nto this city; but yet not by outward force or compulsion; none\nshall constrain them but the love of Christ and the beauty of this\ncity. 'The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the\nbrightness of thy rising' (Isa 60:3). The light and beauty of\nthis city, that only shall engage their hearts and overcome them.\nIndeed, if any shall, out of mistrust or enmity against this city\nand her prosperity, bend themselves to disappoint the designs of\nthe eternal God concerning her building and glory, then they must\ntake what followeth. Her God in the midst of her is mighty, he\nwill rest in his love, and rejoice over her with singing, and will\nUNDO all that afflict her (Zeph 3:17-19). Wherefore, 'associate\nyourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and\ngive ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall\nbe broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in\npieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak\nthe word and it shall not stand; for God is with us' (Isa 8:9,10).\n\nWhat work did he make with Og the king of Bashan, and with Sihon,\nking of the Amorites, for refusing to let his people go peaceably\nby them, when they were going to their own inheritance (Num\n21:22-35). God is harmless, gentle, and pitiful; but woe be to\nthat people that shall oppose or gainsay him. He is gentle, yet\na lion; he is loth to hurt, yet he will not be crossed; 'Fury is\nnot in me,' saith he; yet if you set the briars and thorns against\nhim, He 'will go through them, and burn them together' (Isa\n27:4). Jerusalem also, this beloved city, it will be beautiful\nand profitable to them that love her; but a cup of trembling, and\na burthensome stone to all that burden themselves with her; 'all\nthat burthen themselves with it, shall be cut in pieces, though all\nthe people of the earth be gathered together against her' (Zech\n12:2,3).\n\nAgain, she will be clear as crystal in the observation of all her\nturns and stops, in her journeying from Egypt to Canaan, from\nBabylon to this Jerusalem state. She will, I say, observe both\ntime and order, and will go only as her God doth go before her;\nnow one step in this truth, and then another in that, according\nto the dispensation of God, and the light of day she lives in. As\nthe cloud goes, so will she; and when the cloud stays, so will\nshe (Rev 14:4; Exo 40:36-38). She comes in perfect rank and file,\n'terrible as an army with banners' (Cant 6:10). No Balaam can\nenchant her; she comes 'out of the wilderness like pillars of\nsmoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices[5] of\nthe merchants' (Cant 3:6). Still 'leaning upon her beloved' (Cant\n8:5). The return of Zion from under the tyranny of her afflictors, and\nher recovery to her primitive purity, is no headstrong brain-sick\nrashness of her own, but the gracious and merciful hand and\ngoodness of God unto her, therefrom to give her deliverance. 'For\nthus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished\nat Babylon [that is, the time of the reign of Antichrist, and his\ntyranny over his church] I will visit you, and perform my good word\ntoward you, in causing you to return to this place' (Jer 29:10).\n'Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and\nshall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for [spiritual]\nwheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock\nand of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and\nthey shall not sorrow any more at all' (Isa 57:11; Jer 31:12).\n\n\n[SECOND. A Discovery of its Defence, Entrances, and Fashion in\nParticular.]\n\nVerse 12. 'And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates,\nand at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which\nare the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.'\nThese words do give us to understand, that this holy city is now\nbuilt, and in all her parts complete, they give us also to understand\nthe manner of her strength, &c.\n\n'And had a wall.' Having thus, I say, given us a description of\nthis city in general, he now descends to her strength and frame\nin particular: her frame and strength, I say, as she is a city\ncompact together: as also of her splendour and beauty.\n\nAnd observe it, that of all the particulars that you read of, touching\nthe fence, fashion, or frame of this city, and of all her glory,\nthe firs thing that he presenteth to our view is her safety and\nsecurity; she 'had a wall.' A wall, you know, is for the safety,\nsecurity, defence, and preservation of a place, city, or town;\ntherefore it is much to the purpose that in the first place after\nthis general description, he should fall upon a discovery of\nher security and fortification; for what of all this glory and\ngoodness, if there be no way to defend and preserve it in its high\nand glorious state? If a man had in his possession even mountains\nof pearl and golden mines, yet if he had not wherewith to secure\nand preserve them to himself, from those that with all their might\nendeavour to get them from him, he might not only quickly lose\nhis treasure, and become a beggar, but also through the very fear\nof losing them, even lose the comfort of them, while yet in his\npossession. To speak nothing of the angels that fell, and of the\nglory that they then did lose. I may instance to you the state\nof Adam in his excellency; Adam, you know, was once so rich and\nwealthy, that he had the garden of Eden, the paradise of pleasure,\nyea, and also the whole world to boot, for his inheritance; but\nmark, in all his glory, he was without a wall; wherefore presently,\neven at the very first assault of the adversary, he was not only\nworsted as touching his person and standing, but even stripped of\nall his treasure, his paradise taken from him, and he in a manner\nleft so poor, that forthwith he was glad of an apron of fig-leaves\nto cover his nakedness, and to hide his shame form the face of\nthe sun (Gen 3:7). Wherefore, I say, John speaks to the purpose in\nsaying she had a wall; a wall for defence and safety, for security\nand preservation. Now then she shall lie no longer like blasted\nbones in an open field or valley; that was her portion in the days\nof her affliction (Eze 37:1,2).\n\n[The wall of the city.]\n\n'And had a wall.' It is said of old Jerusalem, that she had a wall\nand a wall, two walls for her defence and safety (Jer 39:4; Jer\n52:7); which two, in my judgment, did hold forth these two things.\nThe one, their eternal preservation and security from the wrath of\nGod, through the benefits of Christ; and the other, that special\nprotection and safeguard that the church hath always had from and\nby the special providence of her God in the midst of her enemies,\nWherefore one of these is called by the proper name of salvation,\nwhich salvation I take in special to signify our fortification\nand safety from the wrath of God, and the curse and power of the\nlaw and sin (Isa 26:1; Acts 4:12). The other is called, A wall of\nfire round about her; and alludeth to the vision that the prophet's\nservant was made to see for his comfort, when he was put in fear,\nby reason of the great company of the enemies that were bending\ntheir force against the life of his master (Eze 2:5; 2 Kings 6:17).\n\nBut now in those days, though there were for the defence of the\ncity those two walls, yet they stood a little distance each from\nother, and had a ditch between them, which was to signify that though\nthen they had the wall of salvation about them, with reference to\ntheir eternal state, yet the wall of God's providence and special\nprotection was not yet so nearly joined thereto but that they might,\nfor their foolishness, have that broken down, and they suffered\nto fall into the ditch that was between them both (Isa 22:10-12).\nAnd so he saith by the prophet, 'I will tell you what I will do\nto my vineyard [that is, to this city for the wickedness thereof],\nI will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;\nand break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down'\n(Isa 5:5-7). Which hedge and wall could not be that of eternal\nsalvation, for that stood sure, though they should be scattered\namong the nations 'as wheat is sifted in a sieve' (Amos 9:9).\nIt must therefore be the wall of her special preservation in her\noutward peace and happiness, which wall was often in those days\nbroken down, and they made havoc of, of all that dwelt about them.\n\nBut now touching the safety of New Jerusalem, the city of which I\nhere discourse, she is seen in the vision by John to have but one\nonly wall; to signify that at this day the wall of her eternal\nsalvation, and of God's special providence to protect and defend\nher, in her present visible and gospel glory, shall be so effectually\njoined together, that now they shall be no more two, that is, at\na distance, with a ditch between, but one sound and enclosing wall;\nto show us that now the state of this Jerusalem, even touching\nher outward glory, peace, and tranquility, will be so stable,\ninvincible, and lasting, that unless that part of the wall which\nis eternal salvation, can be broken down, the glory of this city\nshall never be vailed more. Wherefore the prophet, when he speaks\nwith reference to the happy state and condition of this city, he\nsaith, 'Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor\ndestruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls\nsalvation, and thy gates praise' (Isa 60:18); as he saith also in\nanother place, 'Thine eye shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation,\na tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes\nthereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof\nbe broken' (Isa 33:20). The walls are now conjoined, both joined\ninto one; the Father hath delivered up the great red dragon into\nthe hand of Christ, who hath shut him up and sealed him down, even\ndown for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-3). Wherefore from the Lord\nshall there be 'upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and\nupon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a\nflaming fire by night; for upon all her glory shall be a defence'\n(Isa 4:5). And 'in that day shall this song be sung: We have a\nstrong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks'\n(Isa 26:1,2). The same in effect hath our prophet John, saying 'I\nsaw the holy city, the New Jerusalem,' descending out of heaven\nfrom God, 'prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard\na great voice out of heaven, saying,--The tabernacle of God is\nwith men, and he will dwell with them:--and God himself shall be\nwith them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears\nfrom their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,\nnor crying; neither shall there be any more pain; for the former\nthings are passed away' (Rev 21:1-4).\n\n'And had a wall great and high.' These words, great and high, are\nadded for illustration, to set out the matter to the height; and\nindeed the glory of a wall lieth in this, that it is great and\nhigh; the walls of the Canaanites were terrible upon this account,\nand did even sink the hearts of those that beheld them (Deu 1:28).\nWherefore this city shall be most certainly in safety, she hath a\nwall about her, a great wall: a wall about her, an high wall. It\nis great for compass, it incloseth every saint; it is great for\nthickness, it is compacted of all the grace and goodness of God,\nboth spiritual and temporal; and for height, if you count from\nthe utmost side to the utmost, then it is higher than heaven, who\ncan storm it? (Heb 7:26) and for depth, it is lower than hell, who\ncan undermine it? (Job 11:8).\n\nGreat mercies, high mercies, great preservation, and a high arm\nto defend, shall continually at this day encamp this city: God\nhimself will be a continual life-guard to this city; 'I will encamp,'\nsaith he, 'about mine house, because of the army, because of him\nthat passeth by, and because of him that returneth; and no oppressor\nshall pass through them any more; for now have I seen with mine\neyes' (Zech 9:8).\n\n[The gates of the city.]\n\n'And had twelve gates.' Having thus showed us her wall, he now\ncomes to her gates; it had gates, it had twelve gates. By gates\nin this place we are to understand the way of entrance; gates, you\nknow, are for coming in, and for going out (Jer 17:19,20); and do\nin this place signify two things. First, An entrance into communion\nwith the God and Saviour of this city. Secondly, Entrance into\ncommunion with the inhabitants and privileges of this city; in\nboth which the gates do signify Christ: for as no man can come to\nthe knowledge and enjoyment of the God, and glorious Saviour, but\nby and through the Lord Christ; so no man can come into true and\nspiritual communion with these inhabitants, but by him also: 'I\nam the way,' saith he, 'and the truth, and the life; no man cometh\nunto the Father but by me': and again, 'I am the door, by me if\nany man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and\nfind pasture' (John 10:1-9; 14:6).\n\n'And had twelve gates.' In that he saith twelve gates, he alludeth\nto the city of Jerusalem that was of old, which had just so many\n(Neh 3: 12:37-29); and are on purpose put into the number of\ntwelve, to answer to the whole number of the elect of God, which\nare comprehended within the number of the twelve tribes, whether\nthey are natural Jews or Gentiles; for as all the godly Jews are\nthe seed of Abraham after the flesh, though to godly, because\nthey are the children of the flesh of Abraham; so all the godly\nGentiles are the children of Abraham after the spirit, though not\nby that means made the children of the flesh of Abraham. They both\nmeet then in the spirit and faith of the gospel, as God saith to\nthe Jews, 'when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep\nthe passover to the Lord,' that is, become godly, and receive the\nfaith of Christ, let all his males be circumcised, and then let\nthem come near, and keep it, &c. (Exo 12:48). For they that are\nof faith, are the children of faithful Abraham, who is called the\nvery father of us all (Gal 3:7; Rom 4:16). Thus you see all the\ngodly come under the title of the children of Abraham, and of the\nJews; and so under the denomination also of being persons belonging\nto the tribes, the twelve tribes, who answer to those twelve gates.\nWherefore the Psalmist minding this, speaking indefinitely of all\nthe godly, under the name of the tribes of Israel; saying, 'Our\nfeet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is\nbuilded as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go\nup, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give\nthanks unto the name of the Lord' (Psa 122:2-4).\n\nBut again, though I am certain that all the Gentiles that are at\nany time converted, are reckoned within the compass of some of\nthe tribes of Israel, to which the gates of this city may truly be\nsaid to answer; yet the gates are here in a special manner called\nby the name of twelve, to answer to the happy return and restoration\nof those poor distressed creatures the twelve tribes of the Jews that\nare scattered abroad, and that are, and for a long time have been\nto our astonishment and their shame, as vagabonds and stragglers\namong the nations (Hosea 9:17), there to continue 'many days,\nwithout a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,\nand without an ephod' (Hosea 3:4). That is, without the true God,\nthe true Saviour, and the true word and ordinances; after which,\nsaith the same prophet, they shall even in the latter days, that\nis, when this city is builded, return and seek the Lord their\nGod, and David their king, and shall then 'fear the Lord and his\ngoodness' (Hosea 3:5). This the apostle also affirmeth, when he\ntelleth the believing Gentiles that blindness in part is happened\nto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in: which\nIsrael in this place cannot by any means be taken for the Gentiles\nthat are converted, for this Israel must be rejected until the\nbulk of the elect Gentiles be converted; besides he calleth this\nIsrael by the name of Israel, even while unconverted; but the\nconverted Gentiles still Gentiles, even when converted: he calls\nthis Israel the natural branches, but the Gentiles wild branches;\nand tells us further, that when they are converted, they shall\nbe grafted into their own olive tree; but when the Gentiles\nare converted, they must be cut off of their own stock and tree:\nread Romans 11 throughout. Wherefore, I say, the gates are called\ntwelve, to answer these poor creatures, who at this day shall be\nawakened, and enlightened, and converted to the faith of Jesus.\nThese gates in another place are called a way, and these Jews,\nthe kings of the east; and it is there said also, that at present\nthis way doth want preparing; which is as much as to say this\ncity wants setting up, and the gates want setting in their proper\nplaces. Wherefore, saith John, the sixth angel poured out his vial\nupon the great river Euphrates, that is, destroyed the strength\nand force of the Roman antichrist-for the river Euphrates was\nthe fence of literal Babylon, the type of our spiritual one-which\nforce and fence, when it is destroyed or dried up, then the way\nof the kings of the east will be prepared, or made ready for their\njourney to this Jerusalem (Rev 16:12). Of this the prophets are\nfull, crying, 'Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up\nthe stumbling block out of the way of my people' (Isa 57:14). And\nagain, 'Go through, go through the gates, prepare ye the way of\nthe people; cast up, cast up the high way; gather out the stones,\nlift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed\nunto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold\nthy salvation cometh; behold his reward is with him, and his work\nbefore him. And they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed\nof the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out; A city not\nforsaken' (Isa 62:10-12). All which doth most especially relate\nto the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, who in great\nabundance shall, when all things are made ready, come flocking in\nto the Son of God, and find favour, as in the days of old.\n\n[The angels at the gates, what they are.]\n\n'And at the gates twelve angels.' By angels in this place, we are\nto understand the messengers and ministers of the Lord Jesus, by\nwhom the mystery of eternal life and felicity is held forth and\ndiscovered before the sons of men; and thus this word angel is\nfrequently taken in this prophecy (Rev 1:20; 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7;\n14:6).\n\n'And at the gates twelve angels'-\n\nIn these words, then, there are two things to be considered. First.\nWhy they should be called twelve. And, Second. Why they are said\nto stand at the twelve gates of this new and holy city.\n\nFirst. They are called twelve, to signify two things. 1. The truth\nof their doctrine. And, 2. The sufficiency of their doctrine and\nministry for the converting of the twelve tribes to the faith of\nChrist, and privileges of this city.\n\n1. For the truth of their doctrine: for by twelve here he would have\nus to understand that he hath his eye upon the twelve apostles,\nor upon the doctrine of the twelve, the apostolical doctrine. As\nif he should say, This city, the New Jerusalem, shall be every\nway accomplished with beauty and glory; she shall have a wall for\nher security, and twelve gates to answer the twelve tribes; yea,\nand also at these gates the twelve apostles, in their own pure,\nprimitive, and unspotted doctrine. The Romish beasts have corrupted\nthis doctrine by treading it down with their feet, and have muddied\nthis water with their own dirt and filthiness (Eze 34:17,18).[6]\nBut at this day, this shall be recovered from under the feet of\nthese beasts, and cleansed also from their dirt, and be again in\nthe same glory, splendour, and purity, as in the primitive times.\nIt is said that when Israel was passed out of Egypt, beyond the\nsea, they presently came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water,\n&c., and that they encamped by the waters (Exo 15:27). Which twelve\nwells did figure forth the doctrine of the twelve apostles, out\nof which the church, at her return from captivity, shall draw and\ndrink, as out of the wells of salvation. Now shall the wells of\nour father Abraham, which the Philistines have for a great while\nstopped; now, I say, shall they again be opened by our Isaac, his\nson; and shall be also called after their own names (Gen 26:18).\nThis is generally held forth by the prophets, that yet again the\nchurch shall be fed upon the mountains of Israel, and that they\n'shall lie down in a good fold, and a fat pasture'; yea, 'I will\nfeed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord\nGod' (Eze 34:14,15).\n\n2. As by these twelve we are to understand the truth and purity\nof the doctrine of the twelve, so again, by this word twelve, we\nare to understand the sufficiency of that doctrine and ministry to\nbring in the twelve tribes to the privileges of this city. Mark,\nfor the twelve tribes there are twelve gates, for every tribe\na gate; and at the twelve gates, twelve angels, at every gate an\nangel. 'O Judah,' saith God, 'he hath set an harvest for thee, when\nI returned the captivity of thy people' (Hosea 6:11). And so for\nthe rest of the tribes; before Ephraim and Benjamin, and Manasseh,\nhe will stir up his strength to save them (Psa 80:2). 'I will\nhiss for them,' saith God, 'and gather them, for I have redeemed\nthem; and they shall increase as they have increased: and I will\nsow them among the people, and they shall remember me in far\ncountries, and they shall live with their children, and return\nagain; I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and\ngather them out of Assyria, and I will bring them into the land of\nGilead and Lebanon, and place shall not be found for them' (Zech\n10:8-10).\n\n[Second.] But to come to the second question, that is, Why these\ntwelve angels are said to stand at the gate? which may be for\ndivers reasons.\n\n1. To show us that the doctrine of the twelve is the doctrine\nthat letteth in at these gates, and that also that shutteth out.\n'Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted,' saith Christ, 'and\nwhosesoever sins yet retain, they are retained' (John 20:23; Matt\n18:18). And hence it is that the true ministers, in their right\nadministration, are called porters; because as porters stand at the\ngate, and there open to, or shut upon, those that make an attempt\nto enter in (Mark 13:34); so the ministers of Christ, by the\ndoctrine of the twelve, do both open to and shut the gates against\nthe person that will be attempting to enter in at the gates of\nthis city (2 Chron 23:19).\n\n2. But again, they are said to stand at the gates for the\nencouraging and persuading of the tempted and doubting Jews, who\nat the beginning of their return will be much afflicted under the\nsight and sense of their own wretchedness. Alas! were it not for\nsome to stand at the gates of this city for instruction, and the\nencouragement of those that will at that day in earnest be looking\nafter life, they might labour as in other things for very, very\nvanity; and might also be so grievously beat out of heart and\nspirit, that they might die in despair. But now to prevent this\nfor those that are in the way to Zion with watery eyes, and wetted\ncheeks, here stand the angels, continually sounding with their\ngolden gospel-trumpets, 'Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,\nand into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless\nhis name. For the Lord is good, and his mercy is everlasting,\nand his truth endureth' for ever, even 'to all generations' (Psa\n100:4,5). As he saith again, 'And it shall come to pass in that\nday, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come\nwhich were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcast\nin the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount\nat Jerusalem' (Isa 27:13).\n\n[The names written on the gates.]\n\n'And at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which\nare the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.' Thus\nit was in the vision of the prophet, when he was taking a view of\nthe pattern of this city: 'And the gates of the city,' saith the\nangel to him, 'shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel'\n(Eze 48:31). Which saying John doth here expound, saying, the\nnames of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel were writ or\nset upon them.\n\nThis being thus, it cleareth to you what I said but now, to wit,\nthat the gates are called twelve, to answer the twelve tribes,\nfor their names are written thereon. This must therefore, without\nall doubt, be a very great encouragement to this despised people;\nI say great encouragement, that notwithstanding all their rebellion,\nblasphemy, and contempt of the glorious gospel, their names should\nbe yet found recorded and engraved upon the very gates of New\nJerusalem. Thus then shall the Jews be comforted in the latter\ndays; and truly they will have but need hereof; for doubtless,\nat their return, when they are thoroughly sensible of the murder\nthey have committed, not only upon the bodies of the prophets and\napostles, but of the Son of God himself, I say this must needs,\ntogether with the remembrance of the rest of their villainous\nactions, exceedingly afflict and distress their bleeding souls.\nFor 'the children of Israel shall come, they and the children\nof Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go and seek the\nLord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces\nthitherward' (Jer 50:4,5). Mark, 'going and weeping'; there will\nnot be a step that these poor people will take in the day of their\nreturning, but will be watered with the tears of repentance and\ncontrition, under the consideration of the wickedness that, in the\ndays of their rebellion, they have committed against the Lord of\nglory. As he saith also by another prophet, 'I will pour upon the\nhouse of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit\nof grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom\nthey have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth\nfor his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that\nis in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a\ngreat mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in\nthe valley of Megiddon, and the land shall mourn' (Zech 12:10-12).\n\nWherefore, I say, they both have and also will have need of twelve\ngates, and on them the names of their twelve tribes, with an angel\nat each, to encourage them to enter this holy and goodly city; and\nto tell them that yet he counts them his friends in whose house\nhe received the wounds in his hands (Zech 13:6).\n\nBut again, As by the names of the twelve tribes written on the\ngates, we may see what encouragement the Jews will have, at their\nreturn, to enter in at them; so we may also understand that by\nthe names of the twelve tribes here written, God would have us\nto perceive how all must be qualified that from among the Gentiles\nat this day do enter in at these gates; namely, those, and those\nonly, that be cut out of their own wild olive tree, and transplanted\namong the children of Israel, into their good olive tree. Such\nas are Jews inwardly, the Israel of God, according to the new\ncreature, they shall enter, for the holy Gentiles also, by virtue\nof their conversion, are styled the children of Abraham, Jews,\nthe chosen generation, the peculiar people, the holy nation; and\nso are spiritually, though not naturally by carnal generation, of\nthe twelve tribes whose names are written upon the gates of the\ncity (Gal 3:7; Rom 2:28; 1 Peter 2:9,10). 'And it shall come to\npass,' saith the prophet, 'that in what tribe the stranger,' that\nis, the Gentile 'sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance,\nsaith the Lord God' (Eze 47:23). Thus the Jews and Gentiles shall\nmeet together in the spirit of the gospel, and so both become a\nrighteous nation; to both which the gates of this city shall stand\ncontinually open; at which also they may with boldness demand, by\nthe faith of the Lord Jesus, their entrance, both for communion\nwith the God, grace, and privileges of this city, according to that\nwhich is written, 'Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation\nwhich keepeth the truth may enter in' (Isa 26:2). Thus much of the\nnumber of the gates, and now to proceed to the order of them.\n\n[The order of the gates.]\n\nVer. 13. 'On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on\nthe south three gates, and on the west three gates.' I shall not\nspeak anything to the manner of his repeating of the quarters\ntowards which the gates do look; why he should begin at the east,\nthen to the north, afterwards crossing to the south, and last to the\nwest; though I do verily think that the Holy Ghost hath something\nto show us, wherefore he doth thus set them forth. And possibly he\nmay set them thus, and the west last, not only because the west\npart of the world is that which always closeth the day, but to\nsignify that the west, when Jerusalem is rebuilded, will be the\nlast part of the world that will be converted, or the gate that\nwill be last, because longest, occupied with the travels of the\npassengers and wayfaring men in their journey to this Jerusalem.\nBut I pass that.\n\nFrom the order of their standing, I shall inquire into two things.\nFirst. Why the gates should look in this manner every way, both\neast, west, north, and south? Second. Why there should be three,\njust three, on every side of this city? 'On the east three, on\nthe north three, on the south three, and on the west three.'\n\nFirst. For the first, the gates by looking every way, into all\nquarters, may signify to us thus much, that God hath a people in\nevery corner of the world. And also, that grace is to be carried\nout of these gates by the angels in their ministry into every\nplace, to gather them home to him. As it is said of the living\ncreatures, 'Whither the head looked they followed it, they turned\nnot as they went' (Eze 10:11); so whithersoever the gates look,\nthither the ministers go, and carry the Word, to gather together\nthe elect. He 'sent them two and two before his face, into every\ncity and place whither he himself would come' (Luke 10:1; Matt\n28:19; John 11:52).\n\nAgain, the gates, by their thus looking every way, do signify to\nus, that from what quarter or part of the world soever men come\nfor life, for those men there are the gates of life, even right\nbefore their doors. Come they from the east, why thither look the\ngates; and so if they come from north, or west, or south. No man\nneeds at all to go about to come at life, and peace, and rest. Let\nhim come directly from sin to grace, from Satan to Jesus Christ,\nand from this world to New Jerusalem. The twelve brazen oxen that\nSolomon made to bear the molten sea (1 Kings 7:23-25), they stood\njust as these gates stand, and signify, as I said before, that\nthe doctrine of the twelve apostles should be carried into all the\nworld, to convert-as in the primitive times, so now at the building\nof New Jerusalem-and to bring in God's sheep to the fold of\nhis church. Now, I say, as the Word is carried every way, so the\ngates, the open gates, look also into all corners after them, to\nsignify that loving reception that shall be given to every soul\nthat from any corner of the whole world shall unfeignedly close in\nwith grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, therefore, men\n'shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north,\nand from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God'\n(Luke 13:29; Psa 107:1-3).\n\n[Second.] 'On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on\nthe south three gates, and on the west three gates.' Having thus\nshowed you in a word, why they stand thus looking into every\ncorner or quarter of the world, I now come to show you why there\nmust be just three looking in this manner every way.\n\n1. Then, there may be three looking every way, to signify that it\nis both by the consent of the three persons in the Trinity, that\nthe gospel should thus every way go forth to call men, and also\nto show you that both the Father, Son, and Spirit, are willing\nto receive and embrace the sinner, from whatsoever part or corner\nof the earth he cometh hither for life and safety. Come they from\nwhence they will, the Father is willing to give them the Son, and\nso is the Son to give them himself, and so is the Spirit to give\nthem its help against whatever may labour to hinder them while\nthey are here (John 3:16; Rev 21:6; 22:17).\n\n2. In that three of the gates look every way, it may be also to\nshow us that there is none can enter into this city, but by the\nthree offices of the Lord Jesus. Christ by his priestly office\nmust wash away their sins; and by his prophetical office he must\nilluminate, teach, guide, and refresh them; and by his kingly\noffice, rule over them and govern them with his Word (Heb 7:5; John\n13:8; Acts 3:22-24; Isa 40:10,11; 9:6,7; Psa 76:1-3; 110:3).\n\n3. Or, by three gates, may be signified the three states of the\nsaints in this life; an entrance into childhood, an entrance into\na manly state, and an entrance into the state of a father of the\nchurch (1 John 2:12-14). Or, lastly, the three gates may signify\nthe three-fold state we pass through from nature to glory; the\nstate of grace in this life, the state of felicity in paradise,\nand our state in glory after the resurrection: or thus, the state\nof grace that possesseth body and soul in this life, the state of\nglory that possesseth the soul at death, and the state of glory\nthat both body and soul shall be possessed with at the coming of\nthe Lord and Saviour. This was figured forth by the order of the\nstairs in the temple at Jerusalem, which was first, second, and\nthird, by which men ascended from the lowest to the uppermost room\nin the house of God; as he tells us, 'They went up with winding\nstairs' from the first into the second story, and from thence\nby them into the third (1 Kings 6:8). Thus much for the wall and\ngates of New Jerusalem.\n\n[The foundations of the wall.]\n\nVer. 14. 'And the wall of this city had twelve foundations, and\nin them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.' In these\nwords we have two things considerable:-First. That the city-wall\nhath twelve foundations. Second. That in these twelve are the\nnames of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.\n\nFirst. It hath twelve foundations. This argueth invincible strength\nand support. That wall that hath but one foundation, how strongly\ndoth it stand, if it be but safely laid upon a rock, even so strongly\nthat neither wind nor weather, in their greatest vehemency, are\nable to shake or stir it to make it fall. But I say, how much more\nwhen a city hath foundations, twelve foundations, and those also\nlaid by God himself; as it is said concerning the worthies of old,\nthey 'looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and\nmaker is God' (Heb 11:10).\n\n'And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the\nnames of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.' The wall, you know, I\ntold you, is the wall of salvation, or the safety of the church\nby Jesus Christ, to which is adjoined, as the effect of that, the\nspecial providence and protection of God. Now this wall, saith\nthe Holy Ghost, hath twelve foundations, to wit, to bear it up for\nthe continuation of the safety and security of those that are the\ninhabitants of this city; a foundation is that which beareth up\nall, and that upon which the stress of all must lie and abide.\nNow, to speak properly, the foundation of our happiness is but\none, and that one none but the Lord Jesus; 'For other foundation\ncan no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ' (1 Cor\n3:11). So then, when he saith the wall of the city had twelve\nfoundations, and that in them also are written the names of the\ntwelve apostles of the Lamb, he doth not mean that this wall had\ntwelve Christs for its support, but that the doctrine of the twelve\napostles is that doctrine upon which both Christ, and grace, and\nall happiness standeth firm and sure for ever. And to signify also,\nthat neither Christ nor any of his benefits can be profitable unto\nthee, unless thou receive him alone upon the terms that they do\nhold him forth and offer him to sinners in their word and doctrine.\nIf 'we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto\nyou,' saith Paul, 'than that which we have preached unto you, let\nhim be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man\npreach any other gospel unto you, than that ye have received, let\nhim be accursed' (Gal 1:8,9).\n\n[Second.] 'And in them the names of the twelve apostles of the\nLamb.' 'And in them their names.' This makes it manifest that by\nthe foundations of this wall, we are to understand the doctrine\nof the twelve apostles of the Lord Christ, for their names are\nto it, or found engraved in the foundations. Thus it was with the\ndoctrine which was the foundation of the Jewish church; the first\npattern being delivered by the man Moses, his name was always so\nentailed to that doctrine, that at last it became common, and that\nby Divine allowance, to call that doctrine by the name of Moses\nhimself. 'There is one that accuseth you,' saith Christ, 'even\nMoses in whom ye trust' (John 5:45). And again, 'For Moses of old\nhath in every city them that preach him' (Acts 15:21). The same\nliberty of speech doth the Holy Ghost here use in speaking of the\nfoundations of this wall, which is the doctrine of the twelve. And\nin that he calleth the doctrine by the name of foundations, and\nleaveth it only with telling us the names of the twelve apostles\nare engraven in it; he expects that men should be wise that read\nhim, and that they should be skillful in the word of righteousness,\nif they come up clearly to the understanding of him.\n\n'And in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.'\n\nThus you see that the twelve apostles, above all the servants of\nChrist, are here owned to be the foundations of this wall; and\ngood reason, for they, above all other, are most clear and full\nin the doctrine of grace, and all doctrines pertaining to life\nand holiness. 'In other ages,' saith Paul, it 'was not made known\nunto the sons of men, as it is now revealed to the holy apostles\nand prophets by the Spirit' (Eph 3:5). Moses was not fit for this,\nfor his was a more dark and veiled administration; while Moses\nis read, the veil is over the heart, said Paul (2 Cor 3:13-15).\nNeither was any of the prophets fit for this, for they were all\ninferior to Moses, and were, as it were, his scholars (Num 12:6,7).\nNay, John the Baptists is here shut out;-for the 'least in the\nkingdom of heaven is greater than he' (Matt 11:11).\n\nThe apostles, above all other, were the men that were with the Lord\nJesus all the time, from the baptism of John, even until the time\nhe was taken up into heaven; they saw him, heard him, and discoursed\nwith him, and were beholders of all the wondrous works that he\ndid; they did eat and drink with him after his passion, and saw,\nafter he was risen, the print of the nails, and the spear with\nwhich he was pierced, when he died for our sins (Luke 24:39,40).\nAnd because they had seen, felt, and at such a rate experienced all\nthings from the very first, both touching his doctrine, miracles,\nand life, therefore he said unto them in chief, Ye shall be witnesses\nunto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto\nthe utmost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8,21; 13:31; 10:39; 51:32;\n1 John 1:1-3).\n\nFurther, The apostles were in that marvellous manner endued with\nthe Holy Ghost, that they out-stript all the prophets that ever\nwent before them; neither can I believe that in the best of times\nthere should be any beyond them; yet if it should so fall out\nthat a dispensation should come in which they should have, as to\nthe pouring forth of the Spirit, their equals, yet it could not\nfollow, that therefore the gospel should be offered in other terms\nthan they at first have offered it, especially besides what hath\nbeen said of them, if you consider to them it was said, 'Whatsoever\nye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever\nye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven' (Matt 18:18).\nThey, as to their doctrine, were infallible, it was impossible they\nshould err; he that despised their doctrine, despised God himself.\nBesides, they have given in commandment that all should write\nafter their copy, and that we should judge both men and angels\nthat did, or would do otherwise (1 Thess 3:8; Gal 1:8).\n\nTimothy must have his rule from Paul, and so must holy Titus. All\nwhich, if we consider it, the Holy Ghost speaks to the purpose,\nin saying that in the twelve foundations are found the names of\nthe twelve apostles of the Lamb. They are called the chief, and\nsuch as have laid the foundation, and others build thereon, and\nthat as no men have laid the foundation but they, so none can lay\neven that foundation otherwise than they afore have laid it (1 Cor\n12:28; Eph 4:11,12; 1 Cor 3:6-11; Heb 6:1-3).[7]\n\n[Consideration from these words.] 'And in them the names of the\ntwelve apostles of the Lamb.' These words, then, teach us two\nthings worthy of our Christian consideration.\n\nFirst. That God hath given to every man a certain and visible mark\nto aim at for his salvation, or to build his soul upon, namely,\nthe doctrine of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. For in that he\nsaith their names are in the foundations, it is better for us,\nall things considered, than if he had said in them was the name\nof God himself; that is, it is more easy to see this way, through\nthe mist of our carnality, what the mystery of his will should\nbe, which is, that we receive Christ according to their doctrine,\nwords, writings, epistles, letters, &c., their names, I say, being\nthere, God counts it as the broad seal of heaven, which giveth\nauthority to all that doctrine whereunto by themselves they are\nprefixed and subscribed; not where they are writ by others, but\nby themselves. I say, as the token of every epistle, and of their\ndoctrine for truth, the which Paul insinuates, when he saith that\nhis hand is the token of every epistle (2 Thess 3:17; Gal 6:11).\nAs he saith again, Am I not an apostle? (1 Cor 9:1). And again,\nBehold, I Paul, have written unto you; I Paul (Gal 5:2), I, an\napostle, I, a wise master-builder, I, who am in my doctrine one\nof the foundations of the wall of salvation, I have written unto\nyou (1 Cor 11:5). And, as I said before, there is reason it should\nbe thus: for as he who was the foundation of the Jewish church,\neven Moses, received the pattern of all his order from the mouth\nof the angel in Mount Sinai, so the twelve received their doctrine\nof faith and manners, the doctrine of the New Testament, from the\nmouth of the Son of God himself, as from the mouth of the angel\nof the everlasting covenant, on the mountain of Zion (Acts 7:38;\n1:3; Matt 28:19).\n\nSecond. In that he saith the names of the twelve are in the\nfoundations, this shows us the reason of the continual standing\nof this Jerusalem; it is built upon the doctrine of the twelve\napostles of the Lamb, and standeth there. For, observe, so long as\nhe sees this holy city, he sees her standing upon these foundations;\nbut he saw the city till she was taken up, therefore she continued\nas being settled for ever upon them. Indeed, the primitive city, or\nfirst churches, was built upon these foundations, and had also,\nso long as they there continued, sufficient supportation and\nupholding by that means (Eph 2:20-22). But then, as I have showed\nyou, the wall of her salvation, and the wall of God's special\nprotection, stood at a distance each from other, and were not\nso conjoined as now they will be. Wherefore they then, to answer\nthe type, did fall into the ditch that was between, and through\ntheir foolishness provoked God to remove the wall of his outward\nprotection and safeguard from them, whereupon the wild beast,\nAntichrist, got into his vineyard, making havoc of all their dainties.\nBut mark, this city is not so, the walls are now conjoined, and\nfor ever fastened upon the foundations,[8] therefore it abides for\never, and ascends higher and higher; yet not from the foundations,\nbut by them into heaven: 'Behold,' saith God, 'I have graven thee\nupon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me'\n(Isa 49:16).\n\n[How we are to understand the word TWELVE.]\n\n'And in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.' This\nword twelve must be warily understood, or else the weak will be\nready to stumble and take offence; wherefore, to prevent this,\nconsider,\n\nFirst. The twelve must be them twelve that were with the Lord Jesus\nfrom the baptism of John until the day in which our Lord was taken\nup (Acts 1:22).\n\nSecond. These twelve are not neither to be considered simply as twelve\nChristians, or twelve disciples; but as their witness of the Lord\nJesus-they being with him from first to last-were a twelve-fold\nwitness of him in all his things; a twelve-fold seeing with their\neyes, a twelve-fold hearing with their ears, a twelve-fold handling\nalso with their hands, and feeling of the Son of God. As one of\nthem said, 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,\nwhich we have seen with our eyes,--and our hands have handled of\nthe word of life:--that which we have seen and heard, declare we\nunto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us,' &c. (1 John\n1:1,3). Now this being thus, it followeth that the doctrine of the\nother apostles, as of Paul and Barnabas, was still but the doctrine\nof the twelve; their doctrine, I say, and no other. Wherefore,\nas Ephraim and Manasseh were dissolved into the twelve tribes, so\nthese two, with all other the apostles of Christ, are dissolved\ninto the number of the twelve, because their doctrine is only the\ndoctrine of the twelve; for they centre in their doctrine; their\nlength, and breadth, and depth, and height being the doctrine of\nthe twelve. So, then, the names of the twelve being found in the\nfoundations of this wall, it argueth that that doctrine is only\ntrue that is the doctrine of the twelve eye-witnesses of the\nLord Jesus. And again, that at the day of Antichrist's fall, this\ndoctrine shall be in its former purity, and bear the sway, and\nfor ever hold up the wall of safety for the inhabitants of New\nJerusalem. And indeed this doctrine, that the doctrine of the twelve\nis that upon which eternal safety is built and stands, is so true,\nthat it must not be varied from upon pain of eternal damnation.\nHere centered Luke the Evangelist, here centered Jude, here centered\nthe author to the Hebrews, yea, here centered Paul himself, with\nall the Old and New Testament. The doctrine of the twelve must be\nthe opener, expounder, and limiter of all doctrines; there also\nmust all men centre, and ground, and stay. A man may talk of, yea,\nenjoy much of the Spirit of God, but yet the twelve will have the\nstart of him; for they both had the Spirit as he, and more than\nhe. Besides, they together with this, did feel, see, handle, and\nreceive conviction, even by their very carnal senses, which others\ndid not; besides, their names also are found in the foundations\nof this saving wall, as being there engraved by God himself; which\nputteth all out of doubt, and giveth us infallible ground that\ntheir doctrine is only true, and all men's false that do not keep\nwithin the bounds and limits of that (Luke 1:2; Jude 3,17; Heb\n2:3,4; 1 Cor 15:1-9; 9:1; Gal 1:1,2; Eph 3:5; 1 Cor 4:9).\n\nTo conclude, here are yet two things worthy of noting-\n\nThe first consideration is, that by the names of the twelve\napostles being in the foundations of this wall, and the names of\nthe twelve tribes being upon the gates of this city, it giveth\nus to consider, that at the time of the building of this city the\nJews and Gentiles shall be united together, and become one body;\nwhich very consideration must needs be to the Jews a great encouragement\nto have in mind at their conversion (Rom 11: 1 Peter 1:1). For it\nplainly signifieth that our New Testament preachers shall carry\nin their mouths salvation to the Jews, by which means they shall\nbe again reconciled and made one with the Lord Jesus (James 1:1;\nActs 13:16,26; Rom 1:16; 2:10).\n\nThe second consideration is, that at the day of New Jerusalem,\nthere shall be no doctrine accepted, nor no preachers regarded,\nbut the doctrine, and the preaching of the doctrine of the twelve;\nfor in that he saith that in them are found the names of the twelve\napostles of the Lamb, he doth implicitly exclude all other, of\nwhatever tribe they pretend themselves. It shall not be then as\nnow, a Popish doctrine, a Quaker's doctrine, a prelatical doctrine,\nand the Presbyter, Independent, and Anabaptist,[9] thus distinguished,\nand thus confounding and destroying. But the doctrine shall be one,\nand that one the doctrine where you find the names of the twelve\napostles of the Lamb. 'If any man teach otherwise, and consent\nnot to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nand the doctrine that is according to godliness, he is proud,\nknowing nothing' (1 Tim 6:3,4).\n\nThus you see the doctrine of the twelve is that which letteth souls\ninto this city; and that the same doctrine is the doctrine that\nkeepeth up the wall of their salvation about them, when they are\nentered in within the gates.\n\n[The measuring line, or golden reed: what it is.]\n\nVer. 15. 'And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure\nthe city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.'\n\nNow, having passed the relation of the wall, gates, and foundations,\nhe comes to the measuring line, to see how all things lie and\nagree with that. Under the law, I find that all things pertaining\nto the worship of God were to be by number, rule, and measure,\neven to the very tacks and loops of the curtains of the tabernacle.\nNow the rule or lien by which all things were then squared, it\nwas the laws, statutes, and ordinances which were given to Moses\nby the Lord in the Mount Sinai, for thither he went to receive\nhis orders; and according to the pattern there showed him, so he\ncommitted all things by writing to them that were to be employed\nin the workmanship of the holy things pertaining to the rise and\ncompleting of the tabernacle, and all its instruments (Exo 20:21;\n24:1; 25:40; Deu 30:10; 31:20-26).\n\nNow, when this rule was thus received, then whosoever observed not\nto do it, he was to fall under the penalty that by the same law\nalso was prescribed against the offenders and transgressors (Num\n15:30,31). I find also, that when the temple was built in the days\nof Solomon, all things were then done according to the writing\nthat David made, when the hand of God was upon him, when he made\nhim understand all the work of this pattern (2 Chron 3; 4; 1 Chron\n29:3-7; 28:19).\n\nThus again, when Josiah went about to bring to pass the reformation\nof the church of the Jews, and their instruments of worship,\nafter their revolting, he goeth to the law of God, and by that\nunderstanding what was out of order, and how to put all things\ninto order, he so did reduce them to their former manner. The same\nway also went Ezra and Nehemiah at the rebuilding of the temple\nand city after the captivity (2 Kings 22:8-13; Ezra 7:14; 8:34).\nFrom all which I conclude, that the reed, the golden reed, that\nhere you read of, it is nothing else but the pure and unspotted\nWord of God; by which both the city, gates, and wall of this\nJerusalem are regulated. Which word, by the holy prophet, is also\ncompared to gold, and is said to be above 'much fine gold' (Psa\n12:6; 19:10).\n\nI find in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, that the angel\nthat there is said to measure the city, which was a type of our\nJerusalem, he appeared with a line of flax in his hand, to measure\nthe pattern withal (Eze 40:3); which very phrase doth show us\nthat this was but the type, and an Old Testament business; but John\nhath his in a New Testament style, and that in the most excellent\nmanner of language, to signify that his city, or the city that\nhe hath the vision of, is to be the end of all types and shadows,\nand the very perfection of them all. Wherefore he tells us also,\nthat the line or reed by which this city is builded and squared,\nit is not now a line of flax, but a reed of gold, a golden reed;\nto signify not a word of the law and letter that had to do with\nshadows, but the New Testament, and ministration of the Spirit,\nwhich hath to do with substance, and the heavenly things themselves\n(Heb 9:23).\n\n[The city measured.]\n\n'A golden reed to measure the city,' &c. I told you at the first\nthat this city was the church of God that should be in the latter\ndays; but yet not the church disorderly and confusedly scattered\nhere and there, without all visible order and discipline, but the\nchurch brought into exact form and order, lying every way level\nand square with the rule and golden reed of the New Testament of\nChrist; wherefore he calleth it a city, a city under rule. Thus\nit was in the type; for when Solomon's temple was to be builded,\nand the city in after times, it was not enough that they had stones\nand timber, but every one of them must be such stones, and such\ntimber, and must also come under the rule and square of the workman;\nand so being fitted by hewers, saws, axes, and squares, they were\nfitly put into the building (1 Kings 5:17,18; 7:9-12; 1 Chron\n22:2). By this, then, we may see with what a holy, exact line,\nrule, and order, this church and city, at this day, will be compact\nand built; the members must be all such as shall be made fit for\nthe city of God by the hewing words of the prophets (Hosea 6:5).\nThey must join in Christian communion also according to the golden\nreed of the New Testament, and ministration of the Spirit. Indeed,\nall the time of the reign of Antichrist, the church, as she was\na holy temple in the Lord, so she was measured with reference to\nthe truth of her grace, and invisible condition (Rev 11:1,2); but\nas she is to be a city, so she then is to be trodden down, and to\nlie without all form and order; but when Antichrist is dead, she\nshall again come into mind, be considered, reared, built by measure,\nand inhabited. And observe it, as the rule of the carpenter is\nof use in building, from the first appearance of the laying of a\nstone in order, even till it be in every point and part complete,\nso the golden reed with which the angel is here said to measure\nthe city, &c., is to be of use from the first foundation even to\nthe laying of the last stone thereof; as was also fore-showed by\nthe man that is said to measure the pattern of this, in Ezekiel\n(Eze 30-48).\n\n'And he measured the city.' That is, he measured the church in her\nconstitution and fellowship. Now when God is said to measure, he\nis said to measure sometimes in judgment, and sometimes in mercy;\nsometimes to throw down, and sometimes to build up and establish.\nSometimes, I say, he is said to measure in judgment, with intention\nto throw down and destroy. Thus he measured the city before she\nwent into captivity, and the ten tribes before they were carried\naway beyond Babylon, because they lay cross to his word, and had\nperverted that which was right, &c. (Isa 28:17,18; Amos 7:7-9).\nBut when he is said to measure the city in this place, it is that\nshe might be built and set up. Wherefore, as I said, the line or\ngolden reed that is now stretched forth to measure this city, it is\nto the end that all things may be in right form and order, 'fitly\njoined' and knit 'together,--by that which every joint supplieth,\naccording to the effectual working in the measure of every part,\nmaking increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love'\n(Eph 4:16; Col 2:19).\n\nAgain, By measuring the city, he would have us to understand that\nall her limits and bounds were now apparent, that all things, even\nthe church and all the world, were made to see their own compass.\nFor as God in the days when temple worship only was on foot, would\nnot lose a form or ordinance of all the forms and ordinances of\nhis temple; so when city-work comes up, he will not lose an inch\nof the limits, and bounds, and compass of his city, she shall be\nfull as large, and of as great a compass every way, as is determined\nof her; as he saith by the prophet, 'All the land, saith he, shall\nbe turned as a plain (this is that which a little before is called\nthe new heaven and a new earth); that is, there shall be a smooth\nface upon the whole earth, all snugs, and hubs,[10] and hills, and\nholes, shall now be taken away, even 'from Geba to Rimmon, south\nof Jerusalem: and it [the city] shall be lifted up and inhabited\nin her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate,\nunto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananiel, unto the\nking's wine presses' (Zech 14:10). The four places here mentioned\nin this verse, they do seem to be the four corners of the city of\nold; at which places the city bounds were set; and in which very\ncircle the prophet tells us, but with gospel language, she shall\nbe settled again.\n\n[The gates measured.]\n\n'And he measured the city,' and the gates thereof. This was figured\nforth by the vision in Ezekiel, for in it he saw the angel go from\ngate to gate, and saw him take the exact and distinct measure of\nevery one thereof; nay, not only of them in a general way, but\nof the thresholds, the porch, the posts, and the faces of their\nentrances; he measured also every little chamber that was above\nupon the gates, with all the spaces that were between (Eze 40).\n\nNow by gates, I told you, we are to understand the Son of God, as\nhe is the way to the Father, and to the privileges of this city.\nWherefore when he saith he measured the gates, it is as if he had\nsaid, he measured the entrance, strength, and goodly countenance\nof him, with the mansions of glory that are to be enjoyed by every\none that entereth in hereby; for the porch, posts, face, entrance,\nand chambers of the gate in Ezekiel, they signify the entrance,\nstrength, shining countenance, and resting places that every one\nshall find in the Lord Jesus that entereth in by him; and to measure\nall these, it is in substance but this, to set them forth, and out,\nin their full force, glory, largeness, beauty, and profitableness,\nin the view of all; for I told you at the first, the golden reed\nis the Word of God. Now the city and the gates thereof, are said\nto be measured by this golden reed: which, I say, can be nothing\nelse but an opening of all the excellencies of Christ, as he is\nthe gate of the sheep, even by the full sway, power, majesty, and\nclearness of the Word. The Lord help us! Christ, as he is the door\nto God, and to all gospel-privileges, is now strangely handled, and\nso hath been of a long time among the sons of men; some of them\nmaking him the very in-let to all the vile and abominable crew in\nthe world, counting all that are pliant to their ungodly humours,\nthe saints of the Most High, and Christ the door and gate through\nwhom they have right to enter; and to whom belong the delicates of\nthe precious things of God, even those which he hath most choicely\nlaid up and reserveth for none but those that unfeignedly turn from\niniquity, and walk with him in the newness of the Spirit. Others\nagain do shut up the gates against the godly, labouring with might\nand main to hinder those that labour to enter, that fain would do\nit unfeignedly (Matt 23:14; 2 Chron 29:7).[11] Others again do\nlabour all that in them lies to deface the gates, to take away\ntheir beauty: like him that took the gold from off the doors and\ngates of the temple (2 Kings 18:16). Rendering Christ a low and\ncarnal business, &c. But at the measuring-day, at the day when\nthe golden reed shall be the alone rule: then you shall see this\ncity, and her gates discovered in their own glory, holiness, and\nbeauty. For though in our affliction under antichrist, our temple\nand instruments of worship, with the city, wall, gates, and the like,\nhave been much defaced, even our doctrine of faith and worship,\nand have been much trod and trampled under the foot of the\nuncircumcised, yet all shall be recovered and brought into order\nagain by the golden reed of the word of God. Which thing was figured\nforth to us by the good man Ezra the scribe, who at the restoring\nof Jerusalem took review of all the things pertaining to the\ncity, both touching its branches and deformity, and also how to\nset all things in order, and that by the law of God which was in\nhis hand, even according to the writing thereof (Ezra 7:14; 8:34;\nNeh 8:9). And whosoever doth but read the history of Ezra and\nNehemiah throughout, they shall find that by the Word of God they\nbrought all things to pass; all the ordinances of the house and city\nof God into their right and holy order. And indeed the measuring\nof the city and of the gates thereof, which is Christ the way, it\ncan be nothing else but a bringing of them by the right understanding\nand opening of the Word into their proper places and excellencies,\nboth for comers in, and goers out, according to the commandment\n(Eze 40:4; 43:7-12). For, to speak properly, Christ in his love,\ngrace, merits, and largeness of heart, to let souls into communion\nwith God and all happiness, is in all these things unsearchable,\nand passing knowledge, being filled with these things beyond\nthought, and without measure (Eph 3:8,18,19; Col 1:9; John 3:34).\n\n[The wall measured.]\n\nAnd he measured the city, the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.\nIn that he saith, he measured the wall also, it is to show us\nthat all things now are according to the rule of the Word: the\ninhabitants are according to the Word, the entrance is according\nto the Word, yea, and so is the safety of it also, even a fence\nto fence them from their enemies; even a fence on every side, that\nthey may be at ease and rest, and be no more a tossing to and\nfro. 'O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest,' saith he, 'and not\ncomforted, [I will do many good things for thee]--In righteousness\nshalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for\nthou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near\nthee' (Isa 44:11-14).\n\nTouching the wall, what it is, I have spoken already; therefore\nhere I speak only to the measure of it, which measure is only the\nfulfilling all those promises and engagements of God that are made\nto New Jerusalem, for her safety and continual defence; and that\nnot only in her own eyes, but in the eyes of all her beholders.\nThen shall that saying be with gladness in the mouths of all the\ninhabitants of this Jerusalem, 'We were bondmen, yet our God hath\nnot forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us\nin the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving to set\nup the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof,\nand to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem' (Ezra 9:9).\nWhich wall, I say, shall be so conspicuous to all the adversaries\nof this holy and beloved city, that the greatest of them shall\nnot once dare to peep or mutter[12] against her any more. 'God is\nknown in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled,\nthey passed by together, they saw it, and so they marvelled; they\nwere troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there,\nand pain, as of a woman in travail' (Psa 48:1-6). As it is said\nof the building of the wall after the captivity: when the enemies\nand all the heathen saw it was finished, 'they were much cast down\nin their own eyes' (Neh 6:15,16).\n\nThe regulating of this city by this golden reed, and the measuring\nthe gates and wall by this word, when finished, will then cause\nall that have skill in singing the Lord's songs, and of lifting\nup the praises of God in this city, to gather themselves together\nto sing, and to praise, and to say, Bless ye the name of the Lord,\nfor his mercies endure for ever: for then will they purify the\npeople, this city, with the gates and wall thereof (Neh 12:27-47).\n\nWherefore in the mean time, between this and the building of this\ncity, let Jerusalem come into your mind, and walk about her, 'go\nround about her,' inquire by the Word what God hath said of her\nstate, strength, safety, ease, peace, and blessed tranquillity\nin the latter days, 'tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her\nbulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations\nfollowing' (Psa 48:12,13).\n\n[The form and measure of the city.]\n\nVer. 16. 'And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large\nas the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve\nthousand furlongs, the length, and the breadth, and height of it\nare equal.'\n\n'And the city lieth four square.' These words do open unto you the\nmatter yet more, to wit, that now both the city, gates, and wall\nwere exactly in their visibility according to the Word, lying\neven every way with that golden reed: for by four square you are\nto understand perfection, or an answering the figures that of\nold did figure to us the completeness and perfection of the New\nTestament order.\n\nFor if you search the Scriptures, you will find that especially the\ngreat and principal instruments of God's worship in and under the\nlaw, their perfection was what here you read to be the perfection\nof this city, even a four square. As for instance, The breastplate\nof judgment, on which were engraved the names of the children of\nIsrael, its exact point of perfection was to be a right four square.\nThe ten bases also, that were to be for bearers to the lavers in the\ntemple, they were to be four square: the altar of burnt-offerings\nlikewise, with the altar of incense, their perfect pattern was that\nthey should be four square. The inward court, and outward court,\nwith the posts of the temple, and tables on which they were to\nslay the sacrifices, they were all four square. Yea, the city in\nthe type, in the vision of Ezekiel, was seen to be of the same\nframe and fashion every way, having just twelve gates, and on each\nof the four sides three gates. Wherefore, when he saith the city\nlieth four square, it is as if he had said she lieth even with\nthe pattern or golden reed of the Word; even, I say, both in her\nmembers, doctrine, worship, and manners: for the things afore hinted\nunto you do hold forth all these particulars (Exo 28:15,16; 39:8,9;\n27:1; 38:1; 37:1; 1 Kings 7:27,28; Eze 43:1318; 40; 41:21; 48:30-34).\n\n'And the length is as large as the breadth.' This explaineth the\nmatter yet more fully and distinctly; for as to the things that I\nmade mention of before, though they were to be made four square,\nand that their perfection lay exactly in that form, yet these\nsquares did not lie in their height and depth, but in their length\nand breadth, just as you read here of the square of this city. As\nto instance: The altars, though they were five cubits long, and\nfive cubits broad, yet but three high (Exo 27:1; 33:1; 1 Kings\n7). So the bases, they were a cubit and an half broad, and a cubit\nand an half long, yet but half a cubit high; the tables also on\nwhich they slew the sacrifices, they were a cubit and a half long,\nand a cubit and a half broad, yet but one cubit high (Eze 40:42).\nWhich things being thus, you see the reason of his saying 'the\nlength is as large as the breadth.'\n\nNow by length and breadth here, we may yet observe another mystery\nheld forth unto us; for by the breadth is held forth the perfection\nof the rule, or law to which all Christians ought to yield their\nhearty obedience: his commandment is exceeding broad (Psa 119:96).\nThe breadth of which is signified, I say, by the breadth of those\nthings that before you see to be the instruments of the worship of\nGod. Now, as by breadth we are to understand the perfect latitude\nand compass of the commandment; so by length we are to understand\nthe answerableness of the obedience of the inhabitants of this\ncity; for indeed the perfection of Christian obedience lieth in\nan answerableness to the will of God; as it is said of the father\nand mother of John the Baptist, they walked in all the commandments\nof the Lord blameless (Luke 1:6). And of Anna, that she continued\nwithout ceasing in the service of God in the temple day and night\n(Luke 2:37). This is to be as long in our obedience, as the law\nis broad in commanding. The law commands right obedience, and the\nChristian giveth it; the law commands continual obedience, and\nthe Christian giveth it; the law commands universal obedience, and\nthe Christian giveth it. He giveth it all these sorts of obedience,\n1. By the person of Christ, for he is his righteousness (1 Cor\n1:30). He giveth it all these, 2. With the consent of the mind\n(Rom 7:16). And 3. He giveth it all these obediences in the love\nof the Spirit, which the apostle calleth the fulfilling of the law,\nthat is, an answering the breadth of its command by the length of\nobedience (Rom 13:10). Wherefore when he saith the length is as\nlarge as the breadth, he would have us understand how perfect in\nholiness these blessed souls will be at this day; and indeed, this\nis it that is by God expected to be in this city at this day. As\nthe angel with his measuring-line said to Zechariah, I am going 'to\nmeasure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what\nis the length thereof' (Zech 2:2). To see whether their doctrine\nbe pure, and whether their obedience be answerable.\n\n'And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.'\nThese latter words do refer us to a distinct measure from that\nwhich went before; the former measure pointing at the breadth of\nher commandment and the length of her obedience, but this at the\nglory and fulness of her mansions and portions; for after he had\nsaid the city lieth four square, and that the length is as large as\nthe breadth, which is the full and complete effect of that first\nmeasure, he comes over again with another measuring, saying, 'And\nhe measured the city,--twelve thousand furlongs'; as who should\nsay, he measured the city, gates and wall first, and found them\nall exact, and according to the golden reed; and after he had so\ndone, he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs.\n\n'He measured the city with the reed'; that is, he measured out to\nthe city, he measured for the city, for its lot and portion, twelve\nthousand furlongs. Which very thing you find in the vision of the\nprophet Ezekiel; for after ha had measured the city, the vessels,\nwith the instruments of worship, I say, when he had done this, he\ncomes again with an afterwards, to measure the city, her portions\nand mansions (Eze 47:1, &c.). Wherefore I say, these words do refer\nto her portion that she is to enjoy of her God, as the former\nreferreth to her duty and obedience.\n\nNow that which maketh me conclude that this latter measure is\na measure distinct from the former, and that it relateth neither\nto the exactness of rule, nor the completeness of obedience, but\nonly to the largeness of the portions that God will allot for thy\nsons and daughters, thou city of God; it is,\n\nFirst, Because this is the biggest measure. For I find, by considering\nthe Scripture, that as the persons and things pertaining to the\nworship of God were to go according to the rule of this golden\nreed, so also the portions that pertained to the persons worshipping\nwere to go by rule and measure also, as here he saith he measured\nalso the city, or to it, with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.\nAnd hence it is that our grace is called the measure of grace,\nand that our glory is called a weight of glory (Rom 12:3; Eph 4:7;\n2 Cor 4:17).\n\nNow I say, I find that our portions do go always under the biggest\nmeasure; the spoons, cups, flagons, snuffers, basons, candlesticks,\nand pans, which were the instruments of worship, were not so large\nas the chambers in the temple, and the compass of the holy land,\nwhich were the mansions and [the] portions of the church. See\nJoshua 15-16; John 14:1-3.\n\nSecondly, I take the twelve thousand furlongs to signify portions,\nrather than worship or worshippers; because, as to the nature of\nit, it most exactly agrees with the portions that are measured\nout to this city by the angel before Ezekiel, which is a measuring\nforth so much land for the portion of the prince, so much for the\nportion of the priest, and so much for the portion of the twelve\ntribes. Yea, the very phrase, twelve thousand furlongs, also\nimplieth such a compass of ground, by which we find the holy land\nhath been measured (Eze 45-47; Luke 24:13; John 6:18).\n\nLastly, I take it to be this also; because I find not in all this\ndescription of this holy city that any place doth give us that\nground to speak to her measure of portion as this; and it would seem\nstrange to me that the description of this city given by Ezekiel\nshould be more complete than this that is given by our prophet\nJohn; for Ezekiel doth most amply set forth her portions, even\ndistinctly, for prince, priest, and the tribes in particular. This\ntherefore is to be understood of the portions of the city which\nJohn did see were measured out unto her immediately after he saw\nthe breadth of her rule and the length of her obedience. Only\nconsider that Ezekiel measureth by reeds, not counting by furlongs;\nbut John, though he measureth by reeds, yet counteth by furlongs.\n\nBut now, though the Holy Ghost is thus pleased to speak of the\nportions of the saints in the New Jerusalem, as if he intended\nchiefly that their portion should consist in outward happiness,\nand in the enjoyment of such and such a portion or compass of\nground: yet consider that these are but metaphorical and borrowed\nexpressions, spoken to our capacities, under which is indeed included\nthe nature of our blessed and spiritual food and nourishment.\nYou know it is usual for the Holy Ghost in Scripture to call the\nsaints sheep, lambs, heifers, cows, rams, doves, swallows, pelicans,\nand the like; and also to call their food, their spiritual and\nheavenly food, grass, provender, wheat, wine, oil, grapes, apples,\nfigs, nuts, and the like also; all which are but shadowish and\nfigurative expressions, even as this of the measure of the twelve\nthousand furlongs (John 10:15,16; Amos 4:3; Jer 31:18; Cant 2:5;\nEze 34:14; Zech 10:1; Isa 30:24; Micah 4:4). And observe it, that\nwhich John saith here is twelve thousand furlongs, Ezekiel tells\nus it lieth on this side and on that side of the bank of the river\nof the water of life (Eze 47:8,9). Now I think there is none so much\nvoid of understanding as to think this water of life is anything\nelse but the precious grace of God, in and through the Lord Jesus.\nWherefore the ground or measure for portions, it is nothing else\nbut our spiritual and heavenly food, even spiritual grace, and\ngifts, and comforts, that the holy ones of this city shall most\nplentifully partake of and enjoy. And so indeed the prophet also\nsaith, speaking of the portions of the holy land for this city.\n'The increase thereof,' saith he, 'shall be for food unto them\nthat serve the city, and they that serve the city shall serve it\nout of all the twelve tribes of Israel' (Eze 48:18,19). Out of\nthe twelve tribes, that is, out of the twelve thousand furlongs,\nwhich is the portion of the tribes. This is according to the\nsaying of the prophet David, 'He maketh me to lie down in green\npastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters' (Psa 23:2). And\nagain, 'For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed\nthem, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters' (Rev\n7:17). 'For your shame, ye shall have double; and for confusion,\nthey shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they\nshall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them' (Isa\n61:7).\n\nThus you see the measure of the city, gates, and wall, and the\neffect of that; and thus you see also the measure of the portion\nfor the city, with what it is: wherefore it remaineth that we see\nwhat is to be the effect of that also.\n\n'And he measured the city with a reed, twelve thousand furlongs,\nthe length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.' Before\nhe told us that the length was as large as the breadth, which I\nthen told you did signify the nature of her rule and the measure\nof her obedience. But now he adds and saith, that both in length\nand breadth and in height she is equal. Wherefore in that he adds\nat last a squareness of height to her squareness of length and\nbreadth; and also in that he adds it not before he had told us of\nthe measure of her portions, he would have us to understand that\nas the rule in which this city shall walk shall be complete, and\nas her obedience to that rule shall be complete, so her enjoyment\nof God and his grace at that day shall be proportionable also. She\nis square in her rule, square in her obedience, and square in her\nenjoyment of God and his goodness: the length and the breadth and\nthe height of it are equal. Indeed the Scripture saith, that in\nkeeping his commandments there is great reward (Psa 19:11). And\nagain, 'This man shall be blessed in his deed' (James 1:25). This\nshoweth unto us then what glorious days these will be to the house\nand city of God, even days in which saints shall see the mind of\nGod clearly, have hearts to do it completely, and have continually\nthe answerable enjoyment of God and spiritual happiness. Now will\nhis paths drop fatness with a witness! (Psa 65:11). And now will\nhe meet 'him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that\nremember thee in thy ways' (Isa 64:5). And the length and the breadth\nand the height of it are equal. Wherefore the prophet in the vision\nof the measures of the portions doth observe that there was a\nsquareness in them, as well as in their ordinances and obedience:\nand hence it is that he tells us that every little chamber was one\nreed broad and one reed long (Eze 40:7). And again, the oblation,\nthat is, the portion for the tribes, shall be five and twenty\nthousand (Eze 48:20). By five and twenty thousand ye shall offer\nthe holy oblation FOUR SQUARE, with the portion of the city.\n\nAgain, In that he saith the length and the breadth, and the height\nof it are equal, he showeth us how fit this city at this day will\nbe even for the kingdom of heaven and glory. For observe, that\nas the rule, obedience, and comforts of God, do make this city\na square city, both in height, and length, and breadth; so the\nholiest of all, which was a type of heaven (Heb 9:24), was of the\nsame fashion also. It was twenty cubits high, and twenty cubits\nlong, and twenty cubits broad: the length, and the breadth, and\nthe height of it were equal (1 Kings 6:20; 2 Chron 3:8: Eze 41:4).\n\nWherefore, as now the will of God will be done, according to the\npetition, 'on earth as it is in heaven' (Matt 6:10); so will this\ncity be at this day fit to enter into the holiest place; even as\nfit as one four square is to shut into another. Here is a four square\ncity for a four square heaven; and the length and the breadth of\nit are equal. Wherefore it is upon this account that this city,\nat her appearing, is said to be adorned and prepared as a bride\nis for her husband, which we all know is the most perfect and\ncompletest attire that is possible to be got. And therefore it\nis, again, that at the coming of the Lord those that go in with\nhim to the marriage are said to be ready beforehand (Rev 21:2;\nMatt 25:10).\n\nVer. 17. 'And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty\nand four cubits.' This measure of the wall that here he maketh\nmention of is also distinct from the former measure, where he is\nsaid to measure the city, gates, and wall; and it refers to such\na wall, or to such a part of the wall in such a place. For I find\nthat though the wall of this city in general is that which shall\nencompass the New Jerusalem round, yet this wall is in some place,\nand for some reason, of another manner and measure than the wall\nis in general, as it compasseth round the city, which part of the\nwall is called the broad wall, the wall upon which even half of\nthe people might walk complete at once (Neh 3:8; 12:38).\n\nBut to trace out the business in the type, and so to come to its\nanswer in the antitype; I find that a little distance from Jerusalem\nthere was a place called Tophet, which place was counted profane,\nunholy, or defiled (2 Kings 23:10). I find also that this unclean,\nunholy place, was a figure of hell itself (Isa 30:33). Now mark, I\nfind by the Scripture that against this Tophet, this unholy and\nprofane place, was the broad wall of the city for the defence of the\nsanctuary erected, and reared up. He measured, saith the prophet,\nby the four sides, and it had a wall round about, five hundred\nreeds long, and five hundred reeds broad, 'TO MAKE A SEPARATION\nBETWEEN THE SANCTUARY AND THE PROFANE PLACES' (Eze 42:20). Which\nwall could not be that wall which compasseth the city, because it\nwas but five hundred reeds long: for take the measure of this wall\nin its largest measure, and it is, if you count a reed for that\nwhich we count a pole, but twelve furlongs, which compass will\nscarce go round many market towns; especially if, together with\nthis, you consider the breadth of the wall, whose breadth is as\nlarge as its length; wherefore now there is not room enough for a\ncity so big as a cottage to stand in the midst thereof. I speak\nthis, to show you that the wall in this place is not the wall that\ngoeth round about the city, but the wall that is placed just between\nthe sanctuary and Tophet, or hell itself. Now though Ezekiel and\nJohn do differ touching their count about the thickness of this\nwall, it is not so much to signify the walls are not one and the\nsame, as to show us that the one, to wit, Ezekiel's wall, was to\nencompass a worldly sanctuary, but John's to encompass a spiritual\nand heavenly; wherefore Ezekiel's must be of so many reeds long\nto go round about the material sanctuary, as a type; but John\ncomes more to the spirit of the matter, and showeth us what the\nsanctuary, wall, and the like should mean; for by sanctuary we\nare to understand, even in the Old Testament, a place of safety\nand security, which was a type of Christ (Eze 11:16; Heb 6:18).\nNow in that Tophet did stand against the sanctuary in the letter,\nit signifies that hell itself is bent against all those that take\nshelter in Christ; but to no purpose, for in the very face of\nTophet, even between it and our place of sanctuary, is fixed an\ninvincible and impregnable mighty wall, to keep in safety those\nthat have fled to Christ for shelter. Now I say, in that John tells\nus this wall is an hundred and forty-four cubits, and waives the\nmanner of the measure of Ezekiel, it is to show us that this wall\nis for the safety of the hundred and forty-four thousand that have\ntaken sanctuary in Christ, that is, all the holy and truly gracious\nsouls that are with him on the Mount Zion, having his Father's name\nwritten in their foreheads (Rev 7; 14:1-3). Both numbers, I say,\nbeing twelve times twelve, implying a sufficient safety for all\nthat are sincerely and truly gracious.\n\nAnd now to bring down the matter to our New Jerusalem state: for\nthough it be true in all ages, that there is between those that have\ntaken sanctuary in Christ, and the bottomless pit, an invincible\nand mighty wall of grace and heavenly power, and of the merits of\nChrist, to save to the uttermost all and every one that are thus\nfled to him for safety (Heb 7:25,26), yet there is something in\nit more than this, for those that come into the days and state of\nthe New Jerusalem. For, I say, this wall being it that makes a\nseparation between the sanctuary and the profane place in general,\nand yet being spoken of as a thing extraordinary, and accompanying\nthe state of this new city only, it implieth that at this day the\nsaints shall have that shelter by this wall from all the force\nof hell, and the damned spirits that now from Tophet afflict them,\nthat they never had before. And therefore you find at the beginning\nof the thousand years, which, as I conceive, is the time of the\nbuilding of this city, a mighty angel is said to come down from\nheaven to lay hold of the dragon, that old serpent, called the\ndevil and Satan, and to bind him a thousand years; which done, he\ncasts him into the bottomless pit, and there shuts him up, to the\nend he should deceive the nations no more (Rev 20:1-3). The effect\nof which will be not only a delivering of the saints from outward\npersecution, but also from being any more assailed with either\nwicked and erroneous doctrine, or fierce and fiery darts from the\nprince of darkness, which now many of them are so much annoyed\nand afflicted with; now the church will be free from those hellish\nsuggestions to blaspheme, to despair, and the like, that her members\ndo yet most dreadfully and sadly meet with. For observe, this old\ntempter is said to be tied up, or to be cast into the bottomless\npit, first as he is a dragon, under which name he goeth in this\nbook, in his persecuting the church (Rev 12). Secondly, he is\nsaid to be shut up, as he goeth under the name of a serpent, under\nwhich name he went when he fomented his devilish and damning seducing\ndoctrine to our first parents; the which the Spirit expressly\nseems to relate unto, and therefore calls him that old serpent;\nthat old serpent that deceived us at the first (Gen 3:1-5). Thirdly,\nhe is said to be shut up also, as he goeth under the name of the\ndevil, and Satan, under which name he goeth commonly in the New\nTestament, when he provoketh and stirreth up our lusts, and when\nhe labours to drive us into all manner of unbelief, distrust,\ndespair, and so consequently into murmurings and blasphemy against\nGod (Matt 4:1,5,8; Luke 4:2-6; Acts 5:1-3; Eph 6:11; 2 Cor 2:7,11).\nWherefore, I say, that at the day that this wall is set up in all\nits glory, and when it performs every part and piece of its office\nto the full, then shall Satan be bruised under our feet indeed,\nand then shall Jerusalem be called the joyous city, and her people\na joy; for her former sorrows shall be past and forgot (Rom 16:20:\nRev 21:4).\n\nIf thou still objectest: But I have yet an evil heart, and therefore\nif I be not rid of that at that day, should I live till then, why\nthough there should be no devil to afflict me, I shall feel and\nmeet with sorrow and trouble enough. I answer thee: First, I dare\nnot say that at this day thou shalt be in every sense without thy\nevil heart in the midst of all this glory, tempted soul. Yet I say\nthus much to thee-\n\nFirst. Where there is no devil to tempt, though the saints will\nyet be imperfect, and come short of a glorified state, yet they,\nby his absence, will be delivered from many dreadful, vexing,\nand burning, and hellish darts, that will otherwise confound and\nafflict the soul like arrows whose heads are poisoned. Christians\nhave a great deal of ease, when God doth, even at this day, withhold\nthe devil for a season, though yet they have their own lusts, over\nthey have when the devil and their own lusts are suffered to meet\nand work together. Yea, the Lord Jesus himself, who had no sin,\nyet in the temptation was fearfully handled and afflicted with\nthe devil, though all the while, I say, he kept him at staves\nend,[13] and did not suffer him in the least to annoy his person;\nand therefore it is said that when he was in the wilderness, in\nthe conflict, the angels came to minister to him (Mark 1:12,13; Col\n2:14,15). At the time of his agony also-in which agony, doubtless,\nSatan had a great hand to afflict him-you see his complaint, how\nthat he was sore amazed, and exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,\nbeing so laden with heaviness and sorrow that he was scarce able to\nstand or wag under the burden of it (Luke 23:44; Mark 14:33,34).\nSatan, even from himself, besides the workings of our own lust,\ndoth do us wonderful injury, and hits our souls with many a fiery\ndart that we think comes either from ourselves, or from heaven,\nand God himself; but not by this wall, this broad wall, this sorrow\nwill be cut off.\n\nSecondly. Again, when Satan is thus tied up, we shall, together\nwith this mercy, receive such a plentiful pouring forth of the\nHoly Ghost, that though there will remain in us still remainders\nof our corruptions, yet, by the plentiful indwelling of the Holy\nGhost, and the joy and peace and heavenly sweetness thereof, these\nthings shall lie like lean, withered, blasted things. The reason\nof that power and that strength, that our lusts have to this day\nin our hearts, it is because they are so lean, and thin, and weak\nin the things of God. Strong grace makes corruptions weak, and\nstrikes them thorough, laying them at the point of death, always\ngasping for life. Thus it was with Moses, he had such grace in his\nsoul, and such communion with God, that though he had yet a body of\nsin within him, it was a rare thing for him to see his wretchedness\n(Num 11:14,15); that is, to see it pert, lively, and powerful\nin him. Indeed God saith, that upon the land of his people shall\ncome up briars and thorns; 'yea, upon all the houses of joy in the\njoyous city; because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude\nof the city shall be left, the forts and towers shall be for dens\nfor ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit\nbe poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful\nfield,' &c. (Isa 32:13-15). And then 'the Lord shall defend the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that\nday shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as\nthe angel of the Lord before them' (Zech 12:8). 'The inhabitant\nshall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be\nforgiven their iniquity' (Isa 33:24).\n\n'And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four\ncubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.'\n'According to the measure of a man.' The man Christ Jesus. For the\nmeasure of this city, or the golden reed with which this city is\nthus measured, it is his, his word and law of the New Testament.\nAll judgment is committed into the hand of the Son; and God 'hath\ngiven him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the\nSon of man' (John 5:27; 12:48).\n\n'According to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.' This\nangel is one of the seven that had the seven last plagues to execute\nupon the man of sin (Rev 21:9), and yet he saith the measure is\naccording to the measure of a man; the meaning is that the city,\nthe New Jerusalem, is to be built according to the word of Christ;\nbut yet by his word as it is in the hand of his angels, that is,\nhis messengers and servants; of which servants, the chief will be\nthose that are his instruments to pour forth the seven vials full\nof the seven last plagues upon the Antichristian harlot. For they,\nwith their plagues, will both destroy what standeth in implacable\nopposition, and will subject the rest, and bring them into\na correspondency with the word and will of God, as I have showed.\nWhence note, that they of his servants that God shall use to pour\nforth his last and most dreadful plagues upon the whore, they are\nthey that God will use to show us the pattern of this holy city.\nOr thus, they that can tell how to plague the whore, they can tell\nhow to measure this city. 'The righteous men, they shall judge\nthem,' that is, the Antichristian harlot, with her wicked and\nadulterous daughters, 'after the manner of adulteresses, and after\nthe manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses,\nand blood is in their hands' (Eze 23:45).\n\nThus much touching the frame of this city, its walls, gates, and\nfoundations, with the measure of each. And now it remains that I\nspeak of the glory of them.\n\n\n[THIRD. A RELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE CITY, ITS WALLS, GATES,\nAND FOUNDATIONS.]\n\nVer. 18. 'And the building of the wall of it was of jasper; and\nthe city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.'\n\n[The glory of the walls.]\n\nIn these words you have a discovery of the glory, both of the wall\nand city itself; and that, as you see, under the notion of two\nchoice metaphors. The wall is jasper, the chief of stones; and the\ncity is gold, the chief of metals. 'And the building of the wall\nof it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold.'\n\nThis jasper is that stone, in the light of which this city is said\nto descend, as in the light of a stone most precious. Now, as\nthere he saith she descended in the light of this stone, so here\nhe saith this stone is the wall thereof. 'And the building of the\nwall of it was of jasper.'\n\nThis therefore confirmeth unto you what I said of the wall before,\nto wit, that it was the salvation of God through Christ; wherefore,\nlearn this by the way, that this city shall not be at this day in\nher own keeping, but in the keeping of Jesus Christ. He with his\nbenefits doth compass her round, and by him alone she lieth down\nin safety. Wherefore it is from this consideration that God doth\nsay by the mouth of the prophet, I will give them within my house,\nand within my walls, 'a place and a name better than that of sons\nand of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall\nnot be cut off' (Isa 56:5).\n\n'And the building of the wall,' &c. By this word building, we are\nto understand both the materials of the wall, the manner of their\nplacing, and the instruments that God will use for the setting up\nthereof. Now, to speak properly, this wall being the Lord Jesus\nChrist himself in his precious merits, benefits, and offices, the\nbuilder hereof must needs be God himself, for he it is that hath\nmade this Christ for us a safeguard and defence, by making of him\nour wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, by\nwhich he doth encompass us round on every side, and that at every\nmoment to deliver us from the power and destruction both of sin,\ndeath, the devil, and hell (1 Cor 1:30; Heb 11:10; 3:4).\n\nBut again, the building here spoken of is a building of this wall\nafter the destruction of Antichrist, and so long after Christ was\nsent, and made these things in his own person, to his beloved and\nblessed church. Wherefore the building of this wall that is here\nspoken of, it must be understood of the recovering again the\npurity of those doctrines, in which the Lord Jesus, with all his\nbenefits, is found and made ours, for our everlasting defence and\nsafety. For we find that the king of Babylon, who was a type of\nour Antichrist, when he came up against Jerusalem, the type of\nour primitive church, he brake down their city, destroyed their\nwalls, rifled their houses, and killed their children; whose steps,\nI say, our Antichrist follows to a hair, in treading down the\nprimitive church, corrupting her doctrines-which are her safeguard\nand wall-also robbing and spoiling the houses of God, and killing\nhis children with a thousand calamities; turning all the heavenly\nframe and order of church government into a heap of rubbish, and\na confused dunghill (Psa 74:4-7).\n\nWherefore the building again of this wall is to be understood of the\nrecovering, and settling, and fastening the doctrines of Christ,\nas afore, in which doctrines he in all his benefits is wrapped\nand held fast for ever. I say, a recovering of them, and setting\nhim up again in his primitive and pure glory, of being our priest,\nprophet, and king in his church, and a giving unto these offices\ntheir own proper length, breadth, height, and depth, letting them\nrule in all their force, glory, and majesty, and authority, for\nthen will be golden days, and not till then; then, I say, when\nthe several offices of the Lord Jesus do rule in their own nature\nand largeness of authority, both in the church and in the world\n(Zech 9:7,8; 14:9; Rev 11:15).\n\nAlas! this wall is yet unbuilt, the offices of the Lord Jesus do\nnot yet shine in that purity, nor so stand in their proper places\nas they shall do at the coming in of New Jerusalem. The wall lies\nyet but as a heap of rubbish; the offices of the Lord Christ are\nto this day by many preachers confounded, and removed to and fro,\neven like loose and rolling stones. These offices, also, are by\nothers attributed to Antichrist, and his children of iniquity; but\nat this day the nations shall know themselves to be but men, and\nthe doctrines of Christ shall be set again in their own places\n(Eze 28:2,3; 2 Thess 2:4). Now shall every going into this city,\nand every going out thereof, stand where it ought; and now shall\nevery tower and fortress on this wall be placed as in the days\nof old; which towers and fortresses are the glorious names and\nattributes of the Father and Christ; for the name of the Lord\nis a strong tower, the righteous flee into it, and are safe. And\nagain, thou hast been a shelter to me, and a strong tower from\nthe enemy. Wherefore now, I say, shall the name of God, as Lord\nof all, and Father of his church, with the names of the Son, as\nHead, Saviour, and King of kings, be as the bulwarks to this city\n(Cant 1:10), to which shall be added all the promises, consolations,\nencouragements, &c., in the blessed book of God, out of which\nthis city continually shall suck the milk and nourishment of the\nunsearchable grace of God to them (1 Peter 2:1,2). To all which\nshall be added many new pieces of timber in the wall, for so it\nwas in the type at the rebuilding of the city (Neh 2:8). By which\nnew pieces I gather, that the special providence of God, and his\nprotection, shall be at this day so fastened in this wall for the\ncomplete delivering of this city, both from hell and earth, that\nshe shall stand in full force, safety, and peace, even till the\nheavens and the earth shall be no more. Now, when this wall is\nthus set up, even every truth and office of Christ in its own true\nnatural force, about this city, and when God, in his special and\nmost endeared affections, shall engage himself, even everlastingly,\nto keep this city safe from all storms and tempests, and trouble,\nand sorrow, then shall these citizens, as a sign of their conquest\nboth of hell and the world, even set up their banners on the several\ntowers of this wall, and the standards that belong to the tribes\nthereof; then, I say, 'we will rejoice in thy salvation,' O Lord,\n'and in the name of our God will we set up our banners' (Psa\n20:5). And then shall the inhabitants of the world both wondering\nand tremblingly say, 'Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,\nfair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with\nbanners?' (Cant 6:10). O the names of God, of Christ, of his\noffices, and the power of his grace and promises! How will they\nshine? In what glory will they appear? They will be even as a\nwall of fire round about Jerusalem; and will not be, as now, in the\nmind and thought of the people as the white of an egg in the mouth,\nwithout taste; but shall be, and appear in their own brightness,\nsweetness, and grace. 'For how great is his goodness, and how\ngreat is his beauty? corn shall make the young men cheerful, and\nnew wine the maids' (Zech 9:10). 'In that day thou shalt say,\nO Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine\nanger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my\nsalvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH\nis my strength, and my song, he also is become my salvation' (Isa\n12:1,2).\n\nFor the workman, I am sure, God is the principal, as I said before;\nbut yet he will do it by instruments, through the guidance of\nhis Spirit. The building of the wall of old was of God; but so as\nthat he did it by the hand of Nehemiah and his companions. I do\nobserve, in the completing of the city of Jerusalem of old, that\nthere was first altar-work, then temple-work, and after that the\nbuilding of the wall and completing the city. Altar-work, I say,\nwas the first which was reared, and on which there were offered,\naccording to the law and holy custom, the sacrifices and offerings\nboth morning and evening, as every day required. 'But the foundation\nof the temple of the Lord was not yet laid' (Ezra 3:1-6). These\naltar-men were those also that afterward built the temple; but yet\nby them was first of all repaired the altar, to signify that the\nfirst work that will be on foot at the beginning of the return\nof the Christians from out of Antichristian Babylon, it will be\nto find out altar-work, that is, the priestly office of Christ,\nand to offer by him the prayers and supplications of the church\ncontinually (Acts 19:9). Wherefore these altar-men, or these men\nin their altar-work, did figure out for us our famous and holy\nworthies, that before us have risen up in their place, and shook\noff those relics of Antichrist that entrenched upon the priestly\noffice of our Lord and Saviour, even worthy Wickliff, Huss, Luther,\nMelancthon, Calvin, and the blessed martyrs in Queen Mary's days,\n&c., with the rest of their companions. These, in their days, were\nstout and valiant champions for God according to their light, and\ndid upon the altar of God, which is Christ our Lord, offer up\nmany strong cries, with groans and tears, as every day required,\nfor the complete recovering of the church of God; the benefit of\nwhose offering we have felt and enjoyed to this day; but by this\nthe foundation of the temple was not yet laid (Ezra 3:6).\n\nNow after these arise another people, not another with respect to\nChristianity, but with respect to further light.[14] These men,\nthough they keep the continual offerings upon the altar, as the\nother did, yet they are men also that are for temple-work; wherefore\nthese begin to search out the foundations of the temple of God,\nthat they may rear up the house, as well as build up the altar.\nThese be they that are for having the church a select company of\nvisible believers, walking in the faith and holiness of the gospel,\nwhich believers are for separating from the unconverted and open\nprofane, and for building up one another an holy temple in the\nLord, through the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). I say, a temple, or house,\nor church, separate and distinct from that confused heap of rubbish\nand carnal gospellers that everywhere, like locusts and maggots,\ncrawl up and down the nations (Rom 1:7; 2 Cor 6:14-16; Acts 2:40;\nEph 2:21,22; 1 Cor 5:11-13). These were figured forth by Zerubbabel,\nJoshua, and all the people of the land that are for working and\nlabouring in this service of temple-work (Haggai 1:12; 2:1-5).\n\nAgain, As there is thus altar-work and temple-work to be done by\nthe saints when they are coming out of spiritual Sodom and Egypt;\nso, at the end of these, there will be city-work on foot also.\nWhich city-work will chiefly consist in setting up the wall and\ngates for defence, and of building themselves houses or mansions of\nrest and refreshment after all their hard usage under the tyranny\nof the man of sin, that son of perdition (Isa 65:19-21). Which\ncity-work will be then completed, when the church of Christ hath\nobtained a complete conquest and victory over the world, and hath\ngot her enemies and them that hate her, to lie at her feet, and\nto lick the dust of the soles thereof (Isa 60:14). For, as I have\ntold you already, temple-work, yea, when that is complete in the\nwork, yet there may be great havoc made of the church of Christ\n(Rev 11:1-3). At which time also, city-work may be trampled under\nthe feet of the wicked and uncircumcised Gentiles; but when the\ncity is built, then Zion is become a stronghold, and about all\nher glory shall be a defence (Isa 4:5). Then she either draweth\nand allureth her adversaries to entreat her kindly, and to count\nit their honour to be under her protection, as did the Gibeonites;\nor else she breaks, and bruises, and subjects them to her by\nher power and authority (Josh 9). 'The daughter of Tyre shall be\nthere with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat\nthy favour' (Psa 45:12). 'In the last days,' saith the prophet,\n'it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord\nshall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be\nexalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many\nnations shall come and say,--Let us go up unto the mountain of\nthe Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach\nus of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall\ngo forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he\nshall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off;\nand they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their\nspears into pruning-hooks'; that force and power that they used\nformerly to destroy the church of God, now they shall use it to do\nher service, even to break up the clods of the hearts of sinners,\nand to prune and dress the house of God, and vineyard of Jesus\nChrist; 'nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither\nshall they learn war any more'; for the word of the kingdom of peace\nshall bear sway. 'And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold\nof the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first\ndominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem'\n(Micah 4:1-3,8). This is city-work, and as to the glory, peace,\nand deliverance of the church, it is the chiefest of all other,\nbecause it is not only most excellent for concourse and multitude,\nbut, I say, for preservation and safety; and that not only to keep\nthe worshippers, if they keep their order, but to keep the order\nand worshippers both in order and continual safety, that they may\nbe for ever in the purest order. But now, though at the completing\nof this wall, and the building its towers, when they are finished\nthere will be great peace; yet all the time that these things are\ndoing, before they be done, let the workmen look for opposition,\ntaunts, underminers, and a thousand tricks for the hindrance of it\n(Neh 4:1-11; 6:1-14). For the streets of the city shall be built,\nand the wall, 'even in troublous times' (Dan 9:25).\n\n'And the building of the wall of it was of jasper.' Of jasper only;\nfor as by building is showed unto us the manner of the work, so by\njasper is showed unto us the matter itself; the matter therefore\nmust be, JASPER, Christ only, his Word, offices, and glorious\nbrightness only; for indeed, whatever the special grace, protection,\nand providence of God will at this day be over this city, yet it\nshall be every whit of it according to Christ; that is, both of him,\nfor him, and by him, as the fruits and effects of his suffering,\nbloodshed, and merits. 'Therefore,' saith God, 'will I divide him\na portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the\nstrong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and was\nnumbered with the transgressors' (Isa 53:12). O holiness, how will\nit shine both in kings and nations, when God doth this!\n\n[The glory of the city.]\n\n'And the city was pure gold.' Having thus given us a discovery of\nthe glory of the wall, he now comes to show us the glory of the\ncity that is within the wall. The city, saith he, is gold, it is\npure gold. This was figured out by the golden candlesticks belonging\nto the tabernacle and temple among the Jews, which candlesticks\ndid then present unto us the worth and use of the church of Christ\n(Exo 25:31-36). 'The seven candlesticks are the seven churches,'\nsaith the Lord Christ himself (Rev 1:20). Now the city here spoken\nof is the church in her highest and greatest glory. Its state was\nalso figured out by the temple itself, whose beams, posts, walls,\ndoors, and the like, were most famously covered over with gold (2\nChron 3:5-7). It was also, though but leanly, represented to us by\nthe golden state of old Jerusalem in the days of Solomon the king,\nin which state gold was so plentiful in the midst thereof, that\nsilver was nothing counted of among the citizens there in those\ndays, but was as common as the stones in the street of the city\n(2 Chron 9:13-22,27).\n\n'And the city was pure gold.' I find by the search of the Scriptures,\nthat there are divers sorts of gold in the world; there is the\ngold of the land of Havilah (Gen 2:11); the gold of Parvaim (2\nChron 3:6); the gold of Ophir (Job 22:24); the gold of Sheba (Psa\n72:15); and the gold of Uphaz (Jer 10:9). Now seeing he saith the\ncity is gold, yet not distinguishing what gold, or which, we may\nsuppose in this place he means gold of all these sorts; and indeed\nit is most agreeable to this text thus to judges. For the church\nat this day shall be made up of the twelve tribes that are scattered\nabroad, and of the Gentile nations both far and near; who, as they\nnow lie, are, for ought I can learn, at as great a distance, and\nas remote from one another, not only in knowledge and affections,\nbut touching the places of their abode, as are the golden mines out\nof which the gold that I spake of before is digged and fetched.\nThus shall gold, the golden saints of God, at this day be gathered\nout of the several golden mines of the world, and be brought to\nKing Solomon, the Son of David, our Lord Jesus, to Jerusalem, with\nwhich he will build him a golden shining city, the joy of all the\nworld.\n\n'And the city was pure gold.' Gold is the choice and chief of all\nmetals, both for worth, colour, and virtue; wherefore, when he\nsaith, 'The city is gold,' you may conceive how rich and shining,\nand virtuous[15] this city will be; the riches of the whole world\nwill be here, the beauty of the whole world will be here, and the\nvirtue of the whole world will be here; I mean spiritual riches,\nbeauty, and health. Wherefore the rest of the world at this day\nwill be but as a crushed bunch of herbs in which is no virtue; or\nlike a furnace full of dross, out of which the gold is taken; or\nlike an old, crazy, and ruinous house, from which is departed all\nhealth and happiness; and indeed much like to this is that saying\nof the prophet, to wit, that at this day the whole circumference of\nthe world that is without the walls and privileges of this city,\nit shall be but like an old ruinous house, in which dwells nothing\nbut cormorants, bitterns, owls, ravens, dragons, satyrs, the\nscreech-owl, the great owl, the vulture, and the like most doleful\nbirds. All their princes shall be nothing, saith the prophet, and\nwhen they call their nobles to the kingdom, none shall be there.\nIn their very palaces shall be thorns, and nettles, and brambles;\nfor all among them that are princes and nobles indeed, will have\npacked up, and be gone for Jerusalem (Isa 34:10-17). So that\nthe world, I say, will be left empty, void, and stripped both of\ntreasure, beauty, and health, at the day of Jerusalem's building\nagain. But O how melancholy a forlorn, beautiless world will this\nbe at this day! It will be only the place of 'dogs, and sorcerers,\nand whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever\nloveth and maketh a lie' (Rev 22:15). It will now be the very\nemblem of hell, as the church at this day will be the emblem of\nheaven. Wherefore, as the church, as I showed you before, will be\nmost fit for her putting on of immortality and incorruption, so the\nworld will at this day be most fit to be swallowed up of the lake\nand bottomless gulf. All things that are good and worth anything\nshall at this day be found only in the city of God. The gold will\nbe in Jerusalem (Zech 14:14; Rev 18).\n\nAgain, In that this city is here called by the name of gold it is\nto show us how great pains, and travel, and charge the Lord Christ\nhath been at to get so great a treasure together. Gold is fetched\nfrom a far country, and that with great pains, charge, and difficulty\n(2 Chron 9:10). The gold wherewith King Solomon made his drinking\nvessels, it cost a three years' journey to obtain it. So the saints\nalso, those golden vessels wherewith is made this golden city, they\ncost Christ a three days' travel in the heart of the earth, even\nsweatingly under the wrath of God, to obtain them, and thus to\nbuild this city with them (Luke 22:44; Mark 12:40).\n\nFurther, In that he saith this city is gold, he would have us to\nconsider what the state of the church was before she came into\nthis happy condition, to wit, an afflicted, tempted, and tried\ncondition. Gold, as it comes from the mine, it cometh commixed with\nits dust and ore; wherefore the goldsmith hath a burning furnace\nwherein he having put it, doth with the fire purge and take away\nthe dross and dust from among the metal itself; into which furnace\nhe puts it once, twice, thrice, and again to the end it may at\nlength be thoroughly cleansed and purified from its dross. Now\nall this befalleth the people of God; they are thrown into the\nburning fiery furnace of affliction and temptation, and there they\nare tried, purged, and purified (Isa 31:9). As the Lord also saith\nby the prophet, 'I will try them as gold is tried, and will refine\nthem as silver is refined' (Zech 13:9). Yea, 'I will melt them and\ntry them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people' (Jer\n9:7).\n\nLastly, When he saith this city is gold, he also thereby insinuates\nhow invincible and unconquerable a spirit the people of God are\npossessed with. Gold is a metal so invincible and unconquerable,\nthat no fire can consume it; it may burn it indeed, and melt it;\nthe dross indeed doth consume and give way to the power of the\nfire, but the gold remains, and holds its ground; yea, it gets\nground even of the furnace and fire itself; for the more it is\nburned and melted, the more it recovers its colour, and the more\nit shakes off its dross and dishonour. Just thus it is with the\npeople of God, and hath been so even from the beginning: the more\nthey oppressed them, the more they grew (Exo 1:12). The truth of\nwhich will be proved with a witness, when God comes to set up this\ncity Jerusalem: his church hath been now for many hundred years\nin the king of Babylon's furnace; all which time she hath most\ngloriously endured and withstood the heat; and at last when the\nfire hath done its worst against her, behold there comes out a\ncity of gold. A type of which was the state of the three children,\nwho though they were cast into the fire bound and in disgrace; yet\ncame out in the liberty and grace of the Son of God (Dan 3:23-26).\nWherefore let her be bold to say, even before she comes out of the\nfire, When I am tried, 'I shall come forth as gold' (Job 23:10).\n\n'And the city was PURE gold.' These words, PURE GOLD, clear up what\nI said already. Pure gold, or gold upon which the fire hath done\nits work. The church in the fire of persecution is like Esther in\nthe perfuming chamber, but making fit for the presence of the king;\nwhich fire, when it hath done its work, then she comes into his\npresence in clothing all of gold (Esth 2:10). 'The king's daughter is\nall glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold.' And again,\n'At thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir' (Psa\n45:9,13). Wherefore he means by pure gold, gold out of the fire,\ngold on which the fire of persecution and temptation hath done\nits full and complete work.\n\n'And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.' By glass, in\nthis place, we are to understand the Word of God, as both James\nand Paul do testify (James 1:22-25; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Cor 13:12). By\nclear glass then, we are to understand the Word in its own nature\nand purity, without the corruptions and traditions of men. Wherefore,\nwhen he saith this golden city was like unto clear glass, it is as\nif he had said she is even with the Word and law of her goldsmith,\nin all her matters. The Word is a golden reed, this city a\ngolden city; and that, a golden city, taken out of the furnace of\naffliction, and therefore like to the golden reed. 'And the city\nwas pure gold, like unto clear glass.'\n\n[The glory of the foundations.]\n\nVer. 19, 20. 'And the foundations of the wall were garnished with\nall manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper;\nthe second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an\nemerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh,\nchrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a\nchrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.'\n\nThus having showed us the glory of the wall, and of the city, he\nnow comes to show us the glory of the foundations. The foundations\nyou know, I told you before, they are the twelve apostles in their\ndoctrine, or the primitive doctrine of the twelve apostles of the\nLamb.\n\nNow the great business in this place will be to show you the\ngarnishing of these foundations, and also the mystery and order\nof the lying of the foundations, for their glory lieth in both.\n\nAs for the garnishing of these foundations, it is, and will be at\nthe day of New Jerusalem, two-fold, and the first is with beautiful\ngifts and grace. Thus were the apostles of old adorned, and thus\nshall their doctrine again be garnished. I know that the doctrine\nof the twelve hath been always accompanied with goodly gifts\nand grace, from the first churches quite down, that is, according\nto the measure of light they appeared in, and according to the\ndispensations of God in the times of antichrist. But yet the glory\nthat this doctrine had in these latter days, I mean since the\napostacy, it was nothing in comparison of the glory and splendour\nthat will be in them in the day when this city is built and complete.\nWherefore you find, that though all along in antichrist's reign,\nthe gospel of grace hath shone, and given light to the saints\nand people of God in all their travels and afflictions; yet the\nshining of it at that day was much opposed and eclipsed by the\nsmoke of the bottomless pit: as he saith, 'There arose a smoke out\nof the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the\nair were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit' (Rev 9:2).\nIn which days, I say, abundance of the light, heat, and operation\nof the gospel was diminished and taken off, so that but little of\nthe power or glory of it hath been either felt or seen from that\ntime to this very day. This is that God spake of by the prophet\nAmos, saying, 'I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will\ndarken the earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feasts into\nmourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring\nup sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I\nwill make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof\nas a bitter day.' All which he explaineth in the next words, for\n'Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a\nfamine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,\nbut of hearing the words of the Lord; and they shall wander from\nsea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run\nto and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it'\n(Amos 8:9-12). In those days Eli's sons were become varlets (1\nSam 2:12-15). Indeed there was here and there a little child, like\nSamuel in his minority, that now and then would speak most goodly\nthings. But 'the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there\nwas no open vision' (1 Sam 3:1). This is that which David in the\nSpirit of prophecy complaineth of, saying, 'They know not, neither\nwill they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations\nof the earth are out of course' (Psa 82:5). Thus in the days of\nthe eclipsing of the glory of these foundations. But now, behold,\nthey recover their light, and put on, as of old, their former\nglory, and are again garnished as in the former days. Now will\nall the doctrines of the gospel spangle and sparkle; out of every\ntext will the ministers of God make to issue exceedingly most\nprecious and heavenly fire; for these stones are indeed the stones\nof fire (Eze 28:16). And in them is contained that which would set\nthe whole world on a flame with love and delight in the things\nof God and another world, had but men the spirit of wisdom, and\nthe authority of God in their ministry, as the apostles and the\nprimitive Christians had. Well this doctrine of the twelve shall\nbe again adorned with gifts and graces as in the days of old: by\nwhich it shall also be made to shine, and to cast forth its golden\nrays before the nations to their salvation. Behold, saith God, I\nwill lay thy stones with fair colours, that is, thy apostolical\ndoctrines shall again be garnished as at the first (Isa 54:11).\nTruth shall appear in its old and mature colours, and as such\nshall be embraced, and lived and delighted in, both by Jews and\nGentiles, as I have showed.\n\nBut secondly, The twelve foundations that here you read of, they\nare the same with those twelve stones that long before were set\nin the breastplate of judgment, in which were engraven the names\nof the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, the names of\nwhich tribes did comprehend the whole body of the house of their\nfathers (Exo 28:16-21,29; 39:14). Now then, seeing these twelve\nare the same with those on the breastplate of judgment; and seeing\nalso, that those on the breastplate did comprehend the whole of\nthe twelve tribes, I conclude that for these foundations to be\ngarnished with all manner of precious stones, it is as much as to\nsay, they shall be garnished with abundance of converts; multitudes,\nand that of all sorts, both of Jews and Gentiles, Moors, Tartars,\nTurks, and those in the utmost parts of the world, shall now be\nentangled with the light and truth, with the glory and goodness\nof the doctrine of the twelve. And I the rather take it thus, 1.\nBecause, as the foundations themselves are said to be precious\nstones; so also the saints in general, they go under the same\nnames too. As Jeremiah saith, the precious stones of the sanctuary\nare the precious sons of Zion (Lam 4:1-3). As Peter also saith,\nin alluding to the precious stones of the temple; the saints are\nlively, or living precious stones, built up a spiritual house,\n&c. (1 Peter 2:5). And the foundations of the wall were garnished\nwith all manner of precious stones (1 Chron 29:2). That is, the\ndoctrine of the twelve was garnished with all manner of precious\nsouls; that is, converted by it, by which they become a glory\nand a garnishing to it. 2. I take it to be the conversion of the\nprecious ones of God; because that thus to understand it, is most\nlike the phrase of the apostle Paul himself, saying, 'What is\nour hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the\npresence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our\nglory and joy' (1 Thess 2:19,20). Mark, in the text he saith, The\nfoundations were garnished with all manner of precious stones,\nand here those precious stones, Paul accounts to be those that\nare converted by the Word: for what is our hope, or joy, or crown?\nare not even ye that have been converted by us? Ye are our joy,\nye are our crown, ye are our glory; it is with you that we shall\nbe crowned, adorned, and garnished in the presence of our Lord\nJesus. Mark, John saith, They are garnished, Paul saith, they are\ncrowned; John saith, they are garnished with precious stones, and\nPaul saith, they are crowned with the conversion of sinners. Thus\ntherefore as God will lay these stones with fair colours, so also\nhe will lay these foundations with sapphires (Isa 54:11). That is,\nas he will beautify the doctrine of the twelve with its former\nglory, sweetness, and authority; so he will crown and garnish it\nwith the conversion of many sinners. The elect are the jewels of\nGod, and this is the day of his binding them up, even then when\nthe antichrist falls, and the gospel breaks out in its primitive\nglory (Mal 3:16-18).\n\n'And the foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner\nof precious stones.' In these words, there are yet two things\nconsiderable.\n\nFirst Consideration. That all who go to the adorning of these\nfoundations, they must be precious stones, not a common stone\nshall here be owned. And indeed what should pebbles do among the\npearls and the diamonds of New Jerusalem; or the stones of blackness\nand emptiness, among the saints of light (Job 28:3). I tell you,\nthat those which God doth reckon the adorning-stones, they are all\nand every one, precious stone; they must be all lively, glistering,\nand curious stones, though stones of divers colours (1 Peter 2:5;\n1 Chron 29:2). Antichrist counts anything sufficient enough to\ngarnish his apostles with, even the empty stones of confusion,\nthe sinners that have no more grace in their souls then there is\nsap in a post that hath been this twenty years without either sap\nor water (Isa 34:11). But God will not count such for the beauty\nof his word, nor for the garnishing and beautifying of the doctrine\nof the twelve, they are garnished with PRECIOUS STONES.\n\nSecond Consideration. As he saith the foundations are garnished\nwith precious stones only, so he saith it is with ALL MANNER of\nprecious stones: by which he would have us understand that all\nsaints have not the same degree either of precious grace or gifts\nand virtue in them. There are some that excel and differ from\nthe rest, even as one star differeth from another in glory (1 Cor\n14:12). Some saints, as they have both more grace and also gifts\nthan others; so too they are more laborious and painful in the work\nof God than their fellows, and therefore he saith, ALL MANNER of\nprecious stones (Pro 31:29; 1 Cor 15:10,41).\n\n[The Foundations, what they are, with their order of placing.]\n\nVer. 20. 'The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the\nthird, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx;\nthe sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite'; &c. Thus having showed\nyou the garnishing and beautifying of the twelve foundations, he\nnow comes to discover the foundations themselves, with reference\nto their order of placing and lying.\n\n[The First Foundation.] Touching which order, he saith the first\nand bottom foundation is a jasper.\n\nI have hitherto said that this jasper in both the two afore-mentioned\nplaces, both as to the light of this city, and also of the wall,\nit was Jesus Christ: Christ illuminating, and Christ defending.\nBut here the jasper is said to be one of the twelve foundations,\neven one of those foundations in which are writ the names of the\ntwelve apostles of the Lamb, which one would think did put this\njasper now into another state, even to be a representation of one\nof the twelve apostles, and not of the Lord and Saviour Jesus\nChrist himself. To which I shall yet say, that the jasper here in\nthe order of the foundations, is to be understood of Christ, as\nwell as in the other two places in this discourse; I say it is\nyet to be understood of representing the Lord Jesus, though it also\ndoth bear the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And\nin this very thing there is an infolding mystery wrapped up and\ninclosed. For,\n\nFirst. In that the name of an apostle is writ in this stone, and\nyet that this jasper should represent Christ, it showeth unto us\nthe agreement that is between the doctrine of the apostles and\nChrist himself, to wit, that they are one and the very same; and\nhence it is that the apostle saith, 'We preach Christ crucified'\n(1 Cor 1:23,24). Christ in all his benefits is the very marrow,\nlife, and sum of all their teaching. 'Other foundation can no\nman lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ' (1 Cor 3:11).\nWherefore the doctrine of the apostles being Christ itself, no\nmarvel though the name of an apostle be writ upon this jasper; and\nagain, no marvel though this jasper go yet under that name that\nrepresents him.\n\nSecond. In that it is said the names of the twelve are in these\ntwelve foundations, and yet that the first of them should be the\njasper, Christ; it argueth also, that whosoever receiveth the\ndoctrine of the twelve, they must needs with that receive the Lord\nChrist himself. Receive the doctrine of the gospel, as it is held\nforth by the twelve in the word, and thou canst not miss of the\nLord Jesus Christ himself; he will be found in the bottom of their\ndoctrine. Ye 'are built upon the foundation of the apostles and\nprophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone' (Eph\n1:19,20).\n\nThird. In that he saith in these twelve stones are the names of\nthe twelve apostles, and yet that the first should be the jasper,\nChrist; it argueth also that wherever the doctrine of the twelve\nis preached, there is therewith the presence of Christ: the presence\nof his Spirit to teach and enlighten the ignorant and blind hearts\nof the unconverted; the presence also of his power to overcome\nthem, and to make them fall under the glory and truth of his heavenly\nword. 'Lo,' saith he, 'I am with you alway, even unto the end of\nthe world.' 'And they went forth and preached everywhere the Lord\nworking with them, and confirming the word with signs following'\n(Matt 28:20; Mark 16:20).\n\nFourth. In that he saith the names of the twelve are in\nthe foundations, and yet that Christ should be one of the twelve\nhimself; it showeth to us the union that is between Christ and his\nholy people. Mark in the twelve foundations are placed all, even\nall manner of precious stones. Again, in the twelve is placed the\njasper, Christ; by which we may see the nearness that is between\nChrist and his whole body. 'I in them, and thou in me,' saith\nChrist, 'that they may be made perfect in one' (John 17:23). Christ\nand his saints make but one temple, one man; being but one flesh,\none nature, &c. (1 Cor 12:12).\n\nFifth. In that this jasper is said to be one of the foundations, and\nthat too the first and undermost; he showeth farther, that Christ\nis the foundation of them before God, that are the foundation of\nhim before men. The twelve do bear up Christ before the world, as\nthe twelve brazen oxen did hold up the molten sea in the temple (1\nKings 7:25). And Christ doth bear up the twelve before his Father,\nas the high priests did carry the twelve stones on their breastplate\nof judgment, when they went to make an atonement for the sins of\nthe people, into the holiest (Exo 28:29).\n\nSixth. It showed us further, that though the apostles shall\nbe adorned with the conversion of those that they shall win to\nthe Lord Christ; yet they will never be able to stand under that\nglory and honour unless they are supported and upheld by Christ,\nas their foundation. Sirs, as Christ is the strength of his people\nin their work for him in this world, so he must be their strength\nby which they must stand under the reward they shall have for\ntheir labour when this world is ended. And hence it is, that the\nprophet saith, 'They shall hang upon him all the glory of his\nFather's house, the offspring and the issue; all vessels of small\nquantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of\nflagons' (Is 22:24), and again, 'He shall build the temple of the\nLord, and he shall bear the glory' (Zech 6:13). He shall bear the\nglory of our salvation from sin, preservation in the midst of all\ntemptations, and of our going to glory; also he shall bear the\nglory of our labour in the gospel, of our gifts and abilities,\nof making our labour and work effectual to the saving of sinners,\n'that in all things he might have the pre-eminence' (Col 1:18).\n\nSeventh. In that the foundations are twelve, and Christ the\nundermost of them; it signifieth, that all that are converted by\nthe twelve, as they shall be for the garnishing of the twelve,\nso also both the twelve, with all that they are garnished with,\nshall be for garnishing of Christ. We shall stick like perarls in\nthe crowns of the twelve apostles, and they again with all their\nglory shall stick in the crown of Christ. And hence it is that\nyou find the four and twenty elders, which four and twenty do,\nas I conceive, hold for the twelve, both in the first and second\nJerusalem. I say, hence it is that you find them take their crowns\nfrom off their heads, and cat them down before the throne of God\nand of the Lamb, crying, 'Blessing, and honour, and glory and\npower be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb\nfor ever and ever' (Rev 4:9-11; 5:11-14).\n\nEighth. One thing more of this goodly jasper, and then to the\nrest; which thing is this, that jasper that here you find to be\nthe first in the twelve foundations, even that jasper you find to\nbe the last of all among the stones in the breastplate of judgment\n(Exo 28:20). From whence you may note, 1. That Christ, as he is\nto be the author, or first of our faith, so also he is to be the\nfinisher, or last of our faith (Heb 12:2). 2. That as he is to be\nthe captain and leader of his people, so he is to be the rereward\nand bringer up of his people (Heb 2:10; Isa 52:12). He is to go\nbefore them to lead them the way; and to come behind them to bring\nthem all up (Isa 58:8; Exo 14:19). 3. Again, forasmuch as he is\nsaid to be last before he is first; that is, last in Exodus, and\nafter that, first in the Revelation, it may be to show us, that Christ\nwas first to be least, lowest, and last, and then to be greatest,\nhighest, and first. He first humbled himself to the death, even\nto the shameful death of the cross; and then was by God his Father\nexalted and placed above every name; as he also himself doth\nwitness, saying, 'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,\nand to enter into his glory?' (Luke 24:26; Phil 2:6-11).\n\n[The other foundations.] 'The first foundation was jasper; the\nsecond, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;\nthe fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite;\nthe eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz,' &c. Touching the jasper\nyou see what I have said. Now all I have to say to the rest of\nthem, it is in general these three things.\n\nFirst, In that the foundations are all and every one of them\nprecious stones, it signifieth that all the doctrines of the New\nJerusalem will be only the precious doctrine of the twelve apostles,\nnot common stuff, not raked out of the dunghills and muck-heaps of\nthis world, and from among the toys of antichrist, but spiritual,\nheavenly, and glorious. He that hath his word shall then speak it\nfaithfully, for 'what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord'\n(Jer 23:28,32).\n\nSecond, In that they are called after the names of precious stones,\nit signifieth also that at that day none shall be used or put into\nthe ministry but these that have received spiritual and heavenly\ngifts from above. It is not every babbling fellow, not those that\nlook for their abilities from the rudiments of the world, that\nthen shall be of any value or account. He must be a costly stone,\na stone about which the Lord Jesus hath bestowed the cost of\nhis heavenly abilities, even he whom the Lord Jesus shall appear\nunto for that very purpose, to make him a minister. HE shall be a\nminister, and none else at that day. The other shall be ashamed every\none of his vision; yea, and shall in those days be so contemptible,\nthat their father and their mother shall reprove them, and count\nthem liars; yea, and shall be ready to run them through while they\nare prophesying in their rough garments to deceive (Zech 13:3-5).\n\nThird, In that these precious stones are not all of one and the\nsame nature, but every one of them several, and diverse one from\nanother; it argueth that the gifts of the apostles, and so of\nthe ministers of the New Jerusalem, shall be differing one from\nanother in glory and operation; yet mark, as in these stones, so\nin every one of them shall be perfect glory, according to the nature\nof God's working by his Spirit; as the nature of the jasper is\nperfect in his kind, and the nature of the sapphire is perfect in\nhis. These stones, some of them are of greater light and clearness\nthan others; and so some of the apostles are chiefest (2 Cor 11:5).\nSome of these stones, again, they are of a more fiery and burning\ncolour than others, they being bright also, but of a more mild\nbrightness. Therefore some of the ministry are called the sons\nof thunder, when others are styled by the name of the sons of\nconsolation (Mark 3:17; Acts 4:36). The gifts are differing, being\ndiverse, their administrations are differing, and the operations\nof them also are differing, though all those things are from that\none and the self-same Spirit, working in every one severally as he\npleases (Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:4-6). All these things will spangle\nin the New Jerusalem, and carry their full breadth and sway as in\nthe days of old.\n\nTo conclude this, in that he here saith, that the foundations\nof the wall are these twelve stones, he doth it to show that now\nalso the former ministration that was in the apostles' days will\nbe the same and in full force again. For their gifts of knowledge,\njudgment, and authority, they are such as have to this day lain\nburied, as it were with the apostles themselves. But now they shall\nshow themselves again, even these foundation-stones, stones that\nare great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits\n(1 Kings 7:10). Thus much of the glory of the foundations.\n\n[The glory of the gates.]\n\nVer. 21. 'And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several\ngate was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold,\nas it were transparent glass.' Having thus showed us the glory\nof this city, wall, and foundations, he now comes to show us the\nglory of the gates and of the street of the city.\n\n'And the twelve gates are twelve pearls.' The gates, I told you\nbefore, they signify Christ, both as he is the way to communion\nwith the God of this city, and with the inhabitants thereof, that\nso they may have a share in the privileges of the same. I told\nyou also then, that though he tells us exactly of the measure both\nof city and wall, yet he tells us nothing of the measure of these\ntwelve gates and goings in thereat, and the reason is, because\nChrist, as he is the way to grace, he is beyond all measure both\nas to fulness and freeness (Eph 3:8). And now again he puts us to\nthe same plunge with the unsearchable riches of the Lord Christ;\nfor who can count the worth of pearl as big as the gates of a city?\nAs, indeed, when Christ himself doth speak of the parable of the\npearl in the field, he only telleth us that there is such a one,\nbut never valueth the worth thereof, only he saith, a pearl of\ngreat price, and so leaveth it (Matt 13:35,36). Now, when he saith\nthat the gates are pearls, he thereby insinuates several things.\nAs,\n\nFirst. To show us how rich a treasure Christ Jesus our Lord is,\nand will be to all those that by him shall enter in through the\ngates into this city, 'riches and honour are with me,' saith he,\neven 'durable riches and righteousness. My fruit [or the fruit of\nentering in by me] is better than gold, and my revenue than choice\nsilver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the\npaths of judgment; that I may cause those that love me to inherit\nsubstance, and I will fill their treasures' (Pro 8:18-21; Eph\n3:8).\n\nChrist is rich indeed, both in his blood, resurrection, intercession,\nand all his offices, together with his relations and all his\nbenefits; all which he bestoweth upon every one that receiveth\nhim, and maketh them unspeakably wealthy.\n\nSecond. The pearl, as it is rich, and so worth much, so again it\nis beautiful and amiable, even to take the eyes of all beholders.\nIt hath, I say, a very sweet and sparkling light and glory in\nit, enough to take the eye and affect the heart of all those that\nlook upon it. And thus is Christ to all that come to him, and by\nhim to the Father, &c. 'My beloved,' saith she, 'is white and ruddy,\nthe chiefest among ten thousand.' 'His mouth is most sweet, yea,\nhe is altogether lovely' (Cant 5:10,16).\n\nThe mother of harlots had some knowledge of the beauty and glory of\nthis stone, and knew that it had a very taking and drawing glory\nin it, and therefore she gets it for some time to adorn herself\nwithal; she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearls\n(Eze 16:17), and was therefore called 'the well-favoured harlot'\n(Nahum 3:4; Rev 18:4). By which means she hath drawn into her\nlewdness the kings and kingdom of the world; who have in such sort\nbeen entangled with her beauty, and with her fornication, that\nthey have been adulterated from God and their own salvation. For\nindeed she used this pearl but for to get them to drink of her\nfornication, that they might drink and spew, and fall and never\nrise more. But now when he saith, the gates are pearl, it is as\nif he had said, this woman is stript of her beauty and delicate\nornaments; the pearl is taken from her, and is set in its right\nplace, even to be for the gates of Jerusalem (Rev 18:12,22,23).\nWherefore it is to be expected, that many should be taken with the\nway of entrance into this beloved city in the day that she shall\nbe set up and appear in her heavenly beauty (Pro 8:35; 3:35). The\nglory of that city must needs be great whose wall is jasper and\ngates are pearl (1 Cor 2:9; John 17:24).\n\n'And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.' Not pearls and other\nprecious stones commixed, but pearl only. To signify that Christ\nonly can let in souls into this city, that they may partake of the\ngoodness and privileges thereof. It is not he and saints together,\nneither is it all the saints and angels in heaven without him, he\nalone 'hath the key of David, and that openeth, and no man shutteth;\nand that shutteth, and no man openeth' (Rev 3:7; 22:12).\n\nSecondly, As he saith, the several gates are each of them pearls, so\nhe saith that every several gate was of one pearl, of one entire\npearl. By which he would have us to understand also, that as none\ncan enter in but by Christ, so none can enter in but by whole\nChrist. Christ must be helpful to thee every way, or he will be\nhelpful to thee no way; thou must enter in by every whit of Christ,\nor thou shalt enter in by never a whit of him. Wherefore look not\nto have him thy Saviour, if thou take him not for king and prophet;\nnay, thou shalt not have him in any one, if thou dost not take him\nin every one of these. Wherefore the prophet saith, 'He shall build\nthe temple of the Lord [that is, by his prophetical office]--and\nshall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon\nhis throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both'\n(Zech 6:13).\n\n[The glory of the street.]\n\n'And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent\nglass.' In these words there are four things to be enquired into.\nFirst. What this street is? Second. Why he saith not streets, but\nstreet, as of one? Third. Why this street is called by the term of\npure gold? Fourth. And why it should look like transparent glass.\nFor the\n\nFirst, A street ordinarily is the place of common concourse, and\nthe place of continual open salutation, and taking acquaintance one\nof another; and as touching this street, we are also to understand\nit of the open and common place or way of God's worship, in which\nsaints salute each other and acquaint themselves together; also\nhere the world are converted, saints built up and edified, &c.\n'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets,'\nsaith Solomon; 'she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the\nopenings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words' (Pro\n1:20,21). That is, in the public and righteous ordinances of the\nLord Jesus, which he hat ordained in his church, for men to travel\nand trade in,[16] for the good and wholesome merchandize of heaven,\nas the men of this world do for the things thereof in the streets\nand open places of their cities and places of privilege (Pro 8:1-3;\n9:1-3).\n\nThus it was in the figure when the city Jerusalem was built after\nthe captivity, as ours shall be at and after the overthrow and\ndownfall of antichrist, for then it is said that the people, to\nhear the law, were gathered together in the street, even in the\nwater street; there they heard the sense given, and there they were\nconvinced of their wickedness; also thee they received the knowledge\nof God's goodness to them, and there they received power to eat\nthe fat and drink the sweet, to eat and drink and be merry, and\nto cast away sadness and fear (Neh 8). This, by way of allegory,\nis called the way for the wayfaring men, even the way of holiness,\nover which the unclean shall not in anywise pass. The way in which\nthey learn to know God and themselves, and the way of newness of\nlife, in which every one walks that entereth in by the gates of New\nJerusalem. And it is most suitable to the matter that went before\nto understand the street to be the way of God, the way of holiness\nand newness of life; because as it is natural for the stranger, so\nsoon as ever he is entered the gates of a city, to have his feet\nin the streets of the city, so it is natural for the sinner, so soon\nas ever he is entered into the church by Christ, to have his feet\ntreading in the way and paths of holiness. Wherefore it is usual\nin the Holy Scripture to call the transformation of the sinner\nfrom Satan to God a holy way, and also to admonish him that is so\ntransformed to walk in that way, saying, Walk in the faith, love,\nspirit, and newness of life, and walk in the truth, ways, statutes,\nand judgments of God (Psa 86:11; 143:8; Eze 11:20; 37:24; Gal 5:25;\nRom 4:12).\n\nHe that entereth not by these gates into the city, he cannot walk\nin newness of life; but he that entered in by them, he cannot but\nwalk in newness of life. The next thing then that a man passeth\ninto when he is entered into the New Jerusalem, is to walk in the\nSTREET thereof, the way of holiness, even the way in which men\nlearn to fear God, and to believe in and love the Lord Jesus, &c.\n(Eph 5:1,2; 2 John 4; Rom 6:4).\n\nSecond. Now this street or way of holiness, it is on purpose called\nnot many, but one, to show us the perfection of light, grace,\nfaith, and spiritual comfort, that the inhabitants of this city\nshall then enjoy. Daniel also calleth it one street, to signify\nthe same thing (Dan 9:25). Wherefore from hence I gather, that\nthen all saints shall walk-as before I have made appear-even in\none street, in one way, and in one light. It is antichrist that\nhath brought in all those crossings, bye-lanes, and odd nooks,\nthat to this day many an honest heart doth greatly lose itself in;\nbut at this day they shall be otherwise minded, that is, made all\nto savour one thing, and to walk one way, not biting and devouring\neach other as now. And indeed there is all reason it should be\nthus, for the street itself is but one. There is but ONE God, ONE\nLord Jesus, ONE Spirit, ONE faith, ONE baptism, even as we are\nalso called in ONE hope of our calling (Eph 4:5,6; Acts 2:27,32,33;\nPhil 1:27; Rom 15:6). Now, therefore, when saints have the rubbish\nof antichristian darkness and trumpery removed, then they shall\nhave, as they also had of old, but one heart, one soul, one judgment,\none mind, and shall with one heart and mouth glorify God. The which\nalso shall be prayed for of all the saints, even of all that have\nreceived the pure language before these things come to pass. They\nshall 'call upon the name of the Lord' with One lip, 'to serve him\nwith One consent' (Zeph 3:9). O! the heavenly spiritual harmony\nthat will be in the city of God in those days, when the trumpeters\nand singers shall be as one, to make one sound, then the house\nshall be filled with a cloud' (2 Chron 5:13).[17]\n\nThird. When he saith that the street of the city was pure gold, he\nalludes to the floor in Solomon's temple, which was overlaid with\ngold (1 Kings 6:30). He alludes to Solomon's chariot also, whose\nbottom was paved with love, and overlaid with gold (Can 3:10). By\nthe floor of the temple, we are to understand the way of holiness;\nand by the chariot of Solomon, the triumphant glory of that way.\nAgain, in that he saith this street is gold, he would have us\nto understand the worth and treasure that is laid up in the ways\nof God, and of a truly gracious heart. First for the worth and\ntreasure that is laid up in the ways of God. They beget light (Psa\n119:130), they change the heart, they lead from death, the devil,\nand hell, to life, God, and the kingdom of heaven (Psa 119:9; Pro\n2). In them God walks, and those that walk there also are sure to\nmeet with him (Isa 64:5). O this way, it is the way which 'no fowl\nknoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen'; 'It cannot\nbe gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price\nthereof.--The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange\nof it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be\nmade of coral or of pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies'\n(Job 28:7,15-18,28). All the ways of God they are pleasantness,\nand all his paths are peace, and ought to be preferred before our\nnecessary food (Pro 3:17).\n\nAgain, as the ways of God are thus rich, and so far above the gold\nand rubies of the world, so also is that sanctified and gracious\nheart, without which no man can walk in this golden street. It\nis not every clown with his clumping dirty shoes that is admitted\ninto kings' privy-chambers and private palaces; neither doth, or\nwill God, at the day of New Jerusalem, suffer any to trace about this\ngolden street, but such as have golden feet, and that beautified\nwith goodly shoes. For as for this street, all that walk in it,\nthey must be golden men, with golden hearts, and with graces that\nare 'much more precious than of gold that perisheth' (Cant 7:1;\n1 Peter 1:7; Rev 3:18).\n\nFurther, in that he saith this street is gold, 'pure gold,' he\ngiveth us to understand also what great delight and pleasure the\nLord's people will take in his ways and ordinances in that day.\nThere will not then be that backwardness to do good, and to receive\nGod, as there is in these more dry and empty days of the gospel.\nAs gold is pleasing to the covetous man and worldling, so shall the\nways of God be to the saints and godly at that day. Now we have\nstrong corruptions and weak grace, but then we shall have strong\ngrace and weak withered corruptions. You that are spiritual, you\nknow what an high and goodly lifting up of heart one small gale of\nthe good Spirit of God will make in your souls, how it will make\nyour lusts to languish, and your souls to love, and take pleasure\nin the Lord that saves you. You know, I say, what a flame of love,\nand bowels, and compassion, and self-denial, and endeared affection\nto God and all saints, it will beget in the soul. O! it is good\nto be here, saith the gracious heart. Well, and so thou shalt be\nalways, if thou live to see New Jerusalem settled in her own place\n(Isa 65:17-25).\n\nFourth. 'And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were\ntransparent glass.' Mark, a street of gold like glass, a street\nof gold, as it were transparent glass. By glass here, as also in\nverse 18, we are to understand the Word (James 1:23-25). Wherefore,\nwhen he saith the street, the golden street, was like unto glass,\nhe means, that the walking and carriage of the saints at this\nday shall be like unto, or according to, the Word, the life of the\nsaints answering the life of the Word and rule of the Lord Christ.\n\nAgain, in that he doth add to glass the word transparent, he would\nhave us to understand thereby these two things.\n\n1. That the walking and ways of holiness of saints shall be more\nin the power and spirit of the Word, than all along in the reign\nof Antichrist they have been. For transparent glass, it is the most\nclear and excellent glass, and goeth as far beyond other sorts of\nglass, as he that walks in the spirit and power of the commandment\ngoes beyond him that only walks in the letter and outward word\nthereof. Alas, the churches of Christ, at their firs assembling,\nwill be like the coming together of Ezekiel's bones, clothed much\nwith flesh and sinews, but greatly void of spirit and life (Eze\n37:7,8). Wherefore the spirit, power, holiness, and majesty that\nnow will appear in the church, it will greatly transcend and go\nbeyond the spirit, power, and holiness that hath accompanied her\nin former days. Then shall the sun be ashamed, and the moon confounded,\nwhen the Lord shall reign in Mount Zion, &c. (Isa 24:23). Then\nshall the sun be ashamed, that is, then shall that little light\nand understanding of the Word, that hath been in the church in\nthe days when a third part of the glory of the gospel was hid by\nthe smoke of the pit, be, as it were, laid aside and be useless\n(Rev 8:12; 9:2). Every saint shall be under the light of a sun\nthat shines seven-fold brighter, even as the light of seven days.\nWe see it is so in some measure at this day; what light, and with\nwhat clearness do the saints in this day see the things pertaining\nto the kingdom of God, beyond what the holy and goodly martyrs and\nsaints did in the days that were before us; Huss, Bilney, Ridley,\nHooper, Cranmer, with their brethren, if they were now in the world,\nwould cry out and say, Our light and knowledge of the word of the\nTestament of Christ was much inferior to the light that at this\nday is broken forth, and that will yet daily, in despite of men\nand devils, display its rays and beams amongst the sons of men![18]\nWhen the children of Israel were to depart the land of Egypt, the\nLord made known himself to them otherwise than ever he made known\nhimself either to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, their fathers (Exo 6:3).\nThe book also, at the recovering the church from under Antichrist,\nis to be unlocked and unsealed gradually, first one seal and\nafterwards another, and last of all the seventh, before which time\nthe book will never quite be opened (Rev 5; 6). According to that\nof the angel, 'Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and\nsealed till the time of the end' (Dan 12:9). In which time (which\nis the time of New Jerusalem) they shall be opened, and men shall\nconsider it perfectly (Jer 30:24; 23:20). Wherefore,\n\n2. It must needs be that the church return to her old and primitive\nlove. For what is the cause of the want of love to Christ and one\nanother now, but our want of light in the things, mysteries, and\nprivileges of the glorious gospel of the Son of God? Wherefore\nthis being come, then love will reign, and have her perfect work\namong the godly. Love is the very quintessence of all the graces of\nthe gospel, and is as transparent to them; 'the greatest of these\nis charity' (1 Cor 13:13). It is the 'fulfilling of the law,' 'the\nbond of perfectness,' and the most 'excellent way' (1 Cor 12:31;\nRom 13:10; 1 Cor 16:14; Col 3:14). Wherefore the Holy Ghost doth\nmean, by this word transparent glass, that the height of light, and\nthe height of love, will be found in this city; all their things\nshall be done without confused smoke and darkness, and also without\nspiritual pride and desire of vain-glory: then shall they indeed\ndo all their things in charity, and in the feeling bowels and\nfellowship of the gospel. 'Then shall the offering of Judah and\nJerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and\nas in former years' (Mal 3:4).\n\nAlas! though now through grace the saints of God have attained to\nmore light and knowledge in the mysteries of the kingdom of God\nthan heretofore they had, yet their light is far inferior to that\nwhich will be when this city is built. Our spiritual union and\nfellowship in the very bowels of the grace and gospel of the Lord\nJesus Christ also is yet greatly defective. It is said that 'no\nman was able to enter into the temple' of God, 'till the seven\nplagues of the seven angels were fulfilled' (Rev 15:8). But when\nthe seven last plagues are spent, and when all the adversaries of\nthe church, which caused terror in the land of the living, shall\nbe laid with the uncircumcised in the pit, then look for golden\ndays, and not till then (Eze 32:18). Then shall this golden street\nbe finished; that is, then shall the light, faith, love, and\nholiness of the gospel be walked in and embraced in a transparent\nand transcending way. 'He shall cause them that come of Jacob to\ntake root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the\nworld with fruit' (Isa 27:6).\n\n[The city has no temple.]\n\nVer. 22. 'And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty\nand the Lamb are the temple of it.' These words do, in my present\nlight, point at the end of the days of this Jerusalem here in\nthis world: and in so doing they signify to us, that when she is\nbuilt, she shall stand and continue in this her glorious state\nafore-mentioned even until that glory be swallowed up of that which\ndoth excel. That they do point at the end of her day in this world,\nI do gather from these particulars:-\n\nFirst. Because they are the last words of the description of her\nglory,-that is, these and the words ensuing, which is but one and\nthe same continued speech; and it is easy to conclude that John,\nin this description of this city, doth, from first to last, even\nfrom the first appearing of her as she cometh out of Babylon till\nshe be perfect in glory, give us the relation of it. First, I say,\nshowing us her descending, then her building, and afterward the\nglory of that building; at the end of which also he showeth to us\nwith what glory he will crown this glory, even by swallowing of\nher up with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\n\nSecond. Because in these words he doth absolutely cut off all\nand every whit of her outward and external glory; that is, as to\noutward ordinances and temple-worship, which yet was to be most\nfamous for a long time in this new and goodly city; which he\nverifies in the eleventh chapter of this prophecy, which chapter\nis a summary collecting of the church in her fall and rise under\nAntichrist, which church there in her rise is this city here in\nher glory in this world. He tells us there, I say, that when the\nkingdoms of this world were become the kingdoms of the Lord, and\nof his Christ, that 'then the temple of God was opened in heaven';\nthat is, temple-worship under the gospel recovered into its former\nand primitive state and purity, in which it was before the coming\nin of the man of sin (Rev 11:15-19, compared with 15:8). Which\ntemple he here utterly shutteth out, saying, 'I saw no temple\ntherein'; in the room of which he setteth the presence of the Lord\nJesus, and God his Father, making them to stand and be in the room\nof temple and gospel-worship, in that manner as it is used while\nwe here live in the flesh. 'For the Lord God Almighty and the\nLamb are the temple of it.' It is true, the Lord God Almighty and\nthe Lamb are the temple of this church in her lowest condition,\ntherefore much more when she is brought into the condition that\nshe is in at her rebuilding; but yet, neither in her low estate,\nnor yet in her highest, is it proper to say, that so long as she is\nin this world, God will be a temple to her, in opposition to her\ntemple and gospel-worship, in outward and New Testament administrations.\nWherefore when he saith He 'saw no temple therein,' and that from\nthis reason, because 'the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the\ntemple of it'; he must needs aim at a state to which the church\ncannot attain until her Lord comes. For then will that which is\nperfect be come, and that which is in part be done away (1 Cor\n13:10).\n\nNow that the temple in this place excluded, can signify nothing\nelse but the outward orderly way of God's worship, which the saints\nought with conscience, in faith, to be found in till their Lord\ncomes, consider that our New Testament doth use the word 'temple'\nthree several ways: 1. For the outward order and worship or\ndiscipline of the Gospel (Rev 11:1-3). 2. For the body of Christ,\nwhich is his church, &c. 3. And lastly, For the Lord God Almighty\nand the Lamb, which here are said to be the temple of this city.\n\nNow then, when he saith he saw 'No temple therein,' he cannot\nexclude the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, for they are here\nsaid to be 'the temple of it.' Neither can he shut out the church,\nwhich is the body of Christ, for that is the city itself; yea, and\nthe church shall be God's temple, and God and Christ the temple\nof the church for ever and ever He must therefore by this word 'no\ntemple,' exclude only the outward way of gospel-worship, in which\nthe saints in the times of the New Testament both meet and edify\neach other, and also meet their God, and are blessed and refreshed\nby him. Again, that this outward gospel-worship should be laid\naside while the church is in this world, before her Lord doth come\nto be enjoyed by her, as touching his personal presence; it looks\ntoo like ranting opinions, and contradiction to Scripture, for me\nto believe (1 Cor 11:26). For when he comes, but not till then,\nshall these things be laid aside.\n\nBesides, that which yet confirms me more fully in this opinion,\nis because herein this New Jerusalem doth most exactly answer the\ncity and temple, which was built after the captivity; which city\nand temple being once built, it stood till Christ our Lord did visit\nthem in his own personal coming the first time; as the prophets\nalso said it should. 'The Lord, whom ye seek,' saith one, 'shall\nsuddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,\nwhom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts'\n(Mal 3:1). And again, 'I will shake all nations, and the desire\nof all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory,\nsaith the Lord of Hosts.' Wherefore 'the glory of this latter\nhouse shall be greater than [that] of the former, saith the Lord\nof Hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of\nHosts' (Hagg 2:7,9).\n\nNow observe, that from the time of the building of the second\ntemple to the coming of Christ, the worship of the temple order\nwas to be by all most devoutly and continually observed. But when\nthe Lord Jesus was come, and had established his own more honourable\nand New Testament dispensation, then all the former temple-worship\nfell to the ground, and became, with all the instruments of\nworship that there unto belonged, null and void. Yea, and it was\na derogation to his gospel to offer to uphold that former way\nof worship, after he had by his own personal presence and Spirit\nbrought in that other dispensation. All which, I say, will be\nanswered by our second and New Testament New Jerusalem. For as the\nOld Jerusalem was built after the Jews were come out of literal\nBabylon, so is our New Jerusalem built after our coming out of\nthe antichristian oppression of spiritual Babylon. Again, as that\ncity did after she was built continue and retain her temple-worship,\nuntil the personal appearing of Christ the first time, so New\nJerusalem shall retain and hold her outward New Testament worship\ntill HE comes in person the second time. After all which, as the\nsecond temple was swallowed up of a more heavenly and spiritual\ndispensation by the personal presence of Christ, so shall also\nthe New Jerusalem temple-worship be swallowed up by the glory of\nthe appearing of the person of Christ the second time; as Paul\nsaith, for he speaks in the person of Christ, 'Till I come, give\nattendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,' &c. (1 Tim\n4:13).\n\nThus then, when this holy city doth once again appear upon the\nstage, and in her own situation, and when she hath been showed in\nthe attire of a queen before the face of all nations, and their\nkings; and when she hath by the glory of the light of her New\nTestament temple, gathered, as with a net, the number of God's\nelect; then she is taken into her husband's privy chamber, where\nshe and he alone shall be in that blessed fellowship and communion\nthat shall not again be once eclipsed, or in the least interrupted\nto eternity.\n\nThus have I showed you my present light into this portion of the\nHoly Scripture. If any can give me further, I hope I shall not\nrefuse it. But as yet, methinks this should be the genuine sense\nof this place, and is the very track of John himself. For after\nhe had seen the wall for present safety, the foundations for\ncontinuation, the gates for entrance, and the like, then he comes\nto tell us of the glory of all, and of the street itself at last;\nwhich indeed is the last and end of all the order of God, and to\ncontinue till an end be put to it by mortality's being swallowed\nup of life. As is yet more fully showed you in the next verse of\nthis description.\n\n[The city needs not the light of sun or moon.]\n\nVer. 23. 'And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon,\nto shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb\nis the light thereof.'\n\n'And the city had no need of the sun.' That is, after temple-worship\nis over: this verse is added therefore for further clearing up\nand illustrating of that which he said before. There he tells us\nthis city had 'no temple,' and here he tells us she needed neither\nthe light of the sun or moon. There he said, 'The Lord God Almighty\nand the Lamb are the temple of it'; and here he saith, they are\nthe light thereof. The substance of which, in the language of the\nHoly Ghost, is this: the reason why temple-worship is now gone\nand over, it is because there is now no need in this city of the\nlight of the sun and the moon; and the reason why she hath now no\nneed of them, is because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are\nto it instead of both temple and light. 'For the Lord God Almighty\nand the Lamb are the temple of it.' 'For the glory of God did lighten\nit, and the Lamb is the light thereof.' Whereby we may note, that\nthough the light in which she descended, being the purity of\ntemple-worship, was glorious, yet this city shall, when she is\nonce built, so advance from glory to glory, that at the last she\nshall be more happy without the help of that light, without which\nshe had been for ever unbuilt, than she was by it in the midst of\nthe fulness of it.\n\n'And the city had no need of the sun,' &c. The word sun is in\nScripture taken divers ways; sometimes for the true and natural\nsun in the firmament; sometimes again for persecution, and the\nrage of the enemy, &c. (Josh 10:12; Matt 13:6). But I take 'sun'\nhere not to be any of these, but for the good and pure word of the\ngospel of Christ, unfolded, opened, and explained by the servants of\nChrist; which sun is the same that before you find to be darkened\nby the Antichristian fog and mist, which was darkened, I say,\neven to a third part of it (Rev 8:12; 9:2). This sun, or word of\nthe gospel, Paul saith it is shadowed forth even by that which\nshineth in the firmament of heaven, because as that by its light\nand shining, giveth to those that have eyes, to see the glory\nand excellency of this world, so by the shining and light of the\ngospel is given 'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God\nin the face of Jesus Christ,' and a view of the excellency of\nthe things of the world to come (2 Cor 4:3-6). Now, I say, though\nwhile the church is in this world, and on this side the state of\nglory, she cannot live and flourish without the shining of this\nsun, but would be lifeless and lightless, and without all heat\nand comfort-for it is the entrance of the law that giveth light\nhere, and that lighteneth the eyes, 'making wise the simple' (Psa\n19:7,8; 119:130)-yet at the day of the coming of her Lord in person\nshe shall see far more clearly without the thus shining of the sun\nthan ever she did or could see with and by it. 'And the city had\nno need of the sun.' For when by the light of it the whole body\nof the elect have found out the way to this city, and when they\nhave also by this light accomplished and fulfilled all their work;\nyea, when the Lord himself is come, and doth immediately communicate\nfar more glorious light to this city without it than ever he did\nby it; what need is there then of the light of this sun? for that\nis to be of use but for the time present, even until the whole of\nthe body of the Lord Jesus is come to the perfect measure, even\n'to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' (Eph\n4:10-12). So then, when the body of Christ is in every sense\ncompleted in this life by the light of the sunshine of his holy\ngospel, what need of this sun? And hence it is that the word of\nthe gospel is called 'the word of reconciliation,' 'the word of\nfaith,' and 'the words of this life' (2 Cor 5:19; Rom 10:8; Acts\n5:20). Wherefore, I say, it ceaseth when there is no more to be\nreconciled, and when faith in all is perfected, and when this life\nis put an end unto by the coming in of another. For 'when that\nwhich is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done\naway' (1 Cor 13:8-10).\n\nThe ministers of the gospel are of use so long as there is either\nelect to be converted, or any converted soul to be perfected by that\nmeasure of perfection that God hath appointed on this side glory;\nbut when this work is done, their ministry ceaseth. Wherefore,\nthough like the widow's sons, they are busy to borrow vessels for\nthe oil so long as it is running, and emptying itself out of the\ngreat and principal barrel; yet when it ceaseth, as it will do, when\nthere are no more vessels to be found, then let them sit down as\nthey, and receive of the fruits of their labour, for the reward\nof their work is then only to be enjoyed by them (2 Kings 4:1-6).\n\n'And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine\nin it.' This word moon also, as well as that of the sun, is to be\ntaken divers ways in the Scriptures of truth; sometimes for the\nnatural one, sometimes for the world and persecutors, &c. (Josh\n10:13; Rev 12:1; Psa 121:6). But moon here is to be taken for the\nchurch of God, with reference to her life, conversation, duties,\nand exemplary behaviour, in which she is conversant on this side\nglory; according to that of the Song, 'Who is she that looketh forth\nas the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible\nas an army with banners?' (Cant 6:10). When he saith, then, that\nat this day there shall be here no need of the shining light of\nthe moon, he means that this city at this day, in the state she\nis in when she hath the person of the Lamb in her, then she shall\nhave no need of the growth of Christianity, for they shall be all\nperfect; nor no need of mortification, for there shall be no sin.\nThey shall not need now, as in time past, to exhort and encourage\none another to stick fast to the promise, for they shall be\nswallowed up of life and open vision (2 Cor 5:4). Here shall be no\nneed either of prayer, of repentance, of faith, or of good works,\nas afore. 'And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the\nmoon to shine in it.'\n\nNow, I say, the Holy Ghost is pleased to bring in here the shining\nvirtues of the church under the notion of a shining moon, because,\nas the church herself is compared to the moon, so her virtues are\nas naturally compared to a shining light; as Christ saith, 'Let\nour light so shine' (Matt 5:16); and again, 'Let your loins be\ngirded about, and your lights burning' (Luke 12:35; Phil 2:15).\nFor, indeed, while we are here, that church and congregation of\nthe Lord doth most shine, and most send forth the golden rays and\npleasant beams of Christianity, that is most in the exercise of\nthe afore-mentioned virtues. Take away the moon, and the night\nis doubtful; or though the moon be in the firmament, if she hath\nlost her light, the night is not thereby made more comfortable.\nAnd thus, I say, it is first with the world, where here there is\nno church to shine, or where there is a church that doth not so\nshine that others may see and be lighted. For while the day of\ntime doth last, even the world itself hath need of the shining of\nthe church; but at this day this time will be no longer, because\nthe day of eternity will break, and by that means cause the world\nthat now is, even the world of the ungodly, to cease to have a\nbeing here any longer. Therefore now no need of the moon, or of\nthe light thereof, to shine before that which is not.[19]\n\nSecond. Again, as the church is in her light before men as the moon\nis in her light in the night to the world, so, as I said before,\nthis city which is called also heaven, she, even she, shall have\nno need of these things, for she shall be taken up in open vision,\nand shall be completely delivered from all imperfection; she shall\nnot need now the light of her children to provoke her and to stir\nher up to this or the other act of holiness; all shall be done, all\nshall be complete, the Lord himself is come. Indeed, while Christ\nis absent as touching his person, and while the work of God is not\nyet completely done in the church, there will be need both of the\nlight of sun and moon, but when the work is done, and he come,\nthen these things will be out of use. Thus 'the path of the just\nis as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect\nday' (Pro 4:18).\n\n'For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light\nthereof.' This is rendered as the reason why at this day both the\nlight of the sun and moon are needless; it is because 'the glory\nof God did lighten it,' and because 'the Lamb is the light thereof.'\nNow the glory of God must be understood in this place, not of that\nglory that doth attend the church in this world, for that glory\ndoth attend the church upon the account of her purity of worship,\nof temple-worship, and doth either abide on her, or withdraw itself,\naccording to her exact observing the rule, or declining from it,\nas I have showed you in the beginning of this discourse (see the\nexposition of the 11th verse). But the glory that here you read of,\nit is a glory that supplieth this city without those ordinances;\nyea, therefore, those ordinances, as the temple and the light\nof the sun and moon, do cease because of the glory of this glory\nthat now is come into this city. 'The city had no need of the sun,\nneither of the moon to shine in it,' mark, 'for the glory of God\ndid lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.'\n\nWherefore, I say, this glory that now he speaks of, it is the\nglory that shall possess this city at the end of her glory in this\nworld; wherefore, as saith the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet,\nfrom this day forward, 'The sun shall be no more thy light by\nday, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee;\nbut the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God\nthy glory' (Isa 60:19).\n\n'For the glory of God did lighten it,' &c. Thus it was at the\nfinishing of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and of the temple\nat Jerusalem; both which were figures, in their finishing, of the\nfinishing of the state of the church in this world; and it is said\nof them, that in the day when they in all things were accomplished,\naccording to the fashion that was revealed before concerning their\norder and accomplishment, that then the glory of God so appeared\nupon them, that neither Moses nor Aaron was able to enter in, or\nto stand therein, because of the cloud, and of the glory of the\nLord that at that time filled the house (Exo 40:33,34; 1 Kings\n8:10,11). Thus you see this city descends in one measure of glory,\nand is consummate in another measure of glory. The glory of the\nLord was upon the mount Sinai while the pattern of the tabernacle\nwas giving, but it rested on the tabernacle when the work thereof\nwas finished; to signify, I say, that the glory of God will rest\nin his ordinances, and in his church by them, so long as ordinances\nare in use; but when they are needless, then it will rest in the\nchurch without them, and that more gloriously than ever it therein\ndid rest by them.\n\n'For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light\nthereof.' Mark, though now there shall be no need of temple,\nsun, or moon, yet Christ the Lamb, or the Man who was offered in\nsacrifice for our redemption, shall be of use and benefit; 'for the\nglory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.'\nWherefore, all that we who are the saved shall enjoy of glory and\nsweetness in another world, though we shall not enjoy it from God\nthrough Christ, by and in the ordinances, yet we shall enjoy it\nthrough Christ the Lamb without them; 'for the Lamb is the light\nof it.' by this word Lamb, he would have us understand that when\nwe are in glory, the blood, death, and bloody conquest that the\nman Christ did get over our infernal enemies, will be of eternal\nuse to us; because that benefit of Christ shall not only for ever\nbe the foundation of our eternal felicity, but the burden of our\nsong of glory in all our raptures among the angels (Rev 5:9). It\nwill be the blood, the blood, the redeeming blood of the Lamb.\n'Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that\nsitteth upon the throne, and unto the LAMB for ever and ever' (Rev\n5:13). It is he in whom will be found the seven eyes, the seven\nspirits of God, in whose light we shall see the heights and depths\nof those springs and everlasting foundations and depths of glory\nfor ever; and, indeed, the conceit of the contrary is foolish\n(Zech 3:9; Rev 5:6). Is not Christ the head, and we the members?\nand do not the members receive their whole light, guidance, and\nwisdom from it? Is not he also the price, the ground, and bottom\nof our happiness, both in this world and that which is to come?\nAnd is it possible it should be forgotten, or that, by it, our joy,\nlight, and heaven should not be made the sweeter to all eternity?\nOur soul is now bound up in him, as in a bundle of life (1 Sam\n25:29). And when we come thither, he is still the Christ, our\nlife; and it is by our being where he is that we shall behold his\nglory and our glory, because he is glorified (Col 3:3,4; John\n17:24). 'For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the\nlight thereof.' As he said, 'Ye now therefore have sorrow; but I\nwill see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no\nman taketh from you' (John 16:22).\n\nThus much of this city, her descending, her fashion, her glory,\nand of her wading through glory, from glory to glory.\n\n\n[FOURTH. THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY, THEIR QUALITY, AND NUMEROUSNESS.]\n\nVer. 24. 'And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in\nthe light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory\nand honour into it.' After this long and pleasant description of\nthis holy and new Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost now falleth upon a\nrelation of the people that shall be the inhabitants of this city,\nand of their numerousness and quality.\n\n'And the nations,' &c. The nations of the world, both of the Jews\nand Gentiles.\n\nEvery one knoweth what the nations are, wherefore I need not stay\nupon the explication of that, for it doth in general include the\nmultitude of the sinners of the world (Eph 2:1-3; 1 Cor 6:9-11;\nTitus 3:3). Therefore, when he saith, the nations shall walk in\nthe light of this city, it is as if he had said, that at this day,\nwhen she is here in her tranquility, the sinners and disobedient\namong the sons of men shall by multitudes and whole kingdoms come\nin and close with the church and house of God. These spiders shall\ntake hold with their hands, and be in kings' palaces (Pro 30:28).\n\n'And the nations,' &c. For this word, 'the nations,' is a great\nword, and it comprehendeth much; mark, it doth not say a nation,\nor some nations, neither doth it say few or small nations,\nbut indefinitely, the nations, many nations, strong nations, all\nnations, the nations in general; only he ties them up with this\nlimit, the nations of them that are saved (Isa 52:15; 60:22; 2:2).\nWhich yet is not so much spoken to clip off the multitude that we\nsuppose may then be converted, as to show us their qualifications\nand happiness; as he saith by the prophet in another place, Thy\nchildren shall be all holy, or righteous, 'and great shall be the\npeace of thy children' (Isa 54:13; 60:21). 'And the nations of\nthem which are saved shall walk in the light of it.' Surely the\nHoly Ghost would never have spoken at such a rate as this, if he\nhad not intended to show us that at the day of the setting up of\nthis Jerusalem, a great harvest of sinners shall be gathered by\nthe grace of the gospel. But the truth is, the Scriptures go with\nopen arms towards the latter end of the world, even as if they\nwould grasp and compass about almost all people then upon the face\nof the whole earth with the grace and mercy of God. 'The earth,'\nsaith God, 'shall be full of the knowledge' of the glory 'of\nthe Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14). As\nhe saith, also, for the comfort of the church in another place,\n'Behold, I have grave thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls\nare continually before me. Thy children shall make haste; thy\ndestroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.\nLift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather\nthemselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord,\nthou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament,\nand bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy\ndesolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be\ntoo narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed\nthee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have,\nafter thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The\nplace is too strait for me; give place to me, that I may dwell.\nThen shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these,\nseeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive and\nremoving to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was\nleft alone, these, where had they been?' (Isa 49:16-21). Thus the\nmultitudes of the nations shall at this day be converted to the\nLord, and be made the inhabitants of this Jerusalem; as he saith\nagain, 'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our\nLord and of his Christ' (Rev 11:15). And again, 'The kingdom and\ndominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,\nshall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose\nkingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve\nand obey him' (Dan 7:27).\n\nAnd observe it, these promises are to be fulfilled in the last\ndays, at the time of the pouring forth of the last vial, which is\nthe time of the sounding of the last of the seven trumpets; for\nthen this city shall be built, and Lucifer fallen from heaven; then\nthe prisoners shall be set at liberty, and the people be gathered\ntogether, 'and the kingdoms to serve the Lord' (Isa 2:1,2; 14:4-6;\nPsa 102:20-22; Rev 11:15-17). 'Rejoice, O ye nations, with his\npeople, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will\nrender vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto\nhis land, and to his people' (Deu 32:43). Alas! it is now towards\nthe end of the world, and therefore now all is going, if the Lord\nsteps not in with the riches of his grace. Wherefore now at last,\nbefore all be turned into fire and ashes, behold the Lord casts\nthe net among the multitude of fish, and the abundance of the sea\nshall, without fail, be converted to Jerusalem (Isa 60:5). Though\nSatan and Antichrist have had their day in the world, and by their\noutrage have made fearful havoc of the souls of sinners from time\nto time, yet now at length God will strike in for a share with them,\nand his Son 'shall divide the spoil with the strong' (Isa 53:12).\nWherefore he now sets up this city, puts the glory of heaven upon\nher, provides a new heaven and a new earth for her situation (Isa\n66:22); drives profaneness into the holes and dens of the earth;\ngiveth righteousness authority to reign in the world (2 Peter 3:13);\nand takes off the veil from all faces, that none may hereafter be\nfor ever beguiled by blindness and ignorance (Isa 25:7). Now shall\nthey make merry with the things of God; now shall all eat the fat\nand drink the sweet (1 Kings 4:20; Neh 8:10,12). For 'in this\nmountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of\nfat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of\nmarrow, of wines on the lees well refined' (Isa 25:6).\n\n'And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of\nit.' They 'shall walk in the light of it.' That is, in the light\nthat is in it while it is in its purity in this world, and in\nthe glory of it when it is in its perfection and immortality in\nanother. Whence note by the way, that in the midst of all this\nglory, or while the glorious light of the gospel shall thus shine\nin the world, yet even then there will be some also that will not\nsee and rejoice in the glory hereof. But as for those, whoever\nthey are, they are excluded from a share in the blessed and goodly\nprivileges of this city. 'The nations of them which are SAVED\nshall walk in the light of it.'\n\n'And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into\nit.' By these words are great things held forth. He told us before\nthat the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light\nof it; and here he tells us that even their kings also, the kings\nof the earth, do bring their honour and glory to it. The people\nof the nations they are but like to single pence and halfpence,\nbut their kings like gold angels and twenty-shilling pieces.[20]\nWherefore, when he saith that the kings of the earth do bring\ntheir glory and honour unto it, it argueth that the gospel and the\ngrace of God, when it is displayed in its own nature, and seen in\nits own complexion, even then they that have most of the honour\nand glory of the world will yet stoop their top-gallant[21] unto\nit. 'Because of thy temple which is at Jerusalem, shall kings\nbring presents unto thee' (Psa 68:29; Isa 49:22,23). 'The kings\nof Tarshish, and of the isles, shall bring presents' to thee: 'the\nkings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall\nfall down before him; all nations shall serve him' (Psa 72:10,11).\nThe kings shall see and arise, and 'princes also shall worship\nbecause of the Lord,' &c. (Isa 49:7). The kings shall come to thy\nlight, and princes to the brightness of thy rising (Isa 60:1-5).\n'The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy\nglory' (Isa 62:2). Yea, 'that which had not been told them shall\nthey see, and that which they have not heard shall they consider'\n(Isa 52:15). 'All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord,\nwhen they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the\nways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord' (Psa 138:4,5).\nThus, we see, that though in the first day of the gospel, the poor,\nthe halt, the lame, and the blind are chief in the embracing of\nthe tenders of grace, yet in the latter day thereof God will take\nhold of kings.\n\n'And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into\nit.' INTO IT; that is, to Jerusalem. Wherefore this city must be\nbuilt before they all of them will fall in love with her. Indeed,\nI do conceive that some of them will lay their hand to help forward\nthe work of this city, as did Hiram with Solomon, and Darius,\nCyrus, and Artaxerxes, with Ezra and Nehemiah, at the building and\nrepairing the city, in the letter, in the days of old (2 Chron\n2:11-15; Ezra 1:1-4; 6:1-3; 7:21). But yet, I say, the great\nconquest of the kings will be by the beauty and glory of this city,\nwhen she is built. 'thou shalt arise,' O Lord, 'and have mercy upon\nZion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come. For\nthy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust\nthereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all\nkings thy glory' (Psa 102:13-15). And, indeed, before this city is\nset up, and established in her own place, most of the kings and\ngreat ones of the earth will be found employed and taken up in\nanother work, than to fall in love with Mount Zion, and with the\nhill thereof. They will be found in love with mistress Babylon, the\nmother of harlots, the mistress of witchcrafts, and abominations\nof the earth (Rev 17:2,12-14; 18:3,9). They will, I say, be\ncommitting fornication with her, and will be as the horns upon the\nheads of the beast, to defend the riding lady from the gunshot that\nthe saints continually will be making at her by the force of the\nWord and Spirit of God. They will be shaking the sharp end of their\nweapons against the Son of God, continually labouring to keep him\nout of his throne, and from having that rule in the church, and\nin the world, as becomes him who is the head of the body, and over\nall principality and power. 'These shall make war with the Lamb'\n(Rev 17:14). But, I say, it shall so come about at the last, by\nthe illuminating grace of God, and by the faithful and patient\nenduring of the saints, together with the glory that everywhere\nshall now be abiding on the church and congregation of Jesus,\nthat they shall begin to receive a man's heart, and shall consider\nthings that have not been told them; wherefore at last they shall\nwithdraw themselves from the love of this mistress, and shall\nleave her to scrape for herself in the world, and shall come with\nrepentance and rejoicing to Zion; nay, not only so, but to avenge\nthe quarrel of God, and the vengeance of his temple; and to\nrecompense her also for the delusions and enchantments wherewith\nshe hath entangled them. 'These shall hate her, and they shall make\nher desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with\nfire' (Rev 17:16).\n\nNow, madam, what sayest thou? The kings must come to Jerusalem,\nJezebel. Thy chamber companions will shortly, notwithstanding thy\npainted face, cast thee down headlong out at the windows. Yea, they\nshall tread thee in pieces by the feet of their prancing horses,\nand with the wheels of their jumping chariots (2 Kings 9:30-33).\nThey shall shut up all bowels of compassion towards thee, and shall\nroar upon thee like the sea, and upon thy fat ones like the waves\nthereof (Jer 50:41,42). Yea, when they begin, they will also make\nan end, and will leave thee so harbourless and comfortless, that\nnow there will be found for thee no gladness at all, no, not so\nmuch as one piper to play thee one jig. The delicates that thy soul\nlusted after, thou shalt find them no more at all (Rev 18:12-22).\n'Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency,\nshall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never\nbe inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to\ngeneration; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither\nshall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the\ndesert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful\ncreatures. And owls shall dwell there, and satyrs [that is, the\nhobgoblins, or devils] shall dance there. And the wild beasts\nof the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons\nin their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her\ndays shall not be prolonged' (Isa 13:19-23). Thus wilt thou come\ndown wonderfully. For 'in thee have they set light by father and\nmother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the\nstranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.\nIn thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they\neat upon the mountains, in the midst of thee they commit lewdness'\n(Eze 22:6-10). God hath smitten his hands at thy dishonest gain,\nand all the blood which hath been in the midst of thee; God will\nbe avenged of thee, but will not meet thee as a man (Isa 47:1-3).\nYou 'have cast lots for my people,' saith God: you 'have given a\nboy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.'\nYou have made havoc of my young converts to satisfy your lusts;\ntherefore, 'What have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all\nthe coast of Palestine? Will ye render me a recompence? And if ye\nrecompence me swiftly and speedily, will I return you recompence\nupon your own head' (Joel 3:1-4). I will throw it as dirt in your\nface again. And never talk of what thou wast once, for though\nthou wast full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty, though thou hast\nbeen in Eden, the garden of God, yea, though every precious stone\nfor some time was thy covering, and thou the very anointed cherub\nthat covereth, walking upon the mountain of God, and in the midst\nof the stones of fire, yet because-by reason of the multitude of\nthy merchandize-thou hast sinned, and art filled with violence.\n'Therefore God will cast thee, as profane, out of the mountain of\nGod, and will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of\nthe stones of fire'; yea, he will cast thee to the ground, and lay\nthee before kings, that they may behold thee. And 'all they that\nknow thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt\nbe a terror, and never shalt thou be any more' (Eze 28:12-19).\n'And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest\nthyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of\ngold; though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt\nthou make thyself fair, thy lovers will despise thee, they will\nseek thy life' (Jer 4:30).\n\n'And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and their honour\ninto it.' Mark, they do not only forsake the crimson harlot, neither\ndo they content themselves with eating her flesh and burning her\nwith fire, but they come over, they come over to Jerusalem; they\nare conquered by the grace of Christ and wisdom of the Son of God.\nThey shall make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome\nthem, for he is King of kings and Lord of lords, and those that are\nwith him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Now they shall all\ngive way to the government of the King of kings, the governor of\nthe Jews (Ezra 6:7), and shall with gladness delight to see him\nrule his spouse with his own law, rules, and testament; they shall\nplay the pranks of Jeroboam no longer, in making calves to keep\nthe people from going up to Jerusalem to worship. Now they shall\ncount him also king of nations, as well as king of saints; and he\nshall wear the crowns, and they shall seek to him (Rev 19:12,15;\nJer 10:7; Isa 52:15; 2 Chron 9:23).\n\n[The city secure, the gates always open.]\n\nVer. 25. 'And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for\nthere shall be no night there.'\n\nThis is the effect of what you read before, namely, of the coming\nin of the kings and great ones of the earth to this Jerusalem. For\nwhen the whore is made desolate and naked, and burned with fire,\nand when the kings also that loved her, and that maintained her,\nare come in, and have closed with the glory and beauty of this\ncity, then what need is there to shut the gates? Alas, all the\ninjuries that the kings and great ones of the earth have done to\nthe church and spouse of Christ in these days of the New Testament,\nit hath been through the instigation and witchcraft of this mistress\nof iniquity. 'The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and\nthe glittering spear' (Nahum 3:3,4), against the saints of God,\nby reason of the multitudes of the whoredoms of the well-favoured\nharlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, who selleth nations through\nher whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. Wherefore\nI say, this gentlewoman being laid in her grave, and all her fat\nones gone down to the sides of the pit, these kings will change\ntheir mind, and fall in love with the true and chaste matron, and\nwith Christ her Lord. Now when this is thus, this city must needs\nbe safely inhabited as towns without walls, and as a place near\nto which there is neither thief nor ravenous beast (Isa 2:4; Jer\n33:16; Zech 2:4; 14:11).\n\nPersecutors, while they remain in their spirit of outrage against\nthe church and people of God, they are frequently in the Scripture\ncompared to the venomous dragons, fierce lions, and ravenous wolves\n(Jer 51:34,37). All which at this day shall be driven out of the\nworld, that is, so out, as never to molest the church again, or to\ncause a gate of this city to be shut, through fear, against them;\nas he saith by the prophet, 'In the habitation of dragons where\neach lay, shall be grass, with reeds and rushes' (Isa 35:7). In the\nhabitation of dragons, that is, even in the places of persecutors,\nwhere each lay, shall be food for the flock of Christ. The dragon\nis a venomous beast, and poisoneth all where he lieth! He beats\nthe earth bare, and venoms it, that it will bear no grass, as do\nthe persecutors where they inhabit and lie. But behold, the days\ndo come in which these dragons shall be removed, and the ground\nwhere they lay be made fruitful and flourish, so that even there\nshall be places for the flocks to lie down in. 'In the habitation\nof dragons, where each lay, shall be grass, with reeds and rushes.\nNo lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon;\nbut the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there, and the ransomed of\nthe Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting\njoy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and\nsorrow and sighing shall flee away' (Isa 35:7-10). According to\nthat of Moses, the Lord 'will give peace in the land, and ye shall\nlie down, and none shall make you afraid.' For 'he will rid evil\nbeasts out of the land,' and the sword shall not go through it more\n(Lev 26:6). 'And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,\nand in sure dwellings and in quiet resting-places' (Isa 32:18).\n\n'And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there\nshall be no night there.' This word DAY we may understand two\nways; either for the day of bringing in to fill this city, or for\nthe day of her perfection and fulness. Now if you take it with\nreference to the day in which her converts are coming in, as indeed\nit ought, why then, the gates shall not be shut at all. 'Thy gates\nshall be open continually, they shall not be shut day nor night,\nthat men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that\ntheir kings may be brought' (Isa 60:11).\n\nBut again, this day of grace, and of conversion of sinners, it must\nbe looked upon either as the church is in captivity and persecution,\nor as she is out. Now, as she is in captivity, so her longest day\nis usually accompanied with a black and doubtful night of temptation\nand affliction. Wherefore this day here being spoken of, it is\nthe day of grace that she shall have even when she is absolutely\ndelivered from the rage of the beast, false prophet, and whore.\nWherefore he is not content to say, the gates shall not be shut at\nall by day, but adds withal, 'for there shall be no night there';\nas who should say, I know that commonly in the day of the church's\naffliction she is accompanied with nights as well as days, but\nit shall not be so here; 'Thy sun shall no more go down, neither\nshall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting\nlight, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended' (Isa 60:20).\n\nWherefore John, considering this, doth quite exclude the night, saying,\n'There shall be no night there.' Indeed after this New Jerusalem\nhath had her golden day in this world, I say, just towards the\nending thereof, she will yet once again be beset with raging Gog\nand Magog, which enemies will, after the long safety and tranquility\nof this city, through the instigation of the devil come upon the\nbreadth of the earth, and encamp about this holy city (Eze 28; 29).\nBut behold in the midst of this intention to swallow her up, the\nLord rains fire and brimstone from heaven and destroys them all;\nso that God, I say, though he may bring one only evening upon this\nholy city after her long peace and rest among the sons of men, yet\nhe shall not bring one night upon her, nor cause a gate thereof\nto be shut for ever. The sun shall now stand still in the midst of\nheaven, and this night shall be thus prevented by this marvellous\njudgment of God (Josh 10). As another prophet saith, 'At evening\ntime it shall be light' (Zech 14:7). That is, though her enemies\nwill at last still make, through their enmity, one only attempt\nto swallow up all in everlasting oblivion, yet they themselves\nshall fall down dead upon the mountains of Israel, and be a prey\nto this Jerusalem. Thus there will be only day accompanying the\ninhabitants of this city, 'For there shall be no night there.'\n\n[The glory and honour of the nations brought into it.]\n\nVer. 26. 'And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations\ninto it.' This, as I said before, is to show us how heartily, and\nhow unfeignedly, both the nations and their kings shall now come\nover to New Jerusalem. They come hand in hand, not the people\nwithout their prince, nor the prince without his people, though\nit will, and must be so, in the times of persecution; but now,\ntogether 'they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations to\nit.'\n\nAgain, I told you before that the Jews shall at this day be converted\nto the Christian faith, and shall have a great name and much of\nheaven upon them in this city. For, indeed, they are the first-born,\nthe natural branches, and the like. Now when he saith, they shall\nbring the glory and honour of the nations to it, I cannot think\nthat by this should we understand only, or yet principally, the\noutward pomp and treasure of the world, but that rather by honour\nand glory we are here to understand the heavenly treasure and glory\nthat the saints shall continually pour forth into one another's\nbosoms in this city. In this city, I say, for at this day, as\nI have formerly showed you, there will be found no treasure any\nwhere but at Jerusalem; every saint shall be here, every grace\nshall be here, the precious stones of the sanctuary, the precious\nsons of Zion shall not then, as now, lie scattered, some in the\nworld, and some in mistress Babylon's lap; neither shall any thing\npertaining to the church's privileges be found in her at all for\never. There shall be heard no more at all in her any harpers,\ntrumpeters, pipers, or any other heavenly music in her; neither shall\nthere be any more the sound of a millstone to grind us bread, nor\nthe light of a candle to guide us in the house, nor yet the voice\nof the bridegroom, Christ, nor of the bride his wife, to tempt\nor allure any that are seeking the way of life, to stay with her\n(Rev 18:22,23). All these things shall be brought to Jerusalem (2\nChron 36:7). Christians, you must understand that there is a time\nwhen all the treasures of the church are to be found in Babylon,\nas in the days of old; but at this day, when this city is built,\nnot any of them shall be found there, but all shall be brought\nand delivered up to Jerusalem again, as was also foreshown in the\ntype; and all places shall be void of the treasure of heaven, but\nJerusalem (Ezra 6:1-6; 7:13-16).\n\nWherefore by the glory and honour of the nations in this place, I\nunderstand that all the treasures of the church, and all the graces\nthat at this day lie scattered here and there, some in one place\nand some in another, they shall be found no where at that day\nbut in this city, in the church that walks according to rule. Now\nthe reasons why I take this honour and glory to be meant of these\nthings are-\n\nFirst. Because thus it was in the time of the building of Jerusalem\nafter the captivity, the treasure of the Jews, which was become\nthe treasures of the provinces of Babylon, was again restored and\nbrought to Jerusalem, as you may see by the scriptures now cited.\n\nSecond. Because I find indeed, that the milk and honey of the land\nof Canaan-which are, in our gospel language, the gifts, graces,\nand treasures of the church-it is called, 'The glory of all lands'\n(Eze 20:6). Now, I say, seeing the milk and honey, which are the\ncomforts of the church and her treasure, is called 'The glory of\nall lands,' I take glory and honour in this place to signify the\nsame thing also (Cant 4:11).\n\nThird. Because also I find, by comparing the prophets, that the\nChristian's glory and honour lieth mostly, even principally, in\nheavenly and spiritual things; as in faith, love, experience of\nGod, of grace, of Christ, and spiritual life. I read that, at the\nbuilding of this city, the Jews and Gentiles shall meet together,\nand that at that day they shall mutually be partakers of each\nother's glory. The Gentiles 'shall milk out, and be delighted in the\nabundance of the glory' of the Jews: and the glory of the Gentiles\nshall be again extended unto the Jews like a mighty flowing stream\n(Isa 66:10-13). But I say that this glory and honour should consist\nin outward things, or that the glory that is merely carnal should\nbe principally here intended, I confess it grates too near the\nground for me to believe or rejoice in it. Alas, I find that those\nsouls that have not now the tenth part of the spirit and life of\nheavenly things that shall then be poured forth; I say, I find\nthat these are trampling on the world, and disdain the thoughts\nof being taken with its glory. Wherefore much less will it be\nesteemed in that day, when the glory and goodness of God shall in\nthat manner break forth. Again, can it be imagined that the chief\nof the glory that the Gentiles should bring to the Jews after a\nsixteen hundred years warming in the bosom of Christ; I say, is\nit imaginable that the great crop of all they have reaped should\nconsist in a little outward trumpery? Or if it should, would it be\na suitable medicine in the least to present to the eyes of a broken\nand wounded people, as the Jews will be at that day? Or if they\nglory that the Gentiles at that day shall suck from the Jews were\nsuch as this, would it at all be as life from the dead to them\nin a gospel sense. The church of the Gentiles shall be a wall to\nthe Jews at their return; but such a wall as will chiefly consist\nin spiritual and heavenly safeguard, and in outward, because of\nthat (Rom 11:13-15). I am a wall, saith she, and my breasts are\ntowers, on which the Jews will build upon her a palace of silver\n(Cant 8:8-10). But must this wall, I say, consist chiefly in outward\nglory, in the glory of earthly things? or must this silver palace\nbe of that nature either? No verily, but when God hath built the\ncity Jerusalem, and put his church into such a state, that upon\nall her glory shall be a defence of heaven, then shall the Jews,\nby their coming into this city, build, by their experience, a\npalace for spiritual and heavenly pleasure, to solace and comfort\ntheir brethren withal. In a word, then, by glory and honour in\nthis place, we are chiefly to understand the spiritual and heavenly\nthings of this city, which, in the times of the reign of Antichrist,\nhave lain, some among the potsherds of the earth, some again under\nthe stairs, some under this abuse, and some under that (Psa 61:3;\nCant 2:14). All which shall be brought by the souls that shall be\nconverted, forthwith to this city, the church, where will be the\ntreasury of God, into which every one at that day shall throw in\nof their abundance; but as for the glory of the world, the saints\nshall be above it, it shall be with them as silver and wood was\nin the days of Solomon, even as little worth as the stones in the\nstreet in their account (Isa 27:13; 1 Kings 10:21).\n\n[None but visible saints shall enter.]\n\nVer. 27. 'And there shall in nowise enter into it any thing that\ndefileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:\nbut they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.'\n\nI am not yet convinced that the highest church-state that ever\nwas, or ever will be in this world, could possibly be so, all of\nthem, the elect of God, but that there would get in among them\nsome that had not saving grace; the same also I believe touching\nthe state of this Jerusalem. But yet this I do believe again, that\nthe right and gospel-pattern is, that none be admitted into church\ncommunion but such who are visible saints by calling (1 Cor 1:1; 2\nCor 1:1; Eph 1:12; Phil 1:1). The substance of which these words\nimport, 'There shall not enter into it any thing that DEFILETH,\nor that worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie.' Which words\ndo principally strike at a people that appear to be loose, wicked,\nor ungodly; of which sort indeed, not one shall here at any time,\nno, not in any wise, be admitted entrance. For now shall all the\nforms, and all the ordinances, and all the forms of the goings\nout of the church of God, and the comings into it, be so exactly\nopened to these people, and they so punctual and distinct in the\nobservation of them, that it will not be possible that a Canaanite\nshould be here for ever again found any more (Eze 43:10,11; 44:6,8).\n'This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain-the whole\nlimit thereof shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the\nhouse' (Eze 43:12; Joel 3:17; Zech 14:21).\n\nAnd as there shall at this day be none admitted here, but such as\nare in truth visible saints, so none must here continue, but they\nthat continue such. If any of those stones that are put in for\nbuilding into the house of God, shall afterwards have the plague\nfound on them, then the priest shall command that such stones\nbe taken away and cast into the unclean place that is without the\ncity (Lev 14:40). And observe it, that congregation on earth that\nadmits only of such persons as are visible saints by calling and\nprofession-though possibly some of them, as in the case of Judas\nand Demas, may be known to God to be non-elect-yet that church\nis holy round about the limits thereof (Num 19:22; Eph 5:11; Heb\n12:15; 2 Thess 3:6,14; 1 Cor 5:6,11-13). Provided, also, that if\nat any time after that the plague appears, they ordinarily proceed\nto deal with them, as here things will be done to a tittle and a\nhair's breadth. Now the reason why the church may be said to have\nsome within her that are non-elect, and yet be counted holy still,\nit is because the church is to judge of persons by their words\nand lives; they know not the heart absolutely, and therefore if in\nword and life a man be as he ought, he is to be accounted a visible\nsaint, and orderly ought to be received of the church as such. So\nthat I say, as I said before, these words of barring out sinners\nout of the church, they are not to be understood as if they intended\nthat those should be debarred visible communion that in word and\nlife appeared visible saints, that are so judged by the rules of\nChrist's testament; but that such should be from it shut out that\nappeared visible sinners. Those that are defilers, workers of\nabomination, and makers of lies, none of these shall enter.\n\nBut 'they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.' These words\nexplain the matter: those, and those only, shall enter here, that\nare found written in the Lamb's book of life. Now, by book of\nlife we are to understand two things in the Scriptures of truth.\nFirst, either the book of God's eternal grace and mercy through\nChrist, in which all the elect are recorded for ever. Or, Secondly,\nthat book of life in which the Lord Jesus hath all recorded that\nare visible saints by calling; for, for both these there is a book\nof life. For the first of these, I judge these Scriptures do suit\n(Luke 10:20; 2 Tim 2:19; Phil 4:3). And for the second, these with\nthat in the text (Exo 32:32,33; Rev 22:19).\n\nNow the book of life in this place must not be so strictly taken\nas if it included those only that were elect of God to eternal\nlife, but must be understood of that book wherein are recorded\nthe rules and bounds of visible church-communion; and so all those\nthat, through the gifts and operations of special or common grace,\ndo fall within the compass of those rules and bounds. Thus it was\nin the type at the return out of captivity, none were to be admitted\nentrance into the church but those that could show their privileges\nby genealogy and the records of the church; and to others it was\nsaid that they had neither portion, nor lot, nor memorial, in\nJerusalem (Ezra 2:62,63; Neh 7:64,65; 2:20).\n\nNow that by book of life in this place we are to understand that\nbook that hath in it the bounds and liberties of this city, and\nso every one that falleth within the compass of these bounds and\nprivileges visibly; consider,\n\nFirst. They that are visible matter for visible church-communion,\nthey shall be found within this city, and yet there shall not\nenter any, but those that are written in the Lamb's book of life.\n\nSecond. Now visible church-communion doth not absolutely call for\nonly invisible saints, neither can it; for if the church were to\njoin with none but those whom they knew to be the very elect of\nGod-as all invisible saints are-then she must join with none at\nall; for it is not possible that any church should be so infallible\nto judge in that manner of the elect, as to discern them always,\nand altogether, from the non-elect, which cannot be an invisible\nsaint.\n\nThird. By book of life therefore, in this place, we are to understand,\nI say, that book that hath written in it every visible saint,\nwhether they be elect or not; and so such a book that is capable\nof receiving in a man at one time, and of blotting of him out\nagain, as occasion doth require, at another. Which thing is only\napplicable to that book which binds and looses on the account of\na man's being a visible saint or a visible apostate. Which thing\nis only applicable to the visible rules of receiving or shutting\nout of visible church-communion; which rules being the rules of\nChrist's New Testament, it is proper to call it the book of life;\nand is about the matter of going in or going out of this very city\nso called. 'If any man shall take away from the words of the book\nof this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book\nof life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are\nwritten in this book' (Rev 22:18,19). O how happy is he who is\nnot only a visible, but also an invisible saint! (Rev 3:5). He, he\nshall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy,\nwhen others are liable to loose a share, not only in heaven, but\nto be for ever blotted out of the book that approveth of visible\nbelievers also.\n\nFourth. But again, to explain the matter yet more: in the visible\nchurch there are not only sons, but servants-that is, not only\nthose that are truly elect, but such as have received a gift for\nthe perfecting of the church under Christ, in his service here in\nthis world (Eze 46:16,17). Now, I say, the servant for the time\npresent hath his place in the church as well as the son, though not\nthe place of a son, but of a servant, even a place of service, as\nof preaching, prophesying, administering the ordinances that are\ngiven to the church, and the like (1 Cor 12:7; Eph 4:11,12). All\nwhich a man that hath not grace may do, and that by the appointment\nof Christ; thus was Judas, Demas, Hymeneus, Phyletus, and others,\nwho sometimes were the servants of Christ in the church, and did\nminister for him to them; yet themselves, notwithstanding, such\nas were all that time strangers and aliens to the life and power\nand saving operations of the justifying and preserving grace of\nthe gospel (1 Cor 13:1-4; Matt 25:14-18). As he saith also by the\nprophet Isaiah, 'strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and\nthe sons of aliens shall be your ploughmen, and your vine-dressers'\n(Isa 61:5). For verily Christ will give to those that have not\nhis saving grace, yet great knowledge and understanding in the\nmysteries of the kingdom of God, and will also make them for profit\nand advantage in his church, to feed their flocks, to plough up\nthe fallow ground of their hearts, and to dress their tender vines.\nYet, I say, they themselves shall not be everlastingly saved, for\nthey want his saving grace. As Christ saith, 'The servant abideth\nnot in the house for ever, but the son abideth for ever' (John\n8:35). As he saith again in another prophet, 'If the prince give\na gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his\nsons, it shall be their possession by inheritance; but if he give\na gift of inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be\nhis to the year of liberty, after it shall return to the prince;\nbut his inheritance shall be his sons for them' (Eze 46:16,17).\nSome indeed have grace as well as gifts; now they that are such the\nprofit of their gifts shall be rewarded by virtue of their grace;\nbut as for them that have only a gift, when the work of a gift is\ndone, then they cease to be any longer of use in the church, and\ntherefore are forthwith shut out of the same, but the son abideth\nfor ever. Thus you see that as visible church-communion doth not\nabsolutely call for the elect only, but admits, and that by the\nbook of rules, all that are visible and open saints by calling, so\nalso the Lord Jesus himself doth, and will use some in his church\nas his officers and servants, that yet in a strict sense are neither\nhis sons nor members, who yet are within the bounds of that book\nof life that here he speaks of, as is evident, because with Christ's\nallowance they are admitted into communion with his church, and by\nhim also furnished with gifts and abilities to profit and edify\nwithal. Now observe, such a one is admitted, though but a servant,\nyet not by the church, because but such a one. The church receiveth\nno man upon the account of gifts alone, but upon the account of\nthe appearance of grace, as of gospel-repentance, of the confession\nof faith, and of a conversation suitable to the same; all which\na man that is not elect may have the notion of, yea, the power,\nthough not the saving power (Heb 6:4,5).\n\nFifth. Further, this which I have said about the visible\nchurch-communion, and so consequently about the book of life, it\nmust needs be a gospel-truth: yea, a thing for truth in this New\nJerusalem: because, besides what hath been said, there will be found\nin this city, even at the coming of the Lord Jesus, which coming\nof his will not be for some time after the building and setting of\nit up, I say, there will be then found among them foolish virgins,\nand such who have not the saving grace of God in their souls.\nBut yet, 1. These very souls shall be counted by the church, yea,\nby Christ himself, for virgins; that is, such as had not defiled\ntheir profession. 2. And will be such virgins as have, and hold\nevery one her lamp, even as the wise themselves. 3. Such virgins\nas were, every one of them gone forth from the pollutions of\nthis evil world. 4. And so such as continued visible saints, even\ntill the bridegroom came (Matt 25:1-10). For then, it is said in\nthe margin, they cried, Our lamps are going out. These, I say,\nbe those gifted people that will have place in the church, and so\nplace in the book of life here mentioned, which yet will, though\nthey continue hid from the church, be discovered in the day of\nthe Lord to be such as had only a gift, but not grace, and shall\nfor their secret sins be cut off and cast away, notwithstanding\nthey were visible saints all their days.\n\nTo conclude then: If the Scripture saith, that none that defileth,\nor that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, shall enter into his\nholy city which yet is but the church on earth, with what face can\ndefilers think and say they shall possess a part among the church\nwhich is in heaven? Again, If many that have received gifts from\nGod, and that may be serviceable in his house, shall yet be put\nout of doors at the coming of the Lord, what will they do that have\nbeen and yet continue both giftless and graceless, as visibly as\nthe light that shineth? And that instead of being the ploughmen and\nvine-dressers of the church, prove thieves, robbers, persecutors,\nand the like! Yea, if many that are within the bounds of that book\nof life that hath the records and rules of a rightly constituted\nvisible church may yet perish, what will become of them that never\nwere so much as written therein? Must they not perish rather? 'And\nwhosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into\nthe lake of fire' (Rev 20:15).\n\nRev. 22:1.-'And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear\nas crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.'\n\n\n[FIFTH. THE PROVISION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE CITY, BY WHICH IT\nCONTINUETH IN LIFE, EASE, PEACE, TRANQUILITY, AND SWEETNESS FOR\nEVER.]\n\nHaving thus showed us this city, her fashion, glory, inhabitants,\nand the like, he now comes to show us her provision and maintenance,\nwherewith she is kept in safety, life, peace, and comfort, &c.\n\n[Its drink the river of life.]\n\n'And he showed me a pure river of water of life.' This water of life\nis nothing else but the manifold grace of God in Christ let forth\nto the inhabitants of this Jerusalem, wherewith she is watered\nand replenished, as the earth with rain from heaven, for the good\nof those that drink thereof. For both the word water and that of\nlife, they are but metaphorical sayings, under which is held forth\nsome better and more excellent thing. And indeed it is frequent\nwith God in Scripture to speak of his grace and mercy under the\nnotion of waters, of a fountain, a sea, and the like (Zech 13:1;\nMicah 7:18,19).\n\n[It is called water.] Now it is called water, First, Because no soul\ncan be cleansed, or effectually washed from its guilt and filth,\nbut by the grace of God (Eph 1:7). 'I washed thee with water, yea,\nI thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee,' 'and thou becamest\nmine' (Eze 16:8,9). Second, It is called water, because it also\nquencheth the spiritual thirst of them that by faith do drink\nthereof (Isa 41:18). I will give, saith Christ, to him that is\na-thirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely (Rev 22:17).\nAnd again, 'He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him,\nshall never thirst' (John 4:14).\n\n[Water of LIFE.] Further, As it is called water, so it is called\n'the water OF LIFE,' and that upon a diverse account. First, Because\nit is that which recovereth the soul that drinketh thereof from\nthe death of sin and the curse of God, to a principle of life and\nheavenly blessing. 'And it shall come to pass that every thing that\nliveth, which moveth whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall\nlive' (Eze 47:9). Second, It is called 'the water of life,' because\nthat from it comes all those heavenly and spiritual quickenings\nand revivings, that (like aqua vitae [water of life]) do fetch\nagain, and cheer up the soul that was sinking and giving up the\nghost in this world. 'There is a river, the streams whereof shall\nmake glad the city of God' (Psa 46:4). Third, It is called 'the\nwater of life,' because it healeth the soul of all its spiritual\ninfirmities and diseases, wherewith by reason of the remainders of\nsin, the creature is most sadly annoyed and infected. 'And there\nshall be a very great multitude of fish,' of men he means (Matt\n4:19), 'because the waters shall come thither; for they,' these\nfish, 'shall be healed, and every thing shall live whiter the river\ncometh' (Eze 47:9). Fourth, and lastly, It is called 'the water\nof life,' because that whosoever doth effectually drink thereof,\nshall die no more, but the water that Christ shall give him shall\nbe in him a well of water, springing up in him to eternal life;\nwherefore he calleth it in another place, 'the living water,'\nbecause the quality and nature of it is to beget, to increase, to\nmaintain, and preserve life (John 4:10-14).\n\n[Water of lifer clear and PURE AS CRYSTAL.] 'And he showed me a\npure river of water of life, clear as crystal,' &c. Mark, it is\nwater, water of life, pure water of life, and clear as crystal.\nThese words, 'pure' and 'clear,' and that as 'crystal,' they are\nadded upon a double account. First, To show you that it is grace\nalone that saveth the sinner; and, Second, To show you that at this\nday the doctrine of this grace will be by itself alone without\nthe commixture of that dirt and trash that for a long time, even\nto this day, hath been thrown into it.\n\nFirst, It showeth us that it is grace alone that saveth the sinner,\npure grace, grace that admits of nothing of ours to be in the\nleast a helper in the matter of our happiness; we are 'justified\nfreely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ\nJesus.' As he saith by the prophet, 'I will pour CLEAN water upon\nyou, and ye shall be clean, and from all your idols will I cleanse\nyou' (Eze 36:25).[22] 'Not for your sakes do I this, saith the\nLord. Be ye ashamed and confounded for all your own evil ways,\nO house of Israel' (vv 32,33). It is clean water, indeed-it is\nclear in the nature of it, clear in the gift of it, and clear in\nthe working of it. It washeth freely, thoroughly, and perfectly.\n'From all your idols will I cleanse you' (v 25; 16:9; Rev 21:8).\n\nSecond, This word pure, and clear as crystal, it also showeth\nus that at the day of New Jerusalem, the doctrine of grace shall\nbe cleansed from all those dirty and muddy inventions that sin,\nSatan, and the wisdom of this world hath thrown into this river,\nand into its goodly crystal streams; I say at this day they shall\nnot come near it, neither shall the rubbish they have already cast\ninto it any more be there for ever. 'I will destroy all the beasts\nthereof [the beastly men he means] from beside the great waters,\nneither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs\nof beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters deep, and\ncause the rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord God' (Eze 32:13,14).\n\n'And he SHEWED me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,'\n&c. In that he saith he saw this river, he giveth us in a mystery\nalso to understand how openly and plainly this river shall in\nall its crystal streams and currents be apprehended and seen by\nthe children of this city; for in this vision he doth as it were\nrepresent in his person the children of New Jerusalem; as God said\nto Ezekiel in another case, 'Thou shalt be a sign,' 'and they shall\ndo as thou hast done' (24:22,27). So here, I saw, saith John, a\npure river of water of life. I am in this a sign to the house of\nthe Israel of God, and to the inhabitants of this city; they shall\ndo as I have done, and shall also see as I have seen. As saith\nthe church and people of this city, 'As we have heard, so have we\nseen, in the city of the Lord of hosts' (Psa 48:8). And hence it\nis called an open fountain, because it shall be no more shut up\nor kept close for ever (Zech 13:1,2).\n\n[Whither this water goes and its extension.]\n\n'And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,\nPROCEEDING out of the throne of God.' This word, proceeding, hath\nalso in it two things: First, An implicit declaration whither it\ngoes; and, Second, A discovery of its gradual extension to those\nto whom it goes.\n\nFirst. Touching to whom, or whither it goes, it is let out both\nto the Jews and Gentiles indifferently; and so it never yet was\nsince the foundations of the Jewish church; for in the time of the\nOld Testament it did run to the Jews in special, and in the time\nof the New Testament, hitherto, unto us the Gentiles in special.\nO! but now it shall in this manner be extended to sinners no longer;\nnot now to the Jews without the Gentiles, nor again to them without\nthe Jews, but equally and alike to both, and on them both it\nshall work alike effectually. 'It shall be in that day,' saith\nthe prophet, 'that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half\nof them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder\nsea' (Zech 14:8). By 'living waters' here, you are to understand\nthe same with this in the text; by 'the former sea,' the people\nof the Jews, for they were God's former people; and by 'hinder\nsea,' the people of the Gentiles, for they are the younger son. And\nbecause the whole world consisteth of these two people, therefore\nEzekiel in his vision puts them both together, calling them the\nfish of one great sea, to which this water of life shall run, and\nupon whose fish it shall have a like operation, even to heal them,\nand make them live, without respect either to this or that party.\n'It shall come to pass that the fishers,' that is, the gospel\nministers, 'shall stand upon it,' the rivers, 'from En-gedi even\nto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their\nfish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great\nsea, exceeding many' (Eze 47:10). As another prophet saith, 'The\nabundance of the sea shall be converted to thee' (Isa 60:5). Thus\nmuch touching whither this water goes.\n\n[Second.] And now to come to the manner of the extension of it, in\nthe way of its proceeding. A thing that proceeds, it doth what it\ndoth gradually, that is, by degrees. First, it comes or goes so\nfar, and then further, and afterwards further than that, till at\nlast it ascends to the height and uppermost degree that is allotted\nfor its perfection. All which the Holy Ghost would have us gather\nout of this word, 'it proceedeth,' or that John saw this holy water\n'proceeding.' The which the prophet Ezekiel in a mystery unfoldeth\nto us, saying, the first time he passed over this water it was up\nbut to his ankles; the second time he passed through, it proceeded\nto his knees; the third time, to his loins; and last of all, became\na river to swim in (Eze 47:1-3).\n\n1. It is but up to the ankles, that is, but shallow; and signifies\nthat, first, the soul is but a little child in God's things, such\nas the apostle calls babes, children, 'little children' (1 John\n2:12).\n\n2. Then from the ankles it proceeds to the knees, that is, somewhat\nhigher than the ankles; and signifieth that the Christian groweth\nfrom a child to a young and strong man, one that is now gotten\ndeeper into the things of God, and that is able to tug with and\novercome the wicked ones (1 John 2:13).\n\n3. After this it proceeds higher, even up to the loins; this\nsignifies that as grace makes men children of God, and his young\nmen, so also it maketh them fathers and ancients in his church;\nit makes them grave, knowing, solid guides, and unfolders of the\nmysteries of the kingdom; these are such as are instructed into\nthe kingdom of God, and that can bring out of their treasury things\nnew and old.\n\n4. It yet proceeds higher, even to be above the head, a river to\nswim in, and that such a river as can by no means be passed over.\nThis signifieth our launching into eternity; our being beyond\nall heights, depths, lengths, and breadths in the open vision and\nenjoyments of grace. 'For there the glorious Lord shall be unto\nus a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley\nwith oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby' (Isa 33:21).\nThus we begin children, and wade up to the ankles in the things\nof God; and being once in, it riseth and proceeds to come up to\nour knees, then to our loins, and last of all to be a river to\nswim in; a river so wide, so deep, and every way so large, that\nit can in no wise be passed over.[23]\n\n[Whence and from whom this water comes.]\n\n'And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,\nproceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.' Having\nthus spoken to the water what it is, as also to whom it extends\nitself, and how it proceeds, he now comes to show us from whence\nand from whom it doth come. It proceeds, saith he, 'from the throne\nof God and of the Lamb.' Out of the throne of God; this throne of\nGod, it is, in another place, called the mercy-seat, and throne of\ngrace, from which, as always, so now in a special manner he will\nissue forth of himself in the glory of the gospel of the grace of\nthe Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the inhabitants of this city\n(Exo 25:22; Heb 4:16). When he saith, therefore, that it doth\nproceed out of the throne of God, it is as if he had said, I saw\nthat from the yearning bowels of the great God did flow continually\nthe living streams of the everlasting fountains of grace, and\nthat not only to, but in the midst of this city, wherewith her\ninhabitants are continually watered, and their pastures kept always\ngreen and flourishing. 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to\nthe waters' (Isa 55:1).\n\n'Proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.' In that\nthis water of life is said to proceed not only out of the throne\nof God, but also of the Lamb, it signifieth and holdeth forth unto\nus two special things:\n\nFirst. That the throne of God is also made the throne of the Lord\nJesus Christ, upon which he, as a reward of his sufferings and\nvictory over sin, Satan, and all evils, is set down, and upon which\nhe sits and rules as Lord and Chief of all worlds. He is set down\non the right hand of power, on the right hand of the Majesty on\nhigh; as he saith, 'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with\nme in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my\nFather in his throne' (Rev 3:21). This being thus, it signifieth\nthat this city shall have her enjoyments of life, peace, and joy\nin the Holy Ghost, by virtue of the kingship of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, as well as by the virtue of his priestly and prophetical\noffice. The church doth in our days know a little what joy, peace,\nand life is to be enjoyed from Christ, even through that dark and\nglimmering sight that she hath of the offices of Christ in a mist;\nbut she feels not yet what joy she shall have, and what peace she\nshall enjoy when her Lord, in all his offices, is manifest before\nher, and when he in the glory of them doth reign in the midst of\nthis Jerusalem. There are none of the offices of the Lord Jesus\nyet upon the throne in his church on earth, though they be all upon\nthe throne in heaven. O! but the day is coming that they shall be\nall upon the throne in the church on earth; when they shall, each\nof them in its full length, breadth, height, and depth, bear sway\namong his people, and before all men. 'Then the moon shall be\nconfounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign\nin Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously'\n(Isa 24:23).\n\n'O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come\ndown, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!' (Isa\n64:1). O that the day were come that the smoke should go forth of\nthe temple of God, that men might enter into it, and there meet\nwith God upon the throne, and with Jesus in him upon the throne\nin all his offices! It will be thus, thou Zion, shortly, 'and great\nshall be the peace of thy children' (Isa 54:13).\n\n[Second.] The second thing observable is, that as all grace comes\nfrom out of the throne of God, so it also proceeds or comes out of\nthe throne of the Lamb; that is, no grace comes to any but through\nthe victory and conquest of the Lord Christ. We are 'justified\nfreely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ\nJesus' (Rom 3:24). And again, 'We have redemption through his blood,'\neven 'the forgiveness of' our 'sins, according to the riches of his\ngrace' (Eph 1:7). By which we may gather that when these things\ncome to be in their own purity among us-that is, when grace runs\nclear without the dirt and mud of the traditions of men commixed\ntherewith-then will all that hold up false and erroneous opinions\nbe washed away. For this river will not only wash away the sins\nand filthiness of those that are truly gracious; but it will also\ndestroy the heretic and erroneous person;[24] it will be to them\nat that day as the Red Sea was to the Egyptians of old; which sea,\nthough it was a wall on this hand and on that to the children of\nIsrael, yet it destroyed the Egyptians that assayed to go through\nit as Israel did (Heb 11:29). The reason also why we are at this\nday in such confusion in matters of religion, it is for want of the\nclear and pure streams of this river of water of life; all which\nwill be mended when there is but one river to water this city, and\nthat too the pure river of the water of life, in all its streams\nas clear as crystal; then shall all drink in all things into one\nSpirit, and be watered with the same dews of heaven.\n\nThus much of the water of life that belongeth to this Jerusalem.\n\n[Its food the tree of life.]\n\nVer. 2. And 'in the midst of the street of it, and on either side\nof the river, was there the tree of life, which bear twelve manner\nof fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of\nthe tree were for the healing of the nations.' This tree of life is\nthe Lord Jesus Christ; and that he is here called a tree, rather\nthan by other of his names, it is to show us how fruitful and exceeding\nadvantageous he in all his benefits will be to the inhabitants of\nthis city. This is that tree under whose branches the fowls of\nheaven shall now most safely lodge, and find relief from the hot\nand fainting beams of the persecuting sun of this world, as the\nWord doth there inform us (Matt 13:31,32).\n\n[The situation of this tree in the midst of the city.] Now before\nI come to speak to this tree, touching the manner of its fruit,\nand its often bearing, with the efficaciousness of its leaves,\nwhich here he saith doth heal the nations; I will take notice of\none or two general things that lie before me, from the standing\nof the tree in the midst of the street of this city.\n\nFirst then, In that he saith this city hath a tree of life in it,\nhe alludes to the garden of Eden, the pleasant paradise that God\nbegan the world withal; whereby he signifieth that as the world\nbegan with a paradise, so also it shall end with a paradise, when\nsin and Satan have done their worst. This New Jerusalem shall be\nthe wind up of the world, and in it shall stand the tree of life,\nas well as there stood one in the goodly garden, which was the\nbeginning thereof. In which paradise there shall be not tree of\nknowledge, or the law of works, to bear sway, and to cause that\nthe sons of God shall be thrust out thence for their eating of\nits forbidden fruits; no, the tree of life alone shall here bear\nsway and rule, whose fruit is only healthful, and the leaves thereof\nfor medicine.\n\n[1.] Now this tree of life being in the midst of this city, it\nsignifieth that the inhabitants of it shall be sweetly shadowed,\nrefreshed, and defended with its coolness, and also sweetly\nnourished and comforted with its dainties. And hence it is that the\nScriptures do hold him forth in his benefits to his church under\nthese very notions. 'As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood,\nso is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with\ngreat delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste' (Cant 2:3).\nIndeed the shadow of this tree of life, as always it is refreshing\nto the tempted and weary, so now it will be far more. 'They that\ndwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the\ncorn, and grow as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine\nof Lebanon' (Hab 14:7). Mark, (1.) His shadow will make us return,\nthat is, to our first love; to the days of our youth, to our young,\nfresh, tender, and flourishing faith, love, and self-denial, that\nwe received in the days of our espousals. (2.) As it will make us\nreturn to these, so it will make us revive in these; they shall\nreturn and revive, they shall revive as the corn; as the corn doth\nwhen, in the heat of summer, after long scorching, it is covered\nwith cool clouds, and watered with the bottles of heaven. (3.) As\nit shall make them return and revive, so it shall make them grow;\nthey shall grow as the vine, that is, speedily, fruitfully, and\nspreadingly. (4.) This is not all, but the smell of saints in\nthose days shall be excellent: 'They shall revive as the corn,'\nthey shall 'grow as the vine,' and shall send forth their scent 'as\nthe wine of Lebanon.' This tree is a perfuming tree, and makes them\nalso that abide under the shadow thereof to smell as sweet-smelling\nmyrrh; it makes them smell as the wine of thy grace, O Lord, and\nas the fragrant ointments of heaven. When the spouse did but touch\nwhere her Lord had touched afore her, it made her 'hands drop\nwith myrrh, and her fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh' (Cant 5:5).\nO they will be green, savoury, reviving, flourishing, growing\nChristians, that shall walk the street of New Jerusalem! 'I am,'\nsaith he, 'like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found'\n(Hosea 14:8).\n\n[2.] But again, As he shall be thus profitable to his people for\nshadow and reviving, so he will be in the midst of the street of\nit for food, for refreshing and replenishing that way. 'I sat down\nunder his shadow with great delight,' said she, 'and his fruit was\nsweet to my taste.' Ezekiel tells us that this tree is all trees;\nand on the bank of the river, on this side, and on that, were all\ntrees for meat (Eze 47:12). Indeed Christ is all trees; yea, there\nis more to be found in him for the food of the soul, than there\ncan be on all trees for the food of the body. He is a fir-tree\nfor tallness, greenness and strength; he is an olive for fatness,\na vine for sweetness and goodness, for therewith is refreshed\nthe heart both of God and man (Hosea 14:8; Rom 11:17; John 15:1,2).\nWhat shall I say, He is the almond-tree, the fig-tree, the apple-tree,\nall trees; The tree of life also in the midst of the paradise of\nGod (Cant 2:13).\n\nTo conclude.-Seeing Christ is said to be in the midst of the street\nof this city, it showeth unto us with what, at all occasions, the\nactions of the saints of this city shall be seasoned. The street,\nyou know I told you, is the way of holiness in this city, the place\nof spiritual recreation and solace. Now in the very midst of this\nstreet there stands this tree, which being thus, it showeth us how\nwonderfully Christ, as a tree of life, will be in all the words\nand deeds of the inhabitants of this Jerusalem; they will walk\nin Christ, they will talk in Christ, they will do all they do in\nChrist, or rather Christ will be found in all their ways; even as\nthe tree of life is found in the midst of the street of this city:\n'they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord' (Zech\n10:12).\n\nAgain, In that this tree is said to stand in the midst of the\nstreet, it showeth unto us how common and free his benefits will\nnow be also. The plumbs, and figs, and grapes, and apples of this\ntree, will be open to every passenger: not a boy nor a girl, that\nnow shall play in thy street, O Jerusalem, but shall eat of the\nfruits of the tree that stands in the mist of thee, as of common\nthings (Jer 31:4,5).\n\n[Second.] 'And in the midst of the street of it, and ON EITHER\nSIDE of the river was there the tree of life.' As this tree doth\nstand in the midst of the street of this city, so it also standeth\non each side of the river of the water of life, of which you have\nheard before. Now when he saith, the tree is on either side of\nthe river; whence by the way note yet again, that both the water\nof life, and also the tree of life, they are both to be enjoyed\nby the inhabitants of this city in the way of holiness; the tree\nis in the midst of the street, and the river runs through or between\nthe very tables of the heart of this tree of life; on either side\nof the river was there the tree of life.\n\nAgain, In that it is said that this tree of life is on either side\nof the river; it argueth that they who come at any time at this\nriver for water to quench their thirst, and to make them live,\nthey must come to it by the tree of life, which is Christ. In more\neasy terms, read it thus: There is none can partake of the grace\nof God but by the man Christ Jesus, which is this tree of life (Col\n2:3,9). For this tree, this Christ, doth stand on either side of the\nriver, to signify that all grace to us comes through his bloody\nwounds, death and victory (John 1:16). 'I am the way,' saith Christ,\n'and the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by\nme' (John 14:6).\n\n'And on either side of the river was there the tree of life.' Mark,\nbut one tree, and yet such a tree whose body reached as far as\nthe river reached: indeed Ezekiel saith this tree is all trees\nfor meat, yet not to show that there are more trees of life than\none, but to show that all that can be thought of that is good for\nsoul-nourishment, is to be found in this one, that is, in Christ\nJesus. And it is further evident that though he saith all trees,\nas if he meant many, yet he spake but metaphorically, to show\nthereby the fulness of Christ; because John doth understand him so,\ncalling it one tree, to wit, 'the tree of life.' But mark again,\nso far as the river goes, so far the tree goes, so that where you\ncannot find the tree of life, be sure there is none of the water\nof life. No Christ, no grace. 'He that hath the Son hath life,\nbut he that hath not the Son of God, shall not see life, but the\nwrath of God abideth on him' (John 3:36; 1 John 5:12). For 'on\neither side of the river was there the tree of life.'\n\n[The fruits of this tree.] 'Which bare twelve manner of FRUITS.'\nThis word fruits, it may be taken two ways-either as it relates\nto God, or as it relates to man, for, as I said before, the fruit\nof this tree refreshes the heart both of God and man (John 9:9,14).\n\n[1.] Now if it be taken with reference to God, then it signifieth\nthe complete satisfaction that by the worthiness of the fruits of\nthe passion of Christ is given to God for the salvation of the\nchurch; this city of God (Dan 9:24,26). He suffered to finish\ntransgression, to make an end of sin, and to bring in everlasting\nrighteousness; by this, I say, is the heart of God refreshed, and\nin this doth it rest (Matt 3:17).\n\n[2.] If fruit here be taken with reference to men, then it signifieth\nthe happiness and glory that those for whom he died and rose again\nshould receive by this means. His fruit, I have showed you, is\nsweet to the taste of his church, which fruit is the effect of\nhis undertaking for sinners and the comfortable savour of it in\nthe soul.\n\n[The variety of the fruits.] 'Which bare twelve manner of fruits.'\nIn that he saith the fruits are twelve, he herein alludeth,\n\n1. To the twelve tribes of the Israel of God; for which twelve tribes\nhere will be found a suitable measure of food, healing food: 'I\nwill multiply the fruit of the tree,' saith God, and also 'the\nincrease of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of\nfamine among the heathen' (Eze 36:30).\n\nAgain, These that John calleth 'twelve manner of fruits,' the prophet\nEzekiel calleth 'all manner of fruit for meat.' For indeed, as\nI showed before, there is that to be found in Christ, both for\nfulness and variety, that is not to be found in heaven and earth\nbeside. Here is fruit for body, fruit for soul, fruit for babes,\nfruit for strong men, fruit for fathers, yea, for glorified saints\nand angels. Fruits, variety of fruits, even twelve manner of fruits.\n\n2. By twelve manner of fruits, he doth also allude to the apostles,\nwho are called twelve, and are those who have made provision\nfor the house of God, according to the twelve-fold manner of the\ndispensation of God unto them, and of the twelve-fold manner of\noperation of that holy Spirit which wrought in every one of them\nseverally as he pleased. Which twelve were before figured unto us\nby the twelve offices of king Solomon, the type of Christ, which\ntwelve were to make provision for the house of the king, according\nto the season of the year, and each man his month in the year (1\nKings 4:7). Which very thing the Holy Ghost also doth here cast\nhis eye upon, and that makes him bring in the words of 'every\nmonth,' saying, it yields its fruit 'every month.' For indeed,\nwhatever you read of concerning this city, in this description of\nJohn, you find something or other in the writings of the prophets\nthat giveth ground for such expressions. Wherefore seeing the\nofficers of Solomon were twelve, and the apostles of Christ twelve\nalso; and seeing the officers of Solomon made provision for his\nhouse, each man his month in a year, and the fruits of this tree\nof life are called twelve manner of fruits, I do take the twelve\nmanner of fruits here to be signified by the provision of Solomon's\nofficers, according to the twelve seasons of the year, and they\na type of the twelve-fold doctrine of the twelve apostles of the\nLord Christ, for it is their doctrine that is the bread of the\nchurch, yea, the milk for the babe, and the strong meat for men (1\nThess 2:7; 1 Cor 3:2; Heb 5:11-14).\n\n[The abundance of the fruits.] 'And yielded her fruit every month.'\nAs this confirmeth what I have said before, so it further showeth\nus these three things. First, That the effectual fruits of Christ\nfor the saving of the world, they are to be had especially at\ncertain seasons. It 'yielded her fruit every month.' Second, It\nshoweth also that at the building of this Jerusalem, these seasons\nwill be very thick and quick; she yielded her fruit 'every month.'\nThird, It showeth us also the abundance of provision that this\nholy city shall then enjoy from the tree of life, even all manner\nof fruit every month.\n\nFirst, For the first, that the gospel hath and will be especially\neffectual at certain seasons for the saving of the sons of men;\nit is showed us by the descending of the angels into the pool of\nBethesda to trouble the water, which as it was at certain seasons,\nso he that in those seasons first stepped in, he only was made\nwhole of whatsoever disease he had (John 5:4). It is showed us also\nin that parable of the Lord's hiring men to work in his vineyard;\nwhich time of hiring, though it lasteth in general from the first\nhour to the eleventh, yet so as that there were vacant seasons\nbetween hiring-times and hiring-times, quite through the whole\nday; he went out at the first, third, sixth, ninth and eleventh\nhour, and not at every hour, to hire labourers (Matt 20:1-6).\nFor as God hath appointed out beforehand the number of his elect,\nso also he hath determined in his good pleasure the day of their\nbringing in, and will then have them as certainly as the wild\nass is found in her month (Gal 1:15,16; Hosea 6:11; Jer 2:24). Of\nwhich times and season, because men are ignorant, therefore they\nshould with all faithfulness wait upon God in all the seasons of\nhis grace for their souls, even as he did for his body; who because\nhe would be there at all seasons, brought thither his bed and couch\nto rest there (John 5:8).\n\nSecond, As by the fruit of this tree being yielded at certain\nseasons, we may gather that there are certain seasons in which the\nword in an especial manner shall be blessed and made successful\nto the salvation of many souls. So again, in that he saith this\nfruit is yielded every month, it signifieth that in the days of\nthe building of the city, the New Jerusalem, these seasons will\nbe very thick and quick. 'Lift up thine eyes,' saith God to this\ncity, 'all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy\nsons shall come from far, and thy daughters' from the ends of the\nearth. 'All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto\nthee' so that thou wonderingly shalt say, 'Who are these that fly\nas a cloud, and as the doves to their windows!' (Isa 60:4,7,8).\nFor 'I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be\nexalted. Behold these shall come from far; and lo these from the\nnorth, and from the west, and those from the land of Sinim' (Isa\n49:11,12).\n\nThird, In that she is said to yield not only fruit, but all manner\nof fruit; and that not only one manner of fruit now, and another\nthen, but all manner of fruit, and that every month; it argueth\nalso that at this day Jerusalem shall have abundance of heavenly\nand spiritual provision, and of variety of dainties for her solace\nand refreshment; always new, I say, and immediately from the tree.\nThe fruits of the vine shall at that day be upon the mountains of\nSamaria, and shall be eaten 'as common things,' saith the prophet\n(Jer 31:5). 'Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice; for the Lord\nwill do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for\nthe pastures of the wilderness do spring; for the tree beareth\nher fruit; the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be\nglad, then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God;\nfor he hath given you the former' and the latter 'rain moderately,\nand he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain\nand the latter rain in the first month; and the floors shall be\nfull of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And\nI will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the\ncanker-worm and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm' hath eaten.\n'And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name\nof the Lord' (Joel 2:21-25). And then shall every one not only sit\nunder his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, but from thence they\nshall call each to other, to give to each other their dainties,\nand none shall make them afraid (Zech 3:10).\n\n[The virtue of the leaves.] 'And the leaves of the tree were for\nthe healing of the nations.' By leaves here, we may understand the\nblessed and precious promises, consolations, and encouragements,\nthat by virtue of Christ's undertaking for us, we have everywhere\ngrowing upon the new covenant; which promises and encouragements\nthey are and will be most freely handed to the wounded conscience\nthat will be tossed upon the restless waves of doubt and unbelief,\nas was the olive leaf by the dove brought home to Noah, when he\nwas tossed upon the waves of that outrageous flood that then did\ndrown the world (Gen 8).\n\nBut again, by this word, the leaves, you may conceive that still\nhe hath his eye to the paradise in which at first God placed Adam\nand his companion, for it was to leaves they fled for covering\nafter they had transgressed against their Maker (Gen 3:7). Now\nthen, in his saying the leaves are for healing; it is as if he\nhad said, the paradise that will be towards the latter end of the\nworld will far outstrip the paradise that first was planted in the\nbeginning thereof; for as the tree of life, which is the Christ and\nSaviour, shall stand where did the tree of the knowledge of good\nand evil, which is the old covenant and law of works: so the leaves\nof this tree shall be for healing, and for covering the nakedness\nof poor transgressors, though the leaves that Adam found in the\nfirst paradise, do what he could, did leave him naked.\n\nChrist's leaves are better than Adam's aprons. Ezekiel saith that\nthese leaves are for medicine (47:12), that is, they are for\nhealing, saith John; the which may most fitly be applied to the\nblessed promise of grace. For as a leaf for medicine, when applied\nto a sore in the body, doth supple, mollify, and heal the wound;\nso the word of promise, when rightly applied to the soul, it doth\nsupple, mollify, and heal the wounded conscience. 'He sent his\nword and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.\nO that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his\nwonderful works to the children of men!' (Psa 107:20,21).\n\n'And the leaves,' &c. There is yet another mystery lieth in these\nwords.\n\nHe doth not say, and the fruits thereof are for the healing of the\nnations, but the leaves, by which he would have us to understand\nthat all the benefits and privileges that we do receive from\nChrist, they are as inferior to the glory we shall have from him\nwhen we come to heaven, as inferior, I say, as the leaves are to\nthe fruit. Again, the comfort and sweetness that at any time we\nreceive from the Lord, it is not before but after a promise is\nsuitably applied, even as the fruit of the tree with which the\nbody is comforted is not before but after the leaves have put\nforth themselves. Wherefore Christ might well say to Nathaniel,\nand that after he had received some refreshments from a leaf, 'Thou\nshalt see greater things than these' (John 1:50); and Paul, that\nyet 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory' is laid\nup for all believers (2 Cor 4:17). For indeed, indeed, the glory\nthat God hath prepared for us against the day of God, it doth and\nwill more outstrip the most high enjoyment of the highest saint in\nNew Jerusalem, notwithstanding their enjoyment will be so eminent,\nthan doth the sweetest fruit outstrip the leaf that hangeth on\nthat tree. 'And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of\nthe nations.' If the leaves be so good, O Lord, let us enjoy the\nfruit; and not a little, or earnest, but the whole harvest thereof\nin thy kingdom. Thus much touching this water and tree of life.\n\n[The ease, peace, and tranquility of the city.]\n\nVer. 3. 'And there shall be no more curse: but the throne\nof God--shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.' This\nis the conclusion of the whole discourse, and it showeth unto us\nthe blessed effect of the blessed recovering of this city to her\nfirst and primitive state. These words, therefore, they are only\napplicable to this state of the church. For there hath no state of\nthe church been yet in the world but that state hath been liable to\na curse; but this state, to wit, the state she will be in at her\nbuilding again, will be a state without parallel, a state properly\nher own.\n\n'And there shall be no more curse.' By curse in this place we\nare chiefly to understand, not the taking away of the curse, the\neternal curse which separates between God and the soul for ever-for\nso the curse in this sense hath always been taken away by virtue\nof the terms, the general terms of the new covenant, and that in\ncommon for every saint in all ages (Gal 3:13)-but by curse here we\nare to understand that, or those curses that do, and have frequently\nbefallen the church for her sin and apostasy; as namely, the giving\nup his people to their own darkness and ignorance; his suffering\nthem to swerve from his true worship and ordinances: his giving\nthem up into the hand of those that hate them, to become among\nthem a hissing, a taunt, a reproach, and a by-word, as it is at\nthis day (Zeph 1:12-17; Psa 43:28; Jer 29:18; 44:8,12). His taking\naway from them the means, to wit, the outward word of the gospel,\nand suffering them to be even at the point to famish for the want\nthereof (Amos 8:9-13). These and other things are the curses that\nhe here saith shall be no more among his people; for indeed they\nshall not, because the gospel-pattern shall never be removed\nmore, nor their light to see, nor their love to practise, never\nbe diminished more. Their defence, also, 'shall be the munition\nof rocks; bread shall be given them, and their waters shall be\nsure' (Isa 33:16). As here, you find the tree and river of the\nwater of life are fixed now in the midst of this city. Wherefore\nnow the church, as I have all along showed you, shall have her sun\nat the height, her light as the light of seven days, and shall go\nno more down for ever. Also she shall never be pulled down. She\nshall be a tabernacle that shall never be pulled down, neither\nshall one of the cords thereof be loosed, or one of her stakes\nagain removed (Isa 33:20).\n\n'There shall be no more curse: but the throne of God shall be in\nit.' Indeed, here lieth the reason of all blessedness to any people,\neven the presence of God. Now the presence of God is with his\npeople, either at times or seasons, or all together. He will not\nbe to this city a God of times and seasons, even like a way-faring\nman that tarries but for a night, as he used to be to his people\nof old, but here he will abide, rest, and dwell (Zeph 3:17; Jer\n14:8,9; Zech 2:10,11). I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,\nand my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord. And, again,\n'I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem for ever' (Eze 43:9).\nWherefore John considering this, he saith, there shall be here\nno more any curse, but the throne of God. God will now, when he\nreturneth to Jerusalem, bring his seat with him to signify his\nsitting down in the midst of his people, to be their company-keeper\nfor ever.\n\n[Import of the word THRONE.] 'But the throne of God--shall be in\nit.' By this word 'throne,' we are to understand yet further these\nparticular things-\n\nFirst. How blessed a state this city will be in at all times for\nthe answer of prayer! The throne of God will be in the midst of\nthem; the throne of grace, the mercy-seat, they will be open now\nto all the inhabitants of this city; yea, the fame thereof shall\nso spread that it shall be rumoured among all the nations that in\nJerusalem God will be found speedily; that in Jerusalem the God of\nheaven and eternal mercy is found at all times by them that seek\nhis face. 'Mine house,' said he, 'shall be called a house of prayer\nfor all people' (Isa 56:7). Yea, many people, and strong nations,\nshall at that day come to seek the Lord at Jerusalem, and to pray\nbefore the Lord. And at that day the very fasts of the house of\nGod 'shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful\nfeasts; therefore, love the truth and peace' (Zech 8:19-22).\n\nSecond. The throne of God being now established in this city, what\na government, what rule, what a life of holiness and godliness,\nwhat dread and majesty will now be in the hearts of all the sons\nof this city! How to a hair's-breadth will he command and guide\nthem with his eye at all times, when they should either turn to\nthe right hand or to the left. What wisdom, I say, what holiness,\nwhat grace and life will be found in all their words and actions?\n(Isa 48:17). The throne of God is among them, from which there\nwill come continual influence, light, and splendour, into all their\nhearts. 'Hear ye the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare\nit in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will\ngather him and keep him, as a shepherd doth his sheep. For the\nLord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him\nthat was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in\nthe height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the\nLord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of\nthe flock, and of the herd, and their soul shall be as a watered\ngarden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all' (Jer 31:10-12).\n\nThird. The throne of God being in this city, there is also thereby\ndiscovered what sway and commanding an authority this city will\nhave at this day, as I have already showed you, over all the earth\n(Isa 2:9,10). 'The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his\nvoice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake,\nbut the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of\nthe children of Israel' (Joel 3:16). This was figured forth by the\nthrone of Solomon, in the days when that city was in its prosperity;\nwhich throne, to show the majesty and commanding awe that then that\ncity had over all, both far and near, it had, for the bearers of\nthe steps, twelve lions, six on this side, and six on that side\nof the throne (1 Kings 10:18-20). This city shall then be the head\nand chief, but the tail and reproach no more. 'Glorious things are\nspoken of thee, O city of God' (Psa 87:3).\n\n'And his servants shall serve him.' That is, HIM ONLY. Indeed his\nservants serve him always, but yet withal they do too too often\nserve with the wills and lusts of men, even in their service\nand worshipping God; that is, they serve him in much affliction,\ntemptation, fear, and persecution; but then they shall serve him\nwithout any of these. Yea, 'they shall take them captives, whose\ncaptives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.\nAnd it shall come to pass in the day [O city] that the Lord shall\ngive thee rest from thy sorrow,--and from the hard bondage wherein\nthou wast made to serve' (Isa 14:2,3), and thou shalt serve the\nLord thy God 'without fear, in holiness and righteousness before\nhim all the days of thy life' (Luke 1:74,75).\n\n'And they shall see his face.' This also argueth a very great\ndispensation of grace and mercy to this Jerusalem. When God did\ndeliver up his people into the hand of the king of Babylon, he\nsaid it should be done in fury and in anger, and that for their\nwickedness he would hide his face from his city (Deu 31:17; Jer\n33:5). Wherefore, by the sight of his face here, we are to understand\nthat glorious visible appearance of God that then will be for\nthis city and people in the face of all the world (1 Peter 3:12).\nFor by the face of God we are to understand the discovery of his\nseverity, providences, and wonderful outgoings among the sons of\nmen (Job 6:8-13). As also the glorious breaking forth of grace,\nmercy, and forgiveness through Christ Jesus, all which the people\nof God shall then most marvellously see and behold (Heb 1:1-3; 2\nCor 4:6).\n\nFirst. They shall see his severity and judgments upon the whore.\n\nSecond. They shall see how God, by his strange judgments and works\nof wonder, hath brought this about. 'Who shall not fear thee, O\nLord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations\nshall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made\nmanifest' (Rev 15:4). 'They that are delivered from the noise of\narchers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse\nthe righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts towards\nthe inhabitants of his villages in Israel' (Judg 5:11).\n\nThird. And as for his mercy, they shall see that their horn is\nexalted, and that they are near to him. 'Praise ye the Lord' (Psa\n148:14).\n\n'And his name shall be in their foreheads.' And 'his name.' That\nis, his fear and image, it shall appear in all their doings.\nSometimes he saith he will write his fear and law in their hearts\nand minds. Which fear and law is all one with that which in this\nplace he calleth his name in their foreheads. The forehead of a\nman is the place above all parts of the body that is most naked and\nplain to be beheld of all that pass by; wherefore, when he saith\ntheir Father's name shall be in their foreheads, it is as if he\nhad said, the profession of my people shall now be open, and the\nbeauty of it apparent to all beholders; 'I will make' them, saith\nGod, 'a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I\nturn back your captivity before your eyes' (Zeph 3:20). Every face\nshall then shine with oil, as well as every heart be replenished\nwith milk and wine. This was held forth by the memorial that the\nIsraelites were to wear, at God's command, between their eyes;\nwhich memorial was the doctrine of unleavened bread and of the\npaschal lamb, the doctrine of faith and holiness (Exo 13:6-9; 1 Cor\n5:8). Wherefore, by name here, he means the faith and holiness of\nthe gospel, which in those days shall walk openly with honour,\nwith reverence, and esteem before all men. At this day the world\nwill, as I have said, be so far off from opposing and persecuting,\nthat they shall wonder, and tremble, and fear before this people;\nyea, be taken, affected, and pleased with the welfare of this\nbeloved. 'The mountains and the hills shall break forth before\nher into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their\nhands' (Isa 55:12). 'All nations shall call them blessed, for they\nshall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts' (Mal 3:12).\nThe waters of Noah shall now be no more, the tumultuous multitudes\nshall now be gone, and there will be no more sea (Isa 54:9; Psa\n65:7; 89:9; Rev 21:1,2). Now therefore the doves may be gathering\ntheir olive-branches, and also find rest for the soles of their\nfeet, while the ark shall rest upon the mountains of Ararat (Gen\n8:4,5).\n\n'The wolf also shall [now] dwell with the lamb, and the leopard\nshall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion and the\nfatling together, and a little child shall lead them.--The lion\nshall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling shall play on the\nhole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the\ncockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy\nmountain, saith the Lord' (Isa 11:6-9; 56:2-5).\n\nBlessed is he whose lot it will be to see this holy city descending\nand lighting upon the place that shall be prepared for her situation\nand rest! Then will be a golden world; wickedness shall then be\nashamed, especially that which persecutes the church. Holiness,\ngoodness, and truth, shall then, with great boldness, countenance,\nand reverence, walk upon the face of all the earth. 'From the\nrising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name\nshall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense\nshall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name\nshall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts' (Mal\n1:11). It will be then always summer, always sunshine, always\npleasant, green, fruitful, and beautiful to the sons of God. 'And it\nshall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down\nnew wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers\nof Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth\nof the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.--And\nJudah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to\ngeneration' (Joel 3:18,20). 'And the name of the city from that\nday shall be, The Lord is there' (Eze 48:35). O blessedness! 'And\nhe said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord\nGod of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants\nthe things that must shortly be done' (Rev 22:6).\n\nI conclude therefore with that earnest groan of Moses, the man of\nGod, 'O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and\nbe glad all our days.--Make us glad according to the days wherein\nthou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.\nLet thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their\nchildren. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and\nestablish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our\nhands establish thou it' (Psa 90:14-17). Amen.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n1. The note upon this passage in the Genevan or Puritan version,\nwith which Bunyan was familiar, is, 'God will raise up in his\nchurch such as shall rule and govern for the defence of the same,\nand instruction of his enemies, under Messiah, whom the prophet\ncalleth here the Lord and Head of this kingdom.'-Ed.\n\n2. From the Genevan or Puritan version.\n\n3. 'Set out' render prominent, plain, or conspicuous.-Ed.\n\n4. In Bunyan's days, a few fanatics from among the Fifth Monarchy\nmen conceived that the millennium had arrived, and that it was\ntheir duty to take possession of the kingdom for Jesus. They were\nmad enough, like the late Mr. Courtnay, to imagine that their\nbodies were invulnerable, and they marched out to seize London.\nA few of the trained bands soon encountered them, some were shot\nand the rest were punished, and this absurd attempt was at an end\nin a few hours. This gave the enemies of true religion a pretext,\nwhich they eagerly seized, of charging these absurd notions upon\nall who feared God, and a severe persecution followed. To deprecate\nand counteract these reports, Bunyan is very explicit in noting\nthe difference between a spiritual and a temporal kingdom.-Ed.\n\n5. 'Spices' is from the Genevan version; our authorized text has\n'powders.'-Ed.\n\n6. Referring to the attempts made in Bunyan's days to introduce Popery.\nIt is admirably shown in the Pilgrim's Progress, p. 193-'This is\nthe spring that Christian drank of; then it was clear and good,\nbut now it is dirty with the feet of some that are not desirous\nthat pilgrims here should quench their thirst.'-Ed.\n\n7. All authority in the church is strictly limited to the written\nWord. Throw away then to the owls and the bats all tradition,\nand the power of the church to decree rites and ceremonies. It is\ntreason against God to suppose that he omitted anything from his\nBible that his church ought to do, or commanded that which may be\nneglected, although human laws may authorize such deviation.-Ed.\n\n8. The walls do not go from or leave the foundations, but, resting\nupon them, they gradually ascend to perfection.-Ed.\n\n9. Anabaptist was the name given to those who submitted to be baptized\nupon a profession of faith, because, having been christened when\ninfants, it was called re-baptizing.-Ed.\n\n10. 'Hub'; an obstruction, a thick square sod, the mark or stop at\nthe game of quoits.-Ed.\n\n11. These observations apply to such churches as admit to the\nLord's table unconverted persons, because they have passed through\ncertain outward ceremonies; and to those who refused to admit the\nmost godly sayings, because they had not submitted to an outward\nceremony.-Ed.\n\n12. See Isaiah 8:19. 'To peep and mutter,' as pretended sorcerers\nor magicians attempting their incantations against the truth.-Ed.\n\n13. This is an allusion to the ancient English pastime of combat,\ncalled quarterstaff.-Ed.\n\n14. Bunyan most accurately traces the pedigree of God's fearers,\nwho, at the expense of life, maintained the spirituality of divine\nworship. He commences with our early Reformers, Wickliff and Huss,\nto the later ones who suffered under Mary; continues the line of\ndescent through the Puritans to Bunyan's brethren, the Nonconformists.\nAll these were bitterly persecuted by the two lions-Church and\nSate. The carnal gospellers, that confused heap of rubbish that\ncrawled up and down the nation like locusts and maggots, refers to\nthe members of a hierarchy which were ready to go from Popery to\nProtestantism, and back again to Popery, or to any other system,\nat the bidding of an Act of Parliament.-Ed.\n\n15. 'Virtue'; strength, efficacy, power.-Ed.\n\n16. 'To travel and trade,' means to pursue or labour in an habitual\ncourse, exercise, or custom, as, 'Thy sin's not accidental but a\ntrade.'-Shakespeare. Or, trade wind.-Ed.\n\n17. The perfect unity of the Christian world is not likely to take\nplace before the glorious meeting in the holy city, under the\npersonal reign of Christ. The divisions among Christians arise,\nas Bunyan justly says, from antichristian rubbish, darkness, and\ntrumpery; the great evil arising from difference of opinion, is\nthat lust of domination over the faith of others which naturally\nleads to bitterness and persecution. In the earliest days one was\nof Paul, another of Apollos, and another of Cephas. The exercise\nof Christian forbearance was not an act of uniformity, but a\ndeclaration of the Holy Ghost. 'Who art thou that judgest another\nman's servant?' 'Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind'\n(Rom 14:4,5).-Ed.\n\n18. As the leaven goes on imperceptibly until the whole is leavened,\nso the kingdom of our Lord must increase. How extraordinary has\nbeen the progress of Divine truth since Bunyan's days! and who\ncan predict what it will be in another century?-Ed.\n\n19. There being no night there but perpetual day.-Ed.\n\n20. A 'gold angel' was an early English coin, valued at one-third\nof a pound, afterwards increased to ten shillings. The 'twenty-shilling\npiece' was the old sovereign. The comparison between them and\nthe silver pence and halfpennies was made by Bunyan in respect to\ntheir rarity and not their purity.-Ed.\n\n21. 'To stoop or lower the top-gallant' is a mode of salutation\nand respect shown by ships at sea to each other.-Ed.\n\n22. This quotation is taken from that excellent translation of the\nBible made by the reformers at Geneva, and which was much used\nin Bunyan's time. He preferred the word pour to that of sprinkle,\nused in the present version.-Ed.\n\n23. How beautifully is the Christian's growth in grace here pictured\nby Bunyan from Ezekiel 47:3-12. So imperceptibly by Divine power,\nwithout the aid of man, that the partaker often doubts his own\ngrowth. The water rises higher and higher, until at length there\nis no standing for his feet-the earth and time recedes, and he is\nplunged into the ocean of eternal grace and glory.-Ed.\n\n24. 'To the one, the savour of death unto death; and to the other,\nthe savour of life unto life' (2 Cor 2:16).-Ed.\n\n***\n\nSolomon's Temple Spiritualized\n\nor,\n\nGospel Light Fetched out of the Temple at Jerusalem, to Let us\nMore Easily into the Glory of New Testament Truths.\n\n'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew\nthem the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings\nout hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof,\nand all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and\nall the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11\n\nLondon: Printed for, and sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans\nwithout Bishopgate, 1688.\n\n[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR]\n\nOf all the wonders of the world, the temple of Solomon was beyond\ncomparison the greatest and the most magnificent. It was a type of\nthat temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, of that\ncity whose builder and maker is God, and which, at the consummation\nof all things, shall descend from heaven with gates of pearl and\nstreet of pure gold as shining glass, and into which none but the\nransomed of the Lord shall enter. Jesus, the Lamb of God, shall\nbe its light and glory and temple; within its walls the Israel of\nGod, with the honour of the Gentiles, shall be brought in a state\nof infinite purity. No unclean thing will be able to exist in\nthat dazzling and refulgent brightness which will arise from the\nperfection of holiness in the immediate presence of Jehovah; and\nof this, as well as of the whole Christian dispensation, the temple\nof Solomon was a type or figure. It would have been impossible\nfor the united ingenuity of all mankind, or the utmost stretch of\nhuman pride, to have devised such a building, or to have conceived\nthe possibility of its erection. The plan, the elevation, the\nwhole arrangement of this gorgeous temple, proceeded from the\nDivine Architect. He who created the wondrous universe of nature\ncondescended to furnish the plan, the detail, the ornaments, and\neven the fashion of the utensils of this stately building. 'David\ngave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses\nthereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers\nthereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of\nthe mercy seat, and the pattern of all that he had BY THE SPIRIT,\nof the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chamber\nround about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the\ntreasuries of the dedicated things' (1 Chron 28:11,12). 'Now,\nbehold I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand\ntalents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; brass,\nand iron without weight, timber and stone also, and all manner\nof cunning workmen' (1 Chron 22). And lest his heart should fail\nbefore a work so vast, 'David said to Solomon, Be strong and of\ngood courage, and do it; fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord\nGod, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor\nforsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service\nof the house of the Lord' (28:20). Thus furnished with wisdom\nfrom above, with materials and with cunning workmen, and, above\nall, with the approbation and protection of his God, Solomon\ncommenced, and eventually finished, this amazing structure, and\nfitted it to receive the sacred implements, all of which, to the\nminutest particular, had been made by Moses, 'after their pattern,\nwhich was shewed him in the mount' (Exo 25:40).\n\nEvery part of the building, including the foundation, its altar,\nits courts, the holy of holies, all the utensils, and the ark,\nwere types of that more glorious system which, in the fulness of\ntime, appeared as the antitype, and perfected the Divine revelation.\nThe temple becomes therefore an object of our special attention\nas a light to guide us while searching into gospel truths.\n\nUnder the peculiar aid of Divine guidance and protection, this\nsumptuous structure was finished, and most deeply impressive were\nthe ceremonies on the day of its consecration. Solomon had made\nto himself an everlasting name, and it would be natural to expect\nthat in such a scene of splendid triumph he would have felt exalted\nto the proudest height that human nature was capable of attaining.\nBut Solomon had not only heard of God by the hearing of the ear,\nbut by internal communion had seen and conversed with him. He\ncould say with Job, when he had been restored from the deepest\nabasement to an elevated position, 'Mine eye seeth thee, wherefore\nI abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' Thus, in Solomon's\nbeautiful prayer on the dedication of this gorgeous temple,\nhe humbly inquires, 'Will God in very deed dwell with men on the\nearth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain\nthee; how much less this house that I have built?' (2 Chron 6:18).\nThus was completed the most perfect, splendid, and magnificent\nbuilding that was ever erected by human hands. Still it was only\na type of that infinitely more glorious antitype, the Christian\ndispensation. 'Most stately and magnificent is the fabric of\nGod's house, yielding admirable delight to such whom free grace\nhas vouchsafed to give spiritual eyes to discern it; far surpassing\nthe splendour of its ancient type, the temple of Solomon, which\nwas once the wonder of the world.'[1] 'A greater than Solomon is\nhere.' 'The BRANCH he shall build the temple of the Lord'--the\nmore glorious, spiritual, eternal temple (Zech 6:12).\n\nIn a few hundred years after the temple of Solomon was finished,\nthis sumptuous structure was doomed to destruction, like all the\nfading handiwork of man. Sin enervated the nation which should\nhave protected it; while the immensity of its riches excited the\ncupidity of a neighbouring royal robber. It was plundered, and\nthen set on fire; the truth of the declaration made by Job upon\nthe perishable works of man was eminently displayed--'For man to\nlabour he is born, and the sons of the burning coal they mount\nup fluttering.'[2] In a few days the labour of years, aided by\nunbounded wealth and resources, was reduced to a heap of ashes.\nAnd now, after a lapse of about twenty-five centuries, accompanied\nby John Bunyan, 'a cunning workman,' as our guide, we are enabled\nto contemplate the account given us of this amazing edifice recorded\nin the volume of truth, and to compare that utmost perfection of\nhuman art, aided from heaven, with the infinitely superior temple\nin which every Christian is called to worship--to enter by the\nblood of the everlasting covenant into the holiest of all, the\nway consecrated by the cross and sufferings of Christ--without\nthe intervention of priests or lordly prelate--without expensive\nvictims to offer as a type of expiation--without limit of\ntime, or space, or place, the poorest and most abject, with the\nwealthiest--the humbled beggar and the humbled monarch have equal\naccess to the mercy seat, sacrificing those sinful propensities\nwhich are the cause of misery, and pleading the Saviour's merits\nbefore the eternal Jehovah. Christ has consecrated the way, and\nwe enter into the holiest of all not only without fear, but with\nsolemn joy. The cost of Solomon's temple has been estimated at\neight hundred thousand millions of money: if this is true, still\nhow infinitely inferior is that vast sum to the inconceivable\ncost of the eternal temple, with its myriads of worshippers, for\nwhich the Son of God paid the ransom, when he made the atonement\nfor transgression, and built that imperishable temple which neither\nhuman nor satanic malevolence can ever destroy, and in which every\nspiritual worshipper will be crowned with an everlasting weight\nof glory.\n\nWhile we cannot doubt but that the temple and its services contained\nmany types highly illustrative of the Christian dispensation,\nincautious attempts to find them may lead to fanciful interpretations\nwhich tend to cloud, rather than to elucidate gospel truths. Bunyan\nvery properly warns his readers against giving the reins to their\nimaginations and indulging in speculations like those fathers,\nwho in every nail, pin, stone, stair, knife, pot, and in almost\nevery feather of a sacrificed bird could discern strange, distinct,\nand peculiar mysteries.[3] The same remark applies to the Jewish\nrabbis, who in their Talmud are full of mysterious shadows. From\nthese rabbinical flints some have thought to extract choice\nmystical oil to supple the wheels of their fancy--to use a homely\nexpression. Such Jewish rabbis and Christian fathers limped and\ndanced upon one learned leg, to the amazement of all beholders,\nbut not to their edification; their lucubrations may amuse those\nwho have patience to read them, but they afford no instruction.\nEven the learned Samuel Lee, whose work on the temple abounds with\nvaluable information, has strongly tinctured it with pedantry. It\nis seldom that a more curious jumble is found than in the following\nparagraph:--'The waxen comb of the ancient figures and typical\neels is fully matted and rolled up in shining tapers, to illuminate\ntemple students in finding out the honey that couches in the\ncarcass of the slain Lion of the tribe of Judah.' There is no fear\nof Bunyan's indulging his readers with the vagaries of the Jewish\nrabbis or Christian fathers--his converse was limited to the prophets\nand apostles. His object is to make us familiar with those types\nexhibited in the temple and alluded to by the inspired writers of\nthe New Testament; to use a Puritan expression, he would enable\nus to plough with our spiritual Samson's heifer to expound the\nriddle, and thus discover the dark patterns of heavenly things (Heb\n9:23,24). Among the many striking objects to which Bunyan directs\nour wondering eyes, a few should excite our deeper attention while\nwe accompany him in viewing this marvellous temple.\n\n1. All the materials that were used required preparation. The stones\nmust be quarried, squared, and fitted for the building with many\na hard knock and cutting of the chisel. So must you and I, my\nreaders, pass through the new birth, and be prepared by the Holy\nSpirit to fit us for the spiritual building composed of living\nstones; and if not made meet for that building, we shall be\neventually found lifting up our eyes in torment.\n\n2. Very solemn is the consideration insisted on by our author--that\nall sons are servants to assist in building this spiritual edifice,\nbut all servants are not sons to inherit a place in it; an awful\nthought, that there have been and now are servants employed in the\nconversion of sinners, and in building up the saints, who never did\nnor never will worship in that temple. Let us examine ourselves\nbefore we enter that dreary abode, to which we are hastening; 'for\nthere is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the\ngrave, whither thou goest' (Eccl 9:10).\n\n3. Are we zealously affected to forward the work, be careful\nthen as to the materials we use, 'living stones' not wood, hay,\nor stubble. May all our persuasions be constantly used to bring\npoor thoughtless sinners to repentance but introduce them not as\nmembers of that house until you have a scriptural hope that they\nhave passed from death unto life--that they are believers in Jesus,\nand have brought forth fruit meet for repentance.\n\n4. All the foundation, the superstructure, the furniture, must be\naccording to the written word of the prophets and apostles, Jesus\nChrist being the chief corner stone. Reject all the inventions of\nman and all human authority in the worship of God.\n\n5. The temple was so built that the worshippers looked to the west\ntoward the holy of holies. All the superstitions and idolatrous\nnotions of man lead him to turn to the east, to worship the rising\nsun. 'The heathen made the chief gates of their temples towards the\nwest, that these stupid worshippers, drawing nigh to their blind,\ndeaf, and dumb deities, might have their idols rising upon them\nout of the east.'[4] The temple as a type, and Christianity as\nthe antitype run counter to such idolatrous absurdities and folly.\n\n6. Christian, be content with whatever may be your lot, however\nhumble your place in the church and world. Soon will it be changed\nfor the better. In this world we are working men, and must be\ncontent to be clad and fed as such, that we may be fitted for our\nsolemn and joyful change. Soon we shall put on our church-going\nholiday suit and partake all the dainties of the heavenly feast,\nthe glories of the New Jerusalem. Reader, these are samples\nof the prominent truths which will occupy your attention, while\naccompanying Bunyan in your interesting visit to Solomon's temple.\nMay you richly enjoy your survey of that astonishing building,\nunder so trusty and experienced a guide.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n[TO THE CHRISTIAN READER]\n\nCOURTEOUS CHRISTIAN READER,\n\nI have, as thou by this little book mayest see, adventured, at this\ntime, to do my endeavour to show thee something of the gospel-glory\nof Solomon's temple: that is, of what it, with its utensils, was a\ntype of; and, as such, how instructing it was to our fathers, and\nalso is to us their children. The which, that I might do the more\ndistinctly, I have handled particulars one by one, to the number\nof threescore and ten; namely, all that of them I could call to\nmind; because, as I believe, there was not one of them but had\nits signification, and so something profitable for us to know.\n\nFor, though we are not now to worship God in these methods, or\nby such ordinances, as once the old church did: yet to know their\nmethods, and to understand the nature and signification of their\nordinances, when compared with the gospel, may, even now, when\nthemselves, as to what they once enjoined on others, are dead,\nmay minister light to us. And hence the New Testament ministers,\nas the apostles, made much use of Old Testament language, and\nceremonial institutions, as to their signification, to help the\nfaith of the godly in their preaching of the gospel of Christ.\n\nI may say that God did in a manner tie up the church of the Jews\nto types, figures, and similitudes; I mean, to be butted and\nbounded[1] by them in all external parts of worship. Yea, not only\nthe Levitical law and temple, but, as it seems to me, the whole\nland of Canaan, the place of their lot to dwell in, was to them\nas ceremonial, or a figure. Their land was a type of heaven, their\npassage over Jordan into it a similitude of our going to heaven\nby death (Heb 3:5-10). The fruit of their land was said to be\nuncircumcised (Lev 19:23). As being at their first entrance thither\nunclean (Exo 12:15). In which their land was also a figure of\nanother thing, even as heaven was a type of sin and grace (Lev 6:17,\n23:17).[2] Again, the very land itself was said to keep Sabbath,\nand so to rest a holy rest, even then when she lay desolate, and\nnot possess of those to whom she was given for them to dwell in\n(Lev 26:34,35).\n\nYea, many of the features of the then church of God were set forth,\nas in figures and shadows, so by places and things, in that land.\n1. In general, she is said to be beautiful as Tirzah, and to\nbe comely as Jerusalem (Can 6:4). 2. In particular, her neck is\ncompared to the tower of David, builded for an armoury (Cant 4:4).\nHer eyes to the fish-pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bethrabbim.\nHer nose is compared to the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards\nDamascus (Cant 7:4). Yea, the hair of her head is compared to a\nflock of goats, which come up from mount Gilead; and the smell of\nher garments to the smell of Lebanon (Cant 4:1,11).\n\nNor was this land altogether void of shadows, even of her Lord and\nSaviour. Hence he says of himself, 'I AM the rose of Sharon, and\nthe lily of the valleys' (Cant 2:1). Also, she, his beloved, saith\nof him, 'His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars'\n(Cant 5:15). What shall I say? The two cities Sion and Jerusalem,\nwere such as sometimes set forth the two churches, the true and\nthe false, and their seed Isaac and Ishmael (Gal 4).\n\nI might also here show you, that even the gifts and graces of\nthe true church were set forth by the spices, nuts, grapes, and\npomegranates, that the land of Canaan brought forth; yea, that\nhell itself was set forth by the valley of the sons of Hinnom and\nTophet, places in this country. Indeed, the whole, in a manner,\nwas a typical and a figurative thing.\n\nBut I have, in the ensuing discourse, confined myself to the\ntemple, that immediate place of God's worship; of whose utensils,\nin particular, as I have said, I have spoken, though to each\nwith what brevity I could, for that none of them are without a\nspiritual, and so a profitable signification to us. And here we\nmay behold much of the richness of the wisdom and grace of God;\nnamely, that he, even in the very place of worship of old, should\nordain visible forms and representations for the worshippers to\nlearn to worship him by; yea, the temple itself was, as to this,\nto them a good instruction.\n\nBut in my thus saying, I give no encouragement to any now, to\nfetch out of their own fancies figures or similitudes to worship\nGod by. What God provided to be an help to the weakness of his\npeople of old was one thing, and what they invented without his\ncommandment was another. For though they had his blessing when\nthey worshipped him with such types, shadows, and figures, which\nhe had enjoined on them for that purpose, yet he sorely punished\nand plagued them when they would add to these inventions of their\nown (Exo 32:35; 2 Kings 17:16-18; Acts 7:38-43). Yea, he, in the\nvery act of instituting their way of worshipping him, forbade\ntheir giving, in any thing, way to their own humours or fancies,\nand bound them strictly to the orders of heaven. 'Look,' said God\nto Moses, their first great legislator, 'that thou make all things\naccording to the pattern showed to thee in the mount' (Exo 25:40;\nHeb 8:5). Nor doth our apostle but take the same measures, when\nhe saith, 'If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual,\nlet him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the\ncommandments of the Lord' (1 Cor 14:37).\n\nWhen Solomon also, was to build this temple for the worship of\nGod, though he was wiser than all men, yet God neither trusted to\nhis wisdom nor memory, nor to any immediate dictates from heaven\nto him, as to how he would have him build it. No; he was to receive\nthe whole platform thereof in writing, by the inspiration of God.\nNor would God give this platform of the temple, and of its utensils,\nimmediately to this wise man, lest perhaps by others his wisdom\nshould be idolized, or that some should object, that the whole\nfashion thereof proceeded of his fancy, only he made pretensions\nof Divine revelation, as a cover for his doings\n\nTherefore, I say, not to him, but to his father David, was the\nwhole pattern of it given from heaven, and so by David to Solomon\nhis son, in writing. 'Then David,' says the text, 'gave to Solomon\nhis son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and\nof the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and\nof the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat,\nand the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts\nof the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of\nthe treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the\ndedicated things: also for the courses of the priests and the\nLevites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the\nLord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord'\n(1 Chron 28:11-13).\n\nYea, moreover, he had from heaven, or by Divine revelation, what\nthe candlesticks must be made of, and also how much was to go to\neach; the same order and commandment he also gave for the making\nof the tables, flesh-hooks, cups, basins, altar of incense, with\nthe pattern for the chariot of the cherubims, &c. (vv 14-19). 'All\nthis, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his\nhand upon me, even all the work of this pattern' (v 19). So, I say,\nhe gave David the pattern of the temple, so David gave Solomon the\npattern of the temple; and according to that pattern did Solomon\nbuild the temple, and no otherwise.\n\nTrue, all these were but figures, patterns, and shadows of things\nin the heavens, and not the very image of the things; but, as was\nsaid afore, if God was so circumspect and exact in these, as not\nto leave any thing to the dictates of the godly and wisest of men,\nwhat! can we suppose he will now admit of the wit and contrivance\nof men in those things that are, in comparison to them, the heavenly\nthings themselves? (Heb 8:5, 9:8-10,23, 10:1).\n\nIt is also to be concluded, that since those shadows of things\nin the heavens are already committed by God to sacred story; and\nsince that sacred story is said to be able to make the man of God\nperfect in all things--2 Timothy 3:15-17--it is duty to us to leave\noff to lean to common understandings, and to inquire and search\nout by that very holy writ, and nought else, by what and how we\nshould worship God. David was for inquiring in his temple (Psa\n27:4).\n\nAnd, although the old church-way of worship is laid aside as to\nus in New Testament times, yet since those very ordinances were\nfigures of things and methods of worship now; we may, yea, we ought\nto search out the spiritual meaning of them, because they serve\nto confirm and illustrate matters to our understandings. Yea, they\nshow us the more exactly how the New and Old Testament, as to the\nspiritualness of the worship, was as one and the same; only the\nold was clouded with shadows, but ours is with more open face.\n\nFeatures to the life, as we say, set out by a picture, do excellently\nshow the skill of the artist. The Old Testament had the shadow,\nnor have we but the very image; both then are but emblems of what\nis yet behind. We may find our gospel clouded in their ceremonies,\nand our spiritual worship set out somewhat by their carnal ordinances.\n\nNow, because, as I said, there lies, as wrapt up in a mantle, much\nof the glory of our gospel matters in this temple which Solomon\nbuilded; therefore I have made, as well as I could, by comparing\nspiritual things with spiritual, this book upon this subject.\n\nI dare not presume to say that I know I have hit right in every\nthing; but this I can say, I have endeavoured so to do. True, I\nhave not for these things fished in other men's waters; my Bible\nand Concordance are my only library in my writings. Wherefore,\ncourteous reader, if thou findest any thing, either in word or\nmatter, that thou shalt judge doth vary from God's truth, let it\nbe counted no man's else but mine. Pray God, also, to pardon my\nfault. Do thou, also, lovingly pass it by, and receive what thou\nfindest will do thee good.\n\nThy servant in the gospel,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\n\nSolomon's Temple Spiritualized\n\n\n'Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Isreal;--shew\nthem the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings\nout hereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof,\nand all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and\nall the laws thereof.'--Ezekiel 43:10, 11\n\n\nI. Where the Temple was built.\n\nThe temple was built at Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, in the\nthreshing-floor of Arnon the Jebusite; whereabout Abraham offered\nup Isaac; there where David met the angel of the Lord, when he\ncame with his drawn sword in his hand, to cut off the people at\nJerusalem, for the sin which David committed in his disorderly\nnumbering the people (Gen 22:3-5; 1 Chron 21:15, 21:12; 2 Chron\n3:1).\n\nThere Abraham received his Isaac from the dead; there the Lord\nwas entreated by David to take away the plague, and to return to\nIsrael again in mercy; from whence, also, David gathered that there\nGod's temple must be built. This, saith he, is the house of the\nLord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel\n(1 Chron 21:28, 22:1, 3:1).\n\nThis Mount Moriah, therefore, was a type of the Son of God, the\nmountain of the Lord's house, the rock against which the gates of\nhell cannot prevail.\n\nII. Who built the Temple.\n\nThe temple was builded by Solomon, a man peaceable and quiet; and\nthat in name, by nature, and in governing. For so God had before\ntold David, namely, that such a one the builder of the temple should\nbe. 'Behold,' saith he, 'a son shall be born to thee, who shall\nbe a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies\nround about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace\nand quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house\nfor my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father' (1\nChron 22:9,10; Psa 72:1-4).\n\nAs, therefore, Mount Moriah was a type of Christ, as the foundation,\nso Solomon was a type of him, as the builder of his church. The\nmount was signal,[1] for that thereon the Lord God, before Abraham\nand David, did display his mercy. And as Solomon built this\ntemple, so Christ doth build his house; yea, he shall build the\neverlasting temple, 'and he shall bear the glory' (Zech 6:12,13;\nHeb 3:3,4). And in that Solomon was called peaceable, it was\nto show with what peaceable doctrine and ways Christ's house and\nchurch should be built (Isa 9:6; Micah 4:2-4).\n\nIII. How the Temple was built.\n\nThe temple was built, not merely by the dictates of Solomon, though\nhe was wiser than Ethen, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, and\nall men (1 Kings 4:31). But it was built by rules prescribed by,\nor in a written word, and as so delivered to him by his father\nDavid.\n\nFor when David gave to Solomon his son a charge to build the temple\nof God, with that charge he gave him also the pattern of all in\nwriting; even a pattern of the porch, house, chambers, treasuries,\nparlours, &c., and of the place for the mercy-seat; which pattern\nDavid had of God; nor would God trust his memory with it. 'The\nLord made me,' said he, 'understand in writing, by his hand upon\nme, even all the works of their pattern.' Thus, therefore, David\ngave to Solomon his son the pattern of all; and thus Solomon his\nson built the house of God (1 Chron 28:9-20).\n\nAnd answerable to this, Christ Jesus, the builder of his own house,\nWHOSE HOSE ARE WE, doth build his holy habitation for him to dwell\nin; even according to the commandment of God the Father. For,\nsaith he, 'I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent\nme. He gave me a commandment what I should speak.' And hence it\nis said, God gave him the revelation; and again, that he took the\nbook out of the hand of him that sat on the throne; and so acted,\nas to the building up of his church (John 12:49,50; Rev 1:1, 5:5).\n\nIV. Of what the Temple was built.\n\nThe materials with which the temple was built, were such as were\nin their own nature common to that which was left behind; things\nthat naturally were not fit, without art, to be laid on so holy a\nhouse. And this shows that those of whom Christ Jesus designs to\nbuild his church, are by nature no better than others. But as the\ntrees and stones of which the temple was built, were first hewed\nand squared before they were fit to be laid in that house, so\nsinners, of which the church is to be built, must first be fitted\nby the word and doctrine, and then fitly laid in their place in\nthe church.\n\nFor though, as to nature, there is no difference betwixt those\nmade use of to build God's house with, yet by grace they differ\nfrom others; even as those trees and stones that are hewed and\nsquared for building, by art are made to differ from those which\nabide in the wood or pit.\n\nThe Lord Jesus, therefore, while he seeketh materials wherewith to\nbuild his house, he findeth them the clay of the same lump that\nhe rejecteth and leaves behind. 'Are we better than they? No, in\nno wise' (Rom 3:9). Nay, I think, if any be best, it is they which\nare left behind. 'He came not to call the righteous, but sinners\nto repentance' (Mark 2:17). And, indeed, in this he doth show both\nthe greatness of his grace and workmanship; his grace in taking\nsuch; and his workmanship in that he makes them meet for his holy\nhabitation.[2] This the current of Scripture maketh manifest;\nwherefore it is needless now to cite particulars: only we must\nremember, that none are laid in this building as they come out of\nthe wood or pit, but as they first pass under the hand and rule of\nthis great builder of the temple of God.\n\nV. Who was to fell those trees, and to dig those stones, with which\nSolomon built the Temple.\n\nAs the trees were to be felled, and stones to be digged, so there\nwas for that matter select workmen appointed.\n\nThese were not of the sons of Jacob nor of the house of Israel;\nthey were the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre, and the Gibeonites,\nnamely, their children that made a league with Joshua, in the day\nthat God gave the land of Canaan to his people (Josh 9:22-27; 1\nKings 5:1; 1 Chron 28, 29).\n\nAnd these were types of our gospel ministers, who are the men\nappointed by Jesus Christ to make sinners, by their preaching, meet\nfor the house of God. Wherefore, as he was famous of old who was\nstrong to lift up his axe upon the thick boughs to square wood for\nthe building of the temple; so a minister of the gospel now is\nalso famous, if much used by Christ for the converting of sinners\nto himself, that he may build him a temple with them (Psa 7:4-6;\nRom 16).\n\nBut why, may some say, do you make so homely a comparison? I\nanswer, because I believe it is true; for it is grace, not gifts,\nthat makes us sons, and the beloved of God. Gifts make a minister;\nand as a minister, one is but a servant to hew wood and draw water\nfor the house of my God. Yea, Paul, though a son, yet counted\nhimself not a son but a servant, purely as he was a minister. A\nservant of God, a servant of Christ, a servant of the church, and\nyour servants for Jesus' sake (Titus 1:1; Rom 1:1; Col 4:5).\n\nA man then is a son, as he is begotten and born of God to himself,\nand a servant as he is gifted for work in the house of his Father;\nand though it is truth the servant may be a son, yet he is not a\nson because he is a servant. Nor doth it follow, that because all\nsons may be servants, that therefore all servants are sons; no,\nall the servants of God are not sons; and therefore when time shall\ncome, he that is only a servant here, shall certainly be put out\nof the house, even out of that house himself did help to build.\n'The servant abideth not in the house for ever,' the servant, that\nis, he that is only so (Eze 46:16,17; John 8:35).\n\nSo then, as a son, thou art an Israelite; as a servant, a Gibeonite.\nThe consideration of this made Paul start; he knew that gifts made\nhim not a son (1 Cor 12:28-31, 13:1,2).\n\nThe sum then is, a man many be a servant and a son; a servant\nas he is employed by Christ in his house for the good of others;\nand a son, as he is a partaker of the grace of adoption. But all\nservants are not sons; and let this be for a caution, and a call\nto ministers, to do all acts of service for God, and in his house\nwith reverence and godly fear; and with all humility let us desire\nto be partakers ourselves of that grace we preach to others (1\nCor 9:25).\n\nThis is a great saying, and written perhaps to keep ministers\nhumble: 'And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the\nsons of the alien shall be your ploughman, and your vine-dressers'\n(Isa 61:5). To be a ploughman here is to be a preacher; and to be a\nvine-dresser here is to be a preacher (Luke 9:59-62; 1 Cor 9:7,27;\nMatt 20:1-4,8, 21:28). And if he does this work willingly, he has\na reward; if not, a dispensation of the gospel was committed to\nhim, and that is all (1 Cor 9:17).\n\nVI. In what condition the timber and stones were, when brought to\nbe laid in the building of the temple.\n\nThe timber and stones with which the temple was built, were squared\nand hewed at the wood or pit; and so there made every way fit for\nthat work, even before they were brought to the place where the\nhouse should be set up: 'So that there was neither hammer, nor axe,\nnor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building'\n(1 Kings 6:7).\n\nAnd this shows, as was said before, that the materials of which\nthe house was built were, before the hand of the workman touched\nthem, as unfit to be laid in the building as were those that were\nleft behind; consequently that themselves, none otherwise but by\nthe art of others, were made fit to be laid in this building.\n\nTo this our New Testament temple answers. For those of the sons\nof Adam who are counted worthy to be laid in this building, are\nnot by nature, but by grace, made meet for it; not by their own\nwisdom, but by the Word of God. Hence he saith, 'I have hewed them\nby the prophets.' And again, ministers are called God's builders\nand labourers, even as to this work (Hosea 6:5; 1 Cor 3:10; 2 Cor\n6:1; Col 1:28).\n\nNo man will lay trees, as they come from the wood, for beams and\nrafters in his house; nor stones, as digged in the walls. No; the\nstones must be hewed and squared, and the trees sawn and made\nfit, and so be laid in the house. Yea, they must be so sawn, and\nso squared, that in coupling they may be joined exactly; else\nthe building will not be good, nor the workman have credit of his\ndoings.\n\nHence our gospel-church, of which the temple was a type, is said\nto be fitly framed, and that there is a fit supply of every joint\nfor the securing of the whole (1 Peter 2:5; Eph 2:20,21, 4:16; Col\n2:19). As they therefore build like children, that build with wood\nas it comes from the wood or forest, and with stones as they come\nfrom the pit, even so do they who pretend to build God a house\nof unconverted sinners, unhewed, unsquared, unpolished. Wherefore\nGod's workmen, according to God's advice, prepare their work without,\nand make it fit for themselves in the field, and afterwards build\nthe house (Prov 24:27).\n\nLet ministers therefore look to this, and take heed, lest instead\nof making their notions stoop to the Word, they make the Scriptures\nstoop to their notions.\n\nVII. Of the foundation of the Temple.\n\nThe foundation of the temple is that upon which it stood; and it\nwas twofold: First, the hill Moriah, and then those great stones\nupon which it was erected. This hill Moriah, as was said afore, did\nmore properly typify Christ. Hence Moriah is called 'The Mountain\nof the house,' it being the rock on which it was built. Those great\nstones, called foundation-stones, were types of the prophets and\napostles (Matt 16:18; Eph 2:20,21; Heb 11:10). Wherefore these\nstones were stones of the biggest size, stones of eight cubits,\nand stones of ten cubits (1 Kings 7:10).\n\nNow, as the temple had this double foundation, so we must consider\nit respectively and distinctly; for Christ is the foundation one\nway, the prophets and apostles a foundation another. Christ is\nthe foundation personally and meritoriously; but the prophets and\napostles, by doctrine, ministerially. The church then, which is\nGod's New Testament temple, as it is said to be built on Christ the\nfoundation; so none other is the foundation but he (1 Cor 3:11,12).\nBut as it is said to be built upon the apostles, so it is said to\nhave twelve foundations, and must have none but they (Rev 21:14).\n\nWhat is it then? Why, we must be builded upon Christ, as he is\nour priest, sacrifice, prophet, king, and advocate; and upon the\nother, as they are infallible instructors and preachers of him;\nnot that any may be an apostle that so shall esteem of himself, nor\nthat any other doctrine be administered but what is the doctrine\nof the twelve; for they are set forth as the chief and last. These\nare also they, as Moses, which are to look over all the building,\nand to see that all in this house be done according to the pattern\nshowed to them in the mount (Exo 39:43; John 20:21-23; 1 Cor 3:9,\n4:9).\n\nLet us then keep these distinctions clear, and not put an apostle\nin the room of Christ, nor Christ in the place of one of those\napostles. Let none but Christ be the high-priest and sacrifice for\nyour souls to God; and none but that doctrine which is apostolical,\nbe to you as the mouth of Christ for instruction to prepare you,\nand to prepare materials for this temple of God, and to build them\nupon this foundation.\n\nVIII. Of the richness of the stones which were laid for the\nfoundations of the Temple.\n\nThese foundation stones, as they were great, so they were costly\nstones; though, as I said, of themselves, of no more worth than they\nof their nature that were left behind. Their costliness therefore,\nlay in those additions which they received from the king's charge.\n\nFirst, In that labour which was bestowed upon them in sawing,\nsquaring, and carving. For the servants, as they were cunning\nat this work, so they bestowed much of their art and labour upon\nthem, by which they put them into excellent form, and added to their\nbigness, glory, and beauty, fit for stones upon which so goodly\na fabric was to be built.\n\nSecondly, These stones, as they were thus wrought within and\nwithout, so, as it seems to me, they were inlaid with other stones\nmore precious than themselves. Inlaid, I say, with stones of divers\ncolours. According as it is written, I 'will lay thy foundations with\nsapphires' (Isa 54:11). Not that the foundations were sapphires,\nbut they were laid, inlaid with them; or, as he saith in another\nplace, 'They were adorned with goodly stones and gifts' (Luke\n21:5).\n\nThis is still more amplified, where it is written of the New\nJerusalem, which is still the New Testament church on earth, and\nso the same in substance with what is now. 'The foundations of\nthe wall of the city,' saith he, 'were garnished with all manner\nof precious stones' (Rev 21:19). True, these there are called\n'The foundations of the wall of the city,' but it has respect to\nthe matter in hand; for that which is before called a temple, for\nits comparative smallness, is here called a city, for or because\nof its great increase: and both the foundations of the wall of\nthe city, as well as of the temple, are 'the twelve apostles of\nthe Lamb' (Rev 21:14).\n\nFor these carvings and inlayings, with all other beautifications,\nwere types of the extraordinary gifts and graces of the apostles.\nHence the apostle calls such gifts signs of apostleship (Rom 15:19;\n2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:4). For as the foundation stones of the temple\nwere thus garnished, so were the apostles beautified with a call,\ngifts, and graces peculiar to themselves. Hence he says, 'First\napostles'; for that they were first and chief in the church of\nChrist (1 Cor 12:28).\n\nNor were these stones only laid for a foundation for the temple; the\ngreat court, the inner court, as also the porch of the temple, had\nround about them three rows of these stones for their foundation (1\nKings 7:12). Signifying, as it seems to me, that the more outward\nand external part, as well as that more internal worship to be\nperformed to God, should be grounded upon apostolical doctrine and\nappointments (1 Cor 3:10-12; 2 Thess 2:15, 3:6; Heb 6:1-4).\n\nIX. Which way the face or front of the Temple stood.\n\n1. The temple was built with its face or front towards the east,\nand that, perhaps, because the glory of the God of Israel was to\ncome from the way of the east into it (Eze 43:1-4, 47:1). Wherefore,\nin that its front stood toward the east, it may be to show that\nthe true gospel church would have its eye to, and expectation\nfrom, the Lord. We look, said Paul, but whither? We have 'our\nconversation,' said he, 'in heaven,' from whence our expectation\nis (2 Cor 4:18; Phil 3:20; Psa 62:5).\n\n2. It was set also with its face towards the east, to keep the people\nof God from committing of idolatry; to wit, from worshipping the\nhost of heaven, and the sun whose rising is from the east. For\nsince the face of the temple stood toward the east, and since the\nworshippers were to worship at, or with their faces towards the\ntemple, it follows that both in their going to, and worshipping\nGod towards that place, their faces must be from, and their backs\ntowards the sun.[3] The thus building of the temple, therefore, was\na snare to idolaters, and a proof of the zeal of those that were\nthe true worshippers; as also to this day the true gospel-instituted\nworship of Jesus Christ is. Hence he is said, to idolaters, to be\na snare and trap, but to the godly a glory (Isa 8:14, 60:19).\n\n3. Do but see how God catched the idolatrous Jews, by this means,\nin their naughtiness: 'And he brought me,' saith the prophet, 'into\nthe inner court of the Lord's house, and behold at the door of the\ntemple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about\nfive and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord,\nand their faces towards the east' (Eze 8:16). It was therefore,\nas I said, set with its face towards the east, to prevent false\nworship, and detect idolaters.\n\n4. From the east also came the most blasting winds, winds that\nare destructive to man and beasts, to fruit and trees, and ships\nat sea (Exo 10:13; Job 27:21; Eze 17:10, 19:12; Psa 48:7; Eze\n27:26). I say, the east wind, or that which comes from thence,\nis the most hurtful; yet you see, the temple hath set her face\nagainst it, to show that the true church cannot be blasted or\nmade turn back by any affliction. It is not east winds, nor none\nof their blastings, that can make the temple turn about. Hence\nhe saith that Jacob's face shall not wax pale. And again, 'I have\nmade thy face strong against their faces,' and that 'the gates\nof hell shall not prevail against it' (Isa 29:22; Eze 3:8; Matt\n16:18).\n\n5. It might be also built with its face towards the east, to show\nthat the true church looketh, as afore I hinted, for her Lord\nand King from heaven; knowing, that at his coming he will bring\nhealing in his wings; for from the east he will appear when he\ncomes the second time without sin unto salvation, of which the\nsun gives us a memento in his rising there every morning. 'For as\nthe lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the\nwest, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be' (Matt 24:27;\nMal 4:2; Heb 9:28; Col 3:4; 2 Peter 3:11-14).\n\n6. Christ, as the north pole, draws those touched with the load-stone\nof his word, with the face of their souls towards him, to look\nfor, and hasten to his coming. And this also is signified by the\ntemple standing with its face towards the east.\n\nX. Of the courts of the Temple.\n\nI perceive that there were two courts belonging to the temple. The\nfirst was called the outward court (Eze 40:7, 46:21).\n\n1. This was that into which the people of necessity first entered,\nwhen they went to worship in the temple; consequently that was it,\nin and by which the people did first show their desires to be the\nworshippers of God. And this answers to those badges and signs of\nlove to religion, that people have in face, or outward appearance\n(Matt 23:27; 2 Cor 10:7).\n\n2. In this, though there may sometimes be truth, yet oftener lies\nand dissimulation: wherefore commonly an outward appearance is set\nin opposition to faith and truth, as the outward is in opposition\nto the inner court, and outward to the inner man; and that is,\nwhen it is by itself, for then it profits nothing (Rom 2:28; 1\nCor 13:1-3; 2 Cor 5:12).\n\n3. Hence, though the outward court was something to the Jews,\nbecause by outward bodies they were distinguished from the Gentiles;\nyet to us it is little, for now 'he is not a Jew who is one only\noutwardly.' Therefore all the time of the Beast's reign, this\ncourt is given to be trodden under foot; for, as I said, outward\nshow will avail nothing, when the Beast comes to turn and toss up\nprofessors with his horns (Rev 11:10-12).\n\n4. But as there was an outward, so there was an inner court, a\ncourt that stood nearer the temple; and so to the true practical\npart of worship, than that outward court did (Eze 10:3, 46:1; 1\nKings 6:36).\n\n5. This inner court is that which is called 'the court of the priests,'\nbecause it was it in which they boiled the trespass-offerings, and\nin which they prepared the sin-offering for the people (2 Chron\n4:9; Eze 46:20).\n\n6. This court, therefore, was the place of practice and of preparation\nto appear before God, which is the first true token of a sincere\nand honest mind. Wherefore here, and not in the outward court,\nstood the great brazen altar, which was a type of Christ, by whom\nalone the true worshippers make their approach with acceptance\nunto God. Also here stood the great brazen scaffold, on which the\nking kneeled when he prayed for the people, a type of Christ's\nprayers for his when he was in the world (2 Chron 6:13; John 17).\n\n7. Wherefore this court was a type of practical worship, and so\nof our praying, hearing, and eating, before God. There belonged\nto this court several gates, an east, a south, and a north gate;\nand when the people of the land went into this court to worship,\nthey were not to go out at that gate by which they came in, but out\nof the gate over against it, to show that true Christians should\npersevere right on, and not turn back, whatever they meet with\nin the way. 'He that entereth in by the way of the north gate to\nworship, shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that\nentereth in by the way of the south gate, shall not return by the\nway of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against\nit' (Eze 46:9).\n\n8. These courts were places of great delight to the Jews, as both\nfeigned and sincere profession is to those that practice therein.\nWherefore, when the Jews did enter into these, they did use to do\nit with praise and pipe, as do both hypocrites and sincere one.\nSo then, when a man shall tread in both these courts, and shall\nturn what he seems to be, into what he should be in reality; then,\nand not till then, he treads them as he should; for then he makes\nthe outward court, and his treading there but a passage to that\nwhich is more inward and sincere. But he that stays in the outward\none is but such an one as pleases not God, for that he wants the\npractice of what he professes with his mouth.\n\nXI. Of the great brazen altar that stood in the inner court of the\nTemple.\n\n1. In the inner court stood the great brazen altar which Solomon\nmade. This is evident; for that when he kneeled upon the scaffold\nthere to pray, he kneeled before this altar. See Exodus 40:6, 29;\n2 Chronicles 6:13; 2 Kings 16:14; Joel 2:17.\n\n2. This altar seems to be placed about the middle of this court over\nagainst the porch of the house; and between it and the temple was\nthe place where Zechariah was slain. This altar was called 'the\naltar of burnt-offering,' and therefore it was a type of Christ in\nhis divinity. For Christ's body was our true burnt-offering, of\nwhich the bodies of the sacrificed beasts were a type; now that\naltar upon which his body was offered was his Divinity or Godhead;\nfor that, and that only, could bear up that offering in the whole\nof its suffering; and that therefore, and that only, was to receive\nthe fat, the glory. Hence it is said he, 'through the eternal\nSpirit, offered himself without spot to God' (Heb 9:14).\n\n3. For Christ is priest, and sacrifice, and altar, and all. And\nas a priest he offered, as a sacrifice he suffered, and as God\nhe supported his humanity, in that suffering of all the pains it\nunderwent (Gal 1:4, 2:20; 1 Peter 3:18; Heb 9:14).\n\n4. It was then Christ's Godhead, not the tree, that was the altar\nof burnt-offering, or that by which Christ offered himself an\noffering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.\n\n5. That it was not the tree, is evident, for that could not sanctify\nthe gift, to wit, his body; but Christ affirmeth, 'that the altar\nsanctifieth the gift.' And by so saying, he affirmeth that the\naltar on which he offered his offering was greater than the offering\nitself (Matt 23:19). Now the body of Christ was the gift; for so\nhe saith, I give my flesh for the life of the world (John 6).\n\nBut now, what thing is that which is greater than his body, save\nthe altar, his Divinity on which it was offered? The tree then\nwas not the altar which sanctified this gift, to make it of virtue\nenough to make reconciliation for iniquity (John 6:51, 17:19; Heb\n9:14; Col 1:19-21). Now, since this altar of burnt-offering was\nthus placed in the inner court, it teaches us several things:\n\nFirst, That those that come only into the outward court, or that\nrest in a bare appearance of Christianity, do not, by so doing,\ncome to Jesus Christ; for this altar stands not there. Hence John\ntakes notice only of the temple and this altar, and them that\nworship therein, and leaves out the outward court, and so them\nthat come no farther (Rev 11:1,2).\n\nSecond. This teaches us also that we are to enter into that temple\nof God by blood. The altar, this altar of burnt-offering, stood\nas men went into the temple; they must go by it; yea, there they\nmust leave their offering, and so go in and worship, even as a\ntoken that they came thither by sacrifice and by blood.\n\nThird. Upon this altar Solomon, at the dedication of the temple,\noffered thousands, both of oxen and of sheep, to signify, surely,\nthe abundant worth and richness that would be in the blood of Christ\nto save when it should be shed for us. For his blood is spoken of\nwith an 'how much more.' 'For if the blood of bulls and of goats,\nand the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth\nto the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of\nChrist, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without\nspot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the\nliving God!' (Heb 9:13,14, 11:12; 2 Chron 7:5-8).\n\nLet us then not dare to stop or stay in the outward court, for\nthere is not this altar. Nor let us dare, when we come into this\ncourt, to be careless whether we look to this altar or no. For\nit is by blood we must enter; 'for without shedding of blood is\nno remission.' Let us always then, when we come hither, wash our\nhands in innocency, and so compass this holy altar: for that by\nChrist, who is the altar indeed, we are reconciled to God. This\nis looking to Jesus; this is coming to God by him, of whom this\naltar and the sacrifice thereon was a type.\n\nXII. Of the pillars that were before the porch of the Temple.\n\nThere were divers pillars belonging to the temple; but in this\nplace we are confined to speak of only two; namely, those which\nstood before the temple.\n\nThese pillars stood before the porch or entrance into the temple,\nlooking towards the altar, the court, and them that were the\nworshippers there; also they were a grace and beauty to the front\nof the house.\n\n1. These pillars stood, one on the right hand and the other on the\nleft, at the door of the porch of the temple, and they had names\ngiven them, you may be sure, to signify something. The name of\nthat on the right hand was called Jachin, [God] shall establish;\nand the name of that on the left hand was Boaz, in it is strength\n(1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chron 3:17).\n\n2. These two pillars were types of Christ's apostles; of the apostles\nof circumcision, and of the uncircumcision. Therefore the apostle\nPaul also calleth them pillars (Gal 2), and saith that that pillar\non the right hand was a type of himself and his companions, who\nwere to go to the uncircumcised, and teach the Gentiles the way\nof life. When James, Cephas, and John, saith he, 'who seemed to\nbe pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave\nto me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should\ngo unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision' (Gal 2:9).\nSo then, these two pillars were types of these two order of the\napostles in this their divers service for God.[4]\n\n3. And that Paul and Barnabas were signified by those on the right\nhand, to wit, to be the apostles of the Gentiles, he showeth again,\nwhere he saith, I am 'the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,\nministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles\nmight be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost' (Rom\n11:13, 15:16).\n\n4. And since the name of this pillar was Jachin, shall attend it;\nso also, that God would bless his word preached by them to the\nGentiles, to the conversion of numbers of them, maugre the opposition\nof the enemy.\n\n5. This is further implied, for that they were made of brass; as\nhe saith of the prophet, I have made thee a fenced brazen wall,\nan iron pillar; and their fighting against thee shall nothing at\nall prevail (Jer 15:20). Wherefore Paul says of himself, 'I am\nset for the defence of the gospel,' 'that the truth thereof might\ncontinue with you' (Phil 1:17; Gal 2:5).\n\nXIII. Of the height of these pillars that thus stood before the\nporch of the door of the Temple.\n\nThe pillars were eighteen cubits high apiece, and that is as high,\nyea, as high again as the highest giant that ever we read of in\nthe Word; for the highest of which we read was but six cubits and\na span. True, the bedstead of Og was nine cubits long, but I trow\nthe giant himself was shorter (Deut 3:11; 2 Chron 3:15).[5] But\nput the longest to the longest, and set the one upon the shoulders\nof the other, and yet each pillar was higher than they.\n\nWe have now, as I know of, but few that remain of the remnant of\nthe giants; and though they boast as if they were higher than Aga,\nyet these pillars are higher than they. These pillars are the\nhighest; you may equal them; and an inch above is worth an ell\nbelow. The height therefore of these pillars is, to show us what\nhigh dignity God did put upon those of his saints whom he did call\nto be apostles of the Lamb: for their office and call thereto is\nthe highest in the church of God. These men, I say, were made thus\nhigh by their being cast in such a mould. Of that which added yet\nfurther to their height we will speak anon: we only speak now of\nthe high call by which they, and only they, were made capable of\napostolic authority. The apostles were sent immediately,[6] their\ncall was extraordinary, their office was universal; they had alike\npower in all churches, and their doctrine was infallible (Acts\n26:16; 1 Cor 9:1; Gal 1:1; 1 John 1:1; 3 John 2:23).\n\nAnd what can our pretended giants do or say in comparison of\nthese? The truth is, all other men to these are dwarfs, are low,\ndark, weak, and beneath, not only as to call and office, but also\nas to gifts and grace. This sentence, 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus\nChrist,' drowneth all! What now are all other titles of grandeur\nand greatness, when compared with this one sentence?\n\nTrue, the men were but mean in themselves; for what is Paul or\nwhat Apollos, or what was James or John? Yet by their call to that\noffice they were made highest of all in the church. Christ did raise\nthem eighteen cubits high; not in conceit; for so there are many\nhigher than they, but in office, and calling, and Divine authority.\n\nAnd observe it, these stand at the door, at the entering into the\ntemple of God, at which they enter that go in thither to worship God,\nto shew that all right worship, and that which will be acceptable\nto God, is by, or according to, their doctrine.\n\nXIV. Of the chapiters (capitals) of the pillars of the Temple.\n\nThere were also two chapiters made for the pillars of the temple;\nfor each, one; and they were five cubits high apiece. These were for\nthe adorning of the pillars, and therefore were types and shadows\nof that abundance of grace which God did put upon the apostles\nafter the resurrection of our Lord. Wherefore, as he saith here,\nthe chapiters were upon the pillars; so it saith that great grace\nwas upon all the apostles (Acts 4:33).\n\nThese chapiters had belonging to them a bowl made pummil-fashion,[7]\nand it was placed upon the head of them, perhaps to signify their\naptness to receive, and largeness to contain of the dew of heaven;\nthat shadow of the doctrine of the gospel; which doctrine the\napostles, as the chief, were to receive and hold forth to the world\nfor their conversion. Hence, as the bowls were capable to receive\nthe dew of heaven, these are said to receive 'grace and apostleship\nfor obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name' (Rom\n1:5; 1 Kings 7:16,42; 2 Chron 4:13; Deut 32:10; Rom 15:29).\n\nThere was also upon these chapiters a net-work, or nets like unto\nchequer-work, which still added to their lustre. These nets were\nthey which shewed for what intent the apostolical office was\nordained; namely, that by their preaching they might bring many\nsouls to God. And hence Christ calls them fishermen, saying, 'Ye\nshall catch men' (Matt 4:19; Mark 1:17; Luke 5:10; 2 Cor 12:16).\nThe world is compared to a sea, men to fishes, and the gospel to\na net (Eze 47:10-12; Matt 13:47-50). As therefore men catch fish\nwith a net, so the apostles caught men by their word, which word,\nas I told you, to me is signified by this net-work upon the top of\nthese pillars. See therefore the mystery of God in these things.\n\nXV. Of the pomegranates adjoined to these nets on the chapiters.\n\nThere were also joined to these nets upon the top of the pillars\npomegranates in abundance; four hundred for the net-work.\nPomegranates, you know, are beautiful to look on, pleasant to the\npalate, comfortable to the stomach, and cheering by their juice\n(1 Kings 7:42; Cant 4:3, 8:2, 4:13, 6:11, 7:12). There were to be\ntwo rows of thess pomegranates for one net-work, and so two rows\nof them for the other.\n\nAnd this was to show that the net of the gospel is not an empty\nthing; but is sufficiently baited with such varieties as are apt to\nallure the world to be catched by them. The law is but a sound of\nwords, but the gospel is not so; that is, baited with pomegranates;\nwith variety of excellent things. Hence it is called 'the gospel\nof the kingdom,' and 'the gospel of the grace of God,' because it\nis, as it were, baited with grace and glory, that sinners may be\nallured, and may be taken with it to their eternal salvation (Matt\n24:14; Acts 20:24).\n\nGrace and glory, grace and glory! these are the pomegranates with\nwhich the word of the gospel is baited, that sinners may be taken\nand saved thereby. The argument of old was 'milk and honey'; that\nwas, I say, the alluring bait, with which Moses drew six hundred\nthousand out of Egypt, into the wilderness of old (Exo 3:8). But\nbehold we have pomegranates, two rows of pomegranates; grace and\na kingdom, as the bait of the holy gospel; no wonder, then, if,\nwhen men of skill did cast this net into the sea, such numbers of\nfish have been catched, even by one sermon (Acts 2). They baited\ntheir nets with taking things, things taking to the eye and taste.\n\nNets are truly instruments of death, but the net of the gospel doth\ncatch to draw from death; wherefore this net is contrary; life and\nimmortality is brought to light through this. No marvel, then, if\nmen are so glad, and that for gladness they leap like fishes in\na net, when they see themselves catched in this drag of the holy\ngospel of the Son of God. They are catched from death and hell,\ncatched to live with God in glory!\n\nXVI. Of the chains that were upon these pillars that stood before\nthe Temple.\n\nAs there were nets to catch, and pomegranates to bait, so there\nwere chains belonging to these chapiters on these pillars. 'And he\nmade chains, as in the oracle, and put them upon the head of the\n[pillars],' or chapiters (2 Chron 3:16).\n\nBut what were these chains a type of? I answer, they were, perhaps,\na type of those bonds which attend the gospel, by which souls\ntaken are tied fast to the horns of the altar. Gospel grace, and\ngospel obligations, are ties and binding things; they can hold\nthose that are entangled by the word. 'Love is strong as death';\nbands of love, and the cords of a man, and chains take hold on\nthem that are taken by the gospel (Hosea 11; Cant 8:6).\n\nBut this strength to bind lieth not in outward force, but in a\nsweet constraint, by virtue of the displays of undeserved love.\n'The love of Christ constraineth us' (2 Cor 5:14). Wherefore as\nyou find the nets, so the chains had pomegranates on them. 'And'\nhe 'made an hundred pomegranates, and put them upon the chains'\n(2 Chron 3:16). The chains then had baits, as well as the nets,\nto show that the bands of the gospel are unresistible goodnesses;\nsuch with which men love to be bound, and such as they pray they\nmay be held fast by. He binds his foal to the vine; his saint unto\nthis Saviour (Gen 49:11).\n\nBy these chains there is therefore showed what strength there\nis in gospel-charms, if once the adder doth but hear them. Never\nman yet was able to resist them that well did know the meaning of\nthem. They are mighty to make poor men obedient, and that in word\nand deed. These chains were such as were in the oracle, to show\nthat gospel bonds are strong as the joys of heaven, and as the\nglories there; can make them chains as in the oracle, as in the\nmost holy place. It is heaven that binds sinners on earth to the\nfaith and hope of the gospel of Christ.\n\nXVII. Of the lily work which was upon the chapiters, that were\nupon these pillars of the Temple.\n\nThese pillars were also adorned with lily work, as well as with\npomegranates and chains. 'The chapiters that were upon the top of\nthe pillars were of lily work'; 'so was the work of the pillars\nfinished' (1 Kings 7:19-22).\n\nThis lily work is here put in on purpose, even to show us how far\noff those that were to be the true apostles of the Lamb should be\nfrom seeking carnal things, or of making their prevailing[8] a\nstalking-horse to worldly greatness, and that preferment. There\nwas lily work upon them; that is, they lived upon the bounty and\ncare of God, and were content with that glory which he had put\nupon them. 'The lilies,' saith Christ, 'they toil not, neither do\nthey spin, and yet--Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like\none of these' (Matt 6:28,29; Luke 12:27-29). Thus, therefore, these\npillars show, that as the apostles should be fitted and qualified\nfor their work, they should be also freed from cares and worldly\ncumber; they should be content with God's providing for them, even\nas the goodly lilies are. And as thus prepared, they were set in\nthe front of the house, for all ministers to see and learn, and\ntake example of them how to behave themselves as to this world in\nthe performing of their office.\n\nAnd that which gives us further light in this is, that this lily\nwork is said, by divine institution, to be placed 'over against the\nbelly,' the belly of the pillars, a type of ours (1 Kings 7:20).\nThe belly is a craving thing; and these things, saith the text,\nwere placed over against the belly, to teach that they should not\nhumour, but put check unto the havings and cravings of the belly;\nor to show that they need not do it, for that he that calls to\nhis work will himself provide for the belly. It is said of the\nchurch, that 'her belly is like a heap of wheat set about with\nlilies' (Cant 7:2). To show that she should without covetousness\nhave sufficient, if she would cast all her care upon God, her great\nprovider. This the apostles did, and this is their glory to this\nday.\n\n'So was the work of the pillars finished.' To live lily lives,\nit seems, is the glory of an apostle, and the completing of their\noffice and service for God. But this directly opposite to the\nbelly, over against the belly, and this makes it the harder work.\nBut yet, so living is the way to make all that is done sweet-scented,\nto those that be under this care. Covetousness makes a minister\nsmell frowish,[9] and look more like a greedy dog, than an apostle\nof Jesus Christ. Judas had none of this lily work; so his name\nstinks to this day. 'He that grows like the lily shall cast forth\nhis scent like Lebanon, his branches shall spread, and his beauty\nshall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon' (Hosea\n14:6). Thus lived Christ, first; and thus the apostles, next; nor\ncan any other as to this, live like, or be compared to them. They\ncoveted no man's silver or gold, or apparel. They lived like lilies\nin the world, and did send forth their scent as Lebanon.\n\nThus you see of whom these pillars were a shadow, and what their\nheight, their chapiters, their bowls, their nets, their chains,\ntheir pomegranates, and their lily work did signify, and how all\nwas most sweetly answered in the antitype. These were men of the\nfirst rate; the apostles, I mean, were such.\n\nXVIII. Of the fashion of the Temple.\n\nOf the length and breadth of the temple I shall say nothing; but as\nto the height thereof, there methinks I see something. The temple\nwas higher than the pillars, and so is the church than her officers;\nI say, consider them singly as officers, though inferior as to\ngifts and office; for, as I said before of ministers in general,\nso now I say the same of the apostles, though as to office they\nwere the highest, yet the temple is above them. Gifts and office\nmake no men sons of God; as so, they are but servants, though these\nwere servants of the highest form. It is the church, as such, that\nis the lady, a queen, the bride, the Lamb's wife; and prophets,\napostles, and ministers, &c., are but servants, stewards, labourers\nfor her good (Psa 45:9; Rev 19:7; 1 Cor 3:5, 4:1,2). As therefore\nthe lady is above the servant, the queen above the steward, or\nthe wife above all her husband's officers, so is the church, as\nsuch, above these officers. The temple was higher than the pillars.\n\nAgain, as the temple was highest, so it enlarged itself upward;\nfor as it ascended in height, so it still was wider and wider;\neven from the lowest chambers to the top.\n\nThe first chambers were but five cubits broad, the middle ones\nwere six, but the highest were seven cubits (1 Kings 6:5,6). The\ntemple therefore was round about above some cubits wider than it\nwas below; for 'there was an enlarging and winding about still\nupward to the side chambers, for the winding about--went still\nupward round about the house; therefore the breadth of the house\nwas still upward, and so increased from the lowest chambers to the\nhighest, by the midst' (Eze 41:7).\n\nAnd this was to show us that God's true gospel temple, which is\nhis church, should have its enlargedness of heart still upward, or\nmost for spiritual and eternal things: wherefore he saith, 'Thy\nheart shall fear and be enlarged,' that is, be most affected with\nthings above, 'where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God'\n(Isa 60:5; Col 3:1). Indeed it is the nature of grace to enlarge\nitself still upward, and to make the heart widest for the things\nthat are above. The temple therefore was narrowest downwards, to\nshow that a little of earth, or this world, should serve the church\nof God. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.\n\nBut now, upwards, and as to heavenly things, we are commanded to\nbe covetous, as to them, and after them to enlarge ourselves, both\nby the fashion of the temple, as by express words (1 Kings 4:29;\nIsa 60:5; Phil 3:14; 1 Cor 12:31; 1 Tim 6:8; Psa 119:32).\n\nSince, then, the temple was widest upward, let us imitate it, and\nhave our conversation in heaven. Let our eyes, our ears, our hands,\nand hearts, our prayers, and groans, be most for things above. Let\nus open our mouths, as the ground that is chapt doth for the latter\nrain, for the things that are eternal (Job 29:23; Psa 81:10).\n\nObserve again, that the lowest parts of the temple were the narrowest\npart of the temple; so those in the church who are nearest, or\nmost concerned with earth, are the most narrow-spirited as to the\nthings of God. But now let even such a one be taken up higher, to\nabove, to the uppermost parts of the temple, and there he will be\nenlarged, and have his heart stretched out. For the temple, you\nsee, was widest upwards; the higher, the more it is enlarged. Paul\nbeing once caught up into paradise, could not but be there enlarged\n(2 Cor 12).\n\nOne may say of the fashion of the temple, as some say of a lively\npicture, it speaks. I say, its form and fashion speaks; it says to\nall saints, to all the churches of Christ, open your hearts for\nheaven, be ye enlarged upwards!\n\nI read not in Scripture of any house, but this that was thus\nenlarged upwards; nor is there anywhere, save only in the church\nof God, that which doth answer this similitude. All other are\nwidest downward, and have the largest heart for earthly things.\nThe church only is widest upward, and has its greatest enlargements\ntowards heaven.\n\nXIX. Of the outward glory of the Temple.\n\nI do also think that as to this, there was a great expression in\nit; I mean, a voice of God, a voice that teacheth the New Testament\nchurch to carry even conviction in her outward usages that, I\nsay, might give conviction to the world. And besides this of its\nenlarging upwards, there was such an outward beauty and glory put\nupon it, as was alluring to beholders. The stones were curiously\ncarved, and excellently joined together; its outward show was white\nand glittering, to the dazzling of the eyes of the beholders; yea,\nthe disciples themselves were taken with it, it was so admirable\nto behold. Hence it is said, they came to Christ to show him the\nbuilding of the temple.'Master,' said they, 'see what manner of\nstones, and what buildings are here' (Matt 24:1; Mark 13:1; Luke\n21:5). And hence it is said, that kings, and the mighty of the\nearth, were taken with the glory of it. 'Because of thy temple at\nJerusalem, shall kings bring presents unto thee'; as it is (Psa\n68:29,31).\n\nKings, Gentile kings, they shall be so taken with the sight of the\noutward glory of it; for they were not suffered to go into it;\nno uncircumcised were admitted in thither. It was therefore the\noutward glory of it with which the beholders were thus taken.\n\nHer enlarging upward, as that was to show us what the inward\naffections of Christian should be, so her curious outward adorning\nand beauty was a figure of the beauteous and holy conversation of\nthe godly (Col 3:1-3). And it is brave, when the world are made to\nsay of the lives and conversations of saints, as they were made\nto say of the stones and outward building of the temple, Behold,\nwhat Christians, and what goodly conversations are here! I say\nit is brave when our light so shines before men, that they seeing\nour good works shall be forced to glorify our Father which is in\nheaven (Matt 5:16).\n\nHence this is called our adorning wherewith we adorn the gospel,\nand that by which we beautify it (Titus 2:10). This, I say, is\ntaking to beholders, as was this goodly outside of the temple. And\nwithout this, what is to be seen in the church of God? Her inside\ncannot be seen by the world, but her outside may. Now, her outside\nis very homely, and without all beauty, save that of the holy\nlife; this only is her visible goodliness. This puts to silence\nthe ignorance of foolish men. This allureth others to fall in\nlove with their own salvation, and makes them fall in with Christ\nagainst the devil and his kingdom.\n\nXX. Of the porch of the Temple.\n\nWe come next to the porch of the temple that is commonly called\nSolomon's. 1. This porch was in the front of the house, and so\nbecame the common way into the temple (1 Kings 6:3; 2 Chron 3:4).\n2. This porch therefore was the place of reception in common for\nall, whether Jews or religious proselytes, who came to Jerusalem\nto worship (Acts 3:11, 5:12). 3. This porch had a door or gate\nbelonging to it, but such as was seldom shut, except in declining\ntimes, or when men put themselves into a rage against those better\nthan themselves (2 Chron 29:7; Acts 21:28-30). 4. this gate of\nthis porch was called Beautiful, even the Beautiful gate of the\ntemple, and was that at which the lame man lay, to beg for an alms\nof them that went in thither to worship (Acts 3:1,2,10).\n\nNow then, since this porch was the common place of reception for\nall worshippers, and the place also where they laid the beggars,\nit looks as if it were to be a type of the church's bosom for\ncharity. Here the proselytes were entertained, here the beggars\nwere relieved, and received alms. These gates were seldom shut;\nand the houses of Christian compassion should be always open.\nThis therefore beautified this gate, as charity beautifies any\nof the churches. Largeness of heart, and tender compassion at the\nchurch-door, is excellent; it is the bond of perfectness (1 Cor\n12:31, 13:1-4; Heb 13:1-3; John 5:6,7; Col 3:14).\n\nThe church-porch to this day is a coming in for beggars, and perhaps\nthis practice at first was borrowed from the beggars lying at the\ntemple-gate. This porch was large, and so should the charity of\nthe churches be. It was for length the breadth of the temple, and\nof the same size with 'the Holiest of all' (1 Kings 6:3; 2 Chron\n3:4). The first might be to teach us in charity we should not be\nniggardly, but, according to the breadth of our ability, we should\nextend it to all the house; and that in our so doing, the very\nemblem of heaven is upon us, of which the holiest was a figure.\n'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all,' &c.\n(Gal 6:10).\n\nIt is a fine ornament to a true church to have a large church-porch,\nor a wide bosom, for reception of all that come thither to worship.[10]\nThis was commanded to the Jews, and their glory shone when they\ndid accordingly: 'And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe\nthe stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance,\nsaith the Lord God' (Eze 47:23).\n\nThis porch was, as I said, not only for length the breadth of the\ntemple, and so the length and breadth of the holiest; but it was, if\nI mistake not, for height far higher than them both: for the holy\nplace was but thirty cubits high, and the most holy but twenty;\nbut the porch was in height an hundred and twenty cubits. This\nbeautiful porch, therefore, was four times as high as was the\n[oracle in] temple itself (1 Kings 6:2,20; 2 Chron 3:4).\n\nOne excellent ornament, therefore, of this temple was, for that it\nhad a porch so high, that is, so famous for height; hence he says,\n'This house that is so high,' that is so famous for height. So high\nas to be seen afar off. Charity, if it be rich, runs up from the\nchurch like a steeple, and will be seen afar off; I say, if it be\nrich, large, and abounds. Christ's charity was blazed abroad; it\nwas so high no man could hide it: and the charity of the churches\nwill be seen from church to church, yea, and will be spoken of to\ntheir commendations in every place, if it be warm, fervent, and\nhigh (Mark 7:36-44; 2 Cor 8:24, 9:2,13,14).\n\nXXI. Of the ornaments of the porch of the Temple.\n\nThere were three things belonging to the porch, besides its height,\nthat were ornaments unto it. 1. It was overlaid within with gold.\n2. It had the pillars adjoined unto it. 3. It was the inlet into\nthe temple.\n\nFirst. It was overlaid with gold. Gold ofttimes was a type of grace,\nand particularly of the grace of love. That in Solomon's chariot\ncalled gold is yet again mentioned by the name love (Cant 3:9,10).\nAs it is in the church, the grace of love is as gold. It is the\ngreatest, the richest of graces, and that which abides for ever.\nHence they that show much love to saints are said to be rich (1\nTim 6:17-19). And hence charity is called a treasure, a treasure\nin the heavens (Luke 12:33,34). Love is a golden grace; let then\nthe churches, as the porch of the temple was, be inlaid with love,\nas gold.\n\nSecond. It had the pillars adjoined to it, the which, besides their\nstateliness, seem to be there typically to example. For there was\nseen, by the space of four cubits, their lily-work in the porch\n(1 Kings 7:19). Of their lily-work I spake before. Now that they\nwere so placed that they might be seen in the porch of the house,\nit seems to be for example, to teach the church, that she should\nlive without worldly care, as did the apostles, the first planters\nof the church. And let ministers do this; they are now the pillars\nof the churches, and they stand before the porch of the house;\nlet them also show their lily-work to the house, that the church\nmay learn of them to be without carefulness as to worldly things,\nand also to be rich in love and charity towards the brethren. A\ncovetous minister is a base thing, a pillar more symbolizing Lot's\nwife than an holy apostle of Jesus Christ; let them, since they\nstand at the door, and since the eyes of all in the porch are\nupon them, be patterns and examples of good works (1 Tim 6:10-12;\nTitus 2:7).\n\nThird. Another ornament unto this porch was, that it was an inlet\ninto the temple. Charity is it which receiveth orphans, that\nreceiveth the poor and afflicted into the church. Worldly love, or\nthat which is carnal, shuts up bowels, yea, and the church-doors\ntoo, against the poor of the flock; wherefore look that this kind\nof love be never countenanced by you. Crave that rather which is a\nfruit of the Spirit. O churches, let your ministers be beautified\nwith your love, that they may beautify you with their love; and\nalso be an ornament unto you, and to that Gospel they minister to\nyou, for Jesus Christ's sake.\n\nXXII. Of the ascent by which they went up into the porch of the\nTemple.\n\n1. This porch also had certain steps, by which they went up into\nthe house of the Lord. I know not directly the number of them;\nthough Ezekiel speaks something about it (Eze 40:38,39). Hence,\nwhen men went to worship in the temple, they were said to go UP\ninto the house of the Lord (Isa 38:22).\n\nThese steps, which were the ascent to the temple, were so curiously\nset, and also so finely wrought, that they were amazing to behold.\nWherefore, when the queen of Sheba, who came to prove Solomon's\nwisdom, saw 'the house which he had built,--and his ascent by which\nhe went up into the house of the Lord, she had no more spirit in\nher.' She was by that sight quite drowned, and overcome (1 Kings\n10:4,5).\n\n2. These steps, whether cedar, gold, or stone, yet that which added\nto their adornment was the wonderment of a queen. And whatever they\nwere made of, to be sure they were a shadow of those steps which\nwe should take to and in the house of God. Steps of God (Psa 85:13).\nSteps ordered by him (Psa 37:23). Steps ordered in his word (Psa\n119:133). Steps of faith (Rom 4:12) Steps of the Spirit (2 Cor\n12:18) Steps of truth (3 John 4). Steps washed with butter (Job\n29:6). Steps taken before, or in the presence of, God. Steps butted\nand bounded by a divine rule. These are steps indeed.\n\n3. There are therefore no such steps as these to be found any where\nin the world. A step to honour, a step to riches, a step to worldly\nglory, these are everywhere; but what are these to the steps by\nwhich men do ascend or go up to the house of the Lord!\n\nHe then that entereth into the house of the Lord is an ascending\nman; as it is said of Moses, he went up into the mount of God. It\nis ascending to go into the house of God. The world believe not\nthis; they think it is going downward to go up to the house of\nGod; but they are in a horrible mistake.\n\nThe steps then by which men went up into the temple are, and ought\nto be, opposed to those which men take to their lusts and empty\nglories. Hence such steps are said not only to decline from God,\nbut to take hold of the path to death and hell (Psa 44:18; Prov\n2:18, 5:5, 7:25-27).\n\nThe steps, then, by which men went up to the house of the Lord,\nwere significative of those steps which men take when they go to\nGod, to heaven, and glory: for these steps were the way to God, to\nGod in his holy temple.\n\nBut how few are there that, as the queen of the south, are taken\nwith these goodly steps! Do not most rather seek to push away our\nfeet from taking hold of the path of life, or else lay snares for\nus in the way? But all these notwithstanding, the Lord guide us\nin the way of his steps: they are goodly steps, they are the best.\n\nXXIII. Of the gate of the porch of the Temple.\n\n1. The porch, at which was an ascent to the temple, had a gate\nbelonging to it. This gate, according to the prophet Ezekiel, was\nsix cubits wide. The leaves of this gate were double, one folding\nthis way, the other folding that (Eze 40:48).\n\nNow here some may object, and say, Since the way to God by these\ndoor were so wide, why doth Christ say the way and gate is narrow?\n\nAnsw. The straitness, the narrowness, must not be understood of the\ngate simply, but because of that cumber that some men carry with\nthem, that pretend to be going to heaven. Six cubits! What is\nsixteen cubits to him who would enter in here with all the world on\nhis back? The young man in the gospel, who made such a noise for\nheaven, might have gone in easy enough; for in six cubits breadth\nthere is room: but, poor man, he was not for going in thither,\nunless he might carry in his houses upon his shoulder too, and\nnow the gate was strait (Mark 10:17-27). Wherefore he that will\nenter in at the gate of heaven, of which this gate into the temple\nwas a type, must go in by himself, and not with his bundles of\ntrash on his back;[11] and if he will go in thus, he need not fear\nthere is room. 'The righteous nation that keepeth the truth, they\nshall enter in' (Isa 26:2).\n\n2. They that enter in at the gate of the inner court must be clothed\nin fine linen: how then shall they go into the temple that carry\nthe clogs of the dirt of this world at their heels? 'Thus saith\nthe Lord God; No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised\nin flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary' (Eze 44:9).\n\n3. The wideness therefore of this gate is for this cause here made\nmention of, to wit, to encourage them that would gladly enter\nthereat, according to the mind of God, and not to flatter them that\nare not for leaving of all for God.\n\n4. Wherefore let such as would go in remember that here is room,\neven a gate to enter in at six cubits wide. We have been all this\nwhile but on the outside of the temple, even in the courts of the\nhouse of the Lord, to see the beauty and glory that is there. The\nbeauty hereof made men cry out, and say, 'How amiable are thy\ntabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth\nfor the courts of the Lord'; and to say, 'a day in thy courts is\nbetter than a thousand' (Psa 84:1,2,&c.).\n\nXXIV. Of the pinnacles of the Temple.\n\n1. There were also several pinnacles belonging to the temple. These\npinnacles stood on the top aloft in the air, and were sharp, and\nso difficult to stand upon: what men say of their number and length\nI wave, and come directly to their signification.\n\n2. I therefore take those pinnacles to be types of those lofty airy\nnotions with which some men delight themselves, while they hover,\nlike birds, above the solid and godly truths of Christ. Satan\nattempted to entertain Christ Jesus with this type, and antitype,\nat once, when he set him on one of the pinnacles of the temple, and\noffered to thrust him upon a false confidence in God, by a false\nand unsound interpretation of a text (Matt 4:5,6; Luke 4:9-11).\n\n3. You have some men cannot be content to worship IN the temple, but\nmust be aloft; no place will serve them but pinnacles, pinnacles;\nthat they may be speaking in and to the air, that they may be promoting\ntheir heady notions, instead of solid truth; not considering that\nnow they are where the devil would have them be; they strut upon\ntheir points, their pinnacles; but let them look to it, there is\ndifficulty standing upon pinnacles; their neck, their soul, is in\ndanger. We read, God is in his temple, not upon these pinnacles\n(Psa 11:4; Hab 2:20).\n\n4. It is true, Christ was once upon one of these; but the devil\nset him there, with intent to have dashed him in pieces by a fall;\nand yet even then told him, if he would venture to tumble down,\nhe should be kept from dashing his foot against a stone. To be\nthere, therefore, was one of Christ's temptations; consequently\none of Satan's stratagems; nor went he thither of his own accord,\nfor he knew that there was danger; he loved not to clamber pinnacles.\n\n5. This should teach Christians to be low and little in their own\neyes, and to forbear to intrude into airy and vain speculations,\nand to take heed of being puffed up with a foul and empty mind.[12]\n\nXXV. Of the porters of the Temple.\n\n1. There were porters belonging to the temple. In David's time\ntheir number was four thousand men (1 Chron 23:5).\n\n2. The porters were of the Levites, and their work was to watch\nat every gate of the house of the Lord; at the gate of the outer\ncourt, at the gates of the inner court, and at the door of the\ntemple of the Lord (2 Chron 35:15).\n\n3. The work of the porters, or rather the reason of their watching,\nwas to look that none not duly qualified entered into the house\nof the Lord. 'He set,' saith the text, 'the porters at the gates\nof the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in any thing\nshould enter in' (2 Chron 23:19).\n\n4. The excellency of the porters lay in these three things, their\nwatchfulness, diligence, and valour, to make resistance to those\nthat, as unfit, would attempt to enter those courts and the house\nof God (1 Chron 26:6; Mark 13:34).\n\n5. These porters were types of our gospel ministers, as they are\nset to be watchmen in and over the church, and the holy things\nof God. Therefore as Christ gives to every man in the church his\nwork, so he commands 'the porter to watch' (Isa 21:11; Eze 3:17,\n33:7; Acts 20:27-31; 2 Tim 4:5; Rev 2:2,3).\n\n6. Sometimes every awakened Christian is said to be a porter,\nand such at Christ's first knock open unto him immediately (Luke\n12:35-40).\n\n7. The heart of a Christian is also sometimes called the porter;\nfor that when the true shepherd comes to it, to him this porter\nopeneth also (John 10:3).\n\n8. This last has the body for his watch-house; the eyes and ears\nfor his port-holes; the tongue therewith to cry, Who comes there?\nas also to call for aid, when anything unclean shall attempt with\nforce and violence to enter in, to defile the house.\n\nXXVI. Of the charge of the porters of the Temple more particularly.\n\n1. The charge of the porters was, to keep their watch, in four\nsquare, even round about the temple of God. Thus it was ordained\nby David, before him by Moses, and after him by Solomon his son\n(1 Chron 9:24; Num 3; 2 Chron 23:19, 35:15).\n\n2. The porters had some of them the charge of the treasure-chambers;\nsome of them had the charge of the ministering vessels, even to\nbring them in and out by tale; also the opening and shutting of\nthe gates of the house of the Lord was a part of their calling and\noffice.\n\n3. I told you, the porters were types of our gospel ministers, as\nthey are watchmen in and over the house of God; and therefore in\nthat they were thus to watch round about the temple, what is it but\nto show how diligent Satan is, to see if he may get in somewhere,\nby some means, to defile the church of God; he goes round and round\nand round us, to see if he can find a hog-hole for that purpose.\n\n4. This also showeth that the church of itself, without its watchmen,\nis a weak, feeble, and very helpless thing. What can the lady or\nmistress do to defend herself against thieves and sturdy villains,\nif there be none but she at home? It is said, when the shepherd\nis smitten, the sheep shall be scattered. What could the temple\ndo without its watchmen?\n\n5. Again, in that the porters had charge of the treasure-chambers\nas it is (1 Chron 9:26), it is to intimate, that the treasures of\nthe gospel are with the ministers of our God, and that the church,\nnext to Christ, should seek them at their mouth. 'We have this\ntreasure in earthen vessels,' saith Paul, and they are 'stewards\nof the' manifold 'mysteries of God' (1 Cor 4:1; 2 Cor 4:7; 1 Peter\n4:10; Eph 4:11-13).\n\n6. These are God's true scribes, and bring out of their treasury\nthings new and old; or, as he saith in another place, 'At our gates,'\nthat is, where our porters watch, 'are all manner of pleasant\nfruits, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved' (Cant 7:13;\nMatt 13:52).\n\n7. Further, some of them had charge of the ministering vessels, and\nthey were to bring them in and out by tale (1 Chron 9:28). (1.) If\nby ministering vessels you understand gospel ordinances, then you\nsee who has the charge of them, to wit, the watchmen and ministers\nof the word (Luke 1:12; 2 Thess 2:15; 2 Tim 2:2). (2.) If by\nministering vessels you mean the members of the church, for they\nare also ministering vessels, then you see who has the care of\nthem, to wit, the pastors, the gospel ministers. Therefore 'obey\nthem that have the rule over you--for they watch for your souls,\nas they that must give account; that they may do it with joy, and\nnot with grief, for that is unprofitable for you' (Heb 13:17).\n\n8. The opening of the gates did also belong to the porters, to\nshow that the power of the keys, to wit, of opening and shutting,\nof letting in and keeping out of the church, doth ministerially\nbelong to these watchmen (Matt 16:19; Heb 12:15).\n\n9. The conclusion is, then let the churches love their pastors, hear\ntheir pastors, be ruled by their pastors, and suffer themselves to\nbe watched over, and to be exhorted, counselled, and if need be,\nreproved, and rebuked by their pastors.[13] And let the ministers\nnot sleep, but be watchful, and look to the ordinances, to the\nsouls of the saints, and the gates of the churches. Watchman,\nwatchman, watch!\n\nXXVII. Of the doors of the Temple.\n\nNow we are come to the gate of the temple; namely, to that which\nlet out of the porch into the holy place.\n\n1. These doors or gates were folding, and they opened by degrees.\nFirst, a quarter, and then a half, after that three quarters, and\nlast of all the whole. These doors also hanged upon hinges of gold,\nand upon posts made of the goodly olive tree (1 Kings 6:33,34;\nEze 41:23,24).\n\n2. These doors did represent Christ, as he is the way to the Father,\nas also did the door of the tabernacle, at which the people were\nwont to stand when they went to inquire of God. Wherefore, Christ\nsaith, 'I am the door,' alluding to this, 'by me if any man enter\nhe shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture' (Exo\n33:9,10, 38:8, 40:12; Lev 1:3,4, 8:3,4,33, 15:14; Num 6:13,18,\n10:3, 25:6, 27:2; 1 Sam 2:22; John 10:9). (1.) 'I am the door.'\nThe door into the court, the door into the porch, the door into\nthe temple, the door into the holiest, the door to the Father. But\nnow we are at the door of the temple. (2.) And observe it, this\ndoor by Solomon was not measured as the door of the porch was:\nfor though the door into the court, and the door into the porch\nwere measured, to show that the right to ordinances and the inlet\ninto the church is to be according to a prescript rule, yet this\ndoor was not measured; to show that Christ, as he is the inlet to\nsaving grace, is beyond all measure, and unsearchable. Hence his\ngrace is called 'unsearchable riches,' and that above all we can\nask or think, for that it passeth knowledge (Eph 3:8,19,20).\n\n3. It is, therefore, convenient that we put a note upon this, that\nwe may distinguish rule and duty from grace and pardoning mercy;\nfor as I said, though Christ, as the door to outward privileges,\nis set forth by rule and measure; yet, as he is the door to grace\nand favour, never creature, as yet, did see the length and breadth\nof him (Eph 3:17,19).[14]\n\n4. Therefore, I say, this gate was not measured; for what should\na rule do here, where things are beyond all measure?\n\n5. This gate being also to open by degrees, is of signification\nto us; for it will be opening first by one fold, then by another,\nand yet will never be set wide, wide open, until the day of judgment.\nFor then, and not till then, will the whole of the matter be open.\n'For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:\nnow I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known'\n(1 Cor 13:12).\n\nXXVIII. Of the leaves of this gate of the Temple.\n\nThe leaves of this gate or door, as I told you before, were folding,\nand so, as was hinted, has something of signification in them.\nFor by this means a man, especially a young disciple, may easily\nbe mistaken; thinking that the whole passage, when yet but a part\nwas open; whereas, three parts might be yet kept undiscovered to\nhim. For these doors, as I said before, were never yet set wide\nopen; I mean, in the antitype; never man yet saw all the riches\nand fulness which is in Christ. So that I say, a new comer, if he\njudged by present sight, especially if he saw but little, might\neasily be mistaken; wherefore such, for the most part, are most\nhorribly afraid that they shall never get in thereat. How sayest\nthou, young comer, is not this the case with thy soul? So it seems\nto thee that thou art too big, being so great, so tun-bellied a\nsinner. But, O thou sinner, fear not, the doors are folding-doors,\nand may be opened wider, and wider again after that; wherefore,\nwhen thou comest to this gate, and imaginest there is not space\nenough for thee to enter, knock, and it shall be wider opened unto\nthee, and thou shalt be received (Luke 11:9; John 6:37). So, then,\nwhoever thou art that art come to the door, of which the temple\ndoor was a type, trust not to thy first conceptions of things, but\nbelieve there is grace abundant. Thou knowest not yet what Christ\ncan do, the doors are folding-doors. He can 'do exceeding abundantly\nabove all that we can ask or think' (Eph 3:20).\n\nThe hinges on which these doors do hang were, as I told you, gold;\nto signify that they both turned upon motives and motions of love,\nand also that the openings thereof were rich. Golden hinges the\ngate to God doth turn upon,\n\nThe posts on which these doors did hang were of the olive tree,\nthat fat and oily tree, to show that they do never open with\nlothness or sluggishness, as doors do whose hinges want oil. They\nare always oily, and so open easily and quickly to those who knock\nat them. Hence you read, that he that dwells in this house gives\nfreely, loves freely, and doth us good with all his heart. 'Yea,'\nsaith he, 'I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will\nplant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart, and with my\nwhole soul' (Jer 3:12,14,22, 32:41; Rev 21:6, 22:17). Wherefore,\nthe oil of grace, signified by this oily tree, or these olive-posts,\non which these doors do hang, do cause that they open glibly or\nfrankly to the soul.\n\nXXIX. What the doors of the Temple were made of.\n\n1. The doors of the temple were made of fir; that is so sweet\nscented, and pleasant to the smell (1 Kings 6:34).\n\n2. Mankind is also often compared to the fir tree. As Isaiah 41:19,\n55:13, 60:13-17, 14:8.\n\n3. Now, since the doors of the temple were made of the same, doth\nit not show that the way into God's house, and into his favour,\nis by the same nature which they are of that thither enter, even\nthrough the veil, his flesh? (Heb 10:20). For this door, I mean the\nantitype, doth even say of himself, 'I Am like a green fir tree,\nfrom me is thy fruit found' (Hosea 14:8).\n\n4. This fir tree is Christ; Christ as man, and so as the way to the\nFather. The doors of the temple are also, as you see here, made of\nthe fir tree; even of that tree which was a type of the humanity\nof Jesus Christ. Consider Hebrews 2:14.\n\n5. The fir tree is also the house of the stork, that unclean bird,\neven as Christ is a harbour and shelter for sinners. As for the\nstork, saith the text, the fir tree is her house; and Christ saith\nto the sinners that see their want of shelter, 'Come unto me, and\nI will give you rest.' He is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge\nin time of trouble (Deut 14:18; Lev 11:19; Psa 104:17, 84:2,3; Matt\n11:27,28; Heb 6:17-20). He is, as the doors of fir of the temple,\nthe inlet to God's house, to God's presence, and to a partaking of\nhis glory. Thus God did of old, by similitudes, teach his people\nhis way.\n\nXXX. How the doors of the Temple were adorned.\n\nAnd Solomon carved upon the doors 'cherubims, and palm trees, and\nopen flowers, and covered them with gold' (1 Kings 6:35; Eze 41:25).\n\nFirst. He carved cherubims thereon. These cherubims were figures\nor types of angels, and forasmuch as they were carved here upon\nthe door, it was to show,\n\n1. What delight the angels take in waiting upon the Lord, and in\ngoing at his bidding, at his beck. They are always waiting like\nservants at the door of their Lord's house.\n\n2. It may be also to show how much pleased they are to be where\nthey may see sinners come to God. For 'there is joy in the presence\nof the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,' and comes to\nGod by Christ for mercy (Luke 15:10).\n\n3. They may be also placed here to behold with what reverence or\nirreverence those that come hither to worship do behave themselves.\nHence Solomon cautions those that come to God's house to worship,\nthat they take heed to their feet, because of the angels. Paul\nalso says, Women must take heed that they behave themselves in\nthe church as they should, and that because of the angels (Eccl\n5:1,2,6; 1 Cor 11:5,6,10).\n\n4. They may also be carved upon the temple doors, to show us\nhow ready they are, so soon as any poor creature comes to Christ\nfor life to take the care and charge of its conduct through this\nmiserable world. 'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth\nto minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?' (Heb 1:14).\n\n5. They may also be carved here, to show that they are ready, at\nChrist's command, to take vengeance for him upon those that despise\nhis people and hate his person. Hence he bids the world take heed\nwhat they do to his 'little ones,' for 'their angels do always\nbehold the face of their Father which is in heaven,' and are ready\nat the door to run at his bidding (Matt 18:10).\n\n6. Or lastly, they may be carved upon these doors, to show that\nChrist Jesus is the very supporter and upholder of angels, as well\nas the Saviour of sinful man. For as he is before all things, so\nby him all things consist; angels stand by Christ, men are saved\nby Christ, and therefore the very cherubims themselves were carved\nupon these doors, to show they are upheld and subsist by him (1\nCor 8:6; Col 1:17; Heb 1:3).\n\nSecond. Again, as the cherubims are carved here, so there were palm\ntrees carved here also. The palm tree is upright, it twisteth not\nitself awry (Jer 10:5).\n\n1. Apply this to Christ, and then it shows us the uprightness of\nhis heart, word, and ways with sinners. 'Good and upright is the\nLord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way'; in at the door\nto life (Psa 25:8, 92:15).\n\n2. The palm or palm tree is also a token of victory; and as placed\nhere, it betokeneth the conquest that Christ, the door, should get\nover sin, death, the devil, and hell for us (Rom 7:24, 8:37; 1 Cor\n15:54-57; Rev 7:9-11).\n\n3. If we apply the palm tree to the church, as we may, for she\nalso is compared thereto (Cant 7:8-10), then the palm tree may be\ncarved here to show, that none but such as are upright of heart and\nlife shall dwell in the presence of God. 'The hypocrite,' says Job,\n'shall not come before him.' 'The upright,' says David, 'shall not\ndwell in thy presence' (Job 13:16; Psa 140:13). They are they that\nare clothed in white robes, which signifies uprightness of life,\nthat stand before the Lamb with 'palms in their hands' (Rev 7:9).\n\nThird. There were also carved upon these doors open flowers; and\nthat to teach us that here is the sweet scent and fragrant smell;\nand that the coming soul will find it so in Christ, this door. 'I\nAM,' saith he, 'the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.'\nAnd again, 'His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers:\nhis lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh' (Cant 2:1,\n5:13). Open flowers. Open flowers are the sweetest, because full\ngrown, and because, as such, they yield their fragrancy most\nfreely. Wherefore, when he saith upon the doors are open flowers,\nhe setteth Christ Jesus forth in his good savours, as high as by\nsuch a similitudes he could; and that both in name and office.\nFor open flowers lay, by their thus opening themselves before us,\nall their beauty also most plainly before our faces. There are\nvarieties of beauty in open flowers, the which they also commend\nto all observers. Now, upon these doors, you see, are open flowers,\nflowers ripe, and spread before us, to show that his name and\noffices are savoury to them that by him do enter his house to God\nhis Father (Cant 1:1-4).\n\n'All these were overlaid with fine gold.' Gold is the most rich\nof all metals; and here it is said the doors, the cherubims, the\npalm trees, and open flowers, were overlaid therewith. And this\nshows, that as these things are rich in themselves, even so they\nshould be to us. We have a golden door to go to God by, and golden\nangels to conduct us through the world: we have golden palm trees\nas tokens of our victory, and golden flowers to smell on all the\nway to heaven.\n\nXXXI. Of the wall of the Temple.\n\nThe wall of the temple was 'ceiled with fir tree, which he overlaid\nwith fine gold, and set thereon palm trees and chains' (2 Chron\n3:5-7).\n\nThe walls were as the body of the house, unto which Christ alluded\nwhen he said, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise\nit up' (John 2:19). Hence to be, and worship in the temple, was a\ntype of being in Christ, and worshipping God by him. For Christ,\nas was said, is the great temple of God, in the which all the elect\nmeet, and in whom they do service to and for his Father.\n\nHence again the true worshippers are said to be in him, to speak in\nhim, to walk in him, to obey in him (2 Cor 2:14, 12:19; Col 2:6).\nFor, as of old, all true worship was to be found at the temple, so\nnow it is only found with Christ, and with them that are in him.\nThe promise of old was made to them that worshipped within these\nwalls. 'Unto them,' saith he, 'will I give in my house, and within\nmy walls,' to them that worship there in truth, 'a place, and a\nname, better than of sons and of daughters' (Isa 56:5).\n\nBut now, in New Testament times, 'all the promises of God in him are\nyea, and in him, amen unto the glory of God by us' (2 Cor 1:20).\nThis is yet further hinted to us in that it is said these wall s\nare ceiled with fir;[15] which, as was showed before, was a figure\nof the humanity of Jesus Christ.\n\nA wall is for defence, and so is the humanity of Jesus Christ. It\nis, was, and will be, our defence for ever. For it was that which\nunderwent and overcame the curse of the law, and that in which our\neverlasting righteousness is found. Had he not in that interposed,\nwe had perished for ever. Hence we are said to be reconciled to God\nin the body of his flesh through death (Col 1:19,20; Rom 5:8-10).\n\nNow, this wall was overlaid with fine gold. Gold here is a figure\nof the righteousness of Christ, by which we are justified in the\nsight of God. Therefore you read, that his church, as justified,\nis said to stand at his right hand in cloth of gold. 'Upon thy\nright hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.' And again, 'Her\nclothing is of wrought gold' (Psa 45:9,13). This the wall was\noverlaid with; this the body of Christ was filled with. Men, while\nin the temple, were clothed with gold, even with the gold of the\ntemple; and men in Christ are clothed with righteousness, the\nrighteousness of Christ. Wherefore this consideration doth yet\nmore illustrate the matter. In that the palm trees were set on\nthis wall, it may be to show that the elect are fixed in Jesus,\nand so shall abide for ever.\n\nChains were also carved on these walls, yea, and they were golden\nchains; there were chains on the pillars, and now also we find\nchains upon the walls. 1. Chains were used to hold one captive,\nand such Paul did wear at Rome, but he called them 'his bands in\nChrist.' 2. Chains sometimes signify great afflictions, which God\nlays on us for our sins (Psa 107:9-11; Lam 1:14, 3:7). 3. Chains\nalso may be more mystically understood, as of those obligations\nwhich the love of God lays upon us, to do and suffer for him (Acts\n20:22). 4. Chains do sometimes signify beauty and comely ornaments.\n'Thy neck,' saith Christ to his spouse, 'is comely with chains\nof gold.' And again, 'I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain\non thy neck' (Cant 1:10; Eze 16:8-11; Prov 1:9). 5. Chains also\ndo sometimes denote greatness and honour, such as Daniel had when\nthe king made him the third ruler in the kingdom (Dan 5:7,16,29).\n\nNow all these are temple-chains, and are put upon us for good;\nsome to prevent our ruin, some to dispose our minds the better,\nand some to dignify and to make us noble. Temple-chains are brave\nchains. None but temple-worshippers must wear temple-chains.\n\nXXXII. Of the garnishing of the Temple with precious stones.\n\n'And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty' (2\nChron 3:6,7). 1. This is another ornament to the temple of the Lord;\nwherefore, as he saith, it was garnished with them; he saith it\nwas garnished with them for beauty. The line[16] saith, garnished;\nthe margin saith, covered. 2. Wherefore, I think, they were fixed\nas stars, or as the stars in the firmament, so they were set in\nthe ceiling of the house, as in the heaven of the holy temple. 3.\nAnd thus fixed, they do the more aptly tell us of what they were\na figure; namely, of the ministerial gifts and officers in the\nchurch. For ministers, as to their gifts and office, are called\nstars of God, and are said to be in the hand of Christ (Rev 1:20).\n4. Wherefore, as the stars glitter and twinkle in the firmament\nof heaven, so do true ministers in the firmament of his church\n(1 Chron 29:2; John 5:35; Dan 12:3). 5. So that it is said again\nthese gifts come down from above, as signifying they distil their\ndew from above. And hence, again, the ministers are said to be\nset over us in the Lord, as placed in the firmament of his heaven\nto give a light upon his earth. 'There is gold and a multitude\nof rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel' (Prov\n20:15).\n\nVerily, it is enough to make a man in this house look always upward;\nsince the ceiling above head doth thus glitter with precious\nstones. Precious stones, all manner of precious stones, stones\nof all colours. For there are divers gifts, differences of\nadministrations, and diversities of operations, 'but it is the same\nGod which worketh all in all' (1 Cor 12:4-6). Thus had the ceiling\nof this house a pearl here, and there a diamond; here a jasper,\nand there a sapphire; here a sardius, and there a jacinth; here\na sardonyx, and there an amethyst. 'For to one is given by the\nSpirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge'; to\none the gift of healing, to another faith; to this man to work\nmiracles, to that a spirit of prophecy; to another the discerning\nof spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-11).\n\nHe also overlaid the house, beams, posts, walls, doors, &c., and\nall with gold. O what a beautiful house the temple was; how full\nof glory was it! And yet all was but a shadow, a shadow of things\nto come, and which was to be answered in the church of the living\nGod, the pillar and ground of truth, by better things than these.\n\nXXXIII. Of the windows of the Temple.\n\n'And for the house, he made windows of narrow lights' (1 Kings\n6:4). There were windows of this house, windows for the chambers\nand windows round about (Eze 40:16,22-25,29,33,36). These windows\nwere of several sizes, but all narrow, narrow without, but wide\nwithin; they also were finely wrought, and beautified with goodly\nstones (Isa 54:12).\n\n1. Windows, as they are to a house an ornament, so also to it they\nare a benefit. 'Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing\nit is for the eyes to behold the sun' (Eccl 11:7). The window is\nthat which Christ looks forth at, the window is that which the\nsun looks in at (Cant 2:9).\n\n2. By the light which shines in at the window we also see to make\nand keep the house clean, and also to do what business is necessary\nthere to be done. 'In thy light shall we see light'; light to do\nour duty, and that both to God and man.\n\n3. These windows therefore were figures of the written word, by and\nthrough which Christ shows himself to his, and by which we also\napprehend him. And hence the Word of God is compared to a glass\nthrough which the light doth come, and by which we see not only\nthe beams of the sun, but our own smutches also (2 Chron 30:18;\nJames 1:23-25).\n\n4. The lights indeed were narrow, wherefore we see also through\ntheir antitype but darkly and imperfectly. 'Now we see through a\nglass darkly,' or, as in a riddle, now we know but in part (1 Cor\n13:12).\n\n5. Their windows and their light are but of little service to those\nthat are without; the world sees but little of the beauty of the\nchurch by the light of the written Word, though the church, by\nthat light, can see the dismal state of the world, and also how\nto avoid it.\n\nXXXIV. Of the chambers of the Temple.\n\nIn the temple Solomon made chambers (1 Kings 6:5).\n\n1. The chambers were of several sizes; some little, some large;\nsome higher, some lower; some more inward, and some outward.\n\n2. These chambers were for several services; some were for rests,\nsome to hide in, some to lay up treasure in, and some for solace\nand delight (2 Chron 3:9; Eze 40:7, 41:5,9-11; 2 Chron 31:11,12).\nThey were for resting-places. Here the priests and porters were\nwont to lodge. They were for hiding-places. Here Jehoshabeath hid\nJoash from Athaliah the term of six years (2 Kings 11:3). They\nwere also to lay the temple treasure, or dedicated things in, that\nthey might be safely kept there for the worshippers (Ezra 8:29).\nAnd some of them were for solace and delight; and, I must add,\nsome for durable habitation. Wherefore in some of them some dwelt\nalways, yea, their names dwelt there when they were dead.\n\n(1.) Those of them which were for rest, were types of that rest\nwhich by faith we have in the Son of God, and of that eternal rest\nwhich we shall have in heaven by him (Matt 11:28; Heb 4:3). (2.)\nThose chambers which were for hiding and security, were types of\nthat safety which we have in Christ from the rage of the world\n(Isa 26:20). (3.) Those chambers which were for the reception of\nthe treasures and dedicated things were types of Christ, as he is\nthe common store-house of believers. 'For it pleased the Father,\nthat in him should all fulness dwell'; 'and of his fulness we all\nreceive, and grace for grace' (John 1:16; Col 1:19). (4.) Those\nchambers that were for solace and delight, were types of those\nretirements and secret meetings of Christ with the soul, where\nhe gives it his embraces, and delights her with his bosom and\nravishing delights. 'He brought me,' said she, 'into his chambers,'\n'into the chamber of her that conceived me,' and there he gave\nher his love (Cant 1:4, 3:4).\n\nThe chambers which were for durable dwelling-places were types of\nthose eternal dwelling-places which are in the heavens, prepared\nof Christ and the Father, for them that shall be saved (John\n14:1-4; 2 Cor 5:1-4). This it is to 'dwell on high,' and to be\nsafe from fear of evil! Here therefore you see are chambers for\nrest, chambers for safety, chambers for treasure, chambers for\nsolace, and chambers for durable habitations. O the rest and peace\nthat the chambers of God's high house will yield to its inhabitants\nin another world! Here they will 'rest from their labours,' 'rest\nin their beds,' rest with God, rest from sin, temptation, and all\nsorrow (Rev 14:13; Isa 57:1,2; 2 Thess 1:7). God therefore then\nshall wipe all tears from our eyes, even when he comes out of his\nchamber as a bridegroom, to fetch his bride, his wife unto him\nthither, to the end they may have eternal solace together. O these\nare far better than the chambers of the south!\n\nXXXV. Of the stairs by which they went up into the chambers of the\nTemple.\n\nThere were stairs by which men went up into these chambers of the\ntemple, and they were but one pair, and they went from below to\nthe first, and so to the middle, and thence to the highest chambers\nin the temple (1 Kings 6:8; Eze 41:7).\n\n1. These stairs were winding; so that they turned about, that did\ngo up them. So then, he that assayed to go into these chambers,\nmust turn with the stairs, or he could not go up, no, not into\nthe lowest chambers.\n\n2. These stairs therefore were a type of a two-fold repentance.\nThat by which we turn from nature to grace, and that by which we\nturn from the imperfections which attend a state of grace to glory.\nHence true repentance, or the right going up these turning stairs,\nis called repentance to salvation; for true repentance stoppeth\nnot at the reception of grace; for that is but a going up these\nstairs to the middle chambers (2 Cor 7:10).\n\nThus, therefore, the soul, at its going up these stairs, turns and\nturns, till it enters the doors of the highest chambers. It groans,\nthough in a state of grace, because that is not the state of glory.\nI count then, that from the first to the middle chambers may be\na type of turning from nature to grace. But from the middle to\nthe highest, these stairs may signify a turning still from the\nimperfections and temptations that attend a state of grace, to that\nof immortality and glory (2 Cor 5:1-9).\n\nFor as there are turning stairs, form the lowest to the middle\nchambers, so the stairs from thence still turn, and so will do,\ntill you come to the highest chambers. I do not say that they that\nhave received grace, do repent they received grace; but I say they\nthat have received grace, are yet sorry that grace is not consummate\nin glory; and hence they are for going up thither still, by these\nturning stairs; yea, they cannot rest below, as they would, till\nthey ascend to the highest chambers. 'O wretched man that I am!'\nAnd 'in this we groan earnestly,' is the language of gracious\nsouls (Rom 7:24; 2 Cor 5:1-3). True, every one doth not do thus\nthat comes into the temple of God; many rest below stairs, they\nlike not to go turning upward. Nor do I believe that all that bid\nfair for ascending to the middle chambers, get up to the highest\nstories, to his stories in the heavens. Many in churches, who\nseem to be turned from nature to grace, have not the grace to go\nup, turning still; but rest in that show of things, and so die\nbelow a share in the highest chambers.\n\nAll these things are true in the antitype, and, as I think,\nprefigured by these turning stairs to the chambers of the temple.\nBut this turning, and turning still, displeases some much; they\nsay it makes them giddy; but I say, there is no way like this, to\nmake a man stand steady; stedfast in the faith, and with boldness\nin the day of judgment. For he has this seated in his heart; I went\nup by the turning stairs, till I came to the highest chambers. A\nstrait pair of stairs are like that ladder by which men ascend to\nthe gallows; they are the turning ones that lead us to the heavenly\nmansion-houses. Look, therefore, you that come into the temple\nof God to worship, that you stay not at the foot of these turning\nstairs, but go up thence; yea, up them, and up them, and up\nthem, till you come to the view of the heavens; yea, till you are\npossessed of the highest chambers! How many times has God, by the\nScripture, called upon you to TURN, and told you, you must turn\nor die! and now here he has added to his call a figure, by placing\na pair of turning stairs in his temple, to convict your very senses,\nthat you must TURN, if you mean to go up into his holy chambers,\nand so into his eternal mansion-houses; and look that you turn to\npurpose; for every turning will not serve. Some turn, but not to\nthe Most High; and so turn to no purpose.\n\nXXXVI. Of the molten sea that was in the Temple.\n\nThere was also a molten sea in the temple; it was made of brass,\nand contained three thousand baths (2 Chron 4:2-10). [17] This\nsea was for the priests to wash in when they came into the temple\nto accomplish the service of God; to wash their hands and feet\nat, that they might not, when they came thither, die for their\nunpreparedness. The laver also which was in the wilderness was of\nthe same use there (Exo 30).\n\n1. It was, as may be supposed, called a sea, for that it was large\nto contain; and a sea of brass, for that it was made thereof. It\nis called in Revelation a sea of glass, alluding to that in the\nwilderness, which was made of the brazen looking-glasses of women\nthat came to worship at the door of the tabernacle (Rev 4:6, 15:2;\nExo 38:8).\n\n2. It was also said to be molten, because it was made of that\nfashion, by fire; and its antitype therefore is said to be a sea\nof glass mingled with fire (Rev 15:2). (1.) This sea was a figure\nof the word of the gospel, in the cleansing virtue of it; which\nvirtue then it has when mingled with the fire of the Holy Ghost.\nAnd to this Christ alludes, when he saith, 'Now ye are clean\nthrough the word which I have spoken unto you' (John 15:3). (2.)\nIt was a figure of the word, without mixture of men's inventions;\nhence it is called 'pure water.' Having your 'bodies washed with\npure water.' And again, He sanctifies and cleanseth his church\n'with the washing of water by the word' (Eph 5:26; Titus 3:5). All\nthese places are an allusion to the molten sea, at which of old\nthey washed when they went into the temple to worship. Therefore,\nsaith he, being washed, let us draw near to God (Heb 10:22).\n\n3. This sea from brim to brim was complete ten cubits; perhaps to\nshow that there is as much in the word of the gospel to save, as\nthere is in the ten[18] words to condemn.\n\n4. From under this sea round about appeared oxen, ten in a cubit\ndid compass it round about (2 Chron 4:3). Understand by these oxen\nministers, for to them they are compared in 1 Corinthians 9:8-10.\nAnd then we are taught whence true ministers come; to wit, from\nunder the power of the gospel, for this sea breeds gospel ministers,\nas the waters breed fish.\n\n5. It is also said in the text, that these oxen were cast when the\nsea was cast; insinuating that when God ordained a word of grace\nto save us, he also in his decree provided ministers to preach it\nto us to that end. Paul tells us, that he was made a minister of\nthe gospel, 'according to God's eternal purpose which he purposed\nin Christ Jesus our Lord' (Eph 3:9-11; Col 1:25).\n\n6. This sea is said to have a brim like the brim of a cup. To invite\nus as well to drink of its grace, as to wash in its water. For the\nword and Spirit when mixed, has not only a cleansing, but a saving\nquality in it (2 Chron 4:1-5; 1 Cor 15:1,2).\n\n7. This brim was wrought with lilies, or was like a lily flower;\nto show how they should grow and flourish, and with what beautiful\nrobes they should be adorned, who were washed, and did drink of\nthis holy water. Yea, that God would take care of them, as he also\ndid of lilies, and would not fail to bestow upon them what was\nnecessary for the body, as well as for the soul (Matt 6:28-34).\n\nXXVII. Upon what the molten sea stood in the Temple.\n\n1. This molten sea stood upon the backs of twelve brazen bulls or\noxen (2 Chron 4:4).\n\n2. These oxen, as they thus stood, looked three towards the north,\nthree towards the west, three towards the east, and three towards\nthe south.\n\n3. These twelve oxen were types of the twelve apostles of the Lamb,\nwho, as these beasts, stood looking into the four corners of the\nearth, and were bid to go preach the gospel in all the world.\n\n4. They were compared to oxen, because they were clean; for the ox\nwas a clean beast. Hence the apostles are called holy. They were\ncompared to oxen, because the ox is strong; and they also were\nmighty in the word (Prov 14:4; 2 Cor 12:12).\n\n5. The ox will not lose what he has got by drawing; he will not\nlet the wheels go back; so the apostles were set to defend, and\nnot let that doctrine go back, which they had preached to others;\nnor did they, they delivered it pure to us.\n\n6. One of the cherubs of which you read in the vision had a face\nlike an ox, to show that the apostles, these men of the first order,\nare most like the angels of God (Eze 1:10).\n\n7. In that they stood with their faces every way, it was, as I\nsaid, to show how the apostles should carry the gospel into all\nthe world (Matt 28:19,20; Mark 16:15-18).\n\n8. And observe, just as these oxen were placed looking in the temple\nevery way, even so stand open the gates of the New Jerusalem to\nreceive those that by their doctrine should be brought into it.\n'And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from\nthe north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom\nof God' (Luke 13:29; Rev 21:13,14).\n\n9. These oxen bear this molten sea upon their backs, to show that\nthey should be the foundation workmen of the gospel, and that it\nought not to be removed, as was the molten sea of old, from that\nbasis to another.\n\n10. It is also said concerning those oxen that thus did bear this\nmolten sea, that all their hinder parts were inwards, that is,\ncovered by that sea that was set upon their backs; their hinder\nparts, or, as the apostle has it, 'our uncomely parts' (1 Cor\n13:23,24).\n\n11. And, indeed, it becomes a gospel minister to have his uncomely\nparts covered with that grace which by the gospel he preached unto\nothers. As Paul exhorts Timothy to take heed unto himself, and to\nhis doctrine (1 Tim 4:6).\n\n12. But alas! there are too, too many who, can they but have their\nhands covered with a few gospel notions, care not though their\nhinder parts are seen of all the world. But such are false ministers;\nthe prophet calls them 'the tail.' 'The prophet that speaketh lies,\neither by word or with his feet, he is the tail' (Isa 9:15; Prov\n6:12,13).\n\n13. But what a shame is it to hide his head under this molten sea,\nwhile his hinder parts hang out. Such an one is none of Christ's\noxen; for they, with honour to their Master, show their heads before\nall the world, for that their hinder parts are inward, covered.\n\n14. Look to thy hinder parts, minister, lest, while thy mouth doth\npreach the gospel, thy nakedness and shame be seen of those which\nhear thee. For they that do not observe to learn this lesson\nthemselves, will not teach others to believe the Word, nor to live\na holy life; they will learn of them to show their shame, instead\nof learning to be holy.\n\nXXXVIII. Of the lavers of the Temple.\n\nBesides this molten sea, there were ten lavers in the temple; five\nof which were put on the right side, and five also on the left (2\nChron 4:6).\n\n1. Of their fashion and their furniture, you may see (1 Kings 7:38).\nThese lavers, as the molten sea, were vessels which contained\nwater; but they were not of the same use with it. True, they were\nboth to wash in; the sea to wash the worshippers, but the lavers to\nwash the sacrifice. 'He made the ten lavers to wash in them such\nthings as they offered for the burnt-offering, but the sea was for\nthe priests to wash in' (2 Chron 4:6). 2. The burnt-offering was\na type of the body of Christ, which he once offered for our sins;\nand the fire on which the sacrifice was burned, a type of the\ncurse of the law which seized on Christ when he gave himself a\nransom for us. For, therefore, that under the law was called the\nburnt-offering, because of the burning upon the altar (Lev 6:9).\n\nBut what, then, must we understand by these lavers, and by this\nsacrifice being washed in them, in order to its being burned upon\nthe altar?\n\nI answer, Verily, I think that the ten lavers were a figure of\nthe ten commandments; in the purity and perfection of Christ's\nobedience to which he became capable of being made a burnt-offering,\nacceptable to God for the sins of the people. Christ was made under\nthe law, and all his acts of obedience to God for us were legal,\nand his living thus a perfect legal life was his washing his\noffering in these ten lavers, in order to his presenting it upon\nthe altar for our sins. The lavers went upon wheels, to signify\nwalking feet; and Christ walked in the law, and so became a clean\noffering to God for us. The wheels were of the very same as were\nthe lavers, to show that Christ's obedience to the law was of\nthe same, as to length and breadth, with its commands and demands\nto their utmost tittle and extent. The inwards and legs of the\nburnt-offering were to be washed in these lavers (Lev 1:9,13; 2\nChron 4:6); to show that Christ should be pure and clean in heart\nand life.\n\nWe know that obedience, whether Christ's or ours, is called 'a\nwalking in the way,' typified by the lavers walking upon their\nwheels. But I mean not by Christ, his washing of his offering, that\nhe had any filthiness cleaving to his nature or obedience; yet\nthis I say, that so far as our guilt laid upon him could impede,\nso far he wiped it off by washing in these lavers. For his offering\nwas to be without blemish, and without spot to God. Hence it is\nsaid, he sanctified himself in order to his suffering. 'And being\nmade perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all\nthem that obey him' (John 17:19; Heb 5:6-10).\n\nFor albeit he came holy into the world, yet that holiness was but\npreparatory to that by which he sanctified himself, in order to his\nsuffering for sin. That, then, which was his immediate preparation\nfor his suffering was his obedience to the law, his washing in\nthese lavers. He, then, first yielded complete obedience to the\nlaw on our behalf, and then, as so qualified, offered his washed\nsacrifice for our sins without spot to God. Thus, therefore, he\nwas our burnt-offering washed in the ten lavers, that he might,\naccording to law, be accepted of the Lord.\n\nAnd he set five of the lavers on the right side of the house, and\nfive of them on the left. Thus were the ten divided, as the tables\nof the law, one showing our duty towards God, the other our duty\ntowards our neighbour; in both which the burnt-offering was washed,\nthat it might be clean in both respects. They might also be thus\nplaced, the better to put the people in mind of the necessity of the\nsanction of Christ according to the law, in order to his offering\nof himself an offering to God for us.\n\nXXXIX. Of the tables in the Temple.\n\n'He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on\nthe right hand,[19] and five on the left' (2 Chron 4:8).\n\nSome, if not all of these tables, so far as I can see, were they\non which the burnt-offering was to be cut in pieces, in order to\nits burning.\n\nThese tables were made of stone, of hewn stones, on which this\nwork was done (Eze 40:40-43). Now, since the burnt-offering was a\nfigure of the body of Christ, the tables on which this sacrifice\nwas slain must needs, I think, be a type of the heart, the stony\nheart, of the Jews. For had they not had hearts hard as an adamant,\nthey could not have done that thing.\n\nUpon these tables, therefore, was the death of Christ contrived,\nand this horrid murder acted; even upon these tables of stone. In\nthat they are called tables of hewn stone, it may be to show that\nall this cruelty was acted under smooth pretences, for hewn stones\nare smooth. The tables were finely wrought with tools, even as the\nheart of the Jews were with hypocrisy. But alas, they were stone\nstill; that is, hard and cruel; else they could not have been an\nanvil for Satan to forge such horrid barbarism upon. The tables\nwere in number the same with the lavers, and were set by them to\nshow what are the fruits of being devoted to the law, as the Jews\nwere, in opposition to Christ and his holy gospel. There flows\nnothing but hardness and a stony heart from thence. This was showed\nin its first writing; it was writ on tables of stone, figures of\nthe heart of man; and on the same tables, or hearts, was the death\nof Jesus Christ compassed.\n\nOne would think that the meekness, gentleness, or good deeds\nof Jesus Christ might have procured in them some relentings when\nthey were about to take away his life; but alas, their hearts were\ntables of stone! What feeling or compassion can a stone be sensible\nof? Here were stony hearts, stony thoughts, stony counsels, stony\ncontrivances, a stony law, and stony hands; and what could be\nexpected hence but barbarous cruelty indeed? 'If I ask you,' said\nChrist, 'ye will not answer me, nor let me go' (Luke 22:68).\n\nIn that these stony tables were placed about the temple, it supposeth\nthat they were temple-men, priests, scribes, rulers, lawyers,\n&c., that were to be the chief on whose hearts this murder was to\nbe designed, and by them enacted to their own damnation without\nrepentance.\n\nXL. Of the instruments wherewith this sacrifice was slain, and of\nthe four tables they were laid on in the Temple.\n\nThe instruments that were laid upon the tables in the temple were\nnot instruments of music, but those with which the burnt-offering\nwas slain. 'And the four tables were of hewn stone for the\nburnt-offering: whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith\nthey slew the burnt-offering and the sacrifice' (Eze 40:42,43).\n\nHere we are to take notice that the tables are the same, and some\nof them of which we spake before. That the instruments with which\nthey slew the sacrifice were laid upon these tables. The instruments\nwith which they slew the sacrifices, what were they but a bloody\naxe, bloody knives, bloody hooks, and bloody hands? For these we\nneed no proof; matter of fact declares it. But what were those\ninstruments a type of?\n\nAnsw. Doubtless they were a type of our sins. They were the bloody\naxe, the knife, and bloody hands that shed his precious blood.\nThey were the meritorious ones, without which he could not have\ndied. When I say ours, I mean the sins of the world. Though, then,\nthe hearts of the Jews were the immediate contrivers, yet they\nwere our sins that were the bloody tools or instruments which slew\nthe Son of God. 'He was wounded for our transgressions, he died\nfor our sins' (Isa 53; 1 Cor 15; Gal 1).\n\nO the instruments of us churls, by which this poor man was taken from\noff the earth! (Isa 32:7; Prov 30:14). The whip, the buffetings,\nthe crown of thorns, the nails, the cross, the spear, with the\nvinegar and gall, were all nothing in comparison of our sins. 'For\nthe transgression of my people was he stricken' (Isa 53:8). Nor\nwere the flouts, taunts, mocks, scorns, derisions, &c., with\nwhich they followed him from the garden to the cross, such cruel\ninstruments as these. They were our sins then, our cursed sins,\nby, with, and for the sake of which the Lord Jesus became a bloody\nsacrifice.\n\nBut why must the instruments be laid upon the tables?\n\n1. Take the tables for the hearts of the murderers, and the instruments\nfor their sins, and what place more fit for such instruments to\nbe laid upon? It is God's command that these things should be laid\nto heart, and he complains of those that do not do it (Isa 42:25,\n57:11).\n\n2. Nor are men ever like to come to good, until these instruments\nwith which the Son of God was slain indeed be laid to heart. And they\nwere eminently laid to heart even by them soon after; the effect\nof which was the conversion of thousands of them (Acts 2:36,37).\n\n3. Wherefore when it says these instruments must be laid upon the\nstony tables, he insinuates, that God would take a time to charge\nthe murder of his Son home upon the consciences of them that did\nthat murder, either to their conversion or condemnation. And is\nit not reason that they who did this horrid villany, should have\ntheir doings laid before their faces upon the tables of their\nheart? That they may look upon him whom they have pierced, and\nmourn (Zech 12:10; Rev 1:7).\n\n4. But these instruments were laid but upon some of the tables, and\nnot upon all the ten, to show that not all, but some of those, so\nhorrid, should find mercy of the Lord.\n\n5. But we must not confine these tables only to the hearts of the\nbloody Jews; they were our sins for the which he died. Wherefore\nthese instruments should be laid upon our tables too, and the Lord\nlay them there for good, that we also may see our horrid doings,\nand come bending to him for forgiveness!\n\n6. These instruments thus lying on the tables in the temple, became\na continual motive to God's people to repentance; for so oft as they\nsaw these bloody and cruel instruments, they were put in mind how\ntheir sins should be the cause of the death of Christ.\n\n7. It would be well also, if these instruments were at all times\nlaid upon our tables, for our more humbling for our sins in every\nthing we do, especially upon the Lord's table, when we come to\neat and drink before him. I am sure the Lord Jesus doth more than\nintimate, that he expects that we should do so, where he saith,\nWhen ye eat that bread, and drink that cup, do this in remembrance\nof me. In remembrance that I died for your sins, and consequently\nthat they were the meritorious cause of the shedding of my blood.\n\nTo conclude. Let all men remember, that these cruel instruments are\nlaid upon the table of their hearts, whether they see them there\nor no. 'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with\nthe point of a diamond--upon the table of their heart' (Jer 17:1).\nA pen of iron will make letters upon a table made of stone, and\nthe point of a diamond will make letters upon glass. Wherefore\nin this saying, God informs us that if we shall forbear to read\nthese lines to our conversion, God will one day read them against\nus unto our condemnation.\n\nXLI. Of the candlesticks of the Temple.\n\n'And he made ten candlesticks of gold, according to their form,\nand set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on\nthe left' (2 Chron 4:7).\n\nThese candlesticks were made of gold, to show the worth and value\nof them. They were made after the form, or exact, according to\nrule, like those that were made in the tabernacle, or according to\nthe pattern which David gave to Solomon to make them by. Observe,\nthere was great exactness in these; and need there was of this\nhint, that men might see that every thing will not pass for a right\nordered candlestick with God (Exo 25:31-40; 1 Chron 28:15).\n\nThese candlesticks are said sometimes to be ten, sometimes seven,\nand sometimes one; ten here; seven, Revelation 1:12, 13, and one\nin Zechariah 4.[20] Ten is a note of multitude, and seven a note\nof perfection, and one a note of unity. Now, as the precious stones\nwith which the house was garnished were a type of ministerial gifts,\nso these candlesticks were a type of those that were to be the\nchurches of the New Testament; wherefore he says, 'The candlesticks\nwhich thou sawest are the seven churches' (Rev 1:12-20).\n\n1. The candlesticks were here in number ten, to show that Christ\nunder the New Testament would have as many gospel-churches. 'And\nI, if I be lifted up from the earth,' saith he, 'will draw all men\nunto me'; that is, abundance. For the children of the desolate,\nthat is, of the New Testament church, shall be many more than they\nof the Jews were (John 12:32; Gal 4:27).\n\n2. In that the candlesticks were set by the lavers and stony tables,\nit might be to show us, that Christ's churches should be much in\nconsidering, that Christ, though he was righteous, yet died for\nour sins; though his life was according to the holy law, yet our\nstony hearts caused him to die. Yea, and that the candlesticks\nare placed there, it is to show us also, that we should be\nmuch in looking on the sins by which we caused him to die; for\nthe candlesticks were set by those tables whereon they laid the\ninstruments with which they slew the sacrifice.\n\n3. These candlesticks being made according to form, seem not only\nto be exact as to fashion, but also as to work. For that in Exodus,\nwith its furniture, was made precisely of one talent of gold,\nperhaps to show, that Christ's true spouse is not to be a grain\nmore, nor a dram less, but just the number of God's elect. This\nis Christ's completeness, his fulness; one more, one less, would\nmake his body a monster.\n\n4. The candlestick was to hold the light, and to show it to all\nthe house; and the church is to let her light so shine that they\nwithout may see the light (Matt 5:15,16; Luke 8:16, 11:33, 12:35).\n\n5. To this end the candlesticks were supplied with oil-olive, a\ntype of the supply that the church hath, that her light may shine,\neven of the spirit of grace.\n\nXLII. Of the lamps belonging to the candlesticks of the Temple.\n\nTo these candlesticks belonged several lamps, with their flowers\nand their knops (Exo 25:33; 2 Chron 4:21).\n\n1. These lamps were types of that profession that the members of\nthe church do make of Christ, whether such members have saving\ngrace or not (Matt 25:1-7).\n\n2. These lamps were beautified with knops and flowers, to show how\ncomely and beautiful that professor is, that adorns his profession\nwith a suitable life and conversation.\n\n3. We read that the candlestick in Zechariah had seven lamps\nbelonging to it, and a bowl of golden oil[21] on the top; and that\nby golden pipes this golden oil emptied itself into the lamps,\nand all, doubtless, that the lamps might shine (Zech 4:2,12).\n\n4. Christ, therefore, who is the high-priest, and to whom it\nbelongs to dress the lamps, doth dress them accordingly. But now\nthere are a lamp-carriers of two sorts; such as have only oil in\ntheir lamps, and such as have oil in their lamps and vessels too,\nand both these belong to the church, and in both these Christ will\nbe glorified: and they should have their proper places at last.\nThey that have the oil of grace in their hearts, as well as\na profession of Christ in their hands, they shall go in with him\nto the wedding; but they who only make a profession, and have not\noil in their vessels, will surely miscarry at last (Matt 25).\n\n5. Wherefore, O thou professor! thou lamp-carrier! have a care and\nlook to thyself; content not thyself with that only that will maintain\nthee in a profession, for that may be done without saving grace.\nBut I advise thee to go to Aaron, to Christ, the trimmer of our\nlamps, and beg thy vessel full of oil of him--that is, grace--for\nthe seasoning of thy heart, that thou mayest have wherewith,\nnot only to bear thee up now, but at the day of the bridegroom's\ncoming, when many a lamp will go out, and many a professor be left\nin the dark; for that will to such be a woeful day (Lev 24:2; Matt\n25).\n\nSome there are that are neither for lamps nor oil for themselves;\nneither are they pleased if they think they see it in others. But\nthey that have lamps and they that have none, and they which would\nblow out other folk's light, must shortly appear to give an account\nof all their doings to God. And then they shall see what it is to\nhave oil in their vessels and lamps: and what it is to be without\nin their vessels, though it is in their lamps; and what a dismal\nthing it is to be a malignant[22] to either; but at present let\nthis suffice. XLIII. Of the shew-bread on the golden table in the\nTemple.\n\nThere was also shew-bread set upon a golden table in the temple\n(1 Kings 7:48). The shew-bread consisted of twelve cakes made of\nfine flour, two tenth deals[23] were to go to one cake, and they were\nto be set in order in two rows upon the pure table (Lev 24:5-9).\n\n1. These twelve loaves to me do seem to be a type of the twelve\ntribes under the law, and of the children of God under the gospel,\nas they present themselves before God, in and by his ordinances\nthrough Christ. Hence the apostle says, 'For we being many are one\nbread,' &c. (1 Cor 10:17). For so were the twelve cakes, though\ntwelve; and so are the gospel-saints, though many; for 'we, being\nmany, are one body in Christ' (Rom 12:5).\n\n2. But they were a type of the true church, not of the false. For\nEphraim, who was the head of the ten tribes in their apostacy, is\nrejected, as 'a cake not turned.' Indeed he is called a cake, as a\nfalse church may be called a church: but he is called 'a cake not\nturned,' as a false church is not prepared for God, nor fit to be\nset on the golden table before him (Hosea 7:8).\n\n3. These cakes or shew-bread were to have frankincense strewed\nupon them, as they stood upon the golden table, which was a type\nof the sweet perfumes of the sanctifications of the Holy Ghost; to\nwhich I think Paul alludes, when he says, 'The offering up of the\nGentiles might be acceptable' to God, 'being sanctified by the\nHoly Ghost' (Rom 15:16).\n\n4. They were to be set upon the pure table, new and hot; to show\nthat God delighted in the company of new and warm believers. 'I\nremember thee, the kindness of thy youth': 'when Israel was a child,\nthen I loved him' (Jer 2:2; Hosea 11:1). Men at first conversion\nare like to a cake well baked, and new taken from the oven; they\nare warm, and cast forth a very fragrant scent, especially when,\nas warm, sweet incense is strewed upon them.\n\n5. When the shew-bread was old and stale, it was to be taken away,\nand new and warm put in its place, to show that God has but little\ndelight in the service of his own people when their duties grow\nstale and mouldy. Therefore he removed his old, stale, mouldy\nchurch of the Jews from before him, and set in their rooms upon\nthe golden table the warm church of the Gentiles.\n\n6. The shew-bread, by an often remove and renewing, was continually\nto all them before the Lord in his house, to show us, that always,\nas long as ordinances shall be of use, God will have a new, warm,\nand sanctified people to worship him.\n\n7. Aaron and his sons were to eat the old shew-bread, to show that\nwhen saints have lived in the world as long as living is good for\nthem, and when they can do no more service for God in the world,\nthey shall yet be accepted of Jesus Christ; and that it shall be\nas meat and drink to him to save them from all their unworthinesses.\n\n8. The new shew-bread was to be set even on the Sabbath before\nthe Lord, to show with what warmth of love and affections God's\nservants should approach his presence upon his holy day.\n\nXLIV. Of the snuffers belonging to the candlesticks and lamps of\nthe Temple.\n\nAs there were candlesticks and lamps, so there were snuffers also\nprepared for these in the temple of the Lord. 'and the snuffers\nwere snuffers of gold' (1 Kings 7:50). 1. Snuffers. The use of\nsnuffers is to trim the lamps and candles, that their lights may\nshine the brighter. 2. Snuffers, you know, are biting, pinching\nthings; but use them well, and they will prove not only beneficial\nto those within the house, but profitable to the lights.\n\nSnuffers, you may say, of what were they a type?\n\nAnsw. If our snuffs are our superfluities of naughtiness, our\nsnuffers then are those righteous reproofs, rebukes, and admonitions,\nwhich Christ has ordained to be in his house for good; or, as the\napostle hath it, for our edification; and perhaps Paul alludes\nto these when he bids Titus to rebuke the Cretians sharply, that\nthey might be sound in the faith (Titus 1:12,13). As who should\nsay, they must use the snuffers of the temple to trim their lights\nwithal, if they burn not well. These snuffers therefore are of\ngreat use in the temple of God; only, as I said, they must be used\nwisely. It is not for every fool to handle snuffers at or about\nthe candles, lest perhaps, instead of mending the light, they put\nthe candle out. And therefore Paul bids them that are spiritual\ndo it (Gal 6:1). My reason tells me, that if I use these snuffers\nas I should, I must not only endeavour to take the superfluous\nsnuff away, but so to do it, that the light thereby may be mended;\nwhich then is done if, as the apostle saith, I use sharpness to\nedification, and not for destruction (1 Cor 5:4,5; 2 Cor 13:10).\n\nAre not the seven churches in Asia called by name of candlesticks?\nAnd why candlesticks, if they were not to hold the candles?\nAnd candles must have snuffers therewith to trim the lights. And\nChrist, who is our true Aaron, in those rebukes which he gave\nthose churches, alluding to these snuffers, did it that their\nlights might shine the brighter (Rev 2, 3). Wherefore, as he used\nthem, he did it still with caution to their light, that it might\nnot be impaired. For as he still thus trimmed these lamps, he yet\nencouraged what he saw would shine if helped. He only nipt the\nsnuff away.\n\nThus, therefore, he came to them with these snuffers in his hand,\nand trimmed their lamps and candlesticks (Rev 2:4,20, 3:2,15).\nThis should teach ministers, to whom it belongs under Christ to\nuse the snuffers well. Strike at the snuff, not at the light, in\nall your rebukes and admonitions; snuff not your lamps of a private\nrevenge, but of a design to nourish grace and gifts in churches.\nThus our Lord himself says he did, in his using of these snuffers\nabout these candlesticks. 'As many,' saith he, 'as I love, I rebuke\nand chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent' (Rev 3:19).\n\nTo conclude; Watchman, watch, and let not your snuffs be too long,\nnor pull them off with your fingers, or carnal reasonings, but with\ngodly admonitions, &c. Use your snuffers graciously, curb vice,\nnourish virtue; so you will use them well, and so your light will\nshine to the glory of God.[24]\n\nXLV. Of the snuff-dishes that were with the snuffers in the Temple.\n\nAs there were snuffers, so there were also snuff-dishes in the\ntemple; 'and they were also made of gold' (Exo 25:38; 37:23; Num\n4:9). The snuff-dishes were those in which the snuffs were put when\nsnuffed off, and by which they were carried forth of the temple.\nThey therefore, as the snuffers are, are of great use in the temple\nof God. 1. By them the golden floor of the temple is kept from\nbeing daubed by the snuffs. 2. By them also the clean hands of\nthose that worship there are kept from being defiled. 3. By them\nalso the stinks of the snuffs are soonest suppressed in the temple;\nand consequently the tender noses of them that worship there\npreserved from being offended.\n\nSnuffs, you know, are daubing things, stinking things, nauseous\nthings; therefore we must take heed that they touch not this floor\non which we walk, nor defile the hands which we lift up to God,\nwhen we come to worship him. But how must this be done, but as we\ntake them off with the snuffers, and put them in these snuff-dishes?\nSome are for being at the snuffs with their fingers, and will also\ncast them at their feet, and daub the floor of God's holy house;\nbut usually such do burn as well as defile themselves. But is it\nnot a shame for a man to defile himself with that vice which he\nrebuketh in another? Let us then, while we are taking away the\nsnuffs of others, hate even the garment spotted by the flesh, and\nlabour to carry such stink with the snuff-dishes out of the temple\nof God.\n\nSnuff-dishes, you may say, what are they?\n\nI answer, If sins are the snuffs, and rebukes and admonitions the\nsnuffers; then, methinks, repentance, or, in case that be wanting,\nthe censures of the church, should be the snuff-dishes. Hence,\nrepentance is called a church-cleansing grace, and the censures of\nthe church a purging out of the old leaven, and making it a new\nlump (1 Cor 5:2; 2 Cor 7:11).\n\nAh! were these snuff-dishes more of use in the churches, we should\nnot have this man's snuff defile that man's fingers as it doth.\nNor would the temple of God be so besmeared with these snuffs,\nand be daubed as it is.\n\nAh! snuffs pulled off, lie still in the temple-floor, and there\nstink, and defile both feet and fingers, both the callings and\nconversations of temple-worshippers, to the disparaging of religion,\nand the making of religious worship but of low esteem with men;\nand all, I say, for want of the due use of these snuffers, and\nthese snuff-dishes, there. Nay, are not whole churches now defiled\nwith those very snuffs, that long since were plucked off, and all\nfor want of the use of these snuff-dishes, according to the Lord's\ncommandment. For you must know, that reproof and admonitions are\nbut of small use, where repentance, or church-censures, are not\nthereto annexed. When ministers use the snuffers, the people should\nhold the snuff-dishes.\n\nRound reproofs for sin, when they light upon penitent hearts, then\nbrave work is in the church: then the snuff is not only pulled\naway, but carried out of the temple of God aright, &c. And now the\nworship and worshippers shine like gold. 'As an ear-ring of gold,\nand an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient\near' (Prov 25:12).\n\nMinisters, it appertains to you to use the snuffers, and to teach\nthe people to hold the snuff-dishes right (Acts 20:20,21; 2 Tim\n4:2). We must often be snuffed with these snuffers, or our light\nwill burn but dimly, our candle will also waste. Pray, therefore,\nO men of God, look diligently to your people. Snuff them as you see\nthere is need; but touch not their snuff with your white fingers;\na little smutch on YOU will be seen a great way. Remember also that\nyou leave them nowhere, but with these snuff-dishes, that the temple\nmay be cleared of them. Do with the snuff as the neat housewife\ndoth with the toad which she finds in her garden. She takes the\nfork, or a pair of tongs, and therewith doth throw it over the\npales. Cast them away, I say, with fear, zeal, care, revenge, and\nwith great indignation, and then your church, your conversation,\nyour fingers, and all, will be kept white and clean (2 Cor 7:11).\n\nXLVI. Of the golden tongs belonging to the Temple.\n\nThere were also tongs of gold used in the temple of old (1 Kings\n7:49). 1. These tongs were used about the altar, to order the\nfire there. 2. They were used too about the candlestick, and are\ntherefore called HIS tongs. 3. Perhaps there were tongs for both\nthese services; but of that the word is silent.\n\nBut what were they used about the candlestick to do?\n\nAnsw. To take holy fire from off the altar to light the lamps withal.\nFor the fire of the temple was holy fire, such as at first was\nkindled from heaven, and when kindled, maintained by the priests,\nand of that the lamps were lighted (Lev 9:24; 2 Chron 7:1). Nor\nwas there, upon pain of death, any other fire to be used there\n(Lev 10:1,2). These tongs, therefore, were used to take fire from\noff the altar to light the lamps and candlesticks withal. For to\ntrim the lights, and to dress the lamps, was Aaron's work day by\nday. He shall light and order the lamps upon the pure candlestick\nbefore the Lord, and Aaron did so. He lighted the seven lamps\nthereof, as the Lord commanded Moses (Exo 10:24,25; Lev 24:2,3;\nNum 8:3). What is a lamp or candlestick to us, if there be not\nlight thereon; and how lighted without fire, and how shall we take\nup coals to light the lamps withal, if we have not tongs prepared\nfor that purpose? With these tongs fire also was taken from off\nthe altar, and put into the censers to burn sweet incense with,\nbefore the Lord. The tongs then were of great use in the temple\nof the Lord.\n\nBut what were the tongs a type of?\n\nThe altar was a type of Christ; the fire of the Holy Ghost; and\nthese tongues were a type of that holy hand of God's grace, by\nwhich the coals, or several dispensations and gifts of the Holy\nGhost, are taken and given to the church, and to her members, for\nher work and profit in this world.\n\nTongs, we know, are used instead of fingers; wherefore Aaron's\ngolden tongs were a type of Christ's golden fingers (Can 5:14).\nIsaiah saith that one of the seraphims flew to him with 'a live\ncoal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the\naltar.' Here the type and antitype, to wit, tongs and hand, are\nput together (Isa 6:6). But the prophet Ezekiel, treating of like\nmatters, quite waives the type, the tongs, and speaketh only of\nthis holy land; 'And he spake unto the man clothed with linen,\nand said, Go in between the wheels under the cherub'--where the\nmercy-seat stood, where God dwelt (Exo 25; Psa 80:1)--'and fill\nthy hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims' (Eze 10:2).\n\nThus you see our golden tongs are now turned into a golden hand;\ninto the golden hand of the man clothed in linen, which is Jesus\nChrist, who at his ascension received of God the Father the Spirit\nin all fulness, to give, as his divine wisdom knew was best, the\nseveral coals or dispensations thereof unto his church, for his\npraise, and her edification (Matt 3:11; Acts 2). It is by this hand\nalso that this holy fire is put into our censers. It is this hand\nalso that takes this coal, therewith to touch the lips of ministers,\nthat their words may warm like fire; and it is by this hand that\nthe Spirit is given to the churches, as returns of their holy\nprayers (Luke 11:9-13; Rom 8:26; Rev 8:5).\n\nIt was convenient that the fire in the temple should be disposed\nof by golden tongs; but the Holy Ghost, by the golden hand of\nChrist's grace, for that can wittingly dispose of it, according as\nmen and things are placed, and to do and be done in the churches;\nwherefore he adds, 'And one cherub stretched forth his hand from\nbetween the cherubims, unto the fire that was between the cherubims,\nand took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed\nwith linen, who took it and went out' (Eze 10:7).\n\nBy this hand, then, by this Man's hand, the coals of the altar are\ndisposed of, both to the lamps, the candlesticks, the censers, and\nthe lips of ministers, according to his own good pleasure. And of\nall this were the tongs in the temple a type.\n\nXLVII. Of the altar of incense in the Temple.\n\nThe altar of incense was made first for the tabernacle, and that\nof shittim wood; but it was made for the temple of cedar, and it\nwas to be set before the veil, that is, by the ark of the testimony,\nbefore the mercy-seat; that is, at the entering of the holiest,\nbut not within. And the priest was to approach it every morning,\nwhich, as to the holiest, he might not do. Besides, when he went\nin to make an atonement, he was to take fire from off that altar\nto burn his incense within the holy place (Exo 30:1-10; Lev 16:18).\n\n1. It was called the golden altar, because it was overlaid with\npure gold. This altar was not for burnt-offering, as the brazen\naltar was; nor for the meat-offering, nor the drink-offering, but\nto burn incense thereon (Exo 30:7). Which sweet incense was a type\nof grace and prayer (Psa 112:2).\n\n2. Incense, or that called incense here, was not a simple but\na compound, made up of sweet spices called stacte, onycha, and\ngalbanum; and these three, may answer to these three parts of this\nduty, to wit, prayer, supplication, and intercession (Exo 30:34-37,\n37:29; 1 Tim 2:1).\n\n3. This incense was to be burned upon the altar every morning;\nupon that altar which was called the altar of incense, which was\nbefore the veil; to show that it is our duty every morning to make\nour prayer to God by Jesus Christ before the veil; that is, before\nthe door of heaven, and there to seek, knock, and ask for what we\nneed, according to the word (Luke 11:9-13).\n\n4. This incense was to be kindled every morning, to show how HE\ncontinueth interceding for us, and also that all true praise of men\nto God is by the work, the renewed work, of the Holy Ghost upon\nour hearts (Rom 8:26).\n\n5. Incense, as you see, was made of sweet spices, such as were\ngummy, and so apt to burn with a smoke, to show, that not cold\nand flat, but hot and fervent, is the prayer that flows from the\nspirit of faith and grace (Zech 12:10; Jer 5:16).\n\n6. The smoke of this incense was very sweet and savoury, like\npleasant perfume, to show how delightful and acceptable the very\nsound and noise of right prayer is unto the nostrils of the living\nGod, because it comes from a broken heart (Psa 51:17; Cant 2:14).\n\n7. This incense was to be offered upon the golden altar, to show\nus that no prayer is accepted but what is directed to God in the\nname of his holy and blessed Son our Saviour (1 Peter 2:5; Heb\n13:15).\n\n8. They were commanded to burn incense every morning upon this\naltar, to show that God is never weary of the godly prayers of his\npeople. It also showeth that we need every day to go to God for\nfresh supplies of grace to carry us through this evil world.\n\n9. This altar, though it stood without the veil, to teach us to\nlive by faith, and to make use of the name of Christ, as we find\nit recorded in the first temple, yet was placed so nigh unto the\nholiest, that the smell of the smoke might go in thither; to show\nthat it is not distance of place that can keep the voice of true\nprayer from our God, the God of heaven; but that he will be taken\nwith what we ask for according to his word. It stood, I say, nigh\nthe veil, nigh the holiest; and he that burnt incense there, did\nmake his approach to God. Hence the Psalmist, when he spake of\npraying, saith, 'It is good for me to draw near to God' (Psa 73:28;\nHeb 10:22).\n\n10. This altar thus placed did front the ark within the veil; to\nput us in mind that the law is kept therein from hurting us; to\nlet us know also that the mercy-seat is above, upon the ark, and\nthat God doth sit thereon, with his pardon in his hand to save us.\nO! what speaking things are types, shadows, and parables, had we\nbut eyes to see, had we but ears to hear! He that did approach\nthe altar with incense of old aright--and then he did so when he\napproached it by Aaron, his high-priest--pleased God; how much\nmore shall we have both person and prayers accepted, and a grant\nof what we need, if indeed we come as we should to God by Jesus\nChrist. But take heed you approach not to a wrong altar; take heed\nalso that you come not with strange fire; for they are dangerous\nthings, and cause the worshippers to miss of what they would enjoy.\nBut more of this in the next particular.\n\nXLVIII. Of the golden censers belonging to the Temple.\n\nThere were also golden censers belonging to the temple, and they\nwere either such as belonged to the sons of Levi in general,\nor that were for Aaron and his sons in special (Num 16:6,17,18).\nThe censers of the Levites were a type of ours; but the censer of\nAaron was a type of Christ's. The censers, as was hinted before,\nwere for this use in the temple, namely, to hold the holy fire\nin, on which incense was to be burned before the Lord (Lev 10:1,2).\n\nThese censers then were types of hearts. Aaron's golden one was a\ntype of Christ's golden heart, and the censers of the Levites were\ntypes of other worshippers' hearts. The fire also which was put\ntherein was a type of that Spirit by which we pray, and the incense\nthat burnt thereon, a type of our desires. Of Christ's censer\nwe read, Revelation the eighth, which is always filled with much\nincense; that is, with continual intercessions, which he offereth\nto God for us; and from whence also there always goes a cloud of\nsweet savour, covering the mercy-seat (Lev 16:13; Heb 7:25; Rev\n8:3,4).\n\nBut to speak of the censers, and fire, and incense of the\nworshippers; for albeit they were all put under one rule, that is,\nto be according to law, yet oftentimes, as were the worshippers,\nsuch were the censers, fire, and incense. 1. Hence the two hundred\nand fifty censers with which Korah and his company offered, are\ncalled the censers of sinners; for they came with wicked hearts\nthen to burn incense before the Lord (Num 16:17,37). 2. Again,\nas the censers of these men were called the censers of sinners,\nshowing they came at that time to God with naughty hearts, so\nthe fire that was in Nadab and Abihu's censers is called strange\nfire, which the Lord commanded them not (Lev 10:1). 3. This strange\nfire was a type of that strange spirit opposed to the Spirit of\nGod, in and by which, notwithstanding, some adventure to perform\nworship to God. 4. Again, as these censers are called the censers\nof sinners, and this fire called strange fire, so the incense of\nsuch is also called strange, and is said to be an abomination unto\nGod (Exo 30:9; Isa 1:13, 66:3).\n\nThus you see that both the censers, fire, and incense of some is\nrejected, even as the heart, spirit, and prayer of sinners are an\nabomination unto God (Hosea 7:14, 4:12, 5:4; Prov 28:9).\n\nBut there were besides these true censers, holy fire and sweet\nincense among the worshippers in the temple, and their service was\naccepted by Aaron their high-priest; for that was through the faith\nof Christ, and these were a type of our true gospel worshippers,\nwho come with holy hearts, the holy spirit, and holy desires before\ntheir God, by their Redeemer. These are a perfume in his nose. 'The\nprayer of the upright is his delight' (Prov 15:8). Their prayers\nwent up like 'incense, and the lifting up of their hands as the\nevening sacrifice' (Psa 141:2).\n\nLet them then that pretend to worship before God in his holy temple\nlook to it, that both their censers, fire, and incense, heart,\nspirit, and desires, be such as the word requires; lest, instead\nof receiving of gracious returns from the God of heaven, their\ncensers be laid up against them; lest the fire of God devours them,\nand their incense become an abomination to him, as it happened to\nthose made mention of before.\n\nBut it is said the censers of Korah and his company was hallowed.\n\nAnsw. So is God's worship, which is so his by his ordination, yet\neven that very worship may be spoiled by man's transgression.\nPrayer is God's ordinance, but all prayer is not accepted of God.\nWe must then distinguish between the thing commanded, and our using\nof that thing. The temple was God's house, but was abused by the\nirreverence of those that worshipped there, even to the demolishing\nof it.\n\nA golden censer is a gracious heart, heavenly fire is the Holy\nGhost, and sweet incense the effectual fervent prayer of faith.\nHave you these? These God expects, and these you must have if ever\nyour persons or performances be of God accepted.\n\nXLIX. Of the golden spoons of the Temple.\n\n1. The golden spoons belonging to the temple were in number, according\nto Moses, twelve; answering to the twelve tribes (Num 7:86). But\nwhen the temple was built, I suppose they were more, because of\nthe number of the basins.\n\n2. The spoons, as I suppose, were for the worshippers in the\ntemple to eat that broth withal, wherein the trespass-offerings\nwere boiled: for which purpose there were several cauldrons hanged\nin the corners of that court called the priest's to boil them in\n(1 Sam 2:13,14; Eze 46:19,20).\n\n3. Now, in that he saith here were spoons, what is it but that\nthere are also babes in the temple of the Lord. There was broth\nfor babes as well as meat for men, and spoons to eat the broth\nwithal.\n\n4. True, the gospel being more excellent than the law, doth change\nthe term, and instead of broth, saith, There is milk for babes. But\nin that he saith milk, he insinuates there are spoons for children\nin the church.\n\n5. 'I could not,' saith Paul to them at Corinth, 'speak to you as\nunto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.\nI have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were\nnot able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able' (1 Cor 3:1,2).\n\n6. See, here were need of spoons, milk is spoon meat; for here were\nthose which could not feed themselves with milk, let them then\nthat are men eat the strong meat. 'For every one that useth milk\nis unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But\nstrong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who,\nby reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good\nand evil' (Heb 5:13,14).\n\n7. Spoons, you know, are to feed us with weak and thin food, even\nwith that which best suiteth with weak stomachs, or with a babyish\ntemper. Hence, as the strong man is opposed to the weak, so the\nmilk is opposed to the strong meat.\n\n8. So then, though the babe in Christ is weaker than the man in\nChrist, yet is he not by Christ left unprovided for; for here is\nmilk for babes, and spoons to eat it with. All this is taught us\nby the spoons; for what need is there of spoons where there is\nnothing to eat but strong meat?\n\n9. Babes, you know, have not only babyish stomachs, but also\nbabyish tricks, and must be dealt withal as babes; their childish\ntalk and frompered carriages must be borne withal.\n\n10. Sometimes they cry for nothing, yea, and count them for their\nfoes which rebuke their childish toys and ways. All which the church\nmust bear, because they are God's babes; yea, they must feed them\ntoo: for if he has found them milk and spoons, it is that they\nmay be fed therewith, and live: yea, grown ministers are God's\nnurses, wherefore they must have a lap to lay them in, and knees\nto dandle them upon, and spoons to feed them with.[25]\n\n11. Nor are the babes but of use in the church of God; for he commands\nthat they may be brought to cry with the congregation before the\nLord for mercy for the land (Joel 2:16).\n\n12. Incense, I told you, was a type of prayers, and the spoons, in\nthe time of Moses, were presented at the temple full of it. Perhaps\nto show that God will, with the milk which he has provided for\nthem, give it to them as a return of their crying to him, even as\nthe nurse gives the child the teat and milk.\n\n13. You know the milk is called for when the child is crying, as we\nsay, to stop its mouth with it. O babes! did you but cry soundly,\nGod would give you yet more milk.\n\n14. But what were these golden spoons a type of? I answer, if the\nmilk is the juice and consolations of the Word, then the spoons\nmust be those soft sentences and golden conclusions with which the\nministers feed their souls by it. 'I have fed you,' saith Paul,\n'with the milk of the Word'; saith Peter, 'even as you have been\nable to bear it.' Compare these two or three texts--1 Peter 2:1-3;\n1 Corinthians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.\n\n15. And this is the way to strengthen the weak hands, and to\nconfirm the feeble knees. This is the way to make them grow to be\nmen who now are but as infants of days. 'Thus a little one shall\nbecome a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.' Yea, thus in\ntime you may make a little child to jostle it with a leopard; yea,\nto take a lion by the beard; yea, thus you may embolden him to\nput his hand to the hole of the asp, and to play before the den\nof the cockatrice (Isa 11:6-8, 60:22).\n\nWho is most stout was once a babe; he that can now eat meat was\nsometimes glad of milk, and to be fed with the spoon. Babes in\nChrist, therefore, must not be despised nor overlooked; God has\nprovided them milk and spoons to eat it with, that they may grow\nup to be men before him.\n\nL. Of the bowls and basins belonging to the Temple.\n\nAs there were spoons, so there were bowls and basins belonging to\nthe temple. Some of these were of gold, and some of silver; and when\nthey were put together, their number was four hundred and forty.\nThese you read of, Ezra 1:10. The bowls or basins were not to wash\nin, as was the sea and lavers of the temple; they were rather to\nhold the messes in, which the priests at their holy feasts did use\nto set before the people. This being so, they were types of that\nproportion of faith by which, or by the measure of which, every\nman received of the holy food for the nourishment of his soul.\nFor, as a man, had he a thousand messes set before him, he eating\nfor his health, cannot go beyond what his stomach will bear; so\nneither can the child of God, when he comes to worship in the\ntemple of God, receive of the good things that are there, beyond\nthe 'proportion of his faith' (Rom 12:6). Or, as it is in another\nplace, according to 'the ability which God giveth' (1 Peter 4:11).\nAnd hence it is, at the self-same ordinance, some receive three\ntimes as much as others do; for that their bowl, I mean their faith,\nis able to receive it. Yea, Benjamin's mess was five times as big\nas was the mess of any of his brethren; and so it is with some\nsaints while they eat with their brother Joseph in the house of\nthe living God.\n\nThere are three go to the same ordinance, and are all of them\nbelievers; who, when they come home, and compare notes, do find\ntheir receivings are not of the same quantity. One says, I got but\nlittle; the other says, It was a pretty good ordinance to me; the\nthird says, I was exceeding well there. Why, to be sure, he that\nhad but little there, had there but little faith; for great faith\nin him would have received more. He had it then according to the\nlargeness of his bowl, even according to his faith, 'as God hath\ndealt to every man the measure of faith' (Rom 12:3). Mark, faith\nis a certain measure, and that not only as to its degree, but for\nthat it can receive, retain, or hold what is put into it.\n\nSo then, here it is no matter how much milk or holy broth there is;\nbut how big is thy bowl, thy faith. Little bowls hold but little,\nnor canst thou receive but as thy faith will bear; I speak now\nof God's ordinary dealing with his people, for so he saith in his\nWord, 'According to your faith be it unto you' (Matt 9:29). If a\nman goeth to the ocean sea for water, let him carry but an egg-shell\nwith him, and with that he shall not bring a gallon home. I know,\nindeed, that our little pots have a promise of being made like\nthe bowls of the altar; but still our mess must be according to\nour measure, be that small, or be it great. The same prophet saith\nagain, the saints shall be 'filled like bowls, and as the corners\nof the altar'; which, though it supposes an enlargement, yet it\nmust be confined to that measure of faith which is provided for\nits reception (Zech 9:15, 14:20). And suppose these bowls should\nsignify the promises, though the saints, not the promises, are\ncompared to them, because they, not promises, are the subjects\nof faith; yet it is the promise by our measure of faith in that,\nthat is nourishing to our souls.\n\nWhen Ahasuerus made a feast to his subjects, they drank their wine\nin bowls. They did not drink it by the largeness of the vessel\nwhence they drew it, but according to their health, and as their\nstomachs would so receive it (Esth 1:7,8). Thy faith, then, is one\nof the bowls or basins of the temple, by, or according to which,\nthou receivest thy mess, when thou sittest feasting at the table\nof God. And observe, all the bowls were not made of gold, as all\nfaith is not of a saving sort. It is the golden faith that is\nright; the silver bowls were of an inferior sort (Rev 3:18).\n\nSome, I say, have golden faith; all faith is not so. Wherefore look\nto it, soul, that thy bowl, thy faith, be golden faith, or of the\nbest kind. Look, I say, after a good faith, and great, for a great\nfaith receives a great mess. Of old, beggars did use to carry\ntheir bowls in their laps, when they went to a door for an alms.[26]\n\nConsequently, if their bowls were but little, they ofttimes came\noff by the loss, though the charity of the giver was large. Yea,\nthe greater the charity, the larger the loss, because the beggar's\nbowl was too little. Mark it well, it is ofttimes thus in the\nmatters of our God. Art thou a beggar, a beggar at God's door,\nbe sure thou gettest a great bowl; for as thy bowl is, so will be\nthy mess. 'According to your faith,' saith he, 'be it unto you'\n(Matt 9:29).\n\nLI. Of the flagons and cups of the Temple.\n\nThe next thing to be considered is the flagons and cups of the\ntemple; of these we read, 1 Chronicles 28:17; Jeremiah 52:19;\nIsaiah 22:24. These were of great use among the Jews, especially\non their feasting days; as of their sabbaths, new-moons, and the\nlike (Lev 23:13; Num 28:7; 1 Chron 16:3; Isa 25:6, 62:8,9).\n\nFor instance, the day that David danced before the ark, 'he dealt\namong all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel,\nas well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a\ngood piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine' (2 Sam 6:19; 1 Chron\n16:3). 'In this mountain,' that is, in the temple typically, saith\nthe prophet, 'shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast\nof fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full\nof marrow, of wines on the less well refined' (Isa 25:6).\n\nThese are feasting times; the times in which our Lord used to have\nhis spouse into his wine-cellar, and in which he used to display\nwith delight his banner over her head in love (Cant 2:4,5). The\nchurch of Christ, alas! is of herself a very sickly puely thing;\na woman; a weaker vessel; but how much more must she needs be so\nweak, when the custom of women is upon her, or when she is sick\nof love? Then she indeed has need of a draught, for she now sinks,\nand will not else be supported. 'Stay me with flagons,' saith she,\n'and comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love' (Can 2:5).\n\nThese flagons, therefore, were types of those feastings, and of\nthose large draughts of Divine love, that the Lord Jesus draweth for\nand giveth to his spouse in those days that he feasteth with them.\nFor then he saith, 'Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.' This\nhe does to cheer her up under her hours of sadness and dejection;\nfor now new 'corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine\nthe maids' (Prov 31:6,7; Psa 116:13; Jer 16:7; Cant 5; Zech 9:17).\n\nAs there were flagons, so there were cups; and they are called\ncups of consolation, and cups of salvation, because, as I said,\nthey were they by which God at his feastings with his people, or\nwhen he suppeth with them, giveth out the more large draughts of\nhis love unto his saints, to revive the spirits of the humble,\nand to revive the hearts of the contrite ones. At these times God\nmade David's cup run over. For we are now admitted, if our faith\nwill bear it, to drink freely into this grace, and to be merry\nwith him (Psa 23:5; Luke 15:22-24; Cant 5:1, 7:11,12; John 14:23;\nRev 3:20). This is that to which the apostle alludeth, when he\nsaith, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled\nwith the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and\nspiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the\nLord' (Eph 5:18,19).\n\nFor the cups, as to their use in the general, understand them as\nof the bowls made mention of before. For assurances are the blooms\nand flowers of faith, not always on it, though usually on feasting\ndays it is so. So the degree of the one is still according to the\nmeasure of the other (James 5; Rom 15:13).\n\nLII. Of the chargers of the Temple.\n\nIn the tabernacle they had but twelve of them, and they were made\nof silver; but in the temple they had in all a thousand and thirty.\nThe thirty were made of gold, the rest were made of silver (Ezra\n1:9; Num 7:84). These chargers were not for uses common or profane,\nbut, as I take it, they were those in which the passover, and\nother meat-offerings, were drest up, when the people came to eat\nbefore God in his holy temple. The meat, you know, I told you,\nwas opposite to milk; and so are these chargers to the bowls, and\ncups, and flagons of the temple.\n\nThe meat was of two sorts, roast or boiled. Of that which was\nroasted was the passover, and of that which was boiled were the\ntrespass-offerings. Wherefore, concerning the passover, he saith,\n'Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with\nfire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof'\n(Exo 12:9). This roast meat was a type of the body of Christ as\nsuffering for our sins, the which, when it was roast, was, and\nis as dressed up in chargers, and set before the congregations of\nthe saints.\n\nBut what were the chargers a type of? I also ask, in what charger\nour gospel passover is now dressed up and set before the people?\nIs it not in the four evangelists, the prophets, and epistles of\nthe apostles? They therefore are the chargers and the ordinance\nof the supper; in these also are the trespass-offerings, with\nwhat is fried in pans, mystically prepared for the children of\nthe Highest.\n\nAnd why might they not be a type of gospel sermons?\n\nI answer, I think not so fitly; for, alas! the best of sermons in\nthe world are but as thin slices cut out of those large dishes.\nOur ministers are the carvers, good doctrine is the meat, and\nthe charger in which this meat is found are the holy canonical\nScriptures, &c., though, as I said, most properly the New Testament\nof our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\n\nIn these is Christ most truly, lively, and amply set before us as\ncrucified, or roasted at the fire of God's law for our sins, that\nwe might live by him through faith, feeding upon him (2 Cor 3:12;\nGal 3:12; Acts 3:18-22, 13:2-5, 26:22; 1 Peter 1:10; Acts 7:52,\n15:15, 28:23; Rom 16:26; Rev 10:7).\n\nThere is in these chargers not only meat, but sauce, if you like it,\nto eat the meat withal; for the passover there are bitter herbs,\nor sound repentance; and for other, as the thank-offerings, their\nis holy cheerfulness and prayers to God for grace. All these\nare set forth before in the holy Scriptures, and presented to us\nthereby, as in the gold chargers of the temple. He that will scoff\nat this, let him scoff. The chargers were a type of something;\nand he that can show a fitter antitype than is here proposed to\nconsideration, let him do it, and I will be thankful to him.\n\nChristians, here is your meat before you, and get your carvers to\nslice it out for you, and this know, the deeper you dip it in the\nsauce, the better it will relish. But let not unbelief teach you\nsuch manners as to make you leave the best bits behind you. For\nyour liberty is to eat freely of the best, of the fat, and of the\nsweet.\n\nLIII. Of the goings out of the Temple.\n\nAs to the comings into the temple, of them we have spoken already;\nnamely, of the outer and inner court, as also of the doors of the\nporch and temple. The coming in was but one strait course, and that\na type of Jesus Christ; but the goings out were many (John 10:9,\n14:6).\n\nNow, as I said, it is insinuated that the goings out are many,\nanswerable to the many ways which the children of men have invented\nto apostatize in from God. Christ is the way into; but sin the\nway out of the temple of God. True, I read not of a description\nof the goings out of this house, as I read of the comings in. Only\nwhen they had Athaliah out thence, she is said to go out by the\nway by which the horses come into the king's stables, and there\nshe was slain, as it were upon the horse dung-hill (2 Kings 11:16;\n2 Chron 23:15). When Uzziah also went out of this house for his\ntransgression, he was cast out of all society, and made to dwell\nin a kind of a pest-house, even to the day of his death (2 Chron\n26:21).\n\nThus, therefore, though these goings out are not particularly\ndescribed, the judgments that followed them that have for their\ntransgressions been thrust out thence, have been both remarkable\nand tremendous: for to die upon a dung-hill, or in a pest-house,\nand that for wicked actions, is a shameful, a disgraceful thing.\nAnd God will still be spreading dung upon the faces of such; no\ngreatness shall prevent it (Mal 2:3). Yea, and will take them away\nwith it. 'I will drive them out of my house,' says he, 'I will love\nthem no more' (Hosea 9:15).\n\nBut what are we to understand in gospel days, by going out of the\nhouse of the Lord, for or by sin? I answer, if it be done voluntarily,\nthen sin leads you out: if it be done by the holy compulsion of the\nchurch, then it is done by the judicial judgment of God; that is,\nthey are cut off, and cast out from thence, as a just reward for\ntheir transgressions (Lev 20, 21:3; Eze 14:8; 1 Cor 5:13).[27]\n\nWell, but whither do they go, that are thus gone out of the temple\nor church of God? I answer, not to the dunghill with Athaliah, nor\nto the pest-house with Uzziah, but to the devil, that is the first\nstep, and so to hell, without repentance. But if their sin be not\nunpardonable, they may by repentance be recovered, and in mercy\ntread these courts again. Now the way to this recovery is to think\nseriously what they have done, or by what way they went out from the\nhouse of God. Hence the prophet is bid to show to the rebellious\nhouse, first the goings out of the house, and then the comings in.\nBut, I say, first he bids show them the goings out thereof (Eze\n43:10,11). And this is of absolute necessity for the recovering\nof the sinner. For until he that has sinned himself out of God's\nhouse shall see what danger he has incurred to himself by this\nhis wicked going out, he will not unfeignedly desire to come in\nthither again.\n\nThere is another thing as to this point to be taken notice of.\nThere is a way by which God also doth depart from this house, and\nthat also is by sin, as the occasion. The sin of a man will thrust\nhim out, and the sin of men will drive God out of his own house.\nOf this you read, Ezekiel 11:22, 23. For this, he saith, 'I have\nforsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage, I have given\nthe dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies' (Jer\n12:7). And this also is dreadful. The great sentence of Christ\nupon the Jews lay much in these words, 'Your house is left unto\nyou desolate'; that is, God has left you to bare walls, and to\nlifeless traditions. Consider, therefore, of this going out also.\nAlas! a church, a true church, is but a poor thing if God leaves,\nif God forsakes it. By a true church I mean one that is congregated\naccording to outward rule, that has sinned God away, as she had\nalmost quite done that was of Laodicea (Rev 3).\n\nHe that sins himself out, can find no good in the world; and they\nthat have sinned God out, can find no good in the church. A church\nthat has sinned God away from it, is a sad lump indeed. You\ntherefore that are in God's church, take heed of sinning yourselves\nout thence; also take heed, that while you keep in, you sin not God\naway, for thenceforth no good is there. 'Yea, woe to them when I\ndepart from them!' saith God (Hosea 9:12).\n\nLIV. Of the singers belonging to the Temple.\n\nHaving thus far passed through the temple, I now come to the singers\nthere. The singers were many, but all of the church, either Jews\nor proselytes; nor was there any, as I know of, under the Old\nTestament worship, admitted to sing the songs of the church, and\nto celebrate that part of worship with the saints, but they who,\nat least in appearance, were so. The song of Moses, of Deborah,\nand of those that danced before David, with others that you read\nof, they were all performed, either by Jews by nature, or by\nsuch as were proselyted to their religion (Exo 15:1; Jude 5:1,2;\n1 Sam 18:6). And such worship then was occasioned by God's great\nappearance for them, against the power of the Gentiles their\nenemies.\n\nBut we are confined to the songs of the temple, a more distinct\ntype of ours in the church under the gospel. 1. The singers then\nwere many, but the chief of them, in the days of David, were David\nhimself, Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, and their sons. 2. In David's\ntime the chief of these singers were two hundred fourscore and\neight (1 Chron 25). These singers of old were to sing their songs\nover the burnt-offering, which were types of the sacrificed body\nof Christ; a memorial of which offering we have at the Lord's table,\nthe consummation of which Christ and his disciples celebrated with\na hymn (Matt 26:30). And as of old they were the church that did\nsing in the temple, according to institution, to God, so also\nthey are by God's appointment to be sung in the church by the new.\nHence,\n\n1. They are said to be the redeemed that sin. 2. The songs that they\nsing are said to be the 'songs of their redemption' (Rev 5:9,10).\n3. They were and are songs that no man can learn but they.\n\nBut let us run a little in the parallel.\n\n1. They were of old appointed to sin, that were cunning and skilful\nin songs. And answerable to that it is said, That no man could\nlearn our New Testament songs, but the hundred and forty and four\nthousand which were redeemed from the earth (1 Chron 15:22; Rev\n14:3).\n\n2. These songs were sung with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and\ntrumpets; a type of our singing with spiritual joy, from grace in\nour hearts (1 Chron 25:6; 2 Chron 29:26-28; Col 3:16).\n\n3. The singers of old were to be clothed in fine linen; which fine\nlinen was a type of innocency, and an upright conversation. Hence\nthe singers under the New Testament are said to be virgins, such\nin whose mouth was no guile, and that were without 'fault before\nthe throne of God' (1 Chron 15:27; Rev 14:1-5. See also 7:9-16;\nPsa 33:1).\n\n4. The songs sung in the temple were new, or such as were compiled\nafter the manner of repeated mercies that the church of God\nhad received, or were to receive. And answerable to this, is the\nchurch to sing now new songs, with new hearts, for new mercies (Psa\n33:3, 40:3, 96, 144:9; Rev 14:3). New songs, I say, are grounded\non new matter, new occasions, new mercies, new deliverances, new\ndiscoveries of God to the soul, or for new frames of heart; and\nare such as are most taking, most pleasing, and most refreshing\nto the soul.\n\n5. These songs of old, to distinguish them from heathenish ones,\nwere called God's songs, the Lord's songs: because taught by him,\nand learned of him, and enjoined to them, to be sung to his praise.\nHence David said, God had put a new song in his mouth, 'even praise\nunto our God' (1 Chron 25:7; Psa 47:6,7, 137:4, 40:3).\n\n6. These songs also were called 'the songs of Zion,' and 'the songs\nof the temple' (Psa 137:3; Amos 8:3). And they are so called as\nthey were theirs to sing there; I say, of them of Zion, and the\nworshippers in the temple. I say, to sing in the church, by the\nchurch, to him who is the God of the church, for the mercies,\nbenefits, and blessings which she has received from him. Sion-songs,\ntemple-songs, must be sung by Sion's sons, and temple-worshippers.\n\nThe redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs,\nand everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and\ngladness; and sorrow and sighing shall fly away. Therefore they\nshall come and sing in the height, or upon the mountain of Zion;\nand shall flow together thither, to the goodness of the Lord.\n'Break forth into singing, ye mountains,' and let the inhabitants\nof the rock sing (Isa 44:23, 42:11, 51:11).\n\nTo sing to God, is the highest worship we are capable of performing\nin heaven; and it is much if sinners on earth, without grace,\nshould be capable of performing it, according to his institution,\nacceptably. I pray God it be done by all those that now-a-days get\ninto churches, in spirit and with understanding.[28]\n\nLV. Of the union of the holy and most holy Temple.\n\nThat commonly called the temple of God at Jerusalem, considered as\nstanding of two parts, was called the outward and inward temple,\nor, the holy and most holy place. They were built upon one and\nthe same foundation; neither could one go into the holiest, but\nas through the holy place (1 Kings 3:1, 6:1; 2 Chron 5:1,13, 7:2).\n\nThe first house, namely, that which we have been speaking of, was\na type of the church-militant, and the place most holy a type of\nthe church-triumphant; I say, of the church-triumphant, as it now\nis.\n\nSo, then, the house standing of these two parts, was a shadow of\nthe church both in heaven and earth. And for that they are joined\ntogether by one and the same foundation, it was to show, that they\nabove, and we below, are yet one and the self-same house of God.\nHence they, and we together, are called, 'The whole family in\nheaven and earth' (Eph 3:14,15).\n\nAnd hence it is said again, that we who believe on earth 'are come\nunto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly\nJerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general\nassembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven,\nand to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made\nperfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to\nthe blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of\nAbel' (Heb 12:22-24).\n\nThe difference, then, betwixt us and them is, not that we are really\ntwo, but one body in Christ, in divers places. True, we are below\nstairs, and they above; they in their holiday, and we in our\nworking-day clothes; they in harbour, but we in the storm; they\nat rest, and we in the wilderness; they singing, as crowned with\njoy; we crying, as crowned with thorns. But, I say, we are all\nof one house, one family, and are all the children of one Father.\nThis, therefore, we must not forget, lest we debar ourselves of\nmuch of that which otherwise, while here, we have a right unto.\nLet us, therefore, I say, remember, that the temple of God is but\none, though divided, as one may say into kitchen and hall, above\nstairs and below; or holy and most holy place. For it stands upon\nthe same foundation, and is called but one, the temple of God;\nwhich is built upon the Lord our Saviour.\n\nI told you before, that none of old could go into the most holy,\nbut by the holy place, even by the veil that made the partition\nbetween (Exo 26:33; Lev 16:2,12,15; Heb 9:7,8, 10:19). Wherefore,\nthey are deceived that think to go into the holiest, which is\nheaven, when they die, who yet abandon and hate the holy place,\nwhile they live. Nay, Sirs, the way into the holiest is through\nthe holy place; the way into heaven is through the church on earth;\nfor that Christ is there by his word to be received by faith,\nbefore he can by us in person be received in the beatical vision.\nThe church on earth is as the house of the women, spoken of in\nthe book of Esther, where we must be dieted, perfumed, and made\nfit to go into the bridegroom's chamber, or as Paul says, 'made\nmeet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light'\n(Esth 2; Col 1:12).\n\nLVI. Of the holiest or inner Temple.\n\nThe most holy place was, as I said, a figure of heaven itself,\nconsequently a type of that where the most special presence of God\nis, and where his face is most clearly seen, and the gladness of\nhis countenance most enjoyed (Heb 9:23,24; Exo 25:22; Num 7:89).\n\nThe most holy place was dark, it had no windows in it, though there\nwere such round the chambers; the more special presence of God,\ntoo, on Mount Sinai, was in the thick darkness there (1 Kings 8:12;\n2 Chron 7:1; Exo 19:9, 20:21).\n\n1. This holiest, therefore, being thus made, was to show that God,\nas in heaven, to us on earth is altogether invisible, and not to be\nreached otherwise than by faith. For, I say, in that this house had\nno windows, nothing therein could be seen by the highest light of\nthis world. Things there were only seen by the light of the fire\nof the altar, which was a type of the shinings of the Holy Ghost\n(1 Cor 2). And hence it is said, notwithstanding this darkness,\n'He dwelleth in the light, which no man can approach unto'; none\nbut the high-priest, Christ (1 Tim 6:16; 1 Peter 3:21,22).\n\n2. The holiest, therefore, was thus built, to show how different\nour state in heaven will be from this our state on earth. We walk\nhere by one light, by the light of a written word; for that is now\na light to our feet, and a lantern to our path. But that place,\nwhere there will be no written word, nor ordinances as here, will\nyet to us shine more light and clear, than if all the lights that\nare in the world were put together, to light one man. 'For God is\nlight, and in him is no darkness at all' (1 John 1:5). And in his\nlight, and in the light of the Lamb immediately, we shall live,\nand walk, and rejoice all the days of eternity.\n\n3. This also was ordained thus, to show that we, while in the first\ntemple, should live by faith, as to what there was, or as to what\nwas done in the second. Hence it is said, as to that, 'we walk by\nfaith, not by sight' (2 Cor 5:9). The things that are there we are\ntold of, even of the ark of the testimony, and mercy-seat, and\nthe cherubims of glory, and the presence of Christ, and of God: we\nare, I say, told of them by the word, and believe, and are taken\ntherewith, and hope to go to them hereafter; but otherwise we see\nthem not. Therefore we are said to 'look, not at the things which\nare seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things\nwhich are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen\nare eternal' (2 Cor 4:18).\n\n4. The people of old were not to look into the holiest, lest they\ndied, save only their high-priest, he might go into it (Num 17:13).\nTo show that we, while here, must have a care of vain speculations,\nfor there is nothing to be seen, by us while here, in heaven,\notherwise than by faith in God's eternal testament. True, we may\nnow come to the holiest, even as nigh as the first temple will\nadmit us to come; but it must be by blood and faith, not by vain\nimagination, sense, or carnal reason (Heb 10:19).\n\n5. This holiest of all was four square every way, both as to height,\nlength, and breadth. To be thus, is a note of perfection, as I have\nshowed elsewhere; wherefore it was on purpose thus built, to show\nus that all fulness of blessedness is there, both as to the nature,\ndegree, and duration. So 'when that which is perfect is come, then\nthat which is in part shall be done away' (1 Cor 13:8-10; Heb\n10:19-22).\n\nLVII. Of the veil of the Temple.\n\nThe veil of the temple was a hanging made of 'blue and purple, and\nscarlet, and fine twined linen,' and there were cherubims wrought\nthereon (Exo 26:31).\n\n1. This veil was one partition, betwixt the holy and most holy place;\nand I take it, it was to keep from the sight of the worshippers\nthe things most holy, when the high-priest went in thither, to\naccomplish the service of God (Exo 26:33; 2 Chron 3:14; Heb 9:8).\n\n2. The veil was a type of two things.\n\n(1.) Of these visible heavens through which Christ passed when he\nwent to make intercession for us. And as by the veil, the priest\nwent out of the sight of the people, when he went into the holiest\nof all, so Jesus Christ when he ascended, was by the heavens, that\ngreat and stretched out curtain, received out of the sight of his\npeople here. Also by the same curtain, since it is become as a tent\nfor him to dwell in, he is still received, and still kept out of\nour sight; for now we see him not, nor shall, until these heavens\nbe rolled together as a scroll, and pass away like a thing rolled\ntogether (Isa 40:22; Acts 1:9-11, 3:19-21; 1 Peter 1:8).\n\n(2.) This is that veil through which the apostle saith, Jesus is,\nas a forerunner for us, entered into the presence of God. For by\nveil here also must be meant the heavens, or outspread firmament\nthereof; as both Mark and Peter say, He 'is gone into heaven, and\nis on the right hand of God' (Mark 16:19; 1 Peter 3:22).\n\n3. The veil of the temple was made of blue, the very colour of the\nheaven. Of purple and crimson, and scarlet also, which are the\ncolours of many of the clouds, because of the reflections of the\nsun. But again,\n\n4. The veil was also a type of the body of Christ. For as the veil\nof the temple, when whole, kept the view of the things of the\nholiest from us, but when rent, gave place to man to look in unto\nthem; even so the body of Christ, while whole, kept the things of\nthe holiest from that view, we, since he was pierced, have of them.\nHence we are said to enter into the holiest, by faith, through the\nveil, that is to say, his flesh (Heb 10:19-22). But yet, I say, all\nis by faith; and, indeed, the rending of the veil that day that\nChrist was crucified, did loudly preach this to us. For no sooner\nwas the body of Christ pierced, but the veil of the temple rent\nin twain from the top to the bottom; and so a way was made for a\nclearer sight of what was there beyond it, both in the type and\nantitype (Matt 27:50-53; Heb 10:19,20).\n\nThus you see that the veil of the temple was a type of these visible\nheavens, and also of the body of Christ; of the first, because he\npassed through it unto the Father; of the second, because we by it\nhave boldness to come to the Father.\n\nI read also of two other veils, as of that spread over the face of\nMoses, to the end that the children of Israel should not stedfastly\nbehold; and of the first veil of the tabernacle. But of these I\nshall not in this place speak.\n\nUpon the veil of the temple there were also the figures of cherubims\nwrought, that is, of angels; to show, that as the angels are with\nus here, and wait upon us all the days of our pilgrimage in this\nworld; so when we die, they stand ready, even at the veil, at the\ndoor of these heavens, to come when bid, to fetch us, and carry\nus away into Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22).\n\nThe veil, then, thus understood, teaches us first where Jesus is,\nnamely, not here, but gone into heaven, from whence we should wait\nfor him. It also teaches us, that if we would even now discern\nthe glories that are in the holiest of all, we must look through\nJesus to them, even through the veil, 'that is to say, his flesh.'\nYea, it teaches us that we may, by faith through him, attain to a\nkind of a presence, at least of the beauty and sweetness of them.\n\nLVIII. Of the doors of the inner Temple.\n\n1. Besides the veil, there was a door to the inner temple, and that\ndoor was made of olive tree; 'and for the entering of the oracle,\nhe made doors of olive tree. The two doors also of olive tree, and\nhe carved upon them--cherubims, and palm trees, and open flowers,\nand overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims,\nand upon the palm trees' (1 Kings 6:31).\n\n2. These doors were a type of the gate of heaven, even of that\nwhich lets into the eternal mansion-house that is beyond that veil.\nI told you before that the veil was a type of the visible heavens,\nwhich God has spread out as a curtain, and through which Christ\nwent when he ascended to the right hand of the Father.\n\n3. Now, beyond this veil, as I said, I find a door, a gate opening\nwith two leaves, as afore we found at the door of the outward\ntemple. These are they which the Psalmist calls to, when he saith,\n'Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting\ndoors, and the King of glory shall come in' (Psa 24:7,9).\n\n4. The doors of the temple were made of fire, but these, as you\nsee, were made of olive; to show us by that fat tree, that rich\ntype, with what glory we shall be met, who shall be counted worthy\nto enter at these gates. The olive tree has its name from the oil\nand fatness of its nature, and the doors that let into the holiest\nwere made of this olive tree (Rom 11:16-18).[29]\n\n5. Cherubims were also carved upon these doors to show, that as\nthe angels met us at the temple door, and as they wait upon us in\nthe temple, and stand also ready at the veil, so even at the gate\nof the mansion-house, they will be also ready to give us a welcome\nthither, and to attend us into the presence chamber.\n\n6. Palm trees also, as they were carved upon the temple doors,\nso we also find them here before the oracle, upon the doors that\nlet in thither; to show, that as Christ gave us the victory at\nour first entering into faith, so he will finish that victory, by\ngiving of us eternal salvation. Thus is he the author and finisher\nof our faith. For as sure as at first we received the palm branch\nby faith, so surely shall we wear it in our hands, as a token of\nhis faithfulness in the heaven of heavens, for ever (Rev 7:9).\n\n7. Open flowers are also carved here, to show that Christ, who is\nthe door to glory, as well as the door to grace, will be precious\nto us at our entering in thither, as well as at the first step\nwe took thitherward in a sinful and miserable world. Christ will\nnever lose his sweet scent in the nostrils of his church. He is\nmost sweet now, will be so at death, and sweetest of all, when\nby him we shall enter into that mansion-house prepared for us in\nheaven.\n\n8. The palm trees and open flowers may also be a type of the\nprecious ones of God, who shall be counted worthy of his kingdom;\nthe one, of the uprightness of their hearts; the other, of the good\nfavour of their lives. 'The upright shall dwell in thy presence;\nand to him that ordereth his conversation aright, I will show the\nsalvation of God' (Psa 140:13).\n\n9. Thus sweet on earth, sweet in heaven; and he that yields\nthe fruit of the gospel here, shall find it for himself, and his\neternal comfort, at the gates of glory.\n\n10. All these were overlaid with gold, as you may say, and so\nthey were at the door of the first house. True, but observe here\nwe have an addition. Here is gold upon gold. Gold laid on them,\nand then gold spread upon that. He overlaid them with gold, and\nthen spread gold upon them. The Lord gives grace and glory (Psa\n84:11). Gold and gold. Gold spread upon gold. Grace is gold in\nthe leaf, and glory is gold in plates. Grace is thin gold, glory\nis gold that is thick. Here is gold laid on, and gold spread\nupon that: and that both upon the palm trees and the cherubims.\nGold upon the palm trees, that is, on the saints; gold upon the\ncherubims, that is, upon the angels. For I doubt not but that the\nangels themselves shall receive additional glory for the service\nwhich they have served Christ and his church on earth.\n\n11. The angels are God's harvest men, and doubtless he will give\nthem good wages, even glory upon their glory then (Matt 13:38,39,\n24:31; John 4:36).\n\n12. You know harvest men use to be paid well for gathering in the\ncorn, and I doubt not but so shall these, when the great ingathering\nis over. But what an entrance into life is here? Here is gold upon\ngold at the door, at our first step into the kingdom.\n\nLIX. Of the golden nails of the inner Temple.\n\nI shall not concern myself with all the nails of the temple, as of\nthose made of iron, &c. (1 Chron 22:3). But only with the golden\nones, of which you read, where he saith, 'And the weight of the\nnails was fifty shekels of gold' (2 Chron 3:9). These nails, as I\nconceive, were all fastened to the place most holy, and of form\nmost apt to that of which they were a figure.\n\n1. Some of them represented Christ Jesus our Lord as fixed in his\nmediatory office in the heavens; wherefore in one place, when\nthe Holy Ghost speaks of Christ, as he sprang from Judah to be a\nmediator, saith, 'Out of him came the corner,' the corner stone,\n'out of him the nail' (Zech 10:4). Now, since he is compared to a\nnail, a golden nail, it is to show, that as a nail, by driving, is\nfixed in his place; so Christ, by God's oath, is made an everlasting\npriest (Heb 7:25). Therefore, as he saith again, the nail, the\nAaronical priesthood, that was fastened in a sure place, should\nbe removed, be cut down, and fall; so he who has the key of David,\nwhich is Christ (Rev 3:7), shall by God, as a nail, be fastened in\na sure place, and abide; therefore he says again, 'And he shall\nbe for a glorious throne,' or mercy-seat, 'to his Father's house.'\nAnd moreover, That 'they shall hang upon him,' as on a nail, 'all\nthe glory of his Father's house, the offspring, and the issue, all\nvessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all\nthe vessels of flagons' (Isa 22:20-25). According to that which\nis written, 'And they sang a new song' to the Lamb that was slain,\n'saying, Thou art worthy,' &c. (Rev 5:9-12).\n\nAnd therefore it is again that Christ, under the similitude of a\nnail, is accounted by saints indeed their great pledge or hope,\nas he is in heaven, of their certain coming thither. Hence they\nsaid of old, God has given us 'a nail in his holy place'; a nail,\nsays the line, 'a pin, a constant and sure abode,' says the margin\n(Ezra 9:8). Now, this nail in his holy place, as was showed before,\nis Christ; Christ, as possessed of heaven, and as abiding, and\never living therein for us. Hence he is called, as there, our\nhead, our life, and our salvation; and also we are said there to\nbe set down together in him (Eph 1; Col 3:3; Eph 2:5,6).\n\n2. Some of these nails were types of the holy words of God, which\nfor ever are settled in heaven. Types, I say, of their 'yea and\namen.' Hence Solomon, in another place, compares the words of the\nwise God, 'to goads and nails, fastened by the masters of assemblies,\nwhich are given from one shepherd' (Eccl 12:11).\n\nThey are called goads, because, as such prick the oxen on in their\ndrawing, so God's words prick Christians on in their holy duties.\nThey are called nails, to show, that as nails, when fastened well\nin a sure place, are not easily removed; so God's words, by his\nwill, stand firm for ever. The masters of the assemblies are first,\nthe apostles. The one shepherd is Jesus Christ. Hence the gospel\nof Christ is said to be everlasting, to abide for ever, and to be\nmore stedfast than heaven and earth (Isa 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:24,25;\nHeb 13:20; Rev 14:6; Matt 24:35). The Lord Jesus then, and his\nholy words, are the golden nails of the temple, and the fixing\nof thess nails in the temple, was to show that Christ is the same\ntoday, yesterday, and for ever; and that his words abide, and\nremain the same for ever and ever. He then that hath Christ, has\na nail in the holiest; he that hath a promise of salvation hath\nalso a nail in heaven, a golden nail in heaven!\n\nLX. Of the floor and walls of the inner Temple.\n\n1. The floor of the oracle was overlaid with cedar, and so also\nwere the walls of this house. 'He built twenty cubits on the sides\nof the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar.\nHe even built for it within, for the oracle, for the most holy\nplace' (1 Kings 6:16).\n\n2. In that he doth tell us with what it was ceiled, and doth also\nthus repeat, saying, 'for the oracle, for it within, even for the\nmost holy place,' it is because he would have it noted, that this\nonly is the place that thus was done.\n\n3. Twenty cubits, that was the length, and breadth, and height of\nthe house; so that by his thus saying he teacheth that thus it was\nbuilt round about.\n\n4. The cedar is, if I mistake not, the highest of the trees (Eze\n31:3-8). Now in that it is said the house, the oracle, was ceiled\nround about therewith, it may be to show, that in heaven, and no\nwhere else, is the height of all perfections. Perfection is in\nthe church on earth, but not such as is in heaven.\n\n(1.) There is a natural perfection, and so a penny is as natural\nsilver as is a shilling. (2.) There is a comparative perfection,\nand so one thing may be perfect and imperfect at the same time; as\na half-crown is more than a shilling, yet less than a crown. (3.)\nThere is also that which we call the utmost perfection, and that\nis it which cannot be added to, or taken from him; and so God\nonly is perfect. Now, heavenly glory is that which goes beyond\nall perfection on the earth, as the cedar goes beyond all trees\nfor height. Hence God, when he speaks of his own excellency, sets\nit forth by its height. The high God, the most High, and the high\nand lofty One; and the Highest (Psa 92:9, 138:6; Gen 14:19-21;\nDan 3:26, 5:18; Psa 18:13, 87:5; Luke 1:32, 6:35; Isa 57:15; Psa\n9:2, 56:2, 92:1; Isa 14:14). These terms also are ascribed to this\nhouse, for that it was the place where utmost perfection dwelt.\n\nI take, therefore, the cedar in this place to be a note of perfection,\neven the cedar with which this house was ceiled. For since it is\nthe wisdom of God to speak to us ofttimes by trees, gold, silver,\nstones, beasts, fowls, fishes, spiders, ants, frogs, flies, lice,\ndust, &c., and here by wood; how should we by them understand his\nvoice, if we count there is no meaning in them? 'And the cedar of\nthe house within was carved with knops and open flowers; all was\ncedar; there was no stone seen' (1 Kings 6:18).\n\nKnops and flowers were they with which the golden candlestick was\nadorned, as you read, Exodus 25:33, 35, 37:10, 21. The candlestick\nwas a type of the church, and the knops and flowers a type of her\nornaments. But what! must heaven be hanged round about with the\nornaments of saints! with the fruits of their graces! Well, it is\ncertain that something more than ordinary must be done with them,\nsince they are admitted to follow them into the holy place (Rev\n14:13); and since, it is said, they shall have a far more exceeding\nand eternal weight of glory bestowed on them, for them in the\nheavens' (2 Cor 4:16,17).\n\n'All was cedar; there was no stone seen.' Take stone in the type\nfor that which was really so, and in the antitype for that which\nis so mystically, and then it may import to us, that in heaven,\nthe antitype of this holiest, there shall never be anything of\nhardness of heart in them that possess it for ever. All imperfection\nariseth from the badness of the heart, but there will be no\nbad hearts in glory. No shortness in knowledge, no crossness of\ndisposition, no workings of lusts, or corruptions will be there;\nno, not throughout the whole heavens. Here, alas! they are seen,\nand that in the best of saints, because here our light is mixed\nwith darkness; but there will be no night there, nor any stone\nseen.\n\n'And the floor of the house was overlaid with gold' (1 Kings 6:30).\nThis is like that of which we read of the New Jerusalem that is\nto come from God out of heaven; says the text, 'The street of the\ncity was pure gold'; and like that of which you read in Exodus,\n'They saw the God of Israel, and under his feet as it were a paved\nwork of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his\nclearness' (Rev 21:21; Exo 24:10). All the visions were rich, but\nthis the richest, that the floor of the house should be covered or\noverlaid with gold. The floor and street are walking-places, and\nhow rich will our steps be then! Alas! here we sometimes fall into\nthe mire, and then again stumble upon blocks and stones. Here\nwe sometimes fall into holes, and have our heel oft catched in a\nsnare; but there will be none of these. Gold! gold! all will be\ngold, and golden perfections, when we come into the holy place!\nJob at best took but his steps in butter, but we then shall take\nall our steps in the gold of the sanctuary.\n\nLXI. Of the ark of the covenant which was placed in the inner\nTemple.\n\nIn the Word I read of three arks; to wit, Noah's ark, that in which\nMoses was hid, and the ark of the covenant of God (Gen 6:14; Exo\n2:3,5). But it is the ark of the covenant of which I shall now\nspeak. The ark was made 'of shittim-wood, two cubits and a half\nwas the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof,\nand a cubit and a half the height thereof.' It was overlaid 'with\npure gold within and without,' and 'a crown of gold' was made for\nit 'round about' (Exo 25:10,11).\n\n1. This ark was called 'the ark of the covenant,' as the first that\nyou read of was called 'Noah's,' because as he in that was kept\nfrom being drowned, so the tables of the covenant were kept in\nthis from breaking.\n\n2. This ark, in this, was a type of Christ; for that in him only,\nand not in the hand of Moses, these tables were kept whole. Moses\nbrake them, the ark keeps them.\n\n3. Not only that wrote on two tables of stone, but that also called\n'the ceremonial,' was put into the ark to be kept. The two tables\nwere put into the midst of the ark, to answer to this--thy law is\nwithin my heart to do it. But the ceremonial was put into the side\nof the ark, to show that out of the side of Christ must come that\nwhich must answer that, for out thence came blood and water; blood,\nto answer the blood of the ceremonies; and water, to answer the\npurifyings and rinsings of that law. The ceremonies, therefore,\nwere lodged in the side of the ark, to show that they should be\nanswered out of the side of Jesus Christ (Exo 25:16,17; Deut 10:5;\nPsa 40:8; John 19:34; Heb 10:7).\n\n4. The ark had the name of God put upon it; yea, it was called the\nstrength of God, and his glory, though made of wood. And Christ\nis God both in name and nature, though made flesh; yea more, made\nto be sin for us (2 Sam 6:2; 1 Chron 13:6; 2 Chron 6:1; John 1:14;\nRom 9:5; 2 Cor 5:21).\n\n5. The ark was carried upon men's shoulders this way and that, to\nshow how Christ should be carried and preached by his apostles and\nministers into all parts of the world (Exo 25:14; 1 Chron 15:15;\nMatt 28:19,20; Luke 24:46,47).\n\n6. The ark had those testimonies of God's presence accompanying\nit, as had no other ceremony of the law; and Christ had those signs\nand tokens of his presence with him, as never had man either in\nlaw or gospel. This is so apparent it needs no proof. And now for\na few comparisons more.\n\n(1.) It was at that that God answered the people, when they were\nwont to come to inquire of him; and in these last days God has\nspoken to us by his Son (1 Chron 13:3; 1 Sam 14:18; Heb 1:2; John\n16:23,24).\n\n(2.) At the presence of the ark the waters of Jordan stood still till\nIsrael, the ransomed of the Lord, passed over from the wilderness\nto Canaan; and it is by the power and presence of Christ that we pass\nover death, Jordan's antitype, from the wilderness of this world\nto heaven (Josh 3:15-17; John 11:25; Rom 8:37-39; 1 Cor 15:54-57).\n\n(3.) Before the ark the walls of Jericho fell down; and at the\npresence of Christ shall all high towers, and strongholds, and\nhiding places for sinners be razed, and dissolved at his coming\n(Josh 6:20; Isa 30:25, 2:10,16; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev 20:11-13).\n\n(4.) Before the ark Dagon fell, that idol of the Philistines; and\nbefore Christ Jesus devils fell, those gods of all those idols.\nAnd he must reign till all his enemies be put under his feet, and\nuntil they be made his footstool (1 Sam 5:1-4; Mark 5:12; 1 Cor\n15:25; Heb 10:13).\n\n(5.) The Philistines were also plagued for meddling with the ark,\nwhile they abode uncircumcised; and the wicked will one day be\nmost severely plagued for their meddling with Christ, with their\nuncircumcised hearts (1 Sam 5:6-13; Psa 50:6; Matt 24:51, 25:11,12;\nLuke 13:25-29).\n\n(6.) God's blessing was upon those that entertained the ark as they\nshould; and much more is, and will his blessing be upon those that\nso embrace and entertain his Christ, and profess his name sincerely\n(2 Sam 6:11; Acts 3:26; Gal 3:13,14; Matt 19:27-29; Luke 22:28,29).\n\n(7.) When Uzzah put forth his hand to stay the ark, when the oxen\nshook it, as despairing of God's protecting of it without a human\nhelp, he died before the Lord; even so will all those do, without\nrepentance, who use unlawful means to promote Christ's religion,\nand to support it in the world (1 Chron 13:9,10; Matt 26:52; Rev\n13:10).\n\n\n(8.) The ark, though thus dignified, was of itself but low--but\na cubit and a half high; also Christ--though he was the glory\nof heaven and of God--yet made himself of no reputation, and was\nfound in the likeness of a man (Exo 25:10-12; Phil 2:6-11).\n\n(9.) The ark had a crown of gold round about upon it, to show how\nChrist is crowned by his saints by faith, and shall be crowned by\nthem in glory, for all the good he hath done for them; as also how\nall crowns shall one day stoop to him, and be set upon his head.\nThis is showed in the type (Zech 6:11,14). And in the antitype\n(Rev 4:10, 19:12).\n\n(10.) The ark was overlaid with gold within and without, to show\nthat Christ was perfect in inward grace and outward life, in spirit\nand in righteousness (John 1:14; 1 Peter 2:22).\n\n(11.) The ark was placed under the mercy-seat, to show that Jesus\nChrist, as Redeemer, brings and bears, as it were, upon his\nshoulders, the mercy of God to us, even in the body of his flesh,\nthrough death (Exo 25:21; Eph 4:22; 5:1,2).\n\n(12.) When the ark was removed far from the people, the godly went\nmourning after it; and when Christ is hid, or taken from us, then\nwe mourn in those days (2 Sam 7:2; Mark 2:19,20; Luke 5:34,35;\nJohn 16:20-22).\n\n(13.) All Israel had the ark again, after their mourning-time was\nover; and Christ, after his people have sorrowed for him a while,\nwill see them again, 'and their hearts shall rejoice' (John\n16:1-3,20-22).\n\nBy all these things, and many more that might be mentioned, it is\nmost evident that the ark of the testimony was a type of Jesus\nChrist; and take notice a little of that which follows, namely,\nthat the ark at last arrived to the place most holy (Heb 9:3,4).\nThat is, after its wanderings; for the ark was first made to wander,\nlike a non-inhabitant, from place to place; now hither, and then\nthither; now in the hands of enemies, and then abused by friends;\nyea, it was caused to rove from place to place, as that of which\nthe world was weary. I need instance to you for proof hereof none\nother place than the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the\nfirst Book of Samuel; and, answerable to this, was our dear Lord\nJesus posted backwards and forwards, hither and thither, by the\nforce of the rage of his enemies. He was hunted into Egypt so soon\nas he was born (Matt 2). Then he was driven to live in Galilee\nthe space of many years. Also, when he showed himself to Israel,\nthey drove him sometimes into the wilderness, sometimes into the\ndesert, sometimes into the sea, and sometimes into the mountains,\nand still in every of these places he was either haunted or hunted\nby new enemies.\n\nAnd at last of all, the Pharisees plot for his life; Judas sells him,\nthe priests buy him, Peter denies him, his enemies mock, scourge,\nbuffet, and much abuse him. In fine, they get him condemned, and\ncrucified, and buried; but at last God commanded, and took him\nto his place, even within the veil, and sets him to bear up the\nmercy-seat, where he is to this very day, being our ark to save\nus, as Noah's did him, as Moses' did him; yea, better, as none\nbut Christ doth save his own.\n\nLXII. Of the placing of the ark in the holiest, or inner Temple.\n\n1. The ark, as we have said, and as the text declares, when carried\nto its rest, was placed in the inner temple, or in the most holy\nplace, 'even under the wings of the cherubims.' 'And the priests\nbrought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to\nthe oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the\nwings of the cherubims' (Exo 26:33, 39:35; 1 Kings 8:3; 2 Chron\n5:7).\n\n2. Before this, as was said afore, the ark was carried from place\nto place, and caused to dwell in a tent under curtains, as all\nour fathers did; to show that Christ, as we, was made for a time\nto wander in the world, in order to his being possessed of glory\n(2 Sam 7:1,3,6; Heb 11:9; John 1:10, 16:28, 3:13).\n\n3. But now, when the ark was brought into the holiest, it is said\nto be brought into its place. This world then was not Christ's\nplace, he was not from beneath, he came from his Father's house;\nwherefore while here, he was not at his place, nor could until he\nascended up where he was before (John 8:23, 16:28, 6:62, 3:13).\n\n4. Christ's proper place, therefore, is the holiest. His proper\nplace, as God, as Priest, as Prophet, as King, and as the Advocate\nof his people. Here, with us, he has no more to do, in person,\nas mediator. If he were on earth, he should not be a priest, &c.\nHis place and work is now above with his Father, and before the\nangels (Acts 5:31; 1 Peter 3:22; Heb 4:14, 8:4; 9:24; 1 John 2:1,2;\nRev 1:4,5).\n\n5. It is said the ark was brought 'to the oracle of the house,'\nSolomon was not content to say it was brought into the holiest; but\nhe saith, his place was the oracle, the holy oracle, that is, the\nplace of hearing. For he, when he ascended, had somewhat to say\nto God on the behalf of his people. To the oracle, that is, to\nthe place of revealing. For he also was there to receive, and from\nthence to reveal to his church on earth, something that could not\nbe made manifest but from this holy oracle. There therefore he is\nwith the two tables of testimony in his heart, as perfectly kept;\nhe also is there with the whole fulfulling of the ceremonial law\nin his side, showing and pleading the perfection of his righteousness,\nand the merit of his blood with his Father, and to receive and\nto do us good, who believe in him, how well pleased the Father is\nwith what he has done in our behalf.\n\n6. 'Into the most holy place.' By these words is showed, whither\nalso the ark went, when it went to take up its rest. And in that\nthis ark was a type of Christ in this, it is to show or further\nmanifest, that what Christ doth now in heaven, he doth it before\nhis Father's face. Yea, it intimates, that Christ even there makes\nhis appeals to God, concerning the worth of what he did on earth;\nto God the Judge of all, I say, whether he ought not for his\nsuffering-sake to have granted to him his whole desire, as Priest\nand Advocate for his people?\n\n'Wilt thou,' said Festus to Paul, 'go up to Jerusalem, and there\nbe judged of these things before me?' (Acts 25:9). Why, this our\nblessed Jesus was willing, when here, to go up to Jerusalem to be\njudged; and being misjudged of there, he made his appeal to God,\nand is now gone thither, even into the holy place, even to him that\nis Judge of all, for his verdict upon his doing; and whether the\nsouls for whom he became undertaker, to bring them to glory, have\nnot by him a right to the kingdom of heaven.\n\n7. 'Under the wings of the cherubims.' This doth further confirm\nour words; for having appealed from earth to heaven, as the ark\nwas set under the wings of the cherubims, so he, in his interceding\nwith God and pleading his merits for us, doth it in the presence\nand hearing of all the angels in heaven.\n\nAnd thus much of the ark of the covenant, and of its antitype. We\ncome next to speak of the mercy-seat.\n\nLXIII. Of the mercy-seat, and how it was placed in the holy Temple.\n\nThe mercy-seat was made in the wilderness, but brought up by Solomon,\nafter the temple was built, with the rest of the holy things (2\nChron 5:2-10).\n\nThe mercy-seat, as I have showed of the ark, was but low. 'Two\ncubits and a half was the length, and a cubit and a half the breadth\nthereof'; but the height thereof 'was without measure.'\n\n1. The length and breadth of the mercy-seat is the same with that\nof the ark: perhaps to show us, that the length and breadth of the\nmercy of God to his elect, is the same with the length and breadth\nof the merits of Christ (Exo 25:10,17). Therefore, we are said to\nbe justified in him, blessed in him, even according to the purpose\nwhich God purposed in him.\n\n2. But in that the mercy-seat is without measure, as to height,\nit is to show, that would God extend it, it is able to reach even\nthem that fall from heaven, and to save all that ever lived on\nearth, even all that are now in hell. For there is not only breadth\nenough for them that shall be saved, but 'bread enough and to\nspare' (Luke 15:17). 'And thou shalt,' says God, 'put the mercy-seat\nabove upon the ark.' Thus he said to Moses, and this was the place\nwhich David assigned for it (Exo 25:21; 1 Chron 28:11). Now, its\nbeing by God's ordinance placed thus, doth teach us many things.\n\n(1.) That mercy's foundation to us is Christ. The mercy-seat was\nset upon the ark of the testimony, and there it rested to usward.\nJustice would not, could not have suffered us to have had any\nbenefit by mercy, had it not found an ark, a Christ to rest upon.\n'Deliver him,' saith God, 'from going down to the pit, I have found\na ransom' (Job 33:24).\n\n(2.) In that it was placed above, it doth show also that Christ\nwas, of mercies, ordaining a fruit of mercy. Mercy is above, is the\nordainer; God is love, and sent of love his Son to be the Saviour\nand propitiation for our sins (John 3:16; 1 John 4:10).\n\n(3.) In that the mercy-seat and ark were thus joined together, it\nalso shows, that without Christ mercy doth not act. Hence, when\nthe priest came of old to God for mercy, he did use to come into\nthe holy place with blood; yea, and did use to sprinkle it upon\nthe mercy-seat, and before it, seven times. Take away the ark, and\nthe mercy-seat will fall, or come greatly down at least. So take\naway Christ, and the flood-gate of mercy is let down, and the\ncurrent of mercy stopped. This is true, for so soon as Christ\nshall leave off to mediate, will come the eternal judgment.\n\n(4.) Again, in that the mercy-seat was set above upon the ark, it\nteacheth us to know, that mercy can look down from heaven, though\nthe law stand by and looks on; but then it must be in Christ, as\nkept there, and fulfilled by him for us. The law out of Christ is\nterrible as a lion; the law in him is meek as a lamb. The reason\nis, for that it finds in him enough to answer for all their faults,\nthat come to God for mercy by him. 'Christ is the end of the law\nfor righteousness'; and if that be true, the law for that can look\nno further upon whoever comes to God by him. The law did use to\nsentence terribly, until it was put into the ark to be kept.[30]\n\n(5.) Let them then that come to God for mercy be sure to come\nto him by the ark, Christ. For grace, as it descends to us from\nabove the mercy-seat, so that mercy-seat doth rest upon the ark.\nWherefore, sinner, come thou for mercy that way: for there if\nthou meetest with the law, it can do thee no harm; nor can mercy,\nshouldst thou elsewhere meet it, do thee good. Come, therefore,\nand come boldly to the throne of grace, this mercy-seat, thus borne\nup by the ark, and 'obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time\nof need' (Heb 4:16).\n\nWherefore the thus placing of things in the holiest, is admirable\nto behold in the word of God. For that indeed is the glass by and\nthrough which we must behold this glory of the Lord. Here we see\nthe reason of things; here we see how a just God can have to do,\nand that in a way of mercy, with one that has sinned against him.\nIt is because the law has been kept by the Lord Jesus Christ; for\nas you see, the mercy-seat stands upon the ark of the covenant,\nand there God acts in a way of grace towards us (Exo 25:17-23).\n\nLXIV. Of the living waters of the inner Temple.\n\nAlthough in the holy relation of the building of the temple no\nmention is made of these waters, but only of the mount on which,\nand the materials with which the king did build it, yet it seems to\nme that in that mount, and there too where the temple was built,\nthere was a spring of living water. This seems more than probable,\nby Ezekiel 47:1, where he saith, 'He brought me again unto the\ndoor of the house, and behold, waters issued out from under the\nthreshold of the house eastward, for the fore-front of the house\nstood toward the east, and the waters came down from under, from\nthe right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.' So\nagain, 'And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord,\nand shall water the valley of Shittim' (Joel 3:18). Nor was the\nspring, wherever was the first appearance of thess holy waters,\nbut in the sanctuary, which is the holiest of all (Eke 47:12),\nwhere the mercy-seat stood, which in Revelation is called 'The\nthrone of God, and of the Lamb' (Rev 22:1,2).\n\nThis also is that which the prophet Zechariah means, when he says,\n'Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward\nthe former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea,' &c. (Zech\n14:8). They are said to go forth from Jerusalem, because they came\ndown to the city from out of the sanctuary which stood in Jerusalem.\nThis is that which in another place is called a river of water of\nlife, because it comes forth from the throne, and because it was\nat the head of it, as I suppose, used in and about temple-worship.\nIt was with this, I think, that the molten sea and the ten lavers\nwere filled, and in which the priests washed their hands and feet\nwhen they went into the temple to do service; and that also in\nwhich they washed the sacrifices before they offered them to God;\nyea, I presume, all the washings and rinsings about their worship\nwas with this water.\n\nThis water is said in Ezekiel and Revelation to have the tree of life\ngrow on the banks of it, and was a type of the word and Spirit of\nGod, by which, both Christ himself sanctified himself, in order to\nhis worship as high-priest (Eze 47; Rev 22). And also this water\nis that which heals all those that shall be saved; and by which,\nthey being sanctified thereby also, do all their works of worship\nand service acceptably, through Jesus Christ our Lord. This water\ntherefore is said to go forth into the sea, the world, and to heal\nits fish, the sinners therein; yea, this is that water of which\nChrist Jesus our Lord saith, Whosoever shall drink thereof shall\nlive for ever (Eze 47:8-10; Zech 14:8; John 4:14).\n\nLXV. Of the chains which were in the oracle or inner Temple.\n\nAs there were chains on the pillars that stood before the porch\nof the temple, and in the first house; so, like unto them, there\nwere chains in the holiest, here called the oracle. These chains\nwere not chains in show, or as carved on wood, &c., but chains\nindeed, and that of gold; and they were prepared to make a partition\n'before the oracle' within (1 Kings 6:21; 2 Chron 3:16).\n\nI told you before that the holiest was called the oracle, not because\nin a strict sense the whole of it was so, but because such answer\nof God was there, as was not in the outward temple, but I think\nthat the ark and mercy-seat were indeed more especially that\ncalled the oracle; 'for there I will meet with thee,' saith God,\nand from above that 'I will commune with thee' (Exo 25:22). When\nDavid said, 'I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle,' he meant\nnot so much towards the holiest house, as toward the mercy-seat\nthat was therein. Or, as he saith in the margin, 'Toward the oracle\nof thy sanctuary' (Psa 28:2).\n\nWhen therefore he saith, 'before the oracle,' he means, these chains\nwere put in the most holy place, before the ark and mercy-seat, to\ngive to Aaron and his sons to understand that an additional glory\nwas there. For the ark and mercy-seat were preferred before that\nholy house itself, even as Christ and the grace of God is preferred\nbefore the highest heavens. 'The Lord is high above all nations,\nand his glory above the heavens' (Psa 113:4).\n\nSo then, the partition that was made in this house by these chains,\nthese golden chains, was not so much to divide the holy from the\nplace most holy, as to show that there is in the holiest house that\nwhich is yet more worthy than it.\n\nThe holiest was a type of heaven, but the ark and mercy-seat were\na type of Christ, and of the mercy of God to us by him; and I trow\nany man will conclude, if he knows what he says, that the God and\nChrist of heaven are more excellent than the house they dwell in.\nHence David said again, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee?' For thou\nart more excellent than they (Psa 73:25). For though that which\nis called heaven would serve some; yea, though God himself was\nout of it, yet none but the God of heaven will satisfy a truly\ngracious man: it is God that the soul of this man thirsteth for;\nit is God that is his exceeding joy (Psa 52:2, 63:1, 143:6, 17:15,\n43:4).\n\nThese chains then, as they made this partition in the most holy\nplace, may teach us, that when we shall be glorified in heaven, we\nshall yet, even then, and there, know that there will continue an\ninfinite disproportion between God and us. The golden chains that\nare there will then distinguish [or separate] the Creator from the\ncreature. For we, even we which shall be saved, shall yet retain\nour own nature, and shall still continue finite beings; yea, and\nshall there also see a disproportion between our Lord, our head,\nand us; for though now we are, and also then shall be like him as\nto his manhood; yea, and shall be like him also, as being glorified\nwith his glory; yet he shall transcend and go beyond us, as to\ndegree and splendour, as far as ever the highest king on earth\ndid shine above the meanest subject that dwelt in his kingdom.\n\nChains have of old been made use of as notes of distinction, to show\nus who are bond men, and who free. Yea, they shall at the day of\njudgment be a note of distinction of bad and good; even as here\nthey will distinguish the heavens from God, and the creature from\nthe Creator (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Matt 22:13).\n\nTrue, they are chains of sin and wrath, but these chains of gold;\nyet these chains, even these also will keep creatures in their\nplace, that the Creator may have his glory, and receive those\nacknowledgments there from them, which is due unto his Majesty\n(Rev 4, 5:11-14).\n\nLXVI. Of the high-priest, and of his office in the inner Temple.\n\nWhen things were thus ordained in the house 'most holy,' then went\nthe high-priest in thither, according as he was appointed, to do\nhis office, which was to burn incense in his golden censer, and\nto sprinkle with his finger the blood of his sacrifice, for the\npeople, upon and above the mercy-seat (Exo 30:7-10; Lev 16:11-14).\n\nNow for this special work of his, he had peculiar preparations. 1.\nHe was to be washed in water. 2. Then he was to put on his holy\ngarments. 3. After that he was to be anointed with holy oil. 4. Then\nan offering was to be offered for him, for the further fitting of\nhim for his office. 5. The blood of this sacrifice must be put,\nsome of it upon his right ear, some on the thumb of his right hand,\nand some on the great toe of his right foot. This done, some more\nof the blood, with the anointing oil, must be sprinkled upon him,\nand upon his garment; for after this manner must he be consecrated\nto his work as high-priest (Exo 29).\n\nHis being washed in water was to show the purity of Christ's\nhumanity. His curious robes were a type of all the perfections of\nChrist's righteousness. The holy oil that was poured on his head\nwas to show how Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost unto his\nwork, as priest. The sacrifice of his consecration was a type of\nthat offering Christ offered in the garden when he mixed his sweat\nwith his own blood, and tears, and cries, when he prayed to him\nthat was able to save him; 'and was heard in that he feared'; for\nwith his blood, as was Aaron with the blood of the bullock that\nwas slain for him, was this blessed one besmeared from head to\nfoot, when his sweat, as great drops or clodders of blood, fell\ndown from head and face, and whole body, to the ground (Luke 22:44;\nHeb 10:20).\n\nWhen Aaron was thus prepared, then he offered his offering for the\npeople, and carried the blood within the veil (Lev 16). The which\nChrist Jesus also answered, when he offered his own body without\nthe gate, and then carried his blood into the heavens, and sprinkled\nit before the mercy-seat (Heb 13:11,12, 9:11,12,24). For Aaron was\na type of Christ; his offering, a type of Christ's offering his\nbody; the blood of the sacrifice, a type of the blood of Christ;\nhis garments, a type of Christ's righteousness; the mercy-seat,\na type of the throne of grace; the incense, a type of Christ's\npraise; and the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice upon the\nmercy-seat, a type of Christ's pleading the virtue of his sufferings\nfor us in the presence of God in heaven (Heb 9:10-28).\n\n'Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,\nconsider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ\nJesus' (Heb 3:1). 'Seeing then that we have a great high priest,\nthat is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold\nfast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot\nbe touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all\npoints tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore\ncome boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,\nand find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest\ntaken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to\nGod, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who\ncan have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of\nthe way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity'\n(Hosea 4:14-16, 5:1,2).\n\nThis then is our high priest; and this was made so 'not after the\nlaw of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless\nlife.' For Aaron and his sons were made priests without an oath,\n'but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware\nand will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order\nof Melchisedec. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better\ntestament.'\n\n'And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered\nto continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth\never, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also\nto save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing\nhe ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high\npriest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from\nsinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily,\nas those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins,\nand then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered\nup himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity;\nbut the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son,\nwho is consecrated for evermore. Now of the things which we have\nspoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set\non the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens; a\nminister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,[31] which\nthe Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained\nto offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that\nthis man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he\nshould not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer\ngifts according to the law: who serve unto the example and shadow\nof heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was\nabout to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make\nall things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount'\n(Heb 7:16-8:5).\n\n'But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by\na greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that\nis to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and\ncalves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy\nplace, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood\nof bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the\nunclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more\nshall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered\nhimself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works\nto serve the living God.\n\n'For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,\nwhich are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to\nappear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer\nhimself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every\nyear with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered\nsince the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the\nworld hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.\nAnd as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the\njudgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;\nand unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time\nwithout sin unto salvation' (Heb 9:11-14,24-28).\n\nLXVII. Of the high-priest's going into the Holiest alone.\n\nAs it was the privilege of the high-priest to go into the holiest\nalone, so there was something of mystery also, to which I shall\nspeak a little: 'There shall,' says God, 'be no man in the tabernacle\nof the congregation, when he [Aaron] goeth in to make an atonement\nin the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement\nfor himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation\nof Israel' (Lev 167:17). The reason is, for that Christ is mediator\nalone; he trod the winepress alone; and of the people there was\nnone with him to help him there (Isa 63:3; 1 Tim 2:5).\n\nOf the people there was none to help him to bear his cross, or in\nthe management of the first part of his priestly office. Why then\nshould there be any to share with him in his executing of the second\npart thereof? Besides, he that helps an intercessor must himself\nbe innocent, or in favour, upon some grounds not depending on the\nworth of the intercession. But as to the intercession of Christ,\nwho can come in to help upon the account of such innocency or worth?\nNot the highest angel; for there is none such but one, wherefore\nhe must do that alone. Hence it is said, He went in alone, is there\nalone, and there intercedes alone. And this is manifest not only\nin the type Aaron, but in the antitype Christ Jesus (Heb 6:19,20,\n9:7-11,21,23,24).\n\nI do not say that there is no man in heaven but Jesus Christ; but\nI say, he is there to make intercession for us alone. Yea, the\nholy text says more. 'I go,' saith Christ, 'to prepare a place for\nyou; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again\nand receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also'\n(John 14:1-3).\n\nThis text seems to insinuate that Christ is in the holiest or\nhighest heavens alone; and that he there alone must be, until he\nhas finished his work of intercession; for not till then he comes\nagain to take us to himself. Let us grant Christ the pre-eminency\nin this, as also in all other things; for he is intercessor for\nhis church, and makes it for them in the holiest alone. It is said\nhe is the light that no man can approach unto.\n\nLXVIII. Of the high-priest's going in thither but once a year.\n\nAs the high-priest went into the holiest when he went in thither\nalone; so to do that work, he went in thither but once a year.\nThou shalt not come 'at all times,' said God to him, 'into the\nholy place, within the veil, before the mercy-seat, which is upon\nthe ark, that thou die not' (Lev 16:2).\n\nAnd as he was to go in thither but 'once a year,' so not then\nneither, unless clothed and adorned, with his Aaronical holy robes\n(Lev 16:32-34). Then he was to be clothed, as I hinted before, with\nthe holy robes, the frontlet of gold upon his forehead, the names\nof the twelve tribes upon his breast, and the jingling bells upon\nthe skirts of his garment? nor would all this do, unless he went\nin thither with blood (Exo 28; Lev 16).\n\nNow, this once a year the apostle taketh special notice of, and\nmakes great use of it. 'Once a year,' saith he, this high-priest\nwent in thither: once a year, that is, to show, that Christ should\nonce in the end of the world, go into heaven itself, to make\nintercession there for us. For by this word 'year,' he shows the\nterm and time of the world is meant; and by 'once' in that year,\nhe means once in the end of the world.\n\n'Not,' saith he, 'that he should offer himself often: as the\nhigh-priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of\nothers. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation\nof the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared\nto put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 9:25,26).\n\nAnd having thus once offered his sacrifice without the veil, he is\nnow gone into the holiest, to perfect his work of mediation for us.\nNot into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of\nthe true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of\nGod for us.\n\nNow if our Lord Jesus is gone indeed, now to appear in the presence\nof God for us; and if this now be the once a year that the type\nspeaks of; the once in the end of the world, as our apostle says;\nthen it follows, that the people of God should all stand waiting\nfor his benediction that to them he shall bring with him when\nhe shall return from thence. Wherefore he adds, 'Christ was once\noffered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him\nshall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation' (v\n28).\n\nThis, therefore, shows us the greatness of the work that Christ has\nto do at the right hand of God, for that he stays there so long.\nHe accomplished all the first part of his priesthood in less than\nforty years, if you take in the making of his holy garments and\nall; but about this second part thereof, he has been above in\nheaven above sixteen hundred years, and yet has not done.\n\nThis therefore calls for faith and patience in saints, and by this\nhe also tries the world; so that they, in mocking manner, being\nto say already, 'Where is the promise of his coming?' (2 Peter\n3:4). But I say again, We must look and wait. If the people waited\nfor Zacharias, and wondered that he staid so long, because he staid\nin the holy place somewhat longer than they expected, no marvel\nif the faith of the world about Christ's coming is fled and gone\nlong ago, yea, and that the children also are put to it to wait,\nsince a scripture 'little while' doth prove so long. For that\nwhich the apostle saith, 'yet a little while,' doth prove to some\nto be a very long little (John 16:16; Heb 10:37).\n\nTrue, Zacharias had then to do with angels, and that made him stay\nso long. O but Jesus is with God, before him, in his presence,\ntalking with him, swallowed up in him, and with his glory, and that\nis one cause he stays so long. He is there also pleading his blood\nfor his tempted ones, and interceding for all his elect, and waits\nthere till all his be fitted for, and ready to enter into glory. I\nsay, he is there, and there must be till then; and this is another\nreason why he doth stay the time we count so long.\n\nAnd, indeed, it is a wonder to me, that Jesus Christ our Lord should\nonce think now he is there, of returning higher again, considering\nthe ill treatment he met with here before. But what will not love\ndo? Surely he would never touch the ground again, had he not a\npeople here that cannot be made perfect but by his coming to them.\nHe also is made judge of quick and dead, and will get him glory\nin the ruin of them that hath him.\n\nHis people are as himself to him. Can a loving husband abide to be\nalways from a beloved spouse? Besides, as I said, he is to pay the\nwicked off, for all their wickedness, and that in that very plat\nwhere they have committed it. Wherefore the day appointed for this\nis set, and he will, and shall come quickly to do it. For however\nthe time may seem long to us, yet, according to the reckoning of\nGod, it is but a little while since he went into the holiest to\nintercede. 'A thousand years with the Lord is as one day'; and after\nthis manner of counting, he has not been gone yet full two days\ninto the holiest. 'The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,\nas some men count slackness'; 'he will come quickly, and will not\ntarry' (2 Peter 3; Heb 10:37).\n\nLXIX. Of the cherubims, and of their being placed over the mercy-seat\nin the inner Temple.\n\nThere were also cherubims in the most holy place, which were set\non high above the mercy-seat. See 1 Kings 6:23-28.\n\n1. These are called by the apostles, 'the cherubims of glory\nshadowing the mercy-seat' (Heb 9:5).\n\n2. These cherubims were figures of the angels of God, as in other\nplaces we have proved.\n\n3. It is said these cherubims were made of image work, and that in\nsuch manner, as that they could, as some think, move their wings\nby art; wherefore it is said, 'they stretched forth their wings';\nthe wings of the 'cherubims spread themselves'; and that the\n'cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark,--and\nthe staves thereof above' (1 Kings 6:27; 2 Chron 3:13, 5:8).\n\n4. I read also of these cherubims, that they had chariots and\nwheels; by which is taught us how ready and willing the angels are\nto fetch us when commanded, unto the paradise of God; for these\nchariots were types of the bosoms of the angels; and these wheels,\nof the quickness of their motion to come for us when sent. 'The\nchariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels;\nthe Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place' (1 Chron\n28:18; Eze 10:9,15,16,18-20; 2 Kings 6:17; Psa 68:17; 2 Kings\n2:11; Dan 9:2).\n\n5. What difference, if any, there is between cherubims and seraphims,\ninto that I shall not now inquire; though I believe that there\nare diverse orders and degrees of angels in the heavens, as there\nare degrees and diverse orders among men in the world. But that\nthese cherubims were figures of the holy angels, their being thus\nplaced in the holy oracle doth declare; for their dwelling-place\nis heaven, though they, for our sakes, are conversant in the world\n(Heb 1).\n\n6. It is said that these cherubims, in this holy place, did stand\nupon their feet, to show, (1.) That the angels of heaven are not\nfallen from their station, as the other angels are. (2.) To show\nalso that they are always ready, at God's bidding, to run with\nswiftness to do his pleasure. (3.) To show also that they shall\ncontinue in their station, being therein confirmed by Jesus Christ,\n'by whom all things consist' (Col 1:17).\n\n7. It is said 'their faces were inward,' looking one to another,\nyet withal somewhat ascending, to show that the angels both behold\nand wonder at the mysteries of grace, as it is displayed to usward\nfrom off the mercy-seat. The faces of the cherubims 'shall look one\nto another; towards the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubims\nbe' (Exo 25:20; 2 Chron 3:13; 1 Peter 1:12; Eph 3:10).\n\n(1.) 'Towards the mercy-seat.' They are desirous to see it, and\nhow from hence, I say, mercy doth look towards us.\n\n(2.) 'They look one towards another,' to show that they agree to\nrejoice in the salvation of our souls (Luke 15:10).\n\n(3.) They are said to stand above the mercy-seat, perhaps to show\nthat the angels have not need of those acts of mercy and forgiveness\nas we have, who stand below, and are sinners. They stand above it;\nthey are holy. I do not say they have no need that the goodness of\nGod should be extended to them, for it is by that they have been\nand are preserved; but they need not to be forgiven, for they have\ncommitted no iniquity.\n\n(4.) They stand there also with wings stretched out, to show how\nready, if need be, the angels are to come from heaven to preach\nthis gospel to the world (Luke 2:9-14).\n\n(5.) It is said in this, that thus standing, their wings did reach\nfrom wall to wall; from one side of this holy house to the other;\nto show that all the angels within the boundaries of the heavens,\nwith one consent and one mind, are ready to come down to help and\nserve, and do for God's elect at his command.\n\nIt is said, also, that their wings are stretched on high, to show\nthat they are only delighted in those duties which are enjoined\nthem by the high and lofty One, and not inclined, no not to serve\nthe saints in their sensual or fleshly designs. It may be also to\nshow that they are willing to take their flight from one end of\nheaven to the other, to serve God and his church for good (Matt\n13:41,49, 24:31, 25:31; 2 Thess 1:7,8).\n\nLXX. Of the figures that were upon the walls of the inner Temple.\n\nThe wall of the inner temple, which was a type of heaven, was, as\nI have already told you, ceiled with cedar from the bottom to the\ntop. Now by the vision of Ezekiel, it is said this wall was carved\nwith cherubims and palm trees. 'So that a palm tree was between a\ncherub and a cherub, and every cherub had two faces; so that the\nface of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the\nface of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other. It was made\nthrough all the house round about; from the ground unto above the\ndoor were cherubims and palm trees made' (Eze 41:18-20).\n\n1. As to these cherubims and palm trees, I have already told you\nwhat I think them to be figures of. The cherubims are figures of\nthe holy angels, and the palm trees of upright ones; we therefore\nhere are to discourse only of the placing of them in the heavens.\n\n2. Now you see the palm trees in the holiest are placed between a\ncherub and a cherub, round about the house, which methinks should\nbe to signify that the saints shall not there live by faith and\nhope, as here, but in the immediate enjoyment of God; for to be\nplaced between the cherubims, is to be placed where God dwells;\nfor Holy Writ says plainly, He dwells between the cherubims, even\nwhere here it is said these palm trees, or upright ones are placed\n(1 Sam 4:4; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chron 13:6; Psa 80:1; Isa 37:16). The\nchurch on earth is called God's house, and he will dwell in it for\never; and heaven itself is called God's house, and we shall dwell\nin it for ever, and that between the cherubims. This is more than\ngrace, this is grace and glory, glory indeed.\n\n3. To dwell between the cherubims may be also to show that there\nwe shall be equal to the angels. Mark, here is a palm tree and a\ncherub, a palm tree and a cherub. Here we are a little lower, but\nthere we shall not be a whit behind the very chief of them. A palm\ntree and a cherub, an upright one between the cherubs, will then\nbe round about the house; we shall be placed in the same rank;\n'neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels'\n(Luke 20:36).\n\n4. The palm trees thus placed, may be also to show us that the elect\nof God shall there take up the vacancies of the fallen angels;\nthey for sin were cast down from the holy heavens, and we by grace\nshall be caught up thither, and be placed between a cherub and a\ncherub. When I say their places, I do not mean the fickleness of\nthat state, that they for want of electing love did stand in while\nin glory; for the heavens, by the blood of Christ, is now to us\nbecome a purchased possession; wherefore, as we shall have their\nplace in the heavenly kingdom, so, by virtue of redeeming blood,\nwe shall there abide, and go no more out; for by that means that\nkingdom will stand to us unshaken (Heb 9:12, 12:22-24,28; Rev\n3:12).\n\n5. These palm trees, I say, seem to take their places who for sin\nwere cast from thence. The elect therefore take that place in\npossession, but a better crown for ever. Thus 'Israel possessed\nthat of the Canaanites'; and David, Saul's kingdom; and Matthias,\nthe place, the apostleship of Judas (Acts 1:20-26).\n\n6. Nor were the habitations which the fallen angels lost, excepting\nthat which was excepted before, at all inferior to theirs that\nstood; for their captain and prince is called son of the morning,\nfor he was the antitype there (Isa 14:12).\n\n7. Thus, you see, they were placed from the ground up to above the\ndoor; that is, from the lowest to the highest angel there. For as\nthere are great saints and small ones in the church on earth, so\nthere are angels of divers degrees in heaven, some greater than\nsome; but the smallest saint, when he gets to heaven, shall have\nan angel's dignity, an angel's place. From the ground you find a\npalm tree between a cherub and a cherub.\n\n8. And every cherub had two faces--so here; but I read in Ezekiel\n10:14, that they had four faces apiece. The first was the face of\na cherubim; the second, the face of a man; the third, the face of\na lion; and the fourth, the face of an eagle.\n\n9. They had two faces apiece; not to show that they were of a double\nheart, for 'their appearances and themselves' were the same, and\n'they went every one straight forward' (Eze 10:22). These two faces,\nthen, were to show here the quickness of their apprehension, and\ntheir terribleness to execute the mind of God. The face of a man\nsignifies them masters of reason; the face of a lion, the terribleness\nof their presence (1 Cor 13:12; Judg 13:6).\n\nIn another place I read of their wheels; yea, that themselves,\n'their whole bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and their\nwings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about' (Eze 1:18,\n10:12). And this is to show us how knowing and quick-sighted they\nare in all providences and dark dispensations, and how nimble\nin apprehending the mischievous designs of the enemies of God's\nchurch, and so how able they are to undermine them. And forasmuch\nalso as they have the face of a lion, we by that are showed how\nfull of power they are to kill and to destroy, when God says,\nGo forth and do so. Now, with these we must dwell and cohabit, a\npalm tree and a cherub; a palm tree and a cherub must be from the\nground to above the door, round about the house--the heavens.\n\n'So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one\nside, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the\nother side.' By these two faces may be also showed that we in\nthe heavens shall have glory sufficient to familiarize us to the\nangels. Their lion-like looks, with which they used to fright\nthe biggest saint on earth, as you have it, Genesis 32:30; Judges\n13:15,22, shall then be accompanied with the familiar looks of\na man. Then angels and men shall be fellows, and have to do with\neach as such.\n\nThus you see something of that little that I have found in the\ntemple of God.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Advertisement by Editor footnotes]\n\n[1] Lee's Solomon's Temple portrayed by Scripture Light. Dedication.\n\n[2] Job 5:7, literally translated from the Hebrew.\n\n[3] Lee's Solomon's Temple, p. 173.\n\n[4] Lee's Solomon's Temple, p. 232.\n\n\n\n[To the courteous reader footnotes]\n\n[1] Legal terms to define the boundaries of an estate, butted upon\na common or high road or river, and bounded by the property of\nanother person.--Ed.\n\n[2] Heaven is a type of sin and grace. Had there been no sin,\nwe should have been limited to an earthly paradise; but sin and\nthe grace of a Saviour's purchase opens heaven to our wondering\nhearts.--Ed.\n\n\n\n[Main Text FOOTNOTES]\n\n[1] One of the types or signs.--Ed\n\n[2] How universal is this feeling among Christians! 'Why was I made\nto hear thy voice,' while so many more amiable and less guilty\n'make a wretched choice?' All are equally encouraged--'Whosoever\nwill, let him take the water of life freely.'--Ed\n\n[3] 'To oppose the customs of heathens, who made their chief gates\ntowards the west, that these stupid worshippers, drawing nigh to\ntheir blind, deaf, and dumb deities, might have their idols, as it\nwere, arising upon them out of the east.'--Lee's Solomon's Temple,\np. 242.--Ed.\n\n[4] 'There were two pillars, which some resemble to the two states\nof the church--Jewish and Christian; others understand magistracy\nand ministry.'--Lee's Temple, 1659, p. 281.--Ed.\n\n[5] The height of these pillars was thirty-five cubits each,\nincluding the base and chapiter. The base, ornamented with lines\nor net-work, twelve cubits; the column eighteen cubits, and the\nchapiter five cubits, making the height thirty-five cubits; while\nthe column or pillar, cast by itself, was only eighteen. This\nreconciles the apparent discrepancy between 1 Kings 7:15 and 2\nChronicles 3:15.--Ed.\n\n[6] Immediately, or by Christ himself.--Ed.\n\n[7] Pummil, or pommel, round like an apple.--Ed.\n\n[8] In all the editions of this book published since the author's\ndeath, these words are altered to 'their preaching.'--Ed.\n\n[9] Frowish, or frowzy, fetid, musty. Alas! how many ministers\nthere are who are afflicted with this unsavoury smell.--Ed.\n\n[10] This is a valuable lesson to the ministers and members of\nchurches, to be ever ready to welcome the returning prodigal. The\nporch is never to be shut against the poor fugitive; and the only\nproper inquiry as to opening the door of the church, is, 'If thou\nbelievest with all thine heart, thou mayest freely enter.'--Ed.\n\n[11] Wealth and honours, when sanctified, are valuable aids to\nChristian usefulness; but unutterable woes will fall upon him who\nattempts to enter heaven with temporal or ecclesiastical pomps\nvain-gloriously carried upon his shoulders.--Ed.\n\n[12] Every Christian pilgrim, if he journeys aright, must be entirely\nguided by prayerful personal inquiries at the holy oracles as to\nhis way to heaven. How do sin and Satan strive to mislead him in\nthis essential duty.--Ed.\n\n[13] The simple-minded nature of Bunyan here appears conspicuously.\nHe measures others by his own bushel, as if every pastor had as\nsingle an eye to the welfare of their flocks as he had over the\nChurch at Bedford. How tenderly ought the churches of Christ to\ncherish such pastors as Bunyan, while they prayerfully watch over\ntheir ministrations.--Ed.\n\n[14] This is one of those beautiful gems which sparkle all through\nBunyan's works, 'As the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and\nknowledge of God!'--Ed.\n\n[15] Ceiled is now only used with reference to the top of a room--the\nceiling. It is an old English word, and means overlaid or lined\nwith wood, wainscot, or plank, either roof, sides, or floor.--Ed.\n\n[16] The line means the text. The marginal reading agrees with the\npuritan version 'overlayed.' Tyndale renders it, 'And he paved the\nhouse with precious stones goodly.' Coverdale, 'And overlayed the\nhouse with precious stones to beautify it.'--Ed.\n\n[17] A bath was a Hebrew measure containing about seven gallons\nand a half.--Ed.\n\n[18] The moral law of ten commandments.--Ed.\n\n[19] This is from the Genevan or puritan versions. Our translation\nhas 'on the right side.'--Ed.\n\n[20] The candlesticks mentioned in 2 Chronicles 4:7, Zechariah 4,\nand Revelation 1, appear to have been of one pattern. A stem, with\na bowl bearing a centre and six branches--three on each side.\nOf these there were ten in the temple. The prophets Zechariah and\nJohn, in their holy visions, saw but one, with its seven lamps\nsecretly supplied by living olive trees. These lights 'are the\neyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth';\nthe seven lamps 'are the seven churches.' What a source for\nreflection is here opened.--Ed.\n\n[21] Oil called golden, from its representing that which is better\nthan thousands of gold and silver. So pure that, in the golden\nbowl, it would look like liquid gold.--Ed.\n\n[22] A malignant was a term of reproach given to those who, in the\ncivil wars, opposed Divine truth, and promoted popery and arbitrary\ndomination. Clarendon calls it 'a term imposed upon those that\nthe puritans wished to render odious to the people.'--Ed.\n\n[23] A tenth deal is the tenth part of a Hebrew measure, called\nthe ephah, containing about a bushel.--Ed.\n\n[24] Daniel Burgess published a curious sermon, in 1697, on the\ngolden snuffers, showing that they are a type or emblem of spiritual\nsnuffing or reproving; and of pure gold, to show that reprovers\nshould be holy and unblameable. His directions and cautions are\nvaluable, but Bunyan says much more in his few lines than Burgess\ndoes in his eighty pages.--Ed.\n\n[25] Great was the fatherly care felt by Bunyan for his own children,\nespecially for his blind Mary; and judging by the lessons he draws\nfrom the temple spoons, those feelings extended to his church. It\nmust be a severe trial to a minister's temper, when teased with\nbabes in religion at three score and ten years of age, especially\nif they are old professors. Thus Bunyan, in addressing the readers\nof his emblems, says--\n\n\n'We now have boys with beards, and girls that be\n'Huge as old women wanting gravity.'--Ed.\n\n\n[26] The degraded state of the poor, when the religious houses (so\ncalled) distributed food to all comers, was long felt after the\nsuppression of those hot-beds of vice, from the encouragement they\ngave to idleness, pauperism, and the most vicious habits. Even\nin Bunyan's days the beggar, carrying a bowl to receive the fruit\nof their industrious neighbours' toil, was still remembered. At\nintervals, plague and famine swept away the helpless wretches, to\nthe terror of all classes. How severely is this curse still felt\nin Ireland.--Ed.\n\n[27] How careful ought churches to be in casting out an offending\nmember, seeing that their sentence should be as 'the judicial\njudgment of God.' It is not revenge, hatred, malice, or the mere\nexercise of power, that is to lead to it; it is the good of the\nindividual that is to be pursued and sought. While the church\nendeavours to remain pure, its aim and object should be mainly to\ncorrect and reform the offender, that his spirit may be saved. When\ndiscipline is undertaken from any other motive than this; and when\nit is pursued from private pique, or rivalship, or ambition, or the\nlove of power, it is wrong. The salvation of the offender, and the\nglory of God, should prompt to all the measures which should be\ntaken in the case. 'Restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;\nconsidering thyself, lest thou also be tempted' (Gal 6:1).--Ed.\n\n[28] In Bunyan's 'now-a-days,' it was much debated whether singing\nought to be introduced in a mixed assembly. It was contended that\na voice and talent for singing does not accompany the new birth;\nthat it might tend to hypocrisy and vanity; and that it was not\nexpressly commanded. The Quakers rejected it, but all other sects\nadopted that delightful part of public worship. See Keach's Breach\nRepaired.--Ed.\n\n[29] The olive wood is used, with ivory and mother of pearl, in\nornamenting the most sumptuous apartments in oriental palaces. It\nis exceedingly durable and elegant. 'The choosing olive out of every\nother kind of wood, for the adorning these sumptuous apartments,\nshows the elegance and grandeur of the taste in which Solomon's\ntemple was built, where the doors of the oracle, and some other parts,\nwere of olive wood.'--Harmer, Scheuzer, Lady M. W. Montague.--Ed.\n\n[30] As the mercy-seat covered the law deposited in the ark, so\nChrist covers the transgressions of his people; while Christ sits\nupon the mercy-seat, the law cannot rise up in judgment against\nthem.--Jennings.\n\n[31] In Bunyan's edition this is called the 'new tabernacle,'\na typographical error which is corrected by restoring the true\nreading.--Ed\n\n***\n\nA DISCOURSE\n\nOF\n\nTHE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThat part of Palestine in which the celebrated mountains of Lebanon\nare situated, is the border country adjoining Syria, having Sidon\nfor its seaport, and Land, nearly adjoining the city of Damascus,\non the north. This metropolitan city of Syria, and capital of the\nkingdom of Damascus, was strongly fortified; and during the border\nconflicts it served as a cover to the Assyrian army. Bunyan, with\ngreat reason, supposes that, to keep them in check, Solomon built\na tower house and palace, well furnished with munitions of war,\ncalled the house in the forest of Lebanon.\n\nAs the magnificent temple at Jerusalem was the seat of public\nworship appointed by God, it was considered typical of the gospel\ndispensation, which was intended to supersede it. All its parts\nand utensils, sacrifices and services, have been described, in\ntheir typical meaning, in Solomon's Temple Spiritualized; but as\nthe lovely system of the gospel had, with slow and irresistible\nsteps, to conquer the prejudices, passions, and wickedness of\nmankind, those who bore the brunt of this battle were considered\nas the church militant in the wilderness: and Bunyan has, in this\ntreatise, endeavoured to show that this palace and fortress was\ntypical of the churches of Christ while in a state of holy warfare,\ndefending their Divine dispensation, and extending the line of\ndefence by progressive spiritual conquests. While the churches are\nsurrounded by enemies, they have inexhaustible internal comfort,\nstrength, and consolation. Like the house in the forest of Lebanon,\nthey are also pleasantly, nay, beautifully situated. If Mount Zion\nwas the joy of the whole earth, the mountains of Damascus were a\npicture of the earthly paradise. So beautiful is the scenery, and\nbalmy the air, that one part is called Eden, or the garden of the\nLord. It is described by Arabian poets as always bearing winter\nfar above upon his head, spring on its shoulders, and autumn in his\nbosom, while perpetual summer lies sleeping at his feet. It was\nupon this beautiful spot, called by Isaiah 'the glory of Lebanon,'\nthat Solomon built his house in the forest.\n\nThis is the plain matter of fact which Bunyan establishes from the\nsacred Scriptures, but he was, as to lettered lore, an unlearned\nman; at all events, no man could say of him that 'much learning\nhas made thee mad.' Bunyan's is the plain common-sense scriptural\naccount of this building; but he differs greatly from almost\nall our learned commentators--they imagining that this house was\nnear the temple of Jerusalem. The Assembly of Divines, in their\nvaluable annotations, suggest that it was so called 'because great\nstore of trees, as in Lebanon, were planted about it; and gardens,\norchards, and all manner of delightful things were added thereto':\nto aid this conjecture, they quote Ecclesiastes 2:4, 6. Poole\nsays that it was 'a house so called, either, first, because it\nwas built in the mountain and forest of Lebanon, for recreation\nin summer time; but generally held to have been near Jerusalem;\nor rather, secondly, from some resemblance it had with Lebanon for\nits pleasant shades and groves.' Diodati considers it the same\nwith Solomon's palace, but called the house of Lebanon by reason\nof the groves planted about it; or of the great number of cedar\ncolumns brought from Lebanon, and used in its construction. Even\nBunyan's favourite translation, made at Geneva by the Puritans,\nwhile it gives two wood-cuts of 'The King's house IN the wood of\nLebanon,' a marginal note is added--'For the beauty of the place,\nand great abundance of cedar trees that went to the building\nthereof, it was compared to Mount Lebanon.' Calmet, in his very\nvaluable translation, accompanied by the Vulgate Latin, gives the\nsame idea: 'Il batit encore le palais appelle la maison du Leban,\na cause de la quantite prodigeuse de cedres qui entraient dans\nla structure de cet edifice.' [Translation: 'Another thing he did\nwas build the palace which was called the house of Lebanon because\nof the prodigious quantity of cedars used in its construction.']\nBishop Patrick places this house in or near to Jerusalem, 'In a\ncool, shady mountain, which made it resemble Mount Lebanon.' Dr.\nGill was of opinion that this house was near Jerusalem; because\nit was a magazine of arms, and a court of judicature, and had its\nname from being built of the cedars of Lebanon, and among groves\nof trees. Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, book 8, chapter\n6, section 5, states that when the Queen of Sheba came to Judea,\nshe was amazed at the wisdom of Solomon, and surprised at the\nfineness and largeness of his royal palace; 'but she was beyond\nmeasure astonished at the house which was called the forest of\nLebanon.' Matthew Henry follows the opinion of Bunyan; 'I rather\nincline to think it was a house built in the forest of Lebanon\nitself, whither, though far distant from Jerusalem, Solomon having\nso many chariots and horses, and those dispersed into chariot\ncities, which probably were his stages, he might frequently retire\nwith ease.' Express notice is taken of Lebanon, as the place of\na warlike building, in 2 Kings 19, and in Canticles 7:4.\n\nThe tower of Lebanon is described as looking towards Damascus.\nThe ruins of this house and tower, in the forest of Lebanon,\nare probably those seen by Benjamin of Tudela, who describes the\nstones of which it was built as twenty palms long, and twelve\nwide. Gabriel Sionits describes the tower as an hundred cubits\nhigh, and fifty broad. Maundrel saw the ruins in the mountains\nof Lebanon at a distance. The objections made by our commentators\nto the plain testimony of the Scriptures are, that Solomon would\nnot have built this beautiful house at so great a distance from\nthe capital--that he would not have risked so much treasure nor\nthe munitions of war in a forest--and that he would not, on the\nextreme border of the kingdom of Judea, have set up a throne, or\nseat of judgment. The answer to these objections appears to me\nto be conclusive. Lebanon possessed the most commanding sites for\na border fortress, and therefore an admirable depot for arms, to\nenable the Jewish warriors to keep out their most vigilant and\ndangerous enemies, the Assyrians. The wealth that was deposited in\nthis house was calculated to excite greater vigilance to protect\nso important a pass, while it would divert the attention of an\nenemy from the still more wealthy temple and fortress at Jerusalem.\nA throne of justice was well placed there, to save a long journey\nto the capital, for the trial of offenders, and the settlement\nof disputes on the borders of the empire. It appears to me that\ncommon sense and the soundest evidence supports the view which Bunyan\ntook, which was far in advance of the age in which he lived.\n\nThe way in which this building, with the purposes for which it\nwas intended, is spiritualized, is very ingenious, and admirably\ncarried through in the following treatise. Whether it was intended\nby the Holy Ghost to be typical, must be left to the judgment of\nthe impartial reader. That Lebanon is used figuratively by the\ninspired writers there can be no doubt. 'Lebanon is ashamed and\nhewn down,' must be intended as a type of the church, when under the\nmalice of her enemies. So also when Babylon, a type of Antichrist,\nfell, 'the cedars of Lebanon rejoiced'; doubtless referring to\nthe joy of God's saints when relieved from the oppressor. Whether\nthe fine old trees, or the splendid house built as a defence to\nprevent the approach of enemies to the temple, is intended as a type\nof the Christian warfare, is left to the impartial consideration\nof the reader. There is very little reason to doubt but that we\nshall adopt Bunyan's view; if we consider the temple to be typical,\nwe shall consider the house in the forest of Lebanon to be typical\nalso.\n\nIt has been said, by an author of very great repute (Addison),\nthat had Bunyan lived in the times of the Christian fathers, he\nwould have been as great a father as the best of them. He stands\nunrivalled for most extraordinary mental powers for allegory\nand for spiritualizing, but to compare him with the best of the\nfathers is faint praise indeed. He was as much their superior, as\nthe blaze of the noon-day sun excels the glimmer of a rushlight.\n\nIn this treatise we find many very admirable illustrations of two\nimportant subjects. One is, that temporal governors have nothing\nto fear from the spread of vital godliness: the other is upon\nthe nature of the strife and antipathy felt by the world against\nChrist and his spiritual seed. They are sweet-scented; the\nfragrant smell of their graces excites the enmity of Satan and his\nfollowers, who would burn these cedars, because they are pillars\nof, and angels for, the truth. 'Reason, history, and experience\nall confirm this truth; that a people, whose profession is directly\nin opposition to the devil, and antichrist, and to all debauchery,\ninhumanity, profaneness, superstition, and idolatry,' will be\nhated, persecuted, and, if possible destroyed by Satan and his\nadherents. The secret is, that the world cannot bear such 'living\nepistles, known and read of all men,' which reflect so severely\nby their conduct upon the vice and profligacy of the worldling.\nThis was a stinging censure upon the profligate court of Charles\nII, and therefore the Nonconformists were hated and persecuted;\nwhile conformity to soul-benumbing rites and ceremonies was cherished\nand rewarded. To render persecution perfectly unjustifiable,\nBunyan scripturally and plainly exhibits the harmlessness of the\nChristian character bearing with meekness the injuries heaped upon\nit; followers of him who, when reviled, reviled not again, but\nsuffered patiently. It is a grievous mistake to suppose that vital\ngodliness caused the great rebellion, and consequent beheading of\nKing Charles I. It was frightful and most insupportable tyranny\nthat drove a nation, headed by their parliament, to arms.\nThe King levied severe taxes without the consent of the people's\nrepresentatives; he perverted justice by the abominable decisions\nof the King's judges in the court of Star Chamber; and attempted\nto introduce Popery through the medium of the Queen and her licentious\ncourt, composed principally of the worst class of foreign Papists.\nAnd when Leighton, Prynne, Bastwick, and some of the most virtuous\nand enlightened citizens, justly but firmly remonstrated, they\nwere seized and tortured in a way that the heart sickens with the\nnarrative. It was an attempt to reduce the whole nation to the\nmost abject slavery of both body and soul, that roused the spirit\nof the people to resistance. The solemn league and covenant was\ntaken, Cromwell appeared, and the country was, by Divine aid,\nsaved from utter desolation. It was not a war of religious sects;\nthe Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and others, could never\nhave coalesced; it was a war for liberty or despotism, and the\nprincipal of the warriors on both sides were attached to the religion\nthat was by law established. It is true that many Episcopalians,\nin the reign of Charles II, charged the Puritans, not only as being\nthe mainspring, but as possessing the overwhelming force in that\nawful struggle, forgetting that the Nonconformists were then but\na handful of men, neither possessed of wealth nor influence. To\nattribute victory to so small a band, must refer it to the immediate\ninterposition of the Most High, as in the case of Gideon in his\nvictory over the Assyrians. But it was no sectarian fight, except\nthose two great sects of freemen against despots. Bunyan fully proves\nthat no state has anything to fear from religion: 'She moveth no\nsedition, she abideth in her place; let her temple-worshippers but\nalone, and she will be as if she were not in the world'; 'neither\nshe nor her Jesus are for doing them any hurt.' 'God's armour is\nno burthen to the body, nor clog to the mind, and it being only\nspiritual, the slaughter must needs be spiritual also.' 'All\nher privileges are soul concerns, they make no infringement upon\nany man's liberties. Let but faith and holiness walk the streets\nwithout control, and you may be as happy as the world can make you.'\n'Let not kings, and princes, and potentates be afraid; the saints\nthat are such indeed, know their places, and are of a peaceable\ndeportment; the earth God hath given to the children of men, and\nhis kingdom to the sons of God.' The Christian is a pilgrim bound\nto a far more glorious inheritance: with so bright and glorious\na prospect, he may well apply the encouraging language of Bunyan\nto his own soul; 'I have a bad master, but I have only a year to\nserve under him, and that makes me serve him with patience. I have\nbut a mile to go in this dirty way, and then I shall have my path\npleasant and green, and this makes me tread the dirty way with\npatience.'\n\nThis treatise is one of the ten 'excellent manuscripts' which\nBunyan had prepared for the press, when his unexpected decease\nprevented his publishing them. It first appeared in the folio volume\nof his works, printed under the care of Charles Doe, in 1692. It\nhas since been re-published in every edition of Bunyan's work, but\nwith the omission of the Scripture references, and many errors.\nIt is now accurately corrected by the first edition.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nTHE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nAs Solomon built a house for Pharaoh's daughter, and that called\nthe temple of the Lord; so he built a house in Lebanon, called\n'the house of the forest of Lebanon' (1 Kings 7:2).\n\nSome, I perceive, have thought that this house, called 'the house\nof the forest of Lebanon,' was none other than that called the\ntemple at Jerusalem, and that that was called 'The house of the\nforest of Lebanon,' because built of the wood that grew there. But\nthat Solomon built another than that, even one in Lebanon, called\n'the house of the forest of Lebanon,' is evident, and that from\nthese reasons:--\n\nFirst, That in the forest of Lebanon is mentioned as another,\nbesides that called the temple of the Lord; and that too when the\ntemple and its finishing is spoken of; yea, it is mentioned with\nan 'also,' as an additional house, besides the temple of the Lord.\n\n'In the fourth year,' saith the text, 'was the foundation of the\nhouse of the Lord laid in the month Zif;[1] and in the eleventh\nyear in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house\nfinished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all\nthe fashion of it; so he was seven years in building it.' 'But\nSolomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished\nall his house. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon,'\n&c. (1 Kings 6:37,38; 7:1,2).\n\nCan there now be any thing more plain? Is not here the house of\nthe forest of Lebanon mentioned as another besides the temple? he\nbuilt the temple, he built his own house, he built also the house\nof the forest of Lebanon.\n\nSecond. It is evident by the difference of their measures and\ndimensions. The length of the temple was threescore cubits; but\nthe length of the house of the forest of Lebanon was an hundred\ncubits; so that the house of the forest of Lebanon was forty\ncubits more than was that called Solomon's temple: The breadth of\nSolomon's temple was twenty cubits, but the breadth of the house\nof the forest of Lebanon was fifty cubits: And as there is odds\nbetween threescore and fivescore, so there is also between twenty\nand fifty.\n\nAs to their height, they were both alike; but equality in height\ncan no more make them the same, than can a twenty years' age in\ntwo, make them one and the same person.\n\nTheir porches also differed greatly; the porch of the temple was\nin length but twenty cubits, but the length of that of the house\nof the forest of Lebanon was fifty cubits. So that here also is\nthirty odds.[2] The porch of the temple was but ten cubits broad;\nbut the porch of the house of the forest of Lebanon thirty cubits.\nNow, I say, who that considereth these disproportions, can conclude\nthat the house of the forest of Lebanon was none other than that\ncalled the temple of Jerusalem. For all this compare 1 Kings 6:2,\n3 with 7:2, 6.\n\nThird. If you add to these the different makes of the houses, it\nwill sufficiently appear that they were not one. The house of the\nforest of Lebanon was built upon four rows of cedar pillars; but\nwe read of no such pillars upon which the temple stood. The windows\nof the house of the forest of Lebanon stood in three rows, light\nagainst light; but we read of no such thing in the temple. The\ntemple had two pillars before the door of its porch, but we read\nnot of them before the door of the porch of the house of the\nforest of Lebanon. In the sixth and seventh chapters of the first\nbook of Kings, these two houses, as to their make, are exactly\nset forth; so that he that listeth may search and see, if as to\nthis I have not said the truth.\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nOF WHAT THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON WAS A TYPE.\n\nThat the house of the forest of Lebanon was a house significant,\nI think is clear; also, if it had not, we should not have had so\nparticular an account thereof in the holy Word of God: I read but\nof four buildings wherein, in a particular manner, the houses or\nfabrics are, as to their manner of building, distinctly handled.\nThe tabernacle is one, the temple another; the porch which he\nbuilt for his throne, his throne for judgment; and this house of\nthe forest of Lebanon is the fourth. Now the three first, to wit,\nthe tabernacle, the temple, the porch and throne, wise men will\nsay are typical; and therefore so is this.\n\n[First.] I will therefore take it for granted that the house of\nthe forest of Lebanon is a significative thing, yea, a figure of\nthe church, as the temple at Jerusalem was, though not under the\nsame consideration. The temple was a figure of the church under the\ngospel, as she relateth to worship; but the house of the forest\nof Lebanon was a figure of that church as she is assaulted for\nher worship, as she is persecuted for the same. Or take it more\nexpressly thus: I take this house of the forest of Lebanon to\nbe a type of the church in the wilderness, or as she is in her\nsackcloth state.\n\nWe read, before this house was built, that there was a church in\nthe wilderness; and also, after this house was demolished, that\nthere would be a church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38; Rev 12:14).\nBut we now respect that wilderness state that the church of the\nNew Testament is in, and conclude that this house of the forest of\nLebanon was a type and figure of that; that is, of her wilderness\nstate. And, methinks, the very place where this house was built\ndoes intimate such a thing; for this house was not built in a\ntown, a city, &c., as was that called the temple of the Lord, but\nwas built in a kind of a wood, a wilderness; it was built in the\nforest of Lebanon, unto which that saying seems directly to answer.\n'And to the woman,' the church, 'were given two wings of a great\neagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place' (Rev\n12:14). A wilderness state is a desolate, a tempted, an afflicted,\na persecuted state (Jer 2:6). All which is more than intimated by\nthe witnesses wearing of, and prophesying in sackcloth, and also\nexpressed of by that Revelation 12.\n\nAnswerable to this is that of the prophet concerning this house of\nthe forest of Lebanon, where he says, 'Open thy doors, O Lebanon!\nthat the fire may devour thy cedars.' And again, 'Howl, fir-tree;\nfor the cedar is fallen' (Zech 11:1,2). What can be more express?\nThe prophet here knocks at the very door of the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, and tells her that her cedars are designed for fire;\nunto which also most plainly answer the flames to which so many of\nthe cedars of Lebanon,[3] God's saints, I mean, for many hundred\nyears, have been delivered for their profession; and by which,\nas another prophet has it, for many days they have fallen (Dan\n11:33). Also when the king of Assyria came up with his army against\nJerusalem, this was his vaunting, 'I am come--to the sides of\nLebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof' (Isa 37:24).\n\nWhat was this king of Assyria but a type of the beast made mention\nof in the New Testament? Now, saith he, I will cut down the cedars\nof Lebanon; who are, in our gospel times, the tall ones of the\nchurch of God. And I say again, in that he particularly mentions\nLebanon, he intends that house which Solomon built there, the\nwhich was built as a fortification to defend the religion of the\ntemple, as the saints now in the wilderness of the people are set\nfor the defence of the gospel. But more of this anon.\n\nThis house therefore was built to make assaults, and to be assaulted,\nas the church in the wilderness is; and hence the state of this\nhouse is compared to the condition of a woman in travail, struggling\nwith her pains, as also we find the state of the church in the\nwilderness is--'O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in\nthe cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee,\nthe pain as of a woman in travail!' (Jer 22:23). And again, 'Verily,\nverily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament,' and have\nsorrow, as a woman in travail (John 16:20-22). Much answering her\ncase who, in her travails, and while 'pained to be delivered,' was\nsaid even in this case to stand before the dragon, who with open\nmouth sought to destroy her fruit, so 'soon as it was born' (Rev\n12:1-6).\n\nHence, again, when Christ calls his spouse out to suffer, he calls\nor draws her out of his house in Lebanon, to look 'from the lions'\ndens, from the mountains of the leopards,' to the things that are\ninvisible; even as Paul said when he was in affliction, 'We look\nnot at the things which are seen' (Cant 4:8; 2 Cor 4:18). He draws\nthem out thence, I say, as sheep appointed for the slaughter; yea,\nhe goeth before them, and they follow him thither.\n\nAlso, when the prophet foretells the affliction of the church,\nhe expresses it by the fall of the cedars of Lebanon, saying, The\nLord shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron; a little\nafore called the axe and saw. And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty\none (Isa 10:15,34). And again, 'The earth mourneth and languisheth:\nLebanon is ashamed and hewn down' (Isa 33:9).\n\nDo we think that the prophet prophesieth here against trees, against\nthe natural cedars of Lebanon? No, no, it is a prophecy touching\nthe afflicted state of the church in the wilderness, of which\nLebanon, I mean this house of the forest of Lebanon, was a figure.\n\nWhen God also threateneth the enemies of his church in the wilderness\nwith his judgments, for their cruel dealing with her in the day of\nher desertion, he calls those judgments the violence of Lebanon.\nThat is, by way of comparison, such as the violence done to Lebanon\nwas. 'The violence of Lebanon shall cover thee; and the spoil of\nbeasts which made them [Lebanon] afraid, because of men's blood,\nand for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that\ndwell therein' (Habb 2:17). This is like that, 'Reward her, even\nas she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to\nher works' (Rev 18:6). This the church doth by her prayers. 'The\nviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the\ninhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,\nshall Jerusalem say' (Jer 51:35). And then shall be fulfilled that\nwhich is written, Look what they did unto Lebanon shall be done\nunto them (Oba 15; Eze 35:14,15).\n\nGod has his time to return the evil that the enemies do to his\nchurch, and he will do it when his time is come upon their own head;\nand this return is called the covering of them with the violence\nof Lebanon, or that violence showed to her in the day of her\ndistress. It is yet further evident that this house of the forest\nof Lebanon was a type of the church in the wilderness:--\n\n1. For that she is called a tower, or place of fortification and\ndefence; the same term that is given to the church in a captivated\nstate (Can 7:4; Micah 4:8-10). For as the church in the wilderness\nis compared to a woman in travail, to show her fruitfulness\nto God-ward in her most afflicted condition; so she is called a\ntower, to show her fortitude and courage, for God and his truth,\nagainst antichrist. I say therefore, unto both these is she\ncompared in that scripture last cited, the which you may peruse\nif you please. A tower is a place of receipt for the afflicted,\nand so is the church under the rage of antichrist; yea, and though\nit is the only place designed by the enemy for ruin and destruction,\nyet it is the only place of safety in the world.[4]\n\n2. This tower, this house of the forest of Lebanon, it seems to\nbe so built as to confront Damascus, the chief city of the king\nof Assyria; and in so doing it was a most excellent type of the\nspirit and design of the church in the wilderness, who is raised\nup, and built to confront antichrist. Hence Christ calls some of\nthe features of his church, and compares them to this. 'Thy neck,'\nsays he 'is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish-pools\nin Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose is as the tower\nof Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus' (Cant 7:4).\n\nThy nose, that great ornament of thy lovely countenance, is as a\ntower looking that way; so set, as Christ says of his, as a flint.\nAnd this is a comely feature in the church, that her nose stands\nlike a tower, or as he says in another place, like a fenced brazen\nwall against Damascus, the metropolitan of her enemy: 'for the\nhead of Syria is Damascus' (Isa 7:8).\n\nAnd as Christ thus compares his church, so she again returns, or\ncompares the face of her Lord to the same, saying, 'His legs are\nas pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance\nis as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars' (Can 5:15). Thus in Lebanon,\nin this brave house, is found the excellency of the church, and\nthe beauty of Christ, for that they are both as a rock, with glory\nand majesty, bended against the enemies of the truth. 'The face\nof the Lord is against them that do evil.' Pillars his legs are\nhere compared to, and pillars were they that upheld this house,\nthis tower, which thus bravely was built with its face confronting\nthe enemy's country.\n\nSecond. That this house of the forest of Lebanon was a type of\nthe church in affliction, yet further appears, for that at the\nfall of Babylon her cedars are said to rejoice in special. 'The\nfir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since\nthou art laid down, no feller is come up against us' (Isa 14:8).\nThis is at the destruction of Babylon, the type of that called\nantichrist.\n\nBut why should Lebanon, the cedars in Lebanon, in an especial manner\nhere, be said to rejoice at his downfall: doubtless to show that\nas the enemy made his inroad upon Jerusalem; so in a particular\nmanner Lebanon, and the house there, were made to smoke for it\n(Isa 37:24; Jer 22:23; Zech 11:1). This answereth to that, 'Rejoice\nover her thou heaven; and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God\nhath avenged you of her.' Hence again, when he speaks of giving\nglory to his afflicted church, for all the sorrow which she hath\nsustained in her bearing witness for the truth against antichrist,\nhe calls it the glory of Lebanon. That is, as I take it, the glory\nthat belongs to her, for the afflictions which she underwent for\nhis name. 'The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it' (Isa 35:2).\nAnd again, 'The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee' (Isa 60:13).\nThese are promises to the church for her suffering of affliction,\nand they are made unto her as she bears the name of Lebanon, who\nor which was her type in those havocs made in it, when the enemy,\nas I said, assaulted the church of old.\n\nThus by these few lines I have showed you that there was a similitude\nbetwixt this house in the forest of Lebanon, and our gospel church\nin the wilderness. Nor need we stumble because this word house\nis not subjoined in every particular place, where this sorrow or\njoy of Lebanon is made mention of; for it is an usual thing with\nthe Holy Ghost, when he directs his speech to a man, to speak as\nif he spake to a tree; and when he directs his voice to a king,\nto speak as if he intended the kingdom; so when he speaks of the\nhouse, to speak as to the forest of Lebanon. Instances many might\nbe given.\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nOF THE LARGENESS OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\nThe house of the forest of Lebanon was forty cubits longer than was\nthe temple at Jerusalem, to show that the church in the wilderness\nwould increase more, and be far larger than she that had peace and\nprosperity. And as it was forty cubits longer, so it was thirty\ncubits wider, still showing that every way she would abound.\nHence they that came out of great tribulation, when compared with\nothers, are said to be a numberless number, or a multitude which\nno man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,\nand tongues. 'These,' saith one, 'are they which came out of the\ngreat tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white\nin the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of\nGod' (Rev 7:14,15).\n\nThe church, as it respected temple-worship, was confined to the\nland of Canaan; but our New Testament persecuted one is scattered\namong the nations, as a flock of sheep are scattered in a wood or\nwilderness. Hence they are said to be in 'the wilderness of the\npeople,' fitly answering to this house of the forest of Lebanon\n(Eze 20:35-37).\n\nBut though the house exceeded in length and breadth the temple\nof Jerusalem, yet as to their height they were the same, to show\nthat what acts that in the wilderness doth, above what they have\nbeen capable to do, that have not been in that condition; yet the\nnature of their grace is the same (Rom 15:27; 1 Peter 1:1).\n\nBut, I say, as for length and breadth, the church in the wilderness\nexceeds more than the house of the forest of Lebanon did that of\nthe temple at Jerusalem, as it is written; 'More are the children\nof the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the\nLord.' And again: 'Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and\non the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make\nthe desolate cities to be inhabited' (Isa 54:1-3). This is spoken\nof the church in the wilderness, that was made up chiefly of\nthe Gentiles, of which the house of the forest of Lebanon was a\nfigure; and how she at last shall recover herself from the yoke\nand tyranny of antichrist. And then she shall shoulder it with\nher adversary, saying, 'Give place to me, that I may dwell' (Isa\n49:20).\n\nAnd I will add, it was not only thus magnificent for length and\nbreadth, but for terror; it was compacted after the manner of a\ncastle, or stronghold, as was said before. It was a tower built\nfor an armoury, for Solomon put there his two hundred targets\nand three hundred shields of gold (2 Chron 9:15,16). This place\ntherefore was a terror to the heathen, on that side of the church\nespecially, because she stood with her nose so formidable against\nDamascus: no marvel therefore if the implacable cried out against\nthem, Help, 'men of Israel, help!' And, 'Will ye rebel against\nthe king?' (Acts 21:28; Neh 2:19).\n\nFor it is the terror, or majesty and fortitude, which God has put\nupon the church in the wilderness, that makes the Gentiles so\nbestir them to have her under foot. Besides, they misapprehend\nconcerning her, as if she was for destroying kings, for subverting\nkingdoms, and for bringing all to desolation, and so they set\nthemselves against her, 'crying, These that have turned the world\nupside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and\nthese all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there\nis another king, one Jesus' (Acts 17:5-7). Indeed, the very name\nof Jesus is the very tower of the Christian church, and that by\nwhich she frights the world, but not designedly, but through their\nmisunderstanding; for neither she, nor her Jesus, is for doing\nthem any hurt; however, this is that which renders her yet in\ntheir eye 'terrible as an army with banners' (Cant 6:10). How then\ncould she escape persecution for a time, for it was the policy\nof Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26-28). And it is yet the policy of the\nnations to secure themselves against this their imagined danger,\nand therefore to use all means, as Pharaoh did, to keep this people\nlow enough, saying, 'Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest\nthey multiply, and it come to pass that when there falleth out any\nwar, they join also to our enemies, and fight against us, and so\nget them up out of the land' (Exo 1:10).\n\nBut could the house of Lebanon, though a fortified place, assault\nDamascus? Could it remove from the place on which God had set\nit? It only was a place of defence for Judah, or for the worship\nof the temple. And had the adversary let the temple-worship and\nworshippers alone, the shields and targets in the house of the forest\nof Lebanon had not been uncovered, had not been made bare against\nthem. The same may now be said of the church in the wilderness,\nshe moveth no sedition, she abideth in her place; let her\ntemple-worshippers but alone, and she will be as if she were not\nin the world; but if you afflict her, 'Fire proceedeth out of\ntheir mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt\nthem, he must in this manner be killed' (Rev 11:5). And so die by\nthe sword of the Spirit. But because the weapons of the church,\nthough none of them are carnal, be so talked of in the world, the\nblind are yet more afraid of her than they in this manner are like\nto be hurt by her, and therefore they of old have peeled,[5] and\npolled, and endeavoured to spoil her all along, sending their\nservants, and saying to their bailiffs and sheriffs, 'Go--to\na nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their\nbeginning,--a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the\nrivers have spoiled!' (Isa 18:2). But this people shall prevail,\nthough not by worldly force; her God will deliver her. And then,\nor at 'that time, shall the present be brought to the Lord of hosts\nof a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from\ntheir beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under\nfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name\nof the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion' (Isa 18:7).\n\nNow thus did the house of the forest of Lebanon provoke; it was built\ndefensively, it had a tower, it had armour; its tower confronted\nthe enemy's land. No marvel then, if the king of Assyria so threatened\nto lay his army on the sides of Lebanon and to cut down the tall\ncedars thereof (Isa 37:24).\n\nThe largeness, therefore, and prowess of the church, by reason of\nher inherent fortitude and the valorous acts that she hath done by\nsuffering, by prayer, by faith, and a constant enduring of hardship\nfor the truth, doth force into the world a belief, through their\nown guilt and clamours of conscience against them for their\ndebaucheries, that this house of the forest of Lebanon will\ndestroy them all when she shall be delivered from her servitude.\n'Come now, therefore,' saith Balak to Balaam, and 'curse me this\npeople,' if peradventure I may overcome them: when he might have\nlet them pass peaceably by, and they would not have lifted up a\nfinger against him. Wherefore, from all these things it appears\nthat the house of the forest of Lebanon was a type of the church\nin the wilderness.\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nOF THE MATERIALS OF WHICH THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON WAS\nMADE.\n\nThe foundation of the house of the forest of Lebanon was of the\nsame great stones which were laid in the foundation of the temple\nof the Lord (1 Kings 7:2-11). And this shows that the church in the\nwilderness has the same foundation and support as had the temple\nthat was at Jerusalem, though in a state of sackcloth, tears,\nand affliction, the lot of the church in the wilderness; for she,\nwhile there, is to howl (Zech 11:2). Now since the foundation\nis the same, what is it but to show also that she, though in an\nafflicted condition, shall certainly stand; 'The gates of hell shall\nnot prevail against it' (Matt 16:18). Her confronting idolatrous\nnations is therefore a sign of her troubles, not any prediction of\na fall. Her rock is steadfast, not like the rock of her adversaries,\nthe enemy being judges (Deut 32:31).\n\nBut that which in special I take notice of is, that I find, in a\nmanner, in this house of the forest of Lebanon, nothing but pillars,\nand beams, great timber, and thick beams, and of those was the house\nbuilded; pillars to hold up, and thick beams to couple together,\nand thus was the house finished. I read not here of any garnishing,\neither of the pillars, beams, doors, posts, walls, or any part\nof the house; all was plain, without garnish, fitly representing\nthe state of the church in the wilderness, which was clothed with\nsackcloth, covered with ashes, wearing her mourning weeds, with\nher tears upon her cheeks, and a yoke or band about her neck (Isa\n52:1,2, 61:3).\n\nBy this kind of description we may also note with what kind of\nmembers this house, this church is furnished. Here, as I said,\nthat is, in the house of the forest of Lebanon, you find pillars,\npillars, so in the church in the wilderness. O the mighty ones of\nwhich this church was compacted! they were all pillars, strong,\nbearing up the house against wind and weather; nothing but fire\nand sword could dissolve them. As therefore this house was made\nup of great timber, so this church in the wilderness was made up\nof giants in grace. These men had the faces of lions; no prince,\nno king, no threat, no terror, no torment, could make them yield;\nthey loved not their lives unto the death. They have laughed their\nenemies in the face, they have triumphed in the flames.\n\nThey were pillars, they were pillars of cedar: the cedar is the\nhighest tree in the world;[6] wherefore in that this house was\nmade of cedar, it may be to denote that in the church in the\nwilderness, however contemned by men, was the highest perfection\nof goodness, as of faith, love, prayer, holy conversation,\nand affection for God and his truth. For indeed none ever showed\nthe like, none ever showed higher cedars than those that were\nin Lebanon. None ever showed higher saints than were they in the\nchurch in the wilderness. Others talked, these have suffered;\nothers have said, these have done; these have voluntarily taken\ntheir lives in their hands, for they loved them not to the death;\nand have fairly, and in cool blood, laid them down before the world,\nGod, angels, and men, for the confirming of the truth which they\nhave professed (Acts 15:26; Rev 12:11). These are pillars, these\nare strong ones indeed. It is meet, therefore, that the church in\nthe wilderness, since she was to resemble the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, should be furnished with these mighty ones.\n\nCedars! the same that the holiest of all in the temple was covered\nwithin, and that house was a figure of heaven, to show that the\nchurch of God in the wilderness, how base and low soever in the\njudgment of the world, is yet the only heaven that God hath among\nthe children of men. Here are many nations, many kingdoms, many\ncountries, and many cities, but the church in the wilderness was\nbut one, and she was the heaven that God has here; hence she is\ncalled, 'Thou heaven. Rejoice over her thou heaven' (Rev 18:20).\nAnd again, when the combustion for religion is in the church in\nthe wilderness it is said to be in heaven--'And there was war in\nheaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the\ndragon fought, and his angels' (Rev 12:7).\n\nThe church therefore loseth not all her titles of honour, no, not\nwhen at the lowest, she is God's heaven still; though she may\nnot be called now a crown of glory, yet she is still God's lily\namongst thorns; though she may not be called the church of Jerusalem,\nyet she may the church in the wilderness; and though she may not\nbe called Solomon's temple, yet she may the house of the forest\nof Lebanon. Cedars! cedars are tall and sweet, and so are the\nmembers of the church in the wilderness. O their smell, their\nscent, it hath been 'as the wine of Lebanon' (Hosea 14:5-7). They\nthat have gone before have left this smell still in the nostrils\nof their survivors, as that both fragrant and precious.\n\nThis house of the forest of Lebanon was builded 'upon four rows\nof cedar pillars' (1 Kings 7:2). These four rows were the bottom\npillars, those upon which the whole weight of the house did bear.\nThe Holy Ghost saith here four rows, but says not how many were in\na row. But we will suppose them to allude to the twelve apostles,\nor to the apostles and prophets, upon whose foundation the church\nin the wilderness is said to be built (Eph 2:20). And if so, then\nit shows that as the house of the forest of Lebanon stood upon\nthese four rows of pillars, as the names of the twelve tribes stood\nin four rows of precious stones upon Aaron's breastplate when he\nwent into the holiest, so this house, or church in the wilderness,\nstands upon the doctrine of the apostles and prophets (Exo 28:17,\n29:10). But because it only saith it stood upon four rows, not\nspecifying any number, therefore as to this we may say nothing\ncertain, yet I think such a conjecture hath some show of truth in\nit, however, I will leave it to wiser judgments.\n\n'And it was covered with cedar above, upon the beams that lay on\nforty-five pillars, fifteen in a row' (1 Kings 7:3). These pillars,\nas the others, are such upon which the house did also bear; this\nis clear, because the beams that lay upon the four rows of pillars\nafore-mentioned lay also upon these forty-five.\n\nIt seems, therefore, that these four rows of pillars were they\nthat were the more outside ones; that is, two rows on this side\nof the house and two rows also on that; and that those forty-five\npillars, fifteen in a row, stood in three rows more inward, and\nso did bear up with the other the beams that were laid upon them,\nmuch like to those inner pillars that usually stand in our parish\nchurches. If so, then the first four rows did seem to be a guard\nto these, for that, as they stood more to the outsides of the\nhouse, so more to the weather, and nearer to the first approach\nof the enemy.\n\nAnd this may show that the apostles in their doctrine are not\nonly a foundation to the forty-five pillars, but a protection and\ndefence; I say a protection and defence to all the pillars that\never were besides in the church in the wilderness. And it is to\nbe considered that the four rows are mentioned as placed first,\nand so were those upon which the thick beams that first were for\ncoupling of the house were laid; the which most fitly teacheth that\nthe office and graces of the apostles were first in the church in\nthe wilderness, according to 1 Corinthians 12:18.\n\nThese forty-five pillars standing in the midst, by the others, may\nalso be to show that in the time of the trouble of the church in\nher wilderness state, there will be those that will stand by and\nmaintain her apostolical doctrine, though for so doing they bear\nthe burthen of the whole. But I read of no chambers for ease or\nrest in this house, here is no room for chambering. They that were\nfor being members in the church in the wilderness, must not look\nfor rest until their Lord shall come (Rom 13:13,14; 2 Thess 1:5-9).\n\nHere therefore was but hard lodging; the house of the forest of\nLebanon was not made for tender skins and for those that cannot\nlie out of down beds, but for those that were war-like men, and\nthat were willing to endure hardness for that religion that God\nhad set up in his temple, and is fitly answered by that of the\napostle: 'Thou, therefore,' my son, 'endure hardness as a good\nsoldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself\nwith the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath\nchosen him to be a soldier' (2 Tim 2:3,4). Forty-five pillars! It\nwas forty-five years that the church was of old in a bewildered\nand warlike condition before she enjoyed her rest in Canaan (Josh\n14:10). Now, as there were forty-five years of trouble, so here\nare forty-five pillars for support, perhaps to intimate that God\nwill have in his church in the wilderness a sufficient succession\nof faithful men that, like pillars, shall bear up the truth above\nwater all the time of Antichrist's reign and rage.\n\nThe thick beams that lay over-thwart to couple this house of\nthe forest of Lebanon together, did bear upon these forty-five\npillars, to show that, by the burden-bearers that have and shall\nbe in the church of God in the wilderness, the unity of that house\nis through the Spirit maintained. And indeed, had it not been for\nthese pillars, the sufferers, these burden-bearers in the church,\nour house in the forest of Lebanon, or, more properly, our church\nin the wilderness, had before this been but in a poor condition.\nThus therefore this church, which in her time is the pillar and\nground of truth in the world, has been made to stand and abide it.\n'When the blast of the terrible ones has been as a storm against\nthe wall' (Isa 25:4; 1 Tim 3:15). 'Many a time have they afflicted\nme from my youth, may Israel now say: many a time have they\nafflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against\nme' (Psa 129:1,2).\n\nThus you see how the house of the forest of Lebanon was a type of\nthe church in the wilderness; and you see also by this the reason\nwhy the house of the forest of Lebanon had its inward glory lying\nmore in great pillars and thick beams than in other ornaments. And\nindeed, here had need be pillars and pillars and beams and beams\ntoo, since it was designed for assaults to be made upon it, since\nit was set for a butt for the marksman, and to be an object for\nfurious heathens to spend their rage against its walls.\n\nThe glory therefore of the temple lay in one thing, and the glory\nof this house lay in another: the glory of the temple lay in that\nshe contained the true form and modes of worship, and the glory\nof the house of the forest of Lebanon lay in her many pillars and\nthick beams, by which she was made capable, through good management,\nto give check to those of Damascus when they should attempt to\nthrow down that worship.\n\nAnd as I said before, these pillars were sweet-scented pillars,\nfor that they were made of cedar; but what cared the enemy for\nthat, they were offensive to him, for that they were placed as a\nfortification against him. Nor is it any allurement to Satan to\nfavour the mighty ones in the church in the wilderness for the\nfragrant smell of their sweet graces, nay, both he and his angels\nare the more bent to oppose them because they are so sweet-scented.\nThe cedars therefore got nothing because they were cedars at the\nhands of the barbarous Gentiles--for they would burn the cedars--as\nthe angels or pillars get nothing of favour at the hands of\nAntichrist because they are pillars of and angels for the truth,\nyea, they so much the more by her are abhorred. Well, but they are\npillars for all that, yea, pillars to the church in the wilderness,\nas the others were in the house of the forest of Lebanon, and\npillars they will abide there, dead and alive, when the enemy has\ndone what he can.\n\nThe pillars were set in three rows, for so are forty-five when\nthey are set fifteen in a row. And they were set in three rows to\nbear. This manner also of their standing thus was also doubtless\nsignificant. But again, they, these pillars, may be set, or placed\nthus in three rows in the house of the forest of Lebanon, to show\nthat the three offices of Christ are the great things that the\nchurch in the wilderness must bear up before the world.\n\nThe three offices of Christ, they are his priestly, his prophetical,\nand his kingly offices. These are those in which God's glory and\nthe church's salvation are most immediately concerned, and they\nthat have been most opposed by the devil and his angels. All\nheresies, errors, and delusions with which Christ's church has been\nassaulted in all ages, have bent themselves against some one or\nall of these (Rev 16:13,16). Christ is a priest to save, a prophet\nto teach, and a king to rule his church (Isa 33:22). But this\nAntichrist cannot bear, therefore he attempts to get up into the\nthrone himself, and to act as if he were one above all that is\ncalled God, or that is worshipped (2 Thess 2:3,4; Rev 19:19-21).\nBut behold! here are pillars in three rows, mighty pillars to\nbear up Christ in these his offices before the world and against\nall falsehood and deceit.\n\nFifteen in a row, I can say no further than I can see; what the\nnumber of fifteen should signify I know not, God is wiser than\nman; but yet methinks their standing thus should signify a reserve;\nas suppose the first three that the enemy comes at should be\ndestroyed by their hands, there are three times fourteen behind;\nsuppose again that they should serve the next three so, yet there\nis a reserve behind. When that fine one, Jezebel, had done what\nshe could against the afflicted church in her time, yet there\nwas left a reserve, a reserve of seven thousand that were true\nworshippers of God (1 Kings 19:18; Rom 11:4).\n\nAlways when Antichrist made his inroads upon the church in the\nwilderness, to slay, to cut off, and to kill, yet some of the pillars\nstood, they were not all burnt in the fire, nor cut down. They\nsaid indeed, 'Come and let us cut them off from being a nation,\nthat the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance' (Psa 83:4).\nBut what then? there is a difference betwixt saying and doing;\nthe bush was not therefore consumed because it was set on fire;\nthe church shall not be consumed although she be afflicted (Exo\n3:3). And this reason is, because God has still his fifteens;\ntherefore if Abel falls by the hand of Cain, Seth is put in his\nplace (Gen 4:25). If Moses is taken away, Joshua shall succeed him\n(Josh 1:2,3). And if the devil break the neck of Judas, Matthias\nis at hand to take his office (Acts 1:16-26). God has, I say, a\nsuccession of pillars in his house; he has to himself a reserve.\n\nYet again, methinks that there should be forty-five pillars, and\nbesides them four rows of pillars, and all this to bear up an\ninvisible burden, for we read of nothing upon the pillars but the\nheavens and roof. It should be to show that it is impossible that\na carnal heart should conceive of the weight that truth lays upon\nthe conscience of a believer. They see, nothing, alas, nothing\nat all, but a beam, a truth, and, say they, are you such fools\nto stand groaning to bear up that, or what is contained therein?\nThey, I say, see not the weight, the glory, the weight of glory\nthat is in a truth of God, and therefore they laugh at them that\nwill count it worth the while to endure so much to support it from\nfalling to the ground.[7] Great pillars and beams, great saints\nand great truths, are in the church of God in the wilderness; and\nthe beams lie upon the pillars, or the truth upon the saints.\n\nThe tabernacle and ark formerly were to be borne upon men's shoulders,\neven as these great beams are borne up by these pillars. And as\nthis tabernacle and ark were to be carried hither and thither,\naccording to the appointment of God, so were these beams to be\nby these pillars borne up, that therewith the house might be girt\ntogether, kept uniform, and made to stand fast, notwithstanding\nthe wind and storm.\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nOF THE WINDOWS IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\nThe house of the forest of Lebanon had many windows in it; 'And\nthere were windows in three rows, and light was against light in\nthree ranks' (1 Kings 7:4). Windows are to let the light in at,\nand the eye out at, to objects at a distance from the house, and\nfrom those that are therein.\n\nThe windows here are figures of the Word of God, by which light\nthe light of life is let into the heart; through that, the glass\nof these windows, the beams of the Sun of righteousness shine into\nthe church. Hence the word is compared to glass, through which\nthe glorious face of Christ is seen (2 Cor 3:18). This, therefore,\nthis house of the forest of Lebanon had; it had windows, a figure\nof that Word of God, through, and by which, the church in the\nwilderness sees the mind of God, and so what while there she ought\nto believe, do, and leave undone in the world.\n\nThis house had plenty of windows--three rows of windows on both\nsides the house. In three rows; by these windows in three rows\nperhaps was prefigured how into the church in the wilderness was\nto shine the doctrine of the Trinity: yea, to signify that she was\nto be possessed with that in her most low state, and when under\nher greatest clouds. The doctrine of the Trinity! that is the\nsubstance, that is the ground and fundamental of all (1 John 2:22,23,\n4:2-4; 2 John 9,10). For by this doctrine, and by this only, the\nman is made a Christian; and he that has not this doctrine, his\nprofession is not worth a button. You must know that sometimes the\nchurch in the wilderness has but little light, but the diminution\nof her light is not then so much in or as to substantials, as it\nis as to circumstantial things; she has then the substantials with\nher, in her darkest day, even windows in three rows.\n\nThe doctrine of the Trinity! You may ask me what that is? I answer.\nIt is that doctrine that showeth us the love of God the Father, in\ngiving of his Son: the love of God the Son, in giving of himself;\nand the love of the Lord the Spirit, in his work of regenerating\nof us, that we may be made able to lay hold of the love of the\nFather by his Son, and so enjoy eternal life by grace. This doctrine\nwas always let in at these windows into the church in the wilderness,\nfor to make her sound in faith, and hearty in obedience; as also\nmeek and patient in temptation and tribulation. And as to the\nsubstance of Christianity, this doctrine is sufficient for any\npeople, because it teaches faith, and produceth a good moral life.\nThese therefore, if these doctrines shine upon us, through these\nwindows of heaven, so as that we see them, and receive them, they\nmake us fit to glorify God here, and meet to be glorified of,\nand with him hereafter. These lights, therefore, cause that the\ninhabitants of this church in the wilderness see their way through\nthe dark pitch night of this world. For as the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, this church of God in the wilderness had always her\nlights, or windows in these three rows, to guide, to solace, and\ncomfort her.\n\nThis house therefore, is thus discriminated and distinguished\nfrom all other houses in the world; no house, that we read of in\nthe Bible, was thus adorned with light, or had windows in three\nrows, but this; and answerable hereunto, no congregation or church,\nbut the true church of God, has the true antitype thereof. Light!\nwindows! A sufficiency of windows was of great use to a people\nthat dwelt in a forest, or wood, as the inhabitants of the house of\nthe forest of Lebanon did. But how solitary had this house been,\nhad it had no light at all! To be in a wood, and that without\nwindows, is one of the worst of conditions. This also is the relief\nthat the church in the wilderness had; true, she was in a wood,\nbut had light, called in another place God's rod, or his Word,\nwhich giveth instruction. 'Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock\nof thine heritage, which dwell solitary in the wood,' &c. (Micah\n7:14).\n\nTo be, as was said, in a wood, and without light too, is a\ncondition very desolate: the Egyptians found it so, for all they\nwere in their houses (Exo 10:21,23). But how much more then is\nthat people's case to be lamented that are under persecution, but\nhave not light in three rows to guide them. But this is not the\nstate of the church in the wilderness; she has her windows in three\nrows, to wit, the light of the face of the Father, the light of\nthe face of the Son, and the light of the face of the Holy Ghost;\nall shining through the windows or glass of the Word, to her\ncomfort and consolation, though now in the forest of Lebanon.\n\n'And light was against light in three ranks.' This is an additional\naccount of the windows that were in the house of the forest of\nLebanon. Before he said she had windows in three rows, but now he\nadds that there was light against light, light opposite to light,\nand that also in three ranks. In that he saith they were in ranks,\nhe either means in order, or insinuates a military posture, for in\nboth these ways is this word taken (Num 2:16,24; 1 Chron 12:33,38;\nMark 6:40). Nor need any smile because I say the lights were set\nin a military posture; we read of potsherds striving with potsherds;\nand why may it not as well be said, 'light was against light' (Isa\n45:9).\n\nBut we will pursue our design. Here is opposition insinuated;\nin the margin it is 'sight against sight'; wherefore the lights\nthus placed in the house of the forest of Lebanon give me another\nencouragement, to think that this house was a type of the church\nin the wilderness, and that she is the seat of spiritual war also\n(Rev 12:7). For as this house of the forest of Lebanon was that\nwhich was the object of the rage of the king of Assyria, because\nit stood in his way to hinder his ruining Jerusalem; so the spirit\nand faithfulness of the church of God in the wilderness stands\nin the way, and hinders Antichrist's bringing of the truth to the\nground.\n\nAnd as the enemy brake into Lebanon, and did set fire to her\ncedars, so the boar, the Antichrist, the dragon, and his angels,\ngot into the church in the wilderness (Psa 80:13; 2 Thess 2:4; Rev\n12:7). This being so, here must needs be war; and since the war is\nnot carnal but spiritual, it must be made by way of controversy,\ncontention, disputation, argument, reasonings, &c. which were the\neffect of opposite apprehensions, fitly set out in this house of\nthe forest of Lebanon, for that there was 'light against light,'\n'sight against sight,' in three ranks. Wherefore in that he saith\n'light was against light in three ranks,' he suggesteth, to the\nlife, how it would be in the church in the wilderness. And suppose\nthey were the truly godly that made the first assault, can they\nbe blamed? For who can endure a boar in a vineyard; a man of sin\nin a holy temple; or a dragon in heaven? What then if the church\nmade the first assault? Who bid the boar come there? What had he\nto do in God's house? The church, as the house of the forest of\nLebanon, would have been content with its own station; and bread\nand water will serve a man, that may with peace enjoy his delights\nin other things. But when privilege, property, life, delight,\nheaven, and salvation, comes to be intruded, no marvel if the\nwoman, though but a woman, cries out, and set her light against\nthem; had she seen the thief, and said nothing, she had been far\nworse.\n\nI told you before that by the windows is meant the Word, which is\ncompared to glass (1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 3:18; James 1:23-25). What,\nthen, is the Word against the Word? No, verily, it is therefore\nnot the Word, but opposite apprehensions thereabout, that the\nHoly Ghost now intends; for he saith not that window was against\nwindow, respecting the true sense of the Word, but light was against\nlight, respecting the divers notions and apprehensions that men\nof opposite spirits would have about the Word. Nor are we to take\nthis word light, especially in the antitype, in a proper but in a\nmetaphorical sense, that is, with respect to the judgment of both\nparties. Here is the true church, and she has the true light; here\nalso is the boar, the man of sin, and the dragon; and they see by\ntheir way, and yet, as I said, all by the self-same windows. They\nthat are the church do, in God's light, see light; but they that\nare not, do in their own way see. And let a man, and a beast,\nlook out at the same window, the same door, the same casement,\nyet the one will see like a man, and the other but like a beast.\nNo marvel then, though they have the same windows, that 'light is\nagainst light,' and sight against sight in this house. For there\nare that known nothing but what they know naturally as brutes (Psa\n92:6; Jer 10:8,14,21; Jude 10).\n\nNo marvel then if there is here a disagreement; the beast can but\nsee as a beast, but the church is resolved not to be guided by\nthe eye of a beast, though he pretends to have his light by that\nvery window by which the church has hers. The beast is moon-eyed,\nand puts darkness for light, yea, and hates the light that is so\nindeed;[8] but the saints will not hear him, for they know the\nvoice of their Lord (Isa 5:20; John 3:20). How then can it be but\nthat light should be against light in this house, and that in a\nmilitary posture? And how can it be but that here 'every battle of\nthe warrior' should be 'with confused noise, and garments rolled\nin blood' (Isa 9:5).\n\nAnd in that he saith, 'light was against light in three ranks,'\nit shows their preparations one against another; also that they\non both sides are resolved to stand by their way. The church is\nconfident, the man of sin is confident; they both have the same\nwindows to see by, and so they manage their matters; yet not so\nsimply by the windows, as by their divers judgments they make of\nthat which shineth in at them. Each one therefore hath the true\nand false profession, will be confident of his own way; he that\nwas right, knew he was right; and he that was wrong, thought he\nwas right, and so the battle began. 'There is a way that seemeth\nright unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death' (Prov\n14:12).\n\nNor is it in man to help it; there has been reasoning, there has\nbeen disputing, there has blood also been spilt on both sides,\nthrough the confidence that each had of the goodness of his own\nway; but no reconciliation is made, the enmity is set here of God;\niron and clay cannot mix (Gen 3:15; Dan 2:42,43). God will have\nthings go on thus in the world, till his words shall be fulfilled:\n'The deceived, and the deceiver, are his' (Job 12:16). Things\ntherefore must have their course in the church in the wilderness,\ntill the mystery of God shall be fulfilled (Rev 17:17).\n\nHence it is said God will bring Gog against his people of Israel,\n'as a cloud to cover the land' (Eze 38:16). But for what cause?\nWhy, that he may contend a while with them, and then fall by their\nlight to the ground. Therefore he says also, that he 'will give\nunto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, and it shall be called\nthe valley of Hamon-gog' (Eze 39:11).\n\nGod will get himself great glory by permitting the boar, the man\nof sin, and the dragon, to revel it in the church of God; for\nthey, by setting up and contending for their darkness and calling\nof it the light, and by setting of it against that light, which\nis light in very deed, do not only prove the power of truth where\nit is, but illustrate it so much the more. For as black sets\noff white, and darkness light, so error sets off truth. He that\ncalls a man a horse, doth in conclusion but fix the belief of his\nhumanity[9] so much the more in the apprehension of all rational\ncreatures.\n\n'Light against light in three ranks.' The three ranks on the\nchurch's side signify her light in the Trinity, as was said, and\nin the three offices of Christ; and the ranks against these three\nranks be to signify the opposite apprehensions of the enemy. They\ndiffer also about the authority of the Word, and ordinances, about\nthe offices, officers, and executions of office, in the church,\n&c. There is an opposition everywhere, even round about the house;\nthere was 'light against light in three ranks.' This house of the\nforest of Lebanon was therefore a significative thing, wisely\nbuilt and fit for the purpose for which it was designed, which\nwas to show what afterward would be the state of the church in the\nwilderness. Nor could anything in the temple more aptly express\nitself in a typical way, as to any of the things concerning New\nTestament matters, than doth this house of the forest of Lebanon,\nas to the things designed to be signified thereby. It speaks, can\nwe but hear: it points to things, as it were with a finger, have\nwe but eyes to see.\n\nIt is not therefore to be wondered at that we hear both parties\nplead so much for their authority, crying out against each other,\nas those that destroy religion. So doth the church, so doth the\nman of sin. The living child is mine, saith one; nay, but the dead\nchild is thine, and the living child is mine, says the other. And\nthus they spake before the king (1 Kings 3:16-22). Now this could\nnot be, were there not different apprehensions here; light against\nlight then is the cause of all this; and here is 'light against\nlight in three ranks'; and so will be until the beast is dead.\n\nThe church will not give place, for she knows she has the truth;\nthe dragon and his angels, they will not give place, but as beaten\nback by the power of the truth; for thus it is said of the dragon\nand his angels, they fought and prevailed not. Therefore there\nwill, there must, there cannot but be a spiritual warfare here,\nand that until one of the two are destroyed, and their body given\nto the burning flame (Dan 7:11; Rev 19:20).\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nOF THE DOORS AND POSTS, AND THEIR SQUARE, WITH THE WINDOWS OF THE\nHOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\n'And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows.' The\ndoors, they were for entrance, the posts were the support of the\ndoors, and the windows were, as was hinted before, for light. Now\nhere they are said to be all square; square is a note of perfection;\nbut this word square may be taken two ways. 1. Either as to the\nfashion of the things themselves; or, 2. With reference to the\nuniform order of the whole.\n\nIn the first sense was the altar of burnt-offering, the altar of\nincense, and the breastplate of judgment, square (Exo 27:1, 28:16;\n30:2). And so also it is said of our New Testament New Jerusalem\n(Rev 21:16). But the square in the text is not thus to be understood,\nbut if I mistake not, as is signified under the second head, that\nis for an uniform order. The whole fabric, as the doors, posts,\nand windows, presented themselves to beholders in an exact uniform\norder, and so right delectable to behold. Hence we may gather\nthat this house of the forest of Lebanon was so exactly built,\nand consequently so complete to view, that it was alluring to the\nbeholders; and that the more, for that so pretty a fabric should\nbe found in a forest or wood. A lily among thorns, a pearl on\na dunghill, and beauty under a veil, will make one turn aside to\nlook on it.\n\nAnswerable to this, the church, even in the wilderness, or under\npersecution, is compared not only to a woman, but to a comely\nand delicate woman. And who, that shall meet such a creature in\na wood, unless he feared God, but would seek to ravish and defile\nher.\n\nTherefore I say, that which is here said to be square, must be\nunderstood to be so, as to prospect and view, or right taking to\nthe eye.\n\nThus therefore they are allured, and think to defile her in the\nbed of love; but coming to her, and finding of her chaste, and\nfilled with nothing but armour, and men at arms, to maintain her\nchastity, nolens volens--their fleshly love is turned into cruel\nrage, and so they go to variance.\n\n'I have likened,' says God, 'The daughter of Zion to a comely\nand delicate woman' (Jer 6:2). But where is she? O! she is in the\nfield, in the forest among the shepherds. But what will they do\nwith her? Why, because she complies not with their desires, they\n'prepare war against her,' saying, 'Arise, let us go up at noon.\nArise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces'\n(Jer 6:4,5). Wherefore the beauty of the house of the forest of\nLebanon, as well as the fortitude thereof, was a temptation to the\nenemy to come to take it into their possession; especially since\nit stood, as it were, on the borders of Israel, and so faced the\nenemy's country.\n\nThus the church, though in her weeds of widowhood, is become the\ndesire of the eyes of the nations; for indeed her features are\nsuch, considering who is her head, where mostly to the eye beauty\nlies, that whoso sees but the utmost glimpse of her, is easily\nravished with her beauties. See how the prophet words it--'Many\nnations are gathered together against thee, that say, Let her be\ndefiled, and let our eye look upon Zion' (Micah 4:11).\n\nThe church, the very name of the church of God, is beautiful in\nthe world; and, as among women, she that has beauty has her head\ndesired, if it might be, to stand upon another woman's shoulders;\nso this, and that, and every nation that beholds the beauty of the\nchurch, would fain be called by that name. The church, one would\nthink, was but in a homely dress when she was coming out of\ncaptivity; and yet then the people of the countries desired to be\none with her. 'Let us [said they to Zerubbabel, and to the fathers\nof the church] build with you, for we seek your God as ye do'\n(Ezra 4:2).\n\nThe very name of the church, as I said, is striven for of the world,\nbut that is the church which Christ has made so; her features also\nremain with herself, as this comely prospect of the house of the\nforest of Lebanon abode with it, whoever beheld or wished for\nit. The beauty therefore of this house, though it stood in the\nforest, was admirable; even as is the beauty of the church in the\nwilderness, though in a bewildered state.\n\nHear the relation that the Holy Ghost gives of the intrinsic beauty\nof the church, when she was to go to be in a persecuted state; she\nwas 'clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon\nher head a crown of twelve stars' (Rev 12:1). And yet now the\ndragon stood by her (Rev 12:4). But I say, Here is a woman! let\nwho will attempt it, show such another in the world, if he can.[10]\n\nThey therefore that have any regard to morality, civility, or to\nceremonial comeliness, covet to be of the church of God, or to\nappropriate that glorious title to themselves. And here, indeed,\nAntichrist came in; she took this name to herself; and though she\ncould not come at the sun, nor moon, nor stars, to adorn herself\nwith them, yet she has found something that makes her comely in\nher followers' eyes. See how the Holy Ghost sets her forth. She\n'was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold\nand precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand,'\n&c. (Rev 17:4). Hence she is called, 'The well-favoured harlot,'\n'the lady of kingdoms,' &c. (Nahum 3:4; Isa 47:5,7).\n\nBut because the chaste matron, the spouse of Christ, would not\nallow this slut to run away with this name, therefore she gets\nupon the back of her beast, and by him pushes this woman into the\ndirt; but because her faith and love to her husband remains, she\nturns again, and pleads by her titles, her features, and ornaments,\nthat she, and she only, is she whose square answereth to the square\nof her figure, and to the character which her Lord hath given of\nhis own, and so the game began. For so soon as this mistress became\na dame in the world, and found that she had her stout abettors,\nshe attempts to turn all things topsy-turvy, and to set them and\nto make of them what she lists. And now she will have an altar\nlike that which was Tiglath-pileser's. Now must the Lord's brazen\naltar be removed from its place, the borders of the basis must be\ncut off, and the laver removed from off them; the molten sea must\nalso now be taken off the backs of the brazen oxen, where Solomon\nset it, and be set on a pavement of stone (2 Kings 16:10-17).\n\nSolomon! alas, Solomon's nobody now; this woman is wiser in her\nown conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Now also the\ncovert for the Sabbath must be turned to the use of the king of\nAssyria, &c. (2 Kings 16:18). Thus has the beauty of God's church\nbetrayed her into the hands of her lovers, who loved her for\nthemselves, for the devil, and for the making of her a seat, a\nthrone for the man of sin. And poor woman, all her struggling and\nstriving, and crying out under the hands of these ravishers, has\nnot, as yet, delivered her, though it has saved her life (Deut\n22:25-27).\n\nBut though thus it has been with Christ's true church, and will\nbe as long as his enemy Antichrist reigns, yet the days will come\nwhen her God will give her her ornaments, and her bracelets, and\nher liberty, and her joy, that she had in the day of her espousals.\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nOF THE REPETITION OF LIGHT AGAINST LIGHT IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST\nOF LEBANON.\n\nTo be sure it was not superfluously done of the Holy Ghost to make\nrepetition of these words, 'And light was against light in three\nranks,' therefore something is intended in the adding of them\nagain that was not intended by the first mentioning of them (1\nKings 7:4,5).\n\nI have told you what I thought was intended by the first rehearsal\nof them, namely, to show how Antichrist got in with his sensuality,\nand opposed it to the true light of the Word of God, exalting\nhimself above God, and also above all Divine revelation; this was\nhis light against light. But, I say, why is it repeated? For he\nsaith, 'Light was against light in three ranks' again. Truly, I\nthink it is repeated to show the evil effects the first antichristian\nopposition would have in the church of God, towards the end of her\nwilderness state. For, 'light against light' now, for that it is\nhere repeated, is to show us some new thing, or, as far as wood\nand windows can speak, to let us understand what would be the\nconsequence of those antichristian figments[11] that were brought\ninto the church at first by him.\n\nFor can it be imagined but that, since so much confusion was\nbrought into the church, some of the truly godly themselves would\nbe much damnified thereby? The apostle says, 'Evil communication\ncorrupts good manners' (1 Cor 15:33). And that 'their word will\neat as doth a canker' (1 Tim 2:17). Mischief therefore must needs\nfollow this ugly deed of the man of sin. If a house be on fire,\nthough it is not burnt down, the smell of the flame may long remain\nthere; also we count it no wonder to see some of the effects upon\nthe rafters, beams, and some of the principal posts thereof. The\ncalf that was set up at Dan defiled that people until the captivity\nof the land (Judg 18:30).\n\nAnd I say again, since light against light was so early in the\nchurch in the wilderness, and has also been there so long, and\nagain, since many in this church were both born and bred there\nunder these oppositions of light, it is easy to conclude that\nsomething of the enemy's darkness might be also called light by\nthe sincere that followed after. For by antichristian darkness,\nthough they might call it light, the true light was darkened, and\nso the eye made dim, even the eye of the truly godly. Also the Holy\nGhost did much withdraw itself from the church, so the doctrines,\ntraditions, and rudiments of the world took more hold there, and\nspread themselves more formidably over the face of that whole\nchurch. For after the first angel had sounded, and the star was\nfallen from heaven to the earth, and had received the key of the\nbottomless pit, and had opened the mouth thereof, the smoke came\nout amain. This angel was one of the first dads of antichristianism,\nand this smoke was that which they call light, but it was 'light\nagainst light.' 'And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose\na smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the\nsun and the air were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit'\n(Rev 9:1,2).\n\nThe sun I take to be the gospel of God, and the air a type of the\nbreathings of the Holy Ghost. The smoke I take to be the doctrines\nand traditions of Antichrist; that which was, as I said before,\nput for light against the true light of the Word. Now, since the\nsun and the air were darkened by this smoke, yea, and so darkened\nas that the sun, nor moon, nor stars, nor day, nor night, could\nshine for a third part of them; no marvel though the true worshippers\nhere were benighted, or, at least, had but little light to walk\nby; yea, I have known some that have been born and bred up in\nsmokey holes, that have been made, both in smell and sight, to\ncarry the tokens of their so being bred about them.\n\nAnd I say again, as to what is now under our consideration, no\nmarvel if they that breathed in this church in the wilderness,\nafter the smoke came out of this pit, sucked in the smoke with the\nair until it became natural to them. A house annoyed with smoke is\na great offence to the eyes, whose light being thereby impaired,\nthe judgment also, since that, as to visibles, is guided by the\neye, must needs be in danger of being in part misled. And this\nbeing the effect of light against light at first, is the cause of\nwhat to this day we see in the church among the true brotherhood.\nFor as a cause produceth an effect, so oftentimes an effect sets\non foot another cause.\n\nNow, therefore, we have light against light among the godly,\nas afore there was antichristian against the Christian light.\nNot that light against light is now godly in the all of it. It\nis antichristian that opposes the Christian light still. But, as\nbefore, the darkness that opposed the light was in the antichristians,\nnow that darkness is got into the Christians, and has set them\nagainst one another. Light therefore against light now is in\nthe Christians, truly prefigured by that which was in the house\nof the forest of Lebanon. Witness the jars, the oppositions, the\ncontentions, emulations, strifes, debates, whisperings, tumults,\nand condemnations that, like cannon-shot, have so frequently on\nall sides been let fly against one another.\n\nShall I need to mention particularly contests many years past, and\npresented to us in print? Words and papers now in print, as also\nthe many petty divisions and names amongst us, sufficiently make\nthis manifest. Wherefore light against light in this last place,\nor where it is thus repeated, cannot, I think, be more fitly\napplied than to that now under our consideration; that is to say,\nthan to the opposite persuasions, different apprehensions, and\nthwart conclusions, that are constantly drawn from the same texts\nto maintain a diverse practice. Though we are to acknowledge with\nthankfulness that this opposition lies not so much in fundamentals\nas in things of a lesser import.\n\nThe godly all hold the head, for there Antichrist could never\ndivide them; their divisions therefore are, as I said, only about\nsmaller things. I do not say that the antichristian darkness\nhas done nothing in the church as to the hurting it in the great\nthings of God. But, I say, it has not been able to do that which\ncould sever their Head from them, otherwise there appears even\ntoo much of the effect of his doings there. For even, as to the\noffices of our Lord, some will have his authority more large, some\nmore strait. Some confine his rules to themselves and to their\nmore outward qualification, and some believe they are extended\nfurther. Some will have his power in his church purely spiritual,\nothers again would have it mixed. Some count his Word perfect and\nsufficient to guide in all religious matters, others again hold\nthat an addition of something human is necessary. Some are for\nconfining of his benefits, in the saving effects of them, only to\nthe elect, others are for a stretching of them further. I might\nhere multiply things, but that light against light is now among\nthe godly as light against light was in the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, is not at all to be questioned.\n\nThis therefore may stand for another argument to prove that the\nhouse of the forest of Lebanon was a type of the church in the\nwilderness. As to the number here, that is to say, in three ranks,\nit is also, as I think, to show that, though, as was said afore,\nthis darkness could not sever the true church from her Head, yet\nit has eclipsed the glory of things. By two lights a man cannot\nsee this or that thing so exactly as by one single light; no, they\nboth make all confused though they make not all invisible (Matt\n6:22,23).\n\nAs, for instance, sun-light and moon-light together, fire-light and\nsun-light together, candle-light and moon-light together, make\nthings more obscure than to look on them by a single light. The\nWord reflecting upon the understanding, without the interposing of\nman's traditions, makes the mind of God to a man more clear than\nwhen attended with the other. How much more then when light shall\nbe against light in three ranks? Christ in his offices, blessed\nbe God, is to this day known in his church, notwithstanding there\nis yet with us light against light in three ranks. But in these\nthings he is not so distinctly, fully, and completely known, as he\nwas before the church went into the wilderness. No, that knowledge\nis lost to a 'third part' of it, as was also showed before (Rev\n8:12).\n\nThings therefore will never be well in the church of God so long\nas there is thus light against light therein. When there is but\none Lord among us and his name One, and when divisions, by the\nconsent of the whole, are banished, I mean, not persecuted, but\nabandoned in all by a joint consent, and when every man shall\nsubmit his own single opinion to those truths, that by their being\nretained are for the health of all, then look for good days, and\nnot until then. For this house of the forest of Lebanon, in which,\nas you see, there is 'light against light in three ranks,' was\nnot built to prefigure the church in her primitive state, but to\nshow us how we should be while standing before the face of the\ndragon, and while shifting for ourselves in the wilderness.\n\nAnd although by her pillars, and beauty, and tower, aye, and by\nher facing the very metropolitan of her enemies, she showeth that\nthe true grace of God is in her, and a strength and courage that\nis invincible, yet for that she has also affixed to her station\n'Light against light in three ranks.' It is evident her eye is\nnot so single, and consequently that her body is not so full of\nlight, as she will be when her sackcloth is put off, and as when\nshe has put on her beautiful garments. For then it is that her\nmoon is to shine as the sun, and that the light of her sun is to\nbe sevenfold, even as the light of seven days, then, I say, 'When\nthe Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the\nstroke of their wound' (Isa 30:26).\n\nYou know that a kingdom flourishes not so long as it is the seat\nof war, but when that is over peace and prosperity flourishes. This\nhouse, as has been hinted, was a type of the church in a wood, a\nforest, a wilderness.\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nOF THE SHIELDS AND TARGETS THAT WERE IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST\nOF LEBANON.\n\nAs this house of the forest of Lebanon was that which, in the\ngeneral, prefigured the state of the church in the wilderness,\nso it was accoutered with such military materials as suited her\nin such a condition, that is to say, with shields, and targets;\nconsequently with other warlike things. 'And king Solomon made two\nhundred targets of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold went\nto one target, and he made three hundred shields of beaten gold;\n[three pound] or three hundred shekels of gold went to one shield.\nAnd the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon' (1\nKings 10:16,17; 2 Chron 9:15,16).\n\nThis supposes that the house of the forest of Lebanon would\nbe attacked by the enemy. And good reason there was for such a\nsupposition, since it was built for defence of that worship that\nwas set up in the church. Hence it is said, when the enemy used to\ncome with his chariots and horsemen against them, that they 'did\nlook in that day to the armour of the house of the forest' (Isa\n22:7,8). That was, to see how they were prepared at Lebanon, to\nmake resistance against their foes, and to secure themselves and\ntheir religion from that destruction that by the enemy was designed\nshould be made upon both. And thus again, or in this thing, the\nhouse of the forest of Lebanon shows that it was a figure of the\nchurch of the wilderness; for she also is furnished with such\nweapons as were counted by the wisdom of God necessary for the\nsecurity of the soul, and Christian religion, to wit, 'the weapons\nof our warfare,' 'the whole armour of God' (2 Cor 10:4).\n\nFor though this house of the forest of Lebanon was a place of\ndefence, yet her armour is described and directed too, both as to\nmatter and to measure. It was armour made of gold, such armour,\nand so much of it. And it was made by direction of Solomon, who\nwas a type of Christ, by the power of whose grace and working our\narmour is also provided for us, as in the texts afore-mentioned\nmay appear. By this description, therefore, of the armour of the\nhouse of the forest of Lebanon we are confined, that being a type\nto the armour of God, in the antitype thereto for the defence\nof the Christian religion. We then may make use of none but the\narmour of God for defence of our souls, and the worship of God;\nthis alone is the golden armour provided by our Solomon, and put\nin the house of the forest of Lebanon, or rather in the church in\nthe wilderness, for her to resist the enemy withal.\n\nTwo hundred targets. There is but little mention made of targets\nin the Bible, nor at all expressly how they were used, but once;\nand that was when Goliah came to defy Israel, he came, as with\nother warlike furniture, so 'with a target of brass between his\nshoulders' (1 Sam 17:6). A target, that is, saith the margin, a\ngorget. A gorget is a thing wore about the neck, and it serveth\nin that place instead of a shield. Wherefore in some of your old\nBibles, that which in one place is called a target, in another is\ncalled a shield.[12] A shield for that part. This piece of armour,\nI suppose, was worn in old time by them that used spears, and it\nwas to guard the upper part of the back and shoulders from the\narrows of their enemies, that were shot into the air, to the intent\nthey might fall upon the upper part of the body.\n\nThe shields were for them which drew bows, and they were to catch\nor beat off those arrows that were levelled at them by the enemy\nbefore. 'Asa had' at one time 'an army of men that bare targets and\nspears, out of Judah three hundred thousand, and out of Benjamin\nthat bare shields, and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore\nthousand' (2 Chron 14:8).\n\nI cannot tell what the target should signify here, unless it was\nto show that those in the type were more weak and faint-hearted\nthan those in the antitype: for in that this gorget was prepared\nfor some back part of the body, it supposed the wearers subject\nto run away, to flee. But in the description of the Christian\narmour, we have no provision for the back; so our men in the church\nin the wilderness are supposed to be more stout. Their face is\nmade strong against the face of their enemies, and their foreheads\nstrong against their foreheads (Eze 3:8,9). The shield was a type\nof the Christian faith, and so the apostle applies it. The which\nhe also counteth a principal piece of our Christian armour when he\nsaith, 'Above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall\nbe able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph 6:16).\nThese targets and shields were made of gold, to show the excellent\nworth of this armour of God; to wit, that it is not carnal but\nspiritual, not human but divine; nor common or mean, but of an\ninfinite value. Wherefore James, alluding to this, saith, 'Hearken,\nmy beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world\nrich in faith,' (hath he not given them this golden shield) and\nmade them 'heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them\nthat love him?' (James 2:5).\n\nFaith! Peter saith, faith, in the very trial of it, is much more\nprecious than is gold that perisheth. If so, then what is that\nworth, or value, that is in the grace itself? (1 Peter 1:7). This\nalso is that which Christ intends when he says, 'buy of me gold\ntried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich' (Rev 3:18).\n\nAnd methinks the apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ do in all these\nplaces allude to the shields, the shields of gold, that Solomon\nmade, and put in the house of the forest of Lebanon; which house,\nas I have showed, was that which indeed prefigured the state of\nthe church in the wilderness; and these shields a type of faith.\n\nObj. But here is mention made of nothing but shields and targets.\n\nAnsw. True, and that perhaps to show us that the war that the\nchurch makes with Antichrist is rather defensive than offensive.\nShields and targets are weapons defensive, weapons provided for\nself-preservation, not to hurt others with. A Christian also, if\nhe can but defend his soul in the sincere profession of the true\nreligion, doth what by duty, as to this, he is bound. Wherefore\nthough the New Testament admits him to put on the whole armour of\nGod, yet the whole and every part thereof is spiritual, and only\ndefensive. True, there is mention made of the sword, but that sword\n'is the Word of God' (Eph 6:17). A weapon that hurteth none, none\nat all but the devil and sin, and those that love it. Indeed it\nwas made for Christians to defend themselves, and their religion\nwith, against hell and the angels of darkness. These two pieces\nof armour then that Solomon the king did put into the house of\nthe forest of Lebanon, were types of the spiritual armour that\nthe church in the wilderness should make use of. And as we read\nof no more that was put there, at least to be typical, so we read\nof, and must use no more than we are bid to put on by the apostle,\nfor the defence of true religion.\n\nObj. But he that shall use none other than this, must look to come\noff a loser.\n\nAnsw. In the judgment of the world this is true; but not in the\njudgment of them that have skill, and a heart to use it. For this\narmour is not Saul's, which David refused, but God's, by which the\nlives of all those have been secured that put it on, and handled\nit well. You read of some of David's mighty men of valour, that\ntheir 'faces were like the faces of lions, and' that they 'were\nas swift' of foot 'as the roes upon the mountains' (1 Chron 12:8).\nBeing expert in handling spear and shield.\n\nWhy, God's armour makes a man's face look thus, also it makes him\nthat useth it more lively and active than before. God's armour is\nno burden to the body, nor clog to the mind, but rather a natural,\ninstead of an artificial, fortification.\n\nBut this armour comes not to any but out of the king's hand;\nSolomon put these targets and shields into the house of the forest\nof Lebanon. So Christ distributeth his armour to his church. Hence\nit is said it is given to his to suffer for him. It is given to\nhis by himself, and on his behalf (Phil 1:29).\n\nThat is, that they might with it fight those battles which he\nshall manage against Antichrist. Hence they are called the armies\nin heaven, and are said to follow their Lord 'upon white horses\nclothed in fine linen, white and clean.' But, as I said, still\ntheir war was but defensive. For a little further do but observe,\nand you shall find the beast fall upon him. 'And I saw the beast,\nand the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together,\nto make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his\narmy' (Rev 19:14,19). It is they that fall on, it is they that pick\nthe quarrel, and give the onset. Besides, the armour, as I said,\nis only spiritual; wherefore the slaughter must needs be spiritual\nalso. Hence as here it is said the Lamb did slay his enemies, by\nthe sword, spirit, or breath of his mouth; so his army also slays\nthem by the fire that proceedeth out of his mouth (Rev 1:16,\n19:21).\n\nHere is therefore no man's person in danger by this war. And I say\nagain, so far as any man's person is in danger, it is by wrong\nmanaging of this war. True, the persons of the Christians are\nin danger, but that is because of the bloody disposition of an\nantichristian enemy. But we speak now with reference to the Lamb\nand the army that follows him; and as to them, no man's person is\nin danger simply as such. Wherefore, it is not men but sin; not\nmen, but the man of sin, that wicked one, that the Son of God\nmakes war against, in and by his church (2 Thess 2:8; Heb 12:4).\n\nLet us therefore state the matter right; no man needs be afraid\nto let Jesus Christ be chief in the world, he envies nobody,\nhe designs the hurt of none: his kingdom is not of this world,\nnor doth he covet temporal matters; let but his wife, his church\nalone, to enjoy her purchased privileges, and all shall be well.\nWhich privileges of hers, since they are soul concerns, make no\ninfringement upon any man's liberties. Let but faith and holiness\nwalk the streets without control, and you may be as happy as the\nworld can make you. I speak now to them that contend with him.\n\nBut if seasonable counsel will not go down, if hardness of heart\nand blindness of mind, and so perishing from the way, shall overtake\nyou, it is but what you of old have been cautioned of. 'Be wise\nnow therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.\nServe the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the\nSon, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath\nis kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust\nin him' (Psa 2:10-12).\n\nNow let this also that has been said upon this head, be another\nargument to prove that the house of the forest of Lebanon was a\ntype of the church in the wilderness.\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nOF THE VESSELS WHICH SOLOMON PUT IN THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF\nLEBANON.\n\nSolomon did also put vessels into the house of the forest of\nLebanon. 'And all king Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold,\nand all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of'\ngold, 'pure gold, none were of silver; it was nothing accounted\nof in the days of Solomon' (1 Kings 10:21; 2 Chron 9:20).\n\nSince it is not expressed what those vessels of pure gold were\nwhich Solomon put in the house of the forest of Lebanon, therefore,\nas to the affirmative, no man can be absolute; vessels of gold,\nvessels of pure gold, the Holy Ghost says they were, and so leaves\nit to the prudent to make their conjectures; and although I may\nnot put myself among the number of those prudent ones, yet let me\ntake leave to say what I think in the case.\n\nFirst then, negatively, they were not vessels ordained for Divine\nworship, for as that was confined to the temple, so the vessels\nand materials and circumstances for worship were there. I say, the\nwhole uniform worship of the Jews now was confined to the temple\n(1 Chron 2:4, 7:12,15,16). Wherefore the vessels here mentioned\ncould not be such as was in order to set up worship here, for\nto Jerusalem they were to bring their sacrifices; true, they had\nsynagogues where ordinary service was done, there the law was read,\nand there the priests taught the people how they should serve the\nLord; but for that which stood in carnal ordinances, as sacrificings,\nwashings, and using vessels for that purpose, that was performed\nat Jerusalem.\n\nThis house, therefore, to wit, the house of the forest of Lebanon,\nwas not built to slay or to offer burnt-offerings or sacrifices\nin, but as that altar was which the two tribes and an half, built\nby Jordan, when they went each to their inheritance, namely, to be\na witness of the people's resolutions to preserve true religion in\nthe church, to themselves, and to their posterity (Josh 22:21-29).\nSince this house therefore was designed for defensive war, it was\nnot requisite that the formalities of worship should be there.[13]\n\nThe church in the wilderness also, so far as she is concerned in\ncontention, so far she is not taken up in the practical parts of\nreligion (1 Thess 2:2); for religion is not to be practised in\nthe church in the moments of contention. Let us practise then our\nreligion in peace, and in all peaceable ways, and vindicate it by\nway of contention, that is, when asked or required by opposites to\nrender a reason thereof (Phil 1:7,17; Acts 22:1). But my contention\nmust be, not in pragmatic languages or in striving about words to\nno profit, but by words of truth and soberness, with all meekness\nand fear (Acts 26:24,25; Titus 3:1,2; 1 Peter 3:15).\n\nTo practise and defend a practice you know are two things; I\npractise religion in my closet, in my family, in the congregation,\nbut I defend this practice before the magistrate, the king, and the\njudge. Now the temple was prepared for the practice of religion,\nand the house of the forest of Lebanon for defence of the same\n(Rev 11:1). So far then as the church in the wilderness worships,\nso far she is compared to the temple, and so far as she defends\nthat worship, so far she is called an army (Rev 19:14). An army\nterrible with banners (Cant 6:4). For God has given a banner to them\nthat fear him, that it may be displayed because of the truth (Psa\n60:4). Hence she says to God, 'We will rejoice in thy salvation,\nand in the name of our God, we will set up our banners' (Psa\n20:5). But here is in all this no hurt to the world, the kingdom,\nthe worship, the war is spiritual, even as the armour is.[14] I\nhave spoken this to distinguish worship from contending for worship,\nand to make way for what is yet to be said.\n\nIf the vessels of the forest of Lebanon, or those put in that\nhouse, were not such as related to worship, to worship simply as\nsuch, then it should seem--\n\nThese vessels therefore were for some other use than for formal\nworship in the house of the forest of Lebanon. The best way then,\nthat I know of, to find out what they were is first to consider\nto what they are joined in the mention of them. Now I find them\njoined in the mention of them with Solomon's drinking vessels,\nand since as they were made of fine or pure gold, I take them also\nto be vessels of the same kind, namely, vessels to drink in. Now\nif we join to this the state of the church in the wilderness, of\nwhich, as we have said, this house of the forest of Lebanon was a\ntype, then we must understand that by these vessels were prefigured\nsuch draughts as the church has, when in a bewildered or persecuted\nstate; and they are of two sorts, either, First, Such as are\nexceeding bitter; or, Second, Such as are exceeding sweet; for\nboth these attend a state of war.\n\nFirst. Such as are exceeding bitter. These are called cups of red\nwine, signifying blood; also, the cup of the Lord's fury, the cup\nof trembling, the cup of astonishment, &c. (Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17,22;\nJer 25:15; Eze 23:33).\n\nNor is there anything more natural to the church, while in a\nwilderness condition, than such cups and draughts as these. Hence\nshe, as there, is said to be clothed, as was said afore, in\nsackcloth, to mourn, to weep, to cry out, and to be in pain, as\nis a woman in travail. See the Lamentations and you will find all\nthis verified. See also Revelation 11:3, 12:2.\n\nAnd whoso considers what has already been said as to what the\nhouse of the forest of Lebanon met with, will find that what is\nhere inferred is not foreign but natural. For, can it be imagined,\nthat when the king of Assyria laid down his army by the sides of\nLebanon, and when the fire was to devour her cedars, also when\nLebanon was to be cut down and languish, that these vessels, these\ncups, were not then put into her hand. And I say again, since\nthe church in the wilderness, Lebanon's antitype, has been so\npersecuted, so distressed, so oppressed, and made the seat of so\nmuch war, so much blood, of so many murders of her children within\nher, &c., can it be imagined that she drank of none of these cups?\nYes, yes, she has drank the red wine at the Lord's hand, even the\ncup of blood, of fury, of trembling, and of astonishment; witness\nher own cries, sighs, tears, and tremblings, with the cries of\nwidows, children, and orphans within her (Lam 1, 2, 4, 5).\n\nBut what do I cite particular texts, since reason, histories,\nexperience, anything that is intelligible, will confirm this for\na truth; namely, that a people whose profession is directly in\nopposition to the devil and Antichrist, and to all debauchery,\ninhumanity, profaneness, superstition, and idolatry, when suffered\nto be invaded by the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and\nwhore, must needs taste of these cups, and drink thereof, to their\nastonishment.\n\nBut all these are of pure gold. They are of God's ordaining,\nappointing, filling, timing, and also sanctified by him for good\nto those of his that drink them. Hence Moses chose rather to\ndrink a brimmer of these, 'than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for\na season' (Heb 11:25). The sourness, bitterness, and wormwood of\nthem, therefore, is only to the flesh that loveth neither God,\nnor Christ, nor grace (Psa 75:8; Phil 1:28).\n\nThe afflictions, therefore, that the church in the wilderness hath\nmet with, these cups of gold, are of more worth than are all the\ntreasures of Egypt; they are needful and profitable, and praiseworthy\nalso, and tend to the augmenting of our glory when the next world\nis come (1 Thess 3:3; Rev 2:10; 1 Peter 1:6). Besides they are\nsigns, tokens, and golden marks of love, and jewels that set off\nthe beauty of the church in the sight of God the more (Gal 6:17;\nRev 3:19; Heb 12:6). They are also a means by which men are proved\nsound, honest, faithful, and true lovers of God, as also such\nwhose graces are not counterfeit, feigned, or unsound, but true,\nand such as will be found to praise, and honour, and glory, at the\nappearing of Jesus Christ (Isa 27:9; Heb 12:7-10; 1 Peter 2:19;\n2 Cor 4:17,18; 2 Thess 1:5).\n\nAnd this has been the cause that the men of our church in the\nwilderness have gloried in tribulation, taking pleasure in reproaches,\nin necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses for Christ's\nsake (Rom 5:3; 2 Cor 12:9,10). Yea, this is the reason why they have\nbidden one another rejoice when they fell into divers temptations,\nsaying, Happy is the man that endureth temptations, and behold\nwe count them happy that endure (James 1:2,12, 5:11). And again,\n'if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye' (1\nPeter 4:14).\n\nThese therefore are vessels of pure gold, though they contain such\nbitter draughts, and though such as at which we make so many wry\nfaces before we can get their liquor down.\n\nDo you think that a Christian, having even this cup in his hand\nto drink it, would change it for a draught of that which is in the\nhand of the woman that sits on the back of the scarlet-coloured\nbeast? (Rev 17:3,4). No, verily, for he knows that her sweet is\npoison, and that his bitter is to purge his soul, body, life, and\nreligion, of death (2 Tim 2:11,12).\n\nGod sends his love tokens to his church two ways, sometimes by her\nfriends, sometimes by her enemies. When they come by the hand of\na friend, as by a minister, a brother, or by the Holy Ghost, then\nthey come smoothly, sweetly, and are taken, and go down like honey.\nBut when these love tokens come to them by the hand of an enemy,\nthen they are handed to them roughly; Pharaoh handed love tokens\nto them roughly; the king of Babylon handed these love tokens to\nthem roughly. They bring them of malice, God sends them of love;\nthey bring them and give them to us, hoping they will be our\ndeath; they give us them therefore with many a foul curse, but\nGod blesses them still. Did not Haman lead Mordecai in his state\nby the hand of anger?\n\nNor is this cup so bitter but that our Lord himself drank deep of\nit before it was handed to his church; he did as loving mothers\ndo, drink thereof himself to show us it is not poison, also to\nencourage us to drink it for his sake and for our endless health\n(Matt 20:22, 26:39,42).\n\nAnd, as I told you before, I think I do not vary from the sense\nof the text in calling them cups; because, though there they have\nno name, they are joined with king Solomon's drinking vessels, and\nbecause as so joined in the type, so they are also joined here;\ntherefore the cup here is called Christ's cup. 'Are ye able to\ndrink of the cup that I shall drink of?' 'Ye shall drink indeed\nof my cup' (Matt 20:22,23). Here you see they are joined in a\ncommunion in this cup of affliction, as the cups in one and the\nsame breath are joined with those king Solomon drank in, which he\nput in the house of the forest of Lebanon.\n\n[Second. Such as are exceeding sweet.]\n\nBut these are not all the cups that belong to the house of the\nforest of Lebanon, or rather to the church in the wilderness; there\nis also a cup, out of which, at times, is drunk what is exceeding\nsweet. It is called the cup of consolation, the cup of salvation;\na cup in the which God himself is (Psa 116:13; Jer 16:7). As he\nsaid, the Lord is the portion of my cup. Or rather, 'The Lord is\nthe portion of mine inheritance, and my cup' (Psa 16:5). This cup,\nthey that are in the church in the wilderness have usually for an\nafter-draught to that bitter one that went before. Thus, as tender\nmothers give their children plumbs or sugar, to sweeten their palate\nafter they have drank a bitter potion, so God gives his the cups\nof salvation and consolation, after they have suffered awhile.\n'For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation\nalso aboundeth by Christ' (2 Cor 1:5).\n\nHence the apostle assureth himself concerning the affliction of\nthem at Corinth; yea, and also promiseth them, that as they were\npartakers of the sufferings, so should they be of the consolation\n(2 Cor 1:7). Some of these cups are filled until they run over,\nas David said his did, when the valley of the shadow of death was\nbefore him. 'Thou preparest a table before me,' said he, 'in the\npresence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup\nrunneth over' (Psa 23:5). This is that which the apostle calls\nexceeding; that is, that which is beyond measure. 'I am,' says he,\n'filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation'\n(2 Cor 7:4).\n\nNow he has one answering the other. Thou hast made summer and\nwinter. Thou hast made the warm beams of thy sun answerable to\nthe cold of the dark night. This may be also yet signified by the\nbuilding of this house, this type of the church in the wilderness,\nin so pleasant a place as the forest of Lebanon was (Cant 4:8).\nLebanon! Lebanon was one of the sweetest places in all the land of\nCanaan. Therefore we read of the fruit of Lebanon, of the streams\nfrom Lebanon; the scent, the smell, the glory of Lebanon; and also\nof the wine and flowers of Lebanon (Psa 72:16; Hosea 14:6,7; Isa\n35:2, 9:13; Nahum 1:4).\n\nLebanon! That was one thing that wrought with Moses to desire that\nhe might go over Jordan; namely, that he might see that goodly\nmountain, and Lebanon. The glory and excellent beauty of the church,\nChrist also setteth forth, by comparing of her to Lebanon. 'Thy\nlips, O my spouse,' says he, 'drop as the honey-comb: honey and\nmilk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garment is like\nthe smell of Lebanon' (Cant 4:11,15). This house, therefore, being\nplaced here, might be to show how blessed a state God could make\nthe state of his church by his blessed grace and presence, even\nwhile she is in a wilderness condition.\n\nWe will add to this, for further demonstration, that letter of\nthat godly man, Pomponius Algerius, an Italian martyr; some of\nthe words of which are these:--\n\n'Let,' saith he, 'the miserable worldly man answer me; what remedy\nor safe refuge can there be unto him if he lack God, who is the\nlife and medicine of all men: and how can he be said to fly from\ndeath, when he himself is already dead in sin. If Christ be the\nway, verity, and life, how can there be any life then without\nChrist?\n\n'The sooly[15] heat of the prison to me is coldness; the cold\nwinter to me is a fresh spring-time in the Lord. He that feareth\nnot to be burned in the fire, how will he fear the heat of weather?\nOr what careth he for the pinching frost, which burneth with the\nlove of the Lord?\n\n'The place is sharp and tedious to them that be guilty; but to\nthe innocent and guiltless it is mellifluous. Here droppeth the\ndelectable dew; here floweth the pleasant nectar; here runneth\nthe sweet milk; here is plenty of all good things. And although\nthe place itself be desert and barren, yet to me it seemeth a large\nwalk, and a valley of pleasure; here to me is the better and more\nnoble part of the world. Let the miserable worldling say, and\nconfess, if there be any plot, pasture, or meadow, so delightful\nto the mind of man, as here. Here I see kings, princes, cities,\nand people; here I see wars, where some be overthrown, some be\nvictors, some thrust down, some lifted up. Here is Mount Sion;\nhere I am already in heaven itself. Here standeth first Christ\nJesus in the front; about him stand the old fathers, prophets, and\nevangelists, apostles, and all the servants of God; of whom some\ndo embrace and cherish me, some exhort me, some open the sacraments\nunto me, some comfort me, other some are singing about me: and how\nthen shall I be thought to be alone, among so many, and such as\nthese be, the beholding of whom to me is both solace and example.\nFor here I see some crucified, some slain, some stoned, some cut\nasunder, and some quartered, some roasted, some broiled, some put\nin hot caldrons, some having their eyes bored through, some their\ntongues cut out, some their skin plucked over their heads, some\ntheir hands and feet chopped off, some put in kilns and furnaces,\nsome cast down headlong, and given to the beasts and fowls of\nthe air to feed upon. It would,' said he, 'ask a long time, if I\nshould recite all.\n\n'To be short, divers I see with divers and sundry torments excruciate;\nyet notwithstanding, all living and all safe. One plaster, one\nsalve cureth all their wounds, which also giveth to me strength\nand life; so that I sustain all these transitory anguishes and\nsmall afflictions with a quiet mind, having a greater hope laid up\nin heaven. Neither do I fear mine adversaries which here persecute\nme and oppress me, for he that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them\nto scorn, and the Lord shall deride them. I fear not thousands of\npeople which compass me about. The Lord my God shall deliver me,\nmy hope, my supporter, my comforter, who exalteth up my head. He\nshall smite all them that stand up against me without cause; and\nshall dash the teeth and jaws of sinners asunder, for he only is\nall blessedness and majesty.\n\n'The rebukes for Christ's cause make us jocund; for so it is written:\nif ye be rebuked and scorned for the name of Christ, happy be you;\nfor the glory and spirit of God resteth upon you (1 Peter 4). Be\nye therefore certified (said he, by this his letter to his friends)\nthat our rebukes, which are laid upon us, redound to the shame\nand harm of the rebukers. In this world there is no mansion firm\nto me; and therefore I will travel up to the New Jerusalem which\nis in heaven, and which offereth itself to me, without paying\nany fine or income. Behold I have entered already in my journey,\nwhere my house standeth for me prepared, and where I shall have\nriches, kinsfolks, delights, honours, never-failing.\n\n'As for these earthly things here present, they are transitory\nshadows, vanishing vapours, and ruinous walls. Briefly all is\nbut very vanity of vanities, whereas hope, and the substance of\neternity to come, are wanting; which the merciful goodness of the\nLord hath given, as companions to accompany me, and to comfort\nme; and now do the same begin to work, and to bring forth fruits\nin me. I have travelled hitherto, laboured and sweat early and\nlate, watching day and night, and now my travails begin to come\nto effect. Days and hours have I bestowed upon my studies. Behold\nthe true countenance of God is sealed upon me, the Lord hath given\nmirth in my heart: and therefore in the same will I lay me down\nin peace and rest (Psa 4). And who then shall dare to blame this\nour age consumed; or say that our years be cut off? What man can\nnow cavil that these our labours are lost, which have followed,\nand found out the Lord and maker of the world, and which have\nchanged death with life? My portion is the Lord, saith my soul,\nand therefore, I will seek and wait for him.\n\n'Now then, if to die in the Lord be not to die but live most\njoyfully, where is this wretched worldly rebel, which blameth us\nof folly, for giving away our lives to death? O how delectable\nis this death to me! to taste the Lord's cup, which is an assured\npledge of true salvation; for so hath the Lord himself forewarned\nus, saying, the same that they have done to me, they will also do\nunto you. Wherefore let the doltish world, with his blind worldlings\n(who in the bright sunshine, yet go stumbling in darkness, being\nas blind as beetles), cease thus unwisely to carp against us for\nour rash suffering, as they count it. To whom, thus, we answer\nagain, with the holy apostle, that neither tribulation, nor anguish,\nnor hunger, nor nakedness, nor jeopardy, nor persecution, nor\nsword, shall be able ever to separate us from the love of Christ;\nwe are slain all the day long; we are made like sheep ordained to\nthe shambles (Rom 8).\n\n'Thus,' saith he, 'do we resemble Christ our Head, which said that\nthe disciple cannot be above his master, nor the servant about\nhis Lord. The same Lord hath also commanded that every one shall\ntake up his cross and follow him (Luke 9). Rejoice, rejoice, my\ndear brethren and fellow-servants, and be of good comfort, when ye\nfail into sundry temptations; let your patience be perfect in all\nparts. For so it is foreshowed us before, and is written, that\nthey which shall kill you shall think to do God good service.\nTherefore, afflictions and death be as tokens and sacraments of\nour election and life to come. Let us then be glad and sing unto\nthe Lord, when as we, being clear from all just accusations, are\npersecuted and given to death; for better it is that we in doing\nwell do suffer, if it so be the will of God, than doing evil (1\nPeter 3). We have for our example Christ and the prophets which\nspake in the name of the Lord, whom the children of iniquity did\nquell[16] and murder. And now we bless and magnify them that then\nsuffered. Let us be glad and joyous in our innocency and uprightness;\nthe Lord shall reward them that persecute us; let us refer all\nrevengement to him.\n\n'I am accused of foolishness, for that I do not shrink from the\ntrue doctrine and knowledge of God, and do not rid myself out of\nthese troubles, when with one word I may. O the blindness of man,\nwhich seeth not the sun shining, neither remembereth the Lord's\nwords. Consider therefore what he saith, you are the light of\nthe world. A city built on the hill cannot be hid; neither do men\nlight a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick,\nthat it may shine, and give light to them in the house. And in\nanother place he saith you shall be led before kings and rulers.\nFear ye not them which kill the body, but him which killeth both\nbody and soul. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will\nI also confess before my Father which is in heaven; and he that\ndenieth me before men, him will I also deny before my heavenly\nFather.\n\n'Wherefore, seeing the words of the Lord be so plain, how, or by\nwhat authority, will this wise counsellor then approve this his\ncounsel which he doth give? God forbid that I should relinquish\nthe commandments of God and follow the counsels of men. For it\nis written, Blessed is the man that hath not gone in the way of\nsinners, and hath not stood in the counsels of the ungodly, and\nhath not sit in the chair of pestilence (Psa 1).[17] God forbid\nthat I should deny Christ where I ought to confess him; I will\nnot set more by my life than by my soul, neither will I exchange\nthe life to come for this world here present. O how foolishly\nspeaketh he which argueth me of foolishness!'\n\nAnd a little farther he saith, 'And now let this carnal politic\ncounsellor, and disputer of this world, tell wherein have they\nto blame me. If in mine examinations I have not answered so after\ntheir mind and affection as they required of me, seeing it is not\nourselves that speak, but the Lord that speaketh in us, as he\nhimself doth fore-witness, saying, When you shall be brought before\nrulers and magistrates, it is not you yourselves that speak, but\nthe Spirit of my Father that shall be in you (Matt 10). Wherefore, if\nthe Lord be true and faithful of his word, as it is most certain,\nthen there is no blame in me; for he gave the words that I did\nspeak, and who was I that could resist his will?\n\n'If any man shall reprehend the things that I said, let him then\nquarrel with the Lord, whom it pleased to work so in me; and if\nthe Lord be not to be blamed, neither am I herein to be accused,\nwhich did that I purposed not, and that I fore-thought not of.\nThe things that there I did utter and express [he means when he\nwas before the magistrates], if they were otherwise than well,\nlet them show it, and then will I say that they were my words,\nand not the Lord's. But if they were good and approved, and such\nas cannot justly be accused, then must it needs be granted, spite\nof their teeth, that they proceeded of the Lord; and then who be\nthey that shall accuse me--people of prudence? Or who shall condemn\nme--just judges? And though they so do, yet, nevertheless, the\nword shall not be frustrate, neither shall the gospel be foolish\nor therefore decay, but rather the kingdom of God shall the more\nprosper and flourish unto the Israelites, and shall pass the sooner\nunto the elect of Christ Jesus, and they which shall so do shall\nprove the grievous judgment of God. Neither shall they escape\nwithout punishment that be persecutors and murderers of the just.\n\n'My well-beloved,' saith he, 'lift up your eyes and consider the\ncounsels of God. He showed unto us a late an image of his plague,\nwhich was to our correction; and if we shall not receive him he\nwill draw out his sword and strike with sword, pestilence, and\nfamine, the nation that shall rise against Christ.'\n\nThis, as I said, is part of a letter writ by Pomponius Alerius,\nan Italian martyr, who, when he wrote it, was in prison, in, as\nhe calls it, his delectable orchard, the prison of Leonine, 12\ncalend. August, anno 1555. As is to be seen in the second volume\nof the book of martyrs.[18]\n\nThis man was, when he wrote this letter, in the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, in the church in the wilderness, in the place and way\nof contending for the truth of God, and he drank of both these\nbitter cups of which I spake before, to wit, of that which was\nexceeding bitter, and of that which was exceeding sweet, and the\nreason why he complained not of the bitter was because the sweet\nhad overcome it--as his afflictions abounded for Christ, so did\nhis consolations by him. So, did I say? they abounded much more.\n\nBut was not this man, think you, a giant, a pillar in this house?\nHad he not also now hold of the shield of faith? Yea, was he not\nnow in the combat? And did he not behave himself valiantly? Was\nnot his mind elevated a thousand degrees beyond sense, carnal\nreasons, fleshly love, self-concerns, and the desires of embracing\ntemporal things? This man had got that by the end that pleased\nhim; neither could all the flatteries, promises, threats, or\nreproaches, make him one listen to or desire to inquire after what\nthe world or the glory of it could afford. His mind was captivated\nwith delights invisible; he coveted to show his love to his Lord\nby laying down his life for his sake; he longed to be there where\nthere shall be no more pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing, nor tears,\nnor troubles; he was a man of a thousand (Eccl 7:28).\n\nBut to return again to our text. You know we are now upon the\nvessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon, which, I have told\nyou, could not be vessels for worship, for that worship that was\nordained to be performed at the temple was also confined to that,\nand to the vessels that were there. Therefore they must be, in\nall probability, the vessels that I have mentioned, the which you\nsee how we have expounded and applied. If I am out I know it not;\nif others can give me better light here about for it I will be\nthankful.\n\nThere was also added to this house of the forest of Lebanon,\nstore-cities, chariot-cities, and cities of horsemen, unto which\nking Jotham added castles and towers (2 Chron 8:4-6, 27:3,4).\n\nThese might be to signify by what ways and means God would at times\nrevenge the quarrel of his church, even in this world, upon them\nthat, without cause, should, for their faith and worship, set\nthemselves against them. For here is a face of threatening revenge,\nthey were store-houses, chariot-cities, cities of horsemen, with\ncastles and towers. And they stood on the same ground that this\nhouse was builded upon, even in the forest of Lebanon. We know that\nin Israel God stirred up kings who at times suppressed idolatry\nthere, and plagued the persecutors too, as Jehu, Hezekiah, Josiah,\n&c. And he has promised that, even in gospel times, kings 'shall\nhate the whore,--make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her\nflesh and burn her with fire' (Rev 17:12,16).\n\nHere now are the store-houses, chariot-cities, cities of horsemen,\nwith towers and castles, for the help to the house of the forest\nof Lebanon, for the help of the church in the wilderness, or, as\nyou have it in another place, as the serpent cast floods of water\nout of his mouth after the woman, 'that he might cause her to be\ncarried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and\nthe earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the\ndragon cast out of his mouth' (Rev 12:15,16). Thus the Medes and\nPersians helped to deliver the church from the clutches and strong\nhand of the king of Babylon.\n\nThis Lebanon, therefore, was a place considerable and a figure\nof great things; the countenance of the Lord Jesus is compared to\nit, and so is the face of his spouse, and also the smell of her\ngarment (Cant 4:11, 5:15, 7:4).\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nOF THE PORCH OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON.\n\nSolomon also made a porch to this house of the forest of Lebanon.\nHe made several porches, as one for the temple, one for the house\nwhich he dwelt in, one for the throne of the kingdom, and this\nthat was for the house of the forest of Lebanon, of all which this\nlast is that mentioned.\n\n'And he made a porch of pillars, the length thereof was fifty\ncubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits; and the porch was\nbefore them, and the other pillars, and the thick beam were before\nthem' (1 Kings 7:6). This porch was famous both for length, and\nbreadth, and strength, it was able to contain a thousand men. It\nwas like that of the tower of David, otherwise called the stronghold,\nthe castle of Zion, which is the city of David (2 Sam 5:7; 1 Chron\n11:5; Micah 4:8).\n\nThis tower of David was built for an armoury, whereon there hanged\na thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. It was fifty cubits\nlong and thirty broad, a spacious place, a large receptable for\nany that liked to take shelter there. It was made of pillars, even\nas the house within was, or it stood upon pillars. The pillars, you\nknow I told you before, were to show us what mighty men, or what\nmen of mighty grace, God would have in his church in the wilderness\nfurnished with. And it is worth your observing here also we have\npillars, pillars. And he made the porch of pillars, that is, of\npillars of cedar, as the rest of the pillars of the house were.\n\n'And the porch was before them.' That is, as I take it, an entering\nporch, less than the space within, so that the pillars, neither\nas to number nor bigness, could be seen without, until at least\nthey that had a mind to see entered the mouth of the porch. And\nby this was fitly prefigured how unseen the strength of the church\nunder persecution is of all that are without her. Alas! they think\nthat she will be run down with a push, or, as they said, 'What\ndo these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they\nsacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the\nstones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are bunt?' Alas! 'if\na fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall' (Neh 4:2,3).\n\nBut do you think these men saw the strength of the Jews now? No,\nno, their pillars were within, and so were shadowed from their\neyes. David himself could not tell what judgment to make of the\nway of the world against the people of God, until he went into\nthe sanctuary of God (Psa 73:16,17).\n\nHow then can the world judge of the condition of the saints? Alas,\nhad they known the church's strength, surely they would not, as\nthey have, so furiously assaulted the same. But what have they\ngot by all they have done, either against the head or body of the\nsame? She yet has being in the world, and will have, shall have,\nthough all the nations on earth should gather themselves together\nagainst it. Nor is it the cutting off of many that will make her\ncease to flourish. Alas, were she not sometimes pruned and trimmed\nher boughs would stand too thick. Those therefore that are taken\naway with God's pruning-hooks are removed, that the under branches\nmay grow the better.[19] But, I say, to extinguish her it is in\nvain for any to hope for that. She stands upon pillars, on rocks,\non the munition of rocks; stand therefore she must, whether the\nworld believes it or no.\n\n'And the other pillars--were before them,' or, as the margin has\nit, 'according to them.' The other pillars, that is, they more\ninward, those that were in the body of the house. Christ doth\nnot, as the poor world doth, that is, set the best leg before; the\npillars that were more inward in the house were as good as those\nin the front. It is true some are appointed to death to show to\nthe world the strength of grace, not that he can help nobody to\nthat strength but they. The most feeble of his flock, when Christ\nshall stand by and strengthen them, are able to do and bear what\nthe strong have underwent. For so he saith.\n\nAnd 'the other pillars and the thick beams were' according to\nthem; nay, 'before them.' Indeed, they that are left seem weak\nand feeble if compared to them that have already been tried with\nfire and sword and all the tortures of men. But that grace by\nwhich they were helped that have done such mighty acts already,\ncan help those who seem more weak yet to go beyond them. God\nstrengtheneth 'the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled\nshall come against the fortress' (Amos 5:9). Or, as another scripture\nhas it, 'The lame take the prey' (Isa 33:23). So that you see here\nis all substance. All here are pillars and thick beams, both in\nthe house and in the porch.\n\nThe conclusion therefore is:--The true members of the church in\nthe wilderness are strong, mighty, being made able by the grace\nof God for their standing, and being also coupled and compacted\ntogether with the biggest bands or thickest beams that the Holy\nGhost puts forth to bind and hold this church together. And there\nis reason for it. The church is God's tower or battery by which\nhe beateth down Antichrist, or if you will have it in the words\nof the prophet, 'Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for\nwith thee [saith God] will I break in pieces,' &c. (Jer 51:19,20).\nWherefore, since the church is set for defence of religion, and\nto be as a battery to beat down Antichrist, it is requisite that\nshe should be made up of pillars of strong and staunch materials.[20]\n\nThe largeness of the porch was commodious; it was the next shelter,\nor the place whereunto they of the house of the forest of Lebanon,\nwhen pursued, might resort or retreat with the less difficulty.\nThus the church in the wilderness has her porch, her place, her\nbosom, whereunto her discouraged may continually resort, and take\nup and be refreshed. As Abiathar thrust in to David and his men\nin the wilderness, in the day when Saul had slain his father, and\nof his brethren, even 'four-score and five persons that did wear\na linen ephod' (1 Sam 22:17-23).\n\nWhen the apostles were persecuted 'they went to their own company,'\nbecause the Lord was there (Acts 4:23). There we find the pillars,\nand have both solace and example. There, as Pomponius said of his\nperson, stands Christ Jesus in the front as Captain of the Lord's\nhost, and round about him the old fathers, prophets, apostles,\nand martyrs. This porch, therefore, I take to be a figure of those\ncordial and large affections which the church in the wilderness\nhas to all, and for all them that love the truth, and that suffer\nand are afflicted for the sincere profession thereof.\n\nThis porch was bigger than that which belonged to the temple by\nmuch, to show that those that are made the objects of the enemies'\nrage most are usually most prepared with affection for them that\nare in the same condition. Fellow-feeling is a great matter. It\nis said of the poor afflicted people that were in Macedonia 'in\na great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their\ndeep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality;[21] for\nto their power,--yea, and beyond their power,' they showed their\ncharity to the destroyed church of Jerusalem (2 Cor 8:1-4).\n\nAnd a porch in a forest, or a bosom in a wilderness, is seasonable\nto them that in the wilderness are faint and weary. Nabal shut up\nhis doors against David, and therefore he died like a beast. Poor\nDavid! thou wast bewildered, but this churl had no compassion for\nthee (1 Sam 25:5-13, 25-39). Blest Obadiah, thou hadst a bosom,\nand bread, and hiding-places for the church, when rent and torn by\nthe fury of Jezebel, and thou hast for it thy reward in heaven (1\nKings 18:3,4; Matt 10:42). Ebedmelech, because he had compassion\non Jeremiah when he was in the dungeon, God did not only give him\nhis life for a prey, but promised him the effects of putting his\ntrust in the Lord (Jer 38:7-11, 39:15-18).\n\nAnd he made a porch of pillars. The porch is but the entrance\nof the house, whither many go that yet step not into the house,\nbut make their retreat from thence; but it is because they are\nnon-residents, they only come to see; or else, if they pretended\nmore, it was not from the heart. 'They went out from us,' said\nJohn, 'but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they\nwould, no doubt, have continued with us; but they went out that\nthey might be made manifest that they were not all of us' (1 John\n2:19).\n\nAnd forasmuch as this porch was fifty cubits long, men may take many\na step straight forward therein and be but in the porch yet.[22]\nEven as we have seen men go, as one would think, till they are\nout of view in the porch of this church in the wilderness, but\npresently you have them without the door again.\n\nTrue, this porch was made of pillars, and so to every one, at\nfirst entrance, it showed the power of the place; the church in\nthe wilderness also is so builded that men may see it is ordained\nfor defence. Men also, at their first offer to step over the threshold\nthere, with mouth profess that they will dwell as soldiers there.\nBut words are but wind; when they see the storm a-coming they\nwill take care to shift for themselves. This house, or church in\nthe wilderness, must see to itself for all them.\n\nAs the house therefore is a figure of the church in the wilderness,\nso, so great a porch belonging to it may be also to show that\nnumbers may there be entertained that, if need be, will quickly\nwhip out again. Although therefore the porch was made of pillars,\nyet every one that walked there were not such. The pillars was\nto show them, not what they were, but what they should be that\nentered into this house.\n\nThe church also in the wilderness, even in her porch or first entrance\ninto it, is full of pillars, apostles, prophets, and martyrs of\nJesus. There also hang up the shields that the old warriors have\nused, and are plastered upon the walls the brave achievements\nwhich they have done. There are also such encouragements there\nfor those that stand, that one would think none that came thither\nwith pretence to serve there would, for very shame, attempt to go\nback again; and yet, not to their credit be it spoken, they will\nforsake the place without blushing, yea, and plead for this their\nso doing. But I have done with the explicatory part, and conclude\nthat from these ten particulars thus handled in this book, the house\nof the forest of Lebanon was a type, or figure, of the church in\nthe wilderness.\n\nNor do I know, if this be denied, how so fitly to apply some of\nthese texts which speak to the church, to support her under her\ntroubles, of the comforts that afterwards she shall enjoy, since\nthey are presented to her under such metaphors as clearly denote\nshe was once in a wilderness, for instance,\n\n1. 'Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it [that is, redeemed\nhis servant Jacob from his sins and from the hand of the enemy]:\nshout, ye lower parts of the earth [or church once trampled under\nfeet]: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every\ntree therein [here is comfort for the church under the name of\na forest, that in which the house we have been speaking of was\nbuilt]: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself\nin Israel' (Isa 44:23). To what, I say, can this text more fitly\nbe applied, than to the church in the wilderness, put here under\nthe name of a forest as well as under the title of heaven? Yea,\nmethinks it is cried here to her, 'O forest,' on purpose to intimate\nto us that the house in the forest of Lebanon was the figure of\nthe church in this condition.\n\n2. Again, 'Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall\nbe turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall\nbe esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the\nwords of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of\nobscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their\njoy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the holy\nOne of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and\nthe scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut\noff' (Isa 29:17-20). Lebanon was a forest, but now she must be a\nfruitful field. What means he here by Lebanon but the church under\npersecution, and the fruitful field? Mistress Babylon shall become\nas a forest, that is, as the church under distress. But when\nshall this be? Why, when the terrible one is brought low and the\nscorner is consumed, &c.\n\nWhat can be more plain than this to prove that Lebanon, even the\nhouse in the forest of Lebanon, for that is here intended, was\na figure of the church in the wilderness, or in a tempted and\npersecuted state. For to be turned into a fruitful field signifies\nthe recovering of the afflicted church into a state most quiet\nand fruitful; fruitful fields are quiet because they are fenced,\nand so shall the church be in that day.\n\n3. 'The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;\nand the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose' (Isa 35:1).\n\nWhat are we to understand by these words if they be not a prophecy\nof the flourishing state of Christ's kingdom, who, in the days of\nher persecution, is compared to a wilderness, to a desert, and to\nsolitary places. And she 'shall be glad for them'; for what? for\nthat she is rid of the dragons, wild beasts, satyrs, screech owls,\ngreat owl, and vulture, types of the beasts and unclean birds of\nAntichrist (Isa 34:13-15).\n\nShe shall be glad for them that they are taken away from her and\nplaced far away, for then no lion shall be there nor any ravenous\nbeast; yea, it is the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall\nbe grass, with reeds and rushes, as it is, Isaiah 35. And now 'the\nlame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing;\nfor in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the\ndesert.' Read the whole chapter.\n\nFor that the desert and wilderness is thus mentioned, and that to\nexpress the state of the church in trouble by, it is clear that\nLebanon is not excluded, nor the thing that is signified thereby,\nwhich, I say, is the church in her low estate, in her forest, or\nwilderness condition.\n\n4. 'I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree,\nand the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the\nfir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together' (Isa 41:19).\n\nCan any think that trees are the things taken care of here? They\nare the men that Antichrist has murdered in his heat and rage\nagainst Christ, the which God will restore again to his church,\nwhen Antichrist is dead and buried in the sides of the pit's\nmouth. And that you may the better understand he meaneth so, he\nexpresseth again the state of the church as like to a wilderness\ncondition, and promiseth that in that very church, now so like a\nwilderness, to plant it again with Christians, flourishing with\nvariety of gifts and graces, signified by the various nature and\nname of the trees spoken of here.\n\n5. 'Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;\nshall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness,\nand rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me,\nthe dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness,\nand rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen'\n(Isa 43:19,20). Here God alludes to the condition of the children\nof Israel in the wilderness of old, and implies they shall be in\na wilderness again; and as then he gave them water, and delivered\nthem from serpents, cockatrices, vipers, dragons, so he will do\nnow, now to his people, his chosen.\n\n6. 'The Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste\nplaces; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert\nlike the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found\ntherein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody' (Isa 51:3).\n\nSee here are Zion's waste places, Zion's wilderness, forest, or\nLebanon. Next here is a promise that he will comfort her; and\nwhat doth this suppose but that she was in her wilderness state,\nuncomfortable at least as to her outward peace, her liberty, and\ngospel privileges and beauties? Then here is the comparison, by\nwhich he illustrates his promise as to what degree and pitch he\nwill comfort her. 'He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her\ndesert like the garden of the Lord.' The effects of all which will\nbe she will have joy and gladness; she will be thankful, and be\nmelodious in her voice, in her soul to the Lord. This, I say, will\nfollow upon her deliverance from her desert, her wilderness, her\ndesolate, and comfortless state: all which is more fully expressed\nby her repeated hallelujahs (Rev 19:1-6). Which hallelujahs there\nare the effect of her deliverance from the rage of the beast\nand great whore, of whose greatness and ruin you read in the two\nforegoing chapters. Now, I say, since the church was to be in\na wilderness condition under the gospel; and since we have this\nhouse of the forest of Lebanon so particularly set forth in the\nScriptures; and also since this house, its furniture, its troubles,\nand state, do so paint out this church in this wilderness state,\nI take it to be for that very thing designed, that is to say, to\nprefigure this church in this her so solitary and wilderness state.\n\n[CONCLUSION.]\n\nWe will now therefore here make a brief conclusion of all.\n\nFirst. This may inform us of the reason of the deplorable state\nof a professing people. It is allotted to them in this world to be\nso. The world, and men of the world, must have their tranquility\nhere, and must be possest of all; this was foreshown in Esau, who\nhad of his sons many that were dukes and kings before there was\nany king in Israel (Gen 36:31). God so disposing of things that\nall may give place when his Son shall come to reign in Mount Zion,\nand before his ancients gloriously, which coming of his will be\nat the resurrection, and end of this world, and then shall his\nsaints reign with him; 'when Christ, who is our life, shall appear,\nthen shall ye also appear with him in glory' (Col 3:4).\n\nLet not therefore kings, and princes, and potentates be afraid;\nthe saints that are such indeed, know their places, and are of a\npeaceable deportment; 'the earth God hath given to the children of\nmen,' and his kingdom to the sons of God (Psa 115:16; Matt 25:34;\nLuke 12:32).\n\nI know there are extravagant opinions in the world about the\nkingdom of Christ, as if it consisted in temporal glory in part,\nand as if he would take it to him by carnal weapons, and so maintain\nit in its greatness and grandeur; but I confess myself an alien\nto these notions, and believe and profess the quite contrary, and\nlook for the coming of Christ to judgment personally, and betwixt\nthis and that, for his coming in Spirit, and in the power of his\nword to destroy Antichrist, to inform kings, and so give quietness\nto his church on earth; which shall assuredly be accomplished,[23]\nwhen the reign of the beast, the whore, the false prophet, and of\nthe man of sin is out (2 Thess 2:8; Isa 49:23, 52:15, 60:3,10,11,16,\n62:2; Rev 21:24).\n\nSecond. Let this teach men not to think that the church is cursed\nof God, because she is put in a wilderness state. Alas, that is\nbut to train her up in a way of solitariness, to make her Canaan\nthe more welcome to her. Rest is sweet to the labouring man. Yea,\nthis condition is the first step to heaven; yea, it is a preparation\nto that kingdom. God's ways are not as man's. 'I have chosen thee,'\nsaith he, 'in the furnace of affliction.' When Israel came out of\nEgypt, they were led of God into the wilderness; but why? That he\nmight have them to a land, that he had espied for them, that he\nmight bring them to a city of habitation (Eze 20:6; Psa 107:1-7).\n\nThe world know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of our\nGod. Do you think that saints that dwell in the world, and that\nhave more of the mind of God than the world, would, could so rejoice\nin God, in the cross, in tribulations and distresses, were they\nnot assured that through many tribulations is the very roadway to\nheaven (Acts 14:22).\n\nLet this then encourage the saints to hope, and to rejoice in hope\nof the glory of God, notwithstanding present tribulations. This\nis our seed-time, our winter; afflictions are to try us of what\nmettle we are made; yea, and to shake off worm-eaten fruit, and\nsuch as are rotten at core. Troubles for Christ's sake are but\nlike the prick of an awl in the tip of the ear, in order to hang\na jewel there.\n\nLet this also put the saints upon patience: when we know that\na trial will have an end, we are by that knowledge encouraged to\nexercise patience. I have a bad master, but I have but a year to\nserve under him, and that makes me serve him with patience; I have\nbut a mile to go in this dirty way, and then I shall have my path\npleasant and green, and this makes me tread the dirty way with\npatience. I am now in my rags, but by that a quarter of a year is\ncome and gone, two hundred a year comes into my hand, wherefore I\nwill wait, and exercise patience. Thus might I multiply comparisons.\nBe patient then, my brethren; but how long? to the coming of the\nLord. But when will that be? the coming of the Lord draws nigh.\n\n'Be patient,' my brethren, be long patient, even 'unto the coming\nof the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit\nof the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the\nearly and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts:\nfor the coming of the Lord draweth nigh' (James 5:7,8).\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. The second month in the Hebrew calendar began April 7.--Ed.\n\n2. A common expression for difference.--'What's the odds between\nus?'--Ed.\n\n3. The churches of Christ have suffered under bitter persecution,\nand been in a wilderness state, from the primitive times, through\nPopish days, and under the relentless cruelties suffered by the\nCovenanters and Nonconformists from the Church of England. As the\ngospel spreads, it humanizes and softens the hearts even of the\nrebellious. The dread fire no longer consumes the cedars of Lebanon.\nStill there remains the contemptuous sneer, the scorn, the malice\nof the soul, against Christ and his spiritual seed. Not many years\nsince the two daughters of an evangelical clergyman, a D.D., came\nout, from strong and irresistible conviction, and united with one\nof the straitest sects of Dissenters--the Plymouth Brethren. The\nunhappy parent could not brook the insult to his order, and died\ninsane.--Ed.\n\n4. Bunyan not only experienced the richest enjoyments in jail,\nbut it is very probable that his life was saved for a few years\nby his having lain in prison during the violent heat and storm of\npersecution which raged in the early part of the reign of Charles\nII. Thus God mysteriously restrains the wrath of man, and makes\nit to praise him. The damp unwholesome dungeon, intended for his\ndestruction, crowned him with peculiar honour, because, as in his\nPatmos, he there wrote his immortal book.--Ed.\n\n5. Pill, to rob; poll, to exact, to extort. 'The church is pilled\nand polled by its own flocks.'--South, Ser. 11. v. 5.--Ed.\n\n6. Maundrel measured a cedar which was thirty-six feet six inches\nin girth, and one hundred and eleven feet in the spread of its\nboughs; the foliage is ever green, and it mounts up to an enormous\nheight.--Ed.\n\n7. It is one of the strongest proofs that the human mind is disordered\nby sin, that man is by nature senseless to the sublime truths of\nChristianity--the beam, the truth which saves the world from utter\nmoral desolation. What wonders open before the eyes of the young\nconvert, stretching far away into that heavenly and eternal\nfelicity which had been shut out from his vision by the gloom of\ndeath! Life and immortality is brought to light. His life, and\nall other things, become but dross, that he may win Christ, and\nmaintain his cause in the world.--Ed.\n\n8. All men have the same Bible, but all have not sought for spiritual\ndiscernment. The Beast, whether of Rome, Greece, or England, that\nlooks through the Word to find some plausible means of tyrannising\nover the soul, by preventing man from using his own eyes in seeking\nsalvation, whether it be by church canons or acts of Parliament\ninterfering with the exercise of private judgment, is an enemy\nto, and hater of, the true light.--Ed.\n\n9. Humanity, in its usual acceptation, means the inferiority of\nman to the divine or angelic nature, but superiority to the mere\nanimal or brute creation. 'The nature of man, wherein he is\nlesse than God Almighty, and excellynge not withstandyng al other\ncreatures in erth, is called humanitie.'--Sir T. Eliot. Bunyan's\nillustration of the word is curious.--Ed.\n\n10. A common mode of picturing the virgin Mary for the devotee of\nPopery to worship, is a whole length beautiful woman, with rays\nas of the sun shooting out all round her, standing upon the moon,\nand upon her head a splendid crown ornamented with twelve stars.\nUnder such a disguise, who would expect to find 'the well-favoured\nharlot establishing a throne for Satan?'--Ed.\n\n11. Inventions, fictions, fables.--Ed.\n\n12. The Hebrew words translated in the authorized version of the\nBible, 'And a target' or gorget 'of brass,' are rendered, in all\nthe earlier versions, 'And a shield of brass.' Perhaps a cuirass; it\nwas evidently defensive brass armour, worn between the shoulders.--Ed.\n\n13. No formal service such as that of the temple. While the churches\nare in the wilderness, suffering under the fangs of Antichrist,\nreligious services must be adapted to their circumstances. At times\nfervent silent prayer, unheard on earth, but recorded in heaven;\nat other times in an upper chamber or a forest, afraid to sin,\nlest it should bring the enemy upon them. How ought we to bless\nGod for giving us the full enjoyment of public worship, even while\nin the wilderness.--Ed.\n\n14. One of the popular delusions of our day is, that all sects\nhave been intolerant and persecutors when they had the opportunity.\nThis is a gross falsehood. Who can charge the Waldenses, Albigenses,\nor Lollards with that spirit of Antichrist? Who dares charge the\nQuakers with a persecuting spirit? They had the full opportunity\nwhen governing Pennsylvania. Who can accuse the Baptists with\ninjuring those who differed from them when Roger Williams and his\nBaptist brethren obtained the charter of Rhode Island, with full\npower to rule themselves by any form of government they preferred?\nHis magna charta concludes with these words, 'And let the saints\nof the Most High walk in this colony without molestation, in the\nname of Jehovah their God, for ever and ever.' And it has never\nbeen violated. Persecution has never sullied its annals. Freedom\nto worship God was the desire of its founder--for himself and of\nall; and he nobly endured till it was accomplished.--Ed.\n\n15. This word was used by Fox in translating the letter of Algerius;\nI cannot find it in any dictionary. It probably refers to this\npoor prisoner for Christ being confined in a 'soler,' or room,\nclose under the roof of his prison, in which an Italian sun must\nhave rendered the heat intense. The word 'sooly' may be derived\nfrom the Anglo-Saxon 'swool,' sultry; the Dutch use swoel, zoel,\nand zoelheid, for heat and sultry heat.--Ed.\n\n16. The obsolete verb, to kill.--Ed.\n\n17. This is a curious mode of expressing the awful gradation of\na sinner. 1. To go in the way of sinners. 2. To enter into their\ncounsels. 3. To sit in the scorner's seat, here called 'the chair\nof pestilence.' This is from the vulgate Latin, which renders it\npestilentiae.--Ed.\n\n18. Pomponius Algerius, born in Capua, a young man of great learning,\nwas student in the University of Padua, where he, not being able\nto conceal the verity of Christ's gospel which he learned by the\nheavenly teaching of God's grace, ceased not, both by doctrine\nand example of life, to inform as many as he could in the same\ndoctrine, and to bring them to Christ; for which he was accused of\nheresy, and brought to Rome, where he was burned alive. He wrote\nthis letter while in prison at Venice.--See Fox's Acts and Monuments,\nedit. 1631. vol. ii. p. 181.\n\nMr. Southey thought that this letter gave Bunyan some germ of his\nPilgrim's Progress!! He takes it from the words, 'In this world\nthere is no mansion firm for me, and therefore I will travel up to\nthe New Jerusalem, which is in heaven.'--Life of Bunyan, p. xc.--Ed.\n\n19. Thus the blood of the martyrs was the seedtime of the church,\nand it produced an abundant harvest. That God suffered the choicest\nof his saints to pass through such dreadful sufferings in their\nway to glory, is a proof that God's ways are not our ways, but\nthey are infinite in wisdom and mercy.--Ed.\n\n20. Consult Bunyan's admirable treatise, Of Antichrist and his\nRuin.\n\n21. How easily is this riddle resolved by those who visit the\nafflicted. The Christian poor beat the rich out and out in charity.\nThe poor mother rises long before her usual time, and having fitted\nher own children for school, runs to her sick neighbour to do the\nsame for her little ones, frequently sharing with them her own\nchildren's food; and then, like an angel of mercy, watches over and\ncomforts her sick neighbour. Such is the unostentatious Christian\ncharity found among the Christian poor. O that it may more and\nmore abound.--Ed.\n\n22. These home-thrusts at conscience, so constantly met with in\nBunyan's works, should have the effect of exciting us to solemn\nself-examination. May we never be contented with the porch, but\nenter and enjoy the riches of Divine grace.--Ed.\n\n23. The gradual spread of the gospel, like the leaven, must\neventually leaven the whole. How astonishing has been its progress\nsince Bunyan entered the celestial city. If his happy spirit\nhovers as a guardian angel about the saints at Bedford, how must\nhe rejoice in the change. The iron hand of despotic oppression\nlaid low; his old prison swept away; the meetings in dells, and\nwoods, and barns, exchanged for large and commodious places of\nworship. How he must wonder at our want of gratitude, and love,\nand zeal, in return for such mercies.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE WATER OF LIFE;\n\nOR,\n\nA DISCOURSE SHOWING THE RICHNESS AND GLORY\n\nOF THE\n\nGRACE AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL,\n\nAS SET FORTH IN SCRIPTURE BY THIS TERM, THE WATER OF LIFE.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN.\n\n'And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'--Revelation\n22:17\n\nLondon: Printed for Nathanael Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry,\n1688.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nOften, and in every age, the children of God have dared to doubt the\nsufficiency of divine grace; whether it was vast enough to reach\ntheir condition--to cleanse them from the guilt of all their\nsins--and to fit their souls to dwell with infinite holiness\nin the mansions of the blessed. To solve these doubts--to answer\nthese anxious inquiries, Bunyan wrote many of his works; for although\nhe was a Boanerges, or son of thunder, to awaken the impenitent,\nhe was eminently a Barnabas--a son of consolation--an evangelist\nto direct the trembling inquirer to Christ the way, the truth, and\nthe life. He proclaims first, from his own experience, that there\nis 'Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners'; then he proclaims\n'Good News for the Vilest of Men, the Jerusalem Sinner is\nSaved'--'Christ is an Advocate'--'Christ is a complete Saviour.'\nEvery one is invited with a 'Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.'\nThere is 'Justification by his Righteousness'--'Salvation by his\nGrace.' 'He is a Throne of Grace' to which all are freely invited.\nEven 'The Broken Heart is an acceptable sacrifice.' There is 'The\nHoly City, New Jerusalem,' to receive such at the end of their\npilgrimage, and directions amply given to the pilgrim to guide\nhim in his progress to the celestial city; and he now introduces\nus to a majestic overflowing river, 'The Water of Life,' sufficient\nfor the refreshment and solace of the myriads of God's saints\nwho have lived from the creation, and will live until the final\nconsummation of all things, when the prophet in holy vision saw\n'a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations,\nand kindreds, and people, stand before the throne, and before the\nLamb.' This work was the result of the author's mature experience,\nbeing published by him during the last year of his eventful life.\nIn it he refers to one of those ten excellent manuscripts left\nby him at his decease, prepared for the press, and afterwards\npublished by Mr. Doe. It is called, The Saint's Privilege and\nProfit. The way in which he alludes to this, as if it had been\nprinted, shows that he had fully determined to publish it shortly,\nand this, if it was needed, would confirm our confidence in those\ntreatises. He thus refers to it: 'Because I have spoken of this\nthing, more particularly upon that text, 'Let us therefore come\nboldly unto the throne of grace,' I shall therefore here say no\nmore.'\n\nTwo things are rather extraordinary with regard to this valuable\ntreatise on the Water of Life. One is, that although inserted in\nevery list of our author's works, both published by himself and by\nhis friends after his decease, it escaped the researches of Doe,\nWilson, Chandler, Whitfield, and others who collected and published\nBunyan's works, excepting only the edition with Mason's notes,\nprinted for A. Hogg about 1785. The other singular circumstance\nis, that although the separate treatises of Bunyan were all most\nwretchedly and inaccurately printed, the Water of Life has in\nthis respect suffered more than any other of his works. A modern\nedition of this book, published at Derby by Thomas Richardson,\nis, without exception, the most erroneously printed of all books\nthat have come under my notice. The Scriptures are misquoted--words\nare altered so as to pervert the sense--whole sentences and\nparagraphs, and even whole pages in three or four places, and, in\none instance, four consecutive pages, are left out!!! I should be\ngrieved if more penal enactments were added to our statutes, but\nsurely there should be some punishment for such a crime as this.\nThe other editions are more reputable, but very incorrect. One\nof them bears the imprint of 'London, for James Bunyan, 1760.'\nAnother has 'London, sold by Baxter, Doolittle, & Burkit,' evidently\nfictitious names, adopted from those three great authors. The\nPilgrim's Progress was twice published by D. Bunyan, in Fleet\nStreet, 1763 and 1768; and the Heavenly Footman, 'London, sold by\nJ. Bunyan, above the Monument.' All these are wretchedly printed,\nand with cuts that would disgrace an old Christmas carol. Thus\nthe public have been imposed upon, and thus the revered name of\nBunyan has been sacrificed to the cupidity of unprincipled men.\nHad his works been respectably printed they would have all been\nvery popular and useful, and his memory have been still more\nvenerated.\n\nTo attract his readers to come personally, and partake the blessings\nimparted by the water of life, Bunyan shows that, as a medicine,\nit alone is the specific to cure the sin-sick soul--all other\napplications must fail most fatally--'all other remedies come from\nand return to the Dead Sea'--while the water of life issues from,\nand leads the soul to, the throne of God. It cleanseth from the\nold leaven. The Divine Physician is ever ready to administer to\nthe wearied soul. Be not misled by worldly-wisemen to take advice\nof the doctor's boy, but go direct to Jesus; he is ready--he is\nwilling to cure and save to the uttermost. His medicine may be\nsharp, but merely so as to effect the cure 'where bad humours are\ntough and churlish.' 'It revives where life is, and gives life\nwhere it is not. Take man from this river, and nothing can make\nhim live: let him have this water and nothing can make him die.'\nThe river of water of life allegorically represents the Spirit\nand grace of God; thus the truth is mercifully set before us, for\n'what is more free than water, and what more beneficial and more\ndesirable than life?' Vast and majestic rivers convey but a faint\nidea of the immensity of Divine grace; in comparison with which\n'the most mighty mountain dwindles into the least ant's egg or\natom in the world.' A stream of grace issued from the same source\nduring the patriarchal dispensation, and then mankind were directed to\nit by immediate revelation, or by the tradition of their fathers.\nIt extended under the Jewish or Levitical law, in its course passing\nthrough the temple, issuing from under the threshold of God's\nhouse, revealed by types, and shadows, and an earthly priesthood,\nand then 'grace ran but slowly because Jesus was not glorified.'\nNow it flows like a majestic river from the throne of God, open to\nall, without limit of family or nation, revealed to every creature\nby the volume of inspiration. This water admits no mixture--it\nis pure and perfect as its origin--free as the air we breathe to\nsustain life. 'There is no grudge, or a piece of an upbraiding\nspeech heard therein.' Any attempt to mix with it human merits\ndestroys all its efficacy. In it, and in it only, spiritual life,\nexciting to works of mercy, and giving sure hopes of immortal\nbliss, is to be found. God's children can no more live separated\nfrom this river than fish can live out of water. As a fish, by\nnatural instinct, avoids foul and unwholesome water, so a Christian\nhas spiritual powers to judge of the purity of doctrine. Like the\nmanna from heaven, and our daily bread, it must be supplied day\nby day. No church cistern of works of supererogation can supply\nthis pure water. All such pretended supplies are poisonous. It\nmust come direct from heaven without human interference. Those\nonly who spiritually thirst will seek it. Some prefer wine that\nperisheth in the using, while this water, once received, becomes\na well-spring of living waters, springing up into everlasting life.\nHow marvellous that river which swallows up all the impurities of\nthe myriads of the redeemed, so that they are seen no more for\never. These are the truths pressed upon our attention in this\ntreatise. Well may our venerated Bunyan say, while richly enjoying\nthe blessings of this river of grace, just before he waded through\nthe black river which absorbs our earthly bodies--'O grace! O happy\nchurch of God! all things that happen to thee are, for Christ's\nsake, turned into grace!' It is a river that so reflects the\nsplendour of God, that the first sight of it was to Paul above\nthe brightness of the sun; a light that did, by the glory of it,\nmake dark to him all the things in the world.\n\nReader, may your soul and mine be abundantly refreshed from this\ninexhaustible river, the streams whereof make glad the city of\nGod.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nI have now presented thee with something of a discourse of the\nwater of life and its virtues; therefore, thou mayest, if thou\nwilt, call this book Bunyan's Bill of his Master's Water of Life.\nTrue, I have not set forth at large the excellent nature and\nquality thereof, nor can that so be done by the pen or tongue of\nmen or angels. Yet this I have said, and so saying, said truly,\nthat whosoever shall drink of this water shall find it in him a\nwell of water; and not only so, but a well springing up in him to\neverlasting life, let his disease be what it will. And as men, in\ntheir bills for conviction to readers, do give an account to the\ncountry of the persons cured, and the diseases that have been\nremoved by liquors and preparations, they have made for that end, so\ncould I, were it not already (by Holy Writ) done by an infallible\npen to my hand, give you accounts of numberless numbers that have\nnot only been made to live, but to live for ever, by drinking\nof this water, this pure water of life. Many of them indeed are\nremoved from hence, and live where they cannot be spoken with was\nyet; but abundance of them do still remain here, and have their\nabode yet with men.\n\nOnly, if thou wouldst drink it, drink it by itself, and that thou\nmayest not be deceived by that which is counterfeit, know it is\nas it comes from the hand of our Lord, without mixture, pure and\nclear as crystal. I know there are many mountebanks in the world,\nand every of them pretend they have this water to sell; but my\nadvice is, that thou go directly to the throne thyself (Heb 4:16);\nor as thou art bidden come to the waters (Isa 55:1), and there\nthou shalt be sure to have that which is right and good, and that\nwhich will certainly make thee well, let thy disease, or trouble,\nor pain, or malady, be what it will. For the price, care not for\nthat, it is cheap enough, this is to be had without money or price.\n'I will give,' saith God and the Lamb, 'unto him that is athirst,\nof the fountain of the water of life freely' (Rev 21:6). Hence\nhe says again, 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life\nfreely' (Rev 22:17). So that thou hast no ground to keep back\nbecause of thy poverty; nay, for the poor it is prepared and set\nopen, to the poor it is offered, the poor and needy may have it\nof free cost (Isa 41:17,18).[1]\n\nBut let it not be slighted because it is offered to thee upon terms\nso full, so free. For thou art sick, and sick unto death, if thou\ndrinkest not of it, nor is there any other than this that can heal\nthee, and make thee well. Farewell. The Lord be thy physician! So\nprays thy friend,\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\nTHE WATER OF LIFE.\n\n'AND HE SHOWED ME A PURE RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL,\nPROCEEDING OUT OF THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.' Revelation\n22:1\n\nThese words are part of that description that one of the seven\nangels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues,\ngave unto John of the New Jerusalem, or of the state of that gospel\nchurch, that shall be in the latter days (Rev 21:9). Wherefore he\nsaith, 'And he showed me'; HE, the angel, showed me it.\n\nIn the text we have these things to consider of,\n\nFIRST. The matter, the subject matter of the text, and that is the\nwater of life. 'He showed me the water of life.' SECOND. We have\nalso here the quantity of this water showed to him, and that is\nunder the notion of a river: 'He showed me a river of water of\nlife.' THIRD. He shows him also the head, or well-spring, from\nwhence this river of water of life proceeds, and that is, 'the\nthrone of God and of the Lamb.' 'He showed me a river of water\nof life, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.'\nFOURTH. We have also here the nature and quality of this water;\nit is pure, it is clear as crystal: 'And he showed me a pure river\nof water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne\nof God and of the Lamb.'\n\n[THE WATER OF LIFE.]\n\n[FIRST.] We will begin with the first of these, to wit, with the\nmatter, the subject matter of the text, which is, THE WATER OF\nLIFE. These words, water of life, are metaphorical, or words by\nwhich a thing most excellent is presented to and amplified before\nour faces; and that thing is the Spirit of grace, the Spirit and\ngrace of God. And the words, water of life, are words most apt to\npresent it to us by; for what is more free than water, and what\nmore beneficial and more desirable than life? Therefore I say it\nis compared to, or called, the water of life. He showed me the\nwater of life.\n\nThat it is the Spirit of grace, or the Spirit and grace of God,\nthat is here intended: consider, FIRST, the Spirit of grace is in\nother places compared to water: and, SECOND, it is also called the\nSpirit of life. Just as here it is presented unto us, 'He showed\nme the water of life.'\n\nFIRST. The spirit of grace is compared to water. 'Whosoever,'\nsaith the Lamb, 'drinketh of the water that I shall give him,\nshall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be\nin him a well of water springing up into everlasting life' (John\n4:14). What can here by water be intended, but the Spirit of grace\nthat this poor harlot, the woman of Samaria, wanted, although\nshe was ignorant of her want, as also of the excellency thereof?\nWhich water also is here said to be such as will spring up, in\nthem that have it, as a well into everlasting life.\n\nAgain, 'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood\nand cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and\ndrink.' But of what? Why of his rivers of living waters. But what\nare they? Why he answers, 'This spake he of the Spirit, which they\nthat believe on him should receive' (John 7:37-39).\n\nYes, the prophets and servants of God in the Old Testament, did\ntake this water of life for the Spirit of grace that should in the\nlatter days be poured out into the church. Hence, Isaiah calls\nwater God's Spirit and blessing, and Zechariah, the Spirit of grace.\n'I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the\ndry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing\nupon thine offspring' (Isa 44:3). And Zechariah saith, 'I will pour\nupon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,\nthe spirit of grace and of supplication,--and they shall mourn,'\n&c. (Zech 12:10). Behold, in all these places the Spirit of grace\nis intended, and for our better understanding it is compared to\nwater, to a well of water, to springs of water, and to floods of\nwater.\n\nSECOND. It is also called the Spirit of life, [either] more closely,\n[or] more openly.\n\nMore closely, where it is called 'living water,' 'that living water,'\nand 'water springing up into everlasting life' (John 4:10,11,14,\n7:38).\n\nThen more openly or expressly it is called 'the Spirit of life.'\n'And after three days and an half, the Spirit of life from God\nentered into them, and they stood upon their feet' (Rev 11:11).\n\nFrom hence, therefore, I conclude, that by these terms, water of\nlife, is meant the Spirit of grace, or the Spirit and grace of\nthe gospel. And the terms are such as are most apt to set forth\nthe Spirit and grace of the gospel by: for,\n\n[First. The term WATER.]\n\n1. By this term, WATER, an opposition to sin is presented unto\nus. Sin is compared to water, to deadly waters, and man is said to\ndrink it, as one that drinketh waters. 'How much more abominable\nand filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?' (Job\n15:16). So, then, that grace and the Spirit of grace is compared\nto water, it is to show what an antidote grace is against sin;\nit is, as I may call it, counter poison to it. It is that ONLY\nthing by the virtue of which sin can be forgiven, vanquished, and\novercome.\n\n2. By this term WATER, you have an opposition also to the curse,\nthat is due to sin, presented unto you. The curse, is compared to\nwater; the remedy is compared to water. Let the curse come into\nthe bowels of the damned, saith the psalmist, like water (Psa\n109:18). The grace of God also, as you see, is compared to water.\nThe curse is burning; water is cooling: the curse doth burn with\nhell-fire; cooling is by the grace of the holy gospel: but they\nthat overstand the day of grace, shall not obtain to cool their\ntongues so much of this water as will hang on the tip of one's\nfinger (Luke 16:24,25).[2]\n\n3. Water is also of a spreading nature, and so is sin; wherefore\nsin may for this also be compared to water. It overspreads the\nwhole man, and infects every member; it covereth all as doth water.\nGrace for this cause may be also compared to water; for that it\nis of a spreading nature, and can, if God will, cover the face of\nthe whole earth; of body and soul.\n\n4. Sin is of a fouling, defiling nature; and grace is of a washing,\ncleansing nature; therefore grace, and the Spirit of grace,\nis compared to water. 'I will,' saith God, 'sprinkle clean water\nupon you, [my Spirit, v 27] and ye shall be clean: from all your\nfilthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you' (Eze\n36:25).\n\n5. Water; the element of water naturally descends to and abides\nin low places, in valleys and places which are undermost; and the\ngrace of God and the Spirit of grace is of that nature also; the\nhills and lofty mountains have not the rivers running over the\ntops of them; no, though they may run 'among them.' But they run\namong the valleys: and 'God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace\nunto the humble,' 'to the lowly' (John 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Prov\n3:34).\n\n6. The grace of God is compared to water, for that it is it which\ncauseth fruitfulness; water causeth fruitfulness, want of water\nis the cause of barrenness; and this is the reason why the whole\nworld is so empty of fruit to Godward, even because so few of the\nchildren of men have the Spirit of grace in their hearts. But,\n\n[Second. The term LIFE.]\n\nAs there is a great special signification in this term WATER, so\nthere is in this term LIFE, water of life. 'He showed me the water\nof life.' In that, therefore, there is added to this word water,\nthat of life, it is, in the general, to show what excellent virtue\nand operation there is in this water. It is aquae vitae, water of\nlife, or water that hath a health and life in it. And this term\nshows us,\n\n1. That the world of graceless men are dead; dead in trespasses\nand sins (John 5:21,25; Eph 2:1; Col 2:13). Dead, that is, without\nlife and motion Godward, in the way of the testament of his Son.\n\n2. It also shows us that there is not any thing in the world, or\nin the doctrine of the world, the law, that can make them live.\nLife is only in this water, death is in all other things.[3] The\nlaw, I say, which is that that would, if anything in the whole\nworld, give life unto the world, but that yet killeth, condemneth,\nand was added that the offence might abound; wherefore there is\nno life either in the world or in the doctrine of the world. It\nis only in this water, in this grace of God, which is here called\nthe after of life, or God's aquae vitae.[4]\n\n3. It is also called the water of life to show that by the grace\nof God men may live, how dead soever their sins have made them.\nWhen God will say to a sinner, 'live,' though he be dead in his\nsins, 'he shall live.' 'When thou wast in thy blood, I said unto\nthee, Live; yea, when thou wast in thy blood, I said, Live' (Eze\n16:6). And again, 'The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of\nGod; and they that hear shall live' (John 5:25). That is, when\nhe speaks words of grace, and mixeth those words with the Spirit\nand grace of the gospel, then men shall live; for such words so\nattended, and such words only, are spirit and life. 'The words\nthat I speak unto you,' saith Christ, 'they are spirit, and they\nare life' (John 6:63).\n\n4. In that this grace of God is here presented unto us under the\nterms of water of life, it is to show that some are sick of that\ndisease that nothing can cure but that. There are many diseases\nin the world, and there are also remedies for those diseases;\nbut there is a disease that nothing will, can, or shall cure, but\na dram of this bottle, a draught of this aquae vitae, this water\nof life. This is intimated by the invitation, 'let him take the\nwater of life freely' (Rev 22:17). And again, 'I will give unto\nhim that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely'\n(Rev 21:6). This is spoken to the sick, to them that are sick of\nthe disease that only Christ, as a physician, with his water of\nlife, can cure (Mark 2:17). But few are sick of this disease, but\nfew know what it is to be made sick of this disease.[5] There is\nnothing can make sick of this disease but the law and sin, and\nnothing can cure but the grace of God by the gospel, called here\nthe water of life.\n\n[THE GREATNESS AND ABUNDANCE OF THE WATER OF LIFE.]\n\n[SECOND.] We come now to discourse of the second thing with which\nwe are presented by the text, and that is, the quantity that there\nis of this water of life. It is a RIVER--'He showed me a river of\nwater of life.' Waters that are cordial, and that have in them a\nfaculty to give life to them that want it, and to maintain life\nwhere it is, are rare and scarce, and to be found only in close\nplaces and little quantities; but here you see there is abundance,\na great deal, a RIVER, a river of water of life. In my handling\nof this point I will show you,\n\nFIRST. What a river of water of life this is. SECOND. And then\ndraw some inferences therefrom.\n\nFIRST. What a river this is, this river of water of life.[6]\n\nFirst. It is a deep river. It is a river that is not shallow, but\ndeep, with an 'O the depth!' (Rom 11:33). 'I will make their waters\ndeep, saith God' (Eze 32:14). And again, they 'have drunk of the\ndeep waters' (Eze 34:18). A river of water of life is much, but\na deep river is more. Why, soul-sick sinner, sin-sick sinner, thou\nthat art sick of that disease that nothing can cure but a potion\nof this river of the water of life, here is a river for thee,\na deep river for thee. Those that at first are coming to God by\nChrist for life, are of nothing so inquisitive as of whether there\nis grace enough in him to save them. But, for their comfort, here\nis abundance, abundance of grace, a river, a deep river of the\nwater of life, for them to drink of.\n\nSecond. As this river is deep, so it is wide and broad (Eph 3:18;\nJob 11:9). Wherefore, as thou art to know the depth, that is, that\nit is deep, so thou art to know its breadth, that is, that it is\nbroad; it is broader than the sea, a river that cannot be passed\nover (Eze 47:5). Never did man yet go from one side of this river\nto the other when the waters indeed were risen; and now they are\nrisen, even now they proceed out of the throne of God and of the\nLamb too. Hence this grace is called 'the unsearchable riches of\nChrist' (Eph 3:8). Sinner, sick sinner, what sayest thou to this?\nWouldst thou wade? wouldst thou swim? here thou mayest swim, it\nis deep, yet fordable at first entrance. And when thou thinkest\nthat thou hast gone through and through it, yet turn again and try\nonce more, and thou shalt find it deeper than hell, and a river\nthat cannot be passed over. If thou canst swim, here thou mayest\nroll up and down as the fishes do in the sea.[7] Nor needest thou\nfear drowning in this river, it will bear thee up, and carry thee\nover the highest hills, as Noah's waters did carry the ark. But,\n\nThird. As this river of water of life is deep and large, so it is\na river that is full of waters. A river may be deep and not full.\nA river may be broad and not deep. Aye, but here is a river deep\nand broad, and full too. 'Thou waterest it; thou greatly enrichest\nit with the river of God, which is full of water' (Psa 65:9).\nFull of grace and truth. Fill the water-pots, saith Christ, up to\nthe brim. The waters of a full cup the wicked shall have; and a\nriver full of the water of life is provided for those who indeed\nhave a desire thereto.\n\nFourth. As this river is deep, broad, and full, so it still\naboundeth with water. The waters, says the prophet, 'were risen'\n(Eze 47:4). Hence, the Holy Ghost saith, God causeth the waters to\nflow (Psa 147:18). And again, 'And it shall come to pass in that\nday [the day of the gospel] that the mountains shall drop down\nnew wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers\nof Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth\nof the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim'\n(Joel 3:18). When a river overflows it has more water than its\nbanks can bound: it has water. 'Behold, he smote the rock, that\nthe waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed' (Psa 78:20).\nThis river of water of life, which is also signified by these\nwaters, is a river that abounds and that overflows its banks in an\ninfinite and unspeakable manner. Thus much for the river, to wit,\nwhat a river of water of life it is. It is a river deep, broad,\nfull, and abounding with this water, with this Spirit and grace\nof the gospel.\n\n[Inferences to be drawn from this term RIVER.]\n\nSECOND. Now I shall come to draw some inference from it, that is,\nfrom this term, a river. A river of water of life.\n\nFirst. Then, a river is water that is common, common in the\nstreams, though otherwise in the head. This river proceeds out\nof the throne, and so, as to its rise, it is special; it is also\ncalled the water of life, and as it is such, it is special; but\nas it is a river it is common, and of common use, and for common\ngood. Hence the grace of God is called the common salvation (Jude\n3), for that by the word there is no restraint, no denial to or\nforbidding of any that will, from receiving thereof.\n\nAnd whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely (Rev\n22:17). What can more fully declare the commonness of a thing? Yea,\nthis river is called, at the very head of it, an 'open fountain,'\na fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants\nof Jerusalem (Zech 13:1). And by David or Judah and Jerusalem is\ncomprehended every soul that would drink of the water of life or\nliving water. And hence it is that this river is said to 'go down\ninto the desert and go into the sea,' where all kinds of fishes\nare (Eze 47:8). By sea is meant the world, and by fish the people,\nand thither shall run this river of water of life. But,\n\nSecond. Though a river, in the streams of it, is common, yet a\nriver, as it passes through a country or province, will choose\nits own way, it will run in the valleys, in the plains, not over\nsteeples and hills. It will also fetch its compasses and circuits;\nit will go about and reach hither and thither, and according to\nits courses it will miss by its turnings what places and people it\nlists, yet it is common, for that it lies open, yet it is common\nfor all the beasts of the field. There is, therefore, a difference\nto be put betwixt the commonness of a thing and its presence. A\nthing may be common, yet far enough off of thee. Epsom, Tunbridge\nwaters, and the Bath, may be common, but yet a great way off\nof some that have need thereof.[8] The same may be said of this\nriver, it is common in the streams, but it runs its own circuit,\nand keeps its own water-courses. 'He sendeth the springs into\nthe valleys which run among the hills' (Psa 104:10). Indeed, he\nopeneth his river in high places, in his throne, and of the Lamb,\nbut still they run in the midst of the valleys to water the humble\nand the lowly. Wherefore, they that thirst and would drink are bid\nto come down to the waters--'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come\nye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy,' &c.\n(Isa 55:1). And again, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me\nand drink' (John 7:37). The waters are common, but you must come\nto them, to them where they are, or you will be nothing the better\nfor them. 'Come ye to the waters.'\n\nThird. This water of life is called a river, to intimate to you\nby what store of the same it is supplied. All rivers have the sea\nfor their original: 'All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea\nis not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither\nthey return again' (Eccl 1:7).[9] And so this river of water of\nlife is said to proceed out of the throne, as out of a place where\nit breaketh out, but the original is the sea, the ocean of grace,\nwhich is an infinite Deity. 'Thou wilt cast all their sins into\nthe depths of the sea, into the depth of the sea of thy grace'\n(Micah 7:19). Rivers, when they are broken up, do with their\ngliding streams carry away a great deal of the filth, which from\nall parts of the countries through which they run, is conveyed\ninto them; and they carry it away into the sea, where it is\neverlastingly swallowed up.[10] And, O! the filth that is cast\ninto this river of God! and, O! how many dirty sinners are washed\nwhite therein, for by its continual gliding away, it carrieth that\nfilth into the midst of the sea.\n\nA river will take away the very stink of a dead dog: nor doth\nall the soil and draught that is cast into the rivers, cause that\nthose that can should be afraid to make use thereof: all that have\nneed do betake themselves to this river notwithstanding. But how\nmuch more virtue is there in this sweet river of grace that is\ndesigned, yea, opened on purpose, to wash away sin and uncleanness\nin, to carry away all our filth, and to remain as virtuous still!\n\nFourth. It is called a river, to show that it yields a continual\nsupply, as I may call it, of new and fresh grace. Rivers yield\ncontinually fresh and new water. For though the channel or\nwatercourse in which the water runs is the same, yet the waters\nthemselves are always new. That water that but one minute since\nstood in this place or that of the river, is now gone, and new\nand fresh is come in its place. And thus it is with the river of\nGod, which is full of water; it yieldeth continually fresh supplies,\nfresh and new supplies of grace to those that have business in\nthose waters. And this is the reason that when sin is pardoned,\nit seems as if it were carried away. Those waters have, with their\ncontinual streams, carried away the filth of the sinner form before\nhis face. It is not so with ponds, pools, and cisterns; they will\nbe foul and stink, if they be not often emptied, and filled again\nwith fresh water. We must then put a difference between the grace\nthat dwelleth in us, and this river of water of life. We are but\nas ponds, pools, and cisterns, that can hold but little, and shall\nalso soon stink, notwithstanding the grace of God is in us, if we\nbe not often emptied from vessel to vessel, and filled with fresh\ngrace from this river (Jer 48:11). But the river is always sweet,\nnor can all the filth that is washed out of the world make it stink,\nor infect it: its water runs with a continual gliding stream, and\nso carries away all annoyance, as was said, into the depth of the\nsea.\n\nFifth. The grace of God is called a river, to show that it is only\nsuited to those who are capable of living therein. Water, though\nit is that which every creature desireth, yet it is not an element\nin which every creature can live. Who is it that would not have\nthe benefit of grace, of a throne of grace? But who is it that can\nlive by grace? Even none, but those whose temper and constitution\nis suited to grace. Hence, as the grace of God is compared to a\nRIVER, so those that live by grace are compared to FISH: for that\nas water is that element in which the fish liveth, so grace is\nthat which is the life of the saint. 'And there shall be a very\ngreat multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither;\nfor they shall be healed, and everything shall live whither the\nriver cometh' (Eze 47:9). Art thou a fish, O man, art thou a fish?\nCanst thou live in the water; canst thou live always, and nowhere\nelse, but in the water? Is grace thy proper element? The fish\ndieth if she be taken out of the water, unless she be timely put\nin again; the saint dieth if he be not in this river. Take him\nfrom this river, and nothing can make him live; let him have water,\nwater of life enough, and nothing can make him die.\n\nI know that there are some things besides fish, that can make\na shift to live in the water; but the water is not their proper,\ntheir only proper element. The frog can live in the water, but\nnot in the water only; the otter can live in the water, but not in\nthe water only. Give some men grace and the world, grace and sin;\nadmit them to make use of their lusts for pleasure, and of grace\nto remove their guilt, and they will make a pretty good shift, as\nwe say; they will finally scrabble on in a profession; but hold\nthem to grace only, confine their life to grace, put them into\nthe river, and let them have nothing but river, and they die; the\nword, and way, and nature of grace, is to them as light bread,[11]\nand their soul can do no other but loath it, for they are not\nsuited and tempered for that element. They are fish, not frogs,\nthat can live in the river, as in their only proper element.\nWherefore, the grace of God, and Spirit of grace, is compared to\na river, to show that none but those can live thereby whose souls\nand spirits are suited and fitted thereto.\n\nSixth. The grace, and Spirit of grace of God, is called or compared\nto a river, to answer those unsatiable desires, and to wash away\nthose mountainous doubts that attend those that indeed do thirst\nfor that drink. The man that thirsteth with spiritual thirst, fears\nnothing more than that there is not enough to quench his thirst.\nAll the promises and sayings of God's ministers to such a man\nseem but as thimbles instead of bowls (Psa 63:1, 143:6). I mean\nso long as his thirst and doubts walk hand in hand together. There\nis not enough in this promise; I find not enough in that promise\nto quench the drought of my thirsting soul. He that thirsteth\naright, nothing but God can quench his thirst. 'My soul thirsteth\nfor God, for the living God' (Psa 42:2, 63:1, 143:6). Well, what\nshall be done for this man? Will his God humour him, and answer his\ndesires? Mark what follows: 'When the poor and needy seek water,\nand there is none,' (and they can find none, when all the promises\nseem to be dry, and like clouds that return after the rain), 'and\ntheir tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them.'\nAye, but Lord, what wilt thou do to quench their thirst? 'I will\nopen rivers,' saith he, 'in high places, and fountains in the midst\nof the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and\nthe dry land springs of water' (Isa 41:17,18). Behold! here are\nrivers and fountains, a pool, and springs, and all to quench the\nthirst of them that thirst for God.\n\nWherefore, as I said, such provision for the thirsty intimates their\nfears of want and the craving appetite of their souls after God.\nRight spiritual thirst is not to be satisfied without abundance\nof grace. And 'they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness\nof thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy\npleasures' (Psa 36:8).\n\nSeventh. The grace of God is compared to a river, to show the\ngreatness of the family of God. He has a family, a great family,\nand, therefore, it is not a little that must be provided for\nthem. When Israel went out of Egypt, and thirsted by the way, God\nprovided for them a river; he made it gush out of the rock; for,\nalas! what less than a river could quench the thirst of more than\nsix hundred thousand men, besides women and children? (Psa 78:20).\n\nI say, what less than a river could do it? When the people lusted\nfor flesh, Moses said, 'Shall the flocks and the herds be slain\nfor them to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be\ngathered together for them to suffice them?' (Num 11:22). Even\nso could not less than a river sustain and suffice that great\npeople. Now his people in gospel days are not to be diminished,\nbut increased; and if then they had need of a river, surely now\nof a sea; but the river is deep and broad, full, and abounds, or\nrises with water, so it will suffice.\n\nEighth. The grace of God is compared to a river, perhaps to show\nof what a low esteem it is with the rich and the full. The destitute\nindeed embrace the rock instead of a shelter, and the poor and\nneedy, they seek water: but they that can drink wine in bowls,\nthat can solace themselves with, as they think, better things,\nthey come not to this river to drink; they never say they shall\ndie if they drink not of this water. It is, therefore, for the poor\nand needy, God will lead THEM to his 'living fountains of waters,'\nand will 'wipe away all tears from THEIR eyes' (Rev 7:17). And\nthus I pass the second and come to the third particular, and that\nis, to show the head and spring from whence this river proceeds,\nor springs.\n\n[THE HEAD OR WELL-SPRING OF THE WATER OF LIFE.]\n\n[THIRD.] Rivers have their heads from whence they rise, out of\nwhich they spring, and so, accordingly, we read this river has;\nwherefore he saith, 'He showed me a pure river of water of life,\nclear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the\nLamb.'\n\n[GOD.] God is here to be taken for the whole Godhead, Father, Son,\nand Spirit, for that grace proceeds from them all; the grace of\nthe Father, the grace of the Son, and the grace of the Spirit is\nhere included. Hence, as the Father is called 'the God of grace'\n(1 Peter 5:10): so the Son is said to be full of grace, grace to\nbe communicated (John 1:14-16), and the Holy Ghost is called 'the\nSpirit of grace' (Heb 10:29). So then by this we perceive whence\ngrace comes. Were all the world gracious, if God were not gracious,\nwhat was man the better? If the Father, or the Son, or the Holy\nGhost, are gracious, if they were not all gracious, what would it\nprofit? But now God is gracious, the three persons in the Godhead\nare gracious, and so long they that seek grace are provided for;\nfor that, there proceeds from them a river, or grace like a flowing\nstream; indeed the original of grace to sinners is the good will\nof God; none can imagine how loving God is to sinful man. A little\nof it is seen, but they that see most, see but a little.\n\n[THE LAMB.] But there is added, 'and of the Lamb.' The Lamb is,\nJesus as sacrificed, Jesus as man, and suffering. Hence you have\nthe Lamb, at the first vision of the throne, set forth unto us,\nthat is, as slain. 'And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the\nthrone and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders,\nstood a Lamb as it had been slain' (Rev 5:6). Wherefore, by this\nword Lamb, we are to understand who, or by what means, grace doth\nnow run from the throne of God, like a river, to the world. It is\nbecause of, or through the Lamb. We are 'justified freely by the\ngrace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom\nGod hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood'\n(Rom 3:24). And again, 'We have redemption through his blood,'\neven 'the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's\ngrace' (Eph 1:7).\n\nNor doth the Lamb of God, by becoming a means, through death, of\nthe conveyance of grace to us, at all darken the nature or glory\nof grace, but rather doth set it off the more. For wherein can\ngrace or love more appear than in his laying down his life for us?\nI speak now of the grace of the Son. And wherein could the nature\nand glory of grace of the Father more appear than in giving his\nSon to death for us, that grace might, in a way of justice as\nwell as mercy, be bestowed upon the world? Wherefore, as he saith\nhere, that the river of water of life proceedeth from God, so he\nadds that the Lamb, because he would have us while we are entangled\nand overcome with this river of God's pleasure, not forget what\nit cost the Lamb of God that this grace might come unto us.\n\nFor the riches of grace and of wisdom are, that grace comes to us\nnot only in a way of mercy and compassion, but in a way of justice\nand equity; but that could be by no other means but by redeeming\nblood. Which redeeming blood came not from us, nor yet through\nour contrivance or advice; wherefore, whatever it is to the Lamb,\nstill all is of grace to us. Yea, the higher, the greater, the\nricher is grace, by how much the more it cost the Father and the\nLamb, that we might enjoy it. When a man shall not only design\nme a purse of gold, but shall venture his life to bring it to me,\nthis is grace indeed. But, alas! what are a thousand such short\ncomparisons to the unsearchable love of Christ.\n\nThe Lamb, then, is he from whom, by, or through whom the grace of\nGod doth come to us. It proceeds from the throne of God and of\nthe Lamb. And it proceeds from him now as a donator: from him, not\nonly as a means of conveyance, but as one that has power to give\ngrace; power, as he is the Son of Man. For as the Son of Man he\nis the Lamb, and as he is the Lamb it cometh from him. 'The Son\nof man hath power on earth to forgive sins' (Matt 9:6). And that\nbefore he had actually paid to God the price of our redemption.\nBut how much more now? Wherefore Paul, in his prayer for grace\nand peace for saints, supplicates both God and the Lamb--'Grace\nbe to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ'\n(Eph 1:2; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3).\n\n'Proceeding out of the throne.' Formerly this river of water is\nsaid to come from under the threshold of the house of the Lord (Eze\n47:1). And it is, said again, they 'shall go out from Jerusalem,'\nthat is, the church or house of God still (Zech 14:8). In that\nthey are said to come out from under the threshold, it may be to\nintimate that they ran but low formerly, if compared to what they\ndo now. Which might also be signified by this, that they 'issued\nout,' that that issues out ordinarily comes forth but slowly.\nAlso the prophet saith, the first time he went through the waters,\nthey were but up to the ankles (Eze 47:3,4). But what is ankle-deep\nto that which followeth after? It is said also to come out from\nJerusalem, where, I perceive, were no great rivers, to intimate,\nthat as long as the first priesthood, first temple, and type, were\nin their splendour, only the shadow of heavenly things were in\nuse, and that then grace ran but slowly, nor would run much faster,\nbecause Jesus was not yet glorified. For the Spirit and abundance\nof grace was to be given not before but after his ascension.\n\nWherefore, now Jesus is ascended, now he is glorified, now grace\nproceeds from the throne, not from the threshold of the house.\n'He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,\nproceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.'\n\nTHE THRONE. That of which the mercy-seat was a type, that which\nis called the throne of grace (Exo 25:17; Heb 4:16). And it is\ncalled the throne of grace, even, therefore, because it is that\nfrom or out of which proceeds this river of water of life, this\noverflowing grace of God. Now, it may be asked what is the throne\nof grace? and I shall answer it is the humanity of Christ. He is\nthe throne, he is the Jacob in which God sitteth (Isa 22:22,23).\nAnd he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house (Rev\n3:7). The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily; and God\nwas in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, nor can grace\ncome to men but by Christ, nor can God rest as to our salvation but\nin him. But because I have spoken of this thing more particularly\nupon that text, 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of\ngrace,' &c., I shall, therefore, here say no more.\n\nOnly, methinks, it is a glorious title that the Holy Ghost has\ngiven to the humanity of Christ, in that he calls it the throne\nof God; and methinks he gives it the highest preference in that\nhe saith, out thence proceeds a pure river of water of life: we\nwill a little, therefore, speak something to this word--the throne,\nthe throne of God.\n\nFirst. A throne is the seat of majesty and greatness; it is not for\nthings of an inferior quality to ascend or assume a throne. Now,\nthen, since this river of water of life proceeds from the throne,\nit intimates, that in grace and mercy there is great majesty; for\ngrace, as it proceeds, has a voice from the throne. And, indeed,\nthere is nothing in heaven or earth that can so AWE the heart as\nthe grace of God (Hosea 3:5). It is that which makes a man fear,\nit is that which makes a man tremble, it is that which makes a man\nbow and bend, and break to pieces (Jer 32:9). Nothing has that\nmajesty and commanding greatness in and upon the hearts of the\nsons of men as has the grace of God. So that, I say, when he saith\nthat this river of grace proceeds out of the throne of God, it is\nto show us what a majesty, what a commanding greatness, there is\nin grace. The love of Christ constraineth us.\n\nWhen Moses went up to the mount the first time to receive the\nlaw, he did exceedingly fear and quake. Why? because of the fire\nand smoke, thick darkness and thunder, &c. But when he went up the\nsecond time thither, 'he made haste and bowed his head toward the\nearth, and worshipped.' But why? because it was before proclaimed that\n'the Lord was merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant\nin goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving\niniquity, and transgression, and sin,' &c. (Exo 34:6-9).\n\nThere is nothing overmastereth the heart like grace, and so obligeth\nto sincere and unfeigned obedience as that. 'Examine me, O Lord,'\nsaid David, 'and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy\nloving kindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy\ntruth' (Psa 26:2,3). Therefore, he saith again, O Lord our God,\n'how excellent is thy loving kindness' in all the earth! and that\nloving kindness is marvellous; for it has that majesty and that\nexcellent glory in it as to command the heart and subdue sin. And,\ntherefore, grace has given to it the title of sovereignty, or of\none that reigns. The throne is called 'the throne of grace' (Heb\n4:16), that on which it sits and reigns, as well as that from whence\nit proceeds: 'Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life\nby Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom 5:21).\n\nSecond. As a throne is a seat of majesty and greatness, and so\ncan awe, so it is the seat of authority and legislative power, and\nso will awe; this is confirmed from what was said but now, 'grace\nreigns.' Wherefore it is expected that they that hear the word of\nGod's grace should submit thereto, and that at their peril. 'He\nthat believes not shall be damned,' is a word of power, of law, and\nof authority, and the contemner shall find it so. Grace proceeds\nfrom the throne, from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Wherefore,\nsinner, here is laid a necessity upon thee, one of the two must\nbe thy lot; either thou must accept of God's grace, and be content\nto be saved freely thereby, notwithstanding all thy undeservings\nand unworthiness, or else thou must be damned for thy rebellion\nand for thy rejecting of this grace. Wherefore, consider with\nthyself and think what is best to be done. Is it better that thou\nsubmit to the grace and mercy of God, and that thou acceptest of\ngrace to reign for thee, in thee, and over thee, than that thou\nshouldst run the hazard of eternal damnation because thou wouldst\nnot be saved by grace? Consider of this, I say, for grace is now\nin authority, it reigns and proceeds from the THRONE. Now, you\nknow, it is dangerous opposing, rejecting, despising, or disowning\nof them in authority; better speak against twenty than against\none that is in authority. If 'the wrath of a king is as messengers\nof death' (Prov 16:14), if the wrath of the king 'is as the roaring\nof a lion,' what is the wrath of God? (Prov 19:12). And you know,\nto despise grace, to refuse pardon, to be unwilling to be saved\nfrom the guilt and punishment due to treasons, the king's way,\nsince that also is the best way, how will that provoke? how hot\nwill that make wrath? But to accept of grace, especially when it\nis free grace, grace that reigns, grace from the throne, how sweet\nis it? 'His favour is as dew upon the grass.'\n\nThis, therefore, calls for thy most grave and sedate thoughts.\nThou art in a strait, wilt thou fly before Moses, or with David\nfall into the hands of the Lord? wilt thou go to hell for sin,\nor to life by grace? One of the two, as was said before, must be\nthy lot: for grace is king, is upon the throne, and will admit of\nno other way to glory. In and by it thou must stand, if thou hast\nany hope, or canst at all 'rejoice in hope of the glory of God'\n(Rom 5:2).\n\nThird. As the throne is the seat of majesty and authority, so it\nis the highest seat of authority. There is none above the throne,\nthere is no appeal from the throne. There are inferior courts of\njudicature, there are under-governors, and they may sometimes,\nperhaps, be faulty; wherefore in some cases an appeal from such\nmay be lawful or permitted; but from the throne none can appeal.\nNow grace is upon the throne, reigns upon the throne, proceeds\nfrom the throne. A man may appeal from the law to the throne, from\nMoses to Christ, from him that spake on earth to him that speaks\nfrom heaven; but from heaven to earth, from Christ to Moses, none\ncan appeal, Moses himself has forbid it. For 'Moses truly said\nunto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto\nyou, of your brethren like, unto me; him shall ye hear in all things\nwhatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that\nevery soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed\nfrom among the people' (Acts 3:22,23).\n\nSee here, this NEW prophet judges in the highest court; he is\nmaster of grace, the throne by which grace reigns; and even Moses\nadmits that from himself an appeal may be made to this prophet;\nyea, he allows that men may flee from himself to this prophet for\nrefuge; but there must be no appeal from him. Thou must hear him\nor die. How shall we escape, 'if we turn away from him that speaketh\nfrom heaven?' (Heb 12:25).\n\nThis, therefore, is to be duly weighed and deeply considered by\nus. It is not a saint, nor a minister, nor a prophet, nor an angel\nthat speaks, for all these are but servants, but inferiors; no,\nit is a voice from the throne, from authority, from the highest\nauthority; it is the Lord from heaven. This grace proceeds from\nthe throne, and, therefore, men must stand and fall by what shall\ncome from hence. He that comes not hither to drink shall die for\nthirst. He that refuses this water now, shall not have so much as\nwill hang upon the tip of his finger, if it would save his soul,\nhereafter. 'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation'\n(Heb 2:3).\n\nApostates will, therefore, from hence find gripping pangs and\nburning coals, for they have turned themselves away from this\nthrone, and from the grace that proceeds therefrom; nor is it to\nany purpose whatever they plead for themselves. They are fallen\nfrom grace, and what can help them? Christ is become of none effect\nunto such, whosoever is, that is, seeks to be, justified by the\nlaw; they 'are fallen from grace' (Gal 5:4).\n\nFourth. The throne is the seat of glory, 'When the Son of man\nshall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him; then\nshall he sit upon the throne of his glory' (Matt 25:31). And if\nthe throne of judgment is the seat of glory, much more the throne\nof grace. We will venture then to say that the throne of grace\nis the throne of God's glory, as the throne of judgment will be\nthe throne of Christ's glory, and that grace proceedeth from his\nthrone, that both it and he might have glory; glory in a way of\nmercy.\n\n1. That it might have glory; therefore has he designed that grace\nshall be effectual in, and to the salvation of some, even 'to the\npraise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted\nin his Beloved' (Eph 1:6). He has designed, not the glory of man's\nworks, but the glory of his own grace; and, therefore, has put\nman's works, as to justification before God, under his feet, and\ncounts them as filthy rags; but has set his grace up above, has\nmade it a king, given it authority to reign, has provided for it\na throne, and called that throne the throne of grace, from whence\nit also proceeds to its own praise and glory, in and by the\neffectual salvation of those that receive it, and receive it not\nin vain.\n\n2. As grace is exalted, and made to proceed out of the throne, to\nits own praise, to its own glory; so is it also thus exalted and\nmade flow to us like a river, that we should be the praise of the\nglory of him that hath exalted it. We that receive it, and submit\nunto the throne whence it proceeds, have thereby 'obtained an\ninheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him\nwho worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we\nshould be to the praise of his glory' (Eph 1:11,12). So that this\nthrone is a throne of glory. 'A glorious high throne, from the\nbeginning is the place of our sanctuary' (Jer 17:12). Now what\nfollows from this, but that they that accept of this grace give\nglory to God, to his grace, and to the word of his grace; such,\nI say, 'glorify God for his mercy' (Rom 15:9). 'They glorify God\nfor your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ' (2 Cor\n9:13), which is the gospel or good tidings 'of the grace of God'\n(Acts 20:24). They, with Abraham, believe, and give glory to God\n(Rom 4:20). And with the Gentiles they glorify the word of the\nLord (Acts 13:48).\n\nBut to slight grace, to do despite to the Spirit of grace, to\nprefer our own works to the derogating from grace, what is it but\nto contemn God? to contemn him when he is on the throne, when he\nis on the throne of his glory? I say, it is to spit in his face,\neven then when he commands thee to bow before him, to subject unto\nhim, and to glorify the grace of his glory, that proceeds from the\nthrone of his glory. If men in old time were damned because they\nglorified him not as God, shall not they be more than damned, if\nmore than damned can be, who glorify him not for his grace? And,\nto be sure, none glorify him for his grace but those that close\nin therewith, and submit themselves thereto. Talkers of grace are\nbut mockers of God, but flatterers of God. Those that only talk\nhighly of grace, and submit not themselves unto it, are but like\nto those that praise a look, or flatter him in his own conceits.\nGrace God has exalted, has set it upon the throne, and so made it\na king, and given it authority to reign; and thou goest by, and\nhearest thereof, but wilt not submit thyself thereto, neither thy\nsoul nor thy life; why, what is this more than to flatter God with\nthy lips, and than to lie unto him with thy tongue? what is this\nbut to count him less wise than thyself? while he seeks glory by\nthat by which thou wilt not glorify him; while he displays his\ngrace before thee in the world from the throne, and as thou goest\nby, with a nod thou callest it a fine thing, but followest that\nwhich leadeth therefrom? Tremble, tremble, ye sinners, that have\ndespised the richness of his goodness; the day is coming when ye\nshall behold, and wonder, and perish, if grace prevaileth not with\nyou to be content to be saved by it to the praise of its glory, and\nto the glory of him who hath set it upon the throne (Acts 13:38-41).\n\nFifth. The throne is the seat of wisdom. Hence, he is called 'the\nAncient of Days,' that sits on this throne, the throne of God (Dan\n7:9). Infinite in wisdom, whose garments were white as snow, and\nthe hair of his head like pure wool. By Ancient of Days, and in\nthat it is said the hair of his head is like the pure wool, his\nwisdom is set forth unto us. Wherefore, when we read that out of\nthe throne proceeds a river of grace; when we read this proceedeth\nout of the throne of God, it is as much as to say the wise God,\nwho most perfectly knoweth all ways, counteth, in his wisdom,\nthat to save men by grace is the best, most safe, and sure way:\n'Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end\nthe promise might be sure to all the seed' (Rom 4:16). And, again,\nforgiveness is according to the riches of his grace, wherein\nhe hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph\n1:7,8).--Wherefore, to set grace upon the throne, to let grace\nproceed out of the throne as a river, is by the wise God, the only\nwise God, counted the best way, the safest way, the way that doth\nbest suit the condition of a sinful man, and that tends most to\nthe utter disappointment of the devil, and death, and hell. Grace\ncan justify freely, when it will, who it will, from what it will.\nGrace can continue to pardon, favour, and save from falls, in\nfalls, out of falls. Grace can comfort, relieve, and help those\nthat have hurt themselves. And grace can bring the unworthy to\nglory. This the law cannot do, this man cannot do, this angels\ncannot do, this God cannot do, but only by the riches of his grace,\nthrough the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Wherefore, seeing\nGod has set grace on the throne, and ordered that it should proceed\nfrom this throne to the world; yea, seeing he has made it king,\nand granted to it, to it only, the authority and sovereignty of\nsaving souls, he has magnified not only his love, but his wisdom\nand his prudence before the sons of men. This, then, is his\ngreat device, the master-piece of all his witty inventions; and,\ntherefore, it is said, as was hinted before, in this thing he hath\nproceeded towards us in ALL wisdom and prudence (2 Sam 14:14; Prov\n8:11,12).\n\nSo then, he that comes to, and drinks of this water, glorifies\nGod for his wisdom, praises God for his wisdom. Such an one saith\nthat God is only wise, and, bowing his head, saith again, 'to\nGod only wise, be glory both now and for ever. Amen.' But he that\nshall contemn this grace, confronts the highest wisdom, even wisdom\nupon the throne; he saith to himself, I am wiser than Daniel,\nthan the judgment of God. I could have found out a more safe way\nto heaven myself; and had I been of God's council, I would have\ntold him so. All this, so horrible blasphemy, naturally proceeds\nfrom him that liketh not that grace should be king on the throne,\nand should proceed out of the throne to the world; but 'shall he\nthat contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?' He that reproveth\nGod, let him answer it (Job 40:2).\n\nThe text says,[12] that this very doctrine to the Greeks, to the\nwise, is foolishness, and the preaching of it a foolish thing to\nthem; but it will appear even then, when the conclusion of all\nthings is come, and when these wise ones, by their wisdom, have\nfooled themselves to hell, that this 'foolishness of God is wiser\nthan men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men' (1 Cor\n1:21-25).\n\nChrist Jesus, because he was low in the world, is trampled upon by\nsome, but he is a glorious throne to his Father's house: for since\nhis humility was the lowest of all, now he is exalted to be the\nthrone of God, yea, is made the fountain whence grace continually\nflows, like the rivers, and comes down to us like a mighty stream.\nWherefore, I will conclude this with both comfort and caution: with\ncomfort, and that because of the security that they are under that\nindeed have submitted themselves to grace; 'sin shall not have\ndominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.'\nAnd let it be a caution to those that despise. Take heed, it is\ndangerous affronting of the wisdom of God. Now here is the wisdom\nof God, even wisdom upon the throne. It pleased God, for the glory\nof his wisdom, to make this the way: to wit, to set up grace to\nreign. I have often thought, and sometimes said, if God will be\npleased with any way, surely he will be pleased with his own. Now\nthis is the way of his own devising, the fruit and effect of his\nown wisdom; wherefore, sinner, please him, please him in that\nwherein he is well pleased. Come to the waters, cast thyself into\nthem, and fear not drowning; let God alone to cause them to carry\nthee into his paradise, that thou mayest see his throne.\n\nSixth. The throne is the seat of faithfulness, the place of\nperforming of engagements and promises. 'When I shall receive the\ncongregation,' saith Christ, 'I will judge uprightly,' that is\nfaithfully (Psa 75:2). And now he has received it, and is made\nhead over all things to it (Eph 1:22,23). And for this cause is\nhe upon the throne, yea, is the throne, from whence proceeds all\nthis grace, that like a river doth flow, and glide from heaven into\nthe world. This river, then, is nothing else but the fulfilling\nof promises; the faithful fulfilling of promises. 'If I go not\naway, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will\nsend him unto you' (John 16:7). 'This is that which was spoken\nby the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days,\nsaith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh,' &c.\n(Acts 2:16-18). Now this river is the Spirit, the Spirit and grace\nof God, which was promised by the Father and the Son, and now it\ncomes running from the throne of God and of the Lamb. For 'being\nby the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father\nthe promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye\nnow see and hear' (Acts 2:33).\n\nBehold, then, how mindful, how careful, how faithful our Father\nand the Lamb of God is! It is not exaltation, nor glory, nor a\ncrown, nor a kingdom, nor a throne, that shall make him neglect\nhis poor ones on earth. Yea, therefore, even because he is exalted\nand on the throne, therefore it is that such a river, with its\ngolden streams, proceeds from the throne to come unto us. And\nit shall proceed to be far higher than ever was the swellings of\nJordan. True, it runs not so high now as in former days, because\nof the curse of God upon Antichrist, by whose means the land\nof God's people is full of briers and thorns (Isa 32:13-17). But\nwhen the tide is at the lowest, then it is nearest the rising;\nand this river will rise, and in little time be no more so low as\nbut ankle-deep; it will be up to the knees, to the loins, and be\na broad river to swim in (Eze 47). For 'there the glorious Lord\nwill be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams' (Isa 33:21).\n'And there shall be no more curse' in the church, 'but the throne\nof God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall\nserve him' without molestation (Rev 22:3-6).\n\n'These sayings are faithful and true,' and in faithfulness shall\nthey, from the throne of God and of the Lamb, be performed to the\nchurch. Faithfulness in him that rules, is that which makes Sion\nrejoice; because thereby the promises yield milk and honey. For\nnow the faithful God, that keepeth covenant, performs to his church\nthat which he told her he would. Wherefore, our rivers shall run,\nand our brooks yield honey and butter (Job 20:17). Let this teach\nall God's people to expect, to look, and wait for good things\nfrom the throne. But, O! methinks this throne, out of which good\ncomes like a river! who would not be a subject to it? who would\nnot but worship before it? But,\n\nSeventh. A throne is 'the seat of justice.' 'Justice and judgment\nare the habitation of thy throne' (Psa 89:14). And it is also from\njustice that this river of grace flows to us: justice to Christ,\nand justice to those that are found in him (Rom 3:24). God declares\nthat he can justly justify, and justly forgive (1 John 1:9). Now,\nif he can justly justify and justly forgive, then can he give\ngrace, and cause that it should proceed to, yea, flow after us\nas a river (1 Cor 10:4). The river that gushed out of the rock in\nthe wilderness ran after the people there, wherefore they wandered\ntherein. They drank of the rock that followed them; the rock was\nnot removed out of his place, but the flood followed them whither\nthey went. 'He opened the rock and the waters gushed out; they\nran in the dry places like a river' (Psa 105:41). This rock, saith\nhe, was Christ, that is, figuratively: and this throne is Christ\nreally: and the water gushing out of the rock, and following of them\nin the wilderness, was to show how, when Christ became a throne,\ngrace and goodness should follow us in the wilderness from thence\nso long as here we abide. Wherefore David, considering this,\nsaid, 'Surely goodness and mercy shall FOLLOW me all the days of\nmy life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever' (Psa\n23:6).\n\nBut whence must this come? The text says from the throne; from the\nthrone, the seat of justice; for from thence, by reason of what\nHE hath found in Christ for us, he, in a way of righteousness and\njustice, lets out to us rivers of his pleasures; whose original\nis that great and wide sea of mercy that flows in his infinite\nheart beyond thought.\n\nAll is paid for both US and grace (John 7:39). We are bought\nwith a price (1 Cor 6:20). He has obtained eternal redemption for\nus (Heb 9:12). Yea, and as we are made his, and heaven made ours\nthus, so this river of grace has been also obtained by him for us\n(John 7:38). Wherefore, all comes to us in a way of justice and\nrighteousness. Hence we are said to obtain 'faith through the\nrighteousness of God' (2 Peter 1:1), that is, through the justice\nof God, and of Jesus our Lord. Mark, here is the justice of God,\nand the justice of Jesus our Lord; and we have our faith from the\njustice of God, because of the righteousness of Jesus our Lord; that\nis, Jesus answered with works of justice the demands of justice;\nand therefore, in a way of justice, grace reigns, and comes to us\nlike a river, as is signified, for that it is said to come to us\nout of the throne.\n\nAgain, grace is said 'to reign through righteousness unto eternal\nlife' (Rom 5:21). Through what righteousness? the righteousness\nor justice of God by Jesus Christ our Lord. By Jesus Christ, or\nfor his sake. For for his sake, as I said, we are forgiven; and\nfor his sake have all things pertaining to life and godliness.\nWhich all things come to us, through, or down, the stream of this\nriver in a way of justice; and, therefore, it is said to come from\nthe throne.\n\nEighth. This throne is the seat of grace and mercy; and, therefore,\nit is called the mercy-seat and throne of grace. This throne\nturns all into grace, all into mercy. This throne makes all things\nwork together for good. It is said of Saul's sons, they were not\nburied after they were hanged, until water dropped upon them out\nof heaven (2 Sam 21:10,14). And it may be said of us there is\nnothing suffered to come near us, until it is washed in that water\nthat proceeds from the throne of grace. Hence afflictions flow\nfrom grace (Psa 119:67), persecutions flow from grace; poverty,\nsickness, yea, death itself is now made ours by the grace of God\nthrough Christ (1 Cor 3:22; Rev 3:19; Heb 12:5-7). O grace, O happy\nchurch of God! all things that happen to thee are, for Christ's\nsake, turned into grace. They talk of the philosopher's stone,\nand how, if one had it, it would turn all things into gold. O!\nbut can it turn all things into grace? can it make all things work\ntogether for good? No, no, this quality, virtue, excellency, what\nshall I call it, nothing has in it, but the grace that reigns on\nthe throne of grace, the river that proceeds from the throne of\nGod. This, this turns majesty, authority, the highest authority,\nglory, wisdom, faithfulness, justice, and all into grace. Here is a\nthrone! God let us see it. John had the honour to see it, and to\nsee the streams proceeding from it. O sweet sight! O heart-ravishing\nsight! 'He showed me a pure river of water of life proceeding out\nof the throne of God.'\n\nIndeed, as was hinted before, in the days of the reign of Antichrist\nthere are not those visions of this throne, nor of the river that\nproceedeth therefrom. Now he holdeth back the face of his throne,\nand spreadeth a cloud upon it; but the preserving, saving benefits\nthereof we have, as also have all the saints, in the most cloudy\nand dark day. And since we can see so little, we must believe the\nmore; and by believing, give glory to God. We must also labour for\nmore clear Scripture knowledge of this throne; for the holy Word\nof God is the perspective glass by which we may, and the magnifying\nglass that will cause us to behold, 'with open face, the glory of\nthe Lord' (2 Cor 3:18).\n\nBut, methinks, I have yet said nothing of this throne, which is\nindeed none other but the spotless and glorified humanity of the\nSon of God. This throne is the Lord Jesus, this grace comes from\nthe Divine Majesty, as dwelling bodily in the Lord Jesus. Wherefore\nlet us fall down before the throne, and cast our crowns at the foot\nof the throne, and give thanks to him that sits upon the throne,\nand to the Lamb for ever and ever. O how should Jesus be esteemed\nof! The throne of the king is a royal seat: it is said of Solomon's,\n'there was not the like made in any kingdom' (1 Kings 10:20). But\nof this it may be said there is not its like in heaven and earth.\nAt the setting up of this throne, the angels flocked round about\nit, and the beasts and the elders gathered together to see it\n(Rev 4). When this throne was set in heaven, there was silence,\nall the heavenly host had no leisure to talk; they were surprised\nwith sight and wonder. When this throne was set in heaven, what\ntalk there was! it was as the music of the trumpet.[13]\n\n'And behold,' says John, 'a door was opened in heaven; and the\nfirst voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking\nwith me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things\nwhich must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit, and\nbehold a THRONE WAS SET IN HEAVEN, and one sat upon the throne.'\n\nThis throne was Jesus Christ exalted, SET, that is, lifted up, not\nas upon the cross to the contempt and scorn of his person, but,\nas I said, to the wonderment of the four beasts, and the elders,\nand all the angels in heaven. 'A throne was set in heaven, and\none sat upon the throne'; that is, God. And this intimates his\ndesirable rest for ever: for to sit is to rest, and Christ is his\nrest for ever. Was it not, therefore, well worth the seeing? Yea,\nif John had taken the pains to go up thither upon his hands and\nknees, I say, to see the Lord Jesus as a throne set in heaven, and\nthe glory of God resting and abiding upon him, and giving out by\nhim all things, not only his Word, but all his dispensations and\nprovidences, to the end of the world; and this blessed thing among\nthe rest, even 'a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,'\n[how richly would he have been rewarded for his pains].\n\n[THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THIS WATER.]\n\n[FOURTH.] But I leave this, and proceed to the fourth and last\nthing, namely, to the nature and quality of this water. It is said\nto be pure and clear; pure and clear as crystal. 'And he showed\nme a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.' I know that\nthere is a two-fold quality in a thing, one with respect to its\nnature, and the other with respect to its operation. The first\nof these is inherent, and remaineth in the subject being as such,\nand so for the most part useless. The other is put forth then\nwhen it meeteth with fit matter on which it may freely work. As\nto instance aquae vitae, the very metaphor here made use of, hath\na quality inherent in it, but keep it stopped up in a bottle, and\nthen who will may faint notwithstanding; but apply it, apply it\nfitly, and to such as have need thereof, and then you may see its\nquality by the operation. This water, or river of grace, is called, I\nsay, the water of life, and so, consequently, has a most blessed\ninherent quality; but its operation is seen by its working,\nthe which it doth only then when it is administered and received\nfor those ends for which it is administered. For then it revives\nwhere life is, and gives life where it is not. And thus far, in\nthe general, have we spoken to it already. We will, therefore, in\nthis place more particularly, though briefly, speak a few words\nunto it.\n\n[The operative quality of this water.]\n\nFIRST. Then this water of life is the very groundwork of life in\nus, though not the groundwork of life for us. The groundwork of\nlife for us is the passion and merits of Christ, this is that for\nthe sake of which grace is given unto us, as it is intimated by\nthe text; it proceeds from the throne of God, who is Christ. Christ\nthen having obtained grace for us, must needs be precedent, as\nto his merit, to that grace he hath so obtained. Besides, it is\nclear that the Spirit and grace come from God through him; therefore,\nas to the communications of grace to us, it is the fruit of his\nmerit and purchase. But, I say, in us grace is the groundwork of\nlife; for though we may be said before to live virtually in the\nperson of Christ before God, yet we are dead in ourselves, and so\nmust be until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high; for the\nSpirit is life, and its graces are life, and when that is infused\nby God from the throne, then we live, and not till then. And hence\nit is called, as before, living water, the water of life springing\nup in us to everlasting life. The Spirit, then, and graces of\nthe Spirit, which is the river here spoken of, is that, and that\nonly, which can cause us to live; that being life to the soul,\nas the soul is life to the body. All men, therefore, as was said\nbefore, though elect, though purchased by the blood of Christ,\nare dead, and must be dead, until the Spirit of life from God and\nhis throne shall enter into them; until they shall drink it in by\nvehement thirst, as the parched ground drinks in the rain.[14]\n\nNow when this living water is received, it takes up its seat in\nthe heart, whence it spreads itself to the awakening of all the\npowers of the soul. For, as in the first creation, the Spirit\nof God moved upon the face of the waters, in order to putting of\nthat creature into that excellent fashion and harmony which now\nwe behold with our eyes; even so the new creation, to wit, the\nmaking of us new to God, is done by the overspreading of the same\nSpirit also. For the Spirit, as I may so say, sitteth and broodeth\nupon the powers of the soul, as the hen doth on cold eggs,\ntill they wax warm and receive life. The Spirit, then, warmeth\nus, and bringeth the dead and benumbed soul--for so it is before\nconversion--to a godly sense and understanding of states, of states\nboth natural and spiritual; and this is the beginning of the work\nof the Spirit, by which the soul is made capable of understanding\nwhat God and himself is.\n\nAnd this drinking in of the Spirit is rather as the ground drinks\nin rain, than as a rational soul does through sense of the want\nthereof.\n\nThe Spirit also garnisheth the soul with such things as are proper\nfor it, to the making of it live that life that by the Word of\nGod is called for.\n\nIt implanteth light, repentance, faith, fear, love, desires after\nGod, hope, sincerity, and what else is necessary for the making\nthe man a saint; these things, I say, are the fruits and effects\nof this Spirit which, as a river of water of life, proceedeth forth\nof the throne of God and of the Lamb. Hence the Spirit is called\nthe Spirit of faith, the Spirit of love, and the Spirit of a sound\nmind; for that the Spirit is the root and original of all these\nthings, by his operations in, and upon, the face of the soul (2\nCor 4:13; Gal 5:22; 2 Tim 1:7).\n\nBut, again, as this living water, this Spirit and the grace thereof,\ndoth thus, so it also maintains these things once planted in the\nsoul, by its continual waterings of them in the soul. Hence he\nsaith, 'I will water it every moment'; water IT--his vineyard,\nthe soul of the church, the graces of the church; and so the soul\nand graces of every godly man (Isa 27:3).\n\nAnd because it so happeneth sometimes, that some of those things\nwherewith the Holy Ghost has beautified the soul may languish to\na being, if not quite dead, yet 'ready to die' (Rev 3:2), therefore\nhe doth not only refresh and water our souls, but renews the face\nthereof, by either quickening to life that which remains, or by\nsupplying of us with that which is new, to our godly perseverance\nand everlasting life. Thus 'thou visitest the earth, and waterest\nit; thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God' (Psa 65:9).\n\nFor this must be remembered, that as the herb that is planted, or\nseed sown, needs watering with continual showers of the mountains,\nso our graces, implanted in us by the Spirit of grace, must also\nbe watered by the rain of heaven. 'Thou waterest the ridges thereof\nabundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makes it soft\nwith showers: thou blessest the springing thereof' (Psa 65:10).\nHence he says that our graces shall grow. But how? 'I will be as\nthe dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth\nhis roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty\nshall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that\ndwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn,\nand grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of\nLebanon' (Hosea 14:5-7). Or, as he saith in another place, 'The\nLord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought,\nand make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden,\nand like a spring of water, whose waters fail not' (Isa 58:11).\n\nThere is, besides this, another blessing that comes to us by this\nliving water, and that is, the blessing of communion. All the\nwarmth that we have in our communion, it is the warmth of the\nSpirit: when a company of saints are gathered together in the name\nof Christ, to perform any spiritual exercise, and their souls be\nedified, warmed, and made glad therein, it is because this water,\nthis river of water of life, has, in some of the streams thereof,\nrun into that assembly (Jer 31:12,13). Then are Christians like\nthose that drink wine in bowls, merry and glad; for that they\nhave drank into the Spirit, and had their souls refreshed with\nthe sweet gales and strong wine thereof. This is the feast that\nIsaiah speaks of, when he saith, 'In this mountain shall the Lord\nof hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of\nwines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the\nlees well refined' (Isa 25:6). This is called in another place,\n'the communion of the Holy Ghost' (2 Cor 13:14). Now he warmeth\nspirits, uniteth spirits, enlighteneth spirits; revives, cherisheth,\nquickeneth, strengtheneth graces; renews assurances, brings old\ncomforts to mind, weakens lusts, emboldeneth and raiseth a spirit\nof faith, of love, of hope, of prayer, and makes the Word a\nblessing, conference a blessing, meditation a blessing, and duty\nvery delightful to the soul. Without this water of life, communion\nis weak, flat, cold, dead, fruitless, lifeless; there is nothing\nseen, felt, heard, or understood in a spiritual and heart-quickening\nway. Now ordinances are burdensome, sins strong, faith weak, hearts\nhard, and the faces of our souls dry, like the dry and parched\nground.\n\nThis drink also revives us when tempted, when sick, when persecuted,\nwhen in the dark, and when we faint for thirst. The life of religion\nis this water of life: where that runs, where that is received,\nand where things are done in this spirit, there all things are\nwell; the church thrifty, the soul thrifty, graces thrifty, and\nall is well. And this hint I thought convenient to be given of this\nprecious water of life, that is, with reference to the operative\nquality of it.\n\n[The other qualities of this water.]\n\nSECOND. I shall come, in the next place, to speak of it, as to\nthe other descriptions which John doth give us of it. He says it\nis, First, pure; Second, clear; Third, clear to a comparison: 'And\nhe showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.'\n\n[First. The purity of this water.]\n\n1. You read here that this water of life is PURE, that is, alone\nwithout mixture, for so sometimes that word PURE is to be\nunderstood. As where it saith, pure, 'pure olive oil' (Exo 27:20).\n'Pure frankincense' (Exo 30:34). 'Pure gold' (Exo 25:11,17). 'Pure\nblood of the grape' (Deut 32:14), and the like. So then, when he\nsaith, 'he showed me a pure river of water of life,' it is as if\nhe had said he showed me a river of water that was all living,\nall life, and had nothing in it but life. There was no death, or\ndeadness, or flatness in it; or, as he saith a little after, 'and\nthere shall be no more curse.' A pure river. There is not so much\nas a grudge, or a piece of an upbraiding speech found therein.\nThere is in it nothing but heart, nothing but love, nothing but\ngrace, nothing but life. 'The gifts and calling of God are without\nrepentance' (Rom 11:29).\n\n2. PURE is sometimes set in opposition to show or appearance; as\nwhere he says, 'the stars are not pure' (Job 25:5). That is, not\nso without mixture of darkness, as they seem to be: so again, 'If\nthou wert pure and upright' (Job 8:6): that is, as thou seemest\nto be, or as thou wouldst have us believe thou art.\n\nNow, take pure in this sense here, and then the meaning is, it is\ngrace without deceit, without guile; its show and its substance\nare the same; it has nothing but substance in it; it is indeed\nwhat it seems to be in bulk; it is a river in show and a river\nindeed. It comes from God and from his throne in appearance, and\nreally it comes from his very heart.\n\nThe great fear of the tempted is, that there is not so much grace\nin God, and that he is not so free of it as some scriptures seem\nto import. But this word PURE is levelled against such objections\nand objectors, for the destroying of their doubts, and the relieving\nof their souls. There is no fraud, nor guile, nor fable in the\nbusiness; for though God is pleased to present us with his grace\nunder the notion of a river, it is not to delude our fancies\nthereby; but to give us some small illustration of the exceeding\nriches of his grace, which as far, for quantity, outstrips the\nbiggest rivers, as the most mighty mountain doth the least ant's\negg or atom in the world.\n\n3. But, again, this word PURE is set in opposition to that which\nis hurtful and destructive: 'I am pure from the blood of all\nmen,' that is, I have hurt nobody (Acts 20:26). 'The wisdom that\nis from above is first pure,' it is not hurtful (James 3:17). Do\nyou count them pure with the wicked balances? how can that be,\nsince they are hurtful? (Micah 6:11).\n\nNow take PURE in this sense here, and then it intimates, that the\ngrace of God, and the doctrine of grace, is not a hurtful thing.\nIt is not as wine of an intoxicating nature. If a man be filled\nwith it, it will do him no harm (Eph 5:18). The best of the things\nthat are of this world are some way hurtful. Honey is hurtful\n(Prov 25:16,27). Wine is hurtful (Prov 20:1). Silver and gold are\nhurtful, but grace is not hurtful (1 Tim 6:10). Never did man\nyet catch harm by the enjoyment and fulness of the grace of God.\nThere is no fear of excess or of surfeiting here. Grace makes\nno man proud, no man wanton, no man haughty, no man careless or\nnegligent as to his duty that is incumbent upon him, either from\nGod or man: no, grace keeps a man low in his own eyes, humble,\nself-denying, penitent, watchful, savoury in good things, charitable,\nand makes him kindly affectionated to the brethren, pitiful and\ncourteous to all men.\n\nTrue, there are men in the world that abuse the grace of God, as\nsome are said to turn it into wantonness and into lasciviousness\n(Jude 4). But this is, not because grace has any such tendency,\nor for that it worketh any such effect; but because such men are\nthemselves empty of grace, and have only done as death and hell\nhath done with wisdom, 'heard the fame thereof with their ears'\n(Job 28:22). It is a dangerous thing for a man to have the notions\nof grace, while his heart is void of the spirit and holy principles\nof grace; for such a man can do no other than abuse the grace of\nGod. Alas, what can be expected of him that has nothing in him\nto teach him to manage that knowledge of grace which he has, but\nhis flesh, his lusts, and lustful passions? Can these teach him\nto manage his knowledge well? Will they not rather put him upon\nall tricks, evasions, irreligious consequences and conclusions,\nsuch as will serve to cherish sin? What Judas did with Christ,\nthat a graceless man will do with grace, even make it a stalking\nhorse to his fleshly and vile designs; and rather than fail betray\nboth it, and the profession of it, to the greatest enemies it has\nin the world.\n\nAnd here I may say, though grace is pure, and not hurtful at all,\nyet one altogether carnal, sinful, and graceless, having to do\nwith the doctrine of it, by the force of his lusts which tamper\nwith it, he will unavoidably bring himself into the highest ruin\nthereby. An unwary man may destroy himself by the best of things,\nnot because there is in such things an aptness to destroy, but\nbecause of the abuse and misuse of them. Some know the way of\nlife, the water of life, by knowledge that is naked and speculative\nonly; and it had been better for such if they had not known, than\nto know and turn from what they know; than to know, and make the\nknowledge subservient to their lusts (2 Peter 2:20-22). Some\nreceive the rain of God, and the droppings of his clouds, because\nthey continually sit under the means of his grace. But, alas!\nthey receive it as stones receive showers, or as dunghills receive\nthe rain; they either abide as hard stones still, or else return\nnothing to heaven for his mercy, but as the dunghills do, a\ncompany of stinking fumes. These are they that drink in the rain\nthat comes often upon them, and that instead of bringing forth\nherbs meet for the dresser, bring forth briers and thorns; and\nthese are they who are nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned\n(Heb 6:7,8).\n\nBy this word PURE I understand sometimes the chiefest good, the\nhighest good. There are many things that may be called good, but\nnone of them are good as grace is good. All things indeed are\npure, that is, all creatures in themselves are good and serviceable\nto man, but they are not so good as grace (Rom 14:20; Gen 1:31).\n'There is a generation that are pure,' that are good in their\nown eyes (Prov 30:12). There are good men, good consciences, good\nworks, good days, good angels, &c., but none so good as grace,\nfor it is grace that has made them so. Grace, this water of life,\ntherefore is good, superlatively good, good in the highest degree,\nfor that it makes all things good, and preserveth them good. And\nwhatever it be that this water of life washeth not, it is soil,\nand given to the curse, as the prophet intimates where he saith,\n'But the miry places thereof, and the marshes thereof, shall not\nbe healed; they shall be given to salt' (Eze 47:1).\n\nBut who understands this, who believes it? Its goodness is kept\nclose from the fowls of the air. Men, most men, are ignorant of\nthe goodness of it, nor do they care to inquire after the enjoyment\nof this pure, this good water of life. The reason is, because\nthough it is good in itself, good in the highest degree, and that\nwhich makes all things good, yet it is not such a good as is suited\nto a carnal appetite. There is good; and there is suitable good.\nNow suitable good is of two sorts: either such as is spiritual,\nor such as is temporal. That which is spiritual, is desired only\nof them that are spiritual; for temporal good will satisfy a carnal\nmind. Now grace is a spiritual good; this river of grace is the\ngoodness of spiritual good. It is the original life of all the\ngrace in our souls. No marvel, then, if it be so little set by of\nthose that are carnally minded. They will serve a horse, and mire\nwill serve a sow; so things of this life suit best with the men\nof this world; for their appetite is gross and carnal, and they\nsavour not the things that be of the Spirit of God. 'The natural\nman receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,' the things\nthat be of this river of God; 'for they are foolishness unto him:\nneither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned'\n(1 Cor 2:14). This is the river of OIL which the prophet speaks\nof, the river of SPIRIT. Were it a river of gold and silver, there\nwould be old fishing on the banks thereof. But it is a river that\nruns 'like oil, saith the Lord God' (Eze 32:14). This rock pours\nus out 'rivers of oil' (Job 29:6)--'fresh oil' (Psa 92:10)--'soft\noil' (Psa 55:21)--'the oil of joy' (Isa 61:3)--'the oil of gladness'\n(Psa 45:7)--oil to anoint the head withal (Eccl 9:8)--oil to make\nthe face to shine (Psa 104:15)--oil by which thou wilt be made\nable to honour both God and man in some good measure as becomes\nthee (Judg 9:9).\n\nI might have enlarged upon this head, and have showed you many more\nparticulars wherein this term of pure might serve for the better\nsetting forth of the excellency of this water of life, but I shall\nproceed no further upon this, but will come to that which remains.\n\n[Second. The clearness of this water of life.]\n\nAs this river of water of life is said to be pure, so it is said\nto be CLEAR. 'He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear.'\nThis term has also its particular signification, and, therefore,\nought to be heeded.\n\n1. CLEAR is set in opposition to dark; therefore some are said\nto be 'clear as the sun' (Cant 6:10). And again, 'the light shall\nnot be clear nor dark' (Zech 14:6). In both these places, clear\nis to be taken for light, daylight, sunlight; for, indeed, it is\nnever day nor sunshine with the soul, until the streams of this\nriver of water of life come gliding to our doors, into our houses,\ninto our hearts. Hence the beginning of conversion is called\nillumination (Heb 10:32). Yea, the coming of this river of water\nof life unto us is called the day-spring from on high, through\nthe tender mercy of our God (Luke 1:78). It is also called the\ndawning of the day (2 Peter 1:19). And hence, again, these men\nunto whom this river of water of life comes not, are said to be\ndark, darkness. 'Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light\nin the Lord' (Eph 5:8). Wherefore, this water is like Jonathan's\nhoney; it hath a faculty to open the eyes, to make them that sit\nin darkness see a great light (1 Sam 14:27; Matt 4:16). The light\nof the knowledge of the glory of God in the faith of Jesus Christ;\n'God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined\nin our hearts to give the light'; the Spirit that enlighteneth\nand giveth the light, 'of the knowledge of the glory of God in\nthe face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor 4:6). This river casteth beams\nwhere it goes, like the beams of the sun; it shines, it casts out\nrays of glory unto those that drink thereof. The streams of this\ngrace were they that overtook Saul when he was going to Damascus;\nthey were the waters of this flood that compassed him round about.\nAnd if you will believe him, he saith this light from heaven was\na great light, a light above the brightness of the sun, a light\nthat did by the glory of it make dark to him all the things in\nthe world (Acts 9:3, 22:6, 26:13).\n\n2. CLEAR is set in opposition to that which is not pleasing. For\nto be clear is to be pleasant. Hence it is said, 'truly the light\nis sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the\nsun' (Eccl 11:7). I read of rivers that looked red as blood, that\nstank like the blood of a dead man, but this is no such river (Exo\n7:19,20; 2 Kings 3:22,23). I read of rivers whose streams are like\nstreams of brimstone, fiery streams, streams of burning pitch,\nbut this is none of them (Isa 30:27-33; David 7:9-11; Isa 34:9).\n'There is a river' besides all these, clear and pleasant, 'the\nstreams whereof shall make glad the city of God' (Psa 46:4).\n\nThere are the waters that the doves love to sit by, because by\nthe clearness of these streams they can see their pretty selves,\nas in a glass (Cant 5:12).\n\nThese are the streams where the doves wash their eyes, and by which\nthey solace themselves, and take great content. These streams are\ninstead, as I said, of a looking-glass; their clearness presents\nus with an opportunity of seeing our own features. As in fair\nwaters a man may see the body of the sun, and of the moon, and\nof the stars, and the very body of heaven; so he that stands upon\nthe bank of this river, and that washeth his eyes with this water,\nmay see the Son of God, the stars of God, the glory of God, and\nthe habitation that God has prepared for his people. And are not\nthese pleasant sights? is not this excellent water? has not this\nriver pleasant streams?\n\n3. CLEAR is set in opposition to dirty water and muddiness. I read\nof some waters that are fouled with the feet of beasts, and with\nthe feet of men, yea, and deep waters too. Yea, saith God to some,\nye 'have drunk of the deep waters,' and have fouled 'the residue\nwith your feet'; and again, 'As for my flock, they eat that which\nye have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which ye have\nfouled with your feet' (Eze 34:18,19). These waters are doctrines\ncontained in the text, muddied and dirtied by the false glosses\nand sluttish opinions of erroneous judgments, of which the poor\nsheep have been made to drink. And, verily, this is apparent\nenough by the very colour and hue of those poor souls; for though\nthe truth of God was in them, yet the very stain of tradition and\nsuperstition might be also seen in their scales. For as the fish\nof the river receive, by being there, the changeable colours of\nthe waters, so professors, what doctrine they hear and drink, do\nlook like that. If their doctrines are muddy, their notions are\nmuddy; if their doctrines are bloody, their notions and tempers are\nbloody: but if their doctrines are clear, so are their notions, for\ntheir doctrine has given them a clear understanding of things.[15]\n\nNow, here we have a river of water of life that is clear--clear\nwithout dirt and mud--clear without the human inventions and\nmuddy conceptions of unsanctified and uninstructed judgments; yea,\nhere you have a river the streams whereof lie open to all in the\nchurch, so that they need not those instruments of conveyance\nthat are foul, and that use to make water stink, if they receive\nit to bring it to them that have need.\n\n4. By clear we sometimes understand purgation; or that a thing\nhas purged itself, or is purged from those soils and imputations\nof evil wherewith sometimes they have been charged. 'Then thou shalt\nbe clear from this my oath'; or, 'How shall we clear ourselves?'\n(Gen 24:8-14, 44:16). Something of this sense may be in the text;\nfor if men are not afraid to charge God with folly, which is\nintimated by 'that thou mightest be clear when thou judgest' (Psa\n51:4), will they, think you, be afraid to impute evil to his Word,\nand grace, and Spirit? No, verily; they are bold enough at this\nwork. Nay, more than this, even from the foundation of the world,\nmen have cast slanders upon, and imputed based things into the\nblessed grace of the gospel. But not to look so far back. Paul\nwas one of the pipes through which God conveyed this grace to the\nworld; and what was he counted for his so doing, but 'a pestilent\nfellow, and a mover of sedition--throughout the world' (Acts 24:5,6).\nBut, behold, no imputation can stick on the grace of God--not\nstick long; for that, like honey, will purge itself of what filth\nis put upon it, and of all bad imputations of evil men's springs,\nand rivers are of a self-purging quality. Now, here we have to do\nwith a river--a river of water of life; but a river more slandered\nthan ever did Naaman the Syrian slander the waters of Israel in\npreferring those of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, beyond\nthem (2 Kings 5:10-12). But behold now, at last, when all the world\nhave done what they can, and cast what reproaches and slanders\nupon it they are able, it is a river pure and clear. It has purged\nitself before kings--it has purged itself before princes and\njudges, and all the Naamans in the world; it is still a river--a\nriver of water of life--a river of water of life CLEAR.\n\n5. By clear we sometimes understand purity manifest, or innocency\nand goodness made known. 'In all things ye have approved yourselves\nto be CLEAR in this matter' (2 Cor 7:11). That is, you have made\nit appear, and stand upon your justification, and are willing to\nbe searched and sounded to the bottom by those that have a desire\nto undertake that work. So this river of water of life in the\nfountain, and in the streams thereof, offer themselves to the\nconsideration and conscience of all men. To this end how often\ndoth God, the head of this river, and he out of whose throne it\nproceeds, call upon men to challenge him, if they can, with any\nevil or misdoing towards them, either by presence or doctrine;\nhence he says, 'Put me in remembrance; let us plead together;\ndeclare thou,' if thou canst, 'that thou mayest be justified,'\nand I condemned (Isa 43:26). So again: 'What iniquity have your\nfathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have\nwalked after vanity, and are become vain?' (Jer 2:5). So Christ:\n'Which of you convinceth me of sin?' (John 8:46). And 'If I have\nspoken evil, bear witness of the evil' (John 18:23). So Paul: We\n'have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking\nin craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by\nmanifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's\nconscience in the sight of God' (2 Cor 4:2). All these sentences\nare chiefly to be applied to doctrine, and so are, as it were,\nan offer to any, if they can, to find a speck, or a spot, or a\nwrinkle, or any such thing in this river of water of life.\n\nSome men fly from it as from a bear; and some are afraid to drink\nof it, for fear it should be poison unto them. Some, again, dare\nnot take it because it is not mixed, and as they, poor souls,\nimagine, qualified and made toothsome by a little of that which\nis called the wisdom of this world. Thus one shucks,[16] another\nshrinks, and another will none of God. Meanwhile, whoso shall\nplease to look into this river shall find it harmless and clear;\nyea, offering itself to the consciences of all men to make trial\nif it be not the only chief good, the only necessary waters, the\nonly profitable, for the health of the soul, of all the things\nthat are in the world, and as clear of mischief as is the sun of\nspots.\n\n[Third.--this river is clear to the most perfect comparison.]\n\nAs John saw this river pure and clear, so he saw it clear to a\ncomparison. Clear to the best of comparisons, clear as crystal.\nCrystal is a very clear stone, as clear as the clearest glass,\nif not clearer; one may see far into it, yea, through it; it is\nwithout those spots, and streaks, and smirches that are in other\nprecious stones. Wherefore, when he saith that this river is clear\nas crystal, it is as if God should say, Look, sinners, look to\nthe bottom of these my crystal streams. I have heard of some seas\nthat are so pure and clear, that a man may see to the bottom though\nthey may be forty feet deep. I know this river of water of life\nis a deep river; but though it is said to be deep, it is not said\nwe can see no bottom. Indeed, as to the wideness of it, it is\nsaid to be such as that it cannot be passed over; but I say, it is\nnowhere said that we cannot see to the bottom; nay, the comparison\nimplies that a man with good eyes may see to the bottom. It is\nclear, as clear as crystal. So, then, we will a little look down\nto the bottom, and see, through these crystal streams, what is at\nthe bottom of all.\n\n1. Then the bottom of all is, 'That we might be saved' (John 5:34).\n'These things I say,' saith Christ, 'that ye might be saved'; and,\nagain, 'I am come that you might have life, and that you might\nhave it more abundantly' (John 10:10). This is the bottom of this\ngreat river of water of life, and of its proceeding from the throne\nof God and of the Lamb: it is that we might be saved; it is that\nwe might live. What a good bottom is here! what a sound bottom\nis here! But few deep rivers have a good bottom. Mud is at the\nbottom of most waters in the world; even the sea itself, when it\nworketh, casts up mire and dirt, and so do the hearts of sinners;\nbut the bottom of this grace of God, and of the Spirit and Word\nthereof, is that we might be saved, consequently a very good\nbottom.\n\n2. As the bottom of all is, 'that we may be saved,' so that we\nmay be saved by grace, and this is a bottom sounder and sounder.\nOur salvation might have been laid upon a more difficult bottom\nthan this. It might have been laid on our works. God might have\nlaid it there, and have been just, or he might have left us to\nhave laid it where we would; and then, to be sure, we had laid it\nthere, and so had made but a muddy bottom to have gone upon to\nlife. But now, this river of water of life, it has a better bottom;\nthe water of life is as clear as crystal, look down to the bottom\nand see, we are 'justified freely by his grace' (Rom 3:24). 'By\ngrace ye are saved,' there is the bottom (Eph 2:5,8).\n\nNow, grace, as I have showed you, is a firm bottom to stand on;\nit is of grace that life might be sure (Rom 4:16). Surely David\nwas not here, or surely this was not the river that he spake of\nwhen he said, 'I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:\nI am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. Deliver\nme out of the mire, and let me not sink' (Psa 69:2,14). I say, to\nbe sure this could not be the river. No, David was now straggled\nout of the way, was tumbled into some pit, or into some muddy and\ndirty hole; for as for this river it has a good bottom, a bottom\nof salvation by grace, and a man needs not cry out when he is\nhere that he sinks, or that he is in danger of being drowned in\nmud or mire.\n\n3. The bottom of all is, as I said, that we might be saved, saved\nby grace, and I will add, 'through the redemption that is in Christ.'\nThis is still better and better. We read that, when Israel came\nover Jordan, the feet of the priests that did bear the ark stood\non firm ground in the bottom, and that they set up great stones\nfor a memorial thereof (Josh 3:17, 4:1-3). But had Jordan so good\na bottom as has this most blessed river of water of life, or were\nthe stones that Israel took out thence like this 'tried stone,'\nthis 'sure foundation?' (Isa 28:16). O the throne! this river\ncomes out of the throne, and we are saved by grace through the\nredemption that is in him. We read that there is a city that has\nfoundations; grace is one, Christ another, and the truth of all\nthe prophets and apostles, as to their true doctrine, another,\n&c. (Heb 11:10). And again, all these are the very bottom of this\ngoodly river of the water of life (Eph 2:19,20).\n\n4. There is another thing to be seen at the bottom of this holy\nriver, and that is, the glory of God; we are saved, saved by grace,\nsaved by grace through the redemption that is in Christ to the\npraise and glory of God. And what a good bottom is here. Grace\nwill not fail, Christ has been sufficiently tried, and God will\nnot lose his glory. Therefore they that drink of this river shall\ndoubtless be saved; to wit, they that drink of it of a spiritual\nappetite to it. And thus much for the explication of the text.\n\n[THE APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE.]\n\nI now come to make some use of the whole.\n\nYou know our discourse has been at this time of the water of life,\nof its quantity, head-spring, and quality; and I have showed you\nthat its nature is excellent, its quantity abundant, its head-spring\nglorious, and its quality singularly good.\n\nFIRST. Let this, then, in the first place, be a provocation to\nus to be more free in making use of this water. There are many,\nnow-a-days, that are for inventing of waters, to drink for the\nhealth of the body; and to allure those that are ill to buy, they\nwill praise their waters beyond their worth. Yea, and if they be\nhelpful to one person in a hundred, they make as if they could\ncure every one. Well, here you have the great Physician himself,\nwith his water, and he calls it the water of life, water of life\nfor the soul: this water is probatum est.[17] It has been proved\ntimes without number; it never fails but where it is not taken\n(Acts 26:18; Isa 5:4,5). No disease comes amiss to it; it cures\nblindness, deadness, deafness, dumbness. It makes 'the lips of\nthose that are asleep to speak' (Cant 7:9). This is the right HOLY\nWATER,[18] all other is counterfeit: it will drive away devils and\nspirits; it will cure enchantments and witchcrafts; it will heal\nthe mad and lunatic (Gal 3:1-3; Mark 16:17,18). It will cure the\nmost desperate melancholy; it will dissolve doubts and mistrusts,\nthough they are grown as hard as stone in the heart (Eze 36:26).\nIt will make you speak well (Col 4:6). It will make you have a\nwhite soul, and that is better than to have a white skin (Eze\n36:25,26). It will make you taste well; it will make you disrelish\nall hurtful meats (Isa 30:22). It will beget in you a good appetite\nto that which is good; it will remove obstructions in the stomach\nand liver. It will cause that what you receive of God's bread\nshall turn to good nourishment, and make good blood. In a word,\nit preserveth life (John 4:14). They that take this water shall\nlive longer than did old Methuselah, and yet he lived a great\nwhile (Gen 5:27).\n\nWherefore, let me continue my exhortation to you. Be more free\nin making use of this water; it is the wholesomest water in the\nworld; you may take it at the third, sixth, ninth, or eleventh hour,\nbut to take it in the morning of your age is best (Matt 20:3-6).\nFor then diseases have not got so great a head as when they are\nof long continuance, consequently they will be removed with far\nmore ease; besides, those that thus do will receive endless life,\nand the comfort of it betimes; and that, you know, is a double\nlife to one (Eccl 11:1-4).\n\nThis water gently purges, and yet more effectually than any others.\nTrue, where bad humours are more tough and churlish, it will show\nitself stronger of operation, for there is no disease can be too\nhard for it. It will, as we say, throw the house out of the windows;\nbut it will rid us of the plague of those most deadly infections\nthat otherwise will be sure to make us sleep in death, and bring\nus, with the multitude, down to hell. But it will do no hurt; it\nonly breaks our sleep in security, and brings us to a more quick\napprehension of the plague of our heart and flesh. It will, as I\nsaid before, provoke to appetite, but make us only long after that\nwhich is wholesome. If any ask why I thus allegorize, I answer,\nthe text doth lead me to it.\n\nSECOND. I advise, therefore, in the next place, that thou get thee\na dwelling-place by these waters. 'The beloved of the Lord shall\ndwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day\nlong' (Deut 33:12). If thou ask where that dwelling is, I answer,\nin the city of God, in and among the tabernacles of the Most\nHigh. This river comes from the throne to water the city of God;\nand to that end it is said to run 'in the midst of the street of\nit' (Rev 22:2). If ye will inquire, inquire, return, come. 'The\nseed also of his servants shall inherit it, and they that love\nhis name shall dwell therein' (Psa 69:36). Get thee a dwelling\nin Jerusalem, in the midst of Jerusalem, and then thou wilt be\nseated by this river.\n\nIn old times, the ancients had their habitations by the rivers;\nyea, we read of Aroer that stood upon the brink of the river Arnon\n(Josh 13:9). Balaam also had his dwelling in his city Pethor, 'by\nthe river of the land of the children of his people' (Num 22:5).\nO! by a river side is the pleasantest dwelling in the world; and\nof all rivers, the river of the water of life is the best. They\nthat dwell there 'shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the\nheat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall\nlead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them' (Isa\n49:10). Trees planted by the rivers, and that spread out their\nroots by the rivers, they are the flourishing trees, they bring\nforth their fruit in their season (Psa 1:3; Jer 17:8). And the\npromise is that men that take up their dwellings by this river of\nwater of life, shall be fruitful as such trees.\n\nIf thou art a Christian, thou hast more than an ordinary call and\noccasion to abide by these waters; thy things will not grow but by\nthese waters. Weeds and the excellencies of most men we may find\nin the barren wilderness, they grow under every hedge; but thine\nare garden, and so choice things, and will not thrive without much\nwater, no, without the water of God's river. Dwell, therefore,\nhere; that thy soul may be as a watered garden (Jer 31:12; Isa\n12:1-3). And when thou seest how those that are loath to die,[19]\nmake provision at Tunbridge, Epsom, the Bath, and other places,\nand what houses they get that they may have their dwellings by\nthose waters, then do thou consider of thy spiritual disease, and\nhow nothing can cure thee but this blessed water of life; be also\nmuch of desires to have a dwelling-place in Jerusalem, that thou\nmayest always be nigh to these waters. Be often also in watering\nthy plants with these waters. I mean the blessed graces of God\nin thy soul; then shalt thou grow, and retain thy greenness, and\nprove thyself to be a disciple indeed. And herein is God, and thy\nFather, glorified, that thou bear much fruit (John 15:8).\n\nTHIRD. My third word is, bless God for providing for man such\nwaters. These only can make us live; all others come out of the\nDead Sea, and do kill; there is no living water but this. I say,\nshow thy acceptation of it with thanksgiving; if we are not to\nreceive our bread and cheese but with thanksgiving, how should we\nbless God for this unspeakable gift! (2 Cor 9:15). This is soul\nlife, life against sin, life from sin, life against the curse, life\nfrom the curse, life beyond hell, beyond desert, beyond thought,\nbeyond desires. Life that is pleasing, life that is profitable,\nlife everlasting.\n\nO my brethren, bless God! who doth good and gives us such rain,\nfilling our hearts with food and gladness.[20] When Moses would\ntake the heart of Israel, and took in hand to raise up their\nspirits to thankfulness, he used to tell them that the land that\nthey were to go to was a land that God cared for, and that was\nwatered with the dew of heaven. Yea, 'a land of brooks of water,\nof fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a\nland that flowed with milk and honey, which is the glory of all\nlands' (Deut 8:7; Exo 3:8, 13:5; Lev 20:24; Num 14:8). But yet in\nhis description he makes no mention of a river of water of life;\na river the streams whereof make glad the city of God.\n\nThis river is the running out of God's heart; the letting out of\nhis very bowels, for God is the living God. This is his heart and\nsoul. 'Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will\nplant them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with\nmy whole soul' (Jer 32:41). I say, if ever God's heart and soul\nappeared, it showed itself in giving this water of life, and\nthe throne from whence it proceeds. Wherefore [there is] all the\nreason of the world, that in the reception of it thy heart and\nsoul should run out and flow after him in thanksgiving. See how\nDavid words it in Psalm 103:1-5, and do likewise.\n\nFOURTH. By the characters that are given of this water of life,\nthou art capacitated to judge when a notion, a doctrine, an opinion,\ncomes to thine ears, whether it is right, good, and wholesome, or\nhow. This river is pure, is clear, is pure and clear as crystal.\nIs the doctrine offered unto thee so? or is it muddy, and mixed\nwith the doctrines of men? Look, man, and see if the foot of the\nworshippers of Bel be not there, and if the waters be not fouled\nthereby. What water is fouled is not the water of life, or at\nleast not the water of life in its clearness. Wherefore, if thou\nfindest it not right, go up higher to the spring-head, for always\nthe nearer to the spring, the more pure and clear is the water.\nFetch, then, thy doctrine from afar, if thou canst not have it good\nnearer hand (Job 36:3). Thy life lies at stake; the counterfeit of\nthings is dangerous; everybody that is aware, is afraid thereof.\nNow a counterfeit here is most dangerous, is most destructive.\nWherefore take heed how you hear, what you hear; for, as I said\nbefore of the fish, by your colour it will be seen what waters\nyou swim in; wherefore look you well to yourselves.[21]\n\nFIFTH. Doth this water of life run like a river, like a broad,\nfull, and deep river; then let no man, be his transgressions never\nso many, fear at all, but there is enough to save his soul, and\nto spare. Nothing has been more common to many than to doubt of\nthe grace of God; a thing most unbecoming a sinner of any thing in\nthe world. To break the law is a fact foul enough; but to question\nthe sufficiency of the grace of God to save therefrom, is worse\nthan sin, if worse can be. Wherefore, despairing soul, for it is\nto thee I speak, forbear thy mistrusts, cast off thy slavish fears,\nhang thy misgivings as to this upon the hedge; and believe thou\nhast an invitation sufficient thereto, a river is before thy face.\nAnd as for thy want of goodness and works, let that by no means\ndaunt thee; this is a river of water of life, streams of grace\nand mercy. There is, as I said, enough therein to help thee, for\ngrace brings all that is wanting to the soul. Thou, therefore,\nhast nothing to do, I mean as to the curing of thy soul of its\ndoubts, and fears, and despairing thoughts, but to drink and live\nfor ever.\n\nSIXTH. But what is all this to the DEAD world--to them that love\nto be dead? They toss their vanities about as the boys toss their\nshuttlecocks in the air, till their foot slips, and themselves\ndescend into the pit.\n\nLet this suffice for this time.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1 As God gave us existence, so, in his munificence and royal bounty,\nhe gives us his rich grace. We have nothing to give in return but\ngrateful love. He redeems us from the captivity of sin, and earth,\nand hell. 'Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon\na thousand hills: the world is mine, saith the Almighty, with the\nfulness thereof.' O to grace how great a debtor; freely bestowed\nto the poor and needy.--Ed.\n\n2 Water is a curse, as in the dropsy, but essential to life with\nour food. Oil is valuable, properly taken, but an irritating oil\nto consume the bones is destructive. How awful the case of the rich\nman when refused a drop of water to cool that fire which he had\ncreated while living, and into which he had irretrievably plunged\nhimself.--Ed.\n\n3 Reliance upon an imperfect obedience to God's holy law, united\nwith a hope, through Christ or some other means, of forgiveness\nfor not having kept some parts of that law, is 'the doctrine of\nthe world,' and of devils. It is a refuge of lies, which death will\nfearfully sweep away. We must rely wholly upon Christ, or perish.--Ed.\n\n4 Aquae Vitae was a cordial-water well known in Bunyan's time, and\nmuch used in compounding medicines, but now almost forgotten. It\nwas distilled from brewed beer, strongly hopped, and well fermented.\nThe French have an intoxicating liquour called eau de vie; this is\ndistilled from the refuse of the grapes after the wine is made.--Ed.\n\n5 Although all mankind are fatally diseased, they only feel it\nthat are made sick of sin; this is the law work, and when it takes\nplace, then comes the new birth and salvation by the efficacy of\nthis water of life.--Ed.\n\n6 A RIVER inexhaustible, to supply the pure and unmixed joys of\nheaven to all the myriads of happy glorified souls, and applied\nby the Spirit of grace to quench the thirst of the soul on earth.\nThis grace is fixed and permanent, 'springing up into everlasting\nlife.' Blessed Jesus, 'give me this water, that I thirst not\never.'--Ed.\n\n7 This water of life is as essential to the spiritual-mindedness\nof the soul, as natural water is to the life of a fish. The grace\nof God is the element in which only the renewed soul can live and\nenjoy a little of that heaven into which, as an ocean of bliss,\nthis river carries him.--Ed.\n\n8 Those that are satisfied with the world, and its enjoyments,\nand seek not for happiness in the favour of God; those that depend\non the merit of their own works for a righteousness; these do not\nthirst--they have no sense of their need, and will not condescend\nto come to THE FOUNTAIN.--Ed.\n\n9 The rain is taken from the sea by water-spouts or in vapour; it\nis wonderfully distilled, and descends upon the earth in fertilizing\nshowers which supply the rivers. In proportion to the rain or\nmelting of the snow, is the quantity of water in the rivers. Bunyan\nwas taught all this phenomena of nature, by a single verse in the\ninspired volume which he quotes. How wonderful is that Book!--Ed.\n\n10 This is a most astonishing natural phenomenon: that such a\nriver as the Thames, receiving constantly all the filth of a vast\nmetropolis, containing more than two millions of inhabitants,\nburies it all, and yet purifieth itself.--Ed.\n\n11 Light bread is an allusion to Numbers 21:5: 'our soul loatheth\nthis light bread.' The heavenly manna, like Christ, is despised\nand rejected of man.--Ed.\n\n12 By 'the text,' in this and other places, is meant the text of\nsacred Scripture; not the particular passage, or text, on which\nthis treatise is founded.--Ed.\n\n13 The solemn silence, and the sound of the trumpet, took place\nin quick succession when the medium of prayer and praise, from\nfallen man, was first exhibited in heaven. When Christ was revealed\nto John, as the throne upon which God received the prayers of all\nhis saints, awe, and wonder, and silence, was felt in heaven for\nthe space of half an hour; then came the sound of the trumpet\nwith dire events to those who had refused to pray in the name of\nChrist.--Ed.\n\n14 Thus the Spirit of God in regeneration produces light out of\ndarkness, makes the barren heart fruitful, and from confusion,\ndiscord, and enmity, brings order, harmony, and tranquility. The\nrenewed man is actuated by new hopes and fears; his judgment is\nenlightened, his will rectified, and his heart transformed; his\neyes being divinely opened he sees into eternity; he has a hope\nfull of immortality; spiritual appetites are excited in his soul;\nhis affections are raised to God and heaven; his soul thirsteth\nfor God, for the living God! Thus the Spirit giveth life to the\ndead, eyes to the blind, speech to the dumb, feet to the lame, and\nthe hand of faith to lay hold on Christ for complete salvation.--Mason.\n\n15 This is an excellent commentary upon that part of the Pilgrim's\nProgress which describes Christiana and her company at the foot\nof the hill Difficulty. Greatheart points out the spring at which\nChristian was refreshed before he began the arduous ascent which\nled him, in defiance of a persecuting world, to join in church\nfellowship, allegorically represented by the house Beautiful--'When\nChristian drank it was clear and good, but now it is dirty; and\nwith the feet of some that are not desirous that pilgrims should\nhere quench their thirst.' After the writing of the first part,\nand before that of the second, the Act of Uniformity had spread\nits baleful influence over England. To use Bunyan's words--'The\nRomish beasts have corrupted the doctrine by treading it down\nwith their feet, and have muddied this water with their own dirt\nand filthiness.'--See Holy City.--Ed.\n\n16 'Shuck,' to shake; obsolete as a verb, but retained as a noun\nto designate the pea-shell, after the peas have been shook out.--Ed.\n\n17 Probatum est--is proved--a scrap of Latin commonly used in\nadvertising medical prescriptions, in Bunyan's time.--Ed.\n\n18 A Protestant can have but little idea of the insane superstition\nof the Papists in respect to holy water. The following lines, from\nBarnaby Googe's Popish Kingdome, will shed a little light upon\nit:--\n\n'Besides, they do beleeue their sinnes to be forgiven quight, By\ntaking holy water here, whereof if there do light But one small\ndrop, it driueth out the hellishe deuils all Then which there can\nno greater griefe vnto the feend befall.'--4to. 1570, p. 42. In\nthe Editor's library.--Ed.\n\n19 The infatuation, nay, madness of human nature, in its fallen\nstate, is shown by living to hasten the inroads of death; and\nwhen he appears, terror-stricken they fly from it to any remedy\nthat is within their reach. How vast the number of suicides by\nintemperance!--Ed.\n\n20 The real Christian, and such only, are in this blessed case;\nthey have the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that\nwhich is to come. Their Father, the Almighty, supplies all their\nwants; giving joy and peace, when heart and flesh tremble.--Ed.\n\n21 In proportion to the number of professed Christians who thus\nobey the gospel by judging for themselves, so will be the happiness\nof the church, and the hastening on of the kingdom of Christ.\nNo one is a Christian that receives his doctrine from a prelate,\npriest, or minister, without prayerfully comparing it with the\nwritten Word. O man, take not the water of life as doled out by\na fellow-man; go to the river for yourself--survey yourself as\nreflected in those crystal streams. Christ does not say to the\nheavy-laden, sin-burdened soul, Go to the church; but, Come unto\nme, and find rest. Blessed is he who loves the river of water\nunpolluted by human devices, forms, or ceremonies; who flies to\nthe open bosom of his Christ, and finds refuge from every storm.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nTHE BARREN FIG-TREE;\n\nOR, THE DOOM AND DOWNFALL OF THE FRUITLESS PROFESSOR:\n\nSHOWING, THAT THE DAY OF GRACE MAY BE PAST WITH HIM LONG BEFORE\nHIS LIFE IS ENDED;\n\nTHE SIGNS ALSO BY WHICH SUCH MISERABLE MORTALS MAY BE KNOWN.\n\nBY JOHN BUNYAN\n\n'Who being dead, yet speaketh.'--Hebrews 11:4\n\nLondon: Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's\nChurchyard, 1688.\n\nThis Title has a broad Black Border.\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThis solemn, searching, awful treatise, was published by Bunyan\nin 1682; but does not appear to have been reprinted until a very\nfew months after his decease, which so unexpectedly took place\nin 1688. Although we have sought with all possible diligence, no\ncopy of the first edition has been discovered; we have made use of\na fine copy of the second edition, in possession of that thorough\nBunyanite, my kind friend, R. B. Sherring, of Bristol. The third\nedition, 1692, is in the British Museum. Added to these posthumous\npublications appeared, for the first time, 'An Exhortation to Peace\nand Unity,' which will be found at the end of our second volume.\nIn the advertisement to that treatise are stated, at some length,\nmy reasons for concluding that it was not written by Bunyan,\nalthough inserted in all the editions of his collected works. That\nopinion is now more fully confirmed, by the discovery of Bunyan's\nown list of his works, published just before his death, in 1688,\nand in which that exhortation is not inserted. I was also much\npleased to find that the same conclusion was arrived at by that\nhighly intelligent Baptist minister, Mr. Robert Robinson. His\nreasons are given at some length, concluding with, 'it is evident\nthat Bunyan never wrote this piece.'[1] Why it was, after Bunyan's\ndeath, published with his 'Barren Fig-tree,' is one of those hidden\nmysteries of darkness and of wickedness that I cannot discover. The\nbeautiful parable from which Bunyan selected his text, represents\nan enclosed ground, in which, among others, a fig-tree had been\nplanted. It was not an enclosure similar to some of the vineyards\nof France or Germany, exclusively devoted to the growth of the\nvine, but a garden in which fruits were cultivated, such as grapes,\nfigs, or pomegranates. It was in such a vineyard, thus retired\nfrom the world, that Nathaniel poured out his heart in prayer, when\nour Lord in spirit witnessed, unseen, these devotional exercises,\nand soon afterwards rewarded him with open approbation (John 1:48).\nIn these secluded pleasant spots the Easterns spend much of their\ntime, under their own vines or fig-trees, sheltered from the\nworld and from the oppressive heat of the sun--a fit emblem of a\nchurch of Christ. In this vineyard stood a fig-tree--by nature\nremarkable for fruitfulness--but it is barren. No inquiry is made\nas to how it came there, but the order is given, 'Cut it down.'\nThe dresser of the garden intercedes, and means are tried to make\nit fruitful, but in vain. At last it is cut down as a cumber-ground\nand burnt. This vineyard or garden represents a gospel church;\nthe fig-tree a member--a barren, fruitless professor. 'It matters\nnot how he got there,' if he bears no fruit he must be cut down\nand away to the fire.\n\nTo illustrate so awful a subject this treatise was written, and\nit is intensely solemn. God, whose omniscience penetrates through\nevery disguise, himself examines every tree in the garden, yea,\nevery bough. Wooden and earthy professor, your detection is sure;\nappearances that deceive the world and the church cannot deceive\nGod. 'He will be with thee in thy bed fruits--thy midnight\nfruits--thy closet fruits--thy family fruits--they conversation\nfruits.' Professor, solemnly examine yourself; 'in proportion\nto your fruitfulness will be your blessedness.' 'Naked and open\nare all things to his eye.' Can it be imagined that those 'that\npaint themselves did ever repent of their pride?' 'How seemingly\nself-denying are some of these creeping things.' 'Is there no place\nwill serve to fit those for hell but the church, the vineyard of\nGod?' 'It is not the place where the worker of iniquity can hide\nhimself or his sins from God.' May such be detected before they\ngo hence to the fire. While there is a disposition to seek grace\nall are invited to come; but when salvation by Christ is abandoned,\nthere is no other refuge, although sought with tears. Reader, may\nthe deeply impressive language of Bunyan sink profoundly into our\nhearts. We need no splendid angel nor hideous demon to reveal to\nus the realities of the world to come. 'If we hear not Moses and\nthe prophets,' as set forth by Bunyan in this treatise, 'neither\nshould we be persuaded though one rose from the dead' to declare\nthese solemn truths (Luke 16:31).\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nI have written to thee now about the Barren Fig-tree, or how it will\nfare with the fruitless professor that standeth in the vineyard\nof God. Of what complexion thou art I cannot certainly divine; but\nthe parable tells thee that the cumber-ground must be cut down.\nA cumber-ground professor is not only a provocation to God,\na stumbling-block to the world, and a blemish to religion, but a\nsnare to his own soul also. 'Though his excellency mount up to the\nheavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish\nfor ever, like his own dung; they which have seen him shall say,\nWhere is he?' (Job 20:6,7).\n\nNow 'they count it pleasure to riot in the daytime.' But what will\nthey do when the axe is fetched out? (2 Peter 2:13,14).\n\nThe tree whose fruit withereth is reckoned a tree without fruit,\na tree twice dead, one that must be 'plucked up by the roots'\n(Jude 12).\n\nO thou cumber-ground, God expects fruit, God will come seeking\nfruit shortly.\n\nMy exhortation, therefore, is to professors that they look to it,\nthat they take heed.\n\nThe barren fig-tree in the vineyard, and the bramble in the wood,\nare both prepared for the fire.\n\nProfession is not a covert to hide from the eye of God; nor will\nit palliate the revengeful threatening of his justice; he will\ncommand to cut it down shortly.\n\nThe church, and a profession, are the best of places for the\nupright, but the worst in the world for the cumber-ground. He must\nbe cast, as profane, out of the mount of God: cast, I say, over\nthe wall of the vineyard, there to wither; thence to be gathered\nand burned. 'It had ben better for them not to have known the way\nof righteousness' (2 Peter 2:21). And yet if they had not, they\nhad been damned; but it is better to go to hell without, than in,\nor from under a profession. These 'shall receive greater damnation'\n(Luke 20:47).\n\nIf thou be a professor, read and tremble: if thou be profane, do\nso likewise. For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall\nthe ungodly and sinners appear? Cumber-ground, take heed of the\naxe! Barren fig-tree, beware of the fire!\n\nBut I will keep thee no longer out of the book. Christ Jesus, the\ndresser of the vineyard, take care of thee, dig about thee, and\ndung thee, that thou mayest bear fruit; that when the Lord of the\nvineyard cometh with his axe to seek for fruit, or pronounce the\nsentence of damnation on the barren fig-tree, thou mayest escape\nthat judgment. The cumber-ground must to the wood-pile, and thence\nto the fire. Farewell.\n\nGrace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\nTHE BARREN FIG-TREE, OR THE DOOM AND DOWNFALL OF THE FRUITLESS\nPROFESSOR.\n\n'A CERTAIN MAN HAD A FIG-TREE PLANTED IN HIS VINEYARD; AND HE CAME\nAND SOUGHT FRUIT THEREON, AND FOUND NONE. THEN SAID HE UNTO THE\nDRESSER OF HIS VINEYARD, BEHOLD, THESE THREE YEARS I COME SEEKING\nFRUIT ON THE FIG-TREE, AND FIND NONE: CUT IT DOWN; WHY CUMBERETH\nIT THE GROUND? AND HE ANSWERING SAID UNTO HIM, LORD, LET IT ALONE\nTHIS YEAR ALSO, TILL I SHALL DIG ABOUT IT, AND DUNG IT: AND IF IT\nBEAR FRUIT, WELL: AND IF NOT, THEN AFTER THAT THOU SHALT CUT IT\nDOWN.'--LUKE 13:6-9.\n\nAt the beginning of this chapter we read how some of the Jews came\nto Jesus Christ, to tell him of the cruelty of Pontius Pilate,\nin mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices.\nA heathenish and prodigious act; for therein he showed, not only\nhis malice against the Jewish nation, but also against their\nworship, and consequently their God. An action, I say, not only\nheathenish, but prodigious also; for the Lord Jesus, paraphrasing\nupon this fact of his, teacheth the Jews, that without repentance\n'they should all likewise perish.' 'Likewise,' that is by the hand\nand rage of the Roman empire. Neither should they be more able to\navoid the stroke, than were those eighteen upon whom the tower of\nSiloam fell, and slew them (Luke 13:1-5). The fulfilling of which\nprophecy, for their hardness of heart, and impenitency, was in\nthe days of Titus, son of Vespasian, about forty years after the\ndeath of Christ. Then, I say, were these Jews, and their city,\nboth environed round on every side, wherein both they and it,\nto amazement, were miserably overthrown. God gave them sword and\nfamine, pestilence and blood, for their outrage against the Son\nof his love. So wrath 'came upon them to the uttermost' (1 Thess\n2:16).[2]\n\nNow, to prevent their old and foolish salvo, which they always\nhad in readiness against such prophecies and denunciations of\njudgment, the Lord Jesus presents them with this parable, in which\nhe emphatically shows them that their cry of being the temple of\nthe Lord, and of their being the children of Abraham, &c., and\ntheir being the church of God, would not stand them in any stead.\nAs who should say, It may be you think to help yourselves against\nthis my prophecy of your utter and unavoidable overthrow, by the\ninterest which you have in your outward privileges. But all these\nwill fail you; for what think you? 'A certain man had a fig-tree\nplanted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon,\nand found none.' This is your case! The Jewish land is God's\nvineyard; I know it; and I know also, that you are the fig-trees.\nBut behold, there wanteth the main thing, fruit; for the sake, and\nin expectation of which, he set this vineyard with trees. Now,\nseeing the fruit is not found amongst you, the fruit, I say,\nfor the sake of which he did at first plant this vineyard, what\nremains but that in justice he command to cut you down as those\nthat cumber the ground, that he may plant himself another vineyard?\n'Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these\nthree years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none;\ncut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?' This therefore must be\nyour end, although you are planted in the garden of God; for the\nbarrenness and unfruitfulness of your hearts and lives you must\nbe cut off, yea, rooted up, and cast out of the vineyard.\n\nIn parables there are two things to be taken notice of, and to be\ninquired into of them that read. First, The metaphors made use\nof. Second, The doctrine or mysteries couched under such metaphors.\n\nThe metaphors in this parable are, 1. A certain man; 2. A vineyard;\n3. A fig-tree, barren or fruitless; 4. A dresser; 5. Three years;\n6. Digging and dunging, &c.\n\nThe doctrine, or mystery, couched under these words is to show us\nwhat is like to become of a fruitless or formal professor. For,\n1. By the man in the parable is meant God the Father (Luke 15:11).\n2. By the vineyard, his church (Isa 5:7). 3. By the fig-tree, a\nprofessor. 4. By the dresser, the Lord Jesus. 5. By the fig-tree's\nbarrenness, the professor's fruitlessness. 6. By the three\nyears, the patience of God that for a time he extendeth to barren\nprofessors. 7. This calling to the dresser of the vineyard to\ncut it down, is to show the outcries of justice against fruitless\nprofessors. 8. The dresser's interceding is to show how the Lord\nJesus steps in, and takes hold of the head of his Father's axe,\nto stop, or at least to defer, the present execution of a barren\nfig-tree. 9. The dresser's desire to try to make the fig-tree\nfruitful, is to show you how unwilling he is that even a barren\nfig-tree should yet be barren, and perish. 10. His digging about\nit, and dunging of it, is to show his willingness to apply gospel\nhelps to this barren professor, if haply he may be fruitful. 11.\nThe supposition that the fig-tree may yet continue fruitless,\nis to show, that when Christ Jesus hath done all, there are some\nprofessors will abide barren and fruitless. 12. The determination\nupon this supposition, at last to cut it down, is a certain\nprediction of such professor's unavoidable and eternal damnation.\n\nBut to take this parable into pieces, and to discourse more\nparticularly, though with all brevity, upon all the parts thereof.\n\n'A certain MAN had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.'\n\nThe MAN, I told you, is to present us with God the Father; by\nwhich similitude he is often set out in the New Testament.\n\nObserve then, that it is no new thing, if you find in God's church\nbarren fig-trees, fruitless professors; even as here you see is a\ntree, a fruitless tree, a fruitless fig-tree in the vineyard.[3]\nFruit is not so easily brought forth as a profession is got into;\nit is easy for a man to clothe himself with a fair show in the\nflesh, to word it, and say, Be thou warmed and filled with the\nbest. It is no hard thing to do these with other things; but to be\nfruitful, to bring forth fruit to God, this doth not every tree,\nno not every fig-tree that stands in the vineyard of God. Those\nwords also, 'Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh\naway,' assert the same thing (John 15:2). There are branches\nin Christ, in Christ's body mystical, which is his church, his\nvineyard, that bear not fruit, wherefore the hand of God is to\ntake them away: I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild\ngrapes, that is, no fruit at all that was acceptable with God (Isa\n5:4). Again, 'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto\nhimself,' none to God; he is without fruit to God (Hosea 10:1).\nAll these, with many more, show us the truth of the observation,\nand that God's church may be cumbered with fruitless fig-trees,\nwith barren professors.\n\nHad a FIG-TREE.\n\nAlthough there be in God's church that be barren and fruitless;\nyet, as I said, to see to, they are like the rest of the trees,\neven a fig-tree. It was not an oak, nor a willow, nor a thorn,\nnor a bramble; but a FIG-TREE. 'they come unto thee as the people\ncometh' (Eze 33:31). 'They delight to know my ways, as a nation\nthat did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their\nGod. They ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take delight\nin approaching to God,' and yet but barren, fruitless, and\nunprofitable professors (Isa 58:2-4). Judas also was one of the\ntwelve, a disciple, an apostle, a preacher, an officer, yea, and\nsuch a one as none of the eleven mistrusted, but preferred before\nthemselves, each one crying out, 'Is it I? Is it I?' (Mark 14:19).\nNone of them, as we read of (John 6:70), mistrusting Judas; yet\nhe in Christ's eye was the barren fig-tree, a devil, a fruitless\nprofessor. The foolish virgins also went forth of the world with\nthe other, had lamps, and light, and were awakened with the other;\nyea, had boldness to go forth, when the midnight cry was made, with\nthe other; and thought that they could have looked Christ in the\nface, when he sat upon the throne of judgment, with the other; and\nyet but foolish, but barren fig-trees, but fruitless professors.\n'Many,' saith Christ, 'will say unto me in that day,' this and\nthat, and will also talk of many wonderful works; yet, behold,\nhe finds nothing in them but the fruits of unrighteousness (Matt\n7:22,23). They were altogether barren and fruitless professors.\n\nHad a fig-tree PLANTED.\n\nThis word PLANTED doth also reach far; it supposeth one taken out\nof its natural soil, or removed from the place it grew in once;\none that seemed to be called, awakened; and not only so, but\nby strong hand carried from the world to the church; from nature\nto grace; from sin to godliness. 'Thou hast brought a vine out\nof Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it' (Psa\n80:8). Of some of the branches of this vine were there unfruitful\nprofessors.\n\nIt must be concluded, therefore, that this professor, that remaineth\nnotwithstanding fruitless, is, as to the view and judgment of\nthe church, rightly brought in thither, to wit, by confession of\nfaith, of sin, and a show of repentance and regeneration; thus\nfalse brethren creep in unawares![4] All these things this word\nplanted intimateth; yea, further, that the church is satisfied\nwith them, consents they should abide in the garden, and counteth\nthem sound as the rest. But before God, in the sight of God, they\nare graceless professors, barren and fruitless fig-trees.\n\nTherefore it is one thing to be in the church, or in a profession;\nand another to be of the church, and to belong to that kingdom that\nis prepared for the saint, that is so indeed. Otherwise, 'Being\nplanted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the\neast-wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it\ngrew' (Eze 17:10).\n\nHad a fig-tree planted in HIS vineyard.\n\nIn HIS vineyard. Hypocrites, with rotten hearts, are not afraid\nto come before God in Sion. These words therefore suggest unto us\na prodigious kind of boldness and hardened fearlessness. For what\npresumption higher, and what attempt more desperate, than for a\nman that wanteth grace, and the true knowledge of God, to crowd\nhimself, in that condition, into the house or church of God; or\nto make profession of, and desire that the name of God should be\ncalled upon him?\n\nFor the man that maketh a profession of the religion of Jesus Christ,\nthat man hath, as it were, put the name of God upon himself, and\nis called and reckoned now, how fruitless soever before God or\nmen, the man that hath to do with God, the man that God owneth,\nand will stand for. This man, I say, by his profession, suggesteth\nthis to all that know him to be such a professor. Men merely natural,\nI mean men that have not got the devilish art of hypocrisy, are\nafraid to think of doing thus. 'And of the rest durst no man join\nhimself to them; but the people magnified them' (Acts 5:13). And,\nindeed, it displeaseth God. 'Ye have brought,' saith he, 'men\nuncircumcised into my sanctuary' (Eze 44:7). And again, 'When ye\ncome to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand,\nto tread my courts?' saith God (Isa 1:12). They have therefore\nlearned this boldness of none in the visible world, they only took\nit of the devil, for he, and he only, with these his disciples,\nattempt to present themselves in the church before God. 'The\ntares are the children of the wicked one.' The tares, that is,\nthe hypocrites, that are Satan's brood, the generation of vipers,\nthat cannot escape the damnation of hell.\n\nHAD a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.\n\nHe doth not say, He planted a fig-tree, but there was a fig-tree\nthere; he HAD, or found a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.\n\nThe great God will now acknowledge the barren fig-tree, or barren\nprofessor, to be his workmanship, or a tree of his bringing in,\nonly the text saith, he had one there. This is much like that\nin Matthew 15:13--'Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not\nplanted, shall be rooted up.' Here again are plants in his vineyard\nwhich God will not acknowledge to be of his planting; and he seems\nto suggest that in his vineyard are many such. Every plant, or all\nthose plants or professors, that are got into the assembly of the\nsaints, or into the profession of their religion, without God and\nhis grace, 'shall be rooted up.'\n\n'And when the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a\nman which had not on the wedding-garment. And he saith unto him,\nFriend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment?'\n(Matt 22:11,12). Here is one so cunning and crafty that he beguiled\nall the guests; he got and kept in the church even until the King\nhimself came in to see the guests; but his subtilty got him nothing;\nit did not blind the eyes of the King; it did not pervert the\njudgment of the righteous. 'Friend, how camest thou in hither?' did\novertake him at last; even a public rejection; the King discovered\nhim in the face of all present. 'How camest thou in hither?' My\nFather did not bring thee hither; I did not bring thee hither;\nmy Spirit did not bring thee hither; thou art not of the heavenly\nFather's planting. 'How camest thou in hither?' He that 'entereth\nnot by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a\nthief and a robber' (John 10:1). This text also is full and plain\nto our purpose; for this man came not in by the door, yet got into\nthe church; he got in by climbing; he broke in at the windows;\nhe got something of the light and glory of the gospel of our Lord\nJesus Christ in his head; and so, hardy wretch that he was, he\npresumed to crowd himself among the children. But how is this\nresented? What saith the King of him? Why, this is his sign, 'the\nsame is a thief and a robber.' See ye here also, if all they be\nowned as the planting of God that get into his church or profession\nof his name.\n\n'Had a fig-tree.' Had one without a wedding-garment, had a thief\nin his garden, at his wedding, in his house. These climbed up some\nother way. There are many ways to get into the church of God, and\nprofession of his name, besides, and without an entering by the\ndoor.\n\n1. There is the way of lying and dissembling, and at this gap the\nGibeonites got in (Josh 9 &c).\n\n2. There is sometimes falseness among some pastors, either for\nthe sake of carnal relations, or the like; at this hole Tobiah,\nthe enemy of God, got in (Neh 13:4-9).\n\n3. There is sometimes negligence, and too much uncircumspectness\nin the whole church; thus the uncircumcised got in (Eze 44:7,8).\n\n4. Sometimes, again, let the church be never so circumspect, yet\nthese have so much help from the devil that they beguile them\nall, and so get in. These are of the sort of thieves that Paul\ncomplains of, 'False brethren, that are brought in unawares' (Gal\n2:4). Jude also cries out of these, 'Certain men crept in unawares'\n(Jude 4). Crept in! What, were they so lowly? A voluntary humility,\na neglecting of the body, not in any humour (Col 2:23).[5] O! how\nseemingly self-denying are some of these 'creeping things,' that\nyet are to be held, (as we shall know them) an abomination to\nIsrael (Lev 11:43,44).\n\nBut in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of\nsilver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and\nsome to dishonour (2 Tim 2:20). By these words the apostle seems\nto take it for granted, that as there hath been, so there still\nwill be these kind of fig-trees, these barren professors in the\nhouse, when all men have done what they can; even as in a great\nhouse there are always vessels to dishonour, as well as those to\nhonour and glory; vessels of wood and of earth, as well as of silver\nand gold. So, then, there must be wooden professors in the garden\nof God, there must be earthy, earthen professors in his vineyard;\nbut that methinks is the biting word, 'and some to dishonour'\n(Rom 9:21,22). That to the Romans is dreadful, but this seems to\ngo beyond it; that speaks but of the reprobate in general, but\nthis of such and such in particular; that speaks of their hardening\nbut in the common way, but this that they must be suffered to\ncreep into the church, there to fit themselves for their place,\ntheir own place, the place prepared for them of this sort only\n(Acts 1:25). As the Lord Jesus said once of the Pharisees, These\n'shall receive greater damnation' (Luke 20:47).\n\nBarren fig-tree, fruitless professor, hast thou heard all these\nthings? Hast thou considered that this fig-tree is not acknowledged\nof God to be his, but is denied to be of his planting, and of his\nbringing unto his wedding? Dost not thou see that thou art called\na thief and a robber, that hast either climbed up to, or crept\nin at another place than the door? Dost thou not hear that there\nwill be in God's house wooden and earthly professors, and that no\nplace will serve to fit those for hell but the house, the church,\nthe vineyard of God? Barren fig-tree, fruitless Christian, do not\nthine ears tingle?\n\nAnd HE came and sought fruit thereon.\n\nWhen a man hath got a profession, and is crowded into the church\nand house of God, the question is not now, Hath he life, hath he\nright principles? but, Hath he fruit? HE came seeking fruit thereon.\nIt mattereth not who brought thee in hither, whether God or the\ndevil, or thine own vain-glorious heart; but hast thou fruit? Dost\nthou bring forth fruit unto God? And, 'Let every one that nameth\nthe name of' the Lord Jesus 'Christ depart from iniquity' (2 Tim\n2:19). He doth not say, And let every one that hath grace, or let\nthose that have the Spirit of God; but, 'Let every one that nameth\nthe name of' the Lord Jesus 'Christ depart form iniquity.'\n\nWhat do men meddle with religion for? Why do they call themselves\nby the name of the Lord Jesus, if they have not the grace of God,\nif they have not the Spirit of Christ? God, therefore, expecteth\nfruit. What do they do in the vineyard? Let them work, or get them\nout; the vineyard must have labourers in it. 'Son, go WORK to-day\nin my vineyard' (Matt 21:28). Wherefore, want of grace and want\nof Spirit will not keep God from seeking fruit. 'And he came and\nsought fruit thereon' (Luke 13:6, 8:8). He requireth that which\nhe seemeth to have. Every man in the vineyard and house of God\npromiseth himself, professeth to others, and would have all men\ntake it for granted, that a heavenly principle is in him, why then\nshould not God seek fruit?\n\nAs for them, therefore, that will retain the name of Christians,\nfearing God, and yet make no conscience of bringing forth fruit to\nhim, he saith to such, Away! 'As for you,--Go ye, serve ye every\none his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me,'\n&c. (Eze 20:39). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear? God expecteth\nfruit, God calls for fruit, yea, God will shortly come seeking fruit\non this barren fig-tree. Barren fig-tree, either bear fruit, or\ngo out of the vineyard; and yet then thy case will be unspeakably\ndamnable. Yea, let me add, if thou shalt neither bear fruit nor\ndepart, God will take his name out of thy mouth (Jer 44:26). He\nwill have fruit. And I say further, if thou wilt do neither, yet\nGod in justice and righteousness will still come for fruit. And\nit will be in vain for thee to count this austerity. He will reap\nwhere he hath not sowed, and gather where he hath not strewed\n(Matt 25:24-26). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear?\n\nQuest. What if a man have no grace?\n\nAnsw. Yes, seeing he hath a profession.\n\nAnd he came and sought fruit THEREON.\n\nA church, then, and a profession, are not places where the workers\nof iniquity may hide themselves and sins from God. Some of old\nthought that because they could cry, 'The temple of the Lord, the\ntemple of the Lord!' that therefore they were delivered, or had a\ndispensation to do the abominations which they committed, as some\nin our days; for who, say they, have a right to the creatures, if\nnot Christians, if not professors, if not church members? And, from\nthis conclusion, let go the reins of their inordinate affections\nafter pride, ambition, gluttony; pampering themselves without fear\n(Jude 12), daubing themselves with the lust-provoking fashions\nof the times; to walk with stretched out necks, naked breasts,\nfrizzled fore-tops, wanton gestures, in gorgeous apparel, mixed\nwith gold and pearl, and costly array.[6] I will not here make\ninspection into their lives, their carriages at home, in their\ncorners and secret holes; but certainly, persons thus spirited,\nthus principled, and thus inclined, have but empty boughs, boughs\nthat want the fruit that God expects, and that God will come down\nto seek.\n\nBarren fig-tree, thou art not licensed by thy profession, nor by\nthe Lord of the vineyard, to bear these clusters of Gomorrah;\nneither shall the vineyard, nor thy being crowded among the trees\nthere, shelter thee from the sight of the eye of God. Many make\nreligion their cloak, and Christ their stalking-horse, and by that\nmeans cover themselves and hide their own wickedness from men;\nbut God seeth their hearts, hath his print upon the heels of their\nfeet, and pondereth all their goings; and at last, when their\niniquity is found to be hateful, he will either smite them with\nhardness of heart, and so leave them, or awaken them to bring forth\nfruit. Fruit he looks for, seeks, and expects, barren fig-tree!\n\nBut what! come into the presence of God to sin! What! come into\nthe presence of God to hide thy sin! Alas, man! the church is God's\ngarden, and Christ Jesus is the great Apostle and High-priest of\nour profession. What! come into the house that is called by my\nname! into the place where mine honour dwelleth! (Psa 26:8). Where\nmine eyes and heart are continually! (1 Kings 9:3). What! come\nthere to sin, to hide thy sin, to cloak thy sin! His plants are\nan orchard with pleasant fruits (Cant 4:13). And every time he\ngoeth into his garden, it is to see the fruits of the valley, and\nto 'see if the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.'\n\nYea, saith he, he came seeking fruit on this fig-tree. The church is\nthe place of God's delight, where he ever desires to be: there he\nis night and day. He is there to seek for fruit, to seek for fruit\nof all and every tree in the garden. Wherefore, assure thyself,\nO fruitless one, that thy ways must needs be open before the eyes\nof the Lord. One black sheep is soon espied, although in company\nwith many; that is taken with the first cast of the eye; its\ndifferent colour still betrays it. I say, therefore, a church and\na profession are not places where the workers of iniquity may hide\nthemselves from God that seeks for fruit. 'My vineyard,' saith\nGod, 'which is mine, is before me' (Cant 8:12).\n\nAnd he came and sought fruit thereon, AND FOUND NONE.\n\nBarren fig-tree, hearken; the continual non-bearing of fruit is\na dreadful sign that thou art to come to a dreadful end, as the\nwinding up of this parable concludeth.\n\n'AND FOUND NONE.' None at all, or none to God's liking; for when\nhe saith, 'He came seeking fruit thereon,' he means 'fruit meet\nfor God,' pleasant fruit, fruit good and sweet (Heb 6). Alas! it\nis not any fruit will serve; bad fruit is counted none. 'Every\ntree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast\ninto the fire' (Matt 3:10).\n\nFirst. There is a fruit among professors that withers, and so never\ncomes to be ripe; a fruit that is smitten in the growth, and comes\nnot to maturity; and this is reckoned no fruit. This fruit those\nprofessors bear that have many fair beginnings, or blossoms; that\nmake many fair offers of repentance and amendment; that begin to\npray, to resolve, and to break off their sins by righteousness, but\nstop at those beginnings, and bring not fruit forth to perfection.\nThis man's fruit is withered, wrinkled, smitten fruit, and is in\neffect no fruit at all.\n\nSecond. There is a hasty fruit, such as is the 'corn upon the\nhouse-top' (Psa 129:6); or that which springs up on the dung-hill,\nthat runs up suddenly, violently, with great stalks and big show,\nand yet at last proves empty of kernel. This fruit is to be found\nin those professors that on a sudden are so awakened, so convinced,\nand so affected with their condition that they shake the whole\nfamily, the endship,[7] the whole town. For a while they cry\nhastily, vehemently, dolefully, mournfully, and yet all is but a\npang, an agony, a fit, they bring not forth fruit with patience.\nThese are called those hasty fruits that 'shall be a fading flower'\n(Isa 28:4).\n\nThird. There is a fruit that is vile and ill-tasted, how long\nsoever it be in growing; the root is dried, and cannot convey a\nsufficiency of sap to the branches, to ripen the fruit (Jer 24).\nThese are the fruits of such professors whose hearts are estranged\nfrom communion with the Holy Ghost, whose fruit groweth from\nthemselves, from their parts, gifts, strength of wit, natural or\nmoral principles. These, notwithstanding they bring forth fruit,\nare called empty vines, such as bring not forth fruit to God.\n'Their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though\nthey bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their\nwomb' (Hosea 9:16).\n\nFourth. There is a fruit that is wild. 'I looked for grapes and\nit brought forth wild grapes' (Isa 5:4). I observe, that as there\nare trees and herbs that are wholly right and noble, fit indeed\nfor the vineyard; so there are also their semblance, but wild;\nnot right, but ignoble. There is the grape, and the wild grape;\nthe vine, and the wild vine; the rose, and canker rose; flowers\nand wild flowers; the apple, and the wild apple which we call the\ncrab. Now, fruit from these wild things, however they may please\nthe children to play with, yet the prudent and grave count them\nof little or no value. There are also in the world a generation\nof professors that, notwithstanding their profession, are wild\nby nature; yea, such as were never cut out, or off, from the wild\nolive-tree, nor never yet planted into the good olive-tree. Now,\nthese can bring nothing forth but wild olive berries, they cannot\nbring forth fruit unto God. Such are all those that have lightly\ntaken up a profession, and crept into the vineyard without a new\nbirth, and the blessing of regeneration.\n\nFifth. There is also untimely fruit: 'Even as a fig-tree casteth\nher untimely figs' (Rev 6, 13). Fruit out of season, and so no\nfruit to God's liking. There are two sorts of professors subject\nto bring forth untimely fruit: 1. They that bring forth fruit too\nsoon; 2. They that bring forth fruit too late.\n\n1. They that bring forth too soon. They are such as at present\nreceive the Word with joy; and anon, before they have root\ndownwards, they thrust forth upwards; but having not root, when\nthe sun ariseth, they are smitten, and miserably die without fruit.\nThese professors are those light and inconsiderate ones that think\nnothing but peace will attend the gospel; and so anon rejoice at\nthe tidings, without foreseeing the evil. Wherefore, when the evil\ncomes, being unarmed, and so not able to stand any longer, they\ndie, and are withered, and bring forth no fruit. 'He that received\nthe seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word,\nand anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself,\nbut dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth\nbecause of the Word, by and by he is offended' (Matt 13:20,21).\nThere is, in Isaiah 28:4, mention made of some 'whose glorious\nbeauty shall be a fading flower,' because it is 'fruit before the\nsummer.' Both these are untimely fruit.\n\n2. They also bring forth untimely fruit that stay till the season\nis over. God will have his fruit in his season; I say, he will\nreceive them of such men as shall render them to him in their\nseasons (Matt 21:41). The missing of the season is dangerous;\nstaying till the door is shut is dangerous (Matt 25:10,11). Many\nthere be that come not till the flood of God's anger is raised,\nand too deep for them to wade through; 'Surely in the floods of\ngreat waters they shall not come nigh unto him' (Psa 32:6). Esau\nAFTERWARDS is fearful: 'For ye know how that afterward, when he\nwould have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found\nno place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears'\n(Heb 12:17).\n\nSo the children of Israel, they brought to God the fruits of\nobedience too late; their 'Lo, we be here' came too late (Num\n14:40-42); their 'We will go up' came too late (Num 14:40-44).\nThe Lord had sworn before, 'that they should not possess the land'\n(Matt 25:10, 27:5). All these are such as bring forth untimely fruit\n(Heb 12:17; Luke 13:25-27). It is the hard hap of the reprobate\nto do all things too late; to be sensible of his want of grace too\nlate; to be sorry for sin too late; to seek repentance too late;\nto ask for mercy, and to desire to go to glory too late.\n\nThus you see, 1. That fruit smitten in the growth, that withereth,\nand that comes not to maturity, is no fruit. 2. That hasty fruit,\nsuch as 'the grass upon the house-top,' withereth also before it\ngroweth up, and is no fruit (Psa 129:6). 3. That the fruit that is\nvile, and ill-tasted, is no fruit. That wild fruit, wild grapes,\nare no fruit (Rev 6). That untimely fruit, such as comes too soon,\nor that comes too late, such as come not in their season, are no\nfruit.\n\nAnd he came and sought FRUIT thereon, and found none.\n\nNothing will do but fruit; he looked for grapes. 'When the time\nof the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen,\nthat they might receive the fruits of it' (Matt 21:34).\n\nQuest. But what fruit doth God expect?\n\nAnsw. Good fruit. 'Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit,\nis hewn down' (Matt 7:19). Now, before the fruit can be good, the\ntree must be good; for good fruit makes not a good tree, but a 'good\ntree bringeth forth good fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns,\nor figs of thistles?' A man must be good, else he can bring forth\nno good fruit; he must have righteousness imputed, that he may\nstand good in God;'s sight from the curse of his law; he must have a\nprinciple of righteousness in his soul, else how should he bring\nforth good fruits? and hence it is, that a Christian's fruits are\ncalled 'the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of righteousness,\nwhich are by Jesus Christ' (Gal 5:22,23; Phil 1:11). The fruits\nof the Spirit, therefore the Spirit must be there; the fruits of\nrighteousness, therefore righteousness must first be there. But\nto particularize in a few things briefly:--\n\nFirst. God expecteth fruit that will answer, and be worthy of\nthe repentance which thou feignest thyself to have. Every one in\na profession, and that hath crowded into the vineyard, pretendeth\nto repentance; now of every such soul, God expecteth that the fruits\nof repentance be found to attend them. 'Bring forth, therefore,\nfruits meet for repentance,' or answerable to thy profession of\nthe doctrine of repentance (Matt 3:8). Barren fig-tree, seeing\nthou art a professor, and art got into the vineyard, thou standest\nbefore the Lord of the vineyard as one of the trees of the garden;\nwherefore he looketh for fruit from thee, as from the rest of\nthe trees in the vineyard; fruits, I say, and such as may declare\nthee in heart and life one that hath made sound profession of\nrepentance. By thy profession thou hast said, I am sensible of\nthe evil of sin. Now then, live such a life as declares that thou\nart sensible of the evil of sin. By thy profession thou hast said,\nI am sorry for my sin. Why, then, live such a life as may declare\nthis sorrow. By thy profession thou hast said, I am ashamed of my\nsin; yea, but live such a life, that men by that may see thy shame\nfor sin (Psa 38:18; Jer 31:19). By thy profession thou sayest,\nI have turned from, left off, and am become an enemy to every\nappearance of evil (1 Thess 5:22). Ah! but doth thy life and\nconversation declare thee to be such an one? Take heed, barren\nfig-tree, lest thy life should give thy profession the lie. I say\nagain, take heed, for God himself will come for fruit. 'And he\nsought fruit thereon.'\n\nYou have some professors that are only saints before men when\nthey are abroad, but are devils and vipers at home; saints by\nprofession, but devils by practice; saints in word, but sinners in\nheart and life. These men may have the profession, but they want\nthe fruits that become repentance.[8]\n\nBarren fig-tree, can it be imagined that those that paint themselves\ndid ever repent of their pride? or that those that pursue this\nworld did ever repent of their covetousness? or that those that\nwalk with wanton eyes did ever repent of their fleshly lusts? Where,\nbarren fig-tree, is the fruit of these people's repentance? Nay,\ndo they not rather declare to the world that they have repented\nof their profession? Their fruits look as if they had. Their pride\nsaith they have repented of their humility. Their covetousness\ndeclareth that they are weary of depending upon God; and doth not\nthy wanton actions declare that thou abhorrest chastity? Where is\nthy fruit, barren fig-tree? Repentance is not only a sorrow, and\na shame for, but a turning from sin to God; it is called 'repentance\nfrom dead works' (Heb 6:1). Hast thou that 'godly sorrow' that\n'worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of?' (2 Cor\n7:10,11). How dost thou show thy carefulness, and clearing of\nthyself; thy indignation against sin; they fear of offending; thy\nvehement desire to walk with God; thy zeal for his name and glory\nin the world? And what revenge hast thou in thy heart against\nevery thought of disobedience?\n\nBut where is the fruit of this repentance? Where is thy watching,\nthy fasting, thy praying against the remainders of corruption?\nWhere is thy self-abhorrence, thy blushing before God, for the\nsin that is yet behind? Where is thy tenderness of the name of\nGod and his ways? Where is thy self-denial and contentment? How\ndost thou show before men the truth of thy turning to God? Hast\nthou 'renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in\ncraftiness?' Canst thou commend thyself 'to every man's conscience\nin the sight of God?' (2 Cor 4:2).\n\nSecond. God expecteth fruits that shall answer that faith which\nthou makest profession of. The professor that is got into the\nvineyard of God doth feign that he hath the faith, the faith most\nholy, the faith of God's elect. Ah! but where are thy fruits,\nbarren fig-tree? The faith of the Romans was 'spoken of throughout\nthe whole world' (Rom 1:8). And the Thessalonians' faith grew\nexceedingly (2 Thess 1:3).\n\nThou professest to believe thou hast a share in another world:\nhast thou let got THIS, barren fig-tree? Thou professest thou\nbelievest in Christ: is he thy joy, and the life of thy soul? Yea,\nwhat conformity unto him, to his sorrows and sufferings? What\nresemblance hath his crying, and groaning, and bleeding, and dying,\nwrought in thee? Dost thou 'bear about in thy body the dying of\nthe Lord Jesus?' and is also the life of Jesus 'made manifest in\nthy mortal body?' (2 Cor 4:10,11). Barren fig-tree, 'show me thy\nfaith by thy works.' 'Show out of a good conversation thy works\nwith meekness of wisdom' (James 2:18, 3:13). What fruit, barren\nfig-tree, what degree of heart holiness? for faith purifies the\nheart (Acts 15:9). What love to the Lord Jesus? for 'faith worketh\nby love' (Gal 5:6).\n\nThird. God expecteth fruits according to the seasons of grace thou\nart under, according to the rain that cometh upon thee. Perhaps thou\nart planted in a good soil, by great waters, that thou mightest\nbring forth branches, and bear fruit; that thou mightest be a\ngoodly vine or fig-tree. Shall he not therefore seek for fruit,\nfor fruit answerable to the means? Barren fig-tree, God expects\nit, and will find it too, if ever he bless thee. 'For the earth\nwhich drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth\nforth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing\nfrom God: but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected,\nand is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned' (Heb 6:7,8).\n\nBarren soul, how many showers of grace, how many dews from heaven,\nhow many times have the silver streams of the city of God run\ngliding by thy roots, to cause thee to bring forth fruit! These\nshowers and streams, and the drops that hang upon thy boughs, will\nall be accounted for; and will they not testify against thee that\nthou oughtest, of right, to be burned? Hear and tremble, O thou\nbarren professor! Fruits that become thy profession of the gospel,\nthe God of heaven expecteth. The gospel hath in it the forgiveness\nof sins, the kingdom of heaven, and eternal life; but what fruit\nhath thy profession of a belief of these things put forth in thy\nheart and life? Hast thou given thyself to the Lord? and is all\nthat thou hast to be ventured for his name in this world? Dost thou\nwalk like one that is bought with a price, even with the price of\nprecious blood?\n\nFourth. The fruit that God expecteth is such as is meet for himself;\nfruit that may glorify God. God's trees are trees of righteousness,\nthe planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified; fruit that\ntasteth of heaven, abundance of such fruit. For 'herein,' saith\nChrist, 'is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit' (John\n15:8). Fruits of all kinds, new and old; the fruits of the Spirit\nare in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth. Fruits before\nthe world, fruits before the saints, fruits before God, fruits\nbefore angels.\n\nO my brethren, 'what manner of persons ought we to be,' who have\nsubscribed to the Lord, and have called ourselves by the name of\nIsrael? 'One shall say I am the Lord's; and another shall call\nhimself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with\nhis hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel'\n(Isa 44:5). Barren fig-tree, hast thou subscribed, hast thou\ncalled thyself by the name of Jacob, and surnamed thyself by the\nname of Israel? All this thou pretendest to, who art got into the\nvineyard, who art placed among the trees of the garden of God.\nGod doth therefore look for such fruit as is worthy of his name,\nas is meet for him; as the apostle saith, 'we should walk worthy\nof God'; that is, so as we may show in every place that the presence\nof God is with us, his fear in us, and his majesty and authority\nupon our actions. Fruits meet for him, such a dependence upon him,\nsuch trust in his word, such satisfaction in his presence, such\na trusting of him with all my concerns, and such delight in the\nenjoyment of him, that may demonstrate that his fear is in my\nheart, that my soul is wrapped up in his things, and that my body,\nand soul, and estate, and all, are in truth, through his grace,\nat his dispose, fruit meet for him. Hearty thanks, and blessing\nGod for Jesus Christ, for his good word, for his free grace, for\nthe discovery of himself in Christ to the soul, secret longing\nafter another world, fruit meet for him. Liberality to the poor\nsaints, to the poor world; a life in word and deed exemplary;\na patient and quiet enduring of all things, till I have done and\nsuffered the whole will of God, which he hath appointed for me.\n'That on the good ground are they which, in an honest and good\nheart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with\npatience' (Luke 8:15). This is bringing forth fruit unto God;\nhaving our 'fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life'\n(Rom 7:4, 6:22, 14:8).\n\nFifth. The Lord expects fruit becoming the vineyard of God. 'The\nvineyard,' saith he, 'in a very fruitful hill': witness the fruit\nbrought forth in all ages (Isa 5:1). The most barren trees that\never grew in the wood of this world, when planted in this vineyard\nby the God of heaven, what fruit to Godward have they brought\nforth! 'Abel offered the more excellent sacrifice' (Heb 11:4).\nEnoch walked with God three hundred years (Heb 11:5). Noah, by\nhis life of faith, 'condemned the world, and became heir of the\nrighteousness which is by faith' (Heb 11:7). Abraham left his\ncountry, and went out after God, not knowing whither he went (Heb\n11:8). Moses left a kingdom, and run the hazard of the wrath of the\nking, for the love he had to God and Christ. What shall I say of\nthem who had trials, 'not accepting deliverance, that they might\nobtain a better resurrection? They were stoned; they were sawn\nasunder; were tempted; were slain with the sword; they wandered\nabout in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted,\ntormented' (Heb 11:35-37). Peter left his father, ship, and nets\n(Matt 4:18-20). Paul turned off from the feet of Gamaliel. Men\nbrought their goods and possessions (the price of them) and cast\nit down at the apostle's feet (Acts 19:18-20). And others brought\ntheir books together, and burned them; curious books, though they\nwere worth fifty thousand pieces of silver. I could add how many\nwillingly offered themselves in all ages, and their all, for the\nworthy name of the Lord Jesus, to be racked, starved, hanged,\nburned, drowned, pulled in pieces, and a thousand calamities.[9]\nBarren fig-tree, the vineyard of God hath been a fruitful place.\nWhat dost thou there? What dost thou bear? God expects fruit\naccording to, or becoming the soil of the vineyard.\n\nSixth. The fruit which God expecteth is such as becometh God's\nhusbandry and labour. The vineyard is God's husbandry, or tillage. 'I\nam the true vine,' saith Christ, 'and my Father is the husbandman'\n(John 15:1). And again, 'Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's\nbuilding' (1 Cor 3:9). The vineyard; God fences it, God gathereth\nout the stones, God builds the tower, and the wine-press in the\nmidst thereof. Here is labour, here is protection, here is removing\nof hindrances, here is convenient purgation, and all that there\nmight be fruit.\n\nBarren fig-tree, what fruit hast thou? Hast thou fruit becoming\nthe care of God, the protection of God, the wisdom of God, the\npatience and husbandry of God? It is the fruit of the vineyard\nthat is either the shame or the praise of the husbandman. 'I went\nby the field of the slothful,' saith Solomon, 'and by the vineyard\nof the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with\nthorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof' (Prov 34:30-32).\n\nBarren fig-tree, if men should make a judgment of the care, and\npains, and labour of God in his church, by the fruit that thou\nbringest forth, what might they say? Is he not slothful, is not he\ncareless, is he not without discretion? O! thy thorns, thy nettles,\nthy barren heart and barren life, is a continual provocation to\nthe eyes of his glory, as likewise a dishonour to the glory of\nhis grace.\n\nBarren fig-tree, hast thou heard all these things? I will add yet\none more.\n\n'And he came and sought fruit thereon.'\n\nThe question is not now, What thou thinkest of thyself, nor what\nall the people of God think of thee, but what thou shalt be found\nin that day when God shall search thy boughs for fruit? When\nSodom was to be searched for righteous men, God would not, in that\nmatter, trust his faithful servant Abraham; but still, as Abraham\ninterceded, God answered, 'If I find fifty,--or forty and five\nthere, I will not destroy the city' (Gen 18:20-28). Barren fig-tree,\nwhat sayest thou? God will come down to see, God will make search\nfor fruit himself.\n\n'And he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said\nhe unto the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I\ncome seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down,\nwhy cumbereth it the ground?'\n\nThese words are the effects of God's search into the boughs of\na barren fig-tree; he sought fruit, and found none--none to his\nliking, none pleasant and good. Therefore, first, he complains of\nthe want thereof to the dresser; calls him to come, and see, and\ntake notice of the tree; then signifieth his pleasure: he will\nhave it removed, taken away, cut down from cumbering the ground.\n\nObserve, The barren fig-tree is the object of God's displeasure;\nGod cannot bear with a fruitless professor.\n\nTHEN said he, &c.\n\nTHEN, after this provocation; then, after he had sought and found\nno fruit, then. This word, THEN, doth show us a kind of an inward\ndisquietness; as he saith also in another place, upon a like\nprovocation. 'THEN the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall\nsmoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in\nthis book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name\nfrom under heaven' (Deut 29:18-20).\n\nTHEN; it intimateth that he was now come to a point, to a resolution\nwhat to do with this fig-tree. 'Then said he to the dresser of\nthis vineyard,' that is, to Jesus Christ, 'behold,' as much as\nto say, come hither, here is a fig-tree in my vineyard, here is\na professor in my church, that is barren, that beareth no fruit.\n\nObserve, However the barren professor thinks of himself on earth,\nthe Lord cries out in heaven against him. 'And now go to, I will\ntell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge\nthereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall\nthereof, and it shall be trodden down' (Isa 5:5).\n\n'Behold, THESE THREE YEARS I come seeking fruit.'\n\nObserve, 'THESE THREE YEARS.' God cries out that this patience is\nabused, that his forbearance is abused. Behold, these three years\nI have waited, forborne; these three years I have deferred mine\nanger. 'Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and\ndestroy thee; I am weary with repenting' (Jer 15:6). 'These three\nyears.' Observe, God layeth up all the time; I say, a remembrance\nof all the time that a barren fig-tree, or a fruitless professor,\nmisspendeth in this world. As he saith also of Israel of old,\n'forty years long was I grieved with this generation' (Psa 95:10).\n\n'These three years,' &c. These three seasons: Observe, God remembers\nhow many seasons thou hast misspent: for these three years signify\nso many seasons. And when the time of fruit drew nigh, that is,\nabout the season they begin to be ripe, or that according to the\nseason might so have been. Barren fig-tree, thou hast had time,\nseasons, sermons, ministers, afflictions, judgments, mercies, and\nwhat not; and yet hast not been fruitful. Thou hast had awakenings,\nreproofs, threatenings, comforts, and yet hast not been fruitful.\nThou hast had patterns, examples, citations, provocations, and\nyet has not been fruitful. Well, God hath laid up thy three years\nwith himself. He remembers every time, every season, every sermon,\nevery minister, affliction, judgment, mercy, awakening, pattern,\nexample, citation, provocation; he remembers all. As he said of\nIsrael of old, 'They have tempted me now these ten times, and have\nnot hearkened to my voice' (Num 14:22). And again, 'I remember\nall their wickedness' (Hosea 7:2).\n\n'These three years,' &c. He seeks for the fruit of every season.\nHe will not that any of his sermons, ministers, afflictions,\njudgments, or mercies, should be lost, or stand for insignificant\nthings; he will have according to the benefit bestowed. (2 Chron\n32:24,25). He hath not done without a cause all that he hath done,\nand therefore he looketh for fruit (Eze 14:23). Look to it, barren\nfig-tree.[10]\n\nI came 'SEEKING' fruit.\n\nObserve, This word 'SEEKING' signifies a narrow search; for when\na man seeks for fruit on a tree, he goes round it and round it;\nnow looking into this bough, and then into that; he peeks into\nthe inmost boughs, and the lowermost boughs, if perhaps fruit may\nbe thereon. Barren fig-tree, God will look into all thy boughs,\nhe will be with thee in thy bed-fruits, thy midnight-fruits, thy\ncloset-fruits, thy family-fruits, thy conversation-fruits, to see\nif there be any among all these that are fit for, or worthy of\nthe name of the God of heaven. He sees 'what the ancients of the\nhouse of Israel do in the dark' (Eze 8:12). 'All things are naked\nand opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do' (Heb\n4:12,13).\n\nSeeking fruit on 'THIS' fig-tree.\n\nI told you before, that he keeps in remembrance the times and\nseasons that the barren professor had wickedly misspent. Now,\nforasmuch as he also pointeth out the fig-tree, THIS fig-tree,\nit showeth that the barren professor, above all professors, is\na continual odium in the eyes of God. This fig-tree, 'this man\nConiah' (Jer 22:28). This people draw nigh me with their mouth,\nbut have removed their hearts far from me. God knows who they are\namong all the thousands of Israel that are the barren and fruitless\nprofessors; his lot will fall upon the head of Achan, though he be\nhid among six hundred thousand men. 'And he brought his household,\nman by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son\nof Zera, of the tribe of Judah, was taken' (Josh 7:17,18). This\nis the Achan, this is the fig-tree, this is the barren professor!\n\nThere is a man hath a hundred trees in his vineyard, and at the\ntime of the season, he walketh into his vineyard to see how the\ntrees flourish; and as he goes, and views, and prys, and observes\nhow they are hanged with fruit, behold, he cometh to one where\nhe findeth naught but leaves. Now he makes a stand; looks upon it\nagain and again; he looks also here and there, above and below;\nand if after all this seeking, he finds nothing but leaves thereon,\nthen he begins to cast in his mind, how he may know this tree next\nyear; what stands next it, or how far it is off the hedge? But if\nthere be nothing there that may be as a mark to know it by, then\nhe takes his hook, and giveth it a private mark--'And the Lord\nset a mark upon Cain' (Gen 4), saying, Go thy ways, fruitless\nfig-tree, thou hast spent this season in vain. Yet doth he not\ncut it down, I will try it another year: may be this was not a\nhitting[11] season. Therefore he comes again next year, to see if\nnow it have fruit; but as he found it before, so he finds it now,\nbarren, barren, every year barren; he looks again, but finds no\nfruit. Now he begins to have second thoughts, How! neither hit\nlast year nor this? Surely the barrenness is not in the season;\nsure the fault is in the tree; however, I will spare it this year\nalso, but will give it a second mark; and it may be he toucheth\nit with a hot iron, because he begins to be angry.\n\nWell, at the third season he comes again for fruit, but the third\nyear is like the first and second; no fruit yet; it only cumbereth\nthe ground. What now must be done with this fig-tree? Why, the\nLord will lop its boughs with terror; yea, the thickets of those\nprofessors with iron. I have waited, saith God, these three\nyears; I have missed of fruit these three years; it hath been a\ncumber-ground these three years; cut it down. Precept hath been\nupon precept, and line upon line, one year after another, for\nthese three years, but no fruit can be seen; I find none, fetch\nout the axe! I am sure THIS is the fig-tree, I know it from the\nfirst year; barrenness was its sign then, barrenness is its sign\nnow; make it fit for the fire! Behold, 'now also the axe is laid\nunto the root of the trees: therefore, every tree that bringeth\nnot forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire' (Matt\n3:10).\n\nObserve, my brethren, God's heart cannot stand towards a barren\nfig-tree. You know thus it is with yourselves. If you have a tree\nin your orchard or vineyard that doth only cumber the ground, you\ncannot look upon that tree with pleasure, with complacency and\ndelight. No; if you do but go by it, if you do but cast your eye\nupon it: yea, if you do but think of that tree, you threaten it\nin your heart, saying, I will hew thee down shortly; I will to\nthe fire with thee shortly: and it is in vain for any to think of\npersuading of you to show favour to the barren fig-tree; and if\nthey should persuade, your answer is irresistible, It yields me\nno profit, it takes up room and doth no good; a better may grow\nin its room.\n\nCut it down.\n\nThus, when the godly among the Jews made prayers that rebellious\nIsrael might not be cast out of the vineyard, what saith the\nanswer of God? (Jer 14:17). 'Though Moses and Samuel stood before\nme, yet my mind could not be toward this people': wherefore 'cast\nthem out of my sight, and let them go forth' (Jer 15:1).\n\nWhat a resolution is here! Moses and Samuel could do almost anything\nwith God in prayer. How many times did Moses by prayer turn away\nGod's judgments from even Pharaoh himself! yea, how many times\ndid he by prayer preserve Israel, when in the wilderness, from the\nanger and wrath of God! (Psa 106:23). Samuel is reckoned excellent\nthis way, yea, so excellent, that when Israel had done that fearful\nthing as to reject the Lord, and choose them another king, he\nprayed, and the Lord spared, and forgave them (1 Sam 12). But yet\nneither Moses nor Samuel can save a barren fig-tree. No; though\nMoses and Samuel stood before me, that is, pleading, arguing,\ninterceding, supplicating, and beseeching, yet could they not\nincline mine heart to this people.\n\nCut it down.\n\n'Ay, but Lord, it is a fig-tree, a fig-tree!' If it was a thorn,\nor a bramble, or a thistle, the matter would not be much; but it\nis a fig-tree, or a vine. Well, but mark the answer of God, 'Son\nof man, What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a branch\nwhich is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof\nto do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel\nthereon?' (Eze 15:2,3). If trees that are set, or planted for\nfruit, bring not forth that fruit, there is betwixt them and the\ntrees of the forest no betterment at all, unless the betterment\nlieth in the trees of the wood, for they are fit to build withal;\nbut a fig-tree, or a vine, if they bring not forth fruit, yea,\ngood fruit, they are fit for nothing at all, but to be cut down\nand prepared for the fire; and so the prophet goes on, 'Behold,\nit is cast into the fire for fuel.' If it serve not for fruit it\nwill serve for fuel, and so 'the fire devoureth both the ends of\nit, and the midst of it is burnt.'\n\nAy, but these fig-trees and vines are church-members, inhabiters\nof Jerusalem. So was the fig-tree mentioned in the text. But what\nanswer hath God prepared for these objections? Why, 'Thus saith\nthe Lord God, As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which\nI have given to the fire for fuel; so will I give the inhabitants\nof Jerusalem; and I will set my face against them, they shall go\nout from one fire, and another fire shall devour them' (Eze 15:6,7).\n\nCut it down.\n\nThe woman that delighteth in her garden, if she have a slip there,\nsuppose, if it was fruitful, she would not take five pounds for\nit; yet if it bear no fruit, if it wither, and dwindle, and die,\nand turn cumber-ground only, it may not stand in her garden.\nGardens and vineyards are places for fruit, for fruit according\nto the nature of the plant or flowers. Suppose such a slip as I\ntold you of before should be in your garden, and there die, would\nyou let it abide in your garden? No; away with it, away with it!\nThe woman comes into her garden towards the spring, where first\nshe gives it a slight cast with her eye, then she sets to gathering\nout the weeds, and nettles, and stones; takes a besom and sweeps\nthe walks; this done, she falls to prying into her herbs and\nslips, to see if they live, to see if they are likely to grow.\nNow, if she comes to one that is dead, that she is confident will\nnot grow, up she pulls that, and makes to the heap of rubbish with\nit, where she despisingly casts it down, and valueth it no more\nthan a nettle, or a weed, or than the dust she hath swept out of\nher walks. Yea, if any that see her should say, Why do you so? the\nanswer is ready. It is dead, it is dead at root; if I had let it\nstand it would but have cumbered the ground. The strange slips,\nand also the dead ones, they must be 'a heap in the day of grief,\nand of desperate sorrow' (Isa 17:10,11).\n\nCut it down.\n\nThere are two manner of cuttings down; First. When a man is cast\nout of the vineyard. Second. When a man is cast out of the world.\n\nFirst. When a man is cast out of the vineyard. And that is done\ntwo ways; 1. By an immediate hand of God. 2. By the church's due\nexecution of the laws and censures which Christ for that purpose\nhas left with his church.\n\n1. God cuts down the barren fig-tree by an immediate hand, smiting\nhis roots, blasting his branches, and so takes him away from among\nhis people. 'Every branch,' saith Christ, 'that beareth not fruit\nin me, he,' my Father, 'taketh away' (John 15:2). He taketh him\nout of the church, he taketh him away from the godly. There are\ntwo things by which God taketh the barren professor from among\nthe children of God: (1.) Strong delusions. (2.) Open profaneness.\n\n(.1). By strong delusion; such as beguile the soul with damnable\ndoctrines, that swerve from faith and godliness, 'They have chosen\ntheir own ways,' saith God, 'and their soul delighteth in their\nabominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring\ntheir fears upon them' (Isa 66:3,4). I will smite them with\nblindness, and hardness of heart, and failing of eyes; and will\nalso suffer the tempter to tempt and affect his hellish designs\nupon them. 'God shall send them strong delusion, that they should\nbelieve a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the\ntruth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness' (2 Thess 2:10-12).\n\n(2.) Sometimes God takes away a barren professor by open profaneness.\nThere is one hath taken up a profession of that worthy name, the\nLord Jesus Christ; but this profession is but a cloak; he secretly\npractiseth wickedness. He is a glutton, a drunkard, or covetous,\nor unclean. Well, saith God, I will loose the reins of this\nprofessor; I will give him up to his vile affections; I will loose\nthe reins of his lusts before him; he shall be entangled with his\nbeastly lusts; he shall be overcome of ungodly company. Thus they\nthat turn aside to their own crooked ways 'the Lord shall lead\nthem forth with the workers of iniquity' (Psa 125:5). This is\nGod's hand immediately; God is now dealing with this man himself.\nBarren fig-tree, hearken! Thou art crowded into a profession,\nart got among the godly, and there art a scandal to the holy and\nglorious gospel; but withal so cunning that, like the sons of\nZeruiah, thou art too hard for the church; she knows not how to\ndeal with thee. Well, saith God, I will deal with that man myself,\n'I will answer that man by myself.' He that sets up his idols in\nhis heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before\nhis face, and yet comes and appears before me, 'I will set my face\nagainst that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb: and I\nwill cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know\nthat I am the Lord' (Eze 14:7,8). But,\n\n2. God doth sometimes cut down the barren fig-tree by the church,\nby the church's due execution of the laws and censures which Christ\nfor that purpose hath left with his church. This is the meaning of\nthat in Matthew 18; 1 Corinthians 5: and that in 1 Timothy 1:20\nupon which now I shall not enlarge, But which way soever God\ndealeth with thee, O thou barren fig-tree, whither by himself\nimmediately, or by his church, it amounts to one and the same;\nfor if timely repentance prevent not, the end of that soul is\ndamnation. They are blasted, and withered, and gathered by men,\nGod's enemies; and at last being cast into the fire burning must\nbe their end. 'That which beareth thorns and briars is nigh unto\ncursing, whose end is to be burned' (Heb 6:8).\n\nSecond. And, again, sometimes by 'Cut it down' God means, cast it\nout of the world. Thus he cut down Nadab and Abihu, when he burned\nthem up with fire from heaven. Thus he cut down Korah, Dathan,\nand Abiram, when he made the earth to swallow them up (Num 3:4,\n16:31-33). Thus he cut down Saul, when he gave him up to fall upon\nthe edge of his own sword, and died (1 Sam 31:4). Thus he cut down\nAnanias, with Sapphira his wife, when he struck them down dead\nin the midst of the congregation (Acts 5:5,10). I might here also\ndiscourse of Absalom, Ahithophel, and Judas, who were all three\nhanged: the first by God's revenging hand, the others were given\nup of God to be their own executioners. These were barren and\nunprofitable fig-trees, such as God took no pleasure in, therefore\nhe commanded to cut them down. The Psalmist saith, 'He shall take\nthem away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath'\n(Psa 58:9). Barren fig-tree, hearken! God calls for the axe, his\nsword; bring it hither; here is a barren professor. Cut him down,\nwhy cumbereth he the ground?\n\nWhy cumbereth it the ground?\n\nBy these words the Lord suggesteth reasons of his displeasure\nagainst the barren fig-tree; it cumbereth the ground. The Holy\nGhost doth not only take an argument from its barrenness, but\nbecause it is a cumber-ground, therefore cut it down; wherefore it\nmust needs be a provocation. 1. Because, as much as in him lieth,\nhe disappointeth the design of God in planting his vineyard; I\nlooked that it should bring forth fruit. 2. It hath also abused\nhis patience, his long-suffering, his three years' patience. 3. It\nhath also abused his labour, his pains, his care, and providence\nof protection and preservation: for he hedges his vineyard, and\nwalls it about. Cumber-ground, all these things thou abusest! He\nwaters his vineyard, and looks to it night and day; but all these\nthings thou hast abused.\n\nFurther, there are other reasons of God's displeasure; as,\n\nFirst. A cumber-ground is a very mock and reproach of religion, a\nmock and reproach to the ways of God, to the people of God, to the\nWord of God, and to the name of religion. It is expected of all\nhands, that all the trees in the garden of God should be fruitful:\nGod expects fruit, the church expects fruit, the world, even the\nworld, concludes that professors should be fruitful in good works;\nI say, the world expecteth that professors should be better than\nthemselves. But, barren fig-tree, thou disappointest all. Nay, hast\nthou not learned the wicked ones thy ways? Hast thou not learned\nthem to be more wicked by thy example?--but that is by the by. Barren\nfig-tree, thou hast disappointed others, and must be disappointed\nthyself! 'Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?'\n\nSecond. The barren fig-tree takes up the room where a better tree\nmight stand; I say, it takes up the room, it keeps, so long as\nit stand where it doth; a fruitful tree out of that place, and\ntherefore it must be cut down. Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear?\nBecause the Jews stood fruitless in the vineyard, therefore, saith\nGod, 'The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,' and given to\na nation that shall render him their fruits in their season (Matt\n21:33-41). The Jews for their barrenness were cut down, and more\nfruitful people put in their room. As Samuel also said to barren\nSaul, 'The Lord hath rent the kingdom from thee, and hath given it\nto a neighbour of thine that is better than thou' (1 Sam 15:28).\nThe unprofitable servant must be cast out, must be cut down (Matt\n25:27).\n\nCumber-ground, how many hopeful, inclinable, forward people, hast\nthou by thy fruitless and unprofitable life, kept out of the vineyard\nof God? For thy sake have the people stumbled at religion; by thy\nlife have they been kept from the love of their own salvation. Thou\nhast been also a means of hardening others, and of quenching and\nkilling weak beginnings. Well, barren fig-tree, look to thyself,\nthou wilt not go to heaven thyself, and them that would, thou\nhinderest; thou must not always cumber the ground, nor always\nhinder the salvation of others. Thou shalt be cut down, and another\nshall be planted in thy room.\n\nThird. The cumber-ground is a sucker; he draws away the heart\nand nourishment from the other trees. Were the cumber ground cut\ndown, the others would be more fruitful; he draws away that fatness\nof the ground to himself, that would make the others more hearty\nand fruitful. 'One sinner destroyeth much good' (Eccl 9:18).\n\nThe cumber-ground is a very drone in the hive, that eats up the\nhoney that should feed the labouring bee; he is a thief in the\ncandle, that wasteth the tallow, but giveth no light; he is the\nunsavoury salt, that is fit for nought but the dunghill. Look to\nit, barren fig-tree!\n\nAnd he answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also,\ntill I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well;\nand if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it down (vv 8,9).\n\nThese are the words of the dresser of the vineyard, who, I told you,\nis Jesus Christ, for he made intercession for the transgressors.\nAnd they contain a petition presented to an offended justice,\npraying, that a little more time and patience might be exercised\ntowards the barren cumber-ground fig-tree.\n\nIn this petition there are six things considerable: 1. That justice\nmight be deferred. O that justice might be deferred! 'Lord, let it\nalone,' &c., a while longer. 2. Here is time prefixed, as a space\nto try if more means will cure a barren fig-tree. 'Lord, let it\nalone this year also.' 3. The means to help it are propounded,\n'until I shall dig about it, and dung it.'[12] 4. Here is also an\ninsinuation of a supposition, that, by thus doing, God's expectation\nmay be answered; 'and if it bear fruit, well.' 5. Here is a\nsupposition that the barren fig-tree may yet abide barren, when\nChrist hath done what he will unto it; 'and if it bear fruit,'\n&c. 6. Here is at last a resolution, that if thou continue barren,\nhewing days will come upon thee; 'and if it bear fruit, well; and\nif not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.' But to proceed\naccording to my former method, by way of exposition.\n\nLord, let it alone this year also.\n\nHere is astonishing grace indeed! astonishing grace, I say, that\nthe Lord Jesus should concern himself with a barren fig-tree; that\nhe should step in to stop the blow from a barren fig-tree! True,\nhe stopped the blow but for a time; but why did he stop it at all?\nWhy did not he fetch out the axe? Why did he not do execution? Why\ndid not he cut it down? Barren fig-tree, it is well for thee that\nthere is a Jesus at God's right hand, a Jesus of that largeness of\nbowels, as to have compassion for a barren fig-tree, else justice\nhad never let thee alone to cumber the ground as thou hast done!\nWhen Israel also had sinned against God, down they had gone, but\nthat Moses stood in the breach. 'Let me alone,' said God to him,\n'that I may consume them' in a moment, 'and I will make of thee a\ngreat nation' (Exo 32:10). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear? Thou\nknowest not how oft the hand of Divine justice hath been up to\nstrike, and how many years since thou hadst been cut down, had\nnot Jesus caught hold of his Father's axe. Let me alone, let me\nfetch my blow, or 'Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?' Wilt\nthou not hear yet, barren fig-tree? Wilt thou provoke still? Thou\nhast wearied men, and provoked the justice of God! And 'will ye\nweary my God also?' (Isa 7:13).\n\nLord, let it alone this year.\n\nLord, a little longer! let us not lose a soul for want of means.\nI will try, I will see if I can make it fruitful, I will not beg\na long life, nor that it might still be barren, and so provoke\nthee. I beg, for the sake of the soul, the immortal soul; Lord,\nspare it one year only, one year longer, this year also. If I do\nany good to it, it will be in little time. Thou shalt not be over\nwearied with waiting; one year and then.\n\nBarren fig-tree, dost thou hear what a striving there is between\nthe vine-dresser and the husbandman, for thy life? 'Cut it down,'\nsays one; 'Lord, spare it,' saith the other. It is a cumber-ground,\nsaith the Father; one year longer, prays the Son. 'Let it alone\nthis year also.'\n\nTill I shall dig about it, and dung it.\n\nThe Lord Jesus by these words supposeth two things, as causes of\nthe want of fruit in a barren fig-tree; and two things he supposeth\nas a remedy.\n\nThe things that are a cause of want of fruit are, First. It is\nearth-bound. Lord, the fig-tree is earth-bound. Second. A want of\nwarmer means, of fatter means. Wherefore, accordingly, he propoundeth\nto loosen the earth; to dig about it. And then to supply it with\ndung.\n\n'To dig about it, and dung it. Lord, let it alone this year also,\nuntil I shall dig about it.' I doubt it is too much ground-bound.\nThe love of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches lie too\nclose to the roots of the heart of this professor (Luke 14). The\nlove of riches, the love of honours, the love of pleasures, are\nthe thorns that choke the word. 'For all that is in the world,\nthe lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of\nlife, is not of the Father,' but enmity to God; how then, where\nthese things bind up the heart, can there be fruit brought forth\nto God? (1 John 2:15,16). Barren fig-tree, see how the Lord Jesus,\nby these very words, suggesteth the cause of thy fruitfulessness\nof soul! The things of this world lie too close to thy heart;\nthe earth with its things have bound up thy roots; thou art an\nearth-bound soul, thou art wrapped up in thick clay. 'If any man\nlove the world, the love of the Father is not in him'; how then\ncan he be fruitful in the vineyard? This kept Judas from the fruit\nof caring for the poor (John 12:6). This kept Demas from the fruit\nof self-denial (2 Tim 4:10). And this kept Ananias and Sapphira his\nwife from the goodly fruit of sincerity and truth (Acts 5:5,10).\nWhat shall I say? These are 'foolish and hurtful lusts, which\ndrown men in destruction and perdition; for the love of money is\nthe root of all evil.' How then can good fruit grow from such a\nroot, the root of all evil? 'Which while some coveted after, they\nhave erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with\nmany sorrows' (1 Tim 6:9,10). It is an evil root, nay, it is the\nroot of all evil. How then can the professor that hath such a\nroot, or a root wrapped up in such earthly things, as the lusts,\nand pleasures, and vanities of this world, bring forth fruit to\nGod?\n\nTill I shall 'DIG' about it.\n\nLord, I will loose his roots, I will dig up this earth, I will\nlay his roots bare; my hand shall be upon him by sickness, by\ndisappointments, by cross providences; I will dig about him until\nhe stands shaking and tottering; until he be ready to fall; then,\nif ever, he will seek to take faster hold. Thus, I say, deals the\nLord Jesus ofttimes with the barren professor; he diggeth about\nhim, he smiteth one blow at his heart, another blow at his lusts,\na third at his pleasures, a fourth at his comforts, another at his\nself-conceitedness. Thus he diggeth about him; this is the way to\ntake bad earth from his roots, and to loosen his roots from the\nearth. Barren fig-tree, see here the care, the love, the labour,\nand way, which the Lord Jesus, the dresser of the vineyard, is\nfain to take with thee, if haply thou mayest be made fruitful.[13]\n\nTill I shall dig about it, and 'DUNG' it.\n\nAs the earth, by binding the roots too closely, may hinder the\ntree's being fruitful, so the want of better means may be also\na cause thereof. And this is more than intimated by the dresser\nof the vineyard; 'Till I shall dig about it and dung it.' I will\nsupply it with a more fruitful ministry, with a warmer word;\nI will give them pastors after mine own heart; I will dung them.\nYou know dung is a more warm, more fat, more hearty, and succouring\nmatter than is commonly the place in which trees are planted.\n\n'I will dig about it, and dung it.' I will bring it under\na heart-awakening ministry; the means of grace shall be fat and\ngood: I will also visit it with heart-awakening, heart-warming,\nheart-encouraging considerations; I will apply warm dung to his\nroots; I will strive with him by my Spirit, and give him some\ntastes of the heavenly gift, and the power of the world to come.\nI am loth to lose him for want of digging. 'Lord, let it alone\nthis year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it.'\n\nAnd if it bear fruit, WELL.\n\nAnd if the fruits of all my labour doth make this fig-tree fruitful,\nI shall count my time, my labour, and means, well bestowed upon\nit; and thou also, O my God, shalt be therewith much delighted;\nfor thou art gracious, and merciful, and repentest thee of the\nevil which thou threatenest to bring upon a people. These words,\ntherefore, inform us, that if a barren fig-tree, a barren professor,\nshall now at last bring forth fruit to God, it shall go well with\nthat professor, it shall go well with that poor soul. His former\nbarrenness, his former tempting of God, his abuse of God's patience\nand long-suffering, his mis-spending year after year, shall now be\nall forgiven him. Yea, God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,\nwill not pass by and forget all, and say, 'Well done,' at the\nlast. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely\ndie; if he then do that which is lawful and right, if he walk in\nthe statutes of life, without committing iniquity, he shall surely\nlive, he shall not die (Eze 33).\n\nBarren fig-tree, dost thou hear? the axe is laid to thy roots, the\nLord Jesus prays God to spare thee. Hath he been digging about\nthee? Hath he been dunging of thee? O barren fig-tree, now thou art\ncome to the point; if thou shalt now become good, if thou shalt,\nafter a gracious manner, suck in the gospel-dung, and if thou\nshalt bring forth fruit unto God, well; but if not, the fire is\nthe last! fruit, or the fire; fruit, or the fire, barren fig-tree!\n'If it bear fruit, well.'[14]\n\nAnd if not, THEN after that thou shalt cut it down.\n\nThe Lord Jesus, by this if, giveth us to understand that there is\na generation of professors in the world that are incurable, that\nwill not, that cannot repent, nor be profited by the means of grace.\nA generation, I say, that will retain a profession, but will not\nbring forth fruit; a generation that will wear out the patience\nof God, time and tide, threatenings and intercessions, judgments\nand mercies, and after all will be unfruitful.\n\nO the desperate wickedness that is in thy heart! Barren professor,\ndost thou hear? the Lord Jesus stands yet in doubt about thee;\nthere is an IF stands yet in the way. I say, the Lord Jesus stands\nyet in doubt about thee, whether or no, at last, thou wilt be\ngood; whether he may not labour in vain; whether his digging and\ndunging will come to more than lost labour; 'I gave her space\nto repent,--and she repented not' (Rev 2:21). I digged about it,\nI dunged it; I gained time, and supplied it with means; but I\nlaboured herein in vain, and spent my strength for nought, and in\nvain! Dost thou hear, barren fig-tree? there is yet a question,\nWhether it may be well with thy soul at last?\n\nAnd if not, THEN after that thou shalt cut it down.\n\nThere is nothing more exasperating to the mind of a man than to\nfind all his kindness and favour slighted; neither is the Lord\nJesus so provoked with anything, as when sinners abuse his means\nof grace; if it be barren and fruitless under my gospel; if it\nturn my grace into wantonness, if after digging and dunging, and\nwaiting, it yet remain unfruitful, I will let thee cut it down.\n\nGospel means, applied, is the last remedy for a barren professor;\nif the gospel, if the grace of the gospel, will not do, there can\nbe nothing expected but cut it down. 'Then after that thou shalt\ncut it down.' 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the\nprophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often\nwould I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth\nher chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' Therefore 'your\nhouse is left unto you desolate' (Matt 23:37,38). Yet it cannot\nbe, but that this Lord Jesus, who at first did put a stop to the\nexecution of his Father's justice, because he desired to try more\nmeans with the fig-tree; I say, it cannot be, but that a heart\nso full of compassion as his is should be touched, to behold this\nprofessor must now be cut down. 'And when he was come near, he\nbeheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known,\neven thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto\nthy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes' (Luke 19:41,42).\n\nAfter that thou shalt cut it down.\n\nWhen Christ giveth thee over, there is no intercessor, no mediator,\nno more sacrifice for sin, all is gone but judgment, but the\naxe, but a 'certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery\nindignation, which shall devour the adversaries' (Heb 10:26,27).\n\nBarren fig-tree, take heed that thou comest not to these last\nwords, for these words are a give up, a cast up, a cast up of a\ncast away; 'After that thou shalt cut it down.' They are as much\nas if Christ had said, Father, I begged for more time for this\nbarren professor; I begged until I should dig about it, and dung\nit. But now, Father, the time is out, the year is ended, the summer\nis ended, and no good done! I have also tried with my means, with\nthe gospel, I have digged about it; I have laid also the fat and\nhearty dung of the gospel to it, but all comes to nothing. Father,\nI deliver up this professor to thee again; I have done; I have\ndone all; I have done praying and endeavouring; I will hold the\nhead of thine axe no longer. Take him into the hands of justice;\ndo justice; do the law; I will never beg for him more. 'After\nthat thou shalt cut it down.' 'Woe also to them when I depart\nfrom them!' (Hosea 9:12). Now is this professor left naked indeed;\nnaked to God, naked to Satan, naked to sin, naked to the law,\nnaked to death, naked to hell, naked to judgment, and naked to\nthe gripes of a guilty conscience, and to the torment of that worm\nthat never dies, and to that fire that never shall be quenched.\n'See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped\nnot, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we\nescape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven' (Heb\n12:25).\n\nFrom this brief pass through this parable, you have these two\ngeneral observations:--First. That even then when the justice of\nGod cries out, I cannot endure to wait on this barren professor any\nlonger, then Jesus Christ intercedes for a little more patience,\nand a little more striving with this professor, if possible he\nmay make him a fruitful professor. 'Lord, let it alone this year\nalso, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear\nfruit, well,' &c. Second. There are some professors whose day of\ngrace will end with, Cut it down, with judgment; when Christ, by\nhis means, hath been used for their salvation.\n\nFirst. The first of these observations I shall pass, and not meddle\nat all therewith; but shall briefly speak to the\n\nSecond, to wit, that there are some professors whose day of grace\nwill end with, Cut it down, with judgment, when Christ, by his\nmeans, hath been used for their salvation.\n\nThis the apostle showeth in that third chapter of his Epistle to\nthe Hebrews, where he tells us that the people of the Jews, after a\nforty years' patience and endeavour to do them good by the means\nappointed for that purpose, their end was to be cut down, or\nexcluded the land of promise, for their final incredulity. 'So we\nsee that they could not enter in, because of unbelief.' 'Wherefore,'\nsaith he, 'I was grieved with that generation, and said, They\ndo alway err in their heart, and they have not known my ways; so\nI sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.' As who\nshould say, I would they should have entered in, and for that\npurpose I brought them out of Egypt, led them through the sea, and\ntaught them in the wilderness, but they did not answer my work nor\ndesigns in that matter; wherefore they shall not, I swear they\nshall not. 'I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my\nrest.' Here is cutting down with judgment. So again, he saith,\n'As I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest;\nalthough the works were finished from the foundation of the world'\n(Heb 4:4,5). This word 'if' is the same with 'they shall not,'\nin the chapter before. And where he saith, 'Although the works\nwere finished from the foundation of the world,' he giveth us to\nunderstand that what preparations soever are made for the salvation\nof sinners, and of how long continuance soever they are, yet the\nGod-tempting, God-provoking and fruitless professor, is like to go\nwithout a share therein, 'although the works were finished from the\nfoundation of the world.' 'I will therefore put you in remembrance,\nthough ye once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people\nout of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed\nnot. And the angels that kept not their first estate, but left\ntheir own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under\ndarkness, unto the judgment of the great day' (Jude 5,6). Here is\nan instance to purpose, an instance of men and angels: men saved\nout of the land of Egypt, and in their journey towards Canaan,\nthe type of heaven, cut down; angels created and placed in the\nheavens in great estate and principality; yet both these, because\nunfruitful to God in their places, were cut down--the men destroyed\nby God, for so saith the text, and the 'angels reserved in everlasting\nchains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.'\n\nNow, in my handling of this point, I shall discourse of the cutting\ndown, or the judgment here denounced, as it respecteth the doing\nof it by God's hand immediately, and that too with respect to his\ncasting them out of the world, and not as it respecteth an act of\nthe church, &c. And as to this cutting down, or judgment, it must\nbe concluded, that it cannot be before the day of grace be past\nwith the fig-tree; but according to the observation, there are\nsome professors whose day of grace will end with, Cut it down;\nand according to the words of the text, 'Then,' after that, 'thou\nshalt cut it down.' 'After that,' that is, after all my attempts\nand endeavours to make it fruitful, after I have left it, given it\nover, done with it, and have resolved to bestow no more days of\ngrace, opportunities of grace, and means of grace upon it, then,\n'after that,' thou shalt cut it down.\n\nBesides, the giving up of the fig-tree is before the execution.\nExecution is not always presently upon the sentence given; for,\nafter that, a convenient time is thought on, and then is cutting\ndown. And so it is here in the text. The decree, that he shall\nperish, is gathered from its continuing fruitless quite through\nthe last year--from its continuing fruitless at the end of all\nendeavours. But cutting down is not yet, for that comes with an\nafterward. 'Then, after that, thou shalt cut it down.'\n\nSo then, that I may orderly proceed with the observation, I must\nlay down these two propositions:--PROPOSITION FIRST. That the\nday of grace ends with some men before God takes them out of this\nworld. And, PROPOSITION SECOND. The death, or cutting down of such\nmen, will be dreadful. For this 'Cut it down,' when it is understood\nin the largest sense, as here indeed it ought, it showeth not\nonly the wrath of God against a man's life in this world, but his\nwrath against him, body and soul; and is as much as to say, Cut\nhim off from all the privileges and benefits that come by grace,\nboth in this world and that which is to come. But to proceed:\n\nPROPOSITION FIRST.--The day of grace ends with some men before God\ntaketh them out of the world. I shall give you some instances of\nthis, and so go on to the last proposition.\n\nFirst. I shall instance Cain. Cain was a professor, a sacrificer,\na worshipper of God, yea, the first worshipper that we read of after\nthe fall; but his grapes were wild ones. His works were evil; he\ndid not do what he did from true gospel motives, therefore God\ndisallowed his work (Gen 4:3-8). At this his countenance falls,\nwherefore he envies his brother, disputes him, takes his opportunity,\nand kills him. Now, in that day that he did this act were the\nheavens closed up against him, and that himself did smartingly and\nfearfully feel when God made inquisition for the blood of Abel.\n'And now art thou cursed,' said God, 'from the earth; which hath\nopened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand,'\n&c. 'And Cain said, My punishment is greater than I can bear.'\nMine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. 'Behold\nthou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and\nfrom thy face shall I be hid' (Gen 4:9-14). Now thou art cursed,\nsaith God. Thou hast driven me out this day, saith Cain, and from\nthy face shall I be hid. I shall never more have hope in thee,\nsmile from thee, nor expect mercy at thy hand. Thus, therefore,\nCain's day of grace ended; and the heavens, with God's own heart,\nwere shut up against him; yet after this he lived long. Cutting\ndown was not come yet; after this he lived to marry a wife, to\nbeget a cursed brood, to build a city, and what else I know not;\nall which could not be quickly done; wherefore Cain might live\nafter the day of grace was past with him several hundred of years\n(Gen 4:10-17).\n\nSecond. I shall instance Ishmael. Ishmael was a professor, was\nbrought up in Abraham's family, and was circumcised at thirteen\nyears of age (Gen 16:12, 17:25,26). But he was the son of the\nbond-woman, he brought not forth good fruit; he was a wild professor.\nFor all his religion, he would scoff at those that were better\nthan himself. Well, upon a day his brother Isaac was weaned, at\nwhich time his father made a feast, and rejoiced before the Lord,\nfor that he had given him the promised son; at this Ishmael mocked\nthem, their son, and godly rejoicing. Then came the Spirit of God\nupon Sarah, and she cried, Cast him out, 'cast out this bond-woman\nand her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir\nwith my son, with Isaac' (Gen 21:9-11). Now Paul to the Galatians\nmakes this casting out to be, not only a casting out of Abraham's\nfamily, but a casting out also from a lot with the saints in heaven\n(Gal 4:29-31). Also Moses giveth us a notable proof thereof, in\nsaying, that when he died he was gathered to his people--his people\nby his mother's side; for he was reckoned from her, the son of\nHagar, the son of the bond-woman (Gen 25:17). Now, she came of the\nEgyptians, so that he was gathered when he died, notwithstanding\nhis profession, to the place that Pharaoh and his host were gathered\nto, who were drowned in the Red Sea; these were his people, and\nhe was of them, both by nature and disposition, by persecuting as\nthey did (Gen 21:9).[15] But now, when did the day of grace end\nwith this man? Observe, and I will show you. Ishmael was thirteen\nyears old when he was circumcised, and then was Abraham ninety\nyears old and nine (Gen 17:24-26). The next year Isaac was born;\nso that Ishmael was now fourteen years of age. Now, when Isaac\nwas weaned, suppose he sucked four years, by that account, the day\nof grace must be ended with Ishmael by that time he was eighteen\nyears old (Gen 25:12, &c.). For that day he mocked; that day\nit was said, 'Cast him out'; and of that casting out the apostle\nmakes what I have said. Beware, ye young barren professors! Now,\nIshmael lived a hundred and nineteen years after this, in great\ntranquility and honour with men. After this he also begat twelve\nprinces, even after his day of grace was past.\n\nThird. I shall instance Esau (Gen 25:27, &c.). Esau also was a\nprofessor; he was born unto Isaac, and circumcised according to\nthe custom. But Esau was a gamesome professor, a huntsman, a man\nof the field; also he was wedded to his lusts, which he did also\nventure to keep, rather than the birthright. Well, upon a day,\nwhen he came from hunting, and was faint, he sold his birthright\nto Jacob, his brother. Now the birthright, in those days, had the\npromise and blessing annexed to it. Yea, they were so entailed in\nthis, that the one could not go without the other; wherefore the\napostle's caution is here of weight. Take heed, saith he, 'lest\nthere be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one\nmorsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward,\nwhen he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he\nfound no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with\ntears' (Heb 12:16,17). Now, the ending of Esau's day of grace is\nto be reckoned from his selling of his birthright; for there the\napostle points it, lest there be among you any that, like Esau,\nsells his birthright: for then goes hence the blessing also.\n\nBut Esau sold his birthright long before his death. Twenty years\nafter this Jacob was with Laban, and when he returned home, his\nbrother Esau met him (Gen 31:41, 32:4). Further, after this, when\nJacob dwelt again some time with his father, then Jacob and Esau\nburied him. I suppose he might live above forty, yea, for ought\nI know, above fourscore years after he had sold his birthright,\nand so consequently had put himself out of the grace of God (Gen\n35:28,29).[16]\n\nThree things I would further note upon these three professors.\n\n1. Cain, an angry professor; Ishmael, a mocking one; Esau, a\nlustful, gamesome one. Three symptoms of a barren professor; for\nhe that can be angry, and that can mock, and that can indulge his\nlusts, cannot bring forth fruit to God.\n\n2. The day of grace ended with these professors at that time when\nthey committed some grievous sin. Cain's, when he killed his\nbrother; Ishmael's, when he mocked at Isaac; and Esau's, when,\nout of love to his lusts, he despised and sold his birthright.\nBeware, barren professor! thou mayest do that in half a quarter\nof an hour, from the evil of which thou mayest not be delivered\nfor ever and ever.[17]\n\n3. Yet these three, after their day of grace was over, lived better\nlives, as to outward things, than ever they did before. Cain,\nafter this, was lord of a city (Gen 4:17). Ishmael was, after this,\nfather of twelve princes (Gen 25:16). And Esau, after this, told\nhis brother, 'I have enough, my brother, keep that thou hast unto\nthyself' (Gen 33:8,9). Ease and peace, and a prosperous life in\noutwards, is no sign of the favour of God to a barren and fruitless\nprofessor, but rather of his wrath; that thereby he may be capable\nto treasure up more wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation\nof the righteous judgment of God. Let this much serve for the\nproof of the first proposition, namely, That the day of grace ends\nwith some men before God takes them out of the world.\n\nSIGNS OF BEING PAST GRACE.\n\nNow, then, to show you, by some signs, how you may know that the\nday of grace is ended, or near to ending, with the barren professor;\nand after that thou shalt cut it down. He that hath stood it out\nagainst God, and that hath withstood all those means for fruit\nthat God hath used for the making of him, if it might have been,\na fruitful tree in his garden, he is in this danger; and this\nindeed is the sum of the parable. The fig-tree here mentioned\nwas blessed with the application of means, had time allowed it to\nreceive the nourishment; but it outstood, withstood, overstood\nall, all that the husbandman did, all that the vine-dresser did.\n\nBut a little distinctly to particularize in four or five particulars.\n\nFirst sign. The day of grace is like to be past, when a professor\nhath withstood, abused, and worn out God's patience, then he is\nin danger; this is a provocation; then God cries, 'Cut it down.'\nThere are some men that steal into a profession nobody knows how,\neven as this fig-tree was brought into the vineyard by other hands\nthan God's; and there they abide lifeless, graceless, careless,\nand without any good conscience to God at all. Perhaps they came\nin for the loaves, for a trade, for credit, for a blind; or it\nmay be to stifle and choke the checks and grinding pangs of an\nawakened and disquieted conscience. Now, having obtained their\npurpose, like the sinners of Sion, they are at ease and secure;\nsaying like Agag, 'Surely the bitterness of death is past' (1\nSam 15:22); I am well, shall be saved, and go to heaven. Thus in\nthese vain conceits they spend a year, two, or three; not remembering\nthat at every season of grace, and at every opportunity of the\ngospel the Lord comes seeking fruit. Well, sinner, well, barren\nfig-tree, this is but a coarse beginning: God comes for fruit.\n\n1. What have I here? saith God; what a fig-tree is this, that hath\nstood this year in my vineyard, and brought me forth no fruit? I\nwill cry unto him, Professor, barren fig-tree, be fruitful! I look\nfor fruit, I expect fruit, I must have fruit; therefore bethink\nthyself! At these the professor pauses; but these are words, not\nblows, therefore off goes this consideration from the heart. When\nGod comes the next year, he finds him still as he was, a barren,\nfruitless cumber-ground. And now again he complains, here are two\nyears gone, and no fruit appears; well, I will defer mine anger.\n'For my name sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will\nI refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off,' as yet (Isa 48:9).\nI will wait, I will yet wait to be gracious. But this helps not,\nthis hath not the least influence upon the barren fig-tree. Tush,\nsaith he, here is no threatening: God is merciful, he will defer\nhis anger, he waits to be gracious, I am not yet afraid (Isa\n30:18). O! how ungodly men, that are at unawares crept into the\nvineyard, how do they turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness!\nWell, he comes the third year for fruit, as he did before, but\nstill he finds but a barren fig-tree; no fruit. Now, he cries\nout again, O thou dresser of my vineyard, come hither; here is a\nfig-tree hath stood these three years in my vineyard, and hath at\nevery season disappointed my expectation; for I have looked for\nfruit in vain; 'Cut it down,' my patience is worn out, I shall\nwait on this fig-tree no longer.\n\n2. And now he begins to shake the fig-tree with his threatenings:\nFetch out the axe! Now the axe is death; death therefore is called\nfor. Death, come smite me this fig-tree. And withal the Lord shakes\nthis sinner, and whirls him upon a sick-bed, saying, Take him,\ndeath, he hath abused my patience and forbearance, not remembering\nthat it should have led him to repentance, and to the fruits\nthereof. Death, fetch away this fig-tree to the fire, fetch this\nbarren professor to hell! At this death comes with grim looks\ninto the chamber; yea, and hell follows with him to the bedside,\nand both stare this professor in the face, yea, begin to lay hands\nupon him; one smiting him with pains in his body, with headache,\nheart-ache, back-ache, shortness of breath, fainting, qualms,\ntrembling of joints, stopping at the chest, and almost all the\nsymptoms of a man past all recovery. Now, while death is thus\ntormenting the body, hell is doing with the mind and conscience,\nstriking them with its pains, casting sparks of fire in thither,\nwounding with sorrows, and fears of everlasting damnation, the\nspirit of this poor creature.[18] And now he begins to bethink\nhimself, and to cry to God for mercy; Lord, spare me! Lord, spare\nme! Nay, saith God, you have been a provocation to me these three\nyears. How many times have you disappointed me? How many seasons\nhave you spent in vain? How many sermons and other mercies did I,\nof my patience, afford you? but to no purpose at all. Take him,\ndeath! O! good Lord, saith the sinner, spare me but this once;\nraise me but this once. Indeed I have been a barren professor,\nand have stood to no purpose at all in thy vineyard; but spare! O\nspare this one time, I beseech thee, and I will be better! Away,\naway you will not; I have tried you these three years already; you\nare naught; if I should recover you again, you would be as bad as\nyou were before. And all this talk is while death stands by. The\nsinner cries again, Good Lord, try me this once; let me get up\nagain this once, and see if I do not mend. But will you promise\nme to mend? Yes, indeed, Lord, and vow it too; I will never be\nso bad again; I will be better. Well, saith God, death, let this\nprofessor alone for this time; I will try him a while longer; he\nhath promised, he hath vowed, that he will amend his ways. It may\nbe he will mind to keep his promises. Vows are solemn things; it\nmay be he may fear to break his vows. Arise from off they bed.\nAnd now God lays down his axe. At this the poor creature is very\nthankful, praises God, and fawns upon him, shows as if he did\nit heartily, and calls to others to thank him too. He therefore\nriseth, as one would think, to be a new creature indeed. But by\nthat he hath put on his clothes, is come down from his bed, and\nventured into the yard or shop, and there sees how all things are\ngone to sixes and sevens, he begins to have second thoughts, and\nsays to his folks, What have you all been doing? How are all things\nout of order? I am I cannot tell what behind hand. One may see,\nif a man be but a little a to side, that you have neither wisdom\nnor prudence to order things.[19] And now, instead of seeking to\nspend the rest of his time to God, he doubleth his diligence after\nthis world. Alas! all must not be lost; we must have provident\ncare. And thus, quite forgetting the sorrows of death, the pains\nof hell, the promises and vows which he made to God to be better;\nbecause judgment was not now speedily executed, therefore the\nheart of this poor creature is fully set in him to do evil.\n\n3. These things proving ineffectual, God takes hold of his axe\nagain, sends death to a wife, to a child, to his cattle, 'Your\nyoung men have I slain,--and taken away your horses' (Amos 4:9,10).\nI will blast him, cross him, disappoint him, and cast him down,\nand will set myself against him in all that he putteth his hand\nunto. At this the poor barren professor cries out again, Lord, I\nhave sinned; spare me once more, I beseech thee. O take not away\nthe desire of mine eyes; spare my children, bless me in my labours,\nand I will mend and be better. No, saith God, you lied to me last\ntime, I will trust you in this no longer; and withal he tumbleth\nthe wife, the child, the estate into a grave. And then returns\nto his place, till this professor more unfeignedly acknowledgeth\nhis offence (Hosea 5:14,15).\n\nAt this the poor creature is afflicted and distressed, rends his\nclothes, and begins to call the breaking of his promise and vows\nto mind; he mourns and prays, and like Ahab, awhile walks softly\nat the remembrance of the justness of the hand of God upon him.\nAnd now he renews his promises: Lord, try me this one time more;\ntake off thy hand and see; they go far that never turn. Well, God\nspareth him again, sets down his axe again. 'Many times he did\ndeliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel, and were\nbrought low for their iniquity' (Psa 106:43). Now they seem to\nbe thankful again, and are as if they were resolved to be godly\nindeed. Now they read, they pray, they go to meetings, and seem\nto be serious a pretty while, but at last they forget. Their lusts\nprick them, suitable temptations present themselves; wherefore\nthey turn to their own crooked ways again. 'When he slew them,\nthen they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after\nGod'; 'nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and\nthey lied unto him with their tongue' (Psa 78:34-36).\n\n4. Yet again, the Lord will not leave this professor, but will take\nup his axe again, and will put him under a more heart-searching\nministry, a ministry that shall search him, and turn him over\nand over; a ministry that shall meet with him, as Elijah met with\nAhab, in all his acts of wickedness, and now the axe is laid to the\nroots of the trees. Besides, this ministry doth not only search\nthe heart, but presenteth the sinner with the golden rays of\nthe glorious gospel; now is Christ Jesus s set forth evidently,\nnow is grace displayed sweetly; now, now are the promises broken\nlike boxes of ointment, to the perfuming of the whole room! But,\nalas! there is yet no fruit on this fig-tree. While his heart is\nsearching, he wrangles; while the glorious grace of the gospel\nis unveiling, this professor wags and is wanton, gathers up some\nscraps thereof; 'Tastes the good Word of God, and the powers of\nthe world to come'; 'drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon\nhim' (Heb 6:3-8; Jude 4). But bringeth not forth fruit meet for him\nwhose gospel it is; 'Takes no heed to walk in the law of the Lord\nGod of Israel with all his heart' (2 Kings 10:31). But counteth\nthat the glory of the gospel consisteth in talk and show, and\nthat our obedience thereto is a matter of speculation; that good\nworks lie in good words; and if they can finely talk, they think\nthey bravely please God. They think the kingdom of God consisteth\nonly in word, not in power; and thus proveth ineffectual this\nfourth means also.\n\n5. Well, now the axe begins to be heaved higher, for now indeed\nGod is ready to smite the sinner; yet before he will strike the\nstroke, he will try one way more at the last, and if that misseth,\ndown goes the fig-tree! Now this last way is to tug and strive\nwith this professor by his Spirit. Wherefore the Spirit of the\nLord is now come to him; but not always to strive with man (Gen\n6:3). Yet a while he will strive with him, he will awaken, he\nwill convince, he will call to remembrance former sins, former\njudgments, the breach of former vows and promises, the misspending\nof former days; he will also present persuasive arguments,\nencouraging promises, dreadful judgments, the shortness of time\nto repent in; and that there is hope if he come. Further, he will\nshow him the certainty of death, and of the judgment to come;\nyea, he will pull and strive with this sinner; but, behold, the\nmischief now lies here, here is tugging and striving on both sides.\nThe Spirit convinces, the man turns a deaf ear to God; the Spirit\nsaith, Receive my instruction and live, but the man pulls away\nhis shoulder; the Spirit shows him whither he is going, but the\nman closeth his eyes against it; the Spirit offereth violence, the\nman strives and resists; they have 'done despite unto the Spirit\nof grace' (Heb 10:29). The Spirit parlieth a second time, and\nurgeth reasons of a new nature, but the sinner answereth, No, I\nhave loved strangers, and after them I will go (Amos 4:6-12). At\nthis God's fury comes up into his face: now he comes out of his\nholy place, and is terrible; now he sweareth in his wrath they\nshall never enter into his rest (Heb 3:11). I exercised towards\nyou my patience, yet you have not turned unto me, saith the Lord.\nI smote you in your person, in your relations, in your estate, yet\nyou have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. 'In thy filthiness\nis lewdness, because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged;\nthou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I\ncause my fury to rest upon thee' (Eze 24:13). 'Cut it down, why\ndoth it cumber the ground?'\n\nThe second sign. That such a professor is almost, if not quite,\npast grace, is, when God hath given him over, or lets him alone,\nand suffers him to do anything, and that without control, helpeth\nhim not either in works of holiness, or in straits and difficulties.\n'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone' (Hosea 4:17). Woe be\nto them when I depart from them. I will laugh at their calamities,\nand will mock when their fear cometh (Prov 1:24-29).\n\nBarren fig-tree, thou hast heretofore been digged about, and dunged;\nGod's mattock hath heretofore been at thy roots; gospel-dung hath\nheretofore been applied to thee; thou hast heretofore been strove\nwith, convinced, awakened, made to taste and see, and cry, O the\nblessedness! Thou hast heretofore been met with under the word;\nthy heart hath melted, thy spirit hath fallen, thy soul hath\ntrembled, and thou hast felt something of the power of the gospel.\nBut thou hast sinned, thou hast provoked the eyes of his glory,\nthy iniquity is found to be hateful, and now perhaps God hath left\nthee, given thee up, and lets thee alone. Heretofore thou wast\ntender; thy conscience startled at the temptation to wickedness,\nfor thou wert taken off from 'the pollutions of the world, through\nthe knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter\n2:20-22). But that very vomit that once thou wert turned from,\nnow thou lappest up--with the dog in the proverb--again; and that\nvery mire that once thou seemedst to be washed from, in that very\nmire thou now art tumbling afresh. But to particularize, there\nare three signs of a man's being given over of God.\n\n1. When he is let alone in sinning, when the reins of his lusts\nare loosed, and he given up to them. 'And even as they did not\nlike to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a\nreprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient: being\nfilled with all unrighteousness' (Rom 1:28,29). Seest thou a man\nthat heretofore had the knowledge of God, and that had some awe\nof Majesty upon him: I say, seest thou such an one sporting\nhimself in his own deceivings, turning the grace of our God into\nlasciviousness, and walking after his own ungodly lusts? (Rom\n1:30-31). His 'judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and his\ndamnation slumbereth not' (2 Peter 2:13). Dost thou hear, barren\nprofessor? It is astonishing to see how those that once seemed\n'sons of the morning,' and were making preparations for eternal\nlife, now at last, for the rottenness of their hearts, by the just\njudgment of God, to be permitted, being past feeling, to give\n'themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness\nwith greediness' (Eph 4:18,19). A great number of such were in\nthe first gospel-days; against whom Peter, and Jude, and John,\npronounce the heavy judgment of God. Peter and Jude couple them\nwith the fallen angels, and John forbids that prayer be made for\nthem, because that is happened unto them that hath happened to the\nfallen angels that fell, who, for forsaking their first state, and\nfor leaving 'their own habitation,' are 'reserved in everlasting\nchains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day' (Jude\n5,6; 2 Peter 2:3-8). Barren fig-tree, dost thou hear? (1.) These\nare beyond all mercy! (2.) These are beyond all promises! (3.)\nThese are beyond all hopes of repentance! (4.) These have no\nintercessor, nor any more share in a sacrifice for sin! (5.) For\nthese there remains nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment!\n(6.) Wherefore these are the true fugitives and vagabonds, that\nbeing left of God, of Christ, of grace, and of the promise, and\nbeing beyond all hope, wander and straggle to and fro, even as\nthe devil, their associate, until their time shall come to die,\nor until they descend in battle and perish!\n\n2. Wherefore they are let alone in hearing. If these at any time\ncome under the word, there is for them no God, no savour of the\nmeans of grace, no stirrings of heart, no pity for themselves, no\nlove to their own salvation. Let them look on this hand or that,\nthere they see such effects of the word in others as produceth\nsigns of repentance, and love to God and his Christ. These men\nonly have their backs bowed down alway (Rom 11:10). These men\nonly have the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see,\nand ears that they should not hear, to this very day. Wherefore\nas they go to the place of the Holy, so they come from the place\nof the Holy, and soon are forgotten in the places where they so\ndid (Eccl 8:10). Only they reap this damage, 'They treasure up\nwrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous\njudgment of God' (Rom 2:3-5). Look to it, barren professor!\n\n3. If he be visited after the common way of mankind, either with\nsickness, distress, or any mind of calamity, still no God appeareth,\nno sanctifying hand of God, no special mercy is mixed with the\naffliction. But he falls sick, and grows well, like the beast;\nor is under distress, as Saul, who when he was engaged by the\nPhilistines was forsaken and left of God, 'And the Philistines\ngathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem, and\nSaul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.\nAnd when Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid, and\nhis heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord,\nthe Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by\nprophets' (1 Sam 28:4-6). The Lord answered him no more; he had\ndone with him, cast him off, and rejected him, and left him to\nstand and fall with his sins, by himself. But of this more in the\nconclusion: therefore I here forbear.\n\n4. These men may go whither they will, do what they will; they may\nrange from opinion to opinion, from notion to notion, from sect\nto sect, but are steadfast nowhere; they are left to their own\nuncertainties, they have not grace to establish their hearts; and\nthough some of them have boasted themselves of this liberty, yet\nJude calls them 'wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness\nof darkness for ever' (Jude 13). They are left, as I told you\nbefore, to be fugitives and vagabonds in the earth, to wander\neverywhere, but to abide nowhere, until they shall descend to\ntheir own place, with Cain and Judas, men of the same fate with\nthemselves (Acts 1:25).\n\nA third sign that such a professor is quite past grace is, when his\nheart is grown so hard, so stony, and impenetrable, that nothing\nwill pierce it. Barren fig-tree, dost thou consider? a hard and\nimpenitent heart is the curse of God! A heart that cannot repent,\nis instead of all plagues at once; and hence it is that God said\nof Pharaoh, when he spake of delivering him up in the greatness of\nhis anger, 'I will at this time,' saith he, 'send all my plagues\nupon thine heart' (Exo 9:14).\n\nTo some men that have grievously sinned under a profession of the\ngospel, God giveth this token of his displeasure; they are denied\nthe power of repentance, their heart is bound, they cannot repent;\nit is impossible that they should ever repent, should they live\na thousand years. It is impossible for those fall-aways to be\nrenewed again unto repentance, 'seeing they crucify to themselves\nthe Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame' (Heb 6:4-6).\nNow, to have the heart so hardened, so judicially hardened, this\nis as a bar put in by the Lord God against the salvation of this\nsinner. This was the burden of Spira's complaint, 'I cannot do\nit! O! how I cannot do it!'[20]\n\nThis man sees what he hath done, what should help him, and what will\nbecome of him; yet he cannot repent; he pulled away his shoulder\nbefore, he stopped his ears before, he shut up his eyes before, and\nin that very posture God left him, and so he stands to this very\nday. I have had a fancy, that Lot's wife, when she was turned into\na pillar of salt, stood yet looking over her shoulder, or else with\nher face towards Sodom; as the judgment caught her, so it bound\nher, and left her a monument of God's anger to after generations\n(Gen 19:26).\n\nWe read of some that are seared with a hot iron, and that are\npast feeling; for so seared persons in seared parts are. Their\nconscience is seared (1 Tim 4:2). The conscience is the thing that\nmust be touched with feeling, fear, and remorse, if ever any good\nbe done with the sinner. How then can any good be done to those\nwhose conscience is worse than that? that is, fast asleep in sin\n(Eph 4:19). For that conscience that is fast asleep, may yet be\neffectually awakened and saved; but that conscience that is seared,\ndried, as it were, into a cinder, can never have sense, feeling,\nor the least regret in this world. Barren fig-tree, hearken,\njudicial hardening is dreadful! There is a difference betwixt that\nhardness of heart that is incident to all men, and that which comes\nupon some as a signal or special judgment of God. And although all\nkinds of hardness of heart, in some sense may be called a judgment,\nyet to be hardened with this second kind, is a judgment peculiar\nonly to them that perish; hardness that is sent as a punishment\nfor the abuse of light received, for a reward of apostacy. This\njudicial hardness is discovered from that which is incident to\nall men, in these particulars:--\n\n1. It is a hardness that comes after some great light received,\nbecause of some great sin committed against that light, and the\ngrace that gave it. Such hardness as Pharaoh had, after the Lord\nhad wrought wondrously before him; such hardness as the Gentiles\nhad, a hardness which darkened the heart, a hardness which made\ntheir minds reprobate. This hardness is also the same with that\nthe Hebrews are cautioned to beware of, a hardness that is caused\nby unbelief, and a departing from the living God; a hardness\ncompleted through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:7, &c). Such as\nthat in the provocation, of whom God sware, that they should not\nenter into his rest. It was this kind of hardness also, that both\nCain, and Ishmael, and Esau, were hardened with, after they had\ncommitted their great transgressions.\n\n2. It is the greatest kind of hardness; and hence they are said\nto be harder than a rock, or than an adamant, that is, harder than\nflint; so hard, that nothing can enter (Jer 5:3; Zech 7:12).\n\n3. It is a hardness given in much anger, and that to bind the soul\nup in an impossibility of repentance.\n\n4. It is a hardness, therefore, which is incurable, of which a man\nmust die and be damned. Barren professor, hearken to this.\n\nA fourth sign that such a professor is quite past grace, is, when\nhe fortifies his hard heart against the tenor of God's word (Job\n9:4, &c.) This is called hardening themselves against God, and\nturning of the Spirit against them. As thus, when after a profession\nof faith in the Lord Jesus, and of the doctrine that is according\nto godliness, they shall embolden themselves in courses of sin,\nby promising themselves that they shall have life and salvation\nnotwithstanding. Barren professor, hearken to this! This man is\ncalled, 'a root that beareth gall and wormwood,' or a poisonful\nherb, such an one as is abominated of God, yea, the abhorred of his\nsoul. For this man saith, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in\nthe imagination' or stubbornness 'of mine heart, to add drunkenness\nto thirst'; an opinion flat against the whole Word of God, yea,\nagainst the very nature of God himself (Deut 29:18,19). Wherefore\nhe adds, 'Then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall\nsmoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in\nGod's book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his\nname from under heaven' (Deut 19:20).\n\nYea, that man shall not fail to be effectually destroyed, saith\nthe text: 'The Lord shall separate that man unto evil, out of all\nthe tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant'\n(Deut 19:21). He shall separate him unto evil; he shall give him\nup, he shall leave him to his heart; he shall separate him to that\nor those that will assuredly be too hard for him.\n\nNow this judgment is much effected when God hath given a man up\nunto Satan, and hath given Satan leave, without fail, to complete\nhis destruction. I say, when God hath given Satan leave effectually\nto complete his destruction; for all that are delivered up unto\nSatan have not, nor do not come to this end. But that is the man\nwhom God shall separate to evil, and shall leave in the hands of\nSatan, to complete, without fail, his destruction.\n\nThus he served Ahab, a man that sold himself to work wickedness\nin the sight of the Lord. 'And the Lord said, Who shall persuade\nAhab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said\non this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came\nforth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade\nhim. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will\ngo forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.\nAnd he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also; go forth,\nand do so' (1 Kings 21:25, 22:20-22). Thou shalt persuade him,\nand prevail; do thy will, I leave him in thy hand, go forth, and\ndo so.\n\nWherefore, in these judgments the Lord doth much concern himself\nfor the management thereof, because of the provocation wherewith\nthey have provoked him. This is the man whose ruin contriveth,\nand bringeth to pass by his own contrivance: 'I also will choose\ntheir delusions' for them; 'I will bring their fears upon them'\n(Isa 66:4). I will choose their devices, or the wickednesses that\ntheir hearts are contriving of. I, even I, will cause them to be\naccepted of, and delightful to them. But who are they that must\nthus be feared? Why, those among professors that have chosen\ntheir own ways, those whose soul delighteth in their abominations.\nBecause they received not the love of the truth, that they might\nbe saved: for this cause God shall send them strong delusions,\nthat they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned,\nwho believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.\n\n'God shall send them.' It is a great word! Yea, God shall send\nthem strong delusions; delusions that shall do: that shall make\nthem believe a lie. Why so? 'That they all might be damned,'\nevery one of them, 'who believed not the truth, but had pleasure\nin unrighteousness' (2 Thess 2:10-12).\n\nThere is nothing more provoking to the Lord, than for a man to\npromise when God threateneth; for a man to delight of conceit that\nhe shall be safe, and yet to be more wicked than in former days,\nthis man's soul abhorreth the truth of God; no marvel, therefore,\nif God's soul abhorreth him; he hath invented a way contrary to\nGod, to bring about his own salvation; no marvel, therefore, if\nGod invent a way to bring about this man's damnation: and seeing\nthat these rebels are at this point, we shall have peace; God will\nsee whose word will stand, his or theirs.\n\nA fifth sign of a man being past grace is, when he shall at this\nscoff, and inwardly grin and fret against the Lord, secretly\npurposing to continue his course, and put all to the venture,\ndespising the messengers of the Lord. 'He that despised Moses'\nlaw, died without mercy;--of how much sorer punishment, suppose\nye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the\nSon of God?' &c. (Heb 10:28). Wherefore, against these despisers\nGod hath set himself, and foretold that they shall not believe,\nbut perish: 'Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I\nwork a work in your days, a work which ye shall in nowise believe,\nthough a man declare it unto you' (Acts 13:41).\n\nAfter that thou shalt cut it down.\n\nThus far we have treated of the barren fig-tree, or fruitless\nprofessor, with some signs to know him by; whereto is added also\nsome signs of one who neither will nor can, by any means, be\nfruitful, but they must miserably perish. Now, being come to the\ntime of execution, I shall speak a word to that also; 'After that\nthou shalt cut it down.'\n\n[PROPOSITION SECOND. The death or cutting down of such men will\nbe dreadful.]\n\nChrist, at last, turns the barren fig-tree over to the justice of\nGod, shakes his hands of him, and gives him up to the fire for\nhis unprofitableness. 'After that thou shalt cut it down.'\n\nTwo things are here to be considered:\n\nFirst. The executioner; thou, the great, the dreadful, the eternal\nGod. These words, therefore, as I have already said, signify that\nChrist the Mediator, through whom alone salvation comes, and by\nwhom alone execution hath been deferred, now giveth up the soul,\nforbears to speak one syllable more for him, or to do the least\nact of grace further, to try for his recovery; but delivereth him\nup to that fearful dispensation, 'to fall into the hands of the\nliving God' (Heb 10:31).\n\nSecond. The second to be considered is, The instrument by which\nthis execution is done, and that is death, compared here to an\naxe; and forasmuch as the tree is not felled at one blow, therefore\nthe strokes are here continued, till all the blows be struck at\nit that are requisite for its felling: for now cutting time, and\ncutting work, is come; cutting must be his portion till he be cut\ndown. 'After that thou shalt cut it down.' Death, I say, is the\naxe, which God often useth, therewith to take the barren fig-tree\nout of the vineyard, out of a profession, and also out of the world\nat once. But this axe is now new ground, it cometh well-edged to\nthe roots of this barren fig-tree. It hath been whetted by sin,\nby the law, and by a formal profession, and therefore must, and\nwill make deep gashes, not only in the natural life, but in the\nheart and conscience also of this professor: 'The wages of sin\nis death,' 'the sting of death is sin' (Rom 6:23; 1 Cor 15:56).\nWherefore death comes not to this man as he doth to saints,\nmuzzled, or without his sting, but with open mouth, in all his\nstrength; yea, he sends his first-born, which is guilt, to devour\nhis strength, and to bring him to the king of terrors (Job 18:13,14).\n\nBut to give you, in a few particulars, the manner of this man's\ndying.\n\n1. Now he hath his fruitless fruits beleaguer him round his bed,\ntogether with all the bands and legions of his other wickedness.\n'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall\nbe holden with the cords of his sins' (Prov 5:22).\n\n2. Now some terrible discovery of God is made out unto him, to\nthe perplexing and terrifying of his guilty conscience. 'God shall\ncast upon him, and not spare'; and he shall be 'afraid of that\nwhich is high' (Job 27:22; Eccl 12:5).\n\n3. The dark entry he is to go through will be a sore amazement\nto him; for 'fears shall be in the way' (Eccl 12:5). Yea, terrors\nwill take hold on him, when he shall see the yawning jaws of death\nto gape upon him, and the doors of the shadow of death open to\ngive him passage out of the world. Now, who will meet me in this\ndark entry? how shall I pass through this dark entry into another\nworld?\n\n4. For by reason of guilt, and a shaking conscience, his life will\nhang in continual doubt before him, and he shall be afraid day\nand night, and shall have no assurance of his life (Deut 28:66,67).\n\n5. Now also want will come up against him; he will come up like\nan armed man. This is a terrible army to him that is graceless in\nheart, and fruitless in life. This WANT will continually cry in\nthine ears, Here is a new birth wanting, a new heart, and a new\nspirit wanting; here is faith wanting; here is love and repentance\nwanting; here is the fear of God wanting, and a good conversation\nwanting: 'Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting'\n(Dan 5:27).\n\n6. Together with these standeth by the companions of death,\ndeath and hell, death and evils, death and endless torment in the\neverlasting flames of devouring fire. 'When God cometh up unto\nthe people he will invade them with his troops' (Hab 3:16).\n\nBut how will this man die? Can his heart now endure, or can his\nhands be strong? (Eze 22:14).\n\n(1.) God, and Christ, and pity, have left him. Sin against light,\nagainst mercy, and the long-suffering of God, is come up against\nhim; his hope and confidence now lie a-dying by him, and his\nconscience totters and shakes continually within him!\n\n(2.) Death is at his work, cutting of him down, hewing both bark\nand heart, both body and soul asunder. The man groans, but death\nhears him not; he looks ghastly, carefully, dejectedly; he sighs,\nhe sweats, he trembles, but death matters nothing.\n\n(3.) Fearful cogitations haunt him, misgivings, direful apprehensions\nof God, terrify him. Now he hath time to think what the loss\nof heaven will be, and what the torments of hell will be: now he\nlooks no way but he is frighted.\n\n(4.) Now would he live, but may not; he would live, though it were\nbut the life of a bed-rid man, but he must not. He that cuts him\ndown sways him as the feller of wood sways the tottering tree;\nnow this way, then that, at last a root breaks, a heart-string,\nan eye-string, sweeps asunder.\n\n(5.) And now, could the soul be annihilated, or brought to nothing,\nhow happy would it count itself, but it sees that may not be.\nWherefore it is put to a wonderful strait; stay in the body it\nmay not, go out of the body it dares not. Life is going, the blood\nsettles in the flesh, and the lungs being no more able to draw\nbreath through the nostrils, at last out goes the weary trembling\nsoul, which is immediately seized by devils, who lay lurking in\nevery hole in the chamber for that very purpose. His friends take\ncare of the body, wrap it up in the sheet or coffin, but the soul\nis out of their thought and reach, going down to the chambers of\ndeath.\n\nI had thought to have enlarged, but I forbear. God, who teaches\nman to profit, bless this brief and plain discourse to thy soul,\nwho yet standest a professor in the land of the living, among the\ntrees of his garden. Amen.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1]General Doctrine of Toleration, 8vo, 1781.\n\n[2] This awful destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is narrated\nby Josephus in his sixth book of the Jewish Wars, in language\nthat makes nature shudder. Multitudes had assembled to celebrate\nthe passover when the invading army beleaguered the city; a\nfrightful famine soon filled it with desolation: this, with fire\nand sword, miserably destroyed one million, three hundred and\nthirty-seven thousand, four hundred and ninety Jews, while the\nChristians fled before the siege, and escaped to the mountains.\nWell might the sun vail his face at that atrocious deed, which\nwas so quickly followed by such awful punishment.--Ed.\n\n[3] Reader, do not imagine that this was peculiar to Bunyan's days;\nlook not upon your neighbours to find an example, but search your\nown heart--'Lord, is it I?' and strive and pray that you may bring\nforth more fruit.--Ed.\n\n[4] The mode of admitting a member to church-fellowship, among\nthe Baptists, was and now is by introducing the trembling convert\nto a private meeting of the whole church, that they may hear why\nthe union is sought, how the soul became alarmed, and fled for\nrefuge to Christ, with the grounds of hope; inquiries having been\npreviously made into Christian character and godliness. If, with\nall these precautions, a barren professor gains admittance, the\npunishment is not upon the garden, but upon the barren tree.--Ed.\n\n[5] 'Humour,' the temper or disposition of mind. Not out of love\nto humility, but these creeping things pretend to be humble, to\ngain some sinister end.--Ed.\n\n[6] However strange it may appear, it is true that the Ranters,\nin Bunyan's time, used these arguments, and those so graphically\nput into the mouth of Bye-ends, in the Pilgrim, to justify their\nnonconformity to Christ. The tom-fooleries and extravagancies of\ndress introduced by Charles II, are here justly and contemptuously\ndescribed. The ladies' head-dresses, called 'frizzled fore-tops,'\nbecame so extravagant, that a barber used high steps to enable\nhim to dress a lady's head!--Ed.\n\n[7] A word not to be found in our dictionaries, being local and\nalmost obsolete. It means a division, end, or border of a town or\nvillage.--Ed.\n\n[8] See the character of Talkative, in the Pilgrim's Progress.\n'His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of\nsavour. There is in his house neither prayer, nor sign of repentance\nfor sin. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion.\nThus say the common people that know him, A saint abroad and a\ndevil at home.'--Ed.\n\n[9] How great is the mercy that those horrid barbarities, perpetrated\nupon peaceful Christians, are now only heard of in those distance\nparts of Satan's empire, China and Madagascar! Has the enmity of\nthe human heart by nature changed? No; but the number of Christians\nhas so vastly increased with a civilizing influence, as to change\nthe face of society. What a paradise will this earth become when\nChrist shall reign in every heart!--Ed.\n\n[10] In the midst of these faithful admonitions, we venture to\nremark that, according to Lightfoot, so valuable was the fig-tree\nthat it was never destroyed until means were carefully used to\nrestore its fruitfulness, and that the use of these means occupied\na period of three years. This illustrates the wisdom of our Lord\nin selecting the fig-tree as the principal object presented to\nview in his parable. It is a most valuable tree--capable of bearing\nmuch fruit; still, after every trial, if it remains barren, it\nmust be cut down as a cumber-ground, and sent to the fire.--Ed.\n\n[11] A 'hit,' in some parts of the country, is used to express a\ngood crop. A 'hitting season' means a fruitful season.--Ed.\n\n[12] This mode of infusing new vigour into plants and trees is\nthus described in the Gemara--'They lay dung in their gardens,\nto soften the earth. They dig about the roots of their trees, and\nsprinkle ashes, and pluck up suckers, and make a smoke beneath to\nkill vermin.'--Ed.\n\n[13] Among the superstitions of the ancients, Michaelis states\nthat both the Greeks and Asiatics had a superstition that a tree\nmight be rendered fruitful by striking it, at the intercession of\na friend, three times with the back of an axe.--Ed.\n\n[14] However painfully unpleasant these terms may appear to\neyes or ears polite, it is a homely but just representation, and\ncalculated to make a lasting impression on every reader.\nAfflictions, trials, crosses, are used as a means of creating or\nreviving spiritual life, as manure is applied to vegetation.--Ed.\n\n[15] Mahomet professed descent from Ishmael, and that he came to\nrevive the religion which God had revealed to Abraham, who taught\nit to Ishmael. Mahometanism is the religion of the outcast of\nGod.--Ed.\n\n[16] Bunyan had been haunted with the temptation 'to sell and\npart with Christ,' and, under a fear that he had fallen under that\ntemptation, the case of Esau made a dreadful impression upon his\nsoul; extreme horror and anguish seized upon his spirit; 'he was\nlike a man bereft of life and bound over to eternal punishment,'\nfor two years. At length, after an awful storm, he found peace\nin the promise, 'his blood cleanseth from ALL sins,' and a proof\nthat he had not sold Christ.--See Grace Abounding, No. 139-160.\n\n[17] How solemn a thought! What an appeal to perpetual watchfulness.\nWhy have I not made shipwreck of faith? Most emphatically may we\nreply, Because God has sustained my soul.--Ed.\n\n[18] Bunyan's tongue and pen are here fired by his vivid imagination\nof eternal realities. With such burning words, we need no messenger\nfrom the invisible world to alarm the consciences of sinners. What\nangel could arouse more powerfully, alarmingly, convincingly, the\npoor sinner, than the whole of this chain of reasoning.--Ed.\n\n[19] This picture is drawn by a master hand: the master is laid\nby for a season; or, as Bunyan quaintly expresses it, 'a little a\nto side': when raised from affliction earthly affairs absorb his\nattention, and he forgets his good resolves. According to the old\nrhyme:--\n\n\n'The devil was sick, the devil a saint would be\nThe devil to well, the devil a saint was he.'--Ed.\n\n\n[20] This is referred to in the Pilgrim, at the Interpreter's\nhouse, by the representation of a man in an iron cage, who says,\n'I cannot get out, O now I cannot!' The awful account of Spira's\ndespair must have made a strong impression upon Bunyan's mind. It\ncommences with a poem.\n\n\n'Here see a soul that's all despair; a man\nAll hell; a spirit all wounds; who can\n     A wounded spirit bear?\nReader, would'st see, what may you never feel\nDespair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel!\nBehold, the man's the furnace, in whose heart\nSin hath created hell; O in each part\n     What flames appear:\nHis thoughts all stings; words, swords;\n     Brimstone his breath;\nHis eyes flames; wishes curses, life a death;\nA thousand deaths live in him, he not dead;\nA breathing corpse in living, scalding lead.'\n--Fearful Estate of Francis Spira.--Ed.\n\n\n***\n\nThe Life and Death of Mr. Badman,\n\nPresented to the World in a Familiar Dialogue Between Mr. Wiseman\nand Mr. Attentive.\n\nBy John Bunyan\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nThe life of Badman is a very interesting description, a true and\nlively portraiture, of the demoralized classes of the trading\ncommunity in the reign of King Charles II; a subject which naturally\nled the author to use expressions familiar among such persons,\nbut which are now either obsolete or considered as vulgar. In fact\nit is the only work proceeding from the prolific pen and fertile\nimagination of Bunyan, in which he uses terms that, in this\ndelicate and refined age, may give offence. So, in the venerable\ntranslation of the holy oracles, there are some objectionable\nexpressions, which, although formerly used in the politest company,\nnow point to the age in which it was written. The same ideas or\nfacts would now be expressed by terms which could not give offence;\nand every reader must feel great pleasure in the improvement of\nour language, as seen in the contrast between the two periods,\nand especially in the recollection that the facts might be stated\nwith equal precision, and reflections made with equal force, in\nterms at which the most delicate mind could not be offended.\n\nThose who read the writings of Bunyan must feel continually reminded\nof his ardent attachment to his Saviour, and his intense love to\nthe souls of sinners. He was as delicate in his expressions as any\nwriter of his age, who addressed the openly vicious and profane--calling\nthings by their most forcible and popular appellations. A wilful\nuntruth is, with him, 'a lie.' To show the wickedness and extreme\nfolly of swearing, he gives the words and imprecations then\ncommonly in use; but which, happily for us, we never hear, except\namong the most degraded classes of society. Swearing was formerly\nconsidered to be a habit of gentility; but now it betrays the\nblackguard, even when disguised in genteel attire. Those dangerous\ndiseases which are so surely engendered by filth and uncleanness,\nhe calls not by Latin but by their plain English names. In every\ncase, the Editor has not ventured to make the slightest alteration;\nbut has reprinted the whole in the author's plain and powerful\nlanguage.\n\nThe life of Badman forms a third part to the Pilgrim's Progress,\nnot a delightful pilgrimage to heaven, but, on the contrary,\na wretched downward journey to the infernal realms. The author's\nobject is to warn poor thoughtless sinners, not with smooth\nwords, to which they would take no heed; but to thunder upon\ntheir consciences the peril of their souls, and the increasing\nwretchedness into which they were madly hurrying. He who is in\nimminent, but unseen danger, will bless the warning voice if it\nreach his ears, however rough and startling the sound may be.\n\nThe life of Badman was written in an age when profligacy, vice,\nand debauchery, marched like a desolating army through our land,\nheaded by the king, and officered by his polluted courtiers; led\non with all the pomp and splendour which royalty could display.\nThe king and his ministers well knew that the most formidable\nenemies to tyranny, oppression, and misgovernment, were the piety\nand stern morality of the Puritans, Nonconformists, and the small\nclasses of virtuous citizens of other denominations; and therefore\nevery effort was made by allurements and intimidation to debauch\nand demoralize their minds. Well does Bunyan say that 'wickedness\nlike a flood is like to drown our English world. It has almost\nswallowed up all our youth, our middle age, old age, and all are\nalmost carried away of this flood. It reels to and fro like a\ndrunkard, it is like to fall and rise no more.' 'It is the very\nhaunts and walks of the infernal spirits.' 'England shakes and\nmakes me totter for its transgressions.'\n\nThe gradations of a wicked man in that evil age, from his cradle\nto his grave, are graphically set before the reader; it is all\ndrawn from reality, and not from efforts of imagination. Every\nexample is a picture of some real occurrence, either within the\nview of the author, or from the narratives of credible witnesses.\n'All the things that here I discourse of, have been acted upon\nthe stage of this world, even many times before mine eyes.' Badman\nis represented as having had the very great advantage of pious\nparents, and a godly master, but run riot in wickedness from his\nchildhood. Lying and pilfering mark his early days; followed in\nafter life by swearing, cheating, drunkenness, hypocrisy, infidelity\nand atheism. His conscience became hardened to that awful extent,\nthat he had no bands in his death. The career of wickedness\nhas often been so pictured, as to encourage and cherish vice and\nprofanity--to excite the unregenerate mind 'to ride post by other\nmen's sins.'[1] Not so the life of Badman. The ugly, wretched,\nmiserable consequences that assuredly follow a vicious career,\nare here displayed in biting words--alarming the conscience, and\nawfully warning the sinner of his destiny, unless happily he finds\nthat repentance that needeth not to be repented of. No debauchee\never read the life of Badman to gratify or increase his thirst\nfor sin. The tricks which in those days so generally accompanied\ntrading, are unsparingly exposed; becoming bankrupt to make money, a\nspecies of robbery, which ought to be punished as felony; double\nweights, too heavy for buying, and light to sell by, overcharging\nthose who take credit, and the taking advantage of the necessities\nof others, with the abuse of evil gains in debauchery, and its\nensuing miseries, are all faithfully displayed.\n\nIn the course of the narrative, a variety of awful examples of\ndivine vengeance are introduced; some from that singular compilation,\nClarke's looking-glass for Saints and Sinners; others from 'Beard's\ntheatre of God's Judgments' and many that happened under the\nauthor's own immediate knowledge. The faithfulness of his extracts\nfrom books has been fully verified. The awful death of Dorothy\nMately, of Ashover, in Derbyshire, mentioned, I had an opportunity\nof testing, by the aid of my kind friend, Thomas Bateman, Esq.,\nof Yolgrave. He sent me the following extract from the Ashover\nRegister for 1660:--'Dorothy Mately, supposed wife to John Flint\nof this parish, forswore herself; whereupon the ground opened,\nand she sunk over head, March 23, and being found dead, she was\nburied, March 25.' Thus fully confirming the facts, as stated by\nBunyan. Solemn providences, intended, in the inscrutable wisdom\nof God, for wise purposes, must not be always called 'divine\njudgments.' A ship is lost, and the good with the bad, sink together;\na missionary is murdered; a pious Malay is martyred; still no one\ncan suppose that these are instances of divine vengeance. But when\nthe atrocious bishop Bonner, in his old age, miserably perishes\nin prison, it reminds us of our Lord's saying, 'with what measure\nye mete, it shall be measured to you again.'\n\nBunyan's pictures, of which the life of Badman is a continued\nseries, are admirably painted from life. The extraordinary depths\nof hypocrisy, used in gaining the affections of a pious wealthy\nyoung woman, and entrapping her into a marriage, are admirably\ndrawn, as is its companion or counterpart, when Badman, in his\nwidower-hood, suffers an infamous strumpet to inveigle him into a\nmiserable marriage, as he so richly deserved. The death-bed scene\nof the pious broken-hearted Mrs. Badman, is a masterpiece. In\nfact the whole is a series of pictures drawn by a most admirable\nartist, and calculated to warn and attract the sinner from his\ndownward course.\n\nIn comparison with the times of Bunyan, England has now become\nwonderfully reformed from those grosser pollutions which disgraced\nher name. Persons of riper age, whose reminiscences go back to\nthe times of the slave trade, slavery, and war, will call to mind\nscenes of vice, brutality, open debauchery and profligacy, which,\nin these peaceful and prosperous times, would be instantly repressed\nand properly punished. Should peace be preserved, domestic, social,\nand national purity and happiness must increase with still greater\nand more delightful rapidity. Civilization and Christianity will\ntriumph over despotism, vice, and false religions, and the time\nbe hastened on, in which the divine art of rendering each other\nhappy will engross the attention of all mankind. Much yet remains\nto be done for the conversion of the still numerous family\nconnections of Mr. Badman; but the leaven of Christianity must,\nin spite of all opposition, eventually spread over the whole mass.\n\nHomely proverbs abound in this narrative, all of which are worthy\nof being treasured up in our memories. Is nothing so secret but it\nwill be revealed? we are told that 'Hedges have eyes and pitchers\nhave ears.' They who encourage evil propensities are 'nurses to\nthe devil's brats.' It is said of him who hurries on in a career\nof folly and sin, 'The devil rides him off his legs.' 'As the\ndevil corrects vice,' refers to those who pretend to correct bad\nhabits by means intended to promote them. 'The devil is a cunning\nschoolmaster.' Satan taking the wicked into his foul embraces is\n'like to like, as the devil said to the collier.'\n\nIn two things the times have certainly improved. Bunyan describes\nall 'pawnbrokers' to have been 'vile wretches,' and, in extortion,\nthe women to be worse than the men. Happily for our days, good and\neven pious pawnbrokers may be found, who are honourable exceptions\nto Mr. Bunyan's sweeping rule; nor do our women in any respect\nappear to be greater extortioners than our men. The instructions,\nexhortations, and scriptural precepts and examples to enforce honest\ndealing, interspersed as reflections throughout this narrative, are\ninvaluable, and will, I trust, prove beneficial to every reader.\n\nI have taken the liberty of dividing this long-continued dialogue\ninto chapters, for the greater facility of reference, and as\nperiods in the history, where the reader may conveniently rest in\nhis progress through this deeply interesting narrative.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\n\nTHE AUTHOR TO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nAs I was considering with myself what I had written concerning\nthe Progress of the Pilgrim from this world to glory, and how it\nhad been acceptable to many in this nation, it came again into my\nmind to write, as then, of him that was going to heaven, so now,\nof the life and death of the ungodly, and of their travel from\nthis world to hell. The which in this I have done, and have put\nit, as thou seest, under the name and title of Mr. Badman, a name\nvery proper for such a subject. I have also put it into the form\nof a dialogue, that I might with more ease to myself, and pleasure\nto the reader, perform the work. And although, as I said, I have\nput it forth in this method, yet have I as little as may be gone\nout of the road of mine own observation of things. Yea, I think I\nmay truly say that to the best of my remembrance, all the things\nthat here I discourse of, I mean as to matter of fact, have been\nacted upon the stage of this world, even many times before mine\neyes.\n\nHere therefore, courteous reader, I present thee with the life\nand death of Mr. Badman indeed; yea, I do trace him in his life,\nfrom his childhood to his death; that thou mayest, as in a glass,\nbehold with thine own eyes the steps that take hold of hell; and\nalso discern, while thou art reading of Mr. Badman's death, whether\nthou thyself art treading in his path thereto. And let me entreat\nthee to forbear quirking[2] and mocking, for that I say Mr.\nBadman is dead; but rather gravely inquire concerning thyself by\nthe Word, whether thou art one of his lineage or no; for Mr. Badman\nhas left many of his relations behind him; yea, the very world is\noverspread with his kindred. True, some of his relations, as he,\nare gone to their place and long home, but thousands of thousands\nare left behind; as brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, besides\ninnumerable of his friends and associates. I may say, and yet speak\nnothing but too much truth in so saying, that there is scarce a\nfellowship, a community, or fraternity of men in the world, but\nsome of Mr. Badman's relations are there; yea, rarely can we find\na family or household in a town, where he has not left behind him\neither a brother, nephew, or friend.\n\nThe butt[3] therefore, that at this time I shoot at, is wide; and\nit will be as impossible for this book to go into several families,\nand not to arrest some, as for the king's messenger to rush into\na house full of traitors, and find none but honest men there.[4]\nI cannot but think that this shot will light upon many, since our\nfields are so full of this game; but how many it will kill to Mr.\nBadman's course, and make alive to the Pilgrim's Progress, that\nis not in me to determine; this secret is with the Lord our God\nonly, and he alone knows to whom he will bless it to so good and\nso blessed an end. However, I have put fire to the pan,[5] and\ndoubt not but the report will quickly be heard.\n\nI told you before that Mr. Badman had left many of his friends and\nrelations behind him, but if I survive them, as that is a great\nquestion to me, I may also write of their lives; however, whether\nmy life be longer or shorter, this is my prayer at present, that\nGod will stir up witnesses against them, that may either convert\nor confound them; for wherever they live, and roll in their\nwickedness, they are the pest and plague of that country. England\nshakes and totters already, by reason of the burden that Mr. Badman\nand his friends have wickedly laid upon it. Yea, our earth reels\nand staggereth to and fro like a drunkard, the transgression\nthereof is heavy upon it.\n\nCourteous reader, I will treat thee now, even at the door and\nthreshold of this house, but only with this intelligence, that\nMr. Badman lies dead within. Be pleased therefore, if thy leisure\nwill serve thee, to enter in, and behold the state in which he\nis laid, betwixt his death-bed and the grave. He is not buried as\nyet, nor doth he stink, as is designed he shall, before he lies\ndown in oblivion. Now as others have had their funerals solemnized,\naccording to their greatness and grandeur in the world, so likewise\nMr. Badman, forasmuch as he deserveth not to go down to his grave\nwith silence, has his funeral state according to his deserts.\n\nFour things are usual at great men's funerals, which we will take\nleave, and I hope without offence, to allude to, in the funeral\nof Mr. Badman.\n\nFirst. They are sometimes, when dead, presented to their friends,\nby their completely wrought images, as lively as by cunning men's\nhands they can be; that the remembrance of them may be renewed\nto their survivors, the remembrance of them and their deeds; and\nthis I have endeavoured to answer in my discourse of Mr. Badman,\nand therefore I have drawn him forth in his features and actions\nfrom his childhood to his grey hairs. Here therefore, thou hast\nhim lively set forth as in cuts; both as to the minority, flower,\nand seniority of his age, together with those actions of his life,\nthat he was most capable of doing, in and under those present\ncircumstances of time, place, strength; and the opportunities that\ndid attend him in these.\n\nSecond. There is also usual at great men's funerals, those badges\nand escutcheons of their honour, that they have received from\ntheir ancestors, or have been thought worthy of for the deeds and\nexploits they have done in their life; and here Mr. Badman has\nhis, but such as vary from all men of worth, but so much the more\nagreeing with the merit of his doings. They all have descended\nin state, he only as an abominable branch. His deserts are the\ndeserts of sin, and therefore the escutcheons of honour that he\nhas, are only that he died without honour, 'and at his end became a\nfool.' 'Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial.' 'The seed\nof evil doers shall never be renowned' (Isa 14:20).\n\nThe funeral pomp therefore of Mr. Badman, is to wear upon his\nhearse the badges of a dishonourable and wicked life; since 'his\nbones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down,' as\nJob says, 'with him in the dust.' Nor is it fit that any should be\nhis attendants, now at his death, but such as with him conspired\nagainst their own souls in their life; persons whose transgressions\nhave made them infamous to all that have or shall know what they\nhave done.\n\nSome notice therefore I have also here in this little discourse\ngiven the reader, of them who were his confederates in his life,\nand attendants at his death; with a hint, either of some high\nvillainy committed by them, as also of those judgments that have\novertaken and fallen upon them from the just and revenging hand\nof God. All which are things either fully known by me, as being\neye and ear-witness thereto, or that I have received from such\nhands, whose relation, as to this, I am bound to believe. And that\nthe reader may know them from other things and passages herein\ncontained, I have pointed at them in the margin.\n\nThird. The funerals of persons of quality have been solemnized\nwith some suitable sermon at the time and place of their burial;\nbut that I am not come to as yet, having got no further than to\nMr. Badman's death; but forasmuch as he must be buried, after he\nhath stunk out his time before his beholders, I doubt not but some\nsuch that we read are appointed to be at the burial of Gog, will\ndo this work in my stead; such as shall leave him neither skin\nnor bone above ground, but shall set a sign by it till the buriers\nhave buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog (Eze 39).\n\nFourth. At funerals there does use to be mourning and lamentation,\nbut here also Mr. Badman differs from others; his familiars cannot\nlament his departure, for they have not sense of his damnable\nstate; they rather ring him, and sing him to hell in the sleep of\ndeath, in which he goes thither. Good men count him no loss to\nthe world, his place can well be without him, his loss is only\nhis own, and it is too late for him to recover that damage or loss\nby a sea of bloody tears, could he shed them. Yea, God has said\nhe will laugh at his destruction; who then shall lament for him,\nsaying, Ah! my brother. He was but a stinking weed in his life;\nnor was he better at all in his death; such may well be thrown\nover the wall without sorrow, when once God has plucked them up\nby the roots in his wrath.\n\nReader, if thou art of the race, lineage, stock, or fraternity\nof Mr. Badman, I tell thee, before thou readest this book, thou\nwilt neither brook the author nor it, because he hath writ of Mr.\nBadman as he has. For he that condemneth the wicked that die so,\npasseth also the sentence upon the wicked that live. I therefore\nexpect neither credit of, nor countenance from thee, for this\nnarration of thy kinsman's life. For thy old love to thy friend,\nhis ways, doings, &c., will stir up in thee enmity rather in thy\nvery heart against me. I shall therefore incline to think of thee,\nthat thou wilt rend, burn, or throw it away in contempt; yea, and\nwish also, that for writing so notorious a truth, some mischief\nmay befal me. I look also to be loaded by thee with disdain, scorn,\nand contempt; yea, that thou shouldest railingly and vilifyingly\nsay I lie, and am a bespatterer of honest men's lives and deaths.\nFor. Mr. Badman, when himself was alive, could not abide to be\ncounted a knave, though his actions told all that went by, that\nindeed he was such an one. How then should his brethren that survive\nhim, and that tread in his very steps, approve of the sentence\nthat by this book is pronounced against him? Will they not rather\nimitate Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's friends, even rail at me for\ncondemning him, as they did at Moses for doing execution?\n\nI know it is ill puddling in the cockatrice's den, and that they\nrun hazards that hunt the wild boar. The man also that writeth\nMr. Badman's life had need be fenced with a coat of mail, and with\nthe staff of a spear, for that his surviving friends will know\nwhat he doth; but I have adventured to do it, and to play, at this\ntime, at the hole of these asps; if they bite, they bite; if they\nsting, they sting. Christ sends his lambs in the midst of wolves,\nnot to do like them, but to suffer by them for bearing plain\ntestimony against their bad deeds. But had one not need to walk\nwith a guard, and to have a sentinel stand at one's door for this?\nVerily, the flesh would be glad of such help; yea, a spiritual\nman, could he tell how to get it (Acts 23). But I am stript naked\nof these, and yet am commanded to be faithful in my service\nfor Christ. Well then, I have spoken what I have spoken, and now\n'come on me what will' (Job 13:13). True, the text say, Rebuke a\nscorner and he will hate thee; and that he that reproveth a wicked\nman getteth himself a blot and shame. But what then? Open rebuke\nis better than secret love, and he that receives it shall find it\nso afterwards.\n\nSo then, whether Mr. Badman's friends shall rage or laugh at what\nI have writ, I know that the better end of the staff[6] is mine.\nMy endeavour is to stop a hellish course of life, and to 'save\na soul from death' (James 5:20). And if for so doing I meet with\nenvy from them, from whom in reason I should have thanks, I must\nremember the man in the dream,[7] that cut his way through his\narmed enemies, and so got into the beauteous palace; I must, I\nsay, remember him, and do myself likewise.\n\nYet four things I will propound to the consideration of Mr. Badman's\nfriends before I turn my back upon them.\n\n1. Suppose that there be a hell in very deed; not that I do question it\nany more than I do whether there be a sun to shine, but I suppose\nit for argument sake with Mr. Badman's friends. I say, suppose\nthere be a hell, and that too such an one as the Scripture speaks\nof, one at the remotest distance from God and life eternal, one\nwhere the worm of a guilty conscience never dies, and where the\nfire of the wrath of God is not quenched. Suppose, I say, that\nthere is such a hell, prepared of God--as there is indeed--for\nthe body and soul of the ungodly world after this life to be\ntormented in; I say, do but with thyself suppose it, and then tell\nme is it not prepared for thee, thou being a wicked man? Let thy\nconscience speak, I say, is it not prepared for thee, thou being\nan ungodly man? And dost thou think, wast thou there now, that\nthou art able to wrestle with the judgment of God? why then do\nthe fallen angels tremble there? Thy hands cannot be strong, nor\ncan thy heart endure, in that day when God shall deal with thee\n(Eze 22:14).\n\n2. Suppose that some one that is now a soul in hell for sin, was\npermitted to come hither again to dwell, and that they had a grant\nalso, that, upon amendment of life, next time they die, to change\nthat place for heaven and glory. What sayst thou, O wicked man?\nWould such an one, thinkest thou, run again into the same course\nof life as before, and venture the damnation that for sin he had\nalready been in? Would he choose again to lead that cursed life\nthat afresh would kindle the flames of hell upon him, and that\nwould bind him up under the heavy wrath of God? O! he would not,\nhe would not; Luke 16 insinuates it; yea, reason itself awake\nwould abhor it, and tremble at such a thought.\n\n3. Suppose again, that thou that livest and rollest in thy sin, and\nthat as yet hast known nothing but the pleasure thereof, shouldest\nbe by an angel conveyed to some place, where, with convenience,\nfrom thence thou mightest have a view of heaven and hell, of the\njoys of the one and the torments of the other; I say, suppose\nthat from thence thou mightest have such a view thereof as would\nconvince thy reason that both heaven and hell are such realities\nas by the Word they are declared to be; wouldest thou, thinkest\nthou, when brought to thy home again, choose to thyself thy former\nlife, to wit, to return to thy folly again? No; if belief of what\nthou sawest remained with thee thou wouldest eat fire and brimstone\nfirst.\n\n4. I will propound again. Suppose that there was amongst us such\na law, and such a magistrate to inflict the penalty, that for\nevery open wickedness committed by thee, so much of thy flesh\nshould with burning pincers be plucked from thy bones, wouldest\nthou then go on in thy open way of lying, swearing, drinking, and\nwhoring, as thou with delight doest now? Surely, surely, no. The\nfear of the punishment would make thee forbear; yea, would make\nthee tremble, even then when thy lusts were powerful, to think what\na punishment thou wast sure to sustain so soon as the pleasure\nwas over. But O! the folly, the madness, the desperate madness that\nis in the hearts of Mr. Badman's friends, who, in despite of the\nthreatenings of a holy and sin-revenging God, and of the outcries\nand warnings of all good men, yea, that will, in despite of the\ngroans and torments of those that are now in hell for sin, go on\nin a sinful course of life, yea, though every sin is also a step\nof descent down to that infernal cave (Luke 16:24,28). O how true\nis that saying of Solomon, 'The heart of the sons of men is full\nof evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after\nthat they go to the dead' (Eccl 9:3). To the dead! that is, to the\ndead in hell, to the damned dead, the place to which those that\nhave died bad men are gone, and that those that live bad men are\nlike to go to, when a little more sin, like stolen waters, hath\nbeen imbibed by their sinful souls.\n\nThat which has made me publish this book is,\n\n1. For that wickedness, like a flood, is like to drown our English\nworld. It begins already to be above the tops of the mountains;\nit has almost swallowed up all; our youth, middle age, old age,\nand all, are almost carried away of this flood. O debauchery,\ndebauchery, what hast thou done in England! Thou hast corrupted our\nyoung men, and hast made our old men beasts; thou hast deflowered\nour virgins, and hast made matrons bawds. Thou hast made our\nearth 'to reel to and fro like a drunkard'; it is in danger to 'be\nremoved like a cottage,' yea, it is, because transgression is so\nheavy upon it, like to fall and rise no more (Isa 24:20). O! that\nI could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed\ntherein, even while I see that, without repentance, the men of\nGod's wrath are about to deal with us, each having his 'slaughtering\nweapon in his hand' (Eze 9:1,2). Well, I have written, and by\nGod's assistance shall pray that this flood may abate in England;\nand could I but see the tops of the mountains above it, I should\nthink that these waters were abating.\n\n2. It is the duty of those that can to cry out against this deadly\nplague, yea, to lift up their voice as with a trumpet against\nit, that men may be awakened about it, fly from it, as from that\nwhich is the greatest of evils. Sin pulled angels out of heaven,\npulls men down to hell, and overthroweth kingdoms. Who, that\nsees a house on fire, will not give the alarm to them that dwell\ntherein? Who, that sees the land invaded, will not set the beacons\non a flame. Who, that sees the devils as roaring lions, continually\ndevouring souls, will not make an out-cry? But above all, when\nwe see sin, sinful sin, a swallowing up a nation, sinking of a\nnation, and bringing its inhabitants to temporal, spiritual, and\neternal ruin, shall we not cry out and cry, They are drunk, but\nnot with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; they are\nintoxicated with the deadly poison of sin, which will, if its\nmalignity be not by wholesome means allayed, bring soul and body,\nand estate, and country, and all, to ruin and destruction?\n\n3. In and by this outcry I shall deliver myself from the ruins of\nthem that perish; for a man can do no more in this matter--I mean\na man in my capacity--than to detect and condemn the wickedness,\nwarn the evil doer of the judgment, and fly therefrom myself. But\nO! that I might not only deliver myself! O that many would hear,\nand turn at this my cry from sin! that they may be secured from\nthe death and judgment that attend it.\n\nWhy I have handled the matter in this method is best known to\nmyself. And why I have concealed most of the names of the persons\nwhose sins or punishments I here and there in this book make\nrelation of is, (1.) For that neither the sins nor judgments were\nall alike open; the sins of some were committed, and the judgments\nexecuted for them, only in a corner. Not to say that I could not\nlearn some of their names, for could I, I should not have made\nthem public, for this reason, (2.) Because I would not provoke\nthose of their relations that survive them; I would not justly\nprovoke them; and yet, as I think, I should, should I have entailed\ntheir punishment to their sins, and both to their names, and so\nhave turned them into the world. (3.) Nor would I lay them under\ndisgrace and contempt, which would, as I think, unavoidably have\nhappened unto them had I withal inserted their names.\n\nAs for those whose names I mention, their crimes or judgments were\nmanifest; public almost as anything of that nature that happeneth\nto mortal men. Such therefore have published their own shame\nby their sin, and God his anger, by taking of open vengeance. As\nJob says, God has struck 'them as wicked men in the open sight of\nothers' (Job 34:26). So that I cannot conceive, since their sin\nand judgment was so conspicuous, that my admonishing the world\nthereof should turn to their detriment. For the publishing\nof these things are, so far as relation is concerned, intended\nfor remembrances, that they may also bethink themselves, repent\nand turn to God, lest the judgments for their sins should prove\nhereditary. For the God of heaven hath threatened to visit the\niniquity of the fathers upon the children, if they hate him, to\nthe third and fourth generation (Exo 20:5).\n\nNebuchadnezzar's punishment for his pride being open--for he was\nfor his sin driven from his kingly dignity, and from among men\ntoo, to eat grass like an ox, and to company with the beasts--Daniel\ndid not stick to tell Belshazzar his son to his face thereof;\nnor to publish it that it might be read and remembered by the\ngenerations to come. The same may be said of Judas and Ananias,\n&c., for their sin and punishment were known to all the dwellers\nat Jerusalem (Acts 1:19). Nor is it a sign but of desperate\nimpenitence and hardness of heart, when the offspring or relations\nof those who have fallen by open, fearful, and prodigious judgments,\nfor their sin, shall overlook, forget, pass by, or take no notice\nof such high outgoings of God against them and their house. Thus\nDaniel aggravates Belshazzar's crime, for that he hardened his heart\nin pride, though he knew that for that very sin and transgression\nhis father was brought down from his height, and made to be a\ncompanion for asses. 'And thou his son, O Belshazzar,' says he,\n'hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this' (Dan\n5:22). A home reproof, indeed, but home [reproof] is most fit for\nan open and a continued in transgression.\n\nLet those, then, that are the offspring or relations of such, who\nby their own sin, and the dreadful judgments of God, are made\nto become a sign (Deut 16:9-12), having been swept as dung from\noff the face of the earth, beware, lest when judgment knocks at\ntheir door, for their sins, as it did before at the door of their\nprogenitors, it falls also with as heavy a stroke as on them\nthat went before them (Num 16:38-40). Lest, I say, they in that\nday, instead of finding mercy, find for their high, daring, and\njudgment-affronting sins, judgment without mercy.\n\nTo conclude; let those that would not die Mr. Badman's death, take\nheed of Mr. Badman's ways; for his ways bring to his end. Wickedness\nwill not deliver him that is given to it; though they should cloak\nall with a profession of religion. If it was a transgression of old\nfor a man to wear a woman's apparel, surely it is a transgression\nnow for a sinner to wear a Christian profession for a cloak.\nWolves in sheep's clothing swarm in England this day; wolves both\nas to doctrine and as to practice too. Some men make a profession,\nI doubt, on purpose that they may twist themselves into a trade;\nand thence into an estate; yea, and if need be, into an estate\nknavishly, by the ruins of their neighbour. Let such take heed, for\nthose that do such things have the greater damnation. Christian,\nmake thy profession shine by a conversation according to the\ngospel; or else thou wilt damnify religion, bring scandal to thy\nbrethren, and give offence to the enemies; and it would be better\nthat a millstone was hanged about thy neck, and that thou, as\nso adorned, was cast into the bottom of the sea, than so to do.\nChristian, a profession according to the gospel is, in these days,\na rare thing; seek then after it, put it on, and keep it without\nspot, and, as becomes thee, white, and clean, and thou shalt be\na rare Christian.\n\nThe prophecy of the last times is, that professing men, for so\nI understand the text, shall be many of them base (2 Tim 3); but\ncontinue thou in the things that thou hast learned, not of wanton\nmen, nor of licentious times, but of the Word and doctrine of God,\nthat is, according to godliness; and thou shalt walk with Christ\nin white. Now, God Almighty gave his people grace, not to hate or\nmalign sinners, nor yet to choose any of their ways, but to keep\nthemselves pure from the blood of all men, by speaking and doing\naccording to that name and those rules that they profess to know\nand love; for Jesus Christ's sake.\n\nJOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nCHAP. I. Badman's death and its awful consequences, This leads to\nthe discourse of his life.\n\nCHAP. II. Badman's wicked behavior in childhood,\n\nCHAP. III. Badman's apprenticeship to a pious master,\n\nCHAP. IV. He gets a new master bad as himself,\n\nCHAP. V. Badman in business; the tricks of a wicked tradesman,\n\nCHAP. VI. His hypocritical courtship and marriage to a pious,\nrich, young lady,\n\nCHAP. VII. He throws off the mask and cruelly treats his wife.\nBunyan's rules for such as think of marriage,\n\nCHAP. VIII. Badman is a bankrupt, and gets by it hat-fulls of\nmoney,\n\nCHAP. IX. Badman's fraudulent dealings to get money,\n\nCHAP. X. The simple Christian's views of extortion,\n\nCHAP. XI. Instructions for righteous trading,\n\nCHAP. XII. Badman's pride, atheism, infidelity, and envy,\n\nCHAP. XIII. He gets drunk and breaks his leg. God's judgments upon\ndrunkards,\n\nCHAP. XIV. His pretended repentings and promises of reform when\ndeath grimly stares at him,\n\nCHAP. XV. Death leaves him for a season, and he returns to his sins,\nlike a sow that has been washed to her wallowing in the mire,\n\nCHAP. XVI. His pious wife dies broken-hearted. Her deathbed charge\nto her family,\n\nCHAP. XVII. He is tricked into a second marriage by a woman as\nbad as himself,\n\nCHAP. XVIII. He parts from his wife, diseases attack him under\nCaptain Consumption; he rots away and dies in sinful security,\n\nCHAP. XIX. Future happiness not to be hoped from a quiet, hardened\ndeath. Some remarkable instances,\n\nCHAP. XX. Without godly repentance, the wicked man's hopes and\nlife die together.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMAN,\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n[BADMAN'S DEATH AND ITS AWFUL CONSEQUENCES.]\n\nWISEMAN. Good morrow, my good neighbour, Mr. Attentive; whither\nare you walking so early this morning? Methinks you look as if you\nwere concerned about something more than ordinary. Have you lost\nany of your cattle, or what is the matter?\n\nATTENTIVE. Good Sir, good morrow to you, I have not as yet lost\naught, but yet you give a right guess of me, for I am, as you\nsay, concerned in my heart, but it is because of the badness of\nthe times. And, Sir, you, as all our neighbours know, are a very\nobserving man, pray, therefore, what do you think of them?\n\nWISE. Why, I think, as you say, to wit, that they are bad times,\nand bad they will be, until men are better; for they are bad men\nthat make bad times; if men, therefore, would mend, so would the\ntimes. It is a folly to look for good days so long as sin is so\nhigh, and those that study its nourishment so many. God bring it\ndown, and those that nourish it, to repentance, and then, my good\nneighbour, you will be concerned, not as you are now; now you are\nconcerned because times are so bad, but then you will be so because\ntimes are so good; now you are concerned so as to be perplexed,\nbut then you will be concerned so as to lift up your voice with\nshouting, for I dare say, could you see such days, they would make\nyou shout.\n\nATTEN. Ay, so they would; such times I have prayed for, such times\nI have longed for; but I fear they will be worse before they be\nbetter.\n\nWISE. Make no conclusions, man; for he that hath the hearts of\nmen in his hand can change them from worse to better, and so bad\ntimes into good. God give long life to them that are good, and\nespecially to those of them that are capable of doing him service\nin the world. The ornament and beauty of this lower world, next to\nGod and his wonders, are the men that spangle and shine in godliness.\n\nNow as Mr. Wiseman said this, he gave a great sigh.\n\nATTEN. Amen, amen. But why, good Sir, do you sigh so deeply; is\nit for ought else than that for the which, as you have perceived,\nI myself am concerned?\n\nWISE. I am concerned, with you, for the badness of the times; but\nthat was not the cause of that sigh, of the which, as I see, you\ntake notice. I sighed at the remembrance of the death of that man\nfor whom the bell tolled at our town yesterday.\n\nATTEN. Why, I trow, Mr. Goodman your neighbour is not dead. Indeed\nI did hear that he had been sick.\n\nWISE. No, no, it is not he. Had it been he, I could not but have\nbeen concerned, but yet not as I am concerned now. If he had died,\nI should only have been concerned for that the world had lost a\nlight; but the man that I am concerned for now was one that never\nwas good, therefore such an one who is not dead only, but damned.\nHe died that he might die, he went from life to death, and then\nfrom death to death, from death natural to death eternal. And as\nhe spake this, the water stood in his eyes.[8]\n\nATTEN. Indeed, to go from a deathbed to hell is a fearful thing\nto think on. But, good neighbour Wiseman, be pleased to tell me\nwho this man was, and why you conclude him so miserable in his\ndeath?\n\nWISE. Well, if you can stay, I will tell you who he was, and why\nI conclude thus concerning him.\n\nATTEN. My leisure will admit me to stay, and I am willing to hear\nyou out. And I pray God your discourse may take hold on my heart,\nthat I may be bettered thereby. So they agreed to sit down under\na tree. Then Mr. Wiseman proceeded as followeth:--\n\nWISE. The man that I mean is one Mr. Badman; he has lived in our\ntown a great while, and now, as I said, he is dead. But the reason\nof my being so concerned at his death is, not for that he was at\nall related to me, or for that any good conditions died with him,\nfor he was far from them, but for that, as I greatly fear, he\nhath, as was hinted before, died two deaths at once.\n\nATTEN. I perceive what you mean by two deaths at once; and to\nspeak truth, it is a fearful thing thus to have ground to think\nof any: for although the death of the ungodly and sinners is laid\nto heart but of few, yet to die in such a state is more dreadful\nand fearful than any man can imagine. Indeed if a man had no\nsoul, if his state was not truly immortal, the matter would not\nbe so much; but for a man to be so disposed of by his Maker, as\nto be appointed a sensible being for ever, and for him too to fall\ninto the hands of revenging justice, that will be always, to the\nutmost extremity that his sin deserveth, punishing of him in the\ndismal dungeon of hell, this must needs be unutterably sad, and\nlamentable.\n\nWISE. There is no man, I think, that is sensible of the worth\nof one soul, but must, when he hears of the death of unconverted\nmen, be stricken with sorrow and grief: because, as you said well,\nthat man's state is such that he has a sensible being for ever.\nFor it is sense that makes punishment heavy. But yet sense is not\nall that the damned have, they have sense and reason too; so then,\nas sense receiveth punishment with sorrow, because it feels, and\nbleeds under the same, so by reason, and the exercise thereof, in\nthe midst of torment, all present affliction is aggravated, and\nthat three manner of ways:--1. Reason will consider thus with\nhimself. For what am I thus tormented? and will easily find it\nis for nothing but that base and filthy thing, sin; and now will\nvexation be mixed with punishment, and that will greatly heighten\nthe affliction. 2. Reason will consider thus with himself. How\nlong must this be my state? And will soon return to himself this\nanswer: This must be my state for ever and ever. Now this will\ngreatly increase the torment. 3. Reason. will consider thus with\nhimself. What have I lost more than present ease and quiet by my\nsins that I have committed? And will quickly return himself this\nanswer: I have lost communion with God, Christ, saints, and angels,\nand a share in heaven and eternal life: and this also must needs\ngreaten the misery of poor damned souls. And this is the case of\nMr. Badman.\n\nATTEN. I feel my heart even shake at the thoughts of coming into\nsuch a state. Hell! who knows that is yet alive, what the torments\nof hell are? This word HELL gives a very dreadful sound.\n\nWISE. Ay, so it does in the ears of him that has a tender conscience.\nBut if, as you say, and that truly, the very name of hell is so\ndreadful, what is the place itself, and what are the punishments\nthat are there inflicted, and that without the least intermission,\nupon the souls of damned men, for ever and ever.\n\nATTEN. Well, but passing this; my leisure will admit me to stay,\nand therefore pray tell me what it is that makes you think that\nMr. Badman is gone to hell.\n\nWISE. I will tell you. But first, do you know which of the Badmans\nI mean?\n\nATTEN. Why, was there more of them than one?\n\nWISE. O yes, a great many, both brothers and sisters, and yet all\nof them the children of a godly parent, the more a great deal is\nthe pity.\n\nATTEN. Which of them therefore was it that died?\n\nWISE. The eldest, old in years, and old in sin; but the sinner\nthat dies an hundred years old shall be accursed.\n\nATTEN. Well, but what makes you think he is gone to hell?\n\nWISE. His wicked life, and fearful death, especially since the\nmanner of his death was so corresponding with his life.\n\nATTEN. Pray let me know the manner of his death, if yourself did\nperfectly know it.\n\nWISE. I was there when he died; but I desire not to see another\nsuch man, while I live, die in such sort as he did.\n\nATTEN. Pray therefore let me hear it.\n\nWISE. You say you have leisure and can stay, and therefore, if you\nplease, we will discourse even orderly of him. First, we will begin\nwith his life, and then proceed to his death: because a relation\nof the first may the more affect you, when you shall hear of the\nsecond.\n\nATTEN. Did you then so well know his life?\n\nWISE. I knew him of a child. I was a man, when he was but a boy,\nand I made special observation of him from first to last.\n\nATTEN. Pray then let me hear from you an account of his life; but\nbe as brief as you can, for I long to hear of the manner of his\ndeath.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n[BADMAN'S WICKED BEHAVIOUR IN CHILDHOOD.]\n\nWISE. I will endeavour to answer your desires, and first, I will\ntell you, that from a child he was very bad; his very beginning\nwas ominous, and presaged that no good end was, in likelihood,\nto follow thereupon. There were several sins that he was given\nto, when but a little one, that manifested him to be notoriously\ninfected with original corruption; for I dare say he learned none\nof them of his father and mother; nor was he admitted to go much\nabroad among other children that were vile, to learn to sin of\nthem: nay, contrariwise, if at any time he did get abroad amongst\nothers, he would be as the inventor of bad words, and an example\nin bad actions. To them all he used to be, as we say, the ringleader,\nand master-sinner from a child.\n\nATTEN. This was a bad beginning indeed, and did demonstrate that\nhe was, as you say, polluted, very much polluted with original\ncorruption. For to speak my mind freely, I do confess that it is\nmine opinion that children come polluted with sin into the world,\nand that ofttimes the sins of their youth, especially while they\nare very young, are rather by virtue of indwelling sin, than by\nexamples that are set before them by others. Not but that they\nlearn to sin by example too, but example is not the root, but\nrather the temptation unto wickedness. The root is sin within;\n'for from within, out of the heart of men,' proceedeth sin (Mark\n7:21).\n\nWISE. I am glad to hear that you are of this opinion, and to confirm\nwhat you have said by a few hints from the Word. Man in his birth\nis compared to an ass, an unclean beast, and to a wretched infant\nin its blood (Job 11:12; Eze 16). Besides, all the first-born of\nold that were offered unto the Lord, were to be redeemed at the\nage of a month, and that was before they were sinners by imitation\n(Exo 13:13, 34:20). The scripture also affirmeth, that by the sin\nof one, judgment came upon all; and renders this reason, 'for that\nall have sinned' (Rom 5:12). Nor is that objection worth a rush,\nthat Christ by his death hath taken away original sin. First. Because\nit is scriptureless. Secondly. Because it makes them incapable of\nsalvation by Christ; for none but those that in their own persons\nare sinners are to have salvation by him. Many other things might\nbe added, but between persons so well agreed as you and I are,\nthese may suffice at present. But when an antagonist comes to\ndeal with us about this matter, then we have for him often other\nstrong arguments, if he be an antagonist worth the taking notice\nof.\n\nATTEN. But, as was hinted before, he used to be the ring-leading\nsinner, or the master of mischief among other children; yet these\nare but generals; pray therefore tell me in particular which were\nthe sins of his childhood.\n\nWISE. I will so. When he was but a child, he was so addicted to\nlying that his parents scarce knew when to believe he spake true;\nyea, he would invent, tell, and stand to the lies that he invented\nand told, and that with such an audacious face, that one might even\nread in his very countenance the symptoms of a hard and desperate\nheart this way.\n\nATTEN. This was an ill beginning indeed, and argueth that he began\nto harden himself in sin betimes. For a lie cannot be knowingly\ntold and stood in, and I perceive that this was his manner of way\nin lying, but he must as it were force his own heart unto it. Yea,\nhe must make his heart hard, and bold to do it. Yea, he must be\narrived to an exceeding pitch of wickedness thus to do, since all\nthis he did against that good education, that before you seemed\nto hint he had from his father and mother.\n\nWISE. The want of good education, as you have intimated, is many\ntimes a cause why children do so easily, so soon, become bad;\nespecially when there is not only a want of that, but bad examples\nenough, as, the more is the pity, there is in many families; by\nvirtue of which poor children are trained up in sin, and nursed\ntherein for the devil and hell. But it was otherwise with Mr.\nBadman, for to my knowledge this his way of lying was a great\ngrief to his parents, for their hearts were much dejected at this\nbeginning of their son; nor did there want counsel and correction\nfrom them to him if that would have made him better. He wanted not\nto be told, in my hearing, and that over and over and over, that\n'all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with\nfire and brimstone'; and that 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie,'\nshould not have any part in the new and heavenly Jerusalem (Rev\n21:8,27, 22:15). But all availed nothing with him; when a fit,\nor an occasion to lie came upon him, he would invent, tell, and\nstand to his lie as steadfastly as if it had been the biggest of\ntruths that he told, and that with that hardening of his heart\nand face, that it would be to those who stood by, a wonder. Nay,\nand this he would do when under the rod of correction, which is\nappointed by God for parents to use, that thereby they might keep\ntheir children from hell (Prov 22:15, 23:13,14).[9]\n\nATTEN. Truly it was, as I said, a bad beginning, he served the devil\nbetimes; yea, he became nurse to one of his brats, for a spirit\nof lying is the devil's brat, 'for he is a liar and the father of\nit' (John 8:44).\n\nWISE. Right, he is the father of it indeed. A lie is begot by the\ndevil as the father, and is brought forth by the wicked heart\nas the mother; wherefore another scripture also saith, 'Why hath\nSatan filled thine heart to lie,' &c. (Acts 5:3,4). Yea, he calleth\nthe heart that is big with a lie, an heart that hath conceived,\nthat is, by the devil. 'Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine\nheart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.' True, his lie\nwas a lie of the highest nature, but every lie hath the same father\nand mother as had the lie last spoken of. 'For he is a liar, and\nthe father of it.' A lie then is the brat of hell, and it cannot\nbe in the heart before the person has committed a kind of spiritual\nadultery with the devil. That soul therefore that telleth a known\nlie, has lien with, and conceived it by lying with the devil, the\nonly father of lies. For a lie has only one father and mother, the\ndevil and the heart. No marvel therefore if the hearts that hatch\nand bring forth lies be so much of complexion with the devil. Yea,\nno marvel though God and Christ have so bent their word against\nliars.[10] A liar is wedded to the devil himself.\n\nATTEN. It seems a marvellous thing in mine eyes, that since a lie\nis in the offspring of the devil, and since a lie brings the soul\nto the very den of devils, to wit, the dark dungeon of hell, that\nmen should be so desperately wicked as to accustom themselves to\nso horrible a thing.\n\nWISE. It seems also marvellous to me, especially when I observe\nfor how little a matter some men will study, contrive, make, and\ntell a lie. You shall have some that will lie it over and over,\nand that for a penny profit. Yea, lie and stand in it, although\nthey know that they lie. Yea, you shall have some men that will\nnot stick to tell lie after lie, though themselves get nothing\nthereby. They will tell lies in their ordinary discourse with\ntheir neighbours, also their news, their jests, and their tales,\nmust needs be adorned with lies; or else they seem to bear no good\nsound to the ear, nor show much to the fancy of him to whom they\nare told. But alas! what will these liars do, when, for their\nlies they shall be tumbled down into hell, to that devil that did\nbeget those lies in their heart, and so be tormented by fire and\nbrimstone, with him, and that for ever and ever, for their lies?\n\nATTEN. Can you not give one some example of God's judgments upon\nliars, that one may tell them to liars when one hears them lie,\nif perhaps they may by the hearing thereof, be made afraid, and\nashamed to lie.\n\nWISE. Examples! why Ananias[11] and his wife are examples enough\nto put a stop, one would think, to a spirit addicted thereto, for\nthey both were stricken down dead for telling a lie, and that by\nGod himself, in the midst of a company of people (Acts 5). But if\nGod's threatening of liars with hell-fire, and with the loss of\nthe kingdom of heaven, will not prevail with them to leave off\nto lie and make lies, it cannot be imagined that a relation of\ntemporal judgments that have swept liars out of the world heretofore,\nshould do it. Now, as I said, this lying was one of the first sins\nthat Mr. Badman was addicted to, and he could make them and tell\nthem fearfully.\n\nATTEN. I am sorry to hear this of him, and so much the more, because,\nas I fear, this sin did not reign in him alone; for usually one\nthat is accustomed to lying, is also accustomed to other evils\nbesides; and if it were not so also with Mr. Badman, it would be\nindeed a wonder.\n\nWISE. You say true, the liar is a captive slave of more than the\nspirit of lying; and therefore this Mr. Badman, as he was a liar\nfrom a child, so he was also much given to pilfer and steal, so\nthat what he could, as we say, handsomely lay his hands on,[12]\nthat was counted his own, whether they were the things of his\nfellow-children, or if he could lay hold of anything at a neighbour's\nhouse, he would take it away; you must understand me of trifles;\nfor being yet but a child, he attempted no great matter, especially\nat first. But yet as he grew up in strength and ripeness of wit,\nso he attempted to pilfer and steal things still of more value than\nat first. He took at last great pleasure in robbing of gardens\nand orchards; and as he grew up, to steal pullen[13] from the\nneighbourhood. Yea, what was his father's could not escape his\nfingers, all was fish that came to his net, so hardened, at last,\nwas he in this mischief also.\n\nATTEN. You make me wonder more and more. What, play the thief\ntoo! What, play the thief so soon! He could not but know, though\nhe was but a child, that what he took from others was none of his\nown. Besides, if his father was a good man, as you say, it could\nnot be but he must also hear from him that to steal was to transgress\nthe law of God, and so to run the hazard of eternal damnation.\n\nWISE. His father was not wanting to use the means to reclaim him,\noften urging, as I have been told, that saying in the law of Moses,\n'Thou shalt not steal' (Exo 20:15). And also that, 'This is the\ncurse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth; for every\none that stealeth shall be cut off', &c. (Zech 5:3). The light of\nnature also, though he was little, must needs show him that what\nhe took from others was not his own; and that he would not willingly\nhave been served so himself. But all was to no purpose, let father\nand conscience say what they would to him, he would go on, he was\nresolved to go on in his wickedness.\n\nATTEN. But his father would, as you intimate, sometimes rebuke\nhim for his wickedness; pray how would he carry it then?\n\nWISE. How! why like to a thief that is found. He would stand\ngloating,[14] and hanging down his head in a sullen, pouching\nmanner; a body might read, as we used to say, the picture of\nill-luck in his face; and when his father did demand his answer\nto such questions concerning his villainy, he would grumble and\nmutter at him, and that should be all he could get.\n\nATTEN. But you said that he would also rob his father, methinks\nthat was an unnatural thing.\n\nWISE. Natural or unnatural, all is one to a thief. Besides, you\nmust think that he had likewise companions to whom he was, for the\nwickedness that he saw in them, more firmly knit, than either of\nfather or mother. Yea, and what had he cared if father and mother had\ndied for grief for him. Their death would have been, as he would\nhave counted, great release and liberty to him; for the truth\nis, they and their counsel were his bondage; yea, and if I forget\nnot, I have heard some say that when he was, at times, among his\ncompanions he would greatly rejoice to think that his parents were\nold, and could not live long, and then, quoth he, I shall be mine\nown man, to do what I list, without their control.\n\nATTEN. Then it seems he counted that robbing of his parents was\nno crime.\n\nWISE. None at all; and therefore he fell directly under that\nsentence, 'Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith it\nis no transgression, the same is the companion of a destroyer'\n(Prov 28:24). And for that he set so light by them as to their\npersons and counsels, it was a sign that at present he was of a\nvery abominable spirit, and that some judgment waited to take hold\nof him in time to come (1 Sam 2:25).\n\nATTEN. But can you imagine what it was, I mean, in his conceit, for\nI speak not now of the suggestions of Satan, by which doubtless\nhe was put on to do these things; I say what it should be in\nhis conceit, that should make him think that this his manner of\npilfering and stealing was no great matter.\n\nWISE. It was for that the things that he stole were small; to rob\norchards, and gardens, and to steal pullen, and the like, these\nhe counted tricks of youth, nor would he be beat out of it by all\nthat his friends could say. They would tell him that he must not\ncovet, or desire, and yet to desire is less than to take, even\nanything, the least thing that was his neighbour's; and that if\nhe did, it would be a transgression of the law; but all was one\nto him; what through the wicked talk of his companions, and the\ndelusion of his own corrupt heart, he would go on in his pilfering\ncourse, and where he thought himself secure, would talk of, and\nlaugh at it when he had done.\n\nATTEN. Well I heard a man once, when he was upon the ladder with\nthe rope about his neck, confess, when ready to be turned off by\nthe hangman, that that which had brought him to that end was his\naccustoming of himself, when young, to pilfer and steal small\nthings. To my best remembrance he told us, that he began the trade\nof a thief by stealing of pins and points;[15] and therefore did\nforewarn all the youth that then were gathered together to see\nhim die, to take heed of beginning, though but with little sins;\nbecause by tampering at first with little ones, way is made for\nthe commission of bigger.[16]\n\nWISE. Since you are entered upon stories, I also will tell you\none; the which, though I heard it not with mine own ears, yet\nmy author I dare believe. It is concerning one old Tod, that was\nhanged about twenty years ago, or more, at Hertford, for being a\nthief. The story is this:--\n\nAt a summer assizes holden at Hertford, while the judge was sitting\nupon the bench, comes this old Tod into court, clothed in a green\nsuit, with his leathern girdle in his hand, his bosom open, and\nall on a dung sweat, as if he had run for his life; and being\ncome in, he spake aloud as follows:--My lord, saith he, here is\nthe veriest rogue that breathes upon the face of the earth. I have\nbeen a thief from a child. When I was but a little one, I gave\nmyself to rob orchards, and to do other such like wicked things,\nand I have continued a thief ever since. My lord, there has not\nbeen a robbery committed these many years, within so many miles\nof this place, but I have either been at it, or privy to it.\n\nThe judge thought the fellow was mad, but after some conference with\nsome of the justices, they agreed to indict him; and so they did\nof several felonious actions; to all which he heartily confessed\nguilty, and so was hanged, with his wife at the same time.\n\nATTEN. This is a remarkable story indeed, and you think it is a\ntrue one.\n\nWISE. It is not only remarkable, but pat to our purpose. This thief,\nlike Mr. Badman, began his trade betimes; he began too where Mr.\nBadman began, even at robbing of orchards, and other such things,\nwhich brought him, as you may perceive, from sin to sin, till\nat last it brought him to the public shame of sin, which is the\ngallows.\n\nAs for the truth of this story, the relater told me that he was,\nat the same time, himself in the court, and stood within less than\ntwo yards of old Tod, when he heard him aloud to utter the words.\n\nATTEN. These two sins, of lying and stealing, were a bad sign of\nan evil end.\n\nWISE. So they were, and yet Mr. Badman came not to his end like\nold Tod; though I fear to as bad, nay, worse than was that death\nof the gallows, though less discerned by spectators; but more of\nthat by and by. But you talk of these two sins as if these were\nall that Mr. Badman was addicted to in his youth. Alas, alas,\nhe swarmed with sins, even as a beggar does with vermin, and that\nwhen he was but a boy.\n\nATTEN. Why, what other sins was he addicted to, I mean while he\nwas but a child?\n\nWISE. You need not ask to what other sins was he, but to what\nother sins was he not addicted; that is, of such as suited with\nhis age; for a man may safely say that nothing that was vile came\namiss to him, if he was but capable to do it. Indeed, some sins\nthere be that childhood knows not how to be tampering with; but\nI speak of sins that he was capable of committing, of which I\nwill nominate two or three more. And, First, He could not endure\nthe Lord's day, because of the holiness that did attend it; the\nbeginning of that day was to him as if he was going to prison,\nexcept he could get out from his father and mother, and lurk in\nby-holes among his companions, until holy duties were over. Reading\nthe Scriptures, hearing sermons, godly conference, repeating of\nsermons and prayers, were things that he could not away with; and,\ntherefore, if his father on such days, as often he did, though\nsometimes, notwithstanding his diligence, he would be sure to\ngive him the slip, did keep him strictly to the observation of the\nday, he would plainly show, by all carriages, that he was highly\ndiscontent therewith. He would sleep at duties, would talk vainly\nwith his brothers, and, as it were, think every godly opportunity\nseven times as long as it was, grudging till it was over.\n\nATTEN. This his abhorring of that day, was not, I think, for the\nsake of the day itself; for as it is a day, it is nothing else\nbut as other days of the week. But I suppose that the reason of\nhis loathing of it was for that God hath put sanctity and holiness\nupon it; also, because it is the day above all the days of the\nweek that ought to be spent in holy devotion, in remembrance of\nour Lord's resurrection from the dead.\n\nWISE. Yes, it was therefore that he was such an enemy to it; even\nbecause more restraint was laid upon him on that day, from his\nown ways, than were possible should be laid upon him on all others.\n\nATTEN. Doth not God, by instituting of a day unto holy duties,\nmake great proof how the hearts and inclinations of poor people\ndo stand to holiness of heart, and a conversation in holy duties?\n\nWISE. Yes, doubtless; and a man shall show his heart and his life\nwhat they are, more by one Lord's day than by all the days of the\nweek besides. And the reason is, because on the Lord's day there\nis a special restraint laid upon men as to thoughts and life, more\nthan upon other days of the week besides. Also, men are enjoined\non that day to a stricter performance of holy duties, and restraint\nof worldly business, than upon other days they are; wherefore,\nif their hearts incline not naturally to good, now they will show\nit, now they will appear what they are. The Lord's day is a kind\nof an emblem of the heavenly Sabbath above, and it makes manifest\nhow the heart stands to the perpetuity of holiness, more than to\nbe found in a transient duty does.\n\nOn other days, a man may be in and out of holy duties, and all\nin a quarter of an hour; but now, the Lord's day is, as it were,\na day that enjoins to one perpetual duty of holiness. 'Remember\nthat thou keep holy the Sabbath day'; which, by Christ, is not\nabrogated, but changed, into the first of the week, not as it was\ngiven in particular to the Jews, but as it was sanctified by him\nfrom the beginning of the world (Gen 2:2; Exo 31:13-17; Mark 16:1;\nActs 20:7; 1 Cor 16:1,2; Mark 2:27,28; Rev 1:10); and therefore\nis a greater proof of the frame and temper of a man's heart, and\ndoes more make manifest to what he is inclined, than doth his\nother performance of duties. Therefore, God puts great difference\nbetween them that truly call, and walk in, this day as holy,\nand count it honourable, upon the account that now they have an\nopportunity to show how they delight to honour him; in that they\nhave not only an hour, but a whole day, to show it in (Isa 58:13). I\nsay, he puts great difference between these, and that other sort\nthat say, When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may be at our\nworldly business? (Amos 8:5). The first he calleth a blessed man,\nbut brandeth the other for an unsanctified worldling. And, indeed,\nto delight ourselves in God's service upon his holy days, gives a\nbetter proof of a sanctified nature than to grudge at the coming,\nand to be weary of the holy duties of such days, as Mr. Badman\ndid.[17]\n\nATTEN. There may be something in what you say, for he that cannot\nabide to keep one day holy to God, to be sure he hath given\na sufficient proof that he is an unsanctified man; and, as such,\nwhat should he do in heaven? That being the place where a perpetual\nSabbath is to be kept to God; I say, to be kept for ever and ever\n(Heb 4:9). And, for ought I know, one reason why one day in seven\nhath been by our Lord set apart unto holy duties for men, may\nbe to give them conviction that there is enmity in the hearts of\nsinners to the God of heaven, for he that hateth holiness, hateth\nGod himself. They pretend to love God, and yet love not a holy\nday, and yet love not to spend that day in one continued act of\nholiness to the Lord. They had as good say nothing as to call him\nLord, Lord, and yet not do the things that he says. And this Mr.\nBadman was such a one, he could not abide this day, nor any of the\nduties of it. Indeed, when he could get from his friends, and so\nspend it in all manner of idleness and profaneness, then he would\nbe pleased well enough; but what was this but a turning the day\ninto night, or other than taking an opportunity at God's forbidding,\nto follow our callings, to solace and satisfy our lusts and delights\nof the flesh? I take the liberty to speak thus of Mr. Badman, upon\na confidence of what you, Sir, have said of him is true.\n\nWISE. You needed not to have made that apology for your censoring\nof Mr. Badman, for all that knew him will confirm what you say of\nhim to be true. He could not abide either that day, or anything\nelse that had the stamp or image of God upon it. Sin, sin, and\nto do the thing that was naught, was that which he delighted in,\nand that from a little child.\n\nATTEN. I must say again I am sorry to hear it, and that for his\nown sake, and also for the sake of his relations, who must needs\nbe broken to pieces with such doings as these. For, for these things'\nsake comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience (Eph\n5:6). And, doubtless, he must be gone to hell, if he died without\nrepentance; and to beget a child for hell is sad for parents to\nthink on.\n\nWISE. Of his dying, as I told you, I will give you a relation anon;\nbut now we are upon his life, and upon the manner of his life\nin his childhood, even of the sins that attended him then, some\nof which I have mentioned already; and, indeed, I have mentioned\nbut some, for yet there are more to follow, and those not at all\ninferior to what you have already heard.\n\nATTEN. Pray what were they?\n\nWISE. Why he was greatly given, and that while a lad, to grievous\nswearing and cursing; yea, he then made no more of swearing\nand cursing than I do of telling my fingers. Yea, he would do it\nwithout provocation thereto. He counted it a glory to swear and\ncurse, and it was as natural to him as to eat, and drink, and\nsleep.\n\nATTEN. O what a young villain was this! Here is, as the apostle\nsays, a yielding of 'members, as instruments of righteousness unto\nsin,' indeed! (Rom 6:13). This is proceeding from evil to evil with\na witness. This argueth that he was a black-mouthed young wretch\nindeed.\n\nWISE. He was so; and yet, as I told you, he counted above all this\nkind of sinning to be a badge of his honour; he reckoned himself\na man's fellow when he had learned to swear and curse boldly.\n\nATTEN. I am persuaded that many do think as you have said, that\nto swear is a thing that does bravely become them, and that it\nis the best way for a man, when he would put authority or terror\ninto his words, to stuff them full of the sin of swearing.\n\nWISE. You say right, else, as I am persuaded, men would not so\nusually belch out their blasphemous oaths as they do; they take\na pride in it; they think that to swear is gentleman-like; and,\nhaving once accustomed themselves unto it, they hardly leave it\nall the days of their lives.[18]\n\nATTEN. Well, but now we are upon it, pray show me the difference\nbetween swearing and cursing; for there is a difference, is there\nnot?\n\nWISE. Yes; there is a difference between swearing and cursing.\nSwearing, vain swearing, such as young Badman accustomed himself\nunto. Now, vain and sinful swearing is a light and wicked calling\nof God, &c., to witness to our vain and foolish attesting of things,\nand those things are of two sorts. 1. Things that we swear, are\nor shall be done. 2. Things so sworn to, true or false.\n\n1. Things that we swear, are or shall be done. Thou swearest thou\nhast done such a thing, that such a thing is so, or shall be so;\nfor it is no matter which of these it is that men swear about, if\nit be done lightly, and wickedly, and groundlessly, it is vain,\nbecause it is a sin against the third commandment, which says,\n'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' (Exo\n20:7). For this is a vain using of that holy and sacred name, and\nso a sin for which, without sound repentance, there is not, nor\ncan be rightly expected, forgiveness.\n\nATTEN. Then it seems, though as to the matter of fact, a man swears\ntruly, yet if he sweareth lightly and groundlessly, his oath is\nevil, and he by it under sin.\n\nWISE. Yes, a man may say, 'The Lord liveth,' and that is true,\nand yet in so saying 'swear falsely'; because he sweareth vainly,\nneedlessly, and without a ground (Jer 5:2). To swear groundedly\nand necessarily, which then a man does when he swears as being\ncalled thereto of God, that is tolerated by the Word.[19] But\nthis was none of Mr. Badman's swearing, and therefore that which\nnow we are not concerned about.\n\nATTEN. I perceive by the prophet that a man may sin in swearing\nto a truth. They therefore must needs most horribly sin that swear\nto confirm their jests and lies; and, as they think, the better\nto beautify their foolish talking.\n\nWISE. They sin with a high hand; for they presume to imagine that\nGod is as wicked as themselves, to wit, that he is an avoucher of\nlies to be true. For, as I said before, to swear is to call God\nto witness; and to swear to a lie is to call God to witness that\nthat lie is true. This, therefore, must needs offend; for it puts\nthe highest affront upon the holiness and righteousness of God,\ntherefore his wrath must sweep them away (Zech 5:3). This kind\nof swearing is put in with lying, and killing, and stealing, and\ncommitting adultery; and therefore must not go unpunished (Jer\n7:9; Hosea 4:2,3). For if God 'will not hold him guiltless that\ntaketh his name in vain,' which a man may do when he swears to\na truth, as I have showed before, how can it be imagined that he\nshould hold such guiltless, who, by swearing, will appeal to God\nfor lies that be not true, or that swear out of their frantic and\nbedlam madness. It would grieve and provoke a sober man to wrath,\nif one should swear to a notorious lie, and avouch that that man\nwould attest it for a truth; and yet thus do men deal with the holy\nGod. They tell their jestings, tales, and lies, and then swear by\nGod that they are true. Now, this kind of swearing was as common\nwith young Badman, as it was to eat when he was an hungered, or\nto go to bed when it was night.\n\nATTEN. I have often mused in my mind, what it should be that should\nmake men so common in the use of the sin of swearing, since those\nthat be wise will believe them never the sooner for that.\n\nWISE. It cannot be anything that is good, you may be sure; because\nthe thing itself is abominable. 1. Therefore it must be from the\npromptings of the spirit of the devil within them. 2. Also it flows\nsometimes from hellish rage, when the tongue hath set on fire of\nhell even the whole course of nature (James 3:6-9). 3. But commonly,\nswearing flows from that daring boldness that biddeth defiance to\nthe law that forbids it. 4. Swearers think, also, that by their\nbelching of their blasphemous oaths out of their black and polluted\nmouths, they show themselves the more valiant men. 5. And imagine\nalso, that by these outrageous kind of villainies, they shall\nconquer those that at such a time they have to do with, and make\nthem believe their lies to be true. 6. They also swear frequently\nto get gain thereby, and when they meet with fools they overcome\nthem this way. But if I might give advice in this matter, no buyer\nshould lay out one farthing with him that is a common swearer in\nhis calling; especially with such an oath-master that endeavoureth\nto swear away his commodity to another, and that would swear his\nchapman's money into his own pocket.\n\nATTEN. All these causes of swearing, so far as I can perceive,\nflow from the same root as do the oaths themselves, even from a\nhardened and desperate heart. But, pray, show me now how wicked\ncursing is to be distinguished from this kind of swearing.\n\nWISE. Swearing, as I said, hath immediately to do with the name\nof God, and it calls upon him to be witness to the truth of what\nis said; that is, if they that swear, swear by him. Some, indeed,\nswear by idols, as by the mass, by our lady, by saints, beasts,\nbirds, and other creatures;[20] but the usual way of our profane\nones in England is to swear by God, Christ, faith, and the like.\nBut, however, or by whatever they swear, cursing is distinguished\nfrom swearing thus.\n\nTo curse, to curse profanely, it is to sentence another or ourself,\nfor or to evil; or to wish that some evil might happen to the\nperson or thing under the curse unjustly.\n\nIt is to sentence for or to evil, that is, without a cause. Thus\nShimei cursed David; he sentenced him for and to evil unjustly,\nwhen he said to him, 'Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou\nman of Belial. The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of\nthe house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord\nhath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and,\nbehold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody\nman' (2 Sam 16:7,8).\n\nThis David calls 'a grievous curse.' 'And behold,' saith he to\nSolomon his son, 'thou hast with thee Shimei,--a Benjamite,--which\ncursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim'\n(1 Kings 2:8).\n\nBut what was this curse? Why, First, It was a wrong sentence past\nupon David; Shimei called him bloody man, man of Belial, when he\nwas not. Secondly, He sentenced him to the evil that at present\nwas upon him for being a bloody man, that is, against the house\nof Saul, when that present evil overtook David for quite another\nthing. And we may thus apply it to the profane ones of our times,\nwho in their rage and envy have little else in their youths but\na sentence against their neighbour for and to evil unjustly. How\ncommon is it with many, when they are but a little offended with\none, to cry, Hang him, Damn him, Rogue! This is both a sentencing\nof him for and to evil, and is in itself a grievous curse.\n\n2. The other kind of cursing is to wish that some evil might happen\nto, and overtake this or that person or thing. And this kind of\ncursing Job counted a grievous sin. 'Neither have I suffered [says\nhe] my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul'; or consequently\nto body or estate (Job 31:30). This then is a wicked cursing, to\nwish that evil might either befall another or ourselves. And this\nkind of cursing young Badman accustom himself unto. 1. He would\nwish that evil might befall others; he would wish their necks\nbroken, or that their brains were out, or that the pox or plague\nwas upon them, and the like; all which is a devilish kind of cursing,\nand is become one of the common sins of our age. 2. He would also\nas often wish a curse to himself, saying, Would I might be hanged,\nor burned, or that the devil might fetch me, if it be not so, or\nthe like. We count the Damn-me-blades to be great swearers, but\nwhen in their hellish fury they say, God damn me, God perish me,\nor the like, they rather curse than swear; yea, curse themselves,\nand that with a wish that damnation might light upon themselves;\nwhich wish and curse of theirs in a little time they will see\naccomplished upon them, even in hell fire, if they repent them\nnot of their sins.\n\nATTEN. But did this young Badman accustom himself to such filthy\nkind of language?\n\nWISE. I think I may say that nothing was more frequent in his\nmouth, and that upon the least provocation. Yea, he was so versed\nin such kind of language, that neither father, nor mother, nor\nbrother, nor sister, nor servant, no, nor the very cattle that\nhis father had, could escape these curses of his. I say that even\nthe brute beasts, when he drove them or rid upon them, if they\npleased not his humour, they must be sure to partake of his curse.\nHe would wish their necks broke, their legs broke, their guts out,\nor that the devil might fetch them, or the like; and no marvel,\nfor he that is so hardy to wish damnation or other bad curses to\nhimself, or dearest relations, will not stick to wish evil to the\nsilly beast in his madness.\n\nATTEN. Well, I see still that this Badman was a desperate villain.\nBut pray, Sir, since you have gone thus far, now show me whence\nthis evil of cursing ariseth, and also what dishonour it bringeth\nto God; for I easily discern that it doth bring damnation to the\nsoul.\n\nWISE. This evil of cursing ariseth in general from the desperate\nwickedness of the heart, but particularly from, 1. Envy, which is,\nas I apprehend, the leading sin to witchcraft. 2. It also ariseth\nfrom pride, which was the sin of the fallen angels. 3. It ariseth\ntoo, from scorn and contempt of others. 4. But for a man to curse\nhimself, must needs arise from desperate madness (Job 15; Eccl\n7:22).\n\nThe dishonour that it bringeth to God is this. It taketh away from\nhim his authority, in whose power it is only to bless and curse;\nnot to curse wickedly, as Mr. Badman, but justly and righteously,\ngiving by his curse, to those that are wicked, the due reward of\ntheir deeds.\n\nBesides, these wicked men, in their wicked cursing of their neighbour,\n&c., do even curse God himself in his handiwork (James 3:9). Man\nis God's image, and to curse wickedly the image of God is to curse\nGod himself. Therefore as when men wickedly swear, they rend,\nand tear God's name, and make him, as much as in them lies, the\navoucher and approver of all their wickedness; so he that curseth\nand condemneth in this sort his neighbour, or that wisheth him\nevil, curseth, condemneth, and wisheth evil to the image of God,\nand, consequently judgeth and condemneth God himself. Suppose that\na man should say with his mouth, I wish that the king's picture was\nburned; would not this man's so saying render him as an enemy to\nthe person of the king? Even so it is with them that, by cursing,\nwish evil to their neighbour, or to themselves, they contemn the\nimage, even the image of God himself.\n\nATTEN. But do you think that the men that do thus, do think that\nthey do so vilely, so abominably?\n\nWISE. The question is not what men do believe concerning their sin,\nbut what God's Word says of it. If God's Word says that swearing\nand cursing are sins, though men should count them for virtues,\ntheir reward will be a reward for sin, to wit, the damnation of\nthe soul. To curse another, and to swear vainly and falsely, are\nsins against the light of nature. 1. To curse is so, because whoso\ncurseth another, knows that at the same time he would not be so\nserved himself. 2. To swear also is a sin against he same law;\nfor nature will tell me that I should not lie, and therefore much\nless swear to confirm it. Yea, the heathens have looked upon swearing\nto be a solemn ordinance of God, and therefore not to be lightly\nor vainly used by men, though to confirm a matter of truth (Gen\n31:43-55).\n\nATTEN. But I wonder, since cursing and swearing are such evils in\nthe eyes of God, that he doth not make some examples to others,\nfor their committing such wickedness.\n\nWISE. Alas! so he has, a thousand times twice told, as may be\neasily gathered by any observing people in every age and country.\nI could present you with several myself; but waving the abundance\nthat might be mentioned, I will here present you with two. One\nwas that dreadful judgment of God upon one N. P. at Wimbleton in\nSurrey; who, after a horrible fit of swearing at and cursing of\nsome persons that did not please him, suddenly fell sick, and in\nlittle time died raving, cursing, and swearing.\n\nBut above all, take that dreadful story of Dorothy Mately, an\ninhabitant of Ashover, in the county of Derby. This Dorothy\nMately, saith the relater, was noted by the people of the town\nto be a great swearer, and curser, and liar, and thief; just like\nMr. Badman. And the labour that she did usually follow was to\nwash the rubbish that came forth of the lead mines, and there to\nget sparks of lead ore; and her usual way of asserting of things\nwas with these kind of imprecations: I would I might sink into the\nearth if it be not so; or, I would God would make the earth open\nand swallow me up. Now upon the 23d of March, 1660, this Dorothy\nwas washing of ore upon the top of a steep hill, about a quarter\nof a mile from Ashover, and was there taxed by a lad for taking of\ntwo single pence out of his pocket, for he had laid his breeches\nby, and was at work in his drawers; but she violently denied it;\nwishing that the ground might swallow her up if she had them: she\nalso used the same wicked words on several other occasions that\nday.\n\nNow one George Hodgkinson, of Ashover, a man of good report there,\ncame accidentally by where this Dorothy was, and stood still\nawhile to talk with her, as she was washing her ore; there stood\nalso a little child by her tub-side, and another a distance form\nher, calling aloud to her to come away; wherefore the said George\ntook the girl by the hand to lead her away to her that called\nher: but behold, they had not gone above ten yards from Dorothy,\nbut they heard her crying out for help; so looking back, he saw\nthe woman, and her tub, and sieve twirling round, and sinking into\nthe ground. Then said the man, Pray to God to pardon thy sin, for\nthou are never like to be seen alive any longer. So she and her\ntub twirled round and round, till they sunk about three yards into\nthe earth, and then for a while staid. Then she called for help\nagain; thinking, as she said, she should stay there. Now the man,\nthough greatly amazed, did begin to think which way to help her;\nbut immediately a great stone which appeared in the earth, fell\nupon her head, and broke her skull, and then the earth fell in\nupon her, and covered her. She was afterwards digged up, and found\nabout four yards within ground, with the boy's two single pence\nin her pocket, but her tub and sieve could not be found.\n\nATTEN. You bring to my mind a sad story, the while I will relate\nunto you. The thing is this:--About a bow-shot from where I once\ndwelt, there was a blind ale-house,[21] and the man that kept it\nhad a son, whose name was Edward. This Edward was, as it were,\na half fool, both in his words and manner of behaviour. To this\nblind ale-house certain jovial companions would once or twice a\nweek come, and this Ned, for so they called him, his father would\nentertain his guests withal; to wit, by calling for him to make\nthem sport by his foolish words and gestures. So when these boon\nblades came to this man's house, the father would call for Ned.\nNed, therefore, would come forth; and the villain was devilishly\naddicted to cursing, yea, to cursing his father and mother, and\nany one else that did cross him. And because, though he was a half\nfool, he saw that his practice was pleasing, he would do it with\nthe more audaciousness.\n\nWell, when these brave fellows did come at their times to this\ntippling-house, as they cal lit, to fuddle and make merry, then\nmust Ned be called out; and because his father was best acquainted\nwith Ned, and best knew how to provoke him, therefore he would\nusually ask him such questions, or command him such business,\nas would be sure to provoke him indeed. Then would he, after his\nfoolish manner, curse his father most bitterly; at which the old\nman would laugh, and so would the rest of the guests, as at that\nwhich pleased them best, still continuing to ask that Ned still\nmight be provoked to curse, that they might still be provoked\nto laugh. This was the mirth with which the old man did use to\nentertain his guests.\n\nThe curses wherewith this Ned did use to curse his father, and at\nwhich the old man would laugh, were these, and such like; the devil\ntake you--the devil fetch you; he would also wish him plagues and\ndestructions many. Well, so it came to pass, through the righteous\njudgment of God, that Ned's wishes and curses were in a little\ntime fulfilled upon his father; for not many months passed between\nthem after this manner, but the devil did indeed take him, possess\nhim, and also in a few days carried him out of this world by\ndeath; I say Satan did take him and possess him; I mean, so it\nwas judged by those that knew him, and had to do with him in that\nhis lamentable condition. He could feel him like a live thing go\nup and down in his body; but when tormenting time was come, as\nhe had often tormenting fits, then he would lie like an hard bump\nin the soft place of his chest, I mean I saw it so, and so would\nrent and tear him, and make him roar till he died away.\n\nI told you before that I was an ear and eye-witness of what I\nhere say; and so I was. I have heard Ned in his roguery cursing\nhis father, and his father laughing thereat most heartily; still\nprovoking of Ned to curse, that his mirth might be increased. I\nsaw his father also, when he was possessed, I saw him in one of his\nfits, and saw his flesh, as it was thought, by the devil gathered\nup on a heap, about the bigness of half an egg, to the unutterable\ntorture and affliction of the old man. There was also one Freeman,\nwho was more than an ordinary doctor, sent for, to cast out this\ndevil; and I was there when he attempted to do it; the manner\nthereof was this:--They had the possessed into an out-room, and\nlaid him on his belly upon a form, with his head hanging over the\nform's end. Then they bound him down thereto; which done, they set\na pan of coals under his mouth, and put something therein which\nmade a great smoke; by this means, as it was said, to fetch out\nthe devil. There, therefore, they kept the man till he was almost\nsmothered in the smoke, but no devil came out of him; at which\nFreeman was somewhat abashed, the man greatly afflicted, and I made\nto go away wondering and fearing.[22] In a little time, therefore,\nthat which possessed the man, carried him out of the world,\naccording to the cursed wishes of his son. And this was the end\nof this hellish mirth.\n\nWISE. These were all sad judgments.\n\nATTEN. These were dreadful judgments indeed.\n\nWISE. Ay, and they look like the threatening of that text, though\nchiefly it concerned Judas, 'As he loved cursing, so let it come\nunto him; as he delighteth not in blessing, so let it be far from\nhim. As he clothed himself with cursing, like as with a garment,\nso let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his\nbones' (Psa 109:17,18).\n\nATTEN. It is a fearful thing for youth to be trained up in a way\nof cursing and swearing.\n\nWISE. Trained up in them! that I cannot say Mr. Badman was, for\nhis father hath ofttimes in my hearing bewailed the badness of his\nchildren, and of this naughty boy in particular. I believe that\nthe wickedness of his children made him, in the thoughts of it,\ngo many a night with heavy heart to bed, and with as heavy a one\nto rise in the morning. But all was one to his graceless son,\nneither wholesome counsel, nor fatherly sorrow, would make him\nmend his manners.\n\nThere are some indeed that do train up their children to swear,\ncurse, lie, and steal, and great is the misery of such poor children\nwhose hard hap it is to be ushered into the world by, and to be\nunder the tuition too of such ungodly parents. It had been better\nfor such parents had they not begat them, and better for such\nchildren had they not been born. O! methinks for a father or a\nmother to train up a child in that very way that leadeth to hell\nand damnation, what things so horrible! But Mr. Badman was not by\nhis parents so brought up.\n\nATTEN. But methinks, since this young Badman would not be ruled at\nhome, his father should have tried what good could have been done\nof him abroad, by putting him out to some man of his acquaintance,\nthat he knew to be able to command him, and to keep him pretty\nhard to some employ; so should he, at least, have been prevented\nof time to do those wickednesses that could not be done without\ntime to do them in.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n[BADMAN'S APPRENTICESHIP TO A PIOUS MASTER.]\n\nWISE. Alas! his father did so; he put him out betimes to one of\nhis own acquaintance, and entreated him of all love that he would\ntake care of his son, and keep him for extravagant ways. His\ntrade also was honest and commodious; he had besides a full employ\ntherein, so that this young Badman had no vacant seasons nor idle\nhours yielded him by his calling, therein to take opportunities\nto do badly; but all was one to him, as he had begun to be vile\nin his father's house, even so he continued to be when he was in\nthe house of his master.\n\nATTEN. I have known some children, who, though they have been\nvery bad at home, yet have altered much when they have been put\nout abroad; especially when they have fallen into a family where\nthe governors thereof have made conscience of maintaining of the\nworship and service of God therein; but perhaps that might be\nwanting in Mr. Badman's master's house.\n\nWISE. Indeed some children do greatly mend when put under other\nmen's roofs; but, as I said, this naughty boy did not so; nor did\nhis badness continue because he wanted a master that both could\nand did correct it. For his master was a very good man, a very\ndevout person; one that frequented the best soul means, that set\nup the worship of God in his family, and also that walked himself\nthereafter. He was also a man very meek and merciful, one that\ndid never over-drive young Badman in business, nor that kept him\nat it at unseasonable hours.\n\nATTEN. Say you so! This is rare. I for my part can see but few\nthat can parallel, in these things, with Mr. Badman's master.\n\nWISE. Nor I neither, yet Mr. Badman had such an one; for, for the\nmost part, masters are now-a-days such as mind nothing but their\nworldly concerns, and if apprentices do but answer their commands\ntherein, soul and religion may go whither they will. Yea, I much\nfear that there have been many towardly lads put out by their\nparents to such masters, that have quite undone them as to the\nnext world.\n\nATTEN. The more is the pity. But, pray, now you have touched upon\nthis subject, show me how many ways a master may be the ruin of\nhis poor apprentice.\n\nWISE. Nay, I cannot tell you of all the ways, yet some of them I\nwill mention. Suppose, then, that a towardly lad be put to be an\napprentice with one that is reputed to be a godly man, yet that lad\nmay be ruined many ways; that is, if his master be not circumspect\nin all things that respect both God and man, and that before his\napprentice.\n\n1. If he be not moderate in the use of his apprentice; if he drives\nhim beyond his strength; if he holds him to work at unseasonable\nhours; if he will not allow him convenient time to read the Word,\nto pray, &c. This is the way to destroy him; that is, in those\ntender beginning of good thoughts, and good beginnings about\nspiritual things.\n\n2. If he suffers his house to be scattered with profane and wicked\nbooks, such as stir up to lust, to wantonness, such as teach\nidle, wanton, lascivious discourse, and such as have a tendency\nto provoke to profane drollery and jesting; and lastly, such as\ntend to corrupt and pervert the doctrine of faith and holiness. All\nthese things will eat as doth a canker, and will quickly spoil,\nin youth, &c. those good beginnings that may be putting forth\nthemselves in them.\n\n3. If there be a mixture of servants, that is, if some very bad be\nin the same place, that is a way also to undo such tender lads;\nfor they that are bad and sordid servants will be often, and they\nhave an opportunity too, to be distilling and fomenting of their\nprofane and wicked words and tricks before them, and these will\neasily stick in the flesh and minds of youth, to the corrupting\nof them.\n\n4. If the master have one guise for abroad, and another for home;\nthat is, if his religion hangs by in his house as his cloak does,\nand he be seldom in it, except he be abroad; this young beginners\nwill take notice of, and stumble at. We say, hedges have eyes,\nand little pitchers have ears;[23] and, indeed, children make a\ngreater inspection into the lives of fathers, masters, &c., than\nofttimes they are aware of. And therefore should masters be careful,\nelse they may so destroy good beginnings in their servants.\n\n5. If the master be unconscionable in his dealing, and trades with\nlying words; or if bad commodities be avouched to be good, or if\nhe seeks after unreasonable gain, or the like; his servant sees\nit, and it is enough to undo him. Eli's sons being bad before the\ncongregation, made men despise the sacrifices of the Lord (1 Sam\n2).\n\nBut these things, by the by, only they may serve for a hint to\nmasters to take heed that they take not apprentices to destroy\ntheir souls. But young Badman had none of these hindrances; his\nfather took care, and provided well for him, as to this. He had\na good master, he wanted not good books, nor good instruction,\nnor good sermons, nor good examples, no nor good fellow-servants\nneither; but all would not do.\n\nATTEN. It is a wonder that in such a family, amidst so many\nspiritual helps, nothing should take hold of his heart! What!\nnot good books, nor good instructions, nor good sermons, nor good\nexamples, nor good fellow-servants, nor nothing do him good!\n\nWISE. You talk, he minded none of these things; nay, all these\nwere abominable to him. 1. For good books, they might lie in his\nmaster's house till they rotted from him, he would not regard\nto look into them; but contrariwise, would get all the bad and\nabominable books that he could, as beastly romances, and books full\nof ribaldry, even such as immediately tended to set all fleshly\nlusts on fire.[24] True, he durst not be known to have any of these\nto his master; therefore would he never let them be seen by him,\nbut would keep them in close places, and peruse them at such times\nas yielded him fit opportunities thereto.\n\n2. For good instruction, he liked that much as he liked good books;\nhis care was to hear but little thereof, and to forget what he\nheard as soon as it was spoken. Yea, I have heard some that knew\nhim then say, that one might evidently discern by the show of his\ncountenance and gestures that good counsel was to him like little\nease, even a continual torment to him; nor did he ever count\nhimself at liberty but when farthest off of wholesome words (Prov\n15:12). He would hate them that rebuked him, and count them his\ndeadly enemies (Prov 9:8).\n\n3. For good example, which was frequently set him by his master,\nboth in religious and civil matters, these young Badman would\nlaugh at, and would also make a by-word of them when he came in\nplace where he with safety could.\n\n4. His master indeed would make him go with him to sermons, and\nthat here he thought the best preachers were, but this ungodly\nyoung man, what shall I say, was, I think, a master of art in all\nmischief, he had these wicked ways to hinder himself of hearing,\nlet the preacher thunder never so loud. 1. His way was, when come\ninto the place of hearing, to sit down in some corner and then to\nfall fast asleep. 2. Or else to fix his adulterous eyes upon some\nbeautiful object that was in the place, and so all sermon-while\ntherewith to be feeding of his fleshly lusts. 3. Or, if he could\nget near to some that he had observed would fit his humour, he\nwould be whispering, giggling, and playing with them till such\ntime as sermon was done.\n\nATTEN. Why! he was grown to a prodigious height of wickedness.\n\nWISE. He was so, and that which aggravates all was, this was his\npractice as soon as he was come to his master--he was as ready\nat all these things as if he had, before he came to his master,\nserved an apprenticeship to learn them.\n\nATTEN. There could not but be added, as you relate them, rebellion\nto his sin. Methinks it is as if he had said, I will not hear,\nI will not regard, I will not mind good, I will not mend, I will\nnot turn, I will not be converted.\n\nWISE. You say true, and I know not to whom more fitly to compare\nhim than to that man who, when I myself rebuked him or his\nwickedness, in this great huff replied, What would the devil do\nfor company if it was not for such as I?\n\nATTEN. Why, did you ever hear any man say so?\n\nWISE. Yes, that I did, and this young Badman was as like him as\nan egg is like an egg. Alas! the Scripture makes mention of many\nthat by their actions speak the same, 'They say unto God, Depart\nfrom us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways' (Job 21:14).\nAgain, 'They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder,\nand stopped their ears. Yea, they make their hearts' hard 'as an\nadamant-stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which\nthe Lord of hosts hath sent' (Zech 7:11,12). What are all these\nbut such as Badman, and such as the young man but now mentioned?\nThat young man was my play-fellow when I was solacing myself in\nmy sins; I may make mention of him to my shame, but he has a great\nmany fellows.\n\nATTEN. Young Badman was like him indeed, and he trod his steps\nas if his wickedness had been his very copy: I mean as to his\ndesperateness, for had he not been a desperate one he would never\nhave made you such a reply when you was rebuking of him for his\nsin. But when did you give him such a rebuke?\n\nWISE. A while after God had parted him and I, by calling of me,\nas I hope, by his grace, still leaving him in his sins; and so\nfar as I could ever gather, as he lived, so he died, even as Mr.\nBadman did; but we will leave him and return again to our discourse.\n\nATTEN. Ha! poor obstinate sinners! Do they think that God cannot\nbe even with them?\n\nWISE. I do not know what they think, but I know that God hath\nsaid, 'That as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried\nand I would not hear, saith the Lord' (Zech 7:13). Doubtless there\nis a time coming when Mr. Badman will cry for this.\n\nATTEN. But I wonder that he should be so expert in wickedness so\nsoon! Alas, he was but a stripling, I suppose he was as yet not\ntwenty.\n\nWISE. No, nor eighteen either; but, as with Ishmael, and with the\nchildren that mocked the prophet, the seeds of sin did put forth\nthemselves betimes in him (Gen 21:9,10; 2 Kings 2:23,24).\n\nATTEN. Well, he was as wicked a young man as commonly one shall\nhear of.\n\nWISE. You will say so when you know all.\n\nATTEN. All, I think, here is a great all; but if there is more\nbehind, pray let us hear it.\n\nWISE. Why then, I will tell you, that he had not been with his\nmaster much above a year and a half, but he came acquainted with\nthree young villains, who here shall be nameless, that taught\nhim to add to his sin much of like kind, and he as aptly received\ntheir instructions. One of them was chiefly given to uncleanness,\nanother to drunkenness, and the third to purloining, or stealing\nfrom his master.\n\nATTEN. Alas! poor wretch, he was bad enough before, but these, I\nsuppose, made him much worse.\n\nWISE. That they made him worse you may be sure of, for they taught\nhim to be an arch, a chief one in all their ways.\n\nATTEN. It was an ill hap that he ever came acquainted with them.\n\nWISE. You must rather word it thus--it was the judgment of God\nthat he did, that is, he came acquainted with them through the\nanger of God. He had a good master, and before him a good father;\nby these he had good counsel given him for months and years\ntogether, but his heart was set upon mischief, he loved wickedness\nmore than to do good, even until his iniquity came to be hateful,\ntherefore, from the anger of God it was that these companions of\nhis and he did at last so acquaint together. Says Paul, 'They did\nnot like to retain God in their knowledge'; and what follows?\nwherefore 'God gave them over,' or up to their own hearts' lusts\n(Rom 1:28). And again, 'As for such as turn aside unto their\ncrooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of\niniquity' (Psa 125:5). This therefore was God's hand upon him,\nthat he might be destroyed, be damned, 'because he received not\nthe love of the truth that he might be saved' (2 Thess 2:10).\nHe chose his delusions and deluders for him, even the company of\nbase men, of fools, that he might be destroyed (Prov 12:20).\n\nATTEN. I cannot but think indeed that it is a great judgment of\nGod for a man to be given up to the company of vile men; for what\nare such but the devil's decoys, even those by whom he draws the\nsimple into his net? A whoremaster, a drunkard, a thief, what are\nthey but the devil's baits by which he catcheth others?\n\nWISE. You say right; but this young Badman was no simple one, if\nby simple you mean one uninstructed; for he had often good counsel\ngiven him; but, if by simple you mean him that is a fool as to\nthe true knowledge of, and faith in Christ, then he was a simple\none indeed; for he chose death rather than life, and to live in\ncontinual opposition to God, rather than to be reconciled unto\nhim; according to that saying of the wise man, 'The fools hated\nknowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord' (Prov 1:29).\nAnd what judgment more dreadful can a fool be given up to, than\nto be delivered into the hands of such men, that have skill to do\nnothing but to ripen sin, and hasten its finishing unto damnation?\nAnd, therefore, men should be afraid of offending God, because he\ncan in this manner punish them for their sins. I knew a man that\nonce was, as I though, hopefully awakened about his condition;\nyea, I knew two that were so awakened, but in time they began to\ndraw back, and to incline again to their lusts; wherefore, God\ngave them up to the company of three or four men, that in less\nthan three years' time, brought them roundly to the gallows, where\nthey were hanged like dogs, because they refused to live like\nhonest men.\n\nATTEN. But such men do not believe that thus to be given up of God\nis in judgment and anger; they rather take it to be their liberty,\nand do count it their happiness; they are glad that their cord is\nloosed, and that the reins are on their neck; they are glad that\nthey may sin without control, and that they may choose such company\nas can make them more expert in an evil way.\n\nWISE. Their judgment is, therefore, so much the greater, because\nthereto is added blindness of mind, and hardness of heart in a\nwicked way. They are turned up to the way of death, but must not\nsee to what place they are going. They must go as the ox to the\nslaughter, 'and as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till\na dart strike through his liver,' not knowing 'that it is for his\nlife' (Prov 7:22,23). This, I say, makes their judgment double;\nthey are given up of God for a while, to sport themselves with\nthat which will assuredly make them 'mourn at the last, when\ntheir flesh and their body are consumed' (Prov 5:11). These are\nthose that Peter speaks, that shall utterly perish in their own\ncorruptions; these, I say, who 'count it pleasure to riot in the\nday-time,' and that sport 'themselves with their own deceivings,'\nare 'as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed' (2\nPeter 2:12,13).\n\nATTEN. Well, but I pray now concerning these three villains that\nwere young Badman's companions; tell me more particularly how he\ncarried it then.\n\nWISE. How he carried it? why, he did as they. I intimated so much\nbefore, when I said they made him an arch,[25] a chief one in\ntheir ways.\n\nFirst, he became a frequenter of taverns and tippling-houses, and\nwould stay there until he was even as drunk as a beast. And if it\nwas so that he could not get out by day, he would, be sure, get\nout by night. Yea, he became so common a drunkard at last, that\nhe was taken notice of to be a drunkard even by all.\n\nATTEN. This was swinish, for drunkenness is so beastly a sin, a\nsin so much against nature, that I wonder that any that have but\nthe appearance of men can give up themselves to so beastly, yea,\nworse than beastly, a thing.\n\nWISE. It is a swinish vanity indeed. I will tell you another story.\nThere was a gentleman that had a drunkard to be his groom, and\ncoming home one night very much abused with beer, his master saw\nit. Well, quoth his master within himself, I will let thee alone\nto night, but to-morrow morning I will convince thee that thou art\nworse than a beast by the behaviour of my horse. So, when morning\nwas come, he bids his man go and water his horse, and so he did;\nbut, coming up to his master, he commands him to water him again;\nso the fellow rode into the water the second time, but his master's\nhorse would now drink no more, so the fellow came up and told\nhis master. Then, said his master, thou drunken sot, thou art far\nworse than my horse; he will drink but to satisfy nature, but thou\nwilt drink to the abuse of nature; he will drink but to refresh\nhimself, but thou to thy hurt and damage; he will drink that\nhe may be more serviceable to his master, but thou till thou art\nincapable of serving either God or man. O thou beast, how much\nart thou worse than the horse that thou ridest on!\n\nATTEN. Truly, I think that his master served him right; for, in\ndoing as he did, he showed him plainly, as he said, that he had\nnot so much government of himself as his horse had of himself;\nand, consequently, that his beast did live more according to the\nlaw of his nature by far than did his man. But, pray, go on with\nwhat you have further to say.\n\nWISE. Why, I say, that there are four things, which, if they were\nwell considered, would make drunkenness to be abhorred in the\nthoughts of the children of men. 1. It greatly tendeth to impoverish\nand beggar a man. 'The drunkard,' says Solomon, 'shall come to\npoverty' (Prov 23:21). Many that have begun the world with plenty,\nhave gone out of it in rags, through drunkenness. Yea, many children\nthat have been born to good estates, have yet been brought to a\nflail and a rake, through this beastly sin of their parents. 2.\nThis sin of drunkenness it bringeth upon the body many, great,\nand incurable diseases, by which men do, in little time, come to\ntheir end, and none can help them. So, because they are overmuch\nwicked, therefore they die before their time (Eccl 7:17). 3.\nDrunkenness is a sin that is oftentimes attended with abundance of other\nevils. 'Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who\nhath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of\neyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed\nwine'; that is, the drunkard (Prov 23:29,30). 4. By drunkenness,\nmen do oftentimes shorten their days; go out of the ale-house\ndrunk, and break their necks before they come home. Instances,\nnot a few, might be given of this, but this is so manifest a man\nneed say nothing.\n\nATTEN. But that which is worse than all is, it also prepares men\nfor everlasting burnings (1 Cor 6:10).\n\nWISE. Yea, and it so stupefies and besots the soul, that a man\nthat is far gone in drunkenness is hardly ever recovered to God.\nTell me, when did you see an old drunkard converted? No, no, such\nan one will sleep till he dies, though he sleeps on the top of a\nmast; let his dangers be never so great, and death and damnation\nnever so near, he will not be awaked out of his sleep (Prov\n23:34,35). So that if a man have any respect either to credit,\nhealth, life, or salvation, he will not be a drunken man. But the\ntruth is, where this sin gets the upper hand, men are, as I said\nbefore, so intoxicated and bewitched with the seeming pleasures\nand sweetness thereof, that they have neither heart nor mind to\nthink of that which is better in itself; and would, if embraced,\ndo them good.\n\nATTEN. You said that drunkenness tends to poverty, yet some make\nthemselves rich by drunken bargains.\n\nWISE. I said so, because the Word says so. And as to some men's\ngetting thereby, that is indeed but rare and base; yea, and base\nwill be the end of such gettings. The Word of God is against such\nways, and the curse of God will be the end of such doings. An\ninheritance may sometimes thus be hastily gotten at the beginning,\nbut the end thereof shall not be blessed. Hark what the prophet\nsaith, 'Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness, that\nhe may set his nest on high' (Hab 2:5,9-12,15). Whether he makes\ndrunkenness, or ought else, the engine and decoy to get it; for\nthat man doth but consult the shame of his own house, the spoiling\nof his family, and the damnation of his soul; for that which he\ngetteth by working of iniquity is but a getting by the devices of\nhell; therefore he can be no gainer neither for himself or family,\nthat gains by an evil course. But this was one of the sins that\nMr. Badman was addicted to after he came acquainted with these\nthree fellows, nor could all that his master could do break him\noff this beastly sin.\n\nATTEN. But where, since he was but an apprentice, could he get money\nto follow this practice; for drunkenness, as you have intimated,\nis a very costly sin.\n\nWISE. His master paid for all. For, as I told you before, as he\nlearned of these three villains to be a beastly drunkard, so he\nlearned of them to pilfer and steal from his master. Sometimes he\nwould sell off his master's goods, but keep the money, that is,\nwhen he could; also, sometimes he would beguile his master by\ntaking out of his cash box; and when he could do neither of these,\nhe would convey away of his master's wares, what he thought would\nbe least missed, and send or carry them to such and such houses,\nwhere he knew they would be laid up to his use; and then appoint\nset times there, to meet and make merry with these fellows.\n\nATTEN. This was as bad, nay, I think, worse than the former; for\nby thus doing he did not only run himself under the wrath of God,\nbut has endangered the undoing of his master and his family.\n\nWISE. Sins go not alone, but follow one the other as do the links\nof a chain; he that will be a drunkard, must have money, either of\nhis own or of some other man's; either of his father's, mother's,\nmaster's, or at the highway, or some way.\n\nATTEN. I fear that many an honest man is undone by such kind of\nservants.\n\nWISE. I am of the same mind with you, but this should make the\ndealer the more wary what kind of servants he keeps, and what kind\nof apprentices he takes. It should also teach him to look well to\nhis shop himself; also to take strict account of all things that\nare bought and sold by his servants. The master's neglect herein\nmay embolden his servant to be bad, and may bring him too in short\ntime to rags and a morsel of bread.\n\nATTEN. I am afraid that there is much of this kind of pilfering\namong servants in these bad days of ours.\n\nWISE. Now while it is in my mind, I will tell you a story. When\nI was in prison, there came a woman to me that was under a great\ndeal of trouble.[26] So I asked her, she being a stranger to me,\nwhat she had to say to me. She said she was afraid she should be\ndamned. I asked her the cause of those fears. She told me that she\nhad, some time since, lived with a shopkeeper at Wellingborough,\nand had robbed his box in the shop several times of money, to the\nvalue of more than now I will say; and pray, says she, tell me\nwhat I shall do. I told her I would have her go to her master,\nand make him satisfaction. She said she was afraid; I asked her,\nwhy? She said, she doubted he would hang her. I told her that I\nwould intercede for her life, and would make use of other friends\ntoo to do the like; but she told me she durst not venture that.\nWell, said I, shall I send to your master, while you abide out of\nsight, and make your peace with him, before he sees you; and with\nthat I asked her her master's name. But all that she said, in\nanswer to this, was, Pray let it alone till I come to you again.\nSo away she went, and neither told me her master's name nor her\nown. This is about ten or twelve years since, and I never saw\nher again. I tell you this story for this cause; to confirm your\nfears that such kind of servants too many there be; and that God\nmakes them sometimes like old Tod, of whom mention was made before,\nthrough the terrors that he lays upon them, to betray themselves.\n\nI could tell you of another, that came to me with a like relation\nconcerning herself, and the robbing of her mistress; but at this\ntime let this suffice.\n\nATTEN. But what was that other villain addicted to; I mean young\nBadman's third companion.\n\nWISE. Uncleanness; I told you before, but it seems you forgot.\n\nATTEN. Right, it was uncleanness. Uncleanness is also a filthy\nsin.\n\nWISE. It is so; and yet it is one of the most reigning sins in our\nday.[27]\n\nATTEN. So they say, and that too among those that one would think\nhad more wit, even among the great ones.\n\nWISE. The more is the pity; for usually examples that are set by\nthem that are great and chief, spread sooner, and more universally,\nthan do the sins of other men; yea, and when such men are at the\nhead in transgressing, sin walks with a bold face through the\nland. As Jeremiah saith of the prophets, so may it be said of such,\n'From them is profaneness gone forth into all the land': that is,\nwith bold and audacious face (Jer 23:15).\n\nATTEN. But pray let us return again to Mr. Badman and his companions.\nYou say one of them was very vile in the commission of uncleanness.\n\nWISE. Yes, so I say; not but that he was a drunkard and also\nthievish, but he was most arch in this sin of uncleanness: this\nroguery was his masterpiece, for he was a ringleader to them all\nin the beastly sin of whoredom. He was also best acquainted with\nsuch houses where they were, and so could readily lead the rest\nof his gang unto them. The strumpets also, because they knew this\nyoung villain, would at first discover themselves in all their\nwhorish pranks to those that he brought with him.\n\nATTEN. That is a deadly thing: I mean, it is a deadly thing to\nyoung men, when such beastly queens shall, with words and carriages\nthat are openly tempting, discover themselves unto them; it is\nhard for such to escape their snare.\n\nWISE. That is true, therefore the wise man's counsel is the best:\n'Come not nigh the door of her house' (Prov 5:8). For they are,\nas you say, very tempting, as is seen by her in the Proverbs. 'I\nlooked,' says the wise man, 'through my casement, and behold among\nthe simple ones I discerned a young man void of understanding,\npassing through the street near her corner, and he went the way\nto her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and\ndark night. And, behold, there met him a women with the attire\nof an harlot, and subtle of heart; she is loud and stubborn; her\nfeet abide not in her house; now is she without, now in the streets,\nand lieth in wait at every corner. So she caught him, and kissed\nhim, and, with an impudent face, said unto him, I have peace-offerings\nwith me; this day have I paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to\nmeet thee diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I\nhave decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works,\nwith fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,\naloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the\nmorning; let us solace ourselves with loves' (Prov 7:6-18). Here\nwas a bold beast. And, indeed, the very eyes, hands, words, and\nways of such, are all snares and bands to youthful, lustful fellows.\nAnd with these was young Badman greatly snared.\n\nATTEN. This sin of uncleanness is mightily cried out against both\nby Moses, the prophets, Christ, and his apostles; and yet, as we\nsee, for all that, how men run headlong to it!\n\nWISE. You have said the truth, and I will add, that God, to hold\nmen back from so filthy a sin, has set such a stamp of his indignation\nupon it, and commanded such evil effects to follow it, that, were\nnot they that use it bereft of all fear of God, and love to their\nown health, they could not but stop and be afraid to commit it.\nFor besides the eternal damnation that doth attend such in the\nnext world, for these have no 'inheritance in the kingdom of Christ\nand of God' (Eph 5:5), the evil effects thereof in this world are\ndreadful.\n\nATTEN. Pray show me some of them, that as occasion offereth itself,\nI may show them to others for their good.\n\nWISE. So I will. 1. It bringeth a man, as was said of the sin\nbefore, to want and poverty; 'For by means of a whorish woman, a\nman is brought to a piece of bread' (Prov 6:26). The reason is,\nfor that a whore will not yield without hire; and men, when the\ndevil and lust is in them, and God and his fear far away from\nthem, will not stick, so they may accomplish their desire, to lay\ntheir signet, their bracelets, and their staff to pledge, rather\nthan miss of the fulfilling of their lusts (Gen 38:18). 2. Again,\nby this sin men diminish their strength, and bring upon themselves,\neven upon the body a multitude of diseases. This King Lemuels'\nmother warned him of. 'What, my son?' said she, 'and what the son\nof my womb? And what the son of my vows? Give not thy strength\nunto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings' (Prov\n31:2,3). This sin is destructive to the body. Give me leave to\ntell you another story. I have heard of a great man that was a\nvery unclean person, and he had lived so long in that sin that he\nhad almost lost his sight. So his physicians were sent for, to\nwhom he told his disease; but they told him that they could do\nhim no good, unless he would forbear his women. Nay then, said he,\nfarewell sweet sight. Whence observe, that this sin, as I said,\nis destructive to the body; and also, that some men be so in love\ntherewith, that they will have it, though it destroy their body.[28]\n\nATTEN. Paul says also, that he that sins this sin, sins against\nhis own body. But what of that? He that will run the hazard of\neternal damnation of his soul, but he will commit this sin, will\nfor it run the hazard of destroying his body. If young Badman feared\nnot the damnation of his soul, do you think that the consideration\nof impairing of his body would have deterred him therefrom?\n\nWISE. You say true. But yet, methinks, there are still such bad\neffects follow, often upon the commission of it, that if men would\nconsider them, it would put, at least, a stop to their career\ntherein.\n\nATTEN. What other evil effects attend this sin?\n\nWISE. Outward shame and disgrace, and that in these particulars:--\n\nFirst, There often follows this foul sin the foul disease, now called\nby us the pox. A disease so nauseous and stinking, so infectious\nto the whole body, and so entailed to this sin, that hardly are\nany common with unclean women, but they have more or less a touch\nof it to their shame.\n\nATTEN. That is a foul disease indeed! I knew a man once that\nrotted away with it; and another that had his nose eaten off, and\nhis mouth almost quite sewed up thereby.\n\nWISE. It is a disease, that where it is it commonly declares that\nthe cause thereof is uncleanness. It declares to all that behold\nsuch a man, that he is an odious, a beastly, unclean person. This\nis that strange punishment that Job speaks of, that is appointed\nto seize on these workers of iniquity (Job 31:1-3).\n\nATTEN. Then it seems you think, that the strange punishment that\nJob there speaks of should be the foul disease.\n\nWISE. I have thought so indeed, and that for this reason. We see\nthat this disease is entailed, as I may say, to this most beastly\nsin, nor is there any disease so entailed to any other sin as this\nto this. That this is the sin to which the strange punishment is\nentailed, you will easily perceive when you read the text. 'I made\na covenant with mine eyes,' said Job, 'why then should I think\nupon a maid? For what portion of God is there,' for that sin,\n'from above, and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?'\nAnd then he answers himself: 'Is not destruction to the wicked,\nand a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?' This strange\npunishment is the pox. Also, I think that this foul disease is\nthat which Solomon intends when he saith, speaking of this unclean\nand beastly creature, 'A wound and dishonour shall he get, and\nhis reproach shall not be wiped away' (Prov 6:33). A punishment\nJob calls it; a wound and dishonour Solomon calls it; and they\nboth do set it as a remark upon this sin; Job calling it a 'strange\npunishment,' and Solomon a 'reproach that shall not be wiped away,'\nfrom them that are common in it.\n\nATTEN. What other things follow upon the commission of this beastly\nsin?\n\nWISE. Why, oftentimes it is attended with murder, with the murder\nof the babe begotten on the defiled bed. How common it is for the\nbastard-getter and bastard-bearer to consent together to murder\ntheir children, will be better known at the day of judgment, yet\nsomething is manifest now.\n\nI will tell you another story. An ancient man, one of mine\nacquaintance, a man of good credit in our country, had a mother that\nwas a midwife, who was mostly employed in laying great persons.\nTo this woman's house, upon a time, comes a brave young gallant\non horseback, to fetch her to lay a young lady. So she addresses\nherself to go with him, wherefore he takes her up behind him, and\naway they ride in the night. Now they had not rid far, but the\ngentleman lit of his horse, and, taking the old midwife in his\narms from the horse, turned round with her several times, and then\nset her up again, then he got up and away they went till they came\nat a stately house, into which he had her, and so into a chamber\nwhere the young lady was in her pains. He then bid the midwife\ndo her office, and she demanded help, but he drew out his sword,\nand told her if she did not make speed to do her office without,\nshe must look for nothing but death. Well, to be short, this old\nmidwife laid the young lady, and a fine sweet babe she had. Now\nthere was made in a room hard by a very great fire; so the gentleman\ntook up the babe, went and drew the coals from the stock, cast\nthe child in and covered it up, and there was an end of that. So\nwhen the midwife had done her work he paid her well for her pains,\nbut shut her up in a dark room all day, and when night came took\nher up behind him again, and carried her away till she came almost\nat home, then he turned her round and round as he did before, and\nhad her to her house, set her down, bid her farewell, and away he\nwent, and she could never tell who it was. This story the midwife's\nson, who was a minister, told me, and also protested that his\nmother told it him for a truth.\n\nATTEN. Murder doth often follow indeed, as that which is the fruit\nof this sin. But sometimes God brings even these adulterers and\nadulteresses to shameful ends. I heard of one, I think a doctor\nof physic, and his whore, who had three or four bastards betwixt\nthem and had murdered them all, but at last themselves were\nhanged for it, in or near to Colchester. It came out after this\nmanner,--the whore was so afflicted in her conscience about it\nthat she could not be quiet until she had made it known. Thus God\nmany times makes the actors of wickedness their own accusers, and\nbrings them, by their own tongues, to condign punishment for their\nown sins.\n\nWISE. There has been many such instances, but we will let that\npass. I was once in the presence of a woman, a married woman, that\nlay sick of the sickness whereof she died, and being smitten in\nher conscience for the sin of uncleanness, which she had often\ncommitted with other men, I heard her, as she lay upon her bed,\ncry out thus, I am a whore, and all my children are bastards, and\nI must go to hell for my sin, and look, there stands the devil at\nmy bed's feet to receive my soul when I die.\n\nATTEN. These are sad stories, tell no more of them now, but if you\nplease show me yet some other of the evil effects of this beastly\nsin.\n\nWISE. This sin is such a snare to the soul, that, unless a miracle\nof grace prevents, it unavoidably perishes in the enchanting and\nbewitching pleasures of it. This is manifest by these and such\nlike texts--'The adulteress will hunt for the precious life' (Prov\n6:26). 'Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding.\nHe that doeth it destroyeth his own soul' (Prov 6:32). 'A whore is\na deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit' (Prov 23:27).\n'Her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.\nNone that go under her return again, neither take they hold of the\npaths of life' (Prov 2:18,19). 'She hath cast down many wounded;\nyea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way\nto hell, going down to the chambers of death' (Prov 7:26,27).\n\nATTEN. These are dreadful sayings, and do show the dreadful state\nof those that are guilty of this sin.\n\nWISE. Verily so they do. But yet that which makes the whole more\ndreadful is, that men are given up to this sin because they are\nabhorred of God, and because abhorred, therefore they shall fall\ninto the commission of it, and shall live there. 'The mouth,' that\nis, the flattering lips, 'of strange women is a deep pit, he that\nis abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein' (Prov 22:14). Therefore\nit saith again of such, that they have none 'inheritance in the\nkingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph 5:5).\n\nATTEN. Put all together, and it is a dreadful thing to live and\ndie in this transgression.\n\nWISE. True, but suppose that instead of all these judgments this\nsin had attending of it all the felicities of this life, and no\nbitterness, shame, or disgrace mixed with it, yet one hour in\nhell will spoil all. O! This hell, hell-fire, damnation in hell,\nit is such an inconceivable punishment that, were it but thoroughly\nbelieved, it would nip this sin, with others, in the head. But\nhere is the mischief, those that give up themselves to these things\ndo so harden themselves in unbelief and atheism about the things,\nthe punishments that God hath threatened to inflict upon the\ncommitters of them, that at last they arrive to almost an absolute\nand firm belief that there is no judgment to come hereafter; else\nthey would not, they could not, no not attempt to commit this sin\nby such abominable language as some do.\n\nI heard of one that should say to his miss when he tempted her to\nthe committing of this sin, If thou wilt venture thy body I will\nventure my soul. And I myself heard another say, when he was\ntempting of a maid to commit uncleanness with him--it was in Oliver's\ndays--that if she did prove with child he would tell her how she\nmight escape punishment--and that was then somewhat severe--Say,\nsaith he, when you come before the judge, that you are with child\nby the Holy Ghost. I heard him say thus, and it greatly afflicted\nme; I had a mind to have accused him for it before some magistrate,\nbut he was a great man, and I was poor and young, so I let it\nalone, but it troubled me very much.\n\nATTEN. It was the most horrible thing that ever I heard in my\nlife. But how far off are these men from that spirit and grace\nthat dwelt in Joseph (Gen 39:10).\n\nWISE. Right; when Joseph's mistress tempted him, yea, tempted\nhim daily, yea, she laid hold on him and said, with her whore's\nforehead, Come, 'lie with me,' but he refused; he hearkened not\nto lie with her or to be with her. Mr. Badman would have taken\nthe opportunity.\n\nAnd a little to comment upon this of Joseph. 1. Here is a miss, a\ngreat miss, the wife of the captain of the guard, some beautiful\ndame I'll warrant you. 2. Here is a miss won, and in her whorish\naffections come over to Joseph without his speaking of a word. 3.\nHere is her unclean desire made known, Come, 'lie with me,' said\nshe. 4. Here was a fit opportunity, there was none of the men of the\nhouse there within. 5. Joseph was a young man, full of strength,\nand therefore the more in danger to be taken. 6. This was to him\na temptation from her that lasted days. 7. And yet Joseph refused,\n(1.) Her daily temptation; (2.) Her daily solicitation; (3.) Her\ndaily provocation, heartily, violently, and constantly. For when\nshe got him by the garment, saying, 'Lie with me,' he left his\ngarment in her hand and gat him out. Ay, and although contempt,\ntreachery, slander, accusation, imprisonment, and danger of death\nfollowed--for a whore careth not what mischief she does when\nshe cannot have her end--yet Joseph will not defile himself, sin\nagainst God, and hazard his own eternal salvation.\n\nATTEN. Blessed Joseph! I would thou hadst more fellows!\n\nWISE. Mr. Badman has more fellows than Joseph, else there would\nnot be so many whores as there are; for though I doubt not but\nthat that sex is bad enough this way, yet I verily believe that\nmany of them are made whores at first by the flatteries of Badman's\nfellows. Alas! there is many a woman plunged into this sin at\nfirst even by promises of marriage. I say by these promises they\nare flattered, yea, forced into a consenting to these villainies,\nand so being in, and growing hardened in their hearts, they at\nlast give themselves up, even as wicked men do, to act this kind\nof wickedness with greediness.[29] But Joseph you see, was of\nanother mind, for the fear of God was in him.\n\nI will, before I leave this, tell you here two notable stories; and\nI wish Mr. Badman's companions may hear of them. They are found\nin Clark's Looking-glass for Sinners; and are these:--Mr. Cleaver,\nsays Mr. Clark, reports of one whom he knew that had committed the act\nof uncleanness, whereupon he fell into such horror of conscience\nthat he hanged himself, leaving it thus written in a paper:--'Indeed,'\nsaith he, 'I do acknowledge it to be utterly unlawful for a man\nto kill himself, but I am bound to act the magistrate's part,\nbecause the punishment of this sin is death.'\n\nClark doth also, in the same page, make mention of two more, who, as\nthey were committing adultery in London, were immediately struck\ndead with fire from heaven, in the very act. Their bodies were so\nfound, half burned up, and sending out a most loathsome savour.\n\nATTEN. These are notable stories indeed.\n\nWISE. So they are, and I suppose they are as true as notable.\n\nATTEN. Well, but I wonder if young Badman's master knew him to be\nsuch a wretch, that he would suffer him in his house.\n\nWISE. They liked one another even as fire and water do. Young\nBadman's ways were odious to his master, and his master's ways\nwere such as young Badman could not endure. Thus, in these two,\nwere fulfilled that saying of the Holy Ghost: 'An unjust man is\nan abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way is\nan abomination to the wicked' (Prov 29:27). The good man's ways,\nMr. Badman could not abide, nor could the good man abide the bad\nways of his base apprentice. Yet would his master, if he could,\nhave kept him, and also have learned him his trade.\n\nATTEN. If he could! Why, he might, if he would, might he not?\n\nWISE. Alas, Badman ran away from him once and twice, and would\nnot at all be ruled. So the next time he did run away from him,\nhe did let him go indeed. For he gave him no occasion to run away,\nexcept it was by holding of him as much as he could, and that he\ncould do but little, to good and honest rules of life. And had it\nbeen one's own case, one should have let him go. For what should\na man do that had either regard to his own peace, his children's\ngood, or the preservation of the rest of his servant's from evil,\nbut let him go? Had he staid, the house of correction had been most\nfit for him, but thither his master was loth to send him, because\nof the love that he bore to his father. A house of correction, I\nsay, had been the fittest place for him, but his master let him\ngo.\n\nATTEN. He ran away, you say, but whither did he run?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n[HE GETS A NEW MASTER BAD AS HIMSELF.]\n\nWISE. Why, to one of his own trade, and also like himself. Thus\nthe wicked joined hand in hand, and there he served out his time.\n\nATTEN. Then, sure, he had his heart's desire when he was with one\nso like himself.\n\nWISE. Yes, so he had, but God gave it him in his anger.\n\nATTEN. How do you mean?\n\nWISE. I mean as before, that for a wicked man to be by the providence\nof God turned out of a good man's doors, into a wicked man's house\nto dwell, is a sign of the anger of God. For God by this, and such\njudgments, says thus to such an one. Thou wicked one, thou lovest\nnot me, my ways, nor my people; thou castest my law and good counsel\nbehind thy back. Come, I will dispose of thee in my wrath; thou\nshalt be turned over to the ungodly, thou shalt be put to school\nto the devil, I will leave thee to sink and swim in sin, till\nI shall visit thee with death and judgment. This was, therefore,\nanother judgment that did come upon this young Badman.\n\nATTEN. You have said the truth, for God by such a judgment as\nthis, in effect says so indeed; for he take them out of the hand\nof the just, and binds them up in the hand of the wicked, and\nwhither they then shall be carried a man may easily imagine.\n\nWISE. It is one of the saddest tokens of God's anger that happens\nto such kind of persons: and that for several reasons. 1. Such a\none, by this judgment, is put out of the way, and from under the\nmeans which ordinarily are made use of to do good to the soul. For\na family, where godliness is professed, and practised, is God's\nordinance, the place which he has appointed to teach young ones the\nway and fear of God (Gen 18:18,19). Now, to be put out of such a\nfamily, into a bad, a wicked one, as Mr. Badman was, must needs\nbe in judgment, and a sign of the anger of God. For in ungodly\nfamilies men learn to forget God, to hate goodness, and to estrange\nthemselves from the ways of those that are good.[30] 2. In bad\nfamilies they have continually fresh examples, and also incitements\nto evil, and fresh encouragements to it too. Yea, moreover, in\nsuch places evil is commended, praised, well-spoken of, and they\nthat do it are applauded; and this, to be sure, is a drowning\njudgment. 3. Such places are the very haunts and walks of the\ninfernal spirits, who are continually poisoning the cogitations and\nminds of one or other in such families, that they may be able to\npoison others. Therefore observe it, usually in wicked families,\nsome one or two are more arch for wickedness than are any\nother that are there. Now such are Satan's conduit pipes, for by\nthem he conveys of the spawn of hell, through their being crafty\nin wickedness, into the ears and souls of their companions. Yea,\nand when they have once conceived wickedness, they travail with\nit, as doth a woman with child, till they have brought it forth;\n'Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief,\nand brought forth falsehood' (Psa 7:14). Some men, as here is\nintimated in the text, and as was hinted also before, have a kind\nof mystical but hellish copulation with the devil, who is the\nfather, and their soul the mother of sin and wickedness; and they,\nso soon as they have conceived by him, finish, by bringing forth\nsin, both it and their own damnation (James 1:15).\n\nATTEN. How much then doth it concern those parents that love their\nchildren, to see, that if they go from them, they be put into such\nfamilies as be good, that they may learn there betimes to eschew\nevil, and to follow that which is good!\n\nWISE. It doth concern them indeed; and it doth also concern them\nthat take children into their families, to take heed what children\nthey receive. For a man may soon, by a bad boy, be damaged both\nin his name, estate, and family, and also hindered in his peace\nand peaceable pursuit after God and godliness; I say, by one such\nvermin as a wicked and filthy apprentice.\n\nATTEN. True, for one sinner destroyeth much good, and a poor man\nis better than a liar. But many times a man cannot help it; for\nsuch as at the beginning promise very fair are by a little time\nproved to be very rogues, like young Badman.\n\nWISE. That is true also; but when a man has done the best he can\nto help it, he may with the more confidence expect the blessing\nof God to follow, or he shall have the more peace if things go\ncontrary to his desire.\n\nATTEN. Well, but did Mr. Badman and his master agree so well? I\nmean his last master, since they were birds of a feather, I mean\nsince they were so well met for wickedness.\n\nWISE. This second master was, as before I told you, bad enough;\nbut yet he would often fall out with young Badman, his servant,\nand chide, yea and sometimes beat him too, for his naughty doings.\n\nATTEN. What! for all he was so bad himself! This is like the\nproverb, The devil corrects vice.\n\nWISE. I will assure you it is as I say. For you must know that\nBadman's ways suited not with his master's gains. Could he have\ndone as the damsel that we read of, Acts 16:16, did, to wit, fill\nhis master's purse with his badness, he had certainly been his\nwhite-boy, but it was not so with young Badman; and, therefore,\nthough his master and he did suit well enough in the main, yet in\nthis and that point they differed. Young Badman was for neglecting\nof his master's business, for going to the whore-house, for\nbeguiling of his master, for attempting to debauch his daughters,\nand the like. No marvel then if they disagreed in these points.\nNot so much for that his master had an antipathy against the fact\nitself, for he could do so when he was an apprentice; but for that\nhis servant by his sin made spoil of his commodities, &c., and so\ndamnified his master.\n\nHad, as I said before, young Badman's wickedness had only a tendency\nto his master's advantage, as could he have sworn, lied, cozened,\ncheated, and defrauded customers for his master--and indeed\nsometimes he did so--but had that been all that he had done, he\nhad not had, no, not a wry word from his master; but this was not\nalways Mr. Badman's way.\n\nATTEN. That was well brought in, even the maid that we read of in\nthe Acts, and the distinction was as clear betwixt the wickedness\nand wickedness of servants.\n\nWISE. Alas! men that are wicked themselves, yet greatly hate\nit in others, not simply because it is wickedness, but because\nit opposeth their interest. Do you think that that maid's master\nwould have been troubled at the loss of her, if he had not lost,\nwith her, his gain? No, I'll warrant you; she might have gone to the\ndevil for him; but 'when her masters saw that the hope of their\ngains was gone,' then, then he fell to persecuting Paul (Acts\n16:17-20). But Mr. Badman's master did sometimes lose by Mr.\nBadman's sins, and then Badman and his master were at odds.\n\nATTEN. Alas, poor Badman! Then it seems thou couldest not at all\ntimes please thy like.\n\nWISE. No, he could not, and the reason I have told you.\n\nATTEN. But do not bad masters condemn themselves in condemning\nthe badness of their servants?\n\nWISE. Yes; in that they condemn that in another which they either\nhave, or do allow in themselves (Rom 14:22). And the time will\ncome when that very sentence that hath gone out of their own mouths\nagainst the sins of others, themselves living and taking pleasure\nin the same, shall return with violence upon their own pates. The\nLord pronounced judgment against Baasha, as for all his evils in\ngeneral, so for this in special, because he was 'like the house\nof Jeroboam and' yet 'killed him' (1 Kings 16:7). This is Mr.\nBadman's master's case; he is like his man, and yet he beats him.\nHe is like his man, and yet he rails at him for being bad.\n\nATTEN. But why did not young Badman run away from this master, as\nhe ran away from the other?\n\nWISE. He did not. And if I be not mistaken, the reason why was\nthis. There was godliness in the house of the first, and that\nyoung Badman could not endure. For fare, for lodging, for work,\nand time, he had better, and more by this master's allowance, than\never he had by his last; but all this would not content, because\ngodliness was promoted there. He could not abide this praying, this\nreading of Scriptures, and hearing, and repeating of sermons; he\ncould not abide to be told of his transgressions in a sober and\ngodly manner.\n\nATTEN. There is a great deal in the manner of reproof; wicked\nmen both can and cannot abide to hear their transgressions spoken\nagainst.\n\nWISE. There is a great deal of difference indeed. This last master\nof Mr. Badman's would tell Mr. Badman of his sins in Mr. Badman's\nown dialect; he would swear, and curse, and damn, when he told\nhim of his sins, and this he could bear better, than to be told\nof them after a godly sort. Besides, that last master would, when\nhis passions and rage were over, laugh at and make merry with the\nsins of his servant Badman; and that would please young Badman\nwell. Nothing offended Badman but blows, and those he had but few\nof now, because he was pretty well grown up. For the most part\nwhen his master did rage and swear, he would give him oath for\noath, and curse for curse, at least secretly, let him go on as\nlong as he would.\n\nATTEN. This was hellish living.\n\nWISE. It was hellish living indeed; and a man might say, that with\nthis master, young Badman completed himself yet more and more\nin wickedness, as well as in his trade: for by that he came out\nof his time, what with his own inclination to sin, what with his\nacquaintance with his three companions, and what with this last\nmaster, and the wickedness he saw in him; he became a sinner in\ngrain.[31] I think he had a bastard laid to his charge before he\ncame out of his time.\n\nATTEN. Well, but it seems he did live to come out of his time,\nbut what did he then?\n\nWISE. Why, he went home to his father, and he, like a loving and\ntender-hearted father, received him into his house.\n\nATTEN. And how did he carry it there?\n\nWISE. Why, the reason why he went home, was, for money to set up\nfor himself; he stayed but a little at home, but that little while\nthat he did stay, he refrained himself as well as he could, and\ndid not so much discover himself to be base, for fear his father\nshould take distaste, and so should refuse, or for a while\nforbear to give him money. Yet even then he would have his times,\nand companions, and the fill of his lusts with them, but he used\nto blind all with this, he was glad to see his old acquaintance,\nand they as glad to see him, and he could not in civility but\naccommodate them with a bottle or two of wine, or a dozen or two\nof drink.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n[BADMAN IN BUSINESS, THE TRICKS OF A WICKED TRADESMAN.]\n\nATTEN. And did the old man give him money to set up with?\n\nWISE. Yes, above two hundred pounds.\n\nATTEN. Therein, I think, the old man was out. Had I been his\nfather, I would have held him a little at staves-end, till I had\nhad far better proof of his manners to be good; for I perceive\nthat his father did know what a naughty boy he had been, both by\nwhat he used to do at home, and because he changed a good master\nfor a bad, &c. He should not therefore have given him money so\nsoon. What if he had pinched a little, and gone to journey-work for\na time, that he might have known what a penny was, by his earning\nof it? Then, in all probability, he had known better how to have\nspent it: yea, and by that time perhaps, have better considered\nwith himself, how to have lived in the world. Ay, and who knows\nbut he might have come to himself with the prodigal, and have\nasked God and his father forgiveness for the villainies that he\nhad committed against them.\n\nWISE. If his father could also have blessed this manner of dealing\nto him, and have made it effectual for the ends that you have\npropounded, then I should have thought as you. But alas, alas,\nyou talk as if you never knew, or had at this present forgot what\nthe bowels and compassions of a father are. Why, did you not serve\nyour own son so? But it is evident enough that we are better at\ngiving good counsel to others, than we are at taking good counsel\nourselves. But mine honest neighbour, suppose that Mr. Badman's\nfather had done as you say, and by so doing had driven his son to\nill courses, what had he bettered either himself or his son in so\ndoing?\n\nATTEN. That is true, but it doth not follow that if the father had\ndone as I said, the son would have done as you suppose. But if he\nhad done as you have supposed, what had he done worse than what\nhe hath done already?\n\nWISE. He had done bad enough, that is true. But suppose his father\nhad given him no money, and suppose that young Badman had taken a\npet thereat, and in an anger had gone beyond sea, and his father\nhad neither seen him, nor heard of him more. Or suppose that of a\nmad and headstrong stomach, he had gone to the highway for money,\nand so had brought himself to the gallows, and his father and\nfamily to great contempt, or if by so doing he had not brought\nhimself to that end, yet he had added to all his wickedness such\nand such evils besides; and what comfort could his father have had\nin this? Besides, when his father had done for him what he could,\nwith desire to make him an honest man, he would then, whether his\nson had proved honest or no, have laid down his head with far more\npeace than if he had taken your counsel.\n\nATTEN. Nay I think I should not have been forward to have given\nadvice in the cause; but truly you have given me such an account\nof his villainies, that the hearing thereof has made me angry with\nhim.\n\nWISE. In an angry mood we may soon outshoot ourselves, but poor\nwretch as he is, he is gone to his place. But, as I said, when a\ngood father hath done what he can for a bad child, and that child\nshall prove never the better, he will lie down with far more peace,\nthan if through severity, he had driven him to inconveniences.\n\nI remember that I have heard of a good woman, that had, as this\nold man, a bad and ungodly son, and she prayed for him, counselled\nhim, and carried it motherly to him for several years together;\nbut still he remained bad. At last, upon a time, after she had\nbeen at prayer, as she was wont, for his conversion, she comes to\nhim, and thus, or to this effect, begins again to admonish him.\nSon, said she, thou hast been and art a wicked child, thou hast\ncost me many a prayer and tear, and yet thou remainest wicked.\nWell, I have done my duty, I have done what I can to save thee;\nnow I am satisfied, that if I shall see thee damned at the day of\njudgment, I shall be so far off from being grieved for thee, that\nI shall rejoice to hear the sentence of thy damnation at that day;\nand it converted him.\n\nI tell you that if parents carry it lovingly towards their children,\nmixing their mercies with loving rebukes, and their loving rebukes\nwith fatherly and motherly compassions, they are more likely to\nsave their children, than by being churlish and severe towards\nthem: but if they do not save them, if their mercy do them no good,\nyet it will greatly ease them at the day of death, to consider;\nI have done by love as much as I could, to save and deliver my\nchild from hell.\n\nATTEN. Well I yield. But pray let us return again to Mr. Badman.\nYou say, that his father gave him a piece of money that he might\nset up for himself.[32]\n\nWISE. Yes, his father did give him a piece of money, and he did\nset up, and almost as soon set down again; for he was not long\nset up, but by his ill managing of his matters at home, together\nwith his extravagant expenses abroad, he was got so far into debt,\nand had so little in his shop to pay, that he was hard put to it\nto keep himself out of prison. But when his creditors understood\nthat he was about to marry, and in a fair way to get a rich wife,\nthey said among themselves, We will not be hasty with him; if he\ngets a rich wife he will pay us all.\n\nATTEN. But how could he so quickly run out, for I perceive it was\nin little time, by what you say?\n\nWISE. It was in little time indeed, I think he was not above two\nyears and a half in doing of it; but the reason is apparent, for\nhe being a wild young man, and now having the bridle loose before\nhim, and being wholly subjected to his lusts and vices, he gave\nhimself up to the way of his heart, and to the sight of his eye,\nforgetting that for all these things God would bring him to judgment\n(Eccl 11:9). And he that doth thus, you may be sure, shall not be\nable long to stand on his legs. Besides he had now an addition of\nnew companions; companions you must think most like himself in\nmanners, and so such that cared not who sunk, if they themselves\nmight swim. These would often be haunting of him, and of his shop\ntoo when he was absent. They would commonly egg[33] him to the\nalehouse, but yet make him jack-pay-for-all; they would also be\nborrowing money of him, but take no care to pay again, except it\nwas with more of their company, which also he liked very well;\nand so his poverty came like 'one that travelleth, and his want\nas an armed man' (Prov 6:11). But all the while they studied his\ntemper; he loved to be flattered, praised, and commended for wit,\nmanhood, and personage; and this was like stroking him over the\nface. Thus they colleagued with him, and got yet more and more\ninto him, and so, like horse leeches, they drew away that little\nthat his father had given him, and brought him quickly down, almost\nto dwell next door to the beggar.\n\nATTEN. Then was the saying of the wise man fulfilled, 'He that\nkeepeth company with harlots,' and 'a companion of fools, shall\nbe destroyed' (Prov 29:3, 13:20).\n\nWISE. Ay, and that too, 'A companion of riotous persons shameth\nhis father' (Prov 28:7).[34] For he, poor man, had both grief and\nshame, to see how his son, now at his own hand, behave himself in\nthe enjoyment of those good things, in and under the lawful use\nof which he might have lived to God's glory, his own comfort, and\ncredit among his neighbours. 'But he that followeth after vain\npersons, shall have poverty enough' (Prov 28:19). The way that\nhe took, led him directly into this condition; for who can expect\nother things of one that follows such courses? Besides, when he\nwas in his shop, he could not abide to be doing; he was naturally\ngiven to idleness. He loved to live high, but his hands refused\nto labour; and what else can the end of such an one be but that\nwhich the wise man saith? 'The drunkard and the glutton shall come\nto poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags' (Prov\n23:21).[35]\n\nATTEN. But now, methinks, when he was brought thus low, he should\nhave considered the hand of God that was gone out against him,\nand should have smote upon the breast, and have returned.\n\nWISE. Consideration, good consideration, was far from him, he was\nas stout and proud now as ever in all his life, and was as high\ntoo in the pursuit of his sin, as when he was in the midst of his\nfulness; only he went now like a tired jade, the devil had rid\nhim almost off of his legs.\n\nATTEN. Well, but what did he do when all was almost gone?\n\nWISE. Two things were now his play. 1. He bore all in hand by\nswearing, and cracking, and lying, that he was as well to pass as\nhe was the first day he set up for himself, yea that he had rather\ngot than lost; and he had at his beck some of his companions that\nwould swear to confirm it as fast as he.\n\nATTEN. This was double wickedness, it was a sin to say it, and\nanother to swear it.\n\nWISE. That is true, but what evil is that that he will not do,\nthat is left of God, as I believe Mr. Badman was?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n[HIS HYPOCRITICAL COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE TO A PIOUS RICH YOUNG\nLADY.]\n\nATTEN. And what was the other thing?\n\nWISE. Why that which I hinted before, he was for looking out\nfor a rich wife: and now I am come to some more of his invented,\ndevised, designed, and abominable roguery, such that will yet\ndeclare him to be a most desperate sinner.\n\nThe thing was this: a wife he wanted, or rather money; for as\nfor a woman, he could have whores enow at his whistle. But, as I\nsaid, he wanted money, and that must be got by a wife or no way;\nnor could he so easily get a wife neither, except he became an\nartist at the way of dissembling; nor would dissembling do among\nthat people that could dissemble as well as he. But there dwelt\na maid not far from him, that was both godly, and one that had a\ngood portion, but how to get her, there lay all the craft. Well, he\ncalls a council of some of his most trusty and cunning companions,\nand breaks his mind to them; to wit, that he had a mind to marry:\nand he also told them to whom; but, said he, how shall I accomplish\nmy end; she is religious, and I am not? Then one of them made\nreply, saying, Since she is religious, you must pretend to be\nso likewise, and that for some time before you go to her. Mark\ntherefore whither she goes daily to hear, and do you go thither\nalso; but there you must be sure to behave yourself soberly, and\nmake as if you liked the Word wonderful well; stand also where\nshe may see you, and when you come home, be sure that you walk\nthe street very soberly, and go within sight of her. This done\nfor a while, then go to her, and first talk of how sorry you are\nfor your sins, and show great love to the religion that she is of,\nstill speaking well of her preachers and of her godly acquaintance,\nbewailing your hard hap that it was not your lot to be acquainted\nwith her and her fellow-professors sooner; and this is the way\nto get her. Also you must write down sermons, talk of scriptures,\nand protest that you came a-wooing to her, only because she is\ngodly, and because you should count it your greatest happiness\nif you might but have such a one. As for her money, slight it, it\nwill be never the further off, that is the way to come soonest at\nit, for she will be jealous at first that you come for her money;\nyou know what she has, but make not a word about it. Do this, and\nyou shall see if you do not entangle the lass. Thus was the snare\nlaid for this poor honest maid, and she was quickly catched in\nhis pit.\n\nATTEN. Why, did he take this counsel?\n\nWISE. Did he! yes, and after a while, went as boldly to her, and\nthat under a vizard of religion, as if he had been for honesty and\ngodliness one of the most sincere and upright-hearted in England.\nHe observed all his points, and followed the advice of his\ncounsellors, and quickly obtained her too; for natural parts he\nhad; he was tall, and fair, and had plain, but very good clothes\non his back; and his religion was the more easily attained; for he\nhad seen something in the house of his father, and first master,\nand so could the more readily put himself into the form and show\nthereof.\n\nSo he appointed his day, and went to her, as that he might easily\ndo, for she had neither father nor mother to oppose. Well, when\nhe was come, and had given her a civil compliment, to let her\nunderstand why he was come, then he began and told her that he had\nfound in his heart a great deal of love to her person; and that\nof all the damsels in the world he had pitched upon her, if she\nthought fit, to make her his beloved wife. The reasons, as he told\nher, why he had pitched upon her were her religious and personal\nexcellencies; and therefore entreated her to take his condition\ninto her tender and loving consideration. As for the world, quoth\nhe, I have a very good trade, and can maintain myself and family\nwell, while my wife sits still on her seat; I have got thus and\nthus much already, and feel money come in every day, but that is\nnot the thing that I aim at; it is an honest and godly wife. Then\nhe would present her with a good book or two, pretending how much\ngood he had got by them himself. He would also be often speaking\nwell of godly ministers, especially of those that he perceived\nshe liked, and loved most. Besides he would be often telling of\nher what a godly father he had, and what a new man he was also\nbecome himself; and thus did this treacherous dealer deal with this\nhonest and good girl, to her great grief and sorrow, as afterward\nyou shall hear.\n\nATTEN. But had the maid no friend to look after her?\n\nWISE. Her father and mother were dead, and that he knew well\nenough, and so she was the more easily overcome by his naughty\nlying tongue. But if she had never so many friends, she might have\nbeen beguiled by him. It is too much the custom of young people\nnow, to think themselves wise enough to make their own choice; and\nthat they need not ask counsel of those that are older, and also\nwiser than they; but this is a great fault in them, and many of\nthem have paid dear for it. Well, to be short, in little time Mr.\nBadman obtains his desire, gets this honest girl, and her money,\nis married to her, brings her home, makes a feast, entertains her\nroyally, but her portion must pay for all.\n\nATTEN. This was wonderful deceitful doings, a man shall seldom\nhear of the like.\n\nWISE. By this his doing, he showed how little he feared God, and\nwhat little dread he had of his judgments. For all this carriage,\nand all these words were by him premeditated evil; he knew he lied,\nhe knew he dissembled; yea, he knew that he made use of the name\nof God, of religion, good men, and good books, but as a stalking-horse,\nthereby the better to catch his game. In all this his glorious\npretence of religion, he was but a glorious painted hypocrite, and\nhypocrisy is the highest sin that a poor carnal wretch can attain\nunto; it is also a sin that most dareth God, and that also bringeth\nthe greater damnation. Now was he a whited wall, now was he a\npainted sepulchre (Matt 23:27). Now was he a grave that appeared\nnot (Luke 11:44). For this poor, honest, godly damsel, little\nthought that both her peace and comfort, and estate, and liberty,\nand person, and all, were going to her burial, when she was going\nto be married to Mr. Badman; and yet so it was, she enjoyed herself\nbut little afterwards; she was as if she was dead and buried to\nwhat she enjoyed before.\n\nATTEN. Certainly some wonderful judgment of God must attend and\novertake such wicked men as these.\n\nWISE. You may be sure that they shall have judgment to the full,\nfor all these things, when the day of judgment is come. But as\nfor judgment upon them in this life, it doth not always come, no\nnot upon those that are worthy thereof. 'they that tempt God are\ndelivered, and they that work wickedness are set up' (Mal 3:15).\nBut they are reserved to the day of wrath; and then, for their\nwickedness, God will repay them to their faces. 'The wicked is\nreserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth\nto the day of wrath. Who shall declare his way to his face? and\nwho shall repay him what he hath done? Yet shall he be brought to\nthe grave, and shall remain in the tomb' (Job 21:30-32). That is,\nordinarily they escape God's hand in this life, save only a few\nexamples are made, that others may be cautioned, and take warning\nthereby. But at the day of judgment they must be rebuked for their\nevil with the lashes of devouring fire.\n\nATTEN. Can you give me no examples of God's wrath upon men that\nhave acted this tragical wicked deed of Mr. Badman.\n\nWISE. Yes; Hamor and Shechem, and all the men of their city, for\nattempting to make God and religion the stalking-horse to get Jacob's\ndaughters to wife, were together slain with the edge of the sword.\nA judgment of God upon them, no doubt, for their dissembling in\nthat matter (Gen 34:1). All manner of lying and dissembling is\ndreadful, but to make God and religion a disguise, therewith to\nblind thy dissimulation from others' eyes, is highly provoking\nto the Divine majesty. I knew one that dwelt not far off from our\ntown, that got him a wife as Mr. Badman got his; but he did not\nenjoy her long; for one night as he was riding home from his\ncompanions, where he had been at a neighbouring town, his horse\nthrew him to the ground, where he was found dead at break of day;\nfrightfully and lamentably mangled with his fall, and besmeared\nwith his own blood.\n\nATTEN. Well, but pray return again to Mr. Badman; how did he carry\nit to his wife, after he was married to her?\n\nWISE. Nay, let us take things along as we go. He had not been\nmarried but a little while, but his creditors came upon him for\ntheir money. He deferred them a little while, but at last things\nwere come to that point that pay he must, or must do worse; so\nhe appointed them a time, and they came for their money, and he\npayed them down with her money, before her eyes, for those goods\nthat he had profusely spent among his whores long before, besides\nthe portion that his father gave him, to the value of two hundred\npounds.\n\nATTEN. This beginning was bad, but what shall I say? It was like\nMr. Badman himself. Poor woman! this was but a bad beginning for\nher; I fear it filled her with trouble enough, as I think such a\nbeginning would have done one perhaps much stronger than she.\n\nWISE. Trouble, aye, you may be sure of it, but now it was too late\nto repent; she should have looked better to herself when being\nwary would have done her good; her harms may be an advantage to\nothers that will learn to take heed thereby, but for herself, she\nmust take what follows, even such a life now as Mr. Badman her\nhusband will lead her, and that will be bad enough.\n\nATTEN. This beginning was bad, and yet I fear it was but the\nbeginning of bad.\n\nWISE. You may be sure that it was but the beginning of badness, for\nother evils came on apace; as, for instance, it was but a little\nwhile after he was married, but he hangs his religion upon the\nhedge, or rather dealt with it as men deal with their old clothes,\nwho cast them off, or leave them to others to wear; for his part\nhe would be religious no longer.\n\nNow therefore he had pulled off his vizard, and began to show\nhimself in his old shape, a base, wicked, debauched fellow; and\nnow the poor woman saw that she was betrayed indeed, now also his\nold companions begin to flock about him, and to haunt his house\nand shop as formerly. And who with them but Mr. Badman? And who\nwith him again but they?\n\nNow those good people that used to company with his wife began to\nbe amazed and discouraged, also he would frown and glout[36] upon\nthem as if he abhorred, the appearance of them, so that in little\ntime he drove all good company from her, and made her sit solitary\nby herself. He also began now to go out a-nights to those drabs\nwho were his familiars before, with whom he would stay sometimes\ntill midnight, and sometimes till almost morning, and then would\ncome home as drunk as a swine: and this was the course of Mr.\nBadman.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n[HE THROWS OFF THE MASK AND CRUELLY TREATS HIS WIFE.]\n\nNow when he came home in this case, if his wife did but speak a work\nto him about where he had been and why he had so abused himself,\nthough her words were spoken in never so much meekness and love,\nthen she was whore, and bitch, and jade! and it was well if she\nmissed his fingers and heels. Sometimes also he would bring his\npunks home to his house, and woe be to his wife when they were\ngone if she did not entertain them with all varieties possible,\nand also carry it lovingly to them. Thus this good woman was made\nby Badman, her husband, to possess nothing but disappointments\nas to all that he had promised her, or that she hoped to have at\nhis hands.\n\nBut that that added pressing weight to all her sorrow was that,\nas he had cast away all religion himself, so he attempted, if\npossible, to make her do so too. He would not suffer her to go\nout to the preaching of the word of Christ, nor to the rest of his\nappointments, for the health and salvation of her soul. He would\nnow taunt at and reflectingly speak of her preachers, and would\nreceive, yea, raise scandals of them, to her very great grief and\naffliction.\n\nNow she scarce durst go to an honest neighbour's house, or have\na good book in her hand, especially when he had his companions in\nhis house, or had got a little drink in his head. He would also,\nwhen he perceived that she was dejected, speak tauntingly and\nmockingly to her in the presence of his companions, calling of her\nhis religious wife, his demure dame, and the like, also he would\nmake a sport of her among his wanton ones abroad.\n\nIf she did ask him, as sometimes she would, to let her go out to a\nsermon, he would in a churlish manner reply, Keep at home, keep\nat home and look to your business, we cannot live by hearing\nof sermons. If she still urged that he would let her go, then he\nwould say to her, Go if you dare. He would also charged her with\ngiving of what he had to her ministers, when, vile wretch, he had\nspent it on his vain companions before. This was the life that Mr.\nBadman's good wife lived, within few months after he had married\nher.\n\nATTEN. This was a disappointment indeed.\n\nWISE. A disappointment indeed, as ever I think poor woman had.\nOne would think that the knave might a little let her have had her\nwill since it was nothing but to be honest, and since she brought\nhim so sweet, so lumping a portion--for she brought hundreds into\nhis house--I say, one would think he should have let her had her\nown will a little, since she desired it only in the service and\nworship of God; but could she win him to grant her that? No, not\na bit, if it would have saved her life. True, sometimes she would\nsteal out when he was from home, or on a journey, or among his\ndrunken companions, but with all privacy imaginable; and, poor\nwoman, this advantage she had she carried it so to all her neighbours\nthat, though many of them were but carnal, yet they would not\nbetray her, or tell of her going out to the Word if they saw it,\nbut would rather endeavor to hide it from Mr. Badman himself.\n\nATTEN. This carriage of his to her was enough to break her heart.\n\nWISE. It was enough to do it indeed, yea, it did effectually do\nit. It killed her in time, yea, it was all the time a killing of\nher. She would oftentimes, when she sat by herself, thus mournfully\nbewail her condition:--'Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech,' and\n'that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with\nhim that hateth peace.' O 'what shall be given unto thee,' thou\n'deceitful tongue?' 'or what shall be done unto thee, thou false\ntongue?' (Psa 120). I am a woman grieved in spirit, my husband has\nbought me and sold me for his lusts. It was not me, but my money\nthat he wanted; O that he had had it, so I had had my liberty! This\nshe said, not of contempt of his person, but of his conditions,[37]\nand because she saw that, by his hypocritical tongue, he had brought\nher not only almost to beggary, but robbed her of the Word of God.\n\nATTEN. It is a deadly thing, I see, to be unequally yoked with\nunbelievers. If this woman had had a good husband, how happily\nmight they have lived together! Such an one would have prayed for\nher, taught her, and also would have encouraged her in the faith\nand ways of God; but now, poor creature, instead of this there is\nnothing but the quite contrary.\n\nWISE. It is a deadly thing indeed, and therefore, by the Word of\nGod, his people are forbid to be joined in marriage with them.\n'Be ye not,' saith it, 'unequally yoked together with unbelievers:\nfor what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and\nwhat communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath\nChrist with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an\ninfidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?'\n(2 Cor 6:14-16). There can be no agreement where such matches are\nmade; even God himself hath declared the contrary from the beginning\nof the world. 'I,' says he, 'will put enmity between thee and the\nwoman, and between thy seed and her seed' (Gen 3:15). Therefore he\nsaith in another place they can mix no better than iron and clay\n(Dan 2:43). I say they cannot agree, they cannot be one, and\ntherefore they should be aware at first, and not lightly receive\nsuch into their affections. God has often made such matches bitter,\nespecially to his own. Such matches are, as God said of Eli's sons\nthat were spared, to consume the eyes and to grieve the heart.\nO! the wailing and lamentation that they have made that have been\nthus yoked, especially if they were such as would be so yoked\nagainst their light and good counsel to the contrary.\n\nATTEN. Alas! he deluded her with his tongue, and feigned reformation.\n\nWISE. Well, well, she should have gone more warily to work. What\nif she had acquainted some of her best, most knowing, and godly\nfriends therewith? What if she had engaged a godly minister or two\nto have talked with Mr. Badman? Also, what if she had laid wait\nround about him, to espy if he was not otherwise behind her back\nthan he was before her face? And besides I verily think--since\nin the multitude of counsellors there is safety--that if she had\nacquainted the congregation with it, and desired them to spend some\ntime in prayer to God about it, and if she must have had him, to\nhave received him as to his godliness upon the judgment of others,\nrather than her own--she knowing them to be godly and judicious and\nunbiased men--she had had more peace all her life after, than to\ntrust to her own poor, raw, womanish judgment as she did. Love is\nblind, and will see nothing amiss where others may see a hundred\nfaults. Therefore I say she should not have trusted to her own\nthoughts in the matter of his goodness.\n\nAs to his person, there she was fittest to judge, because she\nwas to be the person pleased, but as to his godliness, there the\nWord was the fittest judge, and they that could best understand\nit, because God was therein to be pleased. I wish that all young\nmaidens will take heed of being beguiled with flattering words,\nwith feigning and lying speeches, and take the best way to preserve\nthemselves from being bought and sold by wicked men as she was,\nlest they repent with her, when, as to this, repentance will do\nthem no good, but for their unadvisedness go sorrowing to their\ngraves.\n\nATTEN. Well things are past with this poor woman and cannot be\ncalled back, let others beware by her misfortunes, lest they also\nfall into her distress.\n\nWISE. That is the thing that I say, let them take heed, lest for\ntheir unadvisedness they smart, as this poor woman has done. And\nah! methinks, that they that yet are single persons, and that are\ntempted to marry to such as Mr. Badman, would, to inform and warn\nthemselves in this matter before they entangle themselves, but\ngo to some that already are in the snare, and ask them how it is\nwith them, as to the suitable or unsuitableness of their marriage,\nand desire their advice. Surely they would ring such a peal in\ntheir ears about the unequality, unsuitableness, disadvantages,\nand disquietments, and sins that attend such marriages, that\nwould make them beware as long as they live. But the bird in the\nair knows not the notes of the bird in the snare until she comes\nthither herself. Besides, to make up such marriages, Satan and\ncarnal reason, and lust, or at least inconsiderateness, has the\nchiefest hand; and where these things bear sway, designs, though\nnever so destructive, will go headlong on; and therefore I fear that\nbut little warning will be taken by young girls at Mr. Badman's\nwife's affliction.\n\nATTEN. But are there no dissuasive arguments to lay before such,\nto prevent their future misery?\n\nWISE. Yes: there is the law of God, that forbiddeth marriage with\nunbelievers. These kind of marriages also are condemned even by\nirrational creatures. 1. It is forbidden by the law of God, both\nin the Old Testament and in the New. 1. In the Old. Thou shalt not\n'make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto\nhis son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son' (Deut\n7:3). 2. In the New Testament it is forbidden. 'Be ye not unequally\nyoked together with unbelievers,' let them marry to whom they\nwill, 'only in the Lord' (2 Cor 6:14-16; 1 Cor 7:39).\n\nHere now is a prohibition, plainly forbidding the believer to\nmarry with the unbeliever, therefore they should not do it. Again,\nthese unwarrantable marriages are, as I may so say, condemned by\nirrational creatures, who will not couple but with their own sort.\nWill the sheep couple with a dog, the partridge with a crow, or\nthe pheasant with an owl? No, they will strictly tie up themselves\nto those of their own sort only. Yea, it sets all the world a\nwondering, when they see or hear the contrary. Man only is most\nsubject to wink at, and allow of these unlawful mixtures of men\nand women; because man only is a sinful beast, a sinful bird,\ntherefore he, above all, will take upon him, by rebellious actions,\nto answer, or rather to oppose and violate the law of his God and\nCreator; nor shall these or other interrogatories, What fellowship?\nwhat concord? what agreement? what communion can there be in such\nmarriages? be counted of weight or thought worth the answering by\nhim,\n\nBut further, the dangers that such do commonly run themselves\ninto, should be to others a dissuasive argument to stop them from\ndoing the like: for besides the distresses of Mr. Badman's wife,\nmany that have had very hopeful beginnings for heaven, have, by\nvirtue of the mischiefs that have attended these unlawful marriages,\nmiserably and fearfully miscarried. Soon after such marriages,\nconviction, the first step towards heaven, hath ceased; prayer, the\nnext step towards heaven, hath ceased; hungerings and thirstings\nafter salvation, another step towards the kingdom of heaven, hath\nceased. In a word, such marriages have estranged them from the\nWord, from their godly and faithful friends, and have brought them\nagain into carnal company, among carnal friends, and also into\ncarnal delights, where, and with whom, they have in conclusion\nboth sinfully abode, and miserably perished.\n\nAnd this is one reason why God hath forbidden this kind of unequal\nmarriages. 'For they,' saith he, meaning the ungodly, 'will turn\naway thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods;\nso will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy\nthee suddenly' (Deut 7:4). Now mark, there were some in Israel,\nthat would notwithstanding this prohibition, venture to marry\nto the heathens and unbelievers. But what followed? 'They served\ntheir idols, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto\ndevils. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a\nwhoring with their own inventions; therefore was the wrath of the\nLord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his\nown inheritance' (Psa 106:36-40).\n\nATTEN. But let us return again to Mr. Badman; had he any children\nby his wife?\n\nWISE. Yes, seven.\n\nATTEN. I doubt they were but badly brought up.\n\nWISE. One of them loved its mother dearly, and would constantly\nhearken to her voice. Now that child she had the opportunity to\ninstruct in the principles of Christian religion, and it became\na very gracious child. But that child Mr. Badman could not abide,\nhe would seldom afford it a pleasant word, but would scowl and\nfrown upon it, speak churlishly and doggedly to it, and though,\nas to nature, it was the most feeble of the seven, yet it oftenest\nfelt the weight of its father's fingers. Three of his children\ndid directly follow his steps, and began to be as vile as, in his\nyouth, he was himself. The other that remained became a kind of\nmongrel[38] professors, not so bad as their father, nor so good as\ntheir mother, but were betwixt them both. They had their mother's\nnotions, and their father's actions, and were much like those that\nyou read of in the book of Nehemiah; these children were half of\nAshdod, 'and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according\nto the language of each people' (Neh 13:24).\n\nATTEN. What you say in this matter is observable, and if I take\nnot my mark amiss, it often happeneth after this manner where such\nunlawful marriages are contracted.\n\nWISE. It sometimes doth so, and the reason, with respect to their\nparents, is this. Where the one of the parents is godly, and the\nother ungodly and vile, though they can agree in begetting of\nchildren, yet they strive for their children when they are born.\nThe godly parent strives for the child, and by prayers, counsel,\nand good examples, labours to make it holy in body and soul,\nand so fit for the kingdom of heaven; but the ungodly would have\nit like himself, wicked, and base, and sinful; and so they both\ngive instructions accordingly. Instructions did I say? yea, and\nexamples too according to their minds. Thus the godly, as Hannah,\nis presenting her Samuel unto the Lord: but the ungodly, like them\nthat went before them, are for offering their children to Moloch,\nto an idol, to sin, to the devil, and to hell. Thus one hearkeneth\nto the law of their mother and is preserved from destruction, but\nas for the other, as their fathers did, so do they. Thus did Mr.\nBadman and his wife part some of their children betwixt them; but\nas for the other three that were, as it were, mongrels, betwixt\nboth, they were like unto those that you read of in Kings, they\nfeared the Lord, but served their own idols (2 Kings 17). They\nhad, as I said, their mother's notions, and I will add, profession\ntoo; but their father's lusts, and something of his life. Now\ntheir father did not like them, because they had their mother's\ntongue; and the mother did not like them because they had still\ntheir father's heart and life; nor were they indeed fit company\nfor good or bad. The good would not trust them because they were\nbad, the bad would not trust them because they were good; namely,\nthe good would not trust them because they were bad in their lives,\nand the bad would not trust them because they were good in their\nwords. So they were forced with Esau to join in affinity with\nIshmael; to wit, to look out a people that were hypocrites like\nthemselves, and with them they matched, and lived, and died.\n\nATTEN. Poor woman, she could not but have much perplexity.\n\nWISE. Yea, and poor children, that ever they were sent into the\nworld as the fruit of the loins, and under the government of such\na father as Mr. Badman.\n\nATTEN. You say right, for such children lie almost under all manner\nof disadvantages: but we must say nothing, because this also is\nthe sovereign will of God.\n\nWISE. We may not by any means object against God; yet we may talk\nof the advantages and disadvantages that children have by having\nfor their parents such as are either godly or the contrary.\n\nATTEN. You say right, we may so, and pray now, since we are about\nit, speak something in brief unto it, that is, unto this: what\nadvantage those children have above others, that have for their\nparents such as indeed are godly?\n\nWISE. So I will, only I must first premise these two or three\nthings. 1. They have not the advantage of election for their fathers'\nsakes. 2. They are born as others, the children of wrath, though\nthey come of godly parents. 3. Grace comes not unto them as an\ninheritance, because they have godly parents. These things premised\nI shall now proceed.\n\n1. The children of godly parents are the children of many prayers.\nThey are prayed for before, and prayed for after they are born;\nand the prayer of a godly father and godly mother doth much. 2.\nThey have the advantage of what restraint is possible, from what\nevils their parents see them inclinable to, and that is a second\nmercy. 3. They have the advantage of godly instruction, and of\nbeing told which be and which be not the right ways of the Lord.\n4. They have also those ways commended unto them, and spoken well\nof in their hearing, that are good. 5. Such are also, what may be\nkept out of evil company, from evil books, and from being taught\nthe way of swearing, lying, and the like, as sabbath-breaking,\nand mocking at good men and good things, and this is a very great\nmercy. 6. They ave also the benefit of a godly life set before\nthem doctrinally by their parents, and that doctrine backed with\na godly and holy example. And all these are very great advantages.\n\nNow all these advantages the children of ungodly parents want;\nand so are more in danger of being carried away with the error of\nthe wicked. For ungodly parents neither pray for their children,\nnor do nor can they heartily instruct them; they do not after a\ngodly manner restrain them from evil, nor do they keep them from\nevil company. They are not grieved at, nor yet do they forewarn\ntheir children to beware of such evil actions that are abomination\nto God and to all good men. They let their children break the\nsabbath, swear, lie, be wicked and vain. They commend not to their\nchildren a holy life, nor set a good example before their eyes.\nNo, they do in all things contrary: estranging of their children\nwhat they can, from the love of God and all good men, so soon as\nthey are born. Therefore it is a very great judgment of God upon\nchildren, to be the offspring of base and ungodly men (Job 30:8).\n\nATTEN. Well, but before we leave Mr. Badman's wife and children,\nI have a mind, if you please, to inquire a little more after one\nthing, the which I am sure you can satisfy me in.\n\nWISE. What is that?\n\nATTEN. You said a while ago that this Mr. Badman would not suffer\nhis wife to go out to hear such godly ministers as she liked, but\nsaid, if she did, she had as good never come home any more. Did\nhe often carry it thus to her?\n\nWISE. He did say so, he did often say so. This I told you then,\nand had also then told you more, but that other things put me out.\n\nATTEN. Well said; pray, therefore, now go on.\n\nWISE. So I will. Upon a time, she was, on a Lord's day, for going\nto hear a sermon, and Mr. Badman was unwilling she should; but\nshe at that time, as it seems, did put on more courage than she\nwas wont; and, therefore, after she had spent upon him a great\nmany fair words and entreaties, if perhaps she might have prevailed\nby them, but all to no purpose at all, at last she said she would\ngo, and rendered this reason for it: I have a husband, but also\na God; my God has commanded me, and that upon pain of damnation,\nto be a continual worshipper of him, and that in the way of his\nown appointments. I have a husband, but also a soul, and my soul\nought to be more unto me than all the world besides. This soul\nof mine I will look after, care for, and, if I can, provide it a\nheaven for its habitation. You are commanded to love me, as you\nlove your own body, and so do I love you; but I tell you true, I\nprefer my soul before all the world, and its salvation I will seek\n(Eph 5:28).[39]\n\nAt this, first he gave her an ugly wish, and then fell into\na fearful rage, and sware moreover that if she did go, he would\nmake both her and all her damnable brotherhood, for so he was\npleased to call them, to repent their coming thither.\n\nATTEN. But what should he mean by that?\n\nWISE. You may easily guess what he meant. He meant he would turn\ninformer,[40] and so either weary out those that she loved from\nmeeting together to worship God, or make them pay dearly for their\nso doing, the which, if he did, he knew it would vex every vein\nof her tender heart.\n\nATTEN. But do you think Mr. Badman would have been so base?\n\nWISE. Truly he had malice and enmity enough in his heart to do it,\nonly he was a tradesman; also he knew that he must live by his\nneighbours, and so he had that little wit in his anger, that he\nrefrained himself and did it not. But, as I said, he had malice\nand envy enough in his heart to have made him to do it, only he\nthought it would worst him in his trade; yet these three things\nhe would be doing: 1. He would be putting of others on to molest\nand abuse her friends. 2. He would be glad when he heard that any\nmischief befel them. 3. And would laugh at her when he saw her\ntroubled for them. And now I have told you Mr. Badman's way as to\nthis.\n\nATTEN. But was he not afraid of the judgments of God that did fly\nabout at that time?\n\nWISE. He regarded not the judgment nor mercy of God, for had\nhe at all done that he could not have done as he did. But what\njudgments do you mean?\n\nATTEN. Such judgments, that if Mr. Badman himself had taken but\nsober notice of, they might have made him a hung down his ears.\n\nWISE. Why, have you heard of any such persons that the judgments\nof God have overtaken.\n\nATTEN. Yes, and so, I believe, have you too, though you make so\nstrange about it.\n\nWISE. I have so indeed, to my astonishment and wonder.\n\nATTEN. Pray, therefore, if you please, tell me what it is, as to\nthis, that you know; and then, perhaps, I may also say something\nto you of the same.\n\nWISE. In our town there was one W. S., a man of a very wicked\nlife; and he, when there seemed to be countenance given to it,\nwould needs turn informer. Well, so he did, and was as diligent in\nhis business as most of them could be; he would watch of nights,\nclimb trees, and range the woods of days, if possible, to find\nout the meeters, for then they were forced to meet in the fields;\nyea, he would curse them bitterly, and swear most fearfully what\nhe would do to them when he found them. Well, after he had gone\non like a bedlam in his course awhile, and had done some mischiefs\nto the people, he was stricken by the hand of God, and that in\nthis manner: 1. Although he had his tongue naturally at will, now\nhe was taken with a flattering in his speech, and could not for\nweeks together speak otherwise than just like a man that was drunk.\n2. Then he was taken with a drauling, or slabbering at his mouth,\nwhich slabber sometimes would hang at his mouth well nigh half-way\ndown to the ground. 3. Then he had such a weakness in the back\nsinews of his neck, that ofttimes he could not look up before him,\nunless he clapped his hand hard upon his forehead, and held up\nhis head that way, by strength of hand. 4. After this his speech\nwent quite away, and he could speak no more than a swine or a\nbear. Therefore, like one of them, he would gruntle and make an\nugly noise, according as he was offended, or pleased, or would\nhave anything done, &c.\n\nIn this posture he continued for the space of half a year or\nthereabouts, all the while otherwise well, and could go about his\nbusiness, save once that he had a fall from the bell as it hangs\nin our steeple, which it was a wonder it did not kill him. But\nafter that he also walked about, until God had made a sufficient\nspectacle of his judgment of his sin, and then on a sudden he was\nstricken, and died miserably; and so there was an end of him and\nhis doings.\n\nI will tell you of another. About four miles from St. Neots, there\nwas a gentleman had a man, and he would needs be an informer,\nand a lusty young man he was. Well, an informer he was, and did\nmuch distress some people, and had perfected his informations so\neffectually against some, that there was nothing further to do but\nfor the constables to make distress on the people, that he might\nhave the money or goods; and, as I heard, he hastened them much\nto do it. Now, while he was in the heat of his work, as he stood\none day by the fire-side, he had, it should seem, a mind to a sop\nin the pan, for the spit was then at the fire, so he went to make\nhim one; but behold, a dog, some say his own dog, took distaste\nat something, and bit his master by the leg; the which bite,\nnotwithstanding all the means that was used to cure him, turned,\nas was said, to a gangrene; however, that wound was his death, and\nthat a dreadful one too. For my relator said that he lay in such\na condition by this bite, as the beginning, until his flesh rotted\nfrom off him before he went out of the world. But what need I\ninstance in particular persons; when the judgment of God against\nthis kind of people was made manifest, I think I may say, if not\nin all, yet in most of the counties in England where such poor\ncreatures were. But I would, if it had been the will of God, that\nneither I nor anybody else, could tell you more of these stories;\ntrue stories, that are neither lie nor romance.\n\nATTEN. Well, I also heard of both these myself, and of more too,\nas remarkable in their kind as these, if I had any list to tell\nthem; but let us leave those that are behind to others, or to the\ncoming of Christ, who then will justify or condemn them, as the\nmerit of their work shall require; or if they repented, and found\nmercy, I shall be glad when I know it, for I wish not a curse to\nthe soul of mine enemy.\n\nWISE. There can be no pleasure in the telling of such stories,\nthough to hear of them may do us a pleasure. They may put us in\nmind that there is a God that judgeth in the earth, and that doth\nnot always forget nor defer to hear the cry of the destitute; they\nalso carry along with them both caution and counsel to those that\nare the survivors of such. Let us tremble at the judgments of\nGod, and be afraid of sinning against him, and it shall be our\nprotection. It shall go well with them that fear God, that fear\nbefore him.\n\nATTEN. Well, Sir, as you have intimated, so I think we have, in\nthis place, spoken enough about these kind of men; if you please,\nlet us return again to Mr. Badman himself, if you have any more\nto say of him.\n\nWISE. More! we have yet scarce thoroughly begun with anything\nthat we have said. All the particulars are in themselves so full\nof badness, that we have rather only looked in them, than indeed\nsaid anything to them; but we will pass them and proceed. You have\nheard of the sins of his youth, of his apprenticeship, and how he\nset up, and married, and what a life he hath led his wife; and now\nI will tell you some more of his pranks. He had the very knack\nfor knavery; had he, as I said before, been bound to serve an\napprenticeship to all these things, he could not have been more\ncunning, he could not have been more artificial at it.\n\nATTEN. Nor perhaps so artificially neither. For as none can teach\ngoodness like to God himself, so, concerning sin and knavery,\nnone can teach a man it like the devil, to whom, as I perceive,\nMr. Badman went to school from his childhood to the end of his\nlife. But, pray, Sir, make a beginning.\n\nWISE. Well, so I will. You may remember that I told you what a\ncondition he was in for money before he did marry, and how he got\na rich wife, with whose money he paid his debts. How, when he had\npaid his debts, he having some money left, he sets up again as\nbriskly as ever, keeps a great shop, drives a great trade, and runs\nagain a great way into debt; but now not into the debt of one or\ntwo, but into the debt of many, so that at last he came to owe\nsome thousands, and thus he went on a good while. And, to pursue\nhis ends the better, he begun now to study to please all men,\nand to suit himself to any company; he could now be as they, say\nas they, that is, if he listed; and then he would list, when he\nperceived that by so doing he might either make them his customers\nor creditors for his commodities. If he dealt with honest men,\nas with some honest men he did, then he would be as they, talk as\nthey, seem to be sober as they, talk of justice and religion as\nthey, and against debauchery as they; yea, and would too seem\nto show a dislike of them that said, did, or were otherwise than\nhonest.\n\nAgain, when he did light among those that were bad, then he would\nbe as they, but yet more close and cautiously, except they were\nsure of his company. Then he would carry it openly, be as they,\nsay, damn them and sink them[41] as they. If they railed on good\nmen, so could he; if they railed on religion, so could he; if\nthey talked beastly, vainly, idly, so would he; if they were for\ndrinking, swearing, whoring, or any the like villainies, so was\nhe. This was now the path he trod in, and could do all artificially\nas any man alive. And now he thought himself a perfect man, he\nthought he was always a boy till now. What think you now of Mr.\nBadman?\n\nATTEN. Think! why I think he was an atheist; for no man but an\natheist can do this. I say it cannot be but that the man that is\nsuch as this Mr. Badman must be a rank and stinking atheist, for\nhe that believes that there is either God or devil, heaven or\nhell, or death and judgment after, cannot do as Mr. Badman did; I\nmean if he could do these things without reluctancy and check of\nconscience, yea, if he had not sorrow and remorse for such abominable\nsins as these.\n\nWISE. Nay, he was so far off from reluctances and remorse of\nconscience for these things, that he counted them the excellency\nof his attainments, the quintessence of his wit, his rare and\nsingular virtues, such as but few besides himself could be the\nmasters of. Therefore, as for those that made boggle and stop at\nthings, and that could not in conscience, and for fear of death\nand judgment, do such things as he, he would call them fools and\nnoddies,[42] and charge them for being frighted with the talk of\nunseen bugbears, and would encourage them, if they would be men\nindeed, to labour after the attainment of this his excellent art.\nHe would oftentimes please himself with the thoughts of what he\ncould do in this matter, saying within himself, I can be religious\nand irreligious, I can be anything or nothing; I can swear, and\nspeak against swearing; I can lie, and speak against lying; I can\ndrink, wench, be unclean, and defraud, and not be troubled for it.\nNow I enjoy myself, and am master of mine own ways, and not they\nof me. This I have attained with much study, great care, and more\npains. But this his talk should be only with himself, to his wife,\nwho he knew durst not divulge it, or among his intimates, to whom\nhe knew he might say any thing.\n\nATTEN. Did I call him before an atheist? I may call him now a\ndevil, or a man possessed with one, if not with many. I think that\nthere cannot be found in every corner such a one as this. True,\nit is said of king Ahaz that he sinned more and more (2 Chron\n28:22). And of Ahab, that he sold 'himself to work wickedness'\n(1 Kings 21:25). And of the men of Sodom, that they 'were sinners\nbefore the Lord exceedingly' (Gen 13:13).\n\nWISE. An atheist he was no doubt, if there be such a thing as\nan atheist in the world; but for all his brags of perfection and\nsecurity in his wickedness, I believe that at times God did let\ndown fire from heaven into his conscience (Job 21:17). True, I\nbelieve he would quickly put it out again, and grow more wicked\nand desperate afterward, but this also turned to his destruction,\nas afterward you may hear.\n\nBut I am not of your mind to think that there are but few such\nin the world, except you mean as to the degree of wickedness unto\nwhich he had attained. For otherwise, no doubt, there is abundance of\nsuch as he; men of the same mind, of the same principles, and of\nthe same conscience too, to put them into practice. Yea, I believe\nthat there are many that are endeavouring to attain to the same\npitch of wickedness, and all them are such as he in the judgment\nof the law, nor will their want of hellish wit to attain thereto\nexcuse them at the day of judgment. You know that in all science\nsome are more arch than some, and so it is in the art as well as\nin the practice of wickedness, some are two-fold and some seven-fold\nmore the children of hell than others--and yet all the children\nof hell--else they would all be masters, and none scholars in the\nschool of wickedness. But there must be masters, and there must\nbe learners; Mr. Badman was a master in this art, and therefore\nit follows that he must be an arch and chief one in that mystery.\n\nATTEN. You are in the right, for I perceive that some men, though\nthey desire it, are not so arch in the practice thereof as others,\nbut are, as I suppose they call them, fools and dunces to the rest,\ntheir heads and capacities will not serve them to act and do so\nwickedly. But Mr. Badman wanted not a wicked head to contrive, as\nwell as a wicked heart to do his wickedness.\n\nWISE. True, but yet I say such men shall at the day of judgment be\njudged, not only for what they are, but also for what they would\nbe. For if 'the thought of foolishness is sin,' doubtless the\ndesire of foolishness is more sin; and if the desire be more, the\nendeavour after it must needs be more and more (Psa 24:9). He\nthen that is not an artificial atheist and transgressor, yet if he\ndesires to be so, if he endeavoureth to be so, he shall be judged\nand condemned to hell for such a one. For the law judgeth men,\nas I said, according to what they would be. He that 'looketh on a\nwoman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already\nin his heart' (Matt 5:28). By the same rule, he that would steal\ndoth steal he that would cheat, doth cheat; he that would swear,\ndoth swear; and he that would commit adultery, doth do so. For God\njudgeth men according to the working of their minds, and saith,\n'As he thinketh, so is he' (Prov 23:7). That is, so is he in\nhis heart, in his intentions, in his desires, in his endeavours;\nand God's law, I say, lays hold of the desires, intentions, and\nendeavours, even as it lays hold of the act of wickedness itself\n(Matt 5; Rom 7:7). A man then that desires to be as bad as Mr.\nBadman, and desires to be so wicked have many in their hearts,\nthough he never attains to that proficiency in wickedness as he,\nshall be judged for as bad a man as he, because it was in his\ndesires to be such a wicked one.\n\nATTEN. But this height of wickedness in Mr. Badman will not yet\nout of my mind. This hard, desperate, or, what shall I call it,\ndiabolical frame of heart, was in him a foundation, a ground-work\nto all acts and deeds that were evil.\n\nWISE. The heart, and the desperate wickedness of it, is the foundation\nand ground-work of all. Atheism, professed and practical, spring\nboth out of the heart, yea, and all manner of evil besides. For\nthey be not bad deeds that make a bad man, but he is already a\nbad man that doth bad deeds. A man must be wicked before he can\ndo wickedness. 'Wickedness proceedeth form the wicked' (1 Sam\n24:13). It is an evil tree that bars evil fruit. Men gather no\ngrapes of thorns; the heart therefore must be evil before the man\ncan do evil, and good before the man doth good (Matt 7:16-18).\n\nATTEN. Now I see the reason why Mr. Badman was so base as to get\na wife by dissimulation, and to abuse her so like a villain when\nhe had got her, it was because he was before, by a wicked heart,\nprepared to act wickedness.\n\nWISE. You may be sure of it, 'For from within, out of the heart\nof men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,\nthefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil\neye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these things come from\nwithin and defile the man' (Mark 7:20-23). And a man, as his\nnaughty mind inclines him, makes use of these, or any of these, to\ngratify his lust, to promote his designs, to revenge his malice,\nto enrich, or to wallow himself in the foolish pleasures and\npastimes of this life. And all these did Mr. Badman do, even to\nthe utmost, if either opportunity, or purse, or perfidiousness,\nwould help him to the obtaining of his purpose.\n\nATTEN. Purse! why he could not but have purse to do almost what\nhe would, having married a wife with so much money.\n\nWISE. Hold you there; some of Mr. Badman's sins were costly, as\nhis drinking, and whoring, and keeping other bad company; though\nhe was a man that had ways too many to get money, as well as ways\ntoo many to spend it.\n\nATTEN. Had he then such a good trade, for all he was such a bad\nman? Or was his calling so gainful to him as always to keep his\npurse's belly full, though he was himself a great spender?\n\nWISE. No, it was not his trade that did it, though he had a pretty\ntrade too. He had another way to get money, and that by hatfuls\nand pocketfuls at a time.\n\nATTEN. Why I trow he was no highwayman, was he?\n\nWISE. I will be sparing in my speech as to that, though some have\nmuttered as if he could ride out now and then, about nobody but\nhimself knew what, over night, and come home all dirty and weary\nnext morning. But that is not the thing I aim at.\n\nATTEN. Pray let me know it, if you think it convenient that I\nshould.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n[BADMAN IS A BANKRUPT, AND GETS BY IT 'HATFULS OF MONEY.']\n\nWISE. I will tell you; it was this, he had an art to break, and\nget hatfuls of money by breaking.\n\nATTEN. But what do you mean by Mr. Badman's breaking? You speak\nmystically, do you not?\n\nWISE. No, no, I speak plainly. Or, if you will have it in plainer\nlanguage, it is this;--when Mr. Badman had swaggered and whored\naway most of his wife's portion, he began to feel that he could\nnot much longer stand upon his legs in this course of life and\nkeep up his trade and repute--such as he had--in the world, but\nby the new engine of breaking. Wherefore upon a time he gives a\ngreat and sudden rush into several men's debts, to the value of\nabout four or five thousand pounds, driving at the same time a\nvery great trade, by selling many things for less than they cost\nhim, to get him custom, therewith to blind his creditors' eyes.\nHis creditors therefore seeing that he had a great employ, and\ndreaming that it must needs at length turn to a very good account\nto them, trusted him freely without mistrust, and so did others\ntoo, to the value of what was mentioned before. Well, when Mr.\nBadman had well feathered his nest with other men's goods and\nmoney, after a little time he breaks. And by and by it was noised\nabroad that Mr. Badman had shut up shop, was gone, and could\ntrade no longer. Now by that time his breaking was come to his\ncreditors' ears, he had by craft and knavery made so sure of what\nhe had, that his creditors could not touch a penny. Well, when he\nhad done, he sends his mournful sugared letters to his creditors,\nto let them understand what had happened unto him, and desired them\nnot to be severe with him, for he bore towards all men an honest\nmind, and would pay so far as he was able. Now he sends his letters\nby a man confederate with him, who could make both the worst and\nbest of Mr. Badman's case; the best for Mr. Badman and the worst\nfor his creditors. So when he comes to them he both bemoans them\nand condoles Mr. Badman's condition, telling of them that, without\na speedy bringing of things to a conclusion, Mr. Badman would be\nable to make them no satisfaction, but at present he both could\nand would, and that to the utmost of his power, and to that end\nhe desired that they would come over to him. Well, his creditors\nappoint him a time and come over, and he, meanwhile, authorizes\nanother to treat with them, but will not be seen himself, unless\nit was on a Sunday, lest they should snap him with a writ. So\nhis deputed friend treats with them about their concern with Mr.\nBadman, first telling them of the great care that Mr. Badman took\nto satisfy them and all men for whatsoever he owed, as far as in\nhim lay, and how little he thought a while since to be in this\nlow condition. He pleaded also the greatness of his charge, the\ngreatness of taxes, the badness of the times, and the great losses\nthat he had by many of his customers; some of which died in his\ndebt, others were run away, and for many that were alive he never\nexpected a farthing from them. Yet nevertheless he would show\nhimself an honest man, and would pay as far as he was able; and\nif they were willing to come to terms, he would make a composition\nwith them, for he was not able to pay them all. The creditors asked\nwhat he would give? It was replied, Half-a-crown in the pound.\nAt this they began to huff, and he to renew his complaint and\nentreaty, but the creditors would not hear, and so for that time\ntheir meeting without success broke up. But after his creditors\nwere in cool blood, and admitting of second thoughts, and fearing\nlest delays should make them lose all, they admit of a second\ndebate, come together again, and, by many worlds and great ado, they\nobtained five shillings in the pound. So the money was produced,\nreleases and discharges drawn, signed, and sealed, books crossed,\nand all things confirmed; and then Mr. Badman can put his head out\na doors again, and be a better man than when he shut up shop, by\nseveral thousands of pounds.[43]\n\nATTEN. And did he do thus indeed?\n\nWISE. Yes, once and again. I think he brake twice or thrice.\n\nATTEN. And did he do it before he had need to do it?\n\nWISE. Need! What do you mean by need? There is no need at any time\nfor a man to play the knave. He did it of a wicked mind, to defraud\nand beguile his creditors. He had wherewithal of his father, and\nalso by his wife, to have lived upon, with lawful labour, like an\nhonest man. He had also, when he made this wicked break, though\nhe had been a profuse and prodigal spender, to have paid his\ncreditors their own to a farthing. But had he done so, he had not\ndone like himself, like Mr. Badman; had he, I say, dealt like an\nhonest man, he had then gone out of Mr. Badman's road. He did\nit therefore of a dishonest mind, and to a wicked end; to wit,\nthat he might have wherewithal, howsoever unlawfully gotten, to\nfollow his cups and queans,[44] and to live in the full swing of\nhis lusts, even as he did before.\n\nATTEN. Why this was a mere cheat.\n\nWISE. It was a cheat indeed. This way of breaking, it is nothing\nelse but a more neat way of thieving, of picking of pockets, of\nbreaking open of shops, and of taking from men what one has nothing\nto do with. But though it seem easy, it is hard to learn; no man\nthat has conscience to God or man, can ever be his crafts-master\nin this hellish art.\n\nATTEN. O! Sir! What a wicked man was this!\n\nWISE. A wicked man indeed. By this art he could tell how to make\nmen send their goods to his shop, and then be glad to take a penny\nfor that which he had promised, before it came thither, to give\nthem a groat: I say, he could make them glad to take a crown for\na pound's worth, and a thousand for that for which he had promised\nbefore to give them four thousand pounds.\n\nATTEN. This argueth that Mr. Badman had but little conscience.\n\nWISE. This argued that Mr. Badman had no conscience at all; for\nconscience, the least spark of a good conscience, cannot endure\nthis.\n\nATTEN. Before we go any further in Mr. Badman's matters, let\nme desire you, if you please, to give me an answer to these two\nquestions. 1. What do you find in the Word of God against such a\npractice as this of Mr. Badman's is? 2. What would you have a man\ndo that is in his creditor's debt, and can neither pay him what\nhe owes him, nor go on in a trade any longer?\n\nWISE. I will answer you as well as I can. And first, to the first\nof your questions; to wit, What I find in the Word of God against\nsuch a practice as this of Mr. Badman's is.\n\nThe Word of God doth forbid this wickedness; and to make it the\nmore odious in our eyes, it joins it with theft and robbery. 'Thou\nshalt not,' says God, 'defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him'\n(Lev 19:13). Thou shalt not defraud, that is, deceive or beguile.\nNow thus to break, is to defraud, deceive and beguile; which is,\nas you see, forbidden by the God of heaven: 'Thou shalt not defraud\nthy neighbour, neither rob him.' It is a kind of theft and robbery,\nthus to defraud, and beguile. It is a vilely robbing of his shop,\nand picking of his pocket; a thing odious to reason and conscience,\nand contrary to the law of nature. It is a designed piece of\nwickedness, and therefore a double sin. A man cannot do this great\nwickedness on a sudden, and through a violent assault of Satan.\nHe that will commit this sin, must have time to deliberate, that\nby invention he may make it formidable, and that with lies and\nhigh dissimulations. He that commits this wickedness, must first\nhatch it upon his bed, beat his head about it, and lay his plot\nstrong. So that to the completing of such a wickedness, there must\nbe adjoined many sins, and they too must go hand in hand until it\nbe completed. But what saith the scripture? 'Let no man go beyond\nand defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is\nthe avenger of all such' (1 Thess 4:6). But this kind of breaking\nis a going beyond my brother; this is a compassing of him about,\nthat I may catch him in my net; and as I said, an art to rob my\nbrother, and to pick his pocket, and that with his consent. Which\ndoth not therefore mitigate, but so much the more greaten, and make\nodious the offence. For men that are thus wilily abused, cannot\nhelp themselves; they are taken in a deceitful net. But God will\nhere concern himself, he will be the avenger, he will be the\navenger of all such either here, or in another world.\n\nAnd this, the apostle testifies again, where he saith, 'But he that\ndoeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and\nthere is no respect of persons' (Col 3:25). That is, there is\nno man, be he what he will, if he will be guilty of this sin, of\ngoing beyond, of beguiling of, and doing wrong to his brother,\nbut God will call him to an account for it, and will pay him with\nvengeance for it too; for 'there is no respect of persons.'\n\nI might add, that this sin of wronging, of going beyond, and\ndefrauding of my neighbour, it is like that first prank that the\ndevil played with our first parents, as the altar that Uriah\nbuilt of Ahaz, was taken from the fashion of that that stood at\nDamascus, to be the very pattern of it. The serpent beguiled me,\nsays Eve; Mr. Badman beguiles his creditors. The serpent beguiled\nEve with lying promises of gain; and so did Mr. Badman beguile his\ncreditors. The serpent said one thing and meant another, when he\nbeguiled Eve; and so did Mr. Badman when he beguiled his creditors.\n\nThat man therefore that doth thus deceive and beguile his neighbour,\nimitateth the devil; he taketh his examples from him, and not from\nGod, the Word, or good men; and this did Mr. Badman.\n\nAnd now to your second question; to wit, what I would have a man\ndo that is in his creditor's debt, and that can neither pay him,\nnor go on in a trade any longer?\n\nAnsw. First of all. If this be his case, and he knows it, let him\nnot run one penny further in his creditors' debt, for that cannot\nbe done with good conscience. He that knows he cannot pay, and yet\nwill run into debt; does knowingly wrong and defraud his neighbour,\nand falls under that sentence of the Word of God, 'The wicked\nborroweth, and payeth not again' (Psa 37:21). Yea, worse, he\nborrows, though at the very same time he knows that he cannot pay\nagain. He doth also craftily take away what is his neighbour's.\nThat is therefore the first thing that I would propound to such;\nlet him not run any farther into his creditors' debt.\n\nSecondly, After this, let him consider, how, and by what means he\nwas brought into such a condition that he could not pay his just\ndebts. To wit, whether it was by his own remissness in his calling,\nby living too high in diet or apparel, by lending too lavishingly\nthat which was none of his own, to his loss; or whether by the\nimmediate hand and judgment of God.\n\nIf by searching he finds that this is come upon him through\nremissness in his calling, extravagancies in his family, or the\nlike; let him labour for a sense of his sin and wickedness, for\nhe has sinned against the Lord. First, in his being slothful in\nbusiness, and in not providing, to wit, of his own, by the sweat\nof his brow, or other honest ways, for those of his own house (Rom\n12:11; 1 Tim 5:8). And, secondly, in being lavishing in diet and\napparel in the family, or in lending to others that which was none\nof his own. This cannot be done with good conscience. It is both\nagainst reason and nature, and therefore must be a sin against\nGod. I say therefore, if thus this debtor hath done, if ever he\nwould live quietly in conscience, and comfortably in his condition\nfor the future, let him humble himself before God, and repent\nof this his wickedness. For 'he that is slothful in his work, is\nbrother to him that is a great waster' (Prov 18:9). To be slothful\nand a waster too, is to be as it were a double sinner.\n\nBut again, as this man should inquire into these things, so he\nshould also into this, How came I into this way of dealing in\nwhich I have now miscarried? Is it a way that my parents brought\nme up in, put me apprentice to, or that by providence I was first\nthrust into? Or is it a way into which I have twisted myself, as\nnot being contented with my first lot, that by God and my parents\nI was cast into? This ought duly to be considered, and if upon\nsearch a man shall find that he is out of the place and calling\ninto which he was put by his parents, or the providence of God,\nand has miscarried in a new way, that through pride and dislike of\nhis first state he has chose rather to embrace; his miscarriage\nis his sin, the fruit of his pride, and a token of the judgment\nof God upon him for his leaving of his first state. And for this\nhe ought, as for the former, to be humble and penitent before the\nLord,\n\nBut if by search, he finds that his poverty came by none of\nthese; if by honest search, he finds it so, and can say with good\nconscience, I went not out of my place and state in which God by\nhis providence had put me; but have abode with God in the calling\nwherein I was called, and have wrought hard, and fared meanly,\nbeen civilly apparelled, and have not directly nor indirectly\nmade away with my creditors' goods; then has his fall come upon\nhim by the immediate hand of God, whether by visible or invisible\nways. For sometimes it comes by visible ways, to wit, by fire, by\nthieves, by loss of cattle, or the wickedness of sinful dealers,\n&c. And sometimes by means invisible, and then no man knows how;\nwe only see things are going, but cannot see by what way they\ngo. Well, now suppose that a man, by an immediate hand of God, is\nbrought to a morsel of bread, what must he do now?\n\nI answer: His surest way is still to think, that this is the fruit\nof some sin, though possibly not sin in the management of his\ncalling, yet of some other sin. 'God casteth away the substance\nof the wicked' (Prov 10:3). Therefore let him still humble himself\nbefore his God, because his hand is upon him, and say, What sin\nis this, for which this hand of God is upon me? (1 Peter 5:6).\nAnd let him be diligent to find it out, for some sin is the cause\nof this judgment; for God 'doth not afflict willingly nor grieve\nthe children of men' (Lam 3:33). Either the heart is too much set\nupon the world, or religion is too much neglected in thy family,\nor something. There is a snake in the grass, a worm in the gourd;\nsome sin in thy bosom, for the sake of which God doth thus deal\nwith thee.\n\nThirdly, This thus done, let that man again consider thus with\nhimself: perhaps God is now changing of my condition and state in\nthe world; he has let me live in fashion, in fulness, and abundance\nof worldly glory; and I did not to his glory improve, as I should,\nthat his good dispensation to me. But when I lived in full and fat\npasture, I did there lift up the heel (Deut 32:15). Therefore he\nwill now turn me into hard commons, that with leanness, and hunger,\nand meanness, and want, I may spend the rest of my days. But let\nhim do this without murmuring and repining; let him do it in a\ngodly manner, submitting himself to the judgment of God. 'Let the\nrich rejoice in that he is made low' (James 1:9,10).\n\nThis is duty, and it may be privilege to those that are under this\nhand of God. And for thy encouragement to this hard work, for this\nis a hard work, consider of these four things. 1. This is right\nlying down under God's hand, and the way to be exalted in God's\ntime. When God would have Job embrace the dunghill, he embraces\nit, and says, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed\nbe the name of the Lord' (Job 1:21). 2. Consider, that there are\nblessings also that attend a low condition, more than all the world\nare aware of.[45] A poor condition has preventing mercy attending\nof it. The poor, because they are poor, are not capable of sinning\nagainst God as the rich man does (Psa 49:6). 3. The poor can more\nclearly see himself preserved by the providence of God than the\nrich, for he trusteth in the abundance of his riches. 4. It may be\nGod has made thee poor, because he would make thee rich. 'Hearken,\nmy beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world,\nrich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised\nto them that love him?' (James 2:5).\n\nI am persuaded if men upon whom this hand of God is, would thus\nquietly lie down and humble themselves under it, they would find\nmore peace, yea more blessing of God attending them in it, than\nthe most of men are aware of. But this is a hard chapter, and\ntherefore I do not expect that many should either read it with\npleasure, or desire to take my counsel.\n\nHaving thus spoken to the broken man, with reference to his own\nself, I will now speak to him as he stands related to his creditors.\nIn the next place therefore, let him fall upon the most honest\nway of dealing with his creditors, and that I think must be this:\n\nFirst, Let him timely make them acquainted with his condition,\nand also do to them these three things. 1. Let him heartily and\nunfeignedly ask them forgiveness for the wrong that he has done\nthem. 2. Let him proffer them ALL, and the whole ALL that ever he\nhas in the world; let him hide nothing, let him strip himself to\nhis raiment for them; let him not keep a ring, a spoon, or anything\nfrom them. 3. If none of these two will satisfy them, let him\nproffer them his body, to be at their dispose, to wit, either to\nabide imprisonment at their pleasure, or to be at their service,\ntill by labour and travel he hath made them such amends as they\nin reason think fit, only reserving something for the succour of\nhis poor and distressed family out of his labour, which in reason,\nand conscience, and nature, he is bound also to take care of. Thus\nshall he make them what amends he is able, for the wrong that he\nhath done them in wasting and spending of their estates.\n\nBy thus doing, he submits himself to God's rod, commits himself\nto the dispose of his providence; yea, by thus doing, he casteth\nthe lot of his present and future condition into the lap[46] of\nhis creditors, and leaves the whole dispose thereof to the Lord,\neven as he shall order and incline their hearts to do with him\n(Prov 16:33). And let that be either to forgive him, or to take\nthat which he hath for satisfaction, or to lay his body under\naffliction, this way or that, according to law; can he, I say,\nthus leave the whole dispose to God, let the issue be what it\nwill, that man shall have peace in his mind afterward. And the\ncomforts of that state, which will be comforts that attend equity,\njustice, and duty, will be more unto him, because more according\nto godliness, than can be the comforts that are the fruits of\ninjustice, fraudulency, and deceit. Besides, this is the way to\nengage God to favour him by the sentence of his creditors; for\nHE can entreat them to use him kindly, and he will do it when his\nways are pleasing in his sight (Jer 15:10,11). When a man's ways\nplease the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with\nhim (Prov 16:7). And surely, for a man to seek to make restitution\nfor wrongs done to the utmost of his power, by what he is, has,\nand enjoys in this world, is the best way, in that capacity, and\nwith reference to that thing, that a man can at this time be found\nactive in.\n\nBut he that doth otherwise, abides in his sin, refuses to be disposed\nof by the providence of God, chooseth an high estate, though not\nattained in God's way; when God's will is that he should descend\ninto a low one. Yea, he desperately saith in his heart and actions,\nI will be mine own chooser, and that in mine own way, whatever\nhappens or follows thereupon.\n\nATTEN. You have said well, in my mind. But suppose now that Mr.\nBadman was here, could he not object as to what you have said,\nsaying, Go and teach your brethren, that are professors, this\nlesson, for they as I am are guilty of breaking; yea, I am apt to\nthink, of that which you call my knavish way of breaking, to wit,\nof breaking before they have need to break. But if not so, yet\nthey are guilty of neglect in their calling, of living higher,\nboth in fare and apparel, than their trade or income will maintain.\nBesides that they do break all the world very well knows, and that\nthey have the art to plead for a composition, is very well known\nto men; and that is usual with them to hide their linen, their\nplate, their jewels, and it is to be thought, sometimes money and\ngoods besides, is as common as four eggs a penny.[47] and thus\nthey beguile men, debauch their consciences, sin against their\nprofession, and make, it is to be feared, their lusts in all\nthis, and the fulfilling of them their end. I say, if Mr. Badman\nwas here to object thus unto you, what would be your reply?\n\nWISE. What? Why I would say, I hope no good man, no man of good\nconscience, no man that either feareth God, regardeth the credit\nof religion, the peace of God's people, or the salvation of his\nown soul, will do thus. Professors such, perhaps, there may be,\nand who upon earth can help it? Jades there be of all colours. If\nmen will profess, and make their profession a stalking-horse to\nbeguile their neighbours of their estates, as Mr. Badman himself\ndid, when he beguiled her that now is with sorrow his wife, who\ncan help it? The churches of old were pestered with such, and\ntherefore no marvel if these perilous difficult times be so. But\nmark how the apostle words it: 'Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud,\nand that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not\ninherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,\nnor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of\nthemselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,\nnor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God'\n(1 Cor 6:8-10; 2 Tim 3:1-5).\n\nNone of these shall be saved in this state, nor shall profession\ndeliver them from the censure of the godly, when they shall be\nmanifest such to be. But their profession we cannot help. How can\nwe help it, if men should ascribe to themselves the title of holy\nones, godly ones, zealous ones, self-denying ones, or any other\nsuch glorious title? and while they thus call themselves, they\nshould be the veriest rogues for all evil, sin, and villainy\nimaginable, who could help it? True, they are a scandal to\nreligion, a grief to the honest-hearted, an offence to the world,\nand a stumbling-stone to the weak, and these offences have come,\ndo come, and will come, do what all the world can; but woe be to\nthem through whom they come (Matt 18:6-8). Let such professors\ntherefore be disowned by all true Christians, and let them be\nreckoned among those base men of the world, which, by such actions,\nthey most resemble. They are Mr. Badman's kindred. For they are a\nshame to religion, I say, these slithy,[48] rob-shop, pick-pocket\nmen, they are a shame to religion, and religious men should\nbe ashamed of them. God puts such an one among the fools of the\nworld, therefore let not Christians put them among those that are\nwise for heaven. 'As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth\nthem not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave\nthem in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool'\n(Jer 17:11). And the man under consideration is one of these, and\ntherefore must look to fall by this judgment.\n\nA professor! and practice such villainies as these! such a one\nis not worthy to bear that name any longer. We may say to such as\nthe prophet spake to their like, to wit, to the rebellious that\nwere in the house of Israel: 'Go ye, serve ye every one his idols'\n(Eze 20:39). If ye will not hearken to the law and testament of\nGod, to lead your lives hereafter: 'but pollute God's holy name\nno more with your gifts, and with your idols.'\n\nGo, professors, go; leave off profession, unless you will lead\nyour lives according to your profession. Better never profess,\nthan to make profession a stalking-horse to sin, deceit, to the\ndevil, and hell. The ground and rules of religion allow not any\nsuch thing: 'receive us,' says the apostle, 'we have wronged no\nman, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man' (2 Cor\n7:2). Intimating that those that are guilty of wronging, corrupting,\nor defrauding of any, should not be admitted to the fellowship of\nsaints, no, nor into the common catalogue of brethren with them.\nNor can men with all their rhetoric, and eloquent speaking, prove\nthemselves fit for the kingdom of heaven, or men of good conscience\non earth. O that godly plea of Samuel: 'Behold here I am,' says\nhe, 'witness against me, before the Lord, and before his anointed,\nwhose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I\ndefrauded? whom have I oppressed?' &c. (1 Sam 12:3). This was to\ndo like a man of good conscience indeed (Matt 10:19). And in this\nhis appeal, he was so justified in the consciences of the whole\ncongregation, that they could not but with one voice, as with one\nmouth, break out jointly, and say, 'Thou hast not defrauded us,\nnor oppressed us' (Matt 10:4).\n\nA professor, and defraud, away with him! A professor should not\nowe any man anything but love. A professor should provide things,\nnot of other men's but of his own, of his own honest getting, and\nthat not only in the sight of God, but of all men; that he may\nadorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.\n\nATTEN. But suppose God should blow upon a professor in his estate\nand calling, and he should be run out before he is aware, must he\nbe accounted to be like Mr. Badman, and lie under the same reproach\nas he?\n\nWISE. No: if he hath dutifully done what he could to avoid it. It\nis possible for a ship to sink at sea, notwithstanding the most\nfaithful endeavour of the most skilful pilot under heaven. And\nthus, as I suppose, it was with the prophet, that left his wife\nin debt, to the hazarding the slavery of her children by the\ncreditors (2 Kings 4:1,2). He was no profuse man, nor one that\nwas given to defraud, for the text says he feared God; yet, as I\nsaid, he was run out more than she could pay.\n\nIf God would blow upon a man, who can help it? (Hagg 1:9). And he\nwill do so sometimes, because he will change dispensations with\nme, and because he will try their graces. Yea, also, because he\nwill overthrow the wicked with his judgments; and all these things\nare seen in Job. But then the consideration of this should bid\nmen have a care that they be honest, lest this comes upon them\nfor their sin. It should also bid them beware of launching further\ninto the world, than in an honest way, by ordinary means, they can\ngodlily make their retreat; for the further in the greater fall.\nIt should also teach them to beg of God his blessing upon their\nendeavours, their honest and lawful endeavours. And it should\nput them upon a diligent looking to their steps, that if in their\ngoing they should hear the ice crack, they may timely go back again.\nThese things considered, and duly put in practice, if God will\nblow upon a man, then let him be content, and with Job embrace the\ndunghill. Let him give unto all their dues, and not fight against\nthe providence of God, but humble himself rather under his mighty\nhand, which comes to strip him naked and bare: for he that doth\notherwise fights against God; and declares that he is a stranger\nto that of Paul; 'I know both how to be abased, and I know how to\nabound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be\nfull and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need' (Phil\n4:12).\n\nATTEN. But Mr. Badman would not, I believe, have put this difference\nbetwixt things feigned and those that fall of necessity.\n\nWISE. If he will not, God will, conscience will: and that not\nthine own only, but the consciences of all those that have seen\nthe way, and that have known the truth of the condition of such\na one.\n\nATTEN. Well: let us at this time leave this matter, and return\nagain to Mr. Badman.\n\nWISE. With all my heart will I proceed to give you a relation of\nwhat is yet behind of his life, in order to our discourse of his\ndeath.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n[BADMAN'S FRAUDULENT DEALINGS TO GET MONEY.]\n\nATTEN. But pray, do it with as much brevity as you can.\n\nWISE. Why, are you weary of my relating of things?\n\nATTEN. No: but it pleases me to hear a great deal in few words.\n\nWISE. I profess myself not an artist that way, but yet, as briefly\nas I can, I will pass through what of his life is behind; and\nagain I shall begin with his fraudulent dealing, as before I have\nshowed with his creditors, so now with his customers, and those\nthat he had otherwise to deal withal.\n\nHe dealt by deceitful weights and measures. He kept weights to\nbuy by, and weights to sell by; measures to buy by, and measures\nto sell by: those he bought by were too big, those he sold by were\ntoo little.\n\nBesides, he could use a thing called slight of hand, if he had to\ndo with other men's weights and measures, and by that means make\nthem whether he did buy or sell, yea though his customer or chapman\nlooked on, turn to his own advantage.\n\nMoreover, he had the art to misreckon men in their accounts,\nwhether by weight, or measure, or money, and would often do it to\nhis worldly advantage, and their loss. What say you to Mr. Badman\nnow? And if a question was made of his faithful dealing, he had\nhis servants ready, that to his purpose he had brought up, that\nwould avouch and swear to his book or word. This was Mr. Badman's\npractice. What think you of Mr. Badman now?\n\nATTEN. Think! Why I can think no other but that he was a man left\nto himself, a naughty man; for these, as his other, were naughty\nthings; if the tree, as indeed it may, ought to be judged, what\nit is, by its fruits, then Mr. Badman must needs be a bad tree.\nBut pray, for my further satisfaction, show me now, by the Word of\nGod, the evil of this his practice; and first of his using false\nweights and measures.\n\nWISE. The evil of that! Why the evil of that appears to every eye.\nThe heathens, that live like beasts and brutes in many things, do\nabominate and abhor such wickedness as this. Let a man but look\nupon these things as he goes by, and he shall see enough in them\nfrom the light of nature to make him loathe so base a practice,\nalthough Mr. Badman loved it.\n\nATTEN. But show me something out of the Word against it, will you?\n\nWISE. I will willingly do it. And first, look into the Old Testament:\n'Ye shall,' saith God there, 'do no unrighteousness in judgment,\nin mete-yard, in weight, or in measure; just balances, just weights,\na just ephah and a just hin shall you have' (Lev 19:35,36). This\nis the law of God, and that which all men, according to the law of\nthe land, ought to obey. So again: 'Ye shall have just balances,\nand a just ephah,' &c. (Eze 45:10).\n\nNow having showed you the law, I will also show you how God takes\nswerving therefrom. 'A false balance is not good' (Prov 20:23). 'A\nfalse balance is abomination to the Lord' (Prov 11:1). Some have\njust weights, but false balances; and by virtue of these false\nbalances, by their just weights, they deceive the country. Wherefore\nGod first of all commands that the balance be made just. A just\nbalance shalt thou have; else they may be, yea are, deceivers,\nnotwithstanding their just weights.\n\nNow, having commanded that men have a just balance, and testifying\nthat a false one is an abomination to the Lord, he proceedeth also\nunto weight and measure. Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers\nweights, a great and a small; that is, one to buy by, and another\nto sell by, as Mr. Badman had. 'Thou shalt not have in thine house\ndivers measures, a great and a small. (And these had Mr. Badman\nalso.) But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight; a perfect\nand just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened\nin the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do\nsuch things [that is, that use false weights and measures],\nand all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord'\n(Deut 25:13-16). See now both how plentiful, and how punctual the\nScripture is in this matter. But perhaps it may be objected, that\nall this is old law, and therefore hath nothing to do with us under\nthe New Testament. Not that I think you, neighbour, will object\nthus. Well, to this foolish objection, let us make an answer.\nFirst, he that makes this objection, if he doth it to overthrow\nthe authority of those texts, discovereth that himself is first\ncousin to Mr. Badman. For a just man is willing to speak reverently\nof those commands. That man therefore hath, I doubt, but little\nconscience, if any at all that is good, that thus objecteth against\nthe text. But let us look into the New Testament, and there we\nshall see how Christ confirmeth the same; where he commandeth that\nmen make to others good measure, including also that they make\ngood weight; telling such that do thus, or those that do it not,\nthat they may be encouraged to do it: 'Good measure, pressed down,\nand shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your\nbosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall\nbe measured to you again' (Luke 6:38). To wit, both from God and\nman. For as God will show his indignation against the false man,\nby taking away even that he hath, so he will deliver up the false\nman to the oppressor, and the extortioner shall catch from him,\nas well as he hath catched from his neighbour; therefore, another\nscripture saith, 'When thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously,\nthey shall deal treacherously with thee' (Isa 33:1). That the New\nTestament also hath an inspection into men's trading, yea, even\nwith their weights and measures, is evident from these general\nexhortations, 'Defraud not'; 'lie not one to another.' 'Let no man\ngo beyond his brother in any matter, for the Lord is the avenger\nof all such.' 'Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord,'\n'doing all in his name,' 'to his glory'; and the like. All these\ninjunctions and commandments do respect our life and conversation\namong men, with reference to our dealing, trading, and so,\nconsequently, they forbid false, deceitful, yea, all doings that\nare corrupt.\n\nHaving thus in a word or two showed you that these things are bad,\nI will next, for the conviction of those that use them, show you\nwhere God saith they are to be found.\n\n1. They are not to be found in the house of the good and godly man,\nfor he, as his God, abhors them; but they are to be found in the\nhouse of evil doers, such as Mr. Badman's is. 'Are there,' saith\nthe prophet, 'yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the\nwicked, and the scant measure that is abominable!' (Micah 6:10).\nAre they there yet, notwithstanding God's forbidding, notwithstanding\nGod's tokens of anger against those that do such things! O how\nloth is a wicked man to let go a sweet, a gainful sin, when he\nhath hold of it! They hold fast deceit, they refuse to let it go.\n\n2. These deceitful weights and measures are not to be found in\nthe house of the merciful, but in the house of the cruel; in the\nhouse of them that love to oppress. 'The balances of deceit are\nin his hand; he loveth to oppress' (Hosea 12:7). He is given to\noppression and cruelty, therefore he useth such wicked things in\nhis calling. Yea, he is a very cheat, and, as was hinted before\nconcerning Mr. Badman's breaking, so I say now, concerning his using\nthese deceitful weights and measures, it is as bad, as base, as\nto take a purse,[49] or pick a pocket; for it is a plain robbery;\nit takes away from a man that which is his own, even the price of\nhis money.\n\n3. The deceitful weights and measures are not to be found in the\nhouse of such as relieve the belly, and that cover the loins of\nthe poor, but of such as indeed would swallow them up. 'Hear this,\nO ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land\nto fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell\ncorn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the\nephah small, and the shekel great [making the measure small, and\nthe price great], and falsifying the balances by deceit? That ye\nmay buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes,\nand sell the refuse of the wheat. The Lord hath sworn by the\nexcellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their\nworks' (Amos 8:4-8). So detestable and vile a things is this in\nthe sight of God.\n\n4. God abominates the thoughts of calling of those that use false\nweights and measures, by any other term than that they be impure\nones, or the like: 'Shall I count them pure,' saith he, 'with the\nbag of deceitful weights?' (Micah 6:11). No, by no means, they are\nimpure ones; their hands are defiled, deceitful gain is in their\nhouses, they have gotten what they have by coveting an evil\ncovetousness, and therefore must and shall be counted among the\nimpure, among the wicked of the world.\n\nThus you see how full and plain the Word of God is against this\nsin, and them that use it. And therefore Mr. Badman, for that he\nused by these things thus to rook and cheat his neighbours, is\nrightly rejected from having his name in and among the catalogue\nof the godly.\n\nATTEN. But I am persuaded that the using of these things, and the\ndoing by them thus deceitfully, is not counted so great an evil\nby some.\n\nWISE. Whether it be counted an evil or a virtue by men, it mattereth\nnot; you see by the Scriptures the judgment of God upon it. It\nwas not counted an evil by Mr. Badman, nor is it by any that still\nare treading in his steps. But, I say, it is no matter how men\nesteem of things, let us adhere to the judgment of God. And the\nrather, because when we ourselves have done weighing and measuring\nto others, then God will weigh and measure both us and our actions.\nAnd when he doth so, as he will do shortly, then woe be to him to\nwhom, and of whose actions it shall be thus said by him, 'TEKEL,\nthou art weighed in the balances, and are found wanting' (Dan\n5:27). God will then recompense their evil of deceiving upon their\nown head, when he shall shut them out of his presence, favour,\nand kingdom, for ever and ever.\n\nATTEN. But it is a wonder, that since Mr. Badman's common practice\nwas to do thus, that some one or more did not find him out, and\nblame him for this his wickedness.\n\nWISE. For the generality of people he went away clever with his\nknavery. For what with his balance, his false balance, and good\nweight, and what with his slight of hand to boot, he beguiled\nsometimes a little, and sometimes more, most that he had to deal\nwith; besides, those that use this naughty trade are either such\nas blind men with a show of religion, or by hectoring the buyer\nout by words. I must confess Mr. Badman was not so arch at the\nfirst; that is, to do it by show of religion; for now he began\nto grow threadbare, though some of his brethren are arch enough\nthis way, yea, and of his sisters too, for I told you at first that\nthere were a great many of them, and never a one of them good;\nbut for hectoring, for swearing, for lying, if these things would\nmake weight and measure, they should not be wanting to Mr. Badman's\ncustomers.\n\nATTEN. Then it seems he kept good weights and a bad balance; well\nthat was better than that both should be bad.\n\nWISE. Not at all. There lay the depth of his deceit; for if any\nat any time found fault that he used them hardly, and that they\nwanted their weight of things, he would reply, Why, did you not\nsee them weighted? will you not believe your own eyes? if you\nquestion my weights, pray carry them whither you will, I will\nmaintain them to be good and just. The same he would say of his\nscales, so he blinded all by his balance.\n\nATTEN. This is cunning indeed; but as you say, there must be also\nsomething done or said to blind therewith, and this I perceive\nMr. Badman had.\n\nWISE. Yes, he had many ways to blind, but he was never clear at it\nby making a show of religion, though he cheated his wife therewith;\nfor he was, especially by those that dwelt near him, too well known\nto do that, though he would bungle at it as well as he could. But\nthere are some that are arch villains this way; they shall to view\nlive a whole life religiously, and yet shall be guilty of these\nmost horrible sins. And yet religion in itself is never the worse,\nnor yet the true professors of it. But, as Luther says, in the\nname of God begins all mischief.[50] For hypocrites have no other\nway to bring their evils to maturity but by using and mixing the\nname of God and religion therewith. Thus they become whited walls;\nfor by this white, the white of religion, the dirt of their actions\nis hid. Thus also they become graves that appear not, and they\nthat go over them, that have to do with them, are not aware of\nthem, but suffer themselves to be deluded by them. Yea, if there\nshall, as there will sometimes, rise a doubt in the heart of the\nbuyer about the weight and measure he should have, why, he suffereth\nhis very senses to be also deluded, by recalling of his chapman's\nreligion to mind, and thinks verily that not his good chapman but\nhimself is out; for he dreams not that his chapman can deceive.\nBut if the buyer shall find it out, and shall make it apparent,\nthat he is beguiled, then shall he be healed by having amends\nmade, and perhaps fault shall be laid upon servants, &c. And so\nMr. Cheat shall stand for a right honest man in the eye of his\ncustomer, though the next time he shall pick his pocket again.\n\nSome plead custom for their cheat, as if that could acquit them\nbefore the tribunal of God. And others say it came to them for\nso much, and, therefore, another must take it for so much, though\nthere is wanting both as to weight and measure; but in all these\nthings there are juggles; or if not, such must know that 'that\nwhich is altogether just,' they must do (Deut 16:20). Suppose\nthat I be cheated myself with a brass half-crown, must I therefore\ncheat another therewith? if this be bad in the whole, it is also\nbad in the parts. Therefore, however thou art dealt withal in\nthy buying, yet thou must deal justly in selling, or thou sinnest\nagainst thy soul, and art become as Mr. Badman. And know, that a\npretence to custom is nothing worth. It is not custom, but good\nconscience that will help at God's tribunal.\n\nATTEN. But I am persuaded that that which is gotten by men this\nway doth them but little good.\n\nWISE. I am of your mind for that, but this is not considered by\nthose thus minded. For if they can get it, though they get, as we\nsay, the devil and all, by their getting, yet they are content,\nand count that their getting is much.[51]\n\nLittle good! why do you think they consider that? No; no more than\nthey consider what they shall do in the judgment, at the day of\nGod Almighty, for their wrong getting of what they get, and that\nis just nothing at all.\n\nBut to give you a more direct answer. This kind of getting is so\nfar off from doing them little good, that it doth them no good\nat all; because thereby they lose their own souls; 'What shall\nit profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his\nown soul?' (Mark 8:36). He loseth then, he loseth greatly that\ngetteth after this fashion. This is the man that is penny-wise\nand pound-foolish; this is he that loseth his good sheep for a\nhalf-penny-worth of tar;[52] that loseth a soul for a little of\nthe world. And then what doth he get thereby but loss and damage?\nThus he getteth or rather loseth about the world to come. But what\ndoth he get in this world, more than travail and sorrow, vexation\nof spirit, and disappointment? Men aim at blessedness in getting,\nI mean, at temporal blessedness; but the man that thus getteth,\nshall not have that. For though an inheritance after this manner\nmay be hastily gotten at the beginning, yet the end thereof shall\nnot be blessed. They gather it indeed, and think to keep it too,\nbut what says Solomon? God casteth it away. 'The Lord will not\nsuffer the soul of the righteous to famish; but he casteth away\nthe substance of the wicked' (Prov 10:3; Jer 15:13, 17:3).\n\nThe time, as I said, that they do enjoy it, it shall do them\nno good at all; but long, to be sure, they must not have it. For\nGod will either take it away in their lifetime, or else in the\ngeneration following, according to that of Job: 'He,' the wicked,\n'may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent\nshall divide the silver' (Job 27:17).\n\nConsider that also that it is written in the Proverbs; 'A good man\nleaveth an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth\nof the sinner is laid up for the just' (Prov 13:22). What then doth\nhe get thereby, that getteth by dishonest means? Why he getteth\nsin and wrath, hell and damnation, and now tell me how much he\ndoth get.\n\nThis, I say, is his getting; so that as David says, we may be bold\nto say too; I beheld the wicked in great prosperity, and presently\nI cursed his habitation; for it cannot prosper with him (Psa 73).\nFluster and huff, and make ado for a while he may, but God hath\ndetermined that both he and it shall melt like grease, and any\nobserving man may see it so. Behold the unrighteous man, in a way\nof injustice, getteth much, and loadeth himself with thick clay,\nbut anon it withereth, it decayeth and even he, or the generation\nfollowing decline, and return to beggary. And this Mr. Badman,\nnotwithstanding his cunning and crafty tricks to get money, did\ndie, nobody can tell whether worth a farthing or no.\n\nATTEN. He had all the bad tricks, I think, that it was possible\nfor a man to have, to get money; one would think that he should\nhave been rich.\n\nWISE. You reckon too fast, if you count these all his bad tricks\nto get money; for he had more besides. If his customers were in\nhis books, as it should go hard but he would have them there; at\nleast, if he thought he could make any advantage of them, then,\nthen would he be sure to impose upon them his worst, even very bad\ncommodity, yet set down for it the price that the best was sold\nat; like those that sold the refuse wheat; or the worst of the\nwheat; making the shekel great, yet hoisting up the price (Amos\n8). This was Mr. Badman's way. He would sell goods that cost him\nnot the best price by far, for as much as he sold his best of all\nfor. He had also a trick to mingle his commodity, that that which\nwas bad might go off with the least mistrust. Besides, if his\ncustomers at any time paid him money, let them look to themselves,\nand to their acquaintances, for he would usually attempt to call\nfor that payment again, especially if he thought that there were\nhopes of making a prize thereby, and then to be sure if they could\nnot produce good and sufficient ground of the payment, a hundred\nto one but they paid it again. Sometimes the honest chapman would\nappeal to his servants for proof of the payment of money, but they\nwere trained up by him to say after his mind, wright or wrong; so\nthat, relief that way, he could get none.\n\nATTEN. It is a bad, yea, an abominable thing for a man to have\nsuch servants. For by such means a poor customer may be undone,\nand not know how to help himself. Alas! if the master be\nso unconscionable, as I perceive Mr. Badman was, to call for his\nmoney twice, and if his servant will swear that it is a due debt,\nwhere is any help for such a man? He must sink, there is no remedy.\n\nWISE. This is very bad, but this has been a practice, and that\nhundreds of years ago. But what saith the Word of God? 'I will\npunish all those that leap on the threshold, which till their\nmasters' houses with violence and deceit' (Zeph 1:9).\n\nMr. Badman also had this art; could he get a man at advantage, that\nis, if his chapman durst not go from him, or if the commodity he\nwanted could not for the present be conveniently had elsewhere,\nthen let him look to himself, he would surely make his purse-strings\ncrack; he would exact upon him without any pity or conscience.\n\nATTEN. That was extortion, was it not? I pray let me hear your\njudgment of extortion, what it is, and when committed?\n\nWISE. Extortion is a screwing from men more than by the law of God\nor men is right; and it is committed sometimes by them in office,\nabout fees, rewards, and the like:[53] but it is most commonly\ncommitted by men of trade, who without all conscience, when they\nhave the advantage, will make a prey of their neighbour. And thus\nwas Mr. Badman an extortioner; for although he did not exact, and\nforce away, as bailiffs and clerks have used to do, yet he had\nhis opportunities, and such cruelty to make use of them, that he\nwould often, in his way, be extorting and forcing of money out\nof his neighbour's pocket. For every man that makes a prey of his\nadvantage upon his neighbour's necessities, to force from him more\nthan in reason and conscience, according to the present prices\nof things such commodity is worth, may very well be called an\nextortioner, and judged for one that hath no inheritance in the\nkingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9,10).\n\nATTEN. Well, this Badman was a sad wretch.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n[THE SIMPLE CHRISTIAN'S VIEWS OF EXTORTION.]\n\nWISE. Thus you have often said before. But now we are in discourse\nof this, give me leave a little to go on. We have a great many\npeople in the country too that live all their days in the practice,\nand so under the guilt of extortion; people, alas! that think\nscorn to be so accounted.\n\nAs for example: There is a poor body that dwells, we will suppose,\nso many miles from the market; and this man wants a bushel of\ngrist, a pound of butter, or a cheese for himself, his wife, and\npoor children; but dwelling so far from the market, if he goes\nthither, he shall lose his day's work, which will be eightpence or\ntenpence damage to him, and that is something to a poor man.[54]\nSo he goeth to one of his masters or dames for what he wanteth,\nand asks them to help him with such a thing; yes, say they, you\nmay have it; but withal they will give him a gripe, perhaps make\nhim pay as much or more for it at home, as they can get when they\nhave carried it five miles to a market, yea, and that too for the\nrefuse of their commodity. But in this the women are especially\nfaulty, in the sale of their butter and cheese, &c. Now this is a\nkind of extortion, it is a making a prey of the necessity of the\npoor, it is a grinding of their faces, a buying and selling of\nthem.\n\nBut above all, your hucksters, that buy up the poor man's victuals\nby wholesale, and sell it to him again for unreasonable gains, by\nretail, and as we call it by piecemeal; they are got into a way,\nafter a stinging rate, to play their game upon such by extortion:\nI mean such who buy up butter, cheese, eggs, bacon, &c. by\nwholesale, and sell it again, as they call it, by pennyworths,\ntwo pennyworths, a halfpennyworth, or the like, to the poor, all\nthe week after the market is past.\n\nThese, though I will not condemn them all, do, many of them, bite\nand pinch the poor by this kind of evil dealing. These destroy\nthe poor because he is poor, and that is a grievous sin. 'He that\noppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to\nthe rich, shall surely come to want.' Therefore he saith again,\n'Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted\nin the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the\nsoul of them that spoiled them' (Prov 22:16,22,23).\n\nO that he that gripeth and grindeth the face of the poor, would\ntake notice of these two scriptures! Here is threatened the\ndestruction of the estate, yea and of the soul too, of them that\noppress the poor. Their soul we shall better see where, and in what\ncondition that is in, when the day of doom is come; but for the\nestates of such, they usually quickly moulder; and that sometimes\nall men, and sometimes no man knows how.\n\nBesides, these are usurers, yea, they take usury for victuals,\nwhich thing the Lord has forbidden (Deut 23:19). And because they\ncannot so well do it on the market-day, therefore they do it, as\nI said, when the market is over; for then the poor fall into their\nmouths, and are necessitated to have, as they can, for their need,\nand they are resolved they shall pay soundly for it. Perhaps some\nwill find fault for my meddling thus with other folks' matters,\nand for my thus prying into the secrets of their iniquity. But\nto such I would say, since such actions are evil, it is time they\nwere hissed out of the world. For all that do such things offend\nagainst God, wrong their neighbour, and like Mr. Badman do provoke\nGod to judgment.\n\nATTEN. God knows there is abundance of deceit in the world!\n\nWISE. Deceit! Ay, but I have not told you the thousandth part\nof it; nor is it my business now to rake to the bottom of that\ndunghill. What would you say, if I should anatomize some of those\nvile wretches called pawnbrokers, that lend money and goods to\npoor people, who are by necessity forced to such an inconvenience;\nand will make, by one trick or other, the interest of what they\nso lend amount to thirty, forty, yea sometimes fifty pound by the\nyear; notwithstanding the principal is secured by a sufficient\npawn; which they will keep too at last, if they find any shift to\ncheat the wretched borrower.\n\nATTEN. Say! Why such miscreants are the pest and vermin of the\ncommonwealth, not fit for the society of men; but methinks by some\nof those things you discoursed before, you seem to import that it\nis not lawful for a man to make the best of his own.\n\nWISE. If by making the best, you mean to sell for as much as by\nhook or crook he can get for his commodity; then I say it is not\nlawful. And if I should say the contrary, I should justify Mr.\nBadman and all the rest of that gang; but that I never shall do,\nfor the Word of God condemns them. But that it is not lawful for\na man at all times to sell his commodity for as much as he can,\nI prove by these reasons:--\n\nFirst, If it be lawful for me alway to sell my commodity as dear,\nor for as much as I can, then it is lawful for me to lay aside\nin my dealing with others good conscience to them and to God; but\nit is not lawful for me, in my dealing with others, to lay aside\ngood conscience, &c. Therefore it is not lawful for me always to\nsell my commodity as dear, or for as much as I can. That it is not\nlawful to lay aside good conscience in our dealings has already\nbeen proved in the former part of our discourse; but that a man\nmust lay it aside that will sell his commodity always as dear, or\nfor as much as he can, is plainly manifest thus.\n\n1. He that will, as is mentioned afore, sell his commodity as dear\nas he can, must sometimes make a prey of the ignorance of his\nchapman. But that he cannot do with a good conscience, for that\nis to overreach, and to go beyond my chapman, and is forbidden (1\nThess 4:6). Therefore he that will sell his commodity as afore, as\ndear, or for as much as he can, must of necessity lay aside good\nconscience.\n\n2. He that will sell his commodity always as dear as he can, must\nneeds sometimes make a prey of his neighbour's necessity; but that\nhe cannot do with a good conscience, for that is to go beyond and\ndefraud his neighbour, contrary to 1 Thessalonians 4:6. Therefore\nhe that will sell his commodity, as afore, as dear, or for as much\nas he can, must needs cast off and lay aside a good conscience.\n\n3. He that will, as afore, sell his commodity as dear, or for as\nmuch as he can, must, if need be, make a prey of his neighbour's\nfondness; but that a man cannot do with a good conscience, for\nthat is still a going beyond him, contrary to 1 Thessalonians 4:6.\nTherefore, he that will sell his commodity as dear, or for as much\nas he can, must needs cast off, and lay aside good conscience.\n\nThe same also may be said for buying; no man may always buy as\ncheap as he can, but must also use good conscience in buying; the\nwhich he can by no means use and keep, if he buys always as cheap\nas he can, and that for the reasons urged before. For such will\nmake a prey of the ignorance, necessity, and fondness of their\nchapman, the which they cannot do with a good conscience. When\nAbraham would buy a burying-place of the sons of Heth, thus he\nsaid unto them: 'Intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that\nhe may give me the cave of Macphelah, which he hath--in the end\nof his field; for as much--as it is worth' shall he give it me\n(Gen 23:8,9). He would not have it under foot, he scorned it, he\nabhorred it; it stood not with his religion, credit, nor conscience.\nSo also, when David would buy a field of Ornan the Jebusite, thus\nhe said unto him, 'Grant me the place of this thrashing-floor,\nthat I may build an altar therein unto the Lord; thou shalt grant\nit me for the full price' (1 Chron 21:22). He also, as Abraham,\nmade conscience of this kind of dealing. He would not lie at\ncatch[55] to go beyond, no, not the Jebusite, but will give him his\nfull price for his field. For he knew that there was wickedness,\nas in selling too dear, so in buying too cheap, therefore he would\nnot do it.[56]\n\nThere ought therefore to be good conscience used, as in selling\nso in buying; for it is also unlawful for a man to go beyond or to\ndefraud his neighbour in buying; yea, it is unlawful to do it in\nany matter, and God will plentifully avenge that wrong, as I also\nbefore have forewarned and testified. See also the text, Leviticus\n25:14. But,\n\nSecondly. If it be lawful for me always to sell my commodity as\ndear, or for as much as I can, then it is lawful for me to deal\nwith my neighbour without the use of charity. But it is not lawful\nfor me to lay aside, or to deal with my neighbour without the use\nof charity, therefore it is not lawful for me always to sell my\ncommodity to my neighbour for as much as I can. A man in dealing\nshould as really design his neighbour's good, profit, and advantage,\nas his own, for this is to exercise charity in his dealing.\n\nThat I should thus use, or exercise charity towards my neighbour\nin my buying and selling, &c., with him, is evident from the\ngeneral command--'Let all your things be done with charity' (1\nCor 16:14). But that a man cannot live in the exercise of charity\nthat selleth as afore, as dear, or that buyeth as cheap as he can,\nis evident by these reasons:--\n\n1. He that sells his commodity as dear, or for as much money always\nas he can, seeks himself, and himself only. But charity seeketh\nnot her own, not her own only (1 Cor 13). So then he that seeks\nhimself, and himself only, as he that sells, as afore, as dear as\nhe can, does, maketh not use of, nor doth he exercise charity in\nhis so dealing.\n\n2. He that selleth his commodity always for as much as he can\nget, hardeneth his heart against all reasonable entreaties of the\nbuyer. But he that doth so cannot exercise charity in his dealing;\ntherefore it is not lawful for a man to sell his commodity, as\nafore, as dear as he can.\n\n3. If it be lawful for me to sell my commodity, as afore, as dear\nas I can, then there can be no sin in my trading, how unreasonably\nsoever I manage my calling, whether by lying, swearing, cursing,\ncheating, for all this is but to sell my commodity as dear as I can\n(Eph 4:25). But that there is sin in these is evident, therefore\nI may not sell my commodity always as dear as I can.\n\n4. He that sells, as afore, as dear as he can, offereth violence\nto the law of nature, for that saith, Do unto all men even as\nye would that they should do unto you (Matt 7:12). Now, was the\nseller a buyer, he would not that he of whom he buys should sell\nhim always as dear as he can, therefore he should not sell so\nhimself when it is his lot to sell and others to buy of him.\n\n5. He that selleth, as afore, as dear as he can, makes use of that\ninstruction that God hath not given to others, but sealed up in\nhis hand, to abuse his law, and to wrong his neighbour withal,\nwhich indeed is contrary to God (Job 37:7). God hath given thee\nmore skill, more knowledge and understanding in thy commodity, than\nhe hath given to him that would buy of thee. But what! canst thou\nthink that God hath given thee this that thou mightest thereby\nmake a prey of thy neighbour? that thou mightest thereby go beyond\nand beguile thy neighbour? No, verily, but he hath given thee it\nfor his help, that thou mightest in this be eyes to the blind,\nand save thy neighbour from that damage that his ignorance, or\nnecessity, for fondness[57] would betray him into the hands of (1\nCor 10:13).\n\n6. In all that a man does he should have an eye to the glory of\nGod, but that he cannot have that sells his commodity always for\nas much as he can, for the reasons urged before.\n\n7. All that a man does he should do 'in the name of the Lord\nJesus' Christ, that is, as being commanded and authorized to do\nit by him (Col 3:17). But he that selleth always as dear as he\ncan, cannot so much as pretend to this without horrid blaspheming\nof that name, because commanded by him to do otherwise.\n\n8. And lastly, in all that a man does he should have an eye to\nthe day of judgment, and to the consideration of how his actions\nwill be esteemed of in that day (Acts 24:15,16). Therefore there\nis not any man can, or ought to sell always as dear as he can,\nunless he will, yea, he must say in so doing, I will run the hazard\nof the trial of that day. 'If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour,\nor buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one\nanother' (Lev 25:14).\n\nATTEN. But why do you put in these cautionary words, They must\nnot sell always as dear, nor buy always as cheap as they can? Do\nyou not thereby intimate that a man may sometimes do so?\n\nWISE. I do indeed intimate that sometimes the seller may sell as\ndear, and the buyer buy as cheap as he can; but this is allowable\nonly in these cases: when he that sells is a knave, and lays aside\nall good conscience in selling, or when the buyer is a knave, and\nlays aside all good conscience in buying. If the buyer therefore\nlights of a knave, or if the seller lights of a knave, then let\nthem look to themselves; but yet so as not to lay aside conscience,\nbecause he that thou dealest with doth so, but how vile or base\nsoever the chapman is, do thou keep thy commodity at a reasonable\nprice; or, if thou buyest, offer reasonable gain for the thing thou\nwouldst have, and if this will not do with the buyer or seller,\nthen seek thee a more honest chapman. If thou objectest, But I\nhave not skill to know when a pennyworth is before me, get some\nthat have more skill than thyself in that affair, and let them in\nthat matter dispose of thy money. But if there were no knaves in\nthe world these objections need not be made.[58]\n\nAnd thus, my very good neighbour, have I given you a few of my\nreasons why a man that hath it should not always sell too dear\nnor buy as cheap as he can, but should use good conscience to God\nand charity to his neighbour in both.\n\nATTEN. But were some men here to hear you, I believe they would\nlaugh you to scorn.\n\nWISE. I question not that at all, for so Mr. Badman used to do\nwhen any man told him of his faults; he used to think himself wiser\nthan any, and would count, as I have hinted before, that he was\nnot arrived to a manly spirit that did stick or boggle at any\nwickedness. But let Mr. Badman and his fellows laugh, I will bar\nit, and still give them good counsel (Luke 16:13-15). But I will\nremember also, for my further relief and comfort, that thus they\nthat were covetous of old served the Son of God himself. It is\ntheir time to laugh now, that they may mourn in time to come (Luke\n6:25). And I say again, when they have laughed out their laugh, he\nthat useth not good conscience to God and charity to his neighbour\nin buying and selling, dwells next door to an infidel, and is near\nof kin to Mr. Badman.\n\nATTEN. Well, but what will you say to this question? You know that\nthere is no settled price set by God upon any commodity that is\nbought or sold under the sun, but all things that we buy and sell\ndo ebb and flow, as to price, like the tide; how then shall a man\nof a tender conscience do, neither to wrong the seller, buyer,\nnor himself, in buying and selling of commodities?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n[INSTRUCTIONS FOR RIGHTEOUS TRADING.]\n\nWISE. This question is thought to be frivolous by all that are\nof Mr. Badman's way, it is also difficult in itself, yet I will\nendeavour to shape you an answer, and that first to the matter of\nthe question, to wit, how a tradesman should, in trading, keep a\ngood conscience; a buyer or seller either. Secondly, how he should\nprepare himself to this work and live in the practice of it. For\nthe first, he must observe what hath been said before, to wit,\nhe must have conscience to God, charity to his neighbour, and, I\nwill add, much moderation in dealing. Let him therefore keep within\nthe bounds of the affirmative of those eight reasons that before\nwere urged to prove that men ought not, in their dealing, but to\ndo justly and mercifully betwixt man and man, and then there will\nbe no great fear of wronging the seller, buyer, or himself. But\nparticularly to prepare or instruct a man to this work:--\n\n1. Let the tradesman or others consider that there is not that in\ngreat gettings and in abundance which the most of men do suppose;\nfor all that a man has over and above what serves for his present\nnecessity and supply, serves only to feed the lusts of the eye.\nFor 'what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding\nof them with their eyes?' (Eccl 5:11). Men also, many times,\nin getting of riches, get therewith a snare to their soul (1 Tim\n6:7-9). But few get good by getting of them. But his consideration\nMr. Badman could not abide.\n\n2. Consider that the getting of wealth dishonestly--as he does that\ngetteth it without good conscience and charity to his neighbour--is\na great offender against God. Hence he says, 'I have smitten mine\nhand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made' (Eze 22:13).\nIt is a manner of speech that shows anger in the very making of\nmention of the crime. Therefore,\n\n3. Consider that a little, honestly gotten, though it may yield thee\nbut a dinner of herbs at a time, will yield more peace therewith\nthan will a stalled ox ill gotten (Prov 15:17). 'Better is a little\nwith righteousness, than great revenues without right' (Prov 16:8;\n1 Sam 2:5).\n\n4. Be thou confident that God's eyes are upon all thy ways, and\n'that he pondereth all thy goings,' and also that he marks, them,\nwrites them down, and seals them p in a bag against the time to\ncome (Prov 5:21; Job 14:17).\n\n5. Be thou sure that thou rememberest that thou knowest not the\nday of thy death. Remember also that when death comes God will\ngive thy substance, for the which thou hast laboured, and for the\nwhich perhaps thou hast hazarded thy soul, to one thou knowest\nnot who, nor whether he shall be a wise man or a fool. And then,\n'what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?' (Eccl 5:16).\n\nBesides, thou shalt have nothing that thou mayest so much as carry\naway in thine hand. Guilt shall go with thee if thou hast got it\n[thy substance] dishonestly, and they also to whom thou shalt leave\nit shall receive it to their hurt. These things duly considered and\nmade use of by thee to the preparing of thy heart to thy calling\nof buying and selling, I come, in the next place, to show thee how\nthou shouldst live in the practick part of this art. Art thou to\nbuy or sell?\n\n1. If thou sellest, do not commend; if thou buyest, do not dispraise;\nany otherwise but to give the thing that thou hast to do with its\njust value and worth; for thou canst not do otherwise, knowingly,\nbut of a covetous and wicked mind. Wherefore else are commodities\novervalued by the seller, and also undervalued by the buyer. 'It\nis naught, it is naught, saith the buyer,' but when he hath got\nhis bargain he boasteth thereof (Prov 20:14). What hath this man\ndone now, but lied in the dispraising of his bargain? and why did\nhe dispraise it, but of a covetous mind to wrong and beguile the\nseller?\n\n2. Art thou a seller, and do things grow dear? Set not thy hand to\nhelp or hold them up higher; this cannot be done without wickedness\nneither, for this is a making of the shekel great (Amos 8:5). Art\nthou a buyer, and do things grow dear? use no cunning or deceitful\nlanguage to pull them down, for that cannot be done but wickedly\ntoo. What then shall we do, will you say? Why I answer, leave things\nto the providence of God, and do thou with moderation submit to\nhis hand. But since, when they are growing dear, the hand that\nupholds the price is, for the time, more strong than that which\nwould pull it down; that being the hand of the seller, who loveth\nto have it dear, especially if it shall rise in his hand. Therefore\nI say, do thou take heed and have not a hand in it, the which thou\nmayest have to thine own and thy neighbour's hurt, these three\nways:--\n\n1. By crying out scarcity, scarcity, beyond the truth and state of\nthings; especially take heed of doing of this by way of a prognostic\nfor time to come. It was for this for which he was trodden to\ndeath in the gate of Samaria, that you read of in the second book\nof Kings (2 Kings 7:17). This sin hath a double evil in it. (1.)\nIt belieth the present blessing of God among us; and (2.) It\nundervalueth the riches of his goodness, which can make all good\nthings to abound towards us.\n\n2. This wicked thing may be done by hoarding up when the hunger\nand necessity of the poor calls for it. Now, that God may show his\ndislike against this, he doth, as it were, license the people to\ncurse such a hoarder up--'He that withholdeth corn, the people\nshall curse him, but blessing shall be upon the head of him that\nselleth it' (Prov 11:26).\n\n3. But if things will rise, do thou be grieved, be also moderate\nin all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a pennyworth,\nand sell thy corn to those in necessity. Which then thou wilt\ndo when thou showest mercy to the poor in thy selling to him,\nand when thou, for his sake because he is poor, undersellest the\nmarket. This is to buy and sell with good conscience; thy buyer\nthou wrongest not, thy conscience thou wrongest not, thyself thou\nwrongest not, for God will surely recompense thee (Isa 57:6-8).\nI have spoken concerning corn, but thy duty is to 'let your\nmoderation' in all things 'be known unto all men, the Lord is at\nhand' (Phil 4:5).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n[BADMAN'S PRIDE, ATHEISM, INFIDELITY, AND ENVY.]\n\nATTEN. Well, Sir, now I have heard enough of Mr. Badman's naughtiness,\npray now proceed to his death.\n\nWISE. Why, Sir, the sun is not so low, we have yet three hours to\nnight.\n\nATTEN. Nay, I am not in any great haste, but I thought you had\neven now done with his life.\n\nWISE. Done! no, I have yet much more to say.\n\nATTEN. Then he has much more wickedness than I thought he had.\n\nWISE. That may be. But let us proceed. This Mr. Badman added to\nall his wickedness this, he was a very proud man, a very proud\nman. He was exceeding proud and haughty in mind; he looked that\nwhat he said ought not, must not be contradicted or opposed.\nHe counted himself as wise as the wisest in the country, as good\nas the best, and as beautiful as he that had most of it. He took\ngreat delight in praising of himself, and as much in the praises\nthat others gave him. He could not abide that any should think\nthemselves above him, or that their wit or personage should by\nothers be set before his. He had scarce a fellowly carriage for\nhis equals. But for those that were of an inferior rank, he would\nlook over them in great contempt. And if at any time he had any\nremote occasion of having to do with them, he would show great\nheight and a very domineering spirit. So that in this it may be\nsaid that Solomon gave a characteristical note of him when he said,\n'Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath'\n(Prov 21:24). He never thought his diet well enough dressed, his\nclothes fine enough made, or his praise enough refined.\n\nATTEN. This pride is a sin that sticks as close to nature, I think,\nas most sins. There is uncleanness and pride, I know not of any\ntwo gross sins that stick closer to men than they. They have, as\nI may call it, an interest in nature; it likes them because they\nmost suit its lust and fancies; and therefore no marvel though Mr.\nBadman was tainted with pride, since he had so wickedly given up\nhimself to work all iniquity with greediness.\n\nWISE. You say right; pride is a sin that sticks close to nature,\nand is one of the first follies wherein it shows itself to be\npolluted. For even in childhood, even in little children, pride\nwill first of all show itself; it is a hasty, an early appearance\nof the sin of the soul. It, as I may say, is that corruption that\nstrives for predominancy in the heart, and therefore usually comes\nout first. But though children are so incident to it, yet methinks\nthose of more years should be ashamed thereof. I might at the\nfirst have begun with Mr. Badman's pride, only I think it is not\nthe pride in infancy that begins to make a difference betwixt one\nand another, as did, and do those wherewith I began my relation\nof his life, therefore I passed it over, but now, since he had no\nmore consideration of himself, and of his vile and sinful state,\nbut to be proud when come to years, I have taken the occasion in\nthis place to make mention of his pride.\n\nATTEN. But pray, if you can remember them, tell me of some places\nof scripture that speak against pride. I the rather desire this\nbecause that pride is now a reigning sin, and I happen sometimes\nto fall into the company of them that in my conscience are proud,\nvery much, and I have a mind also to tell them of their sin, now\nwhen I tell them of it, unless I bring God's Word too, I doubt\nthey will laugh me to scorn.\n\nWISE. Laugh you to scorn! the proud man will laugh you to scorn\nbring to him what text you can, except God shall smite him in his\nconscience by the Word. Mr. Badman did use to serve them so that\ndid use to tell him of his; and besides, when you have said what\nyou can, they will tell you they are not proud, and that you are\nrather the proud man, else you would not judge, nor so malapertly[59]\nmeddle with other men's matters as you do. Nevertheless, since you\ndesire it, I will mention two or three texts; they are these:--'Pride\nand arrogancy--do I hate' (Prov 8:13). 'A man's pride shall bring\nhim low' (Prov 29:23). 'And he shall bring down their pride' (Isa\n25:11). 'And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall\nbe stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up' (Mal\n4:1). This last is a dreadful text, it is enough to make a proud\nman shake. God, saith he, will make the proud ones as stubble; that\nis, as fuel for the fire, and the day that cometh shall be like\na burning oven, and that day shall burn them up, saith the Lord.\nBut Mr. Badman could never abide to hear pride spoken against,\nnor that any should say of him, He is a proud man.\n\nATTEN. What should be the reason of that?\n\nWISE. He did not tell me the reason; but I suppose it to be that\nwhich is common to all vile persons. They love this vice, but\ncare not to bear its name. The drunkard loves the sin, but loves\nnot to be called a drunkard. The thief loveth to steal, but cannot\nabide to be called a thief; the whore loveth to commit uncleanness,\nbut loveth not to be called a whore. And so Mr. Badman loved to\nbe proud, but could not abide to be called a proud man. The sweet\nof sin is desirable to polluted and corrupted man, but the name\nthereof is a blot in his escutcheon.[60]\n\nATTEN. It is true that you have said; but pray how many sorts of\npride are there?\n\nWISE. There are two sorts of pride: pride of spirit, and pride of\nbody. The first of these is thus made mention of in the scriptures.\n'Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord'\n(Prov 16:5). 'A high look, and a proud heart, and the ploughing of\nthe wicked, is sin' (Prov 21:4). 'The patient in spirit is better\nthan the proud in spirit' (Eccl 7:8). Bodily pride the scriptures\nmention. 'In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their\ntinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their\nround tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets, and the\nmufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the\nheadbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose\njewels.[61] the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and\nthe wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen,\nand the hoods, and the vails' (Isa 3:18-23). By these expressions\nit is evident that there is pride of body, as well as pride of\nspirit, and that both are sin, and so abominable to the Lord. But\nthese texts Mr. Badman could never abide to read; they were to him\nas Micaiah was to Ahab, they never spake good of him, but evil.\n\nATTEN. I suppose that it was not Mr. Badman's case alone even to\nmalign those texts that speak against their vices; for I believe\nthat most ungodly men, where the scriptures are, have a secret\nantipathy against those words of God that do most plainly and\nfully rebuke them for their sins.\n\nWISE. That is out of doubt; and by that antipathy they show that\nsin and Satan are more welcome to them than are wholesome instructions\nof life and godliness.\n\nATTEN. Well, but not to go off from our discourse of Mr. Badman.\nYou say he was proud; but will you show me now some symptoms of\none that is proud?\n\nWISE. Yes, that I will; and first I will show you some symptoms of\npride of heart. Pride of heart is seen by outward things, as pride\nof body in general is a sign of pride of heart; for all proud\ngestures of the body flow from pride of heart; therefore Solomon\nsaith, 'There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes, and\ntheir eye-lids are lifted up' (Prov 30:13). And again, there is\n'that exalteth his gait,' his going (Prov 17:19). Now, these lofty\neyes, and this exalting of the gait, is a sign of a proud heart;\nfor both these actions come from the heart. For out of the heart\ncomes pride, in all the visible appearances of it (Mark 7). But\nmore particularly--\n\n1. Heart pride is discovered by a stretched-out neck, and by mincing\nas they go. For the wicked, the proud, have a proud neck, a proud\nfoot, a proud tongue, by which this their going is exalted. This\nis that which makes them look scornfully, speak ruggedly, and\ncarry it huffingly among their neighbours. 2. A proud heart is a\npersecuting one. 'The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor'\n(Psa 10:2). 3. A prayerless man is a proud man (Psa 10:4). 4. A\ncontentious man is a proud man (Prov 13:10). 5. The disdainful\nman is a proud man (Psa 119:51). 6. The man that oppresses his\nneighbour is a proud man (Psa 119:122). 7. He that hearkeneth not\nto God's word with reverence and fear is a proud man (Jer 13:15,17).\n8. And he that calls the proud happy is, be sure, a proud man.\nAll these are proud in heart, and this their pride of heart doth\nthus discover itself (Jer 43:2; Mal 3:15).\n\nAs to bodily pride, it is discovered that is something of it, by\nall the particulars mentioned before; for though they are said\nto be symptoms of pride of heart, yet they are symptoms of that\npride, by their showing of themselves in the body. You know diseases\nthat are within are seen ofttimes by outward and visible signs,\nyet by these very signs even the outside is defiled also. So all\nthose visible signs of heart pride are signs of bodily pride also.\nBut to come to more outward signs. The putting on of gold, and\npearls, and costly array; the plaiting of the hair, the following\nof fashions, the seeking by gestures to imitate the proud, either\nby speech, looks, dresses, goings, or other fools' baubles, of\nwhich at this time the world is full, all these, and many more,\nare signs, as of a proud heart, so of bodily pride also (1 Tim\n2:9; 1 Peter 3:3-5).\n\nBut Mr. Badman would not allow, by any means, that this should\nbe called pride, but rather neatness, handsomeness, comeliness,\ncleanliness, &c., neither would he allow that following of fashions\nwas anything else, but because he would not be proud, singular,\nand esteemed fantastical by his neighbours.\n\nATTEN. But I have been told that when some have been rebuked for\ntheir pride, they have turned it again upon the brotherhood of\nthose by whom they have been rebuked, saying, Physician, heal thy\nfriends, look at home among your brotherhood, even among the wisest\nof you, and see if you yourselves be clear, even you professors.\nFor who is prouder than you professors? scarcely the devil himself.\n\nWISE. My heart aches at this answer, because there is too much\ncause for it. This very answer would Mr. Badman give his wife when\nshe, as she would sometimes, reprove him for his pride. We shall\nhave, says he, great amendments in living now, for the devil is\nturned a corrector of vice; for no sin reigneth more in the world,\nquoth he, than pride among professors. And who can contradict him?\nLet us give the devil his due, the thing is too apparent for any\nman to deny. And I doubt not but the same answer is ready in the\nmouths of Mr. Badman's friends; for they may and do see pride\ndisplay itself in the apparel and carriages of professors, one may\nsay, almost as much, as among any people in the land, the more is\nthe pity. Ay, and I fear that even their extravagancies in this\nhath hardened the heart of many a one, as I perceive it did somewhat\nthe heart of Mr. Badman himself. For my own part, I have seen many\nmyself, and those church members too, so decked and bedaubed with\ntheir fangles[62] and toys, and that when they have been at the\nsolemn appointments of God in the way of his worship, that I have\nwondered with what face such painted persons could sit in the place\nwhere they were without swooning. But certainly the holiness of\nGod, and also the pollution of themselves by sin, must need be\nvery far out of the minds of such people, what profession soever\nthey make.\n\nI have read of a whore's forehead, and I have read of Christian\nshamefacedness (Jer 3:3; 1 Tim 2:9). I have read of costly array,\nand of that which becometh women professing godliness, with good\nworks (1 Peter 3:1-3). But if I might speak, I know what I know,\nand could say, and yet do no wrong, that which would make some\nprofessors stink in their places; but now I forbear (Jer 23:15).\n\nATTEN. Sir, you seem greatly concerned at this, but what if\nI shall say more? It is whispered that some good ministers have\ncountenanced their people in their light and wanton apparel, yea,\nhave pleaded for their gold and pearls, and costly array, &c.\n\nWISE. I know not what they have pleaded for, but it is easily\nseen that they tolerate, or at leastwise, wink and connive at such\nthings, both in their wives and children. And so 'from the prophets\nof Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land' (Jer\n23:15). And when the hand of the rulers are chief in a trespass,\nwho can keep their people from being drowned in that trespass?\n(Ezra 9:2).\n\nATTEN. This is a lamentation, and must stand for a lamentation.\n\nWISE. So it is, and so it must. And I will add, it is a shame, it\nis a reproach, it is a stumbling block to the blind; for though\nmen be as blind as Mr. Badman himself, yet they can see the foolish\nlightness that must needs be the bottom of all these apish and\nwanton extravagancies. But many have their excuses ready; to wit,\ntheir parents, their husbands, and their breeding calls for it,\nand the like; yea, the examples of good people prompt them to it;\nbut all these will be but the spider's web, when the thunder of\nthe word of the great God shall rattle from heaven against them,\nas it will at death or judgment; but I wish it might do it before.\nBut alas! these excuses are but bare pretences, these proud ones\nlove to have it so. I once talked with a maid by way of reproof\nfor her fond and gaudy garment. But she told me, The tailor would\nmake it so; when alas! poor proud girl, she gave order to the tailor\nso to make it. Many make parents, and husbands, and tailors, &c.,\nthe blind to others; but their naughty hearts, and their giving\nof way thereto, that is the original cause of all these evils.\n\nATTEN. Now you are speaking of the cause of pride, pray show me\nyet further why pride is now so much in request.\n\nWISE. I will show you what I think are the reasons of it.\n\n1. The first is, because, such persons are led by their own hearts,\nrather than by the Word of God (Mark 7:21-23). I told you before\nthat the original fountain of pride is the heart. For out of the\nheart comes pride; it is, therefore, because they are led by their\nhearts, which naturally tend to lift them up in pride. This pride\nof heart tempts them, and by its deceits overcometh them; yea, it\ndoth put a bewitching virtue into their peacock's feathers, and\nthen they are swallowed up with the vanity of them (Oba 3).\n\n2. Another reason why professors are so proud for those we are\ntalking of now, is because they are more apt to take example\nby those that are of the world, than they are to take example of\nthose that are saints indeed. Pride is of the world. 'For all that\nis in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,\nand the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world' (1\nJohn 2:16). Of the world, therefore, professors learn to be proud.\nBut they should not take them for example. It will be objected,\nNo, nor your saints neither, for you are as proud as others; well,\nlet them take shame that are guilty. But when I say professors\nshould take example for their life by those that are saints indeed,\nI mean as Peter says; they should take example of those that were\nin old time the saints; for sin at of old time were the best,\ntherefore to these he directed us for our pattern. Let the wives'\nconversation be chaste and also coupled with fear. 'Whose adorning,'\nsaith Peter, 'let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the\nhair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let\nit be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible\neven the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the\nsight of God of great price. For after this manner, in the old\ntime, the holy women also who trusted in God, adorned themselves,\nbeing in subjection to their own husbands' (1 Peter 3:1-5).\n\n3. Another reason is, because they have forgotten the pollution\nof their nature. For the remembrance of that must needs keep us\nhumble, and being kept humble, we shall be at a distance from pride.\nThe proud and the humble are set in opposition; 'God resisteth the\nproud, but giveth grace unto the humble.' And can it be imagined\nthat a sensible Christian should be a proud one; sense of baseness\ntends to lay us low, not to lift us up with pride; not with pride\nof heart, nor pride of life. But when a man begins to forget what\nhe is, then he, if ever, begins to be proud. Methinks it is one\nof the most senseless and ridiculous things in he world that a\nman should be proud of that which is given him on purpose to cover\nthe shame of his nakedness with.\n\n4. Persons that are proud have gotten God and his holiness out of\ntheir sight. If God was before them, as he is behind their back.\nAnd if they saw him in his holiness, as he sees them in their\nsins and shame, they would take but little pleasure in their apish\nknacks. The holiness of God makes the angels cover their faces,\ncrumbles Christians, when they behold it, into dust and ashes.\nAnd as his majesty is, such is his Word (Isa 6). Therefore they\nabuse it that bring it to countenance pride.\n\nLastly. But what can be the end of those that are proud in the\ndecking of themselves after their antic manner? Why are they for\ngoing with their bull's foretops,[63] with their naked shoulders,\nand paps hanging out like a cow's bag? Why are they for painting\ntheir faces, for stretching out their neck, and for putting of\nthemselves unto all the formalities which proud fancy leads them\nto? Is it because they would honour God? because they would adorn\nthe gospel? because they would beautify religion, and make sinners\nto fall in love with their own salvation? No, no, it is rather to\nplease their lusts, to satisfy their wild and extravagant fancies;\nand I wish none doth it to stir up lust in others, to the end they\nmay commit uncleanness with them. I believe, whatever is their\nend, this is one of the great designs of the devil and I believe\nalso that Satan has drawn more into the sin of uncleanness by the\nspangling show of fine cloths, than he could possibly have drawn\nunto it without them. I wonder what it was that of old was called\nthe attire of a harlot; certainly it could not be more bewitching\nand tempting than are the garments of many professors this day.\n\nATTEN. I like what you say very well, and I wish that all the proud\ndames in England that profess were within the reach and sound of\nyour words.\n\nWISE. What I have said I believe is true; but as for the proud\ndames in England that profess, they have Moses and the prophets,\nand if they will not hear them, how then can we hope that they\nshould receive good by such a dull-sounding ram's-horn as I am?[64]\nHowever, I have said my mind, and now, if you will, we will proceed\nto some other of Mr. Badman's doings.\n\nATTEN. No; pray, before you show me anything else of Mr. Badman,\nshow me yet more particularly the evil effects of this sin of\npride.\n\nWISE. With all my heart I will answer your request.\n\n1. Then: It is pride that makes poor man so like the devil in hell,\nthat he cannot in it be known to be the image and similitude of\nGod. The angels, when they became devils, it was through their\nbeing lifted or puffed up with pride (1 Tim 3:6). It is pride also\nthat lifteth or puffeth up the heart of the sinner, and so makes\nhim to bear the very image of the devil.\n\n2. Pride makes a man so odious in the sight of God, that he shall\nnot, must not, come nigh his majesty. 'Though the Lord be high,\nyet hath he respect unto the lowly; but the proud he knoweth afar\noff' (Psa 138:6). Pride sets God and the soul at a distance; pride\nwill not let a man come nigh God, nor God will not let a proud\nman come nigh unto him. Now this is a dreadful thing.\n\n3. As pride seest, so it keeps God and the soul at a distance. 'God\nresisteth the proud' (James 4:6). Resists, that is, he opposes\nhim, he trusts him from him, he contemneth his person and all his\nperformances. Come unto God's ordinances the proud man may; but\ncome into his presence, have communion with him, or blessing from\nhim, he shall not. For the high God doth resist him.\n\n4. The Word saith that 'The Lord will destroy the house of the proud'\n(Prov 15:25). He will destroy his house; it may be understood he\nwill destroy him and his. So he destroyed proud Pharaoh, so he\ndestroyed proud Korah, and many others.\n\n5. Pride, where it comes, and is entertained, is a certain forerunner\nof some judgment that is not far behind. When pride goes before,\nshame and destruction will follow after. 'When pride cometh, then\ncometh shame' (Prov 11:2). 'Pride goeth before destruction, and\na haughty spirit before a fall' (Prov 16:18).\n\n6. Persisting in pride makes the condition of a poor man as\nremediless as is that of the devils themselves (1 Tim 3:6). And\nthis, I fear, was Mr. Badman's condition, and that was the reason\nthat he died so as he did; as I shall show you anon.\n\nBut what need I thus talk of the particular actions, or rather the\nprodigious sins of Mr. Badman, when his whole life, and all his\nactions, went, as it were, to the making up one massy body of sin?\nInstead of believing that there was a God, his mouth, his life\nand actions, declared that he believed no such thing.[65] His\n'transgression saith within my heart, that there was no fear of\nGod before his eyes' (Psa 36:1). Instead of honouring of God, and\nof giving glory to him for any of his mercies, or under any of his\ngood providences toward him, for God is good to all, and lets his\nsun shine, and his rain fall upon the unthankful and unholy, he\nwould ascribe the glory to other causes. If they were mercies,\nhe would ascribe them, if the open face of the providence did not\ngive him the lie, to his own wit, labour, care, industry, cunning,\nor the like. If they were crosses, he would ascribe them, or count\nthem the offspring of fortune, ill luck, chance, the ill management\nof matters, the ill will of neighbours, or to his wife's being\nreligious, and spending, as he called it, too much time in reading,\npraying, or the like. It was not in his way to acknowledge God,\nthat is, graciously, or his hand in things. But, as the prophet\nsaith, 'Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn\nrighteousness' (Isa 26:10). And again, They returned not to him\nthat smote them, nor did they seek the Lord of hosts (Isa 9:13).\nThis was Mr. Badman's temper, neither mercies nor judgment would\nmake him seek the Lord. Nay, as another scripture says, 'He would\nnot see the works of God, nor regard the operations of his hands\neither in mercies or in judgments' (Isa 26:11; Psa 29:5). But\nfarther, when by providence he has been cast under the best means\nfor his soul--for, as was showed before, he having had a good\nmaster, and before him a good father, and after all a good wife,\nand being sometimes upon a journey, and cast under the hearing of\na good sermon, as he would sometimes for novelty's sake go to hear\na good preacher--he was always without heart to make use thereof\n(Prov 17:6). In this land of righteousness he would deal unjustly,\nand would not behold the majesty of the Lord (Isa 26:10).\n\nInstead of referencing the Word, when he heard it preached,\nread, or discoursed of, he would sleep, talk of others business,\nor else object against the authority, harmony, and wisdom of the\nscriptures; saying, How do you know them to be the Word of God? How\ndo you know that these sayings are true? The scriptures, he would\nsay, were as a nose of wax, and a man may turn them whithersoever\nhe lists. One scripture says one thing, and another says the quite\ncontrary; besides, they make mention of a thousand impossibilities;\nthey are the cause of all dissensions and discords that are in\nthe land. Therefore you may, would he say, still think what you\nwill, but in my mind they are best at ease that have least to do\nwith them.\n\nInstead of loving and honouring of them that did bear in their\nforeheads the name, and in their lives the image of Christ, they\nshould be his song, the matter of his jests, and the objects of his\nslanders. He would either make a mock at their sober deportment,\ntheir gracious language, quiet behavior, or else desperately swear\nthat they did all in deceit and hypocrisy. He would endeavour to\nrender godly men as odious and contemptible as he could; any lies\nthat were made by any, to their disgrace, those he would avouch\nfor truth, and would not endure to be controlled. He was much like\nthose that the prophet speaks of, that would sit and slander his\nmother's son (Psa 50:19,20). Yea, he would speak reproachfully of\nhis wife, though his conscience told him, and many would testify,\nthat she was a very virtuous woman. He would also raise slanders of\nhis wife's friends himself, affirming that their doctrine tended\nto lasciviousness, and that in their assemblies they acted and\ndid unbeseeming men and women, that they committed uncleanness,\n&c. He was much like those that affirmed the apostle should say,\n'Let us do evil that good may come' (Rom 3:7,8). Or, like those\nof whom it is thus written; 'Report, say they, and we will report\nit' (Jer 20:10). And if he could get any thing by the end that had\nscandal in it, if it did but touch professors, how falsely soever\nreported, O! then he would glory, laugh, and be glad, and lay it\nupon the whole party; saying, Hang them rogues, there is not a\nbarrel better herring of all the holy brotherhood of them. Like to\nlike, quoth the devil to the collier, this is your precise crew.\nAnd then he would send all home with a curse.\n\nATTEN. If those that make profession of religion be wise, Mr.\nBadman's watchings and words will make them the more wary, and\ncareful in all things.\n\nWISE. You say true. For when we see men do watch for our halting,\nand rejoice to see us stumble and fall, it should make us so much\nabundantly the more careful.\n\nI do think it was as delightful to Mr. Badman to hear, raise, and\ntell lies, and lying stories of them that fear the Lord, as it\nwas for him to go to bed when a weary. But we will at this time\nlet these things pass. For as he was in these things bad enough,\nso he added to these many more the like.\n\nHe was an angry, wrathful, envious man, a man that knew not what\nmeekness or gentleness meant, nor did he desire to learn. His\nnatural temper was to be surly, huffy, and rugged, and worse; and\nhe so gave way to his temper, as to this, that it brought him to\nbe furious and outrageous in all things, especially against goodness\nitself, and against other things too, when he was displeased.\n\nATTEN. Solomon saith, He is a fool that rageth (Prov 14:16).\n\nWISE. He doth so; and says moreover, that 'Anger resteth in the\nbosom of fools' (Eccl 7:9). And, truly, if it be a sign of a fool\nto have anger rest in his bosom, then was Mr. Badman, notwithstanding\nthe conceit that he had of his own abilities, a fool of no small\nsize.\n\nATTEN. Fools are mostly most wise in their own eyes.\n\nWISE. True; but I was a saying, that if it be a sign that a man\nis a fool, when anger rests in his bosom; then what is it a sign\nof, think you, when malice and envy rests there? For, to my knowledge\nMr. Badman was as malicious and as envious a man as commonly you\ncan hear of.\n\nATTEN. Certainly, malice and envy flow from pride and arrogancy,\nand they again from ignorance, and ignorance from the devil. And\nI thought, that since you spake of the pride of Mr. Badman before,\nwe should have something of these before we had done.\n\nWISE. Envy flows from ignorance indeed. And this Mr. Badman was so\nenvious an one, where he set against, that he would swell with it\nas a toad, as we say, swells with poison.[66] He whom he maligned,\nmight at any time even read envy in his face wherever he met with\nhim, or in whatever he had to do with him. His envy was so rank and\nstrong, that if it at any time turned its head against a man, it\nwould hardly ever be pulled in again; he would watch over that man\nto do him mischief, as the cat watches over the mouse to destroy\nit; yea, he would wait seven years, but he would have an opportunity\nto hurt him, and when he had it, he would make him feel the weight\nof his envy.\n\nEnvy is a devilish thing, the scripture intimates that none can\nstand before it: 'A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a\nfool's wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel, and anger\nis outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?' (Prov 27:3,4).\n\nThis envy, for the foulness of it, is reckoned among the foulest\nvillainies that are, as adultery, murder, drunkenness, revellings,\nwitchcrafts, heresies, seditions, &c. (Gal 5:19,20). Yea, it is\nso malignant a corruption, that it rots the very bones of him in\nwhom it dwells. 'A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy\nthe rottenness of the bones' (Prov 14:30).\n\nATTEN. This envy is the very father and mother of a great many\nhideous and prodigious wickednesses. I say, it is the very father\nand mother of them; it both begets them, and also nourishes them\nup, till they come to their cursed maturity in the bosom of him\nthat entertains them.\n\nWISE. You have given it a very right description, in calling of it\nthe father and mother of a great many other prodigious wickednesses;\nfor it is so venomous and vile a thing that it puts the whole\ncourse of nature out of order, and makes it fit for nothing but\nconfusion, and a hold for every evil thing: 'For where envying and\nstrife is, there is confusion, and every evil work' (James 3:16).\nWherefore, I say, you have rightly called it the very father\nand mother of a great many other sins. And now for our further\nedification, I will reckon up of some of the births of envy. 1.\nEnvy, as I told you before, it rotteth the very bones of him that\nentertains it. And, 2. As you have also hinted, it is heavier than\na stone, than sand; yea, and I will add, it falls like a millstone\nupon the head. Therefore, 3. It kills him that throws it, and him\nat whom it is thrown. 'Envy slayeth the silly one' (Job 5:2). That\nis, him in whom it resides, and him who is its object. 4. It was\nthat also that slew Jesus Christ himself; for his adversaries\npersecuted him through their envy (Matt 27:18; Mark 15:10). 5.\nEnvy was that, by virtue of which Joseph was sold by his brethren\ninto Egypt (Acts 7:9).\n\n6. It is envy that hath the hand in making of variance among God's\nsaints (Isa 11:13). 7. It is envy in the hearts of sinners, that\nstirs them up to trust God's ministers out of their coasts (Acts\n13:50, 14:6). 8. What shall I say? It is envy that is the very\nnursery of whisperings, debates, backbitings, slanders, reproaches,\nmurders, &c.\n\nIt is not possible to repeat all the particular fruits of this\nsinful root. Therefore, it is no marvel that Mr. Badman was such\nan ill-natured man, for the great roots of all manner of wickedness\nwere in him unmortified, unmaimed, untouched.\n\nATTEN. But it is a rare case, even this of Mr. Badman, that he\nshould never in all his life be touched with remorse for his\nill-spent life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n[HE GETS DRUNK AND BREAKS HIS LEG--GOD'S JUDGMENTS UPON DRUNKARDS.]\n\nWISE. Remorse, I cannot say he ever had, if by remorse you mean\nrepentance for his evils. Yet twice I remember he was under some\ntrouble of mind about his condition. Once when he broke his leg\nas he came home drunk from the ale-house; and another time when he\nfell sick, and thought he should die. Besides these two times, I\ndo not remember any more.\n\nATTEN. Did he break his leg then?\n\nWISE. Yes; once as he came home drunk from the ale-house.\n\nATTEN. Pray how did he break it?\n\nWISE. Why upon a time he was at an ale-house, that wicked house\nabout two or three miles from home, and having there drank hard\nthe greatest part of the day, when night was come, he would stay\nno longer, but calls for his horse, gets up and like a madman,\nas drunken persons usually ride, away he goes, as hard as horse\ncould lay legs to the ground. Thus he rid, till coming to a dirty\nplace, where his horse flouncing in, fell, threw his master, and\nwith his fall broke his leg. So there he lay. But you would not\nthink how he swore at first. But after a while, he coming to\nhimself, and feeling by his pain, and the uselessness of his leg,\nwhat case he was in, and also fearing that this bout might be his\ndeath; he began to cry out after the manner of such, Lord help\nme, Lord have mercy upon me, good God deliver me, and the like.\nSo there he lay, till some came by, who took him up, carried him\nhome, where he lay for some time, before he could go abroad again.\n\nATTEN. And then you say he called upon God.\n\nWISE. He cried out in his pain, and would say, O God, and, O\nLord, help me. But whether it was that his sin might be pardoned,\nand his soul saved, or whether to be rid of his pain, I will\nnot positively determine; though I fear it was but for the last;\nbecause when his pain was gone, and he had got hopes of mending,\neven before he could go abroad, he cast off prayer, and began\nhis old game; to wit, to be as bad as he was before.[67] He then\nwould send for his old companions; his sluts also would come to his\nhouse to see him, and with them he would be, as well as he could\nfor his lame leg, as vicious as they could be for their hearts.\n\nATTEN. It was a wonder he did not break his neck.\n\nWISE. His neck had gone instead of his leg, but that God was\nlong-suffering towards him; he had deserved it ten thousand times\nover. There have been many, as I have heard, and as I have hinted\nto you before, that have taken their horses when drunk as he; but\nthey have gone from the pot to the grave; for they have broken\ntheir necks betwixt the ale-house and home. One hard by us also\ndrunk himself dead; he drank, and died in his drink.\n\nATTEN. It is a sad thing to die drunk.\n\nWISE. So it is; but yet I wonder that no more do so. For considering\nthe heinousness of that sin, and with how many others sins it is\naccompanied, as with oaths, blasphemies, lies, revellings, whorings,\nbrawlings, &c., it is a wonder to me that any that live in that\nsin should escape such a blow from Heaven, that should tumble them\ninto their graves. Besides, when I consider also how, when they\nare as drunk as beasts, they, without all fear of danger, will ride\nlike bedlams and madmen, even as if they did dare God to meddle\nwith them if he durst, for their being drunk. I say, I wonder\nthat he doth not withdraw his protecting providences from them,\nand leave them to those dangers and destructions that by their sin\nthey have deserved, and that by their bedlam madness they would\nrush themselves into. Only I consider again, that he has appointed\na day wherein he will reckon with them, and doth also commonly\nmake examples of some, to show that he takes notice of their sin,\nabhors their way, and will count with them for it at the set time\n(Acts 17:30,31).\n\nATTEN. It is worthy of our remark, to take notice how God, to show\nhis dislike of the sins of men, strikes some of them down with a\nblow; as the breaking of Mr. Badman's leg, for doubtless that was\na stroke from heaven.\n\nWISE. It is worth our remark, indeed. It was an open stroke, it\nfell upon him while he was in the height of his sin; and it looks\nmuch like to that in Job--'Therefore he knoweth their works, and\noverturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He\nstriketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others.' Or, as\nthe margin reads it, 'in the place of beholders' (Job 34:25,26).\nHe lays them, with his stroke, in the place of beholders. There\nwas Mr. Badman laid; his stroke was taken notice of by every one,\nhis broken leg was at this time the town talk. Mr. Badman has broken\nhis leg, says one. How did he break it? says another. As he came\nhome drunk from such an ale-house, said a third. A judgment of God\nupon him, said a fourth. This his sin, his shame, and punishment,\nare all made conspicuous to all that are about him. I will here\ntell you another story or two.\n\nI have read, in Mr. Clark's Looking-glass for Sinners, that upon\na time a certain drunken fellow boasted in his cups that there was\nneither heaven nor hell; also he said he believed that man had no\nsoul, and that, for his own part, he would sell his soul to any\nthat would buy it. Then did one of his companions buy it of him\nfor a cup of wine, and presently the devil, in man's shape, bought\nit of that man again at the same price; and so, in the presence\nof them all, laid hold on the soul-seller, and carried him away\nthrough the air, so that he was never more heard of.[68]\n\nHe tells us also, that there was one at Salisbury, in the midst\nof his health, drinking and carousing in a tavern; and he drank a\nhealth to the devil, saying that if the devil would not come and\npledge him, he would not believe that there was either God or\ndevil. Whereupon his companions, stricken with fear, hastened out\nof the room; and presently after, hearing a hideous noise, and\nsmelling a stinking savour, the vintner ran up into the chamber;\nand coming in he missed his guest, and found the window broken,\nthe iron bar in it bowed, and all bloody. But the man was never\nheard of afterwards.[69]\n\nAgain, he tells us of a bailiff of Hedley, who, upon a Lord's day,\nbeing drunk at Melford, got upon his horse, to ride through the\nstreets, saying that his horse would carry him to the devil. And\npresently his horse threw him, and broke his neck. These things\nare worse than the breaking of Mr. Badman's leg; and should be a\ncaution to all of his friends that are living, lest they also fall\nby their sin into these sad judgments of God.\n\nBut, as I said, Mr. Badman quickly forgot all; his conscience\nwas choked before his leg was healed. And, therefore, before he\nwas well of the fruit of one sin, he tempts God to send another\njudgment to seize upon him. And so he did quickly after. For not\nmany months after his leg was well, he had a very dangerous fit\nof sickness, insomuch that now he began to think he must die in\nvery deed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n[HIS PRETENDED REPENTINGS AND PROMISES OF REFORM WHEN DEATH GRIMLY\nSTARES AT HIM.]\n\nATTEN. Well, and what did he think and do then?\n\nWISE. He thought he must go to hell; that I know, for he could\nnot forbear but say so. To my best remembrance, he lay crying out\nall one night for fear; and at times he would so tremble that he\nwould make the very bed shake under him. But O! how the thoughts\nof death, of hell-fire, and of eternal judgment, did then wrack\nhis conscience. Fear might be seen in his face, and in his tossings\nto and fro; it might also be heard in his words, and be understood\nby his heavy groans. He would often cry, I am undone, I am undone;\nmy vile life has undone me!\n\nATTEN. Then his former atheistical thoughts and principles were\ntoo weak now to support him from the fears of eternal damnation.\n\nWISE. Ay! they were too weak indeed. They may serve to stifle\nconscience, when a man is in the midst of his prosperity; and to\nharden the heart against all good counsel, when a man is left of\nGod, and given up to his reprobate mind. But, alas, atheistical\nthoughts, notions, and opinions must shrink and melt away, when\nGod sends, yea, comes with sickness to visit the soul of such a\nsinner for his sin. There was a man dwelt about twelve miles off\nfrom us, that had so trained up himself in his atheistical notions,\nthat at last he attempted to write a book against Jesus Christ,\nand against the Divine authority of the scriptures. But I think\nit was not printed. Well, after many days, God struck him with\nsickness, whereof he died. So, being sick, and musing upon his\nformer doings, the book that he had written came into his mind,\nand with it such a sense of his evil in writing of it, that it\ntore his conscience as a lion would tear a kid. He lay, therefore,\nupon his deathbed in sad case, and much affliction of conscience;\nsome of my friends also went to see him; and as they were in his\nchamber one day, he hastily called for pen, ink, and paper; which\nwhen it was given him, he took it and writ to this purpose:--I,\nsuch a one, in such a town, must go to hell-fire, for writing a\nbook against Jesus Christ, and against the Holy Scriptures. And\nwould also have leaped out of the window of his house, to have\nkilled himself, but was by them prevented of that; so he died in\nhis bed, such a death as it was. It will be well if others take\nwarning by him.[70]\n\nATTEN. This is a remarkable story.\n\nWISE. It is as true as remarkable. I had it from them that I dare\nbelieve, who also themselves were eye and ear witnesses; and also\nthat catched him in their arms, and saved him, when he would have\nleaped out of his chamber window, to have destroyed himself!\n\nATTEN. Well, you have told me what were Mr. Badman's thoughts now,\nbeing sick, of his condition; pray tell me also what he then did\nwhen he was sick?\n\nWISE. Did! he did many things which, I am sure, he never thought\nto have done; and which, to be sure, was not looked for of his\nwife and children. In this fit of sickness, his thoughts were\nquite altered about his wife; I say his thoughts, so far as could\nbe judged by his words and carriages to her. For now she was his\ngood wife, his godly wife, his honest wife, his duck and dear,\nand all. Now he told her that she had the best of it; she having\na good life to stand by her, while his debaucheries and ungodly\nlife did always stare him in the face. Now he told her the counsel\nthat she often gave him was good; though he was so bad as not to\ntake it.\n\nNow he would hear her talk to him, and he would lie sighing by her\nwhile she so did. Now he would bid her pray for him, that he might\nbe delivered from hell. He would also now consent that some of\nher good ministers might come to him to comfort him; and he would\nseem to show them kindness when they came, for he would treat them\nkindly with words, and hearken diligently to what they said; only\nhe did not care that they should talk much of his ill-spent life,\nbecause his conscience was clogged with that already. He cared not\nnow to see his old companions, the thoughts of them were a torment\nto him; and now he would speak kindly to that child of his that\ntook after its mother's steps, though he could not at all abide\nit before.\n\nHe also desired the prayers of good people, that God of his mercy\nwould spare him a little longer; promising that if God would but\nlet him recover this once, what anew, what a penitent man he would\nbe toward God, and what a loving husband he would be to his wife;\nwhat liberty he would give her, yea, how he would go with her\nhimself, to hear her ministers, and how they should go hand in\nhand in the way to heaven together.\n\nATTEN. Here was a fine show of things; I'll warrant you, his wife\nwas glad for this.\n\nWISE. His wife! ay, and a many good people besides. It was noised\nall over the town what a great change there was wrought upon Mr.\nBadman; how sorry he was for his sins, how he began to love his\nwife, how he desired good men should pray to God to spare him; and\nwhat promises he now made to God, in his sickness, that if ever\nhe should raise him from his sick bed to health again, what a new\npenitent man he would be towards God, and what a loving husband to\nhis good wife. Well, ministers prayed, and good people rejoiced,\nthinking verily that they now had gotten a man from the devil;\nnay, some of the weaker sort did not stick to say that God had\nbegun a work of grace in his heart; and his wife, poor woman, you\ncannot think how apt she was to believe it so; she rejoiced, and\nshe hoped as she would have it. But, alas! alas! in little time\nthings all proved otherwise.\n\nAfter he had kept his bed a while, his distemper began to abate,\nand he to feel himself better; so he in a little time was so finely\nmended, that he could walk about the house, and also obtained a\nvery fine stomach to his food; and now did his wife and her good\nfriends stand gaping to see Mr. Badman fulfil his promise of\nbecoming new towards God, and loving to his wife; but the contrary\nonly showed itself. For, so soon as ever he had hopes of mending,\nand found that his strength began to renew, his trouble began to\ngo off his heart, and he grew as great a stranger to his frights\nand fears, as if he never had them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n[DEATH LEAVES HIM FOR A SEASON, AND HE RETURNS TO HIS SIN LIKE A\nSOW THAT HAS BEEN WASHED TO HER WALLOWING IN THE MIRE.]\n\nBut verily, I am apt to think that one reason of his no more\nregarding or remembering of his sick-bed fears, and of being no\nbetter for them was some words that the doctor that supplied him\nwith physic said to him when he was mending. For as soon as Mr.\nBadman began to mend, the doctor comes and sits him down by him in\nhis house, and there fell into discourse with him about the nature\nof his disease; and among other things they talked of Badman's\ntrouble, and how he would cry out, tremble, and express his fears\nof going to hell when his sickness lay pretty hard upon him. To\nwhich the doctor replied, that those fears and outcries did arise\nfrom the height of his distemper; for that disease was often\nattended with lightness of the head, by reason the sick party\ncould not sleep, and for that the vapours disturbed the brain: but\nyou see, Sir, quoth he, that so soon as you got sleep and betook\nyourself to rest, you quickly mended, and your head settled, and\nso those frenzies left you. And it was so indeed, thought Mr.\nBadman; was my troubles only the effects of my distemper, and\nbecause ill vapours got up into my brain? Then surely, since my\nphysician was my saviour, my lust again shall be my god. So he\nnever minded religion more, but betook him again to the world, his\nlusts and wicked companions: and there was an end of Mr. Badman's\nconversion.\n\nATTEN. I thought, as you told me of him, that this would be the\nresult of the whole; for I discerned, by your relating of things,\nthat the true symptoms of conversion were wanting in him, and that\nthose that appeared to be anything like them, were only such as\nreprobates may have.\n\nWISE. You say right, for there wanted in him, when he was most\nsensible, a sense of the pollution of his nature; he only had\nguilt for his sinful actions, the which Cain, and Pharaoh, and\nSaul, and Judas, those reprobates, have had before him (Gen 4:13,14;\nExo 9:27; 1 Sam 15:24; Matt 27:3-5).\n\nBesides, the great things that he desired, were to be delivered\nfrom going to hell, and who would, willingly? and that his life\nmight be lengthened in this world. We find not, by all that he said\nor did, that Jesus Christ the Saviour was desired by him, from a\nsense of his need of his righteousness to clothe him, and of his\nSpirit to sanctify him. His own strength was whole in him, he saw\nnothing of the treachery of his own heart: for had he, he would\nnever have been so free to make promises to God of amendment. He\nwould rather have been afraid, that if he had mended, he should\nhave turned with the dog to his vomit, and have begged prayers of\nthe saints, and assistance from heaven upon that account, that he\nmight have been kept from doing so. It is true he did beg prayers\nof good people, and so did Pharaoh of Moses and Aaron, and Simon\nMagus of Simon Peter (Exo 9:28; Acts 8:24). His mind also seemed\nto be turned to his wife and child; but, alas! it was rather from\nconviction that God had given him concerning their happy estate\nover his, than for that he had any true love to the work of God\nthat was in them. True, some shows of kindness he seemed to have\nfor them, and so had rich Dives when in hell, to his five brethren\nthat were yet in the world: yea, he had such love as to wish them\nin heaven, that they might not come thither to be tormented (Luke\n16:27,28).\n\nATTEN. Sick-bed repentance is seldom good for anything.\n\nWISE. You say true, it is very rarely good for anything indeed.\nDeath is unwelcome to nature, and usually when sickness and death\nvisit the sinner; the first taking of him by the shoulder, and\nthe second standing at the bed-chamber door to receive him; then\nthe sinner begins to look about him, and to bethink with himself,\nthese will have me away before God; and I know that my life has\nnot been as it should, how shall I do to appear before God! Or\nif it be more the sense of the punishment, and the place of the\npunishment of sinners, that also is starting to a defiled conscience,\nnow roused by death's lumbering at the door. And hence usually is\nsick-bed repentance, and the matter of it; to wit, to be saved from\nhell, and from death, and that God will restore again to health\ntill they mend, concluding that it is in their power to mend, as\nis evident by their large and lavishing promises to do it. I have\nknown many that, when they have been sick, have had large measures\nof this kind of repentance, and while it has lasted, the noise\nand sound thereof has made the town to ring again. But, alas! how\nlong has it lasted? ofttimes scarce so long as until the party now\nsick has been well. It has passed away like a mist or a vapour,\nit has been a thing of no continuance. But this kind of repentance\nis by God compared to the howling of a dog. 'And they have not\ncried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds'\n(Hosea 7:14).\n\nATTEN. Yet one may see by this the desperateness of man's heart;\nfor what is it but desperate wickedness to make promise to God\nof amendment, if he will but spare them; and yet, so soon as they\nare recovered, or quickly after, fall to sin as they did before,\nand never to regard their promise more.\n\nWISE. It is a sign of desperateness indeed; yea, of desperate\nmadness (Deut 1:34,35). For, surely, they must needs think that\nGod took notice of their promise, that he heard the words that\nthey spake, and that he hath laid them up against the time to\ncome; and will then bring out, and testify to their faces, that\nthey flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their\ntongue, when they lay sick, to their thinking, upon their death-bed,\nand promised him that if he would recover them they would repent\nand amend their ways (Psa 78:34-37). But thus, as I have told\nyou, Mr. Badman did. He made great promises that he would be a\nnew man, that he would leave his sins and become a convert, that\nhe would love, &c. his godly wife, &c. Yea, many fine words had\nMr. Badman in his sickness, but no good actions when he was well.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n[HIS PIOUS WIFE DIES BROKEN-HEARTED.--HER DEATH-BED CHARGE TO\nHER FAMILY.]\n\nATTEN. And how did his good wife take it, when she saw that he had\nno amendment, but that he returned with the dog to his vomit, to\nhis old courses again?\n\nWISE. Why, it broke her heart, it was a worse disappointment to\nher than the cheat that he gave her in marriage. At least she laid\nit more to heart, and could not so well grapple with it. You must\nthink that she had put up many a prayer to God for him before,\neven all the time that he had carried it so badly to her, and now,\nwhen he was so affrighted in his sickness, and so desired that\nhe might live and mend; poor woman, she thought that the time was\ncome for God to answer her prayers; nay, she did not let[71] with\ngladness, to whisper it out amongst her friends, that it was\nso: but when she saw herself disappointed by her husband turning\nrebel again, she could not stand up under it, but falls into a\nlanguishing distemper, and in a few weeks gave up the ghost.\n\nATTEN. Pray how did she die?\n\nWISE. Die! she died bravely; full of comfort of the faith of her\ninterest in Christ, and by him, of the world to come. She had many\nbrave expressions in her sickness, and gave to those that came to\nvisit her many signs of her salvation; the thoughts of the grave,\nbut especially of her rising again, were sweet thoughts to her.\nShe would long of death, because she knew it would be her friend.\nShe behaved herself like to some that were making of them ready\nto go meet their bridegroom. Now, said she, I am going to rest\nfrom my sorrows, my sighs, my tears, my mournings, and complaints:\nI have heretofore longed to be among the saints, but might by no\nmeans be suffered to go, but now I am going, and no man can stop\nme, to the great meeting, 'to the general assembly, and church of\nthe first born which are written in heaven' (Heb 12:22-24). There\nI shall have my heart's desire; there I shall worship without\ntemptation or other impediment; there I shall see the face of my\nJesus, whom I have loved, whom I have served, and who now I know\nwill save my soul. I have prayed often for my husband, that he\nmight be converted, but there has been no answer of God in that\nmatter. Are my prayers lost? are they forgotten? are they thrown\nover the bar? No: they are hanged upon the horns of the golden\naltar, and I must have the benefit of them myself, that moment\nthat I shall enter into the gates, in at which the righteous nation\nthat keepeth truth shall enter: I say, I shall have the benefit\nof them. I can say as holy David; I say, I can say of my husband,\nas he could of his enemies: 'As for me, when they were sick, my\nclothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my\nprayer returned into mine own bosom' (Psa 35:13). My prayers are\nnot lost, my tears are yet in God's bottle; I would have had a\ncrown, and glory for my husband, and for those of my children that\nfollow his steps; but so far as I can see yet, I must rest in the\nhope of having all myself.\n\nATTEN. Did she talk thus openly?\n\nWISE. No: this she spake but to one or two of her most intimate\nacquaintance, who were permitted to come and see her, when she\nlay languishing upon her death-bed.\n\nATTEN. Well, but pray go on in your relation, this is good; I am\nglad to hear it, this is as a cordial to my heart while we sit\nthus talking under this tree.\n\nWISE. When she drew near her end, she called for her husband,\nand when he was come to her she told him that now he and she must\npart, and, said she, God knows, and thou shalt know, that I have\nbeen a loving, faithful wife unto thee; my prayers have been many\nfor thee; and as for all the abuses that I have received at thy\nhand, those I freely and heartily forgive, and still shall pray\nfor thy conversion, even as long as I breathe in this world. But\nhusband, I am going thither, where no bad man shall come, and if\nthou dost not convert, thou wilt never see me more with comfort;\nlet not my plain words offend thee; I am thy dying wife, and of\nmy faithfulness to thee, would leave this exhortation with thee;\nbreak off thy sins, fly to God for mercy while mercy's gate stands\nopen; remember that the day is coming, when thou, though now lusty\nand well, must lie at the gates of death as I do; and what wilt\nthou then do, if thou shalt be found with a naked soul, to meet\nwith the cherubims with their flaming swords? Yea, what wilt thou\nthen do, if death and hell shall come to visit thee, and thou in\nthy sins, and under the curse of the law?\n\nATTEN. This was honest and plain; but what said Mr. Badman to her?\n\nWISE. He did what he could to divert her talk, by throwing in other\nthings; he also showed some kind of pity to her now, and would\nask her what she would have? and with various kind of words put\nher out of her talk; for when she saw that she was not regarded,\nshe fetched a deep sigh, and lay still. So he went down, and then\nshe called for her children, and began to talk to them. And first\nshe spake to those that were rude, and told them the danger of\ndying before they had grace in their hearts. She told them also\nthat death might be nearer them than they were aware of; and bid\nthem look when they went through the churchyard again, if there\nwere not little graves there. And, ah children, said she, will\nit not be dreadful to you if we only shall meet at the day of\njudgment, and then part again, and never see each other more? And\nwith that she wept, the children also wept: so she held on her\ndiscourse. Children, said she, I am going from you; I am going to\nJesus Christ, and with him there is neither sorrow, nor sighing,\nnor pain, nor tears, nor death (Rev 7:16, 21:3,4). Thither would\nI have you go also, but I can neither carry you nor fetch you\nthither; but if you shall turn from your sins to God, and shall\nbeg mercy at his hands by Jesus Christ, you shall follow me,\nand shall, when you die, come to the place where I am going, that\nblessed place of rest; and then we shall be for ever together,\nbeholding the face of our Redeemer, to our mutual and eternal\njoy. So she bid them remember the words of a dying mother when she\nwas cold in her grave, and themselves were hot in their sins, if\nperhaps her words might put check to their vice, and that they\nmight remember and turn to God.\n\nThen they all went down but her darling, to wit, the child that she\nhad most love for, because it followed her ways. So she addressed\nherself to that. Come to me, said she, my sweet child, thou art the\nchild of my joy; I have lived to see thee a servant of God; thou\nshalt have eternal life. I, my sweet heart,[72] shall go before,\nand thou shalt follow after, if thou shalt 'hold the beginning\nof thy confidence stedfast unto the end' (Heb 3:14). When I am\ngone, do thou still remember my words. Love thy Bible, follow my\nministers, deny ungodliness still, and if troublesome times shalt\ncome, set a higher price upon Christ, his word, and ways, and the\ntestimony of a good conscience, than upon all the world besides.[73]\nCarry it kindly and dutifully to thy father, but choose none of\nhis ways. If thou mayest go to service, choose that rather than\nto stay at home; but then be sure to choose a service where thou\nmayest be helped forwards in the way to heaven; and that thou mayest\nhave such a service, speak to my minister, he will help thee, if\npossible, to such a one.\n\nI would have thee also, my dear child, to love thy brothers and\nsisters, but learn none of their naughty tricks. 'Have no fellowship\nwith the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them'\n(Eph 5:11). Thou hast grace, they have none; do thou therefore\nbeautify the way of salvation before their eyes, by a godly life\nand conformable conversation to the revealed will of God, that thy\nbrothers and sisters may see and be the more pleased with the good\nways of the Lord. If thou shalt live to marry, take heed of being\nserved as I was; that is, of being beguiled with fair words and\nthe flatteries of a lying tongue. But first be sure of godliness,\nyea, as sure as it is possible for one to be in this world. Trust\nnot thine own eyes, nor thine own judgment, I mean as to that\nperson's godliness that thou art invited to marry. Ask counsel of\ngood men, and do nothing therein, if he lives, without my minister's\nadvice. I have also myself desired him to look after thee. Thus\nshe talked to her children, and gave them counsel; and after she\nhad talked to this a little longer, she kissed it, and bid it go\ndown.\n\nWell, in short, her time drew on, and the day that she must die.\nSo she died, with a soul full of grace, a heart full of comfort,\nand by her death ended a life full of trouble. Her husband made\na funeral for her, perhaps because he was glad he was rid of her,\nbut we will leave that to the manifest at judgment.\n\nATTEN. This woman died well. And now we are talking of the dying\nof Christians, I will tell you a story of one that died some time\nsince in our town. The man was a godly old Puritan, for so the\ngodly were called in time past. This man, after a long and godly\nlife, fell sick, of the sickness whereof he died. And as he lay\ndrawing on, the woman that looked to him thought she heard music,\nand that the sweetest that ever she heard in her life, which also\ncontinued until he gave up the ghost. Now when his soul departed\nfrom him the music seemed to withdraw, and to go further and\nfurther off from the house, and so it went until the sound was\nquite gone out of hearing.\n\nWISE. What do you think that might be?\n\nATTEN. For ought I know the melodious notes of angels, that were\nsent of God to fetch him to heaven.\n\nWISE. I cannot say but that God goes out of his ordinary road\nwith us poor mortals sometimes. I cannot say this of this woman,\nbut yet she had better music in her heart than sounded in this\nwoman's ears.\n\nATTEN. I believe so; but pray tell me, did any of her other children\nhearken to her words, so as to be bettered in their souls thereby?\n\nWISE. One of them did, and became a very hopeful young man. But\nfor the rest I can say nothing.\n\nATTEN. And what did Badman do after his wife was dead?\n\nWISE. Why, even as he did before; he scarce mourned a fortnight\nfor her, and his mourning then was, I doubt, more in fashion than\nin heart.\n\nATTEN. Would he not sometimes talk of his wife when she was dead?\n\nWISE. Yes, when the fit took him, and could commend her too\nextremely, saying she was a good, godly, virtuous woman. But this\nis not a thing to be wondered at. It is common with wicked men to\nhate God's servants while alive, and to commend them when they are\ndead. So served the Pharisees the prophets. Those of the prophets\nthat were dead they commended, and those of them that were alive\nthey condemned. (Matt 23).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n[HE IS TRICKED INTO A SECOND MARRIAGE BY A WOMAN AS BAD AS\nHIMSELF.]\n\nATTEN. But did not Mr. Badman marry again quickly?\n\nWISE. No, not a good while after; and when he was asked the reason\nhe would make this slighty answer, Who would keep a cow of their\nown that can have a quart of milk for a penny? Meaning, who would\nbe at the charge to have a wife that can have a whore when he\nlisteth? So villainous, so abominable did he continue after the\ndeath of his wife. Yet at last there as one was too hard for him.\nFor getting of him to her upon a time, and making of him sufficiently\ndrunk, she was so cunning as to get a promise of marriage of him,\nand so held him to it, and forced him to marry her. And she, as the\nsaying is, was as good as he at all his vile and ranting tricks.\nShe had her companions as well as he had his, and she would meet\nthem too at the tavern and ale-house more commonly than he was aware\nof. To be plain, she was a very whore, and had as great resort\ncame to her, where time and place was appointed, as any of them\nall. Ay, and he smelt it too, but could not tell how to help it.\nFor if he began to talk, she could lay in his dish the whores that\nshe knew he haunted, and she could fit him also with cursing and\nswearing, for she would give him oath for oath, and curse for\ncurse.\n\nATTEN. What kind of oaths would she have?\n\nWISE. Why, damn her, and sink her, and the like.\n\nATTEN. These are provoking things.\n\nWISE. So they are; but God doth not altogether let such things\ngo unpunished in this life. Something of this I have showed you\nalready, and will here give you one or two instances more.\n\nThere lived, saith one, in the year 1551, in a city of Savoy, a\nman who was a monstrous curser and swearer, and though he was\noften admonished and blamed for it, yet would he by no means mend\nhis manners. At length a great plague happening in the city, he\nwithdrew himself [with his wife and a kinswoman] into a garden,\nwhere being again admonished to give over his wickedness, he\nhardened his heart more, swearing, blaspheming God, and giving\nhimself to the devil. And immediately the devil snatched him up\nsuddenly, his wife and kinswoman looking on, and carried him quite\naway. The magistrates, advertised hereof, went to the place and\nexamined the women, who justified the truth of it.\n\nAlso at Oster, in the duchy of Magalapole, saith Mr. Clark, a\nwicked woman used in her cursing to give herself body and soul\nto the devil, and being reproved for it, still continued the\nsame; till, being at a wedding-feast, the devil came in person,\nand carried her up into the air, with most horrible outcries and\nroarings; and in that sort carried her round about the town, that\nthe inhabitants were ready to die for fear. And by and by he tore\nher in four pieces, leaving her four quarters in four several\nhighways; and then brought her bowels to the marriage-feast, and\nthrew them upon the table before the mayor of the town, saying,\nBehold these dishes of meat belong to thee, whom the like destruction\nwaiteth for if thou dost not amend thy wicked life.\n\nATTEN. Though God forbears to deal thus with all men that thus rend\nand tear his name, and that immediate judgments do not overtake\nthem, yet he makes their lives by other judgments bitter to them,\ndoes he not?\n\nWISE. Yes, yes, and for proof, I need go no farther than to this\nBadman and his wife; for their railing, and cursing, and swearing\nended not in words. They would fight and fly at each other, and\nthat like cats and dogs. But it must be looked upon as the hand\nand judgment of God upon him for his villainy; he had an honest\nwoman before, but she would not serve his turn, and therefore\nGod took her away, and gave him one as bad as himself. Thus that\nmeasure that he meted to his first wife, this last did mete to\nhim again. And this is a punishment wherewith sometimes God will\npunish wicked men. So said Amos to Amaziah, 'Thy wife shall be a\nharlot in the city' (Amos 7:17). With this last wife Mr. Badman\nlived a pretty while; but, as I told you before, in a most sad and\nhellish manner. And now he would bewail his first wife's death;\nnot of love that he had to her godliness, for that he could never\nabide, but for that she used always to keep home, whereas this\nwould go abroad; his first wife was also honest, and true to that\nrelation, but this last was a whore of her body. The first woman\nloved to keep things together, but this last would whirl them\nabout as well as he. The first would be silent when he chid, and\nwould take it patiently when he abused her; but this would give\nhim word for word, blow for blow, curse for curse; so that now Mr.\nBadman had met with his match. God had a mind to make him see the\nbaseness of his own life in the wickedness of his wife's. But all\nwould not do with Mr. Badman, he would be Mr. Badman still. This\njudgment did not work any reformation upon him, no, not to God\nnor man.\n\nATTEN. I warrant you that Mr. Badman thought when his wife was\ndead, that next time he would match far better.\n\nWISE. What he thought I cannot tell, but he could not hope for\nit in this match. For here he knew himself to be catched, he knew\nthat he was by this woman entangled, and would therefore have\ngone back again, but could not. He knew her, I say, to be a whore\nbefore, and therefore could not promise himself a happy life with\nher. For he or she that will not be true to their own soul, and\ntherefore could not expect she should be true to him. But Solomon\nsays, 'A whore is a deep ditch,' and Mr. Badman found it true.\nFor when she had caught him in her pit, she would never leave him\ntill she had got him to promise her marriage; and when she had\ntaken him so far, she forced him to marry indeed. And after that,\nthey lived that life that I have told you.\n\nATTEN. But did not the neighbours take notice of this alteration\nthat Mr. Badman had made?\n\nWISE. Yes; and many of his neighbours, yea, many of those that\nwere carnal said, It is a righteous judgment of God upon him for\nhis abusive carriage and language to his other wife: for they were\nall convinced that she was a virtuous woman, and that he, vile\nwretch, had killed her, I will not say with, but with the want of\nkindness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n[HE PARTS FROM HIS WIFE--DISEASES ATTACK HIM UNDER CAPTAIN\nCONSUMPTION, HE ROTS AWAY, AND DIES IN SINFUL SECURITY.]\n\nATTEN. And how long, I pray, did they live thus together.\n\nWISE. Some fourteen or sixteen years, even until, though she also\nbrought something with her, they had sinned all away, and parted\nas poor as howlets. And, in reason, how could it be otherwise?\nhe would have his way, and she would have hers; he among his\ncompanions, and she among hers; he with his whores, and she with\nher rogues; and so they brought their[74] noble to ninepence.\n\nATTEN. Pray of what disease did Mr. Badman die, for now I perceive\nwe are come up to his death?\n\nWISE. I cannot so properly say that he died of one disease, for\nthere were many that had consented, and laid their heads together\nto bring him to his end. He was dropsical, he was consumptive, he\nwas surfeited, was gouty, and, as some say, he had a tang of the\npox in his bowels. Yet the captain of all these men of death that\ncame against him to take him away, was the consumption, for it\nwas that that brought him down to the grave.[75]\n\nATTEN. Although I will not say but the best men may die of a\nconsumption, a dropsy, or a surfeit; yea, that these may meet upon\na man to end him; yet I will say again, that many times these\ndiseases come through man's inordinate use of things. Much drinking\nbrings dropsies, consumptions, surfeits, and many other diseases;\nand I doubt that Mr. Badman's death did come by his abuse of\nhimself in the use of lawful and unlawful things. I ground this\nmy sentence upon that report of his life that you at large have\ngiven me.\n\nWISE. I think verily that you need not call back your sentence; for\nit is thought by many that by his cups and his queans he brought\nhimself to this his destruction: he was not an old man when he\ndied, nor was he naturally very feeble, but strong and of a healthy\ncomplexion. Yet, as I said, he moultered away, and went, when he\nset agoing, rotten to his grave. And that which made him stink when\nhe was dead, I mean, that made him stink in his name and fame,\nwas, that he died with a spice of the foul disease upon him. A man\nwhose life was full of sin, and whose death was without repentance.\n\nATTEN. These were blemishes sufficient to make him stink indeed.\n\nWISE. They were so, and they did do it. No man could speak well\nof him when he was gone. His name rotted above ground, as his\ncarcase rotted under. And this is according to the saying of the\nwise man, 'The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the\nwicked shall rot' (Prov 10:7).\n\nThis text, in both the parts of it, was fulfilled upon him and\nthe woman that he married first. For her name still did flourish,\nthough she had been dead almost seventeen years; but his began to\nstink and rot before he had been buried seventeen days.\n\nATTEN. That man that dieth with a life full of sin, and with a\nheart void of repentance, although he should die of the most golden\ndisease, if there were any thing that might be so called, I will\nwarrant him his name shall stink, and that in heaven and earth.\n\nWISE. You say true; and therefore doth the name of Cain, Pharaoh,\nSaul, Judas, and the Pharisees, though dead thousands of years\nago, stink as fresh in the nostrils of the world as if they were\nbut newly dead.\n\nATTEN. I do fully acquiesce with you in this. But, Sir, since you\nhave charged him with dying impenitent, pray let me see how you\nwill prove it; not that I altogether doubt it, because you have\naffirmed it, but yet I love to have proof for what men say in such\nweighty matters.\n\nWISE. When I said he died without repentance, I meant so far as\nthose that knew him could judge, when they compared his life, the\nWord, and his death together.\n\nATTEN. Well said, they went the right way to find out whether he\nhad, that is, did manifest that he had repentance or no. Now then\nshow me how they did prove he had none.\n\nWISE. So I will. And first, this was urged to prove it. He had\nnot in all the time of his sickness a sight and sense of his sins,\nbut was as secure, and as much at quiet, as if he had never sinned\nin all his life.\n\nATTEN. I must needs confess that this is a sign he had none. For\nhow can a man repent of that of which he hath neither sight nor\nsense? But it is strange that he had neither sight nor sense of\nsin now, when he had such a sight and sense of his evil before;\nI mean when he was sick before.\n\nWISE. He was, as I said, as secure now as if he had been as sinless\nas an angel; though all men knew what a sinner he was, for he\ncarried his sins in his forehead. His debauched life was read and\nknown of all men; but his repentance was read and known of no man;\nfor, as I said, he had none. And for ought I know, the reason why\nhe had no sense of his sins now was, because he profited not by\nthat sense that he had of them before. He liked not to retain that\nknowledge of God then, that caused his sins to come to remembrance.\nTherefore God gave him up now to a reprobate mind, to hardness\nand stupidity of spirit; and so was that scripture fulfilled upon\nhim, 'He hath blinded their eyes' (Isa 6:10). And that, 'Let their\neyes be darkened that they may not see' (Rom 11:10). O, for a man\nto live in sin, and to go out of the world without repentance for\nit, is the saddest judgment that can overtake a man.\n\nATTEN. But, Sir, although both you and I have consented that\nwithout a sight and sense of sin there can be no repentance, yet\nthat is but our bare say so; let us therefore now see if by the\nscripture we can make it good.\n\nWISE. That is easily done. The three thousand that were converted\n(Acts 2), repented not till they had sight and sense of their\nsins. Paul repented not till he had sight and sense of his sins\n(Act 9). The jailer repented not till the had sight and sense of\nhis sins; nor could they (Act 16). For of what should a man repent?\nThe answer is, Of sin. What is it to repent of sin? The answer is,\nTo be sorry for it, to turn from it. But how can a man be sorry\nfor it, that has neither sight nor sense of it? (Psa 38:18). David\ndid not only commit sins, but abode impenitent for them, until\nNathan the prophet was sent from God to give him a sight and sense\nof them; and then, but not till then, he indeed repented of them\n(2 Sam 12). Job, in order to his repentance, cries unto God, 'Show\nme wherefore thou contendest with me?' (Job 10:2). And again, 'That\nwhich I see not teach thou me, I have borne chastisement, I will\nnot offend any more' (Job 34:32). That is, not in what I know, for\nI will repent of it; nor yet in what I know not, when thou shalt\nshow me it. Also Ephraim's repentance was after he was turned to\nthe sight and sense of his sins, and after he was instructed about\nthe evil of them (Jer 31:18-20).\n\nATTEN. These are good testimonies of this truth, and do, if matter\nof fact, with which Mr. Badman is charged, be true, prove indeed\nthat he did not repent, but as he lived so he died in his sin (Job\n20:11). For without repentance a man is sure to die in his sin;\nfor they will lie down in the dust with him, rise at the judgment\nwith him, hang about his neck like cords and chains when he standeth\nat the bar of God's tribunal (Prov 5:22). And go with him, too,\nwhen he goes away from the judgment-seat, with a 'Depart from me,\nye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his\nangels' (Matt 25:41). And there shall fret and gnaw his conscience,\nbecause they will be to him a never-dying worm (Mark 9:44; Isa\n66:24).\n\nWISE. You say well, and I will add a word or two more to what I\nhave said. Repentance, as it is not produced without a sight and\nsense of sin, so every sight and sense of sin cannot produce it;\nI mean every sight and sense of sin cannot produce that repentance,\nthat is repentance unto salvation; repentance never to be repented\nof. For it is yet fresh before us, that Mr. Badman had a sight and\nsense of sin, in that fit of sickness that he had before, but it\ndied without procuring any such godly fruit; as was manifest by\nhis so soon returning with the dog to his vomit. Many people think\nalso that repentance stands in confession of sin only, but they\nare very much mistaken; for repentance, as was said before, is a\nbeing sorry for, and returning from transgression to God by Jesus\nChrist. Now, if this be true, that every sight and sense of sin\nwill not produce repentance, then repentance cannot be produced\nthere where there is no sight and sense of sin. That every sight\nand sense of sin will not produce repentance, to wit, the godly\nrepentance that we are speaking of, is manifest in Cain, Pharaoh,\nSaul, and Judas, who all of them had sense, great sense of sin,\nbut none of them repentance unto life.\n\nNow I conclude that Mr. Badman did die impenitent, and so a death\nmost miserable.\n\nATTEN. But pray now, before we conclude our discourse of Mr.\nBadman, give me another proof of his dying in his sins.\n\nWISE. Another proof is this, he did not desire a sight and sense\nof sins, that he might have repentance for them. Did I say he did\nnot desire it, I will add, he greatly desired to remain in his\nsecurity, and that I shall prove by that which follows. First, he\ncould not endure that any man now should talk to him of his sinful\nlife, and yet that was the way to beget a sight and sense of sin,\nand so of repentance from it, in his soul. But I say he could not\nendure such discourse. Those men that did offer to talk unto him\nof his ill-spent life, they were as little welcome to him, in\nthe time of his last sickness, as was Elijah when he went to meet\nwith Ahab as he went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard.\n'Hast thou found me,' said Ahab, 'O mine enemy?' (1 Kings 21:17-21).\nSo would Mr. Badman say in his heart to and of those that thus\ndid come to him, though indeed they came even of love to convince\nhim of his evil life, that he might have repented thereof and have\nobtained mercy.\n\nATTEN. Did good men then go to see him in his last sickness?\n\nWISE. Yes. Those that were his first wife's acquaintance, they\nwent to see him, and to talk with him, and to him, if perhaps he\nmight now, at last, bethink himself and cry to God for mercy.\n\nATTEN. They did well to try now at last if they could save his\nsoul from hell. But pray how can you tell that he did not care\nfor the company of such?\n\nWISE. Because of the differing carriage that he had for them from\nwhat he had when his old carnal companions came to see him. When\nhis old companions came to see him he would stir up himself as\nmuch as he could, both by words, and looks, to signify they were\nwelcome to him; he would also talk with them freely and look\npleasantly upon them, though the talk of such could be none other\nbut such as David said carnal men would offer to him when they\ncame to visit him in his sickness. 'If he come to see me,' says\nhe, 'he speaketh vanity, his heart gathereth iniquity to itself'\n(Psa 41:6). But these kind of talks, I say, Mr. Badman better\nbrooked than he did the company of better men.\n\nBut I will more particularly give you a character of his carriage\nto good men, and good talk, when they came to see him. 1. When\nthey were come he would seem to fail in his spirits at the sight\nof them. 2. He would not care to answer them to any of those\nquestions that they would at times put to him, to feel what sense\nhe had of sin, death, hell, and judgment. But would either say\nnothing or answer them by way of evasion, or else by telling of\nthem he was so weak and spent that he could not speak much. 3.\nHe would never show forwardness to speak to or talk with them,\nbut was glad when they held their tongues. He would ask them\nno question about his state and another world, or how he should\nescape that damnation that he had deserved. 4. He had got\na haunt[76] at last to bid his wife and keeper, when these good\npeople attempted to come to see him, to tell them that he was\nasleep, or inclining to sleep, or so weak for want thereof that\nhe could not abide any noise. And so they would serve them time\nafter time, till at last they were discouraged from coming to\nsee him any more. 5. He was so hardened now in this time of his\nsickness, that he would talk, when his companions came unto him,\nto the disparagement of those good men, and of their good doctrine\ntoo, that of love did come to see him, and that did labour to\nconvert him. 6. When these good men went away from him he would\nnever say, Pray, when will you be pleased to come again, for\nI have a desire to more of your company and to hear more of your\ngood instruction? No, not a word of that, but when they were going\nwould scarce bid them drink,[77] or say, Thank you for your good\ncompany and good instruction. 7. His talk in his sickness with\nhis companions would be of the world, as trades, houses, lands,\ngreat men, great titles, great places, outward prosperity or outward\nadversity, or some such carnal thing. By all which I conclude\nthat he did not desire a sense and sight of his sin, that he might\nrepent and be saved.\n\nATTEN. It must needs be so as you say, if these things be true\nthat you have asserted of him. And I do the rather believe them,\nbecause I think you dare not tell a lie of the dead.\n\nWISE. I was one of them that went to him and that beheld his carriage\nand manner of way, and this is a true relation of it that I have\ngiven you.\n\nATTEN. I am satisfied. But pray, if you can, show me now, by the\nWord, what sentence of God doth pass upon such men.\n\nWISE. Why, the man that is thus averse to repentance, that desires\nnot to hear of his sins that he might repent and be saved, is said\nto be a man that saith unto God, 'Depart from me, for I desire not\nthe knowledge of thy ways' (Job 21:14). He is a man that says in\nhis heart and with his actions, 'I have loved strangers [sins]\nand after them will I go' (Jer 2:25). He is a man that shuts his\neyes, stops his ears, and that turneth his spirit against God (Zech\n7:11,12; Acts 28:26,27). Yea, he is the man that is at enmity with\nGod, and that abhors him with his soul.\n\nATTEN. What other sign can you give me that Mr. Badman died without\nrepentance?\n\nWISE. Why, he did never heartily cry to God for mercy all the time\nof his affliction. True, when sinking fits, stitches, or pains\ntook hold upon him, then he would say, as other carnal men used\nto do, Lord, help me; Lord, strengthen me; Lord, deliver me, and\nthe like. But to cry to God for mercy, that he did not, but lay,\nas I hinted before, as if he never had sinned.\n\nATTEN. That is another bad sign indeed, for crying to God for mercy\nis one of the first signs of repentance. When Paul lay repenting\nof his sin upon his bed, the Holy Ghost said of him, 'Behold\nhe prayeth' (Acts 9:11). But he that hath not the first signs of\nrepentance, it is a sign he hath none of the other, and so indeed\nnone at all. I do not say but there may be crying where there\nmay be no sign of repentance. 'They cried,' says David, 'unto the\nLord, but he answered them not'; but that he would have done if\ntheir cry had been the fruit of repentance (Psa 18:41). But, I say,\nif men may cry and yet have no repentance, be sure they have none\nthat cry not at all. It is said in Job, 'they cry not when he\nbindeth them' (Job 36:13); that is, because they have no repentance;\nno repentance, no cries; false repentance, false cries; true\nrepentance, true cries.\n\nWISE. I know that it is as possible for a man to forbear crying\nthat hath repentance, as it is for a man to forbear groaning that\nfeeleth deadly pain. He that looketh into the book of Psalms, where\nrepentance is most lively set forth even in its true and proper\neffects, shall their find that crying, strong crying, hearty\ncrying, great crying, and incessant crying, hath been the fruits\nof repentance; but none of this had this Mr. Badman, therefore he\ndied in his sins.\n\nThat crying is an inseparable effect of repentance, is seen in\nthese scriptures--'Have mercy upon me, O God; according unto the\nmultitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions' (Psa\n51:1). 'O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten\nme in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am\nweak: O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also\nsore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver\nmy soul: O save me for thy mercies' sake' (Psa 6:1-4). 'O Lord,\nrebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure;\nfor thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.\nThere is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither\nis there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities\nare gone over mine head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for\nme. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness.\nI am troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the\nday long. My loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there\nis no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken; I have\nroared by reason of the disquietness of my heart' (Psa 38:1-8).\n\nI might give you a great number more of the holy sayings of good\nmen whereby they express how they were, what they felt, and whether\nthey cried or no when repentance was wrought in them. Alas, alas,\nit is as possible for a man, when the pangs of guilt are upon him,\nto forbear praying, as it is for a woman, when pangs of travail\nare upon her, to forbear crying. If all the world should tell me\nthat such a man hath repentance, yet if he is not a praying man\nI should not be persuaded to believe it.\n\nATTEN. I know no reason why you should, for there is nothing can\ndemonstrate that such a man hath it. But pray, Sir, what other\nsign have you by which you can prove that Mr. Badman died in his\nsins, and so in a state of damnation?\n\nWISE. I have this to prove it. Those who were his old and sinful\ncompanions in the time of his health, were those whose company\nand carnal talk he most delighted in in the time of his sickness.\nI did occasionally hint this before, but now I make it an argument\nof his want of grace, for where there is indeed a work of grace\nin the heart, that work doth not only change the heart, thoughts,\nand desires, but the conversation also; yea, conversation and\ncompany too. When Paul had a work of grace in his soul he essayed\nto join himself to the disciples. He was for his old companions\nin their abominations no longer. He was now a disciple, and was\nfor the company of disciples. 'And he was with them coming in and\ngoing out at Jerusalem' (Acts 9:27,28).\n\nATTEN. I thought something when I heard you make mention of it\nbefore. Thought I, this is a shrewd sign that he had not grace\nin his heart. Birds of a feather, thought I, will flock together.\nIf this man was one of God's children he would herd with God's\nchildren, his delight would be with and in the company of God's\nchildren. As David said, 'I am a companion of all them that fear\nthee, and of them that keep thy precepts' (Psa 119:63).\n\nWISE. You say well, for what fellowship hath he that believeth\nwith an infidel? And although it be true that all that join to\nthe godly are not godly, yet they that shall inwardly choose the\ncompany of the ungodly and open profane, rather than the company\nof the godly, as Mr. Badman did, surely are not godly men, but\nprofane. He was, as I told you, out of his element when good men\ndid come to visit him; but then he was where he would be, when\nhe had his vain companions about him. Alas! grace, as I said,\naltereth all, heart, life, company, and all; for by it the heart\nand man is made new. And a new heart and a new man must have objects\nof delight that are new, and like himself; 'Old things are passed\naway'; why? For 'all things are become new' (2 Cor 5:27). Now, if\nall things are become new, to wit, heart, mind, thoughts, desires,\nand delights, it followeth by consequence that the company must\nbe answerable; hence it is said, that they 'that believed were\ntogether'; that 'they went to their own company'; that they were\n'added to the church'; that they 'were of one heart and of one\nsoul'; and the like (Acts 2:44-47, 4:23,32). Now if it be objected\nthat Mr. Badman was sick, and so could not go to the godly, yet\nhe had a tongue in his head, and could, had he had a heart, have\nspoken to some to call or send for the godly to come to him. Yea,\nhe would have done so; yea, the company of all others, especially\nhis fellow-sinners, would, even in every appearance of them\nbefore him, have been a burden and a grief unto him. His heart\nand affection standing bent to good, good companions would have\nsuited him best. But his companions were his old associates, his\ndelight was in them, therefore his heart and soul were yet ungodly.\n\nATTEN. Pray, how was he when he drew near his end; for, I perceive,\nthat what you say of him now hath reference to him and to his\nactions at the beginning of his sickness? Then he could endure\ncompany and much talk; besides, perhaps then he thought he should\nrecover and not die, as afterwards he had cause to think, when he\nwas quite wasted with pining sickness, when he was at the grave's\nmouth. But how was he, I say, when he was, as we say, at the\ngrave's mouth, within a step of death, when he saw and knew, and\ncould not but know, that shortly he must die, and appear before\nthe judgment of God?\n\nWISE. Why, there was not any other alteration in him than what\nwas made by his disease upon his body. Sickness, you know, will\nalter the body, also pains and stitches will make men groan; but\nfor his mind he had no alteration there. His mind was the same,\nhis heart was the same. He was the self-same Mr. Badman still.\nNot only in name but conditions, and that to the very day of his\ndeath; yea, so far as could be gathered to the very moment in\nwhich he died.\n\nATTEN. Pray, how was he in his death? Was death strong upon him?\nor did he die with ease, quietly?\n\nWISE. As quietly as a lamb. There seemed not to be in it, to\nstanders by, so as a strong struggle of nature. And as for his\nmind, it seemed to be wholly at quiet. But, pray, why do you ask\nme this question?\n\nATTEN. Not for mine own sake, but for others. For there is such an\nopinion as this among the ignorant, that if a man dies, as they call\nit, like a lamb, that is, quietly, and without that consternation\nof mind that others show in their death, they conclude, and\nthat beyond all doubt, that such a one is gone to heaven, and is\ncertainly escaped the wrath to come.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n[FUTURE HAPPINESS NOT TO BE HOPED FROM A QUIET HARDENED DEATH.]\n\nWISE. There is no judgment to be made by a quiet death, of the\neternal state of him that so dieth. Suppose that one man should\ndie quietly, another should die suddenly, and a third should die\nunder great consternation of spirit, no man can judge of their\neternal condition by the manner of any of these kinds of deaths.\nHe that dies quietly, suddenly, or under consternation of spirit,\nmay go to heaven, or may go to hell; no man can tell whether a man\ngoes, by any such manner of death. The judgment, therefore, that\nwe make of the eternal condition of a man must be gathered from\nanother consideration, to wit, Did the man die in his sins? did\nhe die in unbelief? did he die before he was born again? then he\nhas gone to the devil and hell, though he died never so quietly.\nAgain, Was the man a good man? had he faith and holiness? was he\na lover and a worshipper of God by Christ according to his word?\nThen he is gone to God and heaven, how suddenly, or in what\nconsternation of mind soever he died. But Mr. Badman was naught,\nhis life was evil, his ways were evil, evil to his end. He therefore\nwent to hell and to the devil, how quietly soever he died.\n\nIndeed there is, in some cases, a judgment to be made of a man's\neternal condition by the manner of the death he dieth. As, suppose\nnow a man should murder himself, or live a wicked life, and after\nthat die in utter despair; these men, without doubt, do both\nof them go to hell. And here I will take an occasion to speak of\ntwo of Mr. Badman's brethren, for you know I told you before that\nhe had brethren, and of the manner of their death. One of them\nkilled himself, and the other, after a wicked life, died in utter\ndespair. Now, I should not be afraid to conclude of both these,\nthat they went by and through their death to hell.\n\nATTEN. Pray tell me concerning the first, how he made away with\nhimself?\n\nWISE. Why, he took a knife and cut his own throat, and immediately\ngave up the ghost and died. Now, what can we judge of such a man's\ncondition, since the scripture saith, 'No murderer hath eternal\nlife,' &c., but that it must be concluded that such a one is gone\nto hell. He was a murderer, self-murderer; and he is the worst\nmurderer, one that slays his own body and soul.[78] Nor do we find\nmention made of any but cursed ones that do such kind of deeds.\nI say, no mention made in Holy Writ of any others, but such that\nmurder themselves.\n\nAnd this is a sore judgment of God upon men, when God shall, for\nthe sins of such, give them up to be their own executioners, or\nrather to execute his judgment and anger upon themselves. And let\nme earnestly give this caution to sinners. Take heed, Sirs, break\noff your sins, lest God serves you as he served Mr. Badman's\nbrother; that is, lest he gives you up to be your own murderers.\n\nATTEN. Now you talk of this; I did once know a man, a barber, that\ntook his own razor and cut his own throat, and then put his head\nout of his chamber window, to show the neighbours what he had\ndone, and after a little while died.\n\nWISE. I can tell you a more dreadful thing than this; I mean as\nto the manner of doing the fact. There was, about twelve years\nsince, a man that lived at Brafield, by Northampton, named John\nCox, that murdered himself; the manner of his doing of it was thus.\nHe was a poor man, and had for some time been sick, and the time\nof his sickness was about the beginning of hay-time, and taking\ntoo many thoughts how he should live afterwards, if he lost his\npresent season of work, he fell into deep despair about the world,\nand cried out to his wife the morning before he killed himself,\nsaying, We are undone. But quickly after, he desired his wife to\ndepart the room, because, said he, I will see if I can get any\nrest; so she went out; but he, instead of sleeping, quickly took\nhis razor, and therewith cut up a great hole in his side, out of\nwhich he pulled and cut off some of his guts, and threw them, with\nthe blood, up and down the chamber. But this not speeding of him\nso soon as he desired, he took the same razor and therewith cut\nhis own throat. His wife, the hearing of him sigh and fetch his\nwind short, came again into the room to him, and seeing what he\nhad done, she ran out and called in some neighbours, who came to\nhim where he lay in a bloody manner, frightful to behold. Then\nsaid one of them to him, Ah! John, what have you done? Are you\nnot sorry for what you have done? He answered roughly, It is too\nlate to be sorry. Then, said the same person to him again, Ah!\nJohn, pray to God to forgive thee this bloody act of thine. At\nthe hearing of which exhortation he seemed much offended, and in\nan angry manner said, Pray! and with that flung himself away to\nthe wall, and so, after a few gasps, died desperately. When he\nhad turned him of his back to the wall, the blood ran out of his\nbelly as out of a bowl, and soaked quite through the bed to the\nboards, and through the chinks of the boards it ran pouring down\nto the ground. Some said that when the neighbours came to see him,\nhe lay groping with his hand in his bowels, reaching upward, as\nwas thought, that he might have pulled or cut out his heart. It\nwas said, also, that some of his liver had been by him torn out\nand cast upon the boards, and that many of his guts hung out of\nthe bed on the side thereof; but I cannot confirm all particulars;\nbut the general of the story, with these circumstances above\nmentioned, is true. I had it from a sober and credible person,\nwho himself was one that saw him in this bloody state, and that\ntalked with him, as was hinted before.\n\nMany other such dreadful things might be told you, but these\nare enough, and too many too, if God, in his wisdom, had thought\nnecessary to prevent them.\n\nATTEN. This is a dreadful story. And I would to God that it might\nbe a warning to others, to instruct them to fear before God, and\npray, lest he give them up to do as John Cox hath done. For surely\nself-murderers cannot go to heaven; and, therefore, as you have\nsaid, he that dieth by his own hands, is certainly gone to hell.\nBut speak a word or two of the other man you mentioned.\n\nWISE. What? of a wicked man dying in despair?\n\nATTEN. Yes, of a wicked man dying in despair.\n\nWISE. Well then. This Mr. Badman's other brother was a very wicked\nman, both in heart and life; I say in heart, because he was so\nin life, nor could anything reclaim him; neither good men, good\nbooks, good examples, nor God's judgments. Well, after he had\nlived a great while in his sins, God smote him with a sickness,\nof which he died. Now in his sickness his conscience began to be\nawakened, and he began to roar out of his ill-spent life, insomuch\nthat the town began to ring of him. Now, when it was noised about,\nmany of the neighbours came to see him, and to read by him, as is\nthe common way with some; but all that they could do, could not\nabate his terror, but he would lie in his bed gnashing of his\nteeth, and wringing of his wrists, concluding upon the damnation\nof his soul, and in that horror and despair he died; not calling\nupon God, but distrusting in his mercy, and blaspheming of his\nname.\n\nATTEN. This brings to my mind a man that a friend of mine told me\nof. He had been a wicked liver; so when he came to die, he fell\ninto despair; and having concluded that God had no mercy for him,\nhe addressed himself to the devil for favour, saying, Good devil,\nbe good unto me.\n\nWISE. This is almost like Saul, who being forsaken of God, went\nto the witch of Endor, and so to the devil for help (1 Sam 28).\nBut, alas, should I set myself to collect these dreadful stories,\nit would be easy in little time to present you with hundreds\nof them. But I will conclude as I began; they that are their own\nmurderers, or that die in despair, after they have lived a life\nof wickedness, do surely go to hell. And here I would put in\na caution. Every one that dieth under consternation of spirit;\nthat is, under amazement and great fear, do not therefore die in\ndespair. For a good man may have this for his bands in his death,\nand yet go to heaven and glory (Psa 73:4). For, as I said before,\nhe that is a good man, a man that hath faith and holiness, a lover\nand worshipper of God by Christ, according to his Word, may die in\nconsternation of spirit; for Satan will not be wanting to assault\ngood men upon their death-bed, but they are secured by the Word\nand power of God; yea, and are also helped, though with much agony\nof spirit, to exercise themselves in faith and prayer, the which\nhe that dieth in despair can by no means do. But let us return to\nMr. Badman, and enter further discourse of the manner of his death.\n\nATTEN. I think you and I are both of a mind; for just now I was\nthinking to call you back to him also. And pray now, since it is\nyour own motion to return again to him, let us discourse a little\nmore of his quiet and still death.\n\nWISE. With all my heart. You know we were speaking before of the\nmanner of Mr. Badman's death; how that he died still and quietly;\nupon which you made observation that the common people conclude,\nthat if a man dies quietly, and as they call it, like a lamb,\nhe is certainly gone to heaven; when, alas, if a wicked man died\nquietly, if a man that has all his days lived in notorious sin,\ndieth quietly; his quiet dying is so far off from being a sign\nof his being saved, that it is an uncontrollable proof of his\ndamnation. This was Mr. Badman's case, he lived wickedly even to\nthe last, and then went quietly out of the world; therefore Mr.\nBadman is gone to hell.\n\nATTEN. Well, but since you are upon it, and also so confident in\nit, to wit, that a man that lives a wicked life till he dies, and\nthen dies quietly, is gone to hell; let me see what show of proof\nyou have for this your opinion.\n\nWISE. My first argument is drawn from the necessity of repentance.\nNo man can be saved except he repents, nor can he repent that\nsees not, that knows not that he is a sinner; and he that knows\nhimself to be a sinner will, I will warrant him, be molested for\nthe time by that knowledge. this, as it is testified by all the\nscriptures, so it is testified by Christian experience. He that\nknows himself to be a sinner is molested, especially if that\nknowledge comes not to him until he is cast upon his death-bed;\nmolested, I say, before he can die quietly. Yea, he is molested,\ndejected, and cast down, he is also made to cry out, to hunger and\nthirst after mercy by Christ, and if at all he shall indeed come\nto die quietly, I mean with that quietness that is begotten by\nfaith and hope in God's mercy, to the which Mr. Badman and his\nbrethren were utter strangers, his quietness is distinguished by\nall judicious observers by what went before it, by what it flows\nfrom, and also by what is the fruit thereof.\n\nI must confess I am no admirer of sick-bed repentance, for I think\nverily it is seldom good of any thing. But I say, he that hath\nlived in sin and profaneness all his days, as Mr. Badman did,\nand yet shall die quietly, that is, without repentance steps in\nbetwixt his life and death, he is assuredly gone to hell, and is\ndamned.\n\nATTEN. This does look like an argument indeed; for repentance must\ncome, or else we must go to hell-fire; and if a lewd liver shall,\nI mean that so continues till the day of his death, yet go out of\nthe world quietly, it is a sign that he died without repentance,\nand so a sign that he is damned.\n\nWISE. I am satisfied in it, for my part, and that from the necessity\nand nature of repentance. It is necessary, because God calls for\nit, and will not pardon sin without it. 'Except ye repent, ye shall\nall likewise perish?' (Luke 13:1-7). This is that which God hath\nsaid, and he will prove but a foolhardy man that shall yet think\nto go to heaven and glory without it. Repent, for 'the axe is laid\nunto the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth\nnot forth good fruit,' but no good fruit can be where there is\nnot sound repentance, shall be 'hewn down, and cast into the fire'\n(Matt 3:10). This was Mr. Badman's case, he had attending of him\na sinful life, and that to the very last, and yet died quietly,\nthat is, without repentance; he is gone to hell and is damned.\nFor the nature of repentance, I have touched upon that already,\nand showed that it never was where a quiet death is the immediate\ncompanion of a sinful life; and therefore Mr. Badman is gone to\nhell.\n\nSecondly. My second argument is drawn from that blessed word of\nChrist. While the strong man armed keeps the house, 'his goods\nare in peace,' till a stronger than he comes (Luke 11:21). But\nthe strong man armed kept Mr. Badman's house, that is, his heart,\nand soul, and body, for he went from a sinful life quietly out\nof this world. The stronger did not disturb by intercepting with\nsound repentance betwixt his sinful life and his quiet death.\nTherefore Mr. Badman is gone to hell.\n\nThe strong man armed is the devil, and quietness is his security.\nThe devil never fears losing of the sinner, if he can but keep\nhim quiet. Can he but keep him quiet in a sinful life, and quiet\nin his death, he is his own. Therefore he saith, 'his goods are\nin peace'; that is, out of danger. There is no fear of the devil's\nlosing such a soul, I say, because Christ, who is the best judge\nin this matter, saith, 'his goods are in peace,' in quiet, and\nout of danger.\n\nATTEN. This is a good one too; for, doubtless, peace and quiet\nwith sin is one of the greatest signs of a damnable state.\n\nWISE. So it is. Therefore, when God would show the greatness of\nhis anger against sin and sinners in one word, he saith, They are\n'joined to idols; let them alone' (Hosea 4:17). Let them alone,\nthat is, disturb them not; let them go on without control; let the\ndevil enjoy them peaceably, let him carry them out of the world\nunconverted quietly. This is one of the sorest of judgments, and\nbespeaketh the burning anger of God against sinful men. See also\nwhen you come home, the fourteenth verse of the fourth chapter\nof Hosea, 'I will not punish your daughters when they commit\nwhoredom.' I will let them alone, they shall live and die in their\nsins. But,\n\nThirdly. My third argument is drawn from that saying of Christ,\n'He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they\nshould not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,\nand be converted, and I should heal them' (John 12:40). There are\nthree things that I will take notice of from these words.\n\n1. The first is, that there can be no conversion to God where the\neye is darkened, and the heart hardened. The eye must first be\nmade to see, and the heart to break and relent under and for sin,\nor else there can be no conversion. 'He hath blinded their eyes,\nand hardened their heart, lest they should see, and understand\nand' so 'be converted.' And this was clearly Mr. Badman's case; he\nlived a wicked life, and also died with his eyes shut, and heart\nhardened, as is manifest, in that a sinful life was joined with\na quiet death; and all for that he should not be converted, but\npartake of the fruit of his sinful life in hell-fire.\n\n2. The second thing that I take notice of from these words is, that\nthis is a dispensation and manifestation of God's anger against\na man for his sin. When God is angry with men, I mean, when he is\nso angry with them, this among many is one of the judgments that\nhe giveth them up unto, to wit, to blindness of mind, and hardness\nof heart, which he also suffereth to accompany them till they\nenter in at the gates of death. And then, and there, and not short\nof then and there, their eyes come to be opened.[79] Hence it is\nsaid of the rich man mentioned in Luke, 'He died, and in hell he\nlifted up his eyes' (Luke 16:22). Implying that he did not lift\nthem up before; he neither saw what he had done, nor whither\nhe was going, till he came to the place of execution, even into\nhell. He died asleep in his soul; he died besotted, stupefied,\nand so consequently for quietness like a child or lamb, even as\nMr. Badman did. This was a sign of God's anger; he had a mind to\ndamn him for his sins, and therefore would not let him see nor\nhave a heart to repent for them, lest he should convert; and his\ndamnation, which God had appointed, should be frustrate. 'Lest\nthey should be converted, and I should heal them.'\n\n3. The third thing I take notice of from hence is, that a sinful\nlife and a quiet death annexed to it is the ready, the open, the\nbeaten, the common highway to hell: there is no surer sign of\ndamnation than for a man to die quietly after a sinful life. I do\nnot say that all wicked men that are molested at their death with\na sense of sin and fears of hell do therefore go to heaven, for\nsome are also made to see, and are left to despair, not converted\nby seeing, that they might go roaring out of this world to their\nplace. But I say there is no surer sign of a man's damnation than\nto die quietly after a sinful life; than to sin and die with his\neyes shut; than to sin and die with an heart that cannot repent.\n'He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they\nshould not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart'\n(John 12:40). No not so long as they are in this world, 'Lest they\nshould see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and\nshould be converted, and I should heal them' (Acts 28:26,27; Rom\n2:1-5).\n\nGod has a judgment for wicked men; God will be even with wicked\nmen. God knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of judgment\nto be punished (2 Peter 2). And this is one of his ways by which\nhe doth it. Thus it was with Mr. Badman.\n\n4. Fourthly, it is said in the book of Psalms, concerning the\nwicked, 'There are no bands in their death, but their strength is\nfirm' (Psa 73:4-6). By no bands he means no troubles, no gracious\nchastisements, no such corrections for sin as fall to be the lot of\nGod's people for theirs; yea, that many times falls to be theirs\nat the time of their death. Therefore he adds concerning the\nwicked, 'They are not in trouble [then] as other men, neither are\nthey plagued like other men'; but go as securely out of the world\nas if they had never sinned against God, and put their own souls\ninto danger of damnation. 'There is no bands in their death.' They\nseem to go unbound, and set at liberty out of this world, though\nthey have lived notoriously wicked all their days in it. The\nprisoner that is to die at the gallows for his wickedness, must\nfirst have his irons knocked off his legs; so he seems to go\nmost at liberty, when indeed he is going to be executed for his\ntransgressions. Wicked men also have no bands in their death, they\nseem to be more at liberty when they are even at the wind-up of\ntheir sinful life, than at any time besides.\n\nHence you shall have them boast of their faith and hope in God's\nmercy when they lie upon their death-bed; yea, you shall have\nthem speak as confidently of their salvation as if they had served\nGod all their days; when the truth is, the bottom of this their\nboasting is because they have no bands in their death. Their\nsin and base life comes not into their mind to correct them, and\nbring them to repentance; but presumptuous thoughts, and a hope\nand faith of the spider's, the devil's, making, possesseth their\nsoul, to their own eternal undoing (Job 8:13,14).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\n[WITHOUT GODLY REPENTANCE, THE WICKED MAN'S HOPE AND LIFE DIE\nTOGETHER.]\n\nHence wicked men's hope is said to die, not before, but with them;\nthey give up the ghost together. And thus did Mr. Badman. His sins\nand his hope went with him to the gate, but there his hope left\nhim, because he died there; but his sins went in with him, to be\na worm to gnaw him in conscience for ever and ever.\n\nThe opinion, therefore of the common people concerning this kind\nof dying is frivolous and vain; for Mr. Badman died like a lamb,\nor, as they call it, like a chrisom-child,[80] quietly and without\nfear. I speak not this with reference to the struggling of nature\nwith death, but as to the struggling of the conscience with the\njudgment of God. I know that nature will struggle with death. I\nhave seen a dog and sheep die hardly. And thus may a wicked man\ndo, because there is an antipathy betwixt nature and death. But\neven while, even then, when death and nature are struggling for\nmastery, the soul, the conscience, may be as besotted, as benumbed,\nas senseless and ignorant of its miserable state, as the block\nor bed on which the sick lies. And thus they may die like a\nchrisom-child in show, but indeed like one who by the judgment of\nGod is bound over to eternal damnation; and that also by the same\njudgment is kept from seeing what they are, and whither they are\ngoing, till they plunge down among the flames.\n\nAnd as it is a very great judgment of God on wicked men that so\ndie, for it cuts them off from all possibility of repentance, and\nso of salvation, so it is as great a judgment upon those that are\ntheir companions that survive them, for by the manner of their\ndeath, they dying so quietly, so like unto chrisom-children,\nas they call it, they are hardened, and take courage to go on in\ntheir course.\n\nFor comparing their life with their death, their sinful, cursed\nlives, with their childlike, lamblike death, they think that all\nis well, that no damnation is happened to them; though they lived\nlike devils incarnate, yet they died like harmless ones. there was\nno whirlwind, no tempest, no band or plague in their death. They\ndied as quietly as the most godly of them all, and had as great\nfaith and hope of salvation, and would talk as boldly of salvation\nas if they had assurance of it. But as was their hope in life,\nso was their death; their hope was without trial, because it was\nnone of God's working, and their death was without molestation,\nbecause so was the judgment of God concerning them.\n\nBut I say, at this their survivors take heart to tread their\nsteps, and to continue to live in the breach of the law of God;\nyea, they carry it stately in their villainies; for so it follows\nin the Psalm; 'There are no bands in their death, but their strength\nis firm,' &c. 'therefore pride compasseth them,' the survivors,\n'about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment' (Psa\n73:6). Therefore they take courage to do evil, therefore they pride\nthemselves in their iniquity. Therefore, wherefore? Why, because\ntheir fellows died, after they had lived long in a most profane\nand wicked life, as quietly and as like to lambs as if they had\nbeen innocent.\n\nYea, they are bold, by seeing this, to conclude that God either\ndoes not, or will not, take notice of their sins. They 'speak\nwickedly, and speak loftily' (Psa 73:8). They speak wickedly of\nsin, for that they make it better than by the Word it is pronounced\nto be. They speak wickedly concerning oppression that they commend,\nand count it a prudent act. They also speak loftily. 'They set\ntheir mouth against the heavens,' &c. 'And they say, How doth God\nknow? and is there knowledge in the Most High?' (Psa 73:11). And\nall this, so far as I can see, ariseth in their hearts from the\nbeholding of the quiet and lamblike death of their companions.\n'Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world,' that is,\nby wicked ways; 'they increase in riches' (Psa 73:12).\n\nThis therefore is a great judgment of God, both upon that man that\ndieth in his sins, and also upon his companion that beholdeth him\nso to die. He sinneth, he dieth in his sins, and yet dieth quietly.\nWhat shall his companion say to this? What judgment shall he make\nhow God will deal with him, by beholding the lamblike death of\nhis companion? Be sure he cannot, as from such a sight, say, Woe\nbe to me, for judgment is before him. He cannot gather that sin\nis a dreadful and a bitter thing, by the childlike death of Mr.\nBadman. But must rather, if he judgeth according to what he sees,\nor according to his corrupted reason, conclude with the wicked\nones of old, that 'every one that doth evil is good in the sight\nof the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of\njudgment?' (Mal 2:17).\n\nYea, this is enough to puzzle the wisest man. David himself was put\nto a stand by beholding the quiet death of ungodly men. 'Verily,'\nsays he, 'I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands\nin innocency' (Psa 73:13). They, to appearance, fare better by far\nthan I: 'Their eyes stand out with fatness,' they have more than\nheart could wish. But all the day long have I been plagued, and\nchastened every morning. This, I say, made David wonder, yea, and\nJob and Jeremiah too. But he goeth into the sanctuary, and then\nhe understands their end, nor could he understand it before. 'I\nwent into the sanctuary of God.' What place was that? Why there\nwhere he might inquire of God, and by him he resolved of this\nmatter; 'Then,' says he, 'understood I their end.' Then I saw that\nthou hast 'set them in slippery places,' and that 'thou castedst\nthem down to destruction.' Castedst them down, that is, suddenly,\nor, as the next words say, 'As in a moment they are utterly consumed\nwith terrors'; which terrors did not seize[81] them on their\nsick-bed, for they had 'no bands' in their death. The terrors,\ntherefore, seized them there, where also they are holden in them for\never. This he found out, I say, but not without great painfulness,\ngrief, and pricking in his reins; so deep, so hard, and so difficult\ndid he find it rightly to come to a determination in this matter.\n\nAnd, indeed, this is a deep judgment of God towards ungodly sinners;\nit is enough to stagger a whole world, only the godly that are in\nthe world have a sanctuary to go to, where the oracle and Word of\nGod is, by which his judgments, and a reason of many of them are\nmade known to, and understood by them.\n\nATTEN. Indeed this is a staggering dispensation. It is full of the\nwisdom and anger of God. And I believe, as you have said, that it\nis full of judgment to the world. Who would have imagined, that\nhad not known Mr. Badman, and yet had seen him die, but that he\nhad been a man of an holy life and conversation, since he died so\nstilly, so quietly, so like a lamb or a chrisom-child? Would they\nnot, I say, have concluded that he was a righteous man? or that\nif they had known him and his life, yet to see him die so quietly,\nwould they not have concluded that he had made his peace with God?\nNay farther, if some had known that he had died in his sins, and\nyet that he had died so like a lamb, would they not have concluded\nthat either God doth not know our sins, or that he likes them; or\nthat he wants power, or will, or heart, or skill, to punish them;\nsince Mr. Badman himself went from a sinful life so quietly, so\npeaceable, and so like a lamb as he did?\n\nWISE. Without controversy, this is a heavy judgment of God upon\nwicked men; one goes to hell in peace, another goes to hell in\ntrouble; one goes to hell, being sent thither by his own hands;\nanother goes to hell, being sent thither by the hand of his\ncompanion; one goes thither with his eyes shut, and another goes\nthither with his eyes open; one goes thither roaring, and another\ngoes thither boasting of heaven and happiness all the way he goes\n(Job 21:23). One goes thither like Mr. Badman himself, and others\ngo thither as did his brethren. But above all, Mr. Badman's death,\nas to the manner of dying, is the fullest of snares and traps to\nwicked men; therefore, they that die as he are the greatest stumble\nto the world. They go, and go, they go on peaceably from youth to\nold age, and thence to the grave, and so to hell, without noise.\n'They go as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the\ncorrection of the stocks'; that is, both senselessly and securely.\nO! but being come at the gates of hell. O! but when they see those\ngates set open for them. O! but when they see that that is their\nhome, and that they must go in thither, then their peace and\nquietness flies away for ever. Then they roar like lions, yell\nlike dragons, howl like dogs, and tremble at their judgment, as\ndo the devils themselves. O! when they see they must shoot the\ngulf and throat of hell! when they shall see that hell hath shut\nher ghastly jaws upon them, when they shall open their eyes and\nfind themselves within the belly and bowels of hell! Then they\nwill mourn, and weep, and hack, and gnash their teeth for pain.\nBut his must not be, or if it must, yet very rarely, till they\nare gone out of the sight and hearing of those mortals whom they\ndo leave behind them alive in the world.\n\nATTEN. Well, my good neighbour Wiseman, I perceive that the sun\ngrows low, and that you have come to a conclusion with Mr. Badman's\nlife and death; and, therefore, I will take my leave of you. Only\nfirst, let me tell you, I am glad that I have met with you to-day,\nand that our hap was to fall in with Mr. Badman's state. I also\nthank you for your freedom with me, in granting of me your reply\nto all my questions. I would only beg your prayers that God will\ngive me much grace, that I may neither live nor die as did Mr.\nBadman.\n\nWISE. My good neighbour Attentive, I wish your welfare in soul\nand body; and if aught that I have said of Mr. Badman's life and\ndeath may be of benefit unto you, I shall be heartily glad; only\nI desire you to thank God for it, and to pray heartily for me,\nthat I with you may be kept by the power of God through faith unto\nsalvation.\n\nATTEN. Amen. Farewell.\n\nWISE. I wish you heartily farewell.\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Reynolds' preface to God's Revenge against Murder.\n\n[2] Quirk, an artful or subtle evasion of a truthful home-thrust.--Ed.\n\n[3] Butt, a mark set up to shoot at. 'Some are always exposed to\nthe wit and raillery of their well-wishers, pelted by friends and\nfoes, in a word, stand as butts.'--Spectator, No. 47.--Ed.\n\n[4] The office of a Christian minister is like that of a king's\nmessenger, not only to comfort and reward the king's friends, but\nto arrest his enemies. England was then overrun with the latter\n'game.' Alas! there are too many of them now. May the revival of\nthis shot 'light upon many.'--Ed.\n\n[5] 'Fire to the pan,' alluding to the mode of using fire-arms,\nby applying a lighted match to the pan, before the fire-lock was\ninvented.--Ed.\n\n[6] In the single combat of quarter-staff, he who held the best\nend of the staff usually gained the victory.--Ed.\n\n[7]: Pilgrim's Progress, Interpreter's House. This is a remarkable\nillustration of a difficult part of the allegory--faithful admonitions\nrepaid by murderous revenge, but overcome by Christian courage.--Ed.\n\n[8] 'The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Cor\n6:9). Instead of Christ, the Prince of peace, being theirs, the\nprince of the power of the air is theirs; instead of the comforts\nof the gospel, the curses of the law are theirs; instead of heaven,\nhell is theirs and an exclusion from God and happiness for ever!\nSinner, think NOW on these things.--Mason.\n\n[9]: These Scriptures have often been perverted to justify the\nmost cruel punishments inflicted on helpless children. The word\ntranslated 'a rod,' is derived from the Hebrew verb 'to govern,'\nand, as a noun, signifies a sceptre, a pen, or a staff, the emblems\nof government. Brutal punishments, as practised in our army, navy,\nand schools, are not only inhuman and indecent, but have one direct\ntendency, that of hardening the mind and instilling a vindictive\nferocious disposition. After bringing up a very large family, who\nare a blessing to their parents, I have yet to learn what part\nof the human body was created to be beaten. There are infinitely\nbetter modes of instructing, correcting, and governing children,\nthan that of bruising their flesh, or breaking their bones, or\neven of a box on the ear.--Ed.\n\n[10] Peculiarly awful are the denunciations of the Scriptures\nagainst the crime of lying. The liar and the murderer are joined\ntogether to receive the curse. 'Thou shalt destroy them that speak\nlies--the man of blood and of deceit are abhorred of the Lord'\n(Psa 5:6).\n\n[11] The first edition has 'Saphhira and his wife.' It is not\nnoticed in the errata, but was corrected in the later copies.--Ed.\n\n[12] The solemn importance of instilling right principles into\nthe mind, from the first dawn of reason, cannot be too strongly\nenforced. Many a wretched midnight burglar commenced his career\nof vice and folly by stealing fruit, followed by thieving anything\nthat he could HANDSOMELY. Pilfering, unless severely checked, is\na hotbed for the foulest crimes.--Ed.\n\n[13] Poultry.--Ed.\n\n[14] 'Gloating,' staring sulkily; or with an evil eye.--Ed.\n\n[15] Point, a tag or metal point fixed on the end of a lace. Fox\nnarrates that a martyr, brought to the stake in his shirt, took a\npoint from his hose, and trussed in his shirt between his legs.--Ed.\n\n[16]: 'Sin will at first, just like a beggar, crave One penny or one\nhalfpenny to have; And if you grant its first suit, 'twill aspire\nFrom pence to pounds, and so will still mount higher To the whole\nsoul.'--Bunyan's Caution against Sin.\n\n[17] Christian assemblies are the life, food, and nourishment of\nour souls; consequently the forsaking of them, and the profanation\nof the Sabbath, are usually the forerunners of apostacy.--Mason.\n\n[18] Profane swearers use the language of hell before they arrive\nat their awful destination. Were God to answer their imprecations\nthey would be miserable beyond conception. 'Because of swearing\nthe land mourneth.'--Ed.\n\n[19] Profane cursing and swearing was awfully fashionable in Bunyan's\ndays. This led many pious persons to denounce oaths altogether;\nand the time is fast coming when the world will agree with the\nQuakers that an affirmation is the best test of truth. It is like\nthe controversy of the teetotallers; some who would be ashamed of\ntaking intoxicating liquors, except as medicine, will soon throw\nsuch physics to the dogs or on the dunghill.--Ed.\n\n[20] This is one of Bunyan's home-thrusts at Popery. Classing the\nmass, our lady-saints, and beasts, among the idols or objects of\ndivine worship. He omits an oath very common among Irish labourers,\nwhich much puzzled me when a boy, 'bloodunoons,' meaning the\nbleeding wounds of the Saviour. How thankful ought we to be that,\nin our days, profane swearing stamps, upon any one who uses it,\nthe character of a blackguard.--ED\n\n[21] Out of public view--obscure, contemptible. See Imperial\nDictionary.--Ed.\n\n[22] Thank Heaven such enormous brutalities have fled before the\nbenign enlightening influence of the gospel. To suffocate a man,\nin order to drive out an imaginary evil spirit, was like the\npopular trial for witchcraft. The poor woman, if cross, and old,\nand ugly, her hands and legs being tied together, was thrown into\ndeep water; if she floated, it was a proof of guilt to hang her,\nif she sunk and was drowned, she was declared to be innocent!--Ed.\n\n[23] Parallels to these important proverbs are found in all languages\nderived from the Hebrew. 'There is nothing hid from God,' and\n'There is nothing hid that shall not be known' (Jer 32; Matt 10).\nIn French, 'Leo murailles ont des oreilles--Walls have ears.'\nShakespeare, alluding to a servant bringing in a pitcher, as\na pretence to enable her to overhear a conversation, uses this\nproverb, 'pitchers have ears and I have many servants.' May that\nsolemn truth be impressed upon every heart, that however screened\nfrom human observation, 'Thou God seest me.'--Ed.\n\n[24] No period in English history was so notorious for the publication\nof immoral books, calculated to debauch the mind, as the reign of\nCharles II. It must have been more painfully conspicuous to Bunyan,\nwho had lived under the moral discipline of the Commonwealth.--Ed.\n\n[25]: From __________ chief, 'my worthy arch and patron.'--King\nLear; or from the Teutonic 'arg,' a rogue. It usually denotes\nroguish, knavish, sly, artful.--Ed.\n\n[26] This is one among a multitude of proofs of the popularity\nand high esteem in which Bunyan was held, even while a prisoner\nfor Christ's sake.--Ed.\n\n[27] Reader, bless God that you live in a happier day than that\nof Bunyan. The reign of Charles II was pre-eminently distinguished\nfor licentiousness and debauchery. Still there were some who\ncrucified the flesh, with its lusts, and held every obscene word\nin detestation and abhorrence; because it is written 'be ye holy,\nfor I am holy.' Such must have sorely dazzled the owls of debauchery.\nCan we wonder that they tormented and imprisoned them?--Ed.\n\n[28] How often is suicide committed without poison, suffocation,\nthe knife, or firearms. About forty years ago one of my neighbours\nwas told by his doctor that, unless he gave up the bottle, it would\nsend him into another world. He called his servant and ordered\nwine, saying, I had rather die than give up all my enjoyments. In\nabout six months I saw his splendid funeral.--Ed.\n\n[29] The remorse and stings of conscience seducers will feel in\nthe next life, for being the instruments of so much wickedness\nand desolation in others, will prove to them a thousand hells.--Mason.\n\n[30] Ungodly, Christless, prayerless families are little hells--filthy\nfountains, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; they are the blind\nand willing captives of sin and Satan, going down to the chambers\nof death and endless despair.--Ed.\n\n[31] 'In grain,' material dyed before it is manufactured, so that\nevery grain receives the colour, which becomes indelible.--Ed.\n\n[32] By 'a piece of money' is here meant two hundred pounds. It\nprobably means a portion or piece of his fortune.--Ed.\n\n[33] From the Anglo-Saxon 'Eggian,' to incite, urge.--Ed.\n\n[34] The Genevan or Puritan version of this passage is very striking:\n'he that feedeth the gluttons, shameth his father.'--Ed.\n\n[35] This is one of the numerous passages of Holy Writ which are\nmore expressive without than with the words supplied in italics:\nwomen are not exempt from the 'rags' which must ever follow\ndrowsiness.--Ed.\n\n[36] 'Glout,' to pout or look sulky; obsolete.--Ed.\n\n[37] This is one of the hardest lessons a disciple has to learn\nin the school of Christ; not to hate the sinner, but the sin;\nespecially under circumstances of such cruel deception.--Ed.\n\n\n[38] Mixed, impure.\n''Tis true, the cause is in the lurch\nBetween the right and mongrel church.'--Hudibras.--Ed.\n\n\n[39] Such were the sound reasons which animated the martyrs to\nresist unjust human laws, interfering with or directing the mode\nof divine worship; and such are the reasons which prevent conformity\nto national religions, to the payment of church rates, and similar\nungodly impositions.--Ed.\n\n[40] The Quakers braved the storm, met in public, and appeared\nto court persecution. Not so the Baptists; they met in woods and\ncaves, and with such secrecy that it was not possible to detect\nthem, unless by an informer. William Penn taunted them in these\nwords: 'they resolve to keep their old haunt of creeping into\ngarrets, cheese-lofts, coalholes, and such like nice walks.' And\nso would I, rather than be disturbed by constables.--Ed.\n\n[41] Sink them is an unusual kind of oath, wishing that body or\nmind might be depressed. Shakespeare uses the word in reference\nto mental suffering: 'If I have a conscience, let it sink me.'--Ed.\n\n[42] Noddy, a simpleton; see Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n[43] Fraudulent bankruptcy is a sore and prevailing evil. It is\nthieving under the protection of the law. How many live in state,\nuntil their creditors get a few shillings in the pound, and the\nbankrupt gets the curse of God upon his soul!--Ed.\n\n[44] Quean, a slut, a strumpet; see Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n[45] Witness the shepherd boy's song in the Pilgrim:--\n\n\nHe that is down need fear no fall,\nHe that is low, no pride;\nHe that is humble ever shall\nHave God to be his guide.\n\n\nThis poor boy, in his very mean clothes, carried more heart's ease\nin his bosom, than he that was clad in silk and velvet.--Ed.\n\n[46] For this use of the word lap, see Proverbs 16:33.--Ed.\n\n[47] In the reign of Edward II, the price of provisions was\nregulated by Act of Parliament. Twenty-four eggs were ordered to\nbe sold for one penny, but the penny of that period contained as\nmuch silver as the threepenny piece of Bunyan's, and of our time.\nI have bought, within the last forty years, the finest eggs at\nfour a penny in Normandy.--Ed.\n\n[48] 'Slither,' slippery, deceitful; obsolete, except in\nLincolnshire.--Ed.\n\n[49] Purses were worn, in Bunyan's time, hanging to the girdle, or\nslung over the shoulder, as they now are in some parts of Germany.\nA pickpocket was then called 'a cut-purse.'--Ed.\n\n[50] Many ecclesiastical instruments of terror, spoliation, and\ndeath, began with, 'In the name of God. Amen.' That sacred name has\nbeen, and now is, awfully profaned and prostituted to the vilest\npurposes.--Ed.\n\n[51] This is a sad mistake; such getting is a curse: 'Cursed is\nthe deceiver': 'I will curse your blessings,' saith Jehovah by\nhis prophet Malachi.--Ed.\n\n[52] Modern editors, not so well aware as Bunyan of the value of\ntar as a medicine for sheep, altered the word to ship. A halfpenny\nworth of tar will serve a sheep, but not a ship.--Ed.\n\n[53] This was attempted when Bunyan was released from his cruel\nimprisonment by the King's pardon, which one instrument included\nthe names of nearly five hundred suffers; and because the fees\nupon a pardon were twenty pounds, 'the covetous clerks did strive\nto exact upon us,' says Whitehead, 'by demanding that sum upon\nevery name.' Further application to the King put an end to this\nexaction.--Ed.\n\n[54] When the labourer's wages were eightpence or tenpence per\nday, in 1683, wheat averaged forty-five shillings per quarter.\nHow comparatively happy is the present state of our agricultural\nlabourers; and so would be that of the farmer, if rent was as low\nnow as it was at that period.--Ed.\n\n[55] To lie at catch, to watch for an opportunity to take an unfair\nadvantage. See the conversation between Faithful and Talkative in\nthe Pilgrim's Progress.--Ed.\n\n[56] Augustine had so strong a sense of fair dealing, that when\na bookseller asked for a book far less than it was worth, he,\nof his own accord, gave him the full value thereof!! See Clark's\nLooking-glass, edit. 1657.--Ed.\n\n[57] 'Fondness,' an inordinate desire to possess. 'I have such a\nfond fantasy of my own.'--Sir. T. More.--Ed.\n\n[58] Cheating, either in quality, weight, or price of commodities,\nis not common in Mahometan countries, where the punishment is very\nsevere; that of nailing the dealer's ears to his door-posts. It\nis a foul disgrace to Christian countries that these crimes are\nso common.--Ed.\n\n[59] Malapert, dexterous in evil-speaking. 'It is blasphemous to\nsay that God will not hear us for our presumptuous malapertness\nunless we invoke the saints.'--Tyndale.\n\n[60] This is a phrase in heraldry to signify that the armorial\nbearings are marked with some sign of disgrace. Thus John de Aveones\nhaving reviled his mother in the King's presence, he ordered that\nthe tongue and claw of the lion which he bore in his arms should\nbe defaced. In many cases a baton is inserted as a mark of\nillegitimacy.--Ed.\n\n[61] From a fine Persian drawing in the editor's cabinet, it\nappears that the nose jewel lies on the right cheek, and is fixed\nby a ring cut through to form a spring; one edge of the cut going\ninside, and the other meeting outside the nostril, so as to be\nreadily removed as occasion required.--Ed.\n\n[62] An attempt at something new, a foolish innovation, generally\nused with the word new; as, 'In holiday gown, and my new fangled\nhat.'--Cunningham.--Ed.\n\n[63] A tuft of hair worn on a man's forehead, or a projecting\nconspicuous part of the women's caps worn by the fashionables of\nthat time.--Ed.\n\n[64] No one, except he has blown a ram's horn, or attended the\nJewish ceremony of the New-year, Tizri 1 (Sept.), can imagine the\nmiserable sounding of a ram's horn. Bunyan, with all his powers and\npopularity, was, to an extraordinarily degree, 'a humble man.'--Ed.\n\n[65] A professor of Christianity who indulges in sin, is the worst\nof Atheists. Such conduct is practical hypocrisy and Atheism.--Ed.\n\n[66] The general opinion, to a late period, was, that the frog\nor toad was poisonous. Bartolomeus calls the frog 'venomous,' and\nthat in proportion to the number of his spots. Bunyan, who was\nfar in advance of his age, throws a doubt upon it, by the words\n'as we say.'--Ed.\n\n[67] Outward reformation without inward grace is like washing a\nsow, which you may make clean, but never can make cleanly; it will\nsoon return to the mire, and delight in filth more than ever.--Mason.\n\n[68] Mr. Clark relates this singular story on the authority of\n'Disci de Temp.' The writers in the Middle Ages are full of such\nnarrations; see especially the first English book of homilies\ncalled The Festival.--Ed.\n\n[69] Clark's authority for this account is Beard's Theatre of God's\nJudgments.--Ed.\n\n[70] See the account of an Atheist in his pride in Pilgrim's\nProgress and notes.\n\n[71] To let, prevent, or hinder. See Isaiah 43:13.--Ed.\n\n[72] Terms of endearment: thus Shakespeare, in Henry IV, represents\nthe hostess calling her maid, Doll Tear-sheet, sweet-heart. It is\nnow more restricted to lovers while courting.--Ed.\n\n[73] Uncertain was the liberty occasionally enjoyed by our pilgrim\nforefathers, who were always expecting 'troublesome times.' We\nought to be more thankful for the mercies we enjoy; and to pray\nthat the state may soon equally recognize and cherish every good\nsubject, without reference to sect, or authorizing persecution.--Ed.\n\n[74] The noble was a gold coin of Henry VIII; value six shillings\nand eightpence.--Ed.\n\n[75] Bunyan's allegorical spirit appears in nearly all his\nwritings. Diseases lay their heads together to bring Badman to the\ngrave, making Consumption their captain or leader of these men of\ndeath.--Ed.\n\n[76] 'Haunt,' an Anglo-Norman word. Custom, practice; more commonly\nused as a verb, to haunt, or frequently visit.--Ed.\n\n[77] An old tippling custom, more honoured in the breach than in\nthe observance.--Ed.\n\n[78] The dialogues between Hopeful and Christian in Doubting Castle\nadmirably prove the wickedness of suicide. The unlettered tinker\ntriumphs over all the subtleties of the Dean of St. Paul's. See\nPilgrim's Progress.--Ed.\n\n[79] This is the most awful of all delusions. It is exemplified\nin the character of Ignorance, in the Pilgrim's Progress, who was\nferried over death by Vain Confidence, but found 'that there was\na way to hell, even from the gates of heaven.'--Ed.\n\n[80] Chrisom is a consecrated unguent, or oil, used in the baptism\nof infants in the Romish Church. It is prepared with great ceremony\non Holy Thursday. A linen cloth anointed with this oil, called a\nchrisom cloth, is laid upon the baby's face. If it dies within a\nmonth after these ceremonies, it was called a chrisom child. These\nincantations and charms are supposed to have power to save its\nsoul, and ease the pains of death. Bishop Jeremy Taylor mentions\nthe phantasms that make a chrisom child to smile at death. Holy\nDying, chap. i., sect. 2.--Ed.\n\n[81] These two words are 'cease' and 'ceased' in the first edition;\nthey were corrected to 'seize' and 'seized' in Bunyan's second\nedition.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nA Few Sighs From Hell;\n\nor,\n\nThe Groans of the Damned Soul:\n\nor, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning\nthe Rich Man and the Beggar\n\nWHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR\nCRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION\nOF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND\nYOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH\nIN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF\nTORMENT.\n\nAlso, a Brief Discourse touching the profitableness of the Scriptures\nfor our instruction in the way of righteousness, according to the\ntendency of the said parable.\n\n\n\n\nBY THAT POOR AND CONTEMPTIBLE SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST, JOHN BUNYAN.\n\n\n\n\n\n'The wicked shall be tuned into hell, and all the nations that\nforget God.'--Psalm 9:17\n\n'And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast\ninto the lake of fire.'--Revelation 20:15\n\n\n\nLondon: Printed by Ralph Wood, for M. Wright, at the King's Head\nin the Old Bailey, 1658.[1]\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR\n\nHow awful is that cry of anguish which has reached us from beyond\nthe tomb, even from the infernal realms, and on which Bunyan,\nwith his singular and rare ability, fixes our attention. It is\nthe voice of one who had received his good things in this fleeting\nlife; who had fared sumptuously every day, without providing for\neternity, and now cries for a drop of water to cool his parched\ntongue. Plunged into unutterable, inconceivable, and eternal\ntorments, he pleads that the poor afflicted beggar, who had lain\nat his gate, might be sent from the dead to warn his relatives,\nthat they might escape, and not aggravate his misery, by upbraiding\nhim as a cause of their destruction, by having neglected to set\nthem a pious example. He knows that there is no hope for his own\nwretched soul, and expresses no wish that his family should pay\nfor masses to ease his pangs. No, such tomfooleries are limited to\nthis insane world. His poor request is one drop of water, and a\nwarning messenger to his relatives. The answer is most decisive--there\nis a great, an eternal gulf fixed--none can pass between heaven\nand hell; and as to your father's house, 'They have Moses and\nthe prophets'; and now it may be added, They have Jesus and his\napostles; if they hear not them, 'neither will they be persuaded\nthough one rose from the dead.' No; if Isaiah, with his mighty\neloquence, again appeared among mortals, again would his cry\nbe heard, 'Who hath believed our report?' 'What! seek the living\namong the dead? To the law, and to the testimony, saith God.'\n\nReader, these are solemn realities. He who came from the unseen\nworld--from the bosom of the Father--reveals them unto us. O!\nthat we may not mistake that voice for thunder, which called upon\na trembling world to 'HEAR HIM.'\n\nThe rich man personates all the thoughtless and uncoverted who die\nin their sins, his wealth can neither bribe death nor hell; he is\nstricken, and descends to misery with the bitter, but unavailing\nregret of having neglected the great salvation. He had taken no\npersonal, prayerful pains to search the sacred Scriptures for himself;\nhe had disobeyed the gospel, lived in revelry, and carelessness\nof his soul; he had ploughed iniquity and sown wickedness, and\nreaps the same. 'By the blast of God he perishes, and is consumed\nby the breath of his nostrils.' 'They have sown the wind, and\nthey shall reap the whirlwind.'\n\nThe opinion universally prevails, although the voice of infinite\nwisdom has declared it false, that miracles, or a messenger from\nthe invisible world could awake the dead in sin. The world's eyes\nare shut, and its ears are stopped from seeing and hearing that\nmost illustrious celestial messenger of mercy--'God manifest in\nthe flesh'--who still speaks to us in his words. He revealed, and\nhe alone could have revealed, these solemn, these heart-stirring\nfacts--He performed the most astonishing miracles--His doctrines\nwere truth--He required holiness of life to fit the soul for heaven;\ntherefore He was despised, tortured, murdered. In the face of all\nthis, the poor wretch cries, 'send Lazarus.' What refined cruelty!\nHe had borne the cross and received the crown. Uncrown him, and\nsend him back to lie at my brother's gate, and if he dares to tell\nhim the truth, that my soul was in hell, even while the splendid\nfuneral was carrying my body to the tomb, he will hurry him to\ndeath. Poor fool! are not thy kindred as hardened as thou wast?\nSend Lazarus from the dead! That, as Bunyan justly says, would\nbe to make a new Bible, to improve the finished salvation. No,\nif they will not hear Moses and the prophets, our Lord and his\napostles, they must all likewise perish. This is a very meagre\noutline of this solemn treatise; it is full of striking illustrations,\neminently calculated to arouse the thoughtless, and to convey\nsolid instruction to the thoughtful.\n\nThis was the third volume that Bunyan published, and, with modest\ntimidity, he shelters himself under a strong recommendatory preface\nby his pastor, who, in the Grace Abounding, he calls 'holy Mr.\nGifford.' So popular was it, as to pass through nine editions in\nthe author's lifetime.[2] The preface, by John Gifford, was printed\nonly with the first edition. As it gives a very interesting account\nof Bunyan, and his early labours in the ministry, which has never\nbeen noticed by any of his biographers, and is extremely rare,\nit is here reprinted from a fine copy in the British Museum, and\nmust prove interesting to every admirer of John Bunyan. I close\nwith two short extracts--may they leave an abiding impression upon\nour minds. 'God will have a time to meet with them that now do\nnot seek after him.' 'O! regard, regard, for the judgment day is\nat hand, the graves are ready to fly open, the trumpet is near\nthe sounding, the sentence will ere long be passed, and then,' it\nwill be seen whether we belong to the class of Dives, who preferred\nthe world, or to that of Lazarus, who preferred Christ; and then,\nO then! time cannot be recalled.\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE, BY THE REV. JOHN GIFFORD,\n\nPASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AT BEDFORD, OF WHICH JOHN BUNYAN\nWAS A MEMBER.\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nIt is sad to see how the most of men neglect their precious souls,\nturning their backs upon the glorious gospel, and little minding\na crucified Jesus, when, in the meanwhile, their bodies are well\nprovided for, their estates much regarded, and the things of this\npresent life are highly prized, as if the darling was of less value\nthan a clod of earth; an immortal soul, than a perishing body; a\nprecious Saviour, than unsatisfying creatures. Yea, though they\nhave been often wooed with gracious entreaties, glorious promises,\nand fresh bleeding wounds, to make choice of the better part, that\nshall never be taken from them; yet, alas! such influence hath\nthis world, and the pleasures of it, and such is the blindness\nof their understandings, that they continue still to hunt after\nthose things which cannot profit, nor be a help to them in the\nworst hour. Yea, that will prove no better than poison to their\nsouls, and refuse that would be (if embraced) their happiness here,\nand their glory hereafter. Such a strange stupidity hath seized\nupon the hearts of men, that they will venture the loss of their\nimmortal souls for a few dying comforts, and will expose themselves\nto endless misery for a moment's mirth, and short-lived pleasures.\nBut, certainly, a barn well fraught, a bag well filled, a back\nwell clothed, and a body well fed, will prove but poor comforts\nwhen men come to die, when death shall not only separate their\nsouls from their bodies, but both from their comforts. What will\nit then avail them that they have gained much? Or what will they\ngive in exchange for their souls? Be wise, then (O reader, to\nwhose sight this may come), before it be too late, and thou repent,\nwhen repentance shall be hid from thine eyes; also it will be as\na dagger to thine heart one day, to remember what a Christ, what\na soul, what a heaven thou hast lost for a few pleasures, a little\nmirth, a short enjoyment of this present world; yea, and that\nafter many warnings against many reproofs, and, notwithstanding\nthe many tenders of a full Christ, instead of those empty vanities\nwhich thy soul closed with, hunted after, and would by no means\nbe persuaded to part withal. No, but thou wouldst take thy time,\nand swim in this world's delights, though thy soul thereby was\ndrowned in perdition and destruction (1 Tim 6:9). True, few there\nare that will be persuaded that this course they take, though their\ndaily conversations do bear witness to it; for how much time is\nspent, and how much care is the hearts of men filled withal, after\nattaining, keeping, and increasing these things? And how seldom\ndo they trouble their heads, to have their minds taken up with\nthoughts of the better? Cumbering themselves with many things, but\nwholly neglecting the one thing necessary; yea, whereby do they\nmeasure their own or other men's happiness, but by the large\nincomes of this world's good, accounting this the greatest, if not\nthe only blessedness, to have their corn, wine, and oil increase\nin abundance, and reckoning those that are most serious about, and\nearnest after the world to come, men of foolish spirits, giddy\nbrains, and worthy to be branded in the forehead for simple deluded\nones. But surely he is the most fool that will be one at last; and\nhe that God calls so (Luke 12:20) will pass for one in the end;\nyea, within a short time, they themselves shall change their notes.\nAsk the rich man spoken of in the ensuing treatise, who was the\nfool--he or Lazarus? and he will soon resolve the question, that\nhe now sees, and by woeful experience finds (whatsoever his former\nthoughts were), that he, not Lazarus, was the silly deluded one;\nfor he, fool-like, preferred the worse things before the better,\nand refused that which once might have been had; but now he hath\nslipped the time, it cannot be gained, when this poor man, knowing\nthe day of his visitation, was making sure of that glory which he\nnow enjoys, and shall enjoy for evermore. So that in this parable\n(if I may so call it) thou shalt find that Scripture confirmed,\n'That the triumphing of the wicked is short' (Job 20:5). Together\nwith that, 'That the temptations (or afflictions) of the righteous,\nwhich cause heaviness, are but for a season' (1 Peter 1:6). And\nin this treatise, both of these are largely opened and explained.\nBehold, here a rich man clothed in silks, fed with delicates, and\nfaring deliciously every day; but look a little farther, and lo!\nthis man clothed with vengeance, roaring under torments, and earnestly\nbegging for a drop of water to cool his tongue; a sad change. On\nthe other hand, here thou shalt see a poor, but a gracious man,\nwith a pinched belly, naked back, and running sores, begging at\nthe rich man's gate for a morsel to feed his belly, a sad state,\nyet but short; for look again, and behold this beggar gloriously\ncarried, as in a chariot of triumph, by the angels into Abraham's\nbosom, shining in glory, clothed with beautiful garments, and\nhis soul set down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom\nof the Father; his rags are gone, his sores healed, and his soul\nfilled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; the one carried\nnot his costly fare, and his gorgeous apparel with him into hell;\nnor the other his coarse diet, mouldy bread, filthy rags, and\nulcerous body into heaven; but the happiness of the one, and the\nmisery of the other, took their leaves at the grave; the worldly\nman's portion was but for his life, and the godly man's afflictions\nlasted no longer; 'For mark the perfect, and behold the upright,\nfor the end of that man is peace; but the end of the wicked shall\nbe cut off' (Psa 37:37,38). His present comforts, his future hopes,\nand his cursed soul together; yea, though he lives many days, and\nrejoices in them all, yet the days of darkness will overtake him,\nand his eye shall see no more good; in his life time he enjoyed\nhis good things, and, at the hour of death, legions of devils\nwill beset him, innumerable evils will befal him; and then shall\nhe pay full dear for all the pleasures of sin, that have carried\naway his heart from closing with, and following the Lord in the\nday of his prosperity. Ungodly men, because they feel no changes\nnow, they fear none hereafter, but flatter themselves with dying\nas the godly, though their life is consumed in wickedness, and\ntheir strength in providing for and satisfying the lusts of the\nflesh. But as it fared with wicked Balaam, so shall it fare with\nthese, and their vain hopes will prove a feeding upon ashes through\ntheir deceived heart, that hath turned them aside (Isa 44:20). 'For\nthey that sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption'\n(Gal 6:8). 'And they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness,\nshall reap the same' (Job 4:8; Hosea 8:7). But they that sow to\nthe Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Say ye then\nto the righteous, 'It shall go well with him; however it goes\nwith him now, a few days will produce a happy change.' 'It shall\ngo well with him that feareth the Lord' (Eccl 8:12). Go on then, O\nsoul, thou that hast set thy face towards heaven, though the east\nwind beats upon thee, and thou find trouble and sorrow; these shall\nendure but for a night, joy will undoubtedly come in the morning;\nbesides those sweet visits thou shalt have from thy precious\nSaviour, in this thy day of darkness, wait but a while, and thy\ndarkness shall be turned into light. 'When the light of the wicked\nshall be put out, and the spark of his fire, wherewith he warmed\nhimself, shall not shine' (Job 18:5). 'Grudge not to see the wicked\nprosper, and their steps washed with butter, but rather put on\nbowels of mercy and pity, as the elect of God, knowing that they\nare set in slippery places' (Psa 73:18). And their day is coming,\nwhen fearful horror shall surprise them, and hell be opened to\nreceive them; nor yet be disquieted in thy mind, that troubles\nand afflictions do beset thee round; for, as a worser thing is\nreserved for them, so a better is prepared for thee. Do they drink\nwine in bowls? and dost thou mingle thy tears with thy drink? Do\nthey live in pleasures, and spend their days in wealth? and dost\nthou sigh and mourn in secret? Well, there is a cup for them in\nthe hand of the Lord, the wine whereof is red, and full of mixture,\nwhich they must drink up the dregs (Psa 75:8). And the Lord hath\na bottle for thy tears (Psa 56:8). And a book for thy secret sighs,\nand ere long thy brinish tears shall be turned into the sweetest\nwine, which thou shalt drink new in the kingdom of the Father,\nand thy secret sighs into glorious praises; when thy mouth shall\nbe filled with laughter, and thy eyes see the King in his glory.\n\nNow, considering that these lines may be brought to the sight both\nof the one sort and the other, I shall lay a few things before\nthe thought of each; and first to the worser sort.\n\nFirst. Consider what an ill bargain thou wilt make, to sell thy\nprecious soul for short continuance in thy sins and pleasures. If\nthat man drives but an ill trade, who, to gain the world, should\nlose his soul (Matt 16:26), then, certainly, thou art far worse that\nsells thy soul for a very trifle. O it is pity that so precious a\nthing should be parted withal, to be made a prey for the devouring\nlion, for that which is worse than nothing! If they were branded\nfor desperate wretches that caused their children to pass through\nthe fire to Moloch, surely thou much more that gives thy soul to\ndevouring flames, to be fuel for the everlasting fire, upon so\nunfit terms; what meanest thou, O man, to truck with the devils?\nIs there no better merchandise to trade in than what comes from\nhell, or out of the bowels of the earth? and to be had upon no\nlower rates than thy immortal soul? Yes, surely the merchandise\nof wisdom, which is better than the merchandise of silver, and\nthe gain thereof than fine gold (Prov 3:14, 8:19), is exposed to\nsale (Rev 3:18), and to be had without money or price; and if thou\nshouldest part with anything for it, it is such that it is better\nto part withal than to keep. The wise merchant that sought a goodly\npearl, having found one, sold all that he had, not himself, not\nhis soul, and all that he sold was in itself not worth a farthing,\nand yet obtained the pearl (Matt 13:45,46). Paul made the like\nexchange when he threw away his own righteousness, which was\nbut rags, yea, filthy rags (Isa 64:6), and put on the garment of\nsalvation, and cast away to the dunghill that which was once his\ngain, and won Christ (Phil 3:8). Thou needest not cast away thy\nsoul for puddle pleasures; behold the fountain of living water\nis set open, and thou invited to it, to take and drink thy belly,\nthy soul full, without price or money (Isa 55:2).\n\nSecondly. Take a short (yet let it not be a slight) view of the\nbest of the things men prize so high, that for the love of, they\nlose their souls: what are they? Even painted nothings, promising\nvanities (like the apples of Sodom, fair to the eye, but\nbeing touched, turn to dust; or like our mother Eve's, that had\na beautiful look, but, being tasted, brings forth death), which,\nfrom the most part, have proved snares to the owners, and always\nmiserable comforters at the parting; they cannot satisfy in life,\nfor the more of these things are had, the more (with a disquieted\nspirit) are they reached after, and what comes in serves but\nto whet up the greedy unsatisfied appetite after more. The world\npasseth away, and the lust thereof (1 John 2:17). Though most men\ncontent themselves with these, yet it is not in these to satisfy\nthem, and had they but one glimpse of the world to come, one cranny\nof light to discern the riches of Christ, and the least taste of\nthe pleasures that are at the right hand of God (Psa 16:11), they\nwould be as little satisfied without a share in them, as they are\nnow with what of worldly things they enjoy; much less can they\nease from pain at death. Clap a bag of gold (as one once did) to\nthy sinking spirit, pained body, and tormented conscience, and\nit can neither cheer up the one, nor appease the other, least of\nall can they deliver from, or yield comfort after death; those\ncannot serve as a bribe to death to pass thee by, nor yet bring\ncomfort to thy soul when thou art gone. The rich fool's large\ncrop and great increase could not procure one night's respite, nor\none moment's comfort. Besides, God regards them so little, that\nfrequently he gives the largest share of them to whom he hateth\nmost (Psa 17:14), and the least to them who are the excellent in\nthe earth, in whom his soul delights, although he hath made them\nheirs of the kingdom (James 2:5). Yet doth he bestow such a small\nportion of these worldly things upon them, hereby declaring to\nall how little he sets by those things which most set so much by,\nand to draw up our hearts, minds, and affections to the things\nabove; yea, His own Son that he appointed heir of all things (Heb\n1:2) shall come forth neither of rich kindred, nor attended with\ngallants, nor yet accoutered with the world's glory, but in a low,\nmean, and abject condition, at whose birth a manger received him;\nand through his life sorrows, wants, and sufferings did attend,\nand at the end a shameful death, in the world's esteem, befals\nhim, and by all this he shows his contempt of the worldly man's\ndarling. Cast not away thy soul then, O man, in seeking after,\nsolacing thyself in, and contenting thyself with this present world;\nfor though thou mayest make gold thy hope, and put thy confidence\nin thy wealth, yet when this thy hope shall fail, and thy confidence\nslip from thee (as sure it will ere long), glad wouldst thou be\nof the least drop of the water of life, and the least filing of\nthat precious gold (that thou art now called upon to drink of,\nand to buy for thyself); but, alas, they shall not be had. Then,\nO then, what profit will thy treasures of wickedness yield thee;\nand whereto will thy thick clay that thou hast hoarded up, and thy\ncarnal pleasures which thou hast drunk down, as the fish drinks\ndown water; whereto, I say, will they serve, unless to weigh thee\nthe deeper into hell, and increase the fire, when it shall be\nkindled upon thee?\n\nThirdly. Look upon thy loss, too, which is such that ten thousand\nworlds cannot repair--thy soul, thy body, thy comforts, thy hopes,\nthy share in a crucified Jesus, the crown of life, and everlasting\ncommunion with the Father, Son, and Spirit, blessed angels, and\nglorified saints, and a soul-satisfying, soul-saving Christ, who\ncame from the bosom of love, and gave himself to open a way to\neverlasting glory, by the sacrifice of himself, to whom thou art\ncalled, invited, and persuaded to come; whose heart is open, arms\nspread, and who hath room enough in his bosom to receive thee,\ngrace enough to pardon thee, blood enough to justify thee, treasures\nenough to enrich thee, pleasures enough to delight thee (Psa 36:8),\nand glory enough to crown thee; in whom it hath pleased the Father\nthat in him should all fulness dwell (Col 1:19); to make them\nperfectly blessed that come to him, so that there is no need to\nseek happiness among the creatures, which most do, and thereby\nlose true happiness, and their souls too. Turn in hither, and\nthou shalt eat of his bread, and drink of the wine which he hath\nmingled (Prov 9:4,5). Wouldst thou fare deliciously every day,\nand have thy soul delight itself in fatness? (Isa 55:2). Hearken\ndiligently, and come to the wedding; the oxen and fatlings\nare killed, and all things are ready (Matt 22:5). I tell thee,\nwhatsoever food thou feedest upon else, will prove no better to\nthee than the prodigal's husks (Luke 15:16). That will starve thee\nwhilst thou feedest on them; and if thou drinkest of other wine,\nit will prove as a cup of wine mixed with poison, which though it\nbe pleasant to the taste, it will be the death of thy soul. Wilt\nthou, then, lose this Christ, this food, this pleasure, this\nheaven, this happiness, for a thing of nought? Wilt thou drink\nout of a puddle, a broken cistern which leaks out the water, and\nholds nothing but mud, and refuse the fountain of living water,\nwhich, whosoever tastes of, shall live for ever?\n\nFourthly. Beware of persuading thyself into a conceit of the poor\nman's end, if thou livest the rich man's life, and diest his death.\nIt is strange to see how many run swift by the very way to hell,\nyet are full of confidence of going to heaven, though Scripture\neverywhere shuts them out, and Christ at last will certainly shut\nthem out for ever hereafter, living and dying in their present\nstate. Let none, therefore, deceive you, neither deceive yourselves,\nfor none such can enter into the kingdom of heaven. But for these\nthings' sake cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience\n(1 Cor 6:9; Eph 5:5,6). And how sad will thy disappointment be,\nthat goest on securely fearing nothing, being fully, yet falsely,\npersuaded of eternal life at last, and then drop down into the\nbottomless pit! Like wicked Haman, that dreamed of greater honour,\nbut behold a gallows; or our mother Eve, who conceited to be as\nGod, but became a cursed creature. Though the devil may persuade\nthee thou mayest live as in hell here, yet in heaven hereafter,\nbelieve him not, for he endeavours to keep thee in his snares,\nthat he may drag thee to hell with him; and the better to effect\nhis devilish design upon thee, he will present (and through his\ncursed subtlety knows how to do it) thy sins and this world in\nas lovely and taking a guise as may be, but will hide the evil\nconsequences from thine eyes, that thou mightest be inveigled by\ngazing on the one, and not be affrighted by beholding the other;\nhis bait shall be pleasant, but his hook hid, like the strumpet in\nProverbs 7, that entices the simple with fair words, but conceals\nthat the way to her house leads to the chambers of death; nothing\nappears but a bed richly furnished, and a promise of solacing him\nwith loves; but he that followeth after her, goeth as an ox to\nthe slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks.\n\nFifthly. This is thy day to prevent the loss of the one, and to\nget an interest in the other; this is the day of salvation, the\naccepted day of the Lord (2 Cor 6:2). Let the sun of this day be\nset before this work be done, and an everlasting night of darkness\nwill close thee in, wherein thou, thou shalt have time enough\nindeed to bemoan thy folly, but none to learn to grow wiser. It\nis a sad thing, especially in soul concernments, to be wise too\nlate, and to cry out when time is past, O that I had improved\nit when it was present. Then will the remembrance of thy former\nmisspent time, and thy despair of ever gaining more, be like\npoisoned arrows drinking up they spirit. Amongst all the talents\nGod hath entrusted man withal, this is not the least, because on\nit depends eternity; and according to the use we make of this,\nwill our eternal condition be, though the most of men live at such\na rate as if it was given them to no other end than to waste in\nwickedness, and consume in pleasures. What means else their spending\ndays, weeks, months, years, yea, their whole life, in whoring,\nswearing, playing, coveting, and fulfilling the lusts of the flesh,\nso that when they come to die, the great work that they were sent\nto do is then to be done; their souls, Christ, eternity, was scarce\nthought on before; but now, when merciless death begins to gripe\nthem, then do they begin to bethink themselves of those things\nwhich they should have got in readiness before, and that is the\nreason why we so often hear many that lie upon their death-beds\nto cry out for a little longer time; and no wonder, for they have\nthe salvation of their souls to seek. O sad case! to have their\nwork to do when the night is come, and a Christ to seek when death\nhath found them; take therefore the counsel of the Holy Ghost\n(Heb 3:7), 'To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your\nhearts.' Mark, it is the Spirit's counsel. True, the devil and thine\nown heart will tell thee another tale, and be ready to whisper\nin thine ears, Thou mayest have time enough hereafter; what need\nof so much haste, another day may serve as well; let thy soul be\nfilled with pleasure a little longer, and thy bags filled a little\nmore; thou mayest have time for this and that too. O, but this\nis the suggestion of an enemy, that would cause thee to defer so\nlong, that thy heart may grow too hard, and thine ear too heavy\nto hear at all; but, certainly, this being the greatest business,\nchallengeth the first and greatest care (Matt 6:33). And let this\nbe done; then, if thou shalt either have so much time to spare,\nor a heart to do it, take thy time for the other.\n\nSixthly. This day of thy mercy and Christ's importunity will not\nlast long; it is but a day, and that a day of visitation. Indeed\nit is rich grace that there should be a day, but dally not because\nit is but a day. Jerusalem had her day, but because therein she\ndid not know the things of her peace, a pitch night did overtake\n(Luke 19:42,43). It is a day of patience, and if thou despisest\nthe riches of God's goodness, patience, and long-suffering towards\nthee, and art not thereby led to repentance (Rom 2:5), a short\ntime will make it a day of vengeance. Though now Christ calls,\nbecause he is willing to save sinners, yet he will not always call;\nsee then that thou refuse not him that speaks from heaven in this\ngospel day (Heb 12:25). But seek him while he may be found, and\ncall upon him while he is near (Isa 55:6), lest thou criest after\nhim hereafter, and he refuse thee. It is not crying, Lord, Lord,\nwhen the day of grace is past, that will procure the least crumb\nof mercy (Matt 7:21). No, if thou comest not when called, but stayest\nwhile supper is ended, thou shalt not taste thereof (Luke 14:24),\nthough a bit would save thy life, thy soul; if thou drinkest not\nof the fountain while it is opened, thou shalt not when it is shut,\nthough thou beggest with tears of blood for one drop to cool thy\nscorching flaming heart; thou that mightest have had thy vessel\nfull, and welcome, shall not now have so much as will hang on the\ntip of a finger. O! remember, the axe is laid to the root of the\ntree (Matt 3:10). And although three years' time may be granted,\nthrough the vine-dresser's importunity, that will soon be expired,\nand then the axe that is now laid, shall cut up the tree by its\nroots, if it bring not forth good fruit. Seest thou not that many\nof late have been snatched away, on each side of thee (by that\nhand that hath been stretched out and is so still)? and though\nthou mayest escape a while, yet hast thou no assurance that the\ndestroying angel will long pass by thy door. O then, neglect thy\nsoul no longer, but consider time is short, and uncertain, eternity\nlong, thy work great, thy soul immortal, this world vanishing,\nChrist precious, hell hot, and heaven desirable.\n\nAnd if thou beest a Christian (to whom this may come) that hast\nnot only had a prize in thy hands, but wisdom given thee from above\nto make use of it, and art one who (whilst others are seeking to\nmake this world and hell together sure to themselves) spendest\nthy time, and makest it thy only business, to make sure of the\none thing necessary, and heaven to thy soul, I shall lay two or\nthree things before thy thoughts.\n\nFirst. Walk with a fixed eye upon the world to come. Look not at\nthe things that are seen, that are temporal, but at the things\nwhich are not seen, that are eternal (2 Cor 4:18). A Christian's\neye should be upon his journey's end, as our Lord Jesus, who for\nthe joy that was set before him, endured the cross (Heb 12:2).\nWhen the stones flew about Stephen's ears, his eyes were lifted\nup to heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on\nthe right hand of God (Acts 7:55,56). What though thou at present\nmayest lie at the rich man's gates, yet a few days will translate\nthee into Abraham's bosom. Though Israel had a sharp voyage\nthrough the wilderness, yet Caleb and Joshua, men of excellent\nspirits, had their eye upon the good land they were going to.\nThough graceless souls are too dull sighted to see afar off (2\nPeter 1:9), yet thou that hast received the unction from above,\ndost in some measure know what is the hope of thy calling, and\nwhat is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.\n\nSecondly. Be satisfied with thy present condition, though it be\nafflictive, for it shall not last always. Thy sorrows shall be\nshort, and thy joys long; roll thyself upon the Lord, for there is\na heaven will pay for all; Christ first endured the cross before\nhe wore the crown. David, before he was a king, was a shepherd.\nThe poor man spoken of in this ensuing treatise, before he was\ncarried into heaven, had experiences of sorrow and sufferings\non earth. Let the flesh be silent in passing judgment on the\ndispensations of God towards thee, and the men of this world, in\nthis present life. David, by prying too far herein with his own\nwisdom, had almost caught a fall (Psa 73). Though God's judgments\nmay be too deep for our reason to dive into, yet are they always\nrighteous, and his paths mercy and truth to those that keep his\ncovenants (Psa 25:10). When Jeremiah would debate with the Lord\nconcerning his judgments in the wicked's prosperity, he would\nlay this down as an indubitable truth, that his judgments were\nrighteous (Jer 12:1). And his end was not to charge God, but\nto learn understanding of him in the way of his judgments; and\nalthough the ways of his providence may be dark to his people, that\nthey cannot discern his footsteps, yet are they always consistent\nwith his everlasting covenant, and the results of the favour he\nbears to them. If the wicked flourish like the grass, it is that\nthey should be destroyed for ever (Psa 92:7). And if the godly\nhave many a wave beating upon them, yet will the Lord command his\nloving-kindness in the day time (Psa 42:7,8). And, after a little\nwhile being tossed to and fro in these boisterous waves, they\nshall arrive at the heavenly haven, this world being not their\nresting-place, but there remains one for them (Heb 4:9).\n\nThirdly. Let the faith and hopes of a glorious deliverance get\nthy heart up above thy present sufferings, that thou mayest glory\nin tribulation who hast ground of rejoicing in hope of the glory\nof God (Rom 5:2,3). For whatsoever thy present grievances are,\nwhether outward afflictions, or inward temptations, this may be\nthy consolation that a few days will rid thee of them; when thou\nshalt sigh no more, complain no more, but those shall be turned\ninto praises. Thou hast (if I may so call it) all thy hell here;\nlet thy life be expired, and thy misery is ended; thy happiness\nbegins, where wicked men's end; and when thine is once began, it\nshall have no more end.\n\nReader, I have an advertisement to thee concerning the following\ndiscourse, and the author of it. Thou hast in the discourse many\nthings of choice consideration presented to thee in much plainness,\nevidence, and authority; the replications are full, the applications\nare natural. Be not offended at his plain and downright language,\nit is for the discharge of the author's conscience, and thy profit,\nbesides the subject necessarily leads him to it. It is a mercy to\nbe dealt thoroughly and plainly with in the matters of thy soul.\nWe have too many that sow pillows under men's elbows, and too few\nwho, dealing plainly, divide to every man his portion. Read it\nnot to pick quarrels with it, but to profit by it; and let not\nprejudice either against the author, or manner of delivery, cause\nthee to stumble and fall at the truth. Prejudice will both blind\nthe eye that it shall not see the truth, and close it in with it,\nand make them too quick-sighted, either to make faults where there\nis none, or to greaten them where they are; and so cause the reader\nto turn the edge against the author or his work, that should be\nturned upon his own heart. It is marvellous to see how the truth\nis quarrelled at that comes from one, that would be easily received\nit if did drop from another; and I doubt not, if this book had some\nother hand at it, there is scarce any expression that may be now\ncarpt at by some, but would have been swallowed without straining.\nWe are now fallen into such an age (the good Lord help us) that\ntruth, upon its own account, can challenge but little acceptance,\nexcept the author be liked, or his lines painted with his own wit.\nBut certainly truth is of so excellent a nature, of such singular\nadvantage, and of so royal a descent, that it deserves entertainment\nfor itself, and that not in our houses or heads only, but in our\nhearts too. Whatsoever the hand is that brings it, or the form\nthat it appears in, men account gold worth receiving, whatsoever\nthe messenger is that brings it, or the vessel that holds it.\n\nIf thou meetest (reader) with any passage that seems doubtful unto\nthee, let love that thinks no evil put the best construction upon\nit, and do not hastily condemn what thou canst not presently yield\nto; or if any expression thou meetest with may (haply) offend\nthee, do not throw aside the whole, and resolve to read of it no\nmore; for though some one may offend thee, yet others (I hope) may\naffect thee; or if there be that which some may call tautology,\nbe not displeased at it; for that word that may not fasten upon\nthy heart in one page, may in another; and although it may be\ngrievous to thy eye (if thou beest nice and curious), yet bear\nwith it, if it may be profitable to thy soul.\n\nConcerning the author (whatsoever the censures and reports of many\nare) I have this to say, that I verily believe God hath counted\nhim faithful, and put him into the ministry; and though his outward\ncondition and former employment was mean, and his human learning\nsmall, yet is he one that hath acquaintance with God, and taught\nby his Spirit, and hath been used in his hand to do souls good; for\nto my knowledge there are divers who have felt the power of the\nword delivered by him; and I doubt not but that many more may,\nif the Lord continue him in his work; he is not like unto your\ndrones, that will suck the sweet, but do no work. For he hath laid\nforth himself to the utmost of his strength, taking all advantages\nto make known to others what he himself hath received of God, and\nI fear this is one reason why the archers have shot so sorely at\nhim; for by his and others' industry in their Master's work, their\nslothfulness hath been reproved, and the eyes of many have been\nopened to see a difference between those that are sent of God and\nthose that run before they are sent. And that he is none of those\nlight fanatic spirits that our age abounds withal, this following\ndiscourse, together with his former, that have been brought to\npublic view, will testify; for among other things that may bear\nrecord to him herein, you shall find him magnifying and exalting\nthe Holy Scriptures, and largely showing the worth, excellency,\nand usefulness of them.\n\nAnd yet surely if thou shalt (notwithstanding this) stumble at\nhis meanness and want of human learning, thou wilt declare thine\nunacquaintance with God's declared method, who to perfect his own\npraise, and to still the enemy and avenger, makes choice of babes\nand sucklings, and in their mouths ordaineth strength (Psa 8:2).\nThough men that have a great design, do, and must make use of\nthose that in reason are most likely to effect it, yet must the\nLord do so too? Then instruments (not himself) would carry away\nthe praise; but that no flesh should glory in his presence, he\nhath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise,\nand base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath\nGod chosen (1 Cor 1:27-29). Cast thine eye back to the beginning\nof the gospel dispensation (which surely, if at any time, should\nhave come forth in the wisdom and glory of the world), and thou\nshalt see what method the Lord did take at the first to exalt\nhis son Jesus: he goes not amongst the Jewish rabbis, nor to the\nschools of learning, to fetch out his gospel preachers, but to\nthe trades, and those most contemptible too; yet let not any from\nhence conceive that I undervalue the gifts and graces of such who\nhave been, or now are endued with them, nor yet speak against\nlearning being kept in its place; but my meaning is, that those\nthat are learned should not despise those that are not; or those\nthat are not, should not despise those that are, who are faithful\nin the Lord's work: and therefore being about to leave thee, I\nshall leave with thee two Scriptures to be considered of. The one\nis John 13:20, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth\nwhomsoever I send (mark whomsoever) receiveth me; and he\nthat receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. The other is Luke\n10:16, He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you,\ndespiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent\nme.\n\nJ. G.\n\n\nTHE AUTHOR TO THE READER.\n\nFriend, because it is a dangerous thing to be walking towards\nthe lace of darkness and anguish; and again, because it is\n(notwithstanding) the journey that most of the poor souls in the\nworld are taking, and that with delight and gladness, as if THERE\nwas the only happiness to be found, I have therefore thought it\nmy duty, being made sensible of the danger that will befal those\nthat fall therein, for the preventing of thee, O thou poor man\nor woman! to tell thee, by opening this parable, what sad success\nthose souls have had, and are also like to have, that have been,\nor shall be found persevering therein.\n\nWe use to count him a friend that will forewarn his neighbour of\nthe danger, when he knoweth thereof, and doth also see that the\nway his neighbour is walking in doth lead right thereto, especially\nwhen we think that our neighbour may be either ignorant or careless\nof his way. Why friend, it may be, nay twenty to one, but thou\nhast been, ever since thou didst come into the world, with thy\nback towards heaven, and thy face towards hell; and thou, it may\nbe, either through ignorance or carelessness, which is as bad,\nif not worse, hast been running full hastily that way ever since.\nWhy friend? I beseech thee put a little stop to thy earnest race,\nand take a view of what entertainment thou art like to have, if\nthou do in deed and in truth persist in this thy course. Friend,\nthy way leads 'down to death,' and thy 'steps take hold on hell'\n(Prov 5:5). It may be the path indeed is pleasant to the flesh,\nbut the end thereof will be bitter to thy soul. Hark, dost thou\nnot hear the bitter cries of them that are but newly gone before,\nsaying, Let him 'dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my\ntongue; for I am tormented in this flame?' (Luke 16:24). Dost thou\nnot hear them say, Send out from the dead, to prevent my father,\nmy brother, and my father's house, from coming 'into this place of\ntorment?' Shall not then these mournful groans pierce thy flinty\nheart? Wilt thou stop thine ears, and shut thy eyes? And wilt thou\nnot regard? Take warning and stop thy journey before it be too\nlate. Wilt thou be like the silly fly, that is not quiet unless\nshe be either entangled in the spider's web, or burned in the\ncandle? Wilt thou be like the bird that hasteth to the snare of\nthe fowler? Wilt thou be like that simple one named in the seventh\nof Proverbs, that will be drawn to the slaughter by the cord of\na silly lust? O sinner, sinner, there are better things than hell\nto be had, and at a cheaper rate by the thousandth part! O! there\nis no comparison, there is heaven, there is God, there is Christ,\nthere is communion with an innumerable company of saints and angels.\nHear the message then that God doth send, that Christ doth send,\nthat saints do bring, nay, that the dead do send unto thee: 'I\npray thee, therefore, that thou wouldst send him to my father's\nhouse'; 'if one went unto them from the dead they would repent.'\n'How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the\nscorners delight in their scorning? And fools hate knowledge?'\n'Turn you at my reproof: behold,' saith God, 'I will pour out my\nSpirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.' I say, hear\nthis voice, O silly one, and turn and live, thou sinful soul, lest\nhe make thee hear that other saying, But, 'because I have called,\nand ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;\nI also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear\ncometh' (Prov 1:22-26).\n\nO poor soul, If God and Christ did [thus] with thee for thine\nharm, it would be another matter; then if thou didst refuse, thou\nmightest have some excuse to make, or fault to find, and ground\nto make delays. But this is for thy profit, for thy advantage,\nfor the pardoning of thy sins, the salvation of thy soul, the\ndelivering of thee from hell fire, from the wrath to come, from\neverlasting burnings, into favor with God, Christ, and communion\nwith all happiness, that is so indeed.\n\nBut it may be thou wilt say, All that hath been spoken to in this\ndiscourse is but a parable, and parables are no realities. I could\nput thee off with this answer, That though it be a parable, yet\nit is a truth, and not a lie; and thou shalt find it so too, to\nthy cost, if thou shalt be found a slighter of God, Christ, and\nthe salvation of thy own soul.\n\nBut secondly, know for certain, that the things signified by\nparables are wonderful realities. O what a glorious reality was\nthere signified by that parable, 'The kingdom of heaven is like\nunto a net that was cast into the sea,' &c. Signifying, that\nsinners of all sorts, of all nations, should be brought into God's\nkingdom, by the net of the gospel. And O! how real a thing shall\nthe other part thereof be, when it is fulfilled, which saith,\nAnd 'when it was full they drew to shore, and gathered the good\ninto vessels, but cast the bad away' (Matt 13:47,48). Signifying\nthe mansions of glory that the saints should have, and also the\nrejection that God will give to the ungodly, and to sinners. And\nalso that parable, what a glorious reality is there in it, which\nsaith, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it\nabideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit' (John\n12:24). To signify that unless Jesus Christ did indeed spill his\nblood, and die the cursed death, he should abide alone; that is,\nhave never a soul into glory with him; but if he died, he should\nbring forth much fruit; that is, save many sinners. And also how\nreal a truth there was in that parable concerning the Jews putting\nChrist to death, which the poor dispersed Jews can best experience\nto their cost; for they have been almost ever since a banished\npeople, and such as have had God's sore displeasure wonderfully\nmanifested against them, according to the truth of the parable\n(Matt 21:33-41). O therefore, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not\nslight the truth, because it is discovered in a parable! For by\nthis argument thou mayest also, nay, thou wilt slight almost all\nthe things that our Lord Jesus Christ did speak; for he spake them\nfor the most part, if not all, in parables. Why should it be said\nof thee as it is said of some, These things are spoken to them\nthat are without 'in parables, that seeing they might not see,\nand hearing they might not understand?' (Luke 8:10). I say, take\nheed of being a quarreller against Christ's parables, lest Christ\nalso object against the salvation of thy soul at the judgment day.\n\nFriend, I have no more to say to thee now. If thou dost love me\npray for me, that my God would not forsake me, nor take his Holy\nSpirit from me; and that God would fit me to do and suffer what\nshall be from the world or devil inflicted upon me. I must tell\nthee, the world rages, they stamp and shake their heads, and\nfain they would be doing; the Lord help me to take all they shall\ndo with patience; and when they smite the one cheek, to turn the\nother to them, that I may do as Christ hath bidden me; for then\nthe Spirit of God, and of glory, shall rest upon me. Farewell.\n\nI am thine, if thou be not ashamed to own me, because of my low\nand contemptible descent in the world.[3]\n\nJOHN BUNYAN\n\n\nA Few Sighs from Hell;\n\nOR\n\nThe Groans of a Damned Soul..\n\nLuke 16:19-31.\n\n'There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine\nlinen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain\nbeggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,\nAnd desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich\nman's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it\ncame to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels\ninto Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;\nAnd in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeeth\nAbraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said,\nFather Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may\ndip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am\ntormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou\nin thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus\nevil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And,\nbeside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed;\nso that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither\ncan they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said,\nI pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to\nmy father's house; For I have five brethren; that he may testify\nunto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham\nsaith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear\nthem. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them\nfrom the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they\nhear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded\nthough one rose from the dead.'\n\nThis Scripture was not spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ to show you\nthe state of two single persons only, as some, through ignorance\nof the drift of Christ in his parables, do dream; but to show\nyou the state of the godly and ungodly to the world's end; as is\nclear to him that is of an understanding heart. For he spake them\nto the end that after generations should take notice thereof,\nand fear, lest they also fell into the same condition. Now in my\ndiscourse upon these words I shall not be tedious; but as briefly\nas I may, I shall pass through the several verses, and lay you\ndown some of the several truths contained therein. And the Lord\ngrant that they may be profitable, and of great advantage to those\nthat read them, or hear them read.\n\nThe 19th and 20th verses also, I shall not spend much time upon,\nonly give you three or four short hints, and so pass to the next\nverses; for they are the words I do intend most especially to\ninsist upon.\n\nThe 19th, 20th, and 21st verses run thus:--'There was a certain\nrich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared'\ndeliciously or 'sumptuously every day. And there was a certain\nbeggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores.'\n\nFirst. If these verses had been spoken by Jesus Christ, and no\nmore, all the world would have gone near to have cast a wrong\ninterpretation on them. I say, if Jesus had said only thus much,\n'There was a certain rich man' which 'fared sumptuously daily,\nand a certain beggar laid at his gate full of sores'; the world\nwould have made this conclusion of them--the rich man was the happy\nman; for, at the first view, it doth represent such a thing; but\ntake all together, that is, read the whole parable, and you shall\nfind that there is no man in a worse condition than he; as I shall\nclearly hold forth afterward.\n\nSecond. Again, if a man would judge of men according to outward\nappearance, he shall ofttimes take his mark amiss. Here is a man\nto outward appearance appears the only blessed man, better by half\nthan the beggar, inasmuch as he is rich, the beggar poor; he is\nwell clothed, but peradventure the beggar is naked; he hath good\nfood, but the beggar would be glad of dog's meat. 'And desiring\nto be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.'\nThe rich man fares well every day, but the beggar must be glad of\na bit when he can get it. O! who would not be in the rich man's\nstate? A wealthy man, sorts of new suits and dainty dishes every\nday; enough to make one who minds nothing but his belly, and his\nback, and his lusts, to say, O that I were in that man's condition!\nO that I had about me as that man has! Then I should live a life\nindeed; then should I have heart's-ease good store; then I should\nlive pleasantly, and might say to my soul, 'Soul,' be of good\ncheer, 'eat, drink, and be merry' (Luke 12:19). Thou hast everything\nplenty, and art in a most blessed condition.\n\nI say, this might be, aye, and is, the conclusion with them that\njudge according to outward appearance. But if the whole parable\nbe well considered, you will see (Luke 16:15), that which is had\nin high estimation with men is an abomination in the sight of\nGod. And again (John 16:20-22), that condition, that is the saddest\ncondition, according to outward appearance, is ofttimes the most\nexcellent; for the beggar had ten thousand degrees the best of\nit, though, to outward appearance, his state was the saddest;[4]\nfrom whence we shall observe thus much:--1. That those who judge\naccording to outward appearance, do for the most part judge amiss\n(John 7:24). 2. That they who look upon their outward enjoyments\nto be token of God's special grace unto them, are also deceived\n(Rev 3:17). For as it is here in the parable, a man of wealth and\na child of the devil may make but one person; or a man may have\nabundance of outward enjoyments, and yet be carried by the devils\ninto eternal burnings (Luke 12:20). But this is the trap in which\nthe devil hath caught many thousands of poor souls, namely, by\ngetting them to judge according to outward appearance, or according\nto God's outward blessings.\n\nDo but ask a poor, carnal, covetous wretch, how we should know\na man to be in a happy state, and he will answer, those that God\nblesseth, and giveth abundance of this world unto; when, for the\nmost part, they are they that are the cursed men. Alas! poor men,\nthey are so ignorant as to think that because a man is increased\nin outward things, and that by a small stock, therefore God doth\nlove that man with a special love, or else he would never do\nso much for him, never bless him so, and prosper the work of his\nhands. Ah! poor soul, it is the rich man that goes to hell. And\n'the rich man died,' and in hell, mark, 'in hell he lift up his\neyes,' &c.\n\nMethinks to see how the great ones of the world will go strutting\nup and down the streets sometimes, it makes me wonder. Surely they\nlook upon themselves to be the only happy men; but it is because\nthey judge according to outward appearance; they look upon themselves\nto be the only blessed men, when the Lord knows the generality\nare left out of that blessed condition. 'Not many wise men after\nthe flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called' (1 Cor\n1:26). Ah! did they that do now so brag, that nobody dare scarce\nlook on them, but believe this, it would make them hang down their\nheads and cry, O give me a Lazarus' portion.\n\nI might here enlarge very much, but I shall not; only thus much\nI shall say to you that have much of this world, Have a care that\nyou have not your portion in this world. Take heed that it be not\nsaid to you hereafter, when you would very willingly have heaven,\nRemember in your lifetime you had your portion (Psa 17:14).\n\nAnd friend, thou that seekest after this world, and desirest riches,\nlet me ask this question, Wouldst thou be content that God should\nput thee off with a portion in this life? Wouldst thou be glad to\nbe kept out of heaven with a back well clothed, and a belly well\nfilled with the dainties of this world? Wouldst thou be glad to\nhave all thy good things in thy lifetime, to have thy heaven to\nlast no longer than while thou dost live in this world? Wouldst\nthou be willing to be deprived of eternal happiness and felicity?\nIf you say no, then have a care of the world and thy sins; have a\ncare of desiring to be a rich man, lest thy table be made a snare\nunto thee (Psa 19:22). Lest the wealth of this world do bar thee\nout of glory. For, as the apostle saith, 'They that will be rich,\nfall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful\nlusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition' (1 Tim 6:9).\nThus much in general; but now more particularly.\n\nThese two men here spoken of, as I said, do hold forth to us that\nstate of the godly and ungodly; the beggar holdest forth the godly,\nand the rich man the ungodly. 'There was a certain rich man.'\n\nBut why are the ungodly held forth under the notion of a rich man?\n1. Because Christ would not have them look too high, as I said\nbefore, but that those who have riches should have a care that they\nbe not all their portion (James 1:10-12; 1 Tim 6:17). 2. Because\nrich men are most liable to the devil's temptations; are most\nready to be puffed up with pride, stoutness, cares of this world,\nin which things they spend most of their time in lusts, drunkenness,\nwantonness, idleness, together with the other works of the flesh;\nfor which things sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children\nof disobedience (Col 3:6). 3. Because he would comfort the hearts\nof his own, which are most commonly of the poorer sort; but God\nhath chosen the poor, despised, and base things of this world (1\nCor 1:26). Should God have set the rich man in the blessed state,\nhis children would have concluded, being poor, that they had no\nshare in the life to come.\n\nAnd again, had not God given such a discovery of the sad condition\nof those that are for the most part rich men, we should have had\nmen concluded absolutely that the rich are the blessed men. Nay,\nalbeit the Lord himself doth so evidently declare that the rich\nones of the world are, for the most part, in the saddest condition,\nyet they, through unbelief, or else presumption, do harden\nthemselves, and seek for the glory of this world as though the\nLord Jesus Christ did not mean as he said, or else that he will\nsay more than shall assuredly come to pass; but let them know that\nthe Lord hath a time to fulfil that he had a time to declare, for\nthe scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35).\n\nBut again, the Lord by this word doth not mean those are ungodly\nwho are rich in the world, and no other, for then must all those\nthat are poor, yet graceless and vain men, be saved and delivered\nfrom eternal vengeance, which would be contrary to the Word of\nGod, which saith that together with the kings of the earth, and\nthe great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, there\nare bondmen or servants, and slaves, that cry out at the appearance\nof the Almighty God, and his Son Jesus Christ, to judgment (Rev\n6:15).\n\nSo that though Christ doth say, 'There was a certain rich man,'\nyet you must understand he meaneth all the ungodly, rich or poor.\nNay, if you will not understand it so now, you shall be made to\nunderstand it to be so meant at the day of Christ's second coming,\nwhen all that are ungodly shall stand at the left hand of Christ,\nwith pale faces and guilty consciences, with the vials of the\nAlmighty's wrath ready to be poured out upon them. Thus much in\nbrief touching the 19th verse. I might have observed other things\nfrom it, but now I forbear, having other things to speak of at\nthis time.\n\nVerse 20.--'And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which\nwas laid at his gate, full of sores.'\n\nThis verse doth chiefly hold forth these things; 1. That the\nsaints of God are a poor contemptible people; 'There was a certain\nbeggar.' If you understand the word beggar to hold forth outward\npoverty, or scarcity in outward things, such are saints[5] of the\nLord, for they are for the most part a poor, despised, contemptible\npeople. But if you allegorize it and interpret it thus, They are\nsuch as beg earnestly for heavenly food; this is also the spirit\nof the children of God, and it may be, and is a truth in this\nsense, though not so naturally gathered from this scripture. 2.\nThat 'he was laid at his gate, full of sores.' These words hold\nforth the distempers of believers, saying he was 'full of sores,'\nwhich may signify the many troubles, temptations, persecutions,\nand afflictions in body and spirit which they meet withal while\nthey are in the world, but also the entertainment they find at\nthe hands of those ungodly ones who live upon the earth. Whereas\nit is said, he was 'laid at his gate, full of sores.' Mark, he\nwas laid at his gate, not in his house--that was thought too good\nfor him--but he was laid at his gate, full of sores. From whence\nobserve, (1.) That the ungodly world do not desire to entertain\nand receive the poor saints of God into their houses. If they\nmust needs be somewhere near unto them, yet they shall not come\ninto their houses; shut them out of doors; if they will needs be\nnear us, let them be at the gate. And he 'was laid at his gate,\nfull of sores.' (2.) Observe that the world are not at all touched\nwith the afflictions of God's children for all they are full of\nsores; a despised, afflicted, tempted, persecuted people the world\ndoth not pity, no, but rather labour to aggravate their trouble\nby shutting them out of doors; sink or swim, what cares the\nworld? They are resolved to disown them; they will give them no\nentertainment: if the lying in the streets will do them any good,\nif hard usage will do them any good, if to be disowned, rejected,\nand shut out of doors by the world will do them any good, they\nshall have enough of that; but otherwise no refreshment, no comfort\nfrom the world. And he 'was laid at his gate, full of sores.'\n\nVerse 21.--'And he desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from\nthe rich man's table: the dogs came also and licked his sores.'\n\nBy these words our Lord Jesus doth show us the frame of a Christian's\nheart, and also the heart and carriage of worldly men towards the\nsaints of the Lord. The Christian's heart is held forth by this,\nthat anything will content him while he is on this side glory. And\n'he desired to be fed with the crumbs'; the dogs' meat, anything.\nI say a Christian will be content with anything, if he have but\nto keep life and soul together; as we used to say, he is content,\nhe is satisfied; he hath learned--if he hath learned to be\na Christian--to be content with anything; as Paul saith, 'I have\nlearned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content' (Phil\n4:11). He learns in all conditions to study to love God, to walk\nwith God, to give up himself to God; and if the crumbs that fall\nfrom the rich man's table will but satisfy nature and give him\nbodily strength, that thereby he may be the more able to walk in\nthe way of God, he is contented. And he 'desired to be fed with\nthe crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.'[6] But mark, he\nhad them not; you do not find that he had so much as a crumb, or a\nscrap allowed unto him. No, then the dogs will be beguiled, THAT\nmust be preserved for the dogs. From whence observe that the ungodly\nworld do love their dogs better than the children of God.[7] You\nwill say that is strange. It is so indeed, yet it is true, as will\nbe clearly manifested; as, for instance, how many pounds do some\nmen spend in a year on their dogs, when in the meanwhile the poor\nsaints of God may starve for hunger? They will build houses for\ntheir dogs, when the saints must be glad to wander, and lodge in\ndens and caves of the earth (Heb 11:38). And if they be in any\nof their houses for the hire thereof, they will warn them out or\neject them, or pull down the house over their heads, rather than\nnot rid themselves of such tenants.[8] Again, some men cannot go\nhalf a mile from home but they must have dogs at their heels, but\nthey can very willingly go half a score miles without the society\nof a Christian. Nay, if when they are busy with their dogs they\nshould chance to meet a Christian, they would willingly shift him\nif they could. They will go on the other side the hedge or the\nway rather than they will have any society with him; and if at\nany time a child of God should come into a house where there are\nbut two or three ungodly wretches, they do commonly wish either\nthemselves or the saint out of doors; and why so? because they\ncannot down[9] with the society of a Christian; though if there\ncome in at the same time a dog, or a drunken swearing wretch,\nwhich is worse than a dog, they will make him welcome; he shall\nsit down with them and partake of their dainties. And now tell\nme, you that love your sins and your pleasures, had you not rather\nkeep company with a drunkard, a swearer, a strumpet, a thief,\nnay, a dog, than with an honest-hearted Christian? If you say no,\nwhat means your sour carriage to the people of God? Why do you\nlook on them as if you would eat them up? Yet at the very same\ntime if you can but meet your dog, or a drunken companion, you\ncan fawn upon them, take acquaintance with them, to the tavern or\nale house with them, if it be two or three times in a week. But\nif the saints of God meet together, pray together, and labour to\nedify one another, you will stay till doomsday before you will\nlook into the house where they are. Ah! friends, when all comes\nto all, you will be found to love drunkards, strumpets, dogs,\nanything, nay, to serve the devil, rather than to have loving and\nfriendly society with the saints of God.\n\nMoreover, 'the dogs came and licked his sores.' Here again you may\nsee, not only the afflicted state of the saints of God in this\nworld, but also that even dogs themselves, according to their kind,\nare more favourable to the saints than the sinful world; though\nthe ungodly will have no mercy on the saints, yet it is ordered\nso that these creatures, dogs, lions, &c. will. Though the rich\nman would not entertain him into his house, yet his dogs will\ncome and do him the best good they can, even to lick his running\nsores. It was thus with Daniel when the world was mad against him,\nand would have him thrown to the lions to be devoured, the lions\nshut their mouths at him, or rather the Lord did shut them up, so\nthat there was not that hurt befel to him as was desired by the\nadversaries (Dan 6). And this I am persuaded of, that would the\ncreatures do as some men would have them, the saints of God should\nnot walk so quietly up and down the streets and other places\nas they do. And as I said before, so I say again, I am persuaded\nthat, at the day of judgment, many men's conditions and carriages\nwill be so laid open, that it will evidently appear they have been\nvery merciless and mad against the children of God, insomuch,\nthat when the providence of God did fall out so as to cross their\nexpectation, they have been very much offended thereat, as is very\nevidently seen in them who set themselves to study how to bring\nthe saints into bondage, and to thrust them into corners, as in\nthese late years (Psa 31:13). And because God hath in his goodness\nordered things otherwise, they have gnashed their teeth thereat.[10]\nHence then let the saints learn not to commit themselves to their\nenemies; 'beware of men' (Matt 10:17). They are very merciless\nmen, and will not so much favour you, if they can help it, as you\nmay suppose they may. Nay, unless the overruling hand of God in\ngoodness do order things contrary to their natural inclination,\nthey will not favour you so much as a dog.\n\nVerse 22.--'And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was\ncarried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also\ndied, and was buried.'\n\nThe former verses do briefly hold forth the carriage of the ungodly\nin this life toward the saints. Now this verse doth hold forth\nthe departure, both of the godly and ungodly, out of this life.\n\nWhere he said, 'And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was\ncarried--into Abraham's bosom,' and 'the rich man also died';--the\nbeggar died, that represents the godly; and the rich man died,\nthat represents the ungodly. From whence observe, neither godly\nnor ungodly must live always without a change, either by death or\njudgment; the good man died and the bad man died. That scripture\ndoth also back this truth, that good and bad must die, marvellous\nwell, where it is said, 'And it is appointed unto men once to die,\nbut after this the judgment' (Heb 9:27).\n\nMark, he doth not say it is so that men by chance may die; which\nmight beget, in the hearts of the ungodly especially, some hope\nto escape the bitterness of it. But he saith it is a thing most\ncertain, it is appointed; mark, 'it is appointed unto men once\nto die, but after this the judgment.' God hath decreed it, that\nsince men have fallen from that happy estate that God at the first\ndid set them in, they shall die (Rom 6:23). Now when it is said\nthe beggar died and the rich man died, part of the meaning is they\nceased to be any more in this world; I say partly the meaning,\nbut not altogether. Though it be altogether the meaning when some\nof the creatures die, yet it is but in part the meaning when it\nis said that men, women, or children die; for there is to them\nsomething else to be said, more than barely agoing out of the\nworld. For if when unregenerate men and women die there were an\nend of them, not only in this world but also in the world to come,\nthey would be happy over they will be now, for when ungodly men\nand women die there is that to come after death that will be very\nterrible to them, namely, to be carried by the angels of darkness\nfrom their death-beds to hell, there to be reserved to the judgment of\nthe great day, when both body and soul shall meet and be united\ntogether again, and made capable to undergo the uttermost vengeance\nof the Almighty to all eternity. This is that, I say, which doth\nfollow a man that is not born again, after death, as is clear from\nthat in 1 Peter 3:18, 19, where, before speaking of Christ being\nraised again, by the power of his eternal Spirit, he saith, By\nwhich, that is, by that Spirit, 'he went and preached unto the\nspirits in prison.' But what is the meaning of this? Why, thus much,\nthat those souls who were once alive in the world in the time or\ndays in which Noah lived, being disobedient in their times to the\ncalls of God by his Spirit in Noah, for so I understand it, was,\naccording to that which was foretold by that preacher, deprived\nof life and overcome by the flood, and are now in prison. Mark,\nhe preached to the spirits in prison; he doth not say, who were\nin prison, but to them in, that is, now in prison, under chains\nof darkness, reserved, or kept there in that prison, in which now\nthey are, ready, like villains in the jail, to be brought before\nthe judgment-seat of Christ at the great day. But of this I shall\nspeak further by and by.\n\nNow if this one truth, that men must die and depart this world,\nand either enter into joy or else into prison, to be reserved to\nthe day of judgment, were believed, we should not have so many\nwantons walk up and down the streets as there do, at least it\nwould put a mighty check to their filthy carriages, so that they\nwould not, could not walk so basely and sinfully as they do.\nBelshazzar, notwithstanding he was so far from the fear of God as\nhe was, yet when he did but see that God was offended and threatened\nhim for his wickedness, it made him hang down his head and knock\nhis knees together (Dan 5:5,6). If you read the verses before you\nwill find he was careless, and satisfying his lusts in drinking\nand playing the wanton with his concubines. But so soon as he did\nperceive the finger of a hand-writing, 'then,' saith the scripture,\n'the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him,\nso that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote\none against another.' And when Paul told Felix of righteousness,\ntemperance, and judgment to come, it make him tremble. And let me\ntell thee, soul, whosoever thou art, that if thou didst but verily\nbelieve that thou must die and come into the judgment, it would\nmake thee turn over a new leaf. But this is the misery, the devil\ndoth labour by all means as to keep out other things that are good,\nso to keep out of the heart, as much as in him lies, the thoughts\nof passing from this life into another world; for he knows, if\nhe can but keep them from the serious thoughts of death, he shall\nthe more easily keep them in their sins, and so from closing with\nJesus Christ; as Job saith, 'Their houses are safe from fear,\nneither is the rod of God upon them.' Which makes them say to God,\n'Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways' (Job\n21:14). Because there is no fear of death and judgment to come,\ntherefore they do put off God and his ways, and spend their days\nin their sins, and in a moment, that is, before they are aware,\ngo down to the grave (Job 21:17). And thus it fared also with\nthe man spoken of in Luke 12:20. The man, instead of thinking of\ndeath, he thought how he might make his barns bigger. But, in the\nmidst of his business in the world, he lost his soul before he\nwas aware, supposing that death had been many years off. But God\nsaid unto him, 'Thou fool,' thou troublest thyself about things of\nthis life, thou puttest off the thoughts of departing this world,\nwhen this night thy soul shall be taken from thee; or, this night,\nthey, that is, the devil, will fetch away thy soul from thee. And\nhere it comes to pass, men's not being exercised with the thoughts\nof departing this life, that they are, so unexpectedly to themselves\nand their neighbours, taken away from the pleasures and profits,\nyea, and all the enjoyments they busy themselves withal while they\nlive in this world. And hence it is again, that you have some in\nyour towns and cities that are so suddenly taken away, some from\nhaunting the ale-houses, others from haunting the whore-houses,\nothers from playing and gaming, others from the cares and covetous\ndesires after this world, unlooked for as by themselves or their\ncompanions. Hence it is also that men do so wonder at such tidings\nas this. There is such a one dead, such a one is departed; it\nis because they do so little consider both the transitoriness of\nthemselves and their neighbours. For had they but their thoughts\nwell exercised about the shortness of this life, and the danger\nthat will befall such as do miss of the Lord Jesus Christ, it\nwould make them more wary and sober, and spend more time in the\nservice of God, and be more delighted and diligent in inquiring\nafter the Lord Jesus, who is the deliverer 'from the wrath to\ncome' (1 Thess 1:10). For, as I said before, it is evident, that\nthey who live after the flesh in the lusts thereof, do not really\nand seriously think on death, and the judgment that doth follow\nafter: neither do they indeed endeavour so to do; for did they, it\nwould make them say with holy Job, 'All the days of my appointed\ntime will I wait till my change come' (Job 14:14). And as I said\nbefore, that not only the wicked, but also the godly have their\ntime to depart this life. And the beggar died. The saints of the\nLord, they must be deprived of this life also, they must yield up\nthe ghost into the hands of the Lord their God; they must also be\nseparated from their wives, children, husbands, friends, goods,\nand all that they have in the world. For God hath decreed it; it\nis appointed, namely, by the Lord, for men once to die, and 'we\nmust all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,' as it is, 2\nCorinthian 5:10, 11.\n\nBut it may be objected, if the godly do die as well as the wicked,\nand if the saints must appear before the judgment-seat as well\nas the sinners, then what advantage have the godly more than the\nungodly, and how can the saints be in a better condition than the\nwicked?\n\nAnsw. Read the 22d verse over again, and you will find a marvellous\ndifference between them, as much as is between heaven and hell,\neverlasting joy and everlasting torments; for you find, that when\nthe beggar died, which represents the godly, he was carried by\nthe angels into Abraham's bosom, or into everlasting joy (Psa 1).\nBut the ungodly are not so, but are hurried by the devils into\nthe bottomless pit, drawn away in their wickedness (Prov 14:32),\nfor he saith, 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.' When the ungodly\ndo die, their misery beginneth, for then appear the devils, like\nso many lions, waiting every moment till the soul depart from the\nbody. Sometimes they are very visible to the dying party,[11] but\nsometimes more invisible; but always this is certain, they never\nmiss of the soul if it do die out of the Lord Jesus Christ;\nbut do hale it away to the prison, as I said before, there to be\ntormented and reserved until that great and general day of judgment,\nat which day they must, body and soul, receive a final sentence\nfrom the righteous Judge, and from that time be shut out from the\npresence of God into everlasting woe and distress. But the godly,\nwhen the time of their departure is at hand, then also are the\nangels of the Lord at hand; yea, they are ready waiting upon the\nsoul to conduct it safe into Abraham's bosom. I do not say but the\ndevils are ofttimes very busy doubtless, and attending the saints\nin their sickness: ay, and no question but they would willingly\ndeprive the soul of glory. But here is the comfort, as the devils\ncome from hell to devour the soul, if it be possible, at its\ndeparture, so the angels of the Lord come from heaven, to watch over\nand conduct the soul, in spite of the devil, safe into Abraham's\nbosom.\n\nDavid had the comfort of this, and speaks it forth for the comfort\nof his brethren (Psa 34:7), saying, 'The angel of the Lord encampeth\nround about them that fear him, and delivereth them.' Mark, the\nangel of the Lord encampeth round about his children, to deliver\nthem. From what? From their enemies, of which the devil is not\nthe least. This is an excellent comfort at any time, to have the\nholy angels of God to attend a poor man or woman; but especially\nit is comfortable in the time of distress, at the time of death,\nwhen the devils beset the soul with all the power that hell can\nafford them. But now it may be, that the glorious angels of God\ndo not appear at the first, to the view of the soul; nay, rather\nhell stands before it, and the devils ready, as if they would carry\nit thither. But this is the comfort, the angels do always appear\nat the last, and will not fail the soul, but will carry it safe\ninto Abraham's bosom. Ah friends, consider, here is an ungodly\nman upon his death-bed, and he hath none to speak for him, none\nto speak comfort unto him; but it is not so with the children of\nGod, for they have the Spirit to comfort them. Here is the ungodly,\nand they have no Christ to pray for their safe conduct to glory;\nbut the saints have an intercessor (John 17:9). Here is the world,\nwhen they die, they have none of the angels of God to attend upon\nthem; but the saints have their company. In a word, the unconverted\nperson, when he dieth, he sinks into the bottomless pit; but the\nsaints, when they die, do ascend with, and by the angels, into\nAbraham's bosom, or into unspeakable glory (Luke 23:43).\n\nAgain, it is said, that the rich man when he died was buried or\nput into the earth; but when the beggar died, he was carried by\nthe angels into Abraham's bosom. The one is a very excellent style,\nwhere he saith he was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom:\nit denotes the excellent condition of the saints of God, as\nI said before; and not only so, but also the preciousness of the\ndeath of the saints in the eyes of the Lord (Psa 116:15). That\nafter-generations may see how precious in the sight of the Lord\nthe death of his saints is, when he saith they are carried by the\nangels into Abraham's bosom.\n\nThus many times the Lord adorneth the death and departure of his\nsaints, to hold forth unto after-generations, how excellent they are\nin his eyes. It is said of Enoch, that God took him; of Abraham,\nthat he died in a good old age; of Moses, that the Lord buried\nhim; of Elijah, that he was taken up into heaven; that the saints\nsleep in Jesus; that they die in the Lord; that they rest from\ntheir labour, that their works follow them; that they are under\nthe altar; that they are with Christ; that they are in light; that\nthey are to come with the Lord Jesus to judge the world. All which\nsayings signify thus much, that to die a saint is very great honour\nand dignity. But the ungodly are not so. The rich or ungodly die\nand are buried; he is carried from his dwelling to the grave, and\nthere he is buried, hid in the dust; and his body doth not so fast\nmoulder and come to nought there, but his name doth stink as fast\nin the world, as saith the holy scripture: 'The name of the wicked\nshall rot' (Prov 10:7). And indeed, the names of the godly are\nnot in so much honour after their departure, but the wicked and\ntheir names do as much rot. What a dishonour to posterity was the\ndeath of Balaam, Agag, Ahithophel, Haman, Judas, Herod, with the\nrest of their companions?\n\nThus the wicked have their names written in the earth, and they do\nperish and rot, and the name of the saints do cast forth a dainty\nsavour to following generations; and that the Lord Jesus doth\nsignify where he saith the godly are 'carried by the angels into\nAbraham's bosom'; and that the wicked are nothing worth, where he\nsaith the ungodly die and are buried.\n\nVerse 23.--'And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,\nand seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.'\n\nThe former verse speaks only of the departure of the ungodly out\nof this life, together with the glorious conduct[12] that the godly\nhave into the kingdom of their Father. Now our Lord doth show,\nin this verse, partly what doth and shall befal to the reprobate\nafter this life is ended, where he saith, 'And in hell he lifted\nup his eyes.' That is, the ungodly, after they depart this life,\ndo lift up their eyes in hell.\n\nFrom these words may be observed these things, First. That there\nis a hell for souls to be tormented in, when this life is ended.\nMark, after he was dead and buried, 'In hell he lifted up his\neyes.' Second. That all that are ungodly, and do live and die in\ntheir sins, so soon as ever they die, they go into hell: he died\nand was buried; 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.' Third. That\nsome are so fast asleep, and secure in their sins, that they scarce\nknow well where they are till they come into hell; and that I\ngather from these words, 'In hell he lifted up his eyes.' He was\nasleep before, but hell makes him lift up his eyes.\n\n[First.] As I said before, it is evident that there is a hell for\nsouls, yea, and bodies too, to be tormented in after they depart\nthis life, as is clear, first, because the Lord Jesus Christ, that\ncannot lie, did say that after the sinner was dead and buried,\n'In hell he lifted up his eyes.'\n\nNow if it be objected that by hell is here meant the grave, that\nI plainly deny: 1. Because there the body is not sensible of torment\nor ease; but in that hell into which the spirits of the damned\ndepart, they are sensible of torment, and would very willingly be\nfreed from it, to enjoy ease, which they are sensible of the want\nof; as is clearly discovered in this parable, 'Send Lazarus, that\nhe may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.'\n2. It is not meant the grave, but some other place, because the\nbodies, so long as they lie there, are not capable of lifting up\ntheir eyes, to see the glorious condition of the children of God,\nas the souls of the damned do. 'In hell he lifted up his eyes.'\n3. It cannot be the grave, for then it must follow that the soul\nwas buried there with the body, which cannot stand with such a\ndead state as is here mentioned; for he saith, 'The rich man died';\nthat is, his soul was separated from his body. 'And in hell he\nlifted up his eyes.'\n\nIf it be again objected that there is no hell but in this life; that\nI do also deny, as I said before: after he was dead and buried,\n'In hell he lifted up his eyes.' And let me tell thee, O soul,\nwhoever thou art, that if thou close not in savingly with the Lord\nJesus Christ, and lay hold on what he hath done and is doing in\nhis own person for sinners, thou wilt find such a hell after this\nlife is ended, that thou wilt not get out of again for ever and\never. And thou that art wanton, and dost make but a mock at the\nservants of the Lord, when they tell thee of the torments of hell,\nthou wilt find that when thou departest out of this life, that\nhell, even the hell which is after this life, will meet thee in\nthy journey thither; and will, with its hellish crew, give thee\nsuch a sad salutation that thou wilt not forget it to all eternity.\nWhen that scripture comes to be fulfilled on thy soul, in Isaiah\n14:9, 10, 'Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at\nthy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief\nones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the\nkings of the nations. All they,' that is, that are in hell, shall\nsay, 'Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto\nus?' O sometimes when I have had but thoughts of going to hell,\nand consider the everlastingness of their ruin that fall in thither,\nit hath stirred me up rather to seek to the Lord Jesus Christ to\ndeliver me from thence, than to slight it, and make a mock at it.\n'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.'\n\n[Second.] The second thing I told you was this, that all the ungodly\nthat live and die in their sins, so soon as ever they depart this\nlife, do descend into hell. This is also verified by the words in\nthis parable, where Christ said, He 'died and was buried, and in\nhell he lifted up his eyes.' As the tree falls, so it shall be,\nwhether it be to heaven or hell (Eccl 11:3). And as Christ said to\nthe thief on the cross, 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.'\nEven so the devil in the like manner may say unto thy soul, To-morrow\nshalt thou be with me in hell. See then what a miserable case he\nthat dies in an unregenerate state is in; he departs from a long\nsickness to a longer hell; from the gripings of death, to the\neverlasting torments of hell. 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.'\nAh friends! If you were but yourselves, you would have a care of\nyour souls; if you did but regard, you would see how mad they are\nthat slight the salvation of their souls. O what will it profit\nthy soul to have pleasure in this life, and torments in hell? (Mark\n8:36). Thou hadst better part with all thy sins, and pleasures,\nand companions, or whatsoever thou delightest in, than to have\nsoul and body to be cast into hell. O then do not now neglect our\nLord Jesus Christ, lest thou drop down to hell (Heb 2:3). Consider,\nwould it not wound thee to thine heart to come upon thy death-bed,\nand instead of having the comfort of a well spent life, and the\nmerits of the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the comforts of his\nglorious Spirit: to have, first, the sight of an ill-spent life,\nthy sins flying in thy face, thy conscience uttering itself with\nthunder-claps against thee, the thoughts of God terrifying of\nthee, death with his merciless paw seizing upon thee, the devils\nstanding ready to scramble for thy soul, and hell enlarging\nherself, and ready to swallow thee up; and an eternity of misery\nand torment attending upon thee, from which there will be no\nrelease. For mark, death doth not come alone to an unconverted\nsoul, but with such company, as wast thou but sensible of it would\nmake thee tremble. I pray consider that scripture (Rev 6:8), 'And\nI looked and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him\nwas Death, and hell followed with him.' Mark, death doth not come\nalone to the ungodly, no, but hell goeth with him. O miserable\ncomforters! O miserable society! Here comes death and hell unto\nthee. Death goeth into thy body, and separates body and soul\nasunder; hell stands without, as I may say, to embrace, or rather,\nto crush thy soul between its everlasting grinders. Then thy mirth,\nthy joy, thy sinful delights will be ended when this comes to\npass. Lo it will come. Blessed are all those that through Christ\nJesus his merits, by faith, do escape these soul-murdering\ncompanions. 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes.'\n\n[Third.] The third thing you know that we did observe from these\nwords was this, That some are so fast asleep, and secure in\ntheir sins, that they scarce know where they are, until they come\ninto hell. And that I told you I gather by these words, 'In hell\nhe lifted up his eyes.' Mark, it was in hell that he lift up his\neyes. Now some do understand by these words that he came to himself,\nor began to consider with himself, or to think with himself in what\nan estate he was, and what he was deprived of; which is still a\nconfirmation of the thing laid down by me. There it is that they\ncome to themselves, that is, there they are sensible where they\nare indeed. Thus it fares with some men that they scarce know\nwhere they are, till they lift up their eyes in hell. It is with\nthose people as with those that fall down in a swoon; you know\nif a man do fall down in a swoon in one room, though you take him\nup and carry him into another, yet he is not sensible where he is\ntill he cometh unto himself, and lifteth up his eyes.\n\nTruly thus, it is to be feared, it is with many poor souls, they\nare so senseless, so hard, so seared in their conscience (1 Tim\n4:2), that they are very ignorant of their state; and when death\ncomes it strikes them as it were into a swoon, especially if they\ndie suddenly, and so they are hurried away, and scarce know where\nthey are till in hell they lift up their eyes: this is he who\n'dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet' (Job\n21:23).\n\nOf this sort are they spoken of in Psalm 73, where he saith, 'There\nare no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.' 'They\nare not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like\nother men.' And again, 'they spend their days in wealth, and in\na moment,' mark, 'in a moment,' before they are aware, they 'go\ndown to the grave' (Job 21:13).\n\nIndeed this is too much known by woeful and daily experience;\nsometimes when we go to visit them that are sick in the towns\nand places where we live, O how senseless, how seared in their\nconsciences are they! They are neither sensible of heaven nor of\nhell, of sin nor of a Saviour; speak to them of their condition,\nand the state of their souls, and you shall find them as ignorant\nas if they had no souls to regard. Others, though they lie ready to\ndie, yet they are busying themselves about their outward affairs,\nas though they should certainly live here, even to live and enjoy\nthe same for ever. Again, come to others, speak to them about the\nstate of their souls, though they have no more experience of the\nnew birth than a beast, yet will they speak as confidently of\ntheir eternal state, and the welfare of their souls, as if they\nhad the most excellent experience of any man or woman in the world,\nsaying, 'I shall have peace' (Deut 29:19). When, as I said even\nnow, the Lord knows they are as ignorant of the new birth, of the\nnature and operation of faith, of the witness of the Spirit, as\nif there were no new birth, no faith, no witness of the Spirit of\nChrist in any of the saints in the world. Nay, thus many of them\nare, even an hour or less before their departure. Ah, poor souls!\nthough they may go away here like a lamb, as the world says, yet,\nif you could but follow them a little, to stand and listen soon\nafter their departure, it is to be feared, you should hear them\nroar like a lion at their first entrance into hell, far worse than\neven did Korah, &c., when they went down quick into the ground\n(Num 16:31-35).\n\nNow, by this one thing doth the devil take great advantage on\nthe hearts of the ignorant, suggesting unto them that because the\nparty deceased departed so quietly, without all doubt they are\ngone to rest and joy; when, alas! it is to be feared the reason why\nthey went away so quietly, was rather because they were senseless\nand hardened in their consciences; yea, dead before in sins\nand trespasses. For, had they had but some awakenings on their\ndeath-beds, as some have had, they would have made all the town\nto ring of their doleful condition; but because they are seared\nand ignorant, and so depart quietly, therefore the world takes\nheart at grass,[13] as we use to say, and make no great matter of\nliving and dying they cannot tell how; 'therefore pride compasseth\nthem as a chain' (Psa 75:6). But let them look to themselves, for\nif they have not an interest in the Lord Jesus now, while they\nlive in the world, they will, whether they die raging or still,\ngo unto the same place; 'and lifted up their eyes in hell.'\n\nO, my friends, did you but know what a miserable condition they\nare in that go out of this world without an interest in the Son of\nGod, it would make you smite upon your thigh, and in the bitterness\nof your souls cry out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do to be\nsaved?' (Acts 16:29-31). And not only so, but thou wouldst not be\ncomforted until thou didst find a rest for thy soul in the Lord\nJesus Christ.\n\nVerse 23. 'And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,\nand seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.'\n\nSomething, in brief, I have observed from the first part of this\nverse, namely, from these words, 'And in hell he lifted up his\neyes.' And, indeed, I have observed but something, for they are\nvery full of matter, and many things might be taken notice of in\nthem. There is one thing more that I might touch upon, as touched\nin this saying, and that is this:--Methinks the Lord Jesus Christ\ndoth hereby signify that men are naturally unwilling to see or take\nnotice of their sad state, I say by nature; but though now they\nare willingly ignorant, yet in hell they shall lift up their eyes.\nThat is, in hell they shall see and understand their miserable\ncondition; and, therefore, to these words: 'In hell he lifted up\nhis eyes,' he adds, 'being in torments.' As if he had said, though\nonce they shut their eyes, though once they were willingly ignorant\n(2 Peter 3:5), yet, when they depart into hell, they shall be so\nmiserably handled and tormented, that they shall be forced to lift\nup their eyes. While men live in this world, and are in a natural\nstate, they will have a good conceit of themselves, and of their\ncondition--they will conclude that they are Christians, that Abraham\nis their father, and their state to be as good as the best (Matt\n3:7-9). They will conclude they have faith, the Spirit, a good\nhope, and an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ; but then, when\nthey drop into hell, and lift up their eyes there, and behold\nfirst their soul to be in extreme torments; their dwelling to be\nthe bottomless pit; their company thousands of damned souls; also\nthe innumerable company of devils; and the hot scalding vengeance\nof God, not only to drop, but to fall very violently upon them;\nthen they will begin to be awakened, who all their lifetime where\nin a dead sleep. I say, when this comes to pass, lo it will; then\nin hell they shall lift up their eyes, in the midst of torments\nthey shall lift up their eyes.\n\nAgain, you may observe in these words, 'And in hell he lifted up\nhis eyes, being in torments,' that the time of the ungodly men's\nsmarting for their sins will be in the torments of hell. Now here\nI am put to a stand, when I consider the torments of hell into which\nthe damned do fall. O unspeakable torments! O endless torments!\nNow that thy soul might be made to flee from those intolerable\ntorments into which the damned do go, I shall show you briefly\nwhat are the torments of hell. First. By the names of it. Second.\nby the sad state thou wilt be in, if thou comest there.\n\nFirst. The names. It is called a never-dying worm (Mark 9). It\nis called an oven fire, hot (Mal 4:1). It is called a furnace, a\nfiery-furnace (Matt 13). It is called the bottomless pit, the\nunquenchable fire, fire and brimstone, hell fire, the lake of fire,\ndevouring fire, everlasting fire, eternal fire, a stream of fire\n(Rev 21).\n\n[Second. By the sad state thou wilt be in, if thou comest there.]\n\n1. One part of thy torments will be this, thou shalt have a full\nsight of all thy ill spent life, from first to last; though here\nthou canst sin today and forget it by to-morrow, yet there thou\nshalt be made to remember how thou didst sin against God at such\na time, and in such a place, for such a thing, and with such a\none, which will be a hell unto thee. God will 'set them in order\nbefore thine eyes' (Psa 51:21).\n\n2. Thou shalt have the guilt of them all lie heavy on thy soul, not\nonly the guilt of one or two, but the guilt of them all together,\nand there they shall lie in thy soul, as if thy belly were full\nof pitch, and set on a light fire. Here men can sometimes think\non their sins with delight, but there with unspeakable torment;\nfor that I understand to be the fire that Christ speaketh of,\nwhich shall never be quenched (Mar 9:43-49). While men live here,\nO how doth the guilt of one sin sometimes crush the soul! It makes\na man in such plight that he is weary of his life, so that he can\nneither rest at home nor abroad, neither up nor in bed.[14] Nay,\nI do know that they have been so tormented with the guilt of one\nsinful thought, that they have been even at their wits' end, and\nhave hanged themselves. But now when thou comest into hell, and\nhast not only one or two, or an hundred sins, with the guilt of\nthem all on thy soul and body, but all the sins that ever thou\ndidst commit since thou camest into the world, altogether clapped\non thy conscience at one time, as one should clap a red hot iron\nto thy breasts, and there to continue to all eternity: this is\nmiserable.\n\n3. Again, then thou shalt have brought into thy remembrance the\nslighting of the gospel of Christ; here thou shalt consider how\nwilling Christ was to come into the world to save sinners, and for\nwhat a trifle thou didst reject him. This is plainly held forth in\nIsaiah 28, where, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation\nof salvation, verse 16, he saith of them that reject the gospel,\nthat, when the overflowing scourge doth pass through the earth,\nwhich I understand to be at the end of the world, then, saith he,\nit shall take you morning by morning, by day and by night shall\nit pass over you; that is, continually, without any intermission.\n'And it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.' 'A\nvexation,' that is, a torment, or a great part of hell only to\nunderstand the report, to understand the good tidings that came\ninto the world by Christ's death for poor sinners. And you will\nfind this verily to be the mind of the Spirit, if you compare it\nwith Isaiah 53:1, where he speaks of men's turning their backs\nupon the tenders of God's grace in the gospel, he saith, 'Who hath\nbelieved our report?' or the gospel declared by us? Now this will\nbe a mighty torment to the ungodly, when they shall understand\nthe goodness of God was so great that he even sent his Son out of\nhis bosom to die for sinners, and yet that they should be so foolish\nas to put him off from one time to another; that they should be so\nfoolish as to lose heaven and Christ, and eternal life in glory,\nfor the society of a company of drunkards; that they should lose\ntheir souls for a little sport, for this world, for a strumpet,\nfor that which is lighter than vanity and nothing; I say this will\nbe a very great torment unto thee.\n\n4. Another part of thy torment will be this: Thou shalt see thy\nfriends, thy acquaintance, they neighbours; nay, it may be thy\nfather, thy mother, thy wife, thy husband, thy children, thy brother,\nthy sister, with others, in the kingdom of heaven, and thyself\nthrust out (Luke 13:28). 'There shall be weeping and gnashing of\nteeth, when ye shall see Abraham (your father), and Isaac, and\nJacob, (together with your brethren), and all the prophets in\nthe kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out.' Nay, saith\nhe, 'they shall come from the east, and from the west'--that is,\nthose that thou didst never see in all thy life before, and they\nshall sit down with thy friends, and thy neighbours, thy wife and\nthy children, in the kingdom of heaven, and thou, for thy sins and\ndisobedience, shall be shut, nay, thrust out. O wonderful torment!\n\n5. Again, thou shalt have none but a company of damned souls,\nwith an innumerable company of devils, to keep company with thee.\nWhile thou art in this world, the very thoughts of the devils\nappearing to thee makes thy flesh to tremble, and thine hair ready\nto stand upright on thy head. But O! what wilt thou do, when not\nonly the supposition of the devils appearing, but the real society\nof all the devils in hell will be with thee howling and roaring,\nscreeching and roaring in such a hideous manner, that thou wilt\nbe even at thy wits' end, and be ready to run stark mad again for\nanguish and torment?\n\n6. Again, that thou mightest be tormented to purpose, the mighty\nGod of heaven will lay as great wrath and vengeance upon thee as\never he can, by the might of his glorious power. As I said before,\nthou shalt have his wrath, not by drops, but by whole showers\nshall it come, thunder, thunder, upon thy body and soul so fast,\nand so thick, that thou shalt be tormented out of measure. And so\nsaith the Scripture (2 Thess 1:9), speaking of the wicked, 'Who\nshall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence\nof the Lord, and from the glory of his power,' when the saints\nshall be admiring his goodness and glory. Again, this thou shalt\nhave, as I said before, without any intermission; thou shalt not\nhave any ease so long as while a man may turn himself round; thou\nshalt have it always every hour, day and night; for their worm\nnever dies, but always gnaws, and their fire is never quenched;\nas it is written in Mark 9.\n\n7. Again, in this condition thou must be for ever, and that is as\nsad as all the rest. For if a man were to have all his sins laid\nto his charge, and communion with the devils, and as much wrath\nas the great God of heaven can inflict unto him; I say, if it were\nbut for a time, even ten thousand years, and so end, there would\nbe ground of comfort, and hopes of deliverance; but here is thy\nmisery, this is thy state for ever, here thou must be for ever:\nwhen thou lookest about thee, and seest what an innumerable company\nof howling devils thou art amongst, thou shalt think this again,\nthis is my portion for ever. When thou hast been in hell so many\nthousand years as there are stars in the firmament, or drops in\nthe sea, or sands on the sea-shore, yet thou hast to lie there\nfor ever. O this one word EVER, how will it torment thy soul!\n\nFriends, I have only given a very short touch of the torments of\nhell. O! I am set, I am set, and am not able to utter what my mind\nconceives of the torments of hell. Yet this let me say to thee,\naccept of God's mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, lest thou feel\nTHAT with thy conscience which I cannot express with my tongue,\nand say, I am sorely tormented in this flame.\n\n'And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.'\n\nWhen the damned are in this pitiful state, surrounded with fears,\nwith terrors, with torment and vengeance, one thing they shall\nhave, which is this, they shall see the happy and blessed state\nof God's children. He seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his\nbosom; which, as I said before, is the happy state of the saints\nwhen this life is ended. This now shall be so far from being an\nease unto them, that it shall most wonderfully aggravate or heighten\ntheir torment, as I said before. There shall be weeping, or cause\nof lamentation, when they shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,\nin the kingdom of heaven, and themselves thrust out.\n\n1. Observe, Those that die in their sins are far from going to\nheaven; he seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And,\nindeed, it is just with God to deal with them that die in their\nsins according to what they have done; and to make them who are far\nfrom righteousness now, to stand far from heaven to all eternity.\nHearken to this, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness,\nand that are resolved to go on in your sins, when you die you will\nbe far from heaven; you will see Lazarus, but it will be afar off.\n\nAgain, he 'seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.'\n\nThese are some of the things the damned do behold, so soon as\nthey come into torment. Mark, and he 'seeth Lazarus in Abraham's\nbosom.' Lazarus, who was he? Why even he that was so slighted, so\ndisregarded, so undervalued by this ungodly one while he was in\nthe world, he seeth Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.\n\nFrom whence observe, That those who live and die the enemies of\nthe saints of God, let them be never so great, or stout, let them\nbear never so much sway while they are in the world, let them\nbrag and boast never so much while they are here, they shall, in\nspite of their teeth, see the saints, yea, the poor saints, even\nthe Lazaruses or the ragged ones that belong to Jesus, to be in\na better condition than themselves. O! who do you think was in\nthe best condition? who do you think saw themselves in the best\ncondition? He that was in hell, or he that was in heaven? He that\nwas in darkness, or he that was in light? He that was in everlasting\njoy, or he that was in everlasting torments? The one with God,\nChrist, saints, angels, the other in tormenting flames, under the\ncurse of God's eternal hatred, with the devils and their angels,\ntogether with an innumerable company of howling, roaring, cursing,\never-burning reprobates? Certainly, this observation will be\neasily proved to be true here in this world, by him that looks\nupon it with an understanding heart, and will clear itself to be\ntrue in the world to come, by such as shall go either to heaven\nor to hell.\n\n2. The second observation from these words, 'And seeth Abraham\nafar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,' is this; they that are the\npersecutors of the saints of the Lord now in this world, shall see\nthe Lord's persecuted ones to be they that are so highly esteemed\nby the Lord, as to sit or to be in Abraham's bosom, in everlasting\nglory, though they, the enemies to the children of God,[15] did\nso lightly esteem them, that they scorned to let them gather up\nthe dog's meat that falls under their table. This is also verified,\nand held forth plainly by this parable. And therefore be not\ngrieved, O you that are the tempted, persecuted, afflicted, sighing,\npraying saints of the Lord, though your adversaries look upon you\nnow with a disdainful, surly, rugged, proud, and haughty countenance,\nyet the time shall come when they shall spy you in Abraham's bosom!\n\nI might enlarge upon these things, but shall leave them to the\nSpirit of the Lord, which can better by ten thousand degrees\nenlarge them on thy heart and conscience, than I can upon a piece\nof paper. Therefore, leaving these to the blessing of the Lord,\nI shall come to the next verse, and shall be brief in speaking to\nthat also, and so pass to the rest.\n\nVerse 24.--'And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy\non me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in\nwater, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'\n\nYou know I told you that verse 22 is a discovery of the departure\nof the godly and the ungodly out of this life; where he saith\nthe beggar died, and the rich man also died. The 23d verse is a\ndiscovery of the proper places, both of the godly and the ungodly\nafter death; one being in Abraham's bosom, or in glory, the other\nin hell. Now this 24th verse is a discovery of part of the too\nlate repentance of the ungodly, when they are dropped down into\nhell; 'And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.'\nFrom these words, 'And he cried,' we may observe,\n\nFirst. What a change the ungodly will have when they come into\nhell. 'He cried.' It is like he was laughing, jesting, jeering,\ndrinking, mocking, swearing, cursing, prating, persecuting of\nthe godly in his prosperity, among his filthy companions. But now\nthe case is otherwise, now he is in another frame, now his proud,\nstout, currish carriage, is come down; 'And he cried.' The laughter\nof the ungodly will not last always, but will be sure to end in a\ncry; 'The triumphing of the wicked is short' (Job 20:5). Consider,\nyou must have a change either here or in hell. If you be not new\ncreatures, regenerate persons, new-born babes, in this world,\nbefore you go hence, your note will be changed, your conditions\nwill be changed; for if you come into hell, you must cry. O did\nbut the singing drunkards, when they are making merry on the ale\nbench,[16] think on this, it would make them change their note,\nand cry, What shall I do? Whither shall I go when I die? But, as\nI said before, the devil, as he labours to get poor souls to follow\ntheir sins, so he labours also to keep the thoughts of eternal\ndamnation out of their minds; and, indeed, these two things are\nso nearly linked together, that the devil cannot well get the soul\nto go on in sin with delight unless he can keep the thoughts of\nthat terrible after clap out of their minds.\n\nBut let them know that it shall not always be thus with them; for\nif, when they depart, they drop down into eternal destruction, they\nshall have such a sense of their sins, and the punishment due to\nthe same, that it shall make them to cry; 'And he cried.' O what\nan alteration will there be among the ungodly when they go out\nof this world? It may be a fortnight, or a month before their\ndeparture, they were light, stout, surly, drinking themselves\ndrunk, slighting God's people, mocking at goodness, and delighting\nin sin, following the world, seeking after riches, faring\ndeliciously, keeping company with the bravest;[17] but now, they\nare dropped down into hell, they cry. A little while ago they\nwere painting their faces, feeding their lusts, following their\nwhores, robbing their neighbours, telling of lies, following of\nplays and sports, to pass away the time; but now they are in hell,\nthey do cry. It may be last year they heard some good sermons,\nwere invited to receive heaven, were told their sins should be\npardoned if they closed in with Jesus; but, refusing his proffers,\nand slighting the grace that was once tendered, they are now in\nhell, and do cry.\n\nBefore, they had so much time, they thought that they could not\ntell how to spend it, unless it were in hunting, and whoring, in\ndancing, and playing, and spending whole hours, yea, days, nay,\nweeks, in the lusts of the flesh; but when they depart into another\nplace, and begin to lift up their eyes in hell, and consider their\nmiserable and irrecoverable condition, they will cry.\n\nO what a condition wilt thou fall into, when thou dost depart\nthis world; if thou depart unconverted, and not born again, thou\nhadst better have been smothered the first hour thou wast born;\nthou hadst better have been plucked one limb from another; thou\nhadst better have been made a dog, a toad, a serpent, nay, any\nother creature in the visible world, than to die unconverted;[18]\nand this thou wilt find to be true, when in hell thou dost lift\nup thine eyes, and dost cry.\n\nHere then, before we go any further, you may see that it is not\nwithout good ground that these words are here spoken by our Lord,\nthat when any of the ungodly do depart into hell, they will cry.\nCry, why so? 1. They will cry to think that they should be cut\noff from the land of the living, never more to have any footing\ntherein. 2. They will cry to think that the gospel of Christ should\nbe so often proffered them, and yet they are not profited by it.\n3. They will cry to think that now, though they would never so\nwillingly repent and be saved, yet they are past all recovery. 4.\nThey will cry to think that they should be so foolish as to follow\ntheir pleasures, when others were following of Christ (Luke 13:28).\n5. They will cry to think that they must be separated from God,\nChrist, and the kingdom of heaven, and that for ever. 6. To think\nthat their crying will now do them no good. 7. To think that, at\nthe day of judgment, they must stand at the left hand of Christ,\namong an innumerable company of the damned ones. 8. They will cry\nto think that Lazarus, whom once they slighted, must be of them\nthat must sit down with Christ to judge; or together with Christ,\nto pass a sentence of condemnation on their souls for ever and\never (1 Cor 6:2,3). 9. Cry to think that when the judgment is over,\nand others are taken into the everlasting kingdom of glory, then\nthey must depart back again into that dungeon of darkness from\nwhence they came out, to appear before the terrible tribunal.\nThere they shall be tormented so long as eternity lasts, without\nthe least intermission or ease.\n\nHow sayest thou, O thou wanton, proud, swearing, lying, ungodly\nwretch, whether this be to be slighted and made a mock at. And\nagain tell me now, if it be not better to leave sin, and to close\nin with Christ Jesus, notwithstanding that reproach thou shalt\nmeet with for so doing, than to live a little while in this world\nin pleasures and feeding thy lusts, in neglecting the welfare of\nthy soul, and refusing to be justified by Jesus; and in a moment\nto drop down to hell and to cry? O! consider, I say, consider\nbetimes, and put not off the tenders of the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, lest you lift up your eyes in hell, and cry for anguish\nof spirit.\n\n'And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send\nLazarus,' &c.\n\n[Second.] These words do not only hold forth the lamentable\ncondition of the damned, and their lamentable howling and crying\nout under their anguish of spirit, but also they do signify to us,\nas I said before, their too late repentance; and also that they\nwould very willingly, if they might, be set at liberty from that\neverlasting misery that by their sins they have plunged themselves\ninto. I say, these words do hold forth a desire that the damned\nhave, to be delivered from those torments that they now are in: O\n'Father Abraham,' saith he, 'have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,\nthat he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue,\nfor I am tormented in this flame.' These words, 'Father Abraham,'\nmay have some difficulty in them. It is possible that some may\nthink them to be meant of Abraham; and those, or him that crieth\nout here, to be the Jews. Or it may be some may understand it to\nbe God, or Jesus Christ his Son, which I rather suppose it may be,\nthat is here cried out unto; because you find the same cry to him\nas it were uttered by the ungodly in other places of the Scripture;\nas in Luke 13:25, 26. Then shall they say, 'Lord, Lord, we have\neaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our\nstreets.' Nay more, 'In thy name have cast out devils, and in\nthy name done many wonderful works' (Matt 7:22). This was just at\ntheir rejection. And again, in Matthew 25:11, they cry again to\nhim, even to Jesus, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' And he there again\ngives them a repulse, as also in this parable.\n\nBut however or whosoever Abraham is, yet these truths may be\nobserved from the words. 1. That the damned, when in an irrecoverable\nestate, will seek for, or desire deliverance from the wrath that\nthey are and shall be in for eternity. 'Surely in the floods of\ngreat waters they shall not come nigh unto him' (Psa 32:6). 2.\nThat they will pray, if I may so call it, earnestly for deliverance\nfrom their miserable estate. These two things are clear from the\nwords. For mark, he not only said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy\non me'; but 'he CRIED,' and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on\nme.' 3. From whence take a third observation; and that is, there\nis a time coming wherein, though men shall both cry and pray, yet\nthey are like to have no mercy at the hands of God; for so was\nthis man served, as I shall further show by and by when I come to\nit.\n\nSome people are so deluded by the devil as to think that God is\nso merciful as to own or regard anything for prayer; they think\nanything will go for current and good satisfaction, while they\nare here in this world, through ignorance of the true nature of\nthe mercy of God, and the knowledge in what way God is satisfied\nfor sinners. Now I say, through ignorance they think, that if they\ndo but mutter over some form of prayers,[19] though they know not\nwhat they say, nor what they request, yet God is satisfied, yea,\nvery well satisfied with their doings; when, alas! there is nothing\nless. O friends, I beseech you to look about you, and seek in good\nearnest for the Spirit of Christ so to help you now, to strive\nand pray, and to enable you to lay hold of Christ, that your souls\nmay be saved, lest the time come that though you cry and pray, and\nwish also that you had laid hold on the Lord Jesus, yet you must\nand shall be damned.\n\nThen again, you may see that though God be willing to save sinners\nat some time, yet this time doth not always last. No, he that can\nfind in his heart to turn his back upon Jesus Christ now, shall\nhave the back turned upon him hereafter, when he may cry and pray\nfor mercy, and yet go without it. God will have a time to meet\nwith them that now do not seek after him. They shall have a time,\nyea time enough hereafter to repent their folly, and to befool\nthemselves, for turning their backs upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 'I\nwill laugh at your calamity,' saith he, and 'mock when your fear\ncometh' (Prov 1:26).\n\nAgain, this should admonish us to take time while it is proffered,\nlest we repent us of our unbelief and rebellion when we are deprived of\nit. Ah friends! Time is precious, an hour's time to hear a sermon\nis precious. I have sometimes thought thus with myself, Set the case,\nthe Lord should send two or three of his servants, the ministers\nof the gospel, to hell among the damned, with this commission; Go\nye to hell, and preach my grace to those that are there. Let your\nsermon be an hour long, and hold forth the merits of my Son's birth,\nrighteousness, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession,\nwith all my love in him, and proffer it to them, telling them that\nnow once more, and but once, do I proffer the means of reconciliation\nto them. They who are now roaring, being past hope, would then\nleap at the least proffer of mercy. O they that could spend whole\ndays, weeks, nay, years, in rejecting the Son of God, would now\nbe glad of one tender of that mercy. 'Father,' saith he, 'have\nmercy on me.'\n\nAgain, from these words you may observe, that mercy would\nbe welcome when souls are under judgment. Now his soul is in the\nfire, now he is under the wrath of God, now he is in hell, there\nto be tormented; now he is with the devils and damned spirits;\nnow he feels the vengeance of God. Now, O now, have mercy on me!\nHere you may see, that mercy is prized by them that are in hell,\nthey would be glad if they could have it. Father, have mercy on\nme; for my poor soul's sake, send me a little mercy.\n\n'And send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,\nand cool my tongue.'\n\n[Third.] These words do not only hold forth that the ungodly\nhave a desire of mercy, but what those mercies are, what these\npoor creatures would be glad of. As, 1. to have the company of\na Lazarus granted to them. Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and\nsend Lazarus. Now Lazarus was he that was beloved of God, and\nalso he that was hated of them. Therefore, 2. Observe, that those\nsaints, that the world in their lifetime could not endure, now\nthey are departed, they would be glad to have society with them.\nO now send Lazarus! Though the time was when I cared not for him,\nyet now let me have some society with him.\n\nThough the world disregard the society of God's children now, yet\nthere is a time coming in which they would be glad to have the\nleast company with them. Nay, do but observe, those of the saints\nthat are now most rejected by them, even from them shall they be\nglad of comfort, if it might be. Send Lazarus; he that I slighted\nmore than my dogs, he that I could not endure should come into\nmy house, but must lie at my gate, send him. Now Lazarus shall\nbe welcome to me, now do I desire some comfort from him; but he\nshall go without it.\n\nFrom whence again observe, that there is a time coming, O ye surly\ndogged persecutors of the saints, that they shall slight you as\nmuch as ever you slighted them. You have given them many an hard\nword, told many a lie of them, given them many a blow. And now\nin your greatest need and extremity they shall not pity you, the\nrighteous shall rather 'rejoice when he seeth the vengeance' of\nGod upon thee (Psa 58:10).\n\nAgain, Send Lazarus. From whence observe, that any of the saints\nshall then be owned by you to be saints. Now you look upon them\nto be the sect with Hymeneus and Philetus, but then you shall see\nthem to be the Lazaruses of God, even God's dear children. Though\nnow the saints of the Lord will not be owned by you, because they\nare beggarly, low, poor, contemptible among you; yet the day is\ncoming that you shall own them, desire their company, and wish\nfor the least courtesy from them.\n\n'Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,\nand cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'\n\nThus shall the souls that abide in their sins cry out in the\nbitterness of their spirits, with wonderful anguish and torment\nof conscience, without intermission; 'That he may dip the tip of\nhis finger in water, and cool my tongue.' That he, namely, the man\nwho before I scorned should eat with the dogs of my flock, that\nbefore I slighted and had no regard of, that I shut out of door;\nsend him, 'that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and\ncool my tongue.'\n\nNow these words, 'that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,'\n&c., do hold forth the least friendship or favour; as if he should\nhave said, Now I would be glad of the least mercy, now I would\nbe glad of the least comfort, though it be but one drop of cold\nwater on the tip of his finger. One would have thought that this\nhad been a small request, a small courtesy--ONE DROP OF WATER--what\nis that? Take a pail full of it if that will do thee any good.\nBut mark, he is not permitted to have so much as one drop, not so\nmuch as a man may hold upon the tip of his finger; this signifies\nthat they that fall short of Christ shall be tormented even as\nlong as eternity lasteth, and shall not have so much as the least\nease, no not so long as while a man may turn himself round, not\nso much leave as to swallow his spittle, not a drop of cold water.\n\nO that these things did take place in your hearts, how would it\nmake you to seek after rest for your souls before it be too late,\nbefore the sun of the gospel be set upon you! Consider, I say,\nthe misery of the ungodly that they shall be in, and avoid their\nvices, by closing in with the tenders of mercy; lest you partake\nof the same portion with them, and cry out in the bitterness of\nyour souls, One drop of cold water to cool my tongue.\n\n'For I am tormented in this flame.'\n\nIndeed, the reason why the poor world does not so earnestly desire\nfor mercy, is partly because they do not so seriously consider\nthe torment that they must certainly fall into if they die out of\nChrist. For let me tell you, did but poor souls indeed consider\nthat wrath, that doth by right fall to their shares because of\ntheir sins against God, they would make more haste to God through\nChrist for mercy than they do; then we should have them say, It is\ngood closing with Christ to-day, before we fall into such distress.\n\nBut why is it said, Let him 'dip the tip of his finger in water,\nand cool my tongue?' Because that, as the several members in\nthe body have their share in sin, and committing of that, so the\nseveral members of the body shall at that time be punished for the\nsame. Therefore, when Christ is admonishing his disciples, that\nthey should not turn aside from him, and that they should rather\nfear and dread the power of their God than any other power, he\nsaith, 'Fear him,' therefore, that can cast both body and soul into\nhell (Luke 12:4). And again, 'Fear him which is able to destroy\nboth soul and body in hell' (Matt 10:28). Here is not one member\nonly, but all the body, the whole body of which the hands, feet,\neyes, ears, and tongue are members. And I am persuaded, that\nthough this may be judged carnal by some now, yet it will appear\nto be a truth then, to the greater misery of those who shall\nbe forced to undergo that which God, in his just judgment, shall\ninflict upon them. O then they will cry, One dram of ease for my\ncursing, swearing, lying, jeering tongue. Some ease for my bragging,\nbraving, flattering, threatening, dissembling tongue. Now men can\nlet their tongues run at random, as we used to say; now they will\nbe apt to say, Our tongues are our own, who shall control them?\n(Psa 12:4). But then they will be in another mind. Then, O that\nI might have a little ease for my deceitful tongue? Methinks\nsometimes to consider how some men do let their tongues run at\nrandom, it makes me marvel. Surely they do not think they shall\nbe made to give an account for their offending with their tongue.\nDid they but think they shall be made to give an account to him\nwho is ready to judge the quick and the dead, surely they would\nbe more wary of, and have more regard unto their tongue.\n\n'The tongue,' saith James, 'is an unruly evil, full of deadly\npoison'; 'it setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set\non fire of hell' (James 2). The tongue, how much mischief will it\nstir up in a very little time! How many blows and wounds doth it\ncause! How many times doth it, as James saith, curse man! How oft\nis the tongue made the conveyer of that hellish poison that is in\nthe heart, both to the dishonour of God, the hurt of its neighbours,\nand the utter ruin of its own soul! And do you think the Lord will\nsit still, as I may say, and let thy tongue run as it lists, and\nyet never bring you to an account for the same? No, stay. The Lord\nwill not always keep silence, but will reprove thee, and set thy\nsins in order before thine eyes, O sinner. Yea, and thy tongue,\ntogether with the rest of thy members, shall be tormented for\nsinning. And I say, I am very confident, that though this be made\nlight of now, yet the time is coming when many poor souls will rue\nthe day that ever they did speak with a tongue. O, will one say,\nthat I should so disregard my tongue! O that I, when I said so and\nso, had before bitten off my tongue! That I had been born without\na tongue! my tongue, my tongue, a little water to cool my tongue,\nfor I am tormented in this flame; even in that flame that my tongue,\ntogether with the rest of my members, by sinning, have brought me\nto. Poor souls now will let their tongues say anything for a little\nprofit, for two-pence or three-pence gain. But, O what a grief will\nthis be at that day when they, together with their tongue, must\nsmart for that which they by their tongues have done while they\nwere in this world. Then, you that love your souls, look to your\ntongues, lest you bind yourselves down so fast to hell with the\nsins of your tongues, that you will never be able to get loose\nagain to all eternity. 'For by thy words thou shalt be condemned,'\nif thou have not a care of thy tongue. For 'I say unto you, That\nevery idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account\nthereof in the day of judgment' (Matt 12:36).\n\nVerse 25.--'But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy\nlifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil\nthings; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.'\n\nThese words are the answer to the request of the damned. The verse\nbefore, as I told you, is a discovery of the desires they have\nafter they depart this world. Here is the answer, 'Son, remember,'\n&c.\n\nThe answer signifies this much, that, instead of having any relief\nor ease they are hereby the more tormented, and that by fresh\nrecollections, or by bringing afresh their former ill-spent life,\nwhile in the world, into their remembrance. Son, remember thou hadst\ngood things in thy lifetime; as much as if he had said, Thou art\nnow sensible what it is to lose thy soul; thou art now sensible\nwhat it is to put off repentance; thou art now sensible that thou\nhast befooled thyself, in that thou didst spend that time in seeking\nafter outward, momentary, earthly things, which thou shouldest\nhave spent in seeking to make Jesus Christ sure to thy soul; and\nnow, through thy anguish of spirit, in the pains of hell thou\nwouldst enjoy that which in former time thou didst make light\nof; but alas! thou art here beguiled and altogether disappointed,\nthy crying will now avail thee nothing at all; this is not the\nacceptable time (2 Cor 6:2). This is not a time to answer the\ndesires of damned reprobates; if thou hadst cried out in good\nearnest whilst grace was offered, much might have been; but then\nthou wast careless, and didst turn the forbearance and goodness\nof God into wantonness. Wast thou not told, that those who would\nnot hear the Lord when he did call, should not be heard, if they\nturned away from him, when they did call. But contrariwise he\nwould laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear did come\n(Prov 1:24-28).\n\nNow, therefore, instead of expecting the least drop of mercy and\nfavour, call into thy mind how thou didst spend those days which\nGod did permit thee to live; I say, remember that in thy lifetime\nthou didst behave thyself rebelliously against the Lord, in that\nthou wert careless of his word and ordinances, yea, and of the\nwelfare of thine own soul also. Therefore, now I say, instead of\nexpecting or hoping for any relief, thou must be forced to call\nto remembrance thy filthy ways, and feed upon them, to thine\neverlasting astonishment and confusion.\n\nFrom these words, therefore, which say, 'Remember that thou in thy\nlife-time receivedst THY GOOD THINGS,' there are these things to\nbe taken notice of,\n\nFirst. They that, by putting off repentance and living in their\nsins, lose their souls, shall, instead of having the least measure\nof comfort when they come into hell, have their ill-spent life\nalways very fresh in their remembrance. While they live here\nthey can sin and forget it, but when they depart they shall have\nit before them; they shall have a remembrance, or their memory\nnotably enlightened, and a clearer, and a continual sight of all\ntheir wicked practices that they wrought and did while they were\nin the world. 'Son, remember,' saith he; then you will be made\nto remember: 1. How you were born in sin, and brought up in the\nsame. 2. Remember how thou hadst many a time the gospel preached\nto thee for taking away of the same, by him whom the gospel doth\nhold forth. 3. Remember that out of love to thy sins and lusts,\nthou didst turn thy back on the tenders of the same gospel of good\ntidings and peace. 4. Remember that the reason why thou didst lose\nthy soul, was because thou didst not close in with free grace,\nand the tenders of a loving and free-hearted Jesus Christ. 5.\nRemember how near thou wast to turning at such and such a time,\nonly thou wast willing to give way to thy lusts when they wrought;\nto drunkards when they called; to pleasures when they proffered\nthemselves; to the cares and incumbrances of the world, which,\nlike so many thorns, did choke that or those convictions that were\nset on thy heart. 6. Remember how willing thou wast to satisfy\nthyself with a hypocrite's hope, and with a notion of the things\nof God, without the real power and life of the same. 7. Remember\nhow thou, when thou wast admonished to turn, didst put off turning\nand repenting till another time. 8. Remember how thou didst\ndissemble at such a time, lie at such a time, cheat thy neighbour\nat such a time, mock, flout, scoff, taunt, hate, persecute,[20]\nthe people of God at such a time, in such a place, among such\ncompany. 9. Remember that while others were met together in the\nfear of the Lord to seek him, thou wast met with a company of vain\ncompanions to sin against him; whilst the saints were a praying,\nthou wert a cursing; while they were speaking good of the name of\nGod, thou wast speaking evil of the saints of God. O then thou\nshalt have a scalding hot remembrance of all thy sinful thoughts,\nwords, and actions, from the very first to the last of them that\never thou didst commit in all thy life-time. Then thou wilt find\nthat scripture to be a truth, 'The Lord shall give thee there a\ntrembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy\nlife shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and\nnight, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning\nthou shalt say, Would God it were even! for the fear of thine\nheart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes\nwhich thou shalt see' (Deut 28:65-67). Nay, thou wilt find worse\nthings to thy woe than this scripture doth manifest. For, indeed,\nthere is no tongue able to express the horror, terror, torment,\nand eternal misery that those poor souls shall undergo, without\nthe least mitigation of ease, and a very great part of it shall\ncome from that quick, full, and continual remembrance of their\nsins that they shall have. And, therefore, there is much weight in\nthese words, 'Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst\nthy good things.'\n\nFrom these words you see this is to be observed, That the ungodly\nshall remember, or have in remembrance, the misspending their lives;\n'Remember that in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things.'\nYou may take these words, good things, either simply for the things\nof this world, which in themselves are called, and may be called\ngood things; or else with these words, namely, the things of this\nlife, all the pleasures, delights, profits, and vanities, which\nthe ignorant people of the world do count their good things, and\ndo very much cheer themselves therewith. Soul, soul, eat, drink,\nand be merry; for thou hast much goods laid up for many years\n(Luke 12:19,20). Now I say, God, according to his glorious power\nand wisdom, will make poor creatures have always in their minds a\nfresh and clear remembrance of their ill-spent life; he will say\nunto them, Remember, remember, that in thy lifetime it was thus\nand thus with thee, and in thy lifetime thy carriage was so and\nso.\n\nIf sinners might have their choice, they would not have their sins\nand transgressions so much in the remembrance, as it is evident\nby their carriages here in this world; for they will not endure\nto entertain a serious thought of their filthy life, they 'put\nfar away the evil day' (Amos 6:3; Eze 12:27); but will labour by\nall means to put the thoughts of it out of their mind; but there\nthey shall be made to remember to purpose, and to think continually of\ntheir ungodly deeds. And therefore it is said, that when our Lord\nJesus Christ comes to judgment, it will be to convince the ungodly\nworld of their wicked and ungodly deeds; mark, 'to convince' them\n(Jude 14,15). They will not willingly take notice of them now.\nBut then they shall hereafter, in spite of their teeth. And also,\nbetween this and then, these that die out of Christ shall be made\nto see, acknowledge, and confess, do what they can, when they lift\nup their eyes in hell, and remember their transgressions. God will\nbe a swift witness against them (Mal 3:5), and will say, Remember\nthat thou didst in thy lifetime, how thou didst live in thy lifetime.\nHa, friend! if thou dost not in these days of light 'remember\nthe days of darkness' (Eccl 11:8), the days of death, hell, and\njudgment, thou shalt be made in the days of darkness, death, hell,\nand at the judgment too, to remember the days of the gospel, and\nhow thou didst disregard them too, to thy own destruction, and\neverlasting misery. This is intimated in that 25th of St. Matthew.\n\n'Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.'\n\nThe great God, instead of giving the ungodly any ease, will even\naggravate their torments; first, by slighting their perplexities,\nand by telling of them what they must be thinking of. Remember,\nsaith he, O ye lost souls, that you had your joy in your lifetime,\nyour peace in your lifetime, your comforts, delights, ease,\nwealth, health, your heaven, your happiness, and your portion in\nyour lifetime.\n\nO miserable state! Thou wilt then be in a sad condition indeed,\nwhen thou shalt see that thou hast had thy good things, thy best\nthings, thy pleasant things; for that is clearly signified by\nthese words, 'Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy\ngood things,' or all the good things thou art like to have.\n\nSecond. From whence take notice of another truth, though it be a\ndreadful one, which is this; there are many poor creatures, who\nhave all their good, sweet, and comfortable things in this life,\nor while they are alive in this world; 'Remember,' saith he, 'that\nin thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things' (Psa 17:14).\n\nThe wicked's good things will shortly have an end; they will\nlast no longer with them than this life, or their lifetime. That\nscripture was not written in vain; it is like the crackling of\nthorns under a pot, make a little blaze for a sudden, a little heat\nfor a while; but come and consider them by and by, and instead of\na comfortable heat, you will find nothing but a few dead ashes;\nand instead of a flaming fire, nothing but a smell of smoke.\n\nThere is a time coming, that the ungodly would be glad of a better\nportion, when they shall see the vanity of this, that is, when they\nshall see what a poor thing it is for a man to have his portion\nin this world. It is true, while they are here on this side hell,\nthey think there is nothing to be compared with riches, honours,\nand pleasures in this world; which makes them cry out, 'Who will\nshew us any good?' (Psa 4:6). That is comparable to the pleasures,\nprofits, and glory of this world? But then they will see there is\nanother thing that is better, and of more value than ten thousand\nworlds. And seriously, friends, will it not grieve you, trouble,\nperplex, and torment you, when you shall see that you lost heaven\nfor a little pleasure and profit in your lifetime? Certainly, it\nwill grieve you and perplex you exceedingly, to see what a blessed\nheaven you left for a dunghill-world. O! that you did but believe\nthis! that you did but consider this, and say within yourselves,\nWhat! shall I be contented with my portion in this world! what!\nshall I lose heaven for this world! I say, consider it while you\nhave day-light, and gospel-light, while the Son of God doth hold\nout terms of reconciliation to you, lest you be made to hear\nsuch a voice as this is, 'Son, remember that in thy lifetime thou\nreceivedst thy good things'; thy comforts, thy joys, thy ease, thy\npeace, and all the heaven thou art like to have. O poor heaven!\nO short pleasures! What a pitiful thing it is to be left in such\na case? Soul, consider, is it not miserable to lose heaven for\ntwenty, thirty, or forty years' sinning against God? When thy life\nis done, thy heaven is also done? when death comes to separate\nthy soul and body, in that day also thou must have thy heaven and\nhappiness separated from thee, and thou from that. Consider these\nthings betimes, lest thou have thy portion in thy lifetime. 'For\nif in this life only we have hope,' our portion, 'we are of all\nmen most miserable' (1 Cor 15:19). Again consider, that when other\nmen, the saints, are to receive their good things, then thou hast\nhad thine. When others are to enter into joy, then thou art to\nleave and depart from thy joy. When others are to go to God, thou\nmust go to the devil. O miserable! Thou hadst better thou hadst\nnever been born, than to be an heir of such a portion; therefore,\nI say, have a care it be not thy condition.\n\n'Remember that thou receivedst thy good things, and LAZARUS EVIL\nTHINGS.'\n\nThese words do not only hold forth the misery of the wicked in this\nlife, but also great consolation to the saints; where he saith,\n'And Lazarus evil things'; that is, Lazarus had his evil things\nin his lifetime, or when he was in the world. From whence observe,\n\n1. That the life of the saints, so long as they are in this world,\nis attended with many evils or afflictions; which may be discovered\nto be of divers natures; as saith the Scripture, 'Many are the\ntroubles[21] of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of\nthem all' (Psa 34:19).\n\n2. Take notice, that the afflictions or evils that accompany the\nsaints, may continue with them their lifetime, so long as they\nlive in this vale of tears; yea, and they may be divers, that is,\nof several sorts; some outward, some inward, and that as long as\nthey shall continue here below, as hath been the experience of all\nsaints in all ages; and this might be proved at large, but I only\nhint in these things, although I might enlarge much upon them.\n\n3. The evils that do accompany the saints will continue with them\nno longer than their lifetime; and here indeed lies the comfort\nof believers, the Lazaruses, the saints, they must have all their\nbitter cup wrung out to them in their lifetime. Here must be all\ntheir trouble, here must be all their grief; Behold, saith Christ,\n'the world shall rejoice, but ye shall lament; but your mourning'\nshall, mark, it 'shall be turned into joy' (John 16:20). You shall\nlament, you shall be sorrowful, you shall weep in your lifetime;\nbut your sorrow shall be turned into joy, and your joy no man, let\nhim be what he will, no man shall take away from you. Now if you\nthink, when I say the saints have all their evil things in their\nlifetime, that I mean, they have nothing else but trouble in this\ntheir lifetime, this is your mistake. For let me tell you, that\nthough the saints have all their evil things in their lifetime,\nyet even in their lifetime they have also joy unspeakable, and\nfull of glory, while they look not at the things that are seen,\nbut at the things which are not seen. The joy that the saints have\nsometimes in their heart, by a believing consideration of the good\nthings to come, when this life is ended, doth fill them fuller of\njoy, than all the crosses, troubles, temptations, and evils, that\naccompany them in this life can fill them with grief (2 Cor 4).\n\nBut some saints may say, My troubles are such as are ready to\novercome me. Answ. Yet be of good comfort, they shall last no\nlonger than thy lifetime. But my trouble is, I am perplexed with\na heart full of corruption and sin, so that I am much hindered in\nwalking with God. Answ. It is like so, but thou shalt have these\ntroubles no longer than thy lifetime. But I have a cross husband,\nand that is a great grief to me. Well, but thou shalt be troubled\nwith him no longer than thy lifetime, and therefore be not dismayed,\nbe not discomforted, thou shalt have no trouble longer than this\nlifetime. Art thou troubled with cross children, cross relations,\ncross neighbours? They shall trouble thee no longer than this\nlifetime.\n\nArt thou troubled with a cunning devil, with unbelief; yea, let\nit be what it will, thou shalt take thy farewell of them all,\nif thou be a believer, after thy lifetime is ended. O! excellent!\n'Then God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes; and there\nshall be no more death nor sorrow, neither crying, nor any more\npain; for the former things are passed away' (Rev 21:4). But now\non the contrary, if thou be not a right and sound believer; then,\nthough thou shouldest live a thousand years in this world, and\nmeet with sore afflictions every day, yet these afflictions, be\nthey never so great and grievous, they are nothing to that torment\nthat will come upon thee, both in soul and in body, after this\nlife is ended.\n\nI say, be what thou wilt, if thou be found in unbelief, or under\nthe first covenant, thou are sure to smart for it at the time when\nthou dost depart this world. But the thing to be lamented is, for\nall this is so sad a condition to be fallen into, yet poor souls\nare, for the most part, senseless of it, yea, so senseless, at\nsome times, as though there was no such misery to come hereafter.\nBecause the Lord doth not immediately strike with his sword, but\ndoth bear long with his creature, waiting that he might be gracious.\nTherefore, I say, the hearts of some of the sons of men are wholly\nset upon it to do mischief (Eccl 8:11). And that forbearance and\ngoodness of God, that one would think should lead them to repentance;\nthe devil hardening of them, by their continuing in sin, and by\nblinding their eyes, as to the end of God's forbearance towards\nthen, they are led away with a very hardened and senseless heart,\neven until they drop into eternal destruction.\n\nBut poor hearts, they must have a time in which they must be made\nsensible of their former behaviors, when the just judgments of\nthe Lord shall flame about their ears, insomuch, that they shall\nbe made to cry out again with anguish, I am sorely 'tormented in\nthis flame.'\n\n'But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.' As if he should\nsay, Now hath God recompensed both Lazarus and you, according to\nwhat you sought after while you were in this world. As for your\npart, you did neglect the precious mercy and goodness of God, you\ndid turn your back on the Son of God, that came into the world\nto save sinners; you made a mock of preaching the gospel; you was\nadmonished over and over, to close in with the loving kindness of\nthe Lord, in his Son Jesus Christ. The Lord let you live twenty,\nthirty, forty, fifty, sixty years; all which time you, instead\nof spending it 'to make your calling and election sure' (2 Peter\n1:10), did spend it in making of eternal damnation sure to thy soul\n(Job 21:29,30). And also Lazarus, he in his lifetime did make it\nhis business to accept of my grace and salvation in the Lord Jesus\nChrist. When thou wast in the ale-house, he frequented the word\npreached; when thou wert jeering at goodness, he was sighing to\nthe sins of the times (Eccl 9:4-6). While thou wert swearing, he\nwas praying; in a word, while thou wert making sure of eternal\nruin, he, by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, was making\nsure of eternal salvation. Therefore, 'Now he is comforted, and\nthou art tormented.'\n\nHere, then, you may see, that as the righteous shall not be always\nvoid of comfort and blessedness; so neither shall the ungodly go\nalways without their punishment. As sure as God is in heaven, it\nwill be thus. They must have their several portions. And, therefore,\nyou that are the saints of the Lord, follow on, be not dismayed,\nforasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord\n(1 Cor 15:58). Your portion is eternal glory. And you that are so\nloth now to close in with Jesus Christ, and to leave your sins to\nfollow him, your 'day is coming' (Psa 37:13), in which you shall\nknow, that your sweet morsels of sin, that you do so easily take\ndown (Job 20:12-14), and it scarce troubles you, will have a time\nso to work within you to your eternal ruin, that you will be in\na worse condition than if you had ten thousand devils tormenting\nof you. Nay, you had better have been plucked limb from limb\na thousand times, if it could be, than to be partakers of this\ntorment that will, assuredly without mercy, lie upon you.\n\nVerse 26.--'And beside all this, between us and you there is a\ngreat gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you\ncannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.'\n\nThese words are still part of that answer, that the souls in hell\nshall have for all their sobbings, sighings, grievous cries,\ntears, and desires, that they have, to be released out of those\nintolerable pains they feel, and are perplexed with. And O!\nmethinks the words at the first view, if rightly considered, are\nenough to make any hard-hearted sinner in the world to fall down\ndead. The verse I last spake to was and is a very terrible one,\nand aggravates the torments of poor sinners wonderfully. Where\nhe saith, 'Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good\nthings, and Lazarus evil things,' &c. I say, these words are very\nterrible to those poor souls that die out of Christ. But these\nlatter words do much more hold out their sorrow. They were spoken\nas to the present condition then upon the sinner. These do not\nonly back the former, but do yet further aggravate their misery,\nholding forth that which will be more intolerable. The former\nverse is enough to smite any sinner into a swoon, but this is to\nmake him fall down dead. Where he saith, 'And beside all this.'\nThere is still something to aggravate thy misery yet far more\nabundantly. I shall briefly speak to the words as they have relation\nto the terror spoken of in the verses before. As if he had said,\nThou thinkest thy present state unsupportable, it makes thee sob\nand sigh, it makes thee to rue the time that ever thou wert born.\nNow thou findest the want of mercy; now thou wouldst leap at\nthe least dram of it: now thou feelest what it is to slight the\ntenders of the grace of God; now it makes thee to sob, sigh, and\nroar exceedingly for the anguish that thou art in. 'But beside\nall this,' I have other things to tell thee of, that will break\nthine heart indeed. Thou art now deprived of a being in the world;\nthou art deprived of hearing the gospel; the devil hath been too\nhard for thee, and hath made thee miss of heaven; thou art now\nin hell among an innumerable company of devils, and all thy sins\nbeset thee round; thou art all over wrapped in flames, and canst\nnot have one drop of water to give thee any ease; thou criest\nin vain, for nothing will be granted. Thou seest the saints in\nheaven, which is no small trouble to thy damned soul; thou seest\nthat neither God nor Christ takes any care to ease thee, or speak\nany comfort unto thee. 'But beside all this,' there thou art, and\nthere thou art like to lie, never think of any ease, never look\nfor any comfort; repentance now will do thee no good, the time\nis past, and can never be called again, look what thou hast now,\nthou must have for ever.\n\nIt is true, I spoke enough before to break thine heart asunder;\n'But beside all this,' there lie and swim in flames for ever. These\nwords, 'Beside all this,' are terrible words indeed. I will give\nyou the scope of them in a similitude. Set the case you should take\na man, and tie him to a stake, and with red-hot pinchers, pinch\noff his flesh by little pieces for two or three years together,\nand at last, when the poor man cries out for ease and help, the\ntormentors answer, Nay, 'but beside all this,' you must be handled\nworse. We will serve you thus these twenty years together, and\nafter that we will fill your mangled body full of scalding lead,\nor run you through with a red-hot spit; would not this be lamentable?\nYet this is but a flea-biting to the sorrow of those that go to\nhell; for if a man were served so there would, ere it were long, be\nan end of him. But he that goes to hell shall suffer ten thousand\ntimes worse torments than these, and yet shall never be quite dead\nunder them. There they shall be ever whining, pining, weeping,\nmourning, ever tormented without ease; and yet never dissolved\ninto nothing. If the biggest devil in hell might pull thee all\nto pieces, and rend thee small as dust, and dissolve thee into\nnothing, thou wouldst count this a mercy. But here thou mayst\nlie and fry, scorch, and broil, and burn for ever. For ever, that\nis a long while, and yet it must be so long. 'Depart from me, ye\ncursed,' saith Christ, 'into everlasting fire,' into the fire that\nburns for ever, 'prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt\n25:41). O! thou that wast loth to foul thy foot if it were but\ndirty, or did but rain; thou that was loth to come out of the\nchimney-corner, if the wind did but blow a little cold; and was\nloth to go half-a-mile, yea, half-a-furlong to hear the word of\nGod, if it were but a little dark; thou that wast loth to leave\na few vain companions, to edify thy soul; thou shalt have fire\nenough, thou shalt have night enough, and evil company enough, thy\nbellyfull, if thou miss of Jesus Christ; and 'beside all this,'\nthou shalt have them for ever, and for ever.\n\nO thou that dost spend whole nights in carding and dicing, in\nrioting and wantonness; thou that countest it a brave thing to\nswear as fast as the bravest, to spend with the greatest spendthrift\nin the country; thou that lovest to sin in a corner when nobody\nsees thee! O thou that for bye-ends dost carry on the hypocrite's\nprofession, because thou wouldst be counted somebody among the\nchildren of God,[22] but art an enemy to the things of Christ in\nthine heart. Thou that dost satisfy thyself, either with sins, or\na bare profession of godliness, thy soul will fall into extreme\ntorment and anguish, so soon as ever thou dost depart this world,\nand there thou shalt be weeping and gnashing thy teeth (Matt\n8:12). 'And beside all this,' thou art like never to have any ease\nor remedy, never look for any deliverance, thou shalt die in thy\nsins, and be tormented as many years as there are stars in the\nfirmament, or sands on the seashore; 'and beside all this,' thou\nmust abide it for ever.\n\n'And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf\nfixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot;\nneither can they pass to us that would come from thence.' 'There\nis a great gulf fixed.' You will say, what is that? Answ. It is\na nice question; therefore,\n\n1. See thou rather to enter in at the strait gate, than curiously\nto inquire what this gulf is. But,\n\n2. If thou wouldst needs know if thou do fall short of heaven,\nthou wilt find it this, namely, the everlasting decree of God;\nthat is, there is decree gone forth from God, that those who fall\nshort of heaven in this world, God is resolved they shall never\nenjoy it in the world to come. And thou wilt find this gulf so\ndeep, that thou shalt never be able to wade through it as long\nas eternity lasts. As Christ saith, 'Agree with thine adversary\nquickly, whiles thou art in the way with him' (Matt 5:25); 'lest\nhe hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the\nofficer, and thou be cast into prison. I tell thee thou shalt by\nno means come out thence,' there is the gulf, the decree, 'thou\nshalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the' utmost farthing,\nor 'very last mite' (Luke 12:58,59). These words therefore, 'there\nis a great gulf fixed,' I do understand to be the everlasting\ndecree of God. God hath decreed that those who go to heaven shall\nnever go from thence again into a worse place; and also those that\ngo to hell, and would come out, they shall not come out thence\nagain. And friend, this is such a gulf, so fixed by him that\ncannot lie, that thou wilt find it so, which way soever thou goest,\nwhether it be to heaven or hell.\n\nHere therefore thou seest how secure God will make those who die\nin the faith; God will keep them in heaven; but those that die in\ntheir sins, God will throw them to hell and keep them there; so\nthat they that would go from heaven to hell, cannot; neither can\nthey come from hell that would go to heaven. Mark, he doth not\nsay, they would not--for, O how fain would these who have lost\ntheir souls for a lust, for two-pence, for a jug of ale, for\na strumpet, for this world, come out of that hot scalding fiery\nfurnace of God's eternal vengeance, if they might--but here is\ntheir misery, they that would come from you to us, that is, from\nhell to heaven, cannot, they must not, they shall not; they cannot,\nGod hath decreed it, and is resolved the contrary; here therefore\nlies the misery, not so much that they are in hell, but there they\nmust lie for ever and ever. Therefore, if thy heart would at any\ntime tempt thee to sin against God, cry out, No, for then I must\ngo to hell, and lie there for ever. If the drunkards, swearers,\nliars, and hypocrites did but take this doctrine soundly down,\nit would make them tremble when they think of sinning. But poor\nsouls, now they will 'make a mock of sin' (Prov 14:9), and play\nwith it as a child doth play with a rattle; but the time is coming,\nthat these rattles that now they play with will make such a noise\nin their ears and consciences, that they shall find, that if all\nthe devils in hell were yelling at their heels, the noise would\nnot be comparable to it. Friend, thy sins, as so many bloodhounds,\nwill first hunt thee out (Num 32:23), and then take thee and bind\nthee, and hold thee down for ever (Prov 5:22). They will gripe\nthee and gnaw thee as if thou hadst a nest of poisonous serpents\nin thy bowels (Job 20:14). And this will not be for a time, but,\nas I have said, for ever, for ever, for ever.\n\nVerse 27.--'Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou\nwouldst send him to my father's house.'\n\nThe verses before, I told you, were spoken partly to hold forth the\ndesire that the damned have to be freed of their endless misery.\nNow this verse still holds forth the cries of those poor souls\nvery vehement, they would very fain have something granted to\nthem, but it will not be; as will more clearly appear afterward.\n\n'Then he said, I PRAY THEE THEREFORE, FATHER,' &c. As if he should\nsay, seeing I have brought myself into such a miserable condition,\nthat God will not regard me, that my exceeding loud and bitter\ncries will not be heard for myself; seeing I must not be admitted\nto have so much as one drop of cold water, nor the least help from\nthe poorest saints. And seeing, 'beside all this,' here my soul\nmust lie to all eternity, broiling and frying; seeing I must,\nwhether I will or no, undergo the hand of eternal vengeance, and\nthe rebukes of devouring fire; seeing my state is such, that I\nwould not wish a dog in my condition, 'send him to my father's\nhouse.' It is worthy to be taken notice of, again, who it is he\ndesired to be sent, namely, Lazarus. O friend, see here how the\nstout hearts and stomachs of poor creatures will be humbled, as I\nsaid before, they will be so brought down, that those things that\nthey disdained and made light of in this world, they would be\nglad of in the life to come. He who by this man was so slighted,\nas that he thought it a dishonour that he should eat with the dogs\nof his flock. What, shall I regard Lazarus, scrubbed, beggarly\nLazarus! what, shall I so far dishonour my fair, sumptuous, and\ngay house, with such a scabbed creep-hedge as he! No, I scorn he\nshould be entertained under my roof. Thus in his lifetime, while\nhe was in his bravery; but now he is come into another world, now\nhe is parted from his pleasures, now he sees his fine house, his\ndainty dishes, his rich neighbours and companions, and he, are parted\nasunder; now he finds instead of pleasures, torments; instead of\njoys, heaviness; instead of heaven, hell; instead of the pleasures\nof sin, the horror and guilt of sin; O now send Lazarus!\n\nLazarus, it may be, might have done him some good, if he might\nhave been entertained in time past, and might have persuaded him,\nat least not to have gone on so grievously wicked, but he slights\nhim, he will not regard him, he is resolved to disown him, though\nhe lose his own soul for so doing. Ay, but now send Lazarus, if\nnot to me, yet to my father's house, and let him tell them, from\nme, that if they run on in sin, as I have done, they must and\nshall receive the same wages that I have received.\n\nTake notice of this, you that are despisers of the least of the\nLazaruses of our Lord Jesus Christ; it may be now you are loth to\nreceive these little ones of his, because they are not gentlemen,\nbecause they cannot, with Pontius Pilate, speak Hebrew, Greek,\nand Latin.[23] Nay, they must not, shall not speak to them, to\nadmonish them, and all because of this.\n\nThough now the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ may be preached to\nthem freely, and for nothing; nay, they are now desired to hear\nand receive it: though now they will not own, regard, or embrace\nthese Christian proffers of the glorious truth of Jesus, because\nthey come out of some of the basest earthen vessels; yet the\ntime is coming, when they will both sigh and cry, Send him to my\nfather's house (1 Cor 1:26). I say, remember this, ye that despise\nthe day of small things; the time is coming, when you would be\nglad, if you might enjoy from God, from Christ, or his saints, one\nsmall drop of cold water, though now you are unwilling to receive\nthe glorious distilling drops of the gospel of our Lord Jesus.\n\nAgain, see here the lamentable state they are in, that go to hell\nfrom their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, &c. While they\nare in this world, men delight to set their children ill examples;\nand also children love to follow the wicked steps of their ungodly\nparents; but when they depart this life, and drop down into hell,\nand find themselves in irrecoverable misery, then they cry, send\nsome body to my father's house, to my brother's house. Tell them\nmy state is miserable, tell them I am undone for ever; and tell\nthem also, that if they will be walking in these ungodly steps\nwherein I left them, they will assuredly fall into this place of\ntorments.\n\n'I pray thee--SEND HIM TO MY FATHER'S HOUSE.' Ah, friends and\nneighbours, it is like you little think of this, that some of your\nfriends and relations are crying out in hell, Lord, send some body\nto my father's house, to preach the gospel to them, lest they also\ncome into these torments.\n\nHere, men while they live, can willingly walk together in the way\nof sin, and when they are parted by death, they that are living,\nseldom or never consider of the sad condition that they that are\ndead are descended into. But ye ungodly fathers, how are your\nungodly children roaring now in hell? And you ungodly children,\nhow are your ungodly parents that lived and died ungodly, now in\nthe pains of hell also? And one drunkard is singing on the ale bench,\nand another roaring under the wrath of God, saying, O that I was\nwith him, how would I rebuke him, and persuade him by all means\nto leave off these evil courses. O! that they did but consider\nwhat I now suffer for pride, covetousness, drunkenness, lying,\nswearing, stealing, whoring, and the like. O! did they but feel\nthe thousandth part thereof, it would make them look about them,\nand not buy sin at so dear a rate as I have done; even with the\nloss of my precious soul.\n\n'Send him to my father's house.' Not to my father, but to my\n'father's house.' It may be there is ungodly children, there is\nungodly servants, wallowing in their ungodliness; send him therefore\nto my father's house. It is like they are still the same that I\nleft them; I left them wicked, and they are wicked still; I left\nthem slighters of the gospel, saints, and ways of God, and they\ndo it still; 'send him to my father's house,' it is like there\nis but a little between them and the place where I am; send him\nto-day, before to-morrow, 'lest they also come into the same place\nof torment. I pray thee that thou wouldst send him.' I beg it on\nmy bended knee, with crying and with tears, in the agony of my\nsoul. It may be they will not consider, if thou do not send him.\nI left them sottish enough, hardened as well as I; they have the\nsame devil to tempt them, the same lusts and world to overcome\nthem; 'I pray thee therefore, that thou wouldst send him to my\nfather's house'; make no delay, lest they lose their souls, lest\nthey come hither: if they do, they are like never to return again.\nO! little do they think how easily they may lose their souls; they\nare apt to think their condition to be as good as the best, as I\nonce through ignorance did; but send him, send him without delay,\n'lest they also come into this place of torment.' O that thou\nwouldst give him commission, do thou send him thyself; the time\nwas when I, together with them, slighted those that were sent of\nGod; though we could not deny but that he spake the word of God,\nand was sent of him, as our consciences told us; yet we preferred\nthe calls of men before the calls of God. For though they had the\none, yet because they had not the other in that antichristian way\nwhich we thought meet, we could not, would not, either hear him\nourselves, nor yet give consent that others should. But now a call\nfrom God is worth all. Do THOU 'therefore send him to my father's\nhouse.'\n\nThe time was, when we did not like it, except it might be preached\nin the synagogue; we thought it a low thing to preach and pray\ntogether in houses. We were too high-spirited, too superstitious;\nthe gospel would not down with us, unless we had it in such a\nplace, by such a man; no, nor then neither effectually. But now,\nO that I was to live in the world again; and might have that\nprivilege to have some acquaintance with blessed Lazarus, some\nfamiliarity with that holy man; what attendance would I give unto\nhis wholesome words! How would I affect his doctrine, and close\nin with it! How would I square my life thereby! Now therefore, as\nit is better to hear the gospel under a hedge than to sit roaring\nin a tavern, it is better to welcome God's begging Lazaruses than\nthe wicked companions of this world. It is better to receive a\nsaint in the name of a saint, a disciple in the name of a disciple,\nthan to do as I have done (Luke 10:16). O! it is better to receive\na child of God, that can by experience deliver the things of God,\nhis free love, his tender grace, his rich forbearance, and also the\nmisery of man, if without it, than to be 'daubed with untempered\nmortar' (Eze 13:10). O! I may curse the day that ever I gave way\nto the flatteries and fawning of a company of carnal clergymen,[24]\nbut this my repentance is too late; I should have looked about\nme sooner, if I would have been saved from this woeful place.\nTherefore send him, not only to the town I lived in, and unto some\nof my acquaintance, but to my father's house.\n\nIn my lifetime I did not care to hear that word that cut me most,\nand showed me mine estate aright. I was vexed to hear my sins\nmentioned, and laid to my charge; I loved him best that deceived\nme most--that said, Peace, peace, when there was no such thing\n(Jer 5:30,31). But now, O that I had been soundly told of it!\nO that it had pierced both mine ears and heart, and had stuck so\nfast that nothing could have cured me, saving the blood of Christ!\nIt is better to be dealt plainly with, than that we should be\ndeceived; they had better see their lost condition in the world,\nthan stay while they be damned, as I have done. Therefore send\nLazarus, send him to my father's house. Let him go and say I saw\nyour son, your brother, in hell, weeping and wailing, and gnashing\nhis teeth. Let him bear them down in it, and tell them plainly it\nis so, and that they shall see their everlasting misery, if they\nhave not a special care. 'Send him to my father's house.'\n\nVerse 28.--'For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto\nthem, lest they also come into this place of torment.'\n\nThese words are, if I may so say, a reason given by those in hell\nwhy they are so restless and do cry so loud; it is that their\ncompanions might be delivered from those intolerable torments which\nthey must and shall undergo if they fall short of everlasting life\nby Jesus Christ. 'Send him to my father's house; for I have five\nbrethren.' Though, while they lived among them in the world, they\nwere not so sensible of their ruin, yet now they are passed out of\nthe world, and do partake of that which before they were warned\nof; they can, I say, then cry out, Now I find that to be true\nindeed, which was once and again told and declared to me that it\nwould certainly come to pass.\n\n'FOR I HAVE FIVE BRETHREN.' Here you may see that there may be, and\nare, whole households in a damnable state and condition, as our\nLord Jesus doth by this signify. 'Send him to my father's house,'\nfor they are all in one state, I left all my brethren in a pitiful\ncase. People, while they live here, cannot endure to hear that they\nshould be all in a miserable condition; but when they are under\nthe wrath of God they see it, they know it, and are very sure of\nit; for they themselves, when they were in the world, lived as\nthey do, but they fell short of heaven, and therefore, if they go\non, so shall they. O, therefore, send him quickly to my father's\nhouse, for all the house is in an undone condition, and must be\ndamned if they continue so.\n\nThe thing observable is this, namely, that those that are in hell\ndo not desire that their companions should come thither; nay rather,\nsaith he, send him to my father's house, and let him testify to\nthem that are therein, lest they also come, &c.\n\nQuest. But some may say, What should be the reason that the damned\nshould desire not to have their companions come into the same\ncondition that they are fallen into, but rather that they might\nbe kept from it, and escape that dreadful state?\n\nAnsw. I do believe there is scarce so much love in any of the\ndamned in hell as really to desire the salvation of any. But\nin that there is any desire in them that are damned, that their\nfriends and relations should not come into that place of torment,\nit appears to me to be rather for their own ease than for their\nneighbour's good; for, let me tell you, this I do believe, that it\nwill aggravate the grief and horror of them to see their ungodly\nneighbours in the like destruction with them. For where the ungodly\ndo live and die, and descend into the pit together, the one is\nrather a vexation to the other than any thing else. And it must\nneeds be so, because there are no ungodly people that do live\nungodly together but they do learn ill examples one of another,\nas thus: If there live one in the town that is very expert and\ncunning for the world, why now the rest that are of the same mind\nwith him, they will labour to imitate and follow his steps: this\nis commonly seen.\n\nAgain, if there be one given to drunkenness, others of the town,\nthrough his means, run the more into that sin with him, and do\naccustom themselves the more unto it because of his enticing them,\nand also by setting such an ill example before them. And so if\nthere be any addicted to pride, and must needs be in all the newest\nfashions, how do their example provoke others to love and follow\nthe same vanity; spending that upon their lusts which should\nrelieve their own and others' wants. Also if there be any given\nto jesting, scoffing, lying, whoring, backbiting, junketing,[25]\nwantonness, or any other sin, they that are most expert in these\nthings do ofttimes entangle others, that peradventure would not\nhave been so vile as now they are, had they not had such an example,\nand hence they are called corrupters (Isa 1:4).\n\nNow these will, by their doings, exceedingly aggravate the\ncondemnation of one another. He that did set his neighbor an ill\nexample, and thereby caused him to walk in sin, he will be found\none cause of his friend's destruction, insomuch that he will have\nto answer for his own sins and for a great part of his neighbour's\ntoo, which will add to his destruction; as that scripture in\nEzekiel showeth, where, speaking of the watchman that should give\nthe people warning, if he did not, though the man did die in his\nsins, yet his blood shall be required at the watchman's hand (Eze\n33).\n\nSo here let me tell thee that if thou shouldst be such a one, as\nby thy conversation and practices shall be a trap and a stumbling-block\nto cause thy neighbour to fall into eternal ruin--though he be\ndamned for his own sins--yet God may, nay he will charge thee as\nbeing guilty of his blood, in that thou didst not content thyself\nto keep from heaven thyself, but didst also, by thy filthy\nconversation, keep away others, and cause them to fall with thee.\nO, therefore, will not this aggravate thy torment? Yea, if thou\nshouldst die and go to hell before thy neighbour or companions,\nbesides the guilt of thine own sins, thou wouldst be so loaden\nwith the fear of the damnation of others to be laid to thy charge,\nthat thou wouldst cry out, O send one from the dead to this companion\nand that companion with whom I had society in my lifetime, for I\nsee my cursed carriage will be one cause of his condemnation, if\nhe fall short of glory.\n\nI left him living in foul and heinous offences; but I was one of\nthe first instruments to bring him to them. O! I shall be guilty\nboth of my own and his damnation too! O that he might be kept out\nhence, lest my torment be aggravated by his coming hither!\n\nFor where ungodly people do dwell together, they being a snare\nand stumbling-block one to another by their practices, they must\nneeds be a torment one to another, and an aggravation of each\nother's damnation. O cursed be thy face, saith one, that ever I\nset mine eyes on thee. It was long of thee. I may thank thee. It\nwas thee that did entice me and ensnare me. It was your filthy\nconversation that was a stumbling-block to me. It was your\ncovetousness, it was your pride, your haunting the ale-house, your\ngaming and whoring. It was long of you that I fell short of life;\nif you had set me a good example, as you did set me an ill one,\nit may be I might have done better than now I do; but I learned\nof you, I followed your steps, I took counsel of you. O that I\nhad never seen thy face! O that thou hadst never been born to do\nmy soul this wrong, as you have done! O, saith the other, and I\nmay as much blame you, for do not you remember how at such a time,\nand at such a time, you drew me out, and drew me away, and asked\nme if I would go with you, when I was going about other business,\nabout my calling; but you called me away, you sent for me, you\nare as much in the fault as I; though I were covetous, you were\nproud; and if you learned covetousness of me, I learned pride and\ndrunkenness of you. Though I learned you to cheat, you learned\nme to whore, to lie, to scoff at goodness. Though I, base wretch,\ndid stumble you in some things, yet you did as much stumble me in\nothers. I can blame you as you blame me; and if I have to answer\nfor some of your most filthy actions, you have to answer for\nsome of mine. I would you had not come hither, the very looks of\nyou do wound my soul, by bringing my sins afresh into my mind,\nthe time when, the manner how, the place where, the persons with\nwhom. It was with you, you! Grief to my soul! Since I could not\nshun thy company there, O that I had been without thy company\nhere!\n\nI say, therefore, for those that have sinned together to go to\nhell together, it will very much perplex and torment them both;\ntherefore I judge this is one reason why they that are in hell do\ndesire that their friends or companions do not come thither into\nthe same place of torment that they are in. And therefore where\nChrist saith that these damned souls cry out, Send to our companions,\nthat they may be warned and commanded to look to themselves, O\nsend to my five brethren! it is because they would not have their\nown torments heightened by their company; and a sense, yea, a\ncontinual sense of their sins, which they did cause them to commit\nwhen they were in the world with them. For I do believe that the\nvery looks of those that have been beguiled of their fellows, I\nsay their very looks will be a torment to them: for thereby will\nthe remembrance of their own sins be kept, if possible, the fresher\non their consciences, which they committed with them; and also\nthey will wonderfully have the guilt of the others sins upon them,\nin that they were partly the cause of his committing them, being\ninstruments in the hands of the devil to draw them in too. And,\ntherefore, lest this come to pass, 'I pray thee send him to my\nfather's house.' For if they might not come hither, peradventure\nmy torment might have some mitigation; that is, if they might be\nsaved, then their sins will be pardoned, and not so heavily charged\non my soul. But if they do fall into the same place where I am,\nthe sins that I have caused them to commit will lie so heavy,\nnot only on their souls, but also on mine, that they sin me into\neternal misery, deeper and deeper. O therefore send him to my\nfather's house, to my five brethren, and let him testify to them,\nlest they come into this place of torment.\n\nThese words being thus understood, what a condition doth it\nshow them to be in then, that now much delight in being the very\nringleaders of their companions into sins of all sorts whatsoever?\n\nWhile men live here, if they can be counted the cunningest in\ncheating, the boldest for lying, the archest for whoring, the\nsubtilest for coveting and getting the world; if they can but\ncunningly defraud, undermine, cross, and anger their neighbours,\nyea, and hinder them from the means of grace, the gospel of Christ,\nthey glory in it, take a pride in it, and think themselves pretty\nwell at ease, and their minds are somewhat quiet, being beguiled\nwith sin.\n\nBut, friend, when thou hast lost this life, and dost begin to lift\nup thine eyes in hell, and seest what thy sins have brought thee\nto; and not only so, but that thou, by thy filthy sins, didst\ncause others, devil-like, to fall into the same condemnation with\nthee; and that one of the reasons of their damnation was this, that\nthou didst lead them to the commission of those wicked practices\nof this world, and the lusts thereof; then, O that somebody\nwould stop them from coming, lest they also come into this place\nof torment, and be damned as I am! How ill it torment me! Balaam\ncould not be contented to be damned himself, but also he must,\nby his wickedness, cause others to stumble and fall. The Scribes\nand Pharisees could not be contented to keep out of heaven themselves,\nbut they must labour to keep out others too. Therefore theirs is\nthe greater damnation.\n\nThe deceived cannot be content to be deceived himself; but he must\nlabour to deceive others also. The drunkard cannot be content to\ngo to hell for his own sins, but he must labour to cause others\nto fall into the same furnace with him. But look to yourselves,\nfor here will be damnation upon damnation, damned for thy own\nsins, and damned for thy being a partaker with others in their\nsins; and damned for being guilty of the damnation of others.\nO how will the drunkards cry for leading their neighbours into\ndrunkenness! How will the covetous person howl for setting his\nneighbour, his friend, his brother, his children and relations,\nso wicked an example! by which he hath not only wronged his own\nsoul, but also the souls of others. The liar, by lying, learned\nothers to lie; the swearer learned others to swear; the whoremonger\nlearned others to whore.\n\nNow all these, with others of the like sort, will be guilty, not\nonly of their own damnation, but also of the damnation of others.\nI tell you, that some men have so much been the authors of the\ndamnation of others, that I am ready to think that the damnation\nof them will trouble them as much as their own damnation. Some\nmen, it is to be feared, at the day of judgment, will be found\nto be the authors of destroying whole nations. How many souls do\nyou think Balaam, with his deceit, will have to answer for? How\nmany Mahomet? How many the Pharisees, that hired the soldiers to\nsay the disciples stole away Jesus? (Matt 18:11-15); and by that\nmeans stumbled their brethren to this day; and was one means of\nhindering them from believing the things of God and Jesus Christ,\nand so the cause of the damnation of their brethren to this very\nday.\n\nHow many poor souls hath Bonner to answer for, think you, and several\nfilthy blind priests? How many souls have they been the means of\ndestroying by their ignorance and corrupt doctrine? Preaching,\nthat was no better for their souls than ratsbane to the body, for\nfilthy lucre's sake (O ye priests, this word is for you). They\nshall see, that they, many of them it is to be feared, will have\nwhole towns to answer for; whole cities to answer for. Ah, friend,\nI tell thee, thou that hast taken in hand to preach to the people,\nit may be thou hast taken in hand thou canst not tell what. Will\nit not grieve thee to see thy whole parish come bellowing after\nthee to hell, crying out, This we may thank thee for, this is\nlong of thee, thou didst not teach us the truth; thou didst lead\nus away with fables, thou wast afraid to tell us of our sins, lest\nwe should not put meat fast enough in thy mouth. O cursed wretch,\nthat ever thou shouldst beguile us thus, deceive us thus, flatter\nus thus! We would have gone out to hear the word abroad, but that\nthou didst reprove us, and also tell us that that which we see\nnow is the way of God was heresy, and a deceivable doctrine; and\nwast not contented, blind guide as thou wert, to fall into the\nditch thyself, but hast also led us thither with thee.[26]\n\nI say, look to thyself, lest thou cry out when it is too late, Send\nLazarus to my people, my friends, my children, my congregation to\nwhom I preached, and beguiled through my folly. Send him to the\ntown in which I did preach last, lest I be the cause of their\ndamnation. Send him to my friends from whence I came, lest I be\nmade to answer for their souls and mine own too (Eze 33:1-6).\n\nO send him therefore, and let him tell them, and testify unto them,\nlest they also come into this place of torment. Consider this, ye\nthat live thus in the world, while ye are in the land of the living,\nlest you fall into this condition. Set the case thou shouldest\nby thy carriage destroy but a soul, but one poor soul, by one of\nthy carriages or actions, by thy sinful works; consider it now, I\nsay, lest thou be forced to cry, 'I pray thee therefore, that thou\nwouldst send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren,\nthat he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place\nof torment.'\n\nIf so, then I shall not only say to the blind guides, Look you to\nyourselves, and shut not[27] out others; no, but this doth reach\nunto all those that do not only keep souls from heaven by preaching\nand the like, but speaks forth the doom of those that shall any\nways be instrumental to hinder others from closing in with Jesus\nChrist. O what red lines will those be against all those rich\nungodly landlords, that so keep under their poor tenants that\nthey dare not go out to hear the word, for fear their rent should\nbe raised, or they turned out of their houses! What sayest thou,\nlandlord, will it not cut thy soul, when thou shalt see that thou\ncouldest not be content to miss of heaven thyself, but thou must\nlabour to hinder others also? Will it not give thee an eternal\nwound in thy heart, both at death and judgment, to be accused of\nthe ruin of thy neighbour's soul, thy servant's soul, thy wife's\nsoul, together with the ruin of thy own? Think on this, you\ndrunken, proud, rich, and scornful landlords; think on this, you\nmad-brained blasphemous husbands, that are against the godly and\nchaste conversation of your wives; also you that hold your servants\nso hard to it that you will not spare them time to hear the word,\nunless it be where and when your lusts will let you. If you love\nyour own souls, your tenants' souls, your wives' souls, your\nservants' souls, your children's souls; if you would not cry, if\nyou would not howl, if you would not bear the burden of the ruin\nof others for ever, then I beseech you to consider this doleful\nstory, and labour to avoid the soul-killing torment that this poor\nwretch groaneth under, when he saith, 'I pray thee therefore, that\nthou wouldst send him to my father's house,[28]\n\nFor I have five brethren, THAT HE MAY TESTIFY,' mark, 'that he may\ntestify UNTO THEM, lest they also come into this place of torment.'\n\nThese words have still something more in them than I have yet\nobserved from them; there are one or two things more that I shall\nbriefly touch upon, and therefore, mark, he saith, 'That he may\ntestify unto them,' &c. Mark, I pray you, and take notice of the\nword TESTIFY. He doth not say, And let him go unto them, or speak\nwith, or tell them such and such things. No, but let him testify,\nor affirm it constantly, in case any should oppose it. 'Let him\ntestify unto them.' It is the same word the Scripture uses to\nset forth the vehemency of Christ, his telling of his disciples\nof him that should betray him. And he testified, saying, One of\nyou shall betray me. And he testified, that is, he spake it so\nas to dash or overcome any that should have said it shall not be.\nIt is a word that signifies, that in case any should oppose the\nthing spoken of, yet that the party speaking should still continue\nconstant in his saying. And he commanded them to preach, 'and to\ntestify, that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge\nof quick and dead.' To testify, mark, that is, to be constant,\nirresistible, undaunted, in case it should be opposed and objected\nagainst. So here, let him testify to them, lest they come into\nthis place of torment.\n\nFrom whence observe, that it is not an easy matter to persuade\nthem who are in their sins alive in this world, that they must and\nshall be damned if they turn not, and be converted to God. 'Let\nhim testify to them,' let him speak confidently, though they frown\nupon him, or dislike his way of speaking. And how is this truth\nverified and cleared by the carriages of almost all men now in\nthe world toward them that do preach the gospel; and show their\nown miserable state plainly to them, if they close not with it?\nIf a man do but indeed labour to convince sinners of their sins\nand lost condition by nature, though they must be damned if they\nlive and die in that condition, O how angry are they at it! Look\nhow he judges, say they, hark how he condemns us; he tells us we\nmust be damned if we live and die in this state. We are offended\nat him, we cannot abide to hear him, or any such as he; we will\nbelieve none of them all, but go on in the way we are agoing.\n'Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten,' said the ungodly king\nto the prophet, when he told him of his sins (2 Chron 25:16).\n\nI say, tell the drunkard he must be damned if he leaves not his\ndrunkenness, the swearer, liar, cheater, thief, covetous, railers,\nor any ungodly persons, they must and shall lie in hell for it, if\nthey die in this condition; they will not believe you, not credit\nyou.\n\nAgain, tell others that there are many in hell that have lived\nand died in their conditions, and so are they like to be, if they\nconvert not to Jesus Christ, and be found in him, or that there\nare others that are more civil and sober men, who, although we\nknow that their civility will not save them, if we do but tell them\nplainly of the emptiness and unprofitableness of that, as to the\nsaving of their souls, and that God will not accept them, nor love\nthem, notwithstanding these things, and that if they intend to be\nsaved, they must be better provided than with such a righteousness\nas this; they will either fling away, and come to hear no more,\nor else if they do come, they will bring such prejudice with them\nin their hearts, that the word preached shall not profit them, it\nbeing mixed not with faith, but with prejudice in them that hear\nit (Heb 4:1,2). Nay, they will some of them be so full of anger\nthat they will break out and call, even those that speak the truth,\nheretics; yea, and kill them (Luke 4:25-29). And why so? Because\nthey tell them, that if they live in their sins that will damn\nthem; yet if they turn and live a righteous life, according to\nthe holy, and just, and good law of God, that will not save them.\nYea, because we tell them plainly that unless they leave their\nsins and [self] righteousness too, and close in with a naked Jesus\nChrist, his blood and merits, and what he hath done, and is now\ndoing for sinners, they cannot be saved; and unless they do eat\nthe flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, they have no\nlife abiding in them, they gravel[29] presently, and are offended\nat it, as the Jews were with Christ for speaking the same thing\nto them (John 6:53,60). And fling away themselves, their souls\nand all, by quarrelling against the doctrine of the Son of God,\nas indeed they do, though they will not believe they do; and\ntherefore, he that is a preacher of the Word, had need not only\ntell them, but testify to them, again and again, that their sins,\nif they continue in them, will damn them, and damn them again.\nAnd tell them again, their living honestly according to the law,\ntheir paying every one their own, their living quietly with their\nneighbours, their giving to the poor, their notion of the gospel,\nand saying they do believe in Christ, will do them no good at the\ngeneral day of judgment. Ha, friends! How many of you are there\nat this very day, that have been told once and again of your lost\nundone condition, because you want the right, real, and saving\nwork of God upon your souls! I say, hath not this been told you,\nyea, testified unto you from time to time, that your state is\nmiserable, that yet you are never the better, but do still stand\nwhere you did; some in an open ungodly life, and some drowned in\na self-conceited holiness of Christianity? Therefore, for God's\nsake, if you love your souls, consider, and beg of God for Jesus\nChrist's sake, that he would work such a work of grace in your\nhearts, and give you such a faith in his Son Jesus Christ, that\nyou may not only have rest here, as you think, not only think your\nstate safe while you live here, but that you may be safe indeed,\nnot only here, but also when you are gone, lest you do cry in the\nanguish and perplexity of your souls, Send one to my companions\nthat have been beguiled by Satan as I have been, and so, by going\non, come into this place of torment as I have done.\n\nAgain, one thing more is to be observed from these words, Let him\n'testify to them, LEST THEY ALSO COME INTO THIS PLACE OF TORMENT.'\n\nMark, lest they come in. As if he had said, Or else they will come\ninto this place of torment, as sure as I am here. From whence\nobserve, that though some souls do for sin fall into the bottomless\npit of hell before their fellows, because they depart this world\nbefore them, yet the other, abiding in the same course, are as\nsure to go to the same place as if they were there already. How\nso? Because that all are condemned together, they have all fallen\nunder the same law, and have all offended the same justice, and\nmust for certain, if they die in that condition, drink as deep,\nif not deeper, of the same destruction. Mark, I pray you, what\nthe Scriptures say, 'He that believeth not, is condemned already'\n(John 3:18).\n\nHe is condemned as well as they, having broken the same law\nwith them; if so, then what hinders but they will partake of the\nsame destruction with them? Only the one hath not the law yet so\nexecuted upon them, because they are here; the other have had the\nlaw executed upon them, they are gone to drink that which they\nhave been brewing, and thou art brewing that in this life which\nthou must certainly drink.[30] The same law, I say, is in force\nagainst you both, only he is executed and thou art not. Just as if\nthere were a company of prisoners at the bar, and all condemned to\ndie; what, because they are not all executed in one day, therefore\nshall they not be executed at all? Yes, the same law that executed\nits severity upon the parties now deceased, will for certain be\nexecuted on them that are alive in its appointed time. Even so it\nis here, we are all condemned by nature; if we close not in with\nthe grace of God by Jesus Christ, we must and shall be destroyed\nwith the same destruction; and 'therefore send him,' saith he,\n'LEST,' mark, 'lest they also come into this place of torment.\n\nAgain, 'Send him to my father's house,' and let him 'testify unto\nthem, lest they also come into this place of torment.' As if he\nhad said, It may be he may prevail with them, it may be he may win\nupon them, and so they may be kept from hence, from coming into\nthis grievous place of torment. Observe again, that there is\na possibility of obtaining mercy, if now, I say, now in this day\nof grace, we turn from our sins to Jesus Christ; yea, it is more\nthan possible. And therefore, for thy encouragement, do thou know\nfor certain, that if thou shalt in this thy day accept of mercy\nupon God's own terms, and close with him effectually, God hath\npromised, yea, made many promises, that thy soul shall be conducted\nsafe to glory, and shall for certain escape all the evils that I\nhave told thee of; aye, and many more than I can imagine. Do but\nsearch the Scriptures, and see how full of consolation they are\nto a poor soul that is minded to close in with Jesus Christ. 'Him\nthat cometh to me,' saith Christ, 'I will in no wise cast out.'\nThough he be an old sinner, 'I will in no wise cast him out';\nmark, in no wise, though he be a great sinner, I will in no wise\ncast him out, if he come to me. Though he have slighted me neve\nso many times, and not regarded the welfare of his own soul, yet\nlet him now come to me, and notwithstanding this, 'I will in no\nwise cast him out,' nor throw away his soul (John 6:37). Again,\nsaith the apostle, 'Now,' mark now, 'is the accepted time, now\nis the day of their salvation.' Now here is mercy in good store,\nnow God's heart is open to sinners; now he will make you welcome;\nnow he will receive anybody if they do but come to Christ. 'He\nthat cometh to me,' saith Christ, 'I will in no wise cast out.'\nAnd why? Because 'NOW is the accepted time, now is the day of\nsalvation' (2 Cor 6:2). As if the apostle had said, If you will\nhave mercy, have it now, receive it now, close in with it now.\n\nGod hath a certain day to hold out his grace to sinners. Now is\nthe time, now is the day. It is true, there is a day of damnation,\nbut this is a day of salvation. There is a day coming, wherein\nsinners must cry to the mountains to fall on them, to the hills\nto cover them from the wrath of God; but now, now is the day in\nwhich he doth hold out his grace. There is a day coming, in which\nyou will not be admitted to have the privilege of one drop of\nwater to cool your tongue, if now, I say, if now you slight his\ngrace and goodness which he holds out to you. Ah, friends, consider\nthere is now hopes of mercy, but then there will not; now Christ\nholds forth mercy unto you, but then he will not (Matt 7:23). Now\nthere are his servants that do beseech you to accept of his grace,\nbut if thou lose the opportunity that is put into thine hand,\nthou thyself mayest beseech hereafter, and no mercy be given thee.\n'And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send\nLazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool\nmy tongue.' And thee was none given. Therefore let it never be\nsaid of thee, as it will be said of some, 'Wherefore is there a\nprice in the hand of a fool, seeing he hath no heart to it?' Seeing\nhe hath no heart to make a good use of it (Prov 17:16). Consider\ntherefore with thyself, and say, It is better going to heaven\nthan hell; it is better to be saved than damned; it is better to\nbe with saints than with damned souls; and to go to God is better\nthan to go to the devil. Therefore 'seek ye the Lord while he may\nbe found, and call ye upon him while he is near' (Isa 55:6). Lest\nin thy trouble he leave thee to thyself, and say unto thee plainly,\nWhere I am, thither 'ye cannot come' (John 8:21).\n\nO if they that are in hell might but now again have one such\ninvitation as this, how would they leap for joy! I have thought\nsometimes should God send but one of his ministers to the damned\nin hell, and give him commission to preach the free love of God\nin Christ extended to them, and held out to them, if now while\nit is proffered to them they will accept of his kindness; O how\nwelcome would they make this news, and close in with it on any\nterms! Certainly they would say, we will accept of grace on any\nterms in the world, and thank you too, though it cost life and\nlimbs to boot; we will spare no cost nor charge, if mercy may be\nhad. But poor souls, while they live here they will not part from\nsin, with hell-bred devilish sin. No, they will rather lose their\nsouls than lose their filthy sins.\n\nBut, friend, thou wilt change thy note before it be long, and cry,\nO simple wretch that I am that I should damn my soul by sin! It is\ntrue, I have had the gospel preached to me, and have been invited\nin. I have been preached to, and have been warned of this; but\n'how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and\nhave not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear\nto them that instructed me' (Prov 5:12,13). O therefore, I say,\npoor soul! Is there hope? Then lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and\nkiss the dust, and close in with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make\nmuch of his glorious mercy; and invite also thy companions to\nclose in with the same Lord Jesus Christ, lest one of you do go\nto hell beforehand, and expect with grief of heart your companions\nto come after; and in the mean time, with anguish of heart, do\nsigh and say, O send him to my companions, and let him testify to\nthem, lest they also come into this place of torment.\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION\n\nOf the Preceding portion of the Parable.]\n\n[31]Now then, from what hath been said, there might many things be\nspoken by way of use and application; but I shall be very brief,\nand but touch some things, and so wind up. And, First, I shall\nbegin with the sad condition of those that die out of Christ,\nand speak something to that. Secondly, To the latter end of the\nparable, which more evidently concerns the Scripture, and speak\nsomewhat to that.\n\n[First. I shall begin with the sad condition of those that die out\nof Christ.]\n\n1. Therefore you see that the former part of the parable contains\na sad declaration of the state of one living and dying out of\nChrist; how that they lose heaven for hell, God for the devil,\nlight for darkness, joy for sorrow. 2. How that they have not so\nmuch as the least comfort from God, who in the time they live here\nbelow neglect coming to him for mercy; not so much as one drop\nof cold water. 3. That such souls will repent of their folly,\nwhen repentance will do them no good, or when they shall be past\nrecovery. 4. That all the comfort such souls are like to have, they\nhave it in this world. 5. That all their groanings and sighs will\nnot move God to mitigate in the least his heavy hand of vengeance\nthat is upon them, for the transgression they have committed against\nhim. 6. That their sad state is irrecoverable, or they must never,\nmark, never come out of that condition. 7. Their desires will not\nbe hard for their ungodly neighbours. From these things then, I\npray you consider the state of those that die out of Christ Jesus;\nyea, I say, consider their miserable state; and think thus with\nthyself, Well, if I neglect coming to Christ, I must go to the devil,\nand he will not neglect to fetch me away into those intolerable\ntorments.\n\nThink thus with thyself, What, shall I lose a long heaven for short\npleasure? Shall I buy the pleasures of this world at so dear a\nrate as to lose my soul for the obtaining of that? Shall I content\nmyself with a heaven that will last no longer than my lifetime?\nWhat advantage will these be to me when the Lord shall separate\nsoul and body asunder, and send one to the grave, the other to\nhell, and at the judgment-day, the final sentence of eternal ruin\nmust be passed upon me?\n\n1. Consider, that the profits, pleasures, and vanities of this world\nwill not last for ever, but the time is coming, yea, just at the\ndoors, when they will give thee the slip, and leave thee in the\nsuds,[32] and in the brambles of all that thou hast done. And\ntherefore to prevent this,\n\n2. Consider thy dismal state, think thus with thyself, It is true, I\ndo love my sins, my lusts and pleasures; but what good will they\ndo me at the day of death and of judgment? Will my sins do me good\nthen? Will they be able to help me when I come to fetch my last\nbreath? What good will my profits do me? And what good will my\nvanities do, when death says he will have no nay? What good will\nall my companions, fellow-jesters, jeerers, liars, drunkards, and\nall my wantons do me? Will they help to ease the pains of hell?\nWill these help to turn the hand of God from inflicting his fierce\nanger upon me? Nay, will not they rather cause God to show me no\nmercy, to give me no comfort; but rather to thrust me down in the\nhottest place of hell, where I may swim in fire and brimstone.\n\n3. Consider thus with thyself, Would I be glad to have all, every\none of my sins to come in against me, to inflame the justice\nof God against me? Would I be glad to be bound up in them as the\nthree children were bound in their clothes, and to be as really\nthrown into the fiery furnace of the wrath of Almighty God as they\nwere into Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace?\n\n4. Consider thus, Would I be glad to have all, and every one of\nthe ten commandments, to discharge themselves against my soul? The\nfirst saying, Damn him, for he hath broken me; the second saying,\nDamn him, for he hath broken me, &c. Consider how terrible this\nwill be, yea, more terrible than if thou shouldest have ten of\nthe biggest pieces of ordnance in England to be discharged against\nthy body, thunder, thunder, one after another! Nay, this would not\nbe comparable to the reports that the law, for the breach thereof,\nwill give against thy soul; for those can but kill the body, but\nthese will kill both body and soul; and that not for an hour, a\nday, a month, or a year, but they will condemn thee for ever.\n\nMark, it is for ever, for ever. It is into everlasting damnation,\neternal destruction, eternal wrath and displeasure from God,\neternal gnawings of conscience, eternal continuance with devils.\nO consider, it may be the thought of seeing the devil doth now\nmake thine hair to stand right up on thine head. O but this, to be\ndamned, to be among all the devils, and that not only for a time,\nas I said before, but for ever, to all eternity! This is wonderfully\nmiserable, ever miserable; that no tongue of man, no, nor of angels,\nis able to express it.\n\n5. Consider much with thyself, Not only my sins against the law\nwill be laid to my charge, but also the sins I have committed in\nslighting the gospel, the glorious gospel. These also must come\nwith a voice against me. As thus, Nay, he is worthy to be damned,\nfor he rejected the gospel, he slighted the free grace of God\ntendered in the gospel; how many times was thou, damned wretch,\ninvited, intreated, beseeched to come to Christ, to accept of\nmercy, that thou mightest have heaven, thy sins pardoned, thy soul\nsaved, and body and soul glorified, and all this for nothing but\nthe acceptance, and through faith forsaking those imps of Satan,\nwhich by their embracements have drawn thee downward toward the\ngulf of God's eternal displeasure? How often didst thou read the\npromises, yea, the free promises of the common salvation! How oft\ndidst thou read the sweet counsels and admonitions of the gospel,\nto accept of the grace of God! But thou wouldst not, thou regardest\nit not, thou didst slight all.\n\nSecond. As I would have thee to consider the sad and woeful state\nof those that die out of Christ, and are past all recovery, so\nwould I have thee consider the many mercies and privileges thou\nenjoyest above some, peradventure, of thy companions that are\ndeparted to their proper place. As,\n\n1. Consider, thou hast still the thread of thy life lengthened,\nwhich for thy sins might seven years ago, or more, have been cut\nasunder, and thou have dropped down amongst the flames.\n\n2. Consider the terms of reconciliation by faith in Christ are still\nproffered unto thee, and thou invited, yea, entreated to accept\nof them.\n\n3. Consider the terms of reconciliation are but--bear with me though\nI say but--only to believe in Jesus Christ, with that faith that\npurifies the heart, and enables thy soul to feed on him effectually,\nand be saved from this sad state.\n\n4. Consider the time of thy departure is at hand, and the time is\nuncertain, and also that for ought thou knowest the day of grace\nmay be past to thee before thou diest, not lasting so long as thy\nuncertain life in this world. And if so, then know for certain that\nthou art as sure to be damned as if thou wast in hell already; if\nthou convert not in the meanwhile.\n\n5. Consider it may be some of thy friends are giving all diligence\nto make their calling and election sure, being resolved for heaven,\nand thou thyself endeavourest as fast to make sure of hell, as if\nresolved to have it; and together with this, consider how it will\ngrieve thee that while thou wast making sure of hell thy friends\nwere making sure of heaven; but more of this by and by.\n\n6. Consider what a sad reflection this will have on thy soul, to\nsee thy friends in heaven, and thyself in hell; thy father in\nheaven, and thou in hell; thy mother in heaven, and thou in hell;\nthy brother, thy sister, thy children in heaven, and thou in\nhell. As Christ said to the Jews of their relations according to\nthe flesh, so may I say to thee concerning thy friends, 'There\nshall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,' when you shall see your\nfathers and mothers, brethren and sisters, husbands and wives,\nchildren and kinsfolk, with your friends and neighbours in the\nkingdom of heaven, and thou thyself thrust out (Luke 13:27-29).\n\nBut again, because I would not only tell thee of the damnable\nstate of those that die out of Christ, but also persuade thee to\ntake hold of life, and go to heaven, take notice of these following\nthings.\n\n(1.) Consider that whatever thou canst do, as to thy acceptance\nwith God, is not worth the dirt of thy shoes, but is all 'as filthy\nrags' (Isa 54:6).\n\n(2.) Consider that all the conditions of the new covenant, as to\nsalvation, are and have been completely fulfilled by the Lord\nJesus Christ, and that for sinners.\n\n(3.) Consider that the Lord calls to thee, for to receive whatsoever\nChrist hath done, and that on free cost (Rev 22:17).\n\n(4.) Consider that thou canst not honour God more than to close\nin with his proffers of grace, mercy, and pardon of sin (Rom 4).\n\nAgain, that which will add to all the rest, thou shalt have the\nvery mercy of God, the blood of Christ, the preachers of the\nword, together with every sermon, all the promises, invitations,\nexhortations, and all the counsels and threatenings of the blessed\nword of God. Thou shalt have all thy thoughts, words, and actions,\ntogether with all thy food, thy raiment, thy sleep, thy goods,\nand also all hours, days, weeks, months and years, together with\nwhatsoever else God hath given thee. I say, thy abuse of all these\nshall come up in judgment against thy soul; for God will reckon\nwith thee for everything, whether it be good or bad (Eccl 12:14).\n\n(5.) Nay further, it is so unreasonable a thing for a sinner to\nrefuse the gospel, that the very devils themselves will come in\nagainst thee, as well as Sodom, that damned crew. May not they, I\nsay, come in against thee, and say, O thou simple[33] man! O vile\nwretch! That had not so much care of thy soul, thy precious soul,\nas the beast hath of its young, or the dog of the very bone that\nlieth before him. Was thy soul worth so much, and didst thou so\nlittle regard it? Were the thunder-claps of the law so terrible,\nand didst thou so slight them? Besides, was the gospel so freely, so\nfrequently, so fully tendered to thee, and yet hast thou rejected\nall these things? Hast thou valued sin at a higher rate than thy\nsoul, than God, Christ, angels, saints, and communion with them\nin eternal blessedness and glory? Wast thou not told of hell-fire,\nthose intolerable flames? Didst thou never hear of the intolerable\nroarings of the damned ones that are therein? Didst thou never\nhear or read that doleful saying in Luke 16, how the sinful man\ncries out among the flames, 'One drop of water to cool my tongue?'\nThus, I say, may the very devils, being ready to go with thee into\nthe burning furnace of fire and brimstone, though not for sins of\nso high a nature as thine, trembling say, O that Christ had died\nfor devils, as he died for man! And, O that the gospel had been\npreached to us as it hath been to thee! How would we have laboured\nto have closed in with it! But woe be to us, for we might never\nhave it proffered; no, not in the least, though we would have\nbeen glad of it. But you, you have it proffered, preached, and\nproclaimed unto you (Prov 8:4). Besides, you have been intreated,\nand beseeched to accept of it, but you would not. O simple fools!\nthat might have escaped wrath, vengeance, hell-fire, and that to\nall eternity, and had no heart at all to do it.\n\n(6.) May not the messengers of Jesus Christ also come in with a\nshrill and terrible note against thy soul, when thou standest at\nthe bar of God's justice, saying, Nay, thou ungodly one, how often\nhast thou been forewarned of this day? Did we not sound an alarm\nin thine ears, by the trumpet of God's word day after day? How\noften didst thou hear us tell thee of these things? Did we not tell\nthee sin would damn thy soul? Did we not tell thee that without\nconversion there was no salvation? Did we not tell thee that they\nwho loved their sins should be damned at this dark and gloomy\nday, as thou art like to be? Yea, did we not tell thee that God,\nout of his love to sinners, sent Christ to die for them, that they\nmight, by coming to him, be saved? Did not we tell thee of these\nthings? Did we not run, ride, labour, and strive abundantly, if\nit might have been, for the good of thy soul, though now a damned\nsoul? Did we not venture our goods, our names, our lives? Yea, did\nwe not even kill ourselves with our earnest intreaties of thee to\nconsider of thine estate, and by Christ to escape this dreadful\nday? O sad doom! When thou shalt be forced full sore against thy\nwill to fall under the truth of this judgment, saying, O 'How have\nI hated instruction, and how hath my heart despised reproof!' for,\nindeed, 'I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined\nmine ear to them that instructed me' (Prov 5:12,13).\n\n(7.) May not thy father, thy mother, thy brother, thy sister, thy\nfriend, &c., appear with gladness against thee at the terrible\nday, saying, O thou silly wretch! how rightly hath God met with\nthee! O how righteously doth his sentence pass upon thee! Remember\nthou wouldst not be ruled nor persuaded in thy lifetime. As thou\ndidst not care for us and our admonitions then, so neither do\nwe care for thy ruin, terror, and damnation now. No, but we will\nstand on God's side in sentencing of thee to that portion which\nthe devils must be partakers of. 'The righteous shall rejoice\nwhen he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood\nof the wicked' (Psa 58:10). O sad! It is enough to make mountains\ntremble, and the rocks rend in pieces, to hear this doleful sound.\nConsider these things, and if thou wouldst be loth to be in this\ncondition, then have a care of living in sin now. How loth wilt\nthou be to be thrust away from the gates of heaven! And how loth\nwilt thou be to be deprived of the mercy of God! How unwillingly\nwilt thou set foot forward towards the lake of fire! Never did\nmalefactor so unwillingly turn off the ladder when the halter\nwas about his neck, as thou will turn from God to the devil, from\nheaven to hell, when the sentence is passed upon thy soul.\n\nO how wilt thou sigh and groan! How willingly wouldst thou hide\nthyself, and run away from justice! But alas! as it is with them\nthat are on the ladder ready to be executed, so it will be with\nthee. They would fain run away, but there are many halbert-men[34]\nto stay them. And so the angels of God will beset thee round,\nI say round on every side; so that thou mayest indeed look, but\nrun thou canst not. Thou mayest wish thyself under some rock, or\nmountain (Rev 6:15,16), but how to get under, thou knowest not.\n\nO how unwilling wilt thou be to let thy father go to heaven without\nthee! thy mother or friends, &c., go to heaven without thee! How\nwillingly wouldst thou hang on them, and not let them go! O father!\ncannot you help me? Mother, cannot you do me some good? O how loth\nam I to burn and fry in hell, while you are singing in heaven!\nBut alas! the father, mother, or friends reject them, slight them,\nand turn their backs upon them, saying, You would have none of\nheaven in your lifetime, therefore you shall have none of it now.\nYou slighted our counsels then, and we slight your tears, cries, and\ncondition now. What sayest thou, sinner? Will not this persuade\nthine heart, nor make thee bethink thyself? This is now before thou\nfall into that dreadful place, that fiery furnace. But O consider\nhow dreadful the place itself, the devils themselves, the fire\nitself will be! And this at the end of all, Here thou must lie\nfor ever! Here thou must fry for ever, and for ever! This will\nbe more to thee than any man with tongue can express, or with pen\ncan write. There is none that can, I say, by the ten thousandth\npart, discover the state and condition of such a soul.\n\nI shall conclude this, then, with A FEW CONSIDERATIONS OF\nENCOURAGEMENT.\n\n[First Encouragement.] Consider, for I would fain have thee come\nin, sinner, that there is way made by Jesus Christ for them that\nare under the curse of God, to come to this comfortable and blessed\nstate of Lazarus I was speaking of. See Ephesians 2.\n\n[Second Encouragement.] Consider what pains Christ Jesus took for\nthe ransoming of thy soul from all the curses, thunder-claps, and\ntempests of the law; from all the intolerable flames of hell; from\nthat soul-sinking appearance of thy person, on the left hand, before\nthe judgment-seat of Christ Jesus, from everlasting fellowship,\nwith innumerable companies of yelling and soul-amazing devils, I\nsay, consider what pains the Lord Jesus Christ took in bringing\nin redemption for sinners from these things.\n\n'In that though he was rich, yet he became poor, that ye, through\nhis poverty, might be' made 'rich' (2 Cor 8:9). He laid aside\nhis glory (John 17), and became a servant (Phil 2:7). He left the\ncompany of angels, and encountered with the devil (Luke 4; Matt\n4). He left heaven's ease for a time, to lie upon hard mountains\n(Luke 6:12; John 8:1). In a word, he became poorer than they that\ngo with flail and rake; yea, than the very birds or foxes, and all\nto do thee good. Besides, consider a little of these unspeakable\nand intolerable slightings and rejections, and the manifold abuses\nthat came from men upon him. How he was falsely accused, being a\nsweet, harmless, and undefiled lamb. How he was undervalued, so\nthat a murderer was counted less worthy of condemnation than he.\nBesides, how they mocked him, spit on him, beat him over the head\nwith staves, had the hair plucked from his cheeks. 'I gave my back\nto the smiters,' saith he, 'and my cheeks to them that plucked off\nthe hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting' (Isa 50:6).\nHis head crowned with thorns, his hands pierced with nails, and\nhis side with a spear; together with how they used him, scourged\nhim, and so miserably misusing him, that they had even spent him\nin a great measure before they did crucify him; insomuch that\nthere was another fain to carry his cross. Again,\n\n[Third Encouragement.] Not only this, but lay to heart a little\nwhat he received from God, his dear Father, though he were his\ndear and tender Son.\n\n1. In that he did reckon[35] him the greatest sinner and rebel in\nthe world. For he laid the sins of thousands, and ten thousands,\nand thousands of thousands of sinners to his charge (Isa 53). And\ncaused him to drink the terrible cup that was due to them all;\nand not only so, but did delight in so doing. 'For it pleased the\nLORD to bruise him.' God dealt indeed with his son, as Abraham\nwould have deal with Isaac; ay, and more terribly by ten thousand\nparts. For he did not only tear his body like a lion, but made\nhis soul an offering for sin. And this was not done feignedly,\nbut really--for justice called for it, he standing in the room of\nsinners. Witness that horrible and unspeakable agony that fell on\nhim suddenly in the garden, as if all the vials of God's unspeakable\nscalding vengeance had been cast upon him all at once, and all\nthe devils in hell had broken loose from thence at once to destroy\nhim, and that for ever; insomuch that the very pangs of death seized\nupon him in the same hour. For, saith he, 'My soul is exceeding\nsorrowful' and 'sore amazed,' even 'unto death' (Mark 14:34).\n\n2. Witness also that strange kind of sweat that trickled down his\nmost blessed face, where it is said: 'And he sweat, as it were,\ngreat drops' or clodders 'of blood,' trickling 'down to the ground.'\nO Lord Jesus! what a load didst thou carry! What a burden didst\nthou bear of the sins of the world, and the wrath of God! O thou\ndidst not only bleed at nose and mouth with the pressure that\nlay upon thee, but thou wast so pressed, so loaden, that the pure\nblood gushed through the flesh and skin, and so ran trickling\ndown to the ground. 'And his sweat was as it were great drops of\nblood,' trickling or 'falling down to the ground' (Luke 22:44).\nCanst thou read this, O thou wicked sinner, and yet go on in sin?\nCanst thou think of this, and defer repentance one hour longer?\nO heart of flint! yea, harder. O miserable wretch! What place in\nhell will be hot enough for thee to have thy soul put into, if\nthou shalt persist or go on still to add iniquity to iniquity.\n\n3. Besides, his soul went down to hell, and his body to the bars\nof the grave (Psa 16:10; Acts 2:31). And had hell, death, or the\ngrave, been strong enough to hold him, then he had suffered the\nvengeance of eternal fire to all eternity. But, O blessed Jesus!\nhow didst thou discover thy love to man in thy thus suffering!\nAnd, O God the Father! how didst thou also declare thy purity\nand exactness of thy justice, in that, though it was thine only,\nholy, innocent, harmless, and undefiled Son Jesus, that did take\non him our nature, and represent our persons, answering for our\nsins, instead of ourselves! Thou didst so wonderfully pour out\nthy wrath upon him, to the making of him cry out, 'My God, my God,\nwhy hast thou forsaken me?' And, O Lord Jesus! what a glorious\nconquest hast thou made over the enemies of our souls, even wrath,\nsin, death, hell, and devils, in that thou didst wring thyself from\nunder the power of them all! And not only so, but hast led them\ncaptive which would have led us captive; and also hast received\nfor us that glorious and unspeakable inheritance that 'eye hath\nnot seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of\nman' to conceive; and also hast given thine some discovery thereof\nthrough thy Spirit.\n\nAnd now, sinner, together with this consider,\n\n4. That though Jesus Christ hath done all these things for sinners,\nyet the devils make it their whole work, and continually study\nhow they may keep thee and others from enjoying of these blessed\nprivileges that have been thus obtained for sinners by this sweet\nJesus. He labours, I say, (1.) To keep thee ignorant of thy state\nby nature. (2.) To harden thy heart against the ways of God. (3.)\nTo inflame they heart with love to sin and the ways of darkness.\nAnd, (4.) To get thee to continue herein. For that is the way, he\nknows, to get thee to be a partaker with him of flaming hell-fire,\neven the same that he himself is fallen into, together with the\nrest of the wicked world, by reason of sin. Look to it therefore.\n\n[Fourth Encouragement.] But now, in the next place, a word of\nencouragement to you that are the saints of the Lord.\n\n1. Consider what a happy state thou art in that hast gotten the\nfaith of the Lord Jesus into thy soul; but be sure thou have it,\nI say, how safe, how sure, how happy art thou! For when others\ngo to hell, thou must go to heaven; when others go to the devil,\nthou must go to God; when as others go to prison, thou must be\nset at liberty, at ease, and at freedom; when others must roar for\nsorrow of heart, then thou shalt also sing for the joy of heart.\n\n2. Consider thou must have all thy well-spent life to follow thee\ninstead of all thy sins and the glorious blessings of the gospel\ninstead of the dreadful curses and condemnations of the law; the\nblessing of the father, instead of a fiery sentence from the judge.\n\n3. Let dissolution come when it will, it can do thee no harm;\nfor it will be but only a passage out of a prison into a palace;\nout of a sea of troubles into a haven of rest; out of a crowd of\nenemies, to an innumerable company of true, loving, and faithful\nfriends; out of shame, reproach, and contempt, into exceeding great\nand eternal glory. For death shall not hurt thee with his sting,\nnor bite thee with his soul-murdering teeth; but shall be a welcome\nguest to thee, even to thy soul, in that it is sent to free thee\nfrom thy troubles which thou art in whilst here in this world\ndwelling in the tabernacle of clay.\n\n4. Consider however it goes with friends and relations, yet it will\ngo well with thee (Eccl 8:12). However it goes with the wicked,\nyet 'surely I know'; mark, 'yet surely I know,' saith he, 'that\nit shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.'\nAnd therefore let this,\n\n(1.) In the first place, cause thee cheerfully to exercise thy patience\nunder all the calamities, crosses, troubles, and afflictions that\nmay come upon thee; and, by patient continuance in well-doing, to\ncommit both thyself and thine affairs and actions into the hands\nof God, through Jesus Christ, as to a faithful Creator, who is\ntrue in his word, and loveth to give unto thee whatsoever he hath\npromised to thee.\n\n(2.) And, therefore, to encourage thee while thou art here with\ncomfort to hold on for all thy crosses in this thy journey, be\nmuch in considering the place that thou must go into so soon as\ndissolution comes. It must be into heaven, to God the judge of\nall, to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just\nmen made perfect, to the general assembly and church of the first-born,\nwhose names are written in heaven, and to Jesus, to the redeemer,\nwho is the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of\nsprinkling, that speaks better things for thee than Abel's did\nfor Cain (Heb 11:22-24).\n\n(3.) Consider that when the time of the dead that they shall be\nraised is come, then shall thy body be raised out of the grave\nand be glorified, and be made like to Jesus Christ (Phil 3:21).\nO excellent condition!\n\n(4.) When Jesus Christ shall sit on the throne of his glory you\nalso shall sit with him, even when he shall sit on the throne of\nhis glory. O will not this be glorious, that when thousands, and\nthousands of thousands shall be arraigned before the judgment-seat\nof Christ, then for them to sit with him upon the throne, together\nwith him to pass the sentence upon the ungodly (1 Cor 6:2,3). Will\nit not be glorious to enjoy those things that eye hath not seen,\nnor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to\nconceive?\n\nWill it not be glorious to have this sentence, 'Come, ye blessed\nof my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the\nfoundation of the world?' Will it not be glorious to enter then\nwith the angels and saints into that glorious kingdom? Will it\nnot be glorious for thee to be in glory with them, while others\nare in unutterable torments? O then, how will it comfort thee to\nsee thou hast not lost that glory; to think that the devil hath\nnot got thy soul, that thy soul should be saved, and that not from\na little, but from an exceeding danger;[36] not with a little,\nbut a great salvation. O, therefore, let the saints be joyful in\nglory, let them triumph over all their enemies. Let them begin\nto sing heaven upon earth, triumph before they come to glory,\nsalvation, even when they are in the midst of their enemies, for\n'this honour have all his saints' (Psa 149:9).\n\nVerse 29.--'Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets,\nlet them hear them.'\n\nIn the verses foregoing you see there is a discovery of the lamentable\nstate of the poor soul that dies out of Christ, and the special\nfavour of God. And also how little the glorious God of heaven doth\nregard and take notice of their most miserable condition.\n\nNow in this verse he doth magnify the word which was spoken to\nthe people by the prophets and apostles, 'They have Moses and the\nprophets, let them hear them.' As if he should say, thou askest\nme that I should send Lazarus back again into the world to preach\nto them that live there, that they might escape that doleful\nplace that thou art in. What needs that? Have they not Moses and\nthe prophets? Have they not had my ministers and servants sent\nunto them and coming as from me? I sent Enoch and Noah, Moses and\nSamuel. I sent David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea,\nand the rest of the prophets, together with Peter, Paul, John,\nMatthew, James, Jude, with the rest; 'Let them hear them.' What\nthey have spoken by divine inspiration I will own, whether it be\nfor the damnation of those that reject, or the saving of them that\nreceive their doctrine. And, therefore, what need have they that\none should be sent unto them in another way? 'They have Moses and\nthe prophets, let them hear them.' Let them receive their word,\nclose in with the doctrine declared by them. I shall not at this\ntime speak anything to that word 'Abraham,' having touched upon\nit already; but shall tell you what is to be understood by these\nwords, 'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.'\nThe things that I shall observe from hence are these:--\n\n[First.] That the scriptures spoken by the holy men of God are a\nsufficient rule to instruct to salvation them that do assuredly\nbelieve and close in with what they hold forth. 'They have Moses\nand the prophets, let them hear them.' That is, if they would\nescape that doleful place, and be saved indeed from the intolerable\npains of hell-fire, as they desire, they have that which is sufficient\nto counsel them. 'They have Moses and the prophets'; let them be\ninstructed by them, 'Let them hear them.' For 'all scripture is\ngiven by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for\nreproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness'; why?\n'That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto\nall good works' (2 Tim 3:16,17). Do but mark these words, 'All\nscripture is profitable.' ALL; take it where you will, and in what\nplace you will, 'All is profitable': For what? 'That the man of\nGod,' or he that is bound for heaven, and would instruct others\nin their progress thither.\n\nIt is profitable to instruct him, in case he be ignorant; to reprove\nhim, in case he transgress; to correct him, if he hath need of it;\nto confirm him, if he be wavering. It is profitable for doctrine,\nand all this in a very righteous way--that the poor soul may not\nonly be helped, but thoroughly furnished, not only to some, but\nto all good works. And when Paul would counsel Timothy to stick\nclose to the things that are sound and sure, presently he puts\nhim upon the scripture, saying, 'From a child thou hast known the\nholy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation,\nthrough faith which is in Christ Jesus.' The scripture holds forth\nGod's mind and will, of his love and mercy towards man, and also\nthe creature's carriage towards him from first to last; so if thou\nwouldst know the love of God in Christ to sinners, then 'search\nthe scriptures, for they are they which testify of him.'\n\nWouldst thou know what thou art, and what is in thine heart? Then\nsearch the Scriptures and see what is written in them (Rom 1:29-31,\n3:9-18; Jer 17:9; Gen 6:5, 8:21; Eph 4:18, with many others). The\nScriptures, I say, they are able to give a man perfect instruction\ninto any of the things of God necessary to faith and godliness,\nif he hath but an honest heart seriously to weigh and ponder the\nseveral things contained in them. As to instance in things more\nparticular for the further clearing up of this. And first, if we\ncome to the creation of the world.\n\nWouldst thou know somewhat concerning that? Then read Genesis 1\nand 2, and compare them with Psalm 33:6; also Isaiah 66:2; Proverbs\n8 towards the end.\n\nWouldst thou know whether he made them of something or nothing?\nRead Hebrews 11:3.\n\nWouldst thou know whether he put forth any labour in making them,\nas we do in making things? Read Psalm 33:9.\n\nIf thou wouldst know whether man was made by God corrupt or upright,\nread Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 1:10, 18, 25, 31.\n\nWouldst thou know where God did place man after he had made him?\nRead Genesis 2:15.\n\nWouldst thou know whether that man did live there all his time or\nnot? Then read Genesis 3:23, 24.\n\nIf thou wouldst know whether man be still in that state by nature\nthat God did place him in? Then read Ecclesiastes 7:29, and compare\nit with Romans 5:16; Ephesians 2:1-3. 'God made men upright, but\nthey have sought out many inventions.'\n\nIf thou wouldst know whether the man were first beguiled, or the\nwoman that God made an help-mate for him? Read Genesis 3:6, and\ncompare with 1 Timothy 2:14.\n\nWouldst thou know whether God looked upon Adam's eating [the fruit\nof] the forbidden tree to be sin or no? Read Romans 5:12-15, and\ncompare it with Genesis 3:17.\n\nWouldst thou know whether it were the devil who beguiled them, or\nwhether it was a natural serpent, such as do haunt the desolate\nplaces? Read Genesis 3:13, with Revelation 20:1-3.\n\nWouldst thou know whether that sin be imputed to us? Read Romans\n5:12-15, and compare it with Ephesians 2:2.\n\nWouldst thou know whether man was cursed for his sin? Read Galatians\n3:10; Romans 5:15.\n\nWouldst thou know whether the curse did fall on man, or on the\nwhole creation with him? Compare Genesis 3:17, with Romans 8:20-22.\n\nWouldst thou know whether man be defiled in every part of him by\nthe sin he hath committed? Then read Isaiah 1:6.\n\nWouldst thou know man's inclination so soon as he is born? Read\nPsalm 58:3. 'The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray\nas soon as they be born.'\n\nWouldst thou know whether man once fallen from God by transgression,\ncan recover himself by all he can do? Then read Romans 3:20,23.\n\nWouldst thou know whether it be the desire of the heart of man by\nnature, to follow God in his own way or no? Compare Genesis 6:5,\nand Genesis 8:21, with Hosea 11:7.\n\nWouldst thou know how God's heart stood affected toward man before\nthe world began? Compare Ephesians 1:4, with 2 Timothy 1:9.\n\nWouldst thou know whether sin were sufficient to draw God's love\nfrom his creatures? Compare Jeremiah 3:7, and Micah 7:18, with\nRomans 5:6-8.\n\nWouldst thou know whether God's love did still abide towards his\ncreatures for anything they could do to make him amends? Then read\nDeuteronomy 11:5-8.\n\nWouldst thou know how God could still love his creatures, and do\nhis justice no wrong? Read Romans 3:24-26. 'Being justified freely\nby his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom\nGod hath set forth to be a propitiation' for sin, 'through faith\nin his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of\nsins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare,\nI say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and\nthe justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.'\n\nThat is, God having his justice satisfied in the blood, and\nrighteousness, and death of his own Son Jesus Christ for the sins\nof poor sinners, he can now save them that come to him, though\nnever so great sinners, and do his justice no wrong, because it\nhath had a full and complete satisfaction given it by that blood\n(1 John 1:7,8).\n\nWouldst thou know who he was, and what he was, that did out of\nhis love die for sinners, then compare John 3:16, 17,; Romans 5:8,\nwith Isaiah 9:6.\n\nWouldst thou know whether this Saviour had a body of flesh and\nbones before the world was, or took it from the Virgin Mary? Then\nread Galatians 4:4.\n\nWouldst thou know whether he did in that body bear all our sins,\nand where? Then read 1 Peter 2:24. 'Who bare our sins in his own\nbody on the tree.'\n\nWouldst thou know whether he did rise again after he was crucified,\nwith the very same body? Then read Luke 24:38-41.\n\nWouldst thou know whether he did eat or drink with his disciples\nafter he rose out of the grave? Then read Luke 24:42, and Acts\n10:41.\n\nIf thou wouldst be persuaded of the truth of this, that that very\nbody is now above the clouds and stars, read Acts 1:9-11, and Luke\n24 toward the end.\n\nIf thou wouldst know that the Quakers hold an error that say the\nbody of Christ is within them;[37] consider the same scripture.\n\nWouldst thou know what that Christ that died for sinners is doing\nin that place whither he is gone? Then read Hebrews 7:24.\n\nWouldst thou know who shall have life by him, read 1 Timothy 1:14,\n15, and Romans 5:6-8, which say, 'Christ died' for sinners, 'for\nthe ungodly.'\n\nWouldst thou know whether they that live and die in their sins\nshall go to heaven or not? Then read 1 Corinthians 6:10; Revelation\n21:8, 27, which saith, 'They shall have their part in the lake\nwhich burneth with fire and brimstone.'\n\nWouldst thou know whether man's obedience will obtain that Christ\nshould die for them, or save them? Then read Mark 2:17; Romans\n5:6, 7.\n\nWouldst thou know whether righteousness, justification, and\nsanctification do come through the virtue of Christ's blood?\nCompare Romans 5:9 with Hebrews 12:12.\n\nWouldst thou know whether natural man can abstain from the outward\nact of sin against the law, merely by a principle of nature? Then\ncompare well Romans 2:14, with Philippians 3:6.\n\nWouldst thou know whether a man by nature may know something of\nthe invisible things of God? Compare seriously Romans 1:20, 21\nwith 2:14, 15.\n\nWouldst thou know how far a man may go on in a profession of the\ngospel, and yet fall away? Then read Hebrews 6:4-6. 'They may taste\nthe good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come.' They\nmay taste 'the heavenly gift, and be partakers of the Holy Ghost,'\nand yet so fall as never to be recovered, or renewed again unto\nrepentance. See also Luke 13.\n\nWouldst thou know how hard it is to go to heaven? Read Matthew\n7:13, 14; Luke 13:24.\n\nWouldst thou know whether a man by nature be a friend to God, or\nan enemy? Then read Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21.\n\nWouldst thou know what, or who they are that shall go to heaven?\nThen read John 3:3-7, and 2 Corinthians 5:17. Also, wouldst thou\nknow what a sad thing it is for any to turn their backs upon the\ngospel of Jesus Christ? then read Hebrews 10:28, 29, and Mark\n16:16.\n\nWouldst thou know what is the wages of sin? Then read Romans 6:23.\n['The wages of sin is death.']\n\nWouldst thou know whither those do go that die unconverted to the\nfaith of Christ? Then read Psalm 9:17, and Isaiah 14:9.\n\nReader, here might I spend many sheets of paper, yea, I might upon\nthis subject write a very great book, but I shall now forbear,\ndesiring thee to be very conversant in the Scriptures, 'for they\nare they which testify of Jesus Christ' (John 5:39). The Bereans\nwere counted noble upon this account: 'These were more noble than\nthose in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all\nreadiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily,' &c. (Acts\n17:11). But here let me give thee one caution, that is, have a\ncare that thou do not satisfy thyself with a bare search of them,\nwithout a real application of him whom they testify of to thy\nsoul, lest instead of faring the better for thy doing this work,\nthou dost fare a great deal the worse, and thy condemnation be\nvery much heightened, in that though thou didst read so often the\nsad state of those that die in sin, and the glorious estate of\nthem that close in with Christ, yet thou thyself shouldest be such\na fool as to lose Jesus Christ, notwithstanding thy hearing, and\nreading so plentifully of him.\n\n'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.'\n\nAs if he should say, what need have they that one should be sent\nto them from the dead? Have they not Moses and the prophets? Hath\nnot Moses told them the danger of living in sin? (Deut 27:15-26,\n28:15-68, 29:18-22). Hath he not there told them, what a sad\nstate those persons are in that deceive themselves with the deceit\nof their hearts, saying they shall have peace though they follow\ntheir sins, in these words: 'And when he heareth the words of\nthis curse, he blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have\npeace though I' go on, or 'walk in the imagination of mine heart,\nto add drunkenness to thirst. The Lord will not spare him, but\nthen the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against\nthat man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall\nlie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under\nheaven.'\n\nAgain, Did not Moses write of the Saviour that was to come afterwards\ninto the world? (Deut 18:18). Nay, have not all the prophets from\nSamuel, with all those that follow after, prophesied, and foretold\nthese things? Therefore what need have they that I should work\nsuch a miracle, as to send one from the dead unto them? 'They have\nMoses and the prophets, let them hear them.'\n\n[Second.] From whence observe again, that God doth honour the\nwritings of Moses and the prophets, as much, nay more, than if one\nshould rise from the dead: 'Should not a people seek unto their\nGod?' What, seek 'for the living among the dead? To the law, and\nto the testimony,' saith God, 'if they speak not according to this\nword, it is because there is no light in them' (Isa 8:19,20). And\nlet me tell you plainly, I do believe that the devil knows this\nfull well, which makes him labour to beget in the hearts of his\ndisciples and followers light thoughts of them; and doth persuade\nthem, that even a motion from their own beguiled conscience, or\nfrom his own wicked spirit, is to be observed and obeyed before\nthem. When the very apostle of Jesus Christ, though he heard a\nvoice from the excellent glory, saying, 'This is my beloved Son,'\n&c., yet writing to the churches, he commends, the writing of\nthe prophets before it, saying, 'We have also a more sure word\nof the prophets, to which ye do well to take heed,' &c. (2 Peter\n1:17-19).[38] Now if thou doubtest whether that place be meant the\nscriptures, the words of the prophets or no, read but the next\nverse, where he addeth for a certain confirmation thereof, these\nwords, 'Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is\nof any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old\ntime by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were\nmoved by the Holy Ghost.'\n\nAnd therefore what a sad thing is it for those that go about to\ndisown the Scriptures! I tell you, however they may slight them\nnow, yet when they come into hell, they will see their folly:\n'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.'\n\nFurther, who are they that are so tossed to and fro, with the\nseveral winds of doctrine that have been broached in these days,\nbut such for the most part, as have had a light esteem of the\nscriptures; for the ground of error, as Christ saith, is because\nthey know not them (Mark 12:24). And indeed, it is just with God\nto give them over to follow their own dark blinded consciences,\nto be led into errors, that they might be damned into hell, who\ndid not believe that the things contained in the Scripture were\nthe truth, that they might be saved and go to heaven. I cannot\nwell tell how to have done speaking for, and on the Scriptures'\nside; only this I consider, a word is enough to the wise; and\ntherefore I shall commit these things into the hands of them that\nare of God; and as for the rest, I shall say to them, rather than\nGod will save them from hell with the breach of his holy Word, if\nthey had a thousand souls apiece, God would destroy them all; for\n'the Scripture cannot be broken' (John 10:35).\n\nVerse 30.--'And he said, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto\nthem from the dead, they will repent.'\n\nThe verse before, you know, as I told you, it was part of an\nanswer to such as lose their souls; so it is a vindication of the\nScriptures of Moses and the prophets, 'They have Moses and the\nprophets, let them hear them.'\n\nNow this verse is an answer to what was said in the former; and\nsuch an one as hath in it a rejection of the former answer. 'Nay,\nfather Abraham.' Nay, saith he, do not say so, do not put them\noff with this; send one from the dead, and then there will be some\nhopes. It is true thou speakest of the Scripture, of Moses and\nthe prophets, and sayest, 'let them hear them'; but these things\nare not so well as I could wish, I had rather thou wouldst send\none from the dead. In these words therefore, Nay, father Abraham,\nthere is a repulse given; nay, let it not be so; nay, I do not\nlike of that answer. Hear Moses and the prophets, nay. The same\nexpression is used by Christ, Luke 13:2, 3. Think you that they\nupon whom the tower of Siloam fell, were sinners above others? 'I\ntell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'\nSo here, Nay, father Abraham, &c.\n\nBy this word Nay, therefore, is signified a rejecting the first\nanswer.\n\nNow observe, I pray you, the reason why he says Nay, is, because\nGod doth put over all those that will be saved, to observe and\nreceive the truth contained in Scripture, and believe that. To\nhave a high esteem of them, and to love and search them, as Christ\nsaith, 'Search the Scriptures,' for 'they are they which testify\nof me' (John 5:39). But the damned say, Nay; as if he had said,\nThis is the thing. To be short, my brethren are unbelievers, and\ndo not regard the Word of God. I know it by myself, for when I was\nin the world, it was so with me; many a good sermon did I hear,\nmany a time was I admonished, desired, entreated, beseeched,\nthreatened, forewarned of what I now suffer; but alas! I was\nignorant, self-conceited, surly, obstinate, and rebellious. Many\na time the preacher told hell would be my portion, the devil would\nwreck his malice on me; God would pour on me his sore displeasure;\nbut he had as good have preached to the stock, to the post,\nto the stones I trod on; his words rang in mine ears, but I kept\nthem from mine heart. I remember he alleged many a Scripture, but\nthose I valued not; the Scriptures, thought I, what are they? A\ndead letter, a little ink and paper, of three or four shillings'\nprice.[39] Alas! What is the Scripture? Give me a ballad, a\nnews-book, George on horseback, or Bevis of Southampton; give me\nsome book that teaches curious arts, that tells of old fables;[40]\nbut for the holy Scriptures I cared not. And as it was with me\nthen, so it is with my brethren now, we were all of one spirit,\nloved all the same sins, slighted all the same counsels, promises,\nencouragements and threatenings of the Scriptures; and they are\nstill, as I left them, still in unbelief, still provoking God,\nand rejecting good counsel, so hardened in their ways, so bent to\nfollow sin, that let the Scriptures be showed to them daily, let\nthe messengers of Christ preach till their hearts ache, till they\nfall down dead with preaching, they will rather trample it under\nfoot, and swine-like rend them, than close in with those gentle\nand blessed proffers of the gospel.\n\n'Nay, father Abraham, but if one should rise from the dead, they\nwould repent.' Though they have Moses and the prophets, the\nScriptures, they will not repent and close in with Jesus Christ,\nthough the Scriptures do witness against them. If therefore there\nbe any good done to them, they must have it another way. I think,\nsaith he, it would work much on them 'if one should rise from the\ndead.' And this truth indeed is so evident, that ungodly ones have\na light esteem of the Scriptures, that it needs not many strong\narguments to prove it, being so evidently manifested by their every\nday's practice, both in words and actions, almost in all things\nthey say and do. Yet for the satisfaction of the reader, I shall\nshow you by a scripture or two, though I might show many, that\nthis was and is true, with the generality of the world. See the\nwords of Nehemiah in his 9th chapter concerning the children of\nIsrael, who though the Lord offered them mercy upon mercy, as it\nis from verse 19-25, yet verse 26, saith he, 'Nevertheless they\nwere disobedient' for all thy goodness towards them, 'and rebelled\nagainst thee.' But how? 'And cast thy law behind their backs; slew\nthy prophets which testified against them, to turn them to thee,\nand they wrought great provocations.'\n\nObserve, 1. They sinned against mercy. And then, 2. They slighted\nthe law, or Word of God. 3. They slew the prophets that declared\nit unto them. 4. The Lord counts it a great provocation. See Hebrews\n3:10-19; Zechariah 7:11, 12. 'But they refused to hearken,' saith\nhe, there of the wicked, 'and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped\ntheir ears, that they should not hear' the law. 'Yea, they made\ntheir hearts' hard as 'an adamant stone, lest they should hear the\nlaw, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent' unto them\n'in his Spirit by the former prophets,' &c.\n\nMark, I pray you, here is also, (1.) A refusing to hearken to the\nwords of the prophets. (2.) That they might so do, they stopped\ntheir ears. (3.) If anything was to be done, they pulled away\ntheir shoulder. (4.) To effect his, they labour to make their\nhearts hard as an adamant stone. (5.) And all this, lest they should\nhear and close in with Jesus, and live, and be delivered from the\nwrath to come. All which things do hold out an unwillingness to\nsubmit to, and embrace the words of God, and so Jesus Christ which\nis testified of by them. Many other scriptures I might bring in\nfor confirmation of the thing, as that in Amos 7:12, 13; also 1\nSamuel 2:24, 25; 2 Chronicles 25:15, 16; Jeremiah 7:23-28, 16:12.\nRead also seriously that saying in 2 Chronicles 36:15, where\nhe saith, 'And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his\nmessengers, rising up betimes, because he had compassion on his\npeople, and on his dwelling-place.' And did they make them welcome?\nNo, but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words.\nAnd was that all? No, they 'misused his prophets.' How long?\n'Until the wrath of the Lord arose against them. Till there was\nno remedy.' See also Jeremiah 29:19, 25:3-7; Luke 11:49.\n\nAnd besides, the conversion of almost all men doth bear witness to\nthe same, both religious and profane persons, in that they daily\nneglect, reject, and turn their backs upon the plain testimony of\nthe Scriptures. As,\n\nFirst. Take the THREATENINGS laid down in holy writ, and how are\nthey disregarded? There are but a few places in the Bible but there\nare threatenings against one sinner or other; against drunkards,\nswearers, liars, proud persons, strumpets, whoremongers, covetous,\nrailers, extortioners, thieves, lazy persons. In a word, all manner\nof sins are reproved, and without faith in the Lord Jesus, there\nis a sore punishment to be executed on the committers of them;\nand all this made mention of in the Scriptures.\n\nBut for all this, how thick, and by heaps, do these wretches walk\nup and down our streets?[41] Do but go into the alehouses, and\nyou shall see almost every room besprinkled with them, so foaming\nout their own shame, that it is enough to make the heart of a\nsaint to tremble, insomuch that they would not be bound to have\nsociety with them any long while for all the world. For as the\nways of the godly are not liked of by the wicked, even so the\nways of the wicked 'are an abomination to the just' (Prov 29:27;\nPsa 120:5,6).\n\n1. The Scripture says, 'Cursed is the man that trusteth in man,\nand maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD'\n(Jer 17:5).\n\nAnd yet how many poor souls are there in the world, that stand\nin so much awe and dread of men, and do so highly esteem their\nfavour, that they will rather venture their souls in the hands of\nthe devil with their favour, than they will fly to Jesus Christ\nfor the salvation of their souls? Nay, though they be convinced\nin their souls, that the way is the way of God; yet how do they\nlabour to stifle conviction, and turn their ears away from the\ntruth, and all because they will not lose the favour of an opposite\nneighbour? O! I dare not for my master, my brother, my landlord, I\nshall lose his favour, his house of work, and so decay my calling.\nO, saith another, I would willingly go in this way, but for my\nfather, he chides and tells me he will not stand my friend when I\ncome to want; I shall never enjoy a pennyworth of his goods; he\nwill disinherit me. And I dare not, saith another, for my husband,\nfor he will be a railing, and tells me he will turn me out of\ndoors, he will beat me, and cut off my legs. But I tell you, if\nany of these, or any other things be so prevalent with thee now,\nas to keep thee from seeking after Christ in his ways, they will\nalso be so prevalent with God against thee, as to make him cast\noff thy soul, because thou didst rather trust man than God; and\ndelight in the embracing of man rather than in the favour of the\nLord.[42]\n\n2. Again, the Scripture saith, 'He that being often reproved,\nhardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without\nremedy' (Prov 29:1). Yet many are so far from turning, though they\nhave been convinced of their wretched state a hundred times, that\nwhen convictions or trouble for sin comes on their consciences,\nthey go on still in the same manner resisting and choking the\nsame, though remediless destruction be hard at their heels.\n\n3. Again thou hast heard say, 'Except a man be born again,' 'he\ncannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3:3-7). And yet thou\ngoest on in a natural state, an unregenerate condition; nay, thou\ndost resolve never to turn nor be changed, though hell be appointed\non purpose to swallow up such (Isa 14:9). 'The wicked shall be\nturned into hell, and all the nations that forget God' (Psa 9:17).\n\n4. Again, the Scripture saith plainly that he that loveth and\nmaketh a lie shall have his part 'in the lake which burneth with\nfire and brimstone' (Rev 21:8,27). And yet thou art so far from\ndreading it, that it is thy delight to jest and jeer, and lie for\na penny, or twopence, or sixpence, again. And also if thou canst\nmake the rest of thy companions merry, by telling things that are\nfalse, of them that are better than thyself, thou dost not care\na straw. Or if thou hearest a lie from, or of another, thou wilt\ntell it, and swear to the truth of it, O miserable!\n\n5. Thou hast heard and read, that 'He that believeth not shall be\ndamned' (Mark 16:16). And that 'all men have not faith' (2 Thess\n3:2). And yet thou dost so much disregard these things, that it is\nlike thou didst scarce ever so much as examine seriously whether\nthou wast in the faith or no; but dost content thyself with the\nhypocrite's hope, which at the last God will cut off, and count\nit not better than the spider's web (Job 8:13,14), or the house\nthat is builded on the sands (Luke 6:49). Nay, thou peradventure\ndost flatter thyself, and thinkest that thy faith is as good\nas the best of them all; when, alas, poor soul, thou mayest have\nno saving faith at all; which thou hast not, if thou be not born\nagain, and made a new creature (2 Cor 2:17).\n\n6. Thou hast heard, that he that neglects God's great salvation\nshall never escape his great damnation (Heb 2:3, compared with\nLuke 14:24, and Rev 14:19,20). And yet when thou art invited,\nintreated, and beseeched to come in, thou wilt make any excuse\nto serve the turn (Luke 14:17,18; Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 5:19,20). Nay,\nthou wilt be so wicked as to put off Christ time after time,\nnotwithstanding he is so freely proffered to thee; a little ground,\na few oxen, a farm, a wife, a twopenny matter, a play; nay, the\nfear of a mock, a scoff or a jeer, is of greater weight to draw\nthee back, than the salvation of thy soul to draw thee forward.\n\n7. And thou hast heard, that whosoever will be a friend of the\nworld is the enemy of God (James 4:4). But thou regardest not\nthese things, but contrariwise; rather than thou wilt be out of\nthe friendship and favour of this world, thou wilt sin against\nthine own conscience, and get thyself into favour by fawning and\nflattering of the world. Yea, rather than thou wilt go without it,\nthou wilt dissemble, lie, backbite thy neighbour, and an hundred\nother tricks thou wilt have.\n\n8. You have heard that the day of judgment is near, in which you\nand I, all of us, must appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ,\nand there be made to give an account to him that is ready to judge\nthe quick and the dead; even of all that ever we did, yea, of all\nour sins in thought, word, and deed, and shall certainly be damned\nfor them too, if we close not in with our Lord Jesus Christ,\nand what he hath done and suffered for eternal life; and that\nnot notionally or traditionally, but really and savingly, in the\npower, and by the operation of the Spirit, through faith (Eccl\n11:9, 12:14; Acts 10:42, 17:30,31; 2 Cor 5:10; Heb 9:27; Rev\n20:12). 'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God;\nand the books were opened: and another book was opened, which\nis the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things\nwhich were written in the books.' There is the book of the creatures,\nthe book of conscience, the book of the Lord's remembrance, the\nbook of the law, the book of the gospel (Rom 1:20, compare with\nRom 2:12,15; Rev 6:17; John 12:48).[43] Then 'he shall separate\nthem one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep on the\nright hand, but the goats on his left' (Matt 25:30-32). 'And shall\nsay to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed' (v 34). But to\nthe other, go, or 'Depart, ye cursed' (v 41). Yet, notwithstanding\nthe Scriptures do so plainly and plentifully speak of these things,\nalas! who is there that is weaned from the world, and from their\nsins and pleasures, to fly from the wrath to come? (Matt 3:7).\nNotwithstanding the Scripture saith also that heaven and earth\nshall pass away, rather than one jot, or one tittle of the word\nshall fail, 'till all be fulfilled,' they are so certain (Luke\n21:33; Matt 5:18).\n\n[Second PROMISES.] But leaving the threatenings, let us come to\nTHE PROMISES, and speak somewhat of them, and you may see how light\nmen make of them, and how little they set by them, notwithstanding\nthe mouth of the Lord hath spoken them. As\n\n1. 'Turn,' ye fools, ye scorners, ye simple ones, 'at my reproof';\nand 'behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you' (Prov 1:23). And\nyet persons had rather be in their foolishness and scorning still,\nand had rather embrace some filthy lust, than the holy, undefiled,\nand blessed Spirit of Christ, through the promise, though by it,\nas many as receive it, 'are sealed unto the day of redemption'\n(Eph 4:30), and although he that lives and dies without it, is\nnone of Christ's (Rom 8:9).\n\n2. God hath said, if thou do but come to him in Christ, 'Though your\nsins be as' red as 'scarlet, they shall be as white as snow'; and\nhe will by no means cast thee away. Compare Isaiah 1:18 with John\n6:37. Yet poor souls will not come to Christ that they might have\nlife (John 5:40), but rather after their hardness and impenitent\nheart treasurest up unto themselves wrath against the day of\nwrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom 2:5).\n\n3. Christ Jesus hath said in the Word of truth that if any man will\nserve and follow him, where he is, 'there shall also his servant\nbe' (John 12:26). But yet poor souls choose rather to follow sin,\nSatan, and the world, though their companions be the devils and\ndamned souls for ever (Matt 25:41).\n\n4. He hath also said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all'\nother 'things shall be added.' But let whoso will seek after the\nkingdom of heaven first for them; for they will take the first\ntime, while time serves to get the things of this life. And if it\nbe so, that they must needs seek after heaven, or else be damned,\nthey will stay till they have more leisure, or till they can better\nattend to it; or till they have other things handsome about them,\nor till they are older; when they have little else to do, or when\nthey come to be sick, and to die. Then, Lord, have mercy upon\nthem! though it be ten thousand to one but they perish for ever.\n\nFor commonly the Lord hath this way to deal with such sinners,\nwho put him off when he is striving with them, either to laugh at\ntheir calamity, and mock when their fear cometh (Prov 1:26,28). Or\nelse send them to the gods they have served, which are the devils\n(Judg 10:13,14). Go to the gods you have served, and 'let them\ndeliver you,' saith he; compare this with John 8:44.\n\n5. He hath said, 'There is no man that forsaketh father, or mother,\nwife, or children, or lands, for his sake and the gospel's, but\nshall have a hundred fold in this world, with persecution, and in\nthe world to come life everlasting' (Mark 10:29,30).\n\nBut men, for the most part, are so far off from believing the\ncertainty of this, that they will scarce lose the earning of a\npenny to hear the Word of God, the gospel of salvation. Nay, they\nwill neither go themselves, nor suffer others to go, if they can\nhelp it, without threatening to do them a mischief, if it lie in\ntheir way. Nay, further, many are so far from parting from any\nworldly gain for Christ's sake, and the gospel's, that they are\nstill striving, by hook and by crook, as we say, by swearing,\nlying, cozening, stealing, covetousness, extortion, oppression,\nforgery, bribery, flattery, or any other way to get more, thou\nthey get together with these, death, wrath, damnation, hell, the\ndevil, and all the plagues that God can pour upon them. And if\nany do not run with them to the same excess of riot, but rather\nfor all their threats will be so bold and careless, as they call\nit, as to follow the ways of God; if they can do no more, yet they\nwill whet their tongues like a sword to wound them, and do them\nthe greatest mischief they can, both in speaking against them to\nneighbours, to wives, to husbands, to landlords, and raising false\nreports of them. But let such take heed lest they be in such a\nstate, and woeful condition as he was in, who said, in vexation\nand anguish of soul, One drop of cold water to cool my tongue.\n\nThus might I add many things out of the holy Writ, both threatenings\nand promises, besides those heavenly counsels, loving reproofs,\nfree invitations to all sorts of sinners, both old and young, rich\nand poor, bond and free, wise and unwise. All which have been,\nnow are, and is to be feared, as long as this world lasts, will\nbe trampled under the feet of those swine, I call them not men,\nwho will continue in the same. But take a review of some of them:--\n\n1. Counsel.\n\nWhat heavenly counsel is that where Christ saith, 'buy of me gold\ntried by the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment\nthat thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness\ndo not appear' (Rev 3:18). Also that, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth,\ncome ye to the waters; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money\nand without price' (Isa 55:1). 'Hear, and your soul shall live' (v\n3). 'Take hold of my strength, that you may make peace with me,\nand you shall make peace with me' (Isa 27:5).\n\n2. Instruction.\n\nWhat instruction is here?\n\n'Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the\nman that heareth me,' saith Christ, 'watching daily at my gates,\nwaiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth\nlife, and shall obtain favour of the Lord' (Prov 8:33-35). Take\nheed that no man deceive you by any means. 'Labour not for the meat\nwhich perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting\nlife' (John 6:27). 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate' (Luke\n13:24). 'Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts\n16:31). 'Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits.' 'Quench\nnot the Spirit.' 'Lay hold on eternal life.' 'Let your light so\nshine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify\nyour Father which is in heaven' (Matt 5:16). Take heed, and beware\nof hypocrisy; 'watch and be sober,' 'learn of me,' saith Christ,\n'come unto me.'\n\n3. Forewarning.\n\nWhat forewarning is here?\n\n'Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his\nstroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee' (Job 36:18). 'Be\nye not mockers, lest your hands be made strong, for I have heard\nfrom the Lord God of hosts, a consumption even determined upon\nthe whole earth' (Isa 28:22). 'Beware, therefore, lest that come\nupon you that is written, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and\nperish. For I work a work in your days, which ye shall in no wise\nbelieve, though a man declare it unto you' (Acts 13:40,41). 'Let\nhim that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall' (1 Cor 10:12).\n'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation' (Matt 26:41).\n'Let us therefore fear lest a promise being' made, and 'left us\nof entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short\nof it' (Heb 4:1). 'I will therefore put you in remembrance, though\nyou once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out\nof Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not' (Jude 5).\n'Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown' (Rev\n3:11).\n\n4. Comfort.\n\nWhat comfort is here?\n\n'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out' (John 6:37).\n'Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I\nwill give you rest' (Matt 11:28). 'Be of good cheer, thy sins be\nforgiven thee' (Matt 9:2). 'I will never leave, nor forsake thee,'\nfor 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love' (Jer 31:3). 'I\nlay down my life for the sheep.' I lay down my life that they may\nhave life. 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might\nhave it more abundantly.' 'I have heard thee in a time accepted,\nand in the day of salvation have I succoured thee' (2 Cor 6:2).\n'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,\nthough they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' 'For I\nhave blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud\nthy sins; return unto me, for I have redeemed thee' (Isa 44:22).\n\n5. Grief to those that fall short.\n\nO sad grief!\n\n'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and\nhave not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear\nto them that instructed me' (Prov 5:11-13). They shall 'curse their\nking and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the\nearth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and\nthey shall be driven to darkness' (Isa 8:21,22). 'He hath dispersed'\nabroad, 'he hath given to the poor, his righteousness endureth\nfor ever.--The wicked shall see it, and be grieved, he shall gnash\nhis teeth, and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish'\n(Psa 112:9,10). 'There shall be weeping,--when ye shall see Abraham,\nand Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,\nand you yourselves thrust out' (Luke 13:28). All which things are\nslighted by the world.\n\nThus much, in short, touching this, That ungodly men undervalue\nthe Scriptures, and give no credit to them, when the truth that\nis contained in them is held forth in simplicity unto them, but\nrather cry out, Nay, but if one should rise from the dead then\nthey think something might be done; when alas, though signs and\nwonders were wrought by the hands of those that preach the gospel,\nthese poor creatures would never the sooner convert, though they\nsuppose they should, as is evident by the carriages of their\nforerunners, who albeit the Lord Jesus Christ himself did confirm\nhis doctrine by miracles, as opening blind eyes, casting out\nof devils, and raising the dead, they were so far from receiving\neither him or his doctrine, that they put him to death for his\npains! Though he had done so many miracles among them, yet they\nbelieved not in him (John 12:37).\n\nBut to pass this, I shall lay down some of the grounds of their\nrejecting and undervaluing the Scriptures, and so pass on.\n\n1. [Ground.] Because they do not believe that they are the Word of\nGod, but rather suppose them to be the inventions of men, written\nby some politicians, on purpose to make poor ignorant people to\nsubmit to some religion and government.[44] Though they do not\nsay this, yet their practices testify the same; as he that when he\nhears the words of the curse, yet blesseth himself in his heart,\nand saith he shall have peace, though God saith he shall have none\n(Deut 29:18-20). And this must needs be, for did but men believe\nthis, that it is the Word of God, then they must believe that he\nthat speak it is true, therefore shall every word and tittle be\nfulfilled. And if they come once to this, unless they be stark\nmad, they will have a care how they do throw themselves under the\nlash of eternal vengeance. For the reason why the Thessalonians\nreceived the Word, was, because they believed it was the Word of\nGod, and not the word of man, which did effectually work in them\nby their thus believing. 'When ye received the Word of God which\nye heard of us,' saith he, 'ye received it not as the word of man,\nbut, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh\nalso in you that believe' (1 Thess 2:13). So that did a man but\nreceive it in hearing, or reading, or meditating, as it is the\nWord of God, they would be converted. 'But the Word preached did\nnot profit,--not being mixed with faith in them that heard it'\n(Heb 4:2).\n\n2. [Ground.] Because they do not indeed see themselves by nature\nheirs of that exceeding wrath and vengeance that the Scriptures\ntestify of. For did they but consider what God intends to do with\nthose that live and die in a natural state, it would either sink\nthem into despair, or make them fly for refuge to the hope that\nis set before them. But if there be never such sins committed,\nand never so great wrath denounced, and the time of execution be\nnever so near, yet if the party that is guilty be senseless, and\naltogether ignorant thereof, he will be careless, and regards it\nnothing at all. And that man, by nature, is in this condition, it\nis evident. For, take the same man that is senseless, and ignorant\nof that misery he is in by nature, I say, take him at another time\nwhen he is a little awakened, and then you shall hear him roar,\nand cry out so long as trouble is upon him, and a sense of the\nwrath of God hanging over his head, Good sirs, what must I do to\nbe saved?\n\nThough the same man at another time, when his conscience is fallen\nasleep, and grown hard, will lie like the smith's dog at the foot\nof the anvil, though the fire-sparks fly in his face. But, as I\nsaid before, when any one is a little awakened, O what work will\none verse, one line, nay, one word of the holy Scriptures make in\nhis heart.[45] He cannot eat, sleep, work, keep company with his\nformer companions, and all because he is afraid that the damnation\nspoken of in Scripture will fall to his share, like Balaam, who\nsaid, 'I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord' (Num 22:18). So\nlong as he had something of the word of the Lord with authority,\nseverity, and power on his heart; but at another time he could\nteach 'Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of\nIsrael' (Rev 2:14).\n\n3. [Ground.] Because the carnal priests do tickle the ears of their\nhearers with vain philosophy and deceit, and thereby harden their\nhearts against the simplicity of the gospel and Word of God, which\nthings the apostle admonished those that have a mind to close in\nwith Christ to avoid, saying, 'Beware lest any man,' be he what\nhe will, 'spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after\nthe traditions of men, and rudiments of the world, and not after\nChrist' (Col 2:8). And you who muzzle up your people in ignorance\nwith Aristotle, Plato, and the rest of the heathenish philosophers,\nand preach little, if anything, of Christ rightly; I say unto you,\nthat you will find you have sinned against God, and beguiled your\nhearers, when God shall, in the judgment-day, lay the cause of the\ndamnation of many thousands of souls to your charge, and say, He\nwill require their blood at your hands (Eze 33:6).\n\n4. [Ground.] Another reason why the carnal unbelieving world do\nso slight the Scriptures and Word of God, is, because the judgment\nspoken of in the Scripture is not presently executed on the\ntransgressors. 'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed\nspeedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in\nthem to do evil' (Eccl 8:11). Because God doth not presently strike\nthe poor wretch as soon as he sins, but waits, and forbears, and\nis patient, therefore the world judging God to be unfaithful,\ngo to it again and again, and every time grow harder and harder,\ntill at last God is forced either to stretch out his mighty power\nto turn them, or else send death, with the devil and hell, to\nfetch them. 'Thou thoughtest,' saith God, 'that I was altogether\nsuch an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in\norder before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God,\nlest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver' (Psa\n50:21,22).\n\n5. [Ground.] Another reason why the blind world do slight the\nauthority of Scripture, is, because they give ear to the devil,\nwho, through his subtilty, casteth false evasions and corrupt\ninterpretations on them, rendering them not so point blank the\nmind of God, and a rule for direction to poor souls, persuading\nthem that they must give ear and way to something else besides, and\nbeyond that; or else he labours to render it vile and contemptible,\nby persuading them that it is a dead letter, when indeed they know\nnot what they say, nor whereof they affirm. For the Scripture is\nnot so dead but that the knowledge of it is able to make any man\nwise unto salvation, through faith and love, which is in Christ\nJesus (2 Tim 3:15); and is profitable for instruction, reproof, and\ncorrection in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly\nfurnished to all good works (v 17).\n\nAnd where it is said the letter killeth, he meaneth the law, as it\nis the ministration of damnation, or a covenant of works, and so\nindeed it doth kill, and must do so, because it is just, forasmuch\nas the party that is under the same is not able to yield to it a\ncomplete and continual obedience. But yet I will call Peter and Paul\nto witness that the Scriptures are of a very glorious concernment,\ninasmuch as in them is held forth to us the way of life; and\nalso in that they do administer good ground of hope to us. 'For\nwhatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our\nlearning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures\nmight have hope' (Rom 15:4). And again, 'Now to him that is of\npower to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching\nof Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which\nwas kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest,\nand by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment\nof the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience\nof faith' (Rom 16:25,26). And therefore whosoever they be that\nslight the Scriptures, they slight that which is no less than the\nWord of God; and they who slight that, slight him that spake it;\nand they that do so, let them look to themselves, for God will\nbe revenged on such. Much more might be said to this thing, but\nI would not be tedious.\n\nA word or two more, so I have done with this. Consider the danger\nof slighting the words of the prophets or apostles, whether they\nbe correction, reproof, admonition, forewarning, or the blessed\ninvitations and promises contained in them.\n\n1. [Consider] Such souls do provoke God to anger, and to execute\nhis vengeance on them. 'They refused to hearken, and pulled away\nthe shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear'\nthe law, and 'they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest\nthey should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts\nhath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets; therefore came a\ngreat wrath from the Lord of Hosts' (Zech 7:11,12).\n\n2. [Consider] God will not regard in their calamity. 'Because I\nhave called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no\nman regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would\nnone of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will\nmock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation,\nand your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. Then shall they call\nupon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they\nshall not find me' (Prov 1:24-28).\n\n3. [Consider] God doth commonly give up such men to delusions,\nto believe lies. 'Because they received not the love of the truth\nthat they might be saved,' therefore 'God shall send them strong\ndelusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be\ndamned' (2 Thess 2:10-12).\n\n4. [Consider] In a word, they that do continue to reject and\nslight the Word of God, they are such, for the most part, as are\nordained to be damned. Old Eli, his sons not hearkening to the\nvoice of their father reproving them for their sins, but disobeying\nhis voice, it is said, It was 'because the Lord would slay them'\n(1 Sam 2:25). Again see in 2 Chronicles 25:15, 16. Amaziah having\nsinned against the Lord, he sends to him a prophet to reprove\nhim; but Amaziah says, 'Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten?'\nHe did not hearken to the word of God, 'Then the prophet forbare,\nsaying, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because\nthou hast--not hearkened unto my counsel.' Read, therefore, and\nthe Lord give thee understanding. For a miserable end will those\nhave that go on sinning against God, rejecting his Word.\n\nOther things might have been observed from this verse, which at\nthis time I shall pass by; partly because the sum of them hath\nbeen touched already, and may be more clearly hinted at in the\nfollowing verse; and therefore I shall speak a few words to the\nnext verse, and so draw towards a conclusion.\n\nVerse 31.--'And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the\nprophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from\nthe dead.'\n\n'And he said'; that is, and God made answer to the words spoken in\nthe verse before, 'And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses,'\n&c. As if he had said, Moses was a man of great renown, a man of\nworthy note, a man that talked with God face to face, as a man\nspeaketh to his friend. The words that Moses spake were such as\nI commanded him to speak. Let who will question them, I will own\nthem, credit them, bless them that close in with them, and curse\nthose that reject them.\n\nI myself sent the prophets, they did not run of their own heads,\nI gave them commission, I thrust them out, and told them what they\nshould say. In a word, they have told the world what my mind is\nto do, both to sinners and to saints; 'They have Moses and the\nprophets, let them hear them.' Therefore he that shall reject and\nturn his back either upon the threatenings, counsels, admonitions,\ninvitations, promises, or whatsoever else I have commanded them to\nspeak as to salvation and life, and to directions therein, shall\nbe sure to have a share in the many curses that they have spoken,\nand the destruction[46] that is pronounced by them. Again, 'If\nthey hear not Moses and the prophets,' &c. As if he had said,\nThou wouldst have me send one from the dead unto them; what needs\nthat? They have my mind already, I have declared unto them what I\nintend to stand to, both for saving them that believe, and damning\nthem that do not. That therefore which I have said I will make\ngood, whether they hear or forbear. And as for this desire of\nyours, you had as good desire me to make a new Bible, and so to\nrevoke my first sayings by the mouth of my prophets. But I am God\nand not man, and my Word is immutable, unchangeable, and shall\nstand as fast as my decrees can make it; heaven and earth shall\npass away, but one jot or tittle of my Word shall not pass (Matt\n5:18). If thou hadst ten thousand brethren, and every one in\ndanger of losing his soul, if they did not close in with what is\ncontained and recorded in the Scriptures of truth, they must even\nevery one of them perish, and be for ever damned in hell, for the\nScriptures cannot be broken. I did not send them so unadvisedly\nto recall it again by another consideration. No, for I speak in\nrighteousness and in judgment (Isa 63:1-3), and in much wisdom and\ncounsel. It being therefore gone out of my mouth in this manner,\nit shall not return in vain, until it hath accomplished the thing\nwhereto I have sent it (Isa 55:11).\n\nBut again, thou supposest that miracles and wonders will work more\non them, which makes thee say, Send one from the dead. But herein\nthou art mistaken, for I have proved them with that once and\nagain, by more than one, or two, or three of my servants. How many\nmiracles did my servant Moses work by commandment from me in the\nland of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness! Yet they of\nthat generation were never the sooner converted for that; but,\nnotwithstanding, rebelled and lusted, and in their hearts turned\nback into Egypt (Acts 7). How many miracles did Samuel, David,\nElias, Elisha, Daniel, and the prophets, together with my Son,\nwho raised the dead, cast out devils, made them to see that were\nborn blind, gave and restored limbs! Yet for all this, as I said\nbefore, they hated him, they crucified him. I raised him again\nfrom the dead, and he appeared to his disciples, who were called,\nand chosen, and faithful, and he gave them commandment and commission\nto go and testify the truth of this to the world; and to confirm\nthe same he enabled them to speak with divers tongues, and to work\nmiracles most plentifully, yet there was great persecution raised\nagainst them, insomuch that but a few of them died in their beds.\nAnd, therefore, though thou thinkest that a miracle will do so\nmuch with the world, yet I say no. For if they will not believe\nMoses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one\nshould rise from the dead.\n\nFrom these words, therefore, take notice of this truth, namely,\nthat those who reject and believe not Moses and the prophets are\na very hard-hearted people, that will not be persuaded though one\nrise from the dead. They that regard not the holy Scriptures to\nturn to God, finding them to testify of his goodness and mercy,\nthere is but little hopes of their salvation; for they will not,\nmark, they will not be persuaded though one should rise from the\ndead. This truth is confirmed by Jesus Christ himself. If you read\nJohn 5, where the Lord is speaking of himself that he is the very\nChrist, he brings in four or five witnesses to back what he said.\n1. John Baptist. 2. The works that his Father gave him to do. 3.\nHis Father speaking from heaven. 4. The testimony of the Scriptures.\nWhen all this was done, seeing yet they would not believe, he\nlays the fault upon one of these two things:--(1.) Their regarding\nan esteem among men. (2.) Their not believing of the prophets'\nwritings, even Moses and the rest. 'For had ye believed Moses,'\nsaith he, 'ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if\nye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?'\n\nNow, I say, he that shall slight the Scriptures, and the testimony\nof the prophets in them concerning Jesus Christ, must needs be in\ngreat danger of losing his soul, if he abide in this condition;\nbecause he that slights the testimony doth also slight the thing\ntestified of, let him say the contrary never so often. For as Jesus\nChrist hath here laid down the reason of men's not receiving him,\nso the apostle in another place lays down the reason again with\na high and mighty aggravation (1 John 5:10), saying, 'He that\nbelieveth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that\nbelieveth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not\nthe record,' mark, 'the record that God gave of his Son.' The\nrecord, you will say, what is that? Why even the testimony that\nGod gave of him by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the\nworld began (Acts 3:18-20). That is, God sending his holy Spirit\ninto the hearts of his servants, the prophets and apostles, he,\nby his Spirit in them, did bear witness or record of the truth\nof salvation by his Son Jesus, both before and after his coming.\nAnd thus is that place also to be understood which saith, 'There\nare three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water,\nand the blood.' That is, the Spirit in the apostles which preached\nhim to the world, as is clear if you read seriously 1 Thessalonians\n4:8. The apostle, speaking of Jesus Christ and obedience to God\nthrough him, saith thus, Now 'he that despiseth, despiseth not\nman, but God.' But it is you that speak; true, but it is by and\nthrough the Spirit, 'He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not\nman, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.' This\nis therefore a mighty confirmation of this truth, that he that\nslights the record or testimony that God, by his Spirit in his\nprophets and apostles, hath testified unto us, slights the testimony\nof the Spirit who moved them to speak these things; and if so,\nthen I would fain know how any man can be saved by Jesus Christ\nthat slights the testimony concerning Christ, yea, the testimony\nof his own Spirit concerning his own self? It is true men may\npretend to have the testimony of the Spirit, and from that conceit\nset a low esteem on the holy Scriptures; but that spirit that\ndwelleth in them and teacheth them so to do, it is no better than\nthe spirit of Satan, though it calls itself by the name of the\nSpirit of Christ. 'To the law,' therefore, 'and to the testimony,'\ntry them by that; 'if they speak not according to this word, it\nis because there is no light in them.'\n\nThe apostle Peter, when he speaks of the glorious voice that he\nhad from the excellent majesty, saying of Christ, 'This is my\nbeloved Son, hear him,' saith thus to them whom he wrote unto,\n'You have also a more sure word of prophecy,' or of the prophets,\nfor so you may read it, 'unto which ye do well that ye take heed.'\nThat is, though we tell you that we had this excellent testimony\nfrom his own mouth evidently, yet you have the prophets. We tell\nyou this, and you need not doubt of the truth of it; but if you\nshould, yet you may not, must not, ought not to question them.\nSearch therefore into them, until the day dawn, and the day-star\narise in your hearts. That is until by the same Spirit that gave\nforth the Scripture you find the truth confirmed to your souls,\nwhich you have recorded in the Scriptures--that this word of\nprophecy, or of the prophets, is the Scriptures. Read on; for,\nsaith he, 'knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture\nis of any private interpretation,' &c. (2 Peter 1:20).\n\n[Object.] But, you will say, What needs all this ado, and why is\nall this time and pains spent in speaking to this that is surely\nbelieved already? This is a thing received by all, that they\nbelieve the Scriptures to be the Word of God, that sure word of\nprophecy; and therefore you need not spend your time in proving\nthese things, and the truth of them, seeing we grant and confess\nthe truth of it before you being to speak your judgment of them.\n\nAnsw. The truths of God cannot be borne witness unto too often;\nyou may as well say, 1. You need not preach Jesus Christ so much,\nseeing he hath been, and is received for the true Messias already.\n2. Though many may suppose that they do believe the Scriptures,\nyet if they were but well examined, you will find them either\nby word of mouth, or else by conversation, to deny, reject, and\nslight the holy Scriptures. It is true, there is a notional and\nhistorical assent in the head. I say, in the head of many, or most,\nto the truth contained in Scripture. But try them, I say, and you\nshall find but a little, if any, of the faith of the operation\nof God in the hearts of poor men, to believe the Scriptures, and\nthings contained in them. Many, yea, most men believe the Scriptures\nas they believe a fable, a story, a tale, of which there is no\ncertainty! But alas! there are but few do in deed and in truth\nbelieve the Scriptures to be the very Word of God.\n\nObject. But you will say, This seems strange to me.\n\nAnsw. And it seems as true to me, and I doubt not but to make it\nmanifest, that there are but few, yea, very few, that do effectually,\nfor that I aim at, believe the Scriptures and the truths contained\nin and spoken of by them.\n\nBut to make this appear, and that to purpose, if God will, I shall\nlay you down the several operations that the Scriptures have on\nthem who do effectually believe the things contained in them.\n\nFirst. He that doth effectually believe the Scriptures, hath in\nthe first place been killed, I say killed by the authority of the\nholy Scriptures; struck stark dead in a spiritual sense, by the\nholy Scriptures, being set home by that Spirit, which gave them\nforth, upon the soul. 'The letter killeth'; the letter strikes\nmen dead (2 Cor 3:6). And this Paul witnessed and found, before\nhe could say, I believe all that the prophets have spoken. Where\nhe saith, 'I was alive without the law once.' That is, in my natural\nstate, before the law was set on my heart with power; 'But when\nthe commandment came, sin revived and I died' (Rom 7:9). 'And\nthat law which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death;\nfor sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and\nby it slew me' (v 11). Now that which is called 'the letter' in\n2 Corinthians, is called the law in Romans 7, which by its power\nand operation, as it is wielded by the Spirit of God, doth in the\nfirst place kill and slay all those that are enabled to believe\nthe Scriptures. I kill, saith God: that is, with my law I pierce,\nI wound, I prick men into the very heart, by showing them their sins\nagainst my law (Deut 31:26; Acts 2:37). And he that is ignorant\nof this, is also ignorant of, and doth not really and effectually\nbelieve the Scripture.\n\nBut you will say, How doth the law kill and strike dead the poor\ncreatures?\n\nAnsw. The letter or law doth kill thus. It is set home upon the\nsoul, and discovers to the soul its transgressions against the\nlaw, and shows the soul also, that it cannot completely satisfy\nthe justice of God, for the breach of his law, therefore it is\ncondemned (John 3:18). Mark, 'He that believeth not, is condemned\nalready.' To wit, by the law, that is, the law doth condemn him;\nyea, it hath condemned him already for his sins against it; as it\nis written, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things\nwhich are written in the book of the law to do them' (Gal 3:10).\nNow all men as they come into the world are in this condition,\nthat is, condemned by the law. Yet not believing their condemnation\nby the law really, they do not also believe really and effectually\nthe law that doth condemn them. For as men have but a notion of\nthe one, that is, their condemnation, because of sins against the\nlaw: so they have but a notion of the condemning, killing, and\ndestroying power of the law. For, as the one is, so in these things\nalways is the other. There is no man that doth really believe the\nlaw or gospel, further than they do feel the power and authority\nof them in their hearts. 'Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures,\nnor the power of God.' Now this letter or law, is not to be\ntaken in the largest sense, but is strictly to be tied to the ten\ncommandments, whose proper work is only by showing the soul its\nsin against this law, to kill, and there leaves him stark dead,\nnot giving him the least life, or support, or comfort, but leaves\nthe soul in a helpless and hopeless condition, as from itself, or\nany other mere creature.\n\nIt is true the law hath laid all men for dead, as they come into\nthe world; but all men do not see themselves dead, until they\nsee that law that struck them dead, striking in their souls, and\nhaving struck them that fatal blow. As a man that is fast asleep\nin a house, and that on fire about his ears, and he not knowing\nof it because he is asleep; even so, because poor souls are asleep\nin sin, though the wrath of God, the curse of his law, and the\nflames of hell have beset them round about, yet they do not believe\nit, because they are asleep in sin. Now, as he that is awakened\nand sees this, sees that through this he is a dead man; even so\nthey that do see their state by nature, being such a sad condition,\ndo also see themselves by that law to be dead men naturally.\n\nBut now, when didst thou feel the power of this first part of the\nScripture, the law, so mighty as to strike thee dead? If not, thou\ndost not so much as verily believe that part of the Scripture that\ndoth contain the law in it, to be the truth of God. Yet if thou\nshouldest have felt something, I say, something of the killing\npower of the law of God in thine heart, this is not an argument to\nprove that thou believest all the things contained in Scripture,\nfor there is gospel as well as law, and therefore I shall speak\nto that also, that is, whether thou hast felt the power of the\ngospel, as well as something of the power of the law.\n\nSecond. Then thou hast found the power of the gospel, and so\nbelieved it, thou hast found it thus with thy soul.\n\n1. Thou hast been showed by the Word or truth of the gospel,\nin the light of the Spirit of Christ, that by nature thou wert\nwithout the true faith of the Son of God in thy soul. For when He,\nthe Spirit, is come, he shall show men that 'they believe not in\nme,' saith Christ (John 16:9). Mark, though thou hast, as I said\nbefore, felt somewhat of the power of the law, letter, or ten\ncommandments, yet, as thou hast not been brought to this, to see by\nthe Spirit in the gospel, that thou art without faith by nature,\nthou hast not yet tasted, much less believed, any part of the\ngospel. For the gospel and the law are two distinct covenants.\nAnd they that are under the law or first covenant, and yet in the\nmeantime to be a stranger to the covenant of promise, that is, the\ngospel, and so have no hope in them (Eph 2:12). There is not any\npromise that can be savingly believed, until the soul be by the\ngospel converted to Jesus Christ. For though men do think never\nso much that they believe the things or the Word of the gospel\nof our salvation; yet unless they have the work of grace in their\nsouls, they do not, cannot rightly believe the things contained\nin the Scriptures. Again,\n\n2. As the law killeth those that believe it, even so the promises\ncontained in the gospel do, through faith, administer comfort to\nthose that believe it aright. My words, saith Christ, My words,\n'they are Spirit, and they are life' (John 6:63). As if he had\nsaid, the words contained in the law as a covenant of works, they\nwound, they kill, they strike dead those that are under them. But\nas for me, 'The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and\nthey are life.' That is, whosoever doth receive them believingly,\nshall find them full of operation, to comfort, quicken, and revive\ntheir soul. For as I did not come into the world to destroy men's\nlives, so the words that I speak, as I am sent to preach the\ngospel, they have no such tendency unto those that believe them. The\npromises that are in the gospel, O how do they comfort them! Such\na promise, and such a promise, O how sweet is it! How comfortable\nto those that believe them! Alas! there are many poor souls that\nthink they believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God, and yet\nthey never enjoyed anything of the life and promises; they come\nin upon the heart to quicken, to revive thee, to raise thee from\nthe sentence of death that is passed on thee by the law. And through\nthe faith that is wrought in thy soul, by the operation of God's\nHoly Spirit, though once killed by the law or letter, thou art\nmade alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is presented to thy soul\nin the promises.\n\nThird. Dost thou in deed and in truth believe the Scriptures to\nbe the Word of God? Then the things contained in them, especially\nthe things of the gospel, are very excellent to thy soul; as\nthe birth of Christ, the death, resurrection, intercession, and\nsecond coming. O how precious and excellent are they to thy soul!\ninsomuch that thou regardest nothing in comparison of them! O! it\nis Christ's birth, death, blood, resurrection, &c., according to\nthe Scriptures, that thou dost rejoice in exceedingly, and abundantly\ndesire after! 'Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom thou now ye\nsee him not, yet believing ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable, and\nfull of glory' (1 Cor 15:1-6, compared with Phil 3:6-8; 1 Peter\n1:8).\n\nFourth. Dost thou believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God?\nThen thou standest in awe of, and dost much reverence them. Why,\nthey are the Word of God, the true sayings of God; they are the\ncounsel of God; they are his promises and his threatenings. Poor\nsouls are apt to think, if I could hear God speak to me from heaven\nwith an audible voice, then sure I should be serious and believe\nit. But truly, if God should speak to thee from heaven, except\nthou wert converted, thou wouldst not regard, nor really believe\nhim. But if thou dost believe the Scriptures, thou seest that\nthey are the truth as really as if God should speak to thee from\nheaven through the clouds, and therefore never flatter thyself,\nfoolishly thinking, that if it were so and so, then thou couldst\nbelieve. I tell thee, saith Christ, If they believe 'not Moses\nand the prophets, neither will they believe though one should rise\nfrom the dead.' But,\n\nFifth. Dost thou believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God?\nThen, through faith in Christ, thou endeavourest to have thy life\nsquared according to the Scriptures, both in word and practice.\nNay, this I say, thou mayest have though thou do not believe\nthem all. My meaning is, that if thou believe none but the ten\ncommandments, thy life may be, according to them, a legal holy\nlife; and if thou do believe the gospel too, then thy life will\nbe the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, either thou wilt\nlive in the blessed and holy enjoyment of what is testified in\nthe Scripture concerning the glorious things of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, or else thou wilt be exceedingly panting after them. For\nthe Scriptures carry such a blessed beauty in them to that soul\nthat hath faith in the things contained in them, that they do take\nthe heart and captivate the soul of him that believeth them into\nthe love and liking of them, believing all things that are written\nin the law and the prophets, and have hope towards God that there\nshall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.\n'And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void\nof offence toward God and toward men' (Acts 24:14-16).\n\nSixth. He that believes the Scriptures to be the Word of God, if\nhe do but suppose that any one place of Scripture doth exclude him,\nand shut him out of, and from a share in the promises contained\nin them, O it will trouble him, grieve him, perplex him. Yea,\nhe will not be satisfied until he be resolved, and the contrary\nsealed to his soul; for he knows that the Scriptures are the word\nof God, all truth; and therefore he knows that if any one sentence\ndoth exclude or bar him out for want of this or the other\nqualification, he knows also that not the word alone shuts him\nout, but he that speaks it, even God himself. And, therefore, he\ncannot, will not, dare not be contented until he find his soul and\nScripture together, with the things contained therein, to embrace\neach other, and a sweet correspondency and agreement between\nthem. For you must know that to him that believes the Scriptures\naright, the promises, or threatenings, are of more power to comfort\nor cast down, than all the promises or threatenings of all the men\nin the world. And this was the cause why the martyrs of Jesus did\nso slight both the promises of their adversaries, when they would\nhave overcome them, with proffering the great things of this world\nunto them, and also their threatenings, when they told them they\nwould rack them, hang them, burn them (Acts 20:24). None of these\nthings could prevail upon them, or against them; because they did\nmost really believe the Scriptures, and the things contained in\nthem, as is clearly found, and to be seen in Hebrews 11, and also\nin Mr. Fox's records of their brethren.\n\nSeventh. He that believeth the Scriptures to be the Word of God,\nbelieveth that men must be born again, and also be partakers of\nthat faith which is of the operation of God, according as he hath\nread and believed, or else he must and shall be damned. And he\nthat believeth this aright will not be contented until, according\nas it is written, he do partake of and enjoy the new birth, and\nuntil he do find, through grace, that faith that is wrought by\nthe operation of God in his soul. For this is the cause why men\ndo satisfy themselves with so slender a conceited hope that their\nstate is good, when it is nothing so, namely, because they do not\ncredit the Scripture; for did they, they would look into their\nown hearts, and examine seriously whether that faith, that hope,\nthat grace which they think they have be of that nature, and\nwrought by that spirit and power that the Scripture speaketh of.\nI speak this of an effectual believing, without which all other\nis nothing unto salvation.\n\n[FIVE USES BY WAY OF SELF-EXAMINATION.]\n\nNow then, because I would not be too tedious, I shall at this\ntime lay down no more discoveries of such an one as doth savingly\nbelieve the Scriptures, and the things contained in them, but shall\nspeak a few words of examination concerning the things already\nmentioned. As,\n\nFirst USE. Thou sayest thou dost in deed and in truth effectually\nbelieve the Scriptures: I ask, therefore, wast thou ever killed\nstark dead by the law of works contained in the Scriptures--killed\nby the law or letter, and made to see thy sins against it, and left\nin a helpless condition by that law? For, as I said, the proper\nwork of the law is to slay the soul, and to leave it dead in\na helpless state. For it doth neither give the soul any comfort\nitself when it comes, nor doth it show the soul where comfort\nis to be had; and therefore it is called 'the ministration\nof condemnation,' as in 2 Corinthians 3:9, 'the ministration of\ndeath,' verse 7. For though men may have a notion of the blessed\nWord of God, as the children had, yet before they be converted it\nmay truly be said of them, Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures,\nnor the power of God (Mark 12:24).\n\nSecond USE. You say you do believe the Scriptures to be the Word\nof God. I say again, Examine, wast thou ever quickened from a dead\nstate by the power of the Spirit of Christ, through the other part\nof the Scripture; that is to say, by the power of God in his Son\nJesus Christ, through the covenant of promise? I tell thee from\nthe Lord, if thou hast, thou hast felt such a quickening power\nin the words of Christ (John 6) that thou hast been lifted out of\nthat dead condition that thou before wast in. And that when thou\nwast under the guilt of sin, the curse of the law, and the power\nof the devil, and the justice of the great God, thou hast been\nenabled, by the power of God in Christ, revealed to thee by the\nSpirit through and by the Scripture, to look sin, death, hell, the\ndevil, and the law, and all things that are at enmity with thee,\nwith boldness and comfort in the face, through the blood, death,\nrighteousness, resurrection, and intercession of Christ, made\nmention of in the Scriptures. And,\n\nThird USE. On this account, O how excellent are the Scriptures to\nthy soul! O how much virtue dost thou see in such a promise, in\nsuch an invitation! They are so large as to say, Christ will in no\nwise cast me out! My crimson sins shall be white as snow! I tell\nthee, friend, there are some promises that the Lord hath helped me\nto lay hold of Jesus Christ through and by, that I would not have\nout of the Bible for as much gold and silver as can lie between\nYork and London piled up to the stars; because through them Christ\nis pleased by his Spirit to convey comfort to my soul. I say, when\nthe law curses, when the devil tempts, when hell-fire flames in\nmy conscience, my sins with the guilt of them tearing of me, then\nis Christ revealed so sweetly to my poor soul through the promises\nthat all is forced to fly and leave off to accuse my soul. So\nalso, when the world frowns, when the enemies rage and threaten to\nkill me, then also the precious, the exceeding great and precious\npromises do weigh down all, and comfort the soul against all. This\nis the effect of believing the Scriptures savingly; for they that\ndo so have by and through the Scriptures good comfort, and also\nground of hope, believing those things to be its own which the\nScriptures hold forth (Rom 15:4).\n\nFourth USE. Examine, Dost thou stand in awe of sinning against\nGod, because he hath in the Scriptures commanded thee to abstain\nfrom it? Dost thou give diligence to make thy calling and election\nsure, because God commanded it in Scripture? Dost thou examine\nthyself whether thou be in the faith or no, having a command in\nScripture so to do? Or dost thou, notwithstanding what thou readest\nin the Scripture, follow the world, delight in sin, neglect coming\nto Jesus Christ, speak evil of the saints, slight and make a mock\nat the ordinance of God, delight in wicked company, and the like?\nThen know that it is because thou dost not in deed and in truth\nbelieve the Scriptures effectually. For, as I said before, if a\nman do believe them, and that savingly, then he stands in awe, he\nlooks to his steps, he turns his feet from evil, and endeavours\nto follow that which is good, which God hath commanded in the\nScriptures of truth; yet not from a legal or natural principle;\nthat is, to seek for life by doing that good thing, but knowing\nthat salvation is already obtained for him by the blood of that\nman Christ Jesus on the cross because he believes the Scriptures,\ntherefore, mark I pray, therefore, I say, he labours to walk with\nhis God in all well-pleasing and godliness, because the sweet\npower of the loves of Christ, which he feels in his soul by the\nSpirit, according to the Scriptures, constrain him so to do (2\nCor 5:14).\n\nFifth USE. Examine again, Dost thou labour after those qualifications\nthat the Scriptures do describe a child of God by? That is,\nfaith, yea the right faith, the most holy faith, the faith of the\noperation of God. And also, dost thou examine whether there is a\nreal growth of grace in thy soul, as love, zeal, self-denial, and\na seeking by all means to attain, if possible, to the resurrection\nof the dead? That is, not to satisfy thyself until thou be dissolved\nand rid of this body of death, and be transformed into that glory\nthat the saints shall be in after the resurrection-day. And in the\nmeantime dost labour and take all opportunities to walk as near\nas may be to the pitch, though thou know thou canst not attain it\nperfectly. Yet, I say, thou dost aim at it, seek after it, press\ntowards it, and to hold on in thy race; thou shunnest that which\nmay any way hinder thee, and also closest in with what may any\nway further the same; knowing that that must be, or desiring that\nit should be, thine eternal frame, and therefore out of love and\nliking to it thou dost desire and long after it, as being the\nthing that doth most please thy soul.\n\nOr how is it with thy soul? Art thou such an one as regards not\nthese things, but rather busy thy thoughts about the things here\nbelow, following those things that have no scent of divine glory\nupon them? If so, look to thyself, thou art an unbeliever, and so\nunder the wrath of God, and wilt for certain fall into the same\nplace of torment that thy fellows have fallen into before thee,\nto the grief of thy own soul, and thy everlasting destruction.\n\nConsider and regard these things, and lay them to thy heart before\nit be too late to recover thyself, by repenting of the one, and\ndesiring to close in with the other. O! I say, regard, regard, for\nhell is hot. God's hand is up, the law is resolved to discharge\nagainst thy soul! The judgment-day is at hand, the graves are ready\nto fly open, the trumpet is near the sounding, the sentence will\nere long be passed, and then you and I cannot call time again.\n\n[USE AND APPLICATION.]\n\n[47]But again, seeing they are so certain, so sure, so irrevocable\nand firm, and seeing the saving faith of the things contained\ntherein, is to reform the soul, and bring it over into the things\nof God, really conforming to the things contained therein, both\nto the point of justification, and also an impartial walking, and\ngiving up thy soul and body to a conformity to all the commands,\ncounsels, instructions, and exhortations contained therein; this\nthen will learn us how to judge of those who give up themselves\nto walk in the imaginations of their own hearts, who slight and\nlay aside the Scriptures, counting them but empty and uncertain\nthings, and will live every day in open contradiction to what is\ncontained, commanded, and forbidden therein. As\n\nFIRST. This will show us that all your drunkards, whoremasters, liars,\nthieves, swearers, backbiters, slanderers, scoffers at goodness,\n&c. I say, we may see by this that they that live in such things,\nhave not the faith of these things contained in their hearts,\nseeing they delight to practise those things that are forbidden\nby and in them. And so, they continuing living and dying in this\nstate, we may conclude without fear that these portions of holy\nScripture belong unto them, and shall for certain be fulfilled\nupon them: 'He that believeth not shall be damned' (Mark 16:16).\n'The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Cor\n6:9,10). 'But the abominable, the unbelieving, the whoremongers,\nand all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth\nwith fire and brimstone' (Rev 21:8). 'Depart, ye cursed, into\neverlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt\n25:41). Depart, depart from me, for I will not save you. Depart,\nfor my blood shall not at all wash you. Depart, for you shall not\nset one foot into the kingdom of heaven.\n\n'Depart, ye cursed,' ye are cursed of God, cursed of his law,\ncursed of me, cursed by the saints, and cursed by the angels;\ncursed all over, nothing but cursed, and therefore depart from me;\nand whither? into everlasting fire--fire that will scald, scorch,\nburn, and flame to purpose. 'Fire that shall never be quenched'\n(Mark 9). Fire that will last to all eternity. And must we be\nall alone? No, you shall have company, store of company with you.\nNamely, all the raging, roaring devils, together with an innumerable\ncompany of fellow-damned sinners, men, women, and children. And\nif the Scriptures be true, as they will one day wonderfully appear\nto be, then this must and shall be thy portion, if thou live and\ndie in this state; and of all them who continue in sinning against\nthe truth contained in the Scriptures. As,\n\nFirst. Dost thou delight to sin against plain commands? THOU ART\nGONE.\n\nSecond. Dost thou slight and scorn the counsels contained in the\nScriptures, and continue in so doing? THEN THOU ART GONE.\n\nThird. Dost thou continually neglect to come to Christ, and usest\narguments in thine own heart to satisfy thy soul with so doing?\nTHEN THOU ART GONE. (Luke 14:17,18, compared with v 24, and Heb\n2:3). 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' How\nshall we escape, that is, there is no way to escape.\n\n(1.) Because God hath said we shall not (Heb 12:25). 'See that ye\nrefuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused\nhim that spake on earth,' that was Moses, 'much more shall not we\nescape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.'\n\n(2.) Because he hath not only said they shall not, but also hath\nbound it with an oath, saying, 'So I sware in my wrath, They shall\nnot enter into my rest' (Heb 3:11). To whom did he swear that they\nshould not enter into his rest? Answer, 'to them that believed\nnot.' So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief\n(vv 18,19).\n\nSECOND. This will teach us what to think and conclude of such,\nwho, though they do not so openly discover their folly by open\nand gross sins against the law, yet will give more heed to their\nown spirits, and the movings thereof, though they be neither\ncommanded nor commended for the same in Scripture; nay, though\nthe Scripture command and commend the contrary, than they will\nto the holy and revealed will of God (Isa 8:20). I say, such men\nare in as bad a state as the other to the full, being disobedient\nto God's will revealed in his Word, as well as they, though in a\ndifferent manner; the one openly transgressing against the plain\nand well-known truths revealed in it; the other, though more close\nand hidden, yet secretly rejecting and slighting them, giving more\nheed to their own spirits, and the motions thereof, although not\nwarranted by the Scriptures.\n\nA few words more, and so I shall conclude. And,\n\nFirst. Take heed that you content not yourself with a bare notion\nof the Scriptures in your heads, by which you may go far, even so\nfar as to be able to dispute for the truth, to preach the gospel,\nand labour to vindicate it in opposition to gainsayers, and yet\nbe found at the left hand of Christ at the judgment-day, forasmuch\nas thou didst content thyself with a notion or traditional knowledge\nof them.[48]\n\nSecond. Have a care that thou own the whole Scripture, and not\nown one part and neglect another, or slight it; as thus: To own\nthe law, and slight the gospel; or to think that thou must be\nsaved by thy good doings and works; for that is all one, as if\nthou didst thrust Christ away from thee; or else so to own the\ngospel, as if by it thou wert exempted from all obedience to the\nten commandments, and conformity to the law in life and conversation;\nfor in so doing thou wilt for certain make sure of eternal vengeance.\n\nThird. Have a care that thou put not wrong names on the things\ncontained in the Scriptures, as to call the law, Christ, and\nChrist, the law, for some having done so, in my knowledge, have\nso darkened to themselves the glorious truths of the gospel, that\nin a very little time they have been resolved to thwart and oppose\nthem, and so have made room in their own souls for the devil to\ninhabit, and obtained a place in hell for their own souls to be\ntormented for ever and ever.\n\nAgainst this danger therefore in reading and receiving the testimony\nof Scripture, learn to distinguish between the law and the gospel,\nand to keep them clear asunder, as to the salvation of thy soul.\n\n1. And that thou mayest so do, in the first place beg of God that\nhe would show thee the nature of the gospel, and set it home\neffectually with life and power upon thy soul by faith. Which is\nthis, that God would show thee, that as thou being man hast sinned\nagainst God, so Christ, being God-man, hath bought thee again, and\nwith his most precious blood set thee free from the bondage thou\nhast fallen into by thy sins. And that not upon condition that thou\nwilt do thus and thus, this and the other good work; but rather,\nthat thou, being first justified freely by mere grace through the\nblood of Jesus, shouldst also receive thy strength from him who\nhath bought thee, to walk before him in all well-pleasing. Being\nenabled thereto by virtue of his Spirit, which hath revealed to\nthy soul that thou art delivered already from wrath to come, by\nthe obedience, not of thee, but of another man, viz., Jesus Christ.\n\n2. Then if the law thou readest of, tell thee in thy conscience\nthou must do this and the other good work of the law, if ever thou\nwilt be saved; answer plainly, that for thy part thou art resolved\nnow not to work for life, but to believe in the virtue of that\nblood shed upon the cross, upon Mount Calvary, for the remission\nof sins. And yet because Christ hath justified thee freely by his\ngrace, thou wilt serve him in holiness and righteousness all the\ndays of thy life, yet not in a legal spirit, or in a covenant of\nworks; but mine obedience, say thou, I will endeavour to have it\nfree, and cheerful, out of love to my Lord Jesus.\n\n3. Have a care thou receive not this doctrine in the notion only,\nlest thou bring a just damnation upon thy soul, by professing\nthyself to be freed by Christ's blood from the guilt of sin, while\nthou remainest still a servant to the filth of sin. For I must\ntell you, that unless you have the true and saving work of the\nfaith and grace of the gospel in your hearts, you will either go\non in a legal holiness, according to the tenor of the law; or else\nthrough a notion of the gospel, the devil bewitching and beguiling\nthy understanding, will, and affections, thou wilt, Ranter-like,\nturn the grace of God into wantonness, and bring upon thy soul\ndouble, if not treble damnation, in that thou couldest not be\ncontented to be damned for thy sins against the law, but also to\nmake ruin sure to thy soul, thou wouldst dishonour the gospel, and\nturn the grace of God, held forth and discovered to men by that,\ninto licentiousness.[49]\n\nBut that thou mightest be sure to escape these dangerous rocks on\nthe right hand and on the left, see that thy faith be such as is\nspoken of in Scripture. And that thou be not satisfied without\nthat, which is a faith wrought by the mighty operation of God,\nrevealing Christ to and in thee, as having wholly freed thee from\nthy sins by his most precious blood. Which faith, if thou attain\nunto, will so work in thy heart, that first thou wilt see the\nnature of the law, and [secondly] also the nature of the gospel,\nand delight in the glory of it; and also thou wilt find an engaging\nof thy heart and soul to Jesus Christ, even to the giving up of\nthy whole man unto him, to be ruled and governed by him to his\nglory, and thy comfort, by the faith of the same Lord Jesus.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] There were nine editions of this book published during the\nAuthor's life; all those subsequent to the first have the following\ntitle:--'Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul; discovering\nfrom the 16th of Luke the lamentable state of the damned: and may\nfitly serve as a warning word to sinners, both old and young, by\nfaith in Jesus Christ, to avoid the same place of torment. With a\ndiscovery of the usefulness of the Scriptures as our safe-conduct\nfor avoiding the torments of hell. By John Bunyan. London: Printed\nfor F. Smith, at the Elephant and Castle, without Temple-bar. At\n1s bound.'\n\n[2] In the 'errata' to the first edition, Bunyan says--'At the first\nI thought to put out with this a discourage of the two covenants,\nwhich since I thought to put forth in a piece by itself.' This\nshows that his great work on the covenants was the fourth volume\nwhich he wrote. In the second edition, the author altered the\narrangement of the text, by placing in his comment on verse 28\na considerable part of what in the first edition formed the 'use\nand application.'\n\n[3] In the second and subsequent editions, this was altered to 'I\nam thine to serve in the Lord Jesus.'--Ed.\n\n[4] 'Sad' frequently occurs in this treatise; it is from the Saxon,\nsaetan--set, fixed, gloomy, grievous, mournful.--Ed.\n\n[5] The first and second editions have 'the saints,' instead of\n'such are saints.'--Ed.\n\n[6] In quoting these passages, Mr. Bunyan has mixed the Puritan\nversion with that now authorized; very probably, quoting from\nmemory. His text is from the present version; the reader will see,\nby comparison, the different words employed in the two translations.--Ed.\n\n[7] Solemn truth! The heir of heaven and immortality has to trudge\nthe street in the foulest weather, while the sinner's lap-dog is\nheld up to the carriage window, taken out for an airing.--Ed.\n\n[8] Reader, this feeling yet remains. Christians have recently,\neven in Scotland, had to meet in barns, or in the open air, for\nworship, because no landowner would sell or let a piece of ground\non which to build a place of worship.--Ed.\n\n[9] Cannot down; will not receive, submit to, or feel pleasure\nin. 'If a boy is hungry, bread by itself will down.'--Locke on\nEducation. 'Down and beg mercy of the Duke.'--Shakespeare.--Ed.\n\n[10] Alluding to the awful sufferings of Leighton, and all Christians\nof his time, under that bigoted demon in human shape, Laud.--Ed.\n\n[11] It is a very ancient and prevailing opinion, that man is always\nattended by invisible spirits, whose powers or mode of intercourse\nwith our spirits is unknown. These attendants are most active at\nthe hour of death. They cannot be seen unless the eyes are made\nto possess new or miraculous powers. It may be that, when dying,\nthe spirit, before it entirely quits its mortal habitation, has a\nglimpse of spiritual existences. If so, how awful for the sinner\nto see the infernal demons ready to drag away his soul; but most\njoyful for the Christian to embrace his celestial guides. This is\nillustrated in the Pilgrim's Progress, during Christian's conflict\nat the hour of death.--Vol. 3, p. 163.--Ed.\n\n[12] Guard, convoy, or escort. See Pilgrim's Progress, the entrance\ninto the celestial city.--Ed.\n\n[13] This proverb was very probably founded upon Jeremiah 50:11:\n'Ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls.'--Ed.\n\n[14] Bunyan is here expressing what he had most acutely felt. 'I\nblessed the condition of the dog and toad, because they had no\nsoul to perish under the everlasting weight of hell. I was broken\nto pieces,' until he found refuge in Jesus. See Grace Abounding,\nNo. 104.--Ed.\n\n[15] The first edition has, 'and the practice of the saints.' This\nwas left out in all the subsequent editions.--Ed.\n\n[16] Ale bench, in Bunyan's time, was very similar to a taproom;\nmore generally the place of resort for the idle tipplers, but\nsometimes of refreshment to the weary traveller.--Ed.\n\n[17] Formerly designated not only a courageous man, but his\ncounterpart, a braggart, a bully, or a dandy. In these latter\nsenses it is obsolete.--Ed.\n\n[18] These feelings appear in awful reality in Grace Abounding,\nNos. 87 and 104.--Ed.\n\n[19] How awfully general is this wretched delusion. The chattering\nof monkeys or parrots is more acceptable than to mock God with a\nsolemn sound upon a thoughtless tongue. Jews gabble Hebrew, and\nPapists Latin, and, alas! others who NEVER prayed, have been from\nchildhood in the habit of repeating or reading a form of words,\ncalled, with devilish subtlety, 'saying prayers.'--Ed.\n\n[20] The intelligent reader should notice that these terms are not\njumbled together. Their selection and arrangement would confer\nhonour upon the most profound doctor of philology; while from Bunyan\nthey flowed from native genius, little inferior to inspiration.\nTo show the enmity of the unconverted to those who bear the image\nof Christ, he descends step by step. They first mock, or deride\nthem by mimicry; second, flout, or treat them with contemptuous\nsneers, both by words and actions; third, scoff at them with insolent\nridicule, sometimes accompanied by a push or blow; fourth, taunt,\nrevile, upbraid, bully, and challenge them: all these produce,\nfifth, hate, abhorrence, and detestation, leading inevitably to,\nsixth, persecution--to pursue with malignity--to afflict, harass, and\ndestroy. Such are the gradations in the opposition of the carnal\nmind to the most excellent of the earth; and such the worldly\ninheritance of the followers of our once lowly, but now exalted\nSaviour.--Ed.\n\n[21] 'Troubles,' see Puritan translation.--Ed.\n\n[22] With what searching truthfulness is the character of Bye-ends\ndrawn in the Pilgrim's Progress, p. 132: 'looking one way and\nrowing another.'--Ed.\n\n[23] This is not intended to convey any reflection upon human\nlearning, but to exhibit the contemptuous spirit of learned men,\nso generally manifested to the illiterate, but really learned\nfollowers of the Lamb. They sometimes meet their match, even in\nworldly wit. Thus, when three learned gentlemen from Oxford overtook\na pious waggoner, they ironically saluted him as Father Abraham,\nFather Isaac, and Father Jacob; he replied, Gentlemen, you are\nmistaken: I am neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob, but Saul, the\nson of Kish, who was sent to find his father's asses, and so I\nhave found them.--Ed.\n\n[24] The word 'clergy' is omitted from all the editions published\nafter Bunyan's death. These words are calculated to fix upon\nthe mind the necessity of a visitation from heaven, of personal\nexamination of the Scriptures, and of solemn, earnest, persevering\nprayer, without which no clergyman can do a sinner good. But how\ninexpressibly terrible will be the misery of carnal clergymen, who,\nby precept or example, have led their hearers to a false hope of\nheaven. How will such souls gnash their teeth in bitter anguish,\nand trample their devoted souls to the hottest hell!--Ed.\n\n[25] Making an entertainment by stealth, privately indulging in\nwickedness.--Ed.\n\n[26] Awful responsibility!! A heavy curse on the souls of those\nwho labour to prevent private judgment, guided simply by the\nBible--who lead poor sinners to rely upon acts of uniformity,\nliturgies, articles, or creeds, the groveling inventions of men;\ninstead of relying wholly on the revealed will of God, which alone\nis able to make man wise unto salvation.--Ed.\n\n[27] The word 'not' is omitted from most of the editions published\nin Bunyan's life.--Ed.\n\n[28] These times of tyrannizing oppression are fast passing away.\nIt was difficult, a few years ago, to hire a room in some of\nthe villages even round London, for a Sunday school and lecture,\nor to admit a missionary into a workhouse. A poor baby has been\nscornfully driven from the font--the dead body of a dissenter has\nbeen refused Christian burial--the cries of poverty and distress\nhave been disregarded--from bitter sectarianism. The genial\ninfluence of Christianity is fast driving these demoniac feelings\nto the owls and bats.--Ed.\n\n[29] Anguish or embarrassment of mind, derived from the name of\na most painful disease.--Ed.\n\n[30] This is one of Bunyan's proverbs, which, however homely,\nis sure to make a lasting impression on the mind. Sin breeds the\nscorpions which will torment the sinner, unless they tormented\nthe Saviour. O for greater hatred of sin!--Ed.\n\n[31] From this paragraph to the end of the comment on verse 28,\nwas placed by Bunyan, in his first edition, as the first part of\nthe general use and application.--Ed.\n\n[32] A familiar phrase, expressive of embarrassment. 'There is no\ncomfort in the house upon a washing day.' Suds, in this sentence,\nwould puzzle a foreigner. Johnson's dictionary interprets it, 'A\nlixivium of soap and water!'--Ed.\n\n[33] The word 'simple' is here used as it is by Solomon in the\nProverbs--silly, unwise.--Ed\n\n[34] Men armed with halberts or javelins; now only used at assizes\nin England, or by officers attending meetings of magistrates in\nScotland.--Ed.\n\n[35] Modern editors have altered this to, 'did deal with him.'--Ed.\n\n[36] Altered in the third edition to 'a great exceeding danger.'--Ed.\n\n[37] Bunyan published this work before the Quakers were formed\ninto a Society. Many of the wildest enthusiasts called themselves\nQuakers. Barclay, in his Apology, very clearly defines what the\nSociety of Friends mean by, 'Christ within, the hope of glory.'\n'It is a spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in which\nGod, as Father, Son, and Spirit, dwells or reigns.'--Prop. V. and\nVI.--Ed.\n\n[38] This quotation, probably made from memory, is from the Genevan\nor Puritan version of the Bible.--Ed.\n\n[39] How favourable an alteration has been produced by permitting\nthe free publication of the Bible. In Bunyan's time, under the\nmonopoly of church and state, they were full of typographical\nerrors, and at a high price. When eggs were four-a-penny, one\nhundred and sixty must have been paid for an ordinary copy; while\nnow a handsome one, with gilt edges, may be had for eighteen or\ntwenty. Thanks to those good men who brought about this wondrous\nchange.--Ed.\n\n[40] The improvement in the whole class of books used by children,\nsince the Tract Society commenced its operations, is almost\nincredible. None but antiquarians have seen the books which Bunyan\nnames, but they are as inferior to Who killed Cock Robin, as that\nis to Dr. Watt's Divine Songs.--Ed.\n\n[41] Such was the then state of society, fostered by the Book of\nSports and Pastimes, authorized by Charles I. to be used on Sunday,\nand by Rupert and his cavaliers with the civil war, notwithstanding\nthe restraints of the Commonwealth. They are very young, or dim-sighted,\nor badly read, who do not now see a wonderful improvement in the\nstate of public morals and religion.--Ed.\n\n[42] These persecutions are fast disappearing. One of my near\nrelatives was locked into a first floor parlour in Whitechapel,\nwithout hat or shoes, to prevent his going to hear Mr. Whitefield;\nbut, at the risk of being turned out of doors by his parents, he\nescaped out of the window, by clinging to the rain water-pipe,\nand enjoyed the public service at the Tabernacle.--Ed.\n\n[43] For an admirable and deeply impressive account of these\ndistinct books, see Bunyan on The Resurrection of the Dead.--Ed.\n\n[44] The idea prevails to a vast extent. The splendour, power, and\nintolerance of national hierarchies is mistaken for the humble\nbenignity of the Bible system of Christianity or personal religion.\nAntichrist, tricked out in robes and gewgaws, is, by perverted\nminds, received as Christ.--Ed.\n\n[45] This is exemplified in Bunyan's experience, published by him\nin Grace Abounding. 'That scripture also did tear and rend my soul\n(Isa 57:22).' Sec. 104. 'That scripture did seize upon my soul\n(Heb 12:16,17).' Sec. 141.--Ed.\n\n[46] This word was, by a typographical error, printed 'doctrine,'\nin an edition of 1707; this error has been followed in all the\nafter copies.--Ed.\n\n[47] A very considerable portion of the use and application as\nfound in the first edition, was, in the second and subsequent\nones, removed to the comment on verse 28; from the words, 'Now\nthen, from what hath been said,' to the end of the comment on\nthat verse. I should have preferred Bunyan's first arrangement,\nbut dared not alter what he had considered an improvement.--Ed.\n\n[48] Of all men most miserable must be those clergymen and religious\nteachers, who, in the great day, will say, 'Lord, Lord, have we\nnot prophesied in thy name,' to whom the Lord will profess, 'I\nnever knew you, depart, ye cursed.'--Matt 7:21-23.--Ed.\n\n[49] The Ranters were a sect of the wildest enthusiasts. It very\nsoon became extinct. An exaggerated account of their sentiments\nis to be found in Ross's view of all Religions.--Ed.\n\n***\n\nONE THING IS NEEDFUL;\n\nor,\n\nSERIOUS MEDITATIONS UPON THE FOUR LAST THINGS: DEATH, JUDGMENT,\nHEAVEN, AND HELL\n\nUNTO WHICH IS ADDED EBAL AND GERIZZIM, OR THE BLESSING AND THE\nCURSE,\n\nby John Bunyan.\n\nLondon: Printed for Nath. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry,\n1688.[1]\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.\n\nAccording to Charles Doe, in that curious sheet called The Struggler\nfor the Preservation of Mr. John Bunyan's Labours, these poems\nwere published about the year 1664, while the author was suffering\nimprisonment for conscience sake, very probably in separate sheets\nor tracts, to be sold by his wife or children, to aid in their\nhumble maintenance. They were afterwards united to form a neat\nlittle volume, 32 mo. The editor is the fortunate possessor of the\nthird edition, being the last that was printed during the author's\nlifetime, and with his latest corrections. From this the present\nedition has been accurately reprinted. The three tracts are distinct\nas to pages; a strong indication that they were originally separate\nlittle volumes. A copy of the fourth edition of this extremely\nrare book, without date, and somewhat larger in size, is in the\nBritish Museum, in which the pages are continued throughout the\nvolume.\n\nThese poems are upon subjects the most solemn and affecting to\nall mankind, and, like all Bunyan's other works, were evidently\nwritten, not for display, but to impress upon the heart those\nsearching realities upon which depend our everlasting destiny.\nDie we must; yes, reader, you and I must follow our fathers to\nthe unseen world. Heaven forbid that we should be such mad fools,\nas to make no provision for the journey; no inquiries about our\nprospects in that eternity into which we must so soon enter. True\nit is, that unless Heaven stops us in our mad career, we shall\nplunge into irretrievable ruin.\n\nIn the first of these poems, many of the minute circumstances\nattendant on death are pressed upon the memory. Very soon, as\nBunyan awfully expresses the though, we must look death in the\nface, and 'drink with him.' Soon some kind friend or relative will\nclose our eyelids, and shut up our glassy eyes for ever; tie up\nthe fallen jaw, and prepare the corrupting body for its long, but\nnot final resting-place. Our hour-glass is fast ebbing out; time\nstands ready with his scythe to cut us down; the grave yawns to\nreceive us. 'Man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the\nghost, and where is he' (Job 14:10). The answer is ready, sure,\ncertain--he goes to the judgment of the great day. There every\nthought that has passed over his mind, while on earth, will be\nmanifested and scrutinized; every action, every sin, and every\nsupposed good work, however private, will then be published. It is\nan awful thought. Thousands of works which are thought good will\nbe weighed in the unerring balances of truth, will be found wanting,\nand proved to be bad, not arising from evangelical motives;\nwhile all our thoughts, words, and actions will appear in their\nreal colours tainted by sin. Those only who are clothed in the\nRedeemer's righteousness, and cleansed by his purifying, sanctifying\nsufferings, can stand accepted, and will receive the invitation,\nCome, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom of your father, and your\nGod, by adoption into his family; while an innumerable multitude\nwill be hurried away by the voice of the judge, Go, ye cursed,\ninto everlasting torment. Solemn consideration. Reader, have you\nfled for refuge to the hope set before you in the gospel? Have\nyou felt the alarm in your soul under a sense of sin and judgment?\nWere you dead, and are you made alive? O, then, while you bless\nthe Saviour for such unspeakable mercies, seek with all diligence,\nas life is prolonged, to extend the blessing to others. There is\nno work nor device in the grave, whither we are all hastening, that\ncan benefit mortals. The great gulf will be fixed, and our state be\nfinally decided for eternity. O, then, if you have not yet attained\nthat good hope of heavenly felicity, sure and stedfast--hasten--yes,\n\n\n'Hasten, O sinner, to be blest\nAnd stay not for the morrow's sun;\nFor fear the curse should thee arrest\nBefore the morrow be begun.'\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\nONE THING IS NEEDFUL,\n\nOR\n\nSERIOUS MEDITATIONS UPON THE FOUR LAST THINGS--DEATH, JUDGMENT,\nHEAVEN, AND HELL\n\n\nAN INTRODUCTION TO THE ENSUING DISCOURSE.\n\n1. These lines I at this time present\nTo all that will them heed,\nWherein I show to what intent\nGod saith, Convert[2] with speed.\n2. For these four things come on apace,\nWhich we should know full well,\nBoth death and judgment, and, in place\nNext to them, heaven and hell.\n3. For doubtless man was never born\nFor this life and no more:\nNo, in the resurrection morn\nThey must have weal or woe.\n4. Can any think that God should take\nThat pains, to form a man\nSo like himself, only to make\nHim here a moment stand?\n5. Or that he should make such ado,\nBy justice, and by grace;\nBy prophets and apostles too,\nThat men might see his face?\n6. Or that the promise he hath made,\nAlso the threatenings great,\nShould in a moment end and fade?\nO! no, this is a cheat.\n7. Besides, who is so mad, or worse,\nTo think that Christ should come\nFrom glory, to be made a curse,\nAnd that in sinners' room,\n8. If nothing should by us be had\nWhen we are gone from hence,\nBut vanities, while here? O mad\nAnd foolish confidence.\n9. Again, shall God, who is the truth,\nSay there is heaven and hell\nAnd shall men play that trick of youth\nTo say, But who can tell?\n10. Shall he that keeps his promise sure\nIn things both low and small,\nYet break it like a man impure,\nIn matters great'st of all?\n11. O, let all tremble at that thought,\nThat puts on God the lie,\nThat saith men shall turn unto nought\nWhen they be sick and die.\n12. Alas, death is but as the door\nThrough which all men do pass,\nTo that which they for evermore\nShall have by wrath or grace.\n13. Let all therefore that read my lines,\nApply them to the heart:\nYea, let them read, and turn betimes,\nAnd get the better part.\n14. Mind therefore what I treat on here,\nYea, mind and weigh it well;\n'Tis death and judgment, and a clear\nDiscourse of heaven and hell.\n\n\nOF DEATH\n\n1. Death, as a king rampant and stout\nThe world he dare engage;\nHe conquers all, yea, and doth rout\nThe great, strong, wise, and sage.\n2. No king so great, nor prince so strong,\nBut death can make to yield,\nYea, bind and lay them all along,\nAnd make them quit the field.\n3. Where are the victors of the world,\nWith all their men of might?\nThose that together kingdoms hurl'd,\nBy death are put to flight.\n4. How feeble is the strongest hand,\nWhen death begins to gripe!\nThe giant now leaves off to stand,\nMuch less withstand and fight.\n5. The man that hath a lion's face\nMust here give place and bend,\nYea, though his bones were bars of brass,\n'Tis vain here to contend.\n6. Submit he must to feeble ones,\nTo worms who will enclose\nHis skin and flesh, sinews and bones,\nAnd will thereof dispose\n7. Among themselves, as merchants do\nThe prizes they have got;\nOr as the soldiers give unto\nEach man the share and lot,\n8. Which they by dint of sword have won,\nFrom their most daring foe;\nWhile he lies by as still as stone,\nNot knowing what they do.\n9. Beauty death turns to rottenness,\nAnd youth to wrinkled face;\nThe witty he brings to distress,\nAnd wantons to disgrace.\n10. The wild he tames, and spoils the mirth\nOf all that wanton are,\nHe takes the worldling from his worth,\nAnd poor man from his care.\n11. Death favours none, he lays at all,\nOf all sorts and degree;\nBoth old and young, both great and small,\nRich, poor, and bound, and free.\n12. No fawning words will flatter him,\nNor threat'nings make him start;\nHe favours none for worth or kin,\nAll must taste of his dart.\n13. What shall I say? the graves declare\nThat death shall conquer all;\nThere lie the skulls, dust, bones, and there\nThe mighty daily fall.\n14. The very looks of death are grim\nAnd ghastly to behold;\nYea, though but in a dead man's skin,\nWhen he is gone and cold.\n15. How 'fraid are some of dead men's beds,\nAnd others of their bones;\nThey neither care to see their heads,\nNor yet to hear their groans.\n16. Now all these things are but the shade\nAnd badges of his coat;[3]\nThe glass that runs, the scythe and spade,\nThough weapons more remote:\n17. Yet such as make poor mortals shrink\nAnd fear, when they are told,\nThese things are signs that they must drink\nWith death; O then how cold.\n18. It strikes them to the heart! how do\nThey study it to shun!\nIndeed who can bear up, and who\nCan from these shakings run?\n19. But how much more then when he comes\nTo grapple with thy heart;\nTo bind with thread thy toes and thumbs,[4]\nAnd fetch thee in his cart?\n20. Then will he cut thy silver cord,\nAnd break thy golden bowl;\nYea, break that pitcher which the Lord\nMade cabin for thy soul.\n21. Thine eyes, that now are quick of sight,\nShall then no way espy\nHow to escape this doleful plight,\nFor death will make thee die.\n22. Those legs that now can nimbly run,\nShall then with faintness fail\nTo take one step, death's dart to shun,\nWhen he doth thee assail.\n23. That tongue that now can boast and brag\nShall then by death be tied\nSo fast, as not to speak or wag,\nThough death lies by thy side.\n24. Thou that didst once incline thine ear\nUnto the song and tale,\nShall only now death's message hear,\nWhile he, with face most pale,\n25. Doth reason with thee how thy days\nHath hitherto been spent;\nAnd what have been thy deeds and ways,\nSince God thee time hath lent.\n26. Then will he so begin to tear\nThy body from thy soul,\nAnd both from life, if now thy care\nBe not on grace to roll.\n27. Death puts on things another face\nThan we in health do see:\nSin, Satan, hell, death, life and grace\nNow great and weighty be.\n28. Yea, now the sick man's eye is set\nUpon a world to come:\nHe also knows too without let[5]\nThat there must be his home.\n29. Either in joy, in bliss and light,\nOr sorrow, woe, and grief;\nEither with Christ and saints in white,\nOr fiends, without relief.\n30. But, O! the sad estate that then\nThey will be in that die\nBoth void of grace and life! poor men!\nHow will they fear and cry.\n31. Ha! live I may not, though I would\nFor life give more than all;\nAnd die I dare not, though I should\nThe world gain by my fall.\n32. No, here he must no longer stay,\nHe feels his life run out,\nHis night is come, also the day\nThat makes him fear and doubt.\n33. He feels his very vitals die,\nAll waxeth pale and wan;\nNay, worse, he fears to misery\nHe shortly must be gone.\n34. Death doth already strike his heart\nWith his most fearful sting\nOf guilt, which makes his conscience start,\nAnd quake at every thing.\n35. Yea, as his body doth decay\nBy a contagious grief,\nSo his poor soul doth faint away\nWithout hope or relief.\n36. Thus while the man is in this scare,\nDeath doth still at him lay;\nLive, die, sink, swim, fall foul or fair,[6]\nDeath still holds on his way.\n37. Still pulling of him from his place,\nFull sore against his mind;\nDeath like a sprite stares in his face,\nAnd doth with links him bind.\n38. And carries him into his den,\nIn darkness there to lie,\nAmong the swarms of wicked men\nIn grief eternally.\n39. For only he that God doth fear\nWill now be counted wise:\nYea, he that feareth him while here,\nHe only wins the prize.\n40. 'Tis he that shall by angels be\nAttended to that bliss\nThat angels have; for he, O he,\nOf glory shall not miss.\n41. Those weapons and those instruments\nOf death, that others fright:\nThose dreadful fears and discontents\nThat brings on some that night.\n42. That never more shall have a day,\nBrings this man to that rest\nWhich none can win but only they\nWhom God hath called and blest\n43. With the first fruits of saving grace,\nWith faith, hope, love, and fear\nHim to offend; this man his face\nIn visions high and clear,\n44. Shall in that light which no eye can\nApproach unto, behold\nThe rays and beams of glory, and\nFind there his name enroll'd,\n45. Among those glittering starts of light\nThat Christ still holdeth fast\nIn his right hand with all his might,\nUntil that danger's past,\n46. That shakes the world, and most hath dropt\nInto grief and distress,\nO blessed then is he that's wrapt\nIn Christ his righteousness.\n47. This is the man death cannot kill,\nFor he hath put on arms;\nHim sin nor Satan hath not skill\nTo hurt with all their charms.\n48. A helmet on his head doth stand,\nA breastplate on his heart:\nA shield also is in his hand,\nThat blunteth every dart.\n49. Truth girds him round the reins, also\nHis sword is on his thigh;\nHis feet in shoes of peace do go\nThe ways of purity.\n50. His heart it groaneth to the Lord,\nWho hears him at his call,\nAnd doth him help and strength afford,\nWherewith he conquers all.\n51. Thus fortified, he keeps the field\nWhile death is gone and fled;\nAnd then lies down upon his shield\nTill Christ doth raise the dead.\n\n\nOF JUDGMENT.\n\n1. As 'tis appointed men should die,\nSo judgment is the next\nThat meets them most assuredly;\nFor so saith holy text.\n2. Wherefore of judgment I shall now\nInform you what I may,\nThat you may see what 'tis, and how\n'Twill be with men that day.\n3. This world it hath a time to stand,\nWhich time when ended, then\nWill issue judgment out of hand\nUpon all sorts of men.\n4. The Judge we find, in God's record,\nThe Son of man, for he\nBy God's appointment is made Lord\nAnd Judge of all that be.\n5. Wherefore this Son of man shall come\nAt last to count with all,\nAnd unto them shall give just doom,\nWhether they stand or fall.\n6. Behold ye now the majesty\nAnd state that shall attend\nThis Lord, this Judge, and Justice high\nWhen he doth now descend.\n7. He comes with head as white as snow,\nWith eyes like flames of fire;\nIn justice clad from top to toe,\nMost glorious in attire.\n8. His face is filled with gravity;\nHis tongue is like a sword;\nHis presence awes both stout and high,\nThe world shakes at his word.\n9. He comes in flaming fire, and\nWith angels clear and bright,\nEach with a trumpet in his hand,\nClothed in shining white.\n10. The trump of God sounds in the air,\nThe dead do hear his voice;\nThe living too run here and there,\nWho made not him their choice.\n11. Thus to his place he doth repair,\nAppointed for his throne,\nWhere he will sit to judge, and where\nHe'll count with every one.\n12. Angels attending on his hand\nBy thousands on a row;\nYea, thousand thousands by him stand,\nAnd at his beck do go.\n13. Thus being set, the books do ope\nIn which all crimes are writ.\nAll virtues, too, of faith and hope,\nOf love; and every whit\n14. Of all that man hath done or said,\nOr did intend to do;\nWhether they sinn'd, or were afraid\nEvil to come into.\n15. Before this bar each sinner now\nIn person must appear;\nUnder his judgment there to bow\nWith trembling and with fear:\n16. Within whose breast a witness then\nWill certainly arise,\nThat to each charge will say Amen,\nWhile they seek and devise\n17. To shun the sentence which the Lord\nAgainst them then will read,\nOut of the books of God's record,\nWith majesty and dread.\n18. But every heart shall opened be\nBefore this judge most high;\nYea, every thought to judgment he\nWill bring assuredly.\n19. And every word and action, too,\nHe there will manifest;\nYea, all that ever thou didst do,\nOr keep within thy breast,\n20. Shall then be seen and laid before\nThe world, that then will stand\nTo see thy judge open ev'ry sore,\nAnd all thy evils scann'd.\n21. Weighing each sin and wickedness\nWith so much equity,\nProportioning of thy distress\nAnd woful misery.\n22. With so much justice, doing right,\nThat thou thyself shalt say,\nMy sins have brought me to this plight,\nI threw myself away.\n23. Into that gulph my sins have brought\nMe justly to possess,\nFor which I blame not Christ, I wrought\nIt out by wickedness.\n24. But O! how willingly would these\nThat thus in judgment be,\nIf that they might have help or ease,\nUnto the mountains flee.\n25. They would rejoice if that they might\nBut underneath them creep,\nTo hide them from revenging right,\nFor fear of which they weep.\n26. But all in vain, the mountains then\nWill all be fled and gone;\nNo shelter will be found for men\nThat now are left alone.\n27. For succour they did not regard\nWhen Christ by grace did call\nTo them, therefore they are not heard,\nNo mountains on them fall.\n28. Before this Judge no one shall shroud\nHimself, under pretence\nOf knowledge, which hath made him proud,\nNor seeming penitence.\n29. No high profession here can stand,\nUnless sincerity\nHath been therewith commixed, and\nBrought forth simplicity.[7]\n30. No mask nor vizor here can hide\nThe heart that rotten is;\nAll cloaks now must be laid aside,\nNo sinner must have bliss.\n31. Though most approve of thee, and count\nThee upright in thy heart;\nYea, though preferred and made surmount\nMost men to act thy part,\n32. In treading where the godly trod,\nAs to an outward show;\nYet this hold still, the grace of God\nTakes hold on but a few,\n33. So as to make them truly such\nAs then shall stand before\nThis Judge with gladness; this is much\nYet true for evermore.\n34. The tree of life this paradise\nDoth always beautify,\n'Cause of our health it is the rise\nAnd perpetuity.\n35. Here stands the golden throne of grace\nFrom out of which do run\nThose crystal streams that make this place\nFar brighter than the sun.\n36. Here stands mount Zion with her king.\nJerusalem above,\nThat holy and delightful thing,\nSo beautified with love.\n37. That, as a mother succours those\nWhich of her body be,\nSo she far more, all such as close\nIn with her Lord; and she\n38. Her grace, her everlasting doors\nWill open wide unto\nThem all, with welcome, welcome, poor,\nRich, bond, free, high and low,\n39. Unto the kingdom which our Lord\nAppointed hath for all\nThat hath his name and word ador'd;\nBecause he did them call\n40. Unto that work, which also they\nSincerely did fulfil,\nNot shunning always to obey\nHis gracious holy will.\n41. Besides, this much doth beautify\nThis goodly paradise,\nThat from all quarters, constantly,\nWhole thousands as the price\n42. Of precious blood, do here arrive;\nAs safe escaping all,\nSin, hell, and satan did contrive\nTo bring them into thrall.\n43. Each telling his deliverance\nI' th' open face of heaven;\nStill calling to remembrance\nHow fiercely they were driven\n44. By deadly foe, who did pursue\nAs swift as eagles fly;\nWhich if thou have not, down thou must\nWith those that then shall die\nThe second death, and be accurs'd\nOf God. For certainly,\n45. The truth of grace shall only here\nWithout a blush be bold\nTo stand, whilst others quake and fear,\nAnd dare not once behold.\n46. That heart that here was right for God\nShall there be comforted;\nBut those that evil ways have trod,\nShall then hang down the head.\n47. As sore confounded with the guilt\nThat now upon them lies,\nBecause they did delight in filth\nAnd beastly vanities.\n48. Or else because they did deceive\nWith hypocritical\nDisguises, their own souls, and leave\nOr shun that best of all\n49. Approved word of righteousness,\nThey were invited to\nEmbrace, therefore they no access\nNow to him have, but woe.\n50. For every one must now receive\nAccording to their ways;\nThey that unto the Lord did cleave,\nThe everlasting joys.\n51. Those that did die in wickedness,\nTo execution sent,\nThere still to grapple with distress,\nWhich nothing can prevent.\n52. Of which two states I next shall write,\nWherefore I pray give ear,\nAnd to them bend with all our might\nYour heart with filial fear.\n\n\nOF HEAVEN.\n\n1. Heaven is a place, also a state,\nIt doth all things excel,\nNo man can fully it relate,\nNor of its glory tell.\n2. God made it for his residence,\nTo sit on as a throne,\nWhich shows to us the excellence\nWhereby it may be known.\n3. Doubtless the fabric that was built\nFor this so great a king,\nMust needs surprise thee, if thou wilt\nBut duly mind the thing.\n4. If all that build do build to suit\nThe glory of their state,\nWhat orator, though most acute,\nCan fully heaven relate?\n5. If palaces that princes build,\nWhich yet are made of clay,\nDo so amaze when much beheld,\nOf heaven what shall we say?\n6. It is the high and holy place;\nNo moth can there annoy,\nNor make to fade that goodly grace\nThat saints shall there enjoy.\n7. Mansions for glory and for rest\nDo there prepared stand;\nBuildings eternal for the blest\nAre there provided, and\n8. The glory and the comeliness\nBy deepest thought none may\nWith heart or mouth fully express,\nNor can before that day.\n9. These heav'ns we see, be as a scroll,\nOr garment folded up,\nBefore they do together roll,\nAnd we call'd in to sup.\n10. There with the king, the bridegroom, and\nBy him are led into\nHis palace chambers, there to stand\nWith his prospect to our view.\n11. And taste and smell, and be inflam'd,\nAnd ravished to see\nThe buildings he hath for us fram'd,\nHow full of heaven they be.\n12. Its state also is marvellous,\nFor beauty to behold;\nAll goodness there is plenteous,\nAnd better far than gold.\n13. Adorn'd with grace and righteousness,\nWhile fragrant scents of love\nO'erflow with everlasting bliss,\nAll that do dwell above.\n14. The heavenly majesty, whose face\nDoth far exceed the sun,\nWill there cast forth its rays of grace\nAfter this world is done.\n15. Which rays and beams will so possess\nAll things that there shall dwell,\nWith so much glory, light, and bliss,\nThat none can think or tell.\n16. That wisdom which doth order all\nShall there be fully shown;\nThat strength that bears the world there shall\nBy every one be known.\n17. That holiness and sanctity\nWhich doth all thought surpass,\nShall there in present purity\nOutshine the crystal glass.\n18. The beauty and the comeliness\nOf this Almighty shall\nMake amiable with lasting bliss\nThose he thereto shall call.\n19. The presence of this God will be\nEternal life in all,\nAnd health and gladness, while we see\nThy face, O immortal!\n20. Here will the Lord make clear and plain\nHow sweetly did agree\nHis attributes, when Christ was slain\nOur Saviour to be.\n21. How wisdom did find out the way,\nHow strength did make him stand,\nHow holiness did bear the sway,\nAnd answer just demand.\n22. How all these attributes did bend\nThemselves to work our life,\nThrough the Christ whom God did send\nTo save us by his might.\n23. All this will sparkle in our eye\nWithin the holy place,\nAnd greatly raise our melody,\nAnd flow our hearts with grace.\n24. The largest thought that can arise\nWithin the widest heart\nShall then be filled with surprize,\nAnd pleas'd in every part.\n25. All mysteries shall here be seen,\nAnd every knot, unty'd;\nElecting love, that hid hath been,\nShall shine on every side.\n26. The God of glory here will be\nThe life of every one;\nWhose goodly attributes shall we\nPossess them as our own.\n27. By wisdom we all things shall know,\nBy light all things shall see,\nBy strength, too, all things we shall do,\nWhen we in glory be.\n28. The Holy Lamb of God, also,\nWho for our sakes did die,\nThe holy ones of God shall know,\nAnd that most perfectly.\n29. Those small and short discoveries\nThat we have of him here,\nWill there be seen with open eyes,\nIn visions full and clear.\n30. Those many thousand acts of grace\nThat here we feel and find,\nShall there be real with open face\nUpon his heart most kind.\n31. There he will show us how he was\nOur prophet, priest, and king;\nAnd how he did maintain our cause,\nAnd us to glory bring.\n32. There we shall see how he was touch'd\nWith all our grief and pain\n(As in his word he hath avouch'd),\nWhen we with him shall reign;\n33. He'll show us, also, how he did\nMaintain our faith and love,\nAnd why his face sometimes he hid\nFrom us, who are his dove;\n34. These tempting times that here we have,\nWe there shall see were good;\nAlso that hidden strength he gave,\nThe purchase of his blood.\n35. That he should stand for us before\nHis Father, thus we read.\nBut then shall see, and shall adore\nHim for his gracious deed.\n36. Though we are vile, he without shame\nBefore the angels all\nLays out his strength, his worth, and name,\nFor us, who are in thrall.\n37. This is he who was mock'd and beat,\nSpit on, and crown'd with thorns;\nWho for us had a bloody sweat,\nWhose heart was broke with scorns.\n38. 'Tis he who stands so much our friend,\nAs shortly we shall see,\nWith open face, world without end,\nAnd in his presence be.\n39. That head that once was crown'd with thorns,\nShall now with glory shine;\nThat heart that broken was with scorns,\nShall flow with life divine;\n40. That man that here met with disgrace,\nWe there shall see so bright;\nThat angels can't behold his face\nFor its exceeding light.\n41. What gladness will possess our heart\nWhen we shall see these things!\nWhat light and life, in every part,\nWill rise like lasting springs!\n42. O blessed face and holy grace,\nWhen shall we see this day?\nLord, fetch us to this goodly place\nWe humbly do thee pray.\n43. Next to this Lamb we shall behold\nAll saints, both more and less,\nWith whit'ned robes in glory roll'd,\n'Cause him they did confess.\n44. Each walking in his righteousness\nWith shining crowns of gold,\nTriumphing still in heav'nly bliss,\nAmazing to behold.\n45. Each person for his majesty\nDoth represent a king;\nYea, angel-like for dignity,\nAnd seraphims that sing.\n46. Each motion of their mind, and so\nEach twinkling of their eye;\nEach word they speak, and step they go,\nIt is in purity.\n47. Immortal are they every one,\nWrapt up in health and light,\nMortality from them is gone,\nWeakness is turn'd to might.\n48. The stars are not so clear as they,\nThey equalize the sun;\nTheir glory shines to perfect day,\nWhich day will ne'er be done.\n49. No sorrow can them now annoy,\nNor weakness, grief or pain;\nNo faintness can abate their joy,\nThey now in life do reign.\n50. They shall not there, as here, be vex'd\nWith Satan, men, or sin;\nNor with their wicked hearts perplex'd,\nThe heavens have cop'd[8] them in.\n51. Thus, as they shine in their estate,\nSo, too, in their degree;\nWhich is most goodly to relate,\nAnd ravishing to see.\n52. The majesty whom they adore,\nDoth them in wisdom place\nUpon the thrones, and that before\nThe angels, to their grace.\n53. The saints of the Old Testament,\nFull right to their degree;\nLikewise the New, in excellent\nMagnificency be.\n54. Each one his badge of glory wears,\nAccording to his place;\nAccording as was his affairs\nHere, in the time of grace.\n55. Some on the right hand of the Lamb,\nLikewise some on the left,\nWith robes and golden chains do stand\nMost grave, most sage, and deft.[9]\n56. The martyr here is known from him\nWho peaceably did die,\nBoth by the place he sitteth in,\nAnd by his dignity.\n57. Each father, saint, and prophet shall,\nAccording to his worth,\nEnjoy the honour of his call,\nAnd plainly hold it forth.\n58. Those bodies which sometimes were torn,\nAnd bones that broken were\nFor God's word; he doth now adorn\nWith health and glory fair.\n59. Thus, when in heav'nly harmony\nThese blessed saints appear,\nAdorn'd with grace and majesty,\nWhat gladness will be there!\n60. The light, and grace, and countenance,\nThe least of these shall have,\nWill so with terror them advance,\nAnd make their face so grave,\n61. That at them all the world will shake,\nWhen they lift up their head;\nPrinces and kings will at them quake,\nAnd fall before them dead.\n62. This shall we see, thus shall we be,\nO would the day were come,\nLord Jesus take us up to thee,\nTo this desired home.\n63. Angels also we shall behold,\nWhen we on high ascend,\nEach shining like to men of gold,\nAnd on the Lord attend.\n64. These goodly creatures, full of grace,\nShall stand about the throne,\nEach one with lightning in his face,\nAnd shall to us be known.\n65. These cherubims with one accord\nShall cry continually,\nAh, holy, holy, holy, Lord,\nAnd heavenly majesty.\n66. These will us in their arms embrace,\nAnd welcome us to rest,\nAnd joy to see us clad with grace,\nAnd of the heavens possess'd.\n67. This we shall hear, this we shall see,\nWhile raptures take us up,\nWhen we with blessed Jesus be,\nAnd at his table sup.\n68. Oh shining angels! what, must we\nWith you lift up our voice?\nWe must; and with you ever be,\nAnd with you must rejoice.\n69. Our friends that lived godly here,\nShall there be found again;\nThe wife, the child, and father dear,\nWith others of our train.\n70. Each one down to the foot in white,\nFill'd to the brim with grace,\nWalking among the saints in light,\nWith glad and joyful face.\n71. Those God did use us to convert,\nWe there with joy shall meet,\nAnd jointly shall, with all our heart,\nIn life each other greet.\n72. A crown to them we then shall be,\nA glory and a joy;\nAnd that before the Lord, when he\nThe world comes to destroy.\n73. This is the place, this is the state,\nOf all that fear the Lord;\nWhich men nor angels may relate\nWith tongue, or pen, or word.\n74. No night is here, for to eclipse\nIts spangling rays so bright;\nNor doubt, nor fear to shut the lips,\nOf those within this light.\n75. The strings of music here are tun'd\nFor heavenly harmony,\nAnd every spirit here perfum'd\nWith perfect sanctity.\n76. Here runs the crystal streams of life,\nQuite through all our veins.\nAnd here by love we do unite\nWith glory's golden chains.\n77. Now that which sweet'neth all will be\nThe lasting of this state;\nThis heightens all we hear or see\nTo a transcendant rate.\n78. For should the saints enjoy all this\nBut for a certain time,\nO, how would they their mark then miss,\nAnd at this thing repine?\n79. Yea, 'tis not possible that they\nWho then shall dwell on high,\nShould be content, unless they may\nDwell there eternally.\n80. A thought of parting with this place\nWould bitter all their sweet,\nAnd darkness put upon the face\nOf all they there do meet.\n81. But far from this the saints shall be,\nTheir portion is the Lord,\nWhose face for ever they shall see,\nAs saith the holy word.\n82. And that with everlasting peace,\nJoy, and felicity,\nFrom this time forth they shall increase\nUnto eternity.\n\n\nOF HELL, AND THE ESTATE\nOF THOSE THAT PERISH.\n\n1. Thus, having show'd you what I see\nOf heaven, I now will tell\nYou also, after search, what be\nThe damned wights of hell.\n2. And O, that they who read my lines\nWould ponder soberly,\nAnd lay to heart such things betimes\nAs touch eternity.\n3. The sleepy sinner little thinks\nWhat sorrows will abound\nWithin him, when upon the brinks\nOf Tophet he is found.\n4. Hell is beyond all though a state\nSo doubtful[10] and forlorn,\nSo fearful, that none can relate\nThe pangs that there are born.\n5. God will exclude them utterly\nFrom his most blessed face,\nAnd them involve in misery,\nIn shame, and in disgrace.\n6. God is the fountain of all bliss,\nOf life, of light, and peace;\nThey then must needs be comfortless\nWho are depriv'd of these.\n7. Instead of life, a living death\nWill there in all be found.\nDyings will be in every breath,\nThus sorrow will abound.\n8. No light, but darkness here doth dwell;\nNo peace, but horror strange:\nThe fearful damning wights[11] of hell\nIn all will make this change.\n9. To many things the damned's woe\nIs liked in the word,\nAnd that because no one can show\nThe vengeance of the Lord.\n10. Unto a dreadful burning lake,\nAll on a fiery flame,\nHell is compared, for to make\nAll understand the same.\n11. A burning lake, a furnace hot,\nA burning oven, too,\nMust be the portion, share, and lot,\nOf those which evil sow.\n12. This plainly shows the burning heat\nWith which it will oppress\nAll hearts, and will like burnings eat\nTheir souls with sore distress.\n13. This burning lake, it is God's wrath\nIncensed by the sin\nOf those who do reject his path,\nAnd wicked ways walk in.\n14. Which wrath will so perplex all parts\nOf body and of soul,\nAs if up to the very hearts\nIn burnings they did roll.\n15. Again, to show the stinking state\nOf this so sad a case,\nLike burning brimstone God doth make\nThe hidings of his face.\n16. And truly as the steam, and smoke,\nAnd flames of brimstone smell,\nTo blind the eyes, and stomach choke,\nSo are the pangs of hell.\n17. To see a sea of brimstone burn,\nWho would it not affright?\nBut they whom God to hell doth turn\nAre in most woful plight.\n18. This burning cannot quenched be,\nNo, not with tears of blood;\nNo mournful groans in misery\nWill here do any good.\n19. O damned men! this is your fate,\nThe day of grace is done,\nRepentance now doth come too late,\nMercy is fled and gone.\n20. Your groans and cries they sooner should\nHave sounded in mine ears,\nIf grace you would have had, or would\nHave me regard your tears.\n21. Me you offended with your sin,\nInstructions you did slight,\nYour sins against my law hath been,\nJustice shall have his right.\n22. I gave my Son to do you good,\nI gave you space and time\nWith him to close, which you withstood,\nAnd did with hell combine.\n23. Justice against you now is set,\nWhich you cannot appease;\nEternal justice doth you let\nFrom either life or ease.\n24. Thus he that to this place doth come\nMay groan, and sigh, and weep;\nBut sin hath made that place his home,\nAnd there it will him keep.\n25. Wherefore, hell in another place\nIs call'd a prison too,\nAnd all to show the evil case\nOf all sin doth undo.\n26. Which prison, with its locks and bars\nOf God's lasting decree,\nWill hold them fast; O how this mars\nAll thought of being free!\n27. Out at these brazen bars they may\nThe saints in glory see;\nBut this will not their grief allay,\nBut to them torment be.\n28. Thus they in this infernal cave\nWill now be holden fast\nFrom heavenly freedom, though they crave,\nOf it they may not taste.\n29. The chains that darkness on them hangs\nStill ratt'ling in their ears,\nCreates within them heavy pangs,\nAnd still augments their fears.\n30. Thus hopeless of all remedy,\nThey dyingly do sink\nInto the jaws of misery,\nAnd seas of sorrow drink.\n31. For being cop'd[12] on every side\nWith helplessness and grief,\nHeadlong into despair they slide\nBereft of all relief.\n32. Therefore this hell is called a pit,\nPrepared for those that die\nThe second death, a term most fit\nTo show their misery.\n33. A pit that's bottomless is this,\nA gulf of grief and woe,\nA dungeon which they cannot miss,\nThat will themselves undo.\n34. Thus without stay they always sink,\nThus fainting still they fail,\nDespair they up like water drink,\nThese prisoners have no bail.\n35. Here meets them now that worm that gnaws,\nAnd plucks their bowels out,\nThe pit, too, on them shuts her jaws;\nThis dreadful is, no doubt.\n36. This ghastly worm is guilt for sin,\nWhich on the conscience feeds,\nWith vipers' teeth, both sharp and keen,\nWhereat it sorely bleeds.\n37. This worm is fed by memory,\nWhich strictly brings to mind,\nAll things done in prosperity,\nAs we in Scripture find.\n38. No word, nor thought, nor act they did,\nBut now is set in sight,\nNot one of them can now be hid,\nMemory gives them light.\n39. On which the understanding still\nWill judge, and sentence pass,\nThis kills the mind, and wounds the will,\nAlas, alas, alas!\n40. O, conscience is the slaughter shop,\nThere hangs the axe and knife,\n'Tis there the worm makes all things hot,\nAnd wearies out the life.\n41. Here, then, is execution done\nOn body and on soul;\nFor conscience will be brib'd of none,\nBut gives to all their dole.\n42. This worm, 'tis said, shall never die,\nBut in the belly be\nOf all that in the flames shall lie,\nO dreadful sight to see!\n43. This worm now needs must in them live,\nFor sin will still be there,\nAnd guilt, for God will not forgive,\nNor Christ their burden bear.\n44. But take from them all help and stay,\nAnd leave them to despair,\nWhich feeds upon them night and day,\nThis is the damned's share.\n45. Now will confusion so possess\nThese monuments of ire,\nAnd so confound them with distress,\nAnd trouble their desire.\n46. That what to think, or what to do,\nOr where to lay their head,\nThey know not; 'tis the damned's woe\nTo live, and yet be dead.\n47. These cast-aways would fain have life,\nBut know, they never shall,\nThey would forget their dreadful plight,\nBut that sticks fast'st of all.\n48. God, Christ, and heaven, they know are best,\nYet dare not on them think,\nThe saints they know in joys do rest,\nWhile they their tears do drink.\n49. They cry alas, but all in vain,\nThey stick fast in the mire,\nThey would be rid of present pain,\nYet set themselves on fire.\n50. Darkness is their perplexity,\nYet do they hate the light,\nThey always see their misery,\nYet are themselves all night.\n51. They are all dead, yet live they do,\nYet neither live nor die.\nThey die to weal, and live to woe,\nThis is their misery.\n52. Amidst all this so great a scare\nThat here I do relate,\nAnother falleth to their share\nIn this their sad estate.\n53. The legions of infernal fiends\nThen with them needs must be,\nA just reward for all their pains,\nThis they shall feel and see.\n54. With yellings, howlings, shrieks, and cries,\nAnd other doleful noise,\nWith trembling hearts and failing eyes,\nThese are their hellish joys.\n55. These angels black they would obey,\nAnd serve with greedy mind,\nAnd take delight to go astray,\nThat pleasure they might find.\n56. Which pleasure now like poison turns\nTheir joy to heaviness;\nYea, like the gall of asps it burns,\nAnd doth them sore oppress\n57. Now is the joy they lived in\nAll turned to brinish tears,\nAnd resolute attempts to sin\nTurn'd into hellish fears.\n58. The floods run trickling down their face,\nTheir hearts do prick and ache,\nWhile they lament their woful case,\nTheir loins totter and shake.\n59. O wetted cheeks, with bleared eyes,\nHow fully do you show\nThe pangs that in their bosom lies,\nAnd grief they undergo!\n60. Their dolour in their bitterness\nSo greatly they bemoan,\nThat hell itself this to express\nDoth echo with their groan.\n61. Thus broiling on the burning grates,\nThey now to wailing go,\nAnd say of those unhappy fates\nThat did them thus undo.\n62. Alas, my grief! hard hap had I\nThose dolours here to find,\nA living death, in hell I lie,\nInvolv'd with grief of mind.\n63. I once was fair for light and grace,\nMy days were long and good;\nI lived in a blessed place\nWhere was most heav'nly food.\n64. But wretch I am, I slighted life,\nI chose in death to live;\nO, for these days now, if I might,\nTen thousand worlds would give.\n65. What time had I to pray and read,\nWhat time to hear the word!\nWhat means to help me at my need,\nDid God to me afford!\n66. Examples, too, of piety\nI every day did see,\nBut they abuse and slight did I,\nO, woe be unto me.\n67. I now remember how my friend\nReproved me of vice,\nAnd bid me mind my latter end,\nBoth once, and twice, and thrice.\n68. But O, deluded man, I did\nMy back upon him turn;\nEternal life I did not heed,\nFor which I now do mourn.\n69. Ah, golden time, I did thee spend\nIn sin and idleness,\nAh, health and wealth, I did you lend\nTo bring me to distress.\n70. My feet to evil I let run,\nAnd tongue of folly talk;\nMy eyes to vanity hath gone,\nThus did I vainly walk.\n71. I did as greatly toil and strain\nMyself with sin to please,\nAs if that everlasting grain\nCould have been found in these.\n72. But nothing, nothing have I found\nBut weeping, and alas,\nAnd sorrow, which doth now surround\nMe, and augment my cross.\n73. Ah, bleeding conscience, how did I\nThee check when thou didst tell\nMe of my faults, for which I lie\nDead while I live in hell.\n74. I took thee for some peevish foe,\nWhen thou didst me accuse,\nTherefore I did thee buffet so,\nAnd counsel did refuse.\n75. Thou often didst me tidings bring,\nHow God did me dislike,\nBecause I took delight in sin,\nBut I thy news did slight.\n76. Ah, Mind, why didst thou do those things\nThat now do work my woe?\nAh, Will, why was thou thus inclin'd\nMe ever to undo?\n77. My senses, how were you beguil'd\nWhen you said sin was good?\nIt hath in all parts me defil'd,\nAnd drown'd me like a flood.\n78. Ah, that I now a being have,\nIn sorrow and in pain;\nMother, would you had been my grave,\nBut this I wish in vain.\n79. Had I been made a cockatrice,\nA toad, or such-like thing;[13]\nYea, had I been made snow or ice,\nThen had I had no sin;\n80. A block, a stock, a stone, or clot,\nIs happier than I;\nFor they know neither cold nor hot,\nTo live nor yet to die.\n81. I envy now the happiness\nOf those that are in light,\nI hate the very name of bliss,\n'Cause I have there no right.\n82. I grieve to see that others are\nIn glory, life, and well,\nWithout all fear, or dread, or care,\nWhile I am racked in hell.\n83. Thus will these souls with watery eyes,\nAnd hacking of their teeth,\nWith wringing hands, and fearful cries,\nExpostulate their grief.\n84. O set their teeth they will, and gnash,\nAnd gnaw for very pain,\nWhile as with scorpions God doth lash\nThem for their life so vain.\n85. Again, still as they in this muse,\nAre feeding on the fire,\nTo mind there comes yet other news,\nTo screw their torments higher.\n86. Which is the length of this estate,\nWhere they at present lie;\nWhich in a word I thus relate,\n'Tis to eternity.\n87. This thought now is so firmly fix'd\nIn all that comes to mind,\nAnd also is so strongly mix'd\nWith wrath of every kind.\n88. So that whatever they do know,\nOr see, or think, or feel,\nFor ever still doth strike them through\nAs with a bar of steel.\n89. For EVER shineth in the fire,\nEVER is on the chains;\n'Tis also in the pit of ire,\nAnd tastes in all their pains.\n90. For ever separate from God,\nFrom peace, and life, and rest;\nFor ever underneath the rod\nThat vengeance liketh best.\n91. O ever, ever, this will drown'd\nThem quite and make them cry,\nWe never shall get o'er thy bound,\nO, great eternity!\n92. They sooner now the stars may count\nThan lose these dismal bands;\nOr see to what the motes[14] among\nOr number up the sands.\n93. Then see an end of this their woe,\nWhich now for sin they have;\nO wantons, take heed what you do,\nSin will you never save.\n94. They sooner may drink up the sea,\nThan shake off these their fears;\nOr make another in one day\nAs big with brinish tears;\n95. Than put an end to misery,\nIn which they now do roar,\nOr help themselves; no, they must cry,\nAlas, for evermore.\n96. When years by thousands on a heap\nAre passed o'er their head;\nYet still the fruits of sin they reap\nAmong the ghostly dead.\n97. Yea, when they have time out of mind\nBe in this case so ill,\nFor EVER, EVER is behind[15]\nYet for them to fulfill.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEBAL AND GERIZZIM,\n\nOR\n\nTHE BLESSING AND THE\nCURSE:\n\nBEING A SHORT EXHORTATION\nTO SINNERS, BY THE MERCY\nAND SEVERITY OF GOD.\n\n\n\n\nFROM MOUNT GERIZZIM.\n\nBesides what I said of the Four Last Things,\nAnd of the weal and woe that from them springs;\nAn after-word still runneth in my mind,\nWhich I shall here expose unto that wind\nThat may it blow into that very hand\nThat needs it. Also that it may be scann'd\nWith greatest soberness, shall be my prayer,\nAs well as diligence and godly care;\nSo to present it unto public view,\nThat only truth and peace may thence ensue.\n    My talk shall be of that amazing love\nOf God we read of; which, that it may prove,\nBy its engaging arguments to save\nThee, I shall lay out that poor help I have\nThee to entice; that thou wouldst dearly fall\nIn love with thy salvation, and with all\nThat doth thereto concur, that thou mayst be\nAs blessed as the Blessed can make thee,\nNot only here but in the world to come,\nIn bliss, which, I pray God, may be thy home.\n    But first, I would advise thee to bethink\nThyself, how sin hath laid thee at the brink\nOf hell, where thou art lulled fast asleep\nIn Satan's arms, who also will thee keep\nAs senseless and secure as e'er he may,\nLest thou shouldst wake, and see't, and run away\nUnto that Jesus, whom the Father sent\nInto the world, for this cause and intent,\nThat such as thou, from such a thrall as this\nMight'st be released, and made heir of bliss.\nNow that thou may'st awake, the danger fly,\nAnd so escape the death that others die,\nCome, let me set my trumpet to thine ear,\nBe willing all my message for to hear:\n'Tis for thy life, O do it not refuse;\nWo unto them good counsel do abuse.\nThou art at present in that very case,\nWhich argues thou art destitute of grace:\nFor he that lies where sin hath laid him, lies\nUnder the curse, graceless, and so he dies\nIn body and in soul, within that range,\nIf God his heart in mercy doth not change\nBefore he goes the way of all the earth,\nBefore he lose his spirit and his breath.\nRepentance there is none within the grave,\nNor Christ, nor grace, nor mercies for to save\nThee from the vengeance due unto thy sin,\nIf now thou dost not truly close with him.\n    Thou art like him that sleepeth in the sea\nOn broken boards, which, without guide or stay,\nAre driven whither winds and water will;\nWhile greedy beasts do wait to have their fill\nBy feeding on his carcass, when he shall\nTurn overboard, and without mercy fall\nInto the jaws of such as make a prey\nOf those whom justice drowneth in the sea.\n    Thou art like him that snoring still doth lie\nUpon the bed of vain security,\nWhilst all about him into burning flame\nBy fire is turned; yea, and while the frame\nAnd building where he lies consuming is,\nAnd while himself these burnings cannot miss.\n    Thou art like one that hangeth by a thread\nOver the mouth of hell, as one half-dead;\nAnd O, how soon this thread may broken be,\nOr cut by death, is yet unknown to thee!\nBut sure it is, if all the weight of sin,\nAnd all that Satan, too, hath doing been,\nOr yet can do, can break this crazy thread,\n'Twill not be long before, among the dead,\nThou tumble do, as linked fast in chains,\nWith them to wait in fear for future pains.\n    What shall I say? Wilt thou not yet awake?\nNor yet of thy poor soul some pity take?\nAmong the lions it hood-winked lies;\nO, that the Lord would open once thine eyes\nThat thou might'st see it, then I dare say thou,\nAs half-bereft of wits, wouldst cry out, How\nShall I escape? Lord help, O! help with speed,\nReach down thy hand from heav'n, for help I need,\nTo save me from the lions, for I fear\nThis soul of mine they will in pieces tear.\n    Come, then, and let us both expostulate\nThe case betwixt us, till we animate\nAnd kindle in our hearts that burning love\nTo Christ, to grace, to life, that we may move\nSwifter than eagles to this blessed prey;\nThen shall it be well with us in that day\nThe trump shall sound, the dead made rise, and stand,\nThen to receive, for breach of God's command,\nSuch thunder-claps as these, Depart from me\nInto hell-fire, you that the wicked be,\nPrepared for the devil, and for those\nThat with him and his angels rather chose\nTo live in filthy sin and wickedness,\nWhose fruit is everlasting bitterness.\n    We both are yet on this side of the grave,\nWe also gospel-privileges have;\nThe word, and time to pray; God give us hearts,\nThat, like the wise man, we may act our parts,\nTo get the pearl of price; then we shall be\nLike godly Mary, Peter, Paul, and we\nLike Jacob, too, the blessing shall obtain;\nWhile Esau rides a-hunting for the gain\nOf worldly pelf, which will him not avail\nWhen death or judgment shall him sore assail.\n    Now, to encourage us for to begin,\nLet us believe the kingdom we may win,\nAnd be possess'd thereof, if we the way\nShall hit into, and then let nothing stay\nOr hinder us; the crown is at the end,\nLet's run and strive, and fly, and let's contend\nWith greatest courage it for to obtain;\n'Tis life, and peace, and everlasting gain.\nThe gate of life, the new and living way,\nThe promise holdeth open all the day,\nWhich thou by Jacob's ladder must ascend,\nWhere angels always wait, and do attend\nAs ministers, to minister for those\nThat do with God, and Christ, and glory close.\n    If guilt of sin still lieth at our door,\nUs to discourage, let us set before\nOur eyes a bleeding Jesus, who did die\nThe death, and let's believe the reason why\nHe did it, was that we might ever be\nFrom death and sin, from hell and wrath set free.\nYea, let's remember for that very end\nIt was his blessed Father did him send;\nThat he the law of God might here fulfil,\nThat so the mystery of his blessed will\nMight be revealed in the blessedness\nOf those that fly to Christ for righteousness.\n    Now let us argue with ourselves, then, thus\nThat Jesus Christ our Lord came to save us,\nBy bearing of our sins upon his back,\nBy hanging on the cross as on a rack,\nWhile justice cut him off on every side,\nWhile smiles Divine themselves from him did hide,\nWhile earth did quake, and rocks in pieces rent,\nAnd while the sun, as veiled, did lament\nTo see the innocent and harmless die\nSo sore a death, so full of misery.\n    Yea, let us turn again, and say, All this\nHe did and suffered for love of his.\nHe brought in everlasting righteousness,\nThat he might cover all our nakedness;\nHe wept and wash'd his face with brinish tears\nThat we might saved be from hellish fears;\nBlood was his sweat, too, in his agony,\nThat we might live in joyful ecstasy;\nHe apprehended was and led away,\nThat grace to us-ward never might decay.\nWith swords, and bills, and outrage in the night,\nThat to the peace of heav'n we might have right.\nCondemned he was between two thieves to die,\nThat we might ever in his bosom lie;\nScourged with whips his precious body were,\nThat we lashes of conscience might not fear;\nHis head was crowned with thorns, that we might be\nCrowned with glory and felicity;\nHe hanged was upon a cursed tree,\nThat we delivered from death might be;\nHis Father from him hides his smiles and face,\nThat we might have them in the heavenly place;\nHe cry'd, My God, why hast forsaken me?\nThat we forsaken of him might not be.\nInto his side was thrust a bloody spear,\nThat we the sting of death might never fear;\nHe went into the grave after all this,\nThat we might up to heav'n go, and have bliss.\nYea, rise again he did out of the earth,\nAnd shook off from him all the chains of death;\nThen at his chariot wheels he captive led\nHis foes, and trod upon the serpent's head;\nRiding in triumph to his Father's throne,\nThere to possess the kingdom as his own.\nWhat say'st thou, wilt not yet unto him come?\nHis arms are open, in his heart is room\nTo lay thee; be not then discouraged,\nAlthough thy sins be many, great, and red;\nUnto thee righteousness he will impute,\nAnd with the kisses of his mouth salute\nThy drooping soul, and will it so uphold,\nAs that thy shaking conscience shall be bold\nTo come to mercy's seat with great access,\nThere to expostulate with that justice\nThat burns like fiery flames against all those\nThat do not with this blessed Jesus close;\nWhich unto thee will do no harm, but good,\nBecause thou hast reliance on that blood\nThat justice saith hath given him content,\nFor all that do unfeignedly repent\nTheir ill-spent life, and roll upon free grace,\nThat they within that bosom might have place,\nThat open is to such, where they shall lie\nIn ease, and gladness, and felicity,\nWorld without end, according to that state\nI have, nay, better than I, can relate.\n    If thou shalt still object, thou yet art vile,\nAnd hast a heart that will not reconcile\nUnto the holy law, but will rebel,\nHark yet to what I shall thee farther tell.\nTwo things are yet behind that help thee will,\nIf God should put into thy mind that skill,\nSo to improve them as becometh those\nThat would with mercy and forgiveness close.\n First, then, let this sink down into thy heart,\nThat Christ is not a Saviour in part,\nBut every way so fully he is made\nThat all of those that underneath his shade\nAnd wing would sit, and shroud their weary soul,\nThat even Moses dare it not control,\nBut justify it, approve of 't, and conclude\nNo man nor angel must himself intrude\nWith such doctrine that may oppose the same,\nOn pain of blaspheming that holy name,\nWhich God himself hath given unto men,\nTo stay, to trust, to lean themselves on, when\nThey feel themselves assaulted, and made fear\nTheir sin will not let them in life appear.\n For as God made him perfect righteousness,\nThat he his love might to the height express,\nAnd us present complete before the throne;\nSanctification, too, of his own\nHe hath prepared, in which do we stand,\nComplete in holiness, at his right hand.\nNow this sanctification is not\nThat holiness which is in us, but that\nWhich in the person of this Jesus is,\nAnd can inherently be only his.\nBut is imputed to us for our good.\nAs is his active righteousness and blood;\nWhich is the cause, though we infirm are found,\nThat mercy and forgiveness doth abound\nTo us-ward, and that why we are not shent[16]\nAnd empty, and away rebuked sent,\nBecause that all we do imperfect is.\nBless God, then, for this holiness of his,\nAnd learn to look by faith on that alone,\nWhen thou seest thou hast nothing of thine own;\nYea, when thy heart most willing is to do\nWhat God by his good word doth call thee to;\nAnd when thou find'st most holiness within,\nAnd greatest power over every sin,\nYet then to Jesus look, and thou shalt see\nIn him sanctification for thee,\nFar more complete than all that thou canst find\nIn the most upright heart and willing mind,\nThat ever man or angels did possess,\nWhen most filled with inherent righteousness.\nBesides, if thou forgettest here to live,\nAnd Satan get thee once into his sieve,\nHe will so hide thy wheat, and show thy brun[17]\nThat thou wilt quickly cry, I am undone.\nAlas, thy goodliest attainments here,\nThough like the fairest blossoms they appear,\nHow quickly will they lour and decay,\nAnd be as if they all were fled away,\nWhen once the east-wind of temptations beat\nUpon thee, with their dry and blasting heat!\nRich men will not account their treasure lies\nIn crack'd groats and four-pence half-pennies,[18]\nBut in those bags they have within their chests,\nIn staple goods, which shall within their breasts\nHave place accordingly, because they see\nTheir substance lieth here. But if that be\nBut shaken, then they quickly fear, and cry,\nAlas, 'tis not this small and odd money,\nWe carry in our pockets for to spend,\nWill make us rich, or much will stand our friend.\nIf famine or if want do us assail,\nHow quickly will these little pieces fail!\n    If thou be wise, consider what I say\nAnd look for all in Christ, where no decay\nIs like to be; then though thy present frame\nBe much in up-and-down, yet he the same\nAbideth, yea, and still at God's right hand,\nAs thy most perfect holiness will stand.\nIt is, I say, not like to that in thee,\nNow high, then low, now out, then in, but he\nMost perfect is, when thou art at the worst\nThe same, the very same; I said at first,\nThis helpeth much when thou art buffeted,\nAnd when thy graces lie in thee as dead;\nThen to believe they are all perfect still\nIn Christ thy head, who hath that blessed skill,\nYet to present thee by what is in him\nUnto his Father, one that hath no sin.\nYea, this will fill thy mouth with argument\nAgainst the tempter, when he shall present\nBefore thee all thy weakness, and shall hide\nFrom thee thy graces, that thou mayst abide\nUnder the fretting fumes of unbelief,\nWhich never yielded Christian man relief.\nNor help thyself thou mayst against him thus:\nO Satan, though my heart indeed be worse\nThan 'twas a while ago, yet I perceive\nThou shalt me not of happiness bereave,\nNor yet of holiness; for by the Word\nI find that Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord,\nIs made sanctification for me\nIn his own person, where all graces be,\nAs water in the fountain; and that I,\nBy means of that, have yet a sanctity,\nBoth personal and perfect every way;\nAnd that is Christ himself, as Paul doth say.\nNow, though my crazy pitcher oft doth leak,\nBy means of which my graces are so weak,\nAnd so much spent, that one I cannot find\nAble to stay or help my feeble mind;\nYet then I look to Jesus, and see all\nIn him that wanting is in me, and shall\nAgain take courage, and believe he will\nPresent me upright in his person, till\nHe humble me for all my foolishness,\nAnd then again fill me with holiness.\nNow, if thou lovest inward sanctity,\nAs all the saints do most unfeignedly,\nThen add, to what I have already said,\nFaith in the promise; and be not afraid\nTo urge it often at the throne of grace,\nAnd to expect it in its time and place.\nThen he that true is, and that cannot lie,\nWill give it unto thee, that thou thereby\nMayst serve with faith, with fear, in truth and love,\nThat God that did at first thy spirit move\nTo ask it to his praise, that he might be\nThy God, and that he might delight in thee.\n If I should here particulars relate,\nMethinks it could not but much animate\nThy heart, though very listless to inquire\nHow thou mayst that enjoy, which all desire\nThat love themselves and future happiness;\nBut O, I cannot fully it express:\nThe promise is so open and so free,\nIn all respects, to those that humble be,\nThat want they cannot what for them is good;\nBut there 'tis, and confirmed is with blood,\nA certain sign, all those enjoy it may,\nThat see they want it, and sincerely pray\nTo God the Father, in that Jesus' name\nWho bled on purpose to confirm the same.\n\n[THE NECESSITY OF A NEW HEART.]\n\nNow wouldst thou have a heart that tender is,\nA heart that forward is to close with bliss;\nA heart that will impressions freely take\nOf the new covenant, and that will make\nThe best improvement of the word of grace,\nAnd that to wickedness will not give place;\nAll this is in the promise, and it may\nObtained be of them that humbly pray.\nWouldst thou enjoy that spirit that is free,\nAnd looseth those that in their spirits be\nOppressed with guilt, or filth, or unbelief;\nThat spirit that will, where it dwells, be chief;\nWhich breaketh Samson's cord as rotten thread,\nAnd raiseth up the spirit that is dead;\nThat sets the will at liberty to choose\nThose things that God hath promis'd to infuse\nInto the humble heart? All this, I say,\nThe promise holdeth out to them that pray.\n\n[THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.]\n\nWouldst thou have that good, that blessed mind,\nThat is so much to heavenly things inclin'd\nThat it aloft will soar, and always be\nContemplating on blest eternity.\nThat mind that never thinks itself at rest,\nBut when it knows it is for ever blest;\nThat mind that can be here no more content,\nThan he that in the prison doth lament;\nThat blessed mind that counts itself then free\nWhen it can at the throne with Jesus be,\nThere to behold the mansions he prepares\nFor such as be with him and his co-heirs.\nThis mind is in the covenant of grace,\nAnd shall be theirs that truly seek his face.\n\n[OF GODLY FEAR.]\n\nIs godly fear delightful unto thee,\nThat fear that God himself delights to see\nBear sway in them that love him? then he will\nThy godly mind in this request fulfil.\nBy giving thee a fear that tremble shall,\nAt every trip thou takest, lest thou fall,\nAnd him offend, or hurt thyself by sin,\nOr cause poor souls that always blind have been\nTo stumble at thy falls, and harder be\nAgainst their own salvation and thee.\n    That fear that of itself would rather choose\nThe rod, than to offend or to abuse\nIn anything that blessed worthy name,\nThat hath thee saved from that death and shame;\nThat sin would soon have brought thee to, if he\nHad not imputed righteousness to thee.\nI will love them, saith God, and not depart\nFrom them, but put my fear within their heart,\nThat I to them may always lovely be,\nAnd that they never may depart from me.\n\n[OF UPRIGHTNESS AND SINCERITY.]\n\nWouldst thou be very upright and sincere?\nWouldst thou be that within thou dost appear,\nOr seem to be in outward exercise\nBefore the most devout, and godly wise?\nYea, art thou thus when no eye doth thee see\nBut that which is invisible? and be\nThe words of God in truth thy prop and stay?\nAnd do they in thy conscience bear more sway\nTo govern thee in faith and holiness,\nThan thou canst with thy heart and mouth express?\nAnd do the things that truly are divine,\nBefore thee more than gold or rubies shine?\nAnd if, as unto Solomon, God should\nPropound to thee, What wouldst thou have? how would\nThy heart and pulse beat after heav'nly things,\nAfter the upper and the nether springs?\n    Couldst, with unfeigned heart and upright lip,\nCry, Hold me fast, Lord, never let me slip,\nNor step aside from faith and holiness,\nNor from the blessed hope of future bliss?\nLord, rather cross me anywhere than here;\nLord, fill me always with thy holy fear,\nAnd godly jealousy of mine own heart,\nLest I, Lord, should at any time depart\nFrom thy most blessed covenant of grace,\nWhere Jesus rules as King, and where thy face\nIs only to be seen with comfort, and\nWhere sinners justified before thee stand.\n    If these thy groanings be sincere and true,\nIf God doth count thee one that dost pursue\nThe things thou cryest after with thy heart,\nNo doubt but in them thou shalt have a part.\n\n[HOW GRACES ARE TO BE OBTAINED.]\n\nThe next word that I would unto thee say,\nIs how thou mayst attain without delay,\nThose blessed graces, and that holiness\nThou dost with so much godly zeal express\nThy love to, and thy longing to enjoy,\nThat sins and weakness might thee less annoy.\nKnow, then, as I have hinted heretofore,\nAnd shall now speak unto a little more,\nAll graces in the person of the Son\nAre by the Father hid, and therefore none\nCan them obtain but they who with him close;\nAll others graceless are but only those;\nFor of his fulness 'tis that we receive,\nAnd grace for grace; let no man then deceive\nHimself or others with a feigned show\nOf holiness, if Jesus they eschew.\nWhen he ascended to his Father, then\nIt was that he received gifts for men;\nFaith, hope, and love, true zeal, an upright heart,\nRight humbleness of mind, and every part\nOf what the word of life counts holiness,\nGod then laid up in him, that we redress\nAnd help might have, who do unto him fly\nFor righteousness and gospel sanctity.\n\n[OF IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.]\n\nNow, if thou wouldst inherit righteousness,\nAnd so sanctification possess\nIn body, soul, and spirit, then thou must\nTo Jesus fly, as one ungodly first;\nAnd so by him crave pardon for thy sin\nWhich thou hast loved, and hast lived in;\nFor this cannot at all forgiven be,\nFor any righteousness that is in thee;\nBecause the best thou hast is filthy rags,\nProfane, presumptuous, and most beastly brags\nOf flesh and blood, which always cross doth lie\nTo God, to grace, and thy felicity.\n    Then righteousness imputed thou must have,\nThee from that guilt and punishment to save\nThou liest under as a sinful man,\nThroughout polluted, and that never can\nBy any other means acquitted be,\nOr ever have true holiness in thee.\nThe reason is, because all graces are\nOnly in Christ, and be infused where,\nOr into those whom he doth justify,\nBy what himself hath done, that he thereby\nMight be the whole of all that happiness\nThe sinner shall enjoy here, and in bliss.\nBesides, if holiness should first be found\nIn those whom God doth pardon, then the ground\nWhy we forgiven are would seem to be,\nHe first found holiness in thee and me;\nBut this the holy Scriptures will refute,\nAnd prove that righteousness he doth impute\nWithout respect to goodness first in man;\nFor, to speak truth indeed, no goodness can\nBe found in those that underneath the law\nDo stand; for if God goodness in them saw,\nWhy doth he once and twice say, There is none\nThat righteous be; no, not so much as one;\nNone understandeth, none seek after God,\nHis ways they have not known, but have abode\nIn wickedness, unprofitably they\nMust needs appear to be then every way.\nTheir throats an open sepulchre, also\nTheir mouths are full of filthy cursings too;\nAnd bitterness, yea, underneath their lips\nThe asp hath poison. O how many slips\nAnd falls in sin must such poor people have!\nNow here's the holiness that should them save,\nOr, as a preparation, go before,\nTo move God to do for them less or more?\nNo, grace must on thee righteousness bestow,\nOr, else sin will for ever thee undo.\nSweet Paul this doctrine also doth express,\nWhere he saith, Some may have righteousness,\nThough works they have not; and it thus may stand,\nGrace by the promise gives what the command\nRequireth us to do, and so are we\nQuitted from doing, and by grace made free.\n\n[OF HOLINESS OF LIFE.]\n\nNow, then, if holiness thou wouldst obtain,\nAnd wouldst a tender Christian man remain,\nKeep faith in action, let that righteousness\nThat Christ fulfilled always have express\nAnd clear distinction in thy heart, from all\nThat men by Scripture, or besides, it, call\nInherent gospel holiness, or what\nTerms else they please to give it; for 'tis that,\nAnd that alone, by which all graces come\nInto the heart; for else there is no room\nFor ought but pride, presumption, or despair,\nNo love or other graces can be there.\nReceived you the Spirit, saith St. Paul,\nBy hearing, faith, or works? not works, and shall\nNo ways retain the same, except you do\nHear faith, embrace the same, and stick thereto.\n\n[THE OPERATION OF FAITH.]\n\nThe word of faith unto me pardon brings,\nShows me the ground and reason whence it springs:\nTo wit, free grace, which moved God to give\nHis Son to die and bleed, that I might live\nThis word doth also loudly preach to me,\nThough I a miserable sinner be,\nYet in this Son of God I stand complete,\nWhose righteousness is without all deceit;\n'Tis that which God himself delighteth in,\nAnd that by which all his have saved been.\n\n[OF LOVE TO GOD.]\n\nWhen I do this begin to apprehend,\nMy heart, my soul, and mind, begins to bend\nTo God-ward, and sincerely for to love\nHis son, his ways, his people, and to move\nWith brokenness of spirit after him\nWho broken was, and killed for my sin.\nNow is mine heart grown holy, now it cleaves\nTo Jesus Christ my Lord, and now it leaves\nThose ways that wicked be; it mourns because\nIt can conform no more unto the laws\nOf God, who loved me when I was vile,\nAnd of sweet Jesus, who did reconcile\nMe unto justice by his precious blood,\nWhen no way else was left to do me good.\nIf you would know how this can operate\nThus on the soul, I shall to you relate\nA little farther what my soul hath seen\nSince I have with the Lord acquainted been.\nThe word of grace, when it doth rightly seize\nThe spirit of a man, and so at ease\nDoth set the soul, the Spirit of the Lord\nDoth then with might accompany the word;\nIn which it sets forth Christ as crucified,\nAnd by that means the Father pacified\nWith such a wretch was thou, and by this sight,\nThy guilt is in the first place put to flight,\nFor thus the Spirit doth expostulate:\nBehold how God doth now communicate\n(By changing of the person) grace to thee\nA sinner, but to Christ great misery,\nThough he the just one was, and so could not\nDeserve this punishment; behold, then, what\nThe love of God is! how 'tis manifest,\nAnd where the reason lies that thou art blest.\nThis doctrine being spoken to the heart,\nWhich also is made yield to every part\nThereof, it doth the same with sweetness fill,\nAnd so doth sins and wickednesses kill;\nFor when the love of God is thus reveal'd,\nAnd thy poor drooping spirit thereby seal'd,\nAnd when thy heart, as dry ground, drinks this in\nUnto the roots thereof, which nourish sin,\nIt smites them, as the worm did Jonah's gourd,\nAnd makes them dwindle of their own accord,\nAnd die away; instead of which there springs\nUp life and love, and other holy things.\nBesides, the Holy Spirit now is come,\nAnd takes possession of thee as its home;\nBy which a war maintained always is\nAgainst the old man and the deeds of his.\n    When God at first upon mount Sinai spake,\nHe made his very servant Moses quake;\nBut when he heard the law the second time,\nHis heart was comforted, his face did shine.\nWhat was the reason of this difference,\nSeeing no change was in the ordinance,\nAlthough a change was in the manner, when\nThe second time he gave it unto men?\nAt first 'twas given in severity,\nIn thunder, blackness, darkness, tempest high,\nIn fiery flames it was delivered.\nThis struck both Moses and the host as dead;\nBut Moses, when he went into the mount\nThe second time, upon the same account\nNo fear, nor dread, nor shaking of his mind,\nDo we in all the holy Scripture find;\nBut rather in his spirit he had rest,\nAnd look'd upon himself as greatly blest.\nHe was put in the rock, he heard the name,\nWhich on the mount the Lord did thus proclaim:\nThe Lord, merciful, gracious, and more,\nLong-suffering, and keeping up in store\nMercy for thousands, pardoning these things,\nIniquity, transgressions, and sins,\nAnd holding guilty none but such as still\nRefuse forgiveness, of rebellious will.\n    This proclamation better pleased him\nThan all the thunder and the light'ning.\nWhich shook the mount, this rid him of his fear,\nThis made him bend, make haste, and worship there.\n    Jehoshaphat, when he was sore opprest\nBy Amnon and by Moab, and the rest\nOf them that sought his life, no rest he found,\nUntil a word of faith became a ground\nTo stay himself upon; O, then they fell,\nHis very song became their passing-bell.\nThen holiness of heart a consequence\nOf faith in Christ is, for it flows from thence;\nThe love of Christ in truth constraineth us,\nOf love sincerely to make judgment thus:\nHe for us died that for ever we\nMight die to sin, and Christ his servants be.\nO! nothing's like to the remembrance\nOf what it is to have deliverance\nFrom death and hell, which is of due our right,\nNothing, I say, like this to work delight\nIn holy things; this like live honey runs,\nAnd needs no pressing out of honey-combs.\n\n[LOVE INDUCING CHRISTIAN CONDUCT.]\n\nThen understand my meaning by my words,\nHow sense of mercy unto faith affords\nBoth grace to sanctify, and holy make\nThat soul that of forgiveness doth partake.\nThus having briefly showed you what is\nThe way of life, or sanctity, of bliss,\nI would not in conclusion have you think,\nBy what I say, that Christian men should drink\nIn these my words with lightness, or that they\nAre now exempted from what every day\nTheir duty is. No, God doth still expect,\nYea, doth command, that they do not neglect\nTo pray, to read, to hear, and not dissent\nFrom being sober, grave, and diligent\nIn watching, self-denial, and with fear\nTo serve him all the time thou livest here.\nIndeed I have endeavoured to lay\nBefore your eyes the right and only way\nPardon to get, and also holiness,\nWithout which never think that God will bless\nThee with the kingdom he will give to those\nThat Christ embrace, and holy lives do choose\nTo live, while here all others go astray,\nAnd shall in time to come be cast away.\n\n\nFROM MOUNT EBAL.\n\nThus having heard from Gerizzim, I shall\nNext come to Ebal, and you thither call,\nNot there to curse you, but to let you hear\nHow God doth curse that soul that shall appear\nAn unbelieving man, a graceless wretch;\nBecause he doth continue in the breach\nOf Moses' law, and also doth neglect\nTo close with Jesus; him will God reject\nAnd cast behind him; for of right his due\nIs that from whence all miseries ensue.\nCursed, saith he, are thy that do transgress\nThe least of my commandments, more or less.\nNothing that written is must broken be,\nBut always must be kept unto by thee,\nAnd must fulfilled be; for here no man\nCan look God in the face, or ever stand\nBefore the judgment-seat; for if they be\nConvict, condemned too assuredly.\nNow keep this law no mortal creature can,\nFor they already do, as guilty, stand\nBefore the God that gave it; so that they\nObnoxious to the curse lie every day,\nWhich also they must feel for certainty,\nIf unto Jesus Christ they do not fly.\nHence, then, as they for ever shall be blest,\nThat do by faith upon the promise rest,\nSo peace unto the wicked there is none;\n'Tis wrath and death that they must feed upon.\n    That what I say may some impression make\nOn carnal hearts, that they in time may take\nThat course that best will prove when time is done,\nThese lines I add to what I have begun.\n    First, thou must know that God, as he is love\nSo he is justice, therefore cannot move,\nOr in the least be brought to favour those\nHis holiness and justice doth oppose.\n    For though thou mayst imagine in thy heart\nThat God is this or that, yet if thou art\nAt all besides the truth of what he is,\nAnd so dost build thy hope for life amiss,\nStill he the same abideth, and will be\nThe same, the same for ever unto thee.\n    As God is true unto his promise, so\nUnto his threat'ning he is faithful too.\nCease to be God he must, if he should break\nOne tittle that his blessed mouth did speak.\n    Now, then, none can be saved but the men\nWith whom the Godhead is contented when\nIt them beholds with the severest eye\nOf justice, holiness, and yet can spy\nNo fault nor blemish in them; these be they\nThat must be saved, as the Scriptures say.\n    If this be true, as 'tis assuredly,\nWoe be to them that wicked live and die;\nThose that as far from holiness have been\nAll their life long as if no eye had seen\nTheir doings here, or as if God did not\nAt all regard, or in the least mind what,\nWherein, or how they did his law transgress,\nEither by this or other wickedness;\nBut how deceived these poor creatures are,\nThey then shall know when they their burthen bear.\n Alas, our God is a consuming fire;\nSo is his law, by which he doth require\nThat thou submit to him, and if thou be\nNot in that justice found that can save thee\nFrom all and every sentence which he spake\nUpon mount Sinai, then as one that brake\nIt, thou the flames thereof shall quickly find\nAs scourges thee to lash, while sins do bind\nThee hand and foot, for ever to endure\nThe strokes of vengeance for thy life impure.\n    What I have said will yet evinced be,\nAnd manifest abundantly to thee,\nIf what I have already spoken to\nBe joined with these lines that do ensue.\nJustice discovers its antipathy\nAgainst profaneness and malignity.\nNot only by the law it gave to men,\nAnd threatenings thereunto annexed then.\nBut inasmuch as long before that day,\nHe did prepare for such as go astray,\nThat dreadful, that so much amazing place--\nHell, with its torments--for those men that grace\nAnd holiness of life slight and disdain,\nThere to bemoan themselves with hellish pain.\n    This place, also, the pains so dismal be,\nBoth as to name and nature, that in me\nIt is not to express the damning wights,\nThe hellish torture, and the fearful plights\nThereof; for as intolerable they\nMust needs be found, by those that disobey\nThe Lord, so can no word or thought express\nUnto the full the height of that distress;\nSuch miserable caitiffs, that shall there\nRebukes of vengeance, for transgressions bear.\n    Indeed the holy Scriptures do make use\nOf many metaphors, that do conduce\nMuch to the symbolizing of the place,\nUnto our apprehension; but the case--\nThe sad, the woful case--of those that lie\nAs racked there in endless misery,\nBy all similitudes no mortals may\nSet forth in its own nature; for I say\nSimilitudes are but a shade, and show\nOf those or that they signify to you.\nThe fire that doth within thine oven burn,\nThe prison where poor people sit and mourn,\nChains, racks, and darkness, and such others, be\nAs painting on the wall, to let thee see\nBy word and figures the extremity\nOf such as shall within these burnings lie.\n    But certainly, if wickedness and sin\nHad only foolish toys and trifles been,\nAnd if God had not greatly hated it,\nYea, could he any ways thereof admit,\nAnd let it pass, he would not thus have done.\nHe doth not use to punish any one\nWith any place or punishment that is\nAbove or sharper than the sin of his\nHath merited, and justice seeth due;\nRead sin, then, by the death that doth ensue.\n    Most men do judge of sin, not by the fruits\nIt bears and bringeth forth, but as it suits\nTheir carnal and deluded hearts, that be\nWith sensual pleasures eaten up; but he\nThat now so judgeth, shortly shall perceive\nThat God will judge thereof himself, and leave\nSuch men no longer to their carnal lusts,\nTo judge of wickedness, and of the just\nAnd righteous punishment that doth of right\nBelong thereto; and will, too, in despite\nOf all their carnal reason, justify\nHimself, in their eternal misery.\nThen hell will be no fancy, neither will\nMen's sins be pleasant to them; but so ill\nAnd bitter, yea, so bitter, that none can\nFully express the same, or ever stand\nUnder the burden it will on them lay,\nWhen they from life and bliss are sent away.\n    When I have thought how often God doth speak\nOf their destruction, who HIS law do break;\nAnd when the nature of the punishment\nI find so dreadful, and that God's intent,\nYea, resolution is, it to inflict\nOn every sinner that shall stand convict,\nI have amazed been, yet to behold,\nTo see poor sinners yet with sin so bold,\nThat like the horse that to the battle runs,\nWithout all fear, and that no danger shuns,\nTill down he falls. O resolute attempts!\nO sad, amazing, damnable events!\nThe end of such proceedings needs must be,\nFrom which, O Lord, save and deliver me.\nBut if thou think that God thy noble race\nWill more respect, than into such a place\nTo put thee; hold, though thou his offspring be,\nAnd so art lovely, yet sin hath made thee\nAnother kind of creature than when thou\nDidst from his fingers drop, and therefore now\nThy first creation stands thee in no stead;\nThou hast transgressed, and in very deed\nSet God against thee, who is infinite,\nAnd that for certain never will forget\nThy sins, nor favour thee if thou shalt die\nA graceless man; this is thy misery.\n    When angels sinned, though of higher race\nThan thou, and also put in higher place,\nYet them he spared not, but cast them down\nFrom heaven to hell; where also they lie bound\nIn everlasting chains, and no release\nShall ever have, but wrath, that shall increase\nUpon them, to their everlasting woe.\nAs for the state they were exalted to,\nThat will by no means mitigate their fear,\nBut aggravate their hellish torment here;\nFor he that highest stands, if he shall fall,\nHis danger needs must be the great'st of all.\nNow if God noble angels did not spare\nBecause they did transgress, will he forbear\nPoor dust and ashes? Will he suffer them\nTo break his law, and sin, and not condemn\nThem for so doing? Let not man deceive\nHimself or others; they that do bereave\nThemselves by sin of happiness, shall be\nCut off by justice, and have misery.\n    Witness his great severity upon\nThe world that first was planted, wherein none\nBut only eight the deluge did escape,\nAll others of that vengeance did partake;\nThe reason was, that world ungodly stood\nBefore him, therefore he did send the flood,\nWhich swept them all away. A just reward\nFor their most wicked ways against the Lord,\nWho could no longer bear them and their ways,\nTherefore into their bosom vengeance pays.\nWe read of Sodom, and Gomorrah too,\nWhat judgments they for sin did undergo;\nHow God from heaven did fire upon them rain,\nBecause they would not wicked ways refrain;\nCondemning of them with an overthrow,\nAnd turned them to ashes. Who can know\nThe miseries that these poor people felt\nWhile they did underneath those burnings melt?\nNow these, and many more that I could name,\nThat have been made partakers of the flame\nAnd sword of justice, God did then cut off,\nAnd make examples unto all that scoff\nAt holiness, or do the gospel slight;\nAnd long it will not be before the night\nAnd judgment, painted out by what he did\nTo Sodom and Gomorrah, fulfilled\nUpon such sinners be, that they may now\nThat God doth hate the sin, and persons too.\nOf such as still rebellious shall abide,\nAlthough they now at judgment may deride.\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] On the reverse of the title-page is the following singular\nadvertisement:--'This author having published many books, which\nhave gone off very well, there are certain ballad-sellers about\nNewgate, and on London Bridge, who have put the two first letters\nof this author's name, and his effigies, to their rhymes and\nridiculous books, suggesting to the world as if they were his.\nNow know, that this author publisheth his name at large to all\nhis books; and what you shall see otherwise, he disowns.'--Ed.\n\n[2] 'Convert,' for 'be ye converted,' was a common mode of speech\nin Bunyan's time. It is so used in Holy Writ, Isaiah 6:10.--Ed.\n\n[3] Armorial bearings as now worn by heralds embroidered on the\ntabard or coat.--Ed.\n\n[4] A common custom when death takes place. The two great toes\nare tied together, to make the body look decent; and formerly the\nhands were placed with the palms together, as if in the attitude\nof prayer, and were kept in that posture by tying the thumbs\ntogether.--Ed.\n\n[5] Without fail, or in spite of all hindrance.--Ed.\n\n[6] Alluding to wrestlers. Some modes of throwing each other down\nare called fair, others foul or unfair.--Ed.\n\n[7] Sincerity is the fountain and source of all real inquiries after\ntruth, holiness, and heaven. It leads to personal examination of\nGod's Word, which leads us from the complexity of human inventions\nto the simplicity of the gospel.--Ed\n\n[8] The exact spelling of Bunyan is here followed; but whether he\nmeant 'coped,' 'covered,' or 'cooped'--inclosed, or shut in--must\nbe left to the reader's judgment. I prefer the latter.--Ed.\n\n[9] Fit, convenient. 'Deft' is now obsolete.--Ed.\n\n[10] Full of fear and dread. Bunyan, in his Holy War, brings his\nimmense armies of doubters, under General Incredulity, from\nHell-gate Hill.--Ed.\n\n[11] Quick, nimble, active, powerful spirits. Wight is now obsolete,\nexcept in irony; see Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n[12] See note on verse fifty of the Meditations on Heaven.--Ed.\n\n[13] This is a common temptation. Job felt it, and murmured at\nhaving been born, Job 3:3, and 10:18, 19. Jeremiah passed through\nthe same experience, Jeremiah 20:14, 15. Bunyan had the same bitter\nfeelings, and wished himself a dog or toad; see Grace Abounding,\nNo. 104. Colonel Gardener was similarly tried. How awful is the\nhavoc that sin has made with human happiness.-Ed.\n\n[14] The finest particles or atoms of matter--\n\n'As thick, as numberless 'As the gay motes that people the\nsunbeams.'--Milton.--Ed.\n\n[15] How does this remind us of the awfully impressive cries of the\nman in the iron cage--'O, eternity, eternity! how shall I grapple\nwith the misery that I must meet with in eternity!' 'A thousand\ndeaths live in him, he not dead.'--Ed.\n\n[16] From the Saxon scendan, to violate, spoil, revile; see Imperial\nDictionary.--Ed.\n\n[17] Altered by poetical license from 'bran.' Chaucer, in one\ninstance, spells it 'bren,' to rhyme with men.--Ed.\n\n[18] This evidently refers to a coin value four-penny half-penny,\nand, like a cracked groat, not so much prized as good coin. In\nTurner's Remarkable Providences, folio, 1697, pages 28, is a very\nsingular allusion to one of these coins:--'Christian, the wife\nof R. Green, of Brenham, Somersetshire, in 1663, made a covenant\nwith the devil. He pricked the fourth finger off her right hand,\nbetween the middle and upper joint, and took two drops of her\nblood on his finger, giving her four-pence half-penny. He then\nvanished, leaving a smell of brimstone behind.'--Ed.\n\n***\n\nA Book for Boys and Girls Or, Temporal Things Spritualized.\n\nby John Bunyan,\n\nLicensed and entered according to order.\n\nLondon: Printed for, and sold by, R. Tookey, at his Printing House\nin St. Christopher's Court, in Threadneedle Street, behind the\nRoyal Exchange, 1701.\n\n\nAdvertisement by the Editor.\n\nSome degree of mystery hangs over these Divine Emblems for children,\nand many years' diligent researches have not enabled me completely\nto solve it. That they were written by Bunyan, there cannot be\nthe slightest doubt.\n\n'Manner and matter, too, are all his own.'[1]\n\nBut no book, under the title of Divine Emblems, is mentioned in any\ncatalogue or advertisements of Bunyan's works, published during\nhis life; nor in those more complete lists printed by his personal\nfriends, immediately after his death. In all these lists, as\nwell as in many advertisement, both before, and shortly after Mr.\nBunyan's death, a little book for children is constantly introduced,\nwhich, judging from the title, must have been similar to, if not\nthe same as, these Emblems; but the Editor has not been able to\ndiscover a copy of the first edition, although every inquiry has\nbeen made for it, both in the United Kingdom and America. It was\nadvertised in 1688, as Country Rhymes for Children, upon seventy-four\nthings.[2] It is also advertised, in the same year, as A Book for\nBoys and Girls, or Country Rhymes for Children, price 6d.[3] In\n1692, it is included in Charles Doe's catalogue table of all Mr.\nBunyan's books, appended to The Struggler for their preservation,\nNo. 36; Meditations on seventy-four things, published in 1685, and\nnot reprinted during the author's life. In Charles Doe's second\ncatalogue of all Mr. Bunyan's books, appended to the first\nedition of the Heavenly Footman, March 1698, it is No. 37. A Book\nfor Boys and Girls, or Country Rhymes for Children, in verse, on\nseventy-four things. This catalogue describes every work, word\nfor word, as it is in the several title pages. In 1707 it had\nreached a third edition, and was 'ornamented with cuts';[4] and\nthe title is altered to A Book for Boys and Girls, or Temporal\nThings Spiritualized, with cuts. In 1720, it was advertised,\n'price, bound, 6d.'[5] In Keach's Glorious Lover, it is advertised\nby Marshall, in 12mo. price 1s. In 1724, it assumed its present\ntitle, and from that time was repeatedly advertised as Divine\nEmblems, or Temporal Things Spiritualized, fitted for the use of\nboys and girls, adorned with cuts.\n\nBy indefatigable exertions, my excellent friend and brother\ncollector of old English bibles, James Dix, Esq., Bristol, has\njust discovered and presented to me the second edition of this very\nrare little volume, in fine preservation, from which it appears,\nthat in 1701, the title page was altered from Country Rhymes and\nMeditations, to A Book for Boys and Girls, or Temporal Things\nSpiritualized. It has no cuts, but, with that exception, it contains\nexactly the same subjects as the subsequent editions published\nunder the more popular title of Divine Emblems.\n\nThe only difficulty that remains is to discover seventy-four\nmeditations in the forty-nine Emblems. This may be readily done, if\nthe subjects of meditation are drawn out. Thus, the first emblem\ncontains meditations on two things, the Barren Fig-tree, and\nGod's Vineyard. So the second has a meditation on the Lark and\nthe Fowler, and another on the comparison between the Fowler and\nSatan. Upon this plan, the volume contains exactly seventy-four\nmeditations.\n\nUnder the title of Divine Emblems, it has passed through a multitude\nof editions, and many thousand copies have been circulated. It was\npatronized in those early efforts of the Religious Tract Society,\nwhich have been so abundantly blessed in introducing wholesome\nfood to the young, instead of the absurd romances which formerly\npoisoned the infant and youthful mind.\n\nAmong these numerous editions, two deserve special notice. The\nfirst of these was published in 1757, 'on a curious paper, and\ngood letter, with new cuts.' It has a singular preface, signed J.\nD., addressed 'to the great Boys, in folio, and the little ones\nin coats.' The first eight pages are occupied with a dissertation\non the origin of language, perhaps arising from a line in the\ndialogue between a sinner and spider, 'My name entailed is to my\ncreation.' In this preface, he learnedly attempts to prove that\nlanguage was the gift of God by revelation, and not a gradual\nacquirement of man as his wants multiplied. The other remarkable\nedition was published about 1790.[6] It is, both the text and cuts,\nprinted from copperplate engravings, very handsomely executed.\nThis is an honour conferred upon very few authors;[7] nor was it\never conferred upon one more worthy the highest veneration of man\nthan is the immortal allegorist.\n\nThe number of editions which have been printed of these little\nengaging poems, is a proof of the high estimation in which they\nhave been held for nearly one hundred and seventy years; and the\ngreat rarity of the early copies shows the eager interest with\nwhich they have been read by children until utterly destroyed.\n\nThe cuts were at first exceedingly coarse and rude, but were much\nimproved in the more modern copies. Those to Mason's edition are\nhandsome. The engraver has dressed all his actors in the costume\nof the time of George the Third; the women with hooped petticoats\nand high head dresses; clergymen with five or six tier wigs; men\nwith cocked hats and queues; and female servants with mob caps.\nThat to Emblem Fifteen, upon the sacraments, is peculiarly droll;\nthe artist, forgetting that the author was a Baptist, represents\na baby brought to the font to be christened! and two persons\nkneeling before the body of our Lord!\n\nGEO. OFFOR.\n\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\nCOURTEOUS READER,\n\nThe title page will show, if there thou look,\nWho are the proper subjects of this book.\nThey're boys and girls of all sorts and degrees,\nFrom those of age to children on the knees.\nThus comprehensive am I in my notions,\nThey tempt me to it by their childish motions.\nWe now have boys with beards, and girls that be\nBig[8]as old women, wanting gravity.\n    Then do not blame me, 'cause I thus describe them.\nFlatter I may not, lest thereby I bribe them\nTo have a better judgment of themselves,\nThan wise men have of babies on their shelves.[9]\nTheir antic tricks, fantastic modes, and way,\nShow they, like very boys and girls, do play\nWith all the frantic fopperies of this age,\nAnd that in open view, as on a stage;\nOur bearded men do act like beardless boys;\nOur women please themselves with childish toys.\n    Our ministers, long time, by word and pen,\nDealt with them, counting them not boys, but men.\nThunderbolts they shot at them and their toys,\nBut hit them not, 'cause they were girls and boys.\nThe better charg'd, the wider still they shot,\nOr else so high, these dwarfs they touched not.\nInstead of men, they found them girls and boys,\nAddict to nothing as to childish toys.\n    Wherefore, good reader, that I save them may,\nI now with them the very dotterel[10] play;\nAnd since at gravity they make a tush,\nMy very beard I cast behind a bush;\nAnd like a fool stand fing'ring of their toys,\nAnd all to show them they are girls and boys.\n    Nor do I blush, although I think some may\nCall me a baby, 'cause I with them play.\nI do't to show them how each fingle-fangle\nOn which they doting are, their souls entangle,\nAs with a web, a trap, a gin, or snare;\nAnd will destroy them, have they not a care.\n    Paul seemed to play the fool, that he might gain\nThose that were fools indeed, if not in grain;[11]\nAnd did it by their things, that they might know\nTheir emptiness, and might be brought unto\nWhat would them save from sin and vanity,\nA noble act, and full of honesty.\nYet he nor I would like them be in vice,\nWhile by their playthings I would them entice,\nTo mount their thoughts from what are childish toys,\nTo heaven, for that's prepared for girls and boys.\nNor do I so confine myself to these,\nAs to shun graver things; I seek to please\nThose more compos'd with better things than toys;\nThough thus I would be catching girls and boys.\n    Wherefore, if men have now a mind to look,\nPerhaps their graver fancies may be took\nWith what is here, though but in homely rhymes:\nBut he who pleases all must rise betimes.\nSome, I persuade me, will be finding fault,\nConcluding, here I trip, and there I halt:\nNo doubt some could those grovelling notions raise\nBy fine-spun terms, that challenge might the bays.\nBut should all men be forc'd to lay aside\nTheir brains that cannot regulate the tide\nBy this or that man's fancy, we should have\nThe wise unto the fool become a slave.\nWhat though my text seems mean, my morals be\nGrave, as if fetch'd from a sublimer tree.\nAnd if some better handle[12] can a fly,\nThan some a text, why should we then deny\nTheir making proof, or good experiment,\nOf smallest things, great mischiefs to prevent?\n    Wise Solomon did fools to piss-ants[13] send,\nTo learn true wisdom, and their lies to mend.\nYea, God by swallows, cuckoos, and the ass,[14]\nShows they are fools who let that season pass,\nWhich he put in their hand, that to obtain\nWhich is both present and eternal gain.\n    I think the wiser sort my rhymes may slight,\nBut what care I, the foolish will delight\nTo read them, and the foolish God has chose,\nAnd doth by foolish things their minds compose,\nAnd settle upon that which is divine;\nGreat things, by little ones, are made to shine.\n    I could, were I so pleas'd, use higher strains:\nAnd for applause on tenters[15] stretch my brains.\nBut what needs that? the arrow, out of sight,\nDoes not the sleeper, nor the watchman fright;\nTo shoot too high doth but make children gaze,\n'Tis that which hits the man doth him amaze.\n    And for the inconsiderableness\nOf things, by which I do my mind express,\nMay I by them bring some good thing to pass,\nAs Samson, with the jawbone of an ass;\nOr as brave Shamgar, with his ox's goad\n(Both being things not manly, nor for war in mode),\nI have my end, though I myself expose\nTo scorn; God will have glory in the close.\n\nJ.B.\n\n\nA BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, &c.\n\nDIVINE EMBLEMS, OR TEMPORAL THINGS\nSPIRITUALIZED, &c.\n\nI.\n\nUPON THE BARREN FIG-TREE IN GOD'S VINEYARD\n\nWhat, barren here! in this so good a soil?\nThe sight of this doth make God's heart recoil\nFrom giving thee his blessing; barren tree,\nBear fruit, or else thine end will cursed be!\nArt thou not planted by the water-side?\nKnow'st not thy Lord by fruit is glorified?\nThe sentence is, Cut down the barren tree:\nBear fruit, or else thine end will cursed be.\nHast thou been digg'd about and dunged too,\nWill neither patience nor yet dressing do?\nThe executioner is come, O tree,\nBear fruit, or else thine end will cursed be!\nHe that about thy roots takes pains to dig,\nWould, if on thee were found but one good fig,\nPreserve thee from the axe: but, barren tree,\nBear fruit, or else thy end will cursed be!\nThe utmost end of patience is at hand,\n'Tis much if thou much longer here doth stand.\nO cumber-ground, thou art a barren tree.\nBear fruit, or else thine end will cursed be!\nThy standing nor they name will help at all;\nWhen fruitful trees are spared, thou must fall.\nThe axe is laid unto thy roots, O tree!\nBear fruit, or else thine end will cursed be.\n\nII.\n\nUPON THE LARK AND THE FOWLER.\n\nThou simple bird, what makes thou here to play?\nLook, there's the fowler, pr'ythee come away.\nDo'st not behold the net? Look there, 'tis spread,\nVenture a little further, thou art dead.\nIs there not room enough in all the field\nFor thee to play in, but thou needs must yield\nTo the deceitful glitt'ring of a glass,\nPlac'd betwixt nets, to bring thy death to pass?\nBird, if thou art so much for dazzling light,\nLook, there's the sun above thee; dart upright;\nThy nature is to soar up to the sky,\nWhy wilt thou come down to the nets and die?\nTake no heed to the fowler's tempting call;\nThis whistle, he enchanteth birds withal.\nOr if thou see'st a live bird in his net,\nBelieve she's there, 'cause hence she cannot get.\nLook how he tempteth thee with is decoy,\nThat he may rob thee of thy life, thy joy.\nCome, pr'ythee bird, I pr'ythee come away,\nWhy should this net thee take, when 'scape thou may?\nHadst thou not wings, or were thy feathers pull'd,\nOr wast thou blind, or fast asleep wer't lull'd,\nThe case would somewhat alter, but for thee,\nThy eyes are ope, and thou hast wings to flee.\nRemember that thy song is in thy rise,\nNot in thy fall; earth's not thy paradise.\nKeep up aloft, then, let thy circuits be\nAbove, where birds from fowler's nets are free.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis fowler is an emblem of the devil,\nHis nets and whistle, figures of all evil.\nHis glass an emblem is of sinful pleasure,\nAnd his decoy of who counts sin a treasure.\nThis simple lark's a shadow of a saint,\nUnder allurings, ready now to faint.\nThis admonisher a true teacher is,\nWhose works to show the soul the snare and bliss,\nAnd how it may this fowler's net escape,\nAnd not commit upon itself this rape.\n\nIII.\n\nUPON THE VINE-TREE.\n\nWhat is the vine, more than another tree?\nNay most, than it, more tall, more comely be.\nWhat workman thence will take a beam or pin,\nTo make ought which may be delighted in?\nIts excellency in its fruit doth lie:\nA fruitless vine, it is not worth a fly.\n\nComparison.\n\nWhat are professors more than other men?\nNothing at all. Nay, there's not one in ten,\nEither for wealth, or wit, that may compare,\nIn many things, with some that carnal are.\nGood are they, if they mortify their sin,\nBut without that, they are not worth a pin.\n\nIV.\n\nMEDITATIONS UPON AN EGG.\n\n1.\n\nThe egg's no chick by falling from the hen;\nNor man a Christian, till he's born again.\nThe egg's at first contained in the shell;\nMen, afore grace, in sins and darkness dwell.\nThe egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken,\nAnd Christ, by grace, those dead in sin doth quicken.\nThe egg, when first a chick, the shell's its prison;\nSo's flesh to the soul, who yet with Christ is risen.\nThe shell doth crack, the chick doth chirp and peep,\nThe flesh decays, as men do pray and weep.\nThe shell doth break, the chick's at liberty,\nThe flesh falls off, the soul mounts up on high\nBut both do not enjoy the self-same plight;\nThe soul is safe, the chick now fears the kite.\n\n2.\n\nBut chicks from rotten eggs do not proceed,\nNor is a hypocrite a saint indeed.\nThe rotten egg, though underneath the hen,\nIf crack'd, stinks, and is loathsome unto men.\nNor doth her warmth make what is rotten sound;\nWhat's rotten, rotten will at last be found.\nThe hypocrite, sin has him in possession,\nHe is a rotten egg under profession.\n\n3.\n\nSome eggs bring cockatrices; and some men\nSeem hatch'd and brooded in the viper's den.\nSome eggs bring wild-fowls; and some men there be\nAs wild as are the wildest fowls that flee.\nSome eggs bring spiders, and some men appear\nMore venom'd than the worst of spiders are.[16]\nSome eggs bring piss-ants, and some seem to me\nAs much for trifles as the piss-ants be.\nThus divers eggs do produce divers shapes,\nAs like some men as monkeys are like apes.\nBut this is but an egg, were it a chick,\nHere had been legs, and wings, and bones to pick.\n\nV.\n\nOF FOWLS FLYING IN THE AIR.\n\nMethinks I see a sight most excellent,\nAll sorts of birds fly in the firmament:\nSome great, some small, all of a divers kind,\nMine eye affecting, pleasant to my mind.\nLook how they tumble in the wholesome air,\nAbove the world of worldlings, and their care.\nAnd as they divers are in bulk and hue,\nSo are they in their way of flying too.\nSo many birds, so many various things\nTumbling i' the element upon their wings.\n\nComparison.\n\nThese birds are emblems of those men that shall\nEre long possess the heavens, their all in all.\nThey are each of a diverse shape and kind,\nTo teach we of all nations there shall find.\nThey are some great, some little, as we see,\nTo show some great, some small, in glory be.[17]\nTheir flying diversely, as we behold,\nDo show saints' joys will there be manifold;\nSome glide, some mount, some flutter, and some do,\nIn a mix'd way of flying, glory too.\nAnd all to show each saint, to his content,\nShall roll and tumble in that firmament.\n\nVI.\n\nUPON THE LORD'S PRAYER.\n\nOur Father which in heaven art,\nThy name be always hallowed;\nThy kingdom come, thy will be done;\nThy heavenly path be followed\nBy us on earth as 'tis with thee,\nWe humbly pray;\nAnd let our bread us given be,\nFrom day to day.\nForgive our debts as we forgive\nThose that to us indebted are:\nInto temptation lead us not,[18]\nBut save us from the wicked snare.\nThe kingdom's thine, the power too,\nWe thee adore;\nThe glory also shall be thine\nFor evermore.\n\nVII.\n\nMEDITATIONS UPON PEEP OF DAY.\n\nI oft, though it be peep of day, don't know\nWhether 'tis night, whether 'tis day or no.\nI fancy that I see a little light,\nBut cannot yet distinguish day from night;\nI hope, I doubt, but steady yet I be not,\nI am not at a point, the sun I see not.\nThus 'tis with such who grace but now[19] possest,\nThey know not yet if they be cursed or blest.\n\nVIII.\n\nUPON THE FLINT IN THE WATER.\n\nThis flint, time out of mind, has there abode,\nWhere crystal streams make their continual road.\nYet it abides a flint as much as 'twere\nBefore it touched the water, or came there\nIts hard obdurateness is not abated,\n'Tis not at all by water penetrated.\nThough water hath a soft'ning virtue in't,\nThis stone it can't dissolve, for 'tis a flint.\nYea, though it in the water doth remain,\nIt doth its fiery nature still retain.\nIf you oppose it with its opposite,\nAt you, yea, in your face, its fire 'twill spit.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis flint an emblem is of those that lie,\nLike stones, under the Word, until they die.\nIts crystal streams have not their nature changed,\nThey are not, from their lusts, by grace estranged.\n\nIX.\n\nUPON THE FISH IN THE WATER.\n\n1.\n\nThe water is the fish's element;\nTake her from thence, none can her death prevent;\nAnd some have said, who have transgressors been,\nAs good not be, as to be kept from sin.\n\n2.\n\nThe water is the fish's element:\nLeave her but there, and she is well content.\nSo's he, who in the path of life doth plod,\nTake all, says he, let me but have my God.\n\n3.\n\nThe water is the fish's element,\nHer sportings there to her are excellent;\nSo is God's service unto holy men,\nThey are not in their element till then.\n\nX.\n\nUPON THE SWALLOW.\n\nThis pretty bird, O! how she flies and sings,[20]\nBut could she do so if she had not wings?\nHer wings bespeak my faith, her songs my peace;\nWhen I believe and sing my doubtings cease.\n\nXI.\n\nUPON THE BEE.\n\nThe bee goes out, and honey home doth bring,\nAnd some who seek that honey find a sting.\nNow would'st thou have the honey, and be free\nFrom stinging, in the first place kill the bee.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis bee an emblem truly is of sin,\nWhose sweet, unto a many, death hath been.\nNow would'st have sweet from sin and yet not die,\nDo thou it, in the first place, mortify.\n\nXII.\n\nUPON A LOWERING MORNING.\n\nWell, with the day I see the clouds appear,\nAnd mix the light with darkness everywhere;\nThis threatening is, to travellers that go\nLong journeys, slabby rain they'll have, or snow.\nElse, while I gaze, the sun doth with his beams\nBelace the clouds, as 'twere with bloody streams;\nThis done, they suddenly do watery grow,\nAnd weep, and pour their tears out where they go.\n\nComparison.\n\nThus 'tis when gospel light doth usher in\nTo us both sense of grace and sense of sin;\nYea, when it makes sin red with Christ's blood,\nThen we can weep till weeping does us good.\n\nXIII.\n\nUPON OVER-MUCH NICENESS.\n\n'Tis much to see how over nice some are\nAbout the body and household affair,\nWhile what's of worth they slightly pass it by,\nNot doing, or doing it slovenly.\nTheir house must be well furnished, be in print,[21]\nMeanwhile their soul lies ley,[22] has no good in't.\nIts outside also they must beautify,\nWhen in it there's scarce common honesty.\nTheir bodies they must have tricked up and trim,\nTheir inside full of filth up to the brim.\nUpon their clothes there must not be a spot,\nBut is their lives more than one common blot.\nHow nice, how coy are some about their diet,\nThat can their crying souls with hogs'-meat quiet.\nAll drest must to a hair be, else 'tis naught,\nWhile of the living bread they have no thought.\nThus for their outside they are clean and nice,\nWhile their poor inside stinks with sin and vice.\n\nXIV.\n\nMEDITATIONS UPON A CANDLE.\n\nMan's like a candle in a candlestick,\nMade up of tallow and a little wick;\nAnd as the candle when it is not lighted,\nSo is he who is in his sins benighted.\nNor can a man his soul with grace inspire,\nMore than can candles set themselves on fire.\nCandles receive their light from what they are not;\nMen grace from Him for whom at first they care not.\nWe manage candles when they take the fire;\nGod men, when he with grace doth them inspire.\nAnd biggest candles give the better light,\nAs grace on biggest sinners shines most bright.\nThe candle shines to make another see,\nA saint unto his neighbour light should be.\nThe blinking candle we do much despise,\nSaints dim of light are high in no man's eyes.\nAgain, though it may seem to some a riddle,\nWe use to light our candles at the middle.[23]\nTrue light doth at the candle's end appear,\nAnd grace the heart first reaches by the ear.\nBut 'tis the wick the fire doth kindle on,\nAs 'tis the heart that grace first works upon.\nThus both do fasten upon what's the main,\nAnd so their life and vigour do maintain.\nThe tallow makes the wick yield to the fire,\nAnd sinful flesh doth make the soul desire\nThat grace may kindle on it, in it burn;\nSo evil makes the soul from evil turn.[24]\nBut candles in the wind are apt to flare,\nAnd Christians, in a tempest, to despair.\nThe flame also with smoke attended is,\nAnd in our holy lives there's much amiss.\nSometimes a thief will candle-light annoy,\nAnd lusts do seek our graces to destroy.\nWhat brackish is will make a candle sputter;\n'Twixt sin and grace there's oft' a heavy clutter.\nSometimes the light burns dim, 'cause of the snuff,\nSometimes it is blown quite out with a puff;\nBut watchfulness preventeth both these evils,\nKeeps candles light, and grace in spite of devils.\nNor let not snuffs nor puffs make us to doubt,\nOur candles may be lighted, though puffed out.\nThe candle in the night doth all excel,\nNor sun, nor moon, nor stars, then shine so well.\nSo is the Christian in our hemisphere,\nWhose light shows others how their course to steer.\nWhen candles are put out, all's in confusion;\nWhere Christians are not, devils make intrusion.\nThen happy are they who such candles have,\nAll others dwell in darkness and the grave.\nBut candles that do blink within the socket,\nAnd saints, whose eyes are always in their pocket,\nAre much alike; such candles make us fumble,\nAnd at such saints good men and bad do stumble.[25]\nGood candles don't offend, except sore eyes,\nNor hurt, unless it be the silly flies.\nThus none like burning candles in the night,\nNor ought[26] to holy living for delight.\nBut let us draw towards the candle's end:\nThe fire, you see, doth wick and tallow spend,\nAs grace man's life until his glass is run,\nAnd so the candle and the man is done.\nThe man now lays him down upon his bed,\nThe wick yields up its fire, and so is dead.\nThe candle now extinct is, but the man\nBy grace mounts up to glory, there to stand.\n\nXV.\n\nUPON THE SACRAMENTS.\n\nTwo sacraments I do believe there be,\nBaptism and the Supper of the Lord;\nBoth mysteries divine, which do to me,\nBy God's appointment, benefit afford.\nBut shall they be my God, or shall I have\nOf them so foul and impious a thought,\nTo think that from the curse they can me save?\nBread, wine, nor water, me no ransom bought.[27]\n\nXVI.\n\nUPON THE SUN'S REFLECTION UPON THE CLOUDS\nIN A FAIR MORNING.\n\nLook yonder, ah! methinks mine eyes do see\nClouds edged with silver, as fine garments be;\nThey look as if they saw that golden face\nThat makes black clouds most beautiful with grace.\nUnto the saints' sweet incense, or their prayer,\nThese smoky curdled clouds I do compare.\nFor as these clouds seem edged, or laced with gold,\nTheir prayers return with blessings manifold.\n\nXVII.\n\nUPON APPAREL.\n\nGod gave us clothes to hide our nakedness,\nAnd we by them do it expose to view.\nOur pride and unclean minds to an excess,\nBy our apparel, we to others show.[28]\n\nXVIII.\n\nTHE SINNER AND THE SPIDER.\n\nSinner.\n\nWhat black, what ugly crawling thing art thou?\n\nSpider.\n\nI am a spider-------------\n\nSinner.\n\nA spider, ay, also a filthy creature.\n\nSpider.\n\nNot filthy as thyself in name or feature.\nMy name entailed is to my creation,\nMy features from the God of thy salvation.\n\nSinner.\n\nI am a man, and in God's image made,\nI have a soul shall neither die nor fade,\nGod has possessed me[29] with human reason,\nSpeak not against me lest thou speakest treason.\nFor if I am the image of my Maker,\nOf slanders laid on me He is partaker.\n\nSpider.\n\nI know thou art a creature far above me,\nTherefore I shun, I fear, and also love thee.\nBut though thy God hath made thee such a creature,\nThou hast against him often played the traitor.\nThy sin has fetched thee down: leave off to boast;\nNature thou hast defiled, God's image lost.\nYea, thou thyself a very beast hast made,\nAnd art become like grass, which soon doth fade.\nThy soul, thy reason, yea, thy spotless state,\nSin has subjected to th' most dreadful fate.\nBut I retain my primitive condition,\nI've all but what I lost by thy ambition.\n\nSinner.\n\nThou venomed thing, I know not what to call thee,\nThe dregs of nature surely did befall thee,\nThou wast made of the dross and scum of all,\nMan hates thee; doth, in scorn, thee spider call.\n\nSpider.\n\nMy venom's good for something, 'cause God made it,\nThy sin hath spoiled thy nature, doth degrade it.\nOf human virtues, therefore, though I fear thee,\nI will not, though I might, despise and jeer thee.\nThou say'st I am the very dregs of nature,\nThy sin's the spawn of devils, 'tis no creature.\nThou say'st man hates me 'cause I am a spider,\nPoor man, thou at thy God art a derider;\nMy venom tendeth to my preservation,\nThy pleasing follies work out thy damnation.\nPoor man, I keep the rules of my creation,\nThy sin has cast thee headlong from thy station.\nI hurt nobody willingly, but thou\nArt a self-murderer; thou know'st not how\nTo do what good is; no, thou lovest evil;\nThou fliest God's law, adherest to the devil.[30]\n\nSinner.\n\nIll-shaped creature, there's antipathy\n'Twixt man and spiders, 'tis in vain to lie;\nI hate thee, stand off, if thou dost come nigh me,\nI'll crush thee with my foot; I do defy thee.\n\nSpider.\n\nThey are ill-shaped, who warped are by sin,\nAntipathy in thee hath long time been\nTo God; no marvel, then, if me, his creature,\nThou dost defy, pretending name and feature.\nBut why stand off? My presence shall not throng thee,\n'Tis not my venom, but thy sin doth wrong thee.\nCome, I will teach thee wisdom, do but hear me,\nI was made for thy profit, do not fear me.\nBut if thy God thou wilt not hearken to,\nWhat can the swallow, ant, or spider do?\nYet I will speak, I can but be rejected,\nSometimes great things by small means are effected.\nHark, then, though man is noble by creation,\nHe's lapsed now to such degeneration,\nIs so besotted and so careless grown,\nAs not to grieve though he has overthrown\nHimself, and brought to bondage everything\nCreated, from the spider to the king.\nThis we poor sensitives do feel and see;\nFor subject to the curse you made us be.\nTread not upon me, neither from me go;\n'Tis man which has brought all the world to woe,\nThe law of my creation bids me teach thee;\nI will not for thy pride to God impeach thee.\nI spin, I weave, and all to let thee see,\nThy best performances but cobwebs be.\nThy glory now is brought to such an ebb,\nIt doth not much excel the spider's web;\nMy webs becoming snares and traps for flies,\nDo set the wiles of hell before thine eyes;\nTheir tangling nature is to let thee see,\nThy sins too of a tangling nature be.\nMy den, or hole, for that 'tis bottomless,\nDoth of damnation show the lastingness.\nMy lying quiet until the fly is catch'd,\nShows secretly hell hath thy ruin hatch'd.\nIn that I on her seize, when she is taken,\nI show who gathers whom God hath forsaken.\nThe fly lies buzzing in my web to tell\nThee how the sinners roar and howl in hell.\nNow, since I show thee all these mysteries,\nHow canst thou hate me, or me scandalize?\n\nSinner.\n\nWell, well; I no more will be a derider,\nI did not look for such things from a spider.\n\nSpider.\n\nCome, hold thy peace; what I have yet to say,\nIf heeded, help thee may another day.\nSince I an ugly ven'mous creature be,\nThere is some semblance 'twixt vile man and me.\nMy wild and heedless runnings are like those\nWhose ways to ruin do their souls expose.\nDaylight is not my time, I work in th' night,\nTo show they are like me who hate the light.\nThe maid sweeps one web down, I make another,\nTo show how heedless ones convictions smother;\nMy web is no defence at all to me,\nNor will false hopes at judgment be to thee.\n\nSinner.\n\nO spider, I have heard thee, and do wonder\nA spider should thus lighten and thus thunder.\n\nSpider.\n\nDo but hold still, and I will let thee see\nYet in my ways more mysteries there be.\nShall not I do thee good, if I thee tell,\nI show to thee a four-fold way to hell;\nFor, since I set my web in sundry places,\nI show men go to hell in divers traces.\nOne I set in the window, that I might\nShow some go down to hell with gospel light.\nOne I set in a corner, as you see,\nTo show how some in secret snared be.\nGross webs great store I set in darksome places,\nTo show how many sin with brazen faces;\nAnother web I set aloft on high,\nTo show there's some professing men must die.\nThus in my ways God wisdom doth conceal,\nAnd by my ways that wisdom doth reveal.\nI hide myself when I for flies do wait,\nSo doth the devil when he lays his bait;\nIf I do fear the losing of my prey,\nI stir me, and more snares upon her lay:\nThis way and that her wings and legs I tie,\nThat, sure as she is catch'd, so she must die.\nBut if I see she's like to get away,\nThen with my venom I her journey stay.\nAll which my ways the devil imitates\nTo catch men, 'cause he their salvation hates.\n\nSinner.\n\nO spider, thou delight'st me with thy skill!\nI pr'ythee spit this venom at me still.\n\nSpider.\n\nI am a spider, yet I can possess\nThe palace of a king, where happiness\nSo much abounds. Nor when I do go thither,\nDo they ask what, or whence I come, or whither\nI make my hasty travels; no, not they;\nThey let me pass, and I go on my way.\nI seize the palace,[31] do with hands take hold\nOf doors, of locks, or bolts; yea, I am bold,\nWhen in, to clamber up unto the throne,\nAnd to possess it, as if 'twere mine own.\nNor is there any law forbidding me\nHere to abide, or in this palace be.\nYea, if I please, I do the highest stories\nAscend, there sit, and so behold the glories\nMyself is compassed with, as if I were\nOne of the chiefest courtiers that be there.\nHere lords and ladies do come round about me,\nWith grave demeanour, nor do any flout me\nFor this, my brave adventure, no, not they;\nThey come, they go, but leave me there to stay.\nNow, my reproacher, I do by all this\nShow how thou may'st possess thyself of bliss:\nThou art worse than a spider, but take hold\nOn Christ the door, thou shalt not be controll'd.\nBy him do thou the heavenly palace enter;\nNone chide thee will for this thy brave adventure;\nApproach thou then unto the very throne,\nThere speak thy mind, fear not, the day's thine own;\nNor saint, nor angel, will thee stop or stay,\nBut rather tumble blocks out of the way.\nMy venom stops not me; let not thy vice\nStop thee; possess thyself of paradise.\nGo on, I say, although thou be a sinner,\nLearn to be bold in faith, of me a spinner.\nThis is the way the glories to possess,\nAnd to enjoy what no man can express.\nSometimes I find the palace door uplock'd,\nAnd so my entrance thither has upblock'd.\nBut am I daunted? No, I here and there\nDo feel and search; so if I anywhere,\nAt any chink or crevice, find my way,\nI crowd, I press for passage, make no stay.\nAnd so through difficulty I attain\nThe palace; yea, the throne where princes reign.\nI crowd sometimes, as if I'd burst in sunder;\nAnd art thou crushed with striving, do not wonder.\nSome scarce get in, and yet indeed they enter;\nKnock, for they nothing have, that nothing venture.\nNor will the King himself throw dirt on thee,\nAs thou hast cast reproaches upon me.\nHe will not hate thee, O thou foul backslider!\nAs thou didst me, because I am a spider.\nNow, to conclude since I such doctrine bring,\nSlight me no more, call me not ugly thing.\nGod wisdom hath unto the piss-ant given,\nAnd spiders may teach men the way to heaven.\n\nSinner.\n\nWell, my good spider, I my errors see,\nI was a fool for railing upon thee.\nThy nature, venom, and thy fearful hue,\nBoth show that sinners are, and what they do.\nThy way and works do also darkly tell,\nHow some men go to heaven, and some to hell.\nThou art my monitor, I am a fool;\nThey learn may, that to spiders go to school.\n\nXIX.\n\nMEDITATIONS UPON THE DAY BEFORE THE SUN-\nRISING.\n\nBut all this while, where's he whose golden rays\nDrives night away and beautifies our days?\nWhere's he whose goodly face doth warm and heal,\nAnd show us what the darksome nights conceal?\nWhere's he that thaws our ice, drives cold away?\nLet's have him, or we care not for the day.\nThus 'tis with who partakers are of grace,\nThere's nought to them like their Redeemer's face.\n\nXX.\n\nOF THE MOLE IN THE GROUND.\n\nThe mole's a creature very smooth and slick,\nShe digs i' th' dirt, but 'twill not on her stick;\nSo's he who counts this world his greatest gains,\nYet nothing gets but's labour for his pains.\nEarth's the mole's element, she can't abide\nTo be above ground, dirt heaps are her pride;\nAnd he is like her who the worldling plays,\nHe imitates her in her work and ways.\nPoor silly mole, that thou should'st love to be\nWhere thou nor sun, nor moon, nor stars can see.\nBut O! how silly's he who doth not care\nSo he gets earth, to have of heaven a share!\n\nXXI.\n\nOF THE CUCKOO.\n\nThou booby, say'st thou nothing but Cuckoo?\nThe robin and the wren can thee outdo.\nThey to us play through their little throats,\nTaking not one, but sundry pretty taking notes.\nBut thou hast fellows, some like thee can do\nLittle but suck our eggs, and sing Cuckoo.\nThy notes do not first welcome in our spring,\nNor dost thou its first tokens to us bring.\nBirds less than thee by far, like prophets, do\nTell us, 'tis coming, though not by Cuckoo.\nNor dost thou summer have away with thee,\nThough thou a yawling bawling Cuckoo be.\nWhen thou dost cease among us to appear,\nThen doth our harvest bravely crown our year.\nBut thou hast fellows, some like thee can do\nLittle but suck our eggs, and sing Cuckoo.\nSince Cuckoos forward not our early spring,\nNor help with notes to bring our harvest in;\nAnd since, while here, she only makes a noise,\nSo pleasing unto none as girls and boys,\nThe Formalist we may compare her to,\nFor he doth suck our eggs, and sing Cuckoo.\n\nXXII.\n\nOF THE BOY AND BUTTERFLY.\n\nBehold how eager this our little boy\nIs for this Butterfly, as if all joy,\nAll profits, honours, yea, and lasting pleasures,\nWere wrapt up in her, or the richest treasures,\nFound in her, would be bundled up together,\nWhen all her all is lighter than a feather.\nHe halloos, runs, and cries out, Here, boys, here,\nNor doth he brambles or the nettles fear.\nHe stumbles at the mole-hills, up he gets,\nAnd runs again, as one bereft of wits;\nAnd all this labour and this large outcry,\nIs only for a silly butterfly.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis little boy an emblem is of those\nWhose hearts are wholly at the world's dispose,\nThe butterfly doth represent to me,\nThe world's best things at best but fading be.\nAll are but painted nothings and false joys,\nLike this poor butterfly to these our boys.\nHis running through nettles, thorns, and briars,\nTo gratify his boyish fond desires;\nHis tumbling over mole-hills to attain\nHis end, namely, his butterfly to gain;\nDoth plainly show what hazards some men run.\nTo get what will be lost as soon as won.\nMen seem in choice, than children far more wise,\nBecause they run not after butterflies;\nWhen yet, alas! for what are empty toys,\nThey follow children, like to beardless boys.[32]\n\nXXIII.\n\nOF THE FLY AT THE CANDLE.\n\nWhat ails this fly thus desperately to enter\nA combat with the candle? Will she venture\nTo clash at light? Away, thou silly fly;\nThus doing thou wilt burn thy wings and die.\nBut 'tis a folly her advice to give,\nShe'll kill the candle, or she will not live.\nSlap, says she, at it; then she makes retreat,\nSo wheels about, and doth her blows repeat.\nNor doth the candle let her quite escape,\nBut gives some little check unto the ape:\nThrows up her heels it doth, so down she falls,\nWhere she lies sprawling, and for succour calls.\nWhen she recovers, up she gets again,\nAnd at the candle comes with might and main,\nBut now behold, the candle takes the fly,\nAnd holds her, till she doth by burning die.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis candle is an emblem of that light\nOur gospel gives in this our darksome night.\nThe fly a lively picture is of those\nThat hate and do this gospel light oppose.\nAt last the gospel doth become their snare,\nDoth them with burning hands in pieces tear.[33]\n\nXXIV.\n\nON THE RISING OF THE SUN.\n\nLook, look, brave Sol doth peep up from beneath,\nShows us his golden face, doth on us breathe;\nHe also doth compass us round with glories,\nWhilst he ascends up to his highest stories.\nWhere he his banner over us displays,\nAnd gives us light to see our works and ways.\nNor are we now, as at the peep of light,\nTo question, is it day, or is it night?\nThe night is gone, the shadows fled away,\nAnd we now most sure are that it is day.\nOur eyes behold it, and our hearts believe it;\nNor can the wit of man in this deceive it.\nAnd thus it is when Jesus shows his face,\nAnd doth assure us of his love and grace.\n\nXXV.\n\nUPON THE PROMISING FRUITFULNESS OF A TREE.\n\nA comely sight indeed it is to see\nA world of blossoms on an apple-tree:\nYet far more comely would this tree appear,\nIf all its dainty blooms young apples were.\nBut how much more might one upon it see,\nIf all would hang there till they ripe should be.\nBut most of all in beauty 'twould abound,\nIf then none worm-eaten should there be found.\nBut we, alas! do commonly behold\nBlooms fall apace, if mornings be but cold.\nThey too, which hang till they young apples are,\nBy blasting winds and vermin take despair,\nStore that do hang, while almost ripe, we see\nBy blust'ring winds are shaken from the tree,\nSo that of many, only some there be,\nThat grow till they come to maturity.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis tree a perfect emblem is of those\nWhich God doth plant, which in his garden grows,\nIts blasted blooms are motions unto good,\nWhich chill affections do nip in the bud.\nThose little apples which yet blasted are,\nShow some good purposes, no good fruits bear.\nThose spoiled by vermin are to let us see,\nHow good attempts by bad thoughts ruin'd be.\nThose which the wind blows down, while they are green,\nShow good works have by trials spoiled been.\nThose that abide, while ripe upon the tree,\nShow, in a good man, some ripe fruit will be.\nBehold then how abortive some fruits are,\nWhich at the first most promising appear.\nThe frost, the wind, the worm, with time doth show,\nThere flows, from much appearance, works but few.\n\nXXVI.\n\nUPON THE THIEF.\n\nThe thief, when he doth steal, thinks he doth gain;\nYet then the greatest loss he doth sustain.\nCome, thief, tell me thy gains, but do not falter.\nWhen summ'd, what comes it to more than the halter?\nPerhaps, thou'lt say, The halter I defy;\nSo thou may'st say, yet by the halter die.\nThou'lt say, Then there's an end; no, pr'ythee, hold,\nHe was no friend of thine that thee so told.\nHear thou the Word of God, that will thee tell,\nWithout repentance thieves must go to hell.\nBut should it be as thy false prophet says,\nYet nought but loss doth come by thievish ways.\nAll honest men will flee thy company,\nThou liv'st a rogue, and so a rogue will die.\nInnocent boldness thou hast none at all,\nThy inward thoughts do thee a villain call.\nSometimes when thou liest warmly on thy bed,\nThou art like one unto the gallows led.\nFear, as a constable, breaks in upon thee,\nThou art as if the town was up to stone thee.\nIf hogs do grunt, or silly rats do rustle,\nThou art in consternation, think'st a bustle\nBy men about the door, is made to take thee,\nAnd all because good conscience doth forsake thee.\nThy case is most deplorably so bad,\nThou shunn'st to think on't, lest thou should'st be mad.\nThou art beset with mischiefs every way,\nThe gallows groaneth for thee every day.\nWherefore, I pr'ythee, thief, thy theft forbear,\nConsult thy safety, pr'ythee, have a care.\nIf once thy head be got within the noose,\n'Twill be too late a longer life to choose.\nAs to the penitent thou readest of,\nWhat's that to them who at repentance scoff.\nNor is that grace at thy command or power,\nThat thou should'st put it off till the last hour.\nI pr'ythee, thief, think on't, and turn betime;\nFew go to life who do the gallows climb.\n\nXXVII.\n\nOF THE CHILD WITH THE BIRD AT THE BUSH.\n\nMy little bird, how canst thou sit\n    And sing amidst so many thorns?\nLet me a hold upon thee get,\n    My love with honour thee adorns.\nThou art at present little worth,\n    Five farthings none will give for thee,\nBut pr'ythee, little bird, come forth,\n    Thou of more value art to me.\n'Tis true it is sunshine to-day,\n    To-morrow birds will have a storm;\nMy pretty one come thou away,\n    My bosom then shall keep thee warm.\nThou subject are to cold o'nights,\n    When darkness is thy covering;\nAt days thy danger's great by kites,\n    How can'st thou then sit there and sing?\nThy food is scarce and scanty too,\n    'Tis worms and trash which thou dost eat;\nThy present state I pity do,\n    Come, I'll provide thee better meat.\nI'll feed thee with white bread and milk,\n    And sugar plums, if them thou crave.\nI'll cover thee with finest silk,\n    That from the cold I may thee save.\nMy father's palace shall be thine,\n    Yea, in it thou shalt sit and sing;\nMy little bird, if thou'lt be mine,\n    The whole year round shall be thy spring.\nI'll teach thee all the notes at court,\n    Unthought-of music thou shalt play;\nAnd all that thither do resort,\n    Shall praise thee for it every day.\nI'll keep thee safe from cat and cur,\n    No manner o' harm shall come to thee;\nYea, I will be thy succourer,\n    My bosom shall thy cabin be.\nBut lo, behold, the bird is gone;\n    These charmings would not make her yield;\nThe child's left at the bush alone,\n    The bird flies yonder o'er the field.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis child of Christ an emblem is,\n    The bird to sinners I compare,\nThe thorns are like those sins of his\n    Which do surround him everywhere.\nHer songs, her food, and sunshine day,\n    Are emblems of those foolish toys,\nWhich to destruction lead the way,\n    The fruit of worldly, empty joys.\nThe arguments this child doth choose\n    To draw to him a bird thus wild,\nShows Christ familiar speech doth use\n    To make's to him be reconciled.\nThe bird in that she takes her wing,\n    To speed her from him after all,\nShows us vain man loves any thing\n    Much better than the heavenly call.\n\nXXVIII.\n\nOF MOSES AND HIS WIFE.\n\nThis Moses was a fair and comely man,\nHis wife a swarthy Ethiopian;\nNor did his milk-white bosom change her sin.\nShe came out thence as black as she went in.\nNow Moses was a type of Moses' law,\nHis wife likewise of one that never saw\nAnother way unto eternal life;\nThere's mystery, then, in Moses and his wife.\nThe law is very holy, just, and good,\nAnd to it is espoused all flesh and blood;\nBut this its goodness it cannot bestow\nOn any that are wedded thereunto.\nTherefore as Moses' wife came swarthy in,\nAnd went out from him without change of skin,\nSo he that doth the law for life adore,\nShall yet by it be left a black-a-more.\n\nXXIX.\n\nOF THE ROSE-BUSH.\n\nThis homely bush doth to mine eyes expose\nA very fair, yea, comely ruddy rose.\nThis rose doth also bow its head to me,\nSaying, Come, pluck me, I thy rose will be;\nYet offer I to gather rose or bud,\nTen to one but the bush will have my blood.\nThis looks like a trapan,[34] or a decoy,\nTo offer, and yet snap, who would enjoy;\nYea, the more eager on't, the more in danger,\nBe he the master of it, or a stranger.\nBush, why dost bear a rose if none must have it.\nWho dost expose it, yet claw those that crave it?\nArt become freakish? dost the wanton play,\nOr doth thy testy humour tend its way?\n\nComparison.\n\nThis rose God's Son is, with his ruddy looks.\nBut what's the bush, whose pricks, like tenter-hooks,\nDo scratch and claw the finest lady's hands,\nOr rend her clothes, if she too near it stands?\nThis bush an emblem is of Adam's race,\nOf which Christ came, when he his Father's grace\nCommended to us in his crimson blood,\nWhile he in sinners' stead and nature stood.\nThus Adam's race did bear this dainty rose,\nAnd doth the same to Adam's race expose;\nBut those of Adam's race which at it catch,\nAdam's race will them prick, and claw, and scratch.\n\nXXX.\n\nOF THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN.\n\nWhat, hast thou run thy race, art going down?\nThou seemest angry, why dost on us frown?\nYea, wrap thy head with clouds and hide thy face,\nAs threatening to withdraw from us thy grace?\nO leave us not! When once thou hid'st thy head,\nOur horizon with darkness will be spread.\nTell who hath thee offended, turn again.\nAlas! too late, intreaties are in vain.\n\nComparison.\n\nOur gospel has had here a summer's day,\nBut in its sunshine we, like fools, did play;\nOr else fall out, and with each other wrangle,\nAnd did, instead of work, not much but jangle.\nAnd if our sun seems angry, hides his face,\nShall it go down, shall night possess this place?\nLet not the voice of night birds us afflict,\nAnd of our misspent summer us convict.[35]\n\nXXXI.\n\nUPON THE FROG.\n\nThe frog by nature is both damp and cold,\nHer mouth is large, her belly much will hold;\nShe sits somewhat ascending, loves to be\nCroaking in gardens, though unpleasantly.\n\nComparison.\n\nThe hypocrite is like unto this frog,\nAs like as is the puppy to the dog.\nHe is of nature cold, his mouth is wide\nTo prate, and at true goodness to deride.\nHe mounts his head as if he was above\nThe world, when yet 'tis that which has his love.\nAnd though he seeks in churches for to croak,\nHe neither loveth Jesus nor his yoke.\n\nXXXII.\n\nUPON THE WHIPPING OF A TOP.\n\n'Tis with the whip the boy sets up the top,\n    The whip makes it run round upon its toe;\nThe whip makes it hither and thither hop:\n    'Tis with the whip the top is made to go.\n\nComparison.\n\nOur legalist is like unto this top,\n    Without a whip he doth not duty do;\nLet Moses whip him, he will skip and hop;\n    Forbear to whip, he'll neither stand nor go.\n\nXXXIII.\n\nUPON THE PISMIRE.\n\nMust we unto the pismire go to school,\n    To learn of her in summer to provide\nFor winter next ensuing. Man's a fool,\n    Or silly ants would not be made his guide.\nBut, sluggard, is it not a shame for thee\n    To be outdone by pismires? Pr'ythee hear:\nTheir works, too, will thy condemnation be\n    When at the judgment-seat thou shalt appear.\nBut since thy God doth bid thee to her go,\n    Obey, her ways consider, and be wise;\nThe piss-ant tell thee will what thou must do,\n    And set the way to life before thine eyes.\n\nXXXIV.\n\nUPON THE BEGGAR.\n\nHe wants, he asks, he pleads his poverty,\nThey within doors do him an alms deny.\nHe doth repeat and aggravate his grief,\nBut they repulse him, give him no relief.\nHe begs, they say, Begone; he will not hear,\nBut coughs, sighs, and makes signs he still is there;\nThey disregard him, he repeats his groans;\nThey still say nay, and he himself bemoans.\nThey grow more rugged, they call him vagrant;\nHe cries the shriller, trumpets out his want.\nAt last, when they perceive he'll take no nay,\nAn alms they give him without more delay.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis beggar doth resemble them that pray\nTo God for mercy, and will take no nay,\nBut wait, and count that all his hard gainsays\nAre nothing else but fatherly delays;\nThen imitate him, praying souls, and cry:\nThere's nothing like to importunity.\n\nXXXV.\n\nUPON THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER.\n\nThere's one rides very sagely on the road,\nShowing that he affects the gravest mode.\nAnother rides tantivy, or full trot,\nTo show much gravity he matters not.\nLo, here comes one amain, he rides full speed,\nHedge, ditch, nor miry bog, he doth not heed.\nOne claws it up-hill without stop or check,\nAnother down as if he'd break his neck.\nNow every horse has his especial guider;\nThen by his going you may know the rider.\n\nComparison.\n\nNow let us turn our horse into a man,\nHis rider to a spirit, if we can.\nThen let us, by the methods of the guider,\nTell every horse how he should know his rider.\nSome go, as men, direct in a right way,\nNor are they suffered to go astray;\nAs with a bridle they are governed,\nAnd kept from paths which lead unto the dead.\nNow this good man has his especial guider,\nThen by his going let him know his rider.\nSome go as if they did not greatly care,\nWhether of heaven or hell they should be heir.\nThe rein, it seems, is laid upon their neck,\nThey seem to go their way without a check.\nNow this man too has his especial guider,\nAnd by his going he may know his rider.\nSome again run as if resolved to die,\nBody and soul, to all eternity.\nGood counsel they by no means can abide;\nThey'll have their course whatever them betide.\nNow these poor men have their especial guider,\nWere they not fools they soon might know their rider.\nThere's one makes head against all godliness,\nThose too, that do profess it, he'll distress;\nHe'll taunt and flout if goodness doth appear,\nAnd at its countenancers mock and jeer.\nNow this man, too, has his especial guider,\nAnd by his going he might know his rider.\n\nXXXVI.\n\nUPON THE SIGHT OF A POUND OF CANDLES\nFALLING TO THE GROUND.\n\nBut be the candles down, and scattered too,\nSome lying here, some there? What shall we do?\nHold, light the candle there that stands on high,\nIt you may find the other candles by.\nLight that, I say, and so take up the pound\nYou did let fall and scatter on the ground.\n\nComparison.\n\nThe fallen candles do us intimate\nThe bulk of God's elect in their laps'd state;\nTheir lying scattered in the dark may be\nTo show, by man's lapsed state, his misery.\nThe candle that was taken down and lighted,\nThereby to find them fallen and benighted,\nIs Jesus Christ; God, by his light, doth gather\nWho he will save, and be unto a Father.\n\nXXXVII.\n\nUPON A PENNY LOAF.\n\nThy price one penny is in time of plenty,\nIn famine doubled, 'tis from one to twenty.\nYea, no man knows what price on thee to set\nWhen there is but one penny loaf to get.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis loaf's an emblem of the Word of God,\nA thing of low esteem before the rod\nOf famine smites the soul with fear of death,\nBut then it is our all, our life, our breath.[36]\n\nXXXVIII.\n\nTHE BOY AND WATCHMAKER.\n\nThis watch my father did on me bestow,\nA golden one it is, but 'twill not go,\nUnless it be at an uncertainty:\nBut as good none as one to tell a lie.\nWhen 'tis high day my hand will stand at nine;\nI think there's no man's watch so bad as mine.\nSometimes 'tis sullen, 'twill not go at all,\nAnd yet 'twas never broke nor had a fall.\n\nWatchmaker.\n\nYour watch, though it be good, through want of skill\nMay fail to do according to your will.\nSuppose the balance, wheels, and springs be good,\nAnd all things else, unless you understood\nTo manage it, as watches ought to be,\nYour watch will still be at uncertainty.\nCome, tell me, do you keep it from the dust,\nYea, wind it also duly up you must?\nTake heed, too, that you do not strain the spring;\nYou must be circumspect in every thing,\nOr else your watch, were it as good again,\nWould not with time and tide you entertain.\n\nComparison.\n\nThis boy an emblem is of a convert,\nHis watch of the work of grace within his heart,\nThe watchmaker is Jesus Christ our Lord,\nHis counsel, the directions of his Word;\nThen convert, if thy heart be out of frame,\nOf this watchmaker learn to mend the same.\nDo not lay ope' thy heart to worldly dust,\nNor let thy graces over-grow with rust,\nBe oft' renewed in the' spirit of thy mind,\nOr else uncertain thou thy watch wilt find.\n\nXXXIX.\n\nUPON A LOOKING-GLASS.\n\nIn this see thou thy beauty, hast thou any,\nOr thy defects, should they be few or many.\nThou may'st, too, here thy spots and freckles see,\nHast thou but eyes, and what their numbers be.\nBut art thou blind? There is no looking-glass\nCan show thee thy defects, thy spots, or face.\n\nComparison.\n\nUnto this glass we may compare the Word,\nFor that to man advantage doth afford\n(Has he a mind to know himself and state),\nTo see what will be his eternal fate.\nBut without eyes, alas! how can he see?\nMany that seem to look here, blind men be.\nThis is the reason they so often read\nTheir judgment there, and do it nothing dread.\n\nXL.\n\nOF THE LOVE OF CHRIST.\n\nThe love of Christ, poor I! may touch upon;\nBut 'tis unsearchable. O! there is none\nIts large dimensions can comprehend\nShould they dilate thereon world without end.\nWhen we had sinned, in his zeal he sware,\nThat he upon his back our sins would bear.\nAnd since unto sin is entailed death,\nHe vowed for our sins he'd lose his breath.\nHe did not only say, vow, or resolve,\nBut to astonishment did so involve\nHimself in man's distress and misery,\nAs for, and with him, both to live and die.\nTo his eternal fame in sacred story,\nWe find that he did lay aside his glory,\nStepped from the throne of highest dignity,\nBecame poor man, did in a manger lie;\nYea, was beholden unto his for bread,\nHad, of his own, not where to lay his head;\nThough rich, he did for us become thus poor,\nThat he might make us rich for evermore.\nNor was this but the least of what he did,\nBut the outside of what he suffered?\nGod made his blessed son under the law,\nUnder the curse, which, like the lion's paw,\nDid rent and tear his soul for mankind's sin,\nMore than if we for it in hell had been.\nHis cries, his tears, and bloody agony,\nThe nature of his death doth testify.\nNor did he of constraint himself thus give,\nFor sin, to death, that man might with him live.\nHe did do what he did most willingly,\nHe sung, and gave God thanks, that he must die.\nBut do kings use to die for captive slaves?\nYet we were such when Jesus died to save's.\nYea, when he made himself a sacrifice,\nIt was that he might save his enemies.\nAnd though he was provoked to retract\nHis blest resolves for such so good an act,\nBy the abusive carriages of those\nThat did both him, his love, and grace oppose;\nYet he, as unconcerned with such things,\nGoes on, determines to make captives kings;\nYea, many of his murderers he takes\nInto his favour, and them princes makes.\n\nXLI.\n\nON THE CACKLING OF A HEN.\n\nThe hen, so soon as she an egg doth lay,\n(Spreads the fame of her doing what she may.)\nAbout the yard she cackling now doth go,\nTo tell what 'twas she at her nest did do.\nJust thus it is with some professing men,\nIf they do ought that good is, like our hen\nThey can but cackle on't where e'er they go,\nWhat their right hand doth their left hand must know.\n\nXLII.\n\nUPON AN HOUR-GLASS.\n\nThis glass, when made, was, by the workman's skill,\nThe sum of sixty minutes to fulfil.\nTime, more nor less, by it will out be spun,\nBut just an hour, and then the glass is run.\nMan's life we will compare unto this glass,\nThe number of his months he cannot pass;\nBut when he has accomplished his day,\nHe, like a vapour, vanisheth away.\n\nXLIII.\n\nUPON A SNAIL.\n\nShe goes but softly, but she goeth sure,\n    She stumbles not, as stronger creatures do.\nHer journey's shorter, so she may endure\n    Better than they which do much farther go.\nShe makes no noise, but stilly seizeth on\n    The flower or herb appointed for her food,\nThe which she quietly doth feed upon\n    While others range and glare, but find no good.\nAnd though she doth but very softly go,\n    However, 'tis not fast nor slow, but sure;\nAnd certainly they that do travel so,\n    The prize they do aim at they do procure.\n\nComparison.\n\nAlthough they seem not much to stir, less go,\n    For Christ that hunger, or from wrath that flee,\nYet what they seek for quickly they come to,\n    Though it doth seem the farthest off to be.\nOne act of faith doth bring them to that flower\n    They so long for, that they may eat and live,\nWhich, to attain, is not in others power,\n    Though for it a king's ransom they would give.\nThen let none faint, nor be at all dismayed\n    That life by Christ do seek, they shall not fail\nTo have it; let them nothing be afraid;\n    The herb and flower are eaten by the snail.[37]\n\nXLIV.\n\nOF THE SPOUSE OF CHRIST.\n\nWho's this that cometh from the wilderness,\n    Like smokey pillars thus perfum'd with myrrh,\nLeaning upon her dearest in distress,\n    Led into's bosom by the Comforter?\nShe's clothed with the sun, crowned with twelve stars,\n    The spotted moon her footstool she hath made.\nThe dragon her assaults, fills her with jars,\n    Yet rests she under her Beloved's shade,\nBut whence was she? what is her pedigree?\n    Was not her father a poor Amorite?\nWhat was her mother but as others be,\n    A poor, a wretched, and a sinful Hittite.\nYea, as for her, the day that she was born,\n    As loathsome, out of doors they did her cast;\nNaked and filthy, stinking and forlorn;\n    This was her pedigree from first to last.\nNor was she pitied in this estate,\n    All let her lie polluted in her blood:\nNone her condition did commiserate,\n    There was no heart that sought to do her good.\nYet she unto these ornaments is come,\n    Her breasts are fashioned, her hair is grown;\nShe is made heiress of the best kingdom;\n    All her indignities away are blown.\nCast out she was, but now she home is taken,\n    Naked (sometimes), but now, you see, she's cloth'd;\nNow made the darling, though before forsaken,\n    Barefoot, but now as princes' daughters shod.\nInstead of filth, she now has her perfumes;\n    Instead of ignominy, her chains of gold:\nInstead of what the beauty most consumes,\n    Her beauty's perfect, lovely to behold.\nThose that attend and wait upon her be\n    Princes of honour, clothed in white array;\nUpon her head's a crown of gold, and she\n    Eats wheat, honey, and oil, from day to day.\nFor her beloved, he's the high'st of all,\n    The only Potentate, the King of kings:\nAngels and men do him Jehovah call,\n    And from him life and glory always springs.\nHe's white and ruddy, and of all the chief:\n    His head, his locks, his eyes, his hands, and feet,\nDo, for completeness, out-go all belief;\n    His cheeks like flowers are, his mouth most sweet.\nAs for his wealth, he is made heir of all;\n    What is in heaven, what is on earth is his:\nAnd he this lady his joint-heir doth call,\n    Of all that shall be, or at present is.\nWell, lady, well, God has been good to thee;\n    Thou of an outcast, now art made a queen.\nFew, or none, may with thee compared be,\n    A beggar made thus high is seldom seen.\nTake heed of pride, remember what thou art\n    By nature, though thou hast in grace a share,\nThou in thyself dost yet retain a part\n    Of thine own filthiness; wherefore beware.\n\nXLV.\n\nUPON A SKILFUL PLAYER OF AN INSTRUMENT.\n\nHe that can play well on an instrument,\n    Will take the ear, and captivate the mind\nWith mirth or sadness; for that it is bent\n    Thereto, as music in it place doth find.\nBut if one hears that hath therein no skill,\n    (As often music lights of such a chance)\nOf its brave notes they soon be weary will:\n    And there are some can neither sing nor dance.\n\nComparison.\n\nUnto him that thus skilfully doth play,\n    God doth compare a gospel-minister,\nThat rightly preacheth, and doth godly pray,\n    Applying truly what doth thence infer.\nThis man, whether of wrath or grace he preach,\n    So skilfully doth handle every word;\nAnd by his saying doth the heart so reach,\n    That it doth joy or sigh before the Lord.\nBut some there be, which, as the brute, doth lie\n    Under the Word, without the least advance\nGodward; such do despise the ministry;\n    They weep not at it, neither to it dance.\n\nXLVI.\n\nOF MAN BY NATURE.\n\nFrom God he's a backslider,\nOf ways he loves the wider;\nWith wickedness a sider,\nMore venom than a spider.\nIn sin he's a considerer,\nA make-bate and divider;\nBlind reason is his guider,\nThe devil is his rider.\n\nXLVII.\n\nUPON THE DISOBEDIENT CHILD.\n\nChildren become, while little, our delights!\nWhen they grow bigger, they begin to fright's.\nTheir sinful nature prompts them to rebel,\nAnd to delight in paths that lead to hell.\nTheir parents' love and care they overlook,\nAs if relation had them quite forsook.\nThey take the counsels of the wanton's, rather\nThan the most grave instructions of a father.\nThey reckon parents ought to do for them,\nThough they the fifth commandment do contemn;\nThey snap and snarl if parents them control,\nThough but in things most hurtful to the soul.\nThey reckon they are masters, and that we\nWho parents are, should to them subject be!\nIf parents fain would have a hand in choosing,\nThe children have a heart will in refusing.\nThey'll by wrong doings, under parents gather,\nAnd say it is no sin to rob a father.\nThey'll jostle parents out of place and power,\nThey'll make themselves the head, and them devour.\nHow many children, by becoming head,\nHave brought their parents to a piece of bread!\nThus they who, at the first, were parents joy,\nTurn that to bitterness, themselves destroy.\n    But, wretched child, how canst thou thus requite\nThy aged parents, for that great delight\nThey took in thee, when thou, as helpless, lay\nIn their indulgent bosoms day by day?\nThy mother, long before she brought thee forth,\nTook care thou shouldst want neither food nor cloth.\nThy father glad was at his very heart,\nHad he to thee a portion to impart.\nComfort they promised themselves in thee,\nBut thou, it seems, to them a grief wilt be.\nHow oft, how willingly brake they their sleep,\nIf thou, their bantling, didst but winch or weep.\nTheir love to thee was such they could have giv'n,\nThat thou mightst live, almost their part of heav'n.\nBut now, behold how they rewarded are!\nFor their indulgent love and tender care;\nAll is forgot, this love he doth despise.\nThey brought this bird up to pick out their eyes.\n\nXLVIII.\n\nUPON A SHEET OF WHITE PAPER.\n\nThis subject is unto the foulest pen,\nOr fairest handled by the sons of men.\n'Twill also show what is upon it writ,\nBe it wisely, or nonsense for want of wit,\nEach blot and blur it also will expose\nTo thy next readers, be they friends or foes.\n\nComparison.\n\nSome souls are like unto this blank or sheet,\nThough not in whiteness. The next man they meet,\nIf wise or fool, debauched or deluder,\nOr what you will, the dangerous intruder\nMay write thereon, to cause that man to err\nIn doctrine or in life, with blot and blur.\nNor will that soul conceal from who observes,\nBut show how foul it is, wherein it swerves.\nA reading man may know who was the writer,\nAnd, by the hellish nonsense, the inditer.\n\nXLIX.\n\nUPON FIRE.\n\nWho falls into the fire shall burn with heat;\nWhile those remote scorn from it to retreat.\nYea, while those in it, cry out, O! I burn,\nSome farther off those cries to laughter turn.\n\nComparison.\n\nWhile some tormented are in hell for sin;\nOn earth some greatly do delight therein.\nYea, while some make it echo with their cry,\nOthers count it a fable and a lie.[38]\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Bunyan's poem in the Holy War.\n\n[2] On the leaf following the title to One Thing is Needful, &c.,\nby John Bunyan, 1688. A rare little 32mo, published by the author,\nin possession of the Editor.\n\n[3] At the end of Grace Abounding, the sixth edition, and also in\nThe Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, by Bunyan, 1688.\n\n[4] Advertised in the eighth edition of Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.\n\n[5] In Youth Directed and Instructed--a curious little book for\nchildren.\n\n[6] Square 24mo., by Bennet, Gurney, and others, without date.\n\n[7] Sturt engraved the Book of Common Prayer; some French artists\nelegantly etched two of their devotional books; and Pyne engraved\nthe texts of Horace and Virgil with beautiful vignettes.\n\n[8] Altered to 'huge' in the Emblems, 1724.\n\n[9] A familiar phrase, denoting persons who have been always frivolous\nand childish, or those who have passed into second childhood. 'On\nthe shelf' is a common saying of ladies when they are too old to\nget married.--Ed.\n\n[10] The name of a bird that mimics gestures.--Ed.\n\n[11] Indelible, as when raw material is dyed before it is wove,\nevery grain receives the dye.--Ed.\n\n[12] For this use of the word 'handle,' see Jeremiah 2:8. 'They\nthat handle the law.'--Ed.\n\n[13] This word, with pismire and emmet, has become obsolete. 'Ant'\nis the term now universally used.--Ed.\n\n[14] See Psalm 84:3; Leviticus 11:16; Numbers 20.\n\n[15] A machine used in the manufacture of cloth, on which it is\nstretched.--Ed.\n\n[16] Spiders being venomous was a vulgar error, universally believed,\nuntil modern discoveries have proved the contrary, excepting a\nfew foreign species.--Ed.\n\n[17] This is a scriptural idea of the inhabitants of heaven.\nRevelation 11:8, saints 'small and great.' Matthew 19:28: 'The Son\nof man on his throne, and the twelve apostles on their thrones.'\nRevelation 4:10: 'Four and twenty elders on their thrones.'\nRevelation 5:11: 'An innumerable company of worshippers.'--Ed.\n\n[18] In an ancient battledore or horn-book, and in one of Henry\nVIII's primers, both in the editor's possession, this sentence is\ntranslated--'And let us not be led into temptation.'--Ed.\n\n[19] When divine light first dawns upon the soul, and reveals sin,\nO how difficult is it to conclude that sin is pardoned, and the\nsinner blest!--Ed.\n\n[20] The swallow is remarkably swift in flight; 'their note is a\nslight twittering, which they seldom if ever exert but upon the\nwing.'--Goldsmith's Natural History.--Ed.\n\n[21] 'Be in print'; a proverbial expression, to show order and\nregularity; like type in print.--Ed.\n\n[22] 'Ley'; barren or fallow, uncultivated, generally spelt lea.--Ed.\n\n[23] This riddle is solved in the fourth line following. The light\nof the fear and love of God begins in the middle of our bodily\nframe, with the heart. Bunyan's love of religious riddles is seen\nin the second part of the Pilgrimage, when Christian is resting\nat the house of Gaius.--Ed.\n\n[24] Convictions of sin make the soul turn from sin.--Ed.\n\n[25] This character is admirably drawn in the second part of the\nPilgrim's Progress--Mr. Brisk, a suitor to Mercy.--Ed.\n\n[26] Preterite of the verb 'to save,' from the Saxon agan, to be\nheld or bound by moral obligation.--Imperial Dictionary.--Ed.\n\n[27] What folly, nay, madness, for man to pretend to make God of\na little flour, or to rely for forgiveness of sin on a wafer, a\nbit of bread, or a little wine or water. How degraded is he that\npretends to believe such palpable absurdities.--Ed.\n\n[28] This is one of Bunyan's keen, shrewd, home thrusts. Clothes\nprofessedly made to hide what they studiously display!!--Ed.\n\n[29] Possessed me with, or has given me possession of.--Ed.\n\n[30] Man's sinfulness, by nature and practice, justly, but awfully\ndescribed.--Mason.\n\n[31] See Proverbs 30:20, and Pilgrim's Progress. There is also a\nvery striking allusion to the subject of this emblem, in Bunyan's\nLight in Darkness.\n\n[32] He who, in riper years, seeks happiness in sensual gratification,\nis a child in understanding: he only changes his toys.--Ed.\n\n[33] 'To the one, a savour of death unto death; and to the other,\na savour of life unto life' (2 Cor 2:16).\n\n[34] 'Trapan' is the Saxon verb to ensnare, modernized to trap.--Ed.\n\n[35] How agonizing will be the cry of the lost soul--'The harvest\nis past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved' (Jer 8:20).--Ed.\nUpon the brittle thread of life hang everlasting things.--Mason.\n\n[36] When the Word of God dwells in us richly in all wisdom, then\nwill the peace of God rule in our hearts, and we shall be sweetly\ninclined to every good thought, word, and work.--Ed.\n\n[37] If the crawling snail finds food, wherefore do ye doubt, O!\nye of little faith.--Ed.\n\n[38] Fools make a mock at sin. The scorner occupies a proud,\nan elevated seat, which will sink under him, and crush him down\nto everlasting destruction. The threatenings and promises of God\nstand sure for ever.--Ed\n\n***\n\nTHE STRUGGLER;\n\nCONTAINING\n\nTHE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER IN WHICH MR. BUNYAN'S BOOKS WERE PUBLISHED,\nAND THE NUMBER OF EDITIONS THEY PASSED THROUGH DURING HIS LIFE.\n\nTHIRTY REASONS WHY CHRISTIAN PEOPLE SHOULD PROMOTE THEIR CIRCULATION,\nAND THE STRUGGLER FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THESE LABOURS.--PUBLISHED\nIN 1691.\n\nBY CHARLES DOE, ONE OF MR. BUNYAN'S PERSONAL FRIENDS.\n\nA CATALOGUE-TABLE OF MR. BUNYAN'S BOOKS.\n\nAND\n\nTHEIR SUCCESSION IN PUBLISHING, MOST ACCORDING TO HIS OWN RECKONING.\n\n\nNote.--Those that are in Italic letter are them that compose\nthe first folio: And the rest are intended, when time serves,\nfor a second folio.[1]\n\n1. Gospel truths opened, 1656\n2. A vindication of that [sm. 4to] 1657\n3. Sighs from Hell (9 Impressions), [1650]\n4. The 2 Covenants Law and Grace\n5. I will pray with the Spirit, 1663\n6. A map of salvation, &c., [A broadside]\n7. The four last things (3 Impressions),\n8. Mount Ebal and Gerizim,\n9. Prison Meditations,\n10. The Holy City, &c., 1665\n11. The Resurrection, &c., 1665\n12. Grace Abounding (6 Impressions), [1666]\n13. Justification by Jesus Christ, [sm. 4to] 1671\n14. Confession of Faith, &c., 1672\n15. Difference in Judgment, &c., 1673\n16. Peaceable principles, &c., 1674\n17. Election and Reprobation, &c., [sm. 4to] [No date]\n18. Light for them in Darkness,\n19. Christian Behaviour (4 Impressions),\n20. Instructions for the Ignorant, 1675\n21. Saved by Grace,\n22. The Strait-Gate, 1676\n23. The Pilgrim's Progress (12 Impressions), [1678]\n24. The Fear of God, 1679\n25. Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (4 Impressions)\n26. The Holy War (3 Impressions) 1682\n27. The Barren Fig Tree,\n28. The Greatness of the Soul, &c., [1683]\n29. A case of Conscience of prayer, [sm. 4to] [1683]\n30. Advice to Sufferers, 1684\n31. The 2d pt. Pilgrim's Progress (3 Impressions), [1684]\n32. Life and Death of Mr. Badman,[2] [1680]\n33. Holy Life the beauty of Christianity,\n34. The Pharisee and Publican, 1685\n35. A caution against Sin, [a sheet] [1684]\n36. Meditations on 74 things,\n37. The first-day Sabbath, 1685\n38. The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, 1688\n39. Jesus Christ an advocate, 1688\n40. The House of God, 1688\n41. The Water of Life, 1688\n42. Solomon's Temple Spiritualized, [1688]\n43. The Excell. of a broken heart, [1689]\n44. His last Sermon at London, 1688\n\nTwelve Manuscripts part of the first folio 1692\n45. Exposit. on 10 first chap. of Genesis,\n46. Justification by Imputed Righteousness,\n47. Paul's departure and crown,\n48. Of the Trinity and a Christian,\n49. Of the Law and a Christian,\n50. Israel's Hope encouraged,\n51. Desires of the righteous granted,\n52. The unsearchable riches of Christ,\n53. Christ Compleat Saviour in's Interest,\n54. Saint's Knowledge of Christ's love,\n55. House of the Forest of Lebanon,\n56. A description of Antichirst,\n\nFour Manuscripts yet unprinted.\n57. A Christian Dialogue.[3]\n58. The Heavenly Footman.[4]\n59. A Pocket Concordance.[3]\n60. An Account of his Imprisonment.[5]\n\n\nHere's sixty pieces of his labours, and he was sixty years of age.\n\nHe was born at Elstow, nigh Bedford, about 1628. And about 1652\nwas, by irresistible grace, converted: and in 1660 he had preached\nfive years, and then, for that, was thrown into Bedford Gaol; and\nin 1671 was called to the pastoral office at Bedford, being the\n11th of his twelve years and an half's imprisonment; and died at\nLondon, Aug. 31, 1688.\n\n[Where the date is in brackets it is supplied from original copies\nin the Editor's possession.]\n\n\nREASONS\n\nWHY CHRISTIAN PEOPLE SHOULD PROMOTE BY SUBSCRIPTIONS THE PRINTING\nIN FOLIO THE LABOURS OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN, LATE MINISTER OF THE\nGOSPEL, AND PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATION AT BEDFORD.\n\nI. He was a very able and excellent minister of the gospel; viz.,\nable to express himself, and had excellent matter known to all\nChristians that have heard him preach.\n\nII. He became thus able and excellent a minister by a great degree\nof Gospel Grace bestowed upon his own soul, more than probable for\nthat very end; for that God wrought him from a very great profane\nsinner, and an illiterate poor man, to this profound understanding\nthe true or genuine spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, whereby\nhe could experimentally preach to souls with power, and affection,\nand apostolical learning, the true nature of the gospel.\n\nIII. God's bestowing such great grace, to turn so great a sinner,\nto make such a great gospel labourer, and thrust him into his\nharvest, argues there was great need, and therefore without question\nhis labours ought to be preserved.\n\nIV. Our Bunyan being so graciously, by the Lord of the harvest,\nthrust into labour, clearly shows to us, (and may by this preservation\nto future ages), that God is not bound to human means of learned\neducation (though learning may be useful in its place), but can,\nwhen he will, make a minister of the gospel without man's forecast\nof education, and in spite of all the men in the world that would\noppose it, though it be above sixteen hundred years after the\napostles.\n\nV. Many thousands had the soul benefit and comfort of his ministry\nto astonishment, as if an angel or an apostle had touched their\nsouls with a coal of holy fire from the altar.\n\nVI. This excellent operation of the special grace of God in him,\nand the gift of utterance when he preached, confounded the wisdom\nof his adversaries that heard him, or heard of him, he being, as\nit is commonly called, unlearned, or had not school education.\n\nVII. For all these reasons before-mentioned, of the spirituality\nof his preaching, his labours in writing deserve preservation by\nprinting as much as any other famous man's that have writ since\nthe apostles' time.\n\nVIII. Moreover he hath been a Christian sufferer for above twelve\nyears, by imprisonment, whereby he sealed to the truth he preached.\n\nIX. Yet, for all that imprisonment, he preached then, and there,\nand afterwards abroad, as a faithful labourer for the salvation\nof souls.\n\nX. And he was not a man that preached by way of bargain for money,\nfor he hath refused a more plentiful income to keep his station.\n\nXI. And his moderation, or desire of money, was as the apostle\nPaul's practice, below his privilege; so that he did not, when he\ndied, leave much wealth to his family.\n\nXII. And the Church that wants such a pastor may find it long\nbefore they get one, and therefore ought to respect our Bunyan's\nlabours.\n\nXIII. If God had not put it into the heart of some Christians or\nChurch to preserve the Epistles of the Apostle to the Romans,\nCorinthians, Galatians, and others, we in this age of the world\nshould in all probability never have known that there ever were\nany such Christians and doctrines; their names and doctrines might\nhave been lost, and we might have perished, and that would have\nbeen dreadful; for God mostly works by second causes.\n\nXIV. And why should any Christian people, that have reason to reckon\nthemselves obliged herein, set themselves aside from communicating\nto other Christians and the ages to come the gospel labours of\nso eminent a minister as God so graciously honoured and assisted\nthem with?\n\nXV. And if these labours (of, as I may say, an apostle of our age,\nif we have any) are not preserved by printing thus in folio, most\nof them in all probability will be lost, for there are many of\nthem have been out of print many years, and will never otherwise\nbe printed again because of the charge, &c.\n\nXVI. By the late Act for liberty of conscience, it is lawful now\nto print the works of dissenters, though it was not so formerly;\ntherefore much danger cannot plead excuse.\n\nXVII. It is a good work without controversy, and therefore there\ncan be no scruple of conscience about its pleasing God.\n\nXVIII. There is also to the subscribers a further benefit in this\nfolio; for, whereas these twenty books would, if bought single,\ncost nigh twenty shillings now, as printed in folio they will\nhave them for about twelve shillings bound together in one volume,\nwhich conveniency also prevents losing.\n\nXIX. These ten manuscripts, which were never before printed,\nwould, if printed in small books, and bought single, cost almost\nthe money that these twenty in folio comes for, which is great\nodds.\n\nXX. Not to preserve his labours and name, which are so great, is\na disingenuous slighting or despising them, and serving them no\nbetter than a wicked man's that rots. Bunyan hath preached, and\nfreely bestowed many a good and gospel-truth, and soul-reviving\nexpression; for which of them doth any of his friends slight\nhim? Nay, do not they rather owe him something for his labour he\nbestowed on them, as Philemon did to Paul?\n\nXXI. The price of the first part will be an easier purchase than\nof the whole; and all in one volume would be somewhat too big in\nbulk and price.\n\nXXII. There is need of printing these books now, because errors\nand superstitions, like the smoke of the bottomless pit, darken\nprotestants understanding the purer truths of the gospel.\n\nXXIII. And when this first part is sold off, we shall endeavour\nto publish a second part, whereby he that is wiling may have the\nwhole in folio.\n\nXXIV. This preservation will preserve the name of John Bunyan, a\nchampion of our age to future ages; whereby it may be said in the\npulpit, The great convert Bunyan said so and so.\n\nXXV. If the labours of so eminent a minister should not be preserved,\nI known not whose should.\n\nXXVI. Antichristian people are diligent to preserve the works of\ntheir eminent men; and therefore Christians should be diligent to\npreserve theirs.\n\nXXVII. The chief reasons we argue from are not common rules, that\ntherefore every good minister's endeavours ought to be printed\nin folio. But this case is extraordinary, as an eminent minister,\nmade so by abundance of gospel grace, who has also writ much, which\nhath gone off well. I say eminent, though he was, when young,\nprofane, and had not school education to enable him, as is apparent\nto all that knew him.\n\nXXVIII. By this printed in folio a man may have recourse for\nsatisfaction in a case of conscience to any of these particular\nbooks with the rest, which otherwise are not to be bought; and\nthat I have proved by often trying most London booksellers, and\nbefore that given them above twice the price for a book; and I\nknow not how to get another of those sorts for any price whatsoever.\n\nXXIX. All these things, or half of them, beside many others that\nmight be given, being considered, I cannot see but it is an absolute\nduty.\n\nXXX. And lastly (pardon me, if I speak too great a word, as it\nmay seem to some to be borne), all things considered; that is,\nhis own former profaneness, poverty, unlearnedness, together with\nhis great natural parts, the great change made by grace, and his\nlong imprisonment, and the great maturity in grace and preaching\nhe attained to, I say our deceased Bunyan hath not left in England,\nor the world, his equal behind him, as I know of. And this is the\nunfeigned belief of,\n\nYour Christian brother,\n\nCHARLES DOE.\n\n\nTHE STRUGGLER\n\n(FOR THE PRECEDING PRESERVATION OF MR. JOHN BUNYAN'S LABOURS\nIN FOLIO) THINKS IT MAY ANSWER THE DESIRES OF MANY TO GIVE THE\nFOLLOWING RELATION:--\n\nCHRISTIAN READER,\n\nI do here as further duty presume to give you, according to my\nunderstanding, a relation in three parts, concerning our eminent\nauthor, Mr. John Bunyan, and his labours.\n\nI. The author's parentage, imprisonment, times, and manner of his\nlife and death, &c.\n\nII. Relations and observations upon his labours, &c.\n\nIII. Notes on printing this folio and index, &c.\n\nFirst, Our excellent author, by the abundant grace of God, Mr.\nJohn Bunyan, was born at Elstow, a mile side of Bedford, about the\nyear 1628. His father was mean, and by trade a mender of pots and\nkettles, vulgarly called a tinker, and of the national religion,\nas commonly men of that trade are, and was brought up to the\ntinkering trade, as also were several of his brothers, whereat he\nworked about that country,[6] being also very profane and poor,\neven when married, &c.\n\nBut it pleased God, by his irresistible grace, to work in him\nsome convictions and fears of hell, and also desires of heaven,\nwhich drove him to reading and hearing of religious matters, so,\ncontrolling grace growing abundantly, he did not take up religion\nupon trust, but grace in him continually struggling with himself\nand others, took all advantages he lit on to ripen his understanding\nin religion, and so he lit on the dissenting congregation of\nChristians at Bedford, and was, upon confession of faith, baptized\nabout the year 1651, o 52, or 53.\n\nAnd after a little time, having a gift of utterance, and love to\nthe conviction of sinners, preached about the country the same\nsalvation he found by experience himself stood in need of,\nby faith and repentance, and worked at his tinkering trade for a\nlivelihood, whereby the reigning grace of God appeared the more\nsovereign and glorious in this choice, even as it shone in the\nchoice of Peter, a fisherman, and the rest of the apostles, and\nothers of the eminent saints of old, most of them tradesmen, and\nof whom most excellent things are spoken, &c.\n\nIn the year 1660, being the year king Charles returned to England,\nhaving preached about[7] five years, the rage of gospel enemies\nwas so great that, November 12, they took him prisoner at a meeting\nof good people, and put him in Bedford jail, and there he continued\nabout six years, and then was let out again, 1666, being the year\nof the burning of London, and, a little after his release, they\ntook him again at a meeting, and put him in the same jail, where\nhe lay six years more.[8] Before they took him his intent was\nto preach on these words, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?'\n(John 9:35). From whence he intended to show the absolute need of\nfaith in Jesus Christ. And after he was released again, they took\nhim again, and put him in prison the third time, but that proved\nbut for about half a year.\n\nWhilst he was thus twelve years and a half in prison, he writ several\nof his published books, as by many of their epistles appears, as\n'Pray by the Spirit,' 'Holy City,' 'Resurrection,' 'Grace Abounding,'\nand others, also 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' as himself and many\nothers have said.\n\nThe pastor of Bedford congregation died, and, after some years'\nvacancy, John Bunyan, though a prisoner, was, by the church, called\nto the pastoral office, December 21, 1671, and as it pleased the\nLord to rule the rage of men, it proved in or about the last year\nof his twelve years' imprisonment. And, being out, he preached the\ngospel publicly at Bedford, and about the counties, and at London,\nwith very great success, being mightily followed everywhere. And\nit pleased the Lord to preserve him out of the hands of his enemies\nin the severe persecution at the latter end of king Charles the\nSecond's reign, though they often searched and laid wait for him,\nand sometimes narrowly missed him.\n\nIn 1688, he published six books, being the time of king James the\nSecond's liberty of conscience, and was seized with a sweating\ndistemper, which, after his some weeks going about, proved his\ndeath, at his very loving friend's, Mr. Strudwick's, a grocer, at\nHolborn Bridge, London, on August 31, 1688, and in the 60th year\nof his age, and was buried in Finsbury burying-ground, where many\nLondon dissenting ministers are laid; and it proved some days\nabove a month before our great gospel deliverance was begun by\nthe Prince of Orange's landing, whom the Lord of his continued\nblessing hath since made our preserving king, William the Third.\n\nAnd as to his family, he left his widow, Elizabeth, and three sons,\nJohn, Thomas, and Joseph, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Sarah,\nand Mary; but his blind daughter he writes of in his 'Grace\nAbounding' died some years before him, and his widow died 1690-1.\n\nSecondly, Concerning his labours; God did give of his extraordinary\ngrace of the gospel to our author, Bunyan, and it is worthy\nour observation, for thereby God may have due honour, his people\ncomfort, and adversaries confuted in their several corrupt notions,\nespecially that of only them that have school education are fitly\nqualified for ministers of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.\nAnd also hereby the superstitious man is confounded in his way\nof worship, as were his predecessors, the rulers of the Jews,\nin the case of Peter and John, saying, Whence had these men this\nknowledge, seeing they are unlearned? but there was and is a\nreason beyond their false rules of education--for they had been\nwith Jesus.\n\nThis is also apt to convince sincere-hearted Christians that God\ncan, when he will, make a minister of his gospel, and send him\nforth in the power of his Spirit, and defend him, nay, may I say,\nit is God's prerogative to make his gospel-ministers, and he makes\nthem effectual to all the ends of his gospel, to preach, as the\ngreat apostle saith, in season and out of season, to abase and\nabound, &c. He that can make the dry bones live (as in Eze 37),\nwhat can he not do? yea, they shall live, and become a great\nhost, and antichristian arts must fall; for the Lord doth make\nhis servants, as he did Jeremiah, as brazen walls against people\nand priests.\n\nAnd however some subtilly and vain-gloriously pretend to be the\nonly lawful successors of the apostles, yet certain I am, from\nsafer reason of faith, that our author Bunyan was really, sincerely,\nand effectually a lawful successor of the apostles, and as lawful\nas any have been above this thousand years. Nay, may I say, he\nwas a second Paul; for that his conversion was in a great measure\nlike that great apostle's, who, of a great enemy to godliness,\nwas, by strong and irresistible workings of sovereign grace, made\na great minister of, and sufferer for, the gospel. Thousands of\nChristians in country and city, can testify that their comfort\nunder his ministry has been to admiration, so that their joy hath\nshowed itself by much weeping.\n\nTo the eye of carnal reason it may seem that the great apostle\nPaul's imprisonment was a contradiction to his commission of\neffectually preaching the gospel to many countries; especially\nconsidering his commission was strengthened by his miraculous\nconversion, from the glory and call of the Lord Jesus from heaven,\nfor the making of him such a great gospel preacher. And yet God\nsuffered it so to be, and we have reason to believe for the best;\nbecause God usually works those seeming contrary things to his own\nend and glory. And the effect was, the saints were strengthened\nthereby, and several epistles were written thereby, which hath\npreserved much of the gospel in writing to the ages after, and\neven for our very great and needful help.\n\nAnd I reckon I shall not be out of the way, if I observe and\nsay--What hath the devil or his agents gotten by putting our\ngreat gospel-ministry, Bunyan, in prison? for in prison, as before\nmentioned, he wrote many excellent books, that have published to\nthe world his great grace, and great truth, and great judgment, and\ngreat ingenuity; and to instance in one, the Pilgrim's Progress,\nhe hath suited to the life of a traveler so exactly and pleasantly,\nand to the life of a Christian, that this very book, besides the\nrest, hath done the superstitious sort of men and their practice\nmore harm, or rather good, as I may call it, than if he had been\nlet alone at his meeting at Bedford, to preach the gospel to his own\nauditory, as it might have fallen out; for none but priest-ridden\npeople know how to cavil at it, it wins so smoothly upon their\naffections, and so insensibly distils the gospel into them, and\nhath been printed in France, Holland, New England, and in Welsh,\nand about a hundred thousand in England, whereby they are made\nsome means of grace, and the author become famous; and may be the\ncause of spreading his other gospel-books over the European and\nAmerican world, and in process of time may be so to the whole\nuniverse.\n\nWhen Mr. Bunyan preached in London, if there were but one day's\nnotice given, there would be more people come together to hear\nhim preach than the meeting-house would hold. I have seen to hear\nhim preach, by my computation, about twelve hundred at a morning\nlecture, by seven o'clock, on a working day, in the dark winter\ntime. I also computed about three thousand that came to hear him\none Lord's-day, at London, at a town's end meeting-house; so that\nhalf were fain to go back again for want of room, and then himself\nwas fain, at a back door, to be pulled almost over people to get\nupstairs to his pulpit.\n\nMr. Bunyan's dispute with a scholar to this effect.\n\nAs Mr. Bunyan was upon the road near Cambridge, there overtakes\nhim a scholar that had observed him a preacher, and said to him,\nHow dare you preach, seeing you have not the original, being not\na scholar?\n\nThen said Mr. Bunyan, Have you the original?\n\nYes, said the scholar.\n\nNay, but, said Mr. Bunyan, have you the very self-same original\ncopies that were written by the penmen of the scriptures, prophets\nand apostles?\n\nNo, said the scholar, but we have the true copies of those originals.\n\nHow do you know that? said Mr. Bunyan.\n\nHow? said the scholar. Why, we believe what we have is a true copy\nof the original.\n\nThen, said Mr. Bunyan, so do I believe our English Bible is a true\ncopy of the original.\n\nThen away rid the scholar.\n\nAnother dispute with a scholar.\n\nAs Mr. Bunyan was preaching in a barn, and showing the fewness of\nthose that should be saved, there stood one of the learned to take\nadvantage of his words; and having done preaching, the schoolman\nsaid to him, You are a deceiver, a person of no charity, and\ntherefore not fit to preach; for he that in effect condemneth the\ngreatest part of his hearers hath no charity, and therefore not\nfit to preach.\n\nThen Mr. Bunyan answered--The Lord Jesus Christ preached in a ship\nto his hearers on the shore (Matt 13); and showed that they were\nas four sorts of ground--The high-way, The stony, The thorny, and\nThe good ground; whereof the good ground was the only persons to\nbe saved.\n\nAnd your position is--That he that in effect condementh the\ngreatest part of his hearers hath no charity, and therefore not\nfit to preach the gospel.\n\nBut here the Lord Jesus Christ did so; then your conclusion is--The\nLord Jesus Christ wanted charity, and therefore not fit to preach\nthe gospel.\n\nHorrid blasphemy; away with your hellish logic, and speak Scripture.\n\nThen replied the learned: 'Tis blasphemy to call logic hellish,\nwhich is our reason--the gift of God; for that which distinguisheth\na man from a beast is the gift of God.\n\nBut Mr. Bunyan replied: Sin doth distinguish a man from a beast;\nis sin therefore the gift of God? &c.\n\nThey parted.\n\nI once asked him his opinion in a common religious point, and\noffered some arguments to prove my opinion for the general of it;\nbut he answered, that where the Scripture is silent we ought to\nforbear our opinions; and so he forebore to affirm either for or\nagainst, the Scripture being altogether silent in this point.\n\nThirdly, concerning this folio, &c. I have struggled to bring\nabout this great good work; and it had succeeded in Mr. Bunyan's\nlifetime, even all his labours in folio, but that an interested\nbookseller opposed it; and notwithstanding the many discouragements\nI have met with in my struggles in this so great a work, we\nhave--and I may believe by the blessing of the Lord--gotten about\nfour hundred subscriptions, whereof about thirty are ministers;\nwhich also shows the great esteem our author's labours are in\namong Christian people. And that the reasonableness and duty of\nthe preservation of his labours in folio, by subscription, may\nbe continued to memory, I have also added my reasons, which I\ndistributed in my late struggles to effect this work.\n\nHis effigies was cut in copper,[9] from an original paint done to\nthe life, by his very good friend, a limner; and those who desire\nit single, to put in a frame, may have it at this bookseller's--Mr.\nMarshall; and also the catalogue-table. The epistle is writ by\ntwo ministers, Mr. Wilson of Hichin, in Hertfordshire, and Mr.\nChandler, who succeeds Mr. Bunyan at Bedford.\n\nAnd Mr. Burton, that writ the epistle to Some Gospel-truths Opened,\nbeing the first book Mr. Bunyan writ, was minister at Bedford.\n\nNote.--I would not charge the following running-titles upon our\nauthor, Bunyan; because they were added in the proposals, for\nwant of running titles and the knowledge of them, and the copies\nbeing at Bedford when the proposals were drawn up at London; and\nalso because, perhaps, he designed some other like running-titles:--\n\n\nPaul's departure and crown.\nIsrael's hope encouraged.\nThe saint's privilege and profit.\nChrist a complete Saviour.\nThe saint's knowledge of Christ's love.\nOf the Trinity and a Christian.\nOf the Law and a Christian.\n\n\nNotes upon the Index, &c.[10]\n\nI did intend to print a complete table of all the texts of\nScriptures used in our author's labours, that from thence, looking\ninto his book, his sense might be easily found upon any text; so\nhis labours might have been also in the nature of an exposition upon\nthe whole Bible; but I have delayed till some other opportunity,\nit may be of the next folio, and whenever it falls I intend to\ngive notice.\n\nBecause I and other subscribers, especially ministers, were\nwilling this folio should be commoded with an index, I have, as\na Christian, exposed myself and made one, and that without money\nfor my labour of writing it, though I confess it might have seemed\nsome other men's duty; yet being ignorant of the man that had the\nopportunity, and would have done it, unless paid for it, I was\nnecessitated to effect it; and if the bookseller had paid for it,\nhe would have lessened the number of 140 sheets of Mr. Bunyan's\nlabours in this folio at ten shillings. Excuse this fault in me,\nif it be one.\n\nI could have collected abundance more of excellent matter in this\ntable; and I have placed an Italic-lettered word in every paragraph\nin the table, to be the guide-word to the same word in the folio,\nwhich is a black-lettered word in the folio, latter part; that is,\nthose books formerly printed, where the printer hath not failed\nto make it so, and also in the manuscripts, forepart, a guide-word\nto the same word under which I have drawn a black line, in as\nmany folios as opportunity and time would permit me to do, because\nI had not time and convenience before this folio was printed to\nmark the manuscripts for to be a black-lettered word, as I had time\nfor the formerly printed books.[11] Also note, the book, though\nmarked, doth not always refer to the table, but the table to the\nbook, is the intent; and because the word in the book doth not\nalways, though very often, fall in alphabetical order, therefore\nsome other like word is put in its place in the table.\n\nAlso note, sometimes many principal words are in one paragraph,\nand then, though the matter be not to be found in the table by\nthe word, that some perhaps may expect, yet it may be found by\nanother word, because several words are so united that one cannot\nwell part them; and it would be too large a table to put them\nall in severally in alphabetical order--as soul, sinner, saved,\nsalvation, justification, Christ, God, &c.\n\nAlso note. When to the table-phrase more than one number is placed,\nthen expect not that the same black-letter word is always to be\nfound in the book to the last number, as is to the first number,\nbut it may be some other black or marked word of like meaning; as\nfor antichrist the black-lettered word in some places is harlot,\nand for apostles the black-letter word sometimes is twelve, because\nthe word apostle is not in that part of the folio, though intended\nby twelve.\n\nAlso note. The phrase in the table is not always the very same,\nword for word, in the book, because the design of the table is to\ngive matter in short saying, as well as most commonly a complete\nsentence; and, therefore, they that would have Mr. Bunyan's entire,\ncomplete, and full sense of the matter, let them look out of the\ntable into the book, and there take all its connection together.\nAlso, I have to keep the table as short as I well could; and yet,\nto direct well to the matter in the book, placed one part of the\nmatter under one word, in alphabetical order, and another part\nof the same matter in another following paragraph, under another\nword in the table; so that, by finding one word in the table,\nyou may often find in the same paragraph, in the book, before or\nafter that word, other matter thereto relating.[12]\n\nI had but about two years' acquaintance with our author, and,\ntherefore, have said but little of him, because of hastening this\nto the press; yet if any more comes to my memory, I intend to put\nit at the end of the index.\n\nYour Christian brother,\n\nC. D.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. Difficulties as to copyright prevented this second volume from\nbeing published.--See EDITOR'S PREFACE.\n\n2. A good copy of this rare volume with the wood-cuts, having\nthe reverse blank, in the editor's possession, and a fine copy,\nwithout the cuts, at Mr. Pickering's, agree as to the date of\n1680. It is misplaced in this chronological table; but the date\nshows that it was not intended as a third part of the Pilgrim's\nProgress; the second part of which was not published for four\nyears after the life of Badman.--Ed.\n\n3. These MSS., although diligently sought, cannot be found.\n\n4. This was published in a separate pocket volume by C. Doe, 1698.\n\n5. Published from Mr. Bunyan's MS, 1765.\n\n6. As doth appear by his book of his conversion, intitled, Grace\nAbounding, &c.\n\n7. As in his book intitled, Grace Abounding, s. 319.\n\n8. As he says in his Epistle to his Confession of Faith.\n\n9. Alluding to the portrait published as a frontispiece to the\nfolio volume, 1692.--Ed.\n\n10. The Index accompanying the first folio.--Ed.\n\n11. This is as originally printed. Mr. Doe means, he had not time\nto mark in the manuscript such words as the printer should put in\nblack-letter.--Ed.\n\n12. The table to which Charles Doe here refers is only to twenty\nof Mr. Bunyan's books. It is diffuse, and badly arranged. The\nIndex given with this first complete edition of all the admirable\nworks of our great pilgrim forefather, is entirely new. It is the\nresult of a careful reading of every treatise, extracting a notice\nof such tings as the editor conceived to be most deeply interesting.\nThese extracts were then arranged, in order to furnish a useful\nindex to all the works of Bunyan. It has been attended with very\ngreat labour, and some delay to the publication; but no sacrifice\nis too great, in order to render Bunyan's works as complete as\npossible.\n\nGEORGE OFFOR.\n\n\n** End of Volume 3 **","title":"Works of John Bunyan \u2014 Complete","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2229400}